Two charged in Montreal mortgage scam
By Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette; Postmedia News February 5, 2012

Two Quebec men face fraud charges following an investigation by the RCMP into a mortgage scam that cost victims more than $4 million.

Kinh Ho Quan, 56, and Hermel Bosse, 58, were arrested this week on charges alleging they took part in at least 20 fraudulent transactions totalling nearly $4.5 million and bilked individuals, financial institutions and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which provides mortgage loan insurance.

According to a news release, the RCMP’s Major Fraud Unit of Commercial Crime Section of Montreal probed a total of 80 suspicious transactions worth an estimated $18 million since the investigation was launched in April 2008.

The Syrian Embassy in Ottawa is splattered with red paint after news breaks about a government crackdown on dissent in Homs, Syria that killed over 200 people. Photograph by: Bradley Bouzane, Postmedia News

Syrian Embassy in Ottawa vandalized
Postmedia News February 4, 2012

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OTTAWA — The Syrian Embassy in Ottawa was splashed with what appears to be red paint on Saturday.

Protesters held a demonstration in front of the embassy, located in midtown Ottawa, about 10 blocks from Parliament Hill — Saturday morning to commemorate the 1982 Hama Massacre, an uprising in which thousands died, and the events that took place Friday in the Syrian city of Homs.