International News

By DOUG SAUNDERS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
If you look at the front page of Tuesday's copy of Le Monde, France's most influential newspaper, you might think you were reading a broadsheet from Peoria, Ill.

It was actually a pretty big news day in Europe: More than five million people had gone the day without electricity, talks broke down over Turkey's European Union membership and France faced a number of political crises.

But Le Monde's front page, like much reporting in Europe this week, is devoted to a matter that usually escapes European notice.

A banner headline, stretched across the top of the front page, read "Bush Faces Menace of a Democratic Congress: The Midterm Elections Could Deprive the Republican President of the House and the Senate." Above was a full-width photo of the President stumping for a congressman, and below were five articles devoted to the vicissitudes of the Yankee vote.

Never in recent memory have Europeans been so devoted to the outcome of a midterm U.S.

By GEOFFREY YORK
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
An unprecedented summit with 48 African countries has given a dramatic boost to China's ambitions for superpower status, fuelling its drive to challenge the West for supremacy in the developing world.

The summit wrapped up Sunday with news of a further $1.9-billion (U.S.) in trade and investment deals between China and Africa, on top of the $10-billion in loans and assistance China offered on Saturday.

The two-day summit in Beijing was attended by 35 heads of state from Africa, along with senior officials from 13 other African countries.

By OLIVER MOORE and OMAR EL AKKAD
Monday, November 20, 2006
He is a father of two, a small-town photographer with a home studio who occasionally made calendars to sell at the local mall. He was also, police allege, offering more disturbing material on-line.

An investigator said the man sent him real-time video of the sexual abuse of a preschooler Sunday. According to police, the undercover officer, who had been posing as a pedophile since January, continued to chat on-line with the man while setting in motion a trio of police forces that quickly tracked him down.

Less than 90 minutes later, police turned up at a townhouse in a small community near London, Ontario.

By DOUG SAUNDERS
Sunday, November 19, 2006
When his admirers call him "a little Napoleon," they are referring both to his stature and his voluble confidence. Brigadier-General Ton Van Loon, the Dutch officer who took over command of the NATO troops in Afghanistan this week, is clearly a different personality from the mild-mannered Canadian general he replaced.

But soldiers in the field and political observers are anxiously waiting to see whether Van Loon will be a different sort of leader in other respects.

In an Afghan war that has been hampered by friction between nation building and fighting the Taliban, the change of leadership from Canada to the Netherlands has led to speculation that the tenor of the conflict will also change.

"Is Van Loon going to do things differently? He may want to but I'm not sure he can do much," says Jan Willem Honig, a Dutch expert on the politics of NATO warfare at King's College in London.

"The Dutch in general very much favor winning hearts and minds, which suggests an immediate contrast with the Americans, who are said to favour the heavy-handed fighting approach," Honig said.

By GEOFFREY YORK
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The North Korean soldier slipped quietly out of the bushes and edged onto the bank of the narrow, muddy river that marks the Chinese border. He stood there silently until a Chinese cigarette vendor spotted him.

"He's coming here for cigarettes," the vendor said.

By GEOFFREY YORK
Friday, November 17, 2006
Mr. Li, a veteran 60-year-old Chinese businessman, sells $2-million to $3-million in goods to North Korea every year. And, despite sanctions that the White House describes as a tough new measure, he is confident he can keep selling the same amount of goods to the newly nuclear state next year.

Here on the North Korean border, the cross-border trade is still flourishing.

By OMAR EL AKKAD
Friday, November 17, 2006
American teacher Malcolm Watson, who became the center of a cross-border row after a judge ruled he could serve probation in Canada for a sex offense committed in Buffalo, N.Y., now faces the prospect of being booted out of the country.

Watson, a 35-year-old who was convicted of low-level sex charges related to a 15-year-old student, was arrested Thursday trying to cross into Canada.

By ROBERT MATAS
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Conjoined twins Krista and Tatiana were born at a Vancouver hospital, vigorous, wiggly and very vocal.

The girls, who each weighed about 61/2 pounds and were equal in length, were joined at the head, an extremely rare situation.

Photos taken in the operating room by a family member and provided to CTV News show the infants moments after their birth on Wednesday.

By GLORIA GALLOWAY and JEFF SALLOT
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
A minimum level of fitness is no longer required of those who wish to join the Canadian Forces.

A notice posted in the recruiting section of Canada's military Web site says that, as of Oct.

By PETTI FONG
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Canadian immigrant groups say fear is building in their communities over whether a federal review of dual citizenship will lead to people having to choose which passport to keep.

They say Canadians with dual citizenship will face excruciating personal decisions if the government revokes the practice.

"I think the majority of the members of our community are very concerned," said Svetlana Litvin, a leader with the Russian-speaking community in Montreal.

Some of these members are business owners who travel back and forth from Canada to Russia and neighboring countries, said Litvin, director of projects for the Russian-speaking community reference center in Montreal.