Mayor Peter Kelly and Dartmouth Councillor Gloria McCluskey on Monday condemned a series of acts of vandalism over the weekend, in which several Dartmouth homes, businesses and a vehicle were painted with racial slurs and obscenities aimed at the Lebanese community and other groups.

It's a 34-year-old tradition rooted in Nova Scotia's appreciation to its neighbours. Each Christmas since 1971, Nova Scotia has presented a giant evergreen tree to the people of Boston in appreciation for the emergency assistance they provided to our region following the Halifax Explosion in 1917.

Coinciding with the official opening day of the 2005-2006 commercial sealing season, The Humane Society of the United States today released a ground-breaking report by Oxford University Professor Rev. Andrew Linzey who argues that Canada's commercial seal hunt cannot be morally justified and that basic principles of humane slaughter are violated in the course of the hunt.

"Because of the physical environment in which it operates, and the way in which it must be conducted in order to be commercially viable, Canada's seal hunt is and must always be inhumane," states Linzey. "The Canadian Government should make the commercial seal hunt illegal."

Police in the Cape Breton Region are warning parents of a dangerous "game" being played by children called the "pass-out" game in which kids render themselves or others unconscious by temporarily cutting off blood flow and oxygen to their brains in an attempt to achieve a ten-second sense of euphoria or a high as they regain consciousness.

In civilizations quest to answer the eternal question, 'Are we alone in the universe?' Voyager 1 and 2 space probes were launched in 1977. Each probe has a copy of the same gold gramophone record, which is encoded with data from all aspects of life on Earth. Remember, this was before the era of compact discs.