The disgraceful conduct charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Semrau has not yet been sentenced.

The four-member panel in Gatineau, Que., handed down the decision Monday. It came after three days of deliberations in the court martial of the Canadian Forces captain charged in a battlefield death in Afghanistan.

Semrau, 36, was accused of firing two rounds from his rifle into a dying Taliban fighter in Helmand province of Afghanistan in October 2008.

A question from the jury about evidence kept lawyers arguing for hours, preventing a verdict on the weekend.

Semrau never testified, but an Afghan army captain, who was on the patrol with Semrau, testified the Taliban fighter was "98 per cent dead" when he was found.

Semrau was charged with four offences, including second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years; attempt to commit murder using a firearm and negligently performing a military duty imposed on him. He was found not guilty of the latter two charges.

Now based at CFB Petawawa, the married father of two young children grew up in Moose Jaw,

Sask.

B.C. common-law couples to get marriage rights

The B.C. government is proposing major changes to the province's family law for the first time in 30 years.

The B.C. government wants to extend laws governing the division of property to common-law spouses who have lived together for two years or who have children together.

The proposal is part of a package of major changes to the province's family law put forward by Attorney General Mike de Jong on Monday morning.

De Jong said the package is intended to modernize the province's Family Relations Act for first time in 30 years by making it less adversarial and easier to understand.

The changes cover a wide range of issues such as separations, child custody, support payments, division of property and pensions, access responsibilities, children's participation in the legal process and family violence.

One of the most significant changes is a proposal to extend laws governing the division of property in separations to common-law spouses who have lived together for two years or who have children together. Currently, the act's property-division scheme does not generally apply to unmarried spouses.

The proposal also seeks to exclude pre-relationship, gifts and inheritances from property that would be divided 50-50 in any separation.

The far-reaching package of proposed changes also includes reforms to create more options for out-of-court dispute resolutions and improving the tools for enforcing court rulings.

Alberta man unarmed when shot by RCMP

N.B. city reverses Anglo Society flag decision

The Anglo Society has lost permission to fly its flag outside of Bathurst City Hall on Sept. 18. (CBC)

Last Updated: Monday, July 19, 2010 | 5:14 PM AT: CBC NEWS: The city council in Bathurst, N.B., has reversed its decision to allow a New Brunswick anglophone-rights group to fly its flag outside City Hall to mark what it calls "Anglo Day" in September.

The council issued a brief statement on Monday rescinding permission for the Anglo Society of New Brunswick to place the banner it uses to promote its group in front of City Hall.

The group describes itself as a non-profit organization "dedicated to the promotion and protection of the English language and culture in the province" and is critical of many of the government's bilingualism policies.

The city's statement said that "after many phone calls, emails and street conversations as well as further investigation, council of the City of Bathurst has decided to withdraw its support for the flying of the Anglo Society flag on Sept. 18."

The council voted 4-2 to allow the group to fly its banner outside City Hall a week ago.

The decision sparked immediate concern by the mayor of the nearby community of Petit-Rocher and Michel Carrier, the commissioner of official languages.

Carrier had called on the council to reconsider the decision.

Anne-Marie Gammon, the lone francophone on council, said she had been inundated with emails from people protesting the possibility that the flag would fly in front of City Hall.

Bathurst Mayor Stephen Brunet said last week that the northern New Brunswick city was a multicultural community and that the Anglo Society should be treated as any of the other groups occasionally allowed to fly their flags at City Hall.

The council has a regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.

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America and Europe

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Greek terror group kills journalist: police

Last Updated: Monday, July 19, 2010 | 10:44 AM ET: The Associated Press : A Greek journalist was gunned down Monday outside his home in Athens, in an attack police say is linked to a domestic terrorist group.

A forensic police officer collects evidence outside the house of a Greek journalist gunned down in the Athens' neighborhood of Ilioupoli on Monday. (Alkis Konstantinidis/Associated Press)

Sokratis Giolias, 37, died after being shot more than 15 times before dawn in the capital's eastern neighbourhood of Ilioupoli. Police said bullet casings at the scene matched two 9-mm handguns used by the Greek terrorist group Sect of Revolutionaries.

