NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 12-2007

Doug Weight is on his way to the West coast as the Blues have traded the playmaker to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Andy McDonald in a move that will free up enough cap space next season to allow Scott Niedermayer to make his return to the Ducks.

ATLANTA - Vesa Toskala and the Toronto Maple Leafs began to turn their season around with a win in Atlanta late last month.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Long hours on the road don't seem to be bothering the Calgary Flames too much these days. Dion Phaneuf scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period Friday night to help the Flames hold off the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3, keep

A Russian tycoon with a lifelong love for hockey has hired former NHL Players' Association head Bob Goodenow to help start a new pro league in Europe that would compete for players with the NHL.

NATO allies with troops fighting in Afghanistan have agreed to develop a master plan for efforts to stabilise the country over the next five years, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

TORONTO -- With the baseball world reeling following the release of the Mitchell Report, the NHL says widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs is not an issue among hockey players.

Central and Eastern Canada are bracing for a severe winter storm that Environment Canada warns could dump as much as 40 centimetres of snow in some parts of the country.

A UN climate conference adopted a plan to negotiate a new global warming pact by 2009 after the United States suddenly reversed its opposition Saturday to changes proposed by developing nations.

RICHMOND, B.C. - A Cathay Pacific airplane that made an emergency landing at Vancouver International Airport on Friday is to take off again after the trouble was traced to a defective warning light.

The parents of a five-year-old girl travelling alone are furious with WestJet for breaking its own guidelines and allowing a stranger to accompany the child off a flight.

The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen is spending this winter in the ice of the Beaufort Sea, giving scientists a unique chance to study the Arctic Ocean at this time of year.

The chair of the agency that owns the government-run Chalk River nuclear reactor resigned Friday, after the plant's closure led to a worldwide medical crisis.

Nova Scotia province will become the first in Canada to ban smoking in cars with children under the age of 19, as of next year, public health officials said Friday.

OTTAWA - Almost two years of virtual silence from the Canadian International Development Agency on what it has seen and done in Afghanistan ended Friday as three returning officials painted an optimistic picture of Kandahar's future

WASHINGTON -- A vast swath of the United States was warmer than usual this year, leading to severe drought conditions and wildfires in the West and Southeast. Texas, the Lone Star state, stood alone, the only one to record below average temperatures.

Calgary's Jon Montgomery and American Eric Bernotas added another chapter to their skeleton rivalry Friday with a close battle for first place in Lake Placid, N.Y.

A report released Friday recommends sweeping changes to the RCMP, which would include establishing the force as a separate entity from the federal government, with its own civilian board of managers and its own organization to handle complaints.

Burning coal, oil and gas adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, the same gas used to give soft drinks fizz. Just as carbon dioxide is absorbed into the drink, ocean water absorbs it from the air. When the carbon dioxide enters the ocean, it makes the wat

A U.S. underwater archaeology team announced Thursday it has likely discovered the shattered remnants of a ship once captained by the notorious buccaneer William Kidd off a tiny Dominican Republic island.

A new study predicts the world's coral reef systems, including Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, could collapse within 30 years if the effects of global warming are not reversed

TORONTO - Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell's examination of baseball's sordid past unearthed a gutwrenching series of Canadian connections, with names like Eric Gagne, Roger Clemens and Gregg Zaun turning up in his long-awaited report.

This was recorded 6 December 2007 on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to London.

* In language suited to the ears of Canadians, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore quoted the wisdom of a hockey legend on Thursday at a summit in Bali, apparently criticizing Canada's stance on climate change during UN talks on the issue.

* Just in time for Christmas, porn star Mary Carey is giving a gift to support breast cancer research: her own breasts.

The Canadian CF-18 fighter force has entered a new era of tactical effectiveness. On November 8, 2007, 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron at 3 Wing Bagotville achieved Night Vision Goggle (NVG) Initial Operational Capability.

OTTAWA - Some Ottawa families have received a very unpleasant surprise in Santa's response to their children's letters.

Canadian immigrants who don't speak English or French are being blocked from donating blood or registering as stem cell and bone marrow donors.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It took nearly eight years for Brendan Morrison's consecutive-games streak to end, and it could be two months or longer before he gets to start another after recovering from wrist surgery.

former Starbucks barista with an ear condition is suing the company for $4 million because she says noise levels in the Manhattan coffee shop where she worked were too high.

Fish farming as it's currently practised in Canada is destroying wild salmon stocks and threatens to completely wipe them out within four years in one area of British Columbia, according to new research.

Officials in Prince George say an ice-jam that's causing the Nechako River to flood its banks is now five kilometres long and may soon force more residents from their homes.

The nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., which provides more than half the world's medical isotopes, is in the process of restarting, officials said Thursday.

An Ontario nuclear facility could begin producing medical isotopes as early as Thursday after the federal government ordered the plant to reopen, but some people who live nearby worry about that decision.

Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte were the first names to emerge Thursday from the Mitchell report.

