NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 12-2010

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial and territorial counterparts have settled on a framework for a new private-sector pension plan for workers, including the self-employed, designed to get more Canadians saving for their retirement years.

Telecommunications giant Bell Canada is being hit with a record $1.3-million administrative penalty for breaching Canada's Do Not Call List.

Edmonton police are investigating a double homicide after two small children were found dead in a residence on the city's north side. One man is in police custody, but criminal charges haven't been laid at this point.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The memory of the Civil War collided with modern-day civil rights Monday as protesters targeted a "Secession Ball," commemorating the state of South Carolina's decision exactly 150 years ago to secede from the United States of America.

Wind forecasts were high enough Monday for Marine Atlantic to halt sailings between Nova Scotia and southern Newfoundland.

On Dec. 21, 2010, the moon will pass through the darkest part of the Earth's shadow, and for the first time in 372 years, the spectacle will take place during the winter solstice.

An Ontario minor hockey coach who was suspended after a racial slur prompted him to pull his team from the ice said Monday that the Ontario Minor Hockey Association has rescinded the suspension.

Radar data from the European satellite has been used to make a map of ocean circulation across the Arctic basin. Cryosat's primary mission is to measure sea-ice thickness, which has been in sharp decline in recent decades.

US scientists are developing techniques to monitor woodpeckers from space.

Mounties are searching for an arsonist after an alert cell guard caught a man in the process of setting a B.C. RCMP building ablaze.

A high-end hotel in the United Arab Emirates that just a few days ago was boasting about having the world's most expensive Christmas tree has issued an apology for its over-the-top bejewelled conifer.

LONDON - Stranded travellers slept on makeshift beds at European airports as wintry weather caused travel havoc, dashing the hopes of those attempting to head away for the holidays by road, rail and air.

The UN Security Council met Sunday to debate the rising tensions between the two Koreas, while South Korea said it will proceed with live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong island, which North Korea shelled last month.

OTTAWA - The federal government has relented on its adamant refusal to release decades-old intelligence on socialist icon Tommy Douglas. It's now promising to review the file and release additional material.

Kevin Martin certainly wouldn't categorize his latest curling achievement as one of the smoothest performances of his career. But like an Olympic champion, the Edmonton skip did enough when it counted the most, besting Winnipeg's Jeff Stoughton 5-3 in the

EDMONTON - She was a young, homeless single mom trying to raise a family of five, but true to the spirit of the season there was room for one more.

A pipeline operated by Mexico's state-owned oil company exploded in the central state of Puebla early Sunday as thieves were trying to steal oil, killing 27 people.

A ramp ceremony was held at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan to bid farewell to a Canadian soldier who was killed on Saturday when an improvised explosive device went off while he was on foot patrol in the Panjwaii district in Kandahar province.

Jewish organizations are aghast after the German-Canadian Congress complained about plans for a permanent Holocaust exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The Harper government is planning a Taj Mahal complex for the Defence Department's spies, complete with a hockey rink, basketball and volleyball courts and a bank in a secure facility on Ogilvie Road, says the head of the department's largest union.

Throwing caution to the wind during an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean, Fehr said the possibility exists to delve further into the European market and create a "transatlantic rivalry."

Federal fisheries officials are defending their ban on the international export of narwhal tusks from 17 Nunavut communities, despite an outcry from Inuit who trade tusk ivory for income.

It will take several days to tally the full damage to lobster gear from this week's storm along the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans says.

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he's "glad" to support Canadian products in a holiday card showing him and his family draped in coyote fur, despite outrage from animal rights activists.

The retired Montreal police officer who helped return a dozen missing hockey jerseys to the widow of Pat Burns says he will not give up his source.

New Pentagon reports say Lockheed Martin Corp has halved the cost of the F-35 fighter since it began low-rate production and the firm it is on track to drive the average price of the plane down to around $60 million.

It took a goal by defenceman Christian Ehrhoff to finally beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, but the Vancouver Canucks might have won the NHL game in the first period.

Cpl. Steve Martin, 24, a member of the 3rd Battalion Royal 22e Regiment, was killed on Saturday in an attack that happened around 12:30 p.m. local time. Cpl. Martin belonged to Parachute Company, which deployed to the volatile region last month.

During the first half of the Winnipeg 2010 Festive Checkstop Program, police have charged 55 people with impaired driving. Last year, the number of impaired driving arrests for the entire program was 57.

Researchers have rewritten one of the basic building blocks of science: the periodic table of elements.

Three bone fragments found on a deserted South Pacific island are being analyzed to determine if they belong to Amelia Earhart -- tests that could finally prove she died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 questto become the first woman to fly around

In a landmark vote for gay rights, the Senate set the stage for passage Saturday of legislation that would overturn the U.S. military's ban on openly gay troops, and President Barack Obama said it was "time to close this chapter in our history"

Lee Thomas was a successful television entertainment reporter when he started to notice his skin was changing colour from black to white.

