British Columbia

It's less than 100 days until the Winter Olympics take place in Vancouver. The games begin Feb. 12 with opening ceremonies at BC Place Stadium. Many of the sporting events will take place at Whistler ski resort, ranked as the top resort in North America for 13 years in a row by readers of Skiing magazine. The last round of Olympic tickets, about 100,000, to events including curling, hockey and the ceremonies go on sale this weekend. 1 Be on the lookout. : Tourism officials suggest making your first stop at the Vancouver Lookout, a 430-foot outpost where visitors can ride a glass elevator to the top for a 360-degree view of the city, mountains and even Vancouver Island.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Roberto Luongo put on his hoodie and his headphones and went for a walk along Vancouver's scenic seawall Friday afternoon. He had been thumped in Boston, chased from the net, subjected again to criticism that he's not a big-game goalie despite his gold-medal triumph for Canada at the Vancouver Olympics. To lose again would have put a huge burden on his shoulders and those of his teammates. "Sometimes I need to clear my head and put things in perspective," he said of his solitary walk after the team's pregame meal.

We were stuck for an hour. On Route 99 outside of Squamish, British Columbia, traffic was bumper-to-bumper. In fact, cars didn't move at all.Route 99 was closed, as it is six hours each day.Known as the "Sea to Sky Highway," Route 99 is one of the most scenic drives in Canada. It snakes alongside Horseshoe Bay into the pristine Coast Mountains, a preserve of natural wonder north of Vancouver still largely unspoiled by development.We were en route to Whistler, a world-class skiing resort nestled between two mountains adjacent to Garibaldi Provincial Park.

I just returned to the U.S. from a pastorate in British Columbia, Canada, where for the past 10 years health care cost me $56 a month. I am very healthy. I only used the Canadian system once. Now I face huge expenses every month because I am over 61. Having experienced both systems, I am definitely in favor of a nationalized health care program now! Yes, it will have glitches as the public and the government get used to it, but I believe soon we will all be saying, "What took us so long?"

WASHINGTON -- The United States banned poultry from mainland British Columbia yesterday because of a case of bird flu, though Canadian officials said it wasn't the virulent form in Southeast Asia blamed for more than 60 human deaths. The governments of Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong indicated they would take similar action. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday that a duck at a commercial poultry farm in British Columbia had tested positive for bird flu. The virus was a low-pathogenic North American form that doesn't kill poultry and is not a threat to people, officials said.

I would like to visit the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia, touring some of the historic sights as well as visiting contemporary Haida artists.Long before the archipelago off the western coast of British Columbia was called the Queen Charlotte Islands -- it was given that name by a British explorer in the late 18th century -- the islands were known as the Haida Gwaii, meaning Haida Islands. There are still some 2,000 Haida living there today; the old unoccupied Haida villages, some with giant totems, in the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on southern Moresby Island are among the major attractions of the archipelago.

KHUTZEYMATEEN GRIZZLY BEAR SANCTUARY, British Columbia -- Clouds drift up against steep mountainsides. Eagles ride the updrafts overhead. Otters and seals backstroke alongside a rare sailboat gliding by. The only other signs of humanity are the occasional fluorescent orange buoys marking the prawn traps of commercial fishermen.And then the largest grizzly bear in the neighborhood emerges from the tangle of spruce, hemlock and huckleberry and onto a beach alongside the river.Biologists who study this area have named him Buffalo, and from the safety of a quarter-mile offshore, he does look as big as a bison.

MONTREAL -- The hunter appears to have come to a horrible end.A slip of the foot on a frozen trail -- perhaps just as he was about to hurl his spear into the flank of some thick-furred quarry that would have fed his wandering clan -- and the hunter plummeted to his death in a deep glacial crevasse.The prehistoric drama might have occurred several thousand years ago, though, for now, scientists eager to study the human remains, discovered this month at a receding glacier in British Columbia, will only speculate that the hunter died before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest.

Life hands you only so many opportunities to see a ghost, so I hang my head out the window and start calling for one. "Here, modie, modie, modie," I yell. There's no proof this kind of thing works, but I have to try. The man I met last night said that he'd seen ghosts standing right by the side of the road. I didn't know whether to believe him. He was being paid to sit in the middle of nowhere and count salmon -- just under 200,000 so far, with a lot of summer yet to go as the fish moved upstream to spawn, their silver fins cutting ripples -- and that might have made him a bit off. On the other hand, if I were a ghost here, where the Yellowhead Highway hits the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, in northwest British Columbia, I'd certainly hang out around salmon streams, so a guy counting fish would be a natural to be on the end of a manifestation.

SURREY, British Columbia -- Kent Austin passed for 523 yards (34-for-48) as British Columbia (5-1) defeated Toronto (2-4).The Argonauts visit Baltimore for the CFLs' next game Aug. 20.

The U.S. Soccer Federation announced Thursday that it will oversee the second division league this year, temporarily ending a dispute between the United Soccer Leagues and the North American Soccer League. Crystal Palace Baltimore will play in the NASL Conference, which also will have teams from Carolina, Miami, Montreal, St. Louis and Vancouver, British Columbia. The USL conference will have teams from Austin, Texas; Minnesota; Portland, Ore.; Puerto Rico; Rochester, N.Y., and Tampa Bay. The USSF last week refused to sanction either the USL or NASL, saying that both proposed leagues were unable to meet the minimum requirement of eight viable teams.

Y ou can do more than feed the birds this winter. You can count them. For the 23rd year, Project FeederWatch is under way. Regular citizens count and identify the birds that arrive at their feeders from November until early April and then send the data to Cornell University or Bird Studies Canada, where scientists track the health and habits of North American birds. Last year, Cornell received more than 117,000 data sheets from every state in the union and every Canadian province.

It's less than 100 days until the Winter Olympics take place in Vancouver. The games begin Feb. 12 with opening ceremonies at BC Place Stadium. Many of the sporting events will take place at Whistler ski resort, ranked as the top resort in North America for 13 years in a row by readers of Skiing magazine. The last round of Olympic tickets, about 100,000, to events including curling, hockey and the ceremonies go on sale this weekend. 1 Be on the lookout. : Tourism officials suggest making your first stop at the Vancouver Lookout, a 430-foot outpost where visitors can ride a glass elevator to the top for a 360-degree view of the city, mountains and even Vancouver Island.

Cities with highest quality of life 1 Zurich, Switzerland 2 Geneva, Switzerland 3 Vancouver, British Columbia 4 Vienna, Austria 5 Auckland, New Zealand 6 Dusseldorf, Germany 7 Frankfurt, Germany 8 Munich, Germany 9 (tie) Bern, Switzerland, and Sydney, Australia From a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting Co. based on interviews with residents.

Somali pirates release S. Korean cargo ship SEOUL, South Korea : Pirates who seized a South Korean cargo ship off the coast of Somalia more than a month ago freed the 22 sailors and the vessel yesterday, a South Korean official said. The crew members - eight South Koreans and 14 citizens from Myanmar - were heading toward a U.S. Navy vessel in the area after being set free, Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae Young told reporters. Moon said the sailors were all safe but declined to comment whether a ransom was paid.

My Best Shot A quiet oasis In September, my husband and I, along with two couples, visited the Northwest and parts of Canada. This photo was captured at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. Sally Lederer Grasonville

Bruce Fairbairn, 49, a record producer who started as a musician and produced some of rock's most successful acts, including Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, Kiss and Bon Jovi, was found dead Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The cause of death was not immediately known.Pub Date: 5/20/99

My Best Shot A quiet oasis In September, my husband and I, along with two couples, visited the Northwest and parts of Canada. This photo was captured at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. Sally Lederer Grasonville

WASHINGTON -- The United States banned poultry from mainland British Columbia yesterday because of a case of bird flu, though Canadian officials said it wasn't the virulent form in Southeast Asia blamed for more than 60 human deaths. The governments of Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong indicated they would take similar action. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday that a duck at a commercial poultry farm in British Columbia had tested positive for bird flu. The virus was a low-pathogenic North American form that doesn't kill poultry and is not a threat to people, officials said.

Entrepreneur Chad Stevens thinks he's found a way to help the well-heeled enjoy a footloose retirement. Stevens launched the Signature Destinations Club to give members access to luxury vacation homes around the world. "Many baby boomers won't be content to find that perfect retirement place and settle down for the rest of their lives - they'll want to be on the go," he said. The private residence club, which is based in Kirkland, Wash., is opening the first of nine regional hubs of homes in the Pacific Northwest in August.