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Kids News

World Honours Young Activist With “Malala Day”

The United Nations declared Saturday, Nov. 10 “Malala Day.”

It was a special day around the world, honouring a brave Pakistani girl named Malala Yousafzai.

Amid terrible opposition, she stood up for the rights of girls and women.

Malala was injured but she has nearly completely recovered now.

In Pakistan, a group of militants and terrorists known as the Taliban believe that girls should not be educated.

In Jan. 2009 they issued a ban that said girls are not allowed to go to school.

When she was 11 years old, in 2009, Malala started writing in an online journal (or blog) that was part of the BBC’s news website.

She told people about the things the Taliban were doing in her village to stop girls from going to school.

Note: This article contains information that some children may find frightening.

News Sports

Toronto Raptors Basketball Team Has A New Line-Up

The 2012/2013 National Basketball Association season is officially underway.

There are 30 teams vying for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, including Canada’s only professional basketball team, the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors have a new-look team this season.

Three of the five Raptors’s starters this year weren’t with the team last year.

The Raptors’s starting lineup includes two players who have been on the team before: DeMar DeRozen and Andrea Bargnani.

The Raptors believe in DeRozen as a player.

They recently signed him to a four-year, $40-million contract extension.

News Politics

Toronto Mayor In Another Unusual Situation

Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, is in the middle of another controversy.

It happened last week. He was on the field with the high school football team he coaches, the Don Bosco Eagles.

The coach of the other team got into a confrontation with the referee.

Police were called in to deal with the situation.

That’s where the situation gets confusing.

The police called the Toronto Transit Commission. Police asked the TTC to send a bus to the field to pick up Ford’s team.

Unfortunately, that meant kicking passengers off two buses—stranding them in the rain—and sending those then-empty buses to the field to pick up the high school football team.

The mayor said when the buses didn’t show up promptly, he called the head of the TTC and left him a message.

News Politics

Barack Obama Wins Second Term As President Of The United States

Barack Obama won yesterday’s U.S. election, becoming the President of the United States for the second term in a row.

It was a close and hard-fought election.

In the end, Obama and his Democratic party won about 50 per cent of the popular vote, to rival Mitt Romney’s approximately 49 per cent.

Obama comfortably won the “electoral college” votes he needed to retain his presidency.

By early Wednesday morning, with votes still trickling in, the Democrats had won 300 electoral college votes. Two hundred and seventy were needed (out of 538) to win the election.

Romney had 206 of the electoral college votes.

In the days leading up to the election, opinion polls in the U.S. showed Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama as neck-and-neck.

It wasn’t clear who would win.

News

New Arts Centre Part Of The Rebirth Of Old Community

In September, Daniels Spectrum opened its doors.

Daniels Spectrum is a wonderful new 60,000-square-foot facility set up to help people learn art and business, including music and painting classes and moviemaking.

It even includes a Centre for Social Innovation where people with ideas for new businesses work with creative people to think up new ways to make communities better.

It is all part of the rebirth of Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood that has been taking place for more than 10 years.

Environment News

NYC Marathon Cancelled In Aftermath Of Superstorm Sandy

Two days before this year’s New York City Marathon was to take place, it was cancelled.

The marathon is one of the largest in the world, with more than 47,500 runners, most of whom travel from out of town to the city for the 42.2-kilometre run.

The run was to have been held on Sunday.

New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg cancelled the event because New York was still trying to clean up after having been hit by a devastating storm.

Superstorm Sandy hit the Caribbean and the eastern coast of Canada and the United States last week.

It came onto land in New Jersey on the east coast of the U.S., on Monday, Oct. 29.

Health News

Ontario Doctors Call For Strong Action To Help Children Maintain A Healthy Weight

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) wants the government to put higher taxes on junk food.

Doctors say that higher costs would make it harder for children to buy junk food.

They also want high fat and sugary foods that have little nutritional value, to have more information and even warnings on the packaging.

And they want less junk food advertising, especially targeting children.

These are just three strong actions doctors say will help children eat less junk food, keep their weight at a healthy level and live a longer life.

The Ontario Medical Association said that over the years strong actions like extra taxes and scary pictures on cigarette packages have helped to reduce smoking from 50 per cent, in the 1960s, to as low as 20 per cent in Canada today.

Doctors say this kind of action can help in the same way with junk food.

Arts News

Japanese Mom Builds Adorable Art Around Sleeping Infant

A mom in Japan has found a way to document her daughter’s dreams.

When baby Nuno sleeps, her mom builds a fun scene around her, using everyday objects such as clothing, hangers and vegetables. Then she lovingly photographs the quirky artwork.

Mami Koise, a cartoonist, says the pictures are what she thinks her baby is dreaming about.

She started doing the artwork to send it to her husband, who often worked late at the bar he owns. She wanted him to see his daughter even when he wasn’t around.

News Politics

Lincoln Alexander Was A Model For Young People

Lincoln Alexander was the lieutenant-governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991.

He was the first black person to hold that post in the country’s history. He was also Canada’s first black Member of Parliament.

Lincoln Alexander died on Oct. 19, at the age of 90. He was given a state funeral, which is a high honour.

Alexander died in Hamilton, Ont., where he had lived for many years.

Throughout his career, Alexander supported youth leadership and he fought racism.

Alexander, born in 1922, was the child of a railway porter and a maid who came separately to Canada from the Caribbean to find a better life.

Their son, Lincoln, became one of Canada’s most inspiring leaders.

His firsts were many. He was the first black person elected to Canada’s House of Commons and the first black person to be named a lieutenant-governor.

He was the first black partner in a Canadian law firm and first black Minister in the Federal Government.

News Sports

A Giant Panda Makes His Mark On Baseball

He’s a giant among Giants, and now his name will forever be in baseball’s record books.

Wednesday night was the first game in this year’s World Series. The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB).

Since 1903, the World Series has been the big, end-of-season battle between the best teams from the American League and National League.

This year the Detroit Tigers of the American League are playing the San Francisco Giants of the National League.

In game one on Wednesday night, history was made. The Giants beat the Tigers and their impressive pitcher, Justin Verlander.

The Giants won 8-3. They took a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven series.

The highlight of the night, however, was made by the Giants’s heavy-hitting third baseman, Pablo Sandoval.

Sandoval was born in Venezuela. He is affectionately known to his teammates as Kung Fu Panda.