According to CTV News Staff; The Taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted a convoy of Canadian soldiers which killed 37 Afghan civilians. Monday's attack occurred in Spin Boldak, near the border with Pakistan. The border had been temporarily closed because of Pakistan's election, but was re-opened to allow the wounded to be taken to hospital for treatment. Canadian injuries were light, but that many of the 30 civilians wounded are in critical condition. The death toll could rise. The Canadian military will only say a convoy was in the area and that no Canadians were killed. A border police official in Spin Boldak said one of the Canadian vehicles sustained heavy damage. Monday's bombing comes a day after the deadliest bombing in Afghanistan since the Taliban fell in 2001. More than 100 people are now estimated to have died on Sunday, in an attack which had occurred outside of Kandahar city . About 30 of Sunday's bombing victims were police officers. A crowd in the hundreds had gathered to watch a dog fight, a popular pastime in Afghanistan. This is what our Canadian troops are giving up their lives for? They are getting killed for a bunch of barbaric people who get their kicks watching dogs kill each other. Good Grief! I like to see our Prime Minister Stephen Harper, explain that to people who love dogs.

According to the Associated Press; The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station early Monday for its journey back to Earth, ending a nearly nine-day visit to deliver, install and activate Europe's new orbital laboratory.

Update on 12-year-old Karissa Boudreau; According to CTV in British Columbia, The funeral for 12-year-old Karissa Boudreau is scheduled for Tuesday, as police continue their investigation into the young girl's killing. The Grade 6 student's frozen body was discovered Feb. 9th/2008 in the woods on the outskirts of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, where she had recently moved to live with her mother. Police have since said her death was a homicide. An autopsy revealed how the girl died, but police have said that information will not be released because it could undermine their investigation. Collyer said police have received a number of tips since the grim discovery, but would not elaborate. Karissa had disappeared nearly two weeks before her body was found. Sgt. John Collyer stated that "It seemed like a lot of people all of a sudden come forward, people that had been holding back for whatever reason decided they were going to call. Sgt. John Collyer could not pinpoint when police expect to arrest the person or persons, who had killed the little Nova Scotian girl, Karissa Boudreau.

Mickey Renaud, a promising young player and the former captain for the OHL's Windsor Spitfires suddenly dies. The Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires held an emotional press conference late Tuesday afternoon to discuss the death of their team captain and the devastating effect it has had on his teammates. The promising young hocky player was on his way to becoming the fourth-round draft pick of the Calgary Flames last year, collapsed at his home on Monday afternoon and later died. The hocky team was called off the ice and into the dressing room and were told their captain had died. The players say they are still in shock. I suspect that Mickey Renaud had a condition known as SADS (Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome. As far as I can find out about this condition, it is very hard to get a reading of it by an ECG (electrocardiogram) when the person is alive. It is impossible to determine its cause of death in a dead person. It seems that an ECG can only catch the condition of SADS while the patient has passed out. Otherwise the ECG will record a normal heart reading. People with the condition known as SADS or long QT syndrome, have an increased risk of heart stoppage and sudden death as a result of cardiac arrest if they have had recent loss of consciousness or fainting (called syncope). Most people do not associate the sudden loss of consciousness or fainting with SADS or QT syndrome, and are not aware they may have SADS or QT syndrome. QT syndrome is an inherited form of heart problem when the electrical signal from the brain to the heart is disrupted and can result in heart attacks and in some cases, sudden, unexpected death. Death can occur at all ages, but it often strikes young people or teen-agers. Most cardiac arrests occur when the heart begins to exhibit rapid and/or chaotic activity ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. Some are due to extreme slowing of the heart. All these events are called life-threatening arrhythmias. Finding symptoms that can predict those individuals most at risk of dying from this problem can be used by physicians seeking to prevent sudden death in these individuals. Many factors have been found to affect the course of this disorder, including sex, congenital deafness, prior events affecting the heart, family history, specific readings on the electrocardiogram and the patient’s genetic makeup. What was found: The investigators, led by Jenny B. Hobbs, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, found that recent loss of consciousness or fainting (known in the medical literature as syncope), the length of the QTc interval (a measurement on the electrocardiogram) and being male predisposed the young people with long QT syndrome to either their heart stopping or sudden death. They found that among people ages 10 to 12, the risk for males was four times that of their female counterparts. However, there was no significant difference in people ages 13 to 20. People with one loss of consciousness in the last two years had a 12 times increased risk of experiencing a life-threatening heart stoppage compared to those who had had not loss of consciousness during that time. The increased risk was 18 times higher for those who had lost consciousness twice during the previous two-year period. However, treatment with drugs called beta blockers lowered the risk 64 percent in those who had lost consciousness in the past two years. Renaud's teammates and fans remember him as a player who was always willing to help his young fans. They remembered him as someone who would drop by when younger players were on the ice to give them a souvenir to "make things memorable." Fans say Renaud was a role model in the community. "He was loved by everybody in this whole building," said one fan at the Windsor Arena, where the Spitfires play. "The fans just adored the guy. It's just a terrible, terrible loss." The OHL has announced that Renaud's number '18' will be displayed on the helmet of every OHL player for the rest of the league's season. Renaud's funeral will be held on Friday morning.

