Raonic, ranked No. 15 on the ATP Tour, will face No. 51 Albert Ramos in the first singles match when Canada’s tie with Spain begins Friday at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.

The hard-serving star from Thornhill, Ont., will also face Marcel Granollers in the fourth rubber on Sunday.

Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., also has two singles matches. He faces Granollers on Friday and Ramos in the final match Sunday.

Doubles specialist Daniel Nestor of Toronto will team with Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil on Saturday to face Granollers and Marc Lopez.

The winner of the tie will advance to the quarter-finals while the loser must play a World Group playoff in September to retain its spot in the top tier of Davis Cup play.

SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman’s rural property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener’s safe release.

Sheriff Wally Olson said in a brief statement Wednesday evening that negotiators continued talking to the suspect and “at this time we have no reason to believe that the child has been harmed.”

The gunman, identified by neighbours as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known around the neighbourhood as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbours in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

The standoff along a red dirt road began on Tuesday afternoon, after a gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the town of Midland City, population 2,300. The sheriff said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 6-year-old child. The gunman then took the boy away.

“As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation,” said Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort the traumatized children after the attack.

Authorities gave no details on the standoff, and it was unclear if Dykes made any demands from his underground bunker, which resembled a tornado shelter.

About 50 vehicles from federal, state and local agencies were clustered at the end of a dirt road near where Dykes lived in a small travel trailer. Nearby homes were evacuated after authorities found what was believed to be a bomb on his property.

State Rep. Steve Clouse, who met with authorities and visited the boy’s family, said the bunker had food and electricity, and the youngster was watching TV. He said law enforcement authorities were communicating with the gunman, but he had no details on how.

At one point, authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said. The lawmaker said he did not know what the medicine was for or whether it was urgently needed.

The crisis in Alabama played out while lawmakers in Washington held congressional hearings to address gun violence — part of an ongoing national discourse that has ramped up since the December massacre of 20 young children and six adults at Connecticut elementary school.

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a shooting rampage in Arizona in January 2011, was testifying in favour of stricter gun controls.

The bus driver in Alabama, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.

Chris Voss, a former international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, said negotiators at the scene should remain patient and calm, resisting the urge to force a quick resolution.

“Getting what you want is not the same as getting even,” said Voss, whose firm, the Black Swan Group, now consults on high-stakes negotiations. “Flooding the zone will not save lives.”

Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from Dykes and whose two children were on the bus when the shooting happened, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.

“My bulldogs got loose and went over there,” Patricia Smith said. “The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back.”

Patricia Smith said her children told her what happened on the bus: Two other children had just been dropped off and the Smith children were next. Dykes stepped onto the bus and grabbed the door so the driver couldn’t close it. Dykes told the driver he wanted two boys, 6 to 8 years old, without saying why.

According to Smith, Dykes started down the aisle of the bus and the driver put his arm out to block him. Dykes fired four shots at Poland with a handgun, Smith said.

“He did give his life, saving children,” Mike Smith said.

Patricia Smith said her daughter, a high school senior, began corralling the other children and headed for the back of the bus while Dykes and the driver were arguing. Later, Smith’s son ran inside his house, telling his mother: “The crazy man across the street shot the bus driver and Mr. Poland won’t wake up.”

Patricia Smith ran over to the bus and saw the driver slumped over in his seat. Her daughter used another child’s cellphone to call police.

Another neighbour, Ronda Wilbur, said Dykes beat her dog with a lead pipe for coming onto his side of the dirt road. The dog died a week later.

“He said his only regret was he didn’t beat him to death all the way,” Wilbur said. She called animal control, who came out and talked to Dykes, but nothing else happened.

Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of menacing some neighbours as they drove by his house weeks ago. Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.

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Associated Press writers Bob Johnson in Montgomery and Jay Reeves in Birmingham contributed to this report.

Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos says the wounded student has been taken “alert, conscious and breathing” to Grady Hospital.

He says the suspect has been tentatively identified as a student and all other students at the school are safe. Campos says the teen was shot outside of the school building Thursday afternoon.

Atlanta Fire Cpt. Marian McDaniel says the teen was shot in the head. McDaniel says a teacher suffered minor cuts and bruises, but was treated on the scene about 2 miles south of downtown.

TV news helicopters show a swarm of Atlanta police officers at the school and parents standing outside.

The superstar hasn’t spoken publicly since it was alleged that she lip-synched her rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the inauguration. Since she hasn’t addressed the controversy, it’s expected the topic will be the main focus of her afternoon press conference in New Orleans.

Her critically praised performance came under scrutiny less than a day later, when a representative from the U.S. Marine Band said she wasn’t singing live and the band’s accompanying performance was taped. The group soon backed off its initial statement and said no one could tell if she was singing live or not.

The singer likely would rather concentrate on questions about her set list for Sunday and her upcoming HBO documentary, “Life Is but a Dream.”

