"This is a demonstration of Canada's will to exercise sovereignty over our own back yard," Commodore Bob Blakely, of the Royal Canadian Navy, told reporters in Churchill at the weekend."The sea is a highway that's open to everyone. Canada and Russia are at odds over areas of the continental shelf in the region, with its potentially important mineral and oil deposits.Meanwhile, the United States wants the Passage to be under international, not Canadian, control. Both claim the barren rock, named Hans Island.For years, Canada has taken its control of the vast northern region mostly for granted. But with the melting of polar ice providing access for shipping, the government is anxious about possible territorial rivalries with Norway, Russia and the United States as well as Denmark.The melting ice, attributed to global warming, could even open the legendary North-west Passage, linking the Atlantic and the Pacific, to shipping. The Shawinigan and the Glace Bay docked in Churchill on Sunday, marking a return by the navy to the remote port on the shores of the Hudson Bay for the first time in 30 years. Meanwhile, a third frigate, the HMCS Fredericton, was travelling towards eastern Arctic waters. The Fredericton is ostensibly there to impose fishing regulations but is expected to pass close to a tiny island that has become the subject of diplomatic head-butting between Canada and Denmark.

Three Canadian warships were steaming through Arctic waters as Ottawa displayed a new and almost bellicose determination to protect the sovereignty of its northernmost boundaries. "When schools try to rubbish The Princeton Review it is a matter of shooting the messenger," said Robert Franek, an editor. "We go direct to those people we consider experts - college students. Five students died in the US last year from alcohol poisoning while a reported 1,400 died in alcohol-related incidents including fights and falling from balconies.The Princeton Review rejects suggestions that it is being irresponsible by publishing the lists, which are based on questionnaires completed by more than 100,000 students. "If we could get everyone to tone it down just a couple of drinks per night it would make a big difference."The effort to clamp down on wild drinking has been spurred partly by colleges' concern about their image and partly out of concern about student deaths. The University of Florida in Gainesville is working with local bar owners and beer distributors to stop offering "drink-till-you-drop" specials while the University of Wisconsin now offers students a seemingly oxymoronic guide to throwing "responsible" house parties.Meanwhile, at the University of Oklahoma officials are copying the example of Dean Vernon Wormer in Animal House who declared: "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life." Officials there have proposed strengthening city ordinances to close down known party houses."We're not prohibitionists," John Lucas, spokesman for the University of Wisconsin, told USA Today. A number of colleges, stung by their habitual ranking in the party top 10, are trying to change their image and get off the list.

Magazines such as US Weekly have taken to publishing photographs of famous people looking their very worst.. For years US students wishing to emulate the experiences of John Belushi in Animal House have been able to turn to The Princeton Review. This prestigious publication annually lists the top 10 "party colleges" in the country alongside those institutions that rank highly in other areas such as education, teaching facilities and general quality of student life. But the fun could soon be over. Johansson does not appear to have disputed that version of events - only the appropriateness of being followed so relentlessly.The Los Angeles district attorney's office is conducting a special investigation to determine whether the behaviour of the paparazzi poses a danger and whether there is a pattern, as some have alleged, of deliberately endangering celebrities to create situations conducive to more titillating photographs.There is no doubt that the market for unposed shots of celebrities - and particularly prominent young actresses - has increased vastly thanks to the growing popularity of glossy celebrity magazines.More photographers than ever are now in competition to snap pictures of young stars going shopping, or working out at the gym, or diving into their pools. To Scarlett Johansson, the star of such films as Lost in Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring, a trip to Disneyland seemed like a good way to relax with a couple of a friends between high-profile film projects.

He denies the claim.Paul Foley, general manager of Rounder, said: "Rounder has no comment regarding any civil action brought by William Galison other than we remain convinced that our position will be vindicated by the court as it has been previously."The case is due to be heard before Judge Herman Cahn on 28 September.. But the company dropped it after being contacted by lawyers for Rounder, he said.In a letter to the co-founder of Rounder, Ken Irwin, Galison said: "I am concerned about Madeleine's career and her psychological well-being You know well that Madi has a history of attempted suicide. Now she finds herself facing a federal lawsuit with no representation and everything to lose. If God forbid, Madi should harm herself as a result of the stress of this episode, it will be her handlers - those who encouraged her to lie and betray her friends for their own selfish motives - who will be to blame."Rounder's lawyers have suggested that Galison may be using the legal dispute as an "ill-advised attempt ... Peyroux's lawyers will tell the court that such has been Galison's behaviour that the singer has contemplated filing criminal harassment charges.

to trade on the name and reputation of Ms Peyroux to boost his career by passing off an inferior version of a Madeleine Peyroux album".They also claimed to have obtained "directly and from Ms Peyroux, evidence of numerous incidents of physically and verbally abusive behaviour by Mr Galison against Ms Peyroux".Galison claims the allegations of abuse are libellous. But suddenly she stopped working with me," he said.He says Peyroux used the album they had co-funded and recorded at a studio in Brooklyn as a demo for the Universal-licensed label Rounder. He will tell the court that he in effect rediscovered her playing in a bar in New York in 2002 during the seven-year period in which she "vanished" after the success of her debut album, Dreamland, in 1996.He told The Independent yesterday that the couple immediately teamed up after the meeting - playing in a series of influential venues such as New York's Bottom Line and Joe's Pub. After their relationship collapsed, Galison tried to market the record with another label.