For a small country, Estonia has made a big impression on the global stage.

The Baltic nation of just 1.3 million people has attracted the attention of world leaders, academics and venture capitalists thanks to its high-tech digital society.

The numbers speak for themselves: Taxes are completed online in under 5 minutes, 99 percent of the Estonia's public services are available on the web 24 hours a day and nearly one-third of citizens vote via the internet.

Melbourne, Australia, has been named the happiest city in the world this year.

In June 2018, Time Out paired up with Tapestry Research to survey 15,000 people in 32 cities worldwide. They asked residents about food, drink, culture, lifestyle, dating, sex, community, travel, neighborhoods, affordability, nightlife, happiness, public transportation, and civic pride. The findings collectively helped both companies come up with an ultimate ranking for each city in every category.

Cameron Ritchie’s business started with the goal of getting more youth into the job market.

He launched Homewurk in Grade 11, an online service that connects students with odd jobs in Fredericton. Now a first year engineering student at the University of New Brunswick, Ritchie’s business is booming, leasing office space, hiring administrative staff, and securing top clients.

In October, he was named Startup Canada’s young entrepreneur of the year.

The Sunshine Coast has been recognised as one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2019, sharing the global spotlight with communities from Canada, Taiwan and the United States including Chicago.

The announcement made overnight by the Intelligent Community Forum in Quebec, Canada, acknowledges those communities which exemplify best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion, sustainability and advocacy.

In and of itself, the evolv1 office building is an impressive feat of engineering. Aptly situated in the “Idea Quarter” of the City of Waterloo, the evolv1 became Canada’s first project to receive a carbon-zero building certificate. So what better place to grow and develop the region’s burgeoning green industry?

That’s the intent with the official launch this week of evolvGREEN. A collaborative project to put the Region of Waterloo at the forefront of sustainable business and technology, evolvGREEN will operate from the green open office spaces of the evolv1 building, sending an important message in the process.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The 2019 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival will take place on Feb. 16 and Feb. 19, New Taipei City’s Tourism and Travel Department (TTD) said on Tuesday.

New Taipei City mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival has evolved into a powerful tourist magnet over the years, and last year alone 6.98 million tourists visited Pingxi.

This year’s sky lantern festival will take place at Pingxi Junior High School from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, and at the Shifen Sky Lantern Square from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, when Taiwan celebrates the Lantern Festival.

Maddie Mitton never dreamed that she’d be serving coffee and meals to strangers.

“I had a lot of problems with insecurity so looking people in the eye was really hard,” Mitton said on Monday.

Mitton lives with a host of mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder.

A lab-produced chicken product created by a small startup company in downtown Edmonton is expected to be ready to serve within five years.

Future Fields, a three-person company that launched a year and a half ago, is hoping to break through in the growing cultured meat industry by producing chicken products in a lab rather than the traditional farm in order to meet the growing demand for protein.