Back to newsletter list 19/01/2008 22:29:30 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Foreign minister expresses regrets to USA and Israel. - After one year's wait, Iranian-Canadian is allowed to leave Iran. - Bloc Quebecois leader in election mode.
OTTAWA: FOREIGN MINISTER EXPRESSES REGRET TO USA AND ISRAEL Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister is expressing regret over the public disclosure of a ministerial manual that lists the United States and Israel as countries where there is a risk of prisoners being tortured. In a statement, Maxime Bernier said that the inclusion of two of Canada's closest allies on the list is a mistake, and the names of both the United States and Israel would be removed. He's also ordered that the manual be revised. Mr. Bernier's action came after American and Israeli diplomats expressed angry dismay. The manual was used in a training course for Canadian diplomats. The human rights group, Amnesty International, first disclosed it publicly. Other countries on the list are Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria. MONTREAL: AFTER ONE YEAR, CANADIAN-IRANIAN IS ALLOWED TO LEAVE IRAN An Iranian-Canadian documentary filmmaker was given permission on Friday to leave Iran after being prohibited for over a year. Mehrnoushe Solouki was detained by authorities in 2006, when she arrived in her home country to make a film about the Iran-Iraq war. Authorities suspected that she was planning a propaganda film. She was later released and allowed to move freely, but she was not allowed to leave Iran. No reason was reported for the authorities' change of heart. Miss Solouki indicated that she will stop in France on her way home to Montreal, where she is a student at the University of Quebec. MONTREAL: BLOC QUEBECOIS LEADER IN ELECTION MODE Gilles Duceppe, leader of the opposition Bloc Quebecois, spoke in election mode on Friday, saying that he expects a federal election to be held soon. Speaking to about 300 supporters in Montreal, he declined to predict when the minority Conservative Party government would announce an election date. He said that his party would release its demands for this year's federal budget next week, adding that he expected the Conservative Party to reject some of the requests. If the Conservative Party's budget fails to gain the support of the opposition parties, then federal elections would have to be held. The Bloc Quebecois promotes independence for the province of Quebec. The party runs candidates only in Quebec. OTTAWA: JUDGE ORDERS REPORTERS TO REVEAL SOURCES A federal court judge ordered two Montreal newspaper reporters on Friday to reveal who leaked a confidential document of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that accused Adil Charkaoui of being an al-Qaida member. Mr. Charkaoui, who was born in Morocco, is out on bail under a federal security certificate. He is seeking a stay in proceedings against him, claiming that the leak infringes on his right to a fair trial. In his ruling, Judge Simon Noel said that the interests and administration of justice and Mr. Charkaoui's fundamental rights should override a journalist's privilege to protect sources. The Montreal newspaper, La Presse, cited a CSIS document in which Mr. Charkaoui discussed an apparent terrorist plot in June, 2000. OTTAWA: MANUFACTURING SALES RISE Statistics Canada says that Canadian manufacturing sales rose 1.1 per cent in November to CDN$50.6 billion. The agency says that almost all of the increase came from surging sales of petroleum and coal products, which benefited from sharply rising prices. Eleven out of 21 industries, representing two-thirds of total manufacturing, increased sales in November.
KENYA The opposition party in Kenya warned on Saturday that it would resume public protests next week. Protests against the presidential election last month have led to violence that has killed several hundred people. Five more people were reported killed on Saturday in the Rift Valley, about 180 kilometres northwest of Nairobi. The victims were refugees who were attacked by an armed band. The camp is in a region where people largely support President Mwai Kibaki. At least 28 people died in violence in the preceding four days. The chairman of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Henry Kosgey, said that peaceful protests would resume on Thursday, adding that his party would use all available means to bring down the regime of President Kibaki. PAKISTAN Security officials in Pakistan say they arrested a teenager allegedly involved in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last month. An intelligence official says that the 15-year-old suspect told investigators he had been part of a five-man squad deployed that day in the city of Rawalpindi, where Ms. Bhutto was killed. The suspect allegedly told investigators that the team of assassins had been dispatched by a militant leader with strong ties to al-Qaida and an alliance with the Taliban. CHINA Britain's prime minister predicts that Britain and China are entering a new era in cooperation on the environment. Gordon Brown spoke in Shanghai on Saturday at the end of a two-day visit to China. He arrived in China hoping to persuade the country to support a global deal on greenhouse gas reduction that will replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. During his visit, he inspected projects that aim to reduce China's greenhouse gas emissions. One project is Dongtan, an eco-community that is being built on an island off Shanghai that will provide a non-polluting environment for ten thousand people. The project is a joint Sino-British venture by the same firms that constructed