Island-Sity

A place where cowboys ride the range, manta rays dance, whales sing and the views of the the night sky are unrivaled might sound like make believe — but it’s not. It’s called the Island of Hawaii — better known as the Big Island — and its wonders are manifold. Mere sightseeing, however, hardly does justice to the natural splendor of this place. Here are our picks for the best ways to get up close and personal with the treasures of the Big Island. Volcanoes and Vino: Perhaps the best place to...

The government will move to set up the inquiry into the disaster when Parliament resumes. An internal customs review has found officials acted appropriately and the agency did not have any intelligence about the boat before it smashed into rocks, killing up to 50 asylum seekers. But the opposition's immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says a full policy review is needed. "Like with any matter such as this, I think we need to keep an open book on what needs to be done," he said. "There'll be...

One mayor -Bill McMurchie of Pointe Claire -describes it as the equivalent of a metro line for the West Island, an all-but-abandoned dream. Commuter trains on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line running at least every 30 minutes weekdays between 5:30 a.m. and midnight; every 12 minutes at rush hour. Twelve "express trains" skipping stations to cut travel time. That new level of service -86 weekday trains, up from the current, mostly rush-hour 26 -moved one step closer to reality yesterday when Quebec...

From the desolate shoreline, a flash of red cut through the night. It was not a common sight on the wild west coast of Haida Gwaii, where there are no roads, no people. When the crew of the fish boat went in closer to investigate what appeared to be an emergency flare, they heard a woman screaming on the beach. A few hours later, Elaine Campbell was being loaded into a Coast Guard rescue boat, the miraculous survivor of six harrowing days alone in the wilderness, her companion washed away in...

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles (1883.5 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest island in Maui County. In 2000, Maui had a population of 117,644, the third-most populous of the Hawaiian islands. Rank: 2nd largest Hawaiian Island. Summer: In summer the trade wind weather predominates. Trades blow from the NE to ENE direction and provide the comfortable climate and...

Advocates of a €100-million ($141 million) project to reunite Helgoland's two islands said it would revitalize the tourist industry, but a referendum on the issue held on Sunday showed that a majority of residents in the tiny community are not convinced. Fifty-five percent of voters rejected the plan to build a sizeable land bridge, while some 45 percent were in favor. Helgoland, Germany's only high-sea archipelago, was split in two by a storm tide in 1720. The proposed project would have...

The Nassau Coliseum treats the Caps with kindness no matter how many times the visitors crash the party. Bruce Boudreau insisted that his team would be more aggressive tonight and they did not disappoint him. The game plan was forecheck more ambitiously and drive to the net with greater determination. We saw that pay dividends in the first five minutes. Nicklas Backstrom made a beautiful move to clear a defender at his own blue line and took the puck into space where Alex Ovechkin would join...

A Russian government delegation led by Regional Development Minister Victor Basargin on Monday visited Kunashiri Island, one of the four Russian-held islands also claimed by Japan, local media reported on Tuesday. According to the Russian authorities, Basargin was assigned by President Dmitry Medvedev to visit the disputed islands, with the purpose of inspecting infrastructure development in the course of implementation of Federal Target Program 2007-2015. Russia and Japan have long been at...

Mr Bowen says he expects to finalise plans to release the nine-year-old Iranian boy, known as Seena, into the community sometime today. But this morning, Seena and 21 other asylum seekers were in limbo in the Kimberleys after their plane back to Christmas Island was diverted yesterday because of bad weather off Western Australia. The asylum seekers were returning from Sydney, where they attended the funerals of family members who died in the Christmas Island shipwreck tragedy. Seena will be...

A wind storm that hit B.C.’s southwest coast on Wednesday morning has left tens of thousands without power, caused several ferry cancellations, and disappointed a number of Sarah McLachlan fans. As of 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, BC Hydro reports that power is out for 3,000 customers in the Lower Mainland and on the Sunshine Coast, and nearly 37,000 customers on Vancouver Island. “This storm is similar to one that hit us last April,” said Ted Olynyk of BC Hydro. “With that storm, we had over...

It's a good morning on Wolfe Island. The community placed among the CBC's final top 10 contenders for this year's Kraft Hockeyville competition, placing it in the running for a $100,000 prize. More than 150 Wolfe Island residents and supporters crowded into the Scared Heart Catholic School gymnasium at 8 p.m. Tuesday night to watch the results show on CBC. "This is fantastic," said Paul Hogan, a member of the Wolfe Island Hockeyville campaign. "This is a great thing for our community. The...

It's now 30 years since the United States’ worst nuclear crisis – the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Dick Thornburgh was the state's governor at the time and was faced with conflicting reports and decisions over evacuations. He later went on to become the US attorney general under presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush senior. He spoke to North America correspondent Lisa Millar. DICK THORNBURGH: Well there's an eerie similarity between what's happening in...

Stanford University has proposed a research and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City in an effort to create another high-tech hub a la Silicon Valley. If the school's plan - one of 18 submitted for four different city-owned sites - is selected later this year, it would be Stanford's only major campus outside of Palo Alto, and the first to bestow full graduate degrees. The complex could cost as much as $1 billion, house up to 2,200 graduate students, 100 faculty members, as...

Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, crippled by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, has discharged more radiation than the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the United States, according to calculations by the central government. It has already reached a level 6 serious accident on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). Separately, calculations made by experts place the level of soil contamination in some locations at levels comparable to those found after...

After 125 years of continuous service, Vancouver Island’s E&N Railway has reached the end of the line unless senior levels of government step forward with millions in funding for much-needed repairs, railway advocates say. “This is the moment of truth,” said Graham Bruce, executive director of the Island Corridor Foundation, which owns the 225-kilometre stretch of track. “It’s either a rebirth and a renewal and a future or it’s all over for the E&N. After an inspection by provincial officials...