Feb.20th, 2008; This morming it is frosty and very cold with tempatures around -24°C and is expected to rise around the -17°C mark later on during the day. I had sent letters concerning the great need to provide funding for the extra staff that is required to better provide services to our elderly people who reside at those short and long term health care facillities across Canada, to all the heads of the political parties in Ottawa, each address with their name. It reads as follows; Dear (Persons name); Will your party to be investing money for appropriate health care for people in short and long term health care facilities? I am just a volunteer at a health care facility in Haileybury, Ont. and I have nothing to gain in this matter. But I can see how all the staff, from management on down, are overworked because of lack of proper funding for additional staffing. I found all the people who are involved in looking after long- or short-term care are highly dedicated people who want the best of care for their patients. The staff want to be able to spend more time with each and every patients, but can not because they have to spread themselves too thin in order to provide the services to all the patients in these health care facilities. The funding OLTCA has requested, $513 million that is required, for the necessary additional staff and supplies. It will also add a total of some 4,350 (FTE's) in OLTCA member health care homes. I hope they get the funding for the necessary additional staff and supplies. Our people deserve no less. Sincerely, Jean Pall

I had also sent this letter off to Mr,George Smitherman who is Dulton McGuinty Health minister. The responce I recived from the Right Honourable Stephen Harper's office was this; On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail regarding government funding for short and long-term health care facilities. While you may be assured that your comments have been given careful consideration, the administration and delivery of health care services in Canada fall within the responsibility of each province or territory. You would be best advised, therefore, to pursue your enquiries with your provincial Ministry of Health. I regret that I am unable to provide you with a more favourable response. A. Opalick Executive Correspondence Officer for the Prime Minister's Office, Agent de correspondance de la haute direction pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre. >>> From : Jean Pall jean_pall@lycos.com Received : 15 Feb 2008 02:59:09 PM >>>

So this is their responce to our National Health Care program for Canada. I have not forgotten that our Government, Stephen Harper's office had already sent $30 million in aid to the Fatah Palestinian Government in Israel. It is also known they plan to give an additional $200 million to this group of people are as much terrorists as Hamas. It is well known fact that Hamas the Fatah Palestinians are partisapate in killing at random, innocent people in Israel. It seems that the Harper Government is totally ignorant to those facts that the Hamas people are terrorists.

I had also recived a responce from the Honourable Stéphane Dion. His letter reads; On behalf of the Honourable Stéphane Dion, we would like to acknowledge receipt and thank you for taking the time and effort to send your correspondence. It is an extraordinary feature of our democracy that there exist clear lines of contact between ourselves and our elected representatives. However, this freedom does not come without limitations. Due to the high volume of correspondence that we receive, in some cases where a detailed response is needed, it may take some time to reply. Mr. Dion always appreciates hearing from Canadians and being made aware of their views. Be assured that the concerns you have raised in your letter have been reviewed and noted. We are confident that working together, we will achieve Stéphane Dion’s vision for Canada. Sincerely, The Office of the Honourable Stéphane Dion Leader of the Official Opposition. Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. I had not recieved a responce from Dulton McGuinty office or from the Ontario Health minister. I had also not recieved any responce from the NDP; Jack Layton's office. In case you want to have some input into this topic of needing more staff in short and long-term health care facilities, Here are their e-mail addresses;
Conservative Party; Right Hon. Stephen Harper ; Harper.S@parl.gc.ca
Liberal; Hon. Stéphane Dion ; DionS@parl.gc.ca
NDP; Jack Layton, laytoj@parl.gc.ca

Don't forget, you will end up in one of those short or long-term health care facilities if you should live that long. Something to think about.

