He'd Better Hope He Doesn't Get Sick

Jun 3, 2004 8:57 am ET 

LONDON  - A British man with a fetish for medical items has become the first person to be banned from every hospital in England and Wales, the government said on Wednesday.

Unemployed Norman Hutchins, 53, has harassed and abused medical staff more than 40 times since January in his quest for surgical masks and gowns, a court in the northern city of York was told.

The court banned him from all private and state-run National Health Service hospitals and doctors' and dentists' offices.

Hutchins tried to obtain medical items by feigning illness, or claiming to need them for a fancy dress run or an amateur play, the Times newspaper reported.

"(He has) caused harassment, alarm and distress to NHS staff when attempting to obtain gowns and surgical masks in person or on the phone," an NHS spokesman said in a statement.

More than 30 local health organizations banned him with civil injunctions, but Hutchins kept moving to new areas.

Hutchins' lawyer Harry Bayman said his client "was not a well man," but accepted the court's decision.

If he needs medical treatment, Hutchins will be allowed to visit hospitals or doctors under strictly controlled conditions or with prior written consent. 

U.S. Election: the Video Game

Jun 3, 8:58 am ET 

By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES  - The typical video game calls for shooting aliens, racing cars and beating enemies into submission, but publisher Ubi Soft Entertainment has decided gamers may also enjoy stumping for votes at a nursing home somewhere in Ohio.

The company said on Wednesday it has signed a deal to publish "The Political Machine," a new game for PCs that puts players in control of the 2004 presidential campaigns of either incumbent President Bush or Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry.

Players will also have the option of creating their own Republican or Democratic candidate or managing the campaign of a historical figure like Ronald Reagan or Franklin Roosevelt.

The game will allow players to raise funds, barnstorm for votes and join candidate debates.

"We figured it would be kind of fun to be able to go around the country and try to take out ads, debate on the issues that are out there ... and see how different candidates played up against each other," Brad Wardell, the game's designer told The News Source.

Taking turns against the computer or another live player, budding "campaign managers" will have to manage a budget, coordinate strategy and give interviews on spoof political TV shows like "60 Seconds" and the "O'Maley Factor."

Most of the game's demographic data is gathered from the U.S. Census, and candidates rise in the polls by appealing to states on the issues judged most important to them.

That will require players to finesse their message to gain the backing of special interest groups and get the most states possible on board with their candidate, Wardell said.

"A player who's not a political junkie quickly learns why real-world candidates seemingly flip-flop on the issues," Wardell said.

The game is expected to be released sometime this summer, between the Democratic convention in July and the Republican convention in August.

Wardell said the public seemed to be more evenly split between the two parties and the candidates than in the past, which made the game potentially more interesting.

"We wanted to do this before the 2000 election but our models said Al Gore was going to win, so we decided not to do it," he said.

And while the game is clearly fallible as a predictive tool, Wardell said it offered some insight into real life politics.

"According to our model, Kerry should pick Gephardt as his VP," he said, referring to Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, who he said could deliver states like Iowa and Missouri.

So what about the outcome in November? "Right now, according to the model, Bush is going to lose by quite a bit," Wardell said. 

Models Allege Price-Fixing by N.Y. Cos. 

Wed Jun 2,10:03 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - Modeling companies conspired for three decades to set the same high fees for young women seeking work, a lawyer charged Wednesday at the opening of the price-fixing trial of Click Model Management. 

But the attorney representing Click scoffed at the notion of a conspiracy, saying the industry was so "full of hatred," companies would have never been able to conspire. 

In opening statements, lawyer Merrill Davidoff said aspiring models as young as 14 signed contracts for a shot at fame and fortune. "They're trusting, naive and vulnerable," he said. 

Davidoff is seeking millions in damages against Click. Other modeling companies have either settled or been severed from the trial. The trial is expected to last three weeks. 

Davidoff said modeling companies require all but a few elite models to pay a 20 percent fee. 

Aaron Richard Golub, a lawyer for Click, said the plaintiffs "can't get a penny because they can't prove an ounce of conspiracy against Click." 

"This is a business so full of hatred, there's no way they ever could have conspired," he said. 

Golub said modeling management companies rely on models who go from job to job - and that everybody in the industry knows what everybody else is making. He claimed the lawsuit was brought by malcontent models who thought they had been given a "raw deal." 

"You're not going to meet Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell," he added. 

Carolyn Fears, 34, who signed with Ford Models when she was 19, testified that although she was told of the standard rate, "I didn't really read the rest of the contract." 

"They said they'd like to sign me. That was very exciting," she said. 

As her career developed, she said she once asked an employee why she was charged $1,500 as a fee each year her picture was recycled in Ford's catalogue of models. She said Ford co-founder Eileen Ford, standing behind her, snapped: "Who do you think you are? You're not on the cover of Vogue. If you don't like it, you can get out." 

"I ran into the bathroom in tears," Fears said. 

Ford Chief Executive Officer Katie Ford said the company had reached an amicable settlement of the lawsuit. 

As for the comments about Eileen Ford, she said: "Eileen let Carolyn stay in her house for free, eat for free and Carolyn made, I believe, well over a million dollars modeling. So I don't think that's so bad." 

Mexico's Sad Clown Says 'Adios' to Morning TV

Jun 2, 1:18 pm ET 

By Lorraine Orlandi

MEXICO CITY  - Brozo, a foul-mouthed clown with a green wig and a shiny red nose who was one of Mexico's hottest newscasters, bowed out of morning television on Wednesday with the usual cheap laughs and a touch of tragedy.

"El Mananero," a daily morning romp on the Televisa network that has influenced Mexican politics at the highest level, was aired for the last time after Brozo this week decided to end the program after the death of his wife.

A parade of well-wishers including President Vicente Fox, former President Carlos Salinas, the nation's attorney general, lawmakers, journalists and entertainers bid farewell in on-air phone calls and cards.

Actor Victor Trujillo created Brozo, the "gloomy clown," for a cabaret act decades ago and hit the big time with the Televisa slot in 2002.

For Mexicans accustomed to groomed, tailored and stiff newscasters, Brozo's irreverent approach was refreshing and the show was seen as serious news commentary despite its antics.

"Brozo understood the psychology of Mexicans -- in order not to cry we tell jokes," said columnist Guadalupe Loaeza.

Like many funny men, Brozo was tinged with sadness. His wife, Carolina Padilla, the show's producer, died last month after a long illness.

At the close of the final broadcast, Trujillo removed his wig and nose and, flanked by his daughters and co-workers, paid homage to "Carolina, my wife, my companion, my accomplice."

The program, featuring plenty of bathroom humor and a curvaceous news assistant, offered a fresh and often cynical take on power and politics and quickly became a cultural phenomenon.

Its name, El Mananero, is Mexican slang for quick morning sex.

Brozo proved his political influence this year when he brought a leading leftist lawmaker on the show and aired a secret videotape showing the politician taking stacks of money from a city contractor.

The ensuing uproar fed a corruption scandal around popular Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist favored in the 2006 presidential race.

Last year, first lady Marta Sahagun, who is also seen as a presidential contender, went on the show to defend herself against a biographer's portrayal of her as an ambitious schemer and devotee of witchcraft.

The end of "El Mananero" does not mean Brozo will hang up the wig: he's due to cover the Summer Olympics for Televisa. 

Euthanasia Campaigner Writes Guide to a Good Death

Jun 2, 11:06 am ET 

LONDON  - Inspired by guidebooks for the discerning consumer, a right-to-die campaigner has compiled a "Good Euthanasia Guide," listing organizations that help people end their lives and the relevant laws around the world.

Euthanasia has been a topic of hot debate in Britain after a handful of high-profile cases last year when ill Britons traveled abroad to be helped to commit suicide.

"I was in a pub and I was eating dinner and they had a bookshelf full of guides -- the 'Good Hotel Guide', the 'Good Restaurant Guide' and so on -- and I thought, that's what we need," Derek Humphry said in an interview.

"It's a book of information for intelligent people who want to make an informed decision about their death," said Humphry, a former Sunday Times journalist who founded a pressure group called the Hemlock Society in 1980.

Humphry has written several books on euthanasia, including his 1991 guide detailing how to end your own life called "Final Exit," which has sold over a million copies and includes chapters on self-starvation and "Bizarre Ways to Die."

Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium all have assisted dying or euthanasia laws. Assisted suicide has been allowed in the US state of Oregon since 1998. 

You SURE We're Only Going 50?

Jun 2, 10:58 am ET 

DETROIT  - Honda Motor Co. Ltd. is recalling nearly 8,200 model year 2004 motorcycles because of a computer glitch that could prompt their drivers to go too fast, federal safety regulators said on Tuesday.

The program error causes the digital speedometer on some of the motorcycles to understate actual vehicle speed by about 25 percent, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

"This condition can result in the vehicle being driven at an illegal or unsafe speed," NHTSA said in an advisory on its Web site.

It did not elaborate, but state police may already have noticed a disproportionate number of people breaking speed limits lately on late-model Honda motorcycles. 

Climate Change Faster Than Expected 28-May-2004 On the weekend of the opening of The Day After Tomorrow, researcher James Lovelock says climate change may be proceeding much more quickly than previously thought. This report comes at a time when the main criticism of the film is that everything happens much faster than it will in reality.

In the Independent, Michael McCarthy writes that Lovelock's conclusion is due to two recent climatic events: the increasingly rapid melting of the Arctic ice-sheet covering Greenland, which will raise global sea levels, and the extreme heat wave in Europe last summer, which caused 20,000 deaths of mostly elderly people in France.

"There's no question in any reasonable scientist's mind that [the heat wave] was the first real bad event of global warming," says Lovelock. "But the media picked it up only as a story about the wickedness of the French in not looking after their old people." He is just as alarmed about the Greenland ice sheet, which is "melting far faster than we expected.

"I think in the past we thought more in terms of, it would get hotter, things would change, you might be able to grow Mediterranean plants in Britain and things like that, it didn't seem at all too bad; you knew there'd be some places that wouldn't be fine, but others would be nicer than they were. Now there's a growing awareness that global warming is far more serious than we ever realized, that it is proceeding more quickly, and that it poses a threat to future generations and even to civilization itself." 

Alien Caught on Film? 28-May-2004 Scott Corrales quotes Chilean civil engineer Germ‡n Pereira as saying, "On May 10 this year, I decided to take some photos at Parque Forestal, taking 10 shots which I downloaded to my PC the following day." When he looked at them, he was surprised to see the image of an alien.

"I thought it would be interesting to photograph a group of Carabineros (state police) on horseback patrolling the sector... It was a cloudy day and the sun was hidden, for which reason my digital camera (Kodak DX6490) adjusted to low speed (1/10 seg.)," he says. "...This is the reason why the photo shows motion...I employed the camera's optical zoom (10x) which added to the blurred result." The white spot in the middle of the photo may have been caused by the streetlights, which began to turn on and off in sequence (the way they often do for UFO Experiencers).

He says, "The fact is that I am very impressed by this image. I attest to the fact that it is not a fraud nor anything similar. For this reason I have made it public and I contacted the staff of CIFAE Chile. I would like to know the true nature of the image that appears in it and if anyone has ever caught anything similar in a photo."

The photo cannot be analyzed effectively because the blurring of the low-resolution image makes it impossible to tell whether or not the figure was digitally inserted.

It could be that this is a child whose appearance has been distorted by the shaking of the camera. The fact that the small being is more blurred than the horses would be explained by the idea that the child is running across the path and the horses are moving slowly.

Unfortunately, there is no way to draw a final conclusion about this image. It is provocative, but not proof positive. 

Hybrid Savings: It Depends on How You Drive 27-May-2004 Some owners of new hybrid cars can't figure out why they don't get the 55 or higher miles per gallon they've been promised. It turns out you won't save much on gas unless you drive the right way. Honda spokesman Chris Naughton tells Civic Hybrid owners not to drive too fast or brake too hard, and says, "Be mindful that (fuel-efficiency) can vary."

John Gartner writes in wired.com that Toyota Prius drivers have reported lifetime fuel-efficiency from 36 to 58 mpg, while Honda Civic Hybrid owners claim to get between 32 and 56 mpg. But some drivers report getting 40 miles per gallon or less.

Toyota engineer Dave Hermance says weather, driving conditions and driver habits can cut fuel-efficiency by up to 30%. How you stop is important: Drivers who roll through intersections using "California stops," instead of actually stopping, are decreasing their mileage. He says, "If you don't stop, you don't get the free energy of regenerative braking." But braking too hard can also cause you to lose some of the benefits of regenerative braking, which captures energy from slowing the car to charge the battery. If the battery's charge falls below a certain level, then the car will rely more heavily on the gas engine than the electric motor.

The weather plays a part as well. According to Toyota, cold weather can reduce fuel-efficiency by up to 35%, especially if you don't allow the car to warm up before driving it.

How you accelerate also counts. Prius owner Bill Gausman says, "If you use long, slow acceleration, your mileage sucks." But the easiest way to reduce fuel-efficiency is to speed. He says, "If I'm doing more than 70, then I'll definitely get less than 50 mpg."

Secret of the Blue Rose 18-May-2004 Roses come in a wide variety of colors, but that's not enough for some folks-they're determined to create a blue rose. There are plenty of blue flowers in the world, but no one has yet been able to persuade a rose bush to produce blue flowers. But now, using an enzyme found in the human liver, they may be able to genetically engineer one. Flowers which are naturally blue have a pigment called delphinidin. Exactly the right balance of acidity is needed inside the cells of the plant to create the right shade of blue. "The rose is not easy to work with," says rose geneticist David Byrne. "It has no blue pigments and it can't seem to go through the transformation process."

In 1986 an Australian biotech company called Florigene decided to create a blue rose. They've come close, with a lavender-like color, but still haven't succeeded. "It depends on how you describe blue," says researcher John Mason. "This is a very sensitive topic for us and unfortunately I cannot comment further."

Biochemist Peter Guengerich, who is studying the human liver, says, "When we moved the enzyme into bacteria, the bacteria turned blue. It was a complete surprise."

The technique of inserting the liver gene into a rose to create a blue bloom hasn't been perfected yet. "The first time we tried we got blue spots on the stems," Guengerich says. "Those probably aren't going to be too marketable."

Music Teachers Going Deaf 26-May-2004 A new study shows that music teachers are routinely exposed to noise levels that could result in hearing loss. Researcher Hans Kunov says, "The hair cells of the inner ear simply crumble under the load, and they don't grow back again."

According to Canadian law, noise levels on the job should not exceed 90 decibels, which is the equivalent of a power lawn mower being run over eight hours in a 24-hour period.

Researcher Willy Wong measured the noise exposure of 18 music teachers at 15 high schools in Toronto and found that the peak noise level exceeded 85 decibels for 78% of them. During an average eight-hour day, 39% of them experienced harmful noise levels.

Part of the problem is that most classrooms are constructed with concrete blocks and linoleum, providing a highly reflective sound surface. "The world is louder than we think," says Wong. "Schools might consider protective measures such as sound baffling and carpet and teachers might... consider [getting] periodic hearing checks."

When the world gets too loud, the rest of us can wear earplugs, but teachers-especially music teachers-can't.

Warning: Your Computer May be Tapped 17-May-2004 You know your phone can be tapped, but you probably think you have complete privacy when typing on your computer keyboard. However, spies can eavesdrop on what you're writing by listening to the sounds of your keystrokes.

IBM research scientist Dmitri Asonov says that every key on computer keyboards, telephones and even ATM machines makes a unique sound as it's pressed and released. All you need to listen is $200 worth of microphones and sound processing software. Asonov says he can decipher keystrokes with 80% accuracy.

The sounds are made because keyboards and keypads all have a rubber membrane underneath the keys. Asonov says, "This membrane acts like a drum, and each key hits the drum in a different location and produces a unique frequency or sound that the neural networking software can decipher."

Thank China for Spam 20-May-2004 We get many low cost imports from China, and one of these is computer spam. When internet researchers tracked spam messages, they found that 71% of them come from China.

Gideon Mantel, who tracks e-mail traffic, says most of those messages telling you how to increase your penis size or get a discount mortgage are linked to websites based in China. "We're talking now about 350,000 to 400,000 unique spam attacks a day," he says. "Since Jan. 1, we've seen probably a 30% to 40% increase" in spam traffic. Each "unique spam attack" goes to at least 50,000 recipients. "The numbers are amazing," says Mantel. "When we saw them, I was so shocked, we checked and rechecked the numbers three times."

It's not hard to identify an IP address as Chinese, since they all have about 10 digits and the first two or three identify the country. While the Chinese internet is heavily censored, it's inexpensive to host a website there.

This doesn't mean that the spammers themselves are Chinese, only that they're using Chinese websites. Mantel says, "Maybe the host computer in China is sending [user traffic] to Korea, or somewhere else, to confuse law enforcement."

Pesticides Inside our Bodies 18-May-2004 Most of us have unhealthy levels of pesticides inside our bodies, from yards (or own and others) and the food we eat, as well as air and water. There's no way to avoid being exposed to them.

When the Pesticide Action Network looked for levels of 23 different pesticides in data on over 2,500 people, they found that the average person had at least 13 of them in their blood and urine. Margaret Reeves of PAN says, "A growing body of research suggests that even at very low levels, the combination of these chemicals can be harmful to our health."

Children between the ages of 6 and 11 are exposed to the nerve-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos at four times the acceptable level. Chlorpyrifos kills insects by disrupting their nervous system.

Dow is the largest pesticide manufacturer in the country. Spokesman Garry Hamlin says, "Chlorpyrifos is widely used, and studies by the Centers for Disease Control suggest that people are exposed to chlorpyrifos at very tiny levels...When people are exposed, the product breaks down readily and is eliminated from the body in a matter of days."

The PAN report shows that women carry "significantly" higher levels of three pesticides called organochlorines, which can reduce birth weight and disrupt brain development in infants. It also found that Mexican Americans carry higher levels of the insecticides lindane, DDT and methyl parthion than other ethnic groups. 

Girls Pushing for Modest Fashion Options 

Wed Jun 2, 6:51 PM ET 
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, News Source Writer 

REDMOND, Wash. - During a recent shopping trip to Nordstrom, 11-year-old Ella Gunderson became frustrated with all the low-cut hip-huggers and 
skintight tops. So she wrote to the Seattle-based chain's executives to complain. The industry has been getting the message: A more modest look is in, 
fashion experts say. 

The shy, bespectacled redhead has since become an instant media darling, appearing on national television over the past two weeks to promote modest 
fashions instead of the saucy looks popularized by the likes of Britney Spears. 

"We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty," said Gigi Solif Schanen, fashion editor at Seventeen magazine. "It's such a different feeling but still very 
pretty and feminine and sexy. It's just a little more covered up." 

Shoppers are starting to see higher waistlines and lower hemlines, and tweeds, fitted blazers and layers are expected to be big this fall, Schanen said. 

"It's kind of like a sexy take on a librarian," she said. "I think people are tired of seeing so much skin and want to leave a little more to the imagination." 

The Web sites ModestApparelUSA.com and ModestByDesign.com - where the slogan is "Clothing your father would be proud of" - report that sales 
have skyrocketed over the past 18 months. 

Many youngsters are frustrated by the profusion of racy teenage clothing, according to Buzz Marketing, a New Jersey-based firm that compiles feedback 
from teen advisers. 

"There is just sensory overload. Kids are going to say enough already," said Buzz's 24-year-old chief executive, Tina Wells. "The next big trend I see is 
kids are going to look like monks." 

In 2002, a group of Arizona teens submitted a petition to the Phoenix division of the Dillard's department store chain asking for more modest clothes. The 
chain began carrying more conservative styles. 

Nordstrom spokeswoman Deniz Anders said the company has been hearing for about two years from customers who want more modest looks, and 
Nordstrom tries to carry a broad array of styles in its stores. 

The arrival of the modest look is good news for Ella, who last week participated in a sold-out "Pure Fashion" show in Bellevue with 37 other girls 
belonging to a Roman Catholic youth organization. 

Ella, who paraded down the catwalk in a long-sleeved pink top and a shiny pink skirt, hopes the fashion show - and her letter - will prompt some 
change. 

"There can be more than one look," the Redmond youngster said in an interview while wearing a loose Pure Fashion T-shirt, jeans and hot pink flip-flops. 
"Everybody should have lots of choices." 
___ 

On the Net: 

Wholesome Wear: http://www.wholesomewear.com 

ModestApparelUSA: http://www.modestapparelusa.com 

Modest By Design: http://www.modestbydesign.com 

Nordstrom: http://www.nordstrom.com 

Clinton Filmmaker Defends Documentary 

Wed Jun 2, 2:24 PM ET

By DAVID HAMMER, News Source Writer 

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A film that claims to expose "the 10-year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton (news - web sites)" is scheduled for its first public screening June 15 in Little Rock. 

"The Hunting of the President," a 90-minute documentary that re-creates interviews for the New York Times best-selling book by the same name, has already played at four film festivals and will premiere by invitation only in New York on June 11. The movie's general release date is June 23. 

But the first public showing, at $50 a ticket, will be at a 1,500-seat ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, a short walk from where Clinton celebrated his two presidential election victories. 

Director Harry Thomason, who is from Hampton, Ark., profiled Clinton in a glowing light in "The Man from Hope" for the then-Arkansas governor's 1992 presidential campaign. He says the latest piece about his old friend seeks journalistic impartiality, acknowledging that some people would likely dismiss the film as more Clinton propaganda. 

"Of course, the fact that I'm a friend of the Clintons will make a lot of people skeptical," Thomason said in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home Tuesday. "I knew we would have no validity if we didn't tell about some of the president's indiscretions, his lapses. And so we never intended to let him off the hook. We stuck to the facts." 

The film purports to uncover a right-wing manipulation of the media, which Thomason says began with President Nixon's call to counter liberal messages in the 1970s. Thomason said the impact of Clinton's ties to Hollywood pales in comparison to the reach of conservative radio. 

"I may be wrong but I don't think the film will get everyone riled up," he said. "I hope conservatives will see it and say, 'Those people have a point.' Everyone in this country needs to speak to each other in softer tones." 

Thomason said he went to great pains to avoid discussing the film's progress with Clinton, even though the two talk frequently. Clinton called Thomason frequently for advice or editing input for his 900-page memoir, due out later this month. 

Thomason will attend the Little Rock premiere and is to be joined by the authors of the book, journalists Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, as well as some of those interviewed in the film, including Whitewater figure Susan McDougal. 

Oscar-nominated actor Morgan Freeman (news) is the film's narrator.

Russia sacks top TV journalist after Chechnya interview

Thu Jun 3, 9:40 AM ET  - Chicago Tribune 

By Alex Rodriguez Tribune foreign correspondent 

Leonid Parfyonov, a leading Russian television journalist, has never been the kind of reporter to be cowed by his government's manhandling of the media. 

In 2002, he rankled the Kremlin when he hired a lip reader to decipher what Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) was telling an official on soundless videotape after a Chechen rebel takeover of a Moscow theater. Last year, he planned a segment on a Kremlin reporter's tell-all book that painted an unflattering portrait of Putin. NTV, the state-controlled network he worked for, squelched the report. 

Parfyonov's recent decision to air an interview with the widow of a Chechen separatist leader against the wishes of Russia's intelligence community appeared to be the last straw. NTV said this week that it had fired Parfyonov and shut down his top-rated newsmagazine program, Namedni. 

Denounced by Moscow journalists and liberals as censorship, Parfyonov's dismissal was the latest in a long line of episodes that signal a steady erosion of media freedoms in Russia. 

Every national television network is now state-owned or state-controlled. Coverage of the country's recent parliamentary and presidential campaigns was heavily slanted in favor of Putin and his party, United Russia, and all but ignored their opponents. 

At the center of the debate over media freedom in Russia has been NTV, once an independent network that drew the Kremlin's ire for its probing coverage of Putin's attempts to crush the separatist rebellion in Chechnya (news - web sites). 

In 2001, Russia's state-controlled energy monopoly, Gazprom, wrested control of NTV. Its owner, Vladimir Gusinsky, fled the country in the face of fraud charges most observers said were meant as political punishment for NTV's sharp-edged coverage. 

Since then, NTV has softened its tone. Parfyonov was an exception. He freely criticized Putin and the Kremlin, even going as far as using a Harry Potter (news - web sites) character called Dobby the house elf to caricature the Russian leader. An estimated 110 million Russians regularly tuned in to Namedni, which is Russian for "The Other Day." 

"Russian authorities can no longer stand even splinters of free speech on television," said Igor Yakovenko, secretary general for the Russian Union of Journalists. "This dismissal is absolutely political." 

The segment that led to Parfyonov's firing featured an interview with Malika Yandarbiyeva, the widow of a former Chechen president, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. 

One of the leaders of a separatist insurgency to break Chechnya away from Russia, Yandarbiyev fled to Qatar in 1999. He was killed by a car bomb in February that Qatari officials allege was planted by two Russian intelligence agents. Those agents are now on trial in Doha, Qatar's capital. 

The five-minute interview was far from controversial, according to text published in the Russian newspaper Kommersant. The wife spoke of her family's grief, read her husband's poetry and described her thoughts when she saw the Russian agents in court. 

Nevertheless, several days before its scheduled airing, Russia's security services asked NTV management to delay its broadcast because the trial was ongoing, according to Kommersant. 

On Sunday, Parfyonov went on the air with the segment. It appeared in Russia's time zones east of the Ural Mountains but, at the request of a top NTV executive, was removed from the show's broadcast in Moscow and the rest of western Russia. 

Parfyonov's superiors at NTV were angered when an internal memo that they gave to Parfyonov about the interview appeared in Kommersant. NTV officials did not respond to a request for an interview Wednesday. A news release issued by the network stated that the 44-year-old newsman was fired for "violating the labor agreement under which he was obliged to support the policy of NTV management." 

"Leonid Parfyonov is certainly one of the most talented journalists on the modern Russian television," the release said. "However, it is not the first time such an incident has happened. Therefore, we had no choice other than to make this decision." 

Parfyonov could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In an interview published Tuesday in the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Parfyonov said he doubted that the segment's airing could have influenced the trial in any way. "I don't think that decisions in Qatar are made after watching Namedni reports," he said. 

Parfyonov's firing caused an outcry from Russian liberals. 

"Parfyonov was the last source of good information on Russian television," Yakovenko said. "There will be major consequences as a result of this. Journalists will now realize that if they want to stay on television, they must remain loyal to authorities. And self-censorship will become more pervasive." 

Many Russians would welcome such censorship, polls suggest. A survey conducted by the Romir organization last year indicated that 76 percent of Russians believe the media should be censored. That same poll asked Russians what public institutions they trust. Nine percent said the country's mass media; 50 percent said Putin. 

Earthquake Changed Yellowstone 02-Jun-2004 An 7.9 earthquake in Alaska in 2002 set off 200 smaller earthquakes 2,000 miles away in Yellowstone National Park. Now scientists have discovered that it also changed the schedule of some of Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs, which are near where most of the quakes occurred.

Seismologist Robert B. Smith says, "We did not expect to see these prolonged changes in the hydrothermal system... Several small hot springs, not known to have geysered before, suddenly surged into a heavy boil with eruptions as high as [39 inches]. The temperature at one of these springs increased rapidly from [about 108 to 199 degrees Fahrenheit] and became much less acidic than normal. In the same area, another hot spring that was usually clear showed muddy, turbid water."

Yellowstone has more than 10,000 geysers, and scientists monitored how often 22 of them erupted after the quake. They found that 8 of them "displayed notable changes in their eruption intervals." Smith believes the quake's waves affected the geysers by the changing water pressure underground that feeds them.

Could a earthquake closer to Yellowstone trigger huge explosions? Steam-and-hot water explosions occurred there in prehistoric times and blasted out a hole that now is Mary's Bay on Yellowstone Lake. One such explosion has occurred about every 1,000 years since the glaciers receded from Yellowstone 14,000 years ago, and another one is overdue. Smith says there is no evidence that prehistoric quakes triggered those blasts, so their origin is still a mystery. 

What Gorillas Watch on TV 02-Jun-2004 The five western lowland gorillas in the Dallas Zoo are being kept away from the public, since one escaped on March 18 and injured three people before being killed by police. The remaining gorillas are stressed from being kept indoors, and zoo officials are trying to ease this with television. The gorillas each have their favorite shows.

The Dallas Morning News reports that fourteen-year-old Patrick likes cartoons, public television, and National Geographic specials, but sports bore him. Keeper Cindy McCaleb says, "We tried to put on sports, even though we were concerned it might generate aggressive behavior, but he really wasn't interested."

All the gorillas like Disney cartoons, and "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" are their favorites. "They don't follow the story, of course," says McCaleb. "They like the music, the color and the movement." Patrick watches more TV than the older gorillas.

Some gorillas prefer radio to TV. "I tend to go classical," McCaleb says. "It tends to mellow them out." 

Report: al-Qaida Ranks Swelling Worldwide

1 hour, 34 minutes ago

By BARRY RENFREW, News Source Writer 

LONDON - Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq (news - web sites) is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday. 

 

Al-Qaida is probably working on plans for major attacks on the United States and Europe, and it may be seeking weapons of mass destruction in its desire to inflict as many casualties as possible, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its annual survey of world affairs. 

Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network appears to be operating in more than 60 nations, often in concert with local allies, the study by the independent think tank said. 

Although about half of al-Qaida's top 30 leaders have been killed or captured, it has an effective leadership, with bin Laden apparently still playing a key role, it said. 

"Al-Qaida must be expected to keep trying to develop more promising plans for terrorist operations in North America and Europe, potentially involving weapons of mass destruction," IISS director Dr. John Chipman told a press conference releasing "Strategic Survey 2003/4." 

At the same time it will likely continue attacking "soft targets encompassing Americans, Europeans and Israelis, and aiding the insurgency in Iraq," he added. 

The report suggested that the two military centerpieces of the U.S.-led war on terror the wars in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq may have boosted al-Qaida. 

Driving the terror network out of Afghanistan in late 2001 appears to have benefited the group, which dispersed to many countries, making it almost invisible and hard to combat, the story said. 

And the Iraq conflict "has arguably focused the energies and resources of al-Qaida and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition that appeared so formidable" after the Afghan intervention, the survey said. 

The U.S. occupation of Iraq brought al-Qaida recruits from across Islamic nations, the study said. Up to 1,000 foreign Islamic fighters have infiltrated Iraqi territory, where they are cooperating with Iraqi insurgents, the survey said. 

Efforts to defeat al-Qaida will take time and might accelerate only if there are political developments that now seem elusive, such as the democratization of Iraq and the resolution of conflict in Israel, it said. 

It could take up to 500,000 U.S. and allied troops to effectively police Iraq and restore political stability, IISS researcher Christopher Langton told the news conference. 

Such a figure appeared impossible to meet, given political disquiet in the United States and Britain and the unwillingness of other nations to send troops, he said. 

The United States is al-Qaida's prime target in a war it sees as a death struggle between civilizations, the report said. An al-Qaida leader has said 4 million Americans will have to be killed "as a prerequisite to any Islamic victory," the survey said. 

"Al-Qaida's complaints have been transformed into religious absolutes and cannot be satisfied through political compromise," the study said. 

The IISS said its estimate of 18,000 al-Qaida fighters was based on intelligence estimates that the group trained at least 20,000 fighters in its camps in Afghanistan before the United States and its allies ousted the Taliban regime. In the ensuing war on terror, some 2,000 al-Qaida fighters have been killed or captured, the survey said. 

Al-Qaida appears to have successfully reconstituted its operations by dispersing its forces into small groups and through working with local allies, such as the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front in Turkey, the report said. 

"Al-Qaida is the common ideological and logistical hub for disparate local affiliates, and bin Laden's charisma, presumed survival and elusiveness enhance the organization's iconic drawing power," it said.

Star Birth Gone Wild in 'Cosmic Hurricane'

Tue May 25, 9:54 AM ET 
Add Science - Space.com 

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com 

A shower of hot gas spewed from a galaxy loaded with pockets of intense star formation offers a window to the more violent early universe.

The rapid-fire star birth in M82 was triggered by a collision with another galaxy, and the tremendous activity fuels a "cosmic hurricane is travelling at more than a million miles an hour [447 kilometers per second] into intergalactic space," said Linda Smith of the University College London.

The gas travels in two opposite directions and extends thousands of light-years. Traced back to their sources, the two plumes are revealed to originate in the many separate clumps of star formation and the quick, explosive deaths of massive stars that generate new elements.

"Our goal here is to understand the structure of the wind's plumes, which are key factors in the evolution of this galaxy and the eventual pollution of nearby intergalactic space with new chemical elements," Smith said.

An image of the scene was released Friday. It was created by combining Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) observations that detail the inner part of the galaxy with a view from the WIYN Telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, which showed the extended winds, explained Mark Westmoquette, also of the University College London.

It is not unusual to see jets or plumes of material escaping along the rotation axis of stars, a black hole or an entire galaxy. But M82 is noted for its "superwinds," as astronomers call the bipolar outflows. 

"The M82 wind is made up of gas jets from multiple chimneys, each of which is relatively distinct," said Jay Gallagher of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, another member of the study team. "We hypothesize that these originate from individual star-forming clumps within M82."

Some of the clusters contain as much mass as a million Suns packed within 30 light-years of space, Gallagher said earlier this month in discussing his group's work at an astronomy meeting at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

M82 is about 10 million light-years away, which is relatively close in space and time. Gallagher said the scene can help astronomers understand what occurred in the early universe, when star birth was rampant. Because primordial galaxies are incredibly far away -- billions of light-years -- detailed examination of their structures is not practical with current telescopes.

Yet astronomers have seen enough to know that there are big differences between early galaxies and most of the mature galaxies closer by.

"Observations of the distant universe have really shown us now -- and we have to confront this -- that star formation in early epochs was really intense," Gallagher said. "The universe has gone from an intense mode of star formation in galaxies to a lazier mode nowadays."

So it is imperative, he said, to understand the mechanics of so-called starburst galaxies like M82.

In particular, Gallagher told SPACE.com, the distinct clumping of star formation in M82 is thought to be similar to how it worked when some of the earliest galaxies were under construction. 

The impetus for star formation in M82 came from a collision with another galaxy, M81, about 300 million years ago, astronomers say. Collisions were common when the universe was younger and smaller, and are thought to have played an important roll in star birth. Here's what happens in a typical collision:

"Huge amounts of gas are funneled into dense regions faster than the galaxy can get rid of it," Gallagher explained. "The galaxy overheats and explodes into stars."

Saint, Peace Seeker, Hero by Turns

Tue Jun 1, 7:55 AM ET

By Paul Watson Times Staff Writer 

HODAL, India - Barreling down a sizzling-hot road, in a cloud of diesel fumes and dust, Ludkan Baba is on a serious roll. 

He lies flat on the ground, turning himself over and over like a runaway log, limbs flailing as he bumps across potholes, splashes through mud puddles and falls deeper into a spiritual trance. 

Like any sadhu, or Hindu ascetic, he undertakes severe penance to liberate his soul from reincarnation's endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Stretched out in the middle of the road, rolling hour after hour, mile after mile through crowds and heavy traffic, he is making his trip to eternal bliss. 

But this is no ordinary holy roller. He is also on a mission to bring peace to the world. His devotion, and alms-raising power, has earned him several disciples, many admirers and the title Ludkan Baba - the Rolling Saint. 

He has rolled thousands of miles in the last 19 years, turning round and round so many millions of times that just pondering the thought can make your head spin. 

Yet to the 55-year-old sadhu, the constant turning is refreshing. He says he feels no pain. And except for a few blisters from rolling at high noon along gritty asphalt in 110-degree heat, his taut skin is baby-smooth. 

When he stands, he is barefoot, around 5 feet tall, with a mop of matted black hair and a long black beard flecked with gray. He doesn't look to be carrying more than an ounce of fat on his body. 

When he left the road for a midday break recently, the faithful gathered to be healed with his swishes of a peacock-feather broom and sachets of blessed ashes. The sadhu said he had not suffered a single accident or serious injury in nearly two decades of long-distance rolling. 

"I move during cyclones, during blazing summers and cold winters," he said. "I think of God, I think of Mother Earth, and then I roll and roll and roll. I don't feel dizzy. I don't consume any food, just tea and cigarettes. At night, I eat fruits, roti [bread], whatever I can lay my hands on." 

As a sadhu, the Rolling Baba is a wanderer who survives on alms. In his quest for moksha, or release from the cycle of reincarnation, he must reject the comforts of ordinary life. 

But sometimes even a sadhu can't resist a good gadget. One member of the Rolling Baba's small entourage carries a silver clamshell cellphone. So as long as there's a good signal, the Rolling Baba is never out of touch. 

He believes God's hand propels him. How else, he asks, could a man spin round and round, along unforgiving ground, for months on end and suffer no injuries? 

"All I do is put coconut oil on my hair at night, and even that, only when I feel like it," the Rolling Baba said, between draws on a cigarette. "This is the power of nature, the power of the divine." 

He was born Mohan Singh in the northern Indian town of Dungarpur, and as a barefoot boy of 12, he rubbed the hands of a dying boy and saved his life, the Rolling Baba said. After performing that miracle, he said, he went to a temple, renounced the world and became a sadhu. 

In 1973, he said, he entered a cave and stayed there, surviving on grass and water for 12 years, until a divine voice told him to start rolling for peace. 

His first journey lasted just under 25 miles. On his third trip, in 1994, he rolled about 2,500 miles across India. Today, as he rolls toward Pakistan, the sadhu thinks he might go to Iraq (news - web sites) next. 

A 17-year-old girl, a disciple whom the Rolling Baba and his entourage call the Young Saint, said she joined his holy journey, or yatra, because she believed the example of his strength through suffering would move the world to be more loving. 

"He has so much love within him that even streets - the same streets that we walk on and which we consider one of the worst places to lie down upon - become an object of love," the Young Saint said. 

"Just like a baby rolls on a mother's lap, similarly this man rolls on the streets. So if he can do this, what is it that prevents others from loving each other?" 

This is the Rolling Baba's sixth yatra. He is heading toward the Pakistani city of Lahore, where he hopes to meet President Pervez Musharraf and urge him to reach a lasting peace with India. 

So far, the Rolling Baba doesn't have an appointment. He doesn't have a passport, either, or a visa to cross the border. But those are problems for another day, some 380 miles, several weeks and countless rolls away. 

"To make passports and obtain a visa is the job of the Indian government," he said. "After all, I am not going there for professional reasons or to further any business interests. I am going there as a messenger of peace. If they want peace, then both nations will give me the chance to carry out my yatra." 

The Rolling Baba began his 800-mile journey on Jan. 28 at his home in India's central Madhya Pradesh state. When he reached Hodal, a town 50 miles south of New Delhi, India's capital, on Wednesday, he was roughly halfway to his goal. 

The Rolling Baba travels light. Since becoming a child sadhu, he has worn nothing more than a dhoti, a cloth loosely wrapped around his groin, hips and buttocks. He made an exception to the sadhu's rule of austere dress and wore a beige suit with a Nehru jacket and new shoes during a 1994 visit to London to help promote a documentary film about himself. 

He still travels with pictures of himself - standing - in Piccadilly Circus, outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and at other London landmarks. The snapshots are tucked into a small photo album that is inscribed "Sweet Memories" on the cover, above a heart-shaped window. 

While rolling, the only protection he wears is a blue T-shirt, wristbands and stretch bandages on his upper legs and forearms. He also holds tightly on to both ends of a strip of cloth, to help build up some torque as he spins. 

He rolls right down the middle of the road, through cow dung, rotting garbage and cigarette butts. Two disciples walk in front and kick away the more dangerous bits, such as steel bolts, chunks of glass and sharp stones. 

The Rolling Baba handles most potholes and puddles on his own, but when he nears an especially deep, mucky one, a disciple unfolds a yellow tarp and lays it down to ease the holy man's path. 

He rolls each day from 7 a.m. until noon and then from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., to escape the worst heat, which can reach 120 degrees or more. He takes short breaks, sitting entranced at the roadside, blessing crowds of people who press in to touch his feet and receive the blessing of a gentle swat from his cloth. They drop donations, usually a small coin, in two tin boxes. 

The Rolling Baba clocked his pace at about 6 mph in this farm town, where traffic and well-wishers slowed him down. But when he hits open highway, or the down slope of a good hill, his speed reaches about 15 mph, he said. 

After completing his morning spins and getting the dirt mopped off by a disciple one recent day, the sadhu sat in a steel-framed chair in the shade of a tree at a government high school. The sick and disabled gathered on a red and black striped carpet at his feet. 

More than 60 people came for faith healing, including a blind boy, a boy with a lame leg, an old woman with a headache and a man with piles. 

The Rolling Baba swept them all with his peacock-feather broom. He gently poked a few patients' bellies with a curved, blunt-tipped sword, and made a whooshing sound, as if he had killed whatever ailed them and blown it away. 

After each treatment, he handed out what one of his disciples said were holy ashes. Two men sat at the end of the carpet, spooning the gray powder onto pages torn from a school biology text and neatly folding them into packets. 

"Have a bath with this for three days," the Rolling Baba instructed an old man with heart trouble, who wheezed for each breath. "And don't use soap." 

As they got up to leave, each patient dropped coins or bank notes in the slot of a donation box with a small padlock at the Rolling Baba's dusty feet. 

"Whatever blessings I have earned through my meditation, I distribute amongst the masses," he said. "And it is because of these blessings of the Almighty that they get relief from their various ailments. It is on the strength of my sufferings that they are cured. The blessings that I earn are passed on to them."

U.S. agencies collect, examine personal data on Americans

By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040528-122605-9267r.htm

Numerous federal government agencies are collecting and sifting 
through massive amounts of personal information, including credit 
reports, credit-card purchases and other financial data, posing new 
privacy concerns, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). 
The GAO surveyed 128 federal departments and agencies and found that 52 
are using, or planning to implement, 199 data-mining programs, with 131 
already operational.

The Education, Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and 
Human Services, Interior, Labor, Justice, and Treasury departments are 
among those that use the contentious new technology to detect criminal 
or terrorist activity; manage human resources; gauge scientific 
research; detect fraud, waste and abuse; and monitor tax compliance. 
The audit released yesterday shows 36 data-mining programs collect and 
analyze personal information that is purchased from the private sector, 
including credit reports and credit-card transactions. Additionally, 46 
federal agencies share personal information that includes student-loan 
application data, bank-account numbers, credit-card information and 
taxpayer-identification numbers. 
The Defense Department is the largest user of data-mining technology, 
followed by the Education Department, which uses private information to 
track the life of student direct loans and to monitor loan repayments. 
"Mining government and private databases containing personal 
information creates a range of privacy concerns," the report said. 
Data-mining technology can sift through massive amounts of information 
to uncover hidden patterns and subtle relationships to make 
predictions. 
The technology "has led to concerns about the government's use of data 
mining to conduct a mass 'dataveillance' - a surveillance of large 
groups of people - to sift through vast amounts of personally 
identifying data to find individuals who might fit a terrorist 
profile," the GAO report said. 
Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat and ranking member of a 
Governmental Affairs financial management, budget and international 
security subcommittee, requested the nearly yearlong audit. 
The most widely reported data-mining project - the Pentagon's Total 
Information Awareness (TIA) program - was shut down by Congress because 
of widespread privacy fears. The project sought to use credit-card, 
medical and travel records to search for terrorists and was dubbed by 
privacy advocates as a "supersnoop" system to spy on Americans. 
"We always knew that the [TIA] program was not the only 
data-surveillance program out there, but it now appears possible that 
such activities are even more widespread than we imagined," said Barry 
Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 
technology and liberty program. 
Bob Barr, chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation's 
21st Century Center for Privacy and Freedom and a former congressman 
from Georgia, said the use of data mining to spy on American citizens 
will continue to grow until Congress addresses the issue. 
"Many in Washington cheered when it appeared the Congress killed TIA. 
However, as I said at the time and have repeated since, it is not dead, 
only renamed and resurfaced elsewhere," Mr. Barr said. 
"We cannot rely on this or any other administration to pull back on its 
own. The executive branch likes information on citizens far too much to 
voluntarily stop developing ever more and expanded databases," he said. 
The ACLU said some programs appear to be a "dragnet on the general 
population," including a Homeland Security program that "correlates 
events and people to specific information" and a Defense Intelligence 
Agency data-mining program to "identify foreign terrorists or U.S. 
citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities." 
Data mining is used by the Health and Human Services Department to 
monitor food and drug safety. The department is developing a 
data-mining tool to track and report "adverse incidents" involving 
food, cosmetics, and dietary supplements. 
Homeland Security is developing an "incident data mart," which will 
"look through incident logs for patterns of events." Incident is 
defined as "an event involving law enforcement or government agency for 
which a log was created (e.g. traffic ticket, drug arrest, or firearm 
possession)." The system will "look at crimes in a particular 
geographic location, particular types of arrest, or any type of unusual 
activity." 
The GAO report did not include classified programs, and some agencies 
did not respond to its request for information, including the CIA, 
National Security Agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission. 
James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy & 
Technology, said it is likely that there are data-mining programs not 
listed in the report. 
"More and more agencies are relying on complex data-mining techniques 
and commercial data, a combination that has significant potential to 
threaten civil liberties," Mr. Dempsey said.

Many Wireless Networks Lack Security

Tue Jun 1, 7:13 AM ET

By MATTHEW FORDAHL

SAN JOSE, Calif. - With a laptop perched in the passenger seat of his Toyota 4Runner and a special antenna on the roof, Mike Outmesguine ventured off to sniff out wireless networks between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He got a big whiff of insecurity.

While his 800-mile drive confirmed that the number of wireless networks is growing explosively, he also found that only a third used basic encryption - a key security measure. In fact, in nearly 40 percent of the networks not a single change had been made to the gear's wide-open default settings.

"They took it out of the box, powered it up, and it worked. And they left it alone," said Outmesguine, who owns a technical services company. He frequently goes out on such "wardrives" in search of insecure networks. And while Outmesguine says he doesn't try to break in, others aren't so benign.

While Wi-Fi is hot, security is not.

Even the makers of Wi-Fi routers, access points and other gadgets privately say that as many as 80 percent of home users don't bother to enable basic encryption or other protections against connection theft, eavesdropping and network invasion.

Experts say that while Wi-Fi hardware makers have made initial setup easy, the enabling of security is anything but. Meanwhile, average users are no longer tech savvy. The gadgets are mainstream, appearing on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other mass retailers.

During his wardrive, Outmesguine counted 3,600 hot spots, compared with 100 on the same route in 2000. Worldwide, makers of Wi-Fi gear for homes and small offices posted sales of more than $1.3 billion in 2003, a 43 percent jump over 2002, according to Synergy Research Group.

The result? A lot of wide-open networks that offer anyone within range of the Wi-Fi signal free access to a high-speed Internet connection. Any hacking is unlikely to be noticed, while illegal activity would be traceable only to the name on the Internet account.

To make matters worse, users who don't secure their networks are often the very people who don't keep their computers up to date with the latest security patches and antivirus software.

"What we probably really have here is a whole bunch of very vulnerable systems exposed to attack or infection over a network that has no access control," said Al Potter, manager of technical services at the security firm TruSecure's ICSA Labs.

Companies that sell Wi-Fi products want their hardware to be simple and interoperable, especially as more than just computers - wireless TV monitors, digital music receivers, DVD players and game consoles, for example - are wirelessly connecting to home networks.

At the same time, they want to keep support calls and returns low, so they turn off security by default.

"We've been putting friendly front ends in front of technology for a long time," said Peter Evans, vice president of business development at AirDefense Inc., a wireless security firm. "I'm not sure why the industry has not yet made those tools much easier to use."

Yet even knowledgeable consumers find it frustrating to set up security. It can involve punching in dozens of characters as the passphrase for each connected device, and navigating screens filled with a dizzying set of acronyms for encryption and authentication.

Typically, there isn't much explanation about what they are and why they're needed.

Problems grow when consumers try to mix a laptop wireless card from one vendor with a Wi-Fi access point from another. With security turned off, everything works fine. With basic encryption turn on, the headaches begin.

Because his Linksys access point and Gateway notebook used different techniques for generating the "key" to scramble and unscramble the data, Victor Miller of Princeton Junction, N.J., learned he had to twice punch in dozens of characters using the hexadecimal numbering system.

That process is prone to typing errors, which aren't apparent since Windows XP (news - web sites) doesn't display the characters as they're entered. Also, Miller said, the user guides did not say that the computer would require a restart.

Miller, who is a cryptography expert, eventually got it working.

"I'm not sure many people would have the fortitude to actually copy down 26 hex digits twice," he said. "They'd just say, `To hell with it.'"

Some manufacturers are beginning to tout security features as a selling point, just as they market faster speeds and greater signal range. Microsoft Corp., for instance, made the transfer of keys fairly easy by copying the key and other settings to a floppy disk that could then be used to configure wireless laptops. The company, though, announced in May that it was getting out of the Wi-Fi hardware business.

Buffalo Technology Inc. has introduced a one-touch security system that exchanges keys between wireless devices and the wireless access point within a two-minute window after a button is pressed. Critics point out, however, that the system requires the manual entry of keys on non-Buffalo devices. And not all of Buffalo's products support the technology, called AOSS.

Meanwhile, Broadcom Corp., the leading supplier of Wi-Fi chips, has announced a software feature called SecureEZSetup that generates the encryption key based on answers to simple, easy-to-remember questions. Still, any device that's not supported must be manually set up, and only one vendor - Belkin Corp. - has so far publicly committed to using the technology.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group that certifies Wi-Fi-labeled gear, has posted educational videos on its Web site and recommends that vendors use automated setup tools in their products. But it has stopped short of mandating specific interfaces, said Frank Hanzlik, the group's managing director.

In addition, not all vendors agree there's a major problem.

"Key to our strategy is consumer education," said Darek Connole, media relations manager at D-Link Systems Inc. "If the consumer knows why it's important, why it's easy to do, it becomes something they implement."

That's no excuse for not making setups more simple, objects Potter of TruSecure.

"The right instructions, the right help screens that ask the right question at the right time can go an awfully long way to keep those eyes from glazing over," he said.

___

On the Net:

Wi-Fi Alliance: http://www.wi-fi.org 

Easy-to-Spot Air Security Might Be Easy Target

Mon May 31, 7:55 AM ET 
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Times Staff Writer 

WASHINGTON - As they settled into first class on American Airlines Flight 1438 from Chicago to Miami, they were supposed to be the last line of defense against terrorists - two highly trained U.S. air marshals who would sit unnoticed among the ordinary travelers but spring into action at the first sign of trouble. 

Imagine their chagrin when a fellow passenger coming down the aisle suddenly boomed out, "Oh, I see we have air marshals on board!" 

The incident, detailed in an intelligence brief, is an example of something that happens all too often, marshals say. The element of surprise may be crucial to their mission, but it turns out they're "as easy to identify as a uniformed police officer," the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Assn. said in a complaint to Congress. 

The problem is not security leaks. It's the clothes. 

In an era when "dressing down" is the traveler's creed, air marshals must show up in jackets and ties, hair cut short, bodies buffed, shoes shined. 

Jack Webb would be proud, but the marshals say they stand out like shampooed show dogs among the pound pups. 

And the tipoff provided by their appearance is magnified by a set of boarding procedures that make them conspicuous. 

Since they're armed, the marshals can't go through the initial security screening with the rest of the passengers. Instead using the entry points set aside for airport employees, the marshals often must go through the "exit" lanes - marching against the flow of arriving passengers, at times in full view of travelers. 

"They lose the advantage" of being undercover, said John Amat, a spokesman for the marshals within the federal law officers group. 

Officials with the Federal Air Marshal Service, however, defended their sartorial standards. 

"Professional demeanor, attire and attitude gain respect," spokesman David M. Adams said. "If a guy pulls out a gun and he's got a tattoo on his arm and [is wearing] shorts, I'm going to question whether he's a law enforcement officer." 

As for the boarding procedures, Adams said, the agency is working to address the problems. Air marshals "are not undercover like Serpico," he added, referring to the legendary New York detective. "The director refers to them as 'discreet.' " 

The air marshal service has grown from about 30 officers at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to several thousand today, operating under a $600-million annual budget. 

With the expansion has come an infusion of federal law enforcement culture. The director of the air marshals, Thomas D. Quinn, who took over in January 2002, spent 20 years with the Secret Service. 

"Secret Service people are notoriously known for being snappy dressers," said Capt. Steve Luckey, security chairman for the Air Line Pilots Assn. 

And it was after Quinn took over, marshals said, that the strict rules on dress and grooming were instituted, including a ban on beards, long hair and jeans. 

But today's airliner is a come-as-you-are environment. Even "if you go in first class, you see the whole gamut," Luckey said, from people in cut-off jeans to those in suit and tie. "I think you can go overboard with the professionalism.... The mission dictates flexibility and some relaxed dress standards." 

Many marshals interviewed - who requested anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the media - agree. 

What makes them uneasy is the prospect of being spotted by terrorists and disabled or killed before they could react. 

"This is what I foresee," said one marshal, a two-year veteran. "Two of us get on the plane and we've been under surveillance the whole time. There's a minimum of four bad guys.... My partner goes to the bathroom and they come after me with a sharp pen, stab me in the neck or in the brain and take my weapon," he continued. "When my partner comes out, they shoot him. Then they've got 80 rounds of ammunition and two weapons." 

Adams called such a scenario "highly unlikely." 

Yet a congressional General Accounting Office (news - web sites) study of a two-year period from 2001 to 2003 found an average of about one case a week in which marshals reported their cover was blown. 

The passenger on American Flight 1438 told the marshals "he picked them out because of their attire and the fact that they were on board before the other passengers," an agency report on the Nov. 15, 2003 incident said. The report did not say whether the government took action against the man, although others who have outed air marshals have been prosecuted. 

One marshal with previous military and law enforcement experience said that "a bad guy on a plane can quickly narrow the pool of potential marshals. They're not wearing jeans, they're not wearing cargo pants.... There will not be an air marshal who is unshaven. You eliminate the unknown element." 

Additional clues to their identity can be gleaned by observing airport check-in and boarding, several marshals said. 

At the ticket counter, marshals must present an official leather credential case that is much bigger than a driver's license and looks different than a passport. 

"You can stand 20 feet away from the ticket counter and see it," said the marshal with military experience. Ticket agents sometimes hold it up to the light to study the hologram on the picture, he added. 

After they get their tickets, marshals head for the boarding gate. At their home airports, they can use a special access card to bypass the security checkpoint. But at other airports, they must go through the passenger exit lane. 

"Everybody sees you standing there," one marshal said. "Everybody sees you show your ID. They see you are being escorted through an exit lane, bypassing security." 

At the boarding gate, the marshals must again show their credentials to the airline agent. Then, because marshals have to brief flight crews in person, at least one team member has to board before the other passengers. That often takes place in full view. 

"You see physically fit men in their mid-30s getting on an airplane early, and you know they're not doing that because they need more time to get down the jet way," said Patricia Friend, president of the Assn. of Flight Attendants. 

The marshals have petitioned Congress for help in changing the rules. Several lawmakers are following up on the complaints. Among them is Sen. Herbert H. Kohl (D-Wis.), who talked with Quinn about the boarding procedures. And Rep. Peter DeFazio (news, bio, voting record) (D-Ore.) has asked the General Accounting Office to take another in-depth look at the agency. DeFazio is the ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee. 

Changes would largely be a matter of administrative action, but congressional pressure could force the issue. 

In the meantime, some air marshals have found ways to adapt. The marshal with military experience said he deliberately acts as the more visible member of his team. He walks down the jet way before the passengers. If someone stares at him, he stares back. By becoming the focus of attention, he figures he's helping protect his partner's anonymity. 

"If they come after me first, he might be able to save my bacon," the marshal. "At least one guy may be able to do something to defend the aircraft." 

* 

(Begin Text of Infobox) 

Air marshals 

Gender: 96% male; 4% female. 

Race and ethnicity: 73% white; 13% Latino; 9% African American; 2% Asian American; 1% Native American; 1% other or not reported. 

Age: 22% 30 and younger; 65% 31 to 40; 10% 41 to 50; 4% 51 and older. 

Dress: Suit and tie or sport coat, collared shirt, dress slacks and dress shoes. Equivalent attire is required for female air marshals. 

* 

Sources: General Accounting Office, Los Angeles Times 

* 

Note: Totals may not add to 100% because of rounding. 

* 

Los Angeles Times

Private Rocket Will Try and Reach Space 

Wed Jun 2, 7:48 PM ET

MOJAVE, Calif. - A privately developed manned rocket will attempt to reach space this month, its builders said Wednesday. It would be the first non-governmental flight to leave Earth's atmosphere. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Watch this: Tomorrow's TV displays will be flat and portable, your DVR will disappear, and you may even want to use TV to flip through future e-books. 

SpaceShipOne, created by aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by billionaire Paul Allen, will attempt to reach an altitude of 62 miles on a suborbital flight over the Mojave Desert on June 21. 

The rocket plane reached an altitude of about 40 miles during a test flight May 13. 

Suborbital flights are essentially up and down. The craft does not reach speeds fast enough go into orbit around the Earth. 

If the attempt is successful, SpaceShipOne will compete for the Ansari X Prize, a competition in which $10 million goes to the first reusable rocket able to carry three people into space on a suborbital flight, return them safely to Earth, and repeat the feat within two weeks with the same vehicle. 

A number of other private organizations are also developing contenders for the prize. 

"Every time SpaceShipOne flies we demonstrate that relatively modest amounts of private funding can significantly increase the boundaries of commercial space technology," Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., said in a statement. 

The cost of SpaceShipOne has not been revealed. 

SpaceShipOne is carried aloft by a specially designed jet aircraft and then is dropped into a glide at an altitude of about 50,000 feet. The pilot then fires the rocket motor and pulls up into a vertical climb. 

The June attempt will involve an 80-second rocket firing that will accelerate the craft to Mach 3. It will then coast up to the target altitude before falling back to Earth. The pilot will experience weightlessness for more than three minutes. The glide back to the ground will take 15-20 minutes.

AP: Administration Freed Terror Suspect 

32 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

By JOHN SOLOMON, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Nabil al-Marabh was No. 27 on the FBI (news - web sites)'s list of terror suspects after Sept. 11. He trained in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s militant camps, sent money to a roommate convicted in a foiled plot to bomb a hotel and boasted to an informant about plans to blow up a fuel truck inside a New York tunnel, FBI documents allege. The Bush administration set him free - to Syria - even though prosecutors had sought to bring criminal cases against him and judges openly expressed concerns about possible terrorist ties. 

Slideshow: September 11 AP: Administration Freed Terror Suspect 
(AP Video)

Al-Marabh served an eight-month jail sentence and was sent in January to his native Syria, which is regarded by the United States as a sponsor of terrorism. The quiet disposition of his case stands in stark contrast to the language FBI agents used to describe the man. 

Al-Marabh "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the United States," an FBI agent wrote in a December 2002 report obtained by The News Source. A footnote in al-Marabh's deportation ruling last year added, "The FBI has been unable to rule out the possibility that al-Marabh has engaged in terrorist activity or will do so if he is not removed from the United States." 

One FBI report summarized a high-level debriefing of a Jordanian informant named Ahmed Y. Ashwas that was personally conducted by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, signifying its importance. The informant alleged al-Marabh told him of specific terrorist plans during their time in prison. 

Even the judge who accepted al-Marabh's plea agreement on minor immigration charges in 2002 balked. "Something about this case just makes me feel uncomfortable," Judge Richard Arcara said in court. The Justice Department (news - web sites) assured the judge that al-Marabh did not have terrorist ties. 

A second judge who ultimately ordered al-Marabh's deportation sided with FBI agents, federal prosecutors and Customs agents in the field who believed al-Marabh was tied to terrorism. 

"The court finds applicant does present a danger to national security," U.S. Immigration Judge Robert D. Newberry ruled, concluding al-Marabh was "credibly linked to elements of terrorism" and had a "propensity to lie." 

Neither the courts nor al-Marabh's lawyers were given access to the most striking allegations provided by the Jordanian informant. 

Asked to explain the decision to free al-Marabh, Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra said the government has concerns about many people with suspected terror ties but cannot effectively try them in court without giving away intelligence sources and methods. 

"If the government cannot prosecute terrorism charges, another option is to remove the individual from the United States via deportation. After careful review, this was determined to be the best option available under the law to protect our national security," he said. 

But a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) scoffed at the explanation. "It's hard to believe that the best way to deal with the FBI's 27th most wanted terrorist is to send him back to a terrorist-sponsoring country," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. He said the Justice Department could have used a military tribunal or a classified criminal. "This action certainly raises a lot of questions and demands a lot of answers," Schumer said. 

Internal FBI and Justice Department documents reviewed by AP show prosecutors and FBI agents in several cities gathered evidence that linked al-Marabh to: 

_Raed Hijazi, the Boston cab driver convicted in Jordan for plotting to blow up an American-frequented hotel in Amman during the millennium celebrations of 1999. Al-Marabh and Hijazi were roommates at the Afghan training camps and later in the United States, and al-Marabh sent money to Hijazi. 

_The Detroit apartment where four men were arrested in what became the administration's first major terror prosecution after Sept. 11. Al-Marabh's name was still on the rental unit when agents raided it. The men were found with false IDs and documents describing alleged terror plots. 

_Several large deposits, withdrawals and overseas wire transfers in 1998 and 2000 that were flagged as suspicious by a Boston bank. The Customs Service first identified al-Marabh in 2001 for possible terrorist ties to Hijazi. 

FBI documents said Al-Marabh denied being affiliated with al-Qaida. But he acknowledged receiving "security" training in rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Afghan mujahedeen camps, sending money to his friend Hijazi, using a fake address to get a truck driving license and buying a phony passport for $4,000 in Canada to sneak into the United States shortly before Sept. 11. 

Al-Marabh's attorney, Mark Kriger, said Wednesday he had never seen the Jordanian informant report and still doesn't believe his client had anything to do with terrorism. He said his client broke ties with Hijazi years ago after a falling out. 

Kriger said he found it unbelievable "that the government, if it believed Ashwas, would have deported Mr. al-Marabh rather than indict him." 

The Justice Department's criminal division chief, Chris Wray, expressed concern to Congress last month that some suspects were being deported to freedom. "It may be more difficult than people would expect" to make a case against a suspect, even when he or she trained at terror camps, he said. 

"We may be able to deport the person under the immigration laws," Wray added. "And while that should give us some comfort, the fact is, if we go that route, the person is removed to another country and turned loose there, and we have no ability to make sure that they're not engaged in further terrorist activity." 

At one point in late 2002, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago drafted an indictment against al-Marabh on multiple counts of making false statements in his interviews with FBI agents. Justice headquarters declined prosecution. Fitzgerald declined through a spokesman to discuss the reasons. 

Fitzgerald then tracked down Ashwas, the Jordanian who because of minor immigration problems had spent time with al-Marabh in a federal detention cell in 2002. Fitzgerald had the man flown to Chicago and oversaw his debriefing along with FBI agents from Chicago and Detroit, documents show. 

Ashwas alleged that during one of his encounters he helped persuade the prison psychiatrist to prescribe al-Marabh an anti-anxiety drug called Claripan and that al-Marabh began talking more freely, the FBI reported. 

The FBI summarized Ashwas' allegations: 

_Al-Marabh said he aided Hijazi's flight from authorities and sent him money, plotted a martyrdom attack in the United States and took instructions from a mystery figure in Chicago known only as "al Mosul," which means "boss" in Arabic. 

_Al Mosul asked al-Marabh to attend a driving school in Detroit with Arabic instructors so he could get a commercial truck driver's license, and arranged for al-Marabh to live in the Detroit apartment later raided by the FBI as a terror cell. 

_Al-Marabh said he and Hijazi planned to steal a fuel truck from a rest stop in New York and New Jersey and detonate it in the heavily traveled Lincoln or Holland tunnels, but the plan was foiled when Hijazi was arrested. 

_Al-Marabh acknowledged he had distributed money - as much as $200,000 a month - to the various training camps in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. 

The FBI and prosecutors confirmed some aspects of Ashwas' account, including that al-Marabh had been at the Detroit apartment, had trained at at least one Afghan camp and had gotten the truck driver's license. 

Fitzgerald wasn't alone in his efforts to try to bring a case against al-Marabh 

Prosecutors and FBI agents in other states sought to get enough evidence to prosecute him. 

In Detroit, prosecutors developed evidence but weren't allowed to bring a case connecting al-Marabh to the terror cell there. 

One of those prosecutors, longtime career Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino, recently sued Ashcroft, alleging the Justice Department improperly interfered with prosecuting terrorists. Justice says Convertino is under investigation for possibly withholding a piece of evidence from defense lawyers in the Detroit terror case. 

When al-Marabh's name surfaced in the Detroit trial in March 2003, an FBI agent said al-Marabh remained under investigation for terrorism but hadn't been charged. 

"Mr. Al-Marabh was listed No. 27 on the FBI Watch List," agent Michael Thomas testified. "He was a known associate, a former roommate of Mr. Raed Hijazi." 

Less than 10 months after Thomas' testimony, al-Marabh was freed from custody and put on a plane to Syria.

Bush May Hire Lawyer in Probe Over CIA Leak

1 hour, 11 minutes ago 
Add Politics 

WASHINGTON  - President Bush (news - web sites) has sought a lawyer to represent him in the criminal probe into who was responsible for a leak that was seen as retaliation against a critic of the Iraq (news - web sites) war, the White House said on Wednesday. 

"The president has had discussions with an outside attorney, and in the event that he needs advice he would retain him," said White House spokesman Allen Abney, naming the lawyer as Jim Sharp. 

A federal grand jury has been hearing testimony since January from administration and government officials in an attempt to establish who leaked the name of CIA (news - web sites) operative Valerie Plame to the media last year. 

Plame is the wife of Joe Wilson, a former ambassador who was asked by the CIA to travel to Niger in February 2002 to check reports that Iraq had tried to buy enriched uranium from the African country. 

Wilson dismissed the reports as unfounded, but Bush nevertheless included a reference to the supposed deal in his State of the Union speech in 2003, citing it as one of the reasons to invade Iraq. 

The CIA later acknowledged that the uranium reports were based on forged documents and the White House said they should not have been mentioned in the State of the Union speech. 

A newspaper columnist disclosed Plame's identity in July last year and Wilson accused the Bush administration of having leaked the information to pay him back for having publicly taken issue with the president's uranium claim. 

It is illegal under U.S. law to disclose the name of a covert agent who has served outside the country in the previous five years. 

Reports that Bush had contacted an attorney were first carried on Wednesday by CBS Evening News.

Study: Dieting Can Weaken Immune System 

Wed Jun 2, 7:14 AM ET 
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, News Source Writer 

SEATTLE - A new study has found that "yo-yo dieting" - repeatedly losing, then regaining weight - may harm a woman's immune system. The study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center also found that maintaining the same weight over time appears to have a positive effect on a woman's immune system, according to one of the lead researchers. 

Researchers in the study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, interviewed 114 overweight but otherwise healthy sedentary, older women about their weight-loss history during the past 20 years. The women had to have maintained a stable weight for at least three months before joining the study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites). 

The study, which found that long-term immune function decreases in proportion to how many times a woman has intentionally lost weight, measured natural killer cell activity in the women's blood. Natural killer cells are an essential part of the immune system, killing viruses and leukemia cells, said Cornelia Ulrich, senior author and an assistant member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division. 

Low natural killer cell activity has been associated with increased cancer rates and a higher susceptibility to colds and infections, she said. 

"While one weight-loss episode of 10 pounds or more in the previous 20 years was not associated with current natural killer cell activity, more frequent weight-loss episodes" were associated with a significant decrease in such activity, Ulrich said. 

The study found that women who maintained a fairly stable weight over several years had higher levels of such cells than those whose weight frequently fluctuated. 

Those who reported losing weight more than five times had about a third lower natural killer cell function, the study found. Conversely, women who maintained the same weight for at least five years had 40 percent greater natural killer cell activity as compared to those who maintained their weight for fewer than two years. 

Though no men participated in the study and further research is needed, Ulrich said the immune systems of male dieters would likely be affected the same way. 

The findings, while intriguing, are preliminary, cautioned Ulrich, who is also a research assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. 

Researchers had to rely on the participants' own reports of their weight loss histories and the analysis was based on blood samples collected at a single point in time, representing a narrow sample. 

A long-term study could provide more conclusive results, said Ulrich, who is planning to collaborate with Canadian researchers who have been working on a similar study. 

Although the study suggests that yo-yo dieting is harmful, Ulrich stopped short of saying that people should stop attempting to lose weight. 

"There's clearly evidence that weight loss is beneficial for your health," she said. "What we're concerned about is this pattern of weight cycling where women go up and down." 

Exercise has been shown to boost immunity and temper some of the negative effects of weight loss on the immune system, Ulrich said. 

Despite its preliminary nature, the study is significant, said Katherine Tallmadge, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association in Washington, D.C. Although dietitians have known for years the negative psychological effects of yo-yo dieting, this appears to be the first study to examine the long-term impact of such dieting on immunity, she said. 

People should avoid popular low-carb and low-fat diets that can produce initial weight loss but rarely work in the long term, Tallmadge said. 

"Study after study shows that more moderate restrictions are more likely to last permanently," Tallmadge said. "That's why we registered dietitians are urging people not to do the fad diets, and just try small changes that they're more likely to be able to live with - even if the weight loss is slower." ___ 

On the Net: 

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center http://www.fhcrc.org/ 

American Dietetic Association: http://www.eatright.org/Public/ 

National Cancer Institute: http://cancer.gov/

Kraft Backs Off Plan to Reduce Portions 

2 hours, 39 minutes ago 
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NORTHFIELD, Ill. - Kraft Foods Inc. has abandoned its plan to reduce some portion sizes, citing consumer research that shows shoppers prefer to have the choice of whether to go with smaller packages. 

The nation's largest food company disclosed the decision in a progress report on the anti-obesity initiatives it announced last July. With the food industry facing growing consumer health concerns and the risk of obesity lawsuits, Kraft had pledged to change some product recipes, reduce portions in some single-serve packages, quit marketing snacks via giveaways at school and encourage healthier lifestyles. 

"When we spoke with consumers about what they wanted with single-serve, what they told us was that they didn't want us to reduce the size because they wanted to have more choice," Kraft spokeswoman Kris Charles said Wednesday. "Different people have different body sizes and activity levels, and it made more sense to provide different portion choices." 

Kraft said it would offer a broad range of portion-size choices, including snacks in small packages such as its new Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs. It also said it will give nutrition information for entire packages, rather than just for individual portions, "so consumers don't have to do the math themselves." 

That move, Kraft said, should support the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites)'s recent call for food companies to enhance labeling on packages in a way that helps consumers make informed choices. 

The company also said it has reduced the fat content and made other changes to about 200 products it sells in North America. That accounts for about 5 percent of its products, and Kraft called it "just a beginning." 

"Our ongoing actions are part of a broader societal response to growing health and wellness concerns, including obesity," CEO Roger Deromedi said. "It's going to take a comprehensive approach that involves many sectors of society to truly accelerate the change that's needed. We're ready, as are many other food companies, to collaborate and cooperate with governments, policy experts, industries and communities around the world." 

Kraft shares rose 15 cents to close at $30.05 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). 

___ 

On the Net: 

www.kraft.com 

NY Attorney General Sues Glaxo on Paxil

2 hours, 39 minutes ago 
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NEW YORK  - N.Y. state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday he sued British pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline Plc, claiming fraud over its antidepressant drug Paxil. 

The lawsuit alleges that starting in 1998, Glaxo engaged in a concerted effort to withhold negative information about Paxil and misrepresented data concerning its safety and efficacy in children and adolescents. 

The suit claims Glaxo conducted at least five studies on the use of Paxil in children and adolescents but published only one, which had mixed results. It claims the company suppressed negative results from the other studies, which did not show that Paxil worked and may even have suggested an increased risk of suicide. 

Glaxo officials were not immediately available for comment. 

In the suit, filed in N.Y. State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Spitzer asked that Glaxo give up all profits obtained through the claimed misconduct. 

The suit also claims Glaxo misrepresented the results of its research to its sales representatives, saying it had "remarkable efficacy and safety in the treatment of adolescent depression." 

More than 2 million prescriptions for Paxil were written for children and adolescents in the United States in 2002, even though the drug is approved by U.S. regulators only to treat adult depression. Physicians, however, have the ability to prescribe Paxil for children.

Ladies Night' Discount Axed in N.J. Bars 

Wed Jun 2,11:05 AM ET 
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TRENTON, N.J. - The state's top civil rights official has ruled that taverns cannot offer discounts to women on "ladies nights," agreeing with a man who claimed such gender-based promotions discriminated against men.

David R. Gillespie said it was not fair for women to get into the Coastline nightclub for free and receive discounted drinks while men paid a $5 cover charge and full price for drinks. 

In his ruling Tuesday, J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the state Division on Civil Rights, rejected arguments by the nightclub that ladies nights were a legitimate promotion. Commercial interests do not override the "important social policy objective of eradicating discrimination," he ruled. 

The ruling specifically addressed the weekly ladies nights at the Coastline in Cherry Hill, but it carries the force of a court decision and applies statewide. Vespa-Papaleo said state officials would write formal rules after a public hearing. 

The restaurant's attorney, Colleen Ready, did not immediately return a telephone message left Wednesday by The News Source. 

Courts in other states have issued divergent opinions on such promotions. 

Judges in Pennsylvania and Iowa have said similar events are illegal, but courts in Illinois and Washington state have said that ladies nights are permissible because they do not discriminate against men but rather encourage women to attend.

Stunned Japan Agonizes Over Schoolgirl Stabbing

Wed Jun 2, 8:41 AM ET 
Add World 

By Elaine Lies 

TOKYO  - A stunned Japan was searching for answers on Wednesday after an 11-year-old schoolgirl killed a classmate by slashing her throat, the latest in a string of violent crimes by children. 

Japan, which had long prided itself on being relatively crime-free, has in recent years been confronted by an increasing number of gruesome youth crimes that have prompted it to lower the age of criminal responsibility. 

Teachers and friends said the 11-year-old had shown no sign of trouble and described her as just like any other girl, adding to the shock. 

"It is difficult to imagine how such a very serious incident could come from such an ordinary girl from an ordinary family," said the head of a child welfare center that took custody of the girl. 

Twelve-year-old Satomi Mitarai died from loss of blood after she was attacked by the classmate, said to be her friend, with a knife during the lunch break on Tuesday at their primary school in Sasebo, 980 km (610 miles) west of Tokyo. 

There was no obvious motive for the attack, but Japanese media said the 11-year-old told police that she had been upset at Satomi for posting a message about her on a Web site and that she had intended to kill Satomi over it. 

The Yomiuri Shimbun daily reflected the general bewilderment, asking in an editorial, "What sort of connection did these two have? What set it off? Nothing is known." 

Police said the 11-year-old had called Satomi to a study room where she attacked her and then returned to the classroom with her clothes bloodstained. 

Child welfare workers said the girl repeatedly apologized for the crime, covering her face with her hands as she wept, according to media reports. 

The victim's widowed father, who lived alone with her and her older brother, said he was in shock. 

"That my daughter could no longer be with me is unbelievable. But the unbelievable has happened," Kyoji Mitarai, the local bureau chief of the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, told reporters. 

"She was like air to me," he said. 

RISING CRIME, TIGHTER LAWS 

The killing appeared especially shocking because of the age of the children involved and the fact that both were girls. 

Officials said the girl in Tuesday's incident would appear before a family court, which could send her to a special reformatory for children. 

Children under 14 cannot be prosecuted. 

In 1997, a 14-year-old schoolboy horrified the nation by murdering two children and leaving the severed head of one of them outside the gates of a school in Kobe, western Japan. 

That crime prompted calls for harsher penalties against juveniles, and a law was enacted in 2001 lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14. 

The number of serious crimes by juveniles has continued to rise, however, with the ages of offenders falling. 

Last year, a 12-year-old boy in the city of Nagasaki, which is near Sasebo, confessed to abducting and murdering a four-year-old by pushing him off the roof of a garage. 

According to police figures, the number of minors aged 14 to 19 who committed serious crimes such as murder and robbery rose 11.4 percent to 2,212 in 2003, while the number of offenders under 14 rose 47.2 percent to 212, topping the 200 level for the first time in 16 years. 

There have been eight cases where primary school children have committed or attempted murder in the last 15 years. 

Police have drawn up new guidelines on fighting juvenile crime, but editorials on Wednesday said more fundamental measures may be needed. 

"We must make children understand even more the basic importance of life," the Yomiuri said.

Sasser, Netsky Continue To Dominate Tue Jun 1, 4:06 PM ET Add Technology - NewsFactor 

Erika Morphy, www.enterprise-security-today.com

Authorities may have arrested those responsible for the destructive Sasser and Netsky e-mail worms -- but their effects still linger, according to security firm Sophos.

"Sasser proved to be a major nuisance in May, affecting even more users than even the Netsky worms," said Chris Kraft, senior security analyst. "Requiring no user intervention and taking advantage of a relatively new Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) hole, it sneaked onto unprotected PCs, inundating Internet connections."

Young and Powerful

Sasser, apparently launched by an 18-year-old young man from Germany, wound up disrupting not only countless home users' PCs, but also systems at Delta Airlines and the Coast Guard. Indeed, the story of Sasser is a sorry lesson for all concerned, illustrating that even the slightly skilled now are able to disrupt corporate networks.

At least that is what Panda Software CTO Patrick Hinojosa finds so maddening about Sasser. "It is very simple to write these things," he told NewsFactor, "and with some worms -- e-mail worms in particular -- it takes hardly any skill at all. You can do it from a kit, in fact."

The Sasser worm easily could have been stopped in its tracks from the outset, Hinojosa says, as Microsoft identified the vulnerability and offered a patch for it a few weeks before the worm appeared. "This element of network security is not rocket science -- it is a default configuration."

Keep On Coming

The situation is not getting any better, according to Sophos. "Both Sasser and Netsky may have captured the headlines, but there were many other viruses written this month -- 959 in total," Kraft said. "In the month of May, we saw a considerable increase in cyber-criminal activity, which suggests that even the arrest of Sven Jaschan, the German teenager who has owned up to writing Sasser and Netsky, has done very little to limit the problem."

The 959 new viruses Sophos identified in May represent the highest number of new viruses discovered in a single month since December 2001, the firm said. 

Drunk Students Adrift on Raft at Sea

Jun 1, 10:38 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - A band of drunk Dutch students taking a break from exams had to be rescued at sea after a raft they built from empty jerrycans went adrift on the North Sea, the Hague police said Friday.

"The students had made a kind of floating island and ventured out to sea under the influence of alcohol. They were carried into the open sea by the current and had to be rescued," a police statement said.

The group of 15 to 20 students was let off with little more than a stern warning from police who accused them of "irresponsible behavior."

Forget Splitting Atoms, Split a Banana for Energy

Jun 1, 9:51 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australian scientists have discovered what sportsmen and women around the world have known for years: bananas are a great source of instant energy.

A new government-funded study is investigating the possibility of harnessing bruised or spoilt bananas -- deemed not worth selling to consumers -- to provide energy for 500 homes.

"It's not a hoax," Australian Banana Growers' Council Chief Executive Tony Heidrich said on Tuesday.

Reminiscent of the pig-powered town in the futuristic movie Mad Max Thunderdome, bananas would be combined with bacteria to produce methane. Pipes would take the gas to a turbine which could be plugged into the main electricity grid.

"It's like a big stomach. You open the lid, you put the stuff in and seal the lid and...away you go," said Heidrich by telephone from the nation's banana-growing state of Queensland.

"Essentially it's just like a big composting bin. It's a waste product and currently we're not doing anything else with it. This would harness the electrical capacity that it can bring," he said.

However, Heidrich said other fruit-powered homes, such as apricot, pineapple or kiwi-fruit, were unlikely anytime soon.

"Initially I think they'll stick to bananas but potentially you could use other fruit," he said.

Ethanol from sugar cane has already been tested for commercial energy use and the husks of Australia's native Macadamia nuts have been used as fuel to make electricity.

Power Plant Shut -- to Tune Piano

May 28, 10:49 am ET 

OSLO  - One of the Nordic region's biggest power stations shut Friday to let an expert tune a grand piano for a concert undisturbed by the hum of huge hydroelectric generators.

"When you put a big piano in there, you also need to tune it, and that is very difficult if the machines are running," said Tron Engebrethsen, senior vice president at Norwegian power company Statkraft.

The generators will be switched back on after Friday evening's concert which is being staged in an enormous underground hall at the 1,120-megawatt Sima power plant.

The hall, built in a rock cavern inside a mountain in the scenic Hardanger fjord in western Norway, is renowned for its acoustics.

Engebrethsen said a concert was held at the plant about once a year, but it was the first time they had shut down production to tune a piano.

The program includes music from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and Stravinsky's "Agon."

The generators, which will be down for nine hours, will be switched back on at 2200 local time.

This Movie Is SO Bad...

May 28, 10:09 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - It may go down in movie marketing history: "Gigli," a film deemed so bad that one cable television network is trumpeting its poor reviews to sell it to audiences looking for a laugh.

The Starz Encore network is marketing "Gigli," a box office flop starring former lovers Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, as a film that has been so maligned by critics and moviegoers that "you know you want to see it."

In marketing materials sent to reporters, Starz Encore calls "Gigli," "The Most Talked About Movie of the Year," then adds, "(OK, not all of our movies can be award-winning blockbusters).

"Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," said Starz Encore's Steve Belgard, director of programing publicity. "If we promoted it like a good film, our credibility would be shot."

Belgard dreamed up the idea.

Accustomed to seeing ads filled with reviews claiming a movie is "the year's best," Starz offers reporters this from the San Jose Mercury News: "A rigli, rigli bad movie," or this from the San Francisco Examiner: "Viewers (read: victims) will want to talk and comfort each other afterwards."

"Gigli" is pronounced zhee-lee.

In the movie, Affleck plays a thug who falls in love with a gangster, Lopez, who also happens to be a lesbian. It debuted in August 2003, and racked up $6 million at domestic box offices.

In real life, the pair were engaged to be married and their every move was dogged by paparazzi and tabloid press. They have since broken up.

Belgard said it was about time Ben and Jen -- sometimes dubbed Bennifer -- got back together, at least on the screen.

"We've missed them, haven't we?" he asked, rather dryly.

Giant Mushroom Baffles Experts in Congo

May 28, 9:57 am ET 

BRAZZAVILLE  - A giant three-tiered mushroom which measures a meter (yard) across and was found in the tropical forests of the Republic of Congo has left experts in the capital Brazzaville scratching their heads.

"It's the first time we've ever seen a mushroom like this so it's difficult for us to classify. But we are going to determine what it is scientifically," Pierre Botaba, head of Congo's veterinary and zoology center, told reporters on Thursday.

The giant fungi stands 18 inches high and has three tiered caps on top of a broad stem. The bottom cap measures one meter across, the second one 60 cm and the top one is 24 cm wide, Botaba said.

The bizarre-looking mushroom was found in the village of Mvoula about 38 miles from Brazzaville and transported carefully to the capital by the local chief.

Police Weed Out Art Exhibition

May 28, 9:46 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A Swedish art exhibit featuring cannabis plants may have to be canceled after police confiscated the plants in a drugs bust.

The exhibition, due to open on Saturday in the university town of Lund and titled "Counterclockwise Circumambulation," was partially destroyed when police cut the plants to take them away as evidence, artist Sture Johannesson said.

The plant is grown in the region for its fibers and Swedish media said Johannesson's hemp was not the type used by smokers. He could replace the plants, but said they had already begun to grow back. "They will have to come back on a regular basis to prune," he said on Friday.

Amorous Swedes to Get Emergency Condom Deliveries

Jun 1, 10:50 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A Swedish aid organization will roll out a new line of defense to the country's emergency services next week -- the condom ambulance.

From Friday, June 4, amorous couples can call the telephone number 696969 and a white van featuring a large red condom with wings as a logo will deliver them a packet of 10 prophylactics.

"We need to increase the usage of condoms," said Carl Osvald, marketing manager for the Swedish Organization for Sex Education, the non-governmental organization behind the initiative. "It is 50 percent about pregnancy and 50 percent about sexually transmitted diseases."

The ambulances will operate in Stockholm and the southern cities of Malmo and Gothenberg. The service, aimed at young people, will run until June 25 and be available between four in the afternoon and nine at night.

A packet of 10 condoms will cost 50 crowns ($6.72), less than they cost on average in the shops.

The incidence of sexually transmitted disease is increasing rapidly in Sweden and not enough young people use condoms, Osvald said.

"We need to change attitudes to condoms," he said. "If we need to get out in to the bedrooms to make things better we will do it."

U.S.: Suspect Sought to Blow Up Buildings 

1 hour, 17 minutes ago

By LARRY MARGASAK, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member held as a terrorism suspect for two years, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States in addition to planning an attack with a "dirty bomb" radiological device, the government said Tuesday. 

U.S.: Suspect Sought to Blow Up Buildings 
(AP Video) 

The Justice Department (news - web sites), under pressure to explain its indefinite detention of a U.S. citizen as an "enemy combatant," detailed Padilla's alleged al-Qaida training in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and contacts with the most senior members of the terrorist network, his travel back into the United States and preparations to rent apartments and set off explosives. 

Deputy Attorney General James Comey called the chronicle of Padilla's plotting "remarkable for its scope, its clarity and its candor." 

The department released documents, based in part on interviews with Padilla, saying he and an unidentified al-Qaida accomplice planned to find as many as three apartment buildings supplied with natural gas. 

"Padilla and the accomplice were to locate as many as three high-rise apartment buildings which had natural gas supplied to the floors," the government summary of interrogations said. The alleged accomplice is in custody. 

"They would rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time," the papers alleged. 

Comey said Padilla suggested to his handlers that he detonate a nuclear bomb that he thought he could make from instructions on the Internet, or that he set off a dirty bomb that would release deadly radiation in a small area. His handlers did not think either was feasible, Comey said, and wanted him to focus instead on the apartment-building plot. 

Top al-Qaida officials "wanted Padilla to hit targets in New York City, although Florida and Washington, D.C. were discussed as well," the summary said. 

One of Padilla's lawyers, Andrew Patel, characterized Comey's information as "an opening statement without a trial. We are in the same position we've been in for two years, where the government says bad things about Mr. Padilla and there's no forum for him to defend himself." 

The Supreme Court is deciding whether the war on terrorism gives the government power to seize Americans such as Padilla and hold them without charges for as long as it takes to ensure they are not a danger to the nation. Comey denied the timing of the disclosure was an attempt to influence the court. 

Comey said Padilla's partner in the attacks was to be Adnan El Shukrijumah, one of seven suspected al-Qaida operatives who the Justice Department cited last week as planning attacks on the United States. Nicknamed "Jafar the pilot," the Saudi native once lived in Florida and has been sought by federal authorities for more than a year. 

While Comey said the two broke up the partnership because they couldn't get along, the official said the information learned from Padilla and others about Jafar's role makes his capture imperative. 

"We need to find that guy," Comey said. 

Comey said release of the information had no connection to criticism from some members of Congress and some administration officials that Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) overstated the al-Qaida threat. 

Rather, Comey said, he acted "because every place I went to speak, people would say, 'We agree with you with the war on terror but we've got a problem with this Padilla thing. I wish I knew more about it.' And I very much wanted people to know what I knew about Jose Padilla to address those questions." 

Comey told a news conference that when Padilla stepped off a plane in Chicago in May 2002, he was a highly trained and fully equipped "soldier of our enemy" who had accepted his al-Qaida assignment to kill hundreds of innocent people in apartment buildings. 

"We have decided to release this information to help people understand why we are doing what we are doing in the war on terror and to help people understand the nature of the threat we face," he said. 

He asserted that if Padilla had been handled by the usual criminal justice system, he could have stayed silent and "would likely have ended up a free man." 

Padilla was to conduct an Internet search on buildings that had natural gas heating, open a bank account and obtain documents needed to rent an apartment, the government said. The plot called for blowing up 20 buildings simultaneously, but Padilla allegedly said he could not rent multiple apartments under one identity without drawing attention. 

The information was provided in response to a query from Senate Justice Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Comey said it took significant time to compile the information and denied the timing had anything to do with the court case. 

"If it was done sooner it would have been released sooner," he said. 

Comey said there are no plans to file the information as an addendum to the arguments the administration made in the case. And he said there are no plans to use the material to try to seek a criminal indictment against Padilla. 

Comey traced Padilla's alleged transition into a terrorist as beginning in earnest in March 2000, when he joined a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and met an al-Qaida recruiter. Two months later, he met someone in Yemen who arranged training for him in the Afghan terrorist camps, Comey said. 

He said Padilla signed an application joining al-Qaida in July 2000. During his training, Comey said, Padilla met senior al-Qaida officials including Abu Zubaydah, the network's operations chief in Afghanistan; and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks

NASA Discovers Likely Youngest Planet

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

By MARCIA DUNN, News Source Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - One of NASA (news - web sites)'s space telescopes has discovered what scientists believe may be the youngest planet ever spied - a celestial body that at 1 million years old or less is a cosmic toddler.

In its first major findings, announced Thursday, the Spitzer Space Telescope also has shown that protostars, or developing stars, "are as common as the cicadas in the trees here on the East Coast" and that the planetary construction zones around infant stars have considerable ice that could produce future oceans.

"Oh, my goodness, it knocked our socks off," University of Wisconsin astronomer Ed Churchwell said of the trio of discoveries.

Spitzer is an infrared telescope has been orbiting the sun and studying the universe since last summer. It did not actually "see" the toddler planet, but yielded evidence that enabled scientists to infer its existence.

The object is in the constellation Taurus, 420 light-years away - quite close by astronomy standards. It is believed to be on the inner edge of a planet-forming dusty disk that encircles a 1-million-year-old star.

University of Rochester astronomer Dan Watson said a sharply defined hole in the middle of the disk suggests that a planet created the opening. That gaseous planet would have been formed sometime since the star's formation.

By comparison, the Earth and the rest of the solar system are 4.5 billion years old. And up until now, the youngest planets observed around other stars were a few billion years old.

Astronomer Deborah Padgett at the Carnegie Institution of Washington cautioned that instead of a planet, the gap in the dusty disk could be caused by asteroid formation or a smaller unseen stellar companion. She said it is also possible that the heat and light of the star are forming the gap by blowing all the dusty material out.

However, she said that it is "very likely" a planet, and that additional research by Spitzer and future spacecraft should settle the debate.

The Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) previously observed the star - named CoKu Tau 4 - but could not make out such details.

Watson also reported that for the first time, Spitzer has shown without ambiguity all the icy organic materials in the planet-forming disks surrounding infant stars, or those that are only hundreds of thousands of years old. He called these the building blocks of what might end up as a solar system like our own.

As for the proliferation of developing stars, Spitzer revealed more than 300 star formations in one region in the constellation Centaurus, 13,700 light-years away.

"It's kind of blown our minds," Churchwell said.

Anne Kinney, director of NASA's astronomy and physics division, likened the preponderance of protostars to the cicadas.

Scientists compared Spitzer to Smarty Jones, the young horse that next week may become a Triple Crown champion.

"Spitzer has beaten Smarty Jones considerably. It has already won the Triple Crown for 2004 by virtue of having made these three discoveries," said astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Spitzer is the fourth and final spacecraft in NASA's Great Observatory series, which began with Hubble and continued with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, now gone, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The 14-year-old Hubble was the only one designed for astronaut repairs, and its future has ignited a fierce debate in and outside NASA. NASA has decided to forgo any more shuttle missions to Hubble, citing post-Columbia safety concerns, and instead may send robots on a life-prolonging mission.

On Thursday, a petition signed by 26 astronauts, most of them retired, was sent to President Bush (news - web sites) by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. The astronauts - "we, the real risk-takers" - urged that the shuttle mission to Hubble be reinstated.

List Linking Smoking to Diseases Expands 

Thu May 27, 9:08 PM ET

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The list of diseases linked to smoking grew longer Thursday. Add acute myeloid leukemia, cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach, abdominal aortic aneurysms, cataracts, periodontitis and pneumonia. 

"We've known for decades that smoking is bad for your health, but this report shows that it's even worse," said Surgeon General Richard Carmona, announcing his first official assessment of the effects of tobacco. 

The report said current evidence is not conclusive enough to say smoking causes colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer or erectile disfunction. Some research has associated those diseases with smoking, but Carmona said more proof is needed. 

The evidence suggests smoking may not cause breast cancer in women but that some women, depending on genetics, may increase their risk of getting it by smoking, the report said. 

Diseases previously linked to smoking include cancer of the bladder, esophagus, larynx, lung and mouth. Also tied to smoking was chronic lung disease, chronic heart and cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, peptic ulcers and reproductive problems. 

About 440,000 Americans die of smoking-related diseases each year. The report said more than 12 million people have died from smoking-related diseases in the 40 years since the first surgeon general's report on smoking and health was released in 1964. 

That report linked smoking to lung and larynx cancer and chronic bronchitis. Subsequent reports, such as the one released Thursday, have expanded the list of diseases linked to smoking. 

Carmona's report said treating smoking-related diseases costs the nation $75 billion annually. The loss of productivity from smoking is estimated to be $82 billion annually. 

On average, the surgeon general said, smokers die 13 years to 14 years before nonsmokers. 

The number of adults who smoke has dropped from about 42 percent in 1965 to about 22 percent in 2002, the last year for which such data is available, according to the surgeon general. 

The government has set a goal of 12 percent by 2010, but is having trouble getting the rate to come down as quickly as sought. The smoking rate is declining by less than one-half of a percentage point annually. 

Cheryl Healton, president of the anti-smoking American Legacy Foundation, said officials have failed to act on recommendations made by a government-appointed scientific panel last year. Among its proposals was raising the federal tax on cigarettes from 39 cents per pack to $2.39. 

The Bush administration did agree with the proposal to establish a national hot line to counsel smokers. That should be set up next year. 

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, said the surgeon general's report demonstrates the need for the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) to regulate cigarettes. That has been proposed in Congress. 

Carmona said he was briefed on the legislation, which would set strict rules for marketing and manufacturing cigarettes. While he stopped short of endorsing the bill, he said it was "wonderful" that lawmakers were considering it. 

Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson has said he thinks tobacco ought to be regulated. 

When President Bush (news - web sites) asked recently if he thinks more regulation of the industry is needed, he reaffirmed his position that the emphasis ought to be on preventing teenagers from smoking. 

The administration recently signed a treaty that would put new restrictions on cigarette manufactures worldwide. Public health officials complain that the administration has not yet submitted the treaty to the Senate for ratification. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Surgeon General: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/sgoffice.htm

Report: 1 of Every 75 U.S. Men in Prison

1 hour, 18 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By CONNIE CASS, News Source Writer

WASHINGTON - America's inmate population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail.

The inmate population continued its rise despite a fall in the crime rate and many states' efforts to reduce some sentences, especially for low-level drug offenders.

The report issued Thursday by the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes much of the increase to get-tough policies enacted during the 1980s and '90s, such as mandatory drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws for repeat offenders, and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that restrict early releases.

Whether that's good or bad depends on who is asked.

"The prison system just grows like a weed in the yard," said Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, which pushes for a more lenient system.

Without reforms, he said, prison populations will continue to grow "almost as if they are on autopilot, regardless of their high costs and disappointing crime-control impact."

But Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said the report shows the success of efforts to take hard-core criminals off the streets.

"It is no accident that violent crime is at a 30-year low while prison population is up," Ashcroft said. "Violent and recidivist criminals are getting tough sentences while law-abiding Americans are enjoying unprecedented safety."

There were 715 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents at midyear in 2003, up from 703 a year earlier, the report found.

The nation's incarceration rate tops the world, according to The Sentencing Project, another group that promotes alternatives to prison. That compares with a rate of 169 per 100,000 residents in Mexico, 116 in Canada and 143 for England and Wales.

Russia's prison population, which once rivaled the United States', has dropped to 584 per 100,000 because of prisoner amnesties in recent years, the group said.

The U.S. inmate population in 2003 grew at its fastest pace in four years. The number of inmates increased 1.8 percent in state prisons, 7.1 percent in federal prisons and 3.9 percent in local jails.

In 2003, 68 percent of prison and jail inmates were members of racial or ethnic minorities, the government said. An estimated 12 percent of all black men in their 20s were in jails or prisons, as were 3.7 percent of Hispanic men and 1.6 percent of white men in that age group, according to the report.

The report also said:

_The number of women in state and federal prisons grew by 5 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent increase for men. Still, men greatly outnumber women: 1.36 million to 100,102.

_Local jails held 691,301 inmates.

_The inmate population in 10 states increased at least 5 percent. Some of the smallest state prison systems saw the largest increase: Vermont's grew by 12.2 percent, Minnesota was up 9.4 percent and Maine 9.1 percent.

_Only nine states logged a decrease in prison population, led by Rhode Island with a 3.4 percent drop; Arkansas, 2.2 percent; and Montana, 2.1 percent.

___

On the Net:

Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs 

Student Teaches Robot to Fold Paper 

Mon May 24, 8:15 AM ET

PITTSBURGH - Most people can fold a piece of paper by the time they're in kindergarten, but it's not child's play for a robot, which must use complex mathematical formulas to accomplish the task. 

That's why officials at Carnegie Mellon University are excited about a graduate student who has developed a robot capable of doing origami - the traditional Japanese art of folding paper to make figures or sculptures. 

Matthew Mason, a professor of computer science and robotics, thought building such a robot would be so daunting that he didn't encourage Devin Balkcom's plans to do so in January 2003. But today, Balkcom has a robot that can make paper airplanes and hats and is scheduled to earn his doctorate with the project in August. 

"Origami is way out there - it's like a space shot," Mason said. 

Origami has important research applications because although robots have been taught to manipulate rigid objects such as golf clubs, they struggle when the objects are flexible, like paper or the human tissues that surgical robots must navigate. 

As a result, robot origami help measure a robot's ability to manipulate flexible objects, much as playing chess has become a way of measuring a computer's intelligence and speed, Mason and Balkcom said. 

"To make a swan would be 10 Ph.D.s worth of work," Balkcom said. 

So if a child can learn how to make a folded paper swan, why is it rocket science for a robot? 

Balkcom's robot may look fairly simple - a small robot arm attached to a table that's something like a sheet metal press - but every manipulation of the paper, and even the physical properties of paper itself, must be converted into the only language a robot understands: mathematics. 

For example, paper might appear to be two-dimensional, because it is so thin. But it has thickness that must be expressed mathematically so that the robot can account for what happens when the paper is folded. (Answer: it gets thicker.) 

As a result, the robot must be programmed to "understand" that paper can only be folded so much (about seven times is the limit), and that paper stretches ever so slightly when it is folded. 

And that doesn't even take into account fingers. Robots don't have them, so they don't have the nerves that allow a human to feel the paper. They also don't have the stereoscopic vision allows humans to watch themselves fold the paper. 

As a result, Balkcom's robot does origami in a manner different from that of a typical 8-year-old. It uses a suction cup to pick and move the paper, which is manipulated over a gutter, or rut, on the metal surface. The paper is then pushed down into the gutter using a straightedge ruler attached to the robotic arm, and the gutter closes on the paper to crease it. 

A visiting Japanese professor, Yasumichi Aiyama of Tsukuba University, is working in Mason's robotics lab using two small, fingerlike robots, to see if they might perform origami more like humans do. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.cs.cum.edu/-devin

Entertainment - The News Source

Hollywood Mystery Man 'Rance' Has Internet Abuzz Thu May 27, 2:51 PM ET Add Entertainment 

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES  - He skewers Hollywood and the cult of celebrity on an anonymous Web log that has spawned a cult following. He claims to be an A-list actor, writing under a pseudonym, but admits he may not be believed.

Who, exactly, is "Rance?"

