Usually, you hear stories of people fleeing to America, not the other way around.

But the jittery state of the U.S. economy is driving an increasing number of its citizens to seek better prospects north of the border.

Americans are the latest economic refugees, and they’re heading to Canada.

As he prepares to campaign for re-election, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to make a speech Thursday night that calls for immediate stimulus spending to create jobs and improve infrastructure.

But those reforms will be difficult to make. Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have resisted any efforts to boost the economy through additional spending.

As life in the U.S. worsens, prospects in Canada seem all the brighter.

Canadian officials say the number of Americans applying for temporary work visas doubled between 2008 and 2010.

Read: Pension debate heats up.

Immigration lawyers in Toronto and the border city of Windsor, right across from job-starved Detroit, say they’re seeing a dramatic growth in clients seeking to come to Canada to work, or even as permanent residents.

So, is this a reversal of fortunes on an historic scale? Has Canada become "el Norte"?

Well, not quite. The number of U.S. citizens working in Canada is, at least by global migration standards, relatively small with some 30,000 at the beginning of last year.

Still, Americans make up the second-largest group of temporary workers in Canada, behind only Filipinos, most of whom work as nannies.

Canada was one of the few to escape the 2008 financial meltdown relatively unscathed, a turn of events largely attributed to Ottawa’s long-standing refusal to deregulate the banking sector.

“I’m looking for a quiet, calm, sane, civilized society to start the next phase of my life,” said Michael, an out-of-work, white-collar professional from Michigan who is seeking a temporary visa to come to Canada.

Like several others interviewed for this article, he did not want his full name used for fear of drawing unwanted scrutiny to his application.

Though he describes himself as both patriotic and a conservative, Michael says he’s lost faith in U.S. leadership — “on both sides of the aisle” — for failing to stem the excesses that led to the collapse of Wall Street, and for the current political brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

“I’m looking for a country where the first role of the government is to protect its citizens,” he said. “It looks to me like all [of Canada’s] three major political parties seem to have proven that they are much more responsible than our leadership.”

Workers like Michael are drawn to Canada’s lower unemployment rate — 7 percent in July compared to 9.1 in the U.S. — and sustained economic strength in major centers such as Toronto, which alone attracts an estimated 100,000 new arrivals a year.

(CNN) -- A reporter was killed by a U.S. service member last July in southern Afghanistan in a case of mistaken identity, according to the results of an investigation by NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Ahmad Omid Khpalwak -- a free-lancer for the BBC and Pajhwok News Agency in Afghanistan -- was killed during an insurgent attack in the Uruzgan province city of Tarin Kowt on July 28. He was 25 and joined the BBC in May 2008 as a stringer, the network said.

"Mr. Khpalwak was shot by an ISAF member who believed he was an insurgent that posed a threat and was about to detonate a suicide vest improvised explosive device," the NATO-led force said in a statement Thursday. ISAF identified the soldiers at the scene as Americans.

"The investigating officer found that the ISAF member involved in this incident complied with the laws of armed conflict and rules of engagement and acted reasonably under the circumstances."

Peter Horrocks, director BBC Global News, said the death is "a tragedy for his family and friends as well as his colleagues at the BBC."

It "further highlights the great dangers facing journalists who put their lives on the line to provide vital news from around the world," he said. "It is essential that journalists are given the best possible protection whilst reporting in dangerous situations so that the world can hear their stories."

Insurgents staged what ISAF said was a "complex attack" on a number of targets, including the provincial governor's compound and the Radio Television Afghanistan compound. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 22 people were killed and 37 people were injured.

Gen. John R. Allen, commander of ISAF, appointed an independent investigating officer to examine the circumstances of the death.

The report said two insurgents gained entry to the RTA compound when they used a car bomb to destroy a gate and a section of the wall.

From inside the building they traded fire with uniformed Afghan forces and shot at U.S. soldiers arriving at the scene. The firing from the insurgents eventually stopped amid escalating force by the Americans.

Afghan leadership told the forces that two suicide bombers were in the RTA building and that they "were not aware of any civilians present," ISAF said.

San Francisco (CNN) -- Police here have opened an investigation into the search of a man's home by Apple employees, an official said Wednesday.

San Francisco police were flooded with inquiries and barraged with criticism after releasing a statement on Friday saying four officers had aided Apple, which sent two of its security officials to search a man's home for a "lost item."

At the time of the search last month, Apple declined to file a formal report with the police. Apple did not find the device at the man's home, police said.

The item they were looking for was a prototype for the next iPhone that was lost in a bar, according to CNET, making this the second time in as many years that an Apple employee has lost a prototype while out for drinks. CNET reported earlier Wednesday that the police had opened an investigation.

Lt. Troy Dangerfield confirmed that police are now investigating the case, but he declined to comment further, citing a policy that prohibits officials from discussing open investigations.