There has been plenty of speculation about Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance, including reports there would be a Destiny’s Child reunion with Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, though Williams has shot down such speculation. Some are also curious about whether her husband, Jay-Z, will join her onstage, as they often do for each other’s shows.

Beyonce has teased photos and video of herself preparing for the show, which will perhaps be the biggest audience of her career. Last year, Madonna’s halftime performance was the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance ever, with an average of 114 million viewers. It garnered more viewers than the game itself, which was the most-watched U.S. TV event in history.

Sixteen environmental groups signed a letter sent to Canadian National CEO Claude Mongeau this week to express opposition to any plans to ship product from the Alberta oil sands west by rail.

“Unfortunately, … there are far greater fatality, injury and environmental risks when transporting crude oil by rail than by pipeline,” the letter said.

It cites a study last year by the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning American think tank that has endorsed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast after comparing the safety and accident statistics of rail, road and pipelines.

“The industry itself acknowledges that trains have nearly three times the number of spills as pipelines (which provides little comfort given Enbridge’s oil spill record),” the letter said.

The groups, including Greenpeace Canada, West Coast Environmental Law and Sierra Club of B.C., cite two 2005 train derailments.

On Aug. 3, 2005, a train derailed west of Edmonton and spilled 800,000 litres of bunker oil and wood preservative into Wabamun Lake. The spill killed birds and fish, polluted the shoreline and forced authorities to truck drinking water into the area for 18 months.

Two days later, on Aug. 5, 2005, a derailment near Squamish spilled 40,000 litres of caustic soda into the Cheakamus River. More than half a million fish were killed and reports suggested it could take decades for salmon stocks to recover.

CN pleaded guilty in 2009 to violating federal laws protecting fish and migratory birds and failing to properly remediate a spill, and agreed to pay $1.8 million for both incidents.

“Should CN decide to try to move forward with its proposal, it would face major opposition and risks to the company,” the letter said. “We urge you to stop any forward movement with shipping tar sands oil by rail through British Columbia.”

An official with the Port of Prince Rupert confirmed that it has had “very preliminary” talks with Nexen Inc., about using trains to bring oil from Alberta to the north coast port city.

“Yes, we’ve had engagement and dialogue with Nexen on the concept of a terminal,” Michael Gurney, manager of corporate communications for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, said Thursday.

Discussions began over a year ago, he said.

“We really want to emphasize that this has not yet even evolved into a project. This is a concept that they are exploring at the port authority,” Gurney said.

Asked if other companies have also approached the port about the possibility, Gurney said he could not disclose that information at this time.

Production in the Alberta oil sands has outstripped pipeline capacity, and several projects have been proposed to expand Pacific exports — including Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline into Kitimat and an expansion of Kinder Morgan’s existing pipeline into Metro Vancouver.

The vocal opposition to both projects, along with the precarious future of the Keystone XL pipeline, has renewed interest in shipping oil by rail.

Mark Hallman, director of communications for CN Rail, said the company is already moving heavy crude, light crude and pure bitumen from western Canada to markets in Canada and the U.S.

“While CN is not moving crude oil to Canada’s west coast ports for export purposes today — there is no infrastructure in place at those ports to unload crude oil from rail cars to vessels — the Company cannot preclude the possibility of such traffic in future if the infrastructure is built,” Hallman said in an email.

Rail is a complement to pipelines in the movement of oil, he said, and there is no appreciable difference in the spill frequency or size — at 99.9 per cent it’s “extremely low for both.”

“CN has improved its safety record,” Hallman said, adding that last year the railway invested more than $1 billion on track infrastructure and has industry leading inspection practices.

The speedy wideout led the Lions with 722 receiving yards in 2012. The Toronto native has spent three seasons with the team after being selected in the second round (10th overall) in the 2010 Canadian draft.

“I am very happy that Shawn has re-signed with our club rather than explore free agency,” vice president of football operations and general manager Wally Buono said in a statement. “He is a young and very exciting receiver who I believe will give all of us many great moments in the future.”

Gore had a season-high 96 receiving yards in a 28-23 win over the Toronto Argonauts on Sept. 15. He had a 48-yard reception in the game, his longest gain of the year.

Gore has 122 receptions for 1,558 yards and six touchdowns over 48 regular-season games.

With veteran receivers Arland Bruce III and Geroy Simon no longer with the club, the Lions will rely on Gore to be a major part of their offence in 2013.

“I’m very excited to re-sign with the Lions and I feel like the sky is the limit for our club,” Gore said. “Being part of this community has been an amazing experience and I’m thrilled at the prospect of continuing my career as a Lion.”

The Lions also dealt quarterback Mike Reilly and a second-round pick (14th overall) in this year’s Canadian draft to Edmonton for the Eskimos’ second-round selection (11th overall) in the 2013 Canadian draft and their second-round pick in 2014.