Feb. 21, 2008; I was able to see the total eclipse of the moon last night in the comfort of my apartment as I watched it through my bedroom window which started around quarter to 10 pm. Personally, I do not see what the big deal is that some people are making such a fuss over it. After all, it is only the moon going through its normal path as it went through Earth's umbral and penumbral shadow, causing a total lunar eclipse. We had clear skies that the event could be seen clearly with the naked eye. The moon was bright white with the edge of the shadow was more of a very dark reddish-brown, and the main shadow was black, rather than the moon would turn blood red, as I had heard some people claim it would be. As I had stated, what is the big deal about a lunar eclipse, anyway?

Irene and Woody are really having a hard time of it during their two month vacation. It is bad enough to have ran smack into the path of tornadoes, now they are in near an area where a strong earthquake had shook rural northeastern Nevada on Thursday, causing at least one building to collapse, according to authorities. The magnitude of the quake, initially estimated at 6.3, was later revised to 6.0 by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. The quake, which struck at 6:16 a.m., was centered in a sparsely populated area 11 miles southeast of Wells near the Nevada-Utah line. "It was pretty bad," said Jane Kelso, who answered the phone at the Motel 6. "Everything in our whole building shook. "We have cracks in our walls." The temblor was felt across eastern Nevada, Utah and as far away as Southern California. In Twin Falls, Idaho, residents reported severe shaking and items falling off the shelves. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, but a manager at a truck stop said the store was a wreck, with groceries and goods scattered all over the place.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced his compromise motion on the Afghan mission during a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday. The Harper government has unveiled a new motion to end the Canadian mission in the volatile Kandahar region of Afghanistan by 2011, bridging the gap between previous Conservative and Liberal motions. The motion adopts wording from a Liberal amendment, though the Tories have the military leaving six months later than in the Liberal proposal. It also says the mission will focus more on training and reconstruction, as the Liberals have demanded. Frankly, despite the brave front the UN crowd is displaying to the general public, I think that this whole Afghanistan war is far from being over. Our Canadian troops can end up being there for the next twenty years with a lot more of our Canadian troops dying there for a bunch of people who espouse that pagan Islam religion which is waging a war against all non-Muslim people whom they consider as being infidels. This Muslim war is pitched in an eternal battle to the death, between them and the rest of the non-Muslim world. To think that we are giving aid to those people who would want to see us dead, is absurd! Don't forget, today there are more than one billion Muslims spread among every nation in the world.

As for that falling spy satellite that was heading towards our planet, the Pentagon has a "high degree of confidence" that a Navy missile had successfully hit and destroyed the toxic fuel tank of that out-of- control satellite that was destined for planet earth. The bus-sized satellite, known as US 193 became uncontrollable soon after its December 2006 launch, when its central computer failed and it lost power. It was estimated to be carrying up to 450 kilograms of hazardous fuel called hydrazine, encased in a titanium tank. Wouldn't that tank have exploded when the tank would glow white hot with heat as it was plunging down through our earth's atmosphere? I guess the Pentagon people did not think so.

That must have been some massive fire that had gutted the area in downtown Toronto the other day. I remember I used to hang around that area a lot when I was living in Toronto. People had really did a fine job renovating that row of old buildings and had all kinds of fine, up-scale shops in them. Now, fire crews are preparing to tear down the charred remains of those historic old buildings on Queen Street West. Fourteen buildings, some more than 100 years old, once housed street-level shops with upper-level apartments. An estimated 60 people lost either their homes or businesses, but no injuries were reported. It was a real nice place to visit. I have fond memories there.

