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: 
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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

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AP - 14 minutes ago 
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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: 
� U.S. Warns Iraqi Insurgency Could Grow 
AP - 1 minute ago 
� U.S. Soldiers Raid Chalabi's Home in Iraq 
AP - 3 minutes ago 
� 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. 

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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. 

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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 
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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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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: 
� U.N. May Expand Probe Into Iraq Aid 
AP - 45 minutes ago 
� Bomb Destroys Baghdad Hotel, Killing 27 
AP - 49 minutes ago 
� 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 
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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. 

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� 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 species were put on the endangered list. The CBD's Kieran Suckling says, "But species known to be endangered were stuck in bureaucratic delay and went extinct before they had a chance to be listed...They were sacrificed to bureaucratic inertia, political meddling, and lack of leadership." 

Brian Nowicki, who co-authored the CBD report, says, "Listing delays and extinctions have plagued the Fish and Wildlife Service for 30 years, but the Bush administration has pushed the crisis to an unprecedented level." The Bush administration has placed an average of only nine species on the list per year, while the Clinton administration averaged 65 listings per year. 

However, Michael Buck, of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, says, "Just getting something on the list does not save endangered species." 

In terms of the life of the Earth, humans are fairly recent-will we go extinct any time soon? Kate Ravilious writes in the Mail & Guardian that according to researcher Reinhard Stindl, the answer can be found on the tips of our chromosomes. He believes that all living things except bacteria and algae have an evolutionary clock that counts down to an eventual extinction date. This contradicts Darwin's theory of natural selection, as well as those who always blame extinction on changes in habitat. 

Scientists have long been puzzled about "background" extinction. We know the causes of most mass extinctions, of the kind that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, but these account for only 4% of extinctions. Most extinct animals seem to disappear quietly. In fact, over 99% of all the species that ever lived on Earth are already extinct. 

Paleontologists who examine layers of rock can see that evolution does not run smoothly, but has stops and starts. Species have long stable periods followed by a sudden extinction, rather than a gradual disappearance. Scientists used to think the fossil record was incomplete, but now they think that an extinction date is programmed into each species. 

Stindl says it can be explained by the protective caps on the end of chromosomes, called telomeres. When cells divide, they have a hard time copying telomeres properly, and soon they become shorter. Because our telomeres become shorter as we age, this may be what causes aging in the first place. Telomeres also get shorter from generation to generation, as DNA is passed along. 

He says, "The shortening of telomeres between generations means that eventually the telomeres become critically short for a particular species, causing outbreaks of disease and finally a population crash. It could explain the disappearance of a seemingly successful species, like Neanderthal man, with no need for external factors such as climate change." 

After a population crash, there are always a few isolated individuals left. When they die off, the species becomes extinct. But if they mate with each other, they can "reset" their cellular clock, elongating their telomeres and starting a new species. This means that despite what we've been taught, inbreeding can sometimes be a good thing. "Established strains of lab mice have exceptionally long telomeres compared to those in wild mice, their ancestors," says Stindl. "Those strains of lab mice were inbred intensively from a small population." 

Short telomeres may cause diseases as well. Cancer could be caused partly by telomere erosion, since the shortest telomere in humans occurs on chromosome 17 and most human cancers are affected by the loss of a tumor suppressor gene on this chromosome. 

Immune deficiency diseases like AIDS and lupus may be brought on by short telomeres in the immune system. Heart attacks and strokes could be caused by the cells lining blood vessels being unable to replace themselves due to telomere erosion. Lower sperm count could also be caused by shortened telomeres. 

Stindl says that telomeres shorten only a tiny amount between each generation, meaning it takes thousands of generations before they reach a critical level. This is why many species remain stable for tens to hundreds of thousands of years, creating the long periods in evolution when nothing seems to happen. 

The solution for humans? Stindl believes we may be able to elongate our telomeres by increasing the activity of a certain enzyme in embryos. If so, we would be the first species to prevent its own extinction. 

Drought or Flood-Which One Will Hit Your Town? 28-Apr-2004

Global warming brings flooding-and droughts. It all depends on where you live. The Western U.S. and the West Coast will continue to have droughts, due to lack of snow melt and a drop in rainfall. Meanwhile, massive flooding is predicted for the U.K. And now we know that the ocean rises higher on the coasts than it does in the "middle," making things even worse. 

What causes too much rain in one area and a drought in another? Kate Ravilious writes in New Scientist that the Western drought is partially caused by melting Arctic sea ice. Towers of warm air form above the areas where there is no more sea ice, and that disturbs the flow of air in the atmosphere around them, which affects rainfall. Researchers Jacob Sewall and Lisa Cirbus Sloan found that such towers formed between Norway and Greenland, deflecting winter storms that would otherwise have passed over the West Coast of the U.S. As Arctic sea ice melts, the annual rainfall may drop by as much as 30% from Seattle to Los Angeles, and inland as far as the Rocky Mountains. 

As temperatures rise over the next 50 years, the area of Arctic sea ice is predicted to shrink by as much as 50% in some areas during the summer. Sewall says, "Winter sea ice acts like an insulating lid. When the lid is reduced, more heat can escape from the ocean to warm the atmosphere." 

Paul Brown writes in The Guardian that 4 million people in the U.K. may lose their homes to flooding in the next 50 years, according to a government report. 

Britain's chief scientist, Sir David King, says "safety valves" need to be created in cities to channel floodwater. The 150- year-old drains in Britain's older cities, as well as in many other European cities, are in danger of being overwhelmed by large amounts of water. Some urban areas may need to be abandoned or relocated. "Some structures such as oil refineries could be relocated [inland]. However, other assets such as coastal towns will be difficult to relocate," King says. "In Wales and other parts of the U.K., erosion could threaten beaches and therefore tourism." 

Jenny Hogan writes in New Scientist that satellites show ocean levels are rising faster near the coasts than in mid- ocean. Researchers Simon Holgate and Philip Woodworth think the oceans may act like water in a bathtub: If you splash water in the bath, the waves travel outwards and lap over the edge of the tub. 

Other parts of Europe are planning for the future as well. In certain parts of the Netherlands, some new developers must build their houses on stilts and provide each family that moves in with an escape boat. 

Why Dinosaurs Went Extinct: No Sex 28-Apr-2004

65 million years ago, dinosaurs experienced bad weather and an asteroid impact, but scientists say their real problem was too many males for the number of females. They think that the sex of dinosaurs, like crocodiles today, depended on the temperature the day they were born. Debris from the asteroid impact blocked the sun and cooled down the climate, leading to the birth of too many males. 

In bbcnews.com, David Whitehouse quotes infertility expert Sherman Silber as saying, "The Earth did not become so toxic that life died out 65 million years ago; the temperature just changed, and these great beasts had not evolved a genetic mechanism (like our Y chromosome) to cope with that." But crocodiles and turtles had already evolved at the time of the dinosaur extinction, so why didn't they go extinct as well? "These animals live at the intersection of aquatic and terrestrial environments, in estuarine waters and river beds, which might have afforded some protection against the more extreme effects of environmental change, hence giving them more time to adapt." 

Rhinos seem to have the same sort of problem today, as a group of visitors to a British safari park discovered when one of them tried to have sex with their car. When tourist Dave Alsop stopped his car to take pictures of two-ton white rhinoceros Sharka mating with his girlfriend Trixie at the West Midland Safari Park, the rhino left Trixie and tried to mount Alsop's Renault instead, denting the doors and ripping off the side mirrors. When Dave drove away, Shaka chased the car in hot pursuit. "He was a big boy and obviously aroused," Alsop says. "He sidled up against us. The next thing I know he's banging away at the car and it's rocking like hell." 

Gregg Braden says there's coded information that has been found deep within the DNA of our bodies. What is so extraordinary about this is that it can be read as a message in a number of ancient biblical alphabets. 

Magic Bullets 28-Apr-2004

Diets and diet pills affect our bodies, when the problem is really in our brains. But now, for everyone who has despaired of ever losing weight, scientists have discovered two "magic bullets" that work on our brain circuits. One helps you stop smoking and cuts your bad cholesterol too (the perfect drug!), while the other one works by using a hormone inside your own fat to rewire your brain so you're not hungry. 

Researcher Shirly Pinto discovered that leptin, a hormone found in fat that helps regulate weight, changes the wiring of the brain in order to regulate hunger, which is why fat people still get hungry. Co-researcher Jeffrey Friedman says, "This is a very dynamic effect that's quite dramatic and somewhat surprising. In response to leptin, the cells create new connections...The brain's wiring may be different in lean versus obese individuals." If we learn how to adjust our leptin levels, we may become less hungry and more able to lose weight. 

Researcher Robert Anthenelli discovered a drug called rimonabant that works on the brain by blocking the circuits that control the urge to eat and smoke. He says, "We think this might be the ideal compound for people who are overweight and smoke." 

The drug blocks the brain system that regulates hunger, as well as cravings for cigarettes, alcohol and drugs (Marijuana stimulates this circuitry, which is why it makes people so hungry). The new drug also cuts levels of harmful cholesterol. 

Since people who stop smoking tend to gain weight, researcher Ian Campbell says, "A drug which could tackle both problems would represent a fantastic opportunity." 

Will New Movie Wake People Up? 25-Apr-2004

This weekend's Drudge Report says, "Employees at NASA have been told not to comment publicly on Fox's new summer fuss-film The Day After Tomorrow" for fear that "moviegoers will be alarmed enough to blame the Bush administration for inattention to climate change. 'No one from NASA is to do interviews or otherwise comment on anything having to do with' the film, said an April 1 message to employees." 

Meanwhile, NASA's own satellite images reveal that a crucial part of the North Atlantic ocean circulation is slowing down, which could change our weather dramatically, just in time for the movie, which will be released worldwide on May 28. NASA's Sirpa Hakkinen said (before the media blackout), "It is a signal of large climate variability in the high latitudes." 

Roger Highfield writes in the Telegraph that while climatologists once believed that the effects of global warming would occur gradually, new data from ice cores shows that it happened suddenly in the past. Climatologist Peter Rhines says, "The question is, how much 're-plumbing' of the ocean circulation is required to push the coupled atmosphere-ocean system over a threshold?" 

Hakkinen and Rhimes have studied the weakening of the Gulf Stream, also known as the subpolar gyre. Hakkinen says, "If this trend continues, it could indicate reorganization of the ocean climate system, perhaps with changes in the whole climate system..." Rhines says, "Computer models have shown the slowing and speeding up of the subpolar gyre can influence the entire ocean circulation system." 

Fred Pearce writes in New Scientist that despite the fact that it will wake up the world to what's happening to our weather, scientists' reactions to the upcoming film based on The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber are not all positive. 

A Pentagon report agrees with the movie scenario, which predicts that a shutdown of the Gulf Stream could plunge the northern hemisphere into a deep freeze. Both the Pentagon and the filmmakers think this could happen soon. But climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf says, "The DoD (Department of Defense) scenario is extreme and highly unlikely." 

Peter Schwartz, who helped created the report, says that although the it is "not the most likely scenario, it is plausible, and would challenge U.S. national security in ways that should be considered immediately." 

Will the movie wake people up so we can demand that our governments act-before it's too late? 

NASA Can Talk After All 27-Apr-2004

In an earlier story, we reported that the White House issued an order stating that "No one from NASA is to do interviews or otherwise comment on anything having to do with" the film The Day After Tomorrow. But NASA public affairs administrator Glenn Mahone now says, "We encourage our researchers to openly answer all appropriate questions regarding the science explored in the movie." 

The "NASA Notice to all Employees Regarding Media Reports about the film 'The Day After Tomorrow'" says: "News reports in recent days have suggested that NASA has attempted to 'muzzle' researchers from responding to the issues raised in the upcoming movie 'The Day After Tomorrow.' To the contrary, NASA expects that as colleagues, we will speak our minds, regardless of whether those views work to the advantage of the agency or not. Diversity of opinion is a valuable resource and plays an important role as we work to successfully fulfill our mission objectives." 

"To clarify the specific issue, a number of NASA colleagues assisted with the film's development. However, we require producers to sign a cooperation agreement before offering any formal advance promotional support. This is a standard agency policy that has successfully worked with other entertainment blockbusters such as 'Armageddon' and 'Space Cowboys.' But the producers of 'The Day After Tomorrow' have not signed an agreement. As such, NASA does not plan any specific support of this production." 

"This direction should not be interpreted as an attempt to keep scientists from speaking out on the issue of climate change. We encourage our researchers to openly answer all appropriate questions regarding the science explored in the movie." 

Glenn Mahone Assistant Administrator of Public Affairs 

Scientists Back Superstorm Film 07-May-2004

Despite government pressure on NASA not to support the scenario in The Day After Tomorrow, scientists are backing the science behind the film. The part of the film most of them object to has to do with the compression of events that they think will happen gradually. Marine physicist Tim Barnett says, "What happens will frankly be worse than what they show, in the long run. Our lives and all our systems will get stretched and stretched and pushed and pushed. The conflicts that will come up will be remarkable." Andrew Bridges quotes oceanographer William Patzert as saying, "...Perhaps it's an opportunity to crank up the dialogue on our role in climate change." 

"To have a major studio release of a movie tackling a serious issue is a terrific opportunity for Americans to start talking about the reality of the problem, what can be done about it and the enormous threat that President Bush is not dealing with," says Peter Schurman of Moveon.org, which will be holding a rally outside the Museum of Natural History in New York during the premiere. 

Former vice-president Al Gore, who will attend the rally, says, "Millions of people will be coming out of theaters on Memorial Day weekend, asking the question, 'Could this really happen?' I think we need to answer that question." 

Extraterrestrial bugs to invade Earth?

Then NASA's Spirit and Opportunity probes landed on Mars recently, they were carrying some of the most sophisticated technology ever sent to that planet. But they might also have been carrying some illicit stowaways: microbes. That is what John Rummel worries about every day. He is NASA's planetary protection officer, a sort of cosmic border guard, and his job is to keep the planets safe from each other's contagions: to prevent Earth from being infected with extraterrestrial bugs and to make sure Earth bugs don't stow away on space probes and infect other planets. 

"The best way to find life on Mars," Mr. Rummel said, "is to bring it from Florida." 

In the last few years his work has heated up as probes zip with increasing frequency through a solar system that seems more and more likely to harbor extraterrestrial life. NASA's Stardust probe collected dust from a comet and will bring it to earth in 2006. This summer a probe will be launched for Mercury, and others are planned for Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which is potentially ripe with water in liquid form, considered essential for creating life. And in January, President Bush proposed building a lunar base to be used eventually as a launching pad for a manned mission to Mars, report nytimes.com 

According to iol.co.za if humans ever go to Mars, they may find electric mini-tornadoes that could make toxic dust stick to their spacesuits, researchers said on Tuesday. National Aeronautics and Space Administration(Nasa) scientists have already detected whirlwinds and duststorms on Mars, and they figure they may generate electric charges just as small tornadoes on Earth do. 

"There's probably an electrical environment to Mars which up to now has gone unmeasured," William Farrell of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre said. "Chances are probably pretty good that the same kind of physics is going on there that's going on here." 

Nasa scientists figure whirlwinds and duststorms on Mars may generate electric charges just as small tornadoes on Earth do. As on Earth, Martian mini-tornadoes can likely produce an electric field of 4000 volts per metre - enough to create dangerous static cling with spacesuits and equipment, according to William Farrell of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre. 

While the earthly electrical environment is most commonly seen during thunderstorms, Farrell said, "on Mars that may also be occurring, but driven by dust storms and dust devils," inform nzherald.co.nz 

source:

http://newsfromrussia.com/science/2004/04/24/53614.html

Congressional Hearing Requested for Area 51 Microbiologist 

April 22, 2004 Global News & Press Release Distribution 

Senator Hatch, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, has been approached about giving Dr. Dan Burisch a hearing regarding designer viruses, extraterrestrial interaction and treaties.

WASHINGTON, DC (PRWEB) April 22, 2004 -- Dan Burisch, a Ph.D. microbiologist presently in lock-down in Area 51 related black ops, who has expressed willingness to testify publicly, is one step closer to getting immunity and the Congressional hearing he seeks. Harry Dschaak and Sterling Allan, who met with Dr. Burisch on April 5 via an insider-invited breach of his lock-down status, traveled by car across the country to Washington D.C. and presented his case to several members of Congress two weeks later on April 19, 2004. 

According to an earlier report about his readiness to disclose upon receiving immunity, Dr. Burisch has said he will answer all questions put to him if subpoenaed to do so.

Dschaak (pronounced DeeShock) and Allan focused their efforts on the office of Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah because of his position as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. They also visited with the staff of other Senate members from Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, where Dschaak, Allan, and Dr. Burisch reside, respectively.

A Hatch staff member who met with Dschaak and Allan to be briefed on the matter, said this case would likely fall under the Select Committee on Security. Notwithstanding a full schedule, Senator Hatch did offer the courtesy of a quick stop in the conference room where the briefing took place. The staff member informed Dschaak and Allan that there are thousands of cases vying to be brought into a Congressional hearing.

Allan said that this issue regarding Dr. Burisch is being watched by thousands worldwide and that he would be glad to commence a petition effort if that could help demonstrate the mandate that is behind this matter. Allan's petition basically offers people an opportunity to voice their support of subpoenaing Dr. Burisch' for a Congressional hearing or other appropriate deposition.

The Burisch deposition would include producing evidence of deadly virus design, with a signature genetic sequence included that could unobtrusively prove the laboratory origin of the virus. These organisms are similar to HIV and SARS, which researchers such as Len Horowitz, M.D., have documented as having man-made, laboratory origins.

The testimony would also include a report of approximate one year period of time in which he was assigned to work on a living extraterrestrial being who offered himself as part of an agreed-upon exchange at S4 of Area 51 north of Las Vegas, NV. 

He can also testify of human subjects he heard who were/are being held at S4 and being treated as laboratory animals against their will.

He also claims to have first-hand experience with working stargates. What form the evidence for such would take is yet to be determined.

Dr. Burisch also claims to be privy to work being done to capture the genetic components of an extraterrestrial disease and insert that into microbial vectors that can target human beings, which Dschaak compares to creating a Cholora-like epidemic of a deadly disease for which there is no previous immunity developed. Perhaps the most crucial part of his testimony would regard his knowledge of a purported tau-IX treaty that exists between certain Extraterrestrial groups and a group of powerful, international, racist, elitist humans. This cabal has allegedly been using their tight control of Extraterrestrial information over the past half a century as a means of exerting extant control over affairs on earth, from government, to energy, to technology, and healing. Meanwhile, they mainly withhold these technological advances from the lay populous while personally benefiting from these things themselves. The treaty also purportedly provides allowances for transitive human abductions.

A professional investigative reporter, Linda Moulten Howe, in reporting on April 19 on the Dan Burisch situation among other secret ops relating to extraterrestrials, gave evidence that the secrecy was first put in place by President Harry Truman. This arose out of what could be considered to be benign intentions of shielding the lay public from what to him was a shocking situation in order to avoid mass hysteria and panic. From that time, the official stance of the U.S. government was to deny any involvement with or knowledge of Extraterrestrial beings. She argues that while some information may yet merit secrecy for purposes of national security because of its military implications, that world should at least be brought into knowledge of the general case of extraterrestrial interaction with earth. Another researcher who has been reporting recently about Dr. Burisch, and received a dialogue communication as recently as April 16, is Michael E. Salla, Ph.D. He purports that there are many alien races that have visited or who now are occupants upon the earth. He wanted to know from Dr. Burisch if he had interaction with more than one species. Dr. Burisch reported that he had only interacted with one race, which was a type of a Gray called a J-rod; and believed there were three in all: two males and one female, the latter of which was allowed to return from whence she came. The males expired.

A research group, headed by Robert Wood, Ph.D., who is involved in proving the authenticity of some original MJ-12 (extraterrestrial-secret controllers) documents are presently now focusing on a recently recovered (was shredded) document that alleges to be communications between a present major world leader and Dr. Dan Burisch.

Though Dr. Burisch is now in even more stringent lock-down, with tight security around him, he has superiors on the inside who are in favor of disclosure. Back-door communications are still taking place. Allan predicts that the handlers will facilitate access to Dr. Burisch at such time as a subpoena may be produced for him to testify before Congress or other appropriate bodies.

According to Stephen Greer, M.D., head of the Disclosure Project, the case for secrecy is beginning to melt, as thousands of material witnesses are beginning to step forward. These include individuals from within the U.S. government including the military, CIA, FBI. Greer sees the Burisch case as a likely poster child case for the many scientists and operatives who have been involved in various facets of this "kleptocracy," as he calls it. Greer asserts that this elitist clique does not want disclosure because the spin-off technologies that will be made available to the world will result in their loss of control because of the level of empowerment it will afford the lay citizen. "Each home could have its own power generation system that taps into the sea of energy that surrounds us. The problem of world hunger could be solved within ten years."

Underlying all these researchers is a volunteer team of amateur researchers who have been following the Burisch story and who have been receiving a significant volume of insider-leaked covert communications with the intent of disclosure. Their forum, godlikeproductions.com has recently become subject to junk message attacks to overwhelm legitimate messages.

Dschaak believes that the reason Dr. Burisch is being protected from being mortally terminated, despite his past disclosures and his intended future disclosures, which usually result in an untimely death sentence of the person making such sensitive disclosures, is because he is in process of developing technologies for those on the inside, which he alone is capable of furthering at this time. Dr. Burisch wants to make sure that these technologies are made available for peaceful purposes, and not for the furtherance of oppression. 

Allan speculates that if they have their way, the elitists on the inside, who are working with a darker agenda-holding faction of extraterrestrial, would inoculate themselves with this particle of life and then eradicate billions of non-immune humans using the super disease.

The thrust of Dr. Burisch's present project, the Lotus Project, involves a "Ganesh Particle" that holds promise for being able to efficiently heal damaged cells and tissue - a "fountain of youth" kind of technology. According to Dschaak, "Dr. Burisch has said that he has until March 15, 2005 to present a written paper fully describing this technology to those who are his handlers, who in turn begrudgingly answer to a shadowy elitist group, who allegedly have ties to a less benevolent faction of Extraterrestrial beings." Dr. Burisch's handlers are former members of the Committee of the Majority, who Dan refers to as Maji.

Allan and Dschaak reported to Senator Hatch's staff member that the window of time for calling a Congressional hearing for Dr. Burisch is therefore short. Many who have followed the secrecy behind the extraterrestrial question for the past half century posit that time is drawing near a critical point of no return if disclosure does not take place. Greer compares this to the "D-1" stage of take-off for an airplane. "You reach a point in which you either take off, or you crash off the end of the runway." 

Dr. Burisch has already disclosed volumes of information. Video interviews with him are available, such as a 68-minute interview he did with Bill Hamilton on Sept. 18, 2002. Another, more professional video interview with Dr. Burisch by a former Fox news cameraman is in process of being released, 

But there is some information that Dr. Burisch does not wish to disclose until he receives immunity. While he believes he can explain how in his mind he was justified in participating in these projects, he thinks that others might be quick to point an accusing finger, possibly wanting to charge him with war crimes. Until he can be protected from such charges, he does not wish to disclose certain of the facts he has at his disposal. Furthermore, he also does not wish to trample the oaths he is under; and a subpoena would provide him legal grounds to speak freely - which he has repeatedly stated to be his desire.

He is not worried about death. Dschaak observes that Dr. Burisch faced the likelihood of an untimely death a long time ago and has made peace with his maker.

We already have a wealth of information from the testimonies that have been given by Dr. Burisch. He apparently wants to be able to get these other things out in the open as well.

##

CREDITS:

Much of the information contained in this press release was obtained at the X-Conference held at Washington, D.C. April 17-18, 2004, organized by Stephen Bassett.

http://www.paradigmclock.com 

REFERENCES:

Petition in support of a Congressional hearing for Dr. Dan Burisch http://www.petitiononline.com/burisch/petition.html 

Area 51 Microbiologist Ready to Talk (April 8, 2004 Press Release) http://www.greaterthings.com/News/ET/Burisch/PR040407/ 

Dr. Burisch Interview with Bill Hamilton http://www.greaterthings.com/ET/Burisch/ 

Steven Greer, M.D.'s Disclosure Project http://www.disclosureproject.com 

Robert Wood, Ph.D. http://www.majesticdocuments.com 

Michael E. Salla, Ph.D. http://www.exopolitics.org 

Bill Hamilton, Skywatch International http://www.skywatchinternational.com 

God-Like Productions Forum http://www.godlikeproductions.com Volume 6 Burisch Thread http://www.godlikeproductions.com/bbs/message.php?message=295261 

GLP Forum 'Dan Burisch' Library http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~bemused/index12.html 

Linda Moulten Howe http://www.earthfiles.com 

Len Horowitz - laboratory origin of HIV and SARS http://www.tetrahedron.org 

Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee http://hatch.senate.gov 

CONTACT:

Harry Dschaak

208-548-2448

Rockland, Idaho (MST)

(c) Copyright 1997-2003, PR Web(tm). All Rights Reserved

Mars Rovers Explore Hints of Salty Water 

By Robert Roy Britt

Senior Science Writer

posted: 03:25 pm ET

19 February 2004

NASA's Opportunity rover sent back new images from Mars showing that small spheres previously found on the surface also exist below, in a trench the rover dug. Hints of salty water were also found in the trench, but much more analysis is needed to learn the true composition.

Meanwhile Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, is about to dig a trench of its own in order to investigate soil that sticks to its wheels, suggesting the fine-grained material might be moist. 

In a press conference today, officials said the soil at both locations could contain small amounts of water mixed with salt in a brine that can exist in liquid form at very low temperatures.

The scientists stressed that only miniscule amounts of water would be needed to create the brine.

Water is the main thing scientists are searching for at Mars, because all life as we know it requires liquid water.

Mechanically speaking, both rovers are performing better than engineers promised and they might last into summer, well beyond the 90 days they were designed for, said Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project from Cornell University.

Mission officials have long known that if all goes well, the rovers would indeed exceed the three-month life span that was considered a minimum design criteria. The robots face a host of threats, from frigid temperatures to high doses of radiation and wind-blown dust that can coat their solar panels, eliminating their source of power.

"These vehicles are holding up spectacularly," Squyres said today. But he cautioned that "projections are very difficult to make." Still, he said all signs point to a lifetime "that could be considerably longer" than the original plan and that he hoped to be still doing rover science in the summer.

source: www.space.com 

Bush backs alien evidence

George W Bush says there is mounting evidence to suggest there is alien life on other planets.

The US President used his budget document to declare that there may be "space aliens" to be discovered.

A passage entitled, "Where are the Real Space Aliens?", states that important scientific research over the last 10 years indicates that proof of "habitable worlds" in outer space is becoming more of a reality.

Evidence for the current or previous existence of large bodies of water, an essential element for life, has already been found on Mars and on Jupiter's moons.

Astronomers are also discovering planets outside of our solar system, including around 90 stars with at least one planet orbiting them.

The document says: "Perhaps the notion that 'there's something out there' is closer to reality than we have imagined."

Story filed: 16:29 Monday 3rd February 2003

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_746860.html

BBCI News - Science 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2941826.stm 

Thursday, 29 May, 2003 

Historic Mars lander 'did find life' 
By Helen Briggs 
BBC News Online science reporter 

Claims have re-emerged that the US space agency (NASA) did find 
signs of life on Mars during the historic Viking landings of 
1976. 

Dr Gil Levin, a former mission scientist, says he now has the 
evidence to prove it, just days before the US and Europe send 
new expeditions to the Red Planet. 

The United States and Russia have spent billions since the 1960s 
on a handful of space craft designed to land on Mars. 

Only three have succeeded so far: the two Viking probes in the 
1970s and Mars Pathfinder in 1997. 

In 1976, the world was gripped by excitement when a robotic 
spacecraft touched down on Mars for the first time in history. 

Biology experiments detected strange signs of activity in the 
Martian soil - akin to microbes giving off gas. 

Before announcing the news that life had been found on another 
planet, Nasa carried out more tests to look for evidence of 
organic matter. 

However, the Viking experiments failed to find this essential 
stuff of life and it was concluded that Mars was a dead planet. 

New evidence 

Dr Levin, one of three scientists on the life detection 
experiments, has never given up on the idea that Viking did find 
living micro-organisms in the surface soil of Mars. 

He continued to experiment and study all new evidence from Mars 
and Earth, and, in 1997, reached the conclusion and published 
that the so-called LR (labelled release) work had detected life. 

He says new evidence is emerging that could settle the debate, 
once and for all. 

He told BBC News Online: "The organic analysis instrument was 
shown to be very insensitive, requiring millions of micro- 
organisms to detect any organic matter versus the LR's 
demonstrated ability to detect as few as 50 micro-organisms." 

Dr Levin, now president and CEO of US biotechnology company 
Biospherix, has a new experiment that he says "could 
unambiguously settle the argument". 

But it was rejected by both Nasa and the European Space Agency 
(Esa) to go on-board this summer's Mars missions. 

The British-built Beagle 2, which will be deposited on the 
Martian surface by Esa's Mars Express space craft, is going with 
the main purpose to hunt for life. This is a risky strategy, 
claims Dr Levin. 

"Strangely, despite its billing, Beagle 2 carries no life 
detection experiment!" he said. "Neither its GCMS (organic 
detector) which is claimed to be more sensitive than Viking's, 
nor its isotopic analysis instrument can provide evidence for 
living organisms." 

Robot geologists 

Nasa's mission to Mars is taking a more circumspect approach to 
the big life question. 

Its two identical rovers will roam the ancient plains of Mars 
acting as robot geologists. 

Mark Adler, deputy mission manager, said the main science 
objective was to understand the water environment of Mars not to 
search for life. 

He told BBC News Online: "What we learnt from Viking is that it 
is very difficult to come up with specific experiments to look 
for something you don't really know what to look for." 

Claims of life on Mars have always proved highly contentious. 
Twenty years after Viking, microbe-like structures discovered 
inside a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica led to more 
claims that were later rejected. 

As the astronomer Carl Sagan once said, extraordinary claims 
require extraordinary evidence. And there is no reason to 
believe that anything found this time will be any different. 

"It's going to take a number of missions if we want to know 
whether there is life on Mars or not," said Dr Charles Cockell, 
a Mars biologist at the British Antarctic Survey in 
Cambridgeshire, UK. 

"If we find no evidence of life on Mars it may just mean we have 
looked in the wrong place."

High Hormone Levels Linked to Prostate Risk

Sun May 9,11:19 AM ET 
Add Health 

WASHINGTON  - Men over 50 who have higher levels of testosterone have a higher risk of prostate cancer, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. 


 

The findings may mean that men should be cautious about a new kind of treatment called testosterone replacement therapy, being tested in older men who see a decline in general health and vigor. 

A study of more than 750 men showed those with the highest levels of free testosterone in the blood were the most likely to have prostate cancer. 

"Since testosterone replacement therapy increases the amount of free testosterone in the blood, older men considering or receiving testosterone replacement should be counseled as to the association until data from long-term clinical trials becomes available," said Dr. Kellogg Parsons, a urologist at Johns Hopkins University who led the study, said in a statement. 

The association between free testosterone and prostate cancer risk in older men was not affected by height, weight, percent of body fat or muscle mass, Parsons told a meeting of the American Urological Association in San Francisco. 

A second study presented at the same conference found that obese men may be more likely to see their prostate cancer come back after surgery. 

Another Johns Hopkins team found that obese men are more likely than men with normal weight to have high levels of prostate specific antigen, or PSA. PSA is produced by prostate cells and is overproduced when the prostate becomes cancerous. 

"Our results show that moderately and severely obese men were at an increased risk for high PSA levels after surgery and therefore are likely to have prostate cancer recurrence," said Dr. Stephen Freedland, who led the study. 

His team studied 1,106 patients treated at five Veteran's Administration and military hospitals across the country. 

"Our findings add to the burgeoning list of chronic and deadly diseases associated with obesity and underscore the importance of this major public health problem," Freedland said. 

Obesity is also linked with pancreatic, breast and colon cancer, as well as heart disease and diabetes. 

Prostate cancer (news - web sites) affects 221,000 American men a year and kills 29,000. 

Pentagon to Give Congress Abuse Photos 

2 hours, 54 minutes ago 
Add Politics - U. S. Congress 

By JENNIFER C. KERR, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Bracing for what the defense secretary has described as "sadistic" pictures, Congress will see the unreleased photos showing Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. soldiers, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) said Sunday. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: Abuse of Iraq Prisoners Investigated

Another leading Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, suggested that Pentagon (news - web sites) chief Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers may not keep their jobs as the scandal unfolds. 

"I think it's still in question whether Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and, quite frankly, General Myers can command the respect and the trust and the confidence of the military and the American people to lead this country," said Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran. 

"Over the next couple of weeks, the president's going to have to make some hard choices," Hagel said. 

"`This is deeper and wider than I think most in this administration understand. Aside from the fact we're losing the Iraqi people, we're losing the Muslim, Arab world, and we're losing the support of our allies," he told CBS' "Face the Nation." 

President Bush (news - web sites) has supported Rumsfeld, saying last week, "He'll stay in my Cabinet." 

Sen. John Warner, whose committee heard from Rumsfeld on Friday, said Pentagon investigators will give lawmakers the photos to see in private. 

"I was assured yesterday that all the new photos are being reviewed by the lawyers and so forth and will be forthcoming to the Congress," said Warner, R-Va. 

Other members of Congress urged the Bush administration to make them public as quickly as possible. 

"If there's more to come, let's get it out," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told NBC's "Meet the Press." 

"For God's sake, let's talk about it because (U.S. military) men and women's lives are at stake given how we handle this," he said. 

Previously released photos, depicting the torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, have led to worldwide condemnation and calls for Rumsfeld's resignation. 

During his testimony before Congress last week, Rumsfeld warned that more cruel photos were to come, including video images. 

Both Warner and Graham said they want Rumsfeld to stay on the job. Some leading Democrats, including Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, have said Rumsfeld should step down. 

The Armed Services Committee's top Democrat, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, said the abuse at the prison indicated the failure of the administration's Iraq (news - web sites) policy. 

"This is not just a few guards in some kind of an aberrant conduct. This is a much more systemic problem here," Levin said. "And the military intelligence, including I believe the CIA (news - web sites), ... have got to be held accountable, right up the chain." 

The committee plans to hear from more Pentagon officials on Tuesday. Warner eventually wants to testimony from Army Major Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, whose report detailed abuse at Abu Ghraib. 

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., said the scandal has tainted America's reputation and set back efforts to safeguard the country. 

"The tragedy of this is, it goes directly to the heart of how we hope to win the war against terror and what we're hoping to accomplish in Iraq," Bayh told "Fox News Sunday." 

"And that is that we are morally superior to our adversaries. We don't kill women and children. We don't torture people. We stand for freedom," he said. 

Study: Molecule 'Vacuums Up' Fat from Mice

2 hours, 7 minutes ago 
Add Science 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - A new approach being used to fight cancer may also help fight fat, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. 

They said blocking a certain protein seems to literally vacuum fat off mice. 

When fat mice were injected with the new "fat-zapper" every day for a month, they all slimmed down to normal weight with no visible side-effects, the researchers reported in the June issue of Nature Medicine. 

But they stressed the experiment is still in the very early stages and it affects a function found in virtually all cells -- meaning it has a high potential for serious side-effects. 

"I am trying to un-hype this," said Dr. Wadih Arap of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who led the research. 

In cancer, a new class of drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors starve tumors by cutting off their blood supply. 

Arap and colleagues have turned this approach against fat. 

It makes sense, Arap argues -- fat cells grow and proliferate quickly just as cancer cells do. Like tumors, they build themselves a scaffold of tiny blood vessels called capillaries for sustenance. 

Cancer drugs tackle different proteins involved in building blood vessels. Arap's team looked for a protein that might be found only in the blood vessels that feed fat cells. 

They found one. Prohibitin is active on the surface of fat-feeding blood vessels. They also found a monoclonal antibody -- a synthetic immune system molecule -- that finds and attaches to prohibitin alone. 

REVERSING OBESITY 

"If even a fraction of what we found in mice relates to human biology, then we are cautiously optimistic that there may be a new way to think about reversing obesity," said Renata Pasqualini, Arap's research partner and wife. 

Arap's team made the monoclonal antibody lethal by attaching it to another protein fragment or peptide that causes apoptosis -- a natural programmed cell suicide. 

Then they put normal mice on what they called a "cafeteria diet." "It is high in calories," Arap said in a telephone interview. The mice started out weighing just under an ounce, 20 to 25 grams, but more than doubled their weight on the diet. 

Then they injected half the mice with the new fat-killing molecule. After daily injections for a month, the fat mice lost, on average, 30 percent of their body weight. 

"The weight loss was also accompanied by a reversal of fatty liver and glucose intolerance," Arap said, describing two common complications of obesity. "They actually looked better. You could see them walk and so on." 

They also tested aging mice, which tend to get fat. "They responded just the same. They looked a little thinner," he said. 

Arap said his team saw no side-effects. "They didn't have any signs of being ill," he said. "All measures look improved. If they had a side-effect we couldn't detect it." 

Arap's team did not measure how long their mice lived and they did not measure lean body mass to see if the mice lost healthy muscle tissue, too. 

Next they plan to test baboons, which tend to put on weight much as humans do. 

Arap noted that other research in which fat rodents have miraculously lost weight has not translated to humans. And prohibitin is found inside cells, which means that accidentally disrupting it there could cause severe side-effects. 

"I think it will be a while before we know whether this will be duplicated in humans," he said. 

Obesity Becoming Major Global Problem 

Sat May 8, 5:26 PM ET

By EMMA ROSS and JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, News Source Writers 

It's a bitter truth to swallow: About every fourth person on Earth is too fat. Obesity is fast becoming one of the world's leading 
reasons why people die. In an astonishing testament to globalization, this outbreak of girth is occurring just as doctors everywhere but 
sub-Saharan Africa are winning the fight against infectious diseases from smallpox to malaria. 

Now a new enemy is emerging in the 21st century - our appetite. Around the globe, about 1.7 billion people should lose weight, 
according to the International Obesity Task Force. Of those who are overweight, about 312 million are obese - at least 30 pounds 
over their top recommended weight. 

Already, a third of all deaths globally are from ailments linked to weight, lack of exercise and smoking. And perhaps most worrisome 
is obesity's spread beyond wealthy western nations. 

From the glaciers of Iceland to the palm-fringed beaches of the Philippines, there are now more fat people in the world than hungry 
people. And in extreme cases, people who are heavy since childhood could die as much as five to 10 years early. 

"The developing world in particular is going to bear the enormous brunt of this weight gain," said Neville Rigby, policy director of 
the IOTF. 

"We're even seeing obesity in adolescents in India now. It's universal. It has become a fully global epidemic - indeed, a pandemic." 

___ 

No country immune 

___ 

Certainly the United States - home of the Whopper and the Super Big Gulp - remains a nation of scale-busters, with two of every 
three Americans overweight. 

But there are a dozen places even worse. 

South Pacific islands like Tonga, Kosrae and Nauru, where traditional meals of reef fish and taro are replaced by cheap instant 
noodles and deep-fried turkey tails. 

Greece, birthplace of the Olympic Games (news - web sites). Kuwait and other wealthy, oil-soaked Gulf States. 

Soon China will be the world's biggest country in more ways than sheer population, experts predict. It's a stunning reversal from the 
Mao Zedong era when as many as 40 million people starved in the Great Leap Forward famine of 1958-61. 

When university student Li Guangxu was a baby, rice was rationed. Now he eats cookies for breakfast. 

Shopping at a CarreFour supermarket in western Shanghai, Li fills a shopping cart with cookies, chips, soda and beer. 

"I like these things. They taste great," Li said. "I don't have time for anything else. Older folks don't eat this stuff, but we do." 

And a food fix always is within arm's reach. Almost no one can resist. 

"I compare the propensity to eat as somewhere between the propensity to breathe and the propensity to have sex," said Stephen 
Bloom, chief of metabolic medicine at the University of London's Imperial College. "It's much worse than stopping smoking." 

___ 

Weight's health effects 

___ 

Type 2 Diabetes is the illness most directly linked to obesity. A condition that often leads to heart disease and kidney failure, it is 
blamed for more than 3 million deaths a year. It afflicts 154 million people - nearly four times the number who have HIV (news - 
web sites) or AIDS (news - web sites) - and the WHO forecasts more than twice as many people will develop diabetes in the next 25 
years. 

Obesity can triple the risk of heart disease. One-third of all deaths globally - about 17 million - are blamed on heart disease, stroke 
and related cardiovascular problems, WHO figures show. 

Countries with extensive health care have stalled the onset of heart disease into old age. But in much of the world, fatal heart attacks 
and strokes are much more common among working age adults. Over the next 30 years, the trend is projected to worsen. 

Researchers from Columbia University's Earth Institute examined Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the Russian republic of 
Tartarstan. They found that the heart disease death rate for adults ages 30-59 was up to twice as high as the U.S. rate, and in Russia 
the rate was up to five times higher 

Obesity was cited as a primary factor, along with smoking, lack of exercise and untreated high blood pressure. The researchers 
described the influence of unhealthy diets as "surprising." 

Obesity also plays a significant, if poorly understood, role in many cancers. WHO data shows cancer accounts for about 12.5 percent 
of the world's deaths, and that rate is expected to increase dramatically, mostly in developing countries. 

The global trend toward weight gain and its associated illnesses is not restricted to the well-off. High-fat, high-starch foods tend to be 
cheaper, so poor people eat more of them.

In Mexico, 40 percent of its 105 million people live in poverty. Yet two-thirds of men and women there are overweight or obese. 

___ 

How it happened 

___ 

Many factors contribute to the widening of the world's waistline. 

For starters, there is cheap, plentiful food. Even in poor nations, the relative cost of eating is declining. 

And the consumption of oils and fats used in processed foods has doubled over the last 30 years. 

"One year they had very expensive butter and the next year edible oil came on the scene," said Barry Popkin, who heads nutrition 
epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and serves as a WHO adviser. "All of a sudden for very little money you could 
make your food taste better." 

Nutritionists say cheaper sugar is another factor, despite the industry's strenuous denials. 

James E. Tillotson, director of Tufts University's Food Policy Institute, calculates the average American drinks the equivalent of a 
55-gallon drum of soda every year, compared to 20 gallons of sweetened beverages a year in 1970. 

Increases almost as dramatic have occurred in Europe, and soft drink factories are increasingly popping up in developing countries. 

"We never thought people would abuse them," said Tillotson, who developed fruit-based drinks for Ocean Spray in the 1980s. 

Another factor is how food is promoted and distributed. 

In 1990, no more than 15 percent of food bought in Latin America came from supermarkets. Now, 60 percent is from six 
supermarket chains. 

There are demographic changes, too. In many nations, women in the work force created a demand for convenience foods. 

"We already are tired from working and we buy only packaged foods," said Bertha Rodriguez of Mexico City. The 61-year old 
great-grandmother supports herself by frying quesadillas in a streetside stand. 

___ 

Technology triumphs 

___ 

People spend more time sitting in the car, at the computer and especially in front of the television - an average of 1,669 hours a year 
in the United States, a habit that is extending internationally. 

With such low activity levels, as little as 100 extra calories a day translates into 10 pounds in a year. 

Technology is changing activity levels even in the poorest nations. 

"Telephones, cars, computers all come from the freedom from hunger and fear," Bloom said. "But it's had a bad side effect." 

Some governments are taking steps. 

Singapore schools have added physical activities and replaced soft drinks with bottled water. Brazil is making school lunch programs 
serve fruits and vegetables. 

But it's a battle against human nature. 

"It would be a huge public health achievement if we simply stopped the weight gain where it is now," said Stephen Blair, research 
director at the Cooper Institute of Aerobics Research in Dallas. 

"I think that's what we're stuck with." 

Party Planned for Kaufman, Just in Case 

Sat May 8,12:19 PM ET

NEW YORK - Andy Kaufman (news) died of lung cancer on May 16, 1984, but according to legend, the eccentric comedian said if he were faking, he'd resurface 20 years later to the day. 

So, just in case, a party is being planned by Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's best friend and partner, at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on May 16. 

"Over 100 personal ads will be taken out across the country and abroad, reminding him of his words. Will he show?" Zmuda asked on the Web site for Comic Relief, a series of shows that raise money for health care for the homeless. Zmuda founded Comic Relief after Kaufman's death. 

VIP tickets to the Andy Kaufman - Dead or Alive? tribute offer "select seating and celebrity reception (hopefully with Andy)." 

The tribute also promises a performance by Las Vegas lounge lizard Tony Clifton, one of Kaufman's characters. 

Kaufman was best known as the lovable foreign-car mechanic Latka Gravas on the '70s TV sitcom "Taxi." 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.comicrelief.org/ 

> Vatican Acknowledges ET Presence
> by Monsignor Balducci
> 
> Preface by Richard Boylan, Ph.D.
> (Finally I have obtained an English translation of the unprecedented paper
> Monsignor Balducci gave me at our historic meeting in Rome in December (2002).
> In this seminal work, the Monsignor-theologian, (who is the Pope's choice as
> Chief Exorcist for the Archdiocese of Rome/Vatican itself), not only makes an
> air-tight case for the reality and acceptability of Star Visitor contacts with
> humans, but argues that these Visitors are more highly intellectually and
> spiritually evolved than humans. The Monsignor gave me a copy of this Paper,
> and 
> intends to share it with his Vatican colleagues. It must also be the first
> document by a high-level churchman to mention Area 51, Nevada!)
> 
> Over the last 150 years it have appeared sequentially and with an increasing
> spreading and frequency rate, two types of manifestations and phenomena, very
> different between them, but both so interesting, controversial and fascinating
> to divide public opinion into two different aspects: or everything is real,
> or well everything is false. These are spiritualism and ufology. It shouldn't
> surprise us this approach, because it's related only to the reactions and
> behaviour of the public before these two phenomena and not to their contents,
> obviously quite different between both of them!
> 
> Regarding spiritualism, this is a practice for which there are testimonies
> across the centuries; in 1847, with the sisters Fox in Hydesville (New York),
> it 
> had a special remark and spread rapidly in several countries. Very soon there
> was an explanation for the phenomena connected to such practices, even by the
> scientists: the souls of the disincarnated, better said of the dead people,
> are the cause of this. This was called the spiritualist hypothesis, against
> which theologians soon opposed to the so called demonic hypothesis.
> 
> Only by the end of XIX century there were made the first attempts to look for
> a natural explanation, and finally in 1922, with the thick book of the French
> scientist Charles Richet, "Trait� de M�tapsychique", it began officially the
> so called Metapsychics, nowadays better known as Parapsychology.
> 
> When I began with my demonic and metapsychic studies back in 1950, I found
> myself in a period when, since two decades ago, it was denied the existence of
> spiritualist phenomena (and not only by some scientists, but also by a very
> wide public opinion), that represented at that time the most abundant cases of
> Metapsychics. 
> 
> The same is valid since some decades on regarding Ufology.
> 
> After this premise, we reach our subject, for which I have two very brief
> clarifications to expose.
> 
> - The acronym UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), is used here in a wider
> sense, or even better, including also the existence of living beings in other
> planets. 
> 
> - The aim of my intervention is to underline that something real must exist
> in the phenomena, and how this does not contrast at all with Christian
> religion, being considered positive even among theologians.
> 
> Let's divide the speech in three points:
> 
> 1. Something real must exist.
> 2. Theological considerations on the habitability of other planets.
> 3. Some testimonies favourable to it.
> 
> I - UFO: Something real must exist.
> This is a statement coming out from basic considerations based upon common
> sense, human rationalism and upon a normal and possible course of our lives,
> considering not only individual and social aspects, but also religious.
> 
> In fact, today there is a great amount (still increasing) of testimonies
> regarding the so called flying saucers or spaceships and the
> extraterrestrials;
> and among them there are some coming from reliable persons, with a culture and
> initially non believers. There are already hundreds of thousands of eye
> witnesses in the world that state to have seen UFO's at least once. There are
> so 
> many, even in a smaller amount, the testimonies coming from the so called
> contactees. 
> 
> If we consider this, it seems impossible to deny at a rational level that
> something real does exist! A totally sceptic behaviour is not justified at
> all, 
> because a priori seems to be against to the elemental prudence suggested by
> the 
> good sense. 
> 
> It is also real that we could think rationally that so large average of
> testimonies could be due to illusions, hallucinations and to states of intense
> suggestion. In other cases it could be also due to particular light effects or
> well to atmospheric phenomena, such as clouds that over the mountains may show
> a 
> shape similar to the flying saucers; we could use as an example the so called
> ball rays or well globular flashes of lighting.
> 
> Other times UFO's could be confused with certain types of round-shaped
> aeroplanes, that were certainly built in USA since the so called Cold War (it
> is 
> also certain that Russia built some aeroplanes of this type). This promoted in
> the period after World War II, the spreading of the idea that flying saucers
> were nothing else but new inventions with warring aim, obviously kept secret.
> 
> But these are always inaccurate explanations and considerations to explain
> the number of testimonies and the wideness of UFO phenomenon. The most severe
> and hard criticism could reduce largely this number, but never will be able to
> eliminate all of them.
> 
> We also have to remember that in several countries exist places,
> organisations and associations that collect evidences and testimonies on tape,
> in order to 
> make them examine and study by experts and scientists as necessary; after
> that the whole set is catalogued in explainable and non explainable phenomena.
> It 
> is not any longer a secret the existence of the so called "Area 51" in
> the United States, within a zone in the hearth of the Nevada desert; an
> enormous land area that has a larger construction underground than on the
> surface. 
> In France is famous the SEPRA association; in Italy there is the CUN, "Centro
> Ufologico Nazionale" (National Ufological Centre), already on its 36th. year
> of existence, and with Dr. Roberto Pinotti as President since long ago; also
> in 
> Italy there is since 4 years until now the CIFAS ("Council of International
> Federation of Advanced Studies") dedicated to study the relationships between
> man and extraterrestrial space, which President is still Gen. Salvatore
> Marcelletti. 
> 
> Regarding the existence of something real within UFO phenomenon, I must add
> another consideration that was left for last to better underline its
> importance. And this is, that a generalised, systematic and total incredulity
> finally 
> would weaken and destroy the value of human testimony, with serious and
> unforeseeable consequences, because that is the base of life not only
> individual and 
> social, but also religious.
> 
> In fact, testimony is a form of communication of our faith in our partner.
> This is a widely spread way on daily life (when listening news, spending,
> buying, etc.). Let's imagine what could happen on individual and social life
> if the 
> value of human testimony was weaken, with the logical decrease and
> disappearance of that faith many times is essential for daily life!
> 
> After this, I have extended such inconveniences to religious life; in fact,
> also Christian religion is based upon human testimony, being the Divine
> Revelation an historical fact.
> 
> In 1937 Jesuit theologian Herbert Thurston wrote on purpose: "From a logical
> point of view, christians that accept miracles and other episodes related on
> the Gospel... they cannot reject in an obstinate way the reiterated
> testimonies 
> of modern and reliable witnesses, that relate what their eyes have seen...
> All our Apologetic system is based upon the belief in the Truth said in the
> Gospel" ("Church and Spiritualism"; Milan, 1937; p.p.179). For that:
> "systematic 
> demolition and discredit of human testimonies regarding simple fact data, seem
> to me contrary in principle to all belief on the historic seriousness of
> Gospel, and indirectly, to every belief on Christian Revelation" (Op. Cit.
> p.p. 
> 157). 
> 
> II. Theological and biblical considerations on the habitability of other
> planets. 
> First of all a clarification: we should exclude that angels use spaceships,
> due to the fact that they are merely spiritual beings, and that they are
> wherever they want to be, and in the rare cases when they show themselves,
> they 
> don't have any difficulty to assume a visible form. The very same we can say
> about 
> dead people. Holy Virgin, in the very few cases when she could consider to be
> in contact with human people (very exceptional episodes and to be confirmed
> in their authenticity), continues to choose other very different ways to
> transmit us her maternal affection, to manifest us her urgencies, to
> communicate us 
> her maternal claims or to give us her sweet reproaches. Even keeping their
> angelic nature, we shouldn't think about the devils at all, because they are
> connected in their liberty to God on their extraordinary activity, and in that
> way 
> they are disabled to express their terrible and malefic hate regarding us.
> Let's 
> remember St. August: "If the devil by his own initiative could do anything,
> even a single living being would not stay on Earth" (ML 37, 1246); let's
> remember also to St. Buenaventura: "Is so large the demon's cruelty, that he
> would 
> swallow us in every moment, if Divine protection don't guard us" ("Diaeta
> salutis", tit. 7 c.1,
> Verona 1748, p. 183).
> 
> Therefore, when speaking about extraterrestrials, we must think in beings
> like us, or well and preferably in other types of living beings, that in their
> spiritual part they have associated a material one; better said, a body in a
> better state than the one existing for us as humans.
> 
> There is not a scientific certainty yet about this problem, even if this
> seems to be closer and closer, thanks to the progress of science and study.
> Regarding the theological and biblical aspect of this matter, we can remark
> three 
> points, three affirmations in favour from the various considerations:
> 
> 1. Before all, that exist other inhabited planets is
> something possible. In the Bible there are not specific allusions to other
> living beings, but neither is excluded this hypothesis, that for this stays as
> possible, if we think that God's omnipotence and wisdom have no limits, being
> infinite. 
> 
> 2. Furthermore, the existence of other inhabited planets
> is something credible. In fact, there is a great diversity between angels,
> merely spiritual beings and us, composed by spirit and matter; better said,
> soul 
> and flesh, but a soul that cannot act if don't use the body as an instrument;
> a body that makes with its passions and capital vices conditional the soul to
> the point of make human person so fragile, and more devoted to evil than to
> goodness. Therefore is credible that this enormous distance between us and the
> angels could be reduced by the presence of beings that, havingalso a body
> (even if more perfect), their soul is less conditioned on their intelligent
> and 
> volitional acting.
> 
> If necessary, there is another confirmation upon the very ancient saying of
> Lucrezio Caro: "Natura non facit saltus"; a very famous phrase (that I found
> on 
> the "De rerum natura") and quoted - regarding that argument - also by some
> theologians. 
> 
> Another consideration is taken for the aim of the creation, or well the Glory
> of God, a concept that you can find several times on the Bible. For instance,
> Psalm 18 begins by saying precisely: "heavens sing the glory of God". But
> only human person is able to give this glory to God in a conscious way,
> because 
> it has intelligence and free will.
> 
> Precisely for this, several theologians say, is not only possible but
> credible, that in the spaces that are distant and inaccessible for men and his
> scientific instruments, do exist other beings able to know God as their
> Creator, and 
> also they give Him this Glory, that for them and their worlds represent the
> aim of Creation. 
> 
> Jesuit Father Domenico Grasso, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical
> Gregorian University wrote on purpose: "Why all the perfection God has spread
> so 
> widely in the universe should be kept hidden without singing the glory of God?
> Wouldn't it be a discordance unsuitable for God? Who writes a book knowing
> that 
> it will never be read by anyone, or well who paints a painting to hide it from
> anyone's sight?".
> 
> He claims regarding the statements made by German theologian Joseph Pohle in
> one of his books of 1904 (page 457): "It seems to be accordingly with the aim
> of the world that inhabitable celestial bodies are settled by creatures that
> recognise the glory of God in the physical beauties of their worlds, in the
> same way man does with his smaller world" ("Die Sternewelt undihre Bewohner" -
> "The Stars of Universe and its Inhabitants"; K�ln 1904; pp. 457). Finally
> Father 
> Grassoconcludes: "we must think in the angels to know where God receives the
> glory from these worlds from, because them, that are purely spiritual, "are
> not able to know the matter but indirectly, in the same way man does with the
> spirit" (ib.). 
> 
> 3. Beyond to be something possible and credible, I would see desirable the
> inhabitability of other planets. In a future, even if very remote, these
> eventual inhabitants, superior to us, could be very helpful to us, specially
> in our 
> spiritual path. In a non practical way, they could had been protecting and
> helping us since long time ago.
> 
> If it is the case that they do really exist intelligent beings on other
> planets, it would be easier to understand how to conciliate their existence
> with 
> the redemption of Christ. As St. Paul says (cfr. Col. 1, 16-17), a real fact
> is 
> that Christ is the centre and head of the creation of the universe. Therefore
> there 
> are no worlds without a reference of Him. From the Bible is possible to
> assure that Christ, as Incarnated Verb, has total influence upon all the
> possible 
> inhabited planets.
> 
> I quote what said by St. Paul to the Colossians: "For by Him all things were
> created that are in heaven and that are on Earth, visible and invisible,
> whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were
> created 
> through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things
> consist... For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should
> dwell. 
> And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth
> or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col.
> 1, 
> 16-20). 
> 
> The Church celebrates the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year (before the
> Advent) as the Feast of Christ, King of the universe, and in its liturgy the
> universality of His kingdom is remembered, which is also expressed in the
> daily 
> Mass. 
> 
> III. Algunos testimonios a favor.
> There exist several interesting statements on the inhabitability of other
> worlds by lay scientists, theologians or servants of God which already
> qualified 
> for a process of beatification or canonisation. Obviously I'll limit myself to
> quote just some of them.
> 
> Beginning with the laymen, let me quote the great French scientist Charles
> Richet (1850 - 1935), that was, among other things, a materialist. In 1922, in
> his "Trait� de M�tapsychique", he stated: "Do we have any right to claim, just
> because of our limited senses and our mistaken intelligence, that man is the
> onlyintelligent being in this immense cosmos?... That other intellectual
> forces, different from us, exist, is not only possible but extremely probable.
> It is 
> even certain... It is absurd to claim that we are the only intelligence in
> nature... The existence of these beings cannot be proven, but the probability
> of 
> their existence is evident" (loc. cit., Paris 1922, pp. 787-788).
> 
> I remember 5 theologians:
> 
> 1. Cardinal Nicol� Cusano (1401 - 1464), philosopher and scientist that said:
> "We are not authorised to exclude that on another star beings do exist, even
> if they are completely different from us".
> 
> 2. The Jesuit Father and astronomer Fr. Angelo Secchi (1818 - 1876) wrote:
> "It is absurd to claim that the worlds surrounding us are large, uninhabited
> deserts and that the meaning of the universe lies just in our small, inhabited
> p
> lanet.". 
> 
> 3. The famous Dominican preacher Jacques-Marie-Louis Monsabre (1827 - 1907)
> referred to the principle "Natura non facit saltus" when he claimed that other
> intelligent beings besides men and angels exist.
> 
> 4. The already quoted English Jesuit Father Herbert Thurston wrote: "Who can
> claim that there are no other intelligent beings besides these 3 categories of
> angels, demons and men in the Universe of God? I do not intend to confirm the
> possibility I indicated in my question as a fact, but I ask: Who can be sure
> about it?" (Op. Cit., pp. 3).
> 
> 5. German Theologian Giuseppe Pohle: "Hypothesis of the plurality of
> inhabited worlds is totally favourable to the glory of the Lord. God creates
> for His 
> glory, and any glory is possible without intelligentbeings, able to know the
> creation of the Lord"
> 
> I remember two persons for whom there is already going on their process of
> canonisation: 
> 
> 1. The Salesian Father and Servant of God Don Andrea Beltrami (1870 - 1897)
> who prayed also for the possible inhabitants of other planets. Of the 16
> booklets he wrote, one seems to deal with this topic (and I say "seems"
> because 
> unfortunately I was not able to know the titles of his 16 publications).
> 
> 2. The second (with whom I want to close this paper), is the already
> sanctified Padre Pio, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 2, 1999
> and 
> canonised on June 16, 2002. From St. Fr. Pio, the following dialogue is
> documented 
> and officially published by the Cappuchin Order: Question: "Father, some claim
> that there are creatures of God on other planets, too". Answer: "What else? Do
> you think they don't exist and that God's omnipotence is limited to this
> small planet Earth? What else? Do you think there are no other beings who love
> the 
> Lord?". 
> 
> Another question: "Father, I think the Earth is nothing compared to other
> planets and stars". Answer: "Exactly! Yes, and we Earthlings are nothing, too.
> The Lord certainly did not limit His glory to this small Earth. On other
> planets 
> other beings exist who did not sin and fall as we did". (Don Nello Castello:
> "Cos� parl� Padre Pio"; Vicenza, 1974).
> 
> Lac. Corrado Balducci Rome, C. 7 / 6 / 2001

Accused Mont. Militiamen Plead Innocent

2 hours, 46 minutes ago

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Three men who allegedly belong to a militia group that authorities say was plotting to kill Montana public officials have pleaded innocent to federal firearms charges.

Steven N. Morey, 44, James Riley Day, 60, and John W. Slatter, 53, appeared in court Friday and were ordered held pending detention hearings Wednesday.

Federal authorities say the men, all of the Kalispell area, are suspected of belonging to a militia group called "Project 7," which refers to Flathead County license plate numbers that begin with the numeral seven.

In 2002, authorities said they had uncovered evidence of a plot by Project 7 to kill Flathead Valley public officials and law enforcement officers. No one has been charged with plotting murder.

Authorities said Project 7 had amassed a huge arsenal - machine guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, explosives, night-vision equipment and body armor.

The men, all of the Kalispell area, were indicted Thursday on charges of conspiracy to possess illegal firearms. Morey also is charged with eight counts of possessing machine guns, some with the serial numbers removed. Day faces one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a machine gun.

Also indicted in the alleged firearms conspiracy were David Burgert, 50, Tracy Brockway, 34, and Larry Chezem, 53. Burgert is serving a seven-year federal sentence for firearms convictions. Brockway and Chezem, a one-time candidate for Flathead County sheriff, had not been arrested.

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Study Links ADHD Drugs to Growth Delays Mon Apr 5, 8:08 AM ET



CHICAGO - New research bolsters evidence that stimulants like Ritalin (news - web sites) used for attention deficit problems may stunt children's growth, but it does not address whether the affect is permanent. 

Children who took stimulants during the two-year study grew more than half an inch less and gained over eight pounds less than those who weren't medicated. 

The study involved 540 youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who were aged 7 to 9 at the outset of the study and were randomly assigned to receive common treatments including medication, behavior management and a combination of the two. 

Girls generally reach their final height around age 16 and boys around age 18, so it's too soon to tell if the growth delays continued or were permanent, the researchers said. 

American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines that recommend treating ADHD with stimulants and behavior therapy say evidence collected by following youngsters into adulthood indicates the drugs don't cause any significant height reduction. 

Weight loss, however, is a known potential side effect from long-term stimulant use. 

The study, led by University of California at Berkeley researcher Stephen Hinshaw, was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and appears in the April issue of Pediatrics. 

Initial results after 14 months of follow-up, published in 1999, showed that drugs alone or used with behavior therapy were the most effective treatment. 

The 24-month follow-up found that drug treatment with or without behavior therapy remained superior, though the effect diminished somewhat over time. The researchers attributed this in part to patients stopping or starting medication. 

ADHD, the most common neurobehavioral disorder in childhood, affects 4 percent to 12 percent of U.S. school-age children. Symptoms may include short attention span, impulsive behavior, and difficulty focusing and sitting still. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org 

Strange discoveries of objects that should not exist have often placed a huge question mark against what we know of the world. Particularly compelling is the evidence that suggests that deep in antiquity Mankind was considerably more advanced than we have ever dared to imagine. At the very least these finds encourage us to ask deeper questions concerning the world that once was. For only through a spirit of true inquiry can we ever hope to acquaint ourselves with these forgotten pages of our planets history. Let us then examine a few of these finds, and see what conclusions can be drawn: (read more)

The Coso Artifact. 

In 1961 a strange stone was found in the Coso Mountains of California. Strange, because when it was sawed open it was found to contain a bizarre mechanical device. This comprised of an hexagonal layer of some unknown substance, which surrounded an inch thick porcelain cylinder, which in turn contained a shaft of bright metal around 2 mm in length. Around the porcelain cylinder were rings of copper, which remarkably showed no signs of corrosion. 

Later examination at the Charles Ford Society confirmed the device as some kind of mechanical instrument. Photographs taken of the object showed the metallic shaft fixed to a tiny spring. This led to it being labelled as some form of electrical device. Experts who examined it compared it to a spark plug. 

This was remarkable enough, but when geologists insisted that the rock in which it was encased was over half a million years old, the mystery sky rocketed. What was it doing there? How had it got there? On the face of it there was no plausible answer. Just the unthinkable - that this was a relic from a past era of high technological advancement - one that existed over half a million years ago. 

The Morrisonville Enigma. 
In 1891 there was an even more remarkable find. A woman in Morrisonville Illinois was shovelling coal when a piece broke open in front of her. To her astonishment she found it contained a beautiful gold chain of elaborate workmanship. The local newspaper gave the following account: 

'Mrs Culp thought the chain had been dropped accidentally in the coal, but as she undertook to lift the chain up, the idea of its having been recently dropped was shown to be fallacious, for as the lump of coal broke, it separated almost in the middle, and the circular position of the chain placed the two ends near to each other; and as the lumps separated, the middle of the chain became loosened while each end remained fastened to the coal.....' Nor was the Morrisonville incident the only one of its kind. In 1844 an unidentified gold artifact was discovered in a quarry in England.

Workmen blasting granite, came across the discovery of an item of gold thread about eight feet below the surface. It was embedded in rock thought to be over 60 million years old. Experts sent at the behest of the Times newspaper concluded that the object had been artificially manufactured, but ventured no opinion as to how it could have found itself embedded in rock so unimaginably old. 

The Salzburg Cube. 
In 1885 a block of coal was found to have a strange steel cube embedded inside of it. Later tests confirmed it to be artificially manufactured and experts were astonished. The edges were sharp and straight, and there was little doubt that this was a machine made instrument that seemed part of a much larger instrument. 

The Rhodesia Man Mystery. 
In 1921 the discovery of a Neanderthal skull in Rhodesia revealed an astonishing mystery. The skull had been pierced by a high velocity projectile, similar to a bullet. Mysterious, because it was disclosed that this injury must have occurred at the moment of death, and not afterwards. It meant that whoever fired the fatal bullet must have fired it many thousands of years ago. In his book Secrets of the Lost Races, author Rene Noorbergen had the following to say: 'A German forensic authority from Berlin has positively stated that the cranial damage to Rhodesian man's skull could not have been caused by anything but a bullet'.

The fact that the skull was found fully 60 feet below the surface of the ground attested to the fact that this was no recent injury, and experts were baffled. Even so certain conclusions seemed obvious: The most apparent of these was that in times considered too remote for intelligent life, this creature had been gunned down by a high velocity weapon. The neat entry point of the wound testified to the great speed of the projectile, which had created a perfectly rounded hole. 

Ancient computer. 
One of the most significant finds that gives undisputed evidence of hitherto unsuspected ancient knowledge is the so called Antikythira device ! This mysterious mechanism comprising of a series of interlocking cogs and wheels was found at the site of an ancient shipwreck just off the Greek island of Antikythira. Straight away it became apparent that this was something extraordinary, and although heavily corroded, radiograph examination revealed the existence of a precision instrument of great complexity. A differential turn table with interlocking cogs testified to its high degree of craftsmanship. But what was it? 

At first experts dubbed it a navigational instrument, but detailed investigation revealed it to be something a good deal more complex. Certain similarities with later astronomical instruments led to it being labelled a planisphere - a calendrical device that gives the year round positions of stars and planets. Other inscriptions, unfortunately damaged, seemed to refer to zodiacal positions with a degree of accuracy that involved considerable expertise. 

Important Questions. 
Incredibly the wreck from which the device was salvaged dates back to nearly one hundred BC. This created an immediate stir. Such refined craftsmanship was at that time unknown, and was to remain so until the 16 th century. Now suddenly this fortuitous find raised important questions. For this kind of precision instrument to exist there must equally have existed a sophisticated method of production. But up until that moment no hint of such capability had ever been found. 

Awesome achievement. 
So what can we make of the Antikythira device ? Is it just an archaeological oddity - a simple aberration to the established order, or does it represent the tip of a vast treasure of unexplained ancient technology? 

In our opinion this strange instrument categorically places the technology of it's era in a completely different light. We are seeing something that should not have existed for over 1500 years, and once again we are left in awe at achievements that leap out across the void that separates our understanding of these distant ages. But whatever the meaning and function of the Antikythira device, we must not forget that it's importance represents no more than a small gem in a large crown of strange and magnificent finds. 

Global Catalogue. 
No corner of the globe is without some strange enigma of things that seem impossible to explain. Indeed the catalogue of these finds is highly impressive. Ancient lenses polished as finely as any we have today - pieces of an ancient battery, magnificent astronomical observatories, sophisticated toys resembling heavy earth moving equipment - these are only a small element of a rich vein of finds that is slowly extending our perception of ancient times. There is even evidence that ancient man may have flown in aircraft. 

It is a known fact that ancient druidic legends speak of frequent flights using the power inherent in ley-lines. By some unknown means these ley-lines were capable of raising flying machines that according to author Rene Noorbergen regularly flew backwards and forwards between England and Greece. He writes: ' Druidic tradition tells of such heroes as Mog Ruith, Bladud and the magician Abiris, who possessed flying vehicles activated by the ley-line energies and were able to travel in them as far as Greece'. 

Ancient electrical supply. 
Particularly compelling is evidence of an ancient electrical supply. This seems to have been utilised much as we use electric current today. 

One area especially rich in evidence of this sort is ancient Babylonia and Persia. A discovery of several clay pots excavated in Iraq revealed an amazing discovery. Each of the pots appeared to have been soldered with a lead/tin alloy, topped with copper discs, sealed with bitumen. Far sighted investigators discovered that when a mixture of copper sulphate and acetic acid was added to the pots it produced around 2 volts of electricity. Over the years many more electric cells were discovered, almost as if this was part of a mass-produced industry. Also of amazing importance is the discovery of electroplated gold jewelry using a technique only recently discovered in this modern age. 

Strange Lamps. 
Written evidence in mystical Hebrew literature speaks of strange energy sources and of lamps that 'lit themselves'! 

Also strange, are seafaring stories from the last century. More than one sea-man described strange orb like lamps hung by natives in the jungles of South America. These lamps were apparently self-sustainable utilising a source of energy that seemed impossible to explain. In 1601 a Spanish writer and explorer who followed the Conquistadores to South America wrote of a strange pillar on which was a brilliant white object that illuminated the whole of the surrounding area to quite some distance. 

The ancient historian and travel writer Pausanias, once wrote of a temple with a light that burnt continuously for at least a year. Even more amazing is the account of the discovery of the sepulchre of Pallas near Rome. This was said to have been lit by a light source that had kept the interior of the chamber illuminated for over two thousand years. 

Medical Knowledge. 
Unusual early knowledge of medical procedure is another strange aspect of the ancient world. Perhaps the most bizarre evidence of this sort concerns the discovery of numerous skulls from the Neolithic age that appear to have been trepanned. 

In his book Colony Earth, author Richard Mooney explains the process in the following terms. 'Trepanning today is an operation in which a section of bone in the skull is removed, either to ease pressure caused by a tumour or blood clot, or to remove splinters of bone caused by a skull fracture, and the cavity closed by a plate. The operation is hardly minor and requires great skill and care to perform. It is difficult to believe that Neolithic man - if he was, as has been thought, extremely primitive - could have carried out such operations with the crudest techniques, a flint knife, and no anesthetics or notions of hygiene'. 

Apparently survivors of this treatment later went on to live for years afterwards. This in itself was remarkable, as even in relatively recent times patients undergoing surgery had a high mortality rate from infection or blood poisioning. 

Soviet Finds. 
Particularly well documented evidence of ancient cranial surgery comes to us from research in the former Soviet Union. Examination of several skulls found at the site of Ishtikunuy near Lake Sevan in Armenia, revealed a highly developed technique of skull surgery employed over 4000 years ago. One patient had suffered a serious head injury, presumably leaving sensitive brain tissue exposed. Despite these difficulties the surgeons of the day had neatly plugged the fracture using a carefully shaped wedge of animal bone. From the way the patients bone tissue had enveloped the plug, it was possible to deduce that the woman had survived the operation and went on to live for quite some time afterwards. 

Ancient brain surgery. 
Soviet scientists uncovered even more starling evidence, this time involving surgery directly on the brain. It was found that one woman had been successfully operated upon to remove an inch wide object that smashed through her skull. This had penetrated directly to the brain. Sensationally the surgeons of the day were able to cut around the object to remove the splinters, before closing up the wound using animal bone. Once more the patient was able to live on for many years afterwards. 

Admiring the great skill of these early surgeons one scientist, Professor Jagharian remarked: 'Considering the ancient tools the doctors had to work with, I would say they were technically superior to modern-day surgeons'. 

Ancient X-ray machine. 
In Peru a rock drawing from Toro Muerto appears to a show a figure with raised arms, with what appears to be an X-ray plate of the thorax. Fully visible are the ribs of the chest cavity, and a central column resembling the spine. Little information is available on the circumstances of this find, which if genuine represents yet another amazing insight into the astonishing complexity of the ancient world. 

Far reaching conclusions. 
In detailing the sheer wealth of these strange and bizarre finds we could go on and on. All we have done here is to just barely scratch the surface of the many enigmas that surround us. In so doing we have seen the image of a world that once was. We see it slowly take shape in front of us. A world completely at variance with the established view of things. It means that sooner or later, the pieces of this gathering jigsaw will force even the most hardened skeptic to accept the full majesty of the world that once was. 

Even now we have approached the point where doubters can rightfully be termed fools and idiots - blind bigots, whom history will rightfully view with the scorn they deserve. The evidence is overwhelming, and it all adds up to the fact of a planet considerably stranger than we have ever imagined. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by Aeroman

In Chicago, a Scavenger Hunt Unlike Others

May 7, 2:55 pm ET 

By Isaac Wolf

CHICAGO  - Bring in a "McDonald's Sad Meal," find a graduate thesis written on napkins or build a log cabin blindfolded.

Welcome to what's billed as the world's largest scavenger hunt, under way on Friday at the University of Chicago.

The hunt's targets are not old sets of keys or stray clothespins on the wanted list when children play the game going door-to-door. These items are food for the twisted student imagination on a campus known more for Nobel Prizes than spring foolishness.

Now in its 18th year, "Scav Hunt" began at midnight on Thursday with the unveiling of a 282-item list, each one worth a number of points, which teams of students seek to complete by Sunday when the game ends.

Some of this year's challenges: Build a "Calvin Kleinometer"; produce "a McDonald's Sad Meal"; construct a diorama tribute to dioramas with no infinite regressions; replicate Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" using only lip prints made with cosmetics that haven't been tested on animals; and "demonstrate conclusively that there really is a wrong way to eat a Reese's (candy)."

The list has a handful of items that can be completed only from New Jersey, prompting several teams to send devoted members on the 1,000-mile road trip.

Four students can build a rustic but homey log cabin while blindfolded, handcuffed and ear-muffed, or produce a thesis on dining hall napkins, signed off by a thesis committee.

The character of the hunt stems from the "twisted imagination" shown by many Chicago students, according to 1990 graduate Rick Jeffries, a co-founder of the event.

The contest ends on Sunday afternoon when 15 judges evaluate the yield brought in by several hundred participants, who are formed into teams. The university said the hunt's size and range are thought make it the largest such event in the world.

Stalking More Prevalent Than Thought?

May 7, 9:19 am ET 

By Victoria Cutler

LONDON  - Hollywood stars are not the only people to be hounded by stalkers.

Stalkers are more likely to harass ordinary people than generally thought, according to a study published in Britain on Thursday, which said one in eight British adults are victims of "persistent or unwanted attention."

"The public perception is of stalking as a crime that effects only celebrities," said the report by researchers at the University of Liverpool.

"However, recent large-scale studies in the USA and Australia suggest the prevalence in the general population may be far higher than expected."

Stalkers are most likely to target professional women in their 40s with jobs that put them in positions of responsibility or bring them into close contact with clients, the researchers found, after examining data from Britain, the United States and Australia.

People such as surgeons, social workers, lawyers and therapists may become a target for harassment, said co-author Professor David Canter.

"If you are in a professional position and somebody does seem to be taking a particular interest in you, you do have to be alert to the possibility that this could be difficult to handle," Canter told The News Source.

Canter has had first-hand experience of harassment, having taken a former secretary to court to stop her from phoning him 100 times a day to demand that he renew her short-term contract.

Up to 45 percent of stalking episodes included violence and in many cases the stalking behavior did not stop until the victim made drastic changes to his or her life, the study showed.

The authors warned that confrontation generally leads to increased stalking activity and advised victims not to respond or react to their stalker in any way, but to inform the police and document the stalker's behavior.

The problem can affect companies as well as individuals, Canter said. Drawing the line between harassment and legitimate claims can also be difficult for firms, which can be targeted over issues such as compensation or intellectual property.

"Companies can get themselves into some of the most terrible knots over these people who target them because they try to deal with them in a rational way, the way you would with any other request," he said. The study was sponsored by Chubb Insurance, which said it offers a policy to cover stalking.

'Solitary Salad' on Menu for Jailbirds

May 7, 9:06 am ET 

By Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS  - Fancy a "Solitary salad" or some "Jail-style apple pancakes?" French prisoners have published their own cookbook to teach other inmates how to produce low-budget meals with simple prison cooking equipment.

The book, "Cooking Just For Me," seeks to live up to France's reputation for gastronomic excellence. It features 100 recipes by convicts that range from sophisticated fish dishes to rich chocolate cakes and desserts.

"Cooking in prison forces you to be creative: You only have a pan, a saucepan and an electric stove -- that's all," Claude Deroussent, a doctor in the Ensisheim prison in southeastern France who launched the project, told The News Source.

Deroussent called on France's 60,000 prisoners last year to send in their favorite recipes and asked renowned chef Marc Haeberlin to select the best out of an overwhelming 600 replies.

"I was very impressed by the prisoners' inventiveness," said Haeberlin, whose Alsatian restaurant L'Auberge de l'Ill near Strasbourg has received the Michelin guide's top three-star rating.

"Some prisoners have built their own oven by putting one electric stove on each end of a stool and wrapping aluminum foil around it," he said.

"Ingredients are another challenge. Not everything is as readily available as here in my restaurant. Some convicts say they save biscuits at breakfast to make cake later on."

Haeberlin said he was amused by the inmates' instructions on some of the recipes he received. One message read: "This recipe takes time. But time is not really scarce in here."

A prisoner from Caen in northern France who provided the best recipe -- sea bream with mushrooms and lettuce -- was awarded a television set by prison authorities.

In March, the 160-page book was distributed free to Ensisheim inmates. But its authors aim to publish it in prisons nationwide and to even sell it in shops.

Deroussent is seeking a publisher and said he hoped proceeds from any sales could go to a prison doctors' association, of which he is a member.

"The recipes suit anyone living on their own and cooking for themselves, such as students or elderly people," Deroussent said.

He said cooking was psychologically important to prisoners, who spend a lot of time alone and have little physical activity.

"We call chefs like Haeberlin creators. Like him, the prisoners feel they are creating something when they cook," he said.

The cookbook includes advice on weight loss and cholesterol, of concern to many prisoners, Deroussent said. Its recipes are written in a simple style suited to culinary amateurs.

It also offers tips for cooking in a small prison cell -- not unlike the cramped apartments in which many Parisians live. Adding a small amount of vanilla to oil before frying fish, it advises, reduces fish odor in a cell or small room.

Haeberlin said as many men as women had sent recipes and the book offers a colorful ethnic mix, from traditional French meals to Moroccan couscous dishes.

"One thing stood out: There was a surprising number of recipes for chocolate cakes. Maybe, if you're a bit lonely, chocolate is what you really long for," he said.

Author Turns Love of Rats Into Book

May 6, 4:58 pm ET 

By Aleksandrs Rozens

NEW YORK  - They push and shove their way through narrow subway entrances, they are creatures of habit and they love going out to eat at night in a big crowd. They are the other New Yorkers: rats.

Robert Sullivan was so taken by these creatures that he went out ratting -- as he likes to call it -- in dirty alleys of Manhattan to watch them work and play day and night.

Sullivan has parlayed those experiences into a book, "Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants," which quickly became a bestseller after its April publication.

"People all around the U.S. are interested in rats," Sullivan said in a recent interview, adding that on a book tour he also searched for rats behind Chicago blues clubs, San Francisco's tenderloin district and in Beverly Hills trees.

Sullivan's study of rats allowed him to explore overlooked and sometimes messy nooks and crannies -- something encouraged by his father, who often took Sullivan and his family to explore New York's South Street Seaport.

He spent nearly a year of evenings from the summer of 2001 to summer 2002 watching a colony of rats as they feasted on garbage from a Chinese eatery in Eden's Alley, a tiny, cobble-stoned alley in New York's downtown financial district.

Armed with infra-red night-time goggles, Sullivan monitored rats at night while the city dealt with the World Trade Center catastrophe not far away.

New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani called the book "Engaging ... a lively, informative compendium of facts, theories and musings."

The New York Observer noted that the book goes beyond rats alone to give people "a deeper understanding of both the history of New York City and the essence of mankind."

His research, he said, "was just kind of messing around in the back yards of the city. What is neglected is fascinating to me ... What is neglected is maybe more telling in some ways than what is universally embraced and lauded."

PARALLELS BETWEEN RATS, PEOPLE

Sullivan recalled that he could not get to his alley "for a while right after 9/11" but he found parallels between rat colonies and people in New York after the attacks.

"There were groups of people who helped people, people who screwed people, but people wanted to be with (other) people. They wanted to pick pockets or fleece you or they wanted to be together with people just because it is good to be people," said Sullivan, adding that "rats are similar."

Nocturnal with an excellent sense of taste, rats can detect minute amounts of poison, down to one part per million. By one estimate, rats are behind 26 percent of all electric cable breaks in New York because of their attraction to wires.

Their front two teeth grow five inches (12.5 cm) a year and allow them to gnaw on concrete and steel. Their skeletons can collapse so they can squeeze through holes as small as three quarters of an inch wide -- the average width of their skulls.

New York subway workers call them track rabbits, and Sullivan writes that when rats are not foraging for food they are having sex. Rats, writes Sullivan, have sex 20 times a day with as many females as possible. Also, rats in all-male colonies will have sex with each other.

These are just some of the tidbits of data Sullivan discovered in his research. He relies on rat catchers and bits of scientific research like that of William B. Jackson, a professor at Bowling Green State University, and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as Johns Hopkins University.

The commonly held belief that there is one rat per person in New York, or 8 million, is a myth, Sullivan said.

"There are definitely a lot of rats, but not one per person," he said. "If there was one per person we would be tripping over them."

According to his book, published by Bloomsbury, the one-rat-per-person stems from a 1909 study of rats that estimated there were 40 million rats in England, one for each of the country's 40 million acres and 40 million people.

"There was one rat per person in England because of a coincidence of population and acres," said Sullivan.

"It is a number people just love. Subconsciously they want to believe there are as many rats as people."

While he does not estimate how many rats live in New York, he offers an alternative task.

"We could go and figure out how many there are but it would take a long time. You would be better off going and spending money on neighborhoods where there are problems with rats, trying to help people," Sullivan said.

Sullivan's book tracks the history of rats, describes such oddities as the promoters of rat fights in the 19th century and details a convention of exterminators.

While he once captured a rat, Sullivan says he has never brought one home nor is he likely to adopt one as a pet.

"No I never kept a rat. I'm married," he explained.

Falling in Love -- a Gender-Bending Experience

May 6, 10:28 am ET 

LONDON  - Falling in love -- that crazy, blissful feeling -- causes gender-bender changes in men and women's testosterone levels.

A study by an Italian researcher shows that when couples fall in love their testosterone levels alter. It falls in men and rises in women so they become more like each other.

"Men who were in love had lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone -- linked to aggression and sex drive -- than other men," New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

"Love-struck women, in contrast, had higher levels of testosterone than their counterparts."

Donatella Marazziti, a scientist at the University of Pisa in Italy, made the discovery after studying 24 people in love.

"It's as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, because it's important to survive at this stage," she said.

Not all scientists agree with Marazziti's interpretation of the results and some say changing testosterone levels could be a result of increased sexual activity.

But whatever the reason it doesn't last long.

Two years later, when the same people were tested again and were no longer madly in love, their testosterone levels were back to normal.

Street Slang Proves Big Hit with Book Lovers

May 5, 9:13 am ET 

By Christian Oliver

TEHRAN  - Persian is famed as the melodic, courtly language of medieval poets such as Omar Khayyam and Hafez, but it is a dictionary of vulgar street slang that is taking Iranian literary circles by storm. At Tehran's annual book fair, the woman running the stall of the dictionary's publisher Nashr-e Markaz had to explain to a disappointed stream of book buyers that the sixth edition had already sold out.

Much of the slang is the vernacular of "Javads," a wayward breed of young men who drive around Tehran, trying to lure girls into their cars.

Unsurprisingly, many of their racy, often chauvinistic expressions derive from their beloved automobiles.

A "zero kilometer," a reference to a car with no mileage on the clock, is a virgin. "Been in an accident" refers to a girl who has become pregnant.

Girls' backsides, a favorite talking point of hot-blooded Javads, are "hubcaps."

The most popular stall at the fair which opened Monday was one specializing in books on the giddy social life of the Pahlavis, the royal family deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Iran's bestsellers at the moment are all contemporary history," said Ahmad Pirani, who contributed to a book on the private life of the last Shah. His colleague Paris reckoned he knew why: "People want to read about this part of history to know who they are."

A white-turbaned mullah leafed through "Wives of the Shah."

In a country with few entertainments, Tehran's 11-day book fair is viewed as a fun day out. Fast-food and ice-cream vendors do a brisk trade.

Outside the exhibition rooms, couples exchanged tentative, illicit caresses on the lawns as schoolgirls perched on a wall reading Tintin comics. Publishing thresholds have relaxed a touch since liberal President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997 but his attempts to push through sweeping social reforms have been thwarted by conservative supervisory bodies.

Iran zealously censors any works criticizing the Islamic system. It banned "The Stoning of Soraya M," Freidoune Sahebjam's tale of violent, arbitrary justice in rural Iran.

British novelist Salman Rushdie, sentenced to death by an Iranian fatwa in 1989, is still taboo. An American book on male psychology called "All Men Are Jerks Until Proven Otherwise" has also fallen foul of the censors lately.

Religious and scientific texts dominated the fair's book stacks but young people also snapped up horror novels, U.S. rock lyrics and biographies of England footballer David Beckham.

Islamic publishing houses were also selling new technology: swarms of women in the all-enveloping chador gathered round CD-ROM virtual tours of holy shrines.

"I have come here almost every year," said black-bearded law student Hamid Soleimani, 25. He had bought some books on the early martyrs of Shi'ite Islam.

Elsewhere, a young woman in a green silk headscarf thumbed through a Persian translation of "The Fox," D.H. Lawrence's tale of simmering erotic tensions. Other stands were decked with works by American Jewish actor and director Woody Allen.

Adel, a silver-haired religious bookseller from Tehran's sprawling bazaar, said he was complementing his Korans with the adventures of boy-wizard Harry Potter. "These J.K. Rowling books are selling pretty well," he said.

'Vent-Line' Irks Counselors

May 5, 8:12 am ET 

BOSTON  - Licensed mental health professionals are steamed over a Maine entrepreneur who charges angry people $1.99 a minute to listen to them rant and rave over the telephone.

Philip Doyen receives between 10 and 20 phone calls a week to "Vent-Line," a service he launched in February that allows callers to blow off steam -- at a price.

But some professional counseling services aren't happy about Doyen's business and are urging prosecutors to investigate whether he is breaking any state laws, the Portland Press Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"For some people, venting is going to upset them more," Leslie Brancato of the Community Counseling Center in Portland, Maine, told the paper. "That he's charging $1.99 a minute is, in my opinion, totally exploitative."

Doyen, who works as a computer repairman when not operating Vent-Line, says he has dozens of customers along the U.S. East Coast.

"I'm in it for the money, like everybody else," the Press Herald quoted him as saying. "If it helps people, great."

Tourist's Trinkets Really Ancient Statues

May 6, 9:29 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - A Dutch tourist's souvenir Hindu statuettes will be sent back to Indonesia and put on show in a museum after they turned out to be valuable 13th century works of art, customs officials said on Thursday.

"The individual bought the statues on a roadside while on holiday in Indonesia, thinking they were new and made to look old," Rotterdam customs press officer Kees Nanninga said.

Rotterdam port customs stumbled across the stone statuettes, one of the elephant-headed god Ganesh, the other a male torso of another Hindu deity, in a spot check late last year.

The statuettes, estimated to be worth 15,000 euros ($18,230) together, were handed over to the Indonesian embassy in the Netherlands on Thursday and will eventually be exhibited in Jakarta's National Museum.

Cyprus or Crete? Stamp Seems to Blur EU Map

May 6, 9:30 am ET 

DUBLIN  - Ireland, current president of the European Union, has issued a postage stamp which appears to confuse new EU-member Cyprus with the Greek holiday island of Crete.

The stamp shows a map of the enlarged EU with the old member states colored blue and the new states in yellow.

Cyprus is positioned just south of Greece and looks suspiciously like Crete in shape. It is longer and thinner than the real Cyprus and has a rectangular bump on the bottom of it, just like the Greek island.

"The shape is closer to that of Crete than Cyprus although, to be fair, the designer does seem to have taken some artistic license with the other countries too," said Peter Geoffrey, a Dublin philatelist.

"I suppose it might be a little insulting if you were from either Crete or Cyprus."

The Irish Post Office insisted on Thursday there had been no mistake but conceded the designers had to move Cyprus from its position in the eastern Mediterranean to fit it on the stamp.

"There is no way they could have left Cyprus where it was," a spokeswoman said. "It's quite a crowded stamp as it is.

"This is not meant to be a "to-scale" map of the EU," she added. "It's like an image taken through a photographer's fish-eye lens. I know some people are saying it looks like Crete but it's not. It is quite definitely Cyprus."

Number Found at Spain Site Leads to Arrest 

1 hour, 41 minutes ago

MADRID, Spain - Police investigating the Madrid terror bombings have arrested a Moroccan whose telephone number was found in the ruins of an apartment where seven suspects blew themselves up, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. 

The man, whose name was not released, was arrested Thursday night in Parla, a town just south of Madrid, a ministry official said. 

The suspect's telephone number was found in the wreckage of an apartment where seven suspects, including the suspected ringleader of the train attacks, blew themselves up on April 3 as police prepared to go in and arrest them, the official said. 

The attacks on March 11 killed 191 people and wounded more than 2,000, and have been blamed on Islamic militants with possible links to al-Qaida. 

Eighteen people have been charged so far - six with mass murder and the rest with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Six of the 18 have been released from jail but still face charges. 

On Thursday, the FBI (news - web sites) arrested an American lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, 37, in the United States as a material witness in the case. 

Spanish officials say at least one of Mayfield's fingerprints were found on a plastic bag containing detonators of the kind used in the attacks. The bag was found in a van left near the station from which three of the four trains bombed on March 11 departed. U.S. officials said a single print of Mayfield's was found on the bag. 

The newspaper El Pais reported Saturday that Spanish investigators have serious doubts as to whether the print is Mayfield's. They have no record of him traveling to Spain recently, and experts found only eight points of similarity between the print and the one of Mayfield held in U.S. files because of his status as a former member of the Army. The FBI said it found 15 such points, El Pais said. 

The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the report.

Hearing-impaired get movie treat

Fri May 7, 9:40 AM ET

- Chicago Tribune 

By Paul Singer Washington Bureau 

When Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" character sneered, "Go ahead--make my day," the line became such a cultural phenomenon that President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) repeated it in daring Congress to pass a tax increase he could veto. 

But John Stanton and millions of other deaf Americans did not recognize the reference. The line comes from a 1983 movie that--like virtually all other American movies released since the end of the silent film era--had no subtitles or captions for the hearing-impaired. 

Now a lawsuit filed by Stanton and two other deaf moviegoers against two major movie chains may change that, paving the way for a broad expansion of captioning devices for the hearing-impaired in theaters throughout the country. 

In a settlement approved by a federal judge last week, the theater chains--AMC Theaters and Loews Cineplex--agreed to install individual captioning devices in a dozen theaters in the D.C. area over the next year. They also agreed to build the system into at least one screen in all their new theater complexes in the region. 

"I'm probably going to be deaf for the rest of my life," said Stanton, a Washington lawyer. "I hope I'm going to live to see the day where almost every movie is caption-accessible. ... I think our settlement is a very good starting point to get that process going." 

Settlement sets new standard 

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler approved the settlement April 30. While it applies only to the Washington area, it "will set the standard for what other communities, at a very minimum, should be offering," she said. 

The deal calls for use of Rear Window captioning technology, designed to help hearing-impaired moviegoers without blocking others' view, that provides the user a transparent plastic panel attached to a seat's cup holder. The captions are displayed on the back wall of the theater, and the reflection is visible on the panel but invisible to patrons in adjoining seats. 

The technology currently is available in only one movie theater in the Washington area and fewer than 100 nationwide. Six screens in the Chicago area have Rear Window technology, including the AMC City North and the AMC Yorktown in Lombard. There are no closed-caption screens elsewhere in Illinois. 

An AMC spokesman said that in addition to the Washington-area court settlement, the chain has made a voluntary commitment to install Rear Window in all its new theater complexes--but not for every screen. AMC also will retrofit at least one theater in all 210 of its complexes nationwide to provide captioning technology. 

Loews declined to comment on its plans. 

Stanton's lawsuit argued that theaters without captions violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires businesses to establish reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. 

Two other lawsuits seeking to force theaters to install captioning technology--one in Oregon, one in Texas--have failed, leaving the D.C. settlement as the first lawsuit to result in an agreement to add captioning. 

"What the settlement does is provide a model that can be replicated in other communities around the country," said Todd Houston, executive director of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. 

David Monroe, the lawyer who negotiated the settlement on behalf of AMC and Loews, said even more captioning devices may be installed nationwide if it makes economic sense. 

"If it turns out that a lot of additional people come to see captioned films, that makes it more likely that they will make more captioned films available," Monroe said. 

But some advocates for the deaf are disappointed that the settlement does not go further.

"It's a drop in the bucket," said Cheryl Heppner, chairwoman of the Coalition for Movie Captioning, an alliance of advocacy groups for the deaf and hard of hearing. The coalition says the deal requires only "the ability to show captioned movies on roughly 5 percent of AMC/Loews screens forever." 

Other advocates say the Rear Window system is cumbersome and that a better approach would be "open captions"--subtitles projected on the screen and visible to all patrons. 

Studio and theater executives adamantly oppose that idea, saying such subtitles would be a distraction to their hearing clientele and would interfere with a director's creative control of the image on the screen. 

Richard King, a spokesman for AMC Theaters, said his company has tested open captioning and "we have found that is something that is not appealing to moviegoers [who] are not hearing-impaired." 

It is an open question whether there is an economic incentive for theaters to install captioning devices. 

Costs $10,000 to install 

The Rear Window systems cost about $10,000 to install, and King pointed out that there are no data to prove that the technology brings in flocks of deaf or hard-of-hearing patrons. 

Tawny Holmes, student body president at Gallaudet University, a D.C. school for hearing-impaired students, said deaf students looking for evening activities do not immediately think of going to the movies, mostly because they don't expect to find a captioned film. 

"But when there is an announcement that there is going to be a captioned movie, they go in droves," she said, speaking through a sign-language interpreter. 

Studios generally produce captions for the DVD or video versions of their films, and they already produce captions for some theatrical releases at minimal cost--about $50,000 per movie, said an executive at a major Hollywood movie studio who asked that his name not be used because of potential litigation. "The cost is the same whether it's in 12 theaters or 1,200," he added. 

But the executive noted that the same is not true for theater owners, for whom the $10,000 cost per auditorium makes it prohibitively expensive to install the system in all 36,000 screens across the country.

Soldier Says He Hot-Wired Odai's Car 

Fri May 7,10:33 PM ET 
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By CLAYTON BELLAMY, News Source Writer 

TULSA, Okla. - An Oklahoma soldier stationed in Iraq (news - web sites) hot-wired Odai Hussein's Lamborghini sport utility vehicle, military records say, and the soldier goes on to claim his action lured the son of the former Iraqi dictator into a U.S. trap. 

But the account from Spc. Jeremy Huhman of Enid, Okla., as passed along by his mother and Oklahoma U.S. Senate candidate Kirk Humphreys, differs on key points from the official version of the raid last July that killed Odai, 39, and brother Qusai, 37. 

In Huhman's account, his hot-wiring of the expensive Italian vehicle caused a worried Odai to emerge from the villa where he and Qusai were holed up. The Army has said only that troops surrounded the building and stormed it after firing missiles and rockets. No other witnesses saw Odai come outside. 

A U.S. Army document that led to a commendation for Huhman says he was asked to fulfill various missions in Iraq "... from hot-wiring Uday Hussein's Lamborghini SUV to generator repair to bringing captured facilities back online." 

"Uday" is an alternative spelling of Odai. 

The award recommendation, obtained by The News Source, does not describe the circumstances under which Huhman hot-wired the SUV. 

The document is signed by 1st Lt. Philip Benner, Huhman's executive officer with Bravo Company, 558th Engineering Unit. 

Benner, reached at company headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas, declined to comment. "It's a matter we haven't unclassified," he said. 

Huhman was on leave Friday, a soldier who answered the phone at Bravo Company said. Other attempts to reach Huhman were not successful. 

The Pentagon (news - web sites) press office referred The AP to Fort Hood, where a public affairs officer referred calls to Benner and Huhman. 

The Lamborghini or any attempts to hot-wire it are not included in either official Pentagon descriptions of the raid or in accounts from Iraqi witnesses. An official Army briefing the day after the raid said soldiers tried twice without success to enter the villa and were able to get inside only after firing rockets and missiles into the building. 

Witnesses interviewed by The AP said U.S. soldiers hopped out of four Humvees and surrounded the villa, using megaphones to demand the occupiers come out. The home's owners came out, but Odai, Qusai and their bodyguards fired, wounding four Americans, the witnesses said. 

Humphreys said he met Huhman in March on a flight from Dallas to Oklahoma City, and the two talked for a few minutes. 

Huhman's mother, Judy, was unavailable for comment, but she confirmed her son's account in a story Tuesday in the Enid News & Eagle. 

"He was a teenager once," she said. "He knows about cars." 

Humphreys, a Republican, has been telling the story during campaign stops to show, he says, that while politicians debate the war, soldiers are risking their lives to win. Democrats have accused Humphreys of making the story up to justify his support for the war and to criticize Democrats. 

"I did not make it up. I did not embellish it," Humphreys said.

Low-Carb Impact Affecting Krispy Kreme 

1 hour, 51 minutes ago

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By PAUL NOWELL, News Source Business Writer 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Could the Krispy Kreme doughnut be the latest victim of the low-carb diet craze? 

The Winston-Salem-based doughnut maker said Friday that it is cutting its profit projection for this year by 10 percent because of lower demand for its high-calorie treats - which the company attributes in part to the low-carb diet phenomenon. 

The announcement drove its stock price down 23 percent in early trading. 

"The popularity of low-carb diets has captured the consumer's attention," said Scott Livengood, chief executive and chairman of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. "It's impossible to predict if low-carb is a passing fad or will have a lasting impact. 

"For several months, there has been increasing consumer interest in low-carbohydrate diets, which has adversely impacted several flour-based food categories, including bread, cereal and pasta," he said. 

Until recently, Livengood said, the consumer change had "little discernible effect on our business." However, he said, recent market data suggests consumer interest in reduced carbohydrate consumption has heightened. 

He said the development is most evident in sales of packaged doughnuts to grocery store customers. 

In March, Krispy Kreme unveiled plans to offer a low-sugar doughnut. 

One of Krispy Kreme's Hot Original Glazed doughnuts has 200 calories. More than half those calories come from fat, which gives the fried doughnut texture and flavor. 

On Friday, Livengood said the company estimates diluted earnings per share from continuing operations before charges will be about 23 cents in the first fiscal quarter ended May 2. 

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of 27 cents a share. 

For the fiscal year ending in February 2005, it expects to earn $1.04 to $1.06 a share before charges which is approximately 10 percent lower than prior guidance. Analysts expected $1.17 a share. 

Including one-time charges, diluted earnings per share from continuing operations will be about 16 cents for the first quarter and between 93 cents and 95 cents for fiscal 2005, he said. 

"Our current guidance assumes a continuation of the low-carb phenomenon that is affecting the industry," Livengood said. "Needless to say, we are disappointed that external forces have caused us to revise our first quarter and fiscal 2005 earnings guidance." 

The company will divest its existing Montana Mills operation, which will result in a charge of at least $35 million in the first quarter and charges of $2 million to $4 million in subsequent quarters, Livengood said. 

In addition, six company stores will be closed, he said. 

In morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), Krispy Kreme shares were down $7.30 at $24.50. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Krispy Kreme Inc.: www.krispykreme.com.

Adidas Creates Computerized 'Smart Shoe'

2 hours, 25 minutes ago

By WILLIAM McCALL, News Source Business Writer 

PORTLAND, Ore. - Adidas says it has created the world's first "smart shoe" by mating it with a computer chip that adapts its cushioning level to a runner's size and stride. 

The Adidas 1 is the product of a three-year secret project the German company developed at its U.S. headquarters in Portland, Ore. 

On Thursday, Adidas opened its research lab to reporters from around the world for a first peek at a shoe the company claims will revolutionize distance running and training. 

"This is the first intelligent shoe ever," said Erich Stamminger, global marketing director for Adidas. "It senses, understands and adapts." 

After thousands of hours of testing, Adidas is confident the computerized shoe will endure the wear-and-tear of running in almost any condition - from hard pavement to dirt trails, and dry streets to wet beaches. 

The microprocessor is located in the arch of the shoe, and drives a tiny screw and cable system that adjusts the heel cushion depending on the signals sent back by an electric sensor coupled to a magnet. 

It is powered by a battery that conserves power by adjusting the shoe while it is in the air during a runner's stride, avoiding resistance from the ground. 

The entire assembly weighs no more than 40 grams - just 10 percent of the 400-gram total weight of the shoe, to keep it light enough for distance runners. 

But the $250 price tag is likely to make it a luxury item when it first goes on sale in December, said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. 

"It's something that doesn't necessarily seem to have massive market appeal, but from the company standpoint speaks volumes about its technology capabilities," Swangard said. 

New Finds Put Maya Culture Back a Few Centuries

Wed May 5, 7:55 AM ET

By Thomas H. Maugh II Times Staff Writer 

Archeologists excavating a 2,500-year-old Maya city in Guatemala have unearthed buildings and massive carvings indicating the presence of a royal metropolis of more than 10,000 people at a time when, scientists had previously believed, the Maya were only simple farmers. 

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New studies at the Cival site in the Peten jungle have unearthed the oldest known carved portrait of a Maya king and two massive stone masks of the Maya maize deity, discoveries indicating that the Maya developed a complex and sophisticated civilization hundreds of years earlier than previously believed. 

The city of towering pyramids and sweeping plazas is yielding other surprising artifacts, including jade and ceramic offerings to the gods that may mark the beginnings of the Maya dynasties, Vanderbilt University archeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli said Tuesday during a National Geographic (news - web sites) Society telephone news conference from Washington. 

Estrada-Belli "is pushing back the time for the evidence of Maya state institutions by several centuries," said archeologist Elsa Redmond of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. 

"We had hints of these kinds of buildings from El Mirador," another Maya city of the so-called Preclassic Period, which dates from roughly 2000 BC to AD 250, Redmond said. 

The Maya civilization came into full bloom at cities such as Palenque in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala during the Classic Period, beginning about AD 300. But other Preclassic sites have been built over, often repeatedly, rendering interpretation of the findings problematic. 

Cival, for reasons that are not clear, was abandoned about AD 100, "never to be occupied again," Estrada-Belli said, and has lain relatively untouched since. "It is very unusual to have a completely preserved Preclassic city that was not buried by subsequent building," he added. 

It may have been a forgotten city, he said, or it may have been a sacred site whose memory was preserved and where building was forbidden. 

And because it was preserved, it is now clear that " 'Preclassic' is a misnomer," he said. The new evidence shows that "Preclassic Maya societies already had many features that have been attributed to the Classic Period - kings, complex iconography, elaborate palaces and burials.... The origin of the Maya civilization has to be found in the first part of the Preclassic period, rather than the last part." 

Cival, which is about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered in 1984 by Ian Graham of Harvard University. Most of the site was overgrown by jungle, however, and Graham's team thought it was a minor outpost. 

Estrada-Belli has been studying the nearby Classic Period city of Holmul and was using satellite imaging and global positioning systems to explore the surrounding area when he rediscovered Cival four years ago. The new technology showed that its ceremonial center spanned half a mile, more than twice Graham's initial estimate. 

Estrada-Belli and his colleagues have been digging there with support from the National Geographic Society. 

Their findings and those of others studying the Preclassic period are the subject of a National Geographic documentary, "Dawn of the Maya," which will air May 12 on PBS. 

The most spectacular find at Cival occurred by accident. Estrada-Belli reached into a fissure in the wall while examining a dank looter's tunnel in the city's main pyramid and came into contact with a piece of carved stucco that felt like a snake or a mustache. 

Digging into the site from the other side of the pyramid, he discovered a 15-by-9-foot stucco mask. The one visible eye was L-shaped and the mouth was squared, with snake's fangs in its center. 

"The mask's preservation is astounding," he said. "It's almost as if someone made this yesterday." The looters, he added, "just missed it." 

More recently, the team discovered a second, apparently identical, mask on the other side of a set of stairs. The eyes appear to be adorned with corn husks, suggesting the Maya maize deity. 

Estrada-Belli believes that the masks flanked a pyramid stairway that led to the temple room, providing a backdrop for elaborate rituals in which the king - viewed by people in the plaza - impersonated the gods of creation. 

The team also found a stela, or carved stone pillar, dating to 300 BC, showing the accession of a king whose name has not yet been determined. Such stelae were quite common in Classic Period cities, but none this old have previously been found. "We didn't know there were kings then," Estrada-Belli said. 

The large plaza in front of the pyramid was the scene of offerings to the Maya gods. In a recess in the plaza, the team found a red bowl, two spondylus shells, a jade tube and a hematite fragment. 

Behind the recess was a cross-shaped depression containing five smashed jars, one on each arm of the cross and one in the center. The jars signify water and date to 500 BC, he said. 

Under the center jar were 120 pieces of jade - an unusual concentration of wealth for the period - most of them round, polished pebbles. Nearby were five jade axes, placed with their blades pointing upward. The pebbles probably symbolize maize and the axes sprouting maize plants, Estrada-Belli said. 

Kings in the Classic Period were thought to embody the maize god on Earth, and it seems that this tradition started much earlier than was originally thought, he said. 

The team also found a major clue to what probably was the ultimate fate of Cival - a hurriedly constructed defensive wall built about AD 100. 

The 6-foot-high wall "was a desperate attempt to close off the inner core of the site," he said. The find surprised him, he said, because "there was no previous evidence of warfare in the Preclassic Period." 

Ultimately, he said, Cival "probably met the same end as many cities in the Classic Period": conquest by a more powerful neighbor.

Fifth HIV Case Strikes California Porn Industry

27 minutes ago

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By Gina Keating 

LOS ANGELES  - A veteran porn actress on Wednesday became the fifth adult film performer in Los Angeles to test positive for HIV (news - web sites) since an industrywide quarantine went into effect last month to stop the spread of the potentially deadly virus, an industry health care official said. 

The actress was one of 14 performers who worked directly with actor Darren James, a longtime porn performer who is believed to be the source of the outbreak. 

The latest diagnosis marks the largest outbreak of the AIDS (news - web sites) virus in Southern California's porn industry in six years. 

The AIDS scare has prompted a virtual shutdown of adult film production in recent weeks and raised the prospect of tighter regulation on an industry, which has long thrived on Hollywood's fringes in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. 

James may have contracted the virus while filming in Brazil on a "non-condom" set in March and has passed it to at least three of his co-stars, said Sharon Mitchell, who runs the HIV screening program for the Adult Industry Medical Foundation. 

The woman's name was not made public but Mitchell described her as "an actress working in the industry for several years." 

"She had a good head on shoulders and was well prepared for this diagnosis," said Mitchell, a former porn actress with a doctorate in public health. "She did realize that HIV was an occupational hazard." 

The woman was one of about 50 porn actors under a 60-day quarantine because they had worked directly with James or with the women who had onscreen sex with him after his suspected exposure to the HIV virus (news - web sites). 

The partners of the latest actress to test HIV-positive have already tested negative once, but will be monitored for another 30 days to ensure that they are not carrying the disease, Mitchell said. 

"This is the benefit of containment," Mitchell said. "They haven't been out working. They have been under quarantine." 

In an unrelated case, a transsexual porn actress whose stage name is Jennifer tested positive for HIV on Tuesday. Her only two partners returned negative tests on Wednesday, indicating the virus had spread no further, Mitchell said. 

Mitchell has advocated a moratorium on filming until the quarantine is lifted on June 8 but not all of the 200 or so production companies that comprise the multibillion-dollar industry have complied. 

She said the last major outbreak of AIDS in the industry, which employs about 1,200 actors, occurred in 1998 when six people tested positive for HIV. There was an additional case the following year and none since then until James tested positive for the virus in mid-April. 

The latest HIV outbreak prompted calls for unprecedented inspection of film shoots and mandatory condom use -- proposals that critics said would drive the industry underground or out of state.

Israel Said to Finance Illegal Outposts 

1 hour, 54 minutes ago

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, News Source Writer 

JERUSALEM - Israel's Housing Ministry has spent millions of dollars on unauthorized construction in the West Bank, a government report said Wednesday, leading the attorney general to impose a new way of monitoring settlement spending. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: Mideast Conflict

Also Wednesday, the Palestinian legislature fired a high-ranking official it accused of corruption. It was the first time lawmakers dismissed a senior official for corruption. 

In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed and 16 - including a news photographer - were wounded in Israeli-Palestinian violence. In the West Bank, an armed Hamas fugitive was shot dead by troops. 

Also, Israel released a co-founder of Hamas, Mohammed Taha, after holding him for 14 months without charges. Taha, accused by the army of leading Hamas' military wing, was arrested in a raid on the Boureij refugee camp in central Gaza. 

The report, issued by the watchdog state comptroller, detailed how the Housing Ministry funneled about $6.5 million for illegal construction, more than half of it to unauthorized outposts. 

Attorney General Meni Mazuz ordered an unprecedented freeze on funding for settlement construction, charging that settlements were diverting state funds to the outposts. 

The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that Mazuz had lifted last month's ordered freeze after approving a monitoring system to ensure government money is not used for illegal projects. 

From January 2000 to June 2003, the Housing Ministry approved 77 contracts for construction projects in 33 West Bank areas, 18 of them unauthorized outposts, the report said. Of the $6.5 million given to illegal West Bank construction, about $4 million went to the outposts, the comptroller's report said. 

Housing Minister Effie Eitam, leader of the pro-settler National Religious Party, pledged to respect the law. 

"I promise that every shekel (dollar) that comes from the government will be transferred to legal activities," Eitam told Israel's Army Radio after the report was released. 

Israel is obligated under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan to dismantle dozens of unauthorized West Bank outposts, many of them no more than a trailer on a barren hilltop. 

Palestinians view the outposts as further encroachment on land they want for a state. Although Israel has removed a handful of the outposts, most were rebuilt within days. 

A U.S. official declined to respond to the findings in the report but said the American position on illegal outposts is well known. 

"Consistent with the road map, settlement activity is to be frozen, and certainly illegal outposts even more so," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. 

On Sunday, members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s Likud Party voted against his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and small parts of the West Bank. In consultations Tuesday in New York, the "Quartet" of Mideast mediators - the United States, European Union (news - web sites), Russia and United Nations (news - web sites) - endorsed Sharon's plan. 

In a Wednesday letter to Quartet members, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the defeat of Sharon's plan was an opportunity to return to negotiations "and the end to Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territory." 

At the United Nations in New York, Palestinians pressed for a vote Thursday on a General Assembly resolution affirming their right to sovereignty over the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and stating that Israel "has no sovereignty over any part of this territory." 

Arab diplomats said Wednesday this was a crucial issue for the Palestinians because of President Bush (news - web sites)'s endorsement last month of Sharon's plan. 

In another development, the Palestinian legislature Wednesday fired the head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority after a parliamentary probe concluded he was involved in corruption and mismanagement. 

Amin Haddad was the first high-ranking Palestinian official to be fired by the parliament for corruption. The monetary authority monitors the flow of money in the Bank of Palestine. The Palestinian administration assumed control over the private bank three years ago, but losses have tripled during that time to $34 million. 

"This is part of the parliament's war against corruption in the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites)," said Hassan Khreishe, the Palestinian deputy parliament speaker. 

Haddad could not be reached for comment. 

In the West Bank village of Talouza, troops shot dead an armed Hamas fugitive, the army said. Villagers said the dead man, Einad Janajra, was the target of an Israeli raid last month but escaped, and an innocent bystander was shot dead instead. 

The army later apologized for killing the bystander, a university lecturer. 

In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed in fighting with the Israeli army. 

Palestinian officials said one person was killed after entering an unauthorized area near the border with Israel. Originally the Palestinians said two were killed, but only one body was found. The military said soldiers opened fire on two men, hitting one. 

In the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, a Palestinian security guard was killed by Israeli gunfire after dozens of youths began throwing stones at troops. One of the wounded, Mahmoud Hams, is a news photographer working for Agence France-Presse, the French news agency. 

The army said soldiers fired at gunmen. The military demolished 10 buildings, uprooted dozens of olive trees and damaged infrastructure in the area, witnesses said. 

The army has stepped up activity in southern Gaza since Palestinian gunmen killed a pregnant Jewish settler and her four young daughters in an ambush there Sunday.

Bush Asks Congress for $25B for Iraq War 

35 minutes ago 
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By ALAN FRAM, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration asked Congress Wednesday for a $25 billion down payment for next year's U.S. operations in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), a retreat from the White House's earlier plans not to seek the money until after the November elections. 

Bush Administration to Seek $25B for Iraq War 
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The money - half of what White House officials have said they expect to need for 2005 - is designed to carry the military through the first months of the new budget year, which starts next Oct. 1. Congress is likely to be adjourned for much of that period, and the Army in particular would be expected to face a cash crunch unless funds were approved beforehand. 

"While we do not know the precise costs for operations next year, recent developments on the ground and increased demands on our troops indicate the need to plan for contingencies," President Bush (news - web sites) said in a statement. "We must make sure there is no disruption in funding and resources for our troops." 

White House budget chief Joshua Bolten and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz went to the Capitol to describe the proposal to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and other top Republicans. 

"I certainly expect so," Frist told reporters afterward when asked whether Congress would approve the funds. "It's for our troops." 

The proposal comes amid an intensified Iraqi insurrection that has inflicted steady casualties on Americans and forced the Pentagon (news - web sites) to plan on keeping more troops in the country next year than the administration had planned. 

It also comes with the administration and the military facing widespread criticism at home and abroad for the abuse of Iraqi war prisoners. 

The White House, too, faced growing demands from lawmakers of both parties in recent weeks that the money for Iraq needed to be approved before Congress adjourns this fall. 

Democrats criticized the Bush proposal because they said it was well short of what will really be needed. 

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the request would fall short by least $40 billion. With this year's expected record deficit looming as a campaign issue this fall, Obey said the shortfall was intentional. 

"What it demonstrates is that they tried simply to avoid showing any of the costs before the election," Obey told reporters. "Now they are asking for the least they can possibly ask for ... concealing the full costs." 

The administration will seek more money for next year "when we can better estimate precise costs," Bush said. 

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) said it was too early to tell if he would support the proposal. The Massachusetts senator said U.S. troops "need to get what they need," but he faulted the administration for failing to provide them promptly with body armor and humvee trucks. 

Underlining how Iraq has become a political issue, the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) took the unusual step of commenting on a spending proposal, saying it was insufficient and misleading. 

"The troops deserve our full support, but that does not change the fact that this president has a staggering credibility problem on Iraq," said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera. 

The administration provided few details, but officials said all the money would be for the military. The funds would add to the federal deficit, though all $25 billion probably would not be spent next year. 

Even before Wednesday's request, Congress had provided $165 billion for the Pentagon for Iraq, Afghanistan and anti-terror efforts at home and abroad since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to an October 2003 report by the Congressional Research Service. 

Most of that money came from an $87.5 billion bill last November, and a $79.5 billion measure enacted in April 2003. 

Unlike those bills, administration officials did not characterize the new request as urgent, participants in Wednesday's meeting said. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said the $25 billion would probably be attached to the regular defense spending bill for next year, which he said would be completed by the time Congress adjourns for the fall elections. 

In February, Bush's budget omitted any funds for U.S. military and reconstruction activities in Iraq and Afghanistan next year. Bolten said at the time that the administration's 2005 request for Iraq could be up to $50 billion and said the request would not come until at least January. 

For months, administration officials stood by that timetable, insisting they had enough money to last until the new year. 

In recent weeks, administration officials raised the possibility that they might need extra money for the final weeks of this fiscal year; many members of Congress said they believed billions will be needed. 

Lawmakers leaving Wednesday's meeting said administration officials said they expected to make it through this year's final five months if they are given authority to shift funds among different accounts in the Pentagon's budget. 

As recently as Monday, a senior administration official played down the need for money right now for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Bush "has not been told that there is a resource problem," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

That official also said there was currently enough money for reconstruction in Iraq. 

Of $18.4 billion provided last November for rebuilding that country's economy and government, less than $2.8 billion has been spent or is owed to contractors, according to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led agency governing Iraq.

Mayan Queen's Tomb Found in Rain Forest 

Thu May 6,10:09 AM ET

By JAMIE STENGLE, News Source Writer 

DALLAS - While excavating an ancient royal palace deep in the Guatemalan rain forest, archaeologists made a rare discovery - the 1,200-year-old tomb and skeleton of a Mayan queen. 

Archaeologists announced the find Thursday, and said the woman appears to have been a powerful leader of a city that may have been home to tens of thousands of people at its peak. They found her bones on a raised platform, with evidence of riches scattered around her body. 

"We find clues of people's existence in the past all the time, from the garbage they left or the buildings they built. ... But when you actually come face-to-face with human beings, it's a deeply sacred moment for all of us," said David Freidel, an anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University, which sponsored a team of 20 archaeologists excavating the site. 

The discovery in the ancient Mayan city of Waka' in northwestern Guatemala was made in February but was not made public until Thursday. 

Word of the find comes two days after a Vanderbilt University archaeologist, whose work is supported by the National Geographic (news - web sites) Society, publicly described excavation of a little-known Guatamalan site called Cival, which housed as many as 10,000 people at its peak some 2,000 years ago. 

Stephen Houston, a Brigham Young University professor specializing in Mayan archaeology and writing who was not involved in the project, called the tomb discovery significant. 

"We haven't found to date many tombs of Maya queens," he said. 

The tomb is the first discovered at Laguna del Tigre, Guatemala's largest national park, where SMU began its excavation project in 2002. 

The queen's skull and leg bones were missing, probably removed sometime after the body had decomposed to be used as relics. Other than that, the tomb - measuring 11 feet long by 4 feet wide by 6 feet high - was untouched. 

The queen is thought to have been 30 to 45 when she died, but archaeologists have uncovered no clues as to her name, dynasty or cause of death. 

Freidel, who leads the excavation team with archaeologist Hector Escobedo of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, said the power the queen held is evident in the 1,600 artifacts found in the tomb - especially the remains of a plated helmet. 

Twenty-two jade plaques, each about 2 inches square, appear to have been part of the helmet. Archeologists also found a 4-inch long jade carving depicting the dead of a deity in profile - a type of jewel worn by kings and queens, Freidel said. 

Stingray spines found in the tomb were usually used as bloodletting implements - males pierced their genitals in ceremonies that offered their blood to the gods, while women generally placed the spines in their tongues. The ones found in the tomb were placed on the queen's pelvis, Freidel said. 

"She's being represented as both male and female, in my view," Freidel said. 

Research suggests that Waka' - called El Peru on present-day maps - was inhabited as early as 500 B.C., but reached its peak between A.D. 400 and A.D. 800. The city was abandoned in the late 800s to 900s. 

Freidel's project is working with the Guatemala government and conservation groups to try to protect 230,000 acres of the Laguna del Tigre. 

Last year, 100,000 acres of the park were burned as impoverished villagers cleared rain forest for illegal cattle ranching and logging. Freidel says the deforestation threatens habitat for several endangered species, including the scarlet macaw, as well as the area's archaeological resources. 

___ 

On the Net: 

SMU: http://smu.edu/smunews/waka/default.asp

Small Biz Owners Cope With Rising Prices 

Thu May 6, 8:06 AM ET 
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By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG, News Source Business Writer 

NEW YORK - With inflation rising, especially when it comes to gasoline prices, and interest rates also on the way up, many small business owners are becoming more creative about cutting costs. 

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"You really have - in this economy - to be careful," said Amy Levy, who owns a public relations firm in Los Angeles. 

Levy, who says it can cost $40 to fill her car up, said she's becoming more careful about making 40 mile trips to business appointments. She'll still travel to meet with clients, but she might not make every photo shoot. 

She's also rethinking subscriptions to some trade publications because "$20 here, $50 there, it really adds up, especially for a small business owner." 

Since the start of 2004, inflation has become an issue for small business owners. They're particularly feeling the pinch of higher gasoline prices, but with the Consumer Price Index (news - web sites) already up 5.1 percent this year, it's clear that many things are getting more expensive. And with interest rates expected to rise in the near future, the cost of borrowing will also be going up. 

Many small business owners would like to pass on their rising costs to customers - and the jump in the CPI indicates that many are doing so. 

"Compared to a year ago, it's probably a little easier to raise prices," said Raymond Keating, chief economist for the Small Business Survival Committee, a Washington-based advocacy group. 

But the more competitive an industry is, the harder it is to charge customers more. 

"For a retailer that has to keep in mind that Wal-Mart's down the road, it's going to be a little more difficult," Keating said. 

At Planterra Corp., a Bloomfield, Mich., interior landscaping firm, "we're in a still price-sensitive marketplace," co-owner Shane Pliska said. "We're trying to be a better business and be more efficient rather than passing on prices to our customers." 

Planterra's solution to higher gasoline prices has been to schedule almost all of its deliveries over four days instead of five. Drivers are now working four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, and Pliska said the company has cut its fuel expenditures by 20 percent. 

"We discovered that our routers, our drivers, were delivering in a more efficient way," Pliska said. 

Whether they can raise prices for not, business owners need to look at their entire operation to see where they might be able to make some more cuts or substitutions. 

Levy, for example, said she's stopped overnighting packages to clients if she'll be traveling to their neighborhoods in the next few days and the clients don't need the materials immediately. 

Although inflation is making companies more vigilant about costs, Keating noted that higher prices are also a sign that business is improving. 

"It's a pretty good environment for the economy overall," he said. 

It's also true that the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) is poised to push interest rates higher to ensure that the economy doesn't grow too fast, and that can be a concern for businesses hoping to borrow. But Keating doesn't expect a quarter-point increase in rates to do much damage to small businesses, because rates will still be at extremely low levels. 

Higher rates tend to affect more-established businesses the most, since startups generally are financed with an entrepreneur's own sources of capital, often credit cards or personal loans. A business owner with a track record who's concerned about rates should consider taking out a line of credit now, before rates move up. 

In the case of a new company, a savvy owner will use money from cards with extremely low rates - and there are very favorable long-term deals available if the owner has a good personal credit history. Such rates tend not to be affected by the Federal Reserve's monetary decisions.

Red Cross Sought Action on Prisoner Abuse 

22 minutes ago

GENEVA - The international Red Cross said Thursday that it had repeatedly asked U.S. authorities to take action over alleged prisoner abuse at Iraq (news - web sites)'s Abu Ghraib prison before recent revelations about the way detainees were treated. 

"We were aware of what was going on, and based on our findings we have repeatedly requested the U.S. authorities to take corrective action," said Nada Doumani, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, speaking from Amman, Jordan. 

The ICRC, which visits prisoners held by coalition authorities in Iraq, had previously declined to comment publicly on conditions at the prison. 

"We've been visiting Abu Ghraib prison since already from last year," Doumani told The News Source. "We are of course aware of the situation since we talk with the detainees privately. 

"We get testimony from them. We visit all the premises in this place. We crosscheck information we receive from different detainees. Definitely we were aware of what was going on in Abu Ghraib. 

Doumani said the visits have been taking place every five or six weeks since last year. The most recent visit was March 20, she said. 

The scandal over treatment of prisoners began when CBS television broadcast pictures of smiling American guards with Iraqi prisoners in humiliating positions. That unleashed a huge international outcry. 

The ICRC is designated by the Geneva Conventions on warfare to visit prisoners of war and other people detained by an occupying power. It traditionally discusses its observations only with the detaining authority, but has been under pressure to say whether it had specifically warned the United States about prisoner abuse before the photographs came to light. 

Doumani didn't say specifically when it gave its first warnings, but that it was over a period of months. 

Yankees Balk at 'Spider-Man' Ads on Bases 

1 hour, 56 minutes ago

By RONALD BLUM, News Source Sports Writer 

NEW YORK - Spider-Man is coming to a base near you. In the latest example of a sponsor's stamp on the sports world, ads for the movie "Spider-Man 2" will be placed atop bases at major league ballparks during games from June 11-13. 

The promotion, announced Wednesday, is part of baseball's pitch to appeal to younger fans - and make money along the way. 

But the New York Yankees (news), one of 15 teams at home that weekend, balked at the idea after the deal was announced. They will put ads on the bases only during batting practice, and then just for one game, team spokesman Rick Cerrone said. 

While commemorative logos have been on bases for special events such as the All-Star game or World Series (news - web sites), the Hall of Fame knew of no other commercial ads on bases, spokesman Jeff Idelson said. 

"This was a unique chance to combine what is a sort of a universally popular character and our broad fan base, including the youth market we're trying to reach out to," said Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. "It doesn't impact the play or performance of the game." 

Nowadays, ads can show up just about anywhere in sports. 

Telecasts of major league and college football games, for example, include virtual ads visible just to TV viewers. College football bowl games are named for advertisers. Boxers' backs bear stenciled ads. Just last week, a court ruled that Kentucky Derby jockeys could wear sponsors' patches on their uniforms. 

"I guess it's inevitable, but it's sad," said Fay Vincent, a former baseball commissioner and former president of Columbia Pictures, which is releasing "Spider-Man 2." 

"I'm old-fashioned. I'm a romanticist. I think the bases should be protected from this. I feel the same way I do when I see jockeys wears ads: Maybe this is progress, but there's something in me that regrets it very much," he added. 

Chicago Cubs (news) manager Dusty Baker didn't think it would make a difference. 

"I don't care," he said. "You've still got to touch base, whether they got spiders, scorpions or snakes on them." 

The movie promotion has been in the works for more than a year and will include ad buys and ballpark events, such as giving masks to fans, said Jacqueline Parkes, baseball's senior vice president for marketing and advertising. 

The ads, about 4-by-4-inches with a red background and yellow webbing, won't appear on home plate. The Yankees did agree to allow ads in the on-deck circles during their series that weekend against San Diego. 

"Spider-Man 2" opens June 30, and the weekend in early June was picked because it is during interleague play, which draws higher attendance than usual. 

"We need to reach out to a younger demographic to bring them to the ballpark," Parkes said. "They are looking for nontraditional breakthrough ways to convey 'Spider-Man' messaging. ... It's the future of how we generate excitement inside the stadium and about the game itself." 

Baseball will receive about $3.6 million in a deal negotiated by Major League Baseball Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Inc., a high-ranking baseball executive said on condition of anonymity. 

The Yankees and Boston Red Sox (news) will get more than $100,000 each, the team executive said, also on condition of anonymity. Most of the other 13 teams playing at home that weekend will get about $50,000 apiece, the team executive said. 

Parkes said the amount a team receives depends on the level of its participation. Geoffrey Ammer, president of marketing for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, was not immediately available for comment, spokesman Steve Elzer said. 

In a twist, Amanda Aardsma, the sister of Giants rookie pitcher David Aardsma, has a small role in the movie. 

Ralph Nader (news - web sites), a presidential candidate and consumer advocate, criticized the deal. He wrote Tuesday to baseball commissioner Bud Selig, denouncing the decision to have ads on uniforms during the season-opening series in March between the Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (news) in Tokyo. 

"It's gotten beyond grotesque," Nader said. "The fans have to revolt here. Otherwise, they'll be looking at advertisements between advertisements." 

Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, called for baseball fans to boycott Sony products. Nader is the chair of the organization's advisory board. 

U.S. Rep George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who is a former part-owner of the Greensboro Bats and the Michigan Battle Cats minor league teams, sent a letter to Selig protesting the decision. 

"Little Leaguers deserve to see their heroes slide into bases, not ads," wrote Nethercutt, who is running for U.S. Senate. 

Todd Zeile of the New York Mets (news) didn't mind the ads. 

"We're an entertainment outlet. there's going to be commercialism," he said. "At least, at this point, we don't look like NASCAR (news - web sites) drivers or World Cup soccer players. That's not to say that's not in the future." 

In separate promotions, the bases also will feature pink ribbons Sunday as part of a Mother's Day promotion to raise breast-cancer awareness, and they will have blue ribbons on Father's Day, June 20, to raise prostate-cancer awareness. 

John Hirschbeck, head of the World Umpires Association, said the ads won't make it harder for umpires to make calls at the bases. And it wouldn't bother him if umpires' uniforms had ads - as long as they share the profit. 

"We've got it on jockeys' pants. Why not?" he said. 

Vincent, brought into baseball by commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, wondered how his friend would have reacted. Giamatti, who died in 1989, rhapsodized about baseball is essays such as "The Green Fields of the Mind," in which he referred to second base as a "jagged rock" in the middle of the field. 

"Wherever he is, Bart is spinning," Vincent said. "It's a good thing he's not around." 

World Faces a 'Devastating' Diabetes Epidemic-WHO

Wed May 5,12:49 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Richard Waddington 

GENEVA  - The world faces a devastating diabetes epidemic, with the annual death toll already exceeding the three million killed by AIDS (news - web sites) and set to rise, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) warned Wednesday. 


 

Issuing a cry of alarm about the disease, the WHO and the International Diabetes Foundation said the number of sufferers worldwide would more than double to 366 million by 2030, from some 171 million at present. 

Although often thought a rich country risk, it is in poorer countries that diabetes is growing fastest, with cases seen rising 150 percent over the next 25 years. In India, for example, the number would leap from 32 million to 80 million. 

Furthermore, while in rich states diabetes affects mainly older people, in poorer countries incidence is surging among those still economically active, the two organizations said. 

"The number is increasing dramatically and has the potential to overwhelm countries' health systems," WHO director for chronic disease Dr Robert Beaglehole told a news conference. 

Diabetes is often linked to obesity, which the WHO has already warned is rising in developing as well as developed countries. 

WHO and the Foundation said they were launching a campaign to raise awareness, because, unlike some other health threats, diabetes could be prevented by improved eating and exercise habits. 

"It is determined environmentally and therefore it can be reversed," Beaglehole said. 

LARGELY UNRECOGNIZED 

Some 3.2 million people died in 2000, the latest year for which figures were available, of ailments brought on by diabetes such as cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. 

This compares with three million deaths from AIDS. 

"The burden of premature death from diabetes is similar to that of HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS, yet the problem is largely unrecognized," the two organizations said in a statement. 

Although it was not possible to predict accurately the future death rate, WHO officials said it would probably mirror the increase in overall cases. 

The per capita death toll was highest in the Middle East and parts of the Pacific, with more than one in four deaths in the 35-64 age range attributed to diabetes. 

There is some evidence ethnicity plays a role, with Asians and Africans seemingly more prone to the illness, which can also cause blindness and poor circulation leading in some cases to amputation of limbs. 

Type 1 diabetes, which mainly affects children, appears genetically determined and has no cure. 

But most sufferers have type 2, which some 58 percent of the time is triggered by being overweight, combined with a lack of exercise, the WHO and the Foundation said.

Report: Disney Blocking Anti-Bush Documentary

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES  - Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary linking President Bush (news - web sites) with powerful Saudi families, including that of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), is stirring up controversy even before its release. 

That's if it even gets released. 

Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety said in its Wednesday edition that Walt Disney Co. has moved to prevent its Miramax Films unit from distributing "Fahrenheit 911." 

The Disney edict could herald the bloodiest political battle yet between Miramax's feisty co-chairman Harvey Weinstein and Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who oversaw the purchase of Miramax a decade ago, Daily Variety said. 

"Fahrenheit 911," Moore's follow-up to his Academy Award-winning film "Bowling for Columbine, will still premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (news - web sites) in France later this month. Rumors had been circulating of a July release date in North America, but the film does not appear on Miramax's summer schedule, the paper said. 

It quoted a Miramax spokesman as saying that the company was "looking forward to resolving this amicably." 

Officials from Miramax and Disney were not immediately available for comment on the report. 

Sony Launches Online Music Service 

Tue May 4, 8:47 PM ET

By ALEX VEIGA, News Source Business Writer 

LOS ANGELES - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). entered the bourgeoning digital music market Tuesday, launching an online music download service that the electronics and media conglomerate is banking will also generate sales for its line of portable audio players. 

The service, dubbed Sony Connect, offers more than 500,000 tracks from artists on major and independent labels. Like Napster (news - web sites) 2.0 and the iTunes Music Store from Apple Computer Inc., Sony Connect sells individual tracks starting at 99 cents and full album downloads beginning at $9.99. 

Sony's entry into the online music market comes more than a year since the launch of iTunes and months behind about a dozen other pay music sites and subscription services. Like Apple, which used its online music sales as way to drive sales of its iPod digital players, Sony hopes to turn a profit for its own array of audio players. 

But doing so will depend largely on whether Sony can draw music fans who have not already invested in iPods or other music players - which cannot play song files in Sony's ATRAC3 format - to buy its own brand of audio devices. 

"They're behind the curve already and they have to play catch-up on two fronts, on selling their audio players and getting people to use their music service," said Michael Goodman (news), senior analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. "There's roughly three to four million people that have already placed that bet." 

Officials at Santa Monica-based Sony Connect Inc., which runs the service, say the online market is still developing and there is room for Sony to scoop up market share. 

"Apple did an excellent job in cultivating this new market," said 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." 

Apple has about 30 percent share of the overall portable digital music player market, which includes players that play protected content sold by the online services and players that can only play MP3s or other unsecured song files, Goodman said. 

Apple's share of portable players that can play legally purchased music files is between 80 percent and 90 percent, he said. 

Users of Sony Connect need to download its SonicStage interface and player to play the songs. Araki said the software can convert MP3 files to the higher-quality ATRAC3 format. The program also enables users to burn audio CDs that can play on any CD player. 

Sony Connect adopts the same copy restrictions that most other services do, allowing songs to be transferred to up to three PCs and transfers to compatible portable audio devices. Up to 10 audio CDs can be burned with the same track listing. 

____ 

On the Net: 

http://www.connect.com

Marijuana Abuse Is Up Among U.S. Adults 

Tue May 4, 4:00 PM ET 


By LINDSEY TANNER, News Source Medical Writer 

CHICAGO - Habitual marijuana use increased among U.S. adults over the past decade, particularly among young minorities and baby boomers, government figures show. 


 

The prevalence of marijuana abuse or dependence climbed from 1.2 percent of adults in 1991-92 to 1.5 percent in 2001-02, or an estimated 3 million adults 18 and over. 

That represents an increase of 22 percent, or 800,000 people, according to data from two nationally representative surveys that each queried more than 40,000 adults. 

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, the rate or abuse or dependence remained stable among whites but surged by about 220 percent among black men and women, to 4.5 percent of that population, and by almost 150 percent among Hispanic men, to 4.7 percent. 

Among all adults ages 45 to 64, the rate increased by 355 percent, to about 0.4 percent of that population. 

The report, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites), was led by Dr. Wilson Compton of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who said the rise in dependence was probably due at least partly to increases in the potency of pot over the past decade. 

Also, the figures may indicate that baby boomers "bring their bad habits with them into old age," he said. 

The researchers said adults were considered marijuana abusers if repeated use of the drug hurt their ability to function at work, in school or in social situations, or created drug-related legal problems. 

Drug users were considered dependent if they experienced increased tolerance of marijuana, used it compulsively and continued using it despite drug-related physical or psychological problems. 

Overall use of the drug - that is, casual use and habitual use - remained stable at around 4 percent, or more than 6 million adults. 

"This study suggests that we need to develop ways to monitor the continued rise in marijuana abuse and dependence and strengthen existing prevention and intervention efforts," said Dr. Nora Volkow, the institute's director. Programs that target young black and Hispanic adults are particularly needed, she said. 

Increases in dependence among young minorities may reflect their growing assimilation into sectors of white society where marijuana use is more accepted, Compton said. 

Researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism contributed to the report. 

___ 

On the Net: 

JAMA http://jama.ama-assn.org 

Health - The News Source

Study: Low-Fat May Not Be Best for Heart

Tue May 4,10:24 AM ET

Add Health 

By Amy Norton 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - A relatively high amount of fat in the diet may be a boon to a healthy person's cholesterol levels, a small study suggests. On the other hand, limiting fat intake too much could have the opposite effect. 

Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that when 11 healthy but sedentary adults followed a very low-fat diet (19 percent of calories from fat) for three weeks, they saw a drop in their HDL cholesterol -- the "good" cholesterol believed to protect against heart disease. 

In contrast, three weeks on a diet that provided 50 percent of calories from fat boosted participants' HDL levels, according to findings published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 

To circulate in the blood, cholesterol must be attached to a protein, forming a complex called a lipoprotein. HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, molecules carry cholesterol away from the arteries and to the liver to be cleared from the body. Experts believe that an HDL level of 60 or more helps lower the risk of heart disease, while a level lower than 40 raises the risk. 

The new findings suggest that adequate fat intake can help ward off heart disease by raising HDL. 

"That isn't to say we think everyone should be on a 50-percent fat diet," study co-author Dr. David R. Pendergast told The News Source Health. 

But, he said, the findings do indicate that moderation, and not tight restriction, is the way to go. According to Pendergast, that means getting about 30 to 35 percent of calories from fat -- at or slightly more than the level health officials currently recommend. 

But he also stressed the importance of calorie balance, which means eating only enough to meet the body's calorie expenditure. Fat has more calories per gram than either carbohydrates or protein, and if a person takes in more calories as a result of eating more fat, weight gain may follow. 

While saturated fat is blamed for raising "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, Pendergast said it may in fact be the combination of lots of fat and too many calories that makes for unhealthy cholesterol profiles. 

In his team's study, the high-fat diet -- rich in foods such as red meat and olive oil -- provided roughly the same number of daily calories as participants' regular diets, which contained about 30 percent of calories from fat. 

The 19-percent low-fat diet had fewer calories, and men and women in the study lost a small amount of weight while following it. Their HDL levels, however, were significantly lower on this diet than on the high-fat one-an average of 54 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), versus 63 mg/dL, Pendergast and his colleagues found. 

What's more, the high-fat diet did not boost LDL cholesterol beyond the levels participants had on their regular diets. 

Although the men and women followed each diet for only three weeks, Pendergast said he does not think the cholesterol effects are "transient." 

He and his colleagues had previously conducted a similar study with endurance runners, in which a very low fat intake had negative effects on HDL cholesterol and on immune function. Pendergast said this research suggests that both healthy, sedentary people and healthy athletes are "probably not well served" by diets very low in fat. 

Whether high- and low-fat diets have the same effects in obese individuals or those with cardiovascular disease is not yet clear, he noted. 

As for why a high-fat, calorie-conscious diet might bump up HDL levels, one theory is that dietary fat leads to higher levels of the chief HDL transporter protein, ApoA1. 

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Nutrition, April 2004.

But It Was So Tasty...snack DNA Nabs Thief

May 4, 10:52 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German burglar who took a bite out of a meatball during a night raid on a sandwich shop was caught after forensic scientists ran a DNA test on it.

"A DNA test on the saliva traces identified an old friend," police in Frankfurt said Tuesday.

Police did not have to spend long hunting down the 43-year-old culprit after the meatball theft in January because he was already in prison for burglary.

A Toast to the Prime Minister!

May 4, 10:49 am ET 

OTTAWA  - Canadians upset that genetically modified wheat might one day find itself on their shelves now have a new way to vent their anger -- mail a slice of bread to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Two groups of activists launched their innovative campaign in bakeries and grocery stores across the country Tuesday as a way to protest against what they say is Ottawa's plan to allow GMO products in Canada.

"We're hoping that a huge pile of bread sitting in his office will finally force Martin to act in accordance with the will of the public on this issue," said Anne-Marie Turmel of Friends of the Earth of Quebec. Canadian regulators are examining the food, feed and environmental safety of a variety of GMO wheat from Monsanto Co. designed to withstand a popular weed killer.

The possibility of government approval alarms the Canadian Wheat Board, which has a monopoly on bread wheat sales from Canada's main growing region. The CWB has said buyers of 87 percent of its wheat last year required guarantees it was not genetically modified.

Laura Sewell of the Council of Canadians -- the other activist group involved -- said the protest follows a similar campaign last October in which Canadians were urged to send slices of bread to members of parliament.

"I don't know how much bread they received but it was enough to be noticed," she said.

New U.S. 'Secrets' Include Pinochet's Pisco Sours

May 4, 9:30 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Don't tell anyone, but Augusto Pinochet was partial to scotch and pisco sours.

This information about the former Chilean dictator's beverage preferences used to be public knowledge but is now one of 14 million U.S. secrets that were classified last year, the National Security Archive -- an independent nongovernmental watchdog group -- said on Monday.

That's up from 11 million national security secrets classified in 2002 and 8 million the year before that, the archive said in a statement, which also included the details on what Pinochet liked to drink.

That piquant information was included in a 1975 biographical sketch of Pinochet by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The sketch was released in full in 1999 when President Bill Clinton declassified U.S. documents related to human rights abuses in Chile. It was re-released in 2003, but with much of the material blacked out. Now it is officially under wraps again, but the archive posted both the blacked-out and full versions on its Web site, http://www.nsarchive.org.

"It's reflexive, knee-jerk secrecy," said the archive's director, Thomas Blanton. "Nobody's back there behind the curtain asking, 'Does this secret make us safer or is it just to keep somebody from being embarrassed?"'

The information on the 14 million new secrets comes from a new report released to President Bush by the Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the national security secrecy system, the archive said.

The National Security Archive is an independent nongovernmental research institute and library.

More Vets Get Drastic Disease 03-May-2004

It has been reported that more Gulf War Vets got Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), which gradually leads to complete paralysis, than the general public. Those soldiers blamed it on bioterrorism from Saddam, while current soldiers in Iraq fear they may get it from the vaccinations they're forced to take, which are often not yet approved for the general public. Now it's been discovered that not just Gulf War Vets, but ALL Vets are more likely to get the disease. 

Helen Phillips writes in New Scientist that public health researcher Marc Weisskopf found that soldiers who served in either the first or second world wars, the Korean war or the Vietnam war are 60% more likely to develop ALS, and those who served in several wars are twice as likely to get it. The risk is the same for soldiers in the army, navy, air force or national guard. 

Since soldiers were not exposed to chemical weapons in all of those conflicts, the cause may be chemicals used by our own military. It could also be caused by trauma, stress, infection, exposure to lead in bullets or extreme physical exercise. Any increase in the incidence of ALS will be noticed, because the disease is very rare. About 10% of the cases are inherited. Neurobiologist Jasper Daube says, "I am very interested and excited by any study that helps sort the cause out." 

Like to Eat Meat? Read On... 13-Oct-2003

A molecule that makes the immune system think our body has been invaded is absorbed into our bodies when we eat red meat and milk products. Despite this, we've been eating meat and rejecting fish every chance we've gotten since prehistoric days. 

The molecular sugar called N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), which is found in non-human mammals, occurs naturally in lamb, pork and beef. Researchers have found that eating red meat causes this molecule to become absorbed into our tissues. This can set off an immune response, since our bodies may see the molecule as an invader. They've also found small amounts of Neu5Gc in human cancer tissues, leading to the theory that eating red meat may eventually cause cancer. 

But the biggest problem is with organ transplants. Researcher Ajit Varki says, "Over the past decade, the number of patients waiting for organ transplantation has more than tripled, with little increase in the number of donor organs. This has led to an exploration of using animal organs for transplantation into humans, a process called xenotransplantation. However, the leading donor candidate is the pig, an animal in which Neu5Gc happens to be very common. The current study raises the possibility that human antibodies against Neu5Gc might recognize the Neu5Gc in the pig organ and facilitate its rejection." 

Despite this, scientists have discovered that Stone Age man stopped eating fish and started eating meat as soon as he could. "In Britain [meat eating] happened very quickly, in a generation or two," says researcher Michael Richards. "We had expected to find a gradual switchover, but this was a virtual dietary revolution." 

Richards studied the change in diet during the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 years ago, when even people who live next to the sea switched to meat if they could. "Out went the marine foods and instead we find a wholesale switch to other meats. We have found huge quantities of cattle bones as well as pigs in the settlements from this period," he says. 

"It was a complete dietary makeover. We have no evidence that there were suddenly no fish in the sea. The people simply stopped eating fish."

Cancer Survivors Shouldn't Have Kids 07-Jul-2003

Roger Highfield writes in the Telegraph (U.K.) newspaper that it may be dangerous for cancer survivors to have children, since the genetic changes caused by radiation and chemotherapy can be passed down to their children and grandchildren, putting them at greater risk of developing cancer. 

Researcher Dr. Yuri Dubrova has discovered that this happens with mice, and he now wants to look at statistics to see if there's evidence that this happens with human beings. "I am uncomfortable with extrapolating our results," he says. "...The mouse data are not enough to change our perception. We are desperate for human data.'' 

It's already known that radiation therapy can alter the genetic makeup of the individual being treated. Earlier studies have found no inherited mutations, or cancers, among human families that were exposed to high levels of radiation, such as those at Hiroshima or Chernobyl. But Dubrova has found a more subtle problem. Radiation seems to affect the "eraser" used by cells in the body to correct genetic errors. This results in "genomic instability," which gives tumors the ability to quickly adapt and change, making them less vulnerable to body defenses or to drugs. 

When male mice were exposed to high levels of radiation, these genetic mutations were passed on to their offspring, even when the offspring had not been exposed to the radiation and the mother wasn't irradiated. This higher mutation rate persisted in the grandchildren of the mice. "We were absolutely surprised," Dubrova says. "When you go to the second generation you see the same level of instability that you see in the first generation of offspring." 

He expects to find evidence of this happening in humans and says, "I don't think there is a great deal of difference between humans and mice, frankly. At a first glance we do differ. But looking closely at biology, DNA repair, damage and genome size, we are pretty similar.''

Cancerous Conditions at Glamorous High School 23-Jun-2003

An alarming number of cases of cancer are turning up among former students of Beverly Hills High School in California, in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country. Many of its graduates became movie stars. People blame the cancer on pollution from oil rigs that are set up next to the school's athletic fields. Famous environmentalist Erin Brockovich, who had a movie made about her, is part of the legal team that's filing a suit to have the rigs removed. They say the cancer rate among ex- students is 20 to 30 times higher than the national average. 

Mike Edwards of Venoco, the company that owns the rigs, says, "I think what the tests show is that the air quality is safe for the workers, safe for the neighborhood, safe for the school." 

Dr. Paolo Toniolo, a professor of environmental medicine, says, "The high number, if truly high, could be a pure coincidence, as cancers are rarely distributed uniformly in the population, but tend to lump together in time and space. Other factors should also be considered such as the frequency of acquired conditions causing immune deficiency, the use of illicit drugs, the use of steroid hormones or other performance-enhancing medications by athletes."

Childhood Cancer Caused by Infection 26-Sep-2003

A common infection could be the cause of the mysterious brain and lymphatic cancers that kill young children. Scientists have discovered that childhood cancer cases cluster together in a way that suggests that this is the origin. And how do adults who survived childhood cancer feel about their lives today? 

Caroline Ryan writes in BBC News Online that researchers who studied childhood cancer rates in England for the last 50 years say the disease patterns can't be explained by chance. They found that cases of lymphatic cancer and brain tumors occurred in the same areas and time periods much more frequently than they would have expected. Children born within a year of each other and living within a few miles of one another when they were born were much more likely to come down with these diseases. 

Most of the clusters were too small to have been noticed before-usually around 3 or 4 cases-but the frequency of these cases was unusual. "We found something that's not random, that isn't likely to be a chance occurrence. It's the first time we've found these clusters so the big step forward is that it points to a common factor between these cancers," says researcher Richard McNally. "We would infer that it's to do with something sporadic, some sort of occasional environmental exposure. The obvious cause would be infections, which come and go in waves. It could be that these cancers result as a rare consequence of exposure to certain infections." 

How do childhood cancer survivors do in adulthood? Almost 44% of 9,535 survivors who were studied had at least one significant health problem related to their cancer, including amputations, organ damage or stress due to worries about a recurrence of the cancer. "The cancer therapy that did a good job of killing the cancer cells also can affect those developing cells and tissues in ways that we may not recognize until 20 or 30 years later," says Dr. Kevin Oeffinger. 

The study participants were diagnosed between 1970 and 1986. "They realize that they're pioneers," Oeffinger says. "People treated in the '50s and '60s did not have the chance of making it into their adult life." 

Kelly Wood is a survivor who is now 29 and has a 2-year-old son. She was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2 and had three years of radiation and chemotherapy, which left her heart muscle weak and damaged her lungs and thyroid gland. She takes medicine for these conditions, but says, "I'm doing pretty good. I went to school and did everything that everybody else did." She's thankful the treatment didn't leave her infertile, which sometimes happens. 

17% of patients reported mental health problems, 13% reported anxiety and 12% reported impairments in daily functioning, partly caused by amputations. The percentages were higher for cancers requiring aggressive or invasive treatment. Doctors now know that some types of cancer, such as Hodgkin's disease, require less radiation than previously thought. Dr. Melissa Hudson says, "Some of these patients by today's standards were probably overtreated."

More Harm Than Good 14-Oct-2003

Some heavily advertised products actually do you more harm than good. A recent study shows that sunscreens are totally worthless, but using them makes people complacent, so they spend more time in the sun, which can lead to skin cancer. And taking too many antacids can lead to dangerous food allergies. 

British Plastic surgeon Roy Sanders says suncreams were much less effective at blocking ultraviolet A (UVA) light, which is what causes the skin cancer melanoma, than UVB. "When ultraviolet A impinges on the skin it triggers the release of highly reactive chemicals called free radicals which we believe can induce a malignant change," he says. "Since ambient sunlight is principally ultraviolet A and since sunscreens protect mostly against ultraviolet B, if we use the sunscreens it may increase the risk of us developing a rather unpleasant cancer called malignant melanoma... We're lulled into a sense of false security...and so people are inclined to take a much greater dose of the sun." Cases of malignant melanoma have doubled every 10 years since the 1950s. 

Austrian researcher Erika Jensen-Jarolim says indigestion pills may trigger food allergies, because they allow food to enter the intestines before it is fully broken down. She gave half the people in her study a medicine for indigestion, while the other half got a placebo. None of them had any food allergies. She found that people taking the drug showed signs of food allergy symptoms, while none of those in the placebo group did. 

Antacids are designed to reduce levels of gastric acid in the stomach, but this acid is necessary, because it helps the stomach to break down food before it enters the intestines. Low levels of acid may result in food entering the intestines before it is broken down. The body's immune system then tries to attack the food, triggering an allergic reaction. This reaction is less likely to happen with familiar foods, since the body has become accustomed to them. 

Allergies to food can range from mild rashes to potentially life- threatening anaphylactic shocks. "These findings are significant for those people at risk for a food allergy," says Jensen-Jarolim, "since 10% of the adult population today is on antacids."

Cancer has Eternal Life 03-May-2004

We recently explained that aging and death are caused by the fact that the ends of our cells, called telomeres, shorten every time the cell divides. But there is one kind of cell that has the secret of eternal life: cancer cells. If we could learn how they live forever, unless killed by chemotherapy or radiation, we might be able to figure out how we can live forever too. 

Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that cancer cells stay young by adding tiny caps to their telomeres whenever they divide, so they don't get shorter the way the ends of regular cells do. Researcher Madalena Tarsounas says, "Cancer has an amazing ability to shake off the shackles of aging and death, which is one of the reasons why it can be so hard to treat." 

If cancer can't show us how to live for ever, we might at least be able to figure out how to attack the telomeres of cancerous cells so they age and die like every other cell does. Researcher Robert Souhami says, "Cancer cells are adept at slipping the constraints of the aging process, but this highly significant study points to ways of making them mortal, and vulnerable, once more." 

Changing the telomeres of cancer cells would be a wonderful alternative for cancer patients who now have to undergo debilitating chemotherapy or radiation. Now it's been discovered that a substance in green tea helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need in order to survive. What made researchers look at green tea? Since the 1970s, studies have shown that in parts of the world where people drink lots of it, the incidence of cancer is lower. Dr. Neil E. Kay says, "We're continuing to look for therapeutic agents that are nontoxic to the patient but kill cancer cells, and this finding...is an excellent start."

Police Use Sweet Tactics to Curb Drunken Brawls

May 3, 8:57 am ET 

LONDON  - Drunken brawlers beware -- the weapon of choice for police in the southern England seaside town of Bournemouth is chocolate rather than truncheons and handcuffs.

In an effort to reduce alcohol-related violence, police in the southern county of Dorset are handing out chocolate bars to late-night revelers as they leave the town's bars and clubs during the current three-day holiday weekend.

The government has launched a crackdown on heavy drinking in towns and cities across the country, aimed particularly at the young.

"The reason for most alcohol-related violence in Bournemouth is that people get frustrated, then aggressive, waiting for either food or a taxi home," said police constable Ian Curtis.

"By giving them something to eat as they leave bars and clubs, we hope to distract people from causing trouble by fulfilling one of their main needs -- food -- and giving them something else to do."

Schwarzenegger Seeks to Terminate Bobblehead Doll

May 4, 9:40 am ET 

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO  - Having a doll with a bobbing head in your own likeness may be all right for Abraham Lincoln, Al Capone, Hilary Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Jesus. But California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is outraged and wants out, distinguished company or not.

Schwarzenegger has sued a family business objecting to its sale of a "bobblehead" doll featuring the former Hollywood action hero's likeness, his attorney said on Monday.

Totting an AK-47 style automatic weapon and a suit, the smiling Schwarzenegger doll is offered for $19.99 from www.bobbleheadelection.com. Bobblehead dolls typically include a spring inside the neck to allow the head to bobble.

"We spoke to them, they said, 'We're not going to stop', I said 'Fine, we're going to sue you,"' Schwarzenegger's personal attorney Martin Singer told The News Source. The suit was filed on Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica.

"They took my client's name, they took his likeness and they're selling it for money. They have no right to do it," Singer continued. "It's not political free speech."

The firm making the Schwarzenegger doll, Bosley Bobbing Head Doll Company of Canton, Ohio, has produced several well-known politicians in its $19.99 political line, including Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Jesus, Lincoln and Capone sell for $14.95.

"We're going to fight it; we think that we're right," said firm co-owner Todd Bosley. "A big legal bill isn't going to do us any good by any means but, you know, we're going to do everything we can to continue to sell it and to stay in business."

He said other politicians have welcomed dolls bearing their likeness. New York Senator Hillary Clinton signed one of her bobbleheads and returned it to the company. Former President Jimmy Carter sent them a signed book, and Former New York Mayor Rudolf Guliani has brought his doll to his speaking engagements, Bosley added.

The firm made less than a million dollars in sales last year from dolls made in China, he said.

Schwarzenegger, a former Mr. Universe and box office superstar, has aggressively sought to stop others to marketing his image. After a similar legal threat in January a Portland, Oregon, brewery stopped selling a beer called "The Governator" featuring a man flexing his muscles beneath a California logo with the words "Pumping Iron Brewing" above.

"He's always protected his commercial rights; they're very valuable," attorney Singer said. "He gets offered up to $20 million for commercial exploitation uses."

Bush, Kerry Awash in Money
Tue May 4, 7:55 AM ET

By Lisa Getter Times Staff Writer 

WASHINGTON - This year's presidential race - fueled by more than a million donors, including many who have never given before - is well on its way to becoming the country's first $1-billion political campaign, experts say. 

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The money is coming in small donations and large ones, online and in the mail, from wealthy philanthropists and immigrants who can't even vote. In part, it represents unprecedented interest in the campaign from people throughout the country. 

Together, President Bush (news - web sites) and his presumptive challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry, have drawn money from 700,000 more individual donors than those who contributed to Bush and Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) in the entire 2000 campaign, according to figures provided to The Times by the three campaigns. 

Already, donations to Bush, Kerry and the Democrats who had contested the Massachusetts senator for the party's nomination have exceeded more than $400 million - more than double what was raised at this point four years ago. 

By the time it's all over, when all the money spent by the political parties, state party organizations, independent groups, conventions and the candidates themselves is tallied, several campaign finance experts said the total will be up to $1 billion or more. 

"The numbers are phenomenal," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine. "Something's happening here. It's like the explosion of civic participation in fundraising." 

Experts say several factors explain the 2004 money phenomenon. The contribution limit from individuals was doubled to $2,000, which naturally led to more money in the system. Both Bush and Kerry opted out of the public financing system during the primaries and caucuses, allowing them to raise as much money as possible until this summer's conventions. 

Donors can now give money over the Internet more easily. And the country is politically polarized, which has motivated people to try and give their candidate an edge in a very close race. 

"It's the perfect political storm for fundraising," said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites). 

That money has translated into extensive television advertising, particularly in the 17 battleground states where the presidential election is being fought most intensely. It's also paying for voter mobilization drives and hefty fees for dozens of political consultants who strategize, produce ads and conduct polls, as well as to the broadcast stations and networks selling air time. 

"You're definitely talking in excess of $1 billion," said Dwight L. Morris, who analyzes campaign finance data for news organizations. "It is mind-boggling." 

The thought of a $1-billion presidential campaign shouldn't bother people, said Ed Gillespie, the Republican National Committee (news - web sites)'s chairman. 

"When you look at the amount of money spent to get people to vote and participate in the political system," he said, "it pales in comparison to what is spent to get people to buy toothpaste." 

Not all experts agree on how the billion-dollar figure will break down, but here's one conservative scenario that would easily put the race near that mark: Bush is expected to raise and spend about $210 million and Kerry, $120 million, including funds designated for legal and accounting expenses. After the conventions, each candidate will receive $75 million in public money for the general election. The rest of the Democratic field has already spent about $160 million, including matching funds. 

The RNC plans to pour at least $50 million into the presidential campaign; the DNC is confident it will spend at least that much as well. Another $100 million will be spent on the political conventions. Independent groups known as 527s say they will spend $145 million. And MoveOn.org has announced a $50-million fundraising goal for its political action committee. 

That would put the total over $1 billion. And that doesn't include money spent by other PACs, state political parties and interest groups on the presidential race. 

In the wake of campaign finance reform, the outpouring of so much money - particularly from individual donors - has turned conventional political wisdom on its head. 

"Everyone's assumptions have proved wrong," said Trevor Potter, a Washington lawyer and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites). 

The political parties, particularly the Democrats, were expected to be struggling for cash. The McCain-Feingold legislation approved two years ago banned them from receiving unlimited contributions - known as soft money - from unions, corporations and individuals. Yet, the Republican and Democratic national committees together have raised $230 million, more than what they collected at the same time in 2000 when soft money was allowed. 

Many "thought this party would be wiped out with McCain-Feingold," said McAuliffe. "Contrary to public perception, we are in the strongest financial position in the history of our party." 

The DNC has $35 million in cash today, compared with the spring of 2000, when it was millions of dollars in debt. 

Soft money is still finding a niche in the election through donations to the independent groups, known as 527s after a section of the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) tax code. Most of those groups are spending unlimited dollars on anti-Bush political advertising and get-out-the-vote programs. 

"We are seeing people coming out of the woodwork," said Ellen Malcolm, president of America Coming Together, one of the 527s. 

Donors to both parties feel the outcome of this year's election is critical - from the retired Honduran army colonel who has given money to Bush even though he is not a U.S. citizen, to the Hollywood producer who counted more than 200 new faces at a fundraiser she helped put on recently for Kerry. 

"Bush is a great motivator. I can't stand the guy. He's ruining our country and everything it stands for," said Roy Cloud, 45, a wine importer in Washington, D.C. He made his first political contributions this year - $250 to Kerry and a smaller amount to the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, an independent anti-Bush group. 

Castlen Moore, 25, who commutes between her house in Houston and her job at a Washington, D.C. engineering firm, had equally passionate things to say about why she recently contributed $250 to Bush's campaign. It was her first political contribution. 

"Once you donate money to a campaign, you feel connected to it," Moore said. She's decided that Americans will be much safer with Bush in office and is encouraging her friends to contribute money to him, even if they can afford only a $15 donation. 

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites) shocked the political world early in the campaign when he raised $30 million in donations in chunks of less than $200 before dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination. 

But like most fundraising records this year, that record has already been shattered. Bush had raised $37 million in donations of less than $200 as of the end of March; Kerry had raised $21.5 million in small donations, according to an analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit affiliated with George Washington University. 

The bulk of money flowing to both campaigns still comes from large donors such as Ravi Narayan, 45, an accountant in Virginia, who donated the maximum $2,000 to Bush. 

Narayan said he gave money "to make a stand." He supports Bush's positions on family values and taxes. "Everyone thinks the rich people are supporting Bush," he said. "I'm a new immigrant," from India. 

Hector Rene Fonseca, a retired Honduran army colonel, donated $2,000 to Bush and raised about $50,000 more on behalf of the president, even though he can't vote in the election. (As a permanent legal resident, he can give money). 

Bush's position on gay marriage motivated Fonseca to contribute. 

"That's what's key for me. Being of Latino descent, I do respect the institution of marriage between a man and a woman," he said. 

Allyn Stewart, a Los Angeles film producer and longtime Democratic fundraiser, has hosted two such events for Kerry. Both attracted political novices, including women who had never raised money for a political cause, she said, "moms, entertainment executives, lawyers, architects, truly all over the map." 

She's surprised by the number of people wanting to donate the maximum to Kerry: "There are a lot of people saying, 'I want to go to the full $2,000.' I've never experienced that before." 

Louis Susman, Kerry's national finance chairman, said he has never seen such interest in a presidential campaign: "Every single event I've had, I've been closed down by fire marshals or there's not been enough room." 

On Monday night in Minneapolis, thousands of donors packed a cavernous hall and contributed $1 million to Kerry - double the goal set by the campaign. 

The political parties are also benefiting from new money. The RNC said it had a million new donors since Bush took office. And the DNC said it has counted a million new donors since 2001 - including 800,000 who were identified through direct-mail solicitation. 

In Pittsburgh, engineer Lynda Bilec, "a young 63," gave her first contribution ever to the RNC this year, "because I like President Bush and I don't like the Democrats anymore." 

She said she donated $50 to the RNC and $50 to the Bush campaign. The campaign thanked her with a note and a picture of the president. 

In Atlanta, retired real estate executive Jack Cross, 73, a long-time Republican, said he became so distressed about the Bush administration's fiscal and foreign policies in January that he donated $25,000 to the DNC, the maximum allowed by an individual. 

Giving "money is the only thing I could do," he said. "My wife was shocked. She said, 'You're what?' " 

Concerned that there wouldn't be enough money for a Democratic presidential candidate to wage a successful campaign, a small group of wealthy liberals and Democratic strategists met last summer at philanthropist George Soros' home in the Hamptons to strategize. 

Out of that meeting, America Coming Together and other 527 groups were born. These groups fall under IRS regulations, so the money collected is not subject to soft-money restrictions. 

In March, the Bush campaign and the RNC filed a complaint with the FEC, alleging that what the 527s are doing is illegal. But donors who were named in that complaint are undeterred. 

"In my particular case, it motivated me to give more," said pharmaceutical company founder Agnes Varis, who donated $995,000 to the Joint Victory Campaign 2004, the fundraising arm of America Coming Together, before the complaint was filed. 

"What can I tell you? I come from Brooklyn," said Varis, 74. "I can't think of any better act of patriotism than giving to ... get the message out to the American people about what is really going on in this country. We have to take it back in 2004. I have a stake in that at my age."

Ex-Dillinger Hideout Up for Sale in Wis. 
Tue May 4, 4:07 AM ET 
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By ROBERT IMRIE, News Source Writer 

MANITOWISH WATERS, Wis. - A lakeside restaurant where John Dillinger and his gang of bank robbers escaped a hail of government gunfire in the 1930s is up for sale for nearly $2.6 million. Bullet holes and all. 

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It's the second time that Little Bohemia, a supper club and former inn on 11 acres, has been up for sale since Dillinger was the government's Public Enemy No. 1. 

"I tell people, 'I have got good food. And I hire nice people,'" owner Frank Theisen said. "'The sun sets over the lake. And I have bullet holes.'" 

Lots of them - in windows and three different pine walls. 

On April 22, 1934, federal agents were tipped off that Dillinger and Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis were at Little Bohemia for a weekend getaway. 

Dillinger, alerted that something was up because dogs started barking, jumped out his upstairs room's window, onto the inn's roof and escaped into the darkness, running along the shores of Little Star Lake before he stole a car. 

The agents shot to death a local man and wounded two others in their attempt to capture Dillinger, who died three months later outside the Biograph theater in Chicago after he was betrayed by a woman who became known as the Lady in Red. 

"They made their escape pretty much clean," Theisen said. "Most all of the shooting that was done here - it wasn't so much of a gun battle - was bullets coming in. The guys had pretty much slipped out the back and away." 

The government badly wanted Dillinger and letting him escape was an embarrassment, Theisen said. 

After 16 years of cooking roast duck dinners and specialties such as liver dumpling soup - and answering umpteen questions about Dillinger - Theisen said it is time for him and his wife, Terry, to explore other options. 

Personal items that Dillinger left behind - including a suit, a suitcase, a canister of Ex-Lax and a bullet-riddled can the gangsters used for target practice - still are on display in the rustic restaurant tucked into thick woods about 100 miles north of Wausau. 

Yellowing newspaper accounts of Dillinger, many with screaming headlines such as "Dillinger Again Shoots Way out of Trap" or "Dillinger Runs for Cover," decorate the restaurant's entryway. As does the wanted poster the government issued offering a $15,000 reward for Dillinger, "Dead or Alive." 

Above the restaurant are several rooms including the one Dillinger stayed in the night of the shooting. The rooms are no longer rented out. 

There's been interest in buying the 11-acre property, but no offers in the year since he put it up for sale, Theisen said. The place's history makes it novel, he said. But it's the value of the land that gives the property its $2.59 million price tag. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Little Bohemia: http://www.littlebohemia.net

California thirsty for seawater Mon May 3, 9:40 AM ET

 - Chicago Tribune 

By John Fleming Special to the Tribune 

Water is everywhere along California's thirsty midsection and south, but not a drop to drink. Or to do the laundry, water the garden or drive explosive residential development and a huge industrial base. 

Yet as the unpotable Pacific sloshes up against the coast, a growing number of people are looking to the ocean to cure California's need for fresh water: 

Take out the salt and you have a virtually inexhaustible supply. 

Desalination has been used on a large-scale for decades in places such as the Middle East. And small facilities have played a part in alleviating water shortages during times of drought in California and other parts of the U.S. What is new is the scale and number of desalination plants being considered in California and other states, such as Florida and Texas.

Spurred in part by technological advances that have made the process cheaper and an exploding population that is putting more pressure on limited water resources, 20 desalination plants are in some stage of development along the California coastline. Some are small, and some are very large, including a proposed San Diego plant that would be the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, producing 50 million gallons of drinking water per day. State water officials say that if all the plants under discussion are built, more than a million Californians would be using seawater for their everyday needs. 

"The population of California is growing by 600,000 a year," said Chuck Keene an official at the state Department of Water Resources who led a 27-member task force formed last year to explore the possibilities of desalination. 

"How do we solve our water needs with that in mind? You have to come up with new and better ideas. Desalination will be part of the solution, it will happen; there is no question about that. The question is how best to approach it." 

Seawater that has been desalinated is not cheap, costing on average about $1,000 an acre-foot as opposed to about $30 from a readily available source such as a river, Keene said. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre with 1 foot of water, about enough to supply the water needs of a household in a year. 

Desalination also comes with its share of environmental concerns. Plant discharge dumped back into the ocean can be much saltier, affecting marine life, for example. 

There is also the question of private water distributors selling what is considered to be a public resource, seawater. The powerful California Coastal Commission, the state agency charged with regulating coastal development, is worried about this, while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites)'s administration supports the private companies. 

Cost, environmental questions and the challenges involving the private sector, however, are secondary, California officials say. The real question surrounds development, they insist. 

"We have some very serious problems with big desal plants," said David Dilworth, the executive director of the environmental group Helping Our Peninsula's Environment in Monterey. "The bottom line is desalination can fuel explosive growth here." 

The prospect of runaway growth is especially worrying in central California, where places such as the Monterey Peninsula are nearly pristine, absent strip malls and acres of track homes, in part because of the lack of water 

That's why Dilworth and his group are closely watching a desalination project the state, local water district and county are considering about 15 miles north of the city of Monterey. 

Perched on land overlooking a small marina, the site is considered advantageous because it would be adjacent to the Duke Energy Moss Landing Power Plant, which could fuel it. And its location, on the way to Santa Cruz, positions it to provide water to population centers away from the peninsula. 

The project, tangled in bureaucracy and local politics, calls for a small capacity of about 9,000 acre-feet per year. But, Dilworth believes the Moss Landing project would immediately be ripe for expansion. 

"Sure, it is true that you can expand desalination facilities," said Tom Luster, the chief desalination official at the California Coastal Commission, "but before any addition to any plant would take place the owner of the plant would have to first come back to the commission." 

Approval wouldn't be easy, Luster said, and there would be extensive public debate. 

To many something must be done in California to alleviate the water shortage. The Monterey area is under orders from the state to dramatically reduce the amount of water it takes from the ecologically fragile Carmel River, and Southern California has to find a replacement for Colorado River water, which has been restricted by the federal government. 

Local officials project that the San Diego area alone will pick up an additional 800,000 residents by 2020. 

"In many ways desalination for coastal areas makes perfect sense," said Patricia Bernardi, a former member of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and self-described pragmatic environmentalist. "But it also makes sense to be diversified doesn't it? What we need is a combination of approaches that cures the shortages but doesn't fuel growth. Desal should be part of that."

U.S. may cut water to state

Southwest drought slashes Colorado River flows.

By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, April 27, 2004

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The Bush administration is threatening to impose unilateral water cutbacks on California, Arizona and Nevada if the three states can't come up with a plan to deal with a historic drought on the Colorado River.

Following five years of dry weather, the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado are roughly half-empty and dropping fast, and Interior Department officials are urging water agencies to work together on a contingency plan or have one imposed on them.

"We need the three basin states to get their act together and deal with shortages," said Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley in a recent meeting with water officials from California, Arizona and Nevada. If the three states can't work out a plan, he said, the Interior secretary "will have to do it."

For years, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other fast-growing cities in the region have depended on surplus water from the Colorado - supplies that exceed their entitlements. Now, the Southwest is shifting to a much drier period, and states are facing not only the loss of surplus but also cutbacks that could affect tens of millions of people.

In California, the water squeeze is already being felt statewide. With less water from the Colorado River, Southern California is pushing conservation, more use of groundwater banks and extra pumping from the Delta.

"We are entering some new territory," said Raley, who notes that the modern Southwest has never had to deal with an extended drought.

Since 1999, Lake Mead has dropped more than 80 feet and is at 58 percent of capacity. With less water pressure going through its turbines, Hoover Dam is losing some of its capacity to generate power, and Las Vegas is preparing to deepen its water intake in Lake Mead to keep up with a moving target.

Upstream, at Lake Powell, the water loss is even more dramatic. In four years, Powell has dropped nearly 120 feet, and now holds 42 percent of its maximum water capacity. Never before have both Lake Mead and Lake Powell been at such a low state at the same time, according to officials for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Water leaders in the Southwest are closely watching these lake levels, and so are those in other Western states. Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the upper-basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming must deliver 7.5 million acre-feet of water to the three lower-basin states each year. Lake Powell was built so the upper basin could deliver on that promise, but now Powell's future is in doubt.

According to federal forecasts, drought and water deliveries could drain Powell in three years. In such a situation, the upper basin would be forced to forgo river withdrawals or risk a major court battle.

To head off that prospect, water officials from seven states have been meeting regularly in recent months, said Dennis Underwood, a former reclamation commissioner who now works for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The most recent meeting was held Monday in Phoenix, where officials discussed options for keeping the taps flowing.

Some of those options, said Underwood, include storing lower-basin water in upper-basin reservoirs to reduce the huge evaporation that occurs in Lake Mead. Agencies are also discussing water trades and "forbearance agreements" - paying farmers not to irrigate - to help vulnerable areas through a drought.

One such spot is Las Vegas, the nation's fastest growing city and one that draws 98 percent of its water from the Colorado. Not wanting to gamble on their future, Nevada officials have been pressing for some type of interstate water-sharing arrangement.

Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said the recent talks are a recognition that the regional water situation is serious. "People are finally realizing that the drought is real," said Mulroy, "and not something I thought up in a bar."

In a December speech in Las Vegas, Interior Secretary Gale Norton laid out some of the possible scenarios. Under the 2001 Interim Surplus Guidelines, Norton said she is required to cut surplus supplies to California, Arizona and Nevada if the surface of Lake Mead drops to 1,125 feet in elevation - 10 feet below its current level.

Further down the road, Norton could use her court-appointed authority as Colorado "river master" to declare a shortage and impose cutbacks. Some water experts believe Norton could make such a declaration when Lake Mead's surface level hits 1,083 feet elevation - about 52 feet below its current elevation - but the law isn't specific.

To ratchet up the pressure, Interior officials invited Southwest water leaders and a group of journalists on a boat trip this month down the Grand Canyon, where Raley repeated his warning Norton was ready to take action. "Time lost now is time we may not be able to recover," said Raley, pacing across a sand bar like Gen. George Patton.

Some environmentalists say the Bush administration is delaying tough decisions by playing this kind of drawn-out pressure politics. This year, they note, the Bureau of Reclamation declared a partial surplus on the Colorado River, which further depleted Lake Mead. Now federal officials are preaching drought preparedness.

"The bureau is dragging its feet," said Jeff Van Ee, a water watchdog for the Sierra Club in Las Vegas. "They haven't taken this drought seriously."

Raley, who oversees the Bureau of Reclamation, said he started working closely on the drought problem in January. Before that, he helped seal a landmark settlement that quantified how much water California's cities and farms could draw from the Colorado River. By agreeing to limit its water withdrawals to 4.4 million acre-feet, California was given a 13-year grace period to continue receiving "surplus" water from the river.

Now, say water officials, that grace period appears to be moot.

War makes Iraq worst place to be a reporter

Mon May 3, 8:45 AM ET 
Add Mideast - NEWS SOURCE 

PARIS (NEWS SOURCE) - War has made Iraq (news - web sites) the most dangerous country for a reporter to work in, but Cuba, followed closely by China, jailed most journalists for doing their job last year, according to reports issued to mark World Press Freedom Day. 

NEWS SOURCE Photo 

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said up to 25 journalists had been killed at work in Iraq since March 2003, when a US-led invasion aimed at toppling the government of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was launched. 

"More than a year after the war in Iraq began, the country remains the most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalist," it said Monday. 

It said that at least six Iraqi media workers had been murdered and several others had received threats, while armed groups had abducted at least eight journalists so far this year. 

At least seven -- and possibly as many as nine -- journalists had been killed by gunfire from US forces, while other journalists, mostly Arab or Iraqi, had been detained and suffered mistreatment at the hands of US forces, it said. 

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (known as RSF, its initials in French) said in its annual report that Cuba led the list of countries repressing journalists, 29 of whom were in jail for "acts against the state". 

President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) had "consolidated the government's news monopoly" by cracking down on dissent and in doing do had "decimated Cubas fledgling independent press," it said. 

Imprisoned journalists and their families "have denounced inadequate medical attention, have been placed in solitary confinement, and have complained about receiving foul-smelling and rotten food," the report said. 

The most dangerous country for a reporter in Latin America was, however, Colombia, where five journalists were killed in 2003 and "threats, assaults and kidnappings are still the daily lot of journalists," RSF said. 

"Throughout the continent, legislative reforms are still needed to ensure there is complete press freedom," it said. 

Asia was, however, the "world's biggest prison for the press," RSF said, with more than 200 journalists jailed last year, three sentenced to death and at least 16 murdered. 

China topped the dismal regional ranking, with 27 journalists in prison and another 61 citizens jailed for posting their views on the Internet out of a global total of 73, it said, adding: 

"The Internet has become a battleground between the democratic opposition and Beijing, and repression is rampant." 

On a positive note, RSF said Chinese journalists "pushed back the limits of censorship" as never before last year, but it was still "strictly forbidden to publicly criticise the (one-party) system." 

In Myanmar, 11 journalists were imprisoned last year and Zaw Thet Htwe, the editor of a football magazine, was condemned to death "on the trumped-up charge of 'attempted assassination of military junta leaders'," RSF said. 

Of the 16 journalists killed in the region, seven were murdered by contract killers in the Philippines, mainly in the troubled southern island of Mindanao. 

The report said at least 600 Asian journalists were physically attacked or threatened in 2003. 

It singled out Bangladesh, which saw "more than 200 cases of physical attacks or death threats against journalists by political activists, especially from the ruling party, or criminals." 

The Middle East and North Africa made up "the region with least press freedom," RSF said, noting "it had few independent media and journalists in several countries strictly censored themselves." 

Eight former Soviet bloc nations which joined the European Union (news - web sites) on May 1 largely respected press freedom during 2003, "but in most of them, laws punishing defamation and perceived insults frequently hampered journalists in their work and gave undue protection to the authorities," RSF said. 

But further east in Europe and in Russia, conditions were deteriorating and 85 journalists were detained or arrested and some 200 were attacked for doing their job, it said. 

Turkmenistan -- a gas-rich Central Asian country run with an iron fist by Separmurad Niyazov -- "is the most repressive of the former Soviet republics and its media are totally censored," RSF said. 

But the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan were also included on its media "predator" list.

Bremer Takes Back Statements About Bush 

Mon May 3, 7:16 AM ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq - L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq (news - web sites), said Sunday he regrets a statement he made more than six months before the Sept. 11 attacks that the Bush administration was "paying no attention" to terrorism. 

Bremer said any implied criticism that President Bush (news - web sites) was not acting against terrorism was "unfair." 

Ahead of the November election, Bush is facing criticism he didn't make terrorism his No. 1 priority before the attacks on the Pentagon (news - web sites) and World Trade Center and then weakened the war on terror by invading Iraq and shifting the focus from Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida network. The resurfacing of Bremer's comments added to administration frustrations. 

At a McCormick Tribune Foundation conference on terrorism on Feb. 26, 2001, Bremer said, "The new administration seems to be paying no attention to the problem of terrorism. What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh, my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this?' 

"That's too bad. They've been given a window of opportunity with very little terrorism now, and they're not taking advantage of it." 

Bremer made the speech after he had chaired the National Commission on Terrorism, a bipartisan body formed by the Clinton administration to examine U.S. counterterrorism policies. 

In a statement Sunday, Bremer said his remarks three years ago "reflected my frustration" that none of his commission's recommendations had been implemented by Clinton or the new Bush administration. 

"Criticism of the new administration, however, was unfair. President Bush had just been sworn into office and could not reasonably be held responsible for the Federal Government's inaction over the preceding 7 months," Bremer's Sunday statement said. 

"I regret any suggestion to the contrary. In fact, I have since learned that President Bush had shared some of these frustrations, and had initiated a more direct and comprehensive approach to confronting terrorism consistent with the threats outlined in the National Commission report. 

"I am strongly supportive and grateful for the President's leadership and strategy in combating terrorism and protecting American national security throughout his first term in office." 

Sasser Worm Strikes Hundreds of Thousands

1 hour, 11 minutes ago 
Add Technology 

By Brett Young 

HELSINKI  - The fast-spreading "Sasser" computer worm has infected hundreds of thousands of PCs globally and the number could soon rise sharply, a top computer security official said on Monday. 

"If you take a normal Windows PC and connect to the Internet, you will be infected in 10 minutes (without protection)," Mikko Hypponen, Anti-Virus Research Director at Finnish data security firm F-Secure, told The News Source. 

"It seems to be gradually getting worse, but it could jump as the United States wakes up," he said. 

F-Secure says the worm, which surfaced at the weekend, automatically spreads via the Internet to computers using the Microsoft Windows operating system, especially Windows 2000 (news - web sites) and XP. 

The spread of the virus had been muted so far, Hypponen said, as it emerged on a weekend, and holidays closed offices in places like the United Kingdom and Japan on Monday. But the was spread was expected to worsen as the working week hits its stride. 

"We have already seen three versions of Sasser during the weekend, and we could see more today," Hypponen said, adding he believes the worm originated in Russia. 

Finnish bancassurer Sampo temporarily closed all of its branch offices, some 130 in all, on Monday as a precaution against Sasser. 

In Australia, Westpac Bank said it was hit by the worm, and branches had to use pen and paper to allow them to keep trading, The Australian newspaper (http://www.theaustralian.news.com) reported. 

U.S. firm Delta Air Lines suffered a computer glitch on Saturday that caused delays and cancellations of certain flights across its system, but a spokesman said there was no information yet as to the cause. 

"With Sasser it seems that companies are (using software) patches better and more quickly than last year (with virus "Blaster"), but for those that are hit, they are hit hard," Hypponen said. 

Blaster infected computers around the globe last year. 

NO NEED TO CLICK 

The current worm does not need to be activated by double-clicking on an attachment, and can strike even if no one is using the PC at the time. When a machine is infected, error messages may appear and the computer may reboot repeatedly. 

"Compared to what happened with Blaster...last August... this virus has all the same features," Hypponen said, noting that both worms exploited relatively new holes in Windows and frequently caused computers to reboot. 

Microsoft said Blaster cost it "millions of dollars of damages," and has issued a $250,000 bounty for information on the whereabouts of its author. 

F-Secure said corporate networks should be protected against Sasser and its variants by firewalls -- Internet road blocks that separate internal from public networks. 

F-Secure said the worm emerged 18 days after Microsoft posted a corrective-code software patch on its Web site. This continues a common pattern with viruses whereby firms announce flaws in their software and hackers race to exploit them. 

For home computer users, people should make sure they have downloaded the patch from Microsoft to fix the breach. If their computer is infected, must first be downloaded before the virus is removed or else the PC could catch the worm again. 

Hypponen said he was not sure there was a better way for firms to alert users to software problems. 

"There are always going to be security holes in mainstream products," he said. "Even if these are not made public, the bad boys will find out about them anyway."

Kin May Have to Pay for Legally Insane

Sun May 2, 1:29 PM ET



By LISA FALKENBERG, News Source Writer 

DALLAS - Keith Laney has lost nearly everything. His wife, Deanna, beat their three young sons with rocks - killing two and permanently impairing the third. And now he could be forced to pay for her care. 

Deanna Laney was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity in April, so instead of being sentenced to prison a judge committed her to a state hospital, where she could remain for the rest of her life. 

Unlike prison, the cost of confinement in a state mental hospital isn't totally covered by the state in Texas. The state pays for the poor, but it requires other patients or their families to pay what they can, based on insurance, income, benefits and property. 

Wisconsin and North Carolina also charge criminally confined patients, but experts at several mental health associations interviewed by The News Source said they did not know how many other states charge such patients. 

"We can definitely say that Texas is not alone," said David Miller, senior policy associate at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. "We know other states do it. I just don't think it's an indicator that anybody has tracked." 

The Laneys lived comfortably, according to testimony during her trial. Keith Laney is an air compressor repairman. Their house was paid for and they owned a hobby farm with a cabin. 

But now that Deanna Laney has been committed to the North Texas State Hospital for treatment, her hospital costs are $462 per day, nearly $14,000 per month. The state will determine how much her husband will have to pay after reviewing his assets. 

Most health insurance plans pay for state hospital services, but it was unclear whether the Laneys have health insurance. Of the 23 patients in Texas state hospitals in 2003 who had been acquitted of murder by reason of insanity, 19 were indigent and not charged, two were covered by Medicare and two had Veterans Affairs benefits, the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation says. No individual patients or relatives were charged. 

Keith Laney has declined to give interviews since the May 2003 beatings that killed 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke. Another son, Aaron, now 2, survived but his sight is impaired and doctors say he will never live independently. 

In contrast to Deanna Laney, Andrea Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children in 2001, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison, where treatment for her mental illness is free. 

Courts in various states are split on the issue, said Michael Perlin, a professor at New York Law School who has written about the matter. Some reason that patients should pay because the overriding purpose of their hospital stay is treatment. Others believe patients shouldn't have to pay because the state has ordered them to the hospital, largely to protect the public. 

Connecticut courts have struck down statutes requiring people acquitted by reason of insanity to pay for their own care, arguing there are no reasonable grounds to differentiate them from "ordinary prisoners." 

However, Perlin said there has never been a significant public debate on the issue. 

"I think most of the people are indigent so the bills come in and they just ignore them," he said. "In cases where people are not indigent, they don't want to challenge it because doing so would result in a court case. A lot of people would not want to call into attention that their relative was institutionalized for this purpose." 

Sandra Ross, a spokeswoman at the hospital where Deanna Laney receives treatment, said it charges because it's a hospital, not a prison. 

"Our role is to take care of you. ... That's the reason why we're able to charge, just like a real hospital," she said. "Whether or not that's right or wrong is a legal issue, it's a legislative thing." 

Charging some patients was written into Texas law years ago to enable the state to provide care for poor patients, said Don Rogers, a spokesman for the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. 

"This is an opportunity to bring in funds so that we can provide services for more people," Rogers said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Texas Mental Health and Mental Retardation: http://www.mhmr.state.tx.us/ 

Millions of computers worldwide hit by Internet worm, experts say

2 hours, 32 minutes ago

Add Technology - NEWS SOURCE 

PARIS (NEWS SOURCE) - Millions of computers have already been infected by a new Internet computer worm that caused disruptions over the weekend and may spread rapidly when businesses resume work Monday morning, experts warned. 

The worm, named Sasser, began to spread on Saturday, and unlike a virus does not travel through e-mails or attachments. It can spread by itself to any unprotected computer linked to the Internet. 

It attacks through a flaw in recent versions of Microsoft's Windows -- Windows 2000 (news - web sites), Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP (news - web sites) -- and causes the computer to shut down, then rebooting it, repeating the process several times. But it appears to do no lasting damage. 

The anti-virus company Panda Software said Sunday slightly more than three percent of the world's computers, around 18 million out of the estimated 600 million operating worldwide, were infected. 

"Compared to other viruses which have appeared on weekends when activity is low -- doubly so now that May 1 is a holiday in many countries -- this one has positioned itself as one of the quickest-spreading and most virulent ones," Luis Corrons of PandaLabs, which has offices in Spain and the United States, said Sunday. 

"All these signs make for a dark forecast for the beginning of the week when it is expected that the number of incidents will soar at the beginning of the work day." 

"The problem seems to be getting worse," Mikko Hyppoenen, an anti-virus expert at F-Secure, a leading internet security firm, told NEWS SOURCE from Helsinki, adding that millions of computers worldwide may have been infected. 

"We don't know how big this is going to be (but) we expect things to get much worse on Monday when people bring their laptops in to the office after the weekend," Hyppoenen said. 

Since laptops are not protected by company firewall systems if used on a server other than the company's, they run the risk of being infected and in turn infect the company's network when used in the office. 

"It seems to me an exaggeration to say that millions of computers have been affected," Bernard Ourghanlian, Microsoft's technical director in France, told NEWS SOURCE, where work was disrupted by the worm Saturday night. 

But he acknowledged that the worm was spreading Sunday. 

"We are recording at the moment several attacks a minute on 'honey pots' (computers deliberately left unprotected so they can monitor viruses)", he said, adding that France and some southeast Asian countries seemed to be particularly hit. 

Microsoft made available a software update last month to fix the flaw exploited by the worm, and since mid-April several million copies have been downloaded. 

"We have every hope the spreading of this virus will be limited by the many precautions we have taken," he said. 

"It is not possible to give a figure for the spread of the virus, still less the cost of the damage it will do," he said, adding that many firms never admit being infected and that if small and medium sized businesses did not take precautions on Monday morning Sasser could spread rapidly. 

In Moscow the Russian computer security firm Kaspersky Labs warned of a possible major epidemic when business activity resumes Monday. 

"For the moment the extent of the epidemic isn't that severe only because most people are not at work" and their computers are shut off, Denis Zenkin told NEWS SOURCE. 

For the moment the worm, the third major Internet infection this year after Mydoom.A in January and Bagle.B in February, does not appear to be a worldwide phenomenon. One American specialist reported only a few hundred computers infected, another did not rank Sasser in its 10 most common infections. 

Experts said they did not know who started the virus, but Alfred Huger, head of engineering at California-based computer security firm Symantec, said it was started deliberately by an individual. 

"Of that much we're sure," he said. "What we're not sure of is that individual's motives, because the virus is not doing any damage, and it's not installing a backdoor" which would give future access to other viruses. 

"We'll just have to wait and see," he said. 

"This worm is unlike previous ones in that it does not appear to be causing any damage to computers," said Huger. "It will slow your computer down, but there does not appear to be any direct damage to the hard drive. 

Election Pits '66 Yalies Against '68

15 minutes ago

By DIANE SCARPONI, News Source Writer 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - This year's presidential election is going to be a class war: Class of '68 versus Class of '66. 

"If Yalies were going to vote based on who's an alum, you'd have to flip a coin," said sophomore Alissa Stollwerk, secretary of the Yale College Democrats. 

President Bush (news - web sites) and Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites) graduated from Yale University in the 1960s, a time of upheaval at Yale and campuses across the country. Both shied away from the radicalism of the day but joined the same secret society and followed similar pursuits, their paths diverging after graduation. 

When Kerry graduated in 1966 with a degree in political science, opposition to the Vietnam War was building. Yale still required students to wear jackets and ties at dinner, and no female undergraduates were admitted. 

By the time Bush earned a degree in history in 1968, Yale was simmering with activism against the war and in favor of labor unions and other causes. Dinner jackets were gone, and female undergraduates arrived the following year. 

Both men were chosen to join Yale's top secret society - Skull and Bones. Each year, 15 seniors are tapped for the 172-year-old club, which owns a windowless crypt on campus and a private island in the St. Lawrence River. 

The experiences and influence of Bonesmen, as members are known, have reached mythic proportions. Their rites and membership are supposed to be secret, although initiations reportedly include lying in a coffin and confessing personal sexual secrets. Presidents Taft and George H.W. Bush were members. 

Classmates remember Kerry as a big man on campus who played several sports, including junior varsity hockey. As a freshman, he also dated Jacqueline Kennedy's half-sister, Janet Auchincloss. 

"He had a lot of demands on his time, and for him to play hockey in winter and play j.v. - that was a fair amount of dedication to the sport, and he played hard," recalled Gordon Walker, a classmate who managed the team. 

Kerry, whose father worked for the State Department after graduating from Yale, was involved in politics from the moment he arrived in New Haven. He was head of the Yale Political Union, a college debating society, and joined the Fence Club, which was popular with preppy, blue-blood students. 

Bush was a born Yalie as well as a legacy. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, the future senator from Connecticut, graduated from the Ivy League school. His father, the former president, was a student when he was born there. The line continues this spring when Bush's daughter, Barbara, earns a Yale degree. 

The future president had grown up in Texas, however, and chafed at the East Coast intellectual scene. He had a run-in with the activist school chaplain, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who told Bush to his face that his father had been "beaten by a better man" in an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1964. 

Bush joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, a sporty fraternity that was the closest thing to "Animal House" on the Yale campus. He also played sports, including baseball, although he was not a starter like his father. 

"He was congenial, gregarious, relatively unremarkable in a sense," recalled a classmate and fellow team member, Jim Latimer. "I enjoyed knowing him. He was entirely pleasant." 

Despite the legacy, Kerry is more popular at Yale, his politics favored by the liberal-leaning student body. 

When Bush accepted an honorary degree and spoke at Yale's 300th graduation ceremony in 2001, many graduates carried signs or wore emblems critical of Bush. Some turned their backs on him when he spoke. 

Yet Bush won over others with his self-deprecating humor. He congratulated the honors students, then added: "To the C students, I say, 'You, too, can be president of the United States.'" 

During the 2000 election, Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) was the top vote-getter in the ward that includes much of the campus. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites) got more votes than Bush. 

Robert Chung, chairman of Yale Students for Bush and vice chairman of the Yale College Republicans, said Bush may do better this year because campus Republicans have been more active. 

"The college Republican club was pretty much dead for the past five or six years and this year we've revived it. The closet Republicans are coming out, now that there's an outlet for them," said Chung, a sophomore from Los Angeles. 

Kerry last spoke publicly on campus in 1997 when his daughter, Vanessa, was a student. 

During his years at Yale, Kerry told students, he "spent much time elsewhere - intellectually." He also said he had thought about running for president. 

"There are times when you think about it more seriously than others," Kerry said. "But it's a fishbowl life. I'm going to play out my options so I can make that choice when it comes." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com 

Bush-Cheney campaign: http://www.georgewbush.com

Study: Shoppers Deserting Supermarkets 

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

Add Business - 

By IRA DREYFUSS, News Source Writer 

CHICAGO - For financially pressed consumers, it's coming down to a choice between spending on gasoline or groceries, and gasoline is winning, a food industry analysis finds. 

"Given the economic environment, it is not surprising that more shoppers are buying food today in discount stores and other low-price venues than ever before," said the report by the Food Marketing Institute, released at the organization's annual trade show in Chicago. 

"High oil prices, both at the pump and for home heating, depress consumers' ability to spend more," the study said. 

Gasoline prices have been soaring: about 35 cents a gallon since December, driven by surging crude oil prices, according to gasoline industry analyst Trilby Lundberg. 

The food industry report said the fuel price increases are tightening the pressure on personal budgets that already were squeezed hard by credit card bills. 

"In 2003, for the second consecutive year, we detected among consumers that minus inflation, minus inflation, they are managing to buy their groceries for less than they did last year," Michael Sansolo, FMI's senior vice president, told the group's opening conference Sunday. 

Consumers feel the financial pain and are acting to ease it by finding cheaper places to spend on food, said the FMI report, citing a survey commissioned by the trade group. The survey of more than 500 people telephoned randomly in January had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. 

As a result, supermarkets are losing their hold on their customers, who can go to other retailers such as discount stores, the survey said. 

The proportion of respondents who said a supermarket was their primary food store fell by 5 percentage points since a year earlier, to 72 percent. The share of shoppers who considered a discount store their first choice rose by 4 percentage points, to 21 percent. 

The report also said shoppers are finding other ways to be more careful in their spending. 

More shoppers said they were comparison shopping, looking in newspapers for sales,using coupons and rebates, stocking up on bargains even if they don't need the items right away, and buying only what was on their grocery lists. More shoppers also were keeping grocery lists, the survey found. 

For all that work, however, the average grocery bills that the survey respondents reported showed little change. The average weekly bill fell $1, to $90, from January of 2003. 

Working against the desire to save money was the desire to save time, something else that modern America has all too little of. The survey showed an increase in purchases of precooked foods, which cost more than the ingredients for from-scratch meals. 

"The trend toward timesaving convenience foods from precooked pasta to cereal bars continues," the report said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Food Marketing Institute: http://www.fmi.org/ 

Univ. of Chicago Returns Tablets to Iran 

2 hours, 44 minutes ago

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, News Source Writer 

TEHRAN, Iran - The University of Chicago on Saturday returned 300 ancient clay tablets taken from Iran on loan 67 years ago, marking the first U.S. return of borrowed Iranian artifacts since the Middle Eastern state's 1979 Islamic revolution. 

NEWS SOURCE Photo 

The clay tablets belong to the Achaemenid dynasty that ruled ancient Persia about 2,500 years ago. They have provided historians with details about the languages and daily life in the Persian empire. 

The tablets were received in Iran on Saturday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said, citing National Museum chief Mohammed Reza Kargar. 

Archeologists discovered the tablets in 1933 in the ruins of Persepolis, capital of the Achaemenid dynasty. They were loaned for research purposes to the institute, Kargar said. 

The tablets have taken on added significance as the university's Oriental Institute - a leading center for the study of ancient Iran in America - tries to re-establish ties with Iranian scholars and archaeology sites. 

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979 after Iranian militant students seized the U.S. embassy to protest Washington's refusal to hand over the shah to Iran for trial. Militants held 52 people hostage for 444 days. 

Tehran-Washington relations began thawing after the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites), who called for cultural and athletic exchanges to help bring down the wall of mistrust between both countries. 

Relations worsened after President Bush (news - web sites) named Iran as part of an "axis of evil." 

Kargar said Iran was open to new cooperation with the university's Oriental Institute, which shared a close relationship for most of the 20th century until Iran's 1979 revolution. 

"Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization is prepared for scientific exchanges with the world's scientific centers, but so far we have not signed any research cooperation agreement" with the Oriental Institute, Kargar said. 

The 300 tablets are among tens of thousands discovered in 1933 by University of Chicago archeologists excavating in Persepolis. They vary in size from that of a dish towel to a packet of chewing gum and in color from beige to reddish brown. 

The tablets are written in cuneiform - an early system of writing that used wedge shapes - but the language is Elamite, which is poorly understood. The translations took years, but all 300 tablets have been translated and published. 

From the tablets, researchers have learned how much laborers in Persia were paid, that workers were brought in from distant parts of the empire, such as Greece, Egypt and Central Asia, and details about the system under which foreign delegations were authorized to travel across the land.

Dakota Growers Roll Out Low-Carb Pasta

Fri Apr 30, 9:00 PM ET



By DALE WETZEL, News Source Writer 

BISMARCK, N.D. - Trying to buck an anti-carbohydrate trend that has hammered pasta sales, a North Dakota company is unveiling a new brand of pasta it hopes will appeal to dieters who have been shunning noodles and spaghetti. 

The Dakota Growers Pasta Co. product, called Dreamfields, is joining an assortment of new, reduced-carbohydrate offerings on the nation's grocery shelves. Dreamfields' developers say its flavor is virtually indistinguishable from regular pasta. 

It is made mostly from semolina, a granular flour that is used to make conventional pasta, with a patented fiber blend added to block digestion of most of the product's carbohydrates. 

"We think we have an edge, because along with being low-carb, it is authentic pasta. This is the real deal," said Jack Hasper, Dakota Growers' vice president for marketing. 

Dakota Growers is part of a group of four businesses, which formed a separate company to develop and market the pasta. It got its formal introduction Thursday at a news conference at Tavern on the Green, a restaurant in New York City's Central Park. 

It includes spaghetti, elbows, penne rigate and linguine shapes, and will be sold through grocery stores, discount outlets and Dreamfields' Web site. A one-pound box will sell from $2.39 to $2.69, compared to 79 to 99 cents a pound for regular pasta, Hasper said. 

Dreamfields is advertised as having only 5 grams of digestible carbohydrates for each 2-ounce serving. Dakota Growers' regular product has about 42 grams. 

Jon Anfinsen, a biochemist and one of the project's business partners, says Dreamfields' fiber blend blocks digestion of most carbohydrates, causing the colon to treat them as dietary fiber. 

In human tests, the product did not have a laxative effect, Anfinsen said. Blood sugar testing confirmed the pasta's low levels of digestible carbohydrates, said Dr. John Abernethy, owner of a medical clinic in Gainesville, Fla., where testing has been conducted for six months. 

"We've done hundreds of test meals with several dozen subjects," Abernethy said. 

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) currently does not regulate claims about foods' carbohydrate content. The agency is considering three requests to define the meaning of some terms, including low- and reduced-carbohydrate, a spokeswoman said. The petitions were brought by ConAgra Foods Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and the Grocery Manufacturers of America. 

Tim Dodd, Dakota Growers' president, said Dreamfields initially should appeal to two large customer groups - dieters who favor low-carbohydrate meals, and people with diabetes. Starchy foods can cause a diabetic's blood sugar levels to rise quickly. 

Rick Mendosa, an Aptos, Calif., writer who maintains a Web site with a comprehensive trove of diabetes information, tried the Dreamfields pasta recently over several days. 

It caused minimal increases in his blood-sugar levels, said Mendosa, who posted test results on his site, http://www.mendosa.com. 

"Some people have weaned themselves off pasta because it is so high in carbs generally, but I think there will be a big market, a huge market in this for people with diabetes," Mendosa said in an interview. 

He has heard from other diabetics who experienced big jumps in their blood-sugar levels after eating Dreamfields, but that may have happened because they were extremely resistant to insulin, Medosa said. Insulin regulates how the body uses blood sugar, which is extracted from carbohydrates. 

Laurie Kuntz, chief executive officer of LowCarbiz, a Denver-based newsletter, magazine and Web site that tracks low-carbohydrate products, said the lack of scientific information about Dreamfields so far has bred skepticism about its benefits. 

"I know that in the diabetic world, there are a number of people who have been showing insulin spikes, so they're not believing what they are reading on the label," she said. 

Anfinsen said he had expected some disbelief. The pasta brand's Web site will feature extensive research information on the product for consumers to examine, he said. 

"What we have here is something that is very good. It is good for the health of the population," he said. 

The number of low-carbohydrate foods has mushroomed in recent months. Kuntz estimates there are 1,300 products that advertise themselves as low-carb, and the number is rising. 

"There are chips, salad dressings, hot cereals, bars, pasta, pancake mix, cereals, ketchup, jellies, ice cream. You name it," she said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Dreamfields: http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com 

LowCarbiz: http://www.lowcarbiz.com 

Television - AP

'Simpsons' Cast Settles Salary Dispute 

Fri Apr 30,11:02 PM ET

By LYNN ELBER, News Source Television Writer 

LOS ANGELES - A month after stalled contract renewal talks led the voices of "The Simpsons" to stop work, both the actors and Fox are getting more "D'oh!" 

Terms of the deal were not announced for the actors who provide the voices for Homer and Marge Simpson and other characters on the long-running animated series. 

"We couldn't be happier to have reached a multiyear deal with the enormously talented cast of 'The Simpsons,'" series producer 20th Century Fox Television said Friday in a statement. 

A spokesman representing the cast said they had no immediate comment. 

Despite speculation the dispute would shorten the 2004-05 season, the studio said it was optimistic that all 22 planned episodes could be finished. 

The loss of even a few episodes of "The Simpsons," a bulwark of Fox TV's schedule, would be financially painful for the network. 

Each cast member was seeking about $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for the 22-episode, 2004-05 season, the trade paper Daily Variety reported previously. The actors were earning $125,000 an episode. 

The contract dispute involves Dan Castellaneta (Homer); Julie Kavner (news) (Marge); Hank Azaria (news) (Moe, Apu and others); Harry Shearer (news) (Mr. Burns and others); Yeardley Smith (news) (Lisa) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart), the paper said. 

The actors' previous deal, which covered seasons 13, 14 and 15, was reached without complication. 

In 1998, however, the cast - except for Kavner, who had a previous deal in effect - sought significant pay increases. At that time, the performers made $30,000 an episode from a show that has proved a huge international moneymaker.

Crime-Fighting Cameras Divide Neighbors

Fri Apr 30, 4:38 PM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By MIKE COLIAS, News Source Writer 

CHICAGO - Renee Singletary has noticed a big change since police mounted a conspicuous video camera near the West Side barber shop where she has worked for a decade. The camera is one of 30 installed last summer by Chicago police as high-tech scarecrows to chase off gangs and street thugs. 

The remote-controlled cameras - mounted on lamp posts high above intersections in rough neighborhoods - can rotate 360 degrees and zoom in tight enough to read a license plate, feeding video directly to squad-car laptops. 

"It's so much quieter now," said Singletary, 42. "Before, there were kids hanging out doing whatever. It was unsafe to walk around." 

Fifty upgraded cameras to be installed later this year will have sensors to detect bullets whizzing through the air, relaying the precise location of gunfire to dispatchers. 

But as Chicago police expand their $3.5 million "Operation Disruption" - one of the nation's most aggressive uses of surveillance cameras to curb violent crime - residents and lawmakers are divided over whether the cameras are effective or an invasion of privacy that brands their neighborhoods as ghettos. 

"It seems prejudiced to me," said Abdul Bucky, 40, who works at Deal Beauty Supply and General Merchandise, within sight of another camera in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, about five miles west of downtown. "Why didn't they put them in all the neighborhoods?" 

The cameras, which can film day or night, are protected in white bulletproof cases about the size of a small file cabinet and emblazoned with the Chicago Police Department seal. 

State Sen. Rickey Hendon has sponsored legislation to limit how many devices police install and to get rid of the cameras' attention-getting blue-strobe lights. Hendon said the lights have led people to label the neighborhoods "blue light districts." 

"I think they're a violation of people's civil liberties," said Hendon, who said he has received complaints from residents who fear the cameras can zoom into their windows. "People going about their everyday lives shouldn't be spied on by Big Brother." 

City officials said the cameras are not used to peer into private homes. Officers are reminded that using the system for anything beyond viewing public places would violate the Fourth Amendment, police spokesman Pat Camden said. 

"We give these guys basic discretion in life-and-death situations, and using these pods is no different," Camden said. "If an officer violates department policy, he would be disciplined." He declined to say what that discipline could be, calling such a situation hypothetical. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) in Illinois said it considers the cameras constitutional as long as police use them only to monitor street crime, though a spokesman said privacy questions likely will mount as more cameras are installed. 

"There really should be a societal public-policy debate, with an eye toward ensuring there are specific regulations in place that protect against an invasion of privacy," ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka said. 

Chicago, which led the nation in murders last year, is far more aggressive in using police cameras than many other major cities. 

The New York Police Department for years has used cameras in housing projects but has not used any to target street crime. Detroit, Houston and Washington, D.C., have placed cameras during big downtown events but not in high-crime neighborhoods. 

Los Angeles has been limited to a closed-circuit TV system installed last year in a large, gang-ridden park, which police said helped reduce shootings by 50 percent. 

Chicago officials say crime has plummeted within a block of each camera. Narcotics calls dropped 76 percent over the first seven months, police said. Minor crimes such as property damage were down 46 percent. 

Some residents said gang members simply moved their business to the side streets - a phenomenon experts call displacement. 

Chicago Police Assistant Deputy Superintendent Ron Huberman, who ran Operation Disruption until a recent promotion, acknowledged the effect but said police have beefed up their presence in outlying areas. 

"When dealers move out, we can pick them off," Huberman said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.cityofchicago.org/police

Pet Owners Warned of When Cicadas Emerge 
Thu Apr 29, 1:24 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By DAVID DISHNEAU, News Source Writer 

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - When millions of cicadas emerge across the eastern United States for a rare mating season, they will appear as tasty morsels to pets who could get sick from eating the insects, officials warned. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: Buzzing Mass of Cicadas Get Ready for East Coast

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The insects are protein-rich but their hard outer shells can cause vomiting and constipation in cats and dogs, said Randall Lockwood, vice president for the Humane Society of the United States. 

"Imagine a yard full of chicken nuggets, that's sort of what it's going to be like" for dogs and cats, Lockwood said Tuesday. 

Millions of the large, red-eyed insects will soon emerge from the ground for a once-every-17-years mating dance lasting well into June. 

Experts say the insects will climb into trees and shed their shells to reveal their wings. Males will attract mates through a loud buzzing sound. 

The approximately 1 1/2-inch-long bugs "combine all the stuff that particularly dogs like to chase," Lockwood said. "They're kind of flying pet toys: They are loud, slow-moving, often low-flying." 

The Washington-based Humane Society advises keeping pets indoors, securing screens and holding tight to dog leashes outdoors. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org./ace/352 

Middle East - AP
Accused Soldiers Didn't Know Geneva Rules 

Fri Apr 30, 7:25 PM ET

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The six U.S. soldiers facing courts-martial in connection with mistreatment of detainees at an Iraqi prison did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions, which govern the handling of captives, a military spokeswoman said Friday. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: Abuse of Iraq Prisoners Investigated

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Those soldiers have been reassigned to other duties in Iraq (news - web sites), Col. Jill Morgenthaler said in an e-mail from Iraq. No courts-martial proceedings against them have taken place, she said. 

Their boss, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, and at least seven others have been "suspended" from their duties at Abu Ghraib prison, Morgenthaler said. 

It was unclear precisely what a suspension entails, or if it is the same as being formally relieved. Morgenthaler said she believed Karpinski had returned to the United States. 

President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday condemned the mistreatment of some Iraqi prisoners, saying, "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like it one bit." 

He was asked about photos showing scenes of humiliation including Iraqi prisoners naked except for hoods covering their heads, stacked in a human pyramid, one with a slur written in English on his skin. Arab television stations were leading their newscasts on Friday with the photos. 

"I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," Bush said. 

Karpinski has been replaced as head of the prison by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, deputy commander for detainment operations. Miller formerly commanded the U.S. prison for alleged terrorists at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

A leading human rights group said the military should investigate whether the soldiers' superiors ordered or tolerated the abuse. 

"The brazenness with which these soldiers conducted themselves ... suggests they felt they had nothing to hide from their superiors," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. 

In the past, Karpinski has defended the prison against claims from freed prisoners and human-rights groups that prisoners were abused, saying Iraqis were treated "humanely and fairly." 

Last September, during a visit by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, she displayed torture devices used there by Saddam's interrogators. The prison was one of the most notorious in Iraq under Saddam's regime. 

The acknowledgment that the soldiers did not receive in-depth training on international covenants regarding the handling of prisoners echoes complaints from Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, one of the six facing court-martial, and his civilian lawyer in Washington, Gary Myers. 

Charges include dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person. 

Some military officials privately said that training or no, the U.S. soldiers should have known better. 

In some photos from the prison, aired first on CBS' "60 Minutes II" and now around the world, two U.S. soldiers standing near the prisoners hammed it up for the camera. 

One of the photos showed a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. CBS reported the prisoner was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted, although in reality the wires were not connected to a power supply.

'Nightline' War Dead List Causes Uproar 

1 hour, 50 minutes ago

By LYNN ELBER, News Source Television Writer 

LOS ANGELES - Criticism of a TV station group's refusal to air a "Nightline" recitation of America's war dead in Iraq (news - web sites) swelled Friday with Sen. John McCain, soldiers' relatives and media watchdogs speaking out. 

McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, sent a strongly worded letter to Sinclair Broadcast Group about its decision to pull Friday's "Nightline" from seven stations throughout the country. 

"There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans serving in Iraq," the Arizona Republican said in the letter Friday. 

In a 40-minute broadcast, ABC News anchorman Ted Koppel was to read aloud the name of a U.S. service man or woman killed in the Iraq war as their photo appeared on the screen along with their name, military branch, rank and age. "Nightline" planned to include more than 500 killed in action in Iraq since March 19, 2003, as well as more than 200 non-combat deaths. 

Military Families Speak Out, whose anti-war members have relatives or loved ones in the military, condemned Sinclair's decision, saying it was "dishonoring our troops and their families." 

The group's Web site posted one member's letter of opposition. 

"The Sinclair Broadcast group is trying to undermine the lives of our soldiers killed in Iraq. By censoring `Nightline' they want to hide the toll the war on Iraq is having on thousands of soldiers and their families, like mine," wrote Jane Bright of West Hills, Calif. (Her son, Sgt. Evan Ashcraft, was killed in July near Mosul, Iraq.) 

"We should be honoring all the men and women who have served," said Ivan Medina, 22, of Hinesville, Ga., who was with the Army in Iraq and whose twin brother, Irving, died there. "My hat goes off to `Nightline.'" 

Free Press, which describes itself as a national media reform group, sent its own letter to Sinclair questioning whether the company's actions violated federal rules governing "stewardship of the public airwaves." 

The letter, signed by Free Press managing director Josh Silver, said the group intended to encourage viewers served by Sinclair stations to weigh in when TV license renewal hearings are held. 

Robert McChesney, the organization's president, called Sinclair's motives into question. 

"No one thinks for a second this decision has anything to do with journalism," McChesney said. "It's a politics-slash-business decision that Sinclair made because they don't want to (anger) the White House." 

Sinclair, a political supporter of the Bush administration, is trying to curry favor with the White House to bolster chances of gaining changes in station ownership rules, McChesney alleged. 

"The stench of corruption here is extraordinary," he said. 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday: "I don't think we decide you all's coverage. I think we should always remember and honor all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending our freedoms." 

Maryland-based Sinclair, whose holdings include 62 TV stations, made $65,434 in 2004 political donations - 98 percent of that to Republicans and 2 percent to Democrats - according to the Web site opensecrets.org, which tracks contributions. 

Sinclair announced Thursday it would pre-empt "Nightline" on its ABC affiliates, including stations in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis, Mo. It said the program "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." 

Calling the broadcast a political statement "disguised as news content," Sinclair pointed to the producers' omission of "the names of thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks" since 9-11. 

WTXL-TV, the Tallahassee, Fla., ABC affiliate that has an agreement to share resources with Sinclair but controls its own programming, planned to air Friday's "Nightline." 

Early reports had wrongly included the Media Venture Management-owned station among those dropping the show. That prompted a flood of correspondence, said WTXL station manager Mike Plummer. 

"The overwhelming response has been people want it," he said Friday. 

ABC noted its news division had reported "hundreds of stories on 9-11" while adding that, on the first anniversary of that tragedy, it aired the victims' names. 

Still, some observers questioned ABC's motives. 

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, derided what he called the program's "partisan nature," saying it's one goal was "to turn public opinion against the war."

Wal-Mart Begins Using Smart Labels 

Fri Apr 30, 2:51 PM ET 
Add Business - 

By CHUCK BARTELS, News Source Writer 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a number of its suppliers are using a Dallas distribution center as the starting point for a technology that's targeted to one day replace the bar code and help companies improve inventory efficiency and reduce theft. 

NEWS SOURCE/Getty Images/File Photo 
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� Wal-Mart Drives RFID (Ziff Davis)

The radio frequency information (RFID) tags provide automatic tracking of pallets and cases of goods. Eight suppliers began using the tags Friday to track 21 products. Wal-Mart said it will have more than 100 suppliers using the tags by January. 

Wal-Mart chief information officer Linda Dillman would not say how much the Bentonville-based company is spending but said the tags are on the top line of Wal-Mart's technology budget. 

The RFID tags contain a chip that holds the details of what is in a case or on a pallet of goods. Rather than have a worker with a handheld scanner logging in barcodes, the system will let a computer system use a radio signal to log the goods as they arrive at the loading dock. 

The tags can also be used in the manufacturing process, which Dillman said can help suppliers become more efficient, and the tags will help companies on both ends know where their products are at all times. 

Wal-Mart says the tags will help reduce theft and counterfeiting, the latter particularly affecting prescription medicines. 

Steve David, chief information officer for Proctor & Gamble Co., said counterfeiting costs industry $500 billion worldwide and backshop theft costs companies $50 billion per year. 

Ian Robertson, director of Hewlett Packard's RFID program, said HP has put the technology in place in some of its production facilities. 

"We felt that the best thing to do was get on the ground and try it," he said at a demonstration with Wal-Mart on Thursday in Dallas. Robertson said the company found it could better track its materials and could read the RFID tags where it was impractical to have a human standing by to scan barcodes. 

Dave Hogan, chief information officer for the National Retail Federation said the RFID tags could gain an important place rather quickly. He said barcodes will likely be around for quite a while and that he expects them to be used in concert with RFID tags even when the new technology moves to store shelves. 

"This is all about the distribution center and the supply chain, case and pallet. That's the big win," Hogan said. 

P&G's David said one of the objectives of having the tags in distribution is to help ensure that store shelves stay stocked. By extension, tagging individual items will help that goal. 

Target Corp. and Albertsons Inc. are also experimenting with the technology, Hogan said, but Wal-Mart is pushing it most aggressively to its suppliers. Wal-Mart says the technology will help it keep costs low, which it can pass on to its shoppers. 

David said the hope is that RFID tags will catch on more quickly than the dozen or so years it took barcodes to become common. 

"It's really about getting to this critical mass juncture so we can learn and roll faster," David said.

3rd Adult Movie Performer Tests for HIV 

Thu Apr 29,11:40 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - A third adult movie performer tested positive Thursday for the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites) in the midst of an HIV (news - web sites) outbreak that has halted most production, according to the director of an AIDS testing service. 

NEWS SOURCE Photo 

"This is not over," said Sharon Mitchell, executive director of the nonprofit Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, which screens performers for sexually transmitted diseases. 

Mitchell declined to identify the woman diagnosed Thursday but said the performer had sex with five men before all were barred from adult movie sets under a voluntary quarantine in place since the first HIV case was announced April 12. 

Fifty-three people are on the quarantine list and dozens of producers in the nation's multibillion-dollar porn industry have shut down production until further HIV tests are conducted. 

A performer with the stage name Darren James apparently contracted HIV while filming unprotected sex scenes in Brazil. He returned to the United States and apparently infected Lara Roxx during film shoots, Mitchell said. 

Los Angeles County health officials and the state's Division of Occupational Health and Safety are investigating. 

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) of Southern California claimed Thursday the county Department of Health Services violated the law by obtaining private medical information on potentially HIV-infected performers without a subpoena. 

"The government needs to make a showing that the breach of the confidentiality is warranted and the way to do that is by going through the court," ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg said. If people think the government can obtain their private records, it may deter them from getting HIV tests, he said. 

County Health Officer Jonathan Fielding said he had not seen the letter and could not comment. 

Mitchell said her attorney indicated she had no choice last week when she turned over the records. The records of the two performers who had tested positive at the time were not included because of state privacy requirements, she added. 

Mitchell said the health department was to use the information to interview the performers and determine whether they may have passed on HIV to people outside the porn business.

"What has been will be
again ... there is nothing
new under the sun..."
Ecclesiastes 1:9

DNA Shoots Hole in Captain Cook Arrow Legend

Thu Apr 29, 3:18 AM ET 
Add Science 

SYDNEY  - It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook who died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779. 

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"There is no Cook in the Australian Museum," museum collection manager Jude Philp said on Thursday in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made from Cook's bone. 

But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition, "Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum," which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalani'opu'u in 1778. 

Cook was one of Britain's great explorers and is credited with discovering the "Great South Land," now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii. 

The legend of Cook's arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cook's wife, saying it was made of Cook's bone after the fatal skirmish with islanders. 

In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until it came face-to-face with science. 

DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made from Cook's bone but was more likely made of animal antler, said Philp. 

However, Cook's fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cook's body was buried at sea in 1779. 

"On this occasion technology has won," said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. "But I am sure that one of these days...one of the Cook legends will (prove) to be true and it will happen one day."

Sinclair Stations to Boycott 'Nightline' Tribute
2 hours, 1 minute ago 
Add Entertainment TV 

By Steve Gorman 

LOS ANGELES  - A major television chain, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, will bar its ABC-affiliated stations from airing a planned "Nightline" tribute to fallen U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites), saying the program is a political statement disguised as news. 

ABC News plans to devote Friday's entire "Nightline" segment to the tribute, with anchor Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of hundreds of fallen American servicemen and women as their photographs are shown. 

The network's intentions drew a denunciation from Sinclair, a Baltimore-based owner of 62 television stations in 39 markets reaching roughly 24 percent of U.S. television households. 

Sinclair said the "Nightline" segment "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." 

In a statement posted on its Web site, the broadcast group accused Koppel and his show of seeking to "highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq." 

An ABC News spokeswoman said Sinclair's decision to preempt Friday's "Nightline" on its stations would remove the program in at least seven markets -- St. Louis, Missouri; Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia; Pensacola, Florida; Springfield, Massachusetts and Asheville and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

Sticking to its plans, ABC News issued its own statement defending the planned broadcast as "an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country." 

In an interview with Internet media report Poynteronline, Koppel himself rejected the notion that he was out to make a political point. 

"Just look at these people. Look at their names. And look at their ages. Consider what they've done for you. Honor them," Koppel said. "I truly believe that people will take away from this program the reflection of what they bring to it." 

Sinclair's boycott drew a sharp rebuke from U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat and leading congressional critic of newly relaxed media ownership regulations adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites). 

"The decision by Sinclair ... to keep this program off its stations is being made by a corporation with a political agenda without regard to the wants or needs of its viewers," Hinchey said. "This move may be providing a chilling look into the future if we allow media ownership to be consolidated into fewer and fewer hands." 

The Washington-based liberal think tank the Center for American Progress cited campaign contribution reports showing Sinclair executives have donated more than $130,000 to President Bush (news - web sites) and his political allies since 2000. 

The network initially said the 30-minute telecast would be limited acknowledging only the 523 U.S. troops killed in combat since the start of the war in March 3002. But on Thursday, ABC said it would expand the program to 40 minutes to include another 200 or more Americans who died as a result of accidents, friendly fire or suicide. 

ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co.

Report: Road Deaths Up Slightly Last Year 

Wed Apr 28, 4:44 PM ET

Add U.S. Government - 

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Deaths from crashes of motorcycles and sport utility vehicles rose last year, leading to a slight increase in the overall highway fatality count. 

