Gus has been captivating visitors to the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History for more than seven decades.

A team of Canadian balloon twisters earned five awards at the World Balloon Convention in California this month for their Mickey and Minnie Mouse as Romeo and Juliet design.

When Antje Springman spotted something huddled outside her home, she thought it was one of her chickens. It turned out to be a Great Cormorant.

Laura Chouinard's encounter with the runaway ox had her gripped by fear. But in the midst of the battle she resolved, "I am not going to die today."

The Royal Canadian Mint's newest offering features Manitoba's most famous UFO encounter, which happened in 1967 when Stefan Michalak went looking for precious metals near Falcon Lake.

The University of Michigan's Consumer Survey Center questions 600 households each month on their financial conditions and attitudes about the economy. Consumer sentiment is directly related to the strength of consumer spending. Consumer confidence and consumer sentiment are two ways of talking about consumer attitudes. Among economic reports, consumer sentiment refers to the Michigan survey while consumer confidence refers to The Conference Board's survey. Preliminary estimates for a month are released at mid-month. Final estimates for a month are released near the end of the month.

The figures of impact were impressive during a recent medical outreach in the indigenous region of Guamote in Ecuador. But only because He showed up.

A young lady in a small Laotian village is pressured to recant her faith or jeopardize her educational future.

This summer nearly 1,000 Roma children in Roma villages throughout Central and Eastern Europe heard the Gospel.

OM Greece

A speedboat approached the gritty beach of the Greek island of Lesbos carrying around a dozen people. It quickly dumped their luggage into the choppy sea before racing away. After some emotional greetings, the OM Greece team and others offered the newcomers towels, water and bananas. The team soon discovered that they were three generations of Syrian Christians, grandparents to grandchildren, fleeing to Europe's safety.

The team's hearts sank when the Syrians told them that the same boat, which charged them a steep 2000 € per person for the 30-minute trip was to make another journey to bring the rest of the family from Turkey. The team had seen the harbour police arrest the pilot and had to break the bad news to them that their relatives' fate was uncertain.

And so the trials and difficulties continue for the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan making their way to Greece's shores in the hopes of moving onward into Europe. OM Greece continues to demonstrate God's love and compassion there.

The OM Greece team on Lesbos has enjoyed chatting with the refugees—something not many other relief workers are doing.

"A young Iraqi guy approached us and excitedly told us the he, too, wanted to become a Christian," recounted the team leader, heading up efforts on the island, where many of the refugees land.

"Stunned, we immediately gave him a Christian tract in Arabic we had picked up earlier that day, and those gathered around began reading it."

Waves of new arrivals of Syrian and other refugees to Greece's shores are overwhelming relief groups and authorities in the biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

Despite the early onset of autumn's rains, more than 2,500 mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees, soaked and exhausted, reached Lesbos in just a matter of hours this week alone. This marks a sharp rise in the rate of arrivals making the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey, aid officials said.

Most refugees traveling in unsafe dinghies and boats, squeezing about 40 to 45 people aboard, came in the pouring rain. Some suffered from hypothermia.

Over 430,000 refugees fleeing mayhem in the Middle East already have worked their way this year from Turkey to Greece. Despite Greece's dire economic crisis, many Greeks have been welcoming the refugees even though resources are scarce and many Greeks are also looking for help.

Gabby Markus, OM Greece country leader, also coordinates humanitarian assistance provided by numerous churches in the Athens area to ensure more effective cooperation and aid on behalf of the fleeing refugees.

Government and local officials have appreciated OM Greece and the local churches' quick ability to organise Arabic and Farsi/Dari translators to help communicate with the refugees as well as the practical provision of badly needed water, clothing and cooked meals. A clothing bank, shower facility, possible WiFi/Internet access points, and a potential campsite for temporary stay by the refugees are also in the planning.

"You tell us and we will get the people," Gabby told an official of Greece's Migration Policy Ministry. As a registered Greece-based organisation and with work in 110 countries worldwide, OM is strategically placed to help the refugees in their hour of need.

This week, the Athens team has helped numerous Afghans, including Harazas, sheltering in a sports stadium after a torrential downpour drove them out of one of Athen's outdoor parks.

Inside the stadium, where colorful pup tents lined the floor, young Afghan men danced to a throbbing, ethnic beat. Their arms sliced the air and bodies spun, enrapturing Afghan and Greek onlookers alike.
Greek doctors were on hand to carry out health checks on those who made the strenuous journey from their war-torn homeland.

"We had 45 people packed inside our flimsy rubber dinghy," 20-year-old Habib told OM. It was a dangerous journey and we were very frightened. Now we're exhausted, but we must continue to move on," said the youth, with dark, intense eyes.

Other OM Greece workers participate in cooking and serving meals to refugees gathered at churches in a food-share project. They also assist in meal distributions in parks where refugees congregate in the Greek capital.

"We must help these people who have left everything behind," Gabby said.

OM Greece needs your prayer and financial support to continue and intensify its aid efforts for Syrian and other refugees fleeing conflict to Europe.

A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give specifically to projects in Greece, please mark your gift to be given to Greece. To give to OM Europe's general relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

Mayor John Tory, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city's medical officer of health, and Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, head of the city's emergency response team, spoke at a city hall news conference Thursday afternoon.

