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/ 15 May 2006

Fifa to push for world anti-doping standards

Fifa will push for its members to adopt the world anti-doping code in time for the World Cup next month, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said on Sunday. If the code is adopted before the start of the tournament on June 9 in Germany, the world’s soccer stars would be subject to two-year suspensions for serious doping violations instead of the lighter bans under Fifa rules.

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/ 28 March 2006

Seal hunters, activists clash on schedule

Animal rights activists accused Canadian authorities on Monday of fomenting trouble to prevent them from scrutinising the controversial seal hunt that started over the weekend. Seven activists were arrested on Sunday for getting too close to a vessel involved in the hunt while trying to document the slaughter on Sunday.

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/ 24 March 2006

Lord of the Rings musical opens

The curtain rose in Toronto on Thursday night on an epic musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that has taken four years to produce, features 55 actors, 500 pieces of armour and 17 elevators, and cost about -million — making it almost certainly the most expensive stage production in history.

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/ 24 January 2006

New Canadian leader pledges to deliver change

Canada’s next prime minister, Stephen Harper, promised on Tuesday to deliver change after voters swept his Conservatives to power, ending 12 years of Liberal rule. ”Tonight, friends, our great country has voted for change,” he told a cheering crowd in Calgary after his party emerged as the single largest grouping in the new Parliament.

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/ 11 January 2006

The battle for Canadian unity

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and opposition leader Stephen Harper, his Conservatives ahead in the latest polls, raged against possible Quebec separation in a televised election debate on Tuesday. ”It’s not right to say that it’s a crime to promote federalism in the province of Quebec,” Harper said, rebuffing attacks by separatist Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.

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/ 10 January 2006

‘A quiet madman, never far from tears’

Colourful Canadian poet Irving Layton, twice considered for a Nobel Prize in literature for his provocative verse, died on Wednesday in Montreal at the age of 93, according to media reports. Layton, who once described himself as "a quiet madman, never far from tears", wrote about 50 books of poetry and prose over five decades.

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/ 15 December 2005

Environmentalists buy hunting licence in Canada

Foreign big-game hunters will be banished from a vast area of western Canada’s wilderness, local environmentalists said, announcing an unusual purchase of a commercial hunting licence. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation privately raised 1,35-million Canadian dollars (,17-million) to buy one of North America’s largest guide outfitters

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/ 26 November 2005

Zoo finds hidden red panda

The Toronto zoo has recovered a red panda that had escaped its pen and evaded capture for more than a month by blending in with Canada’s colourful red maple leaves, officials said on Friday. The nine-year-old animal was found by a gardener this week sitting in a tree about 2km away, healthy, but a bit thinner.

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/ 21 October 2005

Research provides hope for simple treatment of obesity

Following just a few simple rules regarding moderate exercise, healthy eating and lifestyle can ensure weight control and lower the risk of disease, say the world’s leading researchers on obesity. ”There’s been a hysteria in place over the last many years,” said Dr Steven Blair, who presented a key speech on the state of the art in exercise to an international science conference on obesity in Canada.

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/ 6 October 2005

16 dead in mysterious flu outbreak in Canada

Health officials were still struggling on Thursday to discover an unknown virus that claimed 16 lives at a Toronto retirement home in recent weeks, according to officials. ”We’re still trying to find the source of the outbreak,” said a spokesperson for the Toronto Public Health Authority. ”And, we may never know. In almost half of such cases the actual strain is never identified.”

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/ 6 October 2005

Cargo plane crashes in Canadian city

A Federal Express cargo plane crashed in downtown Winnipeg on Thursday, killing the female pilot and narrowly missing nearby cars and buildings, police told Agence France Presse. The Cessna 208 was en route from Winnipeg in central Canada to Thunder Bay in neighbouring Ontario province when it went down at about 5.45am (10.45am GMT) in the trendy Osborne Village neighborhood of the city.

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/ 23 August 2005

A small step from barnyard to pond

Africa must urgently boost investments in aquaculture to fight hunger as natural fish stocks on the continent and elsewhere decline, scientists say. Africa is the only region in the world where the per capita fish consumption is dropping, placing an estimated 200-million Africans who depend on fish as a main part of their diet at risk of malnutrition.

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/ 15 August 2005

Dream victory for Nadal

Rafael Nadal added a career-first hard-court title to his increasingly crowded trophy shelf, defeating three-time champion Andre Agassi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 on Sunday to win the ,2-million Montreal Masters. The rain-interrupted victory was the ninth of the season for the talented 19-year-old.

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/ 14 August 2005

It’s Nadal vs Agassi in Montreal

They represent the past and future of men’s tennis. Eight-time grand-slam winner Andre Agassi beat Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday to reach the final of the Montreal ATP Masters Series, where he will face teenager Rafael Nadal. The 35-year-old Agassi will be bidding for his third Canadian crown in Sunday’s final.

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/ 13 August 2005

Nadal moves up as rain frustrates Agassi

Top seed Rafael Nadal booked a place in the semifinals of the ,2-million Montreal Masters as rain produced a frustrating and inconclusive evening on Friday for veteran campaigner Andre Agassi. Top seed Nadal dropped just three points on serve in his opening set as he trampled Argentine Mariano Puerta 6-3, 6-1.

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/ 11 August 2005

Nadal’s hard-court title dream draws closer

Rafael Nadal made up for lost time on a day of rain interruptions, racing to a 6-1, 6-2 victory on Wednesday night over Brazilian Ricardo Mello for a third-round place at the ,2-million Montreal Masters. The top-seeded teenager will have only hours to recover before a Thursday match against Sebastien Grosjean.

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/ 10 August 2005

Nadal upstages mentor Moya

Rafael Nadal didn’t let a jammed finger deter him from an opening-round hard-court victory, overcoming long-time mentor Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-7 (0-7) 6-3 on Tuesday at the ,2-million Montreal Masters. The 19-year-old from the Spanish island of Mallorca needed treatment on a finger on his left hitting hand.

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/ 3 August 2005

Passengers escape death as plane crashes in Toronto

Television cameras captured dramatic images of an Air France passenger jet in flames moments after the packed plane apparently skidded off a runway and fell into a ravine on Tuesday night. Steve Shaw, a vice-president of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said there were no fatalities among the 297 passengers and 12 crew on board the plane.

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/ 2 August 2005

Air France jet crashes in Toronto

An Air France passenger jet skidded off the end of the runway and burst into flames after landing in a thunderstorm at Toronto’s Pearson International airport on Tuesday, media reports said. There were up to 200 passengers on the jet on the Paris-Toronto flight, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and other media.

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/ 2 August 2005

Canada’s Olympic host city overrun by bears

Dozens of urbanised black bears are making life uncomfortable for residents of the coastal mountain suburbs of Vancouver in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia. The number of complaints against black bears in north Vancouver has reached an all-time high of 1 200 so far this year, four times the number conservation officers received last year.

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/ 1 August 2005

Who drowned my cheese?

A team of divers is searching at the bottom of the Baie des Ha! Ha! in north-eastern Canada for 800kg of cheddar sunk by an entrepreneur hoping to revolutionise cheesemaking. Dairy owner Luc Boivin was inspired by a fisherman’s tale to dunk 10 barrels of cheddar into the water to test the effects of cool temperatures and high pressure.