Sep 10

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=60 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="5c8746483.png"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="747" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC80" BORDERCOLORDARK="#CC9900" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#000000 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 52 WIDTH="37"><div> <A HREF="id1167.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oct 10"><U><IMG SRC="31ce11160.png" border=0 width="17" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> PREV</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="37"><div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Giant Dwarf"><U><IMG SRC="31ce11160.png" border=0 width="17" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> HOME</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="37"><div> <A HREF="id1160.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aug 10"><U><IMG SRC="31ce11160.png" border=0 width="17" 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HEIGHT= 26446 ><NOBR><div> <B> <A NAME="top"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B><IMG SRC="5e4a5c200.png" border=0 width="92" height="32" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Past Articles:</B></FONT></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="626" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC80" BORDERCOLORDARK="#CC9900" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33 HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="50"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="16" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="50" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33 WIDTH="50"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="16" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="50" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33 WIDTH="50"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="16" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="50" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33 WIDTH="50"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" 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07"><U><B>May/07</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33 WIDTH="50"><div> <A HREF="id1007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Apr 07"><U><B>Apr/07</B></U></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id986.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mar 07"><U><B>Mar/07</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id979.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Feb 07"><U><B>Feb/07</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#FFCC33><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id978.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jan 07"><U><B>Jan/07</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>These "Articles" are dated from September 1st, 2010 - September 30th, 2010.</B></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="410" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#30" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Hollywood actor Tony Curtis dead at age 85</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 30/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#29" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Charges to be laid in 'insider win' lottery probe</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 29/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#28" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>'Blogfather' gets 19-year prison sentence in Iran</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 28/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#27" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Manitoba mom cut in half for groundbreaking surgery</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 27/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#26" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>100 residents airlifted from B.C. coastal reserve</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 26/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#25" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Could global warming turn Canada into a superpower?</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 25/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#24" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Canadians faced 'challenging summer' in Afghanistan</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 24/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#23" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>House of Commons votes to save long-gun registry</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 23/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#22" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Vote on long-gun registry expected to be close</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 22/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#21" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Toronto men arrested, 'khat' seized at N.L. airport</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 21/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#20" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Stevie Wonder to UN: help the blind or face my wrath</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 20/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#19" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>It's finally over: BP well permanently sealed</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 19/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#18" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Lohan tweets she failed court-ordered drug test</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 18/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#17" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>5 arrested in London over alleged threat to Pope</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 17/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#16" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Mini-moo: 33-inch English cow world's smallest</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 16/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#15" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Layton says NDP has enough votes to save gun registry</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 15/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#14" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>B.C. will scrap HST if voters say so, Campbell says</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 14/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#13" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>British, Canadian troops smuggling Afghan heroin: report</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 13/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#12" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Survivor who cut off part of arm was against '127 Hours'</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 12/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#11" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Four dead after Megabus crashes en route to Toronto</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 11/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#10" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Canada's unemployment rate rises to 8.1 per cent</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 10/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#09" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Philippines says police might have shot hostages</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 09/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#08" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Police investigate alleged sex assault of young girl</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 08/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#07" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Top commander: Burning Qur'an endangers troops</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 07/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#06" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>N</B><B>.L.</B><B> police arrest man after missing woman's body found</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 06/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#05" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>N.S. utility works to restore power after Earl</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 05/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#04" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Man drowns near Halifax as Earl crosses Maritimes</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 04/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#03" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Feds can't stop us from funding MS treatment: Wall</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 03/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#02" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Earl triggers more evacuations, shifts course for Canada</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 02/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#01" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><B><IMG SRC="f1f0b0d0.png" border=0 width="11" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>  </B><B>Feds not convinced MS treatment is safe, effective</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> 01/09/10</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> =======================</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="705" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 18 WIDTH="707"><div>  <A NAME="30"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 275 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Hollywood actor Tony Curtis dead at age 85</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Wed. Sep. 30 2010  08:08  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 30th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Tony Curtis, a Hollywood legend who starred in movies such as "Some Like it Hot", died at his Nevada home at the age of 85.</B></div> <bR> <div> A Nevada coroner confirmed that Curtis died of cardiac arrest at his Las Vegas-area home on Wednesday night.</div> <bR> <div> Curtis was born in the Bronx in 1925 with the name Bernard Schwartz.</div> <bR> <div> His father, Manny Schwartz, was an aspiring actor who could not find performance work because of his Hungarian accent. He moved his family around as he sought tailoring jobs.</div> <bR> <div> "I was always the new kid on the block, so I got beat up by the other kids," Curtis said in 1959.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5cea07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Actor Tony Curtis is shown in this 1965 file photo. Curtis, whose real name was Bernard Schwartz, was perhaps most known for his comedic turn in Billy Wilder's 'Some Like It Hot' with co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon has died at 85 according to the Clark County, Nev. coroner. (AP Photo, File)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 596 WIDTH="707"><div> "I had to figure a way to avoid getting my nose broken. So I became the crazy new kid on the block."</div> <bR> <div> Curtis served in the Pacific during the Second World War. Upon his return, he came back to New York and studied acting.</div> <bR> <div> Within a few years Curtis landed an audition and in 1948 he signed a seven-year contract with Universal-International. Back then he made $100 a week.</div> <bR> <div> For his movie career, he first became known as Anthony Curtis -- a name change that combined the name of the novel "Anthony Adverse" with the Anglicized name of a favourite uncle -- and then Tony Curtis.</div> <bR> <div> In the 1950s, Curtis became a major movie hearththrob and married "Psycho" star Janet Leigh.</div> <bR> <div> Leigh later said that "a lot of great things happened in their marriage, most of all, two beautiful children."</div> <bR> <div> Those actresses are known to audiences as Jamie Leigh Curtis and Kelly Curtis.</div> <bR> <div> Tony Curtis divorced Leigh in 1963 and would marry four more times during his life, with his wives giving birth to four more of his children.</div> <bR> <div> On the big screen, Curtis worked hard to develop his talent and branched out from early movies that showed off his physique more than his acting skills.</div> <bR> <div> But a role as a press agent in the 1957 movie "Sweet Smell of Success" put audiences on notice that Curtis had deeper talent than previously thought.</div> <bR> <div> The following year, his role in "The Defiant Ones" -- when he played a white racist convict chained to a black escapee convict played by Sidney Poitier -- landed him an Academy Award nomination, the only one of his long career.</div> <bR> <div> Reflecting back on his single Oscar nod, Curtis would later tell the <I>Washington Post</I> that he got his greatest reward from his fans.</div> <bR> <div> "My happiness and privilege is that my audience around the world is supportive of me, so I don't need the Academy," Curtis told the newspaper in 2002.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 488 WIDTH="707"><div> In 1959, Curtis starred alongside Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder's "Some Like it Hot," the famous comedy where he and Jack Lemmon dress up as women while on the run from gangland hoodlums.</div> <bR> <div> But Curtis didn't get along with Monroe during his acting days, growing frustrated with her lack of professionalism on the set.</div> <bR> <div> When someone suggested that he must have enjoyed kissing the legendary sex symbol while working on the film's love scenes, Curtis said "it's like kissing Hitler."</div> <bR> <div> Years after her death, however, he praised her talents.</div> <bR> <div> His life had many rough patches, including a lengthy spell of drug and alcohol addiction that came after acting career slowed down in the late 1960s.</div> <bR> <div> "From 22 to about 37, I was lucky," Curtis told <I>Interview</I> magazine decades later.</div> <bR> <div> "But by the middle '60s, I wasn't getting the kind of parts I wanted, and it kind of soured me. ... But I had to go through the drug inundation before I was able to come to grips with it and realize that it had nothing to do with me, that people weren't picking on me."