Could he really be, as some believe, Owen Wilson (news), Ben Affleck (news), Jim Carrey (news) or even George Clooney (news)?

The answer may perhaps be found somewhere in the entries on his Weblog -- or "blog" -- which applies a trenchant wit and jaundiced insider's eye in chronicling the life of a Hollywood celebrity. Then again, it could all be a hoax.

Though Rance granted an interview with The News Source, he responded to questions only via email, using pseudonymous dead-end accounts for both himself and the reporter and never offering a glimpse into his real identity.

Asked if he was, in fact, a well-known actor, he responded: "Or a well-known actress perhaps. Just not Donald Trump."

In the blog's first-ever post last December, Rance introduced himself this way: "Suffice it to say I know what its like to see your picture on the magazine rack every now and again when you pay for groceries."

Rance's blog has since spawned a furious guessing game on the Internet and beyond, becoming a regular topic at Hollywood parties.

Xeni Jardin, a writer on the "Boing-Boing" blog, recently told her readers that Rance was rumored to be "Starsky and Hutch" star Owen Wilson, a claim that the actor's publicist has denied.

BEN AFFLECK? GEORGE CLOONEY? JIM CARREY?

The anonymous editor of Hollywood gossip site Defamer suggests it could be Ben Affleck -- a conjecture built around the supposed link between a cryptic quiz on Rance's blog and an Affleck tattoo.

Others have surmised that Rance is Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Benicio Del Toro (news) or Luke Wilson (news), Owen's brother. And one of Rance's readers recently sent him a comment that read simply: "You are, in fact, Matthew Perry (news). Game on?"

Meanwhile, a Defamer reader tried to unmask Rance by researching the term "Captain Hoof," which appears in the Web address. She came to the conclusion that he was a San Francisco man who worked at an ad agency and once ran a Web site with a similar name -- possibly dedicated to an imaginary horse.

The man, who no longer works for the agency, could not be contacted for this story.

For his part, Rance offers the electronic equivalent of a shrug to the endless chatter about his identity, saying that it was never his intention to play hide-and-seek with the world.

"The guessing game distracts from any message I might have," he told The News Source. "Then again, I'm not yet sure I have a message and in any case the amusement makes it all worth it. More than once I've seen items that upon first glance suggested the game might be up and I felt my stomach plummet."

Rance said he set up the Web site on a whim with help from a computer-savvy friend, seeing it as a "really good way to bitch about my job" without suffering any career repercussions. He chose the name "Rance" as a pun on "rants."

The diverse themes of the Web log revolve around pitch meetings and parties, the machinations of Hollywood at work and play and its fascination with sex and celebrity.

Rance loves shrimp and logic puzzles. He's tolerant of paparazzi but tough on gossips. He's bored by Shakespeare and the summer blockbuster "Troy" but admires Joan Rivers.

And through it all he's amused by life in Los Angeles -- the way a birthday party in the suburbs can turn into an unexpected meeting with a dominatrix and a late-night nude dip in the Chateau Marmont pool can be interrupted by an SUV crash on Sunset Boulevard.

"It is tough in L.," Rance says of the city. "The good news is there are Fatburgers."

Though he has received two "serious" proposals from people in publishing to turn his blog into a book, Rance said he has not yet pursued that idea, content for now to communicate to the outside world through the Internet.

"With no disrespect intended, media in general seldom if ever permits a person, be he actor or President, to present himself the way he would like -- and certainly not to the degree a blog does," Rance said.

"Still, there's a megabyte or two's worth of irony in my situation," he said.

'Buffalo Spammer' Sentenced to 3-1/2 to 7 Years 2 hours, 39 minutes ago Add U.S. National 

WASHINGTON  - A New York state man who sent out millions of "spam" e-mails was sentenced to 3-1/2 to seven years in prison, the state attorney general's office said on Thursday.

Howard Carmack, known as the "Buffalo Spammer," received the maximum sentence for 14 counts of identity theft and forgery, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said.

Carmack sent out 825 million bulk e-mail messages using stolen identities and forged addresses, the court found, and was the first defendant to face charges under the state's new identity-theft statute.

He was found guilty in April.

The forgery conviction fetched the longest sentence, while the other convictions drew shorter sentences of one year to four years. All will be served concurrently, Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione said.

Carmack could be out in 3-1/2 should he behave in prison, Maione said.

Internet provider EarthLink Inc (Nasdaq:ELNK - news). won a $16.5 million judgment against Carmack last year, and EarthLink officials testified in the criminal trial as well.

"We're satisfied that today's sentencing sends a strong message to spammers, and EarthLink will continue to investigate spammers and work with law enforcement," said EarthLink assistant general counsel Karen Cashion in a statement.

Unwanted bulk messages now account for roughly 83 percent of e-mail traffic, according to filtering company Postini Inc.

Many of Carmack's alleged activities are illegal under a national anti-spam law that took effect in January, seven months after he was charged. 

Fla. Man Sues Co. Promoting Atkins Diet

Thu May 27,10:55 AM ET 

By JILL BARTON, News Source Writer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A 53-year-old man sued the company that promotes the Atkins Diet and the estate of its founder Dr. Robert Atkins, alleging that following the high-fat meal plan clogged his arteries and threatened his health.

Jody Gorran of Delray Beach said he believes the Atkins diet books and products should contain a warning label that one-third of the population is at risk for developing health problems when they eat meats and other foods endorsed by the diet that are high in saturated fat.

The advocacy group, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is assisting Gorran, says the suit is the first to recently question the merits of the Atkins diet. The Washington-based group promotes a vegan diet - no meat, fish, dairy or egg products.

Gorran said Thursday he started the diet in May 2001 after his 50th birthday because his weight had increased to 148 from 140, but says it caused him to need heart angioplasty to clear his arteries.

"I came very close to dying and this is from a diet I thought was marvelous. For 2 1/2 years, I extolled the virtues of this diet to anyone who listened because I was losing weight and I felt great," said Gorran, who filed his suit Wednesday seeking $15,000 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. "But when I started I had no idea I was making a deal with the devil for trying to keep a 32-inch waistline."

Atkins Nutritionals Inc., which responded to Gorran's suit in a statement, questioned the motivation of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. In 1979, a New York jury rejected an elderly, overweight woman's lawsuit claiming that the Atkins Diet caused her heart disease.

"We should not let the real issue, providing people with a scientifically validated nutritional choice in the face of a worldwide obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic, be manipulated by this extremist animal rights vegan group," the statement said. "As always Atkins stands by the science that has repeatedly reaffirmed the safety and health benefits of the Atkins Nutritional Approach."

Doctors and nutritionists have for years debated the Atkins diet, which allows up to two-thirds of calories from fat, or more than double the usual recommendation. Dr. Atkins argued that carbohydrates generate too much insulin, which makes people hungrier and encourages them to put on fat.

Atkins' best-selling book, "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," advocates meat, eggs and cheese and discourages bread, rice and fruit. His books sold 15 million copies and attracted millions of followers. 

Ex-Rite Aid CEO Gets 8-Year Prison Term

32 minutes ago Add Business - 

By MARK SCOLFORO, News Source Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A federal judge sentenced former Rite Aid Corp. chief executive Martin L. Grass to eight years in prison Thursday for conspiring to falsely inflate the company's earnings and cover up the scheme.

Grass, 50, who headed the nation's third-largest pharmacy chain in the late 1990s before being forced out in October 1999 and is the son of the company's founder, also was fined $500,000 and given three years' probation.

Before U.S. District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo handed down the sentence, Grass apologized to Rite Aid, its stockholders and employees.

"For the harm caused to them, I am truly sorry," he said. Grass was indicted by a federal grand jury two years ago but on the eve of trial pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Rite Aid and its shareholders and conspiracy to obstruct justice, in a deal that required him to cooperate with prosecutors.

At the time of his plea, prosecutors said Grass admitted to a series of illegal activities, from backdating contracts and severance letters to misleading the company and federal investigators about a $2.6 million real-estate deal. They said he also met with employees who were called to testify before the grand jury and encouraged them to lie.

During Martin Grass' time at the head of the Camp Hill-based company founded by his father, Alex Grass, its stock price soared as Rite Aid engaged in an aggressive expansion effort. But the grand jury said the booming years were accomplished by "massive accounting fraud, the deliberate falsification of financial statements, and intentionally false SEC filings."

Less than a year after Grass left the company, the new management team was constrained to retroactively lower reports of the company's net earnings in 1998 and 1999 by $1.6 billion. Rite Aid recently recorded its first profits since the Grass years.

"As it turns out, I tried to do too much, too fast," Grass told Rambo on Thursday.

When the company's finances took a turn for the worse in early 1999, he said, "I did some things to try and hide that fact."

"Those things were wrong. They were illegal," he said. "I did not do them to line my own pockets." 

Feds Indict Former Alabama Gov. Siegelman

42 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By JAY REEVES, News Source Writer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Former Gov. Don Siegelman and two others were indicted in a bid-rigging scheme involving a maternity-care program, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

The charges accused the Democrat and his former chief of staff, Paul Hamrick, of helping Tuscaloosa physician Phillip Bobo rig the bids while Siegelman was governor.

Siegelman and Hamrick were accused of moving $550,000 from the state education budget to the State Fire College in Tuscaloosa so Bobo could use the money to pay off a competitor for a state contract for maternity care.

Siegelman's attorney, Doug Jones, said he was still trying to learn details of the indictment and had no immediate comment.

Siegelman was narrowly defeated for re-election in 2002 by Republican Bob Riley, who ran on a campaign of ethics in government.

The indictment refers to numerous unindicted coconspirators, who were identified only by their positions, including members of Siegelman's transition team, lobbyists and the acting commissioner at the time of the Alabama Medicaid Agency.

Bobo, Siegelman and Hamrick are each charged with conspiracy, health care fraud and program fraud, which involves theft from a federally funded program. Bobo is also charged with witness tampering, wire fraud, lying to the FBI (news - web sites) and perjury.

The charges stemmed from the same investigation that earlier led to charges against Bobo of committing fraud while trying to secure a contract for providing maternity services to Medicaid recipients. Bobo was convicted of those charges in 2001, but the conviction was later thrown out by a federal appeals court.

Siegelman has claimed the investigation was partisan. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin denied that Thursday.

"We don't ever look to see if there is an R or a D behind anyone's name," said Martin, a Republican appointee.

The Medicaid contracts were part of a $100 million statewide program to provide maternity care for low-income women. 

Snow Red-Faced Over Investment Mistake 

Thu May 27, 4:32 AM ET 


By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, News Source Economics Writer 

WASHINGTON - Oops. A red-faced Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has been going around the country preaching the importance of financial literacy, can now point to himself as a glaring example of what not to do. 

It turns out his investment adviser made a $10.87 million mistake. Snow didn't catch it because he didn't bother to read his financial statements for more than a year. 

Snow had told the adviser to invest the money in U.S. Treasury securities. Instead, the adviser used the money to buy bonds held by the biggest players in the mortgage market: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. 

These government-sponsored enterprises just happen to be the targets of an intense administration campaign led by Snow to bring them under tighter government regulation. 

"The secretary views this as very regrettable," said Treasury spokesman Robert Nichols. "He is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and he is upset." 

Treasury ethics officials uncovered the error on May 10 after Snow asked them to review his annual financial disclosure statement, a document that all top government officials and members of Congress are required to file. 

Snow then ordered the bond holdings in the mortgage companies sold. He incurred a loss of $478,000, Nichols said, even though a Treasury Department (news - web sites) ethics officer ruled that the holdings did not represent a conflict of interest. 

Nichols described the mistake as the result of a misunderstanding between Snow and his investment adviser. 

Snow took the Treasury post last year after heading up railroad giant CSX Corp. and told his adviser to invest in Treasury bonds to avoid any conflict of interest. 

The adviser, however, thought he had the power to invest in the bonds of such companies as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks as well as U.S. Treasury bonds. And so, without Snow's knowledge, he purchased $10.87 million of the corporation's bonds for Snow's portfolio, Nichols said. 

Snow has been receiving periodic financial statements over the past year that showed he owned the mortgage company bonds, but Nichols said he never bothered to open them - conduct that Snow as head of the government's financial literacy campaign would certainly frown upon. 

Treasury ethics officer Kenneth Schmalzbach ruled that Snow's holdings did not constitute a conflict of interest, but he did recommend Snow sell the mortgage bonds to avoid even the appearance of one. 

To be sure, Snow asked the Treasury Department's independent general counsel in a letter to conduct his own review of the holdings to determine if there was any conflict of interest. 

Snow said in the letter released by Treasury that he was making the request to demonstrate "my commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct for myself and the department." 

Treasury also released Snow's 34-page financial disclosure form. It estimates he was worth between $43 million and $128 million last year. 

This may be something else Snow will want to take up with his financial adviser since these amounts were well below the ranges for the previous year. He had assets worth between $77 million and $295 million, according to his financial disclosure form for 2002. 

Assets only have to be reported in broad ranges. 

According to his latest financial disclosure form, Snow, who led CSX Corp. for 14 years, received CSX-related income of $72.2 million last year, with $33.2 million of that in a special retirement pension. 

Snow relied on an investment adviser to restructure his portfolio to avoid any conflict of interest with his holdings and his new job as treasury secretary, Nichols said. 

Snow succeeded Paul O'Neill, who was fired in December 2002 in a shake-up of the administration's economic team. He promised during his Senate confirmation hearings to sell his extensive stock holdings in CSX and 60 other companies to avoid conflicts of interest in his Cabinet post. 

Nichols said the mix-up had not changed the administration's position on Fannie Mae and the other big mortgage players. 

The administration supports legislation to create a new federal regulatory body to monitor the companies in an effort to increase oversight. But it opposes one portion of a measure that has cleared the Senate Banking Committee because it would allow Congress to overrule a decision by the new regulatory body to take over the companies if they got into serious financial trouble.

Ark. Family Marks Birth of 15th Child

1 hour, 51 minutes ago 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Michelle Duggar's family says that the mother is all smiles after delivering her 15th child.

Both the baby and mother were doing well, although Michelle was feeling some discomfort because the birth was her second by Caesarean section, said father and former state legislator Jim Bob Duggar's mother, Mary Duggar.

"She's a trooper. She's just all smiles," Mary Duggar said in a telephone interview Monday.

The baby boy, Jackson Levi Duggar, was born at 10:52 a.m. Sunday. He weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and is 20 inches long.

"She was wanting to do it naturally," Mary Duggar said. But the delivery was by C-section because one of Jackson's shoulders was presenting first.

"I call him Jumping Jack because he would go in a circle," she said.

Home briefly from the hospital later Monday, Jim Bob, 38, sounded a bit tired but happy. He said his wife and new son were doing fine. He said he leaves the decision up to Michelle on whether to have more children.

"I have always left it up to Michelle because she's actually the one that carries them and does all the labor," he said. "But we both love children. Even yesterday, she said she would like to have some more."

Michelle, 37, probably will be in Washington Regional Medical Center for three or four days, said her mother-in-law, who is taking care of the 14 other children.

Michelle, who home schools her children and is helping to build the family's new home in Tontitown from the ground up, started having her babies when she was 21, four years after she and Jim Bob married. He is a real estate businessman and a former state representative.

Their children include two sets of twins, and the parents have stuck to the letter "J" for their names. There is Joshua, 16; Jana and John-David, 14; Jill, 13; Jessa, 11; Jinger, 10; Joseph, 9; Josiah, 7; Joy-Anna, 6; Jeremiah and Jedidiah, 5; Jason, 4; James, 2; and Justin, 1. 

Iraqis Say U.S. Soldiers Steal During House Raids 1 hour, 47 minutes ago  

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD  - Besides the prisoner-abuse scandal, there is another, more pervasive problem Iraqis say they suffer daily at the hands of U.S. troops -- theft of money and other property during aggressive American raids.

Over the past 14 months of occupation, U.S. forces have carried out literally thousands of raids on homes across the country, routinely seizing money, jewelry and other property from Iraqis suspected of "anti-coalition activities."

Items are generally confiscated on suspicion they could be used to finance attacks against U.S.-led forces, and the U.S. military says it has had some success in cutting off funding for insurgents via the policy.

But Iraqis say the raids often target the wrong people, are carried out in an aggressive, even destructive manner and complain that lifetime savings, precious jewelry and family heirlooms are regularly stolen in the process.

Adel Alami, a lawyer with Iraq (news - web sites)'s Human Rights Organization, says the majority of the cases his group deals with involve Iraqis seeking compensation for lost property and cash.

"It's a huge problem, almost everyone has something to say about gold, money and other valuables going missing and they don't believe they'll ever get them back," he told The News Source.

Last year, Wajiha Daoud, an 80-year-old widow, had her house in a middle-class neighborhood of old Baghdad raided by U.S. troops who said they had "high-level intelligence" that the home was a safe house for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) loyalists.

During the raid, which lasted around 30 minutes, the woman and her family, who live across the street, were kept outside.

"When we went back in, the house was half-destroyed," said her son Musadaq Younis, an English-speaking computer technician.

"All the furniture was slashed with knives, tables and chairs were broken and the windows smashed. They didn't need to break down the front door -- I told them I had the key."

SAVINGS GONE

But that was not the worst. When Younis' sister arrived she immediately rushed upstairs to a small cabinet and found it empty -- $5,000 in cash, gold and other jewelry, including her wedding ring, were missing. "She went white," said Younis.

The family filed a claim against the U.S. military -- a complex process that took nearly three months to get a reply. In response, the military said the raid was justified and no compensation was owed. The officer who commanded the raid told Younis: "My soldiers aren't thieves."

Being comfortably well-off and employed, the impact of the loss on the family was not too great, but for hundreds, if not thousands of other Iraqi families, raids on their homes can prove devastating, socially and financially.

"Confiscation and theft during raids is rampant," said Stewart Vriesinga, a coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, a non-profit group that documents abuses in Iraq.

"Soldiers don't seem to understand the Iraqi custom of not using banks -- a lot of people keep fairly substantial sums of money at home. A soldier from Kentucky or wherever sees that and thinks the person must be up to no good, so he takes it.

"We sure don't know how much money has been taken from (Iraqis)...but it's enough to have serious socio-economic consequences," he told The News Source.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said he was aware of Iraqi complaints of theft during raids and said some U.S. soldiers had been disciplined for "inappropriate conduct." But he said the problem was "very rare, extremely rare."

"We're aware of it... But there's also the possibility of Iraqis making malicious claims," said Captain Mark Doggett.

Doggett said when are items are confiscated, a receipt is always given. If the owner is eventually found to be innocent, items can be recovered, he said. But many people who have had property confiscated say no receipts were written.

Vriesinga estimates that in nine out of 10 raids, the home owners raided are innocent, but suffer huge consequences.

"If the husband is hauled off as a suspect, the family has lost its breadwinner and often lost its savings and cash as well," he said, citing a recent Red Cross report which referred to up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees being innocent.

If Iraqis file complaints, it comes down to a case of the Iraqi suspect's word against the American soldier's, he said.

"If there's any doubt, then it's assumed the Iraqi is lying -- the Americans are creating enemies by the score." 

Iraqis Say U.S. Soldiers Steal During House Raids 1 hour, 47 minutes ago  

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD  - Besides the prisoner-abuse scandal, there is another, more pervasive problem Iraqis say they suffer daily at the hands of U.S. troops -- theft of money and other property during aggressive American raids.

Over the past 14 months of occupation, U.S. forces have carried out literally thousands of raids on homes across the country, routinely seizing money, jewelry and other property from Iraqis suspected of "anti-coalition activities."

Items are generally confiscated on suspicion they could be used to finance attacks against U.S.-led forces, and the U.S. military says it has had some success in cutting off funding for insurgents via the policy.

But Iraqis say the raids often target the wrong people, are carried out in an aggressive, even destructive manner and complain that lifetime savings, precious jewelry and family heirlooms are regularly stolen in the process.

Adel Alami, a lawyer with Iraq (news - web sites)'s Human Rights Organization, says the majority of the cases his group deals with involve Iraqis seeking compensation for lost property and cash.

"It's a huge problem, almost everyone has something to say about gold, money and other valuables going missing and they don't believe they'll ever get them back," he told The News Source.

Last year, Wajiha Daoud, an 80-year-old widow, had her house in a middle-class neighborhood of old Baghdad raided by U.S. troops who said they had "high-level intelligence" that the home was a safe house for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) loyalists.

During the raid, which lasted around 30 minutes, the woman and her family, who live across the street, were kept outside.

"When we went back in, the house was half-destroyed," said her son Musadaq Younis, an English-speaking computer technician.

"All the furniture was slashed with knives, tables and chairs were broken and the windows smashed. They didn't need to break down the front door -- I told them I had the key."

SAVINGS GONE

But that was not the worst. When Younis' sister arrived she immediately rushed upstairs to a small cabinet and found it empty -- $5,000 in cash, gold and other jewelry, including her wedding ring, were missing. "She went white," said Younis.

The family filed a claim against the U.S. military -- a complex process that took nearly three months to get a reply. In response, the military said the raid was justified and no compensation was owed. The officer who commanded the raid told Younis: "My soldiers aren't thieves."

Being comfortably well-off and employed, the impact of the loss on the family was not too great, but for hundreds, if not thousands of other Iraqi families, raids on their homes can prove devastating, socially and financially.

"Confiscation and theft during raids is rampant," said Stewart Vriesinga, a coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, a non-profit group that documents abuses in Iraq.

"Soldiers don't seem to understand the Iraqi custom of not using banks -- a lot of people keep fairly substantial sums of money at home. A soldier from Kentucky or wherever sees that and thinks the person must be up to no good, so he takes it.

"We sure don't know how much money has been taken from (Iraqis)...but it's enough to have serious socio-economic consequences," he told The News Source.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said he was aware of Iraqi complaints of theft during raids and said some U.S. soldiers had been disciplined for "inappropriate conduct." But he said the problem was "very rare, extremely rare."

"We're aware of it... But there's also the possibility of Iraqis making malicious claims," said Captain Mark Doggett.

Doggett said when are items are confiscated, a receipt is always given. If the owner is eventually found to be innocent, items can be recovered, he said. But many people who have had property confiscated say no receipts were written.

Vriesinga estimates that in nine out of 10 raids, the home owners raided are innocent, but suffer huge consequences.

"If the husband is hauled off as a suspect, the family has lost its breadwinner and often lost its savings and cash as well," he said, citing a recent Red Cross report which referred to up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees being innocent.

If Iraqis file complaints, it comes down to a case of the Iraqi suspect's word against the American soldier's, he said.

"If there's any doubt, then it's assumed the Iraqi is lying -- the Americans are creating enemies by the score." 

Smoking: Cutting Back Doesn't Help 24-May-2004 Most smokers find it much easier to cut down their number of cigarettes a day than they do to quit smoking entirely. Now scientists know why: they're actually still getting the same amount of nicotine and cancer-causing agents because they've unconsciously changed their smoking style so that the inhale more deeply.

Cancer researcher Karen Ahijevych says, "The human body really is a miracle. It knows when it is not getting what it's used to, and it automatically does something about it."

When she studied a group of women smokers, she found that when they were allowed fewer cigarettes, "they took larger drags and smoked more of the cigarette before putting it out. In addition, when smoking fewer cigarettes, the women produced more CO in their exhaled air per cigarette, compared to when they smoked their regular number of cigarettes or increased use."

"We were surprised at how much the very efficient smokers could increase their levels of CO and nicotine even further," says Ahijevych. "And the interesting thing is that most of these women were totally unaware that they were changing the way they were smoking to make up for fewer cigarettes."

"...Millions of people want to quit, and they often see cutting back as the first step in a long-term strategy. Unfortunately, our research suggests that this may be giving them a false sense of security."

Climate Change Makes World a Duller Place 23-May-2004 Climate change will affect the world's poor more drastically than rich nations, but the rich will suffer too. For all of us, the world will become a much duller place.

Many of the impacts of global warming are not life- threatening for humans, but will reduce the quality of life. Dan Whipple writes, "A lot of these components-free-ranging wildlife, water to irrigate the golf course, coral reefs to explore while snorkeling-might indeed be things we could get along without, but they also represent things that make life varied and interesting."

Plant ecologist Nina Leopold Bradley has traced the seasonal behavior of 300 species of plants and animals in Wisconsin over 70 years, and notes that about half of them are being affected by global warming. Plants are blossoming earlier and birds are migrating sooner. Eventually they may become extinct.

Biologist Camille Parmesan has studied checkerspot butterflies in California, and found that they've become extinct in areas where they previously lived. The healthy populations of butterflies are now found farther north. She also found that 63% of the butterflies in Europe have shifted their ranges to the north by 20 to 140 miles.

Baby Boy Born from Sperm Frozen Record 21 Years

Mon May 24, 7:01 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Patricia Reaney 

LONDON  - A baby boy was born after being conceived with sperm frozen 21 years earlier in what scientists said Tuesday was a new record. 

The case will give hope to young men about to undergo treatment for cancer which may leave them infertile. 

The boy's father had his sperm frozen when he was 17 before starting successful treatment for testicular cancer in the early 1980s. 

"I'm 99 percent sure that it is the oldest frozen sperm sample used (for a live birth)," said Greg Horne, a senior embryologist at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, England, which treated the baby's parents. 

The man's sperm was stored in liquid nitrogen nearly two decades ago and was not thawed until he married and decided to start a family. 

Scientists injected a single sperm into the mother's eggs in a technique called intractoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) to create embryos. The boy was born two years ago following four attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF). 

"Even after 21 years of storage, the percentage of motile sperm after thawing was high," said Horne, who reported the case in the journal Human Reproduction. 

The man and his wife, who chose to remain anonymous, wanted their case publicized to encourage young cancer patients to have hope for the future. 

Young men diagnosed with cancer may become infertile following treatment but they can store sperm beforehand. In Britain sperm can be stored until the man reaches 55. 

"This case provides evidence that long-term freezing can successfully preserve sperm quality and fertility. This is important to know because semen stored by young cancer patients is undertaken at a time of great emotional stress when future fertility is unlikely to be an immediate priority," Horne added. 

Testicular cancer affects 50,000 men each year and the incidence is increasing. It is most common in 15 to 44-year-olds. If treated early the survival rate is very good. 

Horne said advancements in fertility treatments, particularly ICSI, have improved the chances of former cancer patients becoming fathers. 

Although there have been suggestions that freezing and thawing can damage DNA in sperm, he said there was no evidence that damage was increased by the length of time the sperm was stored.

Music buyers gravitate toward legal downloads: survey Wed May 19,12:48 PM ET Add U.S. National - NEWS SOURCE 

NEW YORK (NEWS SOURCE) - US music consumers are sharply increasing their interest in legal downloads and diminishing their use of free song-swapping over the Internet, a survey showed.

The survey by the NPD Group found about five percent of those who have purchased music CDs also used a legal Internet service to purchase music in the first quarter of 2004, or triple the percentage in the same period a year ago.

Among music buyers who purchased both CDs and a song download from a legal service, the likelihood that they also downloaded a song illegally fell dramatically, from 64 percent last year to 42 percent in 2004, the survey found.

The surge in use of legitimate online music services comes as a growing number of companies have set up sites with song downloads for roughly one dollar. At the same time, the music industry has been cracking down on file-swapping with lawsuits alleging copyright infringement.

"Paid services like (Apple's) iTunes and (RealNetworks') Rhapsody appear to be attracting core music buyers, which can create a firm foundation for legal digital music purchases," said Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music.

"To date, NPD data shows that there has been a small reduction in sales of CDs; however, that decline might be offset by the overall value of the digital customer and the downturn in illegal file sharing."

Consumers who downloaded from a legal service or became paid members of subscription services showed only a small reduction in the number of CDs that they purchased at retail. The average consumer who paid for digital music as well as CDs purchased less than one fewer CD in 2003 compared to 2002, the survey found.

"Our research shows that it's the people who are really into music that are beginning to adopt paid digital services as an additional way of acquiring and enjoying music, and so far these services are living side by side with traditional CDs," Crupnick said.

"As the industry matures and digital music becomes even more main stream, it remains to be seen just how much paid digital music will affect the market for CDs."

Nerve Fibers Regrown in Spines of Rats

Mon May 24, 5:58 PM ET 

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, News Source Writer

WASHINGTON - A combination of therapies helped damaged spines regrow nerve fibers, researchers report in a study of rats.

Three separate therapies, each of which had shown promise in earlier tests, were combined in the new effort by a team at the University of Miami, according to Sunday's online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The combination therapy was designed by Damien D. Pearse and Mary Bartlett Bunge, who were looking for a way to help damaged nerve cells overcome signals that limit their growth after an injury.

They combined cell grafts with the administration of a messenger molecule and the drug Rolipram in animals with spinal injuries. The therapy, they found, helped protect nerve fibers from dying and promoted new growth of fibers into, as well as beyond, the area of injury.

"This work opens up new possibilities for treatments for spinal cord-injured humans," Bunge said in a statement.

Naomi Kleitman, director of spinal cord injury research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said that in the future "it should be feasible to consider developing a clinical trial in this area" for injured people.

Each part of the therapy was hailed in its own day as promising, but none provided much nerve growth, Kleitman said.

The new work combining them is significant, added Kleitman, who formerly worked at Miami but was not part of the research.

The therapy included administration of the drug Rolipram near the time of injury and, up to one week later, transplantation of nerve cells called Schwann cells and administration of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, or cAMP. The Rolipram helped protect the damaged nerve cells from further injury. The Schwann cells and cAMP spurred regrowth.

The research was supported by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the Buoniconti Fund.

___

On the Net:

Nature Medicine: http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine

Mossad Goes On-Line to Recruit Spies...and Waiters

May 24, 10:29 am ET 

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM  - The Israeli spy agency Mossad emerged from the shadows on Monday when it launched a Web site to attract recruits for "special tasks" -- as well as intelligence analysts, waiters and drivers.

Long a secretive elite, Mossad is raising its profile to compete with the private sector in the search for talent.

"Mossad's mainstay is its people," reads the site's (www.mossad.gov.il) foreword by agency chief Meir Dagan, posted next to backlit photographs of unnamed intelligence analysts at their desks.

The launch of the site is the spy agency's second break with the era of the old-boy network whereby veteran agents would tap their friends when job openings appeared.

Dagan's predecessor Efraim Halevy began the trend in 2000 by placing advertisements for case officers in the Israeli press -- a big change for an agency whose motto is the biblical proverb "Without subterfuge, the nation falls."

Halevy argued market forces took precedence over mystique.

"The days when a security career was seen as the be-all and end-all of Israeli citizenship are over," he told The News Source. "Now we are an open society, and Mossad has had to appeal to the widest range of talented applicants who might otherwise head for hi-tech or other private sectors."

For decades, Mossad had a reputation for deadly derring-do.

In 1960, its agents captured Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. After 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Mossad hunted for the masterminds, killing some of them.

But Mossad has also been embarrassed by a series of bungles. In 1997 its agents botched an attempt on the life of a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Jordan. In 1998 a Mossad team was arrested in Switzerland while spying on a local man believed linked to Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

Mossad's U.S. counterpart, the Central Intelligence Agency, has had a Web site since 1995. But Yossi Melman, senior security correspondent for Haaretz newspaper, said it was too early to trumpet a new American-style transparency in Mossad.

"This is basically a belated employment move which Mossad is making the most of," Melman said, noting that the Web site advertises for English-speaking waiters and bus drivers as well as analysts, translators and agents for "special tasks."

Hitler Heir Doesn't Want 'Mein Kampf' Royalties

May 24, 9:50 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German historian said Sunday a distant relative of Adolf Hitler could sue the state of Bavaria for royalties from the Nazi dictator's book "Mein Kampf" but the retired Austrian engineer said he wants no part of it.

Werner Maser told Bild am Sonntag that Peter Raubal, whose father Leo Raubal was a nephew of Hitler, would have a strong chance of winning the copyright from Bavaria, which was given the German rights to the book by the postwar occupying powers.

"Peter Raubal is the only heir of Hitler that I know of," Maser said. "As the closest relative alive, he could claim royalties from Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf'. Raubal would have to sue Bavaria. I am quite certain he would win."

Hitler died with no immediate heirs but Leo Raubal was one of his half-sister Angela Raubal's children. Maser said Leo Raubal long considered such a lawsuit before his death in 1979. Bild am Sonntag said royalties could be worth millions of euros.

"Yes I know the whole story about Hitler's inheritance," Peter Raubal told Bild am Sonntag in what the paper said were his first public comments on the issue. "But I don't want to have anything to do with it. I will not do anything about it. I only want to be left alone."

In Germany, it is illegal to distribute "Mein Kampf" except in limited circumstances. Nazi symbols like the swastika and the stiff-armed Hitler salute are also banned. "Mein Kampf" is available online and in most countries, including Israel.

Hitler dictated the tome to his secretary Rudolf Hess while in prison in Bavaria following the failed Munich "Beer Hall" putsch of 1923. It outlines a doctrine of German racial supremacy and ambitions to annex vast areas of the Soviet Union.

Published in 1925, it became a school textbook after Hitler won power in 1933. All German newlyweds also received a copy.

Now, purchasers who can prove an academic purpose may secure an existing copy but otherwise sales are banned and Bavaria refused to authorize new copies. The Allied Control Commission assigned Bavaria the rights to Hitler's assets in 1946.

Homer's 'Iliad' Now in 'Messenger Speak'

May 24, 9:37 am ET 

LONDON  - Homer's ancient Greek poem "The Iliad," the basis for Hollywood blockbuster "Troy," has been compressed for a new generation too lazy to see the film let alone read the 24-book epic that runs to over 15,000 lines.

The first five books of the centuries-old tale, set in the final year of the Trojan War -- which began when Trojan Paris snatched Helen (the face that launched a thousand ships) from Greece -- are now available in the language people use when sending instant messages, Microsoft said on Monday.

Book Two is reduced to just 24 words of 'messenger speak', losing some of the lyricism of the original. "Agamemnon hd a dream: Troy not defended. Ordered attack! But Trojans knew they were coming n were prepared. Achilles sat sulking in his tent."

The translation, designed to publicize Microsoft's messenger product, is not written in Homer's dactylic hexameters but it does use 'emoticons' little faces or images -- to emphasize intense moments.

First Janet Jackson, Now Nipple Video Banned

May 21, 11:42 am ET 

DUBLIN  - Four months after Janet Jackson outraged the United States by bearing her breast on TV, Ireland has banned a video to encourage voting in next month's European elections because it shows a bare nipple.

In Britain, where bare breasts are shown daily in tabloid newspapers, the film will be shown in censored form. The breast-feeding sequence survives but shots of the offending nipple have been edited out.

The 45-second film was produced by the European Parliament's audio-visual department and shows a suckling baby trying to decide which of its mother's breasts to feed from.

The idea is to show people making choices -- like voters at the ballot box.

While the sight of a baby suckling at its mother's breast is considered acceptable for hundreds of millions of other Europeans, Irish officials believe it would cause offence in Roman Catholic Ireland.

"I decided that due to sensitivities here, this is not the right image to promote anything in Ireland, unless it is of a medical or scientific nature," the head of the European Parliament's Irish office, Jim O'Brien, said.

Ireland, where over 90 percent of the population is Catholic, is traditionally conservative on issues of sexuality. Abortion is illegal and homosexuality was decriminalized only in 1993.

Jackson caused a furor in February when in a Super Bowl halftime performance her duet partner Justin Timberlake ripped open her costume to expose her right breast during a live coast-to-coast telecast by American network CBS.

In Britain, film advert regulators found the suckling shot racy, likening the image to "the sort of breast shot you would associate with a men's magazine."

A member of the four-man, four-woman Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) panel, which took the decision, said they found that they ended up looking at the breast and not the baby.

"It was literally the breast full screen size with an erect nipple side on and the infant gazing across at them," said Greg Lyons, a copy consultant at the CAA.

"The panel found themselves looking at something that was very difficult for them," he said. "The infant was contemplating the breasts in rather an adult way."

Rosie Dodds, policy research officer for Britain's National Childbirth Trust, said the advert could have been innovative and striking.

"I do think it is a pity that we make the link between the sexuality of breasts and their nutritive function," she said.

'Good Thief' Leaves Apology for Burgled Charity

May 21, 11:25 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - A Dutch thief left an apologetic letter and promised a donation after he realized he was burgling a charity that helps the poor and elderly.

The thief's remorseful handwritten letter praised charity group Humanitas for its work and agonized over the effect the burglary would have on his conscience.

"I have only eaten some biscuits from the tin and some Easter eggs. When I'm less hard up I will make a small contribution to your account," said the account of the letter published on the Humanitas Web site (www.humanitas.nl).

Humanitas said it has no plans to file a police report on the break-in at its office in Arnhem, near the German border.

"Of course it's a nuisance there was a burglary, but it leaves a good feeling that there are still good thieves," the Web site said.

What Is She Thinking About During Sex?

May 21, 11:08 am ET 

BERLIN  - Women watching erotic films are stimulated in a part of the brain associated with planning and emotion, research from scientists in Germany said Friday.

When scientists from Essen University put volunteers in a brain scanning tube and showed them pornography they found both men and women showed activity in the temporal lobes linked to memory and perception, but only women used their frontal lobes.

Unfortunately the researchers were not able to determine if their findings meant that while men lost themselves in the moment the busy modern professional woman was also planning her wardrobe, scheduling the vacation and juggling her tax receipts.

"We don't know why these differences between men and women exist. They just do," said institute director Michael Forsting.

War College Predictions Proving Accurate

Mon May 24, 6:27 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, News Source Writer

WASHINGTON - In the months before the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), some senior faculty members at the Army War College predicted several of the problems the Bush administration is facing more than a year into the occupation.

A paper, "Reconstructing Iraq: Insights, Challenges, and Missions for Military Forces in a Post-Conflict Scenario," was published in February 2003, written by Conrad C. Crane and Andrew Terrill for the college's Strategic Studies Institute.

Parts of it seem prescient, suggesting that any U.S. occupation would face increasing resistance as time passed. The authors suggested the occupation would have roughly a year of goodwill before resentment mounted. The U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003.

"After the first year, the possibility of a serious uprising may increase should severe disillusionment set in and Iraqis begin to draw parallels between U.S. actions and historical examples of Western imperialism," the authors wrote.

The paper also predicted U.S. forces would face suicide bombings and resistance tactics aimed at eroding public support for the occupation.

"Any expansion of terrorism or guerrilla activity against U.S. troops in Iraq will undoubtedly require a forceful American response. Such U.S actions could involve a dramatic escalation in the numbers of arrests, interrogations, and detentions of local Iraqis. While such actions do improve security and force protection, they seldom win friends among the local citizenry. Individuals alienated from the U.S. occupation could well have their hostility deepened and increased by these acts," the paper warned.

The dangers in Iraq are magnified by the fact that most Americans have little understanding of the society there, the report said.

One piece of advice from the authors was not followed, when occupation forces disbanded the Iraqi regular army.

"To tear apart the army in the war's aftermath could lead to the destruction of one of the only forces for unity within the society," the report said. "Breaking up large elements of the army also raises the possibility that demobilized soldiers could affiliate with ethnic or tribal militias."

With the exception of disbanding the Army, the U.S. government generally seems to be following the reconstruction strategy described in the paper, rebuilding infrastructure and setting up police forces.

"The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace in Iraq is real and serious," it warned. "Rehabilitating Iraq will consequently be an important challenge that threatens to consume huge amounts of resources without guaranteed results."

___

On the Net:

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pubs/2003/reconirq/reconirq.htm 

France Rejects God Reference in EU Draft

1 hour, 22 minutes ago Add World - 

By CONSTANT BRAND, News Source Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium - France said Monday it could not accept references to God and Christianity in a European Union (news - web sites) constitution.

France and Belgium have been most opposed to religious references in the charter, while Italy and Poland, backed by Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II, want the charter to acknowledge Christianity's role.

"I think the text as is, is a balanced one," said French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said. "The text already includes a mention to heritage."

The 25 EU foreign ministers set down for a new session of negotiations, one week after talks failed to narrow deep differences over a constitutional draft, which should be finalized by the June 17-18 summit of government leaders.

The constitution seeks to simplify decision-making in the EU and prevent a minority of states from blocking decisions.

The place of religion in the charter's preamble has been hotly debated since negotiations on the constitution began in early 2002.

Foreign ministers from Poland, Italy, Portugal, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and the Czech Republic proposed a "further attention to a reference to the Christian roots of Europe," at an EU meeting to overcome difference on the constitution.

"The amendment we ask for is aimed to recognize a historical truth," the seven ministers said in a statement. "We do not want to disregard neither the secular nature (of the EU) ... nor the respect of any other religious or philosophical belief."

France wants to stick to the current text which says the EU draws "inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also backed the current text, warning that any mention of Christianity would mean "we have to bear in mind other religions as well."

___

On the Net:

Future of the Europe Union: http://europa.eu.int/futurum/index_en.htm 

Briton is first to fly microlight around Everest 49 minutes ago

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - A British adventurer laid claim to being the first to fly around Mount Everest (news - web sites), at 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) the world's highest peak, in a microlight aircraft.

Richard Meredith-Hardy, 46, took off from a base camp 25 kilometres (15 miles) away, then braved potentially dangerous downdrafts to reach the summit where he waved to "a shedload of climbers" and snapped photos.

"This place is seriously big," he said, according to a statement from his ground crew sent to NEWS SOURCE in London, "and we were lucky to get a break in the weather just days before we have to go home."

Meredith-Hardy, a two-time World Microlight Champion, made his flight in a British-built Pegasus XL-S powered by a Rotax turbo engine that was specially rigged to keep his flying suit warm.

His account of his feat, and photos, have been posted on www.flymicro.com. 

We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror. 
November 10, 2001 
- President Bush Speaks to United Nations 

Tape Details Nixon Drinking Incident 

Wed May 26, 9:01 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By CALVIN WOODWARD, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - As his presidency unraveled, Richard Nixon was too "loaded" to take an urgent call during the Arab-Israeli war and joked darkly about bombing Congress during impeachment hearings, according to transcripts of foreign policy chief Henry Kissinger's phone calls. 

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¥ Transcript of Kissinger Call (The Smoking Gun)

With Watergate bearing down and resignation just months away, Nixon also pushed ideas that Kissinger feared could start a war, according to phone calls among more than 20,000 pages of transcripts released Wednesday by the National Archives. 

Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security adviser and then secretary of state, guarded the privacy of the records for three decades before agreeing to let them go to the Archives for public consumption. They had been held sealed at the Library of Congress (news - web sites). 

Kissinger, now a foreign policy consultant, had secretaries tape the calls and make transcripts or listen and take shorthand. The calls spanned the monumental events of the time - the Vietnam War, the secret opening to China, crackling superpower tensions, Middle East conflict and Nixon's downfall. 

On the night of Oct. 11, 1973, just days into the Arab-Israeli War and with the United States and Soviet Union on a seeming collision course, British Prime Minister Edward Heath tried to reach Nixon by phone to discuss the crisis. 

"Can we tell them 'No?'" Kissinger asked his assistant, Brent Scowcroft, who had told him of the request from 10 Downing Street. "When I talked to the president, he was loaded." 

"We could tell him the president is not available and perhaps he can call you," Scowcroft replied. 

Kissinger said Nixon would be available in the morning. 

In March 1974, a month after the House voted to press ahead with impeachment proceedings and five months before Nixon resigned, Kissinger fretted about the president's state of mind in a phone call with White House aide Alexander Haig. 

"I am calling you about something the president said this morning which rather disturbed me," Kissinger said. "He was in a rather sour mood." 

"Yes, that is conceivable," Haig said. 

Kissinger went on to complain that Nixon was being too tough on Israeli allies and "has been just waiting for an opportunity to lay into them. ... Now I tell you if he goes publicly after the Israelis, he might as well start a war." 

Haig said Nixon was, "just unwinding," and mentioned that the president had told him to fetch the "football" - the briefcase with the codes to unleash nuclear weapons. 

"For what?" Kissinger asked. 

"He is going to drop it on the Hill," Haig said. "What I am saying is, don't take him too seriously." 

At the time, Kissinger was doubling as national security adviser and secretary of state, his dual titles testifying to his influence with Nixon. 

But Nixon did not tell him everything. On Oct. 12, 1973, the day after Nixon's supposed night with the bottle, Kissinger knew Nixon was announcing a new vice president to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned. But Kissinger did not know whom Nixon had chosen. 

On the phone with Haig, Kissinger said he could go along with Nelson Rockefeller - "that gives me no pain" - or anyone except former Texas Gov. John Connally - "a no-no." Nixon picked Gerald Ford. 

A window into detente, the transcripts also show the rapport Kissinger and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin developed even in times of extreme tension and bitter public words. 

The two men established a channel as early as 1969, often meeting without secretaries or interpreters. 

Indeed, Kissinger was having lunch with Dobrynin when Democratic Sen. Hubert Humphrey called to complain about the Soviet's rearming Arabs faster than Washington was sending planes to Israel. 

"How do we know the Russians aren't fooling us?" Humphrey demanded. 

"If the Russians are fooling us, we know what we will have to do," Kissinger replied. 

The records show his Soviet guest was in the dining room with him during this talk. 

Although Kissinger's days were piled high with foreign crises, he found time for show biz stars, chatting with Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Warren Beatty and other Hollywood figures. John Wayne called to tell him he had an eye problem - one iris was opening faster than the other. 

"It's not just politics, but also in many respects about American culture," said Karl Weissenbach, who oversaw the opening of the records as director of the Nixon presidential materials staff at the Archives. 

In 1973, Kissinger was helping Beatty pitch an idea to the Soviets and told him to send it in a letter to the Soviet Embassy, "and if you send me a copy, I can sort of keep an eye on it." 

Records from the final months indicate the degree to which Nixon was distracted and his staff was glum. 

"The president has approved this thing," Kissinger said of some unspecified proposal on Aug. 3, 1974, five days before Nixon's resignation. "Although I am not quite sure he knew what he was approving." 

A few days later, another caller asked Kissinger if the president was "rational." 

"It's pretty rough," Kissinger replied. He went on to say: "Some awful mistakes were made by the president but he doesn't deserve this."

Physicist: Cosmos Is Shaped Like the Eiffel Tower

Wed May 26, 1:47 PM ET 
Add Science 

BERLIN  - The universe looks like the Eiffel Tower topped with a never-ending spire, a German physicist said Wednesday. 

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Researchers in Ulm, birthplace of Albert Einstein, have developed a model of the universe as an elongated triangle like the Paris landmark, but with a spire going on and on. 

The team at Ulm University hopes their model will revolutionize understanding of the universe. Visualisations are difficult because scientists have mathematical proof the universe has an infinite form but a finite volume. 

"Previously, scientists have dodged fundamental problems to create models of the universe but all existing knowledge of quantum physics supports our model," Frank Steiner, professor of theoretical physics, said when asked about an Internet report on the team's work. 

"This research has not been published yet but the unofficial response in the scientific world so far has been positive," he told The News Source. 

Earlier models, such as one in which the cosmos looks like a huge football, have been widely disputed by physicists.

Use Roses to Ward Off Burglars, British Police Say

May 27, 8:04 am ET 

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON  - Homeowners who strategically use roses, cockle shells and high fences in their gardens will provide a first line of defense against burglars, British police at London's annual Chelsea Flower Show said.

To illustrate the point, the Metropolitan Police have constructed a show garden at this year's London flower fest, the place to be seen at the start of the British summer calendar.

"Traditionally people have believed that their defense perimeter began at the house. We are pointing out that it in fact starts at the garden fence," detective inspector Paul Anstee told The News Source at the premier social event.

Garden fences should be at least 1.6 meters high and topped by something prickly, sheds should be double-locked, outside lights on all night, pathways made of something that makes a noise and garden ornaments alarmed, Anstee said.

There is even a climbing rose specially named "New Scotland Yard" after the Metropolitan Police Service's London headquarters, and the garden path is made of cockle shells which make a crunching noise when stepped on.

"Instead of barbed wire on top of the fence we suggest you could plant climbing roses or holly -- something aesthetic used in a creative way to supplement your barrier," Anstee said. "It makes it secure and is attractive as well."

Theft of garden tools and ornaments is a common nuisance during the northern hemisphere summer and also a danger, since such stolen tools often provide would-be thieves with a means of access to the house.

"We show how you can secure garden ornaments or wire them up so they set off an alarm if they are moved," Anstee said.

Moonlighting Cops Star in Porn Movie?

May 27, 7:56 am ET 

SAN FRANCISCO  - Two San Francisco police officers have come under investigation after their departments discovered they had starred in a pornographic movie entitled "Bus Stop Whores" that is circulating on the Internet.

The officers, Kelly Francisco of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department and Darryl Watts of the city's police department, play a prostitute and a john in the film, whose teaser is, "These girls won't ride a bus today!" according to local news reports.

The two are being investigated for any violations of criminal law or administrative rules, but have not faced disciplinary action, department representatives said on Wednesday.

Watts has been taken off patrol duty and reassigned to an administrative position pending the outcome of the investigation, said Maria Oropeza, an SFPD spokeswoman. Francisco continues to work as an institutional officer at San Francisco General Hospital, said Sheriff's Department chief of staff Eileen Hirst.

Attempts to reach the two officers for comment were unsuccessful.

Used Underwear...Get Your Used Underwear...

May 27, 7:49 am ET 

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK  - In the latest act of sanitizing New York's mean streets, lawmakers want to rid the city of a scourge most people are not even aware of -- previously worn lingerie being sold as new merchandise.

Council members are mulling the proposed legislation after watching a local television news broadcast which claimed leading department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's, had tried to resell returned undergarments.

Under current law, stores do not have to state whether undergarments on sale, including women's panties and thongs, have been bought and returned, although certain stores have developed their own policies.

"This is a major consumer and health issue in that the amount of bacteria that can be transported from one person to another in just one wearing can be a health hazard," said council member Tony Avella.

"When you talk about it people start to giggle as it is a tough subject to discuss."

Spokeswoman Elina Kazan said Macy's does not sell worn undergarments and posts signs in changing rooms that intimate apparel should not be tried on for size on top of bare skin.

"We train our associates to inspect the merchandise upon return and if in salable condition, return it to the sales floor," she said. "Any items that are soiled ... are not returned to the floor."

The council plans further discussions to decide if the bill should exclude brassieres, undershirts, socks and bathing suits, before being put to a council vote later this year.

Saks did not return calls for comment.

Donald Halperin of the New York Metropolitan Retailers Association said the issue was mainly about women's undergarments because women care more about such issues more than men.

Jaguar Chided for Sexy Marketing Letter

May 26, 11:17 am ET 

LONDON  - Luxury automaker Jaguar went too far with a steamy promotional mailing to prospective customers, UK advertising regulators said on Wednesday.

The Valentine's Day letter was signed "Elizabeth Jones" in a version sent to men and "Ian Major" in another sent to women.

It read: "So, what might drive you wild? Could it be the touch of skin on your fingertips? A long, honed body? Firm sensuous curves? A deep, responsive purr? ... I think I have the perfect match for you. I'll send you a photograph next week."

A subsequent mailing contained information on Jaguar's XKR sports car.

Dozens of people who received the letter complained to Britain's Advertising Standards Authority, which ruled that the mailing was "sexually suggestive and, because it did not make clear that it was a marketing communication, was likely to offend or distress some recipients."

Jaguar apologized and agreed not to send similar mailings in the future.

It has been a bumpy week for the automaker's marketing department. On Sunday a $200,000 diamond affixed to the nose of a Jaguar Formula One car as part of a sponsorship deal went missing when the team's rookie driver crashed into a guardrail during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Law on Pizza Purity a Mouthful

May 26, 11:15 am ET 

By Philip Pullella

ROME  - It may be too early to talk about Pizza Police, but Italian legislators are mulling a detailed draft law laying down rules to protect real Neapolitan pizza.

The draft law to separate pure pizza from the putative kind -- all three pages, eight articles and six sub-clauses of it -- was published under the state seal in the Official Gazzette on Tuesday.

It decrees that a Nepolitan pizza must be round and no more than 35 centimeters in diameter. The center should not be higher than 0.3 cm and the crust cannot rise over two centimeters.

The law specifies what kind of flour, salt, and yeast and tomatoes have to be used. The sub clauses go even further.

Margherita, the classic type, must be topped not with just any type of mozzarella but mozzarella "from the southern appenine" mountains.

And restaurateurs beware, you can't call a pizza a "Margherita extra" unless it is topped with mozzarella made from buffalo milk -- a southern Italian specialty.

Rolling pins are blasphemous and dough machines are heretical. The law says the dough must be kneaded by hand. Take a whiff of this phrase from a government document that usually offers the latest on tax brackets and bilateral trade:" On the whole, the pizza must be soft, elastic and easily foldable in half to form a 'libretto"'

If made to specifications, restaurants can label their pizzas STG, or Guaranteed Traditional Specialty.

Neapolitan pizza makers convinced the agriculture ministry to work up the law to protect their craft from bogus copies.

The law, which can be modified ahead of becoming effective, makes provisions for "controls" on restaurants but gives no details.

In a front-page story Wednesday, Italy's leading financial daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, gave it a half-baked review.

"It's useless to close the stable door now that the horse has bolted," the paper said, noting that people and restaurants the world over were making pizza any way they wanted.

If Your Husband Has a Porsche, Follow Him

May 26, 11:09 am ET 

BERLIN  - Don't trust a man with a fast car.

Porsche drivers are less faithful than any other group of car owners, with almost 50 percent of them cheating on their partners, a survey published in German magazine "Men's Car" has revealed.

Among German men, Porsche drivers were the least faithful, with 49 percent admitting infidelity, followed by BMW drivers at 46 percent. Among women, Audi drivers were the least reliable, 41 percent admitting to affairs.

The most faithful group were owners of Opel-Vauxhall cars, with only 31 percent of male and 28 percent of female drivers in Germany having committed adultery.

The survey was carried out by Hamburg-based opinion poll institute Gewis, which questioned 2,253 male and female drivers aged 20 to 50. The results follow similar findings from the same magazine showing that male BMW drivers had the most sex.

Playing with Their Food

May 26, 10:58 am ET 

HAMBURG, Germany  - The sound of 90 pounds of finely tuned cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, radishes, peppers, aubergines and marrows entertained a German audience at a weekend concert by the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.

The nine-piece orchestra plays a range of original compositions on instruments constructed from vegetables -- including a flute made from a carrot, a saxophone carved out of a cucumber and a pumpkin converted into a double bass.

"I would never have thought you could get sound out of a cucumber," a young woman at the concert said. Others commented on the raw vegetable aroma accompanying the melodies.

The Austrian ensemble, three women and six men, said their instruments are freshly sliced and put together only an hour before each performance to enhance the sound. Size, texture and water content are vital to achieving the correct sound.

"Ordinary vegetables work better together than organic vegetables," said Matthias Meinharter, who plays a violin fashioned from leeks.

The musicians must also work against the clock. To protect their instruments from drying out during the performance, they place damp cloths around the vegetables when they're not in use.

At the end of the performance, the instruments were turned into vegetable soup.

Snail Mail Takes 3 Years to Travel 30 Miles

May 27, 7:46 am ET 

DHAKA  - Red-faced postal officials in Bangladesh are investigating why it took almost three years to deliver a letter just 50 km (30 miles) to a mill worker who had died in the meantime.

The family of rice mill worker Assiruddin Moral posted the letter in northwestern Dinajpur district on June 13, 2001. It reached his workplace in the nearby Nilphamari district, only 50 km away, on Monday.

Managers at the mill refused to take the letter, saying that Moral had died 15 months ago, local officials said on Thursday.

They said snail mail in Bangladesh often meant letters failed to reach intended recipients, who may have left their jobs or moved to other areas while the mail was in the post.

But the latest delay was the first known case in recent times of the recipient having died before receiving the letter.

Postal officials said they had launched an investigation.

Delivery People Urged to Rat Out Minors 

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - The long arm of the law may be ringing your doorbell and holding a pizza. 

Police in Portsmouth hope to enlist pizza delivery people and hotel clerks to help cut into underage drinking and parents who allow it. 

Under a new law, it's illegal for the owner or occupants of a home or hotel room to host a gathering of five or more minors who are drinking or using drugs. Teens as young as 17 who throw a party could be tried as adults. 

Portsmouth Police Sergeant Mike Schwartz said the program is called the "Booze Bounty." He said food delivery people and hotel clerks would receive $50 if their anonymous tips of suspicious activity leads to the arrest of a party host. 

"The message being sent to parents is that it's not safe for them to host a party," said Jackie Valley, of the Community Diversion Program in Greenland, which works to keep at-risk youths out of trouble with the law. "This doesn't change the fact that youths using alcohol is still illegal."

Pentagon surprised by Bush pledge to destroy Abu Ghraib: report 56 minutes ago Add Politics - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - Pentagon (news - web sites) officials were caught by surprise by President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s announcement on Tuesday that the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad was to be torn down.

"This office was not aware of any plans to raze Abu Ghraib or build another prison," a Pentagon spokesman told The New York Times, insisting that he remain anonymous lest he was seen as contradicting the president.

A White House official, who also asked not to be identified, told the daily it was Bush's idea to include the announcement in a speech Tuesday, in which he outlined his strategy to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.

The official said Bush had discussed the idea of destroying Abu Ghraib, which has become a symbol of the US military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners, with his war cabinet and US overseer in Iraq (news - web sites) Paul Bremer.

Bremer, in turn, consulted with Iraqis and General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of detention operations in Iraq, and replied to Bush that it was a good plan, the White House official said.

It was unclear if Bush's war cabinet included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, or, if it did, whether Rumsfeld passed on the information on Abu Ghraib to his subordinates at the Pentagon.

Bush's announcement also surprised US lawmakers, including the Senate subcommittee which oversees reconstruction spending in Iraq, the daily said.

Separately, The New York Times on Thursday quoted Miller as saying that Abu Ghraib, already used during the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) as a torture and execution center, would be vacated by US forces by August. 

Immigrants Outlive U.S.-Born Residents

32 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, News Source Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Immigrants who come to the United States live an average of three years longer than people born here, new research shows in a surprising finding that challenges some common beliefs.

A growing body of evidence indicates the life span difference reflects both immigrants' innate vitality and their reluctance to embrace Americans' drive-thru, drive-everywhere mentality. They also smoke less.

The life expectancy deficit is true for all races but is most dramatic among blacks. Immigrant black men live nine years longer than black men born in the United States, according to an analysis by a National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) researcher.

The study reviewed millions of death and health records from 1986-94. Though the numbers are old, more limited studies of recent data suggest the same patterns hold true, although life expectancy is generally rising.

The records showed the average American-born black man could expect to reach 64, while a black man born overseas would likely live beyond 73 if he immigrated. In the case of an African-born man remaining in his homeland, he might well have died before his 50th birthday.

Perhaps most astonishing is that immigrants outlive the U.S.-born population even though they're more likely to be poor and less likely to see a doctor, often a prescription for a shorter life.

Such results may seem counterintuitive, but their explanation makes sense.

Lifestyle is a powerful factor. Black immigrants are three times less likely to smoke than American-born blacks, according to NIH research, and far less likely to be obese. Black immigrants drink less and exercise more, according to other federal research.

It is not surprising, then, that national health statistics show black immigrants are far less likely than U.S.-born blacks to die of everything from lung cancer to liver cirrhosis.

Obesity, too, is far more prevalent among American-born residents. Data from the mid-1990s showed that 22 percent of adult immigrants were obese, compared to 28 percent of U.S.-born adults. (Recent numbers suggest about 30 percent of all U.S. residents are obese.)

The smoking numbers were even more dramatic: 18 percent of immigrants smoked, compared to 26 percent of U.S.-born adults.

There are other factors, too, experts say: Immigrants are likely the most physically active, vigorous citizens in their homelands. They must be resilient to journey here and spread roots. They tend to benefit from stress-reducing social support networks and an outlook that, even when poor, they're better off than before.

Some doctors have long suspected that immigrants live longer. But the findings surprise some immigrant advocates who focus more on federal policies other than health.

"People have a misconception that immigrants have poorer health, but when you look at the empirical data ... you almost always find they do better than their U.S.-born counterparts," says Gopal K. Singh, an NIH statistician. His research, published this month in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, reported that immigrant life expectancy surpassed 78, while U.S.-born life expectancy hovered at 75. (Current U.S. life expectancy is over 77 years.)

Singh found that immigrants tend to live longer, regardless of race. The difference is greatest among blacks and Hispanics, who have nearly a four-year gap between immigrants and native-born. Implicated to a lesser extent are whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders, the group with the longest life expectancy.

As they assimilate, however, many immigrants adopt bad health habits. Research by Singh and others suggest that, over time, immigrants behave like the American-born population - more smoke, drink and gain weight.

"Assimilation often means assimilation into eating too much Cheez Whiz," says Mark Krikorian, executive director Center for Immigration Studies.

In the end, however, immigrants appear to pass on to their children some of the health advantages they enjoy. Not that it's a piece of cake.

"There is tension over giving their child what they want - chips, fries or soda - when they know that's not the best thing to be eating," says Dr. Elena Fuentes-Afflick, an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and pediatrician at the city's main public hospital.

Parents such as Mexican-born Gricelda Aguilar must brace their own impulses against pressures to indulge their kids, who see classmates relishing fast food.

"I prefer to prepare food in the home, like my mama taught me," the mother of four says as she waits at San Francisco General Hospital for a doctor to diagnose her daughter's stomachache.

The fact that Aguilar's 15-year-old, Marili, is seeing a doctor is itself unusual. Just 26 percent of low-income Hispanic kids who aren't U.S. citizens have health care, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

As when she grew up, Aguilar grows essential ingredients, including corn and lettuce, in a garden patch at her home. A typical dinner of rice, beans, chicken and salad has something like 600 calories, nutritionists estimate. A hamburger-fries-and-soda splurge at Denny's or Sizzler like her U.S.-born daughter of 12 enjoys would tally a few hundred extra calories.

In part because of her diet, Mexican-born women like Aguilar can expect to live past 83, according to new data from the Public Policy Institute of California. Their U.S.-born daughters can expect to die before reaching 82. 

Full Moon Not to Blame for Epileptic Seizures

Wed May 26, 9:54 AM ET 
Add Science - Space.com 

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com 

The Full Moon has been blamed for many things, most often in error. And now another myth has apparently been cleared. Researchers at the University of South Florida report that the extra gravitational tug exerted during a Full Moon does not influence the frequency of epileptic seizures. 

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"Contrary to the myth, epileptic seizures are not more common during a Full Moon," said Selim Benbadis, associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the university's College of Medicine. "In fact, we found the number of epileptic seizures was lowest during the Full Moon and highest in the Moon's Last Quarter." 

The Sun, Earth and Moon line up in space to create a Full Moon. Ocean tides, created by both the Sun and Moon, are higher during a Full Moon (they're higher during the Moon's new phase, too). Even Earth's crust is constantly lifted and shifted by these tidal forces.

Supposed effects on humans and animals rarely if ever bear out in serious research.

Yet patients were claiming their seizures were triggered or worsened by the Full Moon, Benbadis said, and "even some health care professionals believe this, but it's never been scientifically tested."

So Benbadis and his colleagues analyzed 770 seizures recorded over three years at Tampa General Hospital, sorting them into epileptic seizures and other types. Of the epileptic seizures, 152 occurred during the Moon's Last Quarter and 94 when Earth's natural satellite was full. Another type of seizure, called psychogenic nonepileptic, increased slightly -- but not significantly -- during the Full Moon.

The study was announced yesterday and will be published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior.

Other studies comparing the lunar phases to births, deaths, suicides and psychiatric hospital admissions have similarly found little or no connection. A study of dog behavior in 2001 yielded mixed results. Yet the history of epilepsy is not all medical. Its seizures were once pinned on witchcraft and possession by demons, Benbadis notes. Myths die hard.

"Some people still seem to like poetic, mysterious and irrational explanations for puzzling diseases like epilepsy," he said.

Florida Woman, 90, Earns Belated Diploma 

2 hours, 53 minutes ago

By JILL BARTON, News Source Writer 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Uceba Babson used to trudge through flooded plains for more than a mile to reach her one-room schoolhouse, her lunch pail full of syrup-covered biscuits. 

That was before buses and roads came to rural Pahokee, and the swampy land made getting to school an adventure. But in 1931, Babson gave up her daily commute through Florida swamps to marry a vegetable farmer. 

She now has 81 grandchildren and great-grandchildren to hear her schoolgirl tales, but the end of the story always troubled her. So after outliving three husbands and letting seven decades pass since her last high school class, Babson decided it was time to go back to school. 

After two years of heard work, never missing a day of class, she took part in a graduation ceremony Tuesday night, a few months after her 90th birthday. She received a rousing standing ovation, a bouquet of red roses and a congratulatory letter from Gov. Jeb Bush. 

Babson - born before World War I broke out, before Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean, before women won the right to vote - now has new stories of getting to school. 

"I studied and studied, and then I learned I actually passed," Babson said. "A lot of it was memorizing. You had to remember the rules and at 90, it's hard." 

She tells of days that begin at 4 a.m. with a hot shower and water bottles to get her knees working. She drove herself in a 1997 Mercury on roads that didn't exist in her childhood. 

Inspired by a book about a man who was in his 90s when he started high school, Babson dove into her math, English, science and social studies courses. 

"I thought, 'If he can do it, there's no reason why I shouldn't,'" Babson said. "It gave me a purpose and I said, 'If it takes me five years, I'm going to do it.'" 

She spent many hours a day studying, learning in social studies about the wars that she had lived through and in science about the photosynthesis that helped her family's cornstalks grow. 

"I couldn't even pick up a magazine because I felt guilty because I thought I should pick up my books for school," Babson said. 

On her first day at the Adult Education Center, her classroom was nearly unrecognizable from the one-room schoolhouse in Pahokee she had left behind. The desks had computers and the seats were filled with people from Jamaica, Haiti and Latin America. 

"We all just blended together. It was wonderful," Babson said. 

The center helps students as young as 16 study for their high school equivalency diploma and helps others take exams and brush up on their English or writing skills. 

For Babson, whose quick gait and proud posture make her appear decades younger than she is, putting on her blue cap and gown and picking up her diploma is the culmination of a dream. 

"This is something I promised myself a long time ago," Babson said. "It's been a challenge, but a wonderful challenge."

Amnesty slams 'bankrupt' vision of US in damning human rights report 2 hours, 43 minutes ago  - NEWS SOURCE 

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - The United States has proved "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle" in its fight against terrorism and invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), Amnesty International charged.

In its 2004 report on the state of human rights around the globe, the London-based group cited grave violations in dozens of other nations.

But it targeted in particular the "war on terror" initiated by US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001 for sanctioning human rights abuses in the name of freedom.

The unilateral nature of the conflict to unseat Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in Iraq had additionally "virtually paralyzed" the United Nations (news - web sites)' role in guaranteeing human rights on a global level, the Amnesty report said Wednesday.

The 339-page document, detailing the human rights situation in 157 nations and territories, reserved the most column inches for the United States, with almost as many critical words also meted out to Russia and China.

Other perennial violators were also highlighted such as North Korea (news - web sites), Cuba, and the central Asian state of Turkmenistan where Amnesty summarised the situation simply as "appalling".

"The global security agenda promulgated by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," wrote Amnesty's secretary general Irene Khan in the report's introduction.

"Sacrificing human rights in the name of security at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses have neither increased security nor ensured liberty."

The notion of fighting a campaign against terrorism so as to support human rights, while simultaneously trampling on them to achieve this, was no more than "double speak", she said.

"The United States has lost its moral high ground and its ability to lead on peace and human rights elsewhere," Khan added at a press conference in London to launch the annual report.

The report also stated that events in 2003 had "dealt a mortal blow" to the UN's vision of universal human rights, with the global body "virtually paralysed in its efforts to hold states to account" over the issue.

"Not since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 has there been such a sustained attack on (its) values and principles," Khan told the press conference.

While the report only briefly dealt with damning allegations that US and British troops tortured Iraqi prisoners -- these first came to light just last month -- it had harsh words about the two nations' overall record in Iraq.

"Coalition forces failed to live up fully to their responsibilities as occupying powers, including their duty to restore and maintain public order and safety, and to provide food, medical care and relief assistance," it said.

Elsewhere, Amnesty detailed a long list of abuses in Russia, where security forces "continue to enjoy almost total impunity for serious violations of human rights and international law" in the breakaway republic of Chechnya (news - web sites).

China, despite a new Communist government under President Hu Jintao, had made "no significant attempt" to end the use of torture and other abuses, which "remained widespread".

In the Middle East, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) were taken to task, with Amnesty saying that some actions by the Israeli army, such as the destruction of property, "constituted war crimes".

One of the most damning assessments was handed to Cuba, which saw a "severe deterioration in the human rights situation" during 2003, most notably through the jailing of dozens of dissidents after "hasty and unfair" trials. 

Panel blames indoor mould for coughs, wheezes

Last Updated Tue, 25 May 2004 18:26:56 

WASHINGTON - Mould and damp conditions are associated with coughing, wheezing and asthma symptoms but there is no hard evidence of a link to other health problems, a U.S. scientific panel has concluded. 

Panelists from the Institute of Medicine reviewed the health effects of mould and recommended ways to prevent dampness and correct the problem in buildings. 

Excess dampness can promote the growth of fungal moulds, bacteria and dust mites. 

It was difficult to separate the health effects of mould exposure from other indoor environmental factors, said panel chair Noreen Clark, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. 

The panel concluded there is an association between damp buildings and upper respiratory tract symptoms in asthmatics who are sensitive to mould. 

But the committee said it was unable to find evidence linking mould to fatigue, neuropsychiatric disorders and other health problems some lawsuits have attributed to fungi. A connection cannot be ruled out, the panel added. 

Some indoor moulds produce toxins and damp spaces can support the growth of bacteria that can have toxic and inflammatory effects, the report said. 

Guidelines for preventing dampness should be promoted nationally for people who design, build and manage buildings, the panel said. 

The institute advises the U.S. government on scientific matters. The study was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 

Written by CBC News Online staff

In Video Games, Everything Old Is New Again

Sun May 23, 3:40 PM ET 
Add Technology 

By Ben Berkowitz 

LOS ANGELES  - Hold on to something long enough, the theory goes -- a car, a tie or even a hairstyle -- and eventually it will be cool again. 

And so it goes with video games, where today's fans can't get enough of games that were popular when their parents were kids, and quarter-a-game arcade machines now sell for thousands of dollars each. 

In a nod to the nostalgia boom for classic video games, the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- E3 -- the industry's major trade show, a forum devoted to hyping the latest in game technology, last week also organized a tribute to old-school pixilated fun. 

Featuring classic arcade cabinets like "Ms. Pac-Man," "Popeye," "Donkey Kong," "Punch-Out" and "Space Age," and well-loved home consoles like the Nintendo (news - web sites) Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and 3DO, this year's expo drew fans nostalgic for the days when playing a game meant little more than mashing one or two buttons over and over again. 

"These games are designed to be addictive," said Keith Robinson, president of Intellivision Productions, lamenting the fact that modern games are designed more for sneaking around dark corners and exploring vast mostly fictitious lands than the simple fun of trying to rack up high scores. 

Robinson, one of the original programers for the 1980s' Intellivision game system, is one of the "Blue Sky Rangers," a tight-knit group of former Intellivision programers who continue to work together on various projects. 

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN 

In fact, even as the modern games industry gets bigger and bigger, classic gaming is very much in vogue. 

Collections of throwback arcade games are available for consoles, handhelds, personal digital assistants and cell phones, and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has announced it will launch an arcade featuring some classics such as the race favorite "Pole Position" on its Xbox (news - web sites) Live online gaming service later this year. 

One of the organizers of the Los Angeles Classic Gaming Expo, Joe Santulli, said the adults who own and play today's games grew up playing the kinds of games he has on display. 

"There's the memories," he said. "Naturally, a childhood should bring happy thoughts of a simpler time." 

And while new versions of old games are popular sellers, the originals are worth more money than some ever imagined. 

At the E3 event, the organizers offered a flyer from a southern California shop selling pinball machines, redemption games and arcade cabinets from about $400 to nearly $7,000. 

On eBay, a brisk business in old consoles has some systems, bundled with games and accessories, selling for well over $300, some of them even in various stages of disrepair. 

PSSST, WANT TO BUY A VIDEO GAME? 

Commercially, games have come a long way from the early 1980s, when game developers, like early underground hip-hop DJs, resorted to selling their wares out of the trunks of their cars, often packaged in plastic baggies. 

"We didn't have advertising -- you found these things in a Laundromat," said George Sanger, a legend in video game history for his work on game audio whose nickname "Fat Man" belies his slight frame. 

"We started in Mom's basement," Sanger said. "We had nothing to work with but two bits and a six-pack of Jolt." 

But he said some of the creativity has been lost in modern games, vast and expensive undertakings that involve dozens of people that can make or break entire companies. 

"It's impossible to do art under those conditions," Sanger said. 

Though the Atari system and others like it are long gone, the names remain, and the head of the company that now carries the Atari name (Nasdaq:ATAR - news) said the old games are an irresistible draw for some people, much like the child's sled that is the object of a media mogul's yearning in the film classic "Citizen Kane." 

"It's like 'Rosebud,"' Bruno Bonnell, Atari's chief executive, said.

Moore's Politics on Center Stage at Cannes 

Sunday May 23 12:55 PM ET

"Fahrenheit 9/11" put Michael Moore's politics at center stage at the Cannes Film Festival. And there they stayed, right up to the closing act, when he accepted the top prize. 

The message of Moore's film that White House foreign policy since the Sept. 11 attacks has been disastrous generated so much sympathy here that jury president Quentin Tarantino worried Moore might misinterpret the jury's intentions. 

"When I was on stage with Michael Moore, I knew all this politics crap would be brought up," the "Kill Bill" director said Sunday, a day after awarding Moore the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest honor. 

So "I just whispered in his ear and said, `I just want you to know it was not because of the politics that you won this award,'" Tarantino said. "`You won it because we thought it was the best film that we saw.'" 

The whispered exchange between the two Academy Award winners underlined how much effect Moore's politics had on this festival. 

The awards ceremony started out with a political statement inspired by Moore. Belgian director Jonas Geirnaert, a winner for his short film, used his first big break as a filmmaker to talk about Moore's movie and urge Americans not to vote for President Bush. 

Moore's Cannes appearances have given him a much wider following internationally, including in Europe, where people love his anti-Bush message and are charmed by his folksy all-American image. His documentary about gun culture in America, "Bowling for Columbine," won a special prize here two years ago. 

The new movie had one of the longest standing ovations in recent memory which may have had something to do with his politics as well as his filmmaking. But Moore says he wants to be judged on his skills as a director. 

"If I wanted to make a political speech, I'd run for office," Moore told The News Source in a telephone interview. "I'm a filmmaker, and I wanted to make a movie for people to go see it." 

"Fahrenheit 9/11" accuses the Bush camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11 and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the Iraq war. 

Moore's assault on U.S. policy got him into trouble with Disney, which refused to let subsidiary Miramax release "Fahrenheit 9/11." 

He is still trying to work out a deal for U.S. distribution but thinks the win at Cannes will guarantee him an American audience. He also cites the makeup of the nine-member jury four out of nine are Americans as proof of the strong reaction the film could have in the United States. 

"I would be surprised within the next 24 hours if we don't have somebody," Moore said. "Miramax has been fielding calls all day." 

He hopes to have the film in U.S. theaters by July. But he is cynical about how much impact it could have on the U.S. presidential election in November. 

"If some of those (viewers) end up going and deciding to become good citizens by exercising the right to vote, great," he said. "But let's be honest. ... You have to start with pretty low expectations in terms of the political end of this when you live in a country where half the people don't vote." 

The new movie is darker in tone than "Bowling for Columbine," and includes grisly war footage. But the filmmaker also mixed in humor to get his point across a talent that the jury singled out in explaining what made Moore special. 

Moore's sense of humor came out on awards night, too, when he couldn't resist thanking his "cast" the U.S. Cabinet, and particularly Bush, whose speaking blunders turn up in the movie. 

"He's got the funniest lines in the film," Moore joked. "I'll be eternally grateful to him."

EBay Pulls Schwarzenegger's Cough Drop 

Sat May 22, 3:39 PM ET

By The News Source 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A seller on eBay tried to auction off a cough drop that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news) allegedly used, then tossed into a trash can - listing the item under the heading "Schwarzenegger's DNA." 

But the ad posted on the popular Web site Friday was quickly yanked after eBay decided it fell into the category of "body parts," which the Web site will not list for sale. 

The original listing was accompanied by two photos of a half-consumed cough drop and the words, "Own a piece of DNA from the man himself." The seller indicated she or he had seen Schwarzenegger discard the lozenge at a recent public event and had retrieved it. 

"Like many people who collect items from international stars this is a must have," the ad stated. 

The California governor's office confirmed Schwarzenegger routinely sucks on cough drops, but would say little more. 

An eBay spokesman said the seller, identified only as "AMF814," could put the item back up for sale if he or she reclassified it as a collectible. As of Saturday, it was not among the 115 Schwarzenegger collectibles listed.

Gaddafi Walks Out, Boycotts Arab Summit

2 hours, 52 minutes ago

By Lamine Ghanmi 

TUNIS  - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (news - web sites) walked away from an Arab summit on Saturday, damaging the unity of the Arab League to protest against its agenda and failure to take up his proposal for a single Israeli-Palestinian state. 

Slideshow: Mideast Conflict

Gaddafi did not immediately pull his country out of the 22-member league, but said he hoped Libya's basic people's congresses, local councils which theoretically decide Libyan policy, would agree to withdrawal. 

"Unfortunately Libya is forced to boycott the summit because it does not agree to the agenda of the Arab governments. Libya wants the agenda of the Arab peoples," Gaddafi told a rambling news conference after leaving the opening session. 

Libya has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the league and Gaddafi was a reluctant participant in the Tunis meeting, the last to arrive on Saturday morning after Arab leaders telephoned to press him to turn up. 

Gaddafi is famous for creating drama at international meetings and his walkout was the only glitch in a meeting carefully prepared to prevent unwelcome surprises. 

Arab League spokesman Hossam Zaki said he hoped the withdrawal would not affect the preparations, which followed an abortive attempt to hold a summit in Tunis in March. 

Gaddafi left the conference hall as Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, a controversial figure who has irritated conservative Gulf Arab leaders, defended the league from what he said were attempts to undermine it. 

"WHITE PAPER" PROPOSAL 

"Some voices have risen up, calling for getting rid of the Arab League, or breaking it up," he said, also criticizing Arab governments for failing to pay their dues. 

Gaddafi's main concern appeared to be the Arab League's failure to adopt his "white paper" proposal for a single Israeli-Palestinian state, instead of the widely accepted alternative of Israeli and Palestinian states side by side. 

Thirteen heads of state and three prime ministers, as well as representatives from the six other Arab countries, took part in the opening session at a heavily guarded conference center in the Tunisian capital. 

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who is trapped in the West Bank town of Ramallah by Israeli forces, spoke by video-link, condemning attacks on Israeli and Palestinian civilians and denouncing recent Israeli actions in Gaza. 

The Tunisian government unexpectedly called off the first attempt at a summit in March, arguing that some Arab governments were obstructing the reforms which the world expected. 

This time, Arab foreign ministers have tried to ensure a success by agreeing all the key documents in advance. 

But the two-day summit takes place at a time of deep pessimism in the Arab world about the ability of Arab leaders to help Palestinians under Israeli rule or end the occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) by the United States and its allies. 

Moussa reflected the mood in his speech, saying the world's problems had grown worse because of violence and the use of force, mismanagement of policy and "double standards." 

"This has affected the Arab world, which sees an unprecedented collapse of the chances of peace and a reversal in hopes of a stable and safe regional future," he said. 

Diplomats say the Arab leaders will not call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq or add any substance to the Middle East proposal they made in 2002, when they offered peace and normal relations in return for Israeli withdrawals to the borders that existed before the 1967 war. 

An Arab diplomat said the summit would criticize the "immoral and inhumane practices and crimes of the coalition forces" in Iraq and call for the trial of all those responsible, not just the U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. 

"The resolution says the occupation should end as soon as possible and that the United Nations (news - web sites) should have a role that is central and effective in rebuilding institutions," he added. 

Arab diplomats say the summit will endorse democracy and human rights, but activists say that without a timetable or a plan of action their promises could turn out to be empty.

Newly Married Lesbian Couple Files Suit 

1 hour, 52 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

BOSTON - One day after getting married, a lesbian couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit asking that one of the women receive damages because doctors failed to detect breast cancer in her spouse. 

The lawsuit filed Friday claims "loss of consortium" for Cindy Kalish, 39, because of the advanced breast cancer in new wife Michelle Charron, 44. 

Loss of consortium is a legal claim long available to spouses, but only newly available to gay and lesbian couples since the state began allowing same-sex marriage Monday. The lawsuit provides a glimpse into the kinds of legal battles involving gay and lesbian unions that Massachusetts courts can now expect. 

"I think there will be tons and tons of incidental issues, and this apparently is the first one," said Boston lawyer Steven Schreckinger. 

Charron and Kalish were seventh in line on Monday to apply for a wedding license, and were married Thursday. The lawsuit contends that two doctors affiliated with Fallon Clinic failed to order a biopsy for a lump in Charron's breast, which she first brought to their attention in December 2002. 

By the time the biopsy was performed nearly eight months later, Charron's lump had grown and she was diagnosed with advanced cancer that had spread to her liver and sternum. Doctors have given her 10 years to live. 

A spokeswoman for Fallon Clinic declined to comment on the case. 

The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that unmarried partners cannot bring lack of consortium claims, said David White-Lief, a specialist in personal injury law and a former chairman of the Massachusetts Bar Association's civil litigation section. 

Schreckinger said the lawsuit's timing could be challenged, because the alleged negligence was before the couple was married. But the couple's lawyer, Ann Maguire, said the court will view the case differently because marriage was not an option before Monday. The couple had a commitment ceremony in 1992.

Sergeant `flagged' for telling news media about prison abuses

Sat May 22, 9:40 AM ET  - Chicago Tribune 

By Mike Dorning Washington Bureau 

The Army on Friday disciplined a military intelligence analyst who told The Tribune about the mistreatment of a 16-year-old boy and other abuses by interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (news - web sites). 

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Sgt. Samuel Provance, 30, said his battalion commander instructed him to turn in his top-secret clearance and was informed he would be reassigned. 

Provance said he also was told his record is "flagged," meaning he cannot receive promotions, awards or honors. He added that he was warned he might be subject to further disciplinary action for discussing abuses at the prison with the news media. 

"It's in reference to what's happened--for going public," the sergeant said. "It's not unexpected." 

Now stationed in Germany, Provance recently completed an assignment at Abu Ghraib, outside of Baghdad. He also gave on-the-record interviews describing interrogators' roles in the abuses to ABC News, the Washington Post and The News Source. 

A lawyer familiar with the case said Provance also was ordered Friday not to discuss abuses at the prison with other government agencies, which the lawyer said appeared intended to bar him from giving information to congressional investigators. 

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said he could not discuss the sanctions, saying that Pentagon (news - web sites) policy is to keep personnel actions private. 

But he said Provance is considered a material witness in the investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and has been admonished not to discuss matters that could come up in future testimony to a court-martial. 

This week Provance described how interrogators abused the 16-year-old to end his father's resistance to questioning. The teen was stripped naked, thrown in the open back of a truck, driven around on a cold night, splattered with mud and then presented to his father, he said. 

The father then broke down and cried after the incident, and told interrogators he would tell them what they wanted, Provance said.

U.S. National - AP
Berkeley Professor Denounced for POW Memo 

Sun May 23, 9:55 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By TERENCE CHEA, News Source Writer 

BERKELEY, Calif. - Some graduating University of California law students used their commencement Saturday to denounce a professor who helped the Bush administration develop a legal framework that critics say led to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. 

About one-quarter of the 270 graduates of Berkeley's Boalt School of Law donned red armbands over their black robes in a silent protest of a legal memo law professor John Yoo co-wrote when he served in the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites)'s Office of Legal Counsel. 

Outside the ceremony, they also passed out fliers denouncing Yoo for "aiding and abetting war crimes." Yoo said beforehand he didn't plan to attend the graduation. 

"I respect freedom of thought, but I think he should abide by some basic moral standard," said Andrea Ruiz, 35, one of the armband-wearing students. "Respect for human persons is at the core of what the law is about." 

The Jan. 9, 2002, memo, first reported by Newsweek magazine Monday, laid out the legal reasons why the United States didn't have to comply with international treaties governing prisoner rights. It argued that the normal laws of armed conflict didn't apply to al-Qaida and Taliban militia prisoners because they didn't belong to a state. 

Yoo, who worked for the Justice Department between 2001 and 2003, wouldn't comment on the memo or his government work, but said the students have a right to express their opinions. 

"I'm happy to listen to their viewpoints. Beyond that I'm not going to change what I think," Yoo, 36, said during a telephone interview Friday. 

A petition signed by nearly 200 law students and alumni since Thursday alleges that Yoo's memo "contributed directly to the reprehensible violation of human rights in Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere." 

"We're embarrassed that he's at our institution," said law student Abby Reyes, who launched the petition. "We came to law school in order to uphold the rule of law, not to learn ways to wiggle our way out of compliance with it." 

The student petition urges Yoo to repudiate the memo, declare his opposition to torture and encourage the Bush administration to comply with the Geneva Conventions that protect the rights of prisoners of war. Otherwise, he should resign, the petition says. 

Yoo said he had no plans to resign. 

"To the extent that the petition goes beyond expressing views, I worry that it's an unfortunate effort to interfere with academic freedom," he said. 

Interim Dean Robert C. Berring Jr. said the law school had no plans to discipline Yoo. 

"The image of Berkeley is the very progressive image," Berring said, "but I think you'd find at Berkeley a pretty wide range of opinions. Professor Yoo is certainly not the only conservative on campus or at the law school." 

During a May 13 appearance on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Yoo said he thought the pictures of prisoners being abused at the Baghdad prison showed clear violations of the Geneva Conventions. 

"So the question is not whether the Geneva Conventions apply or really whether they're violated or not but how we're going to remedy the situation, and the military is undertaking that," he said, adding that violators should be punished and tried.

Salt Getting Overlooked in Health Craze 

Sun May 23, 1:57 PM ET 


DES MOINES, Iowa - Amid the flurry of efforts by restaurant chains to serve healthier food, one key ingredient is being largely overlooked: Salt. 

Medical experts agree that Americans consume excessive quantities of sodium, which makes up 40 percent of table salt, or sodium chloride. 

"On average we take in about twice the recommended amount," said Paul K. Whelton, a physician at Tulane University in New Orleans. Earlier this month he co-authored a study that found increasing evidence of high blood pressure among American children and adolescents. One in four American adults, or perhaps 50 million people, has high blood pressure, the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) has estimated. 

Health professionals say public ignorance about sodium is a major challenge. 

"We can see our bellies getting bigger, so we know we should do something about our weight," Whelton said. Not so with salt. 

Yet while high sodium intake has long been associated with hypertension, stroke and other health risks, there are few indications that either fast-food or casual-dining restaurants are making lower sodium levels a high priority. 

Indeed, at times the opposite seems to be true. 

When Wendy's International Inc. rolled out a line of Chicken Temptations sandwiches last month, each contained more sodium than the sandwich it replaced. The fast-food chain's new spicy chicken fillet sandwich, for example, has 1.48 grams of sodium - 0.26 grams more than the previous spicy chicken version. Wendy's new Ultimate Chicken Grill sandwich contains 1.1 grams of sodium, a 50 percent increase from the former grilled chicken sandwich. 

"Our research showed that consumers wanted bigger, bolder taste above all else," said Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini, describing the products' development process. He attributed the higher sodium counts to changes in the sandwiches' breading and marinade. 

Still, the hamburger chain is "actively working with our suppliers to find ways to minimize the level of sodium in our products, while meeting our customers' high taste expectations," said Bertini. "For example, our R&D team is exploring ways to reduce the sodium in our salad dressings and other menu items." 

But the emphasis at most chains today is on obesity. Because of growing public and government attention to what is perceived as a serious national health problem, restaurant operators are focusing their attention on reducing fat, calories and carbohydrates. 

Although the recommended government guideline for a healthy American adult is no more than 2.4 grams of sodium a day, or about one teaspoon of salt, several studies suggest much lower amounts. The Institute of Medicine (news - web sites) of the National Academy of Science recently concluded that 1.5 grams daily is sufficient for most individuals. The body uses sodium to regulate blood pressure and blood volume, and it is critical for the functioning of muscles and nerves. 

But a meal out can deliver one day's quota in a single sandwich. For example, the club sandwich at Denny's Inc. family restaurants contains 2.45 grams of sodium. The Italian submarine sandwich at Arby's restaurants comes with 2.44 grams of sodium, while the Deli Trio Pannido at Jack In The Box Inc. stores has 2.53 grams. 

That favorite American food, the hamburger, also can deliver a hefty dose of sodium. McDonald's Corp.'s Big Mac contains 1.05 grams, or 44 percent of the recommended daily intake. Burger King's flagship Whopper, served with a slice of cheese, has 1.45 grams of sodium, or 60 percent of the recommended total. 

Salads, touted for their healthful attributes, nonetheless may make it difficult for customers to shake the sodium habit. The Greek salad at Jack In The Box includes 2.625 grams of sodium, the chain's Southwest chicken salad 2.155 grams. 

Dressings often are the culprit. At Burger King, the Fire-Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with creamy garlic Caesar dressing has 1.61 grams of sodium. Holding the dressing cuts that by 0.71 grams. 

Customers may be hard-pressed to learn the amount of sodium in their food when they dine out. Most restaurants don't post nutritional analyses of their fare, and some of those who do have it on Web sites but not on the premises. 

Among chains that do disclose it, McDonald's is among the most advanced. Besides using its Web site, plus tray liners and brochures in its restaurants, the fast-food giant is considering printing a meal's nutritional components on the customer's sales slip. While the information would come too late to affect that purchase, it might alter those on future visits, the thinking goes.

U.S. to Launch Intelligence-Sharing Plan

2 hours, 30 minutes ago

By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department (news - web sites) is putting together a nationwide system to allow federal, state and local law enforcement officials to share information more efficiently about terrorism and other crimes.

"This plan represents law enforcement's commitment to take it upon itself to ensure that the dots are connected, be it in crime or terrorism," Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said Friday.

The National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan will include information from groups representing 1.2 million law enforcement officials at all levels of government. Under the plan, the Justice Department and FBI (news - web sites) will share information more routinely with state and local officials.

In addition, it will open pathways for state and local police to provide intelligence about terrorism and major crime suspects to the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.

"We recognize there is no one agency that can be successful on its own," FBI Director Robert Mueller said. "In order to address these threats, we must change."

The failure to share information about terror threats among federal, state and local agencies has been cited repeatedly as a prime reason the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were not detected or disrupted. In the years since the attacks, the FBI has put the gathering, analysis and sharing of intelligence among its top priorities.

The bureau has put in place a new policy to ensure that more of its information can be disseminated broadly to law enforcement officials by reducing the amount classified as top secret or secret. The policy also seeks to overcome turf squabbles and jurisdictional problems that long have blocked information sharing, especially between the FBI and other agencies.

"We're knocking down these barriers each and every day," said Melvin Carraway, chairman of a panel that developed the plan and superintendent of the Indiana State Police.

The new intelligence plan also urges all law enforcement agencies to adopt safeguards for privacy rights and civil liberties, which critics of post-Sept. 11 police tactics say are being threatened in the name of countering terror.

"With this initiative, we will save American lives and we will protect American liberties," Ashcroft said.

___

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov 

Moderate Drinking May Raise Healthy Hormone Levels

Fri May 14, 2:16 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Merritt McKinney 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Moderate drinking may boost levels of a hormone that is believed to help protect against artery disease. The findings could help explain some of the cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking. 

"People consuming alcohol in moderate amounts may have a healthier hormone status," Dr. Henk F.J. Hendriks at TNO Nutrition and Food Research in the Netherlands told The News Source Health. 

"The implication of this piece of research is that it further substantiates the notion that moderate alcohol consumption is consistent with a healthy lifestyle," Hendriks said. 

Many studies have shown that moderate drinking is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Moderate tippling may lower the risk of artery disease through its effects on inflammation, blood clotting and on the way the body metabolizes fats in the blood. 

There is growing evidence that sex hormones also may be involved in the development artery disease. For example, some studies suggest that high levels of a hormone called DHEAS, or dehydroepiandrosterone, may help keep blood vessels healthy. Levels of DHEAS naturally decline with age. 

Hendriks and his colleagues set out to measure the effect of moderate drinking on levels of DHEAS and other sex hormones. 

The study included 10 middle-aged men and 9 postmenopausal women, all of whom were healthy nonsmokers and moderate drinkers. 

For 3 weeks while on a standardized diet, volunteers consumed moderate amounts of beer or nonalcoholic beer with dinner each night. Participants completed another 3-week cycle during which they switched the type beer they drank. 

After drinking regular beer for 3 weeks, blood levels of DHEAS were almost 17 percent higher than after drinking nonalcoholic beer, the researchers report. The increase in DHEAS was similar in men and women. 

In contrast, levels of testosterone dropped about 7 percent in men after drinking beer. Women's testosterone levels stayed steady throughout the study. 

Levels of a type of estrogen called estradiol remained steady in both men and women throughout the study. 

But levels of HDL cholesterol, which is associated with better cardiovascular health, increased about 12 percent in both men and women. 

The results of the study bolster the idea that moderate drinking may boost blood levels of DHEAS, the researchers conclude. The rise in this hormone may help explain some of the beneficial cardiovascular effects of moderate drinking, the authors note in the May issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 

Hendriks said that he and his colleagues now would like to study alcohol's effect on other hormones, such as hormones that regulate the uptake and distribution of sugar in the body. 

The Dutch researcher noted that the combination of increasing body weight and greater longevity means that more and more people are developing diabetes. Hendriks said that one of the next steps would be to study the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on several hormones that are influenced by the development of diabetes. 

"These studies should further substantiate the suggestions from epidemiological studies that moderate alcohol consumption may protect against diabetes type II," Hendriks said. 

The current study was funded by the Dutch Foundation for Alcohol Research. 

SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, May 2004. 

Stasi's 'Rosewood' Files to Yield New Secrets

Sun May 16, 8:39 AM ET

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent 

BERLIN  - It was the last great spying feat of the Cold War. 

In circumstances never explained, microfilm copies of hundreds of thousands of index cards from the files of East Germany's notorious security service, the Stasi, found their way into the hands of the CIA (news - web sites). 

They belonged to the Hauptverwaltung Aufklaerung (HVA), the Stasi department responsible for foreign espionage, and contained a vast trove of data on the identity of its agents and their targets. 

It has taken until now -- 15 years after the Berlin Wall fell -- for the reunified Germany to get copies from the Americans, fix thousands of errors in the U.S.-built index system and start to analyze the so-called "Rosewood" files in detail. 

The new information paves the way for yet another round of checks on politicians and public workers. Several former East German states have said they will vet their staff again. 

That process has already started, despite doubts in some quarters about the value of raking through the past yet again. 

For Marianne Birthler, federal commissioner for the Stasi files, the checks -- which, by law, can take place only until 2006 -- are a vital part of Germany's healing process. 

"It makes absolute sense, in many cases, as a trust-building measure," said Birthler, whose own staff will also face fresh checks. 

"There's another argument: people who harbor a compromising piece of their past have the potential to be blackmailed ... If they work in important public functions, that is a risk for all of us," she told The News Source in an interview. 

VICTIMS AND VILLAINS 

In the case of Rosewood, though, it is painstaking work to sift out the villains from the victims. 

The original microfilmed files were transferred by the Americans onto 381 CD-ROMs and delivered to Germany between 1999 and 2003, although they sent back only the index cards on German citizens -- and not the cards on foreigners, which would have provided an insight into who the Stasi was spying on abroad. 

The records can be searched only with the help of a comprehensive database, but the one supplied by the CIA was strewn with errors -- largely because of the difference between the characters on U.S. and German computer keyboards. 

Where a German name contained a vowel with an 'umlaut' (the two dots above an 'a', 'o' or 'u' which alter its sound), or the letter like a Greek 'beta' which denotes a double 's', U.S. typists had entered it in the database with some other symbol like an asterisk (*) or forward-slash (/). 

It took 50 of Birthler's staff six months to pick their way through the 280,000 names and fix up the database. Other problems arise from the difficulty of reading some entries in the actual file cards, either because the Stasi officer's writing was illegible or because the microfilm was scratched. 

Next the archivists had to deal with another peculiarity of Rosewood. 

Like the 'F16' index cards used in other divisions of the Stasi, the HVA's F16s could be used either to register either an agent -- known as an Informelle Mitarbeiter (IM) or unofficial collaborator -- OR a person on whom the service was spying. 

Unlike other departments, the HVA would often record more than one person under the same registration number -- for example, an agent and his or her close colleagues, friends, family or housekeeper. 

WHO WERE THE SPIES? 

"You can't tell in every individual case which of eight people with a single registration number was actually the IM. You can only do that with the help of other records," Birthler said. 

Of the 280,000 names in Rosewood, it turned out that fewer than 10 percent were HVA agents -- about 6,000 in the former West Germany and more than 20,000 in the East. Of those, about 1,500 in the West and 10,000 in the East were still active by the time the Wall came down in 1989. 

For Birthler, the number of agents the HVA possessed on home soil -- despite the fact it dealt with foreign intelligence gathering -- was "significantly bigger than expected," and represented the biggest surprise in the Rosewood files. 

"For example, there were East German citizens who were allowed to travel on business. Not all, but some of them were used for procuring information." 

The new revelations on the size and membership of the HVA network will help Birthler's researchers as they build up a fuller picture of the Stasi's overseas spying operations, a work which is still in progress. 

Birthler says those expecting the unmasking of prominent public figures as Stasi agents are likely to be disappointed. Nor are fresh prosecutions likely. 

Since 1990, some 3,000 former West German citizens have been investigated for spying for the Stasi, of whom 365 were convicted. Former East Germans cannot be prosecuted for working for their own security service, unless they committed other crimes in the course of their duties. 

STASI TAINT 

So Rosewood may not put more people behind bars, but it still has the power to wreck careers and reputations. 

Fifteen years on, revelations of Stasi links still carry a bitter taint. Last year, for example, senior officials heading Leipzig's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games (news - web sites) were forced to step down over allegations that they had collaborated with the security police. 

"Dictatorships cast long shadows," said Birthler. 

"If you take both dictatorships (Nazi and Communist), then for over half a century in East Germany there was no critical public opinion ... no free press, no freedom of speech in schools and universities. For civil society that caused very considerable long-term damage. This is a generational task ... 

"More important for many people is the possibility to see what the Stasi collected on them. That enables many who had to suffer under Stasi measures to really leave the past behind them for the first time." 

By law, anyone who was spied on by the Stasi has the right to access his or her files. Applications to do so are still running at about 8,000 a month, mainly from former East Germans. 

Birthler disputes the suggestion, sometimes heard, that the Stasi's agents were themselves its victims in the sense that it exploited and dehumanized them. 

"I would not say that ... there are tragic stories ... A friend found out from his files that his mother spied on him for many years and delivered reports on her son to the Stasi. I can't describe such a mother as a victim." 

Asked what is her greatest frustration, she replied after a long pause: 

"That we can only give very limited help to those people who were the real victims. We can help them to discover the truth as far as that emerges from the files, but we can't give them back their lost lives."

Filmmakers Worry About Tibet Film Footage 

Sun May 16, 2:07 PM ET

By ANGELA DOLAND, News Source Writer 

CANNES, France - Two filmmakers at Cannes took extreme precautions Sunday to make sure the people they interviewed for a rare documentary filmed in Tibet would not face a crackdown by Chinese authorities. 

