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The end of Blockbuster in Canada doesn’t mean the DVD is going the way of the VHS tape.

Thank a lowly vending machine for this lease on life.

Although web-streaming services such as Netflix and Apple’s iTunes have been getting a lot of buzz in recent months, many industry players are still putting their money on traditional DVD and the Blu-ray discs.

On Wednesday morning, coinciding with the start of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Ottawa-based movie-rental firm Zip.ca is setting up a trio of DVD rental kiosks in Yonge-Dundas Square.

Featuring the top new releases and what the company calls the Top 200 movies of all time, the 1,020 DVDs inside a red Zip.ca machine can’t offer the breadth of selection of a full-sized Rogers Video or former Blockbuster outlet.

But at $1 (plus HST) per 24-hour period – $2 for new releases and Blu-Ray discs – the cost is anywhere from a quarter to a tenth of a video-store or online rental. Customers are allowed to keep their disc for a maximum of 25 days, with a fresh charge added daily to their credit card. If the rental remains unreturned after this period, Zip.ca adds a penalty charge of $50, plus tax.

A customer can rent a maximum of three movies on a single visit.

Zip.ca currently has 44 working kiosks in Ontario, located inside Metro supermarkets. This is in addition to a movies-by-mail service that has been around for several years.

“We hope to be in 100 Metros by the end of the month, and I want us to be in all 800 of the stores before this time next year,” says Zip.ca chair, Rob Hall, who will be handing out promotional coupons for free rentals in Yonge-Dundas Square.

This is the leading ripple in what could turn into a wave of movie kiosks coming to grocery and convenience stores and grabbing a larger slice of Canada’s $300 million annual video-rental market. Industry researcher Nielsen does not currently publish separate revenue totals for online versus traditional DVD rentals low fee payday loans.

“We’ve seen a real surge in calls from investors Canada in the last 40 days,” says Shamira Jaffer, president and CEO of Signifi Solutions, a Toronto-based manufacturer of video-kiosk technology.

The timing coincides with the demise of Blockbuster on this side of the border. It also acknowledges the success of DVD kiosks in the United States.

Redbox, the leading American brand, is reported to be eyeing expansion into Canada in the coming months.

“This is becoming the norm,” says Jaffer. “I don’t know why it’s taken so long to get into Canada.”

She points out that a $1 rental is particularly alluring against web streaming, when one adds up downloading time, rental cost as well as data usage through a customer’s Internet provider.

Pete Popcke was a pioneer in the American DVD kiosk business, starting with a company called DVDPlay, which still operates a network of machines at Safeway stores in the greater Vancouver area.

Now he is chief operating officer of Xona Media, a California firm that has developed a DVD kiosk that offers a traditional disc or the option of downloading a movie onto a memory stick or SD memory card.

“The tail on this opportunity will be really long,” says Popcke. “You hear digital, digital, digital, but we forget that folks in Ohio are still getting their movies on disc.”

By offering a choice of media through its kiosks, Popcke is hedging his bets on the big studios eventually releasing their movies digitally. “We don’t know when it’s going to happen, but we know it is going to happen,” he says.

Even so, Popcke agrees with Jaffer and Hall that the traditional DVD will continue to be commercially viable for five to 10 more years – long enough to make their vending-machines attractive to investors as well as consumers.

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VIA Rail commuters to Toronto are uniting to fight proposed ticketing changes that they say will make the system less flexible and convenient to them.

It also prevents them from gaining the same HST exemption and federal income-tax break granted to GO Train and TTC pass users.

In reply, the company says that holding seats empty for commuters who might not show up is no way to run a railroad.

Typically, commuters buy open-ended tickets in packets of 20

The Libyan government says any citizen caught using an unlicensed satellite phone will be charged as a spy for NATO.

Libya’s news agency, JANA, reported Friday that those carrying a satellite phone without a permit could be sentenced to death as punishment for treason.

Many Libyans have been using satellite phones to communicate with one another after the government cut off mobile phone communications when the civil war started in February.

Libya’s 6-month-old civil war has been deadlocked for months despite NATO’s airstrikes to protect civilians.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) _ Libyan rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi’s troops along the country’s Mediterranean coast said they captured a key oil terminal Thursday that has repeatedly changed hands in the 6-month-old civil war.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed al-Rijali said he was with the fighters in Brega when they gained control of the strategic port city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of the de-facto rebel capital of Benghazi, after three weeks of intense fighting.

“Brega is liberated,” al-Rijali told The Associated Press after nightfall.

Al-Rijali, who spoke over the telephone from nearby Ajdabiya, didn’t provide any details or a casualty toll. His claim could not be immediately verified. Officials in the Libyan capital Tripoli made no comment on the rebel claim.

Brega fell under rebel control briefly in March, but was recaptured by Gadhafi’s forces shortly afterward. The fighting around the city has gone back and forth since then, with the rebels not managing to keep their ground.

Brega’s capture would be an important boost for the rebels because whoever controls the strategic oil terminal, which is also Libya’s second-largest hydrocarbon complex, is in charge of the country’s main oil fields.

