Canada warns of deadline at climate conference
Afghan prisoners' fate unknown
Terror suspect moves to house arrest
COPENHAGEN: CLIMATE TALKS DELEGATES RACE AGAINST TIME
Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice has warned that time is running out for participants in the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to reach an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. Mr. Prentice says the brief walkout on Monday by members of the Group of 77 developing nations, including China and India, hasn't helped matters. Only four days remain at the conference. The 135 developing countries at Copenhagen want rich countries to make much deeper reductions to their greenhouse-gas emissions. But industrialized countries including Canada have come to the conference with their targets already set. Canada proposed to lower its emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020. The U.S. has a similar program. The developing nations have refused to take part in the formal working groups but accept informal negotiations. Canada's former Liberal Party government signed the Kyoto accord but the present Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper reneged on it.
OTTAWA: AFGHAN DETAINEES UNACCOUNTED FOR
The Canadian government has admitted that a number of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan captured by Canadian soldiers and handed over to Afghan police are unaccounted for. Reports indicate that Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has acknowledged that Afghan authorities have failed to inform Canada of the whereabouts of an unspecified number of prisoners. Afghanistan is required to notify Canada before it releases, transfers or commits to trial a transferred detainee. But Mr. Cannon admitted that notification from Afghan officials has been a challenge. Canada has been part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan since 2002.
OTTAWA: TERROR SUSPECT ORDERED FREED
Federal Court of Canada has struck down the national security certificate in effect against a Syrian-born man. The decision frees Hassan Almrei, who had been under house arrest since last January. The government had been trying to deport Mr. Almrei under the little-used security certificate procedure as a terrorism suspect. The national security agency obtained the certificate on the grounds that he is an al-Qaeda sympathizer. The certificate allows the government to deport foreigners deemed a security risk. Monday's ruling by Federal Court says that although there were grounds to suspect Mr. Almrei when he was arrested in 2001, those grounds have ceased to be valid. All four men arrested under security certificates since the Sept. 11 attacks against the U.S. have now been released from prison under strict conditions.
OTTAWA: NANNIES WOULD BE BETTER PROTECTED
Canada's immigration minister, Jason Kenney, has announced plans to provide better protection for foreigners working in Canada as nannies and caregivers. He has proposed several changes to ensure that foreigners are not abused by employers or exploited by unscrupulous consultants. The changes put more responsibility on employers to disclose the terms of employment. The immigration critic for the opposition New Democratic Party, Olivia Chow, says the proposals fail to address the problem that foreigners are coming as temporary workers, a situation that, she says, still leaves them open to abuse. Miss Chow estimates that Canada has 364,000 foreign temporary workers.
EDMONTON: CITY FREEZES
The western Canadian city of Edmonton, AB, was the coldest place in Canada last weekend. Environment Canada says temperatures in the Edmonton area dropped to a record C-46 Sunday. With the wind chill factor, the temperature felt like C-60.
VENEZUELA
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is upset by comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who warned Latin American nations last week about their relations with Iran. She said it was not in their best interests and could have consequences for such countries. Mr. Chavez called Mrs. Clinton's statement a threat to his country and Bolivia. Mr. Chavez is among several Latin American presidents to strengthen diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran despite growing international pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear ambitions. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela in late November.
PAKISTAN
Taliban militants reportedly used explosives and demolished a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district Monday but caused no injuries. The pre-dawn school attack took place in Saddokhel town in northwest Khyber tribal district. Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they conduct a insurgency to enforce Sharia law. Pakistani troops launched an offensive in Khyber district in September to try and eliminate both the Taliban and the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam. The Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to neighbouring Afghanistan and is also close to the northwest provincial capital Peshawar, which has been hit by a series of suicide bombings in recent months.
ITALY
Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi was in hospital for observation after an attacker hit him in the face with a small statue at a political rally Sunday in Milan, Italy. Doctors say the 73-year-old prime minister suffered a small fracture of the nose, two broken teeth and and damage to his lip. Police arrested the assailant, who was described as a man with a history of mental illness.
BELGIUM
The European Union has again expressed concern over the arrest of a leading Chinese dissident. The EU is calling on Beijing immediately to release of Liu Xiaobo. The 53-year-old writer was involved in the 1989 pro-democracy protests. He was arrested last December under a federal subversion law after having signed Charter 08, a petition calling for greater democracy in China. It was announced this weekend that China intends to put him on trial soon. Rights groups fear that after holding Mr. Liu without charge for over a year, they intend to rush his case through trial during the busy holiday season.
MONTREAL: BOMBARDIER BLAMED FOR ACCIDENT
The regional U.S. airline Colgan Air says Bombardier Aerospace is partly responsible for the crash of a Q400 propeller plane in which 50 people died. In a report to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Colgan said the cockpit warning system failed to advise pilots when the speed was set below the stall warning speed. The report also points to a defect in the turboprop's flight and operating manual. The document blames the pilots for improper procedures and for having an irrelevant conversation during the descent and approach at Buffalo, NY. Bombardier has declined to comment pending the completion of the NTSB's investigation other than to say that the turboprop's avionics system is reliable and certified. In a submission on Dec. 7, the Air Line Pilots Association blamed Colgan for failing to train the pilots for the conditions they faced.
MARKETS
TMX on Monday : 11,546, up 121. Canadian dollar: US.94. Euro: C$1.55. Oil: $69.65, down-.22.
SKATING
Catriona Matthew won the Women's British Open Championship for her first major title. It came just 10 weeks after she gave birth to her second child.
SWIMMING
Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, BC, added silver to the bronze he had already won at the world swimming championships. He was second in the men's 1,500-metre freestyle in Rome.
FOOTBALL
Bart Andrus has paid the price for a 3-and-15 season. The Toronto Argonauts have fired the first-year head coach after finishing as the worst team in the Canadian Football League by eight points. The 51-year-old Andrus was named the Argos 40th head coach in January.
Weather
British Columbia: snow north, snow rain south, high C5 Vancouver. Yukon: mix snow rain cloud. Northwest Territories: sun. Nunavut: snow. Whitehorse -13, Yellowknife -31, Iqaluit -14. Alberta, Saskatchewan: sun north, mix sun cloud south. Manitoba: sun. Edmonton -24, Regina -22, Winnipeg -21. Ontario: snow south, sun north. Quebec: snow. Toronto 3, Ottawa -3, Montreal -1. New Brunswick: snow. Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island rain. Newfoundland and Labrador: mix sun cloud. Fredericton 0, Halifax 4, Charlottetown 2, St. John's 1.