To make sure the footage did not fall into the wrong hands, moviegoers were searched at the door for cameras and recording devices. 

"What Remains of Us," playing at the Cannes Film Festival (news - web sites), offers a rare and moving look at ordinary people in Tibet talking frankly about the hardships of the Chinese occupation. 

Over eight years, two Canadian filmmakers posed as tourists to make risky trips into Tibet, interviewing people in monasteries, tents, fields and homes. They have been cautious to ensure their subjects cannot be identified and punished by Chinese authorities. 

Despite the dangers, most Tibetans were happy to speak, even on camera, said one of the directors, Hugo Latulippe. 

"The world doesn't listen much to their story," Latulippe said. "So when foreigners come, they want to speak about their problems." 

The filmmakers put themselves at risk by smuggling in a video message from the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader exiled in India. People in Tibet can be arrested merely for having a photo of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is peacefully pressing for Tibetan autonomy. 

The movie's premise is simple: The filmmakers stored the Dalai Lama's message in a tiny laptop and secretly showed it to Tibetans. Then they recorded people's reactions. 

The most moving scenes show Tibetans crouched around the tiny computer screen. One elderly woman with a deeply lined face weeps as she clutches a small child. Stylish teenage girls in a city apartment break into tears. 

In a cold and wind-swept field, a family kneels on the grass around the screen, hands pressed together in prayer. 

In the message, the Dalai Lama says that while China is still deeply repressive, it is in the midst of change. He also asks people to study and work hard to prepare for a better future. 

"Tibet, and we the Tibetans, deserve respect," he says. 

To protect the identity of the listeners, the filmmakers shot many of their scenes in hard-to-reach areas. They also interspersed footage from different regions to make it tougher to guess where scenes were shot. Since the film wrapped, they have made as few copies as possible. 

Latulippe and fellow director Francois Prevost, who also is a doctor, teamed up with a young Canadian of Tibetan origin, Kalsang Dolma, who was born in a refugee camp in India. She was the filmmakers' guide, translator and narrator, and she also sang traditional songs on the soundtrack. 

The movie played at Cannes in a critics' showcase. It already has been shown at a lower-profile documentary festival in Toronto, also under tight security. 

The filmmakers are looking for international distributors in Cannes. But any deals will be contingent on guarantees of thorough searches at theater entrances. 

"We're not naive about it," said Jacques Bensimon, film commissioner and chairman of the National Film Board of Canada. "But we want to protect as much as possible the people who agreed to be in the film."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040516/ap_en_mo/film_cannes_tibet_1

Pediatrician Warns Parents About Cicadas

Fri May 14, 1:04 PM ET 
Add U.S. National 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - First there was the girl who fell off her bike fleeing a flying cicada. Then a boy trying to swat a cicada out of the air with a baseball bat instead hit his friend in the nose. 

The News Source 

Slideshow: Buzzing Mass of Cicadas Get Ready for East Coast

The final straw came when another child hurt his hand trying to squish a cicada under a car's tires. Dr. Ray Baker of Cincinnati Children's Hospital was convinced -- cicadas can be a safety hazard to children. 

Starting this week and lasting into June, billions and possibly even trillions of cicadas will emerge across much of the eastern half of the United States. 

The thumb-sized insects are harmless, but they are large, noisy and clumsy. They climb out of their underground homes en masse after 17 years of slow development with only one goal in mind -- finding a mate. 

The last time this happened at such a scale was in 1987, and Baker was working in the emergency room of Cincinnati Children's. 

"We just noticed when this all started, children were coming in and having injuries related to cicadas," Baker said in a telephone interview. 

"After the third or fourth one we decided to keep a list." 

They noted 12 injuries that were fairly significant, Baker said. He wrote a letter to the journal Pediatrics afterward, outlining the cases. 

"They were all related to kids trying to get away from what they perceived as cicadas flying at them, or the children were trying to kill them," Baker said. 

"They do freak people out. They are big. They are bigger than most other flying things and they really don't seem to have any tremendous purpose in which direction they are flying." 

Several children fell off bikes, Baker said. "We had a concussion, a 9-year-old who was fleeing a cicada on her bicycle and fell off," he said. 

Another child hit his head on a brick wall while he was running away from one of the insects. 

"We had a stab wound to the arm from a kid who was trying to kill a cicada on the arm of another child but unfortunately he was using a knife," Baker added. 

"Another kid tried to kick one under a lawn mower and cut his foot, and we saw a crush injury to the hand when a kid tried to put a cicada under the wheels of a moving car." 

All parents can do is try and supervise their children and remind them that that the cicadas are harmless, Baker advised. 

"There's a lot on the news, but I think that just gets kids kind of excited," he said. "Kids don't always do what they are told."

New Overtime Changes Spark Confusion 

15 minutes ago 


By LEIGH STROPE, News Source Labor Writer 

WASHINGTON - New federal overtime regulations will not take effect automatically in 18 states, provoking widespread confusion among state officials, employers and workers, and sparking political battles over how to respond. 

Those states have their own overtime requirements, some of which mirror the old federal rules being replaced in August. Legislative action is required in some states to make changes, complicating an already complex and politically turbulent issue in an election year. 

"It's absolute craziness," said Camille Olson, a labor lawyer with the firm Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. 

The Labor Department (news - web sites) regulations issued last month will go into place automatically in 32 states and the District of Columbia, according to a Seyfarth Shaw analysis. Elsewhere, it is not so simple. 

"We're in a wait-and-see mode," said John Andrew, chief of the Labor Standards Bureau in Montana's Labor and Industry Department. 

New federal definitions of some white-collar jobs would not apply in Montana without changes to state law or state administrative rules, he said. The Legislature may have to act, but it does not meet again until January. 

The federal rule is a minimum standard. States can have their own requirements, but they cannot be less generous with overtime eligibility. 

The rule rewrites definitions of white-collar workers exempt from overtime pay under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Labor Department officials say the changes were needed for clarification and to reduce the number of workers' lawsuits against employers. The rule, which takes effect Aug. 23, will exempt about 100,000 workers now eligible for overtime pay, officials said. Democrats and labor unions say the number will be much higher. 

Underscoring the election-year importance of pocketbook issues, the Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-47 to require that overtime eligibility be guaranteed for all workers who currently qualify. Democrats want to force a vote in the House; GOP leaders acknowledge it will be close. 

Department officials said they are working with states, employers and workers to answer questions and ease the confusion. An enforcement task force was created. Fact sheets and videos are posted on the department's Web site - http://www.labor.gov/ 

In Wisconsin, which has its own overtime requirements, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration said the state may chose to ignore the new federal rules in favor of the old. 

Watching closely is Barb Altschwager, the human resources manager of BelGioioso Cheese Inc. in Denmark, Wis. 

"I'm trying to get my hands on guidelines so that I don't charge down a path that really isn't the right path," Altschwager said. "I think if they're trying to reduce litigation, I do think they could have done a better job of providing a full package for human resources professionals." 

Workers, too, are looking for answers. 

Chris Vota, who has worked for the Pathmark grocery store chain for almost 30 years, is concerned he might lose his overtime pay when his union negotiates a new contract next year. 

He wonders if some of his duties might be considered supervisory, and therefore exempt, under the new rules, and whether New Jersey's overtime requirements would nullify changes. 

"As time goes on, it gets more and more confusing," said Vota, 46, of Eastampton, N.J., who stocks the store's frozen food section, has customer service responsibilities and fills in for his department manager. 

Some states may decide not to act, viewing parts of the old rule as more favorable to workers. As a result, employers in those states ultimately could be required to comply with portions of state law and both the old and new regulations, said Olson, the labor lawyer. 

The Bush administration thinks the new federal rules are more favorable to workers than the old and should be followed. But officials acknowledge they cannot force states to make changes. 

"There may be a few states where their existing rules may provide more protections, but those who claim that the old federal rules are more protective than the new federal rules are just wrong," Labor Department spokesman Ed Frank said. 

Among the states: 

_Illinois passed a law last month keeping the old definitions of administrative, professional and executive employees. "What we don't want to do is be caught off guard by rules that hurt Illinois workers," said state Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who led the effort, 

_In Minnesota, "the state does not have to endorse or bless these changes nor will the state regulations automatically change," said Roslyn Wade, assistant commissioner of the state Labor and Industry Department. 

_Arkansas is examining whether it wants to change its rule to match the federal one to make it easier on employers, said Denise Oxley, the state Labor Department's chief counsel. If it decides to act, it can do so through regulation, not legislation, she said. 

"How many in Arkansas will either lose or start getting overtime? That's the big question. I can't tell you," Oxley said. 

_In Connecticut, the state probably "will stick with its own set of regulations" because they are more generous than the federal ones, said Anthony J. Palermino, a Hartford lawyer. 

Other states where the federal rules will not take effect automatically: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia.

'Doonesbury' Strip Shows Head on Platter 

Fri May 14, 6:05 PM ET

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, News Source Writer 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The distributor of "Doonesbury" called it an "unfortunate coincidence" that a strip depicting a man's head on a platter will run in newspapers Sunday - days after the release of a videotape showing an American's beheading by Iraqi militants. 

Latest headlines: 
á Official: Iraq Abuse Hurt MP's Reputation 
AP - 17 minutes ago 
á France Wants Iraq to Control Its Security 
AP - 43 minutes ago 
á Powell: U.S. Would Leave if Iraq Requests 
AP - 46 minutes ago 
Special Coverage

Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate said Friday the strip was drawn before Nicholas Berg's death in Iraq; it will offer a substitute comic strip. 

Berg's headless body was found last Saturday in Baghdad. Three days later, a videotape posted on an al-Qaida-related Web site showed him decapitated. Berg was buried Friday in Pennsylvania. 

In Sunday's strip, the character Joanie, angry about her friend's firing from her university coaching job, begins daydreaming. In the last frame, she's pictured carrying a platter with the head of the university president on it. He says, "What's this." She responds, "A good start." 

"Given its timing following the recent grisly tragedy in Iraq (news - web sites) and the realities of Sunday color production cycles, we felt we should call this to your attention," Lee Salem, editor of Universal Press Syndicate, told newspaper editors in a statement. 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning strip by Garry Trudeau appears in 1,400 newspapers. 

"I regret the poor timing, and apologize to anyone who is offended by an image that is now clearly inappropriate," Trudeau said. 

Several newspapers said the distributor's warning came too late. 

"We may write some sort of letter to our readers the day the strip runs explaining that fact that we didn't receive notice until after the comic was printed and ready to go," said Andrea Buck, interim editor of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune. 

David Green, managing editor of The (Nashville) Tennessean, said a final decision hadn't been made, but he anticipated the paper also would include a note. 

Mike Needs, public editor of The Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, said the strip would run. 

"We have looked at it, and while we think the timing is unfortunate, the content of the strip is not related to the Iraq War situation and therefore we are going to go ahead with publishing that comic strip," he said.

Poker Novice Betting on Beginner's Luck

Fri May 21, 4:28 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, News Source Writer

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gerry Drehobl took a nice family vacation to Las Vegas and won $365,000 on a pair of kings at the poker table. Not bad for a guy who only took up the game last Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, Drehobl, 49, begins play in the finals of the World Series (news - web sites) of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Sin City. The $10,000 entry fee was no problem, not after April 28 when he won the $1 million pot at another WSOP tournament at Binion's.

"I'm still a novice. I don't pretend to be anything different," Drehobl said in a telephone interview Wednesday from Las Vegas. "To win a tournament like that, you've got to be sort of lucky."

It helped that Drehobl felt he had little to lose when he faced some of the best players in the world.

"I took a lot more chances than they would," Drehobl said. "Why risk all their chips on one hand when they can grind it out?"

Drehobl, who runs a corporate aircraft maintenance service, got hooked on cards sitting around with his wife's family on holidays. They all played and he didn't, but he wanted to be part of the group. Then he started watching tournaments on television and reading books about poker.

Around Thanksgiving, Drehobl taught himself the wildly popular Texas Hold 'em, and took to playing at local Indian casinos.

But he had few hopes of a major score when he wandered down to Binion's during vacation last month and joined a poker game by putting up $200. He won, getting $2,000 in chips that bought him into a WSOP tournament.

He finished 40th and used the $4,400 to buy into another WSOP preliminary. After 26 straight hours of play, Drehobl won the big pot. (He got to keep only 35 percent; the top 30 finishers divvied up the much of the rest.)

Drehobl's wife, Ann, immediately took $10,000 and signed her husband up for the world championships.

"She was absolutely thrilled when I won," he said. "She ran up on stage and fell into my arms."

This year's championship, which starts Saturday and runs through next Friday, could draw as many as 2,000 players vying for the $3.5 million first prize. Last year, Chris Moneymaker was the winner among 839 players, getting $2.5 million.

"I don't want to be operating under illusions," Drehobl said of his poker success. "There is some luck involved in the game. But you see the same top players make the final table over and over and over."

Those players don't fluster Drehobl any more.

"I'm having a great time," he said. "There's no reason for me to be nervous anymore." 
'

N. Korea to Release Japanese Relatives

27 minutes ago

By ERIC TALMADGE, News Source Writer

TOKYO - North Korea (news - web sites) agreed Saturday to release the family members of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Northern agents, and Japan pledged aid to the impoverished country at a summit between the two nations' leaders. Five children of the abductees arrived in Tokyo hours later.

The agreement marked a breakthrough in what had been an emotional standoff between the two Asian neighbors. Talks on normalization of ties between them have been stalled by disagreement over the fate of the abductees' families and other issues.

North Korea admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens in the 1980s and 70s. Pyongyang said eight had died, but allowed the five survivors to return to Japan. Tokyo has since pressed for the release of the eight family members left behind: seven children and one husband.

In the 90-minute summit, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he also pressed the enigmatic North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on his nuclear weapons programs, won a pledge from North Korea to continue a moratorium on missile tests and urged Kim to work with wealthier nations for the sake of his impoverished population.

"I emphasized strongly to Kim Jong Il that there is very little to gain in terms of energy aid or food aid by possessing nuclear weapons," Koizumi told reporters in Pyongyang. "But if you abandon nuclear weapons, you can gain the international community's cooperation."

Koizumi agreed to extend 250,000 tons of food aid and $10 million worth of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to North Korea, which is desperate for assistance.

He also told Kim that Japan would not impose economic sanctions on Pyongyang, despite recent legislation allowing them.

Koizumi said the aid pledge was being made through and at the request of international organizations and should not be considered an exchange for North Korea's release of the family members. It seemed likely, however, that the pledge of aid was key in winning their release.

Koizumi returned to Tokyo on Saturday night, and five children of former abductees followed about 30 minutes later. He was expected to have a meeting with them later after they were reunited with their families.

Pyongyang also praised the summit, calling it "sincere and candid" through its official Korean Central News Agency. The statement was unusually conciliatory for a nation that regularly vilifies Japan.

It said the talks "mark an important and historic event in restoring the confidence, improving the relations between the two countries and promoting peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world."

American Charles Jenkins, who is married to one of the former abductees, is accused of deserting his U.S. Army unit in 1965 and defecting to the North. He told Koizumi in an hour-long meeting Saturday that he and his two daughters would rather remain in North Korea than face possible extradition and prosecution in the United States.

Koizumi said Jenkins reacted favorably, however, to Kim's idea of meeting his Japanese wife Hitomi Soga in Beijing.

Kim also promised to investigate the fates of other abductees, including the eight that Pyongyang says are dead and two who are unaccounted for. Some in Japan believe that dozens of other possible kidnapping victims may still be alive in North Korea.

The former abductees in Tokyo said they had mixed feelings about the deal. Some expressed frustration that Jenkins and his daughters would not be coming to Japan, while relatives of those believed dead were furious that aid had been offered without a full accounting of the victims.

"The outcome is the worst we had expected," said Shigeru Yokota, whose daughter Megumi is one of the eight who were said to be dead. "At the news (of the agreement), the voices of our anger filled the room."

The one-day trip was Koizumi's first visit to Pyongyang since an unprecedented meeting with Kim in September 2002.

Both leaders had an interest in a favorable outcome. Kim was eager to get foreign aid for his collapsed economy and Koizumi wanted to resolve the emotional dispute over Japanese kidnapping victims ahead of parliamentary elections in July.

The results also boded well for potential moves to establish diplomatic ties.

"We must normalize this abnormal relationship," Koizumi said, adding, however, that the two sides had not set a date for talks on normalization.

Kim and Koizumi greeted each other in front of the summit room with a simple handshake.

"I believe it is a good thing that you have returned and I welcome you," Kim said as they met. Koizumi bowed slightly and answered "I am fine," when Kim inquired about his health.

The two countries have never had formal diplomatic ties. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 until its World War II defeat in 1945, and distrust between it and North Korea runs deep.

Some analysts believe another motive for Kim may be to undermine multilateral talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. They say Kim might believe that a deal with Japan could soften Tokyo's support for the tough stance pursued by Washington.

Tokyo, however, is highly wary of North Korea's nuclear weapons program because virtually all of Japan is within range of the North's missiles.

Tokyo announced in October 2000 that it was donating 500,000 tons of rice to North Korea through the United Nations (news - web sites), but has not sent food aid since then because of the nuclear and abductions issues. Japan did, however, send medical supplies for a recent train explosion near North Korea's border with China.

Kerry Urging Energy Independence in U.S.

38 minutes ago

By NEDRA PICKLER, News Source Writer

BOSTON - With the start of the summer driving season approaching and gasoline prices soaring, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) said the United States should strive for energy independence.

"There are two reasons why we cannot be asleep at the wheel during this current energy crisis," Kerry said in the weekly Democratic radio address. "First, soaring energy prices are putting our economy at risk and second, our dependence on Middle East oil is putting our national security at risk. But it doesn't have to be this way."

In the short term, the Massachusetts senator said, the United States should divert oil being used to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and bring it to market. The White House says, though, that would have only a negligible impact on pump prices. Kerry also said the country's leaders should demand that Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations increase supply.

He said his long-term strategy as president would include investments in alternative fuels and new technologies that are more fuel-efficient. He said he would establish tax credits to help make fuel-efficient cars more affordable.

"Our dependence on foreign oil is a problem we must solve together the only way we can - by inventing our way out of it," Kerry said.

The average price per gallon rose to $2.017 this week, the first time the national average has exceeded $2. Kerry and other Democrats blame President Bush (news - web sites) and Republican leaders for allowing prices to rise so high, and his radio address reiterated the case he made earlier this week on the campaign trail.

"We're at war and families are struggling to make ends meet, especially with rising gas prices," Kerry said. "For our security, our economy and our environment, we must make America energy independent."

Chalabi handed US secrets over to Iran: report

28 minutes ago 
Add World - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi faced accusations that he passed classified US intelligence to Iran as the United States faced strong criticism from the Iraqi Governing Council over a raid on Chalabi's home. 

NEWS SOURCE Photo 

CBS television, quoting senior US officials, said the former Pentagon (news - web sites) favourite personally handed Iranian intelligence officers sensitive information that could "get Americans killed." 

It quoted the officials as saying that the evidence against Chalabi was "rock solid." 

The Wall Street Journal also quoted a US official as saying that Chalabi passed sensitive information to Iran. "That's absolutely true," the official said on condition of anonymity. 

The reports said the US administration has started a high-level inquiry to determine who could have given the information to Chalabi. 

An aide to Chalabi, who is head of finance for the Iraqi Governing Council as well as leader of the Iraqi National Congress, dismissed the accusations as "nonsense". He said they were part of a strategy by the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) to discredit Chalabi. 

The council on Friday came to the defence of Chalabi over a raid on his Baghdad home and office by Iraqi police and US forces. 

Documents, computers, personal belongings and weapons were seized during the operation. 

After the raid, a furious Chalabi, who was once considered Washington's favourite to become Iraq (news - web sites)'s post-war leader, said he was breaking ties with the US-led coalition authorities. 

The governing council held a special meeting on Friday and blamed the coalition for the raids. 

"The Governing Council unanimously condemned the raids on Mr. Chalabi's home and holds the coalition authorities responsible," said Samir al-Askari, deputy council representative for Shiite member Mohammed Bahr al-Ulum. 

But in Washington, General Richard Myers, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iraqi authorities are handling the case against Chalabi. 

"It was the Iraqi police who conducted the activity, that the role for US forces was as an outer cordon, not part of the activity in any of the facilities," Myers told the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee. 

"It's Iraqis doing what they should be doing. And I don't know about the facts in the case about Chalabi and so forth, but to have the minister of interior, the police and the court connected, doing things they think are important, is a good sign." 

Askari said however that neither interior minister Samir al-Sumaydai nor justice minister Hashem Abderrahman al-Shibli were aware of the raids. 

Myers was asked about reasons for the US administration's break with Chalabi but he would only say that information provided by Chalabi's organisation was "useful in many cases." 

Chalabi, a wealthy Shiite banker and politician, has fallen from grace in Washington amid allegations his party provided false information ahead of last year's invasion of Iraq.

AP: Kerry Considers Delaying Nomination

31 minutes ago

By NEDRA PICKLER and SHARON THEIMER, News Source Writers

BOSTON - John Kerry (news - web sites) is considering delaying his acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's July convention so that he can keep spending the millions of dollars that he raised during the primaries, The News Source has learned.

If Kerry were to delay acceptance of his nomination for a month, he would even the playing field with President Bush (news - web sites), who is planning to accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention five weeks later. The party convention would still be held at the end of July, but Kerry would officially accept the nomination at a later date under such a plan.

Kerry and Bush are expected to use federal funding for their general election campaign and will be limited to spending the roughly $75 million in federal funds given to each candidate once they accepts the nomination. At that point, neither candidate would be able to raise or spend private funds.

"We are looking at this and many other options very seriously because we won't fight with one hand behind our back," Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Friday.

Cutter said other options being considered include having the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) or local and state Democratic parties raise money to support Kerry's candidacy. However, Kerry would not have control of much of the money raised by the party. By law, the DNC cannot coordinate more than roughly $16 million of spending with Kerry's campaign in the general election. Delaying the nomination would be a dramatic move and is believed to be the first time a candidate would ask his party to reschedule his nomination so he could stop the clock from ticking on his general-election government financing. Kerry and Bush skipped public financing for the primary-election season, enabling them to spend as much as they wish until their parties officially nominate them at conventions this summer. Since becoming the party's presumptive nominee in early March, Kerry has broken Democratic fund-raising and spending records. He raised roughly $31 million last month alone, pushing his campaign total to a Democratic record $117 million. Kerry started May with $28 million in the bank, far less than President Bush's $72 million but still a Democratic record. Bush has raised more than $200 million so far. Both Kerry and Bush are expected to accept $75 million in full government financing for the general-election phase of their campaigns, which starts for each when he is nominated. If Kerry is nominated in late July as the party planned, he will have to make his $75 million check last five weeks longer than Bush. Because the Republican convention is timed later than the Democratic gathering, Bush will have about a month more to raise money from private contributors than Kerry. When the Democratic Party scheduled its convention, it didn't know it would have a nominee who opted out of public financing for the primaries and the $45 million spending limit the program imposes through the spring and summer. At the time, the party anticipated it would face the same situation it has in previous elections: a nominee who emerged from the primaries hovering at the spending limit and had to limp through several months awaiting the convention and the campaign-sustaining government financing. _____ News Source Writers Liz Sidoti and Ron Fournier contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: http://www.johnkerry.com http://www.georgewbush.com
Civil rights panel mired in internal fights Fri May 21, 9:40 AM ET Add Top 

By Kristina Herrndobler Washington Bureau While civil rights advocates spent this week celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ruling that integrated public schools, the federal commission charged with upholding civil rights collapsed in disarray, unable to even discuss its own longstanding dysfunction. The commission was supposed to spend its monthly meeting discussing its internal problems, but instead its members engaged in a heated debate about why the meeting was abruptly adjourned by the chairwoman. The truncated meeting on Monday, the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, was just the most recent in a long series of internal battles that plague the commission and make critics wonder if it can fulfill its purpose. Congress has launched several investigations into the management structure of the commission and its performance. "They have a responsibility to promote civil rights in this country and to report to the public on civil rights," said Rep. Steve Chabot (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ohio), chair of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. "Rather than performing that important function, they have really become a public spectacle." The commission investigates civil rights complaints and publicizes its findings, although it has no enforcement power. Four of the commissioners are appointed by Congress and the other four by the president. Currently the panel has four members appointed by Republicans and four by Democrats, which often leaves the commission evenly divided on any issue. The arrangement makes it difficult for the commission to generate a majority position on anything. Commissioner's analysis "The big problem with the commission is its structure," said Republican Commissioner Russell Redenbaugh. "In having an even number of commissioners, you can't break a deadlock, so in that alone there is a major design flaw." While most of the commissioners agree that their even number contributes to their problems, they also point fingers at one another for being partisan and closing their minds to debate. "The commission is supposed to be independent, and the commissioners are supposed to be people who care about civil rights and not party," said Mary Frances Berry, the commission chairwoman. Berry says she is a registered independent. She was appointed chairwoman by President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) in 1993. She has been at the center of some of the commission's most public controversies. In December 2001, President Bush (news - web sites) named Peter Kirsanow to be the fourth Republican on the commission, but Berry and a majority of commission members refused to let him take his seat. The commission argued that Kirsanow should not be seated because the term of the Democratic commissioner he was replacing had not expired. Federal marshals escorted him to his seat in May 2002, after an appeals court unanimously ordered that he be seated. Berry appealed to the Supreme Court, but it refused to hear the case. "I think people of good will, regardless of party, can work together for a common good independent of ideology, but that isn't happening here," Kirsanow said. Commission violated rights Last year, in another spot of trouble, the commission was ordered by a court to pay $165,000 in damages and other costs for violating the civil rights of an Hispanic employee. Created in 1957, the commission has not had an increase in its $9 million budget for almost a decade, and has not had an audit of its spending in at least 13 years. "It is not a surprise that Congress has kept our money flat all these years," Redenbaugh said. "We haven't done very well with the little money they have given us and we haven't even submitted an audit." Earlier this month, Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record) (R-Utah) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) complained that the commission's staff director was refusing to meet with investigators from the General Accounting Office (news - web sites), the investigative arm of Congress. At the direction of Congress, the GAO is looking into the commission's spending and trying to understand the commission's lines of authority. Commission staff director Les Jin and GAO representatives met Thursday in what both sides called a cooperative session to discuss how the investigation will be carried out. On Monday, Berry adjourned the commission's meeting just minutes after it began because the four Republican commissioners were not present. They walked in moments later, but Berry refused to reconvene, saying the meeting had already been adjourned. The commissioners said they planned to use June's meeting to discuss their internal disputes--which was supposed to be the agenda of the May meeting as well. Mindy Barry, a staff member of the House Judiciary Committee's oversight council, said the commission does nothing to promote civil rights. "I just wish that someone could have been there with a camera on Monday to take a picture of the empty meeting room and say, `This is what the Civil Rights Commission was doing on the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education,'" she said. 

Vatican Warns Catholics Against Marrying Muslims

1 hour, 50 minutes ago

By Shasta Darlington 

VATICAN CITY  - The Vatican (news - web sites) warned Catholic women on Friday to think hard before marrying a Muslim and urged Muslims to show more respect for human rights, gender equality and democracy. 

Slideshow: Pope John Paul II

Calling women "the least protected member of the Muslim family," it spoke of the "bitter experience" western Catholics had with Muslim husbands, especially if they married outside the Islamic world and later moved to his country of origin. 

The comments in a document about migrants around the world were preceded by remarks about points of agreement between Christians and Muslims but they seemed likely to fuel mistrust between the world's two largest religions. 

The document said the Church discouraged marriages between believers in traditionally Catholic countries and non-Christian migrants. 

It hoped Muslims would show "a growing awareness that fundamental liberties, the inviolable rights of the person, the equal dignity of man and woman, the democratic principle of government and the healthy lay character of the state are principles that cannot be surrendered." 

When a Catholic woman and Muslim man wanted to marry, it said, "bitter experience teaches us that a particularly careful and in-depth preparation is called for." 

It said one possible problem was with Muslim in-laws and advised future mothers that they must insist on Church policy that children born of a mixed marriage be baptized and brought up as Catholics. 

If the marriage is registered in the consulate of a Muslim country, the document said, the Catholic must be careful not to sign a document or swear an oath including the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith, which would amount to converting. 

DIFFERENT APPROACHES 

The document highlighted the contrasting approaches the Vatican has taken in recent years toward Islam, which has emerged as a strong rival for souls, especially in Africa. 

Pope John Paul (news - web sites) has broken ground in dialogue with Muslims and even prayed in a mosque in Damascus. He won plaudits in the Muslim world for his strong opposition to the Iraq (news - web sites) war. 

But Vatican officials and leading Catholic prelates have expressed increasingly critical views about the spread of Islam and the challenge this poses for Catholicism. 

The Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said earlier this week the West "no longer loves itself" and so was unable to respond to the challenge of Islam, which was growing because it expressed "greater spiritual energy." 

The migration document also discouraged churches from letting non-Christians use their places of worship. 

This issue arose last month when Muslims in Spain asked to be able to pray in Cordoba cathedral, which was once a mosque. A senior Vatican official said this would be "problematic."

U.K. Paper Apologizes for Fake Photos 

1 minute ago

LONDON - The Daily Mirror newspaper apologized Friday for publishing faked photographs of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British forces, and the editor stepped down. 

"The Daily Mirror published in good faith photographs which it absolutely believed were genuine images of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner," the newspaper said. 

"However, there is now sufficient evidence to suggest that these pictures are fakes and that the Daily Mirror has been the subject of a calculated and malicious hoax." 

The government had denounced the photos as fake on Thursday, and the regiment involved said it had conclusive evidence that a truck seen in the photos had never been in Iraq (news - web sites) - where the Daily Mirror had claimed the photos were taken. 

The newspaper said it would be "inappropriate" for Piers Morgan to continue as editor, and he had stepped down with immediate effect. 

Second Snakehead Found in Potomac River 

Fri May 14,10:17 AM ET

By STEPHEN MANNING, News Source Writer 

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A second northern snakehead has been caught by a fisherman in the Potomac River, Maryland officials said, a sign that the destructive alien species may have invaded the Washington area's largest river. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Explore super fast 64-bit computers, check the top ten list of desktops with the quicks and get an answer to the question: Is the Apple Power Mac G5 the world's fastest PC? 

The 12-inch immature female was found in the river Wednesday just south of Fort Washington by an angler who turned it over the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The agency confirmed that the fish was a northern snakehead, a nonnative species imported from China. 

The discovery comes nearly a week after a fisherman caught a similar sized snakehead May 7 in a small tidal creek near Mount Vernon, Va., just across the river from Fort Washington. 

That has led state environmental officials to worry that the voracious fish that can destroy an ecosystem and live out of water may be spawning in the Potomac. 

"Two fish, same size, same area. It makes you start to wonder about the origin," said Steve Early of DNR's fisheries division. "Our concern ratchets up." 

One snakehead was caught in a Wheaton lake earlier this year and thousands were discovered in a Crofton pond in 2002. The Wheaton lake was drained and declared snakehead free while the Crofton pond was poisoned to kill the fish. 

But it would be impossible to use those kind of control methods in the Potomac, a large river that forms the border between Virginia and Maryland and flows into the Chesapeake Bay. 

Early urged fishermen to watch out for snakeheads in the area. He said anglers should kill the fish by freezing it or clubbing it and then alert DNR. The agency planned to place signs at all access points within a 10 mile radius of Marshall Hall, the point on the river where the fish was caught. 

"It was at least inhabited by two (snakeheads)," he said. "We want to find out if it is inhabited by more." 

He said state officials are unsure if the two fish were released independently of each other or if there is a reproducing population of the fish in the Potomac. DNR believes the fish found on the Maryland side was hatched in 2003. 

Native to China, snakeheads are voracious predators, sitting on the top of the food chain and devouring smaller fish. They are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries, and were often sold in Asian markets or kept in tanks by collectors. They are harmless to humans. 

In 2002, the Department of the Interior banned the import of 28 species of snakehead, including the northern variety. Those who owned snakeheads before that time could keep their fish but were barred from transporting them across state lines, he said. 

After the Wheaton discovery, Montgomery County drafted its own law making it illegal to possess a nothern snakehead.

Gang Members Indicted on Terror Charges Fri May 14, 4:49 AM ET 

By LUKAS I. ALPERT, News Source Writer NEW YORK - Nineteen members of a street gang accused of menacing their neighborhood have been indicted on murder and other charges as acts of terror, believed to be the first use of the state's anti-terrorism law against a gang. Five of the 19 gang members indicted by a grand jury were arrested Thursday, police said. The other 14 were still being sought. Charging that the St. James Gang acted with "the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population," Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said the grand jury was justified in adding the terrorism stipulation to several counts including conspiracy, murder and gang assault. Johnson said it was the first time he was aware of that the terrorism statute had been used in such a way. The law, passed by the state Legislature six days after the Sept. 11 attack, allows for more severe sentences. Edgar Morales, 22, who was arrested Thursday, faces the most serious charge, second-degree murder as a terrorist act, for the shooting death of a 10-year-old girl in August 2002 at a baptism party. Prosecutors allege 12 members of the gang crashed the party and confronted a man they believed was a member of a rival gang. The gang members chased the man outside and started shooting, hitting the girl with a stray bullet, prosecutors said. If convicted on that charge, Morales, who also faces several other charges, would face a mandatory life sentence without parole. The charge without the terrorism stipulation would carry a sentence of 25 years to life. The four other men arrested Thursday were charged with conspiracy and could face as much as 25 years in prison if convicted.

Frogman Living in Bog Arrested for Arson

May 14, 8:04 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German frogman who lives on a swampy island and wears a combat-style diving suit and black face paint has been arrested for suspected arson attacks on two yachts, Berlin police said on Friday.

Authorities found the man's camp, equipment and a boat with a silencer on its engine after a tip-off from a forester.

"He wore combat-style aquanaut camouflage and launched his attacks from a swampy island," wrote Bild newspaper on Friday.

Police believe the man, 36, abandoned his flat in eastern Berlin in March to live in a tent on the boggy island in a lake south of the city.

A judge issued an arrest warrant after the two yachts were destroyed by fire, causing an estimated $118,000 in damage. He had already been arrested in March for breaking and entering a pleasure boat.

Slippery Grease Bandits Make Slick Getaway

May 14, 7:52 am ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - Oklahoma police are looking for grease bandits who made off with 5,000 pounds (2268 kg) of used cooking oil and grease from three restaurants.

Police in Edmond, north of Oklahoma City, said on Thursday the grease bandits have hit an area of Mexican, Chinese and steak restaurants over the past three months.

The robbers took the used cooking grease that was stored in large cylinders in back of the restaurants.

The restaurants were planning to sell the grease to a recycling company and the total value of the stolen goods was about $380.

Glynda Chu, a spokeswoman for the Edmond police said the bandits had a good idea of how to get money in the used grease market, but she thinks it odd that anyone would put so much effort into making off with so much cooking byproduct.

"It would be a big chore to haul that smelly stuff away," Chu said. "They did, however, make a slick getaway."

Fear of Idolatry Sparks Wig Ban

May 14, 7:45 am ET 

JERUSALEM  - An ultraorthodox Jewish sage has issued a ritual ban against natural hair wigs from India, saying they may have been made from tresses shorn from women during Hindu ceremonies, Israeli newspapers reported on Friday.

Many Orthodox Jewish women, who adhere to rules of modesty by allowing only their husbands to see their natural hair, responded to the ruling by switching to synthetic wigs or hats, the Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz dailies reported.

The edict, issued by the spiritual leader of an ultraorthodox sect, said some hair in wigs sold in Israel may have come from women who took part in Hindu haircutting ceremonies, which was tantamount to idol worship.

Fugitive Who Faked Suicide Is Found Alive

May 13, 3:52 pm ET 

PHILADELPHIA  - A Tennessee man who faked his suicide 13 years ago to avoid fraud and burglary charges has been found alive and well in California, a law enforcement official said on Thursday.

Mark Paisley, now 34, left a suicide note in his car parked by the Delaware River near Philadelphia in 1991 after being sought for credit card fraud in Pennsylvania and burglary in Tennessee, said Pennsylvania State Trooper Glenn Blue.

Because no body was ever found, Blue, who works for the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, said he always suspected Paisley had not killed himself. As a result, he made periodic checks on the case over the last three years and found Paisley's brother, Joseph, was living in Tennessee.

After initially suspecting Joseph was the fugitive, Blue discovered another Joseph Paisley living in San Francisco. The man turned out to be Mark Paisley using his brother's name.

Mark had been arrested in California on minor fraud and theft charges, Blue said, and was arrested again as a fugitive earlier this week, when he admitted his true identity.

Paisley is expected to be returned to Pennsylvania within the next 30 days and will face the original charges plus one of flight to avoid prosecution.

Blue cases where fugitives are caught after living under an alias happen once or twice a year, but the Paisley case -- with its faked suicide -- was special.

"It is unusual for it to be quite this elaborate," he told The News Source.

City Declares 'No Communist' Zone

May 13, 9:02 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A Southern California city known as "Little Saigon" because of its large Vietnamese population has become the first U.S. city to declare itself a "no Communist" zone.

The city council in Garden Grove, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, passed a resolution on Tuesday saying it "does not welcome, or sanction high-profile visits, drive-bys or stopovers by members or officials of the Vietnamese Communist government."

The resolution, passed to cheers from a crowd of about 200 Vietnamese residents, also urged city officials to refrain from "initiating engagements with or facilitating" visits by Vietnamese Communists.

Garden Grove and the neighboring city of Westminster are home to some 90,000 residents of Vietnamese descent -- the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam. Many are political refugees and visits by visiting Vietnamese government delegations are frequently met with large protests and demonstrations.

"It is a provocation," said councilman Van Tran, who came to southern California from Vietnam as a 10 year-old refugee. "They claim they want reconciliation with the Vietnamese community here but they drive through Little Saigon in motorcades with lights blazing and with motorcycle escorts as if they own the place."

The State Department was forced to cancel a visit to Garden Grove last month by a leading Vietnamese official because police and local officials said the 24 hour notice was insufficient time to provide adequate security.

In 1999, a local video store owner who displayed a Vietnamese flag and a portrait of Ho Chi Mich provoked demonstrations by thousands of people lasting 53 days.

Smoking Soldiers Ignited Ammo Disaster

May 13, 8:56 am ET 

KIEV  - Two smoking soldiers set off tons of ammunition that killed five people, caused $725 million in damage and sent debris showering across southern Ukraine last week, the emergencies minister said on Tuesday.

A series of blasts hurled debris as far as 25 miles after fire broke out last Thursday at a warehouse complex where 92,000 tons of artillery ammunition was stored.

Blasts were still heard on Tuesday, emergencies minister Hryhory Reva told parliament.

"At about 12 o'clock on Thursday, two servicemen, who were stocking military ammunition, began smoking at their working site. It caused the fire and set off the explosions," he said.

The blasts caused some $725 million in damage to the defense ministry and population in the Zaporizhya region, he said. They destroyed buildings in a two-mile radius, including a local railway station.

A minor gas pipeline was also damaged. Metal fragments and other debris were thrown 40 km, causing fires in nearby towns.

Authorities evacuated some 7,000 people from the surrounding area. People started to return home on Tuesday, five days after the initial blasts.

Some parliamentary deputies have demanded Defense Minister Evhen Marchuk resign because of his inability to turn around the ex-Soviet state's struggling armed forces.

The Ukrainian army has seen its reputation battered in recent years following a series of disasters.

Drunken Priest Shoots Mayor Dead

May 13, 8:54 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - A Catholic priest shot to death the mayor of a town in western Mexico early on Wednesday after the pair got drunk and began punching each other during a religious festival, state officials said.

After exchanging blows, the priest whipped out a 9mm pistol and fired four bullets into Lorenzo Ruiz, mayor of Chalpatlahuac, an indigenous town nestled in mountains 138 miles west of the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo, authorities said.

"It seems they were arguing, these two men. They were at a get-together, they had words and the priest shot the mayor. They were apparently both in a state of drunkenness," said Guerrero state spokesman Jesus Nava.

Local newspapers said the priest, whom they identified as Lorenzo Cuellar, was arrested after he also shot the mayor's son, injuring him.

The priest was in Chalpatlahuac to celebrate a local religious festival which started on Tuesday evening and lasted into Wednesday morning.

Guerrero is one of the poorest and most violent states in Mexico.

Ukrainian Giant Battles Poverty, Loneliness

May 13, 8:52 am ET 

By Olena Horodetska

PODOLYANTSI, Ukraine  - All Leonid Stadnyk wants is a simple, quiet and inconspicuous life. But the 33-year old Ukrainian is just too tall for that.

At a height of eight feet four inches, Stadnyk may be the world's tallest man and he keeps on growing.

Measurements by the Ukrainian branch of the Guinness Book of World Records show he is already taller than Tunisia's Radhouane Charbib, who is listed by the book as the tallest living man.

The local and foreign press have descended on his village, making him a minor celebrity. He gets paid for some of the interviews and has been offered help in getting shoes and clothes that might fit him.

Stadnyk says his height has brought him little joy.

"For my entire life I wanted to be shorter. I was bowing down, stooping," Stadnyk said, sitting in his house in the tiny village of Podolyantsi in central Ukraine. "I have always wanted to be in the shadows. I tried not to stand out, but now..."

Stadnyk remembered happier times when he was about the same size as his classmates in the village school, even a bit shorter. But then at the age of 14 he started growing rapidly. At first nobody seemed to take much notice of the tall, awkward boy with a shy smile. But then his first problems began. "There were no shoes, no clothes for me in the shops. When I was undergoing medical checks, they could not measure my height, the scale ran out. Then I became self-conscious," he said, blaming a hormonal imbalance for his growth despite never having proper medical tests to diagnose his condition. Ordering made-to-measure clothes is not easy in former Soviet Ukraine, where often a simple transaction can require dozens of documents. Money is scarce after he had to quit his job as a veterinarian due to poor health. He said his arms are very strong but complains his legs are getting weaker under his weight of about 440 lbs. "For my job, I had to travel seven kilometers (4 miles) every day. With my height I could move only by horse, on a cart." "It did not matter whether it was winter frost or summer heat, animals fell ill and I had to go. I did not have proper shoes and my feet froze. I had to stop working." Now his mother is the breadwinner in the family, while Stadnyk stays at home and takes care of the house, land and cattle.

The family house is crumbling. He walks cautiously with a bowed head to avoid the ceiling. He curls in a small armchair with his knees nearly reaching his chin. He sleeps on two beds.

Stadnyk gets a pension worth about $28 a month while needing at least $200 just to order a pair of shoes. They last about four months, he said.

Mother and son rely mostly on home-grown fruit and vegetables.

"Life is difficult. We are working, working very hard to earn our bread," he says. "With every year it is getting more difficult. Years pass by, my health gets weaker."

And he says he is lonely.

Stadnyk's village is isolated. Most youngsters have left to find work in bigger cities. Houses cry out for a coat of paint and are circled by half-broken fences.

He dismisses local media frenzy around him, saying he has no plans to capitalize on his extreme size and move into show business. He wants to stay near his mother, his best and only friend at the moment, and work in the garden.

"I do not smoke, do not drink. Every penny I can save I spend on buying seeds and seedlings. The garden is a place for me. Height doesn't matter there."

Riots Took Toll on Sex Drive

May 13, 8:42 am ET 

ROME  - Riots that dominated a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 suppressed the sex drive of its residents and led to a sharp decline in births in the city, a study showed on Wednesday.

In the ninth month after the riots, birth rates dropped off 29 percent compared to the average birth rate on the same dates over the three previous years, the study carried out by San Martino hospital showed. Even 11 months after the clashes, birth rates were 20 percent lower.

"Violent demonstrations can cause a stress reaction with negative consequences for sexual drive and reproductive activity," the author of the study, Aldo Franco De Rose, told Italian news agency ANSA.

As part of the study, 402 residents were asked if they had had less sex after the riots. A third of respondents said yes and just over half said they suffered from anxiety.

The three-day G8 summit in July 2001 was marred by widespread rioting in which one protester was killed and hundreds injured during pitched street battles with police.

Coming to a Store Near You: Chinese Cola

May 13, 8:37 am ET 

SHANGHAI  - China's largest beverage maker is going where no other Chinese firm has gone before -- it has shipped the first retail batch of its own cola to the home of the carbonated soft drink, the United States.

Hangzhou Wahaha Group, whose 170,000-bottle shipment is on the way to New York and Los Angeles, will have to slug it out with giants PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola Co in the mammoth $64 billion market.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo own eight of the top 10 soft drink brands in the United States, while British sweets and drink maker Cadbury Schweppes Plc claims the remainder.

"We have sent our first shipment of Future Cola to the United States and it should get there in June," the spokesman said.

Wahaha, which translates as "laughing baby" and comes from a popular children's folk song, decided to enter the U.S. cola market following the success of its milk exports last year, on which the spokesman declined to provide details.

She also declined to say what the U.S. retail price of Future Cola would be, but a 600-ml bottle sells for about two yuan (24 U.S. cents) in China.

Wahaha is regarded as a private enterprise despite the state holding a passive stake, and has attracted plant investment from French food group Danone totaling $120 million.

Its products include bottled water, teas, milk drinks and Future Cola, whose label bears a red-and-white color scheme similar to that of Coke.

Coca-Cola dominates the Chinese market with a share of 24 percent in 2003, while Future Cola had a seven percent share, the official English-language Shanghai Daily said.

British courts say women are the 'better' drivers

2 hours, 25 minutes ago

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - Women, much-maligned by the opposite sex for their supposed lack of ability behind the wheel, make far safer 
and more law-abiding drivers than their male counterparts, British officials said. 

Of those found guilty of all driving offences by courts in England and Wales in 2002, 88 percent were male motorists, according to 
statistics published by the Home Office. 

Men committed almost all the most serious offences, such as causing death and dangerous driving, but women's share of speeding 
offences rose from 13 percent in 1998 to 17 percent in 2002. 

The category in which women committed the highest number of offences was obstruction, waiting and parking -- being responsible 
for 23 percent of such cases in 2002. 

Women committed just six percent of the death or bodily harm offences in 2002 and just three percent of dangerous driving 
offences. 

But female offences relating to driving with excess alcohol or drugs in the system increased -- up from nine percent of the total in 
1998 to 11 percent in 2002. 

Men were responsible for 96 percent of vehicle thefts and 97 percent of offences relating to motorcyles. 

Overall, women's share of motoring offences rose only one percent between 1998 and 2002. 

Chlamydia May Affect More Than Thought 

Tue May 11, 4:00 PM ET 
CHICAGO - More than 4 percent of young adults in the United States are infected with chlamydia, and the sexually transmitted 
disease is six times more common in blacks than in whites, researchers say. 

In a nationally representative study of 14,322 people ages 18 to 26 conducted in 2001-02, University of North Carolina researchers 
found that 4.7 percent of women and 3.6 percent of men had chlamydia. The overall prevalence was 4.2 percent. 

The researchers said their figures are slightly higher than some previous nationwide estimates, which were based on different 
methodology. 

The prevalence was lowest among whites - 1.94 percent - and highest among blacks - 12.54 percent. Other infection rates were 
10.4 percent of Native Americans, 5.9 percent of Hispanics and 2 percent of Asian-Americans. 

Similar racial and gender disparities have been found in previous studies. 

While current screening strategies focus on testing young women, the high rates found in men suggest better methods are needed, 
said lead author Dr. William C. Miller of UNC-Chapel Hill. 

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites). 

The UNC study is based on in-person interviews with young adults and analysis of urine specimens. 

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease nationwide, with an estimated 3 million people infected each 
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

Chlamydia infections can be cured with antibiotics. Left untreated, they can cause pelvic pain and infertility in women and increase 
susceptibility to the AIDS (news - web sites) virus in men and women. 

In 2002, 834,555 cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States. 

Human papilloma virus, which can cause cervical cancer, is the most common sexually transmitted disease nationwide, with more than 
5 million new cases each year, according to the CDC. 
___ 

On the Net: 

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org 

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov 

The Real Thing
Tuesday May 11, 3:02 am ET 
Kelly Cramer, Miami Daily Business Review 

A Miami consumer attorney has filed a lawsuit against Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, claiming the soda giant engaged in deceptive trade practices by not telling the public that Diet Coke sold through store fountains is different from the same product sold in cans and bottles. 

Lance A. Harke of Harke & Clasby filed the suit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in March on behalf of Bartimous Berry, a Miami longshoreman. He is seeking class action status. Dan Schafer, a company spokesman in Atlanta, called the suit "frivolous and without merit." 

"We will contest it vigorously," he said Monday. 

Coke's South Florida counsel, Steven E. Siff, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in Miami, declined comment. 

The lawsuit is one of several similar actions filed nationwide against Coca-Cola. The suit claims the company uses a saccharin and aspartame mix rather than just aspartame in the fountain version of the world's most popular diet soda. The lawsuit was filed under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. 

Saccharin was once thought to cause cancer in laboratory rats. For years, the Food and Drug Administration required a warning label on all products containing the artificial sweetener, but later studies led to President Bill Clinton signing a bill allowing no label. 

"There are lots of consumers who don't have interest in drinking a saccharin beverage," Harke said. "But the primary problem is that the company is selling something different from what they say they're selling ... Coke advertises the product in a 'unified' manner -- you'd have to be a lawyer or scientist to somehow dig for the information that the formulation is very different for fountain Diet Coke. 

"But there are numerous point-of-sale opportunities, such as at or near the soda fountain, on the cups, at the check-out counters, in the advertising campaigns generally in print and TV media, lots of ways to get the information out -- if Coke wanted to," he said. 

Coca-Cola acknowledges on its Internet site that it uses a saccharin/aspartame mix in the fountain version of its soda. "Why is the U.S. fountain version of Diet Coke sweetened with aspartame and saccharin?" is how the question is posed on the Web site. 

"Because aspartame by itself is heat and pH sensitive (meaning it loses its sweetness over time), the concentrated fountain syrup causes aspartame to lose its sweetness faster than it would in a finished beverage," the Web site says. "Fountain diet drinks, therefore, are sweetened with a blend of aspartame and saccharin to assure maximum product quality." 

Harke said that Coca-Cola added that the company's Internet site's disclosure, on a frequently asked questions page, came shortly after one of the lawsuits was filed over the sweetener. 

The lawsuit seeks to include everyone who bought Diet Coke from a fountain in Florida between Nov. 30, 1984, and March 12, 2004, the day the lawsuit was filed. 

According to the complaint, before November 1984, Coca-Cola sweetened all Diet Coke with saccharin or a mix of both saccharin and aspartame. 

In the 1970s, concerns were raised that saccharin causes cancer and, by the 1980s, the FDA issued a requirement for a warning label on all saccharin products cautioning that the artificial sweetener caused cancer in lab rats. After that, Coca-Cola publicly announced it was switching to NutraSweet, the brand name for aspartame. 

Initially, Coca-Cola included the NutraSweet logo on its diet sodas and prominently displayed it in television and print ads. But according to the lawsuit, sometime in 1993 some of the ads began to say in small print that the fountain version was not sweetened with 100 percent aspartame; the statement did not mention saccharin. 

Once Coca-Cola began using generic aspartame in the late 1980s or early 1990s, the language in the ads about a difference in the fountain version of the drink disappeared, according to the lawsuit. 

"They're saving money on this and cheating their customers," Harke said, because saccharin is cheaper than aspartame. 

A lawsuit filed in Illinois was settled a few years ago and others filed across the county are in the preliminary stages, Harke said.

Mass. Town to Let Out-Of-State Gays Wed 55 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By JENNIFER PETER, News Source Writer BOSTON - Officials in Cape Cod's gay tourism mecca of Provincetown voted to offer marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples, potentially setting the stage for another legal battle over gay marriage. Thumbing their nose at Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's stance, the town's selectmen unanimously decided Monday to issue marriage certificates to all couples as long as they attest that they know of no legal impediment to their union. Romney immediately issued a statement Monday threatening legal action against city and town clerks statewide who defy his interpretation of the law. Romney's office has warned clerks that they will be required to seek proof of residency or the intention to move to Massachusetts from all couples - gay and straight - who are seeking to marry as of Monday, when same-sex weddings become legal. "We are a nation of laws," Romney said in the statement. "If they choose to break the law, we will take appropriate enforcement action, refuse to recognize those marriages, and inform the parties that the marriage is null and void." Provincetown town clerk Doug Johnstone did not return a call for comment early Tuesday, but in the past he has resisted Romney's instructions to obtain proof of residency from couples before issuing marriage licenses. Romney based his decision on a 1913 Massachusetts law that says couples cannot be married here if such a marriage would be void in the state in which they live. And no other state currently recognizes gay marriages. But the Provincetown Board of Selectmen said gay couples who live outside Massachusetts and have no intention of moving here will still be issued marriage licenses, as long as they attest that they know of no legal impediment to their union. Huge crowds are expected in Provincetown on Monday, the day that the decision by the Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court, takes effect that legalizes gay marriage in Massachusetts. For months, business owners and hoteliers in the gay-friendly seaside town at the tip of Cape Cod have been preparing for an anticipated summer rush of gay weddings. Romney's office has said the consequences of an illegal marriage could be severe for the couple, particularly if they have children, because of legal questions of support and custody. There also could be legal consequences for the clerks. Under state law, officials who issue a license "knowing that parties are prohibited" can face a fine of $100 to $500 or a prison sentence of up to a year. Attorney Mary Bonauto, who represented several gay couples whose case led to the court decision legalizing gay weddings, said Romney's interpretation of state law should bar marriage to gay couples only from those states that have laws on their books that declare gay marriages "null and void." She estimates that only about 20 states have that type of law. "It's because of his personal beliefs that he is applying the law to all 49 (other states)...," Bonauto said. "I find it sad that the Massachusetts governor would penalize a town for recognizing that Massachusetts has no business denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples whether they are Massachusetts residents or not." The Legislature has given preliminary approval to a constitutional ban on gay marriage, but it must still receive an additional round of approval from lawmakers during the 2005-2006 session and then by voters in November 2006. The constitutional amendment would simultaneously legalize civil unions. ___ On the Net: http://www.provincetowngov.org

Unmarried, Female and Turned Off by Politics Mon May 10, 7:55 AM ET

By Robin Abcarian Times Staff Writer SEATTLE - Adriana Maza is an articulate 23-year-old nanny who hopes one day to attend medical school. She has dabbled in grass-roots politics, has opinions about the war in Iraq (news - web sites), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the presidential candidates and even considers herself a feminist. But she does not vote. "I guess I don't really feel like there's much of a choice," she said. "Until I feel there is a candidate who really represents my views, someone who can represent something positive, I don't feel compelled to vote." In this, she is part of a larger phenomenon. According to pollsters, when single women are compared with married men, married women and single men, they account for the largest number of Americans who are, in essence, voluntarily disenfranchised. More than 21 million single women - almost half of those eligible - did not cast ballots in the last presidential election. Although each election cycle brings its catchy, pollster-coined demographic fad - soccer moms, waitress moms, NASCAR (news - web sites) dads - no one has systematically studied the "single woman" vote until recently. The group, which encompasses women who have never married, are divorced or are widowed, has seemed too diffuse to lump into one electoral niche. "This population of single women covers a lot of categories, across race, across ages, across incomes, so ... it's more complicated to make a broad statement about these women," said Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Because of their large numbers, she added, they have "the potential of changing the outcome of an election, particularly in a close race." With the country politically polarized and polls showing a virtual dead heat between President Bush (news - web sites) and his presumed Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the November election will be hard-fought and probably cost record-breaking sums. Although some think the side that best energizes its base will win, others argue that the key to victory is identifying and motivating voters at the margins - the undecided and the previously unengaged. Many analysts predict that registering single women - and then getting them to vote - could result in a big payoff for Democrats. As a group, unmarried women tend to have liberal views on social issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights, pollsters say. When single women vote, they generally vote Democratic. This was what struck Page Gardner after the 2000 election. A liberal political activist and consultant in Washington, Gardner decided to examine exit polling data, census data and a variety of public opinion studies. "I thought everyone was sort of missing the point in terms of the post-election analysis," she said. As she began crunching numbers with her husband, Ron Rosenblith, a political consultant and former aide to Kerry, she discovered that single women and men were not registering to vote in numbers that reflected their proportion of the population. "We looked at demographic changes in this country, and it became clear that more and more unmarried men and women were not participating in the process," Gardner said. "Heads of households are becoming increasingly unmarried. In the 1950s, 80% of households were headed by married people, now it's a 50-50 split. There is a whole growing group of people on the sidelines of our democracy. The numbers literally jump out at you." For Gardner's purposes, it was the single women who were of particular interest. Had this group voted in the same proportion as married women in the 2000 election, she discovered, an additional 6 million votes would have been cast around the country (including an estimated 202,000 in Florida, which Bush carried by 537 votes). With Christina Desser, a political strategist and environmental lawyer in San Francisco, Gardner launched Women's Voices, Women Vote, a legally nonpartisan effort. The group hired the Democratic polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc. to conduct a national survey last fall on the voting attitudes of 1,036 single women under age 65 - whom it dubbed "women on their own." The firm also convened focus groups in three demographically diverse states - Missouri, Florida and Washington - to help figure out how to encourage single women to vote. "The challenge is to craft a message that reaches subgroups in this population," Mandel said. "Clearly, the message to a woman in her 20s, a recent college graduate looking for a job in New York City, is going to be different from the retired widow who is concerned about Medicare and Social Security (news - web sites)." However, despite such diversity, said pollster Anna Greenberg, "One of the most surprising things is how homogenous they are" in their thinking about politics. "Healthcare was the biggest issue - this is a major source of stress for them," Greenberg said. "Younger women tend to be a little more worried about education; for older women, they tend to worry about retirement. Overall, they are consumed by their own economic security." In the survey, 65% of single women said they viewed the country as "seriously off on the wrong track." (During the same period, 50% of all respondents to The Times Poll agreed with that statement.) Many single women are alienated from the political process, Greenberg said, because they don't see connections between elections and their own lives. Or they think their votes don't matter. Maza, the nanny, said she was turned off to politics after Seattle residents voted against a major sports venue and the stadium was built anyway. "That's the perfect example where people obviously don't want something and it happens anyway," she said. Many single women have a skeptical, if not cynical, view of the way government works. "Over and over, they used expressions like male politicians have never walked in their shoes," Greenberg said. "The spontaneous use of that phrase was rather interesting.... The whole challenge is to get them to see they have a stake." Take, for instance, Belinda Rogers, an unemployed single mother waiting at a downtown Seattle bus stop recently when a local citizens group was registering voters. Rogers, 45, emphatically declined to sign up. She has no time for politicians. "The ones on the top of the ladder should come down to the bottom of the ladder to see what it's really like," she said before hopping a bus to school. Sometimes, Greenberg said, single women simply don't feel informed enough to choose among candidates. This view was expressed by Heather Reuble, 25, a single massage therapist walking briskly down Seattle's Union Street. She did not stop when she was approached to register. "Why don't I vote?" she repeated, when asked. "Good question. I know I should. I choose not to. It's really intimidating." Single women are not "enthusiastic" about the war in Iraq, Desser said, but they are not consumed by it either. Abortion was not a primary concern, the survey found. "I don't want to minimize how important choice is to these women," Desser said, "but I think it has long been believed that that's the only issue used to mobilize women, and the fact is that issues that mobilize women are not that different from issues that mobilize men." Gardner said one of the most striking findings in the focus groups was the reaction single women had when they learned that there were so many of them. "A light bulb went off. They got that if they participated, they could literally change the course of the nation." This was the logic that motivated Regina Owens, a divorced Seattle mother, to begin voting recently after a nearly 20-year hiatus. "I really felt like it didn't matter," said Owens, 43, who is an independent. "The corporate honchos, the policymakers ... I just felt like, well, they go do lunch and talk among themselves and make deals." When a canvasser from a citizens group came to her door in 2001 and asked Owens to get involved in an effort to stop cuts to food stamps, she said she suddenly understood the connection between voting and her life. "I felt like I was personally affected. I had always wondered, what can I do to make a difference? I wasn't voting, so that wasn't helping." Since then, she has become a volunteer with Washington Citizen Action, has personally registered 47 others and is looking forward to voting in her first presidential election in many years. Women's Voices, Women Vote is compiling lists of single, voting-age women in 12 states. Some, such as Florida, Ohio and Missouri, are considered swing states. Others, such as South and North Carolina, are not. In each state, however, more than half of heads of household are single and there is a significant difference in voter registration between married and single women. Desser said Women's Voices, Women Vote has amassed about $1 million of the $3 million it hopes to raise. According to the group's website, funding has come from the Heinz Family Foundation (part of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, which is chaired by Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry); the anti-Bush group MoveOn.org; and the Bauman Foundation, known for its environmental focus. Heinz Kerry's chief of staff, Jeff Lewis, is on the advisory committee, as are Democratic activist John Podesta, the Ms. Foundation's Marie Wilson and Kim Gandy of the National Organization for Women (news - web sites). Although Republicans are not specifically targeting single women, they are refusing to cede the battle over their vote. "We're definitely reaching out to register women," said Christine Iverson, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee (news - web sites). "But we're not focusing on one demographic group." This week, the Bush reelection campaign is launching a program called "W Stands for Women." The volunteer effort by women around the country will "communicate the president's message and record of achievement, especially on the issues that women care most about - making America more secure, strengthening the economy, making healthcare more accessible and more affordable," said campaign spokeswoman Ali Harden. The Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) has a similar program aimed at helping Kerry. Ultimately, Desser said, the effort to reach single women is not just about one election, it's about civic engagement: "This is about how you make voting part of the culture within which these women live." * (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX) The voting gender gap Women traditionally vote in greater numbers than men, but a huge bloc of single women steered clear of the ballot box in 2000. Several groups are working to encourage more turnout by single women in this year's presidential election. --- 2000 election voter turnout 186.3 million eligible* voters 60% voted (110.8 million) 53.5% women (59.3 million) 46.5% men (51.5 million) --- A closer look at eligible voters, broken down by marital status: 44.8 million single women: 52% voted (23.4 million) 48% did not vote (21.4 million) Voted for: Al Gore (news - web sites) (D) 66%** George W. Bush (R) 30% Ralph Nader (news - web sites) (G) 4% -- 34.9 million single men: 44% voted (15.5 million) 56% did not vote (19.4 million) Voted for: Gore 48% Bush 45% Nader 7% -- 52.8 million married women: 68% voted (35.9 million) 32% did not vote (16.9 million) Voted for: Gore 49% Bush 49% Nader 2% -- 53.8 million married men: 67% voted (36 million) 33% did not vote (17.8 million) Voted for: Bush 58% Gore 40% Nader 2% *Eligible voters are U.S. citizens age 18 and older. **Voter returns based on exit poll data. Numbers are rounded to nearest decimal place. Sources: U.S. census, Los Angeles Times exit poll

U.S. tipped to Holocaust in '42

Fri May 14, 6:08 AM ET  - USATODAY.com 

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY 

U.S. intelligence officials learned within months of the U.S. entry into World War II that Nazi Germany planned mass killings to eliminate Jews, scholars reviewing newly declassified reports said Thursday.

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But the U.S. government gave the information low priority in August 1942, the scholars concluded, not acknowledging that Germany had a plan to exterminate Jews until six months later. (Related site: National Archives group)

"It was an intelligence failure," said Richard Breitman, an American University Holocaust historian who studied the documents. "The early information was not assimilated or used correctly."

Breitman was part of a team of scholars, citizens and government officials who reviewed more than 240,000 pages of documents at the National Archives related to Nazi and other World War II-era crimes. The material was from files of the FBI (news - web sites), CIA (news - web sites) and its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services.

The documents show a federal intelligence unit was formed to interview Jews who immigrated from Axis countries in 1941 and 1942. One, Joseph Goldschmied, described how Germans seized money and property from Jews in his hometown, Prague, Czechoslovakia, and sent thousands to die in the Theresienstadt detention camp.

"If Hitler remains true to his program of destroying all European Jewry - he will have achieved this goal soon," Goldschmied said in August 1942.

The scholars said the declassified documents also show:

¥ The CIA recruited as intelligence sources 23 Germans who appeared to have perpetrated war crimes.

¥ The U.S. Army protected an additional 100 German spies, including their leader Reinhard Gehlen, who had knowledge of Soviet Russia.

¥ The FBI and CIA helped Nazis or Nazi collaborators with intelligence value elude war-crimes prosecution.

¥ The agencies pressured the Immigration and Naturalization Service to let war criminals working with American authorities resettle in the USA. 

American intelligence recruited the ex-Nazis in the Cold War fight against communism, some documents show. The professors say many of the ex-Nazis had little long-term value.

The documents include a previously unknown description of a tea party hosted by Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini attended. Hours earlier, Hitler had just missed being assassinated by a bomb planted by some of his senior officers.

The firsthand account from a translator, said Hitler gobbled candy-colored pills and raved for a half-hour "in a fit of frenzy" with "foam on his lips," questioning whether "the German people are worthy of my great ideas." 

"I don't know why I didn't go over to the Allies there and then," said the translator, Eugen Dollmann, in a conversation after his capture in 1945.

NBC Closes Merger With Universal 

47 minutes ago 
Add Business - 

By SETH SUTEL, News Source Business Writer 

NEW YORK - NBC closed its deal to merge with the Universal entertainment businesses Wednesday, creating a new media conglomerate that will take its place alongside giants such as Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc. 

The new company, to be known as NBC Universal, will be led mainly by NBC executives including Bob Wright, the NBC chairman who will become chairman and CEO of the company. Wright will also continue as vice chairman of General Electric Co., NBC's parent company. 

The deal brings together television's top-rated network among the 18-49 age group, which advertisers try hardest to reach; a major movie studio; a television production studio; a handful of cable TV channels including USA, Sci-Fi, CNBC and Bravo; and a group of 29 television stations. 

Wright said the combination presented a "tremendous growth opportunity for our viewers, advertisers, employees, and GE shareowners." 

While not as diverse or large as some of the other major conglomerates, NBC Universal will own several top-quality properties, not least of which is the powerful "Law & Order" franchise, a cash cow for NBC which is produced by Universal's television arm. 

The deal also gives NBC a major TV studio, ensuring the network a stable pipeline of future shows and giving it more bargaining power among other media conglomerates in negotiating for shows of its own. 

GE will own 80 percent of NBC Universal, while the French media and telecommunications conglomerate Vivendi Universal will own the remaining 20 percent. Vivendi is also getting $3.4 billion in cash in the deal. 

Ron Meyer, the head of Universal Studios, will remain at the company as head of the Hollywood studio as well as its associated theme parks. 

Several NBC executives will take on larger responsibilities in the new conglomerate, including Randy Falco, who will oversee the company's operations. Rising star Jeff Zucker will oversee all TV programming except for sports, which will be handled by NBC sports chief Dick Ebersol.

Raiders Haven't Hired 'Apprentice' 

Tue May 11, 8:48 PM ET

ALAMEDA, Calif. - The Oakland Raiders said they haven't hired Nick Warnock, who made it to the final episodes of Donald Trump's NBC hit reality show, "The Apprentice," but the team hadn't ruled out employing him in the future. 

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Raiders spokesman Artie Gigantino said Tuesday that reports last week that Warnock had finalized a job with the Raiders were "premature." 

The Raiders met with Warnock, 27, last week about selling luxury suites at the Oakland Coliseum, which is a part-time job with the franchise. 

For now, Warnock will be working for Jason Binn's Niche Media Holdings, publisher of several high-end magazines. He will sell advertisements and will be based in Los Angeles. 

"No deal has been completed," Gigantino said. "The way it was left, Nick was going to fulfill prior commitments and when he was done we'd revisit what the next step was." 

Warnock, a native of New Jersey, was among 16 candidates on "The Apprentice" who competed for a high-paying job with Trump. In the last episode, Trump hired Internet entrepreneur Bill Rancic, who will oversee the construction of a 90-story building project in Chicago.

U.S. to Build World's Fastest Computer 

Tue May 11, 8:35 PM ET

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Viewing supercomputers as crucial to scientific discovery, the Energy Department will announce plans 
Wednesday to build the world's fastest computer at a research laboratory in Tennessee. 

The supercomputer to be built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be funded over the initial two years by federal grants totaling 
$50 million. 

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) was to make the formal announcement in a speech Wednesday, in which he 
will call development of the world's fastest computer for general science "critical to our nation's competitiveness." 

The News Source obtained a copy of Abraham's announcement Tuesday. 

The project submitted by Oak Ridge scientists envisions a computer capable of sustaining 50 trillion calculations per second. 

The Energy Department project will involve Cray Corp., International Business Machines and Silicon Graphics Inc., all private 
companies that have been deeply involved in high-performance computing research. 

The program will attempt to develop a computer that will surpass Japan's Earth Simulator, built by NEC in 2002 and capable of 
sustaining nearly 36 trillion calculations per second. Some computers have reached many times that speed, but not on a sustained 
basis. 

With the NEC computer in 2002, Japan became the world leader in having the most powerful computer for scientific research - one 
even faster than computers used at the government nuclear weapons laboratories. 

"This computer will propel the United States into the global lead in high-speed computers aimed at scientific discovery," according to 
Abraham. 

Ultra-fast supercomputers are considered essential in today's scientific research, from analyzing climate change and developing fusion 
energy to understanding cellular structures, Energy Department officials said. 

With the development of the Earth Simulator, many officials believed the United States had lost the lead in scientific computation, 
although U.S. universities and federal research labs still have many of the fastest computers now operating. 

Superfast computers do more than solve complicated sets of equations. They allow for sophisticated simulations that lead to scientific 
discoveries once only found through lengthy experimentation. For example, supercomputers are key in the Energy Department's 
attempt to simulate the forces of a nuclear explosion, replacing actual bomb testing. 

"We are making this significant investment in America's scientific infrastructure with the expectation that it will yield a wealth of 
dividends, major research breakthroughs, significant technological innovations, medical and health advances, enhanced economic 
competitiveness and improved quality of life," Abraham will tell a group at the Council on Competitiveness in Washington. 

While the Japanese are to be congratulated for their accomplishment, the United States "must make the commitment necessary to 
regain the clear-cut lead" in supercomputing, he contends. 

"This is exactly what we are going to do," promises Abraham. 

The department chose the Oak Ridge proposal from among four finalists. The others were submitted by the Lawrence Berkeley 
National Laboratory in California, Brookhaven National Laboratory (news - web sites) in New York and the Stanford Linear 
Accelerator Center in California. 

Microsoft Warns of 'Important' Windows Flaw Tue May 11, 7:31 PM ET Add Technology 

By Spencer Swartz SAN FRANCISCO  - A flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) almost universally used Windows operating system could allow hackers to take control of a PC by luring users to a malicious Web site and coaxing them into clicking on a link, the company warned on Tuesday. The world's largest software maker issued the warning as part of its monthly security bulletin, along with a patch to fix the problem. The security warning was rated "important," the second most serious on Microsoft's four-tiered rating scale for computer security threats. The highest is "critical." Anti-virus software company Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) called the vulnerability a "high risk" due to the impact the flaw could have if successfully exploited. The security flaw affects the latest versions of Windows, including Windows XP (news - web sites), and software for networked computers such as Windows Server 2003, Microsoft said. Vincent Gullotto, vice president of the anti-virus emergency response team at Network Associates Inc. (NYSE:NET - news), said he did not believe the vulnerability was a high risk but said computer users should retrieve security patches from Microsoft's Web site. Stephen Toulouse, a manager at Microsoft's Security Response Center, said that while the vulnerability would not allow for the automatic spread of a virus in the way the recent Sasser worm spread across global networks, it could still have serious consequences. "The net result of an attack would be for an attacker to be able to do anything you already do on your computer," he said. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would have to host a Web site that contains a Web page used to exploit the vulnerability and then persuade the user to visit the Web site and perform several actions before the attacker could take over a computer, Toulouse said. The fast-moving Sasser computer worm hit PC users running the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows 2000 (news - web sites), NT and XP operating systems a little over a week ago, afflicting computer users around the world by causing automatic reboots and slowing down Internet connections. The suspected author of the Sasser worm was caught in Germany this past weekend. Tuesday's security bulletin is the 15th issued so far this year by Microsoft, of which seven have identified "critical" flaws in its software. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft issued 51 security bulletins in 2003. Last year, Microsoft adopted a new monthly patch release program, which it said would let customers apply software fixes for security bugs more easily.

Mass. Town May Have Earliest Baseball Law Tue May 11, 4:22 PM ET 

By ADAM GORLICK, News Source Writer PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Officials and historians in this western Massachusetts city released a 213-year-old document Tuesday that they believe is the earliest written reference to baseball. The evidence comes in a 1791 bylaw that aims to protect the windows in Pittsfield's new meeting house by prohibiting anyone from playing baseball within 80 yards of the building. That bylaw would have been produced well before Abner Doubleday is said to have written the rules for the game in 1839. Historian John Thorn was doing research on the origins of baseball when he found a reference to the bylaw in an 1869 book on Pittsfield's history. He shared his find with former major leaguer and area resident Jim Bouton, who told city officials about the ordinance. A librarian found the actual document in a vault at the Berkshire Athenaeum library. Its age was authenticated by researchers at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. "It's clear that not only was baseball played here in 1791, but it was rampant," Thorn said. "It was rampant enough to have an ordinance against it." The long-accepted story of baseball's origins centers around Cooperstown, N.Y., where Doubleday is said to have come up with the rules for the modern game. That legend long legitimized the Baseball Hall of Fame's presence in Cooperstown, although later evidence pointed to the first real game being played in Hoboken, N.J., in 1846. In 2001, a librarian at New York University came across two newspaper articles published on April 25, 1823, that show an organized form of a game called "base ball" was being played in Manhattan. The Pittsfield group hopes their find puts to rest the debate about the game's origins. "Pittsfield is baseball's Garden of Eden," Mayor James Ruberto said. But experts say it may be impossible to say exactly where and when baseball was created because it evolved from earlier games, such as cricket and rounders, another English game played with a bat and ball. "There's no way of pinpointing where the game was first played," said Jeff Idelson, a spokesman for the Hall of Fame. "Baseball wasn't really born anywhere." Still, Idelson said if the Pittsfield group's document is authentic, it would be "incredibly monumental." Pittsfield might be a sensible home for the sport. Some historians have documented "the Massachusetts game" as a precursor to modern baseball, where runners were thrown out if they were hit by a ball. Bouton, whose decade-long career as a pitcher included stints with the New York Yankees (news) and Houston Astros (news), lives in nearby Egremont and is helping to restore Pittsfield's Wahconah Park, the former home of several minor league teams. He hopes the discovery helps bring attention to the project. "We thought this was a lucky stroke," said Bouton, whose 1970 book "Ball Four" offered a scandalous look behind the scenes of professional baseball. "I'm sure Pittsfield will live off this for a while." For now, the document will be kept in a vault until city officials figure out how to properly display it. A copy will be hung at Wahconah Park, one of the nation's oldest ballparks.

N.Y. Removes Controversial Parking Meter 

Tue May 11, 5:53 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By KAREN MATTHEWS, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - The city wasted no time in mollifying motorists angry over a case of meter madness. A parking meter in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn was so close to a fire hydrant that parking there meant risking a $115 ticket. 

State law requires that cars park at least 15 feet from hydrants - leaving only 12 feet, 5 inches between the meter and the buffer zone. Only a tiny car such as the Mini Cooper, measuring just 11.9 feet, could fit in that space; a Ford Taurus would be about 4 feet too long. 

The city removed the meter on Tuesday, following a front-page headline in the Daily News. 

"We took the meter out," said Tom Cocola, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation. "We try to listen to the public." 

That was too late for George Akopoulos, 47, who co-owns a restaurant nearby. He said he got a ticket a month ago but paid it to avoid a hassle. Others, such as Bob Restaino, 64, have unsuccessfully fought their tickets. 

"This is a disgrace. I put money in the meter, went to lunch and got a ticket. I was parked legally," Restaino told the Daily News. 

Restaino, who is retired, called the newspaper in frustration after spending three hours in parking court Monday. 

But Tuesday was a new day for him. He was autographing copies of his picture in the paper for neighborhood residents and fielding calls from the BBC, the British broadcasting network. 

"I never actually in my wildest dreams figured it would go this far," he said. 

Cocola said anyone who got a ticket at the meter should plead innocent and mail a copy of the Daily News story with the ticket. "I think they'll be successful," he said. 

He said he didn't know how the meter and the fire hydrant were installed so close together in the first place. "It may have been a miscalculation," he said.

Study: Brain Prefers Working for Cash 

Thu May 13, 1:05 PM ET 
By DANIEL YEE, News Source Writer 

ATLANTA - It's nicer when you actually earn it. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Explore super fast 64-bit computers, check the top ten list of desktops with the quicks and get an answer to the question: Is the Apple Power Mac G5 the 
world's fastest PC? 

Lottery winners, trust-fund babies and others who get their money without working for it do not get as much satisfaction from their cash as those who earn it, a 
study of the pleasure center in people's brains suggests. 

Emory University researchers measured brain activity in the striatum - the part of the brain associated with reward processing and pleasure - in two groups 
of volunteers. One group had to work to receive money while playing a simple computer game; the other group was rewarded without having to earn it. 

The brains of those who had to work for their money were more stimulated. 

"When you have to do things for your reward, it's clearly more important to the brain," said Greg Berns, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral 
science. "The subjects were more aroused when they had to do something to get the money relative to when they passively received the money." 

Berns and other researchers said the study has broader real-world implications, particularly in the age of multimillion-dollar lottery jackpots. 

He said that other studies have shown "there's substantial evidence that people who win the lottery are not happier a year after they win the lottery. It's also 
fairly clear from the psychological literature that people get a great deal of satisfaction out of the work they do." 

In the Emory study, published Thursday in the journal Neuron, volunteers played a computer game in which they had to push a button every time a triangle 
appeared. The 16 volunteers played while their brains were scanned by a magnetic resonance imaging machine, or MRI. 

The researchers found that some reward centers of the brain were activated whenever a volunteer received money. However, the striatum was activated only 
when volunteers worked for their reward. 

Berns suggested that the brain is wired this way by nature. 

"I don't think it ever evolved to sit back and sit on the couch and have things fall in our laps," he said. 

The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

"This part of the brain is a fascinating part. It's associated with drug abuse, a number of diseases," Berns said. "It's no coincidence we're finding it to be very 
important in almost everything that we do." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Emory University: http://www.emory.edu

Officials Unaware of Interrogation Rules 

2 hours, 16 minutes ago 


By PAULINE JELINEK, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon (news - web sites)'s No. 2 general and the deputy defense secretary said they were unaware of interrogation rules approved for use in Iraq (news - web sites) allowing the use of dogs or days of sleep deprivation. 

Slideshow: Iraq Prisoner Abuse Investigation

Latest headlines: 
á Senator grills Wolfowitz on US prisoner interrogation 
NEWS SOURCE - 6 minutes ago 
á US overseer for Iraq says US does not stay where "not welcome" 
NEWS SOURCE - 14 minutes ago 
á Militia Move Around City of Nassiriyah 
AP - 14 minutes ago 
Special Coverage

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz appeared Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites). The panel is trying to determine if the prisoner abuse was limited to a small group of soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison or if the problem was more widespread and military leaders were involved. 

Photos of hooded, naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated and apparently injured by their American captors have touched off an international outcry. Pentagon officials say the treatment in the pictures goes well beyond approved interrogation techniques. 

But the approved techniques have also raised concerns on the committee. A summary of "Interrogation Rules of Engagement" provided to senators by Army officials says that, with a general's written approval, prisoners could be subjected to stressful positions for up to 45 minutes, isolation for more than 30 days, military dogs and up to 72 hours of "sleep management." 

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said he believed the policy would allow prisoners to be held "naked, with a bag over their head, squatting with their arms uplifted for 45 minutes." 

Both Pace and Wolfowitz said such treatment would appear to violate the Geneva Conventions. But they said they weren't familiar with the interrogation techniques approved for use in Iraq. 

The Pentagon late Thursday issued a statement saying the scenario Reed described would be "contrary to our regulations. Senator Reed is mistaken." 

As senators pursue their inquiry, they are expected to call other top military officials. Senators have particularly expressed interest in hearing from Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq; and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of Abu Ghraib. 

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Miller defended his role in advising U.S. authorities last fall on how to set up a detention and interrogation system in Iraq that could yield useful intelligence on the insurgency. 

"I'm absolutely convinced we laid down the foundations for how you detain people humanely," said Miller, former commander of the U.S. prison compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

Miller gave a tour of Abu Ghraib on Thursday to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who made a surprise visit to Iraq in hopes of containing the scandal. 

Rumsfeld called the controversy surrounding the prison a "body blow for all of us" and said the people who did wrong will be punished. 

"You can be absolutely certain that the abuses of a few are not going to change how we manage this force," Rumsfeld told troops. "We need all of you to make this thing work for our country." 

Rumsfeld also held out hope to his war-weary audience that international troops may soon arrive to augment their ranks. He said U.S. officials were engaged in talks with nations "that have capabilities to bring forces in," and those discussions were going well. 

"I'm encouraged. I think we'll find that we will get additional forces," Rumsfeld said. He did not specify which or how many countries are involved, saying only "we're probably talking to a couple of handfuls, maybe three handfuls of nations."

Fast-Food Breakfast May Inflame Blood Vessels Wed May 12,12:44 PM ET Add Health 

By Amy Norton NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Downing a big fast-food breakfast may spur a temporary but large inflammatory response in the blood vessels, a small study suggests. Researchers say that while an occasional indulgence in such high-fat, high-carbohydrate fare probably poses no concern, the new findings suggest that making it a regular routine could lead to chronic blood vessel inflammation and complications, such as heart attack and stroke. The study included nine healthy, normal-weight adults who were fed a breakfast of one Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin and two servings of hash browns from McDonald's. The meal weighed in at 910 calories, 81 grams of carbohydrates, 51 grams of fat and 32 grams of protein. While the hearty breakfast may be on the supersize side, lead study author Dr. Ahmad Aljada of the State University of New York at Buffalo said it reflects what many Americans order up at fast-food restaurants. "We wanted to look at a typical American meal," he told The News Source Health. "We're not targeting McDonald's." Dr. Catherine Adams, corporate vice president of worldwide quality at McDonald's and a registered dietitian, cautioned against reading too much into the findings. The normal metabolic response to eating involves some inflammation and the production of molecules called oxygen free radicals. Any heavy meal, compared with water, will generate a much greater inflammatory response, Adams noted. And no one, she told The News Source Health, advocates regularly consuming a 900-calorie fast-food breakfast. However, Aljada said additional research suggests that it's not the size, but the content of the breakfast that may be the problem when it comes to inflammation in the blood vessels. He said he and his colleagues found that 900 calories' worth of an American Heart Association (news - web sites) (AHA)-endorsed breakfast high in fruit and fiber did not produce the inflammatory responses seen with the fast-food breakfast. "The number of calories is not the issue," Aljada said. "It's the type of food." There may be something about the metabolism of fat, for example, that spurs significant inflammation, according to the researcher. In past studies, he and his colleagues found that both pure glucose (sugar) and fat trigger greater inflammatory responses than protein does. The AHA-based breakfast, while high in carbohydrates, contains complex, fiber-rich carbs, as well as antioxidant vitamins that may ward off inflammation, Aljada explained. For the new study, the researchers gave nine adults the fast-food breakfast and another eight a glass of water after an overnight fast. They took blood samples before the meal or drink, then again one, two and three hours afterward. The blood samples showed that in the fast-food diners, markers of inflammation and free-radical production rose and remained high for hours after the meal. Chronic inflammation is key in the development of the artery disease atherosclerosis, a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart attack and stroke. Aljada said that the concern is that, over time, repeated inflammatory responses like those seen in the study could lead to chronic inflammation in the blood vessels. He said his advice to fast-food fans is to "eat moderately." "And," the researcher added, "you may want to look into eating more fruit and fiber." Adams echoed the call for moderation, saying fast-food fare can fit into a balanced diet. Ordering that Egg McMuffin with a glass of orange juice-rich in free radical-squelching antioxidants is one way to strive for better balance, she noted. Aljada said he and his colleagues are studying the inflammatory effects of other types of food as well, including Atkins-style high-fat, high-protein meals, and foods with a high glycemic index. Foods in this latter group are digested quickly to glucose and cause a swift surge in blood sugar; they include carbohydrates such as white bread and potatoes. SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (news - web sites), April 2004.

Lemurs Aren't So Dumb After All, Study Finds

Wed May 12, 5:31 PM ET 
Add Science 

WASHINGTON  - Lemurs, once believed to be cute but basically stupid, show startling intelligence when given a chance to win treats by playing a computer game, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Explore super fast 64-bit computers, check the top ten list of desktops with the quicks and get an answer to the question: Is the Apple Power Mac G5 the world's fastest PC? 

The study will help shed light on how humans became sophisticated mathematically, the Duke University team said. 

So far, it suggests primitive animals such as lemurs need a good reason, such as a treat, to bother trying to count. Humans and monkeys, in contrast, will stretch their minds simply out of curiosity. 

Lemurs are primates, as are monkeys, apes and humans. But they are considered far less intelligent. "The little bit of research that's out there suggests their learning capacities are not as sophisticated as those of monkeys," said psychologist Elizabeth Brannon, who led the research. 

"So initially, I thought it very unlikely that I was going to get any cognitive experiments to really work with them." 

But she found a combination of greed and the lure of a touch-screen computer worked to get the long-tailed animals to cooperate. 

"If a task involves a food reward, they can be amazing," she said. "They'll work for a couple of hundred trials because they want these sugar pellets, even though we do not deprive them of food in any way." 

Although lemurs are social, they would often stop what they were doing to play on the computer. 

"Occasionally, one animal would come over and finish the sequence started by another to get the reward," said Brannon. 

Unexpectedly, the lemurs could remember sequences. For instance, they showed they could remember the order of appearance of random images by touching them in order when they reappeared as a group. 

"It shows that the animal is actually learning some kind of strategy above and beyond what they're learning about the individual pictures in a given set," Brannon said. 

But the lemurs were not especially dexterous. "While monkeys will use their fingers, the ringtails (lemurs) use their nose or mouth to touch the screen, sometimes kind of kissing it," Brannon said.

Lemurs Aren't So Dumb After All, Study Finds

Wed May 12, 5:31 PM ET 
Add Science 

WASHINGTON  - Lemurs, once believed to be cute but basically stupid, show startling intelligence when given a chance to win treats by playing a computer game, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Explore super fast 64-bit computers, check the top ten list of desktops with the quicks and get an answer to the question: Is the Apple Power Mac G5 the world's fastest PC? 

The study will help shed light on how humans became sophisticated mathematically, the Duke University team said. 

So far, it suggests primitive animals such as lemurs need a good reason, such as a treat, to bother trying to count. Humans and monkeys, in contrast, will stretch their minds simply out of curiosity. 

Lemurs are primates, as are monkeys, apes and humans. But they are considered far less intelligent. "The little bit of research that's out there suggests their learning capacities are not as sophisticated as those of monkeys," said psychologist Elizabeth Brannon, who led the research. 

"So initially, I thought it very unlikely that I was going to get any cognitive experiments to really work with them." 

But she found a combination of greed and the lure of a touch-screen computer worked to get the long-tailed animals to cooperate. 

"If a task involves a food reward, they can be amazing," she said. "They'll work for a couple of hundred trials because they want these sugar pellets, even though we do not deprive them of food in any way." 

Although lemurs are social, they would often stop what they were doing to play on the computer. 

"Occasionally, one animal would come over and finish the sequence started by another to get the reward," said Brannon. 

Unexpectedly, the lemurs could remember sequences. For instance, they showed they could remember the order of appearance of random images by touching them in order when they reappeared as a group. 

"It shows that the animal is actually learning some kind of strategy above and beyond what they're learning about the individual pictures in a given set," Brannon said. 

But the lemurs were not especially dexterous. "While monkeys will use their fingers, the ringtails (lemurs) use their nose or mouth to touch the screen, sometimes kind of kissing it," Brannon said.

New Prison Abuse Photos Outrage Lawmakers 8 minutes ago 

By KEN GUGGENHEIM, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Fresh photos showing American soldiers brutalizing Iraqi prisoners with snarling dogs or forced sex left members of Congress angry and disgusted, but apparently with few new clues about how widespread the abuse was and who ultimately should be held accountable. In separate private screenings on Capitol Hill, House and Senate members saw photos and video Wednesday of Iraqi corpses, military dogs menacing cowering Iraqi prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose themselves and other sexual abuses. Some lawmakers said the pictures included forced homosexual sex; others said the quality of the photos were too poor to discern what was happening. The 1,600-plus photos, which included scenes of abuse mixed in with travelogue-type snapshots, were in addition to the those that already surfaced publicly depicting abuse and sexual humiliation at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The photos have created international condemnation and threatened to undermine U.S. military and rebuilding efforts in Iraq (news - web sites). Lawmakers differed over whether the new batch of photos should be released - a decision likely will be left up to the Bush administration. Some said they feared releasing photos would only further inflame international passions; others argued it would demonstrate the openness of American society and limit the damage caused by the gradual leaking of photos to media outlets. They also disagreed about whether the photos they saw were much worse than the ones already made public. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, "It was significantly worse than anything that I had anticipated. Take the worst case and multiply it several times over." But Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., said, "Anything like this is shocking ... but it's generally the same as what's in the public domain - no huge surprises." The viewing came a day after Islamic militants, in a video, showed the beheading of an American in Iraq to avenge the prison abuse. President Bush (news - web sites) said "there's no justification" for the killing of Nicholas Berg, 26, and that it would not shake U.S. resolve to bring democracy to Iraq. The private Capitol Hill screening marked the latest turn in a scandal that has prompted Bush to apologize to the victims and Democrats to demand the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) has been holding hearings to determine whether prisoner abuses were limited to the Abu Ghraib facility. The committee also wants to see whether responsibility went beyond a small group of enlisted soldiers and their immediate supervisors, who the Army says provided inadequate training and supervision. Among the uncertainties is whether military intelligence officials directly or indirectly encouraged the abuse in order to "soften up" detainees for interrogations. The Defense Department is investigating the abuse, and the courts-martial of three military police guards have been ordered. Lawmakers said the new photos showed small groups of soldiers - fewer than a dozen - abusing the prisoners. Many of the soldiers' faces were already familiar from photos published worldwide. It wasn't clear whether all the abuse took place at Abu Ghraib or at other locations, they said. Senators said the photographs were presented as a rapid slide show on a screen in the classified hearing room. Pentagon (news - web sites) officials were present, but did not answer questions about the pictures, apparently fearing they might interfere with the any prosecutions. The photos were seized from service members and included many shots unrelated to the investigation, such as pictures of historic sites. Some photos showed what appeared to be soldiers having sex. Because of the vast number of photos - and members coming and going - not all saw the same slides, and impressions varied. "I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who added that some of the images were of male prisoners masturbating. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall as though to knock himself unconscious. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he did not see acts of violence, but what appeared to be "results of acts of violence." He said he saw people in body bags and a person with a face "virtually gone." He saw "people being stitched up above the eyebrow apparently unconscious." Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., said, "There were people who were forced to have sex with each other." Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, "There were some pictures where it looked like a prisoner was sodomizing himself" with an object. He said blood was visible in the photograph. But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought "some people are overreacting." "The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends," he said. At a Senate hearing earlier Wednesday, Rumsfeld said Pentagon lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume stressful positions. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators the military has taken steps to correct the problems that led to abuses, including replacing the military police unit that took some of the photos.

Weinsteins, Disney Reach Deal on 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Wed May 12, 4:53 PM ET Add Movies 

LOS ANGELES  - Miramax Films said on Wednesday it has reached a deal with Miramax's owners, the Walt Disney Co., allowing it to find a new distributor for director Michael Moore (news)'s controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which Disney refused to distribute. "We are very happy that Disney has agreed to sell 'Fahrenheit 911' to Bob and Harvey," Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said in a statement, referring to Miramax co-chiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Under the agreement, the Weinstein brothers would acquire the rights to the film that chronicles America's response to the Sept. 11 attacks and looks at links between the family of President Bush (news - web sites) and prominent Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). Hiltzik said the Weinsteins are providing a "term sheet" to Disney based on a similar deal for a previous, controversial Miramax film "Dogma," and that the brothers "look forward to promptly completing this transaction." The Weinsteins would then be free to find a new distributor to release the documentary into theaters, possibly as soon as July. Disney, Miramax's corporate parent, had previously refused to distribute the movie that Miramax had funded. Disney's decision, which it said it had made as long as one year ago, spurred headlines last week when Moore, the filmmaker behind 2002's Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," went public with it.

Accused Soldiers Face Global Condemnation Wed May 12, 4:28 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By ROBERT TANNER, News Source National Writer 

They are neighbors, relatives, co-workers. One fixed cars; another might've bagged your groceries, if you'd stopped in her small West Virginia town. Seven soldiers, volunteers drawn by money or duty or the chance to get out of town. They got called up to Iraq (news - web sites) and entered another world. And now they're being condemned by everyone from the president to the Vatican (news - web sites). The photos of Iraqi detainees being humiliated can't be argued with. But what about these soldiers behind them? Families and friends say there's an explanation, others to blame, orders given. The soldiers' lives offer scant clues. If you picked a handful of people off the street, you'd probably find roughly similar stories, most mundane, some troubled: growing up in small towns and suburbs, dreams of college and careers, marriages, kids, a strife-filled divorce, money worries. What's striking, ultimately, is not so much how they stand out from the crowd, but how much they blend in. Seven of roughly 1.2 million part-time troops, they're reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company in Cresaptown, Md., sergeants and specialists, in their 20s and 30s, four men and three women. The first to go before a military tribunal - Spc. Jeremy Sivits - faces a special court-martial next week. The 24-year-old from Hyndman, Pa., apparently took some of the photographs. He could get up to one year in prison. Back in Hyndman, Sivits worked at a window-blind factory. He married two years ago, lived with his wife's parents. His love is baseball, playing catcher, first and third base in school and adult leagues, said Jamey Ringler, the best man at Sivits' wedding. His family and friends, like those of the other soldiers who have been charged in the scandal, don't buy the allegations against Sivits - or say someone higher-up is more to blame. "I'd bet my house on it, he's not that type of person," said Ringler. His friend, Ringler said, was well-mannered and obeyed the rules. "It was always, 'Sir, yes sir, yes ma'am.'" "He was just following instructions," said his father, Daniel Sivits, a veteran himself. Yellow ribbons wave from his porch. Sivits might be first to face justice, but two of the soldiers getting a great deal of scrutiny are both prison guards in civilian life - Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick II, 37, of Buckingham, Va., and Spc. Charles A. Graner Jr., 35, of Uniontown, Pa. Frederick is the oldest, with 20 years in the Reserves. He signed up in high school and was the senior enlisted soldier at the Abu Ghraib prison between last October and December, when the alleged crimes occurred. His six years as a prison guard were virtually spotless, said his wife, Martha. He even was cited for saving the life of a prisoner who tried to hang himself, she said. The warden at the Virginia prison wouldn't comment on Frederick's record. Frederick claims the abusive treatment - inmates stripped naked, cuffed to their cells - was orchestrated by military intelligence officers, not MPs, according to a diary his family made available. For Graner, his history turns up uncomfortable echoes - allegations of brutality at the prison where he worked in western Pennsylvania, threats of violence against his ex-wife. In lawsuits brought by inmates, he was accused of using excessive force and of planting a razor blade in a plate of potatoes, causing an inmate to cut his mouth. Both suits were dismissed. He divorced his then-wife in 2000, a marriage that brought two children. She sought legal protection a year later, and alleged in court documents that he dragged her by the hair out of their son's room, and tried to throw her down the stairs after an argument. But perhaps the soldier who has received the most notoriety is Spc. Lynndie England, 21. The sight of the slight woman in Army gear, holding a naked prisoner by a leash or pointing at a prisoner's genitals, has spurred widespread revulsion. She was headstrong, family and friends said, and dreamed of becoming a storm-chaser who studies tornadoes and other, catastrophic weather. She joined the Reserves to see the world beyond her one-stoplight hometown of Fort Ashby, W. Va. England worked at a local grocery, and, later, nights on the line at a chicken-processing plant. She married at 19 and divorced within two years. Now her family can't stand to see the pictures anymore, her story the ugly flipside to Jessica Lynch, another small-town West Virginian girl caught up in this war - but one who came home a hero. England "really wasn't involved," insisted Destiny Goin, a friend so close she considers herself a sister. "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The other two women joined the Reserves after Sept. 11. Spc. Sabrina D. Harman, 26, was an assistant manager at a pizza chain, while Spc. Megan Ambuhl, 29, was a lab technician, both from northern Virginia, according to published reports. Harman is one of two smiling soldiers in a photo standing behind naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid. At Ambuhl's home in Centreville, Va., no one answered the door. A sticker on the window declares: "Freedom Isn't Free." Sgt. Javal Davis, 26, ran track in college but didn't graduate, married, is raising two children, is called a devout Baptist. His father insists the accusations can't be true. "My son is a good kid, a good man," said Jonathan Davis. "He's a very good provider, a good father, a very spiritual man. And my family and I just want him to come home safe." Seven lives that might never have been noticed, and an eighth that perhaps deserves more: Spc. Joe Darby. Darby, 24, studied forestry in high school but became a car mechanic in Virginia after marrying. He grew up poor, friends said, polite, but had a bit of a temper. The difference between Darby and the others? When he saw the photos, he told prison superiors.

Climbing Everest? Don't Forget to Dress for Dinner

May 12, 11:17 am ET 

HUDDERSFIELD, England  - Seven men who enjoyed duck and caviar at more than 22,000 feet in the Himalayas pitched a claim for the record highest altitude formal dinner.

One Australian and six British men made it to the top of the 23,113-feet Tibetan peak Lhakpa Ri near Mount Everest carrying tables, chairs and white tie dinner suits earlier this month. Gales forced them back to 22,326 feet for the sumptuous meal.

"Great party," team leader Henry Shelford said Tuesday by telephone after returning to Britain. "Shame about the atmosphere."

The month-long expedition raised more than $44,000 for the British Lung Foundation for research into the lung disease sarcoidosis, from which Shelford has suffered.

The Guinness World Records said it was verifying the claim that the team, who did not have previous mountaineering experience, had broken the previous record of 22,204 feet for the highest formal dinner, set by Australian climbers in 1989.

Scotsman Robbie Aitken wore a kilt -- but he broke with the tradition of wearing nothing underneath. "He was not a true Scot, otherwise he would not have come back in one piece," Shelford told The News Source.

Talking Windows?

May 12, 11:14 am ET 

HULL, England  - Whispering shop windows will soon be exported to Germany by a small British company that says they will turn heads and draw customers into shops.

"Whispering Windows" are made by Hull-based company FeONIC and have already been used by British retail chains to attract custom, finance director Jeremy Lee told The News Source Wednesday.

"What we have is a device which converts store windows into loudspeakers," he said. Two or four devices are attached to the windows, making them vibrate and so producing sound.

The windows monitor ambient noise in the street and only produce sound a couple of decibels louder in order to avoid excessive noise pollution, he said.

Lee said that FeONIC had received its first order from its German distribution partner, worth more than 150,000 pounds ($265,800). In Britain, the windows were usually rented out to shops.

"As with any advertising campaign, the impact tends to wear off after a couple of weeks," he said.

British travel agents Lunn Poly had used the windows to play the sounds of waves breaking, children laughing and crickets chirping to tempt January shoppers into buying summer holidays.

"They had both an increase in footfall and an increase in the number of bookings," he said.

U.S. Troops Raid Chalabi's House in Iraq 

28 minutes ago

By HAMZA HENDAWI, News Source Writer 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police raided the residence of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi on Thursday, and aides accused the Americans of holding guns to his head and bullying him over his criticism of plans for next month's transfer of sovereignty. 