Preliminary figures show 43,220 people died in 2003, up from 42,815 in 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) said Wednesday. People drove more total miles last year, so the rate of deaths per miles traveled was about the same. 

Fifty-eight percent of those killed weren't wearing seat belts, a source of frustration for NHTSA administrator Jeffrey Runge, whose emphasis on seat belt use helped achieve a record use rate of 79 percent last year. 

Runge said Congress should approve one-time bonuses for states that pass primary seat belt laws that allow police to stop motorists for failing to buckle up. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have such laws. 

Motorcycle deaths increased 11 percent to a total of 3,592, NHTSA said. It was the sixth straight year in which motorcycle deaths have increased, a trend Runge blamed on the widespread repeal of helmet laws since 1995, when Congress stopped penalizing states for not having them. 

Passenger car fatalities declined 3.8 percent, but SUV fatalities increased 11 percent for a total of 4,451. Runge said that was partly due to a 12 percent increase in SUV sales, but he said SUV rollover also was a significant problem. 

There would have been a 4 percent increase in deaths if no SUVs had rolled over, Runge said. 

Ron DeFore, a spokesman for the Washington-based Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America, said Wednesday that NHTSA is unfairly focusing on the small percentage of rollover crashes. 

"There's a misperception among many that SUVs are dangerous killer vehicles," DeFore said. "In all other crashes, they are much safer." 

Runge said NHTSA will combat rollover deaths with new requirements for roof strength that will come out this year. He also said NHTSA expects to save as many as 1,000 lives each year with a new standard for vehicle performance in side-impact crashes. That standard will be released next month, Runge said. 

Forty percent of crash deaths - or 17,401 - were alcohol-related, NHTSA said. That was about the same as 2002, when 17,419 people died in alcohol-related crashes. 

Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said police need to combat those numbers with more frequent highway checkpoints and tougher sanctions for drivers who have high blood-alcohol levels. 

There were some bright spots in the latest government statistics. Injuries declined by around 35,000, which NHTSA attributed to an increase in seat belt use and safer vehicles. Fatal crashes involving drivers ages 16 to 20 also fell 3.7 percent to 7,452. 

In response, several safety groups on Wednesday urged quick passage of a Senate highway bill that would set deadlines for NHTSA to upgrade some safety standards. A House version of the bill doesn't include those provisions. 

"If we had 800 people killed every week in airplanes, everyone would be falling all over themselves coming up with a safety plan." said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of the watchdog group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. 

The NHTSA plans to release final 2003 fatality figures in August. The agency collects its data from police reports in all 50 states. 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Solar Energy Celebrates 50th Anniversary 

Tue Apr 27, 9:42 PM ET

By WILLIAM McCALL, News Source Writer 

PORTLAND, Ore. - Fifty years ago, two Oregon scientists stood on the wide, green lawn of Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey to announce the world finally had a way to turn sunlight into electricity. 

Daryl Chapin, an electrical engineer, and Gerald Pearson, a physicist, joined chemist Calvin Fuller on April 25, 1954, to demonstrate the first practical solar cell made of silicon - later to become the prime ingredient in computer chips. 

But it had taken more than a century since French experimental physicist Edmund Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect in 1839 before the process that converts light into electricity could be commercialized with the technology developed by the Bell Labs trio. 

"An amazingly simple-looking apparatus made of strips of silicon showed how the sun's rays could be used to power ... a transistor radio transmitter carrying both speech and music," the original press release from Bell Labs said. 

Chapin and Pearson were both graduates of Willamette University in Salem, which awarded them honorary doctorates for their work in 1956. 

Their research with Fuller built on the theories about the photoelectric effect that won the Nobel Prize for Albert Einstein in 1921. 

The trio were originally searching for a solution to battery problems within the Bell telephone system when they created a solar photovoltaic cell capable of generating enough power from the sun to run electrical equipment. 

"It was a modest application at first - they were just trying to power a small radio," said Alice E. White, director of integrated photonics research at what is now Lucent Technologies Bell Labs. 

A half century later, solar cells power everything from wallet calculators to the Mars Rover. 

They have also significantly reduced the cost of energy as the technology has been refined. 

"At the time, manufacturing costs were over $1,700 per watt. But costs fell to $20 per watt by the 1970s and are now about $3 per watt," said Christopher Dymond, solar specialist for the Oregon Department of Energy (news - web sites). 

In addition, a little reverse engineering has made photovoltaic cells essential to the Internet. 

By reversing the process and converting electric signals into light, data and other types of communication signals can be carried over high-capacity fiber optic lines that link high-speed networks. 

"The Internet backbone wouldn't be possible without fiber optics switched with photodetectors," said Adam Grossberg, a Bell Labs spokesman. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Bell Labs: http://lucent.com 

Calif. Bill Would Ban Smoking in Car with Kids

Wed Apr 28, 2:23 PM ET

 

SAN FRANCISCO  - California could be on its way to becoming the first U.S. state to outlaw smoking in cars or trucks that have children inside. 

A bill is being considered in the state Assembly to allow police to stop vehicles if a minor appears to be exposed to smoke from a pipe, cigar, cigarette, or "any other plant." 

The bill has the support of the American Lung Association, which points to research showing secondhand smoke can cause cancer, respiratory infections and asthma. 

Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat and author of the bill, has referred to a survey by state health officials that found 29 percent of youth in the state had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the prior week. 

Opponents say the bill, which last week passed in the Transportation Committee and now heads to the Appropriations Committee, not only encroaches on Constitutional freedoms but demonstrates the intentions of some politicians to eventually ban smoking everywhere in California. 

"If the ultimate goal is to ban smoking, then have the courage to come up and say that," said Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, a Republican in the Democratic-dominated legislative body. 

"Show me good science that shows that secondhand smoke is a problem. I don't know that they've proved that," Mountjoy added. 

California in 1995 became the first state in the nation to ban smoking in virtually all workplaces, said Paul Knepprath, the vice president of government relations at the American Lung Association of California. 

No other state has instituted a sweeping ban on smoking in cars with children present, Knepprath said. 

Science - AP
Engineers Oversee Wind Turbine Project 

Tue Apr 27, 2:08 PM ET

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Three electrical engineers from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are overseeing the installation of wind turbines on a tiny South Atlantic island occupied by the U.S. Air Force. 

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The 900-kilowatt turbines will help the military base reduce its use of diesel generators and lower air pollution. 

For engineer Kurt Meyers, it's a 20-hour commute from Idaho Falls to Ascension Island, a 35-square-mile parcel of red volcanic rock is perched between South America and Africa. He's made the trip twice in the past month. 

"It's a one-of-a-kind installation," Meyers said. 

The dry, windy landscape was discovered in 1501 but has only been inhabited for about 200 years, leaving its surrounding waters relatively pristine. 

Meyer had already designed and overseen installation of four smaller turbines for the base in 1996. 

The combination of the six wind turbines, plus solar cells that were also installed, can supply enough power when the wind is blowing to run the whole base. 

The savings on diesel fuel alone will be $400,000 to $750,000 each year. 

The two turbines will pay for themselves within eight years and are expected to run for at least 25 years, said Charlie Clinchard, who has overseen their installation from Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. 

Part of the challenge Meyers faced was making sure a steady electrical supply is available to power the computers at the base, which track rockets and satellites for NASA (news - web sites) and the Air Force as they take off from Florida and later are in orbit. 

"We need 100 percent reliability because we've got to have power during a rocket launch, even if the wind isn't blowing," Clinchard said. 

The INEEL group has developed a system that senses wind power and then automatically powers the diesel generators up or down to compensate. 

A battery system wouldn't have worked as well because it would've been too expensive and hard to maintain, Meyers said. 

As a benefit, the system uses extra power to run a desalination plant to provide the base with fresh water. 

Installing the new turbines wasn't easy. The ideal height for their towers would have been 65 meters, but the engineers had to settle for about half that because that's as far as the largest crane on the island would reach. 

They also had to build up the ground to make sure the rock would support the turbines' weight. 

Fewer Say Bush Is Serving Middle Class Sun Apr 4, 1:12 AM ET

 - washingtonpost.com 

By Dana Milbank and Richard Morin, Washington Post Staff Writers 

As he approaches the November election, President Bush (news - web sites) has shed a good part of the "compassionate conservative" image he cultivated during the 2000 election, a Washington Post poll has found.

Bush came to office three years ago with a message that he was different from traditional Republican conservatives because he was promoting programs for the poor and disadvantaged. But with his presidency dominated by foreign policy issues and such traditional conservative favorites as tax cuts, he has dropped from his speeches the compassionate conservative moniker that was his trademark in 2000.

The Post poll found Americans split over whether Bush has governed in a compassionate way, with 49 percent saying he has and 45 percent saying he has not. That is down sharply from February 2003, when a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that 64 percent of Americans thought he had governed compassionately.

While a majority of Americans (58 percent) say Bush has governed as expected, the Post poll showed that the rest are about twice as likely to say the president has been less compassionate (25 percent) than to say he has been more compassionate (13 percent). Forty-four percent now believe Bush cares most about serving upper-income people, an increase from 31 percent in September 1999 and 39 percent in July 2000. Forty-one percent believe Bush cares equally about all people, with small numbers saying he favors the poor or the middle class.

Whether this loss of compassion credentials is a problem for Bush depends on which voters prove to be the decisive bloc in November. Political strategists say the Bush campaign is gambling that it can win largely by mobilizing core GOP voters in large numbers -- a departure from recent elections, in which many moderate "swing" voters were the key.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff has determined that both Democratic- and GOP-leaning voters have made up their minds early this year. With fewer voters crossing between parties in recent elections, "there's not much flexibility on either side," he said. "Bush folks have been preparing for this type of election for a long time. There's a handful of groups up for grabs."

Republican strategist Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, predicts that 4 percent of the electorate will be truly undecided in the fall, rather than the usual double-digit number. A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted earlier last month found that 6 percent were uncommitted. The compassion theme "got you to the dance" in 2000, Reed said, but in 2004, "Bush needs to be seen as the warrior in the war on terrorism who also understands the need for job growth."

Democrats, though working to turn out their partisans, say Bush is taking a big risk by dropping the compassionate conservative theme. "He was given the benefit of the doubt by the swing voters who decided the election in 2000," said Jim Jordan, who is helping to organize an anti-Bush advertising drive. "But after three-plus years of governing as a hard-right ideologue, that image is in tatters." Jordan predicts that 2004, like previous elections, "is going to be settled in the middle."

Bush advisers say loss of standing on the compassion measures is a byproduct of the emphasis on terrorism and foreign policy. "While there has been a lot of media attention focused on national security priorities, the fact is the president has delivered on his domestic agenda," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, citing Bush achievements on education, Medicare prescriptions, help for religious charities, homeownership and AIDS treatment.

Still, Bush has made gestures that appear to be aimed at his conservative supporters rather than moderates: a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, the recess appointments of conservative judges and ending the expiration of his tax cuts. Last week, 31 Senate Republicans broke with Bush and voted to increase child-care funding for welfare recipients. As a result of such White House positions, said Andrew Kohut, a pollster who directs the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, Bush's standing has slipped among independents and even moderate Republicans.

"The working assumption is that because things are polarized, there can't be a lot of people up for grabs," Kohut said, "but the middle is still swinging." Kohut thinks three in 10 voters could still change their minds -- and at the moment, they favor the Democrats on domestic issues.

Respondents to the Washington Post poll, conducted March 10 to 14 and confirmed in subsequent polling, supported this view.

"He's shown far less compassion than I thought he would," said Michael Adams, 48, a political independent who is disabled and lives in Kalamazoo, Mich. "He's for the rich and not for the poor or even for the average person. I expected him to be more compassionate. He's a disappointment. He's for the rich and nobody else."

Similarly, Barbara Wright, a 69-year-old West Virginian, said she is a registered Republican who supported Bush in 2000 but may not do so in 2004. "If he realized how the normal people lived, middle-class people live, if he had some sort of a clue, that would be better," she said. "But he doesn't." Wright hopes that Bush simply is unaware of the problems that people like her face. "I hope he doesn't know. I worry he doesn't care."

Some poll responses suggest Bush still appears to have an opportunity to regain the compassion issue. "I really think he's trying to help everyone, even if people don't see that," said Democrat Deborah Secord, 53, a vice president of a printing company who lives in Sutton, Mass. "I don't think he's just for one class of people. I think he's trying to do things for everybody."

But few expect Bush to rerun the compassion theme of 2000. The conservative National Review magazine is proclaiming "The Death of Compassionate Conservatism" in its April 5 issue. If Bush gains on his Democratic opponent, writes author Ramesh Ponnuru, "it will have little to do with compassionate conservatism and more to do with negative attacks on John Kerry's liberalism."

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.

FBI Agent Warned of 911 Months Before it Happened 02-Apr-2004

Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI who speaks Azerbaijani, Farsi, Turkish and English and has a top-secret security clearance, says the claim by Condoleezza Rice that there was no information about al-Qaeda planning airplane strikes before 911 is "an outrageous lie" because she provided that information to the government herself, a few months before the attack. 

Andrew Buncombe writes in the Independent that Edmonds told this to the government panel investigating 911 during a 3-hour closed session. She told them the FBI had information in the spring and summer of 2001 that an attack using airplanes was only months away and the terrorists were in place in the U.S. The Bush administration has tried to silence her. 

Edmonds says, "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily. There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used-but not specifically about how they would be used-and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities-with skyscrapers." 

She was hired as an FBI translator on September 13, 2001, two days after the attacks, to translate documents and FBI wire-taps. She says, "Two hundred translators side by side, you get to see and hear a lot of...things...President Bush said they had no specific information about September 11 and that is accurate but only because he said September 11." She says that although the exact date wasn't known, the administration knew an attack using airplanes was only months away. 

Condoleezza Rice says, "Despite what some have suggested, we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles, though some analysts speculated that terrorists might hijack planes to try and free U.S.-held terrorists." 

Edmonds says, "Rice says 'we' not 'I.' That would include all people from the FBI, the CIA and DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency]. I am saying that is impossible." 

Captured terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has told U.S. interrogators that al-Qaeda was planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago, right after the September 11 attacks. 

The Washington Times reports that Mohammed says, "We were looking for symbols of economic might." They picked the Library Tower in Los Angeles because it was 'blown up' in the film 'Independence Day.'" This confirms an earlier report that al-Qaeda originally planned to crash airliners into targets on both coasts. It's also part of Mohammed's legal "defense" -he says he couldn't have been part of 911 attacks, since he was busy preparing for a different terrorist attack. 

What stopped them? Mohammed says Zacarias Moussaoui, who is facing trial in the U.S. as the "20th hijacker," had been sent to a flight school in Minnesota to train for a West Coast attack, but he got caught before he could carry it out. Mohammed says, "The original plan was for a two-pronged attack with five targets on the East Coast of America and five on the West Coast. We talked about hitting California as it was America's richest state, and bin-Laden had talked about economic targets." But bin-Laden vetoed simultaneous coast-to-coast attacks, saying "it would be too difficult to synchronize." Instead, they planned for two waves of attacks, hitting the East Coast first and then the West Coast. He says, "Osama had said the second wave should focus on the West Coast."

Bach's missing score found in Japan Sat Apr 3, 3:17 AM ET

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TOKYO (NEWS SOURCE) - A missing musical score composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (news) was found in Japan, scholars said, calling it an invaluable discovery for musicians and researchers around the world. 

The 1728 composition, called "Wedding Cantata BWV 216," was found among the possessions of Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, who died in Japan in 2001 at the age of 86. 

"This is invaluable material that will lead to greater understanding of Bach," Tadashi Isoyama, a professor at Kunitachi College of Music, told reporters. 

Isoyama led a team of scholars who since December have been examining the authenticity of the eight-page score, which has been missing for 80 years. 

The score was hand-written under Bach's supervision for the 1728 wedding of the daughter of a customs official in Leipzig, Germany. 

The documents contain soprano and alto parts with German lyrics. 

It was not clear how Hara came to acquire the score, the last known owner of which was a descendant of German composer Felix Mendelssohn, Isoyama said. 

Researchers believe Hara, who spent much of her career in Europe, might have received it from her Spanish husband and cellist Gaspar Cassado, who knew Mendelssohn's descendant. 

Isoyama's college purchased the work and is considering releasing copies of the score for further research and performance.

Brazil 'Hurricane' Caused by Global Warming? 28-Mar-2004

The existence of a rotating storm with an eye in the South Atlantic means that regional waters are now warm enough to generate the kind of moist upward flows of air that trigger tropical storms and hurricanes. Whether or not this will become a permanent weather feature is unknown. But it is known that ocean surfaces worldwide are warming, and therefore that incidents like this will become more common in the future. 

Not since 1966 has a storm of this type struck the South American coast. Not since 1991 has a storm with the structure of a hurricane appeared in the South Atlantic. If it has sustained winds above 74 mph, the Brazil hurricane qualifies as a Category 1 storm, the least powerful hurricane. If, indeed, the wind readings are correct--the U.S. has no hurricane watch aircraft in the area, and Brazil has no means to analyze hurricanes, so the actual state of this storm is open to question. Brazilian officials say that it is not a hurricane or tropical storm. U.S. officials disagree. 

What is known is that the storm is striking the southern coast of Brazil, and one child and seven fishermen, so far, are missing. It is also probable that it is the largest storm of this type ever seen in the region. Earlier records are sketchy, but there is no evidence that either of the earlier storms were as powerful. 

As the oceans warm and the stratosphere cools due to global warming, the potential for more, and more powerful, storms rises worldwide. The possibility of a super-hurricane taking place in the traditional hurricane alley of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico is now substantial.

Life on Mars-From Earth 26-Mar-2004

Scientists speculate that bacteria may spread through the universe on asteroids and that life on Earth may have come from Mars. Now they've discovered the opposite: that life on Mars may have come from Earth during the last 30 years. 

In New Scientist, David L. Chandler quotes NASA's Andrew Schuerger as saying, "I believe there is life on Mars, and it's unequivocally there, because we sent it." He says that of all the space probes sent to Mars, only the two Viking craft in 1976 were sterilized, a procedure which is routinely done now. He thinks some Earth bacteria may be still living on Mars. 

We now know that salt water existed for a long time on the surface of Mars and some life could survive there still. But could it be from Earth? "They are probably not going to survive in 200 kelvin conditions and in sulphuric acid," says Jeff Kargel of the U.S. Geological Survey. "Maybe they could. And maybe we've just done a really terrible thing."

A Surprising Reason Why Soft Drinks Make You Fat 26-Mar-2004

The rate of obesity in the U.S. started to increase in the 1970s, about the same time that manufacturers switched from sugar to cheaper corn syrup for their colas and other soft drinks. Now researchers say this may be because high fructose corn syrup-a food, like margarine, that is created in the lab and not found in nature-does not trigger the same appetite response in the body as sugar, so it's more likely to make us fat. 

Connoisseurs who remember the great taste of old-time sodas try to find Kosher Coke and Coca-Cola bottled in Mexico, where it's still made with sugar. But these sodas may not just taste better; the cost-cutting measures of major manufacturers may be the leading cause of obesity in America. Obesity researcher Dr. George A. Bray says the rise in corn sweeteners is "coincidental with the epidemic of obesity. Body weights rose slowly for most of the 20th century until the late 1980s. At that time, many countries showed a sudden increase in the rate at which obesity has been galloping forward." 

Unlike glucose (sugar), fructose doesn't trigger responses in the hormones that regulate your appetite and energy output, meaning it's much more likely to be converted into fat. 

"Fake foods" have been a major cause of disease in the past few years. Margarine, which replaced butter when it was scarce during World War II, was once touted by the American Heart Association as a miracle food that lowered cholesterol levels. It's now been shown to do just the opposite and we're warned not to eat it. 

Despite being vegetarians, cows were fed protein in the form of the ground-up bones of other cows, leading to Mad Cow Disease. 

High-fructose corn syrup made soft drinks cheap, especially after we could no longer import sugar from Cuba. Like all the other "fake foods" of recent years, it was created so manufacturers could cut costs and make more profit. And like the other fakes, it has ended up costing the public large amounts of money for treating heart disease, obesity and for Mad Cow monitoring. 

What will they try to sell us next?

New Virus Jumped from Monkeys Just Like HIV 25-Mar-2004

Scientists now agree that HIV started in Africa from people eating dead monkeys-or "bushmeat"-that had the disease. The virus then mutated into a form that can infect human beings. Now researchers say it's happening again in Africa with a brand-new virus. Will this one be as deadly as AIDS? 

Andy Coghlan writes in New Scientist that once again, the virus jumped from monkeys to man from the eating of bushmeat. It was once thought that such a mutation was rare, but now scientists think it may be common. "Our research shows the transmission of retroviruses to humans is not limited to a few, isolated occurrences like those that gave rise to HIV," says researcher Nathan Wolfe. "It's a regular phenomenon, and a cause for concern." 

Wolfe screened 1800 people from nine rural communities in Cameroon for the new virus. Ten of them who said they'd been exposed to the blood or body fluids of primates tested positive for the new virus. Wolfe thinks viruses infect humans through cuts they receive when they prepare the meat. 

One way to reduce this transmission would be to provide food for native people who would otherwise have to hunt and eat primates. Wolfe says, "It would help conserve endangered species and lower the potential for transmission of viruses to people." However, the illegal importation of bushmeat to London, where there are many African immigrants who consider it a delicacy, shows that some people will probably eat it anyway.

Red or White? 25-Mar-2004

King Tutankhamun drank red wine, according to a new scientific method that can determine the color of the wine residue found in the ancient jars that were buried with him in his tomb. 

Scientists have found wine in a jar from 5400 BC in present- day Iran. But our earliest knowledge about wine growing comes from ancient Egypt, where the winemaking process was depicted on tomb walls in drawings from 2600 BC. "Wine in ancient Egypt was a drink of great importance, consumed by the upper classes and the kings," says Egyptologist Maria Rosa Guasch-Jan�. 

King Tut's wine stash was discovered in 1922, but scientists haven't been able to analyze it until now. The inscription on the jar reads: "Year 5. Wine of the House-of-Tutankhamun Ruler-of-the-Southern-On, l.p.h.[in] the Western River. By the chief vintner Khaa," which isn't much different from the labels used on fine wines today. 

Guasch-Jan� says, "Wine jars were placed in tombs as funerary meals. The New Kingdom wine jars were labeled with product, year, source and even the name of the vine grower, but they did not mention the color of the wines they contained."

Carbon Dioxide at Record Levels 24-Mar-2004

Despite new concern about the dangers of global warming, carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has reached record high levels in the atmosphere. Climatologist Ralph Keeling says, "We are moving into a warmer world." Why is this happening now, despite new awareness of the problem? 

Charles J. Hanley quotes NOAA's Pieter Tans as saying, "China is taking off economically and burning a lot of fuel. India, too." 

If global warming is inevitable, we need to start preparing for a very different future. Alex Kirby writes in bbcnews.com that the U.K., at least, is beginning to take action. 

Dr. Simon Thornton-Wood of the Royal Horticultural Society says, "We've lost a lot of orchards in the UK, but apples are still an important crop. I think the climate will mean it becomes harder to get a decent crop in the south of England, and apples may head north to find a cooler place to grow. Other fruit crops will be affected too, but I imagine it will be easier to grow crops like peaches instead...Our members are becoming more aware. In these last few years we've seen some quite significant variations in what people regard as the norm." 

Another problem will be weeds: Thornton-Wood says, "Giant hogweed has already gone haywire, and we think other invaders may do the same. Japanese knotweed is a problem, but we don't really know where the next crisis will come from, so we're calling on gardeners to be observant. You never know how species like these are going to affect the ecology of the British countryside, but they always do. They out- compete the native fauna and flora and change what has become familiar." 

You'll notice that there are no news stories of this kind appearing in the U.S. press. Are our scientists hiding their heads in the sand instead of planning for the future-or are they protecting the current administration's lack of action on global warming?

Daylight-Saving Time Issue in Ind. Race

Sat Apr 3, 1:00 PM ET

By MIKE SMITH, News Source Writer 

INDIANAPOLIS - The governor has given his position on the issue. So have the other two candidates seeking the state's highest office. 

While it isn't as pressing as other election-year topics like jobs, schools and budget deficits, the perennial question of whether all of Indiana should observe daylight-saving time has the candidates trying to devise a solution for what has been a complex clock-setting situation in the state. 

For more than three decades, people in some parts of Indiana set their clocks ahead one hour during daylight-saving time, but most do not. It is an almost-comical part of Hoosier lore, debated each year in the Legislature, in offices, in bars and on talk radio. 

Some say the existing system hurts the state's image and stunts commerce. Others, such as former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg, scoff at such claims. 

"It's still 24 hours," said Gregg, who dealt with the issue often in his 16 years in office until he retired in 2002. "If you want more daylight, get up earlier." 

It's not just whether all of Indiana should be on daylight time. Should it be on New York time or Chicago time? 

The candidates for governor have touched on the issue, with some waffling. 

Former White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels, considered the leading Republican candidate, favors statewide observance of daylight-saving time, with "as much of the state as possible" in the Central time zone. 

Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan backs daylight-saving time, but he has not specified a time zone. However, Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis - his running mate - says Central time is probably the best fit. 

Republican Eric Miller wants to put the question to a vote of the people, even though the state constitution does not include a mechanism for such ballot initiatives. 

Indiana is among three states that do not observe daylight-saving time - at least not completely. The others are Arizona and Hawaii. 

To eliminate a confusing time mix, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandating observance of daylight time. For most Americans, that means setting clocks an hour ahead before they go to bed on the first Sunday in April. Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. that Sunday and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October. 

Proponents claim that the extra hour of evening sunshine helps to reduce energy consumption and crime. 

The act allowed states to opt out of daylight time. Hawaii - where day lengths do not vary much because of its tropical location - opted out in 1967. 

Arizona tried daylight time for a year, but state Sen. Jack Brown said lawmakers were buried in constituent complaints: Folks didn't want to wait until 9:30 p.m. for the drive-in movie to start; they didn't like tucking their children into bed with the sun still shining or getting them on the school bus in the dark. And few wanted to make those scorching summer days any longer than they already were. 

Others said it just wasn't natural. "There was one lady who said her chickens stopped laying eggs," Brown said. 

Only the Navajo Indian reservation in the northeastern corner of Arizona observes daylight time, and that's because it extends into the participating states of New Mexico and Utah. 

The issue is more complicated in Indiana, where daylight-saving time causes year-round confusion. 

Of Indiana's 92 counties, five in the northwest corner near Chicago and five in the southwest corner in the Evansville area are in the Central time zone and observe daylight time. They are always on Chicago time. 

The remaining 82 counties are in the Eastern time zone. Five in southeastern Indiana - three by Louisville, Ky. and two by Cincinnati - observe daylight time to stay in sync with their big-city neighbors, which will be on EDT. 

The rest of the 77 counties stay on Eastern Standard Time all year. So, when daylight-saving time is in effect, it is noon EDT in New York, but it is an hour earlier - 11 a.m. EST - in those 77 counties, including the state capital of Indianapolis. The clocks in Chicago will read the same, but it will be 11 a.m. CDT. 

In October when daylight-saving time ends, the 77 counties will be back on New York time and one hour ahead of Chicago. 

Many lawmakers say their constituents are evenly divided. 

Dodging the issue politically can be an art. Republican Rex Early pulled this one off during a 1996 gubernatorial primary debate: 

"Some of my friends are for putting all of Indiana on daylight-saving time. Some are against it. And I always try to support my friends."

Liquor, Wine Can Include Nutritional Info

Fri Apr 9, 3:25 PM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Consumers counting carbohydrates and calories may soon see that information on the labels of their favorite rum, scotch and other liquors. 

While it's up to the individual company to decide whether to provide such information, Peter Cressy, president of the Distilled Sprits Council, said Friday that he expects consumers to start seeing labels containing carb and calorie information on some liquor products within a couple of months. 

A ruling by the Treasury Department (news - web sites)'s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau on Thursday made clear that liquor and wine companies that want to provide carb and calorie information on their labels and advertising can do so, just as some beer companies now do. 

Cressy believes this is good for his industry. 

"More and more consumers are seeking information about the carbohydrate and caloric content of what they eat and drink," Cressy said. Many of the industry's products, including vodka, tequila, whiskey, bourbon, scotch, gin and rum, contain no carbohydrates, he said. 

Providing such information on liquor labels and advertising "is a good thing and will help consumers make choices," he said. 

As part of the ruling, the bureau also issued an interim standard for the use of the term "low carbohydrate" that would be followed by beer, wine and liquor companies that want to provide such information on their labels. 

The bureau said that the term "low carbohydrate" may be used in labeling and advertising of alcohol beverages that contain no more than 7 grams of carbohydrates per serving. 

"That is new. Prior to this, there was no number set in terms of what can be claimed as low carbohydrate and we wanted to come forward with some kind of mark for the consumer as to what is meant by low," said Art Resnick, spokesman for the bureau. 

What qualifies as "low carbohydrate" may change as the bureau goes through the process of adopting final rules, Resnick said. 

Information about carb and calorie content must be truthful in labels and in advertisements. False and misleading statements are prohibited. Information that implies that "consumption of low-carbohydrate alcohol beverages may play a healthy role in a weight maintenance or weight reduction plan" would be considered misleading and thus prohibited, the bureau said. 

Even moderate consumption of alcohol beverages poses health risks for some people, the bureau said. 

Companies wanting to provide carb and calorie information also need to provide information on the protein and fat content of the product, the bureau said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: http://www.ttb.gov/

Some presidential history. Look what happens when a President gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end. Also notice it goes in increments of 20 years. 

>1840: William Henry Harrison (died in office)

>1860: Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)

>1880: James A. Garfield (assassinated)

>1900: William McKinley (assassinated)

>1920: Warren G. Harding (died in office)

>1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (dies in office)

>1960: John F. Kennedy (assassinated)

>1980: Ronald Reagan (survived assassination attempt)

>2000: George W. Bush ???????????? 

And to think that we had two guys fighting it out in the courts to be the >one elected in 2000. 

You might also be interested in this. 

Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. 

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. 

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. 

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head. 

Now it gets really weird. 

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln. 

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson. 

>Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.

>Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. 

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. 

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. 

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters. 

Now hang on to your seat. 

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.' 

Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by'Ford.' 

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse. 

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a

theater. 

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. 

And here's the kicker... 

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe,Maryland

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Why Housing Could Spring a Leak

Wed Apr 7, 8:30 AM ET

Add Business - BusinessWeek Online 

It sure looked like good news: On Apr. 2, the government announced that a stunning 308,000 new jobs were created in March (economists were expecting only about 130,000). For the housing market, however, these tidings hit like a ton of bricks. Almost immediately, interest rates started rising, and housing stocks started falling. 

KB Homes (NYSE:KBH - News) fell from $80.20 to $76.60 that day and to $75.27 the next (see BW Online, 4/5/04, "KB Home: Cyclical No Longer?"). D.H Horton (NYSE:DHI - News), Lennar (NYSE:LEN - News), and Centex (NYSE:CTX - News) all slumped an average of about 7% those two days before rebounding a bit on Apr. 6. 

Are these stocks signaling potential weakness ahead for real estate? You bet they are. While housing experts point to myriad reasons why the real estate market will likely stay robust through 2004, the risk of a serious downturn in the next few years is clearly increasing -- particularly in areas of the country where home prices have risen the most. 

"AN ATTRACTIVE ZONE." So far, the interest rate jumps have been moderate. Mortgage rates, both traditional 30-year and adjustable, remain way below their historical average of around 8%. But on Apr. 6, Bankrate.com's overnight survey of lenders showed the average rate on a 30-year-fixed mortgage spiked to 5.48%, up from 5.2% a week earlier. 

"It's hard to be too concerned about such a relatively small backup," notes Mike Sklarz, chief valuation officer for real estate services company Fidelity National Financial in Jacksonville, Fla. "We're still in such an attractive zone of interest rates." He believes rates would have to rise to 6.5% or 7% to hurt the market. 

That kind of a rise doesn't seem likely this year. Indeed, rates briefly climbed above 6% last August, only to retreat quickly when the economy slowed in the fourth quarter. But through it all, sales volume and home-price appreciation nationally have never slumped. And if the economy continues to grow and inflation perks up, a housing market bubble is certainly a plausible scenario a year or two from now. 

THE AFFORDABILITY QUESTION. Any downturn in the market could have major economic ramifications. With home ownership now up to almost 70% of households, Americans are pouring more and more of their savings -- as well as their hopes and dreams -- into their homes. "You can't ignore the fact that low interest rates haves aided affordability and to some extent deserve credit for continued rapid price appreciation in real estate prices over the year," says Greg McBride, financial analyst at Bankrate.com. 

It's people's ability to afford a high-priced home that is directly affected when rates rise, not the actual home price. For now, buyers are turning to adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) to find the same interest rate they could once get through a 30-year fixed, says Paul Fine, senior vice-president at GMAC Mortgage. ARMs provide buyers with a lower rate now, in exchange for lenders gaining the option of raising the rate at a set point in the future. 

The increasing popularity of ARMS is likely to keep the housing market strong through this year, says Frank Anton, president of Hanley Wood, a Washington (D.C.)-based media company that serves the residential-construction industry. The problem is that ARMs put homeowners at risk of being unable to afford their home in the future if interest rates rise substantially over the next few years (see BW, 4/12/04, "Home Buyers: ARMed And Dangerous?"). 

Here's a worst case scenario: Today's buyer of a $500,000 home finds that in three years she owes that same amount, but has to pay twice as much to finance it, while she can sell the house for only $300,000. It doesn't take much imagination to see what such a trend would do to the banking industry, consumer confidence, and the broader economy. 

SUPPLY-DEMAND CUSHION. So far, that kind of doomsday appears far fetched, housing experts say. They expect home prices to level off at some point in the future, but not tumble. While regional home values can and often do rise and fall, average home prices nationwide haven't dropped in about 35 years of record-keeping. 

Plus, housing inventory remains near record lows, and supply is hard to add in areas where prices are rising fastest, says Craig Kucera, who covers homebuilding stocks for brokerage firm Friedman Billings Ramsey. "We still have a significant supply-demand imbalance," he says. "That adds some cushion if there's a slowdown in 2005 or later this year, but I don't see that." 

Plus, if rates continue to rise (which isn't a given), that will likely be because the economy is improving, which means personal incomes will be rising, and more people will be able to afford higher-priced homes, Anton says. Even in a rising-rate environment, "it's conceivable that the housing market would move ahead with barely a blip," he adds. 

WARNING SIGNS. None of this means that stable real estate values are etched in stone, however. The country is already dotted with pockets of vulnerability. In parts of California such as Silicon Valley, average prices have climbed beyond the affordable range for the typical income-earner. Sklarz points to places like Key Biscayne (Fla.) and South Hampton (N.Y.), where prices have risen the fastest, as potential trouble spots. It's "a pretty good signal" of vulnerability, he says, if prices have gone up more than 150% in the past five years. 

Worried about your neighborhood? Watch the local listings for a growing inventory of homes on the market and flattening or falling prices at the high end. That's a leading indicator for the rest of the market, says Sklarz. Keep your ears open for signs of speculation: Is your neighbor buying a house with plans to fix it up and flip it? 

Kucera also looks at the rental market, which is weakening on a national level, as a gauge of home-price appreciation potential. If you can rent a comparable home for much less than it would cost to buy it, that's a worrisome sign. 

Also, keep an eye on those homebuilding stocks. For now, Wall Street is signaling only more risk, not the reality of a weakening housing market. Luckily, houses aren't like stocks, which are a lot easier to trade. But as mortgage rates rise, fewer people will be able to afford to move up to a nicer house. That's a trend today's home buyers need to keep in mind, even if any weakening in the housing market is still years away. 

12 dangerous dietary supplements identified by 'Consumer Reports'

Thu Apr 8, 7:29 AM ET

 - USATODAY.com 

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY 

If they're natural, they must be safe, right? Not so, say researchers at Consumer Reports magazine.

In a report in the May issue, the consumer publication found a dozen herbal supplements - some banned in Asia, Europe and Canada but widely available in the USA - that may cause cancer, kidney or liver damage and even death.

They include: 

� Aristolochia, linked to kidney failure and cancer.

� Yohimbe, linked to heart and respiratory problems.

� Bitter orange, similar to ephedra, the banned weight-loss supplement believed responsible for 155 deaths nationwide.

The researchers also cited chaparral, comfrey, germander, kava and scullcap, all of which are known or likely causes of liver failure; lobella because of its impact on the heart; and pennyroyal oil because of possible liver, kidney and nerve damage.

Two of these supplements have already been acted on by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). Organ/glandular extracts are affected by FDA restrictions on the use of bovine materials in supplements because of the risk of mad cow disease.

And in March, then-FDA commissioner Mark McClellan warned companies to stop selling the bodybuilding supplement androstenedione (andro). 

"A lot of people believe that herbal supplements are safe because they've been used for years in traditional medicine," says senior editor Nancy Metcalf. But "when they went looking for problems in China, they found plenty of them."

The findings highlight the lack of oversight. A 1994 law, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, has been seen as tying the hands of regulators because it requires the FDA to allow the sale of any supplement it cannot prove is unsafe.

But a recent report by the National Institutes of Medicine says flat out that the FDA doesn't need direct evidence of human harm to stop sales of dangerous supplements. It's enough to establish the danger using animal or test-tube studies, or even with reports of problems from similar products.

Manufacturers should be required to report side effects and include a phone number on packaging for consumers who want to do so, the panel said.

Meanwhile, the FDA has sent warning letters to 16 dietary-supplement distributors found to be making false and misleading claims on the Internet for weight-loss products. Many claim to block starch, carbohydrates and fat calories, creating weight loss without any lifestyle changes.

Not all supplements are snake oil, Consumer Reports says. It identified three that show possible benefits and low risks, including saw palmetto for benign enlarged prostate, glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis, and fish oil capsules for heart health.

IRS Helps Authorities Find Missing Teen

Fri Apr 9, 2:31 PM ET

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By MARY DALRYMPLE, News Source Tax Writer 

WASHINGTON - Missing kids aren't pictured only on the back of milk cartons. A taxpayer found a missing child this spring after seeing her picture in an Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) tax instruction booklet. 

The anonymous taxpayer helped authorities locate Michelle Branch, missing seven years from her home in Fremont, Calif., on March 16. 

"She really didn't know anybody was even looking for her," said D'Ann Taflin, spokeswoman for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Branch, who described herself to Taflin as a "wild kid," went missing at age 17. She's now 24 years old and living in Detroit. 

Her family plans to send her a plane ticket so she can fly to California and visit them in May. 

The reunification marks the first time the IRS can say with certainty that a photograph in a tax publication led the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to a missing child. 

The center distributes photographs to more than 300 partners. The IRS started publishing them in their highly visible and widely used tax publications in 1999. About 1,300 pictures have appeared in IRS publications, and 200 of those children have been found. 

"One in six missing children is found as a direct result of someone recognizing that child's photo, and we count ourselves extremely fortunate to have the IRS as a powerful partner," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

In addition to distributing photographs, the center trains law enforcement and social service workers, offers child protection training and helps the State Department solve cases of international child abduction. 

It has helped authorities locate more than 80,000 children since 1984. 

__ 

On the Net: 

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: www.missingkids.com 

Penn State Study Finds Origins of Snakes

Fri Apr 9, 8:09 AM ET

By DAN LEWERENZ, News Source Writer 

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Using DNA evidence, two Penn State University researchers think they have answered a long-standing question among scientists: Did snakes evolve from land-based lizards, or did they come from the sea? 

In an article for the May 7 issue of the journal Biology Letters, Penn State biology professor Blair Hedges and postdoctoral scholar Nicolas Vidal write that the genetic evidence strongly suggests that snakes evolved from land-dwelling lizards. 

It's a conclusion that confirms a general trend in evolutionary biology, but bucks more than 100 years of thinking about reptiles, Hedges said. 

The first tetrapods, or four-legged creatures, migrated from the oceans onto land 365 million years ago. Many animals later returned to the sea, including the ancestors of modern dolphins and whales - their arms and legs evolved into fins. 

Herpetologists, though, have been divided about the origin of snakes. Some thought snakes evolved from land-based lizards, losing their legs to better squeeze through small holes and crevasses close to the ground. Others thought aquatic lizards, such as mosasaurs, made a second migration onto land as snakes. 

Evidence for the aquatic theory came largely from physical similarities between monitor lizards such as the Komodo dragon - the closest living relatives of mosasaurs - and snakes. 

"Monitors have these long, forked tongues like snakes, and not many other lizards have similar tongue morphology," Hedges said. "The body shape of a monitor is very long and snakelike. The jaws are very large and tending toward the snake's jaw type. So there were several lines of evidence, morphologically, that point toward a snake-monitor relationship." 

To test that theory, Vidal and Hedges compared the DNA from 17 of the 25 known families of snakes to DNA from all 19 families of lizards. They found snakes to be much more similar to land-based lizards than they were to monitors, providing strong evidence for a terrestrial evolution. 

"In the last five or so years, people looking at gene sequences have claimed that they found support for a monitor-snake relationship in the sequence data," Hedges said. "But in all cases, they were missing many families of lizards, so I guess you could say the didn't have all the data to really say that for certain. 

"When we had all of the families' data, it clearly showed there was no snake-monitor relationship." 

Although the evidence contradicts the strongly held beliefs of some herpetologists, Nancy J. Berner, associate professor and chair of biology at the University of the South, said the DNA comparison would be strong evidence for those looking strictly at physical similarities. 

"The thing that really caught my attention, and that I think is really significant, is that the investigators were looking at genetic relatedness as opposed to anatomical structures," Berner said. "What this does is it's taking the new technology that's out there and applying it to an old question, really testing old theories. I would say that they're really on to something here." 

Although their research leads Hedges and Vidal away from the monitor lizards and the aquatic theory, they still haven't determined exactly where snakes began to separate from the lizard family tree. 

"Now we need to identify the closest relative of snakes. We don't have it yet," Vidal said. "We can exclude monitors - that's statistically supported, strongly - so we know their origin is not marine. But all of the other lizard lineages are terrestrial, so we have to find which one." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Penn State University: http://www.psu.edu 

White House - AP

9/11 Documents Show Hijacking Warnings

15 minutes ago

Add White House - 

By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - U.S. government agencies issued repeated warnings in the summer of 2001 about potential terrorist plots against the United States masterminded by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), including a possible plan to hijack commercial aircraft, documents show. 

While there were no specific targets mentioned in the United States, there was intelligence indicating al-Qaida might attempt to crash a plane into the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. And other reports said Islamic extremists might try to hijack a plane to gain release of comrades. 

The escalating seriousness was reflected in a series of warnings issued by the State Department, Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), Defense Department and others detailing a heightened risk of terror attacks targeting Americans. 

Whether the Bush administration had enough information to take more aggressive action is at the heart of the dispute over the contents of an Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing the White House was working to declassify at the urging of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. White House officials said the document would not come out Friday and probably would not be ready for release until early next week. 

Several Democrats on the commission claim the memo, called a presidential daily brief, or PDB, included current intelligence indicating a high threat of hijackings. It was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." 

"Something was going to happen very soon and be potentially catastrophic," said one of the Democrats, former Indiana Rep. Timothy Roemer. "I don't understand, given the big threat, why the big principals don't get together." 

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) repeatedly told the panel Thursday that the document was a history of al-Qaida threats and contained no new imminent threat information requiring different government action. The possibility of hijackings was being investigated by the FBI (news - web sites) and the Federal Aviation Administration, she said, adding that most of the summer 2001 threats concerned U.S. interests abroad. 

"The country had taken the steps that it could given that there was no threat reporting about what might happen within the United States," Rice said. 

Congress already has conducted an investigation into the attacks and its final report includes a detailed timeline of the increasing threats U.S. officials picked up during the summer of 2001. It also includes some of the material from the PDB. 

The memo mentioned intelligence that bin Laden wanted to hijack aircraft to gain release of prisoners in the United States. The PDB also contains FBI information about "patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other attacks," according to congressional investigators. 

A key event occurred on June 21, 2001, when a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., returned a 46-count indictment charging 13 Saudis and one Lebanese with the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service personnel. 

Rumors of the coming indictment had been circulating for weeks before that, according to officials familiar with the intelligence, leading to increased worries that terrorists might take some action in connection with the case. 

The next day, June 22, the FAA issued a nationwide circular "referring to a possible hijacking plot by Islamic terrorists to secure release of 14 persons incarcerated in the United States" in the Khobar Towers case. In fact, the 14 were still at large, although the circular did not mention that. They remain fugitives to this day. 

More terrorism warnings quickly followed, including: 

_ A worldwide caution issued June 22 by the State Department warning Americans abroad of increased risk of terror attacks. 

_ Four Defense Department alerts between June 22 and July 20 alerting U.S. military personnel that "bin Laden's network was planning a near-term, anti-U.S. terrorist operation." 

_ A July 2 bulletin from the FBI to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies describing "increased threat reporting" about bin Laden or groups allied with al-Qaida. The bulletin suggested the greatest risk of an attack was overseas "although the possibility could not be discounted" of an attack inside the United States. 

_ Intelligence received by U.S. agencies in August about the plot to either bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi from an airplane or crash an aircraft into the building. The report cited two unidentified people who met in October 2000 to discuss this plot on instructions from bin Laden. 

A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI issued at least two other bulletins in 2001 about the terror threat intelligence but did not include directives for field offices to take specific actions because there was no imminent threat to the homeland. 

There had been numerous earlier reports of bin Laden's interest in using aircraft for terror attacks, including a 1998 plot to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center and an April 2000 plot to hijack a Boeing 747 and either fly it to Afghanistan (news - web sites) or blow up. 

But in December 2000, the FBI and FAA issued a classified threat assessment that played down the possibility of a threat to domestic aviation from terror operatives known to be in the United States. 

"Terrorist activity within the U.S. has focused primarily on fund-raising, recruiting new members and disseminating propaganda," that report says. "While international terrorists have conducted attacks on U.S. soil, these acts represent anomalies in their traditional targeting which focuses on U.S. interests overseas." 

The congressional intelligence inquiry's report suggests that this mind-set, less than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, may have contributed to an overall U.S. view that there was a low probability of attacks on American soil, particularly using aircraft as weapons. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Joint intelligence report: http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/911rpt 

9/11 Commission: http://www.9-11commission.gov 

Mortality Rate Highest for Detroit Kids

Thu Apr 8, 1:22 PM ET



DETROIT - The mortality rate is higher among Detroit children than among any of the nation's 15 largest cities. 

The death rate also is 68 percent above the national average. Between 1999 and 2001, the most recent years for which data is available, 1,032 children under 18 perished, a study by The Detroit News of federal health records found. 

And although many of the deaths could not be prevented, an unusually high number were lost to fires, homicides and conditions indicative of impoverished communities. 

"We're losing our kids," said Sharon Peters, president and CEO of Michigan's Children, a Lansing-based advocacy group. "It's unacceptable. And it's a distinction Detroit can ill afford to have." 

Although recent figures are not available, examples of violent deaths among Detroit's children are commonplace. Just Wednesday, four children and their mother were buried after being beaten to death with a pipe last week. 

Between 1999 and 2001, 80 children in Detroit died in homicides, records show. 

And Detroit's overall murder rate has leapt 50 percent over last year during the first three months, going from 68 to 102. 

Homicides account for about 8 percent of Detroit children's deaths. Its homicide rate among children was the second-highest for the major cities, behind Chicago for the three years studied. 

But much more common causes of death are health problems often associated with poverty. 

Detroit's infant mortality rate - the portion of children who don't survive their first year of life - is double the state average, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health. For every 1,000 babies born to Detroit mothers in 2002, 16 died. 

The most frequent cause of death among Detroit's kids between 1999 and 2001 was extremely low birth weight, often less than 2.2 pounds. At least 178 babies died that way, according to records from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

All told, 434 deaths or 42 percent of the total were linked to conditions such as respiratory problems or infections that take hold during the first months of a child's life. 

Experts say that while such conditions sometimes cannot be prevented, in other cases they are directly tied to poverty, drug use or other factors that hamper new parents' abilities to care for their kids. 

Dr. Theodore Jones, who works with high-risk pregnancies at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit, said the drug use among pregnant women is a serious concern. 

And he said poverty among Detroit families makes them less likely to get proper treatment and care. About a third of Detroit children live in poverty, the highest rate among the 15 cities. 

Records also show that fires, car crashes, suicide and other accidents kill an unusually high number of children. 

Among the 15 biggest cities, Detroit's death rate from fires ranks highest - 54 died between 1999 and 2002. The city ranks third for the portion of children killed in car crashes and from suicide and second in other types of accidents, such as drownings, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records show. 

___ 

Information from: The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com 

Green Tea Component Kills Leukemia Cells Thu Apr 8, 7:03 PM ET

HealthDay 

THURSDAY, April 8 (HealthDayNews) -- A component of green tea helps kill cells of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the second most common leukemia in American adults, according to new research.

Mayo Clinic researchers found that the component, called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), destroys leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need to survive. The research appears online in the journal Blood.

CLL is most often diagnosed in people in their mid-to-late 60s. Chemotherapy is used to treat the most severe cases, but there is no cure for CLL.

In this study, the Mayo scientists found that EGCG prompted leukemia cells to die in eight of 10 patient samples tested in a laboratory.

"We're continuing to look for therapeutic agents that are nontoxic to the patient but kill cancer cells, and this finding with EGCG is an excellent start," study leader Dr. Neil E. Kay said in a prepared statement. "Understanding this mechanism and getting these positive early results gives us a lot to work with in terms of offering patients with this disease more effective, easily tolerated therapies earlier." 

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute (news - web sites) has more about CLL.

Technology - AP

System Can Detect Fraudulent Passports

Thu Apr 8, 5:29 PM ET

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, News Source Writer 

CONCORD, N.H. - Australia, one of the United States' strongest allies, has added a new weapon to its arsenal - a toaster-sized document reader that tells in seconds whether a passport is a fraud and identifies travelers who might be included on terrorist watch lists. 

"What we're trying to do is strengthen border security by making sure that the people who are coming into this country are who they say they are," said Tim Chapman, a manager with Australia's Customs Service. 

In a multimillion-dollar contract, Australia has installed 400 iA-thenticate units from Imaging Automation Inc. of Bedford, N.H., at its international airports in hopes of authenticating the documents of every person entering. 

The system ranges from $5,000 to $15,000 per unit. It uses multiple light sources to examine hundreds of security features on travel documents. Many of the features, including the composition of ink, are invisible to the naked eye. 

Australia joins Canada, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Nigeria among the countries using or testing the iA-thenticate system. The Dallas-Fort Worth and Boston airports and a company that contracts with nuclear plants use the system to check credentials of prospective employees. 

Chapman said the system was deployed in Australia in mid-February and already has detected false documents. Without giving details, he said the people might not have been detected beforehand. 

Imaging Automation is trying to sell its system to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is facing delays in its plans to incorporate passport-validating fingerprint and facial biometrics at border crossings. 

___ 

On the Net: 

iA-thenticate devices: http://www.imagingauto.com 

Actors Whip Easter Bunny at Church Show Thu Apr 8,11:08 AM ET

Add U.S. National - 

GLASSPORT, Pa. - First, the Passion of the Christ. Now, the torment of the Easter Bunny? 

It may not have been as gruesome as Mel Gibson's movie, but many parents and children got upset when a church trying to teach about Jesus' crucifixion performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs. 

People who attended Saturday's show at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified. 

Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. "He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped," Salzmann said. 

Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God, said the performance wasn't meant to be offensive. Bickerton portrayed the Easter rabbit and said she tried to act with a tone of irreverence. 

"The program was for all ages, not just the kids. We wanted to convey that Easter is not just about the Easter bunny, it is about Jesus Christ," Bickerton said. 

Performers broke eggs meant for an Easter egg hunt and also portrayed a drunken man and a self-mutilating woman, said Jennifer Norelli-Burke, another parent who saw the show in Glassport, a community about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 

"It was very disturbing," Norelli-Burke said. "I could not believe what I saw. It wasn't anything I was expecting." 

Human-Cat Relationship Goes Back Further

Thu Apr 8, 9:37 PM ET

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - While ancient Egypt provides the first written record of cats, a burial discovered on Cyprus indicates that humans and felines may have become associated much earlier - extending 9,500 years or more into the past. 

It's a relationship that has ranged from their being adored as gods in the Nile valley to their slinking into medieval witchhood and rising again to be revered in poet T.S. Eliot's verses and in the stage show "Cats." Today, more than 30 percent of American homes host a cat. 

Jean-Denis Vigne of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris believes the relationship first blossomed with the development of agricultural societies 10,000 or so years ago. 

"It seems that cats probably came more and more frequently into villages where grain stocks attracted numerous mice," said Vigne. "I think that human beings rapidly understood that they could use cats for reducing the number of mice." 

It was Vigne's research team that uncovered the carefully buried cat on Cyprus, placed just inches from a human burial that also contained polished stones, shells, tools and jewelry. The graves are estimated to be 9,500 years old. 

The cat belonged to the Felis silvestris species, a wild cat, which was significantly larger than modern domestic cats. The cat's bones were placed carefully, parallel to the human, and showed no signs of butchering, another indication that the animal may have been a pet, Vigne said in a paper in Friday's issue of the journal Science. 

The finding seems to be evidence of cats being tamed earlier than previously thought, said Melinda Zeder of the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites)'s National Museum of Natural History. 

If the cat was intentionally buried with the human, which it seems to have been, Zeder said, "what they've got is pretty good evidence of a kind of relationship with humans." 

It's hard to know whether it was a pet or a working mouser because "the bones aren't talking," said Zeder, president of the International Council for Archaeozoology. 

What may be surprising is that there hasn't been evidence of an earlier relationship with cats, she added, noting that indications of human-dog relations go back 12,000 years. 

Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a biology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed that the finding is "the first suggestion that there was a significant emotional attachment" between a human and a cat. 

"They make a good case that they were buried at the same time and it shows that whoever buried it cleared a special spot for it," she said. "That makes it significant." 

Vigne noted in his paper that there have been older remains of cats - specifically a jaw - found on Cyprus, but it was not associated with a human grave. Cat bones about 9,000 years old were also found near Jericho, but there was no indication of domestication, though that may have been under way in several places at about the same time. 

Cats are not native to Cyprus, so their presence on the eastern Mediterranean island indicates they were brought there at some point. 

"The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands, but we couldn't decide if these cats were wild or tame. With this discovery we can now decide that these cats were linked with humans," Vigne said. 

The best known ancient evidence of cats comes from Egypt, where the animals were bred 4,000 or more years ago. Cats were often included in Egyptian art and worshipped as the cat goddess Bastet. 

Stones engraved with images of wild cats and other animals have been discovered from Western Asia and dated back to the Early Neolithic - 4000 to 3000 B.C. 

This may be evidence that cats had spiritual significance for humans, according to Vigne, though the real meaning of the representations is irreparably lost. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

Study: Textbook Prices Soar for Students

Thu Apr 8, 9:12 AM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, News Source Writer 

PORTLAND, Ore. - College freshman Amy Connolly knows not to judge a book by its cover. Instead, she judges the newest Calculus 101 text by what's inside: a CD-ROM, flashy color photographs and a bubble-wrapped study manual. All those extras bring the price tag to $126, she says. 

"The textbook companies are adding bells and whistles that students don't need - it's making the cost of education unaffordable," said Connolly, a student at Portland State University. 

A study spearheaded by students in Oregon and California found that the cost of textbooks has skyrocketed because of the bundling of ancillary products like CD-ROMs. It also claims that publishers roll out new editions year after year, forcing students to buy new books although the content scarcely changes. 

Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers and a former congresswoman, said the report was one-sided and flawed. 

Fifteen members of Congress have asked for an investigation into the pricing policies of U.S textbook publishers. The Government Accounting Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, has given the request high priority, said Cornelia Ashby, the director of the office's education branch. 

The study was conducted by the California Student Public Interest Research Group, Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group and the OSPIRG Foundation. The groups conducted a survey of the most widely assigned books in the fall of 2003 at 10 public colleges in Oregon and California. 

According to the study, college students today spend about $900 on textbooks every year. On average, textbook publishers keep books on the shelf for 3 1/2 years before issuing a new one. Over half of faculty members surveyed said the new editions are "rarely" to "never" justified. 

"Calculus hasn't changed much since Isaac Newton. The question needs to be asked - do we really need a new edition every few years?" said U.S. Rep. David Wu, an Oregon Democrat who was the first lawmaker to ask for the investigation last fall. 

Textbook publishers say the students' recommendations, which include a five-year minimum before the release of a new edition, fail to take the need for updates into account. 

"Imagine a government textbook that had Bill Clinton (news - web sites) as president. Or an accounting textbook that didn't include Enron. Or a biology textbook that didn't have cloning or stem cell research. The world changes so fast," said Jessica Dee Rohm, spokeswoman for Thomson Learning, the Stamford, Conn.-based textbook giant. 

Publishers say that even if the subject is calculus or art history, and by nature doesn't change as radically as genetics, the revised editions are always different. 

"We have a revision diary that's hundreds of pages long for that book - we invested $300,000 of research to change it," said Rohm, referring to the Calculus 101 book that Connolly held up at a news conference in Portland on Wednesday. 

Rohm said that the information age has changed everything, and the CD-ROM is only the tip of the iceberg in staying on top of that trend. 

The spiraling price of textbooks has led to all sorts of strategies to reduce the financial hit, said Merriah Fairchild of the California Student Public Interest Research Group. 

"I know stories of students pooling together to buy a single book - students just can't afford it anymore," Fairchild said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Association of American Publishers: http://www.publishers.org/ 

Thomson Learning: http://www.thomson.com/learning/learning.jsp?x2 

CALPIRG: http://www.pirg.org/calpirg/ 

OSPIRG: http://www.ospirgstudents.org/

Government Licenses First Private Rocket

Thu Apr 8, 8:29 AM ET

By LESLIE MILLER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The government on Wednesday awarded a California aviation company the first license for a manned suborbital rocket. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) announced that it gave a one-year license to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., a company founded by aviation maverick Burt Rutan. His goal is public space travel within 10 years. 

Rutan is best known for designing the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986. But his dream is to inspire excitement about space flight. 

Though he declined to comment on obtaining the launch license, Rutan posted a statement on the company's Web site expressing his hopes that ordinary people can travel to space in 10 years. 

"I strongly feel that, if we are successful, our program will mark the beginning of a renaissance for manned space flight," he wrote. "This might even be similar to that wonderful time period between 1908 and 1912 when the world went from a total of ten airplane pilots to hundreds of airplane types and thousands of pilots in 39 countries. We need affordable space travel to inspire our youth." 

The Scaled Composites craft consists of a rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch. SpaceShipOne, made of graphite and epoxy, has short wings and twin vertical tails. It reached 12.9 miles altitude in a trial flight; the license will allow the spacecraft to reach the edge of space, about 60 miles up. 

The license is a prerequisite for the X Prize competition, an international space race that will give $10 million to the first company or person to launch a manned craft to 62.5 miles above the Earth, and then do it again within two weeks. The craft must be able to carry three people. 

The prize, announced in 1996, is sponsored by the privately funded X Prize Foundation in St. Louis. Supporters include Dennis Tito, the American who spent $20 million to fly in a Russian craft as the first space tourist; pilot Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh; former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn; and movie actor Tom Hanks. 

FAA spokesman Henry Price said the agency is considering two other applications for launch licenses. One is an X Prize contestant. 

Twenty-seven contestants from seven countries have registered for the X Prize competition. 

Before launching the spacecraft in the X Prize competition, Scaled Composites must give the prize sponsors 90 days notice, Price said. The company can launch its rocket before that, he said, but it must be in an area that isn't risky. 

Scaled Composites is located in the Mojave Desert. 

FAA inspectors carefully examined the space vehicle to make sure it's safe, said Price. 

"There's no sure thing in anything when it comes to rocketry," he said. "We want to do what we can with the knowledge we have to make sure the launch is as safe as possible for the public." 

The company also had to demonstrate that it was adequately insured for a launch and that it met environmental standards, Price said. 

A suborbital flight reaches space but doesn't travel fast enough or high enough to complete an orbit of the Earth. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Scaled Composites: http://www.scaled.com 

Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov 

X Prize: http://www.xprize.com 

'Mary Tyler Moore House' Is Up for Sale 
Tue Apr 27,10:45 AM ET 
Add Entertainment - 

MINNEAPOLIS - The "Mary Tyler Moore (news) House" is up for sale with an asking price of nearly $1.7 million. 

The five-bedroom, six-bath Victorian home quietly went on the market in early March, but a "For Sale" sign only recently appeared on its lawn. 

Although actress Mary Tyler Moore never set foot in the house during the show's production, exterior shots of the 112-year-old home were used in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" during the show's run in the 1970s. The fictional character Mary Richards lived in a third-floor apartment. Her wacky neighbor was Rhoda Morgenstern. 

The home's owners did not release a reason for selling. They have owned the house since 1988. 

Some previous owners in the early 1970s became so weary of uninvited guests that they stretched a banner saying "Impeach Nixon" outside to discourage television crews from taking additional exterior shots. 

___ 

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials

Tue Apr 27, 8:53 AM ET

By Doug Tsuruoka 

People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs. 

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Blogs, short for Web logs, are personal online journals. Individuals post them on Web sites to report or comment on news especially, but also on their personal lives or most any subject. 

Some blogs are whimsical and deal with "soft" subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion. 

As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what's reported in some blogs is questionable. 

Still, a panel of folks who work in the U.S. intelligence field - some of them spies or former spies - discussed this month at a conference in Washington the idea of tracking blogs. 

"News and intelligence is about listening with a critical ear, and blogs are just another conversation to listen to and evaluate. They also are closer to (some situations) and may serve as early alerts," said Jock Gill, a former adviser on Internet media to President Clinton (news - web sites), in a later phone interview, after he spoke on the panel. 

Some panel and conference participants, because of their profession, could not be identified. But another who could is Robert Steele, another blog booster. The former U.S. intelligence officer said "absolutely" that blogs are valid sources of intelligence and news, though he said authenticating the information in blogs "leaves a lot to be desired." 

Steele is founder and CEO of consulting firm OSS.Net, which organized the conference. The OSS '04 conference focused on public sources of intelligence. (OSS stands for open source solutions. In this case, open source is an intelligence term, not a reference to Linux (news - web sites) and open source software.) 

China Wants To Block Blogs 

The CIA (news - web sites) and FBI (news - web sites) haven't publicly commented about use of blogs in their work, but many D.C. observers believe both agencies monitor certain blogs. 

At least one nation, China, is actively tracking blogs. It's also reportedly trying to block blogs. Several press reports earlier this year said the government shut two blogging services and banned access to all Web logs by Chinese citizens. 

Many journalists write blogs and use other blogs to help find sources or verify facts and rumors. Blogs hail from just about any spot on the globe. They can provide first-hand insights into local events and thinking, even in parts of the world where there's little official information. 

One example is the "Baghdad Blogger." 

In March 2003, as U.S. forces stormed Iraq (news - web sites), one of the few sources on the Iraqi viewpoint was a blog written by a person who turned out to be 29-year-old Iraqi architect Salam Pax, though it's not certain that is his real name. 

Some reporters followed his blog daily, which gave gritty insights into how the war was shaking the lives of Iraqis. 

The U.S. military never publicly acknowledged Pax, but people at the conference say they believe U.S. military officers read the blog. 

Some news organizations valued the blog. Britain's Guardian newspaper was so impressed that it hired Pax in May 2003 to write a biweekly column on life in Baghdad. He's still writing it. 

Blogs last year also provided information during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. In China, where the SARS (news - web sites) outbreak began, the government at first said little. But health officials and reporters were able to get a sense of what was happening through blogs, as well as from e-mail and cell phone text messages sent to people outside China. This might have spurred China's blog crackdown. 

Gill says blogs are a good way to uncover news that regular media aren't covering or can't cover. "Blogs may be the best and only channel for such news stories," Gill said. 

NGOs Already Get Attention 

Various U.S. agencies already scan the Web sites of so-called nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, for information on political, economic and environmental issues. So tracking blogs isn't a big step. And there are software products and online services for this task. 

While blog postings are voluntary and available to anyone to read, some observers say blog monitoring by governments or the media raises civil liberties and privacy issues. One such critic is James Love, director of the Ralph Nader (news - web sites)-affiliated Consumer Project on Technology. 

"When you're conducting surveillance where you have no expectation of illegal activity, there has to be some threshold to justify such surveillance," Love said. 

Some point to other dangers in using blogs for intelligence or news. Blogs can be used to spread lies or disinformation. 

It's hard to fact check a blog account of an event in a remote area like Mongolia. Plus, many bloggers don't use their real names. Confirming identities can be hard. 

In Baghdad last September, guerillas fired two surface-to-air missiles at a U.S. military transport, but missed. A blogger in Baghdad who goes by the name "Riverbend" wrote that the plane carried Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was then in Iraq. 

The report proved false, but it confused the media. 

Determining blog accuracy is the crucial first step to taking it further, warned Tim Witcher, who spoke at the conference. He's the former Seoul, Korea, bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, a news service. "A blog only becomes news when we can be 100% sure that it's true," he said.

More than 600 isolated in Beijing as SARS fears grow
2 hours, 35 minutes ago

BEIJING (NEWS SOURCE) - More than 600 people have been isolated in Beijing as the city moves to prevent a SARS (news - web sites) outbreak from spreading ahead of the busy Labour Day holidays, state media and medical workers said. 

NEWS SOURCE Photo 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: SARS

"The number of people who have been isolated has risen to more than 600 because of the SARS epidemic," Wu Jiang, director of the infectious disease control department of Beijing Centre of Disease Control told the Beijing News. 

The CDC confirmed the figure when contacted by NEWS SOURCE, adding that 24 of those under observation were staff from the national center of disease control. 

At least 133 people are also in isolation in Anhui province, reports said. 

"The people are either isolated in the same place or at home," said Wu, who expressed confidence that the Chinese capital would not be crippled by SARS as it was last year. 

"At the moment the situation is under control. There is little possibility of the SARS epidemic affecting Beijing society," he said. 

While the World Health Organisation has shown concern about bio-safety practices at the laboratory where the outbreak occurred, it backed Wu's assessment, saying the Chinese government appeared to be following all the right procedures. 

"We still don't see this as a public health threat," WHO spokesman in Beijing Bob Dietz told NEWS SOURCE. 

"We're pretty sure we've identified the source, the channels of transmission have been broken and we can trace it back to one source." 

Meanwhile, two WHO experts arrived in Beijing Tuesday to investigate bio-safety standards at a top Chinese laboratory believed to be the source of the outbreak. 

Chinese authorities last week said a researcher at the Beijing-based Institute of Virology contracted SARS and infected a nurse who took care of her at a Beijing hospital. 

The researcher's mother has since died, while the nurse's relatives and contacts have also gone down with symptoms of the disease. 

So far there are six suspected and two confirmed cases in Beijing and Anhui, although no new cases have been reported for two days. 

In response to the scare, the Institute of Virology has been closed down and emergency inspection teams are being rushed around the country to check if health guidelines are being followed. 

Dietz said four WHO teams were due to arrive in China over the next few days to look at bio-safety in laboratories, help in epidemiological investigations and to make sure hospitals have proper SARS precautions in place. 

With the week-long Labour Day holiday starting Saturday, surveillance is being stepped up around the country to prevent SARS being spread by the millions of people taking train, bus and plane journeys. 

Body temperature screening has resumed in airports and railway stations and passengers are required to fill in health declaration forms, the health ministry said. 

� China SARS Patients Reported Doing Better 
AP - 1 hour, 15 minutes ago 
� More than 600 isolated in Beijing as SARS fears grow 
NEWS SOURCE - 2 hours, 35 minutes ago 
� WHO team arrives in Beijing to investigate SARS scare 
NEWS SOURCE - Tue Apr 27, 7:47 AM ET 
Latest SARS News 

Last year SARS killed nearly 800 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide, with Beijing the worst-hit city in the world. 

The Beijing Daily, citing Mayor Wang Qishan, said that a Beijing anti-SARS headquarters had been set up to deal with the crisis. 

"The whole city should pay high importance to SARS and act immediately and decisively to sincerely implement important instructions by the central leaders ... to resolutely control the SARS epidemic," Wang said. 

Story Tools Email Story 

IOC Gets Olympics Cancellation Insurance 2 hours, 33 minutes ago

By STEPHEN WILSON, News Source Sports Writer 

LONDON - For the first time, the IOC (news - web sites) has taken out cancellation insurance on the Olympics: a $170 million policy to cover the risk of the Athens Games being called off because of war, terrorism, earthquakes or flooding. 

The Athens Olympics will be the most heavily guarded in history, with a security budget nearing $1 billion - more than three times the amount spent on protecting the 2000 Sydney Games (news - web sites). NATO (news - web sites) has agreed to help provide security in Athens. The Athens Games are the first Summer Olympics (news - web sites) since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 

IOC president Jacques Rogge told The News Source on Tuesday that coverage for full and partial cancellation of the Aug. 13-29 games had been signed with a syndicate of London-based insurance companies. 

It's the first time the International Olympic Committee has insured any Olympics against cancellation. 

The policy does not protect corporate sponsors of the Olympics or television networks, which have billions of dollars riding on the games. 

The policy covers a "whole range of issues such as terrorism, earthquake, flooding, landslides, things like that," Rogge said by phone from Lausanne, Switzerland. 

He said the move represents "standard prudent judgment" and does not reflect any lack of confidence in the Athens Games, which have been troubled by construction delays and security worries. 

"It has absolutely nothing to do with (doubts about) Athens," Rogge said. "We started discussing this already in August 2001, and we are going to work toward the other games in the future." 

IOC finance chairman Richard Carrion, who led the negotiations, said the possibility of Olympic venues not being ready on time is not covered by the policy. Neither is the case of teams not showing up for the games. 

Athens is hosting the first summer games since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Terrorism concerns have increased since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people. 

The Athens policy also covers the bulk of the 28 international sports federations on the Olympic program and the 202 national Olympic committees sending teams to the games. Many of those organizations rely heavily on games-related revenue for their existence. 

Rogge said the IOC will also negotiate individual cancellation policies for future Olympics, including the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. 

The insurance industry was reluctant to offer terrorism coverage in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. The IOC had no coverage for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. But negotiations for Athens picked up speed two months ago. 

Rogge said security has long been the IOC's "No. 1 priority" and that Greece has done "everything humanly possible" to safeguard the games. 

"This is an unprecedented effort," he said. "More cannot be done. Nobody can guarantee 100 percent security, but we can guarantee that we've done everything that was available and possible." 

Aside from terrorism, insurance experts say the main risk in Athens would be from earthquakes. Athens sits on a fault line. In 1999, a quake in the Athens area killed 143 people, injured about 2,000 and left thousands more homeless. 

Rogge said he and Denis Oswald, the IOC's overseer of Athens preparations, are confident Greece will be ready - "but at the last moment." 

"They could have had a more easy ride, but what counts is the readiness on the eve of the 13th of August," he said. "I think they will get there in the end." 

Besides getting insurance coverage, the IOC is building its financial reserves to deal with any cancellation or disruption of the games. 

The reserves have been increased from $85-$90 million in July 2001 to about $160 million, or about $50 million short of what the IOC says it would need to continue operating for four years in the event of an Olympics being called off.

Hunt for Atlantis Leads Researcher to Cyprus

Apr 26, 10:20 am ET 

NICOSIA  - A U.S. researcher who is convinced the fabled city of Atlantis is lurking in the watery deep off Cyprus will launch an exploratory mission this summer, he said on Monday.

"We believe our discovery will put Cyprus at the center of the world stage forever," Robert Sarmast told The News Source.

Sarmast said the east Mediterranean island is actually the pinnacle of the long-lost city and the rest of it is about one mile below sea level.

Using deep sea maps and clues found in Plato, Sarmast said he has discovered a sunken rectangular land mass stretching northeast from Cyprus toward Syria.

"We are going to sail 70 miles offshore Cyprus, directly over the spot where we believe Atlantis City lays submerged and waiting to be discovered," he said.

The mystery of Atlantis -- both whether it existed and why it disappeared -- has fired the imagination of explorers for centuries.

Many believe the ancient civilization was destroyed in the biblical flood and that it was possibly the site of the Garden of Eden.

Greek mythology says Atlantis was a powerful nation whose residents were so corrupted by greed and power that Zeus destroyed it.

Some say it is in the Aegean, others in the Azores or the Celtic Ridge of Britain, and others put it even farther a field in the South China Sea.

On Friday, he will herald the start of the expedition and Cyprus's membership to the European Union by heading out to the area where the mission will commence.

"At midnight we will deploy a sealed capsule to the seafloor containing a Cyprus flag, an EU flag and a flag bearing the symbol of Atlantis," he said.

Da Vinci: Inventor of the Car?

Apr 23, 12:09 pm ET 

FLORENCE, Italy  - Leonardo da Vinci is revered around the world as a master of Renaissance painting and an ingenious engineer, but few have thought of him as the father of the modern car.

But on Friday, the Museum of History and Science in Florence -- the heart of Renaissance Italy -- unveiled the first "automobile" built based on some of the sketches from da Vinci's famous notebooks.

"This has been a big adventure which has also helped us to develop tools to help people unaware of Leonardo's scholarship understand this complex device," said Paolo Galluzzi, director of the museum.

The primitive-looking contraption runs on springs instead of petrol and was probably intended to produce special effects at courtly events, but it was still the world's first self-propelled "vehicle," the experts said.

The "automobile" -- which in fact looks more like a wagon -- is by no means the first invention discovered in da Vinci's mysterious manuscripts, which include flying machines, helicopters, submarines, military tanks and bicycles.

Born near Florence in 1452, da Vinci is thought of as the original "Renaissance Man" -- a talented painter, sculptor, engineer and musician.

Many of his ideas were recorded in notebooks now housed in museums and enjoying unprecedented popularity due to the best-selling novel the "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown.

In 1905, Girolamo Calvi, one of the pioneers of da Vinci studies, noted the links between da Vinci's designs and the first motor cars which were beginning to take to the roads.

In 1936, Calvi referred to da Vinci's sketches as "Leonardo's Fiat" but it wasn't until very recently that scientists correctly interpreted his design and the models on display in Florence are the first reconstructions.

Three "car" models, copies of da Vinci's sketches and an interactive digital simulation can be seen at the museum (http:/www.imss.fi.it/news/eautomobile.html) until June 5.

Dog Feels Below Par After Eating 28 Golf Balls

Apr 25, 8:50 am ET 

LONDON  - Vets cut open a German Shepherd dog to find she had scoffed no fewer than 28 golf balls.

Eighteen-month old Libby had been coughing blood after weeks of fetching golf balls at the northern England course where owner Mike Wardrop works as a bar manager.

Wardrop told The News Source on Friday he hadn't realized the dog had a secret appetite for the dimpled balls she found at Didsbury Golf Club in Manchester.

"When I take her for a walk every day she is prone to finding golf balls," Wardrop said. "She can fit five in her mouth."

Libby is now recovering from the operation to remove the balls, with 30 stitches across her belly.

"I've had to buy her two footballs," said Wardrop. "She can't swallow them."

http://www.gazette.net/200417/gaithersburg/news/212780-1.html

his message is not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as Unread ] 

Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 16:28:50 -0500 From: "Aerielle Louise" <aergo@earthlink.net> Add to Address Book Subject: Transgenic Meat Scandal 2-26-03

This gave me dry heeves.

Really sickening information.

;-( 

K Mwrote: 

http://mercola.com/2003/feb/26/transgenic_meat.htm

Transgenic Meat Scandal

By Dr. Joe Cummins

E-mail: jcumminsA@uwo.ca 

The inability of the U.S. regulatory agencies to prevent contamination of the food chain with potentially poisonous transgenic plant and animal products has reached scandalous heights. 

Within recent months, we've learned that transgenic pharm crops have contaminated food crops, and a transgenic papaya was approved for commercial production even though it contained a transgenic protein whose amino acid sequence is identical to a known allergen. 

Now, the U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) reports that the University of Illinois has marketed 386 pigs that were the progeny of transgenic animals. The FDA report indicates that the marketed animals had not been adequately tested for the presence of transgenes, and fails to give details of the transgenes in the experimental animals. It states its belief that the incident was an isolated one, and that the transgenic products posed no health risks. 

The FDA report is not entirely forthcoming or truthful; indeed, it reads more like a public relations text on behalf of the corporations than a serious public information document. 

Andrew Pollack reported in the New York Times that some of the transgenic animals had the gene for insulin-like growth factor, but that the FDA still believed such genetic modifications posed no health concerns to those who have consumed meat from the transgenic animals. Pollack also contradicted the FDA's claim that the present case was an "isolated incident." 

In 2001, transgenic animals had been butchered and turned into sausage. 

The FDA's claim that there is no health concern associated with consumption of transgenic animals containing insulin-like growth factor is truly bizarre. Insulin-like growth hormone is a well known cancer promoter, as is documented in an editorial report published in the British Medical Journal in 2000. 

The cancers associated with high insulin-like growth factor include colorectal and breast cancer. The transgenic pork poses a real and immediate danger of cancer promotion for consumers. 

Let's now turn to the famous earlier sale of transgenic pork that was ignored by FDA. In 2001, carcasses from transgenic pigs created at the University of Florida were sold for human consumption rather than being incinerated even though they had, in addition, been treated with barbiturate drugs and chloroform. Some meat was turned into sausage and consumed by a number of people. 

A report from Agence France Presse English The News Source treated the episode with dismissive levity, calling it the "Wurst-case Scenario" and quoted a lady, who ate five pounds of the transgenic sausage, pronouncing that it "tasted real good." 

A more professional Gainsville Sun reported that the pigs had been injected with barbiturates to kill them, before the carcasses were sold to a local butcher who made sausages from the meat. The butcher was quoted as saying that, "we only ate a little bit of it, we threw it out because it did not taste right." But then, the butcher also said he took the remainder of the sausage to the home of a friend whose funeral was in progress, and it was consumed by the friends of the deceased. 

Neither government regulators nor journalists have come to grips with the hazards of transgenic foods. As is clear in the present case, many of the transgene products themselves could be dangerous. 

But a more insidious danger is the exposure of the public to transgenic DNA, which has the potential to cause cancer by jumping into the genomes of cells. The first two cancer victims among the handful of successes of gene therapy, identified within months of each other, ought to serve as a warning. 

As we have repeatedly stressed, the transgenic constructs used in gene therapy are essentially the same as those used in making transgenic plants and animals, and carry the same risks. 

Our government regulators have not been doing their job. But the worst offenders are the scientists in universities who should have known better than to have allowed the transgenic animals and carcasses to be sold as food. 

Institute of Science in Society February 13, 2003 

Dr. Mercola's Comment 

The American public is being subjected to genetically modified foods with no warning or choice in the matter. The consequences of such food are virtually unknown, as this technology has never before existed in the history of the world. 

Already, investigators have found that rats fed genetically modified potatoes had an increased thickening in the lining of their stomach and intestine and a weakening of their immune system; now scientists want to put vaccines into plants without any real knowledge of what effects this unnatural addition will have on human health, or the health of our planet. 

This is SHEER LUNACY. 

What these scientists have failed to fully appreciate is that once these genetically modified plants are growing it is physically impossible to prevent them from pollinating other plants, thereby contaminating them with these new proteins of which we do not know the long-term consequences. 

The absurdity of the entire process is mind-boggling. These scientists are willing to sacrifice the country's food supply by adding vaccines, which do not even work, to plants. If this continues, our grandchildren may not have access to any non-genetically modified food, and the health of our society may continue to rapidly decline. 

One of the keys to health is good food. Although most of us don't choose to do so, we can still purchase real, unaltered food in this country. Sadly, the future does not appear to provide this option. 

Genetically modified foods did not exist prior to 1995, but already 70 percent of processed foods have genetically modified foods in them. 

There have been NO STUDIES done with humans to show what happens when genetically modified foods are consumed. The FDA has ASSUMED that these modified foods are equivalent to the original foods and does not require any studies to have them approved. 

This is especially troubling in light of the United State's federal track record on genetically engineered safety, which is terrible. 

For example, not long ago genetically modified Starlink corn was approved for animal consumption, but NOT human consumption because of a concern that it could cause allergies in humans. However, Starlink corn would up directly in the human food supply, despite FDA precautions. 

This lack of regulation and total irresponsibility in using genetically modified foods is a disaster waiting to happen. 

Related Articles: 

Genetically Modified Foods, Inc. 

GMO Crops Are an Accident Waiting to Happen 

Drug Company Owns Monsanto and Their Weed Killer Is What Funds GMO Crops 

GMO Crops Are An Accident Waiting to Happen

AAC plans to manufacture and refurbish launch vehicles and spaceships

for

the suborbital space tourism industry and launch vehicles for

government,

academic and other commercial launch activities. Approximately 24,000

SF

of enclosed space Within three years we intend to manufacture our

orbital

launch vehicles and spaceships.

The suborbital spaceship will carry a tour guide "pilot" and six

passengers on its fully automated 3.4 g flight to Mach 4. After

separating from the launch vehicle, it will coast into blackness of

space

at 0 g before returning to the launch site under a parasail. According

to independent market surveys, many will pay $100,000 to $150,000 for

this extreme adventure. At our minimum flight rate of two per week,

AAC

will earn $7,200,000/month of which about $6,000,000 is profit after

the

$5,500,000 initial investment is paid. We expect to eventually fly

twice

a day to meet demand as the high-end market is exhausted and we

gradually

lower the price to make the experience available to more people. With

repeat customers as "pilots" at this flight rate as much as

$39,200,000/month will flow into AAC.

At the spaceport, AAC will test, condition and train AAC customers for

seven days to be astronauts. During that period their families will

buy

necessities and souvenirs in local stores, eat in local restaurants,

and

entertain themselves at theaters and other tourist attractions. Many

tourists will be drawn to the area just to watch launches and landings,

further adding to the retail sales associated with the presence of AAC.

If a five star hotel is not nearby, AAC will acquire high-end

prefabricated homes for its customers as well as those of its employees

who want to live near work.

The first private company to send the equivalent of three people to an

altitude of 62.5 miles, return them safely to earth, and repeat the

feat

two weeks later with the same vehicle will win the $10,000,000 X Prize.

That money will largely be spent in the jurisdiction of the "American

Space Port." Furthermore, the first company to provide reliable

suborbital flights will get the lion's share of what is independently

estimated to be a multi-billion dollar market. AAC is also concerned

that the airplane buffs and rocket amateurs competing for the X Prize

will injure the industry by injuring someone if AAC is not the first to

send consumers into space on a reliable reusable launch vehicle like

that

designed by Bill Sprague, a thirty-year veteran of the launch vehicle

industry. Hence the urgency to move our equipment into manufacturing

facilities near an airport with a controlled airspace for convenient

customer access by jet from commercial hubs and helicopter to tourist

attractions, and where AAC can safely transport its vehicles on

trailers

to a nearby launch and landing site before 2005.

The 140-page Business Plan, 11-page Executive Summary, two independent

market studies, vehicle design and additional supporting documentation

are available pending a non-disclosure agreement.

Suborbital Facility Requirements:

2000 SF Office, presentation area and restrooms 1000 SF Research and development area 3000 SF Subtotal

400 SF Shipping/Receiving 800 SF Inventory and restrooms 200 SF Medical 200 SF Electronics assembly and test 2500 SF Metal fabrication area 1200 SF Assembly area (gantry crane and clear of columns) 300 SF Launch and Recovery equipment area 4000 SF Refurbishment area (gantry crane and clear of columns) 200 SF Pyrotechnics refurbishment area (isolated from other

buildings) 98000 SF Subtotal

10000 SF Centrifuge and Training area (clear of columns) 1000 SF Test and Conditioning area and restrooms 11000 SF Subtotal

112000 SF Total

Launch and Landing area:

3000 SF Three launch pads, one test stand, two 100' x 30' landing

pads

and subsurface/berm Flight Control, LOX, RP-1 and Helium and

Nitrogen trailer parking areas.

Customer Housing:

14 High-end hotel rooms or prefabricated homes

Employee Housing: 30 Homes or prefabricated homes

Orbital Facility Requirements: 40000 SF Fabrication and assembly

Bill Holmes Chief Operations Officer and VP of Operations 350 Rio Plata Drive Oceanside, California 92057 760-476-9418 voice and FAX 760-917-2498 mobile 7609172498@tmomail.net email to cell Bill.Holmes@AmericanAstronautics.com

Entertainment Celebrity/Gossip
Briton Bets All on Vegas Roulette Spin -- and Wins
Sun Apr 11, 6:07 PM ET

By Wendy Urquhart 

LAS VEGAS  - A British man who sold all his possessions, including his clothes, stood in a rented tuxedo on Sunday surrounded by family and friends and bet everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel. 

He won't go home empty handed. 

Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, sold all his possessions in March, took $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, did some low stakes gambling and then placed everything he had left on "Red." 

The wheel was spun, a crowd of supporters including his Mum and Dad from London went wild, the ball bobbled over the slots and landed on Red '7' -- and Revell walked away with $270,600. 

"It all happened so quickly, it was spinning before I knew it," Revell said, adding he did not intend to try to double it again. He gave a $600 tip to the croupier and plans to party -- and buy some clothes. 

"It's really down to my friends and family and Mum and Dad," he told The News Source Television. "I knew even if I lost I'd always have a home to go to." 

"I'm still against it," said his Dad. "He shouldn't have done it. He's a naughty boy. I tell my kids they shouldn't gamble. I've got four others and they're all going to want to go the same way." 

"It's just brilliant," said Ashley Hames, a friend from London in Las Vegas for the occasion. "He's put his neck on the line and got away with it. It's absolutely great." 

"It bobbled for a second and I just thought, 'Oh no, it's not going to do it,"' said another friend, James Frederick. "But it did and I'm made up for him. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy." 

Asked if he wanted to try his luck again, Revell said: "No that's it for me. I think he'd like me to do it again, but no that's it," gesturing to a casino host. "I don't want to ride my luck," he said as the champagne began to flow. 

This week, the gambling spirits had seemed against him. He put in a week gambling about $3,000 in a bid to raise his pot. 

By Wednesday, he was down $1,000. 

Revell, recently a professional gambler, said he decided to take a big plunge while he was still young and had raised the stakes as high as possible, including selling his clothes. 

"I like to do things properly," he said. 

Revell said he had planned to have a friend videotape his bet-it-all spin, but Britain's Sky One television decided it was worth a short reality series, called "Double or Nothing." 

Sky will not pay him, he says, but a crew from Dai4 Films has followed his preparations and covered the spin at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It also plans to follow him for a month afterward.

Entertainment Celebrity/Gossip
Briton Bets All on Vegas Roulette Spin -- and Wins
Sun Apr 11, 6:07 PM ET

By Wendy Urquhart 

LAS VEGAS  - A British man who sold all his possessions, including his clothes, stood in a rented tuxedo on Sunday surrounded by family and friends and bet everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel. 

He won't go home empty handed. 

Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, sold all his possessions in March, took $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, did some low stakes gambling and then placed everything he had left on "Red." 

The wheel was spun, a crowd of supporters including his Mum and Dad from London went wild, the ball bobbled over the slots and landed on Red '7' -- and Revell walked away with $270,600. 

"It all happened so quickly, it was spinning before I knew it," Revell said, adding he did not intend to try to double it again. He gave a $600 tip to the croupier and plans to party -- and buy some clothes. 

"It's really down to my friends and family and Mum and Dad," he told The News Source Television. "I knew even if I lost I'd always have a home to go to." 

"I'm still against it," said his Dad. "He shouldn't have done it. He's a naughty boy. I tell my kids they shouldn't gamble. I've got four others and they're all going to want to go the same way." 

"It's just brilliant," said Ashley Hames, a friend from London in Las Vegas for the occasion. "He's put his neck on the line and got away with it. It's absolutely great." 

"It bobbled for a second and I just thought, 'Oh no, it's not going to do it,"' said another friend, James Frederick. "But it did and I'm made up for him. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy." 

Asked if he wanted to try his luck again, Revell said: "No that's it for me. I think he'd like me to do it again, but no that's it," gesturing to a casino host. "I don't want to ride my luck," he said as the champagne began to flow. 

This week, the gambling spirits had seemed against him. He put in a week gambling about $3,000 in a bid to raise his pot. 

By Wednesday, he was down $1,000. 

Revell, recently a professional gambler, said he decided to take a big plunge while he was still young and had raised the stakes as high as possible, including selling his clothes. 

"I like to do things properly," he said. 

Revell said he had planned to have a friend videotape his bet-it-all spin, but Britain's Sky One television decided it was worth a short reality series, called "Double or Nothing." 

Sky will not pay him, he says, but a crew from Dai4 Films has followed his preparations and covered the spin at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It also plans to follow him for a month afterward.

Hallucinogen May Cure Drug Addiction...

http://www.kron.com/global/story.asp?s=1652207&ClientType=Printable

BAY AREA (KRON) -- Drug addiction has been the plague of modern America. But that could now change forever. What started as a rumor may now actually be an incredible breakthrough in the battle against addictions of all kinds. 

Ibogaine has a number of strikes against it: 

It doesn't come from a modern laboratory, but from an ancient plant. 

It was discovered not by a scientist, but by a heroin addict. 

It is mildly hallucinogenic and completely illegal in the United States. 

However, when it comes to curing addiction, a reputable scientist believes ibogaine is nothing short of a miracle. "I didn't believe it when I first heard about ibogaine. I thought it was something that needed to be debunked," admits Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of Neurology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami. 

Dr. Mash is one of the few scientists in the world to study ibogaine, a mild hallucinogen that comes from the root of a shrub found in West Africa and was rumored to have the amazing ability to help drug addicts kick their addiction. 

"This didn't come from the Salk Institute, this didn't come from the Scripps Institute. This came from a junkie who took a dose to get high himself. So the original observation came from the underground," says Dr. Mash. 

Observations from this particular underground are not likely to gain the respect of mainstream society, and ibogaine was no exception. 

That first report came in 1962. But decades would pass with little scientific investigation. There were decades during which the cost of addiction in terms of medical care, lost productivity, crime and incarceration rose to $160 billion a year. 

The human toll was impossible to calculate. 

Patrick Kroupa was a heroin addict for 16 of his 35 years. "It was a very high level of desperation. I had been pretty successful in my life, I had accomplished a lot of things I wanted to do, and then repeatedly I just watched everything burst into flames and disintegrate because I could not stay off heroin," confesses Patrick. "It gets very tiring living like a slave because you keep chasing this and it's like you're not getting high, it's just 'I must do this every single day just to get normal so I can function.'" 

Like most addicts, Patrick tried to quit. But treatment for addiction is notoriously ineffective. Only one in ten addicts manages to return to a drug-free life. Most stay dependent on illegal drugs or their legal substitutes, like methadone. 

"And I was a spectacular failure at every possible treatment modality, every paradigm, every detox, every therapy, nothing ever worked," admits Patrick. 

Even as Patrick Kroupa despaired of ever kicking heroin, Dr. Mash was petitioning the Federal Food and Drug Administration to allow a scientific test of ibogaine, which by this time had been classified as a "schedule one" drug on a par with heroin. In 1993, the FDA approval came through. 

"We were established, we had a team of research scientists, doctors, clinicians, psychiatrists, toxicologists and we wanted to go forward with this," describes Dr. Mash.

But even with FDA approval, Dr. Mash could not get funding to look into what was, after all, a counter-culture drug. In order to complete her project, she had to leave South Florida and go offshore, to the island of St. Kitts. 

In 1998, clinical trials finally got underway. Patients were given carefully prepared oral doses of ibogaine. What happened next astounded the sceptical scientist. 

"Our first round in St. Kitts, we treated six individuals, and I will go to my grave with the memory of that first round," says Dr. Mash. 

It quickly became apparent that one dose of ibogaine blocked the withdrawal symptoms of even hard-core addicts and was amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol. 

There are two reasons why: The first, science can measure. The second remains a mystery. 

Dr. Mash admits, "I was really scared. I questioned my own sanity on numerous occasions." 

"I don't like the word 'hallucinogen,' but indeed, ibogaine alters mental state. And what it seems to do is it puts people into a four to six hour state of almost an active dream, it's like a lucid dream." she describes. 

But as Dr. Mash was about to discover, during that dream state, something extraordinary happens. "We knew ibogaine was effective for blocking opiate withdrawal, we saw it diminish the desire to use alcohol. And we saw the cravings for cocaine blocked. I was hooked," she says. 

Patrick admits, "It's literally like a miracle. Nothing has ever worked and this just did." He was one of the 280 people in Dr. Mash's trial of ibogaine. 

"Patrick was one of the worst opiate addicts, worst heroin addicts that I have ever enountered in my life," says Dr. Mash. His arms still bear the scars of years of heroin addiction, and he knows only too well what happened when the flow of drugs into those arms was interrupted. "When you're going through withdrawal, you're sweating, you're shaking, you're freezing, you're hot, it feels like your spine is being smashed in a vise, it's pain," describes Patrick. 

Within 45 minutes of taking ibogaine, he actually felt his addiction leaving him. "That moment is the first time in about 10 years that I had actually been clean. Not just detoxed, but clean. That was it. That was the first time. That was like a miracle," says Patrick 

That was four years ago. Patrick Kroupa has not touched drugs since. "I'm saying this having been on heroin for my entire adult life. I mean, 14 to 30 is a long time," he says. 

On one level, Dr. Mash understands some of what happens. Ibogaine in the body is metabolized into another compound called 'noribogaine.' Noribogaine appears to reset chemical switches in the brain of an addict. 

"The noribogaine resets that, so it resets the opiates, blocks the opiate withdrawal, diminishes craving and the desire to use, and it elevates mood," say Dr. Mash. 

But of the "visions" that people see, Dr. Mash understands very little -- only that they are somehow significant to the outcome. "It's as if the plant is teaching you something fundamental about who you are as a person and why you've got yourself locked into this intractible pattern of behavior," she says. 

Ibogaine will not work for everyone. And even for those for whom it does work, it is not a "magic bullet." "You need treatment, you need social workers, you need case management, you need medication, psychiatry, you need the whole boat of professionalism around this," says Dr. Mash. 

But for Patrick Kroupa and many of the other addicts in the trials, ibogaine was a miracle. "It's like if you suffer from terminal cancer and somebody goes by and says, 'Oh, yeah, we cured that. We passed this thing over you and it's gone,'" he says. 

Even the reserved scientist believes this ancient drug from Africa holds astounding promise for the modern world. "I think we're going to see fantastic numbers. I think these numbers are going to be stunning," says Dr. Mash. 

Dr. Mash will present her findings to the Food and Drug Administration next month. She hopes the FDA will eventually authorize further testing, based on her results. In the meantime, ibogaine remains illegal in the United States. 

Ibogaine is advertised on the internet, but there is no guarantee of the quality unless it's given under medical supervision. And for now, that can only be done overseas. 

For ibogaine detox information, contact Healing Transitions at 1-888-426-4286 or www.Ibogaine.net 

(Copyright 2004, KRON 4. All rights reserved.)

Hallucinogen May Cure Drug Addiction...

http://www.kron.com/global/story.asp?s=1652207&ClientType=Printable

BAY AREA (KRON) -- Drug addiction has been the plague of modern America. But that could now change forever. What started as a rumor may now actually be an incredible breakthrough in the battle against addictions of all kinds. 

Ibogaine has a number of strikes against it: 

It doesn't come from a modern laboratory, but from an ancient plant. 

It was discovered not by a scientist, but by a heroin addict. 

It is mildly hallucinogenic and completely illegal in the United States. 

However, when it comes to curing addiction, a reputable scientist believes ibogaine is nothing short of a miracle. "I didn't believe it when I first heard about ibogaine. I thought it was something that needed to be debunked," admits Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of Neurology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami. 

Dr. Mash is one of the few scientists in the world to study ibogaine, a mild hallucinogen that comes from the root of a shrub found in West Africa and was rumored to have the amazing ability to help drug addicts kick their addiction. 

"This didn't come from the Salk Institute, this didn't come from the Scripps Institute. This came from a junkie who took a dose to get high himself. So the original observation came from the underground," says Dr. Mash. 

Observations from this particular underground are not likely to gain the respect of mainstream society, and ibogaine was no exception. 

That first report came in 1962. But decades would pass with little scientific investigation. There were decades during which the cost of addiction in terms of medical care, lost productivity, crime and incarceration rose to $160 billion a year. 

The human toll was impossible to calculate. 

Patrick Kroupa was a heroin addict for 16 of his 35 years. "It was a very high level of desperation. I had been pretty successful in my life, I had accomplished a lot of things I wanted to do, and then repeatedly I just watched everything burst into flames and disintegrate because I could not stay off heroin," confesses Patrick. "It gets very tiring living like a slave because you keep chasing this and it's like you're not getting high, it's just 'I must do this every single day just to get normal so I can function.'" 

Like most addicts, Patrick tried to quit. But treatment for addiction is notoriously ineffective. Only one in ten addicts manages to return to a drug-free life. Most stay dependent on illegal drugs or their legal substitutes, like methadone. 

"And I was a spectacular failure at every possible treatment modality, every paradigm, every detox, every therapy, nothing ever worked," admits Patrick. 

Even as Patrick Kroupa despaired of ever kicking heroin, Dr. Mash was petitioning the Federal Food and Drug Administration to allow a scientific test of ibogaine, which by this time had been classified as a "schedule one" drug on a par with heroin. In 1993, the FDA approval came through. 

"We were established, we had a team of research scientists, doctors, clinicians, psychiatrists, toxicologists and we wanted to go forward with this," describes Dr. Mash.

But even with FDA approval, Dr. Mash could not get funding to look into what was, after all, a counter-culture drug. In order to complete her project, she had to leave South Florida and go offshore, to the island of St. Kitts. 

In 1998, clinical trials finally got underway. Patients were given carefully prepared oral doses of ibogaine. What happened next astounded the sceptical scientist. 

"Our first round in St. Kitts, we treated six individuals, and I will go to my grave with the memory of that first round," says Dr. Mash. 

It quickly became apparent that one dose of ibogaine blocked the withdrawal symptoms of even hard-core addicts and was amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol. 

There are two reasons why: The first, science can measure. The second remains a mystery. 

Dr. Mash admits, "I was really scared. I questioned my own sanity on numerous occasions." 

"I don't like the word 'hallucinogen,' but indeed, ibogaine alters mental state. And what it seems to do is it puts people into a four to six hour state of almost an active dream, it's like a lucid dream." she describes. 

But as Dr. Mash was about to discover, during that dream state, something extraordinary happens. "We knew ibogaine was effective for blocking opiate withdrawal, we saw it diminish the desire to use alcohol. And we saw the cravings for cocaine blocked. I was hooked," she says. 

Patrick admits, "It's literally like a miracle. Nothing has ever worked and this just did." He was one of the 280 people in Dr. Mash's trial of ibogaine. 

"Patrick was one of the worst opiate addicts, worst heroin addicts that I have ever enountered in my life," says Dr. Mash. His arms still bear the scars of years of heroin addiction, and he knows only too well what happened when the flow of drugs into those arms was interrupted. "When you're going through withdrawal, you're sweating, you're shaking, you're freezing, you're hot, it feels like your spine is being smashed in a vise, it's pain," describes Patrick. 

Within 45 minutes of taking ibogaine, he actually felt his addiction leaving him. "That moment is the first time in about 10 years that I had actually been clean. Not just detoxed, but clean. That was it. That was the first time. That was like a miracle," says Patrick 

That was four years ago. Patrick Kroupa has not touched drugs since. "I'm saying this having been on heroin for my entire adult life. I mean, 14 to 30 is a long time," he says. 

On one level, Dr. Mash understands some of what happens. Ibogaine in the body is metabolized into another compound called 'noribogaine.' Noribogaine appears to reset chemical switches in the brain of an addict. 

"The noribogaine resets that, so it resets the opiates, blocks the opiate withdrawal, diminishes craving and the desire to use, and it elevates mood," say Dr. Mash. 

But of the "visions" that people see, Dr. Mash understands very little -- only that they are somehow significant to the outcome. "It's as if the plant is teaching you something fundamental about who you are as a person and why you've got yourself locked into this intractible pattern of behavior," she says. 

Ibogaine will not work for everyone. And even for those for whom it does work, it is not a "magic bullet." "You need treatment, you need social workers, you need case management, you need medication, psychiatry, you need the whole boat of professionalism around this," says Dr. Mash. 

But for Patrick Kroupa and many of the other addicts in the trials, ibogaine was a miracle. "It's like if you suffer from terminal cancer and somebody goes by and says, 'Oh, yeah, we cured that. We passed this thing over you and it's gone,'" he says. 

Even the reserved scientist believes this ancient drug from Africa holds astounding promise for the modern world. "I think we're going to see fantastic numbers. I think these numbers are going to be stunning," says Dr. Mash. 

Dr. Mash will present her findings to the Food and Drug Administration next month. She hopes the FDA will eventually authorize further testing, based on her results. In the meantime, ibogaine remains illegal in the United States. 

Ibogaine is advertised on the internet, but there is no guarantee of the quality unless it's given under medical supervision. And for now, that can only be done overseas. 

For ibogaine detox information, contact Healing Transitions at 1-888-426-4286 or www.Ibogaine.net 

(Copyright 2004, KRON 4. All rights reserved.)

Disney to Reshuffle Management at ABC

Sun Apr 11, 1:43 PM ET

By GARY GENTILE, News Source Business Writer 

LOS ANGELES - The Walt Disney Co. is planning a management shake-up at its fourth-place ABC network to stem a ratings slide and placate dissatisfied investors. The moves include the departure of Lloyd Braun, who has served as chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group since 2002, according to company sources familiar with the matter. 

Meanwhile, Anne Sweeney, a rising star credited with expanding the reach of Disney's non-sports cable networks, will likely be given a more prominent role at the struggling network, sources said. 

The changes are seen as an effort to buy more time for a Disney recovery while fending off critics of the media conglomerate, including large pension funds and dissident ex-board members. 

"The resident management will take the blame," said Harold Vogel, CEO of Vogel Capital Management in New York. "They are going to do something just to show there is some momentum to the shareholders." 

Analysts point out that broadcast television is a notoriously cyclical business, with turnarounds often taking years and hinging on shows becoming mega-hits like NBC's "The Apprentice" or Fox's "American Idol." 

As a result, analysts view the ABC shake-up as more symbolic than effective - at least in the short term. Pilots for the fall season are already in production and the networks will present their lineups to advertisers in a few months. 

"Everybody understands if you put a new management into a network you're not going to see results overnight, and if you do it's just luck," said Tom Wolzien, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.. 

In the week ended April 4, ABC had an average of 7.4 million viewers a night, compared to 13.2 million for ratings leader CBS, according to Nielsen Media Research. 

Though ABC has developed sitcoms like "According to Jim" that partly stemmed its ratings slide on some nights, it needs to find a hit reality show or a compelling drama to hook viewers, analysts said. 

The network could benefit if the shake-up reduces the number of hoops programmers must jump through to get a show on the air. 

"From a Wall Street perspective, it's tough to know who runs what," said David Miller, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris. "As it stands right now, there's too much bureaucracy, and you can't make creative decisions in a bureaucracy." 

Poor ratings also hinder recoveries because producers tend to take their best shows to more successful networks. 

"When you're at the bottom of the heap, you're not the first stop for the good stuff," Wolzien said. "The first stop will be CBS and NBC." 

The executive changes, which are still being discussed, include a new role for Alex Wallau, who has been president of ABC since 2000 overseeing news, sports, daytime and children's programming as well as the prime-time schedule. His revised duties have yet to be determined. 

Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment, is expected to remain and be given more authority over the prime-time schedule. 

Braun previously served as co-chairman of Disney's television division with Stu Bloomberg, who was fired when ABC slipped to third place among the networks after the collapse of its once-hot quiz show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." 

Disney is expected to elevate Sweeney, chief of ABC Cable Networks, to a more prominent role, possibly taking on some of the responsibilities held by Braun and Wallau. 

She joined Disney in 1996. As president of Disney Channels Worldwide, she presided over the expansion of the Disney cable channel from 14 million homes to more than 80 million homes as cable companies moved the channel from a pay service to the basic cable tier. 

She also oversaw the launch of Disney channels in other countries, as well as the creation of cable channels Toon Disney and SoapNet domestically. 

Several months ago, Sweeney was given the task of turning around the ailing ABC Family channel, which Disney acquired as part of its $5.2 billion purchase of Fox Family Worldwide in 2001. 

ABC is only part of Disney's larger media networks division, which includes the profitable Disney Channel and ESPN sports network. Analysts said improvement in Disney's theme park and animated film operations are more important for an overall corporate recovery. 

"I'm sure Disney management would like to see improvement in any area sooner rather than later," said Janna Sampson, co-manager of the AmSouth Select Equity Fund and director of Portfolio Management at Oakbrook Investments. 

"But as I rank the problems, my concerns over ABC are bottom of the barrel." 

Still, ABC has become a growing source of embarrassment and frustration at Disney, especially after cable giant Comcast Corp. made an unsolicited $54 billion bid for the company in February and singled out the network for improvement. Disney's board has rejected the bid as too low. 

Analysts said doing something - anything - will likely please Disney investors. 

"They have to show they are doing something about it and the only clear way to do that is move people around or get rid of people," said Paul Kim, an analyst at Tradition Asiel Securities. "It's probably a very smart thing to do." 

Voodoo Practitioners Gather in Haiti 
2 hours, 56 minutes ago

By PAISLEY DODDS, News Source Writer 

SOUVENANCE, Haiti - Haitians celebrated one of the year's most important Voodoo pilgrimages on Sunday, an event marked by drumming, sacrifices - discussion of whether Haiti's new government can heal a country still reeling from a bloody rebellion. 

Carrying a heavy political significance this year, the pilgrimage drew hundreds to Souvenance, a village 90 miles north of Port-au-Prince, where followers made animal sacrifices to the West African warrior spirit Ogoun and danced to dizzying drum beats. 

Founded by former slaves from the kingdom of Dahomey - now Benin - this dusty village fringed by cactus trees hosts the ceremony each year during the Rara carnival, when bands of costumed drummers and dancers roam the countryside. 

Wrapped in white satin scarves, initiates chant and dance throughout the night to beckon spirits as onlookers gather. Rum, cane liquor and herbs are offered to appease a pantheon of spirits. 

On Sunday, the faithful sacrificed goats and held them overhead, the goats' blood dripping onto their heads and staining their white clothes. 

Voodoo is one of Haiti's three constitutionally recognized religions, along with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the government sanctioned Voodoo marriages, baptisms and other rites. Two-thirds of Haiti's 8 million people are said to practice Voodoo, which worships one creator and many spirits, or loas. 

"Voodoo is all about unity," said George Fernand, 63, a Voodoo houngan, or priest. "We're hoping the new government will help bring us unity." 

Some of the rebels who staged the revolt that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29 held Voodoo ceremonies at the launch of their insurgency. 

An offering to the Voodoo god of war burned in Gonaives, the site of Haiti's declaration of independence from France 200 years ago and where the latest revolt began. 

On Saturday night, initiates gyrated in front of Wilfred Ferdinand, a rebel leader known as "Little Wil," and a houngan gave him a special blessing. 

"Voodoo allowed us to accomplish a lot," said Ferdinand, guzzling beers as he watched the trancelike dancing in the dirt-floor Voodoo temple. "I've come to pay my respects and see it all happen." 

Government representatives were also expected in Souvenance, but none had arrived by early Sunday. 

The rebels have close ties to Haiti's impoverished masses, while the nation's new U.S.-backed interim government is composed of technocrats, many of whom spent years abroad. 

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue says the government will hold elections in 2005. 

At least 300 people were killed in the rebellion. Some parts of the country are still without police and international peacekeepers. 

"The country needs security and it needs leaders who can help stop the hunger that so many of us have," said Roget Biename, 54, a resident of Souvenance, which like most villages in Haiti is plagued with malnutrition and lack of clean water. "If the government wants to earn our trust they will have to work on all these things." 

Voodoo rituals date back more than 400 years and have roots among the Yoruba tribe of Togo, Benin and parts of Nigeria. 

The religion was banned by French colonial authorities, forcing slaves to hide their faith by adopting Catholic saints to correspond to African deities. 

Several presidents also outlawed Voodoo, but it surged under dictator Francois Duvalier, or Papa Doc, who with his top hat and glasses resembled Baron Samedi, the Voodoo guardian of the dead. 

Because of deepening poverty, Voodoo - which often requires pricey offerings of alcohol and food to the spirits - has lost some followers. But most practice the religion. 

"It's our culture," said Rodney Jean-Louis, 43, a Haitian-American who came from Queens, New York, to participate in the ceremony. "Whether I'm in New York or anywhere else, the drums are going to beat in my blood."

Not Your Parents' Mobile Home
Sun Apr 11, 7:55 AM ET

By Amanda Covarrubias Times Staff Writer 

Shopping for a home in pricey Westlake Village, Stacy and John Fernandez quickly realized their $360,000 budget would get them only so far. Still, they never expected to end up in a trailer park. 

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But they are thrilled with the three-bedroom, two-bath double-wide they bought last December in Oak Forest, a leafy mobile home park nestled at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains. 

With its covered front porch, spacious family room and two-car garage, the 1,800-square-foot mobile home offers plenty of "house" for the money and - best of all - the Fernandezes own the land their home sits on. 

"We're surrounded by $1-million homes, so this is a deal," said Stacy Fernandez, a probation officer who couldn't afford anything else in the high-end community. "We were told by our Realtor yesterday that ... our house has gone up $30,000 in value. 

With a creek running through it and oak trees arching in high tunnels over streets named Sherwood Drive, Little John Way and Friar's Lane, Oak Forest is a nature lover's dream. Residents proudly note that Errol Flynn wore tights, a sword and feathered cap to shoot scenes under the oaks for the 1938 movie classic "The Adventures of Robin Hood." 

Renee Michelle Alexander bought her 1970s-era trailer there in January for $400,000. New models often feature granite countertops and hardwood floors; hers has leaky toilets, old plumbing and a dark interior. But Alexander, a first-time homeowner who relocated from Pasadena to be closer to family, figures she got a deal anyway. 

"Where else can you get all this space?" the artist and massage therapist said as she opened doors and closets to reveal a collection of vintage clothing, antique jewelry and garage sale curios. "Not in a condo." 

Alexander and the Fernandez family are part of a small but growing segment of people who see mobile homes as a way to achieve a piece of the American dream in hyper-expensive coastal California. 

Traditionally, living in a mobile home has meant renting space for it. In exclusive beachfront parks such as Paradise Cove in Malibu, used mobile homes sell for as much as $650,000. But those price tags cover only the coach and the right to lease the space. An owner still has to pay rent, which can be as much as $2,000 a month. 

In recent years, mobile home dwellers have begun forming cooperatives to buy their communities (Oak Forest residents own their plots outright). About 200 of the state's 4,800 mobile home parks are resident-owned, according to Sheila Dey, executive director of the Western Manufactured Housing Assn. in Sacramento. 

Typically, resident owners pay monthly fees of $150 to $250 to maintain the premises, which can include security gates, swimming pools, recreation rooms and lush landscaping. 

"A lot of times when you buy these places, the roads are deteriorated, the water and sewage is old, the clubhouse is old and so are the amenities in it," said Jerry Bowles, vice president of the Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League. 

"It'll have a dishwasher that hasn't worked in 10 years, an icebox that can't keep ice cream cold," Bowles added. "But you see the attitude change when residents take over. There's a lot of pride of ownership." 

In Santa Cruz County, one of the most expensive areas in the state to buy a house, with the median price hovering at $560,000, city governments are increasingly supporting conversions because other affordable housing is in such short supply. 

Capitola, a coastal city there, has earmarked $400,000 in redevelopment funds to help residents of 90-unit Wharf Road Manor buy their park. In exchange for the financial assistance, residents agree that when they sell their homes they will do so at prices that "moderate income" families can afford, said community development director Kathleen Molloy. 

"A lot of cities have identified mobile home parks as a source of relatively affordable housing," Molloy said. "We're trying to maintain the diversity of income and housing stock in the city." 

Robert and Dolores Glissman bought their mobile home in Santa Cruz County's Scotts Valley late last year for $360,000 after a decade in a tiny beach rental. Their new place is a relative Taj Mahal, with cathedral ceilings, skylights and ample storage. 

"I never thought I'd live in a mobile home," said retiree Robert Glissman, who added that the couple had moved to Spring Lake park after tiring of the rowdy college scene in Santa Cruz. "My mother lived in one.... They were very tinny and poorly insulated. You would cook in the summer and freeze in the winter. But this is built as well as a site-built home." 

His future neighbor, Sandi Crouser, sorted her belongings on a recent morning as she prepared to downsize from a four-bedroom house on an acre in Felton to a two-bedroom mobile home in Spring Lake. With her children grown and her husband, Bill, in a nursing home, Crouser said, the family house was too big. Her coach, across the street from one of several lakes studding the grounds, cost a bit more than $400,000. 

Crouser is having the old trailer, which was in disrepair, removed and replaced with a new structure. 

"My kids said, 'Mom, you know you don't have to have a little tin box. You can have it taken away and have a nice, modular home put in.' What I ended up with is very nice.... It's hard to find a place with a view." 

Back in Westlake Village's Oak Forest, a white Bentley in the driveway of a creekside dwelling says it all: Mobile homes have gone upscale. 

Take the three-bedroom number recently purchased for $409,000 by professional dog-walker Kris Barnes and her husband, Stuart Steinberg, a teacher. With picture windows in the spacious living room, a kitchen equipped with full-size appliances and a small yard in the rear that borders green hillsides, their abode is a far cry from the dark, cramped trailers of days past. 

About the only difference inside is a feeling of elevation; mobile homes and other kinds of manufactured housing often rest above ground level on jacks or risers. 
"We really wanted to live in Westlake Village," Barnes said. "But everything we looked at cost $800,000 or more." 

Then their real estate agent took them to Oak Forest. 

"I don't see the difference between this and a regular house," Barnes said while sitting on an overstuffed sofa in their all-white living room. 

"The only thing smaller is the storage. We had our closets redone to utilize as much space as possible. But I love this house."

Children on Easter Egg Hunt Find Guns 
Sat Apr 10,11:24 PM ET 
Add Strange News - 

FLINT, Mich. - A group of children hunting for Easter eggs Saturday during a church event found two loaded handguns outside an elementary school. 

Flint police said officers were called to the scene and also recovered a BB gun and a broken toy gun on the grounds of Gundry Elementary School. No one was injured, Sgt. Michael Coote said. 

One of the guns discharged when it was dropped, according to a police report, but it was unclear who dropped it. 

The pastor of Ruth Street Baptist Church told WJRT-TV that one of the handguns had a bullet in the chamber, and the other handgun's clip had bullets in it. 

"It's terrible that something like this has happened," Pastor Namon Marshall told the station. 

Coote said he did not know how long the guns had been in the park. 

Police opened an investigation after confiscating the weapons.

Pre-9/11 Memo Shows al-Qaida's Intent

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

Add White House - 

By SCOTT LINDLAW, News Source Writer 

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush (news - web sites) was told more than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks that al-Qaida had reached America's shores, had a support system in place for its operatives and that the FBI (news - web sites) had detected suspicious activity that might involve a hijacking plot. 

Since 1998, the FBI had observed "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks," according to a memo prepared for Bush and declassified Saturday. 

White House aides and outside experts said they could not recall a sitting president ever publicly releasing the highly sensitive document, known as a PDB, for presidential daily briefing. 

The Aug. 6, 2001 PDB referred to evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists. 

The document also said the CIA (news - web sites) and FBI were investigating a call to the U.S. embassy in the United Arab Emirates in May 2001 "saying that a group of (Osama) bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives." 

The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania, asked the White House to declassify the document at its meeting Thursday. It is significant because Bush read it, so it offers a window on what Bush and his top aides knew about the threat of a terrorist strike. 

The PDB made plain that bin Laden had been scheming to strike the United States for at least six years. It warned of indications from a broad array of sources, spanning several years. 

Democratic and Republican members of the 9-11 commission saw the document differently. 

Democratic commissioner Bob Kerrey, a former senator from Nebraska, said the memo's details should have given Bush enough warning to push for more intelligence information about possible domestic hijackings. 

"The whole argument the government used that we were focusing overseas, that we thought the attack was coming from outside the United States - this memo said an attack could come in the United States. And we didn't scramble our agencies to that," he said. 

Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic commissioner and former Watergate prosecutor, said the memo calls into question national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites)'s assertion Thursday that the memo was purely a "historical" document. 

"This is a provocative piece of information and warrants further exploration as to what was done following the receipt of this information to enhance our domestic security," he said. 

Senior administration officials said Bush saw more than 40 mentions of al-Qaida in his daily intelligence updates during the first eight months of his presidency. The CIA prepared the document "in response to questions asked by the president about the possibility of attacks by al-Qaida inside the U.S," one said. 

But the senior officials refused to say what Bush's response to the memo was. 

Republican commissioner James R. Thompson, a former Illinois governor, said the memo "didn't call for anything to be done" by Bush. 

The memo's details confirm that the Bush administration had no specific information regarding an imminent attack involving airplanes as missiles, Thompson said. 

"The PDB backs up what Dr. Rice testified to. There is no smoking gun, not even a cold gun," he said. 

"Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S.," the memo to Bush stated. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America." 

After President Clinton (news - web sites) launched missile strikes on bin Laden's base in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in 1998 in retaliation for bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people, "bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington," the memo said. 

The memo cited intelligence from other countries in three instances, but the White House blacked out the names of the nations. 

Efforts to launch an attack from Canada around the time of millennium celebrations in 2000 "may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S.," the document stated. 

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam, who was caught trying to cross the Canadian border with explosives about 60 miles north of Seattle in late 1999, told the FBI that he alone conceived an attack on Los Angeles International Airport, but that bin Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah "encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation," the document said. Ressam is still awaiting sentencing after agreeing to testify in other terrorism cases. 

Zubaydah was a senior al-Qaida planner who was captured in Pakistan in March 2002. 

Al-Qaida members, some of them American citizens, had lived in or traveled to the United States for years, the memo said. 

"The group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks," it warned. 

The document said that "some of the more sensational threat reporting" - such as an intelligence tip in 1998 that bin Laden wanted to hijack aircraft to win the release of fellow extremists - could not be corroborated. 

One item in the memo referred to "recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said that was a reference to two Yemeni men the FBI interviewed and concluded were simply tourists taking photographs. 

On May 15, 2001, a caller to the U.S. embassy in the United Arab Emirates warned of planned bin Laden attacks with explosives in the United States, but did not say where or when. 

The CIA reported the incident to other government officials the next day, and a dozen or more steps were taken by the CIA and other agencies "to run down" the information from the phone call, senior administration officials said Saturday evening. 

One official said references to al-Qaida in prior presidential briefings "would indicate 'they are here, they are there' in various countries and the CIA director would tell the president what was being done to address "these different operations." 

___ 

News Source Writer Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report.

Six killed in Peru landslide
1 hour, 39 minutes ago 
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LIMA (NEWS SOURCE) - At least six people died after a landslide hit the community of Aguas Caliente near the famed Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, a local official said. 

 

The victims died when a mud and rock avalanche destroyed their homes in the southeastern town of Aguas Calientes. 

A 27-year-old man's body was found six kilometers (3.7 miles) from where the landslide occurred. 

Fifteen homes were destroyed, affecting 60 people. 

A second landslide destroyed railway tracks near Machu Picchu, trapping about 1,500 tourists. 

No tourists were among the dead, the official said. 

A spokeswoman for train company Peru Rail said repairs on the track had started and it was possible "everything would be ready Sunday to evacuate the tourists." 

President Alejandro Toledo, who had arrived in the nearby city of Cusco by helicopter Friday with television crews from the Travel Channel and the Discovery Channel to film a documentary, said he was coordinating the rescue and cleanup efforts with civil defense authorities. 

He lent his helicopter for the rescue effort and said he ordered military helicopters to take tourists out of the Inca ruins. 

"I suspended all my activities to come to the zone that was hit by the avalanches," Toledo said. "I'm with the people of Aguas Calientes, seeing their anguish and sadness." 

Heavy rains hit the area this time of year, Toledo said, adding that the Alcamayo river had overflowed. 

A civil defense official said food, clothing and tools would be flown to the area. 

Machu Picchu, a magnet for tourists the world over, is a 15th century Inca stone city, perched atop a rocky ridge high in the Andes mountains, invisible from below and accessible only by bus from Aguas Calientes. 

Archaeologists believe the cloud-shrouded Machu Picchu ruins, with their palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses, were used by the Incas as a secret ceremonial city. 

One of the marvels of the city is the architectural precision with which its structures were designed and built. Most of the buildings are of solid granite blocks, cut with bronze or stone tools and smoothed with sand. 

The blocks fit together perfectly without traces of mortar, although none of the blocks are the same size and have multiple faces. The joints are so tight that even the thinnest of knife blades cannot be forced between the stones. 

Fat Cat Hunger Strike After Meat-Feeding Owner Goes

Apr 10, 6:40 am ET 

BERLIN  - An obese German cat six times the normal weight has gone on a hunger strike at a Berlin animal shelter after being taken from his owner who had fed him four lbs of mince daily, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

Mikesch, weighing nearly 41 lbs, was brought to the animal shelter on April 1 and was so overweight he could not take more than four steps without becoming exhausted. His elderly owner was at the same time taken to a nursing home.

Shelter officials said six-year-old Mikesch is so fat he cannot clean himself and suffers from heart trouble. They said he felt lost without his meat-feeding owner and stopped eating altogether when he was put on a diet to gradually lose weight.

A shelter worker will take Mikesch home with her for 10 days to help get his appetite back, shelter head Carola Ruff said.

"The cat had a good night in her flat on the first night and that's giving us hope his condition will improve," Ruff said.

Cats usually weigh between six and 12 lbs and eat no more than about 10 ounces of food each day, vets say.

Bank-Robbing Church Minister Headed to Jail

Apr 9, 9:41 pm ET 

BOSTON  - A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a pentecostal minister to more than six years in prison for robbing banks from Maine to Massachusetts of more than $10,000, prosecutors said.

Jerry Hayes, 53, of Hartford, Maine, was arrested in May after he gave a Massachusetts bank teller a note saying he was armed and demanding that large-denomination bills be placed into a bag.

The note added: "Do not put any device into bag: paint, track, etc. If I sense an alarm is set: Someone will be hostage."

The teller gave the minister $2,550 in cash and a dye pack that exploded as he fled. Police later arrested him and found a loaded .38 caliber handgun on the floor of his car.

Federal prosecutors said a subsequent investigation showed he had robbed four other banks in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and that he was laundering the proceeds through an account in the name of the church where he was pastor, the Shema First Apostolic Assembly in Canton, Maine.

Hayes pleaded guilty to the robberies in September. U.S. District Judge Reginald Lindsay sentenced him on Thursday to six years and six months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

She Closed Airport to Avoid Vacation with Boyfriend

Apr 8, 10:04 am ET 

DUESSELDORF, Germany  - A Croatian woman was convicted Thursday of disturbing the peace for phoning a bomb threat to Duesseldorf airport to get out of a vacation with her boyfriend.

The woman was given a suspended sentence after admitting in court that she called authorities and, in a hoax, made an al Qaeda bomb threat because her parents disapproved of her boyfriend.

"I didn't know how I would be able to tell my parents about a holiday with him and I couldn't really say to him 'Listen, my parents wouldn't approve'," the woman, 28, identified only as Marina B., told the Duesseldorf state court Wednesday.

"Then I had the idea that if the trip could somehow be blocked by someone else, for example a bomb threat, then that would solve all the problems," she added. Her flight departed anyway, several hours late.

The threat prompted authorities to shut down Germany's third busiest airport on a busy Sunday in September, stranding 64,000 people for hours, while police searched in vain for a bomb.

Police initially arrested her boyfriend, after tracing the threatening phone calls to his cell phone, when the couple returned from Spain. He denied making the calls.

Prosecutors had demanded a three-year jail sentence for the woman. But the court opted to give her a two-year suspended sentence. Separately, she faces a damage claim of 1.5 million euros ($1.9 million) from the airport and airlines.

Betting It All on Vegas Roulette Spin

Apr 8, 7:34 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A British man who has sold all his possessions, including his clothes, will stand in a rented tuxedo on Sunday and bet everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel.

If he wins, he doubles his money. If he loses, he will be left with only the television crew documenting his every move.

Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, said he was worth about 75,000 pounds ($138,000) after he sold everything in March.

"I thought I was worth at least 100,000 pounds," he said in a telephone interview from Las Vegas, where he is putting in a week gambling about $3,000 in a bid to raise his pot.

By Wednesday, he was down $1,000.

Revell said he had planned to have a friend videotape his bet-it-all spin, but Britain's Sky One television decided it was worth a short reality series, called "Double or Nothing."

Sky will not pay him, he says, but a crew has followed his preparation and will cover the spin live on Sunday at the Hard Rock casino in Las Vegas. It also plans to follow him for a month afterward, win or lose.

Revell, recently a professional gambler, said he decided to take a big plunge while he was still young and raised the stakes as high as possible, including selling his clothes.

"I like to do things properly," he said.

He had not decided yet whether to place his money or red or black on Sunday afternoon.

"I don't know man," he said. "One of them is going to be the right thing to say and one is going to be the wrong thing."

He added that if he won he would probably take his winnings rather than spin again.

American Airlines says it agreed to share passenger data with government 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

 - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - American Airlines, the top US carrier, said it agreed to hand over passenger information to the US government, and the data ended up in the hands of four vendors vying for contracts with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). 

American Airlines is the third US airline to admit releasing passenger data after the September 11, 2001 attacks. 

"American Airlines recently learned that in June 2002, at the request of the Transportation Security Administration, some passenger travel data was turned over by an American Airlines vendor to four research companies vying for contracts with TSA," the airline said in a statement released Friday. 

"The discovery came as American reviewed whether it had turned over such data to the TSA following the announcement of data releases by other carriers," the company said. 

American Airlines authorized passenger names records held by its vendor, Airline Automation Inc. (AAI), to be given directly to the TSA, but instead, AAI gave the data to four vendors, the release said. 

The airline agreed to hand over about 1.2 million passenger names records -- about a week's worth -- "because of the heightened interest in aviation security at the time and American's desire to ensure its passenger and crew safety" following September 11, the company said. 

American Airlines passenger jets were among the four planes hijacked and used as guided missiles in the 2001 attacks on the United States, which killed some 3,000 people. 

"Our desire to assist TSA in the aftermath of the events of September 11 was consistent with our focus on safety and security," John Hotard, an American Airlines spokesman, said in the press release. "No passengers were harmed by the transfer of the data." 

The vendor, AAI, required that each vendor sign non-disclosure agreements and destroy or the return the data after the project was completed. 

In January, The Washington Post reported that Northwest Airlines turned over to NASA (news - web sites)'s Ames Research Center reservation data from October to December 2001, a period when roughly 10.9 million people traveled on the carrier. 

Small carrier JetBlue was criticized in September after it was learned that it had provided passenger records to a Pentagon (news - web sites) contractor for security studies. 

Pole reversal: Feared "flip" of Earth's magnetic field takes 7,000 years
Wed Apr 7, 2:15 PM ET 
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PARIS (NEWS SOURCE) - A reversal of the Earth's magnetic field, a rare but feared event due to the catastrophic effect it could have on human life, takes about 7,000 years to complete, according to a study. 

NEWS SOURCE/NASA/File Photo 

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The so-called "flip" between the Earth's North and South poles occurs at long but unpredictable intervals, the most recent one occurring about 780,000 years ago. 

The 180-degree switch occurs when there is a change in the circulation patterns in the molten iron which flows around the Earth's outer core and, like a dynamo, creates the magnetic field. 

The intensity of the field drops for a while before the circulation rhythm is established and the new polarity occurs. 

But how long the switching process takes before the new poles become established has only been guessed at. 

Estimates have ranged from a couple of thousand years to 28,000. 

US researcher Bradford Clement casts light on this area of uncertainty by analysing records taken from sedimentary samples drilled from various sites around the world. 

These samples, deposited at four different ages in Earth's history, have a residual magnetic echo from the magnetic field that prevailed at the time. 

"These records yield an average estimate of about 7,000 years for the time it takes for the directional change to occur," Clement, of Florida International University, writes in Nature, the British science weekly. 

The big switchover does not take place in one swoop, though. 

It happens faster at the Equator and takes longer at higher latitudes -- the closer one gets to the poles. 

The reason for this, says Clement, is that in the absence of the main North-South magnetic field, the Earth's core develops a weaker secondary field which has many "mini-poles" at the surface. 

Eventually the two main poles are established again, but on opposite sides of the planet, and restore their primacy. 

No-one knows what would happen to life on Earth if the "flip" occurred today but the speculation borders on the doomsday. 

Many aspects of life today would be literally turned upside down, both for humans, given our dependence on magnets for navigation, and for migrating animals which use an inner compass. 

We would also be more exposed to deadly busts of solar radiation, from which we are normally protected by Earth's magnetic field. And the loss of that shield would cause solar particles to smash into the upper atmosphere, warming it and potentially causing wrenching climate change. 

There was a scare in 2002 after French geophysicist Gauthier Hulot discovered a weakening of Earth's magnetic field near the poles, which could be interpreted as an early sign that a "flip" is near. 

Polarity reversals "seem to occur randomly in time," says University of Washington scientist Ronald Merrill. The shortest interval between "flips" is between 20,000 and 30,000 years, and the longest is a mighty 50 million years.

Unfinished Kipling tale gets told, a century later
Wed Apr 7, 4:18 PM ET 
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LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - An unfinished children's tale by British author Rudyard Kipling, dug up after decades in an English school, has been published for the first time, a charity organization dedicated to the author said. 

 

"Scylla and Charybdis", part of Kipling's Stalky and Co. saga about boys at a boarding school, sees Stalky and his friends catch a colonel cheating at golf. 

The manuscript was discovered by an archivist at a school built on the same site as the author's own childhood school in Windsor, west of London. 

The Kipling Society's secretary Jeffrey Lewis said the novel was probably left unpublished because Kipling did not think it was good enough. 

"He started a second draft and didn't complete it," Lewis told the BBC. 

Born in Bombay in 1865, Rudyard Kipling did part of his schooling in England. He moved there for good in 1896, after writing "The Jungle Book" in the United States. 

Kipling refused most of the awards offered to him, but accepted a Nobel Literature Prize in 1907. 

The cult author, beloved of generations of children for his "Kim" and "Just So Stories", died in 1936.

Global Warming Could Melt Greenland Ice Sheet-Study Wed Apr 7, 2:01 PM ET

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By Patricia Reaney 

LONDON  - Greenland's huge ice sheet could melt within the next 1,000 years and swamp low-lying areas around the globe if emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and global warming are not reduced, scientists said on Wednesday. 

A meltdown of the massive ice sheet, which is more than three km (1.8 miles) thick would raise sea levels by an average seven meters (yards), threatening countries such as Bangladesh, island in the Pacific and parts of Florida. 

"Any area that is less than seven meters above sea level would be flooded," said Jonathan Gregory, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in southern England. 

Researchers have already calculated that an annual average temperature rise of more than three degrees Celsius would be sufficient to melt the ice sheet in the future. 

Gregory and his colleagues have produced new calculations, which are published in the science journal Nature, showing that a temperature rise of that degree is indeed likely to happen. 

"We found that the levels of CO2 which we could quite likely reach during this century are sufficient to produce that amount of warming," he said. 

Using methods developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Gregory and his team did modeling studies of temperature change in response to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases over the next 350 years. 

"We estimated what that meant for the temperature of Greenland to see whether it passed the critical level threshold," Gregory added. 

It did. 

Some of the models forecast a temperature rise that was nearly three times more than the threshold. 

"How quickly it would happen would depend on how severe the warming was," Gregory said when asked when the ice sheet would disappear. "It is a great deal of ice." 

Under the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites), the European Union (news - web sites) must cut its greenhouse gas output by eight percent of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. To help reach these targets, the EU has designed an international emissions trading scheme, due to start in 2005. 

Plants in each member state will be granted tradeable CO2 certificates which allow them to generate a set amount of the polluting gas. 

But it may not be enough. 

"Presuming the calculations are right, that it is going to happen, and that we are in the right ball park then you would prevent it (the meltdown) happening by not allowing CO2 to go above the levels we were considering," Gregory said. 

The lowest CO2 concentration scenario used in the models was 450 parts per million. Current levels are below that, according to Gregory, but by the middle of this century are likely to exceed it. 

"It would not be impossible to remain below that level, if it is the important threshold, but it will mean greater emissions reduction than is currently being considered," he added. 

Human Rabies Vaccine Recalled in U.S.

Wed Apr 7, 5:25 PM ET



By DANIEL YEE, News Source Writer 

ATLANTA - A rabies vaccine for humans is being recalled in the United States and 23 other countries because a live strain of the virus was found in another batch made at the same time. 

Testing of Aventis Pasteur's IMOVAX vaccine revealed the presence of a live Pittman-Moore strain of the rabies virus, when the drug was not supposed to contain live virus, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said. 

While the tested lot of the vaccine was never distributed for public use, Aventis recalled four other lots in the United States because they were made during the same time as the faulty lot. The CDC said those lots had all passed quality tests. 

The CDC said it was theoretically possible but unlikely that anyone who received rabies shots from the recalled lots could have been exposed to the live form of the virus. 

As a result, the CDC has recommended that people who have taken recalled rabies shots receive additional shots of the vaccine that have not been recalled. 

The recalled lots, X0667-2, X0667-3, W1419-2 and W1419-3, were distributed between Sept. 23 and Friday, company officials said. 

Twenty-one other lots were being recalled in 23 other countries, according to information from the vaccine manufacturer posted Wednesday on a Web site for infectious disease doctors. The lots recalled overseas also passed quality tests, the CDC said. 

There is no scientific data on the effect of exposure to the Pittman-Moore rabies virus, which differs from the wild rabies virus, but according to anecdotal accounts lab workers exposed to it "never had any adverse consequences," said Len Lavenda, a spokesman at the company's offices in Swiftwater, Pa. 

He said the recall affected at least 82,000 doses distributed in the United States and Western Europe, but he did not have data for other parts of the world. 

A vaccine expert said Aventis did not have to recall the lots because they had been tested and did not carry the live virus. 

"This really was an excess of caution and a very elaborately cautious response. Exceedingly responsible," said Dr. William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

Schaffner said the rabies vaccine is the most commonly used in the world. 

The other countries affected by the recall were: Angola, Australia, Botswana, Croatia, Denmark, Chad, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Italy, Malawi, Mozambique, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria, Oman, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

___ 

On the Net: 

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr 

FDA (news - web sites) recall information: http://www.fda.gov/cber/recalls/rabave040204.htm 

Aventis recall information: http://www.vaccineshoppe.com/secure/index.cfm?faRabiesRecall

History Channel Withdraws Show on JFK Conspiracy Wed Apr 7, 6:10 PM ET

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By Larry Fine 

NEW YORK  - The History Channel apologized and said it was withdrawing a controversial documentary aired last November that accused former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson of complicity in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 

A statement on Wednesday from The History Channel said "The Guilty Men" program had "failed to offer viewers context and perspective." 

"The show wasn't vetted as properly and thoroughly as it should have been," station General Manager Dan Davids told The News Source. 

"The History Channel apologizes to its viewers and to Mrs. Johnson and her family for airing the show." 

The History Channel said the documentary was withdrawn from home video sales and would no longer be broadcast on the network. Davids said the station would also strengthen its review procedures, especially of controversial shows. 

"The Guilty Men," the ninth episode of the "Men Who Killed Kennedy" series was produced by Briton Nigel Turner. It centered on the theory of author Barr McClellan, a former lawyer in a firm that represented Johnson, in his book ""Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K." His book was published by Hannover House last October. 

The documentary, shown in the week of the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, caused a storm of protest from prominent veterans of the Johnson administration, including broadcaster Bill Moyers and Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. 

In response, The History Channel assembled three historians to review the show. They slammed the LBJ conspiracy theory as "entirely unfounded" and concluded that the documentary should not have been broadcast in the first place. 

The historians are presenting their findings in a one-hour panel discussion on The History Channel on Wednesday night. 

"The History Channel accepts the criticisms of these historians," Davids said. "We have a great responsibility (to our viewers) and this time we did not live up to it." 

Book author McClellan, interviewed on the documentary program, said he tried to cooperate with the reviewing panel by sending them material but never heard back from them. 

"It doesn't seem as if they treated the subject fairly at all," McClellan said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from his home in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Top Stories - The News Source
D.C. Lead Woes Prompt Scrutiny of Federal Rules
2 hours, 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON  - Chronic problems with high levels of lead in Washington D.C.'s water supply are prompting scrutiny of water regulation at the national level, members of Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) said on Wednesday. 

Sen. James Jeffords (news - web sites), a Vermont independent, told a Senate hearing he planned to introduce a bill within days that would require testing for lead in water systems across the country, eliminate lead service lines and pipes and prohibit lead in plumbing fixtures. 

The bill would also require immediate notification of all homes with elevated lead test results and require public water systems to provide in-home filters where lead is a problem. 

"Today's hearing is just the first step in what I hope is a long list of actions that we can take to help solve D.C.'s lead problem and prevent this from occurring elsewhere in the nation," Jeffords told a hearing of the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water Subcommitee. 

Lead can cause permanent brain damage to infants and children and harm adults who ingest high levels of it. 

The EPA requires utilities to notify the public and in some cases replace lead pipes if lead rises to more than 15 parts per billion in water supplies, but lawmakers at the hearing said the experience of residents of the nation's capital city highlighted regulatory shortcomings. 

Regular tests of D.C. water in 2002 revealed elevated lead levels in an unexpectedly high proportion of test samples, and a much larger sampling last summer showed thousands of homes above the 15 parts per billion level. Some showed lead levels of more than 30 times that. 

Residents say they were sent only a proforma letter about the results with no follow-up from city health authorities. 

Two families filed a class action lawsuit against the city last month to demand it provide an alternate water supply and threatened to sue the EPA as well. Officials have distributed thousands of Brita water filters to homes with lead lines. 

A senior EPA official said Washington's problems had already prompted the federal agency to review the lead rule and seek data from state officials about local lead levels.

Government Licenses First Private Rocket 

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

By LESLIE MILLER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The government announced Wednesday that it has issued the first license for a manned suborbital rocket, a step toward opening space flight to private individuals for the first time. 

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The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) gave a one-year license to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by Burt Rutan. Rutan, who hopes to make affordable space travel a reality in a decade, is best known for designing the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986. 

"This is a big step," FAA spokesman Henry Price said. 

The Scaled Composites craft consists of a rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch. SpaceShipOne, made of graphite and epoxy, has short wings and twin vertical tails. It reached 12.9 miles in a trial flight; the license will allow the spacecraft to reach the edge of space, about 60 miles up. 

The license is a prerequisite for the X Prize competition, an international space race that will give $10 million to the first company or person to launch a manned craft to 62.5 miles above the Earth, and then do it again within two weeks. The craft must be able to carry three people. 

The FAA is considering two other applications, Price said. One is an X Prize contestant. 

Twenty-seven contestants from seven countries have registered for the X Prize competition. 

The prize, announced in 1996, is sponsored by the privately funded X Prize Foundation in St. Louis. Supporters include Dennis Tito, the American who spent $20 million to fly in a Russian craft as the first space tourist; pilot Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh; former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn; and actor Tom Hanks. 

Rutan declined to comment. The company states on its Web site that its goal is to show that private space flight can be done, and at a low cost. 

"We look to the future, hopefully within 10 years, when ordinary people, for the cost of a luxury cruise, can experience a rocket flight into the black sky above the earth's atmosphere, enjoy a few minutes of weightless excitement, then feel the thunderous deceleration of the aerodynamic drag on entry," the statement says. 

Before launching the spacecraft in the X Prize competition, Scaled Composites must give the prize sponsors 90 days notice, Price said. The company can launch its rocket before that, he said, but it must be in an area that isn't risky. 

Scaled Composites is located in the Mojave Desert. 

FAA inspectors carefully examined the space vehicle to make sure it's safe, said Price. 

"There's no sure thing in anything when it comes to rocketry," he said. "We want to do what we can with the knowledge we have to make sure the launch is as safe as possible for the public." 

The company also had to demonstrate that it was adequately insured for a launch and that it met environmental standards, Price said. 

A suborbital flight reaches space but doesn't travel fast enough or high enough to complete an orbit. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Scaled Composites: http://www.scaled.com 

Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov 

X Prize: http://www.xprize.com

Parts From Saint-Exupery's Plane Found 
2 hours, 28 minutes ago

By ANGELA DOLAND, News Source Writer 

PARIS - It was one of French aviation's enduring mysteries: Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the pilot and author of the beloved tale "The Little Prince," took off on a World War II spy mission for the Allies and was never seen again. 

After 60 years, officials have confirmed that the twisted wreckage of a Lockheed Lightning P-38, found on the Mediterranean seabed not far from the rugged cliffs of Provence, belonged to Saint-Exupery, Air Force Capt. Frederic Solano said Wednesday. 

In France, the discovery is akin to solving the mystery of where Amelia Earhart's plane went down in the Pacific Ocean in 1937. 

"This was our holy grail," said Philippe Castellano, president of an association of aviation buffs who helped authorities identify the debris. "We never even imagined this." 

It was a stunning revelation: Teams have been searching up and down the coast for decades, and many experts believed the plane was probably too far out to sea to be recovered. 

Clues to the crash started coming together in 1998, when a bracelet bearing Saint-Exupery's name turned up in a fisherman's net near Marseille. Some reports said the find was a fake. 

"For six years, people had their doubts," said the fisherman, Jean-Claude Bianco. "People claimed I made it myself." 

But Bianco's discovery jogged the memory of a local scuba diver, who first saw the plane debris nestled in the ocean bed in the 1980s. 

The diver, Luc Vanrell, pored over records of downed planes. By 2000, he was convinced he had found the right one. But it took time to get permission from France's Culture Ministry to have the pieces brought up for analysis. 

The plane, smashed into hundreds of pieces, lies 100 to 300 feet below the surface, less than three miles from the coast between Marseille and Cassis. The key find was a tail piece bearing a tiny serial number, 2734 L - the same as Saint-Exupery's, Castellano said. 

A piece of the puzzle remains unanswered: the cause of the crash. Theories have ranged from hostile gunfire to suicide. The debris has so far yielded no clues. 

"It's impossible to say if he was shot down, if he lost consciousness, or if he had a mechanical accident," said Patrick Grandjean of the national Department of Subaquatic and Submarine Archaeological Research. 

Famous for his bravery, Saint-Exupery was selected for the dangerous mission of collecting data on German troop movements in the Rhone River Valley. His plane vanished in the night on July 31, 1944, when he was 44. 

He has become one of France's most admired figures, in part because of "The Little Prince," a tender fable about a prince from an asteroid who explores the planets and then falls to earth. Saint-Exupery's other works, which largely deal with his aviation experiences, include "Wind, Sand and Stars" and "Flight to Arras," about a doomed reconnaissance mission. 

Until the euro currency was introduced in 2002, the novelist's image appeared on the nation's 50-franc note. In Lyon, Saint-Exupery's hometown, the international airport is named after him. 

Castellano, president of the Aero-ReL.I.C. organization that helped identify the plane, said some Saint-Exupery fans resisted the efforts. They wanted to keep the mystery alive. 

"In the end, I think everyone is satisfied," he said. "We didn't find a body, so the myth surrounding his disappearance will live on." 

___ 

On the Net: http://www.aero-relic.org

PETA Uses Murder Case in Anti-Meat Ads

Apr 7, 1:54 pm ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A U.S. animal rights group defended an advertising campaign on Wednesday that links the women victims in a Canadian serial murder case to the fate of butchered pigs.

Relatives of the Vancouver women, feared killed by accused murderer Robert Pickton, have denounced the campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which wants to convince people not to eat meat.

Health officials warned last month that processed pork products that Pickton gave or sold to friends from his ramshackle Port Coquitlam farm outside Vancouver may have been contaminated by human remains. Pickton was arrested in 2002 and is awaiting trial on multiple murder charges.

The billboards in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta, show pictures of a woman and a pig with the slogan: "Neither of us is meat." The signs do not mention the Pickton case, but PETA acknowledged the link.

"PETA's point? Consumers who may have eaten human flesh probably didn't notice because pigs and people alike are made of flesh and blood, i.e., 'meat'," the group said in a press release.

The group is upset that Vancouver billboard firms rejected the ads. PETA also tried to use the Pickton case in a 2002 advertising campaign, but backed off after objections from native Indian groups and the women's relatives.

Many of the more than 60 Vancouver prostitutes and drug addicts who disappeared in the 1990s, and are feared killed by Pickton at his farm, were Indians.

Pickton's murder trial is expected to start late this year. He is charged with 15 murders, but prosecutors have said they expect to add at least seven more murder counts.

Chocolate During Pregnancy Has Good Impact on Baby

Apr 7, 1:52 pm ET 

LONDON  - Pregnant women rejoice. Eating chocolate is good for the baby, say Finnish researchers.

Scientists at the University of Helsinki, who asked 300 pregnant women to record their chocolate consumption and stress levels, found that daily treats had a positive impact on the newborn baby's behavior.

Six months after the infants were born the mothers who had eaten chocolate reported more smiling and laughter in their offspring.

"And the babies of stressed women who had regularly consumed chocolate showed less fear of new situations than babies of stressed women who had abstained," New Scientist magazine said Tuesday.

Katri Raikkanen and colleagues who conducted the research admitted they can't be certain that chocolate consumption and the babies' behavior are not linked with other factors.

"But they speculate that the effects they observed could result from chemicals in chocolate associated with a positive mood being passed on to the baby in the womb," the magazine added.

AMSTERDAM  - Body piercing and tattoos make way.

Apr 7, 1:23 pm ET 

AMSTERDAM  - Body piercing and tattoos make way. The latest fashion trend to hit the Netherlands is eyeball jewelry.

Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called "JewelEye" in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and development institute in Rotterdam.

The procedure involves inserting a 3.5 mm (0.13 inch) wide 1 piece of specially developed jewelry -- the range includes a glittering half-moon or heart -- into the eye's mucous membrane under local anaesthetic at a cost of 500 to 1,000 euros ($1,232).

"In my view it is a little more subtle than (body) piercing. It is a bit of a fun thing and a very personal thing for people," said Gerrit Melles, director of the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (www.NIIOC.nl).

The piece of jewelry is inserted in the conjunctiva -- the mucous membrane lining the inner surface of the eyelids and front of the eyeball -- in sterile conditions using an operating microscope in a procedure taking about 15 minutes.

"Without doing any harm to the eye we can implant a jewel in the conjunctiva," Melles said. "So far we have not seen any side effects or complications and we don't expect any in the future."

The Rotterdam-based institute, which develops new ocular surgical techniques in corneal, cataract and retinal surgery, developed and patented the jewelry made with special materials and the surgical procedure.

The institute, which carries out the procedure in cooperation with an eye clinic near the city of Utrecht, said it has a waiting list for people who wanted the implant.

Cross-Dressing Heats Up Republican Race

Apr 7, 9:16 am ET 

DALLAS  - What started as a dull runoff race to field a Republican candidate for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives has heated up due to a controversy over cross-dressing.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Tuesday photographs of candidate Sam Walls dressed in women's clothes have circulated among political leaders in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth. Local Republican leaders confirmed separately that they had seen the photographs of Walls in a wig, dress and high heels.

Walls, who has the endorsement of several leading Republicans in the state and was expected to win the run-off, was not available for comment. He said in comments printed in the Star-Telegram that he will not drop out of the race due to a campaign of blackmail.

"Through intermediaries, my opponent told me to drop out of the campaign or the private information would be released," Walls told the paper. "Now my opponent is using the information in an attempt to intimate that I am a homosexual, which I am not."

Walls, 64, who describes himself as a fervent Baptist, told the paper his family had "dealt with" the issue of his cross-dressing and that he asked for forgiveness.

The opponent in question is Rob Orr and his campaign officials said they have not distributed the photos.

Jeff Judd, the county chairman of the Republican party, said it was too late for Walls to drop out of the April 13 runoff.

"It would have been much better judgment for him not to have run," he said.

Gymnast's Skills Save Him in Fourth-Floor Fall

Apr 6, 1:30 pm ET 

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia  - A British junior gymnastics team member fell from the fourth floor of a Ljubljana hotel but suffered only a broken ankle after putting his gymnastics skills into practice, the Slovenian press reported Tuesday.

"Probably my gymnastic knowledge and experience saved me," the Slovenske Novice newspaper quoted 17-year-old Steven Jehu as saying.

"There was a big window that could be opened. I leaned out over a metal bar, but the bar suddenly broke. I couldn't do anything. I fell," Jehu said.

The gymnast did a somersault while falling from the window, which was more than 33 feet from the ground, and braced himself for a regular gymnastic landing.

Jehu, whose favorite discipline is the rings, is one of five British junior athletes who traveled to Ljubljana last week for the European gymnastics championships on April 15-18. "I got away with it all right, although the European championships for me ended before they even began," he said.

Leader Says Gold Teeth Out, White Teeth In...

Apr 6, 8:05 am ET 

ASHGABAT  - Turkmenistan's president has told his people to shun traditional false gold teeth in favor of white ones, the latest eccentric command after moves to ban beards, ballet and circuses.

President Saparmurat Niyazov, who has unlimited powers in the Central Asian nation of six million, set his eyes on Monday on a student with a full set of gold teeth as she was reading an address in his honor at a local university.

"Sebildzhan, don't be offended. You look great with gold teeth, but you would look far better with white ones," television showed Niyazov as telling her. "Here's the health minister, himself a dentist. He will give you white teeth."

"I know this fashion (for gold crowns) appeared when the Turkmen lived in penury," said Niyazov, who portrays himself as modernizing the gas-rich nation but is criticized in the West for human rights violations.

Similar statements by Niyazov have in the past been interpreted as law. Earlier this year he expressed a dislike for beards and long hair on male students, resulting in their disappearance from universities.

Displaying a smile full of gold teeth has long been a sign of prestige and relative wealth in largely impoverished post-Soviet Central Asia, and many young people buy gold teeth even if their natural ones are in perfect order.

Fire and No Buyer for Two Former Clinton Homes

Apr 6, 7:51 am ET 

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  - It was a bad weekend for two Arkansas families in homes once occupied by former U.S. President Bill Clinton -- one house failed to sell and another caught fire.

A small, frame structure in Hope, Arkansas, where Clinton spent part of his childhood, failed to sell during the 10 days it was offered to on-line bidders on eBay.com. The owner, Gary Johnson, a Hope tourism official, isn't sure why.

"We had set a $45,000 minimum bid, but eBay kicked it up to $200,000," Johnson said. "How eBay came up with $200,000, we don't understand."

Johnson said the house is still for sale, although not on-line.

The 950-square-foot (88-square-meter) house was the second Clinton and his mother occupied in Hope following his birth in 1946. Clinton has said he can trace many happy childhood memories to that house. The first home is now a museum.

A home in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Clinton and his family lived after they moved from Hope, was heavily damaged in a fire on Sunday night.

The current owner was working on an automobile that caught fire. The flames entered the attic from the garage and then spread through the structure, said Hot Springs fire chief Opal Sanders.

"The damage was pretty extensive. It was burning pretty good by the time we arrived," Sanders said.

The Hot Springs home was a modest, brick veneer residence.

Play Uses Therapy, Real Life to Entertain

Apr 5, 1:08 pm ET 

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK  - Think you need a therapist? How about seeing one who takes your life and puts it on stage in front of a New York theater audience?

A zany new off-Broadway show, "This is Your Ridiculous Life," uses professional psychotherapists onstage to interview members of the audience. Their life stories then are used as material for improvised comedy skits.

Director and cast member David Wackman says the provocative show produces universal stories with a New York flavor each night.

"A lot of people who live and visit New York have an immediate sense that they have entered a crazy zone," he said. "There is so much bizarreness and craziness in New York and in this show we have a way of unleashing that."

Previews this weekend were met with howls of laughter from the audience. In one, an audience member named Stella described playing childhood games with her sister. Cast members acted out the games.

Another scene involved an audience member named Shanta, who described meeting her boyfriend in a nightclub where they both were singers. Yet another scene used a life experience from Maria Coaker to create a skit imagining her confronting a politician she did not like.

"I think it's fabulous. It was fun being a participant and they were very creative in making all the skits and doing everything instantaneously," she said afterward. "It is what New York is all about, being spontaneous. It's being able to see different faces and different people."

The show features seven members of the Castillo Theater's performing ensemble and was conceived by artistic director Fred Newman. It is being shown weekly at the All Stars Project's Performing Arts Center.

The 23-year-old nonprofit All Stars Project sponsors the Castillo Theater's experimental and political theater projects and survives largely on donations. Tickets are $15.

Tokyo Cab Reaches NY from Argentina, Meter Running

Apr 5, 10:10 am ET 

NEW YORK  - When Japanese actor Gitan Otsuro climbed out of his cab in New York City on Friday, the meter showed more than 6 million yen ($58,000) -- but he's not planning to pay the fare.

The three-month, 20,000-mile trek from Patagonia in the Tokyo taxi was sponsored by a Japanese TV station which is making a travel documentary about it.

The taxi, with Tokyo cab driver Tsuyoshi Sakuma, 66, at the wheel, passed through 11 countries and was welcomed at its New York destination by an honor guard of the city's yellow cabs.

"The thing I enjoyed most was when we came into New York and saw the Statue of Liberty," Sakuma said. "I couldn't believe how big it was."

Global Music Sales Slide, Some Recovery Signs-IFPI 2 hours, 43 minutes ago

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By Bernhard Warner 

LONDON  - Global music sales fell 7.6 percent in 2003 to $32 billion, the steepest decline since the advent of the compact disc, the trade body representing the world's largest music companies said on Wednesday. 

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) blamed the slump in retail music sales -- now in its fourth consecutive year -- on rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs. 

However, a strong second-half recovery in the United States, Britain and Australia, boosted by top-selling acts such as Justin Timberlake (news), Beyonce and rapper 50 Cent, has raised hopes that the worst is behind the beleaguered industry. 

"I think the long-term secular decline has just about come to a conclusion. Is it over? I don't know the answer to that yet," said IFPI Chairman Jay Berman. He predicted 2004 music sales in unit terms would decline "by about four percent." 

Continental Europe -- specifically Germany, France and the Nordic countries -- plus Japan continued to experience steep sales declines. Berman said there was no recovery in sight in those markets. 

Noting that first-half 2003 sales were down nearly 11 percent, analysts regarded the full-year figure as positive news but said evidence of a full-fledged recovery is flimsy. 

The industry is making strides by cutting costs and staff but needs to invest more in new technologies such as Internet music stores and mobile phone ring tones to develop new revenue streams, analysts said. 

"Anything that will pull the industry out of the mire and turn things around they will have to invest in," said Simon Dyson, an analyst with London-based consultancy Informa Media. 

Shares in EMI, the world's largest stand-alone music label, were down 0.4 percent to 262 pence at 1035 GMT. 

CD WOES AND PROBLEMS IN GERMANY 

Global compact disc sales -- the most often cited figure in discussing the health of the industry -- fell 9.1 percent in value in 2003, the IFPI said. Unit sales fell by 6.5 percent. 

Total sales of singles, including cassettes and vinyl, which have dipped significantly since the Internet file-sharing and CD-burning craze began in the late 1990s, fell 18.7 percent in value terms between 2002 and 2003. 

In the German market, sales fell for the sixth consecutive year, this time by 19 percent. The trade body recently conducted a study that found the number of CDs burned by German consumers jumped to 325 million in 2003 from 260 million in 2002. 

To fight piracy, the industry has begun suing the most prolific online music swappers. The legal clampdown, which started in the United States and recently spread to Europe and Canada, will become a global initiative, the IFPI said last week. 

Music labels have also been slashing costs, dumping B-list stars and cutting staff. Last week, EMI announced it would shed 1,500 jobs, or about 19 percent of its staff. 

Sony Music and Bertelsmann's BMG plan to merge forces, hoping to save an estimated $300 million annually through creating the second largest music label behind Universal Music . 

The IFPI noted it factored in foreign exchange fluctuations in assigning a global retail value. 

The global retail figure dropped from $32.2 billion in 2002 to $32 billion in 2003 with the weak dollar cushioning some of the decline in absolute terms. 

The IFPI represents hundreds of the world's independent and major music labels including Warner Music, Sony Music, Universal Music, EMI and BMG. 

(Additional reporting by Adam Pasick in London) 

Surgeons Who Play Video Games Err Less 

Tue Apr 6,10:19 PM ET

By VERENA DOBNIK, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - All those years on the couch playing Nintendo (news - web sites) and PlayStation appear to be paying off for surgeons. Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games. 


 

"I use the same hand-eye coordination to play video games as I use for surgery," said Dr. James "Butch" Rosser, 49, who demonstrated the results of his study Tuesday at Beth Israel Medical Center. 

Laparoscopic surgery - using a tiny camera and instruments controlled by joysticks outside the body - is performed on just about any part of the body, from an appendix to the colon and gall bladder. 

The minimally intrusive surgery involves making tiny keyhole incisions, inserting a mini-video camera that sends images to an external video screen, with the surgical tools remote-controlled by the surgeon watching the screen. Surgeons can now practice their techniques through video simulations. 

Rosser said the skill needed for laparoscopic surgery is "like tying your shoelaces with 3-foot-long chopsticks." 

"Yes, here we go!" said Rosser, sitting in front of a Super Monkey Ball game, which shoots a ball into a confined goal. "This is a nice, wholesome game. No blood and guts. But I need the same kind of skill to go into a body and sew two pieces of intestine together." 

The study on whether good video game skills translate into surgical prowess was done by researchers with Beth Israel and the National Institute on Media and the Family at Iowa State University. It was based on testing 33 fellow doctors - 12 attending physicians and 21 medical school residents who participated from May to August 2003. 

Each doctor completed three video game tasks that tested such factors as motor skills, reaction time and hand-eye coordination. 

The study "landmarks the arrival of Generation X into medicine," said the study's co-author, Dr. Paul J. Lynch, a Beth Israel anesthesiologist who has studied the effects of video games for years. 

Kurt Squire, a University of Wisconsin researcher of video game effects on learning, said that "with a video game, you can definitely develop timing and a sense of touch, as well as a very intuitive feel for manipulating devices." 

Squire, who was not involved in Rosser's project, said applying such games to surgery training "could play a key role in preparing medical health professionals." 

Beth Israel is now experimenting with applying the findings. 

Rosser has developed a course called Top Gun, in which surgical trainees warm up their coordination, agility and accuracy with a video game before entering the operating room. 

"It's like a good football player," Rosser said, "you have to warm up first."

Man, 77, Holds Record for Blood Donations

Tue Apr 6, 7:38 AM ET

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ST. LOUIS - At a time when blood donations are down, the American Red Cross (news - web sites) is especially pleased with a St. Louis man. 

Maurice Wood, 77, holds a pair of records in the Guinness Book of World Records for giving blood. He has been donating for 54 years, longer than anyone else in the world, and has made 301 donations during that span. 

Every two months, Wood travels to the South St. Louis County American Red Cross donation center in Crestwood, although he could easily come up with excuses to stay home. He takes medicine for Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) and high blood pressure. 

"I come because I like the idea," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I always have. I am going to give until I can't give any more. It's a pleasure to give. It is easy to do, and I know that somewhere, it helps save somebody's life." 

Colleen Meyer, supervising nurse at the donation center, said Wood is so persistent in his mission that he battled an ice storm the last time he donated. 

So far, Wood has given 37 1/2 gallons of blood, one pint at a time. The Guinness world-record holder, Maurice Creswick of South Africa, has donated 49 gallons. 

Wood, a former federal railroad inspector, began donating in 1950 when he was 24. His blood type is AB positive, which only 3 percent of U.S. residents have. That blood type is unique in that it can be used to transfuse pregnant women or newborn babies. 

Wood is inspiring other older donors to give. 

Charles "Joe" Kovac Jr., 84, of Concord Village, has donated 15 1/2 gallons of blood since 1962, when he was 42. His goal is to donate 25 gallons of blood by the time he is 100. He earlier sent Wood a fan letter, and the two visit by telephone. 

Red Cross spokesman Jim Williams said the agency is grateful. 

"We aren't looking for world-record setters; we are just looking for people who want to help save lives," he said.

Study Disputes Sex-Prostate Cancer Link

Tue Apr 6, 4:00 PM ET



By LINDSEY TANNER, News Source Medical Writer 

CHICAGO - Contrary to some research, frequent sexual activity does not increase the risk of developing prostate cancer and might even reduce the danger, a study of nearly 30,000 men found. 

Some previous studies have suggested that men who have frequent ejaculations - whether through sex or masturbation - might be more prone to prostate cancer. One theory is that lots of sex exposes men to various germs and viruses that somehow lead to prostate cancer.

The latest study should be "reassuring to those men who may be more active than others," said Dr. Durado Brooks, prostate cancer director for the American Cancer Society (news - web sites). 

The study involved 29,342 health professionals ages 46 to 81 who were asked about their ejaculations in their 20s, 40s and during the previous year, 1991. During about eight years of follow-up, 1,449 men developed prostate cancer. 

On average, the men overall had four to seven ejaculations a month. No increased risk of prostate cancer was seen in men who reported more frequent ejaculations, and there appeared to be a decreased risk in men with the highest reported levels. 

The two highest activity levels - 13 to 20 ejaculations a month, and at least 21 a month - were linked with decreased cancer risks of 14 percent and 33 percent respectively. 

One theory is that frequent ejaculations help flush out cancer-causing chemicals or reduce the development of calcifications that have been linked with prostate cancer. 

But relatively few men in the study reported heavy sexual activity, so more research is needed to establish whether there is, in fact, a link, said Dr. Michael Leitzmann, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites) who led the study. 

"It's too early to suggest that men should change their sexual habits to alter their prostate cancer risk," he said. 

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites). 

The theorized connection between frequent sexual activity and prostate cancer is not entirely far-fetched: High levels of the male hormone testosterone can cause a strong sex drive and can also fuel the growth of cancer cells. 

The study involved mostly white men. Leitzmann said it is unclear whether similar results would be found in blacks, who have much higher prostate cancer risks than whites. But he said the biological mechanisms that might explain the results probably do not differ by race. 

Prostate cancer (news - web sites) is the second most common cancer in men, after skin cancer. One in every six men will develop it. The American Cancer Society estimates that this year, 230,900 new cases will be diagnosed and that about 29,900 men will die from prostate cancer. 

The walnut-sized prostate gland produces fluids that are contained in semen. 

___ 

On the Net: 

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org 

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.txorg 

Watchdogs Slam Google's New E-Mail Service

2 hours, 54 minutes ago

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, News Source Business Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. hails its new e-mail service as a breakthrough in online communication, but consumer watchdogs are attacking it as a creepy invasion of privacy that threatens to set a troubling precedent. 

Although Google's free "Gmail" service isn't even available yet, critics already are pressuring the popular search engine maker to drop its plans to electronically scan e-mail content so it can distribute relevant ads alongside incoming messages. 

Privacy activists worry that Gmail will comb through e-mail more intensively than the filters widely used to weed out potential viruses and spam. 

Gmail opponents also want Google to revise a policy that entitles the company to retain copies of people's incoming and outgoing e-mail even after they close their accounts. 

The e-mail scanning, which Google says will be handled exclusively by computers, has raised the most alarms, partly because it seeks to capitalize on messages sent by people without Gmail accounts. 

Google intends to deliver ads by analyzing what's being discussed. For instance, an e-mail from one friend to another talking about an upcoming trip might include links to hotels or airlines. 

Gmail has a "definite creepiness factor," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. 

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google portrays the commercialization of e-mail as a small trade-off for a service that will give each user one gigabyte of storage - up to 500 times more than other leading free services - and provide a quicker, cleaner way to search e-mailboxes. Most e-mail messages opened on Gmail won't even contain ads, according to Google. 

Nevertheless, critics say the free storage - roughly the equivalent of 500,000 pages - isn't worth compromising individual privacy rights. 

"Consumers really need to look this gift horse in the mouth because it has rotten teeth and bad breath," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a watchdog group. 

The Gmail backlash has inspired Orwellian comparisons likening Google to Big Brother, a disturbing development for a privately held company committed to making money "without doing evil." 

"We are not going over to the dark side," said Wayne Rosing, Google's vice president of engineering. "Consumers can expect us to treat their e-mail as private and with a great deal of respect. I don't think we are doing anything unreasonable." 

Gmail apparently doesn't bother everyone. Without providing specifics, Rosing said "hundreds of thousands" of people have registered with Gmail.com since Google announced the service last week. The company is still testing Gmail before offering it to the general public later this year. 

The enthusiastic response to Gmail probably is being driven by the chance to get so much e-mail storage space for free, said Chris Hoofnagle, associate director for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

Hoofnagle estimates Google will pay about $10 annually for each gigabyte of storage the company gives away, a small price to build an audience likely to be prized by advertisers. 

"It's not a great deal. Individuals would be throwing away the protections of their communications for a few dollars," Hoofnagle said. "We don't see this as any different than letting a company listen in on your phone conversations and letting the Postal Service open your mail." 

Some parts of Gmail even could be illegal, said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a watchdog group in London. 

Google's current Gmail policy advises potential users that "residual copies of e-mail may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account." 

Vast data collection like that appears to be a blatant violation of communication protections in United Kingdom and possibly elsewhere in Europe, Davies said. Privacy International already has filed a complaint against Gmail with United Kingdom regulators. 

"If millions of people have their communication history kept on Google computers," Davies said, "then that storehouse becomes a very valuable source of information for a range of unintended consequences." 

The watchdogs also worry that Gmail could give Google a way to individually identify the people using its search engine, placing a name with the material being sought. 

Google already tracks most searches conducted at its site by tagging users' Web browsers with a chunk of data known as a "cookie." Google users are able to remove or block the cookie, although few do. 

Rosing said there will be an information firewall separating Google's search engine from Gmail. 

"We don't use the data collected on one service," he said, "to enhance another." 

___ 

On The Net: 

http://www.gmail.com 

http://www.privacyrights.org 

http://www.privacyinternational.org 

http://www.epic.org

Alzheimer's can cut life expectancy in half

Tue Apr 6, 6:51 AM ET

 - USATODAY.com 

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY 

An older person newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's can expect to live about half as long as a peer who does not have the progressive brain disease, a study says.

For example, a 70-year-old woman who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's today can, on average, expect to live another eight years compared with the 16 years she'd live if she didn't have the disease, according to the study.

The findings give millions of American families a better idea of what to expect when a family member is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, says Ronald Petersen, a spokesman for the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association.

Some people with Alzheimer's do well for years; they slowly develop the worst symptoms and die 15 or more years later. Others progress rapidly and can die within a few years after diagnosis.

Up until now, doctors had to use professional judgment to size up a patient's risk of a rapid decline. The study's findings could allow doctors to offer patients, and their caregivers, a more reliable estimate of longevity, says study author Eric Larson of the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

Getting news of a rapid decline might be hard to hear, but it can help patients decide how they would like to handle their affairs at a time when they are still lucid, Larson says. 

Such news also can help family members budget for a disease that often requires nursing-home care for people with advanced disease. Nursing homes can cost $70,000 a year.

Larson and his colleagues studied 521 men and women ages 60 and older who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The team evaluated each patient's mental functioning with standard tests and also checked for high blood pressure, heart failure and other conditions likely to affect their survival.

The team found that survival was poorest for patients who wandered, had problems walking and had a history of heart disease and diabetes.

Other findings from the study, which is published in today's Annals of Internal Medicine:

� Women with Alzheimer's tend to live longer than men.

� The severity of the disease was a more important predictor of length of survival than social factors such as race.

� People who scored poorly on initial memory tests had a high risk of dying quickly, perhaps because the disease was advanced at the time of diagnosis.

The study's findings will help policymakers plan for the estimated 16 million Americans who will develop Alzheimer's by 2050 if not enough is done to stop the disease, says Neil Buckholtz at the National Institute on Aging, which helped pay for the study. But the findings also might help researchers who are searching for ways to delay or even stop this disease, he says.

Networks to Air Rice Testimony Live Thursday 1 hour, 1 minute ago

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LOS ANGELES  - The three major U.S. broadcast networks said on Tuesday they will broadcast live National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites)'s testimony before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 2001 attacks. 

ABC, NBC and CBS said they would go live at 9 a.m. EDT on Thursday to broadcast the appearance, which comes amid controversy over whether she failed to focus on the threat posed by al Qaeda in the weeks before the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the world Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites). 

A Fox News spokesman said they would offer their coverage to affiliates to air at their discretion. 

A spokeswoman for NBC news said Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert would anchor the network's coverage; CBS said Dan Rather would handle its coverage; and ABC said Peter Jennings and a senior team of correspondents would cover the event. 

Rice, who initially declined to testify, is scheduled to appear before the commission for 2-1/2 hours, and the networks said they would stay with her appearance as events warranted. 

The White House had initially insisted that Rice's testimony be private before bowing to political pressure from both Republicans and Democrats that she speak publicly. 

She is expected to address claims by former U.S. counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke that she and President Bush (news - web sites) ignored the threat of al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks. 

While it is not uncommon for networks to interrupt regular daytime programming for breaking news, lengthy scheduled preemptions during the day for news events are far less frequent. NBC said the last time it aired daytime gavel-to-gavel coverage of a live address was the one given by Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) at the United Nations (news - web sites) in February 2003. 

CBS is a unit of Viacom Inc., ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co., NBC is a unit of General Electric Co., and Fox is a unit of News Corp. Ltd. . (With additional reporting by David Morgan and Steve Holland in Washington)

ACLU to Sue Government Over 'No-Fly' List 

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

By LESLIE MILLER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites)'s officials declined to comment in advance of their planned announcement Tuesday that they would file a class-action lawsuit challenging the list of travelers that the government has barred from flying because they're considered a threat. The civil rights group is representing seven plaintiffs. 

Airlines are instructed to stop anyone on the "no fly" list that is compiled by the Transportation Security Administration. The ACLU contends, though, that some people are wrongfully put on the list. 

"Many innocent travelers who pose no safety risk whatsoever are stopped and searched repeatedly," the ACLU said in a statement issued Monday. 

The no-fly list is one of two lists kept by the TSA. The other is the "selectee." Those on the no-fly list are not allowed to board a commercial aircraft. Those on the selectee list must go through more extensive screening before boarding. 

Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies request that the TSA put names on the list. 

Little else is known about the lists, including how many people are on them and how they qualify to get on or off. 

The TSA acknowledged the name-matching technology used by some airlines confuses people on the no-fly list with passengers who have similar names. 

In such a case, a passenger would be referred to a law enforcement official, who would be able to clear up mistakes by checking the person's identification and perhaps putting in a call to the FBI (news - web sites), Mark Hatfield said. 

Problems with the no-fly list have provided fodder for critics of the TSA plan to conduct computerized background checks of all airline passengers and to rank them according to their risk of being a terrorist. They say that if a no-fly list with relatively few names causes confusion and produces misidentifications, the government cannot be trusted with a far broader program. 

Some people on the no-fly list have found it impossible to get off, said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

"There doesn't seem to be any reliable way to resolve the problem that these people continuously confront," Sobel said. 

Hatfield acknowledge such problems exist but said the agency has worked to help people wrongly identified. 

Separately, the TSA said Monday that it is seeking proposals from companies to run a pilot "registered traveler" program in which low-risk frequent fliers could avoid extra security inspections at airports by submitting to background checks. 

Companies are being asked to show how they'd manage the program, as well as their capabilities in biometric identification and computer technology. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov 

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov 

American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org 

Wal-Mart Drives RFID Thu Apr 1, 9:24 AM ET

Michael Fitzgerald - ExtremeTech 

It's hard to feel sorry for Wal-Mart, by far the nation's largest company. But it does seem that Wal-Mart can't catch a break on RFID. 

First, Wal-Mart stores in Brockton, Mass., and Broken Arrow, Okla., were caught secretly running trials of RFID-tagged items, such as Gillette's razors, to see if the tags could help keep the stores' shelves stocked and prevent shoplifting. Consumer privacy advocates screamed foul, and the tests were quickly shut down. A number of consumer privacy groups subsequently issued a position paper on RFID. Wal-Mart said little publicly about the shutdown, though industry observers attribute it mostly to the fact that RFID is still too expensive for efficient in-store tagging. 

Now, Wal-Mart is focused on its supply chain, using RFID to track pallets and containers. It has demanded that its top 100 suppliers tag all pallets and containers with RFID by Jan. 1, 2005. Consumer advocates have no issues with RFID in the supply chain, but Wal-Mart is facing pressure from another group, its suppliers, who are balking at the costs. While Wal-Mart is expected to save more than $8 billion a year from RFID implementations, thanks in part to greatly reduced labor costs, suppliers want to know what's in it for them. Forrester Research estimates it will cost between $9.5 million and $20 million for the companies to comply with Wal-Mart's mandate. For more on this, see CIO Insight's Wal-Mart's Network Effect and Baseline's RFID: Hit or Myth?). 

Forrester analyst Christine Overby said she thinks Wal-Mart will have to back off its Jan. 1 mandate. "Suppliers are still struggling with the business case, and rightly so. They're getting pressure from their boards and management to justify what can be a $9 million to $20 million investment, with no real clear benefit that shows even a break-even return in their investment," she said. 

Other U.S. retailers will likely follow Wal-Mart's lead. Meanwhile, British retailers Marks & Spencer and Tesco are aggressively pursuing RFID tagging in their stores. Firms such as Accenture have said they expect RFID to improve forecasting by as much as 20 percent, helping firms lower inventory levels by as much as 30 percent while increasing sales between 1 and 2 percent (see more on the business case in the eWEEK article Time is on RFID's Side). Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense (news - web sites) also wants its suppliers using RFID by January 1, 2005, (see DoD Details Its RFID Plans). 

Perhaps Wal-Mart can take solace in the knowledge that it has not bungled so badly as German retailer Metro, which secretly put RFID tags in its shopper loyalty cards and tagged almost all of the items in one of its stores, drawing the ire of German privacy activists and forcing the store to apologize. 

We Be Jammer Thu Apr 1, 9:18 AM ET

Michael Fitzgerald - ExtremeTech 

RSA Security, best-known for its encryption algorithms and an eponymous security conference, thinks it has a way to block RFID tags from being read by prying eyes. 

At issue here is how to turn off the tags once they leave a store. One could use brute force, cutting or ripping them off. Or there's old-fashioned hacking: Metal (think aluminum foil) disrupts RFID signals for the kind of tags that would probably be used on consumer goods in a store. 

What RSA has devised is a blocker tag that basically sends a mini-denial of service attack to RFID readers. The readers can read only one tag a time, so RSA's blocker tag sends multiple signals at once, confusing the reader and making it impossible for it to read the actual tagged products that might be in a consumer's shopping bag. As RSA has currently devised the tag, it would be implanted in bags given to customers at checkout lines and would then prevent readers in other stores from reading any data. (for more, read EWeek's RSA keeps RFID private.) 

Meanwhile, RFID vendors are also working on ways to give consumers peace of mind about the chips. "There will be ways and choices given to consumers. That has to happen," said Christophe Duverne, vice president of marketing and sales for identification products at Philips Semiconductors, the largest maker of RFID chips. 

Duverne said future generations of the company's chips will have easy-to-trigger kill features. And he said Philips is talking with privacy groups. "These guys are very sensible people, and this is new territory. We need to take their concerns seriously." 

Just in case, remember that a swift tap with a hammer does very bad things to RFID chips.

Mars Spirit Rover Ends Primary Mission

Tue Apr 6, 6:16 AM ET

By ANDREW BRIDGES, News Source Science Writer 

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA (news - web sites)'s Spirit rover has finished its primary mission to Mars yet continues to roll along, moving toward a cluster of hills that could yield evidence of the planet's wet past. 

By Monday, Spirit's 90th full day on Mars, the unmanned robot and its twin, Opportunity, had accomplished nearly all of the tasks before NASA would consider their joint mission a full success. 

"Spirit has completed its part of the bargain and Opportunity doesn't have much left to do," said Mark Adler, manager of the $820 million double mission. 

The tasks included a requirement that one of the rovers travel at least 1,980 feet - a mark Spirit surpassed on Saturday. 

Between the two of them, the rovers also had to take stereo and color panoramas of their surroundings, drive to at least eight different locations and operate simultaneously for a minimum of 30 days. 

NASA assumed technical and other problems would ground the rovers fully one-third of the time they operated on Mars. 

Despite computer memory problems that left Spirit sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks, it's still spent more days at work than expected, Adler said. 

For Opportunity, it still must function for another 20 martian days - which are nearly 40 minutes longer than Earth days - before it meets all of its targets, Adler said. 

"It's better than we could have possibly imagined," he said. 

Spirit landed Jan. 3 in Gusev Crater, a 90-mile-diameter depression scientists believed once contained a lake. Spirit has found traces of limited past water activity in rocks it has examined, but none of the lake deposits scientists hoped it would uncover. 

Spirit is now several days into a trek toward a cluster of hills that may contain geologic evidence of a more substantially wet environment, including perhaps layered rocks formed in standing water. 

Opportunity has found such rocks at its landing site, halfway around the now frozen and dry planet, since it landed Jan. 24. Scientists believe a salty sea or swamp once covered that site, called Meridiani Planum. 

NASA has extended the joint mission through September. If the rovers continue to function, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will apply for money to further extend the project, Adler said. 

___ 

On the Net: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html 

News Corp. to Reincorporate in U.S.

2 hours, 2 minutes ago

Add Business 

By Sophie Hares 

SYDNEY  - Rupert Murdoch made the final break from his Australian roots on Tuesday with plans to shift the corporate headquarters of News Corp. Ltd., one of the world's top four media empires, from sleepy Adelaide to New York. 

Murdoch, who has taken U.S. citizenship and has lived in the United States since the 1970s, said News Corp. would move its primary share listing to the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) to boost access to U.S. capital markets. 

News Corp., which includes 20th Century Fox film studios, the Fox News Channel, scores of newspapers and a swathe of pay-TV businesses from BSkyB to DirecTV, earns more than 75 percent of its profits in the United States. 

"It's something that has been discussed for some time. I think it's a positive. They trade at a discount to U.S. peers -- I think the discount is in the order of 10 percent," said Tony Wilson, media analyst at UBS. 

"It's very positive that there are very few tax liabilities for shareholders or for the company." 

News Corp. has been managed on an operational basis from New York for many years, but analysts said the group opted to maintain its main listing in Australia to avoid capital gains charges on acquisitions. 

The firm, which said none of its businesses, and very few of its shareholders, would be slapped with a tax bill as a result of the reincorporation, will maintain secondary listings in London and Australia, where it currently makes up about seven percent of the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index. 

"News Corp.'s roots, heart and culture are unmistakably Australian," said Murdoch, News Corp.'s executive chairman. 

The 73-year old media mogul's family's News Corp. interests are worth A$8.8 billion ($6.6 billion). 

"Our presence as a foreign issuer in the U.S. leaves many of the world's biggest funds and investors unable to invest in News Corporation," Murdoch said on a conference call. 

"That, we believe, is a prime reason our stock trades at a discount to some of our peers, despite our very strong financial performance in the past few years." 

Making it easier for major U.S. institutional investors to add News Corp. stock to their portfolios would help make the share base more liquid and narrow the gap between News Corp.'s non-voting and voting stock, the group said. 

"Over time, its profile in the U.S. will increase if it's included in U.S. indices," said Alex Pollak, media analyst at Macquarie Equities. 

News Corp., whose American Depositary Receipts currently trade on the NYSE, said it had no plans to alter the structure of its New York-traded Fox Entertainment Group. 

SIMPLIFYING STRUCTURE 

The reincorporation, which will take place through a share-for-share exchange, also involves News Corp. buying the 58 percent of Australia's Queensland Press Ltd. (QPL) owned by the Murdoch family. QPL's assets are valued at A$2.5 billion. 

The restructure would see the Murdoch family hold its shares directly in News Corp. rather than through the convoluted, indirect structures currently used. 

After the reincorporation, the Murdoch family's share of News Corp. voting stock would be trimmed to 29.45 percent from 29.87 percent of News Corp., while the QPL deal would add around A$200 million to the listed firm's operating profits. 

"QPL just cleans up the whole structure, plus it's a good asset," said UBS's Wilson. 

However, some analysts said Australian investors might opt to vote against the reincorporation which would see their stock go from being a major component of Australia's benchmark index to just a tiny part of the NYSE. 

"Is it good to be a big fish in small pond or a small fish in a big pond? Actually, from a share price perspective, it's better to be a big fish in a small pond," said one analyst, who declined to be named. 

News Corp., which said its fixation on DirecTV had seen it delay the reincorporation until now, said its balance sheet was healthy, its cash flows robust and it had no major acquisitions in its sights. 

It plans to update the market on its financial outlook when it releases third quarter results on May 6. 

News Corp. shares ended one cent firmer at A$12.16 as the overall market notched just higher.

Ikea Founder Denies Being Richest Man 
2 hours, 23 minutes ago 
Add Business - 

By TOMMY GRANDELL, News Source Writer 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The founder of Swedish furniture giant Ikea isn't hurting for money, but the company he founded denied on Monday a report that he surpassed Bill Gates (news - web sites) and Warren Buffett (news - web sites) as the world's wealthiest man. 

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� World's Richest People (Forbes)

In an article to be released this week, Swedish news weekly Veckans Affaerer said Ingvar Kamprad, 77, the founder of Ikea, had surpassed Microsoft's Gates and Buffett as the world's wealthiest person. 

The falling exchange rate between the Swedish krona and the U.S. dollar, the magazine said, had caused Kamprad's personal fortune to rise to an estimated $52.5 billion. 

Ikea said that wasn't the case. 

"This is completely wrong. It's a mistake that is made all the time," said Ikea spokeswoman Marianne Barner. "Estimating the value of the company, including all the stores, and saying it's all Ingvar's, that is totally wrong." 

"Ingvar Kamprad does not own Ikea. Ingvar donated the concern to the Dutch Stichting INGKA Foundation in 1982." 

In February, Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's billionaires put Gates at No. 1 with an estimated $46.6 billion. It was the 10th consecutive year the Microsoft co-founder was atop the list. 

Buffett, the Omaha investment guru, was No. 2 with $42.9 billion. 

On that same list, Kamprad was No. 13, with an estimated fortune of $18.5 billion. 

But Veckans Affaerer said when the dollar's slide against the kronor was calculated, he had overtaken Gates and Buffett. 

Kamprad has a reputation for frugality and lives in Switzerland where, as a resident, he is not subject to Sweden's taxes, which are among the highest in the world. 

Ikea, founded in 1943, has 174 stores in 31 countries and employs some 76,000 workers.

Smoking Ban Linked to Drop in Heart Attacks
Sun Apr 4, 7:11 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Patricia Reaney 

LONDON  - Ireland's ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants could have added health benefits if research in the United States is anything to go by. 


 

Nearly two years before the emerald isle became the first country to outlaw smoking in public places, the city of Helena in Montana passed similar legislation and saw a sharp drop in heart attacks. 

Opponents subsequently had the U.S. law overturned but in the six months it was enforced, hospital admissions for heart attack fell by 40 percent in the city. 

"The observations...suggests that smoke-free laws not only protect people from the long-term dangers of second-hand smoke but also that they may be associated with a rapid decrease in heart attacks," said Professor Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco. 

Smoking is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke but Glantz's research, which is published online by the British Medical Journal Monday, is the first to report a link between a ban and heart attacks. 

Only 24 people were admitted to the city's heart hospital with a heart attack during the six-month smoking ban, compared to an average of 40 during the same periods in the year before the law was imposed and after it was overturned. 

Thirty-eight percent of the heart attack patients in the study were smokers, 29 percent had quit and 33 percent had never smoked. 

Further studies are needed to confirm the findings but Glantz said the impact is consistent with the known effects of second-hand smoke on cardiac disease. 

"The dramatic decrease in heart attacks in the Montana study makes sense because exposure to passive smoking can increase the risk of heart attack," a spokesman for the anti-smoking group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health (news - web sites)) said. 

"It all basically points to the need for a ban on smoking in public places and how crucial it is to public health," he added. 

In Ireland, which introduced the nationwide ban last week, around a quarter of deaths from heart disease are caused by smoking. Smokers have twice the risk of heart attack of non-smokers. 

In further research into the dangers of passive smoking also published online, pubic health experts in New Zealand discovered that people who have never smoked but who live with a smoker have a 15 percent higher risk of death than someone who resides in a smoke-free environment. 

"The results from this study add to the weight of evidence of harm caused by passive smoking and support steps to reduce exposure to other people's smoke -- in the home and in other settings," Tony Blakely of Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences in New Zealand, said in the study.

Soap on the cellphone as TV goes tiny
Sun Apr 4, 7:19 PM ET 
Add Technology - NEWS SOURCE 

CANNES, France (NEWS SOURCE) - The launch of TV's first-ever soap for the tiny mobile phone screen might not suit everyone's taste, but it is living proof that the TV and digital worlds are merging. 

 

With this convergence due to transform the average consumer's entertainment fix, a record number of mobile-phone operators -- including heavy-hitters such as Vodafone, Nokia (news - web sites) and Telefonica -- turned up in large numbers at this week's international MiPTV and MILIA trade shows. 

Aside from ring tones and music, games, news and sports results are the current favourites of cell phone users, many of them children and younger adults. And now the race is on to attract new audiences, with the big strides achieved in video streaming to phones throwing up new opportunities. 

"The quality of content, like video, is improving as are the handsets. It's a step change in the level of service," Vodafone's Graham Ferguson told a forum in this Riviera town. 

The first soap-drama specifically made for mobile phones, called "Hotel Franklin," has just been launched by media giant News Corporation. The episodes last just one-minute because, said News Corp.'s Lucy Hood, this "seems to us to be the natural length" for phone viewers. 

That time frame allows for enough character development and plot before leaving a hook at the end to get viewers to look at the next episode. 

The hugely popular dysfunctional Simpson family characters star in another News Corp. initiative to tap into the big mobile phone market. Phone users can call up cute, short clips featuring The Simpsons with messages like "I'm tired" or "Happy Birthday" to send to their friends. 

Hit TV game shows such as "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" are also transferring to telephones, and a deal to license a Millionaire phone game, developed by Active media, and an SMS mobile text version, was unveiled here this week. 

Movie lovers are also in for a treat. There has been a huge rise in the number of homes with broadband connections opening the way for video-on-demand services and on-demand television (IPTV). 

Japan's Softbank Broadmedia has led the way in video-on-demand and just a year after the service was launched, BB Cable TV subscribers can choose from a 2,300-strong video library. 

A number of companies have followed in BB Cable's footsteps. The world's largest cable company, Comcast, offers a large selection of interactive video-on-demand products, which are proving popular with over 50 per cent of its 23 cable subscribers. "We're getting lots of mileage out of video-on-demand," Comcast's Ty Ahmad-Taylor said here. 

Viewers appear to appreciate the ease of the system, which enables calling up a movie directly on the TV set, without having to leave home. The cost of the "rental" is either included in a subscription or automatically put onto the phone bill. 

The millionaire-studded principality of Monaco was one of the first in Europe to launch the VOD concept in Europe but it is also available elsewhere, notable in Britain through Video Networks. 

The more optimistic market watchers believe it might not be long now before all digital devices in the home, including the DVD, mobile phones, digital cameras and the brand-new digital video recorders known as DVRs are hooked up together. 

If and when that happens, the PC could play the central link-up, upstaging the power of the television. 

With the number of remote controls that are scattered around many people's homes that might be a great step forward. But other experts are hedging their bets about how long this may take to happen, if it comes about at all. 

As one key speaker at MILIA, Joichi Ito, pointed out, "traditionally, the (content) industry has been wrong about how consumers use these devices." 

So while there may be a lot of balls in the air, no one really knows for the moment which ones are going to stay up and which are going to fall.

800,000 Cards Overcharged at Wal-Marts

Sun Apr 4, 7:23 PM ET

Add Business - 

By DAN D'AMBROSIO, News Source Writer 

DENVER - A computer hardware problem caused more than 800,000 credit and debit card transactions to be double- or triple-billed last week at Wal-Mart stores nationwide, according to officials at First Data Corp., which handled the electronic payments. 

The excess Visa and Mastercard charges, which occurred Wednesday and were posted on Thursday, have been reversed, First Data spokeswoman Staci Busby said Sunday. 

Busby said the problem showed up on reports the company generates for quality control purposes. She said it's unclear how many customers were affected, and that she had no other details about the hardware problem. 

"Anyone who conducted a transaction with a Visa or Mastercard on March 31 should check their statements," Busby said. 

Danetta Thompson, a spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said Sunday the retailer had posted signs about the problem and was informing customers. She said signs in the stores direct customers to First Data's toll-free number, 888-893-0626. 

"I feel like they've got their arms around the problem," Thompson said. "Those charges have been reversed." 

Busby said some affected customers may not see the reversed charges on their accounts until Tuesday. She said First Data has instituted additional measures as a result of the overbilling. 

First Data processes payments for retailers, moving money from consumers' accounts to merchants' bank accounts. The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company has 30,000 employees and operates in 195 countries and territories. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.firstdata.com 

Some Doctors Turn to Cash-Only Policies

Sun Apr 4,12:24 PM ET



By REBECCA COOK, News Source Writer 

RENTON, Wash. - When Chuck O'Brien visits his doctor, they talk about his aches and pains, his heart problems and his diet, but never about his health insurance. 

That's because his doctor only accepts cash. 

Dr. Vern Cherewatenko is one of a small but growing number of physicians across the country who are dumping complicated insurance contracts in favor of simple cash payments. 

When O'Brien leaves the exam room, he writes a check for $50 and he's done - no forms, no ID numbers, no copayments. 

"This is traditional medicine. This is what America was like 30 years ago," said O'Brien, 55 and self-employed, who believes he has saved thousands of dollars by dropping his expensive insurance policy and paying cash. "It's a whole world of difference." 

Is this the health care wave of the future? Probably not, experts say. Most people are content with monthly premiums and $10 copays; nine out of 10 doctors contract with managed-care companies. 

But cash-only medicine is becoming an increasingly attractive option for doctors frustrated by red tape and for the 43 million Americans who lack health insurance. 

"It's a terrible indictment of the collapsing health care system," said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. "Insurance and managed care were supposed to streamline - instead what they've done is add so much paperwork and bureaucracy they're driving some doctors out." 

Health insurers downplay the trend, while emphasizing recent efforts to mend tattered relationships between doctors and managed care companies. 

"I don't look at it as a threat," said Mohit Ghose, spokesman for the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans. "It's just a different way of practicing." 

Medical establishment leaders don't object to doctors working for simple cash. 

"This is America. One size does not fit all," said Dr. John C. Nelson, president-elect of the American Medical Association. "We certainly support the physicians' right to do that." 

An obstetrician-gynecologist in Salt Lake City, Nelson easily recalled times when he believed managed care rules prevented his patients from getting the best treatment. He said cash-only doctors are driven by the desire to practice medicine without interference. 

"There is a great intrusion by third parties into the patient-physician relationship," Nelson said. "We can understand their frustration." 

Cherewatenko, a broad-shouldered 45-year-old who wears black jackets and red stethoscopes at work, switched to cash out of desperation six years ago. His suburban Seattle practice was hemorrhaging money, and he and his partners realized they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars just to process insurance paperwork. 

"We said, 'Let's cut out this administrative waste,'" Cherewatenko said. Before, he charged $79 for an office visit and got $43 from an insurance company months later, minus the $20 in staff time it took to collect the payment. Now he charges $50 - and he never worries about collection costs, because patients pay in full after every visit. 

Cherewatenko sees fewer patients now. His whole office would probably fit inside his old waiting room. But he says the freedom is worth it. 

"Accounts receivable is zero. It's a great feeling," Cherewatenko said. "I feel like I'm a real doctor again." 

He started a group called SimpleCare to spread the gospel of cash-only medicine. The organization steers patients to doctors who offer cash discounts, and gives technical and moral support to doctors who want to start cutting their ties to insurance. Membership has grown to 22,000 patient members and 1,500 doctors. Some reject all insurance and take only cash, while others continue to accept insurance while offering discounts of 15 percent to 50 percent for cash-paying patients. 

Independent of SimpleCare, doctors in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, Mississippi and other states have also quit the insurance game. Some tired of the paperwork and administrative expenses. Some wanted to spend more time with patients without managed care bean-counters peering over their shoulders. The patients who pay cash range from poor to wealthy, with most in the blue-collar middle. 

"When I first started, I thought it would be the elite. That's not the case," said Dr. Shelley Giebel, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Temple, Texas, who washed her hands of insurance eight years ago. 

Her standard, hour-long annual checkup costs $140. Everyone pays cash. 

If a patient needs extra tests or treatment, Giebel tells them upfront what it will cost. 

"If it is an urgent test, we'll go ahead and do it. We're not going to delay medical care because they don't have the money in hand," she said. Often, patients return later with the money. 

"It has usually not been a problem that people forgo medical care," she said. 

The cash-only movement isn't just changing the way people pay, it's changing the way these doctors work. Because of managed care's low reimbursement rates, doctors on insurance contracts must limit their time with each patient. 

Giebel, a typical example, said she would have to double her patient load to make ends meet if she relied on insurance - something she can't imagine. "How can you possibly talk about prevention of cancer and heart disease when you're seeing patients every 12 minutes?" she asked. 

Cash-only patients rave about the quality of care. 

"They take time here with you," said Jesse Rainwater, a 59-year-old church pastor from Bellevue, Wash., who credits Cherewatenko with teaching him to manage his diabetes. "They don't just bring you in and run you out like a bunch of cattle. You feel like you're loved." 

The cash-only approach evokes Norman Rockwell-tinged visions of country doctors being paid with chickens. The simplicity is tempting, but the truth is many people went without preventive health care in those "good old days." A $50 charge can be powerful incentive to delay seeing a doctor until you're in pain - which can lead to more expensive health problems later. 

"Medicine used to be a cash-only business, and there were certainly many people who didn't have the cash," said Caplan, the medical ethicist. Doctors who insist on cash also have an ethical obligation to help people who can't afford the fee, he said - even if it means accepting chickens. 

Cash crusaders acknowledge the need for some type of insurance. Without it, expensive surgery or hospitalization would force most people into bankruptcy. But they think health insurance should work more like car insurance: you pay for the routine maintenance and little dings yourself, and insurance pays for more expensive repairs. 

O'Brien, a freelance marketing specialist, switched from a comprehensive health plan with $300 monthly premiums to a catastrophic plan that costs $75 a month, with a $2,000 deductible. He pays out-of-pocket for routine checkups, and his insurance will kick in if he ever needs expensive care. 

The promise of a simple cash payment lured him to Cherewatenko's office, but the doctor's personal attention keeps him coming back. The $50 exams are just part of the bargain for O'Brien. Cherewatenko recently met him for coffee to talk about improving his diet - including an admonition to cut back on caffeine. 

"How often does your doctor go out and have a cup of coffee with you?" O'Brien asked. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.simplecare.com

The Housework Conspiracy 05-Apr-2004

Is this some kind of conspiracy? Researchers say that doing housework can reduce a woman's chance of getting cancer. 

They found the risk of endometrial and breast cancer was cut by 30% from physical activity such as household chores and walking. Women who did chores for more than four hours a day had more protection than those who only worked for two hours. Women who walked for a hour a day, rather than just a half hour, also got less cancer. 

Researcher Clare Stevinson says, "Some levels of housework are hard enough to have a physiological effect. It doesn't have to be a huge amount of high intensity stuff. But the more you do, the better."

A Surprising Reason Why Soft Drinks Make You Fat 26-Mar-2004

The rate of obesity in the U.S. started to increase in the 1970s, about the same time that manufacturers switched from sugar to cheaper corn syrup for their colas and other soft drinks. Now researchers say this may be because high fructose corn syrup-a food, like margarine, that is created in the lab and not found in nature-does not trigger the same appetite response in the body as sugar, so it's more likely to make us fat. 

Connoisseurs who remember the great taste of old-time sodas try to find Kosher Coke and Coca-Cola bottled in Mexico, where it's still made with sugar. But these sodas may not just taste better; the cost-cutting measures of major manufacturers may be the leading cause of obesity in America. Obesity researcher Dr. George A. Bray says the rise in corn sweeteners is "coincidental with the epidemic of obesity. Body weights rose slowly for most of the 20th century until the late 1980s. At that time, many countries showed a sudden increase in the rate at which obesity has been galloping forward." 

Unlike glucose (sugar), fructose doesn't trigger responses in the hormones that regulate your appetite and energy output, meaning it's much more likely to be converted into fat. 

"Fake foods" have been a major cause of disease in the past few years. Margarine, which replaced butter when it was scarce during World War II, was once touted by the American Heart Association as a miracle food that lowered cholesterol levels. It's now been shown to do just the opposite and we're warned not to eat it. 

Despite being vegetarians, cows were fed protein in the form of the ground-up bones of other cows, leading to Mad Cow Disease. 

High-fructose corn syrup made soft drinks cheap, especially after we could no longer import sugar from Cuba. Like all the other "fake foods" of recent years, it was created so manufacturers could cut costs and make more profit. And like the other fakes, it has ended up costing the public large amounts of money for treating heart disease, obesity and for Mad Cow monitoring.

First Robin Seen in Far North 23-Apr-2004

In Spring, many of us look for signs that the weather is warming, and one of these is the first sighting of a robin. Recently Inuits living in Northern Canada had the same experience-for the first time ever. Are robins in the far north a sign of global warming? 

Martin Mittelstaedt writes for the Canada Globe & Mail that the Inuits (also known as Eskimos) don't even have a name for the robin. In the summer of 1993, Inuits showed John Babaluk of the federal fisheries a fish they'd never seen before, which turned out to be a sockeye salmon. "We actually saw, recorded, took pictures and did some measurements on some sockeye salmon that had shown up in Sachs Harbor," Babaluk says, "That was the first time that any of the locals that we talked to had seen them."

Yereth Rosen writes in planetark.com that Alaska shows major signs of warming as well. Aleut tribal leaders say salmon are getting warm-water parasites and show strange behavior. Salmon and moose meat now have odd tastes and the marrow in moose bones is strangely runny. 

Beavers are moving north, damming up rivers and affecting water flow and salmon eggs. Alaskans are frustrated that people in the lower 48 aren't noticing the symptoms of global warming that they see all around them. Orville Huntington, of the Alaska Native Science Commission, says, "It looks like winter out there, but if you've really been around a long time like me, it's not winter. If you travel that ice, it's not the ice that we traveled 40 years ago."

Lawns May Cause Dog Cancer 23-Apr-2004

This is the time of year when people are fertilizing their lawns and putting pesticides on them. A new study shows that these chemicals may cause bladder cancer in some dogs-and maybe in people too. Researcher Larry Glickman says, "While we hope to determine which of the many chemicals in lawn treatments are responsible, we also hope the similarity between human and dog genomes will allow us to find the genetic predisposition toward this form of cancer found in both Scotties and certain people. 

"These dogs are more sensitive to some factors in their environment," Glickman says. "As pets tend to spend a fair amount of time in contact with plants treated with herbicides and insecticides, we decided to find out whether lawn chemicals were having any effect on cancer frequency."

Glickman talked to 83 owners of Scottish terriers whose pets had recently been diagnosed with bladder cancer and learned that "The risk...was found to be between four and seven times more likely in exposed animals." Scotties are about 20 times more likely to develop bladder cancer than other breeds. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 38,000 men and 15,000 women are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year. Humans and animals share genes that can predispose them to cancer. Glickman says, "If such a gene exists in dogs, it's likely that it exists in a similar location in the human genome. Finding the dog gene could save years in the search for it in humans and could also help us determine which kids need to stay away from lawn chemicals."

http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3731

Should We Make Mars Another Earth? 22-Apr-2004

Some scientists think they can make Mars into a livable planet again by tinkering with its atmosphere. "Terraforming has long been a fictional topic," says NASA's Michael Meyer. "Now, with real scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities, as well as the potential ramifications, of transforming Mars." But they'll have to watch out for the electrified dust devils. 

Robin McKie writes in The Observer that researchers who want to terraform Mars point to the fact that traces of methane have been found in the Martian atmosphere. This is a result of decaying life forms, meaning Mars was once hospitable to life and could be again. 

In order to terraform Mars, engineers would have to find a way to thicken its atmosphere and heat up its surface. While we're trying to get rid of excess greenhouse gases here on Earth, the way to warm up Mars is to produce them. One idea is to put a large mirror into orbit above Mars, which would focus the Sun's rays onto its polar icecap. The ice would melt and release carbon dioxide, which would trap the Sun's heat and warm up the planet. Adding CO2 to atmosphere would also thicken it and protect the surface from ultra-violet radiation from space that would kill off any life there. 

Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea. Astronomer Monica Grady says, "We now know Mars used to have an atmosphere, but it disappeared for reasons that are still unclear. If we restore Mars's atmosphere, we could easily find it disappeared again. We would have done some devastating things to the planet for a temporary effect. That is certainly not ethical." 

NASA's Lisa Pratt says, "It is very depressing. Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars-which I am increasingly confident we will find-we are talking about undertaking massive projects that would wipe out all these indigenous life forms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the Martian soil. It is simply ethically wrong. 

"If we find life on Mars, the philosophical implications will be profound. If it is unlike Earthly life and has a different genetic code, this will show that living beings evolved separately on two neighboring worlds. Life is therefore likely to be ubiquitous throughout the galaxy. If it has the same genetic code, however, it will indicate that one planet must have contaminated the other - probably by rocks being blasted across the solar system following meteorite impacts. We may really be Martian in origin. Given the importance of these issues, we simply cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious sensitive evidence we are seeking." 

Robert Roy Britt writes in space.com that there are whirling dust devils on Mars that generate high-voltage electric fields. Future Mars explorers will have to learn how to avoid them. 

The same thing happens to dust devils here on Earth. In Arizona and Nevada, where there are plenty of them, researchers drove so fast they raced right through dust devils so they could measure their voltage. They found the devils had huge electric fields of over 4,000 volts. 

Dust devils are miniature tornadoes that can be started by a gentle breeze. They can grow as large as a football field and have winds up to 60 mph. On Mars, dust devils can be five times wider and soar 5 miles high, higher than tornadoes on Earth. 

Before the tests, scientists didn't realize that dust devils were electrically charged. They knew they become electrified when particles in the dust rub against one another, producing static electricity, but they thought the positive and negative particles cancelled each other out. Instead, the smaller particles tend to gain a negative charge and the wind carries them higher, leaving the positive particles close to the ground. This separation turns the dust devil into a giant battery. 

NASA's William Farrell says, "If Martian dust devils are highly electrified, as our research suggests, they might give rise to increased discharging or arcing in the low-pressure Martian atmosphere, increased dust adhesion to space suits and equipment, and interference with radio communications."

Autism May be "Extreme Maleness" 22-Apr-2004

New research shows that autism may be linked to male hormones circulating in the developing fetus, and babies who produce high levels of testosterone are more likely to be autistic. It's an affliction that mostly shows up in males. This has led to the theory that autism is an exaggerated form of the way ordinary men think and behave. Researcher Simon Baron-Cohen says, "What I am doing is testing this idea that autism might be an extreme of the male brain." Baron-Cohen tested amniotic fluid taken from 70 pregnant women during amniocentesis for testosterone levels. When the children were born, he found that "Those who had a high level of testosterone also found it more difficult to fit into new social groups." While they were not actually autistic, they did have more autism-like traits. They were less curious and less willing to make eye contact with other people. 

Previous research shows that men are basically less empathic than women, and this difference is exaggerated in people with autism. Baron-Cohen says, "It's showing that the sexes are different. It's not about one being better than the other. You're going to find individuals who are not typical of either sex." 

Runestone Proves Vikings in Minnesota 22-Apr-2004

If the slab of granite known as the Kensington Runestone is real, it proves the Vikings were in central Minnesota more than a century before Columbus discovered America. Researchers are taking the stone to Sweden to ask experts there if it's genuine. There are many runestones in Sweden- massive rocks carved with strange designs and symbols. 

The "runestone" was dug up by Swedish farmer Olof Ohman in 1898 while he was clearing stumps from his land near Kensington with his son Edward. Ohman claimed he had no idea who carved the ancient Scandinavian symbols, known as runes, into the rock. The inscription on the rock refers to a band of Vikings being there 650 years ago. It describes men in the exploring party being killed by Indians and says, "eight Goths and twenty-two Norwegians" came from "Vinland over west" in 1362. "We had camp by two skerries, one day's journey north from this stone we were, and fished one day. After we came home, found ten men red with blood and dead." (Skerries are rocks that are tiny islands). 

In 1949, the Minnesota Historical Society made a recording of Edward's voice when he was 61 years old. On it, he says, "I was ten years old and going to school at the time." He describes helping his father pry the 200 pound rock from underneath a tree stump, and says, "...I sat down on it and started to dig in the dirt with my hands, as kids usually do, and I suggested to Dad that we should take it home and use it for a door step. And just then I discovered a carving on it. I told Dad it was written on." 

R.S. Thornton, the Douglas County Historian at the time the tape was made, asks him, "Did they look as though they were fresh? Or how did [the markings] look?" 

"...They looked to me to have been there for many years," Ohman replies. 

Another man asks him, "Did you ever see your father writing runes on paper at any time before this stone was found?" 

"No, sir." 

Bergman Richards, then president of the Minnesota Historical Society, asks, "Had the earth where the stone was found ever been farmed or plowed or disturbed in any way?" 

Edward says, "Never." 

But the recording doesn't satisfy the many critics who think the runestone is a hoax created by Scandinavian-Americans who wanted to be known as the discoverers of America. 

A fiberglass replica of the stone has been placed on temporary display at the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota, while the real stone is being taken Sweden, to be examined by some of the world's top experts. It has already been studied by local geologist Scott Wolter. After examining the rough upper edges of the runes, he says, "I'm saying that the weathering of the inscription is older than 200 years and therefore, it has to be genuine." 

Anthropologist Michael Michlovic says, "...I still think the Kensington stone is a fake...Until runic experts, and until Scandinavian language experts, can look at this inscription and say, 'yes, this medieval, ' I see no reason why we should accept this as authentic." 

In Sweden, papers from the 1880s by a 16-year-old boy have been found that are written a runic alphabet similar to one used on the runestone. Skeptics says this proves that people in the 19th century created the symbols. But Wolter says the boy may have been copying the alphabet from an older source. At least the papers prove that Ohman didn't create the symbols himself. 

Geniuses Use Both Sides of the Brain 21-Apr-2004

Why are some people so much smarter than the rest of us? One reason may be that they've learned how to use both sides of their brain at the same time. Scientists know that the left side of the brain is the problem-solving side, while the right side is more imaginative. But if you're one of those rare people who can combine them, you can harness incredible brain power. 

A recent study of teenagers who are above-average math students found that the right and left halves of their brains are better able to work together than the brains of average students. Psychologist Michael O'Boyle says, "Giftedness in math, music or art may be the by-product of a brain that has functionally organized itself in a different way." 

How can you get a brain like that? It's partly due to genetics, and partly due to the environment. O'Boyle says, "I don't think we can create a math genius without the innate talent already there." 

Neurologist Heidi Roth says, "There's a lot of interest in how training and learning can affect the brain's functional organization and structure, but it's controversial. We have recently become aware of the striking ability of the brain to change its organization depending on experience. For example, people who are highly skilled string instrument players will have greater representation in the brain for the left hand, because special skills in the left hand are needed to play these instruments." 

The differences are caused by the corpus callosum. "It's the conduit for information crossing from one hemisphere of the brain to another," says Roth. "The corpus callosum allows the two hemispheres of the brain to speak to one another. If it's severed, the integration between the two hemispheres is very poor." 

The corpus callosum is often larger in left-handed people, who are also more likely to be gifted in math. Other traits of math geniuses: besides being left-handed, they tend to be males who are nearsighted and have more allergies and migraine headaches.

Evidence of Reincarnation 20-Apr-2004

Six-year-old James Leininger may be the reincarnation of a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot who was shot down over the Pacific by the Japanese during World War II. James' parents Andrea and Bruce say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives." So what has convinced them it's true? James liked to play with toy planes from an early age, but by age two, they started giving him nightmares. Andrea says, "I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming [saying] "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out." In a home video when he was three, James seems to be doing a sophisticate preflight check. When she pointed out what she thought was a bomb on the underside of a toy plane, James corrected her and told her it was a "drop tank." She says, "I'd never heard of a drop tank. I didn't know what a drop tank was." 

James' nightmares got so bad that his mother took him to see therapist Carol Bowman, who has been a guest on Dreamland. She encouraged James to tell his parents about his memories. He told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. He said his plane was a Corsair and says, "They used to get flat tires all the time." He also said the ship he took off from was called the "Natoma" and he flew with a pilot named Jack Larson. His father Bruce discovered that both the ship and the pilot were real. He says, "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it." 

Bruce began to search the internet for information about the pilot and the ship and found out that the only pilot from that squadron who was killed at Iwo Jima was named James M. Huston Jr. He contacted Ralph Clarbour, who was a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the same ship and he told him his plane was next to one flown by Huston over Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. He saw Huston's plane being struck by anti-aircraft fire and says, "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine." 

Bruce believes "He came back because he wasn't finished with something." 

California Quake Predicted for September 19-Apr-2004

In May, there will be a TV miniseries about a devastating quake in California that scientists say is too extreme to be real. But a U.S. geophysicist says a major earthquake will hit southern California by September 5th. 

Vladimir Keilis-Borok has developed a way of predicting earthquakes by tracking miniquakes, that often cannot even be felt. Using this method, he predicts that California will experience a 6.4 quake in September. He accurately predicted a 6.5 quake in Central California last December and an 8.1 quake in Japan last September. He says, "Earthquake prediction is called the Holy Grail of earthquake science, and has been considered impossible by many scientists. It is not impossible. We have made a major breakthrough, discovering the possibility of making predictions months ahead of time, instead of years, as in previously known methods." 

Seismologist Nancy Sauer says, "Even two years back it was practically a dirty word to say earthquake prediction." 

He predicts the quake will hit an area that stretches across desert regions to the east of Los Angeles, home to around nine million people, including the Mojave desert and the resort town of Palm Springs, which lies near the San Andreas fault. An earthquake on the southern San Andreas of a magnitude of 7.5 or larger could kill thousands of people in the greater Los Angeles area and cause damage estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. 

Seismologist Ray Weldon's data backs up Keilis-Borok's research, but he says, "...I don't lend any insight or support to a window of time."

How Your Car Pollutes-You 19-Apr-2004

You already know that automobile exhaust pollutes the outside environment. But did you know that the air INSIDE your car is also dangerously polluted? A study of highway patrol troopers shows that spending too much time inside your car can be bad for your heart. 

Jennifer Warner writes that while air pollution levels inside cars are lower than the levels outside, they're still bad, and can cause cardiovascular problems such as blood clotting and variations in your heart beat. This happened to nine healthy North Carolina state highway patrol troopers who spent all day in their cars. 

Researcher Michael Riediker put air quality monitors inside their patrol cars, and each trooper wore a heart rate monitor. He found that prolonged exposure to air pollution inside their cars caused changes in their heart rates that were potentially dangerous. Riediker says exposure to in-car air pollutants "should be minimized."

Americans are Getting Shorter 16-Apr-2004

Increased height has always been a sign of health and Americans have always been taller than Europeans-until now. Now they're becoming taller than we are and researchers want to know why. John Komlos says, "There is much concern about the obesity epidemic in the U.S. because of health consequences, but the fact that the physical stature of Americans has been lagging well behind European levels has all but eluded comment. Within half a century a veritable metamorphosis in the shape of the American population took place without notice; from being the tallest in the world still around World War II, Americans have become one of the most obese at the start of the 21st century." 

Komlos analyzed data from the last 200 years for 250,000 people and found that in the 1800s, the Dutch were about three inches shorter than Americans, but now they're around three inches taller. When he compared the heights of American slaves and present-day Norwegians, he discovered that, at the time of the American Revolution in 1775, the average American man was 5 feet 9 inches tall, which was about two inches taller than the average British man. Now the average Brit is half an inch taller than the average American. 

The logical assumption would be that the U.S. has lots of short immigrants, such as Mexicans and Asians, but Komlos says he's left those people out of his study. He says, "We think it could be linked to factors such as the better medical attention available in western and northern European countries, and better access to a welfare state. There is also a more even distribution of income in western and northern Europe." 40 million Americans don't have health insurance, while the Dutch have the "world's best" pre- and post-natal care. 

Due to starvation and lack of good nutrition, North Koreans are becoming smaller and frailer than South Koreans, almost as if they were another race. It's hard to believe that the same thing could be happening here in the U.S. too.

Cambodian PM turns year younger on birthday
Mon Apr 5, 5:58 AM ET 
Add Entertainment - NEWS SOURCE 

PHNOM PENH (NEWS SOURCE) - Rather than facing the trauma of turning a year older, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has marked his birthday by declaring himself a year and four months younger. 

NEWS SOURCE/Cambodge Soir/File Photo 

The premier told an audience attending a school building opening that according to official documents he should have turned 53 on Sunday, the Cambodia Daily reported Monday. 

"It is not my real birthday, April 4, 1951... My true birthday was August 5, 1952," he was quoted as saying, adding that he had forgotten his real birth date and misreported it when he became a soldier in 1970. 

Southeast Asia's longest serving leader reportedly said he never celebrated his or his family's birthdays to "save money and time". 

Hun Sen is not the only one with such a problem in Cambodia, where the civil registry is in disarray after nearly three decades of conflict and lists just five percent of all Cambodians. 

A campaign to list the kingdom's population of more than 12 million people on the registry was launched last month. 

Papers on 1964 Brazil Coup Declassified

Sat Apr 3, 4:44 AM ET

By TOM MURPHY, News Source Writer 

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Newly declassified U.S. documents show the extent of American willingness to provide aid to Brazil's generals during the 1964 coup that ushered in 21 years of often bloody military rule. 

The National Security Archive, a non-governmental Washington-based research group, posted the documents on its Web site this week to coincide with Wednesday's 40th anniversary of the coup. 

Figuring prominently in the records is Lincoln Gordon, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil at the time and now a resident expert in Latin American affairs at the Brookings Institution in Washington. 

"We were working at a frenzied pace in those days to get Washington ready for whatever might happen," Gordon, 90, said in a telephone interview with The News Source. "It was the height of the Cold War and Brazil was a major country in Latin America." 

The documents show members of Lyndon B. Johnson's administration actively preparing to aid the coup plotters. 

In a March 27, 1964, cable to the State Department, Gordon requested a naval task force and deliveries of fuel and arms to the coup plotters "to help avert a major disaster here." 

Gordon said in the cable that Brazil could fall under the spell of a communist-style regime led by President Joao Goulart, "which might make Brazil the China of the 1960s." Mainland China turned communist in 1949 under Mao Zedong. 

The documents also reveal what some experts say was a major miscalculation by the CIA (news - web sites). 

A CIA cable from Brazil, dated March 30, predicted a military coup "within the next few days." It added, "The revolution will not be resolved quickly and will be bloody." 

In fact, the coup was put in motion the next day, March 31, and was over by April 4, when Goulart fled to exile in Uruguay. The entire episode was bloodless. 

"The CIA was probably harking back to events in 1961, when the military was deeply divided over the issue of Goulart assuming power," said American political scientist David Fleischer, who teaches at the University of Brasilia. "But, just as there was no violence in 1961, there was none in 1964. It was a CIA miscalculation, not for the first time and not for the last." 

A Brazilian historian, Gaudenico Torquato of the University of Sao Paulo, said, "They (the CIA) got it wrong. At that time, the U.S. was involved in the feverish competition against communism known as the Cold War. That colored their judgment." 

In a March 31 reply to Gordon, Secretary of State Dean Rusk said the administration had decided to "immediately mobilize" a naval task force. He also promised fuel, ammunition and tear gas shipments to the Brazilian military. 

"These new documents serve to reinforce what is now a well-known tale," said Fleischer. "The U.S. organized its support for the coup in an operation called Brother Sam. The task force ended up steaming toward the South Atlantic, but the aid was never needed. The coup ended quickly and without bloodshed." 

Gordon said Rusk made it clear that the U.S. would only intervene under certain circumstances. "He wanted to make sure there was broad political support in Brazil for the military before advising any intervention." 

The documents show President Johnson was keenly following events in Brazil. In one instance, Johnson instructs aides "to take every step that we can" to aid Brazilian military forces opposed to Goulart. 

The audiotape presents a briefing between Johnson and national security aides. In it, Johnson says, "I'd get right on top of it and stick my neck out a little." 

But Gordon said: "People like Rusk were cautious. I think they were influenced by the Bay of Pigs and didn't want a repeat of that experience." 

In 1961, anti-Castro rebels, supported and armed by the U.S., were defeated by Castro when they attempted to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. 

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil was ruled by a string of five colorless military presidents chosen by their fellow officers. The dictatorship ended in 1985 when a democracy movement swept the country. 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Security Archive: http://www.nsarchive.org 

New Software Seeking State Tax Scofflaws Sat Apr 3, 3:32 PM ET

By MARTIN FINUCANE, News Source Writer 

BOSTON - Tax scofflaws, beware! A pack of digital bloodhounds may be on your trail. State revenue agencies across the nation are hunting for tax evaders with new high-tech tools: computer programs that mine an increasing number of databases for clues on the finances of people and businesses. 

If your name is flagged, expect a letter or a call. 

"It's the new trend. It's where everybody is headed," said Verenda Smith, government affairs associate at the Federation of Tax Administrators, which represents state tax agencies. "The greatest value of these systems is in finding patterns that the human eye isn't that good at seeing." 

In Massachusetts, for example, the state tax agency can scan a U.S. Customs and Border Protection database of people who paid duties on big-ticket items entering the country - so anyone who fails to pay the state the required 5 percent "use tax" gets flagged. 

The state has also tried comparing motor vehicle registration data with tax returns, looking for people who might be driving Rolls Royces or Jaguars but declaring only a small income, Revenue Commissioner Alan LeBovidge said. 

"They're able to drill or mine increasingly large amounts of information from various sources. Activities that would have previously taken them years of work can now be done within seconds," said Amar Gupta, co-director of the Productivity From Information Technology research center at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "The dynamics have changed." 

The new tools have reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in increased tax collections, officials say. But the government's growing sophistication at collecting and scrutinizing data about taxpayers is sounding alarms among privacy advocates. 

The Federation of Tax Administrators doesn't keep a definitive list of states using the technology, but Massachusetts, Texas, California, Washington, Virginia, Iowa and Florida are known to be leaders in the trend, which began in the late 1990s. The IRS is also using the techniques. 

Revenue agency officials say the systems make them more efficient, with audits tending to yield more. They also say innocent people who shouldn't be audited at all are less likely to be bothered. 

The tax agencies' "data warehouses" can stockpile data from state and federal agencies and, in some cases, private sources. And they are using new tools to analyze the data, including "data-mining" software that can scrutinize mountains of information to find patterns or establish relationships. 

Tax officials say many of the databases they use have been available to them for years - but it has never been so easy to integrate and analyze them. 

That ease with which government can now measure up our lives troubles Chris Hoofnagle, associate director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based privacy group. 

He worries that the growing database culture in the United States "can empower the state over individuals or increase the power of the state." 

"It can be used maliciously," said Hoofnagle. 

Government data-mining sparked controversy last year, forcing a shutdown of the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s Total Information Awareness project to plumb public and private records for clues about terrorism. More recently, privacy concerns led several states to drop out of the Matrix crime database system. 

The digital dossier-building among tax agencies doesn't just pinpoint which taxpayers should be audited. The analyzing systems can automatically generate letters to taxpayers and help locate people who have changed their addresses. 

The Massachusetts system mixes databases from the IRS and Customs, along with state motor vehicle, incorporation and professional licensing records. The state tax agency says it uses other databases, but won't name them. 

Officials in Massachusetts and several other states said, however, that their agencies did not buy information from the sometimes-controversial vendors that aggregate and sell vast amounts of personal data about individuals. 

For its part, the IRS "has contracted with several companies that assist the agency with data mining, primarily the agency's own data, and to build case models to identify non-compliant taxpayers," said agency spokeswoman Nancy Mathis. 

The Massachusetts agency has brought in $47 million thanks to the system since its June 2002 inception, LeBovidge said. California officials estimate that for the four years ending in fiscal 2003, their new system brought in $260.6 million - while Texas says is data-mining tech has harvested more than $362 million since the late 1990s. 

As an example of a successful case, Massachusetts officials said IRS records led them to a man who worked in the state but had not bothered to file state income taxes. He had to cough up $33,000. 

LeBovidge says it's unfair to call database-mining Orwellian. 

"We're asking people to pay their taxes that are legitimately due," he said. "And if we don't have people pay the taxes that are due, then we have to ask the people that are stepping forward to pay more. And that's not fair." 

LeBovidge now unabashedly dreams of a day when people won't even have to fill out their income tax forms: The government will have so much information about people's finances that it can simply fill out tax forms and mail them to taxpayers to be endorsed. 

