NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 01-2008

BEAUMONT-HAGUE, France - Thousands of canisters of highly radioactive waste from the world's most nuclear-energized country lie, silent and deadly, beneath this jutting tip of Normandy. Above ground, cows graze and Atlantic waves crash into heather-cover

There would be no political meltdown over Chalk River's nuclear shutdown if the aging reactor had a backup.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Within the gates of a private walled compound in the heart of Kandahar city along what is an otherwise unassuming street, a sprawling home has been transformed into a safe haven where women beyond school age go to learn to read and

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said Sunday he had no way of anticipating the Chalk River reactor crisis, despite an auditor general report sent to him in the fall that warned of lingering safety issues at the site.

BALTIMORE -- A mysterious visitor paid his annual tribute at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe yesterday, placing three red roses and a half-filled bottle of cognac before stealing away into the darkness

51-year-old Frenchman circled the planet alone in 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes, 6 seconds in a trimaran, shattering the previous record by two weeks..

To force an election or not to force an election. That is the question Liberal MPs are pondering as they prepare for next week's resumption of Parliament.

TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. - Quebec's state-owned energy utility is hinting it wants to give its badly aging nuclear plant an overhaul, but in so doing could revive hopes and fears about the future of atomic power in the province

Cubans elected a new parliament on Sunday, ratifying a slate of new candidates, including Fidel Castro.

Would a name like the Van Horne, Alexandra or Camosun have had such lasting resonance? All were put forward by Victorians as possible designations for the awe-inspiring new hotel being built next to their city's harbour in the early 1900s.

Two men were killed in a gangland-style shooting outside an upscale downtown Vancouver restaurant late last night.

-- A crash involving up to 100 vehicles occurred Sunday afternoon during a sudden whiteout on Highway 400 north of Toronto.

Apples and doughnuts are as Canadian as ... well, it doesn't really matter. Because we all like them. A lot. So there

Suzanne Pleshette, the husky-voiced film and theatre star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running The Bob Newhart Show, has died. She was 70.

OTTAWA - Johan Holmqvist is playing the best hockey of his career - and is looking good doing it.

The moment the music stopped, and the crowd climbed to its feet cheering, Patrick Chan pumped his fists in triumph.

Inaugural event saw citizens douse their lights, fade to green and embrace a bold new idea

MONTREAL - With Sidney Crosby injured, the Pittsburgh Penguins needed a big game from their goaltender.

RAMA, Ont. - Make that 26-0 - Steve Molitor remains perfect. "The Canadian Kid" scored a unanimous decision over Ricardo Castillo of Mexico to retain his International Boxing Federation junior featherweight title in front of a capacity Casino Rama c

NHL Players Association executive director Paul Kelly would like Canadian cities to be included should the NHL consider future expansion.

Residents plagued by an ice jam in Prince George, B.C., are hoping a machine that looks like a floating bulldozer will break apart the massive obstruction.

OTTAWA -- Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier lashed out Saturday at a controversial document identifying the U.S. and Israel as countries it suspects of practising torture, calling it "wrong" and demanding it be rewritten

KABUL - The war in Afghanistan is only just beginning as NATO forces, far from pursuing remnants of a defeated Taliban, are entering a widening and deepening conflict they may well lose security, NGO said today.

Warren Tanner of West Vancouver was the surprise winner of Friday's World Cup freestyle race in Lake Placid, N.Y., storming back to capture his first career title after qualifying in 14th place.

Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., was first in the 500-metre and third in the 1,000 on Saturday to stand first overall at the halfway point at the world sprint championships in long track speed skating in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

AMSTERDAM - Skimpy skirts and revealing tops are making way for designer gowns and luxury hand bags in Amsterdam's red light district as part of a drive to ditch the area's seedy image.

