The Star: Canada needs to clean up its act in the oil sands and fight those who’ve given the country a global black eye, Environment Minister Jim Prentice says. Prentice said the Conservative government will continue to support development of the vast stores of sandy bitumen in northern Alberta because it’s one of Canada’s key economic drivers. But companies need to become more environmentally responsible so that Canada can achieve the “clean energy superpower” mantle to which the government aspires.

The Globe: If there was one moment when the near-moribund climate-change negotiations began to revive, it was yesterday at 12:30 p.m. in Copenhagen.

That's when the leaders of the two countries at the centre of the impasse - U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao - retreated to a room in the Bella Center, the airport-size convention hall that has played host to the near round-the-clock climate negotiations since Dec. 7.

The Times: Nasa scientists have produced the most compelling evidence yet that bacterial life exists on Mars. It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 years ago are almost certainly fossilised bacteria. The so-called bio-morphs are embedded beneath the surface layers of the rock, suggesting that they were already present when the meteorite arrived, rather than being the result of subsequent contamination by Earthly bacteria.

Ottawa Citizen: Despite the recent surge in H1N1 deaths, the nation's chief public health officer says the pandemic virus appears no deadlier than regular seasonal influenza and that there could actually be substantially fewer flu deaths than normal this season. Although H1N1 is disproportionately infecting more children and otherwise healthy young adults, "the mortality rate from this (H1N1) is no worse than seasonal flu," Dr. David Butler-Jones said. Full story

The Ottawa Citizen: With no confirmed deaths outside of Mexico, health officials are wondering why cases such as those seen in Canada and the U.S. seem to be less deadly. FULL STORY