the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. Mr. Brown toured the stadium during his time in Beijing. INDONESIA Indonesia's former strongman leader, Suharto, was reported on Saturday to be in better health, about two weeks after doctors in a hospital in Jakarta described him as near death. Suharto is 86. He suffered multiple organ failure earlier this month. He remains on a ventilator. But doctors said that his health had improved enough that he might eventually be sent home. About 100 demonstrators protested in front of the hospital on Saturday to call for Suharto to be brought to justice for corruption and embezzlement during his 32 years in power. ANGOLA A twin-engined passenger p*** carrying 11 people crashed in the mountains of Angola on Saturday, killing all on board. The crash occurred near the country's second-largest city, Huambo. The cause of the crash is not known. SPAIN Spanish police have smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting 14 people and recovering bomb-making equipment in overnight raids in Barcelona. Those arrested included 12 Pakistanis and two Indians. Four timing devices as well as computer equipment were also recovered. GAZA CITY A pre-dawn Israeli air strike north of Gaza City killed at least two Hamas militants on Saturday. Another four people were wounded. Israeli aircraft carried out two strikes against rocket launchers. Eyewitnesses also reported an Israeli incursion of a dozen tanks in the east of the Hamas-ruled territory, where hostilities between Israel and the Islamist group have sharply escalated. INDIA Health officials in western India have confirmed new outbreaks of bird flu. Nearly three thousand chickens were found dead of the disease this week in an area that was previously unaffected. Tests are underway to determine whether the strain is the virulent H5N1. Officials have ordered four hundred thousand chickens culled, with the possibility that another two hundred thousand could be killed later. The affected area borders Bangladesh, where local officials confirmed a small outbreak of the H5N1 strain. In eastern Nepal, health officials have banned imports of chicken and eggs from India and Bangladesh as a precaution against the spread of bird flu.
MONTREAL: QUEBECOR SEEKING SOLUTION TO BANKRUPTCY The giant Canadian commercial printing company, Quebecor World, is expected on Sunday to announce how it might avoid creditor protection from bankruptcy. The company has had financial problems since acquiring the U.S. giant printer, World Color Press in 1999. Shares of Quebecor World fell to an historic low of 18 cents this week before rallying slightly. The company's parent. Quebecor, is proposing a bailout agreement of $400 million but only if certain conditions are met. Negotiations with the printer's lending banks have been reported to be intense.
FIGURE SKATING Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay won the pairs event at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver on Saturday. Defending champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison finished second, just fifteen-hundredths of a point behind the winners. Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin were third. DIVING Canadian Blythe Hartley won a silver medal in the women's three-metre springboard event at the first event of the FINA grand prix season in Madrid. Her compatriot Jennifer Abel won the bronze. Zi He of China won the gold. SPEED SKATING Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon set a track record of 34.81 seconds in winning the first of two men's 500-metre race at the world sprint speed skating championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, on Saturday. Defending champion Lee Kyou-hyuk of South Korea was second and his compatriot Lee Kang-seok was third. The second race goes on Sunday to decide the champion. SKIING Canadian Emily Brydon won the bronze medal in the women's downhill at a World Cup meet on Saturday at Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy. American Lindsey Vonn won the gold and Sweden's Anja Paerson won the silver. Canadian Kelly VanderBeek was fourth and her compatriot Britt Janyk was sixth. BOBSLED Canadians Helen Upperton and Jennifer Ciochetti won the women's doubles event at a World Cup bobsled meet in Cesana Pariol, Italy, on Saturday. SWIMMING Canadians won 19 medals on Saturday at the Geneva International age group swimming competition. Among the medalists was Lindsay Seeman, who won the women's 400-metre race in the 15-16 age group, her third gold medal of the competition. BASKETBALL The Toronto Raptors beat the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, 89-78. Toronto's Chris Bosh had 35 points and nine rebounds. HOCKEY The Calgary Flames beat Los Angeles, 6-1, on Friday. Calgary moved into first place in their division. The Edmonton Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 7-2, to end a four-game losing streak.
Weather Here is Canada's weather on Sunday. British Columbia will be sunny. The high temperature in Vancouver will be one degree Celsius. The Yukon: sunny. Whitehorse, minus 10. Northwest Territories: increasing cloudiness. Yellowknife, minus 20. Nunavut: light snow. Iqaluit, minus 24. Alberta: mainly cloudy. Edmonton, minus 11. Saskatchewan: sunny. Regina, minus 25. Manitoba: sunny. Winnipeg, minus 25. Ontario: snow flurries. Toronto, minus six. Ottawa, variable cloudiness. Quebec: clearing skies. Montreal, minus 13. New Brunswick: variable cloudiness. Fredericton, minus six. Nova Scotia: snow flurries. Halifax, minus two. Prince Edward Island: snow flurries. Charlottetown, minus four. Newfoundland: heavy snow. St. John's, minus three.
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