PRESS DIGEST- Canada - March 4

March 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

* The number of obese Canadians has tripled since the mid-1980s, a phenomenon driven by a sharp rise in the number of extremely overweight adults whose health complications are expected to place a heavy burden on the health-care system. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/dew37v)

* Lawyers working for Kinder Morgan Inc KMI.N have sent a letter to the National Energy Board proposing the narrowest interpretation of who can participate in a review of the company's proposed twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/few37v)

Reports in the business section:

* A year after being admonished for cutting mortgage rates too aggressively, banks are demonstrating a new, self-imposed restraint. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/gew37v)

* Canada's dairy industry faces a grim future of stagnant sales, dwindling farms and lost opportunity if the country remains a bystander to a global boom in milk products trade, the Conference Board of Canada argues in a new study. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/kew37v)

NATIONAL POST

* The libel trial of the controversial Sun News TV host Ezra Levant began in a Toronto courtroom with blunt questions and cautiously indignant answers from the alleged victim. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/new37v)

FINANCIAL POST

* Pacific Investment Management Co forecasts Canadian home prices falling as much as 20 percent in the next five years, removing the boost from household spending that contributed to faster-than-expected growth last quarter. ( Href="Link">http://link.reuters.com/pew37v)

* Prime Minister Stephen Harper sharply criticized Taseko Mines Ltd TKO.TO and its controversial New Prosperity project on Monday, stating that an environmental report on the British Columbia project was "damning." (http://link.reuters.com/qew37v)

(Compiled by Varun Aggarwal)

((varun.aggarwal@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, outside U.S +91 80 6749 6234; Reuters Messaging: varun.aggarwal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: PRESS DIGEST CANADA/