Back to newsletter list 21/12/2007 00:24:14 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - U.S. praises Canada for Afghanistan mission - Lawsuit against former Canadian PM thrown out of court - Canada's telecom watchdog okays huge media takeover
WASHINGTON: RICE, BUSH PRAISE CANADA'S ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier had his first formal meeting with his American counterpart Condoleezza Rice on Thursday and afterwards she praised Canada for living up to its NATO responsibilities in Afghanistan. The secretary of state didn't say whether her country would deploy more soldiers there as the U.S. military begins to withdraw from Iraq. Mr. Bernier says the future of the alliance's mission in Afghanistan will be decided at an important meeting in April. At a news conference, President George W. Bush also praised Canadians for putting their lives on the line to fight the Taliban, as are British, Dutch, Danes and Australians. TORONTO: SUIT AGAINST FORMER PM DISMISSED Ontario Superior Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Brian Mulroney brought by his former business associate, German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction in the matter and that the allegations which Mr. Schreiber had made were not connected to Ontario. The lobbyist sued Mr. Mulroney for $300,000 plus interest. He claims to have paid the money to Mr. Mulroney in 1993 and 1994 to help him to win a contract to build an arms factory in Quebec and a pasta business in Ontario. Mr. Schreiber claimed that Mr. Mulroney never fulfilled his end of the deal. The lobbyist has used the court system to evade deportation to Germany for the past eight years. He was to have finally been deported several weeks ago, but the federal government suspended the deportation to allow Mr. Schreiber to testify about his dealings with Mr. Mulroney before the House of Commons ethics committee. In another development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll leave it up to his special adviser in the Mulroney matter to decide whether a public inquiry is needed to probe the financial relationship between him and Mr. Schreiber. The prime minister called for one after he was named in one of Mr. Schreiber's court documents. Many commentators and people asked in polls have said such an exercise would be pointless. OTTAWA: AIR FORCE DENIES PATROLS CURTAILED Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt, the air force chief, has denied criticism of the decision to upgrade only 10 of the military's 30-year-old Aurora patrol p***s. Critics suggested this would mean fewer patrols. Lt-Gen. Watt calls such an idea "a myth," because the military will fly even more patrols by adjusting the flying schedules between upgraded p***s and those soon to be retired. The Auroras are based in Greenwood, NS and Comox, BC, and fly an average of 6,500 hours a year. TORONTO: LAND CLAIM RESOLVE 12 YEARS AFTER SHOOTING The Ontario government will return Ipperwash Provincial Park to the native band that has claimed its ownership for years. A native protester, Dudley George, was shot to death there 12 years ago by a police sniper during a occupation by members of the Chippewas of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant says the decision marks the beginning of a new effort to settle long-standing land claims but the claims won't be resolved by violence. The provincial park is to be managed by the government and the natives until there's a decision on its ultimate use. The federal government expropriated Ipperwash during World War Two and didn't respect a promise to return it to the natives after the conflict. OTTAWA: CITIZENSHIP RULES EASED FOR ADOPTED CHILDREN A law takes effect on Sunday that will enable the parents of children adopted abroad to obtain citizenship for them more easily. At present, a Canadian who adopts a foreign-born child must first put in a sponsorship request, then obtain a permanent resident visa before applying for citizenship. After Sunday, citizenship can be granted as soon as the adoption process is completed, the parents not having to apply first for permanent residence.
CZECH REPUBLIC Europe's "Schengen" passport-free zone has been extended to include the nine Central and Eastern Europe states who joined the EU in 2004. The former Communist states abolished police border checks with fellow "Schengen zone" members and Malta lifted passport checks on European ferries at the port of Valetta. ITALY An Islamic holy leader or imam was among 11 people found guilty in Milan today of recruiting suicide bombers. The recruits were trained for missions in Italy and abroad. The court sentenced the imam to almost four years in prison. The others received two- to 10-year sentences. Four defendants were acquitted. IRAQ Two bombings in Iraq left 19 people dead on the first day of the otherwise peaceful Eid al-Adha holiday. A suicide bomber struck in Kanaan, a mostly Shi'ite town near Baquba iln Diyala province, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military said one soldiers and five civilians were killed and one Iraqi injured. However, police and the hospital morgue put the number of deaths at 13. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed four people and injured another nine outside a store selling liquor in the centre of the city. According to the Associated Press, 536 Iraqis have died in war-related violence this month, compared with 2,309 the previous December. PAKISTAN A prominent member of Pakistan's opposition was released from house arrest, several weeks after being detained under President Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency order. Aitzaz Ahsan is a lawyer who was formerly a member of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. He acted as chief defence counsel for the Supreme Court judge, Iftikhar Chaudry, who was suspended for criticizing Mr. Musharraf. Mr. Chaudry and several other judges remain under house arrest. Mr. Ahsan and other opposition members demand that the judges be re-instated. MEXICO A report shows that more than half of the estimated 11 million Mexicans living in the United States are there illegally. The report by the Mexican government indicates that two-thirds of Mexicans who migrate or try to migrate to the U.S. every year do so without documents. Attempts by U.S. President George W. Bush to change immigration laws failed earlier this year. Illegal immigration is a major issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign. BELGIUM The European Union is taking steps to end an unusual grain shortage. The EU will drop import duties on most cereals for the next several months. EU grain harvests have been poor for the past two years, turning the EU into a grain importer this year for the first time. IRELAND A judge in London has acquitted the only man ever accused in connection with Northern Ireland's worst terrorist attack, the car bombing at the city of Omagh on Aug. 15, 1998. Thirty-eight-year-old Sean Hoey faced more than 50 charges, including murder, causing an explosion and possession of explosive devices. Judge Reginald Weir said he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Hoey was the bombmaker. The perpetrators detonated a 227-kilogram bomb in a downtown street, killing 29 people, mostly women and children. The attack was claimed a dissident fraction of the Irish Republican Army, the Real IRA. ISRAEL The Israeli government is studying an offer of a truce by Hamas which was transmitted through Egypt. The militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza has offered to stop rocket attacks by militants if Israel ceases military activity in Gaza. The activity has been aimed at stopping the attacks. Hamas has given assurances that it can control the two groups firing the rockets into Israel, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. Several more rockets were fired on Thursday. For the first time, Hamas itself said it had fired three rockets, behaviour raising questions about the truce offer.
