Stories referenced at 9:00 a.m. Atlantic Time
NOVA SCOTIA
DARTMOUTH CAR CHASE LEADS TO ARREST
(CHRONICLE HERALD) A 20-year-old Dartmouth man faces several charges after a car chase Friday night. He's been charged with possession of a stolen 1991 Dodge Dynasty, dangerous driving and fleeing police while operating a vehicle. The chase started at about 10:22 p.m. near Albro Lake Road and Pinecrest Drive and ended at about 11:15 p.m. when the driver abandoned the car on Shore Road. Officers tracked down the suspect and arrested him within seconds. Police say no one was hurt.
HALIFAX HOSPITAL INFECTIONS ON THE RISE
(CBC) The physician in charge of infectious diseases at the QE II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax is worried about the rising rate of infections by organisms that are resistant to treatment. Dr. Lynn Johnston said the infections are dangerous but it is hard to pin any deaths to them. She said the hospital is taking steps to ensure staff are more vigilant about washing their hands.
PROVINCIAL OMBUDSMAN REPORTS POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST
(CHRONICLE HERALD) Nova Scotia's ombudsman says Nova Scotia Business Development Corp. potentially violated conflict of interest guidelines when it paid Mark-Lyn Construction Ltd. to move a composting operation from the Annapolis Valley Industrial Park. Mark-Lyn received $204,750 in provincial government grants and loans to move the operation after residents of nearby Coldbrook made odour complaints. The report said a member of the lending agency's board of directors also had a company operating in the industrial park and appeared to have an interest in seeing the composting operation moved.
INDIAN COMPANY HAS PAID MOST OF ITS SYDNEY STEEL BILL
(CAPE BRETON POST) Zoom Developers of India has paid most of what it owes the province for the electric arc furnace and universal mill from the Sydney steel plant. "They paid us some of the money they owe us. I think all of the subcontractors except one have now been paid in full," said Sysco president John Traves. Cape Breton Nova NDP MLA Gordie Gosse raised the issue last month. Zoom Developers purchased the abandoned mill for $4.5 million last year.
IRISH DANCE TEACHER RETURNS TO HALIFAX
(DAILY NEWS) Irishman Pat Murphy has come to Halifax yet again to do his bit for Celtic culture. Murphy has come to Nova Scotia every Easter for the past decade to teach the art of set dancing, a form of folk dancing. Dances are done to jigs, reels and polkas, with groups of eight who create a square formation. Participants gathered for sessions and workshops at places like the Old Triangle Ale House.
ATLANTIC
ISLAND FISHERMEN HEADING FOR SEAL HUNT
(CBC) Twenty-four P.E.I. fishermen are getting ready for the now lucrative harp seal hunt which begins Tuesday. New markets have pushed prices for pelts to nearly $100 -- 10 times what they were in the 1990s. The Islanders will have to navigate their boats through ice that still surrounds the province before they can get to the floes where the seals are. The quota has been set at 320,000 harp seals.
UNION BOSS WARNS AGAINST OUTSOURCING IN N.B.
(CANADAEAST) The head of the union representing 6,500 New Brunswick hospital workers is warning the provincial government against outsourcing work performed by his members. "It would be a violation of our contract," said David Rouse, president of CUPE Local 1252, on Friday. The provincial government announced Thursday it plans to make cuts in the civil service, including the consolidation of some non-clinical jobs in the health-care system.
(CBC) P.E.I.'s chief medical officer, Dr. Lamont Sweet, says 20 people in the acute and long-term care wards of the O'Leary Community Hospital have come down with what looks like Norwalk virus. Patients are showing a number of symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea. Sweet said the patients recover quickly. Test results are expected back early this week.
MAN ARRESTED IN MONCTON CLUB STABBING
(CBC) Daniel Carl Ferris, 22, was charged with aggravated assault on Friday in relation to Thursday's stabbing outside Moncton's Rocking Rodeo nightclub. Keith Leblanc is in hospital recovering from his wounds, but is listed in good condition.