It seems that a laptop computer holding a database with personal information on thousands of Newfoundland schoolchildren was among several stolen during a robbery, school officials said on Thursday. The database contained information on 28,000 students, most in the St. John's area. It listed their names, addresses, Medicare numbers, phone numbers and the names of their guardians. The four laptops were stolen from the district's eastern school offices in Atlantic Place, an office complex in downtown St. John's. Officials think the robbery occurred on Sunday, but it was not reported to the public for four days. "We are very concerned about this theft and possible breach of private information," chief executive officer Darrin Pike said in the statement. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is investigating. Hopefully those laptop computers had a password check to access that database. If not, then the information can be sold on the open market and jeopardize the schoolchildren listed on that database.

Feb. 22, 2008; Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff, said Parliament should "overwhelmingly" vote to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan or face an opportunistic enemy that will strike at perceived weakness, the country's top soldier said Friday. In the eyes of the Taliban we are in a window of extreme vulnerability. Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the defence staff has finally waken up to the fact that our Canadian troops are in a window of extreme vulnerability. You can count that it will remain that way for as long as our troops are in Afghanistan. Russia had found that out and decided to pull its troops out of Afghanistan because it was loosing too many of its troops. How many of our troops need to die before Gen. Rick Hillier decides to ask Parliament to pull its troops out of Afghanistan? What is the magic number? 500, 1000 or 5000?

Feb. 24th, 2008; I had taken out another painting that I had started working on, but had not finished and had set aside when my eyes were getting bad. Now that I can see clearly with my left eye. I had managed to finish the Blacksmith Shop and placed it on MY Little Art Gallery web page. Hopefully I might sell one of my paintings so that I can purchase a decent digital camera. The one I am using at the present time can not capture a sharp, clear close-up photo. Though it is great for taking photo's of scenery, or things that are at a distance.

I see that the Pakistan Government has banned access to the video-sharing website YouTube because of what it says are anti-Islamic movies that users have posted on the site. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the country's 70 internet service providers on Friday that the popular website would be blocked until further notice. The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a telecommunications authority official said the ban concerns a movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders. Wilders has said he plans to release an anti-Qur'an movie portraying the religion as prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals. It appears that the Pakistan Government is afraid to let the truth out on that Islam religion. That is not surprising!

Speaking about that Islam religion, it seems that a Montrealer, Adil Charkaoui, who is a Muslem, was arrested in May 2003 and now faces deportation to Morocco. According to CBC News, the Montreal, Morocco-born man was accused of having ties to Islamic terrorists. Adil Charkaoui has denied the latest allegations by Canada's spy service that he displayed secretive and violent behaviour and once discussed commandeering a commercial aircraft for "aggressive ends." The allegations by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) against Adil Charkaoui came late on Friday, as the federal government renewed its efforts to deport five men accused of having terrorist links. Montrealer Adil Charkaoui was arrested in May 2003 and now faces deportation to Morocco. Ryan Remiorz from the Canadian Press, ssaid that in a statement issued by a coalition of Charkaoui's supporters, that those allegations are unproven fragments of information based upon hearsay. The case involves the so-called "Secret Trial Five", Charkaoui, Mohamed Harkat, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei who are all fighting to remain in the country against deportation orders. These terrorist suspects are all held without charge under special security certificates based on secret evidence, that the accused are not allowed to see. As much as I dislike what Islam stands for, I still think it is unfair that we have a system that people can be arrested and not have a fair trial. I do not like this idea that an accused person is not told specifically what they are being charge with, and thereby can not defend themselves of those allegations that are laid against a person. Such a system are found in a dictatorship, not in a free and open democratic country.

