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The article reports on the announcement of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper regarding the success of the sixth attempt of the government of Canada to locate the wreckage from the doomed voyage of British explorer Sir John Franklin to the Northwest Passage on September 9, 2014.

The article announces that World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey proposes to extend the competition ban for the first doping offenses to four years on November 19, 2012. It says that the additional stiffer penalty that if assumed by the board, a four year ban would be implemented. It adds that serious offences that would cover the penalty includes the use of anabolic steroids, masking agents, and human growth hormone.

The police said Wednesday that they were confident that a hand and a foot mailed to two schools in Vancouver, British Columbia, came from a man who was killed and dismembered in Montreal. The police in Montreal said the packages were mailed from that city, and other factors indicated that they were some of the remains of Lin Jun, a Chinese student. Luka Rocco Magnotta, a Montreal resident, is in a Berlin jail awaiting extradition to Canada on several charges, including first-degree murder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OTTAWA -- A Canadian naval officer who worked in some of the country's key military intelligence centers has been charged with breach of trust and passing along government secrets to a ''foreign entity.'' The officer, Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, 40, remained in jail on Tuesday after his lawyer asked a court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to delay a bail hearing to give him more time to study the government's case. Neither the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the military nor the government offered much detail publicly about the charges, including the identity of the foreign power. But the Canadian television network CTV said it was Russia, without giving the source for that information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

OTTAWA -- With the timing, and perhaps the future, of the Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast now uncertain, two alternatives to the hotly contested project have begun emerging. Both would try to solve one of the problems that the Keystone project was meant to address: the shortage of pipeline capacity for carrying oil from a main terminal in Cushing, Okla., to refineries in Texas and other parts of the Gulf Coast. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

OTTAWA -- Research in Motion, which has already been troubled by product delays, has now put off upgrading the software for its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet until February. The delay will most likely sink the chances of significant PlayBook sales during the holiday buying season, and also raised concerns about delays in the release of a new line of BlackBerry phones that the company hopes will revive its business. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

MUMBAI, India -- In a sign that India and the maker of popular BlackBerry devices might be closer to settling a dispute over law enforcement's access to corporate e-mail, the government on Monday said that it would study and test a proposal by the company for two months. The decision ends a waiting game, at least for now, over whether India would ban the popular corporate e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger chatting services on Tuesday, a deadline set this month for access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OTTAWA -- Rising demand for food from the fast-growing economies of the world has provoked a staggering $38.6 billion cash offer for a Canadian fertilizer company. The company, the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, on Tuesday rejected the overture from BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company. Yet the unsolicited offer, which would be the biggest takeover so far this year, raised investors' hopes of a revival in deals, bolstering stocks worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Canadian government said on Wednesday that it would provide a billion Canadian dollars to its struggling pulp and paper industry, a move seen as an effort to counter a controversial American subsidy. Although billed as an environmental measure, the assistance, about $882 million, appears to be prompted by an American alternative fuels program that has inadvertently become a multibillion-dollar windfall for producers in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While confirmed cases of swine flu increased only slightly on Monday, the World Health Organization voted to raise its global pandemic flu alert level, but at the same time it recommended that borders not be closed nor travel bans imposed. The W.H.O.'s emergency committee, after meeting until 10:30 p.m. in Geneva, also recommended abandoning efforts to contain the flu's spread. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tourist destinations fall in and out of favor -- Prague, Ibiza, the Dalmatian coast -- but for more than a century, Niagara Falls has held a certain quaint, some would say corny, allure. One company has operated the Maid of the Mist boats ferrying poncho-draped tourists to the falls' thundering base since 1884, the Maid of the Mist Steamboats Company. It looked as if it would keep its effective monopoly, until last month. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A dispute between Chrysler Canada and a parts supplier has stopped production at two assembly plants in Canada and may spread to factories in the United States. On Thursday, Chrysler closed a plant in Brampton, Ontario, which builds all of Chrysler's large, rear-wheel-drive cars, including the Chrysler 300. