NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 11-2007

The holidays can be an extremely difficult time for deployed soldiers and their civilian counterparts.

OTTAWA - A citizens' group says the Conservative government paid out $25 billion in grants, contributions and subsidies during its first fiscal year in office, with the two largest going to a Quebec-based aerospace company

HALIFAX - Lobster season opened Monday in most of southwestern Nova Scotia under the watchful eye of the coast guard

The group Democracy Watch says Stephen Harper is in a conflict of interest over the Mulroney-Schreiber affair - and it wants the federal ethics commissioner to investigate.

Politicians representing northern regions of Canada say they need more infrastructure to help adapt to climate change, which they say is melting much-needed winter roads.

Quebec and Ontario signed an agreement Monday to start talks to remove interprovincial trade barriers in an effort to help businesses - especially the struggling manufacturing sector - but the federal government needs to do "its share," said Premier Jea

WINNIPEG - The keen eyes of a Winnipeg elementary school assistant led to a previously undiscovered watercolour by a Group of Seven artist, earning a hallowed spot in a special classroom.

The construction of the navy's future fleets could be put in jeopardy unless the federal government changes how it buys vessels, warns a Defence Department report.

Swift and sweeping action is needed by all government levels to protect the 90-km gravel reach between Hope and Mission that represents the most biologically rich part of the Fraser River, says a report today for the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservatio

Once the NHL's biggest group of pushovers, Central Division teams have become the Vancouver Canucks' new nightmare. Coach Alain Vigneault's skaters managed to scrape by the travel weary and injury plagued Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 Sunday for only their

The family of a 14-year-old girl is demanding an apology from a referee who refused to allow her to play indoor soccer while wearing a religious headscarf.

A group of international scientists called on world leaders Sunday to invest billions in a complex array of satellites, undersea robots and other high-tech devices to monitor the oceans and better understand an environment they say is crucial to predictin

Climate change blamed for decline of carnivores in some of their habitats

PASHMUL, Afghanistan - A couple of months ago, Cpl. Jennifer Lettre was close to calling it quits and asking to return to Canada.

* More Toronto families are slipping into poverty at a time when families in the rest of the GTA, the province, and the country are seeing their economic prospects stabilize and even improve, says a groundbreaking report to be released today.

* QUEBEC - Quebec could become the first Canadian province to make snow tires the law in winter. Transport Minister Julie Boulet told the Quebec legislature she is thinking of giving the green light to a Parti Quebecois proposition to make winter tires

A line of frozen beef burgers has been recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over concerns they might be contaminated with E. coli.

Summit a complete turnabout for president

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have come full circle in their quest for Canadian football's most coveted prize. Eighteen years after winning their last Grey Cup at Toronto's SkyDome, the Riders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19 on Sunday to capt

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, returning from exile to Pakistan where President Pervez Musharraf is ruling with emergency powers, vowed on Sunday to help end "dictatorship" in the country.

In the midst of the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, Liberal leader Stephane Dion and his party have narrowed the gap in support among decided voters between them and the leading Conservatives, a new national poll shows.

The Ontario and Manitoba governments are working toward making it easier for travellers to visit the United States without a passport, but Canadians shouldn't get the wrong message and consider it an invitation to shop more in border cities, says Ontario

Antonio Lamer, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, has died at age 74, reports say. He died in Ottawa over the weekend of heart trouble.

The RCMP's complaints commissioner won't say if he'd support an outright ban on the use of Tasers as part of his review of the stun gun's use.

VANCOUVER - Green-collar jobs are not only the future but a priority today and Canada must take steps to ensure it doesn't fall behind in what the federal NDP leader is calling the "new energy economy."

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has launched a stinging attack on US policy, comparing it unfavourably with the British Empire.

The economic future of Kitimat grew more uncertain this week, based on testimony at a hearing into a new power sales deal between BC Hydro and Alcan.

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile -- The last survivors of a cruise ship that sank in frigid Antarctic waters two days ago arrived in southern Chile on Sunday, visibly weary but happy to be alive.

Abandoned explosives from bygone military training exercises could be scattered across more than two dozen native reserves in Canada, says a newly released document

The everyday act of filling a gas tank is at the centre of a tug-of-war between Canada's auto industry and environmentalists as the deadline approaches for the federal government to write strict new fuel efficiency regulations to help combat climate chan

Stephen Harper concluded a Commonwealth summit Sunday by bluntly describing the Kyoto accord as a mistake the world must never repeat.

For Corey Glass, the last straw was a video of Iraqi children talking about how they wanted to grow up to be suicide bombers so they could kill Americans.

Waning support for the mission in Afghanistan is a weapon in the hands of the Taliban, said Defence Minister Peter MacKay during a stop in Edmonton yesterday.

IN a small windowless cell lit by a single light bulb, Louai al-Sakka sits isolated from the world and fellow inmates for 24 hours a day.

