Justin Bieber Urges Fans To Calm Down

Tween pop idol Justin Bieber appealed to his fans on Wednesday to calm down after his hat was stolen and his mother knocked over by a crowd of about 500 waiting to greet him as he arrived in New Zealand.

The frenzy came after Australian police on Monday canceled a live performance in Sydney by the 16-year-old Canadian singer when a crowd of about 5,000 teenage girls got out of hand, with about eight youngsters injured in the crush and others fainting.

The hysteria surrounding Bieber, who is traveling to promote his debut album “My World 2.0,” has sparked comparisons to the reaction of young fans when The Beatles went on tour in the 1960s.

“Finally got to New Zealand last night,” Bieber told his 2 million-plus followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

“The airport was crazy. Not happy that someone stole my hat and knocked down my mama. Come on people… I want to be able to sign and take pics and meet my fans but if you are all pushing security won’t let me.”

Ann Coulter Forced To Cancel Canada Appearances

Firebrand US conservative Ann Coulter cancelled a talk at Ottawa University late Tuesday, after being met by thousands of protesters, local media reported.

The American right-wing pundit and author is in Canada for a trio of speeches.

Ahead of a talk at the University of Ottawa on Tuesday evening, she said she was warned by provost Francois Houle to use “restraint, respect and consideration” when speaking at the school.

Coulter told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper: “Now that the provost has instructed me on the criminal speech laws he apparently believes I have a proclivity (to break), despite knowing nothing about my speech, I see that he is guilty of promoting hatred against an identifiable group: conservatives.”

“The provost simply believes and is publicizing his belief that conservatives are more likely to commit hate crimes in their speeches. Not only does this promote hatred against conservatives, but it promotes violence against conservatives,” she said.

Coulter’s Canadian engagements drew the ire of leftists here who accused her of inflammatory rants such as a post-9/11 suggestion that the United States should invade Muslim countries and convert their people to Christianity.

She has also said Canada is lucky that the United States allows it “to exist on the same continent.”

Obama Pays Off Bet To Harper

A US envoy delivered two cases of beers to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to settle a bet US President Barack Obama lost when Canada beat the United States for Olympic ice hockey gold.

David Jacobson, the US ambassador to Ottawa, delivered a case of Molson Canadian and an extra case of Obama’s brew of choice, Yuengling from America’s oldest brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to the doorstep of the prime minister’s official residence at 24 Sussex Drive — just in time for breakfast.

Canada beat the US squad three to two in overtime in a thrilling match-up on February 28 to become the first Olympic host nation to capture men’s hockey gold in 30 years.

Under the terms of the friendly wager, if the United States had won the match, Obama would have received a case of 24 beers from Harper.

Harper’s spokesman Dimitri Soudas said both cases of beer would be sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto for display.

Seal Meat To Be Served At Canadian Parliament

Canada’s parliamentary restaurant will be serving seal meat on Wednesday in a gesture of defiance aimed at a European Union ban on imports of seal products.

Canada’s Conservative government says it will fight the EU ban, which was imposed last July on the grounds that the annual seal hunt off the east coast was cruel and inhumane.

A dish of double-smoked bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port reduction will be on the menu on Wednesday, the office of Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette said on Monday.

“All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international community the solidarity of the Canadian Parliament behind those who earn a living from the seal hunt,” she said in a statement.

Ottawa says the hunt — which takes place in March and April — provides valuable income for Atlantic fishing communities. The seals are either shot or hit over the head with a spiked club called a hakapik.

An aide to Hervieux-Payette said that, depending on supplies, seal meat could be available once a week when in season.

Canada Drops Plans For Gender-Neutral National Anthem

Don’t mess with a century-old tradition even if it is sexist, Canadians told the Conservative government this week, forcing Ottawa to scrap plans to make the country’s national anthem gender-neutral.

The government tucked the idea into a major policy speech on Tuesday and by Friday the public outcry was so strong Prime Minister Stephen Harper backtracked.

“We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear,” said Dimitri Soudas, Harper’s spokesman.

“They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue. The government will not proceed any further to change our national anthem,” he said.

Canada Remains Americans’ Favorite Country

With all due respect to Washington’s special relationship and shared values with Israel, Americans much prefer their neighbor to the north.

According to a new Gallup poll released over the weekend, Israel ranks fifth among the countries viewed most favorably by Americans, behind Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Japan.

A paltry 10 percent of Americans said they had a favorable view of Iran, which came in last place among a list of 20 nations. The survey was conducted among a random sampling of 1,025 respondents.

