• Charlie Sheen charged with assaulting wife
  Actor Charlie Sheen was charged Monday with three crimes including felony menacing stemming from an assault on his wife Brooke Mueller in a heated Christmas Day argument.

• He's Sirius: Stern says there's 'no better job' than being 'Idol' judge
  Stern confirmed a Page Six report that Fox is interested in hiring him to replace Simon Cowell on the top-rated show.

• Chick flick dethrones Avatar
• Marlene Dietrich to star on Berlin Walk of Fame
• Brangelina try to kill the split rumours with united front at the Super Bowl
• Beyonce takes a tumbles on stage in Brazil

Solberg: Shakespeare wrote about “the winter of our discontent”some 400 years ago, which I’m pretty sure is how long we’ve been putting up with this winter. Long, dark winters are not only a leading cause of crabbiness; they are also responsible.. MORE...

Leger: IF ANYTHING has been proven by snowbird Danny Williams’trip south, it’s that it is hellishly hard to have a rational discussion about health care in this country. The news of Williams’illness was barely out before the entrenched.. MORE...

Ford: You can tell a government program is in trouble when politicians don't want to talk about it. Right now, health care, once Canada's most popular program, is enveloped in silence. Health care has big financial problems. A federal.. MORE...

Taylor: IT APPEARS as though the international alliance has grown weary of the war in Afghanistan, and the goal now being pursued is a face-saving exit rather than a policy committed to long-term nation building. Following the summit.. MORE...

• Libel filings show battle between hate-hunter and conservative blogger
  Richard Warman, Canada's top online hate-hunter and scourge of free speech advocates, offered his first public response on Monday to the online campaign against him led by conservative blogger and lawyer Ezra Levant.

• Liberal Senate leader to Justice Minister Nicholson: You're full of it
  Akin: James Cowan, the leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate, says it with a little more gentility than I do in the subject line to this post but the takeaway is pretty clear:

• Majority backs Senate reform, poll finds
  Nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed would rather see senators elected than Red Chamber abolished

• Layton gives few details on cancer fight
  NDP Leader Jack Layton had little to say about his battle against prostate cancer following his surprise announcement on Friday, instead wanting to focus on his party's issues.

• Danny Williams recovering ‘very well' from heart surgery
  Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is on the mend in a U.S. hospital after successful heart surgery, his office said Monday.

• Don't meddle in ATIP requests, political staff told
  PMO warning comes on heels of news an aide to Public Works minister made mad dash to mailroom to 'unrelease' report

• Tories Blocked Full Release Of Sensitive Report

• Where is Canada's tea party?
  Ibbitson: Will we say it all began with Danny Millions? No we won’t. Because we don’t do tea parties.

• O'Malley: CAPPWatch: Never in Canada, you say? Pity
  Over at the Globe and Mail's Ottawa Notebook, bureau chief John Ibbitson is musing about this weekend's Tea Party convention in Tennessee, and the American penchant for insta-populism:

• Liberals not ready to defeat Tories in spring
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament has caused him some damage, but there's still no indication that voters are looking to the Liberal leader.

• Nik on the Numbers:  Tories and Grits Gripped in a Tie
• Some federal Conservatives now jumpy about prorogation backlash
• Latest Nanos Poll: CPC 35.6%, LPC 33.9%, NDP16.4% Greens 5.6%

• Competition Bureau seeks to smash ‘anti-competitive' CREA rules on MLS
  The federal Competition Bureau says it will challenge the restrictive rules that govern the multiple listing service (MLS) system used by most Canadian home sellers to list their properties.

• N.S. Premier Darrell Dexter says he regrets being named in spending probe
  Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter says he regrets being included in an auditor general's report that found excessive spending by members of the provincial legislature.

• No hard feelings over Copenhagen: Obama sends B team Biden to Canada's Olympics
  LA Times: The Obamas will miss out on seeing arguably North America's most beautiful city. And their absence will be taken quietly as another snub by the United States' closest, friendliest, most important neighbor -- or neighbour, if you're reading this north of the border.

