Afternoon Update June 26th, 2011 (10)

CANADA

#1 — CS | Threat growing wildly

The Wildrose Alliance feels it’s ready to replace the governing Progressive Conservatives in Alberta and one former Tory insider says the threat of them doing that is credible.

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#2 — Globe | Simpson: Fractured tales of Parti Québécois ferment

Parties don’t usually fracture when things are looking good; they split and fight when things look bad. But then there’s the Parti Québécois.

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MG | Editorial: The perils of the PQ — people are starting to laugh

MG | MacPherson: PQ’s summer of discontent

#3 — NP | McParland: Ontario NDP need to brush up on their vote-buying skills

Ontario’s New Democratic party is hoping against hope that the orange wave that swept the federal NDP into official opposition status will help it regain a degree of respectability when the provincial vote is held in October.

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#4 — OC | Kennedy: The NDP’s double standards

Directly across the street from us in Montreal back in the ’80s, we had lovely neighbours – so lovely we actually liked each other despite our fundamental political differences.

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#5 — Star | Senator denies using influence to lobby for oil company

OTTAWA—A Liberal senator is denying allegations he used his public influence to lobby for a Calgary-based oil and gas company that has admitted to bribing a foreign official.

In a statement released Saturday, Senator Mac Harb says he disclosed all information about his work with Niko Resources Ltd. to the Senate ethics officer.

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WORLD

#6 — BBC | Afghanistan: Eight-year-old girl ‘used in attack’

An eight-year-old girl has been killed after insurgents used her in a bomb attack on police in southern Afghanistan, the government has said.

The interior ministry said insurgents gave the girl a package and told her to take it to a police vehicle, detonating it as she approached.

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#7 — CNN | Billy the Kid photograph fetches $2.3 million at auction

(CNN) — A 130-year-old photo, billed as the only authenticated picture of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, sold for $2.3 million at a Denver auction Saturday night.

The Kid reportedly paid 25 cents to have the photo taken in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

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#8 — Fox | After New York Vote, Bachmann Suggests Constitutional Amendment Against Gay Marriage

Fresh off a formidable showing in an Iowa preference poll of 2012 Republican presidential candidates, Rep. Michele Bachmann on Sunday said that as president she would offer a federal constitutional amendment to list marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

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#9 — Irish Independent | Goggin seeks to buy property loans from banks

AS Bank of Ireland desperately scuttles about trying to avoid state control, former chief executive Brian Goggin is fronting a move by €50bn private equity giant Apollo to buy distressed property loans and assets from Irish banks.

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#10 — Telegraph | Editorial: If they don’t back down, the unions must be stopped

In recent months, the Government has often been criticised for its seeming willingness to retreat at the first whiff of grapeshot when its proposals run into difficulties. But that may be about to change. As we report today, if the public sector unions make good on their threats to unleash the most sustained campaign of industrial action since the General Strike – starting with a walkout this Thursday by more than 750,000 workers, led by the teaching unions, over pension reforms – the Conservatives intend to fight fire with fire.

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