Five stories in the news today, Nov. 12

Five stories in the news today, Nov. 12, from The Canadian Press:

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LIBERAL CABINET TO REVIEW SYRIAN REFUGEE ISSUE TODAY

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with his Liberal cabinet today to review a pledge to resettle 25,000 refugees from Syria in Canada by the end of the year. The Liberal plan has so far focused on the logistics of how to bring some of refugees to Canada and there are also questions on where to house them when they arrive.

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NDP NAMES CRITICS, PREPARES FOR PARLIAMENT

Tom Mulcair will rely on veteran MPs to help the NDP flex its muscles in Parliament, despite its reduced strength. He has named his team of critics, including Nathan Cullen, who is to tackle the environment file and democratic reform. Northern Ontario MP Charlie Angus has been named critic for indigenous affairs, Quebec MP Guy Caron will take on the job of finance critic and B.C.’s Don Davies will focus on health.

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NO PROBLEMS AS MONTREAL BEGINS SEWAGE DUMP

The City of Montreal says there were no problems as the job of dumping eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River began early Wednesday. Mayor Denis Coderre says everything is proceeding as planned and the infrastructure repair work that necessitated the discharge remains on schedule. The work is scheduled to last a week.

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FEDERAL SECURITY OFFICIALS EYE ‘BIG DATA’

Federal security agencies risk being overwhelmed by threats — or failing to even foresee them — unless they embrace the digital-age phenomenon of big-data crunching, warns an internal Public Safety Canada presentation. With billions of people using mobile phones and surfing the Internet, security officials are preoccupied with getting timely access to valuable information. But the recent past is littered with challenges related to information sharing and privacy, the presentation notes.

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CANADA’S COAL INDUSTRY HOPING FOR REBOUND

Coal industry watchers say that while their sector is hurting, the picture isn’t as bleak as two reports this week suggested. Canada’s coal export market, which is made up almost entirely of coal used in steel making, has taken a major hit in recent years as prices have dropped from more than US$300 a tonne in 2011 to less than US$90 a tonne this quarter because of oversupply and slowing demand from China.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY …

— The first-degree murder trial of Guy Turcotte, charged in the slayings of his two children, continues in St. Jerome, Que.

— Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is in Boston to attend the US-Canada Energy Trade and Technology Conference.

— Irving Shipbuilding is scheduled to appear in a Halifax court to enter pleas on four charges under Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

— Also in Halifax, Christopher Alexander Falconer will appeal his conviction for first-degree murder in the death of Amber Kirwan in 2011.