international

A marketing guru whom Quebec City is paying $300,000 to help with its image makeover has given an early report: Quebeckers, he says, are "completely neurotic" and their "sadomasochist" relationship with "the English" means they will never separate from Canada.

Expectations of rising interest rates, a revived economy and robust investor demand are prompting some strategists to suggest parity is around the corner between Canada's currency and the U.S. dollar.

OTTAWA - Canada's paper money is going plastic.

Starting in late 2011, the Bank of Canada will replace the country's cotton-paper bank notes -- prone to wear and tear -- with synthetic polymer ones that last two to three times as long.

KIGALI, Rwanda - The symbolism was incendiary. In front of the mass graves where 250,000 genocide victims are buried, a Rwandan politician dared to speak of the Hutus who were killed in those same terrible months in 1994.

MONTREAL - The class was designed to encourage open conversation among immigrant students, but one new arrival from Egypt refused to remove the veil covering her mouth.

Faced with an ultimatum from her school and the Quebec government that she expose her face, the mother of three decided to quit the French class instead.

JACMEL, Haiti - There isn't a scratch on Victor Gary's body, but the 39-year-old police officer was so emotionally crushed by the earthquake that he can hardly bear his own weight.

When he tries to straighten up in his chair, his upper body lists like a wilting sunflower, or his shoulders curve forward, making his body seem like a shell, something hollowed out.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - In Salt Lake City, there was close to a municipal depression. In Lillehammer, people who had worked for years to stage the Olympics suddenly felt bereft and forgotten.

The post-Games blues are part of every host Olympic city. Now, it's Vancouver's turn.

JERUSALEM - Israel has come under harsh criticism for waging a one-sided war against Hamas in Gaza, for possible involvement in assassinations and for belligerent comments by its foreign minister toward neighbors. Now the government has decided to fight back.

CAYES JACMEL, Haiti - As the room around him buzzes with the voices of doting families bathing and comforting maimed relatives, Jean Jeantilis sits silently on a sheet-covered cot labeled "Bed 9."

LEOGANE, Haiti - Candles and small fires cast the shadows of thousands of homeless people against piles of earthquake debris strewn along the rutted road from Port-au-Prince. Inside a white Toyota SUV, Dr. Brett Hendel-Paterson sped by, absorbing the sight of so much misery and grief.