UN task force set up to examine air safety over war zones

The UN agency that governs civil aviation said Tuesday it will create a task force to deal with security gaps that led to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine on July 17.

Rail oil transport risks remain, 12 months after Quebec disaster

A long train brimming with crude from one of North America’s burgeoning shale oil fields derailed and exploded on July 6, 2013, in a sleepy Quebec village, killing 47 people. On the anniversary of the conflagration in Lac-Megantic, safety improvements in flammable rail freight remain slow to implement, while the amount of oil on the tracks soars further.

Toronto’s mayor shows grit in red-faced confession

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford refused to resign Tuesday despite admitting to crack cocaine use “in drunken stupor” and a growing chorus of voices calling on him to step down.

“For the sake of the taxpayers of this great city, for the sake of the taxpayers, we must get back to work immediately,” he told a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Runaway train rips heart out of Quebec town

Maude Verreault owes her life to a cigarette.

The 36-year-old waitress at Musi-Cafe restaurant in central Lac-Megantic was taking a short smoking break last Saturday night when a runaway tanker-train careened into the town and exploded near where she was standing.

Police foil “al-Qaeda” inspired Canada Day bomb plot

Canadian authorities charged two people Tuesday in an “al-Qaeda-inspired” plot to bomb Canada Day celebrations at the provincial legislature in Victoria, British Columbia.

Canada’s ice road to diamonds

A late March blizzard has finished blowing over much of Canada’s Northwest Territories and Ron Near’s job just got more interesting.

A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Near is in charge of the world’s longest ice road that connects Yellowknife, the territorial capital, to three diamond mines: Ekati, Diavik and Snap Lake.

Dreams made of diamonds

Matevos Harutyunyan has to fly across Canada from Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territories, to Montreal to do what he loves the most.
Harutyunyan is an expert diamond cutter and polisher but ever since the Arslanian Cutting Works factory in Yellowknife shut its doors two years ago, the only chance he gets to practice his beloved craft is during short visits to Montreal.

Sweet victory for Canadian police: maple syrup thieves caught

The largest known heist ever of sweet and expensive maple syrup oozed a step closer to solution on Tuesday as Canadian police arrested three suspects.
Sergeant Claude Denis, spokesman for the Quebec provincial police, said the hunt for an estimated 3 million kilograms of stolen syrup took police investigators to neighbouring Ontario, New Brunswick and north-eastern United States.

Canada downplays deal to share embassies with Britain

London/Ottawa (dpa) – Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird sought to downplay a deal with Britain to share diplomatic missions abroad amid a chorus of criticism of the plan from opposition parties and former diplomats. Speaking at a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Baird called the deal with Britain an “administrative” agreement. The agreement is expected to involve countries where Britain has diplomatic missions and Canada does not or vice versa.

Remembering my fallen colleagues

On November 11, 2001, I survived an ambush that killed three of my colleagues. Johanne Sutton, Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik were killed when the group of Northern Alliance soldiers we were traveling with was ambushed by Taliban fighters on a barren plateau near Dasht-e-Qala in Takhar Province, in northeastern Afghanistan. Jo, Pierre and Volker were the first journalists to be killed in that war. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since September 2001 13 foreign journalists and six Afghan reporters have been killed…