Another rebel spokesman, Mohammed al-Zawawi, said earlier Thursday that two rebels died in the day’s fighting in Brega, while 16 others were wounded.

Libya’s civil war has been deadlocked for months despite NATO’s airstrikes to protect civilians.

The revolt began in mid-February, with the rebels quickly wresting control of much of the eastern half of the country, as well as pockets in the west.

The conflict later settled into a stalemate with the rebels failing to budge the front lines in the east since April.

However, in recent weeks, rebels based in the western Nafusa mountains have made some gains, advancing toward Gadhafi-held towns along the coast.

On Thursday, hundreds of rebel fighters seized control of Nasser City, a small town about 16 miles (25 kilometer) south of the coastal town of Zawiya, after several hours of battle. Nasser City is the closest rebels have come to Tripoli, Gadhafi’s main stronghold. Zawiya is just 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the Libyan capital.

The streets of Nasser City were deserted and shops were shuttered, witnesses said. At one point, rebel fighters stopped at an abandoned gas station and filled up the tanks of their pickup trucks.

Video footage showed one rebel fighter climbing upon an earth mover to pull down a string of green pro-Gadhafi flags suspended from electricity poles. Another threw a green flag from a second floor balcony, replacing it with the rebels’ tricolor. “Nasser City has been liberated,” he shouted.

The rebels hope to first capture towns near Tripoli, before launching an offensive on the capital, commanders have said.

Two rebel fighters were killed and one wounded in the battle for Nasser City, said Mohammed Salem, a hospital medic in Zintan, a rebel-held town south of the front line.

Capturing both Brega or Zawiya would mark a significant gain in the Libyan rebels’ goal to topple the Gadhafi regime.

“It will be a huge morale victory,” said Fawzi Bukatef, a Brega rebel operations chief and head of the Coalition of Revolutionaries _ a large group of armed Libyan volunteers and civilians who fight at the front lines.

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DuPont Co. has told federal officials it is willing to stop the sale of a new herbicide that is blamed for damaging trees in many parts of the country and is the subject of several lawsuits.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged DuPont’s offer to pull Imprelis from the market in a letter sent Wednesday to DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman. At the same time, the EPA said it was evaluating the validity of DuPont’s claims that studies relating to Imprelis that it has turned over to federal regulators are confidential business information and cannot be disclosed to the public.

In a separate letter, the EPA said DuPont may have misbranded the herbicide because label directions and warnings are inadequate to protect non-target plant species from being harmed by the weedkiller.

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A report says Japanese utility company executives were by far the biggest individual donors to Japan’s former ruling party during its last year in power, accounting for a whopping 72 percent of personal contributions.

The revelation is likely to add to questions surrounding connections between power companies and politicians during an ongoing crisis at an atomic power plant.

Kyodo News agency reported Friday that executives from nine utilities contributed 47 million yen ($595,000) to the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009 _ nearly three-quarters of total individual donations no fax payday advances.

Individual political donations are relatively rare in Japan, accounting for about 5 percent of the LDP funding in 2009. The utility executives’ donations were within the legal limit.

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Truck maker Volvo AB’s second-quarter profit surged 63 percent as sales returned to levels last seen before the financial crisis, the Swedish company said Friday.

Net income rose to 5.12 billion kronor ($802 million), up from 3.15 billion kronor in the same quarter last year.

Volvo’s sales increased 15 percent to 79 billion kronor, from 68.8 billion kronor in the second quarter of 2010.

“Sales are now at the same level as before the financial crisis that struck the world a few years ago, with a profitability that is now at its highest level so far, both in terms of operating margin and return on shareholders’ equity,” CEO Leif Johansson said.

Volvo shares rose 4 percent to 106.40 kronor ($16.66) in Stockholm after the report.

The company, which sold its car division in 1999, is one of the world’s biggest truck makers, with brands including Volvo, Mack, Renault and UD trucks. The company also makes buses, engines and construction equipment.

Sales in Volvo’s truck unit alone rose 20 percent to 50 billion kronor, and the company said it now controls 20 percent of the heavy-duty truck market in the U.S. and 28 percent in Europe.

“In terms of market conditions, we maintain our previous forecasts that the truck market in both Europe and North America will amount to 230,000-240,000 heavy-duty trucks in 2011,” Volvo said.

Truck sales were up 31 percent in Europe, boosted by demand in France, Germany and Poland.

In North America, Volvo more than doubled its deliveries to 10,290 trucks. Highway customers are leading the recovery there, while demand for vocational trucks such as garbage trucks is still “well below” normal levels, Volvo said.

Truck deliveries dipped by 9 percent in Asia, as a result of production disturbances for UD Trucks in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. The disruptions cost Volvo 400 million kronor in operating income, mostly affecting its unit for construction equipment.

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Karl Ritter can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/Karl(underscore)Ritter

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The boxes in his basement filled with vintage Fitz’s Root Beer shirts, menus and recipe books were nagging reminders to Michael Alter of all that he had given up.

