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CPP-owned retailer Neiman Marcus files for bankruptcy

Neiman Marcus, the 112-year-old storied luxury department store chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the first department store chain to be toppled by the coronavirus pandemic.




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Canadian shoe chain Aldo seeks creditor protection, citing pandemic pressure

Montreal-based shoe chain Aldo Group is seeking protection from its creditors in Canada, the United States and Europe because of disruptions caused by COVID-19.




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U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April

The U.S. economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy.




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Federal COVID-19 Indigenous business relief still leaves 'critical gaps,' says financial organization

A First Nations financial organization in the Atlantic region is voicing concern over the exclusion of band-owned, non-taxable businesses in federal financial relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Postmedia seeks at least $20.3M in coronavirus-related emergency wage subsidies

Postmedia Network Canada Corp. expects to qualify for at least $20.3 million in COVID-related emergency wage subsidies from the federal government, the owner of Canada's largest newspaper chain said Friday.




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Telco customer sees internet bill more than triple during pandemic — and she's not alone

Customers who rely on cellular connections to access the internet say they're being hit with unfair overage fees when many are required to work and study from home. They want better price breaks and say promises to beef up high-speed access outside major cities haven’t resulted in action.




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Girls prepare for Miss World finals

AUSTRALIAN critters have been a hot topic of conversation among Miss World contestants as they prepare for the final in the US on Monday.




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The next superhero films you can’t miss

SUPERHERO films are here to stay and there’s bound to be plenty more shocks and surprises with the very full slate of super-titles down for 2017.




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Exciting stage of life

THE Cairns Choral Society has not let the demise of the Cairns Civic Theatre stop it from staging its annual musical.




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Big year to play host

AFTER a lull over the Christmas period, live entertainment ramps up in Cairns this month.




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Waifs celebrate 25 years with Cairns concert

LONG-RUNNING Australian outfit The Waifs are coming to Cairns as part of celebrations marking 25 years as a band.




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Eyes on world

NIGHT-LIFE in Cairns is set to reach new heights in 2017, with local nightclub Gilligan’s hoping to bring more international artists to its venue this year.




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Sounds exhilarating

AWARD-WINNING musician and singer Vince Jones is among the top-notch jazz talent set to entertain audiences at the Tanks Arts Centre this year.




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Rare ‘Morning Glory’ cloud dazzles Virgin flyers

ONE of the world’s most spectacular clouds made a dramatic entrance for passengers on an Adelaide-bound jet.




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Apple’s biggest product since the iPhone

APPLE could be set to make its biggest new product announcement since the iPhone, with the company believed to be working on a game changer.




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Galaxies collide in stunning picture

A NEW image captured by NASA Hubble space telescope shows ‘doomed duo’ galaxies colliding and then trying to destroy one another.




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Airborne particle levels plummet in Northern India

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 22, 2020
On March 25, 2020, the Indian government placed its 1.3 billion citizens under a strict lockdown to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The country-wide mandate decreased activity at factories and severely reduced car, bus, truck, and airplane traffic. After just a week of reduced human activities, NASA satellite sensors observed aerosol levels at a 20-year low for this time of year i




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India develops unique model to hit enemy targets without positioning error

New Delhi (Sputnik) Apr 22, 2020
Due to the unavailability of a reliable model to predict the electron density of the ionosphere, navigation errors remain, creating technological hurdles. A new model developed by Indian researchers has potential applications in calculating these Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning errors. In a major development that could have a wider impact, ranging from accurate aiming




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No last goodbye for Gulf migrant workers lost to pandemic

Dubai UAE (AFP) Apr 24, 2020
The body of the Indian migrant who died from coronavirus far from home was kept inside the ambulance in front of the crematorium in case a friend came by for a last goodbye. But nearly an hour later no one had appeared, and the workers in protective suits had to carry out their grim task. In silence, the four men carefully moved the body, wrapped in a white plastic bag, to a furnace