</div> <bR> <div> Curtis went to rehab, cleaned up and started working again.</div> <bR> <div> In his later life he wrote two books, an autobiography and a novel. He also became a successful painter.</div> <bR> <div> Twenty-five years ago, Curtis said he was "not ready to settle down like an elderly Jewish gentleman, sitting on a bench and leaning on a cane. I've got a helluva lot of living to do."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="29"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 341 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Charges to be laid in 'insider win' lottery probe</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Wed. Sep. 29 2010  08:20  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 29th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Charges are coming today in a high profile investigation involving the insider claim of a major Ontario lottery prize.</B></div> <bR> <div> The Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation have each scheduled press conferences early Wednesday.</div> <bR> <div> "We are going to announce some charges that were laid in an investigation into an insider win involving a large amount of money and a huge fraud," Chris Lewis, head of the OPP, told CP24 Tuesday night.</div> <bR> <div> The OPP will hold a conference at 10 a.m. at the Travelodge Hotel at 925 Dixon Road where Lewis will discuss the charges and assets seized in the investigation.</div> <bR> <div> The OLG will hold its own press conference at the Holiday Inn at 970 Dixon Road, just down the street, at 11:45. OLG chairman Paul Godfrey is expected to answer questions about the investigation.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5c4a07d0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="125" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="f5c5a0650.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="101" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> OLG chair Paul Godfrey and Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan speak during a press conference at Queen's Park in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 252 WIDTH="707"><div> Three years ago, the Ontario government asked police to investigate the OLG after its ombudsman accused the lottery-ticket retailers of inappropriately pocketing tens of millions of dollars.</div> <bR> <div> The probe led to the arrest of a Toronto convenience store owner who was sentenced to a year in jail earlier this year. Hafiz Malik pleaded guilty to scamming a customer out of a lottery ticket worth $5.7 million in 2004.</div> <bR> <div> Since the probe, the Crown Corporation has been under fire for questionable insider wins, irregular scratch-lotto payouts and lawsuits from gambling addicts and out of control spending.</div> <bR> <div> Kelly McDougald was fired as CEO last August and the board of governors was replaced.</div> <bR> <div> OLG makes about $6.5 billion in revenues each year.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from ctvtoronto.ca</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="28"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 303 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>'Blogfather' gets 19-year prison sentence in Iran</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Tue. Sep. 28 2010  11:15  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 28th, 2010</div> <div> <B>An Iranian-Canadian blogger who ran afoul of the Tehran government for his online posts and provocative statements has reportedly been sentenced to spend more than 19 years in prison.</B></div> <bR> <div> The online website Mashreghnews.ir reports that Hossein Derakhshan has been convicted of several offences including spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment and insulting Islamic thoughts and religious figures.</div> <bR> <div> He was also convicted of co-operating with hostile countries and promoting counter-revoluntionary groups, according to the online report, which says the 35-year-old Derakhshan will be able to appeal the ruling.</div> <bR> <div> The website that issued the report is closely linked to the presidential office in Iran.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5bfa0fe0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="254" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Hossein Derakhshan, a well-known Iranian-Canadian blogger, is seen in this undated photo.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 505 WIDTH="707"><div> Journalism groups in Canada had raised concerns last week that Derakhshan could face a potential death sentence.</div> <bR> <div> In December 2008, the Iranian government confirmed that Derakhshan was in jail, weeks after reports emerged that he had been arrested.</div> <bR> <div> It is not clear if the time Derakhshan has already served will be applied to his sentence.</div> <bR> <div> Ten years ago, Derakhshan moved to Canada to attend university.</div> <bR> <div> The following year he posted online instructions on how to publish blogs in Farsi, which popularized the practice of blogging within Iran. As a result, Derakhshan became known as the "blogfather."</div> <bR> <div> In 2006, he used his Canadian passport to travel to Israel, an event that he then admitted could prevent him from returning to Iran.</div> <bR> <div> "This might mean that I won't be able to go back to Iran for a long time, since Iran doesn't recognize Israel... and apparently considers travelling there illegal. Too bad, but I don't care," he said.</div> <bR> <div> He initially wrote critical comments about Iran's clerical leadership, but later praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his dealings with the West.</div> <bR> <div> In Toronto on Tuesday, the manager of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression was trying to make contact with Derakhshan's family.</div> <bR> <div> CJFE manager Julie Payne said she was personally "shocked by the news" of the 19 1/2–year sentence and that her organization had yet to speak to his family.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The</I><I> Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="27"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Manitoba mom cut in half for groundbreaking surgery</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Mon. Sep. 27 2010  15:36  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 27th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Manitoba mother of two, Janis Ollson, was literally cut in two and put back together again, all in a bid to save her from potentially fatal bone cancer.</B></div> <bR> <div> The surgery actually took place about three years ago, but the 31-year-old's story is just getting attention now, thanks in part to the power of the Internet.</div> <bR> <div> Ollson, who lives in Balmoral, Man., was diagnosed with bone cancer shortly after delivering her second child. She had complained of pain in the hips and back during the pregnancy, which doctors ascribed to sciatica.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5bda06f0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="111" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Janis Ollson, with her husband Daryl and their two children, are seen in this image courtesy the Mayo Clinic.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 517 WIDTH="707"><div> But doctors later found she had chondrosarcoma in her lower spine, pelvis and surrounding muscle tissue. They told her that chemotherapy and radiation wouldn't stop the cancer and that the only option would be to remove the diseased bone.</div> <bR> <div> But the orthopedic surgeries Ollson consulted said that although they could remove the bones, they said they didn't know how to put her back together again.</div> <bR> <div> Her doctors turned for help to surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. There, orthopedic surgeon Michael Yaszemski said he thought he could help.</div> <bR> <div> He had been working on a method for removing the lower spine, splitting the pelvis in half and removing the left leg. His team would then take a part of the left leg, attach it to the smaller pelvis, shift the pelvis over and reattach it to her spine.</div> <bR> <div> Yaszemski said the procedure would leave Ollson relatively mobile.</div> <bR> <div> The one catch was that the experimental "pogo stick" reconstruction had only been tried on cadavers, so Ollson would be the first living patient to attempt it. Faced with certain death, Ollson agreed and the 20-hour surgery that involved eight surgeons went ahead.</div> <bR> <div> Now, three years later, Ollson is able to walk with a prosthetic hip and leg and a walker, although she prefers to use a wheelchair at home.</div> <bR> <div> Meanwhile, the calls from media outlets who want to hear her story are coming in, thanks to a local newspaper reporter in Winnipeg. The reporter had noticed an ad for the Mayo Clinic featuring the Ollson family and called Janis to hear her story.</div> <bR> <div> In the two weeks since the newspaper article appeared, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, <I>People</I> magazine and media overseas have all picked up the story, suddenly making the Manitoba mother a celebrity for a surgery she had three years ago.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="26"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 153 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>100 residents airlifted from B.C. coastal reserve</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sun. Sep. 26 2010  11:58  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 26th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Nearly 100 residents have been airlifted from a B.C. coastal reserve threatened by flood waters.</B></div> <bR> <div> Helicopters flew the group of residents from Kingcome Inlet on Saturday to a welcoming centre in Alert Bay, off Vancouver Island, said RCMP Sgt. Phil Lue.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5bca05a0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Rising flood waters in a B.C. coastal community have forced residents to evacuate their homes over the weekend.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 288 WIDTH="707"><div> "From there, they proceeded to kind of place everybody in the community -- find them somewhere to stay," he told The Canadian Press.</div> <bR> <div> Lue said there was hope the residents could return to their homes within a few days, if the waters recede enough. So far, no injuries or property damage have been reported in connection with the flooding, he added.</div> <bR> <div> Heavy rains beat down on several B.C. communities in recent days, flooding roads and homes.</div> <bR> <div> A state of emergency was lifted Sunday on the Vancouver Island community of Port Hardy, where rising waters shut down five roads and high winds triggered several power outages Friday.</div> <bR> <div> A steady downpour also set off a mudslide in nearby Port Alice, blocking access to part of the village and the local pulp mill.</div> <div> A man who lives in a cabin behind the mill has been airlifted to safety, Lue said. A search and rescue team will try to remove the remaining people from the area later today.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from </I><I>The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="25"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 304 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Could global warming turn Canada into a superpower?</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sat. Sep. 25 2010  10:19  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 25th, 2010</div> <div> <B>By the year 2050 Canada could be enjoying newfound status as a global superpower blessed with a developed north, plenty of fresh water, a growing population and new shipping lanes through the Arctic.</B></div> <bR> <div> That's the theory put forward in Laurence C. Smith's new book "The World in 2050" -- a scientific exploration of the effects of climate change over the next 40 years.</div> <bR> <div> According to Smith's 40-year projection, global warming will free up northern natural resources such as oil, gas and water. That in turn will attract immigrants and lead to new infrastructure and development for northern rim countries -- NORCs, as he calls them -- at a time when southern countries will be running out of resources and seeing their populations fall.</div> <bR> <div> The north will also warm up, meaning fewer and fewer of those -40 Celsius days that tend to grind productivity to a halt.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5baa0c00.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="192" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> UCLA geographer Laurence C. Smith is pictured in Iceland, which is one of the eight Northern Rim countries that he predicts will become more prominent over the next 40 years.(Credit: Karen Frey)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 248 WIDTH="707"><div> But this is not a reason to celebrate, Smith is quick to point out. While Canada, Russia, the Scandinavian countries and northern U.S. will see significant benefits from a warming planet, the rest of the world will suffer catastrophic losses.</div> <bR> <div> "Most climate change is overwhelmingly negative, I'm not a Pollyanna," he told CTV.ca from his office at UCLA, noting that we are already experiencing the harsh effects of a warming planet.</div> <bR> <div> "The pine beetle is devastating B.C. timber and summer heat waves knocked out 30 per cent of Russia wheat crop, so it would be disingenuous of me to suggest all of this spells nothing but good news. But alongside the bad news there will be some beneficial changes."</div> <bR> <div> Smith, a scientist and professor of geography and earth sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, set out four years ago to write a book about the negative effects of climate change in the north.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from </I><I>Andy Johnson</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="24"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 275 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Canadians faced 'challenging summer' in Afghanistan</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Fri. Sep. 24 2010  10:19  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 24th, 2010</div> <div> <B>KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The chief of staff of Canada's Task Force Kandahar says things are improving after a tough summer for Canadian troops in Afghanistan.