The Annex Guardian

The goal of this year's marathon is to raise $1 million for more than 60 small Toronto charities including Invest in Kids, the Assaulted Women's Helpline and Fort York Food Bank.

The marathon (42 kilometres), which also offers a half marathon (21 kilometres) and five-kilometre run has become one of the premier sporting events in Toronto and across North America, according to organizers.

"This race is Toronto's race and there is truly a way for everyone in our city to participate," said Alan Brookes, race director, in a press release.

This year there are three ways for Torontonians to get involved. People who aren't running can participate by pledging a runner or by coming out to cheer along the race route or at one of Scotia Toronto Waterfront's 10 official Neighbourhood Cheering and Entertainment Centres from the Humber to the Beaches.

This year's marathon starts and finishes at Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. W. beginning at 7:30 a.m. Visit www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com for the full race route.

U of T's SciNet Consortium, which includes both the university and its affiliated research hospitals, will be able to use the computer to increase their research capabilities in medical imaging, climate change prediction, astrophysics, chemical physics, aeronautics and other fields.

The computer is expected to rank among the Top 20 most powerful supercomputers in the world, capable of performing 360 trillion calculations in a single second. That would make it 30 times faster than Canada's current largest research system, the largest system ever built on a university campus and the largest supercomputer outside the United States.

With five petabytes (five quadrillion bytes) of storage, the supercomputer will be able to run a diverse array of software applications at high speeds.

Work on the supercomputer will begin immediately at a facility north of the city and is expected to be completed by summer of next year. One of the computer's first projects will be predicting climate change patterns for Ontario and the Great Lakes region.

Jean Laveau pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000 and possession of burglary tools on Aug. 7.

The former Montreal resident had already served 23 days in jail at the time of his sentencing.

Laveau has four prior criminal convictions for possession of stolen property, burglary tools and property obtained by crime.

He was arrested in mid-July after police caught him in the process of stealing a bicycle across from a Queen West shop.

Igor Kenk, owner of the Bicycle Clinic, now faces over 50 theft and drug-related charges in connection with alleged bicycle thefts.

Toronto Police will likely auction off or donate the 2,500 or so recovered bicycles to charity once court cases pertaining to the bike-theft ring wrap up.

The Institute for Contemporary Culture at the ROM will present American filmmaker Robert Adanto's directorial debut at 7:30 p.m.

The film explores China's transformation through the work and words of several of the country's leading young artists, photographers and filmmakers. The director will be there to introduce his film and take questions from the audience.

Tickets are available on day of event beginning at 6 p.m. at the south entrance of the ROM. Tickets are $10, $8 for ROM Members and $6 for Friends of the Institute for Contemporary Culture.

Visit www.therisingtidefilm.com for more information and to view the film's trailer.

Police report the suspect, who identified himself as "Steve", approached his victims and asked if he could take their picture for a project he was working on. Police allege a man then takes the picture and asks the victims to start exposing themselves more to him before taking them to a more secluded location where he allegedly sexually assaults them.

Police have issued a public safety alert about this potential sex offender.

He is described as a white male, in his 40s with short, curly dark graying hair and is clean shaven. He is six-feet tall with a thin build and was wearing tinted sunglasses, dark khaki shorts and a light-coloured T-shirt. He was also riding a white bicycle and carrying a dark knapsack and a camera.

Anyone with information should call 416-808-5304 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or www.222tips.com.