Canary

London's venerable financial district has survived all manner of attacks over the centuries, from plagues and fires to the bombs of World War II. Now the twisting streets and stately buildings known as "the City" face a more subtle threat: defectors. The Canary Wharf complex in Docklands east of the heart of London, which once looked like Britain's biggest real estate disaster, is luring away some of the City's top residents with a promise of wide open office spaces.

More than half a mile underground, Vladimir M. Pogoreyuv slogged through water up to his calves, careful not to touch the naked 600-volt wire running just inches above his head along the roof of the Maiskaya mine. "I'm wearing rubber boots, so even though we're standing in water it probably wouldn't kill me if I were to accidentally touch it," said the 47-year-old miner in Russia's DonBass coal region, about 450 miles south of Moscow.

Jim Reach knew France wasn't a baseball hotbed, but he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. "We were driving on a bumpy dirt road, winding through trees and fields, and we kept wondering, 'Where the hell could this baseball field be?' " said Reach, the former baseball coach at Rancho Santiago College and Savanna High. Reach and his partner Pat Doyle soon arrived at their destination in a countryside near Mantes La Jolie, about 40 miles west of Paris.

Electric utility stocks are in a downward spiral, and that's raising two of Wall Street's least favorite questions: Have interest rates bottomed? And is the bull market on its last legs? The Dow utility stock index sank 1.45 points to 241.76 on Tuesday, its lowest close since late June. The index has lost 5.7% since peaking at 256.46 in mid-September, while most other major stock indexes have either moved sideways or run up to new highs.

Joe Stromei loves his garden: "It's so hard for me to go to work in the mornings, especially in the spring, when it's all starting to bloom. Look at this, how can I leave it?" Stromei sweeps his arms wide, embracing hundreds of roses, irises, succulents, anemones, pansies, abutilon, palms, pools, trees and stone walls. Not to mention his four dogs, 500 chickens, 200 canaries and uncounted fish.

Arriving on this island of eternal springtime is a little akin to receiving a lifetime lease on paradise, with an option for the hereafter. Tenerife, the largest and most beautiful island of the Canaries and the most popular with tourists, lies about 700 miles southwest of the Spanish mainland.

In its first detailed financial disclosure since seeking refuge in bankruptcy courts two months ago, Olympia & York Developments Ltd. said Friday that it lost $1.76 billion in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31. The Toronto-based mega-developer said the loss would have been even greater had the company been able to quantify the "major deterioration" in the value of its uncompleted Canary Wharf project in London's Docklands.

Construction at Canary Wharf, Europe's largest commercial development, shut down Thursday after the project's owners, Olympia & York Developments Ltd., sought to protect its holdings in the 71-acre development under British bankruptcy laws. The developer, owned by the secretive Reichmann brothers of Toronto, filed for bankruptcy protection May 14 for most of its Canadian assets, a move that did not directly affect properties in the United States or Britain.

Olympia & York plans to seek court protection for the giant Canary Wharf project in London, a major blow to the developer's efforts to restructure $12.2 billion in debt, sources said Wednesday. Toronto-based Olympia & York intends to ask a British court today to appoint an administrator to oversee the 71-acre office development that has been a severe drain on Olympia & York's finances.

Cash-strapped Olympia & York Developments Ltd. has asked a court to put its massive Canary Wharf office complex in London under bankruptcy protection, the company said Wednesday. Canary Wharf, Europe's largest commercial property complex, is a cornerstone of the O&Y empire controlled by the Toronto-based Reichmann brothers.