Back to newsletter list 27/04/2008 22:49:04 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Government forces striking Toronto transit workers to resume service. - Evacuation resumes in flood zone. - Security exercise closes Canada-USA tunnel.
TORONTO: GOVERNMENT FORCES STRIKING TRANSIT WORKERS TO RESUME SERVICE At a rare Sunday sitting, Ontario's legislature took just 30 minutes to order Toronto's nine thousand transit workers to end a surprise strike. The strike that began early Saturday stopped Canada's largest fleet of subways, streetcars and buses for almost two days. The bill was introduced personally by Premier Dalton McGuinty and was supported by all parties. The bill imposes fines on individuals and the Amalgamated Transit Union local if they don't ignore the back-to-work order. The transit system was operating again on Sunday evening. About 1.5 million people use the transit on weekdays. Transit workers called the strike after rejecting a tentative contract offer. TORONTO: EVACUATION RESUMES IN FLOOD ZONE The evacuation of First Nations communities threatened by flooding on the shore of James Bay resumed on Sunday. The air lift was halted the day before because of rain, fog and snow. Almost one hundred people were flown from Fort Albany to Moosonee, en route to Kapuskasing. The Albany River was threatening to flood the low-lying communities of Fort Albany and Kashechewan. In Kashechewan, two evacuation flights were completed on Sunday. More than a dozen aircraft were being pressed into service. Residents will be airlifted to several host communities across the north of the province as well to the Stratford area of southern Ontario. DETROIT: SECURITY EXERCISE CLOSES CANADA-USA TUNNEL A busy road tunnel linking the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario to the American city of Detroit, Michigan, was closed temporarily on Sunday as the two nations completed an emergency training exercise. The exercise was a combined effort by U.S. Customs, Canada Border Services, and police, fire and rescue agencies. Sunday was chosen as the date of the exercise because fewer vehicles use the tunnel. Auto traffic was diverted to the Ambassador Bridge, another road link between the neighbouring cities. WINDSOR: AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP LAUNCHES CANADIAN LAWSUIT The American environmental group, The Riverkeepers, has launched a Canadian lawsuit against Detroit Edison, a utility in the U.S. State of Michigan. The lawsuit charges the company with putting mercury into the Detroit River. A member of the environmental group, Robert Kennedy Jr. says that the chemical can affect children's brains. He also blames mercury discharges for high cancer rates in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. In 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency successfully sued the Canadian company Teck Cominico. The company's lead and zinc smelting plant was discharging pollutants into the Columbia River creating pollution in Washington State. CALGARY: MORATORIUM EXTENDED ON GRIZZLY BEAR HUNTING A moratorium on grizzly bear hunting in Alberta in the Spring will continue into 2009. There is growing evidence that the number of bears is significantly lower than earlier estimates. A five-year official count will be completed next year. Alberta halted the hunt for an initial three-year period in 2006 in order to determine how many of the bears prowled its forests. Before the survey, it was generally believed that Alberta had between 700 and 1,000 grizzlies.
AFGHANISTAN Three people were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday in an assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. One of the victims was a ten-year-old boy. Ten other people were wounded. Automatic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades were fired duing a ceremony marking the overthrow of the Soviet-backed government in 1992. Mr. Karzai, his cabinet and a number of foreign diplomats, including Canadian Ambassador Arif Lalani, managed to escape. Canada's minister of foreign affairs, Maxime Bernier, issued a statement condemning the attack, adding that it would not deter Canada in its support of the Afghan people. Canada has 2,500 soldiers serving as part of NATO's force in southern Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai later appeared on national television. He said that some suspects had been arrested. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. AUSTRIA A 73-year-old man was arrested in Austria on Sunday on accusations of locking up his daughter in his cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her. Elisabeth Fritzl accused her father, Josef, of massive crimes. Police will conduct DNA tests on the woman and six surviving children. Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42, said that her father put her to sleep with an anaesthetic in 1984 and handcuffed her in his cellar. She said that she spent years imprisoned in a dank underground chamber beneath the family home near the eastern town of Amstetten, where her father regularly abused her. Three boys and three girls survived. Investigators entered the cellar dungeon after the suspect disclosed the code. They found a small alleyway and uneven floor, showing that the windowless dungeon had been added. There were a number of rooms to sleep in, to cook, and there are also a toilet. SOUTH KOREA Pro- and anti-China demonstrators clashed in South Korea's capital, Seoul, on Sunday during the latest leg of the Olympic torch's journey to Beijing. Protesters were targeted by Chinese students who outnumbered their rivals along the 24-kilometre relay route. Some 8,000 police were deployed. They struggled to contain thousands of flag-waving China supporters who chanted slogans and threw rocks at demonstrators denouncing the torch relay. The protesters were angry over China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and its crackdown in Tibet last month. HAITI An official with the Inter-American Development Bank has been chosen to be Haiti's new prime minister. Ericq Pierre was selected by President Rene Preval. Mr. Pierre is a respected Haitian economist. He would replace Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was forced to resign on April 12 over high food and fuel prices sparked