“Mike has the chance to be an elite quarterback in this league,” Eskimos GM Ed Hervey said in a statement. “This is a step toward stabilizing our quarterback position.”

The rented vehicle that 70-year-old suspect Arthur Douglas Harmon was likely driving was found in a parking lot in Arizona, and a body matching Harmon’s description was found nearby with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos said. A landscaper found the body.

Harmon drew a gun and shot both men at the end of a mediation session Wednesday morning, police said.

Steve Singer, 48, died hours later. Lawyer Mark Hummels, 43, was in critical condition. A 32-year-old woman was shot and had non-life threatening injuries. Harmon also shot at someone who tried to follow him to get his license plate number, authorities said.

“As he left the scene, an individual witness got in his own car and actually followed Harmon in his Optima, and he drove into a neighbourhood and Harmon actually got out of his car and shot at that witness,” said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Thompson added, “We believe the two men were the targets. It was not a random shooting.”

The shooting took place on the same day that Congress held hearings on legislation to address gun violence, with former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona testifying for stricter gun controls. A gunman shot Giffords in the head during a shooting rampage in Arizona in 2011.

According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the same building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in a lawsuit he filed last April against Fusion Contact Centers LLC, where Singer was the CEO. Hummels was representing Fusion in the lawsuit.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Paul Davenport, Felicia Fonseca, Terry Tang and Walter Berry in Phoenix, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York

Luongo, who has been on the trading block since Cory Schneider replaced him as Vancouver’s No. 1 goaltender, was rarely tested by Colorado but still made some big saves while stopping 24 shots.

It was his first win of the season and 61st career shutout.

In the third period, with Vancouver leading 2-0, Luongo stopped Matt Duchene on a short-handed breakaway that brought calls of “Louuu, Louuu” from Canucks fans. Later in the same period he blocked a John Mitchell shot from the slot.

Defenceman Jason Garrison and centre Max Lapierre both scored their first goals of the season as the Canucks improved their record to 3-2-2.

Zack Kassian meanwhile scored his fifth goal in seven games. The big right-winger tipped a Dan Hamhuis shot past Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov at 8:18 of the third period. That broke an 0-for-13 power-play drought for the Canucks.

It was another frustrating night on the road for the Avalanche, who dropped to 2-4-0. Colorado is winless in four games away from the Pepsi Center this season and have been outscored 15-3. The Av’s struggling power play has managed just one goal all season and is 0 for 12 on the road. Against Vancouver, the Avs failed to score on a 1:25 two-man advantage and on four opportunities overall.

Garrison, a free-agent signing from Florida in the off-season, opened the scoring at 7:34 of the first period. Avs defenceman Erik Johnson was trying to clear a puck but it ended up on Garrison’s stick. The big defenceman let go a shot from the blue-line that beat Varlamov.

Lapierre showed some strength and speed on his goal at 15:12 of the second. He beat Avalanche defenceman Greg Zanon in a battle along the boards, skated in alone, and slipped the puck through Varlamov’s legs. Varlamov finished with 20 saves.

Luongo was a surprise starter against Colorado. He stopped 26 shots and was one of the best Canucks on the ice in Vancouver’s 3-2, shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. Schneider is expected to start Friday against Chicago.

One of Colorado’s best scoring chances came with the game less than two minutes old. Jan Hejda fired a shot that Luongo got a piece of. The puck dropped behind him and lay on the ice. A falling Luongo knocked it out of the crease with the knob of his goal stick.

Notes: Attendance at Rogers Arena was a sellout at 18,910. … Garrison’s goal came on the Canucks’ first shot of the game. … Vancouver defeated the Avs in all six meetings last season. …In the first period Canuck defenceman Keith Ballard sent Colorado’s Cody McLeod flying with a hip check. … Henrik Sedin played his 588th consecutive game and now ranks seventh in NHL history for the longest ironman streak.

Dr. Bernard Norman Barwin made the admission today when he appeared before a discipline committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

The committee found Barwin, a celebrated gynecologist, “failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession” and has ordered him suspended from practising medicine for two months.

It has also called for a reprimand and ordered him to pay $3,650 to cover the costs of the disciplinary proceedings.

In an agreed statement of facts, Barwin admits “errors in his practice…resulted in his failure to provide his patients with offspring from their intended biological fathers.”

It acknowledges three of his patients discovered after their children were born that they aren’t biologically related to their husband or, in one case, the patient’s chosen donor.

Barwin agreed last year to stop the practice of insemination after the college filed its notice of hearing.

Two women with the same allegations sued Barwin a few years ago. The lawsuits were resolved last year, but neither the women’s lawyer nor Barwin’s lawyer could discuss the terms.

Barwin was invested in the Order of Canada in 1997 for his “profound impact on both the biological and psycho-social aspects of women’s reproductive health.”