(CNN) -- As the Horn of Africa suffers its worst drought for 60 years, there are reports of growing conflict between people and wildlife over the region's limited resources.

Conservationists say that in Kenya livestock herders and their animals are encroaching on water sources in protected areas, which is having a potentially devastating impact on the wildlife there -- particularly elephants.

With the region getting hotter and dryer the battle for water is going to become even more of a problem in the future, says Angela Sheldrick, director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), an organization that protects animals in Kenya.

"The incursion of livestock into Kenya's protected areas in search of pasture has in recent years put additional strain on the wildlife numbers," Sheldrick said.

"Areas that in the past might have sustained the wildlife through the tougher years no longer can, with the added impact of domestic stock," she continued.

One group that has traditionally lived in harmony with wildlife is Kenya's semi-nomadic Maasai people. But even that relationship is shifting.

Uneasy truce between Maasai and nature

Sheldrick says that in recent years the Maasai have sold much of their land to other tribes who are now cultivating and irrigating strategic water points that have been on elephants' migratory routes for millions of years.
In drought conditions, when water points are few and possessively guarded, the Maasai and wildlife do come into regular conflict.
Angela Sheldrick, director DSWT

She points out that farming and elephants are never a good mix, with the mammal capable of destroying a farmer's crop in just a few hours.

"In drought conditions, when water points are few and possessively guarded, the Maasai and wildlife do come into regular conflict -- particularly elephants," she said.

Jan de Leeuw, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says during periods of drought people get desperate.

"Herders have animals which are thirsty and because these are areas which have very few water points if wells don't have water they might have to walk 50-100 kilometers to find another," he said.

Leeuw says that Ethiopian herders have told him that during times of drought rules about certain areas being protected for livestock in their opinion can be broken.

'Green drought' hides hunger in Ethiopia

But it's not just the livestock that's using areas it shouldn't says Leeuw.

"Based on aerial surveys in Kenya we see that two thirds of the wildlife wanders out of the protected areas during dry seasons in search of water," he said.

"In areas with crops elephants tend to eat these, which is leading to reactions of people," he continued.

In the Tsavo conservation area, home to the country's largest population of elephants, the DSWT has helped the Kenyan Wildlife Service set up some artificial water points.

The new water sources, in the form of boreholes and windmills that pump water, are intended to provide much-needed relief to the herds of elephants.

But Sheldrick says water issues need to be dealt with carefully as what seems like a quick fix can actually become damaging in the longer term.

"For example, when considering water points in a national park, this can attract more livestock and more human pressure to the area, and ultimately be more detrimental than beneficial," she said.

"However, with many rivers that used to flow all year round now drying up for months at a time this has had to be addressed," she continued.

The DSWT is famous in particular for hand rearing orphaned elephants and it runs what has been described as the world's most successful rescue and rehabilitation center for orphaned elephants.
Kenya cannot afford to lose more elephants, as already our elephant populations are significantly less than they were years ago.
Edwin Lusichi, Nairobi Elephant Orphanage

But these are difficult times for Kenya's elephants.

"They are always first to feel the effects of drought, due to their inefficient digestive system, with much passing straight through them, and because they impact the vegetation as they do," explained Sheldrick. "Nature has made them fragile."

Edwin Lusichi is head keeper of the Nairobi Elephant Orphanage; he's concerned that if the drought persists the land will no longer be able to sustain the elephant population that's already dwindling under threat from loss of habitat and human pressures.

Late last October, a pair of innocuous packages were dropped off at a courier’s office in Sanaa, Yemen, for shipping to an address in Chicago. Hours later, the two brown boxes - stuffed with books, clothing, and brand new laser printers - were loaded into the cargo hold of passenger planes bound for Dubai and Doha on the first leg of their journey to the United States.

What the hundreds of passengers on those flights did not know was that ingeniously concealed in the printer cartridges inside those printers were explosive devices containing a white powdery chemical known as PETN.

Al Qaeda had found a potentially lethal flaw in aviation security. Conventional single beam X-ray machines rarely detect PETN. It was the same substance that had been smuggled aboard a U.S.-bound airliner by the alleged "underpants bomber," Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the previous Christmas. Western counter-terrorism sources say that chemically, the two batches were virtually identical, suggesting they’d been made by the same bomb-maker.

The printer bombs were timed to explode on the last leg of their journey over the eastern seaboard of the United States. Only a last-minute tip from Saudi intelligence led to their discovery at air cargo hubs in Germany and the UK. Around five times more PETN had been stuffed inside the cartridges than used in the failed attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

"The aircraft could have been brought down," UK Home Secretary Theresa May told the British Parliament days later.

Today, passenger and cargo jets are still vulnerable to a well-disguised bomb containing the colorless and odorless PETN, according to multiple counter-terrorism sources. That is despite improving detection capabilities and greater international cooperation.

