National Business

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index ticked lower Thursday after giving back gains from earlier in the day, while U.S. markets also fell. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 8.97 points at 25,060.24.

OTTAWA — Retail sales fell 0.6 per cent to $69.4 billion in January as sales in the auto sector moved lower, Statistics Canada said.

LONDON (AP) — A large fire near London's Heathrow Airport knocked out power Friday to Europe’s busiest flight hub, forcing it to shut all day and disrupting global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

VANCOUVER — Premium Brands Holdings Corp. reported its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled compared with a year earlier as it saw record revenue for the quarter. The specialty food company says it earned $37.

Tatiana Estevez was celebrating her fog water collection company Permalution securing money in a fundraising round and garnering support for a drinking water project, when it was all placed in jeopardy.

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says that in her first face-to-face meeting with the new prime minister she gave him an earful on wildfires and oil sales and warned him national unity hangs in the balance.

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is hiking capital spending and introducing new tax rules in a deficit budget aimed at safeguarding the province from tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump.

CALGARY — Police in Calgary are investigating after two Tesla vehicles are believed to have been intentionally set on fire. Officers were called to a downtown charging station Tuesday night and found a Tesla car on fire.

REGINA — It was a day of jerseys, anthems and elbows up at the Saskatchewan legislature Thursday, with the Opposition NDP accusing Premier Scott Moe of going soft on a motion to condemn the U.S. trade war.

HALIFAX — The federal government will join New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in spending a total of $650 million on protecting the Chignecto Isthmus, the narrow strip of flood-prone land that links the two Maritime provinces.