Latest news: 
á U.S. Warns Iraqi Insurgency Could Grow 
AP - 1 minute ago 
á U.S. Soldiers Raid Chalabi's Home in Iraq 
AP - 3 minutes ago 
á Two new photos taken at Iraqi prison shown on US television 
NEWS SOURCE - 4 minutes ago 
Special Coverage

There was no comment from U.S. authorities, but American officials here have complained privately that Chalabi - a longtime Pentagon (news - web sites) favorite - is interfering with a U.S. investigation into allegations that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime skimmed millions in oil revenues during the U.N.-run oil-for-food program. 

A Chalabi aide, Haidar Musawi, accused the Americans of trying to pressure Chalabi, who has become openly critical of U.S. plans for how much power to transfer to the Iraqis on June 30. 

"The aim is to put political pressure," Musawi told The News Source. "Why is this happening at a time when the government is being formed?" 

He said the Americans also raided other offices of Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. 

Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmad Chalabi and head of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal, said his uncle told him by telephone that Iraqi and American authorities "entered his home and put the guns to his head in a very humiliating way that reminds everyone of the conduct of the former regime." 

The younger Chalabi said the reason for the raid was unclear but "they must be afraid of his political movement." 

American soldiers and armed U.S. civilians could be seen milling about Chalabi's compound in the city's fashionable Mansour district. Some people could be seen loading boxes into vehicles. Aides said documents and computers were seized without warrants. 

Musawi said the U.S.-Iraqi force surrounded the residence about 10:30 a.m. while Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council was inside. They told Chalabi's aides that they wanted to search the house for Iraqi National Congress officials wanted by the authorities. 

The aides agreed to let one unarmed Iraqi policeman inside to look around. 

"The Iraqi police were very embarrassed and said that they (the Americans) ordered them to come and that they didn't know it was Chalabi's house," Musawi said. "The INC is ready to have any impartial and judicial body investigate any accusation against it. There are American parties who have a list of Iraqi personalities that they want arrested to put pressure on the Iraqi political force." 

Abdul Kareem Abbas, an INC official, said Chalabi's entourage objected to the raid but "we couldn't because they came with U.S. troops." 

"They came this morning, entered the office of Dr. Ahmad Chalabi and said that they were looking for people," said Abbas. He said they wanted to make arrests. 

Another official, Qaisar Wotwot, said the operation was linked to Chalabi's recent comments demanding full Iraqi control of oil revenues and security after the June 30 transfer of power. 

"It's a provocative operation, designed to force Dr. Chalabi to change his political stance," he said. 

For years, Chalabi's INC had received hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from the Pentagon, in part for intelligence passed along by exiles about Saddam's purported weapons of mass destruction. 

Chalabi has come under criticism since large stockpiles of such weapons were never found. Chalabi, a former banker and longtime Iraqi exile, was convicted of fraud in absentia in Jordan in 1992 in a banking scandal and sentenced to 22 years in jail. He has repeatedly denied the charges. 

Chalabi has complained recently about U.S. plans to retain control of Iraqi security forces and maintain widespread influence over political institutions after power is transferred from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to an Iraqi interim administration at the end of June. 

Musawi said Chalabi "had been clear on rejecting incomplete sovereignty ... and against having the security portfolio remain in the hands of those who have proved their failure." 

However, U.S. and coalition officials have recently accused him of undermining the investigation into the oil-for-food program. The U.S.-backed investigation has collected more than 20,000 files from Saddam's old regime and hired an American accounting firm Ernst & Young to conduct the review. 

Chalabi has launched his own investigation, saying an independent probe will have more credibility. Chalabi took an early lead in exposing alleged abuses of the oil-for-food program and has been trying to force the coalition to give him the $5 million in Iraqi funds set aside for the probe to pay for his effort. The move was strongly resisted by the U.S. governor of Iraq (news - web sites), L. Paul Bremer. 

Chalabi's backers have hired a different firm, KPMG, to do its audit, but they want Bremer's administration to pay the bill from the Iraqi funds it controls. The money comes from a fund of mostly seized Saddam assets and Iraqi oil sales. 

The United Nations (news - web sites) is conducting a third investigation led by former Federal Reserve (news - web sites) chairman Paul Volcker.

Israel Continues Offensive Despite Outcry 

37 minutes ago

By KHALIL HAMRA, News Source Writer 

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops pushed deeper into the Rafah refugee camp Thursday in search of gunmen and weapons smugglers, killing seven Palestinians and demolishing several buildings despite an international outcry over a deadly tank attack on a group of protesters. 

Slideshow: Mideast Conflict Israelis Protest Against Rafah Attacks 
(AP Video)

At least eight Palestinians, many of them children, were killed by Israeli fire Wednesday as they demonstrated against the military operation. The sight of bloodied children and reports of overwhelmed doctors treating dozens of wounded people on blood-drenched hospital floors added to world anger. 

Israel apologized for the deaths, saying its troops did not deliberately fire on marchers. A preliminary army investigation concluded that a warning shot fired by a tank flew through a building and hit the crowd, security sources said on condition of anonymity. 

Israel also blamed the Palestinians, saying gunmen infiltrated the crowd of about 3,000 people protesting the incursion into the Rafah refugee camp. Witnesses denied militants were among the marchers, and Palestinian leaders denounced the incident as a massacre. 

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning the loss of life and Israel's demolition of homes. The United States abstained, the first time in nearly two years it did not exercise its veto on a resolution sharply critical of Israel. 

Also Thursday, an Israeli court in Tel Aviv convicted Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti of overseeing militant attacks that killed five people. Barghouti, a potential successor to Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), was acquitted of planning other attacks in which 21 Israelis died. 

Barghouti's sentencing is set for June 6, and prosecutors asked for five consecutive life terms. 

Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron, the army's chief spokeswoman, said Thursday the Rafah offensive - dubbed "Operation Rainbow," it is the largest in Gaza in years - would continue until troops obliterate weapons-smuggling tunnels and round up militants along the Gaza-Egypt border. 

By Thursday, the army moved into five neighborhoods in the camp, which is home to about 90,000 Palestinians. Exchanges of gunfire were reported, and Israeli Apache helicopters flew overhead. 

Residents said Israeli troops demolished eight homes overnight and bulldozers moved into a street Thursday, knocking down two homes and a shop. 

"I saw women and children running in the street," resident Mofed Matar said. "They were not able to evacuate any of their belongings." 

The army, which said it was checking the report, said it only destroyed homes to uncover tunnels or flush out gunmen using them to attack Israelis. 

Matar said the army ordered Palestinian men between the ages of 16 and 45 to surrender at a local school, waving white flags. The army said it was checking that report, too. 

A similar mass surrender was ordered in another part of the camp Wednesday. The army said Thursday it had no Rafah men in custody. 

Early Thursday, an Israeli missile strike killed three militants in the Rafah camp. The army said the gunmen were approaching Israeli forces. 

Hours later, troops fired a tank shell and killed two militants, Palestinian doctors said. 

Elsewhere, Rafah hospital director Dr. Ali Mousa said a 37-year-old man died from a gunshot wound to the head and two others, ages 29 and 22, were wounded. Relatives said the men were shot when they ventured onto the roof of their apartment building to check a water tank. 

Another body was brought to the hospital Thursday, and the army said troops shot a gunman when he approached Israeli forces in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah. 

Israel raided the refugee camp less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers in Gaza, including seven along the Egyptian border. 

Since Israel launched its operation early Tuesday, 39 Palestinians, including several children, have been killed. Dozens have been wounded, and refugee camp residents have faced power outages and a lack of water. 

Local officials warned of a looming humanitarian crisis unless electricity and water supplies were restored. 

Water from a well in Tel Sultan could not reach other parts of Rafah because there was no power, said Ashraf Ghonem of the Rafah water department. Israeli tanks prevented workers from repairing generators, he said, and he asked the army to guarantee safe passage to the workers. 

"We want water to save our life. Is that too big to ask?" said Tel Sultan resident Salman Abu Jazar, 30. "My wife boiled the lavatory water to prepare the milk for our 11-month-old son." 

Humanitarian groups called on Israel to ease its grip on Rafah. The International Committee of the Red Cross called on Israel to exercise "the greatest restraint" and ensure the wounded had access to adequate medical facilities. 

Physicians for Human Rights said it petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to allow medical personnel to move freely and let the wounded be evacuated from Rafah. 

It also accused the army of using a bulldozer to bury an ambulance that was headed to treat a mother and three children wounded by tank fire. 

The army said the bulldozer was trying to clear the way for the ambulance, and it was working "24 hours a day" to facilitate humanitarian aid. 

Near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the army said it killed a Palestinian gunman after a shootout. Palestinian hospital workers confirmed that one man had been killed. 

Palestinian officials also said a 13-year-old was shot dead by troops near the West Bank town of Hebron. The army said it fired on a Palestinian throwing a firebomb at soldiers. 

In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, the army said troops killed an armed fugitive who tried to flee. It said it wounded a second militant who threw a firebomb, but it had no details on his condition.

Lot's of these, so I'm putting them together...

T

___

Music buyers gravitate toward legal downloads: survey

Wed May 19,12:48 PM ET

Add U.S. National - NEWS SOURCE 

NEW YORK (NEWS SOURCE) - US music consumers are sharply increasing their interest in legal downloads and diminishing their use of free song-swapping over the 
Internet, a survey showed.

NEWS SOURCE/Illustration Photo

The survey by the NPD Group found about five percent of those who have purchased music CDs also used a legal Internet service to purchase music in the 
first quarter of 2004, or triple the percentage in the same period a year ago.

Among music buyers who purchased both CDs and a song download from a legal service, the likelihood that they also downloaded a song illegally fell 
dramatically, from 64 percent last year to 42 percent in 2004, the survey found.

The surge in use of legitimate online music services comes as a growing number of companies have set up sites with song downloads for roughly one dollar. 
At the same time, the music industry has been cracking down on file-swapping with lawsuits alleging copyright infringement.

"Paid services like (Apple's) iTunes and (RealNetworks') Rhapsody appear to be attracting core music buyers, which can create a firm foundation for legal 
digital music purchases," said Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music.

"To date, NPD data shows that there has been a small reduction in sales of CDs; however, that decline might be offset by the overall value of the digital 
customer and the downturn in illegal file sharing."

Consumers who downloaded from a legal service or became paid members of subscription services showed only a small reduction in the number of CDs that 
they purchased at retail. The average consumer who paid for digital music as well as CDs purchased less than one fewer CD in 2003 compared to 2002, the 
survey found.

"Our research shows that it's the people who are really into music that are beginning to adopt paid digital services as an additional way of acquiring and 
enjoying music, and so far these services are living side by side with traditional CDs," Crupnick said.

"As the industry matures and digital music becomes even more main stream, it remains to be seen just how much paid digital music will affect the market for 
CDs."

___

Sony unveils online music service

Sheryl Crow helped launch Connect with an in-flight concert on Tuesday

Sony has entered the digital music market by launching an online music download service in the US.

Sony's Connect offers more than 500,000 tracks from major and independent label artists from $0.99 (£0.55) per song.

Like Apple, whose iTunes music service boosted sales of its iPod digital players, Sony hopes Connect will boost sales of its own audio players.

"Apple did an excellent job in cultivating this new market," said Sony spokesman Mack Araki.

"We believe we can expand the market to a much broader audience with a broader line of devices and an easy-to-use service."

Compatibility

Connect offers tracks from both major and independent label artists, selling entire albums from $9.99 (£5.55).

Its songs are sold in ATRAC3 format, which will play on Sony's own brand of audio devices but is not compatible with Apple's iPod or many other digital 
music players.

Sheryl Crow, whose songs are available via Connect, helped launch the service with a live performance on a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Santa Monica-based Sony Connect Inc, which runs the service, says the online music market is still developing and that there is room for Sony to make its 
mark.

Last week, Apple's online music store iTunes marked its first anniversary by announcing it had sold more than 70 million songs in the US in its first year.

In Europe, rival Napster is racing to launch ahead of Apple, while in the UK, MyCokeMusic and services such as HMV and Virgin are beginning to get a 
foothold in the market.

___

Apple Sells 3.3 Million Songs on iTunes in Week

Wed May 5, 4:27 PM ET

Add Technology 

LOS ANGELES  - Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) on Wednesday said it has sold 3.3 million songs on iTunes since the online music 
store's relaunch one week ago, with nearly as many downloads of its upgraded music player software.

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Missed Tech Tuesday?
Europe and Japan get all the hot new technology first. Here's a look at the pipeline of future tech -- plus some gadgets that didn't travel well and a wishlist of 
cool things.

The company also said users had downloaded more than 500,000 free songs during a promotion giving away tracks by popular artists including Courtney 
Love and Nelly Furtado.

Apple, whose iPod dominates the portable music player market, also said users published more than 20,000 custom playlists to the music store in the week 
since it was upgraded with that new feature and others.

Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of applications marketing, reported 3 million downloads of iTunes 4.5, the music player software that includes the music 
store, since its release last week.

The 3.3 million songs sold, Schoeben said, compares to a prior peak of 2.7 million in a week.

Executives said the timing of the release helped boost sales on days that would have otherwise been slow.

"Because we rolled out on a Wednesday, we increased traffic on days that would have been slightly slower for us," Eddie Cue, Apple's vice president of 
applications, told The News Source. The music store's busiest days have been Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, he said.

Apple's announcement came a day after Sony Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), the pioneer in portable music, launched its own online music store, Sony 
Connect. That store features pricing similar to Apple's and like Apple offers the ability to copy songs to portable players or burn them to CDs.

On April 28 Apple said it had sold 70 million songs through the store in its first year, well short of its original goal of 100 million but more, the company said, 
than any other digital music service.

___

Sony Takes Aim at Apple But iPod Seen Safe for Now

Tue May 11, 4:43 AM ET

Add Technology 

TOKYO  - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites) has created a buzz with the unveiling of a new digital music player, but analysts say it 
has a long way to go before it challenges the industry dominance of Apple Computer's popular iPod.

Sony unveiled the new portable music player on Monday along with a slew of new VAIO-brand computers.

Dubbed "Vaio pocket," it features a hard-disk drive capable of storing 13,000 songs and can store digital camera images too.

The "VAIO pocket" will be the first portable music player with an embedded hard-disk drive to be sold under the Sony brand name when it hits stores in 
Japan next month.

Sony said that overseas launch dates have not been set.

Industry watchers say Sony will struggle to gain a stronger footing in the fast-growing industry now dominated by Apple.

The U.S.-based company has nearly 50 percent of the market for digital MP3 music players thanks to the iPod's success.

"In terms of actually attacking Apple it's only a start. I don't see any major shake down in the industry right now," said Standard & Poor's equity analyst John 
Yang.

"I just don't see how Sony could really turn the whole thing upside down with iPod."

Sony's new product will have a 20-gigabyte (GB) hard drive and retail for about 53,000 yen ($465). In terms of price, that puts it close to the top-of the line 
iPod, which has a 40 GB hard drive, holds about 10,000 songs, and sells for $499.

Apple also offers an "iPod mini" which has a 4GB hard drive and goes for $249. It also sells players in between.

But Sony, which pioneered the market for portable music with its Walkman player 25 years ago, is hoping to attract consumers with more than just price.

The "VAIO pocket" can be connected to a digital camera and display photos on a 2.2-inch color liquid crystal display (LCD) screen.

"More than just a digital audio player, it enables the user to catalog audio tracks with images whereby they can quickly retrieve and enjoy their favorite tunes," 
said Sony spokesman David Yang.

Sony declined to give sales targets for the new machine.

Earlier this year, Sony introduced eight new MP3 music players -- six flash memory and two hard disk models -- for sale under its Aiwa brand. Aiwa was a 
subsidiary completely absorbed by Sony in December 2002.

Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei has said he sees an opportunity to use Aiwa for a multiple brand strategy, similar to auto giant Toyota Motor Corp's efforts to 
create a premium "Lexus" brand and a less expensive "Scion" brand.

Sony shares closed down 0.5 percent at 4,000 yen, underperforming the Nikkei average, which rose 0.21 percent.

___

The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service

Anonymous file-swapping programmer arrested

16:12 11 May 04 
NewScientist.com news service 
A professor at Tokyo University in Japan has been arrested and charged with copyright offences after developing a computer program that promises to let 
users share files with anonymity.

Isamu Kaneko, a 33-year-old academic, wrote a file-sharing program called "Winny". This promises users the ability to share audio and video files through a 
network built on top of ordinary internet traffic, but without revealing network address of their computer to other users. Kaneko was arrested on suspicion of 
offering copyrighted material for download through the program himself.

In Japan, violating copyright law can be punished with a maximum sentence of three years in prison or a fine of up to 3 million yen ($27,000). A survey 
carried out by the Japan's Association of Copyright for Computer Software suggests that Winny is used by around 250,000 people in Japan.

Outside of Japan, the best-known anonymous file-trading program is FreeNet. This program uses encryption and clever routing to prevent an outsider from 
determining who has requested a particular file or where it is stored but it requires some technical expertise to use. Winny is easier to operate and borrows 
some of the techniques implemented in FreeNet.

Preserving anonymity

But it is unclear how good the Winny network is at preserving anonymity. In November 2003 two users were arrested for allegedly offering copyright movies 
and computer games using the program. Japanese police have not revealed how these users were traced.

Across the world, internet file-sharing has become a major headache for entertainment companies. In the US and Europe programs such as Kazaa and 
Morpheus are used by millions of people to share digital copies of copyrighted music, films and software files without permission.

But these popular programs do not protect the identity of their users, meaning an outside can find a user's (IP) internet protocol address and trace them 
through their internet service provider. 
Legal attack

In the US, the Recording Industry Association of America, a lobby group representing the world's largest record labels, has exploited this fact to track down 
individual music traders and sue them for allegedly copyright infringement.

Julian Midgley, of the UK think-tank Campaign for Digital Rights, says anonymous file-trading will probably increase as traders face growing legal pressure. 
"If people provide simple tools it would seem to be the obvious thing to happen," he told New Scientist.

But he notes that in some countries it easier for investigators to demand that internet service providers hand over information that could be used to trace users 
trying to mask their activities.

___

iTunes in China
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5215000.html

___

Opensource downloads
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5216033.html

___

Ibuprofen May Help Treat Colon Cancer - Study

Wed May 19, 4:27 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - A cheap headache pill may not only help prevent colon cancer, but may turn out to be an effective therapy, U.S.-based researchers said on Wednesday. 

Mice with cancer that were given small daily doses of ibuprofen had smaller tumors and were less likely to die of colon cancer, they told a meeting. 

"Now we want to do some more studies," said Dr. Michael Wolfe, a gastroenterologist at the Boston University School of Medicine, who led the study. 

"What was really, to us, remarkable is the dose we used in these animals is equivalent to 100 mg of ibuprofen in a human." 

That is about half the amount contained in a standard tablet of ibuprofen. 

Several studies have shown that people who take aspirin, ibuprofen and related drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS, have a lower risk of colon cancer. 

The mechanism seems to be compounds called COX-1 and COX-2, both of which NSAIDS interfere with. 

But Wolfe said no one had tested NSAIDS as a potential cancer therapy. 

Ibuprofen seemed to affect tumor cells in lab dishes, so he tried using laboratory mice that had been infected with colon cancer cells. These mice always develop tumors and die if not treated. 

They treated the mice for 21 days with either ibuprofen alone, or with ibuprofen added to the standard colon cancer drugs irinotecan, sold by Pfizer under the brand name Camptosar, or 5-fluororacil. 

By day 50, all the untreated mice had died. But 20 percent of the mice treated with ibuprofen alone died, compared to 20 percent given Camptosar and just 10 percent given ibuprofen plus Camptosar. But 70 percent of the mice that got 5-fluororacil alone or with ibuprofen died. 

Ibuprofen and 5-fluororacil seem to interfere with one another, Wolfe said. The findings were presented on Wednesday to a meeting in New Orleans of cancer and digestive experts called Digestive Disease Week. 

"I'd love to see a study done for the actual treatment of cancers," Wolfe said. But because ibuprofen is cheap, he feared it was "not sexy enough" for any big drug company to sponsor. 

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States after lung cancer, and will kill 57,000 people this year, according to the American Cancer Society (news - web sites).

'Da Vinci Code' Author Left Out Material 

Wed May 19, 3:34 PM ET

By KATE McCANN, News Source Writer 

CONCORD, N.H. - Though "The Da Vinci Code" was contentious enough to produce 10 books attempting to discredit it, its author said he left out what likely would have been the most controversial part. 

Related Links
¥ Dan Brown - official site

Dan Brown said that when he wrote the best seller that dissects the origins of Jesus Christ and disputes long-held beliefs about Catholicism, he considered including material alleging that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion. 

While speaking at a benefit Tuesday for a New Hampshire writers' group, Brown said the theory is backed by a number of "very credible sources," but that he ultimately decided it was too flimsy. 

"For me, that was just three or four steps too far," he told the crowd of more than 800 people. 

Brown's discussion of his book, during which he answered audience questions, was a rare public appearance for him. He has declined most requests for media interviews this year, saying he is focusing on writing the sequel to his book. 

He said the new book, set in Washington, D.C., would focus on the Free and Accepted Masons, a secretive fraternal organization. He said the architecture in Washington is soaked in symbolism and plays a major role in the novel. He also said the dust jacket of "The Da Vinci Code" contains a code that reveals information about the sequel. 

But Brown spent much of the evening discussing the controversy that has surrounded "The Da Vinci Code." 

Since the book was published in March 2003, liberal and conservative writers have cited numerous errors. A key assertion in "The Da Vinci Code" - that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that sinister Christians suppressed information about it - comes from a 1982 book titled "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which a New York Times reviewer called "rank nonsense." 

Brown said he is grateful his book is generating so much debate. He said apathy is a constant threat to the study of the uncomfortable relationship between science and religion. 

The book casts unflattering light on the Catholic Church, accusing church leaders of demonizing women for centuries and of covering up the truth about the Holy Grail, which Brown says is Mary Magdalene herself. 

Many critics have taken issue with Brown's claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child who was whisked away to France after Jesus' crucifixion. 

But Brown, who was raised Christian, said that theory does not detract from Christianity's message. 

"In my mind, the possibility that Jesus might have married Mary Magdalene in no way undermines the beauty of Christ's message," he said. 

"The Da Vinci Code" has sold 7.5 million copies worldwide and is expected to be made into a movie.

AP: Database Measured 'Terrorism Quotient'

1 hour, 35 minutes ago

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, News Source Technology Writer

NEW YORK - Before helping to launch the criminal information project known as Matrix, a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the 
names of 120,000 people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists - sparking some investigations and arrests.

The "high terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the involvement of the database company, Seisint Inc., in the Matrix project.

Public records obtained by The News Source from several states show that Justice Department (news - web sites) officials cited the scoring 
technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the federally funded, $12 million project.

Seisint and the law enforcement officials who oversee Matrix insist that the terrorism scoring system ultimately was kept out of the project, largely 
because of privacy concerns.

However, new details about Seisint's development of the "terrorism quotient," including the revelation that authorities apparently acted on the list of 
120,000, are renewing privacy activists' suspicions about Matrix's potential power.

"Assuming they have in fact abandoned the terrorist quotient, there's nothing that stops them from bringing it back," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the 
technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), which learned about the list of 120,000 through its own records 
request in Utah.

Matrix - short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange - combines state records and data culled by Seisint to give investigators fast access 
to information on crime and terrorism suspects. It was launched in 2002.

Because the system includes information on people with no criminal record as well as known criminals, Matrix has drawn objections from liberal and 
conservative privacy groups. Utah and at least eight other states have pulled out, leaving Florida, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The AP has received thousands of pages of Matrix documents in records requests this year, including meeting minutes and presentation materials that 
discuss the project in detail.

Not one indicates that Matrix planners decided against using the statistical method of determining an individual's propensity for terrorism.

When the AP specifically requested documents indicating the scoring system was scrapped, the general counsel's office for Florida state police said it 
could not uncover any.

Even so, people involved with Matrix pledge that the statistical method was removed from the final product.

"I'll put my 26 years of law enforcement experience on the line. It is not in there," said Mark Zadra, chief investigator for the Florida Department of Law 
Enforcement.

He said Matrix, which has 4 billion records, merely speeds access to material that police have always been able to get from disparate sources, and does not 
automatically or proactively finger suspects.

Bill Shrewsbury, a Seisint executive and former federal drug agent, said the terrorism scoring algorithm that produced the list of 120,000 names was "put on the shelf" after it was demonstrated immediately following Sept. 11, 2001.

He said the scoring system requires intelligence data that was fed into the software for the initial demonstration but is not commonly available. "Nor are 
we interested in pursuing that," he said.

The Utah documents included a Seisint presentation saying the scoring system was developed by the company and law enforcement officials by reverse 
engineering an unnamed "Terrorist Handbook" that reveals how terrorists "penetrate and in live our society."

The scoring incorporated such factors as age, gender, ethnicity, credit history, "investigational data," information about pilot and driver licenses, and 
connections to "dirty" addresses known to have been used by other suspects.

According to Seisint's presentation, dated January 2003 and marked confidential, the 120,000 names with the highest scores were given to the Immigration 
and Naturalization Service, FBI (news - web sites), Secret Service and Florida state police. (Later, those agencies would help craft the software that queries 
Matrix.)

Of the people with the 80 highest scores, five were among the Sept. 11 hijackers, Seisint's presentation said. Forty-five were identified as being or 
possibly being under existing investigations, while 30 others "were unknown to FBI."

"Investigations were triggered and arrests were made by INS and other agencies," the presentation added. Two bullet points stated: "Several arrests within 
one week" and "Scores of other arrests." It does not provide details of when and where the investigations and arrests took place.

Phil Ramer, who heads Florida state police's intelligence division, said his agency found the list a useful starting point for some investigations, though he 
said he could not recall how many. He stressed that the list was not used as the sole evidence to make arrests.

"What we did with the list is we went back and found out how they got on the list," Ramer said.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a descendant of INS in the Department of Homeland Security, said he could 
not confirm that INS used or was given the list.

Although Seisint says it shelved the scoring system - known as high terrorist factor, or HTF - after the original demonstrations in the wake of Sept. 11, 
2001, the algorithm was touted well into 2003.

A records request by the AP in Florida turned up "briefing points," dated January 2003, for a presentation on Matrix to Vice President Dick Cheney (news 
- web sites) and other top federal officials delivered jointly by Seisint, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida's top police official.

One of the items on Seisint's agenda: "Demonstrate HTF with mapping." Matrix meeting minutes from February 2003 say Cheney was briefed along 
with Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

In May 2003, the Justice Department approved Seisint as sole data contractor on the project, citing the company's "technical qualifications," including 
software "applying the `terrorism quotient' in all cases."

"The quotient identifies a set of criteria which accurately singled out characteristics related to the perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks and other terrorist 
events," said a memo from an Office of Justice Programs policy adviser, Bruce Edwards. "This process produced a scoring mechanism (that), when applied 
to the general criminal population, yields other people that may have similar motives."

A spokeswoman for the Office of Justice Programs declined to comment.

Ramer, the Florida agent, said the scoring system was scrapped because it was "really specific to 9/11," and not applicable for everyday use. Also, he said, 
"we didn't want anybody abusing it."

Seisint Inc., is a Boca Raton, Fla., company founded by a millionaire, Hank Asher, who stepped down from its board of directors last year after revelations 
of past ties to drug smugglers.

___

On the Net:

http://www.matrix-at.org

http://www.aclu.org/privacy

FBI Whistleblower Disputes OKC Report Thu May 20, 5:29 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By TIM TALLEY, News Source Writer McALESTER, Okla. - An FBI (news - web sites) whistleblower testifying at the state murder trial of Terry Nichols claimed a government scientist lied about key physical evidence found at the Oklahoma City bombing. Frederic Whitehurst told jurors Wednesday that FBI forensic scientist Steven Burmeister, whom he trained, had told two lies: that ammonium nitrate crystals found on bombing debris had been embedded by the force of the blast and that the crystals came from the kind of fertilizer believed used in the bombing. Whitehurst said there was not enough evidence to support either of Burmeister's conclusions about the bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people. "He is my student. And I trust him like a brother. But he lied under oath," Whitehurst said of Burmeister. Testimony was to resume Thursday, when Nichols' attorneys plan to rest their case. Prosecutors plan to question more than a dozen rebuttal witnesses Thursday and Friday, authorities said. Judge Steven Taylor told jurors that closing arguments are tentatively scheduled to begin Monday afternoon. Whitehurst said he questioned Burmeister's truthfulness after reviewing transcripts of his testimony at the federal trials of Nichols and McVeigh, who was executed in 2001. Burmeister said substantially the same things when he testified at Nichols' state trial April 29. Whitehurst's allegations in the mid-1990s divulged shoddy work at the FBI laboratory in Washington and led to widespread changes. The Justice Department (news - web sites) inspector general's office investigated the lab for 18 months and subsequently criticized the facility for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing. A lab spokeswoman, Special Agent Ann Todd, declined to respond to Whitehurst's testimony, saying it wasn't appropriate to comment during a trial. The News Source last year reported that Burmeister himself alleged to the Justice Department's inspector general that the bombing evidence was tainted by shoddy work and contamination problems, then recanted the allegation a few months before he testified in the McVeigh trial. Whitehurst's testimony focused on a shredded piece of plywood that authorities believe came from the cargo container of the Ryder truck that delivered the ammonium-nitrate-and-fuel-oil bomb. The debris, recovered two days after the bombing in a parking lot across the street from the federal building, is the only direct evidence of the explosive. Whitehurst said Burmeister began referring to the crystals as embedded after meeting with federal prosecutors who asked whether the crystals were embedded. Burmeister said then he could not tell, Whitehurst said. "They were not embedded in that surface," Whitehurst said. "They were simply adhering to the surface." Nichols, 49, could face the death penalty if he is convicted on 161 state counts of first-degree murder. He is already serving a life prison sentence on federal charges in the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers. The state charges cover the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus. 

Defense Rests in Nichols' Okla. Trial Fri May 21, 6:19 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By TIM TALLEY, News Source Writer McALESTER, Okla. - Prosecutors called rebuttal witnesses to attack key elements of the defense put forth for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols at his state murder trial. Nichols' lawyers rested their case Thursday, after which the government questioned six people. Eight more were to testify Friday, and closing arguments are tentatively scheduled to begin Monday afternoon. Defense lawyers called 96 witnesses, many of them directly supporting Nichols' assertion that other conspirators gave executed bomber Timothy McVeigh (news - web sites) substantial help in planning the explosion that killed 168 people. Nichols was at his home in Herington, Kan., when the 4,000-pound fertilizer and fuel oil bomb was detonated. But prosecutors allege Nichols gathered bomb components, including explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and helped McVeigh pack the homemade device into a Ryder truck. Testifying for the defense Wednesday, Rodney Johnson told jurors that moments before the bombing he had to swerve his catering truck to avoid hitting two men who hurried together away from the building. He identified one of them as McVeigh. But John Hippard, a retired FBI (news - web sites) agent who interviewed Johnson two days after the April 19, 1995, bombing, said Johnson could not positively identify either of the figures at the time. His descriptions of their clothing also differed from his testimony, he said. Three days after the bombing, Hippard also interviewed Dena Hunt, a service technician for the Oklahoma City Police Department who said she saw McVeigh and one or two other people in a Ryder truck a few blocks from the federal building about 30 minutes before the explosion. At the time, Hippard said, she could not positively identify McVeigh but said the man she saw resembled him. William Franklin Holdson testified he drove a Ryder truck through downtown Oklahoma City and parked it just one block away from the federal building on the morning of the deadly blast. Holdson, who managed a production crew for a merchandising company at the time, was questioned to help explain why defense witnesses reported seeing a Ryder truck in various parts of the city on the morning of the bombing. Prosecutors also called a defense witness, Joan Rairden, back to the witness stand. Rairden, an assistant manager at a McDonald's restaurant in Junction City, Kan., in 1995, testified two weeks ago that McVeigh came into the restaurant on April 13 or 14, 1995, with a group of other people, including a dark-skinned man with slicked-back black hair. On Thursday, Rairden said McVeigh does not appear on security videotapes of the restaurant on those dates, but that she still believes he was there. Nichols, 49, is serving a life prison sentence after a federal jury convicted him in 1997 of conspiracy and the involuntary manslaughter of eight federal law enforcement agents in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In Oklahoma, Nichols is charged with 161 counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.

Possible Causes of Sudden Cardiac Death Found Thu May 20, 7:04 PM ET HealthDay 

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, May 20 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers say they may know why a young American man or woman unexpectedly goes into cardiac arrest and dies. A study of more than 6 million U.S. military recruits, including over 100 cases of sudden cardiac death, has found that the primary causes were cardiac arrhythmia and a structural problem in the coronary arteries. Sudden cardiac death is a leading cause of death in the United States, taking more than 400,000 lives each year. "This finding is revolutionary," said lead researcher Dr. Robert E. Eckart, a cardiologist from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. "Previously, it was thought the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in younger people was abnormal muscle thickening of the heart." Eckart said the cause of sudden cardiac death varies by country. In Italy, for example, the main cause is a unique type of heart muscle problem. "We thought it would be important to look at a population that would be more representative of the U.S. as a whole," he said. In their study, Eckart and his team collected data on 6.3 million military recruits spanning 25 years, from 1977 to 2002. During this period, there were 127 sudden cardiac deaths, according to the data presented Thursday at the Heart Rhythm 2004 meeting in San Francisco. "We found that the leading cause of sudden cardiac death was a coronary artery problem," Eckart said. "This anomaly is when one of the coronary arteries takes off from the aorta in an abnormal fashion." The second leading cause of sudden cardiac death in people with seemingly healthy hearts was the development of a deadly heart rhythm, known as an arrhythmia. Eckart believes this problem is genetic. Given these findings, Eckart said he has changed his approach to treating young people who complain of chest pain. Before, he screened these patients with an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart, to look for abnormal heart muscle. But now he does an electrocardiogram (EKG) to look for abnormal electrical activity in the heart. Eckart also looks at the condition of the coronary arteries to see if there is any abnormality. "By doing those two simple things, we are going to make a larger impact on sudden cardiac death in this young population," Eckart said. More research is needed to identify people with a genetic susceptibility to deadly heart rhythms, he added. Eckart strongly recommends that young patients with a family history of premature sudden cardiac death have an EKG to look for the problems that can cause these deadly heart rhythms. Dr. Ramon Brugada is a cardiologist and director of molecular genetics at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory in Utica, N.Y. He said, "This study points out the importance of screening young people with EKGs." However, many of these conditions can appear normal on an EKG, he cautioned. "You have to catch it at the right time," he said. "If you have a family history of sudden death, if someone in the family died at 20 or 25 with no previous medical problems, that should raise a red flag that there is some inherited disease. Other family members should have an EKG screening," Brugada advised. More information The American Heart Association (news - web sites) can tell you about sudden cardiac death, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has a section on heart disease.

NASA to Launch Robot Aircraft Program Thu May 20, 7:32 PM ET 

By ANDREW BRIDGES, News Source Science Writer LOS ANGELES - NASA (news - web sites) said Thursday it is launching a program that could place robot planes and aircraft flown by human pilots in the same airspace by 2008. Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are now limited primarily to restricted test or military airspace. "The fundamental underpinnings of this program are, how can we safely introduce this class into the national airspace system?" said Jeff Bauer, manager of the $360 million program for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. An industry association, the UAV National Industry Team, as well as the Defense Department and Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), are also participating in the five-year program to deliver proposals and recommendations to the FAA. Participants acknowledge that many technical and policy hurdles and much testing lie ahead. In recent years, robot planes have been involved in some high-profile mishaps, including in combat in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites). In the United States, prototype drones have landed on a freeway, cratered in the desert and crumbled in the skies over Hawaii. Perfecting the technology - and figuring out how to ensure the drones' safe operation - could open up the use of robot planes in civilian and commercial applications, including firefighting, border patrol, domestic security and communications. Industrial partners in the program include Boeing, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and Aerovironment Inc. ___ On the Net: http://www.uavnas.aero/

Insurance Exec Sues Strip Club Over $28,000 Tab

May 20, 4:37 pm ET 

NEW YORK  - A New York insurance executive slapped an upscale strip club with a lawsuit after it charged him $28,000 for a night of champagne and partying with a dozen exotic dancers.

Mitchell Blaser, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the Americas division of insurer Swiss Re, filed suit on Tuesday demanding that strip club Scores pay back the $28,000 because that does not accurately reflect his spending at the Manhattan nightspot.

But a Scores spokesman said that, during his December visit, Blaser ordered five magnums of the club's most expensive champagne, a 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil, for $3,200 each. He also spent $7,000 for lap dances and the company of 12 girls who surrounded him for hours.

"Obviously, he's pouring the champagne for all the girls and playing superstar," Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover said.

Hanover called the suit "frivolous" and said Scores has three signed receipts from Blaser over the course of the night. He said American Express investigated the matter and found the charges were valid and paid the $28,000.

In his lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court in Manhattan, Blaser said he and his friend were intimidated into signing an invoice for $8,615 by Scores' staff, which threatened to keep his credit card. Scores then tacked on an additional $4,000 gratuity without his signature, the suit said. It also said Blaser promptly complained to American Express.

A $28,000 tab, while sky high, is not unheard of at Scores, Hanover said. The club has catered to foreign heads of state, athletes and Wall Street executives. But he said this was the first time anyone ordered more than one bottle of its most expensive champagne.

Blaser's lawyer was not immediately available to comment. A Swiss Re spokesman declined to comment, saying it was a personal matter.

Insurance Exec Sues Strip Club Over $28,000 Tab

May 20, 4:37 pm ET 

NEW YORK  - A New York insurance executive slapped an upscale strip club with a lawsuit after it charged him $28,000 for a night of champagne and partying with a dozen exotic dancers.

Mitchell Blaser, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the Americas division of insurer Swiss Re, filed suit on Tuesday demanding that strip club Scores pay back the $28,000 because that does not accurately reflect his spending at the Manhattan nightspot.

But a Scores spokesman said that, during his December visit, Blaser ordered five magnums of the club's most expensive champagne, a 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil, for $3,200 each. He also spent $7,000 for lap dances and the company of 12 girls who surrounded him for hours.

"Obviously, he's pouring the champagne for all the girls and playing superstar," Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover said.

Hanover called the suit "frivolous" and said Scores has three signed receipts from Blaser over the course of the night. He said American Express investigated the matter and found the charges were valid and paid the $28,000.

In his lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court in Manhattan, Blaser said he and his friend were intimidated into signing an invoice for $8,615 by Scores' staff, which threatened to keep his credit card. Scores then tacked on an additional $4,000 gratuity without his signature, the suit said. It also said Blaser promptly complained to American Express.

A $28,000 tab, while sky high, is not unheard of at Scores, Hanover said. The club has catered to foreign heads of state, athletes and Wall Street executives. But he said this was the first time anyone ordered more than one bottle of its most expensive champagne.

Blaser's lawyer was not immediately available to comment. A Swiss Re spokesman declined to comment, saying it was a personal matter.

Traffic Is Horrible! I'll Just Think About Sex...

May 20, 9:40 am ET 

BERLIN  - A third of German motorists fantasize about sex when stuck in traffic while only 10 percent think of finding an alternate route, according to a motor club survey published Thursday.

Eight percent think about how much petrol they have, seven percent about their next meal, and seven percent about going to a toilet. Six percent think about their careers.

One in ten caught focus on their families, seven percent on shopping lists and another seven percent worry about the damage the traffic jam might do to their clutch. Only six percent said they don't think about anything in traffic jams.

The Auto Club Europa (ACE) in Stuttgart said 1,833 motorists took part in the Internet survey on what occupies their thoughts when traffic comes to a standstill.

Malta Moon Rock Goes Missing

May 20, 8:35 am ET 

VALLETTA  - A small moon rock donated to Malta in 1970 by then U.S. President Richard Nixon has been stolen from the island's National Museum of Natural History.

In-Nazzjon newspaper said Wednesday it was not clear how the theft occurred. The stone was found missing Tuesday.

Pull Mercury from Mouths of Dead

May 20, 8:20 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - Amalgam tooth fillings made with mercury should be pulled out before people are cremated to cut emissions of the highly toxic metal, a Swedish government agency report proposed on Wednesday.

Mercury, also known as quicksilver, has been linked to neurological problems and is especially harmful to young children and fetuses.

It would be "difficult from the ethical point of view, but it is nevertheless desirable to be able to decrease the emission of quicksilver," the Chemical Inspectorate report said.

It calculated that since three quarters of Swedes have amalgam fillings, the population carries some 2.8 tons of mercury in their mouths.

In Sweden 70 percent of the dead are cremated, so about 1.9 tons end up in the air or in crematorium gas purification systems, the report said.

A Stradivarius as a CD Holder?

May 19, 10:22 am ET 

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES  - A Los Angeles nurse found a stolen Stradivarius cello worth $3.5 million next to a dumpster and planned to turn it into a CD cabinet until she discovered it was the instrument the whole town was searching for, her lawyer says.

The "General Kyd" cello, made in 1684 and named for the man who brought it to England, was returned on Saturday to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which owns it and offered a $50,000 reward for its return, attorney Ronald Hoffman said Tuesday.

Police said the cello was taken from the porch of principal cellist Peter Stumpf on April 24 by a thief riding a bicycle.

Three days later, nurse Melanie Stevens spotted the cello peeking from its silver case beside a dumpster while she waited at a red light. "She recognized it as a musical instrument case because she plays guitar. She wasn't thinking that it was old," Hoffman said.

Stevens, 30, asked a homeless man to help load it into her car and took it home to show her cabinetmaker boyfriend, Igal Asseraf, to see if he could fix a crack in it. "She said if you can't fix it, we can turn it into a CD case," Hoffman said.

"We are very lucky that Igal was not a person that works real quickly."

The instrument sat in the couple's spare bedroom until last Friday, when Stevens caught the end of a TV news report on the missing cello, and realized she had found the instrument that all of Los Angeles was looking for.

The couple met detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's art theft detail, who interviewed them extensively to make sure they were not involved with the theft, the lawyer said.

They also contacted officials at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, who were "jubilant" at the rare instrument's return, Hoffman added.

He said Stevens was thrilled to learn that she may receive the $50,000 reward for not turning the cello into a CD case.

Ban on Force-Fed Foie Gras Nears

May 19, 10:11 am ET 

SAN FRANCISCO  - Force-feeding of ducks and geese to make foie gras, a delicacy to some and an outrage to others, is a step closer to being outlawed in California after the state senate's passage of a bill.

The bill proposed by John Burton, the state Senate's top Democrat, would also ban the sale of foie gras made from the enlarged livers of force-fed geese and ducks.

The bill, passed Tuesday on a vote of 21-14, now goes to the California Assembly, where one lawmaker has also proposed a bill to ban farm-raised salmon in the state.

Only one farm in California currently produces foie gras. If Burton's bill becomes law, it would become effective in seven and a half years and would impose fines of $1,000 for force-feeding birds in foie gras production.

Foie gras from the livers of birds fed normally would not be affected by the bill.

"It's the process not the product we're after," said Dave Sebeck, Burton's spokesman.

Foie gras has become controversial in recent years in California despite the state's reputation for fine cuisine.

Animal rights activists have made foie gras production one of their most visible causes, seeking a ban in California to its production and sale. Vandals last summer trashed a Sonoma County restaurant north of San Francisco and threatened its co-owner at his home for serving foie gras.

Pa. Scientists Discover New Dinosaur Thu May 20, 3:03 PM ET 

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, News Source Writer PHILADELPHIA - A curious piece of bone spotted by a University of Pennsylvania professor during a horseback ride in southern Montana led to the discovery of a new dinosaur with a long neck, a whip-like tail and a mysterious extra hole in its skull. The new find - a Suuwassea emilieae - is a sauropod, a classification of plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails, small heads, and four elephant-like legs. At 50 feet long, it's a smaller cousin of better-known sauropods Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. The 150-million-year-old creature is described by scientists in the current issue of the paleontology journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica. "It has a number of distinguishing features, but the most striking is this second hole in its skull, a feature we have never seen before in a North American dinosaur," said Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study and anatomy professor at the university's veterinary school. The Jurassic-age find was first spotted by William Donawick, emeritus professor of surgery at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, while on a horseback ride in fall 1998 in far southern Montana, not far from his daughter and son-in-law's Wyoming ranch. He returned to Philadelphia with a piece of bone for his colleague Dodson, who found it tantalizing enough that an expedition got under way the following summer. Researchers have named the dinosaur Suuwassea emilieae (SOO-oo-WAH-see-uh eh-MEE-LEE-aye), after a Crow Indian word meaning "ancient thunder" and for the late Philadelphia socialite Emilie deHellebrath, who funded the digs that unearthed more than 50 bones. They ranged from a 43-inch shoulder blade and a 53-inch rib to the two-holed skull that has scientists stumped. "The extra hole in the skull is still a mystery," said Jerry Harris, study co-author and Penn graduate student researcher. "It has only been seen before in two dinosaurs from Africa and one from South America." While its Diplodocus relatives have a single hole on the top of the skull for the nasal cavity, Suuwassea second hole's purpose is unknown, he said. The bones were unearthed in 1999 and 2000 but had to be coaxed from their rocky enclosures, cleaned up, and subjected to a lengthy process of measurements, comparative studies, published papers and peer review before passing muster as a new dinosaur, Dodson said. Suuwassea emilieae's new home is the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where it will be available for teachers, researchers and students to study. It may even be assembled and displayed one day, said academy paleontologist Ted Daeschler. Suuwassea was found on what once was waterfront property that looked onto a body of water called the Sundance sea. The location of the find is unusual, researchers said, because most of the dinosaur bones have been found in drier parts of the Morrison Formation farther south. "It's from a time period and a place that makes it relatively unique," Daeschler said. The creature's final resting place was in a fossil-rich area that paleontologists call the Morrison Formation, which stretches from Montana to New Mexico. Suuwassea emilieae is the first new sauropod from that geological formation in more than a century, Dodson said, but many more are likely to come as archaeological research continues to intensify in the United States, China and Argentina. "We're living now in a golden age of dinosaur paleontology," he said. "They're being found at a startling rate all over the world." ___ On the Net: Journal article: http://app.pan.pl/acta49/app49-197.pdf University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu Academy of Natural Sciences: http://www.acnatsci.org

Bible Proofreaders Sweat the Small Stuff 1 hour, 57 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By LOUISE CHU, News Source Writer PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - Thank the Lord - and the proofreaders at Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading - that the Bible refers to "our ancestors" instead of "sour ancestors," and calls for an end to "factions" - not "fractions." The proofreading service caught those typos and others before the latest edition of the Holy Book went to press. At Peachtree, attention to detail is more than a job description. It's a calling. "Bible readers are less forgiving of errors because they expect perfection in the Bible text," said June Gunden, who founded the business along with her husband, Doug. Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading Service is believed to be the only one of its kind in the nation - and one of only a few in the world - to specialize in proofreading Bibles. "As many words as there are in the Bible, you can imagine all the kinds of things that could go wrong," said David R. Shepherd, publisher of the Holman Christian Standard Bible. "It would be devastating to have a typo in the wrong place or a word left out." A list hangs in the Gundens' office as a reminder of just how much rides on their work. The list, a collection of notorious typos found in the Bible, features one prominent error from a 1631 King James edition: "Thou shalt commit adultery." "Obviously, you try to make sure anything that says, `You shall not,' you make sure you have the `not,'" Doug Gunden said. While such long-ago errors are good for a chuckle, the Gundens, who have been in the proofreading business for more than 25 years, realize that proofreading a Bible is serious stuff. With an ordinary book, "you can put up with more because it's not something you're basing your whole life on," June Gunden said. "It's information, but it's not really life-changing information. It's not something you believe to be infallible." The best-selling book of all time has reached even greater heights in recent years, with Bible sales accounting for almost $140 million last year, an 8 percent increase over 2002, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, which tracks sales at Christian stores. Publishers have been producing new, annotated editions with study notes and graphics - all of which require the Gundens' services. "In the last three months, we've had more calls for new Bibles that people want us to get on our schedule than I can remember," June Gunden said. Wall-to-wall bookshelves at the Peachtree office display the hundreds of Bibles that have passed under the eyes of the 17-person staff. The staff recently finished one of its largest projects, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the latest of only a dozen English translations produced since the 15th century. The 20-year, $10 million project employed about 100 biblical scholars, linguists and editors to translate the Bible from the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic into modern English. For the last two years, the project was in the hands of the Peachtree staff, which combed each page repeatedly, looking for such things as typos and punctuation errors. Peachtree's employees incorporate their faith into their work, starting each project with a prayer. "If you work on these projects and you don't have an appreciation for this gift that God has given us - his word - it's a little more difficult for you to recognize the magnitude of the project," Doug Gunden said.

Continental Airlines raises fares to offset high fuel prices 2 hours, 6 minutes ago Add U.S. National - NEWS SOURCE 

HOUSTON, United States (NEWS SOURCE) - Continental Airlines announced an immediate worldwide fare increase of up to 20 dollars a flight and said it was considering job cuts to help offset record fuel prices. Fares went up by 20 dollars each way for flights over more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) and by 10 dollars each way for shorter flights, the carrier said in a statement late Tuesday. The new ticket prices would likely cover only 15 to 20 percent of impact of the record fuel costs, it said. Continental, the world's sixth largest airline with a staff of 41,000, said it was considering extra furloughs, wage and benefit concessions and reduced pension funding. "We worked hard to generate 900 million dollars of operating income improvements by removing non-value added expense and generating additional revenue over the past two years. We originally expected that this would let us break even in 2004," chairman and chief executive Gordon Bethune said in a statement. "While we may be faring better than our financially weaker competitors, none of us can afford to operate with these high fuel costs," he added. "If we are not successful in passing along these exorbitant fuel costs through higher fares, we will ultimately be forced to seek significant wage and benefit concessions and furloughs of our dedicated and hard working coworkers in order to survive." Light, sweet crude for delivery in June has declined only a little since Monday when it spiked at a record high 41.85 dollars a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Continental said it had expected jet fuel prices to average 68 cents a gallon when it originally laid out plans last year to break even in 2004. Instead, a gallon of jet fuel now cost about 1.14 dollars, increasing Continental's annual operating expenses by about 700 million dollars. "With fuel prices at these levels and the current weak fare environment, the company expects to post a loss in the quarter ending June 30 and a significant loss for 2004 and beyond," the airline said. Continental said it expected to end the second quarter with an unrestricted cash and short term investment balance of between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion dollars. "However, continued record high fuel prices without an offsetting improvement in the revenue environment will result in continued pressure on the company's cash balances," it warned. Unless fuel prices fall quickly or sales surge, Continental said it expected to have no choice but to shed additional employees and seek wage and benefit cuts from all its employees." Continental said it was "reevaluating" whether to fund its pension plan above the minimum amount of 17 million dollars required for 2004. It had originally expected to contribute 300 million dollars this year. 

Protester Throws Powder at Tony Blair 1 hour, 53 minutes ago By ED JOHNSON, News Source Writer LONDON - A protester hit British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) with a purple powder in the House of Commons on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to suspend proceedings and evacuate. House authorities said the powder was "benign" - colored corn starch - and lawmakers resumed their session shortly afterward. Blair was not injured but the incident was a major security breach in Parliament, which recently put up a bulletproof screen to protect members from possible attacks from the public gallery. London's Metropolitan Police said two men were arrested but were not immediately charged. Fathers 4 Justice, a group which campaigns on child custody issues, claimed responsibility. A man in a suit stood up in the public gallery and was heard to shout "do you realize" and "five years." Blair visibly flinched as he was hit by the powder. Speaker Michael Martin immediately suspended the weekly session of prime minister's questions. A purplish haze was seen in the chamber as members evacuated. Blair's office said the prime minister was fine. "He is OK. He walked out," a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. The suspect and an apparent accomplice were grabbed by security officers, and Martin immediately suspended the session. The man who threw the power was standing in a part of the gallery reserved for guests of members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The ordinary public is behind a security screen to prevent such disruptions. The second man was seen holding up a sheet of letter size paper, but it was unclear what message was on it. Fathers 4 Justice campaigns on behalf of fathers denied access to their children and has drawn attention to the issue with a series of high-profile stunts. One member, David Chick, dressed as Spiderman and climbed atop a crane beside London's Tower Bridge in November, forcing police to close the busy traffic route and leading to huge traffic jams. Four members of the group - dressed as Spiderman, Superman, Batman and Robin - also climbed Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge in February, leading to its closure. There has been a public focus on security at the Houses of Parliament since two anti-Iraq (news - web sites) war protesters scaled the tower housing the Big Ben bell, part of the legislative complex, in March. Peter Hain, the leader of the House of Commons, said last month that British intelligence had clear information about a danger to Parliament. He warned lawmakers that terrorists could attack the chamber with germs or deadly gas.

Violence in Iraq puts advertisers on edge Tue May 18,12:48 PM ET Add Business - USATODAY.com 

By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY As broadcast and cable networks enter the crucial "upfront" season, when they try to sell ad time for the upcoming season, there is worry that the flood of grisly images flowing into living rooms from Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere will discourage advertisers. Generally, Madison Avenue tries to avoid having ad messages juxtaposed with horrible news or violent imagery. The most extreme example: Networks lost over $1 billion in ad revenue after the Sept. 11 attacks. Even after networks resumed normal schedules, some advertisers yanked ads for fear of being seen as insensitive. While recent images of beheaded hostage Nick Berg, abused Iraqi prisoners, sarin nerve gas attacks and burned corpses of Americans dangling from bridges have been disturbing, so far advertisers haven't pulled back. General Motors, the nation's largest advertiser, "would not advertise on a TV program (just) about atrocities in Iraq," says spokeswoman Ryndee Carney. However she says, "When you buy news media, you take what you can get. The news is the news." But if violence keeps coming - or worsens - watch out, experts warn. "You don't want to run a humorous commercial next to horrific images and stories," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president of media buyer Horizon Media. Bad news from Iraq could shift upfront ad dollars to media outlets viewed as "safe havens," says Jack Myers, editor of Jack Myers Report. Among likely beneficiaries: The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Hallmark Channel and Oxygen. "There's a positive glow on the networks that are seen as safe and secure," he says. News sales executives, however, assert that the Sept. 11 attacks and two wars have made marketers tougher about what they think audiences can handle. Through last week, no advertisers had called CNN to pull commercials, says ad sales chief Greg D'Alba. "Five years ago when there was a breaking story, you'd have 20 advertisers call and say 'pull me.' But the news environment has changed. This is must-see television. You have to know." Paul Rittenberg, senior vice president of advertising for Fox News, agrees. "It seems to be having more of an impact on newspapers and magazines." Ford Motor Co.'s. Ford brand hasn't changed its TV schedule, but it is watching images in news magazines with its ads, says spokeswoman Paige Johnson. "We're monitoring the content and will make decisions based on the nature of the content. But we don't have a lot of control." In fact, the war on terror is making it difficult for Madison Avenue "to find shelter from the storm" anywhere, says Allen Adamson, managing director of image consultancy Landor. "This is a new state of normalcy. The intensity and violence depicted in global news is increasing."

Average price of gas goes above $2 Tue May 18,12:54 PM ET By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the USA topped $2 for the first time Monday, the government said, confirming the pain drivers everywhere are seeing at the pump. Gasoline prices rose more than 7 cents a gallon in the past week, to $2.017 Monday, the Energy Department said. That was up 20 cents from a month ago and nearly 52 cents from this time a year ago. (Related story: Other prices rise as companies try to offset fuel costs) The increase comes as millions prepare to hit the road for summer trips. Gasoline costs - although not near the prices paid in past decades when adjusted for inflation - have also become an issue in the presidential campaign. At $2.35 a gallon, Los Angeles had the highest average price for regular gasoline in the country. Drivers were paying more than $2 in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Miami, New York City and Seattle. Gasoline prices have been rising in response to elevated oil prices, which make up nearly half the cost of gas. Monday, the price of crude oil trading in New York rose 17 cents to a record $41.55 a barrel in part because of worries about terrorism and uncertainty about oil producer Iraq (news - web sites). The good news: Some oil analysts say the worst for the climb in gasoline costs is probably over, provided oil costs don't increase much more. The rising gas costs are making Sean Zielenbach, 36, feel better about his decision to buy a Honda gas/electric hybrid car about two months ago, despite the higher cost compared with the all-gas model. "This is looking like a better and better deal," the Arlington, Va., non-profit consultant says.

US soldier alleges cover-up in prison abuse 1 hour, 39 minutes ago Add Politics - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - A member of US military intelligence said that the army tried to cover up the extent of detainee abuse in Iraq (news - web sites), a US television network reported. Sergeant Samuel Provance told ABC television that dozens of soldiers had been involved in the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Seven soldiers have been charged. The first will face a court-martial Wednesday in the Iraqi capital. "There's definitely a cover-up," Provance said in an interview with the World News Tonight programme released in advance of the broadcast. "People are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet." Provance, 30, was part of the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion stationed at Abu Ghraib last September. ABC said the soldier, who is now in Germany, gave the interview despite orders from his commanders not to. "What I was surprised at was the silence," Provance was quoted as saying. "The collective silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had to have seen something or heard something." Provance ran the military intelligence computer network at the prison. He said he did not see the abuse that has brought international criticism on the US military but that interrogators admitted they directed the military police to be rough with prisoners. "Anything (the MPs) were to do legally or otherwise, they were to take those commands from the interrogators," Provance said. The seven charged so far, who include three women, are all from a military police company. Some have said they acted under orders but military officials have said the abuse seen in photos of naked prisoners at Abu Ghraib was limited to a few MPs. Provance said the sexual humiliation began as a technique ordered by military intelligence. "One interrogator told me about how commonly the detainees were stripped naked, and in some occasions, wearing women's underwear," Provance said. "If it's your job to strip people naked, yell at them, scream at them, humiliate them, it's not going to be too hard to move from that to another level." Provance told how US soldiers struck prisoners around the neck and inmates were knocked out. "Then (the soldier) would go to the next detainee, who would be very fearful and voicing their fear, and the MP would calm him down and say: 'We're not going to do that. It's okay. Everything's fine,' and then do the exact same thing to him." Provance also described how two drunken interrogators took a female Iraqi prisoner from her cell in the middle of the night and stripped her to the waist. The men were restrained by another MP. The role of US military intelligence in the abuse is being investigated by Major General George Fay, the army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence. Provance said that when Fay interviewed him, he seemed interested only in the military police, not the interrogators, and seemed to discourage him from testifying. Provance said Fay threatened to take action against him for failing to report what he saw sooner. "I feel like I'm being punished for being honest," Provance said. "You know, it was almost as if I actually felt if all my statements were shredded and I said, like most everybody else, 'I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything. I don't know what you're talking about,' then my life would be just fine right now."

ere's a little fun to bring a laugh into these dark times:

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

GEORGE W BUSH
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to
know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken
is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image
of the chicken crossing the road.

HANS BLIX
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been
allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road I am now against it!

RALPH NADER
The chicken's habitat on the other side of the road had been polluted by
unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled
habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels
of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting
a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet that somebody out there
is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road
syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans
take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I
say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took
from you to build a road for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had
a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price
dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

JERRY FALWELL
Because the chicken was gay --- isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the
plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the
'other side'. That's what they call it the other side. Yes, my friends,
that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too.
I say we Boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the
liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other
side."

DR SEUSS
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the
chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
To die in the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without
having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody
told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the
chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it
experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life
long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together - in peace.

ARISTOTLE
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX
It was an historic inevitability.

RONALD REAGAN
What chicken?

CAPTAIN KIRK
To boldly go where no chicken has ever gone before.

SIGMUND FREUD
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the
road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES
I have just witnessed eChicken2003, which will not only cross roads, but
will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook,
- and internet explorer is an integral part of chicken.

ALBERT EINSTEIN
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the
chicken?

BILL CLINTON
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of
chicken?

AL GORE
I invented the chicken!

THE BIBLE
And God came down from heaven, and he said unto the chicken THOU SHALT
CROSS THE ROAD. And the chicken didst cross the road, and there was much
rejoicing.

COLONEL SANDERS
Did I miss one?

Eminem Suit Against Apple, MTV to Proceed Tue May 18, 8:39 AM ET DETROIT - A federal judge says rapper Eminem (news - web sites)'s copyright infringement claims over use of his song "Lose Yourself" in a commercial for Apple Computer Inc. can go forward. Apple featured a 10-year-old boy singing the Oscar-winning theme song to the rapper's movie "8 Mile" in an ad on MTV for the computer company's iPod music player and iTunes music service. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the suit brought by Eminem's publishing company can proceed against several companies, including MTV parent company Viacom and advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. Taylor threw out two state law-based claims of unfair competition and unjust enrichment. The television ad appeared many times during three months beginning in July 2003 and on Apple's Web site, despite the fact that the computer company had unsuccessfully sought Eminem's permission for the campaign. Herschel Fink, a Detroit lawyer for the defendants, said no viewer would think Eminem was endorsing the iTunes service. Eminem's lawyers say he has never nationally endorsed any product. ___ On the Net: Eminem: http://www.eminem.com MTV: http://www.mtv.com Apple Computer Inc.: http://www.apple.com 

Jets Release Details on Manhattan Stadium 2 hours, 34 minutes ago By KAREN MATTHEWS, News Source Writer NEW YORK - The New York Jets (news) released details of their planned West Side stadium Tuesday, featuring wind turbines and solar collector tubes to generate much of its own electricity and hot water. "We envision this as being the greenest building to date," said William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox, the New York-based architecture firm designing the project. In addition to housing the Jets, the $1.4 billion stadium would be integral to the city's bid for the 2012 Olympics, which got a boost Tuesday with the news that New York was chosen as one of five finalists to host the games. Pedersen called the Olympic announcement "tremendously exciting" and said, "We feel we have a stadium that sets the right tone for it." The stadium would be a rectangle bounded by 11th and 12th avenues and 30th and 33rd streets on the far West Side of Manhattan. Pedersen said its design, which differs from the typical circular or oval stadium, is meant to fit seamlessly into the city's grid. "It should feel as if it's very much connected into this particular place and as opposed to a stadium simply looking as if it could be anywhere, like a UFO landing from space," he said. The south facade of the stadium would contain 25,000 solar collector tubes and the walls would be topped by 34 wind turbines, each 40 feet tall. Pedersen said the windmills would generate almost all of the energy for the facility when it is being used as a football stadium and about 25 percent when it is being used as a convention and exhibition hall. The Jets, whose lease at the Meadowlands in New Jersey expires in 2008, have committed to spending $800 million in private funds on the stadium. The city and state would add $300 million each to build a retractable roof and a deck over the existing rail yards. The project, officially called the New York Sports and Convention Center, would anchor the city's plan to redevelop a large swath of that area. Backers say the stadium would create 7,000 permanent jobs and 18,000 construction jobs and would be a good deal for the city and state. But community groups and many elected officials oppose using tax dollars for a sports facility when schools and city services are facing a budget crunch.

Enron Tapes Hint Chiefs Knew About Power Ploys Tue May 18,11:09 AM ET 

By Jonathan Peterson Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON - Enron Corp. employees spoke of "stealing" up to $2 million a day from California during the 2000-01 energy crisis and suggested that their market-gaming ploys would be presented to top management, possibly including Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay, according to documents released Monday. The evidence of apparent scheming - in one recorded conversation, traders brag about taking money from "Grandma Millie" in California - is in a filing by a utility in Snohomish County, Wash. The municipal power unit north of Seattle wants refunds for alleged overcharges made by Enron during the electricity market meltdown. The utility obtained transcripts of routinely recorded trader discussions from the Justice Department (news - web sites), which seized them in its Enron investigation. While it has long been established that Enron engaged in market-gaming tactics - two top traders have pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges for manipulating California's energy market and a third awaits trial - the 450 pages of recorded conversations provide another vivid look into the organization's exploitive subculture. They also suggest that knowledge of alleged wrongdoing may have reached the level of Skilling, Enron's former chief executive, and Lay, the former chairman. In a Sept. 14, 2000, conversation, an employee named "Sue" from Enron's governmental affairs operation checks in with a trader named "Bob" for information that could be used in an in-house presentation to corporate executives. "This is the time of year when government affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," Sue said, according to the transcript. The Snohomish utility identified Sue as Susan J. Mara, Enron's California director of regulatory affairs until December 2001, when she and thousands of others lost their jobs as the result of Enron's financial collapse. In talking with Bob, whose identity couldn't immediately be learned, Mara touts Enron's success in delaying a lowering of energy price caps by state officials. Then, still seeking helpful material for the planned executive presentation, she asks: "Do you know when you started overscheduling load and making buckets of money on that?" Overscheduling load - a tactic that Enron traders famously dubbed "Fat Boy" - involved purposely overstating how much electricity would be needed in the future, creating the appearance of power shortages and leading to inflated prices. Mara, who is now an energy consultant, said Monday that the recorded conversation came about as she gathered information for a budget presentation to be made to executives at corporate headquarters in Houston. "We had to show what our accomplishments were for the year," she said. Mara said she didn't recall what the final presentation contained or which executives heard it. The presentation was not prepared expressly for Skilling and Lay, she said, even though her statement in the recorded conversation implied that they would hear it. The trading tactics discussed on the recording weren't considered illegal or manipulative by Enron, Mara added. Asked Monday about the transcripts, Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne declined to comment, save to say: "We have been and we're continuing to cooperate with all investigations." Skilling's lawyer, Bruce Hiler, declined to comment. Earl J. Silbert, an attorney for Lay, could not immediately be reached. Federal prosecutors in February brought a range of fraud charges against Skilling for his actions when he was at the helm at Enron, but none was related to trading in the California market. Lay has not been charged. In a different conversation in the transcripts, Enron's West Coast trading chief, Timothy N. Belden, discusses the profitability of the company's strategies in California, particularly those executed by a trading desk led by Jeffrey S. Richter: "Well he makes ... between one and two [million] a day, which never shows up on any curve shift.... He steals money from California to the tune of about a million - " At this point the other speaker interrupts, asking Belden to rephrase what he just said. "OK," Belden says. "He, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day." Asked about the transcript Monday, Belden's lawyer, Chris Arguedas, said that it was not possible to draw conclusions about the meaning of Belden's remarks without a better sense of the whole conversation. "You can't understand words spoken unless you see the context in which they are spoken," she said. In October 2002, Belden pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge and has been cooperating with the government. Richter pleaded guilty to similar charges the following February. A spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said the state was continuing to investigate Enron. "The comments made in these transcripts, if they're accurate, contain the kind of information that could bolster" a case against Enron, said spokesman Tom Dresslar. Eric Christensen, a lawyer for the Snohomish utility, said the transcripts strongly suggest top Enron executives knew of the trading ploys used in California. "It was common knowledge at least in the government relations unit, and they reported to upper management in Houston," he said. * Times staff writer Nancy Rivera Brooks in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

FBI Probes Possible Cisco Software Theft 1 hour, 12 minutes ago Add U.S. National 

CHICAGO  - The FBI (news - web sites) is investigating the possible theft of source code from networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), the agency said on Tuesday. "We're aware of the situation and we're working with Cisco regarding the potential loss of proprietary data," said Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirming the probe. He said Cisco asked the bureau to look into the matter, but he declined to discuss the case further. Cisco said on Monday it was looking into reports that some of the software code used to run its gear that directs Internet traffic may have been stolen. The company did not say whether any of its code was actually stolen, or if so how much. Source code, the underlying blueprint of computer software, determines how programs work. Companies like Cisco and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) zealously guard their source code as the lifeblood of their business. Hackers who steal source code could potentially harm Cisco's Internetworking Operating System, but hundreds of versions of the system exist, so any potential damage could be limited. Russian Web site SecurityLab.ru reported on Saturday that the code was stolen from Cisco's corporate network, with some leaked onto the Internet. The Russian site estimated about 800 megabytes of source code was taken. Last year, Cisco in a lawsuit accused Huawei Technologies, China's largest telecom equipment maker, of unlawfully copying its operating software. That lawsuit was suspended last October after the two companies reached an agreement.

Team Claims Success With Rocket Launch 

2 hours, 36 minutes ago

By The News Source 

A team of rocketeers led by a Bloomington, Minn., man has claimed success in their goal of launching the first amateur rocket into space, sending a 21-foot rocket an estimated 70 miles above the Nevada desert. 

What's Next in Tech Gadgets?
Do Europe and Japan get all the hot new technology first? Here's a look at the pipeline of future tech -- plus some gadgets that didn't travel well and a wishlist of cool things. 

Ky Michaelson, 65, a former Hollywood stuntman, had been working since 1995 to blast an amateur rocket into space, defined as 62 miles above the earth. His first two attempts, in 2000 and 2002, failed. The third time was the charm. 

"I just freaked out," Michaelson said of Monday's successful launch. "All those emotions after all those years came out of me. I just couldn't believe it." 

This year's model, dubbed the GoFast Rocket, was built in six different states and assembled at the launch site in northwestern Nevada. 

About 25 members of the team that built the rocket, Civilian Space eXploration Team, or CSXT, were on hand to watch the launch at 11:12 a.m. Everyone held their breaths as the countdown reached liftoff, he said. 

"I was concentrating on watching the motor," Michaelson said. "If the motor blows up, it's all over." 

Michaelson said they were still working to recover the rocket on Tuesday, and that its telemetry package should tell them the exact altitude. But he said it reached 4,200 miles an hour in 10 seconds, so the laws of physics would have taken it up about 70 miles. 

"Once you hit 4,200 miles an hour, that thing's gone into space," he said 

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale in Lausanne, Switzerland, the governing body that certifies international aviation records, doesn't have a specific category of records for such accomplishments, but sometimes establishes one after a precedent is set, said Thierry Montigneaux, assistant to the secretary general. He said he didn't think the FAI had a record of such a previous unmanned amateur rocket flight in its archives. 

Michaelson founded CSXT in 1998, bringing together amateur rocketeers including teachers, students and real rocket scientists. In 2000, they launched a rocket that reached 3,205 mph before wind shear snapped off a fin at 45,000 feet. In 2002, they launched a rocket that soared for three seconds before the motor burned through the casing and it exploded. 

Other amateur groups are competing to blast though the same door. Last week, a group led by Burt Rutan launched a piloted rocket from a plane that climbed to 211,400 feet, becoming the first privately funded manned vehicle to reach the edge of space. 

The launch in the Black Rock Desert was monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites). 

Donn Walker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, noted that many private companies already have launched spacecraft such as those carrying satellites. He said CSXT is essentially engaged in a purely amateur space race but has earned the respect of federal regulators. 

"They're very legitimate and they do know what they're doing, absolutely," Walker said. 

Michaelson, who has more than 200 movies and TV shows to his credit, has been obsessed with rockets all his life. As a young man, he owned a rocket-propelled motorcycle that led to his nickname "The Rocketman." 

Michaelson's 4-year-old son is named Buddy Rocketman Michaelson, and Michaelson says his son calls himself "Rocketman Buddy." He also has a 6-year-old daughter, Miracle. 

Now that he's reached his longtime goal, Michaelson says, he plans to return home to Minnesota and spend the summer with his wife, Jodi, and their children. They plan to rent a motor-home and visit Alaska. 

"Do some fishing," Michaelson said. 

___ 

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http:// www.twincities.com

Commission: Fire, Police Rivalry Hurt 9/11 Rescue

1 hour, 50 minutes ago

By Ellen Wulfhorst 

NEW YORK  - Rivalry between New York's police and fire departments and conflicting advice from emergency teams on Sept. 11, 2001, hampered efforts to save lives as the Twin Towers collapsed in a heap of smoke, the commission investigating the attacks said on Tuesday. 

The News Source 

Slideshow: September 11

The panel, meeting less than 2 miles from the former site of the World Trade Center, said the "long-standing rivalry" between the two departments meant they considered themselves "operationally autonomous" and failed to work together in the largest rescue operation in New York's history. 

"This rivalry has been acknowledged by every witness we have asked about it," a commission staff report read out at the public hearing said. 

The report also said emergency operators answering distress calls from the burning towers gave conflicting advice or were unable to provide even the most basic information, such as the floors affected by the attacks. 

While some evacuees were told to return to their offices, others were told to leave the building. 

Faced with choking black smoke, insufferable heat and no prospect of relief, some of those trapped in the towers jumped from the building, the staff report said. 

To help analyze what went wrong on Sept. 11, the independent commission presented dramatic footage of the day nearly 3,000 people, including around 343 firefighters and 23 police officers, died in the suicide airplane attacks on New York and Washington. 

The videos of the crashes also included statements from fire and police officials on duty that day. 

Hundreds of victims' relatives were attending the hearings, some with pictures of their lost loved ones pinned to their shirts. Gasps filled the auditorium as the commission showed footage of the low-flying passenger planes smashing into the World Trade Center and erupting into balls of fire. 

"I feel a responsibility to know everything that impacted my brother. He died without anybody to give him the information. I need to give him that respect," said Wells Noonan, whose brother Robert Noonan, 36, worked on the 103rd floor of one tower and died in the attacks. 

POOR COMMUNICATIONS 

The commission report said rescue efforts were also hampered by communications equipment that was damaged in the attacks or was not "interoperable" between departments. This meant rescue teams had little idea what was going on on other floors, in other buildings, or outside the towers. 

For example, forces inside the towers did not know about the damage visible from police helicopters circling overhead. 

The commission report said rescue officials did not anticipate the towers would collapse, and certainly not so quickly. The two towers imploded within roughly 1-3/4 hours of the first airplane impact. 

"We didn't have a lot of information coming in. We didn't receive any reports from what was seen from the helicopters," said Joseph Pfeifer, a battalion chief for the New York Fire Department who was at the disaster site that day. 

"It was impossible to know how much damage was done on the upper flowers, whether the stairwells were intact or not ... As a matter of fact, what you saw on TV, we did not have that information," he said of the video footage. 

When the first tower collapsed in a tremendous roar, rescue officials in the remaining North Tower had no idea what had happened. Unaware of the extent of the disaster, rescue officials lacked a uniform sense of urgency to evacuate the remaining building, which collapsed about half an hour later.

Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly 1/3 of Cancer Cases 2 hours, 30 minutes ago Add Health 

By Patricia Reaney HARROGATE, England  - Diet is second only to tobacco as a leading cause of cancer and, along with alcohol, is responsible for nearly a third of cases of the disease in developed countries, a leading researcher said on Tuesday. Dr Tim Key, of the University of Oxford, told a cancer conference that scientists are still discovering how certain foods contribute to cancer but they know that diet, alcohol and obesity play a major role. "Five percent of cancers could be avoided if nobody was obese," he said. While tobacco is linked to about 30 percent of cancer cases, diet is involved in an estimated 25 percent and alcohol in about six percent. "We know that obesity and alcohol are important," said Key. Obesity raises the risk of breast, womb, bowel and kidney cancer while alcohol is known to cause cancers of the mouth, throat and liver. Its dangerous impact is increased when combined with smoking. Both alcohol consumption and obesity rates are rising in many countries. Key told the meeting of the charity Cancer Research UK that other elements of diet linked to cancer are still unknown but scientists are hoping that the EPIC study, which is comparing the diets of 500,000 people in 10 countries and their risk of cancer, will provide some answers. Early results of the study have revealed that Norway, Sweden and Denmark have the lowest consumption of fruit and vegetables among European countries while Italy and Spain have the highest. Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is recommended to reduce the risk of cancer. Key, principal scientist on the EPIC study, said it is looking at dietary links to some of the most common cancers including colorectal, breast and prostate. So far it has shown that obesity is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, while processed and red meat also probably raise the chances of developing the disease and eating lots of fruit and vegetables decrease the odds. "Hormones are the key factor in breast cancer. There is currently about a five-fold variation in breast cancer rates around the world. Much of that variation is due to parity, the number of children (a woman has) and breast feeding," Key said. But he added that obesity and alcohol can also raise the risk of the disease. Scientists working on the study have not positively identified any dietary factors associated with prostate cancer. 

Pope Marks Birthday With Launch of Book Tue May 18, 6:29 AM ET 

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, News Source Writer VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II marked his 84th birthday Tuesday with publication of his new book, which mixes memories from his native Poland, a touch of self-criticism and a defense of priestly celibacy. "It will be a regular working day and above all a thanks to God for the gift of life," said Vatican (news - web sites) spokesman Joaquin-Navarro Valls. He reported that the Vatican has been flooded with birthday greetings for John Paul. The pope has kept up a busy schedule despite Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) and hip and knee ailments. He received visiting American bishops and Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso of Portugal, whose delegation broke into "Happy Birthday" in Portuguse. In the evening, John Paul was scheduled to meet with the president of Poland. "To the ever young custodian of peace," said the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in its birthday greeting. In bookstores in Italy and elsewhere, John Paul's latest literary work "Get Up, Let Us Go" went on sale. It is a sequel to "Gift and Mystery," an account of the pontiff's early priesthood that was released in 1996. It came out a decade after publication of the heavily autobiographical "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," which sold 20 million copies around the world. The latest book draws on the pope's years in Krakow, where - as Karol Wojtyla - he served as bishop and then archbishop, but also touches on his years since his election as the first Polish pope in 1978. He recalls his passion for the theater and being told he would have been a "great actor," but said the suffering around him from World War II led him to abandon a career on the stage, The pope said that those contesting celibacy have raised the issued of the loneliness for priests, but that he personally never felt lonely. In 1958, the pope recalls, he was on a canoeing trip when he was called to Warsaw by the head of Poland's Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, to be told he was being named a bishop of Krakow. Wojtyla made his way by canoe and then in a truck full of flour sacks to the nearest train station for the overnight journey. On hearing of his appointment, he told Wyszynski: "Your eminence, I am too young - I am only 38." "The primate responded: `This is a weakness of which we are quickly cured. Please do not oppose the Holy Father's wish,'" the pope wrote. Wojtyla then returned to Krakow and asked his archbishop for permission to resume the canoeing trip. "You are welcome, but please get back for the consecration," replied the archbishop, Eugeniusz Baziak. The book recounts communist efforts to suppress the church in Poland, Wojtyla's clashes with authorities to protect it and of clandestine meetings he organized with intellectuals and scientists. The pope recalls a "constant fierce struggle" to get a church built in the industrial Krakow suburb of Nowa Huta, designed as a model socialist town with a steelworks at its heart. Communist authorities gave, and then revoked, permission for a new church - a decision that resulted in a fight between security forces and residents who had erected a cross. "In the long term, the battle was won, but at the price of a long war of nerves," the pontiff writes. John Paul says he viewed his first trip as pope - to Mexico in January 1979 - as "a pass that could open the way to a pilgrimage to Poland." "I thought the communists in Poland would not be able to refuse me a visit to my homeland if I were received by a nation with a secular constitution, such as Mexico had," he added. That June, the pope made his first visit to Poland. In a moment of self-criticism, the pope notes that "a part of a pastor's role is to admonish" and says that maybe he failed to be strict enough during his time in Krakow. "Maybe I should reproach myself that I did not try to rule enough" in those years, he writes. "But it stems from my character." The pope wrote the book in March-August 2003, writing some parts himself in Polish and dictating others. Italian publisher Mondadori says it is still negotiating the rights for the English-language edition. The royalties from it will go into a special fund for charitable use, Navarro-Valls said.

David Reimer, subject of 'sex reassignment,' dead at 38 

Los Angeles Times

David Reimer, the Canadian man raised as a girl for the first 14 years of his life in a highly touted medical experiment, committed suicide May 4 in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was 38.

David Reimer, who became the unwitting subject of "sex reassignment," at 8 months of age, later underwent a double mastectomy and eventually developed into a muscular, handsome young man.Dr. Milton Diamond, a University of Hawai'i sexologist who helped expose the experiment for the failure it was and became a friend, called Reimer's death a tragedy.

"I hope people learn from it that you don't do something that dramatic to someone without their informed consent," said Diamond, a professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. "You also have to deal with people with honesty. He was lied to by physicians and parents, the two groups you want to trust the most."

At 8 months of age, Reimer became the unwitting subject of "sex reassignment," a treatment method embraced by his parents after his penis was all but obliterated during a botched circumcision. The American doctor whose advice they sought recommended that their son be castrated, given hormone treatments and raised as a girl. The physician, Dr. John Money, later wrote a paper declaring the success of the conversion.

But Money's experiment was a disaster for Reimer that created psychological scars he never overcame.

Reimer's story was told in the 2000 book "As Nature Made Him," by journalist John Colapinto. Reimer said he cooperated with Colapinto so other children might be spared the miseries he experienced.

Reimer was born Aug. 22, 1965, 12 minutes before his identical twin brother. His parents named him Bruce and his brother Brian.

After Bruce was maimed in the botched circumcision, the Reimers turned to Money, a Harvard-educated native of New Zealand who had established a reputation as one of the world's leading sex researchers. He told them that raising Bruce as a girl was the best course, and that they should never tell him about having been a boy.

About six weeks before his second birthday, Bruce became Brenda on an operating table at Johns Hopkins. After bringing the toddler home, the Reimers began dressing her like a girl and giving her dolls.

Brenda rebelled from the start. She tried to rip off the first dress her mother sewed for her. When she saw her father shaving, she wanted a razor, too. She favored toy guns and trucks over sewing machines and Barbies.

Money insisted that continuing on the path to womanhood was the proper course for her.

Money already was the darling of radical feminists such as Kate Millett, who in her best-selling "Sexual Politics" had cited Money's writings as proof that "psychosexual personality is therefore postnatal and learned."

But Money's experiment proved the opposite - the immutability of one's inborn sense of gender. Money stopped commenting publicly on the case in 1980 and never acknowledged that the experiment was anything but a success.

Diamond had long been suspicious of Money's claims. He found Reimer through a Canadian psychiatrist who had treated Reimer.

In an article published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in 1997, Diamond and the psychiatrist, Dr. H. Keith Sigmundson, showed how Brenda had rejected her reassignment from male to female, and, at 14, refused to continue living as a girl.

When she confronted her father, he broke down in tears and told her what had happened shortly after her birth. Instead of being angry, Brenda was relieved. "For the first time, everything made sense," the article by Diamond and Sigmundson quoted her as saying, "and I understood who and what I was."

She decided to take male hormone shots and undergo a double mastectomy and operations to build a penis with skin grafts. She changed her name to David, identifying with the Biblical David who fought Goliath. "It reminded me," he told Colapinto, "of courage."

David developed into a muscular, handsome young man. But the grueling surgeries spun him into periods of depression and twice caused him to attempt suicide.

When he was 25, he married a woman and adopted her three children. Diamond reported that while the phallic reconstruction was only partially successful, David could have sexual intercourse and experience orgasm.

His life began to unravel with the suicide of his brother two years ago. Brian Reimer had been treated for schizophrenia and took his life by overdosing on drugs.

David is survived by his wife, Jane, his parents and stepchildren

He said he did not blame his parents for their decision to raise him as a girl. As he told Colapinto, "Mom and Dad wanted this to work so I'd be happy. That's every parent's dream for their child . . . (But) You can't be something that you're not. You have to be you."

Advertiser staff writer Beverly Creamer contributed to this report.

Murder investigation continues in Norwich
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Murder investigation continues in Norwich

Norwich -- Police are still working on several leads in connection with the Friday murder of a world renowned scientist.

Detectives say the body of Dr. Eugene Mallove, 56, an expert on cold fusion, was found late Friday on the grounds outside of his mother's rental property on Salem Turnpike.

Norwich police say they are not ruling out anything but they believe the murder was probably a random act of violence.

Neighbors say the Pembroke, NH resident was working on the vacant property earlier in the day.

Mallove's green Dodge Caravan was stolen from the home and was found several hours later in the employee parking lot at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. Police hope surveillance video of the parking lot will reveal the identity of the person who stole the van.

Mallove was a nominee for the Pulitzer prize and president of The New Energy Foundation. An autopsy revealed that he died of multiple head and neck injuries.

Detectives are now looking at a case 20 miles down the road in Pawcatuck, RI, where a man was assaulted during a robbery at his home. There is some concern that these two cases may be related.

NFA grad killed Science writer Mallove slain at family home in Norwich By GREG SMITH Norwich Bulletin 

NORWICH -- A 56-year-old former Norwich man was killed during a suspected robbery and brutal assault at his family home on Salem Turnpike Friday. Dr. Eugene F. Mallove, a Norwich Free Academy graduate, published author and father of two, died of multiple injuries to his head and neck, according to an autopsy performed Saturday at the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner in Farmington. The death was ruled a homicide. Police would not confirm Mallove's identity Saturday pending positive identification by family members. Mallove was discovered at the small 119 Salem Turnpike house at 10:55 p.m. Friday after police received a report of an injured person. At the house, situated at the entrance to Interstate 395 in a primarily commercial area, police found Mallove unresponsive, the victim of an assault. He was later pronounced dead by medical personnel called to the scene. Police said initial investigation indicated a robbery, during which a physical confrontation took place. Several unidentified items were taken from the scene and Mallove's vehicle was missing, according to a written statement released by Norwich police. Several hours later, Mallove's 1993 green Dodge Caravan was found in the Foxwoods employee parking lot on Route 2 in Preston. The vehicle is easily identifiable by several large bumper stickers, including an American flag and his company Web site, www.infinite-energy.com, in the rear window. The New Hampshire license plate bears the registration INFNRG. Police are now seeking information from anyone who saw the vehicle between 7 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday. Police declined to provide further details of the killing Saturday. Cars sped past the quiet Salem Turnpike home Saturday, where a large Dumpster was situated alongside the home in the driveway. Several cars, which looked as though they hadn't been moved in some time, are near the two-bay detached garage. The home, owned by Mallove's parents since 1958, is now under Eugene Mallove's care, according to city records. Mallove, with his wife, Joanne, had moved to Pembroke, N.H., from Norwich in 1987. In New Hampshire, Mallove was the president of the nonprofit New Energy Foundation and since 1995 the editor-in-chief of the organization's magazine Infinite Energy. The bimonthly magazine covers topics of new technological innovations in energy and science and follows developments in the field, according to its Web site. Infinite Energy managing editor Christy Frazier worked with Mallove for the past six years and had become very close. She called Mallove the "most caring and giving person I probably have ever known -- a very successful, brilliant man. "It's been a wonderful, wonderful experience. It's hard not to love the things he loves because he's so passionate," she said. "He touched the lives of everybody he came in contact with." Mallove's parents, Mitchel and Gladys Mallove, had followed their son's move to New Hampshire in 1988. His father, the son of Russian immigrants, died in March 2003 after a long illness, according to a published obituary. He is buried at the Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery in Norwich. Eugene Mallove had become a grandfather just this year and was caring for his mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, Frazier said. She said Mallove was a Norwich Free Academy graduate. He held a master of science degree and bachelor of science degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a science doctorate in environmental health sciences from Harvard University in 1975. He also taught science journalism at MIT and Boston University and previously was chief science writer at the MIT news office. He is the author of numerous technical articles and of several books, including the Pulitzer-nominated book on cold fusion titled, "Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor." Anyone with information can call Norwich police at 886-5561, or the anonymous tip line at 886-5561, Ext. 500. gasmith@norwichbulletin.com 

www.infinite-energy.com,

Police investigate Norwich slaying of N.H. man

May 16, 2004

NORWICH, Conn. --Police are investigating the killing of a New Hampshire science writer who championed cold fusion.

Eugene Mallove, 56, of Pembroke, N.H., died late Friday night after being assaulted at a house owned by his parents, police said. The family rented out the house.

Mallove died of injuries to his head and neck, the Norwich Bulletin reported Sunday. The office of the chief state's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Mallove was discovered at the house after police received a report of an injured person. An initial investigation indicated a robbery and a fight had taken place, police said. Several unidentified items were taken and Mallove's minivan was missing.

His 1993 green Dodge Caravan was found early Saturday in an employee parking lot at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket. Police were looking for anyone who saw the minivan after 7 p.m. Friday. It had several large bumper stickers on the back, including one advertisi ng his magazine's Web site: www.infinite-energy.com.

Mallove, who moved from Norwich to Bow, N.H., in 1987 and to Pembroke three years ago, was president of the Concord, N.H.-based New Energy Institute and editor-in-chief of its magazine, "Infinite Energy."

The magazine's managing editor, who worked with him for six years, called Mallove the "most caring and giving person I probably have ever known -- a very successful, brilliant man."

"It's hard not to love the things he loves because he's so passionate," Christy Frazier said. "He touched the lives of everybody he came in contact with."

Mallove, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, was chief science writer at the MIT news office until he left to champion cold fusion. He also taught science writing at MIT and Boston University.

He was the author of several books, including one on cold fusion that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize: "Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor."

Mallove believed the infamous Pons and Fleishmann announcement in 1989 that they created nuclear fusion by running an electrical current through a jar of water was not "voodoo science," but a glimpse into an interesting topic worth investigating.

That belief was partly vindicated earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Energy ordered a panel of scientists to review existing research on cold fusion to see whether it is worth pursuing.

"They are now going to do the right thing. It's over 10 years late, no doubt about that, (and) should have been reviewed a long time ago ... but this is a breakthrough," Mallove said in a recent interview with The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H.

"There is a huge body of positive evidence" for low-energy nuclear reactions, he said. "We have measured tritium (a byproduct of fusion), measured heat multiple ways.... There are thousands of papers, hundreds of which are bulletproof."

Mallove's parents, Mitchel and Gladys Mallove, followed him to New Hampshire in 1988. His father died last year after a long illness, but he was still caring for his mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, Frazier said.

He also was survived by his wife, Joanne; a daughter, Kimberlyn; a son, Ethan; and one grandson.

Police eye robbery in killing of scientist By Lisa Kocian and Connie Paige, Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent | May 17, 2004 A scientist who was educated at Harvard and MIT and known for his passionate promotion of cold fusion was slain in a possible robbery Friday night, police in Norwich, Conn., said. Eugene Mallove, 56, of Pembroke, N.H., was unresponsive when police found him in a Norwich house owned by his parents, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Several items were taken from him, including his Dodge Caravan, which was found hours later in an employee parking lot at the nearby Foxwoods Resort Casino, police said. Mallove worked in Concord, N.H., as editor-in-chief and publisher of Infinite Energy magazine and president of the New Energy Foundation, both of which explore alternative forms of energy not generally recognized by mainstream scientists. "One measure of the type of man he is is that we've had thousands and thousands of e-mails and phone calls already. It's fresh news, but it's all over the world already," said Christy Frazier, managing editor of the magazine, when reached by phone yesterday. "It's going to impact the world, not just his friends and family," she said of Mallove's death. "This will change the face of new energy. He was the biggest fighter for new energy and new energy inventors." From a professional standpoint, the loss is particularly difficult, said Frazier, because the US Department of Energy had recently announced it had ordered a review of cold fusion for the first time since 1989, which Mallove had called a "breakthrough" in a New Hampshire newspaper interview. Cold fusion, a theoretical way of creating energy, has been largely discounted by the scientific establishment. Proponents hope it could produce cheaper, safer electricity, among other things.Mallove wrote several books and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his 1991 work "Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor." Frazier, who worked alongside Mallove for six years, recalled him as caring and generous. Although he was perhaps best known as an expert in cold fusion, Mallove's 1975 doctorate from Harvard University was in Environmental Health Sciences, and he earned a bachelor's in 1969 and a master's in 1970 in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to a biography provided by Frazier. Mallove also worked as a consultant to corporations and investment firms doing research and development of cold fusion, according to his biography, and he was the chief science writer at the MIT News Office when cold fusion first came on the scene. He worked as technical adviser on the 1997 thriller "The Saint," an action movie centered on the discovery and control of cold fusion. Police said robbery was a possible motive in the killing, and they were looking for anyone who saw Mallove's green 1993 Dodge Caravan after 7 p.m. Friday. The death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy performed Saturday at the office of the Connecticut chief state medical examiner. The cause of death was blunt force injuries to the victim's head and neck, according to Norwich police. Norwich police Captain Franklyn Ward said yesterday afternoon that he could not say whether one or more individuals participated in the attack or what kind of blunt instrument was used. Mallove's family usually rented out the house they owned in Norwich, but it was vacant at the time of the killing, Ward said. Mallove leaves his wife, Joanne; his daughter, Kimberlyn; his son, Ethan; and his mother, Gladys. According to Frazier, the family was celebrating the recent birth of Mallove's first grandchild. Norwich police Lieutenant John A. John said that 20 to 25 people were working on the case yesterday afternoon, including local police and investigators from the office of the state's attorney for the Norwich district, Kevin T. Kane, and the State Police Major Crimes Squad. News Source material was used in this report. Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com. 

Eugene F. Mallove, Ph.D. Harvard, 56, Editor-In-Chief, Infinite-Energy.com, 
Norwich, Connecticut; Founder and President, nonprofit New Energy Foundation; and author, 
Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor. Dr. Mallove was found dead Friday night, 
May 14, 2004, inside his Norwich home. Police have ruled his death a homicide and anyone with information 
can call Norwich Police at: 860-886-5177. Tip Line is: (860) 886-5561, Ex. 500. May 16, 2004 - Infinite-Energy.com Editor Murdered on May 14, 2004. Eugene F. Mallove, Ph.D. Harvard, 56, Editor-In-Chief, Infinite-Energy.com, Norwich, Connecticut; Founder and President, nonprofit New Energy Foundation; and author, Fire and Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor. Dr. Mallove was found dead Friday night, May 14, 2004, inside his Norwich home. Police have ruled his death a homicide and anyone with information can call Norwich Police at: 860-886-5177. Tip Line is: (860) 886-5561, Ex. 500.

Local scientist found slain 
Police say attackers robbed Mallove 
By ERIC MOSKOWITZ
Monitor staff

------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 17. 2004 8:00AM

Dr. Eugene Mallove of Pembroke, shown in this 1997 photo, was famous for his work on cold fusion. (Monitor file photo)
Zoom 

The police in Norwich, Conn., are investigating the slaying of Pembroke resident Eugene Mallove, a highly regarded scientist and popular father of two who died late Friday after being assaulted outside his childhood home in Connecticut. 

The MIT- and Harvard-educated Mallove traveled to the Norwich home Friday to clean it, Mallove's daughter Kimberlyn Woodard said. The house had been rented out in recent years and was being cleared out between tenants, she said. 

Officers from the Norwich Police Department responded to a report of an injured person at the 119 Salem Turnpike home at 10:55 p.m. Friday. The police discovered Mallove's body outside the house and pronounced him dead at the scene, authorities said. An autopsy confirmed that Mallove, 56, died as a result of multiple injuries to the head and neck, where blunt-force trauma was evident, officials said. 

The initial investigation points to robbery as a possible motive, as several items appeared to have been taken from Mallove, who had a physical altercation with his assailant or assailants, the police said. The attacker or attackers also stole Mallove's dark green 1993 Dodge Caravan minivan, which has several identifying markers - including an American flag sticker, the New Hampshire license plate "INFNRG" and a white-lettered window advertisement for Mallove's scientific Web site, the police said. The van was found early Saturday in a parking lot at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., authorities said. 

Mallove, known as Gene, was the president of the New Energy Institute, a Concord-based nonprofit organization aimed at educating the world about the possibilities of new energy. He served as editor-in-chief of its magazine, Infinite Energy, which he launched in 1995. Previously, he worked as an engineer in the private sector, then as MIT's chief science writer. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at MIT, then earned his Ph.D from Harvard, Woodard said. Well-read and a natural teacher, he proved to be a gifted and lucid science writer, his daughter said. 
Mallove wrote numerous scientific books and articles, as well as three books for the general public, including Fire From Ice: Searching For the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He earned a credit in the 1997 film The Saint, serving as scientific consultant to the thriller about cold fusion that starred Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue. 

http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040517/REPOSITORY/405170353/1031

Global Treaty Takes Effect Without U.S. 

Mon May 17, 4:44 PM ET 
Add Politics - U. S. Congress 

By JOHN HEILPRIN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - A global treaty phasing out a dozen highly toxic chemicals took effect Monday without the United States, though the Bush administration promised to abide by it. 

The Senate has yet to ratify the treaty, and Congress hasn't passed legislation to carry it out because of a disagreement over whether to add more toxic chemicals to the ban later. Nevertheless, the United States will comply with it "wherever we have the current legal authority," said Claudia McMurray, deputy assistant secretary of state for environment. 

The United Nations (news - web sites)-sponsored Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs, aims to ban or severely restrict 12 chemicals commonly known as the "dirty dozen." Among them are dioxins and DDT, a pesticide. 

"We're glad that the agreement has come into force, and there's still strong support from the president on down for the United States becoming a party to it," McMurray said. 

President Bush (news - web sites), whose environmental stances came under attack within weeks of taking office, hailed the treaty as a major breakthrough in a pre-Earth Day speech in April 2001. A month later, the United States and 90 other countries signed the treaty, which Clinton Administration officials had negotiated. 

France became the 50th nation to sign in February, 90 days before the treaty was to take effect. Klaus Toepfer, director of the U.N. Environment Program, said more than $500 million would be spent helping countries ban the chemicals. 

Brooks Yeager, a vice president of World Wildlife Fund, said "whales, polar bears, birds of prey and people throughout the world will benefit." 

The 12 toxic chemicals tend to persist in the environment, travel long distances and accumulate in the food chain. They are PCBs, dioxins, furans, DDT and the pesticides aldrin, hexachlorobenzene, chlordane, mirex, toxaphene, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor. Many of these, such as PCBs, have been linked to cancer and other diseases. 

The use of DDT to combat malaria along World Health Organization (news - web sites) guidelines would be allowed to continue in some countries until a safer means to control the disease are developed. 

Although the chemicals are banned from production for use in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) lacks the authority to ban any U.S. chemical manufacturers from exporting them, McMurray said. 

The administration, she said, will "push very hard in the next few months" to get Congress to approve legislation. "What we're looking for here is to protect our own citizens against emissions from other countries," she said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Stockholm POPs treaty: http://www.pops.int 

Sarin Nerve Agent Bomb Explodes in Iraq 

15 minutes ago

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, News Source Writer 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. It was believed to be the first confirmed discovery of any of the banned weapons that the United States cited in making its case for the Iraq (news - web sites) war. 

Slideshow: Iraq

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Two members of a military bomb squad were treated for "minor exposure," but no serious injuries were reported. 

The chemicals were inside an artillery shell dating to the Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) era that had been rigged as a bomb in Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq. 

It appears two chemical components in the shell, which are designed to combine and create sarin during flight, did not mix properly or completely upon detonation, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Kimmitt, however, said a small amount of the nerve agent was released. 

Two former weapons inspectors - Hans Blix and David Kay - said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons. 

Kimmitt said he believed that insurgents who planted the explosive didn't know it contained the nerve agent. 

Sarin-type agents produced by Iraq were largely of low quality and degraded shortly after production, U.N. inspectors said in a March 2003 report. They said it was unlikely that agents produced in the 1980s would still work today. 

U.S. troops have announced the discovery of other chemical weapons before, only to see them disproved by later tests. A dozen chemical shells were also found by U.N. inspectors before the war; they had been tagged for destruction in the 1990s but somehow were not destroyed. 

"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," Kimmitt said. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy. 

"A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This produced a very small dispersal of agent," he said. 

The incident occurred "a couple of days ago," he said. 

The Iraqi Survey Group is a U.S. organization whose task was to search for weapons of mass destruction after Saddam's ouster. 

The round was an old `binary-type' shell in which two chemicals held in separate sections are mixed after firing to produce sarin, Kimmitt said. 

Many of the materials used for roadside bombs are believed to have been looted from arsenals after the collapse of the regime in April 2003. 

