Back to newsletter list 25/06/2008 23:16:59 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Canadian at NATO chafes at bureaucracy - Terrorist suspect reported as courier - Canadian cabinet gets shuffle
BRUSSELS: OUTGOING NATO CHIEF DEPLORES BUREAUCRACY The outgoing chairman of NATO military committee, Gen. Ray Hénault of Canada, says the alliance needs to streamline its sluggish bureaucracy to speed its political and military decision-making process. Gen. Hénault says that although progress has been made, that process is still too slow both at NATO headquarters and in the capitals of the 26 member states. The chairman says NATO hasn't entirely shed the mindcast of the Cold War when it was a "static, defence-based organization facing a Soviet threat..." Gen. Hénault says that in the fast-moving conflict in Afghanistan, decisions need to be taken rapidly in such matters as re-equipment or responsibility for airfields. The general served for four years as Canada's chief of staff before assuming his NATO position in 2005. He'll be replaced on Friday by Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola of Italy. OTTAWA: KHAWAJA SAID TO BE TERRORIST COURIER The prosecution chief witness against terrorist suspect Momin Khawaja testified on Wednesday that he turned over 1,000 British pounds and an unknown amount of Canadian money to a go-between who was in turn to deliver them to an al-Qaeda lieutenant in northern Pakistan. Mohammed Babar said that the money and medical supplies had come from one of the five British Muslims convicted last year of a bombing conspiracy in Britain. Mr. Khawaja faces seven charges in connection with the same plot. Mr. Babar is a former al-Qaeda agent turned police informer. He told Ontario Superior Court as well that that the defendant discussed with a second of the two convicted Britons the possibility of delivering explosives by a remote-controlled model p***, and of dispatching a British acquaintance on a suicide mission to Israel. OTTAWA: PM SHUFFLES CABINET Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made several changes to his cabinet. Interim Foreign Minister David Emerson will assume the post on a permanent basis. He replaces Maxime Bernier, who was forced to resign last month because of a personal indiscretion. The prime minister also moved a junior minister, Christian Paradis, into the major portfolio of the public works department. Sen. Michael Fortier has been moved from the latter department to replace Mr. Emerson as minister of international trade. ST-GEORGES: DISGRACED MINISTER PROVIDES HIS VERSION Mr. Bernier, meanwhile, has made his first public appearance in his electoral district since he resigned and offered his supporters a version of events different from that provided by his former lady friend, Julie Couillard. The latter said in a television interview on May 26 that she had informed Mr. Bernier that she had had three relationships with men connected to the Hells Angels biker gang. The former minister denies this, saying he only heard rumours about Miss Couillard's past on April 20 when they were no longer together. He also said he had decided to resign after learning on May 25 that he had left classified notes on prepared for a NATO summit in Romania in early April. TOKYO: NORTH KOREA TOPS G8 AGENDA Mr. Emerson will represent his country at the meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Tokyo later this week. His Japanese counterpart Masahiko Kornura said on Wednesday that Japan wants the G8 group to "intensify their efforts in nonproliferation." A Japanese foreign ministry official described the North Korea issue as "first and foremost." North Korea could present a report on its nuclear programs as early as Thursday and has invited foreign television stations to broadcast its destruction of a cooling tower at the Yongbong nuclear complex. Other subjects which the Japanese have put on the agenda are efforts to stop Iran from enriching uranium, the efforts to secure Afghanistan's borders and the condemnation of Zimbabwe's presidential election on Friday. FREDERICTON: ACADIAN CONGRESS GETS MORE FINANCIAL SUPPORT The government of New Brunswick has announced it will increase its funding for the World Acadian Congress by $800,000 to $2 million. The Congress will attract participants from around the world and take place in the eastern Canadian province. TORONTO: C-SECTIONS POPULAR Caesarean births are at an all-time high in Canada. According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, more than one in four newborns are now delivered by C-section, an eight percent increase from fifteen years ago.The society says Caesarean births put more women at risk for complications and increase strain on the health-care