Sect of Revolutionaries emerged following Greece's widespread rioting in December 2008, sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy. The group has vowed to carry out attacks against police and the news media, which it accuses of helping corrupt business interests mislead public opinion.

The group also attacked a TV station in Athens in February 2009. Giolias headed private Athens radio station Thema FM and wrote on a popular online news blog, Troktiko, which often deals with scandals.

The blog said two or three gunmen were believed to have shot Giolias, who was married with a young child. Police said they also believe more than one gunman was involved.

A car reported stolen was found burned out near the scene of the shooting, said police, who are investigating whether it was linked to the attack.

Journalist groups, the government and politicians condemned the attack.

"Democracy and freedom of speech cannot be gagged, [terrorized] or intimidated," government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis said. "The [government] unreservedly condemns this cowardly and cold-blooded murder."

Greek authorities have battled a wave of attacks by militant groups since the 2008 riots.

CBC NEWS : July 19, 2010: An African Union summit officially began in Kampala on Monday, a week after twin bombings killed 76 people watching the World Cup soccer final in the Ugandan capital.

The arrival of delegates from 49 countries "shows that terrorists cannot defeat us," said Uganda's foreign minister, Sam Kutesa. Extra security is in place to protect leaders and their support staff.

The Somalia-based Islamic insurgent group, al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the July 11 suicide bombings. The militants warned that attacks would continue if Uganda did not withdraw the troops it contributes to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Ugandan police said on the weekend they have detained 20 suspects in connection with the bombings.

The headline theme for the summit is maternal and child health. But the agenda also includes peace and security issues, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and food security.

Most of Africa's heads of state will be in Kampala for the summit, which wraps up July 27.

Kabul tense ahead of Afghan conference

Afghan police check vehicles and passengers as security is tightened ahead of the international conference on Afghanistan in Kabul. (Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)

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

Thousands of Afghan soldiers and police are patrolling Kabul, trying to secure the capital for a major international conference.

China passes U.S. as top energy consumer

For the first time in more than a century, a country other than the United States consumed more energy than any other nation, as China grabbed the top spot last year.

A chimney billows smoke behind electrical wires in central Beijing last year. China surpassed the U.S. in energy consumption in 2009, the IEA says. (David Gray/Reuters)

CBC NEWS:July 19, 2010 : For the first time in more than a century, a country other than the United States consumed more energy than any other nation, as China grabbed the top spot last year.

Citing data from the International Energy Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that China was the world's most voracious consumer of energy in 2009.

China consumed 2,252 million tonnes of "oil equivalent" last year, topping the U.S. tally of 2,170 tonnes by roughly four per cent.

Oil equivalent is the term the IEA uses to bring all forms of energy into a comparable form, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, wind and solar power.

China was forecast to overtake the U.S. at some point over the next decade. But the global recession appears to have sped up the process as its economy continued to expand at a double-digit pace while the U.S. economy declined and oil consumption flatlined.

Only 10 years ago, China's energy consumption was half that of the United States.

"The fact that China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol was quoted as saying.

China had already passed the United States as the world's largest polluter several years ago.

With a population of a little over 300 million, the United States still uses much more energy, per capita, than China does.

In terms of the use of crude oil specifically, the IEA says the United States remains well out in the lead, consuming some 19 million barrels per day. But China's economy relies on coal for much of its electricity generation, and its crude consumption is also climbing from its current level of just over nine million barrels per day.

China's electricity demand is forecast to increase by 1,000 gigawatts over the next 15 years - equivalent to the U.S.'s total electricity output at the moment.

India train crash death toll hits 61

Rescue workers and onlookers gather near the wreckage of train carriages at Sainthia, India, on Monday. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Last Updated: Monday, July 19, 2010 | 12:58 PM ET : The Associated Press: A speeding express train plowed into a stationary passenger train in eastern India on Monday, killing 61 people in a crash so powerful it sent the roof of one car flying onto an overpass.

Officials said they could not rule out sabotage.