Dispersal of the gas would be far more effective if a shell containing nerve agent were fired from an artillery piece, he said. Kimmitt said he believed it was the first case in which U.S. forces had found an artillery shell containing sarin. 

It was unclear if the sarin shell was from chemical rounds that the United Nations (news - web sites) had tagged and marked for destruction before the U.S. invasion. 

Prior to the war, U.N. inspectors had compiled a short list of proscribed items found during hundreds of surprise inspections: fewer than 20 old, empty chemical warheads for battlefield rockets, and a dozen artillery shells filled with mustard gas. The shells had been tagged by U.N. inspectors in the 1990s but somehow not destroyed by them. 

Kay, who led a U.S. team hunting for weapons, said it appears that the shell was one of tens of thousands produced for the Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam was supposed to destroy or turn over to the United Nations. In many cases, he said, Iraq did comply. 

"It is hard to know if this is one that just was overlooked - and there were always some that were overlooked, we knew that - or if this was one that came from a hidden stockpile," Kay said. "I rather doubt that because it appears the insurgents didn't even know they had a chemical round." 

While Saturday's explosion does demonstrate that Saddam hadn't complied fully with U.N. resolutions, Kay also said, "It doesn't strike me as a big deal." 

In 1995, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed sarin gas in Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and sickening thousands. In February of this year, Japanese courts convicted the cult's former leader, Shoko Asahara, and sentence him to be executed. 

Developed in the mid-1930s by Nazi scientists, a single drop of sarin can cause quick, agonizing choking death. There are no known instances of the Nazis actually using the gas. 

The Bush administration cited allegations that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as a main reason for launching the war in Iraq last year. 

The Iraq Survey Group, made up of dozens of teams, has been conducting a secretive and largely fruitless weapons hunt across Iraq for more than a year. The survey group combines members of the CIA (news - web sites), the Defense Intelligence Agency, U.S. military Special Forces and others. 

The team has run into a number of dead ends. In January, for example, field tests on discovered mortar shells near Qurnah in southern Iraq indicated a blister agent was in the shells. But followup tests indicated that the munitions did not contain the agents, though U.S. officials said Saddam had such agents in the early to mid-1990s. 

Blix, the former U.N. weapons inspector, said in Sweden Monday that before the war, his team found 16 empty warheads that were marked for use with sarin. 

He said it was likely the sarin gas used could have been from a leftover shell found in a chemical dump. 

"It doesn't sound absurd at all. There can be debris from the past and that's a very different thing from have stocks and supplies," he said. 

According to U.N. weapons inspectors, sarin-type agents constituted about 20 percent of all chemical weapons agents that Saddam Hussein's government declared it had produced. 

The accounting for sarin was one of a dozen remaining disarmament tasks that inspectors submitted to the U.N. Security Council in March 2003, said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman the U.N. inspectors. 

"Iraq was known to possess a lot of this material, and there were questions about the accounting," Buchanan said. 

Iraq declared that between 1984 and 1990, it produced 795 tons of Sarin-type agents. About 732 tons were put in bombs, rockets and missile warheads. Iraq further declared that about 650 tons were consumed during the period 1985 to 1988, which included the Iran-Iraq war, and 35 tons were destroyed through aerial bombardment during the Gulf war in 1991. 

Iraq destroyed 127 tons of Sarin-type agents under U.N. supervision, including 76 tons in bulk and 51 tons from munitions.

Report: Jammed Phones Skew 'Idol' Tallies Sun May 16,10:54 AM ET 

LOS ANGELES - Many would-be "American Idol" voters are disenfranchised by overburdened phone lines and by "power dialers" who hog the system, the magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported. According to the magazine's issue being released Monday, "the only people choosing the next 'American Idol" are the ones lucky enough to get through - or skilled enough to get around - tremendously overtaxed phone lines." Fox TV, which airs the talent contest, has failed to address the difficulties viewers must overcome to log votes, the magazine said. The show is a ratings winner and valuable property for its producers and Fox, but Broadcasting & Cable said the network is alienating viewers who repeatedly get a busy signal when they try to call in their votes. The voting system has been called into question in recent weeks as contestants who appeared to be front-runners were dumped in favor of others who many viewers have complained were lesser performers. Last week, favorite La Toya London was voted off while Jasmine Trias survived a shaky performance. Fox said both it and the show's producers have "gone to great lengths" to ensure the integrity of the voting process. "While acknowledging that dedicated fans may be unhappy with the outcome, the system only reports the decision of the voting public," the network said in a statement. The contest winner, who gets a record contract, will be decided in the series finale May 25-26. Trias, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo are still in the running. Questions about "Idol" voting are nothing new. In last year's finale between Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, a total of 24 million votes were recorded, with Studdard declared the winner by a slim 134,000-vote margin. But on the same night, Verizon, the nation's largest phone company, saw its daily volume increase by 116 million calls while SBC reported a call-volume increase of 115 million, according to Broadcasting & Cable. That indicates a logjam in which millions of potential voters never got through, the magazine said. Fox dismissed the allegation as speculative. Viewers are allowed to vote repeatedly by phone during a two-hour window following the Tuesday show. Votes also can be cast by text messaging, which hasn't seen the same problems, the report said. Jammed local phone lines, not the long-distance carrier network, creates the problem for callers, AT&T told the magazine. Fox acknowledged there are times the phone network can't handle all calls due to the volume, but said it is using "the most sophisticated system available in the nation." Ratings and call volume have risen over the show's three seasons. Broadcasting & Cable said so-called power-dialers, who use fast Internet connections and computer autodialing software, also affect the outcome by the number of votes they are able to cast and by tying up lines so that others can't vote. The magazine cited an August 2002 story by The News Source in which "American Idol" producers acknowledged power-dialers were casting thousands of votes. In its statement Sunday, Fox said there are procedures in place to prevent individuals from "unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting," adding that producers can remove votes identified as power-dialing.

Chicago Gets Millennium Park, 4 Years Late 

Sat May 15, 6:33 PM ET

By TARA BURGHART, News Source Writer 

CHICAGO - The millennium is finally dawning on Chicago's lakefront. Four years behind schedule, the $475 million Millennium Park, a pet project of 
Mayor Richard Daley's, is set to officially open in July with a fountain, elaborate gardens and a swooping, shimmering band shell designed by architect Frank 
Gehry. 

Supporters expect the park to revitalize Chicago's reputation for great architecture and culture and draw more people to Grant Park, the city's "front yard" that 
stretches for a mile along Lake Michigan. 

"We're the city of big shoulders and we like to make big, bold statements," said Lois Weisberg, the city's commissioner of cultural affairs. 

But the project has been beset by years of construction delays and cost overruns. It was initially budgeted at $150 million - less than one-third its actual cost 
- and was to open in 2000 as part of the city's millennium celebration. 

Although an ice rink and 1,500-seat theater for music and dance are already in use, most of the park remains hidden behind construction fences and tents. 

The one major piece visible is Gehry's contribution - a 120-foot high music pavilion with a stage surrounded by billowing ribbons of stainless steel and a trellis of curling steel pipes that will support the sound system high above the audience. 

Ned Cramer, curator of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, predicts the city will be "wowed" by the opening, even if it is four years late. 

"The sheer novelty of what's happening there is guaranteed to do exactly what it's supposed to do, which is to draw people's attention," Cramer said. 

Daley proposed the park in 1998 on the 24-acre space between the lake and bustling Michigan Avenue, which used to have a rail yard and parking lot that 
marred the northwest corner of otherwise elegant Grant Park. 

The mayor was heavily involved in the park's planning - he demanded that there be indoor bathrooms instead of portable toilets and worried that a 
Gehry-designed bridge would overshadow other features. 

Daley blamed Gehry for costly delays after a 2001 investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that poor planning, design problems and cronyism led to 
skyrocketing costs. Daley backed off the assertion days later. 

Officially, many factors have been blamed for the delay: a vision that grew more grand as time went on; structural problems with the underground parking 
garages; and the engineering challenges inherent in building Gehry's immense band shell, including a crane so heavy it had to arrive in pieces for fear it would crack the street below. 

In the end, Gehry's bridge was built, its brushed stainless-steel panels curling like a snake toward Lake Michigan. 

But the showcase is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the outdoor concert venue named after the late founder of the Hyatt hotel chain and designed by Gehry, the 
architect acclaimed for his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. 

Other highlights include a 110-ton sculpture forged of a seamless series of highly polished, reflective stainless steel plates. Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor 
has not named the piece, but its shape has already inspired the nickname "The Bean." 

A fountain with a reflecting pool will be bookended by two 50-foot-tall towers of glass bricks. Changing video images will be projected onto the towers, 
including the faces of 1,000 Chicagoans recorded pursing their lips so it will appear as if water is coming out of their mouths - a 21st century version of 
gargoyles. 

In all, about $200 million of the funding came from private contributors whose names are sprinkled throughout the park - Wrigley Square, Bank One 
Promenade, BP Pedestrian Bridge, McCormick Tribune Plaza, the Lurie Garden. 

The city's $270 million is mostly coming from bonds backed by revenue from the underground parking garages, said Lisa Schrader, a spokeswoman in the 
city's budget office. 

Jamaicans Angry Over U.S. Treasure Hunt 

Sat May 15,10:45 AM ET

By STEVENSON JACOBS, News Source Writer 

PORT ROYAL, Jamaica - Jamaicans have long suspected the waters off their southern coast are teeming with shipwrecks and sunken treasure from the days when the island was a haven for pirates. But they have always been happy to leave the mystery to the sea. 

Now some islanders are angry to learn that their government has not only given an American treasure-salvage company permission to explore the area - called Pedro Banks - but also to keep half the bounty. They say all the artifacts - precious or not - are part of their history and belong in Jamaica. 

"You're not just dealing with treasure here," said Ainsley Henriques, who resigned as director of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, the state agency overseeing the project, to protest the government's decision. 

Admiralty Corp., which launched its expedition this week from Port Royal, a colonial-era pirate town once dubbed the "wickedest city on earth," has promised to conduct a proper archaeological recovery. 

"We're not going to just go down there and tear everything up to get the gold," said Clarence Lott, vice president of the Atlanta-based company. 

Pedro Banks, roughly the size of Jamaica itself, was a busy but treacherous shipping passage for European vessels headed to the New World between the 16th and 18th centuries. 

Archaeologists estimate some 300 ships may have fallen victim to the passage, known to the Spanish as La Vibora - or The Viper - for its fang-like reef. 

One of those ships was the Genovesa, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1730 with several tons of gold and silver on board. Its cargo is worth an estimated $600 million today. 

"It's really mind-boggling what we might bring up," said G. Howard Collingwood, chairman of Admiralty. 

Jamaica formally banned offshore treasure hunting in 1991, fearful of being pilfered by modern-day pirates and harming delicate marine habitats. 

After intense lobbying, Admiralty persuaded the government in 1998 to reverse the ban and won a license to probe the area. 

In addition to half the precious bounty, Jamaica will also receive all non-precious artifacts, including ship fittings, china, and nautical equipment that it intends to display in a maritime museum. 

"We know we're going to benefit," said Susanne Lyon, executive director of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, the state agency overseeing the project. 

But not everyone is pleased with the plan to dig up the past. 

Henriques, a member of the Archaeological Society of Jamaica, said the project should be handled by an accredited archaeological group, not a profit-seeking foreign company. 

He said Jamaican officials could learn from their counterparts in Egypt, where the government imposed strict limits on excavation after being pilfered by treasure hunters. 

"All archaeology is really looking at is the frozen history of people," he said. "If you just suck it out for the gold, you lose the story. And these stories are important, perhaps more important than the intrinsic value of the treasure itself." 

Other Jamaicans worry the government might be violating a 2001 U.N. convention banning the commercial salvaging of historic shipwrecks. 

Lyon said officials will seek to meet international rules on excavation, noting a team of government observers will be working with Admiralty. 

But first they have to find the wrecks. 

The company, which plans to spend $2.2 million in the first year of operation, says excavation could take five years to complete, and there are no guarantees. 

"Until you bring something up it's all speculation," Collingwood said. 

To reduce the risk, Admiralty will rely on new technology that uses electromagnetic waves to detect precious metal without the need for large-scale excavation of the banks, among the world's richest fishing beds. 

"It allows us to use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer," said Ken Vrana, one of several archaeologists among Admiralty's crew. 

Stealing some shade near Port Royal's shore, fisherman Vandel Strachan said he supports the project but doubted ordinary Jamaicans will benefit. 

"We won't see any good from that gold with this government in charge," said Strachan, 27. 

Nearby, 59-year-old fisherman George Moore disagreed. 

"It could help others who don't have anything," he said, lounging in a wooden skiff. "Or it can just stay there and grow moss." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Admiralty Corp.: http://www.admiraltycorporation.com 

Jamaica National Heritage Trust: http://www.jnht.com/

Report: Rumsfeld OK'd Prisoner Program 

Sat May 15,11:04 PM ET 


NEW YORK - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the expansion of a secret program that encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites), The New Yorker reported Saturday. 

The Defense Department strongly denied the claims made in the report, which cited unnamed current and former intelligence officials and was published on the magazine's Web site. Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman Lawrence Di Rita issued a statement calling the claims "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture." 

The story, written by reporter Seymour Hersh, said Rumsfeld decided to expand the program last year, broadening a Pentagon operation from the hunt for al-Qaida in Afghanistan (news - web sites) to interrogation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. 

Seven soldiers are facing military charges related to the abuse and humiliation of prisoners captured by the now-infamous photographs at the prison. Some of the soldiers and their lawyers have said military intelligence officials told military police assigned as guards to abuse the prisoners to make interrogations easier. 

According to the story, which hits newsstands Monday, the initial operation Rumsfeld authorized gave blanket approval to kill or capture and interrogate "high value" targets in the war on terrorism. The program stemmed from frustrating efforts to capture high-level terrorists in the weeks after the start of U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. 

The program got approval from President Bush (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), and Bush was informed of its existence, the officials told Hersh. 

Under the program, Hersh wrote, commandos carried out instant interrogations - using force if necessary - at secret CIA (news - web sites) detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the commanders at the Pentagon. 

Last year, Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone, his undersecretary for intelligence, expanded the scope of the Pentagon's program and brought its methods to Abu Ghraib, Hersh wrote. 

Critics say the interrogation rules, first laid out in September after a visit to Iraq by the then-commander of the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amounted to a green light for abuse. 

Defense Department officials deny that, saying prisoners always are treated under guidelines of the Geneva Conventions. 

"No responsible official of the Department of Defense (news - web sites) approved any program that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as witnessed in the recent photos and videos," Di Rita said in his statement. "This story seems to reflect the fevered insights of those with little, if any, connection to the activities in the Department of Defense." 

Di Rita also said Cambone has never had any responsibility for any detainee or interrogation programs. 

The intelligence sources told the magazine photos of the sexual abuse were used to intimidate prisoners and detainees into providing information on the insurgency. It was thought that some prisoners would do anything - including spying on their associates - to avoid dissemination of the shameful photos to family and friends. 

One intelligence official said the CIA ended its involvement with the program at Abu Ghraib prison by last fall. 

"They said, 'No way. We signed up for the core program in Afghanistan - pre-approved for operations against the high-value terrorist targets - and now you want to use it for cabdrivers, brothers-in-law, and people pulled off the streets,'" the source said.

T. rex bones to rule auction

Sat May 15, 9:40 AM ET  - Chicago Tribune 

By Diane Haithman Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times 

An auction of natural history specimens in Los Angeles this weekend will determine whether bones believed to be additional parts of the first Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered will be reunited with those of the dinosaur unearthed more than 100 years ago. 

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Experts say a collection of T. rex fossil bones and fragments from the Cretaceous Period, to be auctioned Sunday at Bonhams & Butterfields auction house, most likely are parts of the creature discovered in 1900 by paleontologist Barnum Brown. 

That argument gained more heft earlier this week when respected South Dakota fossil hunter Japheth Boyce, who collected the bones from their Wyoming excavation and prepared them for auction, flew to London with a cast of a portion of jawbone that seemed to connect perfectly with a section of jawbone housed in London. 

"As soon as I touched it, I knew," said Boyce of the fragment excavated by Brown a century ago. 

But because of a complicated legal dispute over ownership of what the auction house is advertising as "Barnum" after the discoverer of the species, the court-ordered sale must close Sunday, with the collection of skeletal remains going to the highest bidder. 

"It will sell. There is no reserve," said Thomas Lindgren, director of Bonhams & Butterfields' natural history department. 

While the British Museum, which owns the earlier discovery, may bid on the remains here, so may anyone else. According to the auction house, the offering is the second time a partial T. rex has come up for public auction. The first was in 1997, when Chicago's Field Museum paid $8.3 million for Sue, the most complete T. rex ever found, which was excavated in South Dakota. Scientists believe the species thrived between 65 million and 85 million years ago. 

Sunday is also too soon for the auctioneers to gain scientific confirmation that the bones are indeed from the first T. rex discovered. If they are, Boyce said, the specimens, which must be purchased together, could be worth 4 to 10 times the original appraisals of $400,000 to $900,000. A potential buyer must take a calculated risk, he said. 

Boyce said the bones discovered in 1900 constitute about 13 percent of the total skeleton. The bones to be auctioned, found close to the earlier discovery in Wyoming, potentially represent an additional 20 percent of the skeleton and include a partial skull with teeth, along with portions of bone from the arms, legs, pelvis and feet. 

"That is about one-third of a dinosaur, which would put it in the top six of the most complete T. rexes," Boyce said. Remnants of only about 20 have been found, he added. 

As part of the deal, the buyer of the collection also will get what Boyce calls "goop," rare evidence of the dinosaur's stomach contents, which include bones from Triceratops, duck-billed dinosaurs and even T. rex. 

"When paleontologists find big bones like these--we call them `speed bumps'--we don't know if he passed these bones, or threw them back up, or whether when he died his gut was filled from feeding," Boyce said. He added that the presence of T. rex bones does not imply cannibalism in the species but rather that the creatures were opportunistic scavengers. 

Lindgren said the scientific community hopes the British Museum buys the collection or that it goes to someone willing to donate or lend the bones so they may be reunited with those in London.

Rehnquist's Corporate Jet Trip Questioned 

25 minutes ago

TOLEDO, Ohio - Chief Justice William Rehnquist (news - web sites) is taking a utility's corporate jet Saturday to Ohio so he can speak at the dedication of the state's new court building in Columbus. 

American Electric Power is flying Rehnquist at the request of the Ohio Supreme Court, which plans to pay for the $3,800 flight. The cost is more than three times the most expensive round-trip ticket between Washington and Columbus. 

Security issues and Rehnquist's knee problem made a commercial flight impractical, said Ohio Supreme Court spokesman Chris Davey. 

"We are hoping to save a little money because AEP has agreed to do it at cost," Davey told The Blade newspaper, which first reported the story Friday. "This is not a favor." 

The propriety of the flight is being questioned by the watchdog group Ohio Citizen Action because AEP is being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) and Justice Department (news - web sites) for allegedly violating the Clear Air Act. The case could reach the Supreme Court 

"Clearly, this is a favor," said Catherine Turcer, a campaign reform activist for Ohio Citizen Action. "All businesses, including AEP, have things they need or want from the courts." 

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Rehnquist had nothing to do with the flight arrangements, which are made by the inviting organization. 

The appearance of a conflict of interest is the second for the high court this year. Justice Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) accepted a ride on a government jet from Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) in January after he invited Cheney on a duck hunting trip to Louisiana. The trip came only about three weeks after the justices agreed to consider a privacy case involving Cheney's energy task force. 

The Sierra Club (news - web sites), the plaintiff in the case, asked Scalia to recuse himself from the case that seeks to force Cheney to release the names and details of the task force to the environmental group; the justice refused.

The Cops Are Chasing Me in a WHAT?

May 14, 10:16 am ET 

ROME  - If you are thinking about speeding on Italian highways this year, think twice. You might find yourself being chased by a Lamborghini.

Italian police took possession Friday of a sleek, 500 horsepower, two-seater Lamborghini Gallardo, which can hit a top speed of 185 miles per hour.

The sports car, painted in the police's distinctive blue and white colors, comes complete with a flashing blue light on the roof and will initially patrol the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway -- a road notorious in Italy for wild driving.

The Lamborghini will also be used to transport human organs for emergency operations.

Lewis and Clark's List: Opium and 'Portable Soup'

May 14, 11:00 am ET 

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON  - Before the going got tough, the tough went shopping: opium, inkstands, sealing wax and "portable soup" were all on the list of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who launched an epic journey into the unknown American West exactly 200 years ago.

To mark Friday's anniversary, the National Archives offered a glimpse of documents that shed light on the careful planning and provisioning for the Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific and back.

"We were now about to penetrate a country of at least 2,000 miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden," Lewis wrote in his diary when they had been traveling nearly a year.

"The good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these little vessels contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves."

The explorers had some high-ranking help, according to archives curator Stacey Bredhoff: President Thomas Jefferson was intimately involved in deciding what to take on the 8,000-mile, 28-month trip. Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase treaty in 1803, in which France sold the United States 828,000 square miles of territory. On May 14, 1804, Lewis, Clark and 31 other men launched three small vessels into the Missouri River to investigate the new lands. They were meant to hunt, fish, forage and trade for supplies along the way, but sensibly bought $1,000 worth of provisions on a shopping trip in Philadelphia, the hub of U.S. commerce at that time. One receipt shows the purchase of 193 pounds (88kg) of "portable soup," which Bredhoff said was a paste made of boiled-down beef and cow's hooves, eggs and vegetables. "It was not popular, not at all," she said. "The only time they consumed it was during the real starvation times, particularly when they were going through the Bitterroot Mountains (along what is now the Idaho-Montana border) in September 1805." They apparently returned to St. Louis with plenty of portable soup left over, Bredhoff said. At a Philadelphia apothecary called Gillaspy and Strong, Lewis bought $90.69 worth of medicines and medical instruments. The receipt for this order shows a vast array of compounds for pain and sickness.

Opium and laudanum were among the painkillers, but many of the items on the pharmaceutical list were bleeding or purging agents. The list notes 50 dozen bilious pills -- also known as thunder-clappers -- that were powerful purgatives.

Another list showed items for more general use, especially those used to make a record of the travels.

On this listing, there were eight receipt books, 48 pieces of tape, six brass inkstands, ink powder, sealing wax, 100 quills and one packing hogshead to put it all in.

There were also eight tents, 45 bags and 10 yards of linen.

"It was a military expedition, so the records here are military records," Bredhoff said. "Its purpose was not to make war. It was not to claim land. It was to find a route to the Pacific Ocean, to befriend the western tribes of Indians and to return safely with detailed reports on the geography, geology, astronomy and zoology, botany and climate of the West."

The explorers returned to St. Louis on Sept. 23, 1806. Only one death was recorded among the 33 men who started out and historians believe the cause was appendicitis, Bredhoff said.

'Shrek 2' Among Films Competing in Cannes 1 hour, 18 minutes ago By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer 

CANNES, France - Even the snooty Cannes Film Festival (news - web sites) loves computer animation, which has become such the rage in Hollywood it has virtually displaced traditional hand-drawn cartoons on studio slates. The computer-generated "Shrek" (2001) was the first cartoon in 27 years to make Cannes' prestigious main competition, and the sequel "Shrek 2" is among 19 competing films at Cannes this year. The fairy tale sequel faces such serious competition as Wong Kar-wai's time-bending tale "2046" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore (news)'s critique of the Bush administration's actions after the Sept. 11 attacks. An onslaught of computer-animated films including "Finding Nemo," the "Toy Story" movies, "Monsters, Inc.," "Antz" and "Shark Tale" have pushed hand-painted cartoons into the background. The slates at Disney and DreamWorks are dominated by computer-generated animation, or CG, and neither studio has any traditional hand-painted cartoon features in the pipeline. "Ours is a creative choice," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, who co-founded DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg (news) and David Geffen and is executive producer of "Shrek 2." "We have a series of movies ("Shark Tale," "Madagascar") coming that have been very much inspired by `Shrek.' They are in sensibility that kind of movie in that they are somewhat irreverent, they are somewhat subversive," he said. "They're parodies, they're satire, they are very anthropomorphized, and they are best told in CG." Computers allow animators to create simulated three-dimensional realities that appeal to a generation raised on video games with greater visual depth than two-dimensional hand-drawn cartoons. Only a handful of computer-animated features have been made so far, but sharp and funny stories, bright visuals and famous voices have made virtually all of them major hits. Last year's Disney-Pixar adventure "Finding Nemo" passed the hand-drawn "The Lion King" to become the top-grossing animated movie ever at $340 million domestically. "Shrek 2" starred Mike Myers (news), who provided the voice of the gentle green ogre; Cameron Diaz (news), the voice of Shrek's bride Princess Fiona; and Eddie Murphy (news), who plays Shrek's garrulous sidekick, Donkey. The sole bomb among computer-animated movies was "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." The difference: Computer-animated hits like "Monsters, Inc." and "Shrek" told good stories. "Final Fantasy" didn't. "`Monsters, Inc.' worked because it was such a charming story, and you really bought into the relationship between John Goodman (news) and the little girl," said Jennifer Tilly (news), one of the voice stars for "Home on the Range." "People didn't flock out to see `Monsters, Inc.' because you could see every little hair follicle on his back. It's nice that it looks so real, but if you're attached to the story, it doesn't matter." Filmmakers say it's largely Hollywood's follow-the-leader mentality that has elevated computer animation over the traditional cartoon form, which had ruled since Disney invented feature-length animation with 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Hand-drawn animation went through a sterile period in the 1960s and 1970s but roared back with a creative renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. "CG is the new thing that people are interested in animation, and 2-D had a huge run there. It had about a 17-year golden age that it's kind of coming off of," said Kelly Asbury, co-director of "Shrek 2." "Lilo & Stitch" in 2002 was the last certified U.S. hit among hand-drawn animated movies. Hand-drawn animation continues to thrive outside the United States with growing international interest in Japanese anime and with such smaller flicks as last year's Cannes offering, "The Triplets of Belleville." Katzenberg, who as a Disney executive in the 1980s and 1990s oversaw the revival of the studio's animation division, said hand-drawn cartoons are simply awaiting another reinvention to inject "something fresh and new." Will Smith (news), voice star of DreamWorks' computer-animated "Shark Tale" due out this fall, said the animation debate reminds him of the music scene in the 1980s. "That same question was posed to me probably about 15 years ago in the music business when everything started moving to drum machines and synthesizers and all of that," said Smith, at Cannes to promote "Shark Tale." "There's a period where you go the digital or CG route, but I think it will always come back to the human flaw that pleases the eye. ... I don't think traditional animation will ever disappear totally."

U.S. Takes Greenpeace to Court in Unusual Trial Thu May 13,12:42 PM ET Add Science 

By Michael Christie MIAMI  - Greenpeace, charged with the obscure crime of "sailor mongering" that was last prosecuted 114 years ago, goes on trial on Monday in the first U.S. criminal prosecution of an advocacy group for civil disobedience. The environmental group is accused of sailor mongering because it boarded a freighter in April 2002 that was carrying illegally felled Amazon mahogany to Miami. It says the prosecution is revenge for its criticism of the environmental policies of President Bush (news - web sites), whom it calls the "Toxic Texan." Sailor mongering was rife in the 19th century when brothels sent prostitutes laden with booze onto ships as they made their way to harbor. The idea was to get the sailors so drunk they could be whisked to shore and held in bondage, and a law was passed against it in 1872. It has only been used in a court of law twice, the last time in 1890. Greenpeace says the decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute the organization rather than just the activists who boarded the APL Jade freighter is a sea change in policy, and a conviction would throttle free speech everywhere. It would also be a sharp blow against Brazilian efforts to halt the trade in a hardwood so precious it is known as "green gold." It yields fatter profit margins than cocaine and is blamed for the destruction of vast swathes of the Amazon. "Illegal logging goes on and they're bringing it to Miami and making loads of money, and we're going to trial," said Sara Holden of Greenpeace International. The case is unprecedented, not just because of the bizarre nature of the crime. Six Greenpeace activists were charged after the 2002 protest in choppy waters off Miami, pleaded guilty and sentenced to time served -- the weekend they spent in jail. But U.S. prosecutors were not satisfied, and 15 months later came up with a grand jury indictment of the entire organization for sailor mongering. FREE SPEECH CONCERNS U.S. prosecutors argue Greenpeace did something like that when two "climbers" clambered aboard the Jade to hang a sign demanding, "President Bush: Stop Illegal Logging." If convicted, Greenpeace could be placed on probation, and pay a $10,000 fine. As significant as the prosecution itself, are the implications, free speech campaigners say. Not once since the Boston Tea Party have U.S. authorities criminally prosecuted a group for political expression. "It's ominous," said attorney Maria Kayanan of law firm Podhurst Orseck, which worked with the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) on a "friend of court" brief to back a Greenpeace demand that the government reveal who ordered the prosecution. "It will be very chilling because advocacy groups whose members chose to engage in acts of protest which happen to violate the law will be loathe to act at all." Greenpeace hopes to focus on mahogany during the trial, which will begin on Monday with jury selection in the U.S. District Court in Miami, under Judge Adalberto Jordan. In one line of defense, its attorneys will argue that the activists were highlighting a crime, and giving Washington an opportunity to live up to its commitment to protect mahogany as a signatory to global treaties listing the wood as endangered. Greenpeace Amazon campaigner Paulo Adario said a mahogany tree could be bought in the Amazon for $30. Once turned into dining tables and chairs for sale in New York or London, that same tree could be worth as much as $120,000. Along the way, Amazon Indians are driven from their villages, officials bribed and activists assassinated. Country-sized chunks of rain forest fall to chainsaws as other loggers take advantage of the roads the mahogany hunters carve to get at less valuable woods that would not otherwise have been worth trying to reach. "Mahogany is a red wood, it's red like blood, it's red like shame," Adario said by phone from the Amazon port of Manaus. "The U.S. government should help us to change at least the shameful color of mahogany (but) they are prosecuting us."

Scientists Find Signs of Ancient Crater 2 hours, 19 minutes ago 

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered signs of a large impact crater buried off the coast of Australia that may be linked to the biggest extinction event in Earth's history, the "Great Dying" 250 million years ago. Many scientists have long blamed a massive meteor near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for wiping out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. What caused the far earlier and larger Permian-Triassic extinction - when about 90 percent of all species disappeared - is subject to sharper debate. The leading theory is that the extinction actually stretched over thousands of years, triggered by volcanic eruptions. A massive flow of molten rock over what is now Siberia injected tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere, gradually changing the planet's climate. The new study, published Thursday by the journal Science, backs another theory that a massive asteroid strike played at least some role, too. The researchers cite clues that an impact crater the right age and perhaps 120 miles wide is buried off Australia's northwest corner. They're calling it the Bedout crater (pronounced Beh-doo.) "We think that mass extinctions may be defined by catastrophes like impact and volcanism occurring synchronously in time," lead researcher Luann Becker of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in a statement. But other scientists are highly skeptical. "It's not yet persuasive that it's even a crater," said Peter D. Ward, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle who has long studied impact craters and mass extinctions. Intensive study is required to join the list of the world's proven impact craters. Most have been eroded by rain, wind and earthquakes over millions of years. This possible new site is poorly preserved and deeply buried. Even if it is an impact crater, size must be proven, Ward added. "It's got to be a big hit" to cause global repercussions, he said. "There's going to have to be a tremendous amount of more work" done on the site. Becker's team, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation (news - web sites), had been hunting a crater in the Southern Hemisphere after finding what appeared to be impact debris in Antarctica. She learned that oil companies had drilled cores from a ridge at the Bedout site decades earlier. In those never-before-studied samples, she found melted rock layers and crystal structures displaying the "shocked" pattern distinctive of meteor impact. Sediments from an oil exploration well provided the right date. 

Aging Octopus Finds Love at Last Thu May 13, 7:51 AM ET 

By MARY PEMBERTON, News Source Writer ANCHORAGE, Alaska - It looks like J-1 is in love. After meeting the very fetching and slightly younger Aurora, he changed color and his eight arms became intertwined with hers. Then, the two retreated to a secluded corner to get to know each other better. We're talking about giant Pacific octopuses here. Aquarists at the Alaska SeaLife Center introduced the 5-year-old J-1 to Aurora on Tuesday morning. The two really hit it off. Spermatophores were seen hanging from J-1's siphon. "We really were not sure he had it in him," SeaLife Center aquarium curator Richard Hocking said Wednesday. Love almost passed J-1 by. At 5 years of age and 52 pounds, he's reaching the end of the line for his species, the largest octopus in the world. J-1 is in a period of decline that occurs before octopus die. His skin is eroding. His suckers have divots. "He's not as strong as he used to be," said aquarist Deanna Trobaugh. With so little time left, J-1 wasn't going to let the sweet Aurora slip through his eight octopus arms. While she had to make the first move, he caught on quickly, especially for an octopus who was collected on a beach near Seldovia in 1999 when he was about the size of a quarter and has lived the bachelor life since. To get the two together, aquarium staff put Aurora in a plastic bag and then gently poured her into J-1's 3,600-gallon exhibit tank. She sank to the bottom of the tank and then made the first move, going over to J-1, who was hanging on a rock wall. She reached out an arm and touched him. Only then did he wake up to the fact he had company. Contact made, she went back to her corner of the tank. J-1, dispelling water from his siphon to get quickly across the tank, was in hot pursuit. "They both were gripping the back wall of the tank. He just about covered her completely," Hocking said. The two remained intertwined for about eight hours. It's possible that during that time when J-1 was exploring Aurora's mantle with his many suckered arms that he passed his sperm packet to her, Hocking said. What the aquarium staff does know is that when they separated, J-1 flashed some colors, turning almost white and then dark red. "It looks like instinct took over during that encounter and they did what they were supposed to do," Hocking said. If Aurora did get cozy with J-1 and accept his spermatophores, or sperm packet, which is delivered from the only arm without suckers, she will produce anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 eggs, which when hatched will look like little squid. "It is just possible, we may see several thousand fertile eggs soon," Hocking said. "We can only wait now and see what nature does." If with many, many children, Aurora - who was about the size of a grapefruit when she was found in 2002 living inside an old tire in front of the SeaLife Center - will stop eating while she tends her eggs. She will weaken and die soon after they hatch. Hocking said it seemed only right to give J-1 a chance to do what octopuses normally do before he dies. In his younger days, J-1 was an easygoing sort who did not try to escape his tank a lot, Hocking said. When aquarium staff would come by to clean, the octopus would reach out and grab hold of someone's arm or a window cleaning tool. "The goal for this was to let him lead a full life," Hocking said. ___ On the Net: www.alaskasealife.org

World Bank Corruption May Top $100 Bln 23 minutes ago  

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON  - Corrupt use of World Bank (news - web sites) funds may exceed $100 billion and while the institution has moved to combat the problem, more must be done, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Thursday. Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record), an Indiana Republican, charged that "in its starkest terms, corruption has cost the lives of uncounted individuals contending with poverty and disease." He commended World Bank President James Wolfensohn for bringing greater attention to the issue, but said, "Corruption remains a serious problem." Lugar opened a hearing on corruption at the multilateral development banks, the first public examination in an ongoing Senate investigation. He cited experts who calculated that between $26 billion and $130 billion of the money lent by the World Bank for development projects since 1946 has been misused. In 2003, the bank distributed $18.5 billion in developing countries. Jeffrey Winters, an associate professor at Northwestern University, said his research suggested corruption wasted about $100 billion of World Bank funds, and when other multilateral development banks are included, the total rises to about $200 billion. Damian Milverton, a bank spokesman, later disputed the $100 billion estimate, insisting it had "no basis in fact." "We completely reject the figure offered by one of the panelists as an estimate of funding from the World Bank that might have been misused," Milverton told The News Source. Winters testified that the World Bank's anti-corruption effort was having "minimal effects" and the banks should all focus on supervising and auditing their lending. "The lion's share of the theft of development funds occurs in the implementation of projects and the use of loan funds by client governments," he said. Like other United Nations (news - web sites) agencies, World Bank rules prevent staff from testifying in public so Wolfensohn was not at the hearing. But senior bank officials on Monday privately briefed lawmakers on its anti-corruption efforts, a bank spokesman said. Carole Brookins, the U.S. executive director on the World Bank board, defended the bank saying it was leading efforts to fight corruption, but acknowledged "there is more that could be done to strengthen the system." More than 180 companies and individuals have been blacklisted from doing business with the World Bank and their names and penalties posted on the bank's public Web site. Between July 2003 and March 2004, it said it referred 18 cases of fraud or corruption to national justice authorities based on investigations by its anti-corruption unit. Specific bank projects under review by the committee include the Yacyreta dam on the Argentina-Paraguay border, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and projects in Cambodia. Hector Morales, acting U.S. executive director to the Inter-American Development Bank, testified that his institution recently accelerated anti-corruption efforts "but still has much work to do."

N.J. smart-growth plan flourishes Thu May 13, 7:00 AM ET  - USATODAY.com 

By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY Empty lots, green and neatly mowed, are scattered among the spanking new houses in the neighborhood Tom Troy is building. Troy is planning to fill those lots with more $500,000 houses for commuters using the nearby rail line to Philadelphia or New York. But he can't break ground on the 90 empty lots until he pays to preserve one of about 20 farms remaining in Washington Township. Under a smart-growth program passed in New Jersey in March, builders like Troy can pay to preserve land that towns want to keep open - and in return build housing in areas the town wants to grow. Proponents see the program as a way to allow growth and at the same time preserve open space - and do it by tapping the deep pockets of developers rather than public money. That idea looks good to cash-strapped states, especially where housing demand has driven up the price of land. And it appeals to towns that want to focus construction around existing roads, and sewer and water lines. Fierce competition In Washington Township, transferring development rights means Troy would get to build on his 90 lots. And a farmer like Paul Keris, on nearby Windsor Farm, would reap the value of his land while still getting to farm it. Keris and his cousin, Wayne Kalinowsky, used to grow vegetables but now find that kids' hayrides and mums are their most profitable crops. "All farmers would like to be in the preservation (programs)," Keris says, knee-deep in a ditch fixing a broken pipe. But he also wants a preservation program to pay him the same amount he'd get if a developer turned his farm into a subdivision of 2-acre lots. The last offer from the township to preserve his farm was $1.2 million. A standing offer from a developer would give him $3.5 million for his 55 acres. "All I'd have to do is call him up, and he'd be here," Keris says. The township has spent $3 million on preservation through existing open-space programs. Currently nearly 3,000 of the township's 13,000 acres are protected. The state reimbursed the township $2 million of that. "We're in competition with developers. Trying to cut our deals," says Doug Tindall, a township committeeman and farmer. He once grew soybeans on the land where Troy is building and now works to preserve remaining farms. At least 17 states allow local governments to enact programs to transfer development rights. A few locations such as Montgomery County, Md., have preserved significant amounts of land. But New Jersey's law goes further and gives the state a strong role in making sure local programs yield results, says Deron Lovaas, a smart-growth specialist with the National Resources Defense Council. Local governments have to show their program has preserved land - or the state will make them rewrite their rules. The New Jersey plan also sets up a statewide program with $20 million to buy development rights from landowners and then resell them to developers when there is demand. That way, "the farmer doesn't have to wait for the town to set up the (transfer) program," says Susan Bass Levin, commissioner of the state agency that oversees smart growth and land preservation. In Washington Township, with a population of 10,275 about 12 miles southeast of Trenton, local officials had been waiting for the state law to pass and already had been working on its own program. "We thought of ourself as a rural township, and we wanted to preserve it," Tindall says. Township officials long ago figured out where development should go: 230 acres dubbed Washington Town Center, between the hamlet of Robbinsville and an existing housing development. Planned from the beginning Troy's company, Sharbell Development, bought 190 acres of the site for $10.8 million and has spent $100 million developing it. Buying development credits was part of the plan from the beginning, Troy says. "Now it's up to me to make the economics work." He wants to pay about $30,000 to fill each of his 90 empty lots. Overdevelopment has been a hot issue for decades in New Jersey. The state has a high demand for housing and a high level of frustration with sprawl. The new program means land remains open, developers get to build, and towns are "in the driver's seat about where and how development happens," says Susan Burrows of New Jersey Future, a smart-growth advocacy group that lobbied for the legislation. "Everybody wins." But these transfer programs are complicated to set up and run, says Peter Furey of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. One reason is that prime open land, like Windsor Farm, is often zoned for large houses on 2-acre lots. But builders who pay to keep that farmland open will use the development rights to build smaller houses on smaller lots. Those houses sell for less money than a mini-mansion would. So how many smaller houses in a growth area equals one mini-mansion that doesn't get built on farmland? And who is going to decide? Troy, for one, wants to know. It can also be difficult to designate areas for growth without creating opposition. Washington Town Center was farmland, so there were few neighbors to protest plans for high-density housing. That won't be the case everywhere. "The theory has always been nice," Furey says. But now, "it's kind of showtime."

CIA Says Al-Zarqawi Beheaded Berg in Iraq 

1 hour, 24 minutes ago

By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the person shown on a video beheading an American civilian in Iraq (news - web sites), based on an analysis of the voice on the video, a CIA (news - web sites) official said Thursday. 

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Intelligence officials conducted a technical analysis of the video released on an Islamic web site May 11 and determined "with high probability" that the person shown speaking on the tape - wearing a head scarf and a ski mask - is al-Zarqawi, a CIA official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 

The person who is shown speaking in the video - determined to be al-Zarqawi - is then shown on the video decapitating American citizen Nicholas Berg, the official said. 

Berg's body was found in Baghdad on Saturday. On Tuesday, an Islamic Web site released the video, titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands." 

The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders. 

Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg. 

Al-Zarqawi is thought to be in Iraq, operating his own terrorist network, known simply as the "Zarqawi network." A specialist in poisons, he is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). 

As recently as March, U.S. officials said al-Zarqawi's practice was not to make taped public pronouncements or take credit for attacks. However, in the last five weeks, he has increased his public profile with at least three recordings, including Berg's beheading. 

Al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind well over a dozen high-profile attacks in Iraq, and many other acts of violence, which have killed hundreds. 

The United States is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.

Low-Carb Diets Can Cause Bad Breath

1 hour, 42 minutes ago 
HealthDay 

THURSDAY, May 13 (HealthDayNews) -- The Atkins diet might chase away more than just unwanted pounds -- it could lead to bad breath that chases away your friends.

But there are ways to battle halitosis caused by low-carb dieting, says the Academy of General Dentistry.

Low-carb diets work by getting the body to burn stored fat as fuel rather than carbohydrates. As that fat burns, chemicals known as ketones build up in the body. They are released through the breath and urine, and they can be smelly.

The types of food ingested also play a role, academy spokesman Dr. Bruce DeGinder said in a prepared statement.

"Most cases of bad breath originate from the breakdown of food particles that produce sulfur compounds, and from bacteria on the gums and tongue," DeGinder said. "High protein foods can produce more sulfur compounds, especially overnight on the surface of the tongue when saliva production is diminished."

To combat this bad breath, the academy suggests that dieters:

* Drink plenty of water to wash away germs in the mouth.
* Chew sugarless gum or parsley.
* Keep a toothbrush handy and brush after every meal.
* And if the bad breath persists, see a doctor. Halitosis can be a sign of a more serious condition, such as diabetes.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about halitosis.

Post-Blackout Baby Boom Amounts to Legend 

Thu May 13, 7:26 AM ET 


DETROIT - Those who said births in areas hit by last summer's blackout would skyrocket nine months later haven't delivered on their predictions. 

The belief that more babies will be born in May because the Aug. 14, 2003 blackout created more intimate moments amounts to urban legend, said S. Philip Morgan, a Duke University professor of sociology specializing in fertility. 

"I'd be shocked to see a baby boom because I'm not convinced there is more sex during blackouts," Morgan told the Detroit Free Press for a Thursday report. "Some people are stranded, some people have to work because of the crisis, some feel romantic, but some are freaked out. Some women won't be ovulating. And we do have birth control." 

Spokespersons at hospitals in metropolitan Detroit acknowledge that maternity wards are typically busy in April and May, but are no more so this year than last. 

The belief that more babies are born after natural catastrophes or man-made disasters like the blackout or 9/11 is a continuation of the myth that the Nov. 9, 1965, New York blackout resulted in a baby boom nine months later, Morgan said. 

Experts like Morgan aren't the only ones who scoff at "blackout baby" stories. 

Michael Kam's experience during the blackout went like this: After the power went out at the Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, Kam left work and needed three hours to drive home to Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township, 12 miles to the northwest. The night was spent searching for batteries and entertaining his cranky 10-month-old son. 

"Sex was the last thing on my mind," said Kam, 30. "It was hot and muggy. We didn't have working showers. We went into survival mode, not sex mode." 

The blackout that began in Ohio and spread to Michigan, six other states and parts of eastern Canada kept Detroit-area residents busy in other ways. 

"We spent the night not having sex but trying to find a hotel to stay in with our daughter," said Sarah Gothro, 40, of Lake Orion. "We wound up staying with my in-laws that night. And I wouldn't ever think of having sex at my in-laws' house." 

___ 

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Rumsfeld Visits Iraqi Prison at Center of Abuse Scandal

26 minutes ago

By Charles Aldinger 

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq  - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq (news - web sites) on Thursday and flew by helicopter into Abu Ghraib prison, the jail at the center of a scandal over the abuse of detainees by U.S. troops. 

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The embattled secretary, traveling under tight security to a country where more than 700 U.S. troops have died since last year, earlier landed at Baghdad airport and held meetings with senior U.S. military officers in the capital. 

Rumsfeld denied on a 15-hour flight from Washington he was trying to cover up the scandal at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad. 

"If anybody thinks that I'm (in Iraq) to throw water on a fire, they're wrong," he told reporters aboard his aircraft. 

"We care about the detainees being treated right. We care about soldiers behaving right. We care about command systems working," added Rumsfeld, who has rejected calls from newspapers and some opposition Democrats to resign. 

U.S. defense officials said the sudden trip by Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s Joint Chiefs of Staff, was triggered by the recent publication of photographs of U.S. military guards humiliating naked Iraqi prisoners. 

"This is a terrible tragedy. We're not going to ever say it's not," Myers said. But "I think we absolutely have the high moral ground" in Iraq, he told reporters. 

Rumsfeld met Major General Geoffrey Miller, the new U.S. military commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, who said he had totally reorganized the operation of Abu Ghraib, partly by separating the units responsible for overseeing incarceration from those responsible for intelligence and interrogation. 

"I am absolutely convinced that we laid down the foundations of how you detain people in a humane manner. And it is unequivocal in its explanation," said Miller, who previously ran the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. 

GLOBAL OUTRAGE 

Rumsfeld and Myers have appeared numerous times in recent days before congressional panels to answer tough questions about whether humiliation, sexual assault and violence were part of methods used to "soften up" prisoners ahead of interrogation. 

The abuse scandal has ignited international outrage and shaken U.S. global prestige as the United States seeks to stabilize Iraq and President Bush (news - web sites) seeks re-election. 

It has further eroded support for the United States and its mission in Iraq among Arabs, and caused NATO (news - web sites) to take a step back from a decision on whether to assume a greater role in Iraq after a June 30 transfer of power to a sovereign government. 

In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said Rumsfeld's trip came too late to make any difference. 

"This trip should have been done last January when the defense department...was notified about this by the Red Cross," he said. 

"This is just a continuation of disaster after disaster in terms of Iraq policy... We are the most hated nation in the world as a result of this disastrous policy in the prisons." 

The scandal has hit morale among American troops already demoralized by extended deployments and increased violence. 

"It would be a misunderstanding if anyone thinks that Dick (Myers) or I can go in there for a short period and...serve as a solution to the concern among the Iraqi people, or solve all the problems that may exist in the process," Rumsfeld told reporters on his aircraft. 

"What took place in those pictures is over the edge." 

Rumsfeld has warned more damaging photographs, which members of Congress reviewed on Wednesday, have yet to be made public. 

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, whose committee had a closed-door hearing on the issue, said in addition to Abu Ghraib, two other U.S. prisons in Iraq were mentioned in the new material. 

So far three courts martial for U.S. military personnel accused of abuse have been scheduled. Four other military police, including two women, have also been charged and may be sent for court martial later.

Gandhi-Led Opposition Wins in India 

1 hour, 53 minutes ago

By BETH DUFF-BROWN, News Source Writer 

NEW DELHI - The Gandhi political dynasty in India prepared for a return to power Thursday after it was handed a stunning victory that reflected anger among millions of India's rural poor over being left out of the economic boom fostered by the current government. 

The party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conceded the vote, leaving Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to take the helm of the world's largest democracy. 

It was one of the most dramatic political upsets since Indian independence almost 60 years ago. 

"We have not got the mandate of the people," said Venkaiah Naidu, president of Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party. He said the decision to concede the race was made at a 90-minute meeting of the party and its coalition partners. 

The opposition Congress Party and its allies had already claimed victory, and some promised that Gandhi, the party leader, would be the next prime minister. There was still no official decision, however, and she must form a coalition with leftist parties that could object to her taking the leadership role - in part because of her foreign origins. 

After more than eight hours of vote-counting for 539 of Parliament's 543 elected seats, official results showed Congress and its allies were leading Vajpayee's 11-member National Democratic Alliance 145 to 119 seats. 

George Fernandes, defense minister under Vajpayee, said the new Parliament could meet as early as Monday. 

It was an embarrassing defeat for Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led government, which had called elections six months early because it felt confident of winning an even bigger majority in Parliament, based on the roaring economy and prospects of peace with Pakistan. 

Before the five-phased elections, which began April 20, Vajpayee and his alliance had been expected to win enough seats to eventually form a government and rule the country for another five years. 

But Congress focused its campaign on the country's 300 million people who still live on less than a dollar a day. It hammered away at the lack of even basic infrastructure, electricity and potable water for millions of rural poor. 

A leader in Vajpayee's coalition said the results were "totally against our expectations." 

Pakistan expressed confidence Thursday that the peace process would continue despite the NDA defeat. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The News Source that the process involved the two governments, not "individual personalities." 

Gandhi has pushed for a secular India in contrast to the BJP's Hindu nationalist message. Her two children, Rahul and Priyanka, are up-and-coming politicians and state-run television reported that Rahul won his race to enter parliament for the first time. 

The Gandhi dynasty dominated Indian politics since independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, headed the country from independence until his 1964 death. He was followed by his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who was killed by her own bodyguards in 1984. 

Rajiv, her son and Sonia's husband, took power and ruled until 1989. Two years later, he too was assassinated. 

The family is not related to Mohandas Gandhi, India's independence leader. 

During the campaign, Mahajan had called Gandhi's Indian-born children foreigners and had stoked the debate - dubbed the "Sonia factor" - over whether a foreign-born citizen should rule India. 

Outside Sonia Gandhi's residence, supporters celebrated, beat drums, and set off firecrackers. 

"They said she is a foreigner, but people have given them a reply," said Rati Lal Kala, 35, carrying a huge Congress flag and wearing a scarf in Congress colors. "The BJP has only played with the people's emotions. This should be a lesson for them." 

Leftist parties, which have promised to support a Congress-led government, also appeared to be doing well and they could give the opposition the edge it would need to take power. 

The benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, opened 3.3 percent lower, at 5179.99 points, in early trading. Within an hour, however, stocks had recovered to hit 5339.81 points, a drop of 0.34 percent. 

New Delhi Television - reporting trends from 535 constituencies, said Congress and its allies would likely win 218 seats, compared to 195 for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governing coalition, and 122 for others. 

With the first official seats reported, Congress and its allies were leading Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party 36 seats to 21, from the 539 constituencies being counted. Repolling was being held in four other constituencies, because of violence and snags with electronic voting machines. 

Digital ballots have been compiled at 1,214 centers in major cities and towns throughout this diverse nation of more than 1 billion people. 

More than 380 million voters participated in five phases of balloting that began April 20. Forty-eight people died in election violence, less than half the deaths in the last elections in 1999.

Wholesale Prices Up, Retail Sales Down 

4 minutes ago

By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Wholesale prices shot up by 0.7 percent in April, the largest increase in a year, propelled by higher gasoline costs and the biggest jump in dairy product prices since 1946. 

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Separately, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) reported that sales at the nation's retailers dropped by 0.5 percent in April, following a strong 2 percent rise in March. Economists were forecasting a small 0.1 percent rise in sales for last month. April's performance was bogged down by sharp drop in automobile sales. 

The increase in the Producer Price Index (news - web sites) came after wholesale prices rose by 0.5 percent in March, the Labor Department (news - web sites) reported Thursday. The latest PPI (news - web sites) report, which measures prices before they reach store shelves, provided fresh evidence that inflation is awakening after a long slumber. 

April's increase was the largest since a 1.3 percent spike in March 2003 and exceeded the modest 0.3 percent advance that economists were forecasting. Sharply higher prices for energy and food were the culprits of the large increase in the PPI last month. 

Excluding energy and food prices, the "core" rate of inflation rose in April by a more subdued 0.2 percent for the second straight month, matching analysts' expectations. 

In other economic news, new applications for unemployment benefits rose last week by a seasonally adjusted 13,000 to 331,000, the Labor Department said. The increase, while larger than some analysts' expected, still left claims at a level suggesting the job market is improving. 

The more stable four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly fluctuations, fell last week to 335,750, the lowest level since Nov. 25, 2000. 

On the inflation front, an improving economic climate is giving some companies more power to raise prices - something many were hard-pressed to do when the economy was previously stuck in a long slump. 

While economic reports show inflation moving higher, Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Alan Greenspan (news - web sites) and his colleagues at their meeting last week indicated that they are not yet worried, saying "long-term inflation expectations appear to have remained well contained." 

The Fed decided last week to hold short-term interest rates at a 46-year low of 1 percent, where it has been since last June. But it signaled that rates could be moving higher now that the economic recovery is on solid ground. Some economists believe the Fed will begin to nudge up rates as soon as the June or the August meetings to keep inflation in check. 

Although analysts don't believe inflation is a threat to the recovery at this point, its upward movement marks a change in the pricing climate from a year ago. Then the Fed was worried about the prospects of deflation, a prolonged and widespread price decline. 

In Thursday's PPI report, energy prices jumped by 1.6 percent in April, up from a 0.6 percent rise in March. Gasoline prices went up by 3.4 percent last month, the largest rise since January. Residential natural gas prices rose by 2.5 percent and residential electric power costs increased by 0.4 percent. Home heating oil, however, fell by 1.3 percent. 

Crude oil prices recently hit new 13-year highs, reflecting strong global demand and tensions in the Middle East. 

Food prices, meanwhile, rose by 1.4 percent in April, on top of a 1.5 percent increase in March. The Labor Department said that more than half of the increase in April was due to a 10.4 percent jump in prices for dairy products. That was the biggest increase in dairy product prices since July 1946. 

Prices for beef and veal, soft drinks and pork also were higher, while costs for eggs and vegetables fell sharply in April.

New Study Shows Big Drop in Book Sales 

1 hour, 44 minutes ago

By HILLEL ITALIE, News Source National Writer 

NEW YORK - Not even Harry Potter (news - web sites) could prevent a big drop in book sales in 2003. With a struggling economy and competition for time from other media, 23 million fewer books were sold last year than in 2002, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Book Industry Study Group, a non-for-profit research organization. 

Sales fell to 2.222 billion books, down from 2.245 billion in 2002. The decline was in both hardcovers and paperbacks, in children's books and general trade releases. Even sales of religious titles, often cited as a growing part of the publishing industry, were flat. 

"We believe this is due to a variety of factors, the biggest being the used book market," said Albert N. Greco, an industry consultant and a professor of business at the graduate school of Fordham University. 

"People are looking for bargains, especially in college textbooks, where we believe millions of used books are being bought. Also, books are competing with magazines, cable, radio, music and movies." 

Thanks to higher prices, net revenues did rise to $27.8 billion in 2003, a 2.5 percent increase. They are projected to reach $33.5 billion in 2008. 

But the 2003 figures show a continued trend of increasing production and declining demand. More than 100,000 books were published last year, yet fewer people were buying them. Sales dropped despite such high-profile releases as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the memoirs of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), and Dan Brown's religious thriller, "The Da Vinci Code." 

"One book cannot make you," Greco said. "You have to look at how many books are not selling well. There's a parallel to Hollywood, where a lot of movies flop." 

The Book Industry Study Group's report, titled "Book Industry Trends 2004," includes several downbeat assessments from publishing officials. Bob Miller, president of Hyperion, declares that "the pie we're all looking to share is not growing," and "flat is the new up." 

Barbara Marcus, publisher of Scholastic Children's Book Group, which releases the Potter books in the United States, said she was disappointed by the impact of J.K. Rowling (news - web sites)'s fantasy series on the overall market. 

"People thought Harry might have changed kids' reading habits," she said. "It's happened to a small degree, but not to the level we've hoped." 

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Vitamins Ward Off Osteoporosis Fractures 

26 minutes ago 


By LINDA A. JOHNSON, News Source Writer 

Folate and other B vitamins seem even more of a wonder drug than anyone suspected: Already known to prevent severe birth defects and heart attacks, they may also ward off broken bones from osteoporosis, two major studies suggest. 


 

The findings underscore doctors' longstanding recommendation that people take multivitamins. They could also further support the government's decision to require bread and cereal makers to fortify their products with folate, also known as folic acid. 

B vitamins are known to reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid already linked, at high levels, to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites). Now research shows high levels of homocysteine at least double the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures. 

A report from Holland found that the risk of such fractures was twice as high in men and women with homocysteine levels in the top 25 percent, compared with those with lower levels. Similarly, a U.S. study found the risk nearly quadrupled in the top 25 percent of men and nearly doubled in the top 25 percent of women, compared with the 25 percent with the lowest levels. 

"The basic way to keep your homocysteine down in a healthy range is to have plenty of B vitamins," said Dr. Douglas P. Kiel, senior author of the U.S. study and director of medical research at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged Research and Training Institute in Boston. 

The studies were reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites). 

Kiel said a standard multivitamin, taken once a day, would bring a person's homocysteine levels below the danger point. Foods naturally rich in B vitamins and calcium - including dairy products, broccoli and other green, leafy vegetables, carrots, avocados, cantaloupes, apricots, almonds and peanuts - can also reduce the risk of broken bones. 

Since 1998, when the U.S. government began requiring that folate be added to bread, cereal and other flour products, the resulting drop in Americans' homocysteine levels has been credited with preventing about 48,000 deaths from heart attacks and strokes each year. Also, severe brain and spinal birth defects have dropped 27 percent - the strategy's original purpose. 

Researchers say it is unclear why the same benefit with fractures has not yet been documented. There is also uncertainty as to how homocysteine levels affect bone strength. The prevailing theory is that it interferes with crucial chemical bonds within the bones. 

Experts say it is too soon to recommend routine testing of homocysteine levels, which can cost from $100 to $200. That is partly because the new studies do not actually prove that high homocysteine levels - rather than some other factors - cause weaker bones. 

Kiel's research examined 825 men and 1,174 women, aged 59 to 91, who were part of the Framingham Heart Study, which since 1948 has been studying heart disease risk factors in residents of the Boston suburb. Homocysteine levels in blood samples taken from the patients between 1979 and 1982 were later measured, and the patients were followed for 12 to 15 years to see how many had hip fractures. 

Hip fractures are the leading cause of elderly people being forced into nursing homes; they lead to death within a year for about 20 percent of patients, because of infections and other complications, said Dr. Felicia Cosman, clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. 

Among the study participants with the highest homocysteine levels, men were about four times more likely to fracture a hip and women about twice as likely, compared with the 25 percent with the lowest levels. 

"This should be another wake-up call to eat better, when you're older, especially," Kiel said. 

Kiel said the highest homocysteine levels would result in about 9 extra hip fractures per 100 men and 9.5 extra fractures per 100 women over 14 years, the average time the patients were studied. 

The report from Erasmus Medical Center in Holland analyzed data from two studies, one in Rotterdam and one in Amsterdam, involving a total of 2,406 people age 55 or older. Those with the highest levels were 1.9 times more likely than the others to suffer osteoporosis-related fractures. 

Research reports since at least 1985 have hinted at a relationship between homocysteine and osteoporosis, said Dr. Todd Stitik, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Newark. 

"This is providing more pieces to that puzzle," he said. 

Stitik said that starting a healthier lifestyle even before middle age can head off problems. 

Besides taking a multivitamin with folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, he recommends plenty of walking or other weight-bearing exercise and eating foods rich in B vitamins. 

___ 

On the Net: http://www.nejm.org 

National Osteoporosis Foundation: http://www.nof.org

Sarin Nerve Agent Bomb Explodes in Iraq 

15 minutes ago

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, News Source Writer 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. It was believed to be the first confirmed discovery of any of the banned weapons that the United States cited in making its case for the Iraq (news - web sites) war. 

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Two members of a military bomb squad were treated for "minor exposure," but no serious injuries were reported. 

The chemicals were inside an artillery shell dating to the Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) era that had been rigged as a bomb in Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq. 

It appears two chemical components in the shell, which are designed to combine and create sarin during flight, did not mix properly or completely upon detonation, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Kimmitt, however, said a small amount of the nerve agent was released. 

Two former weapons inspectors - Hans Blix and David Kay - said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons. 

Kimmitt said he believed that insurgents who planted the explosive didn't know it contained the nerve agent. 

Sarin-type agents produced by Iraq were largely of low quality and degraded shortly after production, U.N. inspectors said in a March 2003 report. They said it was unlikely that agents produced in the 1980s would still work today. 

U.S. troops have announced the discovery of other chemical weapons before, only to see them disproved by later tests. A dozen chemical shells were also found by U.N. inspectors before the war; they had been tagged for destruction in the 1990s but somehow were not destroyed. 

"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," Kimmitt said. "The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy. 

"A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This produced a very small dispersal of agent," he said. 

The incident occurred "a couple of days ago," he said. 

The Iraqi Survey Group is a U.S. organization whose task was to search for weapons of mass destruction after Saddam's ouster. 

The round was an old `binary-type' shell in which two chemicals held in separate sections are mixed after firing to produce sarin, Kimmitt said. 

Many of the materials used for roadside bombs are believed to have been looted from arsenals after the collapse of the regime in April 2003. 

Dispersal of the gas would be far more effective if a shell containing nerve agent were fired from an artillery piece, he said. Kimmitt said he believed it was the first case in which U.S. forces had found an artillery shell containing sarin. 

It was unclear if the sarin shell was from chemical rounds that the United Nations (news - web sites) had tagged and marked for destruction before the U.S. invasion. 

Prior to the war, U.N. inspectors had compiled a short list of proscribed items found during hundreds of surprise inspections: fewer than 20 old, empty chemical warheads for battlefield rockets, and a dozen artillery shells filled with mustard gas. The shells had been tagged by U.N. inspectors in the 1990s but somehow not destroyed by them. 

Kay, who led a U.S. team hunting for weapons, said it appears that the shell was one of tens of thousands produced for the Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam was supposed to destroy or turn over to the United Nations. In many cases, he said, Iraq did comply. 

"It is hard to know if this is one that just was overlooked - and there were always some that were overlooked, we knew that - or if this was one that came from a hidden stockpile," Kay said. "I rather doubt that because it appears the insurgents didn't even know they had a chemical round." 

While Saturday's explosion does demonstrate that Saddam hadn't complied fully with U.N. resolutions, Kay also said, "It doesn't strike me as a big deal." 

In 1995, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed sarin gas in Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and sickening thousands. In February of this year, Japanese courts convicted the cult's former leader, Shoko Asahara, and sentence him to be executed. 

Developed in the mid-1930s by Nazi scientists, a single drop of sarin can cause quick, agonizing choking death. There are no known instances of the Nazis actually using the gas. 

The Bush administration cited allegations that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as a main reason for launching the war in Iraq last year. 

The Iraq Survey Group, made up of dozens of teams, has been conducting a secretive and largely fruitless weapons hunt across Iraq for more than a year. The survey group combines members of the CIA (news - web sites), the Defense Intelligence Agency, U.S. military Special Forces and others. 

The team has run into a number of dead ends. In January, for example, field tests on discovered mortar shells near Qurnah in southern Iraq indicated a blister agent was in the shells. But followup tests indicated that the munitions did not contain the agents, though U.S. officials said Saddam had such agents in the early to mid-1990s. 

Blix, the former U.N. weapons inspector, said in Sweden Monday that before the war, his team found 16 empty warheads that were marked for use with sarin. 

He said it was likely the sarin gas used could have been from a leftover shell found in a chemical dump. 

"It doesn't sound absurd at all. There can be debris from the past and that's a very different thing from have stocks and supplies," he said. 

According to U.N. weapons inspectors, sarin-type agents constituted about 20 percent of all chemical weapons agents that Saddam Hussein's government declared it had produced. 

The accounting for sarin was one of a dozen remaining disarmament tasks that inspectors submitted to the U.N. Security Council in March 2003, said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman the U.N. inspectors. 

"Iraq was known to possess a lot of this material, and there were questions about the accounting," Buchanan said. 

Iraq declared that between 1984 and 1990, it produced 795 tons of Sarin-type agents. About 732 tons were put in bombs, rockets and missile warheads. Iraq further declared that about 650 tons were consumed during the period 1985 to 1988, which included the Iran-Iraq war, and 35 tons were destroyed through aerial bombardment during the Gulf war in 1991. 

Iraq destroyed 127 tons of Sarin-type agents under U.N. supervision, including 76 tons in bulk and 51 tons from munitions.

Fundraiser Denies Link Between Money, Access 1 hour, 32 minutes ago  - washingtonpost.com 

By James V. Grimaldi and Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post Staff Writers Second of two articles MASON, Ohio -- Richard T. Farmer is one of America's richest men and a Bush Pioneer by virtue of having raised at least $100,000 for the 2000 campaign. Over the past 15 years, he and his wife have given $3.1 million to Bush campaigns, the Republican Party and Republican candidates. Farmer's family controls Cintas Corp., a $2.7 billion company that rents and launders uniforms and industrial shop towels. For years, Farmer's industry has been at odds with the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) over increased regulation of shop towels, particularly a Clinton administration proposal that, though not fatal, "would have cost us a lot of money," Farmer said. In a recent interview at company headquarters here, Farmer said his campaign donations were made with no strings attached. He said he supports Republicans because they believe in "less government, more individual freedom, more individual responsibility." "If you think I'm giving money to get access to [President Bush (news - web sites)], you're crazy," Farmer said. "I'm just trying to get the right guy elected. That's all I care about." The Clinton proposal would have required that woven shop towels contaminated with chemical solvents be wrung dry for them to be treated as laundry, not hazardous waste. Last November, the EPA changed its position, adopting a more lenient proposal for the woven towels. Farmer and his industry were overjoyed, because the change promised to save them millions and preserve their advantage over the competition -- paper towels. "It would have been a big problem," Farmer said. After a series of telephone calls, e-mails, letters and meetings with representatives of the laundry industry, the EPA had provided industrial-laundry lobbyists with an advance copy of a portion of the proposed rule, which the lobbyists edited and the agency adopted. That same opportunity was not given to the rule's opponents -- environmental groups, a labor union, hazardous-waste landfill operators and paper towel manufacturers who argue their product should be treated as environmentally equal to laundered towels. The opponents say industrial laundries send tens of thousands of tons of hazardous chemicals to municipal sewage treatment plants and landfills where toxics can get into groundwater, streams and rivers. Labor unions contend that the towels expose workers to cancer-causing fumes. Cintas said in a statement that the rewritten rule will prevent pollution because "reusable shop towels are friendlier to the environment" than disposable paper towels. The proposed shop towel rule is but one example of a policy change by the Bush administration that favors a company controlled by a Bush Pioneer or Ranger, who as a group have helped the president bank a record $200 million for the 2004 election campaign. The shop towel case reflects the subtle interactions between corporations and an administration determined to roll back what it considers to be regulatory overkill. For many big donors, getting "the right guy elected," as Farmer puts it, is an end in itself. EPA Assistant Administrator Marianne Lamont Horinko said Farmer's campaign contributions had nothing to do with the agency's decision. Although Cintas was represented by the industrial-laundry lobbyists in discussions with the EPA, Farmer said he himself did not directly contact the administration about the proposed rule. He did say that, at the behest of the laundry industry, he called members of the Ohio congressional delegation, who wrote to then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman (news - web sites). In a summary of the rule, the EPA said it would improve "clarity and consistency" of regulation, "provide regulatory relief, and save affected facilities over $30 million." Whitman -- who resigned from the EPA last year and has since become a Bush Ranger -- declined to be interviewed. But she said through a spokesman that contacts such as those from the Ohio congressional delegation "are helpful because they highlight an interest and a constituent's interest" and "that just feeds into the deliberative process." Fred Meyer, the former chairman of the Texas Republican Party who in 1998 helped set up the Pioneers for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, said there is a good reason money will always flow to political campaigns. "There are too many things that are important to too many people," Meyer said. "The existence of businesses and billions of dollars are affected." Democrats have their own history of rewarding large donors. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed major contributor Joseph P. Kennedy to be ambassador to Britain. Lyndon B. Johnson funneled contracts to Texas firms. Direct quid pro quos -- specific benefits in exchange for cash -- are illegal. There is nothing illegal, however, about the adoption of broad legislation or regulations benefiting sectors of the business community -- such as laundries disposing of wastewater containing toxic chemicals -- that happen be a source of major fundraisers and donors. For example, securities and investment banking firms have benefited enormously from reduced capital gains and dividend taxes initiated by the Bush White House. Six produced 17 Pioneers and Rangers this year, and employees in those firms have raised $2.53 million. Altogether, finance industry employees have raised $19.68 million for the 2004 election campaign, according to an analysis produced for The Washington Post by Dwight L. Morris & Associates. Twenty-four Rangers and Pioneers are either drug industry executives or lobbyists whose companies stand to get more business from the administration's Medicare drug benefit bill passed last year. Twenty-five energy company executives, along with 15 energy industry lobbyists, are either Pioneers or Rangers. Many have been deeply involved in developing the administration's energy policy. Seven of those Pioneers served on the Bush energy transition team. The administration's energy bill, which remains stalled by a largely Democratic filibuster in the Senate, would provide billions of dollars in benefits to the energy industry. Industry: $400 Million Cost The proposed shop towel rule shows how the process can play out to the advantage of a Pioneer. For more than two decades, the EPA has grappled with how to regulate the cloth towels used to wipe up chemicals in printing plants, factories and industrial shops. Each year, 3 billion of them sop up more than 100,000 tons of hazardous solvents such as benzene, xylene, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone. "Why should these materials be regulated as a hazardous waste?" the EPA said in a document given to the laundry industry in 2000. "Because they have the potential to cause fires, or to be the source of fugitive air emissions, and ground water contamination." In 1997, the Clinton administration proposed a clean-water rule requiring industrial laundries to pretreat their wastewater to remove chemical solvents. The Uniform & Textile Service Association (UTSA) and Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA) mounted a $1.2 million lobbying campaign against the proposed rule, arguing that toxic pollutants are removed at the laundries or by municipal wastewater treatment plants. The trade groups said the proposal would have cost them more than $400 million. In 1999, the Clinton EPA withdrew the rule. The next year, with Clinton still in the White House, the EPA floated a new draft rule that proposed to exempt shop towels from hazardous-waste requirements only if factories squeezed the towels "dry" -- defined as containing no more than five grams of solvents -- before placing them in sealed containers and sending them to laundries. Calling this "an extremist view in the EPA," the laundry industry forcefully opposed the new proposal as overregulation. But environmental activists, labor groups and paper towel makers said the laundries and local treatment plants frequently exceed their mandated pollution limits. Sixty-five Cintas laundries in 15 states and Canada have exceeded pollution limits on more than 1,100 occasions in the past several years, according to public records gathered by the Sierra Club (news - web sites) and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). For the EPA and the laundry industry, things changed when Bush took office in 2001. The industry pushed hard to derail the Clinton proposed rule in favor of a more lenient one that gives shop towels a hazardous-waste exemption without the need to wring them dry or store them in special containers. Laundry trade groups appealed directly to EPA Administrator Whitman in February 2001: "The draft regulation in its current form . . . increases the regulatory burden." In May, Whitman sent a conciliatory response: "Partnerships with our stakeholders will be an important part of how we will do business at EPA." To aid in the effort, the industry urged contributions to its Textile Rental Services Association's Political Action Committee. "Will PAC donations open doors, get appointments and allow your message to be delivered? Absolutely," Textile Rental magazine said in its March 2002 edition. Exemption Sought at EPA In Richard Farmer, the industry had one of the biggest political givers in the country. For President George H.W. Bush, Farmer, now 69 , was a member of "Team 100," donors who gave more than $100,000 to Republican Party-building committees. When George W. Bush ran for office in 2000, Farmer's "golfing buddy," Cincinnati financier Mercer Reynolds III, recruited Farmer to be a Pioneer, Farmer said. This year, he earned the more exalted Ranger status by raising a minimum of $200,000 in individual contributions. Farmer said that his big gifts are not connected to political favors. In the case of shop towel regulation, Farmer said Cintas itself was unconcerned. "We huddled up and [decided] no matter what happens here, it will have no impact on Cintas," he said. Later in the interview, when specifically asked about the Clinton-era proposal, he said it would have hurt Cintas by making it difficult for the company to provide the full range of services its customers demand. Shop towels are now about 5 percent of Cintas's business, but they remain an important service to customers who also rent uniforms. Farmer said he never contacted the administration about the new rule. He said he did complain about the rule to Ohio Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich and Rep. Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record), a fellow Bush Pioneer and chairman of Bush's campaign in Ohio this year. Farmer said he made the calls in 2002 on behalf of the two laundry trade groups. Cintas is the biggest company in the industry, but Farmer said that complaints from hundreds of small laundries probably had more impact than his calls. "It would have put small guys out of business," he said. Portman said in a recent interview that he was first contacted by one of the trade groups, which he knew represented Cintas, "one of those big companies in our district." He said he considered it a constituent issue. "I do remember talking to Dick about it at least once," he said. About the same time in 2002 that Farmer was making his calls and the trade groups were contacting members of Congress, he made a major contribution. On March 19, 2002, Farmer gave $250,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. On March 25, Portman and Voinovich co-wrote a letter to Whitman asking her to support a more encompassing waste exemption for shop towels -- this one from solid waste regulation. Gaining a solid-waste exemption would remove a further layer of regulation because some states apply additional taxes, fees and special handling requirements to solid waste. Whitman spokesman Joe Martyak said such a letter from lawmakers "helps to precipitate a meeting to find out what's the glitch. You help to unglitch it, to move it along." At this point , EPA attorneys were balking at the solid-waste exemption, Portman and Voinovich said in their letter. A month later , Whitman wrote Portman and Voinovich that the EPA was considering the solid-waste exemption and assured that it would "incorporate suggested changes where appropriate." Three weeks later, EPA officials signed off on the exemption, according to the trade group's timeline. Jim O'Leary, the EPA official who wrote the original language that was rewritten, said there was no political interference from Whitman's office. "That's nonsense," O'Leary said. "We called it the way we saw it. No one interfered." A Rule That Isn't 'Onerous' On Aug. 2, EPA's Kathy Blanton, who replaced O'Leary, e-mailed to industry attorney William M. Guerry Jr. the "language we have put together to address the laundries' concerns," according to a copy of the e-mail obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Guerry wrote back on Aug. 15 with proposed changes, documents show. Among them was deletion of a phrase in the preamble stating that shop towels "remain regulated." Instead, the lobbyist wanted the words "regulatory status . . . remains unchanged." Guerry, in an interview, said the change was important to make sure that states did not misread the rule as a significant change in policy. Otherwise there would have been "chaos" and a "train wreck," he said. EPA officials shared the language with him, he said, because "they recognized that we had the expertise they needed." Blanton said she sent Guerry just part of the regulatory language. "I can see how, from the outside, that it would look like colluding or something. [But] these were the people who were going to be most affected by the rule and they were the ones with the expertise." She said at this point the EPA had already had sufficient input from the paper towel people and others affected by the rule. Opponents, including the union, environmentalists and paper towel makers, say they were not given an advance look at the language. Ralph Solarski, a Kimberly-Clark Corp. executive who chairs a task force of paper towel makers, said his group would have been glad to have one. "Kathy Blanton and Bob Dellinger at EPA were asked on multiple occasions for advance copies and we were consistently denied," Solarski wrote in an e-mail to The Post. EPA officials attended two industry meetings to discuss the proposed rule, one in Baltimore on Aug. 20 and one in Old Town Alexandria on Sept. 12. On Aug. 30, Farmer donated $250,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. EPA's Office of Solid Waste Director Dellinger spoke at the Alexandria meeting. His comments later appeared in the trade group's magazine: "EPA doesn't want to make this onerous." Instead of screw-on, sealed containers for transporting contaminated woven towels from factories to laundries, which were proposed in 2000, Dellinger said, a piece of plywood over a barrel would meet the new EPA proposed standard. Also, the EPA opted not to require the towels to be wrung out. "The point of that is not to make it harder to do than what you would do through your normal course of business," Dellinger said. However, he told the group, the paper towel industry would have to wring out its towels to make sure they had no more than five grams of solvent on them before being dumped. The new proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on Nov. 20, 2003. Paper industry officials say that the EPA is ignoring its own studies showing that laundries create 30 percent more waste than paper towels in the form of sludge -- lint, debris, toxics and other substances extracted from laundry wastewater -- sent to municipal landfills. "This is a case study," Solarski said, "for how an industry has used the regulatory process to gain a market advantage." Post database editor Sarah Cohen and researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.

Lewis and Clark Enjoy Surge in Popularity Mon May 17, 8:02 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By BETSY TAYLOR, News Source Writer ST. LOUIS - Like aging rock stars on a comeback tour, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are enjoying a huge surge in popularity. America this week celebrates the bicentennial of the expedition's departure from the St. Louis region, when the explorers and a roughly 40-member crew set off to explore the Louisiana Territory and seek a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers logged about 8,000 miles as they navigated the Missouri River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, reached the Pacific and returned with knowledge of the land and its natives. They could never imagine that their journey - one of the nation's greatest adventure stories - would spawn re-enactors and produce commemorative stamps and coins, an expedition-inspired beer, historical cookbooks, theme parties, even Lewis and Clark air fresheners. "I think it's perhaps the most important story in our history," said Scott Mandrell, 38, who portrays Meriwether Lewis nationwide. The Alton, Ill., resident traveled about 400 miles on horseback last year, will spend much of this summer on the river in replica boats, and has spent stretches of time as Lewis away from his own wife and children. "I'm in uniform almost every day of the week," he said, adding that throughout it all he looks after a 140-pound Newfoundland named Seaman, in a nod to the dog who accompanied the explorers on the original trek. He and other re-enactors with The Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, from the city about 25 miles northwest of St. Louis, are expected at dozens of bicentennial events. Mandrell, a schoolteacher, said the sacrifices are worthwhile as long as he's sharing the Lewis and Clark story. "If we hope to be a nation with a bright future, we have to remember the character that defined us in the beginning," he said. There's no question Americans are focusing on Lewis and Clark. Official Lewis and Clark seed collections, sea salts, and even auto air fresheners are among the approved items for sale, said the national Lewis and Clark bicentennial licensing agent Diane Norton. Part of the proceeds from items with the bicentennial logo will pay for future educational programs, she said. There are theme dinners and costume dances; vacationers are retracing parts of the explorers' trail on summer travels, and collectors are awaiting commemorative coins and stamps. At a celebration marking the Louisiana Purchase in March in St. Louis, a supply of 1 million Jefferson nickels ran out early. It featured a peace medallion Lewis and Clark gave to Indians during the expedition. American Indians are participating in many of the events and educating visitors about their history and traditions. Other tribes are keeping their distance, noting that the arrival of the white explorers marked the beginning of the end of the Indian way of life. Tom Schlafly, president of The Saint Louis Brewer Inc., sells Schlafly microbrews in the hometown of Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer. Schlafly has introduced Lewis and Clark Expedition Reserve, an American pale ale, to commemorate the bicentennial events in St. Charles from May 14-23, where the expedition set off from the riverbank to explore the West. "There's a great national fascination; this is just one of the great events in the United States," said Schlafly, whose brew was made to taste like the full-flavored, hoppy ales people in the region drank around the time the expedition left. Scholars have explored countless aspects of the journey, but there's always more. Mary Gunderson, of Yankton, S.D., wrote "The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition," which was published last year. It includes researched and re-created recipes based on what the explorers ate. "There are some things that I don't include, like beaver. That's not available in a modern grocery store," she noted. Gunderson said her great-grandparents settled near the Missouri River 60 years after the expedition passed through present-day South Dakota. She said those who live near spots where Lewis and Clark traveled have a natural fascination with the expedition. "This bicentennial is personal to so many people. So many people feel like, `It's mine,'" she said. ___ On the Net: Bicentennial Commemoration: http://www.lewisandclark200.org/ Lewis and Clark: http://www.lewisandclarktrail.com

They're Here -- Cicada Cycle Fascinates Regions

May 12, 11:14 am ET 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON  - The first cicada of the season sat on the doorstep like a mutant bumblebee, with red eyes and yellow legs.

But, apparently alarmed by the appearance of a human, it tumbled off the shallow step, landing helplessly on its back. Its yellow legs wiggled frantically to no effect.

How could anything so stupid and clumsy survive, and prosper in such huge numbers? Billions, probably trillions, of cicadas are emerging this month across the eastern United States in a monster swarm known as Brood X or brood 10.

Scientists plan to study the mass coming out of Brood X to find out. Did their bizarre 17-year cycle evolve because they are such easy preys, or did it allow them to evolve into the clumsy, noisy creatures that they are?

"Brood X is likely to be the largest insect emergence on Earth," said Keith Clay, a cicada expert at Indiana University at Bloomington.

Starting this week, across much of the eastern United States, from Georgia north to southern New York and as far west as Illinois, the cicadas will emerge from their 17 years of sucking on tree roots underground to engage in a two-week orgy of calling, mating, laying eggs and then dying. And things that eat cicadas, from fish and birds to dogs, will gorge on them in a mad frenzy. If history is anything to go by, their noise will drive barbecues indoors, disrupt weddings and graduations and waken children. Then they will die en masse. "They rot very quickly and they smell really bad for a few days and will disappear on their own," Clay said. MORE INSECTS PER SQUARE FOOT Clay says cicadas can reach densities of up to a ton an acre, or 3,000 kg per hectare. He believes humans are altering the environment to make it more hospitable to cicadas, by creating little patches of forest that have lots of edges -- which the insects appear to prefer. Understanding cicadas could help scientists understand other animals whose life cycles are affected by human activity, including white-tailed deer and the ticks that carry Lyme disease, Clay told a news conference at the National Science Foundation, which sponsors his work.

Cicadas are notable not only for their vast numbers, but also the noise they make. Different species have different calls, says University of Connecticut biologist Christine Simon.

"(One species) sound like flying saucers from a 1950s science fiction film," Simon said. Another species sounds like "somebody took water and threw it into hot fat. It is a loud, sizzling noise," she said.

The thumb-sized insects are found in many countries around the world but the dramatic periodical cicadas of the genus Magicicada are found only in eastern North America. There are seven known species with 17- and 13-year life cycles.

Simon believes the 17-year cicadas evolved when the 13-year cicadas, for whatever reason, developed a four-year dormancy period.

She also believes some dramatic climatic disturbance since the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago favored the development of the 17-year cycle. The cicadas locked in the behavior.

"I think it's just an accident that they became periodical," Simon said.

Scientists agree the mass emergency of billions of bugs has allowed the cicadas to survive even though just about anything will eat them.

"We prefer the term 'predator foolhardy' to stupid," Simon said.

But she notes not all their behavior is overly bumbling. For instance, when a male calls a female his buzz takes one tone, and the female makes a flicking sound to answer during a lull. The male's call changes substantially after that.

"He'll start pawing her front legs," she said. His mechanical-sounding whir will change again, to a kind of chuckling. "While he's doing that, he'll mate with her," Simon said.

Video Creates a UFO Stir

May 12, 11:06 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - The Mexican Air Force has released footage of what a UFO expert said were 11 invisible unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane.

A long-time believer in flying saucers, journalist Jaime Maussan told a news conference on Tuesday the objects were real and seemed "intelligent" after they at one point changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them.

"They were invisible to the eye but they were there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," he said, after showing a 15-minute video he said the Defense Ministry gave him permission to publicize.

The ministry confirmed to The News Source it had provided the video, filmed by the Air Force on March 5 over the eastern coastal state of Campeche.

"We are not alone! This is so weird," one of the pilots can be heard yelling, after the plane's crew switched on an infrared camera to track the objects, first picked up by radar.

The film, recorded by a plane looking for drugs trafficking near the Gulf of Mexico, shows 11 objects as blobs of light that hover in formation or dart about, sometimes disappearing into cloud.

Mexico's most popular nightly news broadcast showed the video on Monday night.

Interviewed by Mausson on another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane.

"There was a moment when ... the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. It was at that point that I felt a bit tense," said Maj. Magdaleno Castanon.

Mexico has a long history of fanciful UFO sightings, most of which are dismissed by scientists as space debris, missiles, weather balloons, natural weather phenomena or hoaxes.

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/the News Source/amdf563739.jpg

Owl Leads Twitchers on Wild Goose Chase

May 12, 11:04 am ET 

WAKEFIELD, England  - Enthusiastic birdwatchers, still celebrating the discovery of rare storks in a Yorkshire village, could not believe their luck when they spotted a large owl perching on a telegraph pole.

The bird seemed to return day after day, maintaining a statuesque stillness at the village of Wrenthorpe near this West Yorkshire town.

But admiration turned to anger when they found that an unidentified prankster had planted a realistic decoy on the pole.

"One chap phoned me and said it had appeared and every day when he went to work it was still there," local bird enthusiast Harold Barrett told the local press.

"Owls can stay in one place for a while, but not that long," he added.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said it hoped the disappointment would not discourage people from continuing their interest in birds.

"A lot of people became very excited by birdwatching after the rare storks were found and generated such national interest," an RSPB spokeswoman said.

"It is great that they are looking out for birds. Let's just hope that next time they spot something more than a decoy," she added.

Naughty Gnomes Made to Cover Up

May 12, 11:01 am ET 

BARNSLEY, England  - A Barnsley man has covered up his lewd garden gnomes with painted-on swimwear after police warned him he faced arrest for causing public offence.

While most garden gnomes fish or enact scenes of bucolic tranquillity, ex-army sergeant Tony Watson's models in this northern English town bared their breasts and buttocks, prompting complaints from the public.

"It is an offence to display something that is insulting or likely to cause distress," a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

"Although some people view the gnomes as a bit of harmless fun, we have to take complaints from members of the public seriously."

One of the gnomes now sports a polka-dot bikini, said local resident John Threlkeld, who passes the gnomes every day on his way to work.

"Tony used filler and paint to cover them up," he said.

Theme Park Tackles Roller-Coaster Phobia

May 12, 10:59 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German theme park will host a seminar on combating fears of roller-coaster rides -- a session one psychologist Wednesday described as helping people cope with their "weaker self."

The Holiday Park in Hassloch, western Germany, said it was responding to requests from thrill-seeking theme park fans who wanted their friends to overcome fears and ride on the flagship "Expedition GeForce" roller-coaster -- the world's steepest.

Psychologist Marc-Roman Trautmann, who will lead the one-day seminar on May 21, told The News Source: "You can't call this kind of thing therapy because people don't have to ride roller-coasters at all if they don't want to."

"The real issue is for people to recognize their weaker self and learn how to cope with it," said the leading specialist from the German Center for Fear of Flying.

The seminar looks likely to be a sell-out with almost all 28 places already gone, the park's spokesman said. One woman even paid one and a half times the normal 90 euros ($107) price on an Internet auction site for a place.

Virgin on Mexican Wall Is No Miracle, Church Says

May 11, 11:07 am ET 

By Tim Gaynor

ENSENADA, Mexico  - Mexico's Catholic Church ruled out any divine origin for an image on a hospital wall that thousands of pilgrims are flocking to venerate in the belief that it shows the country's patron saint.

The shadowy figure, which the faithful say depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe, appears every night when a light is switched on in the patio of a clinic in the Pacific resort of Ensenada.

But Flor Guzman, a spokeswoman for the Tijuana Diocese in which Ensenada falls, said Monday the church did not believe the image was miraculous although it was pleased at the devotion of the pilgrims.

"The church is quite clear that it is not a miracle, but a natural phenomenon that serves to strengthen the faith of the believers," she told The News Source.

The image, which appears to be a shadow, was first reported to hospital authorities on April 19.

"The Catholic Church is not going to report the phenomenon to the Vatican for a thorough analysis because it does not have a supernatural explanation," Guzman said.

The Virgin of Guadalupe has been venerated by successive generations of devout Mexicans since she is said to have first appeared to a shepherd in 1531. She is generally depicted in a gown fringed by rays of light.

Among those flocking to Ensenada are pilgrims with chronic illnesses, some of whom claim to have received miraculous cures.

"I was being treated at the clinic for an asthma attack, but when I came outside to see the Virgin, I stopped wheezing," grandmother Maria Esther Valderrama, 66, said on Sunday night.

"It was definitely a miracle," she added.

Staff at the cottage hospital -- known simply as social security clinic No. 32 -- say up to 1,000 pilgrims keep a vigil at weekends.

They transform the clinic's courtyard into a shrine of devotional candles, flower garlands and printed prayer slips.

Mother of three Maria Hernandez murmured a prayer and crossed herself as the electric light blinked to life, casting a shadowy green outline on the hospital wall.

"I believe in the Virgin with all my heart, and seeing her fills me with indescribable joy," she stammered as she gazed up at the three-foot-high image.

Set two blocks back from a port popular with towering cruise ships, the hospital has drawn pilgrims from the nearby cities of Tijuana and Mexicali, and from as far away as San Diego across the border in southern California.

Boys Prefer Video Games to Toys

May 11, 11:04 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - Boys would rather play a "G.I. Joe" video game than with "G.I. Joe" action figures, a new study finds. Boys ages 5 to 12 spend more time each week playing video games than playing with traditional toys, market research firm NPD Group said on Tuesday. The survey did not detail how much more time was spent.

Toy categories, like action figures and building sets, were most affected by the increased tendency among boys to play virtual games than real games.

On average, all children in that age group play video games for just over 4 hours per week, NPD said, although one-third of the boys surveyed play for more than 6 hours weekly.

Of those surveyed, 20 percent started playing video games at age 3 or younger, and almost half had started by age 5. NPD said girls tend to spend about as much time playing video games as with traditional toys.

The company also found gaming to be more of a year-round hobby in the southern and western United States, and more of a winter seasonal activity in colder regions like the northeastern and central parts of the country.

NPD said the survey was based on responses from 2,809 adults with children ages 5 to 12 who play games.

One thing remained constant, NPD found. Girls still like Mattel Inc.'s "Barbie," ranking it as both the top toy and video games property.

Do It for Your Country

May 11, 10:56 am ET 

CANBERRA  - Australian couples owe it to their country to have more children and should get on with the job, the nation's treasurer said on Tuesday.

"You go home and do your patriotic duty tonight," Peter Costello said when asked by a journalist if he was "the family-friendly treasurer saying get out there and procreate."

In a federal budget handed down on Tuesday, Costello promised $2,083 for every baby born after June as part of a $13.3 billion "family package" to be distributed over five years.

Costello said two youngsters per couple in the nation of 20 million just wasn't adequate.

"If you can have children it's a good thing to do. You should have...one for your husband, one for your wife, and one for your country," Costello said.

"If you want to fix the aging demographic, you're just back to square after two. You make no net improvement," the former-lawyer and father-of-three said.

Some would have to go one step further by having extra children "for your country" to make up the gap left by friends who "aren't even replicating themselves," the Treasurer said.

Drunken Driver Loses Car, Breaks Booze Record

May 11, 10:52 am ET 

BERLIN  - Losing his license did not stop a drunk German driver from jumping back into his car a day later to buy more of his favorite tipple -- only to be nabbed a second time by police who this time seized the car as well.

Following a tip-off, police had stopped the 51-year-old on Monday, when a breath test showed a blood alcohol level more than 10 times over the legal limit.

"The officers could not remember ever having recorded such a high level," said a police spokesman in Hagen, western Germany. The man's license was taken away.

The next morning, the man again bought sparkling wine and drove home. Police again stopped him and recorded an even higher alcohol level -- almost double the amount considered life-threatening to most people.

"This time, the officers confiscated his car too," the spokesman said. The man will be charged.

3D Church Opened to Woo Internet Faithful

May 11, 10:58 am ET 

LONDON  - Christians in Britain opened a zany 3D Internet church on Tuesday, billed as a first chance for believers to log on and worship interactively.

Bishop of London Richard Chartres gave the inaugural sermon -- via a speech-bubble from his cartoon persona -- at the first service on the "Church of Fools" at www.shipoffools.com.

"No one has ever before created a stand-alone church where you can log on as a worshipper and join in however you like -- to kneel, cross yourself, sing hymns or shout 'Hallelujah,"' Web site deputy editor Stephen Goddard told The News Source.

Some two dozen believers signed up as cartoon worshippers for the service, sponsored by the Methodist Church but organized by the multi-denominational "Ship of Fools" project which says its name is deliberately self-deprecating to avoid pomposity.

As well as worshipping, those logged on were able to move around the church and down to its crypt, talk to each other, and give money to a collection plate -- via mobile phone.

With space for just 25 full worshippers, the site also allows up to 500 "ghosts" to drift around the church anonymously.

"This is an experiment to see if online worship can work, Goddard added. "Can we make something sacred from an information stream?"

The online church is the latest in a series of initiatives by Christians in Britain to bring the church into the modern age. Last year, the first mobile, inflatable church opened in England, complete with blow-up organ and polyvinyl pulpit.

England: Superiors Gave Iraq Abuse Orders 

2 hours, 18 minutes ago 
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By ESTES THOMPSON, News Source Writer 

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The Army private facing a court-martial for being photographed with naked Iraqi prisoners says she was following orders to create psychological pressure on them. 

The News Source 

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Pfc. Lynndie England told KCNC-TV in Denver on Tuesday that her superiors gave her specific instructions on how to pose for the photos. Asked who gave the orders, she would say only, "Persons in my chain of command." 

In photographs that have been shown worldwide, England, 21, is seen smiling, cigarette in her mouth, as she leans forward and points at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi. Another photo taken at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison shows her holding a leash that encircles the neck of a naked Iraqi man lying on his side. 

"I was instructed by persons in higher rank to `stand there, hold this leash, look at the camera,' and they took picture for PsyOps (psychological operations)," she told the station. 

"I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures," she said. She also said she thought "it was kind of weird." 

The interview with England, a military reservist from West Virginia, was taped Tuesday in North Carolina. England, who is now at Fort Bragg, also met Tuesday with one of a team of Denver lawyers who have volunteered to take her case. 

Asked whether worse things happened than those already seen on the photos, she said yes but declined to elaborate. 

She said her superiors praised the photos and "just told us, 'Hey, you're doing great, keep it up.'" 

England faces a military court-martial that includes charges such as conspiracy to maltreat prisoners and assault consummated by battery, and could face punishment ranging from a reprimand to more than 15 years in prison. 

No date has been set for a hearing in the case. 

Six other soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company are also charged. One, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., will face a court-martial in Baghdad next week. 

"We don't feel like we were doing things that we weren't supposed to because we were told to do them," England said. "We think everything was justified because we were instructed to do this and to do that." 

After meeting with England, attorney Giorgio Ra'Shadd said she shouldn't be used as a scapegoat by the military. 

"You don't see my client doing anything abusive at all," Ra'Shadd said in an interview. "I think she was ordered to smile." 

Ra'Shadd said England was pulled into the situations by intelligence agents who subverted the military chain of command. He said they used England to humiliate the men being photographed so they could show the pictures to more important prisoners and threaten them with the same treatment. 

"The spooks took over the jail," said Ra'Shadd. Now in private practice, he was formerly an Army lawyer assigned to the civil affairs and psychological operations command at Fort Bragg. 

Also Tuesday, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials told a Senate committee that the prison conditions shown in the pictures were confined to a few low-level soldiers and intelligence officers. 

But Ra'Shadd contended that the blame for the scandal lies high up in the chain of command, arguing that only the highest-ranking officials could have allowed civilian intelligence to override military command structure.

EU Aiming for Biometric Passports by End-2005

Wed May 12,12:05 PM ET 
Add World 

By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - The European Union (news - web sites) expects to start issuing new biometric passports with digital photographs and fingerprints by the end of 2005 and hopes the United States will continue to allow visa-free travel as a result, a top EU official said on Wednesday. 

Under current U.S. legislation, visa-free travel for 27 U.S. allies -- including many European Union states -- is in jeopardy. It requires all new passports from these "visa waiver" countries to contain a biometric identifier, like a fingerprint or a face-scan, from Oct. 26, a deadline most of the states say they cannot meet. 

The law was passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve security. 

"We have come to a consensus that we should introduce in our own travel documents two biometric features," said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, adding the features would be a digital photograph and a fingerprint. 

"From the European side, we expect to have our legislation in this respect fully adopted by the end of this year ... so that member states will start issuing the new passports with biometric features ... by the end of 2005," he told reporters. 

Both European and U.S. officials are eager for Congress to extend the deadline. Unless this happens, the United States risks a huge shortfall in traveler spending and a consular nightmare when millions of visitors suddenly require visas. 

Some 15.1 million people came into the United States under the visa waiver program last year, and their spending accounted for about two-thirds of spending by overseas visitors. 

The Department of Homeland Security has asked Congress to give visa waiver countries two more years to start issuing biometric passports. 

Vitorino praised U.S. efforts to extend the Oct. 26 deadline. Now that Europe has a clear timeline for issuing the new passports, he said: "We expect that the visa waiver program will be kept for the member states that already benefit from it." 

The Oct. 26 deadline only applies to passports issued after that date. Citizens of visa waiver countries who hold valid passports issued before Oct. 26 will be grandfathered, allowing them visa-free travel until their passports expire.

Company Introducing Low-Carb Wines Thu May 13, 9:03 AM ET 

By BRUCE SCHREINER, News Source Writer LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Brown-Forman has squeezed carbs out of its newest wines. Even the brand names reinforce the carb-counting craze. The spirits and winemaker expects to make a splash with its low-carb wines, which will reach shelves nationally starting around Memorial Day. The wines are named after the grams of carbohydrates in a 5-ounce glass. One brand is called One.6 Chardonnay; the other is One.9 Merlot. Normally, a 5-ounce glass of wine has 3 to 6 grams of carbs, the company said. The low-carb brands have the same alcohol content as other wines. Brown-Forman says it's the first introduction of low-carb wines in this country, where carb-light products are fast becoming a staple due to the popularity of Atkins diet and similar eating plans. The Louisville-based company, the nation's eighth-leading wine producer, hopes to use its head start on the competition to gain a permanent foothold as the leader in the low-carb wine market. "Because of the branding efforts and because of the quality of the wine, we think we have a chance to really own this space," said Andrew M. Varga, vice president and global brand director of Brown-Forman Wines. Varga said the company expects at least 500,000 cases to sell in the first year. "A high side could be you-pick-the-number," he said. Brown-Forman is picking up on the success of low-carb beer. Anheuser-Busch introduced the first major brand in the low-carb beer niche with its Michelob Ultra. Other beermakers have entered the low-carb market. Cara Morrison, the Brown-Forman winemaker in California who developed the brands, said most consumers won't notice any difference in taste. "They have a wonderful fruitiness to them," she said. The low-carb wines, which will sell for around $9.99 a bottle, required slight production modifications. Morrison removed as much sugar as possible from the grapes during fermentation. She blended the wine to maximize the full flavor of the grapes while producing the low-carb count. Her goal was to "give the sensation of sweetness without it being there," she said. One.6 Chardonnay features melon and citrus flavors. One.9 Merlot has smooth, spicy flavors with hints of blackberry and cherry fruit. Brown-Forman put nearly $1 million into research and development. The company plans to unveil the two brands with a $5 million advertising blitz in national newspapers and magazines. It intends to follow up with a low-carb One.9 Cabernet Sauvignon this summer. It hopes the brand names catch on. Varga said it may become as common to order a One.6 Chardonnay as it is to order a Jack Daniel's or Southern Comfort - two of Brown-Forman's most popular spirits. "We think this is a chance to go out with a unique name and some support behind it to potentially badge a wine brand and see if that doesn't have some great traction," Varga said. A California wine retailer was more skeptical. Gregory Condes, who works in wine sales with K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco, said low-carb wines would be a curiosity among wine drinkers. "It will be more of a novelty," he said. "If it has any success whatsoever, it's going to rely purely on the marketing strategy, not because the market is really asking for it." Condes said Brown-Forman was getting on the low-carb bandwagon and "really stretching it a bit too far." He said he has never had anyone ask for a low-carb wine. "The innate characteristics of wine itself already has healthy attributes as it is," he said. "They are not interested in the carbs as much." 