</B></div> <bR> <div> The government of Canada's quarterly report released earlier this week noted that the security situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating.</div> <bR> <div> Lt.-Col. Doug Claggett acknowledged Friday that "it's been a challenging summer."</div> <bR> <div> But he said there are now "a lot of positive indicators" on the security operations being conducted with the Afghan national army and police.</div> <bR> <div> "So, we think there's some positive turnarounds that are coming along."</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f5a7a09d0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="157" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Canadian soldiers with the 1st RCR Battle Group, the Royal Canadian Regiment, patrol in the Panjwaii district near Salavat, southwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan, early Thursday morning, Sept. 9, 2010. (AP / Anja Niedringhaus)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 463 WIDTH="707"><div> He cited election day last Saturday as an example. He said there were no major attacks in Panjwaii, the Taliban stronghold where Canadian efforts are concentrated.</div> <bR> <div> "We have not seen as much insurgent activity in the area of operations where we have our security forces right now," Claggett said.</div> <bR> <div> He attributed the improvement to "the increased presence that we've had in the area, the ongoing security operations that we've had with our partners in the Afghan national army and police, and ... our ability to work with the governance, get out there with the village leaders and the district leaders to help articulate the need for the population to help us in the security operations."</div> <bR> <div> Across the country, however, an independent group has said there were about 100 more insurgent attacks on election day this year than there were for the presidential election last year.</div> <bR> <div> And last month, the United Nations noted a sharp increase in the number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan in the first six months of the year, most of them from Taliban attacks.</div> <bR> <div> The federal government's report found progress on Canada's six development priorities in Afghanistan. But those advancements "took place within a deteriorating security situation and high casualties among NATO forces," said the report.</div> <bR> <div> Claggett said there are more forces on the ground coming in contact with insurgents more often -- and that means an increase in violence.</div> <bR> <div> Canada's combat mission ends next July.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from Tha Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="23"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 250 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>House of Commons votes to save long-gun registry</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Wed. Sep. 22 2010  20:58  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 23rd, 2010</div> <div> <B>Opposition MPs have voted to save the long-gun registry, defeating a Conservative MP's private member's bill in a showdown that was ultimately decided by a handful of New Democrats.</B></div> <bR> <div> MPs voted 153-151 in favour of a Liberal motion that kills Tory MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to scrap the registry.</div> <bR> <div> The vote hinged on a handful of votes from New Democrat MPs, who were permitted to vote freely by their leader, Jack Layton. The Conservatives were behind Hoeppner's bill, while the Bloc had vowed to support saving the registry. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff whipped the vote, demanding his caucus vote against the bill.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f599a07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Prime Minister Stephen Harper leaves the House of Commons after losing a vote on the gun registry on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday September 22, 2010. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 755 WIDTH="707"><div> Despite the result, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Tories will continue to work toward dismantling the registry.</div> <bR> <div> "With the vote tonight its abolition is closer than it has ever been," Harper told reporters immediately after the vote. "The people of the regions of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals and we will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished."</div> <bR> <div> Hoeppner's bill made it through second reading by a vote of 164 to 137, with 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals voting in support.</div> <bR> <div> After the bill passed second reading and went back to committee, MPs began hearing from a wide variety of groups begging for the registry to be saved. Then, the committee heard that an RCMP audit of the program found it to be successful. </div> <div> On the other side were shooting sports enthusiasts and hunters, who argued there was no proof that the long gun registry helps crack down on crime.</div> <bR> <div> In Wednesday's vote, all eight Liberals and six of the 12 New Democrats who initially backed Hoeppner's bill voted to kill it.</div> <bR> <div> After the vote, Ignatieff said he was proud of his caucus, and hopes the Tory desire to kill the registry is "a settled question."</div> <bR> <div> "We stood with victims, we stood with emergency room doctors, we stood with the police and the Mounties, all of whom say we need a long-gun registry for the public security of Canadians," he said.</div> <bR> <div> Ignatieff said he will follow through on his party's proposals to change the registry to make it more palatable to rural Canadians.</div> <bR> <div> "If you care about public safety in this country, you want a gun registry. Period," Ignatieff said.</div> <bR> <div> The six NDP MPs who changed their votes Wednesday to back the registry had indicated in recent days their intention to do so.</div> <bR> <div> Layton said after the vote the result will allow him to also propose changes to the registry to make it better and easier to use.</div> <bR> <div> "We want the registry to be repaired and to have it work well for everybody and so we're going to work to build those kind of bridges," Layton told reporters. "I think Mr. Harper wants to portray rural and northern Canada, even Aboriginal communities, as though all they care about is guns and a registration process. I know that's not true."</div> <bR> <div> After the vote, Hoeppner singled out Liberal and NDP MPs who changed their position and voted to save the registry.</div> <bR> <div> "Right now if you live in the Yukon, it's a pretty sad day for you, because your member of Parliament's vote kept the long-gun registry," she said, referring to Liberal MP Larry Bagnell. "For people in the Yukon, people in North Bay, people in Victoria, people throughout Canada, look at how your member of Parliament voted."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="22"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Vote on long-gun registry expected to be close</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Wed. Sep. 22 2010  08:08  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 22nd, 2010</div> <div> <B>Today's vote on a bill to abolish the federal long-gun registry is expected to end with the bill's defeat. But the Conservatives are making it clear the fight won't end there.</B></div> <bR> <div> The Conservatives support the private member's bill, while the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois say their MPs will reject it. That leaves the fate of the federal registry in the hands of the New Democrats, who are free to vote as they see fit.</div> <bR> <div> In recent weeks, six New Democrats who initially voted in favour of scrapping the registry have now said they will change their votes.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f573a07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Patrick Deegan, a senior range officer at the Shooting Edge, looks through the scope of long gun at the store in Calgary, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 559 WIDTH="707"><div> NDP Leader Jack Layton, who is allowing a free vote on the bill, says if the registry lives, his party will introduce legislation this fall proposing changes that would make it better and easier to use.</div> <bR> <div> But the Conservatives say even if today's vote is lost, they'll continue to push for the registry to be abolished.</div> <bR> <div> In the Commons yesterday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews urged MPs to vote with his party and abolish what he called an" ineffective, expensive program."</div> <bR> <div> "Our Conservative government knows that criminals do not register long-guns," he said. "The choice is clear for all MPs."</div> <bR> <div> The Tories have long said the money spent to keep the long-gun registry running is unjustified and the database itself carries incomplete and unreliable information.</div> <bR> <div> But, in a debate Tuesday evening, Liberal MP Mark Holland said killing the registry would jeopardize police investigations and could allow criminals to get away with their crimes.</div> <bR> <div> "We heard from somebody who talked about an inquiry in Collingwood, the inquiry clearly said if it had not been for the gun registry, they would not have been able to solve that homicide, period," Holland said.</div> <bR> <div> The bill made it through second reading by a vote of 164 to 137, with 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals voting in support.</div> <bR> <div> But then it went back to committee, and MPs began hearing from a wide variety of groups begging for the registry to be saved. Then, the committee heard that an RCMP audit of the program found it to be successful.</div> <bR> <div> On the other side were shooting sports enthusiasts and hunters. Greg Farrant, with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said there was no proof that the long gun registry helps crack down on crime.</div> <bR> <div> He noted that although the registry was created in response to the 1989 shooting at Ecole Polytechnique, the shootings at Dawson College, Mayerthorpe, and others have shown that the registry doesn't prevent crime and enhance public safety.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from</I><I> The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="21"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 186 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Toronto men arrested, 'khat' seized at N.L. airport</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Tue. Sep. 21 2010  09:55  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 21st, 2010</div> <div> <B>Three Toronto men have been charged with drug possession after police in Newfoundland seized 80 kilograms of cathinone, a natural amphetamine.</B></div> <bR> <div> The men were arrested Monday night, after they were stopped by border agents at St. John's International Airport while entering the country on an international flight from London.</div> <bR> <div> The RCMP said the three men, who have not been named, are facing charges of importing a</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f56ca07b0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="123" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A sample of cathinone, known as 'khat', seized at St. John's International Airport on Monday, Sept. 20, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 145 WIDTH="707"><div> controlled substance. They were scheduled to appear in a Newfoundland provincial court on Tuesday.</div> <bR> <div> Khat is a flowery plant, from which cathinone is derived, common in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Cathinone is an amphetamine-like substance that causes excitement and euphoria.</div> <bR> <div> Khat is illegal in Canada, but its sale and distribution is allowed in several countries, including the United Kingdom.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from ctvtoronto.ca</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 193 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Stevie Wonder to UN: help the blind or face my wrath</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Mon. Sep. 20 2010  08:13  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 20th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Stevie Wonder wants global copyright overseers to help blind and visually impaired people access billions of science, history and other books they cannot read.</B></div> <bR> <div> The blind musician told the U.N.'s 184-nation World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300 million people who "live in the dark" want to "read their way into light."</div> <bR> <div> But he said they are being denied equal opportunity.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f568a0670.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="103" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Stevie Wonder presents the best music award to The Beatles: Rock Band at Spike TV's Video Game Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009. (AP / Chris Pizzello)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 161 WIDTH="707"><div> The 60-year-old pressed for a deal to facilitate trade in copyrighted books so that they can be translated into readable formats for people with disabilities.</div> <bR> <div> He noted Monday that there were various proposals.</div> <bR> <div> Wonder called for a compromise and teased the diplomats: "Please work it out. Or I'll have to write a song about what you didn't do."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from Tha Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="19"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 308 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>It's finally over: BP well permanently sealed</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sun. Sep. 19 2010  12:17  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 19th, 2010</div> <div> <B>The blown-out BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is finally dead, with a pressure test confirming the success of a permanent cement plug.