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Prime Minister presents budget plan

By TIMES WIRES
Published March 20, 2007

TORONTO

Canada's Conservative government on Monday avoided a forced early election after an opposition party agreed to support its budget. A vote against the budget by the majority in Parliament is a vote of no-confidence and would topple the government. The opposition Liberal and New Democratic parties said they would vote against the budget, but the separatist Bloc Quebecois ensured its passage by saying the party would support it. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper released the $233.4-billion (Canadian) budget, which offers tax cuts for families and seniors and pledges more money for Quebec. The spending plan forecasts a budget surplus of $3.3-billion (Canadian) for the fiscal year ending next March. That's down almost two-thirds from the current year. The plan calls for an 11th straight budget surplus and an increase in spending of 4.6 percent from the current fiscal year.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Judges resign over justice's suspension

At least seven judges resigned in protest Monday over the suspension of Pakistan's chief justice, aggravating a political crisis that has become a serious challenge to President Pervez Musharraf. Meanwhile, hundreds of lawyers in Sindh and Punjab provinces kept up the demonstrations that have roiled the country since Musharraf removed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9 on unspecified charges of official misconduct. Critics call it a blatant interference with the judiciary for political purposes, which Musharraf denies. On Monday, a high court judge in Lahore stepped down in protest, and six junior jurists from Sindh province also resigned.

GENEVA

WWF warns of threats to world's great rivers

Pollution, global warming and rampant development could destroy some of the world's most iconic rivers in the coming decades, threatening to wipe out thousands of fish species and cause severe water shortages, the World Wide Fund for Nature said in a report today. Only 21 of the planet's 177 longest rivers run freely from source to sea, with dams and other construction destroying the habitats for migratory fish and other species by altering the water's natural ebb and flow, the WWF said. About a fifth of the world's 10,000 freshwater fish and plant species are either extinct or endangered, the report said, calling on governments to radically step up efforts to preserve rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Elsewhere

PARIS: Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Princess Diana's boyfriend, said Monday he is seeking legal action against two British police officers he accuses of withholding evidence in the 1997 Paris car crash deaths of her and his son, Dodi Fayed.

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA: Police seized a boat carrying 21.4 tons of cocaine Sunday in one of the biggest maritime cocaine busts anywhere, an anonymous official said Monday.

WASHINGTON: The United States has granted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a visa to address the U.N. Security Council in New York. The date for the trip hasn't been finalized.

[Last modified March 20, 2007, 01:25:36]