Banned Tamil group raised millions
Georgia conflict could impact Canadian business
HAMILTON: PM IN REFLECTION ABOUT ELECTION
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll spend the next several weeks reflecting whether his minority Conservative Party government will be able to govern effectively when the fall session of Parliament starts, or whether it would be better to call an election. Mr. Harper blames Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion for the deadlock in the House of Commons. The prime minister says Mr. Dion is irresponsible to insist on the one hand that the minority government must fall, while at the same time refusing to overthrow it for fear of unfavourable consequences in a national election. Mr. Harper says he'll evaluate the situation in coming weeks to ensure that "one way or the other" there will be a productive Parliament in the autumn.
TORONTO: TAMIL GROUP REPORTED RAISING MILLIONS FOR TERROR
Canada's federal police force has issued a report to the effect that a banned terrorist group has raised more than $3 million for groups including the also forbidden Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The report prepared over the past two years by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the first public look into the finances of the Toronto-based World Tamil Movement. According to the RCMP, most of the money was raised in the Toronto area. The government banned the WTM last month. It denies any involvement in terrorist funding. The report says that persons holding accounts in five of Canada's biggest banks used them to send money to other accounts in Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and areas of Sri Lanka controlled by the Tamil Tigers. The RCMP says the most common method of transfer was the use of a pre-authorized monthly payment which was used by hundreds of WTM supporters.
OTTAWA: TERROR SUSPECT SAID INTENDING JIHAD ONLY IN AFGHANISTAN
The lawyer defending an Ottawa-area software specialist has acknowledged that Momin Khawaja wanted to defend the Islamist cause in Afghanistan, received training to become a "jihadi" fighter and devised a bomb detonator. But the lawyer says Mr. Khawaja wanted to intervene in Afghanistan not in Britain as he's charged. Mr. Khawaja is accused of being an accomplice of five British Muslims who were found guilty last year of planning a series of attacks in London and jailed for life. The lawyer told Ontario Superior Court that while his client had frequent contacts with the five, they never told him of their conspiracy to carry out the plots using fertilizer bombs. Mr. Khawaja faces seven charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including financing and facilitating terrorism. A prosecution witness has told the court that he was a courier to deliver money and supplies and attended a training camp in Pakistan in 2003.
OTTAWA: FEWER AMERICANS VISITING
Canada is attracting fewer visitors from the United States this year but higher gasoline prices are not the only reason. The president of the Hotel Association of Canada says Canada's rising dollar is largely to blame for the downturn. Anthony Pollard said that for the past decade Americans became accustomed to the Canadian dollar at 75 to 80 cents to its U.S. counterpart. He also points out that the prospect of long border delays and confusion over whether a passport is needed to get into Canada have also dissuaded Americans
from heading north.
MONTREAL: NUCLEAR REACTOR GETS NEW LEASE ON LIFE
The Quebec government has announced that it will upgrade the province's only nuclear reactor. The Gentilly-2 plant located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River halfway between Montreal and Quebec City produces only about three per cent of the province's energy output, most of the rest being generated by hydro-electric power. The government says it will spend $1.9 billion to prolong its operation until 2040. Public hearings held in 2004 and 2005 on the plant's future led to a recommendation that the government settle on a long-term plan for dealing with radioactive waste before extending its lifespan.
CHARLOTTETOWN: P.E.I. WANTS REGIONAL IMMIGRATION STRATEGY
The premier of Canada's smallest province, Prince Edward Island, says that a regional strategy concerning immigration for all four Atlantic provinces could help secure their economic survival. Joe Ghiz says the provinces all have a declining or stagnant birthrate and that to attract and to retain newcomers must be a priority. Mr. Ghiz says that by 2011 there will be more people leaving than entering the workforce and that the time to start preparing for that eventuality is the present. The premier also notes that P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador also are struggling with the lure of higher-paying jobs in Western Canada. Mr. Ghiz says he has instructed his minister responsible for innovation and advanced learning to contact his regional counterparts to seek a regional approach to the question.
