NEWS IMAGE COLLAGE / for 11-2009

A Mississauga-born woman, who is making international headlines by suing her multi-millionaire London banker ex-boss for sex discrimination, claims she was "served up like a piece of meat" to a powerful hedge-fund associate.

LONDON - Royal pageantry met hard-nosed electioneering Wednesday, as Queen Elizabeth II donned the diamond-encrusted Imperial State Crown to announce the government's plans for the next parliamentary session.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

A judge for an Islamic militant group in Somalia says a woman has been stoned to death and her boyfriend given 100 lashes for having an affair.

The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the United Nations Population Fund said Wednesday.

Firefighters in South Australia declared a catastrophic fire danger for two of the state's northern districts Wednesday. It was the first time the catastrophic rating has been issued in Australia under the national fire warning system established in the w

Seven name-brand toys, including Barbie accessories, Disney gear and a Dora the Explorer tote, have turned up high levels of lead after tests by a California-based advocacy group.

The United Nations Security Council is meeting Wednesday to discuss the growing problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia

Quarterback Anthony Calvillo, running back Avon Cobourne and wide receiver Kerry Watkins made the grade Wednesday as the Montreal Alouettes accounted for 10 spots on the 2009 CFL all-star team

The U.S. dollar continued its downward slide Wednesday as gold hit another record and other commodities also headed higher.

The moderate earthquakes off the Queen Charlotte Islands Tuesday have many people once again wondering when the "big one" will hit the West Coast.

AMRITSAR, India - India's stunning contrasts were once more in evidence as Prime Minister Stephen Harper concluded a three-day tour of the emerging South Asian economic giant.

Damage at the provincial cenotaph in Fredericton might not have been the work of vandals as initially thought, police say.

A Winnipeg man's ordeal after undergoing brain surgery is raising questions about discharge policies for patients who undergo major procedures at the city's largest hospital

Police in Regina say a suspect in two sexual assaults on the West Coast may be in the prairie city and they are looking for help in their search for the man.

The Yukon's health minister startled members of the legislature on Tuesday when he said he hopes an opposition MLA "has an accident."

In the latest effort to keep the swine flu virus out of hospitals, expectant mothers in Montreal are being told they must choose between having their baby's father and their birthing coach in the delivery room

A debate about the Saskatchewan government's environmental policies is swirling on the home front as Premier Brad Wall heads to Washington, D.C., to talk about energy and climate change

A Saskatchewan man has been found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with a home invasion shooting two years ago.

A babysitter who was accused of injuring a child in her care, and who was separated from her own two children for more than a year as a result, is telling a harrowing story of how she was treated by the child protection system.

The Transportation Safety Board says a fire boat that overturned in Halifax harbour last year had an unstable design.

Vancouver police say they have disabled the ability of a new piece of equipment so it can no longer be used as an acoustic weapon

A small group of individuals are trying to keep the calm on the Esgenoopetitj First Nation as the northern community struggles to cope with the death of a local teenager

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could restart as early as this weekend after more than a year of repairs.

A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates in waters off Somalia, the EU's naval force (Navfor) says.

Canadian military officers in Afghanistan approve millions of dollars each year for private firms that guard military bases and development projects in the increasingly dangerous Kandahar province.

The Kindle e-book reader is now available to Canadians, Amazon.com announced Tuesday, but without some key features.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has condemned an additional 23 properties in Daniel's Harbour, a community that has been plagued by landslides for years.

A rare mockingbird could be reintroduced to the Galapagos Islands - with the help of some specimens collected by Charles Darwin

Average temperatures across the world are on course to rise by up to 6C without urgent action to curb CO2 emissions, according a new analysis.

Canada is viewed as one of the least corrupt countries in the world and is an "inspiration" for the U.S. and other nations in North and South America, Transparency International said in a report published Tuesday

Louis Riel's conviction for treason should be overturned, says a Manitoba MP, who adds that the hero of Metis across the Prairies should be recognized as a Father of Confederation more than 100 years after his death.

An avalanche closed down a stretch of Highway 99 - also known as Duffey Lake Road - for hours Tuesday morning.

Flood waters receded Tuesday in Courtenay, B.C., a day after a state of emergency was declared in the island community.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has a new group of senior advisers surrounding him, following a massive shuffling of the deck by his new chief of staff.

Somalian pirates have freed a Spanish fishing vessel and its crew of 36, Spain's prime minister said Tuesday

The foreign secretary of the United Kingdom says a future political solution for Afghanistan will include senior Taliban commanders in government.

Swedish stalwarts Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund are teaming up again, this time to save their old hockey club.