Not much is left of the federal penitentiary at New Westminster, less still of the thousands of men who served time there for murder, rape, theft and drug-dealing. About four dozen, though, are still there, in a forgotten graveyard called Boot Hill perche

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Pakistani intelligence officials said Saturday they arrested a 15-year-old suspect in the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as police announced they had foiled new suicide attacks by militants against the countr

VICTORIA - The organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver could have trouble recruiting and keeping the key staff it will need in the tight labour market of British Columbia, warns an audit by the B.C. Comptroller General.

WINNIPEG - Don Wittman, whose smooth baritone voice called some of Canada's most signifiant sports, has died of cancer. He was 71.

MOSCOW -- Russia's military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.

The actor/director is reviving his '80s action hero, but can he still make Rambo relevant?

Mounties are trying to sniff out a pair of dognappers who purloined a one-testicled pooch.

CALGARY - Daymond Langkow waited a long time for his third career hat trick. That it helped put the Calgary Flames on top of the Northwest Division made it even sweeter.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Eric Staal couldn't stop scoring. For a change, neither could the Carolina Hurricanes.

Patrice Bergeron has gone on vacation and it appears he may not be back on the ice this season.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Ryan Miller had a good feeling Friday was going to be the night the Sabres ended their lengthy winless skid. The goalie even figured it could be a blowout.

DENVER - Robert Lang and Patrick Kane kept the Chicago Blackhawks on the road to recovery.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Todd Bertuzzi has rediscovered his scoring touch and his passion. He has linemates Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry to thank for that.

NEWARK, N.J. - Jacques Martin joined a club so exclusive, its members numbered in the single digits. Until he joined, anyway.

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy - Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., captured bronze in a World Cup downhill Saturday, as Canadian skiers took three of the top six spots.

Security officials in Pakistan say they have arrested a teenager who confessed to being part of an assassination team sent to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Eighty additional emergency spaces have been opened at homeless shelters in Toronto after an Extreme Cold Weather Alert was issued for the city on Saturday.

Doctors in Calgary have implanted a sheath around a woman's heart in an attempt to stop in from dangerously enlarging, the first such experimental operation performed in Canada.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has distanced his department from one of its training manuals that lists the United States and Guantanamo Bay as places of torture.

Doctors at a Montreal hospital are threatening to stop delivering babies this spring, saying the aging maternity ward is in a decrepit state of repair.

Lawyers for Canadian Omar Khadr want a U.S. military judge to dismiss his terrorism case on the grounds that he was a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002.

An Indo-Canadian man in his mid-40s remained in custody Friday evening after police found the body of a young child in his home in Delta, B.C.

Former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley won't be calling for a dramatic reduction of Canadian troops in volatile southern Afghanistan in his eagerly awaited report on the country's military future there.

OTTAWA - Canada's air force is unlikely to get its CH-47 Chinook battlefield helicopters until 2011 at the earliest.

The news doesn't appear good for Sidney Crosby. The Pittsburgh Penguins star badly sprained an ankle when he crashed into the boards during the first period of Friday's 3-0 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Local troops preparing to fight Taliban unshaken by U.S. criticism of NATO forces, commander says

Quebec City, 110 million; British Columbia, zero. That's the score so far in the federal funding game for two parts of Canada celebrating historic milestones this year.

GIANT fractures have been cracking open the ice in the Beaufort Sea in recent weeks, creating extraordinary stretches of open water and giving researchers from around the world a first-hand look at the Arctic meltdown.

The controversial former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

Canadian smokers and non-smokers in grades five through eight are being offered $5,000 to quit smoking or stay smoke-free throughout their high school years

NEW YORK -- A Canadian al Qaeda member who secretly pleaded guilty more than five years ago to planning bomb attacks on U.S. embassies will emerge from the shadows Friday to receive a lengthy prison sentence.

Pakistani officials chided Liberal Leader Stephane Dion for suggesting NATO troops should intervene in Pakistan to help curb the flow of terrorists across the border it shares with Afghanistan.

