PRESS DIGEST - Canada - Aug 3

Aug 3 (Reuters) - The following are top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

-- Nycole Turmel vowed to cut off her remaining ties to the Quebec sovereigntist movement after revelations about her recent affiliation to the federal Bloc Québécois raised a furor over her ability to defend national unity as the interim leader of the NDP.

-- A young Canadian man is accused of teaming up with an American presidential historian to steal scores of historic documents, including personal copies of speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, a letter by Benjamin Franklin and a land grant signed by Abraham Lincoln.

The pair, who allegedly obtained the papers under the guise of doing academic research and then attempted to sell them, were indicted last week in Baltimore.

Jason James Savedoff, who allegedly used the aliases Jason James and Justin Ward, 24, and Barry H. Landau, 63, face charges of theft and conspiracy.

-- The Ontario government is taking steps to protect its flagship job creation program by making it more difficult to cancel hundreds of clean-energy projects in various stages of development.

Report on Business section:

-- Research In Motion Ltd is embarking on one of the most ambitious device launches in its history, as the struggling smartphone giant tries to halt a decline in market position and strike back against fast-moving rivals.

The Waterloo-based technology company is taking the unusual step of simultaneously launching three new models around the world in an unprecedented effort to build on the company's success in international markets.

-- The denouement of Washington's debt drama was overshadowed by a harsh dose of economic reality.

As President Barack Obama signed the legislative compromise to raise the Treasury's borrowing limit into law, stock markets slumped as investors reacted to fresh evidence that America's recovery is running on fumes.

NATIONAL POST

-- Interim New Democratic Party leader Nycole Turmel's dalliance with Quebec separatists could be damaging to the party, especially in Western Canada, if more revelations come out about other rookie New Democrat MPs having past ties to the separatist movement, analysts and critics say.

-- The federal government should force makers of personal-music players to build in lower maximum sound levels to stave off the potential of widespread hearing problems, a Canadian medical journal urges in a new editorial.

FINANCIAL POST

-- Commissions at online brokerages are falling and the number of Canadians going online to manage their own money is rising. Assets held in online brokerage accounts rose to a record C$254 billion in March.

The number of accounts and trades also hit records at 4.3 million and 15.1 million respectively, says Jeff Wojcicki, senior analyst with Investor Economics.

-- For at least the third time in two years, and the second time this year, Quebec-based Atrium Innovations Inc aims to raise capital from the public in the form of a convertible debenture at the same time as it does a concurrent private placement with an institutional investor.