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Metro Snapshot: May 29, 2008 – Metro US

Metro Snapshot: May 29, 2008

In Calgary, police are investigating the deaths of two children and three adults who found dead in a home Wednesday morning. A one-year-old girl was found alive inside the house and has been taken into care. Although few details have been released, police say the deaths were not natural and that the scene was so disturbing five officers have already sought counselling. The Liberals are calling on the RCMP to investigate the national security breach that surfaced this week when Maxime Bernier admitted to leaving classified documents at his ex-girlfriend’s house. The Conservatives have said the Foreign Affairs Department will review the incident but the Liberals say a non-partisan third party should be involved. NDP Leader Jack Layton, who has refused to endorse the idea of a carbon tax, released his own carbon pricing plan yesterday, which he says will target big polluters instead of consumers. Meanwhile, the National Energy Board says Canadians can expect gas prices to average between $1.30 and $1.40 per litre this summer. And Ottawa officials are thinking about funding a literacy program aimed at Afghan Uniformed Police in Kandahar, which would bring 340 officers up to a Grade 4 level of reading and writing Pashto, Afghanistan’s official language.

In France, a man and wife have been convicted in the rape and murder of seven girls aged 12 to 21. The man received the maximum sentence and cannot be considered for parole until he has served 30 years in prison. The woman must serve 28 years before being considered for early release. Nepal’s monarchy – the world’s last Hindu kingdom – was abolished yesterday. People danced and sang on the streets but King Gyanendra wasn’t as thrilled: he has only 15 days to move out of his palace. In Israel, Defence Minister Ehud Barak wants to move the current government out of power. He has threatened to topple the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not resign in the face of corruption allegations, which Olmert claims are unfounded. Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a memoir that President George W. Bush relied on an aggressive “political propaganda campaign” to sell the Iraq war, and that the White House made “a decision to turn away from candour and honesty when those qualities were most needed.” Meanwhile, current presidential contenders Obama, Clinton and McCain have joined their names together in a newspaper ad in The New York Times saying they “stand united and demand that the genocide and violence in Darfur be brought to an end.”

Sharon Stone might say it’s karma: A Chinese cinema chain is boycotting Stone’s movies after she said the Chinese were being unkind to the Tibetans, and that perhaps the recent hurricane was an act of karma. Jimmy Fallon is coming to Canada Just For Laughs, and Jenna Bush laughed as she gave Ellen DeGeneres permission to get married at her father’s Texas ranch.