BREAKING
Former Headley singer Jacob Hoggard has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in northern Ontario.
The death toll from the weekend suicide bombing at a rally of a pro-Taliban Islamist party in Pakistan jumped to 63, doctors said Wednesday, in the wake of one of the country's worst attacks in recent years.
The tally from Sunday's explosion rose after a bomber struck an election campaign rally of supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric Fazlur Rehman in Bajur, where the Pakistani military spent years fighting the Pakistani Taliban before declaring the district clear of militants in 2016. But Rehman's Jamiat Ulema Islam party has remained a potent political force closely linked to the Afghan Taliban.
Some 123 people who had been wounded in Sunday's attack near the Afghanistan border are being treated, according to a hospital official. Nearly 200 people were wounded and 80 have been discharged.
"I can confirm that so far 63 people have died in the suicide bombing," Liaquat Ali, a spokesman for the state-run hospital in Bajur, said Wednesday. He said some of the wounded people are still being treated at hospitals in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
He said some of the wounded were still not in stable condition.
The latest casualty figures were announced a day after Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked neighboring Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to do more to prevent militants from crossing the border to stage attacks.
Rehman's rally was targeted Sunday by an Afghan-based branch of the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the Bajur attack. IS militants are Taliban rivals and have stepped up attacks since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
Sharif, after visiting some of the wounded people at a hospital in Peshawar, said the militants found sanctuaries inside Afghanistan, regrouped and rearmed there, and subsequently infiltrated Pakistan to carry out anti-government attacks.
The Afghan Taliban government "should undertake concrete measures toward denying their soil be used for transnational terrorism," he said on Tuesday. Rehman's party is part of Sharif's coalition government.
Rehman on Wednesday demanded the arrest of all those who were behind the bombing.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban. TTP has carried out several deadly attacks in Pakistan since last year when it ended a ceasefire with the government. However, it has denounced the Bajur bombing.
A Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar in 2014 killed 147 people, mostly schoolchildren. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a mosque bombing inside Pesharwar police headquarters.
------
Ahmed reported from Islamabad.
Former Headley singer Jacob Hoggard has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in northern Ontario.
Police have arrested a Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides and investigators say that they believe two of the victims may have been 'randomly targeted.'
An Ontario child died last month after coming into contact with a rabid bat in their bedroom, which was the first known human rabies case in Canada since 2019.
NDP House leader Peter Julian says there's more his party wants to do in Parliament before the next election, but if the current dysfunction continues it will become a factor in how they vote on a confidence measure.
A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
A northeastern Ontario jury has started deliberating in Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard's sexual assault trial, we can now tell you what they weren't allowed to hear.
A teen charged with the murder of another teen on Prince Edward Island last year has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
A French judge in the trial of dozens of men accused of raping an unconscious woman whose now former husband had repeatedly drugged her so that he and others could assault her decided on Friday to allow the public to see some of the video recordings of the alleged rapes.
At least two people are dead and others are injured after a fire ripped through a century-old building in Old Montreal early Friday morning, sources told Noovo Info.
Chantal Kreviazuk is set to return to Winnipeg to mark a major milestone in her illustrious musical career.
From the beaches of Cannes to the bustling streets of New York City, a new film by a trio of Manitoba directors has toured the international film festival circuit to much pomp and circumstance.
A husband and wife have been on the road trip of a lifetime and have decided to stop in Saskatchewan for the winter.
The grave of a previously unknown Canadian soldier has been identified as a man from Hayfield, Man. who fought in the First World War.
A group of classic car enthusiasts donated hundreds of blankets to nursing homes in Nova Scotia.
Moving into the second week of October, the eastern half of Canada can expect some brisker fall air to break down from the north
What does New Westminster's təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre have in common with a historic 68,000-seat stadium in Beijing, an NFL stadium and the aquatics venue for the Paris Olympics? They've all been named among the world's most beautiful sports venues for 2024.
The last living member of the legendary Vancouver Asahi baseball team, Kaye Kaminishi, died on Saturday, Sept. 28, surrounded by family. He was 102 years old.
New data from Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley shows a surge in supply and drop in demand in the region's historically hot real estate market.