</B></div> <bR> <div> Retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who has overseen the government's response to the oil-leak disaster, made the announcement Saturday.</div> <bR> <div> "Additional regulatory steps will be undertaken but we can now state definitively that the Macondo Well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico," Allen said.</div> <bR> <div> The test results mark the end of the leak five months after an explosion killed 11 workers on a drilling rig, leading to the worst offshore oilspill in U.S. history.</div> <bR> <div> The pressure test had engineers pushing seven tonnes of weight against a cement plug to make sure it will not move.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f567a0870.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Roughneck Neil Byrd, left, inspects a section of drilling pipe that was used to pump cement to seal the Macondo well, the source of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill, on the drilling floor of the Development Driller III, which drilled the relief well, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010. (AP / Gerald Herbert)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 331 WIDTH="707"><div> But even though the well is now permanently sealed, the disaster is far from over for Gulf Coast residents.</div> <bR> <div> Many businesses reliant on the Gulf have been ruined by the oil spill.</div> <bR> <div> Fisherman worry that even when seafood is declared safe, consumers won't buy it because they fear it's toxic.</div> <bR> <div> Other businesses lost money due to oil running up on beaches.</div> <bR> <div> Sheryl Lindsay's business provides beach ceremony on Alabama's coast. She said she lost $240,000 as brides cancelled their summer nuptials.</div> <bR> <div> So far, she's only received $29,000 as compensation from BP.</div> <bR> <div> "I'm scared that BP is going to pull out and leave us hanging with nothing," Lindsay told The Associated Press.</div> <bR> <div> About 780 million litres of oil spilled into the Gulf until the well was temporarily plugged in mid-July.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from Tha Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="18"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 166 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Lohan tweets she failed court-ordered drug test</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sat. Sep. 18 2010  13:30  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 18th, 2010</div> <div> <B>LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan has confirmed on her Twitter page that she failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol screening, and she said that if asked, she is ready to appear before the judge in her case and face the consequences for her actions.</B></div> <bR> <div> In a series of messages posted late Friday, the actress said "Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test."</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f565a06c0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="108" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Lindsay Lohan appears in a Beverly Hills court, Tuesday, July 20, 2010. (AP / Al Seib)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 430 WIDTH="707"><div> She also said, "Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away overnight. I am working hard to overcome it."</div> <bR> <div> A person familiar with the case, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the positive test results earlier Friday. The person declined to specify what substance triggered the positive result, which the source said occurred within the last month.</div> <bR> <div> The failed drug test was first reported by TMZ.com.</div> <bR> <div> The test result could mean a probation violation and more jail time for the 24-year-old actress. In July, Lohan was sentenced to three months in jail followed by three months in rehab after violating probation stemming from a pair of drug and driving under the influence cases filed after two arrests in 2007.</div> <bR> <div> She ended up serving two weeks in jail and another 23 days in an inpatient rehab treatment at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.</div> <bR> <div> At a hearing last month, Fox ordered the actress to attend psychotherapy, drug and alcohol counselling as well as random drug and alcohol testing several times a week. Compliance would allow her to return to unsupervised probation in November.</div> <bR> <div> Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden Fox had threatened Lohan with 30 days in jail for each probation violation.</div> <bR> <div> A hearing would be conducted before Lohan could be returned to jail. </div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from Tha Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="17"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>5 arrested in London over alleged threat to Pope</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Fri. Sep. 17 2010  09:14  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 17th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Five men have been arrested in London over an alleged plot against the Pope, prompting police to ramp up security measures across the city, authorities said Friday.</B></div> <bR> <div> Police are searching locations throughout the British capital as Pope Benedict XVI continues his four-day trip to Britain, the first such visit in decades. He arrived in Scotland on Thursday.</div> <bR> <div> London police said the men were arrested under the terrorism act at a business in central London. Police would not release information on the men's ethnicity or nationality, but said all were between the ages of 26 and 50.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f55fa07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Pope Benedict XVI presides during a celebration of Catholic Education at St Mary's University College, in Twickenham, London, Friday Sept. 17, 2010. (AP / Ben Stansall)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 828 WIDTH="707"><div> Information of a possible plot against the Pope was received overnight, officials said. The five men were arrested early Friday morning; they are being questioned at a London police station, but have not been charged.</div> <bR> <div> So far, no hazardous items have been found in the searches, police said.</div> <bR> <div> "Whenever a high-profile world leader, a religious leader such as the pope comes here, there's always a great deal of concern, so I think the moment police received this intelligence, they moved very, very quickly," CTV London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy reported Friday morning. "They weren't going to risk anything."</div> <bR> <div> The Vatican said the Pope has been informed of the arrests and has no intentions of changing his itinerary.</div> <bR> <div> "We have complete trust in the police," Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters. "The police are taking the necessary measures. The situation is not particularly dangerous.</div> <bR> <div> "The Pope is happy about this trip and is calm."</div> <bR> <div> The Pope's visit has polarized public opinion in the Protestant and largely secular Britain. Outrage over the Catholic Church's clerical abuse scandal has loomed heavily over the trip. Many have also spoken out against the church's condemnation of homosexuality and its opposition to condom use in the fight to control AIDS.</div> <bR> <div> There have been no major known attempts against Benedict, though his predecessor Pope John Paul II, was the target of a failed assassination in 1981.</div> <bR> <div> Benedict was tackled by a mentally unstable woman inside St. Peter's Basilica at Christmas Eve Mass last year. In 2007, a man jumped the barricade in St. Peter's Square and touched the back of Benedict's Popemobile before guards seized him.</div> <bR> <div> The Pope was nearly 30 minutes late for his first event Friday morning due to what the Vatican called logistical problems.</div> <bR> <div> He addressed thousands of cheering Catholic students at a suburban London college, encouraging them to resist today's superficial "celebrity culture."</div> <bR> <div> The Pope alluded to the church sex abuse scandal in speaking with the school's teachers, telling them to ensure they provide a trusting, safe environment.</div> <bR> <div> It was the second time he broached the controversial topic during the trip. On Thursday, Benedict told reporters the church had not acted quickly or decisively enough to remove the abusive priests.</div> <bR> <div> The pontiff is scheduled to meet Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Friday in a symbolic show of alliance between the divided Christian churches.</div> <bR> <div> His main event Friday will be an afternoon speech to British politicians as well as business and cultural leaders in Westminster Hall. He is expected to promote the role of faith in shaping public policy.</div> <bR> <div> On Saturday, he is set to address thousands at an outdoor service in London's Hyde Park.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="16"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 263 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Mini-moo: 33-inch English cow world's smallest</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Thu. Sep. 16 2010  10:00  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 16th, 2010</div> <div> <B>LONDON — A minuscule cow with a taste for contemporary music has been named the world's smallest by the Guinness World Records book.</B></div> <bR> <div> Guinness says the sheep-sized bovine from the West Yorkshire region of northern England measures roughly 33 inches (84 centimetres) from hind to foot.</div> <bR> <div> The 11-year-old cow is named Swallow and her owner, Caroline Ryder, said she would spend Thursday either grazing with her herd or listening to BBC radio in her cowshed.</div> <bR> <div> Swallow is a Dexter cow, a breed known for its diminutive stature, but is small even by Dexter standards.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f55aa0910.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="145" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> This is an undated Guinness World Records handout photo made available Thursday Sept. 16, 2010 of Swallow, right, an 11-year-old cow from Yorkshire posing next to Freddie the bull. (AP Photo/Paul Michael Hughes / Guinness World Records)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 107 WIDTH="707"><div> She already has nine regular-sized calves and is pregnant with her 10th. Guinness said her youngest calf has already grown larger than she is.</div> <bR> <div> Guinness World Records 2011 was published Thursday in the U.K.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="15"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 179 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Layton says NDP has enough votes to save gun registry</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Tue. Sep. 14 2010  22:08  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 15th, 2010</div> <div> <B>NDP Leader Jack Layton says the long-gun registry may not be done just yet. Layton said Tuesday enough of his MPs will vote against a private member's bill to scrap the registry that it may be saved.</B></div> <bR> <div> Layton said Tuesday "a very strong majority" of the NDP's rural caucus has decided to vote against the bill during a vote in the House next Wednesday.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f553a0740.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="116" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> NDP Leader Jack Layton appears on Power Play from CTV studios in Regina, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 670 WIDTH="707"><div> Tory MP Candice Hoeppner tabled the bill, which passed second reading with the support of 12 New Democrats and eight Liberals. The Bloc Quebecois says it will vote against the bill next week, and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has ordered his caucus to do the same.</div> <bR> <div> That puts the bill's fate in the hands of the NDP.</div> <bR> <div> Layton had said his MPs can vote freely on private members' bills. As of Monday, four New Democrats who originally voted for Hoeppner's bill said they will vote against it next week.</div> <bR> <div> Speaking to CTV's Power Play from the NDP caucus meeting in Regina, Layton would not reveal how many of his MPs he convinced to change their votes.</div> <bR> <div> "My members have asked that they have the opportunity to make whatever announcement they have to make in their own ridings in their own way, because it's really from listening to their own constituents that they've arrived at this conclusion," Layton said. "And so you'll have to await those announcements over the days to come. But what I can tell you is that we now are very confident that that registry can be maintained and therefore fixed."</div> <bR> <div> The NDP and the Liberals have proposed keeping and amending the registry to make it more palatable to rural voters, including decriminalizing first offences if they don't include other crimes, and respecting the treaty rights of First Nations people.</div> <bR> <div> CTV News's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said Tuesday if Layton is sure he has enough of his members who support saving the long-gun registry then that's what should happen, unless some Liberal MPs who previously supported killing the registry are absent from the vote. However, Ignatieff has said he wants all members of his caucus in the House of Commons when the vote takes place.</div> <bR> <div> Fife said this gives Conservatives ammunition for the next election campaign.</div> <bR> <div> "What they want to be able to do in the next election campaign is to go into Liberal and NDP ridings and rural areas and say, ‘this member of Parliament, he said he wanted to kill the registry -- and he didn't do it,'" Fife told CTV News Channel. "And so from the Conservatives point of view, they think they can win seats in rural Canada as a result of the NDP and Liberal MPs who have changed their mind on the vote."