system. Usually Caesarean births involve longer hospital stays, more pain and longer recovery time compared to natural delivery. The doctor's group says a growing proportion of obese women across the country is one of the reasons behind the record-high number of C-sections OTTAWA: VISIBLE MINORITIES FEEL PRESSURE TO BLEND IN A new study indicates that many business managers who belong to visible minorities feel the need to shed their culture and even their accent to be successful. The study by the Catalyst firm, an international organization that advocates the advancement of women in business, focused on East Asian, South Asian and black managers. Many said they felt pressure to "Canadianize" by lessening attachment to their cultural origins, as well as by picking up mannerisms and speaking English or French without an accent. All three groups reported meeting ethnic or racial stereotyping in their workplaces. The study was sponsored by the Royal Bank, Deloitte and Touch and IBM Canada. MADRID: AUTHOR ATWOOD WINS SPANISH HONOUR Canadian author Margaret Atwood has won a prestigious international award, the Prince of Asturias Prize for Letters. The award celebrates excellence in literature, and in honouring Atwood, the jury noted that her work consistently "defends the dignity of women and denounces social injustice." Previous winners of the Asturias Prize are Arthur Miller and Doris Lessing. TORONTO: OPERA COMPANY HAS NEW DIRECTOR The Canadian Opera Company has named Alexander Neef its new general director, almost a year after the sudden death of former head Richard Bradshaw. The German-born Mr. Neef, currently director of casting at the Opéra Nationale de Paris, takes the helm at the COC on Oct. 1. The Canadian Opera Company has been at its new home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, for two years.
ZIMBABWE Zimbabwe's neighbours have called on the government of President Robert Mugabe to postpone Friday's scheduled presidential runoff vote. Representatives of Tanzania, Swaziland and Angola made the recommendation on behalf of the South Africa Development Community, which said it had been briefed by South African President Thabo Mbeki. The three neighbours have urged talks between Mr. Mugabe's government and the opposition before setting a new date for the vote. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirei last week pulled out of the vote in protest against violence by Mugabe supporters aimed at intimidating backers of his Movement for Democratic. Mr. Tsvangirei emerged briefly from his refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare to recommend that the African Union and the SADC lead an initiative to produce a "transitional period," saying as well that neither Zimbabweans nor the world would accept the result of Friday's vote. After the press conference at his residence, he returned to the Dutch embassy. ITALY The authorities report that more than 300 boat people were picked up off the costs of Sicily and the island of Lampedusa on Wednesday. More than 250 illegal migrants are reported picked up trying to reach Lampedusa in rubber boats. Another 53 were discovered in waters near Sicily. More than 900 migrants have been detected this week alone. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will visit Libya on Friday to urge the implementation of an accord to stop the migrants from reaching Italy, an agreement that was negotiated in December 2007 but never put into force. UNITED STATES Three men have been accused in a court in New York City of plotting to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport. A Trinidadian and two Guyanese were held without bail after the arraignment. The three had been extradited from Trinidad overnight. A fourth suspect, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Guyana, was arrested in New York and is in jail awaiting trial. The prosecution describes the suspects as Islamic extremists who were planning to destroy buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at JFK. If found guilty, they face life in prison. ISRAEL The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad says it will respect a truce with Israel in Gaza. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad made the pledge after negotiations with Hamas, which controls the territory. But the spokesman said that if Israel violates the truce, the group will consult with other militant factions to determine retaliation. The ceasefire came into effect on June 19 after months of mediation by Egypt. On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for having fired three rockets into Israel after one of its militants was killed in a gunbattle in Nablus in the West Bank. The truce doesn't include the latter territory.