The Tories are under pressure to block the proposed sale of a division of Richmond, B.C.-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates -- the maker of the Canadarm -- to an American arms-maker.

LOS ANGELES - A former Los Angeles gang member who founded an anti-violence group called No Guns has pleaded no contest to federal weapons charges.

Ottawa is appealing a court ruling that has the potential to significantly increase the number of people making refugee claims in Canada.

The Crown has dropped all criminal charges in connection with Canada's tainted blood scandal against the former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross Society.

In what could already be the goal of the year, Rick Nash scored with 21.5 seconds left to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets to their fourth straight win, 4-3 over the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday night

OTTAWA - With Dany Heatley already on the sidelines, things didn't look good for the Ottawa Senators when Daniel Alfredsson limped off early in the second period against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday

For many Canadians, it seems, dissing America has become part of our national fabric, like a great down comforter stretched from Newfoundland to Victoria to the rapidly diminishing ice cap of the formerly Great White North.

Canada's top court on Thursday refused to review for the second time the case of a group of disabled veterans and their families seeking billions of dollars for interest on pensions kept in trust.

Hundreds of soldiers and their families packed a gymnasium at the Edmonton Garrison on Thursday afternoon to mark the latest major deployment of western-based troops to Afghanistan.

Former Toronto Maple Leaf captain Rob Ramage was released from jail this afternoon after his lawyers filed an appeal of today's sentencing for his conviction in the death of Keith Magnuson

Two P.E.I. men were recognized for their bravery Wednesday for their involvement in a 2005 beach rescue, and will travel to Ottawa to accept an award from the governor general.

Seven Canadian soldiers were injured in two incidents involving suspected roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan, the military said Thursday.

The predominant factor in a crash that killed eight people in Bathurst, N.B., on the weekend was likely icy roads and not the type of vehicle they were travelling in, says a Transport Canada investigator.

If Americans don't want the oil from Alberta's lucrative, but hard-to-produce oilsands and try to limit development, places like China and India will be happy to gulp it up, Premier Ed Stelmach cautioned Wednesday.

A Seattle air traffic controller spotted a heavily loaded 747 crossing paths with an Air Canada jet just moments before the Canadian aircraft was thrown out of control at 35,000 feet, injuring 10 passengers.

OTTAWA -- The air force's long-awaited purchase of the Super-Hercules cargo plane finally took wing Wednesday as the Conservative government formally announced a contract with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin...

With all the work involved in trying to bring Cliff Fletcher back to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club forgot to ask his former team first.

Supplies detach from chute going to Canadian forces. Note: strong language.

Grey Cup champ off to NCAA's Ole Miss

KOKOMO, Ind. - Oh, shoot! Police say a man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store on Tuesday.

The renovation of the Royal Ontario Museum means that for the first time in roughly 40 years, the museum can mount a permanent exhibit of the works of Paul Kane, commonly acknowledged to be the grandfather of Canadian art.

VANCOUVER -- A grieving aunt says the skeletal remains of her niece, a missing woman from Surrey, B.C., have been found in the Fraser Valley, where police allege a serial killer has preyed on sex-trade workers.

Friday's attack is third this school year; student union calls for action to ensure women's safety

Workers walked off the job at two Toronto jails this morning in apparently unrelated workplace disputes.

A Calgary family working on missionary projects in Kenya has arrived safe on Canadian soil after being forced to flee the country amid escalating post-election violence.

Alberta's premier is in Washington Wednesday to assure Americans that his province is a stable and secure source of oil for U.S. consumers and to defend the environmental sustainability of the oilsands.

The father of one of the men killed when a Cormorant helicopter plunged into the ocean off of Canso, N.S, 18 months ago said Tuesday that he wants the Department of National Defence to keep poorly trained pilots away from the controls.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said Wednesday that he fired the head of the nuclear safety watchdog for her "lack of leadership" and "failure to manage the work."

Quebec City or St. John's, Newfoundland?

