Back to newsletter list 12/03/2008 23:19:45 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Crucial Afghanistan vote looms in Canada's Commons - Afghan captives don't have Canadian rights - Genocide negationists to gather
OTTAWA: AFGHANISTAN CONFIDENCE VOTE SET IN COMMONS The House of Commons votes on Thursday on a confidence motion in a vote that would provoke a national election if the Conservative Party minority government loses it. The text of the motion would extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan beyond February 2009 to 2011. The extension would be conditional on Canada's receiving 1,000 NATO reinforcements in Kandahar, unmanned surveillance aircraft and battle helicopters. Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said on Wednesday that Canada is interested in having only one partner in the southern province. The U.S. and France are the only NATO partners in a position to provide 1,000 troops. There has been speculation that French President Nicolas Sarkozy might decide to send more troops to eastern Afghanistan, freeing up American troops for redeployment to Kandahar. Mr. Sarkozy is expected to state his position at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, in early April. OTTAWA: AFGHAN PRISONERS DON'T HAVE CHARTER RIGHTS Federal Court of Canada has ruled that prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers are not protected by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court has found that the prisoners do have rights under their own country's constitution and international law but not Canada's. Federal Court thus rejected a request by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association for an injunction to prevent Canadian troops from handing over to the Afghan authorities because of a lack of proof that they wouldn't be tortured. There have been dozens of allegations of torture since 2006 when a Canadian battle group arrived in Kandahar which the Conservative government insisted were unproven or lies by the Taliban insurgents. However, Canadian diplomats did discover one undisputed case. In related news, the chairman of the military police complaints commission has ordered public hearings on the matter. Peter Tinsley says he based his decision on the government's refusal to provide relevant documents. MONTREAL: DENIERS OF RWANDA GENOCIDE HOLD CONFERENCE Writers accused of denying the genocide perpetrated in Rwanda almost 14 years ago are going to hold a conference in the city on March 29, just before the horrific event's 14th anniversary of its onset. Ethnic Hutu militias murdered at least 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The event called "The Media and Rwanda: The Difficult Search for the Truth" will feature four authors on the subject including Robin Philpot, who has written several books on the subject. He claims in one of them that massacres were committed by all sides. Canadian human rights expert with the Irish Centre for Human Rights points out that the International Criminal Tribunal Rwanda has invited the deniers to appear before it but they haven't dared. VANCOUVER: PERSONAL CONVERSATION FACTOR IN FERRY DISASTER The Transportation Safety Board has concluded that a personal conversation between two ferry boat employees was likely a major factor in the Queen of the North disaster on March 22, 2006. The Board report on the disaster concludes that the two chatting employees missed a course change. The ferry sank after hitting an island, forcing 99 passengers and crews into lifeboats. Two passengers presumably went down with the ship. The Board also concluded that if the ferry had had a data recorder, investigators wouldn't have been forced to speculate about what happened during the 14 minutes that the ferry was off course. MONTREAL: INUIT PROTEST AGAINST WHALE QUOTAS Inuit beluga whale hunters are complaining that continuing reductions of beluga whale quotas in northern Quebec are creating hunger and threatening their way of life. Paulusi Novalinga of the regional hunters' association points out that the Hudson Strait in the north of Quebec is teeming with beluga in winter, that its meat is a key source of food and that the hunters never kill more of the animals than are consumed. However, the fisheries and oceans department responds that two stock of beluga should be added to the endangered list and that the hunters caught 165 whales in 2007, 45 more than their quota.
