Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan: 130 B.C. lottery web accounts compromised: N.L. town mourns 4 lost at sea:
Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan
A Canadian soldier, Sapper Brian Collier, has been killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
CBC NEWS: July 20, 2010: A Canadian soldier, Sapper Brian Collier, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday.
Collier was killed while on a foot patrol in the village of Nakhonay, in the eastern part of Panjwaii District.
He had dismounted from his vehicle near Nakhonay, about 15 kilometres west of Kandahar city, when he was killed by an improvised explosive device.
The 24-year-old Collier was born in Toronto and raised in Bradford, Ont. He was a member of the 1 Combat Engineer Regiment based at CFB Edmonton and was serving in Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment.
Collier, who was on his first deployment to Afghanistan, was previously injured in a separate IED blast.
"He fought hard to overcome his injury in order to get back to doing his job with his comrades," Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of Task Force Kandahar, said in a statement.
"Always quick to smile, Brian had an easygoing nature and a great sense of humour. Brian was an enthusiast of fine automobiles, and loved to spend time with his Audi," Vance said.
"Any Canadian who could have seen Brian in action would have been proud of him and proud of our country for the work being done with and for Afghans."
In another statement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper commended Collier's service, and extended condolences to the soldier's family and friends.
"The bravery and remarkable commitment of Canadians like Sapper Collier are bringing safety and stability to the people of Afghanistan," Harper said.
"Every day, their dedication and work protect our interests and values here at home and around the world. Sapper Collier's sacrifice will not be forgotten."
Collier's is the first Canadian death in Afghanistan since June 26, when Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht, 34, and Pte. Andrew Miller, 21, died after the vehicle they were in was struck by an IED.
The latest death brings to 151 the total number of Canadian soldiers who have died as part of the Afghan mission since it began in 2002.
130 B.C. lottery web accounts compromised
The B.C. Lottery Corporation launched its online gambling website on the morning of July 14, but within hours, it had crashed. (BCLC)
B.C.'s privacy commissioner has confirmed that a breach that compromised users' account details forced the shutdown of the B.C. Lottery Corporation's new online casino PlayNow.com just hours after it was launched last week.
CBC News : July 20, 2010: B.C.'s privacy commissioner has confirmed that a breach that compromised users' account details forced the shutdown of the B.C. Lottery Corporation's new online casino PlayNow.com just hours after it was launched last week.
Elizabeth Denham says the personal information of more than 130 people was inadvertently shared with other customers on the website.
Denham says the problem was not caused by a hacker but by "data crossover" that made the names, contact information and, in some cases, credit card and bank information visible to other gamblers using the site.
Espionage in Canada and Western Countries: Part One to Five
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Denham says the site will not be back up until the problem is fixed.
She has asked BCLC to pay for a credit monitoring service to ensure the victims of the breach won't be targeted by fraudsters.
BCLC unavailable to comment
The B.C. Lottery Corporation was unavailable to comment on the allegations that customer information and perhaps even cash in online accounts may have been compromised during the launch of its online casino.
On Tuesday, the lottery corporation's CEO failed to return calls from CBC News after scheduling an interview to discuss the website's problems.
The agency has repeatedly blamed an overwhelming rush of customers for the crash of the website last week.
"High player volumes to the Playnow.com website on July 15 exceeded server capacity, creating traffic and load issues," said a statement released by BCLC on Monday.
"When BCLC learned about this situation, immediate action was taken to shut down PlayNow.com and a full assessment was initiated."
NDP raises privacy concerns
Before the privacy commissioner confirmed the breach, the B.C. NDP said the continued disruption of the site was raising concerns about the protection of personal information and called on the government to tell the public what is going on with the new gambling website.
"The B.C. Liberal government must tell British Columbians what is going on," said MLA Shane Simpson. "The suggestion by at least one expert that the site crashed because it was hacked is troubling.
"If the government is going to get into online gaming, they need to protect people's privacy. People want to be able to trust that their private information, from credit card numbers to gambling histories, is not being compromised."
The gambling website crashed just hours after its launch last Thursday and has yet to be restarted. Billed as the first government-sanctioned online casino in North America, the site was immediately controversial.
That led some computer security experts to speculate that hackers may have targeted the site with an overwhelming number of hits in order to disrupt the servers.
But officials at BCLC have been quick to deny such speculation.
"To date, the preliminary results from the assessment and a third party security review show no evidence of external interference or hacking," said the statement.
Botnets can overwhelm websites
But Vaclav Vincalek, the head of Pacific Coast Information Systems, said the high number of hits the website immediately experienced could have been created by a hacker tool called a botnet, which the corporation might not have recognized as hacking.
