NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 07-2010

EDMONTON - The next time you visit Medicine Hat, you may want to wear rubber-soled shoes. The city ranks number one for lightning hot spots in Alberta.

TEHRAN - Iran amputated the hands of five convicted thieves inside a prison in the western city of Hamedan on Thursday

HONG KONG - Researchers have discovered four new species of octopus in Antarctica with venom that works at sub-zero temperatures.

PANJWAII, Afghanistan - With their military mission to Afghanistan ending in a year, Canadian mentors are training Afghan medics to teach their soldiers about combat first aid.

Optimistic predictions that warming Arctic waters will soak up lots of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to come true, a new study suggests.

A Montreal husband and father will not go to jail for luring a teenager to his home, filming himself having sex with her and then threatening to post the clips to the Internet unless she became his sex slave.

If you want to make sure your new boss won't give you bedroom eyes and call you baby, you can look them up on a new registry of employees prone to sexual harassment.

Donald Keith can't believe the fuss that has been made because his dog received holy communion.

What was believed to a be a grenade dating back to the Second World War caused alarm in a trailer park in western Alberta.

Industry Minister Tony Clement has dismissed growing calls for him to reverse his decision to scrap the mandatory long-form census, saying he and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are on the same page on the issue.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu announced Thursday he is retiring from public life later this year when he turns 79.

The United Nations' highest court said Thursday that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia did not break international law.

China's largest reported oil spill emptied beaches along the Yellow Sea as its size doubled Wednesday, while cleanup efforts included straw mats and frazzled workers with little more than rubber gloves.

A judge held two hearings Thursday, in a courtroom packed with top Arizona officials and spectators, on whether the state's new immigration law should take effect amid a flurry of legal challenges against the crackdown.

The key parts of gluten that are toxic to people with celiac disease have been identified, a discovery which Australian researchers say opens the door to a more targeted treatment.

Scientists scouring the area around Stonehenge said Thursday they have uncovered the foundations of a second circular structure only a few hundred meters from the world famous monument.

The call of the loon could be drowned out by the click of the keyboard at some provincial parks in Ontario, and possibly at national parks across Canada.

Members of a street gang smashed up a unit inside Stony Mountain Institution on Thursday, CTV News has learned.

Hockey fans in Ottawa were beaming Thursday as Stanley Cup champion Ben Eager brought the Cup home.

There appeared to be some movement Thursday in the case of a former Canadian Forces commander facing murder and sexual assault charges.

The IMF says it has cancelled Haiti's $268 million debt and will lend the earthquake-devastated country another $60 million to help it with reconstruction plans.

While police say the first night of the Celebration of Light was relatively incident-free, many West End residents are frustrated by the piles of trash left behind on English Bay Beach by spectators.

A B.C. man has pled guilty to neglecting a body after police looking for a grow-op found human remains buried on a property in Maple Ridge.

A Vancouver taxi driver has been found guilty of raping a passenger who was too drunk to fight back, and then stealing her debit card to withdraw almost $1,000 from her bank account.

The bear responsible for mauling two Vancouver Island campers was killed by conservation officers Wednesday night when it returned to the scene of the attack.

The cost of PlayNow.com, a high-profile gambling website that turned into a high-profile flop, was budgeted at $7.3 million dollars, the province's gaming minister told CTV News.

If Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was hoping for an enthusiastic endorsement from former prime minister Jean Chretien during his stopover in Shawinigan, Que., Thursday, he may be feeling a little less than satisfied.

A rainstorm in the southern Bahamas accelerated into Tropical Storm Bonnie on Thursday while following a course that could take it over the site of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Conservatives say race and ethnicity shouldn't enter into the hiring process for federal jobs and have ordered a review of affirmative action policies. They want to look at government hiring practices, which currently give priority to quali

Some women arrested during the G20 summit are alleging police made sexual threats and used sexually charged language against them while they were in detention.

Calgary researchers say live cartilage transplants may soon become a lot easier with a method that keeps the tissue viable for up to 30 days.

U.S. health officials say a fungus usually found in the tropics has taken root in the Pacific Northwest and has been blamed for at least 60 illnesses and 15 deaths.

Rich countries must give more for the fight against AIDS or risk jeopardizing progress in battling the disease, participants at an international conference urged Thursday.

Rogers Communications, the country's second-biggest internet provider, is lowering the usage limits on some of its plans, just days after online video service Netflix announced it was expanding into Canada.

RCMP in B.C. say Craigslist users should beware after at least 70 transactions in recent weeks turned out to involve counterfeit money.

Paloma Werner has a whale of a tale to tell after the mast and rigging of her sailboat were smashed to smithereens by a breaching southern right whale.

