The London Free Press
`It felt like it was an earthquake'
A vehicle crashed into a Goodlife Fitness gym at a northwest London shopping centre Friday morning, injuring seven women, including one who was pinned under the vehicle, London's police chief says. Speaking at a news conference at Sherwood Forest...
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Ontario facing slowest growth in the nation
Ontario's economy will grow at the slowest pace among Canadian provinces in 2026, with trade tensions with the United States continuing to play a key role in the province's muted performance, a new economic think-tank forecast says. Ontario's real...
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MAKING SCIENCE REAL
For Chris Schramek, a St. Andre Bessette Catholic secondary school teacher with Type 2 diabetes, the glucose monitor on his arm isn't just how he monitors his blood sugar — it's also a tool he uses to teach his Grade 12 science students about the...
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SIMPLY UNCANNY
Yes, that's Toronto's Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays' home field, modelled in canned and other nonperishable food by a team from Ellisdon — the London-founded firm that built the real stadium in 1989 — for the Canstruction contest benefitting London Food...
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HEARTACHE AND HOPE
Sometimes, hope seems to be all that's left for friends and family of so many — including, clockwise from top left, Shelley Desrochers, Jacqueline English, Kathryn Bordato, Donna Awcock, Garnet Michael Nelson and Lois Hanna — killed or vanished in the...
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Hot-button apartment proposal takes hit
A controversial apartment proposal in northeast London has been dealt a blow, with city staff recommending its refusal as hundreds of residents formally oppose the project and some politicians withdraw their support. Royal Premier Homes proposes an an...
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MOVING EXPERIENCE
Charlie Cleaver, left, of St. George's elementary school, celebrates after moving a plane with pals Katie Melville, centre, and Lucy Mcfadzean during girls in aviation day, which drew sxith- to eighth-graders from across the region Tuesday to London...
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Bank booms despite trade tension
Canada's economy may be on shaky ground amid trade tensions with the U.S., but that's done little to slow the growth of London-based Versabank, whose founder has been named executive of the year by the Canadian Lenders Association. Less than two years...
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April housing starts rise high
Housing starts in the London area are through the roof to start the year, bolstered mainly by apartment construction, with the region adding more than 800 such units in April alone, new data show. And while the breakneck pace of housing starts is...
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THEY WON'T LAST LONG
Tiffany Decker and children Thomas, 3, and Heidi, 6, check out tasty treats purchased during Scone Fest in Arva Flour Mill's Red River Cafe Friday. The 3-day, late May celebration of the small quick breads is on track to sell 300 dozen this year, up...
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Runaway pupil's mom raps funding
It's a parent's worst nightmare. A London mother says she fears for her five-year-old son's safety after he ran away from a south London public school onto a busy street before police found him at a bus stop last week. “I am terrified to get a phone...
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PUTTING HER ALL INTO IT
Gemma Carruthers of Kingston's Frontenac secondary school puts the shot at the 2026 Special Olympics Ontario school championships at Western University's Alumni Stadium. The event, which saw about 1,000 athletes compete in five sports Tuesday and...
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THE SPRAY'S THE THING
It's not opening week at the Stratford Festival without a champagne shower, and Ali Powell was in the spray zone as the fest rolled out the red carpet Monday to kick off its 2026 season in style with a performance of The Tempest, directed by Antoni...
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SOUNDS LIKE A PARTY
London Music Week 2026 kicks off early next week, says Mario Circelli, founder and chair of the Forest City London Music Awards. For a rundown of who's being honoured and what's happening and where during the annual celebration of city musical talent,...
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TRYING THEIR HAND
Regina Mundi's Nate Leblanc and Evander Harrison smooth a sand `sidewalk' Friday as Trades Awareness Week for local pupils and students continue at LIUNA Local 1059 Training Centre at 635 Wilton Grove Rd. Anyone interested in skilled trades, training...
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GIVING HIS ALL
Matthew Prestwich, of Oakridge secondary school, releases an attempt during the para boys shot put competition on Day 1 of the WOSSAA track and field meet at Western's Alumni Stadium on Thursday. More photos at
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A TINY TERROR
When Mark Pesci went KINGSTON to brush his teeth one morning in 2024, he felt water running down his chin. “I looked up in the mirror, and half of my face was paralyzed,” Pesci said in a recent interview. “Obviously your first instinct is, `Oh no, did...
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PUMP PAIN PUSHES UP INFLATION
Sahil Malik, 22, pays $1.94 a litre at the Shell station at Oxford and Waterloo streets, adding up to $80 to fill his tank. Malik says he will have to fill up again before reaching his destination. Higher gas prices amid the war in Iran pushed overall...
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FUN IN THE SUN
A volleyball player goes up for a spike as the summer-like weather draws crowds to the Grand Bend main beach for fun and relaxation on Monday to cap off the Victoia Day weekend. The spike in temperatures will last another day before cooler spring...
