West Coast

If the agreement holds and its principle elements are in fact observed, the trade agreement reached by the United States and China Sunday could prove a significant boost not only to the two nations' bilateral political relationship but to the economies of both. China is fast becoming a world economic player whose progress has been driven not by discredited communist economic theories but by newly developed entrepreneurship and growing export power from within China itself.

Potluck dishes, warm beer and venues such as a downtown alley haven't exactly landed L.A.'s fashion shows on the map with their more established counterparts in Milan, Paris and New York. But this year could be different. Recent issues of Vogue, W and InStyle have found the fashion-forward turning westward for inspiration. Indie L.A.

The Broadway season has opened with a California import, "Sherlock's Last Case. " First performed by the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre in '84, the version at the Nederlander Theatre stars Frank Langella as Sherlock Holmes. Two of the three New York papers that decide a play's fate liked Charles Marowitz's revisionist approach to Holmes and Dr. Watson. One--the New York Times--hated it.

Simon Gray's comedy "The Common Pursuit" makes its West Coast premiere at the Matrix Theatre, beginning with previews on Jan. 16 and opening Feb. 1 for a limited run. Gray will be playwright-in-residence for the Actors for Themselves production, which will feature Wayne Alexander, Bart Braverman, Clancy Brown, John de Lancie, Judy Geeson and Christopher Neame, Kristoffer Siegel-Tabori will direct.

Torrential rains burst riverbanks, sweeping away at least eight people and destroying dozens of flimsy riverside shacks in Haiti's west coast city of St. Marc, officials said. About 200 of the city's 60,000 residents fled their homes, said Gerald Joseph, a civil defense worker. Seven people were missing and more than 200 homes were destroyed or damaged in the flooding, the independent radio station Kiskeya reported.

Although CBS and ABC aired President Bush's Friday news conference live nationally, an NBC error gave the network's West Coast viewers only the regular "Today" broadcast normally aired there on a tape-delay basis. It was a mistake that will not happen again, said Marty Ryan, the program's executive producer.

Ice Cube looks weary. The rap star is sitting with fellow Westside Connection members Mack 10 and WC around a dinner table in a luxurious Westwood penthouse hotel suite. They're winding up a full day of interviews and photo shoots to promote their new album, "Terrorist Threats," which comes out Tuesday on Hoo-Bangin'/Priority Records. The trio is notoriously reclusive, so the rappers are stepping out of character by supporting the release with this kind of commitment.

High above the city of Birmingham, Ala., rises the statue of Vulcan, god of the forge. The statue is now a sadly ironic metaphor for this Southern manufacturing center, whose forges quickly cooled in the steel bust of the late 1970s.

One of North America's largest islands, 280-mile-long, 80-mile-wide Vancouver, offers a Holland-size haven for hikers. A mountainous backbone, a mellow east coast and majestic west coast, a rain forest, dramatic fiords, Pacific Rim National Park and dozens of provincial parks are some of the island's sights. The largest city, Victoria, is still a bit of Olde England, quaint and oh-so-charming for a carriage ride past the Parliament building or a stop for a spot of tea at the Empress Hotel.

Potent theatricality distinguishes "To Kill a Mockingbird" at West Coast Ensemble. Director Claudia Jaffee and a unified company invest Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a Depression-era Alabama rape trial with sharp invention and emotional truth. Eight-year-old Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout, recounts the narrative as an adult. Christopher Sergel's dramatization uses two actors in the role, a child (Jillian Clare) and Ferrell Marshall, who doubles as acerbic Miss Maudie.