PRESS DIGEST - Canada - Nov 10

Nov 10 (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:

- Stephen Harper's Conservatives pulled off an amazing political upset in federal by-elections Monday night, stealing a rural Quebec stronghold seat from the Bloc Quebecois.

- He arrived at the Canadian border last month with plans to move to Canada permanently. But when guards at the Douglas crossing near Vancouver searched Khaled Nawaya's car, they found nearly a million dollars in Canadian mint gold coins and paper currency.

- Ashbury College is an elite private school sitting on 12 leafy acres in Ottawa's Rockcliffe Park, with a list of alumni that boasts the likes of former prime minister John Turner.

BUSINESS:

- Forget the oil sands: Arguably the hottest chunk of oil real estate this year sits in the pasture and wheat fields of southern Saskatchewan. Far from Alberta's Fort McMurray, Saskatchewan's Bakken oil field was, until five years ago, thought of as a dud. Wells drilled into its dense rock produced five, maybe 10 barrels a day.

- Canada's investment bankers should get a bonus cheque for the ages at the end of this month. On the back of record equity sales and soaring trading revenues, the dealers are posting eye-popping numbers. Fourth-quarter revenue at the six bank-owned firms are expected to be up 51 per cent, year-over-year, to $5.2-billion, according to a report Monday from National BankFinancial.

NATIONAL POST:

- A teenage hunter trapped on a tiny ice pan had to shoot a menacing polar bear to stay alive as he drifted more than 40 kilometres from land into frigid Hudson Bay.

- When a migrant smuggling ship bound for Australia was seized in Indonesian waters last month, a 27-year-old with a thick beard stepped forward to speak for the boat people.

FINANCIAL POST:

- What a magic act! Over the past year, despite the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, central banks around the world have managed to create an environment in which just about every type of financial asset - stocks, bonds, gold - has headed straight upward.

- The Canadian housing market's surprising turnaround is spreading to new home construction as developers scramble to respond to a supply shortage that has sent pricing soaring for existing homes.

- Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) phoenix-like rise from the ashes has propelled its market value to US$180-billion, raising the possibility that it could challenge Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for the technology crown.