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An Olympic concert venue in downtown Vancouver has reopened following an accident that injured 19 people at a free event late last night. A show by the band Alexisonfire at LiveCity Yaletown in David Lam Park was abruptly halted when a mass of spectators rushed forward, causing a large barricade near the stage to collapse and hurling people to the ground. The band was only part way into its first song when fans started surging towards the stage, a witness named TJ told CTV News. "Everyone just moved a bit forward and unfortunately pushed a little too far, the fence went over," he said. Witness Darren Goodridge, 28, said he saw about 30 to 40 people fall to the ground on top of one another. "It was a mass of people rushing forward, and falling everywhere," he told ctvbc.ca by phone. Live Nation President Paul Haagenson said the band stopped playing immediately when the barrier went down. "[They] encouraged all the audience to calm down, take a step...

The $8-million man hits the slopes Wednesday as one of the Vancouver Games’ hottest celebrities Shaggy red hair. Baggy pants. Scrawny chest. T-shirt for every occasion — like, maybe, trolling the mall to spend some of the $8 million (U.S.) that sponsors hurl his way each year for riding a board like no one else. Say a large “How do, dude!” to Shaun White, a 23-year-old, half-piping, American superstar whose journey from X Games legend to Olympic champion and, hence, mainstream sports hero, makes him one of Vancouver’s hottest celebrities. White takes his high-flying act to the dewy slopes of Cypress Mountain Wednesday (4:05 p.m. ET, qualification round) where tricks honed on a secret $500,000 training ramp (courtesy of sponsor Red Bull) will be unleashed on the field. Off the slopes, “The Flying Tomato” (as he’s nicknamed for his famous red ringlets) is in top financial form. White is one of the highest-earning Olympians in Vancouver. Forbes Magazine estimates that the engagi...

We all must have a credo, an unwavering principle to guide us through this challenging life. On this, I shall make my stand: Figure skating is not a sport. In fact, figure skating isn't even figure skating. I love the Olympics. I enjoy watching so-called figure skating, which is an Olympic activity. But figure skating is not a sport. It is athletic. It is artistic. It is beautiful, and it is not easy. So is ballet. Ballet is not a sport. Figure skating fails the sport/not a sport test on three major grounds: The judging is subjective (Doubt that? Stand by for the quadrennial Olympic judging scandal); it is done to music; and it involves costumes. Nothing done to music is a sport. And anything involving costumes (especially with sequins) is not a sport. Sports have uniforms, not costumes. And now, why figure skating, in addition to not being a sport, is not figure skating. Her name is Beatrix (Trixie) Schuba of Austria, winner of the 1972 Winter Olympic gold medal for fi...

VANCOUVER–No matter how often the video of David Backes' powerful 190-foot sweep down the ice for a goal is replayed, it offers no real insight into what the 6-foot-3 centre adds to the United States' chances of taking home a medal from this Olympic hockey tournament. More telling is the blood-soaked cotton batting stuffed up his left nostril; this is a player willing to get his nose dirty. He will bleed for his team. Backes was a physical force the Swiss defence couldn't handle Tuesday. He scored once, slammed bodies and trash-talked relentlessly as one of the Americans' emotional leaders in a 3-1 tournament-opening victory over Switzerland. Backes teamed with Bobby Ryan, who also scored, Ryan Callahan and sometimes Chris Drury to form a fourth line that gives the Americans depth that may not be apparent on paper. That line basically wrested the game into submission through a dominant second period, as the U.S. overcame some fine early checking by the Swiss. ...

VANCOUVER: Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo gave China their first ever Olympic figure skating title when they won gold in the pairs event in Vancouver while ending Russia's 50-year domination of the event. The husband-and-wife team led a Chinese 1-2 ahead of teammates Pang Qing and Tong Jian with Germany's reigning two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy taking bronze after the free skating final on Monday. It was the first time since 1960 that a pair from Russia or the former Soviet Union have not taken the gold. Shen, 31, and Zhao, 36, had returned after retiring for two years in their bid to claim gold after winning bronze at the past two Olympics. And although they had a less than perfect programme to Adagio in G Minor by Tomaso Albinoni it was enough to seal victory by a 3.26 margin on Pang and Tong. "We've had this dream for many, many years," said three-time world champion Zhao. "We've won other titles and every time we hear...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 NATO offensive faces Taliban resistanceKABUL: Booby traps are continuing to cause problems for US and Afghan troops on day four of one of NATO’s biggest offensives against the Taliban. Military officials say hundreds of mines have been found, slowing up progress – US marines admit they’ve been surprised by their sheer number. The troops have also endured sporadic sniper fire in and around Marjah, the Taliban’s last stronghold in Helmand province. NATO says civilians‘ safety its top priority after twelve people, half of them children, were killed by US rockets. Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s Interior Minister, described what happened as “unfortunate”: “The insurgents were using a compound, which at that point our forces didn’t know whether it was occupied by the civilians”, he said. An airstrike in neighbouring Kandahar province also killed five civilians who were mistakenly believed to have been planting roadside bombs. NATO’s credibility rests on...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE: The scale of devastation in Haiti is far worse than in Asia after the 2004 tsunami, a study has said, estimating the cost of last month's earthquake at up to 14 billion dollars. The report released Tuesday from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) raised the possibility that the quake could be the most destructive disaster in modern history. Its stark assessment comes with Port-au-Prince still lying in ruins more than one month on, while the bodies of more than 200,000 dead pile up in mass graves outside the capital. The study's release coincided with what would normally be Haiti's annual carnival, an explosion of pulsing music and colorful parades. But this year, the events have been cancelled as no one is in the mood to party. The preliminary IDB report estimated the damage at between eight and 14 billion dollars in what was already the poorest country in the Americas before the catastrophe. Factoring in Haiti...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for calm Tuesday in already tense Ivory Coast where presidential polls are being repeatedly delayed, warning against a return to internal unrest. "The Secretary General urges the Ivorian people to remain calm and avoid resorting to any action that could cause renewed violence," a UN statement said. "He also calls on the Ivorian political leaders and other national stakeholders to exercise restraint, avoid measures that could return the country to instability, and resolve the current challenges related to the already repeatedly delayed elections through dialogue," it added. The statement noted that Ban and his special envoy to Ivory Coast, Choi Young-jin, were pursuing consultations with stakeholders after Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo's shock decision Friday to sack the government and ask Prime Minister Guillaume Soro to form a new administration. Gbagbo also dismissed the head...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday invited journalists to a region of southern Afghanistan besieged by US-led troops so they "can see with their own eyes" a massive assault aimed at eradicating militants from the area. US Marines are leading 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops in Helmand province in what is said to be the biggest anti-Taliban assault in the war against the militants, now in its ninth year. NATO and Afghan military commanders say the combined troops are meeting resistance from Taliban fighters in Marjah district and that fleeing militants have littered wide areas with improvised bombs. In an emailed invitation to a foreign news agency, the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" -- as the Taliban called itself during its 1996-2001 rule invited "all independent mass media outlets of the world to send their reporters to Marjah". Reporters who accepted would "see the situation with their own eyes and convey the fact...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 BERLIN: Afghanistan could be as much as two decades away from being a functioning state, the head of the German army warned Tuesday, as Berlin prepared to send more troops to the war-torn region. "Despite help from outside, statehood rarely develops overnight," said Volker Wieker in an article written for local daily. "In general, it takes between one and two decades to become a functioning state and this process is often accompanied by internal power struggles and violent debate over the right model for society," he added. Germany has up to 4,500 troops in the north of the country, making it the third-largest contingent after the United States and Britain.