Quantcast
Metro Snapshot: June 19, 2008 – Metro US

Metro Snapshot: June 19, 2008

A man who two years ago brokered a series of transactions that ultimately turned a red paper clip into a two-storey home was looking to move on.

Lower and middle-income Canadians would see their income taxes reduced
by up to 10 per cent
under the “green shift” to be unveiled Thursday by
Stephane Dion. According to party
insiders, the shift would impose a tax of $10 per tonne of greenhouse
gas emissions in the first year, rising to $40 per tonne in the fourth
year.

Afghan and Canadian forces moved into villages in the Arghandab
district outside Kandahar on Wednesday to root out Taliban militants,
killing at least 36 insurgents, the Afghan Defence Ministry said.

Liberal senators will amend the controversial film-financing sections
of the government’s omnibus tax bill which would allow the government to retroactively strip films of their financing, despite the fact the House of
Commons passed the legislation as a confidence measure. The
senators say they talked it over with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion –
whose MPs have abstained from recent confidence votes lest they trigger
an election – and were told to “do their job.”

A mysterious sixth human foot has been found on B.C.’s South Coast. The
foot – the second to wash ashore in three days – was found around 10
a.m. on Wednesday by a woman walking at low tide on Tyee Spit near
Campbell River on Vancouver Island. The right foot was found within a black Adidas sneaker, roughly size 10.

Security was tight as the Olympic torch wound its way through a predominantly Muslim city in far western China on Wednesday. Officials in India’s western Rahasthan state have reached a deal with a
local tribe
aimed at ending weeks of violent protests over education
and jobs.

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki is making a surprise trip to Zimbabwe as concern mounts about political violence there. Mbeki’s
foreign affairs ministry says Mbeki will meet Wednesday with President
Robert Mugabe in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city. The trip is
part of his efforts to mediate between Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who are locked in a bitter presidential run-off
election.

Some 20,000 Somalis decided to flee their homeland this year,
heading to the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya where they recalled
a life of terror in Mogadishu.

Guests at the funeral for talk-show host Tim Russert included senators Barack Obama and John McCain, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Actress Miley Cyrus will host this summer’s Teen Choice awards. Lil Wayne’s new CD has sold one million copies its first
week, and Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings were considering recording a jazz album. Johnny Depp gave away his hat.