Fourth delay for Canadian astronaut's space flight.
Queen to visit Canada.
Police charge wife in boxer's death.
CAPE CANAVERAL: FOURTH DELAY FOR CANADIAN ASTRONAUT'S SPACE FLIGHT
The launch of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour was delayed for the fourth time on Sunday, again due to local thunderstorm activity. The launch was re-scheduled for Monday. The shuttle's seven-person crew, including Canadian Julie Payette, will go on a 16-day mission to the international space station. Miss Payette will join her Canadian colleague, Bob Thirsk, at the space station. It will be the first time that two Canadian astronauts are in space at the same time. In all, 13 astronauts will be on board the station. They'll work toward completing the station's construction.
OTTAWA: QUEEN TO VISIT CANADA
The Queen will visit Canada next year. The British monarch and her husband, Prince Philip, will come sometime during the summer. Their itinerary has still to be announced. The Queen last visited Canada in 2005, when she toured the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta during their centennial years. Her son, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are planning an extensive visit to Canada in November. They'll make stops in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and the National Capital Region.
PORTO DE GALINHAS: POLICE CHARGE WIFE IN BOXER'S DEATH
Police in Brazil have charged the wife of Canadian boxer Arturo Gatti with his mysterious death. Mr. Gatti's body was found on Saturday in a hotel room in the Brazilian resort town of Porto de Galinhas. He was 37. He was formerly world welterweight boxing champion. Police believe that he was strangled with a strap found at the scene. He also appeared to have wounds to his head. Police say that his 23-year-old Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, was implicated in his death.
TORONTO: OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER SEEKS HELP FOR DETAINED CANADIAN JOURNALIST
The leader of the federal opposition New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, appealed on Sunday to Canada's governing Conservative Party for help in arranging the release of Maziar Bahari, a Canadian of Iranian origin who is being held in prison in Iran. Mr. Bahari was arrested lsat month in Tehran while he was reporting on post-election violence for the American weekly, Newsweek. At least 24 journalists are known to have been detained. Two weeks after Mr. Bahari's arrest, Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, filed a formal protest. Mr. Cannon had also met with the Iranian charge d'affaires the day after Mr. Bahari's arrest. Mr. Layton calls the delay in making a formal protest 'unconscionable.' He's asking Canada's government to take immediate action to secure Mr. Bahari's release.
EDMONTON: CHARITIES GO BEGGING IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
The recession in Canada is having a bad effect on contribitions to charities. Cash contributions to charities and donations to food banks have been declining since January, while the number of people who rely on them has been increasing. The agency, Canada Helps, which distributes donations to charities, says the average amount of individual donations has dropped to 120 dollars from 150 dollars. The Salvation Army says its stores and shelters are receiving fewer second-hand items. At the same time, Food Banks Canada is reporting a 20 per cent increase in the number of users since January. Canada along with other countries is suffering in the global economic crisis.
HONDURAS
A two-week-long curfew in Honduras was lifted on Sunday. The interim government says that calm has been restored. During the past two weeks, the country has been the scene of large public demonstrations protesting against the military's removal of President Manuel Zelaya last month. Talks between Mr. Zelaya's representatives and the interim government ended abruptly on Friday without any results. The two sides agreed to meet again but failed to set a date. The United States and the United Nations have condemned the military coup and demanded that Mr. Zelaya be re-instated.
CHINA
The regional government in China's city of Urumqi has raised the number of people injured in recent ethnic violence to 1,680. Earlier estimates were just over one thousand injured. Two hundred and sixteen of them were seriously hurt. The official number of people killed stands at 184. China's government says that most of those who died were Han, China's dominant ethnic group. Police on Sunday imposed a ban in the capital, Urumqi, to prevent people from gathering in public places. The day was set aside for traditional mourning. A large demonstration was held on Sunday in Istanbul to protest against violence toward Muslim Uighurs in China's Xinjaing province. Several thousand Turks gathered at a square in support of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority in the Chinese province.
SOMALIA
Dozens of people are reported killed in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in the city's most severe insurgent attack in two months. About 150 people were wounded. Local hospitals struggling to cope with the casualites say that many of the victims were women and children. For the first time, African Union peacekeepers intervened to support government forces in repelling Islamic extremist militants trying to extend their control over Somalia. The militants advanced into the north of Mogadishu, coming within one kilometre of the presidential palace. Various Islamist extremist groups have been fighting for control of Mogadishu for more than two years.
