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Massive quake in Iran kills dozens; ‘complicated emergency situation’ faces aid groups

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - Apr. 16 (News Report) - TEHRAN, IRAN—A major earthquake described as the strongest to hit Iran in more than half a century flattened homes and offices Tuesday on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border, killing at least 46 people in the sparsely populated region and swaying skyscrapers and buildings as far away as New Delhi. Iran’s Red Crescent said it was facing a “complicated emergency situation” in the area with villages scattered over desolate hills and valleys. Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency and others described the quake, measured at least magnitude 7.7, as the strongest quake in more than 50 years. State-run Press TV called it a “massive quake.” It also was the second deadly quake to hit Iran in less than a week after a magnitude 6.1 temblor struck near Bushehr, on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast, killing at least 37 people and raising calls for greater international safety inspectors at Iran’s lone nuclear reactor nearby. Press TV said the ...

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Pornography found in bin Laden hideout: U.S. officials

Fri, 13 May 2011 12:39:35 -0700

Toronto Star - May. 13 -

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‘One law for all Ontarians’

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Harvey Simmons - Sep. 14 (News Analysis) - Five years ago, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced, “There will be no sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians.” The premier was referring to the fact that since 1991, arbitration decisions made according to religious laws were enforceable in Ontario courts, and he was now going to rescind the law that made this possible.

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Too smart, too Black?

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Richard Gwyn - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - Is Obama to smart and too Black for declining America?

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Oilsands pollution exceeds official estimates

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - Dec. 08 (News Report) - An independent study suggests pollution from Alberta's oilsands is nearly five times greater and twice as widespread as industry figures say. The study says toxic emissions from the controversial industry are equal to a major oil spill occurring every year. Government and industry officials say contamination in area soils and rivers is natural, but the report links it firmly to oilsands mining.

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Oil Sands Threaten Our Survival, Al Gore Warns

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By Oakland Ross - Nov. 24 (News Report) - "Gas from the tar sands gives a Prius the same carbon footprint as a Hummer," the former U.S. vice-president told the Star in an interview prior to a Toronto speaking engagement scheduled for Tuesday evening.

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High stakes in Appalachia as greens battle Big Coal

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By Mitch Potter - Nov. 17 (News Report) - The plan was painfully simple: save a mountain, turn a country, cool the Earth. And for the longest time, it seemed to be working here on Coal River Mountain, ground zero in the American debate over climate change.

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Westhead: Pakistan's 'Path to Salvation'?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Unknown - Oct. 19 (News Report) - "The Pakistan army has started a ground assault in its remote, mountainous region of South Waziristan, opening a high-profile battle against Islamic militants in an area near the Afghanistan border that's acted as a lawless terrorist safe haven".

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News & Features | Why Americans can't talk about health care

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Kenneth Kidd - Aug. 15 (News Analysis) - For Canadians and Europeans, who tend to view medical care as a civic right alongside the vote, the current debate over the U.S. health-care system can often seem puzzling – not just in its intensity, but how a government role marks such an emotional divide. The United States spends more on health care than any other country on the planet, about 16 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with 10 per cent in Canada. Nearly half of all that spending already passes through government hands via the likes of Medicaid and Medicare, the program for seniors. And yet there are still nearly 50 million Americans without insurance of any kind. Why?

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How Did 100,000,000 Women Disappear?

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Nicole Baute - Jun. 06 (News Report) - Two researchers crunching population statistics have confirmed an unsettling reality. Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray noticed the ratio of women to men in developing regions and in some cultures is suspiciously below the norm.

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Looking for a net gain in the energy sector

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Tyler Hamilton - Apr. 20 (News Report) - Give him $50 million, he says, and within four years he and his small team of scientists and engineers at General Fusion will show a world trying to wean itself off carbon-based fuels how to fuse atoms on the cheap.

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Ruling would 'bankrupt this province'

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Tracey Tyler - Apr. 08 (News Report) - The problems were traced to chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins, seeping into the creek and well water from truckloads of waste asphalt and concrete buried on the farm in the 1960s, after Ontario's transportation ministry reconstructed the intersection at Highways 9 and 23. Last year, a trial judge found the province negligent and ordered it to pay the Berendsens $1.7 million. But after a 14-year legal battle, the province wasn't prepared to give up. Yesterday, a lawyer for the attorney general told the Ontario Court of Appeal that the ruling, if allowed to stand, "would bankrupt this province."

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A fresh approach in American war on drugs

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Mitch Potter - Mar. 22 (News Analysis) - Wars rarely end at the first hint of truce. But when the Obama administration quietly announced this week it will halt federal raids against dispensers of medical marijuana, advocates of drug policy reform found themselves in a tickertape mood.

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Meet the Canadian whose big idea felled Wall Street

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Cathal Kelly - Mar. 18 (Special Report) - Li's model sidestepped the problem of trying to correlate all the variables that determine risk. Instead, it based its assumptions on the historical dips and swells of the market itself. In essence, Li used the past to map the future.

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Tar sands smog seen worsening

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By Allan Woods - Jan. 21 (Special Report) - , "there are emissions of CO2 and air contaminants resulting from the generation of the energy required by (carbon capture and storage) facilities. The CO2 emissions offset the volumes captured by the facilities, while the air contaminant emissions add to the load on the environment." The June 2008 study predicts emissions of sulphur dioxide, the main ingredient in acid rain, will rise by up to 34 per cent by 2017. Nitrous oxides – responsible for ozone layer depletion – will rise by up to 24 per cent. Ozone depletion is linked to higher rates of skin cancer, among other health problems. Tiny particulate matter is set to jump by more than 60 per cent in the oil sands and could lead to hazy skies and aggravate existing lung and heart problems.

