Meet Astronaut Julie Payette, the New Governor General of Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau name retired astronaut Julie Payette as the next governor general, the acting head of state and Queen Elizabeth's representative in Canada. Payette, 53, would replace outgoing Governor General David Johnston, 76, whose term is set to expire in September after nearly seven years in office.

Engineer, songstress, mother, pilot, astronaut, linguist, Olympic flag-bearer, scuba diver, governor-general designate. It’s a stretch to imagine any Canadian checking off all of those boxes, but Julie Payette, astonishingly, has managed it.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday afternoon in Ottawa, Payette was confirmed to be his choice for the Queen’s next representative in Canada. Both the NDP and Conservative leaders sent their best wishes.

Oops! Kanye West New Album Not That Great

A few days ago, Kanye said his new album Waves formerly known as Swish will be the 'greatest album of all time. Erm, insiders aren't so sure...

From Page Six

Our source, who has heard tracks from “Waves,” tells us West shouldn’t be so cocky: “It’s not the greatest album ever made. The people he’s getting feedback from are not the same as when he’d go to Jay Z to get feedback. Now, it’s from Kris Jenner. The stuff he’s done lately is dumbed down because of the Kardashians, but he’s still brilliant"

Full list of Canada's New PM Justin Trudeau's Cabinet

The full list of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new 31-member cabinet(including 15 women), in order of precedence, being sworn in today at Rideau Hall in Ottawa (with their province in parenthesis):

Justin Trudeau (Quebec) - Prime Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth.
Ralph Goodale (Saskatchewan) - Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
Lawrence MacAulay (P.E.I.) - Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Stéphane Dion (Quebec) - Foreign Affairs.
John McCallum (Ontario) - Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
Carolyn Bennett (Ontario) - Indigenous and Northern Affairs.

One-fifth of New Immigrants Arrive With No Money

via Vancouver Sun

In a new report  by Metro, it shows new Immigrants arrive in Canada with an average of $47,000 in savings – but are left with less than half of that once they get initially settled, says a new BMO Wealth Management report.

And about one-fifth, or 19 per cent, come with no money at all, finds the study being released Wednesday.

“It can be incredibly stressful – financially and otherwise – to pick up, move to another country, and begin the process of creating a new life for yourself, so it’s great to see that new Canadians do have a bit of a nest egg remaining,” said Julie Barker-Merz, president of BMO InvestorLine.

Empire overtakes The Big Bang Theory as No.1 series on network TV

Empire has passed The Big Bang Theory as this season’s No. 1 rated series on broadcast television. Joe Adalian of Vulture tweeted the numbers out, showing that Empire scored a 6.9 and TBBT a 6.7 in the key 18-49 demographic.

Before Empire came on TV, the Big Bang Theory on CBS was the top rated series on broadcast television in the US. Well, not anymore. That title now belongs to Empire on Fox.

New report warns of perils of corporate farming in Canada

A farmer works a potato field in North Tryon, P.E.I. in this July 13, 2000 photo. CP

The Canadian Press
A board member for the National Farmers Union says without laws that support decent farm livelihoods, Canada could lose its next generation of farmers.

Matt Gehl, board member for Saskatchewan, says the country could end up with something like “the serfdom many of our ancestors tried to escape.”

On Tuesday, the NFU released an update to its 2010 report on corporate farmland buyup, farm debt and input financing.

Federal Government Cut Funding For Sex Crime Prevention Program

CBC

The federal government is cutting funds for a program designed to prevent the most dangerous, high-risk sex offenders from repeating their crimes, just as its own five-year study has found the program dramatically improves public safety and saves money.

The 18 Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) programs across the country now have about 700 trained volunteers who help safely reintegrate offenders from prison back into the community.

Most sites are now preparing to close after funding from the Correctional Service of Canada ends March 31.

New England Patriots Wins Super Bowl XLIX

The New England Patriots wins this year NFL Super Bowl XLIX. It was 14-14 with previous winner Seattle Seahawks at half-time but dugged  the winner in the last quarter by 4 points. The game ended 28-24. See top player performer index below;

New Study Shows Black Women Are More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer

Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Race may influence whether women diagnosed with breast cancer will survive, suggests a new study which found black women are more likely to die even when their tumours are found when they are small and theoretically easier to treat.