Helicopters fighting strong winds have made significant progress in rescuing workers from an oil platform that had been burning in the North Sea.

George Hitzroth is going to his 62nd Grey Cup game today and taking the girl he took 64 years ago. The 87-year-old Port Perry resident has seen a lot of Canadian football in his life time.

The state's wind could produce enough electricity to power hundreds of thousands of homes.

Australia's Labor Party swept into power at national elections on Saturday, propelling 50-year-old former diplomat Kevin Rudd into office on a wave of support for generational change.

Here's a first-hand account from a Canadian crewmember with the Norwegian cruise liner, the MS Nordnorge, that answered the Explorer's distress call early Friday.

A powerful new weapon in the war against organized crime is being used to take guns, drugs -- even houses -- from B.C. criminals

Skiing in front of friends, family and the parents who defected from the former Czechoslovakia in 1982 with baby Jan in tow, Hudec became the first Canadian to win a World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise.

A solid majority of Canadians take a dim view of RCMP officers' treatment of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport, but they are divided over whether there should be a moratorium on the use of Tasers by law enforcement

People living in the western Arctic are already getting a taste of the nightmares to come for coastal communities around the world if temperatures increase, sea levels continue to rise and summer ice disappears

That hirsute dapper dude in the wheelchair with a Harry Rosen garment bag on his lap, waiting to go through security at Pearson Airport, looked really familiar. Turned out to be Ronnie Hawkins, who was ambulatory once he cleared the checkpoint.

Uncomplicated toys free the imagination and give children a chance to get lost in the world of play

One man is dead and two men are in hospital after a violent home invasion Friday afternoon in Harrison Hot Springs, police said.

On Tuesday, the biggest Olympic secret since Vanoc's unveiling of its Inukshuk logo two years ago will be revealed when the mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics are made public.

PARIS: Astronomers may have unwittingly hastened the end of the universe by simply looking at it, according to a new theory. The novel idea is being aired by two US physicists, who attack the notion that the universe, believed to have been created in

As a 12-year-old, John McTavish saw Cup history, pail in hand

Three months before Robert Dziekanski was tasered, the RCMP adopted a change in force protocol that allows officers to fire multiple shocks to control people under certain circumstances.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty raised the prospect yesterday of cutting income taxes for high-paid workers to keep them in Canada.

On the eve of Canada's biggest day in football, Grey Cup fever is finally heating up in Toronto.

Almost half a million people fled coastal villages in Vietnam and the Philippines on Friday as two separate typhoons roared towards the southeast Asian countries.

Allegation hinged on age of student; teacher, 35, at home with their baby

VICTORIA - The aboriginal war chiefs thought they were invited to peace talks after the bitter and bloody Chilcotin War 143 years ago.

A documentary detailing the grim conditions of the Algonquin in Quebec by two filmmakers from Abitibi is having its theatrical release this weekend.

TORONTO - Manitoba running back Matt Henry had a broken leg and was about to be taken off the field on a stretcher.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - You could call them the other casualties of war.

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile - Passengers aboard a small Canadian cruise ship got a bigger adventure than they paid for when their vessel struck an iceberg and sank hours later in the icy waters off Antarctica.

MALIBU, California -- A fast-moving wildfire destroyed more than a dozen homes and was spreading through the canyons and hills above Malibu on Saturday, forcing dozens of residents to flee ahead of the flames.

MUNYONYO, Uganda - Canada appears to have got its way at Commonwealth talks on climate change.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Maj. Paul Anderson has probably seen more of Afghanistan than most people in the country, although he usually sees it from 6,400 metres above the ground.

Lebanon's president declared a state of emergency just hours before he left office late Friday without a successor, in a move that threatened to push the politically divided country into further uncertainty.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland's new prime minister outlined ambitious plans for the next four years in his inaugural address Friday, saying he plans to withdraw troops from Iraq next year but also push for stronger relations with NATO.

Ontario Conservative MP Wajid Khan has been charged with violating the Elections Canada Act.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The Taliban have attacked an Afghan police checkpoint, killing at least seven men - all members of the Afghan police force - in a district where Canadian and Afghan forces won a victory against insurgents just three weeks

Passengers rescued from an Antarctic cruise ship that sunk earlier Friday have arrived safely at King George Island. Twelve Canadians were among the passengers and crew aboard the MS Explorer, a cruise ship that struck a chunk of submerged ice in Anta

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing heavy political pressure to agree to binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions as Commonwealth summit delegates in Uganda attempt to form a strong, united front in the fight against climate change.

A few thoughts from a soldier during a vigil overseas

The Vancouver Canucks have not lost a game in regulation in three weeks. The surging Canucks look to continue that run when they meet the St. Louis Blues for the first time this season Friday night at Scottrade Center.

Marion Jones was formally disqualified on Friday from all competitions since Sept 1. 2000, including the Sydney Olympics where she won five medals, after admitting last month to taking banned drugs.

