The soil is ready to be tilled and seeds wait to be planted at community gardens across Ottawa after the province reversed a decision declaring them off limits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Mississauga Food Bank says a $100,000 donation made earlier this week by New York Knicks rookie RJ Barrett will provide 200,000 meals as part of the community's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 19-year-old has declared for the 2020 NBA Draft. If selected he would become the first player out of CEGEP program in Quebec to make the leap directly to the world's top basketball league.

Distant notes |India Today Insight  India Today

45 Chinese nationals in Nepal demand flights to go home, throw stones  Hindustan TimesView Full coverage on Google News

1. ‘Army won’t be deployed in Mumbai, will fight Covid-19 together’: Uddhav Thackeray  Hindustan Times
2. Maharashtra may extend lockdown to end of May, hints CM Uddhav Thackeray  Times of India
3. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray announces compensation for kin of deceased  TIMES NOW
4. Restrict entry-exit of migrants in Maharashtra: Raj Thackeray  Deccan Chronicle
5. Uddhav Thackeray: You are the soldiers, no need for the Army  Mumbai Mirror
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Bayern Munich has secured Canadian soccer star Alphonso Davies for another two years through June 2025, with club officials and the teenager donning surgical masks to ink the deal during the global pandemic.

Karina LeBlanc was returning home from her second hospital visit after giving birth to her first child, only this time she would have to spend 14 days in self-isolation after doctors feared she contracted COVID-19 during her stay.

City of Kitchener bylaw enforcement says cooperation with physical distancing rules is weather-dependent, with more people getting out and about on sunny days. Wilfrid Laurier University professor Anne Wilson tells CBC Kitchener-Waterloo why some may be tempted to bend the rules as time goes by.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo speaks to a motherhood expert about managing work and child care during the pandemic.

As a farmer, spring means a fresh start, a chance for new life, hope and opportunities.

The Carolina Panthers have agreed to a four-year, $64 million contract extension with All-Pro Christian McCaffrey, a person familiar with the contract negotiation told The Associated Press, making McCaffrey the highest-paid running back in the NFL.

Clunky at times, poignant at others, and exceptionally entertaining in spots, the NFL draft entered its third and final day with Cincinnati selecting an Appalachian State linebacker on Saturday.

Mayor Jane Castor has issued a letter of apology after Tampa didn't exactly give the best of welcomes to one of its newest and most famous residents when NFL superstar Tom Brady was ejected from a downtown park while working out.

Vancouver police are investigating an incident where a man attempted to lure a child to his car in the city’s West Point Grey neighbourhood on Wednesday.

A man is seen driving up in a grey van before making off with a Japanese maple he rips right out of the front garden.

A man from Vermilion Bay, Ont., caught and released a fish that he says could have challenged a 70-year-old record for walleye last weekend.

It turns out a small black box with a dangling red wire and little blue light investigated by Windsor's bomb squad Tuesday isn't actually dangerous — at least to the living.

Let’s concentrate on where the need has been shown to be greatest.

We are connected to one another and to generations past and future.

“The timing couldn’t have been worse for refugees from Syria passing through Macedonia.” An OM worker shares about conditions in a Macedonian refugee transit camp.

Throughout the year Bus4Life provides encouragement to local pastors and OM teams in Eastern Europe, partnering with them to share the Gospel.

If you think it's cold this morning, just wait — the forecast low for Friday night is –3 C.

Windsor's unemployment rate soared even higher in April, according to Statistics Canada numbers released Friday. 

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose sharply in April, government data showed on Friday, as the coronavirus outbreak keeps many environmental enforcers out of the field and the country prepares to deploy troops to fight illegal logging.

Sarah Miller waited until the last minute to go buy toilet paper. When she couldn’t find any, she made a decision that she says changed her life.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby is easing the burden for many Pennsylvania families struggling during the COVID-19 virus.

Alberta's Brendan Bottcher defeated Saskatchewan's Matt Dunstone 9-4 in the 1-2 Page playoff game Saturday afternoon to earn a berth in the Tim Hortons Brier final.

The notion that he is bound for four more years is pure superstition.

Curbside pickups offer a bit of hope after months of being shuttered by COVID-19, but while retailers are happy to start getting back to business some are raising questions of fairness and access to opportunity.

A Toronto law firm has filed to launch a class action lawsuit against a Niagara Falls long-term care home where 18 residents have died from COVID-19, saying the home had a pub night in the midst of the pandemic.

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Bank of Italy Working Papers by Andrea Gazzani and Alejandro Vicondoa

Bank of England Working Papers by Nicola Garbarino and Benjamin Guin

“I just went down on my knees,” his mother recalled later. “I just implored God for mercy.”

Staying active and maintaining physical fitness has many benefits to all elements of wellness, including mental and emotional well-being that may be taxed during social distancing. At Penn State Mont Alto, the athletic department has been releasing weekly at-home workout and challenge videos that are accessible on our Facebook and Instagram pages to keep our student-athletes engaged.

Covid-19 highlights the conservative reliance on fake experts.

Apple has been hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company concealed the so-called "stage lighting" issue experienced by some 2016 MacBook Pro owners.

Apple's first product to integrate Mini LED display technology might see a later-than-expected launch timeline due to setbacks caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research from TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Four OM guys in Bar, Montenegro, and four guys from a nearby Roma camp take a hiking/camping trip together.

When the British public responded to OM’s Just Christmas appeal, OM Montenegro received funds to help families, just at the right time.

Denver Newsroom, May 7, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- A young Catholic artist has drawn an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her parents' driveway bringing religious art to her local community during the quarantine.

The Diocese of Fargo posted on Facebook May 4 an image of Our Lady of Lourdes drawn by Maria Loh, a 17-year old who grew up in Fargo. She said it was an enjoyable experience to share her faith and art with her neighborhood.

