By John Burman It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. A six-year-old Burlington girl was abducted from in front of her parents’ home Monday just minutes after her mother had told a strange woman she would not allow her daughter to go to play at the woman’s house.

FLAMBOROUGH — The anti-quarry group FORCE accuses the Ontario Environment Ministry of trying to deny the public the right to appeal a permit issued today to St. Marys Cement for controversial water-pumping tests seen as a threat to Carlisle’s municipal wells.

MIAMI - Bertha is no longer so big. Forecasters say the hurricane has weakened to a Category 2 storm from a more dangerous Category 3. Bertha's maximum sustained winds are now reported at about 170 kilometres an hour, down from almost 195 km/h reported earlier.

PARIS - France's nuclear safety agency says liquid containing traces of unenriched uranium leaked at a nuclear site in southern France. The agency says some of the solution ran into two rivers.

OTTAWA — A group of anti-abortionists have returned an Order of Canada medal to protest the appointment of the country’s most notable abortion-rights crusader to the exclusive fraternity.

TORONTO — Unions are joining the Opposition in calling on the Liberals to get serious about improving the conditions in the province’s nursing homes. Conservative Leader John Tory says the Liberals promised a revolution in long-term care years ago but haven’t even fired a “cap-pistol.”

Buzz Hargrove, one of Canada's best-known labour leaders, announced today that he will step down as the head of the Canadian Auto Workers in September, six months before he turns 65.

OTTAWA - The robust Canadian dollar is overdue for a shakeup, one that won't knock it from its lofty perch but rather see it rise again above the value of the U.S. greenback, say two senior economists.

Anick Jesdanun The Associated Press NEW YORK – Developers of a highly popular but unauthorized version of Scrabble for the online hangout Facebook vowed Tuesday to do just that, now that a video game maker has weighed in with an official version of the word game.

The “energy crunch” involves much more than the price of gas. A good way to see all this, oddly, is by riding a bicycle. One of my standard rides is to ride out past Caledonia. I like to stop at a little park on the river side there and watch the river flowing by for a few minutes before riding on.

RUSUTSU, Japan - A declaration by the Group of Eight industrial countries that endorses a halving of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 was heralded by Canada on Tuesday as a major breakthrough on climate change, but critics quickly derided it, with one calling the long-term goal "an empty slogan."

A 45-year-old Burlington woman is charged with the abduction of a six-year-old girl from her home. On Wednesday, Halton police say a woman approached the girl’s mother, on Upper Middle Road Burlington, asking if the child could come to her townhouse complex to play.

Alan Cowell New York Times News Service PARIS — A senior Iranian cleric was quoted Tuesday as threatening that Tehran would respond to any military attack by striking Israel and “burning down” America’s vital interests around the globe.

CONCORD, N.H. - A Canadian woman has pleaded guilty in New Hampshire to defrauding elderly Americans in an international telemarketing scheme. Joyce Goodlin of Montreal was one of 15 Canadians indicted in 2002.

KABUL - A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai has obliquely accused Pakistan of being behind Monday's bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Monday's bombing tore open the front gates of the Indian Embassy, killing 41 people and wounding about 150.

A 40-year-old man is dead after being pinned against a concrete wall by a truck at his Milton workplace. The incident took place just before 4:30 p.m. Monday at All Makes Trucks on Steeles Avenue east in Milton.

Torstar news services A man was killed in an early morning crash on Hwy. 401 near Milton that police believe was caused by road rage.

By DANIEL NOLAN The Hamilton Spectator Halton police were scouring half a dozen stores in an Oakville plaza this morning to see if a suspect in a brazen robbery of a jewellery store manager was hiding in the ceiling.

Torstar news services Derek Forward, who describes himself as "just a private citizen," has started an online petition in hopes of forcing the Ontario government to break up The Beer Store near-monopoly.

Torstar news services TOYAKO, Japan—Environmentalists say an agreement on climate change reached here by G8 leaders including Canada falls far short of the urgent action needed to combat climate change.