Tonight:

Dropped signals? After the U.S. warns that a Chinese telecom giant threatens western security, a former Canadian spy wonders why our government is happy to have the same company doing business here.

Feeling the squeeze. Fungus and an early freeze cut European grape harvests in half, but one BC vintner says he can't wait to sink his feet into his own bumper crop.

The upper lip is still stiff -- but now a collagen injection may be involved. I'll sit down with Martin Amis, who talks about his latest novel "Lionel Asbo: State of England" -- and the celebrity-obsessed country in which it's set.

Twenty-three days into the NHL lockout and there's narry a game in sight. Now a Montreal blogger wants fans to teach their team a lesson -- with a boycott that begins when and if the puck finally drops.

Ill Commandante? President Hugo Chavez wins another term amidst rumours of poor health. As we hear from one observer in Caracas, this might be the strongman's last stand.

And...Polly wanna poke you full of holes. A Chicago paleontologist stumbles upon a dinosaur that's part way between a parrot, a vampire, and a porcupine.

As It Happens, the Thanksgiving edition. Radio that isn't so full of turkey that it doesn't still vant to suck your blood, suck your blood, suck your blood, suck your blood...

The United States House Intelligence Committee delivered a sharp warning today about one of China's most powerful companies. The bipartisan committee described Huawei, the world's second largest telecommunications company, as a threat to U-S security. The representatives are calling for government action to cut the ties between Huawei and the U-S telecom sector.

Huawei is also a major player north of the border. For a Canadian perspective on today's report, we've reached former CSIS senior intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya. He's in Ottawa.

Political pundits are still debating last Wednesday's U-S presidential debate in Denver, Colorado. How much did Mitt Romney win by? How will it affect the outcome of the race?

I don't know the answer to those questions. But I do know this: the political showdown held in Washington, DC, on Saturday night likely won't influence the election at all. But it was definitely more fun.

"The Rumble in the Air Conditioned Auditorium" promised to be everything the presidential debate was not: raucous, irreverent, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny. And the challengers -- Bill O'Reilly of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, and Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show -- delivered on that promise.

They also managed to tackle a couple of topics that were conspicuously absent in the debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney -- namely contraception coverage and Mr Romney's notorious 47%.

Here are some highlights from the night -- beginning with some of Mr. O'Reilly's opening statement.

As you've heard on the news, Hugo Chavez has won a fourth consecutive term as President of Venezuala.

He won by 10 pecentage points over the leader of the opposition, Henrique Capriles.

In most countries, a 10-point margin would be huge. But not in Venezuela.

David Smilde is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America.

We reached him in Caracas, Venezuela.

The NHL lockout is heading into its 24th day and the dispute appears deadlocked.

The two parties, the league and the players, trade accusations in public and make little progress behind closed doors.

But what about the third party? Us. Or at least, some of us -- the fans.

The people who pay the bills for both the league and the players appear powerless to influence the negotiations.

But hockey blogger and philosophy professor Tony Patoine thinks that the fans could play a role. He studies the connection between sports and nationalism -- in other words, Hockey.

We reached Tony Patoine in Montreal, Quebec.

Its full name is Pegomastax Africanus. It's referred to as "Pego". And I'm glad it's dead.

If that sounds callous to you, you don't know what Pego is. Or was. It is the latest dinosaur to be identified by paleontologists. And it was part-parrot, part-vampire, and part-porcupine.

See what I mean? No one wants that around.

Paul Sereno is the Paleontologist at the University of Chicago who identified Pego, as he was examining bones embedded in a chunk of rock discovered fifty years ago. We reached him in Chicago.

Every autumn, we embrace the bounty that this season brings. We pick apples. We run giddily through corn mazes, and then cry and scream ourselves hoarse when we get lost. And, of course, we fire up our pumpkin cannons.

Apparently, there is such a large surplus of pumpkins this year in Alberta that local farmers are coming up with new, innovative and explosive ways to put the pumpkins to good use.

Recently, the Prairie Gardens Adventure Farm, near Edmonton, loaded up its pumpkin cannon. So CBC reporter Kim Nakrieko joined owner Tam Anderson at her farm to find out just how the cannon works.

The story of agriculture this year, in much of North America, has been of tragedy, be it drought or tainted beef.

But in southern British Columbia, a warm, dry fall is bringing a smile to the lips of farmers, especially apple farmers and vintners.

George Hanson is the owner and winemaker of Seven Stones Winery, in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley.

We reached him at his winery, near Cawston, B.C.

The show must go on. But tonight, it will be without one of its most celebrated voices.

John Ferguson was scheduled to perform this evening at the Celtic Colours music festival in Cape Breton -- something he had done every year since the festival began.

On Saturday, the well-known Nova Scotia musician died suddenly at his home.

Mr. Ferguson began his career in 1972 with the band Miller's Jug. He went on to play for more than thirty years in the Celtic band McGinty. His popular voice became a fixture in Halifax bars, but his performances were heard in every province in Canada, across the US and as far away as Iceland.

Here is McGinty with their version of "Fiddler's Green".

Lionel Asbo is a terrible man.

He gives his pitbulls beer and steak slathered in Tabasco sauce to keep them mean. He's spent half his life in jail for a series of violent and larcenous offenses. He has disturbingly serious problems with women and sex. His manners are atrocious. He deliberately ruins the wedding of his best friend, who not coincidentally is also his worst enemy. He trusts no one, and is in turn trusted by no one.

He is one of Martin Amis's worst-ever villains. And if you're a Martin Amis reader, you know that means he really is an unthinkably terrible man.

He's also the star of Mr. Amis's latest novel -- which is called "Lionel Asbo: State of England". And he joined Carol in our Toronto studio to talk about the state of England, and the state of a bunch of other things.