California has taken a step in that direction, mailing 23,000 pre-filled-out forms to taxpayers who have simpler types of returns, a small fraction of the state's 15 million business and private returns, said Denise Azimi, spokeswoman for the California Franchise Tax Board, 

She said an upgrade to California's "non-filer" system that began in the late 1990s offered the state an increased data warehousing and analysis capability. The system brings together multiple databases, including records from the IRS, state agencies, banks and brokerage houses to try to identify tax cheats. 

In its data-mining for tax cheats, Texas uses a pattern-recognition technology similar to what credit card companies use to flag unusual charges. 

Looking at a restaurant, for example, the system can examine the cigarette, alcohol and sales taxes collected and compare the numbers to what would be expected of a typical restaurant, flagging numbers that seem out of whack, said Billy Hamilton, Texas deputy comptroller. Texas also scans Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) records for people who have bought planes and failed to pay a sales or use tax. 

For privacy advocates, such methods can violate a fundamental privacy principle: data collected for one purpose shouldn't be used for another without a person's permission. 

James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology says said he wouldn't go so far as to call for eliminating data-mining for tax cheats. 

But they should be "subject to checks and balances," he said, with those targeted given a chance to dispute a state's findings. 

"Are people innocent until proven guilty," he said, "or are they guilty by computer match until proven innocent?" 

___ 

Martin Finucane can be reached at mfinucane(at)ap.org 

Life on Mars Could Have Come from Earth -Study 
Wed Mar 24, 2:07 PM ET 
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LONDON  - An American scientist believes that if life is finally proved to exist on Mars, its origins may be more mundane and closer to home than we think. "I believe there is life on Mars, and it's unequivocally there, because we sent it," said Andrew Schuerger in the New Scientist Magazine Wednesday. 

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Get a preview of tomorrow's PC and desktop displays. Plus, where the PC won't be anytime soon. 

The University of Florida scientist said there is a good chance that microbes from Earth have made it to Mars by hitching a lift aboard space probes. 

Schuerger said of all probes sent to Mars, only the two Viking craft in 1976 were adequately heat-sterilized. Procedures used for all missions since then, including NASA (news - web sites)'s twin rovers and Europe's Beagle 2, would have left some microbes on board. 

The Cheapest Disneyland Paris Visit - Buy a Share 
Mar 26, 8:23 am ET 
PARIS  - The cheapest way to visit Disneyland Paris may be to buy a single share in Euro Disney, the company that operates the theme park.

Shareholders who trekked to Euro Disney's annual meeting on Thursday at Marne-la-Vallee, about an hour by train or car from central Paris, were given two same-day tickets for the firm's parks there, the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney Studios.

They also received two cuddly toys from the "Lion King" film, a restaurant voucher and two other tickets valid from June 27 to July 27.

Euro Disney shares were trading at 0.45 euro each on Thursday. The current entry price at the parks is 49 euros ($59.42) for an adult and 39 euros for a child. 

Gorilla Pair at Philadelphia Zoo Break Up 

Sun Mar 28, 3:59 PM ET

Add Strange News - 

PHILADELPHIA - Five years have passed without the pitter-patter of baby gorilla feet, and zookeepers have decided that Demba and Chaka just aren't working out. Introduced to each other five years ago at the Philadelphia Zoo amid high reproductive hopes, it's not even clear the gorillas ever mated. 

That's a big change for Chaka, who had been dubbed "best stud muffin" after fathering eight little ones at Cincinnati's zoo. 

"Things have not gone that way," said Andy Baker, the Philadelphia Zoo's senior vice president for animal programs. 

In May, Chaka, a 380-pound silverback, will travel to Columbia, S.C., to the Riverbanks Zoo's "Gorilla Base Camp." Philadelphia's two other male gorillas, Mike and Kimya, will go with him. Demba gets to keep their Philadelphia home, and she will be joined by a troupe from the St. Louis Zoo: a toddler, his parents and another female. 

The departure of 19-year-old Chaka is bittersweet to keepers because he is a link to the era before a Christmas Eve 1995 fire at the zoo that killed 23 primates, including Chaka's parents. Chaka would have likely died, too, if he wasn't on a breeding loan program in Cincinnati. 

Demba and Chaka were supposed to breed and start a new dynasty of apes. Gorilla handlers were particularly hoping that Demba, whose parents were wild-born, would mate to introduce her genes into the captive population. 

But Demba may have been, biologically speaking, damaged goods from early gorilla-hood. She was raised by humans and didn't meet another of her own species for years. Even then, she never seemed quite comfortable with her own kind. But keepers figured that with Chaka's past success, passion might take hold. 

Now at age 33, Demba's biological clock "has pretty well ticked its last tick," said Dan Wharton, the nation's gorilla coordinator and director of the Central Park Zoo. 

The two females that Chaka will be living with are younger, and one is known to be fertile. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.phillyzoo.org 

Merchants Find Problems With Google 

Sat Mar 27, 1:00 PM ET

By ANICK JESDANUN, News Source Internet Writer 

NEW YORK - Once among the top results when using common search terms like "Seattle hotels," the hotel reservation site GotHotel.com has all but disappeared from the Internet. 

Though the site is still there, it's almost impossible to find using the leading search engine, Google, after a routine shuffle of its results-ranking formulas. Site owner Allen Price laments that one large company can make or break a one-person operation overnight. 

"It can be catastrophic at times," said Price, who runs the business from his home about 3 miles from Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. "They are all-powerful, they are the best, and they call all the shots." 

Google may be popular, but it gets its share of complaints. Merchants quibble when their sites rank poorly, while some users say the popularity-based ranking system shuts out useful, but little-known sites. 

Because a site scores higher the more other sites link to it - an indication of popularity - independent films are less likely than Hollywood blockbusters to appear in results, said Dragomir Radev, an information studies professor at the University of Michigan. 

Newer and foreign sites may also be difficult to find because they are not as well known by the U.S.-centric Internet population. 

When Google emerged on the Internet more than five years ago, it was hailed by the tech elite as a revolution in searching. Its popularity-based ranking system produced more relevant results than the keyword-focused search engines of the era. 

But as Google's popularity grew, so did attempts to fool it. A cottage industry developed around search engine optimization to share tricks for ranking higher. 

One early trick involved buying hundreds of domain names and having them link to one another to mimic popularity. As Google closed one loophole, webmasters found others. 

Pranksters have figured out that they, too, could game the system, so that typing "miserable failure" gets you President Bush (news - web sites)'s biography, even though neither word appears on the page. 

Using Teoma technology it bought in 2001, Ask Jeeves says it can counter the flaws by also factoring in reputation - a site's expertise within a community. But its index is smaller - 2 billion, compared with Google's 4.3 billion. (GotHotel doesn't rank high on Ask Jeeves, either). 

Google co-founder Larry Page said complaints are common when rankings change, but the adjustments improve searches. 

"We're not acting in the interest of those companies, but acting in the interest of users," he said. 

Although merchants are as likely to rise as they are to drop, Page said, "that half that goes up will be happy but not say anything." 

Too Much Sleep Not a Good Thing 
1 hour, 24 minutes ago 
HealthDay 

SATURDAY, March 27 (HealthDayNews) -- Like most everything else, sleep is best done in moderation.

Related Links
� Self-Reported Sleep Complaints (Psychosomatic Medicine)

 

Spending too many hours in bed each night can cause as many problems as getting too few hours of sack time, according to a University of California, San Diego study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

The study found people who sleep more than eight hours a night (long sleepers) and people who get less than seven hours of slumber both report more sleep complaints than people who get just the right amount of shuteye -- between seven and eight hours per night.

"Although it is unclear why long and short sleepers should have similar types of sleep complaints, these data challenge the assumption that more than seven or eight hours of sleep is associated with increased health and well-being," study co-author Michael A. Grandner says in a prepared statement.

He and colleague Dr. Daniel F. Kripke examined data from about 100 adults interviewed during the National Sleep Foundation's 2001 Sleep in America Poll.

They found that, compared with people who slept seven to eight hours a night, long sleepers reported more problems with falling asleep, waking up during the night, waking up too early, feeling unrefreshed when they wake up and feeling sleepy during the day.

Both long and short sleepers reported more sleep problems than people who got seven to eight hours of sack time each night. Women were more likely to be long sleepers than men.

More information

The National Sleep Foundation offers advice on getting a good night's sleep.

Will the Next Extinction Include Us? 21-Mar-2004

There have been five mass extinctions on the Earth in the past four billion years, and the last one 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs. Biologists have long speculated that if humans become extinct, insects will become the next dominant species. Now they say we're about to have a sixth extinction, but it won't be the end of us-not yet, anyway. Instead, we're about to lose many of our butterflies, birds and plants. But just as human beings evolved by learning how to survive the ice age, some insects show evidence that they can grow bigger brains when they need to. 

Anil Ananthaswamy writes in New Scientist that British scientists say that species of insects are becoming extinct at a increasingly high rate. They first noticed a decline in bird species that has been blamed on pollution and the spread of suburbs, which destroy the habitat of some birds. But now they've noticed that insects, which make up half of the species on Earth, are disappearing even faster. 

"If we can extrapolate that pattern of the British butterflies to other British insects, and indeed to invertebrates across the planet, we are obviously looking at a very serious bio- diversity crisis," says one researcher. 71% of butterfly species have decreased over the last 20 years, as well as 56% of birds and 28% of plants. 

"We found strong evidence that the decline in the species richness of grasslands within the U.K. was linked to nitrogen pollution," says researcher Carly Stevens. Nitrogen pollution is caused by burning fossil fuels and from certain types of fertilizer. The UN's Mark Collins says, "Evidence of a global extinction crisis has come into stark focus with these important results." 

Some insect species will survive, however, and one of these may be a special kind of wasp with a brain that grows bigger as it solves bigger problems. "The amount of change is striking," said psychologist Sean O'Donnell. 

Polybia aequatorialis wasps live in colonies of 2,000 or more and as the wasps age, they learn to perform different, more complex jobs. Workers start at the bottom by doing tasks in the interior of the nest and later move up to working on the exterior. Finally, they leave the nest to look for food and building materials. O'Donnell says, "What is happening is that the complexity of the tasks the insects engage in is increasing." In order to do these increasingly complex tasks, their brains actually grow larger. 

If human brains got bigger as we face increasingly bigger problems, and we were able to cooperate to the same extent socially, we might be able to come up with solutions to problems like global warming, nuclear proliferation and potential asteroid impacts, which will probably eventually wipe us out in another major extinction. 

Less Oil Than We Thought 21-Mar-2004

We recently reported that the University of Uppsala in Sweden warns that in ten years, oil supplies will drop to disastrously low levels. Now The Financial Times reports that Royal Dutch Shell says it has much lower reserves that it previously stated. On analyst calls this cut "staggering." 

Critics say Shell has known its oil reserves were 20% lower than their original estimate for a long time and the company faces investigations in the U.S. and Europe. This means that gas prices will rise at a time when we're fighting a war in the Middle East that requires a lot of fuel. Also, the rise in anti- American fundamentalism may cause some Middle Eastern countries to restrict their output. The Saudis also say they have fewer gas reserves than earlier reported estimates, and U.S. oil companies still do not feel safe venturing into Iraq's oil fields. 

Shell's miscalculation was uncovered by outside auditor Ryder Scott, who says Shell used technology which was insufficient to determine the volume of its oil reserves. Shell CEO Malcolm Brinded calls the error "disappointing and embarrassing." 

You heard it here first: If you drive an SUV or large truck, sell it and buy a small sedan or hybrid car asap! In a few years, gas prices will rise so high you won't be able to give these large vehicles away. 

Another Close Call 19-Mar-2004

We may not have noticed, but on Thursday afternoon an asteroid 100 feet in diameter, the size of a small office building, made the closest approach ever recorded to the Earth, missing us by one-tenth of the distance between here and the Moon. It was discovered only two days ago. 

Jeff Hecht writes in New Scientist that the previous record for a near-miss occurred on September 27, 2003, when asteroid 2003 SQ222 missed the earth by about twice that distance. We didn't know about that one until it already passed us by, since it came from inside the Earth's orbit. 

The latest asteroid, 2004 FH, was too small to cause widespread damage if it hit us, and like many asteroids, it would have been more likely to explode in the air. However, if this happens on a large enough scale, it can release particles that shade the sun, killing off plants and animals in a kind of "nuclear winter." 

Andrew Bridges writes that astronomers discovered the asteroid during a routine survey carried out with a pair of NASA telescopes in New Mexico. NASA's Steve Chesley says, "It immediately became clear it would pass very close by the Earth." It could swing by again in the future and threaten us once more. 

Asteroids this size pass by close to the Earth about once every two years. "The important thing is not that it's happening, but that we detected it," Chesley says. However, detecting it two days before a possible impact wouldn't have given us enough time to do anything about it. 

Close Call in November 18-Mar-2004

The Sun nearly shut down the Earth last November when a wave of massive explosions on the Sun threatened power grids all over the world. This solar flare, which hasn't been measured until now, was so violent that satellite detectors were unable to record its true size. It shot charged electrical particles and gas into space at two million miles per hour. Scientists in New Zealand say it almost caused unimaginable destruction. 

Chris Millar writes that their calculations show the flare's X- ray radiation was equivalent to that of 5,000 suns. The harmful radiation was absorbed by the magnetosphere, a protective layer around the earth which is growing weaker because the Earth's poles are about to flip. One of the scientists describes the power of the flare as being greater than "every nuclear warhead being detonated at once." 

David Whitehouse writes in bbcnews.com that no one realized how big the flare was when it first exploded, because satellite detectors were blinded by its radiation, but the scientists have estimated its size by studying how the x-rays hit the Earth's atmosphere. 

The Earth didn't take a direct hit from the flare-if it had, satellites could have been damaged that affected every radio, TV and cell phone signal and power grid on Earth. It could have also been bad news for the astronauts on the International Space Station. Last October and November, as reported in unknowncountry.com, the Sun began an incredible increase in solar activity, producing huge flares from the most active sunspot region ever seen. Day after day, the Sun sent billions of tons of charged particles out into space. But on November 4, just as Active Region 486 was rotating away from the Earth, it sent out the most extraordinary solar flare in history. If the Sun hadn't been rotating away from us, we would have taken a direct hit. Researcher Neil Thomson says, "This makes it more than twice as large as any previously recorded flare. If the accompanying particle and magnetic storm had been aimed at the Earth, the damage to some satellites and electrical networks could have been considerable." 

Pigs with Wings & Cactus with Human Hair 18-Mar-2004

Some scientists are manipulating genes in bizarre ways that seem to have no practical use. Are they creating science or art? Or are they just making monsters? 

New Scientist reports that Laura Cinti has created a cactus that grows human hair. She says, "Hair is a sign of reproduction, a sign of our bodies changing, becoming or being sexual. So the cactus with hair becomes a sexual symbol." To create it, she combined human genetic material with cactus DNA. She says, "Bald men are particularly interested in the work." 

Alas, most of her genetically-modified cacti are not doing well. "They've been imploding, shriveling," she says. 

Oron Catts created wings for pigs. He says, "We took the statement 'pigs could fly'...and decided to literally grow pigs' wings..." He admits this raises "huge ethical and epistemological questions which people haven't begun to think about." 

To make them, he says, "We harvested pig bone marrow stem cells left over from scientific experiments...Once we had the semi-living tissue wings we took them and fixed them with formalin, then dried them and coated them with gold to preserve them." None of them have been transplanted onto pigs yet. 

Catts played music to the pig cells to make them grow. He says, "Before Napster collapsed we downloaded lots of pig songs-from Looney Tunes to heavy metal-and played them to the cells while they were seeding in the bioreactor. We did seem to get better distribution of the cells when we played the music." 

Marta de Menezes creates butterfly art-with live butterflies. She says, "I became incredibly excited at the idea that I could create an art-piece in a butterfly. It would have the characteristics of a painting, but also something more important because the butterfly was already a life form itself. My butterflies have wing patterns never before seen in nature. I created them by interfering with their normal developmental mechanisms with a very thin needle while the butterfly was still in the cocoon. You can do this to a high degree of accuracy." 

She alters only one wing of her butterflies because "by changing one wing I would be changing the butterfly into something that was definitely not natural." 

She says, "People were very shocked at first. They didn't think it a good idea." For her next project: "...I plan to make the stripes of zebrafish vertical instead of horizontal so that they look more like zebras. I'd do this through selection and breeding, so the changes would be inherited." 

Scientist Creates Roswell UFO Metal 17-Mar-2004

Witnesses who found the debris from the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash in 1947 reported seeing metal as thin as the silver foil from a cigarette pack that nonetheless could not be pierced by a bullet. Now Discover Magazine reports that scientists have created what sounds like the same thing. 

Brad Lemley writes in the April issue of Discover about a metal strip as thin as aluminum foil that cannot be even be severed by wire cutters. When a steel ball is dropped onto it, the ball bounces back and will not go through it. 

Lemley writes, "It's all astounding, yet oddly familiar. In the typical science fiction film circa 1950, there's that scene in which scientists return from the just-landed flying saucer and tell the Army brass that no tool known to humankind an cut, burn, bend or otherwise scar the hull. But the metal in front of me is decidedly terrestrial in origin-it was developed in Pasadena... 

"It's called metallic glass, or amorphous metal, and it appears to be nothing less than an entirely new class of material that can be used to build lighter, stronger versions of anything." Amorphous metal is made by rearranging the atoms in metal so they react differently to heat. William Johnson, who helped discover it, says, "This is the structural material of the future." Was it also the structural material of the past for another civilization? 

A strange type of foam, made up of magnesium and bismuth, with gaps between elements which do not reveal how they are sandwiched together, was also found at Roswell. Johnson says, "A sandwich made of two thin sheets of amorphous metal flanking amorphous foam would be strong, light, insulating fireproof, bug-proof, rustproof, sound dampening, and difficult to penetrate with bombs." 

Allergic to Home 16-Mar-2004

Worried about pollution? Stay away from home, where moving around-and even vacuuming-can kick up enough dust particles to be hazardous to your health. Maybe this will reassure you: the toilet seat is the most germ free place in your house. 

Michael Bernstein writes for the American Chemical Society that that ordinary household activities can increase your exposure to particulate pollution. When small particles lodge in your lungs and get into your bloodstream, they can cause everything from asthma to heart disease. Particulates in your home come from outdoor, cooking, smoking, heating equipment and ordinary human activities-like moving around. 

"I measured concentrations of airborne particles continuously while performing a variety of normal human activities that resuspend house dust in the home," says researcher Andrea Ferro (it's no accident that a woman investigated this). She placed particle detectors in a house in Redwood City, California, then folded clothes, dusted, made beds, vacuumed and did other everyday activities. 

Dusting created a significant amount of particles, but "The highest source was from two people just walking around and sitting on furniture," says Ferro. This released half as many particles as smoking a cigarette. She says, "The result that was most surprising to me was that just walking around can resuspend almost as much dust as vacuuming. 

"The source strengths depended on the number of persons performing the activity, the vigor of the activity, the type of activity and the type of flooring," Ferro says. Moving around on a wooden floor releases fewer particles than the same activities done on a carpet. 

Vacuuming not only didn't remove the particles, it actually created many more, because vacuum brushes release deeply embedded particles from the carpet. Also, the motor produces particles; and the bags don't collect 100% of them. 

These particles are smaller than those emitted from older power plants, for instance; however, "Smaller particles tend to deposit deeper in the lungs than the larger particles, potentially causing more harm," Ferro says. 

The solution? "One study estimates that about two-thirds of house dust is tracked in from outdoors," Ferro says. "Therefore, leaving shoes at the door can make a big difference in reducing the particle reservoir on the floor." 

A recent study showed that the cleaner your kitchen looks, the dirtier it actually is, since sponges harbor germs and wiping down surfaces spreads these germs around. But escaping to the office won't help, since scientists have found that keyboards, computer mice and telephone dials contain 400 times as many germs as toilet seats. 

According to the study, telephones had up to 25,127 germs per square inch, keyboards 3,295 and computer mice 1,676. The average office contains 20,961 germs per square inch. "Desks are really bacteria cafeterias," says microbiologist Charles Gerba. "They are breakfast bars, lunch tables and everything else, as we spend more hours at the office. When someone is infected with a cold or flu bug, the surfaces they touch during the day become germ transfer points because some cold and flu viruses can survive on surfaces for up to 72 hours. An office can become an incubator." 

New Scientist Magazine regularly does germ surveys in typical homes, and always finds that the toilet seat is the most germ- free surface in the house. They think this could be because we actually "scrape off" the germs when sliding off it. 

Lethal Popcorn 15-Mar-2004

With the news about genetically-modified crops and Mad Cow Disease, it seems as if no food is safe to eat. Now the EPA has discovered that the fumes released into the air when a bag of butter-flavored microwave popcorn is opened can be deadly. 

Exposure to vapors from this butter flavoring, which contain the chemical diacetyl, has been blamed for a rare lung disease contracted by popcorn factory workers in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. It's not known if the amounts of this chemical released during popping at home are large enough to be dangerous. 

About 50 brands and flavors of microwave popcorn are being tested, from super-buttery to sweet. The EPA's Jacky Rosati says, "Obviously, we are looking at diacetyl because it is a known compound that will come off this popcorn. But we're not looking at that alone." 

GM Pharm Crops Infiltrating our Food 09-Mar-2004

U.S. scientists say there could be a "serious risk to human health," after they've discovered that major food crops are being widely contaminated by DNA from GM crops that are engineered to produce chemicals and drugs. Microbiologist Margaret Mellon, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says, "If genes find their way from pharm crops to ordinary corn, they or their products could wind up in drug-laced corn flakes." 

It's been shown that it's impossible to keep standard crops free from contamination by GM crops grown nearby. The pollen is spread by the wind, and dust from grain elevators mixes different types of crops together. This is disturbing for people opposed to eating GM foods, but it's especially troubling when crops are engineered to produce drugs or chemicals, which would be dangerous if they got into the foods we eat. 

Fred Pearce writes in New Scientist that "pharm" crops could already be poisoning food crops, according to a study by the Union for Concerned Scientists. GM crops are now being grown that manufacture proteins for healing wounds and treating conditions such as cystic fibrosis, cirrhosis of the liver and anemia, as well as antibodies to fight cancer and vaccines against rabies, cholera and foot-and-mouth disease. While this could be a wonderful breakthrough against disease, it's dangerous for people to take these drugs who do not have these conditions-but there may be no way to avoid it. 

The UCS asked two labs to test seeds from traditional varieties of corn, soybeans and canola, looking for DNA from "pharm" crops. The labs reported that the seeds were "pervasively contaminated with low levels of DNA sequences from GM varieties." 

"Seed contamination is the back door to the food supply," says Mellon. "The realization that some seeds may already have been contaminated [by pharm crops] is alarming" and could pose a "serious risk to human health." 

Geoffrey Lean writes in the New Zealand Herald that more than two-thirds of U.S. crops are now contaminated with GM crops, meaning an eventual end to organic farms. A new report says that traditional varieties of seed are "pervasively contaminated" and states that the U.S. biotech industry says it is "not surprised" by this. 

Due to GM contamination of ordinary seeds, the report says, farmers unwittingly grow billions of GM plants every year, spreading these plants even wider. Since they're stronger and more disease-resistant, they crowd out traditional versions of the same plants. 

Union of Concerned Scientists has found that at least half the corn and soybeans and 83% per cent of the oilseed rape in the U.S. are contaminated with GM genes, and this has occurred only eight years after the first GM varieties were planted. They report that "contamination...is endemic to the system," and say, "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." 

John Aglionby writes in the Mail & Guardian that the pollen from GM corn grown in the Philippines last year may have made 100 people sick. Dr. Terje Traavik, of the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, analyzed blood samples from 39 of them and thinks it may have been the GM pollen that caused the problems. He says, "My interpretation is there is a coincidence in time between two different phenomena." 

The problems began last July when the GM corn plants started flowering. "There was this really pungent smell that got into our throats," says Maryjane Malayon. "It was like we were breathing in pesticides." 

Her sister, their parents and her nine-month-old daughter began coughing, vomiting, feeling dizzy and suffering from head and stomachaches. Soon another family living nearby began having similar complaints, and eventually 100 people were affected. The Malayon family eventually had to move. "We were the only ones who moved because we were so close," Maryjane says. "But within a week we had all recovered." 

Bernhard Nanquil, who rented their home while they were gone, says, "Within a week I too was sick with a stomach ache and diarrhea." 

Livestock also became ill. "One day the horse ate some of the corn plants and its appetite disappeared," says Nestor Catoran. "The belly swelled, its mouth started frothing and it slowly died." Villagers link the GM corn to the deaths of four other horses as well. 

NASA Warns of Coming Climate Change 08-Mar-2004

The idea that global warming could send North America and Western Europe into an ice age within a few decades can no longer be called a conspiracy theory by skeptics, now that NASA is taking it seriously. 

According to the NASA website: "The thawing of sea ice covering the Arctic could disturb or even halt large currents in the Atlantic Ocean. Without the vast heat that these ocean currents deliver...Europe's average temperature would likely drop 9 to 18�F, and parts of eastern North America would be chilled somewhat less. Such a dip in temperature would be similar to global average temperatures toward the end of the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago. Some scientists believe this shift in ocean currents could come surprisingly soon-within as little as 20 years..." 

"It's difficult to predict what will happen," says NASA's Donald Cavalieri, "because the Arctic and North Atlantic are very complex systems with many interactions between the land, the sea, and the atmosphere. But the facts do suggest that the changes we're seeing in the Arctic could potentially affect currents that warm Western Europe, and that's gotten a lot of people concerned." 

NASA has satellites reporting on the ice cover in the Arctic, which show "a long-term decline in the 'perennial' Arctic sea ice (the part that remains frozen during the warm summer months)...This year-round ice has been retreating since the beginning of the satellite record in 1978 at an average rate of 9% per decade." 

Melting Arctic sea ice could "dump enough freshwater into the North Atlantic to interfere with sea currents...Retreating ice cover exposes more of the ocean surface, allowing more moisture to evaporate into the atmosphere and leading to more precipitation. 

"Because saltwater is denser and heavier than freshwater, this 'freshening' of the North Atlantic would make the surface layers more buoyant. That's a problem because the surface water needs to sink to drive a primary ocean circulation pattern known as the 'Great Ocean Conveyor.' Sunken water flows south along the ocean floor toward the equator, while warm surface waters from tropical latitudes flow north to replace the water that sank, thus keeping the Conveyor slowly chugging along. An increase in freshwater could prevent this sinking of North Atlantic surface waters, slowing or stopping this circulation." 

NASA says that, "Once considered incredible, the notion that climate can change rapidly is becoming respectable." 

Quantum Weirdness in Real Life 15-Mar-2004

Scientists used to think that the ideas of quantum physics- for instance, that everything is in "superposition" (both everywhere and nowhere) until observed and that particles can be "entangled" and affect each other at great distances- applied only on the atomic level, but now they're using quantum weirdness to create incredible new inventions. 

In Business Week, John Carey quotes physicist William D. Phillips as saying, "To common sense, quantum mechanics is nonsensical." But it's already been used to create lasers and MRI machines. Phillips is clumping together groups of atoms that are both "everywhere" and "nowhere" at the same time. He says, "Every atom is everywhere-that's what makes it so wonderful...It can do some amazing things." 

Physicist John Preskill says, "Physicists relish the weirdness, but now we're starting to ask if we can put the weirdness to work." Quantum weirdness makes unbreakable codes possible and could enable us to transmit electricity over long distances with no loss of power. 

One of the most important quantum inventions being worked on is a computer that can solve problems in 30 seconds that would take 10 billion years using today's supercomputers. "We have not yet begun to figure out what the applications are," says physicist Carl J. Williams. "But the risk is underestimating the impact." 

Mark Peplow writes in nature.com that scientists have evidence that an atom and a photon (the smallest particle of light) can share the same information, an important step in creating a quantum computer, which would process information using atoms instead of transistors and circuit boards. This new discovery means that light can carry the atom's information from one place to another-at the speed of light! 

Computers store information as a series of bits, which are switches that can be "on" or "off." In the cadmium atom, the tiny magnetic fields of the nucleus and an outer electron can either point in the same direction (on) or opposite directions (off). Once the atom is in one of these states it will stay that way for thousands of years, says researcher Chris Monroe. But in the quantum world, the cadmium atom can be both on and off at the same time, since it's in "superposition" and the atoms are "entangled." "Einstein called this 'spooky action at a distance,'" says Monroe. "It is as if there are hidden wires connecting the two. We do not know how they got there, but they are essential for quantum computing." 

"The goal is the control of quantum matter," says physicist Immanuel Bloch. "It's a great challenge, but there are great rewards." 

You Hate Spam, So Why Are You Sending It? 12-Mar-2004

If you're like the rest of us, you hate spam, but if you're not careful, you're probably sending a lot of it to your friends. At least one third of all spam is being sent from home computers without their owners' knowledge. Your address book can be cracked and your computer power harnessed by one the many computer viruses going around. 

Mark Ward writes in bbcnews.com that hackers create viruses that search out computers with insufficient firewalls and virus detectors and add them to a huge pool of PCs that send out reams of spam every day. Spammers want to use your computer by remote control because of the new anti- spam laws that make it impossible to send out spam any other way. 

"You cannot effectively spam without a network of proxies," says Joe Stewart of Lurhq. "You are being blocked everywhere you go." To cover their tracks, spammers only use a small number of the computers they control at any one time. 

First, a virus infects your machine and sends copies of itself to everyone in your address book, hoping to spread the infection. Then, on a date that's coded into the virus, your computer reports to a secret internet site to await future orders. Once a machine is invaded, other hackers can "see" this and will send you lots of new spam as well. 

But the battle isn't over: Pete Barlas writes that four of the largest e-mail providers, Microsoft, Yahoo, EarthLink and AOL, have banded together and filed lawsuits against the six biggest senders of spam. 

The companies being sued break the law by sending e-mail with fake "from" addresses. They're hard to catch because they frequently change their e-mail addresses, and about half the spam in the U.S. comes from Asia or Europe, although one of the biggest spammers is in Canada. 

God in the Brain 15-Mar-2004

Researcher Mario Beauregard is studying where in the brain religious feelings are actually experienced by placing electrodes on the scalps of seven nuns in order to record the electrical activity in their brains as they recall a spiritual experience. Before they would allow him to do this, Beauregard had to convince the nuns that he was not trying to disprove the existence of God. 

The nuns all say they had a religious experience while they were in their 20s that caused them to choose their vocation. Previous experiments have shown that remembering an intense emotional experience activates the same brain networks as actually having that experience. 

The Economist reports that Olaf Blanke, who has studied how the brain generates out-of-body experiences, says he has identified the brain mechanisms responsible for this, as well as for amputees' illusions of "phantom limbs." He imaged the brains of six brain-damaged patients and found that damage at the junction of two lobes of the brain causes a breakdown of a person's perception of his own body, causing the boundary between personal and extrapersonal space to become blurred. Temporal lobe epilepsy can produce the same result. He thinks that some people give this a mystical interpretation. 

Radiologist Andrew Newberg, who scanned the brains of Buddhists and Franciscan nuns while they were meditating or praying, says, "We have frequently argued that many aspects of spiritual experiences are built upon the brain machinery that is used for other purposes such as emotions." 

At the end of each session, Beauregard asks the nuns to complete a questionnaire which reveals their feelings of love and closeness to God, as well as any distortions they experienced of time and space. "The more intense the experience, the more intense the disorganization from a spatio-temporal point of view," he says. The nuns describe time slowing down, and the self dissolving into a larger entity that they describe as God. 

Does this mean that God is all in the brain-or merely that we use a specific part of our brain in order to experience God? 

Spiritual transformation, which involves interpreting the world in a new way, is available to contemporary people through their iPods and Walkmans, which researcher Michael Bull calls "transformative devices" with which "users manage space, time and the boundaries around the self." 

Mark Ward writes in bbcnews.com that scientists who study how people behave in public usually only pay attention to what people see, not what they're listening to. "There's the visual domination of explaining urban experience," Bull says, "but if you look at it through sound you get different explanations." 

Through interviews with Walkman and iPod users, he found that listening to music acts as a shield, or a cocoon, that helps people reclaim their personal space and interpret the events happening around them differently from people who are not listening-or who are listening to different tunes. He says, "They construct their moods, they re-make the time of their day. It's a much more active process even though it's dependent on the machinery." 

How to Tell a Cell Phone Lie 11-Mar-2004

Ever want to pretend you're stuck in traffic as an excuse for breaking a date? Now there's software for your cell phone that can generate a fake background noise, so when you call to cancel, you'll be believed. 

Will Knight writes in New Scientist that SoundCover can also mimic a thunderstorm, a dentist's drill or even a circus, so you don't have to use the same excuse every time. You can even assign background noises to specific callers, so if the excuse works once, you can use it again (and again). An especially popular sound is another phone ringing, so you can pretend you have to answer your landline. 

The software blends the outgoing voice with a looped audio track, so it sounds genuine. "To the person on the other end it sounds like a genuine background," says Simeda's CEO Liviu Tofan. "We think some people will use it for fun and some people to make good excuses." 

A Surprising Reason Why Soft Drinks Make You Fat 26-Mar-2004

The rate of obesity in the U.S. started to increase in the 1970s, about the same time that manufacturers switched from sugar to cheaper corn syrup for their colas and other soft drinks. Now researchers say this may be because high fructose corn syrup-a food, like margarine, that is created in the lab and not found in nature-does not trigger the same appetite response in the body as sugar, so it's more likely to make us fat. 

Connoisseurs who remember the great taste of old-time sodas try to find Kosher Coke and Coca-Cola bottled in Mexico, where it's still made with sugar. But these sodas may not just taste better; the cost-cutting measures of major manufacturers may be the leading cause of obesity in America. Obesity researcher Dr. George A. Bray says the rise in corn sweeteners is "coincidental with the epidemic of obesity. Body weights rose slowly for most of the 20th century until the late 1980s. At that time, many countries showed a sudden increase in the rate at which obesity has been galloping forward." 

Unlike glucose (sugar), fructose doesn't trigger responses in the hormones that regulate your appetite and energy output, meaning it's much more likely to be converted into fat. 

"Fake foods" have been a major cause of disease in the past few years. Margarine, which replaced butter when it was scarce during World War II, was once touted by the American Heart Association as a miracle food that lowered cholesterol levels. It's now been shown to do just the opposite and we're warned not to eat it. 

Despite being vegetarians, cows were fed protein in the form of the ground-up bones of other cows, leading to Mad Cow Disease. 

High-fructose corn syrup made soft drinks cheap, especially after we could no longer import sugar from Cuba. Like all the other "fake foods" of recent years, it was created so manufacturers could cut costs and make more profit. And like the other fakes, it has ended up costing the public large amounts of money for treating heart disease, obesity and for Mad Cow monitoring. 

What will they try to sell us next? 

Hawaii Might Claim Biological Resources

2 hours, 53 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

By BRUCE DUNFORD, News Source Writer 

HONOLULU - Hawaii could become the first state to stake a legal claim to hundreds of potentially valuable animal and plant products discovered on state lands, under a bill being considered by the state Legislature. 

Hawaii is a good place to establish a system to protect government property rights to its plants and animals, supporters of the bill say. Of more than 22,000 known species on the islands, 8,850 are found only in Hawaii, said Naomi Arcand of the Hawaii Audubon Society. 

"Rather than selling the exclusive rights to our natural resources, we should focus initially on the method to achieve sustainable, equitable use," Arcand said. 

State Rep. Glenn Wakai, the primary architect of the bill, said an estimated 5,000 bioprospecting projects are under way in Hawaii's rain forests, volcanic fields, teeming reefs and deep ocean chasms between the islands. He proposed a statewide inventory of them. 

"We have no idea what these individuals and these companies are doing here, so this is a step to finding out," he said. 

Hawaii's indigenous people have been key players in the bioprospecting legislation, hoping to protect their rights to gather plant and animal resources used in traditional and cultural medicinal practices. 

The bill's supporters said they did not know of any lucrative bioprospecting discoveries involving Hawaiian species, but they believe the potential is great. 

Hawaii follows last year's lead by China, Brazil, India and nine other of the world's most biodiverse countries, who signed an alliance to fight "biopiracy" and press for rules protecting their people's rights to genetic resources found on their land. 

That declaration was a response to complaints by Indians and environmentalists. 

Three years ago, Yellowstone National Park began collecting royalties on the commercial results of scientific research in the park. 

NASA's 5,000-Mph Jet Makes First Flight

18 minutes ago

By ROBERT JABLON, News Source Writer 

LOS ANGELES - Three years after its first test flight ended in an explosion, NASA (news - web sites) on Saturday successfully launched an experimental jet designed to reach speeds approaching 5,000 mph. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: Hypersonic Unmanned Jet in Tests

Related Links
� X-43A Hypersonic Jet (NASA)

The unpiloted X-43A made a 10-second powered flight, then went through some twists and turns during a six-minute glide before plunging into the Pacific Ocean about 400 miles off the California coast. 

"Everything worked according to plan. It's been wonderful," NASA spokeswoman Leslie Williams said. "I actually thought it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. We've been waiting a few years." 

It wasn't immediately clear what speed the needle-nosed jet achieved after it was boosted to about 3,500 mph by a rocket, Williams said. 

The first X-43A flight ended in failure June 2, 2001, after the modified Pegasus rocket used to accelerate the plane veered off course and was detonated. An investigation board found preflight analyses failed to predict how the rocket would perform, leaving its control system unable to maintain stable flight. 

NASA built the X-43A under a $250 million program to develop and test an exotic type of engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet. 

In theory, the air-breathing engine could propel an airplane to speeds of Mach 7 or faster, enabling around-the-world flights that would take several hours. The Department of Defense (news - web sites) also is working on the technology, which it's eyeing for use in bombers that quickly could reach targets anywhere on the globe. 

The 2,800-pound X-43A was mounted on a Pegasus rocket booster and carried to an altitude of 40,000 feet by a modified B-52 bomber, which took off from Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert. 

A few seconds after the craft was dropped, the rocket flared, sending the jet skyward on a streak of flame and light. At about 100,000 feet, the rocket dropped away. 

The scramjet took over, using up about two pounds of gaseous hydrogen fuel before gliding. Applause rang out in the control center at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. 

Technological hurdles mean it will be decades before such a plane could enter service. And NASA's role in developing the technology remains in doubt, as the agency recently cut funding for more advanced versions of the X-43A. 

Engineers have pursued scramjet technology because it could allow rocket-speed travel but with considerable savings in weight. Rockets must carry their own oxygen to combust the fuel they carry aboard; scramjets can scoop it out of the atmosphere. 

In scramjets, oxygen is rammed into a combustion chamber where it mixes with fuel and spontaneously ignites. To work, the engine must be traveling at about five times the speed of sound - requiring an initial boost that only a rocket can provide. 

A third X-43A could fly as early as the fall. 

___ 

On the Net: 

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center: http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/ 

Four-Eared Kitten Finds 'Normal' Home 
Mar 25, 10:08 am ET 
By Sabine Neubert

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany  - A four-eared German kitten has been given a new home after a German animal shelter was deluged with requests to adopt the animal born six months ago with the genetic defect.

"We wanted to make sure the people were looking for a normal cat and not a gag to make an exhibition out of her," Enrico Schlag, a worker at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen animal shelter, said on Thursday.

"We've found a completely normal family for her that has already adopted cats from us in the past."

The shelter in the foothills of the Alps in southern Germany received dozens of calls after local media published pictures of Lilly. The News Source, which reported the kitten's search for a home on Wednesday, also received numerous offers from readers around the world eager to adopt her or make donations to the shelter.

Tessy Loedermann, head of the shelter, said Lilly will first be neutered and held at the shelter for another two weeks.

Loedermann said the black-and-white cat with the extra set of ears was "not a freak" but rather an energetic, loving and well-adjusted kitten.

"She is not a mutant," Loedermann said. "She's just a plain and ordinary kitten."

Lilly, born on a farm near the winter resort town famous for hosting the 1936 Winter Olympics, has an extra pair of slightly smaller, non-hearing ears just behind the normal two. Vets have attributed the phenomenon to a gene malfunction.

"The front ears are completely normal while the two ears directly behind them are about half the size and not fully developed," Schlag said.

She was given to the shelter last week because the family had more cats than they could care for.

"We're trying to treat her as a completely normal kitten and the other cats here have played with her in a normal manner as well," Schlag said. "She hasn't been ostracized by the other cats at all. She's a bundle of energy but likes to be cuddled." 

'Good Cop' Beats 'Bad Cop' in Interrogations

Mar 25, 10:18 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - "Softly softly" police interviews with crime suspects yield more confessions than inquisitorial interrogations, according to a new Swedish study.

Victims also tend to provide more evidence when questioned gently, improving the chances of a conviction, the doctoral dissertation for Stockholm University showed.

"Police interviews marked by dominance are mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity is significantly associated with confessions," crime investigator Ulf Holmberg wrote in a doctoral dissertation for Stockholm University.

He interviewed 94 offenders, 178 victims and 430 police involved in murder, assault and rape cases in Sweden.

He found some police got impatient and aggressive in interrogations due to stress caused by exposure to crime.

"You eat murder, you sleep murder and you even sh-t murder, it follows you all the time," the study quoted one homicide investigator saying. 

Christ Movie Moves Man to Confess Murder 
Mar 26, 8:18 am ET 
HOUSTON  - A repentant Texas man went to police after seeing Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of Christ" and confessed to murdering a 19-year-old woman who was pregnant with his child, authorities said on Thursday.

Police had thought Ashley Nicole Wilson, who died on Jan. 18, had hanged herself, but Dan Leach, 21, went to them on March 9 to admit that he had killed her, said Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jeannie Gage.

Leach wanted to seek redemption after talking to a friend and seeing the movie about the last hours of Christ's life, she said.

"He mentioned that speaking with the friend and seeing the movie 'The Passion of Christ' made him feel remorse," Gage said.

Leach said he killed Wilson because she was pregnant with his child and he did not want to be involved with her anymore, she said.

Wilson was found in her apartment with a suicide note describing her depression but Leach said he staged the murder to look like she had killed herself. The Houston Chronicle first reported the story in its online edition.

Leach was released after his confession while police investigated and was arrested on Tuesday after a grand jury indicted him. He was being held on $100,000 bail, Gage said.

The Mel Gibson film has been criticized for graphic violence and for its portrayal of the role of Jews in the death of Christ. 

Slave Descendants File $1B Lawsuit 

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

NEW YORK - Descendants of slaves filed a $1 billion lawsuit Monday against U.S. and British corporations, accusing them of profiting by committing genocide against their ancestors. 

Lawyers for the eight plaintiffs said the complaint was the first slave reparations lawsuit to use DNA to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade. 

The suit filed in federal court in Manhattan accuses Lloyd's of London, FleetBoston and R.J. Reynolds of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by allegedly financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco plantations in the United States. 

The defendants "have destroyed our national and ethnic identity," one of the plaintiffs, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, said at a news conference announcing the suit. 

DNA testing has made a "direct connection" between Farmer-Paellmann and the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, whose people "were kidnapped, tortured and shipped in chains to the United States," the suit said. 

Scientific evidence also has linked the other plaintiffs to tribes in Niger and Gambia, the suit said. 

Ellen Matthews, a spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds, said the company had not received a copy of the suit. Calls to the other defendants were not immediately returned. 

In January, a federal judge in Chicago threw out a similar lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves. 

Ambassador: Six Cavers to Leave Mexico

1 hour, 13 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - Mexico will allow six rescued cave explorers and seven colleagues to leave the country after authorities determined there was no evidence or wrongdoing, Britain's ambassador said Monday. 

The six were trapped inside the cave by floodwaters for more than a week, and had refused help from Mexican officials, instead waiting for a British rescue team. 

President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) then raised questions about the activities of the team, which included British military members. Some members of the Mexican press had speculated the explorers were searching for signs of uranium. 

"We can now expect all 13 to leave tonight," said Britain's ambassador to Mexico, Denise Holt. 

An immigration spokesman refused to confirm whether the 13 would leave Monday, but said it was a possibility. 

The announcement came hours after the Attorney General's office found there was no evidence the cave explorers did anything illegal in exploring a cave near Mexico City. 

While prosecutors said there was no evidence of illicit activity, immigration officials were still investigating whether the explorers violated terms of their tourist visa and could be kicked out of the country. 

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Iraq economy shakes off the shackles of Saddam

Mon Mar 29, 7:05 AM ET

 - USATODAY.com 

By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY 

Hussein Abizaid Khadum doesn't care where the cars come from. His auto-repair shop serves car thieves and crime victims alike. He and his crew paint over vehicles, patch up bullet holes and pound out the dents and dings suffered in the daily crush of Baghdad traffic.

His business is thriving, taking in about $1,000 a day. He estimates that stolen cars account for 20%. "I don't care about the source of the business," Khadum, 37, says cheerfully, his T-shirt and work pants splotched with paint, the air around him heavy with paint fumes and exhaust. A longtime renter, he's about to move his family into a brand-new house.

Anything goes these days in Baghdad's teeming streets, crowded souks and back alleys. An exhilarating but virtually lawless economy has risen from the ashes of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government. Business opportunities are everywhere, but so are corruption and crime.

"The regime is gone," says Osama al-Quraishi, an Iraqi entrepreneur who returned to Baghdad to search for business opportunities after decades in exile in Europe and the Middle East. "There are no restrictions. There are no rules." He predicts Baghdad will soon replace Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, as the Middle East's commercial center.

Besides crushing human rights, Saddam smothered the Iraqi economy. The dictator, who invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, ran a war-based economy, diverting resources to the military and starving the rest of the country. Iraq (news - web sites)'s infrastructure deteriorated; the oil industry alone needs $10 billion to $40 billion of investment to catch up. Saddam and his cronies imposed stiff duties on imports, steered government contracts to loyalists and buried business in regulations. This encouraged a culture of kickbacks and corruption.

"It was a lawless economy governed by one principle: Saddam and the Baathist party took whatever they wanted," says Bill Block, an economist with the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

Under Saddam, the shops were silent, the goods available were obsolete or absurdly overpriced, and the cars were clunkers dating back 15 or 20 years. Now that Saddam is gone, signs of bounty are visible everywhere in Baghdad and to a lesser extent in smaller cities such as Mosul and Basra.

The World Bank (news - web sites) says Iraq's economy shrank by nearly a third last year after several years of smaller declines. The World Bank projects a sharp rebound in 2004 - growth ranging anywhere from 30% to 70% - and an overall economy worth $17 billion to $22 billion. That would make the Iraqi economy about the size of North Dakota's or Vermont's, which have the smallest output among the 50 states.

Bush administration officials working on Iraqi reconstruction are optimistic that Iraq's growth will approach the high end of the World Bank projection. Salaries and pensions for public employees have been increased. Repairs to the power grid, oil facilities and roads are having ripple effects throughout the economy. Farmers who could not get seed, fertilizer and animal feed in recent years are producing again. 

The billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money pouring into Iraq acts as a powerful stimulus. The United States is expected to award contracts for $14 billion in reconstruction work this year and $4 billion to $5 billion next year. Much of that will go to pay Iraqis working for contractors and subcontractors and to Iraqi businesses furnishing equipment and supplies.

Cell phones and TV sets

That money then trickles down to the car-clogged streets of the capital. Television sets and washing machines are piled high in boxes outside Baghdad appliance stores. Trucks loaded with consumer goods trundle down the streets. Families line up outside shops for satellite phones and cell phones, which were banned by Saddam's government. Entrepreneurs offer truckloads of merchandise - TV sets, office equipment - obtained from who-knows-where.

In a gold-rush atmosphere, hustlers cut business deals over glasses of sugared tea or cups of thick Turkish coffee. Schemers map out grandiose plans for five-star hotels and fancy restaurants in a city where most accommodations are stuck in a 1970s time warp. Business people arrive from overseas, some from exile, eager for a piece of the reconstruction contracts.

Foreign companies are weighing whether to place a long-term bet on Iraq. Pepsi is refurbishing a bottling plant; Nestle is considering a bottled-water factory; MCI is providing cell phone service to the U.S. authorities. Companies from Merck to Motorola are studying the market, according to Tom Foley, the Coalition Provisional Authority's private-sector czar. 

Baghdad families show off late-model used cars, just imported from Dubai. Police say the number of cars in the capital, a city of more than 5 million people, has doubled to 600,000 since Saddam fell. "Where are they going to find roads to drive all these cars?" wonders police Lt. Gen. Sulaiman Taha al-Shaikhli, commander of west Baghdad's car-registration center.

The new arrivals are conspicuous by their fresh paint jobs and black license plates. Saddam-era clunkers are betrayed by their age, rust and white plates. The car market is so strong that Gezar Tuma, 32, and his brothers closed their struggling Fallujah Kebab restaurant in Baghdad's posh al-Mansour neighborhood and replaced it with a car lot, their second.

"Each day today is worth 10 years under Saddam," says Abdul Reza Ougla, 48, a truck driver who cruises south Baghdad's Karada commercial district looking for merchants who need him to haul something somewhere. He earns 40,000 Iraqi dinars (about $28) a day, up from 15,000 under Saddam.

Behind the boom:

� Iraq is duty- and tax-free until Thursday, when a flat tax rate will be launched. Imports are flooding into the country partly because the stiff duties are gone. The duties once accounted for more than half the price of imported goods. A Baghdad family can now buy a Maytag refrigerator for $825, down from $1,200 a year ago. Truck driver Ougla just bought a Kia flatbed truck for $8,400; it would have cost him $12,000 under Saddam, he says. Car dealer Khadum Jurri, 40, used to sell two or three cars a month. Now, he's selling 50 a month, among them late-model Mercedes sedans.

� Spending power is up. Civil servants got huge pay raises after the coalition decided to correct Saddam-era parsimony. "Public-sector wages under Saddam were quite literally starvation wages," economist Block says. Thana Ismail, 40, has seen her monthly wages at the Ministry of Trade shoot up from 3,000 Iraqi dinars a month (barely $2 at today's exchange rates) to 300,000 (just over $200). This means she can finally afford to replace the wheezing washing machine she bought nearly two decades ago. She has her eye on a $185 jumbo Samsung model.

� Saddam's relatives and loyalists are no longer around to harass entrepreneurs and demand kickbacks or ownership stakes in profitable businesses - or to flex their muscle just for fun. (Jurri remembers when customs officials impounded one of his cars, a violet BMW, because they said the color would offend the sensibilities of Saddam's oldest son, Uday.)

Back in business

From a brick building on a quiet side street in south Baghdad's Arasat al-Hindiyah neighborhood, Omer Tabra, 37, enjoys a unique vantage point over the simmering local economy. In a country where no one trusts the banks, people have long come to the Tabra family to wire money overseas and receive remittances from abroad.

Since Saddam's fall, the volume of cash moving through the offices of his family's Nepal Trading Co. has risen from $2 million to $12 million a day. He says funds are divided about equally between incoming and outgoing. Cash leaves Iraq mainly to pay for imports and arrives to finance new projects.

"All kinds of businesses are active - cars, home appliances, ready-made clothes, tires and batteries, foodstuffs," Tabra says. All that is good news for Nepal Trading, which collects a 0.5% commission on outgoing cash and a minimum fee of $10 for each delivery of inbound money.

The firm's office is conspicuous only by the three BMWs parked on the street and the steady stream of people in and out. Tabra oversees the family empire from a room hidden behind a window with thick purple drapes. It's sparsely decorated with three purple couches and battered fiberboard furniture. A picture of his father, one of several dozen entrepreneurs executed by Saddam on trumped-up charges of hoarding food, hangs on a wall in the waiting room. Tabra often wears a traditional dishdasha robe, a gold pen slipped into the breast pocket.

He's expanding his modest quarters by a third. You can hear it through the walls: the pounding of hammers, the shrill whine of a power drill. The makeover will move his cashiers farther into the building, where they will be less vulnerable to an armed assault. 

Security concerns are not theoretical in Baghdad's Wild West atmosphere. Crime is rampant, carjacking common. Tabra's couriers have been robbed three times since Saddam's fall, losing a total of $800,000 cash. In December, Tabra's brother-in-law and a cousin were ambushed in their car while carrying money through the streets of Baghdad. Four gunmen in a white Mercedes ordered them to stop. Instead, the cousin slammed his car into reverse and tried to get away. The gunmen riddled the car with bullets, wounded both men and grabbed $400,000. The two are still in the hospital; the brother-in-law is paralyzed.

Street violence and corruption are the flip side of the Baghdad boom. Under Saddam, car dealer Tuma complains, he and his brothers only had to bribe one of Saddam's relatives. In a way, it was one-stop shopping. Now, every cop on the beat seems to have his hand out, he says. Police threatened to arrest Tuma on trumped-up charges and relented only after collecting a $50 payoff. When thieves drove off with a car someone had entrusted the Tuma brothers to sell, police demanded a $100 payment on top of $2,000 compensation to the car's owner. 

"The police are always trying to create trouble for you, so you have to pay them," Tuma says. They want only U.S. dollars. 

On the other hand, Tuma concedes that some of his best customers are crooked cops. One cash-rich police captain recently ordered three cars, including a fully loaded '93 Mercedes for $8,000.

Underlying the boomtown atmosphere is the fear that the good times won't last or that those who don't move swiftly will be left behind. "If you don't have people on the ground, you're going to miss the boat," Foley says.

One sign of the ongoing uncertainty about what will happen once political power is restored to Iraqis: Jurri's car dealership still carries the name (al-Sakker) of a Saddam crony, now in hiding, who forced Jurri to accept him as a partner, contributed nothing and confiscated most of the profits.

Jurri would love to change the name but says, "I'm scared he'll come back." 

Chile Park-Builder Sets Sights on Argentina, Paraguay

Sun Mar 28,12:34 PM ET

By Ignacio Badal 

SANTIAGO, Chile  - Years of obstacles and bad press have not discouraged millionaire American conservationist Douglas Tompkins, who bought up land in Chile to make Latin America's biggest nature sanctuary and now is working toward creating a network of wildlife-protection areas in Argentina and Paraguay. 

Tompkins, 61, who made his fortune in the fashion industry, has bought land in northern Argentina and is looking at possible purchases in Paraguay as well, to copy the concept of his Pumalin Park in Patagonia in southern Chile. 

In addition his wife, Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia clothing, has more than 250,000 acres in three protected areas in southern Argentina through her Conservacion Patagonica charitable foundation, one of which is slated to be donated to Argentina's national parks system. 

Tompkins, dubbed the ecological magnate in Chile, did not deny or confirm local news reports that his wife is now seeking to buy land in Chile's virgin and almost inaccessible area of Aisen, across the border from her Argentine holdings. 

"You'd have to talk to her," he told The News Source in an interview. Kristine Tompkins did not answer an e-mail asking about her reported interest in buying land in Chile. 

"We are 100 percent dedicated to our projects in Argentina," Tompkins said. "And probably also in Paraguay, where there are conservation opportunities. Not in Brazil, that country is a time bomb, there's going to be a bigger default than in Argentina." 

AGREEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT 

Tompkins is not the only wealthy person who has bought up huge expanses of forest in southern Chile. Local tycoons Anacleto Angelini and Eliodoro Matte bought forests for logging. 

But Tompkins has turned his land into Pumalin Park, setting up ranger facilities, camping areas and trails that attract thousands of tourists and launching small farming projects that provide some jobs to local communities. 

He financed his park when he sold out 13 years ago his interest in the Esprit fashion company that he had co-founded in San Francisco. The company has since become the Hong Kong-based Esprit Holdings Ltd. . 

His Conservation Land Trust bought up 741,200 acres of dense forests of ancient larches, snowcapped volcanoes and fjords in the remote and uninhabited region of Palena. 

The purchases sparked suspicions among local politicians who saw the huge land purchase as a threat to national sovereignty, since his holdings cross Chile from the Andes to the Pacific ocean, on both sides of the only state highway in the zone. 

Years of negotiating with the government have built trust and improved his relationship with wary Chileans, but his reputation in Chile as an interloper still bothers Tompkins. He says if he were a foreign businessman who had bought up the land to cut down the trees, no one would have said a thing. 

"I think there's a business plot to block conservation projects," he said. "That's why an environmental conservation movement has come into being to confront the business threat not only in Chile, but around the world," he said. 

After six years of negotiations, Tompkins signed in December an agreement with the Chilean government converting Pumalin Park into a nature sanctuary twice as big as the metropolitan area of the capital, Santiago. 

Lagos' close adviser Francisco Huenchumilla reached the agreement with Tompkins, fending off opposition lawmakers who were against the sanctuary plan, saying it threatened national sovereignty as well as business development in the region. 

The U.S.-based Conservation Land Trust will hand over control of the sanctuary to Chile-based Fundacion Pumalin, which will be administered by a seven-member board, four named by Tompkins and three by regional academic, civilian and religious leaders. 

Business activities will be prohibited in the reserve, but the government can use the land for infrastructure projects. 

"The law is very clear. If the government decides to put a pipeline, power lines, roads or a port, there is an expropriation procedure, and they have to compensate," said Tompkins. 

GREEN ENCLAVES 

If Kristine Tompkins buys the 173,000 acres she is supposedly negotiating in Aisen, the couple will have invested more than $50 million in becoming Chile's biggest landholders, after the Angelini group, which controls Forestal Arauco forestry firm, and has 1.4 million acres. 

But the total will shrink when Tompkins moves ahead with a promise to donate 208,000 acres of his land holdings to the government to expand an existing national park. 

Chile's National System of Protected Wildlife areas includes national parks, reserves and monuments and covers more than 19 percent of the country's territory. 

Seeking new areas to save, a few years ago Tompkins bought 692,000 acres in the Argentine province Corrientes where he has formed a wetlands park, Esteros del Ibera, which combines conservation zones with forestry and cattle ranching areas. 

In Buenos Aires province he owns a large ranch dedicated to agriculture and beekeeping, and in the northern province of Salta he is "looking at" a piece of jungle land that would also go to conservation. 

He did not say where the land is that he is looking at in Paraguay, but said it is also jungle terrain he would like to preserve. 

It's a Tough Life for Paper Currency 

Sun Mar 28, 1:17 PM ET



By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Andrew Wilson throws his own special load of laundry into the wash: eight white cotton terry towels, 2 1/3 ounces of powdered laundry detergent - and 25 crisp U.S. greenbacks. 

Wash, rinse and spin. When the load is done, it's not the towels he goes for first. 

Wilson is a chemist at a Bureau of Engraving and Printing lab that checks how dollar bills survive the torture of every day life - whether bucks are spun in a washing machine or dumped in a crumpled mass into an overstuffed handbag. 

The bureau, which makes the nation's paper currency, tests thousands of greenbacks weekly. 

The dollars are picked at random from larger batches of freshly made notes. But these bills will never make it into cash registers, wallets or handbags. Eventually, they are destroyed. 

"What we do here is after the currency is printed, we test the currency to make sure it meets our specifications, which are pretty stringent," said Goutam Gupta, chief of the bureau's Office of Technical Support. 

"For example, some people will frequently leave their currency in their pocket and then launder the clothing. So, the note actually has to survive that process," said Gupta, who holds a doctorate in chemistry. 

"Is the quality good enough so that (the bill) still retains its clarity and resolution so that it looks like a nice American bank note. We run tests to simulate these actual stresses you'll see in circulation," he said. 

The lab tests how well the notes hold up after indignities such as being laundered, soaked in chemicals or folded repeatedly - technically known as the "crumple" test. 

All the tests are important, but it is most troubling if a bill flunks the crumple test, Gupta said. "It is more serious ... because people will take a note and fold it and stick it into their pocket," he said. "That is a much more likely scenario in actual use." 

In that test, physicist Virgil Huber cuts a fresh $20 bill into three pieces so it will fit into a special metal contraption. He rolls one slice like a cigarette and inserts it into the device, which squashes it into a pellet. Each crinkly wad is then carefully unfolded and examined. 

A bill is tested seven days to 10 days after it rolls off the printing press to provide sufficient time to make sure "the ink is cured," said Valentino DeVito, who also holds a doctorate in chemistry and is manager of technical services. If ink flakes off, the bill can look worn. In general, the bills hold up well because "we have very excellent ink these days," DeVito said. 

The same tests are run regardless of the bill's denomination. Only one type of test is applied to a selected bill; the same note never goes through the entire battery of tests. No one knows when the torture tests now used first started. 

In the laundry test, the 25 bills, eight all-cotton terry towels and standard laundry detergent are tossed into top-load washing machine. The mix of bills and towels slosh and spin through a regular wash cycle in about 14 gallons of hot water. 

The water temperature is about 142 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 4 degrees. When the notes come out of the washing machine, they are air dried and then examined. 

The ink on the front of the bill is more likely than the ink on the back to take a hit from the laundry test, DeVito said. The portrait areas on the front of bills - such as the face of Abraham Lincoln on the $5 or George Washington on the $1 - have the heaviest ink and can be more susceptible to ink flaking and visible damage, DeVito said. 

In a second test, a bill is soaked for 24 hours in a glass container filled with one of nine chemicals or solvents, such as gasoline, bleach or sulfuric acid. 

The usually cream-colored background in a note that had been bleached looked very light, but otherwise the ink was in good shape, DeVito said, examining one specimen bill. Like the laundry test, the chemical soak tests rarely produce a problem with the backs of the bill. "The backs are resilient," DeVito said. 

The lab also conducts a "rub" test, using the same nine solvents. A 2-pound weight with a pad on the bottom is rubbed repeatedly across a bill that has had a solvent poured on it. 

Each test has criteria for passing or failing. Most bills pass, officials said. 

"In a worst-case scenario ... and something is grossly wrong, the production may have to be destroyed," Gupta said. "Remember, we are only taking a small sample from the production, but if we find something wrong that flags that production batch, it will be put on hold until a determination can be made as to what to do with that," he said. 

Officials, however, cannot think of a time in recent memory when that has happened. Should a note fail, "We have pretty sophisticated scientists ... to specifically determine why there is a failure ... and rectify it," Gupta said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Bureau of Engraving and Printing: http://www.moneyfactory.com/ 

Video of currency testing is available at: http://wid.ap.org/video/video/greenbacks.rm 

Video Game Industry Faces 'Crisis of Creativity' 
Sun Mar 28, 8:50 AM ET 
Add Technology 

By Reed Stevenson and Ben Berkowitz 

SAN JOSE, Calif.  - The video game industry is facing a hardening of the creative arteries as aging gamers' tastes increasingly shift toward sequels and games based on movies, industry participants said this week. 

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With more and more titles chasing the success of their predecessors and content owners digging deep into their libraries to tap older material for quick fail-proof conversion into games, the industry is faced with a question more serious than rhetorical: What's new? 

"The gaming industry will shrink unless we start to see new games," said Toru Iwatani, who created Pac-Man, one of the first video games to become a worldwide hit. 

One of the industry's first huge hits, published by Namco Ltd. (9752.T) in 1980, Pac-Man crossed gender lines and became a huge hit with women. 

At the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California, a gathering of industry insiders where the talk is more about how games are made than how they are sold, the dearth of new titles and the increasing cost of developing games was a common theme at keynotes and panel discussions. 

The high up-front costs of developing games is also pressuring developers to rely more on sure-fire hits and take less risks on new, innovative titles. 

Electronic Arts Inc. (NasdaqNM:ERTS - news), the gaming industry's largest publisher, has perfected the art of getting gamers hooked on yearly releases of sports games and turning out versions of movie hits such as "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Harry Potter (news - web sites): Quidditch World Cup." 

EA's U.S. market share in 2004 is more than twice that of its closest competitor, and the company generates more revenue in the December quarter than its closest competitor does in an entire fiscal year, driven in large part by those repeat sports and film titles. 

CONSERVATIVE GAMERS? 

Out of the top 100 games sold in Japan during 2001, 10 were original titles, but that number was halved in 2002 and fell to merely two in 2003. 

"The ratio of original titles to sequels is dropping dramatically," said Ryoichi Hasegawa, an industry veteran who was at Sega Corp. (7964.T) before joining Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s (6758.T) gaming business. 

Things are little better in the United States, where last December, according to the NPD Group, more than half of the 20 best-selling games on all platforms were sequels or derivatives of existing properties. 

Part of the problem is the advancing average age of gamers, which is rising as the industry matures. 

Last summer, the Entertainment Software Association, an industry trade group, found that the average age of gamers had risen to 29 years old, dispelling the view that gamers consist mainly of teenagers. 

"Core gamers are advancing in age and they are becoming more conservative," Hasegawa told a panel. 

Sony , which dominates the global console market, is planning for its PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console to have a lifespan of at least a decade, and its executives acknowledge that with such a long cycle, its user base will naturally age and have different tastes. 

"We have to think very carefully about the type of audience we're reaching with our games," Andrew House, an executive vice president with Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in a keynote address at the conference. 

But it is not just EA chasing after proven material. Upcoming titles such as "Halo 2," "Half-Life 2," "Doom III" and "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" are all expected to top sales charts this year, in large part because the games that preceded them were so successful. 

And licenses for films and TV shows are being snapped up left and right by publishers counting on consumers to opt for something familiar when trying to decide how to spend their $30 to $50 per game in discretionary income. 

Just this year, EA has licensed "The Godfather" and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NasdaqNM:TTWO - news) has set up an ongoing licensing deal with the Cartoon Network. 

Ubi Soft (UBIP.PA) announced on Thursday that it had licensed the early 1980s TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard." 

Despite the proliferation of sequels and licensed games, Pac-man creator Iwatani said that he had seen this happen before during his 20 year-career, and that new and revolutionary new games appear in a two- to three-year cycle. 

"It's difficult right now but I expect to see a recovery in a couple years," Iwatani said. 

Trump Hotels Low on Luck, and Cash, Auditors Warn
Wed Mar 31,11:01 AM ET

NEW YORK  - Casino mogul Donald Trump may have the final word with his television apprentices, but his auditors say Trump's casino company will be in deep trouble without a cash infusion -- which would leave him with a minority holding in the company. 

The warning hit the shares of Trump Hotels & Casinos Resorts, which fell more than 12 percent in Wednesday morning trading. 

The ability of the casino company to continue as a "going concern" hinges on a deal that would allow Credit Suisse First Boston to infuse $400 million in exchange for majority stake in the company, according to auditors for Ernst & Young. 

"The company has experienced increased competition, has incurred recurring operating losses and has a working capital deficit at December 31, 2003," Ernst & Young auditors wrote in a letter to the board of directors. 

Trump Hotels shares fell 12.5 percent to $2.37 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). 

The auditors said the company was looking at alternative solutions. "Absent the successful completion of one of these alternatives, the Company's operating results will increasingly become uncertain. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern," they warned. 

The deal with DLJ Merchant Banking, a Credit Suisse First Boston affiliate, includes a proposed refinancing of $1.8 billion in high-interest debt, a modified board of directors and a name change to Trump International Corp. 

The deal, contingent on renegotiations with bondholders, would remove Trump as chief executive but would let him remain chairman of the board. 

Trump Hotels, strapped in $1.8 billion of debt, has lacked the cash flow to reinvest in its Atlantic City properties while its competitors have been expanding and renovating to lure new customers. Casinos in the New Jersey coastal resort have been struggling with competition from the new $1 billion Borgata Hotel Spa and Casino. 

Trump Hotels owns three casinos in Atlantic City and a riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana. It also manages an Indian casino in California. 

Trump, a self-promoting dealmaker, stars on the hit reality television show "The Apprentice," in which he comes across as the consummate executive whose trademark line is "You're fired." 

Police, Zoo Staff Clashed Over Gorilla 
Wed Mar 31,10:04 AM ET 
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DALLAS - As a 350-pound gorilla ran free at the Dallas Zoo, attacking four people, employees clashed with police on how to corral the animal before police shot it to death, a newspaper reported Wednesday. 

Despite more than five years of emergency drills together, police officers did not cooperate with zoo staff on March 18 as they tried to subdue Jabari, The Dallas Morning News reported, citing zoo records. 

"It was mayhem," wrote Mike Glover, the zoo's emergency weapons team leader. 

Zoo records show that just before the escape, two teenage boys standing on a trail overlooking the gorilla exhibit hurled either ice or stones at Jabari. The gorilla escaped his walled compound, snatched up a toddler with his teeth and injured three others. 

Police have said officers were forced to shoot the charging gorilla after it came within 15 feet of them. According to the newspaper, a tranquilizer gun wielded by zoo staff had jammed. 

The newspaper said police either ignored or were unaware of an emergency plan the police department had helped write. The SWAT team ran past employees on a nature trail, bypassing a meeting point set up to organize a search-and-rescue mission. 

Animal welfare advocates have said police could have used nonfatal techniques to contain the gorilla, including using rubber bullets or cornering it. 

Clarke Asks Anti-Bush Group to Pull TV Ads 
45 minutes ago

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s former counterterrorism adviser objected Wednesday to the use of his name and critical comments about Bush in a new broadcast advertisement from a political group supporting Democratic candidate John Kerry (news - web sites). 

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Richard Clarke said he instructed his lawyer to ask the MoveOn.org Voter Fund to stop broadcasting the ad, which Clarke said was created without his knowledge or permission. The group said it wouldn't pull the ad, and one outside legal expert said the ad was clearly permissible under U.S. copyright laws. 

"I just don't want to be used," Clarke told The News Source. "I don't want to be part of what looks like a political TV ad. I'm trying hard to make this not a partisan thing but a discussion of how we stop terrorism from happening in the future, keep this on a policy issue. I don't want this to become any more emotional or personal than it has already." 

The campaigns director for MoveOn, Eli Pariser, said Clarke's comments were presented fairly and accurately but acknowledged it didn't speak with Clarke about the spot. 

"This is a public statement that Clarke had made," Pariser said. "We think it's important to get what Clarke has to say out there." 

One copyright expert said Clarke had little legal recourse under copyright statutes protecting the publicity rights of celebrities or public figures. 

"It's very difficult to imagine any claim that a court would take seriously in this context," said Susan Crawford, an assistant professor at Yeshiva University's Cardoza Law School in New York. "I'm surprised he's doing this. No one would assume that Richard Clarke encouraged them to do this." 

Clarke's attorney, Robert B. Barnett, couldn't be reached immediately for comment; his office said he was traveling. 

The advertisement by MoveOn.org accuses Bush of "shamelessly" exploiting the September 2001 terrorism attacks against New York and Washington. It includes two audio excerpts from an interview with Clarke that CBS aired on "60 Minutes" on March 21, the day before Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies," went on sale. 

In the interview excerpts, Clarke said it was "outrageous" that Bush was promoting his response to the terror attacks because "he ignored terrorism for months when maybe we could have done something to stop 9-11." 

A spokesman for CBS said the network didn't know about the ad. 

"CBS News was unaware that MoveOn.org was using CBS News copyrighted material without permission and to advocate a point of view," spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. "We are exploring our options." 

Clarke's scathing criticisms of the Bush administration's response to terrorism provoked an extraordinary response by the White House, which derided Clarke's assertions as false and irresponsible. 

Clarke - whose closest friend is a top aide to Kerry - has sought to deflect charges that his complaints were politically motivated, pledging last week during congressional testimony not to accept any job offer from the Kerry campaign. 

Clarke said it was unclear immediately whether he can legally demand that MoveOn stop airing the advertisement against Bush, since it includes remarks he made in a national news broadcast. 

"The point is not whether they're acting illegally, but I certainly want everyone to understand they are acting without my permission and distorting my message," Clarke said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

MoveOn's disputed ad: http://flash.moveon.org/pac/images/clarke.mpg 

Rat Genome Helps Separate Mice from Men
Wed Mar 31,12:44 PM ET 
Add Science 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - The genetic code of the rat joined the growing list of creatures whose DNA has been mapped on Wednesday and experts said it will make the laboratory rat, already beloved by scientists, an even better tool for fighting human disease. 

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The rat is only the third species to be sequenced to such a degree, after the completed human genome sequence in April 2003 and the draft mouse genome in December 2002. 

It confirms that the laboratory rat is in fact a good choice for medical research. Almost all human genes associated with diseases have counterparts in the rat genome, the researchers write in this week's issue of the journal Nature. 

"This is an investment that is destined to yield major payoffs in the fight against human disease," Dr. Elias Zerhouni, head of the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) that funded most of the research, said in a statement. 

"For nearly 200 years, the laboratory rat has played a valuable role in efforts to understand human biology and to develop new and better drugs," he added. 

"Now, armed with this sequencing data, a new generation of researchers will be able to greatly improve the utility of rat models and thereby improve human health." 

The researchers, led by a team at Baylor College of Medicine's Genome Sequencing Center in Texas, chose the Brown Norway strain of laboratory rat, known scientifically as Rattus norvegicus. 

This species was best known in the past for infecting ships and is distinct from the smaller black rat, Rattus rattus, notorious for spreading plague. 

"As we build upon the foundation laid by the Human Genome Project (news - web sites), it's become clear that comparing the human genome with those of other organisms is the most powerful tool available to understand the complex genomic components involved in human health and disease," said Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute. 

Having the rat genome along with the mouse and the human allows scientists to triangulate, just as mariners triangulate to navigate using the stars and the sun, said Baylor's Richard Gibbs, who led the study. 

That in turn will help show what makes mice different from people, and rats from mice, the scientists told a news conference. 

"If we have two things we can't really tell how far apart we are. Now that we have a third species we can see whether the changes are rat changes, mouse changes or human changes," Gibbs said in an interview. 

The map has already shown an explosion of change in the rat's genetic makeup, Gibbs said -- helping separate the rat from other rodents and especially mice. 

Rats have significant differences from mice and from people notably in olfaction and immune system genes. 

But it is not so much new genes as extra copies of genes, Collins said. 

"It certainly doesn't seem that any new genes were invented along the way," Collins said. 

In other words, what makes us different from rats or mice is not some unique human gene, but rather what the body does with its genes. 

Recipe for Danger

Mar 31, 7:58 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Attention cooks -- a recipe for rolls in the current issue of Southern Living magazine could be hazardous.

The magazine, published by Time Warner Inc.'s Southern Progress Corp. subsidiary, said it is alerting readers about potential dangers from a recipe for icebox rolls in its April issue. The magazine said it has requested the removal of all copies of the April issue from newsstands.

"It has been determined that heating the water and shortening, as described in the recipe, is potentially dangerous and may pose a fire and safety hazard," the Birmingham, Alabama-based magazine said in a statement.

Southern Living said 12 of its roughly 2.4 million subscribers had contacted the company with concerns about the recipe. A corrected recipe is available on the southernliving.com Web site. 

Woman Challenges Trump 'You're Fired' Trademark

Mar 31, 8:01 am ET 

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON  - Chicago pottery merchant Susan Brenner has a message for real-estate mogul Donald Trump: in the Windy City, she'll do the firing.

Capitalizing on the success of his reality-television show, "The Apprentice," Trump has sought to trademark the phrase "You're Fired!" for use on clothing and casino equipment.

But the copper-maned mogul might want to tread carefully in the Chicago area, where Brenner says she has emblazoned the phrase on plates, mugs, birdhouses and other items in her suburban ceramics studio since 1997.

For underlings on "The Apprentice," a "You're fired" from Trump spells the end of a chance to work with one of the most high-profile businessmen of the past 20 years.

For Brenner, "You're fired" is a clever pun on the process of painting and glazing ceramics in her Northbrook, Illinois, studio, said attorney Marvin Benn.

Benn said on Tuesday he was preparing a letter warning Trump that he could be liable for trademark infringement if he sold "You're fired" products in Illinois and neighboring states.

"Because of what's going on, people are coming up to her and saying, 'You're using his mark,"' said Benn, who chairs the intellectual-property group at the law firm Much Shelist.

Brenner is entitled to local trademark protection even though she has not filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Benn said in a telephone interview.

Had she filed a patent application, she would be entitled to nationwide protection, he said.

A Trump spokeswoman declined to comment.

"The Apprentice" is shown on the NBC network, a division of General Electric Co. 

Here Comes the Punctuation Vigilante

Mar 30, 10:39 am ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - In the land of Shakespeare, punctuation faced extinction until writer Lynne Truss came to the rescue with a clutch of carefully placed commas and colons.

Taking a zero tolerance approach to grammatical lapses, she wrote a sprightly guide to punctuation, "Eats, shoots and leaves," that has sold more than half a million copies in Britain alone and soared to the top of bestseller lists.

Now, honing her crusading zeal over misplaced apostrophes, Truss is off to the United States to ensure transatlantic tidiness reigns supreme on the printed page.

She fervently believes the Internet, e-mails and text messaging have widened people's horizons, but treat punctuation like unnecessary linguistic baggage.

Truss, who says she is a stickler for accuracy and not an obsessive pedant, thinks the English have lost touch with the language they invented and gave to the world.

But she will not cast the first stone at the Americans, often mocked by the haughty British for bastardizing their mother tongue.

"American education seems to take grammar quite seriously," she told The News Source before leaving on a 10-city, coast-to-coast tour of North America for the launch of the book there next month.

"My sense of it is that British English is worse actually than American English. I think Americans really like rules. I think we in Britain are very slapdash and don't care if we are right or wrong."

PUNCTUATION CAMPAIGN

But Hollywood has certainly enraged Truss, a feisty columnist and broadcaster who would happily reach for her marker pen to put in punctuation where Tinseltown offers none.

"What about that film Two Weeks Notice? Where was the apostrophe?" she asks, enraged that there is no apostrophe at the end of Weeks.

The rise of the manufactured British pop band Hear'Say had her apoplectic with grammatical rage and she rejoiced when "the group thankfully folded within 18 months."

"Valentine's Day was a terrible time for me too," she said. "Only half the shops put the apostrophe in. That was upsetting."

Now it looks like her punctuation campaign could go global.

"The book is out in the Gulf states. There is a separate edition in India. It has done well in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It does seem to be touching a chord," she said.

"It is an international issue. The Internet is having a big effect on the way people write in every language."

Truss insists that punctuation vigilantes are not nerds who should really get out more.

"We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation," she said.

For, as she explains in "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," published in Britain by Profile Books, a misplaced comma can indeed be deadly.

The book's title stems from the joke about a panda who walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter as the panda heads for the exit. The animal produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and all is revealed.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves." Monday, 29 March 2004 17:32:21

Dallas Fed Bank President Gets Poetic

Mar 30, 10:36 am ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS  - Global investors bet billions of dollars on the carefully crafted statements of the U.S. Federal Reserve. So what exactly is Dallas Fed Bank President Robert McTeer doing writing limericks about the economy?

McTeer is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's monetary policymaking body and the group responsible for setting interest rates. He has taught economics at universities and written numerous articles on subjects such as the role of productivity growth and the new economy.

He also has a penchant for mixing his high-minded outlook on the U.S. economy with a bit of lower-brow poetry.

"This poetry writing is something that I do for fun, way out on the fringes," McTeer said.

In 2002, he penned a limerick to describe the turnaround in the economy despite predictions of a recession. It read:

There once was an economy on the ropes

That kept dashing our recovery hopes

When we made the concession

To call it a recession

It turned up, and we felt like dopes

McTeer's first haiku, the Japanese poetic form with three unrhymed lines of five syllables, seven syllables and five syllables, was delivered to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. It was on contemporary monetary policy. That haiku was lost but another macroeconomic haiku can be found on a special section of the Dallas Fed's Web site (http://www.dallasfed.org) called "Rhymes with No Reason."

The "Rhymes" section houses a collection of McTeer's poems and vignettes and brings a bit of levity to a Web site loaded with economic statistics and analysis.

While market players have a tough time interpreting the obtuse and somewhat opaque Fed speak, McTeer can give the current state of the economy in the form of a haiku:

The economy

Is recovering nicely

But without new jobs

'CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR'

He gussied up the sentiment when he addressed a high-powered group of economists and market players in New York with the limerick called "Close but No Cigar":

The recovery is now 2 years old

And maybe it was oversold

Now we've made the discovery

That it's a jobless recovery

It wins the silver, but not the gold

McTeer is considered a "dove" among Fed bank presidents, meaning he does not take as hard of a line as other Open Market Committee members in using monetary policy to stamp out inflation. He has earned the nickname the "lonesome dove" -- also the title of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Texan Larry McMurtry -- for occasionally standing apart from other committee members.

McTeer admits he would not mind being a country music singer and songwriter.

"The only problem is that I am not that good at songwriting and I don't sing all that well," McTeer said.

So the president of the Dallas Fed Bank uses poetry as a creative outlet.

"I do not know anything about poetry. I do not know how to do it right. If I did, it probably wouldn't rhyme and then it probably wouldn't be any fun," he said.

Christopher Rupkey, a senior financial economist for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York, said McTeer is an important player among the Fed bank presidents. His speeches, often unscripted, are closely watched because they give some insight as to what is happening behind the scenes at the Fed, Rupkey said.

"McTeer is a highly trained economist who also has a common sense view of the economy. He can look at economic actions and understand how they will be perceived by Main Street and Wall Street," Rupkey said.

Fed watchers have said McTeer is one of several candidates mentioned as a possible replacement for Greenspan once he steps down.

McTeer uses his poetry to help connect with audiences such as Rotary clubs or high school teachers when he gives speeches. He delivers his verse to audiences of economists, investors and various groups in Texas and the Southwest that have booked him as a speaker.

He says the poetry is part of his "shtick."

"When somebody invites a Fed person to speak, what they really expect is something like eating spinach. They think it is something they ought to do, but they are not expecting to enjoy it," McTeer said. 

Treasury Department Slips on Ladders

Mar 30, 10:36 am ET 

By Jonathan Nicholson

WASHINGTON  - It was the anecdote that politically seemed too good to be true. And it was. Treasury Secretary John Snow was set to say on Friday that "frivolous lawsuits" had caused the U.S. ladder industry to fold.

"There is not a single company left in the United States that makes ladders. The lawsuits got to be too much for the ladder industry," read comments Snow prepared for a conference sponsored by the Small Business Administration.

But when the department discovered there were some 11 producers selling $850 million worth of ladders in the United States, those words were left unspoken and deleted from a speech text posted later on the department's Web site.

A Treasury official said the statement was in error.

"The buck stops with me," said Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols on Monday. "That is my error. That is a factual inaccuracy that I missed during the fact-checking process."

The Bush administration has been urging Congress to pass measure to curb lawsuits against businesses. Tort reform is part of President Bush's pre-election economic plan.

Federal agencies often provide advance copies of carefully vetted speeches to reporters, to help get their message across in stories.

"I'm really disappointed," said Ron Pietrzak, executive director of the Chicago-based American Ladder Institute, which includes 11 domestic ladder makers and has a Web site at: www.americanladderinstitute.org

The group said the U.S. ladder industry generates sales of more than $850 million annually.

Pietrzak said liability issues are a concern for manufacturers. "People do stupid things," he said.

But Pietrzak said his group is also worried about competition from Chinese ladder makers.

In January, Forbes magazine said the nation's oldest ladder maker, family-owned John S. Tilley Ladders Co. of Watervliet, N.Y., had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in part because of rising liability insurance costs. A call to the company was not immediately returned. 

Oven Gets Hot, Woman Gets Shot

Mar 29, 10:39 am ET 

SAN ANTONIO  - A Texas woman heating fish sticks was shot in the leg by a gun that had been stashed in her oven, police said.

Roxanne Perez, 29, was taken to a local hospital where she was in good condition, police said Friday.

They said a friend of hers had hidden the .357 caliber handgun in the stove two weeks earlier without telling her after she told him no guns were allowed in her house.

When Perez heated up the fish sticks she also heated up the gun, which caused several rounds to be fired. One hit her in the leg.

No charges have been filed because the shooting was accidental, police said. 

Purebred Dogs Are Said to Resemble Owners

2 hours, 5 minutes ago

By SETH HETTENA, News Source Writer 

SAN DIEGO - Those who think purebred dogs look like their owners are barking up the right tree, but matching a mutt to its master is another thing, a study suggests. 

Research at the University of California, San Diego indicates that when people pick a dog, they look for one that, at some level, bears some resemblance to them. And when they get a purebred dog, they get what they want. 

When given a choice of two dogs, judges correctly matched 25 purebreds with their owners nearly two out of three times. With mutts, however, the pattern went to the dogs. 

"When you pick a purebred, you pick it specifically because of how it's going to look as a grown-up," said Nicholas Cristenfeld, UCSD professor of psychology and co-author of the study, which appears in the current issue of Psychological Science. 

Cristenfeld said mutt owners such as himself make their choice on the spur-of-the-moment at a dog pound, not knowing what a puppy will look like. 

Forty-five dogs and their owners chosen at random were photographed separately at three San Diego dog parks. The judges, some 28 undergraduates taking psychology classes at UC San Diego, were shown pictures of the owners and two dogs and asked to match the correct dog with the owner. 

Out of the 25 purebreds, there were 16 correct matches and nine misses. For 20 mutts in the study, there were seven matches, four ties and nine misses. 

"There is a certain stereotype of person from each breed," said Tracy Cavaciuti, a French Bulldog breeder in Connecticut. 

So what kind of person likes the pop-eyed, pointy-eared, pug-nosed Frenchie? 

"Actually, they're quite trendy and good-looking," Cavaciuti said, adding that they tend to strut on the streets of New York City's tony Upper East Side. 

Hound people are a different story. 

"You can spot them a mile away," she said. "They're very doggy." 

How the aristocratic Afghan Hound or the otherworldly French Bulldog resemble their owners is unclear since the study found judges didn't use any one characteristic to make the matches. There were no significant correlation between dogs and owners on the basis of size, attractiveness, friendliness and energy level when considered separately. 

"People are attracted to looks and temperaments that reflect themselves or how they perceive themselves," said Gail Miller, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club. Miller, who has owned several bearded collies, described her "beardies" as gregarious, active dogs. 

"I'm definitely like them - very outgoing, likes to have fun and get active," she said. 

___ 

News Source writer Daisy Nguyen contributed to this story. 

German Clerk Catches Thief with Own Stolen Card

Mar 29, 10:36 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German man was arrested for credit card theft after trying to buy $90 worth of beer and cigarettes at a gas station with a stolen card that belonged to the cashier, Berlin police said Monday.

"When I looked at the credit card I saw it was my name," the 33-year-old named Heiko told Berlin's B.Z. newspaper. He locked the man inside the shop and called the police. He said he had recently ordered a credit card but it never arrived in the post.

"It was not a common name, so there was no chance of coincidence," a police spokeswoman said. 

San Francisco Ballpark Becomes WiFi Internet Hub

Tue Mar 30, 4:01 PM ET

Add Sports 

SAN FRANCISCO  - The old ballgame is getting some new technology. 

Baseball fans bored by the slow pace of a game or wanting more statistics and information will be able to connect computer devices via wireless computer networking, or WiFi, at San Francisco Giants (news) home games this year, the team announced on Tuesday. The Giants' stadium is, after all, called SBC Park, for telecommunications giant SBC Communications Inc. 

"We've created, if not the largest, one of the largest hot spots in the world," said Larry Baer, the team's chief operating officer. "We're the first professional sports facility to provide people universal WiFi connectivity." 

San Francisco's wired stadium is the latest in a growing world of wireless connectivity. Earlier this month the city of San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley, began offering free WiFi service in its downtown areas. 

A growing number of retail establishments such as McDonald's and Starbucks are also offering WiFi, a wireless technology that allows a computer with a special modem to connect to the Internet. 

Even more remote corners of the world are beginning to offer WiFi services. 

Srinagar, home to alluring houseboats and gondolas at the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, recently started offering WiFi service to lure tourists deterred in recent years by turmoil in India's Kashmir (news - web sites) region. 

The WiFi service, provided by SBC and Nortel Networks Corp., is free for fans attending games, but tickets to games cost as much as $75 for the best seats. 

American Kids, Parents Lack Sleep, Survey Finds

Tue Mar 30, 7:16 PM ET

Add Health 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - Most American children are not getting enough sleep and television and caffeine are helping keep many awake at night, the National Sleep Foundation said on Tuesday. 

A survey of 1,400 parents showed that many are not aware of how much sleep their children need and may not realize that TV and caffeine can affect their child's sleep. 

"Parents are paying a price for their children's poor sleep habits," Jodi Mindell, a director of the foundation and associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told a news conference. 

"The majority of parents are being awakened at least one night a week by their children." 

At the same time, researchers told a conference at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) that Americans need guidelines on how to get more sleep. 

"The depth and breadth of sleep problems is not fully appreciated in this country," said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona. "Chronic sleep loss and untreated sleep disorders have a profound impact on Americans of all ages -- they affect 70 million Americans and cost our nation $15 billion in health care expenses." 

Dr. Carl Hunt, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said the research shows that sleep disorders are common but people do not yet realize it. 

"We need to define some better ways to get the message out to people," Hunt said in an interview. "It's not just a matter of 'you ought to sleep more' but why they ought to sleep more." 

DYING TO GET SOME SLEEP 

Hunt said lack of sleep can be dangerous, just like high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

"We do know that it can kill you," he said. "A lack of sleep has major implications for accidents -- not only workplace accidents but highway accidents." 

The Sleep Foundation said its survey showed 30 percent of all children aged 1 to 10 wake at least once a night and need attention, which then affects their parents' sleep. 

The poll found 26 percent of children aged 3 or older drink at least one caffeinated beverage a day, including sodas or iced tea. Those children slept a half-hour less each night than those who did not drink caffeine. 

The survey also found many children have a television in their bedroom. Parents said 43 percent of school-aged children had their own TV sets, as did one third of young children aged 3 to 5 and 20 percent of infants and toddlers. 

According to the poll, children with TV sets went to sleep 20 minutes later than those without and slept on average 9.2 hours a night compared to 9.6 hours a night -- "a loss of more than two hours of sleep a week," the foundation said. 

The result can be cranky children who are not learning as well as they should, the group said. 

"Parents need to make sufficient sleep a family priority," said Mindell, adding that bedtime routines should exclude TV and include a reading a story. 

The poll found that infants aged 3 to 11 months slept only 12.7 hours a day on average, although they need 14 to 15 hours. Toddlers aged 1 to 3 slept 11.7 hours but they need 12 to 14. 

Preschoolers up to 5 slept 10.4 hours a night on average although they are supposed to get 11 to 13 hours and children up to age 10 slept 9.5 hours although they need 10 or even 11 hours a night. 

Kutcher 'Punks' Audience; Show to Return 
1 hour, 4 minutes ago

By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, News Source Entertainment Writer 

LOS ANGELES - Curse you, Ashton Kutcher (news), for your lying, cheating, punk-ing ways! On Thursday - which just so happened to be April Fools Day - MTV announced that Kutcher and his celebrity prank show "Punk'd" will return to the network with a new season. In December, Kutcher swore the program was finished. 

Related Links
� Punk'd (MTV)

"This is not an April Fools joke," MTV spokeswoman Vanessa Reyes said. 

But, but ... what about a few months ago, when Kutcher promised the world he was all punk'd out? Was he just tricking everybody? 

"Yes, he was," Reyes said. 

When Kutcher announced an end to the series after two seasons in December, The News Source pointed out the possibility that the announcement was a trick aimed at duping new celebrity prank victims into complacency. 

At the time, a page on MTV's Web site announced the end of season two with this message: "But don't worry, the new season starts in March." 

Turns out it actually starts in April, but in this tangle of lies, who's counting? 

Here's what Kutcher told The News Source in January: 

"I've become the boy who cried wolf," he acknowledged, offering some assurance that his decision to end the show after two seasons isn't just another hoax. 

"Let's put it this way," he said. "I'm getting ready to start shooting two movies, I'm still working on `That '70s Show,' I'm producing two other shows for MTV and creating a one-hour drama pilot for Fox ... I don't have the time." 

Liar. 

Anyway, "Punk'd" returns to MTV on Sunday, April 25. 

Unless Kutcher gets eaten by a wolf in the meantime. 

___ 

On the Net: 

"Punk'd" official site: http://www.mtv.com/onair/punkd/index.jhtml 

Dip Into Honey Pot for Good Health 
Mon Mar 29, 1:26 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Merritt McKinney 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Adding a little honey to your diet may do more than satisfy your sweet tooth. Honey may also boost levels of healthy antioxidants, new research suggests. 


 

For centuries, honey has been known to have some beneficial effects, according to University of California-Davis researcher Dr. Heidrun B. Gross. In an interview with The News Source Health, Gross recalled her grandmother's advice to eat honey when she felt under the weather. 

Now, Gross and her colleagues have provided scientific evidence to support what her grandmother knew all along. 

"Honey is not just a sweetener," Gross said. It also has compounds called phenolics that have antioxidant properties, she explained. These substances quench free radicals, which are unstable byproducts of normal metabolism that cause damage to arteries, and to DNA that can lead to cancer and other diseases. 

It is easy enough to take vitamin supplements that contain antioxidants, but Gross said she prefers "to look for foods, rather than compounds, that are already part of our diet." 

In a study of 25 healthy adults, Gross and her colleagues showed that honey can boost antioxidant levels. For 29 days, participants added 4 tablespoons of buckwheat honey to their daily diet. The researchers tested two types of buckwheat honey with different amounts of antioxidants. 

Blood samples taken at the beginning and end of the study showed that the total level of phenolics increased in both groups of volunteers. 

Gross presented the results Sunday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, California. 

Previous research had shown that a single dose of honey can boost antioxidants, but Gross said that the current study is thought to be the first study of daily honey consumption. 

"You can definitely increase the amount of antioxidants" by adding a little honey to your diet, Gross said. She noted that the study included only healthy people, so the jury is still out on the long-term health benefits of honey. 

But for people interested in boosting antioxidant levels, the California researcher recommended adding 2 to 4 tablespoons a day to their diet. This amount of honey "definitely provides some antioxidants," she said, which may boost the body's defense system. 

Gross advised people to consider substituting honey for other sweeteners that do not provide the same burst of antioxidants. 

But not all honey is created equal in terms of antioxidants, Gross said. For the most part, the darker the honey, the more antioxidants it contains, she said. 

Wi-Fi signals turn up in some unexpected places

Mon Mar 29, 6:58 AM ET

Add Business - USATODAY.com 

By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY 

Anyone can get their kicks on Route 66 - but on Highway 101, you can get Wi-Fi in 77 places.

At least that's how many wireless networks USA TODAY found while driving the highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We hunted for networks from a moving car using a wireless-enabled laptop and standard Microsoft Wi-Fi software, which is part of Windows.

Wi-Fi signals usually travel only about a city block, so we expected to pick up only networks that are very close to the freeway. And we expected to miss some of those, because trees, hills, buildings and other obstructions can block Wi-Fi signals. (That might explain why we found fewer networks in hilly San Francisco than in flat L.A.) Our technique would work on any highway in America.

Our 440-mile journey turned up networks in surprising places - and some surprisingly lax security. 

What we found:

�Most Wi-Fi networks are private. Some Wi-Fi networks, such as those in coffee shops, airports and hotels, are designed for anyone to use. But most of the ones we saw appeared to be private networks from homes and businesses. (It's often tough to tell exactly where a Wi-Fi signal originates.) 

We saw a cluster of networks near high-rise apartments in San Francisco's hip South of Market neighborhood, for example. Others popped up near the Silicon Valley office parks that are home to tech giants Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

These networks were probably set up for internal use only. But there's almost no way to keep a Wi-Fi signal - which travels via radio wave - contained inside a building.

�A private Wi-Fi network might still be open. Although no one can control where a Wi-Fi signal goes, basic security precautions can keep the public from logging on. A surprising number of networks didn't have them.

To test, we stopped in downtown Los Angeles. Among the 31 networks we found along one block, only 13 required a password, or network key, to log on. That's one of the most rudimentary Wi-Fi security features.

Two networks - one from a Starbucks and one from the L.A. Public Library - were designed to be open to the public. The other 16 appeared to be private but required no password. Three were so open we easily hopped onto their connections, borrowing their Internet service to surf the Web and send e-mail. Had we more devious intentions, we could have used the network to try to hack into internal corporate files. 

�Wi-Fi is found mainly in high-tech, urban areas - but not always. Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles had the most Wi-Fi networks. Clusters also popped up near California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

But one network appeared in the middle of farmland, just north of the small town of Salinas. Another popped up near the farming town of Gonzales, population 8,275. 

And a third appeared on a picturesque stretch of beachfront highway occupied only by a restaurant, sheep and surfers.

High Court Permits Foster Photos Withheld

2 hours, 42 minutes ago

By GINA HOLLAND, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the government does not have to release 11-year-old photographs from the suicide of Clinton administration White House lawyer Vincent Foster because it would cause his family pain and intrude on their privacy. 

The News Source Photo 

The unanimous decision makes it more difficult to use a public records law to access law enforcement records from autopsies and death scenes. Justices said the privacy rights of survivors must be balanced against the public's right to information. 

A California attorney had sought the Foster pictures, saying they might prove he was murdered as part of a White House cover-up. There was no reasonable evidence of that, the Supreme Court said. 

"Family members have a personal stake in honoring and mourning their dead and objecting to unwarranted public exploitation that, by intruding upon their own grief, tends to degrade the rites and respect they seek to accord to the deceased person who was once their own," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote. 

The widow of race car driver Dale Earnhardt (news - web sites) had filed papers with the Supreme Court opposing the release of four photographs of Foster's body. The Earnhardt family had worked in Florida courts to prevent public release of autopsy photographs of Earnhardt, who died in 2001 during the Daytona 500. 

Multiple investigations determined that a depressed Foster shot himself in the head at a Civil War-era park in Virginia in 1993. The 48-year-old longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) was handling several personal legal matters for them at the time. 

Foster's family had joined the government in fighting the release of death scene pictures to attorney Allan Favish. Favish sought the photos under the Freedom of Information Act. He argued that the law did not give any special privacy rights to relatives. 

The Bush administration maintained that a victory for Favish, known as a Clinton antagonist, could lead to the release of other sensitive information, like autopsy photographs of U.S. soldiers killed overseas and pictures of unidentified remains from the Sept. 11 attacks. 

The Supreme Court ruled that a part of the law that allows the government to withhold records that could "constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" applies to the survivors. 

Kennedy said that means child molesters and murderers cannot use the law to get photographs of deceased victims. 

"We find it inconceivable that Congress could have intended a definition of `personal privacy' so narrow that it would allow convicted felons to obtain these materials without limitations at the expense of surviving family members' personal privacy," he wrote. 

It was an important clarification of the federal law that allows reporters and others to get some unclassified records. 

Favish had the backing of media groups worried that the court could keep too much information off-limits and hurt journalists trying to uncover wrongdoing and abuse in federal agencies. 

Kennedy said that even if family members object to the release of information, a court could order it if there is some evidence of government impropriety. That is not the case in Foster's death, he said. 

Thousands of pages of reports about the Foster death and more than 100 photographs have already been released, and five government investigations concluded that the death was a suicide. 

The case is National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish, 02-954. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court briefs: http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/home.html 

Allan Favish site: http://www.allanfavish.com 

"Simpsons" Cast Strikes Again
Thu Apr 1, 1:00 PM ET 
Add Television - E! Online 

By Josh Grossberg 

Aye Caramba! The real-life alter-egos of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and the rest of The Simpsons gang want more D'oh. 

� News: The Simpsons movie finally?
� News: The Simpsons renewed
� News: The Simpsons get more D'oh

E! Online Photo 

The News Source 

Slideshow: The Simpsons

Six of the show's voice actors have failed to turn up for two table reads in the last couple of weeks in a strong-arm bid for better pay, delaying production on the hit 'toon's 16th season, reports Variety 

The suddenly silent include DanCastellaneta (Homer, Krusty, Grandpa Simpson, Mayor Quimby), Nancy Cartwright (Bart, Nelson, Ralph Wiggum), Julie Kavner (Marge, Selma, Patty), Yeardley Smith (news) (Lisa), Hank Azaria (news) (Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum), and Harry Shearer (news) (Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, et al). 

The work stoppage comes after reps for the Simpsons cast sought to renegotiate the terms of their current deal with Fox TV executives but met with little success. 

Talks to renew the thesps' contracts reportedly broke down when Fox rebuffed their request for a pay hike to $360,000 an episode each, or $8 million for the full 22-episode season. That's a major raise from the $125,000 an episode the cast raked in for seasons 13, 14, and 15. 

That three-year deal expired at the end of last season and America's favorite dysfunctional family has been working without a contract ever since. Meanwhile, their agents and Fox have been battling over just how much is enough to keep them on The Simpsons, now the longest running show on television and the crown jewel of Fox's prime-time lineup. 

The current impasse is similar to a contract battle that occurred in 1998 when Castellaneta and company were making just a meager $30,000 an episode. They went on a similar strike then because they felt they deserved their fair share of the revenue pie. 

Mmmmpie. 

The Simpsons is a global industry, earning more than $1 billion for Fox in syndication revenue with reruns showing all over the world and millions more through the licensing of merchandise. 

A spokesman for Fox and James L. Brooks (news)' Gracie Films, which produces The Simpsons, refused to comment on the contract dispute, as did the actors' reps. 

While the group doesn't come close to Ray Romano (news)'s reported $1.7-$2 million per episode for his Emmy-winning series Everybody Loves Raymond, the CBS star does put in a heck of a lot more time on the clock. 

That's because the Simpsons Six have the lightest work schedule this side of Springfield, showing up at the office about two half-days a week. And considering it takes a mere six to seven hours to voice an episode, an insider close to the negotiations told Variety that "they already have the deal of a lifetime." 

It's expected both sides will eventually reach an agreement and the dispute will not affect the animated movie that Brooks and Simpsons creator Matt Groening are currently developing with a team of writers. 

As Mr. Burns might say..."exxxxxcellent." 

Fossil Find Is From Early Push-Up Creature 
Thu Apr 1, 5:39 PM ET

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - A 365-million-year-old arm bone fossil found in Pennsylvania came from one of the first creatures able to do push-ups, an evolutionary step that was necessary for animals to move from the sea to dry land. 

When the animal lived, there were no vertebrates on dry land, and the oceans were a place of fierce, toothy meat eaters living a predatory life of eat or be eaten. 

It was into this hostile environment that a two-foot-long animal that was more than a fish and less than a true amphibian made its brief appearance in the fossil record, said researcher Neil Shubin. 

The four-legged creature had a humerus, or upper arm bone. Such a bone, far different from the flipper bones of fish, gave the creature an important new ability - it could raise its upper body like an athlete doing push-ups. 

"This animal was there for just a brief moment in time," said Shubin, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago. "It was only later that we start seeing in the fossil record things that commonly walked on land." 

The animal's upper arm bone shows that evolution was already preparing vertebrates for their grand invasion of the world beyond the beach and the eventual appearance on land of amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds and mammals. 

"It could have evolved this for a variety of reasons, including pushing its head up out of the water to breathe or to walk around in shallow water," Shubin said. "And we can't exclude the possibility that it walked on land." 

He said other similar tetrapods from around the same period are known to have had both gills and lungs and, thus, could breathe either under or above the water. 

The animal's arm bone fossil has a bony crest that formed the anchor for powerful chest, or pectoral, muscles. 

"That is the muscle used when you do a push-up or a bench press," said Shubin. "And that is the muscle that is super-emphasized in this animal." 

He said the shoulder joint was primitive, rather like a hinge that could move the arm up and down. The human shoulder joint enables the arm to swivel and twist and turn through many degrees of motion in several directions. 

"These animals had a hinge in the shoulder that allowed them to do just one thing - push-ups," said Shubin. "That was a stage that our common ancestors went through before evolution eventually developed the classic ball and socket joint," as in human shoulders. 

Jennifer A. Clack, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in England, said the discovery by Shubin and his co-authors suggests the humerus bone could have come from a previously unknown tetrapod that needed its limbs to bear weight, as required when living on land. 

Discovery of the new fossil, she said, should stimulate a closer analysis of fossils from the Pennsylvania site where the new discovery was made. 

The tetrapod fossil was discovered in a road cut in a part of western Pennsylvania. The road construction revealed layers of rock that were laid down as sediment when the area was covered by a vast inland sea, stretching from what is now the Gulf of Mexico deep into the heartland of North America. 

Shubin said the animal, which has not been named, lived in a river delta, an area where water draining from mountains to the east joined the inland sea. 

Other fossils indicate that almost all of the other animals living in the area were meat-eating fish, some 15 feet long with teeth the size of railroad spikes. 

One of those predators may have killed the tetrapod whose fossil Shubin and his co-authors studied. He said the bone bears faint marks of what might have been tooth marks. 

"It was highly hostile and predatory, so there were lots of things that could have eaten this guy," said Shubin. 

____ 

On the Net: 

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org 

Gateway to Close Its 188 Retail Stores 2 hours, 31 minutes ago

 

By Duncan Martell 

SAN FRANCISCO  - Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW - news) on Thursday said it would close its remaining 188 stores and eliminate about 2,500 retail jobs, or 38 percent of its workforce, ending a controversial chapter for the struggling computer and consumer electronics maker. 

Poway, California-based Gateway, which opened its first store in late 1996 in North Carolina and at one point had more than 320 of them, made the move less than one month after it completed its acquisition of eMachines for $290 million. 

Wayne Inouye, who ran eMachines and took over as chief executive of Gateway from co-founder Ted Waitt, who remains chairman, is not wasting time to try to right the ship at Gateway, analysts said. He and his executives turned around eMachines and built it into a tightly run and profitable distributor of low-cost PCs with 2003 revenue of $1.1 billion. 

"The eMachines team has a real take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to cost," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "They're very good at managing retail channels and costs." 

Shares of Gateway rose in after-hours trade to $5.60 on the INET electronic brokerage, up from their close of $5.40 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). In regular trade, Gateway stock rose 12 cents. 

Boosting its access to retailers such as Best Buy Co. (NYSE:BBY - news), which along with others sells eMachines PCs, was one of the principal rationales for Gateway to buy eMachines. With the store closings, due by April 9, a Gateway spokesman said it will redouble its efforts to build a broader retail distribution network for its PCs, flat-panel TVs, digital cameras and other consumer electronics products. 

Brad Williams, the Gateway spokesman, said that the company would disclose the financial impact of the stores' closure when it reports quarterly results April 29 and would provide additional detail about its brand and channel strategy "in the weeks to come." 

For the time being, it's expected that eMachines PC will retain their brand name on retailers' shelves. Had Gateway kept the stores, it could have caused friction with retailers like Best Buy. 

Best Buy's Chief Executive Brad Anderson said last month at the The News Source Consumer Products and Retail Summit in New York that he was "troubled" with the connection between Gateway and eMachines, because it meant he was essentially selling a competitor's merchandise. 

That friction is now gone. 

Gateway's purchase of its profitable rival doubled its market share in the United States to about 7 percent, and it forecast it will return to sustained profitability in 2005 as a result of the acquisition. 

Gateway's stores had long been criticized by analysts and investors as an expensive drag on cash flow because of lease costs and the difficulty of managing inventories. 

Just last May, Waitt rolled out an expensive plan to remodel its stores to make them a destination of sorts for customers where they could explore all of Gateway's wares in a more relaxed setting. 

That remodel was completed in September, in time for the Christmas shopping season, but, ultimately, the die had long been cast. 

"It was a bold try, and Ted had a vision there, but market forces were against him. It was just too expensive to make those stores work," Reynolds said. 

Irish Lawmaker Loses Post for Smoking

Thu Apr 1,10:40 AM ET

Add World - 

DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland's sweeping new ban on workplace smoking claimed its first casualty Thursday - a high-profile lawmaker who lost his political post after lighting up in the parliamentary bar. 

John Deasy, who was supposed to lead the Fine Gael party's official support for the ban, was punished after smoking at least three cigarettes Tuesday night in the bar beside the debating chamber. 

Fellow lawmakers said Deasy had tried to open a locked emergency door into an outdoor courtyard. When the bar staff wouldn't let him out, he began smoking indoors in violation of the ban. 

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he had no choice but to dismiss Deasy from his justice post in the shadow cabinet. 

"Politicians must lead by example. No man, no woman, and no politician is above the law," Kenny said. 

Kenny said Deasy may also face prosecution. The ban specifies a maximum $3,700 fine for anyone who smokes in an enclosed workplace. 

Deasy, 35, declined to comment. He will remain a lawmaker representing Waterford in southeast Ireland. 

The son of a former agriculture minister, Deasy had been tipped as a possible future Fine Gael leader. He frequently captured media attention with his stinging attacks on the government, left-wing opposition parties and even - to the anger of Kenny - his own right-leaning party. 

Representatives of more than 10,000 pub owners in Ireland have claimed the ban will cost them business in a country where about 30 percent of adults smoke. So far, however, pubs have reported few problems in enforcement. Unlike the parliamentary bar, some have created new outdoor areas where drinkers can still smoke legally. 

Sun Settles With Microsoft, Cuts Jobs

14 minutes ago

By MAY WONG, News Source Technology Writer 

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Struggling server maker Sun Microsystems Inc. reached a sweeping, $1.6 billion settlement with Microsoft Corp. and said it plans to cooperate with its longtime nemesis, a company it had branded an unrepentant monopolist. 

The surprise agreement was accompanied by an announcement Friday by Sun that it is cutting 3,300 jobs and that its net loss for the fiscal third quarter will be wider than expected. The cuts represent 9 percent of its total work force of more than 35,000. 

The "broad cooperating agreement" with Microsoft ends Sun's $1 billion private antitrust suit against the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Sun's complaints also helped spark the investigation that led to the European Union (news - web sites)'s recent record fine against Microsoft. 

"It puts peace on the table in a big way," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive, during a conference call Friday. 

As part of the deal, Microsoft will pay Sun $700 million to resolve the antitrust case, which was scheduled to go to trial in January 2006, and $900 million to resolve patent issues. Sun and Microsoft also will pay royalties for each others' technologies. 

"Our companies will continue to compete hard, but this agreement creates a new basis for cooperation that will benefit the customers of both companies," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer. 

Sun's biggest claim - and the main charge in its antitrust against Microsoft - involved the Java programming environment Sun created to allow software to run on all computers regardless of the operating system. 

Sun said Microsoft violated its license agreement by creating its own version of Java, thus making it less universal. Though a settlement of that case was reached, both sides ended up in court again after Microsoft said it planned to stop supporting Java. 

Under Friday's agreement, Microsoft "may continue to provide product support" for its version of the software, called Microsoft Java Virtual Machine. 

The deal also creates cooperation between the companies in the technical area of Web-based applications and user identity management between Sun and Microsoft servers. Sun also agreed to sign a license that will allow its software to better communicate with Windows-based desktop computers. 

The agreement settles Sun's complaint over Microsoft's server communications that led to the EU's decision against Microsoft last month. That ruling also was based on Microsoft's bundling of its media player with its ubiquitous Windows operating system, though Sun did not play a role in that complaint. 

"Sun is also satisfied that the agreements announced today satisfy the objectives it was pursuing in the EU actions pending against Microsoft," Sun said in a statement Friday. 

The agreement is an unprecedented change in the relationship between the two companies. 

Sun's McNealy often railed against Microsoft, repeatedly calling Microsoft a monopoly and its .Net Web services technology "dot-Not." He often used the world "hairball" in describing Microsoft's proprietary software. 

But the anti-Microsoft rants quieted in recent months, as Sun struggled to post a profit and the companies worked at resolving the issues between them. On Friday, Sun executives said discussions have been ongoing since Sun licensed Java to Microsoft. 

Sun, once a shining star of Silicon Valley, also said it expects revenue for the quarter ended March 28 to be approximately $2.65 billion. Net loss will be between $750 million and $810 million, or 23 cents to 25 cents per share. 

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were projecting a loss of 3 cents a share on revenue of $2.85 billion. 

Shares of Sun rose on the news, up 39 cents to $4.58 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Microsoft shares rose 55 cents to $25.63. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Sun Microsystems: http://www.sun.com 

Washington Delivers Partisan Pranks

43 minutes ago

Add Elections - 

By ELIZABETH WOLFE, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) doesn't have a Republican-leaning French cousin. President Bush (news - web sites) is not pushing legislation that would have other countries pay off the deficit. Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is not retiring to study Scottish Common Law. 

And Democrats and Republicans did not agree on anything Thursday. 

Playing traditional April Fools' politics, the parties and presidential campaigns mocked their opponents with bogus announcements that didn't always get a laugh. 

In one of the day's more believable pranks, the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) announced that Republicans had agreed to a series of televised presidential debates. 

"This day, April 1, will indeed go down as a historic day in presidential politics," DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Republican National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Ed Gillespie said in a joint statement that proved to be false. 

On a day when Kerry's campaign did issue a debate challenge to Bush, some media outlets were confused, calling both parties for more details and prompting the DNC to issue a clarification. 

"At a glance, we will admit it looks quite formal," DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera said about their statement. 

For its turn, the RNC announced that Kerry's French cousin had called to support Bush. 

A cartoon spoof on the RNC Web site also poked fun at the Massachusetts senator's support of higher gas taxes and his claims of backing from anonymous foreign leaders. 

"All of it has his French cousin so upset, he called to say he's voting for Bush," a voiceover said in the animated ad, which ended with an April Fools' greeting in French. 

Kerry's campaign took a dig at Bush over rising deficits and U.S. jobs lost overseas, attributing a fake quote to the president explaining why other countries should be responsible for the U.S. deficit: "Why should every kid born in America be stuck with $35,000 in debt - when we can just outsource it and stick it to every kid on the planet?" 

Addressing Pennsylvania's heated Republican Senate primary between Specter and Rep. Pat Toomey, a news release from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headlined "Specter to Retire" irked a handful of duped reporters. 

"One thing I learned from this is how few people read past the subject line or headline in a press release," said DSCC spokesman Brad Woodhouse. "There were some media outlets that didn't think it was all that funny." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Republican National Committee: http://www.rnc.org 

Democratic National Committee: http://www.democrats.org 

Virgin's Branson to Host Fox Reality Show 
1 hour, 4 minutes ago 
Add Entertainment - 

NEW YORK - As Donald Trump basks in the popularity of his NBC reality show, "The Apprentice," the Fox network has announced that Virgin Group's Richard Branson will be leading a group of young entrepreneurs on a global journey. 

"Branson's Big Adventure," the working title of the show, will air later this year, Fox Broadcasting Co. said Thursday. 

The show will feature "a select group of America's best and brightest," who will fly to international destinations and relive some of Branson's personal experiences. Each week, one candidate will be left on the tarmac as the rest of the group jets off to the next adventure. 

Mike Darnell, executive vice president of specials and alternative programming for the network, said in a statement, "It's not about business acumen; for Branson, it's about finding that one extraordinary individual who has the right stuff to follow in his footsteps. 

"This isn't about selling a glass of lemonade." 

First Frontal Portrait of Pharaoh Found in Egypt Thu Apr 1,10:34 AM ET

Add Science 

CAIRO  - Egyptologists have pieced together fragments of the first known ancient portrait of a pharaoh drawn from the front rather than in profile, a Spanish archaeologist said on Thursday. 

Jose Manuel Galan told The News Source in an interview that the portrait, which appears to show either Tuthmosis III or his mother Hatshepsut, was painted on a wooden board buried in the courtyard in front of a tomb in the southern town of Luxor. 

Hatshepsut, who was often portrayed as a man, ruled concurrently with her son for about 20 years from 1503 BC. Luxor, also known as Thebes, was the dynastic capital. 

The piece is unusual because ancient Egyptians always portrayed Egyptians in profile. The only frontal portraits are of foreigners, underworld demons and other weird creatures, and the dwarf god Bes, widely believed to be a cultural import. 

Galan speculated that the royal portrait was either a sketch for a statue or a casual drawing of the kind art students made to show off their skills or for amusement. 

The fact that the wooden board also carries a version of the drawing by a less skilful hand suggests that a student might have used it to copy the work of his master, he added. 

The Egyptologists found one fragment in 2002 and 13 in 2003 and have spent the past year piecing them together and preparing the board for exhibition in the Luxor museum. 

Galan said he has confident it was a pharaoh because the figure is wearing the "nemes" crown, a trapezoidal cloth garment exclusively worn by kings. 

"We find the closest parallel to this object in a wooden board in the British Museum and the way their eyes, their lips, their nose, their figures are done is very peculiar to this time," he said. 

The wooden board is 20 by 12 inches and covered in creamy-yellow stucco. The drawing is in black paint, with a square red grid of the kind used to copy proportions. 

Galan said the board may have been part of the funerary equipment of an official called Djehuty, who was overseer of the treasury and public works under Hatshepsut, or possibly of a member of Djehuty's family. Djehuty's tomb lies nearby. 

The Egyptologist works at the Spanish Supreme Council for Scientific Research in Madrid. 

Contraceptive Sponge Near U.S. Return 
Thu Apr 1, 3:18 PM ET 


By LINDA A. JOHNSON, News Source Writer 

TRENTON, N.J. - Marisa Dawson is delighted to say she has had many "spongeworthy" moments in the year since the Today birth-control sponge came back onto the market by way of Canada. 


 

"I'm in heaven," said Dawson, an Ocoee, Fla., nurse who been buying boxes regularly from a Web site because the product cannot legally be sold in this country yet. 

She said the sponge has restored spontaneity to her sex life with her longtime boyfriend, and she has not gotten pregnant. 

"Time to reorder," she wisecracked Tuesday, with only nine sponges in the cupboard. 

Like thousands of other Internet buyers and former sponge users, Dawson wants to be able to buy them in U.S. stores. She is even planning a big "spongeworthy" party to mark the occasion. 

It could happen by the end of the summer, according to the founders of Allendale Pharmaceuticals, situated in the New Jersey town of the same name. They said that three weeks ago, they submitted the final batch of data needed for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). 

FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the agency does not discuss pending applications. 

Allendale chairman Robert J. Staab - nicknamed SpongeBob by some - and chief executive Gene Detroyer bought the rights to sell the sponge in 1998, three years after Wyeth stopped producing it rather than pay for expensive upgrades to its factory. Roughly 250 million Today Sponges had been sold from 1983 to 1995. 

When production stopped, Dawson and many other women began hoarding sponges - a phenomenon lampooned in a "Seinfeld" episode in which Elaine rations her supply by deciding whether a boyfriend is "spongeworthy." 

Allendale now has the spermicide-infused polyurethane sponges made at a factory near Binghamton, N.Y., but only for distribution in Canada. 

They sell for $2.50 to $3 each at stores across Canada, including Wal-Mart. Allendale's contracts with distributors specifically bar them from selling the sponges on the Internet, but it happens anyway. 

Without spending a dime on advertising, the company sold about 400,000 sponges through the end of February, Detroyer said. He said he expects to sell at least 10 million in the first year they are available in the United States. 

The Today Sponge fails in about 10 percent of women each year, compared with 99 percent effectiveness for the pill. Nor does the sponge protect against sexually transmitted diseases. 

But it is available without a prescription, can be inserted hours before sex and has particular appeal for women with a history of breast cancer or other reasons to avoid the pill, which can raise the risk of cancer. 

Diane Butler, owner of a home appraisal business in Westland, Mich., said she loves the sponge, in part because she has had breast cancer twice and lost her twin sister and mother to the disease. 

Butler, 46, ordered several dozen sponges from an Internet site shortly before they came on the market in Canada and is about to reorder. 

"I'm having lots of fun," Butler said. 

___ 

On the Net: http://www.allendalepharm.com 

Paper Backups Sought for Voting Machines

Thu Apr 1, 4:08 PM ET

By ROBERT TANNER, News Source National Writer 

An effort to erase doubts about new ATM-style voting machines by backing up digital votes with paper records is gaining ground nationwide, as state officials heed warnings about security and potentially messy recounts. 

Four states are demanding printers that will generate paper receipts voters can see and verify, and more than a dozen other states are weighing the change. But only one - Nevada - expects to have a paper trail in place by the fall elections. 

"People are just realizing exactly what we've bought into in some states," said Maryland state Sen. Andrew Harris, a Republican. "The stakes are so high. I don't put it above someone trying to manipulate elections on a grand scale." 

Harris wants to fix what many in the computer science world and elsewhere see as a dangerous flaw in the touchscreen machines that will be used in up to 34 states this November. 

Their worry? That voters will make one choice, and the machine - through a coding error or a hacker's manipulation - will record it as another. With no one the wiser, election outcomes could be changed. 

Many election administrators and voting machine industry representatives say that such fears are misguided, and ignore the rigorous tests and trial runs - from manufacture to Election Day - that protect the vote. 

But the doubters are winning support. Harris has proposed that the 16,000 new touchscreen machines that all Maryland voters will use this year be outfitted with a paper ballot printed after a person makes a choice. The voters would then get to see and verify their selection, and the ballot would be secured in case of a recount. 

The idea, known as a verified voter paper trail, has been proposed in at least 16 other states as lawmakers have begun responding to months of complaints, letters of protests and security studies that found serious flaws in the ATM-style equipment. 

Secretaries of state in California, Missouri and Nevada have gone further and ordered changes. And Illinois passed a law last year requiring a paper trail. Only Nevada, however, will be ready for the fall elections. 

"The issue is all about accountability," said Dean Heller, Nevada's GOP secretary of state. "These votes are out there in cyberspace somewhere, and nobody can prove that they exist. The paper trail does." 

Because of the state's size, California's change will have the biggest impact, though Democratic Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has given counties until 2006 to add paper ballots. 

Florida election officials ruled earlier this year that new touchscreen machines put into place after the 2000 election crisis are exempt from a law that requires manual recounts in close elections - because there is no way to determine voter's intentions from the computer record. 

Decisions like that scare some election advocates, sparking their push for a paper trail. (The decision also added fuel to a Florida lawsuit seeking a federal court to order the paper records. No decision has yet been reached). 

Stanford University computer scientist David Dill, who runs the Web site VerifiedVoting.org, has collected endorsements from more than 7,000 people for an online petition calling for voting paper trails. 

He remains hopeful that the federal government will act, though Congress has gone nearly a year without holding a hearing on several Democrat-authored measures to require a paper trail. 

And there is widespread opposition to paper receipts, from election administrators, some computer scientists and even the League of Women Voters. 

"It's sending the wrong message to people," said Kay Maxwell, president of the league, a nonpartisan civic organization. "That if you only do this, it settles all the problems. That's not being fair to people, it's not being truthful to people." 

The league's argument is that the entire voting system needs funding and attention - voter education, poll worker training, state registration systems. Many of those issues were targeted by the federal Help America Vote Act that has yet to deliver more than a fraction of the $3.9 billion promised to the states. 

The group opposes the push for paper trails for electronic voting machines because they say it will not provide the blind, disabled and non-English speakers the same access as other voters. 

And election administrators shake their heads about the additional demands a paper trail would create: managing supplies of paper and ink, higher costs for buying and maintaining equipment, and longer lines on Election Day for people with questions, or who want to vote again after seeing their choices. 

In Missouri's St. Louis County, printers will add $12 million to the $25 million bill to replace punch cards with touchscreen machines, said Judy Taylor, elections director. 

"It's making more of a problem," she said. 

Blair Eyes Identity Cards After UK Arrests
Thu Apr 1, 3:14 PM ET 
Add World 

By Michael Holden 

LONDON  - Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) indicated Thursday that Britain would speed up the introduction of compulsory identity cards following the arrest of nine terror suspects this week. 

The News Source Photo 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: UK Terror Raids Net Bomb Materials, Suspects

Britain was already planning to bolster its tough anti-terror laws, passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but Blair told his monthly news conference further measures were needed now. 

"I think the whole issue of identity cards, which a few years ago were not on anyone's agenda, is very much on the political agenda here, probably more quickly even than we anticipated," he said. 

His comments came days after anti-terror police carried out the biggest operation since the September 11 attacks, arresting eight Britons in and around London and seizing half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- prime bomb-making material. 

A ninth man was arrested late Thursday "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." 

British police also said they were working with Canadian authorities after they arrested software developer Mohammed Momin Khawaja, a 29-year-old Canadian with Pakistani parents, on Monday. He is accused of "knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity" in Ottawa and London. 

"We need to make sure in light of fresh information and operations such as the one that has just taken place that we are up to date with what is happening on the ground," Blair said. 

The government has already announced plans for ID cards, but intended to introduce them "incrementally," starting with a voluntary scheme aimed at stopping welfare benefit cheats. 

The issue has been controversial, with critics arguing cards would breach citizens' human rights. 

Blair said civil liberties were no longer an objection in the "vast majority of quarters" and that practical issues were now the only obstacle. 

Britain's most senior policeman Sir John Stevens, who has warned an attack on London was inevitable, has argued ID cards are "a must" in the fight against terror. 

Britons have not had to carry identity documents since World War II, unlike most European who have to produce ID cards at the request of police or officials. 

Blair's comments come after detectives were given three more days to quiz the men arrested in raids Tuesday. 

The eight, who police sources say are Muslims of Pakistani origin, were arrested on suspicion of preparing to carry out acts of terrorism. 

Meanwhile the arrest of computer expert Khawaja fueled British newspaper speculation that the UK suspects had been using e-mails to communicate with al Qaeda "mentors" abroad. 

The Muslim Council of Britain has asked the country's two million Muslims to help police in the fight against terror. 

(additional reporting by Alison Williams) 

Vitamin E Said to Cut Bladder Cancer Risk 

2 hours, 48 minutes ago



By DANIEL Q. HANEY, News Source Medical Editor 

ORLANDO, Fla. - Getting plenty of vitamin E by eating foods like nuts and olive oil appears to cut in half people's risk of bladder cancer, the fourth leading cancer killer among men, a new study suggests. 

The research, released at a cancer conference Sunday, is the latest blip in the ups and downs of perceptions about this nutrient's powers to ward off disease. Experts once had high hopes that vitamin E would prove to be an important safeguard against heart attacks. But that idea eventually faded as repeated studies failed to show any protective effect. 

Whether vitamin E does anything to stop cancer is still far from proven, but some think the vitamin may be helpful, perhaps by warding off the damaging effects of oxygen. The strongest evidence of this so far has been against prostate cancer, and a large federally sponsored experiment is under way to help prove this. 

The new study offers a strong hint that dietary vitamin E may also protect against bladder cancer, which kills about 12,500 Americans annually and is four times more common in men than women. 

The study was based on questionnaires of the eating habits of about 1,000 Houston residents. Those whose vitamin E intake was in the top 25 percent had just half as much bladder cancer as those in the lowest quarter. The actual difference in the amount of vitamin-rich food the two extremes ate was small, however, the equivalent of a single daily serving of spinach or a handful of almonds. 

The research was funded largely by the state of Texas. It was presented by John Radcliffe, a nutrition researcher from Texas Woman's University, at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando. 

The reduction was roughly the same, regardless of whether people got their vitamin E from food alone or in combination with vitamin pills. 

The team looked at the two most common forms of vitamin E, called alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, and found that only the alpha variety was linked with lower bladder cancer risk. Good sources of this include almonds, spinach, mustard greens, peppers, sunflower seeds and a variety of oils, including olive, cottonseed and canola. 

Experts say it is too soon to make any firm recommendations about vitamin E intake for cancer prevention beyond the usual advice to eat plenty of vegetables and other plant-based foods. 

"People need not be afraid to incorporate nuts and seeds into their diets," Radcliffe said. "For a long time, dietitians would not recommend them because they are high in fat. But half an ounce to an ounce of nuts and seeds daily would not shoot up someone's calorie levels appreciably." 

Researchers would like to tease out which elements of the diet are especially healthful. Many studies have shown that people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables have lower risk of cancer. However, these foods contain more than 100 potentially helpful vitamins, minerals and other substances, and no one knows exactly which components do this. 

Some wonder whether people who often eat fruits and vegetables have healthier living habits overall, so their diets might have little real importance. For now, the best scientists can do is recommend that people eat five more servings daily of a variety of vegetables and fruits. 

The strongest evidence of vitamin E's cancer effects comes from a study several years ago on nearly 30,000 Finnish smokers. It unexpectedly found those who took alpha-tocopherol pills lowered their prostate cancer risk by one-third. The same study shocked researchers by showing that another once high-flying nutrient, beta carotene, appeared to actually increase their risk of lung cancer. 

A National Cancer Institute (news - web sites) study now under way is testing the effects of 400 milligrams of vitamin E and 200 micrograms of selenium daily on more than 32,000 men for seven years to see if they reduce prostate cancer. 

Dr. David Alberts, head of cancer prevention at the University of Arizona, said studies like Radcliffe's "are extremely helpful in raising a hypothesis. It is very difficult to make a recommendation" that people take vitamin supplements without a carefully conducted experiment, like the ongoing prostate cancer study. 

The recommended U.S. intake of vitamin E is 15 milligrams daily, which is roughly the amount in a multivitamin. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The News Source. 

___ 

On the Net: 

American Association for Cancer Research: http://www.aacr.org/2004AM/2004AM.asp 

Posted on Sun, Mar. 21, 2004

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/miam
i-dade/cities_neighborhoods/west/8234518.htm

SCIENCE MUSEUM

Test could lead to time travel

A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami
Museum of Science.

BY RAFAEL SANGIOVANNI

Herald Writer

It's back to the future all over again -- at least, that's what Carlos Dolz
has in mind.

The Florida International University physics professor plans to take time to
task at 10 a.m. Wednesday, when he presents an experiment that involves
using acceleration to speed up a digital clock by four seconds.

Dolz's experiment -- which takes six hours to finish -- will become part of
Playing With Time, the current exhibit at the Miami Museum of Science.

Dolz, who has been a lecturing theoretical physicist for nine years, really
doesn't know where his experiment could lead.

''The point of this is to question how things really work,'' he said. ``This
goes beyond common understanding.''

The aptly titled ''Time Shift Experiment'' combines some of the most
complicated physics concepts with simple machines and -- Dolz said -- may
prove that time travel is possible.

Time shifts are not uncommon, the professor said. There have been
experiments in the past that compared atomic clocks on fast-flying planes to
those on the ground. The clocks on board the planes showed a slight shift
forward, Dolz said.

He said he became even more fascinated by time when he was studying
gravity -- he found that he could not truly understand one without the
other.

He began fiddling with time shifts in his experiments and was approached by
Museum of Science officials in late 2003.

They had decided to host the time exhibit to pique public interest in the
abstract concept of time.

''[Time] is a hands-on phenomenon,'' said Sean Duran, director of exhibits
at the Museum of Science. 'This exhibit helps [people] to get some of those
`big-picture' questions that were posed by the big guys like Einstein.''

They wanted Dolz to come aboard with his presentation.

But unlike the other time experiments on display, which are already proven
and made for learning, Dolz's is an authentic first-time experiment made for
both learning and discovery.

He hopes to stir up the public's preconceptions about time, gravity and
acceleration.

''A big problem for science is common sense. It works for most everything in
people's lives, but not in physics,'' he said. ``It's limited to point of
view and perspective, [so] it's really not enough.''

The experiment involves putting a digital clock under immense force by
spinning it on a centrifuge.

The basic idea behind the experiment is to speed up the frequency of the
pulses, or ticks, produced by the clock with force to push it ahead.

Dolz said it takes about six hours to move the clock ahead four seconds.

While past experiments were expensive and produced minimal results, Dolz
said he is taking an economical approach and shooting for a range of
results.

''He can use very simple tools to come to some of the same grand
conclusions,'' said Duran, adding that Dolz's experiment could prove
Einstein's theory that time is only relative.

Dolz's four-second time shift, when compared to the plane experiments, is
considered a huge change -- so much so that scientists from various
universities will be monitoring the experiment to certify the results.

Dolz said he is looking forward to sharing his discovery, claiming
contending that understanding time helps people in everything they do.

But in the science world, Dolz has no idea what kind of impact his
experiment could have -- much like the great scientists of the past.

''Did [Benjamin] Franklin know that his fiddling around would take us where
we are today?'' he asks. ``We may be seeing the beginnings of time travel,
but I have no idea. I'm like Franklin, Columbus and [Michael] Faraday: we
[just] do what we are capable of doing.''

Gene Mutation Said Linked to Evolution 

2 hours, 29 minutes ago

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, News Source Science Writer 

Igniting a scientific furor, scientists say they may have found the genetic mutation that first separated the earliest humans from their apelike ancestors. 

The provocative discovery suggests that this genetic twist - toward smaller, weaker jaws - unleashed a cascade of profound biological changes. The smaller jaws would allow for dramatic brain growth necessary for tool-making, language and other hallmarks of human evolution on the plains of East Africa. 

The mutation is reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature, not by anthropologists, but by a team of biologists and plastic surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 

The report provoked strong reactions throughout the hotly contested field of human origins with one scientist declaring it "counter to the fundamentals of evolution" and another pronouncing it "super." 

The Pennsylvania researchers said their estimate of when this mutation first occurred - about 2.4 million years ago - generally overlaps with the first fossils of prehistoric humans featuring rounder skulls, flatter faces, smaller teeth and weaker jaws. 

And, the remarkable genetic divergence persists to this day in every person, they said. 

But nonhuman primates - including our closest animal relative, the chimpanzee - still carry the original big-jaw gene and thanks to stout muscles attached to the tops of their heads, they can bite and grind the toughest foods. 

"We're not suggesting this mutation alone defines us as Homo sapiens," said Hansell Stedman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "But evolutionary events are extraordinarily rare. Over 2 million years since the mutation, the brain has nearly tripled in size. It's a very intriguing possibility." 

University of Michigan biological anthropologist Milford Wolpoff called the research "just super." 

"The other thing that was happening 2 1/2 million years ago is that people were beginning to make tools, which enabled them to prepare food outside their mouths," he said. "This is a confluence of genetic and fossil evidence." 

Other researchers strenuously disagreed that human evolution could literally hinge on a single mutation affecting jaw muscles, and that once those muscles around the skull were unhooked like bungee cords, the brain suddenly could grow unfettered. 

"Such a claim is counter to the fundamentals of evolution," said C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University. "These kinds of mutations probably are of little consequence." 

Others sought to find some middle ground in the debate. 

University and commercial laboratories rapidly are comparing the human genome with that of chimpanzees to determine what makes people human, and how hominids split from Old World apes and monkeys some 6 million years ago. 

So far, perhaps 250 genetic differences have been flagged for further study. 

Jaws have been a focus of evolutionary research since Darwin, and the mutation offers a tantalizing theory. But it is unlikely that one mutation - even at a crucial evolutionary juncture - would make a person, they said. 

"They have successfully nailed a genetic mutation that works to deactivate these jaw muscles," said Richard Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites). "But their suggestion connecting it to the brain is way too speculative." 

In their experiment, the Penn team isolated a new gene in an overlooked junk DNA sequence on chromosome 7. It belongs to a class of genes that express production of the protein myosin, which enables skeletal muscles to contract. 

Originally the scientists were concentrating on determining the biological underpinnings of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease. But once they isolated the mutation, they spent the next eight months deciphering its evolutionary implications. 

Different types of myosin are produced in different muscles; in the chewing and biting muscles of the jaws, the gene MYH16 is expressed. But the Penn researchers discovered humans have a mutation in the gene that prevents the MYH16 protein from accumulating. That limits the size and power of the muscle. 

In primates like the macaque, the jaw muscles were 10 times more powerful than in humans. They contained high levels of the protein, and the thick muscles were attached to bony ridges of the skull. 

When did this genetic split occur? Scientists assume that the rate of genetic change a species undergoes is relatively constant over time. So the Penn group looked deep into the fossil record to determine when the jaws of human ancestors started looking smaller and more streamlined as compared to more apelike creatures. 

Homo habilis was the earliest known species to begin showing skull and jaw differences from its more apelike cousins more than 2 million years ago. 

The Homo line flourished, with the finer-boned Homo rudolfensis, ergaster and erectus lines soon emerging. 

Meanwhile, the heavier-browed, long-jawed Australopithecus afaransis and Paranthropus robustus eventually disappeared. 

Without the strong bands of muscle constraining the skull, the Penn researchers said the Homo skull changed shape and grew to accommodate a much larger brain, while the Australopithicine skulls did not. 

The Penn researchers said mutation opened an evolutionary struggle in which brain conquered brawn, although it probably took another million years to complete. 

The mutation also offers a glimpse of behavioral changes, the Penn researchers said. Apes use their powerful bites to maintain social control, while early humans may have had to rely more on cooperation. 

Critics said the study wrongly assumes that evolution works so neatly. 

The first early humans with the mutation probably would have had weaker mouths, but still had large teeth and jaws. Many additional mutations would have been needed. 

"The mutation would have reduced the Darwinian fitness of those individuals," said anthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University. "It only would've become fixed if it coincided with mutations that reduced tooth size, jaw size and increased brain size. What are the chances of that?" 

Avoiding Cliches Isn't Rocket Science

Mar 24, 10:28 am ET 

LONDON  - The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day there is nothing, like, value-added about using cliches 24/7 -- with all due respect it's not awesome, it's annoying.

The Plain English Campaign said Wednesday it had canvassed people in 70 countries to find the most irritating phrases of all.

"When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions, they start tuning out and completely miss the message -- assuming there is one" said John Lister of the Plain English Campaign.

People who busily "touch base" or talk about "ballpark figures" and "bottom lines" are not "singing from the same hymn sheet," they are quietly driving others to distraction.

"Using these terms in daily business is about as professional as wearing a novelty tie or having a wacky ringtone on your phone," Lister said in a statement.

A particular bugbear is the constant use of "like" as a form of punctuation.

Lister said that they had expected geographical variations, but the same phrases appeared to be universally annoying around the world.

"Gobbledegook jargon and cliches really are no respecter of international boundaries," he told Sky Television in a cliche-riddled interview.

Other named-and-shamed cliches include:

-- blue-sky thinking

-- it's not rocket science

-- crack troops

-- between a rock and a hard place

-- I hear what you're saying

-- touch base

-- bear with me

-- to be honest with you 

Veg-O-Matics Live on in Kitchens Everywhere

Mar 24, 11:03 am ET 

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO  - Use superlatives. Tell buyers they won't pay full price. Offer free stuff if they buy now. Keep up the patter. Never stop moving.

The hard sell has been around since ... well, forever. And the Popeil brothers may have perfected the pitchman's art.

The Popeils -- Sam, Raymond, and Sam's son Ron -- became millionaires hawking an endless stream of household gadgets that every home anywhere seemingly had to have.

Many will remember the vegetable-chomping "0-Matics": the Veg-O-Matic, the Chop-O-Matic, the Dial-O-Matic, the Slice-O-Matic, the Peel-O-Matic, the Whip-O-Matic. There were the battery-powered "cordless electrics": the Miracle Broom, the Garden Trimmer, the Smokeless Ashtray. And there was the silly gadgetry: the Pocket Fisherman (a compact fishing rod), the Trimcomb (haircuts), and Mr. Microphone (for projecting one's voice over the radio).

The Popeils kept coming up with gadgets and Tim Samuelson kept collecting them at auctions and from basement sales.

Samuelson's collection of more than 150 devices are part of a two-month exhibition on display through mid-May at Chicago's Cultural Center, a determinedly low-brow show compared to a photography exhibit upstairs and the museum show of gem-like Rembrandt prints on view nearby.

Out-of-town visitor Joel Dain skipped the Rembrandts, but his eyes glisten at the memory of the Dial-O-Matic he bought four decades ago from a New York pitchman. Dain recalls the episode because the gadget is still in his kitchen, slicing and dicing tomatoes and potatoes.

"It still works, though pieces of plastic have broken off," Dain says, adding the steel blade never needs sharpening. Doesn't he make room for modern appliances? "I have a microwave oven, but I have to keep it in the basement because my wife is scared of it," he says.

The gadgets made under the Popeil and Ronco names invariably still work when Samuelson finds one. He demonstrates a Veg-O-Matic's durability by standing on it.

He pours cream into a Whip-O-Matic -- "faster than any electric mixer because it has Popeil's special planetary action," he proclaims, displaying the whirling, rotating plastic blades -- and after a few turns of the handle he upends the whipped contents over his head without spilling a drop.

PITCHING ON THE BOARDWALK

The late Popeil brothers -- Sam and Ray -- honed their marketing skills amid the crowds strolling New Jersey's coastal resort boardwalks where pitchmen barked to attract customers.

To hear Samuelson talk, he might prefer roaming the boardwalk himself, but spends workdays instead answering questions in his job as a Chicago cultural historian. But the jovial architecture buff, who stores his gadget collection in his apartment, says his pitch pales against the master of the late-night infomercial, Ron Popeil, now 69.

"In five minutes, I can sell anything," Ron Popeil is quoted as saying in Samuelson's book of Popeil-ia, "But Wait! There's More! The Irresistible Appeal and Spiel of Ronco and Popeil" (Rizzoli, 2002).

Flip the TV channels past midnight and one is sure to hear Popeil's dulcet tones coaxing buyers for his Rotisserie oven -- with free barbecue gloves and a recipe book if you buy now.

And over the years, the Popeils sold millions of gadgets in the United States, but also in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries, Samuelson said.

The Veg-O-Matic originally sold for $9.98 (later reduced to $7.77) and the Pocket Fisherman for $19.95. Since so many were sold and because they are so durable, the gadgets can sometimes be obtained cheaply -- so Samuelson's collection may not have appreciated much.

No matter. Samuelson revels in this slice of Americana, though he says Popeil urged him to quit demonstrating the Slice-O-Matic. "He said 'It'll take your arm off."'

Ron Popeil prefers tinkering in his Beverly Hills kitchen much like his father, Sam, whose family would often find him fooling with his latest gadget amid the clutter in his kitchen, Samuelson says. Sam created the Pocket Fisherman after being accidentally poked in the eye by a child's fishing pole.

Sam's brother Ray oversaw their factory after they moved to Chicago in 1945, occasionally making televised sales pitches without showing his face. In order not to distract viewers from the product, he shaved his arms and performed a manual ballet, laying out sliced vegetables like a Las Vegas card dealer.

A documentary showing at the exhibition recorded 1950s-era pitchmen reeling in customers at Chicago's legendary open-air Maxwell Street flea market, which Samuelson narrates: "'Here, here's a free sample.' Keep it moving. Build up the product. Use superlatives: 'miracle product,' 'fantastic,' 'amazing.' Don't say the price until the end -- that's 'the turn.' Show people the money (from previous sales). Tell them you can buy it in the store for this price, then make the pitch at a lower one."

Nowadays, gadgets are unveiled with slick marketing techniques inside Chicago's cavernous convention center at the housewares industry's annual show.

Ron Popeil learned to pitch by studying the Maxwell Street regulars.

"I don't think we'll ever run out of ideas," Ron Popeil once said. "There's always going to be some necessity that you never knew you needed, but you absolutely can't live without." 

McDonald's to Start Taking Credit Cards 

2 hours, 7 minutes ago

Add Business - 

OAK BROOK, Ill. - McDonald's customers will soon be able to use credit and debit cards to pay for their meals at a majority of the chain's U.S. restaurants. 

The company said Thursday it had reached agreements to accept payments via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card and STAR cards. 

Cashless payments, primarily debit cards, already are accepted at more than 3,000 of McDonald's 13,600 U.S. restaurants. The company said Thursday it intends to more than double that number this year to as many as 8,000 restaurants. 

McDonald's franchisees, who operate 80 percent of its U.S. outlets, must pay fees to the credit-card companies for each transaction, but they also could see an increase in sales by offering customers the cashless option. 

Participating McDonald's will post the credit card logos at their counters and drive-thrus. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.mcdonalds.com 

Canada could ditch winter blues by annexing Caribbean paradise 
Fri Mar 26, 2:14 AM ET  - NEWS SOURCE 

MONTREAL (NEWS SOURCE) - Ask anyone their image of Canada -- and it's a fair bet that a tropical nirvana shaded by palm trees, with an emerald sea lapping miles of golden sands would be the last thing to come to mind. 

NEWS SOURCE/Edmonton Sun/File Photo 

That could soon change, if an ambitious project makes the sun-kissed Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos the eleventh -- and warmest -- province of ice-bound Canada. 

Peter Goldring, a Conservative member of parliament from the frigid plains of Alberta, has launched a bid to annex the small tropical archipelago between Haiti and the Bahamas -- which is now a British Crown colony. 

His drive is gathering pace, backed up by a petition, a motion in Canada's House of Commons, a proposed parliamentary committee of friendship, an effort to lobby businessmen and a website evoking the joys of "a place in the sun." (www.aplaceinthesun.ca). 

Goldring is not the first Canadian politician to launch such a Caribbean crusade. 

In 1917, Canadian prime minister Robert Borden had the same idea. 

However, it was affordable jet travel in the 1970s and 1980s that carried heat-seeking Canadians to the Caribbean and the annexation idea really take off. 

The Turks and Caicos government requested a link-up with Canada in 1987, but a Canadian Foreign Ministry study turned down the idea. 

Today, Goldring told NEWS SOURCE, things are different. 

In January he met the archipelago's Chief Minister Michael Misick who, he said, was "very interested in discussing with Canada." 

Massimo Pacetti, a Liberal member of parliament for Quebec, has joined Goldring's crusade, and said in an interview with CBC Thursday that he had even kicked the idea around with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. 

"He told me, 'I am not for it, I am not against it. Give me the facts'." 

Goldring says there is a huge upside to his scheme, for both the islands and Canada. 

"Canada is a trade country and it came to my mind that there was a market, the islands are a small market but they are the doorway to the Caribbean. 

"From there, we could have shipping to Cuba, the Bahamas, even touching the north of South America ... this represents two billion a year in exports for Canada." 

And for the islanders, life could be good as Canadians, he said. 

"When I was there, I went to a grocery store and I saw rib steak at 16 US dollars a pound ... we have a beef business in difficulty, and our beef is at 14 Canadian a kilo! (10.5 US)," he said. 

If the islands did join up with Canada there would be plenty of work to do. 

Bridges need to be constructed over shallow straits between islands, as do retirement properties for Canadians desperate to escape their chilly homeland. 

Authorities must also build tourist facilities for the nearly half-million Canadian "snow birds" who head south to the Caribbean each year, to escape the winter blues. 

Businessmen are also pushing the idea, hoping to make a fast buck as the tourism trade heats up. 

But there is still a long way to go. 

First Britain needs to give the green light, for one of its final colonies to go its own way. 

"It's a little bit like in 1949, when Newfoundland joined Canada," said Goldring. 

There will also need to be a referendum in the islands and then negotiations to decide how exactly the tie-up would work. 

Goldring wants the islands to elect to become a province of Canada, to avoid any whiff of colonialism. 

Then there is the question of racism. How will Canadians feel seeing their tax dollars pumped into the country's new possession? 

But Pacetti insisted: "we have 300,000 immigrants a year. It's something we can handle." 

Mexico to Question Rescued British Cavers

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

Add World 

MEXICO CITY  - Mexican migration authorities said on Friday they would question a group of British cavers on an expedition that fueled a diplomatic quarrel after six of them were trapped underground for a week. 

Four of the trapped cavers are members of the British armed forces, and the Mexican government is upset it was not told in advance of their presence. Scuba divers plucked the six from a from a cave system in central Mexico on Thursday. 

A migration spokeswoman, who declined to be named, told The News Source expedition members would be questioned at the Iztapalapa immigration center in Mexico City. 

"The group are to be questioned by migration officials so that they can explain what they have been doing," she said. She added it was unclear if the Britons would be detained. 

Thirteen cavers in all took part in the expedition. Most were members of the Combined Services Caving Association, an enthusiasts group made up of active and retired British military members and civilians in the defense ministry. 

The trapped cavers had become blocked by surging underground floodwaters two days into a routine exploration trip in the Cuetzalan caves in Puebla province. 

Late on Thursday, Mexican immigration undersecretary Armando Salinas said expedition members, who had entered Mexico on tourist visas, would be handed over to immigration authorities for questioning. 

Mexican President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) has asked for a "swift" explanation of what the foreign soldiers were doing in the cave complex, one of the most extensive in the world. Mexico does not allow foreign military exercises on its soil. 

Calif. Mob Tries to Create Supercomputer

Sat Apr 3, 4:51 PM ET

By TERENCE CHEA, News Source Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO - Hundreds of area technophiles joined laptops Saturday in an attempt to create a computing force on par with the world's most powerful supercomputers.

The experiment organized by researchers at the University of San Francisco was designed to determine whether a gymnasium full of off-the-shelf personal computers networked together can muster enough power to process the most complex research problems. 

Organizers hoped to break into the ranks of the world's top 500 supercomputers through the event, which they called "Flashmob Supercomputing." 

"Flashmob is about democratizing supercomputing," said John Witchel, a graduate student at USF who codeveloped the concept. "It's about giving supercomputing power to the people so that we can decide how we want supercomputers to be used." 

Supercomputers perform highly sophisticated functions, such as predicting weather patterns, modeling biological processes or animating movies. Most are run by government laboratories or big corporations because they are expensive, costing $25 million to $1 billion. 

Saturday's flashmob event was a dry run designed to measure how much computing power could be generated, rather than tackle a specific task. 

The term "flashmob" comes from the spontaneous Internet-organized gatherings that gained popularity last year. During the events, hundreds of people suddenly appear at a predetermined location, perform a wacky stunt - such as wearing purple hats or spinning in circles - then quickly disperse, leaving bystanders scratching their heads. 

Saturday's event was not the first time citizens have pooled their computing power. For example, the SETI(at)home project has created a virtual supercomputer through Internet-connected PCs to search for signs of extraterrestrial life. 

Organizers hope the Flashmob concept can eventually be applied to problems requiring high-powered computing such as the study of global warming or AIDS (news - web sites) research. 

___ 

On the Net: 

USF FlashMob I: http://www.flashmobcomputing.org 

Top 500 Supercomputing Sites: http://www.top500.org 

New Technology Could Detect Dirty Hands Sat Apr 3, 6:09 PM ET

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON - With just a flicker of blue light, little Johnny's mother one day may know for sure whether her son washed his hands before dinner. 

New light-scanning technology borrowed from the slaughterhouse promises to help hospital workers, restaurant employees - one day, even kids - make sure that hand washing zaps some germs that can carry deadly illnesses. 

A device the size of an electric hand dryer detects fecal contamination and pinpoints on a digital display where on a person's hands more scrubbing is needed. 

eMerge Interactive Inc., a struggling technology company in Sebastian, Fla., is hoping to tweak light scanners it already sells to beef plants to detect the same kinds of nasty germs on humans. 

The blue-light scanners could dramatically improve hygiene among employees who forget to wash their hands after bathroom breaks. This practice is a leading cause of food poisoning that afflicts tens of millions of Americans every year. 

Studies show people typically fail to scrub around fingernails and between fingers adequately. The government recommends people wash their hands for at least 20 seconds; researchers find many people do not even use soap. 

"People are not good at handwashing," said Janet Anderson, a nutritionist at Utah State University. "We find that unless sinks are very close to where people are handling food, they don't wash their hands well." 

eMerge, which demonstrated an early prototype for The News Source, said its first clean-hand scanners could go on sale as early as year's end to restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and day-care centers. Using identification cards, the devices can even record which employees scrubbed acceptably and which ones still have dirty hands. 

"Being able to tell whether there's fecal matter is a major improvement," said Jim Mann, executive director of The Handwashing Leadership Forum, a group in Illinois that studies food-borne outbreaks. 

Mann called the scanning technology promising but "not a silver bullet" because it cannot detect pathogens such as salmonella or viruses that do not always spread initially in fecal contamination. Salmonella can be present in raw eggs, for example. 

Using a specific light wavelength, the scanners cause a fluorescence in even minuscule amounts of fecal contamination that could carry dangerous bacteria like E. coli; it shows up on a built-in display as a bright red spot on a person's dirty hand. 

"Nobody wants to have doo-doo on their burger," said Jacob Petrich, a biophysical chemist at Iowa State University who invented the meat-scanning technology with two scientists, Thomas A. Casey and Mark A. Rasmussen, at the Agriculture Department. 

Experts say the high-speed beef scanners work faster - examining 500 beef carcasses every hour - and more accurately than government inspectors visually looking for contamination on meat in packing plants. Excel Corp., a leading processor, is installing the scanners in all its plants across North America. 

In meat plants, the scanners look for evidence of chlorophyl, the green pigments found in plants and grasses common to cow diets. The clean-hands scanners will need to search for other signatures, not just chlorophyl, that might signal contamination by meat eaters: Human diets are much more diverse than cattle's. 

People on the popular Atkins diet, for example, would have almost no chlorophyl in their systems, said eMerge's executive vice president, Richard Stroman. He declined to say which new markers the company is investigating, calling that a trade secret. 

"If you only eat beer and cheese pizza, what kind of signatures are you going to get," asked Petrich, who suggested that hospitals or restaurants could ask employees to swallow chlorophyl tablets. "This is do-able, it's just a question of technology, of how you look at the spectral signatures of diets." 

eMerge sells the beef scanners under an exclusive license with Petrich and the other inventors, who won a federal patent in June 1999. The company, whose stock closed Friday at $1.86, has lost nearly $200 million since it started operations. 

___ 

On the Net: 

AP video of hand-scanner: http://wid.ap.org/interactives/scanner.html 

eMerge Interactive Inc.: www.emergeinteractive.com 

National Animal Disease Center: www.nadc.ars.usda.gov 

Iowa State chemistry department: www.chem.iastate.edu 

HIV Rates Rising Among the Elderly

Thu Mar 25,11:46 AM ET 


DETROIT - Happily involved in a relationship with a flirtatious, handsome man, Alice Renwick gave little though to the possibility of contracting HIV (news - web sites). 


 

At 65, Renwick, an infection control nurse at a methadone clinic, reasoned she was too old to become pregnant and the couple stopped using condoms. But then Renwicks's partner, a former heroin addict, discovered he was HIV-positive. When he died, she secretly knew she too was infected. In 1997, she knew for certain after being tested. 

"I have no one to blame," Renwick told The Detroit News for a Thursday story. "I was alone, depressed, ego deflated." 

Renwick is just one in a population of people over 50 in which the HIV infection rate has doubled over the past five years, reaching 2,394 by January. Officials say the spike is linked to a number of factors, ranging from more active sex lives and the belief that it's mainly a problem among the younger generation, to stigmas about sex and the elderly. 

"We have failed to put an older face on HIV/AIDS (news - web sites)," said Frances Jackson, associate professor of nursing at Oakland University. "Many agencies that work with HIV-positive clients have failed to address this." 

The surge in infections among this demographic is particularly disturbing because the number of people 65 and older is climbing rapidly. But even as their numbers swell, awareness of the disease has not, advocates say. 

"It's still a hidden problem," said Jackson, who researched older adults' knowledge of, and susceptibility to, HIV in Detroit from 2000 to 2003. "We don't want to think about older people having sex, so we don't want to talk about it." 

Jackson's research shows that while older adults are aware of the risks of HIV, they don't believe it affects them. 

The few prevention programs aimed at the elderly have had mixed results, say advocates. 

The Adult Well-Being Services in Detroit was the first and only group in Michigan to receive a federal grant to educate seniors and their doctors on HIV and substance abuse among that age group, said Thea Simmons, director of the group's community health promotion. 

The group's "Knowledge is Golden" program uses real stories to educate seniors and their health providers at churches and senior centers around Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. 

But program officials say they have not been allowed to make presentations at many Detroit area assisted-living facilities, largely because of the stigma about discussing sex among older residents. 

Realizing this, some health care providers like Dr. Eric Ayers are becoming more assertive in discussing the risks with their older patients. Ayers, who runs an internal medicine practice at Wayne State University, says many of his colleagues are still uncomfortable engaging in such discussions. 

"Many physicians are not skilled and comfortable in addressing sexual health, and drug use and abuse patterns," he said. "There is a need to get comfortable in addressing and asking about sexual health and preferences." 

Health workers, say this is no time to be shy. 

At the Visiting Nurses Association of Southeastern Michigan, David Perkins said older adults with HIV is a "pretty big issue." 

"It's about a fifth of our case load, with the population increasing," said Perkins, who supervises clients in Wayne and Macomb counties. "We have to get the word out." 

AP: Developers Get Farmers' Tax Breaks

1 hour, 14 minutes ago

Add Business - 

By ALLEN G. BREED and MARTHA MENDOZA, News Source Writers 

Millions of dollars in property tax breaks intended to preserve farmland are going instead to companies that bulldoze farms to build housing subdivisions, malls and industrial parks, an News Source investigation has found. 

It's happening from coast to coast, costing local governments badly needed revenue or forcing them to increase the taxes of other property owners. The breaks can be enormous. Without them, land owners would typically pay two to 400 times more in property taxes. 

In most states, the tax breaks date back to the 1950s and '60s, when lawmakers became alarmed at the rate at which farmland was disappearing under concrete and asphalt. 

But loopholes in the laws are producing unintended, though perfectly legal, consequences. 

Here's what's happening: A developer buys land with the intention of building on it. During the years when he readies the property for construction - preparing architectural plans, acquiring financing and permits, even building roads and laying water pipe - he runs some cows or cuts some hay. Then he claims the tax break. Because of the loopholes, often even a pretense of farming can be enough to qualify. 

Usually, the tax break ends only after construction of buildings begins; sometimes, it doesn't even stop then. 

Some examples: 

_ In Iowa, real estate developer Knapp Properties Inc. owns 239 acres near the Des Moines Airport. The land, close by a Wingate Hotel and a Federal Reserve (news - web sites) check-processing plant, is subdivided for commercial development and is for sale at a total price of $7 million. But because Knapp allows local farmers to plant corn and soybeans on it, the company paid $14,345 in property taxes last year instead of $320,514. 

_ In Denver, Delmer Zweygardt is building a subdivision called Deer Creek Farms. As the houses started going up, he grazed a few cows on the edge of the property. City officials pointed out that zoning laws don't allow cows in a subdivision, but the state Board of Assessment ruled that the presence of cows was enough to qualify Zweygardt for the tax break anyway. This reduced his total tax bill on 48 house lots from $22,000 a year to $60 until the subdivision was nearly completed in 2002, leaving no room for cows. 

_ In Mobile County, Ala., Delaney's Inc., has planted pine seedlings on 54 acres left over after building a Hampton Inn., a Marriott Courtyard, a Lowe's and a Wal-Mart. This "tree farm" has been subdivided and laced with paved streets in preparation for development, and local officials insist the land is not suitable for growing timber. But the developer's lawyer pointed out that the law doesn't require Delaney's to be a good farmer - just a farmer. The result: a 2003 tax bill of $152 instead of $64,230. 

Such cases are commonplace. The News Source found scores of them throughout the country - some with "Soon To Be the Home Of" signs heralding future malls, industrial parks or housing developments on property receiving tax breaks intended to encourage land preservation. 

In Polk County, Iowa, which includes the city of Des Moines, about 10 percent of those claiming farmland tax breaks are actually identified on the tax rolls as developers. Jim Maloney, county assessor, said most of the others are also developers and speculators. 

All over the country, local officials offered similar accounts 

"We have a lot of wannabe farmers who are out there trying to farm the system rather than the property," said Alaska State Assessor Steve Van Sant. 

___ 

Every state offers some type of tax incentive to protect land from development. In some states, only working farms are eligible. In others, the breaks apply to agricultural land whether it is being farmed or not, and some also include timberland or other open space. 

"The whole idea was to encourage people to keep their land in agricultural use," said Talbot D'Alemberte, who sponsored the law as a member of the Florida state legislature in 1972. 

One factor driving development was property taxes, legislators throughout the country thought. Encroaching development increases land values, causing property taxes to rise. This, in turn, increases pressure on cash-strapped owners to sell to developers. 

States tried to relieve that pressure by taxing threatened land according to what it is used for rather than what it could sell for. Although the tax breaks have been a welcome relief for working farmers, they have done little to slow the pace of development, according to numerous studies by think tanks and universities. 

For example, Jane Malme of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., reviewed farmland tax breaks in all 50 states and found that they have done little to preserve farmland. 

Many local officials have reached the same conclusion. Broward County, Fla., has lost 62,000 acres of agricultural land to development since 1972, and has only 7,600 acres left. There, the land-preservation tax break "has not slowed development an iota," said Gaylord Wood, attorney for the appraiser's office. But it cost the county $13 million in taxes last year. 

To discourage owners from taking the tax break and then developing their land, some states back-bill landowners at the normal tax rate, sometimes tacking on interest, if they develop the land. 

But 20 states, including Florida, don't back-bill at all. In eight others, back-billing is limited to three years or less of back taxes - but developers and speculators often hold land longer than that before building. 

Texas back-bills 5 years and tacks on 7 percent in annual interest. That hasn't deterred Hewlett-Packard from taking the tax break on 175 acres of woods across from its 9,000-employee complex in Houston. 

The company says the land may eventually be developed, and local officials are convinced it will. For now, Hewlett-Packard manages the property as a tree farm, saying it produces a "nominal" income. Thus, it qualifies for the agricultural land tax break, saving the computer giant about $500,000 a year. While the county may eventually recover five years of that with interest, Compaq, which Hewlett-Packard absorbed in 2001, began receiving the tax break 14 years ago. 

Other large corporations also take advantage of land preservation laws to reduce the cost of owning land they may eventually use for expansion. 

For example, in Osceola County, Fla., Walt Disney World receives the farming break on 1,600 acres of pasture, timber and nurseries where it grows plants for its theme parks. The land, worth $194 million, is taxed as if it were worth $12.3 million, according to the county land records office. Disney spokesman Jacquee Polack said the company keeps a buffer of undeveloped land around the park, but she acknowledged some of this property will be developed. 

Of course, many property owners who receive the tax breaks have no intention of developing their land. President Bush (news - web sites), for example, receives the agricultural tax break for his 1,582-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas, saving $23,679 last year on what would otherwise have been a $44,617 tax bill. 

However, property tax laws are so vague that it is easy for others to take advantage. 

"Our statute just says `agricultural use,'" said Roger Hamm, a supervisor in the Kansas Division of Property Valuation. "If an individual bales a bale of hay, that's agricultural use, based on Board of Tax Appeals rulings. It's almost that vague, yes. Not only almost - it is." 

Elbert County, Colo., agricultural appraiser Jane Penley, said: "I have people who have 60 acres and who put one cow on it and get the tax break." Elsewhere in the state, parking lots have qualified after a few cows were brought in to graze on grassy strips between parking lanes, assessors said. 

Developers who take advantage of the loopholes are within their rights. 

"I mean, that's the way the law's written," said Morgan County, Ala., Revenue Commissioner Amanda Scott. "I don't blame any taxpayer for decreasing their tax liability based on the law." 

Developers are unapologetic. "The way they tax is what you use it for," said Bob Schroder, vice president of Arlinghaus Builders. "It's not who owns it or what you might do with it someday. It's what you do with it now." 

In Boone County, Ky., Arlinghaus leases 1,000 acres it plans to develop to farmers who grows hay and tobacco on it. That qualifies the land for the agricultural tax break, reducing the property tax bill from $53,070 to $5,100. 

Every tax dollar lost through loopholes must be made up somehow_ either in reduced services or in higher taxes for other property owners. The amount lost nationwide cannot be estimated, in part because property taxes are assessed by thousands of local jurisdictions. But even solid estimates for individual counties are unavailable. 

What is clear is that the total cost of land preservation tax breaks - regardless of their merits - is enormous. 

In Wisconsin, which didn't adopt its agricultural tax break until 1996, more than $644 million in property taxes promptly shifted from farmland owners to other property owners, according to a study by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. 

In Lafayette County alone, the assessed value of farmland dropped by $75 million, reducing tax revenue by $1.5 million. To compensate, the county increased the tax bills of non-farmers by as much as 40 percent, and also imposed a sales tax. 

Some local officials have tried to fight back, seeking to limit tax breaks to those with no obvious development plans. Often, however, loopholes complicate enforcement efforts. 

In Florida, Orange County appraiser Bill Donegan is scrapping with the Hilton and Hyatt hotel chains over two parcels totaling 71.1 acres adjacent to the county convention center on a commercial strip between Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. 

The hotel companies have planted saplings and call their parcels tree farms, but it's difficult to imagine them remaining so for long. At current market prices, it would take more than 20,000 years for tree farms to recover the $67 million Hilton and Hyatt paid for the property. 

At stake in the dispute: whether the companies' annual tax bill will be $200,000 or $1.24 million. 

___ 

Joshua Duke, a University of Delaware agriculture expert, said there has been a lot of talk about reforming laws governing land-preservation tax breaks, but that not much happens. 

Few members of the public seem to realize how little the tax breaks do to slow development, how much they cost, or how widely they are misused, many assessors and land experts said. 

Meanwhile, those who benefit from the tax breaks are a large and vocal constituency. In Iowa, they showed up en masse last year to block the reappointment of a tax assessor who was trying to get tough on agricultural exemptions. 

Many farmers' organizations, whose members truly are farming their land, also oppose reform, fearing tinkering with the laws could cost their members money. 

Without property tax breaks, "a farmer cannot stay in business ... in this day and age, with all of the land values escalating and being developed as we become a more urban society," said Paul Till, administrator for the Alabama Farmers' Federation. 

"Change this law?" said John Zimple of Arkansas' Assessment Coordination Department in Little Rock. "There probably would be a civil war." 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE - News Source Writer Mike Schneider in Florida contributed to this report. 

Amusement Ride Accident Injures 7 in Fla. 
56 minutes ago

MIAMI - An amusement ride broke open and ejected several passengers at a county fair, injuring seven people including a teenage girl who was in critical condition. 

A piece of paneling came off "The Gravitron" while it was running late Friday, Miami-Dade police spokesman Juan DelCastillo said Saturday. The ride spins at high speed to generate centrifugal force that pins seated passengers against its interior wall. 

A bolt that held the panel in place sheared, said Liz Compton, a Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. 

About 40 to 45 people were on the ride when the accident happened, said Phil Clark, chief executive of the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition. 

Three of the passengers were hurled out through the opening left by the panel, DelCastillo said. There was no immediate word on how far the three people were thrown. 

A 16-year-old girl who suffered head and upper body injuries was in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital, DelCastillo said. Six other people suffered injuries that weren't life threatening. 

The ride passed inspection before the fair opened March 18, Compton said. 

The fairground was closed after the accident but reopened for normal hours Saturday. The ride was impounded and an engineer planned to inspect it on Monday. 

Agriculture officials do not believe the "Gravitron" has been involved in any other accidents in the state, but the agency was trying to learn if any other fairs were using a similar ride. Those rides would be re-inspected. 

Vampire Bats Kill 13 People in Brazil
Fri Apr 2, 6:01 PM ET 
Add Science 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil  - Rabies-carrying vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's northern state of Para last month, authorities said on Friday. 

The state health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300 people -- an unusually high number -- since March 2 in the riverside Portel area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo. 

"All the deceased had a history of recent bat attacks and six of them had confirmed human rabies from bat bites," a department spokeswoman said. 

Other bite victims received vaccines and other anti-rabies treatment after March 19, when authorities became aware of the problem. 

The spokeswoman said government scientists suspect the attacks are linked to a change in the bats' migration pattern caused by deforestation. 

"There is no guarantee that we won't have more cases," she added. 

The most recent death occurred last weekend. 

Vampire bats normally feed on the blood of large birds and sleeping cattle, lapping it from cuts they make with their teeth. They often transmit rabies to cattle. 

Metallic Sound Is Heard by Space Crew 
Fri Apr 2, 2:25 PM ET

By MARCIA DUNN, News Source Aerospace Writer 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The two men aboard the international space station heard a strange metallic sound again Friday, four months after being startled by it the first time. 

NEWS SOURCE 

Slideshow: International Space Station

Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri was talking to flight controllers in Moscow when he heard a loud drumlike noise coming from the instrument panel of the station's Russian-built living quarters. 

Kaleri and astronaut Michael Foale first heard the mystery noise - described as a flapping sheet of metal - back in late November. Neither the crewmen nor flight controllers were ever able to identify the sound, although engineers suspected space junk may have damaged something on the exterior. 

Kaleri said Friday morning's noise came from about the same place as before and sounded the same. 

"I had the headset on, so I didn't hear it very clearly. But it sounded sort of like a drum. It sounds sort of like a sheet of something being bent," the cosmonaut reported. 

Russian flight controllers told Kaleri that they would try to figure out where the noise was coming from, and speculated that perhaps one of the systems inside the station was the source of the problem, rather than something on the outside. 

NASA (news - web sites) officials, however, said all systems appeared to be operating properly. 

"It's very strange," Russian Mission Control said. "I doubt that it would be a coincidence that you're hearing the same thing coming from the same place." 

During a spacewalk in February, Kaleri and Foale were supposed to check the exterior of the space station where the noise originated last November. But Kaleri's spacesuit overheated and became damp, and the spacewalk had to be cut short, so the men did not have time to inspect the area. 

Kaleri and Foale's six-month space station mission is almost over. Their replacements are due to arrive in another 2 1/2 weeks. 

___ 

On the Net: 

NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov 

Fat Hamster in Printer Sparks Rescue

Apr 1, 7:45 am ET 

BERLIN  - A hamster called "Teddy" sparked a police rescue mission after he climbed inside a computer printer and got stuck because he was too fat to get out again, authorities said Wednesday.

"Contrary to his normal habits, Teddy climbed inside a PC printer and was unable to get out because of his corpulence," police in the northern city of Flensburg said in a statement, adding that they initially thought it was an April Fool's joke.

Luckily for Teddy, a neighbor of his owner managed to free the hamster so the arriving police officer was spared the task.

"After all the commotion, the animal was already peacefully asleep again in his cage, having escaped with nothing but a few bruises," said the statement. 

Schwarzenegger Has No Taste for Governator Ale

Apr 1, 7:33 am ET 

SAN FRANCISCO  - An Oregon brewery has found out the hard way what happens when Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hollywood idol turned governor of California, flexes his muscles to protect his image.

A business advisor to Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday that lawyers for the governor were quickly dispatched to stop plans by Portland Brewing Co. to sell Governator Ale with the Pumping Iron label.

Governator alludes to the series of "Terminator" movies in which Schwarzenegger battles futuristic machines out to control humanity, and "Pumping Iron" references the 1977 documentary about body building that helped make Schwarzenegger famous.

"Any unauthorized use of his name, voice or likeness has to be stopped," said Paul Wachter, the trustee of Schwarzenegger's blind trust. "If you don't stop it, his name, voice or likeness would become public domain, which would be a disaster personally and professionally."

Wachter said he does not believe the Oregon brewery thought it was breaking any laws with its Governator Ale, but noted the Hollywood-icon-turned-politician has long been quick to protect his image.

"Governor or not, we can't really change what we do because otherwise it would be open season," Wachter said. "He carefully reviews every commercial tie-in."

Portland Brewing Co. did not return telephone calls requesting an interview, but Wachter said the brewery has scrapped plans to bottle Governator Ale.

A bottle of the ale was listed for sale on Ebay Inc.'s online bazaar on Wednesday afternoon for $15.50. 

A Godsend, Till a Life Unravels
Fri Apr 2, 7:55 AM ET

By Alan Zarembo and Benedict Carey Times Staff Writers 

INDIANAPOLIS - Traci Johnson believed it was God's plan for her to leave home to attend a tiny Bible college here - and she prayed every day for the Lord to provide for her tuition. 

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Then an unusual opportunity presented itself. 

Eli Lilly & Co., the pharmaceutical giant headquartered a few miles from Indiana Bible College, was seeking healthy subjects for a live-in clinical drug trial. The 19-year-old freshman told her friends back home in Pennsylvania that the study was her best hope to stay in school. 

"Trace, that don't sound right," her friend Colleen Jacoby told her. "I never heard of a human guinea pig." 

But the students at the Bible college knew all about the trials. They made perfect subjects for studies requiring healthy people - and they were used often, receiving hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a few weeks work. 

If accepted into the study, she could make $150 a day for 49 days - more than a year's worth of her school expenses - for taking a drug known as duloxetine, an antidepressant that had already been given to thousands of people and was on the verge of approval by the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites). 

She had faith that God would find a way. "It was in his hands," she wrote in her diary. 

Just before the new semester, a Lilly representative called. Her prayers were answered. 

A month later, she was dead. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indiana Bible College is on the outskirts of Indianapolis, in a former hospital. With 260 students, it is a tight-knit community of Pentecostals. TV is banned and girls are required to wear long skirts. It's not unusual to see students drop their knapsacks and form an impromptu circle, praying for a sick aunt or alcoholic cousin. 

For Johnson it was a sanctuary. 

She grew up in blue-collar Bensalem, Pa., but the center of her childhood was a Pentacostal church in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood. Every Wednesday morning, she walked with the pastor past bars and discount stores canopied by train tracks. They huddled around prostitutes and drug addicts. She prayed so hard for them that tears rolled down her cheeks. 

Then last summer, she announced that the Lord had told her to attend Bible school. 

"She just went wherever the Lord was leading her," said Kathy DePalma, who ran the Christian day-care center where Johnson had worked. 

When friends came to visit in Indianapolis, Johnson chattered about the college's football team, her new church and the young men who had caught her eye. 

"I think my highest want right now is the person who Jesus wants me with," she noted in her diary soon after starting school, "someone I can pray with." 

In a school essay, she envisioned herself as a preacher's wife, raising her children and sitting in the first pew of church. 

All she needed was $3,470 a semester. She had arrived with little money, and her father had recently lost his job as a machinist. 

"I REALLY REALLY REALLY need you to open a way for me to pay my bill," she wrote to God in her diary. "Please provide a way." 

One Final Trial 
A few miles from the Bible college, the neon logo of Eli Lilly glows atop the company's headquarters in south Indianapolis. 

In 1972, a Lilly biochemist discovered that a patented chemical, fluoxetine, enhanced the action of the brain chemical serotonin, which affects mood. More testing showed the chemical could dissolve feelings of despair and sadness. 

The FDA approved the drug, Prozac, in 1987 and since then, sales have totaled more than $21 billion. But by the late 1990s, the patent on Prozac was about to expire, and the company needed a sequel. Lilly began looking at duloxetine, a patented agent that not only affects serotonin, like Prozac, but also norepinephrine, another brain chemical. 

Duloxetine had been shelved in the early 1990s, in part because low doses had no effect on depression. But higher doses, Lilly scientists discovered, relieved depression at least as well as Prozac. Subsequent testing proved the drug also curbed stress-related urinary incontinence. 

By 2003 Lilly had a trade name, Cymbalta, and industry analysts were projecting sales of $2.5 billion a year for depression alone, a figure rivaling the high-water mark for Prozac. 

The drug already had been tested in 8,500 people, but the FDA wanted one last clinical trial to measure its effect on heart rhythm. It would use doses as much as up to five times that recommended for incontinence, and six times the dose for depression. 

Lilly needed 100 healthy females between 18 and 75 (women are more prone to incontinence) for seven weeks. 

The inventors of Prozac had their sequel. They just had to complete one last trial. 

A Great Fundraiser 
Lilly's human test clinic, located at the University of Indiana Medical Center, is a resort-like facility with a library, rooftop sundeck and a panoramic view of downtown. "I felt I was on a mini-vacation," reads one testimonial on the clinic's website. 

The site touts the drug trials as a great way for schools, churches and community organizations to raise money. 

There are hundreds of similar test centers around the country, many of them near college campuses because of the ready supply of students looking for part-time work. 

Healthy subjects, free of the ailment for which the drug is designed, are typically used to measure a drug's side effects and health risks. By the time a drug has reached this stage, it has been extensively tested in animals, and the risk of death is considered minimal. 

"My test was for a medicine for schizophrenia," said Nasri Ashkar, a 21-year-old senior at Indiana Bible College. 

The medicine made him itchy, but "it wasn't a bad experience at all," he said. 

Another classmate, 22-year-old Gary Parks, said he had applied to nearly two dozen studies at the clinic and participated in nine. Ticking them off, he quickly lost track: "Something to prevent the spread of cancer ... a diabetes one." 

Parks made $2,600 in the diabetes study for a week of work, although he recalled that "everybody was throwing up." 

Nausea, Parks concluded, was just part of the job. 

Before every trial, a Lilly official explained the risks and asked him to sign a consent form, a legal document which protects both the subject and the company. It entitles participants to medical care for health problems arising from the trial, allows them to leave the study at any time and warns of the danger of withholding information from researchers. 

Parks said the worst risk he ever heard of during a drug trial was the possibility of fainting from low blood sugar. He wasn't worried. "They have I.V.'s," Parks said, referring to intravenous fluids. "They can bring you back." 

Enough students joined the Lilly trials over the years that they became a routine way of making money, like delivering pizzas or parking cars. That worried some members of the Cavalry Tabernacle Church, which all the students attended. 

At a dinner with students, one woman told them that "your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." 

The Rev. Paul Mooney, who heads the college and the church, said participating in a Lilly trial was just for "raising pocket money." He said he neither encouraged nor discouraged students from taking part in such trials. 

"We're not talking about illegal drugs," Mooney said. "And these programs are very well monitored by the government and so forth, and they have all kinds of guidelines." 

An Overdose at 15 
Johnson seemed like a good candidate for the duloxetine trial. At 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds, she was physically fit and, by all accounts, reliable and upbeat. 

But during her interview, she told screeners that when she was 15, she had landed in the emergency room after overdosing on Tylenol pills and had to have her stomach cleared, according to a psychiatrist studying duloxetine who has read a report on Johnson's case. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was considered confidential. 

A family friend said the overdose occurred after Johnson's first boyfriend broke up with her, and involve a cholesterol-lowering medication used by her father, not Tylenol. 

Johnson denied to screeners she was suicidal then or depressed now, the psychiatrist said. 

The researchers accepted her in the study, which was conducted at several sites across the country. 

Then they presented her with a consent form that listed side effects common in previous duloxetine trials, including insomnia, nervousness and anxiety. It also noted rarer effects, such as fainting and an occasional feeling of indifference. 

She signed the form. 

At the time, a controversy was brewing over antidepressants that affect serotonin. 

Six months before the trial began, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline sent a letter to doctors in England warning that its drug Seroxat (known as Paxil in the United States) should not be prescribed to people under 18. It reported that in its own pediatric trial, subjects reported side effects including "crying, mood fluctuations, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide" when they stopped taking the drug. 

Two months later, drug maker Wyeth cautioned U.S. doctors that its drug Effexor - the FDA-approved antidepressant most similar to duloxetine - increased the risk in teenagers of "suicide-related adverse events such as suicidal thoughts and self-harm." 

In December, British health officials effectively banned the use of most antidepressants in children and teens. 

Lilly's chief medical officer, Dr. Alan Breier, said in an interview that the company was confident that duloxetine was safe. Previous trials did not reveal a statistically significant number of suicides, Breier said. 

The trial's overseers agreed. Dr. Rafat Abonour, head of the University of Indiana board that approved the duloxetine protocol, said he did not recall that suicide was ever mentioned during the review process. 

Five suicides had occurred among 4,124 depressed subjects in studies of the drug. One subject had taken only a placebo. In a recent study of about 1,000 depressed people taking duloxetine for up to a year, seven people attempted suicide and seven others reported that they'd thought seriously about it. 

Breier said that was less than would be expected in a group of depressed patients. The annual suicide rate in the general population is about one in 10,000. The risk in people diagnosed with depression can be 10 to 30 times higher. 

Lilly spokesman David Shaffer said that because data did not link duloxetine to suicide, a history of depression - even a past suicide attempt - would not necessarily disqualify somebody from the trial. 

Several people in the trial had struggled with moodiness and despair. 

Yullan Valor, a freelance product consultant, was among about two dozen subjects who took part in the duloxetine trial at California Clinical Trials in Glendale. She said screeners seemed interested only in depression suffered during the last seven years. She said they did not ask for details about the depression she said she suffered two decades ago - and so never learned that she had once called a suicide hotline for counseling. 

Tatiana Sikic, another participant, didn't tell screeners that five years ago she cut her wrists and took some pills in an attempt to kill herself. 

All she said was that she had a history of depression. 

"I really needed to be in the study," said Sikic, who was out of work at the time. "And I felt fine." 

A Host of Odd Reactions 
On Jan. 10, Johnson, along with the Bible college's secretary and another student, entered the enclosed world of Lilly's clinical drug trial. 

The experience blends dorm living and medical quarantine. Subjects share meals and TV time, opinions and life stories, forming a makeshift community. 

In this study, subjects took duloxetine twice a day. At regular intervals, the medical staff took blood samples and checked heart rhythms. 

Each participant took the drug for 20 days: 16 days working up to a dose of 400 milligrams of duloxetine, followed by a four-day weaning period in which the dosage dropped to zero. For the rest of the study, they were given a placebo. 

Almost everyone had some odd reaction to the drug. Some could not sleep. Others could not get out of bed. There was constant bickering. 

One woman at the Glendale site said she was stunned when she felt an overwhelming urge to run over her husband with the family car as he walked past. Some subjects cut in front of Alzheimer's patients for use of coveted VCRs. 

"It was turning into a madhouse," said 38-year-old Carmellia Wright, an actress. "Every minute someone was breaking down crying or laughing." 

Two weeks into the experiment, Johnson dropped out of school. Even though she could leave the clinic, she was missing classes and skipped the funeral of her grandfather. 

Still, she found time to socialize. And there was a young man, a sophomore, a Christian. "I LOVE his love for you," she wrote to God about the boy in her diary. "God, please work it out." 

They quarreled, but on Jan. 28 - a day when she took the maximum 400-milligram dose of duloxetine - they went on a date and parted with a kiss. "So yeah talking about DRAMA!!" she wrote in her diary. 

She took 240 milligrams the next day, beginning a withdrawal period when brain chemicals can swing wildly. On Feb. 3, Johnson took 120 milligrams of duloxetine before starting on the placebo. 

She seemed fine and baby-sat three nights later, telling one mother she couldn't wait to get back to school. She talked with friends back home and was anxious to be there for the delivery of her sister's baby. 

At 3 p.m. the next day she spoke by phone with John Crompton, a church friend from Philadelphia, and told him she felt sick and needed to rest. 

Sometime in the next few hours, the young woman took the multicolored scarf that she wore around her waist and looped it around her neck. She tied the other end to a shower rod. 

And there she hung, feet dangling close to the floor, until a nurse found her body shortly after 8:30 p.m. 

Reassuring Stockholders 
The Rev. Joel Barnaby, Johnson's pastor back home in Pennsylvania, broke the news to her parents in their living room. 

Reporters barraged Lilly with questions. 

At one of the trial sites, in Evansville, Ind., directors shut down the study, sending home all 16 subjects, according to a Lilly spokesman. But enough people remained in the study to ensure the trial was still scientifically valid, the spokesman said. 

Lilly assured stockholders that the suicide would not delay the drug's release later this year. The company also reported Johnson's earlier pill-swallowing episode to the FDA and the scientists who were studying duloxetine for Lilly. 

While company officials declined to comment in detail on Johnson's death, they said they did not believe the duloxetine contributed to it - and that the reasons behind her suicide were a mystery. She left no note. 

At the Glendale test site, clinic staffers tried to ease worries by telling subjects that Johnson had tried to commit suicide before, and that problems with money and other matters had pushed her over the brink, several subjects said. 

"The psychiatrist told me that she had a history of depression and that she had just broken up with her boyfriend," Wright said. 

Lilly asked test subjects to sign new consent forms and started daily psychological evaluations. It also doubled the weaning period from the drug to eight days. The new forms disclosed the suicide, saying that "at this point the sponsor believes that this event was not caused by duloxetine or the study." 

Most of the Glendale subjects stayed in the trial, but they were infuriated to discover in an online news article that they were being paid less than their counterparts in Indiana. 

To quell revolt, the clinic raised their pay to match the $150 a day in Indiana. 

Convergence of Beliefs 
Those closest to Traci Johnson blame her death on the drug - and the lure of money. 

"This is a terrible spiritual breach of Christian ethics," Barnaby said. "Christians should never have to experiment with psychotropic medicine as a means to make money." 

Johnson believed that faith would protect her - faith that God had led her down a path to $7,000, that other people at the Bible college wouldn't participate in an unsafe study, that a company as huge as Eli Lilly would not let anything happen to her. 

Lilly officials believed that their data ruled out a link between duloxetine and suicide, and that it wasn't necessary to tell subjects about the suicide controversy. 

Even after studies of antidepressants involving thousands of people, the debate over their risk still rages. 

Most psychiatrists say antidepressants are more likely to prevent suicide than trigger it. "Looking at the analysis the British regulators did, I see no significant difference between the drugs and placebo when it comes to suicide risk," said Dr. David Brent, a psychia- trist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies suicide prevention. 

But some researchers point out that suicide is inherently difficult to study. It occurs too rarely to provide reliable data, and too many factors, often deeply personal, can spark a plunge into depression. 

They say Lilly would have to conduct a thorough investigation of each suicide during the duloxetine trials to determine whether the drug was involved. Company officials, who knew few details about the previous suicides, said they now plan to study all six deaths. 

The concerns over antidepressants were already serious enough that on March 22 the FDA warned that some patients could become suicidal when they first started antidepressants or during withdrawal. The agency urged the makers of 10 drugs currently on the market to include labels alerting doctors and consumers to danger signs such as anxiety, hostility and agitation in patients of all ages. 

The FDA is still reviewing duloxetine. If the drug wins approval, regulators will likely advise that it, too, carry the warning. 

Painful Questions 
On a blustery day in February, 17 students rode a bus from Indiana to Pennsylvania with Pastor Mooney for Johnson's funeral. 

Among them was the young man from the Bible college who Johnson had been dating. He has refused to talk about her death. The night she died, he had been scheduled to join an unrelated study at the Lilly clinic. 

He never showed up. 

More than 300 mourners gathered at her old church. "Traci Johnson died last Saturday night, by no fault of her own," Barnaby said from the pulpit. 

The worshipers could not reconcile their memories of Johnson with her suicide. "I was surprised because she had the Holy Spirit," said Ernest Copple, 79, an official at the church Sunday school. 

To fathom the possibility that Johnson freely chose suicide would be to challenge the very foundations of her faith. She would never forsake God's most precious gift. 

"We know if you take your own life, you don't go to heaven," said Jacoby, her friend from home. "We wouldn't do that." 

The day after the suicide, Pastor Mooney invited Dr. Michael Turek, the top Lilly investigator in the Indianapolis duloxetine trial, to church. Students who attended said Turek expressed Lilly's sympathy and answered questions. 

One student asked if they should still participate in trials. 

That, Turek replied, was up to them. 

Dogs Get Their Own Toilet

Mar 31, 2:14 pm ET 

AMSTERDAM  - Dutch dog owners can soon throw away their pooper-scoopers and plastic bags and instead walk their furry creatures to their very own toilet.

The developer of a new "doggy toilet," a small fenced-in patch of artificial grass, hopes the self-cleaning device will help rid towns of the mess left behind by man's best friend.

The first toilet is being tested in Zaltbommel, a small town in central Netherlands, but the developer has already been approached by government officials from as far away as London.

"This is only a pilot program, but we hope to roll out 200 to 300 of these toilets in one year," Hans van de Pos, who has patented the device, told The News Source Tuesday. 

Patient Winner Waits a Year to Claim $23 Million

Apr 2, 1:57 pm ET 

TORONTO  - A Canadian who waited nearly a year to claim a C$30 million ($23 million) lottery prize because he didn't want to "do anything rash" was being described as the most patient man in the country on Friday.

Raymond Sobeski won the biggest single jackpot in Canadian history last April but only stepped forward to claim his prize a mere 12 days before the ticket's expiry date.

"It was the first time that a winner's waited this long," said Kathy Pittman, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Gaming and Lottery Corp. "We thought it must be lost because how can someone sit on it for this long?

"After meeting him, it's perfectly clear to me. He is a gentleman who takes his time, care and caution to make any decision. He's a very patient, laid-back man."

The 47-year-old self-employed computer repairman tucked the winning ticket away in a safety deposit box -- not even telling his family -- and got to work putting his affairs in order.

"I didn't want to do anything rash," Sobeski told reporters on Thursday when he claimed his prize. "I thought it was in my best interest to keep it to myself until I had everything all sorted out."

Sobeski, who called himself "happily unemployed now," said he had known since shortly after the April 11, 2003, draw but wanted to get professional and financial advice first.

His tax-free windfall was front page news in Canada on Friday and a hot topic on radio talk shows where callers wondered how he could keep the secret for so long.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp had taken out full-page advertisements in the Brantford area in southwestern Ontario, where they knew the winning ticket had been bought, and urged the holder to come forward.

While smaller winnings have expired before, a Lotto Super 7 jackpot has never gone unclaimed. The largest unclaimed lottery win was a C$4.69 million Lotto 649 Ontario jackpot in 1989.

"With our experience, we just figured this person must know. It's just so odd for a C$30 million jackpot, for someone to have thrown out their ticket," Pittman said. "Part of us was sitting back and thinking, it's someone that's waiting."

Sobeski, who grew up on a farm, plans to travel and share the money with his parents and siblings. He said he might also buy a farm.

"He hopped on a plane yesterday evening. Golfing somewhere by today, I'm sure," Pittman said.

($1-$1.31 Canadian) 

U.S. Firms Keep Billions Overseas 2 hours, 7 minutes ago

 - washingtonpost.com 

By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer 

With sales up 5 percent last year, Merck & Co. was not satisfied: To hold down costs, the pharmaceutical giant shed 3,200 jobs as 2003 drew to a close, and announced that an additional 1,200 positions would go this year. 

But Merck's picture abroad was quite different. It made 1,300 new hires in 2003 outside the United States, on top of the 900 brought on the year before. Company documents indicate that Merck had a cumulative $18 billion in foreign earnings untaxed by the end of last year, $3 billion more than in 2002. And the company said it had no intention of ever paying U.S. taxes on that burgeoning sum. 

"Foreign earnings of $18.0 billion . . . have been retained indefinitely by subsidiary companies for reinvestment," Merck's annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) said. "No provision is made for income taxes that would be payable upon distribution of such earning."

Last week, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the likely Democratic nominee for president, made such lucrative income-tax deferrals a focal point of his campaign, asserting that they are driving companies to expand abroad. Merck's numbers appear to back that up, and so do those of several other big U.S. companies.

By the end of its 2003 fiscal year, Hewlett-Packard Co. had "indefinitely" deferred taxation on $14.4 billion of foreign earnings, according to SEC filings, a move that helped lower its effective tax rate from the statutory corporate income tax rate of 35 percent to 12 percent. 

Domestic employment at Intel Corp. slipped by more than 3,300 people last year, but it grew by more than 4,300 abroad. By the end of 2003, the company had $7 billion in cumulative foreign earnings, $700 million more than it had sheltered in 2002, according to SEC filings. The semiconductor powerhouse stated that it "intends to reinvest these earnings indefinitely in operations outside the U.S."

The Kerry campaign said U.S.-based multinational corporations are deferring taxation on $12 billion in foreign earnings each year, a figure that may be low, corporate tax experts say. Corporate tax revenue in 2003 fell for the third straight year, to its lowest in a decade. As a percentage of the economy, business taxes last year reached the second-lowest level since the Great Depression. Few doubt that tax avoidance has been a reason for meager corporate tax collections, and the deferral of taxes on foreign earnings may be one of the biggest factors.

"It's probably next to impossible to get a read on how big the number is, but it's fair to say it's a big, big deal," said Douglas A. Shackelford, an accounting professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School who has studied the issue.

Since Kerry announced his corporate-tax-reform proposal, tax experts have debated its impact on the U.S. job market and its consequences for U.S-based multinationals. But liberal and conservative tax policymakers now appear to agree on one point: The byzantine U.S. system of foreign business taxation is in need of major change.

"This is a largely broken system, rife with abuse," said Gene B. Sperling, a former economic aide to President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) who advises Kerry and is an architect of the candidate's plan.

"There is a real problem here," said Gary C. Hufbauer, an international tax expert at the Institute for International Economics, who is skeptical of Kerry's proposal. "U.S. firms doing business in the U.S. are taxed more heavily than many of their foreign competitors. That's demonstrably true."

Under Kerry's plan, U.S.-based companies would have to pay taxes immediately on virtually all foreign profits that are not taxed by another country. Firms could still defer taxation on profits from subsidiaries set up abroad to serve local markets, but if a U.S. company sets up overseas to ship goods back home, taxes would be due in full.

The $12 billion in additional taxes would be used to lower the corporate tax rate to 33.25 percent, from 35 percent. By closing a major loophole used by only the largest multinationals, the plan would bestow a tax cut on more than 99 percent of U.S. companies, Kerry advisers say. Kerry would also try to lure an estimated $639 billion in untaxed foreign earnings back home with a "tax holiday" that would lower the rate on repatriated earnings to 10 percent for one year.

"In any proposed change to corporate tax law, there will be some companies that will do less well than others," said Roger C. Altman, a senior Treasury official in the Clinton administration and a top Kerry economic adviser. "But the preponderance of companies will do better" under Kerry's proposal.

Eliminating loopholes and lowering overall tax rates is standard, orthodox tax theory, said Joel B. Slemrod, a tax economist at the University of Michigan. On balance, he said, Kerry's plan would probably benefit the U.S. economy.

Given their long-standing support for "tax holidays" on foreign earnings and lower corporate rates, some businesses said they were willing to suspend judgment until they see more details of the proposal. Spokesmen for Merck and Intel said their expansions abroad are not driven by tax factors. Merck spokesman Tony Plohoros noted that the company just opened a research facility in Seattle and is building a multimillion-dollar research lab in Boston.

Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman, said Intel's growth abroad is fueled by a simple fact: 70 percent of the company's sales are international. But he did not dismiss Kerry's plan out of hand.

"It certainly deserves serious consideration," Mulloy said. 

But even philosophical supporters of the plan see major problems. Leonard E. Burman, a former assistant Treasury secretary for tax analysis, said he understands why Kerry wanted to exempt income earned in local foreign markets. But, he said, separating out such income would be difficult, and could open an abused system to still more abuse.

"It's great news for accountants and lawyers," he said.

More fundamentally, critics said, the plan would only hasten the movement of companies abroad. Some countries, such as France, tax only income earned within their borders. Many Republican tax economists say the U.S. system already taxes companies more heavily than other countries and has pushed companies to reincorporate abroad.

Under Kerry's proposal, "What's to prevent them all from going overseas?" said Terry Holt, a spokesman for President Bush (news - web sites)'s reelection campaign.

Altman, who is now a Wall Street investment banker, scoffed at that prospect. "If a corporation has a successful foreign investment, I don't think they're going to divest it for reason of changes in the tax law," he said.

But Shackelford, who supports Kerry's plan, suggested that Hufbauer has a point. At least, he said, it would create incentives for corporate mergers that wind up headquartered overseas, just as Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz AG produced Germany-based DaimlerChrysler AG.

"If deferral is eliminated, there's going to be some hurt there, I don't think there's any question," Shackelford said. 

Kerry advisers conceded that they wrestled with many of those objections before deciding to push ahead. "This is a tough issue, but I kind of think we came out in the right place," Sperling said.

He said objections to the fine print should not distract from the point Kerry is trying to make: The U.S. tax code is actually encouraging the movement of jobs overseas.

"This is a big deal," agreed Robert S. McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice, who has inveighed against foreign tax deferral for years. As a company, he said, "you may go to India or China or Ireland for the wage differentials -- there's nothing we can do about that. But we don't have to pay you to go there."

Medical Schools Establishes Obesity Course 31 minutes ago

Add Health 

WASHINGTON  - Duke Medical School said on Friday it was setting up a course in treating obesity, saying that with nearly two-thirds of Americans overweight, doctors need specialized knowledge of the condition. 

Coursework will include the underlying causes of obesity and how to treat it. "The students learn how to manage overweight and obese patients non-judgmentally and counsel adults and children to make healthy lifestyle choices," the North Carolina-based medical school said in a statement. 

"Duke is one of the first medical schools in the country to establish an obesity management course for medical students," added Dr. Jarol Boan, and assistant professor of medicine and surgery who set up the month-long course. 

"Physicians have typically had very little exposure to obesity treatment. Part of the reason for this is that obesity is not considered a disease, so students don't get training for obesity." 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) says obesity is quickly gaining on smoking as the leading cause of death in the United States, taking 400,000 lives a year. 

"There's an obesity epidemic, and students need to be able to deal with the real world," Boan said. 

Richard Simmons Cited for Slapping Man

40 minutes ago

PHOENIX - Exercise guru Richard Simmons allegedly slapped a man who made a sarcastic remark about one of his videos, police said. 

Simmons, known for his "Sweatin' to the Oldies" series of exercise videos set to songs from the 1950s and 60s, was cited for misdemeanor assault. 

A fellow passenger recognized Simmons on Wednesday night at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport as he was waiting for a flight to Los Angeles, police said. 

The man "made the off-hand comment, 'Hey everybody. It's Richard Simmons. Let's drop our bags and rock to the '50s,'" said Phoenix police Sgt. Tom Osborne. "Mr. Simmons took exception to it and walked over to the other passenger and apparently slapped him in the face." 

The passenger, whose identity wasn't immediately available, wasn't injured but told police that he intended to file charges against Simmons, 55. 

Osborne said Simmons was cited for misdemeanor assault and permitted to board his flight. 

Apple Delays IPod Mini Global Launch 
26 minutes ago 
Add Technology 

NEW YORK  - Apple Computer Inc. (NasdaqNM:AAPL - news) will delay global sales of its new iPod mini digital music player until July due to stronger-than-expected demand in the United States, Apple said on Thursday. 

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Apple began shipping the smaller version of its iPod music player in February. 

Demand in the United States has outstripped expected supply through the end of June, the company said. Tight supplies of the hard drive at the core of the player forced Apple to delay increasing manufacturing until July, it said. 

"We're actually consuming just about all the 4 gigabyte, 1- inch drives they make. As they make more, we'll get more," said Greg Joswiak, vice president of hardware product marketing for Apple. 

Hitachi Ltd. (6501.T), which manufactures nearly all of the one-inch drives, expects to boost production to meet customer demand, Hitachi Storage Technologies Chief Executive Jun Naruse told The News Source earlier Thursday. 

In February, Apple said it planned to ship the smaller $249 iPod worldwide in April. It said then it had 100,000 preorders for the gadget. The mini iPod is about the length and width of a business card, weighs about 3.6 ounces and holds 1,000 songs. 

Cupertino, California-based Apple's shares were up 71 cents, or 3 percent, at $26.21 in morning Nasdaq trading. 

Santa Fe Considers Doggie Seat Belt Law

1 hour, 42 minutes ago

SANTA FE, N.M. - Santa Fe is considering requiring doggie seat belts. A major rewrite of the city's animal control ordinance proposes that Santa Fe dogs be buckled up when riding in trucks and other vehicles. 

The ordinance endorsed Tuesday by a City Council committee would require an animal in the bed of a truck to be "crated or restrained ... so it cannot fall or jump from the truck or be strangled." It also would require that any animal "in or on" a vehicle be restrained to keep it from falling out. 

Santa Fe pet stores stock devices to restrain animals in vehicles, although managers said they don't sell many. 

Shops carry a "pet safety sitter," selling for $13.69 to $21.69, that holds dogs in a vehicle's seat via a strap across their chests; a restraint that has a loop that attaches to a seat belt; and "pickup tie-outs" that attach to a dog's collar to keep it from jumping out of the bed of a truck. 

There's even a little booster seat for dogs so they can see out of the window, complete with an attachment so the dog can't jump around in the car. 

The proposed ordinance also addresses restraining animals while walking them on public property. It would require dogs and cats to be on a leash no more than 8 feet long and would no longer consider voice commands as acceptable restraint. 

Leftwing broadcasters take to airwaves

Wed Mar 24, 3:35 PM ET

By Holly Yeager in New York 

Liberal radio station hopes to ride a wave of perceived antipathy to the Bush administration and so succeed where other leftwing broadcasters have failed. From a cramped 40th floor office on Park Avenue, Mark Walsh is plotting a radio revolution. 

There are empty fizzy drink cans and coffee cups everywhere. Someone in blue jeans is sitting on the floor, tapping at a laptop. Pieces of paper are taped all over the walls. The plac e has the look and feel of a political campaign. And it is one, of sorts. 

With a small band of performers, writers, technicians and investors, Mr Walsh is taking a set of unmistakably leftwing voices to America's airwaves, where the right reigns supreme. 

Air America radio goes on the air next Wednesday, initially in four cities - New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles - as well as by satellite and over the internet. By the end of the year, Mr Walsh hopes to be in 36 markets, through a combination of station leases and purchases, syndication deals and other arrangements. 

"You couldn't ask for a better time to launch," said Mr Walsh, chief executive of the fledgling network. 

Al Franken, the comedian-turned-author who will be Air America's top personality, has put it more plainly: "Bush is going down in November." 

So far, conservatives are showing no signs of fear. "This country is based on the principle of free speech, so we wish them well," said a spokesman for Fox News, where Bill O'Reilly, a popular talk radio host, also has a television programme. 

Air America faces an uphill battle as it tries to win listeners and advertisers in a tough market. But, with liberal authors such as Mr Franken on the bestseller list and an infusion of cash into new left-leaning political groups, there are signs that the time may be right. 

"People hate Bush. They're so furious," said Eric Alterman, a liberal media critic. "They just want to be surrounded by reinforcement. They want that in their car radio, in the book s they pick up - it's just a consuming thing." 

Listeners in search of those views today have only a few places to turn. While National Public Radio, the US public radio network, is seen as liberal, it doesn't offer the same satiri cal commentary that conservative talk radio stars such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Mr O'Reilly provide. 

"Democrats are not going to listen to liberal radio because they feel they have to," Mr Walsh said. "Our product has to entertain, it has to inform, it has to be funny and it has to be serious, all at the same time." To prove it has sharp edges, Air America is calling its first programme of the day Morning Sedition, a direct jab at NPR's Morning Edition. 

Mr Walsh, a veteran of HBO, America Online and the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), was volunteering for Democrat presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign when he joined the radio n etwork last autumn. While he has no formal ties with the Kerry camp, the "Bring it On!" slogan that Mr Kerry has adopted appears on some Air America posters. 

The group has raised $25m in equity, mostly from wealthy individuals who, Mr Walsh said, made their investments "based on belief and business". 

A separate arm, called Equal Time, which has $30m in debt capacity, will acquire and operate radio stations. The group expects to lose money in its first two years and become profitab le early in its third. 

Past efforts to provide a liberal voice on radio have not worked for several reasons. Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, and attorney Alan Dershowitz had shortlived shows that were sandwiched between conservative talkers. And while Mr Limbaugh and others rose to prominence in the 1990s by tapping into anger some had for then-president Bill Clinton (news - web sites), "we had no rage to drive our listeners", Mr Walsh said. 

Matthew Felling, of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington research group, agreed that the time was right to launch a liberal radio network. But he disagreed with Air A merica's comedy-based approach. "If you never present your message in a straightforward way, people won't be able to determine what part of your message is humour and what is fact," he said. "You won't be taken seriously, or as seriously as you should be." 

But Mr Walsh is a confident campaign manager. "We have to become a media brand so rapidly that we stop competition, because there will be competition," he said. "Once we prove that so mebody is going to listen to this stuff, there will be a lot of Johnny wannabes." 

U.N. Prescribes Nutrient-Fortified Foods

Wed Mar 24, 4:35 PM ET

By CHRIS HAWLEY, News Source Writer 

UNITED NATIONS - The brainpower of entire nations has diminished because of a shortage of the right vitamins, and slipping nutrients into people's food seems to be the only solution, a new U.N. survey says. 


 

To fight the problem, the United Nations (news - web sites) is prescribing a whole pantry of artificially fortified foods: soy sauce laced with zinc, "super salt" spiked with iron, cooking oil fortified with vitamin A. 

Deficiencies in these vitamins are having alarming effects in developing countries, even ones where people generally have enough to eat, said the study, released Wednesday. 

A lack of iron lowers children's IQs by an average five to seven points, the report said. A deficiency in iodine cuts it 13 more points, said Venkatesh Mannar, president of the Micronutrient Initiative, which produced the report along with the United Nations Children's Fund. Birth defects increase when mothers don't get enough folic acid, and a shortage of vitamin A makes children 25-30 percent more likely to die of disease. 

"So ubiquitous is vitamin and mineral deficiency that it debilitates in some significant degree the energies, intellects, and economic prospects of nations," the study said. 

It looked at 80 developing countries representing some 80 percent of the world's population. It found: 

_ Iodine deficiency has lowered the intellectual capacity of almost all of the nations by as much as 10 to 15 percentage points. It causes 18 million children a year to be born mentally impaired. 

_ Iron deficiency in adults is so widespread that it lowers the productivity of work forces - cutting the Gross Domestic Product in the worst-affected countries by 2 percent. 

_ Deficiencies in folic acid - a nutrient needed for tissue growth, especially in pregnant women - causes approximately 200,000 severe birth defects every year in the 80 countries. 

_ About 40 percent of the developing world's people suffer from iron deficiency, 15 percent lack adequate iodine and as many as 40 percent do not get enough vitamin A. 

In most Western countries, governments have fought the problem with additives: iodine is sprayed onto salt before packaging, vitamin A is added to milk and margarine, and flour is enriched with niacin, iron and folic acid. 

But that doesn't work in countries where governments are weak, food is not processed in big mills and diets are based on a single starchy staple like rice or corn. 

Other health experts said the U.N. findings echoed other studies showing the link between intelligence and nutrition. 

"This is absolutely happening," said Ronald Waldman, a professor of clinical health at Columbia University. "Vitamin deficiency is a disease, and when people have this disease they don't reach their ideal mental potential." 

While some deficiencies, like lack of vitamin A, can be corrected, "If you grow up and your IQ has suffered from iodine deficiency, it's not going to be reversible," Waldman said. 

Furthermore, things are getting worse in some countries, the report said. The percentage of salt that is iodized has slipped to 25 percent in some Central Asian countries and to 50 percent in India, the country with the largest number of iodine deficient people, the report said. 

Getting vitamins to people other ways just doesn't work, researchers said. In the United States, most people ignored government pleas to take more folic acid, a nutrient found in nuts - until the government started putting it in flour in 1998. The result: cases of spina bifida and anencephaly, two serious birth defects, dropped by at least 20 percent. 

"It becomes an issue of compliance. If people have to eat a vitamin pill every day, a lot of them won't do it," Mannar said. 

The report urges countries to step up enrichment in foods that people don't make themselves - things like soy sauce, cooking oil or margarine. It also endorses a new kind of salt fortified with iron in "microcapsules." 

Putting more nutrients into the food has a measurable economic effect, Mannar said. He cited an Indian study that showed a 20 percent increase in production among tea leaf pickers after iron was added to their diets. 

But the most disturbing gap between countries with good and poor nutrition is in intelligence, said Cutberto Garza, a Cornell University professor who also leads the nutrition program at United Nations University. 

"A difference of five to seven IQ points doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to look at the tail ends of the (statistical) curve," Garza said. "You are significantly reducing the number of gifted people and increasing the number of people with mental incapacities." 

Report: Some Credit Helpers Hurt Consumers 

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

Add Business - 

By MARCY GORDON, News Source Business Writer 

WASHINGTON - Raymond Schuck thought he was being responsible when he went to Cambridge Credit Counseling for help reducing $90,000 in credit card and bank debt. Instead, the retired museum director said the monthly payments he made never reached his creditors - and he ended up filing for bankruptcy. 

"My credit rating was completely ruined," the Lima, Ohio, resident testified Wednesday at a Senate hearing looking into the credit counseling industry. 

Credit counseling companies, which often advertise heavily, portray themselves as offering a refuge for consumers drowning in debt. But lawmakers, regulators and consumer groups charge that some counseling agencies trade on their nonprofit status to gouge customers, serving more as an anchor plunging people deeper into debt than as a life preserver. 

Each year, an estimated 9 million Americans have some contact with a credit counseling agency - often the last stop before a bankruptcy filing. 

A report prepared by the bipartisan staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (news - web sites)'s investigative panel found that consumer complaints are on the rise as new companies come into the credit counseling business and abuses proliferate. The investigators found a pattern of abuse among some counseling agencies, especially new entrants to the field. 

"Clearly, something is wrong with the credit counseling industry," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the investigative subcommittee. "Our investigation has revealed common patterns of improper conduct" by new entrants. 

Audits of 50 credit counseling agencies by the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) "may very well" result in some of them being stripped of their nonprofit tax exemptions or even being referred for criminal investigation to the Justice Department (news - web sites), IRS Commissioner Mark Everson testified to the subcommittee. 

And Thomas Leary, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, said: "We remain concerned about deceptive practices in the credit counseling industry." 

Former employees of Cambridge Credit and AmeriDebt Inc., who also testified, told of having to use fake names, "boiler room" sales operations and pressure on commission-paid counselors to get consumers to pay stiff upfront fees, with no counseling or debt education provided. 

Officials of the two companies disputed the accounts of the former customers and employees. They said their companies act responsibly and provide a valuable service to consumers. 

Chris Viale, chief operating officer of Cambridge Credit, called the accounts "unfair and distorted accusations." 

"There is a popular notion that performance incentives encourage counselors to act in their own best interests rather than in the interests of consumers. This is not true," Viale said. 

As senators grilled the officials about industry practices, the president of Debtworks Inc., Andris Pukke, asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege in refusing to testify. 

The for-profit Debtworks, Pukke and his brother are among several parties named in a lawsuit filed by the state of Missouri against AmeriDebt in September. Debtworks was formed in 1999 when AmeriDebt spun off its processing function for consumer debt plans and turned it into a for-profit business owned and controlled by Pukke, according to the Senate investigators. 

With personal bankruptcies surging to record levels in this country, there is a deep pool of customers for credit counseling companies. 

Credit counselors historically have been financed by banks that issue credit cards but those contributions have been declining, forcing counseling agencies to charge fees. 

Credit counseling works by putting consumers who cannot afford to make all their payments into debt management programs that allow them to consolidate their debts from several credit cards, reduce their monthly payments and lower their interest rates. Consumers agree to destroy their credit cards, not take out new credit and make a monthly payment to the counseling agency, which distributes it to creditors. 

But new entrants - rather than relying on contributions to nonprofit counseling agencies from credit card companies or small fees paid by consumers - use a different structure. They have nonprofit agencies that generate "massive revenues" paid by consumers for a for-profit affiliate for advertising, marketing and executives' salaries, according to the Senate report. 

AmeriDebt, based in Germantown, Md., has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission, five states and consumers. 

The FTC alleged that the company used deceptive marketing to bilk hundreds of thousands of customers and failed to educate people about how to get out of debt. The regulators also alleged that AmeriDebt made customers believe that an initial fee would be part of their debt-reduction payments to creditors - but it instead went to AmeriDebt. 

The company has disputed the regulators' allegations. It says it offers customers educational services, and that the debt-reduction payments are "voluntary contributions." 

Soldiers in Iraq Buy Their Own Body Armor

Fri Mar 26, 3:10 AM ET

By RYAN LENZ, News Source Writer 

Soldiers headed for Iraq (news - web sites) are still buying their own body armor - and in many cases, their families are buying it for them - despite assurances from the military that the gear will be in hand before they're in harm's way. 

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Body armor distributors have received steady inquiries from soldiers and families about purchasing the gear, which can cost several thousand dollars. Though the military has advised them not to rely on third-party suppliers, many soldiers say they want it before they deploy. 

Last October, it was reported that nearly one-quarter of American troops serving in Iraq did not have ceramic plated body armor, which can stop bullets fired from assault rifles and shrapnel. 

The military says the shortfall is over and soldiers who do not yet have the armor soon will. But many want to avoid the risk. 

"What we hear from soldiers is that they are told that they are going to get body armor just before they leave or just after they get there. But they don't want to take a chance," said Nick Taylor, owner of Bulletproofme.com, an online distributor of body armor in Austin, Texas. 

Inquiries rise and fall with the rate of deployments, fueled by stories of units falling under attack as little as a day after being issued body armor. Whether they are true, the stories are prompting families to think about buying the equipment, Taylor said. 

Reliance Armor in Cincinnati, which makes armored vests for soldiers and police, has nearly doubled in size as a result of the shortage. 

"We're getting people locally who are deployed National Guard and parents, specifically, coming in and buying," said Don Budke, the company's vice president of sales. "The military people don't want to advertise the fact that there are people doing this on their own." 

Dan Britt paid about $1,400 for body armor for his son, a medic stationed in Kuwait who had orders to move into Baghdad. He recently heard his son received it. 

"In war, as we've learned through all our history, who gets killed and who doesn't is just happenstance," said the father from Hamilton, Ohio. "But if I can raise the odds, then I'll feel better." 

Those that need the armor most are already certain to have it, said Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman, and families should not buy the equipment. 

"What we have told family members who have contacted us is that the Army cannot attest to the safety or the level of protection of body armor purchased rather than issued for a soldier," Tallman said. 

The Defense Department says it has contracted with one manufacturer for its armor. Point Blank Body Armor, which produces the Interceptor brand, has all but stopped selling to the public. 

Nancy Durst recently learned that her husband, a soldier with an Army reserve unit from Maine serving in Iraq, spent four months without body armor. She said she would have bought armor for her husband had vests not been cycled into his unit. 

Even if her husband now has body armor, Durst said she was angry he was without it at any time. Her husband also has told her that reservists have not been given the same equipment as active duty soldiers. "They're so sick of being treated as second-class soldiers," she said. 

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who serves on the Armed Services subcommittee, said she knows soldiers who were told by the military to buy body armor before leaving, rather than risk arriving with nothing but their shirts. 

"We lagged far behind in making sure that our soldiers who are performing very difficult and dangerous missions had protective equipment," she said. 

A bill being considered in Congress would reimburse families who bought body armor before the Army asked for increased production to bridge the gap between soldiers who had armor and those that did not. 

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who has talked with hundreds of families who bought body armor for soldiers in Iraq, said the military lost the trust of soldiers' families. 

In that regard, it is not surprising that families bought body armor in spite of what military advised, he said. 

"There still is a lingering level of mistrust with some families as to whether there are people thinking about the best equipment and needs of their loved ones," Turley said. "No one that I know of has been truly held accountable." 

Mexico Rejects British Explanations on Cavers

1 hour, 53 minutes ago

Add Science 

By Tim Gaynor 

MEXICO CITY  - A diplomatic rift between Britain and Mexico widened on Friday when President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) refused to accept London's explanations for the presence of a British military group found stuck in a Mexican cave. 

Fox said Britain had not clarified questions about the activities of six cave explorers, four of them members of the military, who were plucked from a cavern late on Thursday after a week trapped by an underground flood. 

"We received a reply to our request from Britain, but it is frankly unsatisfactory, we need more clarification about what this was about," Fox told a news conference in Nicaragua, where he is on an official visit. 

Mexico's attorney general's office said it was investigating media reports that the cavers were scouting for deposits of potentially radioactive materials. 

"We do not have any indication up to this point that indicates illicit activity," Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, deputy attorney general, told a news conference. 

Mexico does not allow foreign military exercises on its soil.

The Mexican government is upset it was not told in advance of the presence of the expedition, most of whom were members of the Combined Services Caving Association, an enthusiasts' group made up of active and retired British soldiers and civilians in the Ministry of Defense. 

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez spoke in strong terms. 

"We are not going to tolerate on this occasion that no one explains to us exactly what their citizens were doing here," he said in comments published in the Mexican press. 

RELATIONS SENSITIVE 

Mexico's relations with Britain were already sensitive because of allegations that Britain helped the United States spy on Mexico's U.N. mission in the run-up to the Iraq (news - web sites) war. 

After receiving medical checks at a military hospital, the cavers were brought in minibuses for questioning at a rundown immigration center in Mexico City on Friday, accompanied by trucks bearing rifle-toting members of a special police force. 

British embassy sources told The News Source that all the expedition members were booked on a Friday night flight to London from Mexico City. 

The trapped cavers were trapped by surging underground flood waters two days into a routine exploration trip in the Cuetzalan caves in Puebla province. 

The British Embassy had originally described the cavers as being on a scientific mission and later clarified this to say they were mapping out the cave complex, one of the most extensive in the world. 

Fox had asked on Wednesday for a "swift" explanation of what the foreign soldiers were doing in the caves. 

Hoping to put an end to the incident, Britain said its minister for Latin America, Bill Rammell, met with Mexico's ambassador in London on Friday afternoon, and thanked him for help in getting the group out safely. 

"We respect the Mexican authorities' need to clarify their immigration status," Rammell said, adding that he hoped the incident "could be resolved as quickly as possible." (Additional reporting by Ivan Castro in Managua) 

Nuclear missile allegedly damaged
Web site says Navy called 'broken arrow' aboard Bangor sub
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Was it a "broken arrow" at the Trident submarine base in Bangor in November that led to the firing a month later of the Navy leadership overseeing nuclear weapons there?

The code words used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the most severe level of a nuclear weapon mishap reportedly were invoked Nov. 7 when a Trident I C4 missile was damaged while being removed from the submarine USS Georgia in Bangor. 

The allegation was raised over the weekend at a watchdog Web site, jaghunters.blogspot.com, run by a former Navy officer, Walt Fitzpatrick of Bremerton. Fitzpatrick has had a significant beef with the military justice system for 16 years, which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has reported previously. Fitzpatrick yesterday said he drew upon Navy sources for his information about the missile incident, which has drawn the interest of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks.

As the P-I reported in December, the top leadership of the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific -- responsible for handling intercontinental ballistic missiles at Bangor -- was sacked on the spot. Three officers have been reassigned and three enlisted men face courts-martial on lesser charges.

According to Fitzpatrick, the Nov. 7 incident happened when the missile from tube No. 16 was hauled up and smacked into an access ladder that had been left in the tube, slicing a 9-inch hole in the missile's nose cone. 

The ladder is placed inside the silo after the tube hatch is opened so a sailor can climb inside to attach a hoist to lift the intercontinental ballistic missile out of the tube. After attaching the hoist, the sailor climbs out and the ladder is to be removed before the missile is lifted out. 

The crew members reportedly took a break, and when they returned, they began to hoist out the missile without removing the ladder, damaging the nose cone. Although there would not have been a nuclear explosion, a radiation release or non-nuclear explosion was possible, Fitzpatrick claims.

That didn't happen, though the base's civilian emergency services allies yesterday wanted to know more.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said yesterday that his office was not notified of any incident involving nuclear-tipped missiles last fall. Boyer was surprised yesterday when he heard of the incident from a reporter. He described cooperation with the Navy as excellent, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Phyllis Mann, who as director of Kitsap County's Emergency Management Division works with the Navy and monitors Navy incidents, said county and state records show no "broken arrow" was reported as is required. Defense Department directives require the FBI as lead civilian agency to be notified, as well as local and state emergency services.

"Based upon our relationships with the bases, we would expect to be notified if there was a public safety health threat," Mann said. 

She's not surprised, however. If the missile was banged up but nothing was released, reporting of the incident might not be required. 

Navy officials here and in Washington, D.C., refused to discuss the allegations, citing a strict Defense Department "neither confirm nor deny" directive concerning nuclear weapons to keep potential or real enemies guessing.

Regarding the disciplinary action meted out in December and the reasons behind it, Pam Sims, spokeswoman for the Strategic Systems Program in Washington, D.C., that oversees the strategic weapons units on each coast, could say little.

"Safety is paramount in everything we do in the Navy and a primary focus for our leadership at every level of command," she said.

The neither-confirm-nor-deny policy, however, handcuffs the Navy from explaining the incident, and stirred up questions from Dicks and activists who have been monitoring the base for years.

"We are working with the Navy to see what may have happened and to see what guidelines they have" for weapons accidents, said George Behan, spokesman for Dicks, who sits on key defense committees. 

Dicks' office yesterday contacted Rear Adm. Charles Young, head of the Strategic Systems Program in the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the nation's "nuclear Navy." 

The issue echoes concerns raised in January by Glen Milner, 52, a peace activist and member of Ground Zero, a citizens group that has protested outside Bangor over the nuclear weapons issue for years and filed lawsuits over safety concerns.

"What would happen in a missile loading accident at the wharf?" Milner asked in a letter to the P-I early this year. 

Ground Zero recently won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that showed 53 less severe "incidents" prior to 1986 involving submarine-launched missiles. Sixteen were classified as potentially serious. Even if it's unlikely a nuclear warhead would be detonated, the potential remains for a plutonium release or an explosion from the Trident's missile propellant.

Adding Fitzpatrick's concerns to his own, Milner said, "What is most outrageous is that while on Nov. 7 when this ladder is impaled into this nose cone of this missile, imagine the sailors not knowing how far in, or whether it would blow up" creating an instant "dirty" bomb. 

"It's shocking that the Navy didn't reveal anything," he said.

So strict are the Navy's protocols for handling nuclear weapons that overlooking the smallest details results in discipline. The accident immediately shut down the strategic weapons facility. Fitzpatrick said the unit's failure to pass a subsequent inspection resulted in the firings.

As the P-I reported in December, Capt. Keith Lyles, commander of Bangor's strategic weapons unit was fired on the spot Dec. 19. 

Also relieved of duty in what Fitzpatrick says has been coined the "royal flush" were Lyle's executive officer, Cmdr. Phillip Jackson, and Cmdr. Marshall Millett, weapons officer. 

Young, the admiral in charge of strategic systems, cited only a "loss of confidence" as the reasons. Three enlisted men in the missile handling team face courts-martial involving less severe alleged offenses. 

Those who could be reached declined to comment.

Young replaced Lyles with Capt. Lawrence Lehman. Lehman, who had led a 40-man inspection of the facility, replaced Lyles on the spot. The facility reopened after passing inspection Jan. 9.

Although defense officials are mum on nuclear weapons, the P-I in April 1998 reported on a Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council report that said base closures and realignments meant Washington state by 2003 could house 1,685 such weapons, more than any other state and bigger than the nuclear forces of Great Britain, France or China. 

Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has been a thorn in the Navy's side for years, trying to clear his name from a court-martial conviction that fellow officers and some congressmen say is a case of military justice gone wrong. 

