Kabul  - A Canadian soldier was killed in a roadside attack and US soldiers killed an Afghan tribal chief and wounded another civilian who approached their convoy in a south-eastern province, officials said Sunday.

The soldier was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province on Saturday, the Canadian defence ministry said in a statement.

Sapper Sean Greenfield from 2 Combat Engineer Regiment was the second soldier to die in Afghanistan this year, bringing the Canadian military's death toll to 108 since their deployment to the country in 2002.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama's will make his

Montreal - Canada's Liberals showed a change of heart Wednesday that avoids another governance crisis as they threw their support behind Conservative Prime Minister 's budget and economic stimulus plan.

The change of heart came as Parliament reconvened this week after a recess that was forced by Harper in December over a budget stalemate.

To sweeten the deal, Harper has added a 40-billion-dollar economic stimulus package for Canada's slumping economy. His refusal to add such a measure in December provoked formation of a centre-left coalition led by the Liberal Party that threatened a vote of no- confidence.

Recent research has shown that junk food increases the risk of asthma in children who tend to have lower risk of asthma due to breastfeeding. Earlier researches have shown that breastfeeding for more than three months lowers the risk of asthma.

Research team led by Anita Kozyrskyj, research chair in the department of pediatrics at the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine and dentistry analyzed data collected from 246 children, aged eight to 10, diagnosed with asthma, and 477 children without asthma.

Hong Kong - A baby seal lies helpless on the ice. Towering above it, a man wields a club, poised to land the blow that will smash the seal's skull.

Moments later, the seal is dead, its body dumped on a mound of freshly-skinned carcasses. Its skin is thrown on a pile of bloody furs to be shipped back 270 kilometres to the Canadian east coast to be sold for around 42 US dollars each.

Ottawa/New York - A ship carrying hundreds of passengers stuck in the ice in the Saint Lawrence Seaway off Matane in eastern Canada has been freed, news reports said.

Ice breaker Terry Fox succeed to clear a path for the stricken CTMA Vacancier with 300 people on board on Tuesday afternoon.

However, a second ship, the Georges-Alexandre-Lebel, a cargo ship owned by Canada9s COGEMA shipping company, remained caught in the ice off Matane.