Ontario government reaches deal with some public workers

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's government said on Wednesday it reached a deal with public employees to freeze wages for two years as part of a broader and contentious push to rein in the budget deficit. The tentative deal with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union covers more than 35,000 workers, including government staff, a relatively small group of workers compared to some of Ontario's larger...

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Canadian housing starts slow in December

10, 2010. REUTERS/Shaun BestTORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian housing starts slowed in December but more gradually than expected as an increase in single-family starts in urban areas softened the sting of a slowdown in multiple-unit and rural ground-breakings, a report on Wednesday said.Figures published by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp provided further evidence that Canada's long housing boom had...

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Canadian hopes to make fantasy sports TV channel a reality

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's fantasy sports geeks may soon have a cable channel to call their own, thanks to Leonard Asper, former head of a newspaper dynasty that fell victim to the rise of online media."The League - Fantasy Sports TV" will not feature real sporting events. Instead Asper's proposed channel will air call-in programs and talk shows that cater to the millions of North American sports...

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Sunnybrook lifts ban, allows daughter to see aging veteran father

TORONTO - Canada's largest veterans facility has lifted its ban on a woman who complained about bedbugs and a threat to a resident's safety.Following a weekend meeting, Sunnybrook said Jackie Storrison could see her aging dad at its veterans centre, from which police escorted her more than a week ago.The facility did insist security was on hand when Storrison went to see her father on Saturday."To...

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Margaret Thatcher in UK hospital after operation

 Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is recuperating at a hospital after an operation to remove a bladder growth, a friend said Friday.The 87-year-old Thatcher went to see her doctor after experiencing some discomfort and subsequently had the growth removed, according to longtime adviser Tim Bell.The operation was "completely satisfactory," Bell said. He said he couldn't go into detail...

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Pope stresses family values as gay marriage gains

The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people eschewing their God-given gender identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year. He dedicated it this...

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Pardon for pope's butler who stole papers expected

 The Vatican has summoned journalists for a briefing on what Italian news reports say is an expected pardon for Pope Benedict XVI'S former butler, who stole the pontiff's personal papers and leaked them in a bid to expose the "evil and corruption" in the Catholic Church.Paolo Gabriele was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found heaps of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He was...

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Russia: Syrian chemical weapons under control

 Russia's foreign minister says the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught.Sergey Lavrov says Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal. He says the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centers" to properly safeguard them.U.S. intelligence...

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Margaret Thatcher in hospital after operation

 Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday.After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations executive who...

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Ofwat backs down on water licence changes

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's water regulator Ofwat backed down over controversial changes to make water company licences more flexible after the firms affected rejected the original proposals.Ofwat, which oversees Britain's water and sewage operators, is trying to change licences to increase the flexibility it has over controlling water prices, but on Friday compromised on some of those changes.Pennon...

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Pope takes anti-gay marriage stance to new level

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope took his opposition to gay marriage to new heights Friday, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given gender to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy — one of his most important speeches of the year....

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UK High Court blocks drone intelligence challenge

LONDON (AP) — Britain's High Court on Friday blocked a legal bid for an inquiry into the possible role of the country's spy agencies in aiding covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal region.Noor Khan, a 27-year-old whose father was killed by a drone strike in northwest Pakistan in March 2011, had asked the High Court to examine whether Britain intelligence officials assisted the action...

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UK told to add break-up threat to bank reform

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain needs to introduce legislation that could break up banks if standards slip because current reform proposals fall short of what is needed, an influential parliamentary panel said.The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards also said on Friday the government could set tougher rules for how much leverage banks were allowed, adding that the committee itself would consider...

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Australian DJs Break Silence On Kate Middleton Prank Tragedy

Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who pranked called nurse Jacintha Saldanha at London's King Edward VII Hospital about Kate Middleton's pregnancy, are speaking out following the death of Saldanha."I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened. My first question was, is she a mother?" Mel said in an interview on Australian TV show "A Current Affair," when asked about Saldanha,...

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Australian DJs break silence over royal prank tragedy

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two Australian radio announcers who made a prank call to a British hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate broke a three-day silence on Monday to speak of their distress at the apparent suicide of the nurse who took their call.The 2DayFM Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, said the tragedy had left them "shattered, gutted, heartbroken".Greig...

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Australian DJs break silence over UK royal prank tragedy

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two Australian radio announcers who made a prank call to a British hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate broke a three-day silence on Monday to speak of their distress at the apparent suicide of the nurse who took their call.The 2DayFM Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, said the tragedy had left them "shattered, gutted, heartbroken".Greig...

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Australian DJs break silence over UK royal prank tragedy

SYDNEY (AP) — They say they expected a hang-up and a few laughs. Instead, the Australian DJs behind a hoax phone call to the London hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was being treated were deeply apologetic Monday as they described how their joke ended up going too far.The phone call — in which they impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles — went through, and their station...

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Australian DJs apologize for royal hoax call

SYDNEY (AP) — They say they expected a hang-up and a few laughs. Instead, the Australian DJs behind a hoax phone call to the London hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was being treated were deeply apologetic Monday as they described how their joke ended up going too far.The phone call — in which they impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles — went through, and their station...

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