Fitzpatrick was executive officer of the USS Mars when he received a career-destroying reprimand in 1988 for failing to properly supervise the spending of his ship's morale, welfare and recreation money. The non-governmental funds pay for non-government gear such as entertainment or recreational equipment for the crew and are raised through the ship's retail store. 

The incident grew out of a terror attack. Fitzpatrick allowed the money to be used to help Capt. Mike Nordeen, the ship's commanding officer, when his brother, Navy Capt. William Nordeen, was murdered in Greece by terrorists in 1988. Though the ship's crew voted to use the money to send a contingent to the funeral, the Navy came down on Fitzpatrick for misusing the funds.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky contributed to this report. P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com

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: 
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Blasts ricochet through JSE 
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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

FDA Approves Rapid Saliva Test for AIDS Virus 
Fri Mar 26,11:28 AM ET

WASHINGTON  - The United States approved the first rapid saliva test for the HIV virus (news - web sites) that causes AIDS (news - web sites), health officials announced on Friday. 

The test, made by OraSure Technologies Inc., provides results within 20 minutes. Other approved rapid HIV (news - web sites) tests require blood samples. 

"This oral test provides another important option for people who might be afraid of a blood test," Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement. 

Officials also said the test, called the OraQuick Rapid HIV-1/2, could help on two fronts, encouraging more people to get tested as well as actually receive the results. 

One-fourth of the roughly 900,000 HIV-infected people in the United States are not aware that they are infected, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

After the announcement, shares of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based OraSure rose 76 cents, or 9.3 percent, to $8.91 on Nasdaq late Friday morning. 

Police seek clues after suicide bombing on Istanbul freemasons 

ISTANBUL : Anti-terrorist police sought clues after two suicide bombers tried to force their way into a crowded masonic hall, detonating a device at the entrance and killing one of themselves and a waiter. 

It was the first such attack on the freemasons, who have included deputies, ministers, senior government officials and army generals among their members.Advertisement 
The two attackers shot their way into a restaurant on the ground floor of the building housing the masonic lodge in the Asian part of the city after wounding a security guard.

One of the assailants then set off explosives wrapped around his body, killing himself and the waiter, according to the city governor, Muammer Guler.

The explosion also injured six people in the restaurant, one seriously, but Guler said most of the 40 people in the room were unharmed because the device went off at the entrance.

The Istanbul governor said there was no apparent link between the event and four other attacks on synagogues and British buildings in Istanbul in November in which 63 people were killed and hundreds injured.

"We think it was organized by inexperienced activists belong to a new Islamic organization," a police official was quoted in the Hurriyet newspaper as saying. "If the attack had been well prepared the whole building could have gone up in the air." 

But the newspaper Milliyet said the kind of bomb used on Tuesday was similar to those employed in the November attacks, which have been blamed on a Turkish Islamic extremist group linked to the Al-Qaeda group of Osama bin Laden.

Police were waiting to interview the surviving attacker, who had abdominal injuries and lost an arm.

He was shown on Turkish television yelling "Damn Israel, long live..." as he was wheeled into the hospital.

Many Jewish businessmen and intellectuals are believed to belong to Turkey's five masonic organizations, which have some 14,000 members.

The largest of these groups, the Association of the Grand Temple of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey, has been established for almost a century, and was influential among the Young Turk officers who helped create modern Turkey.

The freemasons have enjoyed freedom in this predominantly Muslim but strictly secular country, but are viewed with suspicion by ultra-nationalists and Islamists, who accuse them of having pro-Zionist aims.

Prosecutors have indicted 69 people on charges related to the November attacks, which struck at two synagogues, the British consulate and a branch of the British-based HSBC bank.

- NEWS SOURCE

Calif. Home Power Bill Prompts Pot Probe

2 hours, 40 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

CARLSBAD, Calif. - When police noticed Dina Dagy's family was spending $250 to $300 a month on electricity, they suspected a marijuana farm was flourishing under high-intensity lights inside their suburban home. 

What they found when they showed up with a drug-sniffing dog and a search warrant was a wife and mother who does several loads of laundry a day, keeps a dishwashing machine going, has three electricity-guzzling computers and three kids who can't remember to turn the lights out when they leave a room. 

"It's hard to believe a high utility bill would be enough to issue a state warrant," said Dagy, who is demanding the Police Department issue a written apology. 

Authorities say they have already apologized verbally several times and were only following proper procedures. Tracking down marijuana growers by reviewing electricity bills, they say, is a common practice. 

"I understand they feel something isn't appropriate here, but it is very much consistent with how search warrants are prepared," said police Lt. Bill Rowland. 

When authorities noticed how high the bill for the Dagy home was, they sent a police dog to the neighborhood, and it reacted as though it had smelled drugs. 

They also noticed the family had put its trash out that morning, something police say drug growers often do to hide the evidence. In the Dagys' case, however, it was trash day. 

When officers returned on March 19 with a search warrant, Dagy was volunteering at her son's second-grade class. She was heading back to her car when police arrived at the school, and she returned home and let them into the house. 

They found nothing illegal, and she says she feels fortunate she wasn't in her son's classroom when they arrived. 

"I would have been so embarrassed," she said, "and my son would have died: `They're taking your mommy away!'"

Commission Head Still Wants Rice Testimony Public 
1 hour, 14 minutes ago

WASHINGTON  - The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks feels unanimously that White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) should testify in public, the panel's head said on Sunday. 

The News Source Photo 

The News Source 

Slideshow: September 11

Rice is refusing to appear before the commission in public and under oath to answer allegations from a former White House counter-terrorism official that the Bush administration neglected the threat from al Qaeda. 

But former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean told "Fox News Sunday" that his panel would not try to force her to do so under a court order. 

"To get into a court battle over a subpoena we don't think is really appropriate right now nor will it help us," Kean said. 

The administration is resting its refusal to let Rice testify in public on a ruling by White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales that to do so would set a precedent that other presidential advisers could be compelled to testify about advice they have given the president. 

"We think in a tragedy of this magnitude that those kind of legal arguments are probably overridden," Kean said. 

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) has challenged Rice to appear publicly, accusing President Bush (news - web sites)'s White House of stonewalling the commission and of attempting "character assassination" against its own former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke. 

Clarke has sparked a political firestorm for Bush by questioning -- most recently in public testimony before the 9/11 commission -- his commitment to fighting terror before hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) and killed more than 3,000 people. 

FURIOUS DENIALS 

Rice, once Clarke's White House superior, has led furious administration denials of the charges and was slated to appear on CBS' "60 Minutes" later on Sunday. 

Kean said that in four hours of private testimony to date, not under oath, Rice has been "very forthcoming." 

"She answered every question we asked her and she answered it well. She has offered to give us more time," Kean said. "But we do feel unanimously as a commission that she should testify in public. We feel its important to get her case out there." 

"We are still going to press and still believe unanimously as a commission that we should hear from her in public," he added. 

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, said the panel also did not yet have a date for interviewing President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites). Bush is insisting on testifying privately before only the commission leaders, not the full panel, though he has relented on an earlier insistence that he appear for only an hour. 

Kean said the panel wanted Bush to speak to all 10 members but he was prepared to take up every question with the president. 

"If the ground rules stay the same we're prepared to get any question that any other commissioner or staff member has, take those questions into the White House," Kean said. "Lee Hamilton and I will make sure that every one of those questions gets answered no matter how long it takes."

Modern-Day Explorers Build Spacecraft 

Sat Mar 27,10:42 PM ET

By BETSY TAYLOR, News Source Writer 

ST. LOUIS - The reward is high, but so is the risk as some of the 27 teams pursuing a $10 million prize for the first privately funded manned spaceflight near a goal that once seemed outlandish. 

Organizers of the X Prize believe that teams could attempt the space trip as early as this summer. 

When the competition was announced just eight years ago, many were skeptical that any privately financed team could meet the requirements to collect the prize: Build a spacecraft capable of taking three passengers 62.5 miles above the planet, then make a second successful suborbital trip within two weeks. 

"It's going to happen in 2004. Someone will win it," said Gregg Maryniak, director of the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation, a group created to spark development of reusable spacecraft that can take average citizens into space. 

Many of the teams vying for the X Prize already have conducted test launches. One U.S. team propelled a spacecraft to 68,000 feet, or about 13 miles. While a couple of U.S. teams are among the top contenders, crews from six other nations also are in pursuit of the prize. 

It's a diverse group tapping into the same spirit of exploration that led adventurers to sail ships across unknown oceans. Teams range from one financed by a billionaire to a group of scraped-together volunteers. Several boast leading minds who toss around aerospace terms with dizzying precision. Others lament unexpected fires and explosions as part of the learning process. 

Safety is stressed, but team members know they're embarking on a journey with built-in risks, maybe even death. 

"It's a possibility. It's a cost that exploration has to pay. Otherwise, you stay home and watch TV and eat French fries," said Pablo de Leon, the 39-year-old team leader of an Argentinian group that is building a vertical rocket named Gauchito, or The Little Cowboy. 

"If we are not the ones, someone else will do it. But it will be done," de Leon said. 

Canadian Brian Feeney, 44, is team leader of the Toronto-based da Vinci Project. In its simplest terms, the group wants to lift a spacecraft called Wild Fire using an immense helium balloon. The design switches over to rockets to fly and uses a steerable parachute to land. 

Feeney plans to be on board for the first manned attempt. He said he thinks of the risk as similar to that of climbing Mount Everest (news - web sites), the world's tallest peak. "Life is way too short to not explore those boundaries," he said. 

"How many times does a kid have a chance to go into space? I'm living my dream," he said. "I feel like I'm limited; my bicycle won't go as far as I want it to. My grandest dream goes all the way to the stars." 

Maryniak recounted how space tourism advocate Peter Diamandis read Charles Lindbergh's "The Spirit of St. Louis" autobiography and realized how aviation contests, like the $25,000 Orteig prize awarded to Lindbergh for crossing the Atlantic in 1927, helped launch mainstream air travel. 

So the X Prize was announced in 1996. The foundation includes such noted supporters as Dennis Tito, the American who spent $20 million to fly in a Russian craft as the first space tourist, and pilot Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh. 

Nine of the 27 teams have built "serious hardware" and four or five are at the leading edge of the competition, Maryniak said. 

The top competitors include at least two American teams - Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., and Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas. Both have applied to the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) to attempt space flight. Another company, which is not competing for the prize, has also applied. 

George Nield, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said, "We are getting very close to making a licensing determination for one of those." 

Several competitors believe Scaled Composites could take the prize. 

Financed by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, Scaled Composites is led by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, perhaps best known for his design of Voyager, an aircraft that circled the globe in a non-stop 1986 flight without refueling. 

The Scaled Composites design consists of a rocket plane, called SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, a jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude air launch. SpaceShipOne traveled faster than the speed of sound in a test on Dec. 17, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. 

In addition to the prize competition, the foundation and the teams hope for a time when space travel is more accessible, when people can book a trip into space, see the world from a distance and experience weightlessness. 

"For a lot of them, the real prize is not the X Prize, it's the commercial business," said Maryniak. "The only thing wrong with space flight is there's not enough of it." 

___ 

On the Net: 

X Prize: http://www.xprize.com

Man Says He Sold UCLA's Cadavers

Mon Mar 8, 7:55 AM ET

By Charles Ornstein and Richard Marosi Times Staff Writers 

An alleged middleman in the sale of body parts from corpses donated to UCLA medical school said Sunday night that he cut up about 800 cadavers with the full knowledge of UCLA officials and then sold them to "giant" medical research companies over a six-year period. 

An attorney for UCLA, Louis Marlin, offered a very different account of the case. He said that the middleman, Ernest V. Nelson, had carried out the scheme with the help of Henry Reid, the director of the medical school's willed body program, and a second university employee. Other university officials had no knowledge of it, Marlin said. 

The scheme came to light because Nelson tried to get money from the university after already extracting payments from Reid to keep the scheme secret, said Marlin. 

Nelson was arrested at his home in Rancho Cucamonga on Sunday on suspicion of receiving stolen property. After posting $30,000 bond at the Los Angeles County sheriff's West Hollywood station, Nelson told The Times that his work was well known to officials at UCLA and had been condoned. 

Nelson, 46, said he went to UCLA's body freezer on the seventh floor of UCLA Medical Center twice a week with saw in hand and disassembled bodies. 

He said he was collecting knees, hands, torsos and other body parts needed by his corporate clients, which he said numbered between 80 and 100. 

Nelson also said he followed a protocol set out by Reid that was known to other UCLA officials. 

"I call one of the most prestigious universities in the world, their director gives me the protocol, I follow that protocol and they charge me with receiving stolen body parts?" Nelson said. "If I wasn't supposed to be there, why couldn't they tell me that? It was not done in secret." 

Reid, 54, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of grand theft. He was released early Sunday after posting $20,000 bond. Reid declined to answer a reporter's questions Sunday. 

In rebutting Nelson's account, Marlin, the UCLA attorney, said Nelson had been paying for the body parts with cashier's checks made out to Reid, not the university. 

Marlin also said Nelson's figure of 800 bodies was exaggerated. "It's impossible, because then UCLA would have had no bodies to use," he said. "What the number is, we're going to find out to the best we can." 

Marlin said he had no idea what the actual figure was because the campus was still investigating, but added that the true figure may be in the dozens or even hundreds. The sales covered a four-year period, not six, he said. 

The UCLA lawyer also played down Nelson's contention that campus officials knew about the sale of body parts. "For Nelson to say that other people knew what he was doing is ridiculous," he said. "They actively were hiding this." 

The chain of events that led to the unraveling of the scheme began last year when state regulators began looking into Nelson's work as part of an investigation of a Riverside County crematory. Marlin said UCLA was alerted to a potential problem when the state Department of Health Services contacted the campus. State officials said Nelson had been selling body parts, falsely representing to his clients that the bodies had been tested for infectious diseases at UCLA. 

Marlin said he believes that Nelson was forging forms to satisfy his clients' wishes. At that time, Marlin said, Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, associate vice chancellor of the medical school, asked Reid what had happened. Reid responded that he had sold "a very small number" of body parts to Nelson. "According to Henry [Reid], Ernest Nelson told him that he was purchasing these parts, or obtaining these parts for ... an orthopedist doing research. This is what Henry Reid told me also," Marlin said. 

Reid said he was arranging for the body parts to be returned, and officials saw no reason to investigate further, Marlin said. 

Nelson said UCLA then stopped allowing him to take body parts and asked him to return the parts he already had in his warehouse. The university owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars for the body parts he had returned, Nelson said. Earlier this year, Nelson's lawyer filed a claim for $241,000, which amounted to the value of the body parts, Marlin said. When the campus received that claim, officials immediately began investigating, he said. 

On Feb. 26, Reid was called in for an interview and broke down, telling campus lawyers that he had received payment for the sale of body parts, Marlin said. "I said, 'Henry, what's the total amount of money that this guy gave you?' and he says to me, 'Between $15,000 and $20,000.' My head's reeling now. We have a lot of money on the table." 

Marlin said he immediately notified police and had Reid put on administrative leave. Another UCLA employee who is believed to have accepted money for body parts also was placed on leave. 

Marlin said it appears that last year Nelson got money from Reid by threatening that he would blow the whistle on the scheme. Marlin said Reid told him he paid $21,000 to secure Nelson's silence. Some of that money came from a secret bank account that was in the name of the willed body program, Marlin said. 

"The whole basis of this is you have one crook trying to steal more from another crook, and that's what brought it to light," Marlin said. 

Marlin said he did not believe that Nelson came to the campus twice a week. From what he can gather so far, he said, Nelson came anywhere from once to three times a month. 

"If there's one body gone, it's one too many and it's a crime," he said. "The fact that it's more than one, each one makes it worse and worse, and it's a geometric progression as far as the campus is concerned." 

Nelson said his sale of body parts was simply aimed at enriching science. "I provide specimens for research. I'm giving doctors a forum to practice and improve," he said. Nelson said when the truth comes out, "my name will be cleared." 

"There was a chain of command," he said, "and that chain of command doesn't start with Ernest Nelson or end with Ernest Nelson." 

Zimbabwe Seizes U.S.-Registered Plane

32 minutes ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean authorities have seized a U.S.-registered cargo plane carrying 64 "suspected mercenaries" and military equipment, the Home Affairs minister said Monday. 

The News Source Photo 

The Boeing 727-100 was detained at Harare's main airport late Sunday after its owners allegedly made "a false declaration of its cargo and crew," Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said at a news briefing. 

"The plane was actually carrying 64 suspected mercenaries of various nationalities," Mohadi said. "Further investigations also revealed that on board was military material." 

It was not immediately clear where the plane had come from, or what its purpose was. 

Mohadi gave no further information, but said full details would be released once officials have established "the true identities of the men and their ultimate mission." 

State-run TV broadcast footage of a white plane with the tail number N4610. Inside the aircraft, the station showed two satellite telephones, radios, blue backpacks, sleeping bags, hiking boots, an inflatable raft, paddles, bolt cutters and what appeared to be a can of Mace. 

No weapons were shown, but the station said officials were still going through the cargo section. 

Western journalists were not shown the plane, which Mohadi said had been moved to the nearby Manyame military airfield, and the government's claims could not be independently verified. 

Passengers and crew, all of them "heavily built males" and most of them white, were also taken to the base, where a detention barracks is located, state television reported. 

The plane is registered to Dodson Aviation Inc. of Ottawa, Kan. However, company director Robert Dodson said it had sold the aircraft about a week ago to a "reputable" South African company, Logo Ltd. 

"I think they were going to use it for charter flights," he said by telephone. 

There was no reply at the Pretoria-based company. 

U.S. Embassy officials said the Zimbabwean government had not raised the issue with them. 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he was aware of the reports but added: "We have no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government." 

President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly accused the United States and Britain of plotting to overthrow his autocratic regime. 

In 1999, three American missionaries were arrested at Harare International Airport trying to board a homeward Swissair flight with a stockpile of more than 20 rifles and handguns in their baggage. 

Accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, the three were jailed for eight months. They said the arms were for self-defense during three years of work among converts in war-torn Congo. 

Zimbabwe faces its worst political and economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. The government's often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks has plunged the country into turmoil. 

Swiss government supports end to absinthe ban 
Fri Mar 12, 9:54 AM ET 
NEWS SOURCE 

GENEVA (NEWS SOURCE) - The Swiss government approved draft legislation to end a ban on absinthe, the mythical herbal liqueur beloved of turn-of-the-century artists and blamed for driving some of them mad. 

 

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Political debate has been ongoing in the Alpine country since last year over the green spirit, which is thought to be bootlegged in moderate quantities here but was outlawed in 1908, after a factory worker killed his wife and two children in a bout of madness blamed on the drink. 

Absinthe was allowed back into shops in much of western Europe in 1981 after the European Union (news - web sites) passed a directive which overturned bans in many countries. 

Although the law was later eased in non-EU member Switzerland, the drink nicknamed the "green fairy" has remained outlawed in its high-proof form recognized as real absinthe. 

The federal Swiss government said in a report that the 1908 ban no longer was justified, since the quantities of thuyone -- the substance in absinthe considered dangerous -- were now clearly regulated in the drink. 

Legalizing it would actually enable authorities to control the production of the alcohol and tax its sales, it said. 

The fabled aura surrounding absinthe, immortalized in poems by Charles Baudelaire and paintings by Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso, could also be dispelled if it were no longer illegal, the government concluded. 

Pro-legalization camps in Switzerland have touted the economic benefits of the drink for the isolated Val de Travers in the western canton of Neuchatel, which claims to be the birthplace of the alcohol made from wormwood. 

About 15,000 litwes of absinthe are thought to be distilled illegally in the Val de Travers every year. Most of the locals drink it diluted with water, when it turns into a milky-white colour. 

AP: Rumsfeld, FBI Official Kept 9-11 Items 

32 minutes ago



By JOHN SOLOMON, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department (news - web sites) investigation that criticized FBI (news - web sites) agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the Sept. 11 attack scenes. 

The final investigatory report said the Justice Department inspector general confirmed Rumsfeld "has a piece of the airplane that flew into the Pentagon (news - web sites)." The News Source obtained a copy of the report Friday. 

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday night that Rumsfeld has a shard of metal from the jetliner that struck the Pentagon on a table in his office and shows it to people as a reminder of the tragedy Pentagon workers shared on Sept. 11, 2001. 

"He doesn't consider it his own," Di Rita said, adding the piece is on display for the Pentagon. "We are mindful of the fact that if somebody has an evidentiary requirement to have this shard of metal, we will provide it to them." 

The Justice Department investigation also collected testimony that Pasquale D'Amuro, FBI Director Robert Mueller's executive assistant director for terrorism until last summer, asked a supervisory agent to "obtain a half dozen items from the WTC debris so the items could be given to dignitaries." 

Six items - none needed as evidence - were gathered and sent to D'Amuro, the report said. 

D'Amuro, now the head of the FBI's New York office, told investigators that "he asked for a piece of the building as a memento" and that he was aware that agents had taken such items from other terrorist crime scenes over the years. 

He said he got a piece of the building in June 2003 but denied asking for items for dignitaries. D'Amuro left the following month from FBI headquarters as Mueller's top terrorism official to become an assistant director in charge of the New York office. 

Joe Valiquette, a spokesman for the New York FBI office, declined to comment Friday. 

The report also divulged that FBI agents' removal of items like a Tiffany crystal globe from the World Trade Center rubble gutted a criminal case the bureau was building against a Minnesota contractor that had taken a fire truck door from the same rubble. 

Prosecutors told the FBI they "might not indict the crime regarding the fire truck door due to government misconduct involving the Tiffany globe," the report said. 

Surviving family members were surprised by the latest news. 

"Unbelievable," said William Doyle, whose son was killed in the World Trade Center. 

"Everybody has things that they probably should not have from the World Trade Center site," added Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the towers. "I'm sure there's probably all kinds of people that have all kinds of artifacts." 

The Justice Department's report has not been officially released, but heavily deleted versions of the report began circulating around Washington last month showing 13 FBI agents had taken rubble, debris and items such as flags and a Tiffany crystal globe paperweight. 

The bureau announced it was banning agents from taking items from crimes scenes, but no agents were being charged with crimes because the bureau did not have such a policy during the Sept. 11 investigation. 

The full report obtained by the AP divulges some senior FBI managers were among those cited for having authorized or asked for mementos from the World Trade Center site. 

In addition to D'Amuro, the report stated the now-retired head of the New York FBI office, Barry Mawn, asked and received an American flag and a piece of marble from the debris before his retirement. 

The report also states the special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Knoxville, Tenn., Joe Clark, contacted FBI officials in New York requesting a piece of debris to display in an exhibit dealing with hate crimes. A 100-pound piece of steel was sent to Clark, the report said. 

The report stated FBI agents who worked in New York repeatedly expressed their disgust that visiting agents and supervisors would seek souvenirs from the terrorist attacks. 

Many interviewed regarded the debris as sacred, the reported stated, "and were disgusted by the fact that anyone would want to take items, including pieces of the building which were contaminated with blood and human body parts." 

The report discloses that among the items taken, agents had cut World Trade Center security patches from the sleeves of shirt pieces found in the rubble. 

One New York agent who worked on the evidence recovery team "stated it was a ghoulish prospect that anyone would want things from a crime scene where people have died," the report said. 

Two senior FBI lawyers from New York told the investigators they were never consulted by FBI managers about the propriety of taking items, and they would have objected. 

The FBI New York office's ethics officer, Steven Carolotto, "emphatically stated FBI agents could not profit from working any location" and the "calamity of the event was inconsistent with the taking of items for personal use." 

Investigators also stated that they found evidence that the agent who ran the recovery effort at the landfill, Richard Marx of Philadelphia, gave "inconsistent" answers during the investigation after several colleagues claimed he had given them permission to take items. 

Last summer, Marx was subjected to a lie detector test in which he said he did not recall giving items to Mawn, did not recall giving permission for evidence recovery agents to take items and insisted he was completely true when he gave an affidavit to the investigation. 

"The results of the examination indicated that Marx was deceptive in his responses to all three questions," the Justice report said. FBI officials declined to comment about Marx's conduct. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Excerpts of documents available at: http://wid.ap.org/documents/documents/911souvenirs1.pdf 

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov 

Neil Armstrong Endorses Bush's Space Plan 

Fri Mar 12,12:59 PM ET

HOUSTON - Former astronaut Neil Armstrong says Americans should support President Bush (news - web sites)'s plan for renewed missions to the moon and beyond. 

Armstrong said the plan is economically sustainable and that the country must accept the risks associated with space exploration in order to reap technological rewards. 

"Our president has introduced a new initiative with renewed emphasis on the exploration of our solar system and expansion of human frontiers," Armstrong told a crowd of nearly 600 people Thursday. "This proposal has substantial merit and promise." 

He was in Houston to receive the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement. 

Armstrong, 73, commanded NASA (news - web sites)'s Apollo 11 mission in 1969, becoming the first person to walk on the moon. In 1971, he left the space program to pursue a teaching career in aeronautical engineering in his native Ohio. 

Armstrong said the success of the Bush's space plan depends on whether the government, aerospace industry, researchers and others can unite behind it. 

The Bush White House wants to return to the moon and eventually send astronauts there by 2020, and to Mars - an effort that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Some lawmakers have questioned proposed costs and risks. 

"Our economy can certainly afford an effort of this magnitude, but the public must believe the benefits to society deserve the investment," Armstrong said in Friday's edition of the Houston Chronicle. "To limit the program in the name of eliminating the risk is no virtue." 

President Bush has proposed that the space shuttle stop flying in 2010 and that the remaining shuttle flights concentrate on completion of the International Space Station (news - web sites) and research. 

China to Correct Great-Wall-In-Space Myth 

37 minutes ago

BEIJING - The myth about China's Great Wall has come tumbling down, thanks to the nation's first man in space. 

For decades, the Chinese propagated the myth that their most famous creation was visible from space. Elementary-school textbooks in the world's most populous nation still proclaim that the structure can be seen by the naked eye of an orbiting cosmonaut. 

But the myth was shattered upon Yang Liwei's return from a 21 1/2-hour space jaunt last year, so schoolbooks will be rewritten, the Beijing Times newspaper reported Friday. 

The wall stretches thousands of miles across northern China but is only a few yards wide, making it impossible to see from space. 

A Ministry of Education official in charge of teaching materials for China's schools said the textbook's publisher was informed to stop printing the essay that recounts the falsehood. 

The essay is part of China's standard sixth-grade language and literature textbook, the paper said quoting the official, surnamed Zang. 

It reads: "A cosmonaut rising radiantly said 'Flying in my spaceship, surveying our Earth from space, I am able to make out two constructions with my bare eyes: One is a Dutch sea embankment, the other is China's Great Wall!'" 

The paper said, "Having this falsehood printed in our elementary school textbooks is probably the main cause of the misconception being so widely spread." 

Its report quoted Wang Xiang, a delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the national legislature meeting in Beijing this week. 

During this year's meeting, Wang submitted a proposal to the government asking that school books and school curricula be amended to stop spreading the Great Wall space myth. 

The myth "is a disadvantage to the real knowledge acquired by our elementary school students," Wang was quoted as saying. 

The Web site for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration says that while many manmade objects can be seen from space without magnification, the Great Wall is not among them. 

The wall is not that wide and made from native materials that match the color of the surrounding landscape, the NASA (news - web sites) Web site says. 

Krispy Kreme Plans Low-Sugar Alternative

Fri Mar 12, 7:28 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Hot. Now. Healthy? 

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, long known for its high-calorie treats, says it plans to offer a low-sugar doughnut to attract dieters and diabetics. 

Exactly how low the sugar content would be was unclear. Krispy Kreme spokeswoman Amy Hughes said the new doughnut is still in the early stages of development. It is set to debut before the end of 2004. 

One of Krispy Kreme's Hot Original Glazed doughnuts has 10 grams of sugar and 200 calories. More than half those calories come from fat, 12 grams of it. 

Krispy Kreme lover Nathan Painter said he would give one of the newfangled doughnuts a try. Still, he found the whole idea strange. 

"It just seems odd they're trying to be healthy," he said. 

U.N. Finds 1994 Rwanda Crash Black Box

Fri Mar 12,12:22 PM ET

By EDITH M. LEDERER, News Source Writer 

UNITED NATIONS - In what Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) called a "first-class foul-up," the United Nations (news - web sites) said Thursday it has discovered a black box sent from Rwanda after a 1994 plane crash that unleashed a genocide in the east African nation. 

The device was found Wednesday in a locked filing cabinet in the U.N. Peacekeeping Department's Air Safety Unit. Aviation experts put it there apparently in the belief its "pristine condition" ruled out the possibility that it came from the downed Falcon 50 jet, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. 

The United Nations now intends to immediately send the black box - technically known as a flight data recorder - to "a qualified outside body for analysis of its contents" to determine whether it came from the plane that was carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, Eckhard said. 

"On the face of it, there's no reason that we would think that that judgment made by those experts 10 years ago was faulty judgment, but to make sure we're going to send it out for analysis," he said. 

Annan has also instructed the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N. watchdog, "to look into exactly what happened 10 years ago," Eckhard said. 

The April 6, 1994 crash killed Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, and his Burundian counterpart, Cyprien Ntaryamira, who had been attending a regional summit in Arusha, Tanzania. 

When it became clear the plane had been shot down, Hutu extremists accused Tutsis of assassinating the Rwandan president and began attacking their longtime ethnic foes. The slaughter lasted about 100 days and claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people, most Tutsis. 

The question of the black box came up during a French investigation of the crash, which also killed the French flight crew. Although the French have not released the results of their recently concluded probe, a newspaper familiar with the findings said it accuses the United Nations of obstruction of justice for failing to inspect the downed aircraft's black box. 

The French newspaper Le Monde said the Air Safety Office at the U.N. Mission in Rwanda sent the black box to New York at the request of the head of the Air Safety Unit. 

Annan, who was in charge of U.N. peacekeeping in 1994, said Thursday he was "incredulous" and "surprised" to learn that a black box had been found at the U.N. headquarters. 

"From what I have picked up, it sounds like a real foul-up, first-class foul-up," he said. "I don't think there's been any attempt to cover-up." 

An independent report on the U.N. role in the genocide, commissioned by Annan, concluded in 1999 that the United Nations and its members lacked the political will and resources to prevent or stop the genocide. 

The United States, in particular, blunted any efforts to get the Security Council more deeply involved in the Rwanda crisis in 1994. 

Annan and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) both apologized to Rwandans in the late 1990s for the reluctance to intervene. 

According to Le Monde newspaper, the French investigation concludes that the chief suspect in the plane's downing is Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi who was the leader of a rebel movement at the time. The newspaper said its information was based on a report dated Jan. 30, but not yet turned over to French prosecutors. 

Eckhard said U.N. officials on Wednesday "were able to trace the paper trail of a black box sent by pouch from the U.N. Mission in Rwanda in 1994 through Nairobi, Kenya, to U.N. headquarters in New York." It was discovered in a cabinet at the Air Safety Unit across the street from U.N. headquarters, he said. 

The officials in charge apparently decided that "its pristine condition indicated that it had not been in a crash," Eckhard said. 

As a result, they decided against sending the black box out to be opened, which was an expensive process, he said. They did circulate its index number but were unable to trace where it came from so they put it in the file cabinet "and did not report it up the chain of command," Eckhard said. 

"None of the senior peacekeeping officials at the time had any knowledge of it," Eckhard said, and neither did then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali or his staff. 

The black box is now "under lock and key" at U.N. headquarters and a "responsible authority" to analyze it will be selected as soon as possible, he said. 

Eckhard stressed that 1994 was "a very busy time" for U.N. peacekeeping, with 70,000 peacekeepers deployed in about 18 missions around the world and just 200 staff at headquarters to manage them. 

"You make quick judgments and move on to the next thing," he said. "It appears in the judgment of these air safety experts, this black box was not linked to a crash and they set it aside. ... It went into a drawer and was forgotten for 10 years." 

MCI Cleanup Wipes Out $74B in Past Profits

19 minutes ago 
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By MATTHEW BARAKAT, News Source Business Writer 

McLEAN, Va. - The cleanup of WorldCom's tainted books reveals pre-tax losses of $74.4 billion not previously reflected in the company's financial reports for 2000 and 2001, MCI said Friday in a long-awaited report that wipes away a vast accounting fraud and reflects the plunging value of telecommunications assets. 

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The financial restatement is likely the biggest in corporate history. But as an adjustment on paper only, it has no direct impact on the renamed telephone company's operations or bid to emerge from bankruptcy. 

The adjustments, issued in MCI's annual report, also includes the company's first report of its full-year results for 2002: a net loss of $9.2 billion on revenue of $32.2 billion. 

The adjustments for the two prior years would mean that WorldCom actually suffered a a net loss of $48.9 billion in 2000 and a net loss of $15.6 billion in 2001. The company had reported profits for both those years. 

The restatement helps clear a major hurdle in MCI's bid to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The company, which filed for bankruptcy as the scandal broke in July 2002, plans to exit Chapter 11 by the end of April. 

Although the revisions technically apply only to the years 2000 and 2001, MCI said it basically rebuilt its books from scratch, going all the way back to 1993, to develop a proper accounting. 

"This filing culminates the largest and most complex financial restatement ever undertaken," said chief financial officer Bob Blakely. "It is one of the last remaining milestones on our path to emerge from Chapter 11 protection." 

The filing attributes $8.8 billion of the $74.4 billion restatement to the financial irregularities and questionable accounting practices that have led to criminal investigations and charges against former senior executives at the company, including former Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers. 

Some estimates of the accounting fraud had reached as high as $11 billion. Company spokesman Peter Lucht said the $11 billion estimates had never been confirmed by the company. 

Most of the restatement - nearly $60 billion - stems from a write-down in the value of assets and other adjustments associated with the general struggles of the telecommunications industry. 

Another $5.8 billion is the result of inflated estimates of the assets of numerous companies bought by WorldCom during its binge of acquisitions in the 1990s. 

MCI's writedown was even bigger than the $54 billion writedown by AOL Time Warner in April 2002 to reflect to the declining value of America Online assets. That restatement resulted in the company reporting the largest quarterly loss ever by a U.S. company. 

Blakely said the financial restatements do not affect the company's liquidity, and that it has about $6 billion in cash as of the end of 2003. 


PBS Documentary: Silverstein, FDNY Razed WTC 7

Jeremy Baker

In a stunning and belated development concerning the attacks of 9/11 Larry Silverstein, the controller of the destroyed WTC complex, stated plainly in a PBS documentary that he and the FDNY decided jointly to demolish the Solomon Bros. building, or WTC 7, late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

This admission appeared in a PBS documentary originally aired in Sept. of 2002 entitled "America Rebuilds". Mr Silverstein's comments came after FEMA and the Society of Civil Engineers conducted an extensive and costly investigation into the curious collapse of WTC 7. The study specifically concluded that the building had collapsed as a result of the inferno within, sparked, apparently, by debris falling from the crumbling North Tower. 

In the documentary Silverstein makes the following statement;

I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.
[This can be heard in the audio file http://www.prisonplanet.com/pullit.mp3. Thanks to Sir Dave 'tmo' Soule for transfering this from the video to an MP3 file. "America Rebuilds", PBS Home Video, ISBN 0-7806-4006-3, is available from http://shop.pbs.org/products/AREB901/.]

Mr. Silverstein's comments stand in direct contradiction to the findings of the extensive FEMA report. They even negate Kevin Spacey's narrative in the very documentary in which they appear; "WTC 7 fell after burning for 7 hours." If it had been generally known that the building was "pulled" wouldn't Mr. Spacey have phrased it that way?

In the same program a cleanup worker referred to the demolition of WTC 6: "... we're getting ready to pull the building six." There can be little doubt as to how the word "pull" is being used in this context. 

[This can be heard in the audio file http://www.prisonplanet.com/pullit2.mp3 taken from the video.]

This shocking contradiction is yet another curious twist in a disturbing series of events surrounding the "collapse" of WTC 7, and the WTC complex in general. 

Among these is the fact that, in all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever resulted in a collapse. On 9/11 three such anomalies were alleged to have occurred. Those who argue that the towers were vulnerable in their top-heaviness and verticality cannot then explain the collapse due to fire of WTC 7, a broad based, 47-story steel-framed building.

There is also the fact that most of the structures destroyed by falling debris were directly under the twin towers, and none of them caught fire. WTC 7 was not only a full city block away from Tower 1 but WTC 6 stood directly between the two buildings and certainly absorbed most of the damage.

In addition, WTC 7 suffered a strangely thorough and complete collapse, leaving only a leveled lot where it once stood. Although it was a much smaller structure, WTC 6's 8-story carcass stood for months afterwards, even after being gutted by Tower 1. 

There's also disturbing correlations between the collapse of WTC 7 and the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Both buildings were constructed using the same bridge beam system that, in WTC 7's case, allegedly contributed to its demise. But more importantly WTC 7, like the Murrah building, housed high-level government offices including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. WTC 7 was also the storage facility for millions of files pertaining to active cases involving international drug dealing, organized crime, terrorism and money laundering.

WTC 6, also known as the Customs House building, housed the Departments of Commerce,  Agriculture and Labor and yet another Murrah building tenant, the Bureau of Alcohol,  Tobacco and Firearms. 

WTC 7 was also the location of a kind of a doomsday bunker (a $15 million project of Rudy Giuliani's), a command post from which to operate in case of a total infrastructure breakdown.  Building 7 had apparently been bullet proofed and reinforced to withstand hurricane force winds and attacks of all kinds, a fact which makes its alleged fatal vulnerability to falling debris all the more puzzling.

Mr. Silverstein's comments imply that he and the FDNY threw together an expert demolition job in the space of a few short hours on the afternoon of 9/11. This revelation is staggering enough considering its blatant contradiction to what has been, all along, the official cause of the "collapse." But the fact that the building was buried under tons of debris and consumed in flames at the time makes his comments all the more baffling. 

There's a compelling theory that bombs had been planted inside the twin towers designed to complete the job the hijacked jets had begun. A handful of seasoned professional firefighters and demolition men have commented on how neatly and evenly the towers collapsed. Mr.  Silverstein's bewildering statements in "America Rebuilds" give an exponential boost in credence to this claim and, in a more terrifying light, loan credibility to growing suspicions that the attacks of 9/11 may have been an inside job.

Researchers Study Restless Leg Ailment

Mon Jan 26, 9:06 AM ET 


PORTLAND, Ore. - Researchers at two Oregon hospitals are studying a common but rarely diagnosed ailment that causes millions of Americans to have a creepy-crawly feeling deep in their leg muscle or involuntarily kick their legs. 

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The neurological condition, called restless leg, is a nuisance, not life-threatening. But restless leg sufferers are driven to sometimes extreme lengths to move their legs, about the only thing that brings immediate relief. 

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and Bend Memorial Clinic are participating in national studies to see how effective certain medicines are in treating the condition. 

Both studies involve drugs that increase the level of a hormonelike substance called dopamine, which is essential in transmitting nerve impulses. Researchers at OHSU are looking at a drug called Requip, a dopamine prescribed for Parkinson's disease (news - web sites). In Bend, researchers are trying sumanirole, a new drug that shows promise for both Parkinson's and restless leg. 

Although the drugs are designed to treat Parkinson's disease, a progressive nervous system disorder, doctors are quick to point out that restless leg and the more serious Parkinson's are not related. 

The best estimates of restless leg syndrome's prevalence range from 6 percent to 15 percent of the adult population. 

Although older people seem more vulnerable, children can have it, too. Some physicians think a small number of children diagnosed with hyperactivity disorders might actually have restless leg syndrome. 

The ailment seems to run in families and is particularly prevalent in people with iron deficiency. 

Newt Hagar, 84, a Portland resident, leads a support group for 20 to 30 restless leg sufferers who meet every other month. 

Hager said whenever he relaxed in front of the television or started drifting off to sleep in bed, his legs will kick of their own accord, about once every 20 seconds. His legs will keep jerking throughout the night, making it impossible for his wife to sleep. 

In movies or on airplanes, Hagar said he has an irresistible urge to get up and walk - about the only way he could make the kicking go away. 

About 80 percent of those with restless leg syndrome also have Hagar's problem, legs that jerk during sleep. 

Dr. Robert Sack, medical director of the OHSU Sleep Disorders Clinic and a restless leg researcher, says patients often have a hard time describing the disturbing feelings in their legs. As a result, they often don't talk to their doctors about the symptoms. 

And even when they do, relatively few doctors know about restless leg. 

"This is the most common disorder your doctor has never heard of," Sack says. 

Neil Bush Divorce Produces Disclosures

Mon Jan 26, 1:54 PM ET 
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By PAM EASTON, News Source Writer 

HOUSTON - In the annals of embarrassing presidential relatives, Neil Bush is no Billy Carter or Roger Clinton. 

But his messy divorce has produced some eye-opening disclosures. Among them: He had sex with women who showed up uninvited at his hotel rooms in Asia; he had an affair and may have fathered a child out of wedlock; and he stands to make millions from businesses in which he has little expertise - including a computer-chip company managed in part by the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin. 

It seems certain opportunities tend to present themselves when your name is Neil Bush. 

For his part, Bush defended the fees he has received for consulting jobs. But he gave little insight into whether the women who offered him sex in Hong Kong and Taiwan were perhaps paid by mysterious benefactors. 

In a deposition taken last March and reviewed by The News Source, Bush told the attorney for his wife of 23 years, Sharon, that the women did not ask him for money and he did not pay them anything. 

Asked how he knew what to do when he opened his door and saw a woman standing there, the 48-year-old Bush replied: "Whatever happened, happened." 

"It's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her," said the attorney, Marshall Davis Brown. 

"It was very unusual," Bush replied. 

Sharon Bush also accused Neil of fathering a child with the woman he now plans to marry. The woman's ex-husband has filed a defamation lawsuit, and DNA testing has been requested. 

The titillating details have made barely a splash in Texas, where loyalty to the president runs deep. University of Texas government professor Bruce Buchanan said he doubts Neil Bush's shenanigans will become political fodder in the 2004 election. 

"There are lots of examples of presidents with troubled siblings and it never seemed to have that much of an impact," he said. 

Jimmy Carter's beer-swilling brother, Billy, wrote a book called "Redneck Power" and accepted money from the government of Libya. Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s half-brother, Roger, was jailed for a year for dealing cocaine. Richard Nixon's kid brother Donald took $205,000 from Howard Hughes in the hopes of opening a fast-food chain selling Nixonburgers. 

It is not the first time Neil Bush has caused his family some trouble. At the end of his father's presidency, Neil was among a group of defendants who agreed to pay $49.5 million to settle a negligence lawsuit over the $1 billion collapse of the savings and loan he directed in Colorado. 

Bush denied wrongdoing and was not charged in the grand jury investigation, but the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision found Bush's conduct "involved significant conflicts of interest and constituted multiple breaches" of his fiduciary duties. 

Bush has gone on to reap profits from other ventures. In the deposition, he said he hoped to receive an estimated $2 million for acting as a consultant to Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., co-founded by Jiang Zemin's eldest son. 

"Now, you have absolutely no educational background in semiconductors, do you Mr. Bush?" Brown asked. 

"That's correct," said Bush, who holds an MBA from Tulane University. 

Bush recently told the AP he has "not received one penny of compensation" from Grace Semiconductor because he never did the consulting. He did not respond to a request for comment on his divorce proceedings. 

Bush has focused most of his energy on Ignite Inc., an Austin-based educational software startup. So far, he has raised $23 million from investors, including Winston Wong, the other founder of Grace Semiconductor. 

"Let's face the reality," Bush told the AP in 2002. "I probably have access to people who probably wouldn't meet with a development-stage company, but I feel I'm held to a higher standard." 

Bush's tax returns, obtained by the AP, showed $357,000 in income from Ignite and at least $798,218 from three transactions involving the stock of Kopin Corp., a small U.S. high-tech company where he had previously been a consultant. 

There is no evidence he has tried to enlist help from the president for any of his ventures. Bush spokesman Taylor Gross said the White House had no comment. 

Still, said Rice University political science professor Bob Stein, "there is a family pattern here where the Bush sons - Jeb, Neil and George - have benefited tremendously by their connections through their father." 

Currying favor with a relative of the president can "start to smell bad," said Steven Weiss, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. 

Rex John, who has known Neil Bush since his Denver days, said he has never known Neil Bush to use his family connections to obtain business opportunities. 

"I'm sure it has opened many doors for him, but it wasn't Neil out there trying to get them open," John said. "Neil would never do anything like that. That's not his style." 

After Neil Bush severed his 23-year marriage to Sharon in May, he proposed last month in France to Maria Andrews, a former volunteer for former first lady Barbara Bush. 

Sharon Bush's lawyer in the defamation case, David Berg, allowed the AP to review the deposition but said he did not have a copy of Sharon Bush's testimony. He would not make her available for an interview. 

Sharon Bush, 51, alleged her ex-husband could have fathered Andrews' 3-year-old son. That prompted Andrews' former husband to file a defamation lawsuit against Sharon Bush. Neil Bush submitted a tissue sample for analysis. 

In the meantime, he has been ordered to pay $1,500 a month in child support for two of his children, Pierce, 17 and Ashley, 14. The couple's oldest child, Lauren, is 19. 

Do Deodorants Cause Breast Cancer? 13-Jan-2004

Chemical preservatives from underarm deodorants have been found in breast cancer tumors. Researcher Philip Harvey says, "From this research it is not possible to say whether parabens actually caused these tumors, but they may certainly be associated with the overall rise in breast cancer cases." 

Biologist Philippa Darbre says, "...These results help explain why up to 60% of all breast tumors are found in just one-fifth of the breast-the upper-outer quadrant, nearest the underarm." 

Gaia Vince writes in New Scientist that when researchers analyzed 20 breast cancer tumors, they found high concentrations of para-hydroxybenzoic acids (parabens) in 18 of them. Parabens mimic estrogen, which plays a role in the development of breast cancers. Parabens are used in many cosmetics and even in some foods. The form of parabens found in the tumors came from something that was applied to the skin, because parabens are eaten, they no longer mimic estrogen in the body. 

Harvey says, "Given that breast cancer is the largest killer of women and a very high percentage of young women use underarm deodorants, I think we should be carrying out properly funded, further investigations into parabens and where they are found in the body." 

Desperate Scientists May Try Sun Shield 13-Jan-2004

Since the small, practical actions necessary to help prevent global warming have not been taken, scientists are now considering crazy schemes to get the job done. 

Mark Townsend writes in The Observer that U.K. climate scientists are proposing to build a massive shield on the edge of space that would deflect the Sun's rays and stabilize the Earth's climate. It would be made up of thousands of tons of small metal pieces, ejected into the upper atmosphere. Another sun barrier could be billions of tiny balloons sent into space. These ideas were inspired by the cooling effect from the 1814 volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, which spewed enough matter into the upper atmosphere to cause temperatures to fall by 30% for 3 years. 

On land, giant reservoirs holding salt water could be built to correct the rise in sea levels caused by melting polar ice, which releases freshwater into the ocean, changing the current that keeps Europe warm. When needed, salt water could be released into the ocean at strategic spots so the Gulf Stream doesn't drop down. 

Other ideas: Huge, floating cloud-making machines that spray ocean water into the air, and large algae plantations, that would absorb greenhouse gases, the way they do in the ocean right now. 

Environmentalist John Schellnhuber says, "The present climate policy does not seem to be working. We are not saying we have the magic bullet, but this is a desperate situation and people should start thinking about the unconventional. Preventative plans on a larger scale are needed." 

Castro Says Bush Plotting to Kill Him 

Fri Jan 30, 7:48 PM ET

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By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, News Source Writer 

HAVANA - Fidel Castro (news - web sites) accused President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday of plotting with Miami exiles to kill him, and said he would die fighting if the United States ever invaded to oust him. 

"I don't care how I die," Castro said at the end of a 5 1/2-hour speech that began Thursday night and continued into early Friday. "But rest assured, if they invade us, I'll die in combat." 

The Cuban president didn't back up his accusations with details. He spoke at the close of a conference bringing together activists across the region who oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas. 

Castro has insisted over the past year that hardline Cuban exiles in Miami have been pressuring the Bush administration to invade the island - a charge U.S. officials deny. 

Castro also has increasingly referred to his own mortality in recent years, promising to remain in power until his last breath. 

"We know that Mr. Bush has committed himself to the mafia ... to assassinate me," the Cuban president said, using the term commonly employed here to describe anti-Castro Cuban Americans. "I said it once before and today I'll say it clearer: I accuse him!" 

Castro has accused past U.S. administrations of seeking to assassinate him, and during his early years in power there were numerous documented cases of U.S.-sponsored attempts on his life. 

The assassination of foreign leaders as U.S. policy was later banned in 1976 by an executive order signed by then-President Gerald Ford and reinforced by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan (news - web sites). 

Castro also criticized the Bush administration's Commission for a Free Cuba - a panel set up in October and headed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites). 

When the United States announced creation of the commission, Powell suggested that the goal is not to ease Castro out but to plan a strategy for Cuba once the 77-year-old leader is no longer in power. 

Earlier in his speech, Castro called on the more than 1,000 activists from across the Americas gathered here to work against the U.S.-backed free trade pact, which he said will only further impoverish their nations. 

The Bush administration has progressively hardened its policies toward the island. Cuban authorities charge the strategy is aimed at wooing voters in Florida, home to most of the Cuban-American exiles living in the United States. 

For more than four decades, the two countries have been without diplomatic ties and a U.S. trade embargo against the island makes most trade between the nations impossible, except for sales of farm products. 

Film Studio Suits Claim 'Screener' Leaks

Thu Jan 29, 4:51 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Two major movie studios sued an actor and longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) who allegedly leaked "screener" copies of movies that were then reproduced and distributed on the Internet. 

Slideshow: Academy Awards

Columbia Pictures Industries and Warner Bros. filed the lawsuits against Carmine Caridi, a 20-year Academy member who has appeared in "The Godfather: Part II" and "NYPD Blue." 

Caridi, 70, has told investigators he sent VHS copies of about 60 movies he received each year to his Illinois friend, 51-year-old Russell Sprague, who used a software program to convert the VHS tape into DVD format and then sent the original tapes back to Caridi, authorities said. 

Investigators said a search of Caridi's Hollywood apartment turned up 36 original Academy screener tapes, including "The Last Samurai," "In America," "Shattered Glass" and "Mona Lisa Smile." 

Warner Bros. seeks damages of a minimum of $150,000 for each infringing use of its releases "The Last Samurai" and "Mystic River." In a separate complaint, Columbia is asking for its choice between actual damages or $150,000 for each infringing use of "Something's Gotta Give" and "Big Fish." 

Caridi's attorney, Richard Millard, did not immediately return calls Wednesday. An attorney for Warner Bros. declined to comment. An attorney for Columbia did not return messages left late Wednesday. 

Caridi has said he received no money for the films. He allegedly told investigators he believed Sprague was a film buff and merely wished to watch them. 

Sprague was arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement last week. Caridi has not been charged. 

Piracy and Kidnapping Soar on the High Seas 
Wed Jan 28, 7:14 AM ET 
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By Neil Chatterjee 

LONDON  - Violent piracy on the high seas has soared and more ships are being hijacked to kidnap the crew for ransom, an ocean crime watchdog said Wednesday. 

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The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said the number of reported ship attacks jumped to 445 in 2003, 20 percent higher than the previous year and the second highest level since it began compiling statistics in 1991. 

The number of seafarers killed also climbed to 21, with another 71 crew or passengers listed as missing, while 88 were injured. This compared to 10 killed and 38 injured the previous year. The number of hostages taken also nearly doubled to 359 in 2003. 

"The figures show an increase in the number of the attacks and violence of the attacks. We call upon the countries with piracy problems to give greater priority to policing their waters," said IMB director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. 

The IMB said the number of ships hijacked for the theft of the vessel and its cargo had dramatically reduced, but that more vulnerable boats such as tugs and barges were being targeted and crews were being abducted for ransom. 

It said kidnappings were believed to largely be the work of militia groups in politically sensitive areas. "The motivation of a militia attack is different to that of commercial pirates," Mukundan told The News Source in an interview. 

"This is a revenue source for them -- but they are not interested in stealing the ship or its cargo. They are locally based groups, who don't want to go to other ports and don't have the contacts to dispose of the cargo," he said, pointing to the separatist movement in Aceh, Indonesia, as an example. 

Indonesian waters continue to be the most dangerous with 121 reported attacks in 2003. The Malacca Straits, between Indonesia and Malaysia and one of the world's most strategically important shipping lanes, saw a rise to 28 attacks in 2003. Thirty percent of the world's trade and 80 percent of Japan's crude oil is transported through the narrow waterway. 

Some Western intelligence agencies and maritime security experts have linked al Qaeda, or militant groups associated with it, to Indonesian piracy. Experts say al Qaeda showed its seaborne attack capability by bombing the Limburg oil tanker off Yemen in 2002 and U.S. warship USS Cole (news - web sites) in 2000. 

"In 23 percent of the attacks, tankers were the targets," Mukundan said. "The fact that these ships carrying dangerous cargoes may be temporarily under the control of unauthorized individuals remains a matter of concern. 

"We have also seen, for the first time, ships being attacked simultaneously by a number of small pirate boats, firing weapons at the bridge of the vessel," he said. 

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Bangladesh was ranked as having the second highest number of attacks in 2003 with 58 and Nigeria came third with 39. Attacks off Nigeria almost tripled compared to the previous year and the IMB regards it as the most dangerous area in Africa for piracy and armed robbery. 

Mukundan said commercial pirates are often backed by organized international crime gangs, that obtain false papers for a ship, so they can change its route to a new port. The gangs are attracted to cargoes that are easy to resell, such as fuel oil, rice or sugar, Mukundan said. 

Modern-day pirates often attack using sub-machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The IMB said the number of attacks using guns rose to 100 from 68 the previous year. 

However, some countries saw a reduction in piracy. Somalia had a 50 percent drop in reported attacks, although the IMB said the eastern and north-eastern coast of the African country remained a high-risk area for hijackings and kidnapping of crew for ransom. 

Other countries with fewer attacks in the past year included Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Guyana and Thailand. Malaysian waters saw a fall to only five attacks, with none reported in the last six months of 2003, which the IMB said was due to vigilant patrols by the Malaysian marine police. 

"Some kinds of attacks and attacks in certain areas have dramatically reduced. This proves once again that when law enforcement agencies take these attacks seriously there will be a corresponding reduction in attacks," Mukundan said. 

U.S. Government Offers Free Cyber Alerts

38 minutes ago

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON - Aiming to increase Internet security, the government is now offering Americans free cyber alerts and computer advice from the Homeland Security Department. 

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Anyone who signs up with the new National Cyber Alert System will receive e-mails about major virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks as they occur, along with detailed instructions to help computer users protect themselves. 

The program, which begins Wednesday, represents an ambitious effort by the government to develop a trusted warning system that can help home users and technology experts. 

The goal of improving the overall security of the Internet has been frustrated by increasingly complex software that can be difficult to secure and by hackers learning to launch sophisticated new attacks. 

"There is a clear need for this kind of system to be developed," said Amit Yoran, the Bush administration's cyber security chief. "Receiving information from the Department of Homeland Security gives people a certain level of confidence." 

The announcement comes 11 months after such an Internet warning system was described in the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, a series of proposals endorsed by the Bush administration and technology industry to improve online security. 

The alerts will function independently from the Homeland Security Department's well known color-coded system, which reflects the national threat level. 

The new alert system puts the government in direct competition with dozens of companies and organizations that already transmit similar cyber warnings, and could renew criticisms about earlier, disjointed government efforts that frequently sounded Internet warnings hours or even days after major computer attacks and occasionally included incorrect information. 

Earlier Internet warnings were distributed by the FBI (news - web sites)'s National Infrastructure Protection Center, which moved to Homeland Security when President Bush (news - web sites) created the new department. 

Congressional investigators complained in July 2002 that those earlier warnings were mostly issued after Internet attacks were long under way. They blamed government's inability to analyze imminent Internet attacks, fears about raising false alarms and staff shortages. 

Yoran acknowledged the difficult balance between providing accurate warnings almost immediately. 

"I'm sure we'll take some kicks in the shins," he said. 

He indicated the government will focus on distributing information as quickly as possible, correcting any wrong information as U.S. computer investigators learn new details. "In the absence of information, the operator community is going to rely on whatever information is out there," he said. "It's better to have our voice heard rather than letting people operate in the dark." 

The new alert system also sets up potentially serious conflicts with leading software companies, including Microsoft Corp., which aggressively discourage any public disclosures about new security flaws in their products until engineers can study the problems and offer repairing software patches for their customers. 

Yoran said the government will aggressively warn consumers about vulnerabilities, in some cases revealing threats "above and beyond what specific commercial vendors may not wish to disclose." 

"If the disclosure of certain information is deemed in the public interest, we'll move forward," he said. 

Researchers who discover new vulnerabilities commonly work closely with these companies by agreeing not to reveal details about their work until a software patch is available. But some researchers have increasingly complained that companies take too long to verify their discoveries or deliberately seek to minimize their efforts for marketing purposes. 

___ 

On the Net: 

US CERT: www.us-cert.gov 

Blair Cleared in Weapons Expert's Suicide

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

By THOMAS WAGNER, News Source Writer 

LONDON - A judge cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s administration Wednesday of any direct involvement in the suicide of a government expert on Iraqi weapons but criticized the BBC for its reporting in the scandal that shook the British leadership. 

The government did not act in a "dishonorable, underhanded or duplicitous" way in revealing the identity of weapons expert David Kelly, said senior appeals judge Lord Hutton, who was appointed by Blair to investigate the death. 

Hutton said he was satisfied that nobody involved in the matter could have foreseen that Kelly would take his own life. He killed himself after being identified as the anonymous source of the British Broadcasting Corp. report accusing the government of exaggerating claims about Iraqi weapons to bolster support for war. 

Hutton also said the BBC report that Blair's government had manipulated its intelligence in an official dossier about Iraq (news - web sites)'s weapons was unfounded. He specifically rebutted the BBC report that the government had "sexed up" the dossier. 

"I am satisfied that none of the persons whose decisions and actions I later describe ever contemplated that Dr. Kelly might take his own life. I'm further satisfied that none of those persons was at fault in not contemplating that Dr. Kelly might take his own life," Hutton said on national TV as he read from his 328-page decision. 

"Whatever pressures and strains Dr. Kelly was subjected to by the decisions and actions taken in the weeks before his death, I am satisfied that no one realized or should have realized that those pressures and strains might lead him to take his own life," Hutton said. 

In his report, BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan had quoted his source as saying that Blair's government had "sexed up" the intelligence dossier on Iraq's arms to bolster its argument for the war in Iraq, including a claim that they could be deployed in 45 minutes. 

The subsequent feud between the government and the BBC over the report raised widespread concerns about Blair's integrity and led to the biggest crisis of his seven years in office. 

"Whether or not at some time in the future the report on which the 45-minute claim was based was shown to be unreliable, the allegations reported by Mr. Gilligan on 29 May 2003 that the government probably knew that the 45-minutes claim was wrong before the government decided to put it in the dossier was an allegation that was unfounded," Hutton said. 

The judge also said that Kelly had acted improperly by privately meeting with Gilligan and had breached rules regarding government employees contacts with the media because he hadn't been given permission from his superiors for such a meeting. 

Hutton sharply criticized the publicly funded BBC's "defective" handling of Gilligan's story, saying the network's editors had failed to properly check the reporter's allegations and did not properly investigate the government's complaints about his report. 

The judge criticized the BBC's Board of Governors for failing to fully investigate the criticism of Gilligan's report and would have probably discovered it to be unfounded if they had. 

Hutton pored over documents, e-mails, official minutes and extracts from the personal diary of Alastair Campbell, Blair's former communications director, which provided insights into the interplay of politics and policies at the highest level. 

The scandal has damaged the credibility of Blair, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, senior government officials and the BBC. 

Hutton's hearings, lasting most of August and September, transfixed the country, which remains deeply divided about Blair's decision to back the U.S. attack on Iraq. 

The retired chief U.S. weapons inspector, David Kay, said last week that he concluded that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had no weapons of mass destruction, which were the basis of Blair's case for war. 

FDA Big Factor Behind High Drug Costs -Economist

Tue Jan 27, 7:29 PM ET

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By Spencer Swartz 

SAN FRANCISCO  - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), with its costly and time-consuming drug approval process, is a big reason Americans pay far more for medicine than consumers in the rest of the world, U.S. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said on Tuesday. 

"The FDA is the most serious situation regarding the high costs of prescription drugs in this country," Friedman told a San Francisco forum on U.S. importation of Canadian drugs. 

"Their (the FDA's) whole incentive is to be ultra-careful, to not make a mistake ... but that's where the problem starts," said the economist, one of the most prominent free market advocates the past century. 

Drug-import supporters say medicines from countries like Canada can as much as two-thirds cheaper than U.S. drugs because of the role many governments play in setting prices. 

Some of those supporters - who believe the FDA should err on the side of caution in approving new drugs - believe U.S. drug prices are simply overpriced by the pharmaceutical industry, which also vigorously opposes importation. 

The forum, held by free-market think-tank Pacific Research Institute, coincides with a growing number of proposals by states from California to Massachusetts to make it easier to buy Canadian drugs. 

Friedman opposes Canadian drug imports - after originally being sympathetic to the idea - because of the damage he believes it poses to patent rights. 

CHEAPER CANADIAN DRUGS 

U.S-produced drugs sold to markets abroad are often sent back to the United States from places such as Canada at cheaper prices, a practice that drug companies say undercuts drug patents and domestic sales of the same drugs. 

The pharmaceutical industry estimates it typically costs about $800 million to bring a new drug to market, although U.S. drug-price critics say that number is inflated by high marketing costs companies run up promoting their drugs. 

Friedman said he believed higher U.S. prices allowed more access to new medicines because drug companies -- supported by strictly applied patent laws -- could make better returns on investments, enabling them to fund future drug development. 

But drug-import supporters said there was no reason why cheaper medicines should not flow between Canada and the United States, as is already case for many other goods covered under the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. 

Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a Republican from the border state of Minnesota, told the forum it was "indefensible" that many American seniors did not refill prescriptions because of high costs. He cited data showing 29 percent of seniors' drug prescriptions went unfilled because of high prices. 

Gutknecht has helped lead a fight in Congress to allow Americans to import drugs from 25 industrialized nations. 

Forum attendees said U.S. tort reform could also help lower drug costs by lowering liability costs. 

Gutknecht said a U.S. drug liability case costing a company $100 million could be dealt with in Europe for $100,000. 

Scientists Create New Form of Matter

Wed Jan 28, 4:05 PM ET

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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - Scientists said on Wednesday they had created a new form of matter and predicted it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in electricity generation, more efficient trains and countless other applications. 

The new matter form is called a fermionic condensate and it is the sixth known form of matter -- after gases, solids, liquids, plasma and a Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995. 

"What we've done is create this new exotic form of matter," Deborah Jin, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's joint lab with the University of Colorado, who led the study, told a news conference. 

"It is a scientific breakthrough in providing a new type of quantum mechanical behavior," added Jin. 

Jin and her colleagues' cloud of supercooled potassium atoms is one step closer to an everyday, usable superconductor -- a material that conducts electricity without losing any of its energy. 

"It is related to a Bose-Einstein condensate," Jin said. "It's not a superconductor but it is really something in between these two that may help us in science link these two interesting behaviors." 

And other researchers may find practical applications. 

"If you had a superconductor you could transmit electricity with no losses," Jin said. "Right now something like 10 percent of all electricity we produce in the United States is lost. It heats up wires. It doesn't do anybody any good." 

Or superconductors could allow for the invention of magnetically levitated trains, she added. Free of friction they could glide along at high speeds using a fraction of the energy trains now use. 

BETTER THAN A BOSON 

Jin, a recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," was building on the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate by her colleagues Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman. They won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery. 

Bose-Einstein condensates are collections of thousands of ultracold particles that occupy a single quantum state -- they all essentially behave like a single, huge superatom. 

But Jin says these Bose-Einstein condensates are made with bosons, which like to act in unison. 

"Bosons are copycats. They basically want to do what everyone else is doing," she said. 

Her team's new form of matter uses fermions -- the everyday building blocks of matter that include protons, electrons and neutrons. 

"They are not copycats," Jin said. "Fermions are your independent thinkers -- they don't copy their neighbors." 

But Jin's team coaxed them into doing just that. 

They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F -- which is the point at which matter stops moving. 

They confined the gas in a vacuum chamber and used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up. 

"This is very similar to what happens to electrons in a superconductor," Jin said. 

This is more likely to provide applications in the practical world than a Bose-Einstein condensate, she said, because fermions are what make up solid matter. 

Bosons, in contrast, are seen in photons, and subatomic particles called W and Z particles.

Jin stressed her team worked with a supercooled gas, which provides little opportunity for everyday application. But the way the potassium atoms acted suggested there should be a way to translate the behavior into a room-temperature solid. 

"Our atoms are more strongly attracted to one another than in normal superconductors," she said. 

Kay: Intel Problems Hurt U.S. Credibility 

9 minutes ago

By DEB RIECHMANN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Flawed intelligence undermines the Bush administration's policy of striking first if U.S. interests are threatened, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq (news - web sites) said Sunday. 

"If you cannot rely on good, accurate intelligence that is credible to the American people and to others abroad, you certainly cannot have a policy of pre-emption," David Kay said. While the United States always has reserved the right of a first strike, President Bush (news - web sites) has elevated the strategy of pre-emption to a central part of his foreign policy doctrine. 

"Pristine intelligence, good accurate intelligence is a fundamental bedstone of any sort of policy of pre-emption to be even thought about," Kay told "Fox News Sunday." 

Kay said that until it is clear how prewar intelligence about Iraq's cache of banned weapons ended up being off the mark, the public will be dubious of claims by the government that Iran, North Korea (news - web sites) or Syria, for instance, pose grave dangers. 

"I think most of us would have greater doubts," Kay said. "I would hope even the president would have greater doubts until we understand the fundamental causes" of the flawed intelligence. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Trent Lott, a top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the administration is considering supporting a new independent commission that would investigate whether the United States used faulty intelligence when it decided to go to war in Iraq. 

"I may be willing to go along with an independent commission because I think it's important that we get reliable information and that we do something about it," said Lott, R-Miss. "How do we make our intelligence more reliable?" 

Asked whether he would like to see CIA (news - web sites) director George Tenet resign, Lott said only, "I think we have major problems with our intelligence community. I think we need to take a look at a complete overhaul. ... I have real problems with the job they've done." 

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, declined to comment on Tenet. But Rockefeller said he thought the president, Congress and the intelligence community should admit that mistakes on intelligence were made. 

"Until we admit that we were wrong on our intelligence, we will not go about fixing it to make sure it doesn't happen again," Rockefeller said. 

Bush has reacted coolly toward the idea of a new commission, refusing to endorse it publicly. But his administration is under mounting election-year pressure to agree to an independent inquiry about Iraq's alleged arsenal of banned destruction. 

Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) has broached the possibility of a commission in conversations with members of Congress, according to government sources familiar with the conversations. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Despite months of searching, U.S. inspectors have found no forbidden weapons in Iraq. Bush had cited the suspected weapons as a rationale for the war. 

Kay has said the administration's intelligence on Iraq was "almost all wrong" and that the information on which Bush's war decision was based was erroneous. 

High Aspirin Doses Best at Preventing Colon Cancer

Mon Feb 2, 5:38 PM ET

Add Health 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Previous reports have shown that regular aspirin use can reduce the risk of colon cancer. Now, new research suggests that the strongest benefits occur with aspirin doses higher than those recommended for preventing heart disease. 

Still, aspirin does raise a person's risk of bleeding and it's possible that this risk, especially at high doses, outweighs the anti-cancer benefits, according to a related editorial. 

The results, which are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of more than 27,000 women who underwent colonoscopy between 1980 and 1998. 

At enrollment, the participants reported no history of colon tumors or other diseases. Aspirin use was assessed with biennial questionnaires. 

During the study period, 1368 cases of colon cancer were diagnosed, lead author Dr. Andrew T. Chan, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues note. 

Overall, women who used at least two standard aspirin tablets per week were 25 percent less likely to develop a tumor than were less frequent users. Moreover, the tumor risk fell as aspirin use increased. Compared with non-use, the use of more than 14 tablets per week decreased the risk by 51 percent. This association held true for both short- (no more than 5 years) and long-term aspirin users. 

"Before aspirin can be recommended for chemoprevention in the general adult population, these results suggest the need for a more thorough evaluation of the risks and benefits of routine aspirin use at doses not previously considered," the authors state. 

In a related editorial, Dr. Robert S. Sandler, from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, warns that "until we have different or better information from randomized trials, aspirin use should be limited to persons at higher risk for (tumors)" and to persons without diseases for which aspirin use might be hazardous. 

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, January 2004. 

TiVo Users Couldn't Get Enough of Janet Jackson

2 hours, 44 minutes ago

Add Entertainment TV 

By Paul Bond 

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - When Justin Timberlake (news) tore at Janet Jackson (news)'s leather outfit during Sunday's Super Bowl half-time show, TiVo (news - web sites) users took notice. 

Then they took notice again and again, using the digital video recorder to replay the event and to pause at the crucial moment in order to discern just what it was that Jackson had revealed to millions of Americans. 

TiVo said that particular halftime stunt was the most replayed moment not only of the Super Bowl but of all TV moments that the young company has ever measured. 

TiVo said it used its technology to measure audience behavior among 20,000 users during the Super Bowl. The exercise revealed a 180% spike in viewership at the time of the -- as Timberlake refers to it -- "wardrobe malfunction." 

One notable TiVo user apparently unimpressed with the performance of Timberlake and Jackson was FCC (news - web sites) chairman Michael Powell (news), who launched an investigation into the bare-breasted matter. Powell is so taken with TiVo that he once referred to it as "God's machine." 

This marks the third year that TiVo has released details of its second-by-second review of how Super Bowl viewers used their TiVo units. Not only did users pause and replay the infamous portion of the halftime show more than any moment during the game, but they also did the same for some commercials. 

TiVo's top two commercials, based on user behavior, are both from Bud Light: a romantic sleigh ride interrupted by a flatulent horse and a sharp-toothed dog demonstrating his unusual way of scoring a beer for his master. 

The News Source/Hollywood Reporter 

Plain Old Cell Phones Fading Away in U.S.

Mon Feb 2, 2:10 PM ET

Add Technology 

By Ben Berkowitz 

LOS ANGELES  - As a fashion color, gray is the new black, thin batteries are in and you're not in vogue if you don't have the latest ringtone. 

As the U.S. wireless market grows, the cell phone is evolving into a phone in name only as calling becomes almost secondary to a host of other functions. 

After years of trailing Japan and Western Europe, where cell phones have long had color screens, e-mail, music, video games, cameras and other accessories that make American cell phones look backward in comparison, handset makers are finally pushing a new generation of units on the domestic market that offer the full range of functions available elsewhere. 

"From the consumer perspective ... it makes no sense to go for a low-end handset," ABI Research analyst Kenil Vora said. "The definition of low-end shifts from monochrome handsets to phones with a little bit of something on it." 

Qualcomm Inc., whose CDMA (news - web sites) network technologies serve as the basis for two of the four largest wireless carriers in the United States, said recently its rapid growth was being driven by demand for phones supporting features like color screens, cameras and multimedia capabilities. 

Such features -- once considered "advanced" -- are now increasingly mainstream, especially as prices fall. CDMA-compatible phones with color screens can be had for as little as $30 and with cameras for $100. 

Texas Instruments Inc. said last week the greatest part of its sales growth was coming from a heated demand for wireless technology, including processors that let phones run multimedia applications. 

As prices fall and demand rises, Qualcomm Chief Operating Officer Tony Thornley told The News Source recently, the market for plain old phones -- no color, no camera, no music or downloadable games -- is drying up in the United States. 

"I think that that part of the market is going to decline quite rapidly," he said. "I think black-and-white screens are going to go the way of the black-and-white television very rapidly." 

The cameras in the new generation of phones in particular are improving -- Thornley said Qualcomm's roadmap for its chips supports resolutions of 4 megapixels by 2005, and predicted that flash and zoom would become increasingly common. Most cameraphones now use 0.3 megapixel cameras. 

In the coming years, Thornley said, the most simple of phones were only likely to have any kind of market share in places like India and Latin America, where low-cost cellular is crucial. 

CELL PHONE NO LONGER 

Qualcomm is not the only company seeing such a shift. Motorola Inc., the world's second-largest cell phone maker, has said that the landscape is changing. 

"Certainly, the whole concept of cell phones is no longer," Chief Executive Ed Zander said on a recent conference call. "It's becoming an information appliance and you're adding the kind of capabilities -- Web access and the kind of camera capability and some of the future products -- (so that) consumers are looking at this thing as more than just making a phone call." 

Brokerage Smith Barney recently estimated that, entering 2004, half of all cell phones shipped would have color displays, and citing IDC, said as many as 100 million camera phones would be shipped in the year. 

The changes can be seen already in the inventory of the four largest U.S. carriers. 

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, has only two non-color, under-$100 phones on its Web site. Cingular Wireless, a joint venture of SBC Communications Inc and BellSouth Corp., offers three. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. has two and Sprint PCS Group has none. 

ABI's Vora said that with major handset makers like Samsung Electronics and Nokia (news - web sites) already shipping anywhere from 50 percent to 90 percent of their phones in color, monochrome looked to die out worldwide by 2008. 

Ex-Presidents, Widow Want JFK Film Probe 

Mon Feb 2, 9:06 PM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By LYNN ELBER, News Source Television Writer 

LOS ANGELES - Two former presidents and the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson are calling on the History Channel to investigate a documentary it aired alleging President Johnson was involved in the Kennedy assassination. 

Lady Bird Johnson said the film "falsely and irresponsibly" accuses her husband of conspiring to kill President Kennedy. 

No accusation made against Johnson "has hurt as painfully," the 91-year-old former first lady said in a Jan. 29 letter. Her husband died in 1973. 

Copies of her letter were sent to the chief executives of three companies that own A&E Networks, which includes the History Channel. The letters went to Bob Wright of NBC, Victor Ganzi of Hearst Corp. and Michael Eisner of The Walt Disney Co. 

Former Presidents Ford and Carter also sent letters citing the documentary, "The Guilty Men," which aired last November as part of a series of History Channel specials on the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination. 

Ford, noting he was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission that determined Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy, called the History Channel documentary "reprehensible." 

Alleging that Johnson, as Kennedy's vice president, was part of a conspiracy to murder him is "the greatest, most damaging accusation ever made against a former vice president and president in American History," Ford, 90, wrote in his Jan. 23 letter. 

The letters were released Monday to The News Source by Tom Johnson, chairman of the LBJ Foundation and a representative of the Johnson family. 

Calls to NBC and Disney were not immediately returned. 

"We don't comment on correspondence with our chief executive officer," said Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer. 

Tom Johnson said he and three other former Johnson aides planned to meet Wednesday with executives of the History Channel and A&E Television Networks to press for an investigation and for its findings to be made public. 

Nickolas Davatzes, president of A&E Television Networks, was expected to take part, History Channel spokeswoman Lynn Gardner said Tuesday. 

Other Johnson aides scheduled to participate are Jack Valenti, now head of the Motion Picture Association of America; journalist Bill Moyers; and attorney Larry Temple. 

"I'm puzzled, bewildered, that a distinguished enterprise like the History Channel would put on the air such garbage, such ugliness," Valenti said in November. "It makes one sick." 

When the Kennedy series aired, the History Channel said in a statement that the point of view in "The Guilty Men" was "meticulously researched." 

"By presenting different viewpoints we enable our viewers to decide to agree or disagree with them and to arrive at their own conclusions," the channel said. 

Parents: Kids Face Antidepressants Risk 

Mon Feb 2,12:19 PM ET



By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Medical Writer 

WASHINGTON - Parents pleaded with the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) on Monday to end the use of popular adult antidepressants in children, saying the drugs can increase youths' risk of suicide and violence. 

"To die in this violent, unusual fashion without making a sound ... Paxil must have put her over the edge," said Sara Bostock, describing how her daughter Cecily stabbed herself in the chest with a kitchen knife shortly after graduating from Stanford University and two weeks after starting the drug. 

"You have an obligation today ... from preventing this tragic story from being repeated over and over again," said Mark Miller of Kansas City, Mo., whose son Matt hanged himself from his bedroom closet after taking his seventh Zoloft tablet. 

But facing those anguished complaints were a handful of families who say antidepressants changed their children's lives by alleviating serious depression. 

"My children have had tremendous improvement with their illnesses," said Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scieilia of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, who has two sons using the drugs. "I shudder to think of their plight if these medicines were not available." 

The FDA opened hearings Monday on the emotionally charged controversy, months after British health authorities first sounded the alarm by saying an entire list of antidepressants were unsuitable for child use. 

Here, no final answer is expected until late summer. Until then FDA has advised doctors to use great caution if they prescribe any antidepressants to anyone under age 18. 

"The wrong answer in either direction ... could have profound consequences," said Dr. Russell Katz, FDA's director of neurologic drugs, in explaining the lengthy deliberation. 

Katz acknowledged divisions of opinion even within the FDA, where some scientists believe there is a link between some antidepressants and youth suicide behavior and attempts. 

No studies have occurred in studies encompassing 4,000 children. Preliminary data, however, suggest that suicidal behavior and attempts, while infrequent, might be at least twice as frequent among some antidepressant users. Britain put the risk at around 3.2 percent of children given the drugs, compared with 1.5 percent of those given dummy pills.

But problems with that data led FDA's leaders to conclude that they can't yet answer the question. 

Depression occurs in about 10 percent of youth and can lead to suicide, especially if untreated. Some 1,883 10- to 19-year-olds killed themselves in 2001, and specialists say there are 10 to 20 attempts for every suicide. 

For adults, antidepressants clearly alleviate major depression, the FDA stresses. 

But medicines can work differently in children. The agency has approved only one treatment - Prozac, the best known of a family of popular antidepressants called SSRIs - to alleviate pediatric depression, saying its benefits outweigh side effects. 

Still, it is legal for doctors to prescribe adult medicines to children even if the FDA has not formally approved pediatric use, and child antidepressant prescriptions rose dramatically in the 1990s. The FDA ordered other manufacturers to submit research on how their drugs affect children and teenagers. 

Last summer, British health authorities acted on the first of those findings, declaring that no depressed child or teen should use the SSRI drug Paxil, sold in Britain under the name Seroxat. 

The FDA still is analyzing the studies. 

The reports of suicidal behavior are a hodgepodge difficult to sort out, Katz said. Some cases counted as unintentional drug overdoses may not have been, for example, while others termed suicidal were caused by a mental illness called self-mutilation, where children make small cuts over their bodies. Sorting out just what happened is crucial to settling the issue, Katz said. 

For Monday's hearing, the FDA brought together its scientific advisers to ask if it is analyzing the research appropriately, and if families or doctors need additional advice in the meantime. 

It's a debate eliciting strong emotions. 

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, considered the field's top specialists, last month declared evidence that links SSRIs to suicide too weak to justify not using them. The group points to evidence that suicides have dropped as SSRI use increased around the world, and to autopsy studies that show most suicides hadn't taken an anti-depressant, or the right dose, just before their deaths. 

On the other side, critics claim SSRIs sometimes cause agitation and urgent anxiety, called akathisia, that could make certain people suicidal. Dr. David Healy, a Welsh physician who pushed for Britain's crackdown, says even he prescribes the drugs, but that they must come with warnings so doctors can monitor children for signs of trouble. 

Scientists Create 'Superheavy' Elements 

Sun Feb 1, 5:45 PM ET

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, News Source Science Writer 

Russian and American scientists say they have created two new "superheavy" elements that will reside at the extreme end of chemistry's periodic table of elements. 

Just a few atoms of the newly discovered elements, 113 and 115, existed for split seconds after being created in a particle accelerator. They represent unusual forms of matter with properties that go well beyond those of the 92 elements that occur naturally on Earth. 

Superheavies may be abundantly generated by supernova explosions in stars. Or perhaps they were fused during the fiery moments that signaled the dawn if the universe. 

Here on the ground, such tiny amounts of superheavies formed in atom smashers probably will never find an everyday use. 

Yet their "birth" adds details to a broader - and very competitive - scientific inquiry to establish a single, unified theory that would explain the physical forces that govern the behavior of all matter. 

Data on the new elements will appear in the journal Physical Review C, a publication of the American Physical Society that specializes in nuclear structure. 

The discoveries will not be fully accepted and added to textbooks until other labs create the elements, a process that could take months or even years. 

Confidence in nuclear structure experiments was shaken when the purported 1999 discovery of two elements was found to be false. But other researchers familiar with the latest study said they were confident in the results. 

"The paper is solid," said Richard Casten, a Yale physicist and an editor for the journal. 

He described the techniques employed at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as "very tricky." 

But Casten and others expressed confidence in the results and the scientists involved, especially Yuri Oganessian, the Russian physicist and lead author of the paper, for being able to interpret the results of the particle collisions in the Russian cyclotron, or circular accelerator, where the elements were created. 

"I'm confident that the process was good," Casten said. "Yuri is a very well respected and careful guy." 

Efforts to reach Oganessian and other key members of the research team Sunday were unsuccessful. 

In the experiments, researchers fired a rare isotope of calcium at a target made from americium. The new element 115 was created on occasions when the nuclei of the calcium and americium fused. 

In the artificial environs of the cyclotron, atoms of element 115, now labeled Ununpentium, apparently lasted only a fraction of second before it decayed into element 113. The atoms of element 113, known as Ununtrium, persisted for more than 1 second. 

The 115 and 113 are the new elements' atomic numbers, which refer to the number of protons in their nuclei. 

In nature, scientists theorize, they would belong to a special class of superheavy elements known as the "region of stability" that have a much longer life because the shell-like structure of their nuclei contain the highest numbers of precisely arranged protons and neutrons. 

In 1999, California and Oregon State University researchers bombarded a lead target with a beam of krypton ions. They reported detecting three atoms of element 118, which then was the heaviest element detected. They decayed almost instantly into element 116. 

But two years ago, the claims were retracted after a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was found to have fabricated data. Physicist Victor Ninov was the only member of the lab's 16-member team to be dismissed in the incident, and he is appealing the decision. 

Other researchers later created element 116. 

In 1999, Russian researchers at Dubna discovered another superheavy - element 114 - by bombarding plutonium with calcium ions. 

Pizza Makers Consider Low-Carb Dough 

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

By MARTIN FINUCANE, News Source Writer 

BOSTON - Pizza might be hailed as the food of the gods, one of America's best-loved meals, a hearty delectable dish that fills the stomach and seems to soothe the soul. But to low-carb dieters, it's just a gut-busting disk of dough. 

And that has caused pizza makers around the nation to wonder if the low-carb craze will force changes in one of America's best-loved foods. 

They're saying, "Hey, we've got a problem here. Pizza's built on bread. It's the No. 1 enemy of the Atkinites," said Tom Boyles, senior editor of PMQ Magazine, a publication that follows the pizza industry. 

Boyles has a word for those who want to avoid carbohydrates: "carbavoids." 

Although industry sales haven't taken a hit yet, some pizza operators are considering offering customers low-carb pizzas. 

"Pizza operators are asking themselves, 'Do I want to do this?' and they're bouncing the idea back and forth," Boyles said. "It's at that point where they're going, 'Just how far is this going to go?'" 

According to the National Association of Pizzeria Operators, about 3 billion pizzas are sold each year in the United States by about 40,000 shops. 

At the same time, low-carb diets like the Atkins, South Beach and Zone have gained wider popularity. A Harris Interactive poll done last summer for Novartis Consumer Health Inc. estimated that 32 million Americans were on some kind of high-protein, low-carb diet. 

Doug Ferriman, owner of Crazy Dough's Pizza Co. in Cambridge's Harvard Square, said he didn't think low-carb dieters would put "too much of a dent" in the pizza business, but he had clipped a recipe for low-carb dough from an industry publication and was going to try it in the spring. 

"We're going to have to fiddle around with it for a while," he said. 

Some local pizza shop owners and some smaller chains have already moved to meet low-carb dieters' demands. 

In Columbus, Ohio, Donatos Pizzeria has announced it will roll out a pizza with a low-carb crust in its 182 outlets. Spokesman Tom Santor said the pizza dough, made out of soy protein and other ingredients, "tastes fabulous." 

In Louisville, Ky., Bearno's Pizza, a small chain, offers a crustless pizza on the usual circular baking pan. 

And in Escondido, Calif., John Pontrelli, owner of Pit Stop Pasta, offers what may be a traditionalist's worst nightmare: "pizza in a bucket." It has all the pizza toppings placed in a crock or, for takeout customers, a metal can. 

While it's not a big item, he said, some people have asked for it, and "Our motto here is: you want to say no to people as little as possible." 

At Low-Carb Creations in Vancouver, Wash., Craig Adams, vice president and general manager, said sales of low-carb pizza dough had risen 300 percent to 400 percent in the past six months. Adams said the small company, which has 17 employees, had signed agreements to provide the skins to several smaller chains and dozens of other stores. 

Tom Lehmann, of the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas, a consultant who works with bakeries and pizza operations worldwide, said, "Low-carb is probably the biggest pebble to be dropped in this little pizza pond for a long time. There's just a huge, huge amount of interest." 

Lehmann, who writes in industry publications as "The Dough Doctor," said he has received an average of five requests per day for the past three months on how to make low-carb dough. 

He said his own experiments so far with making a low-carb dough had turned out a product that tasted, well, different. 

"If you consider a pizza crust as being an edible breadlike product that's located beneath the toppings, the cheese and tomato sauce, OK, that's all we can say about it. ... Wipe away any memories of your old traditional pizza crust," he said. 

Steve Coomes, editor of pizzamarketplace.com, wondered if the low-carb craze would last and whether it was just part of New Year's resolution dieting. 

"I still think that the vast majority of American pizza consumers are going to look at pizza and those side items like wings as an indulgence and will continue to enjoy them in their intended form," he said. 

"They love it to the tune of $26 billion per year." 

In Boston's Italian North End, talk of a low-carb pizza was viewed as sacrilege. 

"In my culinary heart, I will never do low-carb," Salvo Goglio, 36, a native of Sicily and chef at Antico Forno, said while chopping zucchini in a cramped kitchen. 

Brandishing a container of golden polenta, he asked, "How can you get low-carb and keep the flavor?" 

Just then, an order came off the printer above the counter where Goglio was working: roast chicken on a salad, hold the bread. And it turned out that several members of the staff, including Goglio himself, had been "on the Atkins." 

Still, Goglio said, "If you want to really eat good food, you can't cut down carbs." 

Wal-Mart on PR Offensive to Repair Image

Sun Feb 1,11:46 AM ET

Add Business 

By Emily Kaiser 

CHICAGO  - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT - news) is tired of critics who say it is a behemoth bent on destroying small-town America, driving down wages and shipping jobs to foreign sweat shops. 

Wal-Mart, Fortune magazine's "most admired company," is also among the most sued. Dozens of cases claiming sex discrimination and wage violations have stained its image. Editorials deplore how low-paid Wal-Mart workers must sign up for welfare to make ends meet. 

Even men's magazine Playboy got in on the act, calling Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters the "epicenter of retailing's evil empire." 

But after years of abiding unflattering views, the empire is striking back with a tough new public relations strategy. 

"No one likes to hear someone say something negative about their family," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark. "There are some things out there that are totally inaccurate, and we're looking to set the record straight." 

Officials at the world's largest company have started firing off letters to the editor responding to critical news articles and editorials. Once-reticent Wal-Mart executives are speaking out more in the hopes of cleaning up the world's largest retailer's stained image. 

The company has also altered its advertising campaign to showcase women managers and others who have benefited from working there. 

"We all want to defend our company," Clark said. 

Besides top management, she said, store employees have taken it upon themselves to write letters, with no directive from headquarters. 

"As we have become the most visible company in the U.S., we have increasingly become a target of criticism and even attacks," she said. "We are really in the position of protecting and enhancing an already good reputation, not trying to repair a bad one." 

'DIATRIBE AGAINST OUR COMPANY' 

In the last few weeks, Wal-Mart's benefits manager wrote to The New York Times to explain the retailer's much-maligned health insurance plan, and a district manager sent a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune to "share some things that aren't so bad about us" after a series of stories. 

Chief Executive Lee Scott wrote to Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal after a columnist said Wal-Mart deserved some blame for the closing of a local factory owned by Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL - news), one of the retailer's major suppliers. 

Scott called the column a "diatribe against our company" that did not reflect the facts. 

In January, he became the first Wal-Mart CEO to speak at the National Retail Federation trade group's conference. In a speech that he acknowledged sounded defensive at times, he chided the media for heavy coverage of the company's legal troubles, massive imports from China and employee health-care policies. 

Other executives have also started banging the drum. 

"We are not popular with a lot people," Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin said at the grand opening of a new Wal-Mart store in San Antonio in January. 

"If our wages and benefits were so bad, we wouldn't have had that type of attraction with the customer," he was quoted as saying in the San Antonio Express-News. "The chain wouldn't be the size it has become if we were doing as many things wrong as people like to attribute to us." 

BAD PR 

Despite the more aggressive approach, public relations experts say Wal-Mart's image-improvement efforts are not enough to shore up its reputation. 

"For years they've been a classic example of the wrong way to do PR," said Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management and author of "Keeping the Wolves at Bay: A Media Training Manual." 

"They're going to continue to get beat up as long as they basically have a reputation for being unfair or unreasonable to their employees," he said. "All the damage control in the world can't help them unless their policies change. 

This year Wal-Mart faces two key tests that should help determine whether reports of worker mistreatment are isolated incidents or widespread. 

A California judge is set to decide later this year whether a sex discrimination lawsuit should proceed as a class action covering 1.5 million current and former women employees. 

Meanwhile, an investigation into illegal workers at some Wal-Mart stores will be back in the spotlight when a Pennsylvania grand jury completes its deliberations in a few weeks. 

"If they lose one of those cases in California or Pennsylvania, it will hurt," said Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. 

Argenti, who advised Kmart in the early 1990s when it was struggling to compete with Wal-Mart, said Wal-Mart's "most admired company" ranking in Fortune's annual poll of executives, directors and analysts should help the company through the worst of the image problems, but it needs to change its insular corporate culture if it hopes to make new friends. 

"They've been very, very internally focused for most of their life," he said. "That's built into their culture. They've never really had to reach out. Now they do." 

Scientists Study How to Keep Brain Awake

Sat Feb 21, 1:54 PM ET 


By MALCOLM RITTER, News Source Science Writer 

Why would a sleep-deprived brain fail to absorb conversations? Just how does it produce drowsiness while a person is driving? Indeed, how does it know it needs more sleep in the first place? 

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These aren't just esoteric ponderings. The answers to these and related mysteries about the sleepy brain could lead to improved drugs to help people fall asleep or stay awake. They could help drowsy people find the most effective time to drink coffee or take a nap. 

Frank Knower knew something was wrong when he kept having conversations with co-workers and later couldn't remember a thing that was said. He couldn't even remember what he'd said. 

Later, after he retired, he discovered another problem: He got irresistibly drowsy during long drives. 

None of the usual stay-awake tricks like turning up the radio or rolling down the window could keep him awake. He had to pull over for naps. 

These days, his wife handles a lot of the driving. And while the 74-year-old Knower can still nod off during the day at his home in Tappan, N.Y., treatment for his sleep-disrupting condition, apnea, and a daytime alertness pill help keep his problems in check. 

For Knower, it's a story with a happy ending. For scientists, though, it's a story full of mystery. 

Scientists may even find safe and reliable ways to skip slumber entirely for days without the usual mental glitches. 

"You could have soldiers who could fight a war 24 hours a day and maybe not sleep, at least for a few days," said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School (news - web sites). "If you knew what was making the brain sleepy, you could get at it at a fundamental level ... I think once we learn how the system operates we'll be able to successfully manipulate it." 

Of course, in an economy with such potentially perilous round-the-clock workplaces as trucks, airplanes, nuclear power plants and supertankers, even helping people sleep and function well one day at a time would be a benefit. 

An estimated 70 million people in the United States suffer from sleep problems, either because of disorders such as apnea and insomnia or just a lack of time devoted to slumber, the federal government says. At least 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 traffic deaths a year are caused by falling asleep at the wheel. 

And sleep deprivation leads to reduced productivity, poor performance in school or the workplace, and possibly medical problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and reduced resistance to viruses. 

"Sleep is as important to our overall health as exercise and a healthy diet," says Dr. Carl Hunt, director of the government's National Center on Sleep Disorders Research. 

So how much sleep is enough? The typical recommendation is at least eight hours a night for adults. But in the February issue of the journal Sleep, an expert called on doctors to abandon that blanket prescription. 

"It appears seven hours or even five or six is safe for people who aren't sleepy during the day," said Dr. Daniel Kripke of the School of Medicine of the University of California, San Diego. 

Kripke cited large studies that tracked death rates in people who habitually slept different lengths of time. But "if someone is sleepy during the day with less than eight hours, as I am myself, then I think it might be wise to get eight hours sleep," he said. 

Hunt said sleep studies overall indicate that adults generally need seven to eight hours a night to be well-rested. "As you ratchet down from seven hours to six or five or four, there's a progressively greater price" in illness, accidents and mental malfunctioning, Hunt said. 

Studies show people can sleep too little and still feel fine during the day, but that's because people stop realizing they're impaired if they sleep too little night after night, Hunt said. So while there probably are some people who truly function well on six hours a night, they can't just rely on how they feel, he said. 

Teenagers need around 8.5 hours of sleep a night, and younger children should aim for about nine hours, he said. 

When the brain runs on too little sleep, it malfunctions in a wide variety of areas: 

_Your reaction time slows and you have trouble paying sustained attention. Driving is "the worst kind of thing," especially in bumper-to-bumper situations or lonely roads, said Edward Stepanski of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "You're forced to sit still, so you can't move around and do things people ordinarily do to keep awake, and you're staring at the road." 

_You have trouble keeping tabs on multiple sources of information. So you ignore some of them to focus on a few, and "you fail to notice that you're running out of gas," said David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. 

_Creativity suffers. You get stuck on bad solutions and can't think of better ones. 

_You can't remember as much, and "a sleepy brain is just not very good at learning new information," Stepanski said. 

_Your brain just can't do some critical things in a hurry. 

If given the luxury of time, it actually does pretty well with tasks like making decisions and solving complicated problems, says Hans Van Dongen at the University of Pennsylvania. That's because the brain has "an almost stunning ability to find tricks" to get around some hurdles imposed by sleep loss, he said. 

So if you work late in your office answering e-mails without any reason to hurry, you'll probably do all right, though you might have to read some sentences a couple times, he said. But then, as you drive home, you have to react and make decisions - right away. 

"And you find that, oops, you're still impaired, after all, even though you didn't notice it," Van Dongen said. "And now you've got a problem." 

Much of the overall problem in the sleepy brain is what scientists call microsleeps, repeated periods of a second or two, or maybe 10, when you just zone out and don't process information. 

Microsleeps reflect "a kind of struggle inside the brain at the most fundamental biological level" between sleep and wakefulness, producing a sort of in-between state of reverie or inattentiveness, Dinges said. A person might look awake to a casual observer during microsleeps of a couple seconds, or the episodes can be more obvious. 

Think of trying to stay awake at a meeting after partying all night. As Dinges observes in lab experiments, the eyeballs try to roll, the eyelids move unusually slowly and neck muscles start to go limp, which suggests that even muscle-control parts of the brain participate in sleepiness. 

Work in Dinges' lab has shown that after a few nights of too little sleep, people stop realizing their daytime performance is suffering. So researchers are studying whether machines can do a better job of spotting sleep-deprived people. 

Dinges said federal investigators are now seeing whether specialized monitors can track slowly closing eyelids in truckers. Studies suggest that's a reliable sign of impairment, he said. 

Along with researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dinges has studied how much benefit a sleepy person gets from taking a break and moving around. The results suggest it might buy 10 to 20 minutes of wakefulness. Napping can be more effective as long as you doze at least 10 minutes, he said. 

How about coffee? "Caffeine is not buying you a lot when you've taken it first thing in the morning after you've first awakened," said James Wyatt of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. At that point, coffee is probably just treating symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, which include sleepiness, confusion and irritability, he said. 

For fighting effects of sleep deprivation, caffeine helps a lot more when it's taken after at least eight hours of wakefulness, he said. 

To come up with better drugs to help people sleep or stay awake, scientists are studying just what happens in the sleep-deprived brain itself. 

The brain has at least two major systems that govern sleep. One is the well-known pacemaker that keeps our bodies on a 24-hour rhythm. It's found in the hypothalamus, and it drives the sleep-wake cycle. Scientists aren't sure yet just how it sends its timing signals to the body. 

But people can obviously override the pacemaker, staying up through most of the night. That's when a second, "homeostatic" system kicks in. It basically keeps track of how short you are on sleep, either from one bad night or a buildup of sleep deprivation over time. And it does its best to make sure you pay this "sleep debt" off. 

Much less is known about this system. Where is it? How does it keep track of your sleep debt, especially if the debt builds night after night? And how does sleep debt impair the brain? 

One apparent actor in this system is a substance called adenosine, which brain cells give off as a waste product. 

The theory goes like this: as brain cells function during wakefulness, they give off adenosine, which mounts up outside the cells in the basal forebrain. There, the adenosine acts to inhibit brain cells that normally promote wakefulness and play key roles in brain function. So you feel sleepy and your mental functioning declines. When you finally fall asleep, your brain cells work less hard and adenosine is taken back into cells, relieving its pressure on the wakefulness circuitry of the brain. 

Caffeine blocks drowsiness by interfering with adenosine's ability to affect brain cells, says Robert McCarley, a researcher at the VA Medical Center in Brockton, Mass., and Harvard Medical School. Further studies of how the brain responds to adenosine might lead to more effective wake-up agents and better sleeping pills, McCarley said. 

To really understand how lack of sleep alters the brain, Dinges said, scientists will need to develop a few more tools. They'll need to find a way to mimic those mental and behavioral changes in animals, for example. And they'll need more detailed brain scans that can capture the very tiny brain structures that play a role in the process. 

But such advances are nearly at hand, Dinges said. 

"Over the next five years," he said, "there will be an exciting amount of work." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Information on sleep: 

www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/index.htm 

www.sleepfoundation.org/publications.cfm 

U.S. Stealth Fighter Plane May Get Gray Makeover

Feb 19, 10:11 am ET 

HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M.  - The F-117A fighter jet, the radar-eluding stealth plane known for its angular design and charcoal black color, may be getting a makeover in a new shade of gray.

The U.S. Air Force has painted one of its stealth fighters at Holloman Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico to see if the plane called the Nighthawk might be harder to spot when it flies during daylight hours in a color other than black.

"Obviously, if you can see it less during the day, you can fly it more," said Col. Jim Carter, vice commander of the 53rd Wing at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida, which is overseeing the test.

The $45 million fighter plane first rolled off the assembly lines about 20 years ago and is painted a sleek black. The color is perfect for night flights, but creates a stark contrast with daytime skies.

Other color schemes have been tried before on the fighter.

Carter described the test shade as "regular gray aircraft paint," similar to that currently used on other fighter jets. The cost of a paint job on one of the fighters is "a couple thousand dollars," he said.

The test fighter was painted last fall and will be observed over the year for "visual acuity," meaning how easily it is detected during daylight, twilight and evening hours, Carter said. If officials like the new color, the rest of the fleet could get a similar makeover.

"It's still in the exploratory stage, but it will be a big change if we do it," Carter said. 

Danger: Wooden Floors, Scooters -- and Trouser Zips

Feb 19, 10:07 am ET 

LONDON  - Clumsy Britons risk life and limb keeping up with the latest trends such as wooden flooring and micro-scooters -- providing they survive putting their trousers on in the morning.

No fewer than 12,300 people were taken to hospitals after slipping on fashionable wood floors in 2002, four times as many as in 1998, according to a report Thursday.

Many of those accidents involved slipping while walking about at home barefoot or wearing socks, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said.

Micro-scooters were another new problem: some 20,000 people injured themselves riding the small, silver two-wheelers when the trend hit its peak in 2002, compared to only 2,200 in 1998.

But new fashions were not the only domestic danger -- in fact some problems were as old as the hills.

As many as 5,310 people in Britain needed treatment after being felled pulling on a pair of trousers in 2002, up from 3,695 four years previously.

But on a more encouraging note for British men, there was a mild decrease in the far more serious trouser business of "zip-related mishaps." These eye-watering injuries fell to 700 in 2002 from 800 in 1998. 

244 Muslim Pilgrims Die in Hajj Stampede 

14 minutes ago

By RAWYA RAGEH, News Source Writer 

MINA, Saudi Arabia - Nearly 250 Muslim worshipers died in a hajj stampede Sunday during the annual stoning of Satan ritual in one of the deadliest tragedies at the notoriously perilous ceremony. 

The stampede, during a peak event of the annual Muslim pilgrimage, or hajj, lasted about a half-hour, Saudi officials said. There were 244 dead and hundreds of other worshippers injured, some critically, Hajj Minister Iyad Madani said. 

"All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will. Caution isn't stronger than fate," Madani said. 

Most of the victims were pilgrims from inside the Saudi kingdom and many were not authorized to participate, he said. 

In an effort to control the crowd of about 2 million, Saudi authorities sets quotas for pilgrims from each country and required its citizens to register. 

The devil-stoning is the most animated ritual of the annual pilgrimage and often the most dangerous. Many pilgrims frantically throw rocks, shout insults or hurl their shoes at the pillars - acts that are supposed to demonstrate their deep disdain for the devil. But clerics frown upon such action, saying it's un-Islamic. 

Last year, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death during the ritual and 35 died in a 2001 stampede. In 1998, 180 pilgrims died. 

The annual hajj, which began Thursday, climaxed Saturday as some 2 million Muslim pilgrims listened to Saudi Arabia's top cleric denounce terrorists, calling them an affront to Islam. However, he defended the kingdom's strict interpretation of the faith. 

Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sheik said in his sermon there were those who claim to be holy warriors, but were shedding Muslim blood and destabilizing the nation. 

"Is it holy war to shed Muslim blood? Is it holy war to shed the blood of non-Muslims given sanctuary in Muslim lands? Is it holy war to destroy the possession of Muslims," he said, adding that their actions gave enemies an excuse to criticize Muslim nations. 

A large number of the victims of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere have been Muslims. 

Al-Sheik, who is widely respected in the Arab world as the foremost cleric in the country considered the birthplace of Islam, spoke at Namira Mosque in a televised sermon watched by millions of Muslims in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. 

The mosque is close to Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon in 632. 

In speaking about terrorists who killed fellow Muslims, al-Sheik was clearly referring to the prophet's final sermon, which contained the line: "Know that every Muslim is a Muslim's brother, and the Muslims are brethren. Fighting between them should be avoided." 

Al-Sheik also criticized the international community, accusing it of attacking Wahhabism, the strict interpretation of Islam that is applied in Saudi Arabia: "This country is based on this religion and will remain steadfast on it." 

After the sleepless night of prayer following the sermon, pilgrims gathered pebbles to throw at the pillars. Each threw seven times, chanting "bismillah" ("In the name of God") and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great"). 

Calling America "the greatest Satan," Egyptian pilgrim Youssef Omar threw pebbles at one pillar where someone scrawled "USA." 

From there, some pilgrims took off to the nearby holy city Mecca to perform the main "Tawaf," or the circling of the holy stone known as the Kaaba. 

Security has been high during the hajj, with thousands of police guarding the roads and temporary camp city of Mina. Helicopters monitored the crowd from the air. 

The stoning ritual also marked the first day of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated at the hajj and around the Muslim world with the slaughtering of a camel, cow or sheep. Meat is eaten and distributed to the poor. 

The hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all able-bodied Muslims at least once in a lifetime, is taking place after a series of suicide bombings and police shootouts with suspected terrorists in Saudi Arabia. 

The bombings killed 51 people last year, including many Saudis, other Arabs and eight Americans. Muslims also have died in terror attacks in Turkey, Iraq, Morocco and elsewhere. 

Marvel Sues Sony Over 'Men in Black' Royalties

Sat Jan 31, 9:16 AM ET

Add Entertainment 

LOS ANGELES  - Comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the movie arm of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites)., claiming Sony used deceptive accounting tactics to deny Marvel royalties on merchandising related to the "Men in Black" series of films. 

Marvel, which filed two suits against Sony divisions last year over the merchandising of the "Spider-Man" franchise, filed the new suit on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures. 

The suit claims that Sony has breached a licensing agreement by failing to properly report revenue, especially for merchandising, showing in statements that the two "Men in Black" films have lost money despite hundreds of millions of dollars in box-office and ancillary sales. 

A spokeswoman for Sony Pictures and Columbia said they had not yet seen the suit and could not comment. 

The suit, which claims breach of written contract and unfair business practices, seeks damages of at least $6 million, an accounting of the movies' earnings and an injunction against further unfair practices. 

The News Source/VNU 

'Jeopardy!' Host Trebek in Car Crash 

Sat Jan 31,12:30 PM ET

TEMPLETON, Calif. - "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek escaped injury when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his pickup truck, sideswiped a string of mailboxes and sailed over an embankment into a ditch, authorities said. 

Trebek, 63, was driving alone on a rural road Friday and his truck was airborne for about 40 feet, California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Koolman said. 

Trebek owns and manages Creston Farms, a horse breeding and training farm about 10 miles southeast of Templeton on the central coast. An employee there said he wasn't aware of the accident. 

"I don't know how he's doing because I haven't heard anything about it," farm manager Art Mercado said. 

A message left after business hours for "Jeopardy!" senior producer Rocky Schmidt was not immediately returned. 

The Canadian-born Trebek has been host of the popular quiz show "Jeopardy!" since 1984. He also hosts the annual National Geographic (news - web sites) Bee. 

___ 

On the Net: http://www.jeopardy.com/ 

Feds Win Right to War Protesters' Records 

43 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

BY RYAN J. FOLEY, News Source Writer 

DES MOINES, Iowa - In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists. 

In addition to the subpoena of Drake University, subpoenas were served this past week on four of the activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the protesters said. 

Federal prosecutors refuse to comment on the subpoenas. 

In addition to records about who attended the forum, the subpoena orders the university to divulge all records relating to the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based legal activist organization that sponsored the forum. 

The group, once targeted for alleged ties to communism in the 1950s, announced Friday it will ask a federal court to quash the subpoena on Monday. 

"The law is clear that the use of the grand jury to investigate protected political activities or to intimidate protesters exceeds its authority," guild President Michael Ayers said in a statement. 

Representatives of the Lawyer's Guild and the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) said they had not heard of such a subpoena being served on any U.S. university in decades. 

Those served subpoenas include the leader of the Catholic Peace Ministry, the former coordinator of the Iowa Peace Network, a member of the Catholic Worker House, and an anti-war activist who visited Iraq (news - web sites) in 2002. 

They say the subpoenas are intended to stifle dissent. 

"This is exactly what people feared would happen," said Brian Terrell of the peace ministry, one of those subpoenaed. "The civil liberties of everyone in this country are in danger. How we handle that here in Iowa is very important on how things are going to happen in this country from now on." 

The forum, titled "Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!" came the day before 12 protesters were arrested at an anti-war rally at Iowa National Guard headquarters in Johnston. Organizers say the forum included nonviolence training for people planning to demonstrate. 

The targets of the subpoenas believe investigators are trying to link them to an incident that occurred during the rally. A Grinnell College librarian was charged with misdemeanor assault on a peace officer; she has pleaded innocent, saying she simply went limp and resisted arrest. 

"The best approach is not to speculate and see what we learn on Tuesday" when the four testify, said Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, which is representing one of the protesters. 

Mark Smith, a lobbyist for the Washington-based American Association of University Professors, said he had not heard of any similar case of a U.S. university being subpoenaed for such records. 

He said the case brings back fears of the "red squads" of the 1950s and campus clampdowns on Vietnam War protesters. 

According to a copy obtained by The News Source, the Drake subpoena asks for records of the request for a meeting room, "all documents indicating the purpose and intended participants in the meeting, and all documents or recordings which would identify persons that actually attended the meeting." 

It also asks for campus security records "reflecting any observations made of the Nov. 15, 2003, meeting, including any records of persons in charge or control of the meeting, and any records of attendees of the meeting." 

Several officials of Drake, a private university with about 5,000 students, refused to comment Friday, including school spokeswoman Andrea McDonough. She referred questions to a lawyer representing the school, Steve Serck, who also would not comment. 

A source with knowledge of the investigation said a judge had issued a gag order forbidding school officials from discussing the subpoena. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Drake University: http://www.drake.edu/ 

National Lawyers Guild: http://www.nlg.org/ 

Bikram Master in Court Battle Over Yoga Positions

Fri Feb 6,11:03 AM ET

Add Oddly Enough 

By Elinor Mills Abreu 

SAN FRANCISCO  - Yoga master Bikram Choudhury is bent out of shape. 

The eccentric Calcutta-born yogi who popularized the form of yoga known as "Bikram" is being sued over his claims that he owns the copyright to a 26-posture series used in the practice, which is done in a heated room. 

The suit could eventually set a precedent in an industry noted for its openness and lack of standards. For now, it is kicking up a fuss among yoga practitioners. 

Bikram is a fast-growing yoga style made trendy by celebrities and others attracted to its health benefits and spiritual leanings. 

Choudhury, who is in his late 50s, has sent cease and desist letters to more than 100 Bikram yoga schools and teachers, accusing them of violating his copyright and trademark by employing instructors that weren't trained by him and deviating from his strict teachings, according to James Harrison, a lawyer for the Open Source Yoga Unity. 

In response, the Open Source Yoga Unity, a non-profit collective whose members live in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Rhode Island and Canada, has sued the Choudhury in San Francisco federal court. 

The suit asks the court to rule that his copyright and trademark claims are unenforceable because his series of poses stem from postures that have been in public use for centuries.

"No one can own a style of yoga," Harrison told The News Source on Thursday. 

Choudhury was preparing for a trip and unable to comment, according to a receptionist at his Los Angeles yoga school. One of his attorneys declined to comment and another did not return a phone call. 

Lawyers for the two sides met in a court-ordered mediation conference on Wednesday but did not reach a settlement, Harrison said. A trial is scheduled for February 2005. 

While some Bikram instructors have been forced to stop teaching the technique, others remain loyal to their yogi. 

"All he is asking is that they teach (Bikram yoga) honestly and purely, and that's not too much to ask," said Lynn Whitlow, co-owner of Funky Door Yoga in the bay area. "If you want to change it, don't call it 'Bikram.'" 

Nora Isaacs, a senior editor at Berkeley-based Yoga Journal, said her group wasn't taking an official stance. 

"If he does win, the question is what does that mean for the future of yoga?" Isaacs said. "If he asserts copyright, will other schools follow?" 

Choudhury has become rich selling books and videos, teaching workshops that cost $5,000 and collecting franchise fees from the hundreds of studios worldwide that teach Bikram yoga. 

Secret of Homing Pigeons Revealed

Thu Feb 5, 7:45 AM ET

Add Oddly Enough 

LONDON  - The secret of carrier pigeons' uncanny ability to find their way home has been discovered by British scientists: the feathered navigators follow the roads just like we do. 

Researchers at Oxford University spent 10 years studying homing pigeons using global positioning satellite (GPS) and were stunned to find the birds often don't navigate by taking bearing from the sun. 

Instead they fly along motorways, turn at junctions and even go around roundabouts, adding miles to their journeys, British newspapers reported on Thursday. 

"It really has knocked our research team sideways," Professor Tim Guilford said in the Daily Telegraph. 

"It is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the roundabout," he said in The Times. 

Guilford said pigeons use their own navigational system when doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first time. 

But when they have flown a journey more than once they home in on an habitual route home. 

"In short it looks like it is mentally easier for a bird to fly down a road...they are just making their journey as simple as possible." 

Virtual Love for Sale, on the Sly, on eBay

Feb 4, 10:21 am ET 

By Lisa Baertlein

SAN FRANCISCO  - Need a girlfriend but want none of the hassle of actually spending time together? You better act fast if you want to find her on eBay.

A crop of crafty eBay entrepreneurs are offering "imaginary girlfriend" services to the highest bidder, staying just ahead of the Web auctioneer's efforts to ban such listings, which it now deems inappropriate.

The latest bid, with nearly six days to go, is $11.50.

EBay started pulling the "imaginary girlfriend" listings, which have run the gamut from the very naughty to the mostly nice, late last month.

The company had initially allowed the imaginary girlfriend listings -- which had numbered in the low hundreds -- then decided that they had crossed the line "into something that was clearly inappropriate," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.

The overall theme of previous listings went something like this: sexy college student seeking money for books will, for one month, write you frequent e-mails and send pictures and perfumed letters you can show to family, friends and ex-girlfriends.

In most cases, personal contact was strictly prohibited. "This in NO WAY makes me your real girlfriend," one lister cautioned.

One young blonde from the Midwest sold her girl-next-door looks as more believable that her competitors.

On the fringes, however, were the more overtly sexual listings that prompted eBay to step in.

On Tuesday, one such listing remained on the site. In it, a pair of Las Vegas-based women calling themselves Leilani and Bianca promised, upon proof of payment, a month-long relationship that "can be anything you want it to be."

The duo, which billed themselves as "sexy and exotic Asian girls," each promised to send one e-mail per week, a handwritten, perfume-scented letter, a sexy garment (new or worn), sexy photos and "passionate and unconditional love." 

Lovers Top Contract Killing 'Hit' List

Feb 4, 10:19 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Want someone killed in Australia? The average price for a "hit" is $12,700, but you can get it as cheap as $380.

A study of contract killings in Australia has found most are not ordered by criminals, but by angry spouses and jilted lovers.

But professional criminals order the most successful "hits."

The Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australia's major crime investigation branch studied 163 attempted and actual killings between 1989 and 2002.

"The most common motive or reason for hiring the services of a hit man was in relation to the dissolution of an intimate relationship," Toni Makkai, acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said in a statement received on Wednesday.

Makkai said the most common motives ranged from preventing a person from pursing another relationship, revenge for having an affair, eliminating a partner in order to be with a lover or to gain custody of children.

Other motives were money, silencing a witness, general revenge, drugs and organized crime rivalry.

The average payment received by a "hitman" for a contract was $12,700, the lowest $380 and the highest $76,000.

The most common weapon used in "hits" was a gun. In fact guns were five times more likely to be used in contract killings than in general murders.

"If you want the job done you are going to use the most deadly weapon available," Makkai said.

Contract killings in Australia make up only a small percentage of all murders. During the four-year study period "hits" accounted for only two percent of murders.

But the number of "hits" is slowly rising with an average now of seven attempted and five completed each year. 

Web Site for Investors Needs Updating

Feb 3, 11:56 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Talk about stale pricing!

Eliot Spitzer, the New York state attorney general leading an industrywide probe of improper trading in mutual funds, tells would-be investors on his office's Web site that stocks are still priced in fractions of eighths for amounts less than $1.

However, the New York Stock Exchange started quoting stock prices in decimals two years ago. According to Fundalarm.com, which brought the snafu to light, the error was presumably caused by the need to update the attorney general's Web site, www.oag.state.ny.us/investors/invest-4.html.

"When you're out fighting the bad guys, you don't always have time to do your own housekeeping," Fundalarm.com said.

A Spitzer spokesman said the error will be corrected.

Spitzer's probes into such improper trading as market timing has led to the ouster of several chief executives and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

Market timers prey on fund prices whose underlying assets -- stocks that trade abroad -- are stale and don't reflect recent market conditions. 

Smoke Pollution Makes for Stronger Storms - Study

Thu Feb 26, 5:02 PM ET

Add Science 

WASHINGTON  - Smoke drifting from burning forests in the Amazon is affecting the climate across the entire continent -- drying up rain but making the storms that do develop much more violent than usual, scientists reported on Thursday. 

Smoke rises to the clouds, delaying the release of rain and allowing the clouds to grow taller than they otherwise would, the researchers said. 

Higher clouds produce violent thunderstorms, and while less rain falls to the ground, it often comes in the form of hail and thunderstorms instead of more nourishing, gentle rains, they said. 

Plus the storms push the smoke into higher atmospheric levels, allowing it to be carried far and wide, the international team reports in Friday's issue of the journal Science. 

"The invigorated storms release the latent heat higher in the atmosphere," they wrote in their report. "This should substantially affect the regional and global circulation systems." 

The international team was funded by the European Union (news - web sites) and headed by Meinrat Andreae of the Max Planck Institute of Atmospheric Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. 

They measured whether smoke particles produce cloud droplets -- the seeds of raindrops. A team at Hebrew University in Jerusalem flew special planes through smoky clouds over Brazil and measured how the smoke affected them. 

They found the tiny smoke particles caused the water in the clouds to form minuscule drops that were too small to fall to the ground. 

These can then be carried into higher levels of the atmosphere to freeze into chunks of ice, which fall as hail or big raindrops, they wrote. 

There are plenty of sources for this disruptive smoke, they noted. 

"Several hundred thousand deforestation and agricultural fires burn in Amazonia during the dry season each year, covering vast areas with dense smoke," they wrote. 

Rowling Joins Forbes Billionaires List 

37 minutes ago

Add Business - 

By MICHAEL P. REGAN, News Source Business Writer 

NEW YORK - "Harry Potter (news - web sites)" author J.K. Rowling (news - web sites) and the founders of the Google search engine have landed on Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires after a year when rallying stocks and a strong euro swelled the list to the longest it's ever been. 

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (news - web sites) remains perched atop the list for the 10th straight year but investor Warren Buffett (news - web sites) is nipping at his heels. Gates' net worth is now estimated at $46.6 billion, still less than half the $100 billion it peaked at in 1998, but up about 13 percent from the $40.7 billion Forbes attributed to him in 2003. 

Buffett wins the bragging rights for reaping the best gains of the year. He increased his net worth by $12.4 billion to $42.9 billion, significantly narrowing the gap between him and Gates, with whom he competes in bridge tournaments. 

German supermarket magnate Karl Albrecht remained in third place, with a fortune of $23 billion. Close behind were Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, whose $21.5 billion nest egg put him just ahead of Microsoft's other co-founder, Paul Allen, who came in fifth with $21 billion. 

Rounding out the top 10 were Helen Walton, wife of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and four members of her family. They were tied for fifth, with each worth an estimated $20 billion - making for a Walton's mountain of money that's bigger than the holdings of Gates and Buffett combined. 

All told, it was a fabulous year to be very rich. 

The magazine counted some 587 billionaires around the world, up from 476 in 2003. Their total net worth jumped to $1.9 trillion from the $1.4 trillion the magazine counted in 2003. 

"After two years of significantly falling fortunes, we really saw an uptick for just about everybody on the list," said Luisa Kroll, an associate editor at Forbes who oversaw the project. 

The strength of the euro currency in comparison to the dollar helped launch 22 new billionaires to the list, for a total of 164 Europeans. Their net worth as a group surged 47 percent to $578 billion. 

Rising oil prices helped Russia add eight new billionaires for a total of 25. That puts the country in third place, behind the United States and Germany. 

In the United States, billionaires likely gained last year not only from a 20 percent rise in stock prices, but also from reductions in taxes on dividends, capital gains and estate taxes, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. 

"High income, high net-worth households have done very well under the Bush administration," said Zandi, adding that technological advances and trends toward globalization also tend to benefit the rich. 

As usual, older, married men dominated the list, which includes only 53 women and 24 single people. The average billionaire's age is 64, and only 27 are under 40. 

Only six people dropped off the list, compared with 67 who fell off in 2003 and 83 drop-offs in 2002, according to Kroll. One of the notable drop-offs this year was Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who lost some of his fortune in a divorce settlement. 

There were 56 billionaires who returned to the list after dropping off it in the previous few years, including Yahoo! founders David Filo ($2.2 billion) and Jerry Yang ($1.9 billion). 

They returned to find their upstart search-engine rivals, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page ($1 billion each), making their debut on the list. 

Other newcomers included the Canadian creator of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte ($1.1 billion), and Hong Kong's Michael Ying ($1.8 billion), chairman and CEO of clothing company Esprit Holdings Ltd. 

And there were three billionaires behind bars, including Russia's richest man, former Yukos oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsy ($15 billion), as well as Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev ($1.8 billion) and Japanese tycoon Yasuo Takei ($6.2 billion.) 

Navy Sells Itself with Song and Dance Ad

Feb 26, 8:04 am ET 

TOKYO  - Seven actors dressed as sailors strut across the deck of a ship singing "Nippon Seaman Ship, Seaman Ship, For Love...For Peace."

A revival of the disco group "Village People?"

No, a new commercial by Japan's navy aimed at boosting its popularity as the military embarks on a risky operation in Iraq in which ground troops have grabbed most of the attention.

The ad begins with a close-up of the navy's rising sun ensign, then shows the singing sailors gyrating.

"I Love Japan, I Love Peace. The Maritime Self-Defense Force," says a voice-over at the end.

A spokesman for the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF), as the navy is known, said some feared the ad might seem frivolous, but market research converted the naysayers.

"Awareness of the Self-Defense Forces...is growing along with the dispatch to Iraq," said Lieutenant Commander Akira Ohta.

"But how many are actually aware of the MSDF? There are a lot of young people and women who don't seem interested," he said, when asked to explain the reason for commercial. It will be aired from Monday on giant street screens in central Tokyo.

Army, air force and navy personnel are being dispatched to help rebuild Iraq in the Japanese military's biggest and most dangerous mission since World War II. Critics say the operation violates the nation's pacifist constitution. 

Industry Experts Debate Pilotless Planes 

1 hour, 30 minutes ago

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, News Source Writer 

SINGAPORE - As you fasten your seat belt a "welcome aboard" announcement is made by a computer - because there is no captain. 

While plane designers dream of a high-tech future, the aerospace industry is debating whether if it will become feasible to fly passengers without pilots. 

Computers already play a major role flying many present-day jetliners. They have the capability of carrying out takeoffs. And, they routinely are relied upon during long-range cruising. In good weather they often land planes - but always with a human crew ready to take over. 

Industry experts on Thursday said pilot-less commercial flights are unlikely any time soon. But they acknowledge that the idea has gained greater currency after the wars in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites). 

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, successfully undertook reconnaissance, electronic jamming and ground attacks in both conflicts. 

In line with this trend, UAVs are taking center stage at a major international air exhibition for the first time. Dozens of the quirky-looking spy planes are on display at this week's Asian Aerospace show in Singapore. 

This year, Asian Aerospace's flying display didn't open with the usual roar of jet fighters - but with the barely audible buzz of a robotic drone plane. 

Several UAV manufacturers say their technologies could eventually replace commercial airline pilots. 

Possibilities include preprogrammed flights and a single human pilot siting in from a computer screen controlling several craft from a base thousands of kilometers (miles) away.

"Of course it can be done," said Haim Kellerman, vice president of the UAV program at Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems. "There is nothing inherently different between (manned and unmanned) aircraft in terms of aerodynamics. It is only a question of whether there is a will to do it or not." 

For the military, UAVs have the obvious advantage of keeping people out of harm's way. For commercial aviation, the aircraft without pilots could slash operation costs like training and salaries. 

Still, civilian plane makers have said they have no immediate plans to eliminate cockpit crews. 

"It's not imaginable to have a drone airplane full of passengers," said Airbus Industries spokeswoman Barbara Kracht. 

"When you have passengers there are so many factors that make a crew indispensable," she said. "There will always be two pilots on our planes." 

Robert Agostino, director of flight operations of Canadian jet maker Bombardier, agreed. 

"There may be a time in the future when UAV technology will have a great impact on military operations," Agostino said. "But when it comes to commercial planes, it's very different. A pilot can adapt to an unlimited number of changing circumstances." 

However, U.S. plane maker Boeing has refused to rule out UAV technology in its future airliners. 

"We're evaluating the UAV concept. But we don't have any plans at this time to incorporate it into our commercial aircraft," said James Wilkinson, manager of product analysis and communications marketing of Boeing. 

"Following a review of the technology, if it makes sense, we probably would include it," he said. 

Oral Sex Shown to Be Linked to Mouth Cancer 
Wed Feb 25, 2:54 PM ET 
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LONDON  - Although the risk is small and it is more likely to result from heavy drinking and smoking, scientists have uncovered evidence that oral sex can cause mouth cancer. 

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Researchers had suspected that a sexually transmitted infection that is linked to cervical cancer could also be associated with tumors in the mouth. 

Now a study by researchers working for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France seems to have confirmed it. 

"Oral sex can lead to oral tumors," New Scientist magazine said Wednesday, referring to the latest research. 

The scientists studied more than 1,600 patients from Europe, Canada, Australia, Cuba and the Sudan with oral cancer and more than 1,700 healthy people. 

They found that patients with oral cancer containing a strain of the human papilloma virus (HPV) known as HPV16 were three times more likely to report having had oral sex than those without the virus strain. 

"The researchers think both cunnilingus and fellatio can infect people's mouths," the magazine added. 

Raphael Viscidi, a virologist who worked on the research, believes the findings substantiate the link between HPV and oral cancer. 

"This is a major study in terms of size," he said. "I think this will convince people." 

High consumptions of alcohol and cigarettes are estimated to cause 75-90 percent of all cases of oral cancer. The combination of tobacco smoke and alcohol are thought to produce high levels of cancer causing agents. 

Scientists are currently working on vaccines to prevent cervical cancer, which is more common, but they might also be effective against oral cancer. 

"It is thought the vaccines would prevent oral infections as well," the magazine added. 

Official Says He Was Told to Withhold Medicare Data

Sat Mar 13,12:54 AM ET

Add Politics - washingtonpost.com 

By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post Staff Writer 

The government's longtime chief analyst of Medicare costs said yesterday that Bush administration officials threatened to fire him last year if he disclosed to Congress that he believed the prescription drug legislation favored by the White House would prove far more expensive than lawmakers had been told.

Richard S. Foster, a nonpartisan Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) official who has been Medicare's chief actuary for nine years, said he nearly resigned in protest because he thought the top Medicare administrator, and perhaps White House officials, were acting against the public interest by withholding information about how much changes to the program would cost.

"Certainly, Congress did not have all the information they might have wanted, or that we had," Foster said in an interview. 

He said Thomas A. Scully, then administrator of the HHS agency that oversees Medicare, repeatedly told him last spring and summer that Foster would be fired if he complied with requests from Republican and Democratic lawmakers to provide cost estimates of various aspects of the prescription drug legislation. Although other HHS officials ultimately assured him his job was safe, Foster said, the administration's practice of withholding budget predictions continued until the legislation was enacted in November.

Foster is regarded in government and policy circles as a competent and neutral civil servant. His disclosure set off the latest escalation of a partisan war over Medicare that has been playing out since Congress adopted the largest expansion in the history of the health insurance program for the elderly.

Yesterday, congressional Democrats called for an ethics investigation and dispatched a bitter letter to President Bush (news - web sites), who frequently cites the new Medicare law as one of his proudest domestic accomplishments. Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) demanded a new vote on the measure, which barely passed the House and Senate, saying that "members of Congress were called to vote under false pretenses."

A Republican who helped forge the law, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), joined in the criticism. He said, "Government analysts with relevant information should never be muzzled."

The controversy over Foster's threatened dismissal, reported yesterday by the Knight Ridder news service, erupted several weeks after the White House acknowledged that the administration's cost estimates for the law were significantly higher than the ones lawmakers had relied on.

Bush had said he was willing to spend as much as $400 billion for the drug benefits and other Medicare changes during the next decade, and the Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites), the official fiscal advisers to Congress, predicted the law would cost $395 billion.

In late January, the White House said separate calculations, provided by Foster, indicated the law would cost $534 billion. The revelation provoked an outcry from Democrats and conservative Republicans concerned that the drug benefits would deepen the federal deficit.

Internal documents and federal officials made clear that the White House had known of the higher cost estimates for months. Until now, it has not been apparent the lengths to which Bush aides who negotiated the bill with Congress went to keep the figures private.

Foster, who was deputy chief actuary for the Social Security Administration (news - web sites) for 13 years before becoming the chief Medicare actuary in 1995, said his office has a tradition of providing technical assistance to Congress "on an independent, nonpartisan basis."

But last June, he said, Scully directed him to "cease responding directly to Congress" and to funnel all cost estimates to Scully to decide which ones would be released. "More than once, Tom said he was just following orders," Foster said, adding he did not know where the orders came from but believed they might have originated in the White House.

Late that month, Foster dispatched an e-mail to several senior assistants and private actuaries in which he called the situation "nightmarish." He wrote: "I'm perhaps no longer in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important technical information from key policy makers for political reasons." He said he decided to stay at his staff's urging. 

Yesterday, HHS officials portrayed the matter as a conflict between Foster and Scully, who left the government for private consulting jobs a few months ago. "Those two just clearly did not get along," said Kevin Keane, assistant secretary for public affairs. "To suggest it's anyone else is way out of line."

Scully said in an interview he had only once forbidden Foster to release information. It would have been in response to a request from the staff of a liberal Democrat, Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (Calif.), who wanted to know the effect on Medicare premiums of a form of private-sector competition with the program that had been deleted from the House bill at the time of the request. Scully said the request was designed to "blow up the Medicare bill over something that wasn't even in there anymore."

Foster said that was not the only request that Scully blocked. "I tried to persuade him this was not in the public interest, but I was not successful," Foster said.

Stark aides said yesterday that the provision was in the bill when they asked for the information. Another congressional Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Foster sometimes conveyed information by telephone, but that White House officials routinely were on the line and sometimes instructed Foster not to answer questions.

George Carlin Responds to Indecency Uproar 

Sat Mar 13, 8:02 AM ET

By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, News Source Entertainment Writer 

LOS ANGELES - George Carlin (news) famously dissected "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" as a way to explore what everyone was so uptight about. Thirty-two years later the same debate is still raging, now fueled by Janet Jackson (news)'s Super Bowl flash, the suspension of Howard Stern's raunchy radio show from six stations and new House legislation that would raise a performer's indecency fine from $11,000 to $500,000. 

So what does the 66-year-old Carlin think of the current handwringing over what is indecent, profane, obscene, immoral, lewd or insulting? 

"More of the same, more of the same. What are we, surprised?" Carlin told The News Source on Friday 

He blamed it on religious moralism, media commercialism and election-year politics. 

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things - bad language and whatever - it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition. ... There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have." 

Mix that with TV or radio, and you've got a problem, he said. 

"What I always remind people is, radio and television and - as it happens - newspapers and magazines too, are advertising media. ... When you have commercialism involved you have the kind of fear that advertisers are very afraid of offending some potential customer. They don't want to lose a sale. So they have this need to inspect and clean up and watch the content in order not to hurt their own sales. It's based on success at the cash register. 

"And yet, they're very inconsistent_ on that Super Bowl broadcast of Janet Jackson's there was also a commercial about a 4-hour erection. A lot of people were saying about Janet Jackson, 'How do I explain to my kids? We're a little family, we watched it together ...' And, well, what did you say about the other thing? These are convenient targets." 

He also thinks President Bush (news - web sites) is trying to placate right-wing voters. 

The U.S. Air Force veteran compared the recent tension with memories of his military experience. 

"These bursts of interest and decency are just like when you're in the Air Force, Army and Marines, whatever - the discipline in your unit may get a little lax, people live with it, it's fine for months at a time then some colonel notices it and suddenly they crack down ... enforcing all the minor rules and regulations. Then what happens after these bursts of bothering people, that wears off and we get back to normal, relaxed discipline, but things still get done. 

"Society can be counted on to let this fade." 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.georgecarlin.com 

Nun Faces Jail for Drunk Tractor Driving

Mar 12, 12:10 pm ET 

WARSAW  - A Polish Benedictine nun is facing jail for driving a tractor into a car while drunk outside her convent in southwestern Poland, police said on Friday.

The 45-year-old nun will be charged with drunk-driving and causing an accident, which carries a prison sentence of up to two years, Dariusz Waluch, police spokesman in the southwestern Polish town of Dzierzoniow, told local news agency PAP.

He said the nun was 17 times over the country's legal alcohol limit for driving. 

This Sounds About Right....

Mar 12, 10:54 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Americans spend far more time driving cars and watching television than they do exercising, researchers said on Thursday in a study that helps shed light on the country's obesity epidemic.

Americans also spend more time in the office than people in other countries, found the report from a team at the University of California, Berkeley.

The report came the same week federal government researchers said deaths caused by poor eating habits and a lack of exercise were fast catching up to smoking as a leading cause of death. In 2000, 400,000 people died from eating badly and laziness, compared with 435,000 who died from smoking-related illness.

"This study provides a wake-up call for the nation, particularly in light of rising obesity rates in this country," said Linda Dong, a student of epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, who led the activity study.

"A lot of people aren't fully aware of how sedentary their lives are. This paper shows that, as a population, leisure-time physical activities are at the bottom of our priority lists."

Writing in a new publication called the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Dong and colleagues said they looked at surveys of 7,515 adults questioned from 1992 to 1994 for the National Human Activity Pattern Survey.

They reported on everything they did and how long they did it during the prior 24 hours.

Dong's team analyzed the information and assigned energy output for each activity.

On average, those surveyed spent 170 minutes a day watching TV and movies -- nine times the minutes spent on all leisure exercise. The average time spent driving was 101 minutes a day.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department launched an advertising campaign on Tuesday aimed at encouraging people to exercise a bit more and eat healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.

But Dong's team noted Americans may not have as much free time for exercise as citizens of other countries.

They cited U.S. Labor Department statistics that showed workers in the United States clocked in 1,821 hours in 2001, while those in Germany logged 1,467 hours.

"People are supposed to work in 60 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, but given the way our society is now, we don't have a lot of extra time on our hands to go out and jog," said Gladys Bock, a professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition who oversaw the study. 

Bale of Fine Wool Sells for $496,000

Mar 12, 10:53 am ET 

By Pauline Askin

SYDNEY  - A Chinese clothing manufacturer paid A$675,000 ($496,000) Friday for a bale of Australian wool finer than cashmere or human hair, to be turned into fashionable suits.

The 90-kg (198-lb) bale of wool, grown on sheep living in a low-stress air-conditioned shed and fed a special diet, was bought at auction in Sydney by Shanghai-based Hengyuanxiang Corp.

Its representative said suits made from the wool would sell for up to US$80,000, with other fashionable clothes also to be made from the feathery fleece that almost floats on one's hand.

"We are very happy to buy this bale. In fact, we are quite pleased, because this bale is worth more than a million (Australian dollars)," said the representative, Frank Yao of wool trader Kaythaytet.

A bale of superfine Australian wool, widely used in the fashion industry, is normally worth around A$1,000, but farmers Rick and Bim Goodrish had hoped for more than A$1 million for the bale grown on their sheltered sheep, whose home is dubbed the Wooldorf Astoria.

The bale had been locked in a bank vault under armed guard in the lead up to Friday's auction.

The record price for a bale of wool is US$1.2 million, set in a 1997 sale of Australian fleece to a Japanese company.

The wool sold Friday is special because its fiber has a diameter of just 11.9 microns -- the first ever to be less than 12 microns and up to 26 percent finer than wool normally used for cashmere clothing.

Average wool produced in Australia is 20 microns in diameter. 

Christ Film Reaches Mexico 16 Years Later

Mar 12, 10:41 am ET 

By Elizabeth Fullerton

MEXICO CITY  - As debate rages worldwide over Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Mexico is just coming to grips with a Martin Scorsese crucifixion film banned here since its release in 1988.

Heavily Catholic Mexico outlawed director Scorsese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ" for portraying a weak-willed Jesus Christ tempted to have sex with Mary Magdalene.

It will finally debut in cinemas here on Friday.

The film's distributor said this week it was launching "this work of art so the Mexican public can decide for itself and draw its own conclusions."

The film has been timed to open exactly one week before the March 19 Mexican premiere of Gibson's "The Passion" -- alleged by some groups to be anti-Semitic and excessively violent, but praised by the Roman Catholic church, evangelical groups and some film critics.

The ban on Scorsese's film highlighted the strong influence wielded behind-scenes by Mexico's conservative church hierarchy despite the nation's tradition of church-state separation.

In 2002, church leaders pushed for a ban on "The Crime of Father Amaro," starring Latin hearthrob Gael Garcia as a venal priest who has an affair with a teenage girl.

The election President Vicente Fox in 2000 ended seven decades of one-party rule and offered new promise of democracy and freedom of expression.

Fox, a practicing Catholic, refused to ban "Father Amaro" but agreed to delay it until after a visit by the Pope.

The church reportedly threatened to excommunicate the film's protagonists and said any Mexican who saw it would be sinning. But people flocked to theaters and the film became Mexico's highest grossing domestic film ever.

This time round, the church accepts that times have changed.

"We are against this type of film but we can't go against the right of those who are interested in seeing it. We have to respect freedom of expression," Father Jose de Jesus Aguilar, a senior cleric in Mexico City, told The News Source.

He said Gibson's portrayal of Christ was respectful, whereas Scorsese showed a fictional character.

"We are confident that Christians will certainly go to see 'The Passion of the Christ' and leave 'The Last Temptation of Christ' to one side," said Aguilar.

"Temptation," starring Willem Dafoe and Barbara Hershey, portrays Christ as a reluctant "Chosen One" wrestling with emotions and vices like an ordinary human being.

Its release this week is not expected to cause much of a stir in this nation where 90 percent of the population professes Catholicism but many do not go to church. Gibson's film appears to be attracting more interest.

"It's the one I'm selling most. I don't know if it's because people here are very Catholic or because they like to see Christ being beaten up," said Carlos Rojas, a vendor of pirate videos at a street market in the capital. 

1st Mich. Wolverine Spotted in 200 Years

Wed Feb 25, 4:47 PM ET 
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By DAVID RUNK, News Source Writer 

DETROIT - A biologist has confirmed the sighting of a real Michigan wolverine, about 200 years after the species was last seen in the state that uses the small but ferocious animal as its unofficial nickname. 

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� Species Account (Wolverine Foundation)

Coyote hunters spotted a wolverine near Ubly, about 90 miles north of Detroit. Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Arnie Karr saw the forest predator Tuesday and snapped pictures of the animal as it ran out of the woods and across a field. 

The wolverine, a member of the weasel family that grows to about 25 pounds but is ferocious enough to fight off bears and wolves, once ranged across the northern and western United States. It is now limited mostly to northern Canada, Idaho and Alaska, with sightings in a few other states, but its last confirmed sightings in Michigan were by fur traders in the late 1700s and early 1800s. 

The appearance is "up there with having a caribou or a polar bear turn up," Department of Natural Resources spokesman Brad Wurfel said Wednesday. "It's unprecedented." 

How the scrappy animal returned and even whether it ever really left are mysteries in the state, where the best-known Wolverines are athletes at the University of Michigan. 

Raymond Rustem, supervisor of the natural heritage unit in the department's wildlife division, said the wolverine could have traveled to the state, been released or escaped from captivity. 

"What it means, who knows?" Rustem said. "When you take a look at the wolverine, there's always been this debate about whether wolverines ever were a part of Michigan's recent past. Some evidence shows that, some says no." 

The wolverine was on Michigan's endangered species list until the late 1990s, when it was removed because it wasn't expected to return, Rustem said. Conservationists asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put the animal on its endangered list in 2000, but the agency in October declined to study whether the species should be added. 

Jay-Z-Beatles Album an Unauthorized Hit 

Wed Feb 25, 8:24 AM ET

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, News Source Music Writer 

NEW YORK - When DJ Dangermouse decided to combine raps from Jay-Z's "The Black Album" with music from the Beatles' legendary "White Album" to create "The Grey Album," he didn't have permission from either side to do it - and he didn't care. 

"I intended for it to be for friends and for people who knew my stuff. I figured it would get passed around, and it would be this little underground thing, but it kind of took off on its own," said the music producer, born Brian Burton. 

That's an understatement. Although he only pressed up a few thousand copies on CD, it has become a hotly traded album on the Web, sparking the consternation of the Beatles' parent label and an Internet protest in support of Dangermouse. 

"This was not my intent to break copyright laws. It was my intent to make an art project," the Los Angeles-based producer told The News Source. 

The ingenious album reconfigures the trippy Beatles rock to jibe with the Jay-Z's rough acapella raps. It's just the latest of countless unauthorized DJ mixes that have multiplied thanks to the power of the Internet. 

"It's a complete deconstruction and reconstruction," says Dangermouse, who says he spent two weeks on the project. 

Although Dangermouse says he created the "Grey Album" only for fans and friends, he did sell some copies to record stores and promote it on his Web site, www.djdangermouse.com. 

Jay-Z's label, Roc-a-fella Records, didn't take any action against Dangermouse. While Damon Dash, head of Roc-a-fella, told The News Source that proper permission should have been obtained, he said, "I think it hot. It's the Beatles. It's two great legends together." 

But EMI, which owns the Beatles recordings, sent Burton a cease-and-desist order. "The DJ did not ask permission at any time - never approached us," said Jeanne Meyer, senior vice president of corporate communications for EMI. 

Not that Dangermouse could remove all the copies from the Internet, even if he wanted to.

The album's profile may have gotten even bigger Tuesday, when the music activism site downhillbattle.org urged fans to post the music on Web sites for a day to protest EMI's cease-and-desist order. Nicholas Reville, a co-founder of the site, says more than 150 sites have participated. 

"What's going on is that EMI is censoring a work of art," he said. "Not only are they telling musicians the kind of music they can or cannot create, they're trying to tell the public what we can and cannot listen to. We think EMI's attempts to censor it and prevent the public from hearing it are a huge problem and we shouldn't allow that kind of corporate censorship." 

However, Meyer said the issue was not about censorship, but copyright protection. She says EMI routine approves samples and remixed works (usually for a price). 

"We're not against sampling, We're not against remixes, we've been really progressive in it," she said. "The work is unauthorized, and people who are hosting it or are streaming it are being advised to stop." 

Burton, who has produced tracks for artists like the rapper Cee-Lo and released the album "Ghetto Pop Life" last year with artist Jemini on Lex Records, was not getting involved with the Internet protest. He says the real intent of creating the "Grey Album" wasn't to protest copyright laws, but to create a musical dialogue between fans. 

"I'm getting people like high school teachers using it as a lecture," he says, adding that Beatles fans have become more appreciative of Jay-Z's work, and vice versa. 

"Their kids are asking for Beatles records now. I wanted to kind of have that be passed on to other people, that such radical things can really work." 

___ 

On the Web: 

www.downhillbattle.org 

Cursed Ball About to Get Whacked

Wed Feb 25, 7:55 AM ET

By P.J. Huffstutter Times Staff Writer 

CHICAGO - At Harry Caray's sports bar, surrounded by mementos of baseball legends, The Ball sits safely inside a display case - watched over by 13 surveillance cameras, two anti-theft alarms and 24-hour security guards. 

All this to protect, at least until Thursday night, what superstitious Cub fans see as the ultimate symbol of bad luck. For this is the baseball that Steve Bartman, the hapless yet loyal Cub fan, inadvertently knocked away from outfielder Moises Alou in last year's National League championship series. 

Alou didn't catch the foul ball, this ball, and the Florida Marlins rallied to win the game. The Cubs then lost the next game, as well as their chance to get to the World Series (news - web sites), where they haven't been since 1945. 

"If we destroy that ball, it'll finally be all right," said Jeremy Dougherty, 38, a construction worker who dropped by the downtown bar and restaurant for a last peek before the ball is obliterated. "The curse on the Cubs will be lifted." 

Dougherty is among the nearly 30,000 Cubs fans who have sent eager e-mails, made pleading phone calls and scrawled desperate notes on the bar's cocktail napkins to Grant DePorter. 

Managing partner of the Harry Caray's Restaurant Group, which was founded by and named after the beloved longtime announcer for the Cubs, DePorter bought the ball in December for $113,824.16. 

The Cubbies' faithful all want one thing: to destroy The Ball. 

They have suggested DePorter roast it, incinerate it, crush it, drown it, drop it into a bucket of acid, split it into two with an ax, put it in front of a firing squad, launch it into outer space, shove it into a shredder, scatter its remains at sea, even freeze it in liquid nitrogen and shatter it into a million pieces. 

Some way, any way, get rid of it. 

On Thursday night, their pleas will be heeded. Only the method remains a mystery. 

"This ball is baseball's anti-trophy," DePorter said. "I had a pit in my stomach, for sure, because it was so expensive. But what would happen if we didn't destroy it and some Marlins fan got ahold of it? What if someone used it to psych out the Cubs next year? No, it's got to go." 

After nearly six decades without making the World Series, Cub fans have grown used to a string of bad luck that would depress even the condemned. 

Many trace the start of the downhill slide to a local saloon owner who, in 1945, bought two tickets to a game. One seat was for him, and one was for his goat. 

When Wrigley Field officials refused to let the goat in, the shop owner reportedly cursed the Cubs: Until they allowed his goat to enter, the Cubs would always lose. 

"And they lost," said team historian Ed Hartig. "This is a very superstitious sports town." 

But for DePorter, all of The Ball's bad vibes have been great for business. Since buying the ball off an Internet auction website, DePorter and the restaurant's management have been seeking suggestions from Cub fans on ways to whack it. 

Among those clamoring to blow it up was Michael Lantieri, a Hollywood mechanical effects supervisor. Lantieri, who won an Oscar for his work on "Jurassic Park," was raised in the Chicago area and is a longtime Cub fan. 

"When I heard that Grant was going to destroy the ball, I e-mailed him a couple ideas. I'm used to blowing stuff up for the movies," Lantieri said. 

DePorter, who declined to say what Lantieri's ideas were, contacted the Hollywood expert, who agreed to donate his time and figure out the perfect way to vaporize the ball. 

Rawlings, the St. Louis-based sporting goods company that makes equipment for Major League Baseball, shipped Lantieri boxes of balls - as well as information on their history and material makeup. 

Each day, he would try to destroy as many as a dozen balls. And each day, the results just weren't destructive enough. 

Fire? "The baseball burned on the outside but not at the core," Lantieri said. 

Crushing it from pressure? "There were still large chunks that could be used as a ball," he said. 

Shredding? "Don't ask," he replied. 

"I even went to my black Labrador and told her to destroy it," Lantieri said. "She couldn't hurt it." 

While the experiments rolled on, word of Lantieri's work began to spread among Cub fans. Eager to lend their advice, fans tracked Lantieri down. 

They began calling him at home and on his cellphone. They even went after him at work, on the set of an upcoming Jim Carrey comedy, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." 

"My own phone has probably rung 100 times today alone, and the production office gets a dozen calls on this a day," Lantieri said. 

The film's executive team, however, understands and supports the flood of concern: Executive producer James Van Wyck "played baseball and told me to do what I had to do," Lantieri said. 

Last week, Lantieri figured out the perfect ball-destroying solution. But he's not talking - and neither is DePorter. 

The Ball will meet its surprise ending at a street party outside the bar and restaurant Thursday night. The soiree will be shown live nationwide on MSNBC, as well as at bars in 50 countries. 

The "Today Show" will be on hand, and "we also expect crews from CNN and ESPN to be here," said Beth Goldberg Heller, director of special events for Harry Caray's Restaurant Group. 

The event, which Major League Baseball and the Cubs organization support, has been called "Destroy the Ball - Find the Cure," as some of the revenue from the street party will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. 

Officials with Harry Caray's said they hoped to raise as much as $2 million from merchandise sales and event sponsors, as well as donations from partygoers. 

One key player is not expected to be at the cleansing of the Cubs' bad mojo: Steve Bartman. 

Harry Caray officials said they invited him, but Bartman - who's received death threats over the most-foul mishap - prefers to avoid attention. 

Leaked Pentagon report warns climate change may bring famine, war: report

Sun Feb 22, 5:17 PM ET

Add Politics - NEWS SOURCE 

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - A secret report prepared by the Pentagon (news - web sites) warns that climate change may lead to global catastrophe costing millions of lives and is a far greater threat than terrorism. 

The report was ordered by an influential US Pentagon advisor but was covered up by "US defense chiefs" for four months, until it was "obtained" by the British weekly The Observer. 

The leak promises to draw angry attention to US environmental and military policies, following Washington's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) on climate change and President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s skepticism about global warning -- a stance that has stunned scientists worldwide. 

The Pentagon report, commissioned by Andrew Marshall, predicts that "abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies," The Observer reported. 

The report, quoted in the paper, concluded: "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life.... Once again, warfare would define human life." 

Its authors -- Peter Schwartz, a CIA (news - web sites) consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of Global Business Network based in California -- said climate change should be considered "immediately" as a top political and military issue. 

It "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern", they were quoted as saying. 

Some examples given of probable scenarios in the dramatic report include: 

-- Britain will have winters similar to those in current-day Siberia as European temperatures drop off radically by 2020. 

-- by 2007 violent storms will make large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable and lead to a breach in the acqueduct system in California that supplies all water to densely populated southern California 

-- Europe and the United States become "virtual fortresses" trying to keep out millions of migrants whose homelands have been wiped out by rising sea levels or made unfarmable by drought. 

-- "catastrophic" shortages of potable water and energy will lead to widespread war by 2020. 

Randall, one of the authors, called his findings "depressing stuff" and warned that it might even be too late to prevent future disasters. 

"We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years," he told the paper. 

Experts familiar with the report told the newspaper that the threat to global stability "vastly eclipses that of terrorism". 

Taking environmental pollution and climate change into account in political and military strategy is a new, complicated and necessary challenge for leaders, Randall said. 

"It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat," he said. 

Coming from the Pentagon, normally a bastion of conservative politics, the report is expected to bring environmental issues to the fore in the US presidential race. 

Last week the Union of Concerned Scientists, an influential and non-partisan group that includes 20 Nobel laureates, accused the Bush administration of having deliberately distorted scientific fact to serve its policy agenda and having "misled the public". 

Its 38-page report, which it said took over a year to prepare and was not time to coincide with the campaign season, details how Washington "systematically" skewed government scientific studies, suppressed others, stacked panels with political and unqualified appointees and often refused to seek independent expertise on issues. 

Critics of the report quoted by the New York Times denied there was deliberate misrepresentation and called it politically motivated. 

The person behind the leaked Pentagon report, Andrew Marsall, cannot be accused of the same partisan politicking. 

Marsall, 82, has been an advisor for the defense department for decades, and was described by The Observer as the author of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's plans for a major transformation of the US military. 

That Candy Bar Tastes Sweeter When You're Hungry

Mon Feb 23, 4:40 PM ET

Add Health 

By Alison McCook 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Skipping a meal or two makes you more sensitive to the taste of your next sweet or salty snack, new research shows. 

After a group of people went for about 15 hours without eating, they became better able to taste the miniscule amounts of sweet or salty flavors added to solutions, compared to when they tasted the same solutions on a full stomach. 

In contrast, hunger had no influence on participants' abilities to detect bitter tastes, the report indicates. 

"We have discovered that hunger increases sensitivity of taste to sweet and salty substances but it does not affect taste sensitivity to bitter substances," study author Dr. Yuriy Zverev told The News Source Health. 

Zverev added that hungry people's taste buds may respond differently to salt, sweet and bitter because those tastes communicate different things about our food. Sweet and salty tastes are often signs that a particular food is edible, he explained, so when we are hungry, our bodies become more sensitive to what foods can fill our stomachs. 

Once we are full, however, it is less important for us to be tuned into food, and we may consequently lose our sensitivity to the taste cues of what makes something edible. As he put it, "Biological significance of substances of nutritional value declines after a meal." 

In contrast, a bitter tastes signals that the food is "not suitable for consumption and should be rejected," Zverev noted, and this is an important message to heed, regardless of whether or not we are hungry. 

During the study, Zverev, who is based at the University of Malawi, asked 16 non-obese men to taste a number of substances that contained different concentrations of sweet, salty and bitter flavors. He measured the least amount of flavor needed for participants to correctly identify the taste when they were not hungry, and compared that to least flavored solution they could taste when hungry. 

During periods of hunger, people could taste the sweet and salty flavors added to solutions that they rated as tasteless when well-fed, Zverev reports in the journal BMC Neuroscience. 

Although the bodily processes that enable tasters to change their sensitivity to flavors when hungry are not clear, Zverev suggested that periods of hunger may result in changes in the taste buds themselves or the regions of the brain that process taste. 

SOURCE: BMC Neuroscience 2004. 

Counterfeiters appear to be stumped by new $20 bill

Mon Feb 23, 7:00 AM ET

Add Business - USATODAY.com 

By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY 

It's been four months since newly designed, color-filled $20s began circulating, and early results suggest counterfeiters are having a harder time faking them.

In the first four months, more than $1 million in fake new $20s were accepted by businesses and later detected. That's more than five times the $192,000 passed and caught in the same period after the 1998 redesign, says the Secret Service, the agency in charge of anti-counterfeiting efforts.

More money being caught, even if it was originally accepted, suggests the new $20s are harder to fake because they are easier to spot - the government's goal in the redesign.

"It's definitely a good thing," says Dennis Forgue, head of the currency department and an anti-counterfeiting expert at Harlan J. Berk, a Chicago dealer in coins and currency. "If people use (the security features) properly, they're easy to detect."

Police around the country said a rush of fake $20s after the bills were introduced in October seems to have died down. That also suggests counterfeiters might be frustrated. 

"It's almost come to a dead stop here," says police spokesman Cpl. Kelley Cradduck of Rogers, Ark. Last month, eight people were arrested in Rogers in connection with a counterfeit case that included more than $1,000 of fake new $20s that businesses accepted from October into last month. 

The new $20s have shades of green, peach and blue along with security features including a watermark, color-shifting ink and a security thread. That hasn't deterred everyone:

� Garden City, Idaho, police confiscated $1,600 in fake $20s from a Boise home last month.

� A 23-year-old college student goes on trial in Xenia, Ohio, in April after being caught allegedly trying to buy money orders with counterfeit $20s. 

� A 14-year-old and a 16-year-old in Mount Vernon, N.Y., were arrested in December after one tried to buy food at the school cafeteria with a fake $20 and the other was caught giving a fake bill to a friend.

Police detectives say some counterfeiters have been successful in mimicking the subtle colors on the new $20s.

"There's no such thing as a counterfeit-proof bank note," says Bruce Townsend, deputy assistant director at the Secret Service's office of investigations.

U.S. Watches Texas Farmworkers for Bird Flu Symptoms 
45 minutes ago

By Randy Fabi and Christopher Doering 

WASHINGTON  - A Texas chicken flock was diagnosed with an "extremely infectious and fatal" form of bird flu on Monday, and federal health officials began monitoring area farmworkers as a precaution against the first U.S. outbreak of a severe form of the disease in 20 years. 

Although the strain in Texas was considered a low health threat to humans and different from the one blamed for the recent deaths of at least 22 people in Asia, officials could not rule out a risk as they faced a severe form of the disease for the first time in 20 years. 

A team of federal human and animal health experts went into action after weekend tests showed the Texas flock had a more virulent flu virus, known as H5N2, than a mild strain found this month in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. 

"Past experience with H5N2 viruses has indicated there is a low threat to public health," Dr. Nancy Cox of the Centers for Disease Control told reporters. 

She said there were no known cases of the strain infecting humans, but said, "Nevertheless, as we move forward with this situation, we must keep an open mind and really monitor the situation as we go." 

Ron DeHaven, the U.S. Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, told reporters there was "no epidemiological link" between the Texas infection and the Asian outbreak. 

The Asian outbreak has alarmed scientists, who say it shows that a deadly strain of bird flu can jump species. Bangkok officials have also confirmed the deaths of two house cats from bird flu, the first domesticated mammals known to have contracted the disease in this outbreak. 

The Agriculture Department classified the flu strain found in Gonzales County, Texas, about 50 miles east of San Antonio, as "highly pathogenic" to poultry and said it was "extremely infectious and fatal" to chickens. 

The last time a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was found in the United States was in 1984, DeHaven said. More than 17 million birds were killed at a cost of nearly $65 million. 

SHARES LOWER 

Shares in poultry companies, including the nation's largest poultry producer, Tyson Foods Inc., fell in response to the Texas case. In late trading, Tyson was down 45 cents at $15.41 per share. 

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, some cattle and hog futures prices were also lower amid concerns that bans on U.S. poultry exports could cause a "meat glut." 

Farmers fear bird flu because sick birds produce fewer eggs, which are often misshapen or soft-shelled. A mild form of the virus, commonly found in ducks and other migratory birds, is spread through the birds' feces or mouth secretions. 

The infected Texas flock was discovered Friday and was initially thought to have a mild form of the virus. Farms within a 10-mile radius were being tested. 

Workers involved in destroying the Texas flock of 6,600 were urged to monitor their health for the next 10 days. Symptoms of bird flu in humans include fever, sore throat, muscle aches and pneumonia. 

The Agriculture Department urged area farmers to take precautions against spreading the disease. Bird flu can spread rapidly spread via farm equipment, feed delivery trucks, shoes, clothing and the wind. 

Russia, the top U.S. poultry buyer, and more than two dozen other nations have banned imports of at least some U.S. poultry since bird flu emerged in U.S. flocks this month. 

Industry officials fear the Texas case may prompt Russia to expand its ban to cover all U.S. poultry. 

"Our government is presenting the facts of the situation to other countries, and we hope that the trade repercussions will be limited," said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council. The ban on poultry shipments comes on the heels of mad cow disease discovered in December in a Washington state dairy cow, which halted virtually all U.S. beef exports. 

The Bottomless Cup and the Topless Waitress?

Feb 23, 9:43 am ET 

BOSTON  - Facing stiff competition from nationwide coffee shop chains, one Maine businessman wants to offer more than just a regular cup of cappuccino to perk up his customers -- so he's hiring topless waitresses.

Normand St Michel submitted an application with the town of Madison, Maine to open a topless coffee bar named the Heavenly Angels Coffee Shop.

"He has the go-ahead as far as the town is concerned," said Robert Dunphy, the town's code enforcement officer, adding that the project does not violate Madison's obscenity ordinance.

With that hurdle cleared, St Michel now has to make the establishment accessible to disabled customers and compliant with fire safety standards.

And even though city laws do not require the Heavenly Angels to impose an age limit, St Michel has decided to only admit those 18 or over.

"Not everyone wants (the coffee shop) but the age limit makes most everyone happy," Dunphy said.

The coffee shop is set to open during the summer.

St Michel was not immediately available for comment. 

Carrie Picks Mr. Big, Returns to N.Y. 

2 hours, 30 minutes ago

By FRAZIER MOORE, News Source Television Writer 

NEW YORK - Torn between two lovers, Carrie Bradshaw returned to Mr. Big and New York, ditching Aleksandr in Paris, on Sunday's finale of "Sex and the City." Her big decision settled a question this HBO comedy had been building toward for six seasons: What man, if any, would Carrie end up with? 

The satisfying answer: Carrie (series star Sarah Jessica Parker (news)) chose the on-again/off-again businessman beau (Chris Noth (news)) with whom she first struck sparks on the series' premiere. 

But first, she had to confront her mistake in leaving her world behind to move to Paris with Aleksandr, the self-involved, neglectful artist played by Mikhail Baryshnikov (news). 

"I am someone who's looking for love, real love ... can't-live-without-each-other love - and I don't think that love is here," Carrie tells him. 

Moments later, Big, who has come to his senses and raced across the ocean to bring her home, finds her, alone, in her hotel lobby. 

"It took me a really long time to get here," he says. "But I'm here. Carrie, you're the one." 

After nearly 100 romantic and often raunchy installments, "Sex" closed the book with a top-secret, much-hyped conclusion that made good on its promise to resolve the love life of New York sex columnist Carrie. 

Meanwhile, it nicely tied up some details concerning her three gal pals: 

_ Miranda, the hard-nosed realist played by Cynthia Nixon (news), remained a happy mother and the wife of bartender Steve, living in Brooklyn (where she opened her heart to Steve's ailing mother, inviting her to come live with them). 

_ Charlotte, the idealist (Kristin Davis (news)) and her husband, Harry (formerly her divorce lawyer) got their wish, at last: they'll be adopting a baby girl from China. 

_ And hot-blooded Samantha (Kim Cattrall (news)) was solid with her boy-toy hunk, Smith, despite the loss of her sex drive from treatment for breast cancer. In a tender moment, he declares his love for her. "You've meant more to me than any man I've ever known," a tearful Samantha replies. 

Voila! A few scenes later, she's her lusty self, nude in the sack astride Smith. Her final line is a howl of pleasure. 

Back in New York, Carrie surprises her friends at the coffee shop where they've exchanged so many confidences with one another (and viewers) through the years. 

Then, as a special treat at the fadeout, the man Carrie dubbed "Mr. Big" so long ago phones her and, for the first time, viewers learn his real name, displayed on the caller ID: John. 

"The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself," says Carrie in her role as narrator. "And if you find someone to love the you you love," she concludes, "well, that's just fabulous." 

The Manhattan-set series, which premiered in June 1998, became a cultural phenomenon, defining a new breed of modern woman who wasn't afraid to talk about men - and her desire for them - with raw honesty even as she placed top priority on friendships with other women. 

But as the announced end neared, accompanied by a flood of eulogies, a contradictory message was gaining volume: Maybe this won't be the sure-nuff end of "Sex," after all. 

The series' top executive, Michael Patrick King, and the show's cast are in discussions with HBO about a movie that would continue the saga, HBO spokeswoman Tobe Becker confirmed Thursday. 

The details remained in doubt. Indeed, in addressing the question two weeks ago, co-producer Parker unleashed a flood of conditionals befitting a politician on the stump. 

"I haven't made any decisions about how we might revisit this show and in what medium," she said, listing several unrelated projects that might occupy her for the immediate future. 

"It's very important to me that we are dignified and graceful in our exit from the (current) series," Parker declared. "After that, if we hear a cry from the public, I think we have to respond to that, if we can do right by them." 

___ 

On the Net: 

www.hbo.com 

What are some of the qualities you look for in someone you are dating?: A warm, compassionate companion. Enjoys simple pleasures - nature, animals, holding hands, conversation. A good listener with an open mind and a variety of interests. An understanding heart seeking to share the journey together... 

What things turn you off about someone?: I enjoy reliable, compassionate friends open to new experiences! 

Tell others more about yourself: Hi! I am a teacher and graphic artist. I enjoy writing, animals, computers, reading, and design. A few of my hobbies are collecting pyramids and designing web sites. My pets are a great source of peace and devotion. Currently, I care for four cats. I'm online a lot. Web design has become my latest creative endeavor. I find myself drawn to the study of spirituality. As I continue to grow within, I am discovering a more peaceful existence. 

Schwarzenegger Argues for White House Run

50 minutes ago

By ERICA WERNER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites), making his Sunday talk show debut as governor, said that he and other foreign-born citizens should be eligible to run for the White House and that President Bush (news - web sites) can carry California in November if he does more to help the state. 

The Austrian-born former bodybuilder, in the capital for his first meeting with fellow governors, said he has not thought about running for president in the future. The Constitution says only natural-born citizens of the United States are eligible for the country's highest office. 

The Republican governor said anyone who has been in America more than 20 years - as he has - should "absolutely" be able to seek the presidency. A constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would make that possible. 

"There are so many people in this country that are now from overseas, that are immigrants, that are doing such a terrific job with their work, bringing businesses here, that there's no reason why not," said Schwarzenegger, who came to America in 1983. 

"Look at the kind of contribution that people like Henry Kissinger have made, Madeleine Albright (news - web sites)," he said, referring to two former secretaries of state who were born in Europe. 

Schwarzenegger said on NBC's "Meet the Press' that he has been too busy with California's problems to contemplate a future run for the White House. "I have no idea, I haven't thought about that at all," he said. 

Schwarzenegger reaffirmed his opposition to the gay marriages that are taking place in San Francisco. He said Mayor Gavin Newsom's refusal to obey the state's law against same-sex marriages could set a bad precedent. 

On Friday, the governor said he had directed California's attorney general to take action to stop the marriages. 

"In San Francisco it is license for marriage of same sex. Maybe the next thing is another city that hands out licenses for assault weapons and someone else hands out licenses for selling drugs, I mean you can't do that," Schwarzenegger said on NBC. 

"We have to stay within the law. There's a state law that says specific things, and if you want to challenge those laws then you can go to the court," he said. 

Schwarzenegger, who was sworn in Nov. 17 after winning a special election to replace recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites), is making his first visit to Washington since taking office. 

He is attending the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. State leaders were to meet with Bush at the White House on Monday. 

Schwarzenegger campaigned during last year's recall election on a pledge to be "the Collectinator" and get more money for California from the federal government. Bush's budget, however, did little to help the state. 

Schwarzenegger said he did not feel let down by the president and said Bush can win California in November - if he does more to help the state financially. Bush lost California by 1.3 million votes to Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) in 2000. 

"I think it is totally directly related to how much he will do for our state, there's no two ways about it," Schwarzenegger said. "Because Californian people are like a mirror, you know that what you do for them they will do back for you," Schwarzenegger said. 

"If the federal government does great things for California this year I think there's no two ways about it, that President Bush can have California, he can be elected, I'm absolutely convinced of that." 

Anonymous Sender Returns Long-Lost Wallet

Feb 2, 10:53 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A wallet lost in southern Sweden more than 40 years ago has been returned to its owner -- with her cash still in it.

Gulli Wihlborg was 18 when she dropped it while cycling in the town of Trelleborg in the summer of 1963.

The wallet contained 45.54 crowns -- a sum she said was half her monthly rent at the time -- receipts and photographs. Its equivalent in today's money is about 412 crowns ($56).

It arrived in the mail at her home of 25 years in the nearby city of Malmo with a handwritten note, saying:

"Dear Gulli, never give up hope. Here is the wallet you dropped on Ostersjogatan (a street) many years ago. Greetings from Trelleborg."

"I find it quite fantastic," she told regional newspaper Trelleborgs Allehanda.

The sender remained unknown. ($1-7.404 Swedish Crown) 

Bill Seeks Feng Shui-Compliant Buildings

Feb 2, 9:30 am ET 

By Elinor Mills Abreu

SAN FRANCISCO  - A California lawmaker thinks buildings in the state should be more light and airy to allow for positive energy flow -- and maybe have more mirrors.

San Francisco Democrat Leland Yee, assistant speaker pro tempore of the State Assembly, said on Friday that he has introduced a resolution urging the state architect and California cities to adopt design standards that allow for the use of feng shui principles.

Feng shui, which translates as "Wind" and "Water," is the Chinese art of geomancy and dates back at least 4,000 years.

The goal is to encourage the flow of "chi," or positive energy, and create living spaces that are in harmony with the environment and promote happiness, health and prosperity.

Many feng shui guidelines are based on common sense, such as placing beds and desks facing doorways, using wall colors to stimulate certain moods and eliminating clutter. Others include using mirrors to create a sense of light and space in rooms and installing fountains to charge the air with more negative ions and help reduce pollutants like dust, pollen and smoke.

"The concept of feng shui is a simple one: to improve your life by improving your relationship to the environment around you," said Yee, who is also a child psychologist.

Yee said he also introduced the resolution after hearing about builders whose feng shui designs were rejected due to restrictive local ordinances.

Recently, some San Francisco real estate agents turned to feng shui as a marketing tool to help sell million-dollar-plus homes that moved more slowly after the dot-com bust.

"It's not about superstition or religion," Yee said. "It's not esoteric."

He also defended his resolution in the face of criticism that it is a frivolous measure at a time when California is facing a $14 billion budget deficit and high unemployment.

"We are hard at work on our budget. We are hard at work on worker's (compensation reform)," he said. "There are also important issues like individuals' culture and individuals' way of life, and we should be supportive of that."

The resolution, which is non-binding, must pass a committee before it can be considered by the full Assembly. 

Woman Reports Neighbor for Disturbingly Loud Sex

Feb 27, 11:09 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German woman took her male neighbor to court for noise pollution after he repeatedly kept her awake through half the night and had at least one four-hour sex session, a court spokeswoman said Friday.

"Four hours of sex noises. What was I supposed to think? It was nothing but groaning and banging," the woman told the judge, a Bild newspaper report said.

The woman told Berlin magistrates that her 25-year old neighbor Andreas G. was disturbing the peace by keeping her awake early in the morning.

Andreas said his 26-year old neighbor had complained in the past, calling at five in the afternoon, but that he had not felt obliged to respond. "I can have as much sex as loud as I want then," he said.

The judge dropped the case on learning that the man had since moved out of the apartment.

Dairy May Lower Risk of Kids' Obesity

Thu Mar 4, 4:14 PM ET 


By DANIEL Q. HANEY, News Source Medical Editor 

SAN FRANCISCO - Youngsters who skimp on milk and other dairy food to avoid calories actually appear to substantially increase their risk of becoming overweight, a study found. 

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Several reports in recent years have shown health benefits of dairy products, despite their fat content. The latest research shows an unusually striking effect on weight as children go through their teens. 

Pediatricians say too much weight is now the most common medical condition of childhood. The problem has doubled over the past two decades, and about 15 percent are now considered overweight or obese. 

While the overall cause is too much food and too little exercise, many studies are attempting to tease apart the precise changes in habits that are driving this health hazard. Several were reported Thursday at a meeting in San Francisco of the American Heart Association (news - web sites). 

Lynn Moore, an epidemiologist at Boston University School of Medicine, found that just two servings of dairy food a day are linked to a substantial reduction in adolescent fatness. 

Childhood dairy intake has been failing for the last 20 years, in part as youngsters' preferences have switched from milk to soft drinks. During this time, soda consumption has risen by 300 percent. 

Another factor, though, has been fat phobia. Youngsters "consume less and less as they get older," Moore said. "Adolescent girls in particular are concerned about eating dairy because they think it will make them fat." 

However, her research, based on the Framingham Children's Study, found just the opposite is true. The analysis was financed largely by the National Health, Lung and Blood Institute with additional funding from the National Dairy Council. 

Several studies - including Moore's - have shown that children and adults who consume adequate amounts of dairy foods have lower blood pressure. Some researchers have put adults on diets with increased dairy and found, to their surprise, that they also seem to lose weight. 

In the latest study, the researchers did frequent dietary surveys on 106 families with children and followed them an average of 12 years. They judged body fat by measuring the skin thickness on four parts of their bodies. 

They found that those who consumed less than two servings a day averaged about an extra inch of fat in a fold of skin, a surprisingly large amount. The children's average skin fold thickness was 75 millimeters, while those who ate little dairy were 25 millimeters greater. 

Dr. Stephen Daniels, associate chairman of the heart center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, noted that the benefit was seen with a relatively modest amount of dairy food, and overdoing it could mean large amounts of extra fat calories. 

"You shouldn't take home from this that you need to eat as much dairy as you can, but it should be part of an overall healthy diet," he said. 

He also noted that no study has yet shown that adding milk to youngsters' diet actually helps them control weight. He said those who get regular dairy foods may weight less because they eat more home-cooked meals or have breakfast each morning. 

Among other findings of Moore's study: 

_Youngsters who ate moderate amounts of fat - between 30 percent and 35 percent of total calories - weighed less than those who ate either more or less. 

_Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables was also associated with lower weight. 

_Contrary to one popular theory, the glycemic index of children's diet - the amount of fast-burning carbohydrates - had no bearing on their eventual weight gain. 

Just how dairy food might moderate weight gain is a mystery. Moore speculated that calcium or some other nutrient in milk might help influence the way the body stores energy in fat cells. Or perhaps dairy foods simply make children feel less hungry. 

Moore noted some parents who cannot eat dairy foods also withhold milk from their children, although lactose intolerance is usually not a problem among the young. 

Another study at the conference, presented by Dr. Nicolas Stettler of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, suggests the important of early infancy weight gain. He followed 1,850 pairs of full-term siblings to help sort out the effects of household and genetic factors. 

Six percent of those who gained between eight and 10 pounds during their first four months of life were obese by the time they reached age six, compared with 3 percent of those who put on between six and eight pounds during this critical early period. 

He said the work suggests that breast-feeding, which leads to less quick weight gain than formula feeding, may help prevent later obesity. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The News Source. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Conference: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier3011130 

Director Makes Dark Comedy About Fast Food

2 hours, 8 minutes ago 
Add Entertainment - 

ASPEN, Colo. - For all the one-liners about McDonald's trimming Supersize servings from its menu, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock doesn't think fat is anything to joke about. 

Spurlock directed "Super Size Me," a dark comedy that skewers America's fast-food culture. The film is being shown at the 10th U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, which will run in Aspen through Sunday. 

"Super Size Me" chronicles Spurlock's experience of eating only fast food for a month - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Spurlock said he gained 24 pounds and his cholesterol soared 65 points during the 30-day experiment. 

Fast-food companies are scrambling to cater to Americans' growing preference for healthier food. McDonald's launched its "Eat Smart, Be Active" initiative last year. 

Spurlock, who is still trying to shed the extra pounds, said the Supersize decision is a direct reaction to "Super Size Me," which won the documentary directing prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites). He said reducing portion sizes is just the first step. 

"My film is about corporate responsibility and individual responsibility," he said. "The company says they're doing their part. Now people have to do their part. People who go to these stores need to realize what they're putting into their mouths." 

McDonald's spokesman Walt Riker has said the phasing out of super-sizing has "nothing to do with that (film) whatsoever." 

The company says the film is not about McDonald's but about Spurlock's decision to act irresponsibly by eating 5,000 calories a day. 

Growing up in West Virginia - he characterized it as "a very fat state" - Spurlock's diet was laden with chicken fried steak, fried baloney sandwiches and bacon. He said his McDonald's-only regimen was even less healthy, in part because of the sedentary "fast food lifestyle" that accompanies it. 

"Super Size Me" is set for general release in May. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.uscaf.com/ 

Woman Served Salad with Human Thumb Garnish

Mar 5, 3:38 pm ET 

CHICAGO  - An Ohio woman was served a salad containing part of a restaurant worker's thumb sliced off while chopping lettuce, a health official said on Friday.

The woman "thought it was gristle or something like that" when she tried to chew the unexpected garnish, said William Franks, health commissioner for Stark County, where the incident occurred earlier this week.

"Physically I think she's OK, other than hysteria," Franks added.

Stark County officials did not release the woman's name.

The restaurant worker accidentally sliced off the tip of his thumb while chopping the ingredients on Monday night at the Red Robin restaurant near Canton, Ohio, he said.

Despite a search, it could not be found.

"The salad should have been discarded," Franks said.

Instead, the workers sanitized the counter area and then refrigerated the ingredients before rushing off to get medical help for the man.

The salad fixings were then served to a lunch crowd on Tuesday, when the piece of thumb was discovered by the patron. The restaurant is part of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. . 

This Is No Yolk

Mar 5, 7:37 am ET 

TIRANA  - People in the Albanian capital Tirana have been shocked by an increasing number of eggs without yolks, local television reported Thursday.

"We broke half of the eggs we bought but they lacked their yolks. Friends of ours told us the same had happened to them and in restaurants as well," a woman told the News24 TV station.

Antonio Conardio, a professor of Fowl Pathology at the University of Bari in Italy, said the all-white eggs were a rare phenomenon that happened when chickens were overdriven to produce more eggs.

The yolkless egg was Albania's second shock this year from apparently freaky fowls. Early in February, news spread of a cock producing an egg. But its owner slaughtered the animal for a Muslim festivity, making checks impossible. 

Maryland: 'Geoffrey the Giraffe' Owes State Taxes

Mar 4, 8:05 am ET 

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK  - Geoffrey the Giraffe, the long-necked mascot of Toys R Us, the No. 2 U.S. toy retailer, is in trouble with the tax man in Maryland.

And even the Dutch Boy of Sherwin-Williams Co., the nation's biggest paint maker, has problems.

Maryland is suing both companies to collect state taxes it claims they owe.

Toys R Us will have to go to court to defend its practice of using an out-of-state subsidiary to avoid paying Maryland taxes on so-called intangibles such as royalties, patents and trademarks, State Comptroller Donald Schaefer said.

Sherwin-Williams also faces a trial date over much the same issue, the comptroller added in a written statement.

Spokesmen for Toys R Us, based in Wayne, New Jersey, and Sherwin-Williams, of Cleveland, Ohio, had no immediate comment.

Both state tax lawsuits are set for trial this autumn.

In 1996, Schaefer started pursuing companies that use what he considers a tax dodge to avoid paying Maryland taxes.

Maryland's comptroller began his quest for more state tax dollars about eight years ago by suing Delaware-based SYL Inc. The unit of clothing discounter Syms Corp. owned the sales slogan, "An Educated Consumer is our Best Customer."

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected SYL Inc.'s appeal of a Maryland court decision. On Wednesday, Schaefer said "an acceptable settlement" was reached. Terms are confidential.

A Syms spokesman had no immediate comment.

In December, Schaefer offered tax-shy companies a one-time amnesty program. Since then, 18 holding companies have paid Maryland almost $14 million, he added.

But Maryland is just one of several states in the hunt.

Many companies have fought back, saying they do not owe taxes to the states because their subsidiaries, which own often highly profitable intangibles, do not do business in those locations.

WorldCom, which collapsed in 2002 in a huge accounting scandal, is the corporate poster child for this issue.

Massachusetts, which modified its corporate tax law to close a loophole, is pursuing WorldCom, said Alan LeBovidge, Massachusetts commissioner of revenues.

WorldCom's subsidiaries paid about $20 billion in royalties for "foresight" and other assets between 1998 and 2001, according to Richard Thornburg's report for a New York bankruptcy court.

This strategy let the telecom company, now known as MCI, shift income from high-tax states to lower-tax ones.

MCI spokeswoman Sudie Nolan said: "We continue to work with the states to solve any disputes." 

Gambler Sues Las Vegas Casino for Barring Him

Mar 3, 9:40 am ET 

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES  - A Los Angeles lawyer who claims he was thrown out of Las Vegas last year because he was too lucky has sued MGM Mirage in a bid to force the casino to warn prospective gamblers that they can be barred for winning too much.

Ernest Franseschi Jr., a frequent gambler, accused MGM officials of surreptitiously photographing him while he played blackjack at a high-stakes table at the chain's New York New York casino last March.

Franseschi claims casino officials circulated the photo to other Las Vegas casinos after he left the blackjack table with thousands of dollars in winnings.

When he returned about an hour later to resume playing, casino officials escorted him to the door and told him he was barred for life from MGM casinos.

Franseschi, who describes himself in the lawsuit as a "better than average blackjack player," said he was ejected from three other Vegas casinos on the same day within minutes of sitting down at the blackjack tables.

He sued MGM and its casinos in Los Angeles Superior Court for invasion of privacy, defamation and allegedly violating California's unfair business practices laws.

The lawsuit asks a judge to award Franseschi $74,000 and to force MGM to include a disclaimer on California advertising that reads, in part: "It is the policy and practice of MGM Mirage particularly to target skillful and/or winning players and bar such persons from gaming at our properties; only losing players and/or unskillful players ... are not subject to being targeted to be barred from MGM Mirage casino properties."

An MGM spokesman said the company was familiar with Franseschi and his lawsuit.

"This lawsuit has no merit and we are confident we will prevail," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said. "We, like any other business, reserve the right to refuse service."

Franseschi, who plays blackjack as a hobby, said casino officials did not accuse him of cheating, but of counting cards to determine which had been played -- a practice that is not illegal.

"You don't even need to count cards. There are some obvious runs ... and it's patently obvious that there is nothing wrong with being able to figure that out," he said.

MGM Mirage, a top hotel and gaming company, owns and operates 14 casino resorts across the country and in Australia and the United Kingdom. 

Bosses in Staffer Shoes Get a Reality Check

Mar 5, 7:41 am ET 

By Jui Chakravorty

NEW YORK  - Never having cleaned a bathroom in his life, Jonathan Tisch was down on his knees, scrubbing with great effort but little interest, under the watchful eye of his supervisor.

Tisch, the chief executive officer of Loews Hotels, a unit of Loews Corp., was one of several CEOs to get down and dirty for a week's worth of labor in the new reality-based show "Now Who's Boss?" airing March 8 on cable's The Learning Channel.

The grueling week humbled them, said the executives, who agreed to work in lower-level jobs in their own companies, but it also made them affect changes in the workplace.

Tisch -- after pushing housekeeping supplies and luggage carts all over the Loews Miami Beach Hotel -- decided to change the staff uniforms. "These just get way too hot. We need to change the fabric," he said from a plush conference room at his corporate offices in New York. "We also need to upgrade the uniforms to make them look hip and trendy."

Tisch, a third-generation hotelier, also decided to make some technological changes that will reduce the time it takes to check in guests.

Representing industries from hospitality to cosmetics, the executives were trained by the flight attendants, housekeeping staff and restaurant busers, whose jobs they performed.

The temporary duties of John Selvaggio, president of Song Air Service, the low-cost carrier of Delta Air Lines, included making sushi and disposing of raw sewage. He also became aware of more efficient ways of time-management.

"I asked myself: Can you have caterers load an airplane, while cleaners are cleaning it, while passengers are boarding it?" Selvaggio said in an interview. "And I realized while working on the plane -- Yes, we can."

Selvaggio helped reduce turn-around time for planes from one hour and 20 minutes to just 40 minutes.

Song, known for its tempting and varied menus, sells food on its flights -- unlike most other airlines. The carrier hired all its flight attendants from its parent, Delta Air Lines.

"Since flight attendants always served food at Delta, I noticed they knew how to serve the food, but not how to sell it," said Selvaggio, who walked up and down the aircraft aisle, selling candy bars to passengers unaware of his identity.

"I made a sales pitch out of it. I had a better time and the customers had a better time. Oh, and I sold every single Snickers bar we had on board," he said.

Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield, co-chairmen of California Pizza Kitchen, washed dishes, bused tables and made pizzas for five days each.

After a total of 10 days labor, it took them less than two days to implement changes in the kitchen. First, they added two tubs for dishwashing, where previously, all knives, forks and spoons were tossed into one tub. "Then (the staff) had to put (their) hands in there and it was somewhat dangerous and took a lot of time because forks are going one way, knives are going another," Rosenfield said.

It was a relatively minor change, but one that speeded up the process of dishwashing and made it safer. "We got great thanks and telephone calls and letters from our busers around the country," Rosenfield added.

Also, after spending hours spraying and polishing the glass front doors of the restaurants, the executives agreed the doors should be redesigned with "a stainless steel plate where people push on them, so you don't get as many fingerprints," Rosenfield said.

The series, based on the popular British show "Back to the Floor," has six episodes.

Representing the lucrative beauty products industry, Dan Brestle, group president at The Estee Lauder Companies, spent several days making, shipping and selling cosmetics.

Afterward, he suggested a two-day program to teach make-up artists at Stila, an Estee Lauder cosmetics unit, how to sell the make-up they are now trained to apply.

At Loews Miami Beach Hotel, housekeeping supervisor Sara Roiz was charged with training CEO Jonathan Tisch to perform various tasks -- from making beds to cleaning bathrooms. When asked if she would hire him as a hotel employee, she replied: "We'd have to see if he can make it through the three-week training period. Frankly, I don't think he can take it."

Paying for E-Mail May Be Anti-Spam Tactic 

Thu Mar 4, 8:48 PM ET

By ANICK JESDANUN, News Source Internet Writer 

NEW YORK - If the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail for free, our mailboxes would surely runneth over with more credit card offers, sweepstakes entries and supermarket fliers. That's why we get so much junk e-mail: It's essentially free to send. So Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites), among others, is now suggesting that we start buying "stamps" for e-mail. 

Many Internet analysts worry, though, that turning e-mail into an economic commodity would undermine its value in democratizing communication. 

But let's start with the math: At perhaps a penny or less per item, e-mail postage wouldn't significantly dent the pocketbooks of people who send only a few messages a day. Not so for spammers who mail millions at a time. 

Though postage proposals have been in limited discussion for years - a team at Microsoft Research has been at it since 2001 - Gates gave the idea a lift in January at the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos, Switzerland. 

Details came last week as part of Microsoft's anti-spam strategy. Instead of paying a penny, the sender would "buy" postage by devoting maybe 10 seconds of computing time to solving a math puzzle. The exercise would merely serve as proof of the sender's good faith. 

Time is money, and spammers would presumably have to buy many more machines to solve enough puzzles. 

The open-source software Hashcash, available since about 1997, takes a similar approach and has been incorporated into other spam-fighting tools including Camram and Spam Assassin. 

Meanwhile, Goodmail Systems Inc. has been in touch with Yahoo! Inc (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news). and other e-mail providers about using cash. Goodmail envisions charging bulk mailers a penny a message to bypass spam filters and avoid being incorrectly tossed as junk. 

That all sounds good for curbing spam, but what if it kills the e-mail you want as well? 

Consider how simple and inexpensive it is today to e-mail a friend, relative or even a city-hall bureaucrat. It's nice not to have to calculate whether greeting grandma is worth a cent. 

And what of the communities now tied together through e-mail - hundreds of cancer survivors sharing tips on coping; dozens of parents coordinating soccer schedules? Those pennies add up. 

"It detracts from your ability to speak and to state your opinions to large groups of people," said David Farber, a veteran technologist who runs a mailing list with more than 20,000 subscribers. "It changes the whole complexion of the Net." 

Goodmail chief executive Richard Gingras said individuals might get to send a limited number for free, while mailing lists and nonprofit organizations might get price breaks. 

But at what threshold would e-mail cease to be free? At what point might a mailing list be big or commercial enough to pay full rates? Goodmail has no price list yet, so Gingras couldn't say. 

Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers, said spammers are bound to exploit any free allotments. 

"The spammers will probably just keep changing their mailbox names," Cerf said. "I continue to be impressed by the agility of spammers." 

And who gets the payments? How do you build - and pay for - a system to track all this? How do you keep such a system from becoming a target for hacking and scams? 

The proposals are also largely U.S.-centric, and even with seamless currency conversion, paying even a token amount would be burdensome for the developing world, said John Patrick, former vice president of Internet technology at IBM Corp. 

"We have to think of not only, let's say, the relatively well-off half billion people using e-mail today, but the 5 or 6 billion who aren't using it yet but who soon will be," Patrick said. 

Some proposals even allow recipients to set their own rates. A college student might accept e-mail with a one-cent stamp; a busy chief executive might demand a dollar. 

"In the regular marketplace, when you have something so fast and efficient that everyone wants it, the price goes up," said Sonia Arrison of the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank that favors market-based approaches. 

To think the Internet can shatter class distinctions that exist offline is "living in Fantasyland," Arrison said. 

Nonetheless, it'll be tough to persuade people to pay - in cash or computing time that delays mail - for something they are used to getting for free. 

Critics of postage see more promise in other approaches, including technology to better verify e-mail senders and lawsuits to drive the big spammers out of business. 

"Back in the early '90s, there were e-mail systems that charged you 10 cents a message," said John Levine, an anti-spam advocate. "And they are all dead." 

___ 

Anick Jesdanun can be reached at netwriter(at)ap.org. 

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
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/290204rfidtagsexplode.html

Archaeologists in Ethiopia Hope for Older 'Lucy'

Wed Mar 3,12:15 PM ET

Add Science 

ADDIS ABABA  - Archaeologists studying human origins in eastern Ethiopia said on Wednesday a wealth of new finds meant they could hope to discover even older and more complete specimens than the famous fossil "Lucy." 

The scientists excavating fossils in Ethiopia's eastern region of Somali for the last two years said they had unearthed 1,000 specimens of archaeological finds which included stone tools, fauna remains and elephant tusks. 

Also uncovered were 400 fauna and primate remains in Galile, a village 215 miles east of the capital Addis Ababa. 

"Our goals for the future are to find more complete hominid specimens probably from an older time frame than that of Lucy," Gerhard Weber, professor of Anthropology at University of Vienna, Austria, said in a statement. 

Lucy is Ethiopia's world-acclaimed archaeological find, dug up in 1974 in an almost complete hominid skeleton estimated at least 3.2 million years old. Hominids are the family of primates of which humans, homo sapiens, are the only surviving species. 

"Galile is an important opportunity in Ethiopia as well as within the East African Rift to study human origin," Weber said. 

Weber heads the international team composed of researchers from the United States, Germany and Ethiopia. 

He described Galile as an area with high potential to find hominid remains in a more complete and preserved status. 

"These discoveries make the knowledge of human evolution to be better understood," Hasen Said, an Ethiopian archaeologist and associate member of the international team said. 

Three hominid teeth, one believed to be nearly four million years old, were also discovered in Galile, the scientists said. 

Lucy's remain were found in Hadar in the Afar regional state, where 20 years later scientists dug up the remains of a chimpanzee-sized ape, estimated at 4.4 million years old about 47 miles east of Hadar. 

Last year, remains of a 160,000 year-old hominid were also discovered by Ethiopian and American scientists at Herto village in Afar region, about 140 miles northeast of Addis Ababa.

Aristide Again Says He Was Kidnapped from Haiti

Sat Mar 6, 5:06 PM ET

Add World 

By Patricia Zengerle 

MIAMI  - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says his departure from his country was a "kidnapping" as heavily armed "white men" surrounded the National Palace, according to a statement released on Saturday. 

"During the night of the 28th of February 2004, there was a coup d'etat. One could say that it was a geopolitical kidnapping. I can clearly say that it was terrorism disguised as diplomacy," Aristide said in the statement, a transcript of a Friday radio address "to the Haitian People and the World" delivered by cellular telephone to a California radio station. 

The United States has repeatedly dismissed Aristide's contentions that he was kidnapped when he left Haiti on Feb. 29. The Bush administration blames the crisis in Haiti on Aristide, who was restored to power a decade earlier by 20,000 U.S. troops after his ouster in a military coup. 

A former slum priest, Aristide lost public support during his presidency amid charges of corruption, failure to alleviate Haiti's desperate poverty and election fraud. 

But he remains fiercely popular in Haiti's slums, from which tens of thousands of supporters emerged on Friday to call for his return to Haiti and denounce the United States. 

Aristide said U.S. military personnel in Port-au-Prince came to the palace before dawn on Sunday and told him "the foreigners" and armed gangs leading a month-long revolt were near the capital and "already in position to open fire." 

He said the Americans also said his security detail would have to fight to the death and that 25 more guards hired from the United States had been barred from coming to Haiti. 

"There was going to be a bloodbath because we were already under an illegal foreign occupation which was ready to drop bodies on the ground, to spill blood, and then kidnap me dead or alive," he said. 

Aristide said in the statement that he agreed to go to avoid a bloodbath, was forced to sign his letter of resignation and did not know he was going to the Central African Republic until shortly before landing there. 

He urged his supporters to stand together under the Haitian constitution. "... we also know that back home there are people who understand the game, but will not give up because if they give up, instead of finding peace, we will find death." 

Authorities in the Central African Republic, where Aristide is in exile, have voiced concern about Aristide's inflammatory comments about the United States since arriving in its capital Bangui. 

Sale of Body Parts at UCLA Alleged 
Sat Mar 6, 7:55 AM ET

By Charles Ornstein Times Staff Writer 

Two UCLA employees have been placed on leave amid a criminal investigation into allegations that they stole body parts from cadavers donated to the medical school and sold them for personal gain, school officials and others familiar with the investigation said Friday. 

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People familiar with the case said it probably involved dozens of cadavers donated to the school's willed body program over a period of five years. If so, it would dwarf previous scandals involving the sale of cadaver parts at other medical centers around the country. 

Authorities, who first became aware of problems Feb. 26, said they are trying to determine the full extent of the alleged wrongdoing and potential charges. 

The UCLA program, established in 1950 as the first of its kind in the nation, receives about 175 donated bodies each year and makes cadavers available for medical education and research. 

The university is still enmeshed in a lawsuit filed in 1996 involving a previous scandal over the way cadavers had been disposed of for several decades. 

UCLA School of Medicine officials released few details Friday other than to confirm that the two employees had been placed on leave and that a criminal investigation had been launched. 

"We are cooperating fully with the [UCLA] Police Department," which is conducting the investigation," Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, associate vice chancellor of the medical school, said Friday in a statement to The Times. 

He went on to say the university would "share more information as soon as police assure us it will not jeopardize their investigation. At this stage, we must do nothing to undermine the integrity of the investigation, and we will announce additional details in the near future." 

Rosenthal promised in the statement to be "completely forthcoming" at the "earliest possible time." 

Former Gov. George Deukmejian has agreed to take on the job of overseeing reform of the program, Rosenthal said in an interview. Rosenthal has taken over control of the program on a temporary basis to ensure it continues functioning, the physician said. 

Nancy Greenstein, director of police community services for the UCLA Police Department, said her agency is working intensively on the case. UCLA police have the same authority under the law as municipal police officers. 

Sandy Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said Friday evening that she did not believe her agency had yet been informed of the situation. 

The previous scandal involving UCLA's willed body program broke in 1993, when hazardous medical waste was discovered inside boxes of cremated human remains. A funeral-at-sea operator said the debris included broken parts of syringes, glass vials, clumps of used gauze and a rubber glove. 

At the time, UCLA acknowledged that the cremated remains were from the university's willed body program. An official confirmed that materials such as needles had been mixed in with ashes - something he said "should not happen." 

In 1996, lawyers representing relatives of people whose bodies had been donated to the program sued UCLA's medical school and the University of California regents, charging that the willed body program had illegally disposed of thousands of donated bodies since the 1950s. They also claimed that bodies stuffed with medical waste were packed into the university's on-site crematorium several at a time. The lawsuit is pending. 

Told by a reporter about the latest allegations, Mike Arias, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he was shocked. UCLA lawyers had recently convinced the judge in the case that the school had fixed problems in the willed body program and did not need judicial oversight, he said. 

"To have the defendants make representations that their program since 1996 has been a model - and that they've complied with all these state regulations and all the procedural requirements.... To find out this is happening is utterly amazing," Arias said. 

Louis Marlin, an attorney for UCLA, said many of the plaintiffs' claims had been previously dismissed. But he acknowledged that the latest developments would probably have an effect on the 1996 case. 

Problems with willed body programs have also plagued other medical schools. 

In 1999, UC Irvine fired Christopher Brown, the director of its willed body program, amid suspicions that he had improperly sold spines from cadavers to an Arizona research program. The buyers paid $5,000 to a company owned by a business associate of Brown. An audit released in December 2000 found that Brown had misappropriated money and tried to cover it up. 

The audit confirmed that donated cadavers had been used without university permission in a private anatomy class in the willed body morgue and that families may have received the wrong remains or been improperly billed for the return of their relatives' ashes. 

The former director denied wrongdoing. 

Also in 1999, the former chief of a similar program at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona was arrested on suspicion of stealing a medical school corpse. 

The investigation was triggered when Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa bought the cadaver for $1,100 and then protested to university officials that it was poorly preserved. 

Western University officials said they did not know that the cadaver was missing and alerted Pomona police. 

A search of the former program chief's private office revealed two commercial freezers filled with skulls, a head, what appeared to be a heart, and other body parts. 

By day's end, however, he had produced death certificates and other documents showing "that all the parts were legitimate," a police spokesman said. 

On Friday, UCLA officials pledged to correct the problems in their willed body program as soon as possible. 

"We want to assure the public that we will do everything in our power to eliminate whatever inadequacies that existed to ensure that the UCLA willed body program is one that is worthy of the trust given by those who generously donate their remains for the benefit of medical education and research," Rosenthal said in his statement. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.

Americans Eating More Fat, Risking Health - Experts 
Fri Mar 5, 4:00 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - Americans are eating more fat and cholesterol as "low-carb" diets grow in popularity, but people do not seem to be losing weight and they are putting their health at risk, U.S. researchers said on Friday. 

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If the trend continues toward more fat and fewer vegetables and grains, Americans could suffer more heart disease, already the No. 1 killer in the country, they warned. 

"It is pretty clear from marketing data ... that over the past two years there have been specific trends toward more fat intake in the diet. If that is true, that would then suggest that there are tough times ahead with regard to disease risk," said Dr. Randal Thomas of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. 

Several studies being presented at an American Heart Association (news - web sites) meeting on nutrition and heart disease showed the same thing -- Americans eat too much overall, they eat too much fat, and they do not eat enough fruits, vegetables and high-fiber foods. Reporters were briefed on the San Francisco meeting in a telephone news conference. 

Thomas and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that fat and especially cholesterol intake has gone up over the past five years among 1,200 area residents surveyed for the study. 

In 1999, 70 percent of those surveyed were trying to eat less fat in their diets. The share fell to 65 percent in 2003. Daily cholesterol intake rose from 294 milligrams a day in 1999 to 331 in 2003. 

Only 29 percent of the residents -- whom Thomas says are representative of the U.S. public -- met government recommendations of getting no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. 

"Reasons for this trend are unclear but may include the aggressive marketing of dietary plans that recommend the liberal use of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet," Thomas said in a report to the meeting. 

FAT-RICH DIETS 

Such fat-rich plans are led by the Atkins diet, which recommends overloading on protein and fat to cause a metabolic condition called ketosis, in which the body sheds water. 

While some of these diets have been shown over the short term to help some people lose weight and to lower cholesterol, the Heart Association says there are no long-term studies and it does not recommend the diets. 

On the other hand, greater intake of fat and cholesterol is known to worsen heart disease, Thomas said. 

"What this (study) shows is some troubling trends," he told reporters in a telephone briefing. 

"I think any diet that recommends increasing the amount of saturated fat poses a risk. There may be good things about the diet ... but any diet that recommends increases in saturated fat could be increasing the risk in the population." 

And they may not help people lose weight, suggested a study by Linda van Horn of Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues. 

The study assessed more than 4,000 people in the United States, Britain, Japan and China, asking them to write down everything they had eaten over two 24-hour periods. 

"Lo and behold, what we did find is that without exception, a high complex-carbohydrate, high-fiber, high vegetable-protein diet was associated with low body-mass index (the standard measure of healthy weight)," Van Horn said. 

The more animal protein a person ate, the higher his or her weight, she said. 

Dr. Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado, the Heart Association's spokesman on nutrition, said people should aim to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and high-fiber grain foods, reduce fat consumption, and exercise. 

"There are no good foods and bad foods. It is the overall diet that we are interested in," he said. Booming ecotourism is stressing animals to death: science report

Sat Mar 6,12:11 PM ET

Add Science - NEWS SOURCE 

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - Ecotourism is a booming business, but it could be devastating to the flora and fauna it aims to protect, it was reported. 

New Scientist reports, worried biologists have warned that wild animals are manifesting signs of extreme stress when they come into contact with humans. 

"Polar bears and penguins, dolphins and dingoes, even birds in the rainforest are becoming stressed. They are losing weight, with some dying as a result," the British journal says. 

Heart rates increase, reproduction decreases and hormones go awry with contact, made ever more frequent by the growing numbers of holiday adventurers flocking to remote, biodiverse areas. 

Bottlenosed dolphins along New Zealand's coast became frenetic around tourist boats, resting for as little as 0.5 percent of the time when three or more boats are close, compared with 68 percent of the time in the presence of a single research boat, researchers who have studied them since 1996 found. 

Polar bears who should be resting during chilly October and November months in Manitoba, Canada, ahead of their seal-hunting season, have also been made anxious by humans. 

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, researchers Markus Dyck and Richard Baydack said signs of vigilance among male bears increased nearly sevenfold when tourists were around, adding that it could use up their energy, thereby reducing essential body fat, with potential long-term consequences on breeding. 

One vehicle is all it takes to set the bears on edge, they said. 

Among the baby yellow-eyed penguins of New Zealand's Otago peninsula, researchers frequently found more than a 10-percent drop in weight for chicks in areas frequented by tourists. 

Philip Seddon of the country's University of Otago said this could be the result of parents taking longer to reach chicks after foraging for food. 

"Penguins will run back into the sea if approached on the beach, and will wait beyond the breakers until a beach is clear," he told New Scientist. 

Underweight baby penguins were less likely to survive, he said, adding that tourists coming to see the flightless birds could bring about the end of their colony. 

From polar caps to steamy jungles, ecotourism has had a major impact on local economies and wildlife populations. 

The industry promotes an up-close view of nature and a host of outdoor activities, while encouraging sustainable and environmentally-sensitive development. 

It has grown at what New Scientist reported is an annual 10- to 30-percent rate to become a billion-dollar industry which in 1998 attracted nearly nine million people in 87 nations and territories. 

Even the United Nations (news - web sites) has gotten behind the business, as when it dubbed 2002 the year of ecotourism. 

But apart from a few notable exceptions, ecotourist projects are unaudited, unaccredited and promise environmental responsibility without actually having to prove it. 

Mostly they follow more basic guidelines concerning land use, cutting down trees and kindly trying not to scare the animals, the British journal says. 

Even carefully controlled ecotourism often makes itself felt. As Seddon told New Scientist: "Transmission of disease to wildlife, or subtle changes to wildlife health through disturbance of daily routines or increased stress levels, while not apparent to a casual observer, may translate to lowered survival and breeding." 

In the Amazon rainforest, a colorful bird called the hoatzin was studied by Antje Mullner of Germany's Frankfurt Zoological Society and Martin Wikelski of Princeton University.

In tourist-visited areas in the Cuyabeno reserve of Ecuador, only 15 percent of hoatzin nests contained an egg, compared with 50 percent in restricted areas. 

Young hoatzins had double the levels of the stress hormone corticosterone than those in tourist-free areas. By placing microphones in their nests, researchers discovered that while the birds did not flee at human contact, their heart rates soared. 

Ecotourism is an excellent resource for biodiverse developing nations, but biologists are calling for precise pre-studies such as theses before setting up business, the journal says. 

"Pre-tourism data should always be collected, where possible," Rochelle Constantine, who studied New Zealand's dolphins, says. 

"The animals' welfare should be paramount because without them there will be no ecotourism."

Car Designed Just for Women 05-Mar-2004

Volvo has a new concept car designed especially for women. It has changeable seat pads, in different colors and patterns, tons of storage, and a hood that doesn't open. 

Jorn Madslien writes in bbcnews.com that the car, which is now on display at the Geneva auto show in Switzerland, was designed by a team of women. "The car is shown with a light yellow, embroidered seat pad, maybe for the more elegant occasion," says Maria Widell Christiansen. "Then in winter you might chose a woolen seat pad, maybe in a strong cozy color, or you may go for the lighter, more Scandinavian looking one." 

Instead of having fold-down back seats, the back seats are always folded down, in order to leave room for shopping bags. You fold them up when you want to carry passengers. There are special umbrella, coin and key holders. "It is storage, storage and more storage," says Christiansen. The seats, mirrors, steering wheels and pedals automatically adjust to the driver's needs. There's even a split in the middle of the headrest for women with ponytails. "It is very uncomfortable to drive with a ponytail," Christiansen says. 

The front of the car is molded in one piece, which can be removed only by a Volvo mechanic, so there's no way for the driver to open the hood. "Honestly, the only time I open the [hood] on my car is when I want to fill up washer fluid," says Tatiana Butovitsch Temm. "Do we need to have a...square hatch for that or could we do it in another way? So we shifted the filling station for washer fluid to the side of the car, next to where you fill up fuel, and we closed the [hood] for good." 

The car has a computer that sends a message about any problems directly to the garage. The mechanics then contact the women drivers. "If the car says nothing, then everything is fine," says Temm. 

Christiansen says, "It is minimal maintenance, really, because the customers have limited time and they don't want a car that gives them a lot of hassle."

Coin Toss NOT Fair 04-Mar-2004

We toss a coin and ask people to name either "heads" or "tails" because we think this gives each side an equal chance-except it doesn't. Statistician Persi Diaconis says, "I don't care how vigorously you throw it, you can't toss a coin fairly." 

Erica Klarreich writes in Science News that Diaconis' mathematical analysis shows that coin tossing is biased, because a coin is more likely to land on the same face it started out on. The only way a coin toss can be fair is if you throw it so that it that it spins perfectly around a horizontal axis through its center-which is impossible. The worst kind of toss is when the coin stays flat and doesn't flip at all. This toss guarantees the coin will land on the same face it started out on. Most coin tosses are somewhere in between the two, but Diaconis' math team found that all of these are biased. 

It's actually hard to tell, just from watching a toss, whether or not a coin has flipped, since a coin toss only takes about half a second. "Sometimes we had the complete impression that the coin had turned over when it really hadn't," says fellow investigator Susan Holmes. 

Mathematician Joseph Keller thinks magicians and hucksters take advantage of this. He says, "Some people can throw the coin up so that it just wobbles but looks to the observer as if it is turning over." During World War II, South African mathematician John Kerrich tossed a coin 10,000 times while he was in a German prison camp. But since he didn't record which side he started on, he never discovered this bias. 

OK to Test Pesticides on People 27-Feb-2004

The government wants to allow chemical companies to test pesticides on people. However, the Natural Resources Defense Council calls this an "appalling suggestion." 

Maggie Fox writes in The News Source that for the last 6 years, the EPA has allowed no human testing, but chemical manufacturers want to overturn the EPA ban because they say the new standards for pesticides are based on the worst possible effects they could have on lab animals and the best way to prove their products are safe is to start testing them on people. Some companies have started paying volunteers to eat or drink pesticides and other chemicals. 

Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook says, "Our report in 1998 shows that pesticide companies are more about profits than human health. We cannot trust that the chemical industry will abide by voluntary ethical measures and not abuse loopholes in testing guidelines." 

Erik Olson, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says, "The academy report calls for the highest ethical and scientific standards but undermines its own recommendations by making the appalling suggestion that it is OK to experiment with toxins on kids."

Housecats Getting Bird Flu 23-Feb-2004

In Asia, bird flu has jumped to new species, killing three house cats and infecting a white tiger in a Thailand zoo. Since there is also bird flu in the U.S., the virus will probably jump to other species here as well-and maybe eventually to humans. Once humans contract the flu, it will be spread by overseas travelers, just as SARS was. Health workers predict that Asian bird flu will be a bigger and more dangerous epidemic than SARS because it will be a new virus in humans, one that our immune systems are not equipped to handle. 

Dick Thompson, of the World Health Organization, says, "It isn't the kind of animal we would be worried about as a mixing vessel like we would be if we saw the infection in pigs, for instance." This is because pigs are more genetically similar to humans, so if the virus jumps to pigs, it will be more likely to infect people. 

But WHO's Prasert Thongcharoen says, "If it's true, it's very dangerous because pets are very close to humans. Because this disease is new to the world, nobody knows how far it can go." 

Alisa Tang writes in the News Source that 196 cows in Thailand have also died of bird flu. Yukol Limlamthong, of the Thai Livestock Department, says, "So far, we only know that the cattle were local breeds and were roaming freely in the village." But it's also suspected that they may have died from cold weather or from foot-and-mouth disease. 

Jacques Diouf, of the Food and Agriculture Organization, says, "It's quite a serious problem. Unless we deal with it very seriously, there is the risk not only of other birds contracting it but also other animals, and naturally we have also seen the effect on humans. That's why it is necessary that we cooperate together in the region."

One-Handed Golfer Sinks 3 Holes in One

Wed Mar 3, 3:51 PM ET

VENICE, Fla. - A Florida golfer defied the odds, racking up three holes in one in the past six months, all while swinging one-handed. 

According to the National Golf Foundation, the odds of an amateur golfer hitting a hole in one are 12,600 to 1. The odds of what 68-year-old Bill Hilsheimer of Nokomis accomplished could short-circuit a calculator. 

His most recent was last week at the 157-yard, par 3 13th hole at the Bird Bay Executive Golf Course in Venice. In January, he aced a 157-yard hole at the Gulf Gate course in Sarasota and in September, he had another ace on a 105-yard hole on a course in Ohio. 

Not bad for a player who lost most of his right hand 59 years ago when he was run over by a train in Columbus, Ohio. Hilsheimer, who has a 15 handicap, doesn't use his right arm when he swings. 

Robby Robertson, the owner-manager of Bird Bay, was fertilizing the 13th tee when Hilsheimer hit his most recent ace. 

"It's not easy to even hit the green on that hole," Robertson said. "I've never seen anything like what Bill has done. 

Hilsheimer's injury occurred when he and friends were scurrying home after playing on a river bank. As Hilsheimer ran between railroad cars, the train jerked as it started and he fell over the coupling. The wheel ran over his hand, pinning him on the rail. 

Hilsheimer's right hand was cut almost in half. He is missing most of the thumb and first two fingers, as well as much of the palm. 

"It could have been worse; it could have been my head," he said. 

Despite the accident, Hilsheimer played football, basketball and baseball in high school, winning 13 letters and becoming an all-state linebacker. He took up golf at 16. 

"No one ever told me I couldn't do it," he said. "I'd like to think I'm an inspiration for people. They should say, 'If that guy can do it, anybody can do it.'" 

Hilsheimer retired to Florida in 1996 after working 35 years as a photo engraver for the Akron Beacon-Journal newspaper. He and his wife, Dorothy, raised six children. "I never had much time to play golf," he said. "Now, I'm playing four or five times a week." 

The holes-in-one were the first of his career. 

"I waited 50 years to get one. Now, they seem to be coming in bunches," Hilsheimer said. "The first one, I was playing with my father-in-law on his 94th birthday party, so it was really special." 

Virus Writers Use Internet Worms for War of Words 
Wed Mar 3, 3:56 PM ET 
Add Technology - Internet Report 

SAN FRANCISCO  - The creators of the Netsky, MyDoom and Bagle e-mail viruses have taken to exchanging insults in what amounts to a war of words in computer code between rival hackers, anti-virus experts said on Wednesday. 

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Missed Tech Tuesday? 
Here's how to protect and patch up your PC -- plus some Windows alternatives to consider. 

On one side are the creators of MyDoom and Bagle, who are believed to be spammers or spam groups because many variants of the viruses leave backdoors on infected computers that can be used to turn them into spam zombies, said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at anti-virus company Sophos Inc. 

On the other side is the person or group responsible for the Netsky virus, who do not have any profit motive, he said. 

"It almost seems like they are playing a war of one-upmanship," Belthoff said. "They could be jealous over the media attention the others are getting." 

Versions of the three computer viruses, all self-propagating e-mail worms, have wreaked havoc on computers across the Internet since early this year. 

Updated anti-virus software can detect and block the viruses. 

The latest version of Netsky, dubbed Netsky.F, has a message in the code that says "Bagle - you are a looser!!!! (sic)" and an earlier version says: "MyDoom.F is a thief of our idea!" 

Code in Mydoom.F and Bagle.I and Bagle.J addresses Netsky's creator directly, using expletives. One message tells Netsky: "don't ruine our bussiness, wanna start a war?" 

Bagle.K, the latest version of Bagle, masquerades as an e-mail from a company's information technology department, Belthoff said. 

The most recent variant of MyDoom, MyDoom.G, opens up a backdoor and directs infected computers to launch an attack on the Web site of anti-virus company Symantec Corp. (NasdaqNM:SYMC - news), he said. 

Netsky.F, the newest version of that virus, tries to deactivate earlier MyDoom and Bagle variants, he added. 

Five of the latest versions of the viruses were released within three hours on Wednesday morning, according to Russian-based anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Labs. 

"It's hard to imagine a more comical situation: a handful of virus writers are playing unpunished with the Internet, and not one member of the Internet community can take decisive action to stop to this lawlessness," Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at the company, wrote in a release. 

(Additional reporting by Alberto Alerigi in Sao Paulo.)

Europe Sends Rocket on Pioneering Mission 

Tue Mar 2, 1:40 PM ET

By DAVID McHUGH, News Source Writer 

DARMSTADT, Germany - A European spacecraft sped away from Earth's gravity Tuesday after a flawless launch, beginning a 10-year journey to land on an icy comet in search of answers about the birth of the solar system and the origins of life on Earth. 

The Rosetta craft blasted into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane-5 rocket at 4:17 a.m. local time. Scientists then waited a tense two hours for the automated firing of the rocket's upper stage, boosting the craft to the nearly 25,000 mph needed to escape Earth's gravitational field. 

European Space Agency controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, then took command of the 3-ton craft - named for the Rosetta stone whose inscriptions provided the key to Egyptian hieroglyphs - and began bringing its systems to life, spreading its 105-foot solar panels and pointing them toward the sun to get electrical power. 

Rosetta is "performing very, very well," flight director Alan Smith said. "The spacecraft is right where we wanted it to be." 

Mission controllers toasted the launch, more than a year behind its original schedule, with champagne. ESA abandoned a January 2003 date after another rocket in the Ariane-5 family veered off course the previous month and had to be destroyed. 

Two launch attempts last week were put off, first because of high winds and then by a broken piece of insulation. 

Rosetta's destination - in 2014 - is a comet called 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko, an irregular chunk of ice, frozen gases and dust discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko. 

The voyage will take so long because Rosetta must loop three times past Earth and once past Mars to gain speed, using the planets' gravitational fields as slingshots. 

While Rosetta orbits the comet, its lander will attempt the difficult task of touching down, using a harpoon and spikes to grab hold. The comet has a diameter of three miles at most, and therefore its gravity is very weak. 

Scientists find comets interesting because they are considered to be much as they were when the solar system first took shape - unlike Earth and the other planets, which have undergone vast changes. But no one has been able to sink a drill in a comet and see what it is made of, as Rosetta's lander will attempt to do. 

"If we know what a comet looks like, then we know what the Earth was built from 4.6 billion years ago," said Rita Schulz, deputy project scientist on the mission. 

Scientists also believe that comets, which once pelted Earth, may have brought much of the planet's water, as well as compounds necessary to the formation of life, such as amino acids and substances based on carbon. 

Astronomers have had to work with limited data from brief fly-bys, such as when ESA's Giotto probe swept by Halley's Comet in 1986, photographing long canyons, broad craters and 3,000-foot hills. 

The lander will have at least one week's working life on the comet surface on its batteries, and up to six months if its solar panels can grab enough sunlight, Schulz said. 

At first, the comet will be dark and inactive in the extreme cold of deep space, some 418 million miles from the sun. But the picture will change as its elliptical orbit brings it nearer to the sun's warmth and radiation. 

Gases and dust will begin to stream from the surface, forming the comet's tail, which will be visible from Earth. The lander will keep sampling and taking panoramic pictures of the dramatic process until the dust covers the solar panels and shuts it down. 

Rosetta will continue to orbit for over a year, taking close-up pictures and scanning the comet's surface for more information about its mineral and chemical composition. 

Like NASA (news - web sites)'s Pioneer and Voyager space probes, Rosetta will carry a message after its mission ends - in this case, the first three chapters of Genesis on a nickel disk, translated into 7,000 languages.

Traces of aliens on the Earth

02/28/2004 19:07

If aliens visited the Earth, their traces would be unusual, preternatural and having no scientific explanation.
There have been plenty of such artifacts.
In 1959 joint Soviet-Chinese paleontologist expedition led by Dr Chzhou Minchen found a weird footprint in the Gobi desert.
This footprint appeared in Gobi millions of years ago when dinosaurs were among the living species. Paleontologists are
unable to give other explanations except for extraterrestrial visitor's version, to this footprint. 

In Libyan desert mysterious glassy formations - tektites - were found. Radioactive isotopes were detected in the tektites.
They prove that the tektites came into being as a result of strong radioactive emanation not earlier than one million years
ago. The Earth was formed not millions, but billions of years ago, and tektites appeared on the formed planet. There were
many attempts to give the explanation to these mysterious formations. There was a version that they appeared after comet
collided with the Earth, but no version was able to explain many peculiar features of tektites, such as their concentration on
some areas of the surface of the Earth.

Recently during aerial photography in the Andes in Naska plateau weird sings made of light stones has been found. There
was a version that it was some solar calendar. Some of its lines were allegedly supposed to sparkle under sunrays in the
days of equinox. However, the signs configuration could be could be seen from very big altitude. They looked like indicators
for landing. Could they be put for those whose visit Incas were expecting?

Scientists saw unusual phenomena in Odessa catacombs. They found bones of fossilized ostriches, camels and hyenas in
the burrow which was a cave in ancient times. The bones were processed one million year ago with some metal tools.

There was no contemporary human being one million years ago, the Stone Age had not even started at that time. What
kind of metal tools could it be? There are round and square holes and grooves in the bones, some of the bones are
polished.

Steel rectangle 67x67x47 millimeters in size and 785 grams in weight was found in by Austrian physician Mr. Gurlt in the
layer of coal the tertiary period. This item was made by human beings.

High in the Andes, in the kingdom of ancient Inks, there is Titikaka lake. There are remains of the seashore around this lake
- algae remains, shells and ruins of the sea-port.

How could a bay be raised to the mountains to become a lake? 

Geologists have no common opinion on this. Some of them think this happened several hundred thousands years ago.
There hardly were creatures capable of constructing sea-port at that time. Interestingly, ruins of giant constructions and
well-preserved Sun Gates covered with hieroglyphs were found near the sea-port remains.

Scientists became interested in the hieroglyphs and managed to decode them. They were an astronomic calendar of high
precision, however the year in this calendar had 290 days - ten months of 24 days and two months of 25 days. Obviously,
there was extraterrestrial calendar on the Sun Gates.

Many mysteries are connected with the legendary state of ancient Incas. Spanish conquerors were amazed with the
principles of Incas" society: no private property, contempt to wealth, mandatory work for everybody. Could aliens from
some planet plant these features to Incas?

Balls of perfect geometry curved from granite were found in South America. The balls were located at the tops of correct
polygons. It is hard to imagine that people knew Geometry several thousand years ago.

Killington Votes to Join New Hampshire 

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By TIM McCAHILL, News Source Writer 

KILLINGTON, Vt. - Voting with a thunderous "aye," residents endorsed a plan Tuesday for this ski resort town to secede from Vermont and become a part of New Hampshire instead. 

The overwhelming voice vote opened the next chapter in what could be a long and costly push to join New Hampshire, 25 miles to the east. 

Ultimately, the vote could prove to be only symbolic. State lawmakers in New Hampshire and Vermont will have the final say. And Vermont legislators said secession will probably be voted down. 

Town officials said about two-thirds of the 200 to 300 people who attended the town meeting supported secession. 

The main source of discontent is Vermont's new system of financing education, adopted in 1997 on orders from the state Supreme Court. It dramatically increased property taxes in wealthy communities like Killington. 

Secession activists say Killington's restaurants, inns and other businesses send $20 million a year to Montpelier in sales, room and meal taxes, while the state returns just $1 million in municipal and education aid to the town of roughly 1,000 residents. 

"The state is treating us like a cash-cow," said David Lewis, town manager. 

Town officials will now draft a petition to present to New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson and the state's Legislature. Lewis said town officials want New Hampshire's approval before approaching Vermont's lawmakers.

China to Make Private Property a Right 

2 hours, 46 minutes ago

Add World - 

By AUDRA ANG, News Source Writer 

BEIJING - Communist China is changing its constitution to embrace the most basic tenet of capitalism, protecting private property rights for the first time since the 1949 revolution. 

China's parliament is meeting in an annual session starting Friday to endorse the change, already approved by Communist Party leaders who tout privatization as a way to continue the country's economic revolution and help tens of millions of poor Chinese. 

It will bring China's legal framework in line with its market-oriented ambitions by providing a constitutional guarantee for entrepreneurs, once considered the enemy of communism but now pivotal in generating jobs and wealth. 

"Since private businesses have been playing an increasingly important role in China's economy, their demand for legitimate protection has also increased," said Wang Hongling, of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank. 

"The amendment," he said, "will offer private businessmen a guarantee to their property safety and make them free of worry." 

The very notion would be unthinkable to many of the communist revolutionaries who, led by Mao Zedong, waged war against what they branded an unfair system that punished most people and elevated a greedy elite. The Chinese words for communism - "gongchan zhuyi" - literally means "ideology of sharing property." 

But because the legislature, the National People's Congress, exists mainly to carry out the will of the party leadership, its expected move is considered more of the icing on an already-existing cake rather than anything truly new. 

"It signals a kind of a victory for people who believe that the state should give more respect to private property. Legally speaking, I don't think it'll change much," said Donald C. Clarke, a professor at the University of Washington's School of Law in Seattle. 

"All I think it will affect is the tone of policy-making," he said. "It's another piece of rhetorical ammunition for people who think the state should compensate more." 

The change mandates that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated" and will be "on an equal footing with public property." 

With time, the law will be adapted to business practices such as trading real estate, stocks or bonds and other activities which are already done in China, often without legal protections. 

One benefit for entrepreneurs might be an easier time getting loans from state banks, which now lend almost exclusively to state-run companies. With their private property protected, businesses could use it as collateral to get loans. 

"The recognition means that private enterprises will be given a level playing field in competition with state-owned enterprises," said Joseph Cheng, a political scientist at City University of Hong Kong. "How well the policy will be implemented, we'll have to wait and see." 

The change could also satisfy entrepreneurs who complain foreign businesses in China now have regulations in place to protect their investments. For people like Zhou Wei, a manager at the Aokang Group, China's second-largest shoemaking company, the constitutional amendment is imperative. 

"It protects the confidence of the private businessmen so that they can pursue and create wealth," Zhou said. "As private businessmen, we feel it is a natural progression for the government. It is in the interests of most of the people in China." 

Aokang employs over 5,000 people and produces 10 million pairs of shoes a year. It owns 2,000 chain stores in China and has set up branches in the United States, Japan, Italy, Spain and Germany. 

Beijing resident Zhan Wenzhao said the amendment would promote investment. 

"For me, a small homeowner, I am not too excited over the news," Zhan said. But, he added, "It is now clear that as an owner, I have rights and I will use (the) law to protect myself if my rights are infringed in future." 

After the communist revolution, China briefly allowed private enterprise, but it was banned again by the late 1950s. In 1999, the constitution was amended to declare private business an "important component" of the economy, not just a "complement" to state industry. 

