North Korea agrees to shut down its main nuclear reactor and "eventually" shut down its nuclear weapons program. In exchange for a million tons of fuel oil, of course, but frankly nobody so far has come up with a better plan regarding North Korea than "keep bribing them to do nothing," so it boils down to a no-score win. Opposition parties charge that the Tories are stacking judgeship selection committees with conservative partisans to drive......

In a bizarre and tragic scene yesterday, former Toronto Blue Jay (and current New York Yankee) pitcher Cory Lidle perished after flying his plane into an apartment building in New York. The United States heads to the United Nations hoping for a UN resolution that will impose sanctions on North Korea. And North Korea threatens retaliation if Japan goes ahead and imposes sanctions in response to last weekend’s nuclear test. And George W. Bush denies......

In today's news, Canada joins the global chorus in support of sanctions against North Korea as it threatens more nuclear tests. Korea promises to greet sanctions as an act of war. The US says it won't invade and wonders what more the dictatorship wants. The Toronto Korean Senior Citizen's society and Canadians teaching English in North Korea are nervous. Toronto Police Union head Dave Wilson was re-elected by a narrow margin of 24 votes yesterday.......

Competition was fiercer than the Daytime Emmys on Thursday at the 2nd Annual Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning, but Michel Rabagliati took the prize for Best Book with Paul Moves Out. Set in 1970's Montreal, the sequel to Paul Has a Summer Job documents Rabagliati's first days cohabitating with his future wife during art school. While this year's nominees like Scott Pilgrim Volume 2 and Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea were remarkably......

The Gladstone Hotel hosts the second annual Doug Wright Awards this evening, honouring achievement in Canadian cartooning. The nominees for Best Book are: Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly Books) Wimbledon Green by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly Books) Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like by Rosalind B. Penfold (Penguin Canada) Paul Moves Out by Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly Books) Scott Pilgrim Volume 2 by Bryan......

Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival begins tonight and there is a lot on offer with 99 films this year, so you’ll forgive us if we only cover this weekend’s picks today. After all, we haven’t even picked up our pass yet! Friday April 28th Dear Pyongyang (6:30pm, ROM) – North Korea holds a fascination, right or wrongly, for many of us, and the rare glimpse we’re allowed into this secretive nation are......

The Oscars are next weekend! And much like the fact that most people will skim over, or simply ignore the categories that don’t interest them, Torontoist is going to have to admit defeat to mentioning every single film out each week, particularly on a week like this one, with something like 12 new releases in the city this week. We mean, honestly. Some of it just isn’t worth reporting. Does anyone need to be told......

Happy New Year, film fans! Or, perhaps, not. For we’ve slammed like so much booze filled new year vomit upon the tarmac of the post-Christmas lull, in which basically nothing of interest is released in any format. Certainly this week fans of more high brow cinema will have to hang on like those last few drips of chunky bile saliva for Cinematheque Ontario’s winter programme, starting on January 13th, which we’ll probably talk about then,......

Two photos stand out in Irwin Oostindie’s exhibit Axis to Grind: Inside North Korea showing at Gallery 1313 until Feb. 27. In one, a soldier stands at attention, bayoneted rifle by his hands. This photo is what most of us think of when we think of Kim Jong Il’s ‘rogue state,’ a country with a Stalinist security apparatus and a Maoist cult of personality, arguably combining the two worst aspects of Communist ideology. But......