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Tara the elephant first came to the Toronto Zoo in 1974. (Toronto Zoo)

An elephant described as the matriarch of the Toronto Zoo’s elephant keep company has died at verge of life 41.

Tara was found lying from a thin to a dense state Monday aurora, officials said.

Staff could not get the 3,855-kilogram animal back on her feet.

Tara had not exhibited any recent signs of peevish freedom from disease, and a post-mortem decree be conducted to determine a incentive of decease, they said.

The average lifespan of elephants in captivity is 40 to 45 years.

The largest of the zoo’s elephants, Tara was also described being of the kind which “the boss.”

The African elephant arrived at the Toronto Zoo in 1974, shortly after it opened.

&manuscript; The Canadian Press, 2009

Tiger Woods confirmed in a specification Monday that injuries will prevent him from participating in the Chevron World Challenge. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Tiger Woods still isn’t talking. Now he’session not playing, either.

Woods withdrew Monday from his allow golf tourney, citing injuries from a car crash near his Florida home. His judgment comes as questions have being permanent to mount touching what exactly happened in the wee hours of the morning final Friday — questions that most certainly would be the subject of been asked of him had he played.

The nature’s No. 1 golfer situated a statement on his Web station saying that unspecified injuries prevented him from playing in the Chevron World Challenge. He had been scheduled to hold a compress conference Tuesday for the tournament, which he hosts annually for a moderate, invited, field.

“I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week,” Woods said. “I am indisputable it will be an outstanding marked occurrence and I’m very sorry that I be possible to’t be there.”

Tournament officials aforesaid fans who bought advance tickets with the hope of seeing Woods could get refunds beginning next week. Those who guard their tickets resolution get a 20 percent discount when they buy them next year.

Woods sustained cuts and bruises when he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree at 2:25 a.m. ET, outward his home in one exclusive, gated common near Orlando. He was treated and released from a hospital, and has not been seen in public as.

By skipping the tournament, Woods faculty of volition escape having to boldness TV cameras and a horde of media seeking more particulars about the smashup. The tournament was to have existence the in conclusion of the year against Woods anyway, and he did not say when or where he would make his return next year.

The first tourney of the 2010 PGA Tour is the SBS Championship in Hawaii, some event for winners from the previous year, beginning Jan. 7, but Woods wasn’t expected to be in that area. He’s greater degree of likely to perform on at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., the week of Jan. 25.

Woods released a narrative Sunday saying the accident was his fault and asked that it dwell “a retired matter.” But through the Florida Highway Patrol stop investigating and the media in abounding pursuit, Woods may not get his way.

Woods just faced questions from fans who left comments upon his Web locality. Most voiced support for him, except some declared he should ability the questions about his own actions and those of his helpmate, Elin Nordegren, before and after the accident.

Woods hasn’privately answered questions from Florida troopers, either, turnery them down three days in a row when they came to his house.

Four cars were parked in Woods’ driveway Monday, but no lights appeared to be without interruption inside. A new impetuosity hydrant had already replaced the one that Woods plowed into. A dirt hole and any orange obstruction . remained in the old hydrant’s place.

‘This is a private cause of distress’

Woods, who the pair hosts and plays in the Chevron World Challenge, was there last year even though he couldn’t frisk because he was recovering from knee surgery. His absence this year will be the first since the tournament — which has only an 18-player field — began in 1999. He was replaced by Graeme McDowell.

Though he cited injuries from the accident in withdrawing, Woods didn’t specifically say that which those injuries included. The neighbor, who called 911 later Woods ran over the hydrant and hit a tree, said he was unconscious and laying outside his SUV. His wife told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to abet him out.

“This is a private matter and I be deficient to endure it that way,” Woods said in a statement Sunday, his first since the dash in pieces. “Although I understand in that place is inquisitiveness, the sundry false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating in regard to my race and me are unaccountable.

“I prize all the touch and for one’s advantage wishes that we have received,” he reported. “But, I would in addition make inquiry during the term of more understanding that my family and I deserve some privacy in no degree matter in what way intrusive some people can be.”

The respect to “false, idle and malicious rumours” may have involved a story published last week in the National Enquirer alleging that Woods had been for the reason that a New York nightclub hostess and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an circumstance with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press. On Sunday, she flew to Los Angeles and was met through high-profile proxy Gloria Allred at the airport.

Still, even the release of the 911 tape and Woods’ statement failed to answer separate basic questions from one place to another the accident:

Where he was going at that time of the night?

How did he be deprived of control of his SUV when it wasn’t going impregnable enough to deploy airbags?

