Ottawa, March 28 - Canada's consumer prices unexpectedly rose 1.2 percent in February, or 0.7 percentage points higher than the previous month, following several months' muted price gains, Statistics Canada said.

Much higher gasoline prices, which increased 3.9 percent year-over-year following a 1.8 percent decrease in January, was one of the main drivers behind the price rise. Gas prices also surged 8.4 percent on a monthly basis, the highest since May 2008, reported Xinhua.

Vancouver, March 15 - Canada will soon become one of the world's largest exporters of energy products and gain significant economic benefits from it, according to a study.

The research, conducted by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank, Thursday said Canada was not striving to be an energy superpower but that was clearly where it was headed, reported Xinhua.

Toronto, March 6 - Canadian paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of a giant camel that lived in the Arctic some 3.5 million years ago, when the area was a boreal forest during an epoch of global warming.

The 30 fragments of a tibia found on Ellesmere Island in the autonomous territory of Nunavut represent the northernmost fossils ever found of primitive camels, which first appeared in North America some 45 million years ago, said experts who made a study for the Canadian Museum of Nature that was published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

Vancouver, Dec 20 - Canada Post, the country's primary postal operator, delivered a record 1 million parcels across the country last Thursday, the company said.

This is an 11 percent increase compared to the previous year's busiest day, according to the company, which operates the country's largest retail network of nearly 6,500 post offices, reported Xinhua.

With Christmas Day coming nearer, Canada Post expects to deliver another 4.4 million parcels to 15.1 million addresses across the country by the evening of Dec 24.

Ottawa, Dec 1 - Canada's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew just 0.1 percent in the third quarter this year, 0.6 percent at an annual pace, Statistics Canada announced.

The agency Friday said the GDP growth slowed from last quarter's 0.4 percent due to declines in exports and business investment, reported Xinhua.

Exports fell 2.0 percent in the third quarter, the largest decline since the second quarter of 2009, while business investment in non-residential structures and in machinery and equipment decreased 0.6 percent, following consecutive quarterly increases that began in the third quarter of 2009.

Ottawa, Sep 1 - While Canada appears to be on track in reducing its budgetary deficit, global economic uncertainty could stall the government's plan, the federal Finance Department warned.

For the first three months of the 2012-13 fiscal year that ended June 30, the budgetary deficit was 1.98 billion Canadian dollars, or less than half of the 4.24-billion deficit reported for the same period last year, reported Xinhua.

Ottawa, Aug 21 - Following accusations of racism, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has apologized for the way in which the image of an Asian woman was eliminated from the initial design of the new Canadian
100-dollar bill that began circulating in November last year.

The Canadian Press, the Toronto-based national news agency, reported last week that the country's central bank dropped the image of an Asian-looking female scientist peering into a microscope after some members of several focus groups across Canada, enlisted to review the design in 2009, commented negatively, reported Xinhua.

Ottawa, July 31 - Canada will no longer circulate the one-cent coin as of Feb 4, 2013, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced.

In his 2012 federal budget delivered in March, Flaherty said the Royal Canadian Mint would stop distributing the coins, worth 1/100th of a Canadian dollar ($0.9983), this fall since it costs 1.6 cents to produce each cent coin, or 11 million Canadian dollars annually, reported Xinhua.

However, Ottawa delayed the move to a penny-less marketplace after consulting with small business and retailers who requested the transition date occur after the busy Christmas holiday shopping season.

Toronto, July 5 - How does the worlds tiniest mammalian diver survive icy waters to catch its prey? By doing an instant warm-up exercise before diving into cold water, say researchers.

This behaviour is unexpected because lower body temperatures enable diving mammals to stay underwater for longer. Heating up doesn't make sense as animals use up oxygen more quickly when they are warmer, says Kevin Campbell, who led the study.

Vancouver, June 30 - Canada's real gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent in April, after edging up 0.1 percent in March, according to official statistics.

Most of the increase was attributed to mining, and oil and gas extraction, which rose 2.7 percent after declining 2.0 percent in February and 1.1 percent in March, said Statistics Canada Friday.

The growth was also driven by the increase of wholesale trade, which was up 1.2 percent, a fifth consecutive monthly rise, reported Xinhua.

Toronto, June 20 - Toddlers less than two years old find great joy in giving treats to others than receiving one themselves, says a new psychological study.

"People tend to assume that toddlers are naturally selfish," said Lara Aknin, who co-authored the study with University of British Columbia (UBC) colleagues Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn, both professors of psychology.

During the study, each toddler received some treats, such as Goldfish crackers. A few minutes later, the toddler was asked to give one of these treats away to a puppet, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reported.

Ottawa, June 6 - Canada's central bank has kept its benchmark interest rate at 1 percent, which has been unchanged since September 2010, the longest period it has stayed neutral since the 1950s.

"The outlook for global economic growth has weakened in recent weeks," said the Bank of Canada Tuesday in a statement about its latest policy decision.

"Some of the risks around the European crisis are materializing and risks remain skewed to the downside", which it said is leading global financial conditions to a "sharp deterioration".

Ottawa, May 31 - A Canada-wide search has been launched for a 29-year-old man wanted for a homicide in which the victim's body parts were shipped by mail to the headquarters of two of Canada's main political parties in downtown Ottawa.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, who calls himself a "young gay twink" model and is known to be a porn star and stripper, is believed to have filmed the killing and dismemberment of the male victim whom police say Magnotta knew.

Police reportedly have video evidence of that grisly crime but it's unclear whether it's the same "1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick" video posted online at BestGore. com. In it, a man dressed in black whose face is never revealed, uses an ice pick to repeatedly stab another man in the abdomen while the victim is restrained on a bed, reported Xinhua.

Toronto, May 15 - A walk in the park benefits people suffering from depression, say researchers on the basis of new evidence.

Marc Berman, post-doctoral fellow at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, working with Michigan and Stanford Universities, said: "Our study showed that participants with clinical depression demonstrated improved memory performance after a walk in nature, compared to a walk in a busy urban environment."

Berman, however, cautioned that such walks are not a replacement for existing and well-validated treatments for clinical depression, such as psychotherapy and drug treatment, the Journal of Affective Disorders reports.

Ottawa, April 18 - The Bank of Canada is keeping its key interest rate at one percent, the bank has announced although it indicated that interest rates could rise soon.

The central bank has not changed the trendsetting rate steady since September 2010 in an effort to stimulate investment and economic activity, reported Xinhua.

However, the bank suggested Tuesday that higher rates are likely to come soon.

"In light of the reduced slack in the economy and firmer underlying inflation, some modest withdrawal of the present considerable monetary policy stimulus may become appropriate," the bank said.