Venomous mammal caught on camera

Rare footage of one of the world's most strange and elusive mammals has been captured by scientists.

Large, and with a long, thin snout, the Hispaniolan solenodon resembles an overgrown shrew; it can inject passing prey with a venom-loaded bite.

Little is known about the creature, which is found in the Caribbean, but it is under threat from deforestation, hunting and introduced species.

Researchers say conservation efforts are now needed.

The mammal was filmed in the summer of 2008 during a month-long expedition to the Dominican Republic - one of only two countries where this nocturnal, insect-eating animal (Solenodon paradoxus) can be found (the other is Haiti).

Mummy thought to be Queen Seshestet found in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.

After five hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, and ancient pottery, the government's antiquities department said.

They also found gold wrappings which would have been put on the fingers of the mummified person. Grave robbers ransacked the burial chamber in ancient times and stole the other objects.

"Although they did not find the name of the queen buried in the pyramid, all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet, the mother of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty," chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said in a statement.

Same werewolf will stalk "Twilight" sequel

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – The werewolf will not morph.

After much speculation and consternation among online fans of the hit vampire romance "Twilight," Taylor Lautner will return as the werewolf Jacob Black in the sequel "New Moon," producer Summit Entertainment and director Chris Weitz said Wednesday.

The character has a relatively minor role in the first picture but a significantly larger one in the second, as he develops a romantic relationship with female protagonist Bella (Kristen Stewart).

With the Jacob character looking older and bulkier in "New Moon" as he goes through physiological changes, there had been reports that Lautner may be replaced. The actor was said to be gaining weight as part of his bid to keep the part.

Coincidentally, Robert Pattinson himself also faced some backlash from the fan community when he was first brought on to play Edward, with some saying he was actually too bulky for the part.

New link in cold case of Victoria boy missing since 1991

U.S. police have found a "missing person" poster of a Victoria boy who disappeared almost 18 years ago at the Milwaukee home of a possible child killer, CBC News has learned.

Michael Dunahee disappeared on March 24, 1991, from a park near his home in Victoria. One of the biggest Canadian police investigations ever ensued, but he was never found.

At the time, his family believed Michael, then 4½ years old, had been abducted. His missing-person file remains open, and a Victoria police officer is still assigned to the cold case.

CBC News contacted Crystal Dunahee, Michael's mother, on Tuesday, but she declined to comment on this latest twist until after she receives more information.

According to Milwaukee police, Vernon Seitz, 62, confessed last month to his psychiatrist that he had killed two children in 1959. Milwaukee police later raided Seitz's home and found him dead of natural causes.

A&E puts a collar on "Paranormal Cops" series

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Who you gonna call? How about 911?

A&E is seeking to one-up Sci Fi's "Ghost Hunters" with a new series that blends paranormal investigation with law enforcement.

"Paranormal Cops," tentatively slated to premiere this year, will feature a group of Chicago police officers who moonlight as ghost chasers at night. Given the team's law enforcement credentials, the concept seeks to add a new layer of credibility to a genre that has featured ghost hunting teams founded by professional plumbers, college students and academics.

The police group includes four officers, two tech assistants and a "medium." The ghost-chasing group existed before the show's producers came along, a network spokesman said, and the officers' respective departments have approved the venture.

The network also announced a third season of its similar show, "Paranormal State," which features a group of Penn State University college students.

Innocent bystander among 3 killed in Calgary restaurant shooting

An innocent bystander fleeing gunfire that erupted in a Calgary restaurant was one of three people killed in the New Year's Day gang shooting, police confirmed Monday.

Police said Keni Su'a, 43, ran out of the Bolsa Vietnamese restaurant after two men entered and opened fire. Su'a was confronted by a third suspect before being gunned down by the original two shooters in the restaurant's parking lot.

Police said Su'a, a Canadian citizen, had only immigrated to Canada a few years ago from the Polynesian country of Samoa.

The gunmen were targeting two men and a woman sitting at a table in the restaurant Macleod Trail and 94th St. SE, police said. Su'a was not among them.

The woman escaped but the two men were killed.

Police identified the two dead men as Sanjeev Mann, 22, a Calgary man who is a known gang member. Also killed was Aaron Bendle, 21, of Calgary.

Police have said it's likely the shooting was an escalation of violence between two rival gangs in the city. At least one of the victims was wearing a vest designed to protect him against bullets, police said.

Quebec mother charged in deaths of children, husband

A Quebec mother accused of killing all of her children learned from her hospital bed Monday that she had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

Cathy Gauthier-Lachance was also charged with assisting in her husband's suicide in what police allege was a murder-suicide pact carried out in the family home in Saguenay on New Year's Day.

Doctors would not let Gauthier-Lachance, 36, leave her bed because she is recovering from injuries suffered that night.

The woman held a phone to her ear instead, answering only yes or no to questions from the courtroom a few blocks away. The teleconference lasted three minutes.

Defence lawyer Dominic Bouchard said his client's condition is improving. He said neither the prosecution nor the defence thought it was necessary at this point to ask the court for a psychiatric examination.

Murder suspect carried gun openly

Seconds before Johnny Gewarges Youkhana became Toronto's first murder victim of 2009, three men – one holding a handgun – were seen exiting the lobby of a massage parlour in the city's north end, security footage shows.