Residents crawled over the twisted wreckage trying desperately to free survivors before rescue workers arrived with heavy equipment to cut through the metal.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who rushed to the site, raised the possibility the crash could have been another case of sabotage, two months after Maoist rebels were blamed for a derailment that killed 145 people.

"We have some doubts in our mind" about whether it was an accident, she said.

The crash happened about 2 a.m. local time when the Uttarbanga Express slammed into the Vananchal Express as it left the platform at Sainthia station, about 200 kilometres north of Calcutta.

The accident destroyed two passenger cars and a luggage car, turning them into a tangle of twisted metal. The passenger cars were reserved for those on the cheapest tickets and such carriages are usually packed to capacity.

The force of the crash was so intense the roof of one car flew into the air and landed on an overpass above the tracks. Local residents climbing through the debris searching for survivors were later joined by rescue workers using heavy equipment to cut through the metal.

"I was sleeping when I felt a huge jolt and heard a loud noise and then the train stopped," passenger Lakshman Bhaumik told local television. Bhaumik survived with minor injuries.

Rescuers recovered 61 bodies from the crash site and 125 other people were injured, said Surajit Kar Purkayastha, a top police official. The two drivers of the Uttarbanga Express were among the dead, Banerjee said.

Local residents help survivors

Rescue teams arrived about three hours after the accident, local residents said. Before that, locals scrambled to help survivors out of the trains and pull out bodies.

Indian soldiers and rescue workers gather near the wreckage of train carriages at the site of an accident at Sainthia on Monday. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

"For many hours it was just the local residents helping and it was very difficult to help without any equipment," the unidentified man told NDTV television channel.

Police official Humayun Kabir told NDTV, however, rescue workers reached the site within an hour of the crash.

Bhupinder Singh, the top police official in West Bengal, said the death toll could rise. He said it was too early to know how many people remained inside the coaches.

India's federal Home Ministry rushed several hundred members of the National Disaster Relief Force to the accident site to assist with search-and-rescue operations, a government statement said.

The disaster was the second major train crash in the state of West Bengal in the past two months. On May 28, a passenger train derailed and was hit by an oncoming cargo train in a crash that killed 145 people. Authorities blamed sabotage by Maoist rebels for that crash.

Accidents are common on India's sprawling rail network, one of the world's largest, with most blamed on poor maintenance.

Obama urges action on unemployment

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses Republican lawmakers, calling on them to support a bill that will extend emergency unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. CBC

Barack Obama urges Republican lawmakers to support a bill to extend emergency benefits to millions of unemployed Americans.

CBC NEWS: July 19,2010: Barack Obama urged Republican lawmakers to support a bill that would extend emergency benefits to millions of unemployed Americans on Monday. In a press conference at the White House Rose Garden he blasted Republican critics for their "lack of faith in the American people."

"These are honest, decent, hard-working folks who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own," Obama said. "The same people who didn't have any problems spending money on tax breaks for the richest Americans are saying we shouldn't offer benefits to middle-class Americans."

Unemployment in the United States is at 9.5 per cent, and benefits for millions of Americans have dried up in recent months. The issue of temporarily extending emergency unemployment benefits has come up three times in recent weeks, but Republican senators have blocked it each time.

Obama has described the bill as crucial to rebuilding the economy, but Republican critics say they won't support it unless it is paid for through the budget and not through deficit spending.

"It's time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics," Obama urged.

The unemployment benefits bill is scheduled for another vote tomorrow in the Senate.

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 15, 2010: You have to hand it to the British. Two months after electing their first "hung" Parliament in living memory, they have found a way and, more importantly, the political will to fix the date of the next general election.

To ensure there will be no monkey business, no unnecessary brinksmanship, they have also created a system that should virtually guarantee the date when the next vote will be held.

Here in Canada, with our third minority parliament in a row, we have been unable to accomplish the same thing, even though we have a law on the book fixing the next federal election date. (And even though all the polls and the politicians themselves say nobody wants an early election.)

Last year, I wrote an article here: [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/22/f-vp-newman.html] proposing new rules to deal with fixed-date elections and minority governments.

Since then, I have been speaking about my ideas wherever I can, to try to bring some stability to Parliament in what seems to be a long era of minority governments.

