11 armed men storm Philippine resort, take Canadians

In what appears to be a terrorist related or ransom plot of some kind, eleven armed men have stormed ashore near midnight at the quiet southern Philippines resort known as Holiday Ocean View on Samal Island. They abducted two Canadian men as well as the Norwegian manager of the resort and a Filipino woman. They attempted to take others, but their prey escaped by leaping off their moored yachts into the water and swimming away. The Canadian, identified in the linked CBC story, are retired resource industry executives.

AL-QAEDA, COMMUNIST GUERRILLAS?

The CBC says no group has claimed responsibility but Muslim and communist rebels, al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants and criminal syndicates have been active for years in the restive southern region due to weak law enforcement in rural areas despite years of on-and-off government crackdowns. CBC  Below is video of the actual kidnapping from surveillance video at the resort.

VW uses trickery to mislead U.S about diesel auto emissions

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Volkswagen has apologized for what appears to be a rank attempt to lie to both the government and car buyers over the emission levels of VW cars with diesel engines. The apology applies both in Canada and the U.S. Das Fibbing involved software installed by VW to make it seem like the vehicles emitted less pollution than they really did during emissions testing. Really. It is an extraordinary bit of trickery that has VW in a lot of hot water with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Because of the stink, so to speak, VW has cancelled sale of diesel model cars in the U.S. and Canada. That includes the Jetta, Golf and Beetle. There is no word on what is to be done for owners of the half a million or so VWs on U.S. roads or in Canada.

Please give blood TODAY (Oct. 14) at Northlea Clinic

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Mark your calendar for the Northlea community blood donor clinic which takes place Wednesday, October 14, 2015 from 2:007:00 PM at Northlea Public School. If you are the parent of a teen, why not encourage your son or daughter to get a gang together and make an after-school gift of life. It will be the good deed of their young lives. The blood service is especially happy to hear from donors 17 to 23. Northlea is at 305 Rumsey Rd.  You can call to make an appointment.  1-888-2 DONATE (1-888-236-6283).

Nanos rolling poll shows three parties still neck and neck

Both the consistency of the Nanos rolling poll, and the capacity of parties to sneak into the lead from day-to-day, suggests there is no guessing the outcome. Election day is less than a month away. Such closeness means the transfer of only a few votes from one party to another has the potential to elect a government with very narrow winning margins.  CTV

 

 

Star profiles Beck Taxi’s Uber nemesis Kristine Hubbard


Ms. Hubbard is a notable area personality who has to be admired for her determined and eloquent efforts to bring Uber into line. She works at Beck’s Thorncliffe Park office. Today Uber still pretends to be just a humble technology company which is eager to “work with” City Hall. So learn some humility. At City Hall too many people want to talk about the new technology and how it is unstoppable. No doubt. But the issue is not technology, it’s taxis. Unlike electronic book readers, also unstoppable, digital taxis are ripe for abuse unknown to your average Kobo. Toronto Star