"There is no 100 percent, foolproof system for all cargo, all passengers," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN, "but what we can do and are doing is maximizing our ability to prevent such a plot from succeeding. Good intel, good information sharing."

One of those measures is more comprehensive screening. Despite the fact that approximately 60% of all air cargo enters the United States on passenger jets, not all of it is screened.

"Not all cargo is screened; all cargo, however, is looked at in some fashion. So it kind of depends on what you mean. Screening is a term of art, but no, we don't have 100 percent screening of all cargo at all times, that's correct," Napolitano told CNN.

The Department of Homeland Security is also carrying out ongoing assessments of the security of air cargo supply chains, including at points of origin and shippers. In thwarting potential plots, security experts emphasize intelligence tips are the first line of defense.

Despite the discovery of the printer bombs last October, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) was exuberant. "The following phase would be for us to use our connections to mail such packages from countries that are below the radar and to use similar devices on civilian aircrafts in Western countries," the group said in a special issue of its online magazine Inspire.

It also boasted of its technical prowess. "The toner cartridge contains the toner which is carbon based and that is an organic material. The carbon’s molecular structure is close to that of PETN."

According to explosive detection experts, the X-ray absorption of PETN and ink-toner is indeed similar. "They understood the technology and what it did up to a point," says Kevin Riordan, technical director at Smiths Detection, a UK company that is one of the leading producers of explosive detection.

"They are using novel techniques of concealment, novel materials in terms of containment, and novel materials in terms of explosives," he told CNN in an interview at a Smith facility in Doncaster, England.

The device was so well concealed in the printer that it took UK authorities many hours before they found the explosive device –- even after isolating the consignment containing the suspect package at East Midlands airport, several sources told CNN.

"[It]was examined by specialists and at their first examination they declared it not a bomb," according to Sidney Alford, an explosives expert who helped U.S. authorities in the initial stages of the investigation.

"Only when they received intelligence saying we think it is look again or words to that effect did the awful truth dawn on them. That must really have scared them."

Following the package bomb plot, the Department of Homeland Security mandated that all in-bound air cargo travelling to the United States on passenger jets should be screened by the end of 2011.

But according to explosive detection experts, even 100% screening offers no guarantees.

According to a June 2010 report by the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO), TSA officials have reservations about the effectiveness of using canine teams to screen for explosives. The white powdery explosive PETN in particular is difficult for sniffer dogs to detect because it has a low vapor pressure, meaning very little of it naturally disperses into the air, according to explosive detection experts.

Screening through physical search is impractical given the volume of cargo and the ease with which PETN can be hidden. Conventional X-ray machines may also fall short, a leading explosive detection expert told CNN.

Explosive detection experts say air cargo departure points around the world need a new generation of equipment. Napolitano says this has become a priority.

"We've now worked with the World Customs Organization, as well as with ICAO [the International Civil Aviation Organization] on improving standards for screening cargo for bombs but also mail. We've also been working on improving technology that gives us better screening capabilities," she told CNN.

The latest generation of explosive detection equipment involves two stages of scanning - an advanced X-Ray machine which provides a high-resolution image of contents which if suspicious prompts a second test. That involves swabbing the outside of the package or analyzing the air inside it. This technique –- known as explosive trace detection - can detect and identify extremely small quantities of explosive residue such as PETN, according to experts.

The United Nations' climate body needs to "fundamentally reform" if it is to prevent a repeat of the error that led to the publishing of a report warning that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035, an international committee reported Monday.
The five-month review called for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to "fundamentally reform its management structure" and strengthen its procedures to handle "increasingly complex climate assessments."
The InterAcademy Council, a scientific umbrella organization, also called for the setting up of an executive committee to replace the IPCC's largely part-time structure.
It also asked for checks on conflicts of interest by board members and stricter limits on the terms of the chairman, a position now held by Rajendra Pachauri.
The report says said the post of IPCC chair and that of the executive director should be limited to the term of one climate science assessment.
"Operating under the public microscope the way IPCC does requires strong leadership... an ability to adapt, and a commitment to openness if the value of these assessments to society is to be maintained," said Harold T. Shapiro, president emeritus and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University in the U.S. and chair of the committee that wrote the report.
On Monday Pachauri said that member nations of the IPCC will decide whether he should stand down in the wake of the report, Agence-France Presse reported.
"This will be debated by all the governments of the world and they will decide what is to be implemented and when it is implemented," Pachauri told a news conference at the U.N. headquarters.
The IPCC released a 938-page study in 2007 pointing to evidence that climate change was already hurting the planet, building momentum for global action to limit carbon emissions that mostly come from burning coal, gas and oil.
The study, known formally as the Fourth Assessment Report, helped earn it a Nobel Peace Prize that it shared with former U.S. vice president Al Gore.
In January this year the IPCC said estimates relating to the rate of recession of the Himalayan glaciers in its Fourth Assessment Report were "poorly substantiated" adding that "well-established standards of evidence were not applied properly."