U.S. could guard Canadians left in Afghanistan
Ottawa plans no new spending pushes
OTTAWA: NO INQUIRY INTO TORTURE CLAIM
The Canadian government is ruling out a public inquiry into allegations the Canadian military handed over Afghan prisoners to face torture at the hands of officials in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Peter MacKay says there's no credible evidence to support the allegations made by Richard Colvin, a Canadian diplomat who was posted to Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007. Mr. MacKay insists the government dealt with concerns over possible torture in 2007 by revising the prisoner transfer agreement with Afghanistan.
HALIFAX: U.S. WOULD GUARD CANADIANS IN AFGHANISTAN AFTER 2011
Meanwhile, Mr. MacKay says he has discussed with the Americans the possibility of their taking charge of security for Canadian diplomats and development workers after Canada withdraws its troops from Afghanistan in 2011. Mr. MacKay says American soldiers are already guarding Canada biggest development project in Afghanistan, the Dahla dam in northern Kandahar. Mr. MacKay met his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates in Halifax, NS, on Friday morning. The Canadian military will leave Kandahar in 2011 but Canada's development mission is to continue. Mr. MacKay has never said how that would be possible in the absence of protection from Canadian troops. Both he and his guest declined to discuss the allegations of the abuse of Afghan detainees turned over to the Afghan authorities by Canadian troops.
TORONTO: OTTAWA WON'T CONTINUE STIMULUS SPENDING
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says the government won't embark on any major spending initiatives in next year's budget. In a speech to the Empire Club, he said it will continue with the $61-billion economic stimulus spending over two years, which will expire as planned at the end of the next fiscal year. The minister says Canadians shouldn't expect emergency spending measures to become permanent policy. Mr. Flaherty also reaffirmed the government's commitment not to raise taxes or to cut financial transfers to the provinces to pay off its deficit. The minister says that only when the country's economic recovery is "firm" will the government act to balance its budget.
OTTAWA: CENTRAL BANKER COMPLAINS ABOUT CHINESE CURRENCY
The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, says Canada is paying the price for China's reluctance to move to a flexible currency exchange. Mr. Carney says world's major economic powers need to co-operate in order to avoid future financial crises. He warns that if countries delay adjustment, it could lead to protectionism both in trade and finance.There has been growing concern that China's yuan currency is undervalued by at least 20 percent. Beijing is under pressure to let the yuan appreciate. The United States and Europe complain the currency is being kept artificially low. A lower yuan has the effect of boosting Chinese exports by making them more competitive overseas. But China has said it would keep the yuan stable until demand for Chinese exports has recovered.
TORONTO: PILOTS COMPLAIN OF FATIGUE
A group representing Canadian airline pilots is demanding the federal government overhaul regulations regarding workday hour limits. Pilots say current flight-limit rules do not take into account a number of situations that leave them exhausted. Canadian regulations allow a crew to be on duty for 14 hours within a 24-hour period, but they don't take account of factors like irregular start times. The Canadian pilots' push for changes comes amid international concern over pilot fatigue.
AFGHANISTAN
At least 15 people were killed Friday in a suicide bomber attack in Farah province. The bomber drove his motorcycle into a crowded area in the provincial capital Farah City and detonated his explosives. Among those killed was a senior police official. Farah is a mainly desert province along the border with Iran. It's one of the areas that has seen an increase in insurgent attacks this year as Taliban militants have spread to the west and north from their traditional bases in the south and east.
PAKISTAN
In Pakistan, at least eight Islamist militants were killed Friday in a U.S. missile strike in North Waziristan, a lawless region on the Afghan border that is a hideout for al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents. The attack targeted a militant compound near the town of Mir Ali. The U.S., an ally of Pakistan in the war against terror, has carried out 45 attacks with its pilotless, missile-firing aircraft in northwest Pakistan this year.
WEST BANK
Palestinian officials have announced that a new date will be set for parliamentary and presidential elections. The Palestinian Election Commission said last week the voting should be postponed because the opposition of the Hamas movement which controls Gaza made voting in that territory impossible. The Commission says it will set a new election date next month. President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted that recommendation while maintaining his decision not to be a candidate for re-election. The elections were supposed to be the linchpin of an Egyptian-brokered mediation between Mr. Abbas' Fatah movement and Hamas but months of negotiation have been unsuccessful.
TORONTO: NORTEL AUCTIONS CONTINUE
Bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp. has begun another assets auction, this time for its optical networking and carrier ethernet business. Ethernet is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks. The Canadian Press reports that a second bidder has entered, Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Nokia Corp. of Finland and Germany's Siemens AG. U.S.-based Ciena Corp. has already entered a bid of US$521 million for assets which include some of Nortel's most valuable business units, intellectual properties and employees. Since filing for bankruptcy protection in January, Nortel has been selling off its assets.
MOSCOW: RUSSIA, CANADA REPORTED FRAUD-RIDDEN
There's a report that Russia's economy is the world's most fraught with fraud and that Canada's is not far behind. The report was drawn up by global investment firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report says that 71 per cent of Russian respondents to its questions said they had been subject to economic crime in the past year. Russia was followed by South Africa, Kenya, Canada and Mexico. The figure for Russia was 12 percentage points higher than the investment firm's previous survey in 2007. The global average was 30 per cent. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has pledged to stamp out corruption but one-half of respondents to the survey said the measures are inefficient. The percentage of Canadian firms that said they had been victims of fraud rose to its highest level in six years.
OTTAWA: GOVT. PRESENTS CREDIT CARD CODE
Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is proposing a code of conduct for credit and debit-card companies that he says will help consumers and small businesses. He says the code is intended to promote fair business practices and to ensure merchants and consumers clearly understand the costs and benefits of credit and debit cards. He also says it would provide merchants with more pricing flexibility so consumers can choose the lowest-cost payment option. It also would allow merchants to choose their payment options. Mr. Flaherty expects the code will go into effect early in the New Year.
MARKETS
TMX on Friday: 11,579, down 21. Canadian dollar: US93. Euro: C$1.59. Oil: $76.72, down.74.
FOOTBALL
The Canadian Football League division finals are set for Sunday. The action kicks off with Montreal hosting the B.C. Lions then shifts to Regina where the Roughriders take on the Stampeders.
SKIING
Canada's Mellisa Hollingsworth edged Shelley
Rudman of Great Britain to win the World Cup skeleton race at the
Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Friday.
Hollingsworth, of Eckville, Alta., led after a first-heat run of
57.54 seconds and finished the two-heat race in one minute 54.85
seconds.
Amy Gough of Abbotsford, B.C., was sixth in 1:56.01.
Weather
British Columbia on Saturday: snow north, rain south, high C7 Vancouver. Yukon: mix sun cloud. Northwest Territories, Nunavut: snow. Whitehorse -14, Yellowknife -7, Iqaluit -17. Prairies: sun. Edmonton 3, Regina, Winnipeg 10. Ontario, Quebec: cloud south, sun north. Toronto 14, Ottawa, Montreal 7. Maritimes: mix sun cloud. Newfoundland and Labrador: rain. Fredericton 11, Halifax, Charlottetown 10, St. John's 9.