To think that we are sending our troops in Afghanistan to protect people over there from their own kind seem a bit assured to me. How stupid that is to be sending our Canadian troops for a bunch of people who intend to retain that pagan Islam religion which is giving their women such a hard time. As for Muslims in Iraq, Sunni Muslims are attacking Shia Muslims once again in their sectarian religious war. At least 25 Shia pilgrims were killed and 40 others wounded Sunday in a suicide bombing on a road south of Baghdad, Iraqi police said. The bomber struck as pilgrims were walking in the town of Iskandariyah. They were heading south toward the Muslim holy city of Karbala for Arbaeen, a Shia religious festival. The road where the attack took place is used by thousands of Muslim pilgrims who are commemorating Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein. A Shia martyr who died in battle in 680 CE and is buried in Karbala. Earlier in the day, at least three Shia pilgrims were killed and 36 wounded when Sunni Muslims threw grenades and used small-arms fire in Dora, Baghdad which is a predominantly Sunni neighborhood. More than one million pilgrims are expected to arrive in Karbala to mark this major Shia anniversary. But then, our Canadian government is helping these Muslim people because our Canadian politicians who lead their political parties are in bed with the U.N. global government, so it is not surprising that they will tow the U.N./NATO, line, come hell or high water! After all, our Canadian troops are expendable for the New World Order agenda. In fact, looking at the four political parties that are running in this coming election, be it the Conservatives, Liberal, NDP or the Green Party, they are all in bed with the U.N./NATO global government. One way or another, the U.N. global government will have its way, despite what Canadians may want or who they may want to choose as their government. The heads behind the U.N crowd has covered all its bases, so to speak, and it makes little difference which political party Canadians may choose in this or in any upcoming future election. It is a far different picture than that perceived world view people are led to believe is their reality. Because that reality is only a grand illusion.

According to CTV News, A man remains missing after being swept over Niagara Falls. Police say the unidentified man entered the Niagara River on Saturday afternoon and was swept over the Horseshoe Falls. Despite an extensive search from both sides of the border, he could not be found. An investigation is ongoing. It's not clear why the man went into the river. Frankly, I do not think that person has much of a chance to survive, given the very cold tempature of the water. Then there are those whilpools that are further down the river from niagara falls. The man can be sucked under, never to be seen alive again.

Here is a little bit of good news. Our Canadian government is going to help a Canadian citizen out of a terrible delema. According to CTV News, the Department of Foreign Affairs stepped in to help a Toronto-area woman who was injured in Africa. Michelle Senayah, 23, was nearly killed in a scooter accident on Thursday, suffering a fractured skull and bleeding of the brain. The Mississauga woman is now in a coma in Lome, Togo and her doctors have said if she is going to survive, she must be transferred to a Westernized hospital. A medical assistance company that could arrange to get the woman out demanded a $200,000 deposit to ensure the family could pay for her treatment. Doctors said because of her condition, the trip would be longer because the flight must travel at sea level to avoid any pressure increase, and the Togo government also requires 24 hours advance notice of all incoming flights. Family members say they were contacted by Canadian foreign affairs officials on Saturday who said they worked out all those problems and Senayah should be on a plane for London today.

Feb. 25th, 2008; Last night I was watching an interesting program, the Fifth Estate on CBC which was all about road rage. Road rage is drivers who blows their top behind the wheel when driving on our roads. Some of these people are very aggressive, the bully type, who tend to think that they own the road, instead of having to share the road with others. The majority of people who are infected with road rage are just your common, ordinary, type of person who just flips out on account of overwhelming stress society places on them. A Canadian study found that 40% of men and 27% of women admitted perpetrating aggressive behavior while driving, such as yelling, gesturing, threatening to hurt someone, attempting to damage another driver's car or hurt the person. It was also found that up to 48% of people reported being at the receiving end of someone else's anger on the road. Up to 6% were threatened, up to 4% had someone try to damage their car and up to 3% had someone attempt to hurt them. It is freighting how prevalent road rage has become. A lot of that road rage may account to the fact that car ownership has grown over the last few decades, and our roadways have not kept pace with that growing trend. Especially in rapidly expanding cities, or highways that used to operate well below capacity, now have become congested for large parts of the day. High speed vehicles only tends to fuel aggressive driving which may intensify the urge of road rage. I have also noticed that manufactures of cars, snowmobiles, ATV's and boats, design and build these vehicles with very high performance engines that is built for speed and advertisements reflect that point. Time and again you see advertisements where people seem to think our streets and highways are privet raceways or obstical courses. They boast how their high speed vehicles reach speeds well over 100 km/h, which is the cause of more death on our roadways, on trails and on our waterways. With the ever-increasing horsepower on our vehicles, there is always that added temptation to put that power to use. The death toll is around 2,923 per year. 210,629 people are injured, 660,093 motor vehicles are involved in serious collisions. There were approx 21,936,778 licensed drivers in Canada in 2005. Canada ranks among the top 10 in fatalities per km traveled. Why can't these designers and manufactures of cars, snowmobiles, ATV's and boats, build vehicles with only a top speed of thirty or the very most, fifty miles per hour? That would greatly reduce a lot of deaths in their use. Try to imagine a world where all vehicles are required to use engines that can only reach regular speeds of 20 km/h, but not exceed 50 km/h. A world where no turbos or superchargers are allowed on our streets or highways. What a difference that would make on the yearly death toll on our city streets and highways. Another option would be to have an automated car-road system that would cost a great amount of money for that type of conversion. It is time we get rid of that high speed mindset and our hectic driven society, and learn to slow down our pace and enjoy life.

