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Canada introduced new immigration priority categories on Wednesday to bring in skilled workers in fields ranging from research and health care to aviation, and to include certain military recruits, Reuters reported. 

The new categories align with Prime Minister Mark Carney's goals of broadly reducing the number of new permanent residents in Canada while recruiting skilled workers and scholars and boosting defense capabilities to lessen dependence on the United States.

The government said the shift was aimed at restoring immigration to sustainable levels while finding workers for key industries. Canada's government in recent years has sought to reduce the number of immigrants to ease strains on housing and social services, according to Reuters. 

The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda, a move Washington views as a way to counter censorship, three sources familiar with the plan said, BBC reported. 

The site will be hosted at "freedom.gov," the sources said. One source said officials had discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user's traffic appear to originate in the U.S. and added that user activity on the site will not be tracked.

Headed by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, the project was expected to be unveiled at last week's Munich Security Conference but was delayed, the sources said, according BBC. 

The US is preparing to largely withdraw its remaining troops from Syria over the next few months, a senior White House official has told the BBC.

The official said the Syrian government has agreed to take the lead combatting terrorism within its borders and US military presence "at scale" is no longer required.

American troops have been in Syria since 2015, as part of an anti-terrorism campaign to counter the influence of the Islamic State (ISIS), according to BBC. 

Australia has barred a citizen linked to the Islamic State (IS) group from the country for up to two years, BBC reported. 

The person is among the group of 34 Australian women and children who tried to head home after being released from a Syrian camp earlier this week, only to be turned back by Syrian authorities for "technical reasons".

The ban was issued "on advice from security agencies", Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday, adding that the other 33 people do not meet "required legal thresholds" to be banned, according to BBC.