NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 03-2011

The Green Party of Canada has filed an application with the Federal Court of Appeal to challenge a broadcast consortium's exclusion of leader Elizabeth May from the election campaign's televised leaders debates.

Concerned about poor aim at the urinals, a Regina bar is hoping sports-themed urinal toys will keep the washrooms cleaner.

Police in Nanaimo, B.C., are investigating a fight among several teenaged girls that police believe was part of an ambush and was posted on YouTube

The Vancouver Canucks clinched the President's Trophy for the first time in franchise history with a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.

Scientists say that strange ripples observed in the ring systems of Saturn and Jupiter were caused by comets.

It looks like a giant potato in space. And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.

There is a bill currently in the Palmetto State House of Representatives that would allow legal gun owners to pack heat when they go about their business in restaurants, day cares and even in church.

The new Canadian commander of the NATO-led mission in Libya says that anyone there would be "ill advised" to continue attacking civilians, while pledging to investigate a report from the Vatican that dozens of civilians died in a coalition air strike.

By any account, the past year was a rough one for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., even before the reactor disaster in Japan cast a pall over the atomic power industry.

The U.S. will not send ground forces to Libya, where armed rebels are fighting supporters of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi, Defence Secretary Robert Gates says.

Fighters trying to install Ivory Coast's democratically elected president months after the disputed vote descended Thursday on the country's largest city, aiming to unseat the nation's entrenched ruler as gunfire broke out across Abidjan.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has issued a defiant statement after two high-profile departures from his regime, and is calling on leaders of countries attacking his forces to resign.

BC Ferries could be allowed to raise its rates by more than 37 per cent on northern and minor routes and nearly 18 per cent on major routes over a four year period, starting in April 2012.

The Conservative lead over the Liberals literally shrunk overnight from 10 points to just over six, according to a Nanos Research poll of voting intentions for the Globe and Mail and CTV.

The Vancouver Canucks may be able to earn their first Presidents' Trophy on Thursday night. The Los Angeles Kings have far more incentive as they go for a fifth straight win.

China said Thursday it will increase this year's production quota for rare earths but gave no sign it might reverse plans to cut exports of the exotic metals needed by high-tech industry.

Federal scientists say they have dated coral living near the site of the busted BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico at 2,000 years old.

The toy isn't even for sale yet in Canada or the U.S. but already, a doll that lets little girls mimic the act of breastfeeding is raising eyebrows.

In the shadow of Japan's struggle to stem radioactive leaks from its stricken nuclear complex, police in white moon suits pull bodies of tsunami victims from an evacuated zone in halting work interrupted by radiation alarms.

India is now home to 17 per cent of all people in the world as its population climbed to 1.21 billion in 2011, though growth actually slowed for the first time in 90 years, census officials said Thursday.

House Republicans are trying to use the tax code to curb abortions by limiting tax breaks for insurance policies that cover the procedure.

The United States is out of step with the rest of the world's richest industrialized nations: Its economy is growing faster than theirs but creating far fewer jobs.

The CIA has small teams of operatives in Libya to gather intelligence to help the White House determine what type of assistance is required for the rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi's troops.

Determining why two teenage boys raped and murdered 18-year-old Kimberly Proctor is just as important as the crime they committed, says a prominent B.C. forensic psychologist who believes the teens fed on each others deviancy to carry out the horrific act

Egypt's military rulers said on Wednesday that the country's first presidential elections since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak will be held by November at the latest.

I always found Afghanistan to be one of those nations so blighted by history and tribalism that even relatively positive news can leave one feeling strangely sad.

Domestic violence on Canadian military bases has climbed steadily in recent years, coinciding with the return of soldiers from Afghanistan who carry physical and psychological battle wounds home.

If you thought identical twins were identical, think again. Canadian scientists have discovered that identical twins do not have identical genes, a common assumption by researchers for more than a century, and a development that could have implications in

TORONTO -- PETA protesters showed off some skin in a bid to ensure more animals can keep their pelts.

TOKYO - The U.N. nuclear watchdog suggested Japan consider widening an evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive on Thursday, the first leader to visit since a devastating earthquake and tsunami

A teenager who faces charges of dangerous driving causing death posted a Facebook video that shows him gulping down a Budweiser while driving a few months before the crash.

For the second year running, Vancouver International Airport has been named the best airport in North America in an international survey.

The federal government has been telling Tamil refugee claimants to pay tens of thousands of dollars to the smugglers who brought them here -- or Canada won't let them out of jail.