violent demonstrations that killed several people. KAZAKHSTAN The European Union on Sunday launched the second test satellite for its Galileo Project, a challenge to the U.S. Global Positioning System. The project has been plagued by delays and disputes over funding. The experimental satellite, Giove-B, was sent into orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket at the space base in Kazakhstan. It will test technologies such as a high-precision atomic clock and transmission of navigation signals. It's expected to go into operation in 2013. The first Galileo satellite was sent in 2005. Critics say the project is too expensive. GERMANY Opponents of a plan to close historic Tempelhof airport in Berlin failed on Sunday to get enough votes to stop the plan. The vote was held as a non-binding referendum. The airport was the centre of the Berlin Airlift following the Second World War. Built in 1923, the airport can accommodate 1.5 million passengers annually. But traffic has dropped to a tiny fraction of the those who used Berlin's three airports last year. The city government plans to close Tempelhof in October as part of a plan for a large central airport southeast of Berlin. ZIMBABWE The chairman of Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission, George Chiweshe, expects the recount of the presidential vote last month to be completed by Monday. A partial recount of the ballots in the March 29 parliamentary and presidential elections gave the opposition an historic victory over President Robert Mugabe's party. Representatives of President Mugabe and opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai will meet with electoral officials on Monday to discuss the vote. Opposition party lawyers also said that they were seeking a court order to speak to more than 200 activists who were detained by riot police in a raid on opposition party headquarters in Harare on Friday. SOMALIA Fighting between Islamist rebels and Somali troops killed 10 people in Mogadishu on Sunday. Six of the dead were military officers who were attacked at their base in the south of the city overnight. Insurgents took control of the provincial town of Jowhar. It was the second weekend of clashes in Mogadishu. In 2006, the Ethiopian-backed Somali government toppled Islamists in Mogadishu, sparking a bloody insurgency. UNITED STATES British and American scientists have a new experimental method that can dramatically improve the sight of some blind people. Some vision was restored in four of the six young people who were treated. Two of the volunteers were able to read a few lines of an eye chart within weeks although they were unable earlier to see anything more than arm movements. The research was undertaken at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and at Moorfield's Hospital in London. They tested gene replacement therapy in three patients with a form of a rare hereditary eye disease called Leber's congenital amaurosis. The disease appears early in infancy and causes severe vision loss, especially at night. There's no cure. About 2,000 Americans have the disease. The research was published online on Sunday by the New England Journal of Medicine. MOROCCO The owner of a mattress factory in Casablanca was taken into custody on Sunday after 55 people died in a fire at the factory on Saturday. Seventeen others were injured in the blaze. A city official said that there were no emergency exits in the building and some of the doors had been locked. Many of the victims were trapped in a spiral staircase while trying to get out of the burning building.
MOUNTAIN BIKE Canadian Marie-Helene Premont won the silver medal in a women's World Cup mountain bike race in Offenburg, Germany, on Sunday. World champion Irina Kalentieva of Russia won the race. China's Ren Chengyuan was third. France's Julien Absalon won the men's event. Seamus McGrath was the top Canadian in ninth spot. GYMNASTICS Canadian Kristina Vaculik won the gold medal on beam and her compatriot Nansy Damianova won a bronze on the floor exercise event at a World Cup gymnastics competition in Maribor, Slovenia, on Sunday. The two medals gave the Canadian team five medals on the weekend, its best-ever World Cup performance. HOCKEY The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers on Sunday, 2-0, to lead their Stanley Cup playoff series by two games to none. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2, on Saturday in the NHL's Eastern Conference semifinals. Philadelphia tied the series at a game apiece. Andrei Markov and Saku Koivu scored for the Canadiens. Detroit defeated Colorado 5-1, to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal. In international hockey, Canada's team beat Finland 3-2 in an exhibition game in Quebec City. BASKETBALL The Toronto Raptors lost to the Orlando Magic, 106-94, on Saturday. Chris Bosh had 39 points and 15 rebounds for Toronto in the best post-season performance of his career. But Toronto could be out of the playoffs if it loses its next game against Orlando. BASEBALL The Toronto Blue Jays beat Kansas City, 5-2, on Sunday, their first win in seven games. Scott Rolen homered and drove in two runs and Alex Rios collected four hits and scored three times. On Saturday, Toronto lost 2-1, at Kansas City. SOCCER The Toronto F-C beat Kansas City on Saturdya, 2-0, on two second-half goals by Amando Guevara. Toronto has won three in a row. The team is at .500 for the first time in franchise history. LACROSSE The Calgary Roughnecks clinched third place in the National Lacrosse League's West Division on Saturday as they closed out the regular season by beating the Edmonton Rush, 12-8.
Weather Here is Canada's weather on Monday. British Columbia will have rain. The high temperature in Vancouver will be 12 degrees Celsius. The Yukon: rain showers. Whitehorse, nine. Northwest Territories: overcast. Yellowknife, seven. Nunavut: snow. Iqaluit, one. Alberta: mainly sunny. Edmonton, 19. Saskatchewan: cloudy. Regina, 12. Manitoba: sunny. Winnipeg, nine. Ontario: rain. Toronto, seven. Ottawa, 13. Quebec: rain. Montreal, ten. New Brunswick: sunny. Fredericton, 17. Nova Scotia: sunny. Halifax, 16. Prince Edward Island: sunny. Charlottetown, ten. Newfoundland: light rain. St. John's, six.
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