National News

OTTAWA - Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is leaving Canada with some parting advice — seize the country's natural advantages.

TSX hits 1-1/2 month high on broad rally, positive data TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped 1 percent to its highest in more than 1-1/2 months on Tuesday, fueled by gains in most major sectors and optimism following positive economic data from Europe. British inflation fell twice as fast as expected last month, giving incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney more leeway for stimulus. A report said Germany is on track for a solid recovery due to a pick-up in demand for its products from abroad. ...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Europe could face a decade of stagnation unless it makes big reforms and should heed the lessons of Japan, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday as he highlighted Japan's bold moves to bolster growth. In his final speech as Canadian central bank chief before taking over the Bank of England on July 1, Carney noted that Europe's recessionary economy is being held back by fiscal austerity, low confidence and tight credit conditions. "Deep challenges persist in its financial system. ...

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp's new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, has reorganized key business groups and created a "new devices" unit, according to a source who has seen an internal email, shaking up the world's top chipmaker days after formally assuming control. The chipmaker's main product groups - including the PC client group, mobile communications and data center unit that previously reported to Intel Architecture group chief Dadi Perlmutter - now report directly to Krzanich, the source said, citing the email sent to employees. ...

By Sinead Carew (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp raised its buyout offer for wireless service provider Clearwire Corp to $3.40 per share, but the new bid was not high enough to impress some investors. Clearwire shares almost immediately traded around the new offer price, having consistently traded well above the old $2.97-per-share bid. Sprint announced the revised price just hours before Clearwire was due to hold a special meeting for shareholders to vote on the original offer. ...

PARIS - Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

By Sumeet Chatterjee and Harichandan Arakali MUMBAI/BANGALORE (Reuters) - IT outsourcing company iGate Corp sacked Chief Executive Phaneesh Murthy after a company sexual harassment investigation revealed that he had not disclosed a relationship with a subordinate. Shares of the company fell 13 percent on the Nasdaq after the removal of Murthy, who led several initiatives to improve the company's performance such as charging clients for business results instead of man hours, the billing method more commonly used by IT outsourcing firms. ...

By Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc came under fire on Tuesday at a Senate hearing over an investigation that alleged the U.S. high technology icon has kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries and paid little or no taxes to any government. "Apple effectively shifts billions of dollars in profits offshore, profits that under one section of the tax code should nonetheless be subject to U.S. taxes, but through a complex process avoids those taxes," said Senator Carl Levin. ...

MONTREAL - Three years of efforts to protect Canada's boreal forest have ended in failure as negotiations broke down over how much land to set aside for conservation.

Canadian PM says growing expenses scandal a distraction OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed a mushrooming expenses scandal in the Senate as a distraction on Tuesday and urged his Conservative legislators to focus on the economy. But Harper, facing the biggest crisis since he won power in early 2006 with promises to clean up government, also said he was "very upset" by the behavior of some parliamentarians and officials in his office. ...

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd said five tankers containing oil derailed on Tuesday morning near Jansen, Saskatchewan, and one of the cars is leaking crude. Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for the company, said the cars containing Western Canadian crude were on an eastbound mixed-freight train. The company does not yet have an estimate for how much spilled from the leaking tanker, but Greenberg said the oil has been contained at the site of the derailment. (Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

By Josephine Mason NEW YORK (Reuters) - Glencore Xstrata's head of aluminum, Gary Fegel, is set to leave the company, three sources said, the first high-profile departure since commodity trading giant Glencore closed its purchase of miner Xstrata this month. Fegel's departure from one of the most powerful jobs in the global aluminum market will come as a surprise to many since he was reconfirmed in the post just weeks ago, and aluminum is one of the few areas of Glencore's mining portfolio that has no overlap with Xstrata. ...

By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped 1 percent to its highest in more than 1-1/2 months on Tuesday, fueled by gains in most major sectors and optimism following positive economic data from Europe. British inflation fell twice as fast as expected last month, giving incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney more leeway for stimulus. A report said Germany is on track for a solid recovery due to a pick-up in demand for its products from abroad. Investors also awaited minutes out Wednesday from a U.S. ...

By Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries. The Irish government, which has seen the luring of U.S. multinationals with low taxes as a key part of its economic policy since the 1960s, said its system was transparent and other countries were responsible if the tax rate paid by Apple was too low. ...

TORONTO - The U.S. ambassador to Canada will become vice-chairman of one of Canada's largest banks after his diplomatic appointment ends in July.

KABUL - A co-ordinated Taliban assault on checkpoints in southern Afghanistan killed four police before a counterattack drove the insurgents back, Afghan officials said Tuesday. Also, at least 10 other police died in two attacks in the country's west.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed a mushrooming expenses scandal in the Senate as a distraction on Tuesday and urged his Conservative legislators to focus on the economy. But Harper, facing the biggest crisis since he won power in early 2006 with promises to clean up government, also said he was "very upset" by the behavior of some parliamentarians and officials in his office. ...

OTTAWA - A "very upset" Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants any federal Conservative who is in politics to seek personal gain from public office to get out of his caucus.

MOORE, Okla. - Authorities lowered the death toll from a massive tornado that devastated a town outside Oklahoma City, saying Monday it killed at least 24 people, down from 51, according to the state medical examiner's office. Rescuers continued to search the rubble for survivors.

GROZNY, Russia - French actor Gerard Depardieu will star in a drama about a Chechen man who seeks revenge for the killing of his son.