“Being able to interact with people when they walked by was very moving in a way because a lot of people have never really seen sidewalk art done like that locally. So being able to share in that kind of experience, it was very, very good,” she told CNA.

Loh has recently been inspired by chalk art and pastels, which, she said, have vibrant and beautiful colors. She has drawn on the sidewalks a few times, including two images of Mary - Madonna of the Lillies and the Pieta by William Adolphe-Bouguereau.

Her most recent chalk drawing was Our Lady of Lourdes by Hector Garrido - an image she had seen as a magnet on her grandparents' refrigerator growing up. The picture has always been an inspiration, she said, noting that she decided to replicate it after Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France had temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I heard that the shrine had been temporarily closed off to the public, and I remember … thinking that's really sad because especially in this time, we’re really looking for healing in more ways than one, like physically and mentally and spiritually,” she said.

“It really felt like people wouldn't be able to go to experience that. So I felt like drawing this image of Our Lady of Lourdes would be a good way to remind people that Our Lady is still with us even if we can’t go to her shrine.”

Loh, the oldest of five, has been involved with art projects and drawing for her entire life. She said, growing up in a Catholic family, she has been inspired by her faith and the religious art in churches.

“I see our faith as so precious... Especially in the form of the Eucharist - the actual body and blood of Christ, I've seen that we are very blessed to have that in our faith. It's something that has impacted a lot of my life growing up,” she said.

While she was working on the piece, Loh said, a majority of passersby did not know who the lady in the image was. She expressed hope that the picture would help remind people of Mary and the beauty of the Church, which, she said, is a powerful attraction to the faith.

“One thing that I hope this kind of art and image will evoke is a desire to come to know who Mary is and how rich our faith is. … All the beautiful art that can be seen in Catholic churches, especially like in Rome, there's almost a transcendental beauty to them that draws people into the faith to come to know things that they've never dreamed of before,” she said.

As Loh finishes her junior year of high school, she expressed the possibility of art school after graduation, but, while she is still uncertain of the future, said art will not be dropped anytime soon.

“I can definitely see [art school] being a possibility. I’ll have to spend some time, especially with God trying to figure out what he wants me to do. But, I don't think art is going out of my life anytime soon,” she said.

2D design Despite the great popularity of spatial design programs and their unquestioned advantages, 2D design programs such as AutoCAD are still very popular and useful. One of such programs is DraftSight, which over the years has become very recognizable

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Learn how Kirby Downey, a user creator in our community, made a red lightsaber from scratch in honor of the latest Star Wars movie, "The Rise of Skywalker" - designing all the components in SOLIDWORKS before making it come to life!

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Washington D.C., Apr 24, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) covered up the spread of the new coronavirus within the country, suppressing the real rate of infection and violating the rights of its citizens as it did so, a Chinese human rights activist told a forum at The Catholic University of America on Friday.

“It is time to recognize the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to all humanity. The CCP represses and manipulates information to strengthen its hold on power, regardless of the toll on human lives,” human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng said April 24 during an online forum on the CCP and the new coronavirus.

The forum was hosted by Faith & Law in partnership with the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. Guanchen is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

Guangcheng is a blind human rights lawyer from China, who received sanctuary in the U.S. in 2012 after he was targeted by the CCP for his advocacy work. Guangcheng has sharply criticized the party for its human rights abuses, including from its one-child family planning policy.

He was sent to prison and subject to house arrest, during which he claims he and his family were repeatedly beaten and denied medical treatment.

On Friday, the lawyer warned audience members against suggestions that other countries should emulate China’s authoritarian response to the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

There are currently more than 2.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world.

The city of Wuhan is recognized as the epicenter of the global pandemic, and the government on Jan. 23 instituted a strict lockdown in the city of 11 million people. Guangchang cited reports of Chinese families being barricaded inside their own homes, and the group Human Rights Watch compiled stories of residents reportedly dying from lack of access to care during the lockdown.

“Whole families have been found dead in their apartments because they could not get out,” he said, noting that despite the CCP’s claim that it has the virus under control, lockdowns are currently in force in the city of Harbin.

“This is despite the authorities ordering everyone back to work and telling the outside world that they have the virus under control,” Guangcheng said. “The resurgence is directly related to the CCP hiding the truth, and cracking down on people who tried to share information on the virus.”

He also claimed that the CCP has been using the crisis caused by the pandemic to crack down on dissent, detaining human rights activists at separate “so-called quarantine sites.”

The wife of one human rights lawyer—who had just been released from prison told The Guardian that she feared the government was putting her husband under house arrest near where he was imprisoned, 400 kilometers away from her, under the guise of a quarantine.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, China’s number of COVID-19 cases rose considerably through January and February to 79,389 on Feb. 29 with 2,838 deaths, before its daily increase in case numbers slowed to a trickle in March including just one new reported case on March 22 in the country of more than 1.4 billion people.

Just 3,352 deaths were reported on April 16 before the reported number jumped to 4,642 the next day.

“There is nothing about the CCP’s numbers that are believable,” Guangcheng said. “What people are calculating is that roughly 700,000 may have died in China—in terms of people who have been infected, no one knows the numbers.”

For instance, he said, during the Wuhan lockdown citizen journalists claimed that the situation was far worse than the CCP was reporting; they recorded people collapsing in the streets and hearses and vans carrying body bags at all hours of the day.

“In summary, the CCP is the biggest and most serious virus of all, with over 193,000 people dead worldwide from the coronavirus,” the lawyer said. “There should be no question of the regime’s threat.”

Affected by the dark reality of hopelessness she’s encountered in Madagascar, Caitlin Red prays that God will do miraculous things amongst the Malagasy people.

Project Namana is OM Madagascar's microfinance project designed to empower the marginalised people in the city.