The study, which is based on U.S. data, said that even when breast cancer is diagnosed at Stage 1, black women have a higher risk of dying than women of Japanese ethnicity or white women.

Senior author Dr. Steven Narod said it had long been thought differences in outcomes between white and black women with breast cancer related to access to quality health care in the United States, where before the Affordable Care Act came into effect more black women may have been without health insurance.

But he said that by mining a large U.S. database that registers breast cancer cases by stage at diagnosis, income status, race and ethnicity, he and his colleagues concluded that isn't the case.

"The assumption that we're going to eliminate differences in cancer outcomes by eliminating differences in health care is not that well founded," said Narod, a leading breast cancer researcher who is based at Toronto's Women's College Hospital.

"There may be intrinsic biological differences that account for some of the differences in outcomes that cannot be eliminated."

Narod said he thinks similar results would be seen if a matching study was done in Canada, but without doing the work he cannot be sure.

New Trials of ZMapp, Ebola vaccine start soon

Helen Branswell The Canadian PressClinical trials designed to show whether two Ebola vaccines and the Ebola therapy ZMapp actually work will begin within the next two to three weeks, American officials designing the studies said Thursday.

But falling case counts in the three West African countries where the outbreak has raged are forcing some modification of the vaccine trial designs — and potentially lowering expectations of what they will be able to achieve, the officials acknowledged.

The largest of the planned vaccine trials — expected to begin within the next two weeks in Liberia — may be expanded into Sierra Leone, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

ISIS Publishes Its Sharia Law For ‘Citizens’

Please read some of the new update to the Sharia law published by ISIS for its citizens, the law covers punishment on drinking alcohol, adultery, gay and theft.

• Islamic State has published a list of punishments ranging from 80 lashes for drinking alcohol and losing a hand for theft, to death for committing blasphemy.
• The Sharia code of conduct will be enforced in areas under its control which now covers large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
• Those who commit adultery will be stoned to death if the adulterer was married and lashed 100 times and exiled if he or she was unmarried.
• Those engaged in sodomy (homosexuality) will be sentenced to death, along with those who 'spy for the unbelievers'.
• Those who steal 'as part of banditry' will have their right hand and left leg cut off, and the punishment for terrorising people is exile.

New Document Shows Canadians Crying 'Fowl' Over Lack of Ethnic Chicken

Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press

Some people have been crying foul over the lack of ethnic chicken in Canada.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz got an earful from customers who couldn't find particular poultry, a newly released document shows.

"Concerns about the availability of ethnic chicken have largely focused on supplies of specialty birds (e.g. chicken from the Silkie and Taiwanese breeds), kosher and Hong Kong chicken," the document says.

The Canadian Press obtained the four-page document under the Access to Information Act.

It says complaints flooded Ritz's office after the May 2013 closure of Toronto-based Chai Poultry, one of Canada's two suppliers of kosher chicken.

Chai Poultry sold its quota of chicken allocation to a halal processing plant based in the southern Ontario of town of Milton.

President Obama In New #Stateoftheunion Address Vows Equality Over Hostility

Barack Obama sought to rally a hostile Congress behind an uncompromising vision of a more equal America on Wednesday in a State of the Union address remarkable for its broad appeal for national unity – if rather less memorable for its new policy proposals. President affirms ‘We are still one people’ in speech aiming to appeal to divided Congress with persistent vision for American middle class. Watch full video below;

Toronto FC signs Italian playmaker Sebastian Giovinco

Juventus's Sebastian Giovinco celebrates after scoring a goal against Udinese during their Italian Serie A soccer match at the Friuli stadium in Udine April 14, 2014. (ALESSANDRO GAROFALO/REUTERS)

 The Canadian Press
In signing five-foot-four Italian playmaker Sebastian Giovinco from Juventus, Toronto FC has once again raised the bar for Major League Soccer.

But given Toronto’s eight-year history of failure on the pitch, luring a European star in his prime to North America won’t mean much unless the rich kid on the MLS block can finally win on the field and make the playoffs.

