NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 07-2010

A private in the Canadian army testified in court Monday that Capt. Robert Semrau saved his life when their outpost came under heavy mortar fire in Afghanistan.

The Canadian Forces pilot who ejected from a fighter jet just moments before it crashed and exploded suffered back injuries but is expected to make a full recovery.

The Vancouver Canucks re-signed forward Mason Raymond on Monday, avoiding arbitration with the winger by giving him a hefty pay raise in a two-year deal worth $5.1 million US.

UNESCO is recommending protection for a pristine swath of wilderness in southeastern B.C.

A 3.2 magnitude earthquake was recorded in the Bay of Fundy on Sunday afternoon. Scientists say the epicentre was offshore, close to Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick and about 90 kilometres northwest of Yarmouth, N.S.

The federal government is dropping key performance standards for navy helicopters due this fall in exchange for the manufacturer's promise to guarantee another $80 million in work to Canadian aerospace companies.

GATINEAU, Que. � A military court says a Canadian soldier found guilty of shooting a wounded Afghan insurgent can be sentenced under the National Defence Act.

A whistleblower leaked tens of thousands of secret military files on the Afghan war Monday, documenting the deaths of innocent civilians and how Pakistan's spy agency secretly supports the Taliban.

U.S. and Guatemalan archaeologists have found an unusually well-preserved burial chamber that they believe is the tomb of the founder of a Maya dynasty, a find that promises new information about the empire's formative period.

Boy, 9, spends day in airport limbo Airline forgot child travelling alone in Chicago lounge

New padded bottom underwear that gives women the illusion of a bigger behind is turning into a trend.

The following list is culled from inspection reports for MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL venues in the United States and Canada operating in 2009. Results based on most recent routine inspections or equivalent of a full inspection. The score is based on the percent

PHOENIX - Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

Australian researchers say they have developed a laser tracking system that will stop chunks of space debris from colliding with spacecraft and satellites in the earth's orbit.

Capt. Robert Semrau, 36, who shot a severely injured Afghan in what's been described as a mercy killing, was found guilty of disgraceful conduct last week. The maximum sentence under the National Defence Act is five years in prison.

HOUSTON - The flower girl at Jessica Zabala's wedding is purple, six-feet-tall (nearly 2 metres tall), uninvited and smells like dead bodies. She is Lois, a rare "corpse flower," deemed the world's stinkiest bud.

SYDNEY - A boat made out of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles sailed into Sydney Harbour on Monday, four months after it set out from San Francisco on a journey across the Pacific Ocean meant to raise awareness about the perils of plastic waste.

U.S. and South Korean warships and helicopters practiced anti-submarine manoeuvrs off the Korean peninsula Monday, readying defences against the kind of weapon that allegedly sank a South Korean navy vessel earlier this year.

Record-high water levels at China's massive Three Gorges Dam have called into question Beijing's claims that the world's largest hydroelectric project has capacity to withstand a massive flood.

SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of medics have literally made their mark taking care of the sick and dying at the Canadian military's Forward Operating Base Sperwan Ghar, in Afghanistan's Panjwaii district.

Marine scientists exploring the ocean floor hundreds of kilometres east of St. John's say they've found new species of sponges and previously unidentified corals.

A group of activists who broke into an arms factory near Brighton last year and caused damage costing around �180,000 ($275,000) were found not guilty last week of causing criminal damage

A baby boa constrictor somehow made its way to an Osborne Village apartment, and the man who lives there had to call 911 to get it removed.

Residents living in west Edmonton say they saw a toddler fall from a third-storey window at an apartment complex near 184th Street and 89th Avenue Sunday.

Victoria cyclist Ryder Hesjedal has finished the Tour de France with Canada's best showing in 22 years.

Scientists behind the European atom smasher aimed at uncovering the secrets of the universe don't want to stop there - they want to build an even bigger machine with partners and funds from around the world.

A Calgary man has made history after receiving the first transplant of live cartilage into his shoulder.