Justice Dept.: DNA tests for guilty jam system

Thu May 13, 7:00 AM ET

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY 

Guilty convicts who know they won't be exonerated are joining the innocent to ask courts and prosecutors to order DNA tests, the Justice Department (news - web sites) has told Congress.

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The DNA tests for the guilty are tying up crime labs and re-traumatizing the victims of rapes and other violent crimes, often years after the crimes occurred, according to a department "views" letter written to sway congressional opinion.

"The creation of a new post-conviction (DNA testing) remedy can readily result in abuse by convicted criminals," wrote William Moschella, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. 

The criminals' motives in seeking tests that will not exonerate them is to "game the system or retaliate against the victims of their crimes," Moschella wrote.

Moschella offered no statistics, and no independent numbers exist on how many DNA appeals are in the courts. But Moschella did cite recent cases from St Louis. Beginning in 2001, prosecutors there ordered tests on evidence from rapes dating back nearly 20 years. They found that DNA from the crime scenes matched five men who had been convicted of the crimes, though it exonerated two other convicts.

But the testing required rape victims, some of them now elderly, to give DNA samples and to answer questions about their sex lives. Some sobbed and collapsed, while others grew despondent, the memo said. One victim fled the city.

Moschella sent the letter April 28 to six key members of Congress, including Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., his counterpart in the House of Representatives. Moschella wrote that his goal was to discourage them from supporting a bill that would make it easier for federal convicts to petition courts for DNA tests to challenge their convictions. The bill, which also would authorize more than $1 billion in spending on DNA-based crime fighting programs, passed the House last year and is before the Senate. 

DNA, a cellular acid that contains an individual's unique genetic code, has been used since the late 1980s to match biological evidence found at crime scenes to perpetrators. It also has been valuable in challenging convictions because in some cases, DNA tests can show that someone other than the convict committed a crime.

Since 1989, 143 state convicts have been exonerated after DNA tests cast doubt on their convictions, says the Innocence Project, a New York City group that specializes in DNA cases.

In response, 34 states have passed laws making it easier for convicts to petition courts for DNA testing. At issue in the federal legislation is whether a convict seeking a DNA test must show that the test would prove his innocence or only that it would have created reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, supports the "reasonable doubt" standard. He called the Justice Department's letter "misguided" and said it "shows they are still part of the problem."

Monday, the state prosecutor's office in Miami announced plans to review 500 felony convictions obtained before DNA testing of suspects became common and to offer free tests to those who could be exonerated. Since 2000, prosecutors in St. Louis, San Diego and Houston have begun similar programs.

No figures are kept on how often DNA tests reconfirm a convict's guilt. But anecdotal evidence suggests that is often the case.

The Innocence Project does extensive screening to determine a convict's innocence before it takes his case. But one-third to one-half of those tested nevertheless are shown to be guilty, the project reports.

DNA tests have reconfirmed guilt in several high-profile cases.

In Texas in 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush granted DNA testing to convicted killer Ricky McGinn before his scheduled execution. The tests reconfirmed his guilt in the rape and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter and tied McGinn to two other murders for which he had not been tried.

In Massachusetts in 2002, supporters raised $30,000 to pay for DNA tests they hoped would clear model inmate Benjamin LaGuer of a rape 19 years before. LaGuer, who insisted he was innocent, was featured on ABC-TV's 20/20 program and attracted the support of authors, educators and other Massachusetts intellectuals.

The tests confirmed LaGuer's guilt. He says police must have manipulated the tests to obtain that result.

Handcuffed Man Swims From Alcatraz to SF 

Thu May 13, 8:33 PM ET 
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By The News Source 

SAN FRANCISCO - A handcuffed fitness expert defied chilly waters and swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco in an effort to raise funds for diabetes research. 

It took Brian Friedman, 54 minutes, 20 seconds to complete his stunt titled "Escape from Diabetes." 

"People with diabetes often feel they are shackled by the disease," he said Wednesday after completing the 1 1/2-mile stunt in 50-degree water. In addition to the cuffs, he was wearing a T-shirt, black Spandex shorts and a red swim cap. 

Friedman, 42, doesn't have diabetes but swam in honor of his grandfather, who lost both legs to the disease and died in 1988. Friedman has his own personal training business, Training on the Beach, based in Alameda.

High Gasoline Prices Mute America's Love for Big SUVs

Thu May 13, 3:29 PM ET

By Michael Ellis

DETROIT  - Some car buyers are taking diesel-powered Volkswagens for a test drive; others are trading in their sport utility vehicles for family 
sedans, or opting for a model with a smaller engine.

The recent rise in U.S. gasoline prices to record levels has Americans shopping for more fuel-efficient cars, and has at least dampened their love for SUVs 
which some consider the biggest gas guzzlers in suburbia.

"This is definitely different. It's all over the news. I guess people just figure that prices will never go down," said Tim Murphy, the new car sales manager at 
Toyota of Santa Barbara in Goleta, California.

CarMax Group Inc., which operates 51 used car and 12 new car dealerships across the United States, cited gasoline prices on Wednesday as one possible 
reason for weaker sales over the past few weeks. CarMax cut its earnings outlook, sending its shares down more than 13 percent on Wednesday, and the stock 
of its competitors down between 2 and 4 percent.

The average price at the pump hit a record high, unadjusted for inflation, of $1.95 per gallon for regular gasoline, up about 45 cents from a year ago, 
according to AAA. In California, the average price was $2.27 a gallon for regular, the motorist group said.

To top it off, gasoline prices have yet to hit their highest for the year, with the traditional peak summer driving season not set to start until Memorial Day 
weekend later this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has said.

Detroit's automakers last week added new incentives on SUVs to cut inventories of unsold models, despite already generous offers, after sales in April were 
weaker than many had expected.

The higher prices could shift demand toward more fuel-efficient models, which had been poor sellers in the past, said Ford Motor Co. Chairman and Chief 
Executive Bill Ford Jr.

Gas prices could "help drive customer behavior the way you'd like to see it," Ford said, when asked what the company was doing to improve the fuel economy 
of its vehicles, at the company's annual meeting on Thursday.

WAR JITTERS

Also hitting new and used vehicle sales is the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and the slow pace of job growth, car dealers and industry officials said.

"Our business has been at levels lower than historical levels for the last few months. What part of that gas prices play is very hard to determine," said Steve 
Whitener, co-owner of Briarwood Ford in Saline, Michigan.

In years past, when prices at the pump spiked, sales of SUVs continued to climb. But this time around, buyers seem more cautious, said Allen Levenson, vice 
president of sales and marketing with Asbury Automotive Group Inc., which operates 140 car franchises in the U.S.

"This is the first time that I've seen a noticeable shift," Levenson said.

Some consumers are trading in large SUVs for smaller models, Levenson said. "There is a little slowdown in the large SUVs. They're buying the smaller 
SUVs or the passenger cars."

Hefty incentives, including General Motors Corp.'s "Truckfest" promotion, contributed to a 1.5 percent drop in the average price of large SUVs in April from 
March, according to Edmunds.com. Prices for compact cars rose 2.4 percent in April from March, Edmunds.com said.

DIESEL AND HYBRIDS

Consumers are taking a second look at Volkswagen's diesel-powered cars, which get 40 miles per gallon or more, said Pat Foley, the used car manager at Rey 
Reece Volkswagen in Portland, Oregon.

"The interest has definitely increased," Foley said. "I would buy 10 used diesels today if I could find them."

Diesel costs about 15 to 20 cents per gallon cheaper than gasoline. But diesel cars are not sold in several states, including California, due to higher emissions 
of smog-forming nitrogen oxide.

Volkswagen had the U.S. market for diesels cornered, but DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes recently launched a diesel version of its E-Class luxury sedan, 
and Jeep plans to launch a diesel Liberty SUV this autumn.

Murphy said his California Toyota dealership can't get enough of the Prius hybrid gas-electric car, which gets 55 miles per gallon. In contrast, sales of the 
Sequoia and Land Cruiser large SUVs, which get about 15 or 16 miles per gallon, have softened, he said.

One dealer, who asked not to be named, said some used car wholesalers have stopped buying large SUVs.

"There's so many people who have them, and they're going to unload them, because of the gas," he said.

Abuse Scandal Focuses on Bush Foundation 1 hour, 5 minutes ago Add White House - 

By PETE YOST, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - The Iraq (news - web sites) prisoner abuse scandal shifted Sunday to the question of whether the Bush administration set up a legal foundation that opened the door for the mistreatment. Within months of the Sept. 11 attacks, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales reportedly wrote President Bush (news - web sites) a memo about the terrorism fight and prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions. "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions," Gonzales wrote, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) "hit the roof" when he read the memo, according to the account. Asked about the Gonzales memo, the White House said, "It is the policy of the United States to comply with all of our laws and our treaty obligations." The roots of the scandal lay in a decision, approved last year by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a classified operation for aggressive interrogations to Iraqi prisoners, a program that had been focused on the hunt for al-Qaida, The New Yorker magazine reported. The Pentagon (news - web sites) said that story was "filled with error and anonymous conjecture" and called it "outlandish, conspiratorial." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), in a German television interview, said of The New Yorker report, "As far as we can tell, there's really nothing to the story." Powell said Sunday that there were discussions at high levels inside the Bush administration last fall about information from the International Committee of the Red Cross alleging prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the focal point of the scandal. "We knew that the ICRC had concerns, and in accordance with the matter in which the ICRC does its work, it presented those concerns directly to the command in Baghdad," Powell said on "Fox News Sunday." "And I know that some corrective action was taken with respect to those concerns." Powell added, "All of the reports we received from ICRC having to do with the situation in Guantanamo, the situation in Afghanistan (news - web sites) or the situation in Iraq was the subject of discussion within the administration, at our principals' committee meetings" and at National Security Council meetings. Congressional critics suggested the administration may have unwisely imported to Iraq techniques from the war on al-Qaida. "There is a sort of morphing of the rules of treatment," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. "We can treat al-Qaida this way, and we can't treat prisoners captured this way, but where do insurgents fit? This is a dangerous slope." The abuse scandal goes "much higher" than the young American guards watching over Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press." In early 2002, the White House announced that Taliban and al-Qaida detainees would not be afforded prisoner-of-war status, but that the United States would apply the Geneva Conventions to the war in Afghanistan. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites), said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the reports that Rumsfeld approved a secret program on interrogation for use in Iraq raise "this issue to a whole new level." Asked about the Gonzales memo, Powell said: "I wouldn't comment on the specific memo without rereading it again. But ... the Geneva Accord is an important standard in international law and we have to comply with it." Powell, interviewed from Jordan by NBC, left open the possibility of problems up the line from the prison guards who engaged in abuse. "I don't see yet any indication that there was a command-climate problem higher up," the secretary said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expressed concern over the shift in responsibility for the scandal at the prison, where military intelligence personnel were given authority over the military police. "We need to take this as far up as it goes," McCain said on "Meet the Press." Former CIA (news - web sites) counterterrorism official Vincent Cannistraro said it was a major miscalculation to apply interrogation methods that were specifically designed to extract information from al-Qaida prisoners to Abu Ghraib and other holding centers inside Iraq. "It was probably the most counterproductive move that the policy-makers could have made and it showed the complete misunderstanding of the Iraq culture," said Cannistraro. The reasons for importing the techniques, Cannistraro said, were the frustrations at the policy level in Washington that not enough information was being obtained about weapons of mass destruction and the frustration over the lack of information about the resistance in Iraq. ___ On the Net: Taguba report: http://wid.ap.org/documents/iraq/taguba.pdf

Abuse Scandal Focuses on Bush Foundation 1 hour, 5 minutes ago Add White House - 

By PETE YOST, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - The Iraq (news - web sites) prisoner abuse scandal shifted Sunday to the question of whether the Bush administration set up a legal foundation that opened the door for the mistreatment. Within months of the Sept. 11 attacks, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales reportedly wrote President Bush (news - web sites) a memo about the terrorism fight and prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions. "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions," Gonzales wrote, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) "hit the roof" when he read the memo, according to the account. Asked about the Gonzales memo, the White House said, "It is the policy of the United States to comply with all of our laws and our treaty obligations." The roots of the scandal lay in a decision, approved last year by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a classified operation for aggressive interrogations to Iraqi prisoners, a program that had been focused on the hunt for al-Qaida, The New Yorker magazine reported. The Pentagon (news - web sites) said that story was "filled with error and anonymous conjecture" and called it "outlandish, conspiratorial." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), in a German television interview, said of The New Yorker report, "As far as we can tell, there's really nothing to the story." Powell said Sunday that there were discussions at high levels inside the Bush administration last fall about information from the International Committee of the Red Cross alleging prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the focal point of the scandal. "We knew that the ICRC had concerns, and in accordance with the matter in which the ICRC does its work, it presented those concerns directly to the command in Baghdad," Powell said on "Fox News Sunday." "And I know that some corrective action was taken with respect to those concerns." Powell added, "All of the reports we received from ICRC having to do with the situation in Guantanamo, the situation in Afghanistan (news - web sites) or the situation in Iraq was the subject of discussion within the administration, at our principals' committee meetings" and at National Security Council meetings. Congressional critics suggested the administration may have unwisely imported to Iraq techniques from the war on al-Qaida. "There is a sort of morphing of the rules of treatment," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. "We can treat al-Qaida this way, and we can't treat prisoners captured this way, but where do insurgents fit? This is a dangerous slope." The abuse scandal goes "much higher" than the young American guards watching over Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press." In early 2002, the White House announced that Taliban and al-Qaida detainees would not be afforded prisoner-of-war status, but that the United States would apply the Geneva Conventions to the war in Afghanistan. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites), said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the reports that Rumsfeld approved a secret program on interrogation for use in Iraq raise "this issue to a whole new level." Asked about the Gonzales memo, Powell said: "I wouldn't comment on the specific memo without rereading it again. But ... the Geneva Accord is an important standard in international law and we have to comply with it." Powell, interviewed from Jordan by NBC, left open the possibility of problems up the line from the prison guards who engaged in abuse. "I don't see yet any indication that there was a command-climate problem higher up," the secretary said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., expressed concern over the shift in responsibility for the scandal at the prison, where military intelligence personnel were given authority over the military police. "We need to take this as far up as it goes," McCain said on "Meet the Press." Former CIA (news - web sites) counterterrorism official Vincent Cannistraro said it was a major miscalculation to apply interrogation methods that were specifically designed to extract information from al-Qaida prisoners to Abu Ghraib and other holding centers inside Iraq. "It was probably the most counterproductive move that the policy-makers could have made and it showed the complete misunderstanding of the Iraq culture," said Cannistraro. The reasons for importing the techniques, Cannistraro said, were the frustrations at the policy level in Washington that not enough information was being obtained about weapons of mass destruction and the frustration over the lack of information about the resistance in Iraq. ___ On the Net: Taguba report: http://wid.ap.org/documents/iraq/taguba.pdf

IOC Clears Transsexuals for Competition 

34 minutes ago

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Transsexuals were cleared Monday to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Under a proposal approved by the IOC (news - web sites) executive board, athletes who have undergone sex-change surgery will be eligible for the Olympics if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy. 

The decision, which covers both male-to-female and female-to-male cases, goes into effect starting with the Athens Olympics in August. 

The IOC had put off a decision in February, saying more time was needed to consider all the medical issues. 

Some members had been concerned whether male-to-female transsexuals would have physical advantages competing against women. 

Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However, doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery. 

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the situation of transsexuals competing in high-level sports was "rare but becoming more common." 

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said no specific sports had been singled out by the ruling. 

"Any sport may be touched by this problem," he said. "Until now, we didn't have any rules or regulations. We needed to establish some sort of policy." 

Until 1999, the IOC conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but the screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games (news - web sites). 

One of the best known cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, who played on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s. 

In March, Australia's Mianne Bagger became the first transsexual to play in a pro golf tournament. 

Michelle Dumaresq, formerly Michael, has competed in mountain bike racing for Canada. 

Oil Prices Surge Close to $42 a Barrel 

49 minutes ago 
Add Business - 

By BRUCE STANLEY, News Source Business Writer 

LONDON - Oil prices surged close to $42 a barrel Monday as markets shrugged off a Saudi proposal that OPEC (news - web sites) raise its official output target by 6 percent. 

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Analysts argued that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries must do more - by adding real barrels to world supplies - if it expects to curb the relentless rise in crude prices. 

A senior OPEC delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group was so worried about overheated prices that it might consider making a larger increase in its target than Saudi Arabia initially suggested last week. 

OPEC, which supplies one-third of the world's oil, plans emergency talks this weekend in Amsterdam to discuss a possible target increase of 1.5 million barrels. Because OPEC already exceeds its current target by more than this amount, analysts say such a move would only legitimize some of OPEC's overproduction and do nothing to trim prices. 

"It's not that it won't be enough. It's irrelevant," said Leo Drollas, chief economist of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London. 

Futures contracts of U.S. light crude for June delivery reached $41.85 a barrel in New York, before retreating to $41.55, up 17 cents from Friday's close. It was a new record close on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, July contracts of North Sea Brent reached $38.50 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange, but were up just 4 cents by evening at $37.90. 

June gasoline futures also reached a new high Monday in Nymex trading, closing 0.69 cent higher at $1.417 per gallon. The average retail price of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States is $1.97 per gallon, according to AAA. 

In other Nymex trading, June heating oil was essentially unchanged at $1.043 per gallon, while natural gas futures rose 2.3 cents to $6.424 per 1,000 cubic feet. 

Pressure is building on OPEC to dip into some of its spare production capacity to boost actual output - not just its target. Markets are stretched by unexpectedly strong demand and spooked by turmoil in Iraq (news - web sites) and uncertainty elsewhere in the oil-rich Middle East. 

The assassination Monday of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council underscored the political instability in that country, which has the second-largest proven crude reserves after Saudi Arabia. Izzadine Saleem was the second and highest-ranking member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed council to be assassinated. 

The senior OPEC delegate said representatives at the group's upcoming meeting might discuss raising their target by more than 6 percent. 

"There's no fixed position in terms of numbers," the delegate said. 

Most OPEC members are cashing in on current high prices by pumping an estimated 2 million barrels above their target of 23.5 million barrels. However, if prices stay high, they could damage economic growth and weaken demand for crude. High prices also encourage non-OPEC producers such as Russia and Mexico to pump more oil of their own, worsening the risk that prices may collapse due to oversupply. 

"We are very worried and very concerned about the situation in the oil market, and we know we will do what we have to bring back stability," the OPEC delegate said. 

In spite of OPEC's efforts to micromanage oil supplies, the current robust demand for crude has caught it by surprise. Any decision to increase its production target would mark a major policy reversal. OPEC only just decided at the end of March to reduce its target by 4 percent to 23.5 million barrels. 

The group had feared that seasonal demand would fall during the spring quarter, and it acted preemptively to prevent an oversupply of crude. But instead of falling, demand for oil and refined products intensified in the United States, Europe and China. 

Bottlenecks at U.S. refineries, heavy speculative investment in oil futures and concerns about security in the Middle East - including Saudi Arabia, OPEC's most powerful member - added fuel to soaring prices. The price for a barrel of OPEC's benchmark blend of crudes has risen to $37.67, or 51 percent more than the official targeted price of $25. 

Regardless of what OPEC decides to do with its production target, it should boost actual output by around 500,000 barrels, said Adam Sieminski, an oil price strategist at Deutsche Bank in London. 

"That certainly won't be enough to crash prices, but it might take the upside away," he said. 

Drollas estimates that the 10 OPEC members bound by output quotas have a combined 3.2 million barrels in spare production capacity. This excludes Iraq, which doesn't participate in the group's production agreements. 

The Saudis account for most of this spare capacity. 

"Saudi Arabia alone could boost production by 2 million barrels, and it doesn't take that long. But the question is, will they want to do that," he said. "No one wants to go flat out." 

Scientist Says He Knows Why Earth Wobbles 

Mon May 17,11:05 AM ET

RENO, Nev. - A Reno scientist and his team of researchers have uncovered the mystery of why the Earth wobbles on its axis as it spins through space. Geoff Blewitt, a geophysicist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the discovery provides scientists with another means to determine whether Earth is undergoing global warming. 

Related Links
¥ Study Abstract (Geophysical Research Letters)

Researchers have used models and global positioning system (GPS) technology for more than a decade to track the movement of water from melting ice masses, the oceans and the atmosphere that cause the Earth to bulge at its equator and the North Pole to shift slightly, he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. 

In recent years, however, Blewitt and his colleagues developed computer software that analyzes GPS signals more precisely, allowing them to measure changes in the shape of the Earth within a few millimeters, or about three-twentieths of an inch. 

"So instead of using models, we actually observe bulges in the Earth's shape directly and relate it to the wobble," Blewitt said. 

Blewitt and his fellow researchers, Richard Gross of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Peter Clarke and David Lavallee of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, have published their findings in an article published in the April 1 edition of Geophysical Research Letters. 

Blewitt will present his groups findings Thursday at an international science conference in Montreal. 

"When people think of GPS, they usually think of finding a car on a road somewhere, not measuring the whole diameter of the Earth within a few millimeters," he said. 

"But it's just been recent advancements university researchers developed in the technology of GPS that has allowed us to do that." 

It provides a new method of tracking where water is moving around the planet, Blewitt said. 

"Just by looking at the Earth's shape, we can see where water is moving from the ocean and where it gets deposited on land," he said. "It gives us the ability to measure how much the Earth's climate system is changing." 

N.Y. Among Finalists for 2012 Olympics 

43 minutes ago

By STEPHEN WILSON, News Source Sports Writer 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - New York and four European capitals - London, Madrid, Moscow and Paris - were selected as finalists Tuesday in the race to host the 2012 Olympics. Four cities failed to make the cut: Havana; Istanbul, Turkey; Leipzig, Germany, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

The field was trimmed by the International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) executive board based on a report assessing the technical capabilities of the nine cities. 

The unanimous decision, announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge, kicks off a 14-month race culminating with the selection of the host city by the full IOC assembly in Singapore in July 2005. 

Four cities - Paris, London, Madrid and New York - had been considered virtually certain of making the list. Moscow was the wild card, benefiting from its experience as host of the 1980 Olympics. 

Geography favors a European city for 2012 after the 2008 Summer Olympics (news - web sites) in Asia (Beijing) and 2010 Winter Games in North America (Vancouver, British Columbia). 

Paris, which hosted the Olympics in 1900 and 1924, is viewed as the front-runner. The French capital successfully hosted soccer's World Cup in 1998 and the world track and field championships in 2003, and is seen by IOC members as having paid its dues after failed bids for the 1992 and 2008 Olympics. 

London, which staged the games in 1908 and 1948, is considered a main challenger with a bid featuring several famous sports venues and tourist landmarks - including tennis at Wimbledon (news - web sites) and triathlon in Hyde Park. 

Madrid is the only major European capital which has never hosted the Olympics, though Barcelona staged the 1992 games. 

New York, which has never held the Olympics, has to contend with anti-American sentiment fueled by the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), as well as the geographical disadvantage of the 2010 Winter Olympics (news - web sites) in Canada. The IOC is often reluctant to award consecutive Olympics to the same continent. 

Rogge said the executive board could make a further cut next May if an IOC evaluation commission finds any "serious shortcomings" with any of the five finalists. 

"What we have done today is retained five cities which we believe will deliver, but we will have to check if they do deliver," Rogge said. 

There were no major surprises in the elimination of four cities. 

Leipzig was disadvantaged by its small size and shortage of hotel accommodation. Istanbul, making a fourth straight bid, did not make much of an impact. 

Rio, hoping to become the first city in South America to host the Olympics, has a major crime problem. In addition, Brazil is likely to be awarded soccer's 2014 World Cup - it would be a major challenge to host both events so close to each other. 

"If we could not take up the candidates of Turkey, Cuba, Germany or Brazil, it was absolutely not an indication we do not trust these countries," Rogge said. "It's just that their file at this time was not considered good enough." 

On the eve of the decision, Rogge said the goal was "separating the boys from the men." 

"There is a whole set of criteria," he said, "but the bottom line is ultimately whether a city has the ability of staging the games." 

The process appeared to favor big, modern cities with established infrastructure, reliable transport services, good security and plenty of hotel beds. 

The nine bidders had been listed as "applicant cities." Those accepted on Tuesday became official candidate cities. Each finalist must pay the IOC $500,000 to help cover the cost of the remaining judging and selection process. 

An IOC evaluation commission will compile a thorough report on the bids before the Singapore meeting. Since the Salt Lake City bid scandal, IOC members are banned from visiting bid cities. 

Three members of the 15-member board were excluded from Tuesday's decision because they come from countries with bid cities: Germany's Thomas Bach, Russia's Vitaly Smirnov and Jim Easton of the United States.

9/11 Panel Cites Communication Flaws 

11 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - Rescuers on Sept. 11 were forced to make rapid-fire, life-and-death decisions based on incomplete communications, according to a new report by the federal commission investigating the attacks. 

The News Source 

Slideshow: September 11

Two days of hearings by the commission investigating the terrorist attacks began Tuesday with a stark warning from the commission's staff: "The details we will be presenting may be painful for you to see and hear." 

In a vivid departure from previous commission hearings, the panel will revisit the jarring sights and sounds of the attack and its aftermath. Videotapes to be aired at the hearings show the confusing, rushed recovery efforts, and the recollections of those who survived. 

One critical issue - early public address announcements in Tower 2 telling workers to remain at their offices - is recounted verbatim by a survivor. 

A 26-page staff report reconstructing events through first-person survivor accounts found: 

_ A fire chief failed to notice a critical second button on a device that carried radio signals up the buildings, leaving the chief to wrongly believe the equipment wasn't working. It was, and was later used by other fire personnel in Tower 2, the south tower. 

_ Other communications gaps that day included a lack of coordination between the police and fire departments, a crush of radio traffic that sometimes blotted out information, and an inability to share information effectively between on-scene officials and 911 phone operators. 

_ A helicopter rescue of trapped workers on the upper floors was not a practical option, due to various equipment attached to the roof, and the heat and smoke of the fire below. 

_ While many of the safety procedures put in place after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center helped employees escape, others proved ineffective or possibly even dangerous in response to a very different type of attack eight years later. 

_ One survivor, Brian Clark, president of Euro Brokers Relief Fund, said the PA system advised: "Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen, Building 2 is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building 2. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may use the re-entry doors and the elevators to return to your office. Repeat, Building 2 is secure." 

The report offers no concrete explanation for that direction. But it does suggest two possible reasons: a concern for workers being injured by falling debris from the other tower, and the knowledge that in the 1993 bombing, many of the injuries were sustained in the crowded evacuation of the building.

Diabetes Linked to Higher Alzheimer's Risk - Study

Mon May 17, 4:03 PM ET

CHICAGO  - People with diabetes could have a higher risk of brain-wasting Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), a U.S. study said on Monday. 

Among those in the study with diabetes, the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease was 65 percent greater than those without diabetes. 

Of 824 elderly Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers participating in the study, 151 developed Alzheimer's disease, according to the study in The Archives of Neurology. Thirty-one of those who developed the disease had diabetes. 

Participants with diabetes also had lower levels of cognition and greater memory problems, said researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. 

Diabetes, also linked to obesity and other ailments, causes the blood levels of glucose to become abnormally high. 

"This is another piece of evidence that watching your key health numbers -- blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and weight -- is critical to maintaining your brain," William Thies, vice president of the Alzheimer's Association, said in a news release. 

Further research should show whether treatments for diabetes may play a role in lowering the risk for Alzheimer's disease, Neil Buckholz, head of the Dementias of Aging Branch in the U.S. National Institute of Aging's neurosciences program, said. 

Diabetes affects about 20 percent of people over age 65 and is known to be associated with heart disease, kidney failure and impaired cognitive function.

Technology - AP
Hollywood's Interest in Video Games Grows 

Mon May 17,12:56 PM ET

By MAY WONG, News Source Technology Writer 

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The video game industry was once an afterthought in Hollywood, at most an ancillary source of revenue like action figures. The people passionately developing the computer-based form of entertainment were seen as dorks compared with the celebrities. Not anymore. 

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What's Next in Tech Gadgets?
Do Europe and Japan get all the hot new technology first? Here's a look at the pipeline of future tech -- plus some gadgets that didn't travel well and a wishlist of cool things. 

Now that games have matured into a $11 billion business, topping movie box-office sales and siphoning television viewers, the lucrative and increasingly influential genre has attracted more star power than ever. 

Pierce Brosnan, Jet Li and Cameron Diaz, among others, have lent their voices and likenesses to games. Acclaimed film directors such as the Wachowski brothers shot footage not just for "The Matrix" films but also for the game based on the movies. 

Games are no longer the follower, either. The "Van Helsing" video game was released the same day as the movie this month. Soon, more blockbuster game franchises, such as "Halo" and "Doom," are expected to become the basis of movies. 

After a long courtship, these two industries have become intertwined in a young marriage, under the common law of entertainment. 

"Everyone is realizing that games are making money - if not more money than films," said Brad Foxhoven, president of Tiger Hill Entertainment LLC. "And when you talk to people who own blockbusters like `Grand Theft Auto' or `Halo,' you have to realize that perhaps the film is what's considered ancillary now." 

Case in point: Foxhoven founded Tiger Hill with film director John Woo to create original content for games that they hope will become franchises for movies or TV. 

Signs of the lovefest were everywhere at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, in Los Angeles. Games based on "Shrek 2," "Spider-Man 2" and "The Lord of the Rings" movies had top billing, and actor Vin Diesel was promoting one based on the movie "The Chronicles of Riddick." Diesel owns Tigon Studios, the game's developer. 

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which formed a video game division in January, gave details about the upcoming game and movie adaptation of the popular children's book "The Polar Express." Tom Hanks voices both. 

The convergence of games and movies is about both creativity and money - made possible now that games have better graphics and the potential for more cinematic environments and storytelling. 

"The development of a video game allows me to tell stories in ways I never before thought possible," said Woo, who directed "Mission Impossible 2" and decided to get into gaming after attending E3 in 2002. "It is like making a film with 10 acts instead of three and action scenes that go on forever." 

Veteran screenwriter David Freeman got his first taste when he was asked to help rewrite the script for Atari Inc.'s "Enter the Matrix." Since then, he's worked on a dozen other movie-based games, including "Van Helsing" and "Shark Tale." 

He has tailored his writing technique into a game trademark, calling it "emotioneering," and hopes it'll help evoke in players the same emotional depth they have traditionally experienced only in film and TV. 

Game developers have also encroached upon Hollywood to more easily work with and poach talent from the movie industry. In what entertainment attorney Damon Watson recently dubbed the "Joystick Corridor," the stretch from San Diego to Los Angeles now hosts more than 70 companies tied to video games. 

Among the Hollywood migrants to full-time game work: Richard Taylor, who worked on special effects for the first "Lord of the Rings" movie and the upcoming film "Chronicles of Narnia," and Richard Kriegler, an art director for "Star Trek: Insurrection." Both are now art directors at the shiny new Los Angeles studio of the leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc. 

"Consumers are no longer consciously differentiating what they see in a movie and what they're playing on a game," said Mark Skaggs, Electronic Arts' producer of the game "The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth." 

With video games stealing more audience time, a Hollywood talent agent like Larry Shapiro finds plenty of open doors in his mission to introduce the stars of game development to the power brokers of movies and television. 

One of Shapiro's latest matchmaking projects: a development deal between the creator of "The Sims," the all-time best-selling computer game, and the producers of "The Simpsons" hit TV series. 

It's a far different picture than 15 years ago, when Electronic Arts secured a groundbreaking licensing deal with star football coach John Madden. "He was a celebrity and we were a bunch of schmucks," recalls EA co-founder William "Bing" Gordon. 

The flirting between the two industries, some say, dates back to the early '80s, when Atari licensed the "Star Wars" name for its arcade game in 1983 and when Atari's "Cloak and Dagger" became a movie with Dabney Coleman the following year. 

But even when video game revenues first overtook movie box-office receipts four years ago, Hollywood's interest was tepid. The studios' failed efforts in the early '90s to produce their own video games were still in mind. 

Fueled in part by the introduction of CD-ROMs, a slew of film studios invested tens of millions of dollars to establish interactive game shops, only to fold them a few years later amid flops such as a science-fiction game from Steven Spielberg and LucasArts, "The Dig," and Walt Disney Co.'s interactive version of "The Lion King." 

The only reason actor James Earl Jones agreed to do the voice-over for the 1999 game title "Tiberian Sun" was because his son liked the game, Skaggs said. 

Celebrities are much less reluctant now that the Madden NFL video game and dozens of others are proven blockbusters. The casts of "CSI," "Alias" and "ER" are all on board for video game versions of their TV shows. 

Jason Hall, former head of game developer Monolith Productions Inc. and now chief of Warner Bros.' new game division, said the studio turned down an opportunity to develop "Matrix"-based games a few years ago. Today, it would jump at that chance, he said. 

"Now it's changed to directors, actors and producers who are very interested in having their content transmute from film into the game space," he said. "It's gone as far as wanting to produce a game first." 

The benefits of collaboration are mutual. 

For instance, because Ubisoft's game "XIII" featured the voices of rap star Eve and actors David Duchovny and Adam West, the game was reviewed on MTV, a marketing coup, said Ubisoft spokesman Tyrone Miller. 

This synergy is also natural for the new generation of Hollywood executives and artists who have grown up around video games, talent agent Shapiro said. 

"Look at any actor's trailer or writer's room," he said, "and you'll always see a game console in there."

Export of U.S. Jobs Seen Up - Report

Mon May 17, 1:26 PM ET 
Add Business 

By Eric Auchard 

NEW YORK  - The movement overseas of U.S. white-collar jobs over the next few years is accelerating faster than previously expected, Forrester Research said on Monday, fueling a highly charged election-year issue. 

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What's Next in Tech Gadgets?
Do Europe and Japan get all the hot new technology first? Here's a look at the pipeline of future tech -- plus some gadgets that didn't travel well and a wishlist of cool things. 

Technology market researcher Forrester said in a report 

titled "Near-Term Growth of Offshoring Accelerating" that it expects the number of U.S. business service and software jobs moving offshore to reach 588,000 in 2004 from 315,000 in 2003. 

The loss of U.S. software programing, customer call-center and even legal paperwork positions should rise to 830,000 jobs by 2005, up 40 percent over this year, the report said. 

"In the short term, (the trend) is definitely growing," Forrester business services analyst Stephanie Moore told reporters in a conference call. 

The revised prediction reflects heightened awareness among corporate customers of potential lower costs associated with sending work offshore. It comes 18 months after Forrester helped spark an outcry in the United States over outsourcing when it predicted that some 3.3 million jobs could be shifted to countries such as India by 2015. 

The rush of jobs overseas, coming amid debate over a "jobless" U.S. economic recovery, has provoked a political backlash that has made it a prominent issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. 

"The political backlash has increased the awareness of offshoring ... and increased the awareness of the savings from offshoring among our (corporate) clients," Moore said. 

IMPACT ON U.S. EMPLOYMENT QUESTIONED 

Despite the outcry, government economists say the impact on overall U.S. employment remains minimal. 

Forrester is careful to say that it's statistics focus on specific types of jobs that lend themselves to being transferred overseas and does not suggest some wholesale export of jobs. 

The 830,000 jobs expected to move outside the United States in 2005 amounts to fewer than 1.6 percent of jobs in specific categories viewed by Forrester as most likely to be affected. "The emotional 1 million mark" will be crossed in 2006, report author John McCarthy said in the conference call. 

But critics say the threat to U.S. jobs is exaggerated. 

Cathy Minehan, president of the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Bank of Boston, has downplayed the effect, saying offshore services accounted for one-tenth of 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2002. 

"Clearly, this is not immaterial, but it simply isn't large enough to have had a major impact on U.S. employment levels in the aggregate, despite the rhetoric that suggests otherwise," she said during a speech in March. 

"Offshoring is likely to continue. But does it bear a lot of the blame for our current weak job growth? The available data suggest that the answer is no," Minehan said. 

Forrester said it saw little change in its long-term outlook, forecasting that 3.4 million jobs will move overseas not just to India but to China, Russia, the Philippines and Mexico by 2015, up from the 3.3 million it had predicted. 

Forrester says the jobs at risk of moving offshore are concentrated in customer service call-center operations and low-level computer programing and Web design work. But it also includes some biotech, architectural and legal research jobs. 

"It's pretty low-level stuff, but it's stuff that ends up being expensive to organize stateside," Moore said of legal work like scanning boxes of documents into electronic form. 

"COWS HAVE LEFT THE BARN" 

The Forrester forecast assumes minimal risk of major policy changes following last week's election defeat of India's ruling BJP party, which pushed to cut taxes and lower communications costs thereby fueling the outsourcing trend to South Asia. 

Stocks of Indian software services have tumbled on fears that policy changes could hamper growth. 

But John McCarthy, author of the Forrester report, said the growing sophistication and diversification of Indian software services companies such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro, along with deregulation of telecoms services, minimizes the threat that policy changes could slow the movement of jobs to India. 

"To some extent, the cows have left the barn," he said. 

Major U.S. computer services suppliers such as IBM, Accenture and EDS also have embraced the trend, shifting tens of thousands of jobs to India, McCarthy said.

Scam tricks users into 'stealing'
MSNBC
January 25, 2000, 4:00 PM PT

Forward in Format for 

So just what do computer criminals do with stolen credit cards? How about tricking innocent electronics shoppers into stealing on their behalf? That's how at least one scam artist is playing the online credit card game, MSNBC has learned. The intricate scam, which ends up at a Latvian Internet-only bank, can net the scam artist over $1,000 each time and leave the victim holding stolen merchandise. 

For the one victim MSNBC interviewed -- who requested anonymity after a threat from the scam artist -- it worked like this: The innocent shopper spotted a pricey item for sale on an auction Web site -- a high-end Sony video camera that retails for about $2,000. But at the bottom of the auction, the seller noted he or she was willing to sell the camera directly to anyone willing to pay $1,299. 

The shopper, curious but a bit suspicious about the low price, e-mailed the seller asking for more information. The seller then offered to ship the camera directly to the shopper, no questions asked, no money upfront. Just a pledge to return it, or wire the $1,299, within 48 hours. 

"How the heck can I lose?" said the victim at the time. But in the background, here's what happened. Using the home address and other information provided by the victim, the scam artist opened an account at a Web retailer -- in this case, OnSale.com. Then, using a stolen credit card number with a high credit limit, the criminal ordered the camera at full retail price and had it shipped directly to the victim. 

When the camera arrived, the buyer was then instructed to wire the money directly to the seller -- in this case, to the Latvian bank, named Paritate Bank. The transaction was never completed, because in this case, the buyer got suspicious and returned the camera. 

But the victim told MSNBC that others had fallen for the scam, meaning the buyer was left holding stolen property; an anonymous victim had a fraudulent charge on their credit card account; a Web merchant had delivered stolen goods; and the criminal received $1,299 cash in an untraceable, overseas account. 

Fortunately, the victim MSNBC identified stopped short of wiring the cash because Egghead.com's fraud department had noted the suspicious activity and called him. (Egghead owns OnSale.com.) 

Red flags
The scam was first reported last weekend on a Web site devoted to video-camera enthusiasts named "Steve's DigiCams." That site's publisher declined comment for this story and has since removed the story at request of the victim. 

A spokeswoman for Egghead.com confirmed the details the victim shared with MSNBC. "It was a European credit card. ... That definitely raises a few red flags," said the spokeswoman. She said the scam artist hadn't victimized OnSale.com before, but added, "We don't think this was his first time." 

According to the victim, the same seller was selling the same camera on Yahoo! and eBay auction sites last week. 

New Species of Fish Discovered in Seychelles Mon May 17, 8:47 AM ET Add Science 

VICTORIA, Seychelles  - A new species of freshwater fish has been discovered in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles, underlining the need for better protection for marine species, environment officials said Monday. The group of 120 tiny islands, which promotes itself as the original site of the garden of Eden, is a hotbed of biodiversity with a kaleidoscopic array of wildlife such as the giant turtle and plant species like the sensual coco de mer. "This new species has never been sampled elsewhere and the species name is unknown," said Wilma Accouche, assistant conservation officer at the environment and natural resources ministry. Accouche said the small copper-colored fish had not been given a name yet as more taxonomic work was required to classify it correctly. The discovery, made during an inventory of Seychelles freshwater systems, brought the number of native freshwater fish species in Seychelles rivers to three. Accouche said the discoveries make it all the more important to protect freshwater ecosystems, especially if the species live close to the coast, where there is more interaction with humans. "This provides us with another platform to educate members of the public on the need to develop a more responsible and protective attitude toward our rivers, as we never know what rare and natural treasures we may be destroying," she said. Accouche said that two species of crustacean were also discovered and work is under way to identify them at the Natural History Museum in Paris. They are new to the region, but it is not yet clear if they exist elsewhere. "We are optimistic of further new finds," she said.

Charlotte book distributor sells for $255M

A Chicago-based private-equity company says it will buy Charlotte-based book and video distributor Baker & Taylor Inc. and will replace its chief executive.

Willis Stein & Partners has agreed to buy the company from The Carlyle Group, another private-equity firm based in Washington, for $255 million in cash. 

"With their rich history as a market leader and diversified customer base, Baker & Taylor is an exciting addition to Willis Stein & Partners' portfolio," says Daniel Blumenthal, managing director of Willis Stein & Partners, in the company's release about the purchase. 

The deal is expected to close later this month. 

The Carlyle Group acquired Baker & Taylor Books, Baker & Taylor Video and Soft Kat businesses from W.R. Grace & Co. in March 1992. During Carlyle's ownership, Baker & Taylor revenue has grown by approximately 50%, and operating cash flow has increased by approximately 300%. Last year, revenue totaled $1.2 billion from a host of accounts that includes libraries and national booksellers. The company also distributes DVDs, videos and music. 

"The management team at Baker & Taylor ... has done an outstanding job in recognizing the changing dynamics within the media wholesaling industry and identifying the opportunities for the company to excel and thrive in a period of significant change," says Philip Dolan, managing director for Carlyle. 

Still, eight years can be a long time for a private-equity company to wait for a payout on an investment in a company like Baker & Taylor. 

Baker & Taylor had filed to take the company public in a $75 million initial public offering in 1999, and Carlyle had intended to sell at least some of its 65% share in the company at that time. Baker & Taylor abandoned that plan in the spring of 2000 after the tech boom went bust and the IPO market began drying up. 

Willis Stein intends to make Richard Willis chief executive of Baker & Taylor once the acquisition is completed. Willis had been chief executive of children's publisher Troll Communications Inc., which is operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 

"We are thrilled to be working with Richard Willis again, building upon the success we achieved together at Petersen Publishing," Blumenthal says. 

The current Baker & Taylor chief executive, Gary Rautenstrauch, will remain with the company to work on special projects. 

Baker & Taylor, founded in 1828, is recognized as one of the country's leading book, music and video suppliers to traditional and Internet retailers, libraries and educational institutions. 

Cheney, Daft, Much to Be Quizzed on Little Green Men in Davos 

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A galactic mystery hovers over the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland: How many of the 2,280 global leaders, including 31 heads of state, gathered in this Alpine resort conduct business with extraterrestrials? 

This is no whimsy for Davosians. 

It's on the agenda of the annual powwow of the influential and affluent who will ask WEF participants such as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Coca-Cola Co. Chairman Douglas Daft and De La Rue Plc Chief Executive Ian Much if the aliens have landed and are collaborating with them and others to concoct government policy, brew soda pop and mint Iraq's new bank notes. 

``The extraterrestrials have yet to make contact with me,'' said Much in a telephone interview. Much will help moderate the Thursday night dinner seminar (closed except to forum participants) on ``The Conspiracy Behind Conspiracy Theories: Have Extraterrestrials Made Contact With Government Leaders?'' 

The British moneymaker is confident -- at least for now -- that De La Rue remains the largest non-government printer of bank notes in the Milky Way. ``If the aliens are here,'' Much reckons, ``I'd absolutely expect them to call me to have their currency printed.'' 

Despite the twilight zone topic arching many an eyebrow along the snow-covered strip of fashionable hotel bars, WEF officials maintain their five-day program on ``Partnering for Security and Prosperity'' requires an unambiguous examination of extraterrestrial presence on Earth. 

``The panelists are the best in their domain, they all have expertise in specific fields,'' explains Philippe Bourguignon, the forum's co-chief executive officer and a former CEO of Club Mediterranee SA. ``The themes and sessions at Davos reflect the global agenda.'' 

Hiding the Facts 

And the public's pulse. A 1996 Gallup Poll found that 71 percent of Americans believe the government knows more about UFOs than it has disclosed; a similar Roper poll found that some 80 percent of those questioned think Wall Street and Washington are hiding knowledge of extraterrestrial contact. The Internet search engine Google Inc. has as many Web pages dedicated to UFOs as it does for investment banking. 

``It is possible that UFOs really do contain aliens, and the government is hushing it up,'' Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking told British television viewers in a 1998 interview. 

U.S. President George W. Bush's recent call to put a man on Mars before 2030 has swelled investor interest in exotic technologies, last week boosting the Bloomberg Aerospace Index 1.9 percent, its biggest gain since October. 

Take Me to Your Market Leader 

Earth's leaders prospecting extraterrestrial commerce as part of the forum's global agenda has set off a doozy of anticipation perhaps not seen among UFO analysts since ``Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' was released on DVD. 

Richard Boylan, a retired professor of behavioral science at the University of California, couldn't be more gleeful if Captain Kirk had beamed him aboard the Starship Enterprise. 

``The Davos dinner may represent the great leap forward we need to unravel the fact that corporations and governments are doing business with star visitors,'' says Boylan, widely regarded by ufologists as a specialist in intergalactic mergers and acquisitions. 

Boylan says he isn't surprised the forum neglected to invite him and his colleagues to Davos for the first significant, high- level discussion on emerging alien markets and other popular conspiracy theories that stretch from ``Was the U.S. government behind the attacks of 11 Sept.?'' to whether Humpty Dumpty fell or was pushed off the wall. 

``I've learned to live with insults,'' the 64-year-old psychologist says from his home in California. ``Billions of dollars have been spent to intimidate witnesses and use the giggle factor to put on a funny farm anyone who suggests corporations have privatized extraterrestrial technology.'' 

Working With The Visitors 

According to the calmly resolute Boylan, more than 100 extraterrestrial races are in cahoots with firms that include International Business Machines Corp., Ford Motor Co., Lucent Technologies Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp., Dow Corning Corp., Monsanto Co., Boeing Co. and European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co. 

``Most Earth corporations are working with visitors from the Altair star system,'' Boylan says. 

Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, 15.7 light years from Wall Street. Forum participant Martin Reese, Britain's royal astronomer, says ``there is no logical or illogical reason why Earth corporations would be doing business with Altair.'' 

Although Altairian executives were unavailable for comment, Francois Auque, a managing director at EADS, says he's eager to hear from them. ``I'd love to establish links with extraterrestrials,'' says Auque, one of the businessmen behind the Aurora Project to discover if there's water on Mars. ``So far no messages on my cell phone.'' 

Reality at Play 

Tall tales of little green men on Earth go back to Biblical times, but conspiracy dinner panelist Dr. James Gilligan, a professor of psychiatry and social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests today's widespread belief in the fable is not necessarily a sign of reality slipping away. 

``We live in a post-religious age with huge tensions between secularism and traditional religious faith,'' Gilligan explains. ``In the past, people who believed in such phenomenal events would be embraced as having a religious experience.'' 

No matter the conspiracy theory, Gilligan says adherents don't create their delusions from whole cloth. ``There's always some kernel of reality behind the belief,'' he says. 

Rattling off lists of purported government documents, first- person testimonies and ufological exegetes guaranteed to bumfuzzle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulators, Boylan says star visitors have instructed global leaders to publicly reveal the intergalactic mergers by 2007. 

The Roswell Incident 

Still, the American academic frets the politicians of Earth won't honor the deal and that the forum's conspiracy dinner may be part of the conspiracy. 

``If all the extraterrestrial technology came out at once,'' Boylan reasons, ``it would hurt stockholders in obsolescent industries and the multinationals don't want to lose their power.'' 

As Boylan tells it, the extraterrestrials first came to Wall Street in 1947 by way of Roswell, New Mexico. It was that year when U.S. Army Col. Philip Corso said he found five aliens amid the buzzards and rattlesnakes at a UFO crash site in the desert. The new arrivals were 4.5 feet tall with grayish-brown skin, four- fingered hands and watermelon-sized heads without hair. 

Using Alien Knowledge 

In his book ``The Day After Roswell,'' Corso says he salvaged parts from the downed UFO and managed a government-sponsored reverse-engineering program that decanted the technology to IBM, Bell Labs and Dow Corning. The flotsam of Roswell and other UFO encounters, Boylan adds, was used to formulate laser beams, fiber optics and Microsoft Corp. 

Other analysts argue the alien knowledge was used to create the management consultant industry. 

``UFOs are not engaged in open contact with mankind,'' says Swedish ufologist Bjorn Olav-Kvidal. ``They act more like supervisors.'' 

U.S. officials for decades have resisted any suggestion that the Roswell crash was more than a downed weather balloon or the leftover from a high-altitude parachute test with mannequins. Corporate confidence in alien technology hardly runs so high. 

The Presidential Race 

``I talk to extraterrestrials every day,'' mocks Denis Ranque, chief executive of Thales SA, Europe's largest manufacturer of electronic components for defense systems. ``They call me up every morning and tell me what to do.'' 

After the forum delegates depart Davos on Sunday, ufologists say the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign will become the best venue to spot extraterrestrial market trends. During the 1996 race for the White House, for instance, Republican presidential candidate Senator Bob Dole planted one of Gilligan's reality acorns: ``That's like the Air Force saying UFOs are impossible,'' Dole told reporters in response to President Bill Clinton's statement that 2 percent economic growth was impossible without inflation. 

Where Do Democrats Stand? 

Three years later and armed with a degree in physics, Stephen Bassett founded the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee. This April, the 57-year-old activist and 2002 independent congressional candidate from Maryland will host the First Annual Exopolitics Expo. All the Democratic presidential hopefuls have been invited to assemble in a Washington hotel ballroom to spell out their positions on UFOs. 

``Voters are increasingly willing to confront candidates on the UFO issue,'' Bassett says. ``There is an alien presence in our air space and the government has access to their technology.'' 

He should know. In 1996, Bassett registered with the U.S. Congress as a lobbyist for ``extraterrestrial affairs.'' Still, ET's man on Capitol Hill remains somewhat skeptical about little green men on Wall Street. 

``I'm only 30 percent confident that aliens have contractual relationships with major corporations,'' Bassett says. 
Last Updated: January 20, 2004 19:20 EST

UFO expert comes to Brevard 

By Billy Cox 
FLORIDA TODAY 

George W. Bush raised a few eyebrows during the 2000 presidential campaign when he responded to a question about releasing government files on unidentified flying objects. "It'll be the first thing he (Dick Cheney) will do," Bush said. "He'll get right on it." 

Immediately upon assuming office, however, the Bush administration exhibited an impulse for even tighter controls on government information, long before the 9/11 security clampdown. From Bush's immediate suspension of the 1978 Presidential Records Act to Cheney's refusal to comply with a General Accounting Office request for the names of the Vice President's Energy Task Force members, patterns of concealment are consistent. Just last month, Bush signed Executive Order 12958, which gave the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy the unprecedented authority to declare information "Top Secret." 

"They didn't explain a rationale for it," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' government secrecy project in Washington, D.C. "The only way to know for sure how significant it is, is to come back a year from now and see how many times it's been exercised." 

UFO declassification proponents thought they were building momentum for congressional hearings with a forum of witnesses in May 2001 announcing their willingness to testify. Then, the roof fell in. "The Saudi Arabian flying circus came to town, and the U.S. declared an open-ended war against this term, this noun, called terror," recalls lobbyist Stephen Bassett. "All the attention and all the headlines got sucked up by 9/11, and all the political work went into suspended animation." 

But UFO reports never stopped. Nor did calls for government accountability. Friday, one of the leading advocates -- Stanton Friedman -- will discuss what he calls the "Cosmic Watergate" at Brevard Community College's Titusville campus. 

Author of "Crash at Corona" and "Top Secret/Majic," Friedman was among the first to revisit the 1947 Roswell Incident, in which military authorities initially announced the recovery of a flying saucer, only to reverse themselves amid the ensuing media clamor. But from his home in New Brunswick, Canada, the American-born researcher blames contemporary media passivity for enabling a cover-up. 

"The only way we'll make any progress with this issue is when the press gets off its duff and takes a serious look at all the documents that have been in the public domain for years," says Friedman. His background in nuclear physics landed him 14 years' worth of work on nuclear rockets, much of it classified. "I'd like to see them spend just 10 percent of the energy they invested in covering Gary Condit, Elian Gonzales and Monica Lewinsky." 

Friedman contends government documents already in the public domain are loaded with smoking guns, not the least of which is the famous Bolender Memo. In 1969, just as the Air Force was terminating its public investigation of UFOs called Project Blue Book based on their negligible impact on national security, Brig. Gen. C.H. Bolender, deputy director of development for the USAF chief of staff, illuminated a backdoor policy: "Reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security. . . . are not part of the Blue Book system." 

"The media needs a commitment to the truth and to ignore the crap," says Friedman. "There was a conference in Chicago in 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Roswell, and one guy shows up wearing alien antennae on his head. CBS was covering the event and -- wouldn't you know it? -- the guy with the headgear is the one who makes the news that night. This is typical." 

Next April, during the presidential primary campaigns, Friedman and a host of investigators will join Bassett, founder of X-PPAC, the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee, in Washington for yet another effort to forge UFOs into political dialogue. Bassett was on hand in 2001 when an initiative called the Disclosure Project pressed for immunity for whistleblowers whose testimony would violate their security oaths. 

Among the most impressive insiders assembled by the Disclosure Project was a retired USAF captain who -- supported by Strategic Air Command documents -- was in a Wyoming ICBM silo in 1967 when a UFO drained the power from launch complexes housing 10 nuclear-tipped warheads. Another was a Federal Aviation Administration accidents division chief who, despite being told by a CIA agent to keep a lid on it, presented a box full of records concerning a harrowing, 30-minute encounter involving a UFO and a Japanese airliner off Alaska in 1986. 

Although the Bush presidency apparently has no intention of addressing UFOs, its attitude is part of a bipartisan continuum by chief executives to avoid the issue. Jimmy Carter, for instance, filed a report of his own UFO sighting with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena and promised an open investigation during his 1976 campaign. But as president, Carter never followed through. Bill Clinton, according to the memoirs of former deputy Attorney General Webster Hubbell, directed him to get to the bottom of UFOs. Hubbell failed. 

Repeated efforts by Florida Today to interview both Democrats about UFOs have been unsuccessful. 

Last year, former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta announced his partnership with the Coalition for Freedom of Information -- funded by the Sci Fi Channel, a client of his PodestaMattoon law firm -- to try to end UFO gridlock. For CFI research advisor Ted Roe, the issue is compelling, but so delicate he refers to the mystery in broader terms: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAEs. 

Roe is the executive director of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP) in Vallejo, Calif. In order to improve flight safety, NARCAP, a private outfit, collects data on everything from ball lightning to plasma disturbances, as reported by pilots, radar operators and air traffic controllers. But getting these sources to cooperate is dicey, due to the exotic nature of many UAEs. 

"The really strange ones involve cylinders, discs, spheres, red lights and white lights, V-shaped or boomerang-shaped objects. Some of them are huge," says Roe, whose colleague, Dr. Richard Haines, authored a controversial report in 2000 analyzing more than 100 incidents, entitled "Aviation Safety in America." 

"Some of them seem to demonstrate an alteration of magnetic fields, which can cause compasses to turn up to 20 degrees off direction. They can have transient or permanent effects on avionics systems, such as shutting off transmitters." 

In early September 2001, NARCAP sent survey questionnaires on UAEs to 300 pilots of a major airline carrier. "We couldn't have picked a worse week," says Roe. "Two days later, the (World Trade Center) towers fell." Still, NARCAP got a 24 percent response, with one of every six subjects reporting having seen something so bizarre they couldn't identify it. "But not a one of them reported it to management," Roe adds. 

Roe says retirees are more likely to talk than active pilots, which isn't a surprise. "The airline facilitator who was trying to promote our survey wound up getting two psychiatric evaluations," he says. "There are 500,000 people in our target culture, the aviation community, who are very interested in this subject. But these experiences become toxic when they manifest into (pilots') environment." 

Only constant media pressure, says Friedman, will force authorities to respond to public curiosity. After all, 72 percent of Americans responding to a Roper Poll conducted last year believes the government isn't telling everything it knows about UFOs. 

"I read that with Watergate, the Washington Post had something like 16 people working that story at one time," says Friedman, who'll also be signing copies of his work at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Merritt Island on 7 p.m. Thursday. "It's going to require that sort of effort. You can have all the seminars and lectures in the world, but if the press doesn't come and follow it up, then you haven't had much of an impact." 

PayPal Warns Its Customers To Safeguard Personal Data 
Tue Mar 16, 9:00 AM ET 
Add Technology - washingtonpost.com 

By Mike Musgrove, Washington Post Staff Writer 

Online payment giant PayPal warned users yesterday that scam artists have obtained select customer aliases, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses and transaction data by using phony e-mails to fool retailers into revealing the information.

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Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus, protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching? 

The company said it appeared no personal financial information had been disclosed. But officials said they worried that the fraudulently obtained data could be used to deceive consumers into turning over credit card numbers and other sensitive information.

PayPal is a widely used online payment service that allows Web users to transfer money to each other electronically. PayPal handles the transaction, and neither side sees the other's financial information. Founded in 1998 in San Jose, the company was bought by Internet auctioneer eBay Inc., a major source of new PayPal accounts, four years later. The company now has 40 million customers.

Amanda Pires, a spokeswoman for PayPal, wouldn't identify which merchants were taken in by the scheme or the number of customers whose information might have been exposed. She characterized the number of companies as a "very, very small percentage" of PayPal's millions of merchants.

The companies were apparently sent legitimate-looking e-mails claiming to be from PayPal that asked for password and other account information. The passwords gave the fraudsters access to customer rosters and other sales data, but not to actual credit card or bank account numbers, according to PayPal.

That financial information is stored on secure computer servers that cannot be accessed by any merchant or third party, the company said.

Still, with customer names and other personal information, PayPal officials warned that scammers could direct their "phishing" expeditions toward the customers themselves and seek to trick them into revealing financial information.

For example, scam artists have sent phony PayPal e-mails to users advising them their account would be placed on a "restricted status" until they completed a "credit card confirmation process" online at bogus Web sites designed to look like ones belonging to PayPal.

While such schemes are usually sent blindly to millions of e-mail addresses in the hope of fooling a few Internet users, PayPal warned that scammers using the purloined personal information might achieve a higher rate of success by strategically including some of a user's data. For instance, they might refer to a recent purchase.

"These e-mails could be very, very specific and could deceive people," Pires said, adding that PayPal has not yet seen evidence of fraudulent e-mails resulting from the security breach.

Pires said PayPal does not ask for personal financial information via e-mail and does not refer to old transactions through e-mail.

Pires said that the company grew suspicious last week after noticing some unusual activity in the accounts of one of its merchants. When the company found that more than one of its merchants had been duped by the scam, the company decided to warn the public and posted a notice on its Web site Friday afternoon.

Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert, characterized the scam as "really bad news."

"The more data an attacker gets, the more effective they'll be," he said. "This attack bypasses security and attacks the user directly. It's like me convincing you to give me your ATM card and your PIN."

But David Ricci, an analyst at William Blair & Co. -- and a PayPal user -- credited PayPal for spotting the scam and alerting users. "The company is fastidious about its commitment to safety in all respects," he said.

Cori Martinell, a Washington resident who uses PayPal largely to make purchases related to her knitting hobby, took the alert in stride yesterday.

"Maybe I should worry about my privacy, but it doesn't bother me if people want to know about the ridiculous amount of money I spend on yarn," she wrote in an e-mail. 

Algerian Detained in Spain Bombings Probe

24 minutes ago

By JOHN LEICESTER, News Source Writers 

MADRID, Spain - Police said Tuesday they have detained an Algerian who allegedly talked about a terrorist attack in Madrid two months before it happened, and the death toll in the bombings rose to 201. 

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Ali Amrous was picked up Saturday in the Basque city of San Sebastian to learn if he had advance knowledge of Thursday's terrorist attacks in Madrid, police told The News Source. 

Meanwhile, police identified five new Moroccan suspects in the train bombings, a newspaper reported, and a French investigator told the AP he has found a direct link between prime suspect Jamal Zougam and the spiritual leader of a clandestine extremist group believed involved in last May's deadly attacks in Casablanca, Morocco. 

Incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was swept into power during elections Sunday, three days after the Madrid attacks, harshly criticized the Iraq (news - web sites) war, which was supported by his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar. 

"I have said many times that the Iraq war was a great disaster, the occupation continues to be a disaster - it only generates more violence," Zapatero told radio station Cadena Ser on Monday. 

Most Spaniards opposed Aznar's support of the Iraq war, and many believed he made Spain a target for terrorists by his pro-U.S. policies. 

Amrous, an apparent indigent, was first arrested in January after a neighborhood disturbance and made the threatening comments while being questioned by police, saying that "we will fill Madrid with the dead," authorities said. They added that they doubted he was connected at a high level with any terrorist group but may have known about the attacks in advance. 

He was expected to be brought to Madrid for questioning. Police said they did not believe Amrous had any contacts with the armed Basque separatist group ETA, which the Spanish government initially blamed for the attacks. 

The death toll from Thursday's commuter train attacks in the Spanish capital rose to 201 with the death of a 45-year-old woman, authorities said. The toll is now one short of the 202 people killed in the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia - the worst terrorist attack since Sept. 11. 

Zougam has already been identified by a Spanish judge as a follower of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qaida cell, who remains jailed on suspicion he helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. 

Police believe the five new Moroccan suspects took part in the bombings, the Madrid daily El Pais reported Tuesday, without identifying the new suspects by name. 

Interior Ministry spokesman Juan de Dios Colmenero said he could not confirm the report. 

El Pais also reported that two Indians who are believed to have sold telephone cards to three arrested Moroccans were released. De Dios said he could not confirm the report. 

The bombs were triggered by cell phones, and investigators were able to find and arrest the three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday because a cell-phone card was found in an unexploded bomb and traced. 

Investigators scrambled to learn the scope of the operation that carried out the Madrid attacks. 

A possible link between them and Casablanca gained credibility Tuesday after French investigator Jean-Charles Brisard said he has found a direct tie between Zougam and Mohamed Fizazi, a spiritual leader of Salafia Jihadia, which allegedly was behind the Casablanca attack and which has been linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network. 

The suicide bombings in Casablanca killed 33 people and 12 bombers. 

In a telephone call with Yarkas that Spanish police monitored in August 2001, Zougam said he had met with Fizazi, who was among 87 people sentenced in Morocco last August in a trial that centered on the Casablanca attacks. Fizazi received a 30-year sentence. 

The monitored call is cited in a 600,000-page report by investigative Judge Baltasar Garzon, who is probing the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, said Brisard, who spoke with the AP by telephone. Brisard has access to Garzon's documents because he is helping to probe the attacks for lawyers representing some of its victims' families. 

The Garzon document says that in the monitored phone call, Zougam told Yarkas: "On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers," Brisard said. 

Fizazi previously preached at a mosque in Hamburg, Germany, frequented by some of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Zougam also has connections that possibly lead to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Moroccan official said. Al-Zarqawi is a key operative working with al-Qaida who has been blamed in attacks in Jordan, Iraq and elsewhere. 

The other two arrested Moroccans are Zougam's half brother, Mohamed Chaoui, 34, and Mohamed Bekkali, 31. 

Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported Monday that police found a witness who saw Zougam on a train that was bombed. But Interior Minister Angel Acebes said authorities had no knowledge of a witness. 

The radio, quoting unidentified police sources, said the witness said he saw Zougam on the train headed for Madrid's Atocha station, leaning against a door. 

Both Cadena Ser and the newspaper El Pais reported that police believe Zougam actually left bombs on the train. Ibanez said there was no proof of that. 

Zougam's alleged associations to terror suspects date back more than a decade, when he was introduced to Abdelaziz Benyaich in 1993, Moroccan authorities said. Benyaich, who has dual French and Moroccan citizenship, was arrested in Spain in 2003 in connection with the Casablanca bombings. 

Morocco is seeking Benyaich's extradition and claims he has had contact with al-Zarqawi, whom German authorities reportedly believe was appointed by al-Qaida's leadership to arrange attacks in Europe. 

Moroccan officials also believe al-Zarqawi ordered the attacks in Casablanca, and U.S. officials blamed al-Zarqawi for March 2 bombings in Iraq that killed at least 181 Shiite Muslim pilgrims. The Jordanian militant also is believed to have been behind the 2002 killing of Laurence Foley, a U.S. aid worker in Jordan. 

Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Damage from Warming Becoming 'Irreversible,' Says New Report Mon Mar 15, 9:50 AM ET Add World - OneWorld.net 

Jim Lobe, OneWorld US WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 15 (OneWorld) -- Ten years after the ratification of a United Nations (news - web sites) treaty on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming are still on the rise, signaling a "collective failure" of the industrialized world, according to the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), a leading environmental think-tank. "We are quickly moving to the point where the damage will be irreversible," warned Dr. Jonathan Pershing, director of WRI's Climate, Energy and Pollution Program. "In fact, the latest scientific reports indicate that global warming is worsening. Unless we act now, the world will be locked into temperatures that would cause irreversible harm." WRI researchers estimate that greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide rose 11 percent over the last decade, and will grow another 50 percent worldwide by 2020. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites), the international agreement that sets out specific targets to follow up on the treaty, 38 industrialized countries were supposed to reduce their emissions by an average of seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The administration of former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) signed the Kyoto Protocol, but President Bush (news - web sites) withdrew the U.S., which currently emits about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, from negotiations over Kyoto's implementation. Russia, which indicated initially that it intended to ratify the Protocol, remains undecided. As a result the Protocol--which must be ratified by countries whose greenhouse emissions totaled more than 55 percent of global emissions in 1990 in order to take effect--remains in limbo. WRI decided to make a relatively rare public statement now, both because the tenth anniversary of the UNFCCC's ratification will take place next weekend and because of the growing pessimism surrounding the international community's ability and will to deal with the problem. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which called for voluntary reductions in greenhouse emissions, was signed by, among others, then-President George H.W. Bush, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and took formal effect March 21, 1994. Today, 188 countries are signatories. The Kyoto Protocol grew out of the UNFCCC when it became clear that plans for voluntary reductions would not meet the initial targets, and as climate and atmospheric scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have become increasingly convinced that the rise in global temperatures of about one degree Fahrenheit over the last century is due primarily to artificial emissions, notably the combustion of fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and gas. Studies over the past decade have shown that the warming trend continues. "The five warmest years in recorded weather history have taken place over the last six years," noted WRI's president, Jonathan Lash. "The ten warmest years in recorded weather history have taken place since 1987. Whether it's the retreat of glaciers, the melting of the permafrost in Alaska, or the increase in severe weather events, the world is experiencing what the global warming models predict," he said. Europe, the main champion of the Kyoto Protocol, suffered its hottest year on record last year. Some 15,000 people in France alone died due to heat stress in combination with pollution, while European agriculture suffered an estimated $12.5 billion in losses. Britain's most influential scientist, Sir David King, recently excoriated the Bush administration for withdrawing from the Protocol and ignoring the threat posed by climate change. "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today," he wrote in Science magazine, "more serious even than the threat of terrorism." Even the Pentagon (news - web sites) recently issued a warning that global warming, if it takes place abruptly, could result in a catastrophic breakdown in international security. Based on growing evidence that climate shifts in the past have taken place with breathtaking speed, based on the freshening of sea water due to accelerated melting of glaciers and the polar ice caps. Given enough freshening, the Gulf Stream that currently warms the North Atlantic would be shut off, triggering an abrupt decline in temperatures that would bring about a new "Ice Age" in Europe, eastern Canada, and the northeastern United States and similar disastrous changes in world weather patterns elsewhere--all in a period as short as two to three years. Wars over access to food, water, and energy would be likely to break out between states, according to the report. "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life," according to the report. "Once again, warfare would define human life." Even if climate change is more gradual, recent studies have argued that as many as one million plant and animal species could be rendered extinct due to the effects of global warming by 2050. A recent report by the world's largest reinsurance company, Swiss Re, predicted that in 10 years the economic cost of disasters like floods, frosts, and famines caused by global warming could reach $150 billion annually. "Accelerated development of a portfolio of technologies could stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, enhance global energy security, and eradicate energy poverty," noted David Jhirad, WRI's vice president for research. "We urgently need the political will and international cooperation to make this happen." 

Flock of Cows ate Genetically Mutated maize and died - 2/3 of what USA eats is GM FOOD!
Public Enquiry needed IMMEDIATELY

The Institute of Science in Society

Spring 2004 

PART ONE: Cows ate GM maize and died - Public enquiry needed

Could this be the "three mile island" or the "thalidomide" of GM: the clinching evidence that there is something seriously wrong with most if not all GM food and
feed? Twelve dairy cows died in Hesse, Germany after being fed Syngenta's Bt176 GM maize; and other cows had to be slaughtered due to mysterious illnesses.
Protestors in front of the Robert Koch Institute suspect a cover-up. But is there a news blackout as well?

There has been no coverage in the mainstream media; not even after ISIS circulated a detail report, showing how Bt176 has the worst of features common to
practically all commercially approved GM crops. Not only is Bt176 unstable like all GM varieties analysed so far, it is also non-uniform, so that different samples of
the variety gave different results. Either of those features would make the GM variety illegal under European law. 

The dead cows in Hesse are not an isolated case. In 1999, Pusztai and colleagues reported that GM potato engineered with the snowdrop lectin adversely affected
every organ system of young rats, in particular, it made their stomach lining twice as thick. Scientists in Egypt found similar effects in mice fed a Bt potato. Several
years earlier, the US Food and Drug Administration already had data showing that rats fed a GM tomato with an antisense gene to delay ripening developed holes in
their stomach. Add to that the report from Aventis (now Bayer) which showed that glufosinate-tolerant T25 GM maize (about to be approved for growing by the
Blair government) killed twice as many broiler chickens compared to non-GM maize, and a host of anecdotal evidence that livestock, wildlife and lab animals avoid
GM feed when given the choice, and failed to thrive or died when forced to eat it. 

There must now be a public enquiry, not only into the safety of GM food and feed, but especially on why this and other evidence have been systematically
misrepresented, suppressed, ignored and denied in the rush to commercialise GM crops and GM food and feed. It amounts to a serious abuse of science and scientific
evidence, and our governments' scientific advisors must be called into proper account. 

Britain's pro-GM scientific establishment appears to have entered into an elicit relationship, willingly or otherwise, with a gang of biotech corporate warriors -
remarkably metamorphosed from their previous Marxist tendencies - who promote their agenda by infiltrating the establishment and using smear tactics borrowed
from America's far-right to discredit critics. 

Read the evidence and judge for yourselves. There's plenty more: US Department of Agriculture's own data showing that GM crops increased pesticide and
herbicide use by more than 50 million pounds between 1996 and 2003; Roundup Ready herbicide linked to sudden death of GM soya and fusarium head blight in
wheat; and the regulatory sham surrounding Bt crops that's allowing synthetic, altered toxins of both known and unknown toxicities to enter our ecosystems and
food web. 

Send a copy of this issue to your government representatives demanding a public enquiry. (Contact sam@I-sis.org.uk for bulk purchase at cost.) 

Nanotech & nanotox

Another area where science and technology have gone way ahead of safety considerations is nanotechnology, in particular, nanoparticles and nanotubes.

The science is fascinating, and the possibilities enormous, but that's precisely why it raises a host of new safety concerns. It seems that all kinds of substances
acquire entirely new properties when shrunk to the nanoscale (about a billionth of a metre). They become super-efficient catalysts, they concentrate light energy
enormously, acquire new electrical properties, and so on. 

But the first evidence of the hazards has already emerged.Nanotubes could be worse than asbestos, and both nanotube and other nanoparticles can accumulate in
organs and tissues. 

Fortunately, at least some scientists involved in developing the technology are much more willing to consider and discuss the safety concerns openly and engage in
real dialogue with the public; in contrast to those scientists involved in exploiting GM. 

Biology's theory of everything and the obesity epidemic

When the "Living energies" series was circulated, we received an unprecedented number of positive responses from people who know too well that the secret of life
is not to be found in genomes and genes or other molecular nuts and bolts.

I think it may well be in how organisms capture, store and transform energy. 

Indeed, a universal metabolism appears to lie at the basis of all life, which can explain its patterns of biodiversity and many other biological phenomena. This brings
together diverse fields that have hitherto developed independently, such as bioenergetics, ecology, physiology and yes, even the new field of food quality research,
where it is found that animals do tend to prefer organically produced food! 

And, it could also enable us to better understand a range of fundamental problems from sustainable systems to the obesity epidemic, and what to do about it. 

Biology is groping its way towards a theory of everything. Thank goodness not all biology has been swallowed up by genomics and related research. 

There are signs that the National Institutes of Health in the United States, at least, have read the writing on the wall with regard to genomics; and are actively inviting
generous grant applications from scientists (US citizens only) that can "change the current paradigms of medical research." 

All other governments should take heed. 

http://www.i-sis.org.uk 

PART II. Two-thirds of US crops GM contaminated

07.03.2004

By GEOFFREY LEAN 

More than two-thirds of conventional crops in the United States are now contaminated with genetically modified material - dooming organic agriculture and posing a
severe future riskto health - a new report concludes. 

The report - which comes as English ministers are on the verge of approving the planting of Britain's first GM crop, maize - concludes that traditional varieties of
seed are "pervasively contaminated" by genetically engineered DNA. The US biotech industry says it is "not surprised" by the findings. 

Because of the contamination, the report says, farmers unwittingly plant billions of GM seeds a year, spreading genetic modification throughout US agriculture. This
would be likely to lead to danger to health with the next generation of GM crops, bred to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals - delivering "drug-laced
cornflakes" to the breakfast table. 

The report comes at the worst possible time for the English Government, which is trying to overcome strong resistance from the Scottish and Welsh administrations
to GM maize. 

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee drew attention to the problem in North America in a report published on Friday, and said the Government
had not paid enough attention to it. The MPs concluded: "No decision to proceed with the commercial growing of GM crops [in Britain] should be made until
thorough research into the experience with GM crops in North America has been completed and published". It would be "irresponsible" for ministers to give the
green light to the maize without further tests. 

Peter Ainsworth, the committee chairman, accuses the Cabinet of "great discourtesy" to Parliament by making its decision on the maize last Thursday, the day before
the report came out, and plans to raise the issue with the Speaker of the House. 

This week's statement by Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, is expected to fall short of authorising immediate planting of the maize, and
provide only a muted endorsement for the technology.She will make it clear that the Government wants the GM industry to compensate farmers whose crops are
contaminated. This could make cultivation uncommercial. The US study will increase the pressure on her to be tough. 

Under the auspices of the green-tinged Union of Concerned Scientists, two separate independent laboratories tested supposedly non-GM seeds "representing a
substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply" for maize, soya and oilseed rape, the three crops whose modified equivalents are grown widely in the United
States. 

The test found that at "the most conservative expression", half the maize and soyabeans and 83 per cent of the oilseed rape were contaminated with GM genes - just
eight years after the modified varieties were first cultivated on a large scale in the US. 

The degree of contamination is thought to be at a relatively low level of about 0.5 to 1 per cent. The reports says that "contamination ... is endemic to the system". It
adds: "Heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand
a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level." There could be "serious risks to health" if drugs and industrial chemicals from the next
generation of GM crops got into food. 

Lisa Dry, of the US Biotechnology Industry Association, said that the industry was "not surprised by this report, knowing that pollen travels and commodity grains
might co-mingle at various places. What can we infer? It is time to shop at healthfood stores or grow our own. 

Experts: 1794 Silver Dollar May Be First

Sun Mar 14,11:53 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By CATHERINE TSAI, News Source Writer 

DENVER - Coin collecting experts say they have identified a 210-year-old silver dollar that is likely the first one coined by the United States Mint. 

The American Numismatic Association, a coin collectors organization based in Colorado Springs, told The News Source on Sunday it planned to put the coin on public display beginning in mid-April. 

Experts said it's impossible to say for certain that the coin was the very first U.S. silver dollar struck, but its details are so crisp that it certainly was among the first. 

"Until someone walks up to me with a coin in an earlier state that looks better, I'd consider it the first," said John Dannreuther, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service. 

Unlike the other roughly 130 surviving U.S. dollars minted in 1794, the silver dollar is in mint condition, according to evaluations performed by Professional Coin Grading Service and Numismatic Guaranty Corp. 

The coin, which has only a few Mint-made file marks, features images of Lady Liberty ringed with stars on the front and an eagle on the back. 

Steven Contursi, owner of Rare Coin Wholesalers, bought the coin last year from an unidentified owner and said he spent "multimillions." It is insured for $10 million. 

The dealer who sold Contursi the dollar - not realizing it could be the first of its kind - has since offered him a $2 million profit on it. 

But it's not for sale, Contursi said: "I think it's a national treasure," he said. 

Contursi traveled to Denver on Sunday with security guards to show it to an News Source reporter. 

The Mint struck 1,758 silver dollars on Oct. 15, 1794, at a time when foreign currencies circulated freely in the United States and the country wanted its own standard to use in world trade. 

___ 

On the Net: 

American Numismatic Association: http://www.money.org Man Died of Neglect, Inmates Say 
Mon Mar 15, 7:55 AM ET

By Mark Arax Times Staff Writer 

FRESNO - For two months, guards and medical staff at a state prison in Corcoran failed to provide meals or emergency care to an elderly inmate dying of malnutrition, according to inmate accounts given to a state senator. 

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In the days before 72-year-old Khem Singh starved to death at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility last month, fellow inmates said, they alerted correctional officers to his grave condition and filed official complaints about his mistreatment. 

But no medical help was provided, even as it became clear to inmates that Singh, a Sikh priest from India who spoke no English and was crippled, had become emaciated and was intent on killing himself. 

One inmate wrote a letter to state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) pleading that she intervene, but it arrived a few days after Singh's death Feb. 16. The inmate alleged that a guard had brutalized Singh in December, and that Singh was so afraid of a second assault that he hadn't left his cell for meals or medical appointments for nearly 60 days. 

The letter obtained by The Times describes a frail and wheelchair-bound Singh - whose 2001 conviction for sexual molestation in Stanislaus County brought him great shame in the Sikh community - committing slow suicide. His weight had dropped from 110 pounds to 80. 

Prison officials said Friday that they would talk to the inmates and review their letters and complaints as part of a growing investigation into Singh's death. The case coincides with increased scrutiny of California's vast prison system, which is riddled with accusations of brutality, coverups, fraud and poor medical care. 

At Corcoran, Singh's condition took a turn for the worse early this year. Some correctional officers went to the prison's medical staff to express their own concerns, according to Romero, but logbooks show that no medical technician, nurse or doctor followed up and treated him in his cell. 

"Mr. Singh has not left his cell to go to eat - not once," the inmate wrote to Romero in a Feb. 11 letter. "They do not bring him any food. None. I smuggle bread back.... Mr. Singh is gentle, polite. I am ashamed it took me so long to speak out." 

The guard who supervised the cellblock - the same one suspected of having assaulted Singh - is alleged to have told another inmate not to bother speaking out on behalf of the starving inmate. "Forget it; he's going to die," the inmate quoted the guard as telling him, according to Romero. 

A few days later, after collapsing in his cell, Singh died of lung and heart failure caused by starvation. 

"He was committing suicide right in front of them and they did nothing," said Romero, chairwoman of the corrections oversight committee, who visited the prison Tuesday to review medical and custody logbooks and to interview the letter-writer and four other inmates who shared a cellblock with Singh. 

Romero provided their accounts to The Times on the condition that the inmates' names be kept confidential for fear of staff retaliation. 

"As I left the prison, I kept asking myself, 'How could this have happened?' Whether it was intentional or sheer neglect, how could they let a man die right in front of their faces?" Romero said. Romero and others questioned why officers from the Corrections Department's Investigative Services Unit still had not interviewed the five inmates. After a prison hands over an incident report, investigators said, they are supposed to move quickly to gather statements from staff and inmates. This is done to make sure recollections are fresh and untainted. 

"I can't imagine any excuse for not interviewing officers and inmates right away," said one longtime corrections investigator in Sacramento. "That should have been done weeks ago." 

Martin Hoshino, head of the Investigative Services Unit, acknowledged the delay but said his investigators were now moving quickly to interview the inmates and others. 

"The original shape of this case was medical in nature, but recent information and developments suggest that it may be more serious than that," he said. "We're now moving very quickly to collect all the pertinent information." 

Patrick Hart, chief deputy prosecutor for Kings County, said his office would pursue any criminal allegations growing out of the corrections probe. "If their investigation uncovers criminal neglect or other criminal conduct, we won't hesitate to get involved," he said. 

In the days after Singh's death, corrections officials in Sacramento said he had been depressed since arriving at the prison in late 2001, protesting his child molestation conviction and refusing to eat a diet that didn't conform to his vegetarian practices. The official account was that he died after a series of "on and off again" hunger strikes. 

The California prison system has a detailed policy on hunger strikes that requires correctional officers and medical staff to follow numerous procedures. Guards must document in writing any refusal of meals, determine the reason for the hunger strike and report it to a supervisor and healthcare staff. 

Under the rules, nurses and doctors must visit an inmate in his cell daily and assess weight, physical and emotional condition, blood pressure and fluid loss. If an inmate's condition grows worse, the prison can force-feed fluids and nutrients. 

None of this was done for Singh, corrections officials acknowledged. 

But they now say that Singh hadn't officially declared a hunger strike, and that his case falls into a grayer area. 

"He was refusing meals sporadically, but it wasn't an existing hunger strike," said Kelley Santoro, the prison's public information officer. "Was he eating sporadically because he was a vegetarian and didn't like the food served to him? Was he being monitored? All that is under investigation." 

But the prisoners who shared his cellblock tell a different story - of an inmate who didn't have the language skills to communicate that he was on a hunger strike. His refusal to leave his cell to go to the dining hall, coupled with his severe weight loss and physical deterioration, should have brought the same level of care as that of a hunger striker, inmates told Romero and two members of her staff. 

"Here is a guy who's clinically depressed and starving himself, and there's no indication in the logbook that medical staff is responding to his needs," Romero said. "No one went to his cell to check on him, despite repeated concerns from inmates and some officers that he was wasting away." 

Singh's care presented the prison system with challenges, according to Sikh community leaders, his former attorneys and inmates who shared his cellblock in the prison's so-called "special needs yard," a section for sexual offenders and others who are considered prey by more dangerous inmates. 

Singh was not only frail and burdened with a bad leg, but he also was fighting severe depression after having been convicted of sexually touching three children in a case that divided the Sikh community around Modesto. Singh, a husband and father, had been the temple's high priest until an opposing faction, calling for new leadership, forced him out. 

He continued to provide religious training to Sikh children at their homes. It was during one such visit that an 8-year-old girl alleged that he had touched her beneath her underwear during reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, the religion's Scriptures. 

The victim's family had been discouraged by fellow Sikhs from filing charges, according to community members. There was concern that the case would bring negative media attention and ridicule to the growing Sikh community in the San Joaquin Valley. The young girl would be marked for life, it was said, a stigma that might hurt her chances to marry. 

But the girl's parents went forward with the case and were quickly supported by another family, who alleged that their young son and daughter also had been touched inappropriately by Singh. Hardev Grewal, a court-appointed interpreter, said the evidence against Singh had been strong but he had refused to consider a plea bargain. 

"His attorney tried to convince him that, if he takes a deal, he might not die in prison. But he felt it would bring a bad name to him and his family," Grewal said. 

"He ended up testifying on his own behalf. I don't know if it was the language or cultural differences, or if he didn't understand the American way of justice. But he ended up performing poorly." 

He was convicted and sentenced in June 2001 to 27 years to life. Inmates said he never acclimated to prison. He would clasp his hands in prayer and bow to them and guards, but would grow frustrated at every meal when the prison staff insisted on serving him meat. 

The more he protested the food, fellow inmates said, the more insistent staff members became. As a Sikh priest, he viewed any meat on his plate as defiling the vegetables. What food he could eat was often little more than a piece of bread with peanut butter. 

"One inmate told us this whole thing is about vegetables. 'If they would have just given him vegetables instead of meat, he would be alive today,' " Romero said. "But every time he was in line, they insisted on slopping down the meat.' " 

Santoro said Singh had never followed procedure and formally requested a vegetarian diet through a prison chaplain. But inmates told Romero that Singh lacked the language skills to do so. Besides, he was a priest himself. 

The inmates traced his rapid deterioration to an incident in December when a supervising officer grew frustrated with Singh and slammed the cell door on the inmate's hand. 

Singh was clearly injured and in pain but the guard, who had treated Singh poorly in the past, wouldn't allow him to seek medical treatment, according to inmate letters. Singh became so fearful that he hardly left his cell after that, they said. 

"The other inmates showed a lot of compassion for him. They tried to bring him back food but it was never enough," Romero said. "He became nothing but bones. The inmates filed reports and told counselors about his condition. But nothing was ever done. 

"Some of the supervisors at the prison told me this was a case of one inmate falling through the cracks. But this isn't about cracks. This is about the worst kind of neglect."

A Florida Town Asks Itself: Did Banning Satan by Proclamation Make a Difference? NY306-310 of March 9

By Todd Lewan The News Source 
Published: Mar 13, 2004 

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INGLIS, Fla. (AP) - It truly was an ambitious undertaking: But Carolyn Risher, mayor of this coastal hamlet of shrimp fishermen and God-fearing folk, believed the hour had come to cleanse her town of the giver of evil. 

Of Satan himself. 

His grip on the community, she'd noticed, had become disturbingly apparent: a father had molested a child, teens were dressing in black and powdering their faces white, pot and crystal-meth use was on the uptick. 

So she sat at her kitchen table on Halloween night two years ago and drafted a proclamation. The words flowed from her pen almost, she recalled later, as though God was guiding her hand. 

"Be it known from this day forward," she began, "that Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just, is not now, nor ever again will be, a part of this town of Inglis ... In the past, Satan has caused division, animosity, hate, confusion, ungodly acts on our youth, and discord among our friends and loved ones. NO LONGER!" 

And finally: 

"We exercise our authority over the devil in Jesus' name. By that authority, and through His Blessed Name, we command all satanic and demonic forces to cease their activities and depart the town of Inglis." 

The mayor printed her proclamation on official stationery. She stamped it with a gold seal. She signed it and, along with Sally McCranie, the town clerk, made copies and stuffed them into four, hollowed-out wooden posts on which were painted "repent," "request," "resist." 

Then, together with a local pastor, a town commissioner and the chief of police, the 62-year-old mayor went to each of Inglis' four entrances and, in the name of the town's 1,421 residents, fixed those messages of banishment into the very ground. 

"My main goal was to wake Inglis up," Risher told a visitor recently. "If the proclamation could get people to wake up and realize that they needed God, then it would be a success - then Inglis would be saved." 

Would it, though? Would banning the Prince of Darkness from the town's three square miles deliver Inglis from drugs, thieves and drunk drivers? Would it ease the fears of a small, isolated community - frustrated by joblessness and uneasy about war overseas and terrorism at home - and attract an angel of light? 

--- 

To an outsider cruising in fifth gear along the flat, asphalt ribbon that is U.S. 19, the towns along Florida's Gulf Coast do not look like Satan's stomping grounds. They look sedate as they always have, slow and swampy, places where the globes of the streetlights are almost hidden by live oaks and palms, where the bumpers of the four-by-fours are a tad pitted by salty air, where herons jut from the marshes and shallow, brown creeks that cut the Florida scrub. 

Inglis, bounded by timberland to the north and east, an intracoastal waterway to the south and the tepid waters of the Gulf to the west, is no different. There's not a lot going on here economically: a towing business or two, a couple of real estate agencies, a few fruit stands, some bait-and tackle shops, a couple of no-tell motels and a handful of pawnshops, pubs and grills. 

If you'd been able to get a degree in engineering or nuclear physics, you might have landed a good-paying job at the nuclear plant a few miles south. If you hadn't, you'd probably be a struggling shrimp fisherman. Shrimping has fallen on hard times since big buyers began importing cheap shrimp from Asia - "outsourcing of fishermen," as the locals put it. 

It's a town with a '50s feel, perhaps because of the big, bent sign on Highway 40 West reminding people that Elvis Presley came to Inglis to film "Follow That Dream," perhaps because many of the homes and businesses still standing on the main drag went up then, too. 

Or, perhaps it's because of folks like Risher, who is known to drive a wrecker for her husband's towing business when she's not busy dispatching city business. 

The memorabilia that fights for space on her office walls hint of values the community holds dear: a print of The Last Supper, an NYPD cap worn by an officer at Ground Zero, and her original, now-yellowing proclamation. 

There's also a map of the United States, chocked with multicolored pins. Each locates a newspaper, TV or radio station that sent a correspondent to Inglis to write about her anti-Satan campaign. "We got the world's attention," Risher says. 

And how. 

No fewer than 217 news organizations from as far as Sydney, Australia, descended on Inglis in the months following the mayor's act, as did members of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose Florida chief described the proclamation as "the most extreme intrusion into religion by a public official that I have ever seen in my 27 years as a director of the ACLU." 

Soon, Risher was fielding calls from Dan Rather, Gov. Jeb Bush, Saturday Night Live and The New York Times and squinting under the lighting of CNN, NBC and BBC cameras. "It was like wildfire," the mayor recalls. "You couldn't put it out." 

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" sent a correspondent from New York, dressed him in a red devil's costume, and had him stand out front of the Lil' Champ's convenience store and slip passers-by $20 bills to chase him out of town for the camera. 

And there were loads of pranksters. "Carolyn?" a deep, gravely voice said on the phone one day when Risher answered. "This is Satan. I want you, baby." 

Not everyone found the proclamation funny. Risher filled five binders with letters from Christians around the world, all in support of her stand against Satan. Ian and Jeanne Schodder wrote to tell her they'd been so inspired that they were selling their home in Canada and relocating to Inglis. 

"We are purchasing and closing on 2 parcels of land on Lee Terrace that we have already walked on, dedicated, consecrated and sanctified by the blood of the Lamb," they wrote. "We salute you and join you." 

Then, the unthinkable: Someone stole one of the posts and the messages rolled-up inside. 

All four were replaced, this time sunk into the ground with reinforced concrete. For good measure, metal caps were installed and a local Pentecostal pastor anointed the posts with oil and a blessing. 

Shortly thereafter, a town hall meeting was held. Things got heated. A number of citizens shouted that ACLU lawyers were unfairly pushing their community around. One non-Christian woman who was critical of the mayor's actions got shouted down. The posts were staying. 

The majority of residents did agree to move them onto private property. Risher also agreed to reimburse Inglis in the amount of $13 for the stationary, copying and telephone calls related to the proclamation. 

In the end, the ACLU dropped its suit. (Town commissioners said the proclamation was not an official act because it hadn't been formally approved by a commission vote.) 

Gradually, the flood of reporters, lawyers, comedians and religious advocates receded. That was just fine with townsfolk. They'd had their fill of the church-vs.-state politics, and quite enough of the media spotlight. 

But as the attention dried up and months passed, it became obvious that not all of the dark forces had left Inglis. 

--- 

Bobbi Walker slides a quarter and three pennies across the counter beside the six-pack of Coke and gives the customer with the Brillo-pad beard, earring and Coors stomach a so-long nod. 

The customer's fat, ringed fingers scoop up the coins. "Now that I got me the Coke, I gotta get something to go with it." He winks. Next door to the Lil' Champ's convenience store is Amelia's Packaged Goods, which carries things like rum, this unemployed mechanic's beverage of choice. 

"See ya tomorrow, Mike," Walker says. She checks the wall clock: 10:24 a.m. "He's a little early today. Usually, he ain't in 'til 12." 

At the Mousetrap, a watering hole popular with bandana'd, tattooed bikers and truckers on weekdays and lipsticked, moussed, rock-band lovers on weekends, owner Walt Deal cuts a draft beer and laughs. 

"Did people stop drinking? Heck no," he says. "If anything, business got better. I mean, for a while there, people were driving INTO town to see where the devil is, or was. Only thing it did was make us a laughingstock. I mean, I had relatives calling me from South Jersey saying, 'What the hell kind of a town are you living in?'" 

Steve Morris, a captain on the five-man Inglis force, might take issue with Deal's analysis. Morris' main nemesis is crystal meth. The drug isn't hard to make, and it's sold cheaply on the street. Since the proclamation, Morris says, drug dealing and burglary are way down and busts way up. 

Exactly how much? 

He pauses, his regard clouding a bit. "Significantly." Morris glances upward. "And the Big Man upstairs is the reason." 

Mary Jo Farnan and her husband, Bob, who own the Port Inglis Restaurant around the corner from the police station, aren't convinced. Their eatery has been broken into three times in less than a year. A few weeks ago, they fired a waitress because she and her boyfriend were getting high in the bathrooms on the evening shift. 

"I see Satan all the time," Farnan, 69, says. "His name is crack, pot, coke and meth, and he roams around Inglis like he always has. Steve Morris? Shoot, he doesn't even live in this town. After 5 o'clock, he gets in his car and drives home to Homosassa, a half hour away." 

Farnan grinds out his cigarette stub and frowns. 

"We used to have two cops in Inglis." he says. "Now we've got five men on patrol. If that proclamation had worked, why did we need more?" 

Beneath a canopy of pines and oaks at 42 Daisy Street, Gloria Adams is preparing a stew for her guests: drug addicts, ex-cons, people trying to kick the bottle. 

Adams and her husband, Jim, opened "Jesus Is! Ministries, Inc.," a nonprofit rehab center, in 1979. They have rooms for 32 boarders. Right now they have 31 guests. They're expecting lost soul No. 32 soon. 

Did the proclamation slow down business? 

"No, I'm sorry to say," Adams laments. "There's still a hunger out there. A hunger for faith, an empty spot in people." 

Gingerly, she stirs the stew. "People are afraid 100 times more, say, than they were 10, 15 years ago. You don't know if your own neighbor is a terrorist, or where your job's going tomorrow." 

After lunch, Dan Cummings is drinking coffee behind the counter of his store, D&D Bait and Tackle, waiting for customers. People used to throng the place like seagulls around a piling. These days he waits more than he sells. 

"The mayor stood up for faith, and that touched a lot of people," he says. "But what we really need around here are jobs. Idle hands breed evil, you know." 

A year ago, Floyd Craig, a Korean War vet who owns a farm produce market, ran for mayor against Risher, the incumbent by default for 12 years. Nobody had run against her before. 

Craig got whipped. The devil, he says, didn't. 

"Our drunks still drink, our hookers still hook, and truckers still ride like the devil up and down the highway," he says. "People are going to sin, plain and simple. No proclamation is gonna stop that." 

He bags some lettuce for a customer. "I got nothing against the mayor. She was trying to do right by the community she loves. But if you start thinking that the devil is outside of you, foreign somehow, you stop taking a good, hard look at the evil inside yourself, in your own deeds." 

AP-ES-03-13-04 1221EST

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Sheriff accused of having handcuffs removed from boy with torch 
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Lincoln, Nebraska-AP -- A rural Nebraska sheriff is being sued for having a pair of handcuffs removed from a student, with a torch.
The student had been handcuffed by Sheriff Larry Donner -- who had been invited to speak at a Burwell High School.

The lawsuit claims the handcuff key broke and sheriff had a welding shop remove the cuffs with a torch.

The lawsuit claims the torch caused third-degree burns to Seth Barrett's wrist, which later required surgery.

An attorney for the boy's parents says the theme of the lawsuit is, 'What were you thinking?'

It seeks damages from the sheriff, the school and its welding shop.

Copyright 2004 News Source. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 

Museum plans to exhibit decomposing human body
March 15, 2004

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Britain's Science Museum is considering a particularly gruesome new exhibit - a decomposing human body displayed in a glass box.

The planned attraction in an adults-only part of the London museum would be intended to prompt debate and tackle taboos about death, the Sunday Times said.

However the museum is still consulting experts such as pathologists and bereavement counsellors to work out both practicalities and ethical concerns, and the idea could still be abandoned, the report said.

The museum's head of learning told the newspaper that the exhibition, if it did go ahead, would use a real body.

"It would be a body of a person who has given consent to have their body displayed as part of an exhibition about death," said Ben Gammon.

"The idea is that you would see the body decomposing in a similar way to how it would decompose in the ground."

A television company was also interested in filming the process through time-lapse photography, he added.

NEWS SOURCE

Some Frozen Lobsters Return to Life

Sun Mar 14,12:40 PM ET

By JAY LINDSAY, News Source Writer 

BOSTON - Call it cryonics for crustaceans. A Connecticut company says its frozen lobsters sometimes come back to life when thawed. 

Trufresh began freezing lobsters with a technique it used for years on salmon after an offhand suggestion by some workers. It found that some lobsters revived after their subzero sojourns. 

Now, Trufresh is looking for partners to begin selling the lobsters commercially. The company was scheduled to attend the International Boston Seafood Show, which began Sunday, armed with video showing two undead lobsters squirming around after being frozen stiff in a minus-40 degree chemical brine for several minutes. 

Company chairman Barnet L. Liberman acknowledged that its lobster testing is limited and only about 12 of roughly 200 healthy, hard shell lobsters survived the freezing. In addition, the company hasn't researched how long a frozen lobster can survive - overnight is the longest period so far. 

Liberman emphasized the company's goal isn't to provide customers with lobsters that always come back to life. He just wants to supply tasty lobsters. 

But frozen lobster can't be much fresher than "still alive" and Trufresh hasn't hesitated to tout their lobsters' restorative qualities. For instance, the company plans to ship the lobsters with rubber bands on the claws, as a consumer protection measure. 

"I wouldn't remove the rubber bands," Liberman said. "It's not worth the risk." 

Bonnie Spinazzola of the Offshore Lobstermen's Association in Candia, N.H, had her doubts about Lazarus-like lobsters entering the existing frozen lobster market. 

"I've never heard of it and I don't know if I believe it," she said. "It might be a robo-lobster." 

Trufresh is based in Suffield, Conn., but has salmon operations in Lubec, Maine, a community on the Bay of Fundy that's the easternmost town in the United States. A few years ago, some workers with lobstering experience suggested freezing lobsters the same way they froze their salmon, which are far too dead (and filleted) to ever be revived. 

