A look at news events in February 2023:

4 – The U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden. U.S. defence officials had been tracking it for about a week as it travelled over sensitive military sites across North America. They say the large balloon went into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories before crossing back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho. China still said it was a weather research "airship'' that had been blown off course and denied any claims of spying.

6 – A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria, with the death toll eventually reaching well over 50,000.

7 – The pro basketball world had a new scoring champion. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA career scoring record during a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With a stepback jumper with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter, James busted a record that had lasted nearly four decades. James finished with 38 points in the Lakers' loss and his career points now totalled 38,390.

8 – A transit driver was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after a city bus crashed into a daycare north of Montreal. Two children were killed and six others were seriously injured. Pierre Ny St-Amand appeared in court by video from a hospital room. Witnesses who arrived at the daycare in Laval soon after the crash said several people had to restrain the driver after he got off the bus, as he seemed delirious.

8 – Legendary composer Burt Bacharach, who crafted a bevy of hit pop songs, died at the age of 94. Working with lyricist Hal David, Bacharach penned a long run of hit songs, including "Walk On By'' and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose.''

10 – A U.S. White House official said an American fighter jet shot an unknown object out of the sky off the coast of Alaska near the Canadian border. National Security Council co-ordinator John Kirby described the object as "the size of a small car,'' but had few other details, such as where it might have come from or its capabilities. Defence Minister Anita Anand said it didn't pose an imminent risk to Canadians.

10 – Toronto Mayor John Tory resigned after revealing he had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Tory said the relationship with the employee in his office developed during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was spending long periods of time away from his wife, Barbara, whom he has been married to for over 40 years. Tory was first elected mayor in 2014, partially on a promise to restore respectability to the office after the turbulent term of his predecessor Rob Ford.

11 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he ordered a U.S. fighter jet to shoot down an "unidentified object'' flying high over the Yukon, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska. National Defence Minister Anita Anand said that this was, to the best of their knowledge, the first time that a Norad operation had downed an aerial object. Anand said the object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and was downed about 160 kilometres from the Canadian-U.S. border in central Yukon.

12 – The U.S. military shot down a fourth high-altitude object in just over a week -- this time closer to heavily populated areas in southern Ontario and the U-S East Coast. Defence Minister Anita Anand said a "high-altitude object'' was detected in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron. Anand said Norad launched Canadian and U.S. aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in U.S. airspace by U.S. aircraft.

12 – Billy Two Rivers, a retired Mohawk wrestler, politician and activist, died at the age of 87. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake announced his death. Two Rivers rose to fame as a wrestler in the 1950s, and spent nearly a quarter of a century in the ring before he turned to politics. He also served 10 consecutive terms on the Kahnawake council. The council said Two Rivers stayed active in his later years, acting in several movies and TV shows and remaining a prominent advocate for the promotion of the Mohawk language.

14 – The body of a 33-year-old Canadian woman was found in a collapsed building in Turkey. Saad Zora said his twin sister Samar was visiting Antakya when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey last week. Saad said her body was discovered in the rubble of a five-storey building. He and his brother had flown to Turkey last week to search for their sister.

15 – Actress Raquel Welch died at the age of 82. She achieved international sex symbol status in the '60s after emerging from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the movie "One Million Years B.C.'' She captured pop culture attention for decades, with Playboy crowning her the most desired woman of the '70s. Men's Health magazine ranked her number 2 on its list of "Hottest Women of All Time.”

15 – RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki announced her retirement, saying her last day on the job would be March 17.

17 – The Public Order Emergency Commission released its report examining the Liberal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act during the weeks-long "Freedom Convoy'' protests last winter. The report called the protests a "singular moment in history,'' and Justice Paul Rouleau said the government was justified in its decision. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government would release a comprehensive response to the report's 56 recommendations within a year. Throughout seven weeks of public hearings in Ottawa, the commission heard from more than 100 witnesses and released thousands of pages of documents.

19 – Richard Belzer, who played one of TV's most indelible detectives in "Homicide: Life on the Street'' and "Law & Order: SVU,'' died. The longtime standup comic was 78.

21 – A Vancouver Island First Nation said ground-penetrating radar detected 17 suspected grave sites around the property of a former residential school. The Tseshaht First Nation said its interviews with survivors, historical records and other documents show that 67 students died at the Alberni Indian Residential School. Children from at least 70 Indigenous communities around B.C. attended the school while it operated from 1900 to 1973.

23 – The federal government reached a health-care deal with Ontario. Provincial Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the agreement in principle would allow Ontario to begin further discussions on how new federal health-care money will be spent. Ottawa had set out to reach separate deals with the provinces and territories after the premiers agreed to accept its offer to boost the Canada Health Transfer by more than $46 billion. Ontario said the priority areas for the increased funding were mental health, primary care, data sharing and increasing the number of health-care workers.

24 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced additional military aid for Ukraine on the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion. Trudeau said Canada would deliver four additional Leopard 2 tanks and an armoured recovery vehicle, along with more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition. Trudeau said the military aid was in addition to the four Leopard tanks already in the region, which Ukrainian armed forces members were being trained to use.

25 – Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent died. The Newfoundland native had been a household name in Canada for decades, known for his many appearances on stage and screen. Pinsent was 92.

27 – The federal government banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices days after federal and provincial privacy commissioners began investigating the social media platform. Treasury Board president Mona Fortier released a statement calling the decision to remove the application one of security and privacy, as the app presented an unacceptable level of risk in those areas. The privacy concerns stemmed from the fact that the Chinese government has a stake in TikTok's owner, ByteDance, and laws allow the country to access user data.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2023