A sports writer covering the strange return of South Korea's baseball season says fans should brace for similarly odd experience in Toronto, if and when the 2020 season begins.

A third person was rescued off the roof of the burning building after the house went up in flames at about 11 p.m. on Thursday.

Region of Waterloo Public Health says there are 44 positive cases of COVID-19 at the Breslau meat processing facility Conestoga Meats.

Despite sharp differences in the impact of COVID-19 in different parts of Ontario, the Ford government is rejecting a region-by-region approach to loosening emergency restrictions.

Karla Bell was outside an Orangeville hospital waiting to start her nursing shift when she heard a cry for help from a car in the parking lot. She ran up to find a woman in labour in the passenger seat. Natalie Kalata tells us the incredible story of how this baby was born.

Toronto officials reported 180 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a figure that represents a dip when compared to the more than 200 cases announced daily this week. 

Ontario reported its lowest new COVID-19 case count of the week on Saturday with 346 new confirmed cases of the virus. Meanwhile, the government has issued an emergency order allowing school board employees to be voluntarily redeployed to hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes and women's shelters.

Paramedics who come back from COVID-19 related calls have to remove and either discard or wash their PPE. They are getting help from students called doffing assistants.

The province's networks of labs processed 15,179 tests in the last 24 hours, more than any of the three days previous but still short of the 16,000 tests per day target set back in April.

Every few days for the past two weeks, Windsor resident Joseph Antone has loaded up his red pick-up truck with food, water, fruit and other essential supplies for people who need it most.

Lambton County resident Joeleen DeGurse-MacDonald still has memories of the fatal vehicle collisions she's witnessed at the intersection of Kimball Road and Petrolia Line. Now in her 50s, DeGurse-MacDonald said she vividly remembers an accident that took place when she was only five-years-old, eating a pear picked from an orchard on her family's farm at the northest intersection of Kimball and Petrolia. 

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

As automakers look to restart the industry, union representatives are looking to ensure safety is the number one priority for workers.

After several days in which fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 were added to the provincial tally, Friday's report was up again, with 477 new cases reported.

An Essex County OPP officer has been slapped with a cut in pay because of "inexplicable" investigative delays into a fatal collision, allowing the at-fault driver to "evade criminal prosecution."

According to OPP, a man allegedly pulled over a woman on April 23 driving on Naylor Side Road near the intersection of North Talbot Road, while "wearing clothing resembling the uniform of a police officer."

Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based "cure" for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organization that its efficacy is unproven.

The White House says it is conducting contact tracing after the U.S. vice-president's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican's liturgy office, claims he never signed a petition claiming the coronavirus is an over-hyped "pretext" to deprive the faithful of Mass.

The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation's top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Russia marked 75 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War on Saturday, but the coronavirus outbreak forced it to scale back celebrations seen as boosting support for President Vladimir Putin.

A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in B.C. Supreme Court which, if successful, could mean every ICBC-insured motorist and crash victim will be in line for a share of almost $1 billion. 

A group of volunteers in B.C.'s Interior have started making fabric masks to assist in response against COVID-19.

As British Columbians maintain physical distancing recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Easter celebrations will have to change. In Kamloops, B.C., organizations are working to make sure Easter is as fun and social as it can be. 

Farmers markets throughout B.C.’s Interior and South Coast are ramping up for their spring seasons, but COVID-19 has forced them to make some changes to how they operate. 

RCMP in Clearwater, B.C., are investigating an incident that took place at the Tiny House Warriors village in Blue River over the weekend. 

Most of the animals at the B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops are unfazed by the absence of paying visitors since it closed in March over COVID-19 concerns. But Blue the turkey appears "bummed," staff say.

Carving out a section of low-hanging basement ceiling was a small price to pay to give Travis Bondy the space he needed to play in the Isolation Dart League.

A 23-year-old man has been granted bail, after being charged in the death of a Saskatchewan farmer with a wife and two kids whose body was found dumped north of Calgary.

An inmate at the Calgary Remand Centre has tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first time a case has been reported at an Alberta correctional facility.

Alberta recorded one more death to COVID-19 and 81 new cases, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Friday.

Employees in Alberta continuing care homes and seniors’ residences are the most likely recipients of a federal wage top-up intended for essential workers.

Three people living in the mountains of Western Canada tell us about the beauty, the lifestyle and the danger of calling them home.

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.

Buenos Aires, Argentina :: Maintenance crew share Christ's love with local welders helping repair Logos Hope.

A normal draft year would see NHL scouts and executives spend the spring crisscrossing Europe and North America collecting information. The circumstances surrounding a 2020 draft and the COVID-19 pandemic, however, aren't anything resembling normal.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday that NHL players would — at a minimum — need to follow quarantine protocols if they were to arrive in Canada while the border remains closed due to the pandemic.

Maple Leafs defenceman Justin Holl is ready to go. He's just waiting for the green light. Holl has spent most of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the NHL, and much of North America, at home in Minnesota since the season was paused March 12.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the Toronto Maple Leafs' parent company has been in contact with the province about the possibility of Canada's biggest city serving as a so-called "hockey pod" for teams should the NHL resume its season.