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Western `wilfully blind' to extent of AI cheating, health law instructor says
A Western University professor says he believes “a large number” of nearly 300 students cheated on their final exam in a course he taught and is refusing to count it toward their final mark. Associate professor Jacob Shelley also says Western...
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IN WET PURSUIT
Hallie Turpin of Woodstock Collegiate Institute, left, clears the water jump trailing a fast-starting Jaydin Askey of Mother Teresa in the girls 2,000-metre steeplechase before winning the event at the TVRA track and field meet Thursday at Western's...
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TRADITION INTERRUPTED
It was a weekly tradition for Woodstock's Lauretta Leone and sister Audrey Hunter, of Sarnia: hike at Komoka Provincial Park, then lunch at the Little Beaver Restaurant, where they were surprised to find a `closed until further notice' sign on the door...
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BACK TO BASICS
Farrell Tremblay, artistic director of Home County Folk and Art Festival, says they've stripped this year's 50th edition down to bare essentials, starting with their stage on the grass of Victoria Park instead of in the concrete surroundings of the...
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GETTING READY TO GROW
Rain Corner grabs another tray as she trims the flowers off of impatiens at London's Civic Garden Complex greenhouse on Springbank Drive Monday. Corner said they cut the flowers off to force more growth into the plant, so they can be ready for...
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SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR MOM
Chef Jeff Enwright of Asher's Restaurant and Patio at Spencer Hotel is getting ready for the Mother's Day rush, which is shaping up as their busiest brunch yet as families across the city gear up to celebrate mom Sunday. Their buffet is one of five...
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`I'VE LOVED EVERY MINUTE'
United Way Oxford executive director Kelly Gilson, a longtime champion of Oxford County hailed as a `visionary, effective leader,' is calling it a career after 23 years with the agency. She will retire in September
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IT'S ALL YOURS
Lily Doney-smith of Beal looks to pass as she's about to hit the turf after being stopped by Tiara Codrington of Saunders during a TVRA Varsity girls rugby game at the City Wide fields on Wednesday.
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`THEIR OWN SPACE'
Jaime Caan, executive director of Fresh Start Support Services, shows off the House of Homes, a $5.3-million, three-storey apartment building with 12 transitional units for pregnant women and single moms escaping homelessness or abuse in St. Thomas and...
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TRUE PATRIOT LOVE
Teacher Robert Ponzio shows off this year's art project featuring self-portraits of East Elgin secondary schoolers showing their Canadian pride. The mural, spurred by tariff and “51st state” jibes from the U.S., graces the Aylmer Legion on its 100th...
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INK ABOUT INK
Ned Burwell, of Dorchester, is writing a history of tattooing in Canada from 1899 to the present. An exhibition of his work, including a feature on Al Newcombe, London's Illustrated Man, is part of the Toronto Tattoo Show on May 1 to 3.
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IN-DEMAND SKILLS
Larry Oudekerk shows Isabel Rusek, a student at St. Thomas Arthur Voaden secondary school, how to work sheet metal at Jill of All Trades at Fanshawe College in London Thursday. The event, introducing young women to careers in skilled trades, featured...
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City OK'S $7.2M `multi-sport' plan
The City of London is partnering with Western Fair to turn a portion of the J-AAR Expo Centre, formerly known as the Agriplex, into a new multi-purpose sporting facility, city council heard Tuesday. The project, approved by politicians during a closed...
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Sarnia police chief describes quick end to 17-day hunt for accused killer
The arrest in London of a man charged with second-degree murder in a shooting at a college campus bar in Sarnia was quick and incident-free. “For the past two weeks, our investigators have been pursuing every lead,” Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis...
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SWING INTO SPRING
Sean Thorup, 16, of Mother Teresa secondary school, left, chuckles as Thomas Pinheiro, 16, of Lucas watches his ball go straight up in front of them. The students were learning the golf swing at Tin Cup Driving range at Adelaide Street and Windermere...
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GREAT MEALS, GREAT DEALS
We asked London's mayor, some council members, a local MPP and our newsroom where to eat well in this city for less than $20. Mayor Josh Morgan's pick? Nooner's, the 40-year-old eatery at 436 Clarence St., where Katrina Wice, above, shows off a...
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BICENTENNIAL TIDY
Zaid Hourani, Thatcher Smith and Nolan Williams pick up trash on the median between the north- and southbound lanes of Highbury Avenue south of Commissioners Road Thursday. Municipal workers descended on the litter-strewn thoroughfare for the first in...
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IT SEATS TWO, TREE IN A PINCH
Jordan Feairs places two young trees in the passenger seat well of Sandeep Karnik's classic S2000 Honda, which bucked the trend of SUVS and pickups lined up to collect some of the 2,500 native trees city staff handed out free for Earth Day at the...