First, the lobster's metabolism is slowed in below-freezing sea water and then it's immersed in the minus-40 degree brine. Liberman said the lobster freezes so quickly that damage to muscle tissue cells from the formation of ice crystals is minimized. 

The lobsters are then thawed in 28-degree sea water. A marketing video from the company shows the lobsters freely wriggling around after about two and a half hours. 

The first time they tried it, Trufresh froze about 30 lobsters and two came back to life, Liberman said. But the company wasn't in the lobster business and never pursued it. 

Now, Trufresh is trying to expand its product line as it launches a retail business on the Internet. If it can find partners to catch the lobster and process it, Liberman said Trufresh can be selling them within months. 

Robert Bayer of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute said he was intrigued about the Trufresh process, but dubious. Seafood freezing methods similar to Trufresh's have existed for years, but there have been no reports of undead lobsters, he said. 

"I'm guess I am skeptical about a lobster being brought back to life," Bayer said. "But I'm willing to be shown." 

Vt. Creamery Diversifies Into Crematory

Sun Mar 14,11:01 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By ANNE WALLACE ALLEN, News Source Writer 

GUILFORD, Vt. - Just up the hill from the Gaines' dairy farm stands a small building that looks a lot like a sugar shack, the kind of thing many Vermont farmers rely on to supplement their income. 

But this one-story building houses a human crematory run by a couple of former back-to-the-landers who say they want to provide a personalized end-of-life service. 

The owners, Jim and Ellen Curley, say their new venture is a small family business that will provide options to the community and will help the Gaines' seventh-generation dairy farm survive. 

"I view it as a service to my generation and the older generation," said Jim Curley, 54. "We're a low-volume small scale operation with a beautiful setting." 

End-of-life services are big business in Vermont and elsewhere. Funeral homes and burial businesses abound, but cremation is a growing choice. About 40 percent of Vermonters choose cremation, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a national trade group based in South Burlington. Nationally, the number is 25 percent. 

The Curleys were looking for a family business when they got the idea of opening the crematory. First, they asked their neighbors, the Gaines, if they could use a wooded spot of land across the road from pasture. 

The Gaines said yes. 

"We've had a lot of people ask us to do different things here over the years," said Jackie Gaines, who lives on the farm and runs a dog boarding business there. "Someone wanted to put a warehouse-type of building up; someone wanted to put a building for storage up." 

The Gaines farm has about 200 acres in Vermont and Massachusetts where the family milks 65 cows; grows hay, corn and alfalfa; and runs a maple sugar operation. With milk prices hitting a 25-year low last year, all dairy farms look for other ways to stay afloat - and the Gaines saw Vermont Blessings as one of those ways. 

"The town was concerned with the aesthetic part of a crematory in town, and how that would fit in," said Jackie Gaines. "I told them that it would generate some income for us which would enable us to continue to keep this land as a farm intact for the next generation." 

And while the notion of a crematory on the farm elicited some startled jokes from relatives and passers-by, the farm family was not deterred. 

"Having a lot of animals, we do come in contact with death," said Gaines. 

The result: a neat, rectangular building just up a dirt road in the woods close to Route 5 as it approaches the Massachusetts border. Across the road, there are cows in large fields. Inside the building is the large machine - known in the business as a "retort" - where bodies are cremated at 1,750 degrees and sent into the air as vapor. They've done one cremation so far. 

The Curleys' crematory is the seventh in Vermont, including one in nearby Brattleboro that, like Vermont Blessings, allows families to skip the funeral home and the charges that go along with it and contract directly with the crematory for the service. Another in St. Johnsbury also allows that. 

The Curleys want to capitalize on the market in nearby western Massachusetts, which has a much lower cremation rate than Vermont's. Vermont Blessings plans to woo customers with promises of scenery, privacy, and personal service. 

"At Vermont Blessings we consider cremation a sacred occasion and have designed our facility and services accordingly," says the company's ad in the local newspaper. "Our small-scale unhurried approach offers the most personalized and reverent cremation available." 

The ad tells prospective customers that Vermont Blessings will work with a funeral home or, as Vermont law allows, will work directly with families. 

At some crematories, many cremations are done in a day; Vermont Blessings promises to do no more than two a day. 

"It makes a difference psychologically, to me," said Jim Curley, who has a doctorate in education. "If I was going to choose cremation for my mother, the thought of her being up at the industrial park, or down in a line, was appalling to me." 

Vermont funeral homes offer cremation for as much as $2,200 and as little as $650. Vermont Blessings charges $1,200 to pick up the body, complete the necessary paperwork, do the cremation, and return a container of ashes. 

"Actually they offer the same type of service I offer," said Paul Guare, funeral director at Guare & Sons Funeral Home in Montpelier. Funeral homes also offer embalming and memorial services. Jim Curley is working to obtain a funeral director's license so he can offer the memorial services as well, though he has no intention of doing embalming. 

Lisa Carlson, a longtime advocate for funeral consumers who lives in Hinesburg, agrees with the Curleys that the baby boomers are likely to want a cremation option for their parents that's simple and down-to-earth. 

"Consumers do want better control of the funeral experience," said Carlson, who runs a group called the Funeral Ethics Organization. "If you look at the boomer generation that blended families in new ways, demanded the right for natural childbirth, may have written their own wedding vows, made us recycle - they want to take charge of critical life events." 

--- 

On the Web: 

Funeral Ethics Organization: www.funeralethics.org 

Funeral Consumers Alliance: www.funerals.org

Want to become a mum at 60? Scientists test boundaries of fertility 1 hour, 47 minutes ago NEWS SOURCE 

PARIS (NEWS SOURCE) - Once upon a time, women faced a biological clock, which tick-tick-ticked away the years of their fertility until it rang, with a dull and often dreaded clang, in their forties. That deadline is the force behind innumerable decisions made by women, ranging from when to have a family, how to approach the dating market and how to manage their careers. Men are far luckier in this respect, for they produce sperm from germline cells in their testes throughout their lives. But the latest research suggests that, one day, women may be able to put the clock on hold for years -- and if that happens, the social impact will echo just as loudly as the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1960. One plank of the "clock" theory is that women are born with a given number of eggs in their ovaries and cannot produce any more during their lifespan. But, 83 years after it was born, this dogma has been hammered by Harvard Medical School (news - web sites) scientists. They gave pre-pubertal mice a chemical that kills egg cells and were astonished to find the rodents continued to produce eggs in adulthood, proving an ability to generate fresh eggs to replace damaged ones. "If these findings hold up in humans, all theories about the ageing of the female reproductive system will have to be revisited," says lead researcher Jonathan Tilly, a Harvard professor of obestrics and reproductive biology. "We also may need to revisit the mechanisms underlying such environmental effects on fertility as smoking, chemotherapy and radiation. Eventually, this could lead to totally new approaches to combating infertility in cancer patients and others." In his mice, the new eggs were replaced thanks to stem cells -- the immature master cells that grow, or differentiate, into specialised cells -- in the ovaries. If the same germline stem cells can be found in women, and a way found to make them grow into the egg precursors called follicles, the menopause could be postponed. "Germline stem cells in humans might easily have been missed for the same reasons that they escaped detection in mice for so long," says Allan Sprading of the Carnegie Institution in Washington. He speculates that depletion of these germ cells may be a cause in the sharp sudden decline in the egg quality when women reach their thirties. Flaws in these older eggs make it harder to become pregnant and avoid a miscarriage. Another assault on fertility doctrine is being led from another direction -- transplants of ovarian tissue. Studies published by Nature this week, where Tilly's work also appears, report on two remarkable experiments in which mammalian ovarian tissue was transplanted to another part of the body, where it grew and was coaxed with hormone treatment into yielding eggs. In the first case, a transplant was carried out on a 36-year-old woman who had had an ovary removed and frozen ahead of cancer treatment six years earlier. Thawed and inserted under her skin, the tissue's follicles yielded more than 20 eggs, which were gently sucked out and fertilised in vitro. Only one developed normally; when it had reached the four-cell stage it was transplanted into her uterus, but she did not become pregnant. In the second experiment, transplanted ovarian tissue in seven rhesus monkeys led to the birth of a healthy female. However, the tissue was fresh, and had not been frozen and thawed. The work -- still in its earliest stages -- mainly targets women who urgently need chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer which will make them sterile. They do not have the time, or cannot take the hormones, to coax their ovaries into producing eggs that are then harvested, fertilised and stored. But the potential market is vast. The idea of storing away fertility and reviving it years later, perhaps using IVF and surrogate mothers, will interest many thirtysomething women, oppressed by that ticking clock.

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RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them 

Adapted from a letter sent to Henry Makow Ph.D. 

Want to share an event with you, that we experienced this evening.. Dave had over $1000 dollars 
in his back pocket (in his wallet). New twenties were the lion share of the bills in his wallet. We 
walked into a truck stop/travel plaza and they have those new electronic monitors that are 
supposed to say if you are stealing something. But through every monitor, Dave set it off. He did 
not have anything to purchase in his hands or pockets. After numerous times of setting off these 
monitors, a person approached Dave with a 'wand' to swipe why he was setting off the monitors. 

Believe it or not, it was his 'wallet'. That is according to the minimum wage employees working at the 
truck stop! We then walked across the street to a store and purchased aluminum foil. We then 
wrapped our cash in foil and went thru the same monitors. No monitor went off. 

We could have left it at that, but we have also paid attention to the European Union and the 'rfid' 
tracking devices placed in their money, and the blatant bragging of Walmart and many corporations 
of using 'rfid' electronics on every marketable item by the year 2005. 

Dave and I have brainstormed the fact that most items can be 'microwaved' to fry the 'rfid' chip, thus 
elimination of tracking by our government. 

So we chose to 'microwave' our cash, over $1000 in twenties in a stack, not spread out on a 
carasoul. Do you know what exploded on American money?? The right eye of Andrew Jackson on 
the new twenty, every bill was uniform in it's burning... Isnt that interesting? 

Now we have to take all of our bills to the bank and have them replaced, cause they are now 
'burnt'. 

We will now be wrapping all of our larger bills in foil on a regular basis. 

What we resent is the fact that the government or a corporation can track our 'cash'. Credit 
purchases and check purchases have been tracked for years, but cash was not traceble until 
now... 

Dave and Denise 

Interesting numerical ties between the Madrid attacks and 9-11 
By News Source Friday, March 12, 2004 

In comparing the Madrid bombings to the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the United States, there are some interesting numerical ties. 

There were 911 days in-between the terror attacks in Madrid and Sept. 11, 2001 - or 9-11 as it has become known - when al-Qaida-backed terrorists slammed planes into the Pentagon, a field in Pennsylvania and the World Trade Center towers in New York, destroying them. 

The Madrid bombings - which happened on 3-11 - also came 2-1/2 years to the day after the 9-11 attacks. 

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=1133 

-=-=- 

Blast came 911 days after Twin Towers By Mar Roman, Madrid 

EXACTLY 911 days after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, 10 terrorist bombs tore through trains and stations along a commuter line at the height of Madrid's morning rush hour yesterday. 

More than 190 people were killed and 1,421 wounded in Europe's bloodiest attack for more than 15 years. 

The blasts - claimed last night by Islamic fundamentalists - came just three days before Spain's general election on Sunday. 

The September 11 attacks are known in the United States as the 9/11 attacks. 

Spain initially blamed Basque separatists for the bombings, but the interior minister also said other lines of investigation were opened after police found a van last night with detonators and an audiotape of Koranic verses near where the bombed trains originated. 

The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaida. 

The email claim of responsibility, signed by the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, was received at the newspaper's London offices and said the brigade's "death squad" had penetrated "one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain". 

"This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam," the email said. 

Spain backed the US-led war on Iraq despite domestic opposition, and many al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been captured in Spain or were believed to have operated from there. 

There were unconfirmed reports late last night that one of the bombs may have involved a suicide bomber. 

However, earlier reports had said the bombs were dynamite-based and were detonated by remote control. 

After an emergency cabinet meeting, a sombre Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed to hunt down the attackers. 

"This is mass murder," he said. 

The bombers used titadine, a kind of compressed dynamite also found in a bomb- laden van intercepted last month as it headed for Madrid, a source at Mr Aznar's office said on condition of anonymity. 

Officials blamed the ETA separatist group at that time. 

Police found a van with seven detonators and an Arabic tape with Koranic verses in the town of Alcala de Henares, 15 miles east of Madrid, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said last night. 

He added that ETA remained the "main line of investigation" in the blasts, Europe's worst terror attack since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270. 

Three of the four trains bombed yesterday originated in Alcala de Henares and one passed through it, the state rail company said. 

Panicked commuters abandoned bags and their shoes as they trampled each other to escape the Atocha terminal, where bombs struck two trains. 

Some fled into dark, dangerous tunnels at the station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains just south of Madrid's famed Prado Museum. 

The bodies of the dead, some with their cell phones ringing unanswered as frantic relatives tried to contact them, were carried away by rescue workers. 

The wounded, faces bloodied, sat on curbs as buses were pressed into service as ambulances. 

One firefighter said he saw 70 bodies along a platform at El Pozo station, just east of downtown Madrid. 

One corpse had been blown onto the roof. 

Forty coroners worked to identify remains, and a steady stream of taxis carried relatives to a sprawling convention centre where the bodies were taken. 

A total of 10 bombs, nearly all in backpacks, exploded in a 15-minute span along nine miles of the commuter line - running from Santa Eugenia to the Madrid hub of Atocha killing 192 people and injuring more than 1,240, Mr Acebes said. This was later revised to over 1,400. 

Police found and detonated three other bombs. 

US President George W Bush called Mr Aznar to express solidarity and sympathy, condemning "this vicious attack of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said. 

Rescue workers were overwhelmed, said Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance driver who went to Santa Eugenia station, about six miles southeast of the Atocha station. 

"There was one carriage totally blown apart. 

"People were scattered all over the platforms. I saw legs and arms. 

I won't forget this ever. I've seen horror," Mr Sanchez said. 

Shards of twisted metal were scattered by rails in the Atocha station at the spot where an explosion severed a train in two. 

"I saw many things explode in the air ... it was horrible," said Juani Fernandez, aged 50, a civil servant who was on the platform waiting to go to work. 

"People started to scream and run, some bumping into each other and as we ran there was another explosion. 

"I saw people with blood pouring from them, people on the ground." 

The attack horrified Spain on the eve of Sunday's general election. Campaigning was called off and three days of mourning were declared. Newspapers ran special editions. The campaign was largely dominated by separatist tensions in regions like the Basque country. 

Both the ruling conservative Popular Party and the opposition Socialists had ruled out discussions with ETA. The Socialists had come under withering criticism because a politician linked to them in the Catalonia region admitted meeting with ETA members in France in January. 

The government convened anti-ETA rallies nationwide for tonight and announced three days of mourning. 

"What a horror," said the Basque regional president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, who insisted ETA does not represent the Basque people. 

"When ETA attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces." 

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgr9sK7yVK-ggsgHuTLc4nqWo2.asp 

-=-=-=-=-=- 

Terror: 911 days after 9/11 
12/03/2004 07:48 - (SA) 

Related Articles: 
Stolen van linked to attacks 
Train bombs: 'Start of WW III' 
Batasuna condemns Madrid blast 
Blasts 'beyond the imaginable' 
Blasts ricochet through JSE 
Wall Street sentiment hit 

Madrid - Spanish officials, stunned by co-ordinated bomb blasts in Madrid on Thursday that killed 192 people and wounded more than 1 400, said they were keeping their lines of investigation open after clues emerged possibly implicating Basque or Islamic militants. 

The atrocity, which Spanish media and officials described as "our own September 11", came exactly two and a half years after the attacks in New York and Washington, or 911 days, and just three days before general elections that the ruling conservative Popular Party is widely expected to win. 

The carnage, carried out in four trains and three railway stations in the southeast of the capital in morning rush-hour, was the worst terror attack in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people. 

Spanish King Juan Carlos said in a televised address to the people after visiting survivors in one of the city's hospitals, "A nightmare has struck showing terrorism's cruel face." 

"Your king is suffering with all of you and shares your indignation." 

The news of possible al-Qaeda involvement sent stock markets and the US dollar plummeting. 

The Dow Jones index in New York slid more than one percent, following European indices down. The dollar weakened against the euro, which went from 1.2222 dollars late on Wednesday to 1.2352 on Thursday. 

Edited by Trisha Shannon 

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1497208,00.html

The National Institute for Discovery Science issued a report on Cattle Mutilations back on June 17, 2003. 

Unexplained Cattle Deaths and the Emergence of a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Epidemic in North America 
http://216.128.67.116/pdf/cattledeaths_tse_epidemic.pdf 

On why the bodies are left ... 

Why Leave the Body? This question has plagued investigators ever 
since the first well-publicized investigations of mutilations 
began back in the early 1970s. As any reader familiar with the 
animal mutilation topic will agree, a plethora of hypotheses 
have sprung up about the perpetrators and their motives for 
animal mutilations. One of the most quoted hypotheses involves a 
government operation to monitor radiation or biological warfare 
testing. But the question "why leave the body?" has never been 
adequately answered by these hypotheses. 

The government can just as easily test their own herds, the 
counter-argument goes, or obtain carcasses from a slaughterhouse 
if they wish to covertly monitor radiation. Thus, for this and 
many other reasons, the evidence points away from the government 
as perpetrators of animal mutilations. 

Vallee (56) and Smith (57) have suggested intriguing hypotheses 
that leaving the cow carcass on the ground constitutes a 
deliberate message. In common with both these authors, we 
suggest that implicit in the deliberate lack of an attempt to 
conceal the carcass on the part of the perpetrators of animal 
mutilation, is a brutal warning. 

We suggest that attention is being deliberately focused on the 
mutilated animals. Further, we suggest the warning is that the 
human food chain is compromised, probably with a prion- 
associated infectious agent that still remains mostly 
undetected. 

On how long this sort of knowledge has been around ... 

If the hypothesis is correct, animal mutilation operations are 
carried out by a knowledgeable group that is cognizant of the 
biochemistry and infectious potential of prion diseases and 
their fatal spread. How difficult is this knowledge to come by? 
Beginning in 1958, Dr. Carleton Gajdusek began mailing kuru 
brains from the wilds of New Guinea to the central 
neuropathology facility at NIH in Bethesda and Fort Detrick. 
Hence, these fatal neurodegenerative diseases have been known in 
the United States, but not highly publicized, since the late 
1950s or early 1960s. Only recently, due to the intensive prion 
research carried in the past two decades has the extent of prion 
replication become obvious in the eye, tongue, anus/large 
intestine and reproductive organs (see above) of animals. If 
these specific tissues are indeed removed during animal 
mutilation for the purpose of prion monitoring, this implies an 
intensive knowledge of prion physiology, biochemistry and 
infectiousness, involving research results not published until 
relatively recently, on the part of the perpetrators of animal 
mutilations. 

On the implications for the future ... 

As discussed above, some of the harrowing consequences of the 
spread of this TSE infectious agent may lie in a subset of the 
epidemic of Alzheimer's disease that is currently ravaging the 
United States healthcare system. According to CDC estimates (43) 
there are now 4 million Alzheimer's patients in the United 
States, with annual health care costs between $100-500 billion. 
With the aging population, this cost is projected to soon rise 
to $1 trillion when 7-8 million have the disease (43). There is 
also the question of the mysterious early onset Alzheimer's, 
currently afflicting about 200,000 Americans. We have presented 
the evidence that thousands of possible CJD cases may be 
misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's and therefore the extent of this CJD 
epidemic in the United States lies beneath the public's radar. 
We hypothesize that the animal mutilators know and have known of 
the potential damage to humans of this infectious agent in the 
human food chain. 

Thus, we hypothesize that animal mutilations serve as both a 
sampling operation AND a warning. 

A central implication of this paper is that animal mutilations 
serve two purposes: as both a covert monitoring operation for 
the prion infectious agent and as a very graphic public warning, 
a display that monitoring is being done. The body on the 
ground, with glaring evidence of highly skilled surgery, serves 
as a calling card and a warning. From the evidence presented in 
this paper, we believe the warning is: "A major human food 
source (beef, elk, deer) is contaminated." 

There are several predictions that arise out of the animal 
mutilation-prion monitoring hypothesis, since the evidence seems 
to suggest that mutilations will be followed, years or even 
decades later, by a TSE outbreak: 

(a) That a rather large outbreak of CWD/TSE will occur in the 
area around Great Falls Montana in the next several years. 

(b) Similar large outbreaks will occur in Argentina and in 
Northern New Mexico in the next few years (the first six cases 
of CWD were found on and near White Sands missile ground October 
2002-February 2003). 

(c) In the next year or two, there will be an unambiguous link 
drawn between CWD and sporadic CJD in humans in the United 
States. 

(d) Even though the state of California has mandated a ban on 
importing elk and deer from other states, the highly intense 
animal mutilation (>30 animals mutilated in 5 years) cluster on 
and near a ranch in N. California, predicts an outbreak of 
CWD/TSE in northern California in 5-10 years. 

(e) In the coming years, as new methods for distinguishing CJD 
from Alzheimer's comes on line, there will be a dramatic 
increase in the incidence of "sporadic" CJD in the population of 
the United States. 

http://www.nidsci.org/articles/articles2.html 
http://www.nidsci.org/articles/articles2.html

The 39th Annual National UFO Conference 
Kings Island Resort & Conference Center 

Opening Statement 
by Kenny Young 

REBIRTH OF CURIOSITY 

Let us assume that our small planet earth and all its human inhabitants were under surveillance by an advanced extraterrestrial intelligence. In the same way that various countries on earth spy on each other for their own security purposes, let us theorize that this advanced intelligence also keeps close watch of earth and its primitive inhabitants, sort of like keeping a close eye on the trashy neighbors in the interstellar neighborhood. 

Perhaps such an advanced intelligence might do more than simply maintain a 'hands off' covert reconnaissance of our world; what if such an advanced intelligence might even interact with our societies, cultures and traditions from time to time to help stabilize our society. In this same hypothetical musing, let us also theorize that this advanced intelligence occasionally provides our primitive civilization with some guidance from time to time, hopeful that the interstellar trash called humanity may be recycled into something better. 

But what shape would this guidance take? How might such guidance be tender to our numerous sensibilities, yet instructive to our needs? Perhaps the best form of guidance would be the tool called CURIOSITY. 

On September 11, 2001, Muslim hijackers murdered thousands of unsuspecting Americans. These religious individuals were enraptured with the belief that their murderous acts would be rewarded by a divine being, eternal life and numerous virgins. CERTAINTY was the motivating factor behind their actions, certainty in their faith. History is full of wars, killing and atrocities caused by certainty and belief. Perhaps if the Muslim hijackers were better educated in the wonders of science and its many mysteries, things may have been different on 9-1-1. Perhaps if they were curious about other cultures and beliefs, their world view would be tempered with more patience and tolerance. Perhaps if there was a shred of curiosity regarding the absolutism of their own convictions, things would be different. 

There should be no doubt that certainty is the kryptonite of humanity. In ages past, certainty, couple forevermore with ignorance, was best left alone to spark localized mass killings and regional wars. But in our present day of nuclear nations, terrorist organizations, rogue groups and individuals constantly seeking weapons of mass destruction at an uncontrollable rate, the scourge of certainty becomes more threatening by the moment. 

The only force that may hinder certainty may be curiosity. But curiosity has been driven back by the ideological. Curiosity is discouraged by defenders of faith or bad science, those having a skewed agenda, those who use twisted reasoning to misinform. Complacency results, disinterest runs rampant and such higher issues are trivialized by a society bound up in its own ignorance. 

What has happened to curiosity? 

Consider for a moment, an interesting event that happened 50-years to the day of still unexplained 1952 UFO overflights of our nation's capitol that made banner headlines across the country. This summer, on July 26, 2002, an unidentified radar target was tracked by NORAD, approaching the restricted airspace around Washington D.C. Two fully-armed F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the intruder, but the pilots reportedly saw nothing and returned happily to base. Despite the happy ending as per officialdom, all hell tore loose in nearby Waldorf, Maryland as citizens reported a fiery blue light doggedly chased by military fighter jets. 

Curiosity knocks. 

Think about it: at a sensitive time of terrorist concerns nationwide, an unidentified low-flying object approaches the nation's capital, refuses to identify itself and somehow outsmarts or out-maneuvers our top of the line pilots and fighter jet interceptors. Curiosity knocks but the door remains shut as there is little media interest in the event, no investigative journalism, no follow up. There is no media demand for a press conference to hear about temperature inversions, funny lights or witness misperception. Actually, aside from FOX News and small article in The Washington Post, the news media finds greater comfort in exploring the escapades of Martha Stewart and the behind-the-scenes bickering of baseball strike negotiators. 

Curiosity is left out in the cold. 

If this hypothetical advanced intelligence discussed earlier were really out there somewhere, guiding us by the overt interaction resulting from a UFO sighting, we must be collectively wise enough to rise to the occasion, brush of the complacency and comfort of ideology and recognize these higher scientific issues and unresolved mysteries. 

That seed of curiosity just may complicate the kryptonite of certainty and hopefully stabilize a society that is spiraling toward self destruction. 

Curiosity, governed by pure, unadulterated, unrestricted and uninhibited skepticism, may be our only hope for survival. 

Perhaps today, something that you may hear at this 39th Annual National UFO Conference may trigger that healthy sense of curiosity. And with this primary objective, we have a fine lineup of researchers and speakers who have committed themselves to personal investigation of our greatest present-day mystery, and they are prepared to report findings and information that will hopefully compound certainty, obfuscate complacency and give rise to curiosity. We welcome you to the conference and invite you to consider, with an open mind, the information presented here today. 

Employee Suspended for Anti-Bush Message CLEVELAND (AP) - A maintenance worker was suspended for displaying a sign with the word ``traitor'' on his state snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade, officials said. Michael Gerstenslager was asked to park a snowplow on an entrance ramp to block access to a highway the president's motorcade used to travel from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into downtown Cleveland on Wednesday. A state trooper in the president's motorcade saw the sign and reported it to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the agency's spokeswoman, Lora Hummer, said. Gerstenslager does not have a listed telephone number and could not be reached for comment. Gerstenslager is suspended with pay while the department investigates, Hummer said. She said she could not identify potential violations or penalties until the investigation is complete. Discipline can range from a verbal warning to dismissal. A disciplinary hearing will occur next week. 

Justice, FBI Seek Rules for Internet Taps By TED BRIDIS WASHINGTON (AP) - Technology companies should be required to ensure that law enforcement agencies can install wiretaps on Internet traffic and new generations of digital communications, the Justice Department says. The push would effectively expand the scope of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, a 1994 law that requires the telecommunications industry to build into its products tools that U.S. investigators can use to eavesdrop on conversations with a court order. Fearful that federal agents can't install wiretaps against criminals using the latest communications technologies, lawyers for the Justice Department, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration said their proposals ``require immediate attention and resolution'' by the Federal Communications Commission. They called wiretaps ``an invaluable and necessary tool for federal, state, and local law enforcement in their fight against criminals, terrorists, and spies.'' ``The ability of federal, state, and local law enforcement to carry out critical electronic surveillance is being compromised today,'' they wrote in legal papers filed with the FCC earlier this week. ``Communications among surveillance targets are being lost.... These problems are real, not hypothetical.'' The FCC agreed last month to hold proceedings on the issue to ``address the scope of covered services, assign responsibility for compliance, and identify the wiretap capabilities required.'' Critics said the government's proposal would have far-reaching impact on new communications technologies and could be enormously expensive for companies that need to add wiretap-capabilities to their products, such as push-to-talk cellular telephones and telephone service over Internet lines. The Justice Department urged the FCC to declare that companies must pay for any such improvements themselves, although it said companies should be permitted to pass those expenses on to their customers. Stewart Baker, a Washington telecommunications lawyer and former general counsel at the National Security Agency, complained that the government's proposal applies broadly to high-speed Internet service and puts limits on the introduction of new technology until it can be made wiretap-friendly. Baker said the plan ``seeks to erect a brand new and quite extensive regulatory program'' that gives the FBI and telephone regulators a crucial role in the design of future communications technologies.

03/13/04 20:09 

Pentagon-Sponsored Robot Race Ends Without Winner Sat Mar 13, 6:01 PM ET Add Technology - washingtonpost.com 

By Kyle Balluck, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer BARSTOW, CALIF., March 13 -- The Pentagon (news - web sites)-sponsored robot race held in Southern California today ended without a winner, as none of the autonomous vehicles built by the 15 qualifying teams was able to travel farther than 7 miles from the starting line. Sandstorm, the modified Humvee entered by a team from Carnegie Mellon University, was one of the two vehicles that made it farthest before it succumbed to engine trouble. A vehicle built by Team SciAutonics II from Thousand Oaks, Calif., also traveled about 7 miles before stopping. A vehicle built by The Golem Group of Santa Monica, Calif., was able to travel 5 miles before stopping. Most of the other vehicles competing for a $1 million prize in the Pentagon's "Grand Challenge" failed to travel more than a few hundred yards from the starting point near Barstow, Calif. Both Virginia-based teams were among those whose vehicles barely made it past the starting line. The modified Honda all-terrain vehicle assembled by Team ENSCO from Falls Church only made it a few hundred yards out of the launching area before it flipped over. A four-wheel off-road vehicle entered by a team from Virginia Tech University made it to the edge of the launching area before its brakes locked up. Several other vehicles hit retaining walls or fences near the starting line. The fact that no vehicle made it more than 10 miles from the starting point reflected the enormously difficult challenge of building a vehicle smart enough to navigate across hundreds of miles of desert landscape. Autonomous vehicles make decisions based on their knowledge of the terrain. If a vehicle's cameras or radar detect an obstacle, onboard computers make decisions to go around, or back up, or change gears before moving toward the next waypoint. "It's a tough challenge -- it's a grand challenge -- you can always bet that it's not doable. But if you don't push the limits, you can't learn," said Ensco Inc. engineer Venkatesh Vasudevan. Of the 15 teams that qualified for today's race, only 13 actually started out on the course early this morning, departing in stages from an area near Barstow, Calif. Teams got course information about two hours before the race. Waypoints -- a series of global positioning system coordinates -- were programmed into onboard navigation systems. The race sponsor, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, received more than 100 submissions from teams wanting to participate. That list was winnowed down to 25 teams, comprised of engineering and R&D firms, colleges and volunteers. Of the 21 teams that attempted to qualify over four days of trials earlier this week, just seven completed a flat, 1.36-mile obstacle course at the California Speedway. More than two decades ago, military efforts to research autonomous technology produced large, slow vehicles that could only traverse flat terrain. California officials also successfully tested an automated highway system in San Diego in 1997. But a vehicle that can move quickly over a variety of landscapes and around or over natural and man-made obstructions has remained elusive. In sponsoring today's race, DARPA was responding to a congressional mandate that one-third of U.S. military operational ground combat vehicles be unmanned by 2015. Robotic vehicles one day could deliver supplies, eliminating the threat to drivers and security personnel assigned to vehicle convoys. The agency spent $13 million on the race. It estimated that competitors laid out four to five times that amount developing their entries, which rely on global positioning satellites as well as a variety of sensors, lasers, radar and cameras to orient themselves and detect and avoid obstacles. Non-military considerations also sparked some teams to participate in today's race. Scott Gray, a spokesman for the Carnegie Mellon University team, said he envisions vehicles one day that could be programmed to let blind people travel independently. The two vehicles that made it farthest today had at least some backing from corporate sponsors. The Carnegie Mellon team had various levels of support from Intel Corp., Boeing Co., Caterpillar and Science Applications International Corp. SciAutonics II's Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based team has ties to Rockwell Scientific Company. Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon said his school's vehicle cost approximately $3 million. The DARPA Grand Challenge did not escape controversy in the planning stages. Axion Racing, based near Los Angeles, earlier this month objected to a rule change that allowed humans to refuel the vehicles if they wound up spending the night in the desert. Axion team leader Bill Kehaly said entrants with larger vehicles would benefit from the revision. One of the teams selected to participate in the challenge, Northern California-based Team Overbot, dropped out in February. Overbot's John Nagle said he ran out of time to complete his vehicle, noting that an improving economy in Silicon Valley late last year took away many of his volunteers. Nagle also questioned DARPA's decision to increase the number of course waypoints. He says a heavily preplanned approach "doesn't lead anywhere," saying the technique was proven in the California highway test in 1997. The current level of waypoints favored Carnegie Mellon's Red Team, Nagle said. But Gary Carr, team leader from ENSCO, a Northern Virginia engineering firm, said the route is not simply a matter of "connecting the dots." He said the vehicles will have to do a lot of their own thinking on the course, noting a lot of turns can happen in the quarter mile average distance between waypoints. More than 900 people came to Barstow as members of the teams selected to participate in the race. With no winner, DARPA said the $1 million prize money will roll over to another event to be held as soon as 2006. The News Source contributed to this article.

Hitachi Makes 400-Gigabyte Hard Drive Sat Mar 13, 9:19 AM ET 

BY MAY WONG, News Source Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. - Digital media hogs can celebrate. A new, whopping 400-gigabyte hard drive from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies can store up to 400 hours of standard television programming, 45 hours of high-definition programming or more than 6,500 hours of digital music. Previously, the largest such drive available was a 300-gigabyte product from Maxtor Corp., said Dave Reinsel, industry analyst at IDC. San Jose-based Hitachi said it designed the monster drive, the Deskstar 7K400, for audio/video products such as digital video recorders. Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, predicts the number of households with DVRs will increase to nearly 25 million by 2007, from about 3 million today. 

3 Charged in Theft From Jackpot Winner 2 hours, 27 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

WINFIELD, W.Va. - Three men were charged Tuesday with stealing $100,000 from the winner of the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The men were accused of breaking into Jack Whittaker's sport utility vehicle Jan. 17. The vehicle was parked outside Whittaker's home. Authorities began investigating after learning the suspects spent $7,000 to $8,000 on clothing in a department store. Brian C. Hillabold and David M. Fewell, both 20, were jailed on $75,000 bond. Vernon R. Jackson Jr., 22, was arraigned later, and bond had not been set. Hillabold and Fewell told police that Jackson took the money and gave them $10,000 each, sheriff's Detective Shawn Johnson said. Whittaker won a Powerball prize of nearly $315 million on Christmas Day 2002. Since then, money has been stolen from his vehicle three times, and his business has been burglarized. 

Kleenex Maker to Raise Prices in U.S. 1 hour, 24 minutes ago Add Business - 

DALLAS - Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Kleenex tissues and Scott paper towels, Tuesday said it plans to raise consumer prices of tissue products in the United States by an average of about 6 percent during the third quarter. The company said prices for bathroom tissue, paper towels and napkins will be increased effective July 11. Facial tissue prices will rise beginning Aug. 29. The Dallas-based company said the increases are necessary to offset inflated raw-material costs, particularly for fiber, as well as higher energy costs. Kimberly-Clark said net sales of its consumer tissue products in the United States totaled more than $2 billion in 2003. With annual revenue of $14.35 billion last year, Kimberly-Clark also makes Cottonelle bathroom tissue, as well as personal-care items such as Huggies diapers and Kotex feminine hygiene products. Shares of Kimberly-Clark inched up 11 cents to close at $60.44 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). 

Shuttle Gears Were Installed Backward Tue Mar 23,11:50 AM ET 

By MARCIA DUNN, News Source Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - To prevent another catastrophe, NASA (news - web sites) will replace braking mechanisms on all its space shuttles after discovering some of the gears were installed backward. Shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said Monday he has launched an investigation into why the rudder speed brake gears - all old original parts in the shuttle tails - were never inspected in more than two decades of flight. If one of the improperly installed gears had been in a high-stress position, it probably would have led to the destruction of the spacecraft at touchdown, he said. "Bottom line is, it was not good," Parsons said. The rudder speed brake is used to guide and slow the shuttle as it comes in for a landing. If even one of the four sets of gears that operate the mechanism jams, then the spacecraft could not land safely. As it turns out, the reversed gears found recently in Discovery were in the least stress-prone position and never failed. But one of the replacement gears - a spare set that was also installed backward - would have ended up in a much more high-stress location in the tail. All the rudder speed brake gears in NASA's inventory - dating as far back as the 1970s - are being X-rayed to see whether they were properly built, and to look for rust and microcracks, already spotted on some gears. Parsons said new or refurbished gears should be installed in time for shuttle flights to resume next March, after a two-year grounding following the Columbia tragedy. The extra work may put NASA a week or two behind, but "I think we'll be able to make that up," he said. Discovery will fly first because the work is further along. Atlantis must be ready to quickly go to the Discovery crew's rescue at the international space station, however, if need be during an emergency. The installation problem surfaced late last year and prompted NASA to delay the next shuttle flight from fall 2004 to spring 2005. "Because of the way these gears go together, you can actually make a mistake and put them in incorrectly, and there was not a good process back in the timeframe" to catch mistakes, Parsons said. He said the maker of the rudder speed brake mechanisms, Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford, Ill., now has better quality control. At the same time, NASA is inspecting the plumbing in each of its three remaining shuttles. The hoses in question are also original shuttle parts and some are starting to leak, Parsons said. "As we deal with aging vehicle kind of issues, we will find other things along these lines as well, I'm sure," he said. Parsons said engineers are making good progress on the inspection booms and wing-repair kits that will be required on all future shuttle flights. Columbia was destroyed and its seven astronauts were killed during re-entry last year because of a hole in the left wing caused by a piece of insulating foam that broke free at liftoff. ___ On the Net: NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov 

NASA: Mars' Surface Had Pool of Water 1 hour, 40 minutes ago 

By ANDREW BRIDGES, News Source Science Writer PASADENA, Calif. - Mars once had a briny pool of standing water on its surface that could have supported life in the now-frozen planet's distant past, NASA (news - web sites) scientists said Tuesday. Scientists announced earlier this month that the Opportunity rover found evidence of water long ago on Mars, but it was unclear whether the water was underground or on the surface. The new findings suggest there was a pool of saltwater at least two inches deep. A rocky outcropping examined by the rover had ripple patterns and concentrations of salt - considered telltale signs that the rock formed in standing water. The findings add to the growing body of evidence that the Red Planet was once was a warmer and wetter place that may have been conducive to life. "We think Opportunity is now parked on what was once the shoreline of a salty sea on Mars," said Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, the mission's main scientist. Although Squyres referred to the water as a sea, scientists said it was not clear how big the body of water might have been or whether it was a permanent fixture. Instead, the site could have been a desert basin or salt flat that periodically flooded with water. The evidence also does not indicate when water covered the broad and flat region where Opportunity landed, called Meridiani Planum, or for how long. Nor does it indicate if any organisms actually lived on Mars. 

British soldiers trapped in Mexican underground cave 
Wed Mar 24, 4:52 AM ET

CUETZLAN, Mexico (NEWS SOURCE) - Driving rain is hampering the rescue of five members of the British military who for six days have been trapped by flood waters in underground caves in Mexico, officials said. 

NEWS SOURCE/Pool/File Photo 

"We confirm that five people are trapped inside a cave and that another seven colleagues who are safe in Cuetzalan are in constant radio contact with them," local emergency services chief Joe Hernandez told NEWS SOURCE. 

He said the trapped cave explorers were alive and well and saw their predicament as a normal occurrence in the science of speleology. They said they have a five-day supply of food. 

The 12-member British team was exploring the caverns in Cuetzalan, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Mexico City when they were surprised by sudden floods. 

A public safety official told NEWS SOURCE that a rescue team had arrived from Mexico City and was waiting for the water level to recede so they could get to the Britons. 

Members of a Texan expedition were giving the Britons food and other supplies. But British officials have said the military cavers have food, water and radio contact with the surface. 

The renowned cave complex stretches more than 50 kilometers (30 miles) underground. Steady downpours have turned the entrance to the cave into a raging torrent, making rescue attempts impossible at present, local officials said. 

The British Embassy in Mexico City said it was monitoring the situation closely and that a group of British experts was due to arrive to participate in the rescue operation. 

The Mexican Army has sent a team of 20 experts, including three divers, to reach the trapped explorers, the officer in charge of the rescue operation Lieutenant Colonel Alejandro Perea told NEWS SOURCE. 

A British official who met with Mexican authorities said nine of the explorers were members of the British Armed Forces, but insisted that the expedition was not a military operation but private trip arranged by the team. 

"It's not their first time out here," said Cuetzalan official Miguel Arrieta. "They know their way about those caves down there, but unfortunately they never asked for official permission to carry out their research," he added. 

The trapped speleologists have been identified as Jonathan Sims, Charles Milton, Simon Cornill, Chris Mitchell and Toby Hammet. 

Supreme Court to Take Up 'Under God'

30 minutes ago

By GINA HOLLAND, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Americans overwhelmingly want the phrase "under God" preserved in the Pledge of Allegiance, a new poll says as the Supreme Court on Wednesday examines whether the classroom salute crosses the division of church and state. 

Almost nine in 10 people said the reference to God belongs in the pledge despite constitutional questions about the separation of church and state, according to an News Source poll. 

The Supreme Court was hearing arguments Wednesday from a California atheist who objected to the daily pledges in his 9-year-old daughter's classroom. He sued her school and won, setting up the landmark appeal before a court that has repeatedly barred school-sponsored prayer from classrooms, playing fields and school ceremonies. 

The pledge is different, argue officials at Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento, where the girl attends school. Superintendent Dave Gordon said popular opinion is on their side - but that's not all. 

"It's not a popularity contest. If something is wrong, it should be corrected. No matter how many people support it," he said. "The argument that `under God' in the pledge is pushing religion on children is wrong on the law. It's also wrong from a commonsense perspective." 

God was not part of the original pledge written in 1892. Congress inserted it in 1954, after lobbying by religious leaders during the Cold War. Since then, it has become a familiar part of life for a generation of students. 

The question put to the Supreme Court: Does the use of the pledge in public schools violate the Constitution's ban on government established religion? 

Michael Newdow, the father who filed the lawsuit, compared the controversy to the issue of segregation in schools, which the Supreme Court took up 50 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education. 

"Aren't we a better nation because we got rid of that stuff?" asked Newdow, a 50-year-old lawyer and doctor arguing his own case at the court. 

The AP poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs, found college graduates were more likely than those who did not have a college degree to say the phrase "under God" should be removed. Democrats and independents were more likely than Republicans to think the phrase should be taken out. 

Justices could dodge the issue altogether. They have been urged to throw out the case, without a ruling on the constitutional issue, because of questions about whether Newdow had custody when he filed the suit and needed the mother's consent. 

The girl's mother, Sandra Banning, is a born-again Christian and supporter of the pledge. 

"I object to his inclusion of our daughter" in the case, Banning said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" show. She said she worries that her daughter will be "the child who is remembered as the little girl who changed the Pledge of Allegiance." 

Absent from the case is one of the court's most conservative members, Justice Antonin Scalia (news - web sites), who bowed out after he criticized the ruling in Newdow's favor during a religious rally last year. Newdow had requested his recusal. 

The case is Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 02-1624. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites): http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ 

Study: Daily Drink Eases Hypertensives' Heart Risk Mon Mar 22,11:47 PM ET Add Health 

CHICAGO  - The protection against heart disease from moderate drinking extends to men with high blood pressure, suggesting current advice for such patients to avoid alcohol is wrong, researchers said on Monday. Long recognized as a stress reducer that cuts the risk of heart disease and strokes, wine and other forms of alcohol may have anti-clotting properties and boost blood levels of high-density lipoprotein, the so-called good cholesterol. The study found that hypertensive men who drank moderately -- one or two drinks per day -- had a 44 percent lower risk of dying from a heart attack than nondrinkers with high blood pressure. Based on an ongoing survey of 14,126 male doctors, the Physicians' Health Study, the five-year study concluded the overall risk of death was 28 percent lower among moderate drinkers with hypertension compared to hypertensive nondrinkers. The benefit was also seen among light drinkers of one to six drinks a week, but the more alcohol consumed -- as long as it remained moderate -- the lower the risk of dying. As with other studies that have concluded drinking can be good for one's health, the researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston warned about health problems such as liver damage, high blood pressure and obesity that can accompany heavy drinking. "However, patients with hypertension who are able to maintain light to moderate alcohol intake have no compelling reason to change their lifestyle and eliminate a possibly beneficial habit," lead author Michael Gaziano wrote in the study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine (news - web sites). There are a variety of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States, but the findings call into question current American Heart Association (news - web sites) guidelines that recommend hypertensive patients avoid alcohol completely, the report said. 

School Trains Girls to Be Good Wives

Mar 23, 9:33 am ET 

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY  - Once a week after school, a group of girls from well-to-do Mexican families troops to a meticulously kept house in the south of the capital for a class in how to become the perfect wife.

Girls aged 13 to 18 sit eagerly through lessons in cooking, sewing, ironing, dressing, folding napkins, serving a formal dinner and adding feminine flourishes to a home, like a posy of flowers in the bathroom or initials embroidered on the towels.

Such skills, according to teacher Tota Topete, risk becoming a lost art as Mexico's young women join a global trend of focusing on careers rather than housekeeping.

"Now all women want to go out to work, but working an eight-hour day when one is a wife or a mother is just not possible," Topete, a vivacious and impeccably groomed 60-year-old, said after one of her evening classes.

"It means neglecting one's husband. He could start looking elsewhere for affection and that could mean divorce," she warned.

In Mexico, one in three women works outside the home, up from one in five in the 1970s and not including the millions working illegally as domestic helpers or selling street food. As macho attitudes about women working and Catholic ideals on large families are eroded, women are also having fewer babies. And yet for the millions of Mexican women eking out a living in grim city slums or dusty rural villages, running a household is more of a hard slog on a tight budget than an art. In poor communities, girls are whisked out of school at age 10 or 11 to help around the house. They marry young and embark on a lifetime of cooking and cleaning, many also having to put up with philandering husbands. QUEEN ELIZABETH IS STYLE ICON But a world away, highlighted hair and trendy clothes labeling them as part of Mexico's small but disproportionately wealthy upper class, Topete's wide-eyed students fire off questions as they watch her mix a carrot cake batter. "It's important to know all this before you get married. We don't learn it at school," says Jimena Ramirez, 17, who hopes to marry at age 24, once she's completed studies in marketing. Meanwhile Topete, resplendent in pearls, satin blouse and scarlet apron, has whisked the class from kitchen to dining room for tips on how to serve up and clear away a dinner.

"You must never, ever scrape the plates in front of your guests -- and never pile the plates up with food squashed between them," she says, rolling her eyes with horror.

Her well-manicured disciples study from folders with sections on everything from etiquette and flower arranging to dress sense and color coordination. Students pore over color charts to decide which tones best suit their complexions.

A photograph of Britain's Queen Elizabeth is used as an example of a woman who wears enough jewelry to impress -- but never too much.

"If you are going to see a boy, go dressed in the color that suits you best. Brush your hair. Think earrings, think necklace. You must be well presented," Topete says.

"Not depilating your armpits or legs makes for a horrible sight. And if you wear sandals, please look after your feet."

Toward the end of the year-long course Topete broaches the subject of sex -- a major topic in separate classes she runs for married women whose relationships need sparkling up.

"Sex is a big problem today. The stress of living and working in a big city can inhibit libido," she said.

"I tell them they must do it -- and with passion, even if that means taking a siesta before their husband comes home."

CANDLE-LIT DINNERS

Topete is battling a trend in developed countries where women spending more time in the office than at home. Scare statistics abound showing skills like cooking and child-care dying out as working women relegate such tasks to maids and nannies.

Her quest echoes that of U.S. relationship guru Laura Schlessinger, whose best-selling book "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands" smacks of 1950's attitudes. In it she says many marital problems stem from selfish, overly demanding women who treat their husbands more like accessories than priorities.

In Mexico, a 2000 study found women are having two to three children on average, unlike past generations when the government encouraged sprawling families in a misguided bid to boost the economy.

Topete's students say while they want to continue their studies after school and find jobs, they also want to marry and have families. For that, they need domestic skills.

"My mother works. She doesn't have time to show me stuff like this -- but don't print that, she'll kill me," says one girl, as she endeavors to make invisible stitches during a sewing class.

Topete, married for 38 years, quips that a girl will never find a husband if she can't sew. Keeping him is another challenge, she says.

"There must be a balance between being an executive and being a wife," she said. "Prepare a candle-lit dinner and wear something nice. If you keep him happy, then he'll keep you happy." 

Croutons Land Top Brain Surgeon in the Soup

Mar 22, 11:42 am ET 

LONDON  - A leading British brain surgeon has been suspended from work following a dispute over a bowl of soup.

Dr Terence Hope was sent home from the Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham, where newspapers say there is a 39-day waiting list for brain operations, after being accused of taking extra croutons without paying, hospital sources said on Monday.

"A consultant was suspended following allegations surrounding his personal conduct," the hospital said in a statement. "He was due to operate today on three patients. Their surgery has had to be postponed."

Hope, 57, who has been working as a neurosurgeon in Nottingham for 18 years, is an expert in traumatic brain injuries. Efforts to contact him not immediately successful. 

Airline Halts Plan for Lip-Shaped Urinals

Mar 22, 7:56 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Virgin Atlantic Airways on Friday scrapped plans to install bright-red urinals shaped like women's open lips at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, saying it had received complaints they were offensive.

"Virgin Atlantic was very sorry to hear of people's concerns about the design of the 'Kisses' urinals to be fitted into our clubhouse at JFK Airport. We can assure everyone who complained to us that no offense was ever intended," Virgin spokesman John Riordan said in a statement.

Riordan said the British company received several dozen complaints from people and groups including the National Organization for Women after its plans for the urinals had been made public. NOW had posted a message on its Web site urging members to complain to Virgin chief Richard Branson.

"I don't know many men who think it's cool to pee in a woman's mouth, even a porcelain one," said NOW President Kim Gandy on the group's Web site.

The urinal, designed by a Dutch company, was the idea of a female designer. Riordan said Virgin was surprised by the negative reaction to the plan, part of designs for the lounge, built to pamper first-class customers. 

ade-In-Burma Jacket Stirs Flap

Mar 22, 7:52 am ET 

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON  - A "Bush-Cheney '04" campaign jacket sold on the Internet has stirred controversy because it was made in Myanmar, whose imports have been banned by the United States.

Although the company that shipped the fleece pullover, Spalding Group of Louisville, Kentucky, has said it did so in error, human rights groups blamed President Bush's re-election campaign staff for not taking a more careful look at the origin of the products being sold in its name.

The Bush administration has had sanctions in place since September against Myanmar -- also known by its colonial name Burma -- in an attempt to punish the government over human rights violations.

"Burma is one of the most repressive, brutal dictatorships in the world," said Charles Kernagan, head of the National Labor Committee, a group that seeks to combat sweatshops internationally. "The Bush-Cheney campaign was putting money into the hands of dictators with that purchase."

Arvind Ganesan of Human Rights Watch was also critical.

"The U.S. government, regardless of the administration, has widely condemned the human rights record of Burma," Ganesan said. "One would expect that they would be extremely diligent about where they buy their products."

Spalding Group, which supplies the merchandise for the campaign of Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, took responsibility for the controversy, which came to light after a reporter for Newsday newspaper ordered several items off the campaign's Web site.

Among them was a red fleece pullover, priced at $49.95 and embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo. It carried a "Made in Burma" label.

The Bush administration has been trying to fend off widespread criticism of jobs being moved overseas. Democrats especially have pounced on the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs -- including many in the hard-hit textile industry -- as a presidential election campaign issue.

"I am totally prepared to accept responsibility," said Ted Jackson, president of Spalding. "This is about an honest mistake."

Jackson said a supplier shipped the wrong products.

He said the Bush campaign had asked that all of its products originate from American factories, and his company had listed those instructions when placing orders. Jackson said he had sent an apology letter to the campaign over the flap.

"We are committed to making sure only made-in-the-USA products are sold through the Web site," said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel. 

Health fears over Chicken Tikka Masala 
50 minutes ago

By Matthew Jones 

LONDON  - One of the country's favourite foods could be slowly poisoning diners who love its distinctive red hue and spicy, creamy taste. 

An investigation on Tuesday found 57 percent of Chicken Tikka Masala dishes tested in Surrey had illegal and potentially harmful levels of chemicals used to give the curry its trademark colour. 

"A lot of people prefer bright red food and restaurants react to that," Yvonne Rees, Surrey's Assistant County Trading Standards Officer told The News Source. 

"When people are offered curries they often pick the one with the brightest colour." 

Rees said the chemicals that give the dish its colour are known to cause health problems like hyperactivity in children, allergies and asthma if consumed in excessive quantities. 

"The reason why there are limits on how much additive a dish can have is for health reasons," she added. 

Chicken Tikka Masala has iconic status in popular culture, vying with fish and chips in the nation's affections, but it bears little relation to a native Indian dish. 

The subject of a musical, it has inspired a range of potato crisps and in 2001 was even praised by a cabinet minister. Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the dish epitomised Britons' ability to absorb and adapt external influences. 

Unfortunately that very desire to adapt is causing problems. 

Hajra Makda, editor of Masala magazine which serves the Indian restaurant trade, said there have been earlier problems with additives in Indian cuisine and that consumers and restaurants need to be told about colour dangers. 

"It is good it is out in the open," she said. 

"I don't think the over-colouring is deliberate. The problem is that it is too easy to add a couple more drops (of colour)." 

James Martin, a chef who regularly appears on television cookery programmes, said the dish is the victim of diners' preferences. 

"The British palate demands a Chicken Tikka Masala to be this very, very vivid red colour," he told Sky Television. 

"A lot of the general public will send the dish back (to the kitchen) if it is not." 

"Chicken Tikka Masala should be a light orangey colour." 

New Internet Browser Is Voice Operated 2 hours, 49 minutes ago Add 

By DOUG MELLGREN, News Source Writer OSLO, Norway - Opera Software is developing a new Internet browser that allows users to talk to their computer, the company announced Tuesday. The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. Opera declined to give a launch date. The browser is at its developmental stage. At a demonstration, a pizza order form was promptly displayed when the tester told the computer, "Order pizza." But the browser misinterpreted an order for "a pizza" as "eight pizzas." "We feel we are on the verge of moving the Web a little bit," said Christen Krogh, head of Opera's software development. "Voice is the most natural and effective way we communicate," Krogh said. "In the years to come, it will greatly facilitate how we interact with technology." The computer learns to recognize its users voice, accent and inflections by having them read a list of words into a microphone. "Hi. I am your browser. What can I do for you?," asked a laptop with the demonstration versions of the browser. The message can easily be changed to suit users, such as greeting them by name. The demonstration version, so far only in English, is still far from normal casual conversation. Users have to learn to listen to the computer's question, and then wait for a tiny beep before stating their request, a bit like communicating by pressing the transmit key on a simplex radio. "I would like a medium pizza with extra cheese, mushrooms and salami," a tester told the machine. The machine checked off the appropriate boxes on the form, but interpreted "a pizza" as "eight pizzas." Then it asked if the order was correct, and fixed the number when told the order was for one pizza. "Voice has been seen as the next step for years, but there were always problems," Krogh said. The browser corresponds to simple commands. For example, say "Get AP" and it would go to The News Source Internet page. By embedding IBM's voice technology into Opera's browser, a user can talk to the computer, which will understand and translate into normal code for the Net, Krogh said. The could open up the Internet to users who had been excluded because, for example, they were physically unable to use a keyboard, he added. Opera is the third-largest browser on the Web, although it is tiny compared to Internet Explorer and Netscape. It has been gaining ground as the browser of choice for hand-held devices, such as mobile telephones and personal data assistants, because it is known as being fast and needing little memory. IBM's director of embedded speech, Igor Jablokov, said "the new offering will allow us to interact with the content on the Web in a more natural way, first on PCs and in the near future on devices such as cell phones and PDAs." Opera plans to first launch an English version of the voice browser for Windows, to be followed by versions for other operating systems, including Linux (news - web sites) and Symbians. Oslo-based Opera was founded in 1995 by two former developers for the Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor as an offshoot of a company project. Earlier this month, it was listed on the Oslo stock exchange for the first time, and sold nearly 25 percent of its share base for 243 million kroner (US$35.2 million). ____ On the Net: www.opera.com 

New Internet Browser Is Voice Operated 2 hours, 49 minutes ago Add 

By DOUG MELLGREN, News Source Writer OSLO, Norway - Opera Software is developing a new Internet browser that allows users to talk to their computer, the company announced Tuesday. The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. Opera declined to give a launch date. The browser is at its developmental stage. At a demonstration, a pizza order form was promptly displayed when the tester told the computer, "Order pizza." But the browser misinterpreted an order for "a pizza" as "eight pizzas." "We feel we are on the verge of moving the Web a little bit," said Christen Krogh, head of Opera's software development. "Voice is the most natural and effective way we communicate," Krogh said. "In the years to come, it will greatly facilitate how we interact with technology." The computer learns to recognize its users voice, accent and inflections by having them read a list of words into a microphone. "Hi. I am your browser. What can I do for you?," asked a laptop with the demonstration versions of the browser. The message can easily be changed to suit users, such as greeting them by name. The demonstration version, so far only in English, is still far from normal casual conversation. Users have to learn to listen to the computer's question, and then wait for a tiny beep before stating their request, a bit like communicating by pressing the transmit key on a simplex radio. "I would like a medium pizza with extra cheese, mushrooms and salami," a tester told the machine. The machine checked off the appropriate boxes on the form, but interpreted "a pizza" as "eight pizzas." Then it asked if the order was correct, and fixed the number when told the order was for one pizza. "Voice has been seen as the next step for years, but there were always problems," Krogh said. The browser corresponds to simple commands. For example, say "Get AP" and it would go to The News Source Internet page. By embedding IBM's voice technology into Opera's browser, a user can talk to the computer, which will understand and translate into normal code for the Net, Krogh said. The could open up the Internet to users who had been excluded because, for example, they were physically unable to use a keyboard, he added. Opera is the third-largest browser on the Web, although it is tiny compared to Internet Explorer and Netscape. It has been gaining ground as the browser of choice for hand-held devices, such as mobile telephones and personal data assistants, because it is known as being fast and needing little memory. IBM's director of embedded speech, Igor Jablokov, said "the new offering will allow us to interact with the content on the Web in a more natural way, first on PCs and in the near future on devices such as cell phones and PDAs." Opera plans to first launch an English version of the voice browser for Windows, to be followed by versions for other operating systems, including Linux (news - web sites) and Symbians. Oslo-based Opera was founded in 1995 by two former developers for the Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor as an offshoot of a company project. Earlier this month, it was listed on the Oslo stock exchange for the first time, and sold nearly 25 percent of its share base for 243 million kroner (US$35.2 million). ____ On the Net: www.opera.com 

Self-Reported Food Intake May Thwart Research Mon Mar 22, 5:33 PM ET Add Health 

By Amy Norton NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - A new study of overweight, diabetic women casts doubt on the reliability of the self-reported dietary habits often used in medical research. Researchers found that most of the 200 women they studied, as many as 81 percent, reported eating fewer calories than they actually had, based on objective measures. Many also claimed to have eating habits that closely matched the recommended diet for diabetics, which suggests the women were really reporting what they thought they should be eating, according to the researchers. The problem with fibbing about or underestimating calories is that it makes it hard to measure the true effectiveness of dietary interventions--a key component of diabetes treatment. The new findings point to the importance of using some objective measure to back up research participants' dietary claims, the study authors report in the March issue of the journal Diabetes Care. Their study included middle-aged and older African-American women with type 2 diabetes, most of whom were overweight or obese. Past research has shown calorie underreporting to be common among women, people who are overweight, and those who want to lose weight, lead study author Dr. Carmen D. Samuel-Hodge told The News Source Health. She said people may, for instance, have a hard time remembering what or how much they ate, or may feel pressured to report eating habits that are "socially acceptable." For the current study, Samuel-Hodge and her colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compared diabetic women's reported food intake with objective estimates of their calorie expenditure. To get these estimates, they had the women wear small electronic devices called accelerometers, which gauge the number of calories burned during physical activity, for one week. The researchers also measured the women's base metabolic rates. These measures were compared with participants' self-reported dietary intake on three days. The idea is that in the absence of weight loss or gain, a person's calorie intake should roughly equal calorie expenditure. If someone takes in fewer calories than she burns, she should lose weight. Samuel-Hodge and her colleagues found that most of the women in their study reported calorie intakes that were lower than their estimated calorie expenditure. Based on the accelerometer data, the researchers estimate that 81 percent underreported their calorie intake. This estimate dipped, but remained high at 58 percent, when the researchers compared calorie intake with base metabolic rates. The researchers also found that the heavier a woman was, the more likely she was to underreport calories. It's possible, the investigators acknowledge, that many of these women, who were part of a larger study on managing diabetes with diet and exercise, truly were cutting calories. But, they note, six months after the current results were compiled, the women were showing no significant weight loss. The "major implication," the researchers conclude, is that such self-reports need to be independently validated. Samuel-Hodge said the findings are particularly relevant to studies of people with type 2 diabetes because of their high prevalence of obesity. SOURCE: Diabetes Care, March 2004. 

U.S. Mogul Trump Seeks to Trademark 'You're Fired!' 
Thu Mar 18, 7:19 PM ET 
Add Entertainment 

By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON  - The U.S. fast food firm Wendy's asked diners "Where's the beef?," and Nike commanded sports nuts to "Just do it." Now Donald Trump is seeking to trademark another pithy phrase: "You're fired!" 

The real-estate mogul and reality TV star has filed a trademark application for the phrase, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site. 

Known for his gaudy casinos and unusual mane of copper hair, Trump dismisses underlings on the hit TV show "The Apprentice" with a curt "You're fired." 

Trump said he intended to emblazon "You're Fired" on games and casino services, and "You're Fired! Donald J. Trump" on clothing. 

Other tyrannical bosses won't have to alter their vocabulary if the application wins approval, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official said, as it will only protect those specific uses. 

A trademark attorney listed on the application did not immediately return a call seeking comment. 

The patent office granted 185,000 trademark applications in the last fiscal year. Applications take about a year to process. 

Trump might have competition: A search of the PTO's database revealed that three other applications for "You're fired" have been filed. 

No applications appear to have been filed for "You're outsourced," however. 

The Apprentice runs on the NBC television network. 

Legal Drugs Pose Greatest Health Threat, WHO Says 
Thu Mar 18, 3:33 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Axel Bugge 

BRASILIA, Brazil  - The health threat from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco is much greater than that from illegal narcotics, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said on Thursday. 


 

The first report of its kind by the global body found that dependence on alcohol and cigarettes has a much greater cost for societies than illegal drugs like cocaine and crack. 

The Neuroscience of Psychoactive Substance Use and Dependence report said that drug addiction is a growing problem, especially in poor countries which have rising rates of alcohol consumption and smoking. 

There are about 200 million illegal drugs users worldwide, or 3.4 percent of the world population, it said. Illegal drugs contributed 0.8 percent to global ill health in 2000, while alcohol accounted for 4.1 percent and cigarettes 4 percent. 

The percentages are based on a measurement used by WHO which gauges the burden that premature deaths and years lived with disability impose on society. 

The "main global health burden is due to licit rather than illicit substances," the report said. 

Men in rich countries are especially vulnerable to suffer from alcohol- and cigarette-related bad health. 

"Health and social problems associated with use and dependence on tobacco, alcohol and illicit substances require greater attention by the public health community," WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-Wook said in a statement. 

The report also found that it may not be possible to fully cure drug dependence because of long-term changes to the way the brain works. 

Health experts need to consider a range of factors in treating drug dependence because it is a disorder caused by genetic disposition, as well as psychological and cultural factors, it said. 

"Like major psychiatric disorders, substance dependence may not be curable but improved effectiveness of available treatment has contributed significantly to recovery," said Dr. Catherine Le Gales-Camus, assistant-director general of noncommunicable diseases and mental health at WHO. 

The global launch of the report took place in Brazil, a country with spiraling drug-related violence, which has in the past led to rough treatment of drug users. 

Any person can become a drug addict and that dependence is a disorder, making it crucial to eradicate the stigma suffered by drug users that can make treatment more difficult, the report said. 

Stephen Hawking Questioned About Injuries Thu Mar 18, 5:50 PM ET By THOMAS WAGNER, News Source Writer CAMBRIDGE, England - Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been questioned by detectives about alleged abuses that reportedly left him with a series of unexplained injuries, police said Thursday. Hawking, 62, who is paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was interviewed Wednesday by Cambridgeshire police at Papworth Hospital, said force spokesman Tony Taylorson. It was the first time police have spoken to Hawking since opening an investigation late last year into reports that he suffered mysterious injuries, including a broken wrist, gashes to the face and a cut lip. Since he was diagnosed with ALS more than 40 years ago, the disease has gradually deprived Hawking of the ability to speak or to move, except for a few fingers he uses to operate a computerized voice box. Despite his disabilities, Hawking is one of the world's best-known scientists. He is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton, and is author of the best-selling book "A Brief History of Time." In January, Hawking was admitted to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge for treatment of pneumonia. He has since been moved to Papworth Hospital in the town of Papworth Everad. "We spoke with Prof. Hawking for the first time on Wednesday in connection with allegations of abuse against him," said Taylorson. "I can't say anything more about the case," which was opened late last year. Hawking has dismissed allegations that he was assaulted or abused at his home in Cambridge as "completely false." Stories in the British press have contained sometimes lurid allegations attributed to unidentified nurses and others who have cared for him. The scientist, who divorced his first wife after 26 years, married his nurse, Elaine Mason, 53, in 1995. The two now live in Cambridge near the university. His former wife, Jane Hawking, who wrote a memoir about their time together, has urged police to investigate the reported abuses he suffered. Recently, she said she and their three adult children have long suspected that he had suffered repeated, unexplained assaults, some of them reported by his full-time nurses, but that he refused to take action. During their investigation, Cambridgeshire police also are expected to question some of Hawking's previous nurses. __ On the Net: Stephen Hawking's site, www.hawking.org.uk 

Survey: Many Species at Risk of Extinction 46 minutes ago 

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer WASHINGTON - A steep decline in birds, butterflies and native plants in Britain supports the theory that humans are pushing the natural world into the Earth's sixth big extinction event and the future may see more and more animal species disappearing. In an effort that sent more than 20,000 volunteers into every corner of England, Scotland and Wales to survey wildlife and plants, researchers found that many native populations are in big trouble and some are gone altogether. "This is the first time, for instance, that we can answer the question, 'Have butterflies declined as badly as birds?'" said Jeremy A. Thomas, an ecologist with the National Environment Research Council in Dorchester, England, and the first author of a study appearing in the journal Science. A survey of 58 butterfly species found that some had experienced a 71 percent population swoon since similar surveys taken from 1970 through 1982. Some 201 bird species were tracked between 1968 and 1971, and then again from 1988 to 1991, with a population decline of about 54 percent. Two surveys of 1,254 native plant species showed a decrease of about 28 percent over 40 years. Thomas said that other scientists, noting losses of mammals and other animals, have speculated about the loss of insects, but the British butterfly study is the first to actually document over decades such a steep decline. "Population extinctions were recorded in all the main ecosystems of Britain," Thomas and his co-authors wrote. This supports the theory, they said, that "the biological world is approaching the sixth major extinction event in its history." Thomas said that some past extinctions have killed off more than 90 percent of all life forms and "nobody is suggesting we are at that point." But, he said, "if this goes on for the foreseeable future then within a short period in geological time we will be getting toward the level of a major extinction." Scott Miller, a biologist with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said the British study was impressive in its thoroughness. He said, "They may not be representative of the world as a whole, but they have the best data." The data support the idea that the rise of humans over tens of thousands of years - along with climate changes - is reshaping the natural world in ways that aren't thoroughly understood. Scientists have identified five extinction events in Earth's history, with some so severe that more than 90 percent of all life forms died. The last and most famous extinction was the Cretaceous-Tertiary event some 63 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs and allowed the rise of mammals. It is thought to have been caused by an asteroid hitting Earth. "We are in the middle of a sixth extinction event that began about 50,000 years ago" with the expanding role in the world of human beings, said Paul S. Martin, a zoologist and geochemist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "It's happening, but it's slower and it is not clear it will be as severe as some of the others." Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University, said in Science that the British study results "show that we have likely underestimated the magnitude of the pending extinctions." Miller and Martin both point to the hundreds of species, mostly large animals and birds, that already are gone, some wiped out directly through human action. Martin said the fossil records show that the disappearance of many animals in Australia, Madagascar and North America started about the time that humans arrived. Gone from the natural North American environment, for instance, are mammoths, camels, giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers. The causes of the other extinctions are not well understood. The largest ended the Permian Period some 250 million years ago. All but about 4 percent of all species disappeared then. There were three other lesser-known events in the Ordovician (435 million years ago), the Devonian (357 million years ago) and the Triassic (198 million years ago) periods. ___ On the Net: Science: www.sciencemag.org 

Kmart Posts First Post-Bankruptcy Profit 1 hour, 59 minutes ago Add Business 

By Emily Kaiser NEW YORK  - Retailer Kmart Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:KMRT - news) on Thursday posted its first quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy last May, and built up a surprisingly large amount of cash as it cut costs and spruced up stores. The Troy, Michigan-based retailer also said that style guru Martha Stewart (news - web sites)'s conviction for lying to investigators over a suspicious stock sale has had no significant impact on sales of Kmart's exclusive Martha Stewart Everyday line of home decor and furniture. Shares of Kmart rose sharply in morning trade on the Nasdaq as the large profit and hefty cash holdings eased lingering concerns that Kmart might slip back into bankruptcy. "Kmart is now one of the more liquid retailers doing business in the United States," said Richard Hastings, retail analyst with credit advisory firm Bernard Sands. "They have a war chest of money to apply to their basic operations. Kmart is going to be around a lot longer than some pundits expected." Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002, after a poor holiday shopping season compounded its financial woes. It emerged in May 2003 with a new management team, 600 fewer stores and much lower debt. The retailer said it earned $276 million, or $2.78 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28, compared with a loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier. The company had said in January that it recorded a profit in November and December, which could put it on track to post its first quarterly profit since exiting bankruptcy. Total sales dropped 25.8 percent to $6.3 billion, in part because of store closings. Sales at stores open at least a year -- a key retail measure known as same-store sales -- dropped 13.5 percent. Kmart has been holding back on price cuts to preserve profits. The retailer listed about $2.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Jan. 28, more than expected. The company has also been reducing inventory and cleaning up stores, which critics said had looked cluttered before and during bankruptcy. Hastings said stores he visited recently looked "clean, neat, with a lot less inventory. They have what they need and nothing more," he said. Kmart faces fierce competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) and Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT - news), and some analysts have questioned whether the retailer has a place in a discount sector dominated by those two powerhouses. Kmart is banking on its exclusive brands such as Martha Stewart Everyday and Joe Boxer to keep customers returning. Stewart's recent conviction cast a huge shadow over her long-running relationship with Kmart. The retailer said in its annual report, also released on Thursday, that is has not had "significant" adverse impact on Martha Stewart product sales since the verdict. The retailer also said it had recently become aware of some reporting violations involving its distribution centers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites). "At the current time, we cannot, with reasonable certainty, estimate the penalty that may be imposed, but are working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve this matter," Kmart said in the report. Kmart shares were up 9.2 percent at $37.86 Thursday morning on the Nasdaq. 

Kmart Posts First Post-Bankruptcy Profit 1 hour, 59 minutes ago Add Business 

By Emily Kaiser NEW YORK  - Retailer Kmart Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:KMRT - news) on Thursday posted its first quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy last May, and built up a surprisingly large amount of cash as it cut costs and spruced up stores. The Troy, Michigan-based retailer also said that style guru Martha Stewart (news - web sites)'s conviction for lying to investigators over a suspicious stock sale has had no significant impact on sales of Kmart's exclusive Martha Stewart Everyday line of home decor and furniture. Shares of Kmart rose sharply in morning trade on the Nasdaq as the large profit and hefty cash holdings eased lingering concerns that Kmart might slip back into bankruptcy. "Kmart is now one of the more liquid retailers doing business in the United States," said Richard Hastings, retail analyst with credit advisory firm Bernard Sands. "They have a war chest of money to apply to their basic operations. Kmart is going to be around a lot longer than some pundits expected." Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002, after a poor holiday shopping season compounded its financial woes. It emerged in May 2003 with a new management team, 600 fewer stores and much lower debt. The retailer said it earned $276 million, or $2.78 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28, compared with a loss of $1.1 billion a year earlier. The company had said in January that it recorded a profit in November and December, which could put it on track to post its first quarterly profit since exiting bankruptcy. Total sales dropped 25.8 percent to $6.3 billion, in part because of store closings. Sales at stores open at least a year -- a key retail measure known as same-store sales -- dropped 13.5 percent. Kmart has been holding back on price cuts to preserve profits. The retailer listed about $2.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Jan. 28, more than expected. The company has also been reducing inventory and cleaning up stores, which critics said had looked cluttered before and during bankruptcy. Hastings said stores he visited recently looked "clean, neat, with a lot less inventory. They have what they need and nothing more," he said. Kmart faces fierce competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) and Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT - news), and some analysts have questioned whether the retailer has a place in a discount sector dominated by those two powerhouses. Kmart is banking on its exclusive brands such as Martha Stewart Everyday and Joe Boxer to keep customers returning. Stewart's recent conviction cast a huge shadow over her long-running relationship with Kmart. The retailer said in its annual report, also released on Thursday, that is has not had "significant" adverse impact on Martha Stewart product sales since the verdict. The retailer also said it had recently become aware of some reporting violations involving its distribution centers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites). "At the current time, we cannot, with reasonable certainty, estimate the penalty that may be imposed, but are working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve this matter," Kmart said in the report. Kmart shares were up 9.2 percent at $37.86 Thursday morning on the Nasdaq. 

Dracula Park to Lure Fans to Romania

Mar 18, 8:25 am ET 

By Radu Marinas

BUCHAREST  - Diehard Dracula fans may be able to sate their thirst for jelly-and-blood puddings by May 2005 when a theme park dedicated to the infamous count is expected to open.

The Balkan country wants to boost its ailing tourist industry by luring visitors to the park near Bucharest, which would feature horror rides, a vampirology institute and gory menus.

The long-delayed plan to build a park is back on track after securing private investment. But the park will cost more than double the original amount, said Sorin Marica, the head of the Dracula Park SA firm, which owns the project.

"We'll open it by May (2005). The season starts then, so that's the best timing for Dracula," Marica told The News Source on Wednesday.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling and Brau-Union AG of Austria were among the investors already committed to the project, sources close to the deal said.

Marica said the park needs financing worth up to $70 million against $30 million originally, because the project has been expanded to include golf-courses, horse racing, a karting track and an water park.

The park ran into trouble in 2002 when the project was forced to re-locate from a 13th century Transylvanian town of Sighisoar, a World Heritage Site.

UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, said the onslaught of millions of tourists would ruin the medieval birthplace of Vlad Tepes the Impaler -- believed to have inspired Bram Stoker's fictional Count Dracula.

The Romanian state has now offered 1,137 acres of state land in Snagov, 25 miles from the capital of 2.5 million people, hoping to capitalize on one of its most recognizable names and attract much-needed foreign investment.

"We're close to finalizing talks with the investors...they include foreign tour operators and investment banks," Marica said adding that the project has secured most of the money.

Construction at the site, 11 miles from the capital's international airport, will start this summer. The park expects to draw about one million tourists annually -- 20 percent of them from abroad.

The headless body of Vlad Tepes, the real-life 15th-century Wallachian prince notorious for impaling his Ottoman prisoners, is believed to be buried at a monastery in the middle of Snagov Lake, near the planned theme park.

Vlad is thought to have been born in Sighisoara around 1431 to Vlad Dracul or Dragon. The young Vlad was named Dracula -- meaning son of Dracul -- by his father. In Romanian, the word also means the devil. 

Ticking Clock Empties NZ Central Bank Building

Mar 18, 8:23 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - A ticking clock given as a gift to a government minister prompted the evacuation of New Zealand's central bank on Thursday.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand building and surrounding streets in Wellington's government district were cordoned off when a suspicious parcel was found at 8:30 a.m.

Police said a parcel that arrived in the offices of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, a tenant in the building, aroused suspicions from the way it was packaged and the noise.

"For safety's sake, the building was evacuated and explosives experts from the army brought in," Inspector Phil Gubb told reporters at the scene.

"However, the package was harmless. It was a gift from an overseas government to a cabinet minister."

The clock was a gift to Science Minister Pete Hodgson from a delegation who attended a meeting of Asian and Pacific science ministers held in New Zealand last week, the ministry said.

Police gave the all-clear after two hours.

The central bank switched to back-up systems and there was no disruption to New Zealand financial and banking markets. 

German Jews Attack Vegetarian Ad Campaign

Mar 18, 8:21 am ET 

BERLIN  - An animal rights group said on Wednesday it would go ahead with a controversial advertising campaign that likens the slaughter of animals to the murder of Jews under the Nazis despite threats of a legal challenge.

Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews, said he would ask prosecutors to raise charges of "inciting racial hatred" against vegetarian group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for the advertisements called "Holocaust on a plate."

PETA campaign coordinator Matt Prescott said he was aware of the council's views, but added: "We are not willing to end the campaign." He said he himself was Jewish.

The posters, due to be displayed in Stuttgart from Thursday and in 11 European cities at later dates, show pictures of battery hens packed into cages next to historic pictures of emaciated Jewish inmates in Nazi concentration camp bunk beds.

Stuttgart prosecutor Eckhard Maak was quoted Wednesday as saying PETA should think twice because German law foresaw fines or up to five years in prison for anyone found guilty of belittling or denying the Holocaust.

Maak said if the campaign went ahead "then you can expect the police won't shut their eyes," according to an advance copy of an interview due to be published in Thursday's Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

Spiegel earlier told the newspaper the Jewish council would press charges if the campaign was launched. He has urged PETA to drop the "disgusting" adverts, saying they were "a violation of human dignity, especially of the Holocaust victims."

PETA officials say the posters are designed to raise public awareness of what they call the maltreatment of animals before they are slaughtered.

Pythonesque Manila Diner Serves Spam, Spam, Spam

Mar 18, 8:21 am ET 

MANILA  - Spamburgers, Spam nuggets, Spam Spaghetti, Caesar salad with Spam, Spam and eggs: the menu at the Spamjam restaurant in Manila could be straight out of the Monty Python sketch.

"I'm a Spam lover," said Philip Abadilla, who opened the world's first Spam restaurant in December. "It's always on my mind."

While the canned luncheon meat will forever be ridiculed by fans of the British comedians, it is a much loved staple in the Philippines.

Filipinos eat 2.75 million pounds of the stuff every year, and woe betide anyone arriving from the United States who doesn't bring a few cans for their relatives.

"It appeals to my taste buds," said Aris Yambao, a 28-year-old advertising executive on his second visit to the red, yellow and blue restaurant in one of Manila's enormous shopping malls.

Yambao was one of just eight people in the half-full diner Thursday at lunchtime, but Abadilla said he gets up to 300 customers a day and is in negotiations to open two further branches.

First produced in 1937 by Hormel Foods Corp of the United States, Spam became an institution during World War II.

It gave its name to junk e-mail because of the singing Vikings in the Monty Python sketch, who kept drowning out a waitress offering dishes such as spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam.

Hormel, whose Philippine venture helped Abadilla set up Spamjam, is hoping to take the restaurant to other countries.

For people who don't like Spam, such as the female customer played by Graham Chapman in the sketch, the menu also offers hot dogs.

To which the Spam-loving waitress played by Terry Jones would have said: "Urgghh!" 

Italian Police Break Into Church to Install Priest

Mar 17, 10:36 am ET 

ROME  - Police in a small Italian town had to break into a church to let a priest take up his new job, thwarting a six-month blockade by parishioners devoted to his predecessor.

The faithful in the mountain town of Trasacco had jammed the church doors shut in protest after the Church transferred their Capuchin monk and sent a non-Capuchin to replace him.

So attached were parishioners to the Capuchins, who had served them for the last 430 years, that they briefly bricked the last friar into the local monastery to try to stop him leaving their town about 60 miles east of Rome.

The newcomer, Father Duilio Testa, was appointed in September but only entered his church Monday when police broke in through a window to let him in, deputy mayor Vincenzo Retico told The News Source by telephone.

He said Testa would have his spiritual work cut out for him.

"How can the people welcome him now, arriving flanked by police?" he said.

"Everything that there is in this town today was built with the toil and sweat of the monks. They were part of our being."

The Capuchins are a branch of the Franciscan order, famed for their long white beards. 

Italian Police Break Into Church to Install Priest

Mar 17, 10:36 am ET 

ROME  - Police in a small Italian town had to break into a church to let a priest take up his new job, thwarting a six-month blockade by parishioners devoted to his predecessor.

The faithful in the mountain town of Trasacco had jammed the church doors shut in protest after the Church transferred their Capuchin monk and sent a non-Capuchin to replace him.

So attached were parishioners to the Capuchins, who had served them for the last 430 years, that they briefly bricked the last friar into the local monastery to try to stop him leaving their town about 60 miles east of Rome.

The newcomer, Father Duilio Testa, was appointed in September but only entered his church Monday when police broke in through a window to let him in, deputy mayor Vincenzo Retico told The News Source by telephone.

He said Testa would have his spiritual work cut out for him.

"How can the people welcome him now, arriving flanked by police?" he said.

"Everything that there is in this town today was built with the toil and sweat of the monks. They were part of our being."

The Capuchins are a branch of the Franciscan order, famed for their long white beards. Wrong Number Leads to Woman's Arrest

Mar 17, 10:35 am ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - An Oklahoma woman dialed a wrong number and ended up under arrest after she tried to set up a drug deal with her former parole officer, police said on Tuesday.

Patricia Michel was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of the unlawful distribution of a dangerous controlled substance at her home in Durant, Oklahoma, near the Texas border.

Michel called her former parole officer, Doug Canant, on his cell phone by mistake, thinking he could help set up a deal where she could acquire methamphetamines, police said.

"I am a bit of a joker, so I was playing along," Canant said in a telephone interview. "She thought she was talking to her local drug dealer."

She told the parole officer she did not have money to buy drugs because she was waiting for her U.S. tax refund and wanted to exchange one type of drug for another, Canant said.

Acting on Canant's tip, the local drug task force sent agents to Michel's house and set up a deal. She handed over two pills that were controlled substances and instead of getting drugs, she got arrested, police said.

Michel has been released on bond but faces between two years to life in prison if convicted. If she receives parole, she may have Canant as her parole officer again.

"It is a small town and there are only three of us (parole officers). It will be the luck of the draw," Canant said. 

Wrong Number Leads to Woman's Arrest

Mar 17, 10:35 am ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - An Oklahoma woman dialed a wrong number and ended up under arrest after she tried to set up a drug deal with her former parole officer, police said on Tuesday.

Patricia Michel was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of the unlawful distribution of a dangerous controlled substance at her home in Durant, Oklahoma, near the Texas border.

Michel called her former parole officer, Doug Canant, on his cell phone by mistake, thinking he could help set up a deal where she could acquire methamphetamines, police said.

"I am a bit of a joker, so I was playing along," Canant said in a telephone interview. "She thought she was talking to her local drug dealer."

She told the parole officer she did not have money to buy drugs because she was waiting for her U.S. tax refund and wanted to exchange one type of drug for another, Canant said.

Acting on Canant's tip, the local drug task force sent agents to Michel's house and set up a deal. She handed over two pills that were controlled substances and instead of getting drugs, she got arrested, police said.

Michel has been released on bond but faces between two years to life in prison if convicted. If she receives parole, she may have Canant as her parole officer again.

"It is a small town and there are only three of us (parole officers). It will be the luck of the draw," Canant said. 

U.S. to Force Airlines to Provide Traveler Data 
Wed Mar 17, 4:35 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON  - The U.S. government will require reluctant airlines to give up passenger data to test a controversial passenger-screening system, a senior government official said on Wednesday. 

At the same time, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration plans to seek public input to allay concerns that the system will violate passenger privacy, TSA Acting Administrator David Stone told a congressional subcommittee. 

As a result, the new Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System will be delayed by several more months, Stone said. Officials had hoped to begin background checks on passengers by the beginning of 2004. 

CAPPS II would check government intelligence and consumer data amassed by companies like Acxiom Corp. to verify passengers' identities and determine if they have criminal records or links to groups such as al Qaeda. 

But researchers need passenger records to test the system, and airlines that have cooperated in the past have faced boycotts and class-action lawsuits. 

"The likelihood of us volunteering that information in the future is somewhere between zip and zero," said James May, president of the Air Transport Association, a trade group. 

Lawmakers on the House of Representatives aviation subcommittee said they were not pleased that the system was taking so long to develop, and some questioned whether it would effectively catch potential hijackers or simply violate the privacy of millions of innocent travelers. 

"That's not the way we envisioned this," said Florida Republican Rep. John Mica (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the subcommittee. 

"I just don't think we're headed down a path here that's going to work," said Oregon Democratic Rep. Pete DeFazio, who said resources would be better spent on baggage screening and tighter controls on airport employees. 

Delta Air Lines Inc. pulled out of a pilot program last spring after a threatened boycott, while JetBlue Airways Corp. and Northwest Airlines Corp. have been hit with class-action suits following revelations that they secretly gave passenger data to government researchers. 

Stone said the agency would compel airlines to provide passenger data, a move that would reduce their liability to lawsuits. At the same time, TSA might also disclose more details about the program and seek public input to build support, he said. 

"There is an inherent goodness in CAPPS II that I believe will shine through as we examine the system more closely," he said. 

The agency will take several months to figure out a course of action, he said. After he left the hearing, Stone declined to elaborate on the process or say how long it would take. 

A European Union (news - web sites) committee will vote Thursday on a tentative deal that would allow airlines to provide passenger information to the United States. The outcome of the vote is uncertain. (Additional reporting by Lisa Jucca in Brussels) 

Anti-War Activists Call for Bush Censure Over Iraq 
Wed Mar 17, 5:00 PM ET 
Add Politics 

WASHINGTON  - Military families and anti-war activists urged Congress on Wednesday to censure President Bush (news - web sites) for what they called his deception and manipulation of intelligence before the Iraq (news - web sites) war. 

"The best way that the United States Congress can honor those brave men and women in uniform who have served in Iraq, and who continue to serve in Iraq, is to honor the truth," said Sue Niederer, whose 24-year-old son, Army Lt. Seth Dvorin, was killed in Iraq in February. 

"They can do so by holding accountable those who deceived and manipulated the American people to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq, starting with President Bush," Niederer said at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol. 

As Bush was inside for a St. Patrick's Day luncheon, the soldiers' families and anti-war activists displayed boxes of petitions calling for Bush's censure. The group Win Without War said it had gathered 560,340 signatures endorsing a censure resolution. 

A statement released at the news conference contrasted Bush's public comments on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq with CIA (news - web sites) and media reports disputing the White House pre-war position that Iraq possessed these weapons. 

David Kay, the chief of the U.S. hunt for banned weapons in Iraq, said in January he did not believe there were any large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons in the country. 

The censure campaign is led by Win Without War -- a coalition of 42 organizations -- along with MoveOn.org, True Majority, Working Assets and Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. 

The business group plans an ad campaign to begin on Friday, the U.S. anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. 

The ad, set to run in The New York Times, is headlined, "Have you noticed what's happening to chief executives who lie?" and goes on to say, "It's time for someone in this government to step forward and take personal responsibility for the deadly deceptions used to mislead this great nation into war. And that someone must be George W. Bush." 

On Saturday's first anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, anti-war activists including a group of military families, plan to demonstrate outside the Fort Bragg military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The groups include Military Families Speak Out, Bring Them Home Now coalition, United for Peace and Justice, September 11th Families of Peaceful Tomorrows and Veterans for Peace. 

At least two counter-demonstrations supporting the Bush administration's military policies are also planned for the same day in Fayetteville, home to one of the largest military bases in the United States. 

NASA hears words not yet spoken 
Wed Mar 17, 6:28 PM ET 
Add Science - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - NASA (news - web sites) has developed a computer program that comes close to reading thoughts not yet spoken, by analyzing nerve commands to the throat. 

NEWS SOURCE/NASA/File Photo 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus, protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching? 

It says the breakthrough holds promise for astronauts and the handicapped. 

"A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal cords do receive speech signals from the brain," said developer Chuck Jorgensen, of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. 

Jorgensen's team found that sensors under the chin and one each side of the Adam's apple pick up the brain's commands to the speech organs, allowing the subauditory, or "silent speech" to be captured. 

The team concluded that the method could be useful on space missions or other difficult working conditions, such as air traffic control towers and even to make current voice-recognition software more active. 

"What is analyzed is silent, or subauditory, speech, such as when a person silently reads or talks to himself," Jorgensen said. 

"Biological signals arise when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement." 

On early trials, the program could recognize with 92 percent accuracy six words and 10 numbers that the team repeated sub-vocally. 

The first words were "stop," "go," "left," "right," "alpha," and "omega." 

Then, the inventors gave each letter of the alphabet a set of digital coordinates. 

"We took the alphabet and put it into a matrix -- like a calendar," Jorgensen said. 

"We numbered the columns and rows and we could identify each letter with a pair of single-digit numbers. 

"So we silently spelled out 'NASA' and then submitted it to a well-known Web search engine. We electronically numbered the Web pages that came up as search results. We used the numbers again to choose Web pages to examine. This proved we could browse the Web without touching a keyboard." 

The next trial will command a robot similar to the Rovers currently exploring Mars. 

"We can have the model Rover go left or right using silently 'spoken' words. 

"A logical spin-off would be that handicapped persons could use this system for a lot of things," he said, as well as persons wanting to speak by telephone without being overheard. 

To reach that goal, the team plans to build a dictionary of English words recognizable by speech recognition software. 

The equipment will need improved amplifiers to strengthen the electrical nerve signals, which are now run through noise reduction equipment before they can be analyzed. 

"The keys to this system are the sensors, the signal processing and the pattern recognition, and that's where the scientific meat of what we're doing resides." Jorgensen said. 

New Law Has Little Effect on Spam E-Mail-Survey 
Wed Mar 17, 6:35 PM ET 
Add Technology - Internet Report 

WASHINGTON  - "Spam" e-mail is proving more irritating than ever to U.S. Internet users since a national anti-spam law took effect Jan. 1, according to a survey released on Wednesday. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus, protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching? 

Internet users are more likely to say e-mail is less trustworthy and less reliable than when they were surveyed in June, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found. 

Internet users also are more likely to say spam has made the online experience unpleasant, the nonprofit research group said. 

Get-rich-quick schemes, miracle cures and other unsolicited bulk messages accounted for 62 percent of all e-mail in February, according to filtering company Brightmail Inc. 

The 1,371 Internet users surveyed by Pew between Feb. 3 and March 1 said they have seen little change since the law took effect. 

Slightly more than half said they saw no change in the amount of spam they received at home or work. 

Twenty-nine percent said they had reduced their use of e-mail because of spam, up from 25 percent who said so last June. 

Sixty-three percent said spam made them less trusting of e-mail in general, up from 52 percent, and 77 percent said the flood of spam made the act of being online unpleasant and annoying, up from 70 percent. 

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Lawmakers Blame Spain, Battle Over Iraq 
1 hour, 26 minutes ago 
Add Politics 

By Vicki Allen 

WASHINGTON  - U.S. Republicans charged Spain's new government with appeasing terrorists on Wednesday as politicians accused rivals of exploiting the Iraq (news - web sites) war for election-year advantage in a bitter House of Representatives debate. 

 

Related Links
¥ Text of Iraq Resolution (AP)
¥ Iraq Resolution Roll Call (AP)

Latest headlines: 
á U.N. May Expand Probe Into Iraq Aid 
AP - 45 minutes ago 
á Bomb Destroys Baghdad Hotel, Killing 27 
AP - 49 minutes ago 
á Kerry Criticizes Bush's Iraq Policy 
AP - 52 minutes ago 
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As the dust settled from a deadly explosion at a Baghdad hotel, top Republicans who control the House trained their fire on Spain. The pro-Bush government was replaced in an election on Sunday, three days after train bombings in Madrid killed 201 people, and the new government has promised to pull Spanish troops from Iraq. 

"Here is a country that stood against terrorism, and had a huge terrorist act within their country, and they chose to change their government and to in a sense appease terrorists," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, of Illinois, said. 

Majority Leader Tom DeLay, of Texas, said, "If we follow the example of the new Spanish government and we accept failure in Iraq and permit the victory of the terrorists, there will be no counting the number of people around the world who will suffer the consequences." 

Republicans pushed through the House a resolution to mark the anniversary of the Iraq war's start and commend U.S. troops, passing it 327-93. 

While many ended up voting for it to back the troops, Democrats called the resolution a politically motivated endorsement of President Bush (news - web sites)'s Iraq policies that glossed over deaths and errors of the conflict and occupation. 

A line that drew fire from many Democrats said "the United States and the world have been made safer with the removal of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his regime from power in Iraq." 

"Is it safer today in Spain? Is it safer in the Middle East? Putting it on paper doesn't mean that we're out of the conflict," said Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat. 

BITTER DEBATE 

Republicans said their resolution was nonpartisan, did not mention Bush, and was meant to rally lawmakers behind U.S. forces. 

But Democrats called it a trap to force them to cast votes that could be used against them in November elections, either to be seen as endorsing a war many thought was a grievous mistake, or as not supporting troops. 

"The mission is far from being accomplished and President Bush will be judged harshly for the tragic events of the last year," said Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, who said Bush misled the nation into believing Iraq was an imminent threat with weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda. 

But Republicans touted the end of Saddam's brutal regime and Iraq's steps toward democracy. "Things have changed and it is because of the steadfastness of this president and this nation and this Congress," Hastert said before the debate. 

"I'm sure that John Kerry (news - web sites) and Nancy Pelosi will have a different view," Hastert said of the Democratic presidential nominee and the House Democratic leader. 

Even though no banned weapons have been found in Iraq, DeLay called Saddam "a mass murderer sitting atop a nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons program, a ticking time bomb, a nuclear 9-11 waiting to happen." 

Democrats said the resolution ignored the rising death toll among U.S. soldiers, humanitarian workers, Iraqi civilians and others, and the ongoing violence including Wednesday's car-bombing at a Baghdad hotel that killed 27 people. 

"With their resolution, the Republicans are in denial as to why we went into Iraq, in denial as to the current state of stability and security in Iraq," said Pelosi, of California. (additional reporting by Joanne Kenen) 

tudy: Parents Don't See Obesity in Their Children Wed Mar 17, 6:45 AM ET Add Health 

By Patricia Reaney LONDON  - Parents are so accustomed to seeing overweight youngsters that many fail to realize when their own children are obese, British researchers said on Wednesday. It is a worrying trend according to scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, England because being overweight and obese increases the risk of suffering from a variety of illnesses later in life. Obese children are also more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a disease previously seen only in adults. "A third of the mothers and 57 percent of dads actually saw their obese child as normal," said Alison Jeffery, a member of the research team at the medical school. "Quite a few parents are not recognizing it as a problem. They are not recognizing the health risks either," she added in an interview. But Jeffery said it isn't a case of denial. "We are all used to seeing people who are bigger than they used to be 20 years ago and we just see people who are overweight as normal." Jeffery, who presented her findings to the Diabetes UK medical conference in Birmingham, England, questioned 300 seven-year old children and their parents about their perceptions of body size. One third of mothers and half of fathers who were either overweight or obese rated themselves as "about right." When the child was a normal weight, according to an internationally recognized measurement of obesity in children, most of their parents, regardless of their own size, knew there was no problem. When the child was overweight but not obese, only a quarter of the parents knew it. But when the youngsters were obese, 40 percent of parents were not concerned about their child's weight. Health experts have described the increased rates of obesity in children as a serious public health problem because of its link with diabetes as well as an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and other illnesses later in life. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in obese children in Poland is nearly four percent. In Hungary it is two percent and 1.6 percent in Germany, according to recent research. "Diabetes is hugely on the increase and we know that children from as young as the age of seven have metabolic changes that are precursors to diabetes if they are very overweight," said Jeffery. "They may not be diabetic until they are older but you can see it beginning." 

Famous British Wills Available Online Wed Mar 17,12:42 PM ET 

By JANE WARDELL, News Source Writer LONDON - When William Shakespeare bequeathed his "second-best bed" to his wife nearly 400 years ago, a scribe dipped his quill pen in ink and scratched the bard's last wishes on parchment. Now the public can see the playwright's final will and testament on a computer screen with the click of a mouse. The document is among more than 1 million wills, spanning five centuries, that Britain's National Archives posted on the Internet this week for public access. About 100 wills dated from 1384 to 1858 have been collated in a special section befitting their famous authors, including Jane Austen, Captain James Cook and Napoleon Bonaparte. Shakespeare's is free to download, but the others cost $5.40 each. "This is a fantastic resource that can bring history so much closer to us," said Tony Robinson, host of the television archaeology program "Time Team." "We can now all be historical researchers in the comfort of our own homes." Shakespeare's will is considered to be of particular significance because it contains three of the six surviving examples of his signature. Dated March 25, 1616 - less than a month before he died - it begins with the Bard hoping that, after death, he will "be made partaker of lyfe everlastinge." The playwright goes on to request that his fortune be divided among his family, with some money going to the poor of his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. He bequeaths the bed to his wife, his sword to Thomas Combe and a silver bowl to his daughter Judith. The 1824 will of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who asks his son to adopt his motto "Everything for the French people," is accompanied by an extract from his personal diary. Similarly, Lord Horatio Nelson's 1803 will is accompanied by his private diary, written in September and October 1805. "Pride and Prejudice" author Jane Austen bequeaths her 800-pound estate - worth about $124,000 in today's dollars - to her "dearest" sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, in her 1817 will. Henry, her brother, gets only 50 pounds, or about $7,800 today. Naval hero Sir Francis Drake asks to be buried at sea, with two of his favorite ships sunk nearby, in his 1596 will. Other wills available include those of Oliver Cromwell (dated 1687), the Duke of Wellington (1818), Captain James Cook (1776), John Donne (1616), and William Wordsworth (1847). ___ On the Net: National Archives wills online: http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/ 

Boy Wins Vt. Rotten Sneaker Contest

2 hours, 5 minutes ago

By TIM McCAHILL, News Source Writer 

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Daegan Goodman may have had the shortest distance to travel to the rotten sneaker contest, but you couldn't tell that by smelling his shoes. The 10-year-old from Montpelier took the crown - and probably a few of the judges' olfactory glands - in the annual event, which lured eight other finalists to Vermont's capital city from across the country. 

Daegan explained his simple recipe for winning the coveted golden sneaker. 

"I just wear 'em, sweat in 'em, play sports - I just try," he said, the flashing bulbs and news cameras signaling the start of the youngster's celebrity. 

Regular use and abuse seemed the treatment of choice for competitors in Tuesday's contest, which is sponsored by Odor-Eaters. 

"I do BMX," said James Melton, 11, of Phoenix, Ariz. "The dirt and sweat combined made (my sneakers) really stinky." 

James won a local contest to make it to Montpelier, heralded as the "Rotten Sneaker Capital of the World." 

Appearing last in the 90-minute finals, James couldn't quite pass muster with "master sniffer" George Aldrich. But the impressive stench from his sneakers caused the 48-year-old judge to sway slightly nonetheless. 

The annual contest began in 1975 as a way to help a local sporting goods store sell shoes. In 1988, Odor-Eaters - maker of anti-foot-odor insoles, sprays and powder - assumed sponsorship of the event. 

As the winner, Daegan gets a $500 savings bond, $100 to buy a new pair of sneakers, the golden sneaker and a plethora of Odor-Eater products - fitting prizes for a boy with many more miles to walk. 

He'll also get plenty of attention along the way. Daegan is already scheduled for appearances on cable television shows, and organizers said he'll get similar requests throughout the year. 

But with glory comes sacrifice, and to prove it Odor-Eaters hired a military man to whip competitors into shape before judging began. 

Sgt. Odor-Eaters - known better by his real name, Jason Goodwin - moderated the contest and led participants through a series of push-ups, jumping jacks and sit-ups to make their shoes smell all the more stupefying. 

"It was an honor; I was proud," said Goodwin, who in his real life is an actor from New York City. "I didn't realize how smelly the shoes would be." 

Smell alone is not the only quality the shoes are judged on. Appearance, "overall condition," heels and soles also count, qualities that require the presence of four other judges. 

But in the end it is Aldrich who assumes the hardest responsibility. His job in Montpelier doesn't get easier even though he's conducted hundreds of smell tests for NASA (news - web sites) space shuttle missions. 

"The stench sometimes stays with me for days," said Aldrich. "It's like a flashback." 

Despite the sour smells, Aldrich said he'd come back for his sixth time next year if he's asked. 

Bible-Zine for Boys Set for Easter Launch Tue Mar 16,10:46 AM ET By Pat Harris NASHVILLE, Tenn.  - The world's largest publisher of religious material is selling the sizzle along with the solemn in a line of "Bible-zines" -- repackaged Bibles aimed at hip Christian teen-agers. Leaning on the successful slogan of famous Depression-era salesman Elmer Wheeler -- "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle" -- Transit Books, the teen division of publisher Thomas Nelson, adopted the eye-popping format of mainstream teen magazines to create Revolve, a four-color, 388-page New Testament for teen-age girls. The smashing success of Revolve, a one-time magazine that went on sale in July for $14.99, has led to the planned Easter launch of Refuel, a Bible-zine aimed at teen-age boys. Revolve, which has no advertising, excerpts easy-to-digest biblical passages to answer the tough questions teen-agers often ask. Woven throughout is an easy-to-read Bible in a flashy format so teen-agers might feel more comfortable paging through it in public. "We've found a way to make the word of God exciting, relevant and fun for young women again," said Transit Books brand manager Laura Whaley. Revolve does not duck once-forbidden topics, with one reviewer likening it to Seventeen magazine, "only saintlier." One article in Revolve defines rape and urges victims to speak out, and another deals with sexual issues. 'DATING A GODLY GUY?' Interspersed with scripture are quizzes and snappy columns such as "Are You Dating a Godly Guy?" and "Beauty Secrets You've Never Heard Before." It suggests ways to getting along with mother by hosting "a chick flick night for your friends and their moms" and baking a cake together. Especially popular with Revolve readers are blurbs entitled "Guys Speak Out" in which boys are asked to respond to topics such as "describe your ideal girl." A calendar asks readers to "Pray for a person of influence" and notes celebrities' birthdays that include Martin Luther King, Justin Timberlake and Mel Gibson, whose movie "The Passion of the Christ" is drawing big Christian audiences. A "beauty secret" blurb urges readers to make it a habit to talk to God while applying sunscreen. Numerous surveys probe whether readers gossip, or whether they pray for a boyfriend. Another item suggests not dressing to show off one's body because it makes boys think unwanted sexual thoughts. Sold primarily in Christian bookstores around the United States, Revolve sold 30,000 copies in its first month -- more than any other Bible for that period published by Thomas Nelson -- and then went on to sell at least 40,000 more with 10,000 additional orders, Whaley said. She would not disclose overall sales. The publisher is based in Nashville, a city in the Bible Belt, the Southeastern U.S. region that is strongly religious. "We had thousands of e-mails pouring in from youth ministers and parents and young men themselves asking us to create the same type of product for guys," said Whaley, whose father is a minister. To create Refuel, advice was sought from youth ministers around the country, biblical scholars were enlisted to write passages, and teen-agers were asked for their responses. Thelma McMurray, a sales clerk at Lifeway Christian Book Stores in Nashville, said sales of Resolve were brisk. "After the publicity in newspapers and on television came out, we couldn't keep (it) in stock," she said. SIBLING MAGAZINE The publisher's targeting of the teen market began in 1999 with the "Extreme for Jesus" line that sold more than 2 million copies, producing $14 million in revenue, editor Kate Etue said. Then its sibling magazine, "Extreme Teen Bible," sold almost a million copies, compared to the average Bible edition that sells about 40,000 copies. But Revolve did draw some complaints for its content and some criticism that it trivializes the Bible. Initial copies of Revolve contained the statement, "God made guys to be leaders in relationships." After some readers complained, the reference was removed. "It was taken out of context," Whaley said. "Rather than argue, we removed it from subsequent issues. But we encourage girls not to (phone) their crushes. The tendency for teen girls is just to pick up the phone and yap to this guy, but that's not always perceived in the best way on the other end." So what will the boys' Refuel feature? The splashy cover should attract any young guy interested in girls, hot-dogging on skis, girls, basketball, pop music ... and girls. Refuel asks, "What should a guy do to impress a girl?" Answer: "Nothing. He should concentrate on being himself ..." A calendar contains reminders to perform good works such as "Talk to someone you usually ignore." There is a blurb on "How to Wrestle an Alligator" (hop on its back, lock its jaws and clobber its nose) and a warning against using dietary supplements that can enlarge male breasts and shrink genitals. There is also a list of the "Top Ten Ways to Honor Your Dad," which range from "Look him in the eye when he talks" to "Don't threaten to put him in a rest home." Next, the publisher plans a Bible-zine for women, set for release in June. As of now, there is no Bible-zine in the works for men. 

Part-Time Vegetarians Become More Common Tue Mar 16, 1:44 PM ET 

By J.M. HIRSCH, News Source Writer CONCORD, N.H. - Even after five years, Christy Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian regimen. The secret to her success? Eating meat. Pugh is one of a growing number of part-time vegetarians whose loose adherence to the meat-free diet is transforming a decades-old movement and the industry that feeds it. "Sometimes I feel like I'm a bad vegetarian, that I'm not strict enough or good enough," the 28-year-old bookkeeper from Concord said recently. "I really like vegetarian food but I'm just not 100 percent committed." These so-called "flexitarians" - a term voted most useful word of 2003 by the American Dialect Society - are motivated less by animal rights than by a growing body of medical data that suggests health benefits from eating more vegetarian foods. "There's so many reasons that people are vegetarians ... I find that nobody ever gives me a hard time when I say I usually eat vegetarian. But I really like sausage," Pugh said. In recent years the market for vegetarian friendly foods has exploded, with items such as soy milk and veggie burgers showing up in mainstream groceries and fast food restaurants. But even the diet's activists say that growth can't be attributed to committed vegetarians, who are estimated at about 3 percent of the adult U.S. population, or about 5.7 million people never eating meat, poultry or seafood. Charles Stahler, co-director of the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group, credits the growth to flexitarians - vegetarians who dabble in meat and carnivores who seek out vegetarian meals. "This is why Burger King has a veggie burger. It's not because of us," he said. "The true vegetarians wouldn't rush to Burger King anyway. It's because of those people in the middle. They are the driving audience." Though flexitarian headcounts are imprecise, Stahler estimates roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of the population at least occasionally seeks out vegetarian meals. Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, credits the growth of flexitarianism to the nation's better understanding of the diet-disease connection. "Whether you make a commitment to eating strictly vegetarian or not, cutting back your dependence on meat is something most people acknowledge they know they should do," she said. Mollie Katzen, a cookbook author and a founder of the iconic vegetarian eatery Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, N.Y., takes another perspective. The former vegetarian thinks people who eschew meat would be better off if they didn't. Though she still advocates vegetable-based diets, Katzen sees room - and for many people a need - for flexibility. "To base our diet there, yes. Absolutely," she said. "However, where the protein comes from in that diet, I don't feel it's wrong if you've got a great big plate of vegetables your protein is from a healthy, happy chicken, or a grass-fed cow." Plenty of people seem to agree. At Wild Oats stores, a Boulder, Colo.-based chain of natural foods grocers that cater to vegetarians, the majority of shoppers aren't vegetarians. Tracy Spencer, a spokeswoman for the company, said Wild Oats shoppers are concerned about health and want the grocer's natural and organic products, including meats. Publishers of vegetarian magazines also are taking notice. To target the part-timers many have softened their approach to meatless diets, even at risk of alienating the far smaller reader pool of true vegetarians. Until last year Natural Health, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based magazine with a monthly circulation of 300,000, published only vegan recipes, which exclude even dairy and honey. Now the recipes regularly include meat, said Barb Harris, the magazine's editorial director. "There is a big interest in vegetarianism," she said. "But we can also tell from our readership that these are not people who are following a pure vegetarian lifestyle. These are people who are integrating a vegetarian menu in their current diets." A similar change occurred at the 30-year-old Vegetarian Times, considered the standardbearer of vegetarianism. Though still meat-free, the once mostly vegan magazine focuses less on activism and more on recipes with broader appeal. Carla Davis, managing editor of the Glen Allen, Va.-based monthly, said the changes were made after a survey showed 70 percent of the magazine's 300,000-plus readers weren't vegetarian. Even the strictest of vegetarian advocacy groups considers the flexitarian trend a good thing. Bruce Friedrich, spokesman for Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said he doesn't see any harm in vegetarianism focusing more on food than the issues that spurred the movement. "From our perspective, if people influenced by health consequently cut back on fish and meat consumption, that helps animals," he said. "If two people cut their meat in half it helps as much as one person going completely vegetarian." ___ On the Net: Natural Health: http://www.naturalhealth1.com/ Vegetarian Resource Group: http://www.vrg.org/ Vegetarian Times: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/ 

Congress May Tackle 'Drugged Driving' Tue Mar 16, 4:56 PM ET 

By APARNA H. KUMAR, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Citing estimates that 11 million people sometimes drive under the influence of illegal drugs, a growing chorus in Congress wants the government to do something about it. The states are wary. Eight states now have specific laws on "drugged driving," but their statutes are vague. None specifies an equivalent level to the 0.08 percent blood content that Congress established as the legal level for alcohol impairment. That's partly because there's no roadside test to detect the presence of drugs in the body - no handy "breathalyzer" as there is for alcohol. And even if blood or urine samples taken at a hospital test positive for drugs, there's no standard for how high is too high to drive. "Zero tolerance" is the level some lawmakers want Congress to establish. A motorist found to have any controlled substance in his or her system would be considered unlawfully impaired. "Everyone who drives is affected by this," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, citing a report last September by the Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) estimating that during the previous year nearly 11 million people drove at one time or another under the influence of drugs. The same survey said three times as many people - 33.5 million - drove under the influence of alcohol in 2002. Portman introduced a bill last week that would create a model drug-impaired driving law for states to adopt to address what proponents say is a monumental problem that has gone largely ignored. Eight states already have drug-impairment laws, according to the American Prosecutors Research Institute. They are Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Utah. "In every state of the country it's illegal for someone to drive under the influence of any drug or substance that may cause them to be impaired," said John Bobo, director of the National Traffic Law Center at APRI. But in these eight states, it is "per-se illegal" to have any detectable amount of a controlled substance in your system. Under Portman's proposal, states that enact similar laws defining impaired as any detectible amount of drugs in a blood or urine sample would get money for training police and prosecutors and for driver counseling. They would also get grants to research field tests to measure motorists' drug levels. Rather than offering a carrot, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., prefers the stick approach. His bill would make states that don't enact drug-impaired driving laws forfeit 1 percent of their annual federal highway funds to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites). The amount forfeited would double each year up to 50 percent. States are wary of both approaches, recalling that when incentives were not enough to persuade some of them to adopt the 0.08 blood alcohol limit for drunken driving, Congress in 2000 directed that up to 6 percent of their federal highway funds be taken away. Recalcitrant state legislatures fell quickly into line. "We believe that as a basic principle states need to enact laws that meet their own needs," said Cheye Calvo, a transportation policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, goes further, advising its members not to adopt drug-impaired driving laws at all for the time being. "There has been little to no evaluation as to their effectiveness," said spokesman Jonathan Adkins. "Most drivers who are drug impaired are also alcohol-impaired, so police "get 'em" that way." Alcohol was linked to 41 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2002, resulting in 17,419 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While there are no reliable statistics for how often drugs are involved in fatal traffic accidents - primarily because drivers are often only tested for drunkenness - "we think it's about 10 to 20 percent," said Jeff Michael, director of the office of impaired driving at NHTSA. "There's a good bit of overlap with alcohol." Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said her group supports efforts to curb drug-impaired driving. But she cautioned it is difficult to set an across-the-board standard for all illegal drugs when they may affect driving differently - or not at all. "There needs to be more research," Hamilton said. ___ On the Net: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov Mothers Against Drunk Driving: http://www.madd.org 

Congress May Tackle 'Drugged Driving' Tue Mar 16, 4:56 PM ET 

By APARNA H. KUMAR, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Citing estimates that 11 million people sometimes drive under the influence of illegal drugs, a growing chorus in Congress wants the government to do something about it. The states are wary. Eight states now have specific laws on "drugged driving," but their statutes are vague. None specifies an equivalent level to the 0.08 percent blood content that Congress established as the legal level for alcohol impairment. That's partly because there's no roadside test to detect the presence of drugs in the body - no handy "breathalyzer" as there is for alcohol. And even if blood or urine samples taken at a hospital test positive for drugs, there's no standard for how high is too high to drive. "Zero tolerance" is the level some lawmakers want Congress to establish. A motorist found to have any controlled substance in his or her system would be considered unlawfully impaired. "Everyone who drives is affected by this," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, citing a report last September by the Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) estimating that during the previous year nearly 11 million people drove at one time or another under the influence of drugs. The same survey said three times as many people - 33.5 million - drove under the influence of alcohol in 2002. Portman introduced a bill last week that would create a model drug-impaired driving law for states to adopt to address what proponents say is a monumental problem that has gone largely ignored. Eight states already have drug-impairment laws, according to the American Prosecutors Research Institute. They are Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Utah. "In every state of the country it's illegal for someone to drive under the influence of any drug or substance that may cause them to be impaired," said John Bobo, director of the National Traffic Law Center at APRI. But in these eight states, it is "per-se illegal" to have any detectable amount of a controlled substance in your system. Under Portman's proposal, states that enact similar laws defining impaired as any detectible amount of drugs in a blood or urine sample would get money for training police and prosecutors and for driver counseling. They would also get grants to research field tests to measure motorists' drug levels. Rather than offering a carrot, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., prefers the stick approach. His bill would make states that don't enact drug-impaired driving laws forfeit 1 percent of their annual federal highway funds to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites). The amount forfeited would double each year up to 50 percent. States are wary of both approaches, recalling that when incentives were not enough to persuade some of them to adopt the 0.08 blood alcohol limit for drunken driving, Congress in 2000 directed that up to 6 percent of their federal highway funds be taken away. Recalcitrant state legislatures fell quickly into line. "We believe that as a basic principle states need to enact laws that meet their own needs," said Cheye Calvo, a transportation policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, goes further, advising its members not to adopt drug-impaired driving laws at all for the time being. "There has been little to no evaluation as to their effectiveness," said spokesman Jonathan Adkins. "Most drivers who are drug impaired are also alcohol-impaired, so police "get 'em" that way." Alcohol was linked to 41 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2002, resulting in 17,419 deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While there are no reliable statistics for how often drugs are involved in fatal traffic accidents - primarily because drivers are often only tested for drunkenness - "we think it's about 10 to 20 percent," said Jeff Michael, director of the office of impaired driving at NHTSA. "There's a good bit of overlap with alcohol." Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said her group supports efforts to curb drug-impaired driving. But she cautioned it is difficult to set an across-the-board standard for all illegal drugs when they may affect driving differently - or not at all. "There needs to be more research," Hamilton said. ___ On the Net: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov Mothers Against Drunk Driving: http://www.madd.org 

LexisNexis Selling Database to Prisons

Tue Mar 16, 7:55 AM ET

By JAMES HANNAH, News Source Writer 

DAYTON, Ohio - A company whose extensive database of laws and court cases is used mostly by legal offices, schools and libraries has attracted a new type of subscriber: prisons. 

Missed Tech Tuesday?
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus, protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching? 

The service from LexisNexis enables prisons to provide required access to legal information while banishing law books, which are more expensive, quickly outdated and easily damaged, according to facilities that use the database. 

LexisNexis, based in this southwest Ohio city, has installed computer kiosks resistant to damage in four prisons and jails in Hawaii and five in California. The kiosk consists of a touch-screen computer monitor covered in shatterproof glass inside a steel box bolted to a wall. 

Prisons had to be assured that the kiosks, manufactured by Touch Sonic Technologies in Santa Rosa, Calif., would not pose a danger of broken glass that could be used a weapons, said Bill Carter, vice president and managing director of LexisNexis' western market center in Dallas. 

"We've taken a crowbar to it. It doesn't shatter," Carter said. 

The kiosks in Riverside County correctional facilities in California have worked out well and replaced law books, sheriff's Capt. Alan Flanary said. 

"We don't have problems with inmates tearing pages out or defacing the books," he said. In addition, the time-consuming process of inserting printed updates into law books has been eliminated, he said. 

Inmates navigate the database by touching different parts of the monitor screen, which includes a keypad. The Internet-based public records database provides access to more than 4.6 billion documents from more than 30,000 news, business and legal information sources. 

Flanary said the inmates seem to like the kiosks better than the books because they simply can type in a topic and retrieve related legal information. 

"You see this wall of books facing you and you don't know where to begin," he said. 

The service for the five California correctional facilities costs $94,400 a year, which is less expensive than purchasing law books and other legal materials, Flanary said. Money inmates spend at prison commissaries is used to pay for the kiosks. 

Touch Sonic approached LexisNexis about offering the service to inmates, and the companies began selling the idea to prisons. The first kiosk was installed at a prison in Hawaii in November. LexisNexis is negotiating with correction officials in five other states to install the kiosks. 

"The prisoners who have tried the kiosk use it quite frequently, and most became experts in just a few minutes of use," said Harry Fuchigami, librarian at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua. "I use the system myself because it's much easier to look up statutes using the touch screen than it is with our books." 

In Ohio, inmates do legal research primarily through law books, said JoEllen Culp, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 

Prisoners have no access to the Internet or any electronic legal resources, but the state is considering purchasing legal information on compact discs, she said. 

Charles Carbone, a lawyer with California Prison Focus, which advocates for prisoners' human rights, said the kiosks are a step in the right direction for ensuring access to quality legal materials. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) has mandated that inmates have access to legal information. 

"It would probably address one of the plaguing problems of prison law libraries - they are understaffed and undershelved," he said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

www.lexisnexis.com 

www.touchsonic.com/ 

Many Think U.S. Wants World Domination

Tue Mar 16, 2:01 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By WILL LESTER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - A majority of people living in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey say they believe the U.S. is conducting its campaign against terror to control Mideast oil and to dominate the world, according to an international poll released Tuesday. 

The governments in all four Muslim-majority countries have strong ties with the U.S. government. 

A sizable number of people in France, Germany and Russia also have these suspicions about the campaign against terror, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project. 

The polls were taken in February, before the train bombings in Spain that claimed the lives of at least 200 people. 

In a surprise defeat, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives on Sunday became the first government that backed Washington in Iraq (news - web sites) to be voted from office. 

When people in the nine countries - including Britain and the United States - were asked if the campaign against terrorism was a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism, majorities in France, Germany and the four Muslim-majority countries felt it was not. Almost half in Russia felt it was not, while majorities in Britain and the United States said they believe the campaign is a sincere effort to fight terrorism. 

The surveys found considerable cynicism and anger among the Muslim-majority countries a year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And they found a growing desire among European countries for a balance of power between the European Union (news - web sites) and the United States. 

"Europeans want to check our power," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "There's considerable support for making the European Union as powerful as the United States." 

Europeans in those countries are eager to set up security arrangements independent from the United States. 

People in the surveyed Muslim countries remain angry about U.S. policies, and even supportive of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the Saudi terrorist who took credit for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. 

Almost two-thirds of the people in Pakistan say they view bin Laden favorably - a significant finding because U.S. troops are trying to find bin Laden in the mountainous region on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan (news - web sites). More than half of those in Jordan and almost half of those polled in Morocco had a favorable view of the Saudi terrorist. 

Anger toward the United States in these Muslim-majority countries remains very high, Kohut said, though the intensity has dropped a bit since last May. 

While seven in 10 in the United States feel their country takes into account the interests of other countries when making international policy decisions, few in the other countries shared that view. 

Majorities in all the countries except Pakistan, and almost half there, felt the United States doesn't make much of an effort to consider the interests of other countries in its policy decisions. 

At least two-thirds of people living in France, Germany, Russia and Turkey thought it would be a good thing if the European Union becomes as powerful as the United States. Turkey and Russia are not currently members of the European Union. 

A majority of those in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Turkey think Western Europe should take a more independent approach to security and diplomatic matters. 

In other key findings: 

_While support for the war on terrorism has dropped in many of those countries, it has increased in Russia - 73 percent approve - and is almost as strong there as in the United States. 

_About half in Pakistan said suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians against Israelis and against U.S. troops in Iraq can be justified. Two-thirds or more in Jordan and Morocco say it can be justified in both situations. 

_A majority of the people in Pakistan and Jordan say Iraq will be worse off now that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) has been removed from power. 

_A solid majority of those in France, Germany, Russia, Pakistan and Jordan believe United States President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) lied about the weapons of mass destruction they claimed were in Iraq. 

_Ratings for the United Nations (news - web sites) are relatively high in European countries, and low in the Muslim countries. Just over half in the United States, 55 percent, gave a favorable rating to the U.N. 

"In America, the ratings of the U.N. are much lower than elsewhere," said Kohut, referring to the European countries. "Historically we're at a low point." 

The polls were conducted between Feb. 19 and March 3. They have margins of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and the United States. Polls in Britain, France and Germany have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. 

___ 

How the international survey was conducted: 

Results for the surveys in nine countries are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews in those countries. Telephone interviews were conducted among a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults in the United States, 500 in Great Britain 503 in France and 500 in Germany. 

Face-to-face interviews were conducted among a nationwide sample 1,000 adults in Jordan, 1,002 in Russia and 1,017 in Turkey. In Morocco, 1,000 face to face interviews were conducted with 1,000 adults in four major cities and in Pakistan, 1,220 face-to-face interviews in largely urban areas. 

The interviews were conducted between Feb. 19 and March 3. 

In countries where the sample size was more than 900 - (the United States, Russia, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan - the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. In the countries where the sample was about 500 - Britain, France and Germany - the margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Pew Research Center - http://www.people-press.org 

How-To Book May Help Hackers 
Mon Mar 15, 3:00 PM ET 
Add Technology - PC World 

Paul Roberts, IDG News Service 

A new book on writing code to exploit security flaws in software is raising eyebrows in the technical community. The book publishes "zero day," or previously unknown, techniques for exploiting vulnerable systems, including those running Microsoft Windows.

¥ Microsoft Issues Security Updates
¥ Microsoft Warns of VoIP Vulnerability
¥ Security Group Warns of Linux Flaw
¥ Software Users Hit a Rough Patch
¥ Trojan Horse Hijacks IE

Patriot Games
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus, protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching? 

The Shellcoder's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Holes, by Jack Koziol, David Litchfield, Dave Aitel, Chris Anley, Sinan Eren, Neel Mehta, and Riley Hassell, is an advanced guide to writing software exploits. The book is intended as a resource for network administrators who are interested in closing security holes. However, the book also contains working examples of code for exploiting vulnerable systems and previously unpublished techniques for launching attacks such as heap overflows and kernel attacks, according to two of the book's authors.

Shellcode is a term that describes small pieces of computer code that launch operating system shells, or command interfaces such as the common C:\ command line interface on Microsoft DOS. Shellcode is often a component of attacks in which malicious hackers use software exploits to get control of vulnerable systems.

The book is being published by John Wiley & Sons; it is scheduled to be released on March 22, 2004. It contains chapters on a variety of attack types, including stack overflows, heap overflows, and format string bugs. The authors discuss everything from writing Windows shellcode to exploiting security holes in Hewlett-Packard's Tru64 operating system, according to a description of the book published on the Wiley Web site.

Fully Functional Exploits

Also contained in the guide are fully functional examples of software exploits, according to coauthor Dave Aitel, founder of Immunity of New York City, a security consulting company.

"The book is trying to teach you how to write exploits, so of course there are exploits," he says.

Aitel contributed chapters on heap overflows and Windows exploits, as well a technique for finding flaws in network communications protocols called fuzzing, he says.

The information contained in the new book is essential to administrators who want to secure the computer systems under their management, he says.

"It's hard to get context on a [software] vulnerability if you don't know how to exploit it. People who know how to write exploits make better strategic decisions," he says.

Coauthor Chris Anley agrees and says The Shellcoder's Handbook is not a cookbook for hackers.

"This isn't a collection of exploits. It's a book that tells you how to find the bugs and understand what the impact of the bugs is," says Anley, a director at Next Generation Security Software in Surrey, UK.

"We wanted to make a book that describes from basic through advanced level what exploits can do," he says.

Covering the Basics

The book is structured like a primer. Early chapters focus on basic concepts like stack overflows and use examples written for the open-source Linux (news - web sites) platform. Later chapters focus on more complicated problems and obscure operating systems such as Sun Microsystems' Solaris and HP's Tru64, Anley says.

The book pulls together information that could be obtained from security discussion groups on the Internet or from a university-level network security administration course, say Anley and fellow coauthor David Litchfield, also of Next Generation Security Software.

However, The Shellcoder's Handbook also delves into more arcane exploit-writing topics that are not commonly discussed, such as format string bugs, which address vulnerabilities in the way some programs written in the C programming language output data. And a chapter titled "Alternative Payload Strategies" discusses ways in which an exploit writer can subtly manipulate a compromised machine other than to produce a shell prompt, such as extracting data from a database or tampering with cryptographic services, Anley says.

The Shellcoder's Handbook and other books like it stir up controversy within the information technology security community about whether researchers should publicly disclose holes in software products, says Alan Paller, director of research at The SANS Institute.

Authors who publish software exploits walk a fine line between informing the public and lowering the bar for malicious hackers, he says.

"You don't want to make writing an exploit as easy as fixing a car," Paller says.

However, Paller believes that IT professionals who defend networks from attack benefit more from books like The Shellcoder's Handbook than do attackers.

"In the security world there's lots of advice, and a lot of it doesn't make much sense. So if you understand why you have to do certain things and can connect the defense back to an actual attack, that helps," he says.

Paris Hilton Primps for 'Simple' Trip

27 minutes ago 
Add Entertainment - 

By ADRIAN SAINZ, News Source Writer 

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - In the sequel to Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's hit Fox reality show "The Simple Life," the socialites-turned-TV stars are driving themselves on a 30-day cross-country trip with no money, credit cards, cell phones or boyfriends. 

The pink pickup truck is gassed up. The shiny metallic trailer is hitched to the back. And Hilton, in a pink and red sundress with a flower in her hair, is posing for cameras on a South Beach hotel balcony. Let the road trip begin. 

"I've never been on a road trip anywhere," Hilton, 23, told The News Source on Thursday, sitting in her plush hotel room bed. "The farthest I've driven is from L.A. to Palm Springs, which takes like two hours. It seems fun." 

Hilton, the leggy blonde hotel heiress, and Richie, the equally blonde daughter of singer Lionel Richie (news), helped make the first season of "The Simple Life" a huge success for Fox. The pretty young ladies broke free from their sheltered upbringings, working odd jobs milking cows and hawking burgers at a fast food restaurant while living with a family in ultra-rural Altus, Ark., population 817. 

They drew laughs from viewers who were amazed that Hilton and Richie had never held a regular job or seen a paycheck, much less know what do with one. They did manage to bake a pie, but the family's dog ate most of it before it could be presented at a local festival. 

"The worst thing was working at the dairy farm, cause that was, like, our first job," Hilton said. "I hated the cow smell. It was gross." 

In "The Simple Life 2," they'll stay with several different families in a continuation of the theme that made the first season a success. Filming was to begin in the next few days; the show airs in June. 

"It's going to be definitely more interesting and more adventurous because last time, we were just stuck in Arkansas with a family, but this time it's going to be different families every episode," Hilton says. 

Jon Murray, the show's executive producer, says there will be eight episodes, double the number from the first season. Hilton and Richie will travel throughout the southern United States, towing the live-in trailer from Miami Beach to Beverly Hills. Murray hopes they will again charm TV audiences. 

"Paris and Nicole are so full of energy in life," Murray says. "They're outlandish sometimes, they're foolish sometimes, they're a little clueless sometimes, but they really are nice and they're not mean spirited in the fun they're having." 

Murray says "the girls" will have jobs set up for them, but will be on their own for almost everything else. They have to deal with their own wardrobes, hair and makeup. If the pickup breaks down, it's their problem. And there'll be plenty of small-town fun, Murray says. 

"Everyone likes it because it's for all ages," Hilton says. "People from the city will be like, `Oh my God, I cannot believe you did that,' and people from the country think it's funny because they do it every day." 

Hilton's social life is regular fodder for tabloids, TV shows and Web sites. She also became an inadvertent Internet icon when a homemade sex video she shot with her then-boyfriend circulated online. 

But Hilton says the late-night party scene is losing it's appeal. 

"I don't like going out anymore. It's not that much fun," Hilton says. "Since the show came out, I can't really have fun anymore because people coming up every minute and, are like, `Oh, can I have a picture.' ... I really can't even hang out with my friends very much anymore." 

While she was well-known as a model before the hit, the show has provided new avenues of work for Hilton. She's recording a CD and has acting jobs lined up. 

As for her public image, Hilton says she may be misunderstood. 

"People who don't know me or haven't met me they'll assume she's spoiled or this or that," Hilton said. "That's what people will think because of where I come from. Every time I meet someone or people talk to me, they're like "You're completely the opposite of what I thought. You're so sweet." 

Something for Everyone Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 03:29:07 -0800

** Warning: Rated R ** SOMETHING TO OFFEND EVERYONE......... What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball? Juan on Juan. What is a Yankee? The same as a quickie, but a guy can do it alone. What is the difference between a Harley and a Hoover? The position of the dirt bag. Why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it. What's the fluid capacity of Monica Lewinsky's mouth? One US leader. What do you see when the Pillsbury Dough Boy bends over? Doughnuts. Why is air a lot like sex? Because it's no big deal unless you're not getting any. Why is Chelsea Clinton so homely? Because Janet Reno is her real father. What do you get when you put 50 lesbians and 50 politicians in a room together? 100 people who don't do dick. Define "Egghead": What Mrs. Dumpty gives to Humpty. How many women does it take to change a light bulb? None, they just sit there in the dark and bitch. What's the fastest way to a man's heart? Through his chest with a sharp knife. Why is it so hard for women to find men that are sensitive, caring, and good-looking? Because those men already have boyfriends. What makes men chase women they have no intention of marrying? The same urge that makes dogs chase cars they have no intention of driving. What's the difference between a porcupine and BMW? A porcupine has the pricks on the outside. Why does Mike Tyson cry during sex? Mace will do that to you. Why did OJ Simpson want to move to West Virginia? Everyone has the same DNA. Why do men find it difficult to make eye contact? Breasts don't have eyes. What's the Cuban National Anthem? "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" What's the difference between a southern zoo and a northern zoo? A southern zoo has a description of the animal on the front of the cage along with a recipe. How do you get a sweet little 80-year-old lady to say the F word? Get another sweet little 80-year-old lady to yell, "BINGO!" What's the difference between a northern fairytale and a southern fairytale? A northern fairytale begins, "Once upon a time..." A southern fairytale begins, "Y'all ain't gonna believe this shit..." What's the difference between a snowman and a snow-woman? Snowballs! What do you call four Mexicans in quick sand? Quatro-Sinko!

Science - News Source Mars Rovers Hunt Clues to Planet's Past 13 minutes ago 

By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer PASADENA, Calif. - Beginning late Christmas Eve, a small armada of exploratory spacecraft will reach Mars, some attempting to enter orbit, others to make risky landings on the Red Planet's surface. Together, they represent one of the most ambitious efforts yet to resolve the contradictions that persist in alternately intriguing and beguiling scientists. The prospect of life on Mars has charged the public imagination for more than a century, ever since astronomers first spied what they thought were canals dug to irrigate the planet's ruddy surface. But after spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes began taking a closer look at the planet, evidence of the canals - and the Martians who presumably created them - quickly vanished. Instead, the scrutiny showed Mars to be a dusty, frigid world, shrouded by an atmosphere too thin to breathe, bombarded with radiation and largely dry beyond the ice that caps its poles. It seemed altogether hostile to life as we know it. But ongoing scientific spadework continues to turn up evidence that suggests that long ago Mars was a wetter, if not warmer, world where rivers large enough to carve canyons the size of the United States flowed across its surface. Life, even if just tiny microbes, could have thrived in such a place. "There is no consensus and a lot of contradictions," said Michael Carr, a planetary geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) who has played a role in nearly every past mission to Mars. A small fleet of international spacecraft is approaching the Red Planet. The first, Britain's Beagle 2, is scheduled to land on Mars Dec. 24. That same day, Europe's Mars Express should enter orbit around the planet. Mars Express successfully released Beagle 2 on Friday, after carrying it piggyback most of the way to Mars. Spirit, the first of NASA (news - web sites)'s identical robot explorers, is expected to land Jan. 3. Its sibling, Opportunity, is scheduled to settle on the opposite side of the planet Jan. 24. The odds of all four spacecraft succeeding are slim. Since 1960, roughly two-thirds of the three dozen spacecraft sent to Mars have failed, including two 1999 NASA missions, the Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander. Most have been lost on launch or arrival, the most perilous portions of any mission. The most recent failure was the Japanese satellite, Nozomi, which failed to enter orbit around Mars earlier this month. NASA's back-to-back 1999 failures prompted the American space agency to tighten oversight of the design, construction, testing and launching of its spacecraft, including this year's batch. It's also taken pains to publicly stress the risks of dispatching two landers to Mars. "Landing on Mars is very, very, very difficult," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science. "The fact that the world has failed most of the time it's gone there is indicative of that." Despite the odds, NASA has had three successful landings on Mars: the twin Viking landers reached the planet in 1976, undertaking a direct search for life but producing results that were inconclusive; and the 1997 Pathfinder mission. Two other NASA spacecraft, the Mars Global Surveyor and the 2001 Mars Odyssey, are already at the planet. There, from high on orbit, they continue to pile on the discoveries. Many of these findings address the question of whether water was present in the Martian past. Little of the evidence, however, offers a definitive answer. In October, a team of scientists reported Odyssey had detected on the surface of Mars copious amounts of a mineral that's easily weathered away in the presence of water. That suggested Mars has been a dry wasteland for eons. Weeks later, a second team reported evidence to the contrary, after Global Surveyor beamed back glossy images that show features apparently created by the meandering flow of rivers. The case for life on Mars routinely undergoes similar setbacks and advances. The two studies are just the latest in some half-dozen "gotcha" moments in Mars science in recent years, said Daniel McCleese, chief scientist of the Mars exploration program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are now in a position where the smoking gun for past, persistent water on Mars depends on who you talk to and what day of the week it is," he said. "The case is being made on both sides. That's the nature of science." Meanwhile, gains in understanding Mars are also being been made on Earth and include what some believe is compelling evidence for Martian life. In 1996, a team of scientists announced a meteorite found in Antarctica that was believed to have been blasted from Mars contained microscopic fossils of ancient bacteria. Although many scientists question the claim, it's further energized the search for life. And new understanding of the tenacity of terrestrial microbes on Earth has scientists thinking Mars might not be too harsh for life after all. Britain's Beagle 2 lander is designed to seek out organic material in the Martian soil, which could suggest the presence of such forms of life. Its mission also is to sample the atmosphere for traces of methane, a telltale byproduct of many biological processes. The NASA rovers weren't designed to look for life. Nor will they look for water, the necessary ingredient of life as we know it. Instead, they'll look for minerals in the rocks on Mars that could suggest, on the one hand, the past presence of water and, on the other, the possibility that it allowed the planet to harbor life. "We need a proxy for the proxy," Firouz Naderi, manager of the Mars exploration program at JPL, said of the indirect search for life. Such evidence could suggest Mars was a warmer, damper and all-around more hospitable place billions of years ago - just as life first stirred here on Earth. "It immediately raises questions: If the conditions were right, if it happened on Earth, could it have happened on Mars?" said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the principal scientist on NASA's current mission. The $820 million pair of rovers and the array of instruments they carry should help reconcile the conflicting views of Mars, he said. "The mineralogy and topography are telling you different stories. The only thing to do is get down there and look," he said. Even so, the results likely will not be definitive, said Carr, of the U.S. Geological Survey. "I am sure at the end of these missions there will be an argument and there will be two camps, just as there are now," he said. ___ On the Net: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/
Lack of 'Christmas Spirit' Ends Display 1 hour, 59 minutes ago Add Strange News - 

By LAURA WALSH, News Source Writer KILLINGLY, Conn. - Christmas just isn't the same for this small eastern Connecticut town that was once set aglow during the holidays by one man and his spirit. Mervin Whipple, known as "Mr. Christmas" to the people of Killingly, has decided to pull the plug on his brilliant, gigantic holiday light display. There will be no lights this year. Partly, it was the pricey bills. But mostly, there just isn't enough Christmas spirit, the once-jolly Whipple said. "It's a changed world," Whipple said while fighting back tears. "The spirit of Christmas is gone." Whipple had threatened to close down the display in recent years. But now he says it's official: Whipple's Christmas Wonderland is no more. More than 1.5 million people from across the country visited the display over its 35-year run. Decorated with 110,000 bright lights and 300 moving figures, including everything from Santa Claus to life-size angels, Whipple's home was a holiday tradition and a Connecticut landmark. "He's our Father of Christmas," said Killingly resident Bethany Milardo, 29, who had visited the display every year for as long as she could remember. "I have never, ever seen anything like it before, and I doubt I will ever find anything that tops it." Whipple said volunteers began to dwindle over the past few years, and the bill - $19,000 last year - had grown too costly. "Help was becoming far and few between and I kept getting bigger and bigger," he said. "I just couldn't keep up anymore." Whipple said charging visitors to see his display was simply out of the question, even if it meant saving his Christmas Wonderland. "No way," he said. "I made a vow 35 years ago that I would never charge anyone one penny and I never did." Although he did have a small donation box stowed away in the corner of his showroom, it remained virtually empty over the years. In 2001, Whipple said the first two days' donations brought in less than half a cent per person. Whipple said he had hoped the town would purchase his Winter Wonderland and put it on display in Killingly's Owen Bell Park. He even offered it to town officials for the discounted price of $200,000. Whipple said the Disney-like display costs more than $1 million. But Acting Town Manager Peter Curry said Killingly could not afford it. "It just isn't something the town could shoulder," Curry said. "We are certainly going to miss it though." Whipple's Christmas Wonderland opened in 1967 with a nativity scene and 225 lights as a tribute to his stepson Edmond, who died in an accident the year before at the age of 20. Before Edmond died, Whipple had promised to help him decorate the home for the holiday. "It never became a reality for him so I decided to carry it on myself," Whipple said. Whipple owns a gravestone business and is the town's cemetery superintendent, a profession he inherited from his father. He is also a justice of peace who has married more than 1,500 couples. For Craig Griffin, 33, of Killingly, who had been Whipple's right-hand man for 16 years, it feels strange not to begin the holidays in September, when the pair usually began setting up the display. It would take another two or three months just to take it all down. "Things used to be a lot simpler," Griffin said. "The expectations kept growing. It used to be a lot easier to amuse people." Since Whipple put his Christmas Wonderland on sale in January, he has received seven offers from people in Rhode Island and New York and as far away as Utah and Oklahoma. But nothing has really stuck, he said. Part of the problem is that Whipple refuses to disassemble his display. It's all or nothing, he said. "I don't want to sell the seven dwarfs without Snow White," he said. "It wouldn't be the same. It would spoil it."

Scientists Blame Soot for Global Warming Tue Dec 23,10:42 AM ET 

By JOHN HEILPRIN, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - NASA (news - web sites) scientists say soot, mostly from diesel engines, is causing as much as a quarter of all observed global warming by reducing the ability of snow and ice to reflect sunlight. Their findings on how soot affects reflective ability, known as albedo, raise new questions about human-caused climate change from the Arctic to the Alps. "We suggest that soot contributes to near worldwide melting of ice that is usually attributed solely to global warming," National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko wrote in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites). "Soot is a more all-around `bad actor' than has been appreciated," they wrote. Soot is a blackened material formed mainly from carbon particles that are, along with salts and dust, byproducts of burning fossil fuels and vegetation. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Nazarenko, a staff associate there, found soot is twice as potent as carbon dioxide in changing global surface air temperatures in the Arctic and the Northern Hemisphere. Greenland may be an exception, they said, because it is downwind from Canadian forests and has little manmade pollution. The biggest source of soot in developed countries is diesel fuel, but major sources elsewhere include burning wood, animal dung, vegetable oil and other biofuels. Hansen told The News Source that the authors estimate the soot effect is equivalent to putting a 1-watt bulb, the size of a miniature Christmas tree bulb, over every two square yards in the Northern Hemisphere. The effect is greater in northernmost snow regions, and almost nonexistent in the tropics. Levels of airborne soot as high as about 100 parts per billion were found in the Alps, enough to reduce the snow's ability to reflect light rather than absorb it from about 98 percent down to between 80 percent and 90 percent, Hansen said. In spring and summer, as the snow melts and some soot accumulates as crud on the surface, the remaining snow is even darker, he said. The scientists suggest in their paper that the same pattern could occur in the Himalaya range of South Asia, where prevailing winds might deposit fossil fuel and biofuel soot carried in a brown haze from India. Many scientists believe the burning of fossil fuels is causing an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, triggering what is called the greenhouse effect. A higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere would trap more of the sun's heat, possibly causing the Earth to warm. Scientists thought until recently that only carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have global reach and effect. They now are finding the same thing with these microscopic, suspended particles of pollutants, generically known as aerosols, that settle on ground hours later. Soot particles, which absorb toxic organic material, are minute enough to penetrate skin. Soot is the aerosol most responsible for the haze in rapidly developing countries such as India and China, the scientists said. Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton professor and expert on climate policy, called the study "an interesting early calculation" that could prove to be important. "It means that - if it's right - we need to keep an eye on it," he said. "When we think about all these greenhouse gases, we ought also to think about controlling these particles that are also changing the climate." The Bush administration in 2001 ordered pollution cuts from heavy-duty diesel engines and diesel fuel used in highway trucks and buses. This year it proposed requiring a 90 percent reduction in pollution from diesel-powered construction and other off-road equipment, starting with 2008 models. ___ On the Net: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies: http://www.giss.nasa.gov Pew Center on Global Climate Change: http://www.pewclimate.org

Mystery Donor Continues Holiday Tradition

Wed Dec 24,10:30 AM ET 
Add Strange News - 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The city's annual mystery donor has struck again. 

For the 25th straight year, an anonymous donor has given at least $1,000 to the Salvation Army in Morgantown. This year the anonymous donor upped his gift to $1,501. 

The donor's currency varies from gold coins to bills that are no longer minted 

Capt. Ed Long, who oversees the Salvation Army in Monongalia, Marion and Preston counties, appeared as requested shortly after 3 p.m. Friday at the Giant Eagle kettle. There he found the prize - a $1,000 bill and a $500 bill folded inside a $1 bill in the traditional red kettle. 

"Oh, my gosh!" exclaimed bell ringer Alice Hoalcraft. All bell ringers are aware of the special Christmas gift, but there's been no pattern to where it appears. 

"I couldn't believe it," she said later. "I don't know who it is." 

The donor's ritual hasn't changed much since 1978: He places the donation in a randomly selected kettle, then makes an anonymous telephone call to the Salvation Office directing officials to that kettle. 

The donation is always made between Dec. 20 and Christmas. 

One year, he left an $10 gold piece from 1881. On another occasion, he wrapped two $500 bills from 1834 in a $1 bill.

Global Dimming 19-Dec-2003 In 1985, researcher Atsumu Ohmura discovered that it's too dark. When he checked the levels of sunlight recorded in Europe and compared them to similar measurements made in the 1960s, he found that levels of solar radiation hitting the Earth had declined by more than 10%. David Adam writes in The Guardian that this is happening despite the fact that the planet is getting hotter. Ohmura says, "I was shocked. The difference was so big that I just could not believe it." Scientists now refer to this as "global dimming." Over the past 50 years, the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth has decreased by about 3% a decade. "It's an extraordinary thing that for some reason this hasn't penetrated even into the thinking of the people looking at global climate change," says climatologist Graham Farquhar. "It's actually quite a big deal and I think you'll see a lot more people referring to it." It doesn't mean the sun is sending out less radiation, it means that less of it is reaching the Earth, due to pollution. Tiny particles of soot reflect sunlight and cause bigger, longer lasting clouds to form. This will cause solar power to work less effectively and also affect agriculture-especially in northern areas. Researcher Shabtai Cohen says, "In the northern climate...a reduction in solar radiation becomes a reduction in productivity. In greenhouses in Holland, the rule of thumb is that a 1% decrease in solar radiation equals a 1% drop in productivity. Because they're light limited, they're always very busy cleaning the tops of their greenhouses."

Man Discovers He's a Tribal Chief 11-Dec-2003 Mick Henry, a retired builder from Yorkshire, England, has discovered he's actually a chief of the Ojibway tribe in Canada, and owns thousands of acres of land there. He's the son of an English mother and a Canadian father, but since his father returned to Canada shortly after his birth, he never knew about his Ojibway relatives. He says, "I never thought something like this could happen to anyone, certainly not someone like me." Going home doesn't mean he has to go native. He says, "They are still looking for a proper ceremonial name for me. I thought they still lived in tents and went hunting for their food. In fact they all have lovely houses and enjoy a wonderful lifestyle."

A Place Where Time Travel is Real 10-Dec-2003 Physicist Michio Kaku says he knows of nothing that makes time travel impossible and "In the laws of physics, if it's not forbidden, it's mandatory. This is pretty much proven every time." And an amateur explorer says he's discovered a portal where time is altered. In msnbc.com, Alan Boyle quotes Kaku as saying, "Over the last 10 years there's been a sea change. Ten years ago, you would be considered a lunatic if you proposed that time travel was possible...Now, the burden of proof has shifted to the cynics, who have to prove that it's not possible." One time travel theory involves wormholes, which are shortcuts between two distant regions in the curved time- space of the universe. But in the past, scientists though a time machine that traveled through wormholes (if the exist) would need so much power it would instantly explode. "Since then, there have been experiments indicating that the machine does not explode," Kaku says. But "Black holes are not preferable for time travel because they're one-way trips. It's like an elevator with only an 'up' button." Engineer Paul Nahin says, "The fact that you can't change the past doesn't mean that you can't affect it. We know Joan of Arc died, but you could very well be the person who threw the match on the wood." "I tend to believe the many-worlds interpretation," Kaku says. This means that there's a world in which Joan of Arc died, and another in which you went back in time and saved her- in fact, there are as many universes as there are possibilities. Ron Quinn writes in the Tucson Weekly about a secret place in the Arizona mountains he discovered in 1956, where time is altered. He says, "The reason I'm bringing this tale to light after all this time is because something is in the works might effect this interesting place. Tucson Electric Power Company plans on building a 345,000-watt high-voltage transmission line from Tucson to Nogales. The line could come quite close to this site. When this line becomes active, what, if anything, will this enormous voltage do to this delicate location? Enhance the natural energy already lurking within it, or nothing? Only time will tell." It started when John, a local Indian, told him about a mysterious stone archway. In the 1800s, three Indians discovered it while hunting. They started chasing each other through it, but one of them never emerged from the other side. The remaining two Indians fled. In 1948, John came upon the arch in a storm. When he looked through it, he saw a blue, cloudless sky on the other side. Ron and his brother Chuck set off to find the arch. When they found it, they noted that it was about 7 feet high and 5 feet wide. They threw stones through it and Ron even stuck his arm through, but nothing happened. Their friend Louie Romero was camping near the arch one night with some other cowboys when they all heard the rumbling hooves and whinnying of approaching horses-but they couldn't see them. The sounds suddenly ended and in the morning, they could find no hoof prints. Historical figures have also been seen near the arch. Some have seen a dark- robed Jesuit priest, who became transparent, then vanished. Others have seen a troop of Spanish soldiers, who also vanished. Ron writes, "During one of our two-week adventures, I found myself near the canyon that leads towards that oddball site. Not having been there in almost four years, I decided to pay it a visit...Below to my left was a canyon-where none had existed...I soon discovered I was in the same canyon that led toward the hill I had just scaled. I was more than 250 yards back down the canyon on a different slope and now I was facing south-I had mysteriously been transported to the new location. Thinking I was looking west, I was really looking east seeing the canyon I had just hiked." He was afraid he might not still be living in his own time, so he was relieved when he got back to his Jeep. People have found large numbers of geodes-a type of quartz that conducts electricity-in the vicinity of the arch. They've also experienced vibrations, their arm hair standing on end, and strange ear pressure when in the area, all of which could be caused by electricity. Ron writes, "Could these large geodes be the main source that activates the natural energy within the area? "...What we have out there is a natural phenomena created accidentally by nature. It alters time, and there's no way to predict when this might occur...On my last visit to this wondrous place, I discovered the top portion of the archway had collapsed. All that remains are the two columns. Will this damage interfere with its ability to change time?"

Drugs Don't Work 09-Dec-2003 Just when the controversial new Medicare drug bill has been passed, a new report has come out showing that half the time, prescription drugs don't work. And a couple of illegal drugs can cause changes in DNA that can be passed down to future generations. Steve Connor reports in the Independent that Allen Roses, vice-president drug company GlaxoSmithKline, says that more than half of the patients who take expensive prescription drugs don't get any benefit from them. Connor writes, "It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public." It turns out that drugs for Alzheimer's disease only work for one of every three patients, and cancer drugs only work for 25% of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work about half the time. Diabetes drugs only work for about 60% of patients. Most of the time when drugs don't work, it's because the patient has genes that interfere with the medicine. Roses says, "The vast majority of drugs-more than 90%-only work in 30 or 50% of the people." He thinks drug companies should create genetic tests to identify which patients will benefit from certain drugs before they're prescribed. Also, if one drug doesn't work, another may, and a genetic test would help doctors discover what drug works for which patients more quickly, without patients having to experience negative side effects from ineffective medicine. At a time when drugs are being used more and more for treatment, and insurance companies and the government are trying to figure out how to pay for them, this knowledge could cut costs considerably, by avoiding unnecessary prescriptions. Nobody ever accused cocaine and ecstasy of not working, but Italian researcher Giorgio Bronzetti says, "Cocaine and ecstasy have proved to be more dangerous than we had imagined. These drugs, on top of their toxicological effects, attack DNA provoking mutations and altering the hereditary material. This is very worrying for the effects it could have on future generations." Ecstasy use in the U.S. has increased 70% between 1995 and 2000, and is taken mostly by young people who are just entering their reproductive years.

Bad Sex Award (for writing, anyway) 05-Dec-2003 There's a lot of awkward writing in novels, particularly when it comes to sex. In the U.K. they've done something about it: they've created the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Keep reading for scintillating excerpts from some of the nominees. Some famous U.S. authors were nominated this year, including John Updike, Paul Theroux and Tama Janowitz. In "Peyton Amberg," Janowitz says a lover's foreplay is "as if he was searching for lost car keys." Some writers can never forget that humans are basically primates. In "Too Beautiful for You," Rod Liddle describes an orgasm this way: "She came with the exhilarating whoops and pant-hoots of a troop of Rhesus monkeys, which was flattering, if alarming." In writing-as in sex-some writers just try too hard. Paolo Coelho writes in "Eleven Minutes" that "I was the earth, the mountains, the tigers, the rivers that flowed into the lakes, the lake that became the sea." And the winner? India's Aniruddha Bahal, for this passage from his novel "Bunker 13": "She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high. To wait any longer would be to lose prime time...She picks up a Bugatti's momentum. You want her more at a Volkswagen's steady trot. Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she's eating up the road with all cylinders blazing." This combines two of men's favorite subjects: cars and sex. Now if he could only find a way to get some football metaphors in there....

Stroke Victim Now has British Accent 05-Dec-2003 Tiffany Roberts, an American woman who had a stroke, now has a British accent, despite the fact that she's never been to the U.K. The "foreign accent syndrome" is rare but not unknown. Once she began speaking again after her stroke in 1999, Roberts says, "When people first started asking me where in England I was from, and a family member asked why am I talking that way, that is when I became very conscious that a part of me had died during the stroke." Researchers don't know why or how this happens. Dr. Jack Ryalls says, "When [stroke victims] don't recover or when they only have very, very residual effects left, it's heard as an accent. Its a real phenomenon. It just hasn't been documented very often." These patients haven't really gained a foreign accent-it just sounds that way, as a result of brain injury. This was first documented in 1941, when a Norwegian woman received a shrapnel injury to her brain during an air raid that left her with a German accent.

Our Bodies Contain Dangerous Chemicals 03-Dec-2003 A cocktail of dangerous chemicals has been found in the blood of every person tested in a study in the U.K., and everyone in the U.S. probably has them too. The 77 chemicals found include PCBs, which can affect gender, and a common fire retardant. Shaoni Bhattacharya quotes toxicologist Matthew Wilkinson as saying, "Every single person we monitored had a range of these chemicals." Some of these chemicals persist in the blood for a very long time, as shown by the fact that 99% of the people in the study tested positive for DDT, which has been banned for decades in the U.K. Animal tests show these chemicals can be harmful at high levels, but no one knows the effects of carrying low levels of these chemicals around in your blood for a long time.

Sun Changes Asteroid Orbits 09-Dec-2003 It's been discovered that the force of sunlight on an asteroid can change its orbit, which is one reason why asteroids change direction and head for Earth. What we don't know is this: Will the increased solar activity on the sun right now have an increased effect on asteroids? Eugenie Samuel Reich writes in New Scientist that astronomers have detected the influence of sunlight on asteroids for the first time, since it's very subtle. However, it's enough to coax them out of the Solar System's asteroid belt and into an orbit that can impact Earth. Scientists know of five mass extinctions in the Earth's history, and the reasons for most of them remain mysterious. The one that occurred about 250 million years ago killed 90% of all species. Dinosaurs evolved afterwards, but were finally killed off 65 million years ago, after an asteroid impact. Now scientists say the extinction of 250 million years ago, which was the largest in Earth's history, was also caused by an asteroid. Researchers have concluded this from the discovery of rare mineral grains, that must have come from space, that have been found in ancient rocks in Antarctica. They've also found tiny capsules of helium and argon gases, which are commonly found in space, trapped inside rocks from this period. Astronomers are calling for more funding to detect asteroids that may be heading our way. With the current solar activity, and our history of impacts, let's hope they get it.

Vegetables can be Dangerous 26-Nov-2003 We think of fresh vegetables as something that's always good to eat, but they can be dangerous. Scallions imported from Mexico recently killed three people and made hundreds more sick. Grow your own? Research shows that vegetables grown in urban gardens can be contaminated with lead. Marian Burros writes in The New York Times that in 2000, there were as many cases of food poisoning caused by fruits and vegetables as there were from meat, fish and eggs combined. This is due to an increase in imports from countries with lower sanitary standards, where fields are often irrigated with contaminated water. When the F.D.A. tested imported produce, it found that almost 5% of it was contaminated with harmful bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control say that 5,000 people die and 76 million become ill from food poisoning every year. In 1996 and 1997 it was Guatemalan raspberries, and from 2000 through 2002 it was salmonella in Mexican cantaloupes. In 1999 salmonella was found in tomatoes grown in the U.S. Megan Fellman reports that another problem is lead from car exhausts. A study by Northwestern University in Chicago shows that vegetables grown in urban gardens in the U.S. may contain hazardous amounts of lead. "We are concerned about the edible portions of leafy vegetables and herbs that were found to contain lead," says researcher Kimberly A. Gray. "It is important that urban gardeners locate fruit and vegetable gardens away from buildings, test the lead levels in their soils and develop strategies to ensure safety for them and their children." Root vegetables, such as carrots, beets and onions, are likely to be especially contaminated.

Cell Phones Dangerous in Surprising Way 19-Nov-2003 Cell phones have been accused of being dangerous because they beam microwaves into people's brains, but now a new cell phone danger has been discovered. If you talk on your cell phone while walking, it can give you an aching back. Australian researcher Paul Hodges says this is because of the way we breathe. You may not have noticed this, but the human body is designed to exhale when our feet touch the ground, in order to protect the spine from sudden jolts. But talking and walking at the same time disrupts this pattern, so the spine is more likely to be injured. While we sometimes talk with other people while walking, we're much more likely to talk on our cell phones. Matthew Bennett, of the British Chiropractic Association, says, "This is totally new research. It shows that we really shouldn't be talking and walking at the same time. Talking appears to disrupt our ability to walk efficiently. This is something we will now have to add to our list. People with bad backs should watch the way they bend to pick things up, shouldn't sit for too long and now it would seem shouldn't talk with someone they are walking with. This is particularly important for [cell] phone users. We already know that holding a phone to your ear for long periods is bad for you, because it can increase tension across the shoulder and cause pain." 

The Soy of Sex 18-Nov-2003 A lot of women are taking soy supplements to help with the symptoms of menopause, because it contains a vegetable form of estrogen. However, new tests show it can reduce normal sexual behavior as much as 70%. Women may accept the end of fertility, but few want this to include the end of their sex lives as well. Since the recent news about negative effects from prescription hormone replacement therapy (HRT), women are looking in health food stores for relief. Emily Singer writes in New Scientist that when rats were given a soy supplement in doses that were adjusted for their body size, their sexual behavior decreased dramatically. For some reason, the plant form of estrogen seems to reduce the levels of natural estrogen in the human body, which may be why Asian women, who eat a diet high in soy, have lower cancer rates. Estrogen-reducing breast cancer drugs, such as tamoxifen, have a similar effect on women. Reseacher Heather Patisaul, who did the studies, thinks women taking the soy supplements may blame their lack of sex drive on menopause, and says, "...No one has asked these women about sexual side effects."

Teflon Trouble 21-Nov-2003 Teflon, the non-stick coating on pots and pans and stain protector on carpets and clothes, can give you the "Teflon flu." In large amounts, it can also cause birth defects. Sue Bailey, who worked at a plant that made chemicals for Teflon when she was pregnant, gave birth to a severely deformed baby. One of these chemicals, known as C-8, has been linked to cancer and organ damage in animals. Is the amount of Teflon in our daily lives dangerous as well? Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz and Maddy Sauer report for abcnews.com that C-8 has been found in the blood of almost every American, and some of the highest levels have been found in children. "In retrospect, this may seem like one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mistakes the chemical industry has ever made," says environmentalist Jane Houlihan. "And how could [these chemicals] not be in our blood? They're in such a huge range of consumer products. We're talking about Teflon, Stainmaster, Gore-tex, Silverstone. So if you buy clothing that's coated with Teflon or something else that protects it from dirt and stains, those chemicals can absorb directly through the skin." Dupont vice president Uma Chowdhry says, "We are confident when we say that the facts, the scientific facts, demonstrate that the material is perfectly safe to use. We do not believe there are any adverse health effects. There are lots of chemicals that are present in our blood." There's also "Teflon flu," which you can get if you overheat your Teflon pans. "It feels like the flu," says Houlihan, "headaches, chills, backache, temperature between 100 and 104 degrees. At 554 degrees Fahrenheit, studies show ultrafine particles start coming off the pan. These are tiny little particles that can embed deeply into the lungs. At 680, toxic gases can begin to come off of heated Teflon." Chowdhry says, "You get some fumes, yes, and you get a flu- like symptom, which is reversible." She says "Teflon flu" only lasts a couple of days. But Houlihan says, "It's a potential threat, and the EPA's moving fast in studying this. Human blood levels are too close to the levels that harm lab animals. That's why they're moving so fast." 

Better Not to Eat? 26-Nov-2003 About the only regimen that is guaranteed to give you longer life is to continuously deprive yourself of enough to eat-at least it works for mice and fruit flies. People are now beginning to try this diet as well, although we will have to wait to see if it works for humans. Now scientists have discovered a hermit in India who says he hasn't eaten or drunk anything for 20 years. He's lived to be 70 and is in perfect health. Rajeev Khanna writes in bbcnews.com about Prahlad Jani, who was recently put under constant video surveillance in Sterling Hospital in India for 10 days, in a room with a sealed- off toilet. During that time, he did not eat anything and "neither did he pass urine or stool," says hospital deputy superintendent Dr. Dinesh Desai. "A series of tests conducted on him show his body mechanism is that of a normal person." Most of us can only live for a few days without water. We can survive without food for several weeks, because we can live on our stored protein and fat. Despite the fact that Jani drinks no water, urine appears to form in his bladder, but it is reabsorbed by his bladder walls. He says, "I feel no need for food and water."

Life Expectancy in Retreat for World's Poorest-UN Thu Dec 18, 8:02 AM ET  

By Richard Waddington GENEVA  - While life expectancy increases in most of the world, in AIDS (news - web sites)-ravaged parts of southern Africa adult mortality is higher than 30 years ago, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said on Thursday. In 14 African countries, the U.N. agency said in its annual World Health Report, child mortality is higher than it was in 1990, with over 300 children out of every 1,000 born in Sierre Leone dying before the age of five. The 194-page report, which ranges from life expectancy through road traffic deaths to the fight against polio (news - web sites) and AIDS, also warned of a growing gulf in health care and exposure to disease between the poorest nations and the rest. "Today's global health situation raises urgent questions about justice," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook, wrote in an introduction. "In some parts of the world there is a continued expectation of longer and more comfortable life, while in many others there is despair over the failure to control disease though the means to do so exist." Of the 57 million premature deaths in 2002, 10.5 million were among children of less than five years of age and 98 percent of those were in developing countries. In Zimbabwe, the average life expectancy for both sexes was 37.9, in Zambia 39.7 and in Angola 39.9, while in Switzerland it was 80.6, in Sweden 80.4 and in France 79.7. HIGH RATE IN JAPAN A baby girl born now in Japan could expect to live 85 years, while one born at the same time in Sierra Leone would probably not survive beyond 36. "A world marked by such inequities is in very serious trouble," wrote Lee. "We have to find ways to unite our strengths as a global community to shape a healthier future." The report said AIDS was the leading cause of death in the 15-59 age range, reducing the life expectancy of adults in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe by 20 years. Deaths from the virus and the complications it brings were almost twice those from the next top killer -- heart disease -- and well over twice more than the third most fatal -- tuberculosis, according to the report. The WHO said diseases related to tobacco were responsible for some five millions deaths a year. It said that in 2002, over 1.2 million people died of lung cancer -- largely caused by smoking -- which was a 30 percent increase on 1990. Three out of four of these deaths were among men, the WHO said. Among men, average life expectancy is 77.9 years in Australia and 75.9 in France. In China, the average man lives to 69.6, in Brazil to 65.7 and Egypt to 65.3. But in Russia -- where health and other social services have largely collapsed since the end of the Soviet system in 1991 -- a man can expect to live to only 58.4. French women have a present life expectancy of 83.5, just ahead of Australian women who can expect to live to 83. Russian women, less prone to the ravages of heavy vodka-drinking, can expect to outlive their men by around 14 years and die at just over the age of 72.

Sony Unveils World's First 'Running' Humanoid Robot Thu Dec 18, 3:10 AM ET Add Technology 

By Edwina Gibbs TOKYO  - He may not be able to give you a run for your money but one quick step for Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).'s Qrio humanoid robot is one big step for robots in general. Electronics and entertainment giant Sony said on Thursday that it had developed the world's first running -- okay, jogging -- robot. "All around the world, universities and think tanks have been researching how to make robots run but we are pleased to announce that we have done it first," Toshi Doi, an executive vice president at Sony told a news conference. The sleek and diminutive Qrio, which until recently had been known as Sony's SDR robot entertaining crowds with fluid and funky dance motions, can now trot at a speed of 15 yards per minute. If 23-inch, 15-pound Qrio were average human-size, that would translate into 1.5 miles an hour. The big technological breakthrough, says Sony, was in getting both the robot's feet to lose contact with the ground at once. Up until now humanoid or two-legged robots have needed to have one foot on the floor to move stably. "The hardest part was theoretical. Humanoid robots like Sony's older Qrios and Honda's Asimo have been based on a theory which dictates that there must be contact with the floor. We had to develop a new theory," said Doi. Other enhancements for the latest version of Qrio include more advanced finger control that allows him, swiveling like a baseball pitcher, to throw a light ball some three to four yards, and hold fans while dancing. Sony's robot developers admit however that Qrio's running prowess has some way to go. Its running distance is still short and it is not yet ready to join older models that entertain at Sony's promotional events because the technology that allows those models to get up when they fall needs to be enhanced for the new Qrio. The next challenge, said Doi, is to make Qrio's running motion less jogging-like and more like an athlete's. At the moment, Qrio's time with both feet off the ground is only 40 milliseconds, compared with around one second managed by athletes, he said. Sony, which also makes the Aibo (news - web sites) robot dog, a sell-out success when it debuted in 1999, said it still doesn't have a timetable for commercializing Qrio, whose name is short for "quest for curiosity." And Doi admits a running Qrio is not necessarily a helpful product. "It's not useful. Sony doesn't make useful robots. Sony makes robots that entertain," he said. 

Chicago Eatery to Destroy Infamous Ball 2 hours, 25 minutes ago By BENNIE M. CURRIE, News Source Writer CHICAGO - Here's one way to try to end the Cubs' curse: Destroy the ball that was in the middle of one of the team's most heartbreaking defeats. That's exactly what Grant DePorter wants to do. Deporter, a friend of Harry Caray and managing partner of the late broadcasters' area restaurants, paid $106,600 at auction Friday for the foul ball that disrupted the Cubs' possible run to the World Series (news - web sites). "We want to create some closure to the way the season ended," DePorter said. The ball is to be destroyed in an act of exorcism. It is earmarked for death on Feb. 26, when the restaurant organizes a worldwide toast to Caray. DePorter plans to ask fans for ideas on how best to banish the ball. "Harry Caray was a true Cubs fan, and we think he'd want us to do whatever we can to make it easier for fans to put this thing behind us," he said. Cubs fan Steve Bartman deflected the ball in Game 6 of the National League (news) championship series on Oct. 14. The ball appeared headed for the glove of Cubs outfielder Moises Alou, but he was unable to catch it after it ricocheted off Bartman's hand. The Florida Marlins (news) rallied to win the game, and the Cubs then lost Game 7 and their chance to reach their first World Series since 1945. DePorter wants to make sure that if Cubs fans can't control the fate of their season they can at least control the fate of this ball. "We weren't about to let it get into the hands of a Marlins fan," he said. The auction was handled by MastroNet Inc. of suburban Oak Brook. Thirty-seven bids had been made on the ball by the time the auction closed about 4 a.m. MastroNet said the seller was a 33-year-old Chicago attorney identified only as Jim. According to the company, he was sitting near Bartman and picked up the ball when it bounced his way. The ball was authenticated using affidavits, ticket stubs and other information, MastroNet said. DePorter said he was pleased his bid surpassed that for the ball that skipped through Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series, helping the New York Mets (news) beat the Boston Red Sox (news). Actor Charlie Sheen paid $93,500 for that ball in a 1992 auction, and author Seth Swirsky bid $63,945 to acquire it in 2000. "The Cubs fans' sorrow is worth more than the Red Sox fans' sorrow," DePorter said. DePorter said Bartman will be invited to attend the event when the ball is destroyed. Messages left Friday by The News Source with Bartman and his spokesman were not immediately returned. He has sought to avoid the limelight since issuing a statement shortly after the fateful game, saying he was "truly sorry from the bottom of this Cubs fan's broken heart."

Kramer Cracks in "Seinfeld" Feud Wed Dec 24, 4:40 PM ET Add Television - E! Online 

By Julie Keller Kramer has crossed the Seinfeld picket line. Michael Richards, the beloved, wacky star of the much-Emmyd comedy series has broken ranks with costars Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and decided to participate in an upcoming DVD about the show. Until now, all three stars have passed on participating in the project due to financial woes-reps for all three actors have said their clients were unhappy with their payoffs from the continually successful show and they didnt want to work for free. But Richards finally caved to pressure after talking things over with series star Jerry Seinfeld over the weekend. He does maintain that he would like to receive some cash for participating, particularly since others like Seinfeld, co-creator Larry David (news) and several others involved in production are still making money on the show. "I think everyone wants to get paid," Richards told the New York Times. "Is it honorable for those on the inside to make compensation? That's an ethical question they have to deal with. But I never heard back from anybody." It seems unlikely that Kramer will cash in for his participation, since actors dont generally get paid on residual deals like DVDs. "I innocently asked a question. 'Is there some compensation?' I don't believe there is," Richards told the Times. "There isn't anything." Still, Richards says he is going to do his part to make the DVD a success. "I'm not boycotting," he told the Times. "I'm involved. I was never called to do an interview. I am so for the DVD coming out that I'll go on the Tonight show." Elizabeth Clark, a rep for Seinfeld, says the actor still has hope that the erstwhile George and Elaine will come around and that he plans to get in touch with them in the New Year. "He hopes they will participate in the DVD," she said in a statement. But whether Alexander and Louis-Dreyfus sign on or not, the DVD is likely to be a smashing success. Seinfeld was consistently a No. 1 show and a mainstay of "Must-See TV" on NBC throughout its run from 1990 to 1998. Even today, it still runs relentlessly in syndication and generates millions for its Seinfeld and David, co-creators and executive producers. Seinfeld, meanwhile, is having no trouble keeping his pockets lined even without the help of his hit show. The star has landed a deal to write, produce and star in Bee Movie, a computer-animated feature-length flick for DreamWorks. 

Parish Offers Incense-Free Christmas Mass Wed Dec 24,10:37 AM ET Add Strange News - 

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - Following requests from parishioners, a Catholic parish is holding incense-free Masses. One Mass on Dec. 24 and another Christmas Day at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church will be "incense-free." At least one parishioner has already sent a thank-you note because of the change. "I have asthma and so does my son," Kristi Otto said. "I get physically ill from the smell of it. There have been so many times when I've gone to church and I've had to leave and sit in the car and wait for my family." Frankincense was widely used for centuries, in part because of its medicinal use as an anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and calming fragrance. The incense - resin scraped from the root of the frankincense tree found in eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula - was even touted as beneficial to those with asthma. But those such as Otto, her 7-year-old son, and people with certain perfume allergies are sensitive to the smell. "We've had a number of people in the parish call because they find it difficult to go to Mass on high holidays, as much as they'd like to go," said Mary Bothwell, an administrative assistant at Presentation. Churches with traditional "high liturgy" - such as Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans - often burn incense during worship, especially on holy days such as Christmas and Easter. "It is a symbol of our prayers rising to the heavens, as described in the Psalms," said Steve Klein, an administrator at Presentation. It also makes worship a full sensory experience, said Tom Paulus of St. Patrick's Guild, which sells liturgical incense to many parishes in the Twin Cities. "We use all the physical senses in worship - music appeals to sound, and incense draws in the sense of smell - to remind us Jesus actually took the form of a human being," Paulus said. "We are a physical church." 

U.S. Blurs High-Tech Washington Images

Wed Dec 24, 2:00 AM ET

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON - The government is selectively blurring some of its highest-quality aerial photographs of Washington to hide objects in plain view on the roofs of the White House, Capitol and Treasury Department (news - web sites). 

Your Annual PC Tune-up Rev up your PC for 2004 with our annual tune-up guide, plus must-have free utilities and maintenance tips to keep your PC purring. 

Deferring to Secret Service worries about terrorists, the government also obscured aerial views of the Naval Observatory compound where Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) lives. It made no effort to blur detailed photographs showing the Pentagon (news - web sites), Supreme Court, CIA (news - web sites) headquarters, Justice Department (news - web sites) or FBI (news - web sites) headquarters. 

Experts said they feared the unusual decision reflects a troublesome move toward new government limits on commercial satellite and aerial photography, a booming industry driven by recent technology advances and including some major companies based outside the United States. 

Some commercial satellites already can snap photographs almost as detailed as those images shot from airplanes ordered blurred by the government. 

Some experts also questioned the effectiveness of blurring one set of government-financed photographs. Tourists can see the roofs of the White House and U.S. Capitol from dozens of tall buildings downtown, and the Web site for the National Park Service shows a June 2002 photograph of the White House from atop the Washington Monument. 

"We have to accept that we're not going to be invisible from space anymore," said James Lewis, a satellites expert for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The knee-jerk reaction is to turn it off. Once in a while that makes sense, but not very often." 

Some private companies that already purchased this most recent collection of detailed photographs did not know some had been degraded by the government until contacted by The News Source. 

"This is the first time we've seen anything like this," said Chris Becwar of GlobeXplorer LLC of Walnut Creek, Calif., which makes satellite and aerial photographs available over popular Web sites. "We'd prefer that it not be there." 

Becwar said the company will consider replacing the degraded government photographs with other commercially available images of downtown Washington that haven't been altered. 

The Secret Service (news - web sites) ordered the photographs degraded as a condition of permitting a contractor's twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain to fly directly over Washington in April 2002, where such flights have been heavily restricted since the 2001 terror attacks. 

Secret Service spokesman John Gill said the agency worried that the high-altitude photographs, so detailed that pedestrians can be seen in crosswalks, "may expose security operations." 

Mary Hiatt, a vice president for EarthData International of Maryland LLC, said the Secret Service "gave us guidance as to what they had concerns about," and the company used commercial software to blur parts of some photographs and obscure parts of others. 

A civil-liberties expert, James Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said he wasn't troubled by the government's actions. But he said the government's demand "illustrates the tension that exists between the public's right to know and security concerns." 

Still, Dempsey added: "I don't see the public interest in what the top of the White House looks like." 

The affected images include: 

_The White House, where the roof is obscured to hide objects in plain view. 

_The nearby Old Executive Office Building where many presidential aides work. The roof on that photo is obscured and interior courtyards blurred. 

_The Treasury Department, next door to the White House, where the roof also is obscured and interior courtyards blurred. 

_The Capitol, where the main building and five nearby congressional office buildings are blurred. 

_The Naval Observatory compound where the vice presidential residence is, which is blurred. 

The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites), which paid for the photographs, has been distributing them publicly since last December without formally acknowledging they were altered. The Washington photographs were part of a national project to create high-resolution images of 133 cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Dallas. 

About half the cities already have been photographed, and none of the images except those of Washington were blurred for security reasons, said Scott Harris, a spokesman for the Geological Survey. 

___ 

On the Web: 

USGS (news - web sites) National Map: http://seamless.usgs.gov

Family Pets Get Caught Up in Holiday Gift Spirit 
Tue Dec 23, 3:55 PM ET 
Add U.S. National 

By Frank Tang 

NEW YORK  - Chad is receiving 8 different presents every night of Hanukkah this year. 

"He's our son. We didn't want to give each other Hanukkah presents, but not give Chad a present," said Sarah Gerber, a technical writer in New York, who spent about $60 on holiday gifts for Chad this year. 

Chad, though, is not Gerber's son -- he's her dog. 

Americans will spend a whopping $31 billion in 2003 on their pampered pets, up 5 percent from a year earlier, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA), a trade group. 

Indeed, this holiday season has gone to the dogs, and the cats and other pets. 

According to the APPMA, 62 percent of American households own a pet, and almost half of those have more than one. Forty million Americans will be shopping not only for the family this holiday season, but also for their pets as well. 

Matthew Everding, a general manager of Petco Animal Supplies Inc., said there was a "crazy amount" of last-minute shopping at his New York City store. Holiday sales rose about 10 percent from a year ago, and it's been climbing every year, he said. 

"We have a lot more people buying for other people's pets" this year, since more people bring presents for their families' and friends' pets as party gifts, said Everding. 

DOGS ARE PEOPLE, TOO 

Consumers can now find chic and unique pet holiday gifts not only at pet supplies stores, but also some clothiers, as well as luxury retailers. 

Petsmart Inc. said some of the hottest presents for the four-legged family members include the "canine holiday party tray," which has colorful dog treats -- such as frosted shortbread cookies and dipped bone biscuits, for about $12. 

Another unique gift Petsmart offers is the Pawlish Nail Polish, a line of pet-safe nail polish for cats and dogs, made by human cosmetics maker OPI Products Inc. 

"A lot of our products are actually mimicking what's going on in the human world," said Alisa Bartmess, Petsmart's category manager. 

Pet lovers can also find everything from a $600 deluxe fur-covered pet sofa bed to a $35 sterling-silver dog charm bracelet for humans on the Web site of upscale retailer Neiman Marcus Group Inc. 

Neiman also offers a little jewelry for our canine friends. A variety of jade and amber dog collars are available, which cost about $70 each. 

"This (dog collar) looks like something which can easily be a bracelet for women to wear ... something you can wear for the day," said Ginger Reeder, vice president of public relations of Neiman Marcus Direct. "The dogs are catching up the rest of us, I guess." 

DAYWEAR ... EVENINGWEAR ... DOGWEAR? 

Swedish clothier H&M also offers a collection of trendy "dogwear," such as sweatshirts, raincoats and jackets, and their matching accessories, like pet carriers. 

For the owners of the amply fed pet, Iams Co., a unit of Procter & Gamble Co., offers a variety of restricted-calorie and weight-control dog and cat foods, under the Eukanuba and Iams brands. 

American pets are increasingly resembling their owners in terms of body size. In fact, one out of every four dogs and cats in the Western world is obese. 

Pet owners can actually save money by following the feeding suggestions provided by the pet food maker, since most people are overfeeding their pets, Iams President Jeffrey Ansell told The News Source in a recent interview. 

By the way, Chad, the 3-year-old Shiba Inu, is really happy after receiving a yarmulke cap, which he'll be wearing when the Gerbers light the next candle during Hanukkah.

David Bowie says no sir to knighthood Wed Dec 24,12:21 PM ET Add Entertainment - 

LONDON - You can have Sir Mick, and Sir Elton, and Sir Paul, but you'll won't hear Sir David - as in Bowie. The veteran singer was one of the people The Sunday Times revealed as declining honors from the queen. Bowie said he'd never accept a knighthood and doesn't even know what it's for. Sir Mick Jagger (news) was delighted to become a knight earlier this month. But bandmate Keith Richards (news) called the title a disgrace and paltry honor. The Sunday Times this week published a list of 300 people - including Bowie, comedian John Cleese (news) and actor Kenneth Branagh (news) - who declined honors since 1945. About 2 percent of the 3,000 people chosen each year decline, according to the government. Most do so quietly, but last month poet Benjamin Zephaniah publicly rejected an OBE - Officer of the Order of the British Empire - because the title reminded him of "thousands of years of brutality." "Stick it, Mr. Blair and Mrs. Queen, stop going on about empire," he wrote in The Guardian newspaper. After the list was published, Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s government promised to make the system of awarding knighthoods and other honors more open. Twice a year the government announces recipients of a host of titles, from knighthoods and damehoods to Companions of Honor, for exceptional achievement or service to the nation. Though the honors are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II (news - web sites), most recipients are chosen by committees of civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public.

Artifacts Discovered at Monticello

Mon Dec 22, 3:52 PM ET 
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Bricks, mortar, nails and window glass were among artifacts discovered near a 200-year-old wall now being repaired on the grounds of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's mansion. 

Related Links
¥ Monticello - official site

The items will help archaeologists determine how the wall was originally constructed and to what extent Jefferson leveled a mountaintop to build his home on level ground, said Sara Bon-Harper, Monticello's archaeological research manager. 

Excavators have found thousands of artifacts while shoring up the wall along the north terrace of Monticello. 

The dig didn't start out as research; work on the wall started in November when it began to bow from soil pressure and poor drainage, Bon-Harper said. 

Bon-Harper and a crew of about eight professional excavators are digging a trench along the wall about 5 feet deep, 5 feet wide and eventually 125 feet long. So far, the trench is about 40 feet long. 

After all the dirt is removed, a mason will install a retaining wall and drain to relieve soil pressure. 

Among the artifacts discovered are building materials such as bricks and window glass. 

"A couple of items we were pretty jazzed about finding, including a set of keys that may well have been used for the doors for the north pavilion," Bon-Harper said. 

Archaeologists also have discovered dishes, drinking glasses and animal bones. Jefferson's servants would often sweep trash out the door or throw it out the nearest window, Bon-Harper said. 

"Refuse disposal was not at all what it is now," she said. 

Among the more modern discoveries made along the terrace are 20th-century coins, probably dropped by tourists. 

The excavation also will provide researchers with information about what was planted along the wall. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.monticello.org/ 

Attorney Says Limbaugh Blackmailed by Maid 2 hours, 57 minutes ago By JILL BARTON, News Source Writer WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh paid "substantial" blackmail to a former maid before she told law enforcement and a tabloid newspaper about his addiction to prescription painkillers, his attorney told a judge Monday. Attorney Roy Black said Limbaugh could not complain to authorities about the maid's demand for $4 million because they would use the information against him, and that the maid and her husband "bled him dry" before going public anyway. The claim was made during a court hearing where Black asked that medical records related to Limbaugh be kept secret. The seizure of the records from doctors in Florida and California violated the conservative radio commentator's privacy, Black argued. Palm Beach County prosecutors insist they need to review the records, which are sealed, to determine how much Limbaugh's doctors knew about his frequent prescriptions for OxyContin, hydrocodone and other painkillers. Assistant State Attorney James Martz said judges approved the warrants after investigators discovered Limbaugh received more than 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors, at a pharmacy near his $24 million mansion. "Now the next question is did those doctors know about each other?" Martz said. Reviewing the records would be the only way to determine if Limbaugh violated the law by withholding information from his doctors - and went "doctor shopping" for drugs. Limbaugh's attorneys outlined a defense against accusations that he illegally used prescription painkillers and laundered money to finance his drug habit. Black said Limbaugh suffered from a degenerative disc disease with "pain so great at one point doctors thought he had bone cancer," and that Limbaugh chose to take addictive painkillers rather than have surgery. Surgery would have meant doctors would have gone through Limbaugh's throat to operate on his spine, which could threaten his career as a commentator, Black said. Limbaugh's former maid, Wilma Cline, learned of his addiction and threatened to sell the story to The National Enquirer. She and her husband, David Cline, demanded millions and were "paid substantial amounts of money," the lawyer said. The couple "bled him dry" and then went to authorities to gain immunity from prosecutors before selling their story for $250,000 to the Enquirer, Black said. The tabloid ran a story in October, days before Limbaugh announced he would enter a drug rehabilitation program, alleging they supplied him drugs for years. Black said Limbaugh paid money to the Clines because they were blackmailing him - not because he was laundering money. "It's not money laundering to pay blackmail and extortion," Black said. Ed Shohat, the attorney for the Clines, denied Black's allegation. "Rush Limbaugh confessed and admitted that he bought the pills. ... I know of no facts that my clients demanded money from Rush Limbaugh in any way," he said. Limbaugh allegedly withdrew cash 30 to 40 times at amounts just under the $10,000 limit that requires a bank to report the transaction to the federal government. The action drew suspicion because it can be a federal crime to structure financial transactions below the $10,000 limit. "This would never happen except this guy's name is Rush Limbaugh," Black said about the financial probe. "There's a double standard." Martz declined to comment after the hearing. Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff did not say when he would decide whether the records should be unsealed.

States Look to Combat Obesity With Laws Mon Dec 22, 5:13 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By ROBERT TANNER, News Source National Writer Fighting to shed a few pounds and control that waistline? For the soaring number of Americans who are becoming dangerously overweight, states and cities across the country want to help. With the U.S. Surgeon General calling obesity an epidemic, legislators nationwide are offering measures to encourage healthy food choices and ban the worst temptations. Skeptics say government should stay away from trying to legislate something as personal as what we eat. But supporters say they can't ignore a growing public health problem or how it drives the ever-rising cost of health care. Few ideas have become law yet. But states have considered scores of bills this year that would, among other things: get kids exercising; warn restaurant eaters about fat, sugar and cholesterol on the menu; and, ban sugary sodas and fattening chips from school vending machines. In a Louisiana experiment, the state will pay for a few government employees' gastric bypass surgery - or stomach stapling - to see if it reduces health care costs. "As a country, we have to wake up. We are in an epidemic," said Nevada state Sen. Valerie Wiener, who has had her own battles with weight but now is a champion weightlifter. She heads a state committee gathering data on obesity, and how the legislature, food companies, the health care system and schools can act. "We're all paying the price," she said. Under the laws that have passed, states will: _Test the BMI - body-mass index, a ratio of height to weight - of students in six Arkansas schools, and send results home. Pediatricians say regular tests like this should be performed nationwide to track children at risk of becoming obese. _Ban junk food from vending machines in California. New York City, in an administrative decision, banned hard candy, doughnuts, soda and salty chips from its vending machines. _Require physical education programs in Louisiana schools, and encourage it in Arkansas and Mississippi. Though once a staple, such daily classes are now only required by state law in Illinois; other states let local officials decide or require exercise less often. Public campaigns aimed at getting people to change their eating habits also remain popular. Billboards across West Virginia, featuring photos of bulging stomachs and couch potatoes, exhort people to "Put Down Chips & Trim Those Hips." Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio, Texas have started "get fit" drives. The statistics show the need for such efforts. The number of obese adults has doubled in 20 years, and is now up to nearly 59 million people, or almost a third of all American adults. Childhood obesity has tripled, with one child in six considered obese. As the pounds add up, so do the health care costs, because obesity is linked to diabetes, heart disease, and deaths from cancer - among other ailments. West Virginia found that, for state employees, costs for obesity have more than doubled since 1995, rising from $37 million to $78 million, now nearly a fifth of the employees' $400 million health plan. Still, some are critical both of the statistics and the proposals. "There's a lot of fear and hysteria," said Mike Burita at the Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy group for the restaurant and food industry. "We're allowing government and these public health groups to dictate our food choices to us." Among his top targets is the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that produces a steady flow of warnings about unhealthy food, from movie popcorn to Chinese takeout. "It's OK to have a cheeseburger and fries, but it shouldn't be a mainstay of your diet," Burita said. Exercise and education are the solutions, he said. "Kids went from playing dodge ball to playing computer games." The skeptics are being heard. A Texas proposal to limit school children's access to snack and soda vending machines died after the state soft drink association complained. Most of the 80 or so obesity-related bills around the country also failed to pass. "It's difficult to want to tackle something like this, something as huge as this," said Weiner, the Nevada lawmaker. She plans to bring together people from the food industry and the public health community to work with lawmakers. The federal government is acting, too. The Bush administration urged insurance companies to offer premium discounts to people with healthier lifestyles. It has started giving grants to cities to target unhealthy habits. More immediate changes are brewing on the state and local level. In West Virginia, the state agency that insures public employees has started offering exercise benefits and diet counseling, in addition to the state's advertising campaign. "If we don't get a handle on this, this generation of kids coming up will have a shorter life span than their parents," said Nidia Henderson, wellness manager at West Virginia's Public Employees Insurance Agency. "That's scandalous." ___ On the Net: U.S. Surgeon General: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity

Stewart Says It's Saddest Holiday Ever 2 hours, 51 minutes ago By The News Source NEW YORK - Facing trial on a stock-trading scandal, Martha Stewart (news - web sites) says her legal woes have curtailed her holiday plans. "It's the saddest holiday ever. It's an unwelcome time for me, very unwelcome," she told CNN's "Larry King Live" in a taped interview scheduled to air Monday. "I generally have a Christmas party but this year I'm only having a small family party." Stewart's criminal trial on securities fraud and conspiracy charges is scheduled to begin Jan. 12. In excerpts provided to The News Source, Stewart, 62, denies any wrongdoing, but said the approaching trial has caused her a lot of pain. "You have no idea how much worry and sadness and grief it causes," she says. Despite the ordeal, Stewart says she hasn't allowed herself to get angry. "You can't let that get to you because then, again, your functionality, your daily chores can't get done," she says. "And my legal team has inspired me to behave in an appropriate fashion." 

Origin of 'Jingle Bells' Song Is Debated

1 hour, 42 minutes ago 
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By RUSS BYNUM, News Source Writer 

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Dashing in the sun, through oaks and Spanish moss. Sleigh riding's no fun, when there's no snow to cross. 

Related Links
¥ Our Jingle Bells Connection (Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah)
¥ Jingle Bells Lyrics

Could "Jingle Bells" really be a song of the South? 

It's not hard to see why balmy Savannah has a tough time selling the Christmas carol as a native creation. Or why the claim makes folks in Medford, Mass. - hometown of the song's composer - cry humbug. 

This much is known: James Pierpont was the organist at Savannah's Unitarian Universalist Church in 1857 when he copyrighted the song "One Horse Open Sleigh," a title later changed to "Jingle Bells." 

One of the most popular American Christmas songs, "Jingle Bells" made Pierpont a pre-Civil War one-hit wonder. But did he write it here as a piece of homesick, holiday nostalgia? Or did he compose it years before in Medford, not seeing the tune as a moneymaker until he drifted south? 

"No one really knows where he was when he wrote it - that's the rub," said Constance Turner, Pierpont's great-granddaughter in Coronado, Calif. "Evidently, James was quite the free-spirit and he published some bad songs and one, at least, we know of that's a very good song." 

Medford, just outside Boston, claimed the carol without challenge until 1969, when Milton Rahn, a Savannah Unitarian, announced he had linked the song's composer to Georgia. 

Rahn was listening to his daughter play "Jingle Bells" on the piano when he glanced at the sheet music and noticed the composer's name: J. Pierpont. 

He had earlier found letters John Pierpont Jr., the church's pastor from 1852 to 1858, had written home to Medford saying his brother, James, had come to Savannah as an organist and music teacher. Further research found the composer had married in Savannah in 1857 weeks before he copyrighted "Jingle Bells." 

"I saw this as something to help us get publicity for the church," Rahn said. 

Pierpont, who lived from 1822 to 1893, was said to be a wanderer who ran away to sea at 14 and later went to California during the Gold Rush. During the Civil War, he joined a Confederate cavalry regiment in Savannah, bucking his family's staunch abolitionist views. 

Though Pierpont came from an aristocratic family - his nephew was the financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan - he never made much money himself. 

His other songs included several touting the Confederate cause, with titles such as "We Conquer Or Die" and "Strike For The South." But none struck a chord like "Jingle Bells." 

After Savannah erected a "Jingle Bells" marker across from the church in 1985, then-Mayor John Rousakis declared the tune a Savannah song. 

To folks in Medford, that made Rousakis and Rahn a pair of grinches out to steal their Christmas history. A series of not-so-jolly exchanges followed. 

"In the words of Shakespeare, it is our intention to keep our `honor from corruption,'" Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn wrote in a 1989 letter to Rousakis. "We unequivocally state that `Jingle Bells' was composed ... in the Town of Medford during the year 1850!" 

Rousakis fired back with an equally strong, unyielding letter. 

"James L. Pierpont is still here with us," Rousakis wrote, noting the composer's Savannah burial. "I am sure (Pierpont) will join us in spirit when we finally and formally proclaim Savannah, Georgia, as the birthplace of `Jingle Bells.'" 

According to Medford, Pierpont was inspired by the winter sleigh races down snow-filled Salem Street in Medford and wrote the song at the Simpson Tavern, a boarding house with the only piano in town. 

Ace Collins, author of the 2001 book "Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas," says he found more proof of Medford being the rightful birthplace while researching his chapter on "Jingle Bells." 

Collins said he found a New England newspaper from the early 1840s that mentioned "One Horse Open Sleigh" debuting in Medford at a Thanksgiving church service. The song proved so popular, he said, Pierpont gave a repeat performance at Christmas. 

When it comes to which city deserves bragging rights, Collins gets diplomatic. Pierpont may have written his song in Medford, he says, but Savannah made him realize its universal appeal. 

"Savannah was the key," Collins said. "If it can play in Savannah, where snow was a novelty, it can play anywhere." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah: http://www.jinglebellschurch.org 

Medford: http://www.medford.org 

Songwriters Hall of Fame: http://www.songwritershalloffame.org

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/currents/Content?oid=oid:47018

A Place Where Time Travel is Real 10-Dec-2003

Physicist Michio Kaku says he knows of nothing that makes time travel impossible and "In the laws of physics, if it's not forbidden, it's mandatory. This is pretty much proven every time." And an amateur explorer says he's discovered a portal where time is altered. 

In msnbc.com, Alan Boyle quotes Kaku as saying, "Over the last 10 years there's been a sea change. Ten years ago, you would be considered a lunatic if you proposed that time travel was possible...Now, the burden of proof has shifted to the cynics, who have to prove that it's not possible." 

One time travel theory involves wormholes, which are shortcuts between two distant regions in the curved time- space of the universe. But in the past, scientists though a time machine that traveled through wormholes (if the exist) would need so much power it would instantly explode. "Since then, there have been experiments indicating that the machine does not explode," Kaku says. But "Black holes are not preferable for time travel because they're one-way trips. It's like an elevator with only an 'up' button." 

Engineer Paul Nahin says, "The fact that you can't change the past doesn't mean that you can't affect it. We know Joan of Arc died, but you could very well be the person who threw the match on the wood." 

"I tend to believe the many-worlds interpretation," Kaku says. This means that there's a world in which Joan of Arc died, and another in which you went back in time and saved her- in fact, there are as many universes as there are possibilities. 

Ron Quinn writes in the Tucson Weekly about a secret place in the Arizona mountains he discovered in 1956, where time is altered. He says, "The reason I'm bringing this tale to light after all this time is because something is in the works might effect this interesting place. Tucson Electric Power Company plans on building a 345,000-watt high-voltage transmission line from Tucson to Nogales. The line could come quite close to this site. When this line becomes active, what, if anything, will this enormous voltage do to this delicate location? Enhance the natural energy already lurking within it, or nothing? Only time will tell." 

It started when John, a local Indian, told him about a mysterious stone archway. In the 1800s, three Indians discovered it while hunting. They started chasing each other through it, but one of them never emerged from the other side. The remaining two Indians fled. In 1948, John came upon the arch in a storm. When he looked through it, he saw a blue, cloudless sky on the other side. 

Ron and his brother Chuck set off to find the arch. When they found it, they noted that it was about 7 feet high and 5 feet wide. They threw stones through it and Ron even stuck his arm through, but nothing happened. 

Their friend Louie Romero was camping near the arch one night with some other cowboys when they all heard the rumbling hooves and whinnying of approaching horses-but they couldn't see them. The sounds suddenly ended and in the morning, they could find no hoof prints. Historical figures have also been seen near the arch. Some have seen a dark- robed Jesuit priest, who became transparent, then vanished. Others have seen a troop of Spanish soldiers, who also vanished. 

Ron writes, "During one of our two-week adventures, I found myself near the canyon that leads towards that oddball site. Not having been there in almost four years, I decided to pay it a visit...Below to my left was a canyon-where none had existed...I soon discovered I was in the same canyon that led toward the hill I had just scaled. I was more than 250 yards back down the canyon on a different slope and now I was facing south-I had mysteriously been transported to the new location. Thinking I was looking west, I was really looking east seeing the canyon I had just hiked." He was afraid he might not still be living in his own time, so he was relieved when he got back to his Jeep. 

People have found large numbers of geodes-a type of quartz that conducts electricity-in the vicinity of the arch. They've also experienced vibrations, their arm hair standing on end, and strange ear pressure when in the area, all of which could be caused by electricity. Ron writes, "Could these large geodes be the main source that activates the natural energy within the area? 

"...What we have out there is a natural phenomena created accidentally by nature. It alters time, and there's no way to predict when this might occur...On my last visit to this wondrous place, I discovered the top portion of the archway had collapsed. All that remains are the two columns. Will this damage interfere with its ability to change time?" 

Time Travel Will be Easy 03-Jun-2003

To travel through time, you can open a wormhole in space- time and step through it. All you need is some "exotic matter," which is repelled, rather than attracted, by gravity. The problem is, no one knows how to make exotic matter. But New Zealand researcher Matt Visser thinks we'll learn how to make it soon-then we'll be ready to travel in time. Wormholes are hypothetical tunnels that connect distant parts of space-time. Einstein's theory of general relativity says they exist, but in order to stay open, they need exotic matter. Quantum theory says that subatomic particles and their antiparticles pop in and out of existence all the time in the vacuum of space. Exotic matter might be created by suppressing this action. 

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says that even if we could make a wormhole that was stabilized by exotic matter, we couldn't go through it to time travel, because even a single atomic particle would destabilize it. Does this mean we'd go back in time and never get home to the present again? But physicists have found a way to solve this problem, using the "time loops" inside a wormhole so we can travel backwards in time without being able to change anything that would alter the future. In other words, we'll be able to travel back in time, but we won't be able to kill off our grandparents (which would mean we wouldn't exist). 

Time Travel May be Real 30-Apr-2004

If we can speed up time, we may be able to travel in time. Now scientists say they're learning how to do it. If you find this confusing, you're not alone: physicist Carlos Dolz says, ''A big problem for science is common sense. It works for most everything in people's lives, but not in physics.'' 

Rafael Sangiovanni writes in the Miami Herald that physicist Dolz has managed to speed up time. In the past, atomic clocks on planes flying fast have been compared with the same kind of clocks on the ground to show that the clocks on the planes moved forward slightly more quickly. In his experiment, he puts a digital clock under immense force by spinning it on a centrifuge, in order to speed up the frequency of the pulses produced by the clock and push it ahead. It takes about six hours to move the clock ahead four seconds. 

Sometimes time just SEEMS to go faster. Scientists have a theory about why time flies when you're having fun, and drags when you're bored. Brain scans show that patterns of activity in the brain change depending on how we focus on a task. If we're concentrating on the time, instead of on the job itself, this triggers brain activity which makes time seem to go more slowly. If your brain is busy focusing on a task, then it doesn't have enough resources to also pay attention to the time it takes, and the time seems to pass more quickly. Neuroscientist Tonmoy Sharma says this is because "...The same parts of the brain that are involved in motor function are also involved time perception." 

ALL Global Warming From Planes? 30-Apr-2004

NASA scientists say that cirrus clouds formed by contrails increased surface temperatures enough to account for all the warming that took place in the United States between 1975 and 1994. This totally ignores major global warming causes like changes in ocean currents, which have been observed by NASA's own satellites. This statement may be a result of government pressure on NASA to discredit the upcoming film The Day After Tomorrow. 

NASA's Patrick Minnis says, "This result shows the increased cirrus coverage, attributable to air traffic, could account for nearly all of the warming observed over the United States for nearly 20 years starting in 1975, but it is important to acknowledge contrails would add to and not replace any greenhouse gas effect. During the same period, warming occurred in many other areas where cirrus coverage decreased or remained steady." 

Contrails form when the water vapor in the aircraft exhaust condenses and freezes. Global warming means that the lower atmosphere is warmer which causes the upper atmosphere, where planes fly, to be colder, so more and longer-lasting contrails are being formed. Contrails can turn into cirrus clouds that trap heat and warm the Earth even more. Minnis does admit that global warming is affected by humans and is not entirely a natural phenomenon. He says, "This study demonstrates that human activity has a visible and significant impact on cloud cover and, therefore, on climate. It indicates that contrails should be included in climate change scenarios...This study indicates that contrails already have substantial regional effects where air traffic is heavy, such as over the United States. As air travel continues growing in other areas, the impact could become globally significant." 

Extinction-Is it in Our Future? 29-Apr-2004

Half of the 114 species that have become extinct, despite the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973, once lived in Hawaii. The Center for Biological Diversity says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service knowingly delays putting species on the endangered list "to avoid political controversy even when it knew the likely result would be the extinction of the species." Extinction could happen to us too-unless we learn how to lengthen our telomeres. 

Because Hawaii has-or had-so many unique species, it has the worst extinction problems in the U.S. Only 19% of these extinct sp