NHL veteran Brendan Shanahan retired Tuesday, ending a 21-season professional hockey career.

A small Australian marsupial is taking a lesson from the reptile world and basking in the sun to conserve energy and improve its chances of survival, a researcher has found.

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose 29 per cent between 2000 and 2008, an international team of researchers says

Researchers are hailing a new drug called flibanserin as a possible remedy for sexual dysfunction in women

B.C. Lions quarterback Casey Printers was named CFL offensive player of the week Tuesday while teammate Ricky Foley was named defensive player of the week and top Canadian

The owner of 100 neglected sled dogs has turned the animals over to an emergency shelter because he could no longer care for them, officials with the SPCA Laurentides-Labelle and Humane Society International said Tuesday.

Seal meat is about to join beef tenderloin and baked salmon on the haute-cuisine menu for MPs and senators in the parliamentary restaurant.

Five more people have died from the H1N1 swine flu in B.C. this past week, according to the latest figures released by health authorities, but overall the number of infections appears to be declining

A Quebec man in his 80s died after being vaccinated against swine flu, officials said Tuesday

The federal environment minister says it may be a few years before Canada tables regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan were ordered in 2007 to hold back information in their reports to Ottawa about the handling of prisoners, defence and foreign affairs sources in Ottawa told The Canadian Press

An earthquake and at least two aftershocks struck off the coast of British Columbia on Tuesday morning, shaking houses and scaring some residents throughout the North Coast region.

More than 100 tourists, scientists and journalists on Russian vessel are using the unplanned stop to tour the surrounding area

A 9-year-old Mission, B.C., girl is being credited with saving her family after a fire ripped through their home Monday morning

Bristlecone pines, the world's oldest trees and growing at high altitudes in the American West, have been undergoing a growth spurt since 1950, fuelled by increasing temperatures, researchers say.

Eight rivers on Vancouver Island were placed on a flood warning Monday after heavy rain swept over the B.C. coast, while the city of Courtenay declared a local state of emergency

The first international flight to leave conflict-hit Chechnya in 15 years has taken off from the airport in Grozny.

Reading the 1995 edition of the federal Citizenship guide, an immigrant to Canada might have been forgiven for thinking he or she was signing up to join the Boy Scouts or the Girl Guides.

Tonight may be the best opportunity in years to see the annual Leonid meteor shower, showing hundreds of shooting stars to anyone willing to stay awake well past midnight.

The first order of business for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's new chief of staff is to sharpen the communications strategy and tell voters what the leader and the party stand for

A Vancouver Island city councilor and his two adult children have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder in connection with the beating death of a Victoria-area man last year.

Heavy rains and wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour pounded British Columbia's South Coast overnight, prompting a series of flood warnings and promises of more to come.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

LONDON - In one of Britain's longest running hunts for a serial rapist, Scotland Yard detectives charged a 52-year-old man Monday with a string of nearly a dozen assaults and burglaries.

TAGAB VALLEY, Afghanistan - Rockets slammed into a market northeast of Kabul on Monday, killing 12 civilians but missing their presumed target: a meeting between France's top general in Afghanistan and dozens of tribal elders and senior local officials.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military says its new methods are effectively weakening the insurgency in Afghanistan, but the Taliban's resilience is raising questions about the changing nature of the guerrilla war.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, in Rome to attend a United Nations summit on world hunger, hosted a soiree with some 200 young Italian women and tried to persuade them to convert to Islam.

French legislators are expected to pull back from plans to pass a law barring Muslim women from wearing full face veils in public, according to the head of the commission looking into the issue.

Iran's decision to conceal the development of its second uranium-enrichment facility raises questions about other possible secret sites, according to a report prepared Monday by the UN's nuclear watchdog.

The space shuttle Atlantis was launched Monday afternoon on its final flight of the year, carrying 24 Canadian tree saplings.

The winning couple in CBC's Battle of the Blades competition will be crowned in Monday's final episode

A suspicious fire that broke out at a women-only rooming house over the weekend is not connected to a fatal blaze at a women's shelter the week before, Ottawa police say.

Four children and a bus driver were taken to hospital Monday after their school bus slid off a rural road and into a ditch in central Nova Scotia.

The federal and P.E.I. governments have lost almost $3 million in the bankruptcy of a manufacturer located at the foot of the Confederation Bridge.

A traditionalist youth party has won the leadership of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., after thousands of temple members lined up in the rain to vote on Sunday.

A loud boom heard and felt in Yellowknife on Saturday was a scheduled explosion at a local mine site, not an earthquake as federal seismologists have diagnosed.

