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TORONTO
Weekend, January 20-22, 2012 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Mystical.
¸ A worker jumps from one barge to another while installing dragon-shaped lanterns on a lake for upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations in Suining, China. According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the water dragon, the only mystical creature in Chinese astrology,
Dragon to breathe life into new year
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The 2012 Chinese New Year, known as the spring festival in China, begins on Jan. 23, but revellers will be up past midnight Sunday to welcome in the new year. “The dragon is very important. It’s majestic, a sign of authority,” said Angela Chan, vice-president of Toronto’s Chinese Cultural Centre. “We hope that in the year of the dragon the economy will pick up.” For more coverage, see pages 12-13.
Skiing pioneer will be missed
JACQUES BOISSINOT/THE CANADIAN PRESS
A native of Barrie who grew up in nearby Midland, Sarah Burke was the best-known athlete in women’s freestyle skiing Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died Thursday, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah. Burke was 29. She was injured while training at a personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain resort. “Our hearts go out to Sarah’s husband Rory and her entire family,” Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said in a statement. ”It’s difficult for us to imagine their pain and what
they’re going through. Sarah was certainly someone who lived life to the fullest and in doing so was a significant example to our community and far beyond. “She will be greatly missed by all of us at the CFSA and the entire ski community.” Tests revealed Burke sustained “irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest,” according to a statement released by Burke’s publicist. A four-time Winter X Games
champion, Burke crashed on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009. As a result of her fall, Burke tore her vertebral artery, which led to severe bleeding on the brain, causing her to go into cardiac arrest on the scene, where CPR was performed, according to the statement by publicist Nicole Wool. Wool said Burke’s organs and tissues were donated as per her wishes. THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sarah Burke smiles as she celebrates her gold medal in the halfpipe FIS World Cup event in March 2006 at Apex Mountain in Penticton, B.C.