NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 12-2008

The City of Calgary has shut down the notorious bar at the downtown Cecil Hotel, agreeing with police who said the establishment creates a high level of risk to public safety.

The Vancouver Canucks spent more than half of the second period on the power play without scoring a goal but were able to come out of Nashville with a 3-1 victory on Tuesday night.

A fighter aircraft that enabled thousands of Canadian air and ground crews to fight the menace of the Cold War has come back to life, and will fly once again.

"Thank you very much for your words of encouragement. It is a privilege to serve and represent a great country like Canada as we try to make a difference in the world. We appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness. Your continuing support means the world

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Taliban insurgency is widening its presence in Afghanistan and "closing a noose around Kabul," an international think tank report says

Nato countries are scrambling for alternative routes as far afield as Belarus and Ukraine to supply their forces in Afghanistan, which are increasingly vulnerable to a resurgent Taliban, the Guardian has learned.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan is prepared for an expected backlash from the Taliban once new boots start hitting the ground in the war-torn country.

OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada took an axe to short-term interest rates Tuesday, warning of a deteriorating global economy

An around-the-world cruise ship is planning to evacuate its passengers as the vessel travels through the violence-plagued waters off Somalia's coast in order to protect them from attacks by pirates.

With a brutal economic slowdown, 2008 may feel as if it will never end. Now, the world's timekeepers are making it even longer by adding a leap second to the last day of the year

The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide, an element that is often associated with life, on a far-off planet

The road has not been kind to the Vancouver Canucks this season, but a trip to Tennessee could help change their fortunes.

A popular neighbourhood Christmas light display in East Vancouver may become a victim of its own success

OTTAWA - Oilsands production is releasing four billion litres of contaminated water into Alberta's groundwater and natural ecosystems every year, according to a new national report that was immediately dismissed as "false" by the provincial government.

TORONTO - She may have been lambasted by late-night comedians for her lack of foreign policy experience, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seems to know a thing or two about Canada.

A young Chinese woman was left partially deaf following a passionate kiss from her boyfriend.

Around Katepwa Beach, Sask., the story will no doubt be retold of the mischievous little dog, the quick-witted man who rescued him and the surprising reunion of a teacher and her student.

Videos posted on a popular internet site show a young man videotaping an alleged street race he was part of while manoeuvring his vehicle in Metro Vancouver at a speed topping 240 km/h.

Sharing his laptop computer with his girlfriend backfired for a Calgary man when she discovered his child porn collection and went to police.

Bob Rae has told his supporters in a conference call Tuesday that he will end his bid for the Liberal leadership, CTV News has learned. CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife confirmed the report saying Rae will not challenge frontrunner Michael Ignati

There was the motorcade, around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, leaving Canadian Forces Base Trenton for the "Highway of Heroes." There, outside the chain-link fence that surrounds the base, was Dan Irvine, attempting to coax a heroic effort from his bagpipes.

Don't look up! There's a political crisis to the north! That's the warning comedian Jon Stewart had for his fellow Americans about Canada on his show "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," which aired late last night.

An Indian woman who claims to be about 70 years old has given birth to her first child, her doctor said Tuesday.

The head of a prominent law firm who last week was charged with impersonating a Toronto lawyer, has also been charged in a "stunning, brazen fraud" that reaped at least $113 million in profit by tricking hedge funds into making bogus investments, prosecut

What could be more fun than being a children's book reviewer sitting down with a pile of this season's books? Not much.

"Family in need, please help if you can." Schools were shutting down for the 2001 Christmas holidays when social worker Rose Vetere sent out this S.O.S. She was hoping to reach the 9,000 employees of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board

This week, Room for Improvement confesses to having a stash of "decorating porn", meaning decor magazines, to pore over for inspiration.

Gangs of youths smashed their way through central Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities yesterday, torching stores, buildings and cars in the third day of mayhem after the fatal police shooting of a teenager.

Judge orders man, 21, to receive treatment during 3-year probation

A fragment of Nazi shrapnel which almost took the life of legendary Comox Valley, B.C., war hero Douglas "Duke" Warren is the latest addition to the Comox Air Force Museum.

Dinosaurs, already known for having small brains, were in fact total airheads, a new study suggests.

Two economists addressed NHL team owners and executives at length about the state of the worldwide economy on Monday painting what league deputy commissioner Bill Daly termed a "pretty dark" picture.

After two failed tries, an unarmed, unmanned aircraft expected to be the first to patrol the U.S.-Canada border has completed a flight from Arizona to North Dakota.

Despite a decade-old voluntary ban in North America, Health Canada tests found three-quarters of soft plastic toys and items for young children for sale in Canada contained toxic chemical additives known to cause reproductive harm in children.

As 2008 draws to a close and we begin to celebrate the holiday season, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable accomplishments we have made over the past year

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban's fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, promised more violence over the next year even as the U.S. plans to deploy thousands more troops

HALIFAX -- Thousands of power customers in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia awoke Monday to find themselves without electricity after heavy, wet snow blanketed parts of the region.

