April 27, 2005

Liberal MP suggests Gomery inquiry could cost Paul Martin his job ... Edmonton Sun - Paul Martin's decision to launch the sponsorship inquiry could cost him his job as prime minister, a Toronto Liberal MP said Wednesday. John McKay's comments came after former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano blamed Martin for damage to the Liberal party in Quebec from testimony at the inquiry into the program. Gagliano, whose department ran the now-disgraced program, said the inquiry under Justice John Gomery has badly damaged the Liberal party in Quebec. Gagliano, a Jean Chretien loyalist, says the inquiry has set the stage for the break-up of Canada.  11:34:07 PM

Nokia N91 for a True Mobile Music Experience Dexigner.com Nokia Launches Multimedia Smart Phones PC World - Nokia today launched three new Nseries mobile handsets, hoping users will be seduced by the smart phones' built-in multimedia gadgets, which take print-quality pictures, read e-mail, play music, browse Web sites, and display mobile TV. The N91, which can store up to 3000 songs on its integrated 4GB hard disk and play music for 12.5 hours at a stretch, will begin shipping in November at a suggested retail price of about $905US. 11:31:11 PM

Guité asked for fake invoices, ad man testifies CBC Montreal, Canada - Paul Coffin told the Gomery inquiry that he repeatedly produced fake invoices, over-billing the federal government for thousands of dollars for work that was never done on sponsorship projects. "I made it up," Coffin, head of Coffin Communications, said when confronted with invoices his firm produced for sponsorship contracts. 3:28:51 PM

Canadian Scandal Gives Succor to Quebec Separatism Reuters Canada ... A public inquiry into the scandal has heard allegations that Liberals in Quebec demanded kickbacks from firms in return for advertising contracts... 3:26:58 PM

Canadians want to wait for Gomery report National Post - A majority of Canadians support Prime Minister Paul Martin's view that an election should not occur until after the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal releases its report in December, a new poll has found. 3:25:11 PM

Firefighters found more than 200 stolen vehicle airbags, pipe bomb materials, newspaper clippings about Osama bin Laden and beheadings in Iraq in a Brooklyn supermarket. The buildings owner, Audeh Hamdan has 11 outstanding code violations on file with the city,  served jail time in the late 1970s and early 1980s for arson, reckless endangerment, weapons possession and conspiracy. Don't worry however, authorities, do not believe they had stumbled onto a terrorist cell. 12:30:06 PM

New Lebanese Government Calls Elections from May 29 Reuters - Lebanon's new government won a confidence vote in parliament Wednesday and immediately called elections, the first without a Syrian military presence for 33 years, to start on May 29. 9:24:43 AM