GEORGIA
The Russian government says that its troops will leave central Georgia by the end of the week. President Dmitri Medvedev said that by Aug. 22 Russian forces will withdraw to the positions set out in a ceasefire agreement mediated by France. A small Russian column left the central city of Gori on Tuesday. At the same time, Russian troops blocked access to the naval and commercial ports of the Black Sea city of Poti. Georgia's interior ministry reports that the soldiers blew up a missile boat and confiscated four American Humvee vehicles which were due to be shipped back to the U.S. In Brussels, NATO foreign ministers decided to suspend formal contacts with Russia. But the western alliance refrained from imposing more several retaliatory measures proposed by the U.S. because of the reliance of some of the alliance members on Russian energy supplies.
AFGHANISTAN
The Canadian prime minister, Mr. Harper, has expressed his condolences to France after the deaths of 10 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan. The prime minister says Canadians have understood over the past several years how difficult NATO's mission in Afghanistan is and believe that it's vital to ensure that there's a stable Afghanistan that isn't a threat either to its own people or to others. Insurgents ambushed a group of French paratroopers in a mountain pass while they were on a reconnaissance mission. Twenty-one soldiers were injured in the fighting 50 kilometres east of Kabul. NATO says a large number of rebels also were killed. French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France has been "struck severely." His government plans to go ahead with its plan to increase the French contingent in Afghanistan by 700 to 2,600.
ALGERIA
The government says that a suicide bomber killed 43 people and injured 45 others in an attack directed against a police training school at Issers, 55 kilometres east of Algiers. Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that the bomber drove a car into a group of prospective police recruits. All but one of the killed were civilians. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The local al-Qaeda organization has said it carried out several recent assaults, including a co-ordinated attack agianst UN offices and a court building in Algiers in which 41 people were killed.
SPAIN
More than 200 illegal African migrants have arrived in several boats on the coast of the southern province of Andalusia in one day after having been spotted by rescue services. Fifty migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were found on a small fishing vessel and escorted to land by a civil guard boat. Meanwhile, a public opinion survey carried out by El Mundo newspaper shows that 68 per cent of Spaniards think there are too many immigrants in their country. Five million of Spain's 46 million residents are foreigners.
ZAMBIA
The president of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa, has died at the age of 59 in a hospital in France after suffering a stroke. His vice-president, Rupiah Banda, who is expected to replace him on an interim basis, has declared a seven-day period of mourning. The late president's admirers said he had made a success story of Africa's biggest copper producer, but opponents said he failed to help most of his compatriots escape poverty.
MEXICO
NGOs report that at least 24 journalists and news media employees have been murdered over the past eight years. Groups including Reporters Without Borders and the Foundation for Press Freedom emphasize in a report that most of the cases remained unpunished and that a culture of impunity has led to an increase in numbers of such killings. The report says that the main obstacles to the free exercise of journalism in Mexico are organized crime, which generates an atmosphere of fear, corruption and impunity and direct attacks by the police and armed forces.
HAMILTON: GEORGIA EVENTS COULD HAVE BUSINESS REPERCUSSIONS
The Prime Minister, Mr. Harper, says the conflict between Russia and Georgia could compromise business contracts between Canada and Russia. The prime minister says the government is re-examining all aspects of the relationship between the two governments. Last May, the Russian energy giant Gazprom concluded a contract to provide natural gas to the Canadian firms Gaz Métro and Enbridge as well as Gaz de France. The contract provides for the construction by 2014 of a methane gas terminal at Rabaska on the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City. The $1-billion project would enable Gazprom to export liquified natural gas to North America. Mr. Harper also supported the declaration by NATO foreign ministers issued Tuesday calling on Russia to respect its promise to withdraw its troops from Georgia.
ST. JOHN'S: OFFSHORE OIL PROJECT A GO
The long-delayed Hebron offshore oil project in the east coast province of Newfoundland and Labrador will officially be launched on Wednesday. Premier Danny Williams says his government has signed an agreement with the consortium in charge of the $5-billion project. The main partners in the project are ExxonMobil Oil Canada, Chevron Canada Resources, Petro-Canada, Norsk Hydro and the government itself. The parties concluded a tentative agreement last August after lengthy arguments that ended in the government receiving a 4.9-per cent equity share in Hebron. The development is expected to produce 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day for 25 years.