CANADA
(CBC) A Canadian was injured in an explosion that stuck a Canadian embassy truck as it drove through Kabul, Afghanistan, today. The blast left a 1.5 metre-wide crater beside the road. An official from the embassy, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a security guard was injured. He had no information on the extent of his injuries but witnesses said the man walked unaided from the wreckage.
OTTAWA DANGLES RENT CUT FOR AIRPORTS
(GLOBE AND MAIL) The federal government is about to offer the non-profit operators of Canada's airports a rent cut, but in exchange the government wants more airline representation on their boards. Transport Minister Jean Lapierre says he'd like to make the airport authorities more transparent and accountable, and giving airlines a say in the management of the facilities is a step in the right direction.
(GLOBE AND MAIL) Transport Minister Jean Lapierre says a spring election would be a threat to the Liberals, given the damage being done to the party at the Gomery inquiry on federal sponsorship spending. "Obviously, I don't want to go to the polls at this time," he said. This came after Conservative leader Stephen Harper said last week a Kyoto environmental provision in the budget is a tax, and his party would oppose it. Spending items are matters of confidence that could force an election.
ACCUSED OF ABDUCTION, CHARGED WITH ARSON, B.C. MAN ON THE LOOSE
(CANADA.COM) A distraught dad accused of abducting his baby daughter and then setting his ex-girlfriend's Burnaby apartment on fire was on the loose last night. Cecil Henry Jones, 28, of Maple Ridge is believed to be armed. The child's mother wrestled the unharmed toddler from Jones after he allegedly took the child from a friend's place. Jones then barricaded himself inside her home before allegedly setting the building on fire and evading police. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest.
GERARD FILION, INFLUENTIAL PUBLISHER WHO FOUGHT DUPLESSIS, DIES
(CBC) Gerard Filion, the publisher who turned the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir into the most vocal critic of Maurice Duplessis's government, has died at the age of 95. Filion played a major role in the social and economic changes Quebec went through in the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. In an interview with Le Devoir, Filion once said he never hated Duplessis. "Without Duplessis, I would have been an ordinary journalist. He made me."
(CBC) Canadian music and entertainment stars spent the holiday weekend on ice to raise money for charity. They wrapped up a three-day hockey tournament on Sunday involving 28 teams playing in arenas throughout Toronto. Participants included the Barenaked Ladies, Sloan, Cowboy Junkies and comedian Sean Cullen. Money raised in the seventh annual Exclaim! Cup goes to Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank, which feeds over 150,000 people each month.
WORLD
KYRGYSTAN PARLIAMENTS REACH AGREEMENT
(BBC) Kyrgyzstan's rival parliaments took a step to toward resolving their standoff today. The lower house of the outgoing assembly has agreed to suspend its activities until the country can hold new elections. The country has been in political turmoil since a popular uprising brought down President Akayev last Thursday. Members of the parliament elected in a controversial vote had been battling one that existed prior to the disputed election.
DEATH TOLL FOR EBOLA-LIKE VIRUS RISE IN ANGOLA
(MAIL AND GUARDIAN) One hundred and twenty-one people have died in Angola because of the Marburg virus. This is the worst recorded outbreak of the disease, which is similar to the Ebola virus. Travellers have been asked to stay away from Angola for at least a week" and some expatriates in the country are considering evacuation. The Marburg virus is a hemorrhagic fever and kills one out of four people that contract it.
CHINA SAYS TAIWAN PROTESTS ARE RAISING TENSIONS
(THE AUSTRALIAN) China has condemned Taiwan's opposition to its anti-secession law after hundreds of thousands of people attended a demonstration against the law on Saturday in central Taipei. China said the protest illustrated that Taiwan was creating strife between the two nations. It instituted the anti-secession law, which authorizes armed aggression if Taiwan tries to become independent, earlier this year.
GADHAFI CALLS ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS 'IDIOTS'
(metimes.com) Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi took the spotlight at the final session of the Arab summit last week by calling the Israelis "idiots" for continuing to stay in the disputed Palestinian territories. He then called the Palestinians the same for originally losing the territories. Gadhafi had the room in hysterics when he pointed out the absurdity of aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He also extolled wisdom about women's rights, terrorism, democracy and the current situation in Lebanon.