NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 10-2009

Investigators say the saga of a boy mistakenly thought to be floating high above Colorado in a homemade balloon was an elaborate hoax, with the intent of landing the family a reality television series.

OTTAWA - Defence Minister Peter MacKay will sit down with NATO allies this week to discuss future military efforts in Afghanistan.

TORONTO - Half a century ago, Merle Newcombe and George Weeden set out for a weekend of moose hunting in the northern Ontario bush.....They were never seen again.

Federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay won't say whether a seized ship with 76 would-be immigrants could be a human smuggling operation.

McPherson, who came in for injured starter Anthony Calvillo early in the second half, went 10-for-11 with two touchdowns, including a key toss to Jamel Richardson with two minutes to go that ultimately put the game away.

The calmest place on Earth has been discovered, not on a tropical island or a remote mountain valley but on top of a vast icy plateau in Antarctica.

Barnacles are able to attach themselves to almost anything. They are found clinging to the hulls of ships, the sides of rock pools and even to the skin of whales.

The White House has said that it will take no decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan until it determines the new government is a "true partner".

Several top commanders in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been killed in a suicide bombing in the volatile south-east of the country.

Ninety years after their disappearance in a Lake Superior blizzard, shipwreck hunters are trying to find two French warships that vanished without a trace, taking two Canadian Great Lakes captains and 78 French sailors with them.

U.S. justice officials are again praising the "awe-inspiring" detective work of a Canadian police officer who unlocked a major child-pornography case in 2007 after identifying a regional brand of beer in the background of an illicit online photograph depi

'They butchered me' Man freed after 18 failed attempts to administer a lethal injection

The federal government spent more than half a million dollars defending the RCMP and the actions of the four officers who stunned Robert Dziekanski with a Taser at Vancouver's airport.

An Edmonton teen who was the victim of unwanted groping and a sexual proposition by a 54-year-old creep avoided further abuse by claiming she was a lesbian.

TORONTO - Smokes were still coming off the shelves and it was business as usual yesterday inside an Oshawa convenience store busted a day earlier for allegedly having a candy bucket of drugs, including "Hillbilly Heroin," and selling 50-cent cigs to kids.

BANGKOK, Thailand - A highway billboard using a saluting Adolf Hitler to advertise a Thai wax museum has been covered up after complaints from the Israeli and German ambassadors

A year after Sun Media published a national series exposing Canada's shame in failing to address human trafficking, the Ontario government has yet to label the problem a priority, leaving victims -- and those desperate to help them -- to fend for themselv

A Mississauga man with ties to Nova Scotia is the first person to be charged with human trafficking by York Regional Police after he allegedly forced his so-called girlfriend to strip.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Toronto will host the World Pride event in 2014 after winning a vote among gay delegates at the international InterPride Conference in Florida.

Confused by all the mixed messages about climate change? There's a good reason for that, says a public relations expert, who argues in a new book that the so-called global warming debate is a tug-of-war between clever PR tactics and sound science.

The Northwest Territories' hold in Canada's diamond processing industry may be getting undercut by Ontario, where a diamond-cutting plant opened recently, a Yellowknife MLA says.

Beautiful arpeggios and even entire sweet sonatas can indeed emerge from a piano made of concrete, as famed inventor Thomas Edison envisioned.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazilian officials are insisting security won't be a problem for the 2016 Olympics despite drug-gang violence that plunged Rio de Janeiro into a day of bloody chaos just two weeks after it was picked to host the games.

NHL player representatives will hold a conference call on Sunday afternoon in hopes of breaking an impasse over the future of their union.

About 60 militants have been killed in the first 24 hours of a major offensive against the Taliban in northwest Pakistan, the country's military said Sunday.

EDMONTON - Experts say an Air Canada jet that plunged more than 1,000 metres without warning last year, injuring 10 people, rose up and then dove down a massive invisible wall of smooth air called an internal wave.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The retired judge heading an inquiry into offshore helicopter safety wanted to know all he could about the Cougar chopper that ditched into the Atlantic last March, killing 17 of 18 people aboard.

Dozens of men who were on board a freighter seized by RCMP officers off the coast of B.C. on Saturday have been taken to an unknown corrections facility in Vancouver.

B.C. and Winnipeg can go a long way to securing playoff spots with a win

Struggling CFL club to face Calvillo, other Alouettes regulars

North Korea still runs six prison camps holding 154,000 political prisoners, a South Korean lawmaker has said.

A man who allowed a three-year-old girl to smoke cigarettes was today jailed for 18 months. Laughing and joking, Graeme Conroy, 31, handed the lit cigarette to the child and encouraged her to inhale it - with it all caught on camera.

