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As other Canadians prepared last week to celebrate the country's 131st birthday, families of the 26 men who died in the May, 1992, Westray mine explosion girded themselves for a more sombre undertaking.

The atmosphere was at once optimistic and wary. As they arrived in Saskatoon for last week's premiers' conference, provincial officials thought the stars were lining up for an agreement on a united front to carry them into negotiations with Ottawa on social programs.

Under a hazy sky, Helen Beath clutched a placard on the picket line outside Montreal General Hospital. Even though she retired in May after 43 years of nursing, Beath returned to the hospital last week to support her former colleagues.

On the crisp wintry morning after the televised leaders debate that was supposed to save his sinking election campaign, Quebec Liberal Leader Jean Charest took his remaining hopes home to the comfort of Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

The sheer cowardice of the act was chilling. Someone, it appears, waited in the dusk that comes early this time of year for Tara Singh Hayer, the editor of North America’s largest Punjabi-language newspaper, to return to his home in Surrey, B.C., at the end of the workday on Nov. 18.

A hundred and seventy years ago in England, about 200 crimes carried the death penalty. People were publicly hanged for offences ranging from murder to the theft of food or pocket change.

The First Ministers had barely tucked into their beef consommé when Alberta Premier Ralph Klein began to denounce the federal government’s betrayal.

Alberta’s energy minister, Steve West, spent much of last week wearing a tight smile, his clenched jaw and square shoulders set as firmly as his conviction that people who blame the oilpatch for the next century’s foul weather have lost their heads.

On a balmy late-December afternoon, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was in conversation with Maclean’s at his official residence when the telephone rang for the second time. Gesturing to an aide to silence the call, Chrétien said: "Push 'Do Not Disturb.' " The aide hit the button, exclaiming: "Ah, DND.

Having a cabinet minister resign in a flurry of scandal is something no prime minister relishes.

Shana Chetner doesn't mince words. Child pornography is sexual abuse, the youth counsellor for Greater Vancouver Mental Health Services says, and abuse leads to damaged adults. "The children are exploited and coerced," says Chetner, who has worked with troubled teenagers for nine years.

When the Qureish, King Hussein's private jet, touched down at Amman airport, the Jordanian monarch was not at his usual place in the pilot's seat. He lay instead on a bed in the back of the plane, racked by fever, exhausted by the long flight.

A day after his Newfoundland Liberals returned to power, Brian Tobin was still smiling.

Even Lucien Bouchard's glowering presence could not entirely sour the mood. In announcing a deal to overhaul the way Ottawa and the provinces work together on social programs, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke proudly of "a new departure.

"I wasn't sure if he was running for leader of the party or president of Cuba," one Liberal backbencher whispered as Finance Minister Paul Martin wrapped up his one-hour, 20-minute budget speech to Parliament last week.

After nearly a quarter of a century, the people of tiny, impoverished East Timor finally had the chance to say what future they wanted - independence, or staying a part of Indonesia. As a phenomenal 98.

On the Falls Road in the western precincts of Belfast, right in the heart of the city's Roman Catholic strongholds, there is an exclusive watering hole with a singularly appropriate name. They call the place the Felons' Club.

Long before New Brunswick Liberal cabinet minister Camille Thériault formally announced his bid for his party's - and the province's - top job on Jan. 26, his leadership ambitions were a badly kept secret.

Even before the polls opened, the telltale signs of seismic change began to drift across Northern Ireland's rolling green hills.

With the exception of Nova Scotia, every province has tabled its 1998-1999 budget.