By Reuters, , Updated: May-25-12 10:05 AMCanada ups threshold for foreign-takeover reviewsOTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government will boost the threshold for reviewing foreign takeovers of Canadian companies to ensure it can focus on the biggest bids, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said on Friday.The review threshold will be raised from the current C$330 million ($320 million) in asset value to C$1 billion in enterprise value over a four-year period, he said in a statement.Paradis said the Conservative government was following the core recommendations of a policy review panel that concluded in 2008 that the current way of reviewing proposed foreign investments needed to be changed.The government has been under pressure to explain the way it handles foreign takeover bids since it surprised markets in late ... Continue reading →

By David Ljunggren (Reuters) - The embattled premier of Quebec replaced a key aide on Thursday, the day after almost 700 people were arrested for taking part in the latest in a series of student demonstrations to rock the Canadian province. Liberal Premier Jean Charest - under pressure to end the protests before the peak tourism season starts - moved to replace chief of staff Luc Bastien with veteran official Daniel Gagnier, who is already working quietly on the student protest issue. A Charest spokesman denied media reports which variously said Bastien was paying the price for the continuing unrest and Gagnier would focus particularly on the students. Quebec's Liberal government, determined to end three months of student unrest over planned tuition hikes, last week ... Continue reading →

By Julie Gordon and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay (Reuters) - A $3.3 billion plan to build North America's first major chromite mine deep in the Canadian wilderness promises to usher in an era of prosperity for the region's aboriginals and generate millions of tax dollars over its lifetime. Tucked deep into northern Ontario, the Ring of Fire contains rich mineral deposits that could transform the region much as the oil sands have transformed Alberta. Much like the oil sands, it has raised deep environmental and social concerns. But the Ring of Fire stands apart from other resource mega-developments around the world in one important respect. Rather than oil, gold or iron ore, its main attraction is a relatively minor ore - chromite - which is refined into ... Continue reading →

Top News Wall Street struggles to find Facebook's worth Tue, May 22 16:47 PM EDT By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - In its three days of trading, Facebook's stock has dropped 18 percent from its $38 issue price. For the thousands of investors that bought at the IPO, that's bad enough, but one analysis of its earnings prospects suggests it could get a lot worse - more like $10 a share. Setting aside the hype and the cultural phenomenon that is the online networking site, Facebook Inc would be fairly priced at $9.59, according to the smattering of Wall Street estimates analyzed and modeled by Thomson Reuters StarMine. Data from six brokerages modeled by StarMine forecast the company's estimated annualized earnings growth over the ... Continue reading →

If you only see one hilarious newspaper correction today, make it this one. http://t.co/In5fOPzL Continue reading →

(Reuters) - Locomotive engineers and conductors at Canadian Pacific Railway went on strike early on Wednesday after failing to reach a contract agreement, a union body said, shutting down freight operations on Canada's second-biggest railroad. The union and CP Rail said talks will resume in the morning. "We will not walk away from the negotiation table," said Doug Finnson of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents the engineers and conductors at CP Rail. The stoppage means that shippers in Canada, including farmers, miners and retailers, will have to find other means to move their goods or will find their wares stranded. "In addition to customer and supply chain impacts, the suspension of CP's freight service will also impact many of the connecting railways with whom ... Continue reading →