The earth shook and shook Thursday as dignitaries walked in for the swearing-in of Sebastian Pinera as Chile's president. It shook some more as they waited for him.

People in the balconies of the vast congressional hall in coastal Valparaiso shouted warnings as a massive light fixture rocked overhead, and heads of state nervously eyed the ceiling. But a steely calm prevailed, and Pinera strode in smiling.

The president and his ministers then quickly swore their oaths, and the audience of 2,000 headed for the exits and the hills, joining an evacution called out of concern that Thursday's repeated aftershocks would set off another tsunami.

Inauguration Day was peppered with more than a dozen significant aftershocks, amply demonstrating Pinera's challenges after last month's magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the biggest in modern history.

Chile's first elected right-wing president in 52 years won office promising to improve the economy. Now, he says he'll be the "reconstruction president." His advice to citizens: "Let's dry our tears and put our hands to work."

Dr. Barbara Heartwell, a Windsor, Ont., surgeon suspended after performing unnecessary mastectomies, will return to the operating room.

The board of directors at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital has reinstated Heartwell's operating privileges, with some restrictions, CBC News has confirmed.

Heartwell voluntarily stopped operating last month after it became public that she had removed breasts from at least two women who did not have cancer.

She later asked to have her operating privileges restored, but the hospital put her on suspension instead.

On Wednesday, Heartwell and her lawyer argued her case before the seven-member hospital board, which met for five hours and on Thursday announced the surgeon would be allowed to return to the operating room, subject to some limitations.

"An economic recovery is solidly taking root in Canada with the full impact of stimulus spending, historically low interest rates and improved credit markets all taking effect this year," Craig Wright, senior vice-president and chief economist at RBC, wrote in the report.

Unemployment rates are expected to average 8.4 per cent in 2010 before falling to 7.7 per cent in 2011. Consumer spending is expected to expand in both 2010 and 2011 by 2.8 per cent. Business investment is set to rise by more than seven per cent. "This should result in Canada's GDP expanding by an even greater 3.9 per cent in 2011," according to the report.

According to the report, economic growth in 2010 will be boosted by gains in Newfoundland and Labrador (4.1 per cent), Saskatchewan (3.6 per cent), B.C. (3.4 per cent) and Ontario (3.3 per cent). Growth in Alberta will rise only 2.5 per cent this year, but strengthen to 4.4 per cent in 2011.

Airports, public sector offices, hospitals and schools throughout Greece closed on Thursday as labour workers launched a third general strike in recent weeks to protest harsh spending cuts by the country's socialist government.

Public and private sector workers march during a 24-hour labour strike in Athens on Wednesday to protest against austerity plans. (Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters)

In central Athens, traffic was at a standstill as tens of thousands of people including communists and trade unionists marched through the streets to show their discontent with the government's strict new austerity plan, announced last week, aimed at trimming its ballooning deficit and shore up the support of skeptical markets.

Greece is under intense pressure from the European Union to improve its finances quickly. It announced recently that it would cut public sector salaries, freeze hiring and pensions, and hike consumer taxes to generate $65.33 billion in savings.