While the breaking news of the resignation came too late for overseas publications, some did spice up their wire service headlines on websites by playing up the woman behind the fallen cabinet minister.

"Good night and very bad luck," titled Australia's Sydney Morning Herald over a story from the Reuters News Agency, while Britain's Daily Telegraph went with "The minister, the classified papers and a lover linked to Hells Angels."

Few websites didn't run with a photo of the former so-called ministerial couple, including the BBC website which, like many outlets, pointed out that Bernier was under pressure to resign following previous slip-ups such as his suggestion the "Afghan President Hamid Karzai replace the governor of Kandahar province, where Canada has 2,500 troops stationed." Chinese News Agency Xinhua noted Bernier "has been under fire recently for his former girlfriend's links with an organized crime group."

"A calamitous moral affair" put an end to his career, wrote France's Le Figaro - under the banner "A Canadian minister forgets his files at his lover's home" - which added "pretty" to international descriptions of Couillard, which ranged from "gorgeous" and "glamorous" to the "provocatively dressed," used in a widely run Associated Press piece. More...