National News

MONTREAL — Canadian authorities are planning to open a processing centre for asylum seekers near the United States border in Quebec in case there is a sharp rise in the number of would-be refugees entering Canada.

OTTAWA — The federal government is providing a $1-billion loan to Canada Post to help the Crown corporation continue operating amid "significant financial challenges." Canada Post says it was notified it will receive the $1.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia climate activist Zain Haq and his wife Sophia Papp are planning to live together in Pakistan if his threatened deportation proceeds on Saturday, and blame his imminent expulsion on bureaucratic failings by immigration.

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada could hit its NATO defence spending target within just a few years if need be but didn't commit to doing so.

HALIFAX — Long before Brenda Tatlock-Burke was killed by her husband in October, there were signs of his controlling and coercive behaviour.

IQALUIT — A former Catholic priest took advantage of an already vulnerable community when he inflicted horrific sexual abuse on several Inuit children decades ago, a Crown prosecutor told a sentencing hearing Friday.

MONTREAL — A 42-year-old woman is dead and her 21-year-old son has been arrested in what Montreal police say is the city's first murder of the year.

A Quebec man has been sentenced to 30 years in United States federal prison for his role in an international drug ring that imported millions of fake Xanax pills into that country. The U.S.

Poppy, a six-year-old springer spaniel with floppy brown ears and a tail that never seems to stop wagging, is by all accounts a very good dog. Her white, brown speckled nose has also made her something of a trailblazer.

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed...