Canada

A friend and I are planning to drive to Alaska and spend a month fishing and exploring. Any ideas of what to see and do in Canada and Alaska? Your likely driving route through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory will take you through such Canadian towns as Vancouver, Prince George, Whitehorse and Dawson City. Each city has its own charm and interesting sights, but you won't want to linger too long if you intend to reach Anchorage in a few days. For ideas, check out the North to Alaska Web site (northtoalaska.

Casey Powell seemed to be running away from the past more than the Canadians last night.After watching Canada rush back to within a goal, Powell raced around the field, winding out the final 45 seconds to secure a 16-15 win in the first World Cup before an announced crowd of 3,077. The Americans, who haven't lost to Canada since the 1978 World Games final, take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three World Cup series, which resumes at Homewood Field tomorrow night.Powell, a member of last year's U.S. national team, remembers all too vividly how Canada can dissolve leads.

Pan American GamesAs medals roll in, U.S. officials defend `B team' selectionsAs the United States piled up more medals yesterday, team officials defended the selection process for the Pan American Games.USOC executive director Richard Schultz said the Games have been run well, calling them a "gold medal performance" by the Winnipeg organizers. He also took exception to suggestions the United States did not bring its best athletes to these Games."We've accomplished a lot of things here," Schultz said.

Since the World Cup lacked the pageantry of last summer's World Championships, the United States decided to create some fireworks of its own last night.Firing past the Canadian defense with ease, the U.S. team celebrated early and often during its 20-10 rout in front of 4,783 at Homewood Field. The Americans, whose national team has won seven World Championships, swept the first best-of-three World Cup series with the victory.Casey Powell, the World Cup's Most Valuable Player, recorded another standout performance with five goals and one assist.

OTTAWA -- Canadians on both sides of the nation's deep linguistic divide say they were stunned by President Clinton's unexpectedly passionate appeal here for national unity and federalism.Clinton traveled to the flash point of separatism in North America and, without mentioning Quebec nationalism, argued Friday that "the United States and Canada are among the most fortunate countries in the world because we have such diversity."If every major "racial and ethnic and religious group" won independence, "we might have 800 countries in the world and have a very difficult time having a functioning economy," Clinton said, addressing a forum on federalism that earlier in the week had become a platform for complaints by Quebec separatists.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Automakers built a record 17.62 million vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year, a 9.9 percent increase from 1998 fueled by the expanding U.S. economy, according to Ward's Automotive Reports.U.S. production rose 8.6 percent to a projected 13,030,938 cars and trucks, beating the previous high of 12.9 million built in 1978, Ward's said. Canadian output rose 19 percent to beat its 1997 record and Mexican production rose 5.6 percent from last year's record.

WHATEVER YOU are doing, drop it right now, unless it is a baby. Because I have obtained some shocking information regarding our National Security -- information that I am going to reveal to you now, despite the chilling fact that, by revealing it, I am placing myself in direct, personal peril of winning a Pulitzer Prize.This information concerns some alarming military research currently being conducted by a foreign power that represents the greatest single security threat to the United States, as measured not only by the magnitude of the physical danger, but also by the number of Celine Dion records.

NAGANO, Japan -- Before the NBA Dream Team's first-ever Olympic game, Charles Barkley said, "I don't know anything about Angola. But Angola's in trouble."Well, the U.S. men's ice hockey team knew about Sweden.And the United States was in trouble."I wish we could have played Jamaica or something," Mike Modano said after Team USA lost its Olympic opener, 4-2.This isn't 1992, or even 1996.The American NBA stars had no competition.The American NHL stars have almost too much."I think that's what a lot of people who aren't familiar with the game of hockey are truly unaware of," U.S. goaltender Mike Richter said.

Follow the money, a certain anonymous source told Watergate reporter Bob Woodward about 25 years ago, and that advice often serves consumers well too. But if you're a traveler looking for bargains abroad, you're better off doing the opposite: Follow the enfeebled economies.Mostly, that means checking out nations whose currency buys substantially fewer dollars than it did a year or two ago - such as the nations of Southeast Asia, but also often-overlooked destinations such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

NAGANO, Japan -- The 1980 U.S. men's hockey team authored the "Miracle on Ice." Eighteen years later, the U.S. women's team delivered the sequel.Their run to the Olympic gold medal might not have been as dramatic as the men's triumph, but their achievement was just as historic, their celebration just as memorable.The moment yesterday's 3-1 victory over Canada was complete, the U.S. players threw their gloves and sticks into the air, draped themselves in American flags and embraced in tears.