</div> <bR> <div> Fife reported later Tuesday that although the Conservatives, Liberals and the NDP hope to avoid a federal election this fall, a senior Conservative told him the party thinks it can win between 15 and 20 seats in rural ridings when Canadians next go to the polls. "And that could be the difference between a majority government," Fife said.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tories deny ties to U.S. gun lobby</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 744 WIDTH="707"><div> The news from the NDP camp came hours after the federal government was forced to deny Liberal accusations that it has ties to the U.S. gun lobby, including the powerful National Rifle Association.</div> <bR> <div> "This friends, is typical of the arrogant intellectual contempt in which the Liberal party holds so many people, especially in rural Canada," Harper told supporters in Edwards, Ont., Tuesday night.</div> <bR> <div> Harper was responding to charges from Liberal House Leader David McGuinty that the Tories are bowing to the U.S. gun lobby with their decision to scrap the long-gun registry. McGuinty also called on the Conservatives to come clean about any ties to the NRA.</div> <bR> <div> In an address to reporters Tuesday, McGuinty offered no evidence that the NRA or other U.S. gun lobby groups have had direct influence over Tory policy. He only referred to recent media reports that suggest the NRA has been providing advice to Canadian firearms groups for their lobbying efforts against the long-gun registry.</div> <bR> <div> McGuinty also cited a 2006 forum co-hosted by Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz that featured the head of the NRA as a keynote speaker.</div> <bR> <div> But he said the Liberals want to get out the message that "the National Rifle Association, its members and its leadership, should butt out of Canada's gun registry debate.</div> <bR> <div> "Canadians should be very concerned about the influence of the largest and most controversial U.S. lobby group on our gun registry debate," McGuinty said. "This is a government that is choosing to listen to a powerful foreign influence over our own police, our victim's groups, our medical experts (and) in fact, the majority of Canadians when it comes to gun control in this country."</div> <bR> <div> After McGuinty repeated his charges during an interview on Power Play, Hoeppner called the allegations "another example of Liberal misinformation and nonsense.</div> <bR> <div> "And the supporters of the Liberals and the long-gun registry keep spewing this kind of stuff into the public. The fact is they have no argument left to support their billion-dollar boondoggle, and so they put forward complete untruths and misinformation."</div> <bR> <div> Hoeppner said Breitkreuz did not organize the forum at which the head of the NRA spoke. He was invited along with all members of the rural caucus, she said.</div> <bR> <div> During his speech Tuesday, Harper vowed that his government "is not going to rest until that long gun registry is abolished."</div> <bR> <div> In an effort to sway votes, the Conservatives launched a publicity campaign Monday aimed at the ridings of the New Democrats and the Liberals who originally supported the bill. The campaign includes radio and billboard ads that urge constituents to pressure their MP to vote to scrap the registry.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="14"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 58 ><NOBR><div> <B>B.C. will scrap HST if voters say so, Campbell says</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Mon. Sep. 13 2010  21:46  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 14th, 2010</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="58" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="165" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 592 WIDTH="707"><div> <B>B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is prepared to concede defeat over the harmonized sales tax, announcing Monday the province will scrap the levy if residents vote against it.</B></div> <bR> <div> Campbell made the announcement shortly after an all-party legislative committee decided that next September, a non-binding referendum will be held on the hated tax after a petition to repeal the HST gathered more than half a million signatures.</div> <bR> <div> "I think the fact of the matter is people want a direct say," Campbell told reporters on Monday. "If a majority of people that show up to the polls say they don't want to have the HST, then they won't have the HST."</div> <bR> <div> According to B.C. law, a referendum requires a majority of votes from registered voters in at least two-thirds of the province's 89 ridings in order to pass.</div> <bR> <div> But Campbell said the province will ditch the tax, which came into effect on July 1, if a simple majority of voters says that's what it wants.</div> <bR> <div> "I recognize what the legislation says. I believe that it's appropriate to say to people if 50 per cent of the people that show up to the polls and vote against the HST, then we'll get rid of the HST," he said.</div> <bR> <div> Earlier in the day, the legislative committee heard that a referendum will cost the province $30 million.</div> <bR> <div> The decision comes after a vocal outcry from residents that culminated in the petition, which was spearheaded by former premier Bill Vander Zalm.</div> <bR> <div> The 10-member committee also had the option of sending the petition to a vote in the legislature, which is what petition organizers wanted.</div> <bR> <div> When it was clear the committee was going opt for the referendum, Vander Zalm angrily left the meeting.</div> <bR> <div> "I am disgusted that there's all these people out there, they elect these people to represent them, and they sit there and talk against the wish and the will of the people," Vander Zalm said. "I just can't believe what I see happening."</div> <bR> <div> Vander Zalm said he will turn his efforts to recalling elected Liberal officials, including Campbell.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 339 WIDTH="707"><div> But Terry Lake, the Liberal chair of the committee, said it was a unanimous decision to go with a referendum.</div> <bR> <div> "People signed a petition throughout this province in order to have a say, and now we're giving them that say," Lake said.</div> <bR> <div> Unlike their counterparts in B.C., residents in Ontario and Nova Scotia have complained about the tax, which sent the cost of some goods and services soaring, but have not formed a unified front to have it recalled.</div> <bR> <div> In B.C. earlier this month, the controversy heated up even more when internal documents revealed that Finance Ministry bureaucrats were communicating with federal officials about the HST before May 2009, when the provincial Liberals were elected to their third term.</div> <bR> <div> While Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen said the bureaucrats were not working on government orders, Vander Zalm and opposition New Democrat politicians accuse them of planning to implement the tax while convincing voters otherwise.</div> <bR> <div> The furor has hammered the Liberals and sent Campbell's approval ratings tumbling. A recent poll showed Campbell to be the least popular premier in the country, with only 12 per cent support.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="13"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>British, Canadian troops smuggling Afghan heroin: report</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sun. Sep. 12 2010  22:10  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 13th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Military police in Afghanistan are investigating unsubstantiated allegations that British and Canadian soldiers may have smuggled heroin out of the war-torn country.</B></div> <bR> <div> According to a report published in British newspaper The Sunday Times, troops at the British base in Helmand province and the Canadian base at Kandahar Airfield may have been involved in trafficking the drug.</div> <bR> <div> "We are aware of these allegations. Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously," a British Ministry of Defence spokesperson told the newspaper.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f549a07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> In this photo taken on Friday, March 19, 2010, a farmer works in a poppy field in Marjah, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 107 WIDTH="707"><div> In Ottawa, a National Defence spokesperson told CTV News the department is looking into the allegations.</div> <bR> <div> Helmand province is one of the world's leading sources of opium which can be refined into heroin. Sales of the poppy derivatives generates millions of dollars each year, much of which goes to finance the Taliban.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="12"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 212 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Survivor who cut off part of arm was against '127 Hours'</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sun. Sep. 12 2010  16:25  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 12th, 2010</div> <div> <B>TORONTO — Adventure-seeker Aron Ralston says he was initially opposed to director Danny Boyle's idea to dramatize the five horrifying days he spent pinned by a boulder in a Utah canyon and the excruciating decision he made to cut off part of his right arm to escape.</B></div> <bR> <div> The gregarious mountain man said Sunday that he felt a more factual docu-drama would do greater justice to his astonishing survival tale, in which he battled frigid temperatures, thirst and delirium while trapped in the spring of 2003.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f548a06c0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="108" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Author Aron Ralston speaks during a press conference for the film 127 Hours during the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010. (Darren Calabrese / THE CANADIAN PRESS)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 475 WIDTH="707"><div> But Ralston told a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival that he came around to supporting the film, "127 Hours," after being convinced that a feature would genuinely portray the horror he went through.</div> <bR> <div> "I basically said, 'Thanks but no thanks'," Ralston said Sunday of Boyle's initial pitch to make a film about his ordeal.</div> <bR> <div> "And he went on to do 'Slumdog Millionaire' and then very fortunately came (back) and was still interested to do the story.... It was (about) giving it to them and then understanding and trusting, too, that there's more than one way to get to this one goal and you can take this factual path and probably bore everybody to death (or) go about it in a very compelling storytelling manner and reach that same goal of conveying utterly the experience that I went through in a very genuine fashion."</div> <bR> <div> Boyle's 90-minute account largely consists of star James Franco alone onscreen and employs a pulsating soundtrack, saturated colour palette and frenetic cuts to impart a heart-stopping race against time.</div> <bR> <div> Sitting alongside co-stars Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara, Franco said his performance was largely based on videos Ralston made of himself while in the canyon, and that many of the scenes were shot in long improvised takes.</div> <bR> <div> The "Pineapple Express" star noted that his biggest physical preparation involved losing weight for the role. He said Ralston provided a detailed account of everything he went through and what he was thinking.</div> <bR> <div> "He even acted it out for us, like just went through the physical motions of it," said Franco, who juggled the intense shoot with graduate studies at New York University.</div> <bR> <div> "The most valuable thing was Aron. The first time I met him in L.A., he brought a tape that had all the videos that he had made in the canyon.... It was gold for an actor, because I got to see him in that situation, in the moment when he was in the middle of it not knowing that he was going to get out. You know, you can look back at the story in hindsight and say, 'That was horrible but he got out.' When I saw him on those videos, he had no idea that he was going to get out. It was incredibly powerful."</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 442 WIDTH="707"><div> Boyle said a big challenge was in conveying a sense of urgency and movement in the film.</div> <bR> <div> "Obviously the film is incredibly inert in one sense, and I thought it'd be absolutely catastrophic if it remained inert, if it felt inert," said Boyle.</div> <bR> <div> "So we had this (idea) that we all talked to each other about -- that it was an action movie about a guy who can't move so we'd keep prompting and forcing ourselves. So we'd make James work, I tried to get him to work seven days a week. He'd work six days a week and then he had to go back to clock into his college and we'd force everybody to keep working, pushing, pushing, pushing, in the hope that that would bleed into the film. That sense of restlessness would bleed into the film and make it bearable to watch."</div> <bR> <div> Ralston, who got married just over a year ago and now has a son, said he cried for most of the film the first time he saw it.</div> <bR> <div> "And not because of a pain that I felt but because in a lot of ways it reminds me so effectively of what was so important that I got out of that canyon for. It's the scenes like where you watch the father take his little boy to the edge of this vast canyon landscape to watch the sunrise, which my dad did with me when I was 12 years old," said Ralston, who met his wife after escaping the canyon.</div> <bR> <div> "It's not just this will to live that we have, it's the will to love and that's what I was questing for.... Whenever the film touches on that it touches me in a very deep way."</div> <bR> <div> "127 Hours" is making its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs through Sept. 19. The film is expected to be released in Canada in November.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="11"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 163 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Four dead after Megabus crashes en route to Toronto</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sat. Sep. 11 2010  23:00  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 11th, 2010</div> <div> <B>A number of Canadians were injured when a double-decker bus crashed en route to Toronto from Philadelphia early Saturday morning, killing four people.