President Barack Obama headed south Wednesday for a North American leaders' summit marked by frictions between the "three amigos" of Mexico, Canada and the United States.

President Enrique Pena Nieto will host Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the ornate state government palace in Toluca, near Mexico City, for the day of talks.

The snow-weary eastern U.S. was digging out from yet another mammoth storm Friday, as the deadly weather crept through New England and eastern Canada and another storm approached.

U.S. media counted up to 21 people dead as a result of the storm, which was blasting New England and eastern Canada with heavy snow and powerful winds, a day after plowing through southern and eastern U.S. states.

Canada's Conservative government plans on entering an election next year with a surplus.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled a federal budget on Tuesday that projects a $6.9 billion surplus in 2015. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, first elected in 2006, is expected to offer tax cuts during the election.

The Canadian government on Thursday proposed sweeping changes to the country's immigration laws, including a provision that would strip citizenship from persons convicted of terrorism or spying.

The measure specifically targets individuals with dual citizenship found to have "membership in an armed force or organized armed group engaged in armed conflict with Canada," a government press release said.

A Tunisian-born scientist accused of plotting to derail a passenger train in Canada said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday his aim was to protest the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan.

"My aim is very simple: to give them a message," Chiheb Esseghaier told the daily National Post.

As a trial run for the NSA and other foreign intelligence agencies, Canadian intelligence collected data from Canadian travelers who passed through major airports and connected to Wifi services and could then be tracked for days, CBC reported Thursday.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said documents leaked by fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) could follow the movements of Canadians who passed through airports and connected to Wifi systems with mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

A former Canadian brigadier-general and head of Canadian forces in Afghanistan is being detained in Afghanistan for alleged gun smuggling, media said Thursday.

Daniel Menard resigned from the military after pleading guilty in 2011 to having an affair with a female corporal under his command on active duty.

A teenaged girl was found guilty Wednesday of forcing her peers, including one as young as 13, into prostitution through intimidation and blackmail in Canada's capital city.

She now faces up to 14 years in prison, as the Crown seeks an adult sentence for 30 charges including child luring, child pornography, assault and forcible confinement.

Canadian Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Wednesday tossed all 32 Liberal senators from his opposition party.

"There are no more Liberal Senators," he announced.

Authorities battled harsh winter conditions Friday as they began a grim search for victims and the cause of a fire at a Quebec seniors home that killed at least five.

Some three dozen people remain unaccounted for after the blaze a day earlier decimated the three-story building.