The Christmas Eve turned to be a misery for the several stores, restaurants and artist spaces at the Kingsway-and-Broadway hipster hub of Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood after a fire engulfed the area.

The recently released figures by Statistics Canada claimed rise in prices of houses located in the Toronto area in October as compared to previous month. Overall home sales in the region rose significantly in October, reporting a two year high level.

The war against drugs has not been able to prevent any further rise in the use of crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine in Vancouver in the last 10 years as per a study released this week.

Researchers found that there was still uninterrupted use of highly addictive drugs and a high mortality rate among needle users due to the HIV infection.

Vancouver based wireless carrier, Telus Corp., has reported a drop in the third quarter profits stating that customers made fewer phone calls using their mobile phones for the period. The total net earnings fell to C$280 million ($261 million), or 88 cents a share, for the July-September period for the current year, down from C$286 million, or 89 cents, recorded last year.

MechWarrior fans are keyed up as a new game in the MechWarrior series has been confirmed.

The new game simply called MechWarrior, releasing on the Xbox 360 and PC, is going to be a full refresh and complete reboot for the series.

Smith & Tinker and Vancouver-based Piranha Games are developing the game jointly.

Joining the likes of Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios and Rare, the Vancouver-based BigPark game studio has been acquired by Microsoft, even as the company is on currently on a staff-slashing spree to cut costs!

On Friday morning, the B. C. government announced the opening of Metro Vancouver's new rapid transit line three months ahead of schedule.

According to researchers men who consume higher quantities of vitamin C have a lower risk of developing gout. Dr. Hyon Choi and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in a paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine said, "Vitamin C intake may provide a useful option in the prevention of gout."

On Tuesday Vancouver's stellar credit rating took another serious hit, when Moody's Investor Services revising the city's debt rating, downgraded it from Aaa-Plus to AAA-Negative, affecting how the city's potential loan partners will view it, when it comes to borrowing money for key projects. No doubt, Vancouver will now be seen as a far greater risk.