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The police arrested 125 people in Toronto following a series of raids on Wednesday morning that focused on gangs. The action involved about 1,000 police officers from several forces, including Toronto's police. Bill Blair, the city's police chief, said that 68 of the people arrested were involved in ''very significant'' crimes and that the action had ''dismantled'' three criminal gangs. About 40 guns, which are relatively restricted in Canada, were seized along with drugs and cash. Concern about gang violence in Toronto increased in January when a man was shot on a busy downtown subway platform. IAN AUSTEN [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A hired killer pleaded guilty in a Quebec City court on Tuesday to 27 murders and 12 attempted murders. Many victims of the killer, Gerald Gallant, belonged to rival motorcycle gangs fighting for control of Quebec's drug trade. Mr. Gallant, who is already serving a life sentence for one murder, is now a police informant, and he provided tips that led to 10 arrests last week. In exchange for the guilty pleas, he will receive $40 a month to spend at a prison canteen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an unexpected move, Air Canada removed its president and chief executive Monday night. The decision to replace the executive, Monte Brewer, with Calin Rovinescu, who earlier led a restructuring operation at the company, has fueled speculation that Air Canada might seek bankruptcy protection for the second time in six years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A court declined Monday to allow George Galloway, a controversial member of the British Parliament, to come to Canada for a speaking tour. Canada's Border Services Agency had notified Mr. Galloway that he could not enter Canada because he had engaged in terrorist activities. The agency cited financial aid that Mr. Galloway had provided to Hamas, the Palestinian group, which Canada classifies as a terrorist organization. Mr. Galloway, who says that he provided the aid but that it was not to terrorists, had sought to reverse the ruling. On Monday night, he was to address an audience in Toronto by television from New York. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In announcing an immediate loan of 250 million Canadian dollars, or $201 million, to Chrysler Canada on Monday, Tony Clement, the minister of industry for Canada, suggested that the company was on the verge of insolvency. ''Very clearly if the money had not been forwarded today, they would not have been able to make payroll,'' Mr. Clement told a news conference in Ottawa. ''That was the stark choice we were faced with.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Canadian impresario Garth H. Drabinsky, who served as the chief executive of the defunct Broadway production firm Livent, and his business partner Myron I. Gottlieb on Wednesday were convicted of forgery and defrauding shareholders of about 500 million Canadian dollars, or more than $400 million. Justice Mary Lou Benotto of the Ontario Superior Court flatly rejected defense arguments made during the 11-month trial that the company's financial manipulations and its inflated box office receipts were a complex conspiracy by Livent employees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United States Federal Aviation Authority has grounded the helicopter model involved in a fatal crash off Newfoundland until modifications are made. The emergency order came late Monday after Canadian investigators discovered that two titanium gearbox mounting studs in the wreckage of the Sikorsky S-92A were broken, which could cause the rapid loss of oil. The helicopter crashed on March 12, killing 17 people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When markets were rising, many Canadians fretted about leveraged buyouts that put several of the country's largest corporations under foreign control. The markets' collapse, however, created the environment for the creation of a new, large Canadian energy firm. On Monday, Suncor Energy confirmed that it would acquire Petro-Canada, forming a company with a combined market capitalization of about 43 billion Canadian dollars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Suncor Energy has agreed to acquire Petro-Canada in an all-stock deal worth about $15 billion, the companies announced Monday morning. The merger will combine two of the largest operators in Canada's oils sands which have high production costs and which have become a target of environmental groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Suncor Energy is in advanced talks to acquire Petro-Canada in a stock-based deal worth $15 billion, people familiar with the talks said on Sunday. If successful, the merger would combine two of the largest operators in the Canadian oils sands, which have high production costs and have become a target of environmental groups. An agreement is expected to be announced on Monday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The actress Natasha Richardson, who died Wednesday from a brain hemorrhage after a fall on a beginners' ski slope in Quebec, was not admitted to a hospital until nearly four hours after her accident, according to ambulance dispatch records obtained Friday by The New York Times. That is nearly three hours later than the timeline that officials at the Mont Tremblant ski resort, about 90 minutes north of Montreal, offered Tuesday, the day after Ms. Richardson, 45, fell during a skiing lesson. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An autopsy of the actress Natasha Richardson on Thursday indicated that she died of a brain hemorrhage caused by ''blunt impact'' to her head, the chief medical examiner for New York City said. Ms. Richardson, 45, died on Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital, two days after what appeared to be a minor fall on a beginner's ski slope north of Montreal. She initially turned down medical treatment but an hour later complained of a severe headache and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Natasha Richardson, a Tony Award-winning actress whose career melded glamorous celebrity with the bloodline of theater royalty, died Wednesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She had suffered head injuries in a skiing accident Monday north of Montreal, and was flown to New York on Tuesday. She was 45 and lived in Manhattan and in Millbrook, N.Y. Alan Nierob, a spokesman for her husband, the actor Liam Neeson, announced Ms. Richardson's death Wednesday night. