Canada

They have analyzed the dynamics of curling and the hand positioning of downhill skiers. They have studied snowflakes and steel-on-ice interaction. They have used video technology to help skater Patrick Chan do the right thing. They want gold.

The Winter Olympics will officially be opened on 12 February by the governor general of Canada, Michaëlle Jean. She is a refugee from Haiti who came to Canada in 1968. The motto of the Games is "With glowing hearts/Des plus brillants exploits".

With the race for the riches of the Arctic heating up, even peaceful Canada has been holding war games to prepare for possible military confrontation. Russia has placed its flag beneath the Arctic ice, staking a claim to the natural resources there.

With water on three sides, Vancouver has one of the mildest climates in Canada. It offers spectacular scenery in a vibrant city of over half a million people from all over the world. It's also the home of next year's Winter Olympic Games.

The city of Calgary sits at the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It puts on the world's largest outdoor rodeo event in a ten-day festival, the Calgary Stampede, every summer.

It's a "critical time" for polar bears and their survival now depends on Canadians, the country's environment minister says.

From Calgary to Montreal, from jazz to curling, Canada is a place where nature, city, culture and sport meet.

Getting a tattoo used to mean going to a bad part of town. No more. Visitors to Adam Sky's tattoo studio in Vancouver's hip neighbourhood of Gastown are in for a surprise.