A woman and her children fled their home in western Newfoundland early Wednesday after a spider that appeared to be poisonous crawled down a bedroom wall.

An overnight fire at a three-storey apartment building in the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro on Montreal's West Island has forced about 200 people from their homes.

Former federal Conservative MP John Cummins appears set to take over as the new leader of the B.C. Conservative Party.

A morbidly obese man is dead after he was found fused to a chair that he had been stuck on for two years.

Mounties have charged a city Scout leader for allegedly sexually assaulting two 14-year-old girls at a sleepaway camp.

Tributes are pouring in for Neil Reimer, the first leader of the Alberta NDP, who died this week.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. say that very low levels of radiation have turned up in a sample of milk from Washington. But federal officials say consumers should not worry.

A rare speech to Syria's parliament by President Bashar al-Assad was a failure, the U.S. government says, criticizing the Syrian leader for not addressing demonstrators' demands for change.

Canadian broadcasters are trying to keep alternate voices out of the televised leaders debates, and are anti-democratic and elitist, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Wednesday.

Radiation leaking into seawater from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear complex has reached its highest level yet, prompting officials to declare that four reactors will be scrapped.

A Chinese group is making a $1-billion bet on coal in British Columbia to secure a key raw material for its steel making industry, the latest in a series of moves this year by international companies to stake a claim on Canadian resources.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa arrived in the U.K. on Wednesday and is resigning from his post, Britain's government said.

A vegan couple in France who fed their 11-month-old daughter only breast milk and appeared to ignore signs of her poor health are now on trial for the girl's death.

While support for all parties has changed little in the opening days of the 2011 campaign, Michael Ignatieff may be starting to catch some voters ears.

In a move that has reignited talk of a coalition, an NDP candidate in this southern Ontario city has surprised everyone, including his own party, by withdrawing from the election race and throwing his support behind his Liberal rival.

Police in The Netherlands are investigating after a 12-year-old girl gave birth during a school trip.

Baidu Inc., which operates China's leading search engine, said Wednesday it has removed 2.8 million items from an online library after authors complained it was distributing their work without permission.

A group of researchers said Wednesday they have found that a virus causing deadly respiratory diseases in humans can be passed on to mountain gorillas in Central Africa.

Police in Woodstock, Ont., say they have found a body in the charred rubble of an apartment building destroyed in a fiery explosion over the weekend.

Officials from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency say higher-than-recommended levels of radiation have been detected outside the evacuation zone of the Japan nuclear disaster.

In late 2005, the now-jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs called two men in Bountiful, B.C., and told them to bring their 12-year-old daughters to the United States to be wed, according to passages from Jeffs' diaries presented in a B.C. court Tuesday.

The body of the first Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan this year will return home this afternoon.

Rebels retreated Wednesday from the key Libyan oil port of Ras Lanouf along the coastal road leading to the capital Tripoli after they came under heavy shelling from ground forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Toronto have arrested a man suspected of participating in a terrorist plot as he was about to board a plane bound for the Middle East.

People familiar with the probe into the Gulf oil spill say manslaughter and perjury are among possible charges being explored by U.S. Justice Department investigators.

Radiation leaking into seawater from Japan's tsunami-damaged reactor complex reached its highest level yet Wednesday and the president of the plant's utility company was hospitalized, as setbacks accumulated in Japan's nuclear crisis.

It's a rabbit wrap at the University of Victoria.

The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.

The two teens responsible for the brutal murder of 18-year-old Kimberly Proctor have both been diagnosed as sexually sadistic psychopaths, a B.C. court heard Tuesday.

The president of the beleaguered Tokyo utility company that owns the tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant leaking radiation in the northeast has been hospitalized with high blood pressure.

A sentencing hearing for two teenaged B.C. boys convicted of the murder of a female classmate has heard victim impact statements from the girl's family and an apology from one of the killers.

Vancouver Canuck Manny Malhotra's second eye surgery on Tuesday was successful, the team has announced.

It will be another week before scientists in B.C. can assess if a dramatic increase radiation detected in Japan will result in any radioactive risk in North America.

Alex Burrows scored twice in the third period to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

The Ontario nuclear utility Bruce Power is delaying plans to ship radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River as it meets with some of the groups that have been protesting the move.

CALGARY - More than six decades after being washed away in a load of laundry and presumed lost forever, a precious keepsake has made its way back into the hands of its owner.

