CBC NEWS: July 18, 2010: Dozens of children went to Nelson Mandela's home Sunday to sing to him for his 92nd birthday.

The 92 well-wishers, ages six to 12, were flown to Johannesburg from Mvezo, Mandela's birthplace, and Qunu, where he grew up.

People around the world have been asked to mark the anti-apartheid leader's birthday as Nelson Mandela International Day.

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The UN General Assembly approved a resolution last November setting aside July 18 as a day devoted to public service and to recognize the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's achievements.

Mandela is largely retired from public life and spent his birthday with family in Johannesburg. Early Sunday, his wife went to an orphanage in Soweto to help plant a vegetable garden.

The moncitizenship is the new Canadian governmental task. The diplomatic lines of Republics of Yemen and Poland are non grata with their masks.

"Today is an opportunity for millions of people around the world to look inside themselves and find those beautiful qualities as any human being has and say: 'I am able to make a difference to my neighbour, to someone underprivileged, I can extend my goodness to other people,"' Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, said.

She said that while her husband is no longer so physically strong, "his spirit is strong as ever."

On Friday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Mandela "a towering figure" who "embodies the highest values of humanity, and of the United Nations."

"His life, his strength and his decency are an example to us all," Ban said in a statement. "He fought his oppressors for years. And then, he forgave them."

Mandela led the fight against apartheid in South Africa as head of the African National Congress' armed wing. He was convicted of sabotage and other crimes and served 27 years in prison.

When he was freed in 1990, he supported reconciliation, helped lead South Africa's transition toward multiracial democracy, and became the country's first president to win in a fully democratic election, in 1994.

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North

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CBC NEWS, July 18, 2010: The bodies of one man and two boys were pulled from the waters north of Twillingate, N.L., on Sunday after their boat was reported missing.

The moncitizenship is the new Canadian governmental task. The diplomatic lines of Republics of Yemen and Poland are non grata with their masks.

Searchers first found the body of a 10-year-old boy around 2:30 a.m. NT near a small island not far from the small fishing community of 2,000. Neil Peet, with the Maritime Rescue Centre in St. John's, said the child was wearing a life-jacket.

Later in the morning, the body of the boy's eight-year-old brother and that of a man were located.

The search was continuing for a second man who left Twillingate with the group who left Saturday afternoon in an open five-metre boat for a pleasure cruise of the islands around Notre Dame Bay. They were seen safe on the ocean in the afternoon but didn't return in the evening.

Peet said the two boys were brothers, but were not related to the adults in the boat.

A shrimper returning to Twillingate about 10 p.m. NT spotted a cooler and life-jacket in the water and reported the discovery to authorities.

A Cormorant search and rescue helicopter from Gander and two coast guard auxiliary vessels began the search after midnight.

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Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North America and Europe

He said the bodies were recovered not far from where officials suspect a mishap occurred.

The boat has not been located, but searchers have found a gas can and some clothing.

Peet said Sunday morning that fog and three-metre swells were hampering search efforts. Visibility was at less than a quarter of a nautical mile, he said. Spoke with SAR. That was revised to about three nautical miles later in the day.

The waters off Twillingate are popular with tourists because the area is known for whale-watching and icebergs.

CBC NEWS: July 17, 2010: The Canada Revenue Agency has revoked the charitable status of Tamil (Sri Lanka) Refugee-Aid Society of Ottawa.

The agency said Saturday that the society "was operating as part of the support network for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," which Canada and the United Nations have declared a terrorist organization.

The government "has made it very clear that it will not tolerate the abuse of the registration system for charities to provide any means of support to terrorism," the agency said in a news release.

The society provided $713,000 to a group supporting the Tamil Tigers, a news release said.

"The CRA audit also indicates that fundraising conducted under the society's auspices involved an individual who has been convicted in the United States of conspiring to provide material support to the LTTE."

The society's liaison officer for Sri Lanka was named in documents filed with the Federal Court of Canada as a contact with the World Tamil Movement, also a terrorist organization because of its ties to the Tamil Tigers.