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Liberals face their own economic challenge

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By David Crane - Dec. 26 (Opinion) - A challenge for the Liberal party is to demonstrate that it recognizes the fundamental importance of an innovative, entrepreneurial economy where the state is an active and supporting partner. For example, that Liberals should champion government that is more proactive in facilitating innovation and entrepreneurship to create the businesses and jobs of the future. It also means stronger support for city-regions, which are crucial engines of innovation and job-creation.

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'Cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache'

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By Tim Harper - Nov. 06 (News Analysis) - Meet the real pit bull. The one without the lipstick. Rahm Emanuel, the 48-year-old Chicago congressman expected to be named U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's new chief of staff, is a sometimes abrasive man who could have one key role in the coming months that will be watched intently in Ottawa.

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McCain's gaffes: Fatigue or old age?

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Tim Harper - Oct. 29 (News Analysis) - When John McCain last week inadvertently labelled voters in western Pennsylvania a bunch of redneck racists, it could have been dismissed as one of those missteps that fatigued candidates make late in campaigns. Except he is 72. It was one in a series of recent McCain flubs and references to bygone eras that have highlighted a paradox of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. While Democrat Barack Obama's race and potentially hidden racism among American voters has been carefully analyzed, it may turn out his Republican rival's age proves to be a deal-breaker Tuesday. McCain, seeking to become the oldest person ever elected to a first term in the White House, has aged perceptibly in the past year. Obama, after a major address on racial relations in Philadelphia last March, has never let race define his campaign.

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Business | Why Canada may dodge U.S. crisis

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By David Olive - Oct. 04 (News Analysis) - [Prime Minister] Harper said, "The economic and financial mess in the United States is disastrous. The policies have been irresponsible. We've made different choices in Canada. We are not bailing out companies in Canada."

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China's uphill Olympic sprint

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:37:33 -0700

Toronto Star - Aug. 03 (Editorial) - The Chinese people are "crossing fingers for a gold spree on home soil" when the Beijing Olympics kick off Friday, as the China Daily newspaper put it a few days ago. And well they might, after spending $42 billion to host China's first-ever Games. China's leaders hope the Aug. 8-24 Games will boost China's image, kindle patriotism, legitimize the Communist regime and win respect by showcasing the country's vast potential, $4 trillion economy and openness to the world. In little more than a generation, China's 1.3 billion people have liberated themselves from Mao-style totalitarianism and deep poverty. Their progress has been astonishing. The opening ceremony in the spectacular "Bird's Nest" national stadium is planned to be a sparkling welcome for 500,000 visitors and 11,000 athletes. And most observers expect the 2008 Games to be a sporting success. But the choreography and sports records will not dispel the shadows that have already fallen over these Games. Sadly, China's political elite has not grown with the nation. President Hu Jintao presides over a technocratic regime that lacks the legitimacy that democratic elections bring. It fears dissent, is reflexively authoritarian, bristles at criticism and refuses to be held accountable for shortcomings. As a result, the sprint to Friday's opening ceremony has been an uphill one, marred by one hapless stumble after another.

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Made-in-America China the worst of both worlds

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - By Rosie DiManno - Aug. 01 (Opinion) - Without a shot fired, the Middle Kingdom has been invaded, swamped by the West, gluttonous in its appetite for all things foreign and bourgeoisie, racing at warp speed toward a different kind of class conformity than that espoused by Chairman Mao - who's still dead, still on embalmed display, but increasingly a red-faced embarrassment to China un-bound.

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Khadr video released

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - Jul. 15 (News Report) - The Pentagon forbids the release of any videos or pictures of Guantanamo detainees and for years the Canadian government has resisted any requests by Khadr's lawyers to turn over the recording. In May, lawyers Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney won a ruling at the Supreme Court that compelled the government to disclose the video of Khadr's interrogation and previously classified documents on his case. Khadr's lawyers hope the short clip of the video posted online today will create an outcry in Canada and pressure Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand that the U.S. halt their war crimes prosecution of Khadr, the last Western detainee still imprisoned in Guantanamo.

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Breakfast with Kabul's shadowy spy-master

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:32:34 -0700

Toronto Star - By Rosie Dimanno - Jun. 28 (Interview) - KABUl-He is, this fellow who was smiling pleasantly across eggs-over-easy, among the most feared men in Afghanistan. I cannot reveal his name. That proviso for the interview came directly from President Hamid Karzai. The Star can describe him only as a "top official" with the National Directorate of Security - Afghanistan's blood-chilling domestic intelligence service. "I am a spy," he shrugs. A torturer, perhaps, if human rights agencies are to be believed, or at least the man who bids others to do torturing on the nation's behalf, in pursuit of critical information: thousands of agents fanning across the land, infiltrating Taliban cadres, listening, watching, detaining. "We do not torture," he objects. "But interrogation is not negotiation. It's not chatting over coffee. It's a very intense conversation. We conduct very intense conversations to get information from people. "But the law is very clear. We cannot physically harm a suspect. We do not slap, we do not beat, we do not use electrical prods.

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Rice export cap mulled as supplies lag demand

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Toronto Star - Apr. 03 (News Report) - Indonesia, the world's third-largest rice producer, may join China, India, Vietnam and Egypt in curbing exports as declining inventories threaten to spark unrest around Asia.

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Women march on for equality

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Toronto Star - By Paola Loriggio - Mar. 09 (News Report) - Women's groups and governments around the world have honoured women on March 8 for more than a century, though it wasn't until 1975 that the date officially became International Women's Day. Chantal Sundaram, who helped organize Toronto's march and rally, explains what makes it so important.

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