Afternoon Update February 10th, 2012 (10)

CANADA

#1 — CNews | Harper pitches Canadian energy to China

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his most direct sales pitch yet to sell Canada’s energy, vowing that “foreign money and influence” will not obstruct his government’s goal to sell oil and other natural resources to countries other than just the United States.

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Globe | Canada’s trade surplus hits 3-year high

#2 — Globe | Leadership review won’t be Hudak’s top concern at PC convention

Asked this Saturday to pass judgment on their leader, Ontario Progressive Conservatives will likely send a signal that they’re strongly behind Tim Hudak.

But with a second vote, scheduled for the following day, they’re poised to send a different message – one that points to considerable behind-the-scenes turmoil, as the Tories pick up the pieces from their disappointing showing in last fall’s election.

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#3 — LFP | Sex slaves trafficked from Montreal to Ontario

Young sex slaves are being trafficking from Montreal into southern Ontario, QMI Agency has discovered.

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#4 — NP | Selley: We’ve got timelier worries than torture

To the extent there is a debate about torture in Canada, both sides rely heavily on reductio ad absurdum, to the considerable detriment of useful discussion. We are seeing it again this week in light of a memo in which Public Safety Minister Vic Toews advises CSIS that in “exceptional circumstances,” ignoring intelligence simply because it might have been extracted by torture represents “an unacceptable risk to public safety.” The “protection of life and property,” he writes, must be CSIS’s “overriding priority.”

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#5 — OC | Call of Jury Duty: Finding 12 willing peers can be pretty tough

OTTAWA — I’ve been ordered to appear in court later this month.

It is only for possible jury duty, lest you’re about to bake a cake or start a defence fund.

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WORLD

#6 — BBC | Syria unrest: Aleppo bomb attacks ‘kill 25′

At least 25 people have been killed by two bombs targeting security forces compounds in Syria’s second city of Aleppo, state media report.

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#7 — CNN | Mexican army seizes 15 tons of methamphetamine

(CNN) – The Mexican army has seized more than 15 tons of methamphetamine from a clandestine laboratory in a remote area of the state of Jalisco, west of the capital, the country’s Secretary of National Defense said Thursday.

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#8 – German court sentences US airmen’s killer to life

FRANKFURT, Germany — An Islamic extremist who killed two U.S. airmen bound for Afghanistan at Frankfurt airport last year and injured two others was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

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#9 — DM | Watch this kid, age NINE, blow your mind picking banjo that’s almost bigger than he is

Little Jonny Mizzone, 9, cradles the banjo in his arms and it looks nearly bigger than he is.

He smiles slyly then, suddenly, starts to pick the strings at almost unbelievably speed.

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Note:

Don’t miss this (three video’s available).

#10 — Telegraph | The Pope will die within a year: Vatican ‘assassination fears’ revealed

The Pope will die within the next 12 months, a senior Vatican figure has reportedly claimed amid fears of an assassination plot.

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