Youkhana was found dead with gunshot wounds in front of the two-level strip plaza on Milvan Dr., just north of Finch Ave. W., at around 3:15 a.m. Saturday.

"It's sad enough in our city when we have a very small amount of people who arm themselves, but this was very brazen," said Det. Sgt. Gary Grinton of the Toronto Police Homicide Squad at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

"(The suspect) seems not to care that people in the spa see him with a gun."

The footage, which police showed at Sunday's press conference, was recorded by security cameras inside and outside the second-floor massage parlour at 9 Milvan Dr.

The video shows a black man, believed to be in his early 20s, openly holding a handgun in his right hand as he walks through the lobby of the massage parlour.

'Monsters vs. Aliens' gets 3D Super Bowl promotion to build ticket sales

LOS ANGELES - Talk about a monster of a promotion.

Some 150 million 3D glasses will be given away for Super Bowl viewers to watch a three-minute 3D sneak preview of the big-screen animated feature "Monsters vs. Aliens."

While 3D telecasts are nothing new, this marks the first time one has been done for such a large audience.

DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg called the stunt "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history." He wouldn't give a hard figure on the cost, but said it "involves tens of millions of dollars."

Katzenberg promised the quality of the 3D will be superior to what has been done in the past. He said the glasses will use Intel InTru 3D and ColorCode 3-D, which updates the old red-blue Anaglyph system.

Quebec police find man, 3 children dead in home

The new year got off to a bloody beginning in the small Quebec community of Chicoutimi, where police discovered a man and three young children dead, along with a badly injured woman, in a family home in a quiet residential neighbourhood.

Bruno Cormier, a spokesman for the Saguenay police, said a call was placed to 911 at 11:56 p.m. on Thursday by a woman who was hysterical.

Officers who responded found the injured woman.

They also discovered the bodies of her three children - two boys aged 4 and 7 and a 12-year-old girl - along with her 46-year-old husband.

Mother mourns son slain New Year's Eve, third in family to die violently

A young man killed at a B.C. house party on New Year's Eve is the third member of the family to die violently. One half-sibling was murdered by a serial killer, another lost her life in a house fire.

"We're fine, we'll get through this just like we did with the other two," said the man's mother, Christine MacMillan, weeping during a phone call from her Mission home. "My God, they've killed my child."

Her son, 21-year-old Payton Booker Buckner, known as Dexter, was killed in Mission after visiting a house party. He was of mixed race, and his death occurred after an altercation with some white supremacist youths, Ms. MacMillan said. According to reports, the youths were wearing swastikas.

"He called his brother Cody about 9 o'clock for help," she said. "He told him he had turned up at the party and these guys had made racial slurs. He said Dexter's friend stuck up for him and he was attacked."

Police find three dead males after report of shooting at Calgary restaurant

CALGARY — It was a bloody start to 2009 in Calgary with four homicides in two separate incidents, including three men who were brutally gunned down while dining at a restaurant.

Three men were found dead after a report of a shooting at the Bolsa Vietnamese Restaurant just before 4 pm Thursday.

The trio were dining inside the business when the shooting occurred. When police arrived two were found inside the restaurant and one was lying outside in the parking lot, a few steps from the front door. Calgary EMS declared all three individuals deceased at the scene.

"At this time it's too early in the investigation to say if it's gang or drug related," said Calgary Police Service Duty Insp. Dean LaGrange.

"But we are comfortable to say it doesn't appear to be random."

However as nightfall arrived and the lights of several police cruisers flashed through the light snow that began to fall, the gang-unit arrived to help homicide detectives at the scene. A yellow tarp covered the body of the victim outside the restaurant on the street.

Man arrested in attack against grandparents

Vancouver police have arrested the man wanted in a brutal attack against his elderly grandparents in the south Okanagan.

Gregory Logan Alexander Ailles, 34, was arrested in a hotel in the 1100 block of West 12th Avenue in Vancouver on Tuesday morning, one day after police issued a public alert for him.

Police said Ailles was armed and dangerous, as he allegedly stole three firearms from his grandparents' home.

A large number of Vancouver police officers and one negotiator were called to the scene Tuesday. Ailles was sleeping and was arrested without incident at around 8 a.m.

Man charged in Hudson killings appears in court

CHICAGO – A murder indictment was issued Tuesday against the man charged with killing the mother, brother and nephew of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson.

William Balfour had already been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, but a grand jury must indict a defendant before the case can go to trial, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

No new details or charges were outlined in the indictment against Balfour, who faces first-degree murder and home invasion charges. The 27-year-old appeared briefly in court wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit and handcuffs but did not speak.

Defense attorney Joshua Kutnick asked the judge whether Balfour could be moved to the Cook County jail from a state facility in Joliet to make it easier to communicate with his client. The judge put off ruling on that decision until Jan. 20.

Olympic boxing coach charged with sexual assault

A Toronto boxing coach who trained Olympians, including heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, has been charged with sexually assaulting a student over 10 months.

Police arrested Adrian Teodorescu, 65, after he got off the plane at Pearson International Airport Sunday night. He was returning from a boxing tournament in Vancouver.

Detective Robert Ermacora would disclose few details about the nature of the assaults, but said they occurred on eight separate occasions from February to December of this year.

“This would be severe in nature,” said Det. Ermacora. “Near the end, obviously it escalated a little more.”