Childhood brain tumours have fewer genetic mutations than similar tumours in adults, a new genetic mapping study shows.

Police in Seattle, Wash., have released video footage from a deadly encounter last August when an officer shot a man originally from Vancouver Island.

Travellers are being warned to expect severe travel disruptions all day Saturday across Europe because of heavy snow and freezing temperatures.

EDMONTON - A "heartless" Morinville "monster" who beat his wife to death in front of their three young children because she was leaving him was sentenced to life in prison Friday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning to shuffle his Cabinet in the coming weeks, but has no plan to push for an election in the new year.

Alysha Brown couldn't care less about the secret to how Cadbury gets the caramel in its Caramilk bars.

More than 140 inmates escaped via the main entrance of a prison near the U.S. border Friday in the biggest Mexican jailbreak since the government began its war on drugs four years ago.

Five weeks after he was buried alive in a construction-site accident, Brian Fiddler is still in University Hospital.

Several people had to be evacuated and a school was locked down after police discovered explosives in a home in this northern Ontario city.

A 52-year-old man was arrested Friday for allegedly selling crack cocaine from his hospital room.

Michael Buble is getting "nervous" about his upcoming wedding because he wants his future bride to have the "perfect day".

Alberta Health Services in the past two weeks there have been 19 suspected outbreaks of Norovirus at continuing care facilities, seniors residences, schools and day cares in the Edmonton area.

Officials and residents are squaring off over Saskatchewan's plan to divert water into Manitoba. The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority wants to divert water from Fishing Lake, where more than 700 cottages are at risk of spring flooding, into Manitoba.

With enviable cheekbones and charcoal eyes, Arshdeep Kaur Gosal appears a natural beauty queen contender. Yet it is the way she chops spinach in the kitchen that matters more than a strut on the catwalk for the crown she covets.

When a German hunting enthusiast flies from Berlin to Iqaluit to get a polar bear in the sights of his rifle, the price tag will cost him $15,000.

New online ads from the Conservative Party are sounding off about what they claim is a Liberal-led plan to implement a tax on personal audio players and other devices.

The restoration of the iconic schooner Bluenose II is sparking controversy in Nova Scotia as much of its hull has been put through a chipper and dumped in a landfill.

The damaged underwater turbine in the Bay of Fundy was recovered Thursday by Irish tidal renewable energy company OpenHydro.

Hundreds of deformed fish found in rivers running through the Alberta oil sands have been collected and documented by an industry-led monitoring body, The Globe and Mail has learned, but the findings were not shared with the public or key decision makers

SEOUL/BEIJING - North Korea said Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-fire drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people.

The federal telecommunications regulator has hit a Calgary-based telemarketing firm, Xentel DM, with a $500,000 penalty for misusing the charity exemption to the National Do Not Call List rules

Despite some challenging circumstances, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver broke even, VANOC CEO John Furlong confirmed on Friday morning in Vancouver.

A minor hockey coach from Peterborough, Ont., who pulled his team from the ice after one of his players had a racial slur directed at him has been suspended for the rest of the season.

The damage left behind by this week's flood that hit parts of southwestern New Brunswick is "beyond imagination," Premier David Alward said on Friday.

The fall session of Parliament ended with Liberal and Conservative leaders trading barbs, as they jostle for position heading in to the New Year.

The giant sinkhole on southeast Marine Drive near Fraser Street is nowhere near being repaired, and work isn't expected to be complete until after Christmas.

The city admits crews are behind in getting the snow cleared off Edmonton streets. The city called in a fleet of private grader operators overnight to help move the snow off the main roads but nearly a third didn't show up.

A man has been suspended from his minor hockey coaching position in Dollard-des-Ormeaux after it was discovered he's facing more than a dozen charges ranging from sexual assault to luring young girls over the internet.

Visitors to an extremist Islamist website are praising a Chinese man's use of an elaborate disguise to board a flight to Canada as a potential tactic.

Christmas came in extravagant fashion to the Muslim desert emirate of Abu Dhabi as a glitzy hotel unveiled a bejewelled Christmas tree valued at more than $11 million on Wednesday.

Damage from high winds and heavy rains that hit Nova Scotia this week became more evident Thursday as water levels receded.

Water levels in the Magaguadavic River are dropping and offering respite to residents affected by the southwestern New Brunswick flood, according to the Emergency Measures Organization.

The Ottawa Hospital is asking patients to limit visitors, after outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant "superbug" bacteria at its Civic and General campuses. The outbreaks are being blamed on overcrowding.

Former Manitoba premier Sterling Lyon has died at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital after a brief illness. He was 83.

A new report says that although the number of crimes in B.C. has fallen sharply over the past decade, Vancouver still has one of the highest crime rates on the continent.

An Air Canada jet with 224 people on board made an emergency landing at Vancouver International Airport on Thursday morning, but no injuries were reported.