The agency also said the society:

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• Failed to properly control the use of its funds.
• Improperly issued tax receipts on behalf of third parties.

De-listing the society as a charity means it is no longer exempt from income tax and may have to pay tax equal to the full value of its remaining assets.

CBC NEWS, July 17, 2010: Pressure readings from a new containment cap at the site of BP's damaged oil well are slowly rising and there are no signs of any new leaks, the company said Saturday.

BP reported progress as it neared the end of a 48-hour pressure test on the cap.

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On Thursday, BP closed the vents on the cap and finally stopped crude from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico - for the first time since the April 20 oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill about 1.6 kilometres below the surface.

The moncitizenship is the new Canadian governmental task. The diplomatic lines of Republics of Yemen and Poland are non grata with their masks.

Officials were worried about leaking because pressure readings from the cap were not rising as high as expected on Friday, indicating that oil may be escaping.

Kent Wells, a BP vice-president, said during a Saturday morning conference call that pressure inside the cap was slightly above the last level announced late Friday.

That level, recorded a day after the flow of oil was choked off, measured about 6,700 pounds per square inch. BP says it wants a pressure reading closer to 7,500 psi and may extend the 48-hour test.

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North

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The moncitizenship is the new Canadian governmental task. The diplomatic lines of Republics of Yemen and Poland are non grata with their masks.

CBC NEWS July 16, 2010: The Canadian government said Friday it plans to spend $9 billion to purchase a new generation of fighter jets, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told a news conference in Ottawa that the jets would be purchased from Lockheed Martin, with the first one expected for delivery by 2016.

The contract, one of the biggest military equipment purchases in Canadian history, is worth $9 billion, but the full cost could rise to as much $18 billion once the government signs a maintenance contract.

'When you think purely about response times, there is nothing else that can get across the country as fast as a fighter jet.'-Mercedes Stephenson, military analyst

MacKay said the government would make further announcements on additional costs at a later date.

The new jets would replace an aging fleet of CF-18s that recently underwent a $2.6-billion upgrade.

"This aircraft is the best that we can provide our men and women in uniform, and this government is committed to giving them the very best," MacKay said at a news conference.

Sole-source contract questioned

But the government is fending off criticism that it is making one of the biggest military purchases in Canadian history without a single competing bid.

The Liberals say the massive purchase of 65 jets should have been subjected to competitive bids.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is calling on the House of Commons defence committee to reconvene as soon as possible to examine what he calls the Tory government's "secretive, unaccountable decision to proceed with this contract."

The Liberals want the committee to question other potential bidders and procurement experts to determine whether a sole-sourced contract gives maximum value to the government and taxpayers.

"I think Canadians are amazed that the largest procurement deal in the history of the country is a single-sourced - so, it's not a competitive - deal," Ignatieff told reporters.

The F-35 Lightning II fighter jets set for purchase by the federal government are made by Lockheed Martin. The Liberals, however, say the purchase should have been subjected to competitive bids. (Defence Department/Canadian Press)

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"We don't know whether we're getting value for money. And they're releasing it on a Friday ... in the middle of July, when they think no Canadian is watching and when Parliament is not sitting."

A previous Liberal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Lockheed Martin to develop the Joint Strike Fighter but that did not commit Canada to buy the aircraft.

"I am questioning the hypocrisy which seems to soar higher than this aircraft in now criticizing purchasing the very plane that the previous government signalled very early on that they were going to do," MacKay said.

Jets 'absolutely necessary': analyst

Military analyst Mercedes Stephenson told CBC News that the purchase is "absolutely necessary."

"We have to have fighter jets," she said. "Canada is a massive country, and when you think purely about response times, there is nothing else that can get across the country as fast as a fighter jet.

"Also, when you are dealing with the Arctic, there is very little that has the kind of survivability of a fighter jet in the air under those kinds of harsh conditions."

She added that the purchase is also important for Canada to meet obligations to its international allies.

