BEIJING - The Canadian Olympic Committee's prediction of a top-16 finish at the Beijing Olympics is suddenly looking pretty good.

Canadian athletes won four more medals Thursday, increasing the nation's medal total to 13 and moving Canada into a tie with the Netherlands for 12th place in the overall medal standings.

HAMILTON - The federal government will contribute nearly $35 million to a new cardiovascular disease research institute based in Hamilton, Ont.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the centre will attract cutting edge researchers to the southern Ontario city and cement Hamilton as a global centre of cardiovascular research.

Harper is making the announcement at Hamilton General Hospital during a three-day visit to Ontario.

HAMILTON - It's "a bit hypocritical" of Jean Chretien, who attended only one Olympics during his tenure at Canada's helm, to attack Stephen Harper's decision to skip the Summer Games in Beijing, the Conservative prime minister said Tuesday.

Harper briskly fired back at the former Liberal prime minister, who on Monday warned Canada could end up paying a hefty toll for Harper's decision not to go to China, the world's second-largest and fastest-growing economy.

BEIJING - Forget about the early medal slump.

Canada won multiple medals for the third straight day at the Beijing Olympics, taking silver in women's trampoline and equestrian team show jumping on Monday.

The medal bonanza comes after Canadian athletes came up empty over the first seven days in Beijing.

Toronto's Karen Cockburn kicked things off when she claimed silver in women's trampoline. It's Cockburn's third medal in as many Games.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has upped the ante for a set of fall byelections, calling a fourth vote for Sept. 22 in the Toronto riding of Don Valley West.

Balloting is already set for Sept. 8 in three other ridings - Guelph in Ontario and Saint-Lambert and Westmount-Ville Marie in Quebec.

A Harper spokesman said papers were signed for the fourth constituency Sunday.

Don Valley West had been held by long-serving Liberal John Godfrey, who signalled his intention to resign the seat some time ago but didn't make it official until Aug. 1.

MELFORT, Sask.—A tiny town in central Saskatchewan has been devastated by a single-vehicle crash yesterday that claimed the lives of a woman and three little girls and has left two other girls in a coma.
The vehicle the woman was driving veered off a secondary highway near Melfort, Sask. and flipped over into a water-filled dugout.
Pauline Boyer, the mayor of St. Brieux, Sask., said she and her husband, Paul, believed the group had been travelling either to or from a children’s birthday party in Melfort, where young ones like to celebrate at the area’s only swimming pool.

FREDERICTON— Prime Minister Stephen Harper took aim at the Liberal party’s carbon tax policy yesterday, suggesting the so-called “Green Shift” proposal is really a “green shaft” that will stifle the Canadian economy.
Harper, wrapping up a two-day tour of Newfoundland and New Brunswick, described the Liberal policy document as a “hidden agenda” that’s finally out in the open.

VANCOUVER—A British Columbia man who mowed over a pod of killer whales at full speed in his boat, either hitting or just missing one of the endangered animals, has been fined $3,500.
Xi Change Gao, of Sidney, B.C., was convicted in April after video showed the man’s eight-metre crab-fishing vessel, the Vien Duong, tearing through the pod near South Pender Island.

CUPIDS, N.L. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he remains optimistic about Canada's medal prospects at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Harper, taking questions after a funding announcement in Newfoundland, said the Games are far from over.

"We're coming up on the back half of the Games," he said. "So we'll remain optimistic and of course we'll cheer for everybody who wears the Maple Leaf."

Canada has been shut out of the medals at the Games though Day 6, but there are 10 days of competition remaining and some of Canada's best athletes have yet to compete.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - At a time when Canada is shifting its strategy in Afghanistan toward development, the murder of three aid workers is raising questions about the ability of do-gooders to work in a country that still lacks basic security.

The chill that has descended on the humanitarian relief community in Afghanistan came after a driver and the three workers, including Canadians Shirley Case and Jacqueline Kirk, were shot to death in a Taliban ambush south of Kabul on Wednesday.