UNITED STATES Gasoline and oil rose to further record highs on Wednesday. Gas rose overnight to US$3.25 a gallon, while a barrel of oil shot upwards to surpass US$110 for the first time, after rising to a new trading record of US$110.20. The continually weakening U.S. dollar caused investors to ignore a U.S. energy department report that crude oil and gasoline supplies jumped last week. BELGIUM NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will visit Kosovo on Friday. He'll meet President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and will also visit northern Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs, most of whom reject its independence, predominate. NATO-led peacekeepers began two days of maneuvres there on Tuesday. The UN had controlled Kosovo since 1999 and 17,000 troops remain in Kosovo under the world body's aegis. IRAQ Iraqi police raided strongholds of the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday in the southern city of Kut after militia members broke a ceasefire on Tuesday. The police say at least 11 people were killed in clashes during which U.S. special forces called in air strikes after the police requested help. Also on Wednesday three U.S. soldiers were killed in a mortar attack near Nassirya southwest of Baghdad. MEXICO Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino has announced another arrest of a leader of a drug cartel. Gustavo Rivera Martinez is described as a high-level drug suspect working for the Tijuana cartel. Martinez, a U.S. citizen, will be deported to the U.S. on drug charges. The capture followed half-a-dozen arrests in the car against the cartels declared by President Felipe Calderon. SENEGAL There's a prediction that global warming will increase the migration from poor nations to wealthy ones. The director general of the International Organization of Migration, Brunson McKinley, says that growing numbers of poor Africans are dying while trying to reach Europe by boat, while Asians pay people smugglers to escape poverty. Mr. McKinley says that although rich nations need foreign workers for economic reasons, there must be proper mechanisms for their arrival. He'll appeal this weekend to the Organization of the Islamic Conference for greater help in managing international migration. Eleven of the world's 15 poorest countries are among its members. UNITED STATES Microsoft founder Bill Gates has pleaded before the U.S. Congress for an immigration policy more favourable to qualified newcomers to ensure U.S. competitivity. He told the Congress's commission for science and technology that the U.S. role as a leader for innovation is threatened because not enough students are earning scientific diplomas and the numbers of visas for highly qualified immigrants are too restricted. Mr. Gates also proposes that the period during which foreign students who have earning diplomats be extended. UNITED STATES New York's Democratic Party Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned on Wednesday, two days after the revelation that he was involved with a prostitution ring. The former governor acknowledged that he had failed to live up to his responsibilities as a public official. His Republican party adversaries in the state assembly had threatened to impeach him if Mr. Spitzer didn't quit with 48 hours. He had made a reputation as a prosecutor of organized and white-collar criminals. Mr. Spitzer will be replaced on Monday by Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, New York's first black and blind governor. CHINA U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended the state department's decision announced on Tuesday to remove China from the annual list of the world's worst human rights offenders. The list mentions China instead as an authoritarian nation that "has not undertaken democratic political reform." Miss Rice attributed the change on the fact that the two countries have decided to renew their dialogue on rights issue that "had been in limbo for some time."
MONTREAL: YEMEN BUYS BOMBARDIER P***S Bombardier Aerospace says it has received an order for eight of the company's CRJ700 airliners from Felix Airways of Yemen, an order worth US$276 million. The Yemeni airline has an option to buy three more which if exercises would bring the total value of the order to US$385 million. MONTREAL: CONVENIENCE CHAIN IMPROVES RESULTS North American convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. says its third-quarter profit rose by almost US$7 million from a year earlier to US$50.5 million. The chain attributes much of the improved result to the sharp rise in the price of gasoline. Couche-Tard operates 5,690 convenience stores in Canada and the U.S., 3,440 of which dispense gasoline. MONTREAL: TOUR OPERATORS' PROFITS DOWN Transat A.T. says that despite the great numbers of Canadians who sought to escape the rigors of winter competition reduced profits. Transat says the number of vacationers who visited the Caribbean increased by 10 per cent, but the increase was offset by an eight-per cent fall in prices caused by competition. The company acknowledged that it was itself partly responsible for the result because it led price cuts in Ontario, the country's biggest market. Transat's CEO Jean-Marc Eustache says consumers are the ones to benefit. The tour operator says it lost $10.1 million in the first quarter due to intense competition and a $14.2-million writedown for asset-backed commercial paper. WINNIPEG: WESTERN FARM PRODUCTS BOOMING Viterra, the renamed Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, has announced it has increased its profits for the first quarter ending of Jan. 31 fivefold to $41.2 million. Viterra achieved the result partly from last year's acquisition of its rival Agricore United but also because of a booming world demand for wheat, rye, corn, soybeans and other grains. Viterra CEO Mayo Schmidt says the company expects to continue to expand, citing the 137 ethanol plants now in operation in the U.S. MARKETS TSX on Wednesday: 13,297, down 47. Canadian dollar: US$100.99 cents, up 0.32 cent. Euro: C$1.5408, up 1.95 cents. Light sweet crude: US$109.92, up $1.17.
BASEBALL Canada moved another step closer to clinching a spot at the Beijing Games with an 11-0 win over Spain at the Olympic qualifying tournament Wednesday. Toronto Blue Jays farmhand Aaron Wideman of Mississauga, ON., threw four shutout innings while Cleveland Indians prospect Nick Weglarz of Stevensville, ON., homered and knocked in a pair of runs to lead the way. Canada is tied for second with Taiwan at 4-1 heading into Thursday's matchup with unbeaten South Korea (5-0).
Weather British Columbia on Thursday: rain south, mix of sun, cloud north, high 10 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon: sun. Northwest Territories: snow. Nunavut: mix of sun, cloud. Whitehorse -3, Yellowknife -14, Iqaluit -23. Alberta: sun north, cloud south. Saskatchewan, Manitoba: snow. Edmonton 3, Regina -3, Winnipeg 0. Ontario: rain. Quebec: snow. Toronto 5, Ottawa, Montreal -6. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia: sun. Prince Edward Island: snow. Newfoundland and Labrador: rain. Fredericton -5, Halifax -4, Charlottetown -10, St. John's 1.
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