"Everybody else is updating their fighter jets, and there simply hasn't been a technology developed that can replace it at this point," Stephenson said.

But the NDP argues even if Canada needs fighter jets, it's not clear it needs these particular ones.

"The issue for the Canadian defence department is, is the F-35 what we want?" said NDP MP Malcolm Allen.

Allen said the jet was built to suit the needs of U.S. forces.

"We are basically buying these for Canadian duties," he said. "New Democrats are fully supportive of the men and women in the armed forces ... but we have to decide what it is they are going to do, and we have not done that."

Allen said that a proper analysis of Canada's defence needs has not been done in 15 years.

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North America and Europe TERRORISM The Origin and the Sources M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D.

A police officer looks at what is believed to be the remains of an airplane after a crash in Quebec City on June 23, 2010. Mathieu Belanger/Reuters/

Plane crashes in Quebec with 6 aboard

Last Updated: Friday, July 16, 2010 /7:54 PM ET CBC News : A float plane with six people on board has crashed in a remote area of northern Quebec, Canadian Forces Search and Rescue officials say.

Quebec provincial police confirmed there were fatalities, but could not say how many.

A C-130 Hercules sent from CFB Trenton has dropped two medics by parachute and they are preparing to have casualties transported away by helicopter.

The plane went down in the vicinity of Maria-Chapdelaine, north of Lac Saint-Jean, after the pilot encountered bad weather and tried to land on a lake.

Two Griffin helicopters and a Cormorant helicopter from Greenwood, N.S., are en route.

More to come: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/07/16/plane-crash-quebec.html#ixzz0tu9aJHMq

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Missing Alberta couple's SUV found

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Hourihan also addressed criticism about the RCMP investigation. Police didn't launch an investigation into the McCanns' disappearance until five days after their burned RV was found.

It was also revealed Thursday that the RCMP didn't take contact information from a father and daughter from Prince George who reported seeing a Hyundai Tucson SUV in the B.C. city on July 8.

"A couple of mistakes have been made. I acknowledge that." Hourihan said. He admitted police were "a bit slow in getting going" after the motorhome was found because information wasn't passed on.

An internal review is underway and one RCMP officer in Edson has been placed on administrative duties because of the information foul-up, Hourihan said. Police have received more than 100 tips in the investigation.

Calgary man among 29 killed in Iraqi hotel fire

Man worked for Terraseis International, a geophysical survey company

CBC NEWS: July 16,2010: A Calgary man was among the at least 29 people killed in a fire in a five-storey hotel in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, the company he worked for confirmed in a statement Friday.

"We are deeply saddened to confirm reports that eight Terraseis employees died in the fire," Terraseis International said in its statement.

The Dubai-based company conducts geophysical surveys, often used in oil exploration and production, and its employees were in Iraq doing sub-contract work for Calgary-based Talisman Energy.

The other Terraseis employees killed were from several different countries, including South Africa, the U.K. and Venezuela.

Firemen try to put out a fire at Soma Hotel in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, about 260 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. (Sherko Raouf/Reuters)

Terraseis chairman Kevin Plintz confirmed to CBC that the Canadian killed was from Calgary. Plintz also said two other Canadians are being treated for smoke inhalation.

The fire in the Soma Hotel began late Thursday night and was likely sparked by an electrical short, the local chief of police, Brig. Gen. Najim-al-Din Qadir, said. The investigation is still underway but officials have said it was not an act of terrorism.

Qadir said the dead included people from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela and China, with some working for foreign oil companies.

Many died of smoke inhalation

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North America and Europe TERRORISM The Origin and the Sources M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D.

Neil Arun, a journalist based in Iraq, said at least 40 people were hurt, and most of the casualties were believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

"A lot of the people also seem to have died after trying to leave their rooms, after trying to jump from their windows," Arun said Friday.

Marwan Assad, a Kurd with dual British citizenship, said he came to the hotel to visit two friends but never made it to their room. He said the fire broke out when he was on the third floor and smoke quickly enveloped the hallway, forcing him to stumble blindly in search of a way out.