MALI
A rebel group in Mali has freed a Swiss man who was kept hostage for six months. Werner Greiner was the last Western hostage in the hands of a group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Mr. Greiner, his wife Gabriella
Burco, Marianne Petzold of Germany and British national Edwin Dyer were seized in January in Niger, near the border with Mali. The kidnappers freed Ms. Burco and Ms. Petzold in April along with two Canadian diplomats who'd been kidnapped in December. Last month, the Al-Qaeda group that announced it had beheaded Mr. Dyer because Britain refused to release a radical Muslim cleric, Abu Qatada, from a British prison. Swiss government officials say that no ransom was paid for Mr. Greiner's release. They credit Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure for arranging his freedom.
JAPAN
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso and his governing coalition have suffered a bad defeat in local elections in Tokyo, just three months before national elections. The opposition Democratic Party won the most seats in the vote, while Mr. Aso's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner lost their majority in the Tokyo assembly. The vote is considered a barometer for the national election. The LDP has seen internal fighting recently. Mr. Aso's critics have openly urged an early party leadership vote to replace him.
INDIA
At least 24 policemen were killed on Sunday in an ambush by Maoist rebels in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh. The attack came one month after 11 special police officers were killed in a landmine explosion triggered by Maoists in the same region where the rebels are based. Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and farmers without land. They are active in more than half of the country's 29 states particularly in the east, the poorest part of India.
IRAQ
Bombs exploded near five Christian churches in Baghdad on Sunday, killing four people and wounded more than 30 others. Police say that the explosions were likely coordinated. Iraq has about 750,000 Christians, a small minority in the mainly Muslim country of about 28 million people. Many Iraqi Christians have fled abroad.
UNITED STATES
The former U.S. vice-president, Dick Cheney, is being accused of withholding information about a secret government counterterrorist program. Democratic Party members of the U.S. Congress say that he might have abused his power by failing to inform them about the program. Mr. Cheney has declined to comment on the accusations. Some high-ranking congressional members are seeking an investigation.
WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES
Canada's women's 4x400-metre relay team won the gold medal on Sunday at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Carline Muir, Amonn Nelson, Kimberly Hyacinthe and Esther Akinsule captured Canada's first Univeriade gold on the track in 26 years. The relay gold medal boosted the track and field team's medal total to eight and marked the team's best performance since Canada won 13 in track and field at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
AUTO RACING
Dario Franchitti won the Honda Indy in Toronto on Sunday. Ryan Briscoe finished second and Will Power was third. Helio Castroneves crashed into Canadian driver Paul Tracy, knocking both men out of the race. Canadian Alex Tagliani finished ninth.
ROWING
The Canadian men's eight crew won a silver medal on Sunday at a World Cup meet in Lucerne, Switzerland. Doug Vandor and Cam Sylvester won silver in the lightweight men's double event, while Lindsay Jennerich and Sheryl Preston were third in the lightweight women's double.
BASEBALL
Baltimore beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2, on Sunday.
TRIATHLON
Canadian Kathy Tremblay finished fourth on Sunday in a World Championship Triathlon Series meet in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Australia's Emma Moffatt was first, Nicola Spirig of Switzerland was second and Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand finished third.
HORSE RACING
Gallant won the 74th running of the Prince of Wales Stakes in Toronto on Sunday in a photo finish with Milwaukee Appeal, a filly that finished second. The latest Queen's Plate winner, Eye of the Leopard, was third.
Weather
Here is Canada's weather on Monday. British Columbia will have variable cloudiness. The high temperature in Vancouver will be 21 degrees Celsius. The Yukon: variable cloudiness. Whitehorse, 21. Northwest Territories: sunny. Yellowknife, 18. Nunavut: rain. Iqaluit, eight. Alberta: showers. Edmonton, 19. Saskatchewan: rain. Regina, 19. Manitoba: sunny. Winnipeg, 25. Ontario: variable cloudiness. Toronto, 23. Ottawa, 21. Quebec: increasing cloudiness. Montreal, 23. New Brunswick: drizzle. Fredericton, 22. Nova Scotia: drizzle. Halifax, 21. Prince Edward Island: showers. Charlottetown, 21. Newfoundland: increasing cloudiness. St. John's, 23.