The proposed amendment also pays homage to Jiang Zemin, the former president who invited capitalists into the party. Before retiring, Jiang launched a huge campaign for his awkwardly named ideology, the "three represents," which encouraged the party to represent entrepreneurs as well as the working class. 

Last year, when Jiang's ideology was written into the party's charter, some members criticized it as a betrayal of the party's role as the "vanguard of the working class." But such opposition appears to have been overridden. 

"It has very significant propaganda impact," Cheng said. "Cadres at all levels understand that it is a priority item on the agenda of the Chinese leadership and they understand that they have to do some work along these lines."

Study: Anti-Bacterial Soaps Don't Deliver

Tue Mar 2, 7:28 AM ET 


By DAVID B. CARUSO, News Source Writer 

PHILADELPHIA - Anti-bacterial soaps do not deliver the type of protection from common health ailments that consumers expect, according to a study. Researchers at Columbia University gave anti-bacterial cleaning products to 120 New York City families, monitored them for almost a year, and found they experienced about the same number of runny noses, sore throats and fevers as another group that got regular soaps and detergents. 

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The study, published in Tuesday's edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, concluded that the products did not reduce the risk for symptoms of the viral infections that are among the most common causes of colds, coughs and stomach aches. 

The study's lead author, Elaine Larson, said the results would not surprise physicians; the products tested were designed to kill bacteria, not viruses. 

But that may not be as clear to the average consumer, she said. 

"People think, in their heads, that if they use an anti-bacterial soap, it will keep them from getting an infection," Larson said. "What we found is that these products don't offer much added value." 

The study did not say if the soaps were effective in reducing bacterial infections. 

Brian Sansoni, a spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association, a group that represents soap makers, said it was unfair for the study's authors to have tested anti-bacterial products for their ability to fend off viruses they were not designed to fight. 

"It's important to remember that the products that were tested here do not make anti-viral claims," he said. 

Sansoni said consumers should not misinterpret the study as saying that anti-bacterial products are worthless. He said other studies have shown that anti-bacterial soaps and household cleaning products are effective in killing off organisms that cause a variety of illnesses, including skin infections and food poisoning. 

The growing use of anti-bacterial soaps in the home has been of concern to some scientists who theorize that their widespread use might lead to the evolution of harder-to-kill, antibiotic-resistant germs. 

In all, 1,178 people from a poor, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Manhattan participated in the study.

Aristide Tells News Source the U.S. Forced Him Out

1 hour, 7 minutes ago

By ELIOTT C. McLAUGHLIN, News Source Writer 

ATLANTA, Ga. - Jean-Bertrand Aristide said in a telephone interview Monday that he was "forced to leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces. 

Aristide Tells News Source the U.S. Forced Him Out 
(AP Video)

Aristide was put in contact with The News Source by the Rev. Jesse Jackson (news - web sites) following a news conference, where the civil rights leader called on Congress to investigate Aristide's ouster. 

When asked if he left Haiti on his own, Aristide quickly answered: "No. I was forced to leave. 

"They were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting, and be killing in a matter of time," Aristide said during the brief interview via speaker phone. He spoke with a thick Haitian accent, his voice obscured at times by a bad connection. It was unclear whether Aristide meant that rebels or U.S. agents would begin shooting. 

When asked who the agents were, he responded: "White American, white military. 

"They came at night. ... There were too many. I couldn't count them," he added. 

Aristide told reporters that he signed documents relinquishing power out of fear that violence would erupt in Haiti if he didn't comply with the demands of "American security agents." 

U.S. authorities have dismissed Aristide's claims as unfounded. 

Aristide on Monday said he was in his palace in Port-au-Prince when the military force arrived. He said he thought he was being taken to the Caribbean island of Antigua, but instead he has been exiled to the Central African Republic. 

Aristide described the agents as "good, warm, nice," but added that he had no rights during his 20-hour flight to Africa. 

Aristide's wife, Mildred, initiated Monday's telephone call, said Shelley Davis, a special assistant to Jackson. She said the reverend and the president's family have been close for about a decade. 

Also Monday, two Democratic congressmen, California's Maxine Waters and New York's Charles Rangel, said they, too, had spoken to Aristide, and he had made similar claims. 

"The president said to me, 'I was kidnapped. I did not go of my own will. I did not want to go,'" Waters said in Los Angeles. 

Jackson said Congress should investigate whether the United States, specifically the CIA (news - web sites), had a role in the rebellion that led to Aristide's exile. 

Jackson encouraged reporters to question where the rebels in Haiti got their guns and uniforms. 

"Why would we immediately support an armed overthrow and not support a constitutionally elected government?" Jackson said. 

Aristide, who fled Haiti under pressure from the rebels, his political opponents, the United States and France, arrived Monday in the Central African Republic, according to the country's state radio. He has claimed that he was abducted from Haiti by U.S. troops who accompanied him to Africa. 

The White House, Pentagon (news - web sites) and State Department have denied allegations that Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. forces eager for him to resign.

EU Imposes Sanctions on U.S. Goods 

Mon Mar 1, 9:37 AM ET

Add Business - 

By RAF CASERT, News Source Writer 

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (news - web sites) escalated a trade dispute with the United States over export subsidies Monday by imposing sanctions on U.S. jewelry, textiles and other goods which could reach some $300 million this year and double that in 2005. 

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy insisted the sanctions would immediately be ended once Washington repeals legislation giving tax breaks to major exporters which was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) two years ago. 

"The U.S. has not brought its legislation in line with WTO rules. We are therefore left with no choice but to impose countermeasures," Lamy said in a statement after the sanctions against U.S. goods kicked in early Monday. 

The measures mark the first time the EU used WTO rules to impose sanctions on the United States. However, they are much less than the $4 billion the WTO has authorized and the EU is hoping its measured approach will quickly sway the U.S. Congress into changing its Foreign Sales Corporation legislation. 

"The name of the game is not retaliation but compliance: countermeasures will be lifted the day the FSC is repealed," he said. 

The sanctions will hit U.S. exports to Europe ranging from jewelry to steel, textiles and farm products. They will be subject to a 5 percent penalty tariff that will ratchet higher by 1 percentage point each month over the next year unless Congress acts. 

Lamy was in Washington last week to discuss the way ahead and said he was "encouraged that progress can be rapidly achieved to adopt legislation repealing the FSC." 

Under proposals being debated in Congress, Washington has to restructure some $5 billion in corporate tax breaks. 

It is unclear how fast the issue will be solved especially since there are conflicting visions on how the new law should help U.S. companies. The sanctions will add urgency. 

"We are using an instrument the WTO gives us to focus the minds of the U.S. legislator," said Lamy's spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez. She told reporters the EU was hopeful the law could be changed, and the sanctions lifted, within "a few weeks." 

Gonzalez called the EU's action "a gradual and measured approach ... to put the pressure on the system so at the end of the day, the system delivers what we really want." 

There were some doubts though, the duty would be taken seriously early on since U.S. exporters are currently coasting on a weak dollar. 

Sanctions hurt U.S. producers by making it more expensive for them to sell their products in Europe. But they can also backfire by pushing up prices in Europe or disrupting production if other suppliers can't be found. 

Washington has twice used WTO rules to impose trade sanctions on EU goods. In a dispute over bananas, the U.S. hit European products worth $120 million a year from 1999 to 2001. A conflict over European restrictions on beef treated with growth hormones has seen the United States impose sanctions worth US$116 million a year since 1999. 

In the tax dispute, the EU decided in December to impose tariffs from March 1. That means U.S. companies will have to pay an estimated $16.6 million in March, rising to $46.4 million by December for a total of $315 million in additional duties by the end of the year.

Bush Anti-Drug Plan to Target Pain Killers 

47 minutes ago

Add White House - 

By JENNIFER C. KERR, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s national anti-drug strategy will for the first time target the use of pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for nonmedical purposes, a problem that has exploded in the last decade. 

A key part of the strategy being released Monday involves government efforts to help states develop monitoring systems to track a patient's use of prescription medicine. The monitoring programs flag cases that indicate a pattern of abuse, such as "doctor shopping," where a patient gets prescriptions for drugs from multiple physicians. 

Prescription medicine now ranks second, behind marijuana, among drugs most abused by adults and young people, said the report by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. It cited a recent study by the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department. 

Twenty states have prescription monitoring programs, the report said. John Walters, director of the drug policy office, said he expects to expand the program to 11 more states by next year. About $10 million in federal funds will bankroll the expansion. 

With painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin widely available on the Internet, "pill mills" or rogue online pharmacies will come under increased scrutiny. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to aggressively pursue pharmacies selling controlled substances illegally over the Internet, an effort that will include deploying modern Web crawler technology to search out those peddling prescription drugs online. 

Physician training and education programs will also be a part of the new campaign. 

The Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based group that promotes alternatives including the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, was skeptical of Bush's strategy. It saw unintended consequences that will end up causing more pain and suffering. 

"The principal impact of this campaign when you step up the law enforcement response is that doctors will err on the side of under-treating pain," said alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann. "So any time a doctor is dealing with a patient in pain, their first instinct is not to prescribe enough." 

Since 1995, emergency room visits from prescription drug abuse have risen 163 percent, the report said. 

To highlight the problem among youth, it noted a University of Michigan study that found abuse by high school seniors of Vicodin more than double the use of cocaine, Ecstasy or methamphetamine. One in 10 seniors, it said, reported nonmedical use of the painkiller. 

Mark Surks of Kendall Park, N.J., who lost his son, Jason, a few months ago to a drug overdose, said he had no idea the 19-year-old was buying OxyContin and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax on the Internet. 

"I was blindsided," Surks said. "There was no evidence that my son had ever been using any kind of drugs. He was a good kid. He was involved in the religious community, in sports and in music. He had tons of friends. It never crossed my mind that prescription drugs were a problem." 

Surks praised the new focus by the White House on prescription drugs. 

Bush outlined other facets of his anti-drug strategy during his State of the Union address in January. They include additional financing for drug-prevention efforts and a sharp increase in funds for schools that want to use drug testing to expand early intervention programs. 

His proposal to boost funding from $2 million to $23 million for student drug testing has come under fire from some parents, school administrators and civil liberties groups concerned about privacy violations and the effectiveness of the testing. 

____ 

On the Net: 

Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov 

Drug Policy Alliance: http://www.drugpolicy.org 

Vitamin D gains favor as health key 
Sun Feb 29, 9:40 AM ET  - Chicago Tribune 

By Ronald Kotulak Tribune science reporter 

As the sun begins to break through over Chicago, its warming rays are resuming a critical role that has lain dormant most of the winter, coaxing our skin to make vitamin D. 

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Emerging research indicates that vitamin D is more important to our health than previously thought, leading an increasing number of scientists to challenge whether the fear of sun exposure has made us cover up too much. 

Doctors are finding an increase in vitamin D deficiencies, even as researchers discover remarkable results from the vitamin that affects nearly every tissue in the body. 

Told their pain and muscle weakness would only get worse, and that they would likely remain in wheelchairs the rest of their lives, five patients in Buffalo decided to take a chance on large doses of vitamin D. 

In 4 to 6 weeks they were up and about, saying goodbye to their wheelchairs and back to normal activities, pain free. 

When women took vitamin D in multivitamin supplements over a long period of time, their risk of developing multiple sclerosis was reduced by 40 percent. 

And a disturbing number of children who don't have enough vitamin D in their bodies are showing up with rickets, a crippling bone disorder thought to have been eradicated more than 70 years ago. 

Dr. Craig Langman, a kidney and mineral metabolism expert at Children's Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Medical School, sees a new case of rickets every week, triple the rate of five years ago. 

"We're finding more and more kids are presenting with evidence of vitamin D malnutrition," said Langman, who noted that includes fractures and bone pain. 

Vitamin D is a critical hormone that scientists are discovering helps regulate the health of more than 30 different tissues, from the brain to the prostate. It plays a role in regulating cell growth, the immune system and blood pressure, and in the production of insulin, brain chemicals and bone. 

"We thought that vitamin D was a very narrow-acting substance," said Dr. Hector DeLuca of the University of Wisconsin, where vitamin D was first identified in the early 1900s, leading to the fortification of milk and some other foods that eliminated endemic rickets. 

"The big surprise is that it's got a lot of important biological effects that probably contribute to our health and we're just now beginning to uncover them," said DeLuca. "Are we getting enough vitamin D? No we're not, especially in the winter." 

Vitamin D is one of the body's many control systems. It acts like an emergency brake that helps stop cells from perilously misbehaving, as immune cells can do when they cause such autoimmune diseases as MS and as breast and prostate cells do when they turn cancerous. 

Variable protection 

This protection declines as vitamin D levels drop. University of Chicago microbiologist Yan Chun Li discovered just how that happens with high blood pressure. Vitamin D helps normalize blood pressure by keeping a pressure-increasing switch called renin in check. 

Vitamin D's importance for health goes back more than 750 million years to the earliest life forms that left the ocean for the Earth's surface. All vertebrates today depend on sun exposure for vitamin D production. 

The lack of vitamin D is known to cause rickets, osteoporosis and osteomalacia (soft bones). New research indicates that vitamin D malnutrition may also be linked to many chronic diseases such as cancer (breast, ovarian, colon and prostate), chronic pain, weakness, chronic fatigue, autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes, high blood pressure, mental illnesses--depression, seasonal affective disorder and possibly schizophrenia--heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, tuberculosis and inflammatory bowel disease. 

"A lot of people with aches and pains and marginal weakness could be helped by vitamin D supplements," said Dr. Paresh Dandona of the State University of New York at Buffalo who reported the first five cases of vitamin D deficient myopathy three years ago in the Archives of Internal Medicine (news - web sites). 

Undiagnosed pain is the chief complaint of more than one-third of patients. 

Studying 150 children and adults with undiagnosed pain, Dr. Greg Plotnikoff of the University of Minnesota discovered that 93 percent were severely or profoundly vitamin D deficient. All were put on prescription doses of the vitamin. 

"One patient with chest pain had multiple balloon angioplasties and his pain never went away," Plotnikoff said. "He also had surgery for his low back pain but he didn't get any better. 

"I measured his vitamin D level and it was basically zero," he said. "His chest and low back pain were not due to cardiac or spinal disease but to low vitamin D. We put him on prescription strength vitamin D and he got much better. We had spent over $200,000 on him in the hospital for these other procedures without doing a $20 blood test." 

A study in the British medical journal Lancet found that infants receiving 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily were protected from developing Type 1 diabetes. Various forms of vitamin D have become a major treatment for psoriasis and preliminary evidence suggests it reduces blood pressure, reduces hip fracture risks in older people and improves symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. 

Research help 

"Our study supports a possible role for vitamin D in the prevention of MS," said epidemiologist Kassandra Munger of the Harvard School of Public Health. "Further studies are needed to confirm the findings, but taking a multiple vitamin as part of a healthy diet can't hurt." 

Researchers are finding that the current recommended daily allowances of vitamin D--ranging from 200 international units for infants, children and adults up to age 50 years; 400 IU for men and women from 50 to 70; and 600 IU for people older than 70--are probably far lower than the minimum amount necessary for optimum health. 

Scientists are quick to warn that although people may need more vitamin D, mostly in the form of supplements in higher latitudes where sunlight is weak during winter months, they should consult a physician before consuming large doses. Taking too much vitamin D can elevate levels of calcium in the blood, a potentially serious condition that can lead to nausea, vomiting, or even death. It is especially easy for children to overdose on vitamin D supplements. 

Dr. Michael F. Holick of Boston University Medical Center, one of the world's foremost vitamin D experts, recommends 1,000 IU daily for everyone through a combination of safe exposure to sunlight and supplements. 

Summertime sun exposure on the face, arms and hands around noon for only 5 to 15 minutes for people with light skin 2 to 3 times a week provides sufficient vitamin D, he said. 

Blacks have the highest risk for vitamin D deficiency because dark skin needs 5 to 10 times more sunlight than white to produce the same amount of the vitamin. One study found that 42 percent of African-American women in the U.S. were vitamin D deficient. 

Chronic diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency are 25 to 50 percent more frequent in northern climates than among people living closer to the sunny equator, where humans first evolved. As people migrated away from the equator, it is thought, skin evolved lighter shades to absorb more sunlight for vitamin D production. 

Limited menu 

Vitamin D is not available in most foods (oily fish, egg yolks, liver and cod liver oil have some), but it is abundantly made when sunlight strikes the skin, which normally produces about 90 percent of the body's store of the vitamin. 

People living in northern latitudes don't get enough sun from December through February to make vitamin D. A person living in Chicago, Boston, Detroit or New York can stand naked outside all day in the winter and not make any vitamin D, said Holick, author of "The UV Advantage." 

Even in summer the skin's vitamin D-making ability gets dampened from the increasing use of sunscreen, leading a growing number of health experts to challenge the advice given over the last two decades to avoid the sun at all costs in order to reduce skin cancer risk. 

"The amount of vitamin D in our diet is totally inadequate," Holick said. "We are in an era of sunphobia--that is not being exposed to any direct sunlight--that's being promoted widely by the dermatology community and it's probably hurting people's health more than it's helping them." 

"That message needs to be modified and moderated to a more sensible approach so that people can get a little bit of safe sun," he said. 

The evidence is overwhelming that excessive sun exposure causes skin cancer. More than 1 million cases of squamous and basal cell cancers, which are highly treatable, are expected this year, according to the American Cancer Society (news - web sites). Solar exposure is also blamed for the anticipated 55,100 cases of melanoma in 2004 and 7,910 deaths. Melonama, a potentially deadly skin cancer, usually occurs years after severe sunburns in childhood. 

Conflicting research 

On the other hand, increasing but less conclusive evidence suggests that adequate vitamin D levels from healthy sun exposure may reduce the risk of many other cancers. 

A recent study of more than 430,000 death certificates showed that people who had more exposure to sunlight had a 26 percent lower risk of death from colon and breast cancer, said D. Michal Freedman, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites). 

Testifying in October at a "Vitamin D and Health in the 21st Century" conference called by the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites)'s Office of Dietary Supplements, William B. Grant, a retired NASA (news - web sites) senior scientist and solar radiation expert, said his studies determined that lack of vitamin D accounts for 45,000 cancer deaths annually and 165,000 new cancer cases. 

The conference was prompted by growing concerns of widespread vitamin D inadequacy and how to strike a balance between supplements, dietary fortification, tanning booths and sun exposure, said NIH nutritionist Mary Frances Picciano. 

"If you go to the literature where people are talking about sunlight and cancer risk, nobody mentions that you need sun for vitamin D," she said. "By the same token if you go to the vitamin D literature where people are talking about skin irradiation to get vitamin D, nobody talks about cancer. 

"One of the first things that might be necessary is to get the skin cancer people together with vitamin D requirement people," Picciano said. "There are questions that need to be addressed before meaningful public health policy can go forward." 

- - - 

Emphasis on vitamin D growing 

New research puts a greater importance on vitamin D, which the body develops from sunlight exposure. Vitamin D's main function is to maintain normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. 

VITAMIN D SOURCES 

- Multivitamin supplements 

- Sunlight: Ultraviolet rays trigger the formation of vitamin D in the skin, accounting for 90 percent of the daily recommended intake. 

5 to 10 minutes of sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily in the summer are recommended. Particularly in northern areas, it is difficult to produce in the winter. 

- Foods: Milk and cereals are fortified. Oily fish naturally contain vitamin D. 

FOOD SOURCE INTERNATIONAL UNITS 

Cod liver oil (1 tbs.) 1,360 

Salmon, cooked (3 1/2 oz.) 360 

Milk, nonfat, reduced, whole (1 cup) 98 

Dry cereal (3/4 cup) 40-50 

DAILY ALLOWANCE RECOMMENDATIONS 

In international units (IU), by age 

0-50: 200 

50 to 70: 400 

Older than 70: 600 

Many vitamin D experts recommend 1,000 IU daily for everyone. 

Vitamin D-related health risks 

DEFICIENCY 

Rickets: A disease in which children's bones soften, break. 

Osteopororis: A condition characterized by fragile bones. 

Osteomalacia: A bone-thinning disorder in adults that is similar to rickets. 

Vitamin D malnutrition also may be linked to diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and high blood pressure. 

Sources: National Institute of health, National Osteoporosis Society 

Chicago Tribune

Anniversary of Eisenhower Mystery Disappearance 20-Feb-2004

Fifty years ago, on February 20, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower was mysteriously missing for a day during a golf vacation in Palm Springs, California. The legend is that he made a secret trip to a nearby Air Force base to meet two extraterrestrials. At first he was declared dead, then it was announced that he went to the dentist. But since he left at night, without telling anyone where he was going, people have always been suspicious. 

The trip was billed as a vacation, although it came up very suddenly. The president had taken a vacation in Georgia less than a week before. A motorcade was observed entering Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards) on the night of the president's disappearance. The base was also the scene of many extraordinary UFO sightings, but none were reported on the night in question. 

In the Washington Post, Peter Carlson writes that one of the biggest mysteries about that day is that Ike was reported as being dead. The News Source ran a story saying, "Pres. Eisenhower died tonight of a heart attack in Palm Springs." Two minutes later, they retracted the story and said he went to the dentist. It's unlikely that someone would confuse these two events. 

What does a dentist have to say? James Mixson wrote and article for the November 1995 issue of the Bulletin of the History of Dentistry titled "A History of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Oral Health." He says Ike's dental records show that on the night of February 20, 1954, Ike chipped the porcelain cap of his "upper left central incisor" and it was repaired by Dr. Francis A. Purcell, who died in 1974. "The lack of a dental record from Purcell's office," Mixson says, "has helped fuel belief in this UFO encounter." But "the President had well-documented difficulties with this crown." 

However, during his lifetime, Purcell refused to comment on whether or not he had treated Ike, and famed UFO investigator Stanton Friedman confirmed that there was no letter of thanks to Dr. Purcell in the Eisenhower library. Such letters were routinely sent to all persons assisting the president. 

Why did the News Source report that Ike died that night? Eisenhower Library archivist Pankratz says, "Somebody was fooling around and it went out. It wasn't supposed to go out but it did."

Can Science Detect Evil in the Brain? 19-Feb-2004

A new technique called "brain fingerprinting," which is much more accurate than a polygraph test, is an important new tool for catching criminals. However, in one of its first tests, it's being used to overturn a murder conviction. 

The method, developed by Dr. Larry Farwell, reads the brain's involuntary electrical activity in response to a subject being shown images relating to the crime they're accused of committing. It's more accurate than the polygraph because it picks up the electrical signal, known as a p300 wave, before the suspect has time to change it. In bbcnews.com, Becky McCall quotes Farwell, as saying, "It is highly scientific; brain fingerprinting doesn't have anything to do with the emotions, whether a person is sweating or not; it simply detects scientifically if that information is stored in the brain. It doesn't depend upon the subjective interpretation of the person conducting the test. The computer monitors the information and comes up with information present or information absent." 

Jimmy Ray Slaughter has been accused of shooting, stabbing and mutilating his former girlfriend, Melody Wuertz, and of shooting to death their eleven-month old-daughter, Jessica. Farwell ran a "brain fingerprinting" test on him and says, "Jimmy Ray Slaughter did not know where in the house the murder took place; he didn't know where the mother's body was lying or what was on her clothing at the time of death-a salient fact in the case...What I can say definitively from a scientific standpoint, is that Jimmy Ray Slaughter's brain does not contain a record of some of the most salient details about the murder for which he's been convicted and sentenced to death."

Blame It On Your Addictions 19-Feb-2004

Taking a coffee break makes it harder for office workers to do their jobs-but only if they're men. Having trouble quitting cigarettes? It may be because you were "born to smoke." But not to worry: you can now "throw a switch" in your brain to get rid of your addictions. And if you're hooked on marijuana, there's a new medicine that will get rid of the "munchies." 

Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that caffeine causes men to become more stressed than women and makes it harder for them to cooperate with their co-workers, according to tests done by psychologists Lindsay St. Claire and Peter Rogers. St. Claire says, "Our research findings suggest that the commonplace tea or coffee break might backfire in business situations, particularly where men are concerned. Far from reducing stress, it might actually make things worse." 

The British Safety Council says, "Timely and adequate breaks are vital in the workplace, however, maybe it is advisable that the coffee machine be removed to a women's only area!" 

St. Claire says, "...If you are hosting a business meeting go a bit easy on the percolator-you might actually find wacky things going wrong from your attempt at hospitality." 

Hostile and aggressive people may "born to smoke." Researcher Steven Potkin has done brain imaging studies that reveal that the same genetic variations that give people hostile personality traits also make them more likely to become addicted to nicotine. He says, "We call this brain response a 'born to smoke' pattern. 

"Based on these dramatic brain responses to nicotine, if you have hostile, aggressive personality traits, in all likelihood you have a predisposition to cigarette addiction without ever having even touched a cigarette," Potkin says. "In turn, this might also help explain why other people have no compelling drive to smoke or can quit smoking with relative ease." 

Smokers, drug takers, alcoholics: to get rid of your addictions, throw a switch in your brain and get back to your non-addicted state. It's been discovered that our brains have a region called the VTA which contains receptors. When these are exposed to a certain enzyme, the brain can be switched back to its pre-addictive state-back to the good old days before you took that first drink, hit or smoke. 

This is major news because scientists used to think that addiction caused permanent changes in the brain. Steven Laviolette says, "Our findings suggest that instead of a permanent alteration in the brain, there's actually a switch that goes on between two separate systems (one that mediates the brain's response to drugs while not yet addicted and the other that mediates response once addicted). They also suggest we may be able to manipulate that switch pharmacologically to take drug addicts back to a non- addicted state in a relatively short period of time so they do not crave the drug." 

Without turning off the switch, addicts can go to a non- addictive state for a few weeks, but they often return to their addictions. Laviolette says, "The same anatomical pathways that we're manipulating in rats also exist in humans so we hope that this will be applicable to human drug addiction as well." 

Got the munchies after smoking marijuana? A new drug turns off the part of the brain that makes people hungry after smoking grass. The drug is in the final testing phase and could be launched in 2006. The drug company that makes it thinks it has the potential for billion-dollar sales.

Science Investigates at the Edge 18-Feb-2004

Is a acupuncture just a placebo? Scientists think it may convince people that it's making them better-so it does. They can't figure out how else it could work. In the recent movie "21 Grams," a narrator says that people who have been weighed just before and after death have been found to have lost 21 grams (less than an ounce), so that must be the weight of the soul. Where did this idea come from-and is it true? 

Researcher Peter White has found that acupuncture works better if there's a good relationship between the patient and the practitioner, and this may help effect a cure. He says, "To some extent, modern based medicine has failed to value this individual and very personal interaction between patient and therapist. Perhaps complementary and alternative medicine treatments can present a valuable model design through which we may understand this process." 

According to ancient Chinese medicine, acupuncture works by diverting energy channels that flow through the body, but White says there's no evidence to support this theory. However, there is evidence that it releases serotonin in the body, which regulates moods, and endorphins, which are the body's natural painkillers. This means it may be able to cure the symptoms, although maybe not the disease. 

Erika Niedowski writes in the Baltimore Sun that the concept of soul weight was first put forth in 1907 by Dr. Duncan MacDougall, who believed that if there is a soul, it must be possible to measure it. He put six terminally-ill patients on a specially designed bed that was built on a scale and weighed them as they died. "The patient's comfort was looked after in every way, although he was practically moribund when placed upon the bed," MacDougall wrote. "He lost weight slowly at the rate of one ounce per hour due to evaporation of moisture in respiration and evaporation of sweat. "...At the end of the three hours and forty minutes, he expired and suddenly coincident with death the beam end [of the scale] dropped with an audible stroke, hitting against the lower limiting bar and remaining there with no rebound. The loss was ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce." 

MacDougall said there wasn't time for the weight loss to come from evaporating moisture from sweat or urine, and it didn't come from the loss of air in the lungs, because he tested exhaling and inhaling while lying on the bed and this didn't affect the scale. He wrote, "Is it the soul substance? How other shall we explain [the weight loss]?" But he added, "I am aware that a large number of experiments would require to be made before the matter can be proved beyond any possibility of error." 

Ronn Wade, of the Maryland Anatomy Board, says, "It's one of those metaphysical questions that hard science doesn't have an answer to." Although MacDougall's tests have never been repeated, Wade questions how he could determine the exact moment of death, because doctors now acknowledge several different kinds: physical death, brain death, cellular death and legal death, and these definitions vary from state to state. This is a special concern for Wade, who oversees organ donations.

Why You're Loyal or Play the Field 13-Feb-2004

Scientists are trying to figure out why some people loyal mates for life while others can't commit. Neuroscientist Gareth Leng says it's all because of oxytocin. Leng says the hormone works by "changing the wiring" of billions of brain circuits, opening up new patterns of interaction between nerve cells. Large amounts of it are released into the bran during sexual activity, creating new brain pathways that cause you to bond with your partner. People who have fewer of the special brain receptors that take up the oxytocin may have trouble making a permanent commitment to a partner. 

Leng says, "The prairie vole mates for life and this life-long bond is established over the 48 hours of intense mating activity that is its first experience of sex. During this time, large amounts of oxytocin are released within the brain. Prairie voles have oxytocin receptors in different parts of their brains, and scientists have found that blocking these receptors prevents the formation of pair-bonding in females. How a single...exposure to oxytocin can produce such profound and prolonged changes in behavior is not known, but we are trying to find answers." 

This could help explain why so many singles are not finding partners these days. Extensive dating and many sexual partners may not lead to the formation of the brain channels that signal commitment. 

Oxytocin is also released during childbirth and helps a mother and her baby bond. And why don't we want to have sex with our siblings? Scientists have found a natural mechanism to prevent incest-people are not attracted to other people who have the same immune system.

Worried About Bioterrorism? Add Roaches and Mice to Your Kitchen 11-Feb-2004

Ordinary things are being bio-engineered to do extraordinary tasks. You may think roaches and mice are revolting, but if they can help detect bioweapons, you may actually want to have them around in the future. 

Michael Stroh writes in Popular Science that materials scientist Jeff Brinker has come up with a way for roaches to detect biological weapons. He says, "It's a very durable beast. Plus they tend to explore nooks and crannies." He glued a genetically-modified yeast cell solution called Sol-Gel to the bugs' bodies that glows when they encounter something harmful. 

He's created a form of yeast that glows green in the presence of cholera by combining cholera-sensitive genes with a glowing jellyfish gene. Now he's working on a yeast that will detect anthrax and other toxins. 

MIT scientists have engineered mouse cells that light up in the presence of smallpox and anthrax. The question is, will we have to tolerate having mice in the kitchen, or can these cells be used in other ways? 

We recently told you how to clean up pollution with spinach. Now Danish scientists have developed a genetically-modified form of watercress that turns from green to red when its roots come in contact with unexploded landmines. Landmines aren't a big problem in the U.S., but they cause around 26,000 cases of maiming or death every year, and it's estimated that there are about 100 million unexploded landmines around the world. Since it's dangerous for people or farm equipment to enter fields with suspected landmines in them, the seeds of the special cress can be sown by a crop duster.

Your Birthday Can Affect Your Health 10-Feb-2004

For some reason, certain diseases are more common in people born during certain times of the year. Some of these connections are truly baffling-like why schizophrenia is more common in people born in the winter, and learning disabilities are more common for those born in the spring. 

Marc Lallanilla writes in abcnews.com that your mother's exposure to seasonal diseases like the flu could be one factor. Dr. Marvin J. Bittner says, "Some infectious diseases have a seasonal variation. The reason for these variations is not entirely understood. In other cases, seasonal variation leads to insights. For example, mosquito-borne diseases vary with mosquito populations and factors such as weather." For instance, prenatal or newborn exposure to pollen in the spring could lead to respiratory ailments. 

Neurological and behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and ADHD (hyperactivity in children) might be linked to exposure to a virus during the second trimester, when brain development begins. 

Doctors in England noticed that when African immigrants had babies in the U.K., they had a higher incidence of schizophrenia than their children who were born in a warmer climate, and they think a lack of vitamin D from sunlight while in the womb might be the answer. 

Here's how it breaks down: 

Alzheimer's patients and schizophrenics are more likely to have been born in January, February and March. People who develop Lou Gehrig's disease (the disease scientist Stephen Hawking has) are more likely to be born in the spring, from April through June. 

Bipolar people (this used to be called manic-depression) are more often born in the cold months of February and March, but also arrive in the spring, in April. Epilepsy most affects those born in the winter or early spring, as well. Autism is more often seen in people born in March, but is also more common in August births. 

Kids with learning disabilities or dyslexia are often born in the spring or early summer, while kids with ADHD (for which they are often given Ritalin) are often born in September (when school starts). 

Bowel diseases are more common in summer births, and diabetes turns up most in summer births as well. Eczema and asthma may be a problem if you're born in the fall. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects more of the people born in spring or early summer (March through June). Parkinson's is more common in those born in April and May, and an anorexic is more likely to be born in June.

Bird Flu: What Happened Last Time 08-Feb-2004

A new form of bird flu, different from the Asian strain, has turned up in the U.S. As scientists worry that bird flu in Asia may have mutated and become contagious, they are looking at what happened in the past. In 1918, the worst flu epidemic in history killed 50,000,000 people worldwide, caused by a flu virus that jumped from birds to humans. 

Researcher John Skehel says, "If we find that the structure of a bird virus resembles that of the structure of the 1918 virus that we have determined, then we will know that it potentially poses a threat to man, and it will have to be kept under more active surveillance than usual." 

The 1918 flu killed more people than the Black Death in the Middle Ages. It probably affected the outcome of World War I, since so many soldiers were infected on both sides. The flu came in three stages and the second caused the most loss of life. Although most people who got it recovered, some died within 24 hours of becoming infected. 

Instead of just worrying about travelers from Asia bringing the flu the U.S., we now need to be concerned about a U.S. strain of the disease. 12,000 infected Delaware chickens were destroyed last weekend in an attempt to try to prevent the spread of bird flu here. This is a different strain from the flu now spreading through Asia. 

Delaware agriculture secretary Michael Scuse says he's "fairly confident" the virus hasn't spread to humans or other flocks of chickens. All chickens within a two-mile radius of the destroyed flock will be tested. No chickens from the affected farm have been sold to Purdue or any other large distributor.

Fat is All in the Mind 08-Feb-2004

New research shows that our brains help make us fat, because they think of our obese bodies as normal, so they don't stop craving food. And there's a country in the world where fat is considered beautiful, and women go to special camps to be "fattened up" before marriage. 

Pat Hagan writes in bbcnews.com that when we try to eat less, our brains see this as a threat to our survival so they set off body mechanisms, like lower metabolism, that keep the weight from being lost. "Back in man's hunter-gatherer days, or even in Britain in the Middle Ages, starvation was common," says researcher Jonathan Seckl. "So the body learned to turn off its metabolism and go into survival mode so it could live through the famine. Now when somebody is obese and they try to lose weight, they immediately feel hungry and the body reacts as if they were a five stone weakling. It tells the brain 'I am being starved' and starts to retain calories like crazy." 

Our brains need to reprogram themselves so they realize we're no longer close to starvation, but that could take hundreds or even thousands more years of evolution. "We are facing the pressure of millions of years of mammalian evolution," Seckl says. "Yet the phenomenon of a McDonalds on every street corner is only something seen in the last 20 years." 

Pascale Harter writes in bbcnews.com that obesity is considered beautiful in Mauritania, so young girls are sometimes taken to special camps and force-fed so they'll be able to attract a husband. A generation ago, this happened to one-third of the Arab population, but now the number has declined to about one in ten, mainly in rural families. 

Fatematou, who runs one of the fat farms and takes in girls as young as seven years old, says, "I make them eat and eat and eat. And then drink lots and lots of water. I make them do this all morning. Then they have a rest. In the afternoon we start again. We do this three times a day-the morning, the afternoon and the evening." If the girls don't eat voluntarily, "we grab them and we force them to eat. If they cry a lot we leave them sometimes for a day or two and then we come back to start again. They get used to it in the end." That's when their brains change and begin to think of their fat bodies as normal.

Neanderthals Couldn't Take the Cold-Can We? 06-Feb-2004

The Neanderthals suddenly disappeared 30,000 years ago because they didn't have enough primitive technology to survive the ice age, while our ancestors had barely enough to make it through. There's another ice age on the way-will we make it this time? 

Douglas Palmer writes in New Scientist that using data from archeological sites, researchers have made a map tracing the movements of both early humans and Neanderthals. It shows that as Europe became covered in ice, Neanderthals and humans both retreated south. Archeologist William Davies says it's surprising "the extent to which Neanderthals seem to have been deterred by the cold, and retreated as the going got tough." They weren't able to make adequate hunting tools in order to get food and fur to make warm clothing. 

Some scientists feel Neanderthals didn't actually disappear, but mated with us and became part of the human race. However, new analysis of Neanderthal skulls shows they probably weren't human. The differences between humans and Neanderthals are much greater than those found in the skulls of subspecies of any single group. This means that Neanderthals were not a subspecies of human being, and thus could not have interbred with our ancestors.

How Earth Survived Past Global Warming 03-Feb-2004

Scientists in the U.K. have figured out how the Earth recovered from a sudden episode of global warming during the time of the dinosaurs. This could help us understand how to survive the upcoming climate change. 

Global warming caused the erosion of rocks to increase by 400%, leaching calcium and magnesium into the ocean. This erosion could have been caused by an increase in rainfall, as well as higher ocean levels. These chemicals combined with the carbon dioxide that had been absorbed by the ocean, causing a chemical reaction that led to falling levels of greenhouse gases worldwide. Over a period of about 150,000 years, the Earth returned to normal. 

Calcium combining with CO2 would have created calcium carbonate, which does not increase global warming. Researcher Anthony Cohen says, "This intense rock- weathering effectively put a brake on global warming through chemical reactions that consumed the atmosphere's extra carbon dioxide." 

But how did the world heat up in the first place? (Since dinosaurs didn't drive SUVs). About 180 million years ago, temperatures on Earth rapidly shot up, probably due to the sudden release of huge amounts of methane from the ocean floor. Methane is a greenhouse gas which quickly changes to CO2, which stays in the atmosphere for a long period of time, absorbing sunlight and heating up the Earth. 

But where did the methane come from? Besides the vast amounts that are frozen deep in the ocean floor, it may have also come from the vast peat bogs in 200,000 miles of Siberia. Climatologist Laurence Smith says, "The bottom line is Siberian peat lands may be a bigger player in climate change than we knew before." 

And what triggers the methane release? Scientists at the University of Wyoming say the ocean methane is released when water temperatures rise. The methane in the ocean is in a highly pressurized form and heat causes faults in the ocean floor where it's stored to break apart, releasing the gas. Matthew Horbach says, "It's like a cork in a champagne bottle. If you shake up the champagne and build up enough pressure, the champagne bubbles can pop the cork." 

Smith says, "[This research] emphasizes a point that has been emerging over the past few years; the idea that the climate system is highly unpredictable and full of thresholds that can trigger greenhouse gas sources and sinks to abruptly switch on and off. The more of them we can identify, the more accurately we can model and anticipate changes in the future." 

Cohen says, "What we have learned from these rocks is how the Earth can, over a long time, combat global warming. What we need to discover now is why and at what point it goes into combat mode, and precisely how long the conflict takes to resolve."

Chupacabras Living in Abandoned Mines in Chile 01-Feb-2004

Abandoned gold mines that date from the 1950s in Chile could be harboring chupacabras that have a kangaroo-shaped body and a muzzle that resembles a wolf. They are fearless and attack local livestock and wild animals. 

H�ctor Cossio writes, in an article translated by Scott Corrales, that two bus drivers came across one of the creatures, after hearing legends about them living in the abandoned mines. One of them, An�bal Montes, says, "Shadows can be seen running uphill, vanishing into the mine and disappearing. But this is nothing new. It's been going on for many years." 

Radio host Cristi�n Opazo reports that 3 yeas ago he saw a pile of dead rabbits that had been killed by an unknown animal in the area. He says, "They had been sucked out. There were no signs of violence except for a hole, like that of a tooth, on the right side of the neck." Chupacabras are known as "goat suckers." 

Chickens and ducks have been found killed by the same method. Cryptozoologist Alberto Urquijo says the earliest literature describing chupacabras dates back to the late 18th century. "Out of all of the cases we've looked into, 40% can be ascribed to known animals, but the remaining 60% cannot," he says. "We figure that in three years at least 5500 animals have died in mysterious circumstances." 

What Happens When You Eat Only Fast Food 30-Jan-2004

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock surprised audiences at the Sundance Film Festival with his film "Super Size Me," about his 30 day diet of eating nothing but McDonald's, in order to find out if American obesity is tied to fast foods. He gained 25 pounds on the diet and his liver began to fail. 

In Newsweek, Brian Braiker quotes Spurlock as saying, "My body just basically falls apart over the course of this diet. I start to get tired; I start to get headaches; my liver basically starts to fill up with fat because there's so much fat and sugar in this food. My blood sugar skyrockets, my cholesterol goes up off the charts, my blood pressure becomes completely unmanageable... I didn't eat anything [else]-no gum, no candy, not even a Tic Tac-everything that I put in my mouth came from over the counter at McDonald's. Even the water." 

He saw three different doctors during his month-long fast food diet, and each one did blood tests on him, and they all agreed that not only was he getting fat, his health was deteriorating rapidly. His diet also affected his mood, turning him into a "food junkie." His girlfriend, who's a vegan, could barely tolerate him during this period. He says, "I would eat and I would feel so good because I would get all that sugar and caffeine and fat and I would feel great. And an hour later I would just crash-I would hit the wall and be angry and depressed and upset." 

We've got to start feeding our kids right. Did you know that your children probably have IQs 40% higher than they would have been fifty years ago? That if your kids went back in time to a school in 1952, they would be regarded as geniuses? And if your kids have an accident, they are likely to also have a near-death experience, something unheard-of just a few years ago. Find out what's going on from this week's Dreamland. Subscribers: Learn how to build a UFO from someone who's been trying to do it for years, after being aboard one-and is succeeding!

Amazing Parrot Can Really Talk 30-Jan-2004

Everyone knows that parrots can "talk," but it's been assumed they only copy what they hear, and don't really communicate. But an African gray parrot named N'kisi has a huge vocabulary, as well as a sense of humor. He uses correct grammar and seems to know what he's saying. He's even telepathic. Warning: If you have a pet bird you love, don't keep him in the kitchen or fumes from your Teflon pans could kill him. 

N'kisi uses correct present, past and future tenses, and if he doesn't know the correct tense, he'll invent one, such as "flied" for "flew." He's been studied by the chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, who says N'kisi's language is an "outstanding example of interspecies communication." When he saw a photo of her with her chimps, N'kisi said to her, "Got a chimp?" 

In an experiment organized by reseacher Rupert Sheldrake, N'kisi and his owner were in separate rooms. Both were filmed as the owner opened envelopes containing images at random. Although he couldn't see them, N'kisi made appropriate remarks about the images three times more often than he could have just by chance. He said, "What ya doing on the phone?" when the owner looked at a photo of a man with a telephone, and "Can I give you a hug?" when she saw a photo of a couple embracing. 

Alex Kirby writes in bbcnews.com that fumes given off by the cancer-causing chemicals used to make non-stick frying pans may be killing hundreds of pet birds every year. He quotes Elizabeth Salter-Green, of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, as saying, "Years ago, coal miners took canaries with them down the pits to detect lethal gases. Now, canaries are dying in our kitchens, but no action is being taken about the suspect chemicals." 

Can Astronauts Survive Moon Work? 29-Jan-2004

If we establish a base on the Moon, how will the astronauts who live and work there survive? When Neil Armstrong was there in 1969, he said, "It has a stark beauty all its own. It's much like the high desert of the United States." But he didn't spend months at a time there. 

The moon affected the astronauts who went there in different ways. Buzz Aldrin later fought off alcoholism. Edgar Mitchell became a paranormal investigator. James Irwin became a born-again Christian, searching Mount Ararat for Noah's Ark. 

Living on the moon means increased exposure to cosmic rays from the sun, since the Moon does not have a magnetic shield around it like the Earth does. Apollo astronauts even saw colorful flashes they called "ghosts," caused by charged particles from the Sun passing through their optic nerves. The unprecedented solar flares of recent months would have driven them underground. 

It's not a place for fussy housekeepers. "One of the most restricting facets of lunar exploration is the dust and its adherence to everything, no matter what kind of material," says Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan. "Simple things like the bag locks and the lock which held the pallet on the Rover began not only to malfunction but not to function at all." Astronaut Harrison Schmidt ruined the visor on his spacesuit while trying to clean the dust off it and he also turned out to be allergic to Moon dust. 

The lower field of gravity cause human bones and muscles to atrophy, but it's not as bad as the zero gravity on the International Space Station. It's also extremely cold up there, so robots may do a lot of the outside work. The months of isolation would be hard, like spending time in a submarine or Antarctic base. The difference is, you'd see "home" every time you looked up in the sky. 

But building materials won't be a problem, since NASA researchers have turned simulated Moon material into concrete and glass. And astronauts won't run short of air to breathe, since Moon dust is 40% oxygen-which works fine, as long as you're not allergic to it.

Joan of Arc Not Burned at Stake 28-Jan-2004

First we learned that Billy the Kid was not shot by Pat Garrett, but lived to an old age. Now anthropologist Sergey Gorbenko says Joan of Arc was not burned at the stake, but lived to be 57 years old. 

Gorbenko examined skulls from the French royal family of Ludwig XI and found that the skull that was thought to belong to the king was actually a woman's. It wasn't the skull of his wife Charlotte, because she died at age 38 and the skull belonged to a 55-57-year-old woman. He says, "The woman whose skull had been mistaken for that of King Ludwig XI for 100 years turned out to be Joan of Arc herself." 

The original Joan of Arc was Margarita d'Champdiver, who was not a peasant girl but the illegitimate daughter of King Karl VI and his mistress Odetta d'Champdiver. The king raised her as a soldier, since both his sons that been killed in battle. Since Karl VI had no sons to take over the throne, he had to claim it as a God-given right, so he started the legend of the virgin destined to save France, and assigned this role to his daughter Margarita. 

However, after a while "Joan's" victories became a problem for the king. He didn't like seeing his army under female leadership, so he developed a plan to kill Joan off by burning her at the stake. However, another woman was actually executed in her place. Evidence of this is that "Joan's" face was covered while she was being burned. 

This doesn't mean that Margarita wasn't both a great leader and a great fighter. Gorbenko says, "I did not discover anything that could discredit Joan of Arc. She was a magnificent leader, a true believer in God, a loyal wife and a kind mother. Can these facts sabotage her sainthood? [The Pope] and the Vatican are entitled to canonize Joan of Arc and no scientific discoveries can disprove this."

Ice Block Just Misses Elderly Woman 23-Jan-2004

The same conditions that recently produced a hole in the sky in Alabama have led to yet another giant ice block falling to Earth, this time in New Zealand. 

Patrick Gower and Natasha Harris write in the New Zealand Herald that a football-sized block of ice smashed through the roof and into the kitchen of 80-year-old Jan Robertson, who says, "There was this terrific bang like goodness knows what. I could have been in there cutting up vegetables... There was debris on the toaster, on the kettle-it was everywhere." 

She called the fire department, and fireman John Sweeney says they were skeptical "until we saw it for ourselves." 

This happened the previous week in the same neighborhood, when an ice block fell on the house of Pat Theobald, who says, "...There wasn't a cloud in the sky." 

Robertson assumes the ice fell from a plane, since they're in a flight path and often hear jets overhead. She says, "Where else could it come from?" 

These ice blocks have been falling from the sky all over the world in the last few years. Planes are often seen overhead when the blocks fall, leading to the conclusion that they are emptying their chemical toilets while flying overhead. However, planes do not do this and no traces of chemicals have been found in any of the ice. 

This phenomenon is caused by global warming. When the lower atmosphere gets warmer, the layer of air just above it, where planes fly, gets colder. This can cause contrails to freeze, dropping to Earth as blocks of ice. These ice blocks have even crashed into bedrooms, just missing sleeping people. 

If data on these ice blocks was gathered by an international agency, planes could be ordered to fly at a lower altitude, so their contrails wouldn't freeze. It's already been discovered that contrails turn into cirrus clouds, which trap heat rising from the Earth, increasing global warming. If planes fly 6,000 feet lower, it will reduce contrails by 47%.

'Drink Lots of Fluids': Unproven, Perhaps Dangerous 
Fri Feb 27, 2:40 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Alison McCook 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - There is no evidence to support the common wisdom that drinking plenty of fluids helps someone with a cold or flu, according to Australian researchers. 

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Instead, some research suggests, downing lots of fluids during an illness may even be dangerous in some cases. 

Study author Dr. Chris B. Del Mar explained that when people become very ill with a respiratory illness, their bodies sometimes secrete a hormone that causes them to retain water. Consequently, if they were to drink liters of water and other fluids, they might run the risk of problems resulting from a "waterlogging of the brain," according to Del Mar. 

So why do so many people, including doctors, recommend drinking plenty of fluids when ill? "It's not really clear," Del Mar noted. "All we know is that the idea arose in ancient times, and has been carried on ever since without anyone really challenging it." 

To investigate whether the theory that drinking fluids helps with colds and the flu was closer to fact or fiction, Del Mar and colleagues at the University of Queensland searched archives of past studies into the topic. They report their findings in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal. 

According to the report, not a single study has compared the effects of drinking lots of fluids versus low fluid intake in people with respiratory infections. Instead, the researchers discovered reports of ill people developing dangerously low levels of sodium in the blood, a condition that can be prevented by restricting, rather than encouraging, fluid intake. 

In two reports, for instance, between 31 and 45 percent of children experienced a drop in blood levels of sodium during a bout of moderate to severe pneumonia. 

Hopefully, Del Mar noted, these findings will encourage researchers to conduct studies in which they ask some sick people to drink lots of fluids and instruct others to drink only as much as they want, and compare the outcomes. 

Meanwhile, Del Mar said, the best advice to give someone with a cold is to simply wait it out, perhaps turning to an antihistamine to help with the sniffles, and acetaminophen to reduce an unpleasant fever. 

"As a doctor I check that they haven't anything more serious, and then reassure them they will get better whatever treatment they use," Del Mar said. 

British Medical Journal, February 28, 2004.

Death Flights 23-Jan-2004

There have been mysterious deaths on two British flights from Miami to England, on two consecutive days. 

Wired.com reports that A 19-year-old British woman died Monday while flying on a Virgin Atlantic plane from Miami to Heathrow Airport. The day before, two passengers on a British Airways flight from Miami to Heathrow died. One of them may have had viral meningitis. 

On Monday, the Virgin Atlantic passenger died shortly before landing. The crew tried to revive her and a doctor came forward to help, but the woman was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause of death is unknown. 

On Sunday, a woman flying on British Airways from Miami to Heathrow became ill, and the aircraft was diverted to Nova Scotia so she could receive emergency treatment, but she died anyway. It's not clear if she died on the plane or in the hospital. A man on the same plane became ill after the flight took off again and he died shortly before arriving at Heathrow. It's thought he died of viral meningitis and the woman may have had a heart attack, so the two deaths may not be related. 

Viral meningitis causes inflammation of the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord and is only contagious in very close contact. It can be caused by a virus, bacteria or fungus, and is usually only fatal in people with weak immune systems. 

Can Software Kill?

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1543652,00.asp?kc=EWNWS030804DTX1K0000599

Can Software Kill?

As software spreads from computers to the engines of automobiles to robots in factories to X-ray machines in hospitals, defects are no longer a problem to be managed. They have to be predicted and excised. Otherwise, unanticipated uses can lead to deadly consequences. Read the story

Can Software Kill?

'We Did Nothing Wrong'

By Debbie Gage, Baseline and John McCormick,

Baseline March 8, 2004

Additional reporting by Berta Ramona Thayer in Panama

As software spreads from computers to the engines of automobiles to robots in factories to X-ray machines in hospitals, defects are no longer a problem to be managed. They have to be predicted and excised. Otherwise, unanticipated uses will lead to unintended consequences. For proof, look no further than the cancer patients in Panama who died after being overdosed by a Cobalt-60 radiotherapy machine. Or ask the technicians who plugged data into the software that guided that machine, and are now charged with second-degree murder.

Victor Garcia considers himself lucky to be alive. Three years ago, a combination of cancer and miscalculation almost killed him.

The former distribution manager for fragrance maker Chanel now can feel the hot Panamanian morning sun stream through his living-room window. He can smell lunch cooking in the kitchen. He can sit in an armchair surrounded by pictures of his six children and six grandchildren and talk to his wife. Simple pleasures he almost lost following a software malfunction. In November of 2000, Garcia and 27 other patients at the National Cancer Institute in Panama were jolted with massive overdoses of gamma rays partly due to limitations of the computer program that guided use of a radiation-therapy machine.

In the 40 months that have passed, 21 patients have died. While it's unclear how many of the patients would have died of cancer anyway, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in May 2001 that at least five of the deaths were probably from radiation poisoning and at least 15 more patients risked developing "serious complications" from radiation.

Garcia, being treated for prostate cancer, survived but suffered damage to his intestines. He now has a colostomy. "I am very lucky," he says, shaking his head in wonderment. "That's what the [investigating] doctors from Houston told me. 'You are so lucky.'"

The three Panamanian medical physicists who used the software to figure out just how much radiation to apply to patients are scheduled to be tried on May 18 in Panama City on charges of second-degree murder. Under Panamanian law, they may be held responsible for "introducing changes into the software" that led directly to the patients' deaths, according to Special Superior Deputy Prosecutor Cristobal Arboleda.

The physicists, of course, thought they were helping the patients. Having consulted a doctor at the hospital and the software's manual, they thought they had figured out how to place five radiation shields over each patient's body, instead of four, to protect against possible overdoses. "I thought I was home free," one of them, Olivia Salda�a, recalls now.

This is not a cautionary tale for medical technicians, even though they can find themselves fighting to stay out of jail if they misunderstand or misuse technology.

This also is not a tale of how human beings can be injured or worse by poorly designed or poorly explained software, although there are plenty of examples to make the point.

This is a warning for any creator of computer programs: that software quality matters, that applications must be foolproof, and that- whether embedded in the engine of a car, a robotic arm in a factory or a healing device in a hospital- poorly deployed code can kill.

U.S. Launches Probe Into Toyota Vehicles 
Tue Mar 9, 4:55 AM ET 
Add Business 

TOKYO  - Japan's biggest auto maker, Toyota Motor Corp. (news - web sites), said on Tuesday that the U.S. government has launched an investigation into three of its vehicle models, including the Camry -- its best-selling model in the United States -- over an alleged defect that causes sudden acceleration. 

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On Monday, the U.S. highway safety authority announced that it had received reports of 30 crashes that injured at least five people, when some Toyota Camry, Camry Solara and Lexus ES300 vehicles suddenly and unexpectedly surged forward. 

"One of the noted injuries was serious: it occurred when a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle which allegedly surged forward unexpectedly," the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) (NHTSA) said in a statement released on the Internet. 

An estimated 1,010,000 vehicles from the 2002 and 2003 model years could be affected, according to the NHTSA. 

A spokeswoman for Toyota confirmed the NHTSA's investigation into the three models, but she said she could not give further details of the investigation. 

Shares in Toyota earlier ended Tokyo trade up 0.51 percent at 3,950 yen, against a 0.25 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average. 

Study: We're Eating Ourselves to Death

2 hours, 11 minutes ago

By LINDSEY TANNER, News Source Medical Writer 

CHICAGO - Inactive Americans are eating themselves to death at an alarming rate, their unhealthy habits fast approaching tobacco as the top underlying preventable cause of death, a government study found. 

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In 2000, poor diet including obesity and physical inactivity caused 400,000 U.S. deaths - more than 16 percent of all deaths and the No. 2 killer. That compares with 435,000 for tobacco, or 18 percent, as the top underlying killer. 

The gap between the two is substantially narrower than in 1990, when poor diet and inactivity caused 300,000 deaths, 14 percent, compared with 400,000 for tobacco, or 19 percent, says a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

"This is tragic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC's director and an author of the study. "Our worst fears were confirmed." 

"It's going to overtake tobacco" if the trend continues, Gerberding said. "At CDC, we're going to do everything we can to prevent it," she said. "Obesity has got to be job No. 1 for us in terms of chronic diseases." 

The researchers analyzed data from 2000 for the leading causes of death and for those preventable factors known to contribute to them. Like tobacco, obesity and inactivity increase the risks for the top three killers: heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular ailments including strokes. Obesity and inactivity also strongly increase the risk of diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death. 

The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites). 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) officials discussed the findings Tuesday at a Washington news briefing where they announced a public service ad campaign using humor to get Americans to pay attention to the dangers of inactivity and obesity. 

"I am working very hard at CDC to walk the talk," Gerberding said in a telephone interview, noting efforts the agency has made at CDC offices to improve the health of its 9,000-plus employees. 

They include putting music, lights and fresh paint jobs in stairwells to encourage employees to use the stairs for exercise. Also, besides the current indoor smoking ban, CDC will ban smoking from outside all of its buildings starting later this year. 

In order, the leading causes of death in 2000 were: Heart disease, cancer, strokes and other cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, unintentional injuries, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites), kidney disease, and septicemia. 

The underlying preventable causes of death were, in order: tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity, alcohol, microbial agents, toxic agents, motor vehicles, firearms, sexual behavior and illegal drug use. Together, these accounted for about half of all 2.4 million U.S. deaths in 2000. 

An editorial accompanying the study in JAMA says national leadership and policy changes are needed to help curb preventable causes of death. 

"After all, wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing it," said editorial authors Drs. J. Michael McGinnis and William Foege. McGinnis is with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Foege is with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (news - web sites). 

___ 

On the Net: 

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org 

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

Swarm of Cicadas Taking Aim at U.S. 

1 hour, 18 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By DAN LEWERENZ, News Source Writer 

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After 17 years of relative quiet, Mother Nature is bringing the noise. Periodical cicadas, a species of the grasshopper-like insects best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, will emerge this May, filling forests in more than a dozen states. Almost as abruptly as they arrive, they'll disappear underground for another 17 years. 

"Why do certain insects take only one year to develop, and others take two or three? It's just part of their genetic programming," said Greg Hoover, senior extension entomologist for Penn State University. 

There are at least 13 broods of 17-year cicadas, plus another five broods that emerge every 13 years. The last to emerge, Brood IX, was seen last spring in parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. 

This year, it's time for Brood X, the so-called "Big Brood," to surface. Its range stretches from Georgia, west through Tennessee and to isolated pockets of Missouri, north along the Ohio Valley and into Michigan, and east into New Jersey and New York. 

"This is one of those years we kind of dread," said Paris Lambdin, professor of entomology and plant pathology at the University of Tennessee. "We had an emergence a couple years ago around Nashville, but nothing like what we expect this one will be." 

No other periodical cicada covers so much ground. And with hundreds of them per acre in infested areas, the noise will be hard to miss. 

"In 1987, coming back from the University of Maryland on Interstate 95, when you drove through a wooded area you could hear the insects," Hoover said. "This would have been mid to late June, with the windows down, and then it would shut down when you got to a field or a non-wooded area." 

In rare years, a 13-year brood can emerge to add its collective voice to that of a 17-year brood. 

"Out in the Midwest is where things get really hairy," Hoover said. "Missouri, Illinois, Indiana have combinations of 17-year-brooded individuals and 13-year-brooded individuals, and they can have overlap." 

There's no question that the class of 2004 will be a nuisance. The cicadas will make plenty of noise, and adults are poor fliers that tend to bump into things. 

But as swarms go, these cicadas aren't that bad. Adults don't feed on leaves, so they won't strip the trees, but they do lay their eggs in twigs. 

"The females, once mated, will lay pockets of eggs along twigs that will cause structural weakening of those twigs," Hoover said. "Eventually they may drop off and fall to the ground, the nymphs will drop off and fall to the soil, and that's where this species is for the next 17 years." 

___ 

On the Net: 

PSU College of Agricultural Sciences Periodical Cicada Fact Sheet: http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/periodical_cicada.htm

Powerball Winner Robbed Twice in a Week 

Thu Mar 11, 6:18 PM ET

Add U.S. National - 

WINFIELD, W.Va. - The man who won the largest single lottery jackpot in U.S. history has had a run of bad luck this week: He's been robbed twice and sued. 

Police said the business office of Jack Whittaker, who hit the $314.9 million Powerball jackpot on Christmas 2002, was broken into Tuesday and $2,000 was taken. 

On Thursday, Whittaker's vehicle at his home was broken into and property was stolen. State Police spokesman Sgt. Jay Powers said he could not release details. 

No arrests have been made. 

Earlier in the week, Whittaker was sued by an employee of a Cross Lanes racetrack and casino who alleged he assaulted her in March 2003. He has not responded to the civil suit, and has not been charged with any crime. 

In January, in separate incidents, Whittaker was charged with threatening to kill the manager of a bar and with drunken driving. Both cases are pending. 

Also in January, his vehicle was broken into and $100,000 was taken. No arrests were made. 

In August, Whittaker was allegedly drugged while at a strip club and a briefcase with more than $500,000 was stolen from his vehicle. The money was recovered and two club employees were arrested.

Underground Wiring Shocking People, Dogs 

Thu Mar 11, 4:35 PM ET

By HELENA PAYNE, News Source Writer 

When a New Yorker walking her dogs was electrocuted in January by faulty wiring under the pavement, it seemed like the freakiest of accidents - until several pets in other big cities were killed or shocked in the weeks that followed. 

Now utilities are rushing to fix the problems - blamed largely on work crews tearing up the streets - and to reassure the public. Dog owners, meanwhile, are buying booties for their pets to insulate their paws. 

"People are getting current up through their arms or their legs," Boston Councilor-at-Large Maura A. Hennigan said this week. "How much more current do they need to get for us to do something about it?" 

On Jan. 16, 30-year-old architect Jodie Lane was electrocuted while walking through New York's East Village with her two dogs. Her dogs were shocked first. She noticed they were in distress, and when she tried to help them, she stepped onto the electrified metal cover of a utility box. 

An investigation by Consolidated Edison found that utility workers had failed to properly wrap an exposed wire. 

In Chicago, a dog was electrocuted Jan. 27 after touching a charged metal grate. City inspectors found clipped wiring under a utility box nearby. 

At least three dogs have been electrocuted over the past four years in Boston, which like New York is an old, densely populated city with many underground systems. 

George Morton was walking Oscar, his yellow Labrador, through the city's Charlestown neighborhood last month when the dog suddenly froze on the sidewalk, let out a piercing howl and began thrashing about violently. The animal died on the spot, killed by 100 volts from an underground cable. 

Humans are generally in less danger than dogs because their rubber- or leather-soled shoes serve as insulators. 

Experts say the phenomenon is a result of an ever-expanding network of underground lines and constant digging by work crews. 

"It's being caused by contractors that are doing sloppy jobs of cleaning up their mess," said Robert Gonsalves, chairman of electrical engineering at Tufts University. "Contractors will come in and get a permit and dig up the streets and do this and that, and they don't put it back in the right conditions." 

After the electrocution in New York, Con Ed tested about 260,000 underground structures, manholes, metal plates and service boxes and found less than 1 percent of them had stray voltage, company spokesman Joe Petta said. Still, two more dogs were shocked in New York this week. 

In Boston, the main utility, NStar, took out full-page ads in the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe this week, pledging to check more than 30,000 manholes. But they blamed construction crews, not utility workers. 

"It is unacceptable when construction crews can damage our system, walk away from a dangerous situation and then assume no responsibility for what they have done," NStar president Thomas J. May said in the ad. 

In one Boston case, a dog was shocked after someone dug up a street in Chinatown, destroyed a wire, and then tried to repair it by wrapping it with police caution tape, NStar spokeswoman Christina McKenna said. 

The street was still damp from a rainfall, and as the dog walked by a manhole cover, it got a jolt that singed its paws and sent it yelping. 

"I've never heard a dog make a sound like that before. It was frightening," said the owner, Nora Hayes. 

Some owners are now buying rubber and leather mitts for their pooches' paws. 

"We've had a large interest in that since the first news came out a few months ago," said Andy Chan, general manager of a Petco in Boston.

Study Examines Genetically Modified Corn

Thu Mar 11, 1:33 PM ET

By WILL WEISSERT, News Source Writer 

OAXACA, Mexico - If left unchecked, modified genes spread by imported U.S. biotech corn threaten to displace or contaminate native ancestor varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn, a NAFTA watchdog group reported Thursday. 

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The study by the trilateral Commission for Environmental Cooperation said gene transfers could damage Mexico's vast storehouse of native corn, whose wild ancestral genes might one day be needed to help commercial crops overcome diseases or adverse conditions. 

The report, presented at a corn symposium in the colonial city of Oaxaca, is still in draft form and must be approved during a commission meeting in June. 

It does not provide data on the prevalence of genetically modified corn in the Mexican countryside, but Amanda Galvez, head of the Mexican government's interagency group on biosafety and genetically modified organisms, said a federally sponsored study had confirmed instances of massive gene transfer. 

In 1998, Mexico declared a moratorium on genetically modified corn, making it illegal to grow anywhere outside licensed laboratories. Still, in a study of 188 corn-growing communities across Oaxaca state, Galvez said that 7.6 percent of plants tested positive for genetic modification in 2001. 

Galvez said officials warned farmers about the possibility that they were planting genetically modified seeds, helping to reduce the number of plants testing positive to 0.11 percent in later studies. But the rate of unaffected plants will never drop to zero, she said. 

"We can try to reduce the penetration of these plants, but we can't go back and stop their spread now," said Galvez. 

Aldo Gonzalez, head of a group representing subsistence farmers, complained the findings were incomplete. 

"I would like to ask if the amount of genetically modified plants really has dropped or if the lower amounts detected simply mean the scientific community can't detect transgenic effects in second-generation corn," said Gonzalez, who addressed the Environmental Cooperation symposium with a dead stalk of corn by his side. 

The commission report said that gene transfer so far has been "insignificant from a biological point of view." It also says, however, that the uncontrolled spread of genetically modified corn could one day make it impossible to find corn not manipulated by science. 

"We don't know to what extent these genetically modified planets could just take over and cause other species of corn to die off," said Chantal Line Carpentier, the report's coordinator. "But that possibility is out there." 

Gene migration is a hotly debated subject. Some scientists say it has not yet been proven to occur in corn. Others maintain that negative characteristics caused by gene splicing will cause modified plants to die before they can reproduce, and they say that any positive effects would help native species survive. 

Much U.S. corn is altered to produce a naturally occurring toxin known as Bacillus Thuringiensis, or Bt, to ward off pests. It was that Bt-producing gene that was found in the Mexican government study, Galvez said. 

Farmers in Mexico first bred modern corn some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The country is home to at least 59 species of maize, from the protein-rich variety used to make tortilla chips to softer grain mashed for use in tamales. 

Corn was born when farmers began crossbreeding teosinte, a plant with a jumble of sharp, dark-green leaves that look like corn stalks but grow out instead of up. teosinte is still found in Mexican fields, but is considered a weed. 

Today, due in part to the North American Free Trade Agreement, 70 percent of Mexico's corn - some 5 million tons a year - is imported from the United States. Between 30 and 50 percent of that is genetically modified. While much of the imported corn is intended for use as animal feed, some was planted - and spread its pollen. 

"The government aid program to food-depressed areas is the most likely culprit for disseminating genetically modified maize," said the report, which will be about 400 pages upon completion. 

Olga Toro's corn fields in the mountains of northern Oaxaca, was the first place in Mexico where scientists detected genetically modified corn growing in the wild. 

The 2001 study about alleged contamination in Toro's five-acre (two-hectare) plot was published in the journal Nature. But the magazine later noted there was evidence that the researchers had not proven conclusively that contamination had occurred. 

Toro said she unknowingly planted modified seeds she received from a local food bank. The results were plants that shot up to heights two and three times their normal size, produced double the amount of corn and grew with next to no water. But she won't plant them again. 

"They modified the genes and we got plants that lasted only one season," said the 43-year-old mother of six. "Regular plants last longer without help from anyone."

Zimbabwe Readies to Charge 64 From Plane 

Thu Mar 11, 3:08 PM ET

By ANGUS SHAW, News Source Writer 

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Sixty-four suspected mercenaries allegedly hired to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea will face charges in Zimbabwe, along with their three-man flight crew, the attorney general said Thursday. 

Attorney General Bharat Patel was quoted by state radio as saying the men, who were arrested Sunday when their aging Boeing 727-L100 stopped at Harare International Airport, are expected to appear in court Friday or Saturday. 

Patel said the men would be charged under Zimbabwe's aviation, firearms and immigration laws. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge has said they could face the death penalty, but none of the charges mentioned by Patel are capital offenses. 

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said Wednesday that Equatorial Guinea's rebel leader, Severo Moto, had offered the group $1.8 million and oil rights for overthrowing President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma. 

The suspected mercenaries, who are from various African countries, were also allegedly planning to supply guns and other assistance to rebels in eastern Congo. 

Mohadi claimed the CIA (news - web sites), together with British and Spanish intelligence agencies, had persuaded Equatorial Guinea's police and military chiefs to cooperate with the coup plotters by promising them Cabinet posts in the new government. The agencies also were supplying the plotters with communications equipment, he said. 

Fifteen other alleged mercenaries were arrested in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, also on suspicions of plotting to overthrow the government. 

South Africa's foreign minister met with an Equatorial Guinea delegation Thursday in Pretoria to discuss the issue. South Africans account for 20 of the 64 men detained in Zimbabwe, with most of the others being from Namibia and Angola. 

The South Africans, who include former members of the South African military, could also face anti-mercenary charges at home, South African President Thabo Mbeki said. 

Details of the coup plot came from an alleged co-conspirator who was detained Sunday as he waited to meet the plane, Mohadi said. He has been identified as Simon Mann, a British agent allegedly involved in efforts to buy weapons from Zimbabwe's state arms maker. 

Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda said his government believed the suspects once belonged to the Buffalo Battalion, a disbanded South African army unit composed of foreign soldiers, many of them from Portuguese-speaking countries. The unit fought in Namibia and Angola in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Along with the plane, Zimbabwe authorities seized what they called "military materials" - including satellite telephones, radios, backpacks, hiking boots, bolt cutters and an inflatable raft. There were no reports of weapons on the plane. 

The plane's registration number is assigned to Dodson Aviation Inc. of Ottawa, Kan. However, the company said it sold the aircraft about a week ago.

Women May Not Have Fixed Number of Eggs

Wed Mar 10,11:48 PM ET

HealthDay 

By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter 

WEDNESDAY, March 10 (HealthDayNews) -- In a new study that challenges one of the most basic tenets of reproductive biology, researchers say they've found that ovaries in mice don't contain a fixed number of eggs at birth.

This finding clashes with current scientific dogma that says most female mammals are born with a finite set of eggs, and once that supply is depleted menopause follows.

"The current thinking on how ovaries are formed and how they fail is wrong," says study author Jonathan Tilly, director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "The number of oocytes (egg cells) is not fixed at birth, but is renewing during adults' life."

Tilly says what most excites him about the finding is its implications for future research. "We now have in our hands a new set of biological and clinical questions," he says. "Given that the dogma is wrong, we have to begin to rethink the aging process in females and how that process is regulated."

"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," adds Tilly, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites).

The study appears in the March 11 issue of Nature.

In a second study in the journal, researchers announced the birth of a rhesus monkey produced using transplanted ovarian tissue.

Tilly and his research team were looking for ways to stop cell death during radiation or chemotherapy treatment for cancer. To assess the affects of these treatments on egg cells, the researchers needed to measure the number of follicles (the sacs in which eggs grow to maturity) normally found in healthy mice.

What they found surprised them. When the animals were young, they had a low level of dying follicles. As they aged, that number increased to about 1,200 follicles dying per day in each ovary. Since, the researchers only found 3,000 healthy follicles, a rate of 1,200 per day would quickly deplete the remaining follicles if no new follicles developed.

Because this finding contradicted commonly held beliefs, the researchers took a closer look at the makeup of the mouse ovaries. They carefully examined the outer surface of the ovaries and found germ cells, which, according to Tilly, are adult stem cells. These ovarian germ cells secreted a protein only found as oocytes are developing, suggesting that in mice, oocytes continue to be manufactured long after birth.

Tilly says he expects some initial skepticism to the idea that women may not have a fixed number of eggs. However, he hopes this finding will spur new areas of research in fertility and in aging.

In the second study, researchers said they were able to produce the birth of a rhesus monkey by using transplanted ovarian tissue.

"Our lab is trying to help develop strategies to preserve fertility in young women and children with cancer," says Dr. David Lee, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

One way scientists hope to do this is by freezing a woman's ovaries before cancer treatment for use in reproduction later in life. To date, this has not been accomplished, although researchers from the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility in New York City announced on March 8 that they'd been able to create a human embryo using frozen ovarian tissue.

For this study, Lee says, "We removed ovarian tissue [from seven monkeys] and transplanted it to distant sites, such as the arm or abdomen [in the same animals]." This tissue was never frozen.

Once transplanted, Lee explains, the tissue survived by diffusion, soaking up nutrients until it could establish its own blood supply. Eventually, the transplanted tissue produced eight mature eggs, which were harvested. Six were fertilized with sperm. Two developed into embryos, which were implanted into two surrogate mother monkeys. One healthy pregnancy and birth resulted.

Of both studies, as well as other research that's ongoing, Lee says, "there's really a confluence of very exciting research all at the same time, and all offer hope for fertility."

More information

To learn more about preserving fertility in young people with cancer, visit the American Cancer Society. The society also offers this article on fertility for adults undergoing cancer treatment.

RESUME: GEORGE W. BUSH, THE WHITE HOUSE, USA

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for
driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had
my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been
"lost" and is not available.

Military: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused
to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining
the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

College: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a
cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought
an oil company but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went
bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land
using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our right-wing friends in the oil industry
(including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor ofTexas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making
Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city
in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in
borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's
appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over
500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal
record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one
billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month
period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and
that trend continues every month.

I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any
administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice,
has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most
corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends,
Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S.
history, Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate
attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my
election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation
or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica
Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest
corporate rip-offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to
intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded
government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in
U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the
history of the U.S. government.

I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove
the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees
and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election
inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).

I set the record for least number of press conferences of any President
since the advent of television.

I set the presidential all-time record for most days on vacation in any
one-year period.

After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst
security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center
attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in
the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously
protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for
protest against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive
attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against
the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty
benefits for active duty troops and their families - in war time.

In my State of the Union address, I lied about our reasons for attacking
Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%)
view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD
(weapon of mass destruction).

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to
justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library
sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt
companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended
regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for
public review.

Thieves Make Off with Mossad Chief's Phone

Mar 11, 8:18 am ET 

TEL AVIV  - Israel's Mossad spy agency may be the scourge of Arab militants and former Nazis, but it has failed to find thieves who stole the boss's mobile phone.

Meir Dagan, the retired general who heads Israel's shadowy foreign intelligence agency, lost the phone when his car was broken into in Tel Aviv last month, security sources said on Wednesday.

Court orders barred publication of the theft during the police hunt for the culprits. The sources said they did not want the thieves to realize the value of what they had stolen.

No arrests have been made.

To be extra safe, Mossad ordered the phone company to remotely erase the memory on Dagan's handset.

"There were quite a few numbers of agents and secret service heads stored there. We did not want embarrassing exposure for them too," one source said.

I'm Not a Spy, But I Play One on TV...

Mar 11, 8:17 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Jennifer Garner, who plays spy Sydney Bristow in the television series "Alias," has turned her talents to recruiting real-life spies to work for the CIA in a video on the agency's employment Web site.

"Although the show 'Alias' is fictional, the character Jennifer Garner plays embodies the integrity, patriotism and intelligence the CIA looks for in its officers," the CIA said on its Web site www.cia.gov.

On ABC's action spy show, Garner's character chases terrorists, wears disguises and dodges danger in hot spots around the world. She even disappeared for two years, and occasionally finds time for romance.

Garner was not paid for the recruiting video, a CIA spokesman said. "She did this out of a sense of patriotism."

On the video, Garner says the CIA needs people with wide-ranging talents, diverse backgrounds, integrity, common sense, patriotism and courage who want to make a difference in the world.

"Right now, the CIA has important, exciting jobs for U.S. citizens, especially those with foreign language skills. Today, the collection of foreign intelligence has never been more vital for national security," Garner says on the video.

The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have been focused on recruiting people with language skills. The agencies were criticized after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for not having enough spies who spoke Arabic and Asian languages that would help Washington fight what it calls its war on terrorism.

Drunken Dad Asks 11-Year-Old Son to Drive

Mar 11, 8:13 am ET 

DALLAS  - A Texas man did the drinking and decided to let his 11-year-old son, who was barely able to see over the steering wheel, do the driving, police said.

Police said on Wednesday they had arrested Robert Lee Crider on charges of child endangerment, public intoxication and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.

Crider's son was pulled over by a Texas state trooper outside of the west Texas town of Big Spring in the predawn hours of Saturday after the officer saw the car speeding and weaving through traffic, said Sgt. Jason Hester, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Crider apparently was taking his son home for the weekend as a part of a custody arrangement with his ex-wife. Crider and a friend stopped off at a bar with the boy, and when the two adults became too drunk to drive, they handed the keys of the rental car over to the boy.

The boy was pulled over just as the group started on a trip of some 200 miles to Crider's home. They had passed several motels before they were stopped by the trooper, Hester said.

Police fed the boy a grilled cheese sandwich, found a mattress for him to sleep on and called his mother, who picked him up and drove him back to her home.

Cousins, Age 70 and 85, Die in Pistol Duel

Mar 11, 8:10 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - Two Mexican peasant farmers, cousins age 70 and 85, argued for years over water rights and finally faced off in an old-fashioned pistol duel that killed both, a judicial official said Wednesday.

Manuel Orozco and Candelario Orozco, who were also brothers-in-law, shot each other dead in the middle of a field Monday night in the western state of Jalisco.

Their bodies were found only 11 feet apart with one fatal bullet wound each and two pistols lying nearby.

"Initial investigations are along the lines that it was a duel because of family problems," said Jose Ramirez, spokesman for the Jalisco state prosecutor's office.

Manuel, 70, fired a .45 caliber Colt pistol and his 85-year-old cousin was packing a .22 caliber pistol.

Jalisco is the traditional home of mariachi music and the distilled spirit tequila, and is known in Mexico for its macho culture.

The two men had long debated ownership of a water spring that Candelario used to irrigate a small corn plot near the town of Pihuamo.

The disagreement began to get out of hand when a water pipe broke recently.

"Their relatives had spoken to them to get them to solve it but, as you know, older people are a bit more stubborn and obstinate and they never reached an agreement," Ramirez said.

EPA Studies Vapors From Microwave Popcorn

2 hours, 4 minutes ago

By CONNIE FARROW, News Source Writer 

The Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) is studying the chemicals released into the air when a bag of microwave popcorn is popped or opened. 

Exposure to vapors from butter flavoring in microwave popcorn has been linked to a rare lung disease contracted by factory workers in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has said it suspects the chemical diacetyl caused the illnesses. 

However, health officials insist people who microwave popcorn and eat it at home are not in danger. 

In the first direct study of chemicals contained in one of the nation's most popular snack foods, the EPA's Indoor Environment Management Branch at Research Triangle Park, N.C., is examining the type and amount of chemicals emitted from microwave popcorn bags. 

Further research would be needed to determine any health effects of those chemicals and whether consumers are at risk, said Jacky Rosati, an EPA scientist involved in the study. 

"Once we know what chemicals are and the amounts, somebody else can look at the health effects," Rosati said Wednesday. 

About 50 brands, batches and flavors of microwave popcorn - from super-buttery to sugary sweet "kettle corn" - are being tested, she said. 

"Obviously, we are looking at diacetyl because it is a known compound that will come off this popcorn. But we're not looking at that alone," Rosati said. 

The EPA study began last fall and is expected to be completed this year. It likely will be submitted for peer review before being made public, Thompson said. 

Rosati started the study after hearing a presentation on popcorn workers who became sick at the Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. plant in Jasper, Mo. 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has linked diacetyl to the respiratory illnesses found in workers who mix the microwave popcorn flavorings. Investigators believe the chemical becomes hazardous when it is heated and there is repeated exposure to large quantities over a long time. 

Thirty former workers at the Jasper plant are suing two butter flavoring manufacturers. 

The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association based in Washington, D.C., said the flavor ingredients in microwave popcorn pose no threat to consumers. 

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), which regulates food additives, also considers butter flavoring to be safe for consumer use. 

"I haven't seen anything that would give us any reason to suspect this is something we should make a high priority," said George Pauli, acting director of the FDA's office of food additive safety. 

United States consumers bought $1.33 billion worth of microwave popcorn in 2000, said Ann Wilkes, spokeswoman for the Snack Food Association.

House Backs Ban on Obesity Lawsuits 
2 hours, 53 minutes ago

By Joanne Kenen 

WASHINGTON  - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation nicknamed the "cheeseburger bill" that would block lawsuits blaming the food industry for making people fat. 

Approved on a 276-139 vote, the bill came up one day after health officials announced that obesity was on the verge of surpassing tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and urged people to exercise more and eat a balanced diet. 

The bill has backing from the White House and much of the food industry but it faces hurdles in the Senate, which has often blocked House-passed measures that would cap legal damages or protect certain industries from lawsuits. 

The "cheeseburger" debate became a verbal food fight with lawmakers using words rarely heard on the House floor like "crap," "foolish" and "sanctimonious" to describe the bill or each other. 

The "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" would prevent what the bill calls frivolous lawsuits against makers, distributors or sellers of food and nonalcoholic beverages arising from obesity claims. 

Backers said it is needed to protect the industry against an organized onslaught of lawsuits in which trial lawyers urge fat people to look for someone to blame. Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, said fat people should "look in the mirror." 

Bill sponsor Rep. Ric Keller (news, bio, voting record), a Florida Republican who calls himself a "chubby guy" with a taste for double cheeseburgers, said his legislation is about "common sense and personal responsibility." 

Mostly Democratic critics, backed by some consumer groups, said the courts, not Congress, should determine when lawsuits are frivolous. North Carolina Democrat Rep. Melvin Watt (news, bio, voting record) said, "There's not a single pending lawsuit now that hasn't been dismissed." 

The best-known case, filed by teenagers against McDonald's Corp., has been thrown out of federal court twice. 

Critics said the bill sent a message to the food industry that it did not have to worry about public health. "That's the wrong message," said Massachusetts Democrat Rep. James McGovern (news, bio, voting record). 

Watt, who is black, called the bill "crap" when Sensenbrenner likened it to historic civil rights legislation. Watt quickly apologized. 

Keller said his legislation would not block civil suits stemming from tainted foods or mislabeling -- although critics said it was so broadly worded that it would make it hard for individuals to file such suits. 

The bill would block suits in state and federal courts, and dismiss any that have already been filed. A few states have already passed their own bans on fat suits, and others are considering them. 

The congressional debate comes as public health officials have sounded the alarm about the number of fat Americans -- including growing numbers of children. Overweight people face numerous health risks. 

John Cady, head of the National Food Processors Association, said, "This bill is a timely and needed response to the threat of lawsuits seeking to pin the responsibility for obesity in this country on the food industry." (Additional reporting by Jackie Frank in Washington and Deborah Cohen in Chicago) 

Donated Bodies Used in Land Mine Tests

1 hour, 48 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

By CAIN BURDEAU, News Source Writer 

NEW ORLEANS - Seven cadavers donated to Tulane University's medical school were sold to the Army and blown up in land mine experiments, officials said Wednesday. Tulane said it has suspended dealings with a national distributor of donated bodies. 

Tulane receives up to 150 cadavers a year from donors but needs only between 40 and 45 for classes, said Mary Bitner Anderson, co-director of the Tulane School of Medicine's Willed Body Program. 

The university paid National Anatomical Service, a New York-based company that distributes bodies nationwide, less than $1,000 a body to deliver surplus cadavers, thinking they were going to medical schools in need of corpses. 

The anatomical services company sold seven cadavers to the Army for between $25,000 and $30,000, said Chuck Dasey, a spokesman for the Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Md. The bodies were blown up in tests on protective footwear against land mines at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. 

Tulane said it found out about the Army's use of the bodies in January 2003. It suspended its contract with the anatomical services company this month. The company did not immediately return calls for comment. 

"There is a legitimate need for medical research and cadavers are one of the models that help medical researchers find out valuable information," Dasey said. "Our position is that it is a regulated process. Obviously it makes some people uncomfortable." 

Cadaver remains are routinely cremated, he added. 

For years military researchers have bought cadavers to use in research involving explosive devices. In the last five years, that research has been used to help determine safe standoff distances, on how to build the best shelters, and to improve helmets, Dasey said. 

Michael Meyer, a philosophy professor at Santa Clara University in California who has written about the ethics of donated bodies, said the military's use is questionable because it knows donors did not expect to end up in land mine tests. 

"Imagine if your mother had said all her life that she wanted her body to be used for science, and then her body was used to test land mines. I think that is disturbing, and I think there are some moral problems with deception here," Meyers said. 

The market in bodies and body parts is under scrutiny after two men, including the head of the Willed Body Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, were arrested for trafficking in stolen body parts. 

Man Accidentally Killed in Masonic Rite

Mar 10, 9:34 am ET 

NEW YORK  - A Masonic initiation ritual ended in tragedy when a man was shot in the head and killed with a gun thought to contain blanks, police said on Tuesday.

They said 47-year-old William James was accidentally killed when Albert Eid, 76, confused a loaded .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol with another gun during the induction ceremony in Patchogue, on New York's Long Island, on Monday night.

"During the ceremony, an inductee was shot and killed when a lodge member used a real gun instead of a blank pistol," Suffolk County Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

Police officer Heidi Cummings said Eid pointed a gun at James' head while another member beat a garbage can like a drum as part of the rite in the basement of the suburban Southside Masonic Lodge, about 50 miles east of Manhattan.

Eid was charged with manslaughter and made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday.

Freemasons are an international brotherhood with lodges all over the world with the stated object of mutual assistance. Initiation rites are generally held in private.

Time Can be Turned Back
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/12190_experiment.html 
03/01/2004 15:37 
Time has been one of the most complicated and less studied scientific 
issues since ancient times
Eight years ago, American and British scientists who conducted 
investigations in Antarctica made a sensational discovery. US 
physicist Mariann McLein told the researchers noticed some spinning 
gray fog in the sky over the pole on January 27 which they believed 
to be just ordinary sandstorm. However, the gray fog did not change 
the form and did not move in the course of time. The researchers 
decided to investigate the phenomenon and launched a weather balloon 
with equipment capable to register the wind speed, the temperature 
and the air moisture. But the weather balloon soared upwards and 
immediately disappeared. 

In a little while, the researchers brought the weather balloon back 
to the ground with the help of a rope attached to it before. They 
were extremely surprised to see that a chronometer set in the weather 
balloon displayed the date of January 27, 1965, the same day 30 years 
ago. The experiment was repeated several times after the researchers 
found out the equipment was in good repair. But each time the watch 
was back it displayed the past time. The phenomenon was called "the 
time gate" and was reported to the White House.

Today investigation of the unusual phenomenon is underway. It is 
supposed that the whirl crater above the South Pole is a tunnel 
allowing to penetrate into other times. What is more, programs on 
launching people to other times have been started. The CIA and the 
FBI are fighting for gaining control over the project that may change 
the course of history. It is not clear when the US federal 
authorities will approve the experiment.

Famous Russian scientist Nikolay Kozyrev conducted an experiment to 
prove that moving from the future to the past was possible. He 
substantiated his views with the hypotheses on instant information 
spreading through physical characteristics of time. Nikolay Kozyrev 
even supposed that "time could execute the work and produce energy." 
An American physics theorist has arrived at a conclusion that time is 
what existed before existence of the world.

It is known that each of us feels a different course of time under 
different conditions. Once lightning hit a mountain-climber; later 
the man told he saw the lightning got into his arm, slowly moved 
along it, separated the skin from the tissues and carbonized his 
cells. He felt as if there were quills of thousands hedgehogs under 
his skin. 

Russian investigator of anomalous phenomena, philosopher and author 
of numerous books Gennady Belimov published his article under the 
headline "Time Machine: First Speed On" in the newspaper On the Verge 
of Impossible. He described unique experiments conducted by a group 
of enthusiasts led by Vadim Chernobrov, the man who began creation of 
time machines, devices with electromagnetic pumping in 1987. Today 
the group of enthusiasts can slow down or speed up the course of time 
using special impact of the magnetic field. The biggest slowing down 
of time made up 1.5 seconds within an hour of the equipment's 
operation in labs. 

In August 2001, a new model of the time machine meant for a human was 
set in a remote forest in Russia's Volgograd Region. When the machine 
even operated on car batteries and had low capacity, it still managed 
to change the time by three per cent; the change was registered with 
symmetrical crystal oscillators. 

At first, the researchers spent five, ten and twenty minutes in the 
operating machine; the longest stay lasted for half an hour. Vadim 
Chernobrov said that the people felt as if they moved to a different 
world; they felt life here and "there" at the same time as if some 
space was unfolding. "I cannot define the unusual feelings that we 
experienced at such moments."

Neither TV nor radio companies reported the astonishing fact; Gennady 
Belimov says the Russian president was not informed of the 
experiment. However, he tells that already under Stalin there was a 
Research Institute of the Parallel World. Results of experiments 
conducted by Academicians Kurchatov and Ioffe can be now found in the 
archives. In 1952, head of the Soviet secret police organization 
Lavrenty Beria initiated a case against researchers participating in 
the experiments, as a result of which 18 professors were executed by 
shooting and 59 candidates and doctors of physical sciences were sent 
to camps. The Institute recommenced its activity under Khruschev. But 
an experimental stand with eight leading researchers disappeared in 
1961, and buildings close to the one where experiments were conducted 
were ruined. After that, the Communist Party political bureau and the 
Council of Ministers decided to suspend researchers of the Institute 
for an uncertain period. 

The program was resumed in 1987 when the Institute already functioned 
on the territory of the Soviet Union. A tragedy occurred on August 
30, 1989: an extremely strong explosion sounded at the Institute's 
branch office on the Anjou islands. The explosion destroyed not only 
the experimental module of 780 tons but also the archipelago itself 
that covered the area of 2 square kilometers. According to one of the 
versions of the tragedy, the module with three experimenters collided 
with a large object, probably an asteroid, in the parallel world or 
heading toward the parallel world. Having lost its propulsion system, 
the module probably remained in the parallel world.

The last record made in the framework of the experiment and kept at 
the Institute archives says: "We are dying but keep on conducting the 
experiment. It is very dark here; we see all objects become double, 
our hands and legs are transparent, we can see veins and bones 
through the skin. The oxygen supply will be enough for 43 hours, the 
life support system is seriously damaged. Our best regards to the 
families and friends!" Then the transmission suddenly stopped.

Blizzard in 1993 Tops New Rating List 

Tue Mar 9, 3:45 PM ET

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The superstorm of 1993 was the most devastating blizzard to strike the Northeast in at least a century, according to a new system that rates the impact of East Coast winter storms. 

The new 1-to-5 rating system, somewhat similar to the scales for hurricanes and tornadoes, was announced Tuesday by winter experts from the National Weather Service (news - web sites) and The Weather Channel. 

In their study of 70 major Northeastern storms, only two - the storm of March 1993 and the January blizzard of 1996 - fell into the "extreme" category with a 5 rating, reported Paul Kocin, winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, and Louis Uccellini, director of the Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction. 

Their new Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale, or NESIS, is being published this week in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 

The ratings are designed to assess the impact of a storm after it is over, the way the Fujita scale is used to rate tornadoes. Kocin said he can foresee a day when it might be possible to develop the blizzard scale for use in warning of coming events the way the Saffir-Simpson scale is used with hurricanes. 

But that will require improvements in forecasting snowfall amounts, however, he said. Such forecasts are much more difficult that mere storm tracks, Kocin said in a telephone interview. 

Added Uccellini: "We recognize that at some point people will want to do that, but given the uncertainty in snowfall forecasts, we say it should be done with great caution if at all. ... You might be accused of hyping the storm if it's not used right." 

As a means of comparing storms to the past, the ratings are already being used at The Weather Channel. The system is being evaluated by the Weather Service, and Uccellini said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites) is also interested in it as a tool to gauge response to storms. 

The new winter storm rating system considers the amount of snow, the size of the area covered and the population residing in that area to estimate the human and economic impact of the storm. 

Thus, 30 inches of snow over the Appalachian Mountains would have a lower rating than the same amount over the Washington-Boston corridor, Uccellini explained. 

To account for population shifts over time, the researchers analyzed the area and amount of snow for 70 storms, estimating the impact each would have had on the population as of 1999. 

"When we predict a snowstorm for the Northeast, the first question asked is always, how much. Followed by when and where," said Kocin. 

"And while we can answer those questions, emergency managers, transportation officials and planners are always looking for a way to compare developing storms to past storms," he said. 

"The superstorm of March 1993 and the blizzard of January 1996 stand alone as the most widespread snowfalls of the 70-year case sample," Uccellini and Kocin reported. 

Under their system, the storm that has become perhaps the most famous in the Northeast, the great Blizzard of 1888, ranks fourth. While it had its greatest impact on New York, resulting in great attention, the 1888 storm covered a smaller area than either the two Category 5 storms or the Feb. 15-18, 2003, Presidents Day storm, Kocin and Uccellini report. 

Like the 2003 storm, the March 11-14, 1888, blizzard rates a 4, or "crippling," rating under the new system. 

The 70 storms studied by the researchers to develop their ratings included 30 major snowstorms between 1950 and 2000, all with at least 10 inches or more of accumulation. Another 30 near-miss storms in the study did not dump the anticipated amount of snow; were outside the Northeast Urban Corridor; or produced sleet and freezing rain rather than snow. 

The NESIS is designed to rate storms striking the region from southern Virginia to New England. That area is largely affected by two types of winter storms: nor'easters that form off the Atlantic coast and move north, and interior storms that move across the country from the west. 

The patterns of winter storms vary in other parts of the country, but the researchers said similar scales could be developed for other areas. 

Kocin and Uccellini's rating system comes two years after another 1-to-5 winter storm ranking was proposed by Gregory A. Zielinski of the University of Maine. Zielinski's system focuses on the intensity of the storm and its speed of movement as a way to assist forecasters in warning the public. It does not, however, include a measure of the population likely to be affected by the storm. 

___ 

Northeastern winter storms rated "crippling" or higher on the new Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale. 

Category 5: Extreme 

_1. March 12-14, 1993 

_2. Jan. 6-8, 1996 

Category 4: Crippling 

_3. Feb. 15-18, 2003 

_4. March 11-14, 1888 

_5. Feb. 11-14, 1899 

_6. March 2-5, 1960 

_7. Feb. 10-12, 1983 

_8. Feb. 5-7, 1978 

_9. Feb. 2-5, 1961 

'Abide with Me' Is Top Musical Hallucination

Mar 8, 8:54 am ET 

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON, England  - "Abide with Me," a hymn penned in the mid-1800s, is one of the most common tunes heard in musical hallucinations, a psychiatrist said on Friday.

Everyone occasionally has a catchy tune they just can't seem to get out of their heads but in a musical hallucination the song is heard as if it were really being played.

Dr Nick Warner, a psychiatrist based in Wales, told a Royal College of Psychiatrists' conference in Liverpool that "Abide with Me," a favorite at funerals, is a particularly recurrent tune in musical hallucinations.

He and his colleague Dr Victor Aziz studied 30 elderly people who experienced musical hallucinations. The tunes ranged from "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" to "Yes, We have No Bananas" but just over half heard some sort of religious music, either hymns or Christmas carols.

"Outstanding was the fact that the hymn "Abide by Me" turned up six times in 30 people," he said in an interview.

About one in 10,000 people over 65 years old have musical hallucinations, which are most common in elderly people suffering from hearing problems.

The composers Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven also had musical hallucinations.

The average age of participants in Warner's study was 78. Most were elderly women living alone.

He suspects that in the subconscious mind the tune written by Henry Lyte gives people a sense of comfort and hope.

"The words of "Abide with Me" are tremendously uplifting, hopeful words about heaven and God not abandoning us when we are dying," he said.

Warner believes repeatedly hearing songs like carols and hymns is a reason for their frequency in hallucinations. Where people live and the type of music they listen to will also have an impact.

But as people get older and musical tastes change, he expects the top tunes in peoples' minds will too and Lyte could be replaced by the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

"I think it is going to change because we are becoming more secular. We are not so religious these days and there is so much pop music played," he said.

Handyman Nailed with His Own Nail Gun

Mar 8, 8:51 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian handyman admitted he was stupid to shoot himself in the head with a nail gun in a misguided prank that left him with a nail lodged in his brain.

Brad Shorten, a father of three from Victoria state, was enjoying a few beers with friends after working on his house when they began joking about industrial accidents.

Shorten, 33, picked up a nail gun that he thought was empty, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger.

He later said he had turned off the gun's compressor and taken out its nail cartridge but did not realize there was still enough pressure in the gun to fire a nail.

"My mates and I were talking about construction site accidents and taking your eye out with a nail gun, and I foolishly put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger," Shorten told the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.

"I did a very stupid thing," he said.

The bizarre mishap left him with a 1.25-inch nail counter-sunk through his skull just behind his temple.

Royal Melbourne Hospital neurosurgeons removed the nail in a delicate four-hour operation even though Shorten, who was expected to make a full recovery, had offered to take the nail out with a pair of pliers.

Passionate Public Kiss in Indonesia Could Mean Jail

Mar 8, 8:48 am ET 

JAKARTA  - Couples caught kissing passionately in public in Indonesia could spend five years in jail.

Members of parliament in the world's most populous Muslim country have proposed an anti-pornography bill that includes a ban on kissing on the mouth in public.

"I think there must be some restrictions on such acts because it is against our traditions of decency," said Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi, head of a parliamentary committee drafting the bill.

Heavy kissing could carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail or a $29,000 fine. Anyone caught flashing would face similar penalties.

The bill also proposes bans on public nudity, erotic dances and sex parties, with jail terms ranging from three to 10 years. Watching such shows could lead to two years behind bars.

Indonesians have long followed a moderate version of Islam, although an emphasis on Muslim practices and identification with Islamic traditions have grown stronger in recent years.

Public displays of affection are frowned upon by many, though prostitution is rampant in many parts of the archipelago.

McDonald's Salad Has More Fat Than Cheeseburger

Mar 9, 11:02 am ET 

LONDON  - Global hamburger giant McDonald's latest line in healthy looking salads may contain more fat than its hamburgers, according to the company's Web Site.

McDonald's, plagued by health critics and flattening sales, has launched the biggest change to its menu in 30 years with its plans to get into the multi-million pound prepared salad market.

"You can choose your salad, topping and dressing. You can mix and match to suit your diet and lifestyle," said a McDonald's spokeswoman.

However, consumers hoping to lose weight by switching from burgers to salads may be disappointed, according to the Interactive Nutrition Counter on the McDonald's Web site.

For example, on the new menu to be launched at the end of this month, a "Caesar salad with Chicken Premiere" contains 18.4 grams of fat compared with 11.5 grams of fat in a standard cheeseburger.

The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) told The News Source it welcomed the salad menu but warned that salad dressings bought in fast-food outlets or supermarkets could be very high in fat and calories.

BNF said the recommended daily fat intake for men is 95 grams per day and for women 70 grams per day.

McDonald's has 1,235 restaurants in the UK and serves three million customers per day.

Study Examines STD Rates of Teen Virgins

Tue Mar 9, 1:50 PM ET 


By JASON STRAZIUSO, News Source Writer 

PHILADELPHIA - Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage have the same rates of sexually transmitted diseases as those who don't pledge abstinence, according to a study that examined the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents. 

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Those who make a public pledge to abstain until marriage delay sex, have fewer sex partners and get married earlier, according to the data, gathered from adolescents ages 12 to 18 who were questioned again six years later. But the two groups' STD rates were statistically similar. 

The problem, the study found, is that those virginity "pledgers" are much less likely to use condoms. 

"It's difficult to simultaneously prepare for sex and say you're not going to have sex," said Peter Bearman, the chair of Columbia University's Department of Sociology, who co-authored the study with Hannah Bruckner of Yale. 

"The message is really simple: 'Just say no' may work in the short term but doesn't work in the long term." 

Data from the study, to be presented Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference, was taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. That study was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). 

Once the data from the early findings study have been reviewed by peers, they will be submitted for publication, Bearman said. 

Critics of abstinance-only education saw the findings as evidence that adolescents benefit from sex education. 

"It's a tragedy if we withhold from these kids information about how not to get STDs or not to get pregnant," said Dorothy Mann, executive director of the Family Planning Council, an organization dedicated to reproductive health services. 

The study found that the STD rates for whites who pledged virginity was 2.8 percent compared with 3.5 percent for those who didn't pledge. For blacks, it was 18.1 percent and 20.3 percent. For Asians, 10.5 percent of virginity pledgers had STDs compared with 5.6 percent of non-pledgers. For Hispanics, it was 6.7 percent and 8.6 percent. 

Bearman said that from a statistical point of view the numbers were the same. Overall rates combining all races wouldn't be valid, he said. 

"The point is, substantively, that if you knew someone who pledged, and you knew someone who didn't pledge, you had no basis for thinking that one of them would have an STD over the other," he said. 

The study also found that in communities where at least 20 percent of adolescents pledged the STD rates for everyone combined was 8.9 percent. In communities with less than 7 percent pledgers, the STD rate was 5.5 percent. 

"It is the combination of hidden sex and unsafe sex that creates a world where people underestimate the risk of STDs," Bearman said. 

The study's other findings: 

_59 percent of males who did not pledge abstinence used a condom during sex; only 40 percent of male pledgers used a condom. 

_28 percent of female non-pledgers were tested for STDs in the previous year, compared to 14 percent of female pledgers. 

_99 percent of non-pledgers and 88 percent of pledgers have sex before marriage. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.stdconference.org

Man Killed During Masonic Initiation 

Tue Mar 9, 4:24 PM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By FRANK ELTMAN, News Source Writer 

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. - A man was shot in the face and killed during a Masonic initiation ceremony by a fellow member who mistakenly pulled out a real pistol instead of a blank gun, police said Tuesday. 

The 76-year-old man who fired the shot was charged with manslaughter. 

William James, 47, was killed Monday night at the Southside Masonic Lodge. 

"We believe it was completely accidental," said Suffolk County Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick. The man under arrest, Albert Eid, was "stunned and distraught" at James' death, he said. 

The initiation rite was aimed at scaring the new member. 

According to Fitzgerald, the Masons sat James in a chair and placed cans on a platform around his head. Eid, standing about 20 feet away, was supposed to fire a blank gun, and a man holding a stick was supposed to knock the cans over to make James think they had been hit by bullets. 

Eid had two guns - a .22-caliber pistol loaded with blanks and a .38-caliber with real bullets - and apparently pulled the wrong one out of his pocket, the lieutenant said. He said the weapons are about the same size. 

Eid had a permit for the gun. Police said it was not clear why he took it to the ceremony. He pleaded innocent and bail was set at $2,500.

Bush Softens 9/11 Commission Stance 

1 hour, 38 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By TERENCE HUNT, News Source White House Correspondent 

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will answer privately all questions raised by a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the White House said Tuesday, softening its insistence that Bush's testimony be limited to an hour. 

"Nobody's watching the clock," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. 

Still, he said an hour was "a reasonable period of time to set aside for a sitting president of the United States." The White House and the commission are working on a date for the meeting with Bush. The commission urged Bush to meet with all of its members, not just the chairman and vice chairman. 

The shift came after presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) accused Bush of stonewalling investigations of the terrorist attacks and U.S. intelligence failures. 

Kerry issued a statement saying, "It's good to see that the president has finally found time in his schedule to spend more than an hour with the 9-11 commission to investigate the greatest intelligence failure in our nation's history. I think all Americans hope that his cooperation with the commission will lead to real answers instead of more stonewalling." 

White House spokesman McClellan fired back at Kerry. "It appears he doesn't want to let the facts get in the way of his campaign," McClellan said. 

It was the administration's latest change of heart about the commission. Bush originally had opposed the panel's creation. Then he had opposed its request for a two-month extension of its work but eventually relented. Bush is intent on protecting his standing with Americans on the war on terror, which in polls is his best issue with voters. 

"This administration has provided unprecedented cooperation to the 9-11 commission," McClellan said. "It provided access to every single bit of information that they have requested." 

The 10-member commission sought interviews with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) about what the administration knew before the attacks, potentially a sensitive subject in an election year. 

Bush had agreed to meet privately for an hour with the chairman and vice chairman of the commission but said it was unnecessary for him to testify publicly. Cheney also has said he would meet with some commissioners. 

Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg said the panel still hoped that Bush would consider meeting with all the commissioners, rather just the chairman and vice chairman, former New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind. 

Former President Clinton (news - web sites) and his vice president, Al Gore (news - web sites), are to meet the full panel for unlimited private questioning in coming weeks, but Bush and Cheney have said they preferred the smaller group. 

"The commission has not accepted or rejected the president's offer to meet the chair and vice chair. It has expressed the hope it would meet with the entire commission," Felzenberg said. "That's where things stand." 

McClellan indicated the one-hour limit had been relaxed. "He's going to answer all the questions they want to raise," he said repeatedly. 

"Many of their questions have already been asked and answered," he said, "We believe that obviously you have to set parameters when you're talking about the president of the United States, and we believe we set aside a reasonable period of time. But the president intends to answer all their questions." 

Commission members are seeking public testimony from Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), who has refused to appear on the advice of White House lawyers. Rice testified in private before the commission, and, McClellan said, "Only five members showed up." 

In previous hearings, the commission has highlighted government missteps before the 2001 attacks, including miscommunications about al-Qaida operatives dating back to the mid-1990s and hijackers who were allowed to enter the United States repeatedly despite lacking proper visas. Up to now, however, the panel has not assigned blame beyond midlevel officials in federal agencies. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Sept. 11 commission: http://www.9-11commission.gov

OIL IN AMERICA 

There are a lot of folks who can't understand how we came to have an oil

shortage here in America. 

Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil. We

just didn't know we were getting low. The reason for that is purely

geographical. 

All our oil is in Alaska, Texas, California, and Oklahoma. 

All our dipsticks are in Washington, DC.

British Science Museum Feels Your Pain

Thu Feb 12,11:19 AM ET

Add Entertainment 

By Jeremy Lovell 

LONDON  - "Are you looking for Pain?" asked the woman at the entrance to Britain's Science Museum. "Follow me." 

It was not an odd pick-up line. It was an invitation to the museum's controversial new exhibition -- "Pain-passion, compassion, sensibility" -- featuring instruments of torture and self abuse as well as of pain relief. 

Critics have rounded on the exhibition as being ghoulish and gratuitous, less to do with science than generating income -- although there is no entry charge. 

But it does accept that it will generate controversy and recommends that children under 12 should stay away. 

"This is the illumination of pain. It is a part of everyday life and as such an important part of our science and society," said Tim Boon, head of collections at the museum. 

Thumbscrews, metal masks, a boot to hold boiling oil, a neck compressor, a Spanish knuckle duster and a Chinese chair with blades for the buttocks, back, arms and feet illustrate the torture side of the exhibition. 

Iron flails and a penitents' belt of interlocking spikes show the darker side of religious purification through self-inflicted pain. 

There is also a silent movie of a German amputation operation in 1900 and a gruesome array of medical knives, saws and forceps showing the more invasive side of surgery that inflicted pain while trying to cure its cause. 

"There is a very wide range of exhibits to illustrate pain in all its aspects," Boon told The News Source at a preview before Friday's opening. 

"Some people choose pain, others inflict it while others still find salvation in pain. It is a part of everyday life. But it is also still a mystery," he added. 

The other side of the exhibition that runs to June 20, is a room full of drugs and instruments to alleviate pain, in celebration of the Victorian breakthrough on analgesics. 

Less explicably, there is also the costume worn by 22-year old matador Manuel Granero when he was gored to death by a bull in Madrid in 1922. 

Adorning the walls are engravings and paintings of people being flayed alive, executed, operated on and giving birth. 

"We are portraying pain, not judging it. Our target audience is independent adults," Boon said.

Planned Amish Reality Series Protested 

Fri Feb 20, 9:03 PM ET

Add Entertainment - 

By MARC LEVY, News Source Writer 

HARRISBURG, Pa. - More than 50 members of Congress want the UPN television network to drop plans for a reality-format series featuring Amish teenagers testing their faith in the big city. 

"The mentality reminds me of the old sideshows in the circus," Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania said in an interview Friday. "And it is wrong to do this to a minority group like the Amish." 

Members of the sect, which is concentrated in rural Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio, are known for dressing simply and shunning most technology. But when Amish teens are 16 they're allowed to break free of their strict code before deciding whether they want to be baptized as adults. 

During the period of "rumspringa," a Pennsylvania Dutch term that means "running around," the teens often date, drink, drive cars and move away from home. Most then return to the faith. 

When Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS who also oversees UPN, spoke about the show last month, the setting he had in mind was Los Angeles. 

"To have people who don't have television walk down Rodeo Drive and be freaked out by what they see, I think will be interesting television," he said. "It will not be denigrating to the Amish." 

Pitts, who represents southern Pennsylvania's Amish countryside, said he tried but failed earlier this month to sway Moonves. 

"Basically we said to them that we viewed this as exploitative in nature," Pitts said. "Putting on young Amish teens who are in a very vulnerable period of their lives." 

A spokeswoman for UPN declined to answer questions, but released a brief statement in response to the 51 Republican lawmakers. 

"UPN and the show's producers have every intention of treating the Amish, their beliefs and their heritage with the utmost respect and decency," it said. 

"Any young Amish adults who do choose to participate ... will do so only of their own free will and with absolutely full knowledge of the content, nature and intent of the program." 

Group: Majority of Homes Are Underinsured

Sun Jan 18,11:44 PM ET 
Add Business - 

NEW YORK - The home is generally a family's most valuable asset, more so given the meteoric rise in property values over the past few years. 

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But that asset could be at risk if you haven't updated your homeowners insurance policy. Changes in insurers' underwriting practices, rising construction costs and record levels of home-improvement projects could mean that your insurance coverage hasn't kept pace. 

About 64 percent of U.S. homes were underinsured by an average of 27 percent in 2003, due, in part, to construction costs that have risen about 5 percent to 6 percent last year, said Bob Crine, president of Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, a New Berlin, Wis., company that tracks rebuilding costs for insurers. 

That's why it's important to carefully review homeowners-insurance renewal notices and take steps to ensure you're properly insured. Remember that your insurance is based on the cost to rebuild your home if it's destroyed, not on the amount you think you could get by selling it. 

Of course, most insurers do offer inflation-guard clauses that account for rising costs and boost coverage accordingly. Plus, insurers are becoming more aggressive about implementing insurance-to-value programs that can more accurately estimate a home's replacement value, said Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America. 

Not only have insurers changed to systems that can provide better estimates, but the industry is also starting to base estimates on reconstruction costs (instead of new construction costs) which take into account additional expenses for debris removal, specialized workers and the lack of any bulk discounts, Crine said. 

But automatic annual adjustments typically exclude home renovations. "Major alterations and big-ticket purchases should trigger a call to your insurance agent," said Jeanne Salvatore, spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group in New York. 

In 2003, homeowners spent a record $130.4 billion on home improvements, up 7.3 percent from 2002, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. 

Meanwhile, changes in insurers' underwriting practices could mean that you have less coverage than you think. Many have moved to stem rising claim costs by limiting payouts to the estimated value of a home, plus a certain percentage, instead of the actual cost of rebuilding. 

In 1999, State Farm Insurance, for example, started replacing its guaranteed-replacement coverage with a policy that covers the home's estimated replacement costs, plus a cushion of 20 percent if costs outstrip the insured value, said Kip Diggs, a spokesman for the Bloomington, Ill., company. "We found that there were many customers who instead of purchasing the proper amount of insurance for their house, would simply rely on guaranteed replacement" to make up any difference, he said. 

That's why experts say some homeowners may be better off with replacement-guarantee coverage instead of cash-value policies. Policies offered through Chubb Group Insurance Companies, for example, will pay the full cost to rebuild a home, even if the cost is greater than the amount of your coverage. 

Although such policies are more expensive, homeowners can reduce the higher premiums by increasing the deductible. 

If you own an older home, make sure your policy covers the costs to rebuild a home to follow current, more stringent building costs for things like plumbing or electrical wiring. "Most insurance-company policies won't provide the extra coverage," said Patti Clement, director at Hub International Ltd., an insurance brokerage firm. Those with custom-designed homes that include special architectural details and interior features will need extra coverage. 

For a quick estimate of the amount of insurance you need, multiply the total square footage of your home by local building costs per square foot, which you can get from a local real estate agent, insurance agent or builders association. 

NYT: Atkins Advises Dieters to Eat Smaller Steaks

Sun Jan 18, 4:19 PM ET

Add U.S. National 

NEW YORK  - Promoters of the popular low-carbohydrate, high-fat Atkins diet are saying that people should limit their intake of saturated fat by cutting back on Atkins staples such as meat, cheese and butter, The New York Times reported on Sunday. 

Responding to criticism from scientists that Atkins could lead to heart disease and other health problems, the director of research and education for Atkins Nutritionals, Colette Heimowitz, is telling health professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter's calories should come from saturated fat, the paper said. 

Beef, pork, lamb and butter were on the list of "foods you may eat liberally" in diet founder Dr. Robert C. Atkins' book "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," first published in 1992. Atkins, who died last year, always maintained that people should eat other food besides red meat, but had trouble getting that message out, the paper said. 

Spammers' Scavenging E-Mail Virus Surfaces on Net

Mon Jan 19, 3:55 PM ET

Add Technology 

LONDON  - A new computer virus capable of harvesting millions of e-mail addresses from infected PCs was rapidly spreading across the Internet Monday, security experts said. 

The infection, known as "Bagle" or "Beagle," appears to be the handiwork of spammers keen to collect a batch of e-mail addresses they can then re-sell to other spam e-mail marketers or keep for their own use. 

"Bagle" also contains code that could turn an infected computer into a veritable "spamming" machine. 

Security experts said it is patterned after the recent "Sobig" and "Mimail" outbreaks, which also turned scores of computers into zombie machines that spammers can control remotely to send torrents of get-rich-quick and sex aid messages to other computer users. 

"It seems perfectly possible that Bagle is yet another worm written by spammers. When they have enough infected computers, they could automatically install invisible e-mail proxy servers on each machine and start spamming through them," said Mikko Hypponen, research manager at Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure. 

A host of virus-detection firms had placed their most severe ratings on the e-mail, noting it was spreading quickly from Asia through Europe and now to the United States. 

The e-mail infection, or worm, contains a familiar subject line of "Hi" and an executable file attachment identified by ".exe." The body of the e-mail contains random characters. 

The virus is triggered once a computer user clicks on the attachment, setting in motion an aggressive e-mail harvesting program that scans all documents on the infected computer and throughout the network it is attached to. 

Computer analysts said most corporate e-mail filters should be able to block the infected e-mail, but that home users were particularly vulnerable. 

Fla. Terror Case Tests U.S. Patriot Act 

Mon Jan 19, 2:54 AM ET

Add U.S. National - 

By VICKIE CHACHERE, News Source Writer 

TAMPA, Fla. - For nearly a decade, the FBI (news - web sites) tapped Sami Al-Arian's telephones and faxes, keeping what they learned about the University of South Florida professor a secret - even from their own colleagues. 

The law at the time didn't allow the agents to share what they knew with fellow FBI agents who later began investigating possible criminal charges against Al-Arian, accused of aiding terrorists. 

That all changed in the spring of 2002 when the Patriot Act, the law enacted in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, gave the government greatly expanded surveillance and search powers. 

Now, nearly a year after Al-Arian and seven others were named in a 50-count racketeering indictment, the case is shaping up to be a test of the act, which helped rip down the wall between the two investigations. 

Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro, who had been assigned to the criminal side of the investigation, recalls the meeting when the scope of the other FBI probe became clear. 

"It was 'Holy moley! There's a lot there!'" he said. 

"It was just one of those awesome moments when you realize how much there is," Navarro added. "When you realize there is literally a room full - not a box full or a filing cabinet full - of evidence. It sort of shocks you." 

Al-Arian, Sammeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut face trial in 2005 on charges they used an academic think tank, a Muslim school and a charity as a cover for raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people in attacks in Israel. 

Four other men have yet to be arrested. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) has cited the Al-Arian case as one of the successes of the Patriot Act as he toured the nation in recent months in defense of the law. 

Al-Arian, a Palestinian who was born in Kuwait, has said his charity, school and think tank were legitimate enterprises designed to aid Muslims and foster greater understanding between Americans and Arabs. 

Al-Arian's defense attorney, William B. Moffitt, has said he intends to challenge every aspect of the new law as the case heads to trial and has called the Patriot Act the product of a "frightened society," overreacting to the horrific events of Sept. 11. 

"What we have done is precisely what the people who attacked us on 9/11 hoped we would do," Moffitt said shortly after being hired last fall as Al-Arian's attorney. "Even the notion it's called the Patriot Act is an interesting idea." 

Investigators point to the Al-Arian case as a classic example of law enforcement being hampered by the previous rules that governed how agents could use evidence gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the post-Watergate law that sought to reign in potential abuses of electronic surveillance. 

At the time, there was widespread concern presidents could use the FBI to monitor political enemies or outspoken groups under the guise of "national security" and FISA was offered as a solution. 

Enacted in 1978, the act required the FBI to seek permission from a secret court to monitor the communications of suspected foreign spies or terrorists. Because agents could obtain those warrants by meeting a lesser standard than what's needed for wiretaps in criminal cases, the evidence gathered under FISA couldn't be used to bring a criminal case. 

It was under FISA that the FBI began taping Al-Arian and colleague Ramadan Shallah's phones and intercepting their faxes. Over the years, the government acquired 152 wiretaps in the Al-Arian case, which generated more than 21,000 hours of intercepted telephone calls, prosecutors have said. 

Former government agents who spent years investigating Al-Arian tell of a frustrating investigation hindered in part by the inability of intelligence agents to share what they knew until the Patriot Act became law. 

"Everything changed," said Barry Carmody, who was among the team of agents working the criminal case against Al-Arian. "We needed to be able to gamble with 52 cards, not half the deck," he said. 

One agent who knew the full gamut of the government's evidence against Al-Arian and his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, was William West, who worked at the time for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. 

West was the lead agent in the effort to deport Al-Najjar, who was held for more than three years on the then-classified evidence linking both him and Al-Arian to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 

Government agents and attorneys were sharply criticized for holding Al-Najjar, who was eventually deported months before Al-Arian and the others were indicted. Al-Najjar is named as an unindicted coconspirator in court documents. 

"It was terribly frustrating because from the perspective of the classified information we could use, we knew all along we were on the right track and we were pursing the right people," West said.

Microsoft Takes on Teen Over Web Site 

Mon Jan 19, 8:05 AM ET

Add Strange News - 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Mike Rowe thinks it's funny that his catchy name for a Web site design company sounds a lot like Microsoft. 

The software giant, however, is not amused. 

"Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe, a 17-year-old computer geek and Grade 12 student in Victoria, British Columbia. 

Microsoft Corp. and its attorneys have demanded that he give up his domain name, the Vancouver Province newspaper reported Sunday. 

Rowe registered the name in August. In November, he received a letter from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, Smart & Biggar, informing him he was committing copyright infringement. 

He was advised to transfer the name to the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation. 

"I didn't think they would get all their high-priced lawyers to come after me," Rowe said. 

He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up his name. Microsoft's lawyers offered him $10 in U.S. funds. Then he asked for $10,000. 

On Thursday, he received a 25-page letter accusing him of trying to force Microsoft into giving him a large settlement. 

"I never even thought of getting anything out of them," he said, adding that he only asked for the $10,000 because he was "sort of mad at them for only offering 10 bucks." 

He said family and friends are backing him and a lawyer has offered to advise him for free. 

He's also keeping his sense of humor. 

"It's not their name. It's my name. I just think it's kind of funny that they'd go after a 17-year-old," Rowe said. 

Company spokesman Jim Desler said Sunday, "Microsoft has been in communication with Mr. Rowe in a good faith effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution. And we remain hopeful we can resolve this issue to everyone's satisfaction." 

___ 

On the web: 

www.mikerowesoft.com 

www.microsoft.com

Nimoy to Join Shatner in Priceline.com Ads

Fri Jan 16, 8:27 AM ET

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, News Source Business Writer 

NORWALK, Conn. - Move over, Capt. Kirk. Mr. Spock is now sharing command in commercials for Priceline.com. 

The company went boldly into a new frontier in the late 1990s with its name-your-own-price approach to buying airline tickets and other products over the Internet. 

But after the 2001 terrorist attacks airlines began deeply discounting their own prices, making the bargains offered by companies such as Priceline less attractive. 

Priceline is still offering the name-your-own-price approach, but is adding a new service that allows customers to choose from a selection of published fares, flight times and airlines. Under the old method, customers could name their own price and travel dates, but Priceline chose the airline and flight times.

Company officials are hoping the new enterprise will appeal to a larger segment of the market that is looking for bargains, but must travel on a schedule. 

"Priceline.com is no longer just for the highly flexible traveler who can fly any time on any airline," company chief executive Jeffery Boyd said Thursday. 

To highlight the new choice, Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline is starting a multimillion dollar television advertising campaign that begins airing Monday featuring William Shatner (news) and Leonard Nimoy (news) of "Star Trek" fame. 

"Star Trek" fans have long debated which actor was more responsible for the show's success. The commercial aims to send the message that with Priceline customers now have a choice. 

"What better way to communicate choice than to put together the two actors whose fans have been debating their own rival popularity for decades," Priceline spokesman Brian Ek said. 

Priceline gained popularity from a series of quirky commercials featuring Shatner. The original commercials featured a hip-looking Shatner singing offbeat renditions of popular songs, including "Freebird" and "Aquarius," while extolling the virtues of Priceline. 

The new commercial tries to illustrate the new choice by jolting Shatner with the appearance of Nimoy as an alternative. 

"Sorry, Mr. Shatner. We have to let you go," a woman tells him as he enters the human resources office in the new commercial. 

"But I'm the voice of Priceline," Shatner says. 

Shatner is told there is a new Priceline in which travelers can select their flights, times and airlines from a selection of fares. 

"Yeah, but who could ever replace me?" Shatner asks. 

Nimoy pokes his head in the office. "Hi guys," he says, as Shatner looks perplexed. 

Priceline, once a darling of Wall Street, has struggled to revive its airline ticket business, although other segments such as hotels have grown quickly. The new service puts it in direct competition with services such as Expedia and Travelocity. 

Priceline's move comes as online travel sites look for new ways to compete. Research shows that the average customer checks three sites before buying an airline ticket or travel package, so while the best deal still matters, companies are adding features in an effort to build customer loyalty. 

Al Ries, a marketing consultant in Atlanta, said the move may generate more business in the short run. But he said Priceline runs the risk of complicating its message by offering both approaches to ticket purchases and a new commercial with two spokesmen instead of one. 

"I think companies make a mistake when they broaden their appeal," Ries said. "In broadening their appeal, they're going to confuse the marketplace." 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.priceline.com 

Nearly Half of Crib Deaths Tied to Sleep Position

Fri Jan 16, 9:11 AM ET

Add Science 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Findings from a European study suggest that about 48 percent of crib deaths are attributable to the baby sleeping on its front or side. Sleeping in a room other than the parent's room was linked to 36 percent of cases, and 16 percent were linked to bed sharing. 

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also called crib death or cot death, is the leading cause of death in babies less than a year old. Most SIDS deaths occur when babies are between two and four months of age, and more often in boys. 

To better understand the risk factors for SIDS, Dr. R. G. Carpenter, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues conducted studies in 20 regions in Europe. Data from 745 SIDS cases and 2411 living babies were included in the analysis. 

The researchers' findings are reported in this week's issue of the medical journal The Lancet. 

Consistent with previous reports, sleeping in the prone position or turning from the side to the prone position were major risk factors for SIDS. Compared with infants who slept in other positions, those that slept prone or turned from the side to the prone position were 13- and 45-times more likely, respectively, to experience SIDS. 

Unless the mother smoked, bedsharing had little effect on the risk of SIDS and the association was only apparent during the first 8 weeks of life. In contrast, if the mother smoked, bedsharing raised the risk of SIDS by 13-fold during the first weeks of life. 

Maternal alcohol use was identified as a significant SIDS risk factor, but only when the infant shared the bed all night, the researchers report. 

"Avoidable risk factors such as those associated with inappropriate infants' sleeping position, type of bedding used, and sleeping arrangements strongly suggest a basis for further substantial reductions in SIDS incidence rates," the investigators conclude. 

SOURCE: The Lancet, January 16, 2004.

Country May Decriminalize Theft for the Hungry

Jan 16, 9:17 am ET 

CARACAS, Venezuela  - Thou shalt not steal, say the Ten Commandments, but it might eventually no longer apply if you are starving in Venezuela.

The poor, oil-rich nation is considering decriminalizing the theft of food and medicine in cases where a thief is motivated by extreme hunger or need.

Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros told The News Source on Wednesday that the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons.

"This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Fontiveros, who is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."

Under Fontiveros' proposal to the Supreme Court, those who take food, medicine or inexpensive goods without using violence to ease hunger caused by prolonged, extreme poverty would not be punished.

To eventually become law, the proposal must pass through the Supreme Court and be approved by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.

Critics say the initiative will fuel crime in a country mired in a recession and where police last year reported an average of 25 murders a day and thousands of robberies a month.

Supporters dismiss fears it will become a license to rob, saying the proposed law would apply only to nonviolent crimes.

Two thirds of Venezuela's 25 million people are poor and a third of those cannot afford their basic food needs despite the nation's huge oil wealth, according to government figures.

Private analysts dismiss state figures as too conservative.

The penal reform effort has sparked more controversy by also including possible decriminalization of abortion and allowing voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill.

Spam E-Mail Plays on Men's Deepest Fear 
Fri Jan 16, 8:11 AM ET

By Christopher Michaud 

NEW YORK  - For many American office workers, the day begins with deleting spam. These days, a lot of electronic junk mail hits below the belt by seeking to profit from many men's deepest fear -- that their penises are too small. 

Related Links
� Does Size Matter To Women? (AskMen.com)

From the vague "Expand your horizons" to the blunt "Want to increase your penis size?," the hard sell of penis-enlargement products plays on men's insecurity, experts say. 

Virtually anyone with an e-mail address is bombarded daily with messages touting penis pills, herbal supplements and the latest rage, penis patches, all with the same inflated promise that they will enlarge a man's sexual organ. 

Herbal supplements marketed as "penis pills," which contain ingredients ranging from soy protein and damiana leaf to ginkgo biloba and ginseng root, and dermal applications like the "penis patch," claim to be capable of lengthening men's penises by up to 4 inches (10 cm) in as many months. 

But no peer-reviewed studies comparing men who used the products to a placebo group have ever been conducted. Since the products have disclaimers stating they are not intended to treat medical problems, they fall outside of the U.S. regulatory process. The Federal Trade Commission says there is no evidence the products have any effect. 

PRIMAL OBSESSION 

Psychiatrists say the marketers sending out such messages are hoping to take advantage of a primal obsession. 

"The penis is a primary symbol of male sexuality and dominance," said Dr. Frank Muscarella, a clinical and evolutionary psychiatrist at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. 

Muscarella, co-author of "Psychological Perspectives on Human Sexuality," said the size of a man's penis "is indicative of masculinity, prowess and dominance." 

"On a psychological level, men buy into that. And even if they don't, advertising does," he added, citing a recent truck billboard that showed a sexy cowboy crouching with a pickup between his legs. 

Muscarella said men tend to focus on the more "concrete" aspects of sexual attributes like shape, form and size. He likened it to the male attraction to, and often obsession with, women's breasts. 

GLOBAL PROBLEM 

An obsession with penis size is not a uniquely American phenomenon, said Virginia Sadock, a psychiatrist at New York University Medical Center. 

"This is not limited to the United States by any means," Sadock said, noting that in Japan there is a condition known as "koro," in which a man suffers from delusions that his penis is actually shrinking back into his stomach. 

And Muscarella said that the French are known for trading rumors about men with small penises, often accompanied by jokes and derision. 

At the heart of the problem, Sadock said, is that since men don't see many penises other than their own, they have little basis for comparison. 

The exception, she said, is pornography, which gay men view more that straight men. And comparing one's penis size to a porn star's could lead even a well-endowed man to feel inadequate. 

So perhaps it's not surprising that New York's gay community self-help arena has expanded beyond problems such as alcoholism and overeating to the affliction of a small penis. 

"What is Small, Anyway," is the working name of a support group in Greenwich Village, which acts as a safe haven for gay men who have small penises, or feel as though they do. 

BIG IS KING 

Participants complain about a gay community in which men brag about being bigger than they are and a country where big is king. Like at other support groups, most in this group are grateful just to be in a room together with people trying to confront the same problem. 

A slim man with reddish hair said at a recent meeting he is made to feel he doesn't measure up. "In our community the idea of what's average (size) is very distorted," he said. 

Purveyors of the products insist they have received over 90 million orders but are notoriously hard to track down or even identify, and typically they refuse to speak with reporters when found. 

According to Wired magazine, some 6,000 people ordered pills from Goringly.biz through the Amazing Internet Products Web site over a four-week period, spending on average $100 each for two bottles. Wired traced the ownership of AIP to a 19-year-old New Hampshire chess whiz, Braden Bournival, who shied away from a reporter for the magazine who approached him at a chess tournament last summer. 

Relief from the barrage of spam may yet be in sight however after Congress passed a law aimed at sharply restricting unsolicited e-mail ads. 

A Good Way to Lose Subscribers...

Jan 22, 8:43 am ET 

LONDON  - A hiking magazine apologized on Thursday after it published a route plan that would have sent walkers striding into thin air off the north face of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis.

The magazine, Trail, missed out a vital bearing needed to guide climbers off the summit of the Scottish mountain in bad weather.

Anyone who had followed the magazine's directions would have plunged down a sheer cliff into nearby Gardyloo Gully.

Editor Guy Procter, himself a keen hillwalker, said that Trail published 200 routes every year and had never made a similar mistake before.

"I should have picked it up at the final proofreading stage, but unfortunately it slipped through," he told The News Source. The error was spotted by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, which published a warning about the "dangerous bearing" on their Web Site.

Procter said he was confident his readers always carried maps while hill-walking and would therefore immediately notice the error.

Ind. Man Dies After Winning Lottery Game

Sun Jan 25, 8:47 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

ELWOOD, Ind. - A man who won $57,000 in an Indiana lottery game taped for television died hours later when he was hit by a pickup truck. 

The "Hoosier Millionaire" featuring Carl D. Atwood, 73, was broadcast Saturday night after his family said they wanted the show to go on, Hoosier Lottery director Jack Ross said. 

The broadcast concluded with a photo of Atwood accompanied by text reading: "In memory of Carl Atwood." 

Atwood won the money Thursday during a two-hour taping in Indianapolis. 

"I am very thankful," he proclaimed. "I must admit that I never expected to be leaving the show with this amount of money. Now I can purchase a very nice car." 

Hours later, Atwood was hit by a truck as he walked to the grocery store where he bought the winning ticket near his home in Elwood, about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis. He died at a hospital. 

The driver has not been charged. 

Atwood would have been among those invited back to compete for a $1 million grand prize in three weeks. 

"We will work with the family to make arrangements on how to handle the championship show," Ross said. "We will certainly have a place on that show for someone who the family chooses to take his place." 

Stewart's Brand Faces Uncertain Future 

Sat Jan 24,12:08 PM ET

Add Business - 

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, News Source Business Writer 

NEW YORK - The jury verdict in Martha Stewart (news - web sites)'s trial will do more than determine the future of the doyenne of style - it could also seal the fate of her multimedia company. 

Analysts say anything short of a full acquittal on charges she lied to prosecutors in a 2001 stock sale could further damage Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. And even if the namesake founder and former CEO is found innocent, the brand stamped on products from bed sheets to magazines will have a hard time reclaiming the cachet it once had, some observers say. 

"There are many variables here, and no one has the crystal ball for the outcome for the brand," said Seth Siegel, co-founder of The Beanstalk Group, a trademark licensing agency. 

The big question, he says, is "whether the company will go into an economic tailspin" if Stewart is found guilty. The good news is that the company has enough cash to withstand several more quarters of declining advertising revenue, Siegel and other sources said. 

Dennis McAlpine, managing partner of McAlpine Associates, a research firm, believes that even if Stewart is found innocent, "the brand will go into a slow decline." 

"I don't think she will get the luster back she used to have," he said. "There's been too much damage." 

Not to mention that the expected barrage of media coverage and constant images of Stewart on trial could take a toll on the company's stock.

"The stock is being traded on emotions," said Jamelah Leddy, an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen, a brokerage in Seattle. In fact, in recent weeks, shares have soared almost 30 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, as some investors speculate that Stewart will be acquitted. 

Despite such gains, the stock is still down almost 40 percent since June 2002, when news surfaced that Stewart's name was tied to the ImClone Systems Inc. insider trading scandal. The company, which produces magazines, TV shows and merchandise, has also struggled with skittish advertisers, slumping sales and quarterly losses. 

The company hit its lowest point in June 2003, when Stewart stepped down as CEO and chairman hours after she was indicted for allegedly lying to federal investigators probing her December 2001 sale of ImClone shares. The stock was sold a day before a negative government report sent its price plummeting. 

Last October, Martha Stewart Living reported a loss and a 28 percent drop in revenue for its third quarter and said advertising revenue would continue to be depressed early this year. 

But Stewart has held on to loyal customers, and her major retail and manufacturing partners have stuck by her. 

"Now, I go out of my way to look for Martha Stewart things," said Julieta Gonzalez, 52, from Tucson, Ariz. "It's an act of support." 

Kmart, which featured Stewart in TV holiday ads, said the Martha Stewart Everyday line continues to be a top seller, although it's been hurt by the discounter's closing of hundreds of stores. Sears Canada, which began selling Stewart's products last September, reports strong sales. 

"We are watching things develop, but we are moving forward with the line," said Vincent Power, a spokesman at Sears Canada, which is working with the company to develop new patterns for late spring and fall selling. 

"Our customers have definitely been able to separate out any legal issues from how they feel about the line," he added. 

Meanwhile, Bernhardt Furniture Co. calls its recently launched furniture collections under the Martha Stewart brand the most successful in its 114-year-history. 

G. Alex Bernhardt Sr., the company's CEO, said that whatever the trial's outcome, the company would continue the relationship with Stewart's company. 

"There are 550 extremely talented people there," said Bernhardt. 

Still, while merchandising sales have held up well, and quality of the products has remained high, consumers' trust in the brand has eroded, according to Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a marketing research firm that produces a consumer loyalty index. 

"What has surrounded the brand has been bad news - unless you count her bringing out artificial Christmas trees," said Passikoff, referring to +Stewart+'s expanded holiday line for Kmart this past season. 

Since Stewart's personal legal issues surfaced, company executives have voiced their support for her, while moving forward with new projects that don't bear her name. The company added Everyday Food - the company's first magazine not to carry her name - and a new TV show called "Petkeeping with Marc Morrone," both of which have been well received by advertisers and consumers. Executives say the strategy was put in place before Stewart's troubles began. 

Still, as company spokeswoman Elizabeth Estroff said: "Martha continues, on the creative front, to be as industrious as ever." 

Analysts say the big worry is with the publishing division, which accounted for 62 percent of the company's total revenue of $295 million in fiscal 2002. Ad pages were down 39 percent at its flagship Martha Stewart Living magazine in the third quarter from a year ago. And even if Stewart is acquitted, it will take a while before advertisers return, analysts said. 

Estroff declined to comment on the trial or what back-up plans the company has in place. That leaves Wall Street analysts only to speculate how the situation could play out. 

McAlpine said that if Stewart has to serve a jail term, the company could very well change the name of the flagship magazine and the syndicated TV show. But if Stewart is either exonerated, or convicted without having to serve time in prison, he expects her to remain involved in the company. 

"She's no shrinking violet," McAlpine said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

www.beanstalk.com 

www.kmart.com 

www.marthastewart.com 

The Mac Turns 20

Fri Jan 23, 9:00 AM ET

Add Technology - PC World 

Peggy Watt, PC World 

It was insanely great, the computer for the rest of us, and out to change the world. The Apple Macintosh (news - web sites) marks its twentieth birthday this week, and--hubris and hype aside--the Mac has made an acknowledged impact on personal computing.

A graphical user interface manipulated via mouse, new usability standards, still-evolving multimedia support, and simply cool design are among the Mac's credits, say industry observers, PC users, and Apple pioneers. PC World asked many longtime industry players, including some involved in the Mac's early days, what the Macintosh has taught the PC--and, essentially, the computing industry. And, on the flip side, what has the PC taught the Macintosh?

Who Caught the Mouse?

"The question is really, what did the Xerox Star teach the Macintosh?" says Vern Raburn, who helped direct application development at Microsoft between 1978 to and 1982, then was an executive at both Lotus and at Symantec. Today, he is CEO of Eclipse Aviation, developer of personal jet aircraft.

He--and others--point out that Apple CEO Steve Jobs (news - web sites) lifted many innovations, from the graphical user interface to laser printers to mouse pointing devices and even, Raburn notes, "the vaulted trash can" icon from research performed at Xerox PARC.

But it was Apple that put those features into products and marketed them, notes Tim Bajarin, president of the consultancy Creative Strategies.

"Obviously, the PC got two key components from the Mac: the graphical user interface and introduction of a mouse for navigating information," Bajarin says. "Until that point, everything around the PC was driven by a very text-based architecture."

Bajarin also credits the Macintosh with introducing desktop publishing and multimedia computing, "which is the Macintosh not only handling drawing and pictures, but true imaging and sound and video," he says.

"From the early publishing is a continuum to the multimedia that is Apple's emphasis today," agrees Raines Cohen, a cofounder of the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group. He, too, cites the GUI: "The Mac helped us get away from event-driven, menu-driven applications," he says.

Birth of an Application

Desktop publishing reinvigorated the Macintosh, recalls John Scull, who headed that project at Apple in mid-1995. He recalled his work at a Macintosh retrospective this week at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

"I was charged with trying to figure out how to make the LaserWriter a viable product," Scull says. With a staff consisting of only a summer intern, he courted software developers and finally found an ally in Aldus, which created PageMaker--first for the Mac, and eventually for Windows--and helped launch the desktop publishing industry. Adobe later bought Aldus and recently discontinued PageMaker.

"People were completely blown away," Scull says, remembering showing the technology at the Stanford Professional Publishing Course, at Stanford University. "It was clear we had something extraordinarily special. We thought we had the opportunity to be the Trojan horse that would get Apple into businesses." Kodak, he recalls, dismissed it as "a toy."

Also promoting the Macintosh to developers was Guy Kawasaki, one of the original Apple evangelists, who spoke at the Computer History Museum event.

Kawasaki recalled his job in September 1983, as "trying to convince software developers to write software for a machine that at the time didn't even have a compiler."

The need for applications was something Apple had to learn, but picked up fairly quickly, agreed Mike Boich, another speaker and early evangelist.

"Jobs' original vision of the Macintosh was a very simple product with three or four applications, and I think Steve wanted them to be in ROM if they could," Boich recalled.

Making Microsoft

Credit the Macintosh with helping push Microsoft to greater power, several industry veterans suggest.

In 1984, three leading software CEOs pledged to support the new system. Mitch Kapor of Lotus promised a spreadsheet for the Mac, while Software Publishing's Fred Gibbons said the company would port its many popular applications to the new platform. But it was Bill Gates (news - web sites) who delivered the most. Microsoft launched its Excel spreadsheet on the Macintosh, and released the first graphical version of Word for the Mac platform. It originally produced Multiplan, Word, and File for the Mac.

"The Macintosh marked the beginning of Microsoft's dominance of applications," Raburn says. "Windows is not the reason Microsoft dominated applications, it's because they had the head start of developing graphical apps on the Mac."

Microsoft representatives declined to answer PC World's questions, but a spokesperson points to a recent statement from the head of Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit.

"Mac users have always been innovators. When Microsoft launched Excel the goal was to bring something so advanced for its time to life, and Mac users were so receptive," Roz Ho, general manager, says in a recent report from Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit. "At the time, the team knew they were putting an application out there that would transform how people worked, they just didn't realize to what magnitude. The graphical interface was so advanced at the time. Microsoft was one of the first companies really playing around with it, and looking back, it seems fitting that we did it on the Mac."

Unique Contributions

Apple has long emphasized the Macintosh's uniqueness, which is perhaps both its strength and challenge (or outright weakness, depending on your stance). Several observers say the Macintosh ushered in greater interoperability--because it had to, in order to be accepted in business markets.

"Starting with the Superdrive reading PC-formatted 3.5-inch disks, and continuing with today's networking and refined virtual PC emulation, this is an area the Mac truly has embraced," says Mark Eppley, founder of Traveling Software (now Laplink), which has developed for both platforms.

He suggests that this early emphasis is an advantage in today's highly networked world. "Apple should be able to continue to focus its development resources on creative differentiation without having to backfill and maintain too much legacy code, which Microsoft is burdened with," Eppley adds.

Apple was quicker to develop effective file translation programs and emulators and enable networking across disparate systems, Raburn agrees. "The network was a way of achieving compatibility," he says.

Philippe Kahn, once a Macintosh developer as CEO of Borland, and today CEO of wireless communications firm LightSurf, also praises the Mac's contributions.

"The PC learned from the Mac how to look good, sound great, be more reliable, and easier to use," Kahn says. "The Mac learned how to become more affordable and accessible to everyone."

The 1984 Macintosh was a breakthrough in many ways, but still had plenty of room for improvement, Raburn points out. "The 128K Macintosh without a hard drive was really torturous to use," he says. "The good news was at least the floppies were sturdy, because you put them in and out a lot."

But, Raburn acknowledges, "the Macintosh clearly laid the foundation for a whole new approach to computing, and I wouldn't want to take away from that."

Still in School

So what has the Mac, in turn, learned from the PC? Jobs would say nothing, Bajarin says, "but in reality, it helped Apple understand the much greater importance of retail, helped Apple hone in its marketing strategies."

Speakers at the Computer History Museum event recalled frustrating early attempts to break into the business market. But the experience prompted Apple to try new approaches. For example, the "Macintosh Test Drive" invited prospective customers to take a Mac home to try it out. Also, the Apple University Consortium seeded Macs in key college campuses around the country.

Getting businesses to buy Macintoshes "was one of the hardest marketing problems we ever had," said Mike Murray, Apple's vice president of marketing during the Mac's early days. He recalled a focus group of businesspeople who declared the Mac easier to use, more efficient, and desirable, but still said they'd recommend their business purchase an IBM system.

The Mac II, introduced in 1987, had a PC-like rectangular box shape with a separate monitor, in an attempt to appear more businesslike. But Jobs resisted standard design as another way to distinguish the Mac, says consultant Bajarin notes. He says Apple learned that "none of the PC guys had any imagination" about design.

"About the only thing the Macintosh has ever really learned from the PC is that power is good," Raburn says. "That's become the theme in the Mac world, with the P3, and using chips that can kick ass."

Former evangelist Kawasaki puts it succinctly: "The Macintosh taught the PC about aesthetics," he says. "The PC taught the Mac the importance of an open architecture."

Consultant Rob Enderle says Apple may finally be learning the lesson of the PC's example of standards and licensing. The company recently licensed IPod technology to Hewlett-Packard, which will release its own version of the music player.

"I think the real story is what both sides didn't learn from the other," says Enderle, managing partner of The Enderle Group. "Apple showcased over and over again what marketing-driven products could do, most recently with the IPod, and the PC industry still doesn't get it. On the other hand, if there was ever a stronger example that the power is in standards and the ability to take those standards across manufacturers than Microsoft and the PC industry demonstrate, I don't know of it--and Apple didn't get that."

Fond Memories

The PC eventually saw the value of the Mac's original slogan of "the computer for the rest of us," suggests Barbara Krause, today a partner in Krause-Taylor, and in 1984 a public relations manager for Apple.

"The Mac taught that computers should be designed for regular people, and for all sorts of creative and personal tasks, not just for computing," Krause says. "And that sometimes, something sophisticated and highly advanced can be decidedly simple."

The original Mac team members told each other they were involved in something that would change the world, and although Apple operated in a bit of "a reality distortion field" at the time, as Murray dryly noted, its influence cannot be denied. In recalling the Mac's early days, most mentioned the energy and passion that was a near-religious experience for participants.

Among the tales of the early days at the Computer History Museum program:

* Andy Cunningham, part of the Regis McKenna public relations team that planned the launch, remembered calming the volatile Steve Jobs on an interview tour by repeatedly playing a favorite Michael Jackson tune.

* Murray remembered being encouraged by a U.S. customs agent as staffers crossed the Canadian border with top-secret cargo the agent correctly identified as the Macintosh and then urged them, "Beat IBM!"

* Chris Espinoza, an early Apple employee who oversaw Macintosh documentation, related a strange afternoon delivering a Macintosh to Mick Jagger, supposedly at the rock star's request, but drawing more interest from his then pre-teen daughter, Jade.

* And Kawasaki invoked this memory: "Step One of the Macintosh development cycle: Print up T-shirts."

Remembering 1984

But the Macintosh marketing memories begin for most of the pioneers with the "1984" ad that played during the Super Bowl the week of the Macintosh's launch. Crafted by Hollywood director Ridley Scott, it was dramatic and artsy and, as several of the principals recall, it almost didn't run.

A preview of the ad was greeted with foot-stomping, whistling applause by the sales force at a fall meeting, several members of the original Macintosh marketing team say. But the Apple board of directors was much less impressed, and in fact ordered ad agency Chiat/Day to try to sell the Super Bowl advertising time spots. When the agency reported it couldn't unload the 60-second spot by the deadline, Apple's board suggested swapping in an Apple II advertisement--but none was suitable. So the board acquiesced, the spot ran--and the Mac made its mark on the advertising field as well as technology. Today, the Super Bowl is often the showcase for innovative advertisements.

"At the next board meeting two weeks later, they summoned the senior members of the Macintosh team," Murray recalled, completing the recollection. "We went into the board room, and they all stood up and applauded."

Although broadcast just once, the ad is still a marketing message for Apple. It was eventually preloaded on some Apple systems and is available for download. A slightly modified version opened the keynote of the MacWorld (news - web sites) Expo in January: the javelin-thrower's T-shirt was digitally changed from the Macintosh logo to that of the IPod.

Researchers Look at How Mosquitoes Smell

Thu Jan 22, 3:06 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Vanderbilt University biologist is hoping to build a better mosquito trap by finding out how to disable the pesky bug's sniffer. 

Missed Tech Tuesday? 
Match wits with anyone, anywhere--just get in the game. Plus, smart gaming tips and free retro game downloads. 

Researchers say their work, published in the journal Nature, identifies a single gene that responds specifically to one of the 350 or so smell-producing compounds in human sweat. 

The work could lead to better repellants and ways to produce attractants that would lead mosquitoes into deadly traps, said biologist Larry Zwiebel, who worked with Yale University researchers on the project. 

Last year the mosquito-borne West Nile virus (news - web sites) killed 220 people in the United States, and malaria kills at least 1 million people worldwide every year. 

The centuries-old war on mosquitoes got a major boost in 2002 when an international coalition of scientists completed a full map of the approximately 16,000 genes in the mosquito primarily responsible for spreading malaria. 

Zwiebel's work focused on the genes in female mosquitoes, which do all the blood sucking and hunt down victims by smelling with their antennas. 

They say they discovered the one protein that's found before the mosquito takes a blood meal but not after, and in doing so found their prime suspect. 

They tested their work by using genetic engineering to implant the suspect gene in fruit flies, which use their antennae much as mosquitoes do. They then stuck electrodes finer than a human hair into the fly and measured its nervous system's response to various odors. 

The fruit flies without the gene don't respond to 4-methylphenol, a compound in human sweat that previous studies have shown is particularly attractive to mosquitoes. Flies that are given the gene do respond. 

Zwiebel concluded that the one gene - narrowed from a field of 16,000 - is responsible for the fly's ability to respond to the odor. 

Zwiebel said more work needs to be done on other genes that allow the mosquito to detect the same compound. And there are probably about 20 other compounds in human sweat that mosquitoes respond to as well. 

"I think that ultimately the most effective mosquito repellent would be one which used sort of a cocktail of different compounds," said study co-author John Carlson, a biology professor at Yale University. "And likewise, a mosquito trap would be a mixture of different odors which would activate different receptors."

Thief Fakes Heart Attack to Outwit Police

Jan 22, 8:12 am ET 

BERLIN  - A crafty German thief escaped police after his arrest by faking a heart attack and fleeing when his handcuffs were removed for treatment, authorities in the western city of Duesseldorf said Wednesday.

"He started complaining of chest pains in custody and said he was having a heart attack," a police spokeswoman said. "It seems he gave quite a convincing performance, and you can't be too careful in these situations."

The 40-year-old's condition improved dramatically as soon as his hands were freed for a scan in hospital and he ran half naked to the nearest emergency exit.

A subsequent police search found no trace of the man.'

Scientists Teach Baffled Diners Chopstick Tricks

Jan 22, 8:11 am ET 

LONDON  - Britons' enthusiasm for chow mein and Peking duck is often dampened when poor chopstick skills leave more food on their shirts than in their mouths.

But scientists have come to their aid with a mathematical formula for successful chopstick use, just in time for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Researchers from the University of Surrey took into account the number of Chinese meals eaten, how many seconds it takes to get food from bowl to mouth and food slipperiness to calculate the key to chopstick proficiency.

Diners can use the formula to calculate how much practice they need, how long their chopsticks should be and how quickly they should eat.

"The formula will come as a welcome answer for those terrified by chopsticks," said a spokeswoman for food firm Uncle Ben's, which found that over half of Britons have to down chopsticks and use a knife and fork to finish their food.

Haggis, Born in TheUSA

Jan 21, 8:22 am ET 

By Trevor Datson

LONDON  - A tiny Scottish firm has teamed up with a U.S. company to start the first industrial-scale production in America of Scotland's national dish -- haggis.

Stahly Quality Foods, which employs just four people in the industrial new town of Glenrothes, believes the joint venture with a Chicago-based food processor can move 300,000 tins of the offal-based delicacy in its first year.

The estimated 10 million Scots and people of Scottish descent that live in North America offer an appetizing market.

But founder Ken Stahly's first venture into the United States was crushed by an import ban following the British foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001.

"We were constantly getting e-mails and calls asking 'How can we get haggis over here?', Stahly said, as the Scottish diaspora across the globe prepares to toast the national bard Robbie Burns with haggis and whisky on January 25.

The U.S. launch is proving expensive for the firm, .

"It's cost us a fortune so far -- the lawyers were charging us $290 an hour just to draft things like confidentiality agreements that will hopefully just sit in a drawer. But the potential is huge," Stahly said.

Haggis is prepared in a sheep's stomach and is steamed or baked and served hot, but can also be revived when cold with a dash of scotch. Stahly will initially be offering two varieties from the Chicago plant -- traditional and vegetarian.

The recipes, like the identity of the U.S. partner, are a closely guarded commercial secret, but most traditional haggis contains liver, heart, tripes, oatmeal, suet and spices.

It also traditionally contains "lights," or lungs.

But "mad cow disease," or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which can be transferred to humans as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), put a stop to that in commercial haggis production as lungs are deemed "high risk material."

HAGGIS HUNT

All of the ingredients used in the Chicago plant will be sourced locally to avoid U.S. import restrictions on British meat products -- the irony being that BSE most recently recurred in the United States.

Marketing could, however, prove a challenge. A recent poll of 1,000 U.S. visitors to Scotland, by haggis makers Hall's of Broxburn, found that 33 percent believed a haggis was an animal hunted in the highlands.

But Stahly has launched a haggis recipe book which the founder hopes will spread the word among American consumers, along with trade shows and exhibitions,. If the venture proves a success, Stahly hopes to expand the range, possibly in conjunction with a Scotch whisky company. The marketing synergies are potentially huge.

But so are the bureaucratic pitfalls.

Three years after U.S. customs returned a batch of Stahly's Scottish-produced haggis on foot-and-mouth fears, British customs authorities turned back a trial case sent from Chicago.

Police Told to Watch Their Ps and Qs

Jan 20, 8:55 am ET 

LONDON  - Scottish police have been told not to ask people if they are married in case it causes offence to gays, and to refrain from calling elderly people "old."

New directives issued to Lothian and Borders police are included in new guidelines that also instruct officers not to refer to women as "pet," "love" or "dear."

The word "homosexual" should also be avoided because it is derogatory and stems from a 19th century notion that homosexuality was an illness, the guidelines say.

"Embarrassment can also be caused to people by asking them questions which appear to assume a particular sexual orientation, such as "Are you married?..".," according to a booklet, issued after officers were sent on political correctness courses.

Calling people "old" can be offensive as it suggests "worn out" and "of little use," officers were advised. Older or elderly are deemed much more appropriate, while terms such as "old fool" should be avoided by all means.

The police force, which covers around a third of Scotland's population including in the capital Edinburgh, said Monday it realized that changing language was difficult.

But it denied the booklet was a result of political correctness gone mad.

"We live in very dangerous and sensitive times in terms of language and attitudes," Lothian and Borders Deputy Chief Constable Tom Wood said. "People are very quick to take offence."

You'll Never Guess Who's Still Alive

Jan 20, 8:54 am ET 

LONDON  - British war leader Winston Churchill's foul-mouthed 104-year old parrot refused to surrender to newshounds Monday after a British newspaper tracked the bird down and discovered it was still alive.

"They've been trying to get him to talk all day, but he's not saying much," said Sylvia Martin, who manages Heathfield Nurseries where parrot Charlie has lived for the last 12 years.

Charlie, who kept Churchill company during World War II, was famous for occasionally squawking four-letter obscenities about Hitler. But Martin told The News Source the bird has mellowed.

"He doesn't say very much anymore -- usually just hello and goodbye. But he does get so excited about music and dances to it. He's very fit."

Charlie -- invariably referred to as "he" despite being female -- is now owned by Peter Oram, the garden center's owner, Martin said. Oram's father-in-law sold Churchill the bird and was asked to take it back after the prime minister died in 1965.

Steve Nichols, founder of Britain's National Parrot Sanctuary, said that although parrots did not often live longer than 40 in the wild, some had lived to up to 110.

"It's obviously had the best life possible," he said.

Court Puts Brakes on Driving Test Conman

Jan 20, 8:44 am ET 

LONDON  - Learner drivers, stumped by three-point turns and terrified by test centers, were ideal partners for a British conman jailed on Friday for impersonating other people to take their driving exams.

While many struggle to pass once, Danny Sorhaindo paid to take the practical test 99 times, charging his "clients" 550 pounds ($1,000) a time for his driving expertise.

One person even paid Sorhaindo for a driving license which they then gave away as a Christmas present, police said.

Authorities finally caught up with Sorhaindo and he was sentenced to nine months in prison by London's Kingston Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to obtain property by deception.

"All the officers who worked on this case were horrified at the ease with which Sorhaindo was able to impersonate so many others," London Police's Chief Inspector Mike Harper said.

Hair Wars Touch Down Near LAX

Wed Jan 21,10:29 AM ET

Add Fashion - Fashion Wire Daily 

Outskirts-FWD 

Fashion Wire Daily January 21, 2004 - Los Angeles - If you were a young African-American in the early nineties, chances are fairly good that you or someone you know had some pretty fierce hair. MC Hammer's back-up dancers sported sculpted hair as tall as their harem pants were wide, Kid of Kid 'N Play had a fade that defied gravity, and regular kids working as checkout clerks had every imaginable logo and object carved into their hair. 

These extreme forms of hair expression were wildly popular for a little while, but by the time House Party 3 came out, the winds of fashion gave way to more sensible, refined 'dos. 

Except no one told the good people of Detroit. 

Detroit has always been is a bit left of center when it comes popular trends. Some trends that hit Detroit morph and take on a life of their own. This is what happened in Mr. Humphries' case. 

Back in the eighties, David "Hump the Grinder" Humphries wanted to attract more business to his small nightclub in downtown Detroit. Knowing that local hairdressers had a good-natured rivalry to create the most outlandish 'dos, Mr. Humphries hatched the idea of holding a hair contest once a week. Word spread, and his "Wednesday Night Hair Connection" was so popular that he had to find a larger venue. Eventually the hair contest grew to the point where it became Mr. Humphries full-time job. This was the official beginning of "Hair Wars." 

Fast-forward ten years later and "Hair Wars" has grown into an international phenomenon. Currently on a cross-country tour, Mr. Humphries "Hair Wars" made a stop in Los Angeles recently where stylists, models and enthusiasts all gathered to have some fun an put on a show with some fierce hair. 

Stylists spent the better part of the day getting their models ready to strut the runway. Elaborate costumes made of a combination of real and synthetic hair, braids and weaves took countless hours of careful application. Tables were littered with hot irons, hair spray, gel, glue, foam, chicken wire- Anything that one can imagine using to help create these fanciful hair sculptures. 

A man with russet colored-hair is working feverishly on his beautiful, lanky model. He is Steven Noss, proud recipient of Ricki Lake (news)'s coveted Golden Weave Award and one of "the baddest in the business" of hair entertainment. He is busy teasing the fluffy trim of a full-length skirt that's made of hair. While the trim is made with human hair, the braided part of the skirt is fashioned from synthetic hair since "human hair is so silky and soft, it slips out from the braids." Mr. Noss has piles of human hair from China that he buys for ten dollars per quarter pound. Most of hairstyles that Mr. Noss creates require about half a pound of hair. Tonight, it's anyone's guess how many pounds of hair he'll use. 

Across the room, the Hair Mechanics of Inglewood are busy choreographing the dance moves that they'll use during their performance. The Hair Mechanics are still in school at the Healthy Hair Academy, but their enthusiasm makes up for their lack of experience. Taking the mechanic metaphor literally, one of the young students precariously balances a large windshield made of blue hair, complete with working windshield wipers, on her head. 

Hours pass, and finally, the show starts. A beautiful woman with figure that won't quit announces in a baritone voice: "This is a family show. Any music with vulgar language will not be tolerated." She keeps the energy upbeat and positive. Acting as the MC, she describes the runway action for over 4,000 models with styles created by over 500 stylists. 

The parade on stage is endless, but the real action is backstage. The show progresses and hair and the costumes become more outrageous. A teenage boy pouts at some unknown injustice. Girls all in white practice a step dance. Toddlers sit patiently as their hair is braided. And Mr. Humphries beams at his creation like a proud father and clearly would not trade places with anyone in the world. 

For additional and Hi-resolution photos, visit www.fashionwiredaily.com

U.S. Charges Smithsonian Secretary

Wed Jan 21, 4:44 AM ET

 - washingtonpost.com 

By Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post Staff Writer 

Lawrence M. Small, the secretary of the Smithsonian and an avid collector of Brazilian (news - web sites) tribal art, is expected to plead guilty later this week to a misdemeanor violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The charge was filed Jan. 5 in Raleigh, N.C., after Small's art collection was found to contain feathers from several protected species, including the jabiru, roseate spoonbill and crested caracara.

Neither prosecutors nor Small's lawyers would go into details yesterday about the investigation or the bargaining leading up to the arraignment, which is scheduled for Friday morning. Papers filed in U.S. District Court in Raleigh state that Small "did possess, transport, cause to be transported, purchase, offer to purchase, carry and cause to be carried, migratory birds and parts thereof."

A statement released yesterday by the Smithsonian said: "Under the circumstances, while Secretary Small will plead guilty to the one-count, non-intentional misdemeanor violation, the U.S. Attorney in this case is not recommending any fine or incarceration." How the case ended up in Raleigh and the usual penalties for such a violation were not explained.

Three members of the Smithsonian board said they don't expect the case to affect Small's status as head of the Smithsonian, the largest complex of museums in the world. The private collection in question was purchased before he became Smithsonian secretary.

"The Board of Regents understands that Secretary Small has cooperated fully with the investigation leading up to today's filing, that he has voluntarily surrendered his entire featherwork collection to the government, that the offense in question does not involve criminal intent, that before being purchased by Mr. Small the collection had been on public display at two highly respected institutions, and that in purchasing the collection Mr. Small acted in accordance with the advice of counsel," said the statement, which was released by the Smithsonian's executive committee. The committee is led by Wesley S. Williams Jr., a Washington attorney; Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the regents' chancellor; and businessman Alan G. Spoon.

Small started buying tribal art long before his appointment to the Smithsonian's highest office four years ago, and his holdings were greatly expanded by his purchase in 1998 of a 1,000-item collection. Small displayed the art in his Northwest Washington home, as well as in a 2,500-square-foot private gallery in an apartment near his house.

An article in Smithsonian magazine in January 2000 described the collection as amazing. "There are headdresses, capes, masks, nosepieces, labrets and armbands, all festooned with feathers of every conceivable color and size, from foot-long macaw feathers to fingernail-size hummingbird feathers. The combinations of colors dazzle the eye wherever you look," the article observed.

Small has said that lawyers checked the legality of the items when he purchased them. "My lawyers wrote up a contract which had the seller warrant that all of the articles in the collection were fine from the standpoint of all legalities, including the Endangered Species Act," he told a reporter for the Hearst newspapers in 2001.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service conducted two investigations of Small's collection, trying to determine whether any items were imported in violation of U.S. or international endangered species laws. The first, from November 2000 to March 2001, ended without any action being taken. The agency reopened the case in July 2001 when questions were raised based on photographs in Smithsonian magazine and correspondence from ornithologists.

The action by the U.S. attorney was an outgrowth of the government's investigation, but a spokesman for Fish & Wildlife said he couldn't provide any details until the court proceedings were concluded.

Small, the former president of Fannie Mae, became Smithsonian secretary in January 2000. His tenure has been marked by many controversies, starting with his appointment as the first businessman to run the center since the first building opened in 1855. Some of his decisions led to congressional and public debate about the role of a modern museum, the privileges accorded to donors and the direction of the Smithsonian itself. The bulk of the institution's budget is provided by the federal government; Congress appropriated $600 million for this fiscal year, an increase, at a time when the Smithsonian has reported that its private donations had decreased.

Small has survived several protests. In an effort to examine the scientific basis of the research facilities, Small proposed closing a facility that worked with endangered species, a move that was withdrawn. The multimillion-dollar gift of a local businesswoman, Catherine B. Reynolds, prompted questions about the role of a donor in developing exhibitions, and eventually Reynolds took back most of her gift. The National Zoo, part of the Smithsonian, is undergoing review by outside panels focusing on animal care and other conditions after the deaths of several prized animals.

Yesterday's regents' statement about the federal inquiry of Small's collection concluded: "The Executive Committee of the Board of Regents believes that it is fully informed with regard to these matters." The board said it had received periodic updates about the case. "Furthermore, the Executive Committee is of the view that, under the circumstances as described, this matter has not impaired, is not now impairing, and will not hereafter impair the Secretary's ability to continue serving the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites) in the excellent manner in which he has performed over the past four years."

Armed Gangs Threaten Mexican Sea Turtles

Tue Jan 20, 5:41 AM ET 
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By NATALIA PARRA, News Source Writer 

SAN VALENTIN, Mexico - Laws barring the killing of protected sea turtles and the sale of their eggs have been as effective as anti-drug trafficking programs: driving the practice underground but failing to stop it. 

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The latest threat is a horseback-riding gang whose members wield Kalashnikov rifles to drive away police and unarmed environmental activists. 

Centuries-old traditions make the turtles, and especially their eggs, highly prized in Mexico, where officials have spent decades trying to protect the sea creatures. 

Turtle eggs can still be found at rural markets and restaurants in many parts of southern Mexico, though they are sometimes kept out of sight until buyers ask for them. 

Families living along the coast have a long tradition of dining on turtle meat and eggs, and they have become prized meals at gatherings such as weddings and political functions because of their high price. 

Programs designed to provide alternate livelihoods for local residents who traditionally hunted the turtles have helped reduce - but not eliminate - the threat. 

"It is difficult to get to San Valentin beach because of the presence of armed people who, in addition to committing other crimes such as drug trafficking, set themselves to preying on the turtles and their eggs," said Miguel Angel Calzada Adame, who represents the federal environmental prosecutor's office for Guerrero state. 

He said it was difficult for his inspectors to enter the area without collaboration from other law enforcement agencies "because we do not carry arms." 

On both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, sea turtles regularly emerge from the sea, crawl up the beach and lay their eggs - a point at which they are extremely vulnerable. 

According to local officials, only about 40 percent of the eggs escape poachers at San Valentin, a 12-mile long beach near fruit orchards and virgin jungle in Petatlan, 100 miles northwest of Acapulco. 

Mayor Javier Rodriguez Aceves said a 22-person turtle protection team has been unable to stop raids by a group of about 10 men arriving on horseback with Kalashnikov rifles. 

Rodriguez said the group also rustles livestock and carries out assaults in the city. 

The president of the San Valentin turtle protection team, Raul Lopez Osorio, said he needs more help from the armed forces and state and local authorities. 

While those agencies often have teams trying to protect turtles, the task involves a vast stretch of seacoast, much of it remote. 

One member of the local team showed reporters hundreds of shells of turtles killed by a blow to the head. 

"It's a very cruel death," Mario Espinoza Amaro said. "They cry, shriek like the squawking of birds and bleed to death." 

During a campaign against turtle smugglers in the late 1990s, the environmental prosecutor's office repeatedly announced interceptions of shipments containing tens of thousands of contraband turtle eggs. 

Small Canadian Farmer Fights Monsanto 

Mon Jan 19, 5:07 PM ET

By PAUL ELIAS, News Source Biotechnology Writer 

OTTAWA - The case of a small-time farmer from the remote Saskatchewan plains, now before Canada's highest court, may represent the best chance yet for foes of the global biotech revolution to get the law on their side. 

Agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. sued the farmer, Percy Schmeiser, after its agents found biotech canola growing in his fields in 1997. It contends he replanted seeds from those plants without paying a technology fee of about $12 an acre. 

But Schmeiser says the Monsanto canola, originating from neighbors' fields, got onto his 1,400 acres without his involvement or knowledge. The 73-year-old farmer says the contamination of his crops destroyed a lifetime of work improving them, so it's hardly right that he would have to pay for Monsanto's seed. 

The biotech seed could have migrated to Schmeiser's land as airborne pollen, carried by animals or spilled from a cart, he speculates. 

But Monsanto, which has a lien on Schmeiser's farm after two lower-court victories, says there was simply too much biotech canola in his fields for the accidental exposure explanation to be credible. 

It insists Schmeiser must pay every year for seed, just like 30,000 other canola farmers in Canada, where roughly half the 10 million acres of canola have been converted since 1996 to Monsanto's variety, which is engineered to survive the company's patented weed killer Roundup. 

"The bottom line for us is that his possession and growing was not an accident," Monsanto spokeswoman Trish Jordan said. 

Schmeiser may find more sympathy during his hearing Tuesday before Canada's Supreme Court, which a little more than a year ago refused to grant Harvard University a "patent on life" for a genetically engineered mouse. 

His supporters also include the government of Ontario, which argues that public health suffers when life forms are patented. The province is ignoring patents held by Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City on two genes implicated in breast cancer, administering its own cancer tests at a third of Myriad's list price. 

The Canadian justices will hold three hours of arguments Tuesday, and rule in several months. 

A decision against Monsanto would be a tremendous boost for the forces mobilizing against biotechnology. Dozens of activist groups have descended on Canada's frigid capital, determined to make Schmeiser an international cause celebre. 

They're also hunting for a U.S. Schmeiser to challenge the St. Louis-based company - perhaps from among the 90 farmers activists say Monsanto has sued for seed theft since 1997. 

"This is so much bigger than Percy," said Nadege Adam of the Council of Canadians, which formed a coalition of Schmeiser defenders that also includes the Sierra Club (news - web sites) of Canada and the Washington D.C.-based International Center for Technology Assessment. 

Monsanto, which sold more than $1.6 billion in genetically engineered seeds last year after spending about $500 million on research and development, has tried to downplay Schmeiser's fame. The company stresses that it has no choice but to crack down on any farmer using its technology for free. 

"Clearly, we believe that respect for intellectual property is important," Jordan said. "We have invested quite a bit in this technology and we expect people to play by the rules and we expect a return on it." 

For centuries, farmers have improved their crops by culling their best plants and husbanding seeds for the next planting season. Developing nations see these practices as sacrosanct, but increasingly threatened by the spread of genetically modified crops, which even subsistence farmers are required to pay for each year. 

In the end, it's the questions about life itself that have attracted all the attention from farmers, activists, biotech lobbyists and the international press corps. 

"Who can patent life, and who owns life, whether it's seeds, plants, animals and so on?" Schmeiser asked Monday at a news conference. "Those are some of the main issues that really concern me on a personal level." 

Schmeiser views the dispute through a property rights prism, arguing that no corporation should have the control Monsanto has asserted over the farms where its patented varieties of crops are grown. 

Similar views are strongly held in India, South America and elsewhere in the developing world. Led by the Indian activist Vandana Shiva, that movement has galvanized around Schmeiser, a former conservative Catholic member of his provincial parliament and ex-mayor of Bruno, Saskatchewan (population: 600). 

Schmeiser has visited 40 countries in the last two years, receiving standing ovations from organic farming conventions and anti-biotech rallies from Marin County, Calif. to Osaka, Japan. Worldwide donations have poured in. 

Still, Schmeiser has paid a steep price for refusing to settle. He owes Monsanto about $140,000 in judgments, amassed legal fees of $230,000, and has rented out all but 140 acres of his farm. 

"The stress this has caused my family is unreal," said Schmeiser, who considers himself an accidental activist. 

"It was not by choice," he said. "I'd rather be fishing with my 15 grandchildren." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Schmeiser: http://www.percyschmeiser.com 

Monsanto: http://www.monsanto.com 

Canada Supreme Court: http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/Welcome/index_e.asp

How to Be Lucky in 2004 31-Dec-2003

Psychologist Richard Wiseman says, "Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune." He says he's found the answer. 

Wiseman writes in bbcnews.com that he placed ads in national newspapers asking for people who felt they were always either lucky or unlucky to contact him, so he got lots of volunteers to study. He says, "The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune." He found that lucky people consistently encounter chance opportunities, while unlucky people don't. Since this doesn't make sense statistically, Wiseman studied them and found that lucky people were the ones who were able to spot the opportunities that came their way. 

He says, "I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win �250.' This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it." He found that unlucky people are more tense and depressed, perhaps because they expect the worst, and this disrupts their ability to notice what's going on around them. Wiseman says, "They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs." He says, "I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier." Here's what Wiseman told them to do: "Listen to your gut instincts-they are normally right. Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine. Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well. Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Army's Suicide Rate in Iraq Said Higher

55 minutes ago

By MATT KELLEY, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Army's suicide rate in Iraq (news - web sites) has been about a third higher than past rates for troops during peacetime, the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s top doctor said Wednesday. 

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Also, the military still has about 2,500 troops waiting for medical care after returning from overseas, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The Pentagon is preparing for even more soldiers on "medical extension" after tens of thousands of troops are rotated home from Iraq this spring, Winkenwerder said. 

The issue of suicides so worried the military that the Army sent an assessment team to Iraq late last year to see if anything more could be done to prevent troops from killing themselves. The Army also began offering more counseling to returning troops after several soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., killed their wives and themselves after returning home from the war. 

Winkenwerder said the military has documented 21 suicides during 2003 among troops involved in the Iraq war. Eighteen of those were Army soldiers, Winkenwerder said. 

That's a suicide rate for soldiers in Iraq of about 13.5 per 100,000, Winkenwerder said. During recent peacetime years, that number for the Army has hovered around 10.5 to 11 per 100,000, Winkenwerder said. 

"We don't see any trend there that tells us that there's more we might be doing," Winkenwerder told a breakfast meeting of Pentagon reporters. 

The military has nine combat stress teams in Iraq to help treat troops' mental health problems, and each division has a psychiatrist, psychologist and social worker, Winkenwerder said. He said between 300 and 400 troops have been medically evacuated from Iraq for mental health problems. 

The military prefers to treat mental health problems such as depression by keeping troops in their regular duties while they get counseling and possibly medication, Winkenwerder said. Less than one percent of the troops in Iraq are treated for mental issues during an average week, he said. 

Winkenwerder said he had no specifics on the number of troops being treated for battlefield stress, although the military is focused on treating that problem. 

"We believe they are being identified, they are being supported," Winkenwerder said. 

The military also is working to solve the issue of soldiers awaiting medical care. Since November, about 1,900 of the 4,400 troops waiting for medical care have been treated, Winkenwerder said. 

But the military expects more problems when tens of thousands of troops are rotated in and out of Iraq this spring, Winkenwerder said. Many of those troops may have to wait at various bases for medical treatment such as physical therapy for injuries, he said. 

The Army is working to sign contracts with civilian medical providers and bringing in more staff from the Navy, Air Force and Department of Veterans Affairs (news - web sites) to help, Winkenwerder said.

CBS Cries Foul on PETA, MoveOn Super Bowl Ads

Thu Jan 15, 8:17 PM ET

Add Entertainment TV 

By Peter Henderson 

LOS ANGELES  - U.S. football fans will not see ads featuring scantily clad vegetarians or a political attack on President Bush (news - web sites) during February's Super Bowl after CBS said on Thursday that advocacy advertisements were out of bounds on professional football's biggest day. 

The network, over the years, has rejected dozens of advertising proposals by advocacy groups, who argue that the network only airs controversial messages that it agrees with. 

"We just want to be able to present our jiggly women," said Lisa Lange, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, asking to join advertisers like beer brewers who has boosted sales with images of scantily-clad women. 

Liberal group Moveon.org, known for its Internet funding power, told members this week that it hoped to have the first political Super Bowl ad. 

But its hopes were dashed when CBS said the spot, which asks "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" was an issue piece and could not run. 

In a letter, CBS told PETA that it would not run advertisements on "controversial issues of public importance." 

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said the policy had been in place for years. "We have a policy against accepting advocacy advertising," he added. CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc., does run political advertising for and against candidates. 

CBS came under criticism in November when it decided not to run a two-part made-for-television movie, "The Reagans," after conservatives complained that it was unflattering to former president Ronald Reagan (news) and his wife, Nancy. 

PETA spokeswoman Lange said that CBS's broadcast of anti-smoking advertisements and even hamburger chain spots were controversial, advocacy pieces, as well. 

"In essence, CBS is saying we will air an advocacy ad if we agree with the viewpoint," she said. 

The PETA ad shows two scantily clad women snuggling up to a meat-eating pizza delivery man. "Meat can cause impotence," the screen reads after the rendezvous fails. 

CBS also said the PETA spot raised "significant taste concerns.

PayPal Scam Spreads Mimail Worm

Thu Jan 15, 1:00 PM ET

Add Technology - PC World 

Paul Roberts, IDG News Service 

After releasing a new version of the Mimail e-mail worm last week, virus authors are using a new tool to help it spread: spam e-mail containing a Trojan horse program that, once installed, retrieves and installs the worm.

The new threat, which targets customers of EBay's PayPal online payment service, highlights a growing trend in which online criminals combine computer viruses, spam distribution techniques, Trojan horse programs, and "phishing" scams to circumvent security technology and fool Internet users, says Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos in Abingdon, England.

Antivirus companies including Sophos and Kaspersky Labs warned customers Thursday about the new threat, which arrives in e-mail in-boxes as a message purporting to come from online payment service PayPal.

Get the Message

The message subject line is "PAYPAL.COM NEW YEAR OFFER" and it reads, in part: "for a limited time only PayPal is offering to add 10 percent of the total balance in your PayPal account to your account and all you have to do is register yourself within the next five business days with our application (see attachment)!"

For their computers to be infected, users who open the compressed Zip file attached to the e-mail must then open a second file, which installs a Trojan horse program. That program connects to a Web site in Russia and retrieves the latest version of the Mimail worm, Mimail-N, Theriault says.

Once installed, Mimail-N alters the configuration of Microsoft Windows so that the worm is launched whenever Windows starts, harvests e-mail addresses from the computer's hard drive, and mails copies of itself out to those addresses. It also creates phony PayPal Web pages used to prompt the user to enter credit card numbers and other personal information, according to an alert issued by Kaspersky Labs.

Information that is harvested is sent to the same Russian Internet site from which the Mimail worm was retrieved, Theriault says.

New Strategy

The strategy of using a Trojan program to retrieve the new virus is unorthodox, and may be intended to circumvent antivirus products that have already been updated to spot the new versions of Mimail, she says.

Trojan horse programs cannot spread on their own, like e-mail or Internet worms, but they do provide a new way to infiltrate a computer on a network that is using antivirus protection at the e-mail gateway. If the antivirus product has not been updated to detect the new Trojan program, e-mail messages containing it can slip by those defenses and be opened by users, she says.

The biggest impact of the new worm will be on home Internet users who have not installed desktop antivirus or firewall products, she says.

Even if users end up falling for the ruse, organizations that use firewalls and desktop antivirus products should be able to spot the Trojan program once it is installed on the desktop or prevent it from connecting to the outside server and retrieving a copy of the Mimail worm, she says.

Argentine War Victims Sue Mercedes-Benz 

Wed Jan 14, 9:53 PM ET

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By DAVID KRAVETS, News Source Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO - Survivors and victims of Argentina's "dirty war" filed suit Wednesday against automaker Mercedes-Benz for allegedly aiding human rights abuses in their country. 

Survivors of nine victims who disappeared and eight who say they were tortured by the Argentine government in the late 1970s filed the federal suit, alleging Mercedes-Benz was complicit in the killing, torture or kidnapping of unionized auto workers. 

The plaintiffs, all living in Argentina, are invoking the Alien Tort Claims Act, an obscure 1789 law that their attorneys say grants overseas victims of atrocities access to U.S. courts to sue for damages. 

"The plaintiffs don't think they can get a fair hearing in Argentina," said Daniel Kovalik, one of the group's lawyers based in Pittsburgh. 

Mercedes-Benz's parent, DaimlerChrysler Corp. of Stuttgart, Germany, denied the allegations. 

No corporation has ever gone to trial under the Alien Tort Claims Act. But last year, dozens of garment manufacturers and retailers facing such a lawsuit agreed to a $20 million settlement for alleged abuses of clothing workers in Saipan. 

Several other cases brought under the act, alleging corporate abuses of human rights overseas, are making their way through federal courts. 

Such use of the act has come under attack by the Justice Department (news - web sites). The Bush administration said in a court filing that nothing in the act "suggests an intent on the part of Congress that it would furnish a foundation for suits based on conduct occurring within other nations." 

Some legal experts suggest Congress adopted the Alien Tort Claims Act to discourage seafaring piracy by allowing its victims to bring suits in U.S. courts. A French sea captain was one of the first foreigners to assert the little-used law in 1795. 

DaimlerChrysler spokeswoman Ursula Mertzig-Stein said a company-sponsored study released last month concluded there was no evidence the automaker was complicit in the Argentine military's abuses. 

"We were not involved in wrongdoings," she said. 

In the 1970s and '80s, thousands of people were killed, kidnapped or "disappeared," including trade unionists, left-wing political activists, journalists and intellectuals in Argentina. 

The suit says state security forces were "acting under the direction of and with material assistance" from Mercedes-Benz's plant near Buenos Aires. 

One plaintiff, Juan Jose Martin, 51, said the military kidnapped him from the factory in 1976 and held him in a tiny cell for 19 days, where he was tortured with a cattle prod. 

"The day before I was freed, the company had sent a telegram to my house saying that after what I had gone through I could take a week off with pay," he said in a telephone interview. "How did they know I was going to be freed? How did they know what had happened to me if even my family members did not have a clue of where I was?" 

Making Dreams to Order

Jan 14, 10:35 am ET 

TOKYO  - The Japanese company that came up with the hit "BowLingual" device that translates dogs' barks into human words has now come up with a dream product -- literally.

Takara Co Ltd says its Yumemi Kobo, or "dream workshop," gadget gives stressed out people a chance to go on a holiday or find their ideal partner -- at least in their dreams.

Before nodding off, the would-be dreamer is supposed to look at a photo of what he or she wants to dream about and then record the story-line on the $140 machine.

Using the voice recording as well as lights, music and aromas, the machine stimulates sleepers during periods of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and helps them direct their own dreams, the company says.

After eight hours, it wakes them up gradually with music and lights that simulate sunlight, avoiding any shock that could destroy fragile memories.

The manufacturers caution, though, that not all users of the gadget achieve exactly the dreams they hope for.

"We are still experimenting, mainly with company employees," Kenji Hattori, a Takara marketing executive, told reporters on Wednesday.

"Some said the theme was right, but the story-line was wrong. Some said the noise woke them up. But it has worked for quite a number of people," he said.

The Dangers of Genetic Engineering

by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho 

As one of the many scientists presenting

evidence to the Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering, I had high hopes that New Zealand would assume moral and intellectual

leadership in rejecting this dangerous technology bolstered by degenerate science, so obviously serving the corporate

agenda instead of the public good. 

It has become increasingly evident that

GM technology is inherently

hazardous and unreliable both in agriculture and

in medicine. The list of failures is growing apace. Let me mention a few recent examples that came to light since I presented evidence to the Commission. 

GM crops are inherently unstable, and this is fully borne out by numerous new scientific publications.

Even the top 'success', Roundup Ready soy, is showing every sign of breakdown: reduced yield, non-germination, diseases

and infestation by new pests. 

Molecular genetic characterization, the

first ever done on any commercially grown GM crop so far, has confirmed that both the GM construct of Roundup Ready

soy and the host genome have been scrambled (rearranged), and hundreds of basepairs of unknown DNA has got in as well. 

The 'next generation' crops are even worse.

I draw your attention especially to those developed with terminator

technologies aimed at protecting corporate patents and preventing farmers from saving and replanting seeds. Many are currently

field tested and commercially grown as 'male sterile' crops. 

Not only are the constructs more complicated

and hence more unstable and prone to horizontal gene transfer, the gene products used are cell poisons or recombinases, ie,

genome scramblers. Female-sterile and even male-sterile genes (yes!) are being spread via pollen. These dangerous genes

will spread and wipe out other crops as well as wild plant species. 

It has become all too clear that GM

agriculture cannot co-exist with other forms of agriculture. Bees are known to travel up to10km or more in foraging for

pollen. 

There is no way to prevent the horizontal spread of GM constructs

to unrelated species, which can occur in all environments, including the digestive and respiratory tracts of animals.

There are both sound a priori reasons

as well as empirical evidence to support my contention, shared by other scientists that GM constructs may more likely spread

horizontally than non-manipulated DNA. Let me reiterate them here. 

GM constructs are designed to cross

species barriers and invade genomes. They possess

homologies to a wide combination of viral and bacterial DNA and are hence much more likely to recombine with, and transfer genes to all those agents. 

GM constructs are well known to be structurally

unstable and hence prone to fragment and recombine. Some constructs such as those with the CaMV 35S promoter are extra unstable

on account of the presence of recombination hotspots.

I have mentioned the now abundant empirical

evidence of structural instability of transgenic DNA and trangenic

plants above. The CaMV 35S promoter has been shown to be extra unstable in GM crops.

And horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA has been demonstrated both in the laboratory and in the field. 

I note from your report that Dr Daniel

Cohen, a plant scientist in the Plant Health and Development group of HortResearch, had attempted to refute my warnings

about the CaMV 35S promoter.

But he, like other GM proponents, had

failed to counter my point that the isolated, recombined CaMV 35S promoter cannot be equated with the promoter in the intact

viral genome or the intact virus. 

The intact viral genome had evolved over

millions of years. The host range of the virus itself is restricted to the cabbage family, and it has a well-tried and tested

life cycle in the host cell that does not require integration into the host genome. The fact that no transfer from the virus

into the plant genome has taken place in the course of evolution

attests to the effective biological barriers that keep species distinct. 

The same promoter, removed from the viral

genome and put next to strange genes in the GM construct, is entirely different. It now functions promiscuously across

the living world, including animal and human cells.

Its destabilizing effect on GM crops is

such that many scientists, including those who pioneered its use, are now phasing it out. There is no justification for

releasing any GM crop containing the CaMV35S promoter into the environment. 

I note that you have approved the field

release of GM tamarillo (Cyphomandra betacea) for resistance to tamarillo mosaic virus at Kerikeri Research Station. This

crop not only contains CaMV 35S promoter, but also has a kanamycin resistance marker gene. 

The approval of this marker gene was a

regulatory blunder committed in the United States and elsewhere, as it is clear that kanamycin is still widely in clinical

use, and the marker gene confers resistance to new generation aminoglycosides as well. There is also plenty of evidence

that GM crops with viral genes are prone

to give rise to recombinant viruses, some of which more virulent than the 'wild type'.

When I first drew attention to horizontal

gene transfer in 1995, proponents of GM technology reacted by denying it exists. Now they, like Dr. Daniel Cohen, are

saying it does not matter because it is a natural process. 

Horizontal gene transfer may have occurred

in our evolutionary past, but GM constructs are anything but natural. They are synthetic genes and new combinations of

genes that have never existed in billions of years of evolution, and cannot in any sense be regarded as natural. 

And, I am afraid, the GM proponents will

have to change their tune again; for a rigorous reanalysis of the human genome and other data has failed to substantiate

the claim that the human genome has 113 to 226 bacterial genes transferred into it.

The actual number could well be no more

than a few, or none at all. What is the lesson? Precisely as I have always said, horizontal gene transfer does not readily

happen without genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering enhances it, with dangerous consequences. 

In biomedical applications, the gene-centered

approach is equally misplaced and pernicious. So-called 'health

genomics' is a drain on our intellectual and financial resources. It is preventing us from addressing the real, overwhelming

causes of ill health: poverty, malnutrition, social injustice and environmental pollution. 

It is stigmatizing and victimizing those

most in need of care and treatment, and making even the most unethical applications, such as human cloning and 'therapeutic

human cloning', seem compelling. 

Furthermore, the 'cures' on offer are

literally deadly. The toll from 'gene therapy' trials so far is at least 6 deaths and more than 650 adverse

events. 

It is now admitted that gene therapy has

been oversold by the scientists themselves. Presumed stem cells from human fetuses transplanted into the brain of 5

Parkinson's patients turned into an irredeemable nightmare because the cells grew uncontrollably. 

The latest verdict from an international

team of cloners is that mice embryonic stem cells are uncontrollably variable in culture, the clones themselves are

also subject to uncontrollable and unpredictable variations and defects. 

And xenotransplantation is widely condemned

because there is clear evidence that endogenous viruses from animal organs can cross into humans. 

New lethal viruses continue to be created in genetic engineering labs,

some of the latest being SHIVs, hybrids of human and monkey AIDS viruses that can infect both.

Finally, AIDS virologists have issued

serious warning against AIDS vaccines that undermine the immune system, making it more susceptible to viral infections, and

have the potential to generate lethal viruses and bacteria in the vaccinated populations. 

A sweeping paradigm change is long overdue

if we are to survive the

destruction that reductionist

science and technology have wrought on us and on

our planet.

We have all the means to deliver genuine

health and food security to the world without using GM technology and going against the wishes of the vast majority

of people.

Only the political will is missing. 

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Director; Institute of Science in Society; PO Box 32097 London; NW1 0XR UK

Email: m.w.ho@i-sis.org

Bono's Use of Expletive Gets Second Look 

Wed Jan 14, 2:47 PM ET

By JONATHAN D. SALANT, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell (news) has asked his fellow commissioners to overturn a much-criticized decision that an expletive uttered by the musician Bono on a network program was not obscene. 

During last year's NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2 said "this is really, really, f------ brilliant." 

The FCC (news - web sites)'s enforcement bureau ruled in October that the comment was not indecent or obscene because Bono used the word as an adjective, not to describe a sexual act. "The performer used the word ... as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation," the bureau said. 

Powell circulated a proposed ruling to the four other commissioners on Tuesday. He needs the votes of two of the four to overturn the decision. 

The enforcement bureau had rejected complaints from the Parents Television Council and more than 200 people, most of them associated with the conservative advocacy group, who accused dozens of television stations of violating restrictions on obscene broadcasts by airing portions of the awards program last January. 

Under FCC rules, broadcasters cannot air obscene material at any time and cannot air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. 

In a letter to the Parents Television Council last November, Powell said the FCC needed to balance its rules against indecency and obscenity with the First Amendment right to free speech. Even so, he said, "I find the use of the 'F-word' on programming accessible to children reprehensible." 

Some lawmakers have criticized the FCC decision. 

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., introduced a resolution that called it the "latest salvo in a string of decisions by the Federal Communications Commission that establishes a precedent regarding the use of universally recognized vulgar expletives on our nation's public airwaves." 

And Reps. Doug Ose, R-Calif., and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, proposed legislation that would ban five words and three phrases from the airwaves. 

___ 

On the Net: 

The legislation, H.R. 3687 and H. Res 482, are available at http://thomas.loc.gov 

Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov 

Parents Television Council: http://www.parentstv.org 

Drunken Driver Told to Carry Coffin Photo

Wed Jan 14, 8:41 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

BUTLER, Pa. - A woman who was drunk when she killed a man in a head-on collision must carry a photograph of the teacher in his coffin as part of her five years of probation, a judge ruled. 

Jennifer Langston pleaded guilty in September to vehiclular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving. 

Prosecutors said Langston was drunk and talking on a cell phone in June 2002 when she crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck carrying Glenn Clark and his pregnant wife, Annette. He died, his wife remains in a coma and their son, born by Caesarean section five months after the crash, is being raised by relatives. 

A judge sentenced Langston to 30 days in jail, plus house arrest and probation, and ordered her to carry a picture of Glenn Clark. 

But when Clark's mother provided the photo of Clark in a casket, Langston, 27, objected. Her attorney said the "spirit of the agreement" was that the photo be of Clark when he was alive. 

"This makes no sense to me. Requiring Jennifer to carry a picture like that defeats the whole purpose if the purpose is to look and remember," said Langston's attorney, Michael Sherman. "Who in their right mind will look at such a picture?" 

Butler County Judge George Hancher ruled Tuesday that Langston would have to carry the coffin photo. 

Clark's mother, Rosellen Moller, has been unapologetic. 

"That's where she put him - in a casket. That's what she did for him. I'd just shut my mouth if I was her," Moller said.

Group Names 10 'Most Endangered' Parks

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A conservation group's annual list of the 10 "most endangered" national parks has six holdovers from last year, still considered victims of dirty air, inadequate funding and bad policy. 

Related Links
� America's 10 Most Endangered Parks (Nat'l Parks Conservation Assn.)

The National Parks Conservation Association again named Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas as well as five national parks: Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee; Joshua Tree in California; Shenandoah in Virginia; Everglades in Florida; and Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. 

The group said air pollution threatens many of the parks. In addition, it said there are problems with private land sales and potential oil and gas drilling in Big Thicket; development along park borders in Joshua Tree; non-native species damage in Shenandoah; management and funding questions in the Everglades; and lack of money and bison slaughters in Yellowstone. 

Thomas Kiernan, the association's president, said the main problem is the annual $600 million shortfall for operating needs in the National Park Service's $2.3 billion budget. 

Park Service spokeswoman Elaine Sevy said the association's interest in parks is appreciated. "We'll look at what they have to say, and see how it compares with what our research is showing, and with how we're addressing many of the issues they raise," she said. 

The group had three new places and one program on its list this year: 

_Biscayne National Park in Florida, due to overfishing and water pollution. 

_Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, from lack of money for protecting plants and wildlife. 

_Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska, because of land scarred from ATV use and potential road-building. 

_National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, cited for inadequate money for preserving the history of slavery and the civil rights movement. 

The four they replaced from last year's list are Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska; Virgin Islands National Park; Glacier National Park in Montana; and Ocmulgee National Monument in Georgia. 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Parks Conservation Association: http://www.npca.org 

National Park Service: http://www.nps.gov 

Bush Seeks $1B for Moon, Mars Missions

1 hour, 32 minutes ago

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) is asking for a $1 billion boost to NASA (news - web sites)'s budget over five years to fund the start of a new American campaign in space intended to put a permanent base on the moon and land astronauts on Mars, administration officials say. 

In a speech prepared for delivery Wednesday, Bush is calling for a lunar base to be established within two decades and a manned landing on Mars sometime after 2030, an official said. 

The proposal comes after members of Congress and others have called for a new national vision for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, urging a human space initiative that would reinvigorate an agency wounded by last year's loss of space shuttle Columbia and trapped by expensive projects that limit manned spaceflight to low Earth orbit. 

Bush, speaking with reporters Tuesday on a trip to Mexico, said his plan centers on human exploration of space. 

"The spirit is going to be one of continued exploration ... seeking new horizons and investing in a program that ... meets that objective," he said. 

His proposal for $1 billion over five years, in effect, would provide startup funds for highly complex projects that could take decades and may require hundreds of billions of additional dollars to complete. 

Congressional negotiators last year agreed to a NASA budget of nearly $15.5 billion for fiscal 2004, the budget year that began last Oct. 1. That's a $90 million boost over the previous year. The measure, part of a broad-based spending bill, was passed by the House and awaits approval in the Senate. 

Part of the moon-Mars initiative would be funded by the reallocation of money already in NASA's budget, officials said. The plan calls for retiring the space shuttle by the end of this decade and quickly concluding the U.S. obligations to the International Space Station (news - web sites). The shuttle now costs NASA about $4 billion a year and the station about $1 billion. 

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe defended the cost Wednesday. 

"We're spending less than 1 percent of the federal budget on the science and technology that NASA employs for exploration objectives," he said on NBC"s "Today" show, "and that won't change. It's about exploration. It's about how do you redirect the focus of what we do toward those broad objectives that the president will outline." 

A less ambitious project proposed by Bush's father called for putting astronauts on Mars, but did not mention a moon base. The cost of that project in 1989 was projected at $400 billion to $500 billion, a price tag that discouraged Congress. The project was never started. 

Experts say that under the latest plan, robots would be sent to the moon by 2008 and astronauts ready to build a lunar base would land there by 2020. The plan envisions using the moon as a staging area for deeper space exploration with a landing on Mars after 2030. 

An official said the president's address will give broad outlines to the moon-Mars plan, leaving details to be worked out later. The administration's officials spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Experts said the effort to return to the moon would require building new spacecraft, and the eventual plan could include sending robot craft to the moon and later to Mars to cache supplies for use later by human explorers. 

The only human-rated spacecraft now in the nation's arsenal are three space shuttles, aging winged craft limited to Earth orbit. The shuttle fleet has been grounded since Columbia exploded over Texas on Feb. 1, killing seven astronauts. The first post-Columbia launch is expected in about a year. 

NASA is committed to completing the International Space Station, an effort that will take a series of space shuttle missions. 

The agency already has proposed building the Orbital Space Plane, a craft that would ferry astronauts and limited supplies between the Earth and the space station. Some members of Congress have criticized the OSP and it has yet to receive final funding. 

A colony on the moon, experts say, could be used to exploit mineral resources of the lunar surface, such as helium-3, an isotope that theoretically could be used for rocket fuel. There are suggestions that the moon has deposits of water near its poles. Water could be chemically split to obtain hydrogen and oxygen, a combination that could be used as a rocket propellant. The oxygen could be used for an atmosphere inside sealed shelters. 

___ 

On the Net: 

NASA: www.nasa.gov

Elephant Makes Daring Escape from Zoo

Jan 23, 8:18 am ET 

AUCKLAND  - An elephant briefly escaped from New Zealand's Auckland zoo on Friday after dropping a log on an electrified fence and crashing through a gate.

Twenty-year-old Burma, one of two elephants at the zoo, was free for about half an hour, forcing some road closures during the morning commuter rush, but posed no threat to people and did no damage to any other property.

The 2.8-tonAsian elephant, which stands about two-and-a-half meters (eight feet) tall, was found in a park behind the zoo and keepers walked her back to her enclosure to join the other elephant.

"When the keepers found her she vocally responded -- it was almost a 'thank goodness you're here'," said Maria Finnegan, the zoo's director of life sciences.

"She was a little shaken and both the girls were clearly happy to be reunited."

Burma had neutralized the electrified fence around the elephant enclosure by dropping a large log onto it, then climbed into a moat and walked along the perimeter fence before pushing through a gate to enter the neighboring park, she said.

"We think it was an opportunistic thing, not a deliberate action, she's realized the fence was not there and then decided to roam...."

Finnegan said the elephants had recently been allowed to roam their enclosure during the warm summer nights, but the zoo would now strengthen the fence and keep the pair indoors overnight under the control of keepers.

Why Lucky Charms Work 13-Jan-2004

Researcher Richard Wiseman studies how to be lucky. He says lucky charms do work, but only because people believe in them. Some people believe in them so much, they use voo doo to try to influence the outcomes of trials. 

Rachel Williams writes in the Pennsylvania News that Wiseman found that carrying a luck charm had no effect on whether or not people chose winning lottery numbers, despite the fact that 30% of the people he tested thought their luck had improved. At the end of the study, 70% said they'd continue to carry the lucky charm with them. 

Four-leaf clovers as good luck charms were first carried by the Druids. Horseshoes were once thought to repel witches, because their crescent shape resembles a new moon. Note: They should be hung above doors with the ends pointing up so the luck doesn't run out. 

The tradition of pulling the wishbone and hoping to get the larger piece goes back to the old belief of the magical power of the horned moon and the horned pagan god, which the wishbone resembles. 

In ancient African culture, carrying the foot of a fast creature, like a rabbit, is supposed to help a person escape or flee with the speed of the animal. Slaves first brought this concept to the U.S. 

Lucky charms aren't always effective: a prisoner was convicted of money laundering, despite voo doo magic being used to influence the verdict. DA Richard Gregorie complained during the trial of Juan Carlos Elso that his clothes were being ruined by voodoo powder that was being scattered on his chair, so Florida Judge Patricia Seitz ordered the courtroom vacuumed and locked. Ian Ball writes in The Telegraph that the dust didn't work, since the jury convicted Elso of laundering money for drug dealers. 

Voo doo practitioners have tried to influence other trials as well. The courthouse has a special janitorial crew called "the Voodoo Squad" that regularly cleans up sacrifices, such as dead chickens, roosters and goats. 

Desperate Scientists May Try Sun Shield 13-Jan-2004

Since the small, practical actions necessary to help prevent global warming have not been taken, scientists are now considering crazy schemes to get the job done. 

Mark Townsend writes in The Observer that U.K. climate scientists are proposing to build a massive shield on the edge of space that would deflect the Sun's rays and stabilize the Earth's climate. It would be made up of thousands of tons of small metal pieces, ejected into the upper atmosphere. Another sun barrier could be billions of tiny balloons sent into space. These ideas were inspired by the cooling effect from the 1814 volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, which spewed enough matter into the upper atmosphere to cause temperatures to fall by 30% for 3 years. 

On land, giant reservoirs holding salt water could be built to correct the rise in sea levels caused by melting polar ice, which releases freshwater into the ocean, changing the current that keeps Europe warm. When needed, salt water could be released into the ocean at strategic spots so the Gulf Stream doesn't drop down. 

Other ideas: Huge, floating cloud-making machines that spray ocean water into the air, and large algae plantations, that would absorb greenhouse gases, the way they do in the ocean right now. 

Environmentalist John Schellnhuber says, "The present climate policy does not seem to be working. We are not saying we have the magic bullet, but this is a desperate situation and people should start thinking about the unconventional. Preventative plans on a larger scale are needed."

Do Deodorants Cause Breast Cancer? 13-Jan-2004

Chemical preservatives from underarm deodorants have been found in breast cancer tumors. Researcher Philip Harvey says, "From this research it is not possible to say whether parabens actually caused these tumors, but they may certainly be associated with the overall rise in breast cancer cases." 

Biologist Philippa Darbre says, "...These results help explain why up to 60% of all breast tumors are found in just one-fifth of the breast-the upper-outer quadrant, nearest the underarm." 

Gaia Vince writes in New Scientist that when researchers analyzed 20 breast cancer tumors, they found high concentrations of para-hydroxybenzoic acids (parabens) in 18 of them. Parabens mimic estrogen, which plays a role in the development of breast cancers. Parabens are used in many cosmetics and even in some foods. The form of parabens found in the tumors came from something that was applied to the skin, because parabens are eaten, they no longer mimic estrogen in the body. 

Harvey says, "Given that breast cancer is the largest killer of women and a very high percentage of young women use underarm deodorants, I think we should be carrying out properly funded, further investigations into parabens and where they are found in the body."

Brain Pollution 14-Jan-2004

We know that microscopic particles from soot and other pollutants can enter our lungs and can also cause heart attacks. But now it's been discovered that even smaller particles from air pollution can reach our brains. What harm this may cause is unknown, but they could be related to the alarming increase in brain tumors in recent years. 

Alex Kirby writes in bbcnews.com that the microscopic particles of pollution from traffic, industry and older power plants enter our lungs, make their way to our bloodstream, then on to our heart and eventually to our brain. People who work in certain industries, such as manufacturing sunblock cream, ink, photocopier toners and welding, are exposed to even more of them. In undeveloped countries, they are given off by indoor cooking stoves.

Researcher Ken Donaldson says that what scientists didn't realize before was that the smallest of these particles "can get to areas that bigger particles cannot reach," such as the brain. He says, "We are already exposed to nanoparticles of different kinds. We already recognize that there is some ill- health associated with these exposures. But they may also translocate away from their point of entry into the blood or the brain. We are not sure what the consequences of this are yet...I think there could be an increased future risk for all of us, and also a higher risk for people exposed at present to nanoparticles at work, though it's impossible to say how much bigger their risk is."

Bedbugs are Back-and in the Best Places 15-Jan-2004

Bedbugs are something most people in the U.S. have heard of, although few of us who haven't traveled extensively in third world countries have ever actually experienced them. But now 28 states are reporting bedbug infestations-some of them in expensive hotels. 

Charles Laurence writes in The Telegraph that foreign travelers and immigrants are being blamed for the bugs. How do you know if you've got them? You wake up with red, itchy welts on your skin and there are blood stains dotting the sheets. 

Andy Linares, of New York's Bug-Off Pest Control Center, is getting "more calls than we can deal with...We are getting calls to five-star hotels and Fifth Avenue addresses from people who will never admit to getting mauled by bed bugs. It's getting out of hand, really out of control. Bed bugs are a medieval scourge and they spread pretty much the medieval way-they travel the trade routes just like the rats that spread the plague." 

DDT-now banned in the U.S.-got rid of them the first time around, when soldiers brought them back from World War II. Linares says, "The harsh products are banned, and we need new materials. It's a stealth situation. These things hide, breed copiously with 500 eggs to a hatch and are hard to kill." 

Well, You're in a Good Mood Today, Officer...

Jan 23, 8:20 am ET 

JERUSALEM  - Israeli police had to close an entire floor of their station because the pungent scent of tons of confiscated marijuana was making them high, an Israeli newspaper said Friday.

The drugs, smuggled from Egypt, are kept in a storeroom of a police station in the southern town of Dimona. Police have confiscated so much, that the room is filled up almost immediately after its contents are sent to be incinerated.

"Every time I came to work I felt...like I was high," the Maariv newspaper quoted one officer as saying. "The smell of marijuana was killing us -- it was impossible to work."

The newspaper said a police medical officer ordered personnel to move to another floor until the drugs could be shipped out.

Sell Yourself with 'Body Bucks' Course

Jan 23, 8:21 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - Selling yourself might be second nature for wannabe movie stars or aspiring screenwriters looking for a lucky break in California.

But now anyone can get lessons in how to, literally, sell their bodies and make big bucks.

"Body Bucks: How to Sell Your Body to Science While You're Still Alive," is the latest and wackiest course offered by the year-old online New Canoe University, based in Sausalito, just north of San Francisco.

"By selling bodily fluids and participating in medical experiments, a human being can earn $20,000 or more per year," said course instructor Bob Heyman on Thursday. "This is literally the only business out there where you can always carry your assets with you and they're renewable to boot."

Using Internet-based learning modules with titles like "Bleeding for Bucks," the course teaches students how to make money by legally selling their blood, sperm, eggs, hair and bone marrow, and by taking part in paid medical trials and research. The sale of vital organs is illegal in the United States.

New Canoe University (http://www.newcanoeu.com) expects the Body Bucks course to appeal mostly to the college-age crowd, or young people with more time on their hands than money.

The university specializes in Internet-based training courses in practical skills needed to set up unusual small or home-based businesses. Other upcoming course include "How to Become a Mystery Shopper" and "How to Become a Private Investigator."

Refiner Made Gold Tools for Drug Lords

Jan 23, 8:24 am ET 

NEW YORK  - The owner of a long-established Manhattan gold refining business pleaded guilty on Thursday to a scheme in which he molded gold into tools and screws for Colombian drug lords in order to launder cash from illegal narcotics sales.

Jamie Ross, owner of Ross Refiners, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to money laundering and failing to file currency transaction reports for large business cash deals. He faces a possible maximum prison term of 50 years and a fine of $1.5 million.

Under his plea deal, Ross also agreed to forfeit more than $100,000, representing the amount of money he helped launder in gold sales.

Ross had been among a group of defendants arrested in Manhattan's Diamond District during a June sting operation by federal authorities. Prosecutors said the men had accepted cash generated by drug sales and in exchange, molded metal and painted it to look like common items that could get past customs inspectors.

Informants had told authorities that when such items arrived in Colombia, they were sold to gold refiners for Colombian pesos, which were delivered to narcotic traffickers.

Among items recovered by federal authorities in New York was a working solid gold wrench, which was painted red and gray, worth about $10,000. Other items included pellets inside bottles of shampoo, light switch plates and even a fashionable belt, made up of thin gold bars, that had been painted silver.

Woman Headed for Exorcist with Son in Suitcase?

Jan 23, 8:28 am ET 

BERLIN  - German police have arrested a Croatian woman who was traveling with her two-year-old son shut up in a suitcase on the way to an exorcist, authorities said on Thursday.

Police in the Bavarian capital Munich said they arrested the 24-year-old mother at a bus stop after a passenger heard noises coming from her suitcase and discovered the almost naked toddler huddled up inside.

"It was almost freezing that day, but the boy was only wearing a nappy. He was shivering quite badly but unharmed," said a police spokesman.

The woman told police her son was "possessed by the devil" and that she wanted to bring him to an occult priest, the spokesman added. She is now in psychiatric care.

Gunmen Steal $14,000 Worth of Gum

Jan 23, 8:33 am ET 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa  - South African gunmen staged a daring heist to steal some $14,000 worth of "Chappies" chewing gum, police said Thursday.

"We don't know if they were targeting the Chappies specifically or whether they came across the Chappies by chance," police spokesman Thobile Xakeka said.

Xakeka said the gang of six gunmen raided a warehouse in Wadeville, near Johannesburg, Wednesday and used masking tape to tie up, blindfold and gag security guards.

When the guards managed to free themselves, 21 pallets of Chappies worth an estimated $14,000 were gone.

Xakeka said police did not know if there were other items in the warehouse at the time, and were stumped for a motive behind the chewing gum robbery.

"We wouldn't understand the thinking of criminals," he said.

Satanic Cult Probed in Monster of Florence Murders

Jan 25, 9:00 am ET 

FLORENCE, Italy  - Almost 20 years after the last murder blamed on the "Monster of Florence," investigators have reopened the case because they suspect a Satanic cult ordered the killings and kept body parts as prizes.

"The refrigerator of horror," was Friday's headline in Il Messaggero newspaper, referring to new witness reports of female genitalia and body parts in the fridge of a plush Tuscan villa.

The villa was rented by a doctor, thought to have drowned in a Tuscan lake in 1985. But when authorities recently discovered he was a suspected Satanist and had actually been murdered, they reopened their files, a judicial source told The News Source.

Investigators now suspect the doctor was part of a clan that ordered the "Monster" to kill eight couples.

The victims were shot during romantic trysts in the picturesque Tuscan countryside between 1968 and 1985 and many suffered gruesome sexual mutilations.

A farm labourer of below-average intelligence was initially convicted in 1994 for the murders, in a sensational mystery which caught the attention of the author of "Silence of the Lambs."

The labourer, Pietro Pacciani, was acquitted in an appeals court in 1996 but was ordered to stand retrial. He died in 1998 at the age of 73 before the retrial could get underway, but two men were convicted of aiding him in the 1990s.

Prosecutors now think there were two tiers to the killings, and this week began a new probe into Tuscan higher society.

"The eight double homicides were carried out according to a criminal plan on two levels," the source said, citing the search warrant issued by prosecutors.

"The execution was entrusted to (Pacciani and his friends) but a group of people who celebrated rituals and black magic put the arms in their hands," the warrant said.

Authorities have now formally placed a 60-year-old pharmacist under investigation, with police seizing pornographic videos and books from his home.

A respected Florentine dermatologist, a businessman and a lawyer are also now being questioned, the source said.

The reopening of a case that shocked and mesmerized Italy for decades has shattered the peace of Chianti's rolling hills.

Thomas Harris, the American author of best-selling serial killer novel "Silence of the Lambs" with its cannibalistic character Hannibal Lecter, was fascinated by the case and attended the initial trial to "work and gather data."

Cocaine Found in Tropical Fish Cargo

Jan 26, 9:43 am ET 

MIAMI  - U.S. customs officials seized $300,000 worth of liquid cocaine disguised as water in a shipment of live tropical fish from Colombia.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service said on Friday that 41.7 pounds of cocaine was packaged in plastic bags used to ship the fresh water decorative fish to Miami.

"This appears to be a new trend in smuggling, using an old method which officers have not seen in many years," said the agency, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The fish were packed in bags with three linings. The inner lining, containing the fish, was filled with water but the middle lining held a yellowish liquid that triggered the interest of a drug dog called "Rocky."

In all, six bags in a shipment of the fish sent by cargo plane from Bogota tested positive for cocaine.

Death Flights 23-Jan-2004

There have been mysterious deaths on two British flights from Miami to England, on two consecutive days. 

Wired.com reports that A 19-year-old British woman died Monday while flying on a Virgin Atlantic plane from Miami to Heathrow Airport. The day before, two passengers on a British Airways flight from Miami to Heathrow died. One of them may have had viral meningitis. 

On Monday, the Virgin Atlantic passenger died shortly before landing. The crew tried to revive her and a doctor came forward to help, but the woman was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause of death is unknown. 

On Sunday, a woman flying on British Airways from Miami to Heathrow became ill, and the aircraft was diverted to Nova Scotia so she could receive emergency treatment, but she died anyway. It's not clear if she died on the plane or in the hospital. A man on the same plane became ill after the flight took off again and he died shortly before arriving at Heathrow. It's thought he died of viral meningitis and the woman may have had a heart attack, so the two deaths may not be related. 

Viral meningitis causes inflammation of the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord and is only contagious in very close contact. It can be caused by a virus, bacteria or fungus, and is usually only fatal in people with weak immune systems. 

1931 
Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients. 
1932 
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.
1935 
The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-stricken black populations. 
1940 
Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust. 
1942 
Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty. 
1943 
In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD. 
1944 
U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite. 
1945 
Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States. 
1945 
"Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs. 
1946 
Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word "experiments" to "investigations" or "observations" whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.
1947 
Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Comission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects. 
1947 
The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge. 
1950 
Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates. 
1950 
In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Franciso. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms. 
1951 
Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed. 
1953 
U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents. 
1953 
Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii. 
1953 
CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings. 
1955 
The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl. 
1955 
Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958. 
1956 
U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects. 
1958 
LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence. 
1960 
The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT. 
1965 
CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs. 
1965 
Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along. 
1966 
CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals. 
1966 
U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop light bulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates. 
1967 
CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons. 
1968 
CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C. 
1969 
Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists. 
1970 
Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses. 
1970 
United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA. 
1975 
The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus). 
1977 
Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. 
1978 
Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men. 
1981 
First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine. 
1985 
According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship. 
1986 
According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists. 
1986 
A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines. 
1987 
Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation. 
1990 
More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental. 
1994 
With a technique called "gene tracking," Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made. 
1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War.
1995 
U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.
1995 
Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.
1996 
Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.
1997 
Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bioweapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.

Court OKs Roadblocks to Hunt Criminals 

41 minutes ago

By GINA HOLLAND, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court gave police leeway Tuesday to use random roadblocks to track down criminals. 

Justices said in the 6-3 ruling that police checkpoint stops, when used to seek information about recent crimes, do not violate the privacy rights of other motorists.

The court overturned a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court, which had ruled that it was not an emergency in 1997 when officers stopped cars at an intersection outside Chicago to pass out leaflets seeking information about a fatal hit-and-run. 

Justice Stephen Breyer (news - web sites) said that "police appropriately tailored their checkpoint stops to fit important criminal investigatory needs." 

Three justices, however, expressed concerns that the ruling could open up motorists to police interference without yielding information about crimes. 

Justice John Paul Stevens (news - web sites), joined by Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (news - web sites), disagreed with part of Breyer's ruling. 

"There is a valid and important distinction" between seizing a person to determine whether he or she has committed a crime and seizing a person to ask whether that person "has any information about an unknown person who committed a crime a week earlier," Stevens wrote. 

The case was a follow-up to a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that roadblocks intended for drug searches are an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the Constitution. 

Breyer said that in this case, authorities were investigating a specific crime - and one that resulted in a death. 

The Illinois checkpoints had been challenged by Robert Lidster, who was arrested and convicted of drunken driving after being stopped at a roadblock. The roadblock had been set up at the same spot and time of day that the hit-and-run took place, in hopes of getting tips. Authorities said that Lidster nearly hit an officer at the scene. 

The ruling is a victory for Illinois and 14 other states which had asked the court to use the case to clarify how far police could go to seek information about crimes. 

Breyer said that short stops, "a very few minutes at most" are not too intrusive on motorists. Police may hand out a flyer, or ask drivers to volunteer information about crimes, he said. 

In the partial dissent, Stevens said that motorists will be trapped by the checkpoints. 

"In contrast to pedestrians, who are free to keep walking when they encounter police officers handing out flyers or seeking information, motorists who confront a roadblock are required to stop, and to remain stopped for as long as the officers choose to detain them," he wrote. 

The delays "may seem relatively innocuous to some, but annoying to others ... still other drivers may find an unpublicized roadblock at midnight on a Saturday somewhat alarming."

The three dissenting justices said the case should have been sent back to Illinois courts for more consideration. 

The case is Illinois v. Lidster, 02-1060. 

Crazy Plans for Global Warming 12-Jan-2004

The debate about whether or not the Earth is heating up is over, and scientists are now figuring out what changes will need to be made in the future, due to global warming. Researchers say, "Many of these possible options are highly speculative at present, and some may even appear to be crazy." 

Alex Kirby reports in bbcnews.com on a U.K. conference where engineers discussed possible global warming solutions. One is to "sequester" (store) carbon dioxide on the floor of the oceans. The only problem with this is that an earthquake could release all the stored carbon at one time, causing an environmental catastrophe. Great quantities of methane released from the ocean floor in the past, for unknown reason, caused a major extinction in the past. 

Another is to figure out how to clean soot and pollutants off glaciers and other ice covered surfaces, so that they reflect heat back up into the atmosphere, rather than absorb it. This will also slow down glacier melt. Europe will cool down significantly if melting glaciers dilute the ocean with freshwater, causing the gulf stream to no longer flow north. This problem can be solved if glacier melt can somehow be slowed down or if ocean currents can be stabilized. One drastic way to control ocean currents would be to cut a giant canal through Central America. 

All the researchers agreed that reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by around 50%, which may be needed to avoid excessive climate change, will be very difficult, and could require even larger cuts by developed countries. Developing countries rely more heavily on higher emissions vehicles and power plants and don't have the money to switch to new, cleaner technology. And these aren't all small nations, either: one of them is China, which has so many people that it can alter the weather all by itself. 

Researcher John Schellnhuber says, "...We must think about unconventional strategies...because a back-of-envelope calculation shows we're unlikely to do the job without them. We may have missed the best time to intervene to protect the climate. Kyoto will reduce global warming by less than a tenth of a degree anyway. If it can be rescued, by then it may mean we've lost another 10 years and are simply running out of time." 

Were Some of our Greatest Scientists Autistic? 12-Jan-2004

Author Michael Fitzgerald says that Socrates, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein may have had a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. Artists and writers such as Andy Warhol, Lewis Carroll and the poet W.B. Yeats may have had it as well. 

Fitzgerald says, "Asperger's syndrome provides a plus-it makes people more creative. People with it are generally hyper-focused, very persistent workaholics who tend to see things from detail to global rather than looking at the bigger picture first and then working backwards, as most people do. Yeats for example, had problems with reading and writing and did very poorly at school. He failed to get into Trinity College and was described by his teachers as 'pedestrian and demoralized.' His parents were told he would never amount to anything. This is typical of people with the condition. They don't fit in, are odd and eccentric and relate poorly with others. Most are bullied at school, as Yeats was...It proves that we should accept eccentrics and be tolerant of them. The nation is pushed forward by engineers, mathematicians and scientists." 

Autism could resemble genetic conditions where having only one gene for a disease is helpful. For instance, having a single gene for Sickle Cell Anemia doesn't produce the disease, but does make a person resistant to malaria. Asperger's, a less severe form of autism, may allow for extreme creativity, while sacrificing social skills. 

Fitzgerald is the author of "In Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability?" 

Chimps Bad as Humans 12-Jan-2004

Crime is often attributed solely to humans, but it turns out our close relatives the chimps are capable of horrible deeds as well. In the past 7 years, at least eight children in Uganda and Tanzania have been snatched and eaten by chimpanzees and another eight have been injured. The children were found with body parts chewed off. 

Primate experts blame deforestation and human encroachment on the chimpanzees' habitat for the aggressive behavior, but they don't know if they're defending their territory or looking for something to eat. Chimps were believed to be vegetarians until researcher Jane Goodall discovered they often hunt smaller primates in packs. 

Chimps have also been guilty of rape, wife-beating, murder and infanticide. However, there haven't been any attacks on human children until recently. 

Biologist Michael Gavin is investigating the attacks. In one of the most recent incidents, three-month-old Jackson Alikiriza was snatched from his mother's arms. His mother says, "[The chimp] grabbed my leg and I fell. Then it took my baby." By the time arrived, the baby's nose and upper lip had been eaten away. He died a week later. 

Gavin says, "In most cases they bite off the limbs first before disemboweling them, just as they would the red colobus monkey which is one of their favorite prey...They are just trying to get by. If they can't get enough food in the forest they are going to wander out in search of what's available." 

Primatologist Frans de Waal disagrees. He says, "I am not sure these cases have much to do with territoriality. I think they rather have to do with predation. Chimpanzees hunt and eat monkeys. It is especially the males which hunt. I don't think chimps mistake a human baby for a monkey. They're far too smart for such a mistake." 

SARS Returns in More Dangerous Strain 08-Jan-2004

Two new cases of SARS in China brings back fears that the epidemic may return. China is destroying large numbers of civet cats, the carriers of the disease, but the man who has just recovered from SARS says he's never eaten the animal. A second suspected case is a 20-year-old waitress who worked in a restaurant serving wild game. Researcher Zhong Nanshan says the new SARS strain is more "human-like," making it even more infectious than the strain that caused the previous outbreak. 

The 32-year-old male patient is a TV journalist from Guangdong province, where the epidemic broke out before, but he had a strain of the virus that is "different from the animal or human SARS coronaviruses found last year," according to researcher Yuen Kwok-yung. But he says the virus is "of the same lineage" as those found recently in civet cats from the area, which are considered a gourmet food. The Xinhua news agency says, "The provincial government of Guangdong ordered the immediate shutdown of local wild animal markets and the killing of all civet cats before January 10 in an urgent measure to contain a possible outbreak of SARS." 

Although the patient did not eat civet, he says he did recently throw a mouse out of the window of his apartment, and SARS was carried throughout an apartment complex by rats last year in Hong Kong, causing the entire building to be quarantined. 

Is it Dangerous to Live Near Nuclear Plants? 07-Jan-2004

A new study shows that the parts of the U.S. that are 40 miles or less from nuclear power plants have higher levels of radioactive strontium-90 than other areas. Strontium-90 collects in bones and tissues and increases the risk of cancer and leukemia. 

Gary Stoller writes in USA Today that the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) compared over 2,000 baby teeth from areas near two nuclear plants in Florida and plants in California, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with baby teeth from other places in the same states and found higher strontium-90 levels in the teeth of people living near nuclear plants. 

The EPA says everyone is exposed to small amounts of strontium-90, because it was widely dispersed by above- ground nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s. It was also released into the environment by French and Chinese nuclear tests between 1970 and 1980 and by the Chernobyl accident in 1986. 

The RPHP says they were surprised to find that strontium-90 levels are steadily rising, after decades of decline. Baby teeth of children born in 1994 to 1997 had a 50% higher strontium- 90 concentration than those from children born in 1986 to 1989. But strontium-90 levels should be dropping because above-ground atomic bomb tests were stopped decades ago, and even underground testing stopped 12 years ago. The reprocessing of nuclear fuels stopped in the late 1970s. Their study says, "The only other source of strontium-90 that can explain this steady and dramatic rise in the 1990s is emissions from nuclear power reactors." 