Feb. 26th, 2008; Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will deliver his budget at 4 p.m. ET today in the House of Commons. The government is expected to announce a surplus of $13 billion for the 2007-08 fiscal year, up from a previous estimate of $11.5 billion. The higher surplus will give Finance Minister Jim Flaherty a bit more room to manoeuvre. We will see if the Liberals will defeat the budget. But based on internal leaks from the Conservative Government, the Liberals have decided they will not defeat the budget. To prevent the budget's passage, all three opposition parties would have to vote it down,which would be an act of non-confidence that would almost certainly trigger an election. "People ought not to expect any big spending items because we have to stay within our means and be prudent and fiscally responsible, which we will be," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told CTV New on Monday. But he did admit there would be some good-news surprises in the document. Canada's economy is expected to slow somewhat this year. On Monday, the International Monetary Fund predicts economic growth of 1.8 per cent in Canada in 2008. Last fall, the IMF predicted 2.8 per cent growth for Canada this year. Statistics Canada has reported that the number of people receiving Employment Insurance went up in December for the first time in five months. In the meantime, the U.S. economic picture is growing gloomier by the day. Reports on three fronts Tuesday showed a deteriorating climate as consumer confidence plunged, inflation at the wholesale level soared and home prices slumped at a record pace. The New York-based Conference Board said in a report its Consumer Confidence Index plunged in February to 75.0 from a revised 87.3 in January. The reading was the lowest since the index registered 64.8 in February 2003. It is far below the 83.0 analysts expected. The index measures how consumers feel now about the economy. It has been weakening since July, suggesting that wary consumers may retrench financially, which could fatigue the economy further.

Well, we got Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's new budget. The budget offers no new taxes and no major tax cuts.. The Tory budget provides $300 million to help Atomic Energy of Canada to develop Candu nuclear technology and support safe operations at the Chalk River plant. It provides $440 million for Research and Development. It provides $500 million for public transit infrastructure. It provides a new tax-free savings account that will allow Canadians to invest $5,000 per year, with the freedom to make withdrawals at any time, for any purpose. The income earned in the account is tax free, including capital gains. The fund is the first of its kind and appears aimed at winning votes among middle-class Canadians who have the ability to put money away. It provides about $5 billion in tax relief for seniors and pensioners, including a doubling of the pension income amount to $2,000. Increasing the Age Credit amount by $1,000. Increasing the age limit for maturing RPPs and RRSPs, and pensioners to income-split for the first time. It provides the much needed $400 million for 2,500 new front-line police officers. It will also put $10.2 billion towards knocking the debt down to $457 billion. What is missing in this buget is the $513 million which is required for the necessary additional staff and supplies for OLTCA member health care homes that is desperately needed to provide the kind of care our elderly people deserve. The Harper Tory budget fails to realize that the majority of people are elderly or soon will be, and will require the services of these health care homes and will have a lot to say in any election. It would be well that they do not forget that fact. Otherwise, it is a good buget and there are no items in this buget that the Liberals or the NDP can really reject. That may be enough to stave off a federal election. To get the full scope of this buget, here is the direct link to CTV.'s web site on the Federal Budget 2008 . Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said the federal budget "touches everything but accomplishes very little," but suggested his party would not force an election over the document. "Under the circumstances, I don't see enough that would justify that we precipitate an election that Canadians do not want, for now," he told reporters. But only moments after Flaherty introduced the budget, the opposition Liberals and NDP and Bloc Quebecois denounced the plan and vowed to vote against it. NDP Leader Jack Layton said his party would not support the document because it gives too much away in corporate tax cuts. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe also said his party wouldn't support the budget, just moments after it was unveiled by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. But without the Liberals voting against the document, it's likely to pass when it comes to a House of Commons vote on March 5.