An elusive black bear that had its head stuck in a pickle jar for the last two weeks is no longer in a pickle, wildlife officials confirm.

An unemployed woman who said she was desperate for money has been arrested on charges she robbed an Oklahoma McDonald's with a white stretch girdle wrapped around her face as a makeshift mask.

RCMP have concluded combing a campground west of Edmonton in their hunt for a couple missing for almost three weeks.

Quarterback Casey Printers will miss Friday's game versus the Toronto Argonauts with a knee injury, and Travis Lulay will start in his place Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/story/2010/07/21/sp-lulay-lions.html#ixzz0uQCTVxPY

Two inmates are dead and six are injured after a riot broke out Wednesday evening at a provincial detention centre near Quebec City, officials say.

A 20-year-old Virginia man who allegedly threatened the creators of "South Park" after the show mocked the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday for his attempts to join the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabab.

A 30-year-old British woman's death, when using a sex toy while watching a porn movie, was probably caused by her state of arousal, officials said.

After a two-year run from the law that stretched across the United States and to the Bahamas, the young man accused of being the "Barefoot Bandit" for his alleged shoeless crime spree is back in his home state of Washington.

Two inmates are dead following a riot at a prison north of Quebec City.

TIMMINS, Ont. -- A Timmins man has been sentence to four months in jail for theft after dumping poutine on a woman's head and running off with her purse.

On July 18, 2010, a Canadian Forces (CF) contingent of 220 persons on their way to the Netherlands for the 94th International Four Days Marches Nijmegen stopped in France to commemorate the sacrifice of more than 66,000 Canadian service personnel who died

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. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday that

A huge ball of brightly burning gas drifting through a neighbouring galaxy may be the heaviest star ever discovered, scientists said Wednesday after working out its weight for the first time.

Two Vancouver Island men were attacked by a bear while they camped near Port Alberni on Wednesday morning.

Parks Canada on Wednesday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the only proven Viking settlement in North America, at one of the most northerly places in Newfoundland.

An emaciated yellow-nosed albatross, typically found in the Southern Hemisphere, was found in eastern Ontario over the weekend. The seabird, which makes its home on a string of islands in the mid-Atlantic, had collapsed on a Wolfe Island beach off of King

John E. Irving, one of the heads of the Irving business empire, has died in Saint John after a brief illness. He was 78.

There is another delay in the drunk driving trial for Oilers goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

Eighteen days have gone by and there is still no sign of a couple from St. Albert who went missing earlier in the month.

Daryl Katz and his team met face-to-face with Mayor Stephen Mandel and councillors Wednesday afternoon at city hall.

Mounties in North Vancouver, B.C., have issued a nation-wide call for help to find a man who doused his common-law wife with hairspray and lit her on fire six years ago, causing her third-degree burns.

Dozens of passengers who scrambled off the Queen of the North as the ferry began sinking in waters off B.C.'s coast more than four years ago have settled a class-action lawsuit for $350,000.

A woman accused by Toronto Police of being a leader amongst the G20 political vandals has surrendered to law enforcement officials in Peterborough.

Passengers were thrown from their seats, drinks and loose items flew through the cabin and oxygen masks dropped from overhead when a United Airlines jetliner took a harrowing drop amid severe turbulence on a cross-country flight.

Canadian troops and their NATO allies attended a ramp ceremony Wednesday night to say goodbye to Sapper Brian Collier, the latest Canadian soldier to die in the Afghan mission.

The family of a Wharton firefighter who died battling a massive egg farm blaze is fighting to keep his widow from receiving death benefits, arguing that the 37-year-old had found out his bride of two years was born a man.

The head of Statistics Canada has resigned after a controversial decision by the Conservatives to scrap the long-form census, saying a voluntary survey cannot become a substitute for a mandatory one.

A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Residents of an island near Thunder Bay, Ont., are worried about the fate of a young bear that wildlife officials say has had a plastic jar stuck on its head for two weeks.

OTTAWA - A stay-at-home mother trying to re-enter the workforce after nine years away says she can�t understand why the federal government would stop her from applying for a job simply because she is white

For the first time in years, Winnipeg isn't wearing Canada's auto theft crown.

Trashing homes just for fun, killing small animals, and this is not his first arrest at age 16. All the makings of a future scourge on society.

A German court on Tuesday threw out the case of a schoolteacher against a student who had allegedly been tormenting her by scrawling pictures of rabbits on the blackboard. The court declined to hear the complaint of the teacher, who was seeking an injunct

Star Wars-style laser beams have been used for the first time to shoot down aircraft in flight, it was revealed last night.

A Vancouver Island man is under investigation after allegedly bludgeoning a mother raccoon and her baby to death with a hockey stick.