Setting up a botnet involves sending out a computer virus that lies dormant in a network of home computers. The hacker then activates the virus and all those computers start sending normal looking information and requests to one target website at the same time, overwhelming its servers.
Botnets involving as many as 1.5 million computers have been detected on the internet by police, but most are estimated to involve an average of 20,000 computers, in order to avoid detection.
In some cases, botnets are created in an attempt to extort money from the operators of websites, said Vincalek. "So you build your army of botnets and you go after the gambling website like this ... and you say, 'Look, you either pay us X amount - $100,000 - or we shut you down,'" said Vincalek.
Bank of Canada raises rates again
CBC NEWS: July 20, 2010: The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points Tuesday, the second straight time it has done so after keeping rates at unprecedented lows for more than a year.
In its latest policy decision, the bank opted to move its overnight lending rate to 0.75 per cent. The bank had previously raised its benchmark rate to 0.5 per cent in June after having kept rates at emergency lows since April 2009 in an attempt to stimulate the economy and spur lending.
Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney opted to raise interest rates Tuesday, the second consecutive hike after more than a year of record low rates. (Canadian Press)
In raising the rate, the bank moved to lightly hit the brakes on a Canadian economy that has shown signs of significant strength in recent months.
But the bank made it clear in its policy statement that it sees Canada's economy recovering more gradually than it did in its previous outlook in April. It now projects GDP growth of 3.5 per cent in 2010, 2.9 per cent in 2011 and 2.2 per cent in 2012.
The bank also made it clear that future rate hikes are not guaranteed.
"Any further reduction of monetary stimulus would have to be weighed carefully against domestic and global economic developments," the bank said in its statement.
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Further rate hikes can't be ruled out, BMO economist Michael Gregory noted.
"The bank's forward-looking language does not preclude further rate hikes," he said. "[But] the bank now has more wiggle room to raise rates ... if they want to. And we think they will."
While raising rates, the Bank of Canada clearly took a cautious approach, CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld said in a note.
"The Bank of Canada is like a poker player with a pair of jacks," he said, "not sure if it has the winning hand, but comfortable throwing in another quarter-point chip at each betting opportunity for now."
The overnight lending rate is the rate at which banks borrow from each other for short-term loans. While it is not directly related to the rates banks then offer their customers, they are often closely aligned.
Within hours of the announcement, three of Canada's major lenders - Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Royal Bank of Canada - raised their prime lending rates to 2.75 per cent, up from 2.5, effective July 21.
The next scheduled date for the Bank of Canada to announce the overnight rate target is Sept. 8.
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N.L. town mourns 4 lost at sea
Residents of Twillingate, a small fishing town on Newfoundland's northeast coast, held an emotional candlelight vigil for four people killed in a weekend boating mishap.
Residents of a small fishing town on Newfoundland's northeast coast held an emotional candlelight vigil Monday night for four people killed in a weekend boating mishap.
The bodies of two boys and an unrelated man were pulled from waters near Twillingate on Sunday, while searchers have called off a search for another man's body.
A hush fell over a crowd of about 1,000 people - about a third of Twillingate's population - as a wreath carrying four candles was released onto the water.
Brothers James, top, and Josh Guy were killed Saturday when the boat carrying them on a pleasure cruise ran into rough waters. (CBC)
"Just whisper a word of comfort to each other, because we all need comfort right now, we all need healing," said resident Wayne Greenham.
The crowd came to remember Josh Guy, 10, and his older brother, James, as well as Paul Froude, a local fisherman who had accompanied the boys Saturday on what was meant to be a pleasure cruise under bright, sunny skies.
Residents said conditions at sea on Saturday belied the sunny weather, with heavy, rolling waves that are believed to have swamped the boat. At least three of the four had been wearing life-jackets.
The fourth person in the five-metre open boat had grown up in the area and moved away to work in the Northwest Territories. He had come home for a vacation. The official search for his body ended at nightfall Monday, with the Canadian Coast Guard classifying his case as "missing at sea."
The search included a military Cormorant helicopter, two Canadian Coast Guard ships and many local boats, which scoured a wide area northeast of Twillingate's harbour.
Searchers on the weekend found debris from the boat, including a cooler and a gas tank.
The candlelight vigil was held on the night that fireworks were to have been launched over the town, one of Newfoundland's oldest fishing villages and a popular tourist attraction. Some other festivities, including activities for children, have been cancelled.
Ottawa International Poets and Writers for human Rights (OIPWHR)
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