TORONTO: MEXICO TO PASS CANADA IN VEHICLE PRODUCTION The Globe and Mail reports that Mexico will surpass Canada this year as North America's second-biggest producer of vehicles. The newspaper's source is Denis DesRosiers, the president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. Mr. DesRosiers predicts that Mexico will produce 2.26 million vehicles this year, while production in Canada will plummet by 19 per cent to 2.09 million, the lowest level since 1992. Production by the three big U.S. automakers will drop even more precipitously. The consultant says Mexico's chief advantage is low labour costs. Mexican labour unions recently agreed to a two-tier wage system by which new workers earn only one-half of the $4.50 average that had been in effect. Mr. DesRosiers also cites the fact that Mexico is the only one of the three North American countries where subcompact cars are manufactured, again because of lower labour costs. EDMONTON: ALBERTA WARNS OF U.S. BACKLASH IF OILSANDS EXCLUDED Energy Minister Mel Knight predicts that American politicians will be made to suffer by consumers if they try to exclude "dirty" sources of foreign oil, including Alberta's oilsands on the grounds that production of such oil harms the environment. Consideration is being given in the U.S. to more expensive energy sources such as offshore oil or alternative fuels. Mr. Knight was reacting to reports that Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama has been weighing the possibility of curbing imports of "dirty" oil from various sources, including Alberta. Earlier in the week, U.S. mayors passed a resolution calling on cities not to use fuel produced from the oilsands for municipal vehicles. MONTREAL: BOMBARDIER UNFAZED BY CHINESE COMPETITION Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Inc. says it's undisturbed by Wednesday's announcement by China Aviation Industry Corp. that it will launch a new model of turboprop aircraft that will be in competition with Bombardier models. The fuel-efficient MA600 will be presented on Sunday, with trials beginning in September and first delivery next year. The company says turboprops have great potential in a age of high fuel costs. The Chinese enterprise says the aircraft is designed to meet demand for the next 10 years. Bombardier says it's in excellent position to compete in China itself, being the only aircraft manufacturer that makes three different families of p***: turboprops for short hauls, regional jets for mid-range flights and the proposed CSeries for longer-range ones. TORONTO: RIM PROFIT UP Research in Motion Inc. has reported a quarterly profit of US$482.5 million, or 84 cents a share. That compares with a profit of $223.2 million a year earlier, or 39 cents. However, RIM shares dropped 10 per cent in after hours trading as the company didn't meet market expectations. RIM shares closed the trading day at $143.85 million in Toronto. The company also announced that won 2.3 million new BlackBerry customers during the quarter, bringing the total to more than 16 million. OTTAWA: FIRMS MUST PROVE 'GREEN' AUTHENTICITY Canadian companies that claim their products are environmentally friendly will now have to prove it. The federal Competition Bureau has released new guidelines for labelling such products. Commissioner Sheridan Scott says the guide will help businesses be more accurate in their advertisements to consumers. Canadian companies will be given a one-year transition period to change any faulty advertising and labelling. The Bureau says failure to comply with the new regulations could result in criminal or civil charges, as well as product seizure. CHICAGO: FALLEN PRESS BARON LOSES APPEAL Former media mogul Conrad Black has lost his appeal of his conviction for fraud. U.S. Court of Appeal has reaffirmed a lower court decision saying that the arguments brought forward by lawyers defending him and three co-defendants were insufficient to overturn the convictions. Black is serving a six-and-a-half-year term after being found guilty last year of three counts of fraud and one of obstruction of justice. The court found the four guilty of having swindled shareholders of the Hollinger International newspaper chain of millions of dollars. MARKETS TSX on Wednesday: 14,441, up 32. Canadian dollar: US98.94 cents, up 0.08 of a cent. Euro: C$1.5845, up 0.96 of a cent. Light, sweet crude: US$134.55, down $2.45.
TENNIS Canadian Frank Dancevic is out at Wimbledon. The Niagara Falls, ON, native lost in four sets to Bobby Reynolds in the second round. FOOTBALL The Canadian Football League season is set to begin Thursday night with two games. For the first time since 1977, the regular season will kick off in Hamilton, ON, where the Tigercats face Montreal. In the evening game, the B.C. Lions are in Calgary to face the Stampeders.
Weather British Columbia on Thursday: rain, high 20 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut: sun. Whitehorse 18, Yellowknife 14, Iqaluit 8. Prairies: rain. Edmonton 18, Regina 24, Winnipeg 26. Ontario, Quebec: rain. Toronto 28, Ottawa 27, Montreal 26. Atlantic Canada: rain. Fredericton 27, Halifax 26, Charlottetown 24, St. John's 19.
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