NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 03-2009

Amid pervasive doom and gloom about the global economic crisis, Canadians are among the most optimistic worldwide when it comes to their financial futures, according to report released Wednesday

CTV News has learned that the government plans to introduce legislation on Thursday to end the "two-for-one" credit for convicted felons for time spent in pre-trial custody.

OTTAWA - They bashed the Canadian military but an American TV host and his guest were forced into a strategic retreat Monday in the face of a national uproar.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hard-core elements of the Taliban that moved into Kandahar have imported more insidious tactics to sow confusion among NATO and Afghan forces, according to former insurgent fighters and Canadian army documents.

BC Ferries is to reinstate the captain of the ill-fated Queen of the North ferry this spring after being ordered to do so by WorkSafeBC.

The Vancouver Canucks erupted for four consecutive goals, including three with the man advantage, en route to a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Tuesday night.

Eight people face charges after police broke up a major cross-border drug smuggling operation that used helicopters to fly B.C. bud and ecstasy to remote American landing pads and swap it for cocaine and cash.

BARACK Obama has defended the US dollar as "extraordinarily strong" and said there is no need for a new world reserve currency.

The U.S. and its top European allies will offend the Muslim world by choosing Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark as the new political head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, two analysts said Monday.

It was 15 minutes of quiet in downtown Toronto. Some 100 supporters stood at attention as the hearses carrying four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan travelled down Grenville St. to the coroner's office.

A Tibetan religious figure considered to be a "living Buddha" by China says Prime Minister Stephen Harper's support for the Dalai Lama is offensive to the Chinese people and encourages in Tibet the same kind of separatist sentiments seen in Quebec.

Thanks for the gifts but please send letters to the troops instead, says Canada's top soldier

OTTAWA -- Growing up on a West Quebec farm in the 1930s, Gerard Lafreniere's dream came to him as he trudged the two-mile walk to church on Sundays -- one day, he would become a priest

Spring may be here but the news hasn't quite reached Atlantic Canada, where a winter storm has left behind as much as 30 centimetres of snow.

WINNIPEG - Ice-blocked sewers, drains and culverts are flooding some Manitoba basements and turning roads into lakes as communities brace for water from the rising Red River.

A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of the Second World War.

The Czech Republic's three-party coalition government collapsed Tuesday, narrowly losing a parliamentary vote of no-confidence

North Korea warned the United States, Japan and their allies not to interfere with its plan to launch a satellite into space next month, saying Tuesday any intervention could doom already stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

The attorneys general of B.C. and the Mexican state of Baja California met in Victoria on Monday and pledged that the two governments would work together to deal with both regions' problems with the drug trade.

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo looks to bounce back in Dallas on Tuesday night after being pulled on the weekend in an embarrassing loss.

The federal government says it will review the proposed merger between Suncor Energy Inc.and Petro-Canada to ensure the $19.1-billion deal does not violate federal restrictions on Petrocan's share ownership.

An American comic slated to play in Edmonton has been dumped after slagging Canadian soldiers on a Fox News talk show. Doug Benson was set to appear at The Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall April 2 to 5, according to his Myspace page.

Think of an electric car that can accelerate swiftly to cruising speed, laptop computers that can recharge in a couple of minutes rather than hours and a generation of super-miniature mobile phones. That's the vision sketched on Wednesday by a pair of

Eruptions at Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano have sent a plume of smoke nearly 15,000 metres above sea level.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made a pitch to Quebecers Sunday, saying his party could provide them with a new road into Ottawa that does not force them to make a choice between their Quebecois and Canadian identities.

A small plane crashed Sunday as it approached an airport in Montana, killing at least 14 people, including several children, a U.S. federal official said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday called President Barack Obama "ignorant," saying he has a lot to learn about Latin America.

Charged with fraud over $5,000, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, he could face up to 14 years in prison. His trial is set for November. "This guy is a disgrace," said Kevin Gaudet, the national director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has trimmed the country's budget and almost tripled borrowing to offset a slide in the price of crude oil, the country's main export.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's federal government seized seaports and airstrips in at least four states Saturday, a move critics say is meant to limit the powers of mayors and governors opposed to President Hugo Chavez.

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan face a season of heavy fighting against the Taliban this spring, two security experts say, a fact that was made clear after two separate IED attacks killed four Canadian soldiers on Friday.

The Vancouver Canucks have 11 games to figure out how to win on the road, or they could face an early exit from the post-season should they qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The United States entered the recession first, but Canada's economy is falling faster now.

14-year-old Cambridge boy assigned to buy condoms as part of a race

B.C. politics have always been a bit peculiar. After all, it's the province that shortly after Confederation elected a premier who had changed his name to Amor De Cosmos, a loose Latin translation of "lover of the universe."

