Colm O’Regan helps shoppers with some handy tips for Christmas

People at Edmonton Airport were given an unexpected surprise by 281 South African firefighters who’d just arrived after being invited to Canada to help tackle the country’s wildfires.

Authorities in Alberta, Canada, have launched an app offering residents of wildfire-ravaged Fort McMurray a view of their damaged homes.

Alberta’s premier declared Canada’s oil-sands city safe and said a plan would be put together within two weeks so 88,000 residents could return to their homes.

Authorities say they have reached a turning point in the battle against an enormous wildfire and are hoping to get a "death grip'" on the blaze that has ravaged parts of Canada's oil sands city of Fort McMurray amid cooler temperatures and light rain.

A massive wildfire could double in size by the end of today, Canadian officials fear, as they continue to evacuate residents of fire-ravaged Fort McMurray from work camps north of Alberta's oil sands city.

A Limerick doctor working in the Canadian city ravaged by Alberta’s wildfires has told of the devastation caused by the blaze now raging over an area bigger than New York city.

Alberta has declared a state of emergency as crews battle to hold back wildfires that have destroyed 1,600 homes and buildings in Canada’s main oil sands city of Fort McMurray, forcing more than 80,000 people to flee.

Footage has come to light of Canadian residents franticly feeling their homes as wildfires blaze right on the side of the road.

From the air above a small Oklahoma town, the 300 steel oil storage tanks that dot the landscape appear filled to the brim, their floating lids bobbing atop more than 65m barrels of oil.

Clonmel went ahead at the third attempt but without the two chases intended for the seven-race programme. 

For Europe’s biggest oil companies, $60 is the magic number. BP, one of the first companies to predict a prolonged price downturn, has “reset” its business to generate surplus cash flow, with oil at about $60 a barrel by 2017.

Definitely a unique way to see the country — from a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with the roof rolled back and the wind in your hair.

Tomorrow’s action at the Curragh, which features the Palmerstown House Irish St Leger, brings Champions’ Weekend to a close, while the seven-day festival at Listowel gets underway with a very competitive card.

The Canadian economy shrank again in the second quarter, putting the country in recession for the first time since the financial crisis, with a plunge in oil prices spurring companies to chop business investment.

Brent crude rose as violence flared in Opec’s two biggest members Iraq and Saudi Arabia, raising tensions ahead of the producer group’s meeting on June 5 in Vienna.

Some 10,000 work visas for Canada are expected to be snapped up by Irish job seekers in less than 10 minutes today.

Virtually on the eve of the Cheltenham festival, where he hopes to have about fifteen runners, trainer Gordon Elliott doubled-up with favourites Akorakor and Alberta in Downpatrick yesterday.

LET’S raise a glass to the new Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 which is essentially designed to protect us from ourselves when it comes to our love affair with booze, writes Alison O’Connor.

Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were seriously injured when they were shot at a casino yesterday.

Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were seriously wounded when they were shot at a casino today.

Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were seriously injured when they were shot at a casino today.

Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers are in hospital after being shot.

DVDs of Sony’s controversial film The Interview will be dropped into North Korea by balloon, a South Korean activist says.

IT was on the fringes of a lounge bar conversation about the water charges when I heard something that annoyed me. 

The gunman who murdered a soldier at Canada’s national war memorial in Ottawa and stormed parliament before he was shot dead made a video recording of himself before the attack, police have said.

Adoption campaigners have slammed the Government’s repeated delays in offering basic tracing and information rights to adopted people and natural parents as "Groundhog Day".

Hairstyling is all about trends and the latest could be called ‘the Canadian’.

Canadian police arrested a man suspected of having shot dead three police officers and wounding two more, ending a massive manhunt.

A Dublin-born engineer has died following a bear attack in Canada.

It’s no country for young men, especially in rural areas where the recession has decimated the jobs market.

The latest scramble for Canadian working visas has seen 3,850 permits grabbed inside 10 minutes.

Irish men and women last night snapped up thousands of Canadian Working Holiday Visas in under 11 minutes.

Starting a new life abroad can be a heady experience — particularly if you’re an Irish hairdresser keen to explore Canada. Hairdressers are in short supply right across the country, with one client in one province alone coming here later this month with 80 jobs to fill.

Irish driving licences will be eligible in the Canadian province of Ontario very shortly, according to the Department of Transport.

IF YOU’RE thinking Canada’s west coast, for once don’t do the predictable things. Break away from the crowd. Hire a car.

Irish ploughmen have harvested gold and bronze at the World Ploughing Contest in Canada.