OTTAWA: CRTC APPROVES CANWEST TAKEOVER The telecom watchdog, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has given it stamp of approval to the bid by CanWest Global Communications to take over one of the country's biggest entertainment firms. CanWest will pay $2.3 billion to acquire Alliance Atlantis Communications. The CRTC's ruling says that the transaction meets federal broadcast rules. The proposed deal was controversial because 64 per cent of the funding is coming from New York-based Goldman Sachs, one of the world's biggest investment banks. Unions and special interest groups had pressed the CRTC to reject the deal on the grounds that Goldman Sachs would end up running the new concern. CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said the decision had been difficult because of concerns about media concentration so that the Commission had to be sure there would be a general benefit. Ian Morrison of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting lobby disagreed, saying the foreign media ownership fees have been altered surreptitiously and accusing the Commission of lacking "backbone." Under the terms of the deal, Goldman Sachs will have one-third of the voting shares and 64 per cent of its equity. MONTREAL: BOMBARDIER WINS GERMAN CONTRACT Bombardier Transportation has announced it has won a contract worth US$130 million to supply 64 double-deck rail coaches to Deutsche Bahn for use in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The contract is the result of a transaction in 2003 for Bombardier to provide DB with as many as 598 of the vehicles. The state railway now has more than 1,600 Bombardier double-deck coaches in operation or on order. Production of the new vehicles will be carried out at Bombardier's plant in Gorlitz, Germany. TORONTO: COMMODITIES BOOMING The Bank of Nova Scotia says its commodity price index hit a record high in November and that the boom should continue through the first half of 2008. The index measures 32 of Canada's major exports. The index rose 4.5 in November compared with the previous month, three per cent more than above the previous high in May 2007. Oil and natural gas led the index, jumping 13.4 per cent. Scotiabank predicts a strong performance from western Canada's potash, as China renegotiates its price, which is now US$190 below the current world market price. The bank predicts an increase of as much as US$150 a tonne. WATERLOO: RIM AGAIN IN PATENT SUIT Research in Motion Ltd., the Canadian firm that makes the popular BlackBerry e-mail device has again been hit with a lawsuit for alleged patent violation. Maryland-based TeleCommunications Systems, Inc. claims that RIM products and services that enable a wireless user to access and manage multiple e-mail accounts are its intellectual property. The American firm says it brought the suit after business discussions with RIM failed to resolve the dispute. In March 2005, RIM settled a patent suit with NTP Inc., a Virginia company that also claim patent violation. The $450-million out-of-court settlement came after three years of court actions. RIM, meanwhile, announced third-quarter revenue of US$1.67 billion, twice the figure for the previous third quarter, and earning of US$370.5 million, also more than double the figure a year previous. RIM shares shot up by 11.5 per cent in after-hours trading on the U.S.-based Nasdaq and are worth twice as much as one year ago. ST. JOHN'S: GOVT. APPROVES FISHING TRANSACTION The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has given final approval to the sale of Fishery Products International Ltd., a transaction which it says will bring an era of stability to the province's fisheries. The sale of 20-year-old FPI required government approval by legislation. Under the agreement announced in October, FPI's marketing arm will be sold to High Liner for $158 million while its harvesting licences, ships, and processing plants will be sold to Ocean Choice for $143.5 million. Many of FPI's 2,000 workers are unemployed because of low fish prices, foreign competition, rising fuel prices and the high Canadian dollar. The government negotiated a series of agreements with High Liner and Ocean Choice which it hopes will protect the jobs. MARKETS TSX on Thursday: 13,407, up 17. Canadian dollar: US$100.01 cents US on Thursday, up 0.34 of a cent. Euro: C$1.4324, down 1.01 cents. Light sweet crude: US$91.06, down $0.18.
HOCKEY It was another easy victory for Canada's world junior hockey team. John Tavares scored twice to lead the Canadians 6-1 over Slovakia in an exhibition game.
Weather British Columbia on Friday: rain south, mix of sun, cloud north, high 4 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon, Nunavut: snow. Northwest Territories: snow. Alberta: sun south, snow north. Saskatchewan, Manitoba: snow. Edmonton -14, Regina -13, Winnipeg -4. Ontario: rain south, flurries north. Quebec: snow south, mix of sun, cloud north. Toronto 3, Ottawa -2, Montreal -4. New Brunswick: sun. Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island: mix of sun, cloud. Newfoundland and Labrador: snow. Fredericton -8, Halifax -2, Charlottetown -4, St. John's -3.
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