"I saw an open door and a man lying dead in the room because he suffocated from the smoke," Assad said at Sulaimaniyah Emergency Hospital, where he was about to undergo surgery for breaks to both his legs. "I entered the room and threw myself from the window."

Sulaimaniyah fire department head Brig. Yadgar Mohammed Mustafa confirmed that many of the victims succumbed to smoke inhalation. He said the lack of fire escapes contributed to the high death toll.

Farouq Mulla Mustafa, general director of the AsiaCell mobile phone company, said four of the company's engineers from the Philippines, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Cambodia were among the dead.

Sulaimaniyah, located 260 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, is the commercial capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and the region's second largest city.

Wind backs off targeting Rogers

CBC NEWS: July 16,2010: Wind Mobile has backed off targeting Rogers with a promotion that seeks to lure its customers specifically, with Bell and Telus now included in the deal.

The upstart wireless carrier on Thursday announced a promotion that offered Rogers customers - including those on its Fido and yet-to-be-launched Chatr brands - a $150 credit for taking their business to Wind. The deal, a continuation of a promotion previously aimed at all three major carriers, is intended to alleviate the early termination fees some customers face when cancelling their existing contracts.

On Friday, Wind applied the offer to customers of all carriers. Scott Campbell, chief marketing officer for Wind, said the deal was expanded because customers asked for it.

"Yes, the offer was in the spirit of competition and is for all of Rogers' customers, no matter which of the myriad of Rogers' brands they come from," he said. "But Wind is about listening to customers and customers of other carriers told us they were interested, so we'll honour their requests, too."

Rogers is launching its new Chatr brand at some point this summer to compete with new carriers that are offering unlimited services, including Wind, Mobilicity and Public Mobile.

Amit Kaminer, an analyst for The SeaBoard Group telecommunications consultancy, had said Wind's initial move against Rogers was a counter to Chatr.

"From a marketing perspective, it aims to bind the three Rogers brands together such that consumers are made aware that all three names are radiating from the same wireless tower," he said.

Rumours emerged this week, however, that Bell may also be planning to offer low-cost unlimited services through its Solo brand, and if that happens, Telus could be forced to follow suit.

Mobilicity chairman John Bitove has harshly criticized Rogers' Chatr plan and said he intends to file a complaint with the Competition Bureau if the brand's launch goes ahead. Bitove has said the Competition Act expressly prohibits the launch of flanker brands that are designed to undermine competitors.

Public Mobile said Rogers will only end up hurting itself in the long run by starting up another discount brand.

"Rogers can't afford to start re-pricing their existing customers," said spokesperson Lisa Pappas. "By launching Chatr, Rogers has created risk for themselves, and benefited us by legitimizing the market segment we are focused on."

Police say US woman made up carjacking story to cover up that she crashed while having sex

Published: Thursday, July 15, 2010 | 8:40 AM ET : Canadian Press The Associated Press : VINELAND, N.J. - Authorities say a New Jersey woman told them she was carjacked to cover up the fact that her car crashed because she was having sex.

The 23-year-old had initially told police she got lost on Sunday and asked a man for directions. Police say she told them the man pulled her out of the car at gunpoint and threw her to the ground.

Police told The Daily Journal that she later admitted she picked up a man and let him drive, and the car crashed into a tree while they were engaged in a sex act. Officers say the car had been set on fire.

The woman is accused of filing a false police report. She has refused to identify the man.

© The Canadian Press, 2010.

Avastin fails to slow breast cancer: FDA

Last Updated: Friday, July 16, 2010 | 2:15 PM ET :The Associated Press : Federal health scientists said Friday that followup studies of a Roche breast cancer drug show it failed to slow tumour growth or extend patient lives, opening the door for a potential withdrawal in that indication.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Roche's blockbuster Avastin in 2008 based on early-stage trials showing it shrank tumours caused by breast cancer. The decision was controversial because drugs for cancer patients who have never been treated before must usually show evidence they extend lives.