Nearly 1,000 firearms were turned in as part of a gifts for guns program in a crime-ridden suburb of Los Angeles, more than doubling the amount collected last year, police said

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis appealed for calm on Monday as police continued to clash with youth staging a third day of riots protesting the shooting death of a teenager.

Quebecers are heading to the polls Monday to vote in their second provincial election in as many years

In the war of words over free speech, it seems one of the early combatants has switched sides. Imam Syed Soharwardy is opening a Freedom of Speech Centre in Calgary - a place where he says people will be encouraged to openly discuss thorny cultural

EDMONTON -- The mother of the Mill Woods rapist says her fugitive son was driven underground by a media smear campaign.

Quebec's new winter-tire law has Canadian drivers feeling a chill as far as the West Coast.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Shoppers Drug Mart are warning people with allergies to milk not to consume two varieties of chocolate bars.

Dr. Norman Doidge, a Toronto psychiatrist, calls the Arrowsmith program a 'jewel.'

It was an emotional end to an exhausting and exhilarating nine weeks as 24-year-old Nico Archambault was named "Canada's Favourite Dancer" on last night's much-anticipated season finale of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

There you have it: The greatest regular-season NFL game in Canadian history. That's at least until they play the second one, which surely can't be as lacking in entertainment value as this field goal-fest.

Policy makers have fewer tools to fight slump when interest rates hit bottom

Observing flirtations in the schoolyard landed Alec Greven something most 9-year-olds don't get: A grown-up book deal

Cracks appeared in the federal coalition yesterday as B.C. Liberal MPs said they might support Stephen Harper's budget when Parliament resumes.

Dion had been expected to drop out on Wednesday, but CTV News has learned Dion could accelerate his announcement.

New Brunswick Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc has dropped out of the Liberal leadership race, sources have told CTV News.

Milan Hejduk scored and assisted twice before notching the final convert in a 5-4 shootout win for the Colorado Avalanche over the Vancouver Canucks.

The potential to make more money, an abundance of patients and a great working environment are just some of the benefits American-trained doctors say lured them to practise medicine in the Windsor, Ont., area.

With less than 48 hours to go before Quebecers hit the polls, a relaxed Jean Charest spent an unhurried Saturday on the campaign trail.

Anticipation and excitement surround the end of every deployment for 8 Air Communications and Control Squadron (8 ACCS). We look back at our accomplishments and look forward to going home.

POZNAN, Poland -- Chief Bill Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark warning about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt on.

LOS ANGELES -- Nina Foch, who often played cool, calculating women in films, theatre and television and later became a respected acting coach, has died at age 84.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Like much of the base, the monument behind a two-storey building at Kandahar Airfield is in a no-salute zone -- but soldiers invariably salute when they pass by.

When the bodies of three more Canadian soldiers are brought home from Afghanistan on Monday, mourners will gather along the sides of the Highway of Heroes to remember the men whose deaths pushed Canada's troop casualties to 100 in the war-torn country.

The first NFL regular-season game to be played in Canada was played Sunday afternoon, with the Miami Dolphins defeating the "hometown" Buffalo Bills, 16 to 3, at Toronto's Rogers Centre.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada has added another set of weapons to its arsenal in Afghanistan with a new air wing that broadens efforts to combat the Taliban in volatile Kandahar province.

Calgary motorists are being urged to drive with caution as a snowfall, expected to leave up to 15 centimetres by Monday morning, created slick road conditions.

The father of two boys killed in an accident Nov. 29 on the Trans-Canada Highway issued a statement Friday, thanking the public for its support

Kyle Brodziak scored on an overtime tip-in to give the Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 upset victory over the host San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

Bells tolled in Halifax Saturday morning as residents honoured the 91st anniversary of the 1917 explosion that killed 2,000 people and flattened much of the city.

HONOLULU - With an eye on the immediate aftermath of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of the Second World War veterans and other observers are expected on Sunday to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the devastating Japanese military raid.

WASHINGTON - A new international group committed to eliminating nuclear weapons over the next 25 years has enlisted scores of world leaders as its campaign gets under way at a conference in Paris on Tuesday.

There isn't a day that Agatha Dawkins doesn't think of her lost son and a war she feels is failing.

Community members and politicians gathered in Montreal Saturday to mark the 19th anniversary of Canada's worst mass shooting, which left 14 women dead.

Martha "Sunny" von Bulow, the heiress who spent the last 28 years of her life in a coma she never came out of, died Saturday at age 76. The attampted murder case split Newport society, produced lurid headlines and was later made into a film, "Reversal of

WINNIPEG - The ice that has covered the Arctic basin for a million years will be gone in little more than six years because of global warming, a University of Manitoba geoscientist said.

VANCOUVER -- The B.C. government paid aboriginal people in the Interior to shoot wild horses for wolf bait and to round up other wild horses for live sale, ultimately to slaughterhouses

A series of political rallies were held in cities across Canada on Saturday, some in support and others in protest of the opposition coalition that threatened to topple the Conservative government earlier this week.

GDANSK, Poland - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has held his long-awaited meeting with the Dalai Lama.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - After three months of living and working in the heart of Afghanistan's Zhari district, the young warrant officer was taking pride in his surroundings as he gave a reporter a guided tour of his workplace.