• Isotope crisis deepens with Dutch reactor shutdown
  Aging reactor to go offline as Chalk River sits idle; Doctors fear shortage could cause increase in advanced cases of cancer and heart disease

• Ottawa says housing bubble not a concern
  Finance Minister Jim Flaherty appears to have no immediate plans to tighten Canadian mortgage rules despite the advice of senior bankers concerned about surging home prices.

• PMO budget largely stable since 1975
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper's $8.1-million Prime Minister's Office deepens centralization of power.

• Canadian envoy objected to banning George Galloway
  The Canadian high commissioner to London flatly objected to barring British MP George Galloway from Canada, saying it would simply provide "a greater platform" for a vocal politician who's "not taken seriously" in his homeland.
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• Is that Ms. or Mrs. MP?
  More female Conservatives in the House of Commons prefer Mrs. over the more modern Ms., but there's no predicting who will take which title in any party, Glen McGregor finds.

• YVR closes as fighter jets chase 'target'
  Vancouver International Airport was closed to takeoffs and landings for 20 minutes while two CF-18 military fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unknown "target of interest," a Transport Canada incident report shows.

• Pay market rates for parking, PS told
  The Harper government could generate millions in savings by charging public servants market rates to park at federal buildings and some military bases or it could simply stop providing parking.

• Venezuelan envoy chides 'ultraright' Canada
  The gov't of Hugo Chavez has responded to Canadian criticism it was "shrinking democratic space" in Venezuela by saying it will take no lessons from an "ultraright" government that "closed " Parliament to avoid an investigation into the handling of Afghan detainees.

• Call for consular reform
   When Canadian Michael Kapoustin finally won freedom from a Bulgarian prison in 2008, after a 12-year legal and diplomatic battle, he faced two choices.

• Tree-felling fuels cost row over Irish Embassy
  FELLING OF trees at the Irish Ambassador to Canada’s residence in Ottawa, allegedly to make way for a swimming pool that may never be built, has caused dismay among residents of the city’s diplomatic belt in Rockcliffe Park.

• Audit finds program flaws
  A $59-million federal program to train native fisheries managers lacked key reporting controls to track spending and results, says an internal audit.

• Ontario Liberals accused of vote grab
  The cash-strapped Liberal government promises to top up Nortel's underfunded pension plan –a move affecting many retirees in an Ottawa riding where a key by-election is being held March 4.

• Asbestos worries dog Charest
  Controversy over asbestos exports continued to dog Quebec Premier Jean Charest right up to the very last day of a trade mission to India.

• Alberta Tories warn of cuts in budget
  The Stelmach government will deliver a provincial budget Tuesday with "lots of cuts," potentially billions of dollars of additional red ink, and a new fiscal reality for a jurisdiction that's become comfortable with eye-popping spending hikes.

• Ottawa's vow to match aid for Haitians ends Friday
  As Canadians keep donating tens of millions of dollars to relief for Haiti, non-government aid organizations are scrambling to ensure as much money as possible goes to the quake-struck nation.

• Drinking pop linked to cancer of pancreas: study
  Drinking two or more soft drinks a week may nearly double a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer, researchers are warning.

• Number of kids identified as obese about to skyrocket
  Major national health groups want Canada to adopt new guidelines to monitor development of babies and children that will end up identifying more Canadian kids as overweight or obese.

• Ignatieff gives his take on Canada’s Olympic chances
  Mr. Ignatieff took a few minutes to chat about the pressure facing the men's hockey team, why he loves curling and how the rest of the world will learn they shouldn't mess with Canada.

• Abortion debate could hijack Harper's efforts on maternal and child health: observers
  In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, women injured during childbirth are treated as pariahs, expelled from their villages and abandoned as outcasts, says Keith Martin. "Some of them are left for hyenas to kill."

• CTV Ottawa newsroom destroyed by fire
  Firefighters are on the scene of an overnight fire that ripped through CTV Ottawa's newsroom and caused more than $2.5 million in damage.

• Karzai may institute conscription
  Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday he is considering instituting conscription to build an army large enough to provide security without international help.