For the first time, Ottawa is trying to find a sunken 19th-century ship that helped discover the final leg of the Northwest Passage.

A missing sword believed to have belonged to the famous Metis leader Louis Riel has been found.

At least 19 people were confirmed dead Sunday after partygoers at a German music festival stampeded through a tunnel that served as the venue's sole entrance.

The Taliban wants to trade the body of an American sailor killed during a firefight Friday for captured Taliban prisoners, according to an Afghan government official.

CTV News has learned Canada will impose another round of harsh sanctions against Iran aimed at curtailing its nuclear weapons program and tightening the financial screws on the Iranian regime.

Broadcast Date: July 26, 1936 It's a consecration of love, says King Edward VIII of the Vimy Ridge Memorial. Before a crowd of Canadians and dignitaries, the memorial is unveiled and dedicated to Canada's fallen sons. For many, the ceremony is bitterswee

THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.

Are kids really, actually, getting high these days by listening to MP3s on their computers?

Three patrol boats of a new project and three submarines of 636 project will be laid up at Russian shipyards for the Black Sea Fleet before the end of 2010, Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.

The survey found that in the five years following the 2004 attacks by USA-led forces there has been a four-fold increase in all cancer.

One year after taking every opportunity to show his strength to win the Tour de France, Alberto Contador claimed his third title by hiding his weaknesses.

Paramedics were called to Nanaimo Station late Saturday after a drunken man "bounced" off a SkyTrain, according to transit officials.

A vessel believed to be heading to the B.C. coast with over 200 Sri Lankan migrants could arrive in Canada as early as next week.

A bear went for a little joyride in the town of Larkspur, Colorado Friday morning when it got into an unlocked car and knocked the gear into neutral, sending it down a hill and knocking over a few trees before coming to a full stop.

A Pasadena, Calif. woman was arrested after she allegedly tried to run over a man with her car and then threw a bag of urine at police officers.

German police defended how they handled security at a massive techno music festival that ended with 19 people dead and more than 300 injured in a stampede on Saturday but gave few clues as to how the tragedy occurred.

Embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward will step down this week, according to multiple reports.

In business, politics and romance, it would be nice to know when we're being lied to. Unfortunately humans aren't very good at detecting lies. Our natural tendency is to trust others, and for day-to-day, low-stakes interactions, that makes sense.

A fire that started late Friday night in northeastern Alberta has spread to 115 hectares and is now sitting about 30 kilometres east of the Suncor Energy plant near Fort McMurray.

Authorities say residents of a Vernon, B.C., mobile home park that was devastated by fire on Friday may have stalled their own rescue by dialing the wrong number for help.

Industry Minister Tony Clement is urging summer swimmers to be careful after he dove into a churning river to help rescue a drowning woman.

A Niagara Falls man is charged with aggravated assault after police say a 20-year-old man was intentionally struck with a vehicle and left for dead.

Neighbours say there were no signs that could have offered a warning of an apparent murder-suicide in Montreal this weekend.

A bomb at a bus stop in downtown Bangkok wounded nine people Sunday shortly after polls closed in a parliamentary election that pitted a government candidate against a jailed leader of recent mass protests in the Thai capital.

At least 19 people were confirmed dead Sunday after partygoers at a German music festival stampeded through a tunnel that served as the venue's sole entrance.

The UN's top investigator on torture and punishment warned Friday that overcrowded prisons are breeding grounds for AIDS.

American patients treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in the 14 states where it's legal, according to new federal guidelines.

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.

Officers released a description of two suspects and their vehicle in hopes of finding the men who seriously sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on Friday evening.

Angel Rodgers has recalled, over and over, every detail of her wedding day in the year since she was married.

A new Canadian study has apparently solved a mystery involving the migration habits of one of North America's most recognizable insects and may aid conservation efforts.

There were cheers of excitement and tears of joy as six families got the keys to their new Habitat for Humanity homes in Spruce Grove Saturday.