The latest battle between conventional television broadcasters and carriers began in Gatineau, Que., Monday, as Canada's broadcast regulator kicked off a new hearing about the future of television, with an emphasis on the highly contentious fee-for-carria

At 2:30 p.m. ET Monday, the Canada Steamship Lines vessel Assiniboine was still stuck near Morrisburg, Ont., about 40 kilometres west of Cornwall

Ontario's Liberal government has introduced legislation to harmonize the province's eight per cent sales tax with the five per cent GST.

The upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver will be broadcast in 22 languages, with sports commentary and play-by-play analysis to be delivered in a wide range of tongues that include Mandarin, Bangla, Ukrainian, the aboriginal language of Mechif and South

A woman with a medical condition that gives her 300 orgasms a day has found a man of her dreams after she wore out a string of boyfriends.

Flood watch continued Sunday for a number of B.C. communities, as sub-tropic storm systems continue to drench the region with heavy rain.

Kosovo's first independent elections have ended peacefully, with the prime minister claiming his party won convincingly and some minority Serbs ignoring a call to boycott and casting ballots alongside ethnic Albanians.

SHANGHAI, China - President Barack Obama is walking a tightrope on his first trip to China, seeking to enlist help in tackling urgent global problems while weighing when and how - or if - he should raise traditional human rights concerns.

An early blast of snow allowed Whistler-Blackcomb to open 12 days ahead of schedule on Saturday, drawing a huge crowd of skiers and snowboarders.

Calgary Stampeders quarterback Henry Burris wasn't his dominant self against the visiting Eskimos on Sunday, but he did enough to keep the defending Grey Cup champs on track to repeat during a 24-21 win over Edmonton in the West Division semifinal.

Scientists have found that acidic ozone water can effectively kill H1N1 viruses, with the advantages that it leaves no environmentally harmful residue and is inexpensive to prepare

Former Hamilton pivot shocks big crowd in Steeltown with 360-yard day

A man charged in a fatal crash near Coboconk was yesterday repeatedly stabbed while riding the TTC, allegedly by the boyfriend of a woman killed in the June wreck.

Fire officials confirmed reports that a Molotov cocktail, or a similar incendiary device, was hurled through the ground floor window of 235 Nepean St. just before midnight Saturday.

TAGAB VALLEY, Afghanistan - Hundreds of French and Afghan troops on Sunday pushed into a hostile valley in eastern Afghanistan where militants launch quick attacks, then disappear into hillside villages

If the Calgary Stampeders wish to become the first CFL team to win a Grey Cup at home since the B.C. Lions in 1994, they will first need to go through their Alberta archrivals.

Three aboriginal women from Canada are visiting the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of a 10-day tour to raise awareness around human rights issues occurring in the Alberta tarsands.

HALIFAX, N.S. - Some health authorities across the country have tossed out hundreds of doses of the swine flu vaccine because of miscalculations over how many of the time-sensitive dosages are needed at community clinics.

EDMONTON - Parks Canada wants to lure more people into national parks by making camping and visits friendlier to families, city slickers and new Canadians who may never have pitched a tent in the woods.

A new study suggests post-traumatic stress disorder is being over-diagnosed in Canada and the western world - a potentially costly situation that could lead to skyrocketing disability claims.

The U.S. Navy recently confirmed that the USS Texas and its 134-member crew completed an Arctic mission, with some U.S. media outlets noting the nuclear-powered submarine broke through the ice near the North Pole and stayed on the surface for 24 hours.

A super-fast, space-age powerboat which scythes through waves and smashed the round-the-world record is set to be unleashed on Japanese whalers next month, activists said on Friday.

A Montreal woman upset that Muslim girls wearing hijabs had to choose between their religion and sports has come up with a solution

Marcel Bellefeuille wants the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to take Casey Printers' legs from underneath him.

Henrik Sedin's first career hat-trick and a pair of goals from Steve Bernier powered the Vancouver Canucks to an 8-2 win over the Avalanche in Colorado on Saturday night.

MANCHESTER - UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is seriously ill in hospital after collapsing in Canada, UFC president Dana White said Saturday. "He's in rough shape, he's in really bad shape,"

Money invested in protecting nature can bring huge financial returns, according to a major investigation into the costs and benefits of the natural world.

British National Party leaders have voted "overwhelmingly" to ballot members on changing its constitution to allow non-white members to join.

Police in Russia have arrested three homeless men suspected of killing a man, eating part of the body and selling other parts to a kebab shop.

Slovenia has signed a deal with Russia for a massive gas pipeline from Russia to Europe to run through its territory.

Caster Semenya, the athlete at the centre of a gender controversy, is set to be told on 20 November if she is eligible to compete as a woman.