Some 120 people have opted for doctor-assisted death, or euthanasia, in Canada since the State Senate passed a controversial law, allowing patients to voluntarily end their lives. The actual number may be higher as the government has not started an official count.

According to the broadcaster CBC News, which tried to obtain data from all 13 of Canada's provinces, most of the cases were recorded by coroners in Ontario (49) and British Columbia (46), with Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan reporting 27 medically assisted deaths between them.

However, the actual figures may be significantly higher, as the remaining eight provinces were unable or did not agree to share the information citing the possible "infringement of confidentiality or distress for families who may identify with the numbers."

Official figures have not been drawn up, as Canada's federal government has not started officially tracking assisted suicides. The authorities have also yet to come up with regulations as to what information should be recorded when a person demands a medically assisted death.

Italian politicians and the public are fuming over a "disgusting" satirical cartoon published by controversial French weekly Charlie Hebdo, which made fun of the victims of an earthquake that left nearly 300 people dead and obliterated entire towns.

Charlie Hebdo, which made headlines in 2015 after a terrorist attack that followed the publication of a series of controversial Mohammad cartoons, has just released another controversial satire.

It gets darker earlier these days in the northern Iraqi town of Qayyara, which Islamic State militants abandoned about a week ago after setting fire to many of the region's oil wells.

Smoke billowing into the sky during a Reuters visit on Monday blotted out the sun in central districts hours before nightfall, producing an apocalyptic scene in this desert settlement which lacks electricity amid 49 degree Celsius (120°F) temperatures.

The Iraqi military's recapture of Qayyara, along with a nearby airbase in July, is the latest and most significant advance in a U.S.-backed push to Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control anywhere in its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Baghdad wants to retake Mosul before the end of the year, which it says will effectively end the militants' presence in Iraq more than two years after they seized a third of its territory. Some officials from countries in the U.S.-led coalition supporting the Iraqi forces have said that timeline may be too ambitious.

People suffering from obesity and smokers could be denied basic operations across the UK's National Health Service (NHS), according to health officials in North Yorkshire.

Patients with a BMI (body mass index, weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) above 30 will be refused most operations for up to a year. The new rules may be applied to hip and knee operations, which are two of the most common surgeries carried out by the NHS.

If the patients lose 10 percent of their weight, the operations could be allowed to take place more quickly, officials added.

Smokers who refuse to kick the habit will be denied operations for six months, but may get to the waiting list earlier - by proving that they had quit smoking and had gone without cigarettes for at least eight weeks.

The sales of flounder caught in Fukushima Prefecture might soon resume, with fishermen already "test-fishing" for the first batches of the flatfish. The five-year-long halt in flounder fishing and sales was prompted by the deadly nuclear disaster.

On Friday fishermen caught flounder off the coast of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, during the first test fishing since the 2011 nuclear disaster, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reports. Flounder along with ten other kinds of fish was added to the list for "test-fishing" last week, meaning it is "safe" for sales.

As many as five flatfish were captured with the help of 11 boats equipped with dragnets.

Sometimes, we can get a hint of things that are to come by watching what the government is doing to prepare. After all, their intel is way better than ours, and they do have a tendency to keep secrets. Of special interest to anyone who like to don the tinfoil and try to figure out what may be coming down the pipe are the actions of FEMA, the agency which is in charge of "managing" emergencies here in the US.

So when they place a large order for something that they want absolutely immediately, I pay attention.

A few days ago, FEMA put out a solicitation for 5 million bottles of water, to be delivered within 2 days. It said they had an "urgent requirement" for this water.

From Fedbizopps:

Students starting at Champlain College in Vermont will be able to silently communicate their preferred gender pronoun using new pins handed out during first-year orientation.

The move helps accommodate those who consider themselves to be 'gender non-conformist' and prefer to be called a pronoun other than the one imposed on them at birth.

