Edmonton Police confiscated 12 boxes of poppy heads weighing over 160 pounds, plus 13 ounces of powdered dried poppy head. The confiscated dried opium poppy is considered the largest opium haul in Alberta's history.

Edmonton acting Inspector Greg Preston of the force's Organized Crime Branch showed media on Tuesday the seized opium. He estimated its street value from $12,000 to $20,000. A whole poppy head sells for $2 a piece, while ground-up opium called doda retails for $10 to $25 an ounce.

Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Sunday ignored his house arrest and left home to lead a protest march to the capital as police clashed with his supporters to break their advance.

Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, drove to a supporters' rally in Lahore and from there set off a convoy of cars heading to Islamabad. The caravan will stop in Rawalpindi on Monday so Sharif can fetch his brother, Shahbaz, who is also under house arrest.

Norway topped the list of 130 nations in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2008. Oslo toppled Sweden, which was number one in 2007 but slipped to third place this year.

Norway got a score of 0.824 out of a perfect score of 1, which indicates the gender gap has been closed. On second spot is Finland which third place last year. Iceland kept its fourth ranking.

A religious leader in Pakistan has issued a fatwa or religious opinion condemning President Asif Ali Zardari for flirting with the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate during a meeting.

The fatwa of cleric Maulana Abdul Ghafar, a prayer leader at radical mosque Lal Masjid in Islamabad, branded as indecent, un-Islamic and unbecoming of a head of state Zardari's gesture to Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) while shaking hands with her at the United Nations headquarters last week.

The Italian mountain climber who has been rescued after an avalanche hit the world's second highest peak Friday is under the care of a rescue team and waiting for a helicopter to take them out of K2.

Marco Confortola, 37, was the last rescued among the 22 mountain climbers washed away by the avalanche. Some of the mountaineers fell to their deaths, others froze, while 11 are still missing and presumed dead by now.