EIGHTEEN revellers were killed and 80 injured yesterday in a stampede at a top music festival in Germany.

Police got a bit of high-tech help in catching a group of Cape Breton car thieves in Dartmouth, N.S., on Friday.

A leading Saudi cleric hit out at France for moving to ban Muslim face-veils, but approved Muslim women foregoing veils when visiting a country which outlaws them, a Saudi paper reported on Saturday.

Lawyers for a gay rights group asked a U.S. federal judge Friday to impose an injunction halting what they called the military's unconstitutional "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The U.S. Coast Guard says a medical transport plane carrying five crashed into Lake Michigan and that one person has been rescued.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that Washington will impose new sanctions on communist North Korea in a bid to stem the regime's illicit atomic ambitions.

The body of Sapper Brian Collier, the latest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, returned to Canada on Friday afternoon.

One of Canada's top jet fighter pilots is in good condition in hospital following the crash of his jet in Lethbridge, Alta., on Friday.

Family and friends of an Alberta couple who have been missing for nearly three weeks plan to hold a "vigil of hope" on Saturday.

A 50-year-old man faces charges for firearms and public mischief after an armed standoff with police at a Swiss Chalet in Toronto's west end Friday afternoon.

The Taliban claimed Saturday that it had captured two American soldiers, the CBC's Cameron MacIntosh reported from Afghanistan.

According to statements from prominent internet thinkers this week, we may run out of internet protocol -- or IP -- addresses in less than a year.

"They say stay 100 feet away," Hayes said. "We were about 30, 35 feet. I zoomed in on him ... but that's not far enough because they're fast and they can turn on a dime."

The main bulk of the fleet, however, may be ready by 2035, he said.

Germany funded more than 80 percent of the cost of Israel's first three Dolphin submarines in the 1990s.

Four terror suspects have escaped from a Baghdad, Iraq, prison that was formerly run by U.S. forces, a senior official with the Iraqi justice ministry told CNN Friday.

A pair of bombings claimed the lives of five American soldiers in Afghanistan Saturday, amid the latest push by international forces to target Taliban hot spots.

Edmonton police are considering the use of body-mounted cameras.

Benita Anderson is still recovering from a vicious assault that took place in North Vancouver on Monday night after she tried to help a young woman who was being attacked.

Love the fireworks but can't stand the crowds? CTVBC.CA is bringing you live streaming of the Celebration of Light beginning on Saturday.

China's premier said flood control efforts are at a "crucial stage" as the death toll jumped by more than a dozen Saturday and more torrential rains are expected through Sunday night.

If it's the fair, de-ethnicized look you're after, there's a Facebook app for that. A Facebook application aimed at users in India released last month promises to lighten the skin tone of faces in profile pictures. But it's sparking cries of racism, wh

Ships steamed to safer waters and coastal workers packed up oil removal operations as remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie gunned for the Gulf of Mexico Saturday.

In a letter to U.S. officials, British Foreign Secretary William Hague calls the Scottish decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing "wrong and misguided," but says there's no evidence Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was returned to Libya to fa

Montreal police are investigating the killings of two young boys and a man who were found dead in an apartment on Saturday morning.

It looks like an iPad, only it's 1/14th the cost: India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 US basic touchscreen tablet computer aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production in early 2011.

An electronics technician aboard the ill-fated oil rig Deepwater Horizon told an investigative panel Friday that an alarm system was partially shut down on the day the rig exploded.

Getting a team-record seven field goals from Damon Duval was fine, but Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo wants touchdowns.

Byron Parker's interception return for a touchdown rallied the Toronto Argonauts to a historic but sloppy 24-20 win over the B.C. Lions on Friday night.

China will reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty from the current 68 in the latest step to cut back on the use of capital punishment, state media said Saturday.

Provincial officials and police seized 1.2 million illegal cigarettes on Thursday at a vehicle-inspection checkpoint.

Police have charged the owner of a West End convenience store with a Liquor Control Act offence for selling mouthwash as an intoxicating substance.