CHALK RIVER, Ont. - No damage was reported after a minor tremor Tuesday near the Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. nuclear laboratories in Chalk River, Ont.

An employee at a ranch in Maple Ridge, B.C. has been released without charge after he allegedly took the law into his own hands and shot a suspected tool thief early Tuesday morning.

Syrian state-run television says the country's cabinet has resigned as Syria experiences its worst unrest in decades.

Gunmen wearing explosives belts under military uniforms took hostages at a local government headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown, killing 15 of them execution-style before blowing themselves up in a fiery end to an hours-long siege.

Rebels backing Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara extended their gains by capturing a strategic crossroads and advanced toward the capital Tuesday after four months of political chaos following the disputed election.

Amateur video has captured the nerve-wracking landing in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., of a medical evacuation plane with front wheels that failed to dislodge until after the aircraft touched down.

The issue of head shots and concussions are dominating hockey dialogue, and a brain injury prevention organization thinks it has found a way to address the problem.

A big, ugly, toothy aggressive fish that walks and breathes air has the Saskatchewan government worried.

International leaders meeting in London on Tuesday agreed to establish a group to increase pressure against the Gadhafi regime in Libya.

If the television broadcasters get their way, there'll be no election debate sequel for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. The broadcast consortium that hosts the televised debates has decided May is not welcome to participate this time.

An attempt to classify tar sands oil as more environmentally-damaging than conventional oil would effectively ban its sale within European Member States

U.S. aircraft have fired at a Libyan coast guard vessel that launched missiles at merchant ships in the port city of Misrata, military officials said Tuesday.

The Vancouver Canucks are in position to set a franchise record for consecutive road wins while the Nashville Predators are one of the NHL's hottest teams with six victories in a row overall.

Japan's leader insisted Tuesday that the country was on "maximum alert" to bring its nuclear crisis under control, but the spread of radiation raised concerns about the ability of experts to stabilize the crippled reactor complex.

Ontario won't be following the federal Conservatives' lead in peppering today's budget with pre-election goodies designed to entice voters in an upcoming election.

The Liberals and New Democrats are expected to begin rolling out policy promises Tuesday after several days of sniping with the Conservatives about who would do what in a hypothetical coalition government.

Defenceman Dan Hamhuis watched his Vancouver Canuck teammates practise Monday, closed a deal on a house he's been trying to sell in Nashville for months and apparently felt much better a day after suffering his second concussion in less than seven week

OTTAWA - Canadian CF-18s flattened an ammunition depot and have co-ordinated other coalition air raids over Libya involving up to 20 warplanes, the military confirmed Monday.

A research team at Simon Fraser University has detected an increase in a radioactive isotope they say reached British Columbia from the damaged nuclear station in Japan.

Doctors in New York City will attempt to restore the vision in Manny Malhotra's left eye on Tuesday. The Vancouver Canucks forward is scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure less than two weeks after taking a puck to the eye.

The Red Wings had to play much of the night without Todd Bertuzzi, who was called for a five-minute elbowing penalty and a game misconduct for hitting Ryan Johnson in the head 5:17 into the game.

Libyan rebel forces pushed closer Monday to Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, a key government stronghold that lies between the rebel-held city of Benghazi and Tripoli, Libya's capital.

A BC Hydro rate hike set to take effect on April 1 has been suspended.

Telecom giant Bell Canada has pulled its plan to impose usage-based billing to wholesale internet clients, following a widespread public outcry.

Syrian President Bashar Assad wavered between cracking down and compromising Monday as thousands of protesters in a southern city defied security forces who fired tear gas to disperse them.

U.S. President Barack Obama says that Libya and the world would be better off with Moammar Gadhafi out of power, but that the goal will be pursued without broadening the mission to include regime change.

A Winnipeg Conservative MP says a local Liberal MP has "passed her expiry date"

An HIV-positive Winnipeg man has pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault for allegedly spitting in the eye of a police officer.

Alberta RCMP officers acted properly in dealing with gunman James Roszko given the available information, according to an inquiry into the 2005 murder of four officers in Mayerthorpe six years ago.

A sentencing hearing begins Monday on Vancouver Island for two teenaged boys convicted of the brutal rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl a year ago.

A powerful blast at a factory making weapons and explosives in southern Yemen killed scores of people on Monday after the facility was briefly taken over by Islamic militants and then looted by residents of the area, officials said.

Major disasters like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami or Pakistan's floods are likely to become more frequent, and global governments must prepare for an uncertain future, according to a British report.