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although former President George W. Bush has not been popular in Canada, the country on Tuesday became the venue of his first speech since leaving office. Calgary, Alberta, the site for the speech, is the home of Canada's oil and gas industry and the power base of the country's Conservative Party, which counts Prime Minister Stephen Harper among its local members of Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Tony-award winning actress Natasha Richardson was flown from Canada to New York City on Tuesday afternoon in serious condition with head injuries suffered the day before in a skiing accident north of Montreal, according to two people close to her family. The people, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, declined to describe Ms. Richardson's condition before or during the flight, other than to say it was very serious and that her family was highly distressed. They said the plane had arrived in New York by Tuesday evening, but declined to say where Ms. Richardson was being treated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An Afghan journalist who had once been detained by the United States was killed Tuesday in a drive-by shooting as he left his office in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Canadian television reported. The journalist, Javed Yazamy, worked primarily for the CTV network as a camera operator and assistant covering Canadian troops in the Kandahar region. In 2007, he was arrested by United States forces and held at Bagram Air Base for about 11 months. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Canadian Auto Workers union agreed to a series of contract concessions with General Motors of Canada on Sunday in a deal that avoided reductions to base salaries or pension benefits. The agreement, to be voted on by union members later this week, came after three days of talks. Ken Lewenza, the union's president, told a midday news conference that the cost savings from the plan were still being calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CANADA A judge on Thursday found a man not criminally responsible for killing, decapitating and cannibalizing a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus last year. Justice John Scurfield of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench called the actions of the man, Vince Weiguang Li, ''barbaric'' and ''grotesque,'' yet concluded that they were ''suggestive of a mental disorder.'' Lawyers for both the prosecution and the defense had recommended such a verdict, and Mr. Li, who was found to be schizophrenic, was sent to a secure psychiatric center. Relatives of the victim, Timothy McLean, 22, said in Winnipeg that they would attend annual reviews of Mr. Li's mental health to prevent his release. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After killing and decapitating a fellow passenger on an intercity bus last July, Vince Weiguang Li apologized to the police and urged them to kill him, according to evidence presented Tuesday. Prosecutors offered grisly details of the attack as Mr. Li's murder trial opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, including an assertion that Mr. Li cannibalized his seatmate, Tim McLean, 22. Mr. Li's lawyer did not dispute his client had killed but said he was mentally ill and not criminally responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two Canadian fighter jets forced a Russian bomber away from Canadian airspace hours before President Obama's trip to Ottawa last week, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Friday. The jets intercepted the long-range bomber about 125 miles from Canada over the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic, he said at a news conference. ''I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of deliberately doing this during the presidential visit,'' he said. ''But it was a strong coincidence.'' The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that Canada had been notified about the flight and that its aircraft had complied with international regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CanWest Global Communications, Canada's leading newspaper publisher and a major television broadcaster, may soon be nearing default on its crushing debt load and possibly facing bankruptcy. The company, which also controls a television network in Australia as well as The New Republic magazine in the United States, has until Friday to renegotiate a credit facility of 300 million Canadian dollars, or $241 million. This week, DBRS, a Toronto-based credit rating agency, said that failure to cut a deal would put the company, which has an overall debt of 3.9 billion Canadian dollars ($3.1 billion), in default. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Saab, the Swedish automaker, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday and asked its government for financial support to remain in business as an independent company, separate from General Motors, its parent. It was the latest example of auto companies asking governments in different countries -- including the United States and Canada -- to step in with aid, opening the door to those governments playing a direct role in deciding the future form of their automobile industries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Security costs for the Vancouver Olympic Games next year will reach 900 million Canadian dollars, more than 10 times the original forecast, government officials said Thursday. The security budget details were released after the federal government and the province of British Columbia ended a long dispute on how to share the bill. Under a new formula, the federal government will contribute the bulk of the costs, nearly 650 million Canadian dollars, and cover any unforeseen additional costs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