Stephen Hawking is promising to make his long-awaited visit to Canada next summer, and in the meantime is lending his name to an ambitious expansion of Waterloo's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics aimed at positioning it as a world leader in tac

NASA's much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said. New images show a mile-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency's Centaur rocket struck Oct. 9

Roman Polanski has been moved from his Zurich jail for medical treatment, his French lawyer said Saturday

Fierce fighting between military forces and the Taliban is underway in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, officials said Saturday. The army said it has moved about 30,000 troops into the area, which is the heart of Taliban activity.

Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who works for Newsweek magazine in Iran, has been freed on bail, Newsweek confirmed Saturday.

A group of homeowners is suing the estate of an elderly pilot, Transport Canada and the doctor who certified the pilot before he died when his light plane slammed into a Richmond, B.C., highrise.

Hurricane Rick has strengthened to an "extremely dangerous" Category 5 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday.

Criminal charges will be laid in the case of a Colorado boy who was reported to have been carried away in a homemade helium balloon, the Larimer County sheriff said Saturday

Mikael Samuelsson scored on a power play early in the third period to give the Vancouver Canucks a 2-1 come-from-behind win over the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

Cabinet ministers in the Maldives held an underwater meeting Saturday to draw attention to the threat global warming poses to the lowest-lying nation on earth

The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders battled to an exciting 44-44 tie on Saturday afternoon to remain tied for top spot in the CFL's West Division with identical 8-6-1 records.

Arkee Whitlock helped put the Toronto Argonauts out of their misery Friday night.

Roberto Luongo will look to rebound from a poor performance Saturday as the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild meet at GM Place in an NHL Northwest Division tilt.

Canada's rich history of producing products from maple, that sticky sweet substance known to flow from Canadian trees, has been commemorated as an event of national historic significance.

High winds, rain and snow caused flooding and travel delays throughout much of eastern and central Newfoundland on Saturday.

Environment Canada has issued weather warnings in southern British Columbia, forecasting a significant amount of rain.

Greg Selinger, Manitoba's finance minister since 1999, has been chosen to become the province's next premier. Provincial NDP delegates at a convention in Winnipeg voted Saturday to select Selinger as the party's new leader, succeeding Gary Doer.

An RCMP emergency response team boarded and took control of a vessel carrying 76 people on Saturday off the British Columbia coast and was piloting it to port.

Ms. Smith, a 38-year-old fiscal conservative and former media commentator, beat out Mark Dyrholm. A former Reform party organizer and social conservative, he complained bitterly during the leadership race that Ms. Smith was too socially liberal to lead th

This is something new and different and Oilers fans surely love it. Because, with this team, even a game against the stultifying Minnesota Wild has entertainment value.

With shafts of sunlight shimmering through a few metres of crystal clear water, you can pick out the cornerstones of an ancient civilisation which inspired literature and legend.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment has once again become one of the coldest places in the Universe. All eight sectors of the LHC have now been cooled to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.

Vancouver Olympic organizers have unveiled a new, state-of-the-art mobile medical unit for use treating athletes and officials during the 2010 Winter Games.

The province of Saskatchewan and Colin Thatcher are once again headed to court, this time in a tussle over proceeds from Thatcher's recently published book about his murder case.

A search warrant document says Ottawa police found a folder on Bishop Raymond Lahey's laptop computer containing 964 files and 33 videos, with many showing what police believe are young males involved in sexual acts.

The Conservative government has doubled the budget for prison construction and maintenance as it prepares federal institutions for an influx of inmates resulting from its suite of new crime laws.

Calgary's fourth line scored a pair of goals midway through the second period, supplying what turned out to be the decisive tallies in a 5-3 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

Canadian Inuit are outraged over a U.S. plan to use an international treaty to eliminate all trade in polar bears anywhere in the world.

Two Nelson, B.C., men are recovering from wounds suffered in a grizzly bear attack earlier this week.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is dismissing reports that Canada paid off insurgents in Afghanistan as likely "Taliban propaganda."

Three passengers who survived the 2006 sinking of BC Ferries' Queen of the North have been given small court settlements for psychological distress.

If any sport could use a boost of publicity before the 2010 Olympics, it's luge -- and by slagging a few deserving West Coast snobs in her public blog, Lauscher has turned sledding into the story of the pre-Olympics.

The first results from Nasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) spacecraft have shown unexpected features at our Solar System's edge.

Former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger said yesterday he hopes Canada will maintain its combat role in Afghanistan after 2011, although he said he respects the Ottawa's right to make its own decision

Canada's top sailor says the country's navy has bottomed out in its ongoing problems with recruiting, and he is cautiously optimistic about new initiatives to attract skilled personnel to the maritime force.

LAHORE, Pakistan - Islamist militants launched co-ordinated assaults on three police compounds in Pakistan's second largest city Thursday

TORONTO -- An alleged car thief who apparently has a terrible sense of direction may just be one of the dumbest criminals ever.

As video images of several police officers beating a University of Western Ontario student continued to spread online, school officials moved to defend the actions of the officers on Thursday.

