LOCAL
Police have laid a second-degree murder charge against a 34-year-old man in a fatal stabbing in northwest Toronto. Areef Khan of Toronto was arrested in a building near Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue West early Sunday after police found a woman with visible stab wounds. [National Post]
An Ontario man has spent three years fighting a Rogers bill that has ruined his credit rating and turned his life upside down even though he has never had a Rogers account. The bill ended up on his credit record and he was turned down for a couple of credit cards, the bank would not allow him to co-sign for his son’s mortgage, and he couldn’t use the equity in his home, which is paid for. [CBC]
A coroner’s inquest that begins this week will now take a hard look at the lives and deaths of the three Toronto-area residents who were gunned down by police at different times over the past three years who were all thought to be experiencing mental health issues when they approached officers with sharp objects. The province’s police watchdog later cleared authorities of wrongdoing in all three cases, prompting calls for justice from the families of those killed. [CBC]
NATIONAL
After weeks of negative media attention, BlackBerry Ltd. is publishing an open letter aimed at reaching out directly to its customer base as part of an attempt to soothe concerns about the health of its business and allay fears regarding the Canadian company’s long term future. BlackBerry plans to publish the 660 word open letter, which is addressed to the company’s “valued customers, partners and fans,” in more than 30 daily newspapers in nine countries on Tuesday. [National Post]
Canada is planning to answer a plea by the South Asian country of Laos and restart funding to help it clear the deadly remnants of the millions of cluster bombs that were dropped on the nation during the Vietnam War and still litter the country. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is to announce a $1-million contribution, to be managed through a United Nations agency, during a trip to Laos on Tuesday. [CBC]
A libel case that starts this Tuesday pits Sun TV’s Ezra Levant against Khurrum Awan, who as a law student and the public face of a hate speech complaint launched against Maclean’s magazine writers Mark Steyn and Barbara Amiel, and backed by the Canadian Islamic Congress. Levant has called the case, “exceedingly political.” [National Post]
INTERNATIONAL
An alleged pirate kingpin has been arrested in a Hollywood-style sting that lured him from Somalia to Belgium to work on a fake documentary about high-seas crime. Yet instead of signing a film contract as an expert adviser, Mohamed Abdi Hassan was arrested at Brussels airport as soon as he landed Saturday and immediately jailed, Belgian authorities said Monday. [Globe and Mail]
The 126-year-old International Herald Tribune, considered the paper of record for Americans abroad, has become the International New York Times. It will be marketed to reflect its current ownership, and to project itself as a more recognizable global brand. [The Guardian]
US Senate leaders neared the completion Monday night of a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown while the rest of the world braced for the possibility of an American default that could set off a global financial disaster. But while both the Republican leader and the Democratic leader praised the progress made in the Senate, it was clear that the most conservative members of the House were not going to go along quietly with a plan that does not dismantle the president’s health care law. [NY Times]
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