TORONTO: COMMERCIAL PAPER RESCUE AGAIN SNAGGED
The plan to salvage $32 billion of frozen non-banking assets has met another obstacle in the form of an intended appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Ivanhoe Mines says it will appeal the ruling on Monday concerning the rescue plan by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which upheld a lower court by finding that the plan should go ahead. Asset-backed commercial paper assets have been frozen since last summer as a result of the investor funk caused by the subprime mortgage catastrophe in the U.S. A group of mid-sized investors, corporations and large individual investors had opposed the rescue package devised by the Pan-Canadian investors committee because it prevents individual and corporate investors to sue brokerages, financial services companies, banks and bond-rating agencies for their losses.
MONTREAL: NEW BOMBARDIER JET TO GO AHEAD DESPITE BANKRUPTCY
Bombardier Aerospace Inc. says development of its new Learjet 85 business jet will proceed despite the bankruptcy of a company that is developing materials for the plane. The German-Swiss firm Grob Aerospace declared bankruptcy in Germany on Tuesday. Grob was also to build the first three prototypes of the Learjet 85. Bombardier says Grob will continue to be involved in the program as its operates under an interim administrator. Bombardier has received 46 firm orders and 90 letters of interest in the new plane, which is expected to go into production in 2013.
OTTAWA: ARBITRATOR NAMED TO OVERSEE AIR CANADA LAYOFFS
Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has named an arbitrator to supervise the negotiations between Air Canada and its labour unions over the administration of planned layoffs. The nomination was at the request of both sides. The arbitrator will set the terms of the adjustment program for the 2,000 jobs that are to be eliminated. Last month, the minister rejected Air Canada's request for a waiver of the requirement in the Canada Labour Code to create a joint committee to try to minimize the impact of the layoffs.
MARKETS
TSX on Tuesday: 11,349, down 131. The Canadian dollar closed 0.29 of a cent ahead at US94.25 cents. The euro was worth C$1.5688, up 0.37 of a cent. Light, sweet crude: US$114.53, up $1.66.
OLYMPICS
Canada headed into the 12th day of competition in Beijing with 13 medals after collecting four more on Tuesday. One more medal will equal the medals won in Sydney eight years ago. Canada's high for a non-boycotted Games was 22 in Atlanta in 1996. Three of the medals were silver, won by Simon Whitfield in the men's triathlon, Alexandre Despatie in diving and by Jason Burnett of Toronto in men's trampoline. Canada's fourth medal of the day was bronze. Ontario's Priscilla Lopes-Schliep finished third in the women's 100-metre hurdles against a tough field. Canada had been shut out at the track in the past two Olympics. Canada will have four boats racing in canoe-kayak semifinals Wednesday, including Montreal's Thomas Hall in a one-thousand-metre canoe singles race. The other boats in one-thousand races are in the men's and women's K-4 events and the men's K-2. Also, Quebec divers Emilie Heymans and Marie-Eve Marleau will take the plunge in 10-metre platform diving. And at the track, Gary Reed of Kamloops, BC, and Achrat Tadili will race in the first round of the 800 metres. A Canadian medal contender hits the mat Wednesday as four days of taekwondo get under way. Ivett Gonda of Port Moody, BC, will compete in the 49-kilogram class, one of three Canadians entered in taekwondo. The marquee event will be the men's 200-metre final, with Jamaica's Usain Bolt seeking his second gold medal of the Games.
Weather
British Columbia on Wednesday: rain, high 20 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon, Nunavut: rain. Northwest Territories: mix of sun, cloud. Whitehorse 15, Yellowknife 14, Iqaluit 8. Alberta, Saskatchewan: rain north, sun south. Manitoba: sun. Edmonton 19, Regina 28, Winnipeg 29. Ontario, Quebec: sun. Toronto, Montreal 23, Ottawa 22. Maritimes: sun. Newfoundland and Labrador: rain. Fredericton 19, Halifax 17, Charlottetown 15, St. John's 20.
