Australian Prime Minister John Howard may face a rude welcome when he arrives in Ottawa Thursday to visit Parliament.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the country's largest union representing government workers, plans to protest Howard's visit.

PSAC president John Gordon told the Ottawa Sun that the demonstration was planned because Howard "dismantled" the Australian public service with massive cuts to the government workforce.

Howard is scheduled to speak to Parliament at 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, then have dinner with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive.

The Australian prime minister is one of the few foreign leaders Harper got to know before becoming prime minister.

The two men met at an international conference last year.

Ottawa outlines how $1.5B will help farmers

The Harper government has followed through on its election promises with two new programs that it says will put $1.5 billion into farmers' pockets.

Missing B.C. girl found alive

Carmen Kados, an 11-year-old British Columbia girl who had been missing since Tuesday, was found alive but injured on Thursday morning.

Carmen Kados, 11, was found in Armstrong and appears to have remained in the immediate area the whole time she was missing. (RCMP/CP)

Ottawa children died in plot to silence mother, Crown alleges

The 2004 firebombing that torched two children in their Ottawa home was meant to kill their mother for fear she would reveal that one of the accused was a pedophile, prosecutors allege.

Chelsea Rodgers, 10, and her brother Cole, 7, were burned alive in their home in 2004.

Counsellors to help B.C. town cope with mine tragedy

Grief counsellors will offer services Thursday to residents of a small British Columbia town where four men were killed, apparently by toxic fumes, at a decommissioned mine.

(CBC)

Woman used car as weapon, police charge

A woman has been charged with assault with a weapon, following an incident in which witnesses said a driver deliberately struck a child with a car.