A write-up on the Governor General’s website says he has contributed greatly to the Planned Parenthood movement and the Infertility Awareness Association of Canada.

He founded the non-profit, pro-choice organization Canadians for Choice, which gives away an annual Dr. Norman Barwin Scholarship to a graduate student studying sexual health and reproductive rights.

It was the latest salvo in Israel’s long-running effort to disrupt the Shiite militia’s quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel’s air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

Regional security officials said the strike, which occurred overnight Tuesday, targeted a site near the Lebanese border, while a Syrian army statement said it destroyed a military research centre northwest of the capital, Damascus. They appeared to be referring to the same incident.

U.S. officials said the target was a truck convoy that Israel believed was carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the operation.

Regional officials said the shipment included sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which if acquired by Hezbollah would be “game-changing,” enabling the militants to shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

In a statement, the Syrian military denied the existence of any such shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit by the Israeli warplanes.

The Israeli military declined to comment. However, many in Israel worry that as Syrian President Bashar Assad loses power, he could strike back by transferring chemical or advanced weapons to Hezbollah, which is neighbouring Lebanon’s most powerful military force and is committed to Israel’s destruction.

The airstrike follows decades of enmity between Israel and allies Syria and Hezbollah, which consider the Jewish state their mortal enemy. The situation has been further complicated by the civil war raging in Syria between the Assad regime and rebel brigades seeking his ouster.

The war has sapped Assad’s power and threatens to deprive Hezbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran. The two countries provide Hezbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

A Syrian military statement read aloud on state TV Wednesday said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into Syria over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and bombed a military research centre in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus.

The strike destroyed the centre and damaged a nearby building, killing two workers and wounding five others, the statement said.

The military denied the existence of any convoy bound for Lebanon, saying the centre was responsible for “raising the level of resistance and self-defence” of Syria’s military.

“This proves that Israel is the instigator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts targeting Syria and its people,” the statement said.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive 34-day war in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.

While the border has been largely quiet since, the struggle has taken other forms. Hezbollah has accused Israel of assassinating a top commander, and Israel blamed Hezbollah and Iran for a July 2012 attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. In October, Hezbollah launched an Iranian-made reconnaissance drone over Israel, using the incident to brag about its expanding capabilities.

Israeli officials believe that Hezbollah’s arsenal has markedly improved since 2006, now boasting tens of thousands of rockets and missiles and the ability to strike almost anywhere inside Israel.

Israel suspects that Damascus obtained a battery of SA-17s from Russia after an alleged Israeli airstrike in 2007 that destroyed an unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria’s “deadly weapons,” saying the country is “increasingly coming apart.”

The same day, Israel moved a battery of its new “Iron Dome” rocket defence system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move “routine.”

Syria, however, cast the airstrike in a different light, linked to the country’s civil war, which it blames on terrorists carrying out an international conspiracy.

Despite its icy relations with Assad, Israel has remained on the sidelines of efforts to topple him, while keeping up defences against possible attacks.

Israeli defence officials have carefully monitored Syria’s chemical weapons, fearing Assad could deploy them or lose control of them to extremist fighters among the rebels.

President Barack Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a “red line” that if crossed could prompt direct U.S. intervention, though U.S. officials have said Syria’s stockpiles still appear to be under government control.

The strike was Israel’s first inside Syria since September 2007, when warplanes destroyed a site that the U.N. nuclear watchdog deemed likely to be a nuclear reactor. Syria denied the claim, saying the building was a non-nuclear military site.

Syria allowed international inspectors to visit the bombed site in 2008, but it has refused to allow nuclear inspectors new access. This has heightened suspicions that Syria has something to hide, along with its decision to level the destroyed structure and build on its site.

In 2006, Israeli warplanes flew over Assad’s palace in a show of force after Syrian-backed militants captured an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

And in 2003, Israeli warplanes attacked a suspected militant training camp just north of the Syrian capital, in response to an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in the city of Haifa that killed 21 Israelis.

Syria vowed to retaliate for both attacks but never did.

In Lebanon, which borders both Israel and Syria, the military and the U.N. agency tasked with monitoring the border with Israel said Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity in the past week.

Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace are not uncommon, and it was unclear if the recent activity was related to the strike in Syria.

Syria’s primary conflict with Israel is over the Golan Heights, which Israeli occupied in the 1967 war. Syria demands the area back as part of any peace deal. Despite the hostility, Syria has kept the border quiet since the 1973 Mideast war and has never retaliated for Israeli attacks.

In May 2011, only two months after the uprising against Assad started, hundreds of Palestinians overran the tightly controlled Syria-Israeli frontier in a move widely thought to have been facilitated by the Assad regime to divert the world’s gaze from his growing troubles at home.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Bradley Klapper in Washington, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.