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Fisheries

N.S. would like to expand seal hunt

HALIFAX - A day after the European Union introduced a proposal to ban the import of seal products, Nova Scotia's fisheries minister says he'd like to see the hunt expanded in his province. Ron Chisholm says he believes Canada's hunting methods are humane and he supports any effort by Ottawa aimed at getting the European Union to dump the proposed ban. Nova Scotia has a yearly quota of 12,000 grey seals, but hunters have rarely taken more than a few hundred annually.

Crime

Border guard arrested in alleged drug ring

MONTREAL - A Canadian customs officer was among eight people arrested in connection with an RCMP investigation into an alleged cross-border drug smuggling ring. Police claim James Munro, 26, took a $20,000 payment to ease the passage of several hundred pounds of cocaine into Canada. Munro, who worked the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle border point, was charged with corruption. Along with his seven co-accused, he also faces charges of conspiracy, drug trafficking and gangsterism.

Weather

Storms kill one in New Hampshire

EPSOM, N.H. - Violent storms in a 40-kilometre-long swath of central New Hampshire on Thursday destroyed several homes, damaged dozens of others and left at least one person dead, authorities said as police and firefighters went door-to-door searching for more possible victims. State Emergency Management spokesman Jim Van Dongen said other people were hurt but he did not know how many or how serious the injuries were. The National Weather Service was trying to determine whether a tornado was responsible for the damage, which stretched from about 16 kilometres east of Concord to beyond the eastern end of Lake Winnipesaukee near the Maine border.

Diplomacy

Libya protests arrest of Gadhafi's son

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya has halted all of its oil deliveries to Switzerland and barred Swiss ships from its ports to protest the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi's son in Geneva, a state-run shipping company said Thursday. Libya's General National Maritime Transportation Company stopped oil shipments to Switzerland on Wednesday, said the head of the company, Ali Bilhajj Ahmed. The company says it is the only Libyan-based firm supplying oil to Switzerland. Libya supplies more than 50 per cent of Switzerland's crude imports. Nonetheless, the Swiss Petroleum Association said the country could cope with any cutoff and arrange to buy the oil elsewhere.

Obituary

Detective who helped arrest Oswald dead

DALLAS - Dallas police Detective Paul Bentley, who helped arrest presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theater, had a ready retort for those who didn't accept the official story that Oswald acted alone. "What does conspiracy do?" Bentley would say. "It sells." Bentley died Monday of natural causes in his home, said his grandson, David Ottinger. He was 87. Bentley worked for the Dallas Police Department for 21 years, starting as a patrol officer and retiring as a detective five years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He played a supporting role on Nov. 22, 1963, originally responding to Oswald's fatal shooting of Dallas police Officer J.D. Tippit. Bentley and other officers tracked Oswald to the Texas Theater, arresting him after a brief scuffle.