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GLOBAL NEWS Various News Canadian edition - Tuesday, 13 December 2005

Exchange Rates and Stock Market
Selected Currencies: 1 USD = 1.15776 CAD; 1 EUR = 1.36814 CAD; 1 GBP = 2.03223 CAD; 1 AUD = 0.86957 CAD
Selected Indices: Dow Jones 10,767.77 -10.81 -0.10%; Nasdaq 2,260.95 +4.22 +0.19%; FTSE 5,507.90 +6.40 +0.12%; DAX 5,309.70 +8.49 +0.16%; CAC 5 4,684.54 +11.41 +0.24%; Swiss Market 7,589.15 +21.64 +0.29%; Nikkei 15,778.86 +40.16 +0.26%; Hang Seng 14,946.69 -37.71 -0.25%

Cleaning Up Great Lakes Focus of USD 20 Billion New Agreement
Political leaders from Ontario, Quebec and eight U.S. states will sign a USD 20 billion plan in Milwaukee today aimed at cleaning up the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River basin. The five lakes alone contain 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water. An estimated 45 million people, including 10 million Canadians, live in the Great Lakes basin. The signing will come at a gathering of the Great Lakes Governors' Leadership Summit. The lakes are home to the highest diversity of plants and species in Canada, but also to cities, industry and agriculture. The signing of the new plan comes amid growing concern about large-scale diversion of water from the Great Lakes. As well, the agreement will call for new measures to prevent invasive species from entering the lakes, and reducing the levels of PCBs, dioxin, mercury, pesticides and other toxins.

Police Worried Over Increasing Criminal Use Of Stun Guns
Police across the country are noticing that more and more crimes are being committed with illegal stun guns, designed to cause temporary paralysis. The weapons that are turning up on the streets don't look like the ones police forces in Canada use. They're smaller, about the size of a cell phone and the electricity comes from two prongs on top which can pack 300,000 volts, enough to disable anyone who gets zapped. Authorities are concerned about the increasing number being used to commit crimes and how easy they are to get. Police say most of the weapons are being ordered over the internet and delivered by mail. The prohibited weapons are also easy to conceal. Metro Toronto police detective Chris Neal knows of one case of a prostitute who was lured into a car then stunned with one of the devices. "They're obviously a concern because generally when they are used, they are used in the commission of some very serious charges, usually sexually assault." Police say some of the weapons are being ordered online from the U.S. where the guns are legal in some states. The Canada Border Services Agency is supposed to stop the delivery of the weapons, but it only searches about three per cent of all packages entering the country. Already this year it has found more than 200 of the stun guns, but no one can say for sure how many more are actually getting through. John Thompson, of the MacKenzie Institute, a Toronto based think tank, has studied the smuggling of everything from tobacco to firearms. He says Canadians should expect to see a lot more stun guns on the streets.

N.S. Businesses Hurt By Effects of Power Outage
The timing couldn't have been worse for a power outage that left hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotia residents without power over the weekend -- a weekend that should have been one of the busiest of the year for shoppers. The outage, blamed on wet snow and high winds experienced Saturday during the province's first heavy winter storm, caused power losses from Yarmouth to Sydney, N.S., with outages in every region and every county. But the effects were sporadic, with results varying from one neighbourhood to the next. Saturday's snow was followed by heavy rain Sunday which helped clear the snow and allowed workers to restore electricity to most locations. But for some store owners the damage had already been done, with shopping virtually eliminated in some malls on Saturday, a day retailers expect to make big Christmas sales.

Metis Leader on Trail of Stolen Historic Bell
A Manitoba Metis leader is convinced he's closer to retrieving a bell that signifies an emotional part of Metis history in this country. David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, visited an inmate at Stony Mountain Institution but he emerged from the prison north of Winnipeg yesterday saying that while inmate Gary Guiboche hadn't told him where the bell is, he gave him some hints to help him find it. The bell is significant because it's linked to Metis leader Louis Riel. The bell was stolen from a legion hall in Millbrook, Ont., in 1991, a few days after Metis leaders had their pictures taken with it. Mr. Guiboche told Mr. Chartrand he wouldn't tell on the person who helped him steal the bell.

U. Of Saskatchewan Gets CAD 100-Million for Research
Premier Lorne Calvert has handed over a giant cheque for CAD 100-million to the president of the University of Saskatchewan to build a medical research and education centre. Mr. Calvert said it's the largest single capital contribution to a university in the province's history. He said Saskatchewan's Academic Health Sciences Centre will help recruit and retain health professionals and will contribute to medical research. Peter McKinnon, the university president, said the new health centre will give Saskatchewan an increased ability to compete for medical specialists. Mr. Calvert said the province was able to make such a large contribution because of a surplus estimated at more than CAD 870-million -- mainly due to gushing energy revenues.