Canada's rivers are at risk and some are even close to drying up because of climate change and growing demand for water, warns a new report.

WASHINGTON - A strong earthquake struck Indonesia early Friday local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday.

Comedian Sarah Silverman has a message for Pope Benedict XVI: "Sell the Vatican: Feed the world."

North Korea has warned South Korea that there may be a naval clash, alleging the neighbouring country has been sending warships into its waters.

The official medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics were unveiled Thursday morning in Vancouver, featuring original West Coast aboriginal designs of an orca and a raven.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control has confirmed that a woman from the city of Mission is the province's latest swine flu fatality.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Soldiers don't often wear their hearts on their sleeves, but everyone needs an outlet - which is why, when it comes to how Canada's troops feel about their mission in Afghanistan, a graffiti-festooned bathroom stall can offer inter

Ottawa's paramedic service has set up a fleet of one-person ambulances known as "zoom cars" to speed emergency response times.

Alberta's premier and cabinet ministers are taking cuts to their salary top-ups, an announcement that comes a day after a televised speech by Ed Stelmach.

Baptized Sikhs will be allowed to carry their ceremonial daggers, called kirpans, into venues at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the RCMP announced Thursday.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said he never saw a former diplomat's reports containing allegations of torture of detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A 6-year-old boy is floating over northeastern Colorado in a homebuilt balloon and authorities are racing to try and rescue him.

After months of seesawing from good to bad news, Canada seems to have finally pulled away from the global recession and put its economic travails where they belong � in the rear-view mirror.

KINGSTON, Ont. -- A Kingston man faces drug-dealing charges after a family member munching on drug-laced brownies ended up in an ambulance.

CANTON, N.C. - A North Carolina pastor says his church plans to burn Bibles and books by Christian authors on Halloween to light a fire under true believers.

OTTAWA - Environment Minister Jim Prentice appears to be contradicting his top climate-change envoy, denying that some countries walked out of recent talks in Thailand because of Canada's position.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Vancouver's Olympic organizers are warning residents to brace for "life as unusual" after unveiling a transportation plan for the 2010 Games that calls for road closures, stopping restrictions and a 30-per-cent reduction in vehicle traff

Olympic officials plan to start restricting traffic for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver as early as Nov. 1 to prepare the city for the international event in February, with further closures rolling out right up to the opening night of the Games.

Noise pollution is becoming a major threat to the welfare of wildlife, according to a scientific review. Sounds produced by vehicles, oil and gas fields and urban sprawl interfere with the way animals communicate, mate and prey on one another.

Three CT-155 Hawks, which are training jets used by the Canadian Forces, were in 19 Wing Comox, B.C. from 6 to 9 Oct. The jets conducted regular training in Comox due to poor weather at their home base, 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Sask.

News of Canada's "head of state" uproar has reached Buckingham Palace, where a spokesman for Queen Elizabeth responded cautiously to a question yesterday about the role Her Majesty plays in this country's political system.

LONDON - The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released Wednesday by a team of explorers who trekked through the Arctic for three months

One man is dead after an apparently targeted back alley shooting in Burnaby, B.C., Wednesday afternoon.

The federal Liberals are objecting to a series of taxpayer-funded cheques which have been presented to members of the public bearing the Conservative party logo -- a partisan branding that violates Ottawa's corporate identity program.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 'It's a startling illustration that Stephen Harper is addicted to the political patronage he promised to prevent,' said Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq on Wednesday announced funding to help answer some of the many questions about the H1N1 virus and how it behaves.

Canucks have long known Tim Hortons coffee is as good as gold. Now the U.S. army has one of the Canadian coffee giant's franchises secured inside the famed fort that guards America's gold bullion.

Hundreds of people lined the banks of the Mississippi river near New Orleans as the USS New York sailed through the fog, local media reported. Its bow stem contains 7.5 tonnes of steel salvaged from the rubble following the terrorist attacks of Septemb

The British Columbia community known as "The gateway to the Sunshine Coast" now has another distinction to add to its list: being the world's most liveable.

Police arrested seven people and seized a number of firearms Tuesday afternoon from a New Westminster, B.C., home.

MOSCOW - Russia publicly pushed back Tuesday against U.S. efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, dealing an apparent setback to President Barack Obama's hopes for Moscow's backing for fresh penaltie

OSLO, Norway - One judge noted with surprise that President Barack Obama "didn't look particularly happy" at being named the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Another marveled at how critics could be so patronizing.

NHL tough guy Georges Laraque is pumping out apologies faster than he pummels his opponents with uppercuts. The Montreal Canadiens enforcer said he was sorry Tuesday for appearing in an ad being slammed as sexist.

A Montreal-based forensic art investigator says a fingerprint he tested from what was presumed to be a modestly valued, 19th-century drawing of a young German woman has convinced leading experts that it's actually an original portrait by Italian master Le