NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 05-2010

An international team of art experts, including a Canadian, believes that a newly uncovered Renaissance painting is in fact a rare portrait of artist, engineer and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, and just possibly was painted by the master's own hand.

The Abbotsford Police Department's newly created Gang Suppression Unit made its first two arrests on Friday.

A 22-year-old woman is in stable condition after shots were fired on her home in a suspected gang-related incident on the Samson Cree First Nation near Hobbema, Alta., early Friday.

BERLIN - German police say a couple of hungry pigs digging for food came nose-to-nose with a long-buried World War II anti-tank weapon.

VENICE, La. - The surface area of a catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill quickly tripled in size amid growing fears among experts that the slick could become vastly more devastating than it seemed just two days ago.

The introduction of the harmonized sales tax in two of Canada's largest provinces and a wave of other new expenses could take a toll just as Canadians were beginning to feel some confidence about opening their wallets again, experts say.

B.C.'s former solicitor general John Les has been linked to another piece of farmland that was improperly subdivided, effectively removing it from the province's agricultural land reserve.

B.C.'s child-welfare watchdog says she will be unable to do her job properly if new legislation introduced by the provincial government is passed.

City engineers in Vancouver were inspecting the Burrard Bridge on Friday morning after reports that chunks of concrete have been falling onto a bike path under the span.

Two bombs exploded at a small mosque in Mogadishu's main market on Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 70 others.

OTTAWA - Canada has issued a travel advisory, warning of an imminent terrorist attack in India's capital New Delhi.

Researchers are exploring whether the desire to have the plumpest, flakiest whitefish fillets on dinner plates may actually be gutting the evolution of the species in a northern Alberta lake and threatening a million-dollar industry.

VANCOUVER - In the 32 years Colin Mann spent working on the railway, the engineer crushed his eyes shut more than a dozen times, sickly aware of his helplessness to make his engine avoid the impending destruction of a person or vehicle.

The chief of staff at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, in Manitoba, says soldiers recently returned from Afghanistan face challenges reintegrating into Canadian life.

An early-morning power outage, linked to equipment failure, plunged a large portion of Regina into darkness for about three hours on Saturday.

The oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has raised questions about the safety of drilling for oil and gas in the Beaufort Sea.

Newfoundland and Labrador's cabinet representative announced funding Friday for a new civilian terminal for the Happy Valley-Goose Bay airport, but had much less to say about the air force base that fuels the regional economy.

All B.C. residences will have to have a functioning smoke alarms in their homes as of Saturday, May 1, as changes to the B.C. Fire Code go into effect.

One man is dead after a lobster fishing boat capsized early Saturday about three kilometres from shore off Cape Breton.

Just in time for the peak selling season, Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. announced Friday it will offer between $1,000 and $3,000 to consumers who turn in autos that are seven years or older for recycling and then buy a 2010 company model.

The first temptation when describing Buffy Sainte-Marie is to tabulate her A-list of accolades and accomplishments.

It turns out that even the Toronto District School Board can't fight city hall.

Rising rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, two retired generals have warned.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has found that hate was a motivating factor in the attack on a gay man in Vancouver almost two years ago.

A teenaged Alberta boy has died in foster care. Alberta's Children and Youth Services Minister Yvonne Fritz confirmed Friday that the RCMP are investigating the death of the teenager from the Paul First Nation, west of Edmonton near Lake Wabamun.

CLINTON, Ark. - Tornadoes ripping through central Arkansas killed at least one person and injured about two dozen others Friday, and more bad weather was possible Saturday, authorities said.

Arizona's governor signed a follow-up bill Friday approved by the state's legislators to revise a sweeping law against illegal immigration that passed last week.

More than 40 formulations of children's medications are being recalled in Canada, the United States and 10 other countries for failing to meet quality standards.