Sept 14 (Reuters) - The following are top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL:

- The gross and ever-widening disparities in the coverage of cancer drugs is causing widespread financial hardship and undermining medicare, the Canadian Cancer Society warns in a stinging new report.

- Federal public servants at Transport Canada are routinely filing millions of dollars in expenses - including overtime, salaries and computers - toward a construction project that doesn't exist. Report on Business Section:

- Trade tensions between the United States and China are escalating rapidly, raising fears that a critical component of a global economic recovery could be undermined.

- The environmental battle over Alberta's oil sands is going global, forcing the industry to respond to new attacks on its record and putting fresh pressure on Ottawa.

- Upstarts in the wireless phone business will capture about 8 million new subscribers, prompting the established players to cut prices and refocus their efforts, a new study says.

- Jim Kinnear, one of Calgary's best-known social and business figures, is stepping down from daily operations at Pengrowth Corp, the company he shepherded to multibillion-dollar size.

NATIONAL POST

- Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government will table its third "report card" on the federal budget and the economy as early as Friday, Canwest News Service has learned, as the Tories try to weaken the resolve of the Opposition Liberals to take the country to the polls to this fall.

- Rescue teams on Sunday night called off the air search for a man missing since Saturday, when a fishing boat sank off the coast of Newfoundland -- an incident that so far has claimed the life of one crew member.

- Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who became famous worldwide when he threw his shoes at then U.S. President George W. Bush, is thought likely to get a hero's welcome if he is freed from jail, as expected, on Monday.

Financial Post section:

- The coming week's economic data will feature inflation figures that most economists anticipate will show that, for the most part, Canadian consumers are not digging as deep as last year to pay for the things they buy.

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