National News

HALIFAX - A five-month undercover investigation has cracked a drug smuggling operation at a Halifax jail, police said Friday as provincial justice officials admitted they need to do a better job of screening their employees.

TORONTO - Students at a Toronto school named for a Canadian astronaut turned politician got a boost for their own space dreams from the man himself on Thursday.

REGINA - After a crushing defeat that nearly wiped the party off the political map, the Saskatchewan NDP is about to pick a new leader to help it rebuild.

WASHINGTON - Box-cutters and razor blades are still out, but the all-Canadian hockey stick will now be allowed into American airline cabins for the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Camels may be called the ships of the desert, but ancient, mummified bones dug from the tundra are confirming that the animals now synonymous with the arid sands of Arabia actually developed in what is now Canada's High Arctic.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark says she’s not going anywhere.

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Opposition Leader Brian Pallister says his party will propose changes to a controversial anti-bullying bill, but he won't say whether he will support an existing clause on gay student groups.

EDMONTON - Alberta politicians — facing billions of dollars in red ink — get back to business in the house Tuesday to pass what Premier Alison Redford calls a watershed budget along with a new centrepiece Financial Management Act.

MONTREAL - The next Canadian to travel to space might be making the journey on a commercial flight instead of through the national space agency.

REGINA - Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says a tightened budget will be a big part of the spring sitting of the legislature which starts Monday. Wall says the government needs to keep overall spending increases to under four per cent.