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Large scale survey telescope to be built in northwest China

Xining, China (XNA) Apr 24, 2020
Chinese experts will build a survey telescope with wide field and high resolution in Lenghu (Cold Lake) Town, in northwest China's Qinghai Province, sources here said. On April 16, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) signed a cooperation agreement with the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai province. They plan to build the telescope on top of Sai




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'Poor like us suffer': Nepal quake survivors struggle in crammed homes

Bhaktapur, Nepal (AFP) April 24, 2020
It has been five years since an earthquake devastated Nepal, but Krishna Maya Khadka is still struggling to come to terms with losing her husband and the home she lived in for generations. Like hundreds of thousands of Nepali quake victims, the 68-year-old now lives in a small one-bedroom hut with a blue corrugated iron-sheet roof - one of many that scar the picturesque villages turned to r




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Two bodies found in Nepal search for missing Koreans

Kathmandu (AFP) April 26, 2020
Two bodies believed to be of South Koreans missing after being hit by a Himalayan avalanche in January have been found, officials said Sunday, a day after discovering the corpse of their Nepali guide. A wall of snow hit a trekking trail at about 3,230 metres (10,600 feet) near the Annapurna base camp in Nepal on January 17, burying four South Koreans and three locals. Avalanches and more




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Airbus will support France and India to monitor climate change with TRISHNA

Paris (SPX) Apr 28, 2020
The French Space Agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, CNES) has recently signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the development and manufacture of the thermal infrared instrument for the TRISHNA satellite. TRISHNA (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High resolution Natural resource Assessment) will be the latest satellite in the joint Franco-Indian satellite fleet d




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YouTube expands fact-check panels in move against misinformation

San Francisco (AFP) April 28, 2020
YouTube on Tuesday began adding fact-check panels to search results in the US for videos on hot-topic claims shown to be bogus. The Google-owned video streaming service said it is expanding to the US a fact-check information panel feature launched last year in Brazil and India. Fact-check information panels highlight credible findings by third-parties so YouTube viewers can make informed




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Air pollution drops in India following lockdown

Paris (ESA) Apr 28, 2020
Lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus have been recently linked with cleaner air quality over Europe and China. New images, from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, from the European Union Copernicus programme, now show some cities across India seeing levels drop by around 40-50% owing to its nationwide quarantine. On 25 March 2020, the Indian government placed its popu




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FN America, Colt's awarded $383.3M to make M16A4s for Iraq, others

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 29, 2020
FN America and Colt's Manufacturing received a $383.3 million, five-year contract to manufacture M16A4 rifles for Afghanistan, Grenada, Iraq, Lebanon and Nepal through the Pentagon's foreign military sales program. The M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series of military rifles. The Marine Corps began phasing out the M16 in favor of the M4 carbine in 2015. In 2008 the Sta




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Search team finds bodies of all Koreans missing in Himalayan avalanche

Kathmandu (AFP) May 1, 2020
A search team on Friday recovered the last remaining two bodies missing after a Himalayan avalanche in January buried four South Korean trekkers and three locals. A wall of snow hit the trekkers at about 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) near the Annapurna base camp in Nepal on January 17, covering them under metres of snow. Avalanches and more snowfall since then made it too dangerous to lau




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Indian officials capture rare snow leopard, send it to zoo

Shimla, India (AFP) May 3, 2020
A rare snow leopard captured as it savaged livestock in a remote village in the Indian Himalaya will be sent to a zoo instead of being released, officials said Sunday, triggering outrage from activists. The endangered creature was found on Saturday after it became trapped inside a pen containing sheep and goats in Giu village near the Tibetan border in India's Himachal Pradesh state. "T




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Climate change could reawaken Indian Ocean El Nino

Austin TX (SPX) May 07, 2020
Global warming is approaching a tipping point that during this century could reawaken an ancient climate pattern similar to El Nino in the Indian Ocean, new research led by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin has found. If it comes to pass, floods, storms and drought are likely to worsen and become more regular, disproportionately affecting populations most vulnerable to clim




