More than two dozen websites belonging to the government of Syria are being hosted by servers in the United States, Canada and Germany, according to a report by Canadian researchers.

The report released Thursday said the operations raise legal questions because they may violate Canadian and U.S. sanctions against Syria, which has used police and military forces for the past eight months to put down a popular uprising.

Canada's plan to balance its budget will be delayed by a year to fiscal 2015-2016 due to slow global economic growth, the finance department announced Tuesday following a dismal jobs report.

The government of the G7 country had pledged during an election campaign in May to return to a budgetary surplus by fiscal 2014-2015, but is now aiming for a small surplus of $0.6 billion the following year, said an economic update.

A large gold coin which had displaced an Australian coin as the world's biggest, but recently lost the title, was on display this week in Canada's largest city.

The coin, measuring 50 centimeters across, took over two years to make from design to final product. When it was introduced in 2007 by the Royal Canadian Mint, it set a Guinness World Record.

The acting spokesman of Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare confirmed to Naharnet that the judge is currently away from the STL seat but stressed that he is following up the work of his office.

“As a matter of policy we do not discuss details of the health of staff,” Gregory Townsend, the senior legal officer and acting spokesperson of Bellemare’s office, told Naharnet.

Doctors in Canada saw a divine face in the testes of a man admitted to a hospital with severe pain and an inflamed scrotum, a scientific journal article said Wednesday.

Or at least, that is one possible explanation.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare is suffering from an advanced stage of diabetes, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Thursday.

Bellemare has isolated himself in a room in Canada away from the people’s sight over his “serious illness,” it said.

Several embassies have tightened travel warnings for Lebanon, advising their nationals to avoid parts of the country due to unrest in neighboring Syria and the kidnapping of a group of Estonians.

The British embassy now advises its nationals to avoid travel to Lebanon's eastern and southern borders with Syria following incursions by Syrian troops into the country.

A 56-year-old Montreal man looking to shake off a mid-life depression walked around the world in 11 years, returning this week to Canada, looking radiant after realizing a dream.

A bit thinner and with a few more gray hairs, Jean Beliveau was pushing a three-wheel stroller that carried his sleeping bag, clothes and a first aid kit when Agence France Presse caught up with him 290 kilometers (180 miles) west of Montreal.

A Canadian government decree that the Queen's portrait be displayed in all embassies and missions abroad triggered an angry response Friday from a former diplomat and an opposition lawmaker.

"This decision is retrograde and anachronistic," said Paul Heinbecker, Canada's erstwhile ambassador to the United Nations. "After 60 years of emancipation, this is a step back for our country," he added.

Philippine Catholic priests are appealing to over 100 pilgrims who attended last month's World Youth Day in Spain to come home, fearing they used the festival as a ruse to live abroad illegally.

Pope Benedict XVI brought the event in Madrid to a close on August 21, but fewer than 300 of the 427 Filipino delegates have returned, said Father Noel Osial, head of Manila's Don Bosco Catholic congregation.