Stephen Mease from the school confirmed the initiative and said "it's part of ongoing work to be more inclusive," according to NBC.

Hundreds of pins were handed out at new student orientation as well as to older students, faculty members, and staff.

More pins had to be made after the initial batch ran out, said Danelle Berube, the college's director of residential life, according to the Burlington Free Press.

"We have a number of students who identify as transgender or on the non-binary spectrum, and about a week before orientation while we were pulling together materials, the idea just kind of came out of the air," Berube said. "It just seemed like a no-brainer - a very easy way to make the first day of college for a number of our students maybe a little bit easier."

A domestic dispute call turned deadly for a suspect and a police officer in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Another officer was reportedly injured. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has called for an end to violence against police.

One officer was confirmed dead and another injured after a Friday morning shooting at the White Sands Trailer Park, according to KOB-TV.

The suspect has also died of his injuries, KRQE reported citing the man's family. The suspect was involved in a domestic dispute, and "gunfire was exchanged" when the police arrived.

A dense and disturbing report found widespread sexual abuse at St. George's boarding school in Rhode Island in the 1970s and 1980s. Sixty-one witness accounts led investigators to conclude that both faculty and students had committed crimes.

"The picture that emerges from this investigation is profoundly disturbing," attorney Martin F. Murphy wrote in the preface to the 390-page report documenting the abuse which was released on Thursday.

The report, the result of interviews with 150 witnesses and analysis of thousands of pages of documents, found faculty and staff members at the elite Rhode Island boarding school sexually abused at least 51 students during the 1970s and 1980s. Students sexually abused at least another 10 of their fellow students. Six of the faculty and staff were named in the report.

In January of this year, Brock Turner brutality beat and raped a woman, behind a dumpster, on the Stanford University grounds. The "slap on the wrist" punishment and editorials written by his parents have kept this case in the national spotlight.

Scary Mommy Reports:

On January 18th, 2014, 19-year-old Brock Allen Turner was arrested after a couple of students on bikes spotted Turner thrusting his body on top of a half naked, unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the Stanford University grounds. The students tackled Turner after he attempted to run, and called police. When the police were interviewing the men, one was crying so hard he could barely speak because of what he had seen.

He was caught in the act. He was arrested and charged with five felony counts: rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an intoxicated woman, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an unconscious woman, and assault with intent to commit rape. He was released from jail on $150,000 bail.

He was found guilty of three of the five felonies he was charged with: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person, and penetration of an unconscious person.

Then Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in Santa Clara County jail. He was facing a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Six months.

With good behavior, he was expected to serve three months. And he has. He will be released this Friday.

That's right, Brock Turner, rapist, gets charged with three felony counts and will walk out of a county jail three months later. Just in time to join his despicable family for a nice long, Labor Day weekend. Remember Turner's dad's letter to the judge? We'll refresh your memory: it had a lot to do with Brock's loss of appetite since he became a rapist, and how sad it was making everyone in the family: "I was always excited to buy a big ribeye steak to grill or to get his favorite snack for him... Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist."Mom was upset that she couldn't redecorate their new home because she was so beside herself about her son's arrest. Neither parent mentioned the woman he attacked, or expressed remorse for their son's actions.

The judge in the case had sensible people everywhere ready to throw their computers out the window. "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him ... I think he will not be a danger to others," Judge Persky said during the sentencing. A severe impact on him. Yeah. Wouldn't want to ruin a rapist's chances at a gleeful, productive life by making him — oh, I don't know — PAY FOR THE CRIME HE COMMITTED WITH JAIL TIME. LIKE EVERY OTHER FU*KING CRIMINAL WHO'S BEEN CONVICTED.

"I noticed that he was smiling. So I said, 'Why are you smiling? Stop smiling,'" testified Peter Jonsson, one of two Stanford graduate students tackled Turner when they caught him assaulting an unconscious woman. "I was laughing at the situation of how ridiculous it was," he testified, according to the documents.