</B></div> <bR> <div> The double-decker Megabus, which is popular with travellers in the northeastern United States, had 26 passengers on board when it hit a low-hanging railroad bridge on the Onondaga Lake Parkway in Salina, a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y., around 2:30 a.m.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f547a05a0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Bus wreckage from the crash on Onondaga Parkway at the railroad bridge in Syracuse, N.Y. can be seen, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 575 WIDTH="707"><div> The driver and the injured passengers were taken to local hospitals for treatment.</div> <bR> <div> Seventy-one-year-old Vicky Reed and her husband, of Dundas, Ont., were among those on the bus when it hit the bridge and flipped onto its side.</div> <bR> <div> "All of a sudden there was a big crash and I fell over, was thrown over people and then it was all quiet," Reed said. "The front of the bus had been pushed back just like an accordion."</div> <bR> <div> According to Reed, the four deceased passengers had been sitting on the top level of the bus, near the front, where the vehicle would have hit the bridge.</div> <bR> <div> "The bus was too tall and so it sort of ripped the top of the front part of the bus off," said Reed, who suffered a knee injury. "The bus was then sort of on its side."</div> <bR> <div> Richard Blansett with the Red Cross of Central New York said another Canadian couple who survived the crash was from the Toronto area.</div> <bR> <div> "The damage to the bus was severe," he said. "The people inside were tossed around and injuries ensued."</div> <bR> <div> Passengers suffered anything from cuts and bruises to "severe injuries" that continue to require treatment in hospital, Blansett told CTV News Channel. Many of those with minor injuries were quickly released.</div> <bR> <div> Seven of 20 passengers released from hospital are from Ontario, said Don Carmichael, senior vice president of Coach USA, which operates Megabus.</div> <bR> <div> Four passengers and the driver have been admitted to hospital overnight, he said. The injuries of two passengers "are considered serious."</div> <bR> <div> Lisa Monette, a spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs department, said Canadian officials in Buffalo are working with local authorities to determine how many Canadians were on the bus and if any Canadians are among the dead.</div> <bR> <div> Monette said any Canadians on the bus will be provided consular assistance as needed.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 580 WIDTH="707"><div> Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh told a local newspaper that three men and one woman were killed in the crash. According to Walsh, one of the dead was from Kansas, while two others were not from the United States, but he could not say which countries they hailed from.</div> <bR> <div> A local Red Cross official said injured passengers are being treated at four different hospitals. As of early Saturday afternoon, 14 had been released and were receiving food and other aid at a downtown Syracuse hotel.</div> <bR> <div> Carmichael travelled to the scene Saturday and said the company will conduct a full investigation.</div> <bR> <div> According to Carmichael, the bus was not on its route when it crashed.</div> <bR> <div> "It is not an alternative route prescribed, that's going to be part of our investigation," Carmichael said. "We really have no idea why it was on that route."</div> <bR> <div> The driver of the bus has reportedly been able to speak with investigators despite his injuries.</div> <bR> <div> The bus left Philadelphia at 10 p.m. Friday and was scheduled to stop in Syracuse and Buffalo before arriving in Toronto.</div> <bR> <div> Megabus.com, which launched in April 2006, touts itself as the "first, low-cost express bus service to offer city-to-city travel for as low as $1 via the Internet." The company says it services 28 major cities in the U.S. Midwest and northeast.</div> <bR> <div> The company was introduced in Canada in August 2009, and travels between Toronto, Kingston and Montreal.</div> <bR> <div> Carmichael said the company prides itself on its safety record.</div> <bR> <div> "We have extremely high standards of safety and we've transported in excess of 7 million people and never an incident like this," he said.</div> <bR> <div> "The company's thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and the relatives and loved ones of those passengers who have lost their lives."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="10"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 180 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Canada's unemployment rate rises to 8.1 per cent</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Fri. Sep. 10 2010  07:45  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 10th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Canada's economy created 35,800 new jobs in August, yet the unemployment rate remains over eight per cent, Statistics Canada announced Friday morning.</B></div> <bR> <div> The jobless rate rose to 8.1 per cent last month from 8.0 per cent in July -- the first time the rate has been above eight per cent since May. And it's all due to an increase in the number of people looking for jobs.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f53e9f680.jpg" border=0 width="159" height="104" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Job seekers look for work on a bank of computers set up at Workforce One in Hollywood, Fla. on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010. (AP / Lynne Sladky)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 654 WIDTH="707"><div> The numbers are likely to worry economists who fear that the slowing economy is taking a toll on the country's previously strong labour market.</div> <bR> <div> The job gains in August were slightly better than the 30,000 new positions that economists had been expecting, but most had also been expecting the jobless rate to hold steady at 8.0 per cent.</div> <bR> <div> Statistics Canada noted that much of the job gains last month were due to 65,000 contract teachers and educational workers who were re-hired in August, after reporting they were out-of-work in July. Once that seasonal variation in the education sector is discounted, it appears the economy actually shed jobs last month.</div> <bR> <div> Once the job gains for July and August are averaged out, the labour market had an average pick-up of 13,000 jobs during those summer months -- much lower than the 51,000 average monthly increase seen during the first six months of the year.</div> <bR> <div> The agency notes there were increases in professional, scientific and technical services and in natural resources in August.</div> <bR> <div> "These gains, however, were dampened by losses in manufacturing; business, building and other support services; and information, culture and recreation," it said.</div> <bR> <div> Quebec, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland had the biggest pick-ups in jobs in August, but there was little change in other provinces.</div> <bR> <div> Average hourly wages rose 2.3 per cent in August from a year ago. That's up from an annual increase of 2.2 percent in July.</div> <bR> <div> Here are the unemployment rates provincially <I>(previous month in brackets):</I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Newfoundland 14.0 (15.0)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Prince Edward Island 11.2 (10.8)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Nova Scotia 9.8 (9.3)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">New Brunswick 9.6 (9.0)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Quebec 8.2 (8.2)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Ontario 8.8 (8.5)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Manitoba 5.6 (5.6)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Saskatchewan 4.8 (5.1)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Alberta 6.5 (6.3)</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">British Columbia 7.3 (7.5)</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="09"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Philippines says police might have shot hostages</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Thu. Sep. 09 2010  07:50  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 9th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Police officials in the Philippines are acknowledging for the first time that some of the hostages killed last month during a botched bus hijacking rescue may have been shot by police.</B></div> <bR> <div> Eight tourists, including three Canadians, were killed in the incident, when a disgruntled former policeman hijacked their bus on Aug. 23 to demand his job back.</div> <bR> <div> The standoff dragged on for hours on live television, eventually ending when police stormed the bus and killed the hostage-taker.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f52c9f590.jpg" border=0 width="159" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A Philippine National Police investigator examines a bullet-riddled tourist bus which was stormed by Police and SWAT members the night before to rescue hostages at Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines, Tuesday Aug. 24, 2010. (AP / Bullit Marquez)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 498 WIDTH="707"><div> Now, investigators piecing together the events of the incident say bullet trajectories and the hostages' wounds indicate that some of the passengers may have been hit by "friendly fire." But it's unclear whether any of the shots fired by police were fatal.</div> <bR> <div> The forensic reports reveal that most of the hostages were not shot at close range and that dozens of gunshots were fired from outside the bus.</div> <bR> <div> Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who sits on a panel reviewing the rescue operation, said blood would have splattered all over the seats and windows of the bus if the hostages were shot at close range. Instead, dried blood was found only on the seats and floor of the bus.</div> <bR> <div> De Lima told reporters Thursday that investigators will await a complete ballistics report before drawing any final conclusions.</div> <bR> <div> The new details emerged as Philippines President Benigno Aquino III said he would no longer be apologizing for the attack. He said he would instead focus on easing tensions with China and Hong Kong, where officials have criticized the handling of the daylong crisis.</div> <bR> <div> "Let me just say that this incident will not define this administration," Aquino said in a nationally televised news conference. </div> <div> He added that he will wait for a report from a fact-finding committee before he fires any officials for the fiasco.</div> <bR> <div> Aquino has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the incident, which came just two months after taking office. The public and the media have questioned why the president wasn't more visible and involved.</div> <bR> <div> The Chinese Embassy said in a statement that it expects the Philippines to come up with "a comprehensive and fair report, which tells the truth (and) upholds justice."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with reports from the Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="08"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 217 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Police investigate alleged sex assault of young girl</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Tue. Sep. 07 2010  16:08  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 8th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Calgary police say they have no evidence to suggest an alleged sexual assault against a young girl was videotaped by bystanders.</B></div> <bR> <div> The 12-year-old girl was assaulted Monday afternoon at around 4:45 p.m. in the school yard bleachers adjacent to Clarence Sansom Junior High in Calgary's Pineridge community, according to police.</div> <bR> <div> At a news conference Tuesday police said the girl had met a boy on a social networking site a week before and agreed to meet at that location.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f526a07e0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="126" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Calgary Police Staff Sgt. Leah Barber discusses an alleged sexual assault at a press conference in Calgary, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 563 WIDTH="707"><div> Several people -- friends of both the boy and the girl -- were in the area when two people "became involved in a sexual act," Staff Sgt. Leah Barber told reporters.</div> <bR> <div> "There is no evidence to suggest the witnesses encouraged the sexual assault, however a cellphone belonging to one of the youth was checked. At this time no photos or video have been recovered," she said.</div> <bR> <div> However, police do have video footage from a witness who saw the incident from far and called police from inside the school.</div> <bR> <div> Barber said the witness and the bystanders standing at the bleachers did not attempt to put a stop to what was unfolding.</div> <bR> <div> A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and eight witnesses have been taken in for questioning.</div> <bR> <div> The boy has not been formally charged but charges are pending, Barber said.</div> <bR> <div> Barber said alcohol played a role in the incident but investigators were still trying to determine the details.</div> <bR> <div> She said the incident will be considered an assault whether or not the young girl consented to the sexual act. A 12-year-old is only legally allowed to consent to having sexual relations with someone who is within two years of her age.</div> <bR> <div> Investigators said they were shocked by the incident and still have many questions for those in custody.</div> <bR> <div> "I don't know when they got there, how long they'd been there or even why they were there, but certainly the investigators are going to want to know that," Duty Insp. Keith Cain told CTV Calgary. "It's shocking that a sexual assault, if that is what has happened here, occurs to a young person, but to see it happen in a school ground in the middle of the day is certainly extra shocking."