Alter helped revive the root beer brand two decades ago by opening Fitz’s restaurant and bottling plant in University City. After building Fitz’s into a regional soda brand sold at dozens of stores and restaurants, he sold the business in 1999. .

But Alter’s passion for the business ran deep, and when the opportunity arose to buy Fitz’s back last year, he knew he couldn’t say no.

“There was so much unfinished business when I left,” he said. “Since I’ve been back, it’s been a ton of work. But when you love what you do, I don’t count the hours. I don’t look at my watch.”

Alter, 52, has spent nearly $300,000 renovating Fitz’s restaurant and bottling plant, both at 6605 Delmar Boulevard, since buying the company from Clayton Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount in October. He also is making strides in growing the brand by increasing distribution and developing new flavors and packaging.

Expanding distribution is important for a small brand, which doesn’t have the marketing budget of larger competitors, said Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD Group, a consumer marketing research firm in Long Island. “Nothing will increase sales like having it in new places where people can try it.”

On a recent afternoon, Alter stopped to take a break from checking on the bottling line while he kept an eye on the 200-seat restaurant at the front of the two-story building that was filled to capacity.

His two oldest children, who remembered the days when their dad had the coolest job in town, asked him frequently over the years when he would buy Fitz’s back.

There also was another deeply personal pull. Alter met his wife, Dana, at Fitz’s in 1993 shortly after the restaurant opened. He can still remember the float he served her: a Mississippi, with scoops of chocolate ice cream swimming in root beer. “I made her a float, and the rest is history,” he says now. “There’s magic in those floats.”

A wall of unobstructed glass windows separates the bottling plant from diners. The view of hundreds of glass bottles moving along the conveyer system causes young and old to stop and stare wide-eyed.

The bottling plant’s machines produce a steady hum, and the smell of hamburgers hot off the grill intermingles with the ever-present sticky sweet smell of root beer.

“It’s like coming home to a family member,” Alter says of his return. “Even when I was away, all I had to do was walk down the street and see someone holding a bottle of Fitz’s to make me smile.”

fITZ’S ROOTS

Long before Alter opened the Loop bottling plant and restaurant, Fitz’s had a loyal following in St. Louis.

Fitz’s Root Beer was first served in 1947 at Fitz’s Drive-In at Brentwood Boulevard and Clayton Road in Richmond Heights, where a Homewood Suites by Hilton now stands. Fitz’s

LUXEMBOURG

Spanish police have arrested three suspected computer hackers who allegedly belonged to a loose-knit international activist group that attacked corporate and government websites around the world, authorities said Friday.

National Police identified the three as leaders of the Spanish section of a group that calls itself “Anonymous.” All three are Spaniards aged 30 to 32, said Manuel Vazquez, chief of the police’s high-tech crime unit.

A computer server in one of their homes was used to take part in cyber attacks on targets including two major Spanish banks, the Italian energy company Enel and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, Vazquez said.

His comments backtracked somewhat from an earlier police statement that said this server was used to actually execute the attacks. The three detainees have been released without bail but face a charge that is new in the Spanish penal code _ disrupting a computer system, Vazquez said. He gave no details on what effect these attacks had.

In Spain, acting on their own, the three detainees staged cyber attacks on the website of Spain’s central electoral commission a few days before local and regional elections on May 22, that of the regional police force in the northeast Catalonia region and a major Spanish labor union.

The night before the election, the three men tried to shut down the web pages of Spain’s two main political parties and that of the Spanish parliament but were thwarted by police, Vazquez said.

“Anonymous is a network with a common idea, but it has loads of cells around the world. Using chats they agree to stage denial-of-service attacks on any page of any company or organization anywhere in the world,” Vazquez said, referring to a cyber-bombardment-like technique used to shut down an Internet page.

Vazquez said police were still analyzing computer files and other material but have no record of the three Spaniards having obtained sensitive data Payday advance.

Vazquez said members of Anonymous use a lot methods for hiding their identity.

The statement said the only other countries to act against “Anonymous” so far are the United States and Britain. It attributed this what it called complex security measures that members use to protect their identity.

The suspects in Spain were arrested in Barcelona, the Valencia region and the southern city of Almeria.

Since October 2010, Spanish police specializing in cyber crime have analyzed more than two million lines of online chat and Internet pages until they finally zeroed in on the three suspects. Their names were not given.

In January, British police arrested five young males on suspicion of involvement in cyber attacks by Anonymous, which has backed WikiLeaks.

“Anonymous” has claimed responsibility for attacking the websites of companies such as Visa, Mastercard and Paypal, all of whom severed their links with WikiLeaks after it began publishing its massive trove of secret U.S. diplomatic memos.

“Anonymous” accused the companies of trying to stifle WikiLeaks and rallied an army of online supporters to flood their servers with traffic, periodically blocking access to their sites for hours at a time.

And in February, an Internet forum run by “Anonymous” directed participants to attack the websites of the Egyptian Ministry of Information and the ruling National Democratic Party.

In a Twitter post, the group claimed credit for taking down the ministry’s website and said the group was motivated by a desire to support Egyptian pro-democracy protesters.

– Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.

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SASKATOON