QUEBEC CITY, Canada (AFP) – A winter wonderland on the outskirts of Quebec City has become one of Canada’s hottest attractions and most sought out accommodations.

Guests huddle for warmth in sleeping bags on beds of ice, bonnets pulled over their ears to prevent frostbite, while sipping cocktails in glasses also made of ice.

A cool place to host a memorable wedding or for a romantic getaway, the Quebec Ice Hotel has attracted 600,000 curious tourists, including 30,000 who stayed overnight, since opening seasonally 11 years ago.

Washington (CNN) — A Russian company is seeking to buy a controlling interest in one of the largest uranium extraction operations in the United States — a sale that requires U.S. government review because of possible national security implications.

Uranium One USA, now a subsidiary of a Canadian company, operates a uranium processing facility in Wyoming and has assets in Utah, Texas and Colorado. The sale of the company’s existing and pending operations could give Russia control of about 20 percent of U.S. uranium extraction capacity, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials estimate.

(CNN) — The storm known as Igor was moving farther away from Canada on Wednesday morning, but could still produce hurricane-force winds in the area.

As of 12:30 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET), Igor was about 445 kilometers (277 miles) east of St. Anthony, Newfoundland, according to the Canadian Weather Office. It had maximum sustained winds of about 86 mph (139 kph).

A hurricane-force wind warning remained in effect for the northeasternmost Newfoundland marine areas.

WASHINGTON – The man removed from an Aeromexico flight bound for Mexico City Sunday was the subject of a terror warning issued for the U.S.-Mexico border last week, senior U.S. counterterrorism officials told NBC News on Monday.

Homeland Security had asked law enforcement in Houston to be on the lookout for a suspected member of al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida ally based in Somalia, early last week, the sources said.

VANCOUVER — After she won silver in the 1,000-meter race late in these 2010 Vancouver Games, short-track speedskater Katherine Reutter met the press with an American flag draped over her light-blue warm-up jacket.

The flag wasn’t going anywhere and neither was the big smile on her face.

“I have a lot of pride to have done this for my country,” she said. “The USA can honestly say we went to the Olympics and we came back victorious.”

The 2010 U.S. Olympic team put on a performance for the history books. When they gave out the final medals Sunday, the Americans — for the first time since the 1932 Games in Lake Placid — stood atop the overall medals table, with 37.

VANCOUVER (AP) — That was no way to treat friends.

And neighbors.

Not to mention guys you’ll be back working alongside in less than 10 days.

But that’s exactly what made USA 5, Canada 3 so special. For two hours Sunday, in what the Olympic program listed as just a preliminary-round game, the mercenaries from the NHL forgot about paychecks and played for nothing more tangible than national pride.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Vancouver has again topped a list of the top 10 most liveable cities in the world, giving the Canadian west coast city an extra boost as it opens the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In the annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Vancouver scored 98 percent on a combination of stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure — a score unchanged from last year.

The city has also topped the index since at least 2007.

The Bush adminstration is quietly making approval for a super highway 10 lanes wide, train, and oil pipe lines running from the South of Mexico to the Heart of America and onto Canada. This highly restricted highway will eliminate unions as cheap Mexican labour can take all products from the Far East by passing the American Border and drop off all products in Kanasas City for clearance and then onto any desination in the USA or Canada.