National News

No carbon tax in N.S. climate action plan to be released in fall: premier

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's climate action plan may be under wraps until the fall, but Premier Rodney MacDonald didn't shy away Thursday from saying what won't be included in the province's battle against...

High court will hear appeals of employees left jobless after Wal Mart closure

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to hear appeals from a number of workers who lost their jobs when Wal Mart Canada closed its unionized store in Saguenay, Que., three years ago. ...

Accused had no idea of mentor's 'jihadi fantasy' to attack Canada, defence argues

BRAMPTON, Ont. - A terrifying terrorist conspiracy to attack Canadian targets was an unrealistic "jihadi fantasy" that was deliberately hidden from a young man on trial for his role in the alleged plo...

Man charged in sex assault of girl, 12, claims he was carjacked

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - An eastern Ontario man charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl claims he was carjacked at gunpoint and also in Toronto for a blood transfusion the night ...

Canadian protests over China's human-rights record continue prior to Games

OTTAWA - Protesters in the capital used the eve of the official start to the Beijing Olympics to launch more protests against China's human-rights record Thursday. About 100 demonstrators from seve...

Bear shot in Metro Vancouver after entering home; 2nd in two days

COQUITLAM, B.C. - For the second time in two days a bear has been shot in Coquitlam, east of Vancouver. The black bear entered the basement of a house before RCMP officers flushed it out into the b...

Police identify four victims in northern B.C. helicopter crash

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. - RCMP have released the names of the pilot and three mineral prospectors killed when their helicopter crashed upside down in a northern B.C. river on Wednesday. Sixty-year-old ...

MacKay announces news helicopters, surveillance drones for military

OTTAWA - Canadian troops battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan will get the helicopter support they've sought since 2006 in a complicated arrangement involving a commercial contractor and the U.S....

MacKay announces helicopters, surveillance drones for military

LONGUEUIL, Que. - The Canadian Forces are boosting their airlift capacity with the addition of medium-lift helicopters and surveillance drones to the mission in wartorn Afghanistan, Defence Minister P...

Canadian protests of China's human rights record continue in advance of Games

OTTAWA - Opposition members of Parliament have spoken out against human-rights abuses in China, one day before the official opening of the Olympics in Beijing. Liberal MP Irwin Cotler says, on the ...

Young accused unaware of leader's 'fantasy' terror plot, defence argues

BRAMPTON, Ont. - The defence in the case of a young man accused of participating in a Toronto-area terrorism cell has begun two days of closing arguments. Lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky says the Crown'...

Supreme Court rejects N.S. convict's bid to appeal dangerous offender status

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected an attempt by a Nova Scotia man convicted of sex crimes to appeal his status as a dangerous offender. The court today dismissed this latest bid by ...

Man accused of sexually assaulting girl claims innocence, wife says

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - The wife of a man charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl says her husband claims he was carjacked the night the girl was snatched off the street. Nat...

June's national drop in value of building permits widespread among provinces

OTTAWA - The residential and non-residential sectors both dropped as the total value of building permits in June fell 5.3 per cent from May to $6.3 billion. The decline hit most provinces and was 5...

PETA tries to run ad comparing Manitoba beheading to animal rights abuses

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. - An animal rights group has tried - and failed - to run a newspaper ad comparing the beheading of a passenger on a Greyhound bus last week to the treatment of animals by the ...

Former Winnipeg police officer cites memory loss in fatal crash

WINNIPEG - A former Winnipeg police officer who smashed his pickup truck into a car on his way home from a party with co-workers, killing a woman, says he can only remember "snapshots" and "sound bite...

B.C. doctors call for more beds and staff to provide faster treatment

VICTORIA - Six months is the longest anybody in British Columbia should have to wait for medical treatment, says a B.C. Medical Association report released Wednesday. The medical association delive...

Four die in helicopter crash in remote northwest B.C. location

VICTORIA - A small helicopter carrying people on a mineral-exploration flight crashed into a fast-flowing, icy northern B.C. river Wednesday, killing all four people on board. The Hughes aircraft b...

Ottawa set to announce helicopter, UAV lease for Afghan mission

OTTAWA - The Tory government is set to announce the lease of helicopters and unmanned surveillance planes for the Canadian military in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Public Works Mi...

Bear may have regarded attack victim as next meal, says conservation officer

COQUITLAM, B.C. - Neighbours pelted rocks at a black bear as it attacked a screaming woman in her own suburban driveway Wednesday, possibly because the animal regarded her as its next meal. "There ...

Opposition critics demand inquest into death of Katelynn Sampson, 7

TORONTO - Ontario's opposition parties joined the province's child advocate Wednesday in demanding an inquest into the death of a seven-year-old Toronto girl who was found dead in her caregiver's apar...

Calgary police arrest B.C. man for phoney Internet car auction scam

CALGARY - A British Columbia man is in custody following a two-year police investigation into an Internet scam where foreign victims paid thousands of dollars for vintage automobiles that never arrive...

Woman rushed to hospital after bear attack in suburban Vancouver

COQUITLAM, B.C. - A B.C. woman is in hospital after she was mauled by a bear in her own driveway. Cpl. Tony Farahbakhchiam of the Coquitlam RCMP says the woman was rushed to hospital with bites all...

Mosque offering Abdullah Khadr job if granted bail linked to extremists: Crown

TORONTO - Muslim extremists, including the late patriarch of Canada's notorious Khadr family, have visited an Islamic centre that is now willing to give his son a job as part of a bail proposal, an On...

Rape victim faces attacker at National Parole Board hearing in Saskatoon

SASKATOON - Tracey Walsh vividly recalls the night nearly 30 years ago when she was raped and left to die, tied-up naked in a ditch outside Winnipeg. She was 15 and had been on her way to a babysit...

Suspect in abduction, sexual assault of girl, 12, to appear in court Thursday

TORONTO - A man from Peterborough, Ont., is facing abduction and sexual assault charges after a 12-year-old girl was allegedly snatched off the street early Wednesday and discovered an hour later in a...

Researchers able to direct stem cells to create certain progeny

TORONTO - Canadian researchers have found a way to control embryonic stem cells so they give rise to only one category of cell, a first step in medicine's quest to generate specific tissues to repair ...

Health Canada warns Rize 2 the Occasion is unauthorized erectile drug

TORONTO - Health Canada is warning consumers against using Rize 2 The Occasion, an unauthorized product sold for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The department says the capsules contain an u...

Police arrest Peterborough man in alleged sexual assault of girl, 12

TORONTO - Police arrested a 32-year-old man Wednesday after a 12-year-old girl who'd been attending a birthday party in Peterborough, Ont., was allegedly snatched off the street and sexually assaulted...

Chains, mock tank mark Olympic protests

OTTAWA - Demonstrators in Ottawa and Vancouver used petitions, chains and even a mock tank on the eve of Beijing Olympics to protest Chinese human-rights abuses and the occupation of Tibet. A handf...