Scientists in Toronto are trying to crack the secrets of regeneration to trigger the human body to grow tissues and organs damaged by disease.

The head of the Assembly of First Nations is calling for a new relationship with the federal government and an end to the Indian Act within five years.

B.C.'s privacy commissioner has confirmed that a breach that compromised users' account details forced the shutdown of the B.C. Lottery Corporation's new online casino PlayNow.com just hours after it was launched last week.

Although orcas are known to predate penguins further north, around sub-Antarctic islands, this is the first time they have been seen hunting the birds in Antarctic continental waters.

Now that Canada has announced it will purchase 65 F-35 Lightning II fighter jets under the Joint Strike Fighter program, one of the fighter pilots who will fly them some day is more enthusiastic than ever about his future.

Hundreds of penguins that apparently starved to death are washing up on the beaches of Brazil, worrying scientists who are still investigating what's causing them to die.

BP said Tuesday it is selling properties in Alberta and British Columbia worth $3.25 billion US to Apache Corporation to help pay for the cleanup and to cover compensation claims from its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Afghan police and soldiers should be responsible for security in the country by 2014, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during an international meeting of military and political leaders in Kabul.

An 18-month-old girl is in critical condition at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary with head injuries police say she sustained at a private home daycare in Medicine Hat.

Inuit remains that were taken from an ancestral burial site on Labrador's north coast more than 80 years ago by an American archeologist are to be returned to Canada.

The NHL has rejected Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102 million contract with the New Jersey Devils on grounds that it circumvents the league's salary cap.

A Canadian soldier, Sapper Brian Collier, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday.

Proposed connection would open door for new renewable energy projects, more affordable power

The visit to the Farnborough Airshow near London is the start of a weeklong European trade mission for Sanford and state Commerce Department representatives. Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2010/07/20/1383451/boeing-787-appears-at-british.html#ixzz0

A Toronto man accused of possessing explosive materials and scouting the G20 Summit site mouthed objections and shook his head when denied bail in a Finch Ave. courtroom on Tuesday.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. launched a website Tuesday that it swears will be safe to browse while at work, eliminating the need for men to throw themselves over their computer screen when the boss walks by.

Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday.

Shileen Flynn, 29, had already missed one flight and lost her luggage when she says she found herself in a room at the Vancouver airport, naked and squatting, while two crude border agents strip-searched her.

A Winnipeg hospital is dealing with an emergency of a different kind following a large-scale theft that went undetected for several years.

The Sydney Tar Ponds Agency has put out a tender call for construction of a protective cap over treated tar ponds sediment.

The long-awaited verdict in the first sex crimes trial of a former Nova Scotia businessman is expected Tuesday.

The Ontario government today begins the difficult task of preparing its public sector unions and employers for a wage freeze.

Oil from BP's blown out well is again seeping into the Gulf of Mexico, but this time, more slowly and scientists aren't convinced the cap that stopped the flow last week is making things worse.

Researchers at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna are claiming a huge victory, saying they have developed a vaginal gel that can significantly reduce a woman's risk of contracting HIV.

The U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs say they will hold military exercises starting Sunday as part of efforts to sharpen their readiness against North Korean aggression.

The numbers, rates and severity of crimes reported to police dropped again last year, continuing a 10-year trend, Statistics Canada reports.

Looking ahead to a more stable future, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked international allies to help fund the long-term projects that his people view as priorities.

In a highly-expected move, the Bank of Canada has raised its benchmark rate by one-quarter of a percentage point to 0.75 per cent, while issuing a gloomier economic forecast.

This video is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand just how "effective" the Fed is at safeguarding taxpayer money. Apparently nobody at the Federal Reserve has any clue where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balan

The US military has announced it is sending one of its biggest aircraft carriers to South Korea to take part in military exercises that officials say will send "a strong signal" of deterrence to North Korea.

Critics say the federal government doesn't have a clear chain of command or enough resources available to clean up an oil spill if it leaked from an offshore well in foreign waters into Canadian waters.

After months of complaints from NATO troops about strict rules of engagement, Canada's trigger-pullers are expressing universal approval of a new written tactical directive from Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance that clarifies when soldiers in Task Force Kandahar can

An amateur scientist has compiled a forecast to enable observers to view a mysterious type of cloud. Noctilucent clouds appear as wispy, luminous, silvery-blue clouds in the dark Northern sky, often with a wavy pattern.

Female students wearing a full face veil will be barred from Syrian university campuses, the country's minister of higher education has said.

Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland said Sunday the federal government needs to expand Arctic sovereignty efforts, pointing to the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline as one of several key projects that could strengthen Canada's stake in the Nort