Canadian authorities said today they had foiled plans for terrorist attacks in southern Ontario with the arrests of 17 people who were “inspired by al-Qaida".

Canada’s Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper has set his sights on two traditional Liberal Party strongholds – Ontario and Québec – as support for his party surged in one poll but fell in another with only five days before the country elects a new government.

VIGILANTE death threats have so terrorised Canada’s most notorious female inmate that her lawyers have made a last-ditch attempt to ban the media from reporting on her whereabouts after her release from prison yesterday.

America and Canada have formed a joint task force to investigate what caused the huge North American power blackout, and prevent it from happening again.