Free Republic

TORONTO – A Toronto school is no longer allowing children to play with most balls during recess. Earl Beatty Public School sent a letter to student’s homes on Monday informing them of the decision to ban most balls from use on school grounds. According to the letter, over the past few weeks, there have been “a few serious incidents of parents, staff and students being hit by a hard ball or nearly being hit by a hard ball” in the schoolyard. There was no information as to injuries of people hit by hard balls. The students are still allowed to...

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia's government asked Saudi Arabia on Sunday whether its exiled former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is dead, and demanded his extradition if he is still alive, as thousands of people protested in the capital demanding that the caretaker government resigns. The 74-year-old Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, following a massive popular uprising that ended his 23-year rule and prompted a wave of protest against other autocratic leaders across the Arab world. Tunisia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had asked Saudi Arabia to provide information "as soon as possible"...

Striking down Canada’s polygamy law would make the country a magnet for polygamous immigrant families and open the door to societal harms resulting from the practice, a lawyer for the B.C. government said in opening remarks for a landmark case. “The challengers [to the law] all urge the court to make Canada the sole Western nation to decriminalize polygamy,” Crown lawyer Craig Jones told a packed Vancouver courtroom Monday. “The reasonably apprehended result would be an influx of polygamous families who are presently barred from the country in addition to the practice’s domestic growth.” Evidence to be heard in the...

MONTREAL — A man charged with uttering death threats on Facebook armed himself with high-powered weapons because he feared he was being stalked by elves, a Montreal court was told Wednesday. Quebec provincial police told David Abitbol's bail hearing that he told a friend on the Internet that his .12-gauge shotgun was just what he needed to kill the mythical creatures. A disturbing portrait emerged of the 28-year-old Abitbol during Wednesday's proceedings in which the Crown reported that an initial evaluation indicated that he was fit to stand trial. "There's nothing at this point to make us doubt his ability...

PRINCE ALBERT, SASK.—A man who sent his semi-naked wife into the cold on Christmas Day after an argument over turkey stuffing has been sentenced to five years in prison. Clifford Arnold Daniels, 52, was convicted of assault causing bodily harm, unlawful confinement and uttering threats. Crown prosecutor Maureen Longworth argued the Christmas incident was a calculated and premeditated assault that took place within a couple of hours. Court was told Daniels and his common-law wife, Beverley Ermine, argued after Daniels started drinking whiskey. At the time, she was preparing turkey stuffing for dinner the next day, but he told her...

Maclean's magazine has unleashed a firestorm with a controversial cover story -accompanied by the iconic figure of Bonhomme Carnaval carrying a suitcase stuffed with cash -that depicts Quebec as "the most corrupt province" in Canada. Politicians of all stripes lashed out at what they called a new episode of Quebecbashing yesterday, while phone-in radio shows were flooded with angry callers. The provocative article, which delved into a series of recent scandals and suggested the province is "perpetually rife with scandal," prompted Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe to send an open letter to the media, asking: "Are Canadians xenophobic?" "Unfortunately, this...

Mavis Moore was 4 years old the first time she faced the barrel of a long gun. A neighbour pointed his .22 at the girl and her mother when they stopped by to pick up a newspaper in their small Saskatchewan town. Sixty-eight years later, Moore remembers dropping one blue angora mitten in the snow as the man stood above them on his steps. “You can't imagine what it's like, this adult man having a gun on you and threatening to kill you and your mother,” she says. Moore's mother picked up her child — and the mitten — and...

MONTREAL — No, apparently, you can't blow it up. And taking it apart would be very expensive and time-consuming. So, the City of Montreal seems to be stuck with the ill-fated Olympic Stadium, an enigma and concrete representation of government incompetence, cost overruns and crumbling infrastructure, but also an iconic city symbol, a dramatic fixture on the skyline and a major draw for tourists. It's a venue vacated by baseball's Montreal Expos who decamped for Washington, D.C., in 2004 and the CFL's Alouettes, whose new downtown digs at McGill University were recently expanded to seat 25,000. The Als, however, do...

There’s a new televangelist soap opera. Reports this week suggest a still-married Benny Hinn is now romantically involved with Paula White, another television preacher with a colourful past. The 57-year-old Hinn, who began his preaching career at a church hall near Yonge and Bloor Streets in the 1970s, is best known for his faith-healing “Miracle Crusades” and his half-hour television show, This is Your Day. White, 44, is the star of television’s Paula White Today, whose ministries reputedly pulled in $40 million in donations and sales of various goods in 2006. Her website’s current offerings include the four-CD set, “Creating...

