PRESS DIGEST - Canada - Nov 6
Nov 6 (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:
- A U.S. Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, fighting orders sending him to Iraq, gunned down dozens of soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, killing 13 and wounding at least 30 in the worst American military fratricide in decades. The gunman was shot and wounded by a police officer.
- Canada needs more than one vaccine manufacturer to deal with future flu pandemics and to avoid production delays that have affected the fight against the H1N1 virus, federal officials say. - Preparations have begun for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, as the 2011 deadline for that withdrawal draws closer.
A government official confirmed media reports that General Walter Natynczyk, the Chief of the Defence Staff, has ordered preparations to get under way that would involve the return of the thousands of troops and their equipment from the troubled country.
BUSINESS:
- U.S. prosecutors charged 14 people, including prominent Wall Street lawyers and traders, with conspiracy and fraud Thursday in a dramatic widening of an insider trading case that has already implicated top hedge fund managers and Silicon Valley executives.
- Canada's biggest pension funds are putting their cash to work at a time when most private equity rivals are on the sidelines, with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board committing to deals totalling $10 billion for a U.S. health care company and an Australian toll road operator.
NATIONAL POST:
- The H1N1 virus is spreading rapidly across the country, causing more illness than some doctors have seen in a flu season, but the pandemic has yet to seriously burden the country's hospitals and might be close to peaking, experts and government statistics suggest.
FINANCIAL POST:
- The Canada Pension Plan's investment arm threw its weight behind two deals worth $11 billion Thursday, joining forces with a U.S. buyout titan in the largest North American private-equity deal of the year, and helping to launch an unsolicited takeover bid for Australia's biggest toll-road operator.
- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNQ.TO) Thursday detailed problems hampering its new C$9.7 billion Horizon oil sands operation, and the company's president said some of its unforeseen troubles are a result of the rushed pace of development.