Avastin's so-called "accelerated approval" was based on the condition that later studies would show a survival benefit.

But in briefing documents posted online, FDA reviewers said two followup studies recently submitted by Roche failed to show that Avastin significantly extended lives compared to chemotherapy alone.

Additionally, the FDA said more recent data did not confirm the tumour shrinkage seen in earlier studies. Patients taking Avastin showed significantly more side-effects, including high blood pressure, fatigue and abnormal white blood cell levels.

Panel to review drug

On Tuesday, the FDA will ask a panel of outside cancer experts to review the evidence on Avastin. The panel's recommendations are not binding, but the FDA usually follows their guidance.

The FDA has the option to remove drug's approval for breast cancer. Avastin is also approved for colon, lung, kidney and brain cancer. The drug was Roche's top-selling cancer treatment last year with global sales of $5.9 billion US.

Roche is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and its biotech unit, Genentech, is based in south San Francisco.

Avastin was the first drug to fight cancer by stopping nutrients from reaching tumours.

Such "targeted therapies" were thought to hold promise for eliminating chemotherapy, but the two approaches are now used in combination.

A spoonful of Sugar

Canadian comic Sugar Sammy conquers the world one joke at a time.

Montreal-born Indo-Canadian comedian Sugar Sammy is playing the Toronto Just For Laughs Festival this week. (Just For Laughs)

CBC NEWS: July 7, 2010 : Sugar Sammy's stand-up resume reads like a Rand McNally atlas. The 34-year-old comic arrives in Toronto for this week's Just for Laughs festival on the heels of a gig in Saudi Arabia. Over the past few years he's travelled constantly, performing in far-flung locales like Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ireland, Hong Kong, Thailand, the U.S. and India.

Sugar Sammy's comedic resume reads like a Rand McNally atlas - he's played everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Ireland to India to the U.S.

Thanks largely to his facility in four languages, Sammy – born Samir Khullar in Montreal's ethnically diverse Côte-des-Neiges district – has crafted a career with massive market reach. He grew up speaking Punjabi with his family, and learned Hindi primarily from Bollywood films. English was the language he spoke with his friends and, despite his protestations, Sammy was sent to a French school. As a result, he learned how to connect with a wide range of audiences.

Chatting with him during a recent phone interview, it's easy to see how he earned the nickname "Sugar Sammy" at McGill University – smooth and unfailingly polite, he doesn't seem at all stressed out by his whirlwind schedule, or the inherent difficulties of tweaking material for assorted corners of the planet.

"I treat every market differently," he explains. "Different cultures have different reference points and sensibilities. For me, it always involves going to a country and figuring it out. Sitting there with the promoter or the kitchen staff or the concierge, figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'll just say, 'Look, I'm a foreigner, I just got here. What themes can I explore?'"

Sammy's routines focus primarily on his dating life, observations about race and his family – his father's ongoing struggle to understand the world wide web is rich comic fodder. Here's a sample joke about English Canada: "There aren't a lot of coloured people in Thunder Bay. You know you're in a white town when the hotel cleaning staff is white."

In one of his early bits, Sammy lamented the lack of glamorous media archetypes for Indo-Canadians: "Every ethnicity's got their role models on TV, right? Hispanic people got Antonio Banderas, who's suave, debonaire. Chinese people have Jackie Chan, who can whip some ass... Black people got Denzel, who's like the sex symbol. Who do we have, man? We got Apu from the goddamn Simpsons."

Sammy was influenced by black American stand-ups who also made race a big part of their acts: Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence. "Eddie Murphy is probably my favourite of all time. I love how fresh and young and unafraid he was to tackle things. He just had a smoothness about him on stage. You wanted to be him. He was in control. I think he's been a huge influence in terms of the way I deliver my material as well."

