National News

OTTAWA - The Harper government breathed a sigh of relief Friday after a U.S. Senate committee rejected a proposal to collect fees at land border crossings.

OTTAWA - The Harper government is praising Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy for showing "leadership" in the Senate expenses scandal.

OTTAWA - The federal government is dismissing the notion that a terror suspect recently arrested in the United States entered from Canada.

WINNIPEG - Relatives of four teenage girls who died after being cyberbullied or lured online met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday and came away optimistic that laws will be changed to crack down on Internet tormentors.

OTTAWA - Two former Conservative cabinet ministers - Jay Hill and Jim Prentice - were waiting for a flight at Toronto's Pearson airport that would take them sailing around a Caribbean island when they ran into two of their former colleagues still toiling as ministers.

OTTAWA - As an international investigation of tax evaders broadens to include Canadian authorities, the federal government says it has convicted just 44 individuals of offshore tax cheating since 2006 - but won't say who they are.

MONTREAL - The preliminary hearing for the man charged in Quebec's election-night shooting has been struck by a wide-ranging publication ban described as ''unprecedented'' by one media lawyer.

HALIFAX - Less than a day after a Nova Scotia cabinet minister was charged with assaulting another member of the legislature, Premier Darrell Dexter suggested it's not unusual for tensions to rise in the house before an election.

OTTAWA - Just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to the United States to win over hearts and minds on Canada's pipeline plans, his natural resources minister is wrapping up a similar tour in Europe by lobbing insults at oilsands critics.