More than 2,000 Canadian, U.S., Dutch and British soldiers turned out for a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield on Saturday to pay tribute to three comrades who died in the line of duty

"Email traffic will show they were screwing around with text hours later than they should have been."

November data show largest net loss in 26 years; Ontario's manufacturing sector hit especially hard

Until a few months ago, I had never tried that illustrious "magic tape" -- the kind rumoured to keep those gravity-defying Oscar gowns in place. I was en route to a posh gala wearing a plunging tea-green dress and I noticed it was slipping.

A former University of B.C. law student was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for killing his friend.

Kristina Groves and Shannon Rempel finished with gold and silver respectively in the women's 1,000m at the World Cup event in Changchun, China on Saturday

At a suburban Goodwill store on Friday, Theresa Settles selected a large, black comforter to warm her family until she can raise the money to turn the gas heat back on. A petite woman approached, her face obscured by dark sunglasses and a wrapped winte

A dog weighing more than 50 kilograms survived being frozen to a sidewalk overnight, probably because he was insulated by layers of fat, authorities said.

Disturbing new trend shows troubled teens pushing sharp items deep into their flesh

A Christmas Story has become a triple-dog delight for its millions of fans, a quarter-century after the Toronto-made movie slipped quietly out of theatres

Modern medicine has tools to fight this age-old malady. The question is, why don't they always work?

Hanson Brothers' legacy looms over actors who've made icons out of Julian, Ricky and Bubbles

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Defence Department said Friday it shot down a missile in a simulated attack designed to test a proposed shield against strikes by long-range ballistic missiles from countries such as North Korea.

Bettie Page, whose magazine photographs in bikinis and see-through lingerie helped her become one of the most notable models of the 20th century, is in hospital in intensive care after suffering a heart attack, her agent said Friday

The Vancouver Canucks got a lot accomplished in a 2-1 road win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

DNA tests have confirmed a match between a left foot that washed up in the Fraser River last month and a right root found in May on Kirkland Island, B.C.

A Calgary jury has found Jeremy Steinke guilty of killing his preteen girlfriend's parents and eight-year-old brother in a premeditated plot at their home in Medicine Hat, Alta., in 2006.

A pilot was rescued Friday afternoon from a small plane that crashed in the waters off the Sunshine Coast, northwest of Vancouver.

LONDON - An unusually cut blue diamond with a royal history could fetch as much as nine million pounds, or $14.5 million Cdn

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is beginning a big building effort in Afghanistan to house the roughly 20,000 additional troops who are expected to begin pouring in early next year

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The Danish navy says it has intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Draped in white robes to symbolize purity and the equality of mankind under God, nearly three million Muslims from all over the world gathered Friday in Mecca, on the eve of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Canada's Erik Guay skied to a third-place finish in Friday's World Cup men's downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo.

The world's biggest particle collider will resume operation in the summer of 2009 with a new warning system to prevent further breakdowns, its operators said Friday.

OTTAWA - High school trophy cases are supposed to celebrate victories, the triumphant moments of young lives. But there's little joy in the display behind the glass at Cairine Wilson Secondary School.

Vancouver, which has dropped the first three games of a seven-game road trip, last suffered five consecutive defeats during a 0-4-1 stretch from March 5-14, 2006.

Traumatic brain injuries have become the signature wound of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and troops who sustain them face a daunting array of potential medical consequences later on, says a report on the issue commissioned by the U.S. Department of Ve

All this while our leaders play political gains instead of doing the responsible thing. We need new leaders.

Canadian forces stationed in Afghanistan passed a grim milestone Friday after three soldiers were killed: more than 100 Canadians have now died while serving in the war-torn country

Rick Kelly dies two days after 3-year-old son succumbs to injuries suffered in attack in which mother killed

A special food bank program for people living with AIDS or HIV could be axed if donations to the Abbotsford, B.C., organization don't increase.

Pop star Boy George was on Friday found guilty by a court in London of falsely imprisoning a Norwegian male escort after a nude photoshoot.

In advance of the holiday season and its 50th year of tracking Santa Claus on his annual journey around the world, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has activated its "NORAD Tracks Santa " website for 2008.

Canadian troops taking part in Team Builder will form part of Task Force (TF) 1-09, scheduled for deployment in Afghanistan from March to October 2009. They will serve with the civil-military co-operation (CIMIC) platoon, part of the TF 1-09 Provincial Re

History has condemned him as the megalomaniac who brought death and misery to millions. But for one woman, the name Adolf Hitler evokes a smile not a shudder.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. says it expects to pay $825,000 in severance to workers fired for selling rebuilt cars without telling buyers about the vehicles' damage history.

NEW YORK -- More than 400 years after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe challenged established wisdom about the heavens by analyzing a strange new light in the sky, scientists say they've finally nailed down just what he saw.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A conservation group is going to court to force the federal government to consider adding the Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia deployed some 100,000 security personnel to keep order as Muslim pilgrims flooded into the holy city of Mecca in preparation for the annual hajj, beginning Saturday