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VANCOUVER - As the NHL lockout dragged on Thursday, the world junior hockey championship was a welcome distraction for some members of the Vancouver Canucks.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Less than a day after letting a self-imposed deadline pass to declare a "disclaimer of interest," NHL players began voting to restore their executive board's authority to dissolve the union.

CLEVELAND - Nick Swisher's smile was broader and brighter than the Chief Wahoo logo on his new cap. He was back in Ohio, back at home, back where it all started. "This is the place for me to be," he said. "All roads led to Cleveland.

EDMONTON - Alberta's Wildrose party has come up with a lottery scheme that it hopes will skate around the politics of funding new NHL hockey arenas in Edmonton and Calgary.

McMaster's Matt Sewell and Calgary's Kirby Fabien have one more college football game to play. The towering offensive tackles will participate in the East-West Shrine game Jan. 19 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania's attorney general said she granted Gov.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Sidney Crosby's been down the road too many times during the NHL's seemingly interminable lockout to get too optimistic about the latest — and perhaps last — round of negotiations.

NEWARK, N.J. - Jeff Vanderbeek has taken over sole control of the New Jersey Devils and refinanced the team's debt.

UFA, Russia - An NHL lockout has helped lift sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ to gold at past world junior hockey championships. But not this time. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ dominated en route to gold in 1995 and 2005 when the NHL also locked out its players.

LONDON - A man got into the Olympic Stadium for the men's 100-meter final at the London Games without a valid ticket and shouted abuse at Usain Bolt before throwing a plastic bottle onto the track, prosecutors said Thursday.