A machete-swinging man in Windsor, Ontario took four men hostage and threatened to hack off their limbs after he came to collect a debt and they didn't have what he wanted -- a 12-pack of beer. Police say the people in the apartment owed the man a 12-pack of beer and when he came to collect the debt and didn't get what he came for, he began threatening people in the room with the machete. No one was injured in the ordeal. The 29-year-old man was charged with three counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of breach...

GRENOBLE, France (AFP) - Rioters exchanged gunfire with police in the French city of Grenoble early Saturday, setting fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of robbing a casino. Youths torched between 50 and 60 cars in the southeastern French city, as well as construction equipment and two shops, while police said they made five arrests. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was to visit the city Saturday afternoon, his ministry said. The rioting started after a memorial service for 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, who died 24 hours earlier in a shootout with police after allegedly holding up...

New photographs of a smiling, tracksuit-clad Fidel Castro greeting workers at a scientific think-tank were posted on the websites of two Cuban journalists Saturday, offering a rare glimpse of the reclusive revolutionary leader in a public forum. Fidel, 83, appears slightly stooped but otherwise healthy in the four pictures, which were apparently taken Wednesday with a worker's mobile phone. The former Cuban leader is seen raising his hand to wave in one picture and apparently being led away in another. “He is thin but he looks good, and according to our director, he is very good mentally,” reads a comment...

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will name David Johnston as governor general designate, QMI Agency has learned, choosing a lifelong academic widely admired for his smarts, his ability to build consensus and - an apparent must for Harper - his ability to play hockey. Johnston, 69, is a fluently bilingual Ontario native known as "Grandpa Book" to his grandchildren because they think he reads so much. And while one of his five daughters works on the staff of Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, Johnston himself has avoided being tagged with any partisan political label during his long career as...

30 & 31 Victoria, c. 3 (U.K.) An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof; and for Purposes connected therewith [Assented to 29th March, 1867.] Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom: And whereas such a Union would conduce to the Welfare of the Provinces and promote the Interests of the British Empire: And...

The painter of light has entered a dark period. Thomas Kinkade, the self-proclaimed (and trademarked) Painter of Light™, is beset with legal troubles. Several years ago, art gallery owners successfully sued his Kinkade’s Media Arts Group for millions after it was revealed that he and company officials used invoked God and their “higher calling” to hide the financial risks of the investments. The settlement put such a strain on his company that earlier this month, he filed for bankruptcy protection from his hundreds of other creditors. Adding to his woes, the artist was arrested on a DUI charge outside his...

LILONGWE (Reuters) - A gay Malawian couple whose 14-year prison sentence for their love affair led to international condemnation has split over a girl, a newspaper report said on Tuesday. Malawi's leader pardoned the two men in late May on humanitarian grounds after a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who applauded the move and urged the country to amend "outdated" laws on homosexuality. Steven Monjeza, 26, told The Nation, a major local daily, he had left his partner, 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, because he had been coerced into the gay relationship and found a better match with a 24-year-old woman...

This year's Toronto Gay Pride Parade Grand Marshal has resigned and 23 former Pride Toronto activists announced on Monday they have pulled out of Pride festivities after organizers banned the term "Israeli Apartheid" from its 10-day event. "Pride's recent decision to ban the term 'Israeli apartheid' and thus prohibit the participation of the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in Pride celebrations this year is a slap in the face to our history of diverse voices," said Alan Li, a co-founder of Gay Asians Toronto who rejected his appointment as grand marshal. "Pride's choice to take a pre-emptive step to censor...

Republican Tim Pawlenty will appear on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Thursday as he builds up to a possible presidential run. The Minnesota governor announced the appearance on Facebook on Friday. Pawlenty has said he will reveal his plans next year. Political spokesman Alex Conant said Pawlenty also will appear with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday. His trip includes a fundraiser and private meetings before he returns to Minnesota on Saturday.

WASHINGTON - A top adviser to GOP star Sarah Palin was once dispatched by ex-President Richard Nixon to sweep Jews out of government service, newly released tapes show. Nixon aide Fred Malek's role as what Democrats call a "Jew counter" for the disgraced President was already well known, and he has spent decades apologizing for activities that later cost him a Republican National Committee job in the 1980s. But he remains a prominent GOP powerbroker. "The government is full of Jews," Nixon griped to chief aide H.R. Haldeman in a July 1971 Oval Office recording released by the University of...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may personally try to break the Gaza blockade by sailing there, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported on Saturday. The paper said the report was based on Turkish sources “in the know.” According to media reports, Erdogan may also consider sending Turkish Navy vessels to accompany future protest ships that head to Gaza. To protest against Monday’s Israel Navy raid, Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations and spoken of reducing economic and military ties. It has rejected Israel’s explanation that its soldiers acted in self-defense after activists attacked them with clubs and...