I have found that wherever I have tried out my suggestions, they have been well received by everyone, except one group.

Sadly, that's the group that would be most affected: cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, and the political staff that serve them.

To recap

Ironically, one of the arguments against the plan has been that it doesn't fit with the parliamentary traditions that flow from Britain's Westminster.

That is ironic because, lo and behold, a proposal very much like the one I have been promoting has since gone into effect. Where? Oh at Westminster, in the British House of Commons.

To recap, here's my idea.

It is based on the premise that a fixed-date election law should mean something. And that, if such a law is enacted, it should be the responsibility of the Governor General to ensure that there is a government in place between the fixed dates.

To do this in a minority parliament, I proposed that any government that was defeated on a confidence vote, which would ordinarily trigger an election, should have the opportunity to face the House again on a straight vote of confidence, 36 hours after its initial defeat.

That would allow a prime minister the opportunity to look around for an arrangement with one of the opposition parties, as Joe Clark might have done in 1979 when he was defeated by a handful of Créditistes.

True, it could mean wheeling and dealing and trade-offs, but that is what a minority parliament is meant to be about.

If the sitting government doesn't win that second confidence vote (and to ensure it tries), the Governor General would be obliged to ask another party leader to try to form a government.

Again, more wheeling and dealing, but again that is what minority parliaments are supposed to do.

If this new attempt by a different party or coalition cannot win a confidence vote, only then would the GG order an election, to be held in the briefest period allowed by law.

The new Westminster

The effect of this proposal is that a party forming the government after an election would go out of its way to make sure it didn't lose a confidence vote, and certainly that it didn't lose two in a row.

But if somehow it did, then an alternative government would be possible until the next official election date.

Not in keeping with the traditions of Westminster? Well, look what is happening in Britain.

There the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition headed by David Cameron is introducing legislation that will fix the date of the next British election in May of 2015, five years after the election this year that created the current minority situation.

A key element is that the legislation will require a two-week cooling-off period should the government be defeated in a confidence vote in the Commons, before a general election can be called.

The reason for the cooling-off period is to allow for a new governing arrangement to be formed, which would prevent the necessity of an election. The new government could have many or at least some of the participants from the group that was just defeated.

If, after two weeks, no new government had been formed, then off to the polls the British would go.

Get MPs working

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Yes, I realize the idea isn't exactly the same as the one I am proposing. But it is close enough for favourable comparison and is meant to have the same effect: To keep parliamentarians on the job working co-operatively wherever possible on the country's problems.

I would argue that is what we need here as well, instead of all the constant manoeuvring that goes on by all the parties in the House of Commons as they try to find the best time to trigger an election that could be to their particular advantage.

That has been a rather pathetic sight in Ottawa these last years.

It has also contributed to the lessening of Parliament and politics in public esteem, and it has prevented debate on many important subjects, like the future of health care or international competitiveness.

Canada's fixed-date election law was passed in the spring of 2006, one of the Stephen Harper government's first priorities.

It was meant to deprive a prime minister of the ability to call an election whenever it might be politically advantageous.

It was also meant to force an election every four years, instead of allowing an unpopular government to run out the full five-year term that the Constitution allows.

But the law makes exceptions for an election between fixed dates at the discretion of the Governor General, which really means if the prime minister asks for one.

We ought to have the courage in this country, with our third minority government in a row, to do what the British did in their first minority parliament in ages: Get a system in place that keeps MPs on the job. And follows the law.

CBC NEWS:July 18, 2010 : RCMP in New Brunswick have identified the victims of a summer-home fire that killed three people in the southern part of the province early Saturday.

They are Graham Lund, 69, his wife Lana Lund, 66, and 83-year-old Florence Roberts. Cpl. Graham Milner said the three were staying at their summer home at Long Point, near the town of Hampton.

The three lived together in Waverley, N.S., part of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Milner said the fire does not appear to be suspicious.

Two other people who were in the house at the time of the fire managed to escape. One received minor injures; the other was not hurt.

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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.

Semitic illegal drug calls Khat spreads in North