</div> <bR> <div> The girl has been treated and released from hospital and is in the care of her parents, Barber said.</div> <bR> <div> "She is still recovering from the ordeal."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="07"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 197 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Top commander: Burning Qur'an endangers troops</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Tue. Sep. 07 2010  06:10  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 7th, 2010</div> <div> <B>KABUL, Afghanistan — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Tuesday an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.</B></div> <bR> <div> "Images of the burning of a Qur'an would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Gen. David Petraeus said in an email to The Associated Press.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f51fa06b0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="107" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, is greeted by top NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus as he arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. (AP / Jim Watson)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 595 WIDTH="707"><div> His comments followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center -- a small, evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy -- to burn copies of the Qur'an on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that provoked the Afghan war.</div> <bR> <div> Muslims consider the Qur'an to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Qur'an is deeply offensive.</div> <bR> <div> In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Qur'an in washrooms and flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.</div> <bR> <div> At Monday's protest, several hundred Afghans rallied outside a Kabul mosque, burning American flags and an effigy of Dove World's pastor and chanting "death to America." Members of the crowd briefly pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with stones, but were ordered to stop by rally organizers.</div> <bR> <div> Two days earlier, thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and in five other cities to protest the church's plans.</div> <bR> <div> Petraeus warned images of burning Qur'ans could be used to incite anti-American sentiment similar to the pictures of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Graib prison.</div> <bR> <div> "I am very concerned by the potential repercussions of the possible (Qur'an) burning. Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," Petraeus said in his message. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."</div> <bR> <div> The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also issued a statement condemning the church's plans, saying Washington was "deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."</div> <bR> <div> Dove World Outreach Center, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning. The congregation's website estimates it has about 50 members, but the church has leveraged the Internet with a Facebook page and blog devoted to its Qur'an-burning plans.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 620 WIDTH="707"><div> A surge in troop deployments has brought the number of U.S. forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to about 100,000 and Petraeus is asking for 2,000 more soldiers to join the 140,000-strong international force here, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.</div> <bR> <div> Coalition officials said nearly half will be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces and will include troops trained to neutralize roadside bombs that have been responsible for about 60 per cent of the 2,000 allied deaths in the nearly nine-year war.</div> <bR> <div> The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about the issue with media, said the NATO-led command had been asking for the troops even before Petraeus assumed command here in July.</div> <bR> <div> Petraeus recently renewed that request with the NATO command in Brussels. The alliance has had trouble raising more troops for the war effort, with at least 450 training slots still unfilled after more than a year.</div> <bR> <div> With casualties rising, the war has become deeply unpopular in many of NATO's 28 member countries, suggesting the additional forces will have to come from the United States.</div> <bR> <div> Also Tuesday, authorities confirmed the ambush killing of a district chief by suspected insurgents in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday afternoon. Nahrin district chief Rahmad Sror Joshan Pool was on his way home after a memorial service for slain anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud when rocket-propelled grenades hit his vehicle, setting it on fire, said provincial spokesman Mahmood Haqmal.</div> <bR> <div> Pool's bodyguard was also killed in the attack, and one militant died and two were wounded in the ensuing fire fight with police, Haqmal said.</div> <bR> <div> Five children were killed and five wounded in Yaya Khil district in the southern province of Paktika when an insurgent rocket fired at an Afghan army base hit a home Monday evening, provincial government spokesman Mokhlais Afghan said.</div> <bR> <div> Kidnappers also seized two electoral workers and their two drivers in the western province of Ghor, according to deputy provincial police chief Ahmad Khan Bashir.</div> <bR> <div> Insurgents have waged a campaign of violence and intimidation to prevent Afghans from voting, especially in rural areas, while some pre-election violence has also been blamed on rivalries among the candidates.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files from The Associated Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="06"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 150 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>N.L. police arrest man after missing woman's body found</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Mon. Sep. 06 2010  19:43  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 6th, 2010</div> <div> <B>Newfoundland police have arrested a 39-year-old man in connection with the discovery last week of Anne Marie Shirran's body.</B></div> <bR> <div> The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary did not identify the man during a press conference Monday, but said the investigation is ongoing.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f51ea0730.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="115" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Anne Marie Shirran is seen in this undated photo.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 273 WIDTH="707"><div> The man, who is 39 years old and from St. John's, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.</div> <bR> <div> Shirran's case has kept the community on edge since she was reported missing in the St. John's area on July 19.</div> <bR> <div> "I used to never lock my doors, and now I've started locking my doors," resident Darlene McCarty told NTV's Pam Parsons on Monday.</div> <bR> <div> "It used to be so peaceful here, and now it's kind of chaotic."</div> <bR> <div> Last Thursday, campers discovered her remains in a wooded area in Cappahayden, 100 kilometres south of the provincial capital.</div> <bR> <div> Police confirmed the body was the missing 32-year-old Kilbride, N.L., woman on Sunday.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="05"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 164 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>N.S. utility works to restore power after Earl</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sun. Sep. 05 2010  12:09  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 5th, 2010</div> <div> <B>A Nova Scotia Power employee was taken to hospital after getting a shock while fixing power lines downed by tropical storm Earl in Cape Breton.</B></div> <bR> <div> The man was working in a bucket in the Sydney area Saturday evening when high winds caused him to get snarled in live wires, police said.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f51ca0650.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="101" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A tree is knocked over as Hurricane Earl hits Westville, N.S, Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010. (Robert Dean / MyNews.CTV.ca)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 344 WIDTH="707"><div> His partner on the ground rushed to a nearby pole and hit the switch to turn off the power, police said.</div> <bR> <div> Stacey Pineau, a spokeswoman for the utility, said the lineman received a minor shock and should be well enough to return to work today as crews continue to clean up after the storm.</div> <bR> <div> The storm is also being blamed for the death of a man who drowned while swimming to shore from a boat outside Halifax.</div> <bR> <div> About 90,000 Nova Scotians were still without power early Sunday as Earl moved towards Newfoundland. More than 200,000 residents lost electricity at the storm's peak Saturday afternoon.</div> <bR> <div> The utility expects to restore power to most homes today, though it may take longer in some remote areas.</div> <bR> <div> Winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour tore down trees and power lines throughout the province Saturday. Metro Halifax was among the worst-hit areas.</div> <bR> <div> New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were largely spared by Earl, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm shortly after reaching the south coast of Nova Scotia.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with files The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="04"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 169 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Man drowns near Halifax as Earl crosses Maritimes</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Sat. Sep. 04 2010  19:53  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 4th, 2010</div> <div> <B>A 54-year-old man drowned west of Halifax on Saturday, after trying to secure a boat that had broken free of its mooring as tropical storm Earl barreled through the province.</B></div> <bR> <div> Johnny Mitchell Jr. was wearing a life jacket when he set out with another man to secure the boat in Blind Bay near Bayside, police said. He tried to swim back to shore but didn't make it.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f51aa06a0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="106" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Hurricane-force winds and heavy rain batter Halifax Harbour as Earl roars ashore, Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 517 WIDTH="707"><div> Nova Scotia's Emergency Management Office attributed the man's death to the storm, which made landfall near Halifax with winds of around 100 kilometres per hour by midday.</div> <bR> <div> "I am deeply saddened by this tragedy, which further underscores the severity of hurricanes and major weather events," said a statement from Ramona Jennex, the minister responsible for the EMO.</div> <bR> <div> The Canadian Hurricane Centre said Earl was considered a tropical storm around noon when it made landfall about 85 kilometres southwest of Lunenburg, N.S.</div> <bR> <div> It proceeded to knock down trees and cut power lines, packing high winds and heavy rain as it moved north across Nova Scotia and eastern Prince Edward Island.</div> <bR> <div> By 4 p.m. ET, Earl had reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence, heading northeast at 83 kph and prompting the Canadian Hurricane Centre to issue a tropical storm warning for southwest Labrador.</div> <bR> <div> Power outages were reported across parts of southern Nova Scotia including in Halifax and the Annapolis Valley. Nova Scotia Power said as many as 220,000 customers had lost post power at one point.</div> <bR> <div> The outages were being restored, though an estimated 180,000 residents were still without power by late Saturday afternoon, said Nova Scotia Power spokesperson David Rodenhiser.</div> <bR> <div> Forecaster Chris Fogarty of the Canadian Hurricane Centre said an offshore buoy recorded wind speeds of 120 km/h on Saturday morning.</div> <bR> <div> "The really critical, tree damaging-type winds with possible structural damage -- siding on buildings, shingles and what not -- is likely to occur southeast of the track," he said.</div> <bR> <div> Halifax, Lunenberg, Guysborough and Pictou counties into Antigonish were expected to see the strongest gusts from Earl before it moved north to Prince Edward Island later in the day, where some power outages were also reported.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 608 WIDTH="707"><div> In Lunenburg, the storm knocked down tree branches and caused damage to local shrubbery. And a 15-metre-tall tree was pulled partway out of the ground.</div> <bR> <div> Still, Lunenburg resident Ruth Seale was surprised that Earl had caused such little damage.</div> <bR> <div> "There was sheets of rain…and huge, great winds -- the trees were just bending," she said.</div> <bR> <div> But Seale admitted she didn't have any power, which meant that "I can't have my tea."</div> <bR> <div> The director of Nova Scotia's Emergency Management Office said there were no major incidents to report regarding Earl. But Mike Myette said that doesn't necessarily mean that nothing happened.</div> <bR> <div> "In our experience, it's usually some hours or days after the storm passes before you can really recognize the impact," Myette said Saturday.</div> <bR> <div> RCMP Const. Meredith Darrah said that driving conditions were poor in a number of locations, though no major accidents were reported.</div> <bR> <div> Rodenhiser, of Nova Scotia Power, said the company had more than 400 employees working to remove downed tree branches and to restore power to affected areas.</div> <bR> <div> "Over the next few hours, we should see the outage numbers go down throughout the central part of the province now that the winds are dying down and our crews can really get some good work going," he told CTV News Channel on Saturday afternoon.