IRELAND - It's an unheard-of gift, but one that will preserve ancient woodlands outside Londonderry for centuries to come.

An "anonymous Canadian tree enthusiast" has donated £150,000 to the Woodland Trust to purchase a 58-acre site between Oaks Wood and Ervey Wood at Burntollet near Derry.

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HALIFAX - Canada's wireless telecommunications industry has launched Recycle My Cell, a new Web-based initiative designed to make it even easier for Canadians to recycle their old cell phones.

The goal of this program is to raise awareness about the importance of cell phone recycling and keep handsets from entering Canada's landfills. And just as important, the proceeds from the recycled wireless devices go to benefit many local and national charities.

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BANFF - Alec Baldwin was one of a host of stars spotted on the ski slopes at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Sports Invitational in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Waterkeeper Alliance during the weekend.

The annual event raises funds to protect North American and Canadian waterways, and regularly raises over $1 million. The event was first held in 1986, and has gone on to become one of the most popular celebrity skiing events, attracting stars such as Pierce Brosnan, Christie Brinkley and Tim Robbins.

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TORONTO - This year marks the 250th anniversary of Scottish poet Robert Burns’s birth, and to mark the occasion, a group of Canadian writers and media luminaries will be taking a dip in frigid Lake Ontario. Margaret Atwood, Shelagh Rogers, Ken McGoogan, and Bill Lishman, among others, will be on hand to either take the plunge or lend support.

The event, which takes place at 1 p.m. on January 24 at the A.E. Crookes Headland in Port Credit, is to raise money for Mississauga’s EcoSource, a group that works in schools and throughout the Peel Region community to educate youth on sustainable living and environmental awareness.

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