The 27-year-old Giovinco, nicknamed the Atomic Ant, will join Toronto in July after his contract with Italy’s Juventus expires.

While Toronto opted to forgo props to highlight the Giovinco acquisition — unlike the double-decker bus parked outside the unveiling last January of now-departed England striker Jermain Defoe — Toronto general manager Tim Bezbatchenko was talking big about the little Italian.

OMG! New ISIS executions shows people thrown off roof, stoned to death and crucified

ISIS have released photographic evidence of a series of horrific executions which includes throwing people from tall buildings, stoning people to death, tying them to makeshift metal crosses & shooting them to death. Full report from UK DailyMail below... 

Two men were hurled from the top of a tower block, two more were crucified in front of a baying crowd and a woman was stoned to death in the latest series of horrific executions by ISIS.

The men were thrown from the roof down to the crowd below in the brutal punishment for being gay.

New CNN Reports Details Deplorable State Of Nigeria Military As BokoHaram Sweep Currents

Goodnews! Ebola Outbreaks in West Africa Slowing Down – UN

An outbreak of Ebola that has claimed over 8,400 lives in West Africa appeared to be slowing down, the UN special envoy on Ebola said on Friday.

“The change in behaviour that we’ve been hoping for, working for, anticipating, is now happening everywhere.
“The facilities to treat people are available everywhere.
“Safe burial teams are providing safe and dignified burial services everywhere and the result is that we’re seeing the beginning of the outbreak slowing down,’’ David Nabarro told newsmen.

Nabarro declined to predict when the outbreak of the virus could be definitively over.

The hemorrhagic fever is spread through contact with bodily fluids of infected people or the highly contagious body of someone who has died of the virus.

RCMP to act on all recommendations in Moncton shooting report

CBC - RCMP to act on all recommendations in Moncton shooting report

CBC

The RCMP is promising to learn from the Moncton shootings on June 4 that killed three officers and wounded two others.

On Friday, the RCMP said all of the recommendations in a review by retired assistant commissioner Alphonse MacNeil will be acted upon, and promised to keep the public updated on their progress.

The MacNeil Review includes 64 recommendations.

In the RCMP response, Assistant Commissioner Bob Paulson says deadly threats to police are not going to go away.

"It is our obligation — our duty — to make sure that we can be as prepared as humanly possible to meet these threats, having regard for who we are and where we live," Paulson said.

New Pop Singer Taylor Swift Has Top Album Of 2014 in Canada

Singer Taylor Swift performs onstage during KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2014 powered by LINE at Staples Center on December 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Nick Patch The Canadian Press
Taylor Swift’s “1989” ruled 2014 in Canada, but overall album sales were down five per cent, according to a year-end report from Nielsen Music Canada.

Swift’s pop makeover sold 314,000 units, besting the “Frozen” soundtrack’s 226,000 units sold and Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour,” which moved 157,000 copies.

Bobby Bazini’s “Where I Belong” was the top-selling album by a Canadian artist with 102,000 copies sold, followed by Serge Fiori’s self-titled effort (99,000 units) and Fred Pellerin’s “Plus tard qu’on pense” (79,000).

Sales of physical CDs decreased seven per cent and digital album sales went down by five per cent.

On the bright side for industry observers, vinyl’s resurgence continued in the form of a 71 per cent year-over-year change, with Arctic Monkeys’ “AM” standing as Canada’s most-bought LP of the year.

By genre, R&B sales were hit the hardest with a 28 per cent overall decrease, followed by rap music (down 23 per cent), classical (22 per cent) and alternative (14 per cent).

New study shows women’s body image is about what men like

Christina Hendricks is a famous full-figured celebrity. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

AFP
When told that men desire full-bodied, voluptuous figures, women felt better about their own weight, say researchers at Southern Methodist University.

“A woman’s body image is strongly linked to her perception of what she thinks men prefer,” says lead author and social psychologist Andrea Meltzer of SMU.

Heterosexual women, says Meltzer, tend to believe that men prefer the dieted-down, ultra-thin bodies that dominate the media.

“Consequently, this study suggests that interventions that alter women’s perception regarding men’s desires for ideal female body sizes may be effective at improving women’s body image,” she says.