Canadian Press HeadLine Package

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of a New Brunswick man convicted of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint and holding her in his apartment for nearly a month while he sexually assaulted her.

Romeo Cormier was sentenced to 18 years in 2011 after being found guilty of kidnapping, forcible confinement, sexual assault, assault with a weapon, robbery and uttering death threats.

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the Pikangikum First Nation's lawsuit against a former Liberal minister of Indian and Northern Affairs.

The Pikangikum First Nation accused Robert Nault of "misfeasance" for imposing third-party management on the reserve more than a decade ago.

HALIFAX - Halifax's fire chief has apologized to any black firefighters who experienced racism with the fire department.

Doug Trussler offered the apology today on behalf of the Halifax Regional Municipality and the fire department after a complaint was filed with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea issued an ultimatum Thursday to unpredictable North Korea over a shared industrial complex

The move increases pressure on Pyongyang even as delegations of old soldiers from Commonwealth countries finished tours of their former battlefields.

A court has upheld the European Union's three-year-old ban on seal products, dealing another blow to Canada's embattled sealing industry.

The General Court of the European Union issued a statement today saying it has rejected a challenge from a group that included the Canadian Fur Institute and the Inuit.

WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg woman who went to Switzerland to end her life has died with the aid of a physician.

A family friend says Susan Griffiths, 72, died peacefully this morning at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich.

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $909 in February, up 0.9 per cent from January.

On a year-over-year basis, earnings increased 3.1 per cent.

OTTAWA - The Harper government is throwing its support behind a private member's bill that would keep some killers behind bars for up to 40 years before they become eligible for parole.

The bill introduced by Manitoba Tory James Bezan would allow judges to impose sentences of up to 40 years without parole in particularly heinous cases.

MONTREAL - The federal government promises a diplomatic effort to keep Canada from losing the only United Nations agency based in this country.

The International Civil Aviation Organization has confirmed that the emirate of Qatar made a presentation this week where it promoted itself as a better location for the agency's headquarters than the current site, Montreal.

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau swept into The Big Land on Wednesday, urging supporters to reject in the coming Labrador byelection what he called the Conservative brand of attack politics.

Trudeau beamed at a photo-snapping crowd of about 100 people in Happy Valley-Goose Bay at a rally for Liberal candidate Yvonne Jones. The fledgling leader flew in from Ottawa to campaign alongside Jones after a bruising 10 days of Conservative ads poking fun at his lack of experience and questioning his judgment.

MONTREAL - Former Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay gets his long-awaited chance today to appear at Quebec's corruption inquiry.

When he resigned last November, Tremblay said he had hoped to testify at the Charbonneau Commission while still in office so he could defend himself.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - The federal government will allocate $250 million between 2013 and 2018 to support the global goal of eradicating polio.

The announcement was made today in Abu Dhabi by International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino at the Global Vaccine Summit.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hinting he'd like to see this year's Commonwealth summit moved out of Sri Lanka in protest of the country's human rights record.

Harper has made it clear for more than a year that, without major reforms, he personally will not be attending next fall's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo.

VANCOUVER - City councillors have unanimously backed a plan to move the Vancouver Art Gallery to a new home.

The gallery is currently located in an old courthouse downtown but it has run out of room for its collections and programs.

SASKATOON - If you don't like gross things, this story is snot for you.

An associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan is trying to get more students interested in science by looking at the health benefits of picking your nose and eating it.

OTTAWA - For Mark Carney it was an afternoon of reflection, a time for measuring successes with just a tinge of lament for unfinished business.

Carney, although he does not leave his position as governor of the Bank of Canada to take the top job at the Bank of England for another month, gave his last scheduled testimony before parliament — in this case the Senate banking committee — on Wednesday afternoon.

Answers to some of the puzzling questions about the new H7N9 flu virus may be coming into view, the World Health Organization's top flu expert said Wednesday following the conclusion of a mission to China to explore the problem.

But other aspects of the worrisome bird flu outbreak remain mysteries, Dr. Keiji Fukuda admitted in an interview with The Canadian Press.

OTTAWA - Canada slammed a top United Nations official Wednesday for suggesting the Boston Marathon attacks were the result of the United States "global domination project" and Washington's policy on Israel.

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, made the controversial remarks in an April 21 commentary published in Foreign Policy Journal.

MONTREAL - As Quebec's corruption inquiry awaits to hear from ex-Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay, his former right-hand man explained he never wanted the top job in his final day on the stand.

Frank Zampino said Thursday that he was summoned to a "political sounding board" and encouraged by his own entourage in 2007 to consider a run for mayor but wasn't interested.

Canadian Pacific Railway, after delivering a strong earnings report Wednesday, had more good news for investors, saying it expects to double its deliveries of crude oil 12 months earlier than previously forecast.

The Calgary-based railway said Wednesday that it expects to ship 140,000 carloads of crude by the end of 2015. It delivered 53,500 carloads last year and expects to reach a 70,000-carload run rate by the end of 2013.