Although Sammy's English-language material isn't as controversial (or as laden with F-bombs) as Murphy's, he takes a slightly more incendiary approach in French. He grew up in Montreal – and still lives with his parents on the rare occasions when he visits his home province – but initially focused on English gigs there. He's only recently started to make a foray into Quebec's French-speaking market. Last summer, Sammy caused a media ruckus at a French-language Juste pour rire/Just for Laughs gala in Montreal. The source of the controversy was this joke: "There are two kinds of Quebecers: Those who are educated, cultivated and well-raised – and those who voted Yes."

"It was very good," he recalls of his referendum gag. "It was taking on the separatists. And no one's done it to their faces. Every other Anglo's done it the other way around, going to an English audience and talking about Quebec separation. A lot of Montreal comics have done that. But to go in front of [a largely] separatist audience and say that was another challenge. And that's what made news.

"It was just kind of me going in and shaking things up and being funny. It's like poking fun at your friends." He delivered the infamous line with a smile, an indication that he wasn't going for the jugular.

The risk paid off. The federalist Sammy recently did some shtick with Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois on Le Gala Les Olivier, an award show for Quebec comedians. Clearly, his French-language profile has risen.

"In English Canada, I talk about my family, my personal stuff. Whereas in Quebec, the first thing you've got to talk about is, 'Well, what's my place in this society? What comes to mind right away when I'm talking to these people?' It has to go that way. If it doesn't, then I feel like I'm cheating myself, and I'm not saying what I want to say."

Make no mistake, this business-savvy guy has a plan. Like most comedians who attain a certain level of success, Sammy is hoping to make the transition to TV and film work. And, of course, the globetrotting will continue.

Sugar Sammy strikes a pose at the 2008 Cracker Comedy Festival in Sydney, Australia. (Gaye Gerard/Getty Images)

For someone who's done so well in the often brutal world of stand-up, Sammy seems exceptionally well-adjusted. His desire to tell jokes doesn't appear to come from the dark recesses of a troubled soul: "I'm not looking for anything else when I'm out there. I love making people laugh – that's the number one thing, that's my passion."

His parents had no problem with his career choice, and are thrilled with his success. Now if only his father could figure out the internet. "He doesn't know how it works," says Sammy. "I was looking at YouTube, just checking out some of my clips and the comments. He came in and saw me and said, 'Oh wow, they're playing you on the internet again? They're playing you a lot!'"

Sugar Sammy performs at the Toronto Just for Laughs festival on July 9 and 10.

Greig Dymond writes about the arts for CBC News.

TERRORISM The Origin and the Sources M.T. Al-Mansouri, Ph.D.

CBC NEWS, July 16,2010: Faith groups are the latest contingent to complain about the federal government's decision to cut out the long-form census.

Both the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada have written to the Conservative government to voice their concerns.

They say they rely heavily on the data from the census to better serve their communities.

Questions on religion are included in the long census every 10 years, with the next such version coming up in 2011.

However, Industry Minister Tony Clement said he has received dozens of letters supporting the move to replace the long-form census with a voluntary household survey.

P.O.V.:

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North America and Europe

The Canadian Medical Association Journal also criticized the Tories for what it calls a decision based on "ideology."

The traditional census is an "essential tool" in the planning and delivery of health services, the journal said.

Census: Is it an invasion of privacy?

By POV

By The Canadian Press

Industry Minister Tony Clement says he is willing to testify before a House of Commons committee about his decision to scrap the mandatory long-form census.

Opposition parties have said they want to convene a committee this summer to question Clement about the change.

Several groups, including the Canadian Medical Association, have criticized the move, which they say will hurt the quality of census data.

But Clement told reporters in Montreal Thursday that many Canadians have complained the long-form census violates their privacy.

He said his office has received dozens of letters in the past 48 hours supporting his decision.

The federal privacy commissioner said Wednesday only a handful of complaints were filed about the census in the past decade.

Have you ever filled out the long-form census? Do you think the questions intrude on individual privacy? Is it worth the intrusiveness to have reliable findings on the Canadian population? To vote please, click on the below link:

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/pointofview/2010/07/census-is-it-an-invasion-of-privacy.html]