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Animals News Sports

Canadian-Owned “I’ll Have Another” Retires

Canadian-owned I’ll Have Another was a favourite to win the Belmont Stakes horse race this year.

The race was held last Saturday.

If he’d won, he would also have won all three of the major horse races and become the U.S. Triple Crown winner, every horse-owner’s dream.

However, it wasn’t to be.

Just before the big race, his trainer announced that the horse had tendonitis in his left front leg and would not be able to race. The owner decided to retire the colt from racing.

The good news is that I’ll Have Another will recover from his injury and will be fine. It’s likely that the horse will become a stud, which means that he will father other colts which may go on to become excellent race horses themselves. In that way, I’ll Have Another’s legacy will live on.

News Politics

Toronto Bans Plastic Shopping Bags

Toronto is banning plastic shopping bags in stores.

Starting in January 2013, you’ll have to bring your own reusable bag to the store to cart your goods away.

More than 250 million bags end up in landfill every year, never breaking down into compost, according to a report by CBC News.

Plastic bags can also clog drainage systems and, when they are washed out to sea, can hurt fish and other marine animals.

News

Flotilla A Highlight Of Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

When someone’s done the same job for 60 years, she deserves a party. And that’s what happened in London, England this week.

The party for Queen Elizabeth II lasted four days.

On the first day, she attended the Royal Derby, a big horserace held every year.

The second day, more than a million guests lined the River Thames and watched the Queen and members of her family float along in the royal barge, majestically surrounded by a flotilla of 1,000 boats. A flotilla is a group of small boats together on the water.

News Politics

Mubarak Sent To Prison For Life

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been sent to prison for life.

Last year, as part of the Arab Spring protests* Mubarak was forced from government. He had been in power for nearly 30 years.

During the anti-Mubarak protests, Mubarak’s security forces fired on the protesters, killing more than 850 people.

Recently, a judge found Mubarak guilty of participating in those killings and sentenced him to life in prison.

Kids Lighter News

The Biggest Swimming Pool In The World

What’s more than one kilometre long, covers 7.7 hectares, holds 250 million litres of water, is as deep as 35 metres and is a beautiful turquoise colour?

It’s the biggest swimming pool in the world.

In case it’s hard to imagine just how much water that is, imagine a huge lagoon the size of 6,000 regular-sized pools. It’s a whopping 12 football fields long.

Located beside the ocean at a resort named San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile, it holds the Guinness record as the world’s largest swimming pool.

Lighter News Politics

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Spurned

The Canadian penny will soon be a thing of the past—like the Canadian one-dollar and two-dollar bills. The loonie and the toonie replaced those bills in 1987.

In its last budget, the government said the Royal Canadian Mint will stop making pennies starting this Fall, and that stores will stop using them.

Everyone is asked to return their pennies to a bank; they will be melted down and recycled.

Pennies will always be worth one cent. However, there will be fewer and fewer of them out there as the years go on.

Any prices that don’t end in a zero or a five (in other words, purchase we can use nickles, dimes or quarters for) will be rounded up or down to the nearest zero or five.

News Politics

Malawi Elects A New President

Although there are about as many women in the world as men, there is a much larger number of men who are heads-of-state.

The only female head-of-state Canada has had, out of 22 in Canadian history, was Kim Campbell. She was prime minister for less than a year, in 1993.

In Africa last month, Joyce Banda became just the third female head-of-state in modern African history.

Banda took over for President Bingu Wa Mutharika in Malawi, who died of a heart attack in early April.

Until then, Banda had been Malawi’s vice-president, elected in 2005.

Health Kids News

Mike Holmes To Help Rebuild High Park Children’s Castle

The people who are rebuilding the High Park castle are getting some high-profile help.

Mike Holmes is a celebrity contractor. A contractor is someone who is skilled at the kinds of jobs needed to build or renovate homes. Contractors hire and oversee all of the work—for instance, electrical, plumbing, carpentry and design work.

Holmes became famous for his motto, “make it right.” On his TV show, he rescues homeowners from renovations that have gone wrong and he brings in workers who fix the house properly and “make it right.”

Holmes also does a lot of charity work. On one of his TV shows, he helps people in New Orleans whose houses were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Now he’s lending a hand to help rebuild the children’s play castle in the High Park neighbourhood of Toronto, Ont. Much of the wooden structure was destroyed by a fire last March.

Animals News Science

Millions Of Butterflies In Ontario And Eastern Canada

If you were sitting outside on April 16 in Eastern North America, you may have seen a wondrous site. That day, millions of Red Admiral butterflies flew in – or perhaps “blew in” – from the southern United States.

Drew Monkman is a local natualist (“nature watcher”) and writer, living in Peterborough, Ont. He tracks the habits of animals including butterflies.

He told TKN that the April 16 migration was “completely unprecedented. (The Red Admiral has) never been seen in these kinds of numbers.”

He said on that day there were probably several million butterflies, most of them Red Admiral, but there were other species as well.

Drew Monkman is a naturalist and butterfly expert living in Peterborough, Ont.
Why did this happen? This year in the southern United States like Texas, where the butterflies began their journey, the winter was “amazingly mild,” said Monkman. This allowed more butterflies to survive the winter and reproduce.

News

Updates On Two Of Our Breaking Stories: Montreal And Royals

University students continue to protest in Montreal.

The students had started out protesting a tuition hike.

However, the protests have grown and broadened to be about more than tuition.

The Royal Visit — Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are touring Canada.

They are taking a four-day tour of the country to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.