City Auditor mis-uses city funds to pay her parking infractions and other questionable purchases.

"-- Why was Kent Austin so upset when the Rider playbook was stolen? Because he hadn't finished colouring it yet.

A teeny bit of snow shut down the Calgary Pancake Breakfast yesterday, a Grey Cup street spectacle since 1948.

Some Inuit fear climate change could bring about a "cultural genocide" as their hunting way of life melts with the sea ice, an Arctic expert told a breakfast meeting of parliamentarians yesterday.

TORONTO - CFL commissioner Mark Cohon believes all signs point to an NFL team in Toronto. It's the first time the league has taken such a definitive stance on the subject.

EDMONTON - It only took one game for the Colorado Avalanche to go from a road to ruin to the top of their division.

OTTAWA - On a night the Pittsburgh Penguins' big guns were held in check by the Ottawa Senators, their lesser lights shone through.

CALGARY - Patrick Sharp's short-handed goals have become a predicable storyline for the Blackhawks lately.

TORONTO - Quarterback Kerry Joseph can finally give the Grey Cup his full attention. Joseph, who guided the Saskatchewan Roughriders to their first Grey Cup berth since 1997, was named the CFL's outstanding player to anchor a West Division sweep of t

* A documentary crew from Poland is in Vancouver pursuing the story behind the death of their countryman Robert Dziekanski. Dziekanski died on Oct. 14 after being shocked with a Taser gun and subdued by four RCMP officers at Vancouver International Ai

Aging parents taking care of autistic kids fear their own mortality will put their children at risk

* Passengers aboard a Canadian-owned cruise ship had to be hastily evacuated early Friday morning when their boat struck ice and began to sink.

An apology from Canada's top Roman Catholic official for the failings of the church means little to some of those he admitted have been hurt by the church's abuse of power.

Buy Nothing Day is getting a Jesus jolt.

An Ottawa man's motive for killing his family continues to be a mystery for police investigating the murder-suicide.

Residents in the western Arctic say they worry that a proposed seismic exploration project in the Beaufort Sea could scare away bowhead whales.

In Uganda, even practitioners of the world's oldest profession are seeing their daily routine disrupted by the Commonwealth summit.

Pakistan was suspended from the 53-nation Commonwealth on Thursday over President Pervez Musharraf's failure to lift imposition of emergency rule and meet a deadline to restore democracy in the country.

A former Secret Service agent has told WLS-TV there was a plot to kill President Kennedy in Chicago three weeks before he was assassinated in Dallas.

A third of Canadian adults believe the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) would be a competent head of government, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 34 per cent of respondents think Jack Layton would make a good prime minister.

OTTAWA -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has written to the governor of Montana asking him to commute the death sentence of a convicted murderer from Canada. Ronald Allen Smith was convicted in the deaths of two Montana Indians in 1982.

Community leaders in Hazelton, B.C., are calling for help after a recent rash of suicide attempts by aboriginal youths. Earlier in November, seven people tried to kill themselves in just one week, and one Gitxsan girl died.

The personnel needs of military commanders in Afghanistan are not being met, NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday during a visit to the war-torn region.

Canadian politicians across party lines united on Thursday in rejecting a startling declaration from a European think-tank that urged NATO to double its troop presence in Afghanistan and bomb Taliban camps in northern Pakistan if necessary.

China's foreign ministry has criticized the Dalai Lama's suggestion he may appoint a successor, breaking a centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist tradition in which the next spiritual leader is chosen after the death and reincarnation of his predecessor, news r

Federal opposition parties voted Thursday to open a broad parliamentary probe into allegations involving Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, calling for both the former Tory prime minister and the German-Canadian businessman to testify as soon as poss

A man who was jolted with a Taser has died in a Dartmouth jail, prompting Nova Scotia's justice minister to order a review of police use of the weapon.

Gang members appear to be lying low since a regional anti-gang squad hit the streets a week ago to suppress gang violence, the commander of the new police team said Wednesday.

B.C. will have to find space in its already crowded jails for about 700 more marijuana growers each year if new mandatory sentences announced by the Conservative government this week are enacted, an analysis of sentencing figures suggests.

The selective hunting of male polar bears could eventually leave lovelorn females out in the cold, newly published data suggests.

Catholic Church officials yesterday sought to distance themselves from Quebec Marc Cardinal Ouellet, who in an unexpected mea culpa published in Quebec newspapers, asked forgiveness for past sexual abuse and discrimination committed by Catholics.

If your neighbourhood stream has turned brown in recent years, don't be alarmed. It's actually a sign the water is getting significantly cleaner.

KAMPALA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recommended that Pakistan be suspended from the Commonwealth.

BEIJING -- Chinese officials on Thursday refuted reports that the massive Three Gorges Dam trigged deadly landslides, part of an apparent attempt to play down the environmental impact of the giant water management project.

Flights were delayed and school bus service cancelled as a major winter storm rolled into Eastern Canada on Thursday.