Officials in South Korea say scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says all sides will have to answer for their conduct in the wake of a reactor shutdown that deprived health facilities across Canada and around the world of medical isotopes vital for diagnostic tests.

OTTAWA - An indignant Brian Mulroney insisted Thursday that he never received kickbacks from Karlheinz Schreiber or anyone else, but admitted that accepting $225,000 in cash from the German-Canadian arms dealer was "a serious error."

LOS ANGELES -- Saturn's shimmering rings may be as old as the solar system, scientists said Wednesday, debunking earlier theories that the rings were formed during the dinosaur age.

TORONTO - Canada is one step closer to bringing the ongoing aboriginal occupation in the southwestern Ontario town of Caledonia to an end with a $26-million offer to settle a 178-year-old claim, the province's aboriginal affairs minister said Wednesday.

Craig Hartsburg wasted no time choosing his Canadian junior hockey team

Canada is set to launch its new RadarSat-2 satellite, with space and military officials hoping it will keep an eye on the Arctic.

* BRAMPTON - While a devout Muslim family struggled yesterday to make sense of an incident that left a daughter dead and a father and son under arrest, one relative denied that the teenager's death resulted from a clash between Western and Islamic culture

* one cabbie in southern Germany apparently wasn't driving fast enough. His customer, former Formula One racing champ Michael Schumacher, had him shove over so he could take wheel himself.

Retailers are turning to cutting-edge technology to halt a bold new breed of shoplifter

Judgment Day arrived for baseball's steroids era, with the Mitchell report set to be released and posted on the Internet for all to see.

According to TIME magazine online, these are the Top 10 new websites for 2007...Some of the choices are very interesting...

The Alberta Oil Sands (Saudi Arabia of the North) as it is proudly refered to in the oil industry has proven to be a financial boom to the Canadian economy. It has also proven to be an environmental nightmare...

Police in Vancouver say they have made a major drug bust with international connections.

This country's winter athletes have won over 70 medals in competition so far, a record pace.

BALI, Indonesia - Canada's bid to water down climate-change targets at a world environmental conference earned the high-profile backing of the head of the United Nations on Wednesday.

SAN DIEGO -- Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.

OTTAWA - Only one in 10 Canadians believe Brian Mulroney is telling the truth about his business relationship with German-Canadian arms broker Karlheinz Schreiber, a new poll suggests.

OTTAWA - The Foreign Affairs Department has developed plans to keep a Canadian provincial reconstruction base in Kandahar until at least 2015, say federal officials.

Country music star Keith Urban has heart and soul. He proved it Tuesday in Toronto.

Imagine that. A lock of John Lennon's hair sold for $48,000 Wednesday in an auction of Beatles' memorabilia collected by the band's hairdresser.

If you stand on a certain part of Bloor St. W. on the north side after dark, from certain angles you can catch a glimpse of Gordo, the 27-metre-long Barosaurus skeleton emerging this week as the star attraction of the Royal Ontario Museum's sensational n

NASA scientists say they've made key discoveries about the northern lights, including the presence of "magnetic ropes" linking the Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun.

Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.

RCMP watchdog issuing recommendations today for immediate action on how officers use stun guns

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - With the help of testimony from survivors of Sarajevo's notorious "sniper alley," the Serb commander of the siege of the Bosnian capital was convicted of war crimes Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison

The world's penguin population is virtually melting away as a direct result of global warming, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Federation.

OTTAWA -- A new study says Calgary's red-hot economy has made it the most attractive city in Canada. Toronto and Vancouver follow in second and third place, according to the Conference Board of Canada's first-ever ranking of cities with a population

* A legal battle is raging in Manitoba between doctors who want to take an 84-year-old man off life support and his family who says pulling the plug would be tantamount to murder according to their religious beliefs.

* Sean Collins hoped that the story of his fight against cancer would provide insights into what the sickness meant to him and to the people he loved and depended upon.

Google first clipped and then all together dropped a video of Stephen Harper's Sep 25 speech at the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations)

Baird abruptly leaves one meeting without talking to delegates

Nuclear Safety Commission warns of possibility of serious accident at Chalk River, but PM says there's no safety issue in restarting reactor

Robert William Pickton will not be eligible for parole for 25 years after his conviction on six second-degree murder charges, a B.C. Supreme Court judge decided late Tuesday afternoon

Following eleventh-hour talks with the Liberals, the federal government introduced emergency legislation Tuesday evening that will compel Ontario's Chalk River nuclear reactor to restart immediately.

Will Queen Elizabeth attend Quebec City's 400th birthday party? That's a question Ottawa doesn't seem to want to answer categorically.

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - Robert Pickton's lawyer says the serial killer has a history of kindness to other people and should be eligible to apply for parole in 15 to 20 years.

WASHINGTON -- An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in fi

TIME magazine has just released their annual Top 10 lists of 2007 and the following are the major news stories of 2007 that received little or no mainstream media coverage.