Victoria, B.C., police say a man called 911 Monday night asking the operator if he could buy some weed.

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he sleeps only when close ally President Dmitry Medvedev is awake to make sure the country, which stretches across nine time zones, is properly ruled at all times.

BAGHDAD - Al-Qaida is planning attacks in the United States, Britain and Europe around Christmas, one year after a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.

A snow squall that closed a southern Ontario highway and stranded hundreds of motorists earlier this week has claimed a life, officials said on Thursday.

Quebec's Gaspe region is reeling from torrential downpours, flooding and mudslides that have hit the area this week. More than 230 millimetres of rain have fallen since Monday, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency.

NDP Leader Jack Layton says that a Conservative proposal to allow small businesses, employees and the self-employed to set up their own pension plans is a step in the wrong direction which will short-change middle-class Canadians.

Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo underwent successful surgery to remove a lesion on his thyroid gland Thursday, according to the team.

Montreal police say 12 hockey jerseys stolen from the car of Pat Burns's widow, Line, within hours of his funeral have been returned to the family.

A newly unearthed mummified forest on a remote island in the Canadian Arctic where no trees currently grow is giving researchers a peek into how plants reacted to ancient climate change.

Two more Conservative staffers in the office of cabinet minister Christian Paradis tried to block the release of access-to-information documents, The Canadian Press has learned.

Director Blake Edwards, best known for his "Pink Panther" film series and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," has died at the age of 88, his publicist said Thursday. Edwards passed away Wednesday night of complications from pneumonia at St. John's Hospital in Sa

Australian officials scrambled to rescue dozens of asylum seekers whose wooden boat smashed into rocks near Australia's Christmas Island on Wednesday, a place where desperate people often seek to start a new life.

Inuit leaders are accusing the federal government of banning whalers in most of Nunavut's communities from exporting their narwhal tusks.

Members of the Dehcho First Nations are gaining support in their campaign to urge the federal government to restore a mining ban on a once-protected area of Northwest Territories wilderness.

A B.C. man who got trapped under the ice of a mountain stream survived the ordeal thanks to a group of hikers who spotted him

Widespread shortages of common drugs are hitting pharmacies across the country, putting the health of patients at risk and raising questions about the stability of the global pharmaceutical supply.

Turbulent weather continued to plague the Maritimes on Wednesday, with flood damage ranging from along New Brunswick's swollen St. John River to Dingwall, Cape Breton.

Ryan Kesler provided all the offence for Vancouver with his first career hat trick Wednesday as the Canucks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in overtime.

Doctors in Germany are reporting that they think they've cured a man with HIV. But while the report is generating a huge amount of interest, many point out that the method used is hardly practical for most patients.

The two grizzly-polar bear hybrids discovered in Canada's North in recent years may be the tip of the iceberg, warn a trio of U.S. scientists who say the bears are a sign that Arctic biodiversity is at risk.

CBC News has obtained a report that suggests the Canadian Forces may be making a mistake by basing its search and rescue Hercules aircraft in Nova Scotia and not central Newfoundland.

A Nova Scotia mutt named Misty is vying for a spot in the record books as the oldest living dog in the world.

A six-year-old girl is in intensive care at a Montreal hospital after she was mauled by four husky dogs this week in a remote northern Quebec community.

Edmonton Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed surrounded himself with a lot of CFL experience Wednesday.

B.C. Liberal leadership candidate Mike de Jong is advocating reducing the voting age to 16 to encourage young people to take an interest in politics.

One of the biggest risks to Vancouver during an earthquake could be fires sparked by hundreds of transformers perched atop wooden power poles, according to a report from a research group set up by the Canadian insurance industry.

The huge tabular blocks of ice that frequently break off Antarctica get swept towards the Atlantic and then ground on the shallow continental shelf that surrounds the 170km-long island.

A study published online Wednesday rejects the often used concept of a "tipping point," or point of no return, when it comes to sea ice and the big bear that has become the symbol of climate change woes

A retired Edmonton police officer, fired as a 911 call evaluator after failing to act on a call from a woman murdered hours later, has filed a union grievance over his dismissal

Canada's federal political parties began the process of winding down a fractious fall session in Parliament by airing a laundry list of complaints and condemnations of each other's records in the past year, setting the stage for a potential spring electio

Some members of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association are now offering free legal service for injured military veterans seeking disability benefits from the federal government.

Dozens of semi-trailers were backed up on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Moose Jaw, Sask., Wednesday morning after two semis got stuck in the westbound lane, followed by an accident in the eastbound lanes

A winter storm is making for treacherous driving conditions in and around Edmonton Wednesday.

Cape Breton Island was being hit hard by a wind and rainstorm Wednesday, that began overnight Tuesday.

Premier David Alward toured areas of southwestern New Brunswick on Wednesday that have been hit hard by flooding in recent days. Alward updated the legislative assembly on Wednesday morning about the flooding that has hit many areas in the southern and we