The Obama administration has told NATO allies it will back Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussuen to head the alliance, according to media reports, an endorsement that would quash speculation of Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay's appointment.

Canadian soldiers searching for Taliban weapons were suddenly called away to help comrades a few hundred metres away in a scene captured on newly released video showing the aftermath of Friday's deadly bombing west of Kandahar city.

Three wells currently in use near the Cache Creek landfill in the south central interior of B.C. contain higher than normal levels of chemicals, a study has found.

If there was a petition to have more home dates on the NHL schedule, the Vancouver Canucks would be the first in line to sign it right now.

Canada's human resources minister has directed officials to take another look at the case of two Newfoundland and Labrador parents who have been told they will lose employment insurance benefits while they help their son recover from wounds sustained in A

B.C.'s provincial election is almost two months away, but attack ads are already surfacing online.

TORONTO -- A teenaged boy won't be driving into spring this morning after his car was clocked travelling nearly 100km/h over the speed limit on a Brampton highway.

CALGARY - Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says immigrants who can't speak English or French well enough should be denied citizenship.

Frigid temperatures this winter have killed off more than 90 per cent of the mountain pine beetles in Alberta forests, new scientific data suggests.

Investigators found a broken mounting stud Friday in the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed off the coast of Newfoundland, prompting the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to call immediately for the part to be replaced on Sikorsky S92-A helicopter

Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight others injured in two separate bombings outside Kandahar City on Friday, military officials said.

After 180 Canadian military personel have given their lives in Afganistan. Fox news belittles and mocks the Canadian military. Claim they did not even know they were there. These are the people who keep Americans up to date and mis-informed.

A pornographic movie theatre in Vancouver's eastside neighbourhood may become history following complaints that it attracts sex workers.

Even when the Vancouver Canucks don't start strong, they're still good enough to remain the NHL's hottest home team.

The jury in the trial of an Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered her seven children convicted him Thursday on all charges, including the murder of his infant son.

A discovery in China has prompted researchers to question the scaly image of dinosaurs.

CAIRO - Al-Qaida's chief Osama bin Laden denounced Somalia's new president, who was elected as part of a peace push in the lawless African country

VANCOUVER, B.C. - A Victoria teenager who became the face of girl-on-girl violence a dozen years ago will have to await the outcome of her bid for a fourth murder trial from jail.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Preliminary indications suggest that Cougar Flight 491 slammed into the North Atlantic nose down, the lead investigator into the helicopter crash that killed 17 said Thursday.

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - A strong 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Friday near Tonga, generating a tsunami with the potential of striking coastlines in the South Pacific, officials said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A hatchling of a rare reptile with lineage dating back to the dinosaur age has been found in the wild on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in about 200 years, a wildlife official said Thursday.

OTTAWA -- Scientists from Canada, Britain and Sweden have pieced together the fossils of a super underwater predator dubbed the Tyrannosaurus rex of the Cambrian era.

Ottawa is providing $10 million in funding for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Small Business Minister Diane Ablonczy announced Wednesday.

Communities in southern Manitoba are bracing for washed-out roads and flooded farmland as the banks of the Red River swell with a torrent of melting ice and snow.

For five glorious minutes, Paul Kusznirewicz thought he was a multi-millionaire.

Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson died of a brain injury after falling on a ski slope, an autopsy found Thursday.

Canada joined four other Arctic countries in declaring climate change the single greatest threat to polar bears, a move that could pressure the government to take further action to curb global warming.

With a glut of frozen lobster in Atlantic Canadian warehouses, federal and provincial money is being put toward a new marketing strategy to move it.

An avalanche has killed another snowmobiler in B.C. and officials are warning people to stay out of the backcountry because of extremely dangerous conditions.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Where's Ecuador? Better not ask that question in Brazil.

WASHINGTON -- New information on Antarctica's regularly melting distant past is giving scientists a glimpse into what may be a flooded future as the planet warms up.

With the European Parliament preparing to vote on a ban on seal products in April, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is expecting more media attention for the seal hunt this year.

British Columbians caught smoking in a vehicle with children under 16 present will face a $109 fine under new provincial regulations effective April 7.

Bells at the largest church in Newfoundland and Labrador tolled Wednesday evening for the 17 people lost last week when an offshore oil helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, announced several Defence infrastructure projects during the past week that will have significant impact on 4 Wing Cold Lake, 17 Wing Winnipeg and 12 Wing Shearwater.

The Canadian Helicopter Force Afghanistan (CHFA) Operations Centre often looks as chaotic as a bus station on the Friday before a long weekend.

After two years as Commander Canadian Fleet Pacific (CANFLTPAC), newly promoted Rear-Admiral Nigel Greenwood turned over command to Commodore Ron Lloyd in a ceremony aboard the supply ship HMCS Protecteur on March 14.