Mystery Boom Heard in San Diego 07-Jan-2004

At 4:20 PM on January 6, numerous residents of the San Diego area reported a mysterious boom in the region. The sound was comparable to a sonic boom, but was of unknown origin. Military authorities claimed that they had no aircraft in the area flying at supersonic speeds at the time. 

Similar booms were heard in north of this area in the 1992- 1993 period that were so persistent that they resulted in questions being asked in congress. Although the Air Force denied any involvement at that time, it was generally believed that the booms were associated with testing of the secret Aurora aircraft out of Edwards Air Force Base. 

Witnesses all report that, unlike military craft, UFOs are silent, despite the fact that they have bright lights and make attention-getting maneuvers. Are they trying to hide, or to attract our attention-exactly what is their agenda?

Buried in Space 06-Jan-2004

There are plenty of people who dislike the 
traditional idea of being buried in a graveyard. They usually opt for cremation, and ask 
that their ashes be scattered in a particular place. Now they can be sent into space. 
And you can now send final emails to your friends after you're dead. 

In 1997, Celestis launched Timothy Leary's ashes 
into space and in April, they are sending the remains of 150 others into space on 
the Russian Kosmos 1 satellite. The containers will orbit the Earth for 
approximately 156 years, then re-enter the atmosphere, burning up along the way. This costs 
between $1,000 and $5,000, depending on the amount of ashes contained in the 
capsule. 

For about $12,000, you can be buried on the moon. Celestis 
will send capsules of ashes there on an upcoming lunar mission. 

Fay Chandler and her husband both wanted to travel to the 
moon while he was alive, but she says, "We have to wait until I die and then we'll both go to the moon. I 
was comforted by this thought during the last terrible months of his illness." 

And there's now a service that will deliver final e-mail 
messages to your friends and relatives once you've passed on. In wired.com, Amit Asaravala quotes Karen 
Peach of LifeTouch as saying, "It's a way to ensure that you get the chance to say your final goodbyes." 
But you never know when your time will come, which is why a subscription costs only $10 for three 
years. www.mylastemail.com

Are We Fat Because Food is Too Cheap? 08-Jan-2004

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says people in the U.S. are fat because our food is too cheap-despite the fact that poorer people tend to be the most obese. But although manufacturers are producing plenty of unhealthy things to eat, they're also making "feel good foods." 

Not all food is cheap-just unhealthy food. Nutritionist Adam Drewnowski says, "It's a question of money. The reason healthier diets are beyond the reach of many people is that such diets cost more. On a per calorie basis, diets composed of whole grains, fish, and fresh vegetables and fruit are far more expensive than refined grains, added sugars and added fats. It's not a question of being sensible or silly when it comes to food choices, it's about being limited to those foods that you can afford." Many of these foods are inexpensive because they're based on corn, which is heavily subsidized by the government, so it can be sold cheaply. Beef is fed corn, and corn is turned into high-fructose syrup that sweetens soft drinks. 

Inexpensive foods include French fries, soft drinks, candy, cookies, hamburgers and deep-fried meats. These are called "energy dense" foods because they have a lot of calories per bite. Studies have shown that these foods, which are not found in nature, interfere with our body's signals that we've eaten enough, which is why we tend to eat too much of them. 

"It is the opposite of choice," Drewnowski says. "People are not poor by choice and they become obese primarily because they are poor...Genetics and family history can predict whether you will become obese-but then so can your ZIP code. If poverty and obesity are truly linked, it will be a major challenge to stay poor and thin." 

But you can't say food manufacturers don't care about their customers' health: Some of them are producing "feel good foods" by adding vitamins and other ingredients that improve people's moods and help them sleep. One of these items is ice cream and milk with extra melatonin, to help combat jet lag and insomnia. Another kind of ice cream contains essence of orchid, to make "your spirits fly." 

Red Kite Farms in the U.K. says the amount of melatonin in cows' milk depends on the breed, age and stage of lactation in the herd. They found they could maximize the melatonin by milking cows at dawn, after they've had a good night's sleep. 

Singles Changing the Climate 05-Jan-2004

The growing number of small and single-person households is creating huge climate problems. Researcher Jan Kooijman says this is because each household needs many essential items that would otherwise be shared. These range from disposable items, like toothpaste, to larger items, like TVs and furniture. The production of each item releases greenhouse gases into the air. 

We mean well, but many of the things we try to do right don't have much effect on the climate. Kooijman says that while recycling helps, using water wisely, walking, taking public transportation instead of driving, and turning off electricity are all much more important. For instance, if you use your car to take empty bottles and cans back to the grocery store for recycling, you've wasted more energy than you've saved. Permanently lowering the room temperature two degrees saves as much energy as most people use in the form of bottles, cans and papers for an entire year. Switching from a SUV to a sedan can save as much energy as 400 years of bottle recycling. 

However, it should be noted that the study was financed by the packaging industry. 

Our Polluted Bodies 02-Jan-2004

Scientists have long tested the air, earth and water for pollutants-now they're testing human bodies. They've discovered that no matter how healthy a life you try to live, you can't help the fact that your body is filled with pesticides, flame retardants and other toxic chemicals. 

Paul Elias writes in the Sacramento Bee that scientists are sampling urine, blood and mother's milk to determine which pollutants are accumulating in our bodies. They've found that even chemicals that have been banned for years, such as PCB and DDT, still remain in our body tissues. California researchers have discovered that women in the San Francisco area have three to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European or Japanese women. Indiana researchers discovered that these levels in women and infants living in Indiana and California are 20 times higher than those in Sweden and Norway, where flame retardants were recently banned. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested 2,500 volunteers for 116 pollutants and found chemicals such as mercury, uranium and cotinine, a chemical from nicotine, in their bodies. They found that Mexican-American children have three times the amount of a chemical derived from DDT, probably because Mexico and Latin America are still using it. 

Before scientists can test for a particular chemical, they have to suspect that it may be lurking in our bodies. There are probably many pollutants in our bodies that have not yet been discovered. 

Our Moving Magnetic Field 02-Jan-2004

The Earth's magnetic field moves around. Right now, the north magnetic pole is in Canada, near Resort Bay (population 300), where you can buy a tee shirt saying, "Resolute Bay isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from here." Soon it will leave North America and head for Siberia. And lately, it's started moving much faster. 

In 1831, James Ross located magnetic north. When Roald Amundsen returned to the same spot in 1904, he found it had moved 30 miles. Once scientists found that the pole moved about 6 miles per year, but lately it has accelerated to around 25 miles per year. Researcher Larry Newitt says, "We usually go out and check its location once every few years. We'll have to make more trips now that it is moving so quickly." 

The entire magnetic field of the Earth has gotten about 10% weaker in the last 100 years, as the Earth's poles are probably getting ready to flip. This reversal happens about every 300,000 years, so we're overdue for another-the last one occurred 780,000 years ago. 

However, "We can have periods without reversals for many millions of years, and we can have four or five reversals within one million years," says researcher Yves Gallet. Reversals take a few thousand years to complete, and during the changeover, the magnetic field does not disappear, but it does get much weaker. "It just gets more complicated," says researcher Gary Glatzmaier. Magnetic poles pop up in odd places and Northern Lights can be seen in unusual areas. During the recent solar storms, Northern Lights were seen in 49 of the 50 U.S. states. 

Since pole reversals take place gradually, birds, which use the magnetic field for migration, will probably have time to get used to the change. "They'd go through many generations in the period in which the field was entering the phase of reversal," says physicist Jeremy Bloxham. "Presumably they would learn new behavior patterns to accommodate it." 

Firm in Pepsi Deal Used to Make Fake Cola

Jan 13, 9:17 am ET 

BAGHDAD  - An Iraqi company that has been selling fake Pepsi for the past 14 years will start manufacturing the genuine soft drink within a few months, its director says.

Sitting in his office at the bottling factory of the Baghdad Soft Drinks Company, Hamid Jassim looked well pleased with his visit to the U.S. headquarters of PepsiCo last week.

In a deal announced Wednesday, Jassim's company was awarded a five-year license as the sole distributor of Pepsi soft drinks in the central region of Iraq. He refused to give financial details but said they had agreed upon a "multimillion-dollar" sum.

"Our market is very promising and it could be one of the best in the world," Jassim said Monday. "The weather gets very hot here, but Iraqis don't drink juices -- they prefer soft drinks."

Baghdad Soft Drinks Co. had been bottling Pepsi for several years when the U.S. firm pulled out of Iraq in 1990 with the Gulf War looming. Since then, the company has been bottling and distributing non-brand cola in Pepsi bottles imported from countries such as Turkey and Iran.

During years when U.N. sanctions were in force, the company shipped in cola concentrate from Europe and distributed a bootleg version of the global brand drink. 

White Socks Declared Indecent

Jan 13, 9:12 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - White socks have been declared indecent by the Dutch Finance Ministry.

A ministry official on Tuesday confirmed a recent internal publication that proclaimed white sports socks "transgress the limits of decent dress behavior" for ministry employees.

The officials were also expected to wear dark blue or gray suits in order to convey "reliability and professionalism."

"People are expected to dress in accordance with their function," said a spokeswoman, stressing there were no strict controls. 

Coffee-Flavored Steak??

Jan 13, 9:11 am ET 

SEATTLE  - The city that spawned America's obsession with strong, dark coffee is giving locals a popular new coffee-flavored steak, even while the mad cow scare that started in Washington state is putting some people off beef.

Rippe's, a local waterfront steak and seafood restaurant, began serving filet mignon steaks dusted with Starbucks Corp.'s dark espresso blend a few weeks ago and now has a runaway hit on its hands.

"The first night we tried it, about a third of the menu sold was the steak," said Chad MacKay, whose family runs several steak joints in the Seattle area.

MacKay said that the $29 steak, now dubbed the Seattle Signature Steak, was the brainchild of a waiter and a chef.

Despite being rubbed with coffee grinds before grilling, the 12-ounce steak, although a bit crunchy, carries only a subtle whiff of coffee flavoring.

Seattle and the rest of the state were jolted by the news four weeks ago that a cow in the central Washington town of Mabton had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease. 

Some see fluorescent fish as neon signs of trouble

Mon Jan 12,11:12 AM ET

 - Chicago Tribune 

By John Keilman, Tribune staff reporter 

Past the shark lagoon and piranha tanks at a Park Ridge pet store dart tiny fish that some consider far more alarming.

The glowing red and green swimmers at the Living Sea Aquarium represent the vanguard in the brave new world of genetically engineered pets being sold across the United States. Marketed under such names as "Night Light Fish" and selling for up to $30 apiece, they gleam like inch-long neon signs, thanks to DNA transferred from sea coral and jellyfish.

The fish have existed for years and have been deemed safe by numerous scientists and government agencies. But their recent introduction to the American public--and the lack of regulations covering them--makes some people worry what other manmade critters might follow.

"Not to make a pun, but I think it's shedding a light on serious regulatory and safety issues that are not getting much attention," said Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "This is going to be a very important issue. The fish is just the first wave on the beach."

The species that has jump-started the debate over genetically altered pets is the GloFish. Yorktown Technologies, an Austin, Texas-based company, has sold it for a month and rolled it out nationally last week at a suggested price of $5 per fish.

The GloFish's red glimmer comes from a coral gene that was added to the embryo of a normal zebra fish, said Alan Blake, Yorktown's chief executive officer. Scientists in Singapore came up with the idea to monitor water quality, trying to get the fish to glow in the presence of toxins.

Yorktown got the right to sell the fish in the U.S., but consulted with scientists and federal agencies for two years before offering it to hobbyists, Blake said.

FDA (news - web sites) passes on fish

Food and Drug Administration officials said they didn't need to regulate the fish because people would not eat them, and because there was no evidence of an environmental threat. Scientists who reviewed research for California's Fish and Game Commission said the fish, if released into the wild, was unlikely to survive in the state's relatively cold waters.

Despite those findings, the commission last month still refused to exempt the GloFish from California's ban on genetically engineered aquatic creatures, imposed in May. Commissioner Sam Schuchat wrote that "creating a novelty pet is a frivolous use of this technology. No matter how low the risk is, there needs to be a public benefit that is higher than this."

Blake responded that GloFish were a byproduct of serious research, and that some of the proceeds would fund further studies, though a company spokesman declined to say how much.

"We absolutely recognize that genetic technology carries with it incredible potential and incredible responsibility," Blake said. "We take that responsibility very seriously."

The potential environmental effects of the other genetically engineered fish available in the U.S.--a rice fish whose implanted jellyfish DNA causes it to glow green--have proven worrisome elsewhere in the world. The Japanese government last year raised concerns that it could disrupt native species.

Fish may be the first genetically altered creatures to reach the marketplace, but others may not be far behind. A New York company is trying to use gene splicing to create a cat that does not inflame allergies.

The cloning expert doing the research, Dr. Jerry Yang of the University of Connecticut, said funding problems have slowed the work but that initial results are promising. He's been able to create embryos that are missing the allergen gene.

He said his project was different from the glowing fish because allergen-free cats can occasionally be found in nature.

"We don't think we're creating anything new," he said. "We're creating existing animals."

Though Yang said his work is reviewed by university panels and animal welfare inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites), critics say the government is not paying enough attention to genetically engineered pets.

No single federal agency regulates transgenic animals, though USDA officials say they are evaluating whether they should play a role. Craig Culp of the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that works to curb technologies it says are harmful to health, worries that indifference could allow some altered species to get loose, wreaking havoc on the environment and food supply.

"We're buying a fish that's been genetically engineered for our amusement and putting it into our kids' bedrooms without thinking of the ethical dimensions," he said. "It staggers the mind to think of what could come down the pike."

States concerned

Such concerns prompted California to restrict transgenic aquatic animals to research use, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has three bills on her desk that would allow the state to outlaw certain genetically engineered creatures.

"The GloFish is not our issue, but this technology could conceivably create species that would threaten our native fish stock," said spokesman Brad Wurfel of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is not considering a similar step, officials said.

Some scientists fear that a public furor over transgenic pets could harm more serious inquiries. "There is the potential of the public not seeing the full application of genetic research," said Richard Winn, a University of Georgia professor who uses genetically engineered fish to examine the effects of pesticides and other chemicals. "If it seems trivial or unnecessary or a Frankenfish, it makes people turn off or be afraid of it."

The GloFish has been selling briskly around the country, according to Yorktown Technologies. Sales of luminous fish have been good but not overwhelming at the Living Sea Aquarium, where a tank aglow with blue light accentuates their blazing color.

"I see it as a popular color variation, but I don't see it dominating," said manager Daryl Szyska. "There are so many species, why would you limit yourself to one?"

Dieters Seek Alternatives to Ephedra

1 hour, 2 minutes ago

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Medical Writer 

WASHINGTON - People who think ephedra helped them lose weight are looking to new ingredients with names like guarana, bitter orange and green tea extract to replace the soon-to-be-banned dietary supplement. 

In  Chronic Heartburn
Need Relief? 
------------------------------------------------------------------------ More from : � Check Your Symptoms

� How Is It Diagnosed?

� Available Treatments 

There's little proof yet that ephedra alternatives actually burn pounds, and scientists warn that some come with health considerations of their own - including an ephedra mimic that might interact dangerously with medicines the dieter also swallows. 

"There are a number of, quote-unquote, `ephedra substitutes' on the market now where even less is known about potential side effects," Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) Commissioner Mark McClellan cautioned in an interview last week. 

The FDA will pull ephedra off the market soon and wants consumers to stop immediately using the herbal stimulant, which is linked to 155 deaths and dozens more heart attacks and strokes. 

Many consumers are ignoring that advice. There has been a run on remaining ephedra supplements since FDA's warning two weeks ago, even though studies show ephedra helps people lose only a few pounds more than dieting alone. 

Still, as January ushers in postholiday diets, Americans are turning to the burgeoning ephedra-free market, too. Topping the lists of new ingredients are caffeine-containing supplements, some that deliver the buzz of at least three cups of coffee in one dose. Not all mention caffeine on the label; consumers may have to learn herbal aliases such as guarana and green tea to ensure they don't get caffeine jitters by taking multiple supplements. 

The ingredient drawing the most attention is bitter orange, which McClellan says the FDA is monitoring closely because it contains synephrine, a stimulant chemically similar to ephedra. 

Also called citrus aurantium, the peel of this very sour "Seville orange" is found in some foods like orange marmalade. 

"It's not as potent as ephedra unless you take it in much higher doses," says Mark Blumenthal of the American Botanical Council. 

But some scientists note that synephrine can increase blood pressure and constrict blood vessels, as ephedra does, and question whether using it with caffeine could worsen those effects the way taking ephedra with caffeine does. 

"There's not really a reason to think citrus aurantium will be safer," says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of Georgetown University, an expert on herbal supplements. 

More worrisome, she says, is that bitter orange could interact dangerously with prescription or over-the-counter drugs. 

Why? It's related to a longtime warning against taking medications with grapefruit juice. Grapefruit contains a natural chemical that inhibits one of the body's drug-metabolism routes so that some medicines build up to dangerous levels, and bitter orange contains even more of that drug-boosting substance, says Fugh-Berman. 

Studies to date show bitter orange inhibits metabolism of at least two drugs, the popular over-the-counter cough medicine dextromethorphan and the prescription blood-pressure drug Plendil. 

As for shedding pounds, there's no evidence in people yet that it works. 

Other ephedra alternatives: 

_Green tea extract. Green tea typically contains less caffeine per cup than coffee, plus many antioxidant vitamins. 

Caffeine itself can be a mild appetite suppressant, and proponents say there may be other substances in green tea that could slightly speed calorie burning. There's no evidence yet that green tea causes weight loss, but Fugh-Berman calls the possibility interesting and says the substance probably is harmless. 

_Guarana, used in a popular Brazilian (news - web sites) soft drink, contains two to three times as much caffeine as coffee, Blumenthal says. Other caffeine-containing supplements are kola and mate. 

_Garcinia, also called hydroxycitric acid. A Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites) research review found no good evidence of weight loss. 

_"Starch-blocking" pills promise to help starchy foods pass through the body with less calorie absorption. Most are made with kidney-bean extracts not thought to be harmful. Supplement giant Metabolife International cites a small study that found users dropped slightly more weight than regular dieters, but the research has not been published. 

Old-fashioned fiber works on the same principle and can fill people up so they eat less, notes Fugh-Berman. But she says it's impossible to get as much fiber in a pill as from a glass of Metamucil, made with the soluble fiber psyllium. 

_Bladderwrack, an herb that contains a lot of iodine, which could cause or worsen thyroid disease, notes a recent supplement review by University of Montana pharmacists. Germany, which strictly regulates herbal medicines, lists bladderwrack as unapproved, citing the health risk and lack of evidence that it burns pounds. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE - Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The News Source in Washington. 

Trojan Horse Poses As Windows XP Update

Sun Jan 11,11:00 PM ET

Add Technology - TechWeb 

Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News 

A new Swen-style Trojan horse posing as a critical update from Microsoft has been detected on the Internet, and users who open the e-mail message may find their machines loaded with a back-door Trojan that can steal passwords or be used in conjunction with other systems to conduct major denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. 

Dubbed Trojan.Xombe (as in zombie) by most security firms, the Trojan shares some characteristics of the Swen worm family in that it masquerades as a message from Microsoft and purports to carry a security update in its file attachment. However, unlike Swen--a worm which first appeared last September--Trojan.Xombe doesn't self-replicate. 

"This Trojan was spammed out to a large number of computers overnight," said Ken Dunham, the director of malicious code at iDefense, a Reston, Va.-based security intelligence firm. By using spamming strategies, attackers hope to infect hundreds, even thousands, of machines before users realize what's up, or anti-virus companies can react with updated definition files. 

The faux message, which sports a spoofed sending address of windowsupdate@microsoft.com, uses the subject line 'Windows XP (news - web sites) Service Pack 1 (Express)--Critical Update' to trick recipients into opening the attached file. 

"Window [sic] Update has determined that you are running a beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1)," the message's text reads in part. "To help improve the stability of your computer, Microsoft recommends that you remove the beta version of Windows XP SP1 and re-install Windows XP SP1." The message goes on to urge the user to run the winxp_sp1.exe file attachment to re-install SP1, and recommends that anti-virus software be disabled, as it "may interfere with the installation." 

Lies. All lies. 

"The Trojan definitely downloads malicious code and installs it on the system," confirmed Dunham. By his analysis, Trojan.Xombe downloads a back-door IRC Trojan horse to the compromised machine. Once that's installed, attackers can access the PC undetected, add other code to the computer--such as key trackers for acquiring passwords--and use the machine to launch DoS attacks on other machines. 

Trojan.Xombe, and socially engineered attacks like it--including phishing expeditions such as the MiMail worm, another exploit that pretends to be something it isn't in the hope that people will open the file attachment--are the confirmation security professionals were looking for that 2004 will be a rough, rocky year. 

"Attackers use the social engineering trends of the moment," said Vincent Weaver, senior director of Symantec's security response center. Touting a security update is only natural for hackers, he added, what with the increased awareness of many computer users of ongoing security issues with Windows. 

Trojan.Xombe is also a good example of another trend first spotted in 2003, but certain to continue this year, said Dunham. 

"Trojans are being integrated into almost every piece of malicious code," he said. More than anything, hackers today want to amass an army of compromised machines--typically called zombies--that they can then use for other purposes. 

"A lot of people are worried about the next super worm," he said, "but that's not the real threat we'll see in 2004. The real threat is in Trojan horses. The goal of attackers is really about Trojans and remote control of other computers, for stealing passwords and targeted DoS attacks. It's not about fun and notoriety anymore. It's about money and power." 

Security firms, including Symantec, Network Associates, and Sophos, have posted alerts on their Web sites warning users of Trojan.Xombe, but disagree on the severity of the problem. Symantec, for instance, currently ranks the Trojan as a level '2' threat in its 1 through 5 rating system, while Network Associates tags Xombe with a 'low' threat assessment. 

The best defense against bogus e-mails carrying nasty payloads? "A lot of people see an e-mail and think that it's true," said Dunham. "But everything should be looked at with a degree of skepticism and concern, rather than trust." 

Symantec's Weaver also reminded users that Microsoft never delivers security updates via e-mail, and urged people to scan suspicious messages for tell-tale signs of a scam, such as misspelled words and awkward syntax, both of which are evident in the message loaded with Trojan.Xombe. 

Professor Lives Life As a Cyborg 

Sat Jan 10, 1:43 PM ET

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, News Source Technology Writer 

TORONTO - When you first meet Steve Mann, it seems as if you've interrupted him appraising diamonds or doing some sort of specialized welding. Because the first thing you notice is the plastic frame that comes around his right ear and holds a lens over his right eye. 

But quickly you see that there's more to his contraption: A tiny video camera is affixed to the plastic eyepiece. Multicolored wires wrap around the back of Mann's head. Red and white lights blink under his sweater. 

Mann greets you, warmly at first, though he soon gets distracted by something on the tiny computer monitor wedged over his eye. 

In fact, being with Mann sometimes feels like the ultimate, in-your-face version of having a dinner companion who talks on a cell phone. 

But don't be put off by it. 

Someday you, too, might be a cyborg. 

___ 

Mann, a 41-year-old engineering professor at the University of Toronto, spends hours every day viewing the world through that little monitor in front of his eye - so much so that going without the apparatus often leaves him feeling nauseous, unsteady, naked. 

While the small video camera gives him a recordable, real-time view of what's in front of him, the tiny screen is filled with messages or programming code fed by a computer and wireless transmitters that Mann straps to his body. He calls the experience "mediating reality" - sort of like having icons from your computer screen transposed onto your regular vision. 

Mann manipulates the computer through a handheld key device he invented, though he has experimented with putting electrodes on his skin and trying to control the cursor with brain waves. 

If it sounds a bit creepy, consider this: Mann became a cyborg so he could be more human. 

To be sure, that runs contrary to the sci-fi movie treatment of cyborgs (short for "cybernetic organisms") as electronic beasts, like in the "Terminator" movies. It also seems to violate a pastoral sense of what it means to be human: governed by spirit, reason and instinct, not infused with wires and silicon. 

But Mann has sensitive and perceptive motives for his electronic immersion, which began 25 years ago. He believes that wearing computers and cameras will give people more power to maintain their privacy and individuality. 

For one thing, Mann touts the power of wearable computers to filter out advertising and other elements of daily experience he finds objectionable. 

And in a world of ever-increasing surveillance cameras for security, and strong database-mining software for government intelligence and corporate marketing, Mann believes regular people ought to have cameras and powerful computers on them, too. It's all about leveling the power dynamic. 

"People feel they're masters of their own destiny when everything they need is right there with them," he says. 

A cyborg could, say, take pictures of hostile police officers during a political demonstration and instantly post them on the Web - to spur others to join in the protest, perhaps, or to simply provide alternative documentation of the scene. Mann calls such postings "glogs" - short for "cyborg blogs" ("blogs," of course, is itself shorthand for "Web logs"). 

In more everyday language, Mann advocates "using a bit of the machine against itself." 

For example, Mann has created performance art by shooting video in stores that prohibit it, using handheld cameras more noticeable than the "EyeTap" ocular computing system he normally wears. When employees tell him filming is not allowed, Mann points to the stores' own surveillance cameras behind darkened domes in the ceiling. 

Then he tells the employees that "HIS manager" makes him film public places for HIS security - how does he know, he tells them, that the fire exits aren't chained shut? - and that they'll have to talk to HIS manager. 

His behavior in such showdowns generally provokes hostility, confusion or resigned shrugs. 

But don't try telling Mann that the complaining employees are just doing their jobs, and that his real beef is with executives who make store policy. Mann believes everyone should fight The System, those powerful institutions lurking behind the one-way mirrors.

"Clerks should be confronted with their clerk-iness," Mann says one afternoon in the Deconism Gallery, an electronic-art studio he runs near Toronto's Chinatown. 

That comment is pure Steve Mann - onto something, but pedantic about it. 

"Cyberman," a 2001 Canadian documentary about his work, includes footage of Mann telling the director and producer which scenes they ought to use and which ones to cut, a conversation he surreptitiously filmed through the EyeTap. 

Yet Mann's cyborg experience is much more than a political statement or geek showboating. 

In his 2000 book "Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer," Mann wrote about the surreal beauty he experienced in programming the computer in his vision to alter colors, or alert him to objects behind him. 

"The wearable computer allows me to explore my humanity, alter my consciousness, shift my perspectives so that I can choose - any given time - to see the world in very different, often quite liberating ways," he wrote in "Cyborg." 

For example, Mann and his graduate students have developed software that can transform billboards or other rectangular shapes in the physical world - when viewed through the lens of a wearable computer - into virtual boxes for reading e-mail and other messages. 

Mann envisions future generations walking down the street and seeing virtual, personalized messages on bus stops and building walls. A friend could log onto your glog to see where you were, then fire off a quick e-mail that only you would see on the park bench: "Turn around - you went two blocks too far." 

Of course, there are more prosaic possibilities. Mann's graduate student James Fung once was wearing an EyeTap while sitting around a campfire with friends and used its wireless Internet connection to find a ghost story to tell. 

"It was a nice example of myself and the computer working together," Fung says. "You could imagine that if it were completely concealed in glasses ... people would naturally think that I was able to recall the stories myself." 

Mann builds his "WearComps" and "EyeTaps" himself, with input from his wife, Betty, who has worn the gear, too, for nearly 15 years. 

He has shrunk it dramatically over time. His first wearable system had to be carried in a heavy backpack, then it morphed into a terrible-looking beast that featured a helmet topped with rabbit-ear TV aerials. Eventually Mann developed a system that could be hidden behind sunglasses, and now uses the one-side-of-the-face wraparound. 

It can plug into a variety of computers and devices. One of his common setups involves a computer with a Pentium 4 processor, at least 512 gigabytes of memory and a specialized operating system based on Linux (news - web sites). 

Depending on where he's going, Mann carries a few different wireless transmitters so he can connect to whatever kind of network - Wi-Fi, cellular, old-fashioned radio - happens to be available. 

The system lets him check e-mail while out and about, for example, though Mann sets it to reject attachments that could clog the works. While lecturing to his classes, he can read his notes on the little monitor. 

All this began in Mann's childhood in Hamilton, Ontario, where he was a tinkering misfit who would doodle circuitry designs in class. 

He wired the family home to eavesdrop on his parents' conversations and invented a sonar raccoon detector for the backyard. He and his brother, Richard, now a computer science professor at Canada's University of Waterloo, put up sensors that would detect when a parent was coming upstairs, so the boys could pretend to be sleeping by the time their bedroom door opened. 

As a teenager, Mann worked in a television repair shop and became fascinated by the mini-TVs that served as viewfinders in consumer camcorders. He decided to link that technology with computing, and by the late 1970s, he began experimenting with wearable computers. 

He wore one to a high school dance. 

___ 

Steve Mann is not alone in dreaming of enhancing human capabilities with computer intelligence. 

Some futurists consider it inevitable. Inventor Ray Kurzweil predicts a human-computer mind meld this century that will usher "The Age of Spiritual Machines." 

Gazing into that same ethereal future, professor Kevin Warwick of Britain's University of Reading had circuitry implanted inside his arm for three months last year. 

In one aspect of the experiment, Warwick moved his hand, and the implant relayed signals through the Internet to move a robotic hand. The gestures weren't coordinated, but Warwick said the test showed the feasibility of plugging electronic devices into the nervous system. Now Warwick hopes to lay the groundwork for a brain implant that could aid people with disabilities or augment existing abilities. 

Mann believes a cyborg future is inevitable. Eventually, he says, everyone will want to be more tightly linked with computers, to enhance our memory and connections to other people. 

And in that case, Mann contends that wearing the machine will be optimal. "My computer's twisted up like a pretzel around me, instead of me all hunched over a box," he says with pride. 

Mann realizes that for mass appeal, wearable computing will have to be small - perhaps incorporated into contact lenses. That will take a big manufacturer, and indeed, Mann has advised Xybernaut Corp., a Virginia-based company that makes wearable computers - including one that fits over one eye - for field technicians, the military and the disabled. 

But that incarnation of wearable computing, says Mann, is too specialized, too limited. "What's needed is the equivalent of the personal computer, which was designed for no purpose in particular, and so it started a revolution," he says. 

But professor, could there really ever be widespread demand for your kind of device? Getting cues from a tiny machine or communicating through it is one thing, but when do you think John Q. Public would let a computer "mediate reality"? 

Mann lets that question wash over him. 

"Any prediction can turn out to be a combination of codswallop, kerfluffle and flapdoodle," he says while wearing the EyeTap at a Toronto pizza joint. "A lot of people try to predict the future, and I guess one question is, why should I listen to them?" 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.eyetap.org 

Parmalat Probe Spreads, Banks Searched

2 hours, 1 minute ago

Add Business 

By Emilio Parodi 

MILAN  - Italian authorities on Friday searched an office of Bank of America and the home of one of its former executives as their probe into Parmalat's meltdown focused on the dairy group's ties with the No. 3 U.S. bank. 

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC - news) offices in Milan were searched for nearly 10 hours by tax police, who seized documents concerning the bank's ties with Parmalat from 1997. 

The police acted on the authority of a five-page search warrant that said the bank had aided Parmalat despite knowledge of its precarious finances, a judicial source told The News Source. 

Other investigators searched the home of the bank's former Italian corporate finance head, Luca Sala, who left in mid-2003 to become a consultant for Parmalat Finanziaria SpA (PRFI.MI). 

"From the investigations it has emerged that Bank of America employees (including Luca Sala) worked together with Parmalat representatives to support the price of the group's securities even while knowing about its grave state of crisis," according to the search warrant read over the phone to The News Source. 

No current Bank of America employees are targets of the investigation and no employees have been charged with a crime. 

"We expected a visit and are cooperating fully with their inquiry and assisting in providing all requested documents," said a Bank of America spokeswoman in London. 

Magistrates are investigating suspected fraud, market rigging and false accounting and say the hole in Parmalat's accounts could surpass 10 billion euros ($12.83 billion). No charges have been filed. 

Under Italian law targets of investigations can be arrested without being charged if they are seen as a flight risk or if there is concern they could interfere with the investigation. 

NEW TREMORS 

Sala is one of 25 people at Parmalat, its auditors and its banks who are being probed in a fraud case that has thrown a spotlight on the multinational's dealings with auditors and banks that loaned the company money and underwrote its bonds. 

Investigators say Sala was linked to a $500 million Parmalat bond placed by Bank of America, one of several foreign banks named in the case. Sala could not be reached on Friday. 

Another major institution, Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) visited Italian prosecutors earlier this week because of its role in underwriting a Parmalat bond sale last September. Sources in Germany familiar with the situation said another meeting might be called for "clarification of some points." 

Also on Friday, the former head of Parmalat's Venezuela operations Giovanni Bonici turned himself in, becoming the ninth person arrested in the probe that has also seen Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi and two outside auditors jailed. 

The scandal sent new tremors through Italy's domestic banks as Rome-based Capitalia SpA (CPTA.MI) pledged refunds to retail clients to whom it sold bonds in Parmalat and two other insolvent companies, pressuring rivals to follow suit. 

Parmalat's crisis exploded last month after Bank of America declared as false a document purporting to show Parmalat's Cayman Island's unit Bonlat Financing Corp. had some four billion euros in cash and securities with the bank. 

Authorities in Italy, the United States and Luxembourg have launched investigations into suspected crimes that Italian prosecutors say stretched back more than a decade. 

Offshore units are at the heart of the case the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) has called "one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history." 

VILIFIED 

The SEC is suing Parmalat, accusing it of fraud and misleading investors who bought $1.5 billion of its bonds. 

Tax police on Friday also searched the Milan offices of Calisto Tanzi's lawyer, Gian Paolo Zini, whose New York apartment and offices were searched last week by U.S. authorities, investigative sources said. 

A source said the investigators were also seizing the Italian accounts of some of the people being investigated. 

Capitalia's offer to spend 60 million euros refunding retail clients, who bought from it bonds in Parmalat, defaulted canned food maker Cirio Finanziaria (CBDI.MI) and retailer Giacomelli Sport SpA (GSG.MI) could ratchet up pressure on rivals. 

Italy's leading banks have been vilified by consumer groups and politicians, who say they failed to warn small investors about the risks of certain bonds. 

And with Tanzi in jail and his empire in ruins, Parma's soccer club said on Friday its board -- including Tanzi's son Stefano, a daughter and third family member -- was resigning. 

Under Parmalat's big-spending ownership, Parma became one of Italy's most successful soccer teams in recent years. The government has authorized Parmalat's new administrators to sell the club later this year. (Additional reporting by Simon Evans and Jacopo Barigazzi in Parma, Mark Thompson in Frankfurt, Alistair MacDonald in London) 

Scientists Warn on Potential Nanotech Health Risk

Thu Jan 8,11:03 AM ET

Add Science 

By Ben Hirschler 

LONDON  - British scientists called on Thursday for more research into the safety of nanoparticles, materials so small that their dimensions can be measured in atoms, following evidence they can lodge in the brain. 

Nanotechnology, which could revolutionize the healthcare, consumer goods and construction industries, has been touted by advocates as a potential multibillion dollar industry. 

Prophets of doom have painted a nightmare scenario of self-replicating robots turning the Earth into a "gray goo." 

But Ken Donaldson, Professor of Respiratory Toxicology at the University of Edinburgh, said the real risk lay in breathing in designer materials so small that they can slip through membranes inside the body. 

Research on rats has shown nanoparticles deposited in the nose can migrate to the brain and move from the lungs into the bloodstream, he told reporters. 

So far, it is unclear whether this poses any health threat to humans. But Donaldson, who will address a scientific conference next week on the potential hazards of nanotech at the Daresbury Laboratory research center in northern England, urges caution. 

"The big worry would be if a nanotechnology business designs nanoparticles that are fundamentally different from the ones we are already exposed to and seem to cope with reasonably well," he said. 

Modern humans breathe in considerable numbers of nanoparticles on a daily basis in traffic fumes and even from cooking. In some individuals they can trigger asthma or even cardiovascular problems, by setting off an inflammatory response from the body's immune system. 

The new materials being developed through nanotechnology -- which involves manipulating matter on a scale of a billionth of a meter, or about 80,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair -- might trigger more severe reactions. 

Mike Horton, professor of Medicine at University College London and co-director of the new London Center for Nanotechnology, said scientists were treating the issue "very seriously" and had learned the lessons of public disquiet over genetic engineering. 

He called for more experiments to establish how nanoparticles reached the brain and what the impact might be. But he dismissed the idea of a moratorium on nanotechnology. 

"The impact would be exactly the same as the moratorium on genetic modification in Germany which wiped out a whole area of biological science for 30 years. That would be a disaster," he said. 

NASA Rover Touches Down on Mars 

33 minutes ago

By ANDREW BRIDGES, News Source Science Writer 

PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA (news - web sites) rover plunged through the atmosphere of Mars and bounced down upon its rocky surface Saturday night, beginning a mission to roam the Red Planet in search of evidence that it was once suitable for life. 

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory let out whoops of joy and embraced one another as signals from the Spirit rover indicated it had survived the landing. 

"This is a big night for NASA - we are back!" NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe crowed at a celebratory news conference, relishing a success that came just 11 months after the agency's Feb. 1 Columbia space shuttle disaster. 

When the spacecraft stopped bouncing, the four-petaled lander that contains the rover was standing upright. That will make unfolding it easier, said Chris Jones, director of planetary flight programs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

"That is how we hoped it would land," Jones said. 

Spirit was expected to emerge from inside the flowerlike lander within its first 90 minutes on Mars, after it retracts the air bags that cushioned its landing. Spirit also should deploy its solar arrays during that time. 

It is one of two-identical six-wheeled robots expected to roam the planet for 90 days, analyzing Martian rocks and soil for clues that could reveal whether the planet was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life. 

Mission officials said the rover could start snapping pictures of Mars late Saturday night. 

"We could get part of a panorama this evening. There's nothing better," said JPL's Matthew Golombek, who helped pick the rover's landing site on Mars. 

The rover won't trundle off on its own for another nine days, however. 

The rover relied on a heat shield, parachute and rockets to slow its descent to Mars. Eight seconds before landing, a giant set of air bags inflated to cushion its bouncy landing. 

It was not immediately clear if the air bags sufficiently protected the rover, enclosed inside a four-petaled lander, from the jarring landing. 

But up until the landing everything was proceeding flawlessly, with Spirit appearing on track to make a "bull's-eye" landing within a cigar-shaped ellipse inside Gusev Crater, a Connecticut-sized indentation just south of the Martian equator, navigation team chief Louis D'Amario said. 

"This is essentially perfect navigation. We couldn't have possibly hoped to do better than this," D'Amario said. 

Previously, about two of every three attempts to land spacecraft on Mars have failed. The latest apparent failure was the British Beagle 2 lander, which has not been heard from since it was to have set down on Mars on Christmas. 

"It's an incredibly difficult place to land. Some have called it the 'death planet' for good reason," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science. 

NASA's last attempt at landing on Mars, in 1999, failed when a software glitch sent the Polar Lander crashing to the ground. Since then, the space agency has increased oversight of its missions. 

"We have done everything we know to do to ensure these missions will be a success," said Charles Elachi, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

The $820 million NASA project also includes a twin rover, Opportunity, which is set to arrive on Mars on Jan. 24. 

The camera- and instrument-laden rovers were designed to spend 90 days analyzing Martian rocks and soil for clues that could reveal whether the Red Planet was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life. 

Today, Mars is a dry and cold world. But ancient river channels and other water-carved features spied from orbit suggest that Mars may have had a more hospitable past. 

"We see these intriguing hints Mars may have been a different place long ago," said Steve Squyres, the mission's main scientist. 

The rovers were built to look for evidence that liquid water - a necessary ingredient for life - once persisted on the surface of the planet. A direct search for life on Mars is at least a decade away, NASA scientists said. 

Together, the twin robots were launched in the most intensive scientific assault on another planetary body since the Apollo missions to the moon, said Orlando Figueroa, director of NASA's Mars exploration program. 

NASA launched the 384-pound Spirit and its twin in hopes they would become the fourth and fifth U.S. spacecraft to survive landing on Mars. Twenty other spacecraft from various nations have failed. 

Scientists are taking advantage of the closest approach Mars has made to Earth in 60,000 years. NASA intends to send spacecraft to Mars at regular 26-month intervals, or each time the Earth laps the Red Planet as they both circle the sun. 

The highly anticipated Spirit landing follows another important American space mission. On Friday, a NASA spacecraft flew through the bright halo of a distant comet to scoop up less than a thimbleful of dust that could shed light on how the solar system was formed. 

___ 

On the Net: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html 

Theory: Sun Radiation Caused Extinction

Wed Jan 7, 7:06 PM ET

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

ATLANTA - The second-largest extinction in the Earth's history, the killing of two-thirds of all species, may have been caused by ultraviolet radiation from the sun after gamma rays destroyed the Earth's ozone layer. 

Astronomers are proposing that a supernova exploded within 10,000 light years of the Earth, destroying the chemistry of the atmosphere and allowing the sun's ultraviolet rays to cook fragile, unprotected life forms. 

All this happened some 440 million years ago and led to what is known as the Ordovician extinction, the second most severe of the planet's five great periods of extinction. 

"The prevailing theory for that extinction has been an ice age," said Adrian L. Melott, a University of Kansas astronomer. "We think there is very good circumstantial evidence for a gamma ray burst." 

Melott is the leader of a team, which includes some astronomers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that presented the theory Wednesday at the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society. 

Fossil records for the Ordovician extinction show an abrupt disappearance of two-thirds of all species on the planet. Those records also show that an ice age that lasted more than a half million years started during the same period. 

Melott said a gamma ray burst would explain both phenomena. 

He said a gamma ray beam striking the Earth would break up molecules in the stratosphere, causing the formation of nitrous oxide and other chemicals that would destroy the ozone layer and shroud the planet in a brown smog. 

"The sky would get brown, but there would be intense ultraviolet radiation from the sun striking the surface." he said. The radiation would be at least 50 times above normal, powerful enough to killed exposed life. 

In a second effect, the brown smog would cause the Earth to cool, triggering an ice age, Melott said. 

The extinction "could have been a one-two punch," said Bruce S. Lieberman, a paleontologist at the University of Kansas and a co-author of the theory. "Our theory builds on earlier theories" that included an ice age. 

Before the extinction, the Earth was unusually warm. Melott said climate experts have been unable to find a model that would explain the sudden onset of massive glaciers. 

"They need something to jump start the ice age," he said. "The gamma ray burst could have done it." 

Jere H. Lipps, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said gamma rays as a source of the Ordovician extinction should be regarded as only one of several theories. "It is a hypothesis that should be tested," Lipps said. 

He said the widely-accepted idea that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago started out as a "wild idea" but that it gained wide support after other research. 

Most of the life killed in the Ordovician extinction were primitive sea creatures. Those that lived at or near the surface would be greatest risk from the ultraviolet radiation. Melott the species killed lived in shallow waters or reproduced with larvae that spent part of their lives near the water surface. Animals living in deep water were not harmed. 

There were only primitive plants living on land, but they, too, would have been affected, he said. 

Melott said it is almost certain that Earth has been zapped by a gamma rays several times in its 4.5 billion year history. 

"You can expect a dangerous gamma ray burst every few hundred million years," he said. "It could happen tomorrow or it could be millions of years." 

Supernovae, the source of gamma rays, usually leave behind remnant clouds of dust, shock waves and black holes that can be detected for millions of years. Melott said there is no known evidence of such a nearby supernova, but that in 440 million years the Milky Way would have rotated almost twice and traces of the explosion could have been moved during that time. 

The Ordovician was the first of five great extinctions in history. 

The Devonian, 360 million years ago, killed 60 percent of all species; the Permian-Triassic, 250 million years ago, killed 90 percent of all life; the late Triassic, 220 million years ago, killed half of all species; and the Cretacious-Tertiary event destroyed the dinosaurs and half of all other species about 65 million years ago. 

___ 

On the Net: 

American Astronomical Society: http://www.aas.org/ 

New Farm Seen As Model for Wind Energy 

Sat Jan 3, 2:26 PM ET

By TERENCE CHEA, News Source Writer 

BIRDS LANDING, Calif. - Environmentalists say the dozens of turbines that rise more than 300 feet over wheat fields and herds of sheep here represent the future of wind energy - and a model for overcoming the shortcomings that have kept wind from threatening the dominance of fossil fuels. 

The High Winds Energy Center, completed in December in the rolling hills between San Francisco and Sacramento, features turbines that can swivel with the direction of the wind, produce energy even if the wind is blowing less than 8 mph and generate 20 times more energy than earlier machines. 

This new wind system, along with similar ones being built around the country, promises to produce electricity at competitive prices - all without disturbing surrounding farms and wildlife, two of the obstacles for wind power today. 

The 90 turbines at High Winds can generate 162 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 75,000 homes, according to Florida-based FPL Energy, which owns and operates High Winds along with 30 other wind facilities in 10 states. 

"This is the future of wind power," said Ralph Cavanagh, energy program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The wind farm is becoming a productive part of the local community. It's not an interloper that threatens them." 

Environmentalists have championed wind power for decades because wind is a free, renewable resource that doesn't pollute the air or water. 

But since the first large wind facilities were built in the early 1980s, they have run into technological, economic and political barriers. Early versions didn't produce electricity efficiently enough to compete with oil, coal and natural gas. Communities complained that small forests of turbines marred the landscape, and environmentalists fretted that the blades were killing birds. 

The new wind farm, set in the Montezuma Hills above six farms and ranches just north of the Sacramento River, has overcome such issues, environmentalists say. 

High Winds' turbines are taller, more powerful and more efficient than older generation turbines, which means they can generate more energy with fewer machines. Each turbine generates 1.8 megawatts, 18 times more than the 100-kilowatt turbines built two decades ago. 

On a recent morning, the towering turbines' 125-foot blades turned steadily, with surprisingly little noise, in wind of about 10 mph. 

Older turbines can't rotate from side to side - and they only operate at maximum efficiency when the wind blows in a particular direction, so they often remain idle. High Winds' turbines can rotate to face oncoming breezes and capture energy at wind speeds from 8 to 55 mph, said FPL spokesman Steven Stengel. 

Their increased height, longer blades and improved positioning also lets them better tap the wind's power. While older turbines break down often and require constant repair, newer versions are more durable. 

Many wind farms built in the 1980s are retiring old machines and replacing them with newer, more efficient models similar to those at High Winds, whose turbines were developed by Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems. 

High Winds hasn't run into the kind of opposition plaguing other wind energy projects, such as the offshore towers proposed near Massachusetts' Cape Cod, where residents worry that 40-story turbines would harm ocean views, seabirds and tourism. 

In fact, local landowners in the agricultural Montezuma Hills welcome the extra income - FPL pays between $2,500 and $4,000 a year to lease the space for each turbine, while the surrounding land can still be used raise animals, grow crops and other activities. 

Birds Landing farmer Ian Anderson said the turbines and the roads built to service them take up about 2 percent of his farmland, leaving the remaining 98 percent available for raising sheep and growing wheat, barley and safflower. He calls the project "good for society." 

"It's more difficult to farm around (the turbines and roads), but it's not overwhelming. It's doable," he said. "We're still farming the same as before the wind generators came in." 

And unlike the wind farm in the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco, where smaller, low-power turbine blades have killed an estimated 22,000 birds, High Winds' turbines rotate more slowly, so few birds get caught. 

Projects like High Winds have benefited from government incentives such as federal tax credits. About a dozen states, including California, require utilities to increase their use of renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. 

Environmentalists hope that the incentives and improved technologies will boost wind from its status as a minor player in the U.S. energy markets. Even in California, which leads the nation in use of wind power, less than 2 percent of the state's electricity came from wind in 2002, according to the California Energy Commission. 

"With improvements in technology, wind power is becoming cost competitive with any other form of electrical generation," said Jan Johnson, a spokeswoman for PPM Energy, an energy wholesaler that has already sold two-thirds of High Winds' output to cities including Anaheim, Pasadena, Glendale and Sacramento. 

PPM wouldn't disclose specific energy prices it charges its customers. 

But Johnson noted that wind prices are far less volatile than those for fossil fuels. And unlike with natural gas, PPM can offer energy contracts as long as 25 years because wind has no fuel costs. 

"If you have a choice between any form of electrical generation," she said, "are you going to choose one that generates greenhouse gases or wind power?" 

States Outlaw Digital Taping in Cinemas 

Sat Jan 3, 3:16 PM ET

Add Business - 

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, News Source Writer 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - At a recent showing of "Big Fish," several moviegoers at a local theater held up camera-equipped cell phones and took snapshots of the screen. Doing the same with a video camera will soon be a crime. 

Along with other several states including California, Ohio has at Hollywood's urging passed a law that lets police arrest people for videotaping movies in theaters. 

The new statutes augment a film industry anti-piracy arsenal that includes bag searches for people entering movie houses - a multifaceted response to technological strides that make digital video distribution a snap. 

Some analysts say that with such tactics Hollywood is shooting a political blunderbuss that could backfire. The movie industry, they say, should be more concerned about the illegally copying of films by its own. 

A recent AT&T Labs study found that three of every four movies leaked on the Internet came from industry insiders - a trend that motivated the Motion Picture Academy of America to temporarily stop sending "screener" tapes and DVDs to Oscar voters. 

That kind of digital piracy "is much more of a threat than someone sneaking in with a video camera," said David Joyce, media analyst with Guzman & Co. "You're going to have really poor quality - it's not going to duplicate as quickly as an actual digital file." 

Ohio's bill, signed in December by Gov. Bob Taft and taking effect in March, gives movie theaters the right to detain people suspected of videotaping movies, just as a department store can hold a suspected shoplifter. 

A similar law took effect Jan. 1 in California. Michigan lawmakers introduced legislation in December, and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania passed equivalent bills in 1999. 

The Motion Picture Association of America says it plans to lobby at least a dozen more states this year for similar legislation. The industry estimates pirated movies cost it $3.5 billion annually. 

"It's the same way an honest consumer is hurt by shoplifting," said John Fithian, president of North American Theater Owners. 

California already has felony-level laws that could be used to prosecute suspected movie pirates. Its new law creates a less serious charge that would be easier for district attorneys to use, said James Provenza, legislative counsel for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office. Although the new California charge is a misdemeanor, it still carries serious consequences - up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. 

Under Ohio law, by contrast, a first offense would be punishable by six months in jail and up to $1,000 fine. Michigan's bill would set penalties up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

The state laws make it easier to prosecute individuals caught in theaters because the charges focus simply on the operation of a camera - avoiding the more prickly details of federal copyright law. 

"Enforcement is always a last resort, but we hope this will be a deterrent," said Vans Stevenson, senior vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, is concerned that the state laws often are written too broadly and ignore traditional "fair use" copying of small portions of a movie for personal or educational use. 

"I'm in a theater watching a movie that really (stinks), I take a five-second picture clip and send it to friends and say, `This movie (stinks),'" said Jason Schultz, foundation staff attorney. "Have I now violated the law and committed a felony?" 

Increasingly, studios are also beefing up security around movies. At the Arena Grand Theatre in downtown Columbus, security guards hired by the studios regularly check patrons' bags, especially during sneak previews of new films. 

It's not unusual for a guard to watch projectionists as they assemble the film and then sit in the booth during the movie, said Seth Distelzweig, an Arena Grand assistant manager. 

For a recent preview of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," two security officers accompanied the movie from Los Angeles. At a preview for "Honey," guards walked through the darkened theater wearing night vision goggles to check for cameras. 

Moviegoer Margaret Nivins is so accustomed to the searches that she now leaves her purse in the car. 

"It's just easier for me to work without it, and then it's easier for them too," said Nivins, 42, waiting in line to see a "Big Fish" preview at the theater. 

Yet the October study by AT&T Labs questioned the impact of camera-toting movie pirates. Researchers created a list of the 312 most popular movies released between January 2002 and June 2003. 

After locating 285 of those movies on the Internet, researchers used software to look for evidence of their origin, such as visible boom mikes in scenes, a sign that the copies were unedited versions. They also looked for watermarks on film or text on the movie itself, such as phrases "For screening purposes only." 

Their conclusion: 77 percent of the films came from insider sources, either motion picture companies or theater employees taping from the projection booth. 

"Our initial thoughts were how easy it is to get these copies from the movies," said Patrick McDaniel, one of the AT&T researchers. "The data set we did didn't actually show that to be true." 

Stevenson of the MPAA says the researchers used flawed data. The movie industry says its internal analysis last year found that 92 percent of recently released movies found on the Internet came from camcorders. 

Fithian, of the movie theaters association, takes a softer view. 

"There's no doubt that piracy comes from multiple sources," he said. "My reaction is to attack piracy at every source ..." 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Association of Theater Owners: http://www.natoonline.org 

Motion Picture Association of America: http://www.mpaa.org 

AT&T Labs: http://www.att.com/attlabs 

Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org 

Rush Guitarist Arrested in Florida 
Fri Jan 2, 3:06 PM ET 
Add Entertainment 

MIAMI  - The lead guitarist for the Canadian rock band Rush pushed a sheriff's deputy down a staircase during a New Year's Eve scuffle with police at a hotel in Florida, authorities said on Friday. 

Alex Zivojinovich, who uses the stage name Alex Lifeson, was arrested on six charges including aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and disorderly intoxication. 

Police said they had to use a stun gun to subdue Zivojinovich, 50, and his son Justin, at a New Year's party at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples. 

Justin Zivojinovich, 33, and his wife, Michelle, 30, were also arrested. All three are Canadian citizens. 

The trouble started shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve when Justin Zivojinovich got onto the hotel's stage, interfering with the house band with the intent of singing his wife a song, according to reports filed by the Collier County Sheriff's Office. 

Father and son struggled with sheriff's deputies who were called by hotel security to handle the disturbance and the elder Zivojinovich pushed a deputy down the stairs in a hotel stairwell as she grappled with him, the reports say. 

"He was screaming obscenities and extremely violent," one report said of the Rush guitarist. 

Officers used a Taser stun gun to subdue Alex Zivojinovich before and after he spat in the face of a deputy, the reports said. 

Researcher Gets $1M to Study Thin People 

Fri Jan 2, 8:24 AM ET



DENVER - A Denver endocrinologist has been awarded $1 million to study the psyches and biology of thin people over the next five years. 

For years, Dr. Dan Bessesen has overfed fat rats, put them on diets and on small exercise wheels, and studied why they repeatedly gained and lost weight. What caught his interest were the skinny rats. They seemed to know to eat less. 

"The obesity-resistant rats, they overeat for a day and they seem to get it. They reduce their food intake by the third day," he said. "And they reduce their food intake not only to where it was before but down lower to compensate for overeating. It's a natural phenomenon." 

He decided to study whether some people humans also have something innate that makes them prone to remain thin. "If there is something different about their metabolism or their genetics, that would be interesting to know," Bessesen said. 

The National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) gave him $1 million toward his research. 

"We spend so much time studying obesity, maybe we ought to study thinness," Bessesen said. 

His goal is to find about 200 men and women between the ages of 25 and 35, about half of whom are obese and half of whom are thin and what he calls "weight stable." 

Bessesen plans to figure out how much the study subjects normally eat and then feed them 40 percent more for three days. Then, researchers will watch who does what in the following days. 

Obesity has long been a popular research topic. Sixty-five percent of the country's adult population is overweight, said Dr. James Hill, director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. 

Now scientists are starting to look at what makes people skinny, rather than what might make them fat, he said. "By knowing early on who's susceptible (to obesity), it allows us to target intervention efforts," Hill said. 

The research also could one day lead to more effective drugs for obesity, he said. 

Australian astronomers identify possible cradle of alien life

Fri Jan 2, 2:03 AM ET

 - NEWS SOURCE 

SYDNEY, (NEWS SOURCE) - Australian astronomers say have pinpointed an area of the Milky Way that is most likely to support alien life. 

"Our Milky Way galaxy is home to hundreds of billions of stars, but until recently astronomers could only guess as to how many are hospitable for the development of complex life," Charles Lineweaver, from University of New South Wales, said in a statement. 

"What we have done for the first time is to quantify carefully where complex life is likely to exist." 

Lineweaver and Swinburne University of Technology colleagues Yeshe Fenner and Brad Gibson, in a paper published in the journal "Science", say hundreds of stars capable of supporting life are visible from Earth by the naked eye. 

"A few billion stars out there sit in what we call the Galactic Habitable Zone where they have the appropriate conditions to support complex life," Gibson said. 

"Many, many hundreds of those stars which you could look up and see with the naked eye, most of which are actually very close, would potentially have terrestrial planets similar to the earth and Mars and Venus." 

Gibson said the habitable zone appeared about eight billion years ago but had since accumulated heavy elements like carbon, oxygen and iron. 

"Perhaps there's no life out there," Lineweaver said. "But if there is life, we've determined where you are most likely to find it." 

CT Scan Radiation May Affect Kids' IQ

Fri Jan 2, 6:42 PM ET

Add Health 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Children who suffer a head injury are often routinely examined by a CT scan. Now, a Swedish team has found that radiation doses typically delivered by such a scan during infancy may harm intellectual capacity later in life. 

While high doses of radiation to the developing human brain are known to cause mental retardation, it was not known if exposure to low doses "has more subtle effects on cognitive function," Dr. Per Hall from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and colleagues write in this week's British Medical Journal. 

To investigate, they analyzed mental function and education in roughly 3000 18- to 19-year-old men who had been given relatively low doses of radiation before the age of 18 months to treat a type of birthmark called a cutaneous hemangioma. 

Hall's group classified the subjects into four radiation dose categories, measured in milligrays (mGy): 1-20, 21-100, 101-250, and over 250 mGy. 

They discovered that the percentage of boys who attended high school decreased with radiation doses greater than 100 mGy compared with the lowest dose of 1-20 mGy. The proportion of high school attendees decreased from roughly 32 percent among those with no exposure to radiation, to 17 percent among those who received > 250 mGy. 

Radiation of the brain during infancy also had a negative effect on tests of learning ability and logical reasoning but not on tests of spatial recognition. 

It is estimated that a head CT scan performed on an infant imparts a radiation dose of about 120 mGy. 

"Irradiation of the brain with dose levels overlapping those imparted by CT can, in at least some instances, adversely affect intellectual development," Hall and colleagues write. 

Based on their findings, they think that "the risks and benefits of CT scans in minor head trauma need re-evaluating." 

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, January 3, 2004. 

Studies employ trickery to find why U.S. so fat

Fri Jan 2,10:21 AM ET

 - Chicago Tribune 

By Andrew Martin Tribune national correspondent 

CHAMPAIGN -- On a brisk fall morning, professor Brian Wansink welcomed four graduate students to his lab for what they thought was a taste test of tomato soup. 

Unbeknown to the students, two of the four soup bowls were rigged to remain full, fed by hidden tubes. Twenty minutes later, the two students were surprised to learn their bowls had supply holes in the bottom and that they had eaten a third more than their colleagues.

That test is one of the experiments the University of Illinois' Wansink has conducted to figure out why people often eat more than they should, a concern when the medical community, the food industry and the government are under pressure to figure out why so many Americans are overweight and what can be done about it. 

Wansink is among researchers nationwide who are studying how external factors from packaging to advertising to dining companions influence eating behavior. Experiments show that people do not necessarily stop eating when their stomachs tell them to and in some cases offer lessons that could help to curb the obesity epidemic in America. 

"People believe they're pretty good at calibrating what they eat," said Wansink, 43, who studies the psychology of food. 

"I don't think they are. I think they rely on benchmarks, essentially the fill level of the bowl. There tends to be this visual cue that you're full." 

During two years of Wansink's soup experiment, students with bottomless bowls tended to eat 40 percent more than test subjects with regular bowls. 

"I wasn't aware of it," said Nina Huesgen, one of the students with a trick bowl. "That's why I feel so filled up, I guess." 

Jason Stokes, who was similarly duped, said, "I did notice that my bowl level wasn't going down very much, but I thought that was because I wasn't eating very much." 

The soup test is one of the methods Wansink has used to show that people often struggle to control their eating. People will shovel in a bucket of popcorn even if it's stale, and they'll gobble one candy after another if the treats are within arm's reach, Wansink has found. 

Portions getting bigger 

The research by Wansink, a professor of marketing, nutritional science and agricultural economics, is particularly relevant because recent studies have shown that portions in restaurants and in homes have increased in the last few decades, most notably in "super-size" fries and soft drinks offered by fast-food restaurants. 

Recognizing the importance of portion size, the federal government is reworking the serving-size section of the nutrition facts label on food packages to try to make it more useful to consumers. The current description of serving sizes is so confusing that consumers may be underestimating how much they are eating, the Federal Trade Commission said in a recent letter to the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), which had sought comment from other federal agencies on controlling obesity. 

The FTC also questioned whether serving-size information on the food label was "sufficiently clear and prominent." 

Some argue that the food industry should help by crafting smaller portions in supermarkets and in restaurants. But persuading food packagers to encourage less eating will be a tough sell, analysts say, because companies make more money if they sell more food. 

Some nutritionists say the increase in portion size has fueled the obesity epidemic, but Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University, said it is difficult to prove that the increase in portion size causes obesity. 

The focus on where and how people eat needs to continue, said Rolls, who has conducted research similar to Wansink's. 

"I think it needs to be easier for people to eat healthier," she said. "It's too easy for us to eat huge portions of high-calorie food. ... They are cheap. They are everywhere." 

In Rolls' research, she offered men and women different sizes of submarine sandwiches over four days. When served a 12-inch sandwich as compared with a 6-inch sandwich, men ate 56 percent more than the men given a 6-inch sandwich while women served the the longer sandwiches ate 31 percent more than their counterparts who received the shorter sandwiches. 

Wansink said he believes portion size is a factor that contributes to obesity, along with such features of modern life as elevators and computer games that discourage exercise. 

"In the obesity war, portion size is the first casualty," said Wansink. "It's easy to point at, and we don't have to take responsibility because we can blame the restaurant or the packaged food manufacturer." 

Wansink, who founded the University of Illinois' Food & Brand Lab, suggested that the federal government, which is in the process of revising the nutrition label on the side of packaged foods, could reconfigure the label so that consumers can better relate what and how much they are eating to their weight. 

For example, instead of stating that a handful of granola has 200 calories, the label instead could say the consumer would have to walk 2 miles to burn it off. 

The chips are down 

As for ways the food industry could help, Wansink conducted an experiment that people who have stuffed themselves on potato chips might appreciate. 

He offered three different groups Lay's Stax potato chips, a product that boasts "The crispy crunch will keep you coming back for more." 

The first group received regular chips; the second got chips in which every seventh chip was red, and the third were served chips in which every 14th chip was red. 

Without being told the reason for the red chips, participants nonetheless used them as a guidepost for how much to eat, Wansink said. The participants who ate the least had the potato chips in which every seventh chip was red, followed by the group in which every 14th chip was red. 

"With chips, we kind of eat until we feel sated," he said. "But what happens if in a very in-your-face kind of way at the seventh chip there's a divider and you say, `Hey, how many have I eaten?' All of the sudden, it's an abrupt way to monitor how much you ate." 

Wansink's research has produced some common-sense tips for weight-conscious consumers. 

Office secretaries ate 25 percent more candy when it was on top of their desk rather than in a desk drawer. People who drank out of short, fat glasses consumed considerably more than those who used tall, skinny glasses, even though the glasses held the same amount. 

"The tendency we have is to focus on heights instead of widths," Wansink wrote in a report on the study. "That's why, for instance, people say, `Boy, is the St. Louis Arch high.' But they never say, `Boy, is it wide,' even though the dimensions are identical." 

His analysis of comfort foods, meanwhile, found that women felt better about themselves after they ate snack food such as brownies or cookies, while men were soothed by hardier fare such as pizza or steak. 

The women surveyed preferred snack foods because they didn't require much work, whereas they associated meals with cooking and cleaning up, Wansink said. The men surveyed favored meals because they conjured up the image of someone preparing the food for them, he said. 

Wansink also found that both men and women feel better after eating small amounts of comfort food. 

A nibble can do job 

"You don't have to eat the whole pizza," he said. "People get psychological comfort by eating small amounts of these comfort foods." 

But as Wansink has seen again and again, many consumers cannot stop with small amounts, a problem he attributes in part to the time-honored exhortation to eat until your plate is clean. People who are given larger portions eat more even if the food tastes bad, he said. 

In one of Wansink's more revealing experiments, he offered free popcorn to moviegoers at a $1 movie theater outside Philadelphia. The movie "Stargate" was showing, and Wansink told the moviegoers the free popcorn was part of a celebration of the theater's anniversary. Half the audience was given fresh popcorn, either in small containers or in jumbo buckets; half received 14-day-old popcorn in small and jumbo containers. 

"We had them write down what they thought about the popcorn, and 82 percent of the people who were given the old popcorn said it was terrible," Wansink said. Nonetheless, the moviegoers with the jumbo buckets of stale popcorn ate 33 percent more popcorn than those with the smaller container. 

In the soup experiment, Wansink and his colleagues had to work out some early kinks before they could gather reliable data. During one taste test, the tubing came loose, causing one of the bottomless bowls to drain like a bathtub onto the floor; clamps are now used to hold the tubing in place. 

Other problems surfaced because the level of the soup bowls and the stockpot were not calibrated to make sure the soup flowed properly through the tubing. 

Beware the bubbling bowl 

On one occasion, a student's soup started bubbling because of an imbalance between the stockpot and the bowl, said James Painter, chairman of Eastern Illinois University's Family and Consumer Sciences Department who collaborated with Wansink. Another time, a student who wasn't eating much soup was stunned to see her soup rising in the bowl; the experiment was stopped when the bowl started to overflow. 

On the other hand, at times the experiment has worked all too well. 

"One guy drank almost a quart [of soup]," Painter recalled. " I said, `What were you doing?' And he said, `I was trying to reach the bottom of the bowl.' " 

Man's Apartment Encased in Aluminum Foil

Thu Jan 8, 2:18 PM ET

OLYMPIA, Wash. - What kind of friends coat your apartment - and nearly everything in it - with tinfoil while you're away? Here's a hint: One of the only objects that escaped the shiny treatment was a book titled "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends." 

Related Links
� Friends Foil Olympia Man's Home - includes photos (The Olympian)

Chris Kirk found his downtown Olympia apartment encased in aluminum foil when he returned home Monday night from a trip to Los Angeles. 

The walls, ceiling, cabinets and everything in between shimmered, after the prank orchestrated by Kirk's longtime friend, Luke Trerice, 26, who was staying in the apartment while Kirk was away. 

"He's known for large-scale strangeness," Kirk, 33, told The Olympian. "He warned me that he would be able to touch my stuff, but it didn't sound so bad." 

Trerice, who lives in Las Vegas, and a small group of friends draped the apartment with about 4,000 square feet of aluminum foil, which cost about $100. 

Not surprisingly, the idea was hatched on New Year's Eve. 

"It was just a spur of the moment thing," Trerice said. "I really don't even consider it art. I consider it a psychology project. ... He seems to be upbeat, so I consider this a success. " 

No detail was too small or too time-consuming. The toilet paper was unrolled, wrapped in foil, then rolled back up again. The friends covered Kirk's book and compact disc collections but made sure each CD case could open and shut normally. They even used foil on each coin in Kirk's spare change. 

And to sweeten the theme, they left silver Hershey's kisses sprinkled throughout the apartment. 

"The toilet was hard. The molding around the doorways took a very long time," Trerice said. 

Aside from "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends," which doesn't include this particular trick, only a portrait of his girlfriend, the bed and a bath mat were left unfoiled. 

"He took special pains not to move anything," Kirk said. 

A foil-encased picture hanging outside his apartment was Kirk's first clue that something inside was amiss. 

"I heard him open the door and gasp and start laughing," said Beth Kelly, who lives in an apartment down the hall. "I love the quarters. It's almost more funny realizing the things that were left unwrapped." 

Andras Jones, who lives on the same floor, became curious about what was transpiring in Kirk's apartment as he noticed "a parade of strange characters" going in and out. 

Since Kirk's return the entire building has been buzzing about the transformation, Jones said. 

"There's a party atmosphere down by the room," Jones said. "Of course, everyone has their favorite part. I think the kitchen is just amazing." 

Kirk's awestruck neighbors and friends kept him up until late Monday night. He hasn't started unpacking his belongings and isn't sure when he will. " 

"As I was trying to sleep last night, I realized that, actually, it's creepy," Kirk said. 

And as for whether Trerice will ever be allowed to stay again at the apartment unsupervised, Kirk said: "I don't know. We'll see." 

But Trerice hopes Kirk will find a way to get him back. 

"I'm going to be insulted if he doesn't try," Trerice said. "It's kind of a challenge." 

Farm-Raised Salmon Linked to Pollutants

2 hours, 35 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Medical Writer 

WASHINGTON - Farm-raised salmon contain significantly more dioxins and other potentially cancer-causing pollutants than salmon caught in the wild, says a study that could confuse consumers long told the fish is heart-healthy. 

The study tested contaminants in 700 salmon bought around the world and found those farmed in Northern Europe contained the most pollutants, followed by North America and then Chile. 

Eating more than a meal of farm-raised salmon per month, depending on its country of origin, could slightly increase the risk of getting cancer later in life, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science. 

Researchers blamed the feed used on fish farms for concentrating ocean pollutants, advised farmers to switch feed and recommended that consumers in the meantime eat more wild salmon. 

But the study's conclusions are controversial. The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) insisted that the levels of pollutants in farm-raised salmon are too low for serious concern and urged Americans not to let the new research frighten them into a diet change.

The study "will likely over-alarm people in this country," said Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health, a specialist on nutrition and chronic disease. "To alarm people away from fish because of some potential, at this point undocumented, risk of long-term cancer - that does worry me." 

The American Heart Association (news - web sites) advises eating fish at least twice a week because it helps prevent heart disease. Salmon is usually listed as a top choice because it is particularly high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and low in a completely different seafood contaminant, brain-harming mercury. 

Most farm-raised salmon sold in the United States come from Chile and the pollutant level in this salmon was not too much higher than that found in some wild-caught salmon. 

In addition, the study tested salmon raw, with the skin on. Removing the skin and grilling it removes a significant amount of PCBs, dioxins and other pollutants stored in fish fat, the FDA noted. 

"We are certainly not telling people not to eat fish. ... We're telling them to eat less farmed salmon," said David Carpenter of the University at Albany, N.Y., who led the new research.

Farm-raised salmon contained significantly higher concentrations of 13 organochlorine pollutants, he found. Among the most important are dioxins, which are released when industrial waste is burned, and PCBs, once widely used as insulating material. 

The average dioxin level for farm-raised salmon was 11 times higher than wild salmon's - 1.88 parts per billion compared with 0.17 ppb. For PCBs, the average was 36.6 ppb in farm-raised salmon and 4.75 in wild. 

Animals absorb those pollutants through the environment, storing them in fat that people then eat. High levels are believed to increase the risk of certain cancers and, in pregnant or breast-feeding women, harm the developing brains of fetuses and infants. 

The salmon farming industry points out that all the pollutant levels are well within the FDA's legal limits and says other foods eaten far more often, such as beef, are more important sources of exposure. 

The government has no one set level of dioxins and PCBs considered safe in foods. In setting his consumption advice, Carpenter cited Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) guidelines that are far stricter than the FDA's legal limits. 

Farm-raised salmon eat lots of fish oil and meal made from just a few species of ocean fish, concentrating the contaminants they're exposed to - while wild salmon eat a greater variety, he explained. 

Raising salmon in floating pens is an industry that began just two decades ago but has helped the fish's popularity to soar. More than half the world's salmon now is farmed, available year-round while wild salmon is generally available June through October. Farm-raised salmon sells for about $4 or $5 a pound compared with $15 for wild salmon, said Alex Trent of the trade group Salmon of the Americas. 

Many farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile are slowly replacing some of the fish oil in salmon feed with soybean and canola oil to address the pollutants, Trent said. 

"PCB levels are coming down 10 to 20 percent a year. Every year we take more steps," he said. 

One in two Americans will die of cardiovascular disease, a far bigger risk than the cancer concern, said nutritionist Alice Lichtenstein of the Agriculture Department's Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University. 

Still, "this was a beautiful study" that does raise a concern that needs more attention, she said. "The bottom-line message is to continue to eat fish but consume a variety of different types." 

As for the geographic difference in contaminant levels, ocean pollution follows a similar pattern. Europe was industrialized before North and then South America, and presumably each region uses salmon feed made of local ocean fish. 

The study was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. 

Hubble Makes Mosaic of 10,000 Galaxies

Thu Jan 8, 1:06 PM ET

Add Science 

By Deborah Zabarenko 

ATLANTA  - The newest camera on the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) has created an unprecedented image of a huge hunk of the sky, including at least 10,000 galaxies, which could help determine how our own Milky Way evolved, astronomers said on Thursday. 

The new mosaic is the largest color image ever made by the orbiting telescope, covering an area of the sky about the apparent size of the full moon. This may not sound big, but it is 150 times the size of images made by an earlier survey of galaxies known as the Hubble Deep Field image. 

In this case, the size of the picture is important, because narrow, if deep, images of the cosmos can give a misleading impression of what is out there. 

"Galaxies are incredibly diverse creatures," Shardha Jogee, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said at a news briefing. "You really need a large sample, otherwise your results get skewed." 

The new image, created with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, is a patchwork of 63 squares showing the area around the constellation Fornax (The Laboratory Furnace) in the southern hemisphere. 

Looking closely with high resolution, scientists found detailed pictures of some 10,000 galaxies, and expect there are thousands of other, fainter galaxies in the same field of view. 

Presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, this research by an international group of scientists is meant to study how galaxies form. This is particularly important for those studying the Milky Way galaxy, which contains Earth, Jogee said. 

'VIOLENT RELAXATION' 

Because earthly observers are sitting within the Milky Way, their vantage point is better for galaxies outside our own, which can be glimpsed in their entirety. 

The international team chose to make a mosaic of the field around Fornax because they already knew the distances to the 10,000 galaxies. 

By knowing the distances, astronomers could also know how long light had taken to get from them to the Hubble's camera, enabling them to see the galaxies as they were when the universe was about 4.5 billion years old. 

It is currently 13.7 billion years old. 

Jogee noted that most of the galaxies in the present-day universe -- more than 70 percent -- appear to be barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. These are pinwheel-shaped galaxies with elongated concentrations of stars that funnel gas to the center of the galaxy to fuel furious bursts of star formation. 

There are also unbarred spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies, which look smooth and round. The image also captured galactic mergers, in which stars experienced what astronomers call violent relaxation -- a sort of "stellar amnesia" when stars forget where they were in a galaxy before the merger. 

"By putting these different snapshots together, we could really piece together this big puzzle of galaxy evolution," Jogee said. 

The galaxy survey is known as GEMS, short for Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and Spectral energy distributions. 

Images are available online at http:/www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/homes/bell/press_release/press.html. 

U-Haul Forbids Rentals to Explorer Drivers 

Thu Jan 8, 6:27 AM ET

Add Business - 

DETROIT - U-Haul is forbidding its stores from renting trailers to customers driving Ford Explorers, citing product liability lawsuits involving the popular sport utility vehicle, a newspaper reported. 

U-Haul International Inc., North America's largest trailer rental company with more than 17,000 outlets, implemented the policy Dec. 22, saying it can no longer afford to defend the lawsuits, The Detroit News reported in Thursday editions. 

"U-Haul has chosen not to rent behind this tow vehicle based on our history of excessive costs in defending lawsuits involving Ford Explorer towing combinations," the company told the newspaper, adding that the move is "not related to safety issues." 

Joanne Fried, a U-Haul spokeswoman, declined to disclose how much the Phoenix-based company has spent defending lawsuits involving Explorers. 

"The decision is not based on one accident," she said. "It's based on several different lawsuits going on for several years." 

Ford Motor Co. spokesman Jon Harmon called U-Haul's decision "surprising and disappointing." 

"This is all about runaway litigation and trial lawyers forcing businesses to make unfortunate decisions for fear of lawsuits," he said. 

U-Haul was involved in a lawsuit that Bridgestone/Firestone settled out of court in September. It involved three college students who were injured when their Firestone-equipped Explorer overturned while pulling a U-Haul trailer. 

Bridgestone/Firestone is currently trying reach an agreement on a $149 million settlement of 30 class-action lawsuits because of defective tires. 

Although federal regulators have said there isn't enough evidence to show that the Explorer model contributed to the tire defects, many of the problem tires were equipped on Explorers. 

A bulletin issued to U-Haul dealers last month said the company's decision was "based on the negative perceptions of Ford Explorers ... we are separating ourselves from the negative public perception and its potential consequences." 

Ford has maintained the Explorer is safe. In 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) traced Explorer tire failures and resulting rollovers to tire manufacturing flaws. 

Fried said the rental ban applies to all model years, even though the Explorer was redesigned in 2002, improving its rollover rating. It was voted "tow vehicle of the year" by Trailer Boats magazine the same year. 

Ford launched the Explorer 14 years ago and this month will deliver its 5 millionth unit. 

Germ-Zapping Mailbox Wins Patent for Florida Man 
Wed Jan 7, 3:48 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Jane Sutton 

MIAMI  - A Florida inventor has patented a germicidal mailbox that would let consumers sterilize their incoming letters through irradiation, as the Postal Service has done for White House and congressional mail since the anthrax scare of 2001. 

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John Cunningham's prototype invention uses the standard metal mailbox commonly found on suburban driveways. It is fitted inside with an ultraviolet light like those used in laboratory sterilizers and a wire basket, where mail is placed. 

When the door is shut and a switch activated, a lamp zaps the mail with ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 254 nanometers for about 15 minutes while the basket spins to expose all the mail surfaces to the light. 

The ultraviolet light "has a germicidal effect" that renders anthrax spores and microbes harmless, according to the U.S. patent Cunningham was awarded in November. 

Cunningham, an air conditioning contractor in the Florida Keys, came up with the idea for a germ-zapping mailbox after a series of anthrax-laced letters killed five people and sickened 13 in the United States in October 2001. 

"I was trying to think of some way that the average person could protect themselves against cross-contamination of mail with a possible anthrax letter," he told The News Source on Wednesday. 

A contractor for the U.S. Postal Service uses other types of irradiation on an industrial scale to sterilize mail delivered to the White House and the U.S. Congress and other federal offices in Washington. 

"It's about 9,000 pounds a day, average," Postal Service spokesman Robert Anderson said. 

Congress ordered the mail irradiated after the 2001 anthrax attacks. Some of the contaminated letters were sent to congressional offices, shutting down a Senate office building for three months and forcing thousands of congressional workers and postal employees to take medication. 

Irradiation kills anthrax spores and other microbes so well that it cannot be used on mail containing garden seeds, medical samples or "anything with DNA," Anderson said. 

"It'll kill anything that's living," he said. 

But Congress has declined to order irradiation of consumer mail, because of the cost and practicality. 

Cunningham's mailboxes probably would sell for $300 to $500 each, but Cunningham has not decided whether to look for a manufacturer to mass-produce them. 

"The anthrax (scare) kind of quieted down," he said. "If there was another anthrax outbreak maybe it would be a highly sought-after patent, but it's good news-bad news." 

How to Be Lucky in 2004 31-Dec-2003

Psychologist Richard Wiseman says, "Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune." He says he's found the answer. 

Wiseman writes in bbcnews.com that he placed ads in national newspapers asking for people who felt they were always either lucky or unlucky to contact him, so he got lots of volunteers to study. He says, "The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune." He found that lucky people consistently encounter chance opportunities, while unlucky people don't. Since this doesn't make sense statistically, Wiseman studied them and found that lucky people were the ones who were able to spot the opportunities that came their way. 

He says, "I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win �250.' This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it." He found that unlucky people are more tense and depressed, perhaps because they expect the worst, and this disrupts their ability to notice what's going on around them. Wiseman says, "They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs." He says, "I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier." Here's what Wiseman told them to do: "Listen to your gut instincts-they are normally right. Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine. Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well. Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy." 

Loose Screw Halts Nuclear Power Station

Dec 23, 10:25 am ET 

MADRID  - A Spanish nuclear power station has been shut indefinitely because of a small missing screw weighing just four to five grams that fell off a machine during refueling, nuclear officials say.

The Zorita plant, located in the central Castille-La Mancha region, cannot reopen until a full report on the screw is completed, a spokesman for the national Nuclear Security Council told The News Source on Monday.

Staff searched for the screw with cameras, but after failing to locate it on film, they concluded it must have slipped into an area of the reactor that was inaccessible to cameras, the spokesman said.

He said it was unlikely the missing screw would present any risk. 

The Biological Basis for Love 24-Dec-2003

There are a lot of cliches about love: that men should woo women with chocolate, that women feel emotional while guys feel sexual, that men in love get careless with money, that having sex will make you fall in love. Surprise!-It turns out that scientists have found a biological basis for every one of these. 

Using MRI scans, researchers found activity in the areas of the brain which are linked to energy and elation in people who claimed to be in love. But women's brains showed emotional responses, while men's responses were mostly sexual. Other areas of the brain changed as well-including one that's activated when people eat chocolate. 

These areas have high levels of dopamine, a chemical linked to feelings of pleasure. Dopamine gives lovers' brains a buzz that's similar to taking drugs. Researcher John Marsden says, "Attraction and lust really is like a drug. It leaves you wanting more." 

The more two people have sex together, the more likely they are to stay together. "We all know you can have sex without falling in love but if you have enough sex with the same person there's a good chance you will hit the body's booby- trap which is there to tip you head over heels into love," says Marsden. 

We have built-in protectors against incest, which we consider immoral but our body considers an unwise way to redistribute genes. Marsden says, "We tend to go for the smell of somebody who has a very different immune system and that stops you fancying your family." Danny Penman writes in New Scientist about psychologists who have proved that when they're in love, men become careless with money. Men were shown pictures of either average women or truly beautiful women, and both groups were offered either a check for a small amount of money right away or one for twice as much in the future. The men who saw the average-looking women opted for future gains, but those who glimpsed the beautiful babes chose to take the smaller check right away. 

$162M Mega Millions Ticket Turned In 

42 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By JOE MILICIA, News Source Writer 

CLEVELAND - Someone turned in a valid ticket for the $162 million Mega Millions multistate lottery jackpot, the Ohio Lottery said Tuesday, a day after a Cleveland woman claimed she lost the winning ticket outside the convenience store where it was sold. 

Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said the winner would be revealed at a morning news conference. Cohen would not comment on whether the winner was Elecia Battle, the woman who filed a police report saying she lost the ticket last week. 

About 30 people with flashlights searched for the ticket Monday night outside the suburban Cleveland store after the police report Battle filed became public. 

The Ohio Lottery says the ticket is a bearer note, which means whoever turns in a valid ticket is legally entitled to the winnings. 

Cohen said Monday night that the bearer status makes the ticket "like cash." 

But Battle intended to make a case that the winning ticket from the 11-state game is her lost property, said her lawyer, Sheldon Starke. 

"This is a question of lost property, not abandoned property," he said earlier Tuesday. "If there is one type of property that is not presumed to be abandoned, it's money ... Anyone who finds it is not the owner." 

Starke did not immediately return a call later in the morning seeking comment on the lottery's announcement. 

Battle, 40, filed a police report saying she dropped her purse as she left the Quick Shop Food Mart last week after buying the ticket. She said she realized after the drawing last Tuesday that the ticket was missing. 

The Ohio Lottery said the winning ticket was sold at the store in South Euclid, about 15 miles east of Cleveland. 

Police had said Battle was in tears when she filed her report Friday and did not hesitate when asked to write down the winning numbers. 

"We don't believe that she's fabricating it, but there's no real way of knowing other than going on her word," Police Lt. Kevin Nieter said. 

Nieter had said information Battle knew about when the ticket was bought and how the numbers were picked make her story credible. She told police that the numbers - 12, 18, 21, 32 and 46 and Mega Ball 49 - represented family birthdays and ages. 

The Ohio Lottery said the winning ticket was sold to someone who chose the numbers rather than letting the computer make the choices. 

Battle's husband, Jimmy Battle, works two jobs. The couple have seven children, some from previous marriages. 

If the jackpot hadn't been claimed by June 27, the money would have gone to Ohio and 10 other states that participate in the game. 

Sperm counts have dropped by a almost third in 10 years

Mon Jan 5, 5:53 AM ET

NEWS SOURCE 

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - Male sperm counts have fallen by almost a third since 1989, with factors such as drinking and obesity possibly to blame, according to a British study. 

A survey of 7,500 men who attended the Aberdeen Fertility Centre in northern Scotland between 1989 and 2002 brought alarming findings, researchers said Monday. 

Analysis of sperm samples showed that in men with what is considered a "normal" concentration of sperm -- defined as over 20 million sperm per millilitre of semen -- the average sperm count fell by 29 percent. 

This "must cause some concern and needs to be explained", said Dr Siladitya Bhattacharya, who led the research project. 

"There could be a number of lifestyle factors which could play a role in this," he said. 

"It just highlights the need for research to discover what these reasons might be, as well as the need for further studies elsewhere in the country to see if they support our results." 

Drug use, alcohol, smoking and obesity have all been linked to a decline in sperm counts, as well as pesticides and other chemicals in the environment. 

In 1986, Scotland was affected by the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but Bhattacharya said it was "almost impossible" to say for certain whether this or any other individual factor was to blame. 

It could also not be concluded that there had been a fall in male fertility, as factors other than just sperm count played a part, he added. 

"There has been an increase in men seeking treatment for male infertility, but whether this is due to a significant increase in this condition or because men are more aware of new techniques which have been developed to help them, we cannot say." 

China Confirms SARS Case, Begins Civet Cat Cull

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

Add Health 

By John Ruwitch 

BEIJING  - China confirmed on Monday its first SARS (news - web sites) case since a world epidemic was declared over in July, and began a mass slaughter of civet cats on fears a new strain of the deadly virus may have jumped from wild animals to humans. 

Health officials in the southern province of Guangdong said a virus gene sample from the SARS patient -- a 32-year-old television producer -- resembled that of a coronavirus found in civet cats, a Chinese culinary delicacy. 

To eliminate a possible fresh source of the disease, the province where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome originated in November 2002 planned to close wild animal markets. 

"And we will kill all the civet cats in Guangdong markets, which number about 10,000," Guangdong health bureau official Feng Liuxiang told a news conference. 

Guangdong also launched a "patriotic health campaign" to exterminate rats and cockroaches ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on January 22, when tens of millions of Chinese travel the country. 

Adding to fears around Asia of a new outbreak, the Philippines announced that a maid who had been working in Hong Kong was a suspected SARS case. 

She was being held in isolation with her husband and a doctor who initially treated her. Tests results would be available within two days, the health department said. 

Two other cases have been reported in Taiwan and Singapore, but both were scientists who had apparently been infected in laboratories. 

The SARS epidemic killed about 800 people around the world, including 349 in China. It brought Asian tourism and air industries almost to a halt and devastated the economies of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. 

WHO SEES NO PUBLIC THREAT 

The World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) confirmed the case and praised Guangdong for how it handled the case. It said the lone case did not constitute a public health threat and would not be grounds for a travel warning for China. 

"We do believe that the system in Guangdong was working," WHO representative in China Henk Bekedam told a news conference. "We have, really, thumbs up for what's happened so far." 

The Chinese health ministry said in a statement the confirmation of the SARS case followed repeated tests by the Guangdong Center for Disease Control and the China Center for Disease Control and was in line with tests of two laboratories of the World Health Organization. 

Seventeen of 81 people known to have had contact with the patient were still being isolated, it added. 

The patient told doctors last month he had not left Guangzhou or eaten wild animal meat for a month before hospitalization, and the cause of his infection remained elusive. 

Financial analysts warned the news would hit airline and tourism stocks on Tuesday, while providing a lift to drug counters. 

"I'm not at all surprised," a Western diplomat said in reaction to the confirmation. "I don't think there will be much impact, as the government has pretty good preventative measures in place following the last outbreak." 

CIVET CULL "RADICAL STEP" 

Xinhua news agency quoted an unidentified official at the center for diseases control in Guangdong making the connection between the new SARS case and civet cats. 

"We should begin the measures to prevent SARS beforehand and ban sales and eating of the animal in a bid to reduce the chance of contracting SARS virus," Xinhua quoted the official as saying. 

Guangdong would set up highway inspection stations to keep wild animals from being brought in from other provinces, it said. 

The WHO, however, called the cull a "radical step." 

"We would recommend that the authorities do take extreme caution with this large thing to be undertaken, and we do feel that there is a potential hazard there," said Jeffrey Gilbert, a WHO expert in diseases communicable from animals to humans. 

Witnesses saw police and health officials at markets inspecting cages full of civets and piles of carcasses gathered for destruction. 

In Beijing, which became the epicenter of the outbreak last year, residents showed little alarm. 

"What is there to be afraid of?" asked Guo Hua, who sells soda and cigarettes at one of Beijing's hole-in-the-wall kiosks. 

Some scientists suspect that SARS spread from animals in wild animal markets in China, and the WHO says the civet has been most closely implicated, but noted there was no conclusive evidence. 

The Hong Kong Standard newspaper said a waitress had become the second suspected SARS case in Guangdong but provincial officials and hospitals denied the report. 

Guangdong's campaign to eliminate pests brought to mind Mao Zedong's campaigns against rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows, which he denounced as the four evils. 

U.S. Begins Tracking Foreign Arrivals 

37 minutes ago

Add U.S. National - 

By MARK NIESSE, News Source Writer 

ATLANTA - Authorities began scanning fingerprints and taking photographs of arriving foreigners Monday as part of a new program that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said will make borders "open to travelers but closed to terrorists." 

The program, aimed at letting Customs officials instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background, targets foreigners entering the 115 U.S. airports that handle international flights, as well as 14 major seaports. The only exceptions will be visitors from 27 countries - mostly European nations - whose citizens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days without visas. 

Ridge was at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to meet with some of the first foreign passengers to go through the new system. 

He described the move as "part of a comprehensive program to make sure our borders remain open to travelers but closed to terrorists." 

"It's easy for travelers to use but hard for terrorists to avoid," Ridge said Monday. 

In a pilot program at Hartsfield-Jackson that preceded Monday's nationwide implementation, authorities turned up 21 people on the FBI (news - web sites)'s criminal watch list for such crimes as drug offenses, rape and visa fraud, Ridge said. 

Foreigners also will be checked as they leave the country as an extra security measure and to ensure they complied with visa limitations. 

Most passengers breezed through the fingerprinting and picture-taking Monday, spending only a few seconds more than they normally would at the Customs station where they're asked about their visits. 

But one traveler doubted the program would deter terrorists because they could come from the 27 countries that are exempt from visa checking. 

"It's easy, but I don't think it's going to be effective," said Carlos Thome, who flew in Monday from Sao Paulo, Brazil. "You can also have terrorists in Europe." 

Some passengers said they supported the extra scrutiny. 

"I don't have any real ethical problems with it, just the inconvenience of having to wait a little bit longer. But it's not a big deal," said Bradley Oakley-Brown, who was changing planes at Atlanta en route from South Africa to Wisconsin. 

Called US-VISIT, or U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, the program will check up to estimated 24 million foreigners each year, though some will be repeat visitors. 

Inkless fingerprints will be taken and checked instantly against the national digital database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists. 

Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said that once screeners become proficient, the extra security will take only 10 to 15 seconds per person. Foreign travelers also will continue to pass through regular Customs points and answer questions. 

Photographs will be used to help create a database for law enforcement. The travel data is supposed to be securely stored and made available only to authorized officials on a need-to-know basis. 

A similar program is to be installed at 50 land border crossings by the end of next year, Strassberger said. 

Brazil's Foreign Ministry has requested that Brazilians be removed from the U.S. list, and police started fingerprinting and photographing Americans arriving at Sao Paulo's airport last week in response to the new U.S. regulations. 

"At first, most of the Americans were angered at having to go through all this, but they were usually more understanding once they learned that Brazilians are subjected to the same treatment in the U.S.," Brazilian (news - web sites) police spokesman Wagner Castilho said last week. 

The U.S. system consists of a small box that digitally scans fingerprints and a spherical computer camera. It will gradually replace a paper-based system that Congress ordered to be modernized following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 

A person whose fingerprints or photos raise questions would not be turned away automatically. The visa holder would be sent to secondary inspection for further questions and checks. Officials have said false hits on the system have been less than 0.1 percent in trial runs. 

The system was scheduled to begin operation New Year's Day but was delayed to avoid the busy holiday travel period. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.dhs.gov/us-visit 

Dollar Falls to Record Low Vs, the Euro

2 hours, 11 minutes ago

Add Business 

By Kyle Peterson 

CHICAGO  - The dollar tumbled to a record low against the euro on Monday after a Federal Reserve (news - web sites) official said the central bank is right to hold interest rates at 45-year lows even though the U.S. economy seems to have improved. 

"For now, I believe that the Federal Reserve has the luxury of being patient," Fed Governor Ben Bernanke told the American Economic Association in San Diego on Sunday. 

The prospect of interest rates remaining low is likely to encourage investment outflows from the United State to other higher-yielding currencies at a time when the United States needs capital inflows to cover its current account deficit. 

The U.S. external shortfall -- a major worry of international investors -- is also likely to be under growing pressure as economic recovery could lead to higher imports. 

"It (Bernanke's speech) does nothing to curtail what has been the underlying trend in euro/dollar for the past two months," said Bob Lynch, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in New York. "Does it come as a surprise? Not necessarily. He's been the one sounding concerns about deflation at the Fed." 

The Federal Reserve's Open Markets Committee is scheduled to meet to discuss interest rates in late January and markets were forecasting U.S. rates to remain on hold then. 

Bernanke also said it was a mistake just to look at the dollar's sharp drop against the euro, adding the greenback's fall against a broad basket of currencies had been much smaller. He said the risk of a "dollar crisis" was low. 

In early New York trading, the euro was up 0.56 percent at $1.2653 . The single currency earlier traded at a new lifetime high of $1.2695, according to The News Source data. 

The dollar was down 0.65 percent at 1.2307 Swiss francs . Sterling gained 0.51 percent to $1.8015 . 

"We have an economy growing quite nicely, but the Fed is showing no intention of hiking rates," said Hans Guenter Redeker, chief foreign exchange strategist at BNP Paribas in London. "We have had some strong data from the U.S. but Bernanke's comments were the most important thing. So the dollar weakening trend is continuing." 

The U.S. economic release schedule featured little to move forex markets. U.S. November construction spending data was due for release at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT). At 12:40 p.m. EST, Atlanta Fed President Jack Guynn speaks on the 2004 economic outlook. 

Meanwhile, markets were also focusing on comments from policymakers about dollar weakness ahead of this weekend's bi-monthly meeting of central bankers at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland and next month's meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations. 

A G7 source has told The News Source the group will look at the weakened dollar at its February 6-7 meeting. But analysts said key to the meeting would the stance of Washington, which has so far kept mum on the weak dollar. 

The dollar was down 0.73 percent at 106.27 yen after trading at a new three-year low of 106.25 yen. 

Traders said Japanese and speculative names were selling dollars for yen even though the market was wary of Japanese intervention after suspected yen selling action in Asian trading hours. 

Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs, Zembei Mizoguchi, said on Monday Japan remained ready to step into the foreign exchange market if there was a danger of volatility. 

"Penn, Teller and Bullshit"
by Kenn Thomas

Penn Jillette is a lard butt. Teller, of course, is a mime. 'Nuff said about that. In the comedy pair's new Showtime program, Bullshit!, Penn and Teller join the humorless and condescending "skeptic" crowd by "debunking" everything they think is false. If turnabout is fair play, then any viewer can feel justified in calling these two names. They freely hurtle such epithets as "bitch" at their victims, whom they often approach without revealing how vicious their attacks will be when aired. Most of the shows end with a simple-minded homily from lard butt about how all these geeks need is love, after thirty minutes of delivering hate and humiliation to them.

One episode attacked last year's UFO conference in Santa Clara. The first thing the camera focused on in the UFO report was disinfo's book, "You Are Being Lied To", a collection of very powerful essays on parapolitcs. P&T admitted that David Icke's notion of the world as run by shape-shifting reptilians was "the first thing anyone here said that made sense", and they did not repeat the oft-held criticism of Icke being an anti-Semite. Nevertheless, Icke did commit the crime of being more interesting than Penn & Teller, and so was ridiculed. So too was Roger Leir, the podiatrist who admits to not knowing where some of the weird things come from that he pulls from people's bodies. The "authority" podiatrist consulted by P&T knew exactly, of course, without ever examining Leir's patients. The public record of Leir's practice was offered to viewers; and examination of the other guy's apparently never happened.

The reliance on banal, ignorant "experts" is, of course, what distinguishes P&T's work from any truly iconoclastic or thought-provoking presentation of paranormal and parapolitical material. To counterpoint the "bitch" psychotherapist, for instance, they used a rather geeky looking one who quoted conventional explanations about alien abduction and implants as if they were verses from the Bible. At their web site, P&T note "we are people living in the USA trying hard to make sense out of the world. We use the expertise available to us and we try to tell the truth as we see it." 

(The mime even suggested at the web site that none of P&T's superior audience ever goes home and tries to do the magic tricks. Now THAT's bullshit.)

They are alone in this crusade, of course. "We know nothing, but we have experts we consult." Their experts, of course, better than those that speculate freely and with an open mind. The people out there who want to think for themselves and do for themselves are idiots, according to Penn & Teller. They are just out to make a buck. P&T found one disgruntled conference attendee disappointed because she came to the event for "science" and all she got was anecdotes and experiences, sold in books and tapes. She was going to spend the next day at the theme park across the street. P&T aren't selling anything, of course, just exposing the bullshit. Viewers should remember that when they pay their bill for premium cable.

Too bad Penn & Teller don't get it. Too bad they can't figure a way to laugh with instead of at the UFO crowd, the conspiracy crowd or whatever off-mainstream crowd they plan to slam next. 

Bill Hicks died from pancreatic cancer on 26th February 1994. He was barely two months into his thirty-second year. A rebel without a cause - his father was an executive with General Motors, his mother was a schoolteacher, his upbringing was, in his own words, almost idyllic - Bill had been performing comedy since he was fourteen. Down the years he'd numerous times died on stage, had once had his leg broken by some Vietnam vets who didn't like his act and had faced the ultimate heckle when an audience member pulled a gun on him. Throughout it all Bill kept at it, plugging away, filling dates in his flying saucer tour ("Like flying saucers, I too have been appearing in small Southern towns"). He played his last gig only six weeks before his death and regularly piled more than two-hundred-fifty shows into a year. He did drugs, famously, prodigiously - LSD, shrooms, coke, ludes, ecstasy and amphetamines. He quit drugs and took up smoking, famously, prodigiously. He did Letterman a dozen times, the last memorably unbroadcast, the first comedy act to be so censored in the history of the show, when Letterman objected to Bill's anti pro-life routine. 

The New Yorker's John Lahr called him an exhilarating comic thinker in a renegade class all his own. Irish comedian Sean Hughes has described Bill as being the future, past and present of stand-up comedy. Bill was Lenny Bruce born-again. Bill was Sam Kinison's comedy-of-hate made palatable. Bill was the source of Denis Leary's main routines. Bill was as much the inspiration for Ben Elton as Margaret Thatcher was. Today, Bill is still inspiring others, with the likes of Michael Moore favourably compared to Bill by some, partly because of the few routines of Bill's he borrows heavily from (see Moore's borrowing of Bill's take on English soccer hooligans, American gun culture and the reality TV show Cops in Bowling for Columbine). Where others - like Chris Rock and Andrew Dice Clay - relied on turning up the volume to hide their lack of substance, Bill would often drop almost sotto-voice to tell you essential truths. Bill didn't see conspiracy theories - he laughed at conspiracy theorists - but he didn't buy the lies peddled to us by an increasingly corporatised world. And in telling us the dark truths that lie at the heart of our dreaming, Bill made us laugh. 

Bill went out at the top of his act and in near-decade since his death his reputation has only got bigger. He may have been the prophet in his own land, ignored by American audiences up to his death but on this side of the Atlantic he'd found fame and a welcoming audience, selling out 2,000-seat theatres in Dublin, Glasgow and London and recording material for Channel 4. He'd released two discs of his stand-up routine (Dangerous and Relentless) before his death and another two (Arizona Bay and Rant In E-Minor) had already been recorded. He was writing columns for the Nation and for Scallywag. He was already looking at a life beyond that of a stand-up comic. 

Those four albums were last year compiled into a sort-of greatest hits disc, Philosophy: The Best Of Bill Hicks. Now, two new discs have been added to the official canon, Love, Laughter And Truth and Flying Saucer Tour Vol 1 - Live In Pittsburg. Further releases of the best of Bill's stand-up routines have been promised. Some of the material on the new discs will be familiar to fans of the first four, some will be new to them. All of it is delivered with the intensity and passion we associate with Bill, a comedian without equal, then or now. 

Bill's eloquent, scatological routines weren't ahead of their time - he just concentrated on the timeless. When Bill rants about George Michael and Willie Nelson selling out and doing commercials think U2 taking Microsoft's corporate schilling and think Moby selling almost every track off Play for use in commercials. Think Britney when Bill rants about Debbie Gibson. Think WestLife when Bill rants about New Kids On The Block. Think Robbie Williams when Bill rants about Billy Ray Cyrus. When Bill rants about 1991's Gulf War Distraction think today's Great War on Terror. And when Bill rants about George Bush ... 

We don't need Bill with us today, he's fine where he is, up there with Jimi Hendrix on that spaceship in the stars - we just need to listen to the things he told us then, ten and fifteen years ago. He's as inspiring today as he was inspired then. His caustic observations and wild cultural interconnections hit the target as hard today as they did then. 

I dreamed I saw Bill Hicks last night, alive as you or me, says I to Bill you're ten years dead, I never died says he ... 

Some presidential history. Look what happens when a President gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end. Also notice it goes in increments of 20 years. 

>1840: William Henry Harrison (died in office)

>1860: Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)

>1880: James A. Garfield (assassinated)

>1900: William McKinley (assassinated)

>1920: Warren G. Harding (died in office)

>1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (dies in office)

>1960: John F. Kennedy (assassinated)

>1980: Ronald Reagan (survived assassination attempt)

>2000: George W. Bush ???????????? 

And to think that we had two guys fighting it out in the courts to be the >one elected in 2000. 

You might also be interested in this. 

Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. 

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. 

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. 

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head. 

Now it gets really weird. 

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln. 

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson. 

>Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.

>Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. 

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. 

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. 

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters. 

Now hang on to your seat. 

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.' 

Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by'Ford.' 

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse. 

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a

theater. 

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. 

And here's the kicker... 

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe,Maryland

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe. 

The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send
jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?

From: Issue 77 | December 2003, Page 68 By: Charles Fishman Photographs by: Livia Corona 

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian,
their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is
entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

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Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad
scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of
pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."

Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers sell a quart,
Wal-Mart may have provided a ser-vice for its customers. But what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing customers that they
should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was practically giving them away. And the fevered buying spree that resulted distorted every aspect of
Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory to financial statement.

Indeed, as Vlasic discovered, the real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its
suppliers in the name of bringing us "every day low prices." It's the story of what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S.
manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole. That story can be found floating in a gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can
be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what

number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does
more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's
J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to
have become an entirely different order of corporate being.

Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a
clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what
almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze
profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay
off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.

Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is
helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to
"Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all
Chinese exports to the United States.

One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market. "One of the things that limits or slows
the growth of imports is the cost of establishing connections and networks," says Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist. "Wal-Mart is so big and
so centralized that it can all at once hook Chinese and other suppliers into its digital system. So--wham!--you have a large switch to overseas sourcing in a
period quicker than under the old rules of retailing."

Steve Dobbins has been bearing the brunt of that switch. He's president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread,
yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers--half of which supply Wal-Mart. Carolina Mills grew steadily until 2000. But in the past three years, as its
customers have gone either overseas or out of business, it has shrunk from 17 factories to 7, and from 2,600 employees to 1,200. Dobbins's customers have
begun to face imported clothing sold so cheaply to Wal-Mart that they could not compete even if they paid their workers nothing.

"People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and
it's great to have bargains," says Dobbins. "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."

The gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart became a devastating success, giving Vlasic strong sales and growth numbers--but slashing its profits by millions of dollars. 

There is no question that Wal-Mart's relentless drive to squeeze out costs has benefited consumers. The giant retailer is at least partly responsible for the low
rate of U.S. inflation, and a McKinsey & Co. study concluded that about 12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be
traced to Wal-Mart alone.

There is also no question that doing business with Wal-Mart can give a supplier a fast, heady jolt of sales and market share. But that fix can come with
long-term consequences for the health of a brand and a business. Vlasic, for example, wasn't looking to build its brand on a gallon of whole pickles. Pickle
companies make money on "the cut," slicing cucumbers into spears and hamburger chips. "Cucumbers in the jar, you don't make a whole lot of money there,"
says Steve Young, a former vice president of grocery marketing for pickles at Vlasic, who has since left the company.

At some point in the late 1990s, a Wal-Mart buyer saw Vlasic's gallon jar and started talking to Pat Hunn about it. Hunn, who has also since left Vlasic, was
then head of Vlasic's Wal-Mart sales team, based in Dallas. The gallon intrigued the buyer. In sales tests, priced somewhere over $3, "the gallon sold like
crazy," says Hunn, "surprising us all." The Wal-Mart buyer had a brainstorm: What would happen to the gallon if they offered it nationwide and got it below
$3? Hunn was skeptical, but his job was to look for ways to sell pickles at Wal-Mart. Why not?

And so Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles went into every Wal-Mart, some 3,000 stores, at $2.97, a price so low that Vlasic and Wal-Mart were making only a penny
or two on a jar, if that. It was showcased on big pallets near the front of stores. It was an abundance of abundance. "It was selling 80 jars a week, on average, in
every store," says Young. Doesn't sound like much, until you do the math: That's 240,000 gallons of pickles, just in gallon jars, just at Wal-Mart, every week.
Whole fields of cucumbers were heading out the door.

For Vlasic, the gallon jar of pickles became what might be called a devastating success. "Quickly, it started cannibalizing our non-Wal-Mart business," says
Young. "We saw consumers who used to buy the spears and the chips in supermarkets buying the Wal-Mart gallons. They'd eat a quarter of a jar and throw the
thing away when they got moldy. A family can't eat them fast enough."

The gallon jar reshaped Vlasic's pickle business: It chewed up the profit margin of the business with Wal-Mart, and of pickles generally. Procurement had to
scramble to find enough pickles to fill the gallons, but the volume gave Vlasic strong sales numbers, strong growth numbers, and a powerful place in the world
of pickles at Wal-Mart. Which accounted for 30% of Vlasic's business. But the company's profits from pickles had shriveled 25% or more, Young
says--millions of dollars.

The gallon was hoisting Vlasic and hurting it at the same time.

Young remembers begging Wal-Mart for relief. "They said, 'No way,' " says Young. "We said we'll increase the price"--even $3.49 would have helped
tremendously--"and they said, 'If you do that, all the other products of yours we buy, we'll stop buying.' It was a clear threat." Hunn recalls things a little
differently, if just as ominously: "They said, 'We want the $2.97 gallon of pickles. If you don't do it, we'll see if someone else might.' I knew our competitors
were saying to Wal-Mart, 'We'll do the $2.97 gallons if you give us your other business.' " Wal-Mart's business was so indispensable to Vlasic, and the gallon
so central to the Wal-Mart relationship, that decisions about the future of the gallon were made at the CEO level.

Finally, Wal-Mart let Vlasic up for air. "The Wal-Mart guy's response was classic," Young recalls. "He said, 'Well, we've done to pickles what we did to orange
juice. We've killed it. We can back off.' " Vlasic got to take it down to just over half a gallon of pickles, for $2.79. Not long after that, in January 2001, Vlasic
filed for bankruptcy--although the gallon jar of pickles, everyone agrees, wasn't a critical factor.

By now, it is accepted wisdom that Wal-Mart makes the companies it does business with more efficient and focused, leaner and faster. Wal-Mart itself is
known for continuous improvement in its ability to handle, move, and track merchandise. It expects the same of its suppliers. But the ability to operate at peak
efficiency only gets you in the door at Wal-Mart. Then the real demands start. The public image Wal-Mart projects may be as cheery as its yellow smiley-face
mascot, but there is nothing genial about the process by which Wal-Mart gets its suppliers to provide tires and contact lenses, guns and underarm deodorant at
every day low prices. Wal-Mart is legendary for forcing its suppliers to redesign everything from their packaging to their computer systems. It is also legendary
for quite straightforwardly telling them what it will pay for their goods.

"We are one of Wal-Mart's biggest suppliers, and they are our biggest customer, by far. We have a great relationship. That's all I can say. Are we done now?" 

John Fitzgerald, a former vice president of Nabisco, remembers Wal-Mart's reaction to his company's plan to offer a 25-cent newspaper coupon for a large bag
of Lifesavers in advance of Halloween. Wal-Mart told Nabisco to add up what it would spend on the promotion--for the newspaper ads, the coupons, and
handling--and then just take that amount off the price instead. "That isn't necessarily good for the manufacturer," Fitzgerald says. "They need things that draw
attention."

It also is not unheard of for Wal-Mart to demand to examine the private financial records of a supplier, and to insist that its margins are too high and must be
cut. And the smaller the supplier, one academic study shows, the greater the likelihood that it will be forced into damaging concessions. Melissa Berryhill, a
Wal-Mart spokeswoman, disagrees: "The fact is Wal-Mart, perhaps like no other retailer, seeks to establish collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships
with our suppliers."

For many suppliers, though, the only thing worse than doing business with Wal-Mart may be not doing business with Wal-Mart. Last year, 7.5 cents of every
dollar spent in any store in the United States (other than auto-parts stores) went to the retailer. That means a contract with Wal-Mart can be critical even for the
largest consumer-goods companies. Dial Corp., for example, does 28% of its business with Wal-Mart. If Dial lost that one account, it would have to double its
sales to its next nine customers just to stay even. "Wal-Mart is the essential retailer, in a way no other retailer is," says Gib Carey, a partner at Bain & Co., who
is leading a yearlong study of how to do business with Wal-Mart. "Our clients cannot grow without finding a way to be successful with Wal-Mart."

Many companies and their executives frankly admit that supplying Wal-Mart is like getting into the company version of basic training with an implacable Army
drill sergeant. The process may be unpleasant. But there can be some positive results.

"Everyone from the forklift driver on up to me, the CEO, knew we had to deliver [to Wal-Mart] on time. Not 10 minutes late. And not 45 minutes early, either,"
says Robin Prever, who was CEO of Saratoga Beverage Group from 1992 to 2000, and made private-label water sold at Wal-Mart. "The message came through
clearly: You have this 30-second delivery window. Either you're there, or you're out. With a customer like that, it changes your organization. For the better. It
wakes everybody up. And all our customers benefited. We changed our whole approach to doing business."

But you won't hear evenhanded stories like that from Wal-Mart, or from its current suppliers. Despite being a publicly traded company, Wal-Mart is intensely
private. It declined to talk in detail about its relationships with its suppliers for this story. More strikingly, dozens of companies contacted declined to talk about
even the basics of their business with Wal-Mart.

Here, for example, is an executive at Dial: "We are one of Wal-Mart's biggest suppliers, and they are our biggest customer by far. We have a great relationship.
That's all I can say. Are we done now?" Goaded a bit, the executive responds with an almost hysterical edge: "Are you meshuga? Why in the world would we
talk about Wal-Mart? Ask me about anything else, we'll talk. But not Wal-Mart."

No one wants to end up in what is known among Wal-Mart vendors as the "penalty box"--punished, or even excluded from the store shelves, for saying
something that makes Wal-Mart unhappy. (The penalty box is normally reserved for vendors who don't meet performance benchmarks, not for those who talk
to the press.)

"You won't hear anything negative from most people," says Paul Kelly, founder of Silvermine Consulting Group, a company that helps businesses work more
effectively with retailers. "It would be committing suicide. If Wal-Mart takes something the wrong way, it's like Saddam Hussein. You just don't want to piss
them off."

As a result, this story was reported in an unusual way: by speaking with dozens of people who have spent years selling to Wal-Mart, or consulting to companies
that sell to Wal-Mart, but who no longer work for companies that do business with Wal-Mart. Unless otherwise noted, the companies involved in the events
they described refused even to confirm or deny the basics of the events.

To a person, all those interviewed credit Wal-Mart with a fundamental integrity in its dealings that's unusual in the world of consumer goods, retailing, and
groceries. Wal-Mart does not cheat suppliers, it keeps its word, it pays its bills briskly. "They are tough people but very honest; they treat you honestly," says
Peter Campanella, who ran the business that sold Corning kitchenware products, both at Corning and then at World Kitchen. "It was a joke to do business with
most of their competitors. A fiasco."

But Wal-Mart also clearly does not hesitate to use its power, magnifying the Darwinian forces already at work in modern global capitalism.

Caught in the Wal-Mart squeeze, Huffy didn't just relinquish profits to keep its commitment to the retailer. It handed those profits to the competition. 

What does the squeeze look like at Wal-Mart? It is usually thoroughly rational, sometimes devastatingly so.

John Mariotti is a veteran of the consumer-products world--he spent nine years as president of Huffy Bicycle Co., a division of Huffy Corp., and is now
chairman of World Kitchen, the company that sells Oxo, Revere, Corning, and Ekco brand housewares.

He could not be clearer on his opinion about Wal-Mart: It's a great company, and a great company to do business with. "Wal-Mart has done more good for
America by several thousand orders of magnitude than they've done bad," Mariotti says. "They have raised the bar, and raised the bar for everybody."

Mariotti describes one episode from Huffy's relationship with Wal-Mart. It's a tale he tells to illustrate an admiring point he makes about the retailer. "They
demand you do what you say you are going to do." But it's also a classic example of the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't Wal-Mart squeeze. When
Mariotti was at Huffy throughout the 1980s, the company sold a range of bikes to Wal-Mart, 20 or so models, in a spread of prices and profitability. It was a
leading manufacturer of bikes in the United States, in places like Ponca City, Oklahoma; Celina, Ohio; and Farmington, Missouri.

One year, Huffy had committed to supply Wal-Mart with an entry-level, thin-margin bike--as many as Wal-Mart needed. Sales of the low-end bike took off. "I
woke up May 1"--the heart of the bike production cycle for the summer--"and I needed 900,000 bikes," he says. "My factories could only run 450,000." As it
happened, that same year, Huffy's fancier, more-profitable bikes were doing well, too, at Wal-Mart and other places. Huffy found itself in a bind.

With other retailers, perhaps, Mariotti might have sat down, renegotiated, tried to talk his way out of the corner. Not with Wal-Mart. "I made the deal up front
with them," he says. "I knew how high was up. I was duty-bound to supply my customer." So he did something extraordinary. To free up production in order
to make Wal-Mart's cheap bikes, he gave the designs for four of his higher-end, higher-margin products to rival manufacturers. "I conceded business to my
competitors, because I just ran out of capacity," he says. Huffy didn't just relinquish profits to keep Wal-Mart happy--it handed those profits to its competition.
"Wal-Mart didn't tell me what to do," Mariotti says. "They didn't have to." The retailer, he adds, "is tough as nails. But they give you a chance to compete. If
you can't compete, that's your problem."

In the years since Mariotti left Huffy, the bike maker's relationship with Wal-Mart has been vital (though Huffy Corp. has lost money in three out of the last
five years). It is the number-three seller of bikes in the United States. And Wal-Mart is the number-one retailer of bikes. But here's one last statistic about
bicycles: Roughly 98% are now imported from places such as China, Mexico, and Taiwan. Huffy made its last bike in the United States in 1999.

As Mariotti says, Wal-Mart is tough as nails. But not every supplier agrees that the toughness is always accompanied by fairness. The Lovable Company was
founded in 1926 by the grandfather of Frank Garson II, who was Lovable's last president. It did business with Wal-Mart, Garson says, from the earliest days of
founder Sam Walton's first store in Bentonville, Arkansas. Lovable made bras and lingerie, supplying retailers that also included Sears and Victoria's Secret. At
one point, it was the sixth-largest maker of intimate apparel in the United States, with 700 employees in this country and another 2,000 at eight factories in
Central America.

Eventually Wal-Mart became Lovable's biggest customer. "Wal-Mart has a big pencil," says Garson. "They have such awesome purchasing power that they
write their own ticket. If they don't like your prices, they'll go vertical and do it themselves--or they'll find someone that will meet their terms."

In the summer of 1995, Garson asserts, Wal-Mart did just that. "They had awarded us a contract, and in their wisdom, they changed the terms so dramatically
that they really reneged." Garson, still worried about litigation, won't provide details. "But when you lose a customer that size, they are irreplaceable."

Lovable was already feeling intense cost pressure. Less than three years after Wal-Mart pulled its business, in its 72nd year, Lovable closed. "They leave a lot to
be desired in the way they treat people," says Garson. "Their actions to pulverize people are unnecessary. Wal-Mart chewed us up and spit us out."

Believe it or not, American business has been through this before. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the grocery-store chain, stood astride the U.S. market
in the 1920s and 1930s with a dominance that has likely never been duplicated. At its peak, A&P had five times the number of stores Wal-Mart has now
(although much smaller ones), and at one point, it owned 80% of the supermarket business. Some of the antipredatory-pricing laws in use today were inspired
by A&P's attempts to muscle its suppliers.

There is very little academic and statistical study of Wal-Mart's impact on the health of its suppliers and virtually nothing in the last decade, when Wal-Mart's
size has increased by a factor of five. This while the retail industry has become much more concentrated. In large part, that's because it's nearly impossible to get
meaningful data that would allow researchers to track the influence of Wal-Mart's business on companies over time. You'd need cooperation from the vendor
companies or Wal-Mart or both--and neither Wal-Mart nor its suppliers are interested in sharing such intimate detail.

Bain & Co., the global management consulting firm, is in the midst of a project that asks, How does a company have a healthy relationship with Wal-Mart?
How do you avoid being sucked into the vortex? How do you maintain some standing, some leverage of your own?

This July, in a mating that had the relieved air of lovers who had too long resisted embracing, Levi Strauss rolled blue jeans into every Wal-Mart in the United States. 

Bain's first insights are obvious, if not easy. "Year after year," Carey, a partner at Bain & Co., says, "for any product that is the same as what you sold them last
year, Wal-Mart will say, 'Here's the price you gave me last year. Here's what I can get a competitor's product for. Here's what I can get a private-label version
for. I want to see a better value that I can bring to my shopper this year. Or else I'm going to use that shelf space differently.' "

Carey has a friend in the umbrella business who learned that. One year, because of costs, he went to Wal-Mart and asked for a 5% price increase. "Wal-Mart
said, 'We were expecting a 5% decrease. We're off by 10%. Go back and sharpen your pencil.' " The umbrella man scrimped and came back with a 2%
increase. "They said, 'We'll go with a Chinese manufacturer'--and he was out entirely."

The Wal-Mart squeeze means vendors have to be as relentless and as microscopic as Wal-Mart is at managing their own costs. They need, in fact, to turn
themselves into shadow versions of Wal-Mart itself. "Wal-Mart won't necessarily say you have to reconfigure your distribution system," says Carey. "But
companies recognize they are not going to maintain margins with growth in their Wal-Mart business without doing it."

The way to avoid being trapped in a spiral of growing business and shrinking profits, says Carey, is to innovate. "You need to bring Wal-Mart new
products--products consumers need. Because with those, Wal-Mart doesn't have benchmarks to drive you down in price. They don't have historical data, you
don't have competitors, they haven't bid the products out to private-label makers. That's how you can have higher prices and higher margins."

Reasonable advice, but not universally useful. There has been an explosion of "innovation" in toothbrushes and toothpastes in the past five years, for instance;
but a pickle is a pickle is a pickle.

Bain's other critical discovery is that consumers are often more loyal to product companies than to Wal-Mart. With strongly branded items people develop a
preference for--things like toothpaste or laundry detergent--Wal-Mart rarely forces shoppers to switch to a second choice. It would simply punish itself by
seeing sales fall, and it won't put up with that for long.

But as Wal-Mart has grown in market reach and clout, even manufacturers known for nurturing premium brands may find themselves overpowered. This July,
in a mating that had the relieved air of lovers who had too long resisted embracing, Levi Strauss rolled blue jeans into every Wal-Mart doorway in the United
States: 2,864 stores. Wal-Mart, seeking to expand its clothing business with more fashionable brands, promoted the clothes on its in-store TV network and with
banners slipped over the security-tag detectors at exit doors.

Levi's launch into Wal-Mart came the same summer the clothes maker celebrated its 150th birthday. For a century and a half, one of the most recognizable
names in American commerce had survived without Wal-Mart. But in October 2002, when Levi Strauss and Wal-Mart announced their engagement, Levi was
shrinking rapidly. The pressure on Levi goes back 25 years--well before Wal-Mart was an influence. Between 1981 and 1990, Levi closed 58 U.S.
manufacturing plants, sending 25% of its sewing overseas.

Sales for Levi peaked in 1996 at $7.1 billion. By last year, they had spiraled down six years in a row, to $4.1 billion; through the first six months of 2003, sales
dropped another 3%. This one account--selling jeans to Wal-Mart--could almost instantly revive Levi.

Last year, Wal-Mart sold more clothing than any other retailer in the country. It also sold more pairs of jeans than any other store. Wal-Mart's own inexpensive
house brand of jeans, Faded Glory, is estimated to do $3 billion in sales a year, a house brand nearly the size of Levi Strauss. Perhaps most revealing in terms
of Levi's strategic blunders: In 2002, half the jeans sold in the United States cost less than $20 a pair. That same year, Levi didn't offer jeans for less than $30.

For much of the last decade, Levi couldn't have qualified to sell to Wal-Mart. Its computer systems were antiquated, and it was notorious for delivering clothes
late to retailers. Levi admitted its on-time delivery rate was 65%. When it announced the deal with Wal-Mart last year, one fashion-industry analyst bluntly
predicted Levi would simply fail to deliver the jeans.

But Levi Strauss has taken to the Wal-Mart Way with the intensity of a near-death religious conversion--and Levi's executives were happy to talk about their
experience getting ready to sell at Wal-Mart. One hundred people at Levi's headquarters are devoted to the new business; another 12 have set up in an office in
Bentonville, near Wal-Mart's headquarters, where the company has hired a respected veteran Wal-Mart sales account manager.

Getting ready for Wal-Mart has been like putting Levi on the Atkins diet. It has helped everything--customer focus, inventory management, speed to market. It
has even helped other retailers that buy Levis, because Wal-Mart has forced the company to replenish stores within two days instead of Levi's previous five-day
cycle.

And so, Wal-Mart might rescue Levi Strauss. Except for one thing.

Levi didn't actually have any clothes it could sell at Wal-Mart. Everything was too expensive. It had to develop a fresh line for mass retailers: the Levi Strauss
Signature brand, featuring Levi Strauss's name on the back of the jeans.

Two months after the launch, Levi basked in the honeymoon glow. Overall sales, after falling for the first six months of 2003, rose 6% in the third quarter;
profits in the summer quarter nearly doubled. All, Levi's CEO said, because of Signature.

"They are all very rational people. And they had a good point. Everyone was willing to pay more for a Master Lock. But how much more can they justify?" 

But the low-end business isn't a business Levi is known for, or one it had been particularly interested in. It's also a business in which Levi will find itself
competing with lean, experienced players such as VF and Faded Glory. Levi's makeover might so improve its performance with its non-Wal-Mart suppliers that
its established business will thrive, too. It is just as likely that any gains will be offset by the competitive pressures already dissolving Levi's premium brands,
and by the cannibalization of its own sales. "It's hard to see how this relationship will boost Levi's higher-end business," says Paul Farris, a professor at the
University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. "It's easy to see how this will hurt the higher-end business."

If Levi clothing is a runaway hit at Wal-Mart, that may indeed rescue Levi as a business. But what will have been rescued? The Signature line--it includes
clothing for girls, boys, men, and women--is an odd departure for a company whose brand has long been an American icon. Some of the jeans have the look, the
fingertip feel, of pricier Levis. But much of the clothing has the look and feel it must have, given its price (around $23 for adult pants): cheap. Cheap and
disappointing to find labeled with Levi Strauss's name. And just five days before the cheery profit news, Levi had another announcement: It is closing its last
two U.S. factories, both in San Antonio, and laying off more than 2,500 workers, or 21% of its workforce. A company that 22 years ago had 60 clothing plants
in the United States--and that was known as one of the most socially reponsible corporations on the planet--will, by 2004, not make any clothes at all. It will just
import them.

In the end, of course, it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart. Part of Wal-Mart's dominance, part of its insight,
and part of its arrogance, is that it presumes to speak for American shoppers.

If Wal-Mart doesn't like the pricing on something, says Andrew Whitman, who helped service Wal-Mart for years when he worked at General Foods and Kraft,
they simply say, "At that price we no longer think it's a good value to our shopper. Therefore, we don't think we should carry it."

Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something
that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina
Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under
those restrictions."

Randall Larrimore, a former CEO of MasterBrand Industries, the parent company of Master Lock, understands that contradiction too well. For years, he says,
as manufacturing costs in the United States rose, Master Lock was able to pass them along. But at some point in the 1990s, Asian manufacturers started
producing locks for much less. "When the difference is $1, retailers like Wal-Mart would prefer to have the brand-name padlock or faucet or hammer,"
Larrimore says. "But as the spread becomes greater, when our padlock was $9, and the import was $6, then they can offer the consumer a real discount by
carrying two lines. Ultimately, they may only carry one line."

In January 1997, Master Lock announced that, after 75 years making locks in Milwaukee, it would begin importing more products from Asia. Not too long
after, Master Lock opened a factory of its own in Nogales, Mexico. Today, it makes just 10% to 15% of its locks in Milwaukee--its 300 employees there mostly
make parts that are sent to Nogales, where there are now 800 factory workers.

Larrimore did the first manufacturing layoffs at Master Lock. He negotiated with Master Lock's unions himself. He went to Bentonville. "I loved dealing with
Wal-Mart, with Home Depot," he says. "They are all very rational people. There wasn't a whole lot of room for negotiation. And they had a good point.
Everyone was willing to pay more for a Master Lock. But how much more can they justify? If they can buy a lock that has arguably similar qual-ity, at a
cheaper price, well, they can get their consumers a deal."

It's Wal-Mart in the role of Adam Smith's invisible hand. And the Milwaukee employees of Master Lock who shopped at Wal-Mart to save money helped that
hand shove their own jobs right to Nogales. Not consciously, not directly, but inevitably. "Do we as consumers appreciate what we're doing?" Larrimore asks.
"I don't think so. But even if we do, I think we say, Here's a Master Lock for $9, here's another lock for $6--let the other guy pay $9."

Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com ) is a senior writer at Fast Company . Andrew Moesel provided research assistance for this story.

Weird and Wacky Reigned Supreme in 2003

Jan 1, 9:15 am ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - From the Polish undertaker caught smuggling cigarettes in a hearse to a pair of one-legged Brazilian prisoners skipping jail, the weird and wacky reigned supreme around the world in 2003.

Oddball tales abounded with Canadian prisoners being offered fruit-flavored condoms, Cambodians being urged to eat more dogs and China axing hemorrhoid TV ads during meal times.

Tales of love gone sour were plentiful. A Filipino housewife wreaked revenge on her hapless spouse by cutting off his penis while he slept, after she discovered text messages from another woman on his mobile phone.

Not to be outdone, an Italian pensioner beat her husband to death with a scrubbing brush because the couple had never had children.

Vasectomies caused some truly weird headlines.

In London, a vasectomy brought train services grinding to a halt. A trainee driver fell out of his cab after fainting over fellow workers' graphic descriptions of the operation.

A Brazilian man who went to a clinic to have an aching ear checked ended up having a vasectomy after mistakenly believing that the doctor had called his name.

In Tanzania, a man cut off his genitals in an attempt to win sympathy from friends and relatives after squandering the money they lent him on prostitutes and alcohol.

POSSUMS ON A POWER TRIP

The animal kingdom invariably raises a smile and 2003 was no exception.

Possums on a power trip in New Zealand sparked a blaze when they climbed a pole and short-circuited the electricity line.

Queen bees now have to slum it under new European Union rules which only allow a retinue of 20 bees to accompany the queen on her voyage.

A French hunter was shot by his dog after he left a loaded shotgun in the boot of his car with two dogs, and one accidentally stepped on the trigger.

Cambodian canines had to run for cover after people in Phnom Penh were urged to eat more dogs as part of a crackdown on stray mutts wandering around the capital.

A German man who taught his dog Adolf to give a Hitler salute by raising his right paw was charged with violating Germany's anti-Nazi laws.

German humor was once thought to be as scarce as tasty British food, charming French waiters and punctual Italian trains, but a new generation of Germans have developed a taste for the offbeat.

A priest in Duisburg used an old washing machine to brew beer, a stumbling bank robber in Giessen forgot to cut open eye slits in his mask and 937 Germans set a mass yodeling record.

But no corner of the earth was off-limits for the bizarre.

Fijians apologized to descendants of a British missionary killed and eaten by their ancestors more than 130 years ago.

Moscow's Bolshoi Theater sacked an ice-cream-loving prima ballerina, saying she was too heavy and too tall for most of her dance partners to lift.

Six British schoolboys were rushed to hospital after taking the erection-enhancing drug Viagra at lunchtime for a dare.

But at least they were spared the constant embarrassment of a British couple who were forced to change houses because of the shame caused by the name of their street -- Butt Hole Road.

Brazil Starts Fingerprinting U.S. Travelers 
1 hour, 15 minutes ago

BRASILIA, Brazil  - Brazilian (news - web sites) police on Thursday began fingerprinting and photographing U.S. visitors on orders of a judge who compared planned U.S. security controls on travelers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi horrors. 

Related Links
� US-VISIT Program (dhs.gov)

Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva, furious at U.S. plans to fingerprint and photograph millions of visitors on entering the United States, ordered Brazil's authorities do the same to U.S. citizens starting on Thursday. 

"We've begun doing this," said a Federal Police spokeswoman at Brazil's Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo. 

The judge's order came after Brazil's Federal Public Ministry filed a complaint in court over the U.S. measure. 

The US-VISIT system is meant to identify people who have violated immigration controls, have criminal records or belong to groups listed as terrorist organizations by the United States. 

Starting on Monday, people who need visas to enter the United States will be digitally fingerprinted and photographed when they pass through immigration at major U.S. airports and seaports. 

The measure does not apply to citizens of 27, mainly European, nations who do not need a visa to enter the United States. 

"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," said Sebastiao da Silva in the court order released on Tuesday. 

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil were not immediately available to comment. 

Federal Police in Sao Paulo were not able to confirm how many ports of entry had begun the controls and how many U.S. citizens had been fingerprinted and photographed so far. 

The order by Sebastiao da Silva, a regional federal judge in the state of Mato Grosso, can be overturned by Brazil's justice system if he is considered to be acting outside of his powers, a Federal Police spokesman said. 

Brazilian Foreign Ministry officials were not available to comment on the ruling, which urges the government to pressure the United States to exempt Brazilians from the US-VISIT system.

AP: Weather Service Storm Detector Faulty 

Sat Dec 27, 1:25 PM ET

By LARRY MARGASAK, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The National Weather Service (news - web sites) bought and installed defective equipment designed to keep power flowing to storm-detecting radar, then quietly replaced the problem system by paying the same contractor for replacements, government documents show. 

An internal investigation has concluded Weather Service officials "seriously mishandled" the contract by paying for the failed units, rather than forcing the contractor to cover the costs as a government lawyer had repeatedly urged. 

The probe also found officials bought the second set of equipment without considering competitive bidding, and made no mention of the decision to pay for defective equipment in official records, according to documents obtained by The News Source. 

"How easy it was for a handful of people to violate established public policy for contracting," said Robert Curtis, the Weather Service contracting specialist for the original contract and the settlement. During that process, Curtis complained to a top official that the settlement he was ordered to write would improperly pay the contractor for the defective equipment. 

Curtis then was fired; the reasons for his dismissal are in litigation. 

Curtis said several government officials, who agreed to pay for the failed equipment, decided to "go off and do their own thing without anyone understanding what was going on, in a major program that impacted national safety." The payments went to the prime contractor, Powerware Corp., of Raleigh, N.C. 

Powerware officials declined comment. 

Officials at the Weather Service said they have no indication that the radar ever failed during a critical storm because of the problems. 

They said they paid Powerware because they believed the technical specifications they originally wrote were to blame for the equipment failures, not the contractor's workmanship.

Asked why the decision to pay and the added costs to taxpayers weren't disclosed in the contract paperwork, a senior Weather Service contracting officer who worked on the dispute said he didn't review the settlement closely enough. 

The contracting official, John O. Thompson, blamed Curtis - the whistleblower - for negotiating the deal. Curtis denied ever agreeing to pay for defective equipment, and documents show he had already complained to superiors about irregularities before Thompson completed documents explaining the negotiations. 

"I wasn't aware of how he had handled it," Thompson said, explaining why his documents didn't mention paying for defective equipment. "I didn't go through the file in enough detail to find the information that apparently was buried there." 

The "transitional power source" equipment was supposed to ensure uninterrupted power to more than 150 advanced, next-generation radar sites that provide crucial warnings of severe weather, especially developing thunderstorms and tornadoes. 

Without this system, the radar can lose critical data during power interruptions. The Weather Service shut down the faulty equipment in May 2000, two years after the first units were installed. By that time, the faulty units were at 94 sites. 

The government replaced the system with units with older technology but which had performed well. Those, too, were bought from Powerware Corp. 

Officials also can't agree on the government's extra cost from the failures. 

The inspector general of the Weather Service's parent, the Commerce Department (news - web sites), said the amount was $4.5 million but the fired specialist, Curtis, alleges it was $18.5 million. 

"We found that NWS (National Weather Service) did indeed pay for defective equipment," the inspector general reported in September. 

"We also found that once the ... units began to fail," the contracting officials "seriously mishandled the acquisition/management process," the inspector general found. 

Documents obtained by News Source show the Commerce Department lawyer providing legal advice on the contract, Mark Langstein, repeatedly wrote in internal bulletins that the contractor should be held responsible for the cost of the defective equipment. 

"We are in a potential claim situation" against Powerware, he wrote Dec. 18, 1999. On Sept. 23, 2000, Langstein said Powerware was "bent on passing along almost all increased costs resulting from its non-compliance to the government." 

However, less than two weeks after his last warning on Nov. 18, 2000, Langstein said, he changed his mind and approved the deal. He said the government's performance standards for the equipment couldn't be met. 

But unlike his written warnings, no record can be found of Langstein's approval. Asked whether he provided written consent, Langstein answered, "I believe I did, but I can't locate it." 

Curtis, the whistleblower, took his complaints to a high-ranking Commerce Department financial officer alleging the arrangement was fraudulent. 

The official, Stewart Remer, told him to contact the inspector general, who reports on fraud, waste and abuse. 

Remer said in an interview he also notified a second senior Commerce official. But that official, Helen Hurcombe, head of the division that handles Weather Service contracts, said in an interview she does not recall receiving a complaint of impropriety at that time. 

___ 

On the Net: 

National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Woman Has Heart Attack on Jet Full of MDs

Wed Dec 31,12:54 PM ET

LONDON - A flight in the United States proved lucky for a British woman who suffered a heart attack. Fifteen heart specialists, all bound for a medical conference in Florida, stood up to offer help when a cabin attendant asked, "Is there a doctor on board?" 

Dorothy Fletcher, 67, who had been on her way from Britain to her daughter's wedding, said Wednesday that she owed her life to the doctors. 

"I was in a very bad way and they all rushed to help," she said. 

"I wish I could thank them but I have no idea who they were, other than that they were going to a conference in Orlando." 

Fletcher, who lives in Liverpool, northwestern England, spent two days in intensive care at the Charlotte Medical Center in North Carolina following the heart attack on Nov. 7. 

She spent three more days in the hospital, but still made it to her daughter Caroline's wedding. 

Officials Worry About Sea-Based Terror

Thu Jan 1, 7:15 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By LESLIE MILLER, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Terror strikes from the sea could be even more catastrophic than those from the air, intelligence officials say. They fear a hijacked oil tanker could be rigged with explosives or a radioactive dirty bomb could be smuggled ashore in a shipping container. 

But almost 5,000 ships and about four out of every five of the nation's ports, ferry terminals and fuel-chemical tank farms failed to meet a Wednesday deadline for submitting security plans showing how they will deal with those potential threats. 

Security measures to prevent attacks at seaports and inland waterways have fallen far behind efforts to protect airports and airplanes since the 2001 terrorist attacks. 

Congress last year ordered the maritime shipping industry to tighten security amid fears that an attack on a port could kill thousands, cause tremendous property damage and cost tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue to the U.S. economy. 

Coast Guard officials said the deadline for submitting the plans was met by about 5,200 of 10,000 ships told to submit them and only 1,100 of 5,000 port facilities - despite a potential fine of $25,000. 

"We do not have all the plans," Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter said. "We recognize that despite our best efforts, there are those who won't comply for a variety of reasons." 

Wednesday also was the deadline for airports to start screening all airline baggage electronically for explosives. But Deputy Homeland Security Secretary James Loy told Congress two months ago that the deadline would not be met at five airports. "A handful" of airports still don't have the screening equipment installed, said Darrin Kayser, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman. 

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress required the electronic screeners to be in place a year ago. But when it became clear it couldn't be met, lawmakers moved the deadline back a year. 

One reason ships, ports and other facilities were missing their deadline is they were given too little time, said Maureen Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Port Authorities. The government didn't finalize what it wanted until Oct. 22, though the industry was told July 1 they had six months to submit the plans. 

Ellis also said some ports found the regulations and requirements to be "overwhelming." The "plan review approval form" for cruise ship terminals, for example, is 20 pages long. 

The new law requires a difficult attitude adjustment, said Thomas Allegretti, president of the American Waterways Association, which represents owners and operators of tugboats and barges. It's hard for tugboat captains, used to worrying about running aground, to suddenly start thinking about a terrorist hijacking a tanker and using it to inflict damage, he said. 

The tugboat and barge industry submitted plans to the Coast Guard that include training crews about potential threats, securing vessels' perimeters and restricting access to vessels, Allegretti said. 

Lt. Cmdr. Richard Teubner said the Coast Guard expects to get plans in the mail next week from many ports, stevedoring companies, offshore oil drillers and ship owners. 

The plans have to be implemented by July 1, when the Coast Guard can start turning away ships and shutting down ports that don't comply. 

James Carafano, a homeland security expert with the Heritage Foundation, thinks major ports will meet the July deadline. Otherwise, he said, "the economic consequences are too horrifying to contemplate." 

For others, finding the money for fences, guards, lights or closed-circuit TV will be difficult, Ellis said. 

"It's one thing to come up with a plan to see what you need to do, but it's a whole other issue how it's going to be paid for," she said. 

The General Accounting Office (news - web sites), Congress's investigative arm, agrees that paying for the security upgrades will be a challenge. "Where the money will come from to meet these funding needs is not clear," the congressional auditors said in a Dec. 15 letter to Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. 

As one example, the new regulations require more than 4,000 U.S. ships to install transponders that transmit a signal, giving port officials early warning of an unidentified vessel. But only a handful of ports have the money for installing the equipment to receive the signals, the GAO said. 

The Coast Guard estimates that meeting the new requirements will cost $7.4 billion over the next decade. 

___ 

On the Net: 

The Coast Guard's port security Web site: 

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/mp/index.shtml 

Association of American Port Authorities: http://www.aapa-ports.org 

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov 

American Waterways Association: http://www.americanwaterways.com 

Apple Users Threaten to Sue Over IBook, IPod

Wed Dec 31, 4:52 PM ET

Add Technology 

By Ben Berkowitz and Caroline Humer 

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK  - Can a few bad apples -- like product quality complaints and potential lawsuits -- spoil the bunch for loyal fans of Apple Computer Inc. ahead of their biggest party of the year? 

As enthusiasts devoted to Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) prepare to descend on San Francisco next week for the annual Macworld conference, at least two online petitions have collected hundreds of signatures from potential plaintiffs seeking to file lawsuits over claims of defects in the iBook laptop. 

Another growing source of complaints surrounds Apple's wildly-popular iPod line of digital music players, which many enthusiasts believe will get an upgrade at Macworld with the introduction of smaller, less-expensive models and a range of case colors. 

In California, a lawsuit seeking class-action status is expected to be filed January against the company over the claim that Apple's warranty does not run long enough to cover problems with the player's battery. 

Apple has won raves over the years for its sleekly designed computers. The company, with a market share of around 2 percent, is able to command higher prices due in part to Apple machines being perceived as more secure and reliable than PCs running Microsoft's Windows operating system. 

Taken together, both consumer campaigns against a company that prides itself on high standards for design and engineering threaten to cast a shadow over Macworld, historically a forum for Apple and its charismatic leader, Steve Jobs (news - web sites), to showcase new products and innovations. 

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on both questions of pending litigation and the claims of defective computers. 

OLD PROBLEM 

Users of Apple's iBook have been reporting problems with their iBooks in increasing numbers in the last few weeks, according to Ric Ford, president of MacIntouch Inc., which runs the MacIntouch.com Website, an independent site for Mac users. 

But Ford attributed the increased chatter more to the fact that some users have narrowed in on the cause of the long-standing problems rather than the impending start of the Macworld show. 

"I don't think it's really related to Macworld," Ford said. "I think the problems have been there, but people are starting to understand the source of the problems." 

The difficulties stem from the iBook's logic board, or motherboard, users say in discussion forums and on message boards -- including boards on Apple's own Web site. Many users report replacement units have the same problems with display and video output. 

Most of the complaints pertain to a particular iBook model with dual USB ports, and many users say the problems started to show up just after the computer came out of warranty. 

One of the petition sites, BlackCider.com, which uses as its logo an apple with a screw run through it, has 408 signatures from potential lawsuit participants. 

Site owner Michael Johnson (news - web sites) also offers T-shirts with the site logo on front and "Ask me about my logic board" on back. 

The other Web site, created by Brendan Carolan at PetitionOnline.com, has collected 850 signatures and calls on Apple to either extend the iBook warranties or offer a replacement.

Neither Johnson nor Carolan were immediately available for comment. 

The claims of problems have also extended to the company's higher-end PowerBook line. Macworld magazine, in its December issue, said it had to return three of six 15-inch aluminum PowerBook G4s it ordered for testing purposes because of defects. 

Meanwhile, a video making the rounds of the Internet shows a man spray-painting the message "IPod's unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months" on iPod posters. 

The filmmaker, Casey Neistat, said in a note on his Web site, ipodsdirtysecret.com, that he decided to make the film after his unit essentially died in September and he was told the battery could not be replaced. Subsequently, Apple has begun offering a $99 battery replacement service. 

Phony Paris Hiltons Buy Plenty of Pizza

Dec 30, 9:21 am ET 

CHICAGO  - The simple life has rubbed off on hotel heiress Paris Hilton -- or so one would think judging by the amount of Domino's pepperoni pizza ordered in her name.

"Paris Hilton" is the No. 1 fake name used by people calling for pizza deliveries, according to a survey of Domino's Pizza drivers in Washington, D.C., released Monday by the pizza delivery chain. And 38 percent of those using the name of the socialite model ordered pepperoni topping.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft might want to open an investigation into these findings -- he was No. 2 on the list of assumed names used by people ordering pizza.

Of course, given his conservative bent, he probably wasn't among those answering the door in the nude, who the survey said tend to tip better than people who answer in their pajamas.

According to the survey of 630 drivers, nine percent of people who answer the door in the nude tip more than 20 percent, compared with 2 percent of people in pajamas.

Among political pizza findings, people with "Dean for President" bumper stickers on cars in their driveways tipped 22 percent higher than people with "Bush for President" bumper stickers. People with "Bush for President" bumper stickers were three times more likely to order meat-topped pizzas than "Dean for President" drivers.

The night of the televised wedding of reality show contestants Trista and Ryan was the top pizza ordering night of the year in Washington, according to the survey. The announcement of the war in Iraq was No. 2, the Super Bowl No. 3 and the debut of Hilton's reality show "The Simple Life" was No.4.

And as an example of giving people what they want, the night Saddam Hussein was captured was the biggest tip night of the year. No. 2 was the night Madonna and Britney Spears kissed on the MTV Music Video awards. 

Santa Crashes from the Sky

Dec 30, 9:23 am ET 

BELGRADE  - A helicopter carrying a man dressed as Santa Claus to street celebrations in a Serbian town crashed on Tuesday, injuring several people.

The helicopter crashed a few hundred yards from a crowd of children gathered to greet Santa in the central town of Kragujevac, witnesses and local media said.

The pilot, co-pilot and the Santa were all injured, Beta news agency reported. Four people were injured but their lives were not in danger, a hospital official said. There was no word on the cause of the crash.

Serbs celebrate Orthodox Christmas on January 7 but children receive presents at New Year -- a legacy of communist rule when Christmas was not officially celebrated. 

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Member of Congress. But I repeat myself. Mark Twain

2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is
Like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill

3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw

4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. G. Gordon Liddy

5) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

6) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J. Clinton at Georgetown U. (1992)

7) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car
Keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

8) Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

9) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Ronald Reagan (1986)

10) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the
facts. Will Rogers

11) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. P.J. O'Rourke

12) If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist. Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)

13) In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire (1764)

14) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. Pericles (430 B.C.)

15) No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain (1866)

16) Talk is cheap-except when Congress does it. (Unknown)

17) The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy
Appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. Ronald Reagan

18) The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill

19) The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. Mark Twain

20) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

21) There is no distinctly Native American criminal class save Congress. Mark Twain

22) What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

Halliburton to Lose Iraq Oil Project 

3 minutes ago



By LARRY MARGASAK, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Just weeks after Pentagon (news - web sites) auditors said Halliburton may have overcharged taxpayers to import oil to Iraq (news - web sites), the Defense Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from its role in supervising the program. 

The Defense Energy Support Center, which buys fuel for the military throughout the world, will supervise the shipments and choose new contractors to replace Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s former company. 

"We're taking over the mission," the center's spokeswoman, Lynette Ebberts, said Tuesday. 

Democratic lawmakers have criticized the prices charged the U.S. government by Halliburton's KBR subsidiary, which has been importing refined petroleum products into Iraq under a mission awarded without competitive bids. Cheney headed Halliburton before running for vice president. 

Earlier this month, the Defense Department's auditing agency supported the Democrats' allegations, finding the company may have charged up to $61 million too much for delivering gasoline to Iraqi citizens. 

Ebberts would not comment on whether the audit prompted the change, which was ordered Dec. 23. 

President Bush (news - web sites) tried to calm the controversy, saying Halliburton should repay the government if it overcharged for fuel, which was imported from Iraq's neighboring countries. 

Halliburton has said it expected to be cleared by the Defense Department. The company said its pricing resulted from a contract with a Kuwaiti firm, the only company approved as a supplier by the Corps. 

Halliburton got its contract to rebuild Iraq's dilapidated oil industry as an outgrowth of a contract with the Army to provide emergency logistical help for situations such as the Iraq war. The Army Corps of Engineers opened the oil rebuilding process to competitive bidding earlier this year and was preparing to award up to $2 billion in replacement contracts. 

Those contracts will still be awarded for the rebuilding of Iraq's oil industry, but will no longer include oil imports, the Corps said. 

Richard J. Connelly, director of the support center, said the existing contract would remain in place for now, so that fuel deliveries will not be interrupted. 

Corps spokesman Robert Faletti said, "I don't believe the report had anything to do with the transfer." 

The support center said it would award contracts under competitive bidding, a process that could take two to three months, but would consider a short-term contract until the bids are awarded. 

U.S. to Ban Dietary Supplement Ephedra

13 minutes ago 


By JOHN SOLOMON, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has decided to ban the herbal weight-loss supplement ephedra from the marketplace because of concerns about its effects on health, government officials said Tuesday. 

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Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson and Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) chief Mark McClellan were to announce the ban at a midday news conference, the officials said, speaking only on condition of anonymity. 

The ban is likely to be met with litigation from manufacturers who dispute the agency's assertion that ephedra, which was blamed in the death of a professional baseball player earlier this year, is a health risk. 

The government ban, one of the first involving a dietary supplement, comes after Thompson this summer urged Congress to rewrite a law that rolled back dietary-supplement regulations and to require manufacturers to acknowledge potential side effects. 

Ephedra has been linked to as many as 100 deaths, officials have said. And Congress gathered testimony from families of people who are believed to have died from its side effects. Among those who testified were the parents of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, who died during spring training last February while trying to lose weight. Toxicology tests showed ephedra in his system. 

Executives of several companies that make ephedra-based products have said that studies have proven that they are safe when used properly. 

"Anyone who has read our label knows that we go to great lengths to inform our customers about the proper use of our products," said Russell Schreck, chief executive officer of San Diego-based nutritional supplement-maker Metabolife International. "We make it quite clear on our label that the ephedra products are not to be sold or used by minors and that customers with certain pre-existing medical conditions should 'consult a physician before product use'." 

But several scientists said that it was impossible to prove whether ephedra was safe because studies screen out participants who have health problems - the people most likely to be hurt by the product. 

The General Accounting Office (news - web sites), Congress' investigative arm, looked into the issue and found many people who reported problems had followed the label's instructions. 

The FDA had proposed warning labels and dosage limits for dietary supplements with ephedra back in 1997, but then withdrew the proposal after complaints from the industry and members of Congress. 

In 2001, the National Football League banned its players from using ephedra as a dietary supplement. 

Researchers Find Inhibitor of Deadly Anthrax Toxin

Mon Dec 29, 2:59 PM ET

Add U.S. National 

BOSTON  - A small group of molecules has been shown to inhibit a deadly toxin associated with inhalational anthrax, a discovery that could lead to new ways of treating the disease, researchers said on Monday. 

Scientists at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston said the finding may help in the development of a drug that, when combined with antibiotics, could treat inhalational anthrax at a point when antibiotics alone are no longer effective. 

Inhalational anthrax is the most serious form of the disease and can develop when people breathe in tiny anthrax spores. Another form, cutaneous anthrax, is a skin infection that can be treated easily. 

Unlike most types of bacteria, the anthrax germ can produce large amounts of a toxin that can kill a person even after antibiotics have destroyed the bacteria, said the study's senior author, Lewis Cantley. 

Autopsies of patients who have died of inhalational anthrax reveal that high doses of antibiotics have killed the bacteria, indicating that the patients died from the toxins. 

In October 2001, a series of anthrax-laced letters killed five people in the United States, including two Washington postal workers, and sickened 13. No one has been arrested in the attacks. 

Anthrax spores spilled out of the envelopes and spread through a series of post offices, infecting several people who never touched the contaminated letters. 

Writing in the January issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the researchers said their discovery could enable scientists to develop drugs capable of fighting the anthrax toxin in a way similar to the protease inhibitors that tackle the AIDS (news - web sites) virus. 

Protease inhibitors work by disabling native protease enzymes and -- like a key fitting perfectly into a lock -- they jam up the enzyme, rendering it ineffectual. 

Cantley, chief of the Division of Signal Transduction at Beth Israel and professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical, said there could be a number of advantages to using protease inhibitors to attack anthrax. 

"Unlike an anti-serum, which would require that whole populations be vaccinated -- regardless of whether or not an anthrax outbreak developed -- a therapeutic combination of antibiotics and protease inhibitor drugs wouldn't have to be used except in the incidence of actual disease," he said. 

French Thieves Drive Victim Home for Christmas Eve

Dec 26, 8:05 am ET 

PARIS  - A pair of thieves who seized a van loaded with pricey designer goods on Wednesday took a two-hour detour so they could drive the owner home for his Christmas Eve dinner, before fleeing with the loot.

Posing as police, the two men tricked the van driver into pulling over at a motorway intersection on the edge of Paris by chasing him in a car fitted with a flashing blue light, a siren and a "police" sign, local media reported on Friday.

Despite being armed with guns and wearing balaclavas, the thieves showed some seasonal goodwill when they asked their victim where he lived, explaining "we don't want you to have too far to walk," according to police sources.

They then drove the man around 300 km (185 miles) to his home in Saint Soupplets in eastern France, so he could arrive in time for the traditional Christmas meal which in France is eaten on the evening of December 24. Showing that Christmas spirit only goes so far, the man, whose van was loaded with clothes from labels like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, has filed a complaint with police. 

Japan Banishes Economic Blues with Xmas Lights

Dec 26, 12:00 am ET 

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO  - There are no chestnuts roasting by open fires in Japan at Christmas and chimneys to hang stockings by are few and far between.

It isn't even a holiday in this non-Christian nation and schoolchildren, at least in Tokyo, will be trudging off to get their report cards.

But Christmas lights and decorations on private homes are going strong -- perhaps an effort to chase away the shadows of economic gloom that have hovered over the nation for a decade.

Twinkling lights on trees, lights in the shape of reindeer and blinking lights nestled in artificial pine boughs are gracing ordinary Japanese homes in growing numbers.

"Back during the economic boom years, people would go out to a hotel to celebrate and spend lots of money on Christmas," said Tomoki Sakaino, a manager at Internet research firm infoPLANT.

"But people celebrate at home now, and lights and decorations are cheap. It's a good way to have fun."

According to a survey conducted by infoPLANT in 2002, 47 percent of people planned to put up lights for Christmas, up from 43 percent the year before. Other informal surveys suggest the practice has become much more common in recent years. "Our sales have really shot up," said Wataru Matsuyama, who runs a home center specializing in Christmas lights in Yamanashi, some 70 miles west of Tokyo. "At least 20 percent higher than last year."

Unlike venerable Japanese traditions such as the tea ceremony, there is no prescribed way to put up Christmas lights, which is a big part of their appeal.

"You can really show your originality," said Sakaino.

Businesses are also finding that elaborate Christmas displays bring seasonal cheer, as people flock to admire -- and spend.

"A lot of chambers of commerce are getting into this, using lights to decorate their local shopping areas," said Matsuyama.

"It brings people in and makes things more lively."

Japan also has a few home-grown Christmas traditions.

It has long been seen as an occasion for couples rather than families, with romantic dinners for two -- preferably at a Western restaurant -- the celebration of choice, along with an exchange of gifts. Those sad young people without a partner sometimes gather for consolation parties.

Like most of Japan's other Christmas rituals, this takes place on Christmas Eve rather than the day itself.

Since turkey is hard to come by and won't fit into the tiny oven in most Japanese homes, Christmas Eve dinner often features chicken, roasted or fried.

Kentucky Fried Chicken does a booming business and many stores have sales four or five times higher than usual.

"Around 1971, managers noticed that foreigners who couldn't find turkey were coming in to buy chicken for their Christmas meal and they suggested we promote this," said a spokeswoman at Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan . "It's now the best season for us."

Meals end with Christmas cake, traditionally a concoction of white sponge cake, strawberries and sweet whipped cream.

It's useless after the 25th, which gave rise at one point to the saying that women "were like Christmas cake" -- they ought to be married by 25. 

Vegetarian Virgin Mary Ad Riles Boston Church

Dec 24, 9:20 am ET 

BOSTON  - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Tuesday demanded the removal of an animal rights group's billboard advertisement depicting the Virgin Mary cradling a lifeless chicken in her arms.

The ad by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals features the tagline "Go Vegetarian -- It's an Immaculate Conception," a reference to teachings about Mary's purity.

But the church said the billboard was "offensive at any time" and especially so during the Christmas season.

"Why any organization would seek to garner goodwill for itself and its message by promoting an ad campaign that is so offensive to a large number of people within the community is unclear," the archdiocese said in a statement.

"What is clear is that if PETA truly cares about ethical behavior, the billboard message should be taken down as soon as possible," it added.

PETA said it has no plans to take down the billboard in Boston.

PETA said a similar advertisement went up in Providence, Rhode Island, earlier this month but was quickly removed by the billboard's owner amid similar complaints from Catholics there. 

Loose Screw Halts Nuclear Power Station

Dec 23, 10:25 am ET 

MADRID  - A Spanish nuclear power station has been shut indefinitely because of a small missing screw weighing just four to five grams that fell off a machine during refueling, nuclear officials say.

The Zorita plant, located in the central Castille-La Mancha region, cannot reopen until a full report on the screw is completed, a spokesman for the national Nuclear Security Council told The News Source on Monday.

Staff searched for the screw with cameras, but after failing to locate it on film, they concluded it must have slipped into an area of the reactor that was inaccessible to cameras, the spokesman said.

He said it was unlikely the missing screw would present any risk. 

Secondhand Smoke is Lethal 23-Dec-2003

It's been discovered that nonsmokers who spent only four hours in a smoky Las Vegas casino had elevated levels of a cancer-causing agent called NNAL in their urine. Their urine also contained elevated levels of cotinine, which is a byproduct of nicotine. Both these chemicals only come from tobacco. 

In abcnews.com, Marc Lallanilla quotes epidemiologist Robert West as saying, "This evidence could be dynamite. It is one thing to know that one is breathing in carcinogens; psychologically it is another to know that one's own body has been contaminated by them." 

"The unique aspect of this research is that it simulates real- life exposure," says epidemiologist Andrew Hyland. "The results show that even a four-hour stay in a smoky casino results in a significantly elevated body burden of a potent carcinogen. Previous epidemiologic studies have focused on long-term exposure, but this study shows that nonsmokers are being put at risk every time they go to a smoky establishment." 

Dr. John Spangler says, "The current study nails down the fact that a potent carcinogen is are found in the urine of individuals exposed to secondhand smoke. If it is in their urine, it certainly has circulated throughout their system."

The Biological Basis for Love 24-Dec-2003

There are a lot of cliches about love: that men should woo women with chocolate, that women feel emotional while guys feel sexual, that men in love get careless with money, that having sex will make you fall in love. Surprise!-It turns out that scientists have found a biological basis for every one of these. 

Using MRI scans, researchers found activity in the areas of the brain which are linked to energy and elation in people who claimed to be in love. But women's brains showed emotional responses, while men's responses were mostly sexual. Other areas of the brain changed as well-including one that's activated when people eat chocolate. 

These areas have high levels of dopamine, a chemical linked to feelings of pleasure. Dopamine gives lovers' brains a buzz that's similar to taking drugs. Researcher John Marsden says, "Attraction and lust really is like a drug. It leaves you wanting more." 

The more two people have sex together, the more likely they are to stay together. "We all know you can have sex without falling in love but if you have enough sex with the same person there's a good chance you will hit the body's booby- trap which is there to tip you head over heels into love," says Marsden. 

We have built-in protectors against incest, which we consider immoral but our body considers an unwise way to redistribute genes. Marsden says, "We tend to go for the smell of somebody who has a very different immune system and that stops you fancying your family." Danny Penman writes in New Scientist about psychologists who have proved that when they're in love, men become careless with money. Men were shown pictures of either average women or truly beautiful women, and both groups were offered either a check for a small amount of money right away or one for twice as much in the future. The men who saw the average-looking women opted for future gains, but those who glimpsed the beautiful babes chose to take the smaller check right away.

Cracks in the Solar Shield 10-Dec-2003

The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic shield that protects us from solar radiation. The problem is, it can leak. Researcher Harald Frey says, "We've discovered that our magnetic shield is drafty, like a house with a window stuck open during a storm. The house deflects most of the storm, but the couch is ruined." Can we safely colonize Mars, which does not have a shield to protect us from the sun?-Only if we're careful. 

Frey says, "...Our magnetic shield takes the brunt of space storms, but some energy slips through its cracks, sometimes enough to cause problems with satellites, radio communication, and power systems." Also, our radiation shield is weaker than usual at the moment, just when solar storms are at their height, because our magnetic poles are in the process of flipping. 

Colorful auroras, also known as Northern Lights, are one sign that a crack has developed. During times of high solar activity they can be seen much further south than usual. While auroras are usually seen in Canada and Alaska, on November 20th, people in the U.S. saw them in every state except Hawaii. 

Knowledge about our solar shield brings up a question: can we be safe in space? Solar radiation bombards the International Space Station regularly, and some of it gets through to the astronauts inside. But astronauts would be exposed to twice as much radiation on Mars as they get on board the ISS. 

In bbcnews.com, Richard Black quotes Cary Zeitlin, of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, as saying, "The dose [an] astronaut would receive on a Mars mission is large enough to be beyond what they've experienced in Earth orbit...People are going to the space station for about six months. A Mars mission would last around three years. And it's the duration of the exposure that becomes the issue...This radiation could perhaps lead to more cancers, more cataracts and nervous system damage." They might need to build shelters underground in order to survive.

Teens Have Terrible Health 11-Dec-2003

The least healthy age group is teenagers. In some ways, they are even less healthy than seniors, most of whom are at least addressing their health problems. Teens have more sexual diseases than any other group, as well as high rates of alcoholism and drug addiction. They also smoke more and eat unhealthy diets. There's a plague of teenage obesity and Type II diabetes. Dr. Russell Viner, who specializes in adolescent medicine, says, "It seems that adolescents are the only group whose health is getting worse." 

In the U.K., one in five 15-year-olds is overweight. One-fifth of teens have psychological problems, such as depression or anorexia. Few exercise enough and many binge drink. Less than 15% of teens eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables and almost 25% smoke cigarettes. One in ten teenage girls may be infected with Chlamydia, which can lead to infertility. 

In the New Scientist, Danny Penman quotes Viner as saying, "Better drugs are protecting older people from disease and vaccinations have brought huge improvements for infants, but for people in their teens, there are social health problems which mean worrying rates of accidents, suicide, drug use, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases." 

Government official Philip James says, "As a society we've abandoned any pretence of nurturing children in an appropriate environment. We've told them to eat what they like and do what they like and failed to inculcate them with good habits." 

Statistics in the U.K. mirror those here in the U.S., where soft drink companies pay schools to allow them to install vending machines and many teens rely on fast food for most of their meals. Also, in the U.S. we have a large number of Latino teens who are especially vulnerable to Type II diabetes, which is brought on by overweight. This is a disease that, until recently, was rarely seen in anyone younger than middle age.

SARS Kills Because it's a Hybrid 17-Dec-2003

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spreads so quickly and is so hard to treat, despite being related to the common cold, because it's formed from a rare combination of mammalian and avian viruses. That makes it unrecognizable by human immune systems. 

Geneticist David Guttman found that the proteins on the left side of the virus comes from mammals, such as cats, cows and mice, while the proteins on the right come from birds, such as chickens and ducks. The middle part of the virus is a mix of both. 

Our immune systems would usually recognize a coronavirus of bird origin, as most flu is, and start fighting it immediately. However, the part of it that originated with mammals allows it to sneak past our immune systems. 

Viruses often mutate, but this type of genetic change is more dangerous than most. Guttman says, "These recombination events have the potential to create an entirely new structure essentially instantaneously. Since our immune systems have never seen this new viral form, it is more difficult for them to respond to it in a timely and effective manner." He thinks that other flu viruses that hit especially hard in the past may have also been hybrids, such as the 1918 Spanish Influenza that killed over 20 million people. 

We now know that SARS was originally transmitted to humans from civet cats sold in southern Chinese food markets, but it's not known how it picked up the bird virus. "It's possible that a civet picked up the virus from a bird," says Guttman. "This could have created the opportunity for a very rare recombination event that produced a virus with a new host range. Basically, the recombinant virus is infectious to humans, while the two parent viruses are not. This new virus likely then spread to humans due to poor hygiene and close quarters in the food markets of Southern China." 

With regard to HIV, one of the most deadly viruses ever to infect humanity, it's been discovered that some people have a gene mutation which makes them more resistant to getting AIDS, despite having HIV. These people can carry the HIV virus in their bodies for years without developing symptoms. Since these people are of European ancestry, this is another reason why AIDS has become such a plague in Africa, where the gene mutation is not present. A new study by the University of California at Berkeley shows that the ancestors of people with this genetic mutation got it by surviving smallpox. 

About 10% percent of Europeans have this mutation, which arose 700 years ago. Earlier speculation was that these were people who had survived bubonic plague, but researcher Alison P. Galvani says, "Our population genetic model finds that genetic selection from plague wouldn't have been sufficient to drive the frequency of this genetic mutation to its current level. [However,] it was sufficient for smallpox." People with this mutation would also be more likely to survive smallpox today, at a time when terrorists are threatening to use it as a bioweapon. 

Bubonic plague hasn't been a major cause of death in Europe for 250 years, but smallpox was only eradicated in 1978, giving people more chances to develop the mutation. Also, most of the people exposed to smallpox were infected before the age of 10, and the disease's 30% mortality rate killed off those who were vulnerable to it, so they didn't live long enough to reproduce. Those who survived to adulthood had inherited the gene mutation, which they passed along to their offspring. 

"The Scandinavian countries in particular have very high frequencies of this [mutation]-14 to 16%--which some people have taken to mean that Vikings dispersed [it]," says Galvani. "But it could also be due to smallpox hitting Scandinavian countries harder. There were certainly some big smallpox epidemics in Scandinavia, whereas plague affected the continent more, in particular Italy and France." 

The mysteries of medicine mean that people who survive SARS today may have relatives in the distant future who are able to survive a deadly virus that comes along at that time.

Silver is Safer 26-Dec-2003

Getting ready to buy a new car? You might want to pay attention to new research showing that people driving silver- colored cars are 50% less likely to be injured in a serious crash. Even white cars don't protect you as well as silver. Researcher Sue Furness says, "We think it may be due to a combination of light color and high reflectivity." 

Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that white, yellow, gray, red and blue cars all have about the same crash risk, but black, brown or green cars are twice as likely to get into a crash causing serious injury. 

Roger Vincent, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, says, "If there's proof that certain colors are safer and easier to see in all road conditions that might be useful to people in terms of purchasing a car."

How to Be Lucky in 2004 31-Dec-2003

Psychologist Richard Wiseman says, "Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune." He says he's found the answer. 

Wiseman writes in bbcnews.com that he placed ads in national newspapers asking for people who felt they were always either lucky or unlucky to contact him, so he got lots of volunteers to study. He says, "The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune." He found that lucky people consistently encounter chance opportunities, while unlucky people don't. Since this doesn't make sense statistically, Wiseman studied them and found that lucky people were the ones who were able to spot the opportunities that came their way. 

He says, "I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win �250.' This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it." He found that unlucky people are more tense and depressed, perhaps because they expect the worst, and this disrupts their ability to notice what's going on around them. Wiseman says, "They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs." He says, "I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier." Here's what Wiseman told them to do: "Listen to your gut instincts-they are normally right. Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine. Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well. Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Soot is the Culprit 30-Dec-2003

NASA scientists can observe greenhouse gases from space, and they say soot, mostly from diesel engines, is causing as much as 25% of all global warming, by reducing the ability of snow and ice to reflect sunlight. "We suggest that soot contributes to near worldwide melting of ice that is usually attributed solely to global warming," say NASA's James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko. 

They say soot has twice the effect on global warming as carbon dioxide. This is actually not bad news, because while it will take money, replacing diesel engines is a possibility, while doing without fossil fuels is not-at least not for the near future. Besides diesel engines, other sources of soot come from the burning of wood, animal dung, and vegetable oil. 

Levels of airborne soot as high as about 100 parts per billion have been found in the Alps, which have begun to melt in the last few years. Parts of the world that do not produce much soot can still be affected by it, since it can be carried by the wind. NASA satellites can see a brown haze, caused by soot, in rapidly developing countries, such as India and China.

Why Fast Food Makes Us Fat & Booze Makes Us Drunk 30-Dec-2003

Every diet tells us to stay away from fast food, despite the fact that it contains some of the same ingredients that are supposed to be "good" for us. What is it about fast food that makes us fat? And why do some people become alcoholics, while others don't? 

The Medical Research Council says most fast food is high in fat and low in fiber, so it's very dense in calories. In other words, you only need to eat a little in order to get a lot of calories, and since so much of it is "super sized," we eat much more of it than we need. 

A typical fast food meal is 1* times higher in calories than a typical meal. That means you're eating too much, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time. Researcher Professor Andrew Prentice says, "We all possess a weak innate ability to recognize foods with a high energy density. We tend to assess food intake by the size of the portion, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similar-sized portion of a healthy meal." 

The latest issue of Consumer Reports points out that corn, which is subsidized by the U.S. government, is used to make the high fructose corn syrup that sweetens soft drinks, which is why they can be sold so cheaply. Consumer reports quotes nutritionist Marion Nestle as saying, "It may be that the body doesn't compute [soft drink] calories in the same way; you don't feel full." Corn is also used in tacos and corn chips and as cattle feed, which is why hamburgers are so affordable. 

There is circumstantial evidence of a genetic basis for alcoholism, because it seems to run in families and within races, especially those-like Native Americans-who did not invent any alcoholic drinks of their own. Others say the large amount of alcoholism and drug abuse in some cultures is due to social pressures. But geneticists have now found a gene for alcoholism in worms, so they may soon find one in man. 

Researcher Steven McIntire gave worms plenty of booze, in order to discover which ones had a gene for alcoholism. They found that the worms who managed to stay sober had a mutated gene that made them immune to the effects of alcohol. He says, "Our end goal is to find a way to cure alcoholism and drug abuse. We hope to develop effective therapeutics to improve the ability of people to stop drinking."

CIA Blaming Anthrax Attacks on Terrorists 29-Dec-2003

The CIA is beginning to assert that the 2001 anthrax attacks were a terrorist plot. This goes against the FBI's accusation that they were a demonstration of our vulnerability to a bioweapons attack that was perpetrated by a U.S. government scientist. The problem is, the anthrax used in the attacks was the Ames strain, which so far has only been found in the U.S. Traces of anthrax were recovered from a bomb in Iraq, but they weren't from the Ames strain. 

Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough write in The Washington Times that the CIA points to the fact that the anthrax was sent to two U.S. senators and several media organizations in envelopes containing letters that ended with: "death to America, death to Israel, Allah is great." 

It's been an embarrassment to our government that, although Stephen Hatfill has been suspected of the crime, they haven't yet been able to gather enough evidence to indict him. Meanwhile, Hatfill is suing the government for ruining his reputation. If the anthrax attacks were blamed on terrorists instead, no specific information would be needed to back up the claim (since all such information would be classified), and the crime could finally be considered solved.

Alas, It's Not Over Yet 15-Dec-2003

A report by the U.S. Institute for Peace, which has close ties with Congress, says the U.S. may attack Iran and Syria next, in what they call "Phase 3 on the War on Terror." They think this will be even harder than going into Afghanistan and Iraq, because both populations are more committed to their governments. Israeli intelligence insists that Iran has nuclear weapons-but no one in Europe believes them. 

We'd have to invade those countries, because, the report states, "Limited bombing would almost certainly fail to disrupt the terrorist infrastructure significantly. There is simply too little to bomb. As the U.S. cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 demonstrated, limited attacks usually have a negligible effect on terrorists and can even lead to their lionization. Putting boots on the ground is necessary to root out terrorists, and even then they are more likely to be displaced than destroyed. 

"For Iran, the number of forces needed to occupy Iranian territory would dwarf those required for the Iraq campaign, given the country's large size and the probable hostility of the population," writes analyst Daniel Byman in the report. "The military effort in Syria could be far less massive, but here too occupation would be difficult given the nationalism of the Syrian people. 

"Although the clerical regime in Teheran is unpopular, and the Baath regime in Damascus is widely scorned, they are not universally loathed as was Hussein's regime. Moreover, both countries' populations are highly nationalistic and are likely to unite behind their government in the event of a crisis. U.S. pressure might strengthen the hands of the regimes we oppose." 

Iran and Syria would might use Hizbullah against U.S. interests in the Middle East, and these terrorists are considered to be even more dangerous than al-Qaeda. They would probably also try to stage an attack on U.S. soil. This would mean we would have to invade Lebanon as well, since that's where they're deployed. 

"To have any chance of success, a military effort would require a sustained counter-insurgency effort in Lebanon," according to the report. "Israel has tried a military solution to the Hizbullah problem for 20 years, but its efforts only made the group stronger, strengthening its resolve and increasing its political appeal to many Lebanese. Meanwhile, Hizbullah would activate its cells in Asia, Europe, and Latin America- and probably unknown cells in the United States-to strike at Americans worldwide." 

Because of this, the report does not advise more military action and points out that we have changed the policies of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia toward al-Qaeda without using military weapons. 

The report says, "The right combination of carrots and sticks would lead [Syria] to crack down on Hizbullah, pushing it to become a relatively tame Lebanese political organization. Pressure on Iran, while less effective, would also help cut Hizbullah's global network and might make it more prone to focus its efforts on Lebanese politics, not anti-American jihad. For both countries, pressure should also include demands that Hizbullah halt its efforts to arm and train Palestinian groups." 

Now that we've captured Saddam, we may be able to coerce him into telling us where he's hidden his weapons of mass destruction-if he has any. Israeli intelligence is being blamed for inaccurately assessing Iraq's WMDs, which is one reason we invaded Iraq in the first place. This has damaged their credibility and is causing Western nations to ignore their latest warnings about atomic weapons in Iran. 

Over the years, Israel has developed extensive intelligence sources in the Middle East, which Western countries, with few Middle Eastern resources of their own, have had to rely on. Before the war, Israel claimed that Iraq was capable of attacking them with medium-range missiles carrying biological or chemical warheads. A new report by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies says, "Foreign intelligence services might stop trusting intelligence received from Israel, and foreign countries might suspect that Israel is giving them false intelligence in order to influence their political positions...Such suspicions, for example, could harm Israel's efforts to convince others that the intelligence on Iran's nuclear project is solid, despite the fact that the case of Iran is different from that of Iraq in that Israel's assessments in this regard are based on good, solid information."

Space Privateers 16-Dec-2003

Physicist Freeman Dyson says that our "scheme of Mars missions is excellent, but it has one fatal flaw: the fact that you are expecting NASA to do it." NASA has become timid, after the recent shuttle disaster, but private companies are willing take over the task. 

Sir Martin Rees, the British Royal Astronomer, thinks rich CEOs like Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos will finance trips to the moon and Mars in the future, with NASA playing a supportive role. On space.com, Robert Roy Britt quotes him as saying, "I think the future of manned spaceflight will only brighten if it's done by people prepared to cut costs and take risks in a fashion that's seemingly unacceptable to the U.S. public in a NASA project." 

Bezos is rumored to have put together a team of experts to build a $30 million reusable spacecraft. PayPal CEO Elon Musk started a new company called SpaceX, which will send its reusable Falcon rocket into space next year, carrying a Department of Defense satellite. 

Rees says, "If humans venture back to the moon, and even beyond, they may carry commercial insignia rather than national flags. And perhaps the pioneer settlers in space communities will live (and even die) in front of a worldwide audience-the ultimate in commercial reality TV." 

Dyson agrees. Of our return to the moon, he says, "Best of all would be to have a man-and-wife team and watch them raise the first lunar baby. If we go back with the pretense that it is for science, the public will probably switch to another channel." 

Will space radiation be a problem for astronauts on a private mission? Robert Zubrin says a New York Times article by Mathew Wald grossly overestimated the danger. Wald wrote, "...the astronauts who went to the Moon on Apollo 14 accumulated about 1,140 millirem, equivalent of about three years on Earth in their nine-day mission. The astronauts on the Skylab 4, who spent 87 days in low Earth orbit, received a dose of about 17,800 millirem (equivalent to a 50-year background dose on Earth). That dose was near the threshold of radiation exposure that produces clinically measurable symptoms. Longer-term effects like increases in cancer rates have not been observed in adults exposed to doses at that level, but experts presume the effects exist. 

"By comparison, nuclear power plant workers are limited by law to exposures no greater than 5,000 millirem a year; in this country they are generally held below 2,000. A round trip to Mars would be of a different order of magnitude. Brookhaven puts the exposure at 130,000 millirem over two and a half years. That is equivalent to almost 400 years of natural exposure." 

Zubrin says The Times report is misleading, because astronauts have already spent much longer times exposed to space radiation in the International Space Station. Many ISS and Mir astronauts have spent 180 days in orbit, receiving an estimated 50 Rem of radiation during that period. Some have spent longer: NASA astronauts Mike Foale and Carl Walz each spent 230 days in orbit, which would have given them a dose of 64 Rem, half the 130 Rem astronauts will receive on a round trip Mars mission. Russian cosmonauts have been in orbit even longer. One cosmonaut spent 18 months on Mir, which corresponds to 150 Rem. No radiation induced health effects have been reported by any of them. 

Scientists say the reason for this is that the effects of a dose of radiation are lessened when it's delivered over a long period of time. In a 35-year-old man, a 130 Rem dose delivered over 6 months would equal about a 2% increased risk for getting cancer sometime in the future. This is about the same as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for 3 years.

Animals Disappearing Because They're Being Eaten 16-Dec-2003

Animals on the endangered species list are not only dying because their habitats are being destroyed-they're also being eaten, as bushmeat. Five million tons of bushmeat come from the Congo basin alone every year, threatening several species, including elephants and great apes. A lot of it is exported to Africans living abroad. 

In bbcnews.com, Alex Kirby quotes Adam Matthews, director of the Bushmeat Campaign, as saying, "[A] study said 150 million people-one in eight of the world's poor-depend on wildlife for both protein and income." 

For elephants, the trade in ivory is also a problem. The illegal ivory trade is flourishing in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal. The World Wildlife fund believes that gangs in central Africa slaughter the animals, then ship it to these countries to be sold. 

Ivory Coast banned trade in ivory in 1997, and it's also against the law in Senegal and Nigeria, but it can be seen on public display in all three countries. Investigators in these countries found ivory that came from the tusks of at least 760 elephants available in stores, although there are no more than 540 elephants left in the 3 countries combined.

Muslims Crossing Mexican Border 16-Dec-2003

We're used to stories about illegal Mexican and South American immigrants crossing over the Mexican border into California and the Southwest. But there are gangs that specialize in smuggling Arabs into the U.S. from Mexico as well. And a new political movement in Mexico identifies illegal immigrants in the U.S. with Palestinians. 

Last month, Mexican police announced they had broken up one of these smuggling gangs in Tijuana. One of the people they arrested was Imelda Ortiz, a former Mexican consul to Lebanon who was fired after 150 Mexican passports were stolen. 

G2Bulletin.com reports that there's a political alliance developing between some Mexican and Muslim radicals. Mexicans who are allied to Muslim terrorists call themselves "America's Palestinians," and demand a "right of return" to land in Texas and other parts of the Southwest. 

A Zogby International poll found that 58% of Mexicans think "The territory of the United States' southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico," and that Mexican citizens should be able to cross into those areas freely. Ex-Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo advocated dual Mexican/American citizenship. 

Los Angeles is seen as the capital of a future Mexican state in the U.S. In the newspaper "La Voz de Aztlan" in Los Angeles, an editorial compared the Palestinian uprising with gang violence in LA, saying, "The similarities are many. The primary one, of course, is the fact that both La Raza (the race) and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer and occupy our territories. The takeover of our respective lands by foreign elements occurred 100 years apart. For La Raza, it happened in 1848 when Mexico lost the southwest at the end of the Mexican-American war and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidlago. For the Palestinians, it occurred in 1948 when the Zionist Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and signed the 'Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel' on the day in which the British Mandate over Palestine expired."

Cities are Harder on Your Heart 18-Dec-2003

Instead of giving power plants in each state the same pollution guidelines, the government's new Clear Skies Initiative will let them "buy and sell" emissions. This means that older plants can put off installing expensive new equipment by purchasing emissions allowances from newer, less polluting plants. Older cities already have the most air pollution, partly due to their older power plants, and this means they will remain more dangerous places to live. And now researchers have discovered that long-term exposure to the particulates in air pollution causes heart disease, as well as respiratory problems. 

A new study collected data from 1982-1998 about cardiovascular deaths, and compared it to data on air pollution from 156 cities. They found that an increase in air particles increased the risk of overall heart disease by 12%. For the most common type of heart attacks, the risk was increased 18%. 

Epidemiologist C. Arden Pope III writes in the Journal of the American Heart Association that, "While we know that air pollution is not the dominant cause of [heart disease], these results are consistent with findings that air pollution provokes inflammation, accelerates atherosclerosis, and alters cardiac function. We might be able to reduce the underlying processes of some cardiovascular disease just by reducing the exposure to air pollutants."

Shyness Kills 18-Dec-2003

The way you react to stress influences are much you'll resist or succumb to disease, including HIV, and shy people are more susceptible to infection than outgoing people. UCLA's Steve Cole says, "Since ancient Greece, physicians have noticed that persons with a 'melancholic temperament' are more vulnerable to viral infections." 

"During the AIDS epidemic, researchers found that introverted people got sick and died sooner than extroverted people," says Bruce Naliboff. "Our study pinpoints the biological mechanism that connects personality and disease." 

The UCLA team studied the effect of stress on viruses in 54 HIV-positive men, who were all in the early stages of the disease and still in good health. They put each man through a series of stress tests, to measure their response to a series of beeps. "Shy persons didn't adapt to the beeps as fast as other people," Cole says. "Their heightened nervous system response indicated that the sound was more irritating to them." 

Other tests were given, in order to measure each subject's overall "stress personality." They were then followed for the next 12 to 18 months, to see how their HIV progressed. "We found a strong linear relationship between personality and HIV replication rate in the body," says Cole. "Shy people with high stress responses possessed higher viral loads." 

Also, antiretroviral drugs gave very little help to the shy people. "Shy patients on drug therapy didn't experience even a 10-fold drop in their viral load," says Naliboff. "Doctors classify that as a treatment failure. The drugs should shrink HIV replication by at least 100 fold." 

"Our findings suggest that high nervous system activity helps the virus continue replicating," Cole said. "Patients with high- stress personalities continued to lose T-cells-even on the best drug therapy available. Stress sabotages their battle against this lethal disease." 

"It looks as though sensitive people are simply wired to respond to stress more strongly than resilient people," Naliboff says. "How someone reacts to stress seems to be more important than the stress itself in explaining why one person gets sick and one person doesn't." 

"This heightened stress response is the equivalent of waves striking a stone on the beach," Cole says. "One wave won't do much damage. But the constant pounding of waves eventually grinds that stone to sand. That's how continual stress response wears down the immune system."

Life is Everywhere in Space 19-Dec-2003

Astronomers now think that life spread throughout the Milky Way via microbes hitching a ride on asteroids and comets, and that it didn't originate on Earth. It will eventually leak out into other galaxies-if it hasn't already. This means that life is probably widespread, although the planet(s) where life originated may now be barren or may never be identified. However, this doesn't mean ET will look familiar, because evolution can take many twists and turns. 

David Whitehouse writes in bbcnews.com that astronomers Max Wallis and Chandra Wickramasinghe believe microbes can survive a journey of hundreds of millions, maybe even billions, of years, because they've discovered microbes that have survived for similar periods inside rocks on Earth. They say that only a tiny amount of "spore-bearing material is plenty for seeding a new planetary system with life." People who deny the reality of evolution point to gaps in the fossil record. But recent studies show it's possible to watch evolution in action. 

Biologists at the University of Chicago replaced a single gene in fruit flies and created two different "races." Since these different types of flies only liked to mate with their own kind, they quickly turned into two different species of fruit fly. One group was adapted to life in the tropics, while the other liked cooler climates. The tropical flies were more tolerant of starvation but less tolerant of cold. The temperate group was less tolerant of starvation but better adapted to cool weather. 

The altered gene also changed the flies' pheromones, which are the chemical signals that influence mating behavior. This meant there was no cross-mating, since tropical flies were only attracted to other tropicals, and vice-versa. Researcher Tony Greenberg says, "We had the luxury of watching the essential event in Darwinian evolution, the first step in the origin of a new species. We were quite impressed, that this simple alteration played such a dramatic role, both adapting flies to a new environment and changing their sex appeal. Once two groups become sexually isolated, there's no turning back." 

Fruit flies are a lot like humans in that they originated in Africa, spread to Europe and Asia and then went on to populate the world. As with humans, there is greater diversity within African flies than between flies from Africa and other continents.

Our Oceans are Changing 22-Dec-2003

The ocean in the tropics, by the equator, has become must saltier over the past 40 years, while the parts of the ocean close to the poles has become less salty. This shows that major ocean currents are changing-currents that are a fundamental part of the weather system here on Earth. 

How will a change in ocean currents change the world's weather? As Whitley and Art Bell wrote in The Coming Global Superstorm, the gulf stream is especially important because it flows north, making Europe much warmer than it would be otherwise. A change in ocean currents can also affect the severity of storms, droughts and floods-and well as where they'll take place. We've already had unusual droughts and floods all over the world in recent years. Last summer, swimmers along the Eastern coast complained of super cold water, which is another indication that ocean currents are changing. All of this will affect not only where people live, but where they're able to grow food. 

The change in ocean currents begins when warmer weather, due to trapped greenhouse gases, heightened solar activity, and other causes, melts the ice at the poles. This newly- released freshwater dilutes the oceans, pushing the salty water toward the middle of the planet, where it concentrates, making the water in that area more salty. The salinity of the ocean in turn affects the movement of ocean currents.

Dec. 25 Long a Magical Date 24-Dec-2003

The solstice is the day when days start getting longer, meaning that spring, and a good harvest, will return again. The winter solstice starts on December 21st now, but in 283 BC, it was closer to December 25th. The consecration of an ancient Greek sun god statue, the 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes, was celebrated on December 25th of that year. This may have inspired the decision to celebrate Jesus' birthday on that date, which was made by Roman emperor Constantine, in the 4th century AD. For Constantine, this symbolized the idea that the Jesus had taken the place of the ancient gods. 

In the Independent, David Keys quotes historian Alaric Watson as saying, "Constantine's choice of 25 December as the day on which to celebrate the birth of his divine patron, Christ...may well have originated in the celebration of the winter solstice at Rhodes some six centuries earlier." No one knows the real birth date of Jesus, but it is known that shepherds would not have been out in their fields in late December.

Oak Island Mystery Finally Solved? 31-Dec-2003

The mystery of what's buried deep in the "money pit" on Oak Island in Nova Scotia may finally have been solved. No one has been able to dig down to the treasure in the deep, booby- trapped hole, despite the fact that millionaires and famous people like FDR have tried. Speculation about what's down there has included the original manuscripts of Shakespeare and the lost treasure of the Knights Templar. 

Steve Proctor writes in the Halifax Herald Limited that after 38 years of searching, Dan Blankenship says he has evidence that the treasure consists of millions of dollars in silver and gold that was left behind by Spanish pirates in the 16th century. He says, "I've never spoken publicly before because I didn't want to have put in this much work and end up being wrong, but in the last six weeks, I've been able to confirm all my suspicions and I can say definitively who did it, how they did it and where they did it. But until I get down there, I can't say exactly what is there." 

Blankenship gave up his contracting business in Miami to devote himself to solving the mystery of Oak Island, which has baffled other searchers for 165 years, ever since the hiding place was first discovered. He's tried to reach the treasure by drilling tunnels in a series of unusually shaped rocks that are scattered across the island. He now says he'll be able to bring up the treasure sometime in 2004. 

During his research of Oak Island, Blankenship eventually dismissed the pit itself as "an elaborate decoy" and decided the treasure was located in a series of tunnels running deep beneath the other end of the island. He had proof when he came across three holes that once served as air shafts for the tunnels, which he located from measurements he took from the position of huge, oddly shaped stones that form the shape of a giant cross. More evidence came when stone carvings were recently discovered by a Norwegian exploration team. 

But will Blankenship be allowed to dig? All exploration on Oak Island requires a license and all licenses expired in July. The province is entitled to one-tenth of the find. Besides, Blankenship, 4 other groups have applied for new, 5-year permits. Will one of them get to the treasure first? 

Blankenship says, "I turned 80 in May and won't get another chance. If they give [someone else] a license for property he's never been interested in, it will be a very sad day."

Steel, Appliance Makers Tout Germ-Fighting Metal Tue Oct 21, 8:43 AM ET By Deena Beasley LOS ANGELES  - Germ-fearing homeowners take heart. Steel and appliance makers are joining battle against bacteria with antimicrobial doorknobs and coffee makers and there is even a gleaming bug-free house on a hillside near Los Angeles to show what the future may hold in store. The 11,000-square-foot home in Simi Valley is filled with stainless steel and appliances coated with an antimicrobial compound called AgIon, made by New York-based AK Steel Corp. . The compound contains ions of silver that interact with humidity in the air to continually suppress the growth of bacteria, mold, mildew, fungi and other microbes. AK Steel early this month unveiled what it said was the world's first antimicrobial home, a house that in addition to its steel framing, roof and other components incorporates about 35,000 pounds (15,900 kg) of the antimicrobial metal. The specially coated steel is also hard to mar with fingerprints and easier to clean than traditional stainless, according to the steelmaker. Owners Ed and Madeleine Landry said their dream home, which took nearly three years to complete, was initially conceived as low maintenance, but architecturally unique. "We wanted something that doesn't need paint, doesn't burn, won't rot or be eaten by termites," Ed Landry, a lawyer, said. The couple declined to say how much the house cost. MORE GERMS IN KITCHEN THAN A PUBLIC BATHROOM The antimicrobial angle was an add-on. "The germ thing came from them," Madeline Landry said of the couple's eventual alliance with AK Steel and appliance makers like Dacor. "It turns out there are more germs in your kitchen than in a public restroom. Particularly your refrigerator," she said. "I have asthma, so for me not having to worry a lot about sprays and things is a big benefit." But not everyone is happy with the idea. "It's an expensive approach to sanitation ... There is no evidence that it would be effective or durable," said Dr. Cynthia Sears, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She said simple hand washing with soap and water has proven to be highly effective at preventing transmission of microbes. The Landry's kitchen sports germ-resistant stoves and refrigerators, cutting boards and ceiling. Door handles throughout the spacious, cantilevered-ceiling home are also antimicrobial as is the duct system for heating and cooling. "The Legionnaires disease that killed all those people would not have grown in this air conditioning system," Madeline Landry said. She added that AK Steel plans to test the product over 10 years to see how it lasts. "I think it's great idea for hospitals or hotels -- anyplace where the public gathers," the homeowner offered. AK Steel and companies like Marvel Scientific, a maker of under-the-counter refrigerators and other products, seem to agree. Marvel said it has installed appliances at hospitals and schools and is close to launching a commercial product. AgIon can also be combined with other materials for use in clothing, air and water filters or paints, Welte said. Eric Welte, applications engineer for AK Steel, said the coating is not "an instantaneous disinfectant. It provides long-term protection. ... It's a natural antimicrobial." He said use of the product would add about $200 to the cost of a household appliance like a stainless steel refrigerator. Some medical researchers have warned that heavy use of antimicrobial products could contribute to a new breed of hard-to-kill superbugs as germs tough enough to survive soaps become stronger and more resistant to microbe-killers. Only time will tell whether the Landry home, which also has features like a voice alerting residents to the exact location of an exterior door opening, will remain germ free. For now, however, the couple are thrilled with their new home, even if there are some exceptions to its antibacterial theme. "The bathrooms aren't antimicrobial," said Ed Landry. Still, they do have disposable hand towels. 

Man Kills Self at Spot Where JFK Was Gunned Down

Dec 15, 9:36 am ET 

DALLAS  - A man killed himself with a gunshot to the head on Friday after lying down on the X in the road marking the spot in Dealey Plaza where former U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas 40 years ago, witnesses said.

Police would not confirm the exact location of the incident but said the man shot himself with a small caliber handgun and his body was found in Dealey Plaza, near the spot where Kennedy was struck with a fatal bullet to the head, said Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Chris Gilliam.

Witness told local news radio station KRLD the man parked his car near the building that was once known as the Texas School Book Depository. That is the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald is suspected of firing the shots that killed Kennedy.

The man laid down on the "X" that marks the spot where Kennedy was hit by a bullet to the head, and then shot himself in the head with a handgun, witnesses said.

Police would not comment on the witness reports, saying their investigation into the apparent suicide was continuing. They gave no information on the man or if he left a note. 

Ghost Stories Haunt the White House
Fri Oct 31, 4:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON  - The White House at night is a dark and spooky place, haunted, according to legend, by ghosts of dead presidents and a former British soldier. 

Related Links
� Ghosts of the White House (whitehouse.gov)

"It is a big old house, and when the lights are out it is dark and quiet and any movement at all catches your attention," longtime White House chief usher Gary Walters said on Friday during a Halloween chat session on the White House Web site http://www.whitehouse.gov. 

President Bush (news - web sites), who was spending Halloween at his Texas ranch, has never reported seeing a ghost, Walters said. But recent presidents have felt the presence of their predecessors, he said. 

"The presidents that I have worked for have all indicated a feeling of the previous occupants of the White House and have all talked about drawing strength from the fact that the previous presidents have lived here," he said. 

The spookiest area of the White House is probably the president's living area, Walters said. "Every sound resounds through the halls." 

He declined to discuss any measures to protect the president from a malevolent ghost. 

"I refer you to the Secret Service (news - web sites) information officer, as I'm not aware of the specifics in the security area," he said. 

The White House has long had a reputation for being haunted -- most famously by the ghost of former President Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln's wife, Mary, reportedly heard the ghost of Andrew Jackson "swearing up a storm," Walters said. 

Other stories of the supernatural related by Walters included a seance by Mary Lincoln to recall the spirit of their dead son, Willie. 

When the wife of President Woodrow Wilson wanted to dig up the rose garden, legend has it that the spirit of former first lady Dolley Madison appeared and warned them not to disturb her garden, Walters said. 

"There is a story of a British soldier who died on the White House grounds ... in 1814 when the White House was burned by the British," Walters said. "It is said that some people have seen a British soldier with a torch in his hand, although I have no personal knowledge of this story." 

Walters said several staff members have had eerie experiences and he described one he shared with three police officers. 

"I was standing at the state floor of the White House. ... The police officers and I felt a cool rush of air pass between us and then two doors that stand open closed by themselves. I have never seen these doors move before without somebody specifically closing them by hand. It was quite remarkable." 

Bridge Climbers Become Part of Sydney's Landscape Mon Nov 3, 8:29 AM ET By Belinda Goldsmith SYDNEY  - Day and night, a few lines of tiny figures the size of gray ants can be spotted scrambling up the arches of the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge. With breathtaking views of the city's spectacular harbor and Sydney Opera House, the world's first commercial bridge climb is attracting more than 300,000 climbers a year with its success prompting its founder to look overseas to start similar projects. The Sydney Harbor Bridge climb, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this month, has become one of Australia's top tourist attractions for people seeking adventure without danger. "The climb was thrilling, a real occasion that I'll never forget," said Sydneysider Vicki Shaw, who climbed the bridge to celebrate her 40th birthday. The Sydney Harbor Bridge climb, known as BridgeClimb, has become a corporate success story for local businessman Paul Cave, the founder of Australia's largest tile retailer, Amber Tiling. He came up with the idea of opening the world's first commercial bridge climb in 1989 when he organized for a group of businessmen to climb to the summit of the Sydney Harbor Bridge -- a climb undertaken daily by maintenance teams. Nicknamed "the coathanger," the bridge spans 1,650 feet and is a dizzying 400 feet above sea level at the top of the arch. "It was such a nerve-wracking but exhilarating experience that I can still vividly recall that day. I was absolutely confident that this was an experience many people would like to have," Cave told The News Source in an interview. But little did Cave realize his idea to open the bridge to the public would land him so deep into a labyrinth of bureaucracy, with local authorities raising 64 objections. YEARS TO SET UP "I naively thought we would get it up in two years but it took 10. Had I known it was going to take 10 years I never would have started," Cave said. Finally, after nearly a decade of planning and designing special equipment, he reassured the authorities that climbing the world's largest steel arch bridge could be done safely. He won a 20-year contract for exclusive tourist rights from the state government of New South Wales, to whom BridgeClimb pays a percentage of its revenues calculated on an escalating scale. In October 1998, his first paying customers scrambled up a series of steel catwalks and ladders to the top of the 12-lane bridge, first opened to traffic in 1932. There's been no looking back. More than 300,000 climbers a year now pay up to A$225 ($160) each to trek up the bridge, with BridgeClimb celebrating its millionth climber in April and reported to have posted turnover of A$50 million last year. Cave said about 60 percent of climbers were from overseas, with Britons making up the largest proportion of climbers followed by Americans, while 20 percent were from Sydney and its surroundings and 20 percent from elsewhere in Australia. A recent survey in Britain found climbing Sydney Harbor Bridge ranked 12th on a list of 50 things people wanted to do before they died. Swimming with dolphins was first. EYEING NEW OPPORTUNITIES Every 10 minutes, by day and most of the night, teams of 12 climbers wearing distinctive gray "bridge suits" and a harness attached to a guide cable, set off up the bridge -- with usually one person each day falling victim to nerves and dropping out. The climb is a three-hour round trip and climbs are conducted in all weather, except electrical storms. But there are strict rules. No children under 12, climbers need to pass a breath test to ensure their blood alcohol level is the same as that for drivers, less than 0.5 percent and no pregnant women. The summit has become a popular place to propose -- but pity the Romeo who bought out a whole climb for A$2,100 ($1,490), took his family and girlfriend's family along, but was rejected. "It was the quietest walk down I've had," said Darren, one of the army of 200 well-trained BridgeClimb guides who operate the climb with military-like precision. Cave, who owns 30 percent of the BridgeClimb with five partners, said he was looking for similar projects elsewhere but declined to give details of exactly where in the world. But the only venue to be made public to date is New York's Brooklyn Bridge when the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced talks were ongoing. This is now not certain. "World events that have subsequently occurred have played their part in creating far more hurdles, particularly in that country," Cave said. "There is nothing of an imminent nature at all. We've done a moderate amount of research on a number of opportunities around the world but it is very premature to talk about any of them." 

Happy, Uh, Uh, Uh, Birthday, Dude

Nov 14, 10:21 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - A Dutch cannabis coffee shop, claiming to be one of the oldest in the Netherlands, invited media organizations to its 35th birthday party this month and enclosed a marketing gimmick in the envelope -- a joint.

The invitation from Sarasani, founded in 1968, was received by The News Source Friday and when the envelope was opened it revealed a three-inch rolled joint encased in a clear green, plastic cylinder.

"For the media the anniversary celebration is the chance to look back on the history of Sarasani and the rise of the whole coffee shop phenomenon," said the press release, inviting guests to the party in Utrecht, a small town outside Amsterdam.

While cannabis technically remains illegal in the Netherlands, its use and sale has been tolerated since the 1970s under strict conditions imposed by the government.

Today there are about 800 coffee shops in the Netherlands, drawing a booming tourist trade.

Earlier this year the Netherlands became the first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies for chronically ill patients. 

Game Officials Catch Thief with Bear Tracker

Nov 13, 9:12 am ET 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  - New Mexico Game and Fish officials have opened a new chapter in crime prevention by using a transmitter to track bears in the wild to bear down on a thief who made off with goods from one of their storage sheds.

After falling victim to thieves who targeted a shed where items such as electronics used in hunters' education programs were stored, one Game and Fish officer in Albuquerque decided enough was enough, and it was time to set a trap to catch a thief.

The officer on Friday removed the transmitter from a collar used to track bears in the wild and put it into a broken CD player he had brought from home.

A thief stole the player from the storage shed on Saturday, Game and Fish officials discovered the theft on Sunday and then homed in on the beacon from the transmitter with an aerial fly over and an on-the-ground search on Monday. They used sophisticated telemetry to lead police to the suspected thief, who was found at an Albuquerque motel, said Robert Livingston, a department official.

Merle Lee Baker, 38, was arrested and charged with felonies including aggravated burglary and possession of stolen goods, a state police spokesman said. Among the items recovered were a Stetson hat belonging to one of the game officials, a pair of tennis shoes and the CD player with the transmitter.

Baker could face up to 12 years in prison.

"This was not a cost effective way to prevent crime, but it was still pretty cool," Livingston said. 

Man Drowns Self in Cesspool Over Missing Bike

Nov 13, 9:06 am ET 

DAR ES SALAAM  - A Tanzanian who thought his boss's bicycle had been stolen while in his care killed himself by diving into a cesspit -- only for a friend to return the bike a little later, a newspaper said Thursday.

Samuel Boniface, 20, committed suicide Tuesday after telling his employer the bicycle had gone missing, police in Dar es Salaam told the Daily Times.

Shortly after his body was found floating in the cesspool, his friend returned the bicycle, saying he had borrowed it. 

Rain Flushes Toilets in Robert Redford Building

Nov 14, 10:15 am ET 

By Dan Whitcomb

SANTA MONICA  - In the Robert Redford Building, toilets flush themselves with rainwater -- except for the urinals, which use no water at all -- the floors are made of bamboo and the carpets from hemp.

All of which help make it, the actor said during a dedication ceremony in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica on Thursday, one of the "greenest" buildings in America and a glimpse into the environmentally friendly future.

"This building to me is a model of our sustainable future," the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker said as he cut an appropriately green ribbon on its terrace and the James Taylor song "Steamroller" played softly in the background.

Though the three-story, gray clapboard-style structure is largely unremarkable from the outside, Redford and the National Resource Defense Council activists who will work there call it a showcase of sustainable urban architecture.

The building's exterior appears to be wood but is made of a fiber and cement material. Much of the interior is lit with skylights and solar cells that provide about a fifth of its energy. Cool sea breezes augment the air conditioning and special towers draw off heat.

The structure uses about 60 percent less water than most buildings because it captures rainwater from the roof, showers and sinks and uses it to water the plants and flush the low-flow toilets. The urinals use a special cartridge to funnel away wastewater.

Inside, floors are made of bamboo because it is a fast-growing "wood substitute." The carpets are hemp -- though not the kind that can be smoked. State-of-the-art fixtures consume less energy and some of the furniture was donated by the props department of the Warner Bros. film studio.

The 15,000 square foot (1,400 sq meter) structure, originally built in 1917, was stripped down to its wooden skeleton and rebuilt as an example of urban renewal. It is completely free of formaldehyde and vinyl, and office machines that can emit fumes are confined to a room that vents to the outside.

Redford, a longtime environmental activist born and raised in Santa Monica, said the building symbolized a step forward for the conservation movement, which he said had been dealt setbacks by the Bush administration.

"We are now suffering through an administration that has, in a very calculating way, set out to undermine and destroy 30 years of hard work," he said.

"There's never been a time in my life when I've felt so challenged as a country, so challenged on the environment, as we are now." 

Raccoon Rabies Claims First Life in U.S. Thu Nov 13,11:47 PM ET HealthDay 

By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDayNews) -- The government on Thursday announced the first documented death from raccoon-related rabies in the United States. The victim, a 25-year-old Virginia man who had previously been otherwise healthy, died on March 10, 2003, after being ill for three weeks. He had been diagnosed with meningoencephalitis, but the cause of that was not known at the time. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) tested tissue samples from the man, and further tests confirmed the diagnosis of rabies. Genetic sequencing by the CDC "identified a rabies virus variant associated with raccoons." According to the CDC, death from rabies is rare in the United States, but if not treated is fatal. How the Virginia man got the infection is not known. He was an office worker who lived, worked and played in Northern Virginia, where rabies is endemic among raccoons. But family members and acquaintances told investigators that he was not much of an outdoorsman. Officials speculate that he may have come in contact with the animal while camping, taking out the trash, or from a wood pile. Details of the case appear in the Nov. 14 issue of the CDC's publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Raccoons have made up the largest percentage of animal rabies cases reported to CDC since 1990. In 1998, 44 percent of all rabies cases among animals in the United States occurred among raccoons, according to the agency. From 1990 to 1998, 35,264 cases of raccoon rabies were reported. Of those 35,033 (99 percent) occurred in eastern states where raccoon rabies is enzootic, the CDC reports. "We've got raccoon rabies from southern Ontario, Canada, all the way to southern Florida, and from the Great Lakes to the East Coast. In all, 20 states are involved," says Dr. Charles Rupprecht, a researcher from the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. Rupprecht believes that the Appalachian Mountains are serving as a natural boundary to prevent raccoon rabies from spreading further west. That is because the raccoon population is less dense in the mountain areas, he says. The CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) are trying to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies by placing rabies vaccine-laced raccoon bait along the Appalachians. "Eventually, there will be a line of bait going from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. When this barrier is in place, then we will start filling in the area from the mountains to the Atlantic," Rupprecht says. "The only thing that is typical of rabies is atypical behavior," Rupprecht notes. For example, he says, watch for a shy animal that is aggressive, unsteady on its feet, or is reluctant to move. The rabid animal may attack inanimate objects, or pets, he adds. If you see such an animal, report it to your local health authorities, or animal control, Rupprecht advises. If your pet is bitten by a rabid raccoon, and has not been vaccinated for rabies, it can transfer rabies should it bite you. In rare cases, rabies can be transmitted to humans through contact with an animal's saliva. This can happen if saliva enters an open wound or a mucus membrane, which are found in the eyes or mouth. If a rabid animal bites you, the first step is to wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water, Rupprecht says. Then you should contact your doctor. Rabies treatment consists of one dose of rabies immune globulin, injected at the site of the wound, followed by a series of vaccine injections given over several weeks. The incubation period for rabies can range from one to three months to a year or more, Rupprecht says. Once symptoms appear, death is inevitable, he adds. To prevent rabies, Rupprecht advises avoiding exposure to suspicious animals, vaccinating and supervising pets, and getting prompt medical attention if you are bitten. If you come into contact with a bat or a raccoon, check to see whether your skin has been broken. In some cases of rabies spread by bats, the victims didn't think much of the bite because it was so small it resembled that of an insect. More information To learn more about rabies, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To see how one state is dealing with raccoon rabies, go to the Virginia Department of Health.

Unique Symptoms May Signal Heart Trouble in Women
Mon Nov 3,11:47 PM ET 
HealthDay 

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter 

MONDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers have identified several early warning signs that may presage heart attacks in women.

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Severe, unexplained fatigue, trouble sleeping and shortness of breath were the main troubling symptoms that occurred in women in the month or so preceding a heart attack, reports a study in the Nov. 4 issue of Circulation.

Chest pain, long considered the classic heart attack symptom, was notably absent or was described not as pain but as aching, tightness or pressure.

"Less than 30 percent of the women actually complained of chest discomfort. That's the symptom we associate with the typical patient, but it's the typical male patient," says Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and author of Women Are Not Small Men.

"We need to change the picture a little, and also include women. Women have heart attacks too, but the symptoms may, in fact, be much different and more subtle," she adds.

The findings could have significant implications for the prevention of heart attacks in women, who tend to experience more sudden cardiac deaths than men. This study may help explain why that is.

"Getting a good medical history could help pick these women out much earlier and really nip it in the bud," Goldberg says. "This is clearly significant."

The researchers recruited 515 women who had had a heart attack in the previous four to six months. Most of the women (93 percent) were white and the average age was 66. This was the first heart attack for 72 percent of the study participants.

The women were asked to recall any physical changes that might have occurred before their heart attack. Before being enrolled in the study, the women underwent cognitive tests to make sure their memory was intact, says study author Jean McSweeney, a professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The vast majority of the study participants (95 percent) reported having new or different symptoms a month or so before their heart attacks that went away after the heart attack. The most common symptoms were unusual fatigue (71 percent), sleep disturbances (48 percent), shortness of breath (42 percent), indigestion (39 percent) and anxiety (35 percent). About 44 percent of the women said the sleep disturbances were severe, while 42 percent said the fatigue was severe.

The most frequent acute symptoms were shortness of breath (58 percent), weakness (55 percent), and fatigue (43 percent).

Slightly less than 30 percent reported chest discomfort, but it was described as aching, tightness or pressure, not pain. Forty-three percent reported no chest discomfort during the heart attack.

Two potential limitations of the study are that there was no control group of women without heart disease and the group was also almost all white, limiting the relevance of the findings to women of other races.

It's not clear why men and women may have such different experiences. "It may be that there are some vascular arterial spasms but we just don't know," McSweeney says.

What is known is that women and health-care professionals alike need to be made more aware of these signs.

"This is something that would be nice to put out to women, if they are experiencing an unusually severe fatigue and they haven't really changed anything else in their life to please get that looked at," Sweeney says. "Women also need to describe their symptoms to physicians better. They can't just go in and say 'I'm tired.' They need to tell the doctor what they can't do that they were capable of doing."

Sweeney says women have told her over and over again that they are only able to make one side of the bed before becoming exhausted and needing to rest.

Although more studies need to be done to establish the validity of these symptoms, the current findings can be incorporated into practice right now. "This is going to have almost immediate clinical utility," Goldberg says.

More information

For more on women and cardiovascular disease, visit the National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease or the American Heart Association.

Study Clears Vaccines Containing Mercury Mon Nov 3, 8:33 AM ET 

By LINDSEY TANNER, News Source Medical Writer CHICAGO - Government researchers say they found little evidence of a link between vaccinations and developmental problems in a study of more than 140,000 U.S. children. The report didn't satisfy vaccine critics, who claimed the study's initial results showed a stronger connection but were watered down. They also noted that the study's lead author now works for a vaccine maker. The study, published Monday in the December issue of Pediatrics, is one of the latest attempts to determine whether older vaccines with the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal led to nervous-system problems such as autism, as some vocal critics contend. In one group of children studied, routine vaccines in infancy appeared to slightly increase the risk for tics. In another group, a slight association was seen with language delays but not tics. A third group showed no associations with any disorder. In all, more than 140,000 children were studied and no link was found with any other disorders, including autism, said co-researcher Dr. Frank DeStefano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). Many previous studies of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal also failed to find strong evidence of any link. The new results are reassuring, DeStefano said, and more definitive answers are expected from in-person examinations the CDC is giving some of the study participants. But Dr. Mark Geier, a geneticist who has worked as a consultant on parents' lawsuits against vaccine makers, said the researchers' own earlier analysis of the study results found strong links between vaccines and such problems - and that the published results attempt to conceal those findings. He claimed the final analysis "is intentional fraud." DeStefano acknowledged that the early results suggested stronger links with some disorders, though not autism, but denied that there had been pressure or a cover-up. He said the final data reflect a more thorough recent analysis. The study's lead author, former CDC researcher Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, now works for vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline in Belgium, and Geier said that connection may have influenced how the research was reported. Verstraeten, who left the CDC in July 2001, did not respond to an e-mail request seeking a response, and company spokeswoman Nancy Pekarek said he did not wish to discuss the results. She provided a written statement in which Verstraeten indicated that since leaving the CDC he has worked only as an adviser as the study was finalized and prepared for publication. The researchers analyzed data from three health maintenance organizations on children born between 1992 and 1999 and tracked for several years. Information was gathered on several neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, attention deficit disorders, stammering and emotional disturbances. While the researchers were beginning to examine their results, public health officials were beginning to publicly address concerns about the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Mercury in high doses has been linked with neurodevelopmental problems. Parents and others worried about potentially dangerous overexposure to thimerosal because of the increasing number of vaccines recommended in childhood. Vaccine makers have since phased out use of thimerosal as a preservative in childhood vaccines used in the United States, though trace amounts remain in some vaccines. It is still used as a preservative elsewhere, especially in developing countries, said Dr. Thomas Saari, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' infections diseases committee and a pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Vaccine expert Dr. Neal Halsey of Johns Hopkins University said the study shows that if there is any association between older vaccines and mild disorders, "it must be relatively small." "A major health risk should have shown up in a consistent pattern in all three of the HMOs," Halsey said. Still, he said the findings might have been different if the researchers had done a separate analysis by gender, since boys are much more susceptible to mercury exposure than girls. ___ On the Net: Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org FDA (news - web sites): http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm 

Monkeys Terrorize India Workers, Tourists Sun Nov 2, 2:54 PM ET By ANDREW WANG, News Source Writer NEW DELHI - In a capital city where cows roam the streets and elephants plod along in the bus lanes, it's no surprise to find government buildings overrun with monkeys. But the officials who work there are fed up. They've been bitten, robbed and otherwise tormented by monkeys that ransack files, bring down power lines, screech at visitors and bang on office windows. The Supreme Court has stepped in, decreeing that New Delhi should be a monkey-free city after citizens filed a lawsuit demanding protection from the animals. Easier said than done. A past initiative to scare off the army of Rhesus macaques with ultrahigh frequency loudspeakers didn't work. A plan to deport them to distant regions has stalled because local governments refused to have them. There's an ape patrol of fierce-looking primates called langurs, led about on leashes by keepers. But whenever a langur looms, the pink-faced, two-foot-tall hooligans simply move elsewhere on government grounds. "Please do not feed the monkeys," implores a sign at Raisina Hill, the complex of colonnaded buildings that includes the president's residence, Parliament, and Cabinet offices. To no avail. Hindus believe that monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god, Hanuman, and worshippers come to Raisina Hill every Tuesday handing out bananas. Last year the monkeys made their presence felt by hanging from window ledges and screeching at reporters arriving for a news conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "It's a big problem, especially in the evening," says Defense Ministry spokesman Amitabha Chakrabarti. Monkeys break into offices at night and paw through the files looking for food, he said. "Those who work late hours have to be careful when it is dark." The city estimates at least 1,500 of New Delhi's more than 5,000 macaques live on Raisina Hill. In the latest effort, a monkey relocation initiative, 400 monkeys have been caught at Raisina Hill in the past year and moved to a holding area on the outskirts of New Delhi to await their return to forests in neighboring states, said Madan Thapliyal, a municipality spokesman. But governments of those states have so far refused to take the furry exiles, saying they have more than enough of their own. Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of the late Indian leader Indira Gandhi and an independent lawmaker in the lower house of India's Parliament, believes the monkeys should be left in peace. Gandhi, an animal rights advocate, has already managed to halt a New Delhi program to spay and neuter stray dogs, saying it was cruel. She claims that captured macaques, despite their holiness to Hindus, have been given to laboratories for experimentation or have died in their holding area cages. They were "relocated to monkey heaven," she said. The government says more than 200 monkeys have been relocated to Gandhi's parliamentary district about 125 miles east of New Delhi. Gandhi denies it. "It's all rubbish," she said. "Not one monkey has been relocated to my constituency." Atul K. Gupta, of the Wildlife Institute of India, says macaques belong in forests, but deforestation and human settlement are driving them into cities in search of food. Macaques are crafty pickpockets, know how to open refrigerators, and brazenly snatch lunch pails from government workers, he said. "They have learned the tricks of finding food in an urban environment." The answer, he said, is to save the forests. Otherwise, he says, "the problem will get worse." 

Trial Set to Begin for Plague Researcher 
1 hour, 37 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

By BETSY BLANEY, News Source Writer 

LUBBOCK, Texas - Attorneys for a Texas Tech University professor accused of sparking a bioterrorism scare involving missing vials of plague bacteria will probably try to "push a Waco button" and seek jurors hostile to the government, jury selection experts say. 

Prosecutors, on the other hand, can be expected to seek panelists who might resent defendant Thomas C. Butler as a "hotshot, highly educated person who goes around and does something like this," one analyst said. 

Jury selection was set to begin Monday for the trial of Butler, whose 69 felony charges include lying to federal agents about 30 vials of plague bacteria he reported stolen from his lab. 

Butler has pleaded innocent and says FBI (news - web sites) agents tricked him into confessing that he destroyed the vials. He has said he cannot account for the vials. If convicted, he faces life in prison and $17.1 million in fines. 

The government also charges that Butler smuggled plague samples from Africa and illegally transported them within this country and overseas. Butler had listed his cargo only as "laboratory samples." 

A gag order prohibits attorneys from discussing the case, but analysts say the jury's makeup will be crucial. 

"There are many people, including psychologists and lawyers, who will say it's everything," said Maureen O'Connor, chairwoman of the psychology department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. 

Prosecutors probably will look for jurors who are not well-educated or wealthy and who might see Butler, 62, a top plague researcher, as arrogant, said Candace McCoy, an associate professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. 

They will "want people who are going to resent this guy, this hotshot, highly educated person who goes around and does something like this," she said. "You would want people from non-university areas who would look at this guy and say 'Who the hell does he think he is?'" 

Defense attorneys will attempt to "push a Waco button," said Steven Penrod, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He was referring to the 1993 raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco in which four lawmen were killed. The raid preceded the deaths of nearly 80 sect members in a fire. 

"The defense will seek jurors who are skeptical of the government, hostile toward the government and hostile to the FBI," Penrod said. 

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," recorded hours before the gag order was issued, Butler said FBI agents tricked him into saying he had destroyed the vials so they could calm public fears and close the case. Butler said agents told him he would not be charged. 

One former FBI special agent, however, said that's not how agents handle interviews. 

"You can use deception and guile in an interrogation, but you can't make any promises about prosecution," said former FBI Associate Deputy Director Oliver "Buck" Revell. 

In August, the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) protested to Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) about the federal investigation and Butler's prosecution. 

"I am very concerned a huge deal is being made out of something that isn't so serious," said former student and 2003 chemistry Nobel Prize winner Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins University. "He is being treated like Al Capone was. (The charges are) way beyond what happened." 

The government has argued that Butler displayed a disregard for safety. 

"An incident that could have sparked widespread panic of a bioterrorism threat in West Texas was stopped clean in its tracks," U.S. Attorney Jane J. Boyle said in a statement in April. 

Butler is free on bail and on paid leave from Tech, where he is chief of the infectious diseases division of the department of internal medicine at the university's health sciences center. The university is seeking to dismiss him. 

Okayo Breaks New York Marathon Record 
1 hour, 35 minutes ago 
Add Sports - 

By ANDREA SZULSZTEYN, News Source Sports Writer 

NEW YORK - Kenyans again ruled the New York City Marathon on Sunday, with Margaret Okayo smashing the course record and Martin Lel winning his first marathon ever. 

Okayo won the New York race for the second time, dropping to her knees and kissing the ground after crossing the line in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 31 seconds. She shattered her 2001 course record by nearly two minutes. 

Reigning world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya was second among the women in 2:23:04, followed by Lornah Kiplagat, a native Kenyan who became a Dutch citizen this year, in 2:23:43. They also beat the previous course record. 

"I didn't know I was going to break my own record, but I was just trying to do my best," Okayo said. 

Lel was timed in 2:10:30. Defending champion Rodgers Rop of Kenya was second among the men in 2:11:11 and countryman Christopher Cheboiboch was third in 2:11:23. 

Seven of the top 10 men and four of the top 10 women were from Kenya. Five of the last seven men's champions have been from Kenya. The top three men last year were from Kenya. 

"I am very happy because for sure we are representing our country," Lel said. 

The top American man was Matt Downin of Bloody Brook, N.H., in 17th place in 2:18:48. The best U.S. woman was Sylvia Mosqueda of Los Angeles in 10th place at 2:33:11. 

Lel and Okayo each won $100,000, with Okayo getting a $60,000 bonus for finishing under 2:23. 

With 35,104 entrants for the 26.2-mile run through the city's five boroughs - including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs - Okayo beat a strong field. And she did it on a warm day, with the temperature in the 60s. 

Nine runners were bunched through the first half of the race, including Okayo, Kiplagat, former winner Ludmila Petrova, Ndereba and 2002 NYC Marathon winner Joyce Chepchumba. 

At the halfway mark, the women were on pace to set the record after covering 13.1 miles in 1:12:04. 

Okayo, Kiplagat and Petrova pulled away from the front-runners at the 17-mile mark. Ndereba started to make a move around mile 18. With Kiplagat opening a small lead over Okayo, Ndereba passed Petrova for third. 

But Okayo turned it on. She overtook Kiplagat for first and cruised to victory. Last year, she finished fifth after having back problems and was taken to the hospital after the race. 

This year, she spent three months training for the NYC Marathon in the northern Italian town of Brescia. 

"She's a strong runner up and down hilly courses like this," said her coach, Gabriele Rosa. "Good for Athens, that's a hilly course, too. She'll run the marathon in the Olympics." 

Ndereba was attempting to join Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway as the only woman to win in New York, Boston and Chicago. 

It was not a good day for the American women. Marla Runyan (news - external web site), who finished fourth in New York last year and fifth in Boston this year, was among the early leaders. But she tangled with Ndereba at a water station between miles 7 and 8 and fell behind. She finished 20th. 

Christy Nielsen-Crotts dropped out at the 15th mile and Jen Rhines almost pulled out at mile 22. 

Julio Rey withdrew after twisting his right ankle while reaching for water at the first station around the 4-mile mark. Rey, who was attempting to become the first Spaniard to win in New York, finished second in the world championships this summer. 

Through the first 18 miles, Lel, Rop, Cheboiboch, Laban Kipkemboi and Elly Rono led the way. Then Rop and Lel emerged as the front-runners and were side-by-side with a few miles to go. Lel surged ahead in the final mile. 

"When I took Rodgers Rop, I was excited because I didn't know whether I would be able to drop him," Lel said. 

In October, Lel won the world half-marathon title. He finished third in Boston this year. 

In the wheelchair division, Krige Schabort of South Africa won his second straight NYC Marathon in 1:32.20, breaking his old mark of 1:38.27 set last year. On the women's side, American Cheri Blauwet also won for the second straight year in a course record 1:59.30. 