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - Reporters and family members of serial-killer Robert Pickton's victims dissolved into tears and the Crown prosecutor choked up as he read victim-impact statements at a sentencing hearing Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of holiday care packages addressed to Canadian troops in Afghanistan are grounded in Montreal because of security concerns

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing arguments today in a case involving allegations of a "race-based" fishery on British Columbia's Fraser River.

After the Vancouver Canucks maintained for two days that their star goaltender was not injured, Roberto Luongo revealed after missing Monday's game against the Los Angeles Kings that he has a rib injury and is unsure how soon he'll return to his Nationa

Like an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a roll in the hay can keep stress at bay. Who knew preventative medicine could be so much fun?

Top climate scientist Konrad Steffen says the Greenland ice sheet melted at a record rate this year, the largest ever since satellite measurements began in 1979.

Organizers of a holiday toy drive in Ottawa say they're not sure they'll be able to hand out all the toys they receive in time for Christmas because health and safety recalls for some toys have slowed down the sorting process.

DORASAN STATION, South Korea - The first cargo train providing regular service across the border between the two Koreas in more than a half-century left Tuesday for the North.

LOS ANGELES -- New observations from NASA's long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft show the solar system is asymmetrical, likely from disturbances in the interstellar magnetic field, scientists reported Monday.

The Crown wants convicted serial killer Robert Pickton to serve 25 years before being eligible for parole.

Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles moved into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in what is believed to be the largest military incursion since the militant group Hamas took control of the territory in June.

A suicide bomb attack on a Canadian convoy in Kandahar province injured two Afghan civilians Tuesday, police said. No members of the convoy were hurt.

* Brent Van Buskirk, who boasted that at 17 he was the youngest contract killer, received concurrent prison sentences of seven years and five years Monday after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder -- one charge involved blowing up

* A man spent four days trapped in a toilet after the door handle broke.

A caress of lips tops the intimacy index whether it's a social smack or a full-on sexual smooch

Important information and interview requests directed to the Canadian military must now be cleared by senior bureaucrats who are under the direction of the prime minister's office, say defence sources

."The earth has a fever. And the fever is rising...something basic is wrong. We are what is wrong, and we must make it right."

Conrad Black has been sentenced in Chicago to 6.5 years in prison for his role in the misappropriation of millions of dollars from the newspaper empire he once headed

Saskatchewan could be sitting on 25 billion to 100 billion barrels of sweet, light crude oil in the Bakken formation in the southeast part of the province, according to industry and government estimates.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A Newfoundland doctor has been convicted of sexually assaulting and selling drugs to several of his patients.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Cristina Fernandez has been sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president, completing a rare husband-wife transfer of power.

TSX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, is merging with the derivatives-focused Montreal Exchange in a $1.3-billion stock and cash deal.

VANCOUVER -- Former short-track speed skater Nathalie Lambert will be the chef de mission for the 2010 Canadian Olympic team in Vancouver.

BALI, Indonesia - Canada's environment minister has announced money to help communities deal with the effects of climate change.

BALI, Indonesia - The Canadian government was pounded with criticism from every quarter at the UN climate talks as the summit chief and provincial members of its own delegation joined environmentalists, foreign negotiators and leading scientists in a chor

More than 1,700 care packages collected by West Island residents and community groups destined for Canadian troops in Afghanistan have been grounded after the military said they could not be sent overseas.

A group of Liberal MPs held a news conference in Halifax Monday to oppose replacement of the Aurora long-range patrol planes.

* The Ontario Provincial Police have charged the mayor of Ottawa with bribery-related offences in connection with the 2006 mayoral race in the nation's capital.

Thousands of South Korean soldiers, police and volunteers are fighting to clean up areas of beach polluted by the country's worst-ever oil spill.

Afghan army troops have captured the Taleban-held town of Musa Qala without meeting resistance, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan has said.

Relatives of women killed by Canadian Robert Pickton and police investigating their deaths have voiced disappointment at his second-degree murder conviction.

Push into insurgents' territory part of a flurry of NATO activity in southern Afghanistan as winter starts to impede enemy's movement

The Harper government will have to answer to Canadians in the next federal election over its controversial environment policy, which the Liberals and NDP say is obstructing international efforts to combat climate change.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney will have some tough questions to answer when he appears before the Commons ethics committee later this week, members said Sunday.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck deep in the South Pacific Ocean between Tonga and New Zealand on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey and New Zealand's GNS Science reported

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - Robert Pickton once had dreams of life beyond his filthy trailer on a junk-strewn property pockmarked with abandoned vehicles, piles of dirt and the remains of 26 human beings.

A B.C. Supreme Court jury found Robert William Pickton guilty on six counts of second-degree murder on Sunday, after a 10-month trial. The seven men and five women on the jury returned to the court in New Westminster with their decision after nine full

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Despite rampant police corruption and a prevailing sense that it will be years before law and order is effectively restored in Afghanistan, a simple comic book is being distributed among the children of Kandahar City in an effort t