Bloomberg Quebec’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest on record last month while Alberta’s surged to a two-decade high, underlining the swing in Canada’s economic momentum through the recovery from an energy crash. Joblessness in the mostly French-speaking province fell to 6.2 percent in November from 6.8 percent in October, and in Alberta it climbed to 9 percent. The national ...

  DETROIT / AP Toyota plans to reveal a new version of America’s top-selling sedan next month at a time when US buyers are moving away from cars toward SUVs and trucks. The Japanese automaker said that it would show off the 2018 Camry at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January. It is likely to arrive in showrooms ...

  Aleppo / AFP Fierce fighting shook east Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government forces pressed an assault that has seen them retake control of more than half of the former rebel stronghold. President Bashar al-Assad’s army is nearly three weeks into an operation to recapture all of Syria’s second city, divided between regime and rebel forces since 2012. Tens of ...

  Beirut / AFP Air strikes on a village in the Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians on Sunday, among them three children, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which earlier reported an initial toll of 14, said dozens more had been injured in the strikes on the village of Kafr Nabal. It ...

  London / AP The Syrian regime’s advances in war-torn east Aleppo do not represent a “victory for Assad” or his Russian ally Vladimir Putin, British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday. “I really think that it’s a mistake to think whatever happens in Aleppo and other areas of rebel-held Syria could amount to a victory for Assad or for ...

  Aleppo / AFP For much of the past four years, taking a bus between the two sides of Syria’s divided second city Aleppo meant an arduous, and sometimes dangerous, 10-hour road trip. But on Saturday, the trip took just half an hour, as buses travelled directly from the government-held west to recently recaptured neighbourhoods in the east. At least 10 ...

  New Delhi / AFP Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan on Sunday of waging an “undeclared war” and said Taliban insurgents battling his government would not last a month without sanctuary in the neighbouring state. Ghani also urged Pakistan to spend around $500 million pledged in aid for Afghanistan to tackle extremism instead. “Despite our intense engagement with Pakistan ...

  Ramallah / AFP Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party is to announce results of a vote for its ruling bodies Sunday, an election watched closely for clues of how the 81-year-old sees his succession. The election for both the party’s central committee and its parliament, known as the revolutionary council, is also expected to sideline Abbas opponents — a key ...

  The Pentagon has begun briefing key allies on plans for advanced weapons technologies aimed at offsetting Russian and Chinese military gains. But the next round of these discussions is on hold awaiting approval of the programs by the Trump administration. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said that he met in early November for “formal collaborations” with close foreign partners ...

  Brazil’s stand-in president Michel Temer hasn’t had it easy. In the six months he’s been in office — following the suspension and then impeachment of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff for budget crimes — Temer has lost his sixth minister to scandal, stood by while key allies led a shameless assault on Brazil’s anti-corruption efforts, and seen a wan economic ...