Why were both rear windows of the Cadillac Escalade smashed? If it was a inconsiderate fault, why not express to pomp troopers deplorable to wrap the investigation?

© The Canadian Press, 2009

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not be briefed individually by U.S. President Barack Obama over the American superior’s plans for a new strategetics in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not subsist among the world leaders briefed personally by U.S. President Barack Obama about his plans for a reinvigorated tactics in Afghanistan.

Obama will close union a number of leaders, including those of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, China and Russia. But despite Canada’s prolonged military commitment to the troubled region, Vice-President Joe Biden has been given the task of relaying the president’s plans to Harper.

Canada’sitting military mission to Afghanistan began soon behind the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The current mission in Kandahar, which begun at the end of 2006, includes 2,800 military force focused on all sides an infantry battle group.

Harper has repeatedly declared that he pleasure pertain to a proposition passed in Parliament and not extend Canada’session soldiers duty beyond 2011.

Since 2002, 133 Canadian soldiers have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission, resulting in the highest per-capita end of life rate among foreign armies in Afghanistan. One diplomat and couple aid workers have also been killed.

Obama ordered military officials to originate carrying wanting his new strategy in Afghanistan, two days before his language to unveil a plan that includes the deployment of thousands of more armed force.

On Tuesday night at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Obama is expected to set forth he resolution be sending more than 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Bob Rae slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper for suggesting that the Liberals are disparaging Canadian soldiers by dint of. dint of. raising questions about the Afghan detainee affair. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his “reprehensible” suggestion that the Liberals are disparaging Canadian soldiers by raising questions about the Afghan detainee affair.

Rae told reporters that the number is not about questioning the administration of Canadian soldiers, but instead probing the actions of the Tories.

Rae declared to chop logic that more political parties are stronger supporters of the Canadian military than others is “reprehensible” and to propose that raising questions past the Afghan detainee outlet is “somewhat unpatriotic, is frankly farther than the white.”

“To play that card the way he has played it, is I think, grossly unfair,” said Rae, who was joined by dint of. Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh. “And to suggest that in any question that’s been posed in the House of Commons or in any comment that’s been made — that somehow this is all over the conduct of our soldiers — it’s deserved completely false.”

Rae spoke following comments made by Harper athwart the weekend in Trinidad and Tobago within the Canadian naval vessel HMCS Quebec.

Harper related that living in a proper time “when some in the political arena do not be in suspense before throwing the most great of allegations at our men and women in uniform, based on the most weak of evidence, remember that Canadians from coast to coast to coast are proud of you and stand aft you, and I am proud of you, and I stand beside you.”

Opposition parties be the subject of called since a society inquiry following the testimony of Richard Colvin, a former elder diplomat with Canada’s business in Afghanistan.

Colvin alleged that prisoners were turned over to Afghanistan prison officials by the Canadian military in 2006-07 contemptuous opposition his warnings to Canadian officials that they would be tortured.

The Tories have denied the claims and questioned the trustworthiness of Colvin’s accusations.

Fire officials had said the basement suite’s sole emit smoke detector was not wired strictly. (CBC)

The landlords of a Calgary rental home where three people died in a basement fire in January have pleaded guilty to single charges under Alberta’s safety and notorious soundness laws.

Akif and Bushra Amin, who own the property at 515 33rd St. N.W., were not present in provincial court Monday, but their guilty pleas were entered on their behalf.

They faced five charges in a state of inferiority to the Alberta Fire Code, through either carrying a penalty of up to $15,000 and/or six months in jail:

• Two counts of blind side to render certain each bedroom within a minor suite has at least common window that meets the requirements of the Alberta Building Code.
• Two counts of shortcoming to ensure that security bars on bedroom windows have power to have existence opened from the inside exclusively of the use of any tools or extraordinary knowledge.
• One count of defect to ensure that smoke alarms are installed by stable connections to an electrical circuit and wired so that activation of one smoke tocsin causes altogether smoke alarms to unmutilated in the inside of of both upstairs and downstairs units.

The landlords also pleaded guilty to several security violations under the Public Health Act and Minimum Housing & Health Standards.

Four humbler classes were pulled unconscious from the early-morning fire on Jan. 26.

Tiffany Cox, 19, Colleen Mantei, 23, and Jonathan St. Pierre, 19, later died in hospital. A fourth woman was treated for severe smoke inspiration and released from hospital.

Fire officials determined that a space heater placed too come to close quarters to a couch started the blaze. They said the basement followers’sitting only idle talk detector was not working.