The Vancouver Winter Olympics drew to a spectacular close on Sunday after 17 days of intense competition.

Canada topped the medal table, with 14 golds, seven silvers and five bronze medals, while the United States won the most medals with 37 overall.

Amy Williams clinched skeleton gold to win Britain’s only medal at the Games.

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge said: “This extraordinary embrace by the entire city is something unique and has given a great atmosphere for these Games.”

The closing ceremony began with the comedic emergence of the Olympic flame’s fourth ice crystal leg, which failed to appear during the opening ceremony.

The show, which lasted more than two hours, featured the likes of Canadian actors William Shatner and Michael J. Fox poking fun at their country in a self-deprecating manner.

The Games, which featured 2500 athletes from 82 competing nations, had begun in the worst possible way with the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

The 21-year-old was killed when his sled flipped and he hit a steel pole during a training run on the much criticised, high-speed Whistler Sliding Centre track.

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

HONOLULU – A tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake sent a surge of water ashore in Hawaii, California and islands in the South Pacific on Saturday as the waves continued onto Alaska and parts of Asia.

There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the U.S. or in the Pacific islands, but a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing.

In Hawaii, water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo’s coast.

The tsunami caused a series of surges that were about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) high, while Maui saw some as high as 2 meters (6.5 feet).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled its tsunami warning for Hawaii.

“We dodged a bullet,” said Gerard Fryer, a geophysist for the warning center. He said there was the possibility that the tsunami would gain strength again as it heads to Japan.

There were no immediate reports of widespread damage around the Pacific Rim, just tidal surges that reached up to about seven feet in some island chains. Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. No injuries or major property damage were reported.

Nearly 50 countries and island chains remained under tsunami warnings, from Antartica to Russia’s far northeast.

The tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a jetliner after the quake hit Chile hours earlier. Unlike other tsunamis in recent years in which residents had little warning, emergency officials had ample time to get people out of the potential disaster area.

Sirens blared in Hawaii to alert residents to the potential waves. Emergency officials used buses to ferry people in tourist-heavy Waikiki away from the shore. Authorities even flew overhead in Cessnas blaring warnings to people to get out of the potential danger zone.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com

TALCA, Chile – One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and authorities said at least 214 people were dead.

The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as scores of aftershocks — one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake — shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile but said the government has not asked for assistance from other countries. If it does, President Barack Obama said, the United States “will be there.” Around the world, leaders echoed his sentiment.

In Chile, newly built apartment buildings slumped and fell. Flames devoured a prison. Millions of people fled into streets darkened by the failure of power lines. The collapse of bridges tossed and crushed cars and trucks, and complicated efforts to reach quake-damaged areas by road.

At least 214 people were killed, according to Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma, and officials said about 1.5 million homes suffered at least some damage.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, people sleeping in bed suddenly felt like they were flying through major airplane turbulence as their belongings cascaded around them from the shuddering walls at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT).

A deafening roar rose from the convulsing earth as buildings groaned and clattered. The sound of screams was confused with the crash of plates and windows.

Then the earth stilled, silence returned and a smell of moist dust rose in the streets, where stunned survivors took refuge.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com