A burnt out pickup truck is seen in the drive way of a burned down home in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alta., on Monday, May 9, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Highlights from the news file for Monday, May 9:

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85 PER CENT OF FORT MCMURRAY IS INTACT: Fort McMurray's fire chief says 85 per cent of the northern Alberta city is still intact despite a devastating wildfire that invaded several neighbourhoods. Darby Allen says people may be under the impression that most of the city has been levelled, but that's just not the case. He says that between 40 and 50 per cent of Fort McMurray could have been destroyed if firefighters hadn't been able to hold back the flames at key points. Premier Rachel Notley and journalists were given an up close look Monday of the burned out neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray.

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NO NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL HELP FOR WILDFIRE FIGHT, SAYS TRUDEAU: Russia, the U.S., Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have all offered help in fighting the northern Alberta wildfire, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there's no need for international assistance. Last week Vladimir Puchkov, the Russian minister of emergency measures, offered to send heavy water bombers and specialized crews to battle the fire that's been raging out of control near Fort McMurray. A number of other offers have also been made since the crisis emerged last week and they have been reviewed against requirements, said John Babcock, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada.

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WILDFIRE WILL LEAVE TOXIC LEGACY, SAY EXPERTS: Wildfire experts say dangers from the Fort McMurray fire won't end when the flames stop. Officials from California, where wildfires burn residential areas every summer, say ash left behind in a city is considerably more dangerous than ash from a burned forest. Materials such as vinyl siding or nylon carpets tend to burn completely in the furnace-like temperatures of a blaze. But heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium and lead are all left behind at levels that often exceed guidelines.

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MCMURRAY HOCKEY COLLECTOR SAVES JERSEYS, LOSES HOBBY: One of Canada's biggest collectors of hockey memorabilia says the Fort McMurray fire may have changed his attitude toward collecting. Shawn Chaulk, the Fort McMurray man who owns hundreds of jerseys and sticks used by many of the game's greatest players, says he frantically stuffed jerseys into hockey bag before fleeing the flames last week. He figures he took about 50 jerseys and the four Wayne Gretzky-used sticks he's saving for his children. But Chaulk isn't sure how much enthusiasm he retains for his hobby. He says the fire has taught him that an hour spent on collecting is an hour away from his family.

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ECONOMY COPING WITH OIL-PRICE DECLINE: Canada's economy has coped well with a shocking decline in oil prices but the country's central bank and federal government should remain prepared to do more if the need arises, an International Monetary Fund analysis released Monday has concluded. Cheng Hoon Lim, head of the IMF's annual review of Canada's economic performance, said it's too soon to calculate the impact of the Alberta wildfires that have devastated a huge area including parts of Fort McMurray. "We need to see the extent of the damage that's been done to the oilsands industry," Lim said from Washington. Still, rebuilding efforts in Alberta will likely provide "a positive boost to consumption and to investments."

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TRUDEAU DEFENDS DELEGATION TO WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his mother and his in-laws were personally invited by President Barack Obama to attend a state dinner at the White House. And he's not denying that taxpayers footed the bill for those family members, who were part of a large delegation accompanying the prime minister during his first visit to the U.S. capital in March. It was revealed last week that 44 people were part of the delegation, at a preliminary cost of just over $25,000, with some invoices and expense claims still to be tallied.

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CHRETIEN CALLS FOR DECRIMINALIZED POT: Jean Chretien says politicians have to adjust to changing times, as his own views on marijuana, capital punishment and other contentious issues evolved after he was first elected in the early 1960s. Whether it's pot smoking, abortion, gay marriage or the death penalty, the former prime minister says he's tried to reflect the spirit of the times — even if his changing politics put him in conflict with his conservative upbringing in a large, Roman Catholic family in rural Quebec."What were certain values 50 years ago, are not the same today," he said. "We have to live with that."

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ZIKA CITED AS REASON TO CHANGE OLY GAMES PLANS: A Canadian professor of law and public health says the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro should be postponed or moved to other venues because of the threat posed by the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil. In a commentary published in the May issue of the Harvard Public Health Review, Amir Attaran of the University of Ottawa says the expected half-million visitors to the Olympic and Paralympic Games could spread the virus once they return to their home countries. Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that has been found to cause underdeveloped brains in babies born to women infected while pregnant.

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DAYCARE PROVIDER SENTENCED FOR MANSLAUGHTER: A Toronto-area daycare provider convicted of manslaughter in a toddler's death was sentenced to six years in prison Monday, after a judge determined she was "a good person who did a bad thing." April Luckese was found guilty in March in the death of 14-month-old Duy-An Nguyen. The judge presiding over her case found the 41-year-old woman had lost her patience and assaulted the child, causing a skull fracture. The little girl was discovered unconscious and unresponsive in Luckese's Mississauga, Ont., home — an unlicensed daycare centre — on Jan. 5, 2011. She died in hospital two days later.

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ACCUSED KILLER WON'T TAKE STAND: The accused killer of a Hamilton man who disappeared after taking two strangers on a test drive in a truck he was trying to sell will not testify in his own defence. "The defence elects to call no evidence," said Dellen Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, in court on Monday. After a short recess, the lawyer for Millard's co-accused, Mark Smich, said he will call evidence in the case, which means Smich could take the stand. Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Tim Bosma.

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WHALE-WATCHING TRAGEDY CALLED 'ACT OF GOD': The owner of a whale-watching vessel that capsized on Vancouver Island, killing six people, describes the tragedy as an "act of God" arising from unforeseeable ocean conditions. Court documents filed by Jamie Bray of Tofino, B.C., in response to a proposed class-action lawsuit say Jamie's Whaling Station was complying with Transport Canada regulations when the craft flipped on Oct. 25, 2015. Brothers Christian and Dirk Barchfeld filed the legal action last month, accusing the company of negligence for allowing the Leviathan II to overturn in treacherous conditions.

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US SUES OVER STATE'S TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAW: A potentially epic clash over transgender rights took shape Monday when the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina over the state's new bathroom law. In unusually forceful language, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said North Carolina's law requiring transgender people to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate amounts to "state-sponsored discrimination" and is aimed at "a problem that doesn't exist." She said it serves only to "harm innocent Americans."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2016