BATHURST, N.B. -- A passenger van that crashed in New Brunswick on Saturday, killing seven teenagers and a teacher, is considered so unsafe on the road the United States government has banned schools across that country from purchasing the vehicle to tran

A controversial memorial in Germany to a Canadian airman murdered by a mob of German civilians during the Second World War has been plastered over with Nazi posters.

QUEBEC -- Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe says he expects a federal election will be called in about a month.

GIRLS in Britain are starting to hit puberty at the age of three. Shocked doctors blame hormones in food and water for some toddlers showing signs of breast growth..

The federal government plans to gather data on the traffic patterns of trucks and other commercial vehicles in the Vancouver area to avert a "catastrophic event" at the 2010 Winter Olympics, newly released tender documents show.

A radio prankster may have broadcast the threat against US ships that brought the United States and Iran close to confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz last week

They're a familiar sight in federal government offices throughout Ottawa and in other locations across the country, but now members of the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires are shipping out for duty in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Military officials said Monday about 3,200 U.S. marines are being told to prepare to go to Afghanistan - a move that will boost combat troop levels in time for an expected Taliban offensive this spring

HALIFAX - The pilot of a military helicopter that crashed 18 months ago, killing three men, wasn't qualified to be at the controls, says a draft report of a military investigation that found the skills of Canada's search-and-rescue pilots have "degrade

TOKYO -- Japanese whalers detained two activists accused of throwing acid at and illegally boarding their vessel in Antarctica on Tuesday. An official denied claims the men were assaulted and tied to the mast.

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - In the farming community of Stephenville, Texas, nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies. But these days, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO. Several dozen people - including a pilot, co

Undersized gusset plates in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis were "the critical factor" in the bridge collapse last year that killed 13 people and injured 100, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

A massive fracture discovered this winter in the Beaufort Sea ice pack could be a sign of things to come as climate change continues to warm the Arctic, according to a leading climate researcher.

Fire Richard Peddie. It's a not-so-subtle theme of a new website devoted to one thing and one thing only: Turfing Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Richard Peddie.

Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network.

It cost Canada's economy $14.8 billion in 2007 to have patients waiting longer than needed for medical procedures, estimates a new analysis commissioned for the Canadian Medical Association.

She has long been rumoured to be the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's famed portrait, but German experts say they've discovered information that confirms the identity of the artist's real-life Mona Lisa.

Nine Canadians have been arrested as part of an international child pornography investigation, the Ontario Provincial Police have confirmed.

A Canadian soldier has died and a second soldier has been injured after an armoured vehicle they were travelling in hit a suspected improvised explosive device early this morning in southern Afghanistan.

What do cosmetics have in common with cellphones? They both worry a leading cancer scientist about their potential as health risks

Tests show mixed results from use of honey-based dressings on leg wounds

Police have locked students inside a Brampton high school as they search for a suspect in a stabbing attack there this morning

PETA launched a new "Sex Talk" commercial Monday drawing a link between unwanted teen pregnancies and animal spaying and neutering

Five or six players on the WTA Tour have been approached to throw tennis matches, tour chairman Larry Scott said Tuesday.

A Taliban spokesman warned Tuesday that militants would increase attacks against restaurants in Kabul frequented by Westerners, a day after eight people died in a brazen assault on a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital.

Marc Emery to be extradited to the US, a country he has never set foot in: "Vancouver-based marijuana activist Marc Emery says his lawyers have cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors that would see him soon serving a minimum of five years in jail. In Ju

Alberta's privacy commissioner will rule in February whether bars in the province can continue to scan ID cards and compile personal information from customers as part of their efforts to keep out troublemakers.

Over the past year, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's approval rating has plummeted across Canada, according to a new Strategic Counsel poll.

No not the in-and-out issue, but Global is reporting that Conservative MP Gary Goodyear from Cambridge is in a little hot water for handling of election expenses in 2004.