Allan's Angels Camp is a place where the children of fallen Canadian soldiers come to heal.

Those who live in the area where Travis Vader was arrested say there were multiple sightings of Vader in a green SUV similar to the one that belonged to a St. Albert couple who has been missing for the past 20 days.

An emotionally draining legal battle is finally over for a woman whose husband was beaten severely ten years ago.

A British Columbia woman on trial for the murder of a 12-year-old autistic boy has been found not criminally responsible for the crime due to mental disorder.

The new harmonized sales tax hasn't won many friends in B.C., but people who depend on tips to make a living say they're the biggest losers.

Two of the four F-22P frigates it ordered are already in service in the Pakistan Navy, while a third is to be commissioned on September 15 this year.

The Bulava has officially suffered seven failures in 12 tests. Some analysts suggest that in reality the number of failures was considerably larger, with Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer contending that of the Bulava's 12 test launches, only one

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/87/cc/fb9e57264a6b98d6895c07079e7e.jpegA hostage negotiator speaking to an armed man in a west-end Swiss Chalet restaurant convinced the man into surrendering peacefully, Toronto police Const. Tony Vella said Friday

Vancouver Canucks defenceman Sami Salo has suffered an Achilles tendon tear, adding another injury to the already staggering list accumulated by the hard-luck NHL veteran.

A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.

Police are blocking off roads outside a Swiss Chalet in the Kipling Ave. and The Queensway area after reports of a man barricading himself inside the restaurant.

A 105-year-old woman is missing a treasured oil painting and a photograph of herself as a teenager after they were stolen from her room in a Vancouver rest home, and police are asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect.

A Canadian man who admitted having sex with young girls in Colombia and Cambodia was a "customer" of willing participants and not an abuser, says his defence lawyer.

Disgraced Immigration Board judge Steve Ellis apologized profusely Friday for propositioning an attractive South Korean refugee claimant for sex in exchange for citizenship.

A credit-card sized toolbox that indicates if a drink has been laced with a date rape drug will make it to Ontario shelves by late August.

Conrad Black, the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman convicted of fraud, is free on a $2 million bail bond after signing release papers before a federal judge in Chicago.

A CF-18 fighter jet has crashed in southern Alberta, after witnesses saw it flying at low altitude midday Friday. The jet crashed at the Lethbridge County Airport and the pilot reportedly ejected before impact. CTV Calgary's Jacquie Scantlebury repo

Twelve kilometres above the Manitoba countryside, the unthinkable happens: a brand new Air Canada Boeing 767 runs out of fuel. The 120-tonne, $40-million plane becomes a glider, dropping at over 600 metres per minute with no hope of reaching Winnipeg. Ama

A couple of Dartmouth retailers are turning to public shame to fight shoplifting. Pictures of shoplifters taken from in-store surveillance cameras are being posted in the stores.

The body of a Canadian soldier killed this week in a makeshift bomb blast while on foot patrol southwest of Kandahar City returns home today.

North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.

Fourteen years later, the original "Shawinigan handshake" victim is still not amused by Jean Chretien's gags.

A man who killed a toddler when he was just 10 years old in a crime that shocked Britain was sentenced to jail on Friday for new child pornography charges.

Statistics Canada says Canada's annual inflation rate slid to one per cent in June as gasoline prices dropped from where they were a year ago.

Oil-skimming ships near the site of the BP oil spill have been ordered to evacuate the area, as tropical storm Bonnie rolls towards the Gulf of Mexico.

People are appalled a beaver was possibly shot to death at Three Mile Bend off-leash dog park. The beaver was discovered by a canoeist in one of the ponds on the weekend.

MONTREAL -- Getting a team-record seven field goals from Damon Duval was fine, but Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo wants touchdowns.

Thousands of artifacts, from pieces of pottery and stone arrowheads to musket flints and glass beads, have been pulled from a construction site in a small Ontario town, offering archeologists a picture of more than 2,000 years of aboriginal history.