On the Afghanistan front, France has reneged on their commitment to send some of its troops to Kandahar, the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, to help our Canadian and U.K. troops who are doing the lion's share of the fighting in that area. Our Canadian troops will be disappointed that the French troops won't be assisting their mission. France has just under 2,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, but most of those are located in the relatively-calm capital of Kabul. Poland won't publicly commit their troops to the southern region of Afghanistan either, since they had lost two soldiers today. Canada has a force of about 2,500 in Kandahar. NATO has about 42,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. CTV News has learned that U.S. President George Bush will provide the 1,000 U.S. troops in order to keep Canada in Afghanistan if no other countries come forward. I wonder how the American public feel about sending its troops to Kandahar, the most dangerous place in Afghanistan?

Wed, February 27, 2008; A team from the U.S. won the top prize in an international competition to solve a dilemma more commonly associated with Hollywood blockbusters like Armageddon and Deep Impact: How do you track an asteroid headed for Earth? The winning team, led by SpaceWorks Engineering Inc. of Atlanta working in conjunction with SpaceDev Inc. of Poway, Calif., won the Apophis Mission Design Competition's $25,000 US first-place prize on Tuesday, according to The Planetary Society, the space exploration advocacy group that held the contest. The winning team's plan, called Foresight, calls for a spacecraft to be equipped with a radio beacon and two tracking instruments and would launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur IV rocket sometime between 2012 and 2014. It would rendezvous with the asteroid some five to 10 months later, orbit it for a month to collect data, and then fly alongside it, using radio tracking from Earth to determine the exact orbit. The winning team said the total cost of the operation would be $137.2 million US. Large asteroids can have a potentially disastrous impact if they strike the Earth. Scientists have theorized that a collision of an asteroid off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs by causing an upheaval in the planet's climate. NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) program office already tracks the paths of both near-Earth asteroids and comets. As of Jan. 20, 2008, the NEO office said it has discovered 5,086 near-Earth asteroids. In September 2007 NASA's Dawn spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral on an eight year, 6.4 billion-kilometre mission to monitor the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. Both of these asteroids lie in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, and neither is seen as a danger to Earth.

The biggest earthquake in nearly 25 years has shaken the UK. Homes across large parts of the country were efected during the quake. People in Newcastle, Yorkshire, London, Cumbria, the Midlands, Norfolk and also parts of Wales, felt the tremor just before 0100 GMT. Davie Galloway, seismologist for the British Geological Survey (BGS) said the epicentre of the 5.2 magnitude quake was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. People had reported feeling the tremor from as far as Bangor in Northern Ireland to the west, Haarlem in Holland to the east, Plymouth to the south and Edinburgh to the north. The earthquake caused damage to many homes. Bev Finnegan, who lives in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, said: "I was terrified to be honest. The noise was really, really terrifying... it was so deep and rumbling. "It felt like the roof was going to fall in. There were people coming out in their dressing gowns wondering what it was. It was quite an experience." A Lincolnshire police spokeswoman said the force had received dozens of calls from residents but there were no reports of anyone in the county being injured. "There is slight structural damage, cracks and a couple of chimneys damaged. There's nothing serious at present," she said. Speaking from Gainsborough, Mike Thomas, chief fire officer for Lincolnshire, said crews had been called out to 50 incidents and one fire as a result of the quake. Only one person was injured during the quake. Student David Bates, 19, suffered a broken pelvils when a chimney collapsed on him in his attic bedroom in Barnsley Road, Wombwell, in South Yorkshire. He was taken to hospital and was due to undergo surgery. The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the epicentre of the 5.2 magnitude quake was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. There was also an aftershock at about 0400 GMT reaching 1.8 on the Richter Scale. The last time a quake hit England was in 2002. The quake's epicentre then was a few miles off the coast in the English Channel. That quake registered 4.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale.