Catch up: Father of drowned Syrian boy speaks out and other stories you may have missed

The father of the drowned Syrian boy whose photo sparked a worldwide outpouring of grief spoke out Thursday.

Three-year-old Alan Kurdi drowned along with his brother and mother while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. The boy's father, Abdullah Kurdi, who survived the treacherous boat trip that killed his sons and wife, said the family had been issued fake life jackets by the human traffickers they paid to take them across the Aegean sea.

Meanwhile, the photo of Alan lying facedown on a Turkish beach derailed the federal election campaign as party leaders scrambled to react.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper cancelled a planned event to defend his government's approach to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander suspended his re-election campaign Thursday so he could be briefed on the situation.

An emotional NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair demanded more action to help refugees, while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau repeated his promise that a Liberal government would bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada.

Migrants poured into Budapest’s main railway station and packed themselves onto waiting trains they thought were bound for Western Europe, only to be dropped off at a nearby refugee camp in a swirl of confusion.

Thousands of would-be refugees had been camped on the street outside the train station for days, after police closed the station to migrants on Tuesday. Many had already purchased train tickets to countries like Germany and Austria, and had nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile, European leaders locked horns in Brussels over how to handle Europe’s mounting migrant crisis, which is growing more untenable by the day.

Hungary’s anti-immigration prime minister Viktor Orban vowed the country would step up security efforts at the border in an effort to stem the flood of migrants from the Middle East and Africa attempting to pass through the country on their way into Western Europe.

The Globe and Mail's weekly election forecast is projecting the NDP to emerge with the most seats.

The forecast, which is calculated by an algorithm that aggregates poll results from across the country, predicts that if an election were held tomorrow, the NDP would have a 53 per cent chance of winning the most seats. The Conservatives, who previously led the forecast, would have a 41 per cent chance of winning, while the Liberals would have an 8 per cent chance.

This prediction marks the first time the NDP has been projected to win the most seats since the writ was dropped on Aug. 2. Up until now, the Conservatives have held the lead in The Globe's projections. But according to the results of several individual polls, the three main parties appear to be in a statistical tie for popularity.

"This all reinforces how unusual this election is," wrote Paul Fairie, a University of Calgary political scientist who designed The Globe's election forecast." The best a third-place party has ever done in terms of vote share was in 1988, when the Ed Broadbent-led NDP won 20.4 per cent of the vote. Currently, we’re in a situation where whatever party is polling in third is earning 25 per cent popular support.

A U.S. federal judge overturned the NFL's suspension of New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady on Thursday, adding another twist to the ongoing"deflategate" saga.

Mr. Brady was suspended for four games by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for his involvement in an alleged scheme by the Patriots to slightly deflate the footballs they used in the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts, in order to gain a competetive avantage. The Patriots won the game 45-7.

Though the decision was overturned, Judge Richard M. Berman didn't absolve Mr. Brady of tampering with the footballs. Instead, he disputed Mr. Goodell's authority to issue the suspension in the first place.

This all means that Mr. Brady will be starting in the Patriots' opening game on Sept. 10, unless the NFL can get a federal appeals court to issue an unlikely emergency ruling in the case.

The dream of owning a detatched home in Greater Vancouver is, for many people, turning out to be just that, writes Brent Jang. The average price for detatched homes in the city soared by 20 per cent over last year, to a record $1.47-million.

That average was nearly $1-million higher than the average price for condos last month, which was $521,666, a 14 per cent gain over last year's average.

“For anyone who wants a detached home in Vancouver proper, it has become a luxury item,” said Darcy Mr. McLeod, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. “If you want a detached house, you might have to move farther away from the city’s core.”

Since 2010, the benchmark prices of detatched homes in Greater Vancouver have ballooned by 40.7 per cent.