Canada News Headlines: Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Quebec and Ontario are extending their co-operation to holding a first-ever joint cabinet meeting by the two provincial governments in early June, The Canadian Press has learned.

OTTAWA - The Defence Department lifted a media gag order Friday on suppliers interested in providing new radar equipment to military airfields across Canada.

FOLEYET, Ont. - The confluence of a mysterious death on a cross-Canada train trip and reports of illnesses among several passengers triggered a full-scale health scare Friday, leaving hundreds of passengers quarantined and a tiny northern Ontario hamlet transfixed as emergency teams descended on their community.

FREDERICTON - The premiers of Canada's have-not Atlantic provinces say the entire region will benefit from the dramatic reversal of fortune in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The emergency response that kicked into gear when a woman died on a crosscountry train Friday may have turned out to a false alarm.

OTTAWA - Brenda Martin is finally a free woman.

LONGUEUIL, Que - Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice says lack of market access shouldn't be a reason for Canadian companies like MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA) to sell their businesses to foreigners.

VANCOUVER - The company that sells more conducted energy weapons to law enforcement than any other rushed to market with faulty safety and medical research, claims the head of a company that plans to market a device to compete with the Taser.

OTTAWA - Nicolas Sarkozy's stirring declaration of love for Canada this week surprised Quebec separatists who saw it as an abrupt about-face from France's longtime neutrality on the issue of Canadian unity.

VANCOUVER - The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says the freezing death of an aboriginal man in a Vancouver alley has created an opportunity to examine systemic racism within police departments and the criminal justice system.

EDMONTON - The mother of a 13-year-old girl who was raped and bludgeoned to death on a golf course rocked back and forth, shaking her head in disgust, as a young woman was sentenced Friday for her role in the gruesome killing.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Premier Danny Williams, accused of undermining a judicial inquiry into botched breast-cancer tests, was unrepentant Friday about making controversial comments this week on the tone of the probe.

OTTAWA - The House of Commons has passed a private member's bill which requires that foreign aid be focused solely on relieving poverty and promoting human rights.

OTTAWA - The link between Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's ex-girlfriend and the Hells Angels is more than enough to warrant a national security probe, says the Bloc Quebecois, noting that organized crime gangs use "infiltration tactics."

TORONTO - A retailer who claimed a $21.5-million winning lottery ticket and sparked a two-month internal investigation at Ontario's lottery corporation initially said the ticket belonged to a customer who had left the store, documents released under order of the province's privacy commissioner revealed Friday.

MERRITT, B.C. - The B.C. mother who found her three children murdered in their home has commented publicly for the first time, thanking the local community for their support.

CALGARY - An investigation into a botched 911 call that a family believes contributed to their 18-month-old boy's death is blaming the Internet phone provider.

OTTAWA - The last surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War will become a Canadian again, just in time for his 108th birthday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Friday.

TRENTON, Ont. - The body of the 83rd Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan has returned home.

OTTAWA - The Canadian economic engine is showing signs of sputtering in the face of stiffening headwinds from the U.S. slump and ongoing tight credit conditions.

HAVRES-AUX-MAISONS, Que. - A judge in Quebec has reserved his decision until Oct. 24 in the trial of five people accused of violating the terms of their observer permits in the 2006 seal hunt.

EDMONTON - A Toronto man is pushing off on a voyage of discovery with 200 other people to honour the explorer David Thompson and re-enact his epic 1808 canoe trek along the rivers of Western Canada to the Great Lakes.

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. - A 32-year-old man who killed a teenage girl and dumped her body in a remote southern Alberta ditch must serve at least 18 years in prison before he can apply for parole.

OTTAWA - The Commons unanimously adopted a resolution Friday urging Myanmar's reclusive military regime to accept international relief teams in the wake of last weekend's catastrophic cyclone.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The adage that 'idle are the devil's workshop' may date to the 12th century, but it has a particularly poignant ring today in southern Afghanistan as the annual poppy harvest winds down and NATO forces brace for a possible spike in violence.

TORONTO - Personal health information can be disclosed in emergency situations, say two of Canada's privacy commissioners.

The Commons is set to adopt a resolution urging Myanmar's secretive military regime to accept international aid in the wake of last Saturday's destructive cyclone.

OTTAWA - Canada has offered its military Disaster Assistance Response Team to help aid efforts following the cyclone that devastated Myanmar.

OTTAWA - The Canadian economy continues to add workers in the face of an economic slowdown, creating 19,200 new jobs in April after a slightly smaller gain the previous month.