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Joy, excitement and trusting God
A new bishop is taking over the Diocese of London, which serves about 450,000 Southwestern Ontario Catholics. Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev. Daniel Miehm as the 11th Bishop of London beginning in June, replacing Bishop Ronald Fabbro, who has held the...
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HEADS UP PLAY
Banting Broncos Henry Wernham goes up to cut off a deep ball during a TVRA Varsity boys soccer game against Saunders Sabres at Western University's Alumni Field Monday.
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BRAND NEW CANADIAN
Diya Vikas, 4, smiles and waves the flag as her mom, Sruthi Trivandrum Reghunathan Sreekumari, signs her Canadian citizenship papers, one of 79 who became citizens Friday in the first such ceremony at London's central library since the COVID-19 pandemic.
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`It's more than just a church'
One of London's only historic buildings with direct connections to the Underground Railroad, and the oldest black church in the city, could be at risk as the owners apply to the city to remove its heritage status as the lot goes up for sale. The Beth...
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IN FULL BLOOM
Omar Aljbory takes a selfie with Dhoha Hamja in front of the beds of daffodils in London's Springbank Park. “We walk here nearly every week, even in the harsh winter,” Aljbory said, but spring is their favourite time: “Everything is blooming, it's so...
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SPRING BREAK
City crews repair the damage Tuesday after an early morning water main break shut down and flooded the busy Huron Street and Highbury Avenue intersection. The same main broke at Highbury and nearby Jensen Road in December.
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Manhunt follows deadly pub shooting
Sarnia's top cop had this advice for a Londoner charged in a Sarnia student pub shooting that killed a 20-year-old Sarnia junior hockey player and injured two former teammates: “Turn yourself in.” “To Mr. Doe directly, I say that every time you go to...
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LAMBTON COLLEGE SHOOTING
The perpetrators remain at large after gunfire erupted early Friday at a campus bar at Lambton College in Sarnia, leaving one man dead and two others — all three played junior hockey together — injured. Dane Nisbet, a 20-year-old Sarnia man, died in...
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SUPPORTIVE STEP FORWARD
Natasha Thuemler, executive director of Indwell, shows a model suite at Coves Landing — a 50-unit supportive housing development that officially opened Thursday in a former retirement home on Elmwood Place in London. It was retrofitted to house people...
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Sarnia-area MP crosses to Liberals
Marilyn Gladu, longtime MP for Sarnia-lambton-bkejwanong, is the latest Conservative to cross the floor and join Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals. Gladu announced the move in a statement Wednesday morning. “The past year has been like no other...
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A LIFE WELL READ
Marvin Post of Attic Books on Dundas Street is celebrating 50 years in the business, with no thought of turning the page any time soon. He is planning an outdoor book festival called Bibliomania on Dundas on June 20, two days after the store's actual...
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PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
Gage Butler, left rear, Noah Young and Sean Mcspadden, of Greatario, assemble an aluminum framed geodesic dome for the Adelaide wastewater treatment plant in London on Monday. The 27-metre diametre (90-foot) dome will hold the roof over a concrete tank...
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DEFENCE SECTOR WINS
Canada's embrace of a greater global military role is a win for Southwestern Ontario industry supplying the national defence sector. London and region boasts about 20 businesses employing roughly 4,000 workers in military-related industries and that...
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READY FOR LIFTOFF
Excitement is building at Ingersoll District secondary school, whose halls Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen once roamed as a student. If all went as planned Wednesday evening, Hansen will have become the first Canadian, alongside three Americans, to...
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RAINING? STILL TRAINING
David Lim crosses a soaked bridge over the north branch of the Thames River in London Tuesday during an 18-km training run for Hamilton's Road2hope fall marathon, with an eye to qualifying for Boston. Rain is forecast all week and the Upper Thames...
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CREATIVE SOLUTION
When a two-storey window at Museum London's Centre at the Forks event space cracked beyond repair, officials needed a quick fix. They found it in Broken Window, a mural by London-raised artist Justin Broadbent, seen here admired by museum marketing...
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`VLADIMIR'S TEAM'
He stood along the third base line Friday watching the American League championship banner being raised and soaked up the love and celebration from a soldout crowd at the Rogers Centre. “The emotions are going to be there,” Vlad Guerrero Jr. said...
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SAY HELLO TO ROBOCROP
Mike Giannikouris of Kitchener-waterloo's Finite Robotics shows off their apple thinner, which six arms, cameras and cutters to thin out fruit, so only `king' apples are kept, at the Canadian Agrobotics & AI summit at the Grove at Western Fair Thursday.
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`THE OLD SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK'
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney made headlines around the world in January — and made many sit up and take notice — when, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he declared the old rules-based international order the world has known for...