Obesity Rise Not Fattening Fitness Firms 2 hours, 37 minutes ago Add Business 

By Jackie Sindrich NEW YORK  - Americans are contending with ever-expanding waistlines, but they aren't flocking to the companies focused on helping them fight the problem. Some of the biggest names in the fitness and weight-loss industries are struggling to sign up members, and sales of home exercise equipment are sliding despite the obesity epidemic. Since 1980, the rate of obesity has doubled among U.S. adults and tripled among adolescents, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. Nearly two-thirds of the population is now overweight. Yet surveys show relatively few Americans are inclined to take the steps to slim down, and an uncertain economy may have made dieting and exercise even less of a priority. Such attitudes haven't helped the bottom line of companies like Weight Watchers International Inc. (NYSE:WTW - news), which cut its 2003 earnings outlook in August. The Woodbury, New York, company, which holds more than 44,000 weekly group support and educational meetings, said attendance in its key North American market was not growing as much as it had planned. Its stock price has since declined about 14 percent. Analyst Kathleen Heaney of Maxim Group said Weight Watchers had faced bad weather, and its U.S. advertising campaign was running its course. The company, which reports third-quarter results on Nov. 5, rolled out its new Flexpoints campaign later in August. Meanwhile, another diet company, Nutri/System Inc. (OTC BB:THIN.OB - news), said revenue slumped by a quarter during the first half of the year. And recently Anglo-Dutch food group Unilever (UNc.AS)(ULVR.L) again cut its 2003 sales growth target for top brands, in part due to weak sales of its Slim.Fast products. FLABBY FITNESS MARKET Companies that sell gym memberships and equipment are also suffering. Nautilus Group Inc. (NYSE:NLS - news) said last month it would cut an unspecified number of jobs after a steep drop in quarterly sales and income resulting from increased competition and weak consumer spending. Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. (NYSE:BFT - news), owner of 420 health clubs, cited similar problems when it reported a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit last August. The Chicago company, which operates under its own name as well as the Crunch and Gorilla Sports brands, said overall membership revenue was down 9 percent for the quarter. It had also found it difficult to sign up new members last year. "A lot of it stems from the economy," said analyst Reed Anderson of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. "Ultimately for Bally (customers), it's a discretionary purchase." A Roper Poll commissioned by Bankrate.com found earlier this year that more Americans are concerned about paying off their debts than they are about losing weight. But consumers' financial concerns aren't the only obstacles for fitness companies. A Gallup Poll conducted last year said that just 24 percent of U.S. adults were seriously trying to lose weight -- about the same as in 1953. Harvey Lauer, president of health and fitness research firm American Sports Data Inc., blames the pleasure principle: "80 percent of people believe in physical fitness, but only 20 percent are regular exercisers." SUCCESS STORY Still, while some companies are struggling, others are succeeding. Mind-and-body workouts such as pilates and yoga have taken over the knee-pounding aerobics and cardiovascular activities whose popularity peaked in the early 1990s, Lauer said. Heavy participants in these "kindler, gentler" activities are women over 55 -- the nation's single fastest-growing group of exercisers in the Unites States, he said. That trend could explain the standout success of Curves International, the women-only fitness center chain that Entrepreneur Magazine earlier this year called the fastest-growing franchise in history. "The conventional fitness industry is out there targeting 18-to-32-year-old men and women who are generally comfortable with the way they look. They had written off older women," Curves founder and Chief Executive Gary Heavin said in an interview. "Perhaps the most important key was that we created an environment that was comfortable." Privately held Curves has rocketed from its small-town Texas roots in 1992 to more than 6,000 clubs with 2 million members, by offering 30-minute low-impact circuit training for a low monthly membership fee of around $30. A new Curves opens about every four hours. Curves' unthreatening environment is "appealing to overweight, nonathletic women who've never done anything," Lauer said. Meanwhile, Heaney, the Maxim Group analyst, expects a growing sense of urgency and awareness about the obesity problem to eventually benefit companies like Weight Watchers. "To some extent they're getting free advertising," Heaney said. "I think it will feed through." 

Man Drops Mobile in Train Toilet, Jams Arm

Oct 31, 10:23 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Cell phone users have been known to complain about poor service, but one New York man's mobile literally went down the toilet.

The man was on a suburban train from Grand Central Station on Wednesday night when he went to the bathroom to make a phone call, dropped the phone into the toilet bowl and then his hand and arm became stuck trying to retrieve it, officials said.

Metro-North Railroad staff could not help the man, so they stopped the train and called police officers and firefighters to extricate him, a process that took 90 minutes using "jaws of life" rescue equipment.

"The toilets are made of aluminum so I imagine he was down on hands and knees with his shirt rolled up and hand and arm down inside, trying to flush out his cell phone," said Jim Cameron of the Connecticut Metro-North commuter council.

He said that because of the design of the train toilet, the mobile probably ended up in a chemical holding tank.

A spokesman for the railroad that serves the northern suburbs of New York and Connecticut identified the man as Edwin Gallard, 41, of New York, who suffered a minor injury to his arm as firefighters cut the toilet apart.

The track was closed and thousands of commuters were delayed during the evening rush hour.

The phone has not yet been recovered. 

Police Find Rotting Fish at Paris Food Supplier

Oct 30, 8:00 am ET 

PARIS  - French police are investigating a stomach-churning discovery of fridge-loads of moldy duck, rotting seafood and mite-infested fish at two warehouses that supply Asian restaurants in Paris.

The city's new Regional Intervention Group (GIR), a squad of police, customs and tax officers, raided the warehouses last week after a tip-off from veterinary inspectors, GIR chief Vincent Terrenoir said Wednesday.

"Most of what we found was fish and it was in a very bad state. Things had clearly been refrozen a number of times and there were insects, mites," Terrenoir told The News Source.

"The warehouses supply a whole list of Asian restaurants in Paris. For us to discover this kind of thing suggests that they were not being that careful about what they were selling."

Several men had been detained briefly for questioning. The Chinese owners of the warehouses are being investigated on suspicion of fraud, breaching hygiene rules, illegally importing perishable goods and using undeclared employees, Terrenoir said.

In all, several tons of putrid produce including squid and goose innards were found at the warehouses, which sell direct to consumers as well as to Asian restaurants. Centipedes and mites were found crawling over dried fish in stacked boxes.

One of the warehouses is on the edge of the city, the other in the downtown 11th district around the Place de la Bastille.

The Paris GIR is one of several such squads set up across France by the center-right government's crime-busting Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, mixing traditional police with experts from the tax office and customs offices. 

Canadian Music Retailers Toss Out Rolling Stones

Oct 30, 7:57 am ET 

TORONTO  - Canadians shopping for music this Christmas may have to cross the Rolling Stones off their wish list after retailers yanked their products in protest.

Major music chains vowed on Wednesday to keep the band's music off their shelves indefinitely after the Stones' made an exclusive deal with U.S. retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. to carry its new four-disc DVD, "Four Flicks," due next month.

The deal extends to Best Buy's Canadian outlets, shutting out other retailers.

"What have these guys become?" said Tim Baker, head buyer for the Sunrise Records chain. "We've been supporting the Rolling Stones for decades and loyalty is a two-way street. To do something like this just smacks of greed."

Stones promoter Michael Cohl said Best Buy agreed to sell the set for the lowest price in Canada, and that was the prime motivator for the deal.

But that failed to satisfy rival retailers who are alarmed by the precedent this might set at a time when their music sales are far from stellar.

HMV North America president Humphrey Kadaner said the only recourse retailers had was to show artists they could lose royalties if their records were not being sold.

"When artists and their management tell...our customers that they're not good enough to have access to the new release product...we have to send a message back that perhaps you're not worthy of having your product in our stores," he said.

The flap over the "Four Flicks" DVD may cast a pall over the British rockers' relationship with Canadian music fans especially in Toronto where the band has a long history.

In July, the band rode to the city's emotional rescue and headlined a massive concert to help boost spirits and tourism after the SARS outbreak in Toronto.

Retailers said they will boycott the Stones indefinitely unless they are allowed to carry the new material.

"If we don't, we will be not just a SARS-free zone but a Rolling Stones-free zone," Sunrise Records' Baker said.

Harry Potter Causing Hogwarts Headaches?

Oct 30, 7:59 am ET 

BOSTON  - The spell cast by the latest Harry Potter book may have an unintended side effect.

A Washington doctor warned that he has seen three children complain of headaches caused by the physical stress of relentlessly plowing through the epic 870-page adventure.

Call them Hogwarts headaches, named after the wizard school that Harry attends.

Dr. Howard Bennett of George Washington University Medical Center wrote in a letter to this week's New England Journal of Medicine that the three children, ages 8 to 10, experienced a dull headache for two or three days.

Each had spent many hours reading "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

After ruling out other potential causes, Bennett told his patients to give their eyes a rest. But the spell cast by the book was clearly too powerful.

"The obvious cure for this malady -- that is, taking a break from reading -- was rejected by two of the patients," Bennett said, adding that the children took acetaminophen instead.

In each case, the headache went away only after the patient turned the final page.

"Order of the Phoenix," the fifth book in the series, has nearly three times as many pages as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first book, and J.K. Rowling still plans two more tomes.

"If this escalation continues as Rowling concludes the saga, there may be an epidemic of Hogwarts headaches in the years to come," Bennett predicted. 

Tennis Player Koubek to Donate His Anger to Charity

Oct 30, 7:55 am ET 

VIENNA  - Austria's number one tennis player Stefan Koubek is donating 1,000 euros ($1,171) to charity for each racquet he smashes so that some good may come from his outbursts on court.

Koubek smashed three racquets to pieces during his qualification match for this week's Paris Masters after squandering several match points when leading 5-2 in the final set.

The set went to a tie-break, which the umpire then awarded to Koubek's opponent after the Austrian wrecked his third racquet.

Koubek will donate the money for each racquet destroyed in 2004 to a children's home in Austria.

"At least then trashing racquets will make some kind of sense," Koubek said on his Web Site.

Medicine Meets Art in 28,000-Pill Display

Oct 30, 8:02 am ET 

LONDON Oct 29  - A display of 28,000 pills representing a typical couple's lifetime consumption of medicinal drugs will form the centerpiece of a exhibition at the new Wellcome gallery, which opens next week at the British Museum.

"Cradle To The Grave," created by artists Susie Freeman and David Critchley and family doctor Liz Lee, is described as a "contemporary British approach to wellbeing."

Their contribution consists of two lengths of fabric, 13 meters long by 1.5 meters wide, stitched with tablets that a typical man or woman may have taken during their lifetime.

Lee used the medical records of her patients to produce the fictitious life histories of a 76-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman.

Alongside the landscape will be family photographs and documents and other medical devices such as a hearing aid, which mark their progress through life.

The installation forms part of the "Living and Dying" exhibition, which shows the diverse ways cultures around the world seek to minimize life's adversities. 

Bicyclists Accuse DJs of Inciting Attacks 2 hours, 58 minutes ago 

By CONNIE MABIN, News Source Writer CLEVELAND - Bicyclists are demanding that the nation's largest radio group be punished because disc jockeys at three stations made on-air comments they say encouraged drivers to throw bottles at bike riders or hit them with open car doors. They say the morning show hosts at Clear Channel Communications stations in Cleveland, Houston and Raleigh, N.C., also suggested motorists blast horns at cyclists, and speed past them and slam on their brakes in front of them. "DJs encouraging the masses to hurt people in any form is insipid, and should not go unpunished," said Edwin D. Reeves, 30, a cyclist and ceramic engineer in St. Louis. Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, owns roughly 1,200 radio stations in the United States. The company won't release transcripts or tapes of the broadcasts, but the three stations apologized on the air and Clear Channel donated $10,000 and air time to promote bicycle safety. "We deeply regret that comments made by on-air personalities were misinterpreted. Clear Channel does not condone violence in any form and we are committed to working with the cycling community to improve cycling safety," chief executive John Hogan said in a statement. Clear Channel, which said it was coincidental that similar comments came from three stations, said it told the stations to refer questions to corporate headquarters. It wouldn't say if the disc jockeys were disciplined. The comments started June 30 on WMJI in Cleveland when one of the morning show personalities complained that a group of bicyclists had held him up in traffic near his home. "The other guys started chiming in," said listener Don Barnett, service manager at Century Cycles in Medina. "Then it escalated. People started calling in." Similar remarks came weeks later on WDCG-FM in Raleigh and KLOL-FM in Houston. Lois Cowan, 42, who owns the Century Cycles shops in the Cleveland area, filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) asking it to fine the company or take away the licenses of the three stations. "They shouldn't be advocating things that kill people," Cowan said. She says she's received more than 5,000 e-mails from cyclists about the issue. Dorothy Nance of Raleigh said she and her husband sold their Clear Channel stock after she heard the bicycle comments on WDCG on Sept. 22. Nance said the announcers were "egging listeners on, by encouraging harm to cyclists." Suggestions included throwing soft drink bottles, she said. Thomas F. Valone, owner of seven outdoor clothing and equipment stores in North Carolina, pulled "a few thousand dollars" worth of advertising from the Raleigh station because of the comments. FCC (news - web sites) lawyers refuse to comment on specific complaints. "We got a complaint about that and we are acting on that," FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell told the cyclists. ___ News Source reporter Paul Nowell in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: http://www.clearchannel.com/ http://www.fcc.gov

New Cellphone Offers Big Shots Eavesdrop-Proof Call Tue Nov 18,10:23 AM ET Add Technology 

By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent AMSTERDAM  - A German company launched a new mobile handset on Tuesday targeted at business executives that secures lines are free from eavesdroppers, sparking criticism that it could also make criminals harder to catch. Berlin-based Cryptophone, a unit of privately held GSMK, developed the phone by inserting an encryption software inside a standard handheld computer phone. This ensures that calls can only be decoded by a similar handset or a computer running the software. But the phone is seen as a mixed blessing in some European countries. While the benefits for business managers exchanging sensitive information are obvious, such a device could potentially have the side effect of helping criminals. Security specialists in the Netherlands said the device could threaten criminal investigation by the Dutch police, which is one of the world's most active phone tappers, listening in to 12,000 phone numbers every year. But privacy lobbyists say the new handset is a "freedomphone" much more than a "terrorphone." "It's a tremendous step forward, because the level of surveillance by authorities is breathtaking," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International in Britain. Cryptophone says unlike rivals such as Sweden's Sectra, Swiss Crypto AG and Germany's Rohde & Schwarz, it has no ties to national security and defense organizations and that there is no back door for government agencies. "We allow everyone to check the security for themselves, because we're the only ones who publish the source code," said Rop Gonggrijp at Amsterdam-based NAH6. Gonggrijp, who helped develop the software, owns a stake in Germany's GSMK. The Microsoft-based XDA handheld computer phone made by Taiwan's High Tech Computer is selling for 3,499 euros ($4,121) per two handsets. At that price it is targeting executives, lawyers and bankers who regularly swap market sensitive information on mergers and lawsuits, and for whom privacy is worth paying for. Eavesdropping equipment, available for around 100,000 euros, is officially only available to government agencies, but suspected criminals have also been able to obtain it, Gonggrijp said. The strong encryption standards used by Cryptophone can already be applied in e-mails and other computer applications. The advent of more powerful handheld devices such as the Microsoft-based handheld computer phones has allowed Cryptophone to offer the same level of security on mobile phones. But the high price of the device means few will be able to buy it. "Not many average consumers will pay that kind of money. The people who will be using it are in businesses," said Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research in Britain. If the high security phones become popular, however, governments could well clamp down on them, Privacy International's Davies said. "I would not trust governments to leave it alone." Cryptophone says on its Web Site (http:/www.cryptophone.de) that exports of the device were unlimited within Europe and to several large economies around the world, but that customer credentials would be checked for a criminal records. ($1=.8491 Euro) 

The World's Oldest Food Store

Nov 25, 10:20 am ET 

BERLIN  - Scientists in Germany have announced the discovery of a petrified hoard of 17-million-year-old nuts they say form the oldest known cache of stored food.

"These fossilized nuts are the oldest proof we have for mammals laying in food stores," Martin Sander, a paleontologist from Bonn university, told The News Source on Tuesday. "In fact, they're the oldest store of food yet known from any animal."

His Bonn university colleague Carole Gee discovered the fossilized golden chinquapin nuts in a lignite mine near the western town of Garzweiler 10 years ago, but has only now gone public following extensive study of the findings.

"The nuts were very probably stored by a hamster or perhaps a ground squirrel," Gee said.

The chinquapin tree is no longer indigenous to Germany and is generally found on the Pacific coast of North America. At the time the nuts were hoarded, the Miocene period, crocodiles, apes and palm trees were all common to western Europe.

Fish Off Arctic City Get Drug Cocktail from Sewers

Nov 25, 10:15 am ET 

OSLO  - Fish in seas near a Norwegian Arctic city are getting an unexpectedly strong cocktail of caffeine and painkillers from local sewers, a scientist said.

Some samples taken very close to a sewer outlet near a psychiatric hospital also showed measurable amounts of anti-epileptic drugs and anti-depressants.

"We don't know what effect this is having on the environment," said Ole-Anders Braathen, head of department at the Norwegian Institute of Air Research which led the study of waters off the city of Tromsoe.

"The measurements showed surprisingly high doses, especially of caffeine," he told The News Source, adding that caffeine and drugs flushed from city sewers may take longer to break down in icy Arctic waters than further south.

The study showed traces of caffeine from human drinks such as coffee and cola at 20-80 nanograms (billionth of a gram) per liter in seas off Tromsoe, which is on an island ringed by waters about 0.6-1.2 miles wide.

Braathen said levels of pharmaceutical residues matched those expected for a European city three times the size. The effect of the drug traces on marine life are little known.

Turkeys Feel the Vibes Before Facing the Music

Nov 24, 10:01 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's farming union has released a chill-out album to help turkeys keep calm in the understandably stressful run-up to Christmas.

Geoff Hemus is one of 300 U.K. farmers who will be playing recordings of Gregorian chants, whale calls and rustling forests to his 3,500 birds.

"At first they seemed rather bemused and started gobbling more. They didn't chill out, lie down and cross their legs. But then they got their confidence back," he told The News Source.

Farmers have long believed drowning out the crash and bang of farmyard life is good for birds.

"If they are less stressed, they eat more and put on more pounds," Hemus said.

National Farmers' Union spokesman Simon Rayner said there was already anecdotal evidence that birds like listening to the radio.

"So this is an experiment to find out which type of noise is most effective," he said.

However, Hemus's turkeys only have 2-1/2 weeks to relax before they have to face the music for Christmas.

The union plans to announce the number one turkey-soothing track next month.

Santa's Sidekicks Attempt Hold-Up

Nov 24, 10:01 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - Santa Claus may be known for generous gift-giving, but people had to chase two of his helpers out of an Amsterdam post office after they staged a failed heist, a Dutch newspaper said Monday.

Two people dressed up as "Black Pete" -- a ubiquitous symbol of the Christmas season in the Netherlands -- had lined up patiently, but when their turn came, one ducked behind the post office counter while the other waved "something that looked like a weapon," the De Telegraaf newspaper reported.

"It isn't clear if they were really armed, but they did have a sack with them," a police spokesman said.

The heist failed when outraged clients chased off the would-be robbers, who escaped by bicycle.

The Dutch Santa, Sinterklaas, is usually accompanied by helpers dressed as "Black Pete" -- often seen as a Moorish figure like the servants who might have accompanied the real-life Saint Nicholas, a wealthy bishop from an area that is today part of Turkey.

Turkey & Gravy Soda on the Table for Thanksgiving

Nov 22, 12:25 am ET 

SEATTLE  - Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings: cranberry sauce, stuffing and turkey gravy flavored soda. Yummy?

In the latest food fad to emerge in the United States, Seattle specialty soda maker Jones Soda Co. scored a hit this week with the introduction of a limited batch of Turkey & Gravy-flavored soda.

The tan-colored soda sold out in just three hours after an initial batch was put up for sale on its Web site on Friday, a spokeswoman for the company said.

Proceeds from the online sale, where two bottles of Turkey & Gravy soda sold for about $11, were donated to Toys for Tots, a children's charity. Local retailers will start selling the soda from Monday.

Jones Soda said it would be up to local stores to set prices for Turkey & Gravy soda. Other sodas from the company typically cost $1 to $1.50.

Thanksgiving, a U.S. holiday that falls on the fourth Thursday of November, typically features a dinner with turkey, gravy and other condiments.

Turkey & Gravy soda tastes like a Thanksgiving dinner, but contains no meat extracts, Jones Soda said.

This isn't the company's first experiment in exotic carbonation. Fish tacos and ham flavors have also been offered as promotional soda flavors. Jones Soda said it will continue to introduce other unusual soda flavors.

Other flavors offered by Jones Soda include green apple, bubblegum and crushed melon.

Quirky Turkey and Gravy Soda Selling Well 
58 minutes ago 
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By REBECCA COOK, News Source Writer 

SEATTLE - A new Turkey and Gravy Soda tastes, well, pretty much like you would imagine. But that's not stopping people from buying it. 

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Even the producers of the Thanksgiving-themed beverage at Jones Soda Co. were surprised by the demand. They sold out all 6,000 bottles online within about two hours last week. 

"To be honest, we really didn't think so many people would want it," said a Michelle Whitehead, marketing assistant at the Seattle-based premium soda company that has a reputation for quirky flavors. 

Founder and CEO Peter van Stolk dreamed up the seasonal flavor on a lark, but admits he can't stomach an entire bottle. 

The liquid's ominous, murky brown color accurately warns consumers about the taste. The first sips bring a mix of sweet caramel and savory lard - and it's downhill from there. 

A limited number of Turkey & Gravy Sodas will be available in stores around Seattle and Olympia for the suggested retail price of 99 cents. A few entrepreneurs are selling theirs on eBay.com; by Tuesday, the bidding was up to $63 for a two-bottle set. 

Mary Turner, a radio DJ in Lansing, Mich., who is auctioning off a bottle for charity, has sampled the drink and warns that it's not for the faint of stomach: "If you roasted a turkey and mashed potatoes, put it in a blender, left it out for three days and then poured it into a Jones bottle, you'd know exactly what this drink tastes like!" 

The company, founded in 1996, plans to donate proceeds from sales of Turkey & Gravy Soda to the Toys for Tots charity, and van Stolk said he will personally match the donation. 

___ 

On the Net: 

http://www.jonessoda.com

Global HIV rates at record high A record number of people were infected with HIV around the world this year, a report says. Figures from UNAids and the World Health Organization put the number of new infections at five million. The report also estimates that three million people died from the disease this year. But it warns that the figures could rise sharply in the years ahead, with Eastern Europe and Central Asia on the verge of epidemics. Africa hit hardest The report, which is published ahead of World Aids Day on 1 December, estimates 40 million people around the world are infected with HIV/Aids. Of these, 2.5 million are children. Around 14,000 people are infected with the disease every day. Officials say the figures are more reliable than previous year's estimates, following improvements in the way the data is collected. People living in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be most at risk. About 30% of people living with HIV/Aids are in this part of the world. South Africa, alone, is home to 5.3 million people with HIV - more than any other country in the world. In Botswana, 39% of the population is HIV positive, the report says. Two out of three new HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Three out four deaths from the disease occur in this part of the world. Emerging epidemics However, the report also shows that other countries are standing on the verge of major epidemics. The number of reported infections is rising sharply in China, India, Indonesia and Russia, mostly due to HIV transmission through injecting drug use and unsafe sex. The report says better prevention programmes are needed to stop the spread. It says countries around the world must introduce better treatment programmes if millions of deaths are to be avoided. Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAids, praised recent efforts to step up the fight against the disease. However, he said much more needs to be done. "It is quite clear that our current global efforts remain entirely inadequate for an epidemic that is continuing to spiral out of control. "Aids is tightening its grip on southern Africa and threatening other regions of the world. "Today's report warns regions experiencing newer HIV epidemics that they can either act now or pay later - as Africa is now having to pay." UNAids and the WHO have drawn up a strategy to bring antiretroviral treatment to three million people by 2005 - the so-called "3 by 5" initiative. Drugs strategy Dr Lee Jong-Wook, director general of the WHO, said details of the strategy will be released on World Aids Day next week. However, he said more money is needed if the strategy is to work. "This represents an unprecedented drive to increase the number of people receiving treatment," he said. "For '3 by 5' to succeed, however, and for treatment access to increase further in the future the international community must continue to increase its financial and logistical support." Nick Partridge, chief executive of the UK charity Terrence Higgins Trust, welcomed the report. "The HIV epidemic continues to devastate communities across the world and we're increasingly feeling its impact here in the UK. "Now more than ever, we must step up our efforts to tackle the epidemic in this country, as well as fulfil our responsibilities in the international fight against HIV. "We will fail if we don't understand that we are all part of a global epidemic," he said. "Strong political leadership is vital to promote education, access to treatment for all and renewed vigour in the quest for vaccines and a cure." Derek Bodell, chief executive of the UK's National Aids Trust, said: "Today's statistics continue to cause us concern. "By now it should be evident to all that HIV does not respect borders."

Haiti Steps Up Fight for $22 Billion from France Wed Nov 19, 8:07 AM ET By Amy Bracken PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  - It's hard to listen to Haitian radio or watch Haitian television these days without hearing the uplifting government public service announcement song that goes: "We demand reparations, restitution. France, pay me my money, $21,685,135,571.48." The television images show people in African clothing dancing and working in fields, the Eiffel Tower, infrastructure such as a dam and buildings and stacks of dollar bills. Haiti is making serious efforts to get France to pay restitution of nearly $22 billion, according to Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Antonio. France colonized the Caribbean nation in the 17th century and imported African slaves to work the sugar cane and coffee plantations. The slaves rebelled, killing or driving out their French rulers, and Haiti declared independence in 1804. France demanded 150 million francs, worth about $28.3 million today, as compensation for the loss of its colony and the Haitian government paid 90 million of that, enough to plunge the country deeply into debt for decades. "It was not enough to have taken up arms in the struggle for independence," wrote Haitian novelist Jean Metellus in a historical essay. "It had to be paid for, too, and it's cost was high." In April, President Jean-Bertrand demanded that France pay restitution, specifying the above sum, which takes into account inflation and interest. After first refusing to discuss the matter, French President Jacques Chirac finally appointed Regis Debray, a left-wing intellectual, to head a commission to investigate the possibility of restitution. With an invitation from the French Institute of Haiti, Debray held a conference in Port-au-Prince last month in which he made no promises about restitution but convinced attendants that France is seriously considering the matter. ALL BUT THE 48 CENTS Aristide held a three-day international colloquium in October to discuss the matter. It overlapped with the anniversary of Aristide's 1994 return to Haiti under U.S. military protection, which came three years after a coup drove him out. "If on October 15, 1994, the impossible became possible, when it comes to restitution, the impossible will be possible," Aristide said. The colloquium featured artistic entertainment, including a Haitian rapper chanting in Creole slang, "Lafrans kale m lamama m," or "France, give me my money." Some critics believe the money, if paid, would go to waste in a government they view as corrupt. The running joke is that France agreed to pay the entire sum except for the 48 cents, to which Aristide replied, "But then what will be left for the people?" Others say the government's approach will fail to persuade France, or that the discussion itself will hurt relations between the two countries. But many are hopeful about the prospective cash flow, while recognizing the process could take years and the sum could be altered. "I'm optimistic because it's a just fight," said Joseph Antonio. "When the fight is just, you always end up winning ... When is another question." 'MEAN OLD COLONIST' Evans Paul, head of the opposition Convention for Democratic Unity party, agreed it is a just cause but doesn't think it can be won. He called the president's public and confrontational approach to the issue "political propaganda." Paul said Aristide "gives the impression that France is a mean old colonist," something he doesn't expect France to respond well to. Paul advocates working with France to find the right moment and conditions for restitution. "Mr. Paul is not the only one to think that way," said government spokesman Mario Dupuy. "There are some people who think (the president) should do this in private, above the population, which is to say behind the back of the population. But the president has adopted a transparent and public path with the population because ... demanding restitution is for the population." But some feel that the entire process is a mistake. When Lionel Etienne, a Haitian who heads the French-Haitian Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites), heard about the government's plans to demand restitution, he said, "It was like finding a hair in my soup." Etienne believes that further developing diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries is far more productive than demanding money. "France is our port of entry into Europe, and I think it's a shame to put in question our relationship with France" by reducing it to a demand for restitution, he said. "It's a combative undertaking." Indeed, as the country prepares for the January bicentennial of its victory over France in the battle for independence, the political language, especially in reference to restitution, is full of bellicose terms -- "combat," "fight," "struggle" and "battle." The demand for restitution may turn out to be the ultimate revolutionary war re-enactment in Haiti.

Technology - News Source As Students Power Up, Colleges Rewire Thu Nov 20, 8:38 AM ET 

By JAMES HANNAH, News Source Writer OXFORD, Ohio - Steve Leslie's dorm room at Miami University has 20 plugs sprouting from the walls. They power a color TV, stereo, compact disc and DVD players, video game player, desktop computer and laptop, printer, scanner, refrigerator, microwave and two fans. Then there are rechargers for a cell phone, hand-held computer, camera, electric razor and toothbrush. "I just keep adding stuff," said Leslie, 20, a junior who shares the room with another student. "I fill up my car and my dad's truck. Some of the bigger stuff, like the speakers, have to wait for the second trip." Today's collegians are part of a generation raised on electronics, and colleges are having no choice but to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade electrical systems. Often, the upgrade costs are getting passed on to parents and students in the form of higher fees. "It looks like Circuit City in some of those rooms," said Dan Bertsos, director of residence services at Wright State University near Dayton. New and renovated dorms at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth are being wired to handle the increasing load. "Kids used to come to college with an AM radio and an electric razor. Now they arrive with every electronic device there is," said Roger Fisher, director of residential services. "They come to campus in a U-Haul, and Dad follows in a Suburban." The average freshman at Miami University takes 18 appliances to campus, according to a March survey by the school. As part of a $7 million renovation of one dorm, Ogden Hall, the university spent $212,548 in 2000 to add building substations, electrical distribution panels and electrical outlets. The 7,000 students who live on campus pay an extra $100 a year in housing fees to cover the renovation costs. "These days the students' lives are quite changed. They need more appliances," said Takashi Kawai, a 64-year-old Dayton-area man whose son lives in a dorm at Miami. In a renovation a few years ago, Wright State doubled to four the number of electrical outlets in each of the 162 rooms at Hamilton Hall, increased the number of circuit breakers, installed new electrical-switch gear and rewired fuse boxes and student rooms. The cost was about $500,000, or $1,000 per student. At Penn State University, electrical consumption in October was 33 million kilowatt hours, up from 27 million in October 1996. The school's electric bill is about $1 million a month. Paul Ruskin, with the university's physical-plant office, said power use by the 13,000 student residents contributed to the increase. Some officials say higher energy costs, campus expansions, lighting and the addition of computer labs and other energy-eating facilities are more to blame for increased power demand than student appliances. And upgrading electrical systems in new and renovated dorms is often required by law under newer, more demanding building safety codes. Andrew Matthews, of the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International, said many dorms were built in the 1950s and 1960s and don't have the electrical capacity for power-dependent students. The higher amp load has some schools setting limits and conserving. The University of Dayton had to stop installing air conditioners in the dorm rooms of students who requested them for such things as allergies and asthma. Craig Schmitt, executive director of residential services, said the school will be able to accommodate those students next fall in a new, air-conditioned dorm. Miami University has been replacing incandescent lights around campus with more efficient fluorescent ones. But conservation alone is oftentimes not enough. Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., decided to tear down one residence hall last year and build a new dorm at a cost of $7 million. "If too many women turned on their hair dryers in the morning, the circuit breakers would blow. That was happening daily," said Bill Seymour, vice president and dean of students. ___ On the Net: Association of College and University Housing Officers-International: http://www.acuho.ohio-state.edu/

Controversial New Claim in Death-by-Asteroid Case
Thu Nov 20, 3:49 PM ET 
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By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com 

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A longstanding mystery over what caused five great mass extinctions, including one that destroyed the dinosaurs, has grown with the release of two studies today in the journal Science.

In one study, researchers make the bold claim that an asteroid is responsible for the death of most life on Earth in a catastrophic extinction 251 million years ago. Other scientists are not ready to accept the claim.

Many experts have become convinced over the past two decades that the dinosaurs were exterminated 65 million years ago by an asteroid impact. Some findings suggest other mass extinctions, such as the one 251 million years ago, might also have been caused by rocks from space.

But the evidence is scant. Volcanic activity remains a suspect in the extinction cases, and a growing scientific minority is skeptical of the whole death-by-space-rock scenario.

The new study uncovered 40 extraterrestrial mineral fragments in the Antarctic, indicating the asteroid impact 251 million years ago. The timing coincides with the well-documented Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the worst of five major events scientists have identified through fossil records. Some 90 percent of all species disappeared, by some accounts.

Scientists generally agree that the newfound tiny grains, called chondritic meteorite fragments, are indeed from space. But agreement stops there.

Too good to be true?

Study leader Asish Basu, a geochemist at the University of Rochester, and his colleagues are puzzled by their own discovery but have arrived at a conclusion nonetheless. 

"It appears to us that the two largest mass extinctions in Earth history [65 million and 251 million years ago] were both caused by catastrophic collisions with chondritic meteoroids," the researchers write. 

The pristine state of the fragments, however, does not make sense to other researchers. They should have long ago become indistinguishable soil, conventional wisdom holds. The fragments were collected from a layer dated to the Permian-Triassic boundary in time. They were embedded in rock 4-8 inches (10-20 centimeters) beneath the surface.

In a related analysis in Science by the science writer Richard Kerr, other scientists say they are stunned that the fragments survived for a quarter-billion years.

"I get the gut feeling it's wrong," said geochemist Birger Schmitz of the University of Goteborg in Sweden.

"It's astonishing, it's incredible, it's unbelievable," said Jeffrey Grossman of the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites). All those adjectives apply, Grossman later told SPACE.com, if the findings prove to be accurate. "Like all experiments it's going to have to be replicated," he said. And that replication is relatively simple. Another group of researchers can go to the same site in Antarctica, bring back their own samples, and analyze them.

Basu stands by the results. He insists the fragments were properly analyzed and that contamination in the sample was ruled out.

"We discovered them," Basu said in a telephone interview today. "Therefore they are there. Time will tell why they are there."

Basu added that the purpose of his team's scientific paper was not to explain how the grains held up over time. "The grains are there. Nobody can challenge that," he said. "We have to figure out how they survived."

Basu's team is back in Antarctica looking for more of the fragments. He said further research could solve the mystery. 

Another culprit

Meanwhile, other researchers have been working to understand what role volcanoes might play in mass extinctions. 

Deadly climate-altering gases spewed by volcanic eruptions could be the main culprit behind mass death, some figure. Others suppose volcanoes play just a supporting role. There is also the question of whether asteroid impacts trigger the volcanic activity and so are the root of all this evil either way.

Another new study in the journal suggests volcanoes might not be as deadly as some believe. And, if correct, it rules out the possibility that the dino-killing asteroid triggered intense volcanic activity known to have occurred in the era.

Researchers agree that at some time near the dinosaur extinction event 65 million years ago, a vast outpouring of volcanic material created a feature in India called the Deccan Traps, a bed of lava that covers an area about the size of Oregon and Washington states combined. But the timing has not been pinned down.

The Deccan volcanism occurred about 500,000 years before the end of the dinosaurs, according to the new research, by Greg Ravizza of the University of Hawaii and Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The volcanoes loaded the air with carbon dioxide, fueling global warming (news - web sites), these scientists presume. Death of some species would have weakened the biological chain supporting dinosaurs.

Volcanic activity might have made life difficult for dinosaurs, it seems, but an asteroid impact remains the prime suspect in their demise.

Solar Storm Hits Earth, Fuels Northern Lights
Thu Nov 20, 3:49 PM ET 
Add Science - Space.com 

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com 

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A solar storm rattled Earth's outer defenses early this morning, generating colorful northern lights as far south as Wisconsin and Michigan. The space cloud is expected to clear early Friday.

The storm, called a coronal mass ejection (CME) was generated along with a medium-class solar flare Nov. 18. The cloud of charged particles arrived at about 3:30 a.m. ET (0830 GMT).

Despite being associated with a moderate flare, the CME was aimed squarely at Earth and generated "strong to extreme" geomagnetic storming, said Paal Brekke, deputy project scientist for the Sun-watching SOHO spacecraft.

Extreme space storms can threaten satellites and power grids. No reports of damage have resulted so far from this bout of space weather.

More flares, including possible extreme events, are possible in the next few days. The current storm emanated from Sunspot 484. Sunspots 486 and 488 have just rotated into view on the left limb of the Sun. The trio was responsible for a string of 10 major flares in a two-week period during late October and early November.

All three spots are capable of producing intense eruptions this week, forecasters said.

The chance of a major solar flare is 25 percent each day through Saturday, according to NOAA's Space Environment Center. 

The current storm had a southward magnetic orientation this morning. That is opposite the orientation of Earth's protective magnetic field. This opposing configuration brews stronger geomagnetic storms, scientists say.

"This event illustrates very well that even a modest flare and a modest halo CME can cause very strong geomagnetic storms here at Earth if it has a south magnetic component," Brekke said.

Northern lights, called auroras, could continue at far northern latitudes overnight. The colorful displays are created when charged particles, accelerated locally by the interaction of the storm with Earth's magnetic field, excite molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere.

Asteroid May Have Hit 250M Years Ago 
Thu Nov 20, 2:04 PM ET

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - A massive asteroid may have collided with the Earth 251 million years ago and killed 90 percent of all life, an extinction even more severe than the meteorite impact that snuffed out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. 

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A new study, based on meteorite fragments found in Antarctica, suggests the Permian-Triassic event, the greatest extinction in the planet's history, may have been triggered by a mountain-sized space rock that smashed into a southern land mass. 

"It appears to us that the two largest mass extinctions in Earth history ... were both caused by catastrophic collisions" with meteoroids, the researchers say in their study appearing this week in the journal Science. 

Asish R. Basu, a professor of Earth sciences at the University of Rochester, said proof of a massive impact 251 million years ago is in the chemistry found in rocky fragments recovered on Graphite Peak in Antarctica. He said the fragments were found at a geological horizon, or layer, that was laid down at the start of the Permian-Triassic extinction. Analysis shows the fragments have chemical ratios that are unique to meteorites. 

"The only place you would find the chemical composition that we found in these fragments is in very primitive, 4.6-billion-year-old meteorites, as old as our Earth," said Basu, the first author of the study. 

Basu said the Permian-Triassic asteroid was probably bigger than the six-mile-wide space rock that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs. 

Such an impact could cause a huge fireball and send billions of tons of dust into the atmosphere, enough to darken the sun for months. It also would have laid down a layer of dust bearing the same chemical composition as the meteorite. 

The dinosaur-killing asteroid left a thin layer of the element iridium across the globe. But Basu said iridium was not found in the fragments recovered from the Antarctica, suggesting the earlier Permian-Triassic asteroid had a different composition. 

Basu said specimens recovered from Permian-Triassic rock formations in China, however, have a chemistry that matches that of the meteorite fragments found in Antarctica, a discovery that supports the impact theory. Also, shocked quartz, a telltale sign of an asteroid impact, has been found at both sites, he said. 

At the time of the Permian-Triassic event, Africa, South America, India, Australia and Antarctica were joined in a giant continent called Pangea. Just where the asteroid hit in that land mass is uncertain, Basu said, but it could have been near what is now western Australia. 

Life on Earth 251 million years ago was far different from what it is now or what it was when dinosaurs lived. 

"There were no large animals then, but there were lots of species living on the land and in the sea, and there were plants," said Basu. The most dominant plant, which is found commonly in fossil beds from the Permian-Triassic, was a giant fern called glossopteris. In the geological layers following the impact, that fern is absent from the fossil record. 

"That was the last blooming of that plant," said Basu. "After that, it was gone forever from the planet." 

Massive outflows of lava, called flood basalt, occurred around the time of both the Permian-Triassic and the dinosaur extinctions. The outflow continued for thousands of years and thickly covered hundreds of miles. Basu said it is possible that asteroid impacts triggered both eruptions of lava, but the connection has yet to be proven. 

Some experts are skeptical that Basu and his co-authors have found 251-million-year-old meteorite metals, although nobody questions that the material did come from outer space. The surprise is that the specimens survived the weathering on Earth for so long. 

"Nobody has even seen anything like this before," said Jeffrey N. Grossman, a researcher with the United States Geologic Survey in Reston, Va. "It is incredibly fresh and that is astonishing." 

David A. Kring, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona, said it is clear that material found by Basu and his team is from an asteroid, "but it is unlike the debris we have seen in other impact ejecta." 

As a result, said Kring, "there are enough questions ... that I don't think one can say that an impact is conclusively linked to the Permian-Triassic extinction. We need to go back and test the hypothesis." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Science: www.sciencemag.org

Valenti Predicts Movies Online by 2005 Thu Nov 20, 7:36 AM ET 

By SHARON THEIMER, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Americans could be watching newly released movies via the Internet as soon as mid-2005 as the industry speeds development of a secure delivery system, Hollywood's chief lobbyist said Wednesday. "I really do believe that we will be able to have some - maybe by this time next year - we'll be able to have the beginnings of some really sturdy, protective clothing to put about these movies," Motion Picture Association of America chief executive Jack Valenti said in an interview with The News Source. Valenti said he would like to see movies go straight from the big screen to the Internet, where customers could download or view them on demand well before DVDs and videos reach the store shelves. "We want to use the Internet," he said. Fighting piracy it says is putting its financial health at risk, Hollywood is working with high-tech experts, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and universities, to develop a secure system for delivering movies, he said. Valenti said the industry has no current plans to sue pirates, as the music industry is doing, but isn't ruling it out because he has seen surveys showing music piracy is being taken more seriously since the lawsuits began early this year. "As long as stealing movies and music is high-reward and no risk, people are going to do it," Valenti said. Valenti, a lifelong Democrat, said California's new Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (news), could be exactly what the budget-strapped state needs and he urged the media to give the former actor a chance. "He's going to shake up things," said Valenti, who attended the governor's inauguration this week. "Do not write him off. If anyone can do it, he can do it." During the interview with the AP, Valenti, a political consultant who was in the motorcade in Dallas 40 years go when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, gave a poignant recounting of that day and how Lyndon B. Johnson brought him back to Washington on the plane with Kennedy's body to work in the White House. Valenti called it a day "that will live in perfidy." Even now he recalls every second, from Jackie Kennedy's refusal to change her bloodstained blouse to his first assignment from Johnson: to track down the wording of the oath of office so Johnson could be sworn in as president aboard Air Force One. "It is so seared in my memory I literally, sometimes at night - not often, but once or twice a year - I relive that day," Valenti said. "Because it was an apocalyptic intrusion. I think the nation's life changed and I can assure you mine radically changed." Valenti expressed outrage over a television documentary that aired this week on the History Channel alleging that Johnson helped plot Kennedy's assassination. Valenti called it the "slimiest piece of garbage I've ever seen on television." He and others have issued a statement condemning it. The History Channel has said the film was meant to present a point of view and that the channel wasn't saying the Johnson theory was correct. On other issues, Valenti: _ Said he didn't see any need for movies to include smoking but wasn't ready to make it a factor in the movie rating system. Valenti said that he feels it is a free-speech issue and that directors should be allowed to have film characters smoke. He noted that tobacco is a legal product and said he was concerned that considering it when rating movies could lead for pushes to include liquor and other legal products in the ratings. _ Said he plans to step down as chief executive officer of the motion picture association within the next several months but remain on as chairman. Valenti said he would prefer to see someone familiar with Washington such as a former Cabinet secretary or member of Congress take over as the lobby group's chief. Members of the film industry he sought out as possible successors weren't interested, he added. _ Remarked that he doesn't personally know Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean (news - web sites) - who is leading polls in early primary state New Hampshire by double digits - but views him a cult figure who has built his campaign around opposition to the war in Iraq (news - web sites). Valenti said he didn't mean that as a criticism. "People vote viscerally, not intellectually, for a candidate," Valenti said.

Source: Limbaugh Being Investigated 1 hour, 33 minutes ago 

By JILL BARTON, News Source Writer WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Authorities are investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally funneled money to buy prescription painkillers, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wednesday. In his third day back on the air after rehab, Limbaugh responded with a blanket denial of the allegations first reported Tuesday by ABC News. "I was not laundering money. I was withdrawing money for crying out loud," Limbaugh said in his three-hour broadcast. Limbaugh was absent from his show for five weeks after announcing he was entering a drug rehabilitation program because of his addiction to prescription painkillers. But he told listeners he could tell them little about the allegations. "I know where the story comes from, I know who's behind it, and I know what the purpose of the story is, and I'll be able to tell you at some point," he said. Law enforcement sources in Palm Beach County, where Limbaugh owns a $24 million oceanfront mansion, previously confirmed that a criminal investigation into a prescription drug ring involved the conservative radio commentator. His former maid, Wilma Cline, reported supplying him with OxyContin and other painkillers. Authorities learned two years ago during an investigation of the U.S. Trust bank in New York that Limbaugh withdrew cash 30 to 40 times from his account at amounts just under the $10,000 bank reporting requirement, ABC News reported Tuesday. A bank employee was reported to have delivered some cash to Limbaugh. Limbaugh told listeners the report was misleading and said that he had the bank bring cash to him at his New York office "maybe four times, if that many." Otherwise, he said he obtained cash from a bank in Florida, where he was living. "When I went to get cash, I took a check to the bank. I went to the bank officer. I said, 'Here's my check,' and they gave me the cash. There were witnesses to this," he said. Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, did not return a phone call for comment Wednesday. It can be a federal crime to structure financial transactions below the $10,000 limit to avoid the reporting requirement. Limbaugh said he started taking painkillers "some years ago" after a doctor prescribed them following spinal surgery. Limbaugh said he became hooked taking the pills for chronic post-surgical pain. He said he'd twice before undergone drug rehabilitation before entering a four-week program in Arizona last month. Limbaugh's drug admission came less than two weeks after he quit as an ESPN pro football commentator. He'd received criticism for saying on the sports network's "Sunday NFL Countdown" that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed. Limbaugh reported two years ago that he had lost most of his hearing because of an autoimmune inner-ear disease, but some medical experts have said abusing opiate-based painkillers like OxyContin can lead to profound hearing loss. Limbaugh had surgery to implant an electronic device to restore his hearing. In the past, Limbaugh has decried drug use and abuse on his bluntly worded show, mocking then-President Clinton (news - web sites) for saying he had not inhaled when he tried marijuana and often making the case that drug crimes deserve punishment. "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up," Limbaugh said on his short-lived television show on Oct. 5, 1995. During the same show, he commented that the statistics that show blacks go to prison more often than whites for the same drug offenses only illustrate that "too many whites are getting away with drug use."

Breaking the Taboo Over Toilets?

Nov 19, 9:33 am ET 

By Jason Szep

SINGAPORE  - Flushed with the success of making the island's lavatories among the cleanest in the world, a Singapore-based organization marked "World Toilet Day" on Wednesday with a call for more hygiene in public facilities.

"What we are trying to do is break the taboo over toilets," said Jack Sim, a founding member of the non-profit World Toilet Organization.

"Everybody talks about what goes into the body and no one talks about what comes out," he said.

The two-year-old World Toilet Organization (www.worldtoilet.org), which aims to raise global awareness of toilet and sanitation standards, marked its annual World Toilet Day with a call for people to speak out against poorly designed or filthy latrines.

The group is collecting tips ahead of a World Toilet Summit to be held in Beijing next year.

The group -- whose members include the British Toilet Association and 17 other similar organizations from 13 countries -- has a top-10 list of latrine essentials that Sim says will lead to "happier people."

The average person, according to the group's Web Site, visits the toilet 2,500 times a year -- meaning you spend nearly three years of your life in the lavatory.

To make the experience more enjoyable, parents should teach children to aim properly, toilet seats should be wiped clean before and after use and flush handles that don't work should be reported.

The group also urged new projects to alleviate a serious lack of toilets in many parts of the world.

"More than half of the world population do not have toilets. They are defecating openly," said Sim, who is also president of the Restroom Association of Singapore.

Women, he says, suffer most from poor public lavatories.

"The amount of space for women's and men's toilets is often a mirror image of each other. But the female requires more than that because they don't have urinals," he said.

"The men just go to the urinals, zip down, shoot, finish. That usually takes about 32 seconds.

"A women can take three times as long. This means a queue can form -- and when there is a queue it starts to get dirty."

He said Japanese toilets were among the best in the world, but those in Beijing were improving fast ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

"The toilets in Beijing now are really beautiful. They have renovated 2,000 public toilets," he said.

Singapore boasts some of the cleanest public lavatories in the world -- helped in part by automatic flushers and laws which impose fines on people who don't flush after use.

Artists Told 'Don't Give Up Day Job'

Nov 19, 9:30 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australian artists know they have to suffer for their art, but a new survey reveals exactly how tough it is to be an actor, writer, dancer or painter with average artistic income just scraping above the poverty line.

Nicole Kidman is Australia's richest actor, earning an annual US$27 million according to Forbes magazine's 2003 Rich List, but a survey of artists titled "Don't Give Up Your Day Job" has found one third of them earn less than the poverty line.

The survey by Australia's peak arts body, The Australia Council, found artists had a mean "creative income" of A$17,000 (US$12,230). Australia's poverty line for a single person is around A$15,400 a year, higher if you are married and have children, as many artists are.

More startling was the fact that half Australian artists had a "creative income," that is money earned purely from artistic work, of less than A$7,300 in the year 2000/01, showed the survey received on Wednesday.

Is Bush's State Visit to Britain a First?

Nov 19, 9:26 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Is President Bush's visit to Britain the first state visit ever by a U.S. president to the United Kingdom?

It depends upon whom you ask.

Yes, said Buckingham Palace.

"American presidents have visited the United Kingdom and stayed as guests of the monarch before, but never before have these visits been described as State Visits, due to a preferred lower-key ceremonial program," said an article in the official Buckingham Palace Web site.

A state visit is a formal affair with pomp and ceremony and a banquet. It is on a higher protocol level than, for instance, a working visit in which two leaders get together in a relatively low-key way to discuss foreign policy issues.

What about Ronald Reagan's 1982 visit? The State Department's Web site describes it thusly: "State visit; met with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Thatcher. Addressed Parliament."

But aboard Air Force One on the flight to London, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said Reagan's was not a state visit.

"The queen invited President Reagan, but it was not a state visit. The last state visit was Woodrow Wilson, in 1918," she said.

Well, what about the Wilson visit? The State Department Web site did not describe it as a state visit: "December 26-31, 1918.... Met with Prime Minister Lloyd George and King George V."

By the end of the day, U.S. officials were conceding that if Buckingham Palace said it was the first state visit ever, then the palace must be right.

Man Dies After Winning Vodka-Drinking Contest

Nov 19, 9:35 am ET 

MOSCOW  - A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care.

"The competition lasted 30, perhaps 40 minutes and the winner downed three half-liter bottles. He was taken home by taxi but died within 20 minutes," said Roman Popov, a prosecutor pursuing the case in the town of Volgodonsk.

"Five contestants ended up in intensive care. Those not in hospital turned up the next day, ostensibly for another drink."

Popov said the director of the shop organizing this month's contest had been charged with manslaughter. He had offered 10 liters of vodka to the competitor drinking the most in the shortest time.

Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Some experts estimate one in seven Russians is an alcoholic.

Murderers Learn Non-Criminal Thinking

Nov 18, 10:37 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Some of Australia's most violent criminals, including murderers, are to be taught "non-criminal thinking" in an attempt to subdue their violent behavior.

Up to 70 hardened criminals in jails in the state of New South Wales (NSW) will participate in the nine-month program involving psychologists, alcohol and drug workers, educators and prison staff, said NSW Justice Minister John Hatzistergos.

"If this program can stop violent behavior in a significant number of inmates, then both correctional officers and the community will be safer," Hatzistergos said in a statement received Tuesday.

"Reducing the incidence of violence in custody may also reduce re-offending in the community," he said.

The NSW Serious Offenders Review Council will recommend which of the state's most violent prisoners will take part in the course at Sydney's maximum security Long Bay jail.

The course involves criminals admitting to their violent behavior and taking responsibility for it, learning anger management and non-criminal thinking, empathizing with victims, and learning to break their lifestyle cycle of crime.

But in case the program doesn't work, there's a back-up.

To ensure the safety of psychologists teaching the criminals, cameras will monitor lessons and staff will have duress alarms, mobile radios and emergency exits and Long Bay prison's riot squad will also be on standby.

Junk food super-sizing Europeans Tue Nov 18, 8:12 AM ET  - USATODAY.com 

By Ellen Hale, USA TODAY Every day, rain or shine, Luisa Bornia and her family gather from all corners of this ancient hilltop town for pranzo, the traditional midday Italian meal. Over homemade pasta, vegetables and wine, they hash out the latest issues, then leisurely chat while peeling apples and peaches for dessert. Not for them McDonald's, potato chips, packaged food or da portare via- takeout. "TV dinner? No way. We don't even own a microwave," says Bornia's lanky 19-year-old daughter Elisa. But if the ages-old Mediterranean diet is still the staple in Bornia's household, it is clearly disappearing from plates elsewhere in Italy. Long-touted for its health benefits by doctors the world over, the classic regimen of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, pasta and olive oil is losing out to American-style eating habits. The result: rapidly increasing levels of American-style obesity. "American fashions always arrive here 10 years later, and now this fashion is arriving," says Amleto D'Amicis, a leading government nutritionist who helped write the latest report on obesity in Italy. Among the findings: 25% of Italian children are now overweight or obese making them the heaviest in Europe. Of children ages 6 through 10, 36% are overweight, the Italian Ministry of Health reported last month. And it's not just here. Throughout Europe, the scales are bouncing upward. In many countries, more than half of adults are now overweight and up to 30% obese. In Britain, 21% of men and nearly 24% of women are now considered obese, a three-fold increase in 20 years, according to the International Obesity Task Force, a London-based consumer group that collaborates with the World Health Organization (news - web sites). This month, the task force warned that without urgent action, obesity levels in Britain will soar 40% or more within a single generation. A 2001 study showed over 11% of adults in Finland were obese. Doctors propose 'fat tax' While the extreme obesity so often associated with America is still rare in Europe, experts say it is a factor, too. Among men in Britain, for example, such morbid obesity has tripled in just the past six years. In the United States, 65% of adults are either overweight or obese, and 31% qualify as obese; 6.3% of women and 3.1% of men are morbidly obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). Nor is the problem limited to Western countries. There are surprisingly high levels of obesity in the Middle East; 40% of women in Kuwait, for example, are considered obese. Obesity is defined in terms of body mass index, a formula that divides weight by height. A body mass index of 30 or higher qualifies as obese; above 40 a person is considered morbidly obese. "The way people live now, there's a cornucopia of calories at every turn," says Neville Rigby, spokesman for the task force. Some European countries are so fearful of the medical consequences and long-term costs of obesity that they are suggesting legal or political action. Sweden already has negotiated voluntary restrictions on TV advertising for soft drinks, snacks and junk food aimed at children (although satellite broadcasting still bombards them with ads). Early this month, Debra Shipley, a British member of Parliament, introduced a bill to ban the advertising of foods containing high levels of sugar, fat and salt during preschool TV programs. And just last week, the British medical journal Lancet came out with a tough editorial calling for celebrities to be prohibited from endorsing junk food. The British Medical Association already has called for a 17.5% "fat tax" on junk foods. Doctors in Italy are calling for similar action. Italy's health minister, Girolamo Sirchia, even asked restaurants recently to reduce the size of their portions. (Italians responded by demanding a reduction in prices, too.) Sirchia also has proposed making Friday a day of fasting. For many of these countries, however, the issue of obesity transcends health and economic concerns. In places like Italy, where traditions surrounding food trace back hundreds of years, the problem reflects dramatic and often disturbing cultural, social and economic changes. In Italy, eating is culture "It all starts with the family," says Claudio Colistra, head of the Rome Federation of Pediatricians, whose organization has launched a program to educate parents and schools about healthy eating and the need for physical activity. "We have lost the habit of sitting down together, the whole family, and eating. We eat outside of the home now, we eat fast food, the mother works, snacks come packaged. Our task is to make parents reflect, and return to the old Italian culture." Bornia's family in Orvieto has religiously maintained the tradition of daily family dining, despite the fact that she is a working mother. In much of Italy, stores and businesses still close from 1 to 4 p.m. so people can return home for pranzo, the main meal. But that custom is slowly disappearing: While 72% of workers went home for lunch 10 years ago, now just over half do, according to Lidia Gargiulo of the National Institute of Statistics. Meanwhile, Italians and other Europeans have become ever more sedentary, their diets more fat-laden and their lifestyles increasingly resembling those of Americans. "The Americanization of diet and the Americanization of lifestyle, that is how this disease is exported," obesity task force spokesman Rigby says. In Crete, for example, consumption of unhealthy saturated fats - the main dietary cause of unhealthy cholesterol levels, and mostly derived from animal products - has doubled in 40 years. They now make up 16% of the diet of young people, according to Anthony Kafatos, professor of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Crete. Middle-aged men there now walk less than 1.5 miles a day; in the 1960s, they walked an average 8 miles a day. Perhaps no eating habit captures the fundamental changes here in Italy better than merendine, or snacks. Doctors, politicians, health officials and parents alike inevitably fault snacks when talking about the disappearance of the Mediterranean diet and the accompanying rise in obesity. Plenty of high-fat food Once hand-packed in children's schoolbags to eat during morning and afternoon break, snacks traditionally consisted of fruit and a hunk of cheese. Today, Italian grocery stores, like many others throughout Europe, have taken on the look of their American counterparts. Their shelves bulge with packaged high-fat snack foods. Meanwhile, advertisements for the snacks saturate children's television shows. "All the children eat these chips and cakes and cookies at snack time, and at lunch no one is hungry," Luisa Bornia says. "Then they get hungry in the afternoon and eat them again." As she speaks, Francesco, 9 and stick-thin, hunts down his soccer ball and heads out to a nearby piazza to kick it around with friends. It's something he does every day until nearly supper time. But his playtime apparently is an anomaly in Europe these days. As in the United States, children here now spend most of their free time watching television or playing computer games. Children in Crete spend an average of four to five hours a day in front of a TV or computer, according to Kafatos. Nutritionist D'Amicis believes such lifestyles are the primary cause of the new epidemic of obesity. "No one sends their children out to play anymore. There is only one hour a week of physical activity in primary schools, two in secondary schools," D'Amicis says. A particular beef is the ban many apartment complexes in Rome have on children playing in their courtyards, as a noise deterrent. In a recent proposal to the Rome city council, D'Amicis suggested reducing taxes on buildings that let kids play outside. But even in the countryside, he says, studies show most children stay inside. "We are static. We don't move anymore," agrees Luca Biagi, 28, who lives in Rome. Like most Italians, he holds the United States largely responsible for his country's increasingly sedentary and overweight population. Eating at McDonalds, he points out, is "fashionable" among young Romans, even though it costs more than a pizza and is not as healthy. "It makes no sense, of course," Biagi says. "But everything comes from America: clothes, music, fat."

FBI Applies New Rules to Surveillance Sat Dec 13, 7:47 AM ET  - washingtonpost.com 

By Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer The FBI (news - web sites) has implemented new ground rules that fundamentally alter the way investigators handle counterterrorism cases, allowing criminal and intelligence agents to work side by side and giving both broad access to the tools of intelligence gathering for the first time in decades. The result is that the FBI, unhindered by the restrictions of the past, will conduct many more searches and wiretaps that are subject to oversight by a secret intelligence court rather than regular criminal courts, officials said. Civil liberties groups and defense lawyers predict that more innocent people will be the targets of clandestine surveillance. The new strategy -- launched in early summer and finalized in a classified directive issued to FBI field offices in October -- goes further than has been publicly discussed by FBI officials in the past and marks the final step in tearing down the legal wall that had separated criminal and intelligence investigations since the spying scandals of the 1970s, authorities said. Senior FBI officials said the changes have already helped the bureau disrupt plans for at least four terrorist attacks overseas and uncover a terrorist sleeper cell in the United States, though they declined to provide details on those cases. The approach also has resulted in a notable surge in the number of counterterrorism investigations, a statistic that is classified but currently stands at more than 1,000 cases, officials said. "With 9/11 as the catalyst for this, what we've done is fundamentally change the approach we take to every counterterrorism case," FBI terrorism chief John S. Pistole said in an interview. "This is a sea change for the FBI." To civil libertarians and many defense lawyers, the changes pose a threat to the privacy and due-process rights of civilians because they essentially eliminate, rather than merely blur, the traditional boundaries separating criminal and intelligence investigations. As a result, these critics say, FBI agents and federal prosecutors will conduct many more searches and seizures in secret, as allowed under intelligence laws, rather than being constrained by the rules of traditional criminal warrants. "By eliminating any distinction between criminal and intelligence classifications, it reduces the respect for the ordinary constitutional protections that people have," said Joshua L. Dratel, a New York lawyer who has filed legal briefs opposing government anti-terrorism policies. "It will result in a funneling of all cases into an intelligence mode. It's an end run around the Fourth Amendment," which protects citizens from unreasonable searches, he said. The overhaul of the FBI's counterterrorism policies began earlier this year with a classified document called the Model Counterterrorism Investigations Strategy (MCIS), officials said. The strategy stems from a November 2002 decision by an intelligence appeals court, which ruled that the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act permits intelligence investigators and criminal prosecutors to more easily share information about terrorism cases. The MCIS and other rules effectively put that finding into practice by reworking the way terrorism cases are handled by the FBI, and by requiring that both criminal and intelligence investigators physically work as part of the same squads on terrorism investigations, officials said. FBI officials declined to release copies of the MCIS or a related Oct. 1 directive, citing national security restrictions, but agreed to describe the outlines of the process. Under previous FBI protocols, terrorism probes could be opened along two separate tracks, one for the purposes of developing a criminal case and one for intelligence gathering. Each was labeled with separate classification numbers, which govern the way cases are tracked and budgeted within the FBI. Sharing between the two categories was sharply limited, overseen by legal mediators from the FBI and Justice Department (news - web sites), and subject to scrutiny by criminal courts and the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Under the new guidelines, all counterterrorism cases are opened under the same classification number, 315, and are handled from the outset like an intelligence or espionage investigation, officials said. The structure allows investigators to more easily use secret warrants and other methods that are overseen by the surveillance court and not available in traditional criminal probes, sources said. All terrorism cases will also be formally run by the counterterrorism division at FBI headquarters in Washington, rather than by individual field offices, officials said. Pistole said that focusing on intelligence gathering will improve the ability of the FBI to prevent, rather than just investigate, terrorist attacks. He and other FBI officials also said the new system will result in less emphasis on bringing criminal charges against suspects in favor of longer surveillance operations. When charges are eventually brought, however, prosecutors will be able to use information gathered through intelligence methods. "We're still interested in the criminal violations that people may be involved in," Pistole said. "But in many cases we are going to put that in the back seat and go down the road until we have all that we need." Robert M. Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism official, said that by merging the criminal and intelligence sides of counterterrorism cases, investigators will be able to work more efficiently on cases and avoid problems that were common before Sept. 11, 2001. "In the past, it was an absolute cardinal rule that there be a wall between the two cases," Blitzer said. "Now, you will have much broader access to see what is going on. You can see the whole scope of things. . . . We were always afraid that something could slip between the cracks on both sides under the old system, and that did happen." In one stark example, FBI lawyers refused to allow criminal agents to join an August 2001 search for Khalid Almidhar, who had entered the United States and would later help commandeer the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites). The lawyers said that information about Almidhar's ties to al Qaeda obtained through intelligence channels could not be used to launch a criminal investigation. An angry New York FBI agent warned in an internal e-mail that was later revealed during congressional hearings that "someday someone will die" because of the decision. In another case, the FBI failed to seek an intelligence warrant to search the belongings of alleged al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussoaui, who had been detained in Minnesota three weeks before the attacks. The legal counsel in the FBI's Minneapolis field office said headquarters officials limited the actions of regular FBI agents in the case because of concerns about breaching the wall between intelligence and criminal cases. The FBI's new strategy is the culmination of a series of new rules and regulations issued since the Sept. 11 attacks to govern terrorism investigations. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft last month issued new national security guidelines, for example, that allow the FBI to conduct an initial "threat assessment" of potential terrorists without firm evidence of a threat or crime, which is required to open a full investigation. Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and other officials argue that such changes are necessary to transform the FBI from a reactive law enforcement agency into one capable of detecting and thwarting terrorist attacks before they occur. According to a study released this week by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Justice and the FBI have sharply increased the number of terrorism cases they are pursuing since the 2001 attacks, although most of the 6,400 people referred to prosecutors were never charged with a crime related to terrorism. Several civil liberties advocates and defense lawyers said the new FBI rules appear to encourage agents to ignore constitutional concerns and to push the boundaries of what is allowed by recent court rulings. Ann Beeson, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), said the system will encourage prosecutors to rely too heavily on evidence gathered by secret intelligence methods. "They're going to use all their foreign intelligence tools, and then they're going to prosecute people using those tools," Beeson said. "They're putting this whole class of criminal cases outside the protection of the Fourth Amendment." Michael A. Vatis, a former Justice Department and FBI official, said the changes are necessary but acknowledged the risk that investigators could overreach. "The principal danger is what the old rules were designed to avoid: to make sure that the FBI wasn't using intelligence authorities when they were really just looking to bust bad guys," he said. "There does need to be good oversight to make sure these new rules are not abused."

Princess Diana's butler hits back at British princes
Sun Oct 26, 7:38 PM ET

LONDON (NEWS SOURCE) - The former butler of Britain's late princess Diana refused to back down over the escalating row caused by sensational revelations he has made about her most intimate secrets. 

NEWS SOURCE/POOL/File Photo 

In an interview with the BBC, Paul Burrell said he would like to give Princes William and Harry "a piece of his mind" and told them to "grow up," after they accused him last week of betraying them and their mother. 

Burrell claimed the two, the only sons of Diana and heir to the British throne Prince Charles, were being used as "emotional cannons" by the "grey men in suits" at Buckingham Palace. 

"I felt immediately that those boys were being manipulated and massaged by the system," he said, "... by those people who did exactly the same to their mother." 

"I am angry with them," he added. 

In The Sunday Times, Burrell warned that his revelation that Diana suspected a plot to have her killed months before her actual death was just the "tip of the iceberg" and that he was prepared to reveal even more explosive secrets. 

His vow came after Diana's sons launched an unprecedented attack on Burrell, accusing him of a "cold and overt betrayal" of their mother in his new book. 

In his interview with the BBC, the former royal butler said that he would have been prepared to halt publication of the book if the two princes had asked him to do so. 

"Just one telephone call would have stopped it, one," he said. 

Princes William, 21, and Harry, 19, said last Friday that Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash in Paris, would have been mortified at a string of his revelations, which also included details about her lovers. 

But Burrell insists he has done nothing wrong. 

"I know where the boundary is and I do not cross that line. Anything I reveal is to illustrate a fact. Other books have been rather sad betrayals," Burrell told The Sunday Times. 

Burrell's revelations were disclosed last week in Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid and are to be expanded in his book, "A Royal Duty", which hits the stands on Monday.

Bubble Gum Celebrates 75 Years with N.Y. Sugarfest

Oct 26, 8:27 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Keeping dentists busy since 1928, bubble gum celebrated its 75th anniversary on Saturday with enough sugar to keep kids hopping way past Halloween.

Created in 1928 by Walter Deimer, an accountant in Philadelphia, the perennial treat was pegged Dubble Bubble by its maker and sold by Fleer Gum Co., which owned the brand name. The first Dubble Bubble squares went on sale in 1937.

Years later the name has stuck though the brand is now owned by Concord Confections Inc. of Toronto. Yet it remains one of the timeless candy treats.

In Dylan's Candy Bar in Manhattan, the energy was reminiscent of any popular watering hole, replete with laughter, snappy pop tunes and picture-taking. But throw in the national bubble gum blowing champion signing autographs and barrels of candy and games, it became clear adults were to mind their manners.

"If you can't have fun doing this ... you can't have fun," said Paul Cherrie, senior vice president sales/marketing of Concord. "We operate in kid-mode and it would be a sad day to switch that off. They are the best source of ideas."

Cherrie said privately-held Concord acquired the Dubble Bubble brand in 1998, selling it in 62 different countries and generating sales of more than $100 million. That figure doesn't include licensing deals for other products.

Its major competitor in the bubble gum business is Topps Co., which makes Bazooka bubble gum.

Back at the bar the champ, 10-year old Aina Cambridge of Chicago, periodically blew bubbles for her public. She was wearing the crown she won on NBC's the Today Show in August with a 14-inch bubble. She also received a $10,000 savings bond, a donation to the children's miracle network in her name -- and yes of course, loads of Dubble Bubble gum.

Missing Missouri Convicts Found in Prison 1 hour, 14 minutes ago 

By DAVID A. LIEB, News Source Writer JEFFERSON CITY - Two convicted murderers who disappeared after allegedly beating another inmate to death at a prison ice plant were found Sunday, still inside the Missouri State Penitentiary. Inmates Christopher Sims and Shannon Phillips were discovered in the same building where they are believed to have killed convicted murderer Toby Viles four days earlier, corrections department spokesman John Fougere said. He said both men surrendered without a struggle. Hundreds of prison officials had been combing the penitentiary and its grounds since the men disappeared Wednesday, suspecting the inmates might never have escaped. No evidence of an escape had been found and no sightings of the men had been reported. "They had constructed a very carefully concealed false wall, which was right near their work site at the ice house," Fougere said. He said the two likely had remained behind the wall most of time they were missing. They were found when a prison staff member, tapping the wall as part of the search, was able to punch a hole in it, Fougere said. Phillips immediately stuck his hand out and said, 'I give up,'" Phillips, 35, has been serving a life prison sentence for a murder in Kansas City. Sims, 27, had been serving a life sentence for a murder in St. Louis. Cole County Sheriff John Hemeyer has said that a note found near Viles' body bearing the initials of the two inmates claimed responsibility for his death and threatened to kill anyone else who got in their way. 

Time to Set Clocks Back to Standard Time Sat Oct 25, 2:10 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

WASHINGTON - For most of the nation it's time to fall back. For one night, the shift to standard time will give people an extra hour of sleep as clocks are set back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, local time. It also means this is the weekend that the millions who work overnight shifts are on the job an hour extra. For most people, though, it simply means having to remember to set the clock back an hour before retiring Saturday night. The time change is not taking place in Arizona, Hawaii, the part of Indiana in the Eastern time zone, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. All stay on standard time year round. Daylight-saving time returns on April 4.

Study: Toddlers Have Bad Eating Habits 12 minutes ago 

By T.A. BADGER, News Source Writer SAN ANTONIO - Even before their second birthday, many American children are developing the same bad eating habits that plague the nation's adults - too much fat, sugar and salt and too few fruits and vegetables. A new study of more than 3,000 youngsters found significant numbers of infants and toddlers are downing french fries, pizza, candy and soda. Children aged 1 to 2 years require about 950 calories per day, but the study found that the median intake for that age group is 1,220 calories, - an excess of nearly 30 percent. For those 7 months to 11 months old, the daily caloric surplus was about 20 percent. "By 24 months, patterns look startlingly similar to some of the problematic American dietary patterns," said an overview of the Feeding Infants & Toddlers Study, commissioned by baby-food maker Gerber Products Co. Recent research has found that roughly one in every five Americans is now considered obese, double the rate in the mid-1980s. "(Your children) are watching you - they see what you do," said Chicago-area dietitian Jodie Shield, who has written two books on child nutrition. "We're on a very dangerous course if we do not make some changes in helping parents step up to the plate and be role models." "Across cultures, it's a positive thing to overfeed your chubby little baby," said Dorothy DeLessio, a dietitian at Brown University Medical School in Providence, R.I. But she added that Americans were crossing over to negative patterns of "round-cheeked overweight toddler, overweight preschooler, overweight child, overweight adult." An overview of the FITS study was presented Saturday at a meeting of the American Dietetic Association. The complete study results are to be published in the association's journal in January. The study involved random telephone interviews conducted in 2002 that asked parents or primary caregivers what their youngsters ages 4 months to 2 years ate that particular day. Up to a third of the children under 2 consumed no fruits or vegetables, according to the survey. And for those who did have a vegetable, french fries were the most common selection for children 15 months and older. Nine percent of children 9 months to 11 months old ate fries at least once per day. For those 19 months to 2 years old, more than 20 percent had fries daily. Hot dogs, sausage and bacon also were daily staples for many children - 7 percent in the 9-to-11 month group, and 25 percent in the older range. More than 60 percent of 12-month-olds had dessert or candy at least once per day, and 16 percent ate a salty snack. Those numbers rose to 70 percent and 27 percent by age 19 months. Thirty to 40 percent of the children 15 months and up had a sugary fruit drink each day, and about 10 percent had soda. Shield said early diets strongly influence children, whose food preferences are generally shaped between ages 2 and 3. "If kids are having soda and soft drinks at such an early age, it's going to be very, very challenging to introduce other types of foods for them later," she said. The study also found that parents were ignoring widely accepted practices by allowing: _ 29 percent of infants to eat solid food before they were 4 months old. _ 17 percent to drink juice before 6 months. _ 20 percent to drink cow's milk before 12 months. Shortcomings were more pronounced for families receiving financial assistance through the federal Women, Infants and Children program, the study found. More than 40 percent of WIC toddlers did not eat any fruit on the survey day, and those children also drank more sweetened drinks.

Chopsticks May Cause Arthritis, Study Shows Fri Oct 24, 9:13 PM ET Add Health 

WASHINGTON  - Using chopsticks may cause arthritis in the hand, U.S. researchers reported on Friday. A study of more than 2,500 residents of Beijing found that osteoarthritis was more common in the hands used to operate chopsticks -- and in the fingers specifically stressed by chopstick use. While the effect is not big, and not likely to discourage anyone from using chopsticks, it merits further study, the researchers told a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology Orlando, Florida. Dr. David Hunter of the Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues interviewed 2,507 60-year-old residents in randomly selected Beijing neighborhoods. They asked them whether they were left- or right-handed, especially when eating, studied how they handled their chopsticks and took X-rays. Each joint was checked for signs of osteoarthritis, and then the team compared how many people had arthritis in the chopstick-using hand as opposed to the other hand. Arthritis was more likely in the chopstick-using hands -- specifically the thumb and the second and third joints on the first and third fingers. "This study suggests that chopsticks may play a role in the development of hand osteoarthritis," Hunter said in a statement. "While the increase in risk associated with chopstick use is small, this accounts for a large proportion of the osteoarthritis in these joint groups. We recommend further biomechanical research to evaluate the forces involved in chopstick use." Hunter noted that other studies have shown that using the hands repetitively can stress the joints and cause arthritis. 

'Twin Peaks' Director Urges $1 Billion for Meditation

Dec 11, 9:06 am ET 

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON  - As director of such dark films as "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" and the television series "Twin Peaks," David Lynch seems an unlikely leader for a world peace campaign based on mass meditation.

But for Lynch, life is bliss, and he says he wants to spread it around.

So he has joined a Washington real estate developer and a former magazine executive to try to raise $1 billion to bankroll a foundation meant to supply instructors in Transcendental Meditation to ease the planet's stress.

"There's a ton of skeptics out there," Lynch said in a The News Source interview on Tuesday, acknowledging a certain giggle factor attendant to this project.

"On the surface there's the giggle," he said. "I would just encourage people to look more deeply into this, and the giggles go away, unless it's just a giggle of pure happiness at the beauty of this -- because this plan has been tested. ... Every time it's been tested it's reduced crime and violence. It's a real thing and it could be put in place this year and bring peace to Earth."

Lynch, whose creations have featured twisted visions of small-town American life, said he has been meditating for 34 years, and that it has not dulled his artistic edge.

"When I started meditating, I had an anger in me and some people might say, well, that would give you an edge, you'd have a cutting edge," Lynch said. "But really, in truth, anger is a poison. ... Two weeks after I started meditating, that anger disappeared and it doesn't mean you can't get angry, it just means you can't hold onto it, it doesn't poison you."

Lynch, along with local real estate developer Jeffrey Abramson and Robert Brown, a former executive with Ziff-Davis, Inc., is promoting the establishment of a University of World Peace in the United States.

They have already raised $88 million, but Brown said more would be needed to endow 8,000 scholarships to teach the Transcendental Meditation techniques of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lynch and others have said that when large numbers of people use these meditation techniques, violent crime, warfare and terrorism have decreased.

Brown said they are looking for large donors using the typical lists of wealthy people, including the Forbes 400, but also hope for smaller donations.

Further information is available online at www.permanentpeace.org.

Scientists Agonized Over Flu Vaccine Sun Dec 14, 1:54 PM ET 

By DANIEL Q. HANEY Late last winter, a committee of vaccine experts designing this season's flu shot considered their choices. They had two, and both seemed bad. Should they stick with last year's formula, even though a new strain of the bug was ominously building strength? Or should they try to make a new vaccine and risk complications or delays that could result in a shortage or maybe even no vaccine at all? In the end, the committee voted 17-1 to bring back last year's version, even though they feared they were telling millions of Americans to roll up their sleeves for shots that might not work very well. Many of them probably agreed with Dr. Theodore Eickhoff of the University of Colorado, who said: "For the first time in many years of participating in these deliberations, I must add I am very uncomfortable with the recommendation." What Eickhoff and the others dreaded is exactly what happened. That new strain of flu became the dominant variety, accounting for three-quarters of all cases as the disease got an unusually early start this fall. About 83 million doses of vaccine were made, but no one really knows how much protection from illness it gives. It almost certainly will not be the usual 70 percent to 90 percent, and some experts fear it is below 50 percent. "We agonized. We asked repeatedly 'Is there another choice?'" remembered Dr. David Stephens, who chaired the panel and heads infectious diseases at Emory University. "The bottom line is, we weren't really given a choice." Their experience shows the frustrating and often imprecise nature of humanity's labor to stay ahead of this perennial nuisance and sometime killer. The flu virus mutates constantly. The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), with the help of its expert committee, must decide in late winter what varieties will be the biggest threats. Picking the best combination is a mixture of science, luck and seat-of-the-pants instinct. "By the time you know what's the right strain, you can't do anything about it," said Dr. Michael Decker, head of scientific affairs at Aventis, one of the three U.S. vaccine makers. The first inkling of something worrisome dawned on flu experts at the end of January. Just two weeks before committees were scheduled to meet at the World Health Organization (news - web sites) in Geneva and the FDA in Rockville, Md., to settle on the makeup of this fall's vaccine, scientists who track the flu noticed a new strain was gathering mass. The vaccine could theoretically protect against several strains of the virus, but because production is slow, the shot is limited to just three. Any of these flu bugs can make people very sick, but since it emerged in 1968 the one most likely to result in pneumonia or death is a type called H3N2. Flu viruses are categorized according to the makeup of their two key proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, the "H" and "N" in their names. Changes in the virus' hemagglutinin is especially troublesome, since this is the protein the human body aims for when it makes antibodies to fight off the flu. For five years, the vaccine had protected against an H3N2 strain called Panama. Now that virus had mutated. A version with two differences in its hemagglutinin was causing outbreaks in Asia and had also turned up in Europe and North America. The FDA's committee met in February and heard the bad news: The current vaccine might not reliably keep people from catching this emerging strain, called Fujian. Nobody knew if the new strain would die out or gain strength, but Dr. Roland Levandowski, the FDA's flu vaccine expert, warned that new flu variants sometimes spread rapidly. The WHO had already postponed its decision on H3N2. The FDA committee did the same. When the FDA committee met again in March, the situation was, in some ways, even worse. Ten 10 percent to 20 percent of H3N2 viruses around the world were Fujian. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) was having trouble isolating a sample that could be the basis of a vaccine. "This is a very urgent issue," CDC flu chief Nancy Cox told the committee. "We've been working on this very intensively for what seems like a very long time. We're very disappointed." Still ahead were many other steps, as well. The Fujian strain's hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes would have to be transferred into tame flu viruses that grow nicely in hens' eggs so vaccine makers could produce them in bulk. Even then, it would take weeks to know if the process would reliably generate the vast quantities needed. "It became, Do we go with a vaccine we know will be partially effective?" remembered Eickhoff. "Or do we wait around and try to identify a possible candidate strain?" When the vote came, only Peter Palese, head of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, chose to switch to the Fujian strain despite the unknowns. He worried that an ineffective formula would give the flu vaccine a bad name because many people might get sick. The WHO made the same decision as the FDA. In hindsight, was it correct? Decker recalled what happened in 2000. Delays resulting from a switch to a new strain, along with a virus that produced poorly, contributed to a vaccine shortage. A last-minute change to Fujian this year "could easily have meant not only a severe shortage but also the wrong vaccine," he said. "Right now, people are saying, 'You idiot, why didn't you choose Fujian?' But what if Fujian had petered out?" ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The News Source. ___ On the Net: Meeting transcripts: http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/03/transcripts/3922t1.doc http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/03/transcripts/3941t1.doc

Coke to Launch Cholesterol-Reducing Orange Juice Fri Oct 24, 1:29 PM ET Add Health 

By Paul Simao ATLANTA  - Soft drink maker Coca-Cola Co., which is battling rival PepsiCo Inc. for control of the growing health drinks market, said on Friday it was preparing to launch a cholesterol-reducing orange juice. The world's largest soft drink maker will begin rolling out Minute Maid Premium Heart Wise on Monday in the United States. It expects the drink to be widely available throughout the nation by the Thanksgiving holiday in November. The product will contain plant sterols, an additive that has been used in cholesterol-fighting margarine and other food products. Plant sterols have been shown to cut bad cholesterol levels by about 10 percent when used consistently. More than 41 million Americans have high cholesterol, a key risk factor for heart disease, according to the American Heart Association (news - web sites). Another 60 million or so have moderately elevated levels of the fatty substance. "That is a pretty good customer base," Coca-Cola spokesman Ray Crockett said. "People with moderately high cholesterol will find this product will help them reduce their cholesterol significantly." Crockett said the company had conducted a clinical trial to back up the drink's health claims and had obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) to market the drink. Results of the clinical test will be available next month. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola first revealed its plans to launch Heart Wise in an interview with Beverage Digest. John Sicher, the trade publication's editor, said the drink was on the cutting edge of a new wave of innovative beverages. "This is real innovation in that it provides a true functional benefit," Sicher said. "It uses a beverage as a delivery system for an ingredient that will really help people." Consumers would have to drink two 8-ounce servings of Heart Wise per day to get the suggested daily 2 grams of sterols needed to lower cholesterol, according to Coca-Cola. Each serving contains about 110 calories. The product will have to be kept refrigerated. Shares of Coca-Cola fell 63 cents to $44.89 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). PepsiCo. dropped 50 cents to $47.52 a share on the NYSE.

New Cell Phone Towers Make People Sick 24-Oct-2003 Phone towers for the new, high-tech cell phones can cause headaches and nausea, according to Dutch researchers, because they operate at a higher frequency than those for traditional cell phones. This new technology allows callers to use their phones to send messages and photo images. The Dutch study exposed volunteers in laboratories to radiation from either the new or the "traditional" cell phone towers, without telling them which one they were being exposed to. Of the 72 people who took part in the study, half experienced nausea, headaches and tingling sensations from the radiation level of the new cell phone towers. In contrast, the radiation level of traditional cell phone towers produced no bad effects. Researcher Maarten Lortzer says, "These findings were very unexpected. It means that there are a whole lot of other questions coming up." Such as: if traditional towers are replaced with new ones, to service these popular new phones, will a lot of people living nearby suddenly start feeling sick?

Arctic ice cap melting at worrying rate: NASA
Fri Oct 24, 9:36 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - The polar ice cap is melting at an alarming rate due to global warming (news - web sites), according to NASA (news - web sites) scientists, with satellite images showing the ice cap has been shrinking by 10 percent per decade over the past quarter century. 

NEWS SOURCE-NASA/File Photo 

"It is happening now. We cannot afford to wait a long period of time for technological solutions," said David Rind of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. 

"Change is in the air -- literally," he told a press conference here Thursday. 

By means of a special satellite launched last year to measure the thickness of the polar ice cap, NASA has confirmed that part of the Arctic Ocean that remains frozen all year round shrank at a rate of 10 percent per decade since 1980, NASA researcher Josefino Comiso said. 

"The extent of Arctic sea ice that remains frozen all year reached record lows in 2002 and 2003," he added. 

The polar ice cap expands in winter and contracts in spring and summer. The part of the ice cap that never melts, even in the warmest summers, is called the "perennial sea ice." 

The oceans and land masses surrounding the Arctic Ocean have warmed one degree Celsius (two degrees Fahrenheit) during the past decade, scientists said. 

Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are worried because global warming speeds up as the ice cap melts, forming a vicious cycle. 

"Snow and sea-ice are highly reflective because they are white," Comiso said. 

"Most of the sun's energy is simply reflected back to space. With retraction of the ice cover, that means that less of surface is covered by this highly reflective snow and sea ice, and so more energy has been absorbed and the climate warms." 

The warming trend has brought spectacular consequences. US and Canadian scientists reported in September that the largest ice shelf in the Arctic off Canada's coast has broken up due to climate change and could endanger shipping and drilling platforms in the Beaufort Sea. 

The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf had been in place on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory for at least 3,000 years. 

"Small changes in ice could mean big impacts on the water cycle and ultimately the global climate," warned NASA. 

The changes could alter ocean currents, the distribution of fish populations and precipitation averages over a wide area. 

"One activity in the north is hunting of marine animals using sea-ice as a platform. When sea-ice retreats, it affects the communities up there," said University of Washington oceanographer Michael Seteele. 

"The Arctic is changing rapidly. We should be concerned in the sense we need to simply recognize the change is here, is occurring and we may have to adapt to it," University of Colorado researcher Mark Serreze told reporters. 

"Why the increase in global temperature?" he asked. 

"Part of this is probably simply due to natural variability in the climate system," he added. "But the general consensus of the climate community is that part these changes are due to human impact."

Princes Criticize Diana's Butler for Book 
1 hour, 47 minutes ago 
Add Entertainment - 

By ANGELA DOLAND, News Source Writer 

LONDON - Princes William and Harry harshly criticized former royal butler Paul Burrell on Friday for what they called a "cold and overt betrayal" of their mother in revelations about her private life. 

In a statement unprecedented for its strength of feeling, 21-year-old William, who was also speaking on behalf of his younger brother, said Princess Diana would have been "mortified" at Burrell's actions if she were alive today. 

Burrell has written about his years as the princess's butler, and excerpts have been carried all week in the Daily Mirror newspaper. One of Burrell's claims is that Diana - who died in a 1997 car crash - feared for her life and spoke of a plot to tamper with the brakes of her car. 

In the statement released by Clarence House, where they live with their father, Prince Charles, the young princes asked Burrell to put an end to his disclosures about Princess Diana. 

"We cannot believe that Paul, who was entrusted with so much, could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal," the princes said. 

"It is not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected, and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul. 

"We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end," the princes said. 

Burrell was a close confidant of the princess, who once called him "my rock." 

Excerpts from his forthcoming book "A Royal Duty," carried in the Daily Mirror, have included quotations from letters in which she reportedly described her regrets about her divorce from Charles. 

Burrell also revealed letters he said Diana had received from her brother, Earl Spencer, and her father-in-law, Prince Philip. 

Philip's letter was quoted as saying he had "never dreamed" Charles would leave Diana for his companion Camilla Parker Bowles. 

In excerpts published Friday, Burrell denied claims that Diana planned to marry her companion Dodi Fayed and was pregnant with his child at the time of the Aug. 31, 1997 crash in which both of them died. 

The former butler said that Diana, after her divorce, had nine suitors, including a famous politician and an actor, but that she was not ready to marry again. He did not reveal the names of the suitors and said Diana was in love with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, who eventually broke off their relationship. 

The royal family, reportedly angry over Burrell's revelations, asked for and received sections of the book from its publisher. 

After the report that Diana had feared a plot to eliminate her, Dodi Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed Al Fayed - who has long contended the crash was part of a murder plot - urged a public inquiry into the crash. That was rejected by the British government. A coroner's inquest will be held once legal processes in France are completed. 

In France, three photographers went on trial Friday for taking pictures at the scene of crash in a Paris tunnel, which also killed Diana and Fayed's driver, Henri Paul. The trial stems from a criminal complaint for invasion of privacy filed by Fayed's father. 

Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Fabrice Chassery were among the professional photographers who pursued Diana's Mercedes. 

The three photographers face up to a year in prison and a fine of $53,000. The prosecutor asked that they get suspended prison terms. A verdict is expected to be set for a later date. 

Photos taken at the site were confiscated and never published. 

In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against the photographers. An investigation into the crash concluded that Paul had been drinking and was driving at high speed.

Whiskey Flows Once More at Mount Vernon Tue Oct 21, 7:00 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, News Source Writer MOUNT VERNON, Va. - George Washington's estate on the Potomac River hasn't been home to a working distillery for about two centuries, but that changed Tuesday as whiskey makers recreated the father of the country's popular recipe. "For me, it's like standing on hallowed ground," Jim Beam master distiller Jerry Dalton said as he took a break from preparing the 18th century recipe to survey the scene, three miles from the main house where Washington lived from 1754 until he died in 1799. Washington started his whiskey business in 1797, after leaving politics. The enterprise (news - web sites), which relied on slaves, thrived. It yielded 11,000 gallons of whiskey and a profit of $7,500 - or about $105,000 in today's dollars - in one year. Today's top whiskey makers spent hours Tuesday mixing, heating and cooling Washington's "mash bill," or recipe, of rye, corn and malted barley. They then ran their creation through a copper still atop an open fire. Dalton looked relieved after sipping the creation, which he called spicy and aromatic. "I had concerns about it. I mean this is so primitive," Dalton said eyeing the outdoor flame and ancient-looking pots. "I thought it would be a little murky, but that's not the case at all." They're planning to age the whiskey in two barrels for a couple years, and when they think it's ready, they will auction off an estimated 96 bottles of it to benefit the Mount Vernon estate. The distillers did hit a couple of snags with their brew. A special yeast that was shipped to Virginia from the Woodford Reserve distillery in central Kentucky died en route, so the whiskey makers had to pick up ordinary yeast at a suburban Washington grocery store. Also, the team put too much of their concoction in the still during a test, producing a sample that "tasted like burnt toast, burnt rye bread toast," said Joseph Dangler, who makes Virginia Gentleman bourbon. Just adjacent to the outdoor area where the distillers recreated Washington's whiskey are the rocks and bricks that make up the foundation of the first president's distillery. The Distilled Spirits Council, the industry's trade group, is spending more than $1 million to excavate the site and rebuild the distillery. The project is expected to be completed in two years. Mount Vernon Associate Director Dennis Pogue said officials would not distill liquor at the site but would explain to visitors how Washington did it back in the late 1700s. As school children ran around on a class trip, Pogue talked about the careful "balancing act" of explaining Washington's life to visitors without promoting alcohol. The association has been helpful to the industry, said Phil Lynch, vice president of Louisville, Ky.-based Brown-Forman, which makes top whiskey seller Jack Daniels. "George Washington, he was the one that won the Revolutionary War. He was the first president," Lynch said. "It helps put into perspective that there's nothing wrong with the distilling process." ___ On the Net: Mount Vernon: http://www.mountvernon.org/ Distilled Spirits Council: http://www.discus.org/

Mystery Asteroid, Hermes, May Have a Partner Tue Oct 21,12:23 PM ET Add Science - Space.com 

By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com Astronomers have apparently discovered an interesting twist to one of the greatest asteroid mysteries of all time. Hermes, a space rock lost to science for 66 years and recently rediscovered, could actually be a pair of orbiting asteroids, new radar observations suggest. Hermes had not been seen since its 1937 discovery until found anew in a collaborative effort last week. Once Hermes was recovered, astronomers around the world began observing it to take advantage of its relative proximity. The latest look at Hermes, also named 1937 UB, comes from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar observations were made Oct. 18 and 20 and show, according to a preliminary assessment, a "strongly bifurcated" appearance. The images have not yet been released to the public. "Our images show two separate components of roughly equal sizes, consistent with an orbiting binary pair," a team of astronomers wrote to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. The astronomers estimate that each asteroid is about 980 to 1,480 feet (300-450 meters) in diameter, or possibly just over a quarter-mile. But, they caution, additional data are needed to verify whether the object is really a pair. Holy Grail When Hermes was recovered last week and thought to be a single object, astronomers estimated its diameter at 0.62 to 1.24 miles (1-2 kilometers). Though he didn't know it at the time, Brian Skiff of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search program (LONEOS) in Arizona was responsible for the rediscovery of Hermes. Skiff said Hermes had been the "number one" unsolved mystery for asteroid scientists. "It was the last of the 'lost' Holy Grail asteroids," Skiff told SPACE.com. Asteroid hunters around the world have been on a quest over the past decade to find 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 or so large asteroids -- 0.62 miles or 1 kilometer -- thought to roam the general space through which Earth orbits. These large near-Earth asteroids have the potential to one day devastate a region of Earth and affect the global climate. Well more than half have been found and none are known to be on a collision course. Asteroid experts won't be too surprised to learn now that Hermes may have a partner. Dancing asteroids, known as binaries, are not uncommon. A study last year estimated that 16 percent of near-Earth asteroids are actually double trouble. Hermes -- be it a loner or a pair -- is now on NASA (news - web sites)'s list of potentially hazardous asteroids. It will not hit the planet in the next 100 years, astronomers have determined, but its course thereafter is not known with certainty. For years, scientists have pondered the added difficulty of dealing with a binary asteroid that might one day take aim on Earth. No one has come up with a proven plan for deflecting a lone space rock, however, let alone a pair. More to come Hermes was discovered in 1937 by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth. A few days later it was out of sight, and astronomers didn't have enough information about its path to find it for more than six decades, even though, they know now, it made repeated passes relatively close to the planet. The new Arecibo observations were made by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles, the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Later this year, Hermes will pass within about nine times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It travels on an elliptical orbit that takes it across Venus' orbit and then well out into the solar system. More observations from Arecibo and other telescopes are expected. Even astronomers with large backyard telescopes -- perhaps 8 inches or bigger -- will be able to spot Hermes later this month. [Software for locating Hermes].

Mystery Asteroid, Hermes, May Have a Partner Tue Oct 21,12:23 PM ET Add Science - Space.com 

By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com Astronomers have apparently discovered an interesting twist to one of the greatest asteroid mysteries of all time. Hermes, a space rock lost to science for 66 years and recently rediscovered, could actually be a pair of orbiting asteroids, new radar observations suggest. Hermes had not been seen since its 1937 discovery until found anew in a collaborative effort last week. Once Hermes was recovered, astronomers around the world began observing it to take advantage of its relative proximity. The latest look at Hermes, also named 1937 UB, comes from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar observations were made Oct. 18 and 20 and show, according to a preliminary assessment, a "strongly bifurcated" appearance. The images have not yet been released to the public. "Our images show two separate components of roughly equal sizes, consistent with an orbiting binary pair," a team of astronomers wrote to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. The astronomers estimate that each asteroid is about 980 to 1,480 feet (300-450 meters) in diameter, or possibly just over a quarter-mile. But, they caution, additional data are needed to verify whether the object is really a pair. Holy Grail When Hermes was recovered last week and thought to be a single object, astronomers estimated its diameter at 0.62 to 1.24 miles (1-2 kilometers). Though he didn't know it at the time, Brian Skiff of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search program (LONEOS) in Arizona was responsible for the rediscovery of Hermes. Skiff said Hermes had been the "number one" unsolved mystery for asteroid scientists. "It was the last of the 'lost' Holy Grail asteroids," Skiff told SPACE.com. Asteroid hunters around the world have been on a quest over the past decade to find 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 or so large asteroids -- 0.62 miles or 1 kilometer -- thought to roam the general space through which Earth orbits. These large near-Earth asteroids have the potential to one day devastate a region of Earth and affect the global climate. Well more than half have been found and none are known to be on a collision course. Asteroid experts won't be too surprised to learn now that Hermes may have a partner. Dancing asteroids, known as binaries, are not uncommon. A study last year estimated that 16 percent of near-Earth asteroids are actually double trouble. Hermes -- be it a loner or a pair -- is now on NASA (news - web sites)'s list of potentially hazardous asteroids. It will not hit the planet in the next 100 years, astronomers have determined, but its course thereafter is not known with certainty. For years, scientists have pondered the added difficulty of dealing with a binary asteroid that might one day take aim on Earth. No one has come up with a proven plan for deflecting a lone space rock, however, let alone a pair. More to come Hermes was discovered in 1937 by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth. A few days later it was out of sight, and astronomers didn't have enough information about its path to find it for more than six decades, even though, they know now, it made repeated passes relatively close to the planet. The new Arecibo observations were made by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles, the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Later this year, Hermes will pass within about nine times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It travels on an elliptical orbit that takes it across Venus' orbit and then well out into the solar system. More observations from Arecibo and other telescopes are expected. Even astronomers with large backyard telescopes -- perhaps 8 inches or bigger -- will be able to spot Hermes later this month. [Software for locating Hermes].

Methane Bubbles Could Sink Ships, Scientists Find Tue Oct 21, 3:33 PM ET Add Science 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON  - Methane bubbles from the sea floor could, in theory, sink ships and may explain the odd disappearances of some vessels, Australian researchers reported on Tuesday. The huge bubbles can erupt from undersea deposits of solid methane, known as gas hydrates. An odorless gas found in swamps and mines, methane becomes solid under the enormous pressures found on deep sea floors. The ice-like methane deposits can break off and become gaseous as they rise, creating bubbles at the surface. David May and Joseph Monaghan of Monash University in Australia said they had demonstrated how a giant bubble from one of these deposits could swamp a ship. "Sonar surveys of the ocean floor in the North Sea (between Britain and continental Europe) have revealed large quantities of methane hydrates and eruption sites," May and Monaghan wrote in their report, published in the American Journal of Physics. "A recent survey revealed the presence of a sunken vessel within the center of one particularly large eruption site, now known as the Witches Hole." "One proposed sinking mechanism attributes the vessel's loss of buoyancy to bubbles of methane gas released from an erupting underwater hydrate," they wrote." The known abundance of gas hydrates in the North Sea, coupled with the vessel's final resting position and its location in the Witches Hole, all support a gas bubble theory." No one has ever seen such an eruption and no one knows how large the bubbles coming off a methane deposit would be. May and Monaghan created a model of a single large bubble coming up under a ship. They trapped water between vertical glass plates, launched gas bubbles from the bottom and used a video camera to record what happened to an acrylic "hull" floating on the surface. "Whether or not the ship will sink depends on its position relative to the bubble. If it is far enough from the bubble, it is safe," they wrote. "If it is exactly above the bubble, it also is safe, because at a stagnation point of the flow the boat is not carried into the trough. The danger position is between the bubble's stagnation point and the edge of the mound where the trough formed," they concluded. ). 

FDA Warns of Possible Drug-Suicide Link Mon Oct 27, 3:18 PM ET 

WASHINGTON - Some anti-depressant drugs undergoing trials in children may be associated with suicides, the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) said Monday. The agency said reports in the press and medical journals describe suicide attempts and suicides in children receiving antidepressants. Many such reports also have been submitted to the FDA. While the data do not clearly establish an association between the use of the drugs on trials and increased suicidal thoughts or actions by pediatric patients, FDA said it also is impossible to rule out an association. Determining if the drug was at fault is a problem, as suicide attempts also occur in patients with depression who are untreated. Nevertheless, the FDA said it is issuing a public health advisory to alert physicians to reports of suicidal thinking and suicide attempts in clinical studies of various anti-depressant drugs in pediatric patients. Currently only Prozac is approved for use in major depressive disorder among children, but physicians sometimes use other drugs approved for adults. The FDA said it has completed a preliminary review of reports for eight anti-depressant drugs - citalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, mirtazapine, nefazodone, paroxetine, sertraline, and venlafaxine - in tests in children. In addition to the advisory, the agency scheduled a meeting next February of its Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Pediatric Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee to discuss the question.

Reps: U.S. Overpaying Halliburton for Gas Wed Oct 29, 7:24 PM ET Add Politics 

By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON  - The U.S. government is paying Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s former firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - news) "enormous sums" -- $2.65 a gallon -- for gasoline imported into Iraq (news - web sites) from Kuwait, two lawmakers charged on Wednesday. Democrats Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan said this gross overpayment was made worse by the fact that the U.S. government was turning around and reselling the gasoline in Iraq for four to 15 cents a gallon. In a letter of complaint sent to President Bush (news - web sites)'s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), the two lawmakers said experts they consulted think the cost of buying and transporting gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq should cost less than $1 a gallon. The Iraqi oil company SOMO is paying only 97 cents a gallon to import gasoline from Kuwait to Iraq, they said. Waxman added in a statement: "We know that someone is getting rich importing gasoline into Iraq. What we don't know is who is making the money, Halliburton or the Kuwaitis?" Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which defends its pricing as fair, has a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's oil sector. This has included importing oil products in short supply as the oil-rich nation's refineries are brought back into production. As of Oct. 19, Halliburton had imported 61.3 million gallons of gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq, and the company was paid $162.5 million for an average price of $2.65 a gallon, Waxman and Dingell wrote. "The $2.65 per gallon is grossly excessive," they said. "Experts we consulted stated that the total price for buying and transporting gasoline into Iraq should be less than $1.00 per gallon." The U.S. government was then selling this gasoline inside Iraq for just four to 15 cents a gallon, subsidizing over 95 percent of the cost of gasoline consumed by Iraqis, they said. "The U.S. government is paying nearly three times more for gasoline from Kuwait than it should, and then is reselling this gasoline at a huge loss inside Iraq," the lawmakers wrote. Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall defended the company against what she said were "false statements" about its efforts in Iraq, adding that wartime work was expensive and Halliburton only recovered "a few cents on the dollar" for fuel costs. "Four types of fuel are being purchased: gasoline, kerosene, LPG and diesel," Hall said in a statement. These fuels had different prices, she said, but gave no details. "It is expensive to purchase, ship and deliver fuel into a wartime situation, especially when you are limited by short duration contracting," she said. "The costs for the fuel are 'pass-through' costs because Halliburton only recovers a few cents on the dollar for this expense," Hall said. Cheney was Halliburton's CEO for five years before running for vice-president in 2000. Waxman wrote earlier this month to the White House Office of Management and Budget to complain that Halliburton's subsidiary was overcharging for petroleum products, saying it was billing an average price of $1.59 a gallon. A Waxman spokeswoman said new information the lawmaker has received since then was broken down into gasoline from Turkey and gasoline from Kuwait, revealing the price for gasoline imported from Kuwait to be much higher. Halliburton was charging only $1.22 per gallon to import gasoline from Turkey into Iraq, Waxman and Dingell said.

Al-Qaida planned U.S. forest fires FBI memo described plot to set blazes in the West Posted: October 27, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is a weekly online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com - a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years.

(c) 2003 WorldNetDaily.com As arson wildfires consumed nearly 200,000 acres in Southern California, destroying 850 homes and killing at least 13, the inevitable question arises: Who started the fires? While firefighters focus on containing the blazes rather than the detective work necessary to prosecute arsonists, many are wondering about a possible connection with terrorism. In August, Australian authorities launched an investigation into reports al-Qaida planned to spark bushfires in a new wave of devastating terror attacks. A June 25 FBI memo to United States law enforcement agencies revealed a senior al-Qaida detainee claimed to have developed a plan to start midsummer forest fires in the U.S. The terrorist hoped to mimic the destruction that devastated Canberra last summer, killing four people and destroying more than 500 homes, as well as in other parts of Australia. The memo, obtained by the Arizona Republic newspaper, said an unidentified detainee revealed he hoped to create several large, catastrophic wildfires at once. "The detainee believed that significant damage to the U.S. economy would result and once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies," the memo said. The detainee told investigators his plan called for three or four operatives to travel to the U.S. and set timed explosive devices in forests and grasslands. "Australian security authorities are aware of reports that al-Qaida has considered starting bushfires in the U.S. as a form of terrorist attack," said a spokeswoman Australian Attorney General Daryl Williams. "Arson attacks are just one of a wide range of scenarios which have been considered as part of our investigations into al-Qaida's ability to conduct attacks in Australia." In fact, Arab terrorists in Israel have started dozens of major forest fires over the years. And al-Qaida has been known to learn from and take inspiration from the activities of Palestinian Arab terrorists - who, for instance, first pioneered airline hijackings. As far back as 1988, Israeli police caught more than a dozen Palestinian adults in the act of setting fires, while other Arabs confessed to arson after arrest. Some fires followed specific calls by underground Arab terrorists. A leaflet issued by the Palestinian uprising's underground leadership called for ''the destruction and burning of the enemy's properties, industry and agriculture.'' Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said at the time: ''The need to set fires, which also leads to murders, is in my eyes worse than fundamentalism.'' Israeli nature reserve authorities said 408 fires in May and June of 1988 destroyed 400,000 acres of land, nearly seven times the acreage burned from 1974 to 1986. Last year, Gilad "Gidi" Mastai, chief ranger in the Galilee region of Israel, told the Jerusalem Post: "It's extremely hard to find arsonists, just like it's hard to close off the Green Line to terrorists. The forests here are on the front line." But, he said, the vast majority of deliberate fires are started by Arabs with political motives. Forest rangers often need the help of the Israel Defense Forces to battle the terror blazes. Arson cases account for one-third of Israeli forest fires. "Political" arsonists cause the most with negligent hikers a close second.

Rumsfeld Doesn't Know if He's Lost His Mojo Fri Oct 31,10:30 AM ET Add Oddly Enough 

WASHINGTON  - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he does not know whether or not he has lost his mojo, as a leading news magazine suggested, because he doesn't really know what mojo is. "Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?" was the headline in Time magazine above a story about Rumsfeld's recent difficulties concerning Iraq (news - web sites) policy and differences with U.S. lawmakers. "Have you lost your mojo?" a reporter asked Rumsfeld during a Pentagon (news - web sites) briefing. Rumsfeld said he did not consult a dictionary -- as he has for words like slog about which he has sparred with reporters -- but he spoke with an aide who had. "And they asked me that, and I said, 'I don't know what it means.' And they said, 'In 1926 or something, it had to do with jazz music.'" The Webster's New World Dictionary defines mojo as "a charm or amulet thought to have magic powers," or "power, luck, etc., as of magical or supernatural origin." The word is thought to be of Creole origin. Mojo has most recently come into popular culture in connection with the "Austin Powers" movies, starring Mike Myers, in which mojo was portrayed as the secret behind the title character's libido. At one point, Myers complains, "Crikey, I've lost my mojo!"

Vaccine-Evading Mousepox Virus Created 2 hours, 11 minutes ago 

By PAUL ELIAS, News Source Biotechnology Writer SAN FRANCISCO - A research team backed by a federal grant has created a genetically engineered mousepox virus designed to evade vaccines, highlighting the deadly potential of biotechnology and bioterrorism. The team at St. Louis University, led by Mark Buller, created the superbug to figure out how to defeat it, a key goal of the government's anti-terrorism plan. Researchers designed a two-drug cocktail that promises to defeat their exceptionally deadly virus. They hope to publish their work soon in a peer review journal. "The whole focus was to contribute to the biodefense agenda of the country," Buller said. Buller spliced a gene known to suppress the immune system into the mousepox virus, then injected the combined strand into vaccinated mice. All of them died. Mousepox can't be passed to humans, but it's a close relative to smallpox, making it an ideal virus to study in animals. The research highlights a contentious debate among scientists and security experts: Does publication of such work help or hinder the biodefense effort? Should such studies be conducted at all? In response to heightened security concerns, many scientific journals have censored studies with national security implications. When Buller presented his results last week at an international biodefense conference, it prompted debate among some attendees. Some feared that publication of such information - regardless of whether scientists' intentions are altruistic - could help terrorists create biological weapons laced with genetically modified superbugs. Such germs are created by splicing drug-resistant genes in viruses normally defeated by vaccines. "In the Soviet Union, there was some research trying to develop genetically engineered smallpox," said Ken Alibek, a former top scientist in the Soviet biological weapons program who came to the United States in 1992. "It wasn't very successful, but now with all the new advances in technology, know that it's pretty much obvious that it can be done." Alibek, a director of George Mason University's National Center for Biodefense, believes Buller's work and similar research should be confidential to impede terrorists and rogue nations from acquiring knowledge about genetically engineered bioweapons. Buller counters that publicizing such work will deter terrorists by showing that scientists can build defenses against souped-up bioweapons. Buller also believes scientists must genetically engineer pathogens to understand how to defeat them. "All this is out there," Buller said of bioweapons research. "There are cookbooks easily attainable on how to make this stuff." Buller said his work replicated a nearly 3-year-old Australian study, which the scientific community continues to debate. In that study, scientists trying to beat back an overabundance of mice in Australia spliced a single foreign gene into a typically mild mousepox virus in hopes of creating a genetically engineered sterility treatment. Instead, they created a mousepox strain so powerful that it killed even those mice inoculated against the virus. Buller's team improved upon the Australian accident, said Larry Kerr of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "They did a more thorough analysis," Kerr said. "It's more substantive and it went a step further: They developed a counter measure." Buller said infected mice recovered when treated with a combination of anti-viral drugs, providing hope that a treatment against genetically engineered smallpox could be developed. Smallpox historically kills about a third of its victims and can be transmitted from person to person, unlike anthrax and other biological weapons. Smallpox has plagued humans for centuries, and it's believed to have killed more people than all wars and epidemics combined. Death typically follows massive hemorrhaging.

Fruit Stickers-Look for the 8
12-Nov-2003

You've noticed that tiny stickers that now appear on almost all fruit, and probably been 
annoyed that you have to peel each one off. These contain bar codes for the check-out 
clerk, but they also contain a secret the store might not want you to know. 

Nutritionist Karma Metzgar of the University of Missouri writes that these stickers also 
tell you if the fruit is organic or genetically-modified. On conventionally-grown, 
non-organic fruit, the sticker has only 4 numbers. Organically grown fruit has a 
five-numeral code, which begins with the number 9. Since organic fruits and vegetables 
now have to be in separate areas in grocery stores, this confirms that your apple hasn't 
ended up in the wrong pile. However, the store does not have to reveal which fruits and 
vegetables are genetically-modified-but you can find out by looking at their stickers, 
which will begin with the number 8. 

According to Metzgar, this means a regular banana would have a sticker saying 4011, an 
organic banana would say 94011 and a GM banana would say 84011. 

Lots of people complain that the stickers are too hard to peel off, so it may be a relief to 
know that the adhesive is safe to eat. 

A Broken Heart Really Can be Painful 06-Nov-2003 A rejected lover's "broken heart" can feel as painful to the pain center in your brain as an actual physical injury. Psychologist Jaak Panksepp says, "Throughout history poets have written about the pain of a broken heart. It seems that such poetic insights into the human condition are now supported by neurophysiological findings." Paul Recer writes that scientists monitored the brains of people who thought they had been rejected from a computer game by the other players. The shock and distress this caused registered in the same part of the brain, called the anterior cingulate cortex, that also responds to physical pain. "The ACC is the same part of the brain that has been found to be associated with the unpleasantness of physical pain, the part of pain that really bothers us," says researcher Naomi I. Eisenberger. She says, "These findings show how deeply rooted our need is for social connection. There's something about exclusion from others that is perceived as being as harmful to our survival as something that can physically hurt us, and our body automatically knows this. "You can imagine that this part of the brain is active any time we are separated from our close companions...Because we have such a long time as infants and need to be taken care of, it is really important that we stay close to the social group. If we don't we're not going to survive," says Eisenberger. A broken heart feels painful because it was once vitally important for humans to remain part of a group-and maybe it still is today. Eisenberger says, "If it hurts to be separated from other people, then it will prevent us from straying too far from the social group."

Flash Healing 05-Nov-2003 Tiny flashes of infrared light from LEDs can heal wounds, build muscle, help heal the effects of diabetes and repair blindness-but nobody knows why. LEDs are the tiny, ultra- efficient light-emitting diodes, or bulbs, like the ones found in digital clocks and TV remote controls. Despite being tested by NASA, the Pentagon and hospitals, pathologist Marti Jett says, "There's not a clear idea of how this works." Noah Shachtman writes in Wired.com about research done by Dr. Harry Whelan, who used LEDs to restore the vision of rats blinded by toxic doses of methanol. After exposure to the LED flashes, 95% of their injuries were repaired. Handheld LEDs are great for taking into space and aboard submarines. NASA uses them to rebuild astronauts' muscles during weightlessness. Dr. Joseph Prendergast uses LED therapy on patients with diabetic neuropathy, in order to avoid amputations. Dr. David Margolis uses LEDs to heal a side effect of chemotherapy called mucositis, which causes canker sores in the mouth and throat. He says, "...It appears to those of us working in the ward...that patients getting the light treatment get significantly less sores." He has "absolutely no idea" why and says, "It's my first venture into the light."

Spiders Never Forget Their First Love 31-Oct-2003 Like females everywhere, spiders never forget their first romance. A study of spiders shows female wolf spiders will eat strange-looking males that try to mate with them, but spare familiar-looking males. Anthropologist Eileen Hebets says, "The female is using earlier experience that is going to affect her mate choice later. It is reasonable to expect that is a common thing in other animals" (like us). Maggie Fox writes in abcnews.com that during their courtship, female wolf spiders can mate, run away or to eat their suitors. Sometimes one of them mates and then eats the guy afterwards. Hebets painted the legs of male spiders either brown or black with nail polish, and then raised females with either brown- or black-marked males, but not both. When the females became sexually mature, she introduced them to a male of each color. These weren't the males they'd grown up with, just males with the same colored legs. She says, "They just look like somebody they might know." She found the females were more likely to eat males painted with the "wrong" color instead of mating with them. She says, "Finding this behavior is really surprising. Social experience influences mate choice. It opens all kinds of possibilities. It could be this is a way of learning your species and making sure that when you get older, you are mating with the right species." She thinks this may be true for higher species, such as humans, as well. The color of a male's legs had no effects on whether a female decided to eat him after mating, however. Hebets says, "The percentage of post-copulatory cannibalisms were certainly nothing out of the ordinary." It works this way with humans too-just because women are attracted to a familiar-looking male, doesn't mean the marriage will go smoothly.

Can You be Scared to Death? 30-Oct-2003 When we're frightened, the part of the nervous system is activated that makes our adrenaline surge. Our heart beats faster and our blood pressure rises in a "fight or flight" response that can only be released by screaming or running away. Cardiologist Howard Bush says, "It's survival.'' Daniela Lamas writes in the Miami Herald that it might actually be possible to be scared to death. A genetic disorder that affects the heart's rhythm, long QT syndrome, can cause the heart to go into spasms following physical exercise, intense emotion, or a startling noise. But in general, it's not a single scary moment that kills people, it's a long history of disease. Cardiologist Robert J. Myerburg analyzed the number of cardiac deaths in Los Angeles on the day of the 1994 earthquake and found that sudden cardiac deaths increased by more than four. Despite this, the number of sudden deaths was lower than usual in the six days after the earthquake. To him this suggests that a stressful, frightening event only speeds up cardiac deaths that would have happened soon anyway. He says, ''I generally don't believe that fear itself can cause death.'' But sociologist David Phillips thinks it can. He investigated the link between fatal heart attacks and fear, using a Chinese and Japanese superstition. The number 4 sounds like the word for ''death'' in Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese, and is regarded as bad luck, so it's often left out of phone numbers or addresses, the way the number 13 is avoided here. According to Phillips' study, Americans of Chinese and Japanese descent have 13% more sudden cardiac deaths than usual on the fourth of the month.

More Harm Than Good 14-Oct-2003 Some heavily advertised products actually do you more harm than good. A recent study shows that sunscreens are totally worthless, but using them makes people complacent, so they spend more time in the sun, which can lead to skin cancer. And taking too many antacids can lead to dangerous food allergies. British Plastic surgeon Roy Sanders says suncreams were much less effective at blocking ultraviolet A (UVA) light, which is what causes the skin cancer melanoma, than UVB. "When ultraviolet A impinges on the skin it triggers the release of highly reactive chemicals called free radicals which we believe can induce a malignant change," he says. "Since ambient sunlight is principally ultraviolet A and since sunscreens protect mostly against ultraviolet B, if we use the sunscreens it may increase the risk of us developing a rather unpleasant cancer called malignant melanoma... We're lulled into a sense of false security...and so people are inclined to take a much greater dose of the sun." Cases of malignant melanoma have doubled every 10 years since the 1950s. Austrian researcher Erika Jensen-Jarolim says indigestion pills may trigger food allergies, because they allow food to enter the intestines before it is fully broken down. She gave half the people in her study a medicine for indigestion, while the other half got a placebo. None of them had any food allergies. She found that people taking the drug showed signs of food allergy symptoms, while none of those in the placebo group did. Antacids are designed to reduce levels of gastric acid in the stomach, but this acid is necessary, because it helps the stomach to break down food before it enters the intestines. Low levels of acid may result in food entering the intestines before it is broken down. The body's immune system then tries to attack the food, triggering an allergic reaction. This reaction is less likely to happen with familiar foods, since the body has become accustomed to them. Allergies to food can range from mild rashes to potentially life- threatening anaphylactic shocks. "These findings are significant for those people at risk for a food allergy," says Jensen-Jarolim, "since 10% of the adult population today is on antacids."

Go Ahead 17-Oct-2003 Scientists say sex is good for us, and that abstinence should only be practiced in moderation. Having regular sex can help you live a longer, healthier life. Researcher Shah Ebrahim says, "The relationship found between frequency of sexual intercourse and mortality is of considerable public interest." Alan Farnham writes in Forbes.com. that researchers in Northern Ireland who studied 1,000 middle-aged men over ten years found that men who reported having the most orgasms had half the death rates. This may be due to a reduced risk of heart disease. By having sex three or more times a week, the men in the study reduced their risk of heart attack or stroke by half. Weight loss and better fitness? Sex is great exercise and burns about 200 calories, which is the same as running 15 minutes on a treadmill or playing a game of tennis. Sex raises our pulse rate from about 70 beats per minute to 150, which is the same as that of an athlete. British researchers say the calories in six Big Macs can be worked off by having sex three times a week for a year. Muscular contractions during intercourse work the pelvis, thighs, buttocks, arms, neck and thorax. Sex also boosts production of testosterone, which leads to stronger bones and muscles. Men's Health magazine calls the bed the single greatest piece of exercise equipment ever invented. Dr. Claire Bailey says women can use sex to firm the tummy and buttocks and improve posture. Sex cheers you up, according to a 2002 study of 293 women. Psychologist Gordon Gallup says Prostoglandin, a hormone found only in semen, may alleviate depression. It's also good for pain, since immediately before orgasm, levels of the hormone oxytocin surge to five times the normal level. This releases endorphins, which alleviate the pain of things like migraine headaches and arthritis. In women, sex increases the production of estrogen, which can reduce the pain of PMS. Want fewer colds and flu? A Pennsylvania study shows that people who have sex once or twice a week show 30% higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A, which is known to boost the immune system. Bladder control gets weaker with age, but sex works the Kegel muscles that control it. Aging prostates are troublesome too, but urologists have noted a relationship between few ejaculations and prostate cancer. To produce seminal fluid, the prostate and the seminal vesicles take zinc, citric acid and potassium from the blood and concentrate them 600 times. Any carcinogens present in the blood are also concentrated, then ejaculation ejects them from the body. A study published by the British Journal of Urology International says men in their 20s can reduce their chance of getting prostate cancer by one third by ejaculating more than five times a week. It's a good early warning system as well. Urologist J. Francois Eid says that erectile dysfunction may be telling you that you have diseased blood vessels elsewhere in your body. He says, "It could be a first sign of hypertension or diabetes or increased cholesterol levels. It's a red flag that you should see your doctor. Men who exercise and have a good heart and low heart rate, and who are cardio-fit, have firmer erections. There very definitely is a relationship." Another benefit is a better sense of smell. After sex, we experience a surge in the production of the hormone prolactin, which causes stem cells in the brain to develop new neurons in the brain's olfactory area. Gynecologist George Winch Jr. says, "I don't think women can have too much intercourse, so long as no sexually transmitted disease is introduced and there's not an inadvertent pregnancy." But men can overdo it. Eid says, "It is possible for a young man who is very forceful and who likes rough sex, to damage his erectile tissue...I see it in pro football players. They use Viagra because they're so sexually active. What they demand of their body is unreasonable. It's part of playing football: you play through the pain...If you do not allow the penis to rest, then the muscle tissue does not get enough oxygen...The muscle becomes so engorged, it's painful. Pressure inside starts to increase. Cells start dying. More pressure and less blood flow. Eventually the muscle dies. Then there's scarring. That's why it's considered an emergency."

Witches Were Somewhere Else 07-Nov-2003 As Halloween is winding down and the decorations are being put away until next year, visitors to the witch capital of Salem, Massachusetts might be surprised to discover that there were never any witches executed there at all. Michelle Delio writes in wired.com that 300 years ago, those witches were actually tried 5 miles away. Despite this, Salem has built an entire tourist industry around the incident, which occurred in 1692, when a group of young women claimed they were being bewitched by their neighbors. "It was the town now known as Danvers, once known as Salem Village, that was ground zero for the events of 1692," says professor of religious studies Benjamin Ray. Salem Village broke away from Salem Town in 1752, and wanted to rid itself of any association with those times, according to Danvers town historian Richard Trask. Salem Village changed its name to Danvers, but Salem Town decided to capitalize on the witch trials in order to draw tourists to the area, while Danvers has only a simple memorial to the victims. The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is in Danvers, which is where 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse once lived, who was executed as a witch on July 19, 1692. "We believe Rebecca is buried here," says caretaker Bob Osgood. "The victims were supposed to be left in shallow graves on Gallows Hill after they were hung, but records indicate Rebecca's family recovered her body and buried her in the family cemetery in an unmarked grave. We wanted visitors to understand the lives of these people instead of focusing on their deaths." Benjamin Ray says, "By presenting actual court documents, maps and images, we hope to bring modern people as far as possible into the minds and hearts of those who were involved in the trials." His ancestors, as well as Osgood's and Trask's, were involved in the trials. Two of Trask's relatives, and one of Osgood's, were executed as witches. Ray's family signed a petition in defense of Rebecca Nurse. Ray hadn't known about his family connection to the trials until recently, and the knowledge inspired him to create the Salem Witch Trial website. He says, "Technology allows us to pull together the pieces of our past in amazing ways, juxtaposing images, text and maps that help us make sense of the best and worst of the human story."

Bottled Water Can Cause Food Poisoning 09-Nov-2003 We drink bottled water because it's "safe," but some of it actually makes people sick. Researchers say that up to 6,000 campylobacter food poisoning infections a year in the U.K. can be traced to bottled water. This bacteria causes diarrhea and stomach aches. Chris Bunting writes in the Independent that scientists interviewed 213 campylobacter patients and 1,144 other people who had stomach problems but were not infected by campylobacter. They discovered that the symptoms were caused by bottled water in 12% of the cases. The only worse foods were salad (21%) and chicken (31%). Researcher Meirion Evans says, "Eating chicken is a well- established risk factor, but consuming salad and bottled water are not. The association with salad may be explained by cross-contamination of food within the home, but the possibility that natural mineral water is a risk factor for campylobacter infection could have wide public health implications." How can bottled mineral water make you sick? Natural mineral water is found in springs or boreholes. Unlike tap water, it must be "pure," meaning it can't be treated with chlorine or other chemicals that kill bacteria, so if there is campylobacter bacteria at the source, it will get into the water. The bacteria are able to live in water for a long time, especially if it's not carbonated.

Science Studies the Soul 12-Nov-2003 Neurophysiologist Dick Burgess is trying to find scientific proof for consciousness and the soul. Some of his evidence comes from the story of Uttara Haddur, a Hindu woman who suddenly began speaking an ancient form of Bengali in 1974, without ever having studied the language. She told stories of people in a village many miles away and said her name was Sharada. University of Virginia reincarnation researcher Ian Stevenson traveled to India to study her, and found out that she was telling true stories about people and events from the early 1800s. Burgess says, "This case is very difficult to explain unless Sharada's soul is driving Uttara's nervous system." In the Deseret Morning News, Elaine Jarvik quotes Burgess as saying, "For many years I shied away from the soul because it had these religious connotations. But why not just be bold, and take the evidence you have, without preconceptions, and see if you can integrate it into a coherent network that explains all these phenomena? "We don't know what consciousness is. If we knew what its properties were, then we might say, 'Of course it might survive death because given its properties we can predict it will not be dependent for its integrity on being interfaced with the brain.' But we don't know now. We're very, very early in this as a scientific endeavor." One way he's studying this is by trying to see if the life force that the Chinese call "chi" can be directed outside the body towards chicken nerve cells growing in a petri dish, making them grow faster. "The work is in progress, but it's promising," he says. If it works, this will help demonstrate that consciousness is not simply the way we perceive the electrical impulses of our brain, but is a separate force. He wants to study mediums, near-deaths experiences, cases of apparent reincarnation, and out-of-body experiences. "The data available from these sources is relevant and compelling," says Burgess. "But most academics are quite conservative."

Herpes Linked to Alzheimer's 13-Nov-2003 Researchers have found a physical link between the herpes simplex virus and the amyloid precursor protein (APP), which forms the plaques that are present in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. This links the common cause of cold sores to Alzheimer's; however, 85% of us have the herpes simplex virus in our bodies and most of us will never develop Alzheimer's. The discovery was made by researchers from Brown University working with the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, who found it easiest to study the movement of APP in squid. Dr. Elaine Bearer says, "It is pretty extraordinary that breakthroughs in Alzheimer's disease and in the pathogenesis of herpes virus should be made using the squid of the North Atlantic sea....When APP piles up around neurons, the neurons die, but we don't yet know if this is a secondary or a primary cause of Alzheimer's." Researcher Joseph A. DeGiorgis says, "At this point, of course, we don't yet know whether herpes plays a causal role in Alzheimer's disease, but our research does provide some interesting new insight into both diseases."

Finland, U.S. Most Competitive Economies, Report Says Thu Oct 30, 7:32 AM ET  

WASHINGTON  - Finland is the world's most competitive economy followed by the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Taiwan, according to a Global Competitiveness Report released Thursday. Britain dropped four places to 15th and Canada fell off 2002's top 10 list to stand 16th, both penalized for declines in the quality of their public institutions, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (news - web sites) said in a survey of 102 countries. The survey among business leaders measured economic competitiveness based on a combination of technology, the quality of public institutions and the macroeconomic environment. Finland, home to mobile phone giant Nokia (news - web sites), remained in first place. The United States scored high on technology but weak on the quality of its public institutions and economic environment, particularly public finances, where it ranked 50th. Germany moved up one notch to 13th and France gained two places to 26th. The WEF said both countries showed improvements driven by better public institutions and technology, despite budgets troubles. "If there is one lesson from our exercise, it is that the strength and coherence of government policies have an enormous bearing on a country's ranking," Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist of the WEF, said in a statement. Italy is the lowest ranked European Union (news - web sites) member 41st, down from last year's place at 33. Taiwan and Singapore are Asia's best performing countries. Each moved up one place, with Taiwan rising into fifth place due to its technology strengths, and Singapore into sixth place because of a sound economy and quality of public institutions. JAPAN, KOREA CLIMB Japan climbed five places to 11th, partly driven by its strength in technology. Korea improved to 18th place from 25th due to signs of improving technology and a better economic environment, the report said. China fell to 44th from 38th, marked by a drop in the perceived quality of its public institutions, with substantially lower scores on independence of its judiciary and corruption in the public sector, the WEF said. Russia ranked 70th from last year's 66th place despite improvements in its economy and technology. The report said Moscow was penalized for its high inflation, inefficiencies in the banking system and low scores in a broad range of institutional factors. Estonia is again the highest ranked of the countries likely to join the European Union next year, rising to 22nd from 27th. Chile slipped four places to 28th but is still the highest ranking economy in Latin America, way ahead of Mexico, the second-highest in the region at 47th. Argentina, struggling to recover from the biggest debt default in history, is ranked 78th, dropping from last year's 64th. Botswana is Africa's best performing economy in 36th place, showing progress in most areas except for low scores in innovation. South Africa slipped to 42nd from 34th because of a perceived deterioration in the quality of its public institutions. Haiti, Chad and Angola showed the lowest scores. In a separate ranking for business competitiveness, Finland retook the leading position after dropping to second place behind the United States last year. The United States was pulled down by concerns about rising trade protection and tightening capital availability. Others that improved their business rankings include France, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. Austria slipped in the rankings based on a deteriorating business environment and so did Britain, Switzerland, Canada and Japan.

Academics Make Case to End Credit Hour 
Thu Oct 30, 4:10 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By STEVE GIEGERICH, News Source Education Writer 

Developed about a century ago, the credit hour has become a building block of American academic life. 

It is used to calculate faculty salaries, to determine the level of public money funneled to institutions and to establish a timetable for graduating with a degree. 

But some academic experts now say the credit hour is a relic in a high-tech world with ever-more nontraditional students and learning methods. 

"Having time- and space-bound measures that equate learning with a certain place and a certain time is clearly outmoded. And yet it is the DNA embedded in both the academic and funding system," said Jane Wellman, coeditor with Thomas Ehrlich of "How the Student Credit Hour Shapes Higher Education," a recently released collection of essays on the credit hour. 

That system, she says, is increasingly at odds with modern teaching methods: More students are developing their own programs of study. An increasing number take courses online and away from the traditional classroom. And, unlike a time when students generally enrolled and graduated from the same institution, nearly two-thirds of all undergraduate degrees today are awarded to transfer students. 

Experts say such factors have created a need for more flexibility in measuring students' work. 

"Let's assess what the students have actually learned," said Clara Lovett, the president of the Washington-based American Association for Higher Education. 

"It shouldn't matter where or how they learned it, nor should it matter that some students are going to master certain kinds of knowledge more rapidly than other students." 

High schools started using the credit hour during the first decade of the 20th century. Then as now, the quality of high schools varied significantly, and the credit hour evolved as a way to determine whether students were ready for college by measuring how much time they spent in a class per week. 

Within 10 years, colleges started embracing the concept. That set in motion a shift from standard curriculums - in which schools dictated each student's course of study - to the current system that allows students to accumulate enough credit hours to graduate through a combination of required and elective courses. 

Once adopted, the credit hour became a driving force in higher education. 

It presented students with a specific time frame in which they were expected to complete course work, usually one semester. And it supplied college administrations with a business model for scheduling, payroll and budgeting. Salary calculations were based on how many credit hours an instructor taught, for example. 

But Wellman and Ehrlich, a senior scholar with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, argue in their book that using time to measure 21st century learning is ineffective. 

The authors agree with Lovett that measurements that determine what a student has learned - and not how long a student took to learn it - are more effective. 

"You don't have to have a time-based system," said Wellman, a senior associate with the Institute for Higher Education Policy. 

Some experts say "competency-based" education programs are the best alternative to the credit hour structure. 

Such programs, growing in popularity along with online education, replace the traditional semester with a structure that encourages students to work at their own pace on self-generated curriculums. 

"It has given me the ability to take charge of my own education and to have the flexibility to study what I wanted without having to adhere to standard requirements or forms of learning," said J.P. Hitesman, a second-year student at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. 

Like other competency-based programs, Hampshire College uses faculty "assessments" to review course work, instead of the standard grading system. 

The president of the New College of Florida - a public institution where students fulfill a self-designed "academic contract" each year - acknowledged that the system demands independence and discipline from students. It isn't for everyone, he said. 

"Some kids need more structure," Gordon Michalson said in a phone interview from his office in Sarasota. 

Lovett said the academic community also has resisted wholesale changes because that would require a major overhaul of the U.S. college structure. 

"If you start moving one piece, you have to worry about the rest of the system," Lovett said. "And that's why educators have been reluctant to find a substitute." 

___ 

On the Net: 

The Institute for Higher Education Policy: 

http://www.ihep.org

Groups Question Voting Machines' Accuracy 1 hour, 51 minutes ago By ROBERT TANNER, News Source National Writer Doubts about the trustworthiness of electronic voting machines are growing among election officials and computer scientists, complicating efforts to safeguard elections after the presidential stalemate of 2000. With just over a year to go before the next presidential race, touchscreen voting machines don't seem like the cure-all some thought they would be. Skeptics fear they'll only produce more problems, from making recounts less reliable to giving computer hackers a chance to sabotage results. "I'm deeply concerned about this whole idea of election integrity," said Warren Slocum, chief election officer in California's San Mateo County. His doubts were so grave that he delayed purchasing new voting machines and is sticking with the old ones for now. He's not alone. While the Florida recount created momentum for revamping the way Americans vote, slow progress on funding and federal oversight means few people will see changes when they cast ballots next week. And new doubts could further slow things. In Florida's Broward County - scene of a Bush-Gore recount of punch-card ballots - officials spent $17.2 million on new touchscreen equipment. Lately, they've expressed doubts about the machines' accuracy, and have discussed purchasing an older technology for 1,000 more machines they need. The concerns focus on: _Voter confidence: Since most touchscreen machines don't create a separate paper receipt, or ballot, voters can't be sure the machine accurately recorded their choice. _Recounts: Without a separate receipt, election officials can't conduct a reliable recount but can only return to the computer's tally. _Election fraud: Some worry the touchscreen machines aren't secure enough and allow hackers to potentially get in and manipulate results. "The computer science community has pretty much rallied against electronic voting," said Stephen Ansolabahere, a voting expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites). "A disproportionate number of computer scientists who have weighed in on this issue are opposed to it." Other doubters say the solution would be "voter verifiable paper trails" - a paper receipt that voters can see to be confident of their choice, that can then be securely stored, and that election officials can rely on for recounts. Federal election-reform legislation passed in 2002 aims to upgrade voting systems that rely on punch-card ballots or lever machines, and to improve voter registration, voter education and poll worker training. States upgrading their equipment are looking at two systems: electronic machines, with voters making their choice by touchscreens similar to ATMs; and older optical scan machines, with voters using pen and paper to darken ovals, similar to standardized tests. Still, North Dakota changed its plan to give officials the flexibility to go with touchscreens or optical scan machines. And the National Association of Secretaries of State held off from embracing touchscreens at its summer meeting, pending further studies. "This is too important to just sort of slam through," said William Gardner, New Hampshire's secretary of state. In Congress, Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., has introduced a bill that would require that all voting machines create a paper trail. Computer manufacturers and many election officials say the critics are mistaken. They insist that security is solid and machines records are examinable. They also say the sought-after improvements will create other problems, such as malfunctioning machines and violating the integrity of a voters' privacy. Slocum figures that only about a half-dozen of California's county election commissioners share his concerns. The complaints echo those that came up when lever machines were introduced in the 1920s, and again when punch cards came on the scene, said Doug Lewis, an expert at The Election Center in Houston, Texas. "We were going to find that elections were manipulated wildly and regularly. Yet there was never any proof that that happened anywhere in America," Lewis said. David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold Election Systems Inc., one of the larger voting machine makers, said "the fact of the matter is, there's empirical data to show that not only is electronic voting secure and accurate, but voters embrace it and enjoy the experience of voting that way." This week, a federal appeals court in California threw out a lawsuit that challenged computerized voting without paper trails, finding that no voting system can eliminate all electoral fraud. That didn't satisfy doubters. John Rodstrom Jr., a Broward County (Fla.) commissioner said local officials there wanted to upgrade to optical scan machines, but were pressured into buying more than 5,000 touchscreens. "We were forced by the Legislature to be a trailblazer," he said. "The vendors ... they're going to tell you it's perfect and wonderful. (But) there are a lot of issues out there that haven't been answered. It's a scary thing." ___ On the Web: Election Reform Information Project: http://electionline.org 

Thousands Given Wrong STD Results Thu Oct 30, 1:25 PM ET 

CRANBROOK, British Columbia - About 3,000 people got the wrong results when they were tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia over an 18-month period, health officials say. Because of a faulty diagnostic machine in this southeastern British Columbia town, test results for the two sexually transmitted diseases were reversed, Alison Paine, a spokeswoman for the Interior Health Authority, said Wednesday. Officials were notified of the defective BD ProbeTec in July by the manufacturer, Becton, Dickenson and Co. of Paramus, N.J., and immediately stopped using it, Paine said. "The machine was flipping the tests results," Paine said. "In other words, if you were a positive, you would have received a negative reading. If you were a negative, you would have received a positive reading." About 3,000 people are believed to have been tested between Nov. 1, 2000, and May 24, 2002, and about 83 were told they were clean when they actually had one of the diseases. Most of the 83 have been contacted but not all, Paine said. The rest of the 3,000 were told they were infected and were given treatment although they did not have the diseases, Paine said. Cranbrook is about 120 miles northeast of Spokane, Wash. Untreated, both diseases can lead to sterilization in women and increase the risk of contracting HIV (news - web sites) or AIDS (news - web sites) in men and women, according to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Authorities said they didn't know how many people may have had sex with 83 test subjects who didn't know they had at least one of the diseases. "We're very concerned about consequences," said Dr. Paul Hasselback, the province's senior medical health officer for the region. "That's why it's important that the information get out there." A spokeswoman for the manufacturer could not be reached for comment Wednesday by The Canadian Press, but a notice on the company's Web site Aug. 22 stated that the defect was found in two machines out of 1,000 tested worldwide. The notice blamed incorrect installation of "optical bundles" and said the company was working with Health Canada to ensure a prompt recall. "Neither the costs anticipated with this recall, nor the impact on BD's ProbeTec ET instrument business, are expected to be significant," the notice added. According to the CDC, chlamydia may be one of the most dangerous sexually transmitted diseases among women. It is easily cured with antibiotics but often goes undiagnosed because 75 percent of women and half the men that get it have no symptoms. If left untreated, as many as 40 percent of infected women develop pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause severe abdominal pain and fever. Gonorrhea can also go undetected in women and also can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease. One in five women with pelvic inflammatory disease becomes infertile. Untreated gonorrhea in men can cause painful or swollen testicles that can lead to infertility. Gonorrhea can also affect the prostate and can lead to scarring inside the urethra, making urination difficult.

Former Private Eye Now Probing Paranormal Thu Oct 30, 4:29 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By CHAKA FERGUSON, News Source Writer NEW YORK - On Halloween, when legend says disembodied spirits return in search of living bodies to possess, Joe Nickell goes on the prowl, too - for ghosts, ghouls and other things that creep in the night. The former private eye, who used to solve arsons and theft rings for a security firm, is now a senior research fellow at the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP. His job: unravel the unexplained, debunk the deceptive, unmask the hoax. Nickell, 58, joined CSICOP in 1995 after a career that also included stints as a professional magician and professor of English at the University of Kentucky. CSICOP, based in Amherst, N.Y., encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and "fringe-science" claims from a scientific viewpoint. Snooping after ghosts and aliens is harder than ordinary sleuthing. "If we had a crime scene, we would have an actual body or actual blood and we can test for fingerprints," he said. Nickell says he has investigated some 40 cases of paranormal phenomena such as ghost sightings and alien abductions - without finding a smoking ghost, so to speak. Although still fascinated by reports of the supernatural, he says he's found no credible evidence to support its existence. "The question is whether we can find evidence that makes up for the unlikelihood of ghosts based on everything we know about science and nature," he said. In his 2001 book "Real-Life X-Files," Nickell writes that many of the claims he investigates are hoaxes, and others are simply hallucinations or anomalies that can be explained naturally. Having duped many people with magic tricks, Nickell can spot frauds or replicate some of the mysteries he examines. He's walked on a bed of hot coals; knifed himself to induce stigmata (wounds on the hands, feet and side that some believe simulate those suffered by Christ during the crucifixion); done psychic readings; and reproduced Kirlian photography (anomalies such as blurs found on photographs, which some believe are ghosts). All of this makes him a killjoy of sorts for the 38 percent of Americans who believe in ghosts, according to a 2001 Gallup Poll. Merrill McKee, president of the Northern New York Paranormal Research Society, is one of the believers. "There are too many reportings, too many sightings," he said. McKee's says his own investigations, which rely on electromagnetic field detectors and laser thermometers, have found evidence of unexplained phenomena. Like any good detective, Nickell approaches each case with an open mind. "I try not to have my mind made up and I try not to have an answer in advance," he said. One purported miracle Nickell recently investigated was the case of a glowing Virgin Mary statue at a church in Ohio. The glow actually was caused by gold leaf that was put on the statue's eyes, heart and halo in the 1970s, Nickell says. The eyes and heart glowed more brightly, he says, because heavy rains had washed away dirt or a chemical reaction had occurred. Despite such explanations, Nickell says some people still wanted to believe the glow was a miracle. "Many believers base their arguments on emotional, rather than rational thinking," he said. During a recent tour of reputedly haunted pubs in New York's Greenwich Village, Nickell, like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, jotted down notes as Marilyn Stults, a tour guide and historian for Street Smarts N.Y., explained the legends. One involves the ghost of Aaron Burr, the early 19th century vice president best remembered for his deadly duel with Alexander Hamilton. Burr once had a carriage house at the site of the restaurant, now called One If By Land, Two If By Sea. "Things happen all the time there," Stults said. Nickell, ever the skeptic, had a different explanation. "Maybe," he said, "ghosts just don't like me." _____ On the Net: Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: http://www.csicop.org/

OS X Conference: Virginia Tech on the G5 Thu Oct 30, 8:48 AM ET Add Technology - MacCentral 

By David Read MacCentral Link 1,100 Power Mac G5s together and it will make the news. Link 1,100 Power Mac G5s together to create the third most powerful academic computing facility in the world, and it will make headlines worldwide and earn project director Dr. Srindhi Varadarajan adulation from Macintosh (news - web sites) enthusiasts. To close the first night of the O'Reilly Mac OS X (news - web sites) Conference, Varadarajan gave a presentation on how his team settled on the G5 for their system and what they had to do to get it running. To begin, Varadarajan told the audience why they wanted to build a Terascale Computing Facility at Virginia Tech. "To use one of the Department of Energy (news - web sites) computers, you have to write a grant to get time," Varadarajan said. "You use it, usually in about a month, and then you have to start again, essentially retarding the process of research." Since Virginia Tech has a world-class computational sciences and engineering program, Varadarajan said that he wanted to build world-class computational facilities to compliment that program. The problem is that, while he wanted a world-class system, academia generally doesn't have a budget to match. So, Varadarajan envisioned a system based on off the shelf processors bound together with an extremely fast off the shelf backbone. To build the system, Varadarajan said that he and his team began by working with Dell to supply 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 processors. The key for Varadarajan was price versus performance. After going back and forth with Dell, Varadarajan said that the negotiations fell through. He then evaluated 64-bit processors from AMD, IBM and HP. But IBM said that the PowerPC 970 would be months away, and AMD and HP gave Varadarajan quotes in the $9 million to $11 million range, well over his budget. Before Apple announced the G5, Varadarajan was in a tough spot. On June 23, Apple announced the G5. Varadarajan said that he contacted Apple on June 26 about the possibility of using the G5 for the Terascale Computing Facility. While talking with Apple, representatives from the company asked Varadarajan how long he had been a Mac user. "I had to tell them I'd never used the Mac," Varadarajan said. "I'm probably one of the few people who came to the platform by reading the kernel manual." Nevertheless, the G5 had exactly what Varadarajan was looking for. In addition to being a 64-bit processor, the PowerPC 970 processor has two floating point units allowing the processor to complete two double precision floating point calculations per clock cycle. Floating point performance is the most critical factor in scientific computing performance, and the PowerMac G5 -- equipped with two PowerPC 970s running at 2GHz -- can complete 8 billion floating point operations per second. Within weeks, Varadarajan had ordered 1,100 dual processor PowerMac G5s from the Apple Store and Apple employees where helping his team out providing vast amounts of technical advise. The computers arrived at Virginia Tech between September 5 and 11. The Terascale Computing Facility made its first calculations on September 23, and by October 1 Varadarajan said that his team was making performance optimizations to the system. He expects the facility to be available for full use by January 2004. Why so fast? Varadarajan said that designing and building quickly actually helps system designers on a budget. If a designer waits a year and a half to build a system after it's designed, then all of the technology inside is a year and a half old and the university has lost a year and a half of potential productivity. Rapid deployment was one of Varadarajan's primary goals in building the Terascale Computing Facility. While the G5 had much of what Varadarajan wanted in a system, it didn't have everything. In order for that many G5s to work together efficiently, Varadarajan needed a super high bandwidth network to link all of the systems together. The Gigabit Ethernet that ships standard on the G5 was far too slow for Varadarajan's needs. The Gigabit Ethernet on the G5s in the Terascale Computing Facility work as a secondary communications network between the G5s in the system. The primary communications between the 1,100 G5s in the system comes from modified Inifiniband cards in the first PCI-X slot of each G5. These cards, specially designed by Mellanox, feature extremely low latency of less than 10 microseconds and an individual bandwidth that approaches the theoretical bandwidth of the PCI-X bus of 1,250 Mbits per second. The whole network is set up in a fat tree topology with a total switching capacity of 46.02 Terabits per second, allowing all of the processors in the system to communicate and distribute computational loads efficiently. The facility uses off the shelf G5s complete with their hard drives and Radeon graphics cards. The aluminum cases are housed in specially designed racks. Over 100 student volunteers installed the Mellanox Infiniband PCI cards, connected the copper Infiniband cables and connected the Gigabit Ethernet cables. Where do you put 1,100 G5s? The answer is not anywhere you want. The facility is housed in 3,000 square feet of Virginia Tech's 9,000 square foot data center. Varadarajan said that they also had to build a new cooling system to cool all of the G5s as the existing AC system would have to move air in the floor at speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour to meet the cooling demand. The new cooling system works like a distributed refrigerator that uses cooled liquid fed to smaller air driven air conditioning units housed all throughout the facility. Without the cooling system, Varadarajan said that the temperature in the facility would increase to over 100 degrees within two minutes and components would be damaged within several minutes. Virginia Tech also constructed a UPS and 1.5 Megawatt backup diesel generator for the facility. The system costs $5.2 million for the G5s, racks, cables, and Infiniband cards. Virginia Tech spent and addition $2 million on facilities, $1 million for the air conditioning system and $1 million for the UPS and generator. In addition to all of the hardware, Varadarajan and his team had to develop and optimize software to run the Terascale Computing Facility. Varadarajan ported a Unix (news - web sites) system, MVAPICH, to Mac OS X to run the system and made specific optimizations to the cache memory management of the G5. Varadarajan and his team also ported several other Unix applications to manage and benchmark the system. Using experts from all over the world Varadarajan and his team are optimizing the system for scientific calculations. The Terascale Computing Facility can solve equations with 500,000 variables, which involves creating a matrix with 500,000 values on a side. Such operations require several Terabytes of memory just to store. Performing these types of calculations, the facility's latest benchmark is 9.555 teraflops and Varadarajan hopes to pass the 10-teraflop mark with further optimization. The only drawback to using off the shelf components for the Terascale Facility is reliability. Varadarajan said that even a reliable server, say one that failed for a few minutes every two years, would cause failures daily when 1,100 of such computers were acting in concert. To deal with the reliability problem, Varadarajan said that his team added the ability for component failures to not bring down the entire system or even threaten ongoing calculations by moving calculations from failed components or blocks of components to working parts of the system. Varadarajan said that many in the academic and other communities have expressed an interest in creating their own G5 superclusters or even cloning the Terascale system. Once Virginia Tech's facility is up and running, Varadarajan said that he will place all of the documentation on how his team created their system online for others to review and implement. "We hope a lot more of these will come up," Varadarajan said. "We already have several contacts who basically want clones of the system, so expect to see a lot more G5 clusters from now on."

Napster vs. iTunes Thu Oct 23, 8:53 AM ET

Jim Louderback - ExtremeTech 

Yes, you can now use Napster (news - web sites) and download music to your MP3 player without worrying about jail
time and fines bigger than your college loans. After a number of paid music downloading services floundered, Apple got
the ball rolling with its iTunes service -offering songs for a buck a download, and then letting consumers burn them to
CD. The company just announced Windows support too. And now Napster - the granddaddy of the peer-to-peer
services - is back as a buck-a-song service as well. It launches tomorrow! Here's how they stack up. 

iTunes: Until earlier this month, it was available only for Macintosh (news - web sites) users - but now the unwashed
Windows masses can play too. Offering songs for a dollar, and with a catalog of more than 200,000 songs, Apple claims
over 14 million downloads since it launched in April. Songs are offered in the newer AAC format, which creates betters
sounding and smaller files than MP3. Not to worry if your player doesn't support AAC -MP3 is also supported. 

Even better, you can pretty much do what you want once you've purchased a song. You can burn it onto an unlimited
number of CDs, play it on any iPod, and listen to it on up to three Macintosh or Windows PCs. iTunes also includes a
wide range of audio books from Audible, which lets you listen to bestsellers and other tomes on your portable music
player, too.

The iTunes service combines with PC or Macintosh jukebox software that handles all aspects of managing your digital music collection. Unfortunately, because it comes from Apple, it won't integrate well with MP3 players from other companies. Napster: Back from the dead, the once-free service that starts it all roars back with a 2.0 version that emulates Apple's iTunes. Napster claims that over 500,000 songs will be available when it launches Wednesday, October 29th. Napster also signals Microsoft's entry into the buck-a-song game. Napster will be integrated into PCs running the 2004 version of Microsoft's Media Center XP operating system, letting PCs and even TVs buy, download and play music. Just as iTunes integrates with Apple's iPod, Napster will integrate directly with a new hard-disk based player from Samsung, the $399 YP-910. I haven't seen it, so I can't say whether the player itself is in the same league as the iPod. But unlike iTunes, with a special Windows Media Player plug-in, Napster will support other players - any device that supports a new secure version of Microsoft's WMA format. There are 40 of them, according to Mike Bebel, President of Napster, but the
iPod is not among them. 

The new Napster is built upon an existing service, Pressplay. As with Pressplay, you either pay a $9.95 monthly fee to
listen to an unlimited amount of music, or download songs for a dollar each, or ten bucks an album. You can burn music
onto CDs, send it to friends to listen to (they have to also be a Napster member), and listen to it on your PC or portable
player. 

As with iTunes, Napster installs a music jukebox application on your PC. You can import MP3 files, and listen to them -
or burn them to CD -- along with your downloaded Napster music. 

Want another option? MusicMatch, from the popular music jukebox software company, offers similar features to iTunes
and Napster, and lets you keep MusicMatch's award-winning software, instead of switching to iTunes or Napster. Like
Napster, MusicMatch downloads in a secure WMA format, which restricts what you can do with the music. 

So which service should you choose? It depends on the player you have. If you've already built a big library in
MusicMatch, and don't want to switch, consider that service. iPod owners should use iTunes, and anyone else - with a
device that supports Microsoft's secure WMA format - should use Napster. Is your player supported? Here's the official
list from Microsoft.

W3C Sides With Microsoft In Patent Fight Thu Oct 30, 3:34 AM ET Add Technology - TechWeb 

Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb News A leading Internet standards body said Wednesday that it has taken the unusual step of asking federal officials to revoke a patent that the organization claims threatens "substantial economic and technical damage" to the Web. The position of the World Wide Web Consortium places the organization squarely behind Microsoft, which lost a court battle in August against the patent holder, a former University of California researcher. In a letter to James E. Rogan, undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, W3C director Tim Berners-Lee said, the group "urges the USPTO to initiate a reexamination of the '906 patent in order to prevent substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of [the] World Wide Web." If the patent is not revoked, the impact would be felt not just by Microsoft, but by everyone who has created Web pages and applications written for standards-based browsers that use technology covered by the patent. "In many cases, those who will be forced to incur the cost of modifying Web pages or software applications do not even themselves infringe the patent-- assuming it is even valid," Berners-Lee wrote. It's the first time the W3C has asked that a patent be revoked. U.S. Patent No. 5,838,906 covers technology that enables a browser to call programs over the Internet to display streaming audio and video, advanced graphics, and other content within a single Web page. The technology has become a standard within HTML, the language used to write Web pages. The W3C controls the development of HTML. Michael Doyle, founder of Eolas Technologies in Chicago, was granted the patent while he was an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco. A federal court jury sided with Eolas in its patent-infringement suit against Microsoft, awarding $521 million to the plaintiff. As a result, Microsoft has said it will make changes in its Internet Explorer browser, which is used to access the Web by 90% of computer users. Altering the browser could force changes in a variety of popular media software that leverage the application, including Adobe Systems' Acrobat document reader, Apple Computer's QuickTime video program, Macromedia's Flash, and the RealNetworks music player. In its letter to the patent office, the W3C maintained that the Eolas patent is invalid because its ideas had previously been published as "prior art." Prior art wasn't considered in the Microsoft trial, nor when the patent was granted, the standards body said. Therefore, the patent should be invalidated. If the patent is allowed to stand, the W3C said, it would cause "cascades of incompatibility to ripple through the Web."

House Cats, Ferrets Can Get SARS 1 hour, 33 minutes ago 

By CHRIS KAHN, News Source Writer House cats and ferrets can get the SARS (news - web sites) virus and spread it to other animals, a study found, raising a disturbing question: Can they give it to people? "You might want to quarantine the pets as well as the people" in the event of an outbreak, suggested Dr. Robert Shope, an expert on emerging diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "If it's been shown that the virus can transmit from cat to cat, it doesn't take much of a leap of faith that it will transmit to humans." Other scientists who have studied the sometimes-deadly SARS virus say pet owners should not overreact. "These animals in all likelihood did not play a significant role" in the spread of SARS to humans, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization (news - web sites)'s chief SARS scientist. And Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), said: "We still don't know if they can pass the virus to people." Researchers discovered the vulnerability of cats and ferrets to SARS while searching for animals to test potential vaccines. Their study, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, also notes a separate report that cats were found infected with the virus in a Hong Kong apartment complex where residents contracted SARS last year. Cats and ferrets are the first pets included on an exotic list of animals scientists think may be able to harbor the virus. "Cats and ferrets are only distantly related," said study co-author Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. "So this demonstrates the promiscuous nature of the virus." The origin of the virus that killed 774 people remains unknown. Scientists believe people may have gotten the virus from animals that were infected by another, still-mysterious source. In China, where SARS festered for months before it grew into a worldwide menace this year, exotic raccoon-dogs, ferret badgers and civets have been found harboring a germ that is almost identical to the SARS virus. The exotic animals were taken off the market for several months, but are being sold again in some places, said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the WHO's representative in Beijing. Because of the possibility that animals can spread the respiratory virus, WHO has suggested that animals in China and elsewhere be tested for SARS and other diseases before they are eaten. A SARS infection can cause flu-like symptoms, including a high fever, head and body aches, congestion and breathing trouble. About 8,100 people are thought to have been sickened by the virus between November 2002 and July. For the Nature study, researchers deliberately infected six cats and six ferrets with the virus cultured from a person who died of SARS. Drops containing the virus were put in the animals' tracheas, eyes and noses. The cats and ferrets began to show their infection two days later in excretions from the throat, and they produced antibodies within 28 days. When the animals were later put to death, the virus also was found in their respiratory tract. The cats developed a mild case of pneumonia. The ferrets became lethargic, and one of them died four days after it was given the virus. Scientists also placed two healthy cats and two healthy ferrets with the infected animals. The healthy ferrets showed signs of SARS infection after two days. The ferrets became emaciated and died about two weeks later, though Osterhaus said it is unclear whether this was due to the virus. Stohr and Koplan both questioned the results of the study. Koplan, for example, said too few animals were used to reach a firm conclusion about how cats and ferrets become infected.

Al-Qaida training manual shows seaports top target U.S. alerts South Korea to ship scheduled to dock there today Posted: October 30, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern (c) 2003 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON - A once-secret, 181-page al-Qaida training manual obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin shows Osama bin Laden's terrorist network has been focused on seaports as top-level targets for more than two years. Once again, the manual is further confirmation of the growing maritime threat, especially since al-Qaida is known to have purchased at least 15 ships whose whereabouts are unknown. In addition, in response to a warning from Washington that members of al-Qaida could be aboard a ship due in South Korea, Seoul reportedly is boosting security at one of its main ports. Al-Qaida encourages the recruitment of agents who work as "employees at borders, airports and seaports," the training manual obtained by G2 Bulletin states. Targets listed for "blasting and destroying" include: "Places of amusement;" Embassies; "Vital economic centers"; "Bridges leading into and out of the cities"; "Strategic buildings"; "Important establishments"; "Military bases"; "Important ministries such as those of defense and internal security"; "Airports"; "Seaports"; "Land border points"; Radio and TV stations Terror experts are beginning to examine worst-case scenarios should al-Qaida use its 15-ship armada to conduct terror attacks on western targets. G2B sources say there are reports al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations have been practicing high-seas terror attacks by hijacking ships, kidnapping crews and studying diving - much as the Sept. 11 skyjackers learned to fly airliners. Al-Qaida's freighters are believed to be somewhere in the Indian or Pacific oceans. When the ships left their home ports in the Horn of Africa weeks ago, some were destined for ports in Asia. G2B sources say other potential targets of the al-Qaida armada, besides civilian ports, include oil rigs. Another threat is the ramming of a cruise liner. If a maritime terror attack comes, it won't be the first. In October 2000, the USS Cole, a heavily armed ship protected with the latest radar defenses, was hit by an al-Qaida suicide crew. Seventeen American soldiers died. Two years later, following the attacks on the Twin Towers, a similar attack was carried out against a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen. A Rand Corp. study released last month in London warns terrorists might use container ships in terror attacks meant to cause massive casualties. The report warns cargo ships or shipping containers could be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction for terror groups such as al-Qaida. The report, produced in cooperation with the European Commission, said: "The potential threat of terrorists using containers poses a large risk to our economies and to our societies. Ultimately, this means that the marine sector - and specifically the container transport sector - remains wide open to the terrorist threat." Rand says the international community has not become sufficiently aware of al-Qaida's threat at sea, with most counter-insurgency efforts being focused on stopping an attack from the air. It is not known whether the ship expected to dock in South Korea today is one of the 15 ships purchased by al-Qaida. Yesterday's edition of Munhwa Ilbo quoted unidentified military sources as saying the U.S. military had tipped off South Korean officials about the cargo ship, which is scheduled to reach waters off South Korea's west-coast port of Kunsan late today. There was no immediate confirmation of the security alert. A spokesman at South Korea's Defense Ministry told The News Source: "We are not aware of any al-Qaida threat." The U.S. military in South Korea referred reporters' inquiries to Washington. A police officer in Kunsan said by telephone: "We haven't received any specific information but the cargo ship crew haven't received permission from the authorities to leave the ship because some of the crew couldn't be identified." The newspaper named the ship as the Athena, sailing from New Zealand. It did not say what flag the ship was flying, and gave no further details. The United States has 37,000 troops based in South Korea to help deter North Korea. Meanwhile, the al-Qaida terror manual makes clear bin Laden's organization is in this fight for the long haul - and that there will never be any compromise. "Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils," the terrorist manual says. "They are established as they always have been ... by pen and gun ... by word and bullet ... by tongue and teeth." "Islam does not make a truce with unbelief," it continues, "but rather confronts it." "It knows the dialogue of bullets." There is harsh criticism of what al-Qaida calls Arab nations under the rulership of "apostates." "After the fall of our orthodox caliphates on March 3, 1924, and after expelling the colonialists, our Islamic nation was afflicted with apostate rulers who took over in the Muslim nation," the manual explains. "These rulers turned out to be more infidel and criminal than the colonialists themselves. Muslims have endured all kinds of harm, oppression and torture at their hands." In a description of various forms of torture prisoners can expect, the manual adds: "Let no one think that the aforementioned techniques are fabrications of our imagination, or that we copied them from spy stories. On the contrary, these are factual incidents in the prisons of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and all other Arab countries. Those who follow daily events and read the newspapers and journals would be amazed to learn that: Security personnel totally undressed veiled women in public. The security personnel arrested a brother's mother, a brother's sister and a brother's wife and raped them. The wife of brother Saffout AbdulGhani - may Allah have him released - had a miscarriage when the government's dogs (i.e. cronies) beat and tortured her in front of her husband. The security personnel captured brother Hassan Al-Gharbawi's mother, who is older than 60 years, and hanged her by her feet (upside down). The security personnel shaved the head of the wife of a brother who participated in the murder of Rif'at Al-Mahjoub (Egypt's former parliament speaker)." The following warning appears on the manual: "It is forbidden to remove this from the house." The manual provides lessons in developing simple forms of biological and chemical weapons - such as ricin. Members who are taken prisoner are instructed to complain about "torture" and "mistreatment," and to go on a "hunger strike" as a last resort for public sympathy. They're also told to "shout Islamic slogans" while being transported in public places, and spend their time in jail creating "Islamic programs for themselves" and "memorizing the Qur'an," the Muslims' sacred book. Some of the detainees at Camp X-ray in Guantanamo, Cuba, have already followed this formula. U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement officials say cells of al-Qaida sleeper agents are still active in the U.S. Evidence of their activity has been found in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and California, among other states. And they may be waiting for orders to launch new attacks. The manual also instructs al-Qaida sleeper agents on how to blend in with Western societies by avoiding Muslim appearances. "Have a general appearance that does not indicate Islamic orientation," it says. They are told to cut their beards, lose the long shirts and shelve their pocket-sized Korans used for recitation. This is how the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers fit in. In addition, they are told to make excuses for fasting, such as saying they feel ill. And they are told they can combine their noon and afternoon prayers, as well as sunset and evening prayers, to avoid drawing the attention of "the polytheists," as they refer to Christians. Human-rights activists and media wringing their hands over the treatment of terrorist detainees might be interested to know that al-Qaida members are trained to torture their captives to pry away secrets. "Information is collected by kidnapping the enemy individual, interrogating him and torturing him," the al-Qaida guide says. They say Islam sanctions it. "Religious scholars have permitted beating," the guide says. "The religious scholars have also permitted the killing of a hostage if he insists on withholding information from Muslims." The manual quotes liberally from the Koran to justify violent goals and methods. The "main mission" of the "Islamic movement," it says, is to "overthrow godless regimes" and replace them with "an Islamic regime." Regarding "the oppressors," members must pledge "to slaughter them like lambs, and let the Nile, al-Asi and Euphrates rivers flow with their blood." It says "Islam is not just performing rituals, but a complete system: Religion and government, worship and jihad, ethics and dealing with people, and the Koran and the sword." The manual says the hypocrites of the faith have strayed from "Allah's course" and fallen in "love with the world." It criticizes their "loathing of death and their abandonment of jihad," or holy war against "infidels" or "unbelievers," which it defines as "Christians, Jews."

CA Fires: Why Now? 29-Oct-2003 The areas that are burning in California have always been dry, but people have successfully lived there for years without having their houses burn down. Was it always just a matter of time, or did something change--and was that something terrorism or too much population growth? As we reported yesterday, the FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda prisoner said he had planned to start a series of forest fires around the U.S., although he didn't mention California specifically. Rose Davis, of the National Interagency Fire Center, says they didn't act on the warning and many forest law enforcement officers had no idea the warning had even been issued. However, it's doubtful they could have done much to prevent the fires, even if they had. Ned Potter writes in abcnews.com that it's recently been hotter and drier in Los Angeles than it has been for years. Also, the Santa Ana wind speeds have increased, which whip up the flames and spread them from place to place. Meteorologist Greg Forbes says, "So those three factors- very warm, very low humidity, and windy conditions-that's perfect for rapid development and spread of fires." Another factor may be that the California budget crisis means there's been no money to clear away the brush and the dead trees that resulted from a recent invasion of beetles. The people living in these areas may have just been lucky before-maybe no one should have built there in the first place. There are 15.9 million people now living in the Los Angeles Basin, and this number has doubled in the last 20 years. "...Man's behavior, moving into more heavily wooded areas, is making the community more vulnerable," says Forbes. James, a reader who lives in the area, writes, "I am still amazed by the level of devastation...Total acres burned will probably be at least 10% of San Diego County, which is approximately size of the state of Connecticut. My throat is raw, my lungs are clogged and air reportedly has 200 ppm of particulate matter. San Diego usually has 10-15 ppm of particulate matter, and 45-60 ppm is considered unhealthy. If Yellowstone erupts, this is what it would be like in San Diego. Everything outside is coated in ash." "I've been in the business for 45 years," says a fire chief. "This is the worst fire conditions I've ever fought fire in."

Traffic Chaos as Hearse Ejects Corpse

Oct 29, 9:09 am ET 

BERLIN  - A hearse overturned on a German motorway Wednesday, shattering the coffin and ejecting the corpse onto the tarmac along with a bag of coffin nails that brought traffic to a standstill, authorities said.

"The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and yanked the steering wheel round when he woke up," said Jens O'Brien, spokesman for the regional government in Duesseldorf, western Germany.

"There were nails strewn over 50 meters and the corpse fell out onto the ground."

The A40 motorway was closed for an hour and there was a 4-mile back-up as police collected the coffin nails and took the corpse away.

The hearse had not been driving to a funeral but had been transporting the body from Wuerzburg in southern Germany. The undertaker was slightly hurt.

Asterix Spirit Stems Halloween Invasion

Oct 28, 10:27 am ET 

PARIS  - Taking its cue from plucky cartoon character Asterix, the Gaul who defied the Romans, a French fast food chain is fighting an invasion of Anglo-Saxon Halloween products by celebrating an ancient local tradition instead.

As pumpkins and cobwebs fill the windows of many French shops around Halloween, the Flunch chain instead celebrates the Gallic New Year with dishes like boar and cabbage, fit for a village feast circa 55 BC.

"Halloween is generally linked to Anglo-Saxon culture. We wanted to come back to our French roots with Gallic dishes," said Sophie Gilleron, marketing director at Flunch, which has around 150 branches.

Gilleron said the Gallic promotion, which features stores decorated with cardboard druids, was in the spirit of French ancestors. The eve of the Celtic New Year was a big event and would be followed by weeks of parties and banquets.

"It's cool. We already have too many non-French dishes in France," said Fabrice Laurent, 30, after dinner at a branch in central Paris, where some dishes came with inflatable helmets or swords.

But Albert Martin, 38, was less impressed. "I think the Halloween items elsewhere are excessive. But in here, it's so busy and crowded, I didn't even notice the Gallic theme at all."

With Spiders, to Know You is to Spare You

Oct 28, 10:17 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Casual dating can be dangerous.

A study of spiders shows female wolf spiders will eat strange-looking males that try to mate with them, but spare and even hook up with familiar-looking males.

The findings provide not just an interesting insight into spider behavior, but may help explain actions by "higher" animals, said arachnologist Eileen Hebets of Cornell University in New York.

"The female is using earlier experience that is going to affect her mate choice later," Hebets said in a telephone interview. "It is reasonable to expect that is a common thing in other animals."

Hebets worked with Schizocosa uetzi spiders, commonly known as wolf spiders.

The female, which is slightly larger, can choose to mate, to run away or to eat her suitor. Sometimes she eats the hapless male after mating, Hebets said.

Hebets painted the legs of male spiders either brown or black with nail polish, and then raised females with either brown- or black-marked males, but not both.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hebets said the females were more likely to eat males painted with the "wrong" color instead of mating with him.

The more a female had been exposed to males with their legs painted a certain color, the more likely she was to eat a male painted with the other color, Hebets found.

Police Watch Abducted Gnomes Gather Dust

Oct 28, 10:15 am ET 

PARIS  - A French police station has been stuck with a room of homeless garden gnomes, victims of a wave of gnome abductions, after a fresh bid to trace their owners failed.

Only a trickle of people showed up for Monday's "gnome return day" at the police station in Saint-Die-des-Vosges, near the eastern city of Strasbourg, and only one person was reunited with their stolen gnome, police said.

Some 75 kidnapped gnomes were recovered in 2001 after a group called the Garden Gnome Liberation Front released them, leaving them on the steps of the Saint-Die-des-Vosges cathedral. Police are yet to reunite 43 of the gnomes with their owners.

"In wanting to set them free, the Liberation Front has virtually imprisoned them," policeman Sylvain Brucker told The News Source, adding that the local prosecutor could decide to sell the kitsch garden ornaments in a police auction.

"Perhaps there are people with gardens who would like to adopt them," he said.

Red Wine Could Be Good for Your Lungs, Doctors Say
Mon Oct 27, 7:16 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Alexandra Hudson 

LONDON  - Red wine, already thought to be good for your heart, may be good for your lungs too, doctors say. 

 

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A compound found naturally in red wine could help fight chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a study has found, although scientists say there is probably not enough of the stuff in a glass for chronic sufferers to drink their way to good health. 

The study found that the substance, resveratrol, which is found in the skin of red grapes, could reduce the amount of harmful chemicals in the lungs that cause the diseases. 

The illnesses, known together as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), kill an estimated 2.9 million people a year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (news - web sites). And smokers are 10 times as likely as non-smokers to die of COPD. 

"It seems that drinking red wine in moderation as part of a healthy, balanced diet can reduce lung inflammation," Dr John Harvey, chairman of the Communications Committee of the British Thoracic Society, said. 

Resveratrol is already thought to be one of the reasons why people in wine-drinking countries such as France have low rates of heart disease, Dr Louise Donnelly, one of the report's authors, told The News Source. 

Her team wanted to test whether those benefits could extend to lung disease as well. The research was published in the international medical journal Thorax on Tuesday. 

In the study, lung fluid samples were taken from 15 smokers and 15 COPD patients. When resveratrol was added to the samples, it cut production of interleukin 8, a chemical that causes inflammation of the lungs. 

Production of the chemical was cut by 94 percent in smokers and by 88 percent in COPD patients. 

COPD is now commonly treated with steroids, but resveratrol might prove more effective, Donnelly said. It would not reverse the damage which has occurred to the lungs, but could help stop it from getting any worse, she said. 

Although there is probably not enough resveratrol in a wine glass for casual drinking to stop chronic lung disease, the substance could be administered directly with an inhaler, she said.

P. Diddy Accused of Using Sweatshop Labor 2 hours, 27 minutes ago Add Business - 

By MADISON J. GRAY, News Source Writer NEW YORK - Sean John, the clothing line of rap music mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, is under scrutiny from a workers' rights group for allegedly using laborers from a Honduran sweatshop. The director of the anti-sweatshop National Labor Committee, Charles Kernaghan, released a report Tuesday detailing poor working conditions at the Southeast Textiles factory in Choloma, Honduras, where Sean John clothes are made. Kernaghan and 19-year-old Lydda Eli Gonzalez, a former worker at the factory, stood outside the site of a Sean John store set to open next spring as Gonzalez described the alleged abuses that took place at the factory. "We should be paid what we're owed. We make so little that it's not enough to have a dignified life," said Gonzalez, who said she was fired after she tried to organize a union. Workers are subjected to daily body searches, contaminated drinking water and 11- to 12-hour daily shifts, the report said. In exchange, they are paid 24 cents for each $50 Sean John sweat shirt they sew. But the factory owner, Steve Hawkins, told The News Source in a telephone interview that Gonzalez was a disgruntled worker fired for producing poor quality merchandise, not clocking in when she arrived and repeatedly arriving late. Hawkins, a native of North Carolina, said the charge that conditions at his factory were substandard "is completely groundless." When Gonzalez was fired, she received a severance check equivalent to two-and-a-half months salary, Hawkins said. And while the minimum wage in Honduras is 55 cents an hour, he said his workers make an average of 90 cents per hour. A representative of Sean John said the clothing line was unaware of the conditions alleged by Kernaghan. "We had absolutely no knowledge of the situation; however, we take these matters very seriously," said Jeff Tweedy, executive vice president of Sean John. "We have a director of compliance who will be looking into this matter immediately." The report also found women were given mandatory pregnancy tests, and that those who tested positive were fired, Kernaghan said. The abuses are violations of Honduran labor laws but are rarely enforced for fear of corporate divestment, Kernaghan said. His organization's repeated attempts to contact Sean John have gone without a response, he said. Kernaghan said the study was not an attack on Combs. "This is his company," Kernaghan said, pointing toward the store at Fifth Avenue and 41st Street. "He could turn this around tomorrow. He could set a new standard." The goal, Kernaghan said, is not to have Sean John pull out of Honduras and leave the workers jobless but to improve working conditions and eliminate human rights abuses. According to the report, about 80 percent of the Southeast Textiles factory production is for the Sean John clothing line. The other 20 percent is for Rocawear, co-founded by rapper and producer Jay-Z and rap music producer Damon Dash. A call placed to Rocawear after business hours Monday wasn't returned. ___ On the Net: http://www.seanjohn.com

Fox nearly sued itself over 'Simpsons' parody: Matt Groening Wed Oct 29,12:28 PM ET Add Offbeat - NEWS SOURCE 

NEW YORK (NEWS SOURCE) - Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of "The Simpsons" over a parody of the channel's right-wing political stance, the creator of the hit US television show has claimed. In an interview this week with National Public Radio, Matt Groening recalled how the news channel had considered legal action, despite the fact that "The Simpsons" is broadcast on sister network, Fox Entertainment. According to Groening, Fox took exception took a Simpsons' version of the Fox News rolling news ticker which parodied the channel's anti-Democrat stance, with headlines like "Do Democrats Cause Cancer?" "Fox fought against it and said they would sue the show," Groening said. "We called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. So, we got away with it." Other satirical Fox news bulletins featured in the show included: "Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple..." While the lawsuit never materialized, Groening said some action was taken. "Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news," he said. "The Simpsons," featuring the dysfunctional family of patriarch Homer Simpson and his rowdy brood, is now in its 14th year and is expected to become the longest-running situation comedy in US history in 2005.

Big Companies Add to Spam
1 hour, 21 minutes ago  - The New York Times 

By SAUL HANSELL The New York Times 

Ever wonder how a certain company sending unsolicited e-mail messages got your address? 

� Big Companies Add to Spam
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Michael Rathbun, the director of policy enforcement at Allegiance Telecom, an Internet service provider in Dallas, says he thinks he has much of the answer. 

Some five years ago, Mr. Rathbun bought a Palm hand-held organizer and, in registering it on Palm's Web site, gave the company an e-mail address he never used for anything else. Initially his in-box received only offers for products related to the organizer, but eventually he started getting advertising from some well-known companies like Bank of America, SBC Communications and Sprint. Lately, that one address alone has been receiving dozens of e-mails a month offering everything from travel clubs to acne remedies. 

"This is not stuff," Mr. Rathbun said, "that I should be getting from them." 

The problem of spam or unwanted commercial e-mail is usually attributed to outlaws and hucksters peddlers of pornography, get-rich-quick schemes and pills of dubious merit who use hackers to send their fraudulent messages in ways that cannot be traced. 

But the torrent of spam that is flowing into people's electronic mailboxes comes not only from the sewers but also from the office towers of the biggest and most well-known corporations. 

Established companies insist they send e-mail only to people who have voluntarily agreed to receive marketing offers. A spokeswoman for Palm says it does not know how Mr. Rathbun's e-mail address got into the hands of spammers and says it has never sold its customer list. 

But often companies rent e-mail lists from a cottage industry that has emerged to lure Internet users, through a variety of schemes, into signing up for e-mail marketing. 

At best, if you have ever entered a contest to win a prize, subscribed to an online newsletter or simply purchased a product on the Web, you may well have also agreed, as many such fine-print contracts put it, "to receive valuable offers from our marketing partners." 

This practice falls under the rubric of what is called opt-in marketing, or getting permission to send advertising messages. 

But many e-mail executives admit that these same list companies also add to their databases by buying, trading sometimes even stealing names. 

"Everyone is looking for a quick buck now, and people are claiming to sell opt-in data who don't have it," said Pesach Lattin, who runs Adspyre, a New York e-mail marketing firm. 

Moreover, some companies have allowed the e-mail addresses of their own customers, either deliberately or inadvertently, to fall into the hands of list peddlers who in turn sell them to e-mail marketers of all stripes. Sometimes, the lists are stolen from corporate owners by employees or vendors looking to make a quick profit. But in many cases, the big companies are deliberately buying and selling access to names, relying on privacy policies often hard to find on their sites that they say permit such actions. 

"White-collar spam" is how Nick Usborne, a newsletter writer and Internet marketing consultant, refers to this phenomenon. 

"When a responsible company," Mr. Usborne said, "gets someone to sign up for a newsletter and says, now that we have their e-mail address let's make more money off it and send them e-mail they didn't ask for, that's white-collar spam." 

The antispam bill passed unanimously by the Senate last week imposes tough penalties on people involved in the lowest forms of spam but it does not deal with the central questions Mr. Usborne and others raise about white-collar spam. It does nothing, for example, to establish rules defining an appropriate list of names that a purveyor of a legitimate product can use to send an offer by e-mail. Nor does it regulate the transfer of names between companies. 

The law would require that every e-mail message offer recipients a method to remove themselves from an advertiser's mailing list. But with the way that names are traded today, this method would do little to reduce the amount of e-mail people receive, industry executives say. 

"People don't realize that once you sign up for a contest or free stuff on the Web and you forget to uncheck a box, these people will pass your name to a hundred other people,'` said Paul Nute, a partner of Soho Digital, a New York advertising agency that represents e-mail marketers. "You've just raised your hand and said, `Send me the diet pill offers.' And there is no way to get them all to stop." 

A new state law scheduled to take effect in California on Jan. 1 tries to take a stricter approach: it requires that commercial e-mail to or from anyone in the state be sent only to people who specifically request information from the advertiser. Many in the e-mail industry read the law as curbing many of the more common ways that names are gathered and used, but the exact limits will be left up to the courts to define. 

Moreover, if the federal bill passed by the Senate is enacted it would void most state spam laws, including California's. Although the Senate bill also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to create a do-not-spam list modeled after the wildly popular do-not-call list that is already starting to curb unwanted telemarketing calls, F.T.C. officials said that, unlike telemarketing, it would be extremely difficult to determine the difference between solicited and unsolicited e-mail. That is in part because so many companies go beyond their own customers to rely on opt-in list collectors. 

Not surprisingly, companies that are active users of conventional mail solicitations have gravitated to e-mail, which can be far cheaper, to push certain products. These include Morgan Stanley's Discover Card, Altria's Gevalia Coffee, Schering-Plough's Claritin, and The New York Times, which uses opt-in e-mail lists to sell subscriptions. 

One such list maker is Xuppa.com, a 38-person firm working from a cramped office in Midtown Manhattan across Seventh Avenue from Macy's department store. It has gathered half a billion e-mail addresses since it started four years ago, but most of those are no longer valid. The 65 million names left on its lists, Lance Laifer, Xuppa's chief executive, says, have given permission to receive marketing messages. 

Visitors to Xuppa.com are encouraged to enter its $1 million sweepstakes. To do so they must enter not only their e-mail address but postal address and telephone number as well. Entering the contest gives Xuppa permission to market to users. On the same Web page, some 75 other offers from advertisers are displayed, each adjacent to a check box some already checked by default. When Xuppa users enter the contest, their personal information is passed to any advertiser whose offer is checked. 

"There are a lot of people who would rather register and give their e-mail addresses than pay for services," Mr. Laifer said. 

This process of putting many offers on one page where users enter information is called co-registration, and it has become one of the main ways that names are gathered online. 

Some such sites make it hard for users to see all the lists they are joining. AmericanGiveAways.com, a site run by Synergy6, allows users to register to earn free gifts. "By signing up with us," a notice at the bottom of the page reads, "you are also agreeing to receive great offers, special coupons and promotions from our partner sites." 

Dozens of partners are listed on separate links, yet once a single button is clicked each of the advertisers can claim with some degree of truth that the user agreed to receive marketing messages. 

Such sites stretch users' consent beyond any recognition, argues Seth Godin, a former Yahoo executive, who coined the term "permission marketing" to define the practice of sending e-mail marketing to people who ask for it. 

"The people who are talking about permission marketing are almost entirely doing it wrong," Mr. Godin said. "Greed and avarice drove people to wreck the system." 

The trade in e-mail names is not limited to the back alleys of the Internet. Big traditional mailing list companies like Equifax and Experian have been buying e-mail addresses, often from these contest sites, and linking them with their vast stores of other information about people. They use this so marketers can send e-mail to people with, say, a certain disease, or who own a specific car, and so on. 

The chain of permission can be stretched even further. Some names come from customer lists of Internet companies that collapsed as the dot-com bubble burst. For example, MatchLogic, a Colorado marketing company that gathered 13 million names was acquired by Excite@Home, a high-speed Internet service controlled by AT&T. 

MatchLogic had a clear privacy policy that said it would not transfer those names to any third party without permission. But when Excite@Home was liquidated in bankruptcy in 2001, its mailing list was purchased by a group of marketing firms led by RHC Direct of Salt Lake City. Some of those companies in turn sold the list to others. Robert Caldwell, RHC's president, says he believes it is also being traded by former MatchLogic employees. 

"Names get flipped and flipped and flipped until everyone's name is everywhere," Mr. Caldwell said. 

Nothing is wrong with that, he contended, because the people who originally provided their e-mail addresses agreed to receive marketing messages. 

"As much as people talk about privacy," he said, "they will give it up for the chance to win a Lexus." 

Mr. Rathbun, who also has an e-mail address exclusively used to enter a MatchLogic contest, says it has received thousands of pieces of spam, some from big companies. 

Bankruptcy courts have generally allowed the sale of lists from failed companies like MatchLogic. But those transfers were against Excite@Home's stated privacy policy, said Christopher Kelly, Excite@Home's former chief privacy officer, now a lawyer with Baker & McKenzie. He said he would advise any client not to send e-mail to that list "as there is insufficient proof of the permission of the information." 

Officials at many of the big companies marketing by e-mail admit that the list companies are not always honest about the sources of their names. But they say there is no way to test the quality of a list other than to send e-mail to its addresses and find out how many complaints result. 

"There are some irresponsible companies that are bringing a bad name to those of us trying to be responsible,'` said Rajive Johri, executive vice president for marketing for J. P. Morgan Chase's credit card unit, an active user of opt-in e-mail. 

"We do a lot of due diligence on the vendors we utilize," Mr. Johri said. "At the same time, can I feel 100 percent sure that there are no abuses? No."

Near-Extinct 'Whistling Language' Returns 1 hour, 8 minutes ago 

By SARAH ANDREWS, News Source Writer SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands - Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles. Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather before him, Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away. This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now, educators are working hard to save it from extinction by making schoolchildren study it up to age 14. Silbo - the word comes from Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle - features four "vowels" and four "consonants" that can be strung together to form more than 4,000 words. It sounds just like bird conversation and Cabello says it has plenty of uses. "I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids something, to find a friend if we get lost in a crowd," Cabello said. In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people. A snatch of dialogue in Silbo is posted at http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3 and translates as follows: "Hey, Servando!" "What?" "Look, go tell Julio to bring the castanets." "OK. Hey, Julio!" "What?" "Lili says you should go get the kids and have them bring the castanets for the party." "OK, OK, OK." Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an ingenious way of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved peasants from trekking over hill and dale to send messages or news to neighbors. Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many people use Silbo these days. "A lot of people think they do, but there is a very small group who can truly communicate through Silbo and understand Silbo," said Manuel Carreiras, a psychology professor from the island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain processes language and has studied Silbo. Since 1999, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. Some 3,000 students are studying it 25 minutes a week - enough to teach the basics, said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo program. "There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it," he said. "We've been very pleased." But almost as important as speaking - sorry, whistling - Silbo is studying where it came from, and little is known. "Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have," said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical heritage department. It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how the archipelago got its name make no mention of whistling. Little is known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the language was the First International Congress of Whistled Languages, held in April in La Gomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought together experts on various whistled languages. Silbo-like whistling has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said. One study is looking for vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have historically emigrated during hard economic times. Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO (news - web sites) declare it an "intangible cultural heritage" and support efforts to save it. "Silbo is so unique and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements," he said. Besides, says Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for romance: "Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!"

What's in a Name? Everything When the Name is Butt

Oct 24, 9:54 am ET 

LONDON  - A British couple have been forced to move house because of the shame caused by the name of their street -- Butt Hole Road.

Paul and Lisa Allott sold their $250,000 bungalow in Conisbrough, northern England after living there for just 15 months, fed up with the constant leg-pulling.

Taxis and pizza delivery men would fail to turn up, thinking their order was just a prank, and they grew tired with groups of youths posing for photos by the nearby street sign with their buttocks bared.

"I like a laugh, but it was beyond a joke," Allott told the Sun newspaper.

Attempts by The News Source to contact the new residents were unsuccessful -- they have taken a confidential telephone number.

Paparazzi to Stand Trial for Diana Photos
Thu Oct 23, 2:41 PM ET

By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD, News Source Writer 

PARIS - Three photographers will go on trial in Paris on Friday for shooting pictures at the scene of the 1997 car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. 

The trial, the latest judicial proceedings surrounding the high-speed crash, stemmed from a criminal complaint for invasion of privacy filed by Dodi Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed Al Fayed. 

Celebrity photographers on motorcycles had been chasing Diana and Dodi Fayed after they left the Ritz Hotel in their car on Aug. 31, 1997. The couple and chauffeur Henri Paul were killed when the car crashed in a Paris tunnel. 

The photographers were cleared last year of manslaughter charges in the crash and will now be tried only for pictures they took of Dodi Fayed. 

Diana's relatives and the British royal family are not plaintiffs in the case. Photos taken at the site were confiscated, and none was ever published. 

At the one-day hearing on Friday, the court is expected to set a later date to announce a verdict. 

Jacques Langevin of the Sygma/Corbis agency, Christian Martinez of the Angelis agency and free-lancer Eric Chassery face one year of prison and $53,000 fines. 

The judge dismissed the case against five other photographers who took pictures at the crash scene. 

Manslaughter charges against the three photographers were dismissed in 2002 by France's highest court. An investigation into the crash concluded that Henri Paul had been drinking and was driving at high speed. 

The new hearing in Paris comes as Britain's The Daily Mirror is publishing excerpts from "A Royal Duty," an upcoming memoir by Diana's former butler and confidant Paul Burrell. 

The newspaper also published a letter, allegedly written by Diana 10 months before her death, saying someone was planning a car accident "in order to make the path clear for (Prince) Charles to marry." 

After the letter was published, Mohammed Al Fayed urged a public inquiry, but that was rejected by the British government.

Embarrassed GM to Rename Car with Risque Overtones

Oct 23, 11:41 am ET 

MAKUHARI, Japan  - General Motors Corp will rename its Buick LaCrosse in Canada because the name for the car is slang for masturbation in Quebec, embarrassed officials with the U.S. automaker said Thursday.

GM officials, who declined to be named, said it had been unaware that LaCrosse was a term for self-gratification among teenagers in French-speaking Quebec.

GM officials in Canada are working on a new name for the car, a sedan that will go on sale next year to replace the Buick Regal.

The mix-up is reminiscent of another GM vehicle with an unfortunate name. In the 1970s, GM exported its Chevrolet Nova to Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, only to be told that Nova translated into "doesn't go." Despite the name, and contrary to popular folklore, the car sold well.

Stiff Discipline After Schoolboys' Viagra Prank

Oct 23, 10:24 am ET 

LONDON  - Six British schoolboys were rushed to hospital after taking the erection-enhancing drug Viagra at lunchtime for a dare, the school said on Thursday.

Forest School in Winnersh, southern England said paramedics were called after a fellow student told teachers about the 13-year-olds' prank.

"It is believed that a pupil brought the tablets in from home into the all-boys school and shared them with five friends," the local education authority said in a statement.

The Sun newspaper quoted a source at the school as saying: "By the time the afternoon lessons began, there was no hiding what they had done."

Paramedics took the six squirming boys to the nearby Royal Berkshire Hospital, where they were monitored until the effects wore off.

"The school has a strict no drugs policy and a pupil will be temporarily excluded for actions which placed other pupils at risk," the education authority added.

Fisherman's Lucky Bite Gives Man His Teeth Back

Oct 23, 10:23 am ET 

LONDON  - A British vacationer who lost his false teeth while swimming off Crete was reunited with them two weeks later after fishermen caught them in their nets, The Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

Don Masey, 59, lost his teeth as he swam back to shore on the Greek holiday island.

"I thought it would be quicker to do the crawl stroke," he told the paper. "The problem with that is you have to suck and blow. So I sucked, and then when I blew, I blew my teeth out."

Despite sending his children out snorkeling in search of them, Masey failed to find the errant gnashers before returning to Britain at the end of his holiday.

But two weeks later, fishermen dragged up the teeth in their nets and took them to a local bar to ask if anyone in the village had lost them. When someone told them about a toothless Englishman seen in the resort, the fishermen went to a tour operator handling tourists from Britain.

The tour operator forwarded the dentures to a travel agency in Britain, which sent them on to Masey.

"I got them back on Saturday and Sunday dinner was the best meal of my life," he said.

Fish on Prozac Pose a Problem

Oct 23, 10:20 am ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS  - What could be more peaceful, more restful or more relaxing than dropping a line into a quiet Texas lake and trying to hook a fish that is on Prozac.

According to a study by a Baylor University toxicologist, fluoxetine -- the active ingredient in the antidepressant Prozac -- is making its way to a lake in the Dallas area and into the tissue of the fresh water blue gill fish.

Bryan Brooks, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Baylor said the fluoxetine most likely made its way through a waste water treatment plant and into a river that feeds into Lake Lewisville, northwest of Dallas.

Brooks will present his findings next month at a conference of the Geological Society of America in Seattle.

While he has been asked several times about whether fish on Prozac find pleasure in floating aimlessly and no pain when hooked by a fisherman, Brooks said the most important part of his findings are that some pharmaceuticals can make their way through water treatment plants and back into waterways.

Brooks said the fluoxetine, and a metabolized compound similar to it, most likely made their way into the water systems from the urine of users or through people flushing Prozac down the toilet. The waste water facility was not equipped to remove the compounds, which then made their way into the blue gills, and perhaps other aquatic life.

"If we release something in the environment, we need to understand what will happen to it," Brooks said.

Brooks said his findings lead to a bevy of other questions such as how many pharmaceuticals can escape water treatment, can these chemicals harm the water supply, how wide-spread is the problem and what are the long-term health effects caused by these pharmaceuticals on aquatic life and humans.

But, unfortunately, the nonscientific community seems to be more interested in the idea of fish on Prozac.

Brooks said the exposure of the fish to fluoxetine is below therapeutic levels. He is studying how current exposure might affect the ability of the fish to find food, fight off predators and find a mate.

And if the blue gills were exposed to enough of the antidepressant, the drug would likely have similar effects in the fish that it does in humans.

"They would be happy fish," Brooks said.

Is Your Sheep Stressed? Just Ask It

Oct 22, 11:12 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Stressed-out sheep bleat out their anguish, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

They found that, like humans, sheep communicate stress by changing the timbre of their voices.

Mark Feinstein of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, said his findings could help farmers and, of course, the sheep they herd.

An expert in bioacoustics, Feinstein did his work at Teagasc, an Irish government agricultural research organization.

He isolated sheep and separated lambs from their mothers as part of his experiments -- then recorded their bleats.

His recordings suggest that sheep express stress by altering the timbre of their vocalizations, or the overall quality of sounds, rather than by changing pitch or loudness.

Stress can be measured by taking an animal's blood, but it would be much easier, cheaper and, yes, less stressful to simply listen, Feinstein said.

He's Running 7 Marathons -- After Heart Attack

Oct 22, 11:11 am ET 

By Kate Holton

LONDON  - British explorer Ranulph Fiennes has set off for the Antarctic to start his latest challenge -- running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents -- less than five months after suffering a near fatal heart attack.

Fiennes, 59, and Dr Mike Stroud, 48, left Britain late on Tuesday for the wilds of Antarctica where they will start the challenge on October 26 before, weather permitting, finishing 168 hours later in New York's Central Park.

After Antarctica, the two men plan to go the 26.2 mile distance in Santiago, Sydney, Singapore, London and Cairo before arriving in New York to join the thousands of runners who will be contesting the city's annual marathon on November 2.

"I don't think it's a crazy idea," Fiennes told reporters as he left Heathrow airport. "I think it is probably OK, as long as you keep your heart beating at what the doctors say is the maximum and not more."

The explorer and former special forces officer underwent emergency double-bypass heart surgery after collapsing on June 7, prompting his doctors to set a low heart-rate limit for each marathon of 130 beats per minute.

Fiennes had already started training for the challenge when he collapsed and was prevented from returning to training until mid August.

"They stitched my ribcage up with wire, so for two months it was no driving, no exercise of a taxing nature," Fiennes told the Guardian newspaper Tuesday.

"Even a brisk walk was out. So that left only two months in which to get from a vegetable-type state to what we're trying to do now."

Stroud will carry a small defibrillator machine at all times but said he was not expecting to use it.

"A lot of things could go wrong but I don't think Ran's heart will be a problem," he said. "He's got a big strong heart, he's a good athlete and he's exercised hard."

Fiennes -- who has already survived the torment of gangrene at the North Pole, dodged bullets in the Middle East, trekked across the Andes and canoed up the Amazon -- became one of the first men to reach both Poles on foot on his Trans-Globe Expedition in 1982.

Eleven years later he and Stroud became the first men to cross the Antarctic unsupported on foot.

The two men will donate the money raised to the British Heart Foundation.

Witch Gets State Grant

Oct 21, 8:41 am ET 

OSLO  - A witch has won subsidies from the Norwegian state to run a business of potions, fortune-telling and magic.

Lena Skarning, 33, won the unprecedented start-up grant of 53,000 crowns ($7,400) after promising not to try out harmful spells with her business, Forest Witch Magic Consulting.

Skarning, who owns a white cat and says she has been practicing witchcraft for 13 years, said the runaway success of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books about a boy wizard may have made society more tolerant of sorcery.

"But Harry Potter is a fairy tale and I'm not," she told The News Source Tuesday. "I'm the real thing. And now I'm Norway's only state-backed witch."

She said the government subsidy would help her tell fortunes from Tarot cards, teach magic tricks at corporate seminars and develop products like magical bath oil, water potions or face creams meant to help users have clearer dreams at night.

"The ingredients are mostly herbs -- nothing scary," she said of her products.

Skarning said Harry Potter was unrealistic. "He rides his broom backwards. Real witches ride with the brush part in front," she said.

June 10, 2003 - Wireless Flash Richard Gere: Future Victim Of `Mothman' Curse? PORTLAND, Maine (Wireless Flash) -- Richard Gere may want to watch his back for a while because he may soon fall victim to the "Curse Of "The Mothman Prophecies."" That's the word from Mothman researcher Loren Coleman, who says a recent plane crash in Los Angeles is only the latest event caused by the "Mothman Curse." One of the crash's victims, Jessica Kaplan, worked on the 2002 film and Coleman claims there have been other bizarre accidents as well. For instance, he says the week "Mothman Prophecies" opened, there were a record number of road fatalities in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where the film is set. If the curse is real, then Gere could suffer a terrible accident -- and so could Coleman, who consulted on the film. But Coleman isn't worried and freely discusses the curse in his new book, "The Mothman And Other Curious Encounters" (Paraview Press).

German Team Finds Secret of Mummies' Preservation Wed Oct 22, 1:00 PM ET Add Science 

By Chris Slocombe LONDON  - A German research team has unravelled the mystery of how the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead, using sophisticated science to track the preservative to an extract of the cedar tree. Chemists from Tuebingen University and the Munich-based Doerner-Institut replicated an ancient treatment of cedar wood and found it contained a preservative chemical called guaiacol. "Modern science has finally found the secret of why some mummies can last for thousands of years," Ulrich Weser of Tuebingen University told The News Source on Wednesday. The team then tested the chemicals found in the cedar derivative on fresh pig ribs. They found it had an extremely high anti-bacterial effect without damaging body tissue. The findings, published in the science journal Nature, will surprise Egyptologists who had thought the embalming oil was extracted from juniper rather than cedar. The team also tested juniper extracts but found they did not contain the guaiacol preservatives. Weser said that, despite ancient mentions of "cedar-juice," scholars believed juniper to be the source because of similar Greek names and some mummies being found clutching juniper berries. Grave robberies forced the ancient Egyptians, who mummified their dead in the hope they would live eternally, to bury deceased leaders deeper. Decomposition was much quicker, meaning they had to find a preservative as well as salting the bodies. The team extracted the cedar oil using a method mentioned in a work by Pliny the Elder, a Roman encyclopaedist who wrote of an embalming ointment called "cedrium." Although there are no contemporary descriptions of how the tar was made, modern Egyptologists had overlooked Pliny's account as he was writing centuries later. The team found their cedar wood tar did contain the key preservative guaiacol. "We could demonstrate the accuracy of Pliny's writings with 21st century science," Weser said. Crucial to the team's research was finding unused embalming material which had been laid down next to the superbly preserved 2,500-year-old mummy of "Saankh-kare." This allowed them to carry out chemical analysis of tar unaffected by contact with body tissues

Athletes Are Warned on Skin Infections 46 minutes ago Add Sports - 

By DANIEL YEE, News Source Writer ATLANTA - Health and sports officials are warning schools and sports teams about a hard-to-treat skin infection once common to hospitals and prisons that's now plaguing athletes on the playing field. The National Federation of State High School Associations sent a warning Tuesday to states about a staph infection that can't be cured by the usual penicillin-related antibiotics. On Monday the NCAA (news - web sites)'s medical committee urged college athletic departments to be alert for the infections and to practice careful hygiene. Though usually mild, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can progress to a life-threatening blood or bone infection. Several athletes who got the infection have been hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said the infection, which can look like an ordinary skin wound or a boil, is often not diagnosed or ends up being treated with antibiotics that can't cure it. Symptoms include fever, pus, swelling or pain. "It's important for coaches and for parents to be aware MRSA might be a cause of skin problems in children," said Dr. Dan Jernigan, CDC medical epidemiologist. Athletes should tell their coaches of any wounds, which should be covered. If a wound can't be covered, the player should be excluded from the sport until he gets appropriate treatment or the wound heals, Jernigan said. Most often affected are those playing close-contact sports, but in one case, fencing was involved. "It's not uncommon in contact sports such as football and wrestling where we have contagious skin conditions," said Jerry Diehl, assistant director for the high school federation. He said proper equipment cleaning is needed to prevent the infections. The CDC also recommended avoiding contact with other players' skin lesions, better hygiene and no sharing of towels or personal items. NCAA spokeswoman Kay Hawes said Wednesday the alert to universities was to make them aware of potential problems. "The NCAA alerts the membership any time there's a health and safety issue where we could prevent a problem or concern." The last such announcement was about the SARS (news - web sites) virus. Earlier this month, a 17-year-old high school football player in Wisconsin was hospitalized with MRSA and six of his teammates also were treated. In August, seven University of Southern California football players were infected, and four were hospitalized. The CDC noted that five Colorado fencers were infected in February. Team members shared sensor wires, which record hits by an opponent's weapon, under their clothing and the wires were not regularly cleaned, the CDC said. In January, a pair of Indiana high school wrestlers were infected; last year, two college football players were hospitalized from the infection; and in 2000, 10 Pennsylvania college football players were infected, the CDC added.

A major research institution has recently

announced the discovery of the heaviest

chemical element yet known to science.

The new element has been named

"Governmentium". Governmentium has 1 neutron,

12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons,

and 11 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it

an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by

forces called morons, which are surrounded by

vast quantities of lepton-like particles

called peons.

Since governmentium has no electrons, it is

inert. However, it can be detected as it

impedes every reaction with which it comes

into contact. A minute amount of

governmentium causes one reaction to take

over 4 days to complete when it would

normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to

6 years; it does not decay, but instead

undergoes a reorganization in which a portion

of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons

exchange places.

In fact, governmentium's mass will actually

increase over time, since each reorganization

causes some morons to become neutrons,

forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads

some scientists to speculate that

governmentium is formed whenever morons reach

a certain quantity in concentration. This

hypothetical quantity is referred to as

"Critical Morass".

You will know it when you see it.

Soldiers in Iraq Dying from Mysterious Blood Clots 09-Oct-2003 We've written before about the mysterious deaths from pneumonia of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Now it's been discovered that unexplained blood clots are another reason soldiers are dying there-and they're dying from the same thing here in the U.S. Soldiers, and their families, blame this on smallpox and anthrax vaccines. In April, NBC News correspondent David Bloom also died from a blood clot in his lung after collapsing in Iraq. He had gotten both anthrax and smallpox vaccines and complained of pain in his legs before he died. Some of the soldiers who died suddenly complained about pain in the legs that could indicate blood clots. "Bill just dropped. They thought he had been shot. That is how suddenly it happened," says Rose Hobby, whose brother-in- law, Army Spc. William Jeffries, died of a massive lung blood clot on March 31st, after being evacuated from Kuwait. "If there is a significant number of deaths of this type, it would make you wonder what was going on. How many others are out there?" Jeffries had a scab on his arm from a recent smallpox vaccination. Patrick Ivory's son, Army Spc. Craig S. Ivory, died from a blood clot that entered his brain on August 11. The father says, "I had to make a decision to turn off life support, which was the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life." "If anybody has a right to know what my husband died of, it is me," says Lisa Ann Sherman, whose husband, Lt. Col. Anthony Sherman died on August 27th in Kuwait. "The only thing they had to tell me was severe myocardial infarction (heart attack)." However, Sherman was a marathon runner and a triathlete. Sherman says her husband complained of pain in his legs after getting anthrax shots. She says, "I am very suspicious about the true reason behind my husband's death." Army Spc. Rachael Lacy died on April 4th, and a civilian doctor who treated her and the civilian coroner who performed her autopsy say the smallpox and anthrax vaccines the Army gave her on March 2nd in preparation for her deployment in Iraq may have caused her death. Two health care workers also died of heart attacks after getting smallpox shots. The Pentagon says side effects from the anthrax vaccine are generally mild and rare, but they admit that, in the case of Capt. Jason M. Nietupksi, it did cause Deep Vein Thrombosis. Nietupksi has to be on blood thinners for the rest of his life. "CPT Nietupski had multiple adverse medical problems associated with three anthrax vaccinations he received while assigned to the 8th United States Army," says a military report. "A condition described as Deep Vein Thrombosis, chronic fatigue and Steven Johnson's Syndrome all are adverse reactions that developed in this previously healthy individual from the anthrax vaccine. Evaluation by Walter Reed Physicians states that his symptoms are related to the anthrax vaccine." "I would say that that number of [blood clot] cases among young healthy troops would seem to be unusual," says infectious disease specialist Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, who is a former Air Force doctor. He says that during the first Gulf War, "I am not aware that there were this many cases."

Catholic Churches Say Condoms Don't Stop AIDS - BBC
Thu Oct 9,11:12 AM ET

LONDON  - The lives of Roman Catholics in some of the countries worst hit by HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS (news - web sites) are being put at even greater risk by advice from their churches that the use of condoms does not prevent transmission of the disease, according to a British television program. 

If condoms cannot be absolutely guaranteed to block sperm, they stand even less chance of stopping the much smaller virus, the churches' argument runs. 

The Roman Catholic church opposes any form of artificial contraception -- particularly condoms, which it says promote promiscuity. 

But the traditional opposition is now being reinforced by arguments over their efficacy. 

"The moral argument against the use of condoms is being superseded by a clinical argument which is flawed," said Steve Bradshaw, reporter on the BBC Panorama program "Sex and the Holy City" that will be aired in Britain on Sunday night. 

"The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican (news - web sites)'s Pontifical Council for the Family, told the program. 

"The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom." 

He said that just as health authorities warned about dangers like tobacco, so they had an obligation to issue similar warnings about condoms. 

The Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki told the program: "AIDS...has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms." 

While in Luak near Lake Victoria, Gordon Wambi, director of an AIDS testing center, said he had been prevented from distributing condoms because of church opposition. 

Bradshaw told The News Source the program team did not go out looking for the story, but stumbled across it during research. 

"We heard the same line so many times from different people in different places that we decided to approach the Vatican," he said. 

The World Health Organization (news - web sites), guardian watchdog of global wellbeing, rejected the Vatican view. 

"These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million," the WHO told the program. 

It conceded condoms could break or be damaged and permit passage of semen, but said they reduced the risk of infection by 90 percent and were certainly secure enough to prevent passage of the virus if not torn. 

Panorama said scientific research had found intact condoms were impermeable to particles as small as sexually transmitted infection pathogens -- a view rejected by Trujillo. 

"They are wrong about that...this is an easily recognizable fact," he told the program. 

From Nicaragua to Kenya and the Philippines, the Panorama team found the same tale from the Catholic church -- that condoms can kill. 

No official comment from the Vatican was immediately available on Thursday.

Nokia Cites Fake Batteries in Phone Explosions
Thu Oct 9, 6:38 AM ET

HELSINKI  - Nokia (news - web sites) Thursday pointed the finger at counterfeit batteries after another of its phones exploded and burned its user, the third such case in two months, and said original batteries sold with its phones were safe. 

Nokia Photo 

The world's largest mobile phone maker said earlier a young Vietnamese woman was hospitalized with burns after her mobile phone apparently exploded. 

The incident follows two similar accidents in the Netherlands, one last week and the other in August. 

Following the latest Dutch incident, which left a 15-year-old boy in the town of Hengelo with leg burns, the country's consumer watchdog said it would probe the case. 

"We don't yet have any information on what is the origin of the battery in the Vietnam case," Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman Kari Tuutti told The News Source. 

"(But) there hasn't been a single case of an original battery exploding anywhere in the world," he said. 

Nokia has cited faulty batteries from independent electronics manufacturers for similar incidents in the past. 

Nokia has said these manufacturers violated security requirements which should prevent the battery heating up after short circuiting, for instance, after the phone was dropped. 

Contraband and counterfeit mobile phone batteries are widely available in Vietnam in local markets at around $2-$3 a piece compared to $20 for genuine product, a local Nokia spokesman said. 

"The biggest issue is with counterfeit, illegal batteries," Tuutti said. "Therefore we recommend that retailers and consumers try to verify the products sold have original batteries." 

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam despite modest incomes and there are around 1.6 million mobile phone users among the population of 80 million.

Study: Sonar May Cause Bends Disease in Dolphins
Wed Oct 8, 1:54 PM ET 
Add Science 

By Patricia Reaney 

LONDON  - Sonar may cause a type of decompression sickness in whales and dolphins similar to the "bends" in humans, scientists said on Wednesday. 

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Although it seems an unlikely illness for the aquatic creatures, researchers from the Zoological Society of London and the University of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands have found bubbles in the tissue of stranded whales and dolphins similar to the effects of decompression sickness (DCS) in humans. 

"The only way we can explain these findings is that it is a condition very similar to decompression sickness in humans," Dr Paul Jepson, co-ordinator of the UK Marine Mammal Stranding Project which contributed to the research, said in an interview. 

"Sonar may cause a disease like the bends," he said, adding that more research was needed to confirm the results. 

The finding, reported in the science journal Nature, is the first evidence of a bends-like illness in the creatures. 

Scientists suspect sonar signals disorientate the animals forcing them to come up to the surface too quickly, which could cause the creation of damaging nitrogen bubbles in their tissue. 

Both low and mid-frequency sonar have been linked to whale strandings. 

"It is widely accepted that there is a link between naval sonar use and mass strandings, predominately of big whales; what hasn't been fully understood is what the mechanism would be," Jepson added. 

Autopsies by Spanish scientists on 10 of 14 beaked whales stranded in the Canary Islands after a multinational military exercise last year also showed evidence of DCS in the animals. 

The creatures started to appear on the beaches about four hours after the start of the mid-frequency sonar activity. 

"Beaked whales have the highest levels of nitrogen in their tissues normally because they dive so deep and that would be consistent with why it is the beaked whales that are most severely affected by sonar exercises," Jepson said. 

Military sonar blasts areas of ocean with sound waves to detect submarines. Environmentalists say it produces noise levels that may harm marine mammals or alter their migration. 

A mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas in 2000 has also been linked to a sonar system. 

"The detailed examination of the mass stranded whales in the Canaries in 2002 suggests the naval sonar could induce a condition similar to DCS," Professor Antonio Fernandez of the University of Las Palmas said in a statement. 

DCS is caused by a rapid decrease in pressure of either air or water, usually affecting scuba and deep-sea divers. If the transition between the pressures occurs too quickly nitrogen bubbles form in the blood and tissue. 

"This new evidence from our study of marine mammal diseases in the UK challenges the widely held notion that cetaceans (marine mammals) cannot suffer from decompression sickness," Jepson added.

From: "Dude, Where's my Country" to be released before the November 2004 elections in Amerika. Now out in England...

Answers please, Mr Bush Michael Moore fired his opening salvo against George Bush and his rightwing cronies with his bestseller Stupid White Men. Now the president is in his sights again. In this second extract from his new book he asks his old enemy seven awkward questions :

I have seven questions for you, Mr Bush. I ask them on behalf of the 3,000 who died that September day, and I ask them on behalf of the American people. We seek no revenge against you. We want only to know what happened, and what can be done to bring the murderers to justice, so we can prevent any future attacks on our citizens. 1. Is it true that the Bin Ladens have had business relations with you and your family off and on for the past 25 years? Most Americans might be surprised to learn that you and your father have known the Bin Ladens for a long time. What, exactly, is the extent of this relationship, Mr Bush? Are you close personal friends, or simply on-again, off-again business associates? Salem bin Laden - Osama's brother - first started coming to Texas in 1973 and later bought some land, built himself a house, and created Bin Laden Aviation at the San Antonio airfield. The Bin Ladens are one of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. Their huge construction firm virtually built the country, from the roads and power plants to the skyscrapers and government buildings. They built some of the airstrips America used in your dad's Gulf war. Billionaires many times over, they soon began investing in other ventures around the world, including the US. They have extensive business dealings with Citigroup, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and the Fremont Group. According to the New Yorker, the bin Laden family also owns a part of Microsoft and the airline and defence giant Boeing. They have donated $2m to your alma mater, Harvard University, and tens of thousands to the Middle East Policy Council, a think-tank headed by a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles Freeman. In addition to the property they own in Texas, they also have real estate in Florida and Massachusetts. In short, they have their hands deep in our pants. Unfortunately, as you know, Mr Bush, Salem bin Laden died in a plane crash in Texas in 1988. Salem's brothers - there are around 50 of them, including Osama - continued to run the family companies and investments. After leaving office, your father became a highly paid consultant for a company known as the Carlyle Group - one of the nation's largest defence contractors. One of the investors in the Carlyle Group - to the tune of at least $2m - was none other than the Bin Laden family. Until 1994, you headed a company called CaterAir, which was owned by the Carlyle Group. After September 11, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both ran stories pointing out this connection. Your first response, Mr Bush, was to ignore it. Then your army of pundits went into spin control. They said, we can't paint these Bin Ladens with the same brush we use for Osama. They have disowned Osama! They have nothing to do with him! These are the good Bin Ladens. And then the video footage came out. It showed a number of these "good" Bin Ladens - including Osama's mother, a sister and two brothers - with Osama at his son's wedding just six and a half months before September 11. It was no secret to the CIA that Osama bin Laden had access to his family fortune (his share is estimated to be at least $30m), and the Bin Ladens, as well as other Saudis, kept Osama and his group, al-Qaida, well funded. You've gotten a free ride from the media, though they know everything I have just written to be the truth. They seem unwilling or afraid to ask you a simple question, Mr Bush: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? In case you don't understand just how bizarre the media's silence is regarding the Bush-Bin Laden connections, let me draw an analogy to how the press or Congress might have handled something like this if the same shoe had been on the Clinton foot. If, after the terrorist attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, it had been revealed that President Bill Clinton and his family had financial dealings with Timothy McVeigh's family, what do you think your Republican party and the media would have done with that one? Do you think at least a couple of questions might have been asked, such as, "What is that all about?" Be honest, you know the answer. They would have asked more than a couple of questions. They would have skinned Clinton alive and thrown what was left of his carcass in Guantanamo Bay. 2. What is the 'special relationship' between the Bushes and the Saudi royal family? Mr Bush, the Bin Ladens are not the only Saudis with whom you and your family have a close personal relationship. The entire royal family seems to be indebted to you - or is it the other way round? The number one supplier of oil to the US is the nation of Saudi Arabia, possessor of the largest known reserves of oil in the world. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, it was really the Saudis next door who felt threatened, and it was your father, George Bush I, who came to their rescue. The Saudis have never forgotten this. Haifa, wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, says that your mother and father "are like my mother and father. I know if ever I needed anything I could go to them". A major chunk of the American economy is built on Saudi money. They have a trillion dollars invested in our stock market and another trillion dollars in our banks. If they chose suddenly to remove that money, our corporations and financial institutions would be sent into a tailspin, causing an economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen. Couple that with the fact that the 1.5m barrels of oil we need daily from the Saudis could also vanish on a mere royal whim, and we begin to see how not only you, but all of us, are dependent on the House of Saud. George, is this good for our national security, our homeland security? Who is it good for? You? Pops? After meeting with the Saudi crown prince in April 2002, you happily told us that the two of you had "established a strong personal bond" and that you "spent a lot of time alone". Were you trying to reassure us? Or just flaunt your friendship with a group of rulers who rival the Taliban in their suppression of human rights? Why the double standard? 3. Who attacked the US on September 11 - a guy on dialysis from a cave in Afghanistan, or your friend, Saudi Arabia? I'm sorry, Mr Bush, but something doesn't make sense. You got us all repeating by rote that it was Osama bin Laden who was responsible for the attack on the United States on September 11. Even I was doing it. But then I started hearing strange stories about Osama's kidneys. Suddenly, I don't know who or what to trust. How could a guy sitting in a cave in Afghanistan, hooked up to dialysis, have directed and overseen the actions of 19 terrorists for two years in the US then plotted so perfectly the hijacking of four planes and then guaranteed that three of them would end up precisely on their targets? How did he organise, communicate, control and supervise this kind of massive attack? With two cans and a string? The headlines blared it the first day and they blare it the same way now two years later: "Terrorists Attack United States." Terrorists. I have wondered about this word for some time, so, George, let me ask you a question: if 15 of the 19 hijackers had been North Korean, rather than Saudi, and they had killed 3,000 people, do you think the headline the next day might have read, "NORTH KOREA ATTACKS UNITED STATES"? Of course it would. Or if it had been 15 Iranians or 15 Libyans or 15 Cubans, I think the conventional wisdom would have been, "IRAN [or LIBYA or CUBA] ATTACKS AMERICA!" Yet, when it comes to September 11, have you ever seen the headline, have you ever heard a newscaster, has one of your appointees ever uttered these words: "Saudi Arabia attacked the United States"? Of course you haven't. And so the question must - must - be asked: why not? Why, when Congress released its own investigation into September 11, did you, Mr Bush, censor out 28 pages that deal with the Saudis' role in the attack? I would like to throw out a possibility here: what if September 11 was not a "terrorist" attack but, rather, a military attack against the United States? George, apparently you were a pilot once - how hard is it to hit a five-storey building at more than 500 miles an hour? The Pentagon is only five stories high. At 500 miles an hour, had the pilots been off by just a hair, they'd have been in the river. You do not get this skilled at learning how to fly jumbo jets by being taught on a video game machine at some dipshit flight training school in Arizona. You learn to do this in the air force. Someone's air force. The Saudi air force? What if these weren't wacko terrorists, but military pilots who signed on to a suicide mission? What if they were doing this at the behest of either the Saudi government or certain disgruntled members of the Saudi royal family? The House of Saud, according to Robert Baer's book Sleeping With the Devil, is full of them. So, did certain factions within the Saudi royal family execute the attack on September 11? Were these pilots trained by the Saudis? Why are you so busy protecting the Saudis when you should be protecting us? 4. Why did you allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days after September 11 and pick up members of the Bin Laden family and fly them out of the country without a proper investigation by the FBI? Private jets, under the supervision of the Saudi government - and with your approval - were allowed to fly around the skies of America, when travelling by air was forbidden, and pick up 24 members of the Bin Laden family and take them first to a "secret assembly point in Texas". They then flew to Washington DC, and then on to Boston. Finally, on September 18, they were all flown to Paris, out of the reach of any US officials. They never went through any serious interrogation. This is mind-boggling. Might it have been possible that at least one of the 24 Bin Ladens would have possibly known something? While thousands were stranded and could not fly, if you could prove you were a close relative of the biggest mass murderer in US history, you got a free trip to gay Paree! Why, Mr Bush, was this allowed to happen? 5. Why are you protecting the Second Amendment rights of potential terrorists? Mr Bush, in the days after September 11, the FBI began running a check to see if any of the 186 "suspects" the feds had rounded up in the first five days after the attack had purchased any guns in the months leading up to September 11 (two of them had). When your attorney general, John Ashcroft, heard about this, he immediately shut down the search. He told the FBI that the background check files could not be used for such a search and these files were only to be used at the time of a purchase of a gun. Mr Bush, you can't be serious! Is your administration really so gun nutty and so deep in the pocket of the National Rifle Association? I truly love how you have rounded up hundreds of people, grabbing them off the streets without notice, throwing them in prison cells, unable to contact lawyers or family, and then, for the most part, shipped them out of the country on mere immigration charges. You can waive their Fourth Amendment protection from unlawful search and seizure, their Sixth Amendment rights to an open trial by a jury of their peers and the right to counsel, and their First Amendment rights to speak, assemble, dissent and practise their religion. You believe you have the right to just trash all these rights, but when it comes to the Second Amendment right to own an AK-47 - oh no! That right they can have - and you will defend their right to have it. Who, Mr Bush, is really aiding the terrorists here? 6. Were you aware that, while you were governor of Texas, the Taliban travelled to Texas to meet with your oil and gas company friends? According to the BBC, the Taliban came to Texas while you were governor to meet with Unocal, the huge oil and energy giant, to discuss Unocal's desire to build a natural-gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and into Pakistan. Mr Bush, what was this all about? "Houston, we have a problem," apparently never crossed your mind, even though the Taliban were perhaps the most repressive fundamentalist regime on the planet. What role exactly did you play in the Unocal meetings with the Taliban? According to various reports, representatives of your administration met with the Taliban or conveyed messages to them during the summer of 2001. What were those messages, Mr Bush? Were you discussing their offer to hand over Bin Laden? Were you threatening them with use of force? Were you talking to them about a pipeline? 7. What exactly was that look on your face in the Florida classroom on the morning of September 11 when your chief of staff told you, 'America is under attack'? On the morning of September 11, you took a jog on a golf course and then headed to Booker elementary school in Florida to read to little children. You arrived at the school after the first plane had hit the north tower in New York City. You entered the classroom around 9am and the second plane hit the south tower at 9.03am. Just a few minutes later, as you were sitting in front of the class of kids, your chief of staff, Andrew Card, entered the room and whispered in your ear. Card was apparently telling you about the second plane and about us being "under attack". And it was at that very moment that your face went into a distant glaze, not quite a blank look, but one that seemed partially paralysed. No emotion was shown. And then ... you just sat there. You sat there for another seven minutes or so doing nothing. George, what were you thinking? What did that look on your face mean? Were you thinking you should have taken reports the CIA had given you the month before more seriously? You had been told al-Qaida was planning attacks in the United States and that planes would possibly be used. Or were you just scared shitless? Or maybe you were just thinking, "I did not want this job in the first place! This was supposed to be Jeb's job; he was the chosen one! Why me? Why me, daddy?" Or ... maybe, just maybe, you were sitting there in that classroom chair thinking about your Saudi friends - both the royals and the Bin Ladens. People you knew all too well that might have been up to no good. Would questions be asked? Would suspicions arise? Would the Democrats have the guts to dig into your family's past with these people (no, don't worry, never a chance of that!)? Would the truth ever come out? And while I'm at it ... Danger - multi-millionaires at large I've always thought it was interesting that the mass murder of September 11 was allegedly committed by a multi-millionaire. We always say it was committed by a "terrorist" or by an "Islamic fundamentalist" or an "Arab", but we never define Osama by his rightful title: multi-millionaire. Why have we never read a headline saying, "3,000 Killed by multi-millionaire"? It would be a correct headline, would it not? Osama bin Laden has assets totalling at least $30m; he is a multi-millionaire. So why isn't that the way we see this person, as a rich fuck who kills people? Why didn't that become the reason for profiling potential terrorists? Instead of rounding up suspicious Arabs, why don't we say, "Oh my God, a multi-millionaire killed 3,000 people! Round up the multi-millionaires! Throw them all in jail! No charges! No trials! Deport the millionaires!!" Keeping America safe The US Patriot Act and the enemy combatant designation are just a hint of what Bush has in store for us. Consider a brainchild of Admiral John Poindexter, an Iran-contra perp, and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa): the "policy analysis market", which the government was to put up on a website. Apparently, Poindexter reasoned that commodity futures markets worked so well for Bush's buddies at Enron that he could adapt it to predicting terrorism. Individuals would be able to invest in hypothetical futures contracts involving the likelihood of such events as "an assassination of Yasser Arafat" or "the overthrow of Jordan's King Abdullah II". Other futures would be available based on the economic health, civil stability and military involvement in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. All oil-related countries. The proposed market lasted about one day after it was revealed to the Senate. Senators Wyden and Dorgan protested the Pentagon's $8m request, and Wyden said, "Make-believe markets trading in possibilities that turn the stomach hardly seem like a sensible next step to take with taxpayers money in the war on terror." As a result of the uproar over this, Poindexter was asked to step down. Giving Saddam the key to Detroit In Las Vegas, an armoured fighting vehicle was used to crush French yogurt, French bread, bottles of French wine, Perrier, Grey Goose vodka, photos of Chirac, a guide to Paris and, best of all, photocopies of the French flag. France was the perfect country to pick on. If you're a cable news company, why spend priceless reporting time on investigating whether Iraq really does have weapons of mass destruction when you can do a story about how rotten the French are? Fox News led the charge of pinning Chirac to Saddam Hussein, showing old footage of the two men together. It didn't matter that the meeting had taken place in the 1970s. The media didn't bother to run (over and over again) the footage from when Saddam was presented with a key to the city of Detroit, or the film from the early 1980s of Donald Rumsfeld visiting Saddam in Baghdad to discuss the progress of the Iran-Iraq war. The footage of Rumsfeld embracing Saddam apparently wasn't worth running on a continuous loop. Or even once. OK, maybe once. On Oprah. � (c) Michael Moore 2003. To order a copy of Dude, Where's My Country?, by Michael Moore, for �11.99 plus p&p (rrp �17.99), call the Guardian book service on 0870 066 7979. Published by Allen Lane on October 7. More extracts from Dude, Where's My Country? 04.10.2003: How to talk to your conservative brother-in-law (part one) 04.10.2003: How to talk to your conservative brother-in-law (part two) Interview with Michael Moore 04.10.2003: The capped crusader Profile: Michael Moore 03.10.2003: A man on a message Factfile 03.10.2003: Ten things you never knew about Michael Moore Useful links Official Michael Moore website Dog Eat Dog Films Bowling For Columbine

Lawmen: FBI Planted Bug in Mayor's Office 4 minutes ago 

By DAVID B. CARUSO, News Source Writer PHILADELPHIA - Federal law enforcement officials on Wednesday confirmed that listening devices found in the offices of Mayor John F. Street were planted by the FBI (news - web sites) - a discovery that touched off a political furor just weeks before Election Day. Three federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the FBI was responsible for the bug, but refused to comment on whether the Democratic mayor is a target of an investigation or to provide any details about the nature of the probe. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, and Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), a Republican, were among several politicians who called on the FBI Wednesday to tell the public what it knows about the eavesdropping equipment, found Tuesday. "I think given this extraordinary situation with four weeks to go in the campaign, it is incumbent upon the FBI to say why they planted the device," Rendell said. The bug was found during a routine sweep of Street's office by police. Street is locked in a bitter rematch against Republican businessman Sam Katz, and the campaign has been marked by charges of threats and race-baiting. Election Day is Nov. 4. At a meeting with reporters Wednesday, Street said for the second day that he didn't know who bugged his office or why. "I haven't done anything wrong, and I don't know that anybody in my cabinet or in my staff around me has done anything wrong," Street said. Street's campaign suggested the bugging was instigated by the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) for political reasons. "The timing of the discovery of these listening devices seems incredibly strange, seeing that we are four weeks out of the election, and we have a Democratic mayor ahead in the polls, and we are on the eve of the first mayoral debate," Street campaign spokesman Frank Keel said. "Do we believe that the Republican Party, both at the federal level and state level, is pulling out every stop to get Pennsylvania in 2004? Absolutely," Keel said. "Is the Republican Party capable of dirty tricks? I think that is well-documented." U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan, the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, declined to say what federal agents might know about the bug but denied politics plays any role in his office's decisions. "The U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has a long and proud history of doing its work without regard to partisan politics. That was the practice of my predecessors, and it is my practice as well," Meehan said in a statement. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said he turned the matter over to the FBI. He said the security sweeps of the mayor's office have been going on for decades. An aide to Street who spoke on condition of anonymity said that more than one microphone was found and that all were within the mayor's office suite. Officials would not say how long the equipment was believed to have been in place, but police said a sweep done in June found nothing suspicious. Katz called the discovery "breathtakingly shocking." His campaign denied having anything to do with the bugging. Street beat Katz four years ago by fewer than 10,000 votes in this city of 1.5 million. Polls also show a neck-and-neck race in this year's campaign. In August, someone tossed what was believed to have been an unlit firebomb through the window of a Katz campaign office. An aide to Street and a former city employee were charged with making threats after getting into a confrontation the same day. Supporters of Street, who is black, have accused supporters of Katz, who is white, of race-baiting.

