sweet potato latkes: Take a close look when you flip your calendar to the new month today. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah and the American Thanksgiving both fall on the same day Nov. 28, an occurrence so rare it wont happen again for 77,000 years, according to The Star. In the U.S., more than 1,000 people are expected to gather in Los Angeles to celebrate the first and likely only Thanksgivukkah Festival with light, liberty and latkes. On Nov. 29, which is actually Black Friday, sweet potato latkes will be served with cranberry sauce and gravy alongside pumpkin doughnuts instead of the traditional fried, jelly-filled ones known as sufganiyot. Jewish customs holds that fried foods should be eaten to commemorate the lamp oil that miraculously burned for eight days and You could call it Thanksgivukkah, but Thanks-A-Latke is better. That means Jewish families with American relatives will have a complicated holiday menu and a small window in which to complete their holiday shopping, especially since the traditional day of mega-sales, Black Friday, falls on the same weekend. Oy vey! (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs: Counc. Marilyn Baptiste, secretary-treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said, "We are victorious!" in a statement issued late Thursday night after the report was released. , according to Huffington Post. The Tsilhqot'in Nation also embraced the new assessment, saying it contains even more concerns and criticisms than the assessment of the original plan. First Nations leaders in B.C. are declaring victory after a new environmental report concluded Taseko's New Prosperity mine proposal poses "significant adverse environmental effects". "The panel listened to us and formally determined the project would 'adversely affect' the title and rights for the Tsilhqot'in and Secwepemc. What a win for us," she said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa: Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan had some issues, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said after emerging from a meeting with his counterparts in Toronto, according to 660 News. The group found common ground by agreeing to several objectives and principles for possible CPP changes, including moderating the effect it may have on businesses and the economy, Sousa said and TORONTO All of Canadas provincial and territorial finance ministers agree that something needs to be done to enhance the Canada Pension Plan, Ontarios treasurer said Friday. But in the end, they all agreed that there is a definite problem and we need to resolve it. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Professor Jeremy Sarkin: Academics and others meeting in The Hague to discuss the plight of missing people called on Friday for more to be done to tackle the problem, saying that would contribute to more stable societies around the world, according to Times Colonist. The conference was organized by the Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons ICMP , which was formed in 1996 to help trace and identify thousands of people who went missing during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. It has grown into a repository for expertise on using DNA to identify missing people and THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Experts say the ranks of missing people are swelling around the world, including Muslim men murdered and dumped into mass graves in Bosnia, victims of Asia's 2004 tsunami, people killed in Mexico's drug wars, and asylum seekers who drown as they flee conflicts in rickety boats. Professor Jeremy Sarkin, a member of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, told a three-day conference that peace will be threatened in nations emerging from armed conflict "if issues relating to the missing continue to exist." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Edward Snowdens: Edward Snowdens new job in Russia, according to The Star. But Snowden indicated in the letter that neither would happen unless the U.S. dropped its espionage charges a policy shift the Obama administration has given no indication it would make and BERLIN Edward Snowden is calling for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop its espionage charges against him, according to a letter a German lawmaker released Friday after meeting the American in Moscow. Snowden said he would like to testify before the U.S. Congress about National Security Agency surveillance and may be willing to help German officials investigate alleged U.S. spying in Germany, Hans-Christian Stroebele, a lawmaker with Germany's opposition Greens, told a press conference. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

purchasing managers' index: HSBC Corp. said Friday its monthly purchasing managers' index showed its best improvement in seven months, rising to 50.9 from September's 50.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show expansion, according to Times Colonist. "China is on track for a gradual growth recovery," said HSBC economist Hongbin Qu in a statement and BEIJING, China - Two measures of China's manufacturing improved in October in a possible sign of economic recovery. An industry group, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said its index rose to 51.4 from the previous month's 51.1. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

North Korea: The incident is another example of a trend that fuels the Harper government's disdain for the UN despotic, rights-abusing countries using the world body as a podium to bash their democratic critics, according to Times Colonist. The diplomat was responding to earlier criticism of North Korea by Canada and the United States at Wednesday's session of the UN's social, humanitarian cultural affairs committee and OTTAWA - North Korea, one of the world's worst human-rights abusers, used a United Nations committee this week to publicly denounce Canada's rights record. A North Korean diplomat called Canada a land of broken promises, saying Ottawa has no right to criticize others because it has been accused of mistreating immigrants, aboriginal women and children. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Alexander Lisi: Torontonians and Canadians alike were atwitter this week with revelations that Toronto police have conducted drug-dealer surveillance that has caught in its net Mayor Rob Ford and Alexander Lisi, a Ford associate and sometime driver, according to The Chronicle Herald. Like a B movie script, sting documents reveal the mayors frequent clandestine meetings with Lisi, occasionally in woods, as Lisi sometimes leaves packages in the mayors vehicle and Toronto the Good is turning into Ford Nation the Nasty. Mr. Lisi has been charged with drug offences as well as extortion relating to a notorious video, first reported on in May, that allegedly shows Mr. Ford smoking crack cocaine in a drug house in Etobicoke. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: Reports that the U.S. National Security Agency tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone and conducted widespread electronic snooping in nations such as France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere have sparked anger among American allies. , according to Reuters. Medvedev suggested such spying was not unusual, but he added that "it is assumed that it is not done in such an absolutely cynical way". MOSCOW - The United States faces a tough task undoing the damage inflicted by allegations it has spied on leaders of allied countries, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. "It's not very pleasant when you are spied on ... so the leaders are angry. I understand them," Medvedev told in an interview on Thursday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: CALGARY Prime Minister Stephen Harper struck out against a trio of defiant senators, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, and the elites who have tried to stand in his way, in a sharply worded campaign-style speech Friday to the partys rank-and-file, according to The Chronicle Herald. The party leader blamed the courts for standing in the way of Senate reform. He appeared to be referring to a recent Quebec appeal court ruling the Supreme Court of Canada has yet to give its opinion on how to achieve change in the upper chamber and Harpers 45-minute remarks included only a brief reference to the main political headache that has shaken his party since May, the Senate expense scandal. He did not acknowledge the coverup allegation that has kept the controversy in the headlines. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.