</div> <bR> <div> Rodenhiser also warned residents not to remove downed tree branches that are touching power lines because they could be electrocuted. Residents in the province can call the company at 1-877-428-6004, he said, and crews will remove the branches safely.</div> <bR> <div> In southern New Brunswick, heavy rains prompted Saint John to block off Saints Rest Beach, so that residents wouldn't watch the waves from the shoreline. A similar action was taken by Nova Scotia RCMP who closed the road to Peggy's Cove, the popular tourist site and lighthouse.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with</I><I> files The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="03"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 179 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Feds can't stop us from funding MS treatment: Wall</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Thu. Sep. 02 2010  18:49  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 3rd, 2010</div> <div> <B>Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says neither Ottawa nor a key federal scientific agency can stop his province from funding clinical studies of the controversial "liberation treatment" for multiple sclerosis.</B></div> <bR> <div> "We don't need federal government approval here," Wall told CTV News Channel on Thursday afternoon. "We believe we can move ahead with it."</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <B><IMG SRC="f515a0740.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="116" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Sask. premier Brad Wall says the province will conduct tests on the MS liberation treatment, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 463 WIDTH="707"><div> The so-called liberation treatment is based on the theory that MS is caused by vein blockages that lead to a build-up of iron. The doctor behind the theory says it can be treated with angioplasty -- a simple surgical procedure.</div> <bR> <div> "In a country that has such a high incidence of MS, and in a province that has the highest incidence of MS in that country, we think there is a lot of merit in our government wanting to support medical trials, if the cue is taken from the research community," Wall said.</div> <bR> <div> "We're not changing our position."</div> <bR> <div> The premier's comments come a day after the Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Ottawa would not help fund tests of the novel treatment for blocked veins that are being found in some MS patients.</div> <bR> <div> The Canadian Institutes of Health Research concurred, announcing Wednesday that it is not yet ready to fund new studies to test the treatment.</div> <bR> <div> CIHR President Dr. Alain Beaudet told reporters that after reviewing research on the treatment, and after consultation with neurologists, radiologists and other experts, "there was unanimous agreement from the scientific experts that it is premature to support pan-Canadian clinical trials on the proposed 'liberation procedure'."</div> <bR> <div> "There is an overwhelming lack of scientific evidence on the safety and efficacy of the procedure, or even that there is any link between blocked veins and MS," he said.</div> <bR> <div> Without sufficient evidence about the procedure's safety, it would be unethical to study the procedure at this time, he said.</div> <bR> <div> The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada has similarly been cautious about the new approach, saying a lot more research is needed.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 365 WIDTH="707"><div> In June, the society and its U.S. counterpart awarded a combined $2.4 million in research grants aimed at investigating Zamboni's theory. Four Canadian universities and three American centres will begin research later this year.</div> <bR> <div> Wall has been less cautious, reiterating that Saskatchewan plans to fund clinical trials of the treatment if the government receives a proposal, and an independent organization endorses that proposal. He said he expects the province will receive a proposal before January.</div> <bR> <div> Not all experts in the province support the idea of conducting clinical trials, however. Dr. Katherine Knox, who leads Saskatoon's MS clinic, said recently that more research is needed before clinical trials are undertaken.</div> <bR> <div> Many Canadian MS patients have been calling for research into the treatment ever since CTV's W5 aired two reports about it last fall.</div> <bR> <div> With no way to receive the procedure at home, some Canadian MS patients have been travelling abroad do so.</div> <bR> <div> Christine Engelhardt, a nurse from Stony Plain, Alta., who has been living with the disease for a decade, visited Costa Rica to undergo the procedure.</div> <bR> <div> "When I first woke up from the anesthesia I could feel my left foot, which I haven't been able to feel for about two years," she said. "I just wish everyone had this opportunity to feel better because we deserve it...we deserve the choice."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff <I>with a report from CTV Edmonton's Susan Amerongen and files from The Canadian Press</I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="02"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 153 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Earl triggers more evacuations, shifts course for Canada</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Thu. Sep. 02 2010  08:20  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 2nd, 2010</div> <div> <B>Tourists have largely evacuated vulnerable islands off of North Carolina as powerful hurricane Earl makes its way towards the coast.</B></div> <bR> <div> The Category 4 system is currently about 660 kilometres south of Cape Hatteras, N.C., packing maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <B><IMG SRC="f513a05a0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Category 4 Hurricane Earl barrels toward North Carolina in this NOAA satellite image taken at 7 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 344 WIDTH="707"><div> "I'm standing in front of the beach in Atlantic Beach, N.C., and there is not a single person that I see on the beach," said CTV's Omar Sachedina.</div> <bR> <div> "This city has gone from boom town to ghost town and officials are saying if you don't need to come here don't, and anybody who is here is being warned to leave."</div> <bR> <div> North Carolina and Virginia have both declared a state of emergency in advance of the hurricane.</div> <bR> <div> And on Thursday a tropical storm warning was issued for the coast of Long Island, N.Y. and a hurricane watch was issued for parts of Massachusetts. A hurricane warning was already in place for the North Carolina coast.</div> <bR> <div> North Carolina was in the midst of evacuations Thursday morning as people fled the fragile barrier islands in Carteret County.</div> <bR> <div> Earl is expected to touch down on the U.S. mainland around midnight Thursday near Cape Hatteras. It is expected to bring wind gusts of up to 160 km/h along with several feet of storm surge.</div> <bR> <div> It is expected to make landfall in Canada early Saturday morning.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Earl's path shifts towards New Brunswick</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 432 WIDTH="707"><div> For the first time since Monday, a significant shift was seen Thursday morning in projections for Earl's path into Canada.</div> <bR> <div> As of 5 a.m. the U.S. National Hurricane Center revised its forecast, with models showing it would likely make landfall at Grand Manan Island, N.B., near the border with Maine.</div> <bR> <div> Previous forecasts showed Earl hitting the southern tip of Nova Scotia near Yarmouth.</div> <bR> <div> "I would say this is a dramatic shift," said CTV weather specialist Jeff Hutcheson.</div> <bR> <div> "Even though it's in this cone of uncertainty we're now looking at a landfall, or at least the centre of the track, going through Grand Manan Island which is very close to the New Brunswick-Maine border and from there tracking to just west of St. John and into Miramichi."</div> <bR> <div> Here is a summary of watches and warnings currently in place along the U.S. and Canadian coast:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Environment Canada has issued a tropical storm watch for Nova Scotia, from Port Maitland to Medway Harbour.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A hurricane warning is in place from Bogue Inlet, N.C. northeast to the North Carolina, Virginia border.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A hurricane watch is in effect for north of the North Carolina-Virginia border to Cape Henlopen, Del. and from Westport to Plymouth, Mass.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A tropical storm warning is in effect for Cape Fear to west of Bogue Inlet, N.C., and north from the North Carolina-Virginia border to Sandy Hook, N.J. and along the coast of Long Island, N.Y.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A tropical storm watch is in place for Sandy Hook. N.J. to Woods Hole, Mass. and for the coast of Long Island west of Fire Island Inlet and Port Jefferson Harbor.</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 32 WIDTH="707"><div> =======================</div> <div>  <A NAME="01"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 180 WIDTH="540"><div> <B>Feds not convinced MS treatment is safe, effective</B></div> <div> Web Posted | Last Updated Wed. Sep. 01 2010  12:30  ET</div> <div> Giant Dwarf Posted: September 1st, 2010</div> <div> <B>Despite pressure from patients to fund studies into a controversial theory on multiple sclerosis, the federal health minister says there is not enough evidence to move ahead with any more studies.</B></div> <bR> <div> Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Wednesday she accepted recommendations made this week by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research not to fund further studies on the "liberation treatment."</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="165"><div> <IMG SRC="f507a05a0.jpg" border=0 width="160" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> A scan shows the veins in the neck that are involved in the 'Liberation Treatment' for MS.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 587 WIDTH="707"><div> She said the federal government will instead assemble a working group to study data from seven studies of the treatment now underway.</div> <bR> <div> "To ensure that we have the evidence to support this procedure, we need to do the research," Aglukkaq said.</div> <bR> <div> "And once we have that, we will proceed -- if there is enough evidence from the seven research projects already underway around this subject -- we will proceed with pan-Canadian clinical trials. We will support that.</div> <bR> <div> "At this point in time, we do not have the evidence to proceed."</div> <bR> <div> Many MS patients have been urging quick study on the controversial treatment and the CCSVI theory behind it, which contends that blocked neck veins contribute to MS.</div> <bR> <div> The CIHR said on Tuesday that, after reviewing the research so far on CCSVI and the liberation treatment, "there was unanimous agreement from the scientific experts that it is premature to support pan-Canadian clinical trials on the proposed 'liberation procedure'."</div> <bR> <div> Agency President Dr. Alain Beaudet said the team of experts they consulted wasn't convinced that the CCSVI theory was sound, nor that the liberation procedure is safe nor effective.</div> <bR> <div> In response to question from reporters Wednesday, Beaudet explained that the liberation treatment, which involved threading a needle into neck veins to open them, carries risk.</div> <bR> <div> "Balloon angioplasty is relatively safe -- and I think we have to insist on relatively," he said. "Any procedure where you inject a catheter in a vein, where you compress the vein, where you risk damage to the internal sheath of the vein is not without risk."</div> <bR> <div> Aglukkaq said she looked forward to the outcome of studies currently underway, which are expected to take two years to complete.</div> <bR> <div> "These studies will inform decisions about moving forward with any pan-Canadian clinical trials on a treatment to unblock veins. I will immediately establish a scientific expert working group to monitor and keep me informed of progress on these and other studies. More details on this working group will be available in the near future," she said.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 447 WIDTH="707"><div> But many MS patients and some doctors are angry with that approach. Cardiovascular thoracic surgeon Dr. Sandy McDonald, who has researched the "liberation treatment," says the federal government's decision is a disappointment.</div> <bR> <div> McDonald believes that Canadian researchers would have been best positioned to answer some of the important questions about the procedure and CCSVI.</div> <bR> <div> "We have a world-class health organization, we have world-class facilities, and we should be doing world-class research by people who know how to do it," McDonald told CTV's Canada AM from Barrie, Ont. Wednesday.</div> <bR> <div> He conceded that there hadn't been much research so far on the treatment, but notes that more research is about to be published. He wondered: if the agency didn't think there was enough research, why didn't it want to fund studies of its own?</div> <bR> <div> "What we're saying is that the research that has been done is flawed and is not good enough, and yet we're not prepared to do the research ourselves," he said.</div> <bR> <div> "If the research others are doing isn't good enough, then we need to do the research here."</div> <bR> <div> McDonald says while he cautions patients from going abroad for medical treatment, he understands that patients who can afford to -- and even those who can't -- will go wherever they have to, to try this treatment.</div> <bR> <div> "I personally don't endorse medical tourism," he said. "But the sad part is that the stance the CIHR has taken actually puts people in the position where they're forced to look at medical tourism for a procedure that should be available in Canada, at least on a compassionate basis."</div> <bR> <div> Written by CTV.ca News Staff </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Sep 10"><U><IMG SRC="16243f0d0.png" border=0 width="63" height="13" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>