Officials unsure of rollout date, but MacKay says Defence working as fast as possible

Vancouver became the newest home of Major League Soccer on Wednesday as the league awarded the city an expansion franchise to begin play in 2011.

Premier Gordon Campbell has announced $800 million in government spending that he says will create thousands of jobs, along with housing for the homeless and improvements for B.C. schools.

MOSCOW -- Russia's defence minister charged Tuesday that the United States and NATO were beefing up their military presence near Russia's borders in a bid for natural resources that could ignite new conflicts.

Daniel Sedin and Mats Sundin scored power-play goals to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 10th consecutive win at home, 4-2 over the Dallas Stars

Investigators said Tuesday afternoon they had recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from an offshore oil industry helicopter that crashed last week off the east coast of Newfoundland, killing all but one of the 18 people aboard.

Four people were arrested in downtown Calgary on Tuesday during a protest outside the building where former U.S. president George W. Bush was making his first official speech since leaving office.

A B.C. sales representative who markets equestrian products in Canada was barred from crossing the U.S. border to attend a trade show last month by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who accused him of trying to steal American jobs.

Three Canadians and eight other people, most of them tourists, were killed in a bus-truck crash in northeastern Mexico, according to a report.

Two members of a Burnaby, B.C., family will be able to stay in Canada as permanent residents, despite being previously told by Canadian immigration officials they would be deported to Russia because of links to the KGB.

A girl on trial for the first-degree murder of Stefanie Rengel was the driving force of hate, obsession and "intense jealousy" behind the killing, a jury heard yesterday.

Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.

Gangland crime has suddenly become a hot political issue in British Columbia, spurred by 23 killings in Metro Vancouver last year.

New Yorker Daniel Edwards has made a sculpture called 'Paris Hilton Autopsy' which shows the heiress dead with her legs spread.

A man's body was recovered Monday night from the Fraser River off the Steveston area in Richmond, B.C., the Canadian Coast Guard said.

BEIJING -- Left on their own by adults, the young dinosaurs sank into the mud beside a lake and died 90 million years ago in what would become the Gobi Desert.

A piece of space junk appears headed for the International Space Station at the same time that the shuttle Discovery is on its way there, too.

In the wake of Thursday's deadly helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland, the former head of the Ocean Ranger inquiry has questioned why recommendations made 24 years ago to increase search and rescue response were never implemented.

Alaska's Mount Redoubt continued to rumble Monday, a day after geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory increased the official alert level to orange, the stage just before eruption.

The bestselling newspaper in the U.S. is calling Vancouver "the supermodel of North American cities," but many tourists continue to express concerns over the city's social problems.

A team of Canadian scientists is calling dietary guidelines to eat more fish unwise and shortsighted.

SECURITY surrounding Princes William and Harry has been stepped up over fears that renegade IRA terrorists are preparing to carry out an assassination attempt.

LONDON -- Britain's Ministry of Defence says two British soldiers have died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan.

TORONTO -- Double amputee Master Cpl. Jody Mitic was in his glory Sunday as sprinted across the finish line at the Achilles Canada five-kilometre run with fellow soldiers and the military's top boss.

At least one civilian died after a bomb exploded Sunday near a convoy carrying the mayor of Kandahar city, who escaped with slight injuries. Two others were wounded.

CALGARY - George W. Bush, who left office with one of the lowest popularity ratings in U.S. history, will officially kick off his unofficial post-presidential image rehabilition tour with a speech in Calgary on Tuesday

Scientists are to meet with Arctic hunters this week to discuss long-simmering concerns that research methods harm northern animals and ignore knowledge that the Inuit have accumulated over generations.

EDMONTON - The federal government will spend about $41 million at three military installations in Alberta to prepare the Canadian Forces for future missions and create civilian jobs, one part of about $400 million in such spending across the country.

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks scored three first-period goals, including one short-handed by Alex Burrows, to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 Sunday for their ninth straight win at home.

Alberta's Kevin Martin captured his second straight undefeated Brier title on Sunday in Calgary, curling a near-perfect game to dismantle overmatched Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton 10-4 in the final.

Residents of Vancouver's poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside protested Sunday against what they see as a pre-Olympic police strategy to drive them off the streets through petty ticketing and random identification checks.

Two MPs, who met Sunday with a U.S. army deserter court-martialled after fleeing to British Columbia, are hopeful their California visit reignites debate about allowing others to take refuge in Canada.

Recovery crews have retrieved a body from the deep-sea wreckage of a helicopter that crashed off the coast of Newfoundland last Thursday, killing 17 people

It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama's high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration.

The arrests were nothing new for the annual event, which has resulted in vandalism in recent years. Last year, more than 40 people were taken into custody.

An Ontario judge has ordered a man who is suing someone over injuries sustained in an auto accident to answer questions about his private Facebook content.