CBC reporter Mellissa Fung, in the clothes her captors made her wear, calling home immediately upon her release. (Afghan National Directorate of Security/Associated Press)

Mellissa Fung freed

After 28 days in captivity, in which her kidnappers walked her into the mountains of Afghanistan and stashed her in an underground room about the size of a large closet, CBC reporter Mellissa Fung was suddenly released on Nov. 8 in some sort of deal with Afghan intelligence services. Both the Canadian and Afghan government insisted no ransom was paid nor political prisoners exchanged on her behalf.

In a long interview afterward, Fung said she was told by her abductors that she was taken at random and that the kidnapping was part of a family business run by a patriarch in Pakistan. At one point, she said, she feigned illness in the hope of speeding up her release and refused to allow herself to think about any other outcome. "Dying is not an option," she told herself.

• Click here to see full transcript and video of Mellissa Fung interview

Fung's release was a rare bit of good news on the Afghan front. On Thursday, a Vancouver-based freelance journalist, 52-year-old Khadija Abdul Qahaar (formerly known as Beverly Giesbrecht) was kidnapped in the tribal areas of nearby Pakistan while researching a documentary. Earlier in the week, three Afghan girls walking to school in Kandahar City were seriously burned when two men on a motorcycle threw acid on them.

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Selling assets

Prime Minister Stephen Harper began his week with a first ministers' conference to listen to the premiers' plans to spend their way out of recession. The week ended with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty musing that Ottawa might be interested in selling federal assets, such as the CN Tower, to keep Canada out of the red.

In between, the federal government promised to speed up infrastructure spending in the provinces and territories, and it also introduced three new fiscal measures, including buying up more mortgages from banks, to help keep credit flowing. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made a concerted plea for help for the Canadian auto industry, particularly GM and Chrysler, which appear to be running out of money. (GM is in talks with Washington for a bailout that could reach $22 billion, analysts said.) But neither Harper nor Flaherty would commit at this point.

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Big bailout

After weeks of watch and see, China jumped into the economic stimulation pool this week with a $586-billion US package designed to keep at least some of its factories and housing industry on track. The huge injection reportedly caused an investment frenzy in Beijing and other large Chinese cities but it appears to have sent Western stock markets on a vicious roller-coaster ride as investors wondered whether ramping up China's impressive manufacturing might lead to too many cheap goods and perhaps even deflation on the world stage.

Compounding the problem, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that he was rethinking the $700-billion stimulation plan he put forward in September and that now not all the money would go to banks and financial institutions to ease what's being called the credit crisis.

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Three newly discovered planets circle the star HR 8799 in the constellation Pegasus. (Christian Marois/National Research Council/Keck Observatory)

Found

It was a good week for discoveries. A Canadian-led international team of astronomers discovered three new planets circling a star in another solar system that is a mere 130 light years away.

Meanwhile, Egyptian archeologists announced they had discovered a new pyramid, roughly the size of a two-storey building and built perhaps 4,300 years ago for the mother of a pharaoh. While in Syria, scientists unearthed what is said to be the largest ancient Christian church in the region, footings of a structure in Palmyra that date back some 1,500 years.

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Liberal do-over

To no one's surprise, Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff, the man who ran second to outgoing leader Stéphane Dion at the last leadership convention, will have another go at the prize. This looks to leave only three in the race that will culminate in May in Vancouver: Ignatieff, his old university roommate Bob Rae (the former NDP premier of Ontario who ran third last time) and New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, who has to hope someone else joins in if he wants to stay on the ballot long enough to be an alternative choice.

Other candidates from last time, including kingmaker Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall-Findlay, have already declined a rematch, dissuaded in all likelihood by old campaign debts and a $90,000 entrance fee, double the one for the 2006 contest.

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Make a wish. (Associated Press)

Charles turns 60

Prince Charles turned 60 on Friday, Nov. 14, enduring a week of celebrations and charity work and what is probably the longest royal apprenticeship of any monarch in waiting.

His mother, Queen Elizabeth, is 82 and has vowed to rule until her death or incapacitation.

As part of the celebrations, Charles was entertained at one point by a galaxy of comics, including John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and Robin Williams in a specially commissioned play, We are most amused.

• Photo gallery: A prince's life

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Kremlin coup

In a move that has driven Russia's democratic opposition parties crazy, President Dmitry Medvedev introduced a series of constitutional changes this week that would extend his and, more likely, his predecessor Vladimir Putin's control over the presidency for the next two or three decades.

Medvedev described the changes as housekeeping. But they would extend the president's term from the current four to six years and also permit Putin, who has served his two-term limit, another two six-year terms as early as 2012, should he choose to run.

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