OTTAWA -President Barack Obama offered the nation's largest trading partner assurances yesterday of his support for robust cross-border commerce in a seven-hour visit to Canada that was his first foreign trip as president. In a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama said he wanted to "grow trade and not contract it." His remarks set a considerably more enthusiastic tone than during the presidential campaign, in which he had called for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement that governs commerce with Canada and Mexico.

CHICAGO -- Unmoved by testimony about a jet-setting lifestyle at company expense but certain that Hollinger International had been pilfered, a federal jury found press baron Conrad Black guilty yesterday of the lesser but still serious charges of obstruction of justice and three counts of mail fraud. With Black's former business partner David Radler serving as a star witness against him, prosecutors accused Black, 62, of masterminding a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly plundered more than $60 million from Chicago-based Hollinger, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers.

A friend and I are planning to drive to Alaska and spend a month fishing and exploring. Any ideas of what to see and do in Canada and Alaska? Your likely driving route through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory will take you through such Canadian towns as Vancouver, Prince George, Whitehorse and Dawson City. Each city has its own charm and interesting sights, but you won't want to linger too long if you intend to reach Anchorage in a few days. For ideas, check out the North to Alaska Web site (northtoalaska.

Good morning --Vernon Wells-- With that contract, better bring your "eh" game to Canada.

Republican lawmakers headed home from Washington this week bragging to constituents of enacting legislation that, in the words of New York Rep. John M. McHugh, "can help lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans." Which is true - if millions of Americans take their prescriptions to Canada and bring back the drugs in no greater quantity than a three-month supply. Even with election-year pressure bearing down on Congress, lawmakers were unable to strike more than a token blow against the pharmaceutical industry lobby that uses its political heft to maintain artificially high drug prices in this country.

Four years after American officials snatched him off a commercial flight and shipped him to Syria for interrogation as a suspected terrorist, Canadian Maher Arar was exonerated last week in an exhaustive, 1,200-page report from his government that said he was subjected to torture based on a total mistake. But despite the long-awaited conclusions of Canada's Commission of Inquiry, it might take much longer for Arar to achieve official vindication here, where his attempts to sue have been met by an unusual but formidable legal defense called the "state secrets privilege" that stops cases such as his in their tracks.

Robert Douglas Jeffs, a Johns Hopkins Hospital physician who specialized in pediatric urology, died Aug. 28 of pulmonary fibrosis. The Owings Mills resident was 82. Dr. Jeffs was born in Toronto and graduated from Upper Canada College. He started his pre-medical studies before joining the Canadian Air Force when he was 17 years old. He trained to fly Tiger Moth biplanes, but remained in Canada throughout World War II. When the war ended, he returned to school and earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto.

They've tried scrubbing the walls, deodorizing the drapes and using high-powered air cleaners and ozone treatment machines. But, the executives at Bethesda-based Marriott International Inc. say, nothing can truly eliminate the telltale odor of tobacco smoke in a hotel room. Yesterday, Marriott took the ultimate step, announcing that starting in September no smoking would be allowed anywhere in its 2,300 hotels in the United States and Canada - not in the 400,000 guest rooms, not in the bars, not in the restaurants, not even in the employee locker rooms.

With clockwork precision, every major cruise line dispatches vessels to ports in New England and Eastern Canada in fall. These annual pilgrimages enable cruisers to gawk at landscapes aglow in gold, red and amber. And now is the time to plan your autumn outing. Options abound for cruising to the region's seaside hamlets and historic cities, but keep in mind that these itineraries are popular and fill up fast, especially for sailings at the height of leaf-peeping season. A number of lines sail these waters for an extended period -- typically starting in May, when travelers still will get the cultural flavor of the region, albeit without the blazing colors that cruises in September and October bring.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Buck Martinez says he gets it. As the manager of the United States' World Baseball Classic entry, Martinez understands the disappointment after his team filled with major league stars lost to an unheralded, hockey-loving nation like Canada. He realizes that he may be grouped with the NBA's Larry Brown, who couldn't lead his bunch of all-star basketball players to an Olympic gold medal, despite having the most talent. Martinez knows every fan and so-called expert in the country expected the U.S. squad to cruise to the second round of the Classic, and that Canada's 8-6 win Wednesday shocked the baseball world.