Toyota announced on Tuesday plans for a joint venture with a Canadian junior mining company to speed up the development of a rare earth elements mine in Quebec to supply Toyota hybrid and electric vehicles.

The Japanese auto maker said it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Montreal-based Matamec Explorations Inc. to collaborate to "fast track the development" of Matamec's Kipawa heavy rare earths deposit.

At a Montreal bistro aptly named Robin des Bois, or Robin Hood, volunteers are cooking up a storm to help those down on their luck by giving away the profits.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Judy Servay, a former advertising executive once known for throwing Christmas parties with a twist -- clients and employees would gather to make meals for the homeless.

A 56-year-old Montreal man looking to shake off a mid-life depression walked around the world in 11 years, returning this week to Canada, looking radiant after realizing a dream.

A bit thinner and with a few more gray hairs, Jean Beliveau was pushing a three-wheel stroller that carried his sleeping bag, clothes and a first aid kit when Agence France Presse caught up with him 290 kilometers (180 miles) west of Montreal.

In a Montreal parking lot, Jean-Francois Beauchamp unhooks a power cable from his loaner car and cheerfully drives away, an enthusiastic user of a new service that is finding fans in equal measure among commuters and environmentalists.

"It's very quiet, pleasant and and doesn't use gasoline," says Beauchamp, 44, a web designer and frequent user of the electric cars made available for hourly rental by the Communauto car-sharing enterprise.

Rafael Nadal was sent reeling to another bruising defeat by Novak Djokovic on Monday, but insisted his U.S. Open disappointment had only strengthened his resolve to reassert himself against the Serb.

"I go back home knowing that I am on the way," said Nadal, who beat Djokovic in the 2010 final at Flushing Meadows to complete a career Grand Slam but has had no answer for him in Djokovic's transcendant 2011 season.

A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into singer Celine Dion's home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath, police said Tuesday.

He was nabbed by police in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Monday afternoon after the alarm system went off.

Mark Webber was fastest in a wet first practice for Formula One's British Grand Prix on Friday as the Red Bull driver chases a second successive Silverstone victory.

The 34-year-old Australian posted a quickest lap of 1 minute, 46.603 seconds around the circuit, two-thirds of a second faster than Michael Schumacher, while Rubens Barrichello was third.

Montreal's jazz festival this year promises to breach the banks of its genre, with an eclectic cast of performers ranging from Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck to Robert Plant and Prince.

The festival officially opens on Saturday with an open-air show from French soul singer Ben l'Oncle Soul.

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and the World Series of Poker announced plans Thursday for a special 2012 tournament that would require a record $1 million entry fee.

Eleven percent of the fee for the contest, which he described as a "very interesting game of millionaires," would be donated to Laliberte's anti-poverty nonprofit foundation One Drop.

Letting out shrill cries, several young women in a Montreal taekwondo class kicked their way through the exercises, not a hair out of place as they were demurely covered by an Islamic sports hijab.

Their religion prohibits these female athletes from showing off their firm physiques, or their hair. Yet Western society also frowns on the wearing of traditional Muslim headscarves in sports competitions.