Moon Brings Novel Green Power to Arctic Homes Sat Sep 20,10:22 AM ET Add Science 

By Alister Doyle OSLO  - Homes on the Arctic tip of Norway started getting power from the moon on Saturday via a unique subsea power station driven by the rise and fall of the tide. A tidal current in a sea channel near the town of Hammerfest, caused by the gravitational tug of the moon on the earth, started turning the 10-meter (33 ft) blades of a turbine bolted to the seabed to generate electricity for the local grid. The prototype looks like an underwater windmill and is expected to generate about 700,000 kilowatt hours of non-polluting energy a year, or enough to light and heat about 30 homes. "This is the first time in the world that electricity from a tidal current has been fed into a power grid," Harald Johansen, managing director of Hammerfest Stroem which has led the project, told The News Source. The plant in the Kvalsund channel, which had cost about 80 million crowns ($11 million) by Saturday's launch, is a tiny contributor to help cut dependence on fossil fuels like oil and gas blamed for global warming (news - web sites). The water flows at about 2.5 meters (8 ft) per second for about 12 hours when the tide is rising through the Kvalsund channel, pauses at high tide and then reverses direction. The blades on the turbine automatically turn to face the current. If successful, the project could herald far wider use of predictable tides in green energy and generate millions of dollars in orders. Windmills, by contrast, are useless in calm weather and have to be built to withstand hurricane-force winds. ARTIFICIAL LAGOONS Tides have previously been tapped for power plants in France, Canada and Russia in barrages that trap water in artificial lagoons at high tide. When the tide goes out, gravity sucks the water through turbines to generate electricity. But such barrages can disrupt the habitats of animals and plants in river estuaries and along the coasts. Proponents of turbines turned by tidal currents say that they cause less impact -- they are silent and invisible from the surface and fish, whales and seals can probably swim round them without the risk of being sliced up. Drawbacks are that costs are high. Hammerfest Stroem has estimated that electricity will cost about 0.30-0.35 crowns a Kilowatt hour to generate, three times that of typical hydro-generated electricity in Norway. And maintenance -- with divers having to go down to the seabed -- could be tricky. Other subsea experiments to generate power from tidal currents from Australia to Britain have not got to the stage of feeding power into the grid. Norwegian oil group Statoil, Swiss-Swedish engineering group ABB and local Norwegian utilities are partners in the Hammerfest Stroem scheme. "We want to get experience from this and see that we can also be a producer of green electricity," said Hanne Lekva at Statoil. ($1=7.223 Norwegian Crown)

3G Mobile Signals Can Cause Nausea, Headache -Study
Tue Sep 30, 4:03 PM ET 
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AMSTERDAM  - Radio signals for the next generation of mobile phone services can cause headaches and nausea, according to a study conducted by three Dutch ministries. 

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The study, the first of its kind, compared the impact of radiation from base stations used for the current mobile telephone network with that of base stations for new third generation (3G) networks for fast data transfer, which will enable services such as video conferencing on a mobile device. 

A base station, which usually covers a "cell" area of several square kilometers (miles), transmits signals to mobile phones with an electromagnetic field. 

"If the test group was exposed to third generation base station signals there was a significant impact ... They felt tingling sensations, got headaches and felt nauseous," a spokeswoman for the Dutch Economics Ministry said. 

There was no negative impact from signals for current mobile networks. 

However, cognitive functions such as memory and response times were boosted by both 3G signals and the current signals, the study found. It said people became more alert when they were exposed to both. 

Government ministers responsible for Economic Affairs, Health and Telecommunications said follow-up research was needed to confirm the findings as well as to look at any longer-term health effects and biological causes. 

They will also discuss the study with the European Commission (news - web sites), the spokeswoman said. 

The double-blind laboratory tests -- meaning no one in the survey knew if a 3G-like base station was actually transmitting signals -- exposed test subjects to expected levels of average radiation for 3G networks when they become commercial. 

The GSM Association, a global organization of mobile telecommunications operators, said it was studying the report and could not comment. 

The study, conducted by the Dutch technological research institute TNO, was the first to look for an impact of mobile telephones on well-being. It was also the first study to find a statistically significant negative impact from 3G base stations. 

Previous research on a negative health impact of mobile phones, mostly second-generation, has been inconclusive. 

Existing research gives no scientific evidence that second-generation phones cause brain tumors, while a long-term study by the International Agency on Research on Cancer is not expected to yield results before 2004. 

Previous research did find an impact on cognitive functions, which was also found in the Dutch survey. But TNO noted that earlier studies always measured the impact of cellphones held close to the head, causing high fields of radiation close to the ear and warming of the brain. 

TNO's study used lower a dose of radiation to mimic base station signals rather than handsets. 

Handsets emit stronger radiation when they are used, while base stations transmit more constant levels of radio signals, exposing everyone within range.

Molecule Found in Meat, Milk and Tumors - Study Mon Sep 29, 5:22 PM ET  

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON  - A non-human molecule found in red meat and milk makes its way into the human system when eaten -- and seems to build up especially in tumors, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. The compound, called sialic acid, is found on the surfaces of animal cells but is not found in people, and may be one reason why animal-to-human organ and tissue transplants do not work well. Animals have a version called Neu5Gc, while humans carry Neu5Ac. But researchers at the University of California San Diego found it does show up in the human body, and showed it can be absorbed from eating red meat and milk. They also showed that the body produces an immune response against the molecule. Dr. Ajit Varki and colleagues, reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites), say it is too soon to make any recommendations based on their findings. "Of course, there are already existing recommendations that people should not consume too much food containing saturated fats, such as dairy products and red meats," Varki said in a statement. "The highest amount (of Neu5Gc) was found in lamb, pork, and beef (so-called 'red meat')," the researchers wrote. Levels were very low or undetectable in poultry and fish, vegetables and hen's eggs. Varki, who is not a vegetarian, noted that many studies have linked a diet rich in meat and milk with cancer, heart disease and other diseases. AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE "The small amounts of Neu5Gc in normal tissues also raise the possibility that anti-Neu5Gc antibodies are involved in autoimmunity," the researchers said. Autoimmune disease occur when the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue and include type-1 or juvenile diabetes and some types of arthritis. "In this regard, it is interesting that vegetarian diet has been suggested to improve rheumatoid arthritis," they wrote. But much research has focused on the fat content of animal fat or byproducts of cooking meat as the cause of disease. Varki's collaborator Dr. Elaine Muchmore developed an antibody -- an immune system targeting protein -- that would hook onto Neu5Gc. The team found Neu5Gc in human tumor samples and to a much lower degree in healthy tissue. More tests showed that most people had made their own antibodies that recognized Neu5Gc, and thus could potentially initiate an inflammatory immune response. Varki and two colleagues drank Neu5Gc purified from pork sources, and the molecule showed up in their urine, blood, hair and saliva. "We need to find out if there is any association between the presence of Neu5Gc and/or the anti-Neu5Gc antibodies with any disease," Varki said. "This will require large-scale population studies." In some cases the human immune response was similar to that seen when people are exposed to another animal molecule, this one a cell surface molecule called alpha galactose. Varki noted that the molecule is almost certainly not immediately toxic to people. "Meat eating has certainly been a feature of human ancestors for many hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Thus, it is indeed possible that humans have developed some kind of tolerance or indifference to Neu5Gc. However, most humans are continuing to make antibodies against Neu5Gc." It could be that the damage only builds up over years -- and that as people live longer, the consequences make themselves felt. "However, we are now living longer and the question arises whether the gradual accumulation of Neu5Gc and the simultaneous presence of antibodies against could be involved in some diseases of later life," he said.

Diving-suit marathon man makes for Loch Ness monster's lair
Mon Sep 29, 7:49 AM ET

EDINBURGH (NEWS SOURCE) - A former leucemia victim who hit headlines by taking part in several above-ground marathon races clad in a heavy diving suit has taken his charity quest to the bottom of Loch Ness, with hopes for an encounter with the lake's most famous denizen. 

 

"If I do meet Nessie, I'm not sure who will be more scared, the monster or myself," said 41-year-old Lloyd Scott on Sunday before sliding into the dark waters of the Scottish loch at the start of a charity event which will see him walk all the way around its edges underwater. 

Scott, who in recent years has taken part in the marathons of London, New York and Edinburgh clad in his 80-kilogram (175-pound) deep-water diving suit -- exploits which set new standards for the longest times ever recorded in those races -- is embarking on his latest endurance feat to coincide with a marathon around Loch Ness. 

Aiming to raise money for a charity that helps children suffering from leucemia -- a deadly form of cancer of which he himself was cured -- he is to make a series of dives each day during which he will trudge along the lake bottom, fed by air from helpers in a boat above. He hopes to cover some five kilometres (three miles) per day. 

More than the darkness of the lake waters and the hard work of walking in his heavy gear, it was the possibility of encountering the legendary monster which was uppermost in Scott's mind on Sunday. 

He even refused to rule out a collision with the giant beast, which has sustained a lively tourist industry around Loch Ness for years, even though no scientific proof of its actual existence has even been found. 

"I've been told the big copper helmet could give quite a big headbutt to the monster, so it will be quite nice to make his acquaintance," he said, referring to the heavy headpiece of his diving suit.

condolences to the family, friends and many colleagues of Graham Birdsall. The UFO community has lost a tireless researcher, who for the last 24 years has been at the forefront of bringing us the latest news, information and events in the UFO field.

Graham dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth and understanding of the UFO phenomenon through the publication - UFO Magazine, which he was editor of. Graham felt the pen was mightier than the sword to thwart the extreme secrecy and deceit in the covert world of black opts. He also helped produce the Leeds Conference for people around the world to participate one on one in furthering the knowledge of this enigma. He was one of a handful of men truly interested in the hardcore reporting of information in this arena and kept tabs on more credible sources like Boeing, Jane's Defense Weekly and Lockheed's Skunk Works in order to put forth the most reliable information he could.

Although Graham will be sorely missed, he made the information in the UFO field more exciting to the younger community who will not doubt, thanks to his enthusiasm, take up the mantle and carry on with the spirit of determination and honesty Graham brought to his work and his many friendships.

To Graham: We raise our glass of Guiness high for thee.

Victoria Jack, Executive Producer, and all the family at the Bay Area UFO Expo.

Personal note from Robert Mitchell website manager. I'd like to post a note I received regarding Graham that I believe sums up the feelings of most of us who had the good fortune of knowing him personally over the years. 

"My fondest memories of Graham were of each time he invited me to speak in the UK, I was treated like family. My deepest sympathy to Georgina, his children, his brother Mark, and all of his immediate family. I have not only lost a respected colleague but also a dear friend. I would hope that the magazine continues to serve as his legacy and allow his spirit to live on in our work. And Graham, say hello to Allen Hynek for me. Thank you."
Don Schmitt 

Top 10: Signs She's Flirting With You By Oliver Jameson - www.AskMen.com Flirting is almost an art form. It takes much practice to execute the subtle signals of interest with perfect timing. Thankfully, there is no shortage of flirting tips for men out there. However, flirting is only half the battle. To truly make your rapport with a woman successful, you need to recognize when she's flirting with you. Women are masters of subtlety, so it's your job to remain especially aware of every gesture, every word, and every move she throws your way. Always remember that attentiveness is key. a word to the wise Although the signs that a woman is interested in you can boil down to these 10 points, you need to know that any single point can be deceptive. The lady you're chatting up may be an attention-seeking serial flirter with no intentions of ever going on a date with you. Or she might simply be very nice and friendly with everyone, not just you. If you see her often (at work, for example), a good way to tell is by paying attention to how she reacts to others. If it's the same way she behaves with you, then don't get your hopes up. The following flirting signs are good for all settings, whether in a coffee shop, restaurant, nightclub, or at work. So sharpen your senses and read on.

Top 10: Signs She's Flirting With You By Oliver Jameson - www.AskMen.com Number 10

She keeps glancing over Are her eyes aimed at you every time you look her way? And does she avert her gaze whenever you catch her staring? Then you might have a live here. If she doesn't prolong the eye contact, then she's probably shy and needs a little coaxing from you. Go up to her, introduce yourself, and get her talking. You know you're doing well when... Number 9

She smiles at you The smile is the ultimate sign of openness and friendliness, provided it is genuine. Many people force a smile when trying to be polite, but they tend to be fairly obvious about it. If she shows her teeth and has that sparkle in her eye, then you can deduce that she's enjoying your company. Your only job is to keep her smiling by smiling back. Number 8

She goes out of her way to get you to notice her If, on her way from point A to point B, she takes an unnecessary detour through point C (you), she might be trying to get your attention. For instance, if she walks by your table "on her way" to the washroom in a coffee shop, but your table is located at the opposite end of the restrooms, she is probably interested. Why else would she be taking the long way? If she smiles at you on her way, consider your job half done.

Number 7

She plays with her hair Women's hair is a source of power and confidence to them -- why else would they get so devastated after a bad haircut? They tap into its power at key moments, subconsciously unleashing its seductive potential. If you see her twirling her finger through it or throwing it around, like in a shampoo commercial, then you have a potential flirt in your midst. This goes for body language in general. Some women like exposing their necks, prepping their clothes, or placing their arms in front of them in a way that their biceps push their breasts together, augmenting their cleavage. Some magazines tell women to let their shoes dangle at their toes, displaying the curvature of their feet, which men, apparently, associate with their other curves. However, if she's crossing her arms, it means she's distancing herself. Be alert. Number 6

She initiates the conversation Taking the first step to initiate a connection with you is a huge sign that she's interested. If she tells you something like "You remind me of someone I know," which begs a response and subsequent conversation, that's a concrete sign. During the conversation, she may further convey her interest by asking you open-ended questions -- watch out fellas, they're starting to use our own weapons against us! She might also whisper "secrets" to you, bringing your faces close together, perhaps letting you get a good whiff of her perfume. Is she repeating your name back to you?

Number 5

She laughs at your jokes When you relate a funny story, does she throw her head back in riotous laughter or does she just look at you and say, "Is that supposed to be funny?" A big part of flirting involves reactions to the partner, so if she acts captivated by your words, you're in the green. Other reactions that convey approval include asking "really?", "wow" and opening her mouth in amused disbelief. Number 4

She asks if you like certain activities Does she ask you about your hobbies? Is she being more specific, and asking you if you like a particular pastime? Although she is not actually asking you for a date, it's an implied way of doing it. She could be leading up to asking you out or paving the ground for you to pop the question instead. If the activity in question is dancing, movies or dinner, then it is almost certain. 

Number 3

She pays you a compliment Women are sparse with compliments, so if she throws one your way, you can pat yourself on the back. This is especially good if it has to do with your physique, as this implies that she is attracted to you. Another way she may demonstrate her interest is by repeating your name, letting you know that you are memorable and establishing a closer, more intimate connection with her. Number 2

She makes sexual comments Some women like to put themselves in the mood by talking about things that turn them on. It brings out their frisky side. So if she steers the conversation to sexy topics, she could be trying to pull you into a flirting crescendo that might lead to a veritable verbal foreplay. Most times they will keep it understated and tasteful, so you should do the same. A crass slip-up is a sure-fire way to ruin the rapport.

Number 1

She touches you When a woman breaks the contact barrier during a conversation, it is almost a sure sign that she's interested. It can be as obvious as touching your arm or knee while making a point, or as faint as having her knees come into contact with yours under the table. But you must make sure that she makes the first skin convergence. A less direct way is if she mirrors your body language, which is something women do subconsciously. When you lean in, she leans in. When you rest your elbows on the table, she does the same. Duplicating your actions is her way of showing you that she's "in-synch" with you. flirt freely Since some of the above signals could just be gestures of friendliness on a woman's part, you should count a minimum of four before you conclude that she is, indeed, flirting with you. If she commits five or more, your evening is set. So now you know the theory, but recognizing her signals on the spot takes time, especially when they're too subtle to be detected by the untrained eye. And though you should constantly be alert, don't get yourself into a state of tense vigilance, where you're looking for nothing else but the aforementioned signs. Keep cool, relax and enjoy yourself. In time, women's flirtation techniques will become as clear as traffic signals.

Toxic Flame Retardant Found in Breast Milk
2 hours, 16 minutes ago

WASHINGTON  - Several American mothers nursing their infants had high levels of potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals in their breastmilk, a U.S. environmental group said on Tuesday. 

Related Links
� Report: Mothers' Milk (Environmental Working Group)

While the study by the Environmental Working Group was small and did not show any health effects in the babies, the group said it showed just how widespread the chemicals are. 

The chemicals are bromine-based fire retardants and are used in a wide range of products including furniture, computers, television sets, automobiles, copy machines and hair dryers to make them less likely to catch fire. They can build up in the body over years. 

"Brominated fire retardants impair attention, learning, memory, and behavior in laboratory animals at surprisingly low levels," the EWG report reads. 

"The most sensitive time for toxic effects is during periods of rapid brain development." 

The EWG, a non-profit group that has publicized the presence of many different chemicals in products and the environment, tested the breast milk of 20 first-time mothers across the country, including Washington, D.C., Evergreen, Colorado, and Los Angeles. 

"The average level of bromine-based fire retardants in the milk of 20 first-time mothers was 75 times the average found in recent European studies," the report reads. 

"Milk from two study participants contained the highest levels of fire retardants ever reported in the United States, and milk from several of the mothers in EWG's study had among the highest levels of these chemicals yet detected worldwide. 

"These results confirm recently published findings from University of Texas researchers, as well as other U.S. studies, that American babies are exposed to far higher amounts of fire retardants than babies in Europe, where some of these chemicals have already been banned," the EWG said. 

"In the United States, only California and Maine have acted to restrict the use of these chemicals." 

The group stressed that women should not stop breastfeeding. No study links intake of the chemicals from breastmilk with any problems in children. 

Any health effects probably take place while the children are still in the womb, the group said. 

Albemarle Corp. of Richmond, Virginia, one of the companies that makes the flame-retardant chemicals, said it was working to find out if the chemicals are dangerous. 

"As an industry group and as a company we are working with just about any and every scientific group that is doing long-term studies on the safety of these products," spokesman Michael Whitlow said.

African Reburial Rite Planned in NYC 
Mon Sep 22,11:43 PM ET 
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By RICHARD PYLE, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - With ceremonial honors that they could not have imagined in life, more than 400 slaves and free blacks will be reinterred next month in the Manhattan graveyard where their bones previously lay unknown for 200 years or more. 

Related Links
� African Burial Ground (official site)

The skeletal remains have spent the past nine years in Washington, D.C., at Howard University, whose laboratory studies have led to a massive dossier of information on slavery in colonial New York. 

The remains will be returned to New York on Oct. 4 for the reburial at the African Burial Ground, an 18th-century cemetery rediscovered in 1991 during excavation for a new federal office building and later set aside as a national historic site. 

Four symbolic coffins, hand-carved of wood in Ghana and containing the bones of two adults and two children, will leave Washington Sept. 30 and travel via Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., with each city holding a commemoration. 

From New Jersey the four coffins will be delivered by boat to the site of a former Wall Street pier where slave ships docked, then taken in a procession with 415 others up Broadway's traditional Canyon of Heroes parade route to the reburial. 

"May these bones be a symbol to how insensitive humankind can be," Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., said at the news conference outlining the plan. 

Historians have estimated up to 20,000 people may have been buried in a six-acre area of lower Manhattan, of which the African Burial Ground is only one part. 

Michael Blakey, a Howard University archaeologist, said he and his team of 200 experts uncovered large amounts of new data about slaves in 17th- and 18th-century New York, including places of origin in Africa, work they performed and health and mortality details. 

Among the findings, Blakey said, were that black slaves had about one-eighth the chance of living to age 55 as did whites, and that fertility rates among them were so low the population could grow only with further imports from Africa. 

"Slavery in New York was not benign," Blakey said.

Bawdy Phallic Plate Heads for Oxford 
Sep 18, 8:58 am ET 
LONDON  - A leading British museum has paid $387,000 for a Renaissance plate which shows a male head made up entirely of phalluses.

The Italian plate is thought to have been made by ceramicist Francesco Urbini in the 16th century.

It shows a head made up of around 50 fleshy penises, wrapped round each other to form a dense, knotted whole.

The head is framed by a garland carrying the inscription: "Ogni homo me guarda come fosse una testa de cazi" (Every man looks at me as if I were a dickhead).

The phrase is still a common term of abuse in Italy and elsewhere.

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, which has bought the plate, describes it as "one of the most extraordinary and fascinating pieces of Italian maiolica (a style of ceramic painting) in existence."

It is a rare example of bawdy Renaissance art which survived the suppression of later, more prudish, generations, it said.

The Ashmolean said the inspiration for the plate remains obscure but it was painted "presumably with an individual in mind."

Black Leaders Outraged at Board Game 
Wed Oct 8, 9:02 PM ET 
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By BILL BERGSTROM, News Source Writer 

PHILADELPHIA - Cheap Trick Avenue instead of Boardwalk? Hernando's Chop Shop instead of Reading Railroad? 

Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50." 

Black clergymen say the game, the brainchild of a Pennsylvania man, should be banned, and have called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters unless the company stops selling Ghettopoly in its chain of clothing stores. 

Urban Outfitters has not publicly commented on the issue, and did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday. 

"If we are silent on this issue there is more of this type to come," the Rev. Robert P. Shine Sr., president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity, said at a sidewalk rally Wednesday in front Urban Outfitters' corporate headquarters in Philadelphia. 

Shine displayed the game board, with properties including Westside Liquor, Harlem, The Bronx, and Long Beach City, and squares labeled Smitty's XXX Peep Show, Weinstein's Gold and Platinum, and Tyron's Gun Shop. 

Players draw "Hustle" and "Ghetto Stash" cards with directions like, "You're a little short on loot, so you decided to stick up a bank. Collect $75," and "Steal $$$ if you pass Let$ Roll." 

The creator of Ghettopoly, David Chang, did not immediately answer e-mails or phone calls seeking comment about the game. 

On his Web site, Chang is unapologetic, and promises that more games - Hoodopoly, Hiphopopoly, Thugopoly and Redneckopoly - are coming soon. 

"It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter," Chang maintains, adding, "If we can't laugh at ourselves ... we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness." 

But the Ghettopoly board depicts figures labeled "Malcum X" and "Martin Luthor King Jr." - intentionally misspelled - noted Rev. Glenn Wilson, pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. 

"This is beyond making fun, to use the caricature of Dr. King in this regard," Wilson said. "There's no way that game could be taken in any way other than that this man had racist intent in marketing it." 

The Philadelphia black clergy and Men United for a Better Philadelphia were just the latest to protest the game. In Chicago, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters. In Florida, the St. Petersburg and Hillsborough County chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (news - web sites) urged the company to stop carrying the game. 

"I was outraged. We called Outfitters, we wrote them a letter, we held a press conference, but we've had no response," Pfleger said Wednesday. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Ghettopoly: http://www.ghettopoly.com

Why Does the Cookie Crumble?

Oct 2, 9:43 am ET 

LONDON  - British scientists say they may have worked out why the cookie crumbles.

Every year, biscuit-makers throw away thousands of biscuits because they emerge from the oven cracked or broken. Thousands more reach the supermarket shelves but then crumble in the hands of their would-be eaters.

It is widely assumed that biscuits crumble because they are roughly handled before they reach the consumer.

But researchers at Loughborough University in central England say the problem may be due to cooking techniques and humidity.

"When you take (a biscuit) out of the oven it likes to absorb moisture from the atmosphere," Loughborough University's Ricky Wildman told BBC Radio Thursday.

"If the humidity of the atmosphere is set incorrectly, some parts of the biscuit are trying to dry out while some parts of the biscuit are trying to suck moisture in.

"Certain parts are contracting, others are expanding. This sets up internal forces within the biscuit and it effectively self-destructs."

He described the process as like "an earthquake running through the biscuit."

"It's very exciting," he added.

Wildman's research team says biscuit-makers should monitor the humidity in their factories more closely and bake their biscuits for longer at lower temperatures.

He said the research has serious implications for an industry worth $2.5 billion a year in Britain. "The economic costs to manufacturing are quite considerable," he said.

Am I on Fire or Is It Just TV?

Oct 3, 7:38 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German TV network's regular early morning film of a burning log is playing havoc with night owls and even tricked a woman into calling out the fire brigade.

A spokesman for police in the northern town of Luebeck said on Thursday that the woman woke up thinking her television was on fire, called emergency services and alerted her neighbors.

"Fire services rushed in and extinguished the 'blaze' using the television remote control," the spokesman said.

Sabine Kreft of the Super RTL network said the "burning log" video which runs from three until six in the morning is popular, promotes congeniality, but is distinguishable from a real fire.

"Once I heard an old lady poured water on her TV. But most people should really be able to tell the difference."

Delivering Letters to God

Oct 2, 9:45 am ET 

By Megan Goldin

JERUSALEM  - Thinking of writing a letter to God?

The address, according to those who regularly write to the Almighty, is "God, Jerusalem, Israel." Alternatively you could try: "God, the Wailing Wall," a reference to the Jewish holy site known as the Western Wall.

Either address will ensure your letter ends up in the sorting room of the Israeli post office's Dead Letters Department where it will be collected, placed in a velvet bag and posted to God through the cracks of the Western Wall.

Hundreds of people every year jot down their prayers, wishes or problems and mail their notes to the Holy City where the creed of the Dead Letter Department's postmen is to ensure that every piece of mail reaches its destination -- rain or shine.

"We are going through a peak period at the moment," said harried Dead Letters Department manager, Avi Yaniv.

The usual trickle of letters to God has become a torrent before Yom Kippur, the holiday where Jews atone for their sins. "Dear God...Once a long time ago I stole ashtrays from hotels and glasses with advertising logos. At the time I didn't think much about it," wrote one woman. "Now I would like to ask for your forgiveness." Letters to Jesus and a greeting card celebrating the Jewish New Year addressed to "The Angels in Heaven" are also delivered to the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites, where Jews traditionally insert notes with prayers and wishes. "We squeeze the letters in between the gaps," said Yaniv. "DEAR GOD, HELP ME BECOME A DOZER DRIVER" The deliveries to the Western Wall have been going on for years since the Dead Letters postmen decided that since there was no way to return the letters to the unknown senders, they might as well be delivered to the recipient -- God.

The latest letters collected in a plush bag, normally used to store Jewish prayer shawls, come from as far as Australia, India, Ghana, France, Nigeria and the United States.

"Some people go to a shrink or a Rabbi and others write it down, put it in an envelope, slap on a stamp and write 'To God, Jerusalem, Israel'," said Yitzhak Rabihiya, spokesman for the Israeli postal department.

Some of the writers ask God for help sticking to a diet, beg for assistance holding a troubled marriage together, or fighting off the ravages of cancer.

Others are just plain avaricious.

"Dear God, Please grant me the millionaires life," wrote one person.

Darryl from Tennessee had a slightly more humble request. "I will be happy if you employ me as one of your (bull)dozer operators in your company," he wrote in his missive, in which he also requested "a nice job and a good wife." The Dead Letters Department workers were once so moved by a letter in which the author listed a litany of personal problems that they collected $1,000 of the $1,200 he requested from God in his letter and sent it to him.

"Two months later they received another letter from the same man written to God," said Rabihiya.

"They thought he was probably sending his thanks. But at the end of the letter he wrote: 'Thank you for the money but please next time don't send it through the postal service. Those thieves stole 700 shekels!"

Men Get Own Kindergarten While Women Shop

Oct 7, 10:39 am ET 

BERLIN  - German women fed up with their partners' grumbling on weekend shopping trips can now dump them at a special kindergarten for men offering beer and entertainment.

"The women are issued a receipt for their partners when they hand them in and can pick them up again when they return it to us later," Alexander Stein, manager of the 'Nox Bar' in the northern city of Hamburg told The News Source on Tuesday.

The men are given a name badge on arrival and for 10 euros ($11.80) they get two beers, a hot meal, televised football and games.

Stein said the idea for the Saturday afternoon men's creche, or "Maennergarten," came from a female customer who thought it would be a good way of getting shot of her husband so she could shop in peace.

"She found it all too stressful and thought this might be the solution. Both were very happy with the way it turned out.

"Last week the men had a remote control car to play with. Next week there's going to be a mini racetrack," said Stein.

They are also offering a drilling workshop.

"It beats sitting around in shoe shops, that's for sure," one man told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Catering to the Obese Becoming Big Business

Oct 7, 10:35 am ET 

By Jui Chakravorty

NEW YORK  - American fast-food chains may be introducing more healthful menu items such as salads and major food manufacturers may be trimming portion sizes, but not everyone has joined the fight against obesity.

An increasing number of entrepreneurs have discovered there's big money to be made out of catering to Americans' bulging waistlines -- without seeking to trim them down.

It's big business.

Freedom Paradise, a 112-room resort south of Cancun, Mexico, bills itself as the world's first resort designed for obese people. Its amenities include large armless chairs, wide steps with railings in swimming pools, walk-in showers instead of bathtubs, stronger hammocks and a staff steeped in sensitivity training.

Nearly one third of American adults are obese (a Body Mass Index of 30 or more), according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2000, more than 300 million adults in the world were obese and one billion were overweight, according to the World Health Organization.

"We are no longer a niche market. Overweight people are the majority in this country," 324-lb (147-kg) Mindy Sommers said, referring to the 64 percent of Americans who are overweight. "Businesses that don't cater to us are stupid. There are a lot of us, and we have a lot of money to spend."

An expanding obese population is providing lots of demand for businesses that supply things that are plus-size -- from larger towels to larger beds, larger clothes to larger jewelry, larger furniture to larger coffins.

Amplestuff.com, an online retailer, sells nearly everything to the obese market, including seat belt extenders, larger umbrellas, larger clothing hangers, larger towels and weighing scales that can accommodate up to 1,000 lbs (454 kg).

Kelly Bliss, who calls herself "the nation's leader in fitness for very large people," sells video tapes that feature workouts for the obese. All her tapes are geared toward larger people, with one that features a 500-lb (227 kg) woman doing workouts while sitting.

KAYAKS, COUCHES

Bliss is also the creator of Plussizeyellowpages.com, a resource that lists a range of services for the larger population, from home furnishings to plus-size kayaks.

Businesses providing products for the larger population comprise a multibillion-dollar industry, said Gary Epstein, chief executive of Euro RSCG Tatham, a global communications group, which recently released a study on obesity.

Plus-size clothing alone brings in $17 billion a year.

Fatcities.com, a Web-based company that sells a wide variety of items designed for the plus-size population, advertises a $999 couch designed to accommodate 550-lb (250 kg) users. It has wider and deeper dimensions than a regular couch, eight legs to support and balance the weight, and a firm foam seat to prevent sagging.

"A woman wrote to us and said that her 350-pound son sat on her patio furniture and it broke," said Graziella Ferrante, who owns Fatcities.com. She then contacted a furniture company and partnered with them to sell the innovative pieces.

"It was the first of its kind," said Ferrante.

The obese population has increased worldwide by 100 million between 1995 and 2000, according to the World Health Organization.

Batesville Casket Co., owned by Hillenbrand Industries, has seen nearly a 20 percent growth in sales of oversized coffins in the past five years, said Jo Weigel, director of communications for the company.

An oversized casket can cost double the amount of a regular casket at funeral homes, according to Dean Magliocca, owner of FuneralDepot.com, the largest online casket provider.

"What we need is a solution to the obesity, but what we have is people feeding the problem to make money off the obese people," said Epstein of Euro RSCG Tatham. "Sadly, this is to be expected in a capitalistic economy."

"I don't look at it that way," said Ferrante of Fatcities.com. "The fact of the matter is that we're big, and we need the same things that thin people do."

Bliss, Sommers and Ferrante are going together to visit Freedom Paradise, the size-friendly Mexican resort, this month.

"I've tried to fight my self-consciousness and go to a beach for many years," said Sommers. "Now I can just go and have a good time."

Scientist Cuts the Perfect Cheese Sandwich

Oct 7, 10:13 am ET 

LONDON  - A British scientist has calculated the optimum thickness for a slice of cheese to make the perfect cheese sandwich, according to a study published on Monday.

In a bite-sized sandwich using pre-sliced white bread lightly buttered with margarine, a slice of cheddar needs to be at least 2.8 mm thick, the study found.

Dr Len Fisher from Bristol University was commissioned by the British Cheese Board to work out how to maximize the "cheesy" aroma in a sandwich.

"After a certain thickness, no increased amount of cheese will increase the 'cheesy aroma' impact of the sandwich," said Fisher.

Tests done on the contribution of tomato and pickle found that tomatoes boosted the cheesiness flavor whereas pickles did not.

Over-Spending at Restaurant: a Classical Problem?

Oct 6, 10:13 am ET 

LONDON  - If the next time you are in a restaurant you suddenly feel an inexplicable urge to shell out for a beguiling Bordeaux, it may just be the Beethoven talking.

A British scientific study shows that a bit of classical music can persuade diners to buy more fancy coffees, pricey wines and luxurious desserts.

Researchers at Britain's universities of Leicester and Surrey persuaded a restaurant to alternate silence, pop music and classical on successive nights over 18 days, Sunday's Observer newspaper reported.

On nights when the classics were playing -- a tape of Beethoven, Mahler and Vivaldi -- patrons spent more on dinner, especially on "luxuries" such as coffee, dessert, fine wines and starters.

Psychologist Adrian North, who led the research, said classical music makes people feel more cultured and sophisticated, and therefore more likely to shell out for the sort of items they associate with the high life.

In other research, North has shown that playing German or French music can persuade diners to buy wine from those countries, the paper said.

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Skydiver Hits Bridge in Colorado, Dies 
Mon Oct 6, 1:03 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

CANON CITY, Colo. - A skydiver attempting a stunt was killed Sunday when he hit a 1,000-foot-high bridge and fell onto the rocks below, police said. 

Dwain Weston, 30, died following the inaugural Go Fast Games, in which he and other parachutists had jumped off the 1,053-foot-high Royal Gorge Bridge, said Heather Hill, a vice president of event sponsor Go Fast Sports & Beverage Co. 

Weston, of Australia, had jumped from an airplane with another parachutist. They were supposed to free fall until they reached the bridge, at which point Weston was to go above the bridge and the other athlete would go under it. 

Weston, who was traveling an estimated 100 mph, miscalculated his distance from the bridge, the world's highest suspension bridge. He struck a railing and fell onto a rock face roughly 300 feet from the bottom of the gorge. 

"I really couldn't believe it. All I ever heard was he was the best in the world, and he had skill to do it," Hill said. "Of course he always understood the risk and consequences of what he did. He was somewhat of a showman in his sport." 

Weston was wearing a "wing suit," which has fabric extending below the arms to the body, with more fabric between the legs, allowing a skydiver to catch the air and travel more horizontally. 

There were about 200 people on the bridge at the time of the accident, said Royal Gorge Bridge and Park executive director Mike Bandera. The bridge was shut down for about 15 to 20 minutes. 

Before the accident, Weston had participated in the Go Fast Games, jumping off the bridge with about 40 other BASE jumpers - athletes who skydive from fixed objects. 

The Royal Gorge is narrow for maneuvering parachutes, and winds are tricky, according to Go Fast Parachuting Director Jimmy Pouchert. 

Hill said the accident would not affect future Go Fast Games, which also include rock climbing and BMX jumping.

Study Says Kids' Diets May Promote Weight Gain Mon Oct 6, 9:33 AM ET Add U.S. National 

CHICAGO  - Children who diet may actually gain weight in the long run, perhaps because of metabolic changes but more likely because they resort to binge eating, doctors reported on Monday. "Although medically supervised weight control may be beneficial for overweight youths, our data suggest that for many adolescents, dieting to control weight is not only ineffective, it may actually promote weight gain," said the report from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The study was based on a look at more than 16,000 U.S. boys and girls age 9 to 14 from 1996 to 1998. It was published in the October issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The report found that about 30 percent of the girls and 16 percent of the boys were dieting to one degree or another when the study began. On the basis of questionnaires sent to the children, the researchers found that although children who said they were dieters reported being more active and getting fewer calories than their peers, they gained more weight than non-dieters. One girl in the study who was a frequent dieter gained about 2 pounds (1 kg) per year more than other girls her age who were not dieting, the report said. In general, girls who dieted less often gained slightly less weight, but still more than non-dieters, it added. Similar differences were observed among the boys. The dieters could have gained more weight because their metabolism became more efficient, requiring fewer calories to maintain weight or become overweight. A more likely reason, the report said, was that restrictive diets are often not maintained for long periods and are often followed by binge eating. "In that scenario it would be the repeated cycles of overeating between the restrictive diets that would be responsible for weight gain," the study said. The researchers suggested that young people and adults who are not severely overweight should be encouraged to adopt "a modest and therefore sustainable weight control strategy that includes physical activity and does not require severe restriction of total calories." The number of overweight U.S. children is growing. In July the National Center for Health Statistics said 15 percent of children ages 6 to 18 were overweight in 2000, up from 6 percent in 1980. Some 22 percent of black children and 25 percent of Mexican-American children were overweight in 2000, the center said. 

Ocean Changes: Subtle but Serious 02-Oct-2003 Due to increased carbon dioxide emissions, the world's oceans are becoming more acidic, affecting marine life. And whaling is reducing the number of giant whales that were once eaten by killer whales, leading step by step to a huge increase in the number of sea urchins. These sea urchins are munching their way through the kelp forests of the ocean, destroying the food that supports the fish that provide one of the world's main food supplies. Richard Black writes in BBC News Online that most of the CO2 that goes into the air is eventually absorbed by the oceans, where it forms carbonic acid. Researcher Ken Caldeira says, "This level of acidity will get much more extreme in the future if we continue releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. And we predicted amounts of future acidity that exceed anything we saw over the last several hundred million years, apart from perhaps after rare catastrophic events such as asteroid impacts. "Previously, most experts had looked at ocean absorption of carbon dioxide as a good thing-because in releasing CO2 into the atmosphere we warm the planet; and when CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, it reduces the amount of greenhouse warming. Now, we're understanding that ocean uptake of CO2 may at best be a mixed blessing." Ivan Noble writes in BBC News Online that hungry killer whales are being deprived of their traditional food by commercial whaling that kills the giant whales they usually eat, so they've been eating seals, sea lions and otters instead. The reduction in the numbers of sea otters, especially, has allowed the population of sea urchins to explode. The sea urchins eat kelp, which is one of the traditional foods of the fish we eat. Researcher Alan Springer says, "The message is that overfishing...can lead to food web impacts that are unexpected and unintended."

Kokomo Hum Identified 28-Sep-2003 The source of the highly annoying Kokomo, Indiana hum, that has been making some people sick since 1999, has now been identified. An acoustics consulting firm says two industrial fans are sources of a mysterious sound. Jim Cowan of Acentech, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was hired by the town to make a 10-month study of the hum. He finally traced it to low-frequency and infrasonic tones coming from local industries, and narrowed it down to a cooling tower fan on the roof of Kokomo's DaimlerChrysler Casting Plant and an air compressor fan at Haynes International. Both companies have agreed to silence their fans. Haynes International has installed a muffler, and DaimlerChrysler is working on the problem. The hum did not exceed 60 decibels, and sound researchers say negative health effects from low-frequency sounds start at 90 decibels. But residents who reported sleeplessness, chronic fatigue, headaches and nausea blamed it on the hum. Cowan says, "None of these people are crazy. Nothing is being made up."

Sagittarius, Your Days are Numbered 30-Sep-2003 The Milky Way is gobbling up the stars in the grouping we call Sagittarius. We see the stars the way they looked millions of years ago, but sometime in the future, Sagittarians will no longer have a star symbol to call their own. David Whitehouse writes in BBC News Online that astronomers have learned that our Milky Way is devouring the nearby Sagittarius galaxy, which is 10,000 times smaller in than our own. "It's clear who's the bully in the interaction," says astronomer Steven Majewski "If people had infrared-sensitive eyes, the entrails of Sagittarius would be a prominent fixture sweeping across our sky." This cosmic violence is hard to see because stars, gas and dust get in the way. To get a better view, astronomers used computers to digitally remove millions of stars that obscured the action. "We sifted several thousand interesting stars from a catalogue of half a billion," says astronomer Michael Skrutskie. "By tuning our maps of the sky to the right kind of star, the Sagittarius system jumped into view." Astronomer Martin Weinberg says, "After slow, continuous gnawing by the Milky Way, Sagittarius has been whittled down to the point that it cannot hold itself together much longer. We are seeing Sagittarius at the very end of its life as an intact system."

Fat Caused by Genes & Big Business 03-Oct-2003 Icelandic researchers have isolated a gene that determines whether we'll be fat or thin. And a cheap sweetener used in almost everything we eat may play a major role in the obesity epidemic in America. "Obesity and thinness are two sides of the same coin," says Kari Stefansson, of deCODE, who helped isolate the gene that determines what shapes our bodies will be. "This is an important step toward developing new drugs that can treat obesity, perhaps by utilizing the body's own mechanisms for promoting and maintaining thinness." If you've got the fat version of the gene (and most Americans do), you have to watch what you eat. But what can you do when manmade, fat-producing substances are hiding in almost every food we eat? High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is in almost every processed food, but it doesn't exist in nature. It's made from corn, which is extremely cheap to grow, and that's why it has replaced sugar in almost all the foods we buy. Hydrolyzed corn starch contains a high level of fructose (which occurs naturally in fruits and honey) that is 75% sweeter than the sucrose in sugar. U.S. food manufacturers began using HFCS in the early 1970s to save money. Thirty years later, much of the country is dangerously overweight, including our kids. USDA figures show a 250% increase in HFCS consumption in the past 15 years. Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone in our bodies that helps to metabolize our foods. People with diabetes don't produce enough insulin and tend to become obese. Fructose, unlike sucrose, does not release or stimulate insulin. It also stimulates production of the hormone leptin which has been linked to fat storage and it increases our trygliceride levels. Tryglicerides make our cells resistant to insulin, meaning we burn less fat and store more of it on our bodies. HFCS are found in almost all non-diet sodas and are also in fruit juices, candies, baked goods, yogurts, soups, ketchup, breakfast cereals, soups and pasta sauces, among other food items. Even if we drink diet sodas and eat mainly fresh foods, it's impossible to avoid HFCS completely. This generation grew up hearing American Heart Association messages telling them that butter is bad, but margarine is good for you. Now the government admits that margarine causes heart disease and leads to type 2 diabetes. The new word for margarine is "trans-fats," but it means the same thing. Again, a cheap food substitute manufactured by big business and put into almost everything we eat can be linked to the obesity epidemic.

Experts Debate How to Toss Out Medicines 
Mon Sep 8, 4:24 PM ET 


By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Medical Writer 

WASHINGTON - What's the best way to throw away leftover, expired medicines? Once the answer was "flush 'em," to ensure children and animals couldn't stumble on the drugs and be poisoned. 

Now scientists are increasingly warning not to flush drugs. Antibiotics, hormones and other medicines are being found in waterways - raising worrisome questions about potential health and environmental effects. 

"So what the heck do you do with it? This is not black and white," Georgetown University pharmacology chairman Kenneth Dretchen says with a sigh. 

No one knows just how many unused drugs Americans dump each year, or how many are hoarded because patients don't realize the drugs have expired or simply don't know what to do with them. It's a question that arises each fall as pharmacy groups launch annual "clean out your medicine cabinet" campaigns. 

A special program in Tucson a few years ago encouraged residents to turn in unused medicines and collected hundreds of pounds in a week, recalls Ted Tong, director of the Arizona Poison Information Center. 

Individual patients aside, one study estimated the nation's nursing homes discard anywhere from $73 million to $378 million worth of drugs a year. Some are incinerated, but many are flushed. 

And Australia has collected more than 760 tons of medicines since starting a program in 1998 that encourages consumers there to return unwanted drugs to pharmacies so they can be incinerated. 

Here, the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) is studying whether to develop formal recommendations for what to do with old drugs. 

"The age-old wisdom of flushing medication down the toilet ... is probably the least desirable of all the alternatives," Christian Daughton of the EPA's Las Vegas laboratory wrote in an overview of the issue, published in a scientific journal last spring. 

In fact, a new contraceptive, a vaginal ring, actually comes with do-not-flush instructions, because it still contains estrogen after it's been used. Women are instructed to wrap the NuvaRing in an accompanying foil patch and put it in a trash can out of reach of children and pets - the idea being that landfill disposal slows drug seepage. 

At issue are the "pharmaceutical and personal care pollutants" that defy traditional wastewater treatment. Long a concern abroad, they made headlines here when the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) found traces of dozens - painkillers, estrogen, antidepressants, blood-pressure medicines - in water samples from 30 states. 

Long-term effects aren't known, but scientists worry that exposure to even tiny amounts might cause some harm, at least ecologically. Studies have linked hormone exposure to reproductive side effects in fish, for example, and environmental exposure to antibiotics may encourage development of drug-resistant germs. 

Chemicals get into water in myriad ways. There's runoff from farms or factories; indeed, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) is pushing for a major decrease in farmers' antibiotic use. Topical chemicals like insect repellent are bathed off. Then there's excretion. 

But disposal is starting to get more attention. The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) is reevaluating its policy for which drugs need the environmental assessments that can spark disposal instructions. 

Separately, some states are working to allow nursing homes to donate leftover drugs to indigent patients, as long as they weren't opened and were guarded against tampering. 

For individual patients, officials offer some disposal advice: 

_Take all of a prescribed medicine so there aren't leftovers, unless there's a specific reason to quit, like a bad side effect. 

_Trash is better than sewer, with precautions in case children or animals get into it, Tong says. He advises breaking up capsules and crushing tablets, then putting the remains back in the original container with its child-resistant cap. Tape it up and double-bag before tossing. 

_Alternatively, check if local household hazardous-waste collection programs - where you're supposed to take motor oil and batteries - accept expired medicines. 

_The FDA suggests asking if pharmacies will take back expired drugs, as is common in Canada and Australia. Pharmacies have programs to incinerate or otherwise dispose of inventory they can't sell, but the industry couldn't say how many would accept consumers' leftovers, too. 

___ 

EDITOR'S NOTE - Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The News Source in Washington.

Sued for a song
Tue Sep 9, 7:08 AM ET 
Add Local - New York Daily News 

By SONI SANGHA and PHYLLIS FURMAN
DAILY NEWS WRITERS 

A shy Manhattan schoolgirl who gets a kick out of nursery songs and TV themes was among 261 people sued yesterday for downloading music from the Internet. 

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Brianna LaHara, a curly-haired 12-year-old honor student who started seventh grade yesterday at St. Gregory the Great Catholic school on W. 90th St., couldn't believe she's one of the "major offenders" the music moguls are after. 

"Oh, my God, what's going to happen now?" she asked after hearing of the suit. "My stomach is all in knots." 

Told she may have to go to court, Brianna's eyes widened behind wire-rimmed glasses and she said, "I'm just shocked that of all the people that do this, I'm on the list." 

The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) said the suits filed yesterday included about 60 that targeted suspects in New York who downloaded more than 1,000 songs. 

The group blames computer users such as Brianna, who use software programs to trade music with others on the Internet, for a 30% drop in music sales. 

Each person sued yesterday could be liable for fines up to $150,000 for each poached track. 

'Appropriate action' 

Experts had predicted a large number of the suits likely would name youngsters. 

"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation, but when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," said Carey Sherman, president of the recording association. 

Sherman warned that the group may file thousands more lawsuits against people who use programs like KaZaA, Grokster, Gnutella (news - web sites), Blubster and iMesh. 

Brianna's mother, Sylvia, 40, director of a nurse placement agency, said her daughter was helping her 9-year-old brother with his homework when the Daily News arrived at their apartment on W. 84th St. with word about the suit. 

"For crying out loud, she's just a child," the mother said. "This isn't like those people who say, 'My son is a good boy,' and he's holding a bloody knife. All we did was use a service." 

The mother said she signed up for KaZaA, paying a $29.95 fee. "If you're paying for it, you're not stealing it, so what is this all about?" she asked. 

She said Brianna downloaded music by Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey, along with the themes to television shows like "Family Matters" and "Full House" - and even the nursery song, "If You're Happy and You Know It." 

"That's really threatening to the music industry," she scoffed. 

"If this was something we were profiting from, that's one thing. But we were just listening and sometimes dancing to the music," said the mother.

Coughing Might Save Heart Attack Victims
Tue Sep 2,10:17 AM ET 
Add Health 

VIENNA  - Coughing hard at the first sign of a heart attack could a save patient's life, a Polish doctor said on Tuesday. 

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Tadeusz Petelenz of the Cardiological Foundation in Katowice, Poland, said the pumping action caused by vigorous coughing could push blood through the body and to the brain for valuable minutes while an ambulance arrived. 

Every year one in a 1,000 people in the Western world die from a cardiac arrest, the vast majority caused by a sudden problem with the heart's rhythm. 

In these cases, properly timed and performed coughs can allow the patient to maintain consciousness and even regain an effective heart beat, Petelenz told the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). 

Currently, only one in 10 victims of cardiac arrest survive without serious brain damage. 

High-risk patients should therefore be taught how to cough effectively, starting with a single cough every one to two seconds in bouts of five coughs, Petelenz said. 

In a study, 115 patients in Katowice at risk of cardiac arrest were trained to cough at the first sign of an attack and did so on 365 occasions. In 292 cases the symptoms disappeared and only 73 required medical attention, Petelenz reported. 

Some doctors already encourage patients to cough when under intensive heart treatment in hospital. But Professor Leo Bossaert, ESC executive director, questioned whether it was practical to expect patients to treat themselves in this way at home.

Asteroid Heading for Earth, May Hit in 2014
1 hour, 5 minutes ago 
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LONDON  - A giant asteroid is heading for Earth and could hit in 2014, U.S. astronomers have warned British space monitors. 

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But for those fearing Armageddon, don't be alarmed -- the chances of a catastrophic collision are just one in 909,000. 

Asteroid "2003 QQ47" will be closely monitored over the next two months. Its potential strike date is March 21, 2014, but astronomers say that any risk of impact is likely to decrease as further data is gathered. 

On impact, it could have the effect of 20 million Hiroshima atomic bombs, a spokesman for the British government's Near Earth Object Information Center told BBC radio. 

The Center issued the warning about the asteroid after the giant rock was first observed in New Mexico by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program. "The Near Earth Object will be observable from Earth for the next two months and astronomers will continue to track it over this period," said Dr. Alan Fitzsimmons, one of the expert team advising the Center. 

Asteroids such as 2003 QQ47 are chunks of rock left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Most are kept at a safe distance from the Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. 

But the gravitational influence of giant planets such as Jupiter can nudge asteroids out of these safe orbits and send them plunging toward Earth.

Life-Extending Chemical Is Found in Certain Red Wines
Sun Aug 24, 2:55 PM ET  - The New York Times 

By NICHOLAS WADE The New York Times 

Biologists have found a class of chemicals that they hope will make people live longer by activating an ancient survival reflex. One of the chemicals, a natural substance known as resveratrol, is found in red wines, particularly those made in cooler climates like that of New York. 

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The finding could help explain the so-called French paradox, the fact that the French live as long as anyone else despite consuming fatty foods deemed threatening to the heart. 

Besides the wine connection, the finding has the attraction of stemming from fundamental research in the biology of aging. However, the new chemicals have not yet been tested even in mice, let alone people, and even if they worked in humans, it would be many years before any drug based on the new findings became available. 

The possible benefits could be significant. The chemicals are designed to mimic the effect of a very low-calorie diet, which is known to lengthen the life span of rodents. Scientists involved in the research say that human life spans could be extended by 30 percent if humans respond to the chemicals in the same way as rats and mice do to low calories. Even someone who started at age 50 to take one of the new chemicals could expect to gain an extra 10 years of life, said Dr. Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites), one of the pioneers of the new research. 

The new result was announced last week at a scientific conference in Arolla, a small village in the Swiss alps, by Dr. David A. Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School (news - web sites). 

The new development has roused the enthusiasm of many biologists who study aging, because caloric restriction, the process supposedly mimicked by the chemicals, is the one intervention known for sure to increase longevity in laboratory animals. 

A calorically restricted diet includes all necessary nutrients but has some 30 percent fewer calories than usual. The diet extends the life span of rodents by 30 to 50 percent, and even if it is started later has a benefit proportionate to the remaining life span. Scientists hope, but do not yet know, that the same will be true in people. 

A similar mechanism exists in simpler forms of life, making biologists believe that they are looking at an ancient strategy, formed early in evolution and built into all animals. The strategy allows an organism, when food is scarce, to live longer, postpone reproduction and start breeding when conditions improve. 

Two experiments to see if caloric restriction extends life span in monkeys are about at their halfway point rhesus monkeys live some 25 years in captivity and the signs so far are promising, though not yet statistically significant. But even if caloric restriction did extend people's life spans, the current epidemic of obesity suggests how hard it would be for most people to stick with a diet containing 30 percent fewer calories than generally recommended. 

Biologists have therefore been hoping to find some chemical or drug that would mimic caloric restriction in people by tripping the same genetic circuitry as a reduced-calorie diet does and give the gain without the pain. 

Dr. Sinclair and his chief co-author, Dr. Konrad T. Howitz, of Biomol Research Laboratories in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., say they have succeeded in finding a class of drugs that mimic caloric restriction in two standard laboratory organisms yeast and fruit flies. Both mice and humans have counterpart genes that are assumed to work in a similar way, though that remains to be proved. 

Independently, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, a company in Cambridge, Mass., found a different set of chemicals that mimic caloric restriction, Ed Cannon, the chief executive, said. "We can do the same things he can do," Dr. Cannon said of Dr. Sinclair's findings. Because of testing and regulatory requirements, "we are 8 to 10 years away from having an approved drug," Dr. Cannon added. 

In an interview from Arolla, Switzerland, where he presented his findings, Dr. Sinclair said, "I've been waiting for this all my life," adding, "I like to be cautious, but even as a scientist, it is looking extremely promising." 

So far, Dr. Sinclair and his colleagues have shown that resveratrol prolongs life span only in yeast, a fungus, by 70 percent. But a colleague, Dr. Mark Tatar of Brown University, has shown in a report yet to be published that the compound has similar effects in fruit flies. The National Institute of Aging, which sponsored Dr. Sinclair's research, plans to start a mouse study later in the year. 

Despite the years of testing ahead to prove that resveratrol has any effect in people, many of the scientists involved in the research have already started drinking red wine. 

"One glass of red wine a day is a good recommendation. That's what I do now," Dr. Sinclair said, adding he hoped the finding would not lead people to drink in excess. "One glass of wine is enough," he said. However, resveratrol is unstable on exposure to the air and "goes off within a day of popping the cork," he said. 

Dr. Tatar, asked if he had changed his drinking habits, said, "No, I have always preferred red wine to white." 

The new finding is so novel that health authorities have not yet had time to make a detailed evaluation of the research. Dr. David Finkelstein, the project officer at the National Institute of Aging, which financed the study, said that he would not advise anyone to start drinking red wine. "At this point, we have no indication that there will be a benefit in people," he said, adding that the calories in a glass of wine would lead to weight gain. 

Dr. Toren Finkel, the head of cardiovascular research at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, said that "I would be cautious in sending out the message that one glass of wine a day will make you live 10 years longer." 

"The concentration of resveratrol in different wine differs," he said. "As a drug, it is not ready for prime time." But he acknowledged that the concept of a drug that mimicked caloric restriction "is a great idea.". 

Dr. Sinclair said that he and Dr. Howitz were working on chemical modifications of resveratrol that would be more stable. Ownership of the patent will be split 50:50 between their parent institutions, the Harvard Medical School and Biomol. 

Resveratrol is synthesized by plants in response to stress, like a lack of nutrients or contracting a fungal infection. It exists in the skin of both red and white grapes but is found in amounts 10 times higher in red wine because of differences in the manufacturing processes. 

According to the Oxford Companion to Wine, Pinot Noir tends to have high levels of the chemical, while Cabernet Sauvignon has lower levels. "Wines produced in cooler regions or areas with greater disease pressure, such as Burgundy and New York, often have more resveratrol," the book says, whereas wines from drier climates like California or Australia have less. 

Besides resveratrol, another class of chemical found to mimic caloric restriction is that of the flavones, found abundantly in olive oil, Dr. Howitz said. 

The enthusiasm scientists are showing for the new discovery, despite its preliminary nature, stems in part from a train of fundamental discoveries stretching back a decade. In 1991, Dr. Guarente decided to study the basis of aging, then considered an unpromising field of research. He spent four years searching for strains of yeast, a common laboratory organism, that lived longer than others. By 1997, he and Dr. Sinclair, who worked in his laboratory at the time, had discovered the reason for the new strains' longevity. It centered on a gene called sir2, for silent information regulator. 

Dr. Guarente next found that when yeast live longer because of starvation, sir2 is the gene that mediates the response. His research then started to fuse with longstanding work on caloric restriction as he and others showed that starvation is sensed by sir2, which triggers the cellular changes that lead to increased life span. 

What Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Howitz did was to take the human version of sirtuin, the enzyme produced by the sir2 gene, and devise a test to tell when the enzyme was activated. They then screened a large batch of likely chemicals to see if any made the enzyme more active. 

Their screen produced two active chemicals, both of a similar chemical structure and known as polyphenols. That led them to expand the search to more polyphenols. The most active compound in the second screen was resveratrol. 

Dr. Sinclair said he was amazed "that in an unbiased screen we pulled out something already associated with health benefits." 

Much attention has been paid to resveratrol in the last few years because it is a candidate for explaining the apparent innocuousness of the French diet despite its artery-weakening ingredients. Epidemiological studies point to red wine as containing some beneficial antidote, but it is not yet certain whether alcohol, or resveratrol, or both, are the active ingredients. 

Why should chemicals like resveratrol play a role both in the French paradox and in caloric restriction? Dr. Sinclair believes the chemicals are produced by plants in response to stresses like starvation and that browsing animals may have evolved to make use of the chemicals as a signal of hard times ahead. Other scientists said this idea was possible but not particularly plausible. 

Dr. Guarente, his former mentor, founded Elixir Pharmaceuticals to pursue the same goal of developing drugs that mimic caloric restriction. Dr. Guarente said Dr. Sinclair's results were plausible and exciting. He said diet-mimicking drugs might add a decade of life to someone starting them at age 50, based on the calculation that the 30 or so years of life expected at that age could be increased by one third, and assuming that humans would benefit from caloric restrictions to the same degree as mice. 

Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, of the University of California, San Francisco, an expert on aging in roundworms and a cofounder of Elixir, said from Arolla that Dr. Sinclair's work was "really remarkable." 

Elixir uses the same screen for sirtuin activity as Dr. Sinclair did, one provided by Biomol. It is not yet clear if the efforts by Dr. Sinclair and Elixir will be competitive or collaborative, Dr. Howitz said. 

In either case, considerable testing lies ahead to see if the promise of the new research can be fulfilled.

Google is now a scientific calculator!

Just type in a mathematical expression in the Google text search box 
and Google evaluates it for you.
"2 + 2" evaluates to 4.
"sine(30 degrees)" = 0.5
"sine(30)" = -0.988031624 /* defaults to radians instead of degrees */

"half liter in pints" = 1.0566882 US pints

You can convert hexadecimal numbers to decimal and decimal->hexadecimal.
"0x1a in decimal" evaluates to 26.
"13 in hex" evaluates to 0xD.

Music Industry to Unveil Amnesty Offer 1 hour, 50 minutes ago 

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer WASHINGTON - The recording industry is expected to announce as early as next week an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music files across the Internet, promising not to sue them in exchange for their admission and pledge to delete the songs off their computers. The offer of amnesty will not apply to the roughly 1,600 people who already have been targets of copyright subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), which has promised to file hundreds of infringement lawsuits across the country as early as next week. Sources who described the proposal Thursday spoke on condition of anonymity. A spokeswoman for the RIAA, Amy Weiss, declined to comment. The RIAA's offer would require Internet users to complete a notarized amnesty form that includes promises to delete any illegally downloaded music and not participate in illegal file-trading in the future. In exchange, the RIAA would agree not to file a potentially expensive infringement lawsuit. "I'll be curious to see how many opt for this," said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, who has criticized the RIAA's use of copyright subpoenas. "It will be an interesting measure of how much fear the recording industry has managed to inject into the American public." Von Lohmann cautioned that the RIAA doesn't represent all copyright owners and therefore couldn't guarantee an Internet user wouldn't be sued for infringement by others, despite what amounts to an admission of guilt. "It's not the kind of agreement that most people's lawyers will embrace," he said. But the amnesty offer could serve to soften the RIAA's brass-knuckle image once the earliest lawsuits are filed, giving nervous college students and others an opportunity to avoid similar legal problems if they confess to online copyright infringement.

SARS Linked to Virus Found in Animals 
1 hour, 36 minutes ago 


By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - A virus found in wild animals captured and sold for food in China is genetically similar to the virus that infects humans with SARS (news - web sites), suggesting the disease jumped from animals to humans and could do so again, a study says. 

The News Source 

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Chinese scientists report this week in the journal Science that they compared the genetic makeup of a virus isolated from human SARS patients with a virus found in animals that had been captured and then held in a retail food market. 

Tests showed that the animals had a coronavirus that was 99.8 percent genetically identical to a virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in humans. 

"Our findings suggest that the markets provide a venue for the animal (coronavirus) viruses to amplify and transmit to new hosts, including humans and this is critically important from the point of view of public health," the Chinese researchers reported. 

The researchers found the virus in civets, raccoon-dogs and ferret badgers that were offered for sale as food in a market in Shenzhen, but said it is not clear if these animals were the natural source of the virus. 

"It is conceivable that (the market animals) were all infected from another, as yet unknown animal source which is in fact the true reservoir in nature," the researchers said. 

They also tested merchants in the market and found that eight of 20 wild animal traders and three of 15 workers who slaughter the animals had antibodies to the virus. Only 5 percent of the vegetable traders in the same market had the viral antibodies. None of those tested reported symptoms of SARS in the past six months. 

The study was conducted by 18 researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and two Chinese government health agencies. The first author is Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong. 

SARS was first recognized in the Guangdong Province in China in November. It spread to Hong Kong in February and eventually to more than 30 other countries. More than 7,900 people worldwide developed SARS and more than 800 died. 

The disease subsided in June. Health experts fear it could re-emerge this fall as the weather turns colder. 

A SARS infection can cause flu-like symptoms, including a high fever and head and body aches. Some patients develop congestion and have trouble breathing. It is spread through person-to-person contact and by inhaling droplets from coughs and sneezes of people who are infected. Severe cases can be deadly, particularly for the elderly and very young. 

Researchers early on suspected that the virus was spread to humans from wild animals captured and sold for food. Chinese officials for a time banned the sale of civet cats, but that ban was lifted last month. 

Henry Niman, a Harvard University professor and SARS researcher, said the new study is important because it moves researchers closer to finding the original source of the virus. 

He said the study also suggests that Chinese officials should not allow selling of civet cats and similar animals for food without first checking them for the presence of the coronavirus. 

"It is not a good idea to sell these animals without testing them," said Niman. Without such testing, he said, officials "are really playing roulette." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Disco Rocked by 80-Year-Old Party Girl

Sep 4, 10:34 am ET 

BERLIN  - Staff at a popular teenage disco were stunned to find an 80-year-old having a celebratory drink and strutting her stuff on the dance floor among thousands of young people, German police say.

"The disco told police there was an old lady drinking cola and schnapps at the bar who seemed a bit confused," said a spokesman in the western town of Oberhausen. "She was apparently shaking her hips and rocking out a bit on the dance floor too."

Officers visited the 7,000 capacity disco in the early hours and made sure she was okay.

"She was dressed up smart, celebrating her birthday by herself and everyone thought she was very friendly," the spokesman said Wednesday. "There's no upper age limit there. You don't have to show identification when you're 80."

McDonald's vs. MacNoodles

Sep 4, 10:30 am ET 

SINGAPORE  - U.S.-based fast-food giant McDonald's Corp has launched a legal challenge against a Singapore firm that offers MacNoodles, MacTea and MacChocolate.

The world's largest fast-food company presented its case to Singapore's High Court on Wednesday, arguing that Future Enterprises Pte Ltd should be barred from using the term "Mac" in its products.

The terms "Mac" and "Mc" were a fundamental feature of McDonald's products such as McNuggets and McChicken, it said.

Lawyers for the restaurant chain said on Thursday people were likely to be confused and to associate the products of Future Enterprises with McDonald's food and beverage products.

McDonald's has restaurants in 119 countries and serves nearly 50 million customers a day in more than 30,000 restaurants. In Singapore, it has 129 restaurants.

A lawyer for Future Enterprises, which makes and sells instant food and beverages such as frozen seafood and candy, said his client's case was that the products were clearly different.

"We feel that there'll be no likelihood of confusion because the party's marks are visually, orally and conceptually different," lawyer Tan Tee Jim told The News Source.

Future Enterprises products carry an image of an eagle.

Tan said his client's products were sold in supermarkets and grocery stalls, while McDonald's products were sold in its restaurants. The Singapore High Court has adjourned the case to an unspecified future date.

Child Goddess Plays Hide and Seek Over Fee

Sep 3, 10:07 am ET 

KATHMANDU  - Nepal's living child goddess is refusing to greet foreigners at her historic temple because of a dispute with city officials over how to split the tourist dollar.

Tourist donations for the Kumari goddess have dried up since Kathmandu levied a $2.50 fee on every foreigner entering the city's ancient Durbar Square, which is crammed with temples and palaces.

So Kumari's caretakers are not letting foreigners see her, even from a distance, until the city shares the money, according to the popular magazine Himal.

"The Kumari does not appear before the tourists these days," a caretaker from the three-storied Kumari House told The News Source. She would not comment further and declined to give her name.

Foreigners have always been banned from meeting the Kumari, a young girl chosen from a high class Buddhist family who is also worshipped by Hindus and who reigns until puberty.

But they are allowed into the tiny courtyard of her 15th century temple, where she frequently appears at her ornately carved balcony window, a mythical third eye painted on her forehead, to wave at the visitors below.

Devotees are furious at the row.

"It is not proper to commercialize the tradition of the Kumari," said Tej Ratna Tamrakar, a devout Buddhist.

London Temps Hit 100 for First Time Sun Aug 10,12:24 PM ET 

By ANGELA DOLAND, News Source Writer PARIS - Melting Alpine glaciers unleashed a cascade of rocks, London choked in a record 100-degree temperatures and with wildfires raging in seven countries, the pope urged people to pray for rain. Europe sizzled this weekend, and there was no immediate relief in sight for much of the continent. The heat also broke a record in Germany, and a French toddler died of exposure in a sweltering parked car. With the mercury hovering around 100 degrees for days, more than 40 deaths have been blamed on the heat. In the French Alps, a police officer warned hikers about rock avalanches along a popular route on Mont Blanc. Glacial ice is melting, loosening rocks from the mountainside. On Saturday, helicopters swooped into the area to evacuate 44 climbers in danger, police said. In more arid regions, wildfires have blackened forests in Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands. Three separate fires were blazing in Portugal on Sunday, with the worst in the southern region of Algarve. Pinus Verde, an association of forest-product producers, analyzed satellite images from NASA (news - web sites) to calculate forestland destroyed in two weeks of blazes: 741,316 acres, according to daily Publico. In northeastern Italy, firefighters worked for a third-straight day to put out a fire in the countryside near Udine. Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II was spending time in a papal palace in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town generally cooler than Rome. The pope told visiting tourists and pilgrims Sunday that he was worried about the drought-fed deadly wildfires. "I invite all to join in my prayers for the victims of this calamity, and I exhort all to raise to the Lord fervent entreaties so that He may grant the relief of rain to the thirsty Earth," John Paul said. A 3-year-old girl died Saturday in a car parked outside her parents' home in Wimille in northern France, authorities said. The parents apparently lost track of who was watching her - each thought the little girl was with the other, police said. In Germany, authorities are predicting a new record number of drownings this year. Cash-strapped municipalities have closed free swimming pools, forcing more Germans to head to rivers and lakes to escape the heat, where there is less supervision. Klaus Wilkens, president of the German Lifesaving Society, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that his organization was predicting 700 deaths by drowning by the end of the summer, compared with 598 last year. This weekend alone, at least three people drowned in Germany's rivers and lakes, including a 10-year-old girl. "The closing of the pools must be stopped," Wilkens said. The German weather service reported Sunday it had registered a new countrywide temperature record in the Bavarian city of Roth, which hit nearly 105 degrees on Saturday. The previous record of 104 was also in Bavaria, set in 1983. Britons also gasped through a record-breaking day, watching thermometers climb above the 100 for the first time in Britain since temperatures have been recorded. The record-breaker - 100.22 degrees - was measured at Heathrow Airport, near a parched and baking London, the national weather service (news - web sites) said. No quick relief was expected: Germany is expected to swelter until midweek; France is counting on at least another week of abnormally high temperatures; and weather experts in Italy expect the country to be steamy until September.

Mobile Phone Gives Beggar Away

Aug 11, 10:13 am ET 

SANAA  - A man begging at a mosque in Yemen was exposed as not being so destitute as he pretended when his mobile started ringing inopportunely on Friday.

The Yemeni news agency Saba said the embarrassed man beat a quick retreat after worshippers heard his phone ring inside his bag.

There are only about five telephones, both land-lines and mobiles, for every 100 people in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries.

Climbers to Search for Yeti

Aug 11, 10:12 am ET 

KATHMANDU  - A Japanese expedition equipped with infrared cameras will scour the Nepali Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti, or abominable snowman, the team leader said Monday.

Yoshiteru Takahashi said he had seen footprints on Mount Dhaulagiri during trips to the world's seventh-highest mountain in the 1970s and 1990s which he believed belonged to the Yeti.

"They (the footprints) were very, very close to human footsteps," Takahashi, the 60-year-old who works in a housing firm in Tokyo, told The News Source.

"I'll take pictures and shake hands if I meet him. But we will not capture it...The existence of that creature has to be proved."

Takahashi said his 14-member team would leave Saturday and spend six weeks on the slopes of the 8,167-meter (26,795-feet) mountain to track down the mythical hairy, ape-like creature believed to live in the snowy caves.

The team comprises seven Japanese climbers and seven Nepali sherpas and will take cameras that can detect body temperature.

The mysterious Yeti seized the world's imagination during a drive by foreign climbers to scale Mount Everest between the 1920s and 1950s, when Sherpa porters recounted local legends about hairy wild men lurking in the mountains.

Many teams have been on Yeti hunts since the 1950s to verify the authenticity of tracks left in the Himalayas. But no conclusive scientific evidence has proved the creature exists.

Is Cold Atlantic Sign of Climate Change? 07-Aug-2003 The long hot summer, along with recent droughts, makes some scientists think global warming may be here with a vengeance. But the real sign of climate change will be when Europe gets colder, because the ocean current that warms it stops flowing up from the south. Now scientists are reporting that the Atlantic ocean has become unseasonably cold-is this a signal that sudden climate change has begun? Warren Washington, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who helped create the Bush climate research plan says, "...One of the aspects we will be looking at carefully is what's happening in the North Atlantic as the sea ice and glaciers melt and add fresh water to ocean circulation, and may change the transport of warm water in the Gulf Stream." John F. Kelly writes in the Washington Post that the Atlantic's sudden temperature dive is mystifying scientists. In Maryland, the water is so cold that swimmers are staying on land. Surfer David Quillin says, "I've never experienced it in my whole life, where the water right along shore could be that radically cold." "During [most of] July, our water temperatures were, I would say, right around normal [in the low 70s]," says Capt. Butch Arbin, of the Ocean City Beach Patrol. About two weeks ago, he says, "There was a tremendous change in temperature, [dropping] as much as 10 degrees overnight." Vacationers all along the East Coast, all the way down to Florida, have noticed a precipitous drop in the ocean temperature. Many of them have contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about it. Oceanographer William Tseng thinks it could be caused by increased river runoff from this spring's rain, a current of cold seawater coming down from the North Atlantic, or what's called "coastal upwelling," which occurs when winds push the warm surface layer of the water out to sea. 

You Are What Your Mom Ate 06-Aug-2003 In another discovery about the importance of vitamins, scientists have been able to change the fur coat colors of baby mice by giving them four specific vitamins. It's known that pregnant women with poor nutrition tend to have children who get diabetes and heart disease. This means you owe your hair-and your health-to how your Mom ate. Maggie Fox writes that the researchers changed the color of baby mouse fur by feeding pregnant mice vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaine. Mice given these supplements gave birth to babies with brown coats. Pregnant mice not fed the supplements gave birth to babies with yellow coats that were less healthy. These vitamins are important for pregnant women as well, and if Senate bill 722 passes, you may no longer be able to buy them without a prescription. Scientists already know that pregnant women who don't get the right vitamins have children who grow up with a tendency to get diabetes and heart disease. The Agouti gene, which affects the coat color of mice, also affects diabetes and heart disease. Mice with overactive Agouti genes eat more because the gene affects a brain signal that controls the appetite. And if you're overweight, you're more likely to get diabetes and heart disease. Scientists now think that nutrition is one of the factors that decides which genes turn on and which stay silent. Everyone inherits two copies of each gene-one from each parent. For most functions, only one gene turns on, while the other stays silent. We can't look for yellow fur coats on our kids, but we can see that there's an epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes in this country. Pregnant women need to learn how to eat right, so that the best genes turn on in their children.

Study: Strangers on Web Just Clicks Away 
Thu Aug 7, 5:10 PM ET

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - In a Web-connected world, even strangers are only a few electronic clicks away. A study finds that most anyone can reach a distant stranger in an average of six relays by asking friends and acquaintances to message some site seemingly closer to the target. 

Researchers at Columbia University set up an experiment in which individuals would try to get a message to a stranger somewhere else in the world through the Internet. Participants knew basic facts about the 18 targets: name, location, profession and some educational background. 

The participants were urged to send their contact message to someone they knew who was closer to the target. That person, in turn, was urged to send a message a contact that they knew. The process continued until the target received the message or, as often happened, the process broke down from the lack of interest. 

More than 61,000 individuals from 166 countries signed up for the experiment and created a total of 24,163 message chains. Only 384 of the chains, however, reached their targets. 

Most chains died, said Duncan J. Watts, a Columbia sociologist who led the study, due to fading of interest. Many messages were simply not relayed, cutting chains prematurely. 

Of the chains that were completed, it took an average of four message relays, but Watts said "that is a misleading number because it is biased toward short chains." Longer chains, he said, are more likely to end due to lack of participating. 

To compensate for this bias, he said, the researchers estimated how many messages would have to be relayed if there was perfect cooperation. 

"That estimate is five to seven, with an average of six," he said. "That is the true answer and that is what the world actually looks like from the point of view of how the network is connected." 

On average, said Watts, it would take five message relays for a searcher to find a target in the same country. When the target was in another country, it took, on average, an additional two messages. 

Watts said that friends were most frequently used for relaying messages toward the target, but the most successful of the chains relied more heavily on professional contacts. That included sending messages to a target known only as someone in the same profession as the contact. 

Also, Watts said that people who were only remote acquaintances played an important role in the successful chains. That's because close friends tend to know the same people and have the same contacts, while more distant acquaintances are more apt to bring in new contacts unknown to the searcher. 

The experiment is now being repeated, with certain refinements, and Watts has posted an invitation for participants on the Web. 

Watts said the experiment has a practical purpose. 

"Networks can contain a lot of resources and if you learn how to navigate through them that can be a powerful tool for self advancement," he said. "The mechanisms people use to navigate networks are universal and this is a clean way to study that process and to find good strategies." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Network study: http://www.smallworld.columbia.edu 

Algebra Points the Way to a Happy Marriage

Aug 8, 10:10 am ET 

LONDON  - A mathematician says he can predict with almost total accuracy which newly wed couples will enjoy a happy marriage -- using two lines of algebra.

Professor James Murray says the two formulae he devised have a 94 percent success rate when it comes to forecasting whether a couple will stay together, the Daily Telegraph said Friday.

The formulae were calculated during a 10-year study of 700 couples in the United States conducted by Murray, a mathematics professor at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The experiment, conducted with the help of a psychologist, involved observing the couples during a 15 minute conversation when they were newly married, Murray said.

He presented his findings to a conference in Dundee, Scotland, for the first time Thursday, the Telegraph said.

A couple's ability to communicate on subjects such as sex, child-rearing or money was measured using a scale that gave positive points for good signals, such as smiles and affectionate gestures, and negative points for bad signals, such as rolling of the eyes, mocking and coldness.

"We used an accepted psychological scoring system to award them points, such as minus three for scorn and plus two for humor," Murray, the author of "Mathematics for Marriage," told the newspaper.

The points were then converted into algebraic terms enabling the study's authors to make divorce projections. The results were fed into two equations -- one for the husband and one for the wife.

The couples were checked every two years and the model predicted which marriages failed with almost complete accuracy.

Russians Say Space Wedding to Be First and Last

Aug 8, 10:07 am ET 

MOSCOW  - It may well be a giant leap for man and wife, but for Russia it is one step too far.

This weekend, Yuri Malenchenko, commander of the International Space Station, will be the first man to get married from space. Russia said on Friday the planning had been so fraught, it would never allow its spacemen to do so again.

"I think that we will have the next crew sign a contract with a provision that they will not get married during their mission," said Sergei Gorbunov, Russian space agency spokesman.

"After all this has been a strange series of events."

Malenchenko, 41, is to wed U.S. citizen Ekaterina Dmitriev, 26, exchanging vows by space telephone with his bride in Houston, the home of U.S. space mission control.

The cosmic couple will be separated vertically from each other by 240 miles in the first marriage ceremony to stray beyond earth's atmosphere. Despite the headaches for Russia's space agency, this has evoked some national pride.

"Yuri Gagarin was first in space. We had the first woman in space. We had the first tourist in space. And now this is another first," said Gorbunov.

No Miracle as Saint's Candles Melt in Torrid Italy

Aug 8, 10:04 am ET 

ROME  - Saint Anthony of Padua can protect you against shipwrecks, starvation and losing things, believers say -- but apparently his powers are no match for the heat.

Votive candles dedicated to the saint, an item popular with pilgrims who flock to the northern Italian city to visit his shrine, are melting on souvenir stands in the merciless sunshine as the temperature hovers around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Vendors are dousing the candles in cold water, but they have been unable to prevent some images of Saint Anthony emblazoned on the wax from distorting into strange shapes.

"You would be better off buying a votive candle from the official shops inside the basilica, where there is air-conditioning and the candles look just fine," a stern salesman at one of the Padua shops told The News Source by telephone.

Outdoor vendors hoping for a break from the relentless heat are not too optimistic: mini-statues of Saint Anthony which glow red when bad weather is on the way remained stubbornly blue -- more sunshine ahead.

Connoisseur Criminal Chooses Better Jail

Aug 7, 2:18 pm ET 

ROME  - If you have to go to jail, you may as well stay in a place you like. That must have been the reasoning of one Italian man who traveled to another Italian city because he preferred its jail over one in his home town.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa the 32-year-old man showed up at the police headquarters in northern Vercelli and asked to be arrested.

He said he was wanted in Biella, another city in the north where he had not completed a jail term, but told police in Vercelli: "Arrest me. Your jail is better."

Police checked out his claims, discovered that he was indeed wanted, and took him to jail -- his preferred jail.

Drivers Distracted by Phones, Eating, Grooming

Aug 7, 10:32 am ET 

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON  - Cell phones are the distraction that people love to hate, but researchers said on Wednesday that drivers were preoccupied more often with the radio, eating, or combing their hair while behind the wheel.

In the first study to use in-car video cameras to record driving habits, a research group funded by the automobile club AAA found all 70 motorists it watched were distracted at some point by conditions inside and outside the vehicle during a three-hour period.

All drivers were distracted up to 16 percent of the time while the vehicle was moving. That did not include conversations with passengers, according to the study by the University of North Carolina's highway safety research center.

"People often underestimate the seriousness of distractions because not every distraction leads to a crash," said Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA's traffic safety foundation. "But if you are distracted just when someone pulls out in front of you, your lack of attention can be catastrophic."

An estimated 25 percent of all traffic crashes are caused by distractions, highway safety figures show.

About one-third of the motorists studied by the North Carolina researchers talked on a cell phone while driving, but 25 percent of that use occurred when the vehicle was stopped.

Almost all the drivers manipulated music or audio controls, while 71 percent ate or drank. About half groomed themselves and 40 percent read or wrote. Most of the reading and writing and a third of grooming occurred when the car was stopped.

Grooming included using a toothpick, taking pills, applying lipstick and combing hair. For reading and writing, the researchers observed drivers writing in their checkbooks or flipping through newspapers or mail.

"We found that people do adjust their behavior to a certain extent," Kissinger said. "They have a tendency to do potentially distracting things when their car is stopped."

Researchers said older drivers engaged in less distracting behavior, but no age group was immune. None of those taped in the auto safety study knew driving distraction was being measured. They were only told the research would cover how traffic and road conditions affected driver behavior.

The study was the second phase of research by the North Carolina group. "We hope that this real world data will provide a useful baseline for future study," said Jane Stutts, the lead researcher.

Previous research also found that cell phones, children, rubbernecking and adjusting the radio or CD player created distractions that contributed to accidents. Large surveys for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year found few drivers considered those activities potentially dangerous.

Only New York prohibits the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Other than laws regulating cell phone use in cars, safety advocates do not believe regulation to curb driver distraction is practical.

"You are never going to get rid of all of them, but you can manage them," said Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. "When you get in the car, you can really think about what you can do like presetting the radio."

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended this year that driver education courses include warnings about distracted driving and that novice drivers be prohibited from using cell phones while at the wheel.

E-Mail Brings Together Flash Mob at NY Toy Store
2 hours, 5 minutes ago

NEW YORK  - It's become a case of mob rule in New York. 

The News Source Photo 

The News Source 

Slideshow: Flash Mobs

A growing flash mob craze -- when crowds organized by e-mail turn up in unexpected places -- brought a mob late on Thursday to the flagship Times Square store of Toys "R" Us, where a giant dinosaur roars menacingly at customers. 

The mob of some 300 people gazed at the dinosaur, as if transfixed, then fell to the floor screaming and waving their hands in the air. As store staff hurried to call security, the mob dispersed as quickly as it gathered. 

The flash mob was the sixth in New York and the latest in a string that has popped up around the globe. Organized by e-mail, recipients are invited to arrive at a certain place, at a certain time, and receive instructions for a particular mobbing event. 

On Thursday evening in London, Britain's first flash mob -- a crowd of more than 200 people -- marched to a furniture store selling sofas with instructions to make mobile phone calls in which they praised the merchandise. 

The New York-based Mob Project started in June with a man named Bill who sent an e-mail to some friends. Since then, it has spread across the nation and to many cities in Europe. 

Europe's first flash mob hit Rome last month when a group gathered at a bookshop and peppered staff with queries about nonexistent books. 

At Toys "R" Us in New York, Maria Peters, a tourist from Texas, said: "They just picked me up off the street and gave me directions. 

"It was just like a big mind game," she said. 

Other New York sites that have been mobbed are Central Park, where the crowd tweeted like birds and crowed like roosters, and a Hyatt Hotel, where the mob burst into applause. 

Organizers like to remain anonymous but say the fun of the flash mob is its absurdist, inexplicable nature. However the flash mob could just be a flash in the pan, they say. 

A man who seemed suspiciously like an organizer and gave an obviously false name said after the Toys "R" Us event: "Unfortunately all the media coverage, it's going to just destroy the cachet sooner or later. 

"You can imagine that the next one or two ... people are not going think its cool, it's not really a happening, it's a media event," he said.

Cruise Cut Short As Hundreds Fall Ill 
1 hour, 16 minutes ago 
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By MADISON J. GRAY, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - An ocean liner docked Tuesday after cutting short a cruise across the North Atlantic because more than 300 people had become sick with a Norwalk-type virus. 

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Only two passengers remained ill when the Regal Princess docked, said Steve Nielsen, vice president of Caribbean and Atlantic operations for Princess Cruises. They remained aboard the ship for treatment, he said. 

The remainder of the 1,500 passengers and 679 crew members were being allowed off the ship and buses were brought to the dock to take them on to other destinations. 

The illness, which causes nausea and vomiting, is highly contagious but lasts only 24 to 48 hours. 

The ship had set out Aug. 18 from Copenhagen, Denmark, for a 16-day voyage with stops including Britain, Ireland and Iceland. Because of the illness, the ship skipped a planned stop in Newfoundland and docked in New York one day ahead of schedule. 

Nielsen said passengers started to get ill on the third day of the cruise, and eventually a total of 296 passengers and 44 crew members came down with the virus. 

"There were incidents of gastrointestinal illness," said Julie Beson, a spokeswoman for Princess Cruises. "We immediately put measures into place that we developed with the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites)) to stop the virus." 

Those measures included disinfecting the ship in mid-voyage, "everything from elevator buttons to handrails," she said. 

"We suspect that because of the pattern of the illness that one or two passengers probably unknowingly or unwittingly brought this on board," added Beson. 

Nielsen said passengers would be reimbursed for one day, plus a $300 shipboard credit, and passengers returning home by plane would be refunded for any changes to their air fare. 

The norovirus - which includes Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses - sickened thousands of cruise ship passengers last year. 

The viruses are spread through food and water and close contact with infected people or things they have touched. 

___

THE NEW AGE

Masonic Symbols in a $1 Bill

13 leaves in the olive branches 13 bars and stripes in the shield 13 feathers in the tail 13 arrows 13 letters in the 'E Pluribus Unum' on the ribbon 13 stars in the green crest above 13 granite stones in the Pyramid with the Masonic 'All seeing eye' completing it 13 letters in Annuit Coeptis, 'God has prospered' 32 long feathers representing the 32 degree in Masonry

On the front of the dollar bill is the seal of the United States made up of a key, square, and the Scales of Justice, as well as a compass which, of course, is an important symbol in Masonry.

James B. Walker - 32nd degree

The Cult of the All-Seeing Eye has existed under many names and guises for thousands of years. Through the ages its high priests have worshipped before unhallowed altars dedicated to the adoration of a nameless deity -- and Unknown God. The identity of this deity has been concealed behind an elaborate system of veiled allegories and secret symbols. Followers of this pseudo-mystical, humanistic, occult system of beliefs affirm, without proof, that it is based on an oral tradition handed down from an ancient priesthood in Egypt.

Dietary Experts Debate Carbohydrates Sun Aug 31,10:53 AM ET 

By DANIEL Q. HANEY, News Source Medical Editor Should people really care that they digest potatoes faster than carrots? Macaroni faster than spaghetti? Rice Krispies faster than Special K? A greenish banana faster than a freckled one? A Snickers bar faster than a Twix? Yes, say some of the country's top-tier nutritional experts. They are convinced that carbohydrates should be labeled good or bad, just the way fats are, and that some of the carbs Americans love most - velvety puddles of mashed potatoes, lighter-than-air white bread - are dietary evil, to be avoided like the nastiest artery-choking trans-fats. No, contend other equally respected nutritional experts. Potatoes and other starchy standbys are perfectly respectable. A carb is a carb is a carb. The debate involves an idea called the glycemic index. It is a way of rating how quickly carbohydrates are digested and rush into the bloodstream as sugar. Fast, in this case, is bad. In theory, a blast of sugar makes insulin levels go up, and this, strangely, leaves people quickly feeling hungry again. The debate over whether every person who puts food in his mouth should know about this is fervid even for the field of dietary wisdom, where fierce opinions based on ironclad beliefs and sparse data are standard. Despite its detractors, the idea seems to be gaining momentum, in part because it is offered as scientific underpinning by the authors of a variety of popular diet schemes, mostly of the low-carb variety. However, some painstakingly argue that the glycemic index is just as important for the carbohydrate-loving brown rice aficionado as it is for the most carbo-phobic, double-bacon-cheeseburger-hold-the-bun Atkins follower. To believers, the glycemic index is a kind of nutritional Rosetta stone that explains much of what has gone wrong with the world's health and girth over the past two decades: Why diets so often fail. Why diabetes is becoming epidemic. Why mankind is growing so fat. We overeat because we are hungry, the theory goes, and we are hungry because of what we have been told to eat, which is too much fast-burning food that plays havoc with metabolism by quickly raising blood sugar levels. All of that starch at the base of the food pyramid has had the unintended effect of making us ravenous. "It's almost unethical to tell people to eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet with no regard to glycemic index," says Janette Brand-Miller of the University of Sydney, one of the field's pioneers. The idea has already entered the scientific mainstream in much of the world and is endorsed by the World Health Organization (news - web sites), but it remains deeply controversial in the United States. It is dismissed by some of the country's weightiest private health societies, including the American Heart Association (news - web sites) and the American Diabetes Association. To some of the skeptics, this is just another half-baked mishmash of dietary arm-waving, cobbled together to justify the high-fat, low-carb schemes that dietitians love to hate. The fact that carbohydrates break down at different rates has been suspected for a long time. It is why diabetics (news - web sites) were once (but no longer) told to studiously avoid sweets, since presumably sugary foods would quickly turn into sugar in the blood stream. About 20 years ago, scientists came up with the glycemic index, or GI, as a way to compare this. The body converts all carbohydrates - from starches to table sugar - into sugar molecules that are burned or stored. The faster carbs are broken down by the digestive system, the quicker blood sugar goes up and the higher their GI. The GI of at least 1,000 different foods has been measured, in the process knocking down many common-sense dietary beliefs. For instance, some complex carbohydrates are digested faster than the long demonized simple carbs. Foods such as white bread and some breakfast cereals break down in a flash, while some sweet things, like apples and pears, take their time. In general, starchy foods like refined grain products and potatoes have a high GI - 50 percent higher than table sugar. Unprocessed grains, peas and beans have a moderate GI. Nonstarchy vegetables and most fruits are low. While it seems reasonable that chewy, whole-grain bread is digested more slowly than a French baguette, some of the results are less obvious. For instance, overcooking can raise the GI. Ripe fruit is lower than green. A diced potato is lower than mashed, and thick linguini is lower than thin. To make matters even more confusing, the glycemic index measures only the carbohydrate in food. Some vegetables, such as carrots, have quite high GIs, but they don't contain much carb, so they have little effect on blood sugar. Therefore, some experts prefer to speak of food's glycemic load, which is its glycemic index multiplied by the amount of carb in a serving. Considered this way, a serving of carrots has a modest glycemic load of 3, compared with 26 for an unadorned baked potato. Blood sugar levels may shoot twice as high after a high-GI meal as after a low one, and that unleashes metabolic havoc: The body responds with a surge of insulin, which prompts it to quickly store the sugar in muscle and fat cells. The high sugar also inhibits another hormone, glucagon, which ordinarily tells the body to burn its stored fuel. Blood sugar plunges. So much is stored so fast that within two or three hours, levels may be lower than they were before the meal. Suddenly, the body needs more fuel. But because glucagon is still in short supply, the body does not tap into its fat supply for energy. The inevitable result? Hunger. That, at least, is the theory. Experiments to prove this are difficult and time-consuming. Among those trying is Dr. David Ludwig of Boston's Children's Hospital, who has done several studies on overweight teenagers. In one, he tested the idea that a high-GI breakfast makes people hungrier at lunch. A dozen obese boys were fed three different breakfasts, all with the same calories - a low-GI vegetable omelet and fruit, medium-GI steel-cut oats or high-GI instant oatmeal. At noon, they could eat as much as they wanted. Those who started the day with instant oatmeal wolfed down nearly twice as much as those getting the veggie omelet. Ludwig says overweight people do not need to starve themselves. On a low-GI diet, they can eat enough to feel satisfied and still lose weight. In a pilot study, he tested this on 14 overweight adolescents. They were put on two different regimens - a standard low-cal, low-fat, high-carb diet and a low-GI plan that let them eat all they wanted. After one year, the low-GI volunteers had dropped seven pounds of pure fat. The others had put on four. Now he is repeating the study on 100 heavy teenagers. Even such small experiments have been rare. Most support for the idea comes from big surveys that follow people's health and diets over time. Some of these show that those who consistently favor low-GI fare are less likely to become overweight or to get diabetes and heart disease. The evidence is strong enough for authors of some popular diet books, who use the glycemic index as one of their primary rationales. "It's a new unifying concept that brings nutritional habits out of the dark ages and says it's all about the numbers," says Barry Sears, author of the Zone series of diet books. "It says diet does not have to be based on philosophy. It can be based on hard science." Major U.S. health organizations are less impressed. Ludwig expects this to change, in part because paying attention to the glycemic index can help everyone choose healthier carbs, whether they go low-fat or high. But that seems unlikely any time soon at the heart association. The head of its nutrition committee, Dr. Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado, says the theory that high-GI foods make people hungry is "ridiculous" and argues that a scientific case can be made for just the opposite. Dietitians generally encourage a balanced, varied diet emphasizing unadulterated whole foods, and they cringe at a classification that puts ordinary baked potatoes and white rice on a taboo list. "It's an artificial system of classifying foods as good and bad," says JoAnn Carson, a nutritionist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Others worry that the whole business is just too hard to keep straight. "We are putting before the public an extraordinarily complicated message, which I don't think they will follow or be very happy with," says Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. Not necessarily, responds Harvard's Dr. Walter Willett. "I do think this is an important concept for people to understand, but I don't think they need to worry about specific numbers." His advice: Go light on the white bread, white rice, potatoes pasta and sugary foods. ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney is a special correspondent for The News Source. ___ On the Net: GI tables: http://diabetes.about.com/library/mendosagi/ngilists.htm

Egypt Casts Doubt on Nefertiti Mummy Discovery 2 hours, 4 minutes ago Add Science 

By Opheera McDoom CAIRO  - The mummy a British Egyptologist says could be the ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, renowned for her beauty, is much more likely to be a man, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Saturday. Nefertiti, wife and co-ruler with the pharaoh Akhenaten and stepmother of legendary boy King Tutankhamun, has long been considered one of the most powerful women of ancient Egypt. Joann Fletcher, a mummification specialist from the University of York in England, said in June there was a "strong possibility" her team had unearthed Nefertiti from a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The Discovery Channel publicised the find in a television program aired this month. But Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Hawass, expressed doubts about the find and said there were questions over the gender of the mummy. "I'm sure that this mummy is not a female," Hawass told The News Source at his office in the Egyptian capital. A report submitted to Egypt's SCA from the University of York expedition leader Don Brothwell said of the mummy: "There has been some confusion as to the sex of this individual." However, the report concluded that the mummy was a female because of a lack of evidence of male genitalia. Hawass said a double-piercing in the mummy's ear was common to both sexes, but in a different period to the Amarna era in which Nefertiti lived. He said it was even more common in men. "All the queens used to wear earrings in their wigs, not in their ears," Hawass said, who has worked in the field for 35 years. He added that the male mummy found alongside the mummy said to be Nefertiti's also had pierced ears. A sculpted bust of Nefertiti, whose name means "the beautiful woman has come," is exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Her husband Akhenaten, who ruled from 1379-1362 BC, is believed to have all but killed off the idea of pharaoh as god-king in trying to impose a form of monotheism. "Nefertiti gave birth six times, so her hips should be very broad, but this mummy's hips are very narrow," said Hawass, who inspected the mummy on Friday. Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo Salima Ikram said x-rays of the mummy taken by the University of York's expedition would clarify whether it had given birth. "The evidence does not at all support the finding of Nefertiti," Ikram said in a telephone interview. "It would be very obvious from any x-rays of the mummy whether it had given birth...there would be specific markings." Hawass said Nefertiti was widely believed to be at least 35 years old when she died, but Brothwell's expedition report concluded an age range of 18-30 for the mummy. The News Source obtained a copy of Brothwell's report from the SCA.

City Battles Lovers' Padlocks

Aug 15, 10:30 am ET 

BUDAPEST  - The Hungarian city of Pecs is fighting a losing battle against padlocks which lovers are secretly clamping on statues and gates all over the city center as symbols of their enduring affection.

The curious tradition dates back to the early 1980s when lovers began fixing single padlocks, without any markings, on a wrought iron fence in the heart of Pecs, which has a magnificent cathedral and ancient Christian tombs.

With no room now left on the fence, couples, both locals and tourists, are fastening their love tokens on anything that will hold a padlock, including statues.

The city management firm first tried removing the padlocks, then launched a campaign to discourage the practice, and now, in a final act of desperation, plans to erect an new iron fence exclusively for love padlocks, news agency MTI reported.

But the fence is not likely to work. "This would kill the essence of the padlocking habit, its spontaneity and people's feeling that they are secretly leaving their mark," said art historian Ferenc Romvary.

Head Separated from Body of Ted Williams

Aug 14, 10:28 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - The head of baseball legend Ted Williams is being held in a separate container than the rest of his body at an Arizona cryonics laboratory, and several samples of his DNA are missing, Sports Illustrated said in its latest issue.

Williams' head is being held in a silver can while the rest of his body is in a nine-foot-tall steel tank, according to the report on newsstands on Wednesday.

Williams' son, John Henry, had his father's body placed in cryonic suspension shortly after the Hall of Famer died on July 5, 2002. The technique cools the body to a point where physical decay essentially stops and is done in the hope that scientific advances could somehow restore the dead to life.

Sports Illustrated said its report was based on internal documents, e-mails, photographs and tape recordings from the cryonics lab, Scottsdale-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

Eight DNA samples of the 182 recorded by Alcor as having been taken from Williams are missing without explanation, the magazine reported.

Alcor is still owed $111,000 from the $136,000 pricetag to fly Williams' remains to Arizona and perform the procedure, the report said.

Williams, considered by many to be the best hitter in baseball history, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.

Microbe Can Survive at 266 Degrees
Thu Aug 14, 2:01 PM ET

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer 

WASHINGTON - Some may like it hot, but nothing likes it hotter than a weird microbe known as Strain 121. The one-celled organism, captured from a magma vent at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, can survive 266 degrees, a temperature no other known life form can tolerate. 

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The as-yet-unnamed microbe was able to reproduce and grow vigorously at about 250 degrees, the typical temperature used in autoclaves to sterilize medical instruments, said Derek R. Lovley, a University of Massachusetts microbiologist who was the senior author of a study appearing Friday in the journal Science. 

"It has been the dogma in microbiology for 120 years that that temperature would kill any living organism," Lovley said. 

But not Strain 121. 

In laboratory experiments, Lovley and his co-author, Kazem Kashefi, subjected Strain 121 to higher and higher temperatures and it survived each test. 

"We just kept increasing the temperature and it kept living," he said. "Finally, we put it into the autoclave which was supposed to kill everything, but when we pulled it out it was still alive and, in fact, had grown. It amazed us." 

Previously, the most heat tolerant organism known was Pyrolobus fumarii, a microbe recovered in 1997 from a thermal pool in Italy. 

Lovley said Pyrolobus fumarii stops growing at a temperature of 235 degrees and is killed after one hour in an autoclave at 250 degrees. 

Strain 121, however, seems to enjoy the torrid temperatures inside an autoclave. In 24 hours at 250 degrees, the microbe not only lived, but doubled in number. 

When the temperature was raised to 266 degrees, Strain 121 stopped growing, but it did survive. When the superheated specimen was cooled down to a mere 217 degrees, still above the boiling of water, the microbe was alive and able to grow. 

"It will survive that high temperature (266 degrees) but it will not multiply, at least that we could detect," Lovley said. 

Both Strain 121 and Pyrolobus fumarii are members of the unusual life domain known as Archaea. Living organisms are divided in three domains, based on their genetic makeup and cell structure. People, plants and animals are in the Eukaryotic domain, and most germs are in the Eubacteria domain. The third domain, Archaea, are microorganisms that generally live in extreme conditions of heat, cold, pressures or acidity and have a DNA structure unlike the other two. 

Strain 121 was found in samples taken from the stream of water and chemicals spewing from a natural chimney, or smoking vent, in the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the northwest coast of the United States. These chimneys, in about 1 1/2 miles of water, are built up on the ocean floor by superheated water ejected through vents from magma chambers below. They spew water heated to more than 300 degrees, along with dissolved minerals such as sulfur and iron. 

Lovley said Strain 121 uses iron oxide in the vent streams to metabolize organic molecules. In effect, he said the microbe uses iron in the same way that surface-dwelling organisms use oxygen. The very earliest forms of life on Earth, he said, could have been like Strain 121, tolerating high temperatures and using iron for metabolism. Lovley said early in the Earth's history, the planet was iron-rich and oxygen poor, so it is logical that early forms of life could have lived as Strain 121 does now at the bottom of the ocean. 

Finding a microbe that can withstand such high temperatures and pressures also increases the hope that there may be life on other planets in the solar system or elsewhere in the universe, Lovley said. 

"Raising the temperature of life increases that window where you could expect to find some other life form," he said. 

Jan Amend, a Washington University in St. Louis microbial geochemist who is not part of Lovley's team, said the discovery is important because it strengthens the case that early Earth life was sustained using ferric iron instead of oxygen. 

He said it also improves the prospects of finding life beyond the Earth. 

"Any time you have organisms that live at higher temperatures or at higher pressures, that expands the limits of possibility that there might be life elsewhere in our solar system or beyond," said Amend.

Virtual Delivery Seen as Death to Discs
Tue Sep 2,10:05 PM ET 
Add Entertainment 

By Jesse Hiestand 

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Hollywood will win the war against illegal downloading but the battlefield will be littered with casualties, including the DVD and CD formats as physical means of distributing video and audio, according to a Forrester Research study released Tuesday. 

The study predicts that in five years, CDs and DVDs will start to go the way of the vinyl LP as 33% of music sales and 19% of home video revenue shifts to streaming and downloading. 

Part of that stems from the continued proliferation of illegal file trading, which has caused an estimated $700 million of lost CD sales since 1999. But it will be due more so to efforts by the studios, cable companies and telcos to finally deliver legitimate alternatives like video-on-demand, Forrester researcher Josh Bernoff said. 

"The idea that anyone who has video-on-demand access to any movie they are interested in would get up and go to Blockbuster just doesn't make any sense," Bernoff said. "(The decline) begins with rentals, but eventually I think sales of these pieces of plastic are going to start going away because people will have access to whatever they want right there at their television set." 

While consumers with VOD capabilities should grow within five years from 10 million to 35 million, or about a third of all U.S. television households, the association that represents disc makers does not believe that output will slow. 

In fact, the Princeton, N.J.-based International Recording Media Assn. estimates that the number of DVDs replicated each year in North America will increase from a current 1.4 billion to 2.6 billion by 2008. 

CD replications, though, are forecast by IRMA to fall by 15%-18% in the next five years, about half the rate of decline estimated by Forrester. 

"The consensus in the manufacturing business is that there will be a decline, but we don't see as drastic a decline," IRMA president Charles Van Horn said. "We see growth (in video and DVD), and I don't think it will be because there are more pipelines to feed. It will be consumers buying discs." 

Analysts also caution that the shift from hard copy to virtual distribution could be more gradual. 

"People like walking into the store and seeing the product. It's part of the entertainment," Barrington Research Associates analyst James Goss said. "The studios would be just as happy to sell something in a streamed form or a hard disc form. But once you download it to your computer, you're probably going to burn it onto a CD or DVD, so you'd end up with the same optical storage issues." 

The Forrester report lists a number of winners and losers from the expected changes. 

Among the beneficiaries are Internet portals (news - web sites) that enable on-demand media services, broadband suppliers such as cable and telcos and the creative community, which would profit from the removal of manufacturing and distribution costs and constraints. AOL Time Warner's decision to sell off its disc manufacturing plants was said to be proof of this trend. 

Media conglomerates could be among the losers if they do not have control of emerging means of distribution like VOD, Forrester said. Such retailers as Tower Records and Blockbuster will certainly feel the pain as sales and rentals shrink, though they may be able to sustain business by associating themselves with newer on-demand services. Major retailers including Wal-Mart and Best Buy are expected to survive by shifting CD and DVD floor space to sales of media devices. 

The shift could also present several opportunities for companies if they move quickly. 

Television companies have about three more years to release shows on DVD. By 2006, it is estimated that negotiations will start to focus on making content available on cable and Internet "basic VOD" tiers. 

Movies studios are also urged to press the development of Internet-based alternatives to cable VOD for movies-on-demand. 

"On-demand media services have the potential to turn pirate losses into gains even as they break the disc-based shackles that now hold back entertainment," the report concludes. 

The News Source/Hollywood Reporter

Study Shows Protein Injection Sharply Cuts Appetite
1 hour, 36 minutes ago 
Add Health 

By Gene Emery 

BOSTON  - A protein found naturally in the body could bring scientists a step closer to developing a natural and effective diet pill, a new British study said on Wednesday. 

In 
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Volunteers injected with the protein PYY two hours before mealtime consumed 30 percent fewer calories when they sat down to eat, without experiencing any difference in the taste of the food or other apparent side effects. 

Injections of PYY two hours before mealtime cut the appetite of fat and skinny people, and did so without affecting the taste of the food or causing other apparent side effects. 

"PYY appears to be a major factor limiting appetite after meals," researchers from Hammersmith Hospital in London said in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites), where their study was published. 

But it could be a while before the latest PYY research benefits consumers who are overweight -- like the 59 million obese people in the United States alone. 

Long-term tests have not been done, and the protein, also known as peptide YY3-36, cannot be taken in pill form because it is quickly broken down by the stomach. 

Scientists would have to develop a more resilient form or discover a chemical that mimics PYY, which is released by the cells lining the intestine, travels through the blood and fools the brain into thinking that the body has been fed. 

PYY is one of more than two dozen hormones known to regulate appetite and energy. Among those are ghrelin, which is released by the stomach and upper intestine and causes feelings of hunger. 

'MAGIC BULLET?' 

Researchers had hoped that leptin, a hormone found in body fat, would help with weight loss after tests showed it helped limit hunger. But experiments showed that obese people have a resistance to leptin. 

The New England Journal study, led by Rachel Batterham, found that PYY did not have the same limitation. 

Two hours after PYY was given intravenously, the 12 obese patients ate 30 percent fewer calories from an all-you-could-eat buffet than they did after a salt water injection. Twelve lean volunteers ate 31 percent fewer calories. 

The effect persisted for at least another 10 hours, and even after 24 hours, people in the obese group had eaten 17 percent fewer calories. 

"We found that obese subjects were not resistant to the anorectic effects of PYY," the researchers concluded. 

They also found that PYY levels were naturally low in obese volunteers, which may be a reason why they were overweight. 

In a commentary in the Journal, Judith Korner and Rudolph Leibel of Columbia University in New York said any one substance was unlikely to be a "magic bullet" for weight loss because hunger is so complex. 

They said a successful drug would probably target "the interlocking, redundant systems that drive food intake and act to resist the loss of body fat." 

The PYY used in the study was supplied by Bachem AG of Switzerland.

Comedy Central Shops 'South Park' for Syndication
1 hour, 16 minutes ago 
Add Entertainment 

By Steve Gorman 

LOS ANGELES  - Stan, Kyle and the rest of the potty-mouthed, pint-sized gang on cable network Comedy Central's animated hit "South Park" may soon be staying up past their bedtimes on broadcast television. 

The Viacom Inc.-owned cable network and the creators of its signature show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have struck a deal with distributor Debmar Studios to sell reruns of the show into syndication on late-night TV. 

Financial terms of the deal, announced on Tuesday, were not disclosed. But Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety said potential earnings from "South Park" during its first four years in syndication could reach $100 million, making it the highest-grossing series to come off cable. 

The subversive cartoon comedy, which this season drew the writing talents of "All in the Family" creator Norman Lear, would be one of the first scripted shows to make its way into daily broadcast syndication from the world of basic cable. 

Debmar president Mort Marcus, a former TV executive at Walt Disney Co., acknowledged that the main hurdle he faces in selling "South Park" is possible hesitancy over the four-letter words that flow from the mouths of the show's crudely drawn grade-school protagonists. 

Eight or nine episodes probably contain a profanity quotient that is too high for syndication, he said. But the rest of more than 100 episodes available for sale are "perfectly suitable for broadcast, and where there's a bad word, we're going to clean it up," he said. 

BLEEP, BLEEP 

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said the cable network itself routinely bleeps out the hard-core four-letter words. Lesser vulgarity like "damn" and "ass" have already crept into the lexicon of prime-time network TV and are not expected to pose a problem for late-night syndication. 

In any event, viewers should not look forward to anything like the profanity that figured prominently in the 1999 big-screen musical adaptation, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut," which featured such songs as "Uncle Fukka" and "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch." 

"Any episode that is similar to that we would pull out of the mix," said Marcus, former president of Disney's Buena Vista Television. He added that broadcast standards overall have loosened up considerably since "South Park" caused a stir with its foul-talking young characters six years ago. 

"In 1997, we were blown away by the rawness of it, but if you watch it today, I don't think you'd feel that way," he said. "The bar's been lowered pretty substantially." 

Marcus and Comedy Central executives are touting the show's potent ratings among young adult males, an especially key demographic among late night viewers. 

"South Park" has remained the highest-rated show on Comedy Central since its debut in August 1997, averaging nearly 3 million viewers in its current season. 

A recently commissioned Nielsen Media Research study found that the show consistently finished No. 1 against broadcast competition in most of the top 20 TV markets, including New York and Los Angeles, in the battle for male viewers aged 18 to 34. 

Built around the misadventures of four elementary school kids -- Stan, Kyle, Cartman and accident-prone Kenny -- the series logged its 100th episode in April, a rare milestone on cable, where few original programs have run long enough or become popular enough to be viable in syndication.

Energy Dept Probing Price Jump at Pumps 1 hour, 14 minutes ago  

By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON  - The U.S. Energy Department is investigating a recent spike in gasoline prices to a record high, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) said on Wednesday. Abraham told a congressional committee that the 12-cent jump in just one week in the average national gasoline price heading into the Labor Day weekend prompted the department to look into the matter. "The nature of this (price) fluctuation struck me as being unusually large as well and in need of greater explanation," Abraham said. He said the power blackout that shut down several oil refineries, the disruption in a major Southwest gasoline pipeline and strong motor fuel demand were responsible for some of the jump in gasoline prices. "We'll hopefully get some additional insight into whether or not this was really a market reaction only or if other factors were involved," Abraham said. Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow told the panel that the Energy Department is working with the Federal Trade Commission in the probe. He said the gasoline supply problems caused by the blackout and the pipeline disruption "added up to a predictable increase" in pump prices. "The question is, and what we'll look into and work with our colleagues at the FTC about, is whether anybody took advantage of the situation in terms of market manipulation," McSlarrow said. Americans driving into the their last vacation weekend of the summer faced a record high national average gasoline price of almost $1.75 a gallon. Gasoline prices were above $2 a gallon in many parts of the country. The pump price heading into the busy Labor Day weekend jumped 12 cents to surpass the old record of $1.728 a gallon set on March 17, just before the start of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq (news - web sites). But on the way home drivers found some relief at the pump as the national price for regular unleaded gasoline fell a slight 0.1 cent to an average $1.746 a gallon, the Energy Department reported on Tuesday. That was still 35 cents higher from a year ago, but reflected the expected drop in gasoline prices as fuel demand begins to fall off at the end of the summer driving season.

KFC's Contest for a 'Reality Commercial' Tue Sep 2, 4:53 PM ET Add Business 

NEW YORK  - Fast-food chain KFC on Tuesday asked customers to dish up homemade "reality commercials" for a contest to spice up the advertising campaign for its fried chicken. KFC, a unit of Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM - news), has asked customers to create, direct and submit 30-second commercial spots for its "Bigger, Better Popcorn Chicken" product. The winning spot will receive a cash prize and will be aired once on prime-time television in early October, the company said on Tuesday. "It's a great way to engage our target audience because reality TV is so hot," said KFC spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer. "We want a home-video commercial." KFC's publicity campaign comes as the company overhauls its advertising strategy to boost sales. The company will be receiving new pitches from incumbent ad agency BBDO of the Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC - news) and Interpublic Group's (NYSE:IPG - news) Foote, Cone and Belding in mid-September for an account estimated at $200 million, according to published reports. In the midst of its review, KFC's chief marketing officer John Gilbert left the company last month. The restaurant chain is currently working with an executive from parent Yum Brands to shore up its marketing team. "We've borrowed Scott Bergren (as chief marketing officer)...for KFC and he will be with us until we can turn things around," Warschauer said. "We have many things in the pipeline...we are aggressively working to give customers what they want." She said that the "reality commercial" idea emerged from KFC's public relations team as it planned a new launch for the Popcorn Chicken food line. The company released this week two new commercials for the product, showing consumers making sport out of eating the bite-sized chicken.

Hawaii Beaches Harbor Dirty Secret

Aug 14, 10:30 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Some of exotic Hawaii's sandy black and white beaches harbor a dirty secret -- local officials fail to monitor them for known sources of potential pollution that could sicken visiting sun worshippers, an environmental group says.

In its annual report on water quality at U.S. beaches, the Natural Resources Defense Council designated 55 "bum beaches" -- places where water quality was rarely or never monitored for pollutants, which can transmit a variety of waterborne illnesses, including diarrhea, vomiting or ear infections.

Nineteen of those beaches were in New York and another 14 in Hawaii. The beaches that made the list did not regularly monitor beach water, had no program to notify the public when health standards were violated and had a known source of storm water or sewage-related pollution that might affect them.

Water testing was improving along the continental United States' 23,000 miles of ocean shore, but water quality was not, the environmental group said.

More than 12,000 beaches along the U.S. coast and Great Lakes were closed last year because of dirty water, with California's and Florida's waters topping the list.

91-Year-Old Man Arrested for Bank Robbery

Aug 14, 10:24 am ET 

DALLAS  - Texas police said have arrested a 91-year-old man suspected of robbing an Abilene bank, possibly making him the oldest bank robber in U.S. history.

J.L. Hunter Rountree, who goes by the nickname "Red," was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of stealing about $2,000, Abilene police said.

They said they had no records to prove it, but they thought Rountree was the oldest person ever to rob a bank in the country.

Police said Rountree, who was not armed, asked a teller to stuff money into a large envelop with the word "robbery" written on it.

A witness took down the license number of his vehicle and he was arrested on a highway about 15 miles outside Abilene. He did not resist, police said.

If convicted, Rountree faces from two to 20 years in prison. He told police he needed the money and he had a grudge against banks, said Abilene police Sgt. Mike Perry.

Rountree left a prison in Florida, where he was the oldest prisoner in the state, about a year ago after serving a three-year sentence imposed on him for a 1999 bank robbery in Pensacola.

He was caught holding up a bank in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1998 when he was 87, and given three years' probation.

Man Fails Alcohol Test, But His Dog Passes

Aug 13, 10:25 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German man of Polish origin lost his driving license after failing an alcohol test but his dog passed with flying colors, police in the western city of Koblenz said on Wednesday.

Police said the 47-year-old man failed to perform any of the required actions, only to be upstaged by his West Highland white terrier who executed all of the commands given perfectly, including a 360 degree turn as his master staggered and fell.

At the conclusion of the uneven contest, the supervising doctor announced, "Man: fail; dog: pass."

The Last Fan Standing

Aug 13, 10:10 am ET 

LONDON  - Is this the only electric fan for sale in London?

A two-week heatwave has cleared air conditioners, coolers and fans from the shelves of all the country's major hardware and electrical stores as temperatures soared above 100 degrees, breaking records stretching back two centuries.

Catalog chain Argos ripped the relevant pages from its catalogs in at least one central London store, and removed all references to cooling fans from its Web Site.

Home improvement chain B&Q had none, and neither did rival Homebase. Internet trawls yielded "out of stock."

Even iconic department store John Lewis had sold out of desktop fans and was unable to say when it would be able to restock.

"Yesterday over 3,000 people searched for 'fan' or 'fans' on our JohnLewis.com Web Site," a spokeswoman said.

But the capital had one, at least, for sale.

In an excellent illustration of the laws of supply and demand, a small electrical shop on Goodge Street in the city center was offering a 12-inch desk fan for $112. A more typical price would be $15 to $30.

But you'd better hurry. The fans -- some of which have been specially imported from China -- are selling like hot cakes.

"I had 44 yesterday. I have two left," said Danny Costello, manager of Rynnes electrical store. He sold one of them during the interview.

Friendlier Workers More Productive, Study Finds
Thu Aug 14,10:19 AM ET

By Cheyenne Hopkins 

WASHINGTON  - It may seem more professional to stay impersonal at work, but in fact friendlier employees are more productive, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. 

A comparison of the American work ethic to approaches in other countries shows that keeping an emotional distance may not be the most effective way to get the job done, said Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a psychologist who led the study. 

Friendly workers pay attention to indirect meanings, work well with other cultures and are perceived as trustworthy, Sanchez-Burks said. 

An impersonal style blinds workers from noticing differences in style. They often fail to notice nonverbal communication, Sanchez-Burks said. 

Writing in the August issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (news - web sites), Sanchez-Burks said he traded notes with colleagues at the University of Michigan, Seoul National University in Korea and the International Business University in Nanjing, China. 

Sanchez-Burks ran several experiments, having students and employees in Fortune 500 firms act out work scenarios. 

"An impersonal style tends to restrict the bandwidth of information a person attends to in the workplace," he said. 

"What is literally said will be followed closely but information about the context in which the information is conveyed -- information often critical for task success and productivity -- is lost," he added. 

"This type of miscommunication, like ships passing in the night, is further exacerbated in diverse organizations (domestically and internationally) because rarely are people with other cultural backgrounds as impersonal as mainstream Americans." 

ROOTED IN PROTESTANT BELIEFS 

This impersonal attitude at work is rooted in Protestant beliefs of putting emotion aside at the office, Sanchez-Burks said in a telephone interview this week. 

The American style of keeping things impersonal at the workplace is virtually confined to the United States, he said. 

Workers in South Korea (news - web sites), Japan and India and especially Latin American countries place high importance on personal relationships at work, he said. 

Sanchez-Burks said Latin Americans become friends with people they are doing business with first and then move onto the work while Americans work first and then become friends. 

Sanchez-Burks does not argue that Americans are completely impersonal. In social settings, the researchers found Americans to be highly friendly. 

The challenge is transferring that behavior into the workplace. 

"For a very long time, (this impersonal work ethic) has been seen as essential to the success of Western business organizations. So it's difficult to accept that staying on task may actually be a barrier to productivity in today's global environment," Sanchez-Burks said. 

Toronto museum explores the inventive history of contraceptives
Wed Aug 13,10:53 AM ET

TORONTO (NEWS SOURCE) - Many thought preventing pregnancy was a modern-day desire after the pill's introduction in the 1960s, but a museum here explores how crocodile dung, lemons and weasel testicles were once among the contraceptives used thousands of years ago. 

 

Some of the more than 600 condoms, sponges, cervical caps and other devices on display at The History of Contraception Museum here -- the world's biggest collection of contraceptive devices -- were completely ineffective, while others were simply dangerous or lethal. 

But a few proved to be somewhat effective and showed the sheer inventiveness of people, said Petra Goodhead, the museum's communications coordinator. 

The desire to avoid pregnancy dates back thousands of years -- such as the reference in the Bible's Book of Genesis to Onan's use of coitus interruptus. 

One of the first-ever written prescriptions for a contraceptive device is a 1550 BC papyrus sheet from Egypt on display, which describes a tampon made of seed wool moistened with ground acacia, dates and honey. 

Despite its primitiveness, the tampon worked in part because acacia ferments into lactic acid, an ingredient in today's spermicides. 

Three thousand years ago in India and Egypt, dung from animals thought to possess mystical powers -- such as crocodiles and elephants -- were inserted into the woman's vagina prior to intercourse to prevent pregnancies. 

While the smell may have crushed the mood, the dung actually acted as a crude blocking agent and its high acidity was thought to provide some spermicidal reaction, the museum noted. 

Superstitions also played a major role in trying to ward off pregnancy in the Middle Ages, but many were ineffective. 

Women strapped amulets containing mule's earwax, weasel's testicles and a bone taken from the right side of a totally black cat to body parts to avoid pregnancy. 

"If one takes the two testicles of a weasel and wraps them up, binding them to the thigh of a woman who wears also a weasel bone on her person, she will no longer conceive," reads one passage among the museum's 11 display cases, which include authentic contraceptive items. 

The collection, gathered by former president of Ortho Pharmaceutical and present curator Percy Skuy, includes condoms made of sheep's intestine, a 14-karat gold intracervical device, some 350 intrauterine devices and natural sea sponges that had been dipped in acidic solutions. 

Half of a lemon, for instance, was reportedly advocated by Casanova in the mid-1700s for use by women as a cervical cap-like device. 

Even with the pulp extracted, "the occlusive nature of the lemon and or citric acidity may have provided efficacy," the museum said. 

More dangerous contraceptives included the drinking of lead and mercury by Chinese women thousands of years ago, which often led to sterility or death. 

The use of a six-sided wooden block - known as a pessary -- as a barrier in the vagina was later condemned as an "instrument of torture" in the 1930s. 

The museum also outlines contraceptives used presently in China and futuristic contraceptive methods, including a contraceptive nasal spray. 

Modern day contraceptive oddities, such as candy wrappers (used by Australian boys as condoms in the early 1990s), plastic wrap and a teapot top used for a diaphragm, are also included. 

The museum, opened in 1966 and located in the northern Toronto headquarters of birth control pill manufacturer Janssen-Ortho, contains no brand name products, except for a few decades-old condom packages, including one labeled "Anti-baby condom." 

The collection has traveled to Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Singapore, Spain and Switzerland and may travel to Britain next year.

Comic's New Album Blasts Telemarketers 
Tue Aug 12,11:28 AM ET

By JOSHUA HAMMANN, News Source Writer 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The federal government's do-not-call list should save millions of Americans from pesky telemarketers, but Tom Mabe had to take it one step further. 

The comedian and jingle-writer goes on the offensive on "A Wake-Up Call for Telemarketers," his new CD being released Tuesday. Last year, Mabe traveled to Washington, D.C., for a telemarketers convention and stayed at their hotel. He waited until the wee hours of the morning - and started dialing. 

Telemarketer: "Hello. Hello." 

Mabe: "Hi, this is Tom Mabe. I'm calling on behalf of the Telemarketers With Insomnia Foundation. How are you doing this evening sir?" 

Telemarketer: "Excuse me?" 

Mabe: "This is Tom Mabe. I'm calling with the Telemarketers With Insomnia Foundation. We call you at this hour only so you can better understand what these poor telemarketers with insomnia go through." 

Telemarketer: "You're an idiot." 

Mabe: "Sir with your help, we can help some of these telemarketers get some rest." 

Telemarketer: "You're an absolute idiot." 

Mabe: "I don't appreciate you calling me an idiot." 

Telemarketer: "Well I don't appreciate being called at this hour. You're an idiot." 

Mabe manages to ask the increasingly agitated victim for his credit card number before the phone slams down. 

While Mabe, 36, was commuting from his Louisville home to Nashville, Tenn., to write jingles and television theme songs, he said most of his inspiration struck at night, leaving him to sleep during the day. When the phone rang, almost every call was from a telemarketer. 

"They wouldn't take no for an answer," Mabe said. "I tried to be nice but nothing worked." 

Eventually, Mabe started luring telemarketers into embarrassing and awkward situations with his quick tongue, which provided the material for his first two comedy CDs. 

He revisits the gag on his new disc. Mabe asks one caller to wait a moment while he sees who is at the door. Listeners then hear Christmas carolers, followed by a series of shotgun blasts and murderous shrieks. 

Mabe then asks the confused telemarketer - who was selling a service that pays your credit card bill if you are incapacitated - if the system works for people in prison. 

"Telemarketers tell you that they are just doing their job, but some of them will rip you off," he said. Anyway, "telemarketers hate telemarketers." 

The Federal Trade Commission begins enforcing its do-not-call list Oct. 1; millions of people have already signed up. Admittedly, it will cut into Mabe's act. But as telemarketing evolves - "When you call suicide hot lines, they'll try to sell you prearranged funeral packages," he predicts - so will Mabe. 

"I'm going after (spam) e-mail next," he warns. "I have no idea how, but I'm going to get them."

Parkinson's Drug Side-Effect -- Gambling?
Mon Aug 11, 5:03 PM ET 
Add Health 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - A drug given to Parkinson's patients may have an unexpected side-effect -- compulsive gambling, U.S. researchers said on Monday. 

In  Overcoming Depression 
------------------------------------------------------------------------ More from : � Check your symptoms

� How is it diagnosed?

� New treatments

An unusually large number of patients taking Mirapex gambled themselves into debt, while patients taking other drugs did not, the team at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center in Phoenix, Arizona reported. 

Dr. Mark Stacy and colleagues studied more than 1,800 Parkinson's patients for a year. 

Of the 529 patients who got Mirapex, sold by Pfizer subsidiary Pharmacia and Co. under the brand name pramipexole, eight developed serious gambling addictions, Stacy and colleagues reported. 

"Seven men and two women were found to have gambling behavior severe enough to cause financial hardship, and two patients reported losses greater than $60,000," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Neurology. 

"No subjects on levodopa therapy alone or on any other ... regimen were found to have symptoms of obsessive or excessive gambling." 

The ninth gambling patient was taking another Parkinson's drug, pergolide. 

"The risk of gambling problems in a Parkinson's patient is very small," Stacy cautioned in a statement released by the American Academy of Neurology (news - web sites), which publishes Neurology. 

"However, it may be appropriate for doctors to inform patients of this potential risk, particularly in their patients taking relatively high dosages of a dopamine agonist, and with a documented history of depression or anxiety disorder." 

Mirapex and pergolide, sold by Irish drugmaker Elan under the brand name Permax, are both dopamine agonists -- they activate the ability of brain cells to use dopamine. 

Parkinson's disease (news - web sites), which affects about 1.5 million Americans, is caused when brain cells that produce dopamine die. No one knows why, but dopamine is an important message-carrying chemical involved in movement. 

Symptoms start out with shaking and can progress to paralysis. There is no cure although a number of drugs can make symptoms better for a while. 

The drugs eventually cause severe side-effects, which become worse than the disease itself. 

Most of the patients were in advanced stages of the disease, said Stacy, who is now at Duke University in North Carolina, although none had a previous history of gambling. 

Stacy's team noted that the patients they treated lived in Phoenix, with opportunities for gambling nearby. That could be a factor, they said. 

The rate of pathological gambling found in the 529 pramipexole patients was 1.5 percent, only slightly higher than the reported rate in the general population, which ranges from 0.3 to 1.3 percent. 

For most patients, the gambling behavior got better after their drugs were changed. 

"However, this clinical observation suggests that higher dosages of dopamine agonists may be a catalyst to bringing out this destructive behavior," Stacy said. 

The researchers did not say how the drugs might cause gambling. 

Franken Makes Light of Fox Slogan Lawsuit 
2 hours, 21 minutes ago

By HILLEL ITALIE, News Source National Writer 

NEW YORK - Al Franken, the humorist being sued by Fox News Channel for use of the phrase "fair and balanced," said Tuesday he doesn't mind the legal action. 

But he does wish it hadn't happened during his vacation. 

Fox sued the former "Saturday Night Live (news - Y! TV)" performer and his publisher, the Penguin Group, to stop them from including "fair and balanced" in the title of his upcoming book. 

Filed Monday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the trademark infringement lawsuit seeks to force Penguin to rename "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," scheduled for release next month. It also asks for unspecified damages. 

Fox News registered "Fair & Balanced" as a trademark in 1995, the lawsuit said. 

"I normally prefer not to be out of the country on vacation when I'm sued. However, from everything I know about law regarding satire, I'm not worried," Franken, who has not filed a response in court, said in a statement released Tuesday. He is vacationing in Italy. 

Franken also thanked Fox "for all the publicity." As of Tuesday night, "Lies" had reached No. 4 on the bestseller list of Amazon.com, one ranking ahead of the latest Harry Potter book. 

In its court papers, Fox described the author and liberal commentator as "neither a journalist nor a television news personality. He is not a well-respected voice in American politics; rather, he appears to be shrill and unstable. His views lack any serious depth or insight." 

Fox alleged that Franken was "either intoxicated or deranged" when he attacked the network and conservative host Bill O'Reilly at an April press correspondents dinner. The lawsuit also says that Franken has been described as "increasingly unfunny." 

"As far as the personal attacks go," Franken responded, "when I read `intoxicated or deranged' and `shrill and unstable' in their complaint, I thought for a moment I was a Fox commentator. 

"And by the way, a few months ago, I trademarked the word `funny.' So when Fox calls me `unfunny,' they're violating my trademark. I am seriously considering a countersuit."

Heatwave Claims Frostbite Victim

Aug 12, 10:39 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's heatwave, which has claimed dozens of sunburn and heat exhaustion victims, has now produced its first case of frostbite.

A motorist was diagnosed with the condition after driving with his toes too close to the air conditioning vent on the 250 mile journey from London to Manchester.

One of his toes started to turn black and another went blue.

"It was incredibly hot," Mike Ball, 46, told the Guardian newspaper. "I slipped off my shoe and sock because my car is an automatic and I don't need to use my left foot.

"I didn't realize anything was wrong until the next day when my foot was extremely painful."

Ball went to his doctor and was prescribed a cure for mild frostbite. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Cat-In-The-Hat Sent Home by U.N. Copyright Body

Aug 12, 10:36 am ET 

GENEVA  - The Cat in the Hat, world-famous children's cartoon-and-verse hero whose antics wreak havoc for youngsters he tries to help, won the right to a Web site matching his name Monday through the U.N. copyright agency.

But not before he had caused mighty confusion -- worthy of the madcap books by late U.S. artist Dr Seuss -- between the estate that owns him and the creator of a "copy-cat" site on the Internet, thecatinthehat.com.

Dr Seuss Enterprises, L.P., of La Jolla, California, told the U.N.'s WIPO -- which manages a system to settle site-name disputes -- that the Caribbean-based site owner had initially agreed to give up the site around nine months ago.

Chris Saunders of St Kitts and Nevis suggested a nice gesture in return would be a few Dr Seuss books and t-shirts for his nephews, aged five and seven, for whom he said he had set up the site.

But then came a Seuss-like twist in the tale. The registrar which had accepted the site, joker.com, declined to unregister it and the correspondence, in October and November last year, petered out.

An arbitrator for WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, ruled that the site had been set up in bad faith and should be returned to the estate forthwith.

Dr Seuss himself, real name Theodor Geisel, died in 1991.

'Iceman' was murdered, science sleuths say Tue Aug 12, 6:21 AM ET  - USA TODAY 

By Tim Friend, USA TODAY The 5,300-year-old "Iceman" discovered in 1991 in the Italian Alps was killed by one or more assailants in a fight that lasted at least two days, shows evidence obtained by sophisticated DNA testing and old-fashioned detective work. Scientists initially presumed that the Stone Age Iceman, nicknamed Otzi, was caught in a storm and froze to death. But a new team said Monday that Otzi's case instead has become the world's oldest, and coldest, murder case. "We've been working round the clock for the last three weeks to get these results," DNA specialist Thomas Loy of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, told USA TODAY Monday by phone from a laboratory in Bolanzo, Italy. "It was very exciting when the blood samples came back positive for human DNA from four separate individuals." Otzi's naturally mummified body, the oldest found so far, became a worldwide sensation in 1991 after two Austrian mountain climbers saw it in a thawing glacier at 10,500 feet on the Hauslabjoch Alpine pass at the Italian/Austria border. Nearby artifacts included a copper blade ax, a bearskin cap, shoes of bearskin and woven grass, a quiver of arrows, and a knife In 2001, an Italian radiologist found an arrowhead embedded in Otzi's shoulder. Otzi had been hit from behind and managed to pull out only the shaft. That discovery led Eduard Egarter, Bolanzo's chief medical examiner and curator of Otzi's body, to look for more evidence of a fight. Alois Pirpamer, one of the climbers who found Otzi, told Egarter that the Iceman had been clutching a knife in his right hand at the time of the discovery. The knife came loose when the body was pulled from the ice. Pirpamer says he told the Austrian scientists that Otzi was holding the knife, but was ignored. Egarter matched the knife to the hand and found a deep gash on the hand that had been missed in previous studies. He then found another cut on the left hand and bruises on the torso, as if Otzi had been beaten. Documentary filmmaker Brando Quilici, who was making a second film for the Discovery Channel on the Iceman, suggested bringing in Loy to look for microscopic blood samples that might belong to the attackers. Blood from one person was found on the back of Otzi's cloak, and blood from two people was found on the same arrow in his quiver. More blood was on the knife. Quilici says the team suspects blood on the back of the cloak may have come from a wounded colleague that Otzi was carrying over his shoulder. Loy says blood of two people was found on the same arrow, suggesting Otzi killed both men and retrieved the arrow. With Europe gripped in a heat wave, Quilici says ice at the Alpine pass is melting fast. The team will look for more bodies there on Aug. 28. A one-hour documentary about the new findings, Iceman: Hunt for a Killer, airs at 9 p.m. Aug. 24 on the Discovery Channel. 

Fox Sues Humor Writer for Using 'Signature' Slogan Tue Aug 12, 4:09 AM ET

NEW YORK  - Fox News Network is suing humor writer Al Franken for trademark infringement over the phrase "fair and balanced" on the cover of his upcoming book, saying it has been "a signature slogan" of the network since 1996. According to court papers made available on Monday, Fox is seeking a temporary or permanent injunction against Franken and publisher Penguin Group to stop them using the phrase in connection with the book to be published next month. The network, part of the News Corp group, also asked Manhattan Supreme Court for compensatory and punitive damages. The title of liberal satirist Franken's new book is "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." At the bottom of the planned cover is the tag line, "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Fox claims the use of the phrase is intended to confuse the public and boost book sales. In the lawsuit, Fox said the network was created "as a specific alternative to what its founders perceived as a liberal bias in the American media." A spokeswoman for Penguin imprint Dutton, Lisa Johnson, called the lawsuit "extraordinary." "In trying to suppress Al Franken's book the News Corp is undermining First Amendment principles that protect all media by guaranteeing a free, open and vigorous debate of public issues," she said. "The attempt to keep the public from reading Franken's message is un-American and runs contrary to everything this country stands for." Franken worked as a comedy writer in the 1970s and has appeared frequently on "Saturday Night Live."

States Try to Control Noxious Hogweed 
Mon Aug 11,11:29 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By DAN NEPHIN, News Source Writer 

McKEAN, Pa. - Giant hogweed is far prettier - and far nastier - than its name. 

Likened to Queen Anne's lace on steroids and in the same plant family as carrots, the invasive species is unusual among plants because it can cause second-degree chemical burns. 

It has taken root in a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, which has a heavy concentration in Erie County. 

Because of the danger it poses, Pennsylvania has established an eradication program and a hogweed hot line for reporting sightings. Hogweed is also on the noxious weed list maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania, meaning it's against the law to grow, sell or distribute it. 

Northwestern Pennsylvania is considered to have the greatest number of hogweed plants of any of the areas where the weed has turned up. Hundreds of sites have been documented around Erie alone. It's also been found in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Washington. 

Connecticut and Massachusetts each confirmed hogweed findings in at least 14 towns, as of July. 

"We suspect that we have a lot more," said Steven Antunes-Kenyon, an environmental analyst with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. That's prompted the state to begin a public awareness campaign. 

The Pennsylvania program is led by Mike Zeller, an inspector with the state Department of Agriculture, and his partner Jason Fuller. 

On a recent morning, Fuller located a massive specimen growing against an elm tree along a field in Erie County, between McKean and Edinboro. With a machete, Zeller lopped off some small elm branches to get at the hogweed. After he chopped it, Fuller doused it with a powerful chemical concoction of weed killer. 

Using commercial weed killers, Zeller said, is "like shooting bullets at Superman." 

The specimen, well over 10 feet tall, had a green and purple-splotched hollow main stock about 3 inches in diameter. Green leaves up to several feet long grew from the stalk, which was topped with an umbrella-like spray of small white flowers. 

Margaret Corbin, an avid gardener in Erie County, fell for hogweed more than a decade ago. She saw it growing along a yard and asked the homeowners if she could have some. They didn't know where it came from, but told her she was welcome to it. 

Several years later, her small plants had grown and spread. Corbin thinned them, getting their watery sap on her leg as she chopped. Two days later, the area was red and blistered, prompting her to seek medical treatment and learn more about hogweed. She also destroyed her plants and advises people against getting too close. 

"It's just pretty nasty stuff," Corbin said. A photo of her red and blistered leg appears in the state's hogweed awareness brochure. 

"If you just bump against it, you're probably (not going to have a reaction)," said Alan Tasker, the national program manager for noxious weeds for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "But if you get the sap on you, it will definitely trigger the photosensitivity." 

The sap causes a change in human skin, effectively turning the affected area into a receptor that gathers the sun's energy and reduces resistance to sunburn, Zeller said. Exposure to sunlight causes the affected area to blister - sometimes up to several years. 

Zeller has been burned nine times, once so badly that he had a brownish-purple scar that lasted three years. Anyone exposed to the sap should immediately wash with soap and water and shield the area from sunlight for at least two weeks, he said. 

No one is certain why hogweed is so prevalent around Erie. Zeller said some of it apparently was brought over by people of Eastern European descent from the Caucasus Mountain area, where it's native. 

Tasker said Erie's climate may help hogweed do well. 

"It loves the cold," Zeller said. "It's the first plant up in spring and the last down in the fall." 

Zeller, however, doesn't think hogweed is spreading. "More people are becoming aware of what it is and are reporting it," he said. 

The goal is to rid Pennsylvania of it, hopefully in several years. 

"No plants (will) go to flower that we know of. We just attack and attack and attack," he said.

Archaeologists Dig Up Caligula's Power-Hungry Past
Mon Aug 11, 8:24 AM ET 
Add Science 

By Shasta Darlington 

ROME  - For centuries scholars have debated whether Caligula, the Roman empire's eccentric third ruler, was a megalomaniac who dared to defy the gods or a maligned emperor whose caprices were exaggerated after his death. 

The News Source Photo 

Now a group of archaeologists digging up Caligula's ancient palace say they have finally found concrete evidence that he was indeed a "maniac" who turned one of Rome's most revered temples into the front porch of his residence. 

"Everyone knows this guy was a little crazy. But now we have proof that he was completely off his rocker, that he thought he was one of the gods," Darius Arya, one of the directors of the excavation, said Monday. 

"It's like someone -- a president or a king or you know, Bill Gates (news - web sites) -- turning St. Peter's into their entrance hall," he said during a break from the dig in the Roman Forum in the heart of Italy's capital. 

Arya, director of the non-profit American Institute for Roman Culture, worked with a group of 35 young archaeologists, mostly from Stanford and Oxford universities for the initial five-week exploratory dig. 

While the remains of Caligula's palace were first excavated by archaeologists on the edge of the Forum almost a century ago, the new dig has uncovered foundations and a sewage system that prove the palace was much more massive. 

Arya said that the ruins showed Caligula's sprawling residence extended into the Forum and jutted up against the Temple of Castor and Pollux just as Roman scholars who were later written off had said. 

"It shows the palace incorporated and took over the temple," he said pointing to the three soaring fluted columns that once adorned the temple. 

"Caligula was really saying to the Roman people: 'I'm living with the gods. I'm basically one of the gods and to get to my house you've got to pass right through (the temple)." 

Ancient historians all refer to Caligula's insanity, which brought a quick end to his rule. He had been emperor for just under four years when he was murdered by officers from the very guard entrusted to protect him in 41 AD. 

Those ancient sources described him as a crazed and power-hungry ruler who demanded his horse be made a consul and ordered statues of himself erected in holy temples. 

But later historians and archaeologists suggested some of the stories could have been politically motivated by those who wanted to slander the slain emperor. 

"Now we have more information, more proof that the sources were not just speaking badly about him," Arya said. 

The head of Rome's archaeological office said he is waiting for the final documentation of the dig before passing judgment on its findings. But Arya is confident he will convince Rome when he hands over his initial report in the fall.

Man in Hospital After Missing Lottery Jackpot

Aug 20, 10:41 am ET 

ROME  - An Italian retiree felt faint and had to be taken to a hospital when he realized he had forgotten to hand in a lottery ticket that could have won him a 66-million-euro (dollar) jackpot of a lifetime.

He was so busy organizing his daughter's wedding that he forgot to take his slip to the lottery office when Europe's biggest-ever jackpot was up for grabs last week.

When he realized he had guessed the correct six-figure number, he felt faint and had to be admitted to a hospital near Rome, Italian news agencies said Tuesday. He was discharged two hours later.

The actual winning ticket for Italy's Super Enalotto, whose jackpot had been rolled over for six months, was bought just outside Milan. The lucky punter remains anonymous.

Bugs Invading People's Ears 03-Aug-2003 Insects are invading people's ears in the U.K. 82-year-old Ron Packer heard a high-pitched hum in his hearing aid that turned out to be an attack by a swarm of wasps. And Patricia McLeod had to go to the doctor to have a large moth removed from her ear. Packer disturbed a wasp's nest while gardening. When the wasps attacked him, they swarmed around his hearing aid. He was eventually stung 8 times. He says, "They stung me at the front and back of my hearing aid area and really homed in on it. I was badly stung and was left with a boxer's cauliflower ear. I couldn't wear the hearing aid for a few days or sleep on that side." Hearing aid expert Duncan Collett-Fenson says, "If Mr. Packer's hearing aid had worked its way loose during his gardening then it could have been prone to feedback. That would have made a very high-pitched whistling or buzzing sound that the wasps could have picked up on." Beekeeper Don Streatfield says, "Wasps and bees are attracted to electrical goods, particularly ones that vibrate. And they attack in swarms, because when they sting they emit a pheromone, or chemical, telling the other wasps to help them." Patricia McLeod wasn't wearing a hearing aid, but her ear attracted an insect anyway. She was falling asleep when she heard a buzzing noise. When it didn't go away, she assumed she was suffering from tinnitus, a condition that causes ringing in the ears. But when she went to the doctor a few days later, a nurse washed out her ear with a syringe and removed a two-inch long dead moth. McLeod says, "I was in my bed dozing off and I felt a fluttering in my ear, it was such a shock. I jumped out of bed and asked my husband to have a look in my ear but he couldn't see anything. It was just a horrible sound, an awful fluttering. I thought I had burst a blood vessel. It was a nightmare. I went to the doctor, I was absolutely petrified about what could have happened." Nurse Carol Hunter says, "When we syringed her ear, out of the machine and into the water came a big moth that was about one to two inches long. It was really horrible and an unpleasant experience for her. We certainly haven't had anyone in here with insects in their ears before." Gordon Spiers, of the Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World, says, "The only explanation I could possibly think for something like this is if it was a wax moth. They have been known to be attracted to honey bee colonies."

Is Anything Safe to Drink? 19-Aug-2003 There's a worldwide epidemic of arsenic poisoning from water wells, with tens of thousands of people developing skin lesions, cancers and other symptoms. Many of them have died. High levels of arsenic have been found near the river Ganges in India, one of the most heavily populated areas on the planet. Maybe people should stick to soft drinks instead- except that in India, both Coke and Pepsi contain dangerous levels of pesticides. Fred Pearce writes in New Scientist High that high levels of arsenic in groundwater have spread all the way to the Himalayas, an area that is inhabited by half a billion people. Researcher Jack Ng has found that people are at serious risk of arsenic poisoning in 17 countries around the world, including China, Vietnam, Argentina and here in the U.S. Bangladesh is the worst area, where 50 million people are at risk in what the World Health Organization thinks could become the world's worst mass poisoning disaster. In 2002, Kuneshwar Ojha, who lives close to the Ganges river, saw both his wife and mother die of liver cancer, while other family members developed skin lesions. He took water samples from the family's well to environmentalist Dipankar Chakraborti, who found high concentrations of arsenic in it. The only healthy people in the area were the Dalits, or "untouchables," because they weren't allowed to drink water from the village wells. The Center for Science and Environment (CSE) says Cokes and Pepsis made in India contain high levels of poisonous pesticides such as DDT and malathion. According to their study, "Twelve major cold drinks sold in and around Delhi contain a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues." The CSE says soft drinks in India have high levels of pesticides because the companies use untreated ground water in them. Chakraborti has found many more contaminated wells. "The same pattern we saw in Bangladesh is being repeated," he says. "There, we began with the discovery of three villages. Now thousands are known to be affected and more are being discovered all the time. Our early warnings were ignored then...We feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg." It seems like an enormous country is being slowly poisoned to death.

Herpes Can Lead to Dementia 18-Aug-2003 Three common viruses appear to increase the risk that elderly people will suffer from dementia. One of these is the widespread sexually transmitted herpes virus. People with a history of infection with at least two of the viruses-two strains of herpes and a microbe called cytomegalovirus-were twice as likely to show significant mental decline during their later years due to damaged brain cells. Cytomegalovirus was once thought to only be harmful to babies in the womb, but not to healthy adults. Neurologist Howard Gendelman says, "In elderly patients, the local infection can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Inflammation can then seep into the brain and cause a secondary inflammatory response in the brain's immune cells." This inflammation can lead to dementia. The number of people with herpes simplex virus type 2, which causes most cases of genital herpes, has increased 30% in the last twenty years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in five American adolescents and adults now have it. This is about 45 million people. And 80 to 90% of them don't know they have it, which it makes it more likely they'll pass it on. Scientists now know that brain diseases, from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's, have some connection to inflammation. However, genetics, nutrition and many other factors affect a person's susceptibility to brain inflammation.

EPA Watchdog Rips White House on NYC Air 
Fri Aug 22, 8:50 PM ET 
Add U.S. Government - 

By JOHN HEILPRIN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - At the White House's direction, the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) gave New Yorkers misleading assurances that there was no health risk from the debris-laden air after the World Trade Center collapse, according to an internal inquiry. 

President Bush (news - web sites)'s senior environmental adviser on Friday defended the White House involvement, saying it was justified by national security. 

The White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to a report issued late Thursday by EPA Inspector General Nikki L. Tinsley. 

"When EPA made a Sept. 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, the agency did not have sufficient data and analyses to make the statement," the report says, adding that the EPA had yet to adequately monitor air quality for contaminants such as PCBs, soot and dioxin. 

In all, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks and four more by the end of 2001 reassuring the public about air quality. But it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined that air quality had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels - well after respiratory ailments and other problems began to surface in hundreds of workers cleaning dusty offices and apartments. 

The day after the attacks, former EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher's chief of staff e-mailed senior EPA officials to say that "all statements to the media should be cleared" first by the National Security Council, which is Bush's main forum for discussing national security and foreign policy matters with his senior aides and Cabinet, the inspector general's report says. 

Approval from the NSC, the report says, was arranged through the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which "influenced, through the collaboration process, the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones." 

For example, the inspector general found, EPA was convinced to omit guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete. 

James Connaughton, chairman of the environmental council, which coordinates federal environmental efforts, said the White House directed the EPA to add and delete information based on how it should be released publicly. He said the EPA did "an incredible job" with the World Trade Center cleanup. 

"The White House was involved in making sure that we were getting the most accurate information that was real, on a wide range of activities. That included the NSC - this was a major terrorist incident," Connaughton said. 

"In the back and forth during that very intense period of time," he added, "we were making decisions about where the information should be released, what the best way to communicate the information was, so that people could respond responsibly and so that people had a good relative sense of potential risk." 

Andy Darrell, New York regional director of Environmental Defense, an advocacy group, said the report is indicative of a pattern of White House interference in EPA affairs. "For EPA to do its job well, it needs to be allowed to make decisions based on the science and the facts," he said. 

Marianne L. Horinko, EPA's acting administrator, said the White House's role was mainly to help the EPA sift through an enormous amount of information. 

"We put out the best information we had, based on just the best data that we had available at the time," said Horinko, who headed the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, which oversaw the World Trade Center environmental monitoring and cleanup. 

"And it was using our best professional judgment; it was not as a result of pressure from the White House," she said. "The White House's role was basically to say, 'Look, we've got data coming in from everywhere. What benchmarks are we going to use, how are we going to communicate this data? We can't have this Tower of Babel on the data.'" 

The EPA inspector general recommended that EPA adopt new procedures so its public statements on health risks and environmental quality are supported by data and analysis. Other recommendations include developing better procedures for indoor air cleanups and asbestos handling in large-scale disasters.

Teens Get Sick on Landscape Plantings

Aug 22, 9:15 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Fourteen Ohio teen-agers trying to get a free "high" off plants out of their gardens ended up in the emergency room, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The youngsters evidently thought they could get stoned by eating the seeds of a local plant called the moonflower but did not realize they were toxic, the CDC said.

"Plants with large fragrant flowers that bloom at dusk are referred to as moonflowers," the CDC said Thursday in its weekly report on death and illness.

There are several species, some of which are toxic, including Datura stramonium, commonly known as jimson weed.

The teen-agers in the Akron and Cleveland area ate the seeds of Datura inoxia, one of the toxic species.

"This may represent a new trend of substance abuse in this area," the CDC said.

The children, with an average age of 17, were all lucky in that they got medical help. They had dilated pupils, rapid pulse, hallucinations and an inability to urinate.

They were treated and their symptoms disappeared after 24 to 48 hours.

Stressed? Sign Up for National Slacker Day

Aug 21, 8:17 am ET 

LONDON  - Stressed-out Britons are set for a day of doing nothing as workers and managers alike are being urged to relax and slack off on Friday.

Organizers of National Slacker Day are calling on people to "stand up for your right to sit back down again" as a reminder that life does not revolve around the office.

With British employees working the longest hours in Europe, the campaign wants people to recognize the value of rest and relaxation.

"How can you possibly comprehend the value of your own hectic endeavor if you don't occasionally put your feet up and experience a state of complete calm," said actor and Slacker Day supporter Simon Pegg, star of comedy series "Spaced."

Organizers are also promising on their Web Site www.slackerday.com to contact blue-chip firms to urge them to set up a disciplinary framework for staff who insist on working through the slackest day of the year.

Slacker Day is now in its third year and has been moved from February to August, taking place just before a long bank holiday weekend.

Woman Hurt as Cellphone Bursts Into Flames

Aug 21, 8:33 am ET 

AMSTERDAM  - A 33-year-old Dutch woman sustained slight face and neck burns after her mobile phone burst into flames, the Amsterdam police said Thursday.

The incident, which occurred Tuesday, happened after the woman dropped her phone in a music store in central Amsterdam. It caught fire when she picked it up and switched it back on, a police spokesman said.

She was treated for superficial burns by an ambulance team that rushed to the scene.

"The battery got hot and then the phone burst into flames. It was a Nokia. We later heard she had used a replacement battery," said Jan Willem van Hofwegen of Fame Music store.

A Nokia spokesman in Helsinki said similar incidents have happened in the past and were always related to faulty batteries from independent electronics manufacturers.

"We've heard about phones that overheated, melted and, in the worst case, exploded," he said.

"In all cases it was caused by a replacement battery which was not a Nokia accessory. The manufacturers violated security requirements which should prevent it from heating up after short circuiting, for instance, after it was dropped."

He could not name any of the battery manufacturers.

Study: No Past Standing Water on Mars Thu Aug 21, 4:33 PM ET 

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer WASHINGTON - Researchers say there is virtually no evidence of limestone formation on Mars, a finding that suggests the Red Planet never had oceans or seas. That conclusion, however, does not alter the possibility of life on Mars, experts say. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University said that an instrument on NASA (news - web sites)'s Mars Global Surveyor that searched the entire planet for evidence of carbonate found only trace amounts of the limestone-like mineral. The finding means it is unlikely that Mars ever had oceans of water as some scientists have suggested, he said. "Maybe instead of calling them oceans, we should call them glaciers," said Christensen. "A frozen ocean will not form carbonate. I believe Mars has a lot of water, but it is cold and frozen most of the time. That is consistent with what we have seen." Other Mars experts said the finding makes a significant contribution to the continuing debate among scientists about how much water there was on Mars, where did it go and how did the planet's intricate patterns of river beds, carved canyons and delta fans form without huge volumes of flowing water. "This is dramatically important," Matt Golombek, a geologist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lead agency in NASA's program of Mars exploration, said of the new study. He said there is clear evidence that water flowed on Mars in the past, but yet the thin atmosphere and frigid temperatures of the planet now make liquid surface water impossible. This suggests that Mars was once warmer and wetter and with a denser carbon dioxide atmosphere. The new finding by the Arizona State researchers shows that may not have been the case, said Golombek. "If you had a warmer, wetter, thicker atmosphere, you would expect to find carbonate somewhere and so far we haven't found it," he said. "This geochemical information is in direct contradiction to an early warmer, wetter Mars." In the study, Christensen and his co-authors, Joshua L. Bandfield and T. D. Glotch, used a Global Surveyor spacecraft instrument called the thermal emission spectrometer, or TES, that was designed to search for evidence of carbonate minerals on Mars. Carbonate is formed in the presence of water and carbon dioxide. On Earth, the mineral is found in the immense deposits of limestone that are present on every continent, in soils and layers of stone formed beneath some lakes, seas and oceans. Mars' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, so it has long been believed that if the planet at one time had large bodies of water then there would have been large deposits of carbonate. But the TES found only trace amounts of the chemical. Christensen said that even though there may not have been large bodies of liquid water on Mars, some life forms could still have evolved there. "When people say there are no oceans or lakes, does that mean there was no life? Not at all," he said. "There's the possibility that ice and snow on Mars melted from time to time, forming those gullies and then refreezing again." Areas where this happened on Mars, he said, "are excellent potential abodes for life and certainly worth looking at." Golombek agreed, noting that around the edges of large deposits of ice there are small areas of liquid water that could host life. "On Earth, there are growing communities of microbes that live at the edge of glaciers where you get flashes of water, even though the dominant feature is ice," he said. Ross Irwin, a geologist with the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites), said the new finding does not eliminate the possibility that conditions on Mars once allowed for large bodies of standing water on the Red Planet. He said geological features on Mars, such as basins and river beds, were clearly carved by running water and that it is possible any carbonate formed was carried beneath the surface of the planet, beyond the detection range of the TES. "Lots of basins have been resurfaced on Mars," said Irwin. "Carbonate could be in the subsurface or buried beneath sediment. There could be extensive carbonate deposits that are difficult to locate." ___ On the Net: Science: www.sciencemag.org

Burglar Finds Bacon Head, Calls Police

Aug 19, 10:56 am ET 

LONDON  - A British burglar who stumbled on a work of art that he mistook for a human head in a pickle jar was so spooked that he summoned the police to a house he had robbed.

Conceptual artist Richard Morrison had made the head from bacon wrapped around a wire frame floating in a jar of formaldehyde.

After the burglar phoned, police bashed down Morrison's door to raid his house, near Liverpool in northern England. Morrison returned home to find that his house had been broken into twice, once by the burglar and once by the police.

"In light of the information received, it was of vital importance that we investigated, to ensure that there was nothing suspicious," Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Naylor of Merseyside Police said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The reason for the damage was explained to Mr Morrison and we apologized. Arrangements are in place to replace the door."

Morrison told The Times newspaper he understood why the burglar might have been confused by his artwork.

"It's obviously a very macabre piece of work and I suppose at a glance it looks like a head, but I never expected it to get this reaction," he said. "I gather the police were bracing themselves for a 'Silence of the Lambs' moment when they broke into my flat."

Morrison said the police told him the scare had set the burglar on the straight and narrow.

"He had a crisis of confidence and confessed his crimes to his mother."
'

Naked Man Nabbed for Seeking Shower in Car Wash

Aug 19, 10:54 am ET 

BERLIN  - German police briefly detained a 36-year-old man after he tried to shower naked in a car wash in the southern town of Fuerth.

"The man stripped off and said he wanted to take a shower, but he couldn't start the machine," a Fuerth police spokesman said Tuesday. "It wasn't a great idea. He could have been coated in car wax, scalded by hot water or rubbed raw by brushes."

The car wash owner alerted police after spotting the man gearing up for his shower among the brushes and hoses. Police said the man had been looking for somewhere to wash since losing his home at the start of the month.

Teen Dies After Prized Fish Stuck in Throat

Aug 19, 10:52 am ET 

PHNOM PENH  - A Cambodian teenager died of suffocation after a fish he caught jumped out of his hands and lodged in his throat, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Lim Vanthan, 17, and his family were planting rice at the weekend near their home on the outskirts of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's capital, when they decided to go for a swim.

During his dip, Lim Vanthan caught a prized eight-inch fish, called kantrob in Cambodian, with his hands.

But the high school student's excitement was short-lived when his catch squirmed out of his hands and jumped into his mouth, where it became stuck because of barbs running down its back.

He died of suffocation before he could receive treatment at a local clinic, the newspapers said.

"This is an accident, but it shows we must all be careful," concluded the Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea (Light of Cambodia) newspaper. "Accidents can happen at any time."

Study: Stress Leads Kids to Drug Abuse 2 hours, 35 minutes ago 

By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Boredom and a wad of cash can lead young Americans to substance abuse, according to a Columbia University survey released Tuesday. The study also found that students at smaller schools and those attending religious schools are less likely to abuse narcotics and alcohol. Young people ages 12 to 17 who are frequently bored are 50 percent likelier than those not often bored to smoke, drink, get drunk and use illegal drugs, said the study by the university's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. Those with $25 or more a week in spending money are nearly twice as likely as those with less to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs, and more than twice as likely to get drunk, the study said. High stress can also take its toll - kids suffering from stress are twice as likely as those with low stress to smoke, drink, get drunk and use illegal drugs, results showed. High stress was experienced more among girls more than boys, with nearly one in three girls saying they were highly stressed compared with fewer than one in four boys. Much of the stress was attributed to academic worries and pressures to have sex and take drugs. Kids at schools with more than 1,200 students are twice as likely as those at schools with less than 800 students to be at high risk of substance abuse, according to the study, and Catholic and other religious schools are likelier to be drug-free than public schools. The average age of first use is about 12 years for alcohol, 12 1/2 years for cigarettes and almost 14 years for marijuana, the center found. "This is an alarm call to parents," said Joseph Califano, Jr., the center's president. "You should be aware of what your kids are doing, know your child and don't underestimate your power you have over your children." QEV Analytics interviewed 1,987 kids aged 12 through 17 and 504 parents, 403 of whom were parents of interviewed kids, for the survey. They were interviewed from March 30 to June 14. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points for kids and plus or minus 4 percentage points for parents. The study also found fewer teens are associating with peers who use substances - 56 percent have no friends who regularly drink, up from 52 percent in 2002; 68 percent have no friends who use marijuana, up from 62 percent in 2002; 70 percent have no friends who smoke cigarettes, up from 56 percent in 2002. 

Tobacco Firm Tries to Lure Celeb Smokers Thu Aug 7, 8:15 AM ET 

By ANDREW BRIDGES, News Source Science Writer LOS ANGELES - A tobacco company is offering a free lifetime supply of cigarettes to celebrity smokers as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to raise the public profile of its recently launched brand. In a tersely worded pitch, Freedom Tobacco International Inc. said it was seeking to "seed" its cigarettes with adult celebrities. The appeal was made Tuesday to publicists through a Web-based network subscribed to by hundreds of public relations agencies. "To be honest, celebrities make or break your brands. If you look at who drinks what or that sort of thing, celebrity endorsements have always meant a lot," said Patrick Carroll, founder and chief executive of the New York-based company. But the marketing ploy quickly drew fire from anti-smoking activists. "Blatant tobacco industry marketing tactics like this one are very disturbing, yet they aren't very surprising to us," said Gwendolyn Young, a board member of the American Lung Association of California. "What it really shows is the tobacco industry is continuing to use these deceptive strategies to lure people of all ages into a deadly addiction." Freedom launched its first line of cigarettes in March. Called Legal (pronounced "lay-GAHL"), sales of the Colombian-made cigarettes have totaled about $500,000. Freedom paid covert actresses, called "leaners," to smoke the cigarettes in Manhattan bars and nightclubs for several weeks this spring in a New York effort to promote the fledgling brand, company spokeswoman Nancy Tamosaitis said. As of Wednesday, no celebrities, other than a group of clothing designers, had accepted Freedom's offer, Carroll said. He stressed the company was not seeking celebrities who appealed to children. "We're not looking for Barney to be our celebrity and start smoking," Carroll said. The company is also behind the Right to Smoke Coalition, a group organized to fight bans against public smoking, like the one recently enacted in New York City. Its most recent marketing tactic harkens back to the days when celebrities regularly endorsed cigarettes. Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) and Lucille Ball, for example, both appeared in advertisements for Chesterfield in the late 1940s. Actor Esai Morales, who plays Lt. Tony Rodriguez on ABC's "NYPD Blue (news - Y! TV)," said Freedom is putting "the greater greed before the greater good." "This is using our God-given talent and kind of trading on it for a corporate interest. The fact that they are willing to supply someone for life is kind of scary. It's addictive. It may be legal, but it's immoral," said Morales, who made a 2001 anti-smoking ad for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). "I don't pretend to be a saint, but I know a sin when I see it. Is there anything companies won't do?" Carroll said the company does not intend to run advertisements featuring any celebrities who might take the company up on its offer. Instead, they might be asked to appear at company-sponsored events for adult smokers, he added. Dr. James Sargent, a Dartmouth Medical School pediatrician who studies the effects of on-screen smoking on youth, said a celebrity who smokes a particular brand can be a powerful marketing tool. "If I put myself in the place of an executive, I would be doing this because this is probably the most powerful way to launch a brand. If he can get several major figures to use the brand, and especially use it in a movie or two, that is the best advertisement he can buy," said Sargent, who believes such endorsements should be outlawed. The celebrity campaign could backfire for Freedom, said Paul Bloom, a professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "My reaction is that it is completely contrary to how all the other members of the industry are behaving right now," Bloom said. Celebrities who smoke have attracted public criticism in recent years. Whoopi Goldberg, who plays a smoker on her forthcoming sitcom, "Whoopi," is among the latest. Dartmouth's Sargent offered a dim view of celebrities who might respond to the appeal. "Any star that makes literally millions of dollars in movies that would be willing to endorse a cigarette for a lifetime supply has to be either corrupt or stupid," he said. "Why do that? Why be responsible for even one child taking up smoking?"

HELP FOR FIBROMYALGIA Joan Romano writes, "I have fibromyalgia and my sister-in-law does also." I started taking OPC-3 about a year ago and she also did shortly after me. I experienced dramatic results with my fatigue within a week. It took a week for her to see the swelling going down in her legs and feeling better with the muscle aches. I started with two caps a day and now I take two in the AM and two in evening, My sister in law was only taking one cap a day and has increased to two caps a day. She just told me, a few days ago, that she has realized that in the last three weeks, she has been pain free! It looks like OPC-3 is doing its job in scavenging those free radical cells. When I am having a bad day, I add a few more capfuls. Hope this helps. Thanks to Joan Romano Clinton, CT Isotonix OPC-3, is a patented break thru in winning the war against aging and disease. It is a powerful combination of plant-derived bioflavonoids. Its made from a unique combination of grape seed, pine bark, red wine extracts, in addition to bilberry and citrus extracts. These OPC's are super-effective free radical neutralizers. They can change your life, they did mine! OPC-3

Car That Can Park Itself Put on Sale by Toyota
Mon Sep 1, 7:04 AM ET 
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TOKYO  - A car that can park itself without the driver having to touch the steering wheel, said by maker Toyota Motor Corp. (news - web sites) to be a world first, went on sale in Japan on Monday. 

The News Source Photo 

Toyota's new hybrid gasoline-electric Prius sedan uses electrically operated power steering and sensors that help guide the car when reversing into parking spaces. 

Toyota President Fujio Cho sat in the driver's seat at a demonstration laid on for the press, surprising reporters by holding his hands up as the car quickly parked itself. 

"I forgot to put on the brake," Cho said. "But it's easy." 

The new Prius five-seat passenger model is said by Toyota to be more fuel-efficient and cheaper than its predecessors. Rivals General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co will launch their first hybrids later this year. 

Toyota said it expects to sell 76,000 new Prius worldwide in 2004, counting on growing demand for environment-friendly cars. 

The sales target is more than double the annual figure for the Prius for the past two years of around 28,000 units. Toyota, the world's third-largest auto maker, has sold about 120,000 of the cars since its launch in December 1997. 

"Development of eco-friendly cars is a key to our future growth strategy," Cho told reporters. 

Toyota aims to sell 36,000 units at home, 35,000-36,000 in the United States and 4,000-5,000 in rest of the world next year, he said. 

The new model sells for 2.15 million yen ($18,430) in Japan, against 2.18 million yen previously. The intelligent park assist system is offered as an option, at an additional cost of 230,000 yen which includes a DVD navigation system. Toyota has set itself a goal of producing 300,000 of the eco-friendly hybrid vehicles a year by 2005 or 2006.

Experts: World Facing Diabetes Catastrophe Mon Aug 25, 3:17 PM ET Add U.S. National 

By Emelia Sithole PARIS  - More than 300 million people worldwide are at risk of developing diabetes and the disease's economic impact in some hard-hit countries could be higher than that of the AIDS (news - web sites) pandemic, diabetes experts warned on Monday. In a report released at the International Diabetes Federation conference in Paris, experts estimate the annual healthcare costs of diabetes worldwide for people aged 20 to 79 are at least $153 billion. "In some countries with a higher incidence, diabetes has a higher economic impact than AIDS," Williams Rhys, professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Wales, told a news conference. According to the Diabetes Atlas report, total direct healthcare spending on the disease worldwide will be between $213 billion and $396 billion by 2025, if predictions are correct that the number of people with diabetes will rise to 333 million by 2025 from 194 million. Diabetes occurs in two basic forms: type I, which occurs in children and adolescents and accounts for five-10 percent of all diabetes cases, and the more common type II, or adult onset diabetes. Patients with type I diabetes do not produce enough insulin while those with type II produce insulin but cannot use it effectively. Adult onset diabetes can often be prevented or controlled in its early stages with careful diet and exercise, but patients often need a range of drugs to control it. Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, disability and death. HEALTHIER FOODS More than 75 percent of diabetes cases are expected to be in developing countries by 2025 because of rapid culture and social changes as well as increasing urbanization. This is expected to further burden healthcare systems already stretched by the AIDS pandemic. "What AIDS was in the last 20 years of the 20th century, diabetes is going to be in the first 20 years of this century," said Paul Zimmet, foundation director of the International Diabetes Institute. Zimmet and other experts say the diabetes epidemic will be fueled by an estimated 314 million people with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or higher than normal blood glucose levels -- a high risk condition for developing type II diabetes. They also warn that type II diabetes was increasing in children and adolescents in many countries and is linked to rising obesity. They urged food companies -- especially those who make fast foods -- to produce healthier foods and governments to set up national campaigns to combat diabetes. "We are running out of time," IDF President-elect Pierre Lefebvre warned during a news conference. "If action is not taken now to stop the rise in diabetes, there is a significant risk that governments and social security (news - web sites) systems may fail to ensure the appropriate care to the millions who will be affected by diabetes in 2025," he said.

California Court Rules for DVD Industry 1 hour, 29 minutes ago

By DAVID KRAVETS, News Source Writer SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts may block Internet users from posting codes that could be used to illegally copy DVD movies, in a case that pitted trade secret rights against free speech. The justices did not resolve whether the code was in fact a trade secret, leaving that for a lower court to determine. They did rule, however, that they would not tolerate the posting of legitimate trade secrets online and reversed a lower court that said disseminating trade secrets was protected free speech. The case centered on San Francisco computer programmer Andrew Bunner, who in 1999 posted the code to crack the encryption technology and, according to the movie industry, helped users replicate thousands of copyright movies per day. The DVD Copy Control Association, an arm of Hollywood studios, said it controls the encryption system, which scrambles data to prevent unauthorized copying of a movie sold in the DVD format. The association sued Bunner and others under California's Uniform Trade Secrets Act. A San Jose judge ordered Bunner to remove the encryption-cracking code from the Internet. But the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose lifted that injunction, a move the DVD Copy Control Association said was akin to giving crooks the technology to reproduce protected material such as movies on a large scale. The court of appeal ruled that protecting trade secrets is not as important as "the First Amendment right to freedom of speech." A unanimous Supreme Court, however, ruled otherwise Monday. Justice Janice Rogers Brown, in reversing the appeals court on a 7-0 vote, said an order to remove the code "does not violate the free speech clauses of the United States and California constitutions." The case is not fully resolved, however, because the Supreme Court also ordered the San Jose appeals court to analyze whether the code is still a protected trade secret given its widespread exposure. The DVD association hailed Monday's decision. "This opinion has wide applications to trade secret law," said association attorney Robert G. Sugerman. "Owners of trade secrets can now protect those trade secrets through injunctive relief, which is clearly now available." During oral arguments three months ago, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined the group in arguing that industry secrets would be plundered if computer users could post them without court intervention. Companies including Boeing Co., Ford Motor Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc. urged the justices to side with the DVD association, arguing that trade secret protections trump First Amendment speech protections. Bunner did not devise the decryption code, but instead posted it on one of his Web sites. The Norwegian teen who cracked the code, Jon Johansen, was acquitted in Norway in January of charges he stole trade secrets. Bunner, 26, said he has removed any reference to it from the Internet and is fighting the case to stand up for free speech rights. He is one of dozens of people throughout the United States that the association is suing for posting the code. He said Monday he believed his actions were lawful, and said he posted the code to let others play DVDs on their computers. "The idea was to get it out there for an open-source DVD player," Bunner said. His attorney, David A. Greene, said the appeals court could still ultimately support Bunner's actions because the code's global dissemination may not grant it status as a trade secret anymore.

Wellstone Crash Victims Reach Settlement 1 hour, 16 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

MINNEAPOLIS - Family members of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and five other passengers killed in an October plane crash have reached a $25 million insurance settlement with the company that operated the flight, an attorney for the families confirmed Thursday. Roberta Walburn, who along with Mike Ciresi represented the families of all six passengers who died in the Oct. 25 crash, said the settlement would avert a lawsuit by their clients against Aviation Charter Inc. of Eden Prairie and its affiliated companies. The National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) has not determined the cause of the crash, although preliminary reports released by the safety board this spring suggest pilot error. Walburn on Thursday confirmed a report in the Star Tribune in which she said her and Ciresi's investigation determined that pilot error brought down the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air A100 as it approached Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport en route to a funeral that Wellstone planned to attend. The lawyers told the newspaper that flight captain Richard Conry and co-pilot Michael Guess "failed to maintain appropriate power and airspeed." They also said the company was negligent in hiring, supervision, training and retention of the crew. Mike Lindberg, attorney for Aviation Charter, confirmed the settlement but said it is not an acknowledgment of pilot error or responsibility on the part of Aviation Charter. The passenger settlements designate a specific amount of money for the families of each victim. Trustees for each victim will disburse the money under arrangements that will be subject to court approval.

Music Industry Unveils Tracking Methods 
Wed Aug 27, 5:09 PM ET

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON - The recording industry provided its most detailed glimpse to date Wednesday into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign to cripple music piracy over the Internet. 

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The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her family's computer were from compact discs she had legally purchased. 

Using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) examined song files on the woman's computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the former Napster (news - web sites) file-sharing service, which shut down in 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws. 

The RIAA, the trade group for the largest record labels, said it also found other hidden evidence inside the woman's music files suggesting the songs were recorded by other people and distributed across the Internet. 

Comparing the Brooklyn woman to a shoplifter, the RIAA told U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola that she was "not an innocent or accidental infringer" and described her lawyer's claims otherwise as "shockingly misleading." The RIAA papers were filed in Washington overnight Tuesday and made available by the court Wednesday. 

The woman's lawyer, Daniel N. Ballard of Sacramento, Calif., said the music industry's latest argument was "merely a smokescreen to divert attention" from the related issue of whether her Internet provider, Verizon Internet Services Inc., must turn over her identity under a copyright subpoena. 

"You cannot bypass people's constitutional rights to privacy, due process and anonymous association to identify an alleged infringer," Ballard said. 

Ballard has asked the court to delay any ruling for two weeks while he prepares detailed arguments, and he noted that his client - identified only as "nycfashiongirl" - has already removed the file-sharing software from her family's computer. 

The RIAA accused "nycfashiongirl" of offering more than 900 songs by the Rolling Stones, U2, Michael Jackson and others for illegal download, along with 200 other computer files that included at least one full-length movie, "Pretty Woman." 

The RIAA's latest court papers describe in unprecedented detail some sophisticated forensic techniques used by its investigators. These disclosures were even more detailed than answers the RIAA provided weeks ago at the request of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who has promised hearings into the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders. 

For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital fingerprints, called "hashes," that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on the Napster service as far back as May 2000. Examining hashes is commonly used by the FBI (news - web sites) and other computer investigators in hacker cases. 

By comparing the fingerprints of music files on a person's computer against its library, the RIAA believes it can determine in some cases whether someone recorded a song from a legally purchased CD or downloaded it from someone else over the Internet. 

Copyright lawyers said it remains unresolved whether consumers can legally download copies of songs on a CD they purchased rather than making digital copies themselves. But finding MP3 music files that precisely match copies that have been traded online could be evidence a person participated in file-sharing services. 

"The source for nycfashiongirl's sound recordings was not her own personal CDs," the RIAA's lawyers wrote. 

The recording industry also disclosed that it is examining so-called "metadata" tags, hidden snippets of information embedded within many MP3 music files. In this case, lawyers wrote, they found evidence that others - including one user who called himself "Atomic Playboy" - had recorded the music files and that some songs had been downloaded from known pirate Web sites. 

An RIAA vice president, Jonathan Whitehead, said evidence proved the Brooklyn woman was "hardly an unwitting or passive participant in the events that involve her computer." 

The recording industry has won approval for more than 1,300 subpoenas compelling Internet providers to identify computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet. 

The RIAA has said it expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages as early as next month. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA has said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants. 

The campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files. 

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) permits music companies to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected music pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office, without a judge's signature required.

Moonshine Alive, but Not Well, in Atlanta

Aug 27, 10:25 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - A cluster of patients who showed up at hospital emergency rooms with lead poisoning show that moonshine did not die out with Prohibition but is still popular in some cities, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

An investigation in Atlanta showed more than 8 percent of patients surveyed said they had drunk illegally distilled alcohol in the past five years or so, the researchers report in the latest issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"We were under the misconception that moonshine drinking was relatively rare these days, particularly in an urban area," Dr. Brent Morgan of the Georgia Poison Center, who led the study, said in a statement.

Morgan and colleagues started their survey after four adults showing up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta had potentially fatal lead levels in their blood.

The patients, all of whom said they had recently drunk moonshine, had seizures, a hallmark of lead poisoning, abdominal pain, kidney problems, ulcers, and anemia.

Lead gets into moonshine when certain containers are used to make or store it. Car radiators were once notorious for producing poisonous brew.

"These four patients made us realize that perhaps lead exposure from moonshine was being overlooked in the emergency department," Morgan said.

His team surveyed 531 people in the Atlanta area, of whom 8.6 percent reported they had tasted moonshine within the past five years.

Of them, more than a quarter had drunk some of the harsh liquor within the previous week.

These patients were very likely to have high levels of lead in their blood. Moonshine drinkers were more likely to be men between ages 40 and 59 and heavy alcohol users.

"To our knowledge, our study is the first to provide rates of moonshine consumption, which was higher than we expected," Morgan said.

Thousands of 'Liberated' Minks Rounded Up

Aug 27, 10:25 am ET 

SEATTLE  - More than 9,000 minks set free from a Sultan, Washington, fur farm by an animal liberation group this week were back in their pens but hundreds more were still roaming the nearby woods, police said.

Police and volunteers helped Roesler Brothers Fur Farm workers capture the foot-long critters, worth about $40 apiece, with nets, snares and their bare hands.

"They're not real tame -- they'll bite if you pick them up," Sultan Police Chief Fred Wasler told The News Source Tuesday by telephone. "I've never been around minks, so I'm far from an expert and I got bit a few times before I learned how to pick them up."

Workers found holes cut in fences surrounding the farm and all of the cages opened, though thousands of the animals never ventured from their pens.

Local news outlets received e-mails from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which has struck fur farms across the U.S. Northwest, claiming to have released the minks.

Since ALF is considered a domestic terrorist group by law enforcement agencies, the FBI has been called in to help investigate, Wasler said.

Critics say releasing domesticated minks is more inhumane than killing them for fur, arguing that the caged animals are ill-equipped to survive in the wild, even in the rich woodlands of western Washington.

"They found four or five squashed on the highway," Wasler said. "A lot of them just milled around the open cages."

Postman Convicted for Keeping 61,000 Letters

Aug 27, 10:24 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German court handed a former postman a 10-month suspended jail sentence and 200 hours community service for failing to deliver around 61,000 letters, authorities said Wednesday.

Police discovered mounds of post that had accumulated over two-and-a-half-years filling the rooms and basement of the 36-year-old's house after locals complained about missing deliveries. The man resigned his job.

"He said he had too many letters to deliver on his round," said Bernd Lottes, spokesman for the court in the western town of Neuss. "He was hoping to deliver the other stuff when he had a bit of breathing space."

Callers Vent to Artist Group's 'Swearline'

Aug 27, 10:23 am ET 

CHICAGO  - You have until Monday to vent your spleen or display your expletive skills for posterity.

So far, more than 500 callers have dialed "Swearline" to record their diatribes in answer to a year-long appeal by Lucky Pierre, a five-artist Chicago collective.

A selection of the recordings will end up on compact discs and put in a jukebox, possibly to be displayed in a willing art gallery or museum. Some examples, most laden with repeated variations on the f-word, are viewable on the group's Web site, http://www.luckypierre.org.

"A lot of people who call will put curses to a tune. One guy had composed a little song and played the piano while talking into the phone," Lucky Pierre member Bill Talsma said.

The calls, most less than the maximum three minutes long, vary widely, Talsma said. "From single words to long drawn-out diatribes, people voicing their opinions about sex and love and politics and work and all that stuff."

The group takes some of its inspiration from the 1960s-era Fluxus movement, which challenged artists to respond to everyday life and to depict artistic activity "between the media."

The Lucky Pierre artists, who hold day jobs ranging from college music professor to marketer of promotional products, have previously held 12-hour performances of volunteers reciting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" against a backdrop of a continuous running of the films "Easy Rider" and "Woodstock."

Its current project: videotaping people eating recreations of the last meals of Texas death row inmates culled from the Texas prison Web site.

Thousands Ask for Spoiled Milk Money

Aug 27, 10:21 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Thousands of New Yorkers may be crying over spoiled milk when they find their utility is not going to pay for food ruined by a colossal power blackout earlier this month.

An official-looking form circulating on the Internet claims that New York utility Con Edison will reimburse residents up to $350 for household food that spoiled during the power outage, which darkened refrigerators for up to 29 hours beginning August 14.

"It's not true," said Joe Petta, a spokesman for Consolidated Edison Inc. unit Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc.

"There is a claim form on our Web site, but it has always been there -- we have said since day two (of the blackout) that we are not liable."

Con Edison has said the blackout likely originated outside its service area.

Petta said Con Edison, which provides power to more than nine million people in and around New York City, has been inundated with thousands of the spoiled food claim forms.

Soothsayers See Doom, Gloom in Closeness of Mars

Aug 27, 10:20 am ET 

By Ed Cropley

PHNOM PENH  - It's an historic event, one not to miss, but those who watch the sky for clues to the future of an uncertain world say little good will come of it.

Soothsayers from India and Hong Kong to a tent outside a temple in the heart of Cambodia's capital say Wednesday's close encounter with Mars spells natural or man-made disaster on Earth.

Mars, the red planet which shares the name of the Roman god of war, passed closer to Earth at 5:51 a.m. EDT than at any time in the last 60,000 years.

"This is not good. When they come close suggests some sort of clash, like a brother and sister who get too near to each other," Sy Vannak told The News Source after consulting a scattered array of playing cards.

"Something will happen within 24 hours. The problem will only be in America -- but it will be little and quick," the 41-year-old Cambodian soothsayer added on Tuesday from the depths of her incense-filled tent in Phnom Penh.

In Hong Kong, Benny Y.Y. Cheung takes a longer view, but he too predicts disaster. "There is an impact on the magnetic field, mainly in the month to and the three months after the phenomenon," he said. "There will be disasters related to fire, including wars." Wednesday's close encounter between the two planets coincides with the start of six-nation talks in Beijing to try to defuse a crisis over North Korea's nuclear programs. In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair is due to testify on Thursday at an inquiry into the suicide of a top weapons inspector and the information the Blair government used to make the case for war in Iraq.

TROUBLED TIMES

Some astrologers link the proximity of Mars to bloodshed and violence in Iraq, elsewhere in the Middle East and in Afghanistan or to a rash of terror attacks, the latest of which killed more than 50 people in Bombay on Monday.

Others predict natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. One predicted problems with snow.

In mainland China, fortune-tellers were officially banned, along with all superstition, when the Communists took power in 1949.

One Beijing newspaper mentioned Mars on Sunday, but gave only a factual account of where the planet will be in relation to Earth on Wednesday, and the best time to see it.

Today's fortune tellers in the world's most populous nation delve into events much closer to home, such as birth times and feng shui relationships between objects and their impact in everyday life.

"Mars carries quite a lot of energy and its proximity to Earth changes the forces that affect our way of life," said Edwin Ma, a feng shui master in Hong Kong. "It brings volatility and unpredictable events."

Hong Kong's Cheung said the magnetic impact fuels impetuosity. "The phenomenon will be more pronounced in places near the equator which are already hot, like India and the Middle East."

He links heatwave deaths in France and major forest fires in Canada to the approach of the red planet.

Bombay-based Bejan Daruwalla, one of India's leading astrologers, says the impact of Mars depends on individual personalities.

"Mars means energy and energy means force," Daruwalla, who has a wide following in the world's second most populous nation, said. "It can have positive as well as negative impacts. If you are a man of peace, it will have a positive impact and if you are a man of anger, it will have a negative impact."

QUICK TO ANGER

Vineet Jain, a leading New Delhi-based astrologer, said with Mars coming closer to earth the overall impact will be negative till February, after which it will become positive.

"Violence will increase as people will be less patient and get angry quickly," he added. "This could result into an increase in violence in Kashmir and worsen relations between India and Pakistan. Similarly in all conflict zones like Iraq and Palestine, things will worsen," he said, adding:

"There will be more terrorist attacks and cyber crimes."

Kishore Acharya, another Delhi-based astrologer, took an equally gloomy view. "There will be more bloodshed and the possibility of natural disasters like earthquakes and snow storms is also high."

But not everyone had Mars on their radar screen.

"I'm not an expert on astronomy and Mars," said one fortune teller who publishes her cell phone number in Xiamen in south China's Fujian province on the Internet to solicit customers.

"I guess the weather will get hotter and hotter because Mars (called "huo xing," or the fire star, in Chinese) is getting closer to Earth. That's all I can say about it," she added. 

Sunglasses to Track Body Temperature?

Aug 26, 12:32 pm ET 

SINGAPORE  - It sounds comical. An eye patch or sunglasses to read body temperature.

But new technology developed by a Yale University researcher aims to do just that, providing athletes with a constant reading of body temperature to prevent heat stroke and dehydration.

The wireless technology, unveiled in Singapore Tuesday, triggers an alarm when body temperature reaches a pre-set level -- sending a reminder to sweaty athletes to guzzle water when their body gets too warm.

Officials from Giant Wireless Technology Ltd said the Hong Kong-based company expected to launch commercial applications for the technology, known as "TempAlert," early next year.

This could take the form of an eyepatch or conventional sunglasses, they told a briefing in Singapore.

Dr Marc Abreu of the Yale School of Medicine who developed the technology said it could also be used by couples to monitor the female body for tracking fertility.

"You'll will be able to track temperature changes continuously so you'll know precisely when you're ovulating," Abreu said.

He said his research found that a small area of skin near the eyes and the nose was connected to a "thermal storage center" in the brain, and this area has the thinnest skin and the highest amount of light energy.

The patches and eyeglasses are designed to continuously measure brain temperature at this entry point.

Giant Wireless Technology said "TempAlert" could also be used to detect diseases such as the flu-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that spread early this year to about 30 countries through travelers, killing hundreds of people worldwide.

Lions' Roars Terrorize Town

Aug 26, 10:23 am ET 

BERLIN  - A mysterious crate labeled "Wild Animals" and blasting out lions' roars in a German town had locals running scared and animal lovers up in arms before it was revealed as an advertising stunt, police said Tuesday.

"The crate was right in the town center and people thought there were real lions inside," said a spokesman for police in the southwestern town of Darmstadt. "It was loud. A lot of people were really scared."

Police came to investigate after two women complained about the treatment of the animals apparently locked in the crate.

Gingerly approaching the crate, they ventured a look through a slit in its side but, instead of discovering caged beasts angrily stalking the container, they saw a promotional video for Land Rover vehicles intercut with shots of roaring lions.

A spokeswoman for Land Rover said the campaign had been running for a few months and had so far proved a success.

"We've generally only had positive feedback on it so far," she said. "We've never had this kind of response before."

Black Woman Offered White Foot

Aug 26, 10:22 am ET 

LONDON  - A black woman due to have her lower leg amputated was offered a white false foot and told she would have to pay extra if she wanted one that matched her skin, she said Monday.

Ingrid Nicholls, 46, said she was told at the state-funded hospital in Oxford, central England, that she would have to pay about $4,725 for a prosthetic limb that matched her skin color.

The cost of the white foot would have been covered by the National Health Service.

"If you've got to have an amputation, you should be allowed to have an artificial limb in the color that is relevant to your skin," she told The News Source.

"It's not cosmetic. Who would want to look like a freak, having one white leg and one black one -- nobody."

A spokeswoman for the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority said there had been an internal misunderstanding over funding and that the health service would pay for Nicholls to be fitted with the appropriate false limb.

"This has caused a real problem for this patient and we need to sort it out," the spokeswoman said. "We are sorry for the upset and hurt that has been caused."

Chefs to World Leaders Keep Mum at Paris Summit

Aug 26, 10:16 am ET 

PARIS  - When the chefs who cater to royalty and heads of state hold their annual summit, it is the gastronomic equivalent of the United Nations.

The Club des Chefs des Chefs, one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, is meeting in Paris this week to swap tips and perhaps do its bit for international relations.

"The motto of the club is that if politics divide men, good food brings them together," said club founder Gilles Bragard. "In this respect, you have here a selection of extraordinary ambassadors who do their best to ensure world peace."

Only chefs to kings, queens or heads of state are allowed in the group founded in 1977, which now counts 40 members including the chief cooks for Britain's Queen Elizabeth, President Bush and the Sultan of Brunei.

Wearing stiff pleated toques and white jackets embroidered with state symbols, the 25 members reunited in Paris were a congenial but tight-lipped bunch. Their job combines the discretion of a majordomo with the finesse of an ambassador.

"I have had aides of previous presidents tell me: 'Thanks to you, chef, we managed to conclude the signing of a treaty'," said Joel Normand, who has been feeding French presidents since the time of General Charles de Gaulle.

Once a year, the tables are turned and the chefs are wined and dined like kings. On Tuesday, they were due to attend a reception given by President Jacques Chirac's wife, Bernadette.

Normand said that while the first lady was a gifted hostess, her husband holds the apron strings. "Believe me, he knows food. Monsieur Chirac is a connoisseur," he said.

S.Africa, Australia Arrest Toothfish Ship Crew
1 hour, 31 minutes ago 
Add World 

By Toby Reynolds 

JOHANNESBURG  - Australian and South African officials boarded a ship suspected of poaching the rare Patagonian toothfish and arrested the crew Wednesday, ending a 20-day chase through Antarctic seas. 

The News Source Photo 

The Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa would be escorted on a seven-day trip to Cape Town, from where the crew of about 40 would be flown to Australia to face charges of illegally fishing for the valuable fish, an environment ministry spokeswoman said. 

The chase, with vessels dodging icebergs in rough seas, has put the spotlight on organized gangs illegally plundering the fish and earning about $2 million for a shipload of a delicacy prized in Asia and the United States. 

Ministry spokeswoman Phindile Makwakwa said the arresting officials had faced stormy weather and treacherous waters -- impediments that have hampered the hunt for the Viarsa since it was spotted in a remote Australian fisheries zone on August 7. 

"The arrests were made with six-meter swells and 40 km winds," she told The News Source, added the Uruguayan ship's crew had given up without a struggle after the long chase. 

"They were fully co-operative. There was no violence and no injuries," she said. 

The South African tug John Ross had come alongside the Viarsa late Tuesday and was joined by the Australian vessel Southern Supporter, but heavy swells had prevented officers boarding the Uruguayan ship until late Wednesday. 

The vessels were about 1,800 nautical miles southwest of Cape Town, where they would soon be joined by another South African vessel bringing supplies. 

The chase for the Viarsa has highlighted not only the plight of the toothfish -- also known as Chilean sea bass -- but also the declining state of the world's over-exploited fisheries. 

Marine conservationists warn that the deep-sea fish could become commercially extinct by 2007 because of illegal fishing.

Study Doubts Some Chocolates Good for You 2 hours, 7 minutes ago 

By CHRIS KAHN, News Source Writer After a sweaty health club workout, don't kid yourself that the candy bar in your gym bag is health food. Despite the recent buzz over the confection's heart-protecting qualities, new research suggests that not all kinds of chocolate are beneficial. European researchers say eating milk chocolate, which is most commonly used in candy bars, does not raise antioxidant levels in the bloodstream. They found the same discouraging result among patients who drank milk while eating dark chocolate. The results suggest that milk and other dairy products somehow discourage the body's ability to absorb the protective compounds in chocolate. Only subjects who ate dark chocolate showed a temporary increase in their antioxidant levels. Details of the study appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. "This puts in question the possible protective effects of (chocolate) milk shakes or ice cream or other dairy products," said co-author Alan Crozier of the University of Glasgow. Nor does Crozier endorse the idea that eating dark chocolate is healthier. It still contains plenty of fat and sugar. "Don't think by eating five or six bars a day you're doing yourself any good," he said. Cocoa beans contain plant chemicals called flavonoids, a kind of antioxidant polyphenol present in many fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. Some studies indicate flavonoids protect the heart from damaging effects of unstable oxygen compounds called free radicals that, among other things, can damage blood vessels. A German study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites) suggests that eating dark chocolate can lower blood pressure. Other experiments show cocoa flavonoids may reduce harmful blood clotting properties and decrease low-density-lipoprotein (LDL), known as the "bad cholesterol." The JAMA study involved adults with untreated mild hypertension who ate 3-ounce chocolate bars daily for two weeks. Half of the patients got white chocolate, half got dark chocolate. Blood pressure remained pretty much unchanged in the group that ate white chocolate, which does not contain polyphenols. But after two weeks, systolic blood pressure - the top number - had dropped an average of five points in the dark-chocolate group. The lower, or diastolic, reading fell an average of almost two points. In 1998, a Harvard study of nearly 8,000 of its male graduates determined that eating the equivalent of few bars of chocolate a month lowered the risk of death by 36 percent as compared to abstainers. In the latest experiments, which were conducted without industry funding, Crozier and researchers in Italy first determined the antioxidant levels of dark chocolate and milk chocolate in the lab. Dark chocolate had twice as much, Crozier said, in part because milk chocolate contains only about half as much actual chocolate. The researchers then gave chocolate bars to seven women and five men who were between 25 and 35 years old. All of the participants were nonsmokers, had normal blood lipid levels, took no prescription drugs or vitamins and were not overweight. After they ate dark chocolate bars, the antioxidant potential measured in their blood increased an average of 18 percent and remained elevated for three hours. Lead author Mauro Serafini said the subjects' antioxidant potential did not rise noticeably when they consumed a glass of whole milk with the dark chocolate, or when they ate milk chocolate. He said it's possible that antioxidants bind with milk proteins making absorption more difficult. Scientists who did not contribute to the research said the protective aspects of flavonoids in chocolate have not been proven. "I guess this means to be healthy you should eat chocolate with red wine," said Andrew L. Waterhouse, a nutrition professor at the University of California at Davis. "That is, if you believe the antioxidant hypothesis. "No one has taken flavonoids, given them to people in a controlled scenario and shown that people who take them are more healthy than those who don't," he said. Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a spokesman for the American Heart Association (news - web sites), said there is not enough information to recommend chocolate as a food that reduces the risk of heart disease. ___ News Source Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report. 

Seattle Sunshine Breaking Weather Records Wed Aug 27, 5:18 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By PEGGY ANDERSEN, News Source Writer SEATTLE - Don't let it get around, but Perry Como was right about Seattle - at least in summertime - when he sang that "the bluest skies you've ever seen" are here. Despite the region's deserved reputation for dark, rainy and seemingly endless winters, summers tend to be sunny and dry. And this one has been a doozy. Seattle set a modern record at 12:07 p.m. Tuesday when the thermometer at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hit 70 degrees, marking the 50th consecutive day with a high temperature of at least 70. The previous record was established in 1958. The sunny stretch is expected to last well into September, said meteorologist Jeff Rood with the National Weather Service (news - web sites). "We'll shatter the record," Rood said. Wednesday's high was expected to be in the mid-70s. The forecast called for gradually climbing temperatures over the Labor Day weekend, in time for the 33rd annual four-day Bumbershoot Arts Festival, named for an umbrella in a wistful bid at reverse psychology for the weather gods. "I've lived in Seattle all my life and I don't remember a summer like this," said attorney Brad Mehtala, 43. "When I was in high school, I remember literally counting nice days. There'd be like 12 or 15 in a row, and then the clouds would move in." Long stretches of warm temperatures are more common south of Seattle, where some Washington communities get 80 days of temperatures 70 or higher, Rood said. Of course the sunny days here are nothing compared to the recent searing and sometimes deadly highs in the Southwest, the Midwest and even Europe. Rood said he's learned not to call sunny weather "beautiful." "Some people complain if we call it beautiful when it's sunny and 75," he said. "Some people think cloudy and cool is beautiful." Dry-waller David Benson, 53, prefers the cooler weather of spring and fall. "I like the sun but I don't care that much for the heat," he said. Teacher Lynn Black, 63, grew up in Hawaii and is still getting used to bundling up her grandchildren for June trips to the beach. But when summer finally arrives, "it's glorious," she said. "This summer especially." President Bush (news - web sites) noted the sunshine during his visit here last week, prompting a collective "Shhhhhhhhhhh!" among those who hope to rein in Northwest population growth. "It's a tragedy," said author Bill Dietrich of the bright, sunny weather. "We just got the economy so bad that it'll keep people away and now you're broadcasting this word of good weather," said Dietrich, who writes books - fiction and nonfiction - about the region. "They might all start coming again."

Fox News Drops Suit Vs. Franken Over Book 1 hour, 23 minutes ago 

By ERIN McCLAM, News Source Writer NEW YORK - Fox News dropped its lawsuit against Al Franken on Monday, three days after a federal judge refused to block the liberal humorist from using the Fox slogan "Fair and Balanced" on the cover of his book. The lawsuit had sought unspecified damages from Franken and Penguin Group, publisher of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." "It's time to return Al Franken to the obscurity that he's normally accustomed to," Fox News spokeswoman Irena Steffen said. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied Fox's request for an injunction against the book cover. Fox contended that some people might be tricked into thinking the book was a Fox product because the cover includes the words "Fair and Balanced" and a picture of Bill O'Reilly, the network's top anchor. But the judge said Fox's case was "wholly without merit," and the trademark "Fair and Balanced," registered by Fox in 1998, was weak. He also said the network was "trying to undermine the First Amendment." Floyd Abrams, who represented Franken and Penguin in the case, said the withdrawal of the suit was "welcome, if overdue." "Fox's lack of grace in ending its suit is of the same nature as its name-calling and silly efforts to deal with criticism of it in the first place," Abrams said. The lawsuit itself, filed earlier this month, described Franken as a "C-level political commentator" who "appears to be shrill and unstable." A message left with Franken was not immediately returned. Publicity surrounding the case helped boost Franken's book to the top of the Amazon.com best-seller list. Penguin rushed the book into stores early and ordered additional copies printed after being sued.

Venezuela Names Tiny New Planet After Rain God

Aug 25, 10:24 am ET 

CARACAS, Venezuela  - Huya, the rain god in Venezuelan Wayuu Indian culture, has been granted a place beside his counterparts Jupiter, Mars and Venus.

Venezuelan astronomers led by physicist Ignacio Ferrin have named the frozen planet 2000 EB173 -- which they discovered in March 2000 -- after the deity.

The planet, which is beyond Pluto and takes 256 years to orbit the Sun, must be named after a mythological god under guidelines set by the International Astronomical Union, Ferrin told The News Source late on Wednesday.

In March, after determining its orbit, the Venezuelan scientists baptized the light-red planet Juya but later changed the name to Huya to avoid phonetic confusion in the English pronunciation of the name.

"We wanted to make sure it had the connotations of a Venezuelan indigenous god," Ferrin said.

The scientist said that there likely was no life on Huya's surface, where temperatures reach 292 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The planet has a diameter of around 435 to 466 miles.

Ferrin, a professor at the University of the Andes, said he felt like explorer Christopher Columbus discovering uncharted lands when his team at the Center of Astronomical Investigations came across the planet.

"I don't think we can see it, but science indicates that we cannot be alone in the universe. It's like thinking there is only one elephant in the jungle," he said.

GM Wheat can be Poisonous 24-Aug-2003 It's been discovered that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide encourages the growth of toxic fungus in wheat. Genetically- modified wheat, also produced by Monsanto, has been especially engineered to be immune to Roundup, so that an entire field can be sprayed and only the weeds will be affected. Andy Coghlan writes in New Scientist this fungus already destroys one-fifth of the wheat in Europe, and produces toxins that can kill both humans and animals. Since the GM wheat isn't killed by the herbicide, farmers are likely to spray more often, producing even more toxic fungi. Switching to other herbicides isn't the answer, since Roundup is one of the least harmful, because it quickly breaks down in the soil. 

Fish-a Natural Prozac 24-Aug-2003 Fish oil, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, works as well for depression as Prozac. "We've been very impressed by the response rates we've observed," says psychiatrist David Mischoulon. "We believe there is definitely something to these treatments." Maybe some of us are depressed because our ancestors lived near the sea, where they developed genes that thrive on fish. John McKenzie writes in abcnews.com that scientists first became interested in the fish factor when they noticed that countries with the highest fish consumption had the lowest rates of depression. Also, mothers in the U.K. who ate little fish during their pregnancies doubled their risk of postpartum depression, compared to women who ate fish regularly. Researchers found that when they fed omega-3 fatty acids to piglets, it had the same effect on their brains as Prozac, raising their serotonin levels. "After only 18 days, those animals that were fed the enriched formula had double the level of serotonin in their frontal cortex, in the part of the brain that regulates depression and impulsivity," says NIH investigator Joseph Hibbeln. "The body cannot manufacture [it] so it has to get it from our diet." Researchers now want to know if it's also useful in treating schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and violent behavior. Maybe we have so many ADD kids because we don't feed them enough fish. 

Is Sunshine Good for Us-or Not? 15-Aug-2003 Suicide rates worldwide are at the highest in the summer, and it turns out it's not just because of the heat. But people who get more sun actually have less cancer, so what's a person to do? Elizabeth Svoboda writes in Discover Magazine about Australian neurochemist Gavin Lambert, who says that extended exposure to bright sunlight may cause chemical changes in the brain that trigger depression and suicide in some people. Lambert discovered that in one part of Australia, from 1990 to 1999, 23% of the suicides took place during the summer (which is our winter season). He found that people committed suicide more often as the daily periods of sunlight got longer, and this pattern was especially true for violent suicides. Exposure to long periods of bright sunlight raises serotonin levels. But isn't serotonin supposed to make people less depressed? That's true, but people who have suicidal tendencies have low levels to start with and sudden spikes may cause them to act. He says, "We're investigating the possibility that in some individuals who are predisposed to suicidal urges, the significant serotonin changes in the brain that occur in spring and summer might be a destabilizing factor." Jerome Burne writes in The Independent that if you want to lower your risk of breast, prostate and colon cancer, as well diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension and multiple sclerosis, you should get out in the sun. Epidemiologists have discovered that your risk of developing certain disorders has a lot to do with how far you live from the Equator. Researcher Michael Holick says fear of the sun might be saving us from skin cancer, but it's damaging us more in other ways. Brief exposure to sunshine several times a week can ward off disease by increasing our levels of vitamin D. The Sunshine Hypothesis was first put forward in the 1970s by epidemiologists Cedric and Frank Garland, who studied National Cancer Institute maps for the geographic distribution of colon cancer deaths in America. They found that they were significantly lower in the sunny southwest and higher in the cloudier northeast. They decided that the lower level of sunshine for half the year in the north prevents people from getting enough vitamin D in the winter. Now it's been discovered that breast, ovary and prostate cancer are higher in the northeast as well. A medical journal says, "Differences in dietary or smoking habits do not appear to explain the geographic variation in cancer rates in USA." The same pattern shows up for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. A London study found that taking vitamin D supplements reduced the risk of insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes by 88%. Women with osteoporosis, which can also be caused by low vitamin D, are more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, although doctors don't know why. Vitamin D maintains calcium levels and builds strong bones, but why should it protect us from so many diseases? Holick says, "The function of vitamin D is to be a modulator of cellular growth, preventing cells from being too active." This is why it helps stave off cancer. We can get it from some foods, such as oily fish, but our main source is sunlight. The body makes it in the skin in response to ultraviolet B (UVB) light. It was once thought we needed between 200 and 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day, but now researchers say we need at least 1,000-2,000 IU. Researcher Reinhold Vieth says, "An adult with white skin, exposed to summer sunshine while wearing a bathing suit, generates about 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 in 15 to 20 minutes. That amount is equivalent to the vitamin D in 25 conventional multivitamin pills." You don't need to sunbathe, because you don't get more vitamin D by staying out in the sun for a longer period of time. The length of time you need to stay in the sun depends on how dark your skin is. The average African-American needs 5 to 10 times as much sun than a Caucasian. It also depends on what time of the year it is and how far from the Equator you are. Older people need more sun, which may be why they instinctively move to Florida. Your ability to synthesize vitamin D is cut in half by the time you're 60. If you have a typical white person's skin, known as type 2, and you live above the 42nd line of latitude, then you should try to get outside for 5 to 10 minutes between 11am and 3pm during the five months of summer in order to build up enough vitamin D to last you through the winter. But if you're depressed, be careful not to overdo it.

Birth Control is Nothing New 15-Aug-2003 Women today are thankful that have birth control so they can avoid having too many children to care for. David W. Tschanz writes that, contrary to popular belief, women in the past knew a lot about contraception. In order to get the right information, you just had to know where to look. For instance, there's a 2,500-year-old Greek coin that shows a woman sitting in a chair, holding a plant in one hand and pointing to her genitals with the other. The ancient people who used this coin knew it refers to a plant called silphion by the Greeks and silphium by the Romans, that was an herbal morning-after pill. The first century BC Roman poet Catullus wrote about how many kisses it was safe to give his girlfriend. His answer? "As many grains of sand as there are on Cyrene's silphium shores." But the supply of silphium was nearly gone after a few centuries of use. The plant only grew on a strip of land about 125 miles long and 30 miles wide on the mountainsides of Libya, facing the Mediterranean Sea. Attempts to cultivate silphium in Greece and Syria failed. By the 1st century AD, it had become very expensive and Pliny the Elder reported wrote that "only a single stalk had been found in Cyrene within our memory." By the second century it was extinct. Women had to find other methods of birth control, so asafetida, which is now used in Worcestershire sauce, was often used instead. Hippocrates, the "the father of medicine," said the seeds of Queen Anne's Lace worked as well. Other plants used were pennyroyal, artemisia, pomegranite seeds, myrrh and rue. In Aristophanes' 421 BC comedy "The Peace," Trigaius wonders if his female companion could become pregnant. "Not if you add a dose of pennyroyal," says Hermes. In the first five centuries AD, despite the fact that there were few wars or epidemics, the population of the Roman Empire declined, while life expectancy increased. Some historians blame infanticide, but there's no evidence to back this up. The Greek historian Ploybius said couples were limiting their families to one or two children, so birth control is probably the reason. Silphium is no longer around to be tested, but experiments using asafetida in rats show it inhibits the implantation of a fertilized egg 50% of the time. In 1986, it was shown that Queen Anne's Lace blocks the production of progesterone, which is necessary to prepare the uterus for a fertilized egg. Pennyroyal contains pulegone, which terminates pregnancies in both humans and animals. But there was much suffering and many unwanted births in later centuries, so how was this knowledge lost? Historian John M. Riddle blames the rise of trained doctors. Birth control information had been passed on from woman to woman, so professional male physicians didn't know about it. The rise of medical training also meant that traditional folk wisdom began to be distrusted and much of it was lost. It wasn't until recently, when men began to research birth control, that women became able to control their reproduction once again.

Antibiotics in Cattle Not Needed-and They Make Us Sick 13-Aug-2003 Ever since ranchers stopped grazing their cattle, and started fattening them up more quickly with corn, they've had to dose them with antibiotics, since cows can't digest corn easily and it often makes them ill. Corn feeding also produces beef with high levels of cholesterol, unlike grass-fed beef, so corn-fed beef may be one of the causes of heart disease. But the biggest problem is that ingesting so many antibiotics in our food means they no longer work for us when we need them. Debora MacKenzie writes in New Scientist that a voluntary ban in Denmark on putting antibiotics in chicken and pigs cut the antibiotic resistance in the bacteria in the animals by over 90%, and there was no increase in the bacterial content of the meat. It also didn't make meat production significantly more expensive. The European Union has adopted a total ban on antibiotics in animals starting in 2006, meaning they won't be buying any more meat from us. Marc Kaufman writes in the Washington Post that U.S. farmers don't want to quit relying on antibiotics. Dan Murphy, of the American Meat Institute, says, "It just doesn't make sense to us to focus so much on antibiotic growth promoters on the farm. The real hot spot for the development of antibiotic resistance is in the hospital and the doctor's office, where antibiotics are overused and resistance is clearly growing. What might be coming from the farm is minor in comparison." Despite this, McDonalds has yielded to public pressure and has told its meat suppliers to reduce or stop the use of some growth promoters by the end of next year. Their new policy would prohibit the use of 24 antibiotic growth promoters but would allow low-dose antibiotics that are used to prevent disease. Peter Braam, of the WHO's infectious diseases unit, says, "We have believed for some time that giving animals low dosages of antibiotics throughout their lives to make them grow faster is a bad idea. Now we have solid scientific information from Denmark that producers can terminate this practice without negative effects for the animals and growers, and with good effects for the human population." This is especially important now, when China is gearing up its livestock industry, which will soon be the largest in the world. If the antibiotics they use lead to antibiotic resistance in such a gigantic population, the results could be disastrous. The superbugs produced there could travel around the world, just like SARS did.

Why Some Students Die Young 11-Aug-2003 The image of the tortured artist may be true-researchers have found that science and medical students live longer and healthier lives after graduation than art students do. This is despite the fact that the biggest smokers and drinkers are medical students. Peter McCarron examined the medical records of 10,000 men who attended Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968 and found that science, engineering and medical students had a lower death rate than art students. However, medical students had the largest number of alcohol-related deaths and deaths from suicide or violence. As students, they were also the heaviest smokers, followed by lawyers. But it was the art students who got the most lung cancer and heart disease. "We speculate that medics changed their social habits after leaving university," McCarron says. "They would have had access to the studies which came out around that time and probably realized the benefits of (quitting)." Emma McIlroy writes in New Scientist the high incidence of alcohol-related deaths and suicides among medical students probably reflects the long hours and stress of medical training. The lower death rates from all causes among the scientists, engineers and medics could be, McCarron says, because "we believe they probably found it easy to gain employment and therefore had more job stability and a better income." Family background may also be part of it, since art students were more likely to come from poorer families which tend to be less educated about health. 

Moms Near 9/11 had Smaller Babies 10-Aug-2003 The smoke and toxic dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center on 911 affected pregnant women living nearby, causing them to have smaller babies, which tend to have more health and developmental problems. A new report says the White House told the EPA to downplay the dangers of the dust so as not to cause a panic. If they'd been honest with the public, some of these Moms might have left the area and their babies might not have been affected. The report says the EPA "did not have sufficient data and analyses" to make a "blanket statement" when it announced seven days after the attack that the air around ground zero was safe to breathe. "Competing considerations, such as national security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall Street, also played a role in EPA's air quality statements," the report says. Pregnant moms who smoke also have smaller babies. Epidemiologist Trudy Berkowitz says, "We don't really understand how cigarette smoking reduces birth weight, but we can speculate it could affect oxygen levels or blood flow. In that sense particulate matters might have the same effect." Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in New Scientist that besides a cloud of dust, the terrorist attack released soot, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, pulverized glass and cement, and alkaline particulates into lower Manhattan. PAHs bind to DNA in the white blood cells of the umbilical cord in mothers who are exposed to air pollution during pregnancy. Berkowitz will keep track of the 911 babies to see if there are any long-term effects on their cognitive and motor development. 

What's in That Tattoo Ink? 10-Aug-2003 People who get tattoos may be putting poisonous chemicals into their skin because they don't know what ingredients are in the dyes. But tattoos and body piercing will soon be passe anyway-the newest fad will be creating new body parts and grafting them onto your body. The European Commission says most of the inks used in tattoos were originally developed for other purposes, such as automobile paints or printing, and warns, "Would you inject car paint into your skin?" Laws that force tattoo artists to use gloves and sterile needles do not include rules about dyes, meaning they could be impure or dirty without breaking the law. So stop tattooing and forget piercing, which can cause infections. Lakshmi Sandhana writes in bbcnews.com that the Australian artist Stelarc is taking body decoration to a new level by having a third ear grown from his skin and cartilage and implanted on his arm. He first wanted to put it in front of his current right ear, but was told this would be unsafe, so he settled for his forearm. It won't be able to hear, but with a sensor and implanted sound chip, the ear will automatically speak to anyone who gets close to it.

You Are What Your Mom Ate 06-Aug-2003 In another discovery about the importance of vitamins, scientists have been able to change the fur coat colors of baby mice by giving them four specific vitamins. It's known that pregnant women with poor nutrition tend to have children who get diabetes and heart disease. This means you owe your hair-and your health-to how your Mom ate. Maggie Fox writes that the researchers changed the color of baby mouse fur by feeding pregnant mice vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaine. Mice given these supplements gave birth to babies with brown coats. Pregnant mice not fed the supplements gave birth to babies with yellow coats that were less healthy. These vitamins are important for pregnant women as well, and if Senate bill 722 passes, you may no longer be able to buy them without a prescription. Scientists already know that pregnant women who don't get the right vitamins have children who grow up with a tendency to get diabetes and heart disease. The Agouti gene, which affects the coat color of mice, also affects diabetes and heart disease. Mice with overactive Agouti genes eat more because the gene affects a brain signal that controls the appetite. And if you're overweight, you're more likely to get diabetes and heart disease. Scientists now think that nutrition is one of the factors that decides which genes turn on and which stay silent. Everyone inherits two copies of each gene-one from each parent. For most functions, only one gene turns on, while the other stays silent. We can't look for yellow fur coats on our kids, but we can see that there's an epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes in this country. Pregnant women need to learn how to eat right, so that the best genes turn on in their children. 

We're Still Taking Risks for Beauty 06-Aug-2003 An incredibly well-preserved jar of 2,000-year-old face cream was found at the site of an ancient Roman temple in London. The cream even had its user's fingerprints still in it. It was made from donkey's milk, and other ancient cosmetics have been found made from delightful ingredients like crocodile dung. Amanda Onion writes in abcnews.com that another favorite Roman cosmetic ingredient came from the sweat and dirt from sheep's wool. "Basically they were getting lanolin," says Museum of London curator Jenny Hall. Lanolin is still used in cosmetics today. For lipstick, Roman women used red ochre or the dregs from red wine. They mixed bear's fat with lamp soot for eyeliner and mascara. Blusher and eye shadow came from ground saffron. Pale skin was in fashion and to get it, women used lead. We now know that lead can lead to brain damage, which may be the origin of the term "dumb blonde." Romans knew it was dangerous but used it anyway. "The Romans wrote essays on its toxic nature, and the Elizabethans also used it extensively while similarly being aware that its use withered the skin, caused sores and damaged internal organs," says archeologist Sally Pointer. "Even today, lead is not uncommon in cosmetics, particularly in the Middle East." But there were other options. Some women used dried crocodile dung, while others used chalk and ground-up roots of the iris, which are also poisonous. The desire for a tan is a recent development, since it indicates you have enough money and leisure to spend time at the beach. We now know tans are also dangerous, but in the past, a pale face represented an upper-class life away from toil under the rays of the sun. Pointer says, "While every historic period has had its own peculiar fashions or trends, some aspects of cosmetic use have remained relatively constant," she says. "It is extremely common to find white skin, red lips and black eyebrows being held up as an expression of perfect beauty even in parts of the world where the native genetic skin tone does not lend itself to this coloring." Skin-whitening products are still popular with darker-skinned women in the U.S. and around the world, so some things never change.

Senate Bill: Vitamins Only by Prescription 06-Aug-2003 The World Trade Organization's food and drug regulatory body is controlled by big drug companies, and they are trying to use it to make all but the smallest doses of vitamins illegal to purchase without a prescription worldwide. This is happening at the same time a study has revealed that a daily mega- dose of 5 vitamins can dramatically reduce cancer. The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003, Senate Bill 722, would effectively regulate out of existence the sale of almost all vitamin supplements at higher potencies, except by prescription. The bill has been introduced by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, a strong advocate of the WTO and sponsor of much pro-drug company legislation. To help prevent this sellout of the American people to Big Drugs, write in protest to Senate Bill 722 to your senators. Tell them what many of them don't know: SB 722 is NOT TRUTHFUL in its intentions. It will open the door to devastatingly harsh regulation. Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Diane Feinstein of California have also declared themselves in support of the bill. Contact your senators. If you want to join the fight, help the National Nutritional Food Association in its battle against Durban's bill. At a time when U.S. Senators want to make large-dose vitamins unavailable except with prescriptions at drug prices, a new study shows that a specific mega-dose of 5 supplements dramatically reduces the risk of cancer. A total of 13,000 men and women aged 30 to 65 took part in the study, which found that regular use of a particular supplement group reduced the risk of cancer 37% in men and 31% in women. The supplement group is: 6mg of beta- carotene, 120mg of vitamin C, 90mg of vitamin E, 100 micrograms of selenium, and 20 milligrams of zinc. Under SB 722, supplements at these dosages would be available only as prescription drugs.

Take This Pill & Live (Almost) Forever 04-Aug-2003 Genevieve Haas writes that a new pill developed by CereMedix, based at Northeastern University, could help you live to be a healthy 120 years old. The pill repairs lung damage from smoking, reverses Alzheimer's, repairs injuries from strokes and heart disease and cures diabetes-all by stimulating the production of natural anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are found in fruits and vegetables, and help repair the body's natural defenses against aging. But in order to absorb enough anti-oxidants to live to a healthy old age, you would need to eat 30 pounds of fruits and vegetables a day. CereMedix CEO Steve Parkinson says humans are capable of living between 120 and 160 years. Most of us don't make it because our bodies can't repair the damage caused by aging, and those who do live to an extreme old age are usually too unhealthy to enjoy it. In tests, when a rat that suffered a stroke was given the pill, the effects of the stroke were almost completely reversed. Old mice that received the drug were permanently rejuvenated. In cream form, the drug could make us look as young as we'll feel. Do cosmetics companies see dollar signs here? 

Loosen Your Tie and Save Your Eyes 29-Jul-2003 Wear your tie too tight and you risk blindness. A recent study measured the pressure of the fluid in the eyeballs of a group of men before and after they put on their ties. Researchers found a significant rise in pressure after the ties were tightened, and long-term pressure rises have been linked to glaucoma. Doctors from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary tested 40 men. Half were healthy and half had been diagnosed with glaucoma. Their "intraocular pressure" was measured, then they were asked to put on a "slightly uncomfortable" tie for three minutes. They were tested again, and 60% of the glaucoma patients, and 70% of the healthy men, were found to have significant rises in eye fluid pressure. The pressure fell as soon as their ties were removed. Tight ties can constrict the jugular vein, the main blood vessel returning blood from the head towards the heart, and could cause a healthy patient to be diagnosed as having glaucoma by mistake. If you put on a tight tie too often, you could actually injure your eyes. Eye disease expert Neville Osborne says, "If there is a rise in intraocular pressure over time, it could cause damage to the retina."

Rat Brain Makes Art 29-Jul-2003 Lakshmi Sandhana writes in bbcnews.com about an Australian robot arm that draws pictures and is powered by the brain of a rat, which is sitting in a petri dish in the U.S. The arm holds three colored markers above a white sheet of paper, and makes drawings that resemble those of a three- year-old child. The brain and arm communicate with each other through the internet. "We are looking at future scenarios where geography won't matter," says Guy Ben-Ary, whose lab in Australia contains the robot arm. "The brain of the semi-living could be anywhere in the world, while the body will interface and be fed off it." Steve Potter, whose lab in Atlanta contains the brains, says, "I would not classify [the cells] as 'an intelligence,' though we hope to find ways to allow them to learn and become at least a little intelligent." While the drawings of three-year-old humans may not seem like much to us, that's pretty sophisticated for a rat. Another project is being developed called Symbiotic Fish & Chips, in which scientists plan to grow fish neurons over silicon chips that will control a robotic arm that produces both drawings and music. As long as they don't plan to start hooking up primate (or human!) brains to robots...or is this what they're aiming for? If so, it could be the final hour for us ordinary humans.

Happiness is the Best Medicine 27-Jul-2003 You've tried the pizza cure. Maybe you've even tried the cure from Thailand. Now try the latest cure: Be happy. Jamie Cohen writes for abcnews.com that while Americans get 1 billion colds a year, happier people get fewer of them. Dr. Sheldon Cohen says, "We found that people who regularly experience positive emotions, when exposed to rhinovirus, are relatively protected from developing illness." When the brain is "happy," it sends messages to the rest of our body that help keep it healthy. "It's like a drug that is released by your state of mind and simply changing the state of mind can produce effects on the rest of the body through the nervous system and hormones," says Dr. Neil Shulman. "Your chance of developing the common cold, pneumonