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Toronto trying to lure visitors back

Toronto is trying to rebuild its battered reputation now that the World Health Organization has removed it from the list of places to avoid because of the SARS outbreak.

The city's economy will take an estimated $2-billion hit because of the loss of tourists and convention business.

Health officials said that although there were two more deaths - raising the toll to 23 - the number of cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome is falling. There are 32 active probable cases of SARS, while 171 patients have been released from hospitals.

Dr. Allison McGeer, head of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, who was treated for the disease, said the outbreak "has been slowly dying."

Health officials were caught off guard when the outbreak started two months ago, she said, blaming weaknesses in health-care infrastructure such as the lack of a central database to collect and share information.

Millions of dollars are being poured into campaigns to try to attract visitors back to Toronto, and hotels have slashed rates after a huge drop in business.

Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement has been largely credited for helping persuade the WHO to lift its travel advisory against Toronto.

Deputy Prime Minister John Manley says he's optimistic Canadians will be exempted from tough new U.S. entry and exit rules.

The changes at the border by 2005 are threatening to snarl traffic and impede trade worth more than $1-billion a day.

Tom Ridge, U.S. homeland security secretary, favors exempting Canadian travelers but he has to work with Congress, Manley said.

Under the reported border plan, Canadians could be required to stop twice before entering or leaving the United States - once at the border and again at a second checkpoint to register.

Some 3-million Canadians travel into the United States every month, including more than 1.5-million same-day car trips.

The Canadian flag is back in the Quebec legislature after a nine-year absence. Parti Quebecois Leader Bernard Landry, whose separatist government lost the recent provincial election, said he was "a bit shocked" to see the flag at the National Assembly, as the province's legislature is known. Incoming Liberal Premier Jean Charest decided to have the maple leaf stand beside the Quebec fleur-de-lis in the ornate red room when he and his Cabinet were sworn in.

Canada is moving to finally deport Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel to Germany to face charges of inciting hatred. Zundel's bid to become a Canadian refugee was halted when the federal government served him with a warrant declaring him a national security risk. That sets the stage for Zundel's deportation after years of court battles in Canada, to which he immigrated in 1958.

Canada's dollar is soaring, reaching a five-year high of 70.44 U.S. cents because of a weaker U.S. dollar and the lifting of the SARS advisory for Toronto. The U.S. dollar returns $1.4194 Canadian before bank exchange fees.

The key Bank of Canada interest rate remains at 3.25 percent while the prime lending rate is 5 percent.

Canadian stock exchanges were higher, with the Toronto index at 6,618 points and the Canadian Venture Exchange 1,052 points.

Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 6, 7, 19, 29, 43 and 47; bonus 24. (April 26) 3, 17, 20, 30, 32 and 35; bonus 6.

Manitoba voters will elect a new provincial government on June 3. Premier Gary Doer set the date, seeking a second mandate for his New Democratic Party. The Conservatives under new leader Stuart Murray are seeking to regain power. The New Democrats lost three elections to the Conservatives before winning in 1999 on promises to cut taxes and improve health care.

The Navy frigate HMCS Winnipeg sailed into Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt near Victoria, British Columbia, on Friday after almost a year of duty in the Gulf of Oman. Cmdr. Kelly Williams said he and his crew were too engaged in the war on terrorism to worry about not being part of the battle in Iraq. The ship and its 242 sailors and air force personnel boarded ships looking for al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.

Atlantic cod could be downgraded to an endangered species by a group of independent wildlife experts reviewing at-risk species. In 1992, stocks were low enough for the federal government to declare its first moratorium on East Coast cod. Since then, the small commercial fishery that resumed was indefinitely closed last month when the government said stocks faced commercial extinction.