NEWS LITE : ELWAY PLANNING NEW WEB KICKOFF.

John Elway is back in the huddle with new business partners a week after his bid to buy two pro sports teams was sacked.

The retired Denver Broncos quarterback and Boca Raton, Fla.-based JWGenesis Financial Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to create a new Internet site for health, fitness and financial planning.

The launch date: during the Super Bowl, of course, next January in Atlanta.

Elway retired this year after leading the Broncos to a second straight Super Bowl victory. During his years in Denver, he built a chain of car dealerships and invested in a Spanish-language Internet company, among other ventures.

His newest venture could bring quarterback and coach back together. Among the companies expected to help develop the site is Denver-based Tanning Technologies, which on Monday named Broncos coach Mike Shanahan to its board of directors.

`Creek' star rescued after rescue attempt

On TV, off TV, it's one cliffhanger after another for ``Dawson's Creek'' star Joshua Jackson.

Jackson, 21, who plays Pacey Witter on the hit show, had to be pulled out of Masonboro Inlet in North Carolina by the Coast Guard on Tuesday evening after

he and a friend tried to rescue two girls stranded near a rock jetty.

The pair dove into the ocean and swam out to help the girls, but powerful waves swept all four over the jetty and into the inlet, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jody Howey said. The falling tide prevented them from swimming back to shore.

A Coast Guard boat rescued the four about 7 p.m., Howey said. There were no injuries.

Jackson ``kept them safe and floating until the Coast Guard got there,'' said David Hartley, producer of the show, which is filmed in nearby Wilmington. ``He just helped out somebody who needed it.''

Smithsonian honors Spielberg's altruism

Academy Award-winner Steven Spielberg is being honored for some of his lesser-known exploits.

The filmmaker will be given the Smithsonian Associates' annual James Smithson Bicentennial Medal next Wednesday in Washington. The award is named for the British scientist whose 1846 bequest to the United States financed the start of the Smithsonian Institution.

Spielberg was chosen for his work establishing the Righteous Persons Foundation, a grant-making organization dedicated to strengthening Jewish life, and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, created to preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors.

Danish town's seniors receive free vacations

Hoping that a little relaxation time will lead to better health, the city council of Farum, Denmark, has decided to give free vacations to all residents over the age of 67.

Under the program, which will cost about $1.1 million a year, the approximately 1,500 eligible people can choose between two weeks in southern Europe or in Denmark.

NATION'S INSPIRATION; Britain's Queen Mum celebrates 99 years

On her 99th birthday, the Queen Mother Elizabeth was greeted Wednesday by thousands of well-wishers honoring a beloved figure whose popularity remains undiminished by time or the scandals of the younger royal generation.

Her life has spanned the century, and her place in the nation's heart was forged during the worst of its years - the Nazi bombardment of World War II. Many still remember the courage of the young queen who remained in London even as her home, Buckingham Palace, was struck by bombs.

Now a small, gray-haired woman, she leaned occasionally on a silver-headed cane Wednesday as she received birthday greetings outside her home, Clarence House.

Several thousand people gathered to offer bouquets, cards and expressions of loyalty and respect. Hundreds show up every year, rain or shine, in hopes of talking with her.

Before going inside for a birthday luncheon with daughter Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royals, the Queen Mother, in a lemon yellow hat and dress, watched a military band march past, playing ``Happy Birthday'' on pipes and drums.

Ignoring a chair provided at the gates, she stood in the bright sunlight, then made her way gingerly across the cobblestones in a pair of white high heels to talk with people in the crowd.

Smiling and chatting, she walked unaided along the lines of visitors before climbing into a golf cart - painted in her blue-and-gold racing colors and trailing balloons - to be chauffeured the rest of the way around.

It obviously pleases the Queen Mother - and those who admire her - when she can manage without help, despite the frailty of her years.

The British call it pluck. And of all the qualities they admire in their dowager queen, it is probably her pluck they love most.

She was 95 when she first had a hip replaced, and she wouldn't leave the hospital until she could descend the steps on her own two feet. Her fans loved it.

But it was during World War II that the quiet determination of the queen and her shy husband, King George, won the respect and loyalty that has not wavered over half a century.

In 1940-41, as the Germans advanced and other European monarchs took refuge abroad, the king and queen and their daughters stayed.

When Britain stood alone, and the Luftwaffe bombed cities day and night, the royal family took its chances with the rest of the nation and then went to the bombed-out neighborhoods to offer encouragement.

News Lite is compiled by Tim Epperson from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1) ELWAY

(2) SPIELBERG

(3) Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth talks with her great-grandson, Prince William, outside her London residence, Clarence House, where she was celebrating her 99th birthday Wednesday.

Fina Hanson/Associated Press