President Obama charted a delicate course with Canada on Thursday, using the first foreign trip of his presidency to ease tensions over trade policy, climate change and the war in Afghanistan -- all the while basking in his celebrity status in a nation where his approval ratings are so high that a local bakery named a pastry after him. The quick day trip marked a striking shift in United States-Canada relations from those under President Bush. If Canadians were no fans of Mr. Bush, their conservative leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, found in him a kindred philosophical spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The model of aircraft that crashed outside Buffalo on Thursday night is widely regarded as the Cadillac of commuter planes: faster, more powerful and roomier than the puddle jumpers many travelers try to avoid. While the model of turboprop plane, the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, has had a few problems, particularly with its landing gear, it had no record of fatalities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The bicycle, one of the world's most resolutely human-powered machines, will join the long list of devices that have switched from the manual to the electronic when a new gear system makes its debut this weekend at the Tour of California. Although the battery-powered derailleur by Shimano promises to bring ease and accuracy to changing gears by enabling riders to shift with a light touch to two electronic switches, traditionalists worry that it may erode the basic tenets of the sport. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry, said Tuesday night that it had reached a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission after an investigation into backdating of its stock options. The settlement involves the company as well as eight current and former directors and executives, including the founders James L. Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. Its terms will not be released until the Ontario Securities Commission approves the agreement at a hearing on Thursday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kevin Lee Patterson leads a double life as a doctor and a journalist. Now the different roles have collided. Last week British Columbia's medical licensing body censured Dr. Patterson, accusing him of unethical and unprofessional conduct, and fined him 12,000 Canadian dollars ($9,800) because of an article he wrote for Mother Jones magazine about working for the Canadian military in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Canadian Auto Workers union, which has long resisted offering concessions, said Thursday that it would begin special contract talks with the automakers based in Detroit. The union's change of heart is related to the Canadian government's offer of bailout money to those companies' subsidiaries in Canada. Tony Clement, the minister of industry, has said the government would give money only if Canadian wages and benefits matched those paid by Honda and Toyota in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Canada's parliamentary turmoil abated, at least temporarily, on Wednesday after an opposition alliance backed down from its efforts to defeat the government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative, had presented a budget on Tuesday promising tens of billions of dollars in new spending, much of it in areas like housing that the party had never previously championed. On Wednesday, the Liberal Party's leader, Michael Ignatieff, broke with the two other coalition parties and offered conditional support for the budget, which effectively guaranteed that it would pass. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nortel Networks, the Canadian telecom equipment maker, filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors Wednesday but analysts said its troubles might be too severe for it to recover and survive. Unlike other companies, notably airlines, that have used bankruptcy protection to renew their businesses, Nortel, which began this decade as one of the world's largest makers of telecommunications equipment, is probably headed for liquidation, several analysts said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why can't the most powerful person in the world keep his BlackBerry? President-elect Barack Obama, who will take the oath of office next week, has repeatedly acknowledged a strong attachment to his Verizon BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone, a k a the BarackBerry. But in an interview last week, Mr. Obama lamented that the Secret Service and his lawyers appeared to be winning the battle to deny him this electronic link to friends, family and news of the larger world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two leaders of a fundamentalist Mormon sect based in a mountain town were arrested on Wednesday and charged with practicing polygamy. The arrests mark the end of prolonged investigations into the sect's activities in Bountiful, British Columbia. The Canadian group is affiliated with the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Tex., where the authorities seized 468 children in a raid last year. One of the Canadian leaders, Winston K. Blackmore, is charged with being married simultaneously to 19 women. The other, James M. Oler, is charged with being married to two women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The oil that is extracted from Canadian dirt is being portrayed as saving America from energy dependence on the unstable Middle East, or an environmental catastrophe in the making -- depending on the perspective. As Barack Obama prepares to take office in two weeks, the debate is no longer academic. The president-elect has promised to move forward with an ambitious program aimed at fighting climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Canadian military police charged an officer with second-degree murder on Friday in connection with the shooting death of an unarmed man in Afghanistan. The man, a ''presumed insurgent,'' was killed in Helmand Province ''on or about'' Oct. 19, according to the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. The accused officer, Capt. Robert Semrau, was part of a group responsible for training Afghan soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Like most prominent and publicly financed institutions here, the National Gallery of Canada does not escape controversy. Usually the fuss is over art. In 1990 several politicians derided the museum in Parliament for acquiring ''Voice of Fire'' (1967), a massive minimalist painting with three vertical stripes by Barnett Newman, for $1.45 million. (The disturbance eventually died down, and the painting's value has risen considerably.) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]