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Gas leak at Indian chemical plant kills 11

Visakhapatnam, India (AFP) May 7, 2020
Eleven people were killed and hundreds hospitalised after a pre-dawn gas leak at a chemical plant in eastern India on Thursday that left unconscious victims lying in the streets, authorities said. Fears that the death toll from the incident on the outskirts of the Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in Andhra Pradesh state, were not borne out however. The gas escaped out of tanks at a




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Secret weapon in baby formula war

SHE’S the Chinese social media star who shot to fame after a cute pic went viral, now an Aussie company is banking on her to boost its baby formula sales.




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NAB banker’s awkward email bungle

A SIMPLE error has caused a major headache for NAB after 60,000 customers’ details were sent to an adult site owner.




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Bellamy’s chief exits after $500m share wipe-out

THE chief executive of troubled baby formula maker Bellamy’s is stepping down in the wake of its disastrous share price plunge.




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The crazy thing we’re still buying

AUSSIES may be moving away from sugary soft drinks and juices, but the health revolution has boosted the fortunes of the most ridiculous product.




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Creepy Airbnb host reveals ulterior motive

IT WAS supposed to be a private room, but this creepy Airbnb host had other ideas when he accepted a Sydney woman’s booking.




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ALDI’s tough stance on alcohol

HE picked up a bottle of alcohol to stop it falling over on the checkout. The cashier told his mum she couldn’t sell it to her now because he’d touched it.




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‘I have a conflict situation as President’

DONALD Trump will be president next week. And he’s finally announced what will happen to his business interests.




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Alcoholics Anonymous wrestles with challenge of physical distancing


The international organization has been forced to cancel in-person meetings due to restrictions on group gatherings.




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Just stay calm: How to stop worrying about keeping busy and focus on your mental health


How do you avoid overload when you have time to do everything?




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How to protect yourself and others from infection as COVID-19 cases increase


Officials offer answers to numerous important questions about the coronavirus.




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Despite battling COVID-19, oncologist continues treating patients virtually


As a medical oncologist in Connecticut, Dr. Justin Persico was all too aware of the people he treats, who would be at greater risk for exposure to the virus.




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Children need more screen time during coronavirus crisis, professor says


A professor of psychology at Stetson University says that additional screen time for children during this strange period in history is healthy so they may maintain their social contacts and interact with their peer groups.




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Stress eating and coronavirus: Weight Watchers rolls out Zoom virtual workshops


In mid-March, WW International, also known as Weight Watchers, decided to close its 3,000 physical locations but didn’t want to leave members to fend for themselves in these trying times.




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Is all this screen time damaging my eyes? (Yes. But here’s what to do)


Avoiding screens before bed and taking breaks to stare out the window will help mitigate the damage.




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How to access virtual therapy while in-person appointments are out of the question


In this time of social isolation, mental health is top of mind. Here’s a guide to video chat, phone and even text therapy in Canada




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Take a beginner’s dance class taught by National Ballet’s of Canada First Soloist Tina Pereira


Tina Pereira’s dance repertoire with the company includes The Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” Katerina in “The Taming of the Shrew,” and the title role in “Carmen” to name a few.




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It’s OK to slow down: Why you don’t have to optimize your coronavirus quarantine


The pandemic has not given us time to self-actualize. It has robbed us of time and exhausted us. And it’s OK to feel that way, experts say.




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The healing power of hypnotherapy


This versatile treatment can soothe ills ranging from anxiety and phobias to pain and childbirth.




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Toronto’s fitness studios find creative ways to keep clients moving during COVID-19 shutdown


From “Animal Flow” to “Move Like an Avenger” and kids Muay Thai, the city’s many shuttered fitness clubs and studios are offering creative online options to keep you moving.




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Sex and social distancing: How to up your sexting game


Don’t know how to start or what’s appropriate? A sex educator has some tips