Teams of Democratic operatives and investigative journalists descended on Alaska today to delve into the private and public life of Sarah Palin, the new and little-known Republican vice-presidential nominee, as fresh questions arose over whether she had been properly vetted by the John McCain campaign. [...more]
THE mobile phone records of drivers involved in fatal accidents are being checked by police to see if they were talking or texting at the time. Police said almost 1300 more motorists in New South Wales have been caught talking on their phone, without a handsfree kit, in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. [...more]
TORONTO, BEIJING — Just two years ago, the Shangxing Furniture Company was expanding as fast as it could. Almost all of its profits – about $4-million – were plowed back into new warehouses for the wooden furniture that it churned out for North American and European customers. [...more]
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - Hanging on a white marker board in Kurt Gibson's office is a faded Polaroid of himself and his sister when they were children. They are standing inside a length of 48-inch pipe in the port town of Valdez, the picture snapped on a family road trip in May, 1970. Seven years later, the first oil would move through that pipe in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) from Alaska's North Slope to Valdez and from there by tanker to energy-thirsty Americans in the lower 48 United States. [...more]
Families of servicemen killed when their Nimrod spy plane exploded in the British military's biggest loss of life since the Falklands War are to sue the government under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), claiming it failed to respect their right to life. [...more]
Monday will be Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's turn to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of what is widely expected to be a looming election call. Dion had indicated he was too busy to meet with Harper before Sept. 9. After several attempts to set up a meeting, the prime minister suggested an election call could come with or without a Dion meeting. [...more]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage. [...more]
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The governing Conservative party is leading Canada’s federal political scene, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies released by the Toronto Star. 36 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories in the next election to the House of Commons, while 28 per cent would support the Liberal party. [...more]
The next election is about leadership and trust. Stephen Harper needs to find out if Canadians want him as a full-time Prime Minister; Stéphane Dion needs to know if he is the real Liberal leader or just a flag bearer waiting for a future king; Jack Layton must establish himself as the leader of a party that is more than a parking space for disillusioned voters between elections and a real alternative to the traditional governing parties; Gilles Duceppe needs to know if he is still leading a party with real supporters, or a leftover ghost organization born, like the Reform party, out of the post-Mulroney Progressive Conservative collapse. [...more]
As the passion of Barack Obama continues to stir America in his captivating presidential campaign of hope, a looming federal election will soon give Canadians a choice between Bully Boy and Mr. Bean. Stephen Harper versus Stephane Dion -- the nasty prime minister many Canadians can't stand, against the nerdy Liberal leader most can't understand. [...more]
As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to "combat global warming" soars ever higher - such as the International Energy Council's $45 trillion - "fighting climate change" has become the single most expensive item on the world's political agenda. [...more]
Britain's leading Muslim bodies say they are fighting extremism. In one of our most respected mosques, Sara Hassan came face to face with hardline female preachers of separatism. Here, she reports on the shocking results of her investigation [...more]
Barrel Strength | Obama, Palin and executive experience: the facts -- Let us put Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Barack Obama head-to-head on measures of executive experience. As Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has had the final executive authority over a state budget of over $13 billion. During that time she has held an approval rating of approximately eighty percent among Alaskan voters. [...more]
Times | Sarah Baxter: Conservatives find the girl of their dreams -- When Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight as John McCain’s running mate in Dayton, Ohio, and promised that women could “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”, it was an electrifying moment in a presidential election that had already produced its share of upsets and surprises. [...more]
BBC | Mass anti-crime rallies in Mexico -- Hundreds of thousands of people have marched throughout Mexico to protest against a continuing wave of killings and kidnappings in the country. [...more]
Residents of New Orleans fled their homes today as hurricane Gustav – dubbed “the mother of all storms” – threatened the city three years after Katrina wreaked havoc on their city. [...more]
CTV | Harper intent on triggering an election: Layton -- NDP Leader Jack Layton says Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems "intent on quitting his job" and triggering a federal election in the coming days. [...more]
Candidates in four federal byelections yesterday decried the Prime Minister's plans to call an election before their races conclude, alleging he is derailing the process because his party will lose in their ridings. [...more]
Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability and if time begins to run out, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently decided in a special discussion. [...more]
TORONTO (Reuters) - Greenpeace Canada blasted a lawsuit brought against it by Syncrude Canada Ltd, saying the move was designed to intimidate critics of the sprawling oil sands developments in northern Alberta. The suit comes after Greenpeace protesters targeted a waste-water pipe at Syncrude's Aurora mine, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, on July 24, demanding a halt to rising crude production from the oil sands, which the environmental group says is wrecking the environment. [...more]
He stabbed to death his common-law wife -- a battered women's counsellor -- and has been accused of manipulative and even violent behaviour toward women while locked up in a psychiatric hospital. But Timothy Weldon, a paranoid schizophrenic, plans to ask a review board next week to set him free on the grounds that he is dying from cancer and wants to live out his last few months with family, perhaps enjoying a cruise or visiting a theme park. [...more]
About 800 American troops will be helping Canadian forces in the fight against Taliban insurgents in Kandahar province, military officials announced Saturday. The new troops come from the 2nd Infantry Battalion, based at Fort Hood, Tex. [...more]
Green Party leader Elizabeth May is welcoming MP Blair Wilson to the Green Party as the first Green Member of Parliament in Canada. Mr. Wilson, MP for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, will serve in the Green Party Shadow Cabinet. [...more]
Deadlocked over Georgia, ineffective on Darfur and impotent about Zimbabwe, the BBC's United Nations correspondent Laura Trevelyan asks, what is the point of the UN Security Council? [...more]
Mass evacuations are under way in Cuba hours before Hurricane Gustav is due to blow in from the west after wreaking destruction around the Caribbean. Some 13,000 residents and 4,000 tourists were evacuated on Friday from low-lying coastal regions and the capital Havana is also on storm alert. [...more]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil will spend $160 million by the end of next year on the development of nuclear-propelled submarine to protect the enormous oil reserves found recently off its coast, the defense minister said Friday. [...more]
The idea that the Governor General would be within her rights to refuse Harper’s request for dissolution apparently has other adherents besides crankish magazine columnists. Indeed, constitutional scholar Errol Mendes, professor of law at the University of Ottawa and editor of the National Journal of Constitutional Law, argues Harper’s demand for a snap election may well be illegal: [...more]
Impulsive, transparent and cynical. Insulting to women and the men who voted for Hillary. John McCain's nomination of unknown, untested Sarah Palin as his Vice-President displays near-reckless judgment. He has chosen a small-town gal without credentials to be one heartbeat away from the U. S. presidency. Just 20 months ago, according to her biography, she was mayor of a town of 8,000, in Alaska. [...more]
Climbing Out Of The Dark | Brilliant, Just Brilliant! -- Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! That's this female's take on McCain's choice for Vice President. I've been watching the news as much as I could today. The strategy by the Republicans was flawless. [...more]