Americans’ perception of the Palestinian Authority has vacillated over the course of the last decade. In 2005, 27 percent of Americans held a favorable view, but that number dropped to 11 percent following Hamas’ election victory in 2006.

In 2009, the PA’s favorable rating recovered to 15 percent, and this year it increased further, to 20 percent. However, 70 percent of Americans still said they held an unfavorable view of the PA.

With regard to the foreign countries most often mentioned in the news, American public opinion did not significantly change with the Obama administration’s assumption of power.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Celine Dion

It’s Canadian Celine Dion singing 1988′s Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi (Don’t Leave Without Me):

Celine Dion was representing Switzerland in 1988′s Eurovision. Yes she is Canadian, but it is a song contest not a singer contest and it is the nationality of the songwriter that counts,  not the nationality of the singer.

2010′s Top Travel Destinations

Here are some top destination lists for travel as 2009 ends and 2010 begins.

Lonely Planet’s U.S. staff’s top picks for 2010: U.S., Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand, Cuba, Italy, Philippines, Brazil, Costa Rica.

Conciegre.com’s 2010 “It List”: Marrakesh, Kyrgyzstan, Vancouver, Burma, Venice, Antarctica, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Colombia, South Africa.

Yahoo Travel’s most popular cities of 2009, based on consumer interest and activity: Las Vegas, Miami, Cancun, San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, New York City, San Francisco, Orlando, Honolulu, Paris.

Frommer’s top (dozen) destinations of 2010: Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; Florida Panhandle Beaches; Hawaii (the Big Island); Salta Province, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico; Melbourne, Australia; Hanoi, Vietnam; Kerala, India; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Tunisia; Copenhagen, Denmark; Isles of Scilly, England. Frommer’s reader favorite destination for 2010, based on a contest: Paris.

Americans To Teach Canadian Soldiers French

Americans are to teach Canadian soldiers to speak French — one of Canada‘s two official languages — after the military’s own lessons received a failing grade, Canadian media reported.

The Department of National Defense awarded a $285,000 contract to Globelink Foreign Language Center in Colorado Springs to tutor Canadians at the North American Aerospace Defence Command headquarters, said the Ottawa Citizen.

However, they are unlikely to have many opportunities to practice their new language skills outside of the base, as a mere 0.3 percent of Colorado residents speak French, according to the last US census.

In May, Canada’s language commissioner Graham Fraser issued a scathing review of the Canadian military’s bilingualism training program.

He said also: “Despite four decades of work and some undeniable successes, Canada has not taken full advantage of its bilingualism.”

French and English have been spoken in Canada since its colonization by the French and British starting in 1608. But for many years English occupied a de facto privileged position.

Ottawa passed the first Official Language Act in 1969 to support the development of linguistic minority communities — anglophones in mostly French-speaking Quebec province, and francophones in the rest of Canada.

Travelers Mix Up Their Sydney’s

A Dutchman and his grandson boarded a flight to Sydney, looking forward to visiting sunny Australia, but ended up in a much chillier Sydney — in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Joannes Rutten, 71, and his 15-year-old grandson Nick booked the trip through a Dutch travel agency with plans to visit family living in Wollongong and Tallong, south of Sydney, according to local newspaper the Illawarra Mercury.

They set out from Amsterdam‘s Schiphol airport with Air Canada but instead of arriving to views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House, they touched down at Sydney in Cape Breton Island, off Canada’s north east coast — more than 17,000 kms (10,000 miles) away from their intended destination.

Air Canada organized hotel rooms in the wrong Sydney, a former mining town with high unemployment and a population of about 26,000, until they could arrange flights on to the right Sydney, which boasts sun-kissed beaches and 4 million people.

“I think it was quite an adventure for the 15-year-old. They’re not seasoned travelers. Joannes was absolutely exhausted when he arrived,” Rutten’s cousin, Yvonne Wallace, from Wollongong, told the newspaper.

Clare MacDougall, who works for Air Canada, was at Sydney Airport (Nova Scotia) to meet the aircraft.

“When the door opened, the flight attendant said: “You’re not going to believe it but we have two people who thought they were en route to Sydney, Australia,”" she told the Cape Breton Post newspaper.

“They arrived with no Canadian money — they had all Australian money.”

No one from Air Canada was available to comment.

It is not the first time travelers have mixed up the Sydneys.

In August 2002, British tourists Raeoul Sebastian and Emma Nunn from London spent their holiday in Nova Scotia after thinking they were flying to Australia.

Last year, Monique Rozanes Torres Aguero from Argentina flew into the wrong Sydney for her vacation but decided to stay after befriending a local woman at the airport, according to the Cape Breton Post.