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Thousands of jobs at risk: LHBA
The London region stands to lose thousands of construction jobs this year unless governments act to make new homes more affordable for buyers, a local builders umbrella group warns. The warning, in a public letter Monday from the London Home Builders...
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NEW PUBS ON TAP
Michael Holden owns the Off Licence at 474 Pall Mall St., one of two new neighbourhood watering holes in London settling in ahead of patio season, introducing themselves to locals before the crowds head outside as temperatures start to rise. Reporter...
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FERTILIZER FALLOUT
Southwestern Ontario, home to one of Canada's richest farm belts, is a world away from the war in Iran, but it's hitting farmers here hard. A focal point of the war is the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman....
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`DEVASTATING'
Queen's Park is cutting funding to seven supervised drug-use sites across Ontario, including London's Carepoint Consumption and Treatment Service at 446 York St. We spoke with Lily Bialas, interim director of the Regional HIV/ AIDS Connection, which...
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DINO-MITE VISIT
Evermore Entertainment's Brandon Presley introduces animatronic triceratops Twiggy to Adi Muskaj, 9, and her little sister, Juliana, 3, of Mississauga, during their March break family trip to the London Children's Museum Wednesday.
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HILL OF A GOOD TIME
Deborah Balasch, decked out for St. Patrick's day, guides a young student at Boler Mountain's snow school during March break Tuesday. A Boler official says they plan to open limited hours next week before their annual puddle jump season-ender March 29....
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ONE FINAL ADVENTURE
Ben Beavers, 7, crows with success after scoring a goal on his mom, Meghan Beavers, as they play air hockey at Adventures on Wonderland on Monday. The longtime children's play space is closing after March break, after a 26-year-run in London.
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ANY BEACON OF HOPE?
The future of the oldest wooden lighthouse on the Great Lakes — and one of the oldest in Canada — may be in jeopardy as negotiations with neighbouring landowners have slowed. Built in 1840, the municipally owned Port Burwell lighthouse — part of the...
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HOOPING IT UP
Mother Teresa head coach Kwame Aidoo jumps on the shoulders of his coaches to celebrate with his team after the Spartans won the OFSAA AAA boys basketball gold medal Wednesday night at Fanshawe College, the first top-level provincial title for a London...
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WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
A London Transit bus throws a sheet of water over the sidewalk on Oxford Street Wednesday after heavy rains led to Thames River flooding and large puddles forming on roads. The downpour comes as the city eyes changes to flood plain development
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`REALLY SPECIAL'
For three seasons, Parker Zimmerman travelled through snow and rain to practise with another high school's wrestling program. Now, the Oakridge secondary school 11th-grader is a provincial champion. Zimmerman trains with Sir Frederick Banting...
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SPARTANS START STRONG
Yaniss Lugogo of Mother Teresa, left, is fouled by A Y Jackson's Davonta Jackson as he goes up for a reverse layup during their opening game at the OFSAA AAA boys basketball tournament at MTS Monday. The second-seeded host Spartans overcame a slow...
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`IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK'
The use of a portable MRI during a complex pituitary tumour procedure is being hailed as a “game-changer” by the London Health Sciences Centre neurosurgeon who led the operation. A Hyperfine Swoop brain portable MRI was used during a complex procedure...
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FARMING IN HER FUTURE?
Annalee Martin, 1, tries the driver's seat of a tractor on for size under the watchful eye of her dad, Jermaine Martin of Chatham-kent, at the London Farm Show — eastern Canada's largest indoor spring farm show — which wraps up at the Western Fair...
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Help us clean up our housing crunch
Driven by the much-anticipated opening of an electric vehicle battery plant, St. Thomas is looking to increase its housing supply to accommodate the growing city's rising population. St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston says there's an opportunity to build an...
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DEER OH DEER OH DEER
Deer floating on a patch of Detroit River ice turned heads on Windsor's waterfront Monday, with onlookers tracking their trek downstream for hours. Some were alarmed, but a rescue of the timid animals was unlikely, officials said, noting they're strong...
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BLOCK-BUSTER
Oakridge's Ana Stojanovic hammers a spike past the block of Avery Thibeau and Lily Wittig of Lucas during a game at the WOSSAA AAA senior girls volleyball tournament at Oakridge Monday. Stratford District and Aquinas also were taking part.
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EXPLOSIVES/GUNS PROBE
The decontamination shower has been removed from the yard of 212 Chesham Place and the construction fence that surrounded the northwest London property for more than a week is gone. The trailers serving as mobile command centres for the dozens of...
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Lab enlists bricklayer `the machine' for help on brain smart cooking
It's getting close to lunch time, and Sal Cambria is getting excited. “Look at this cheese,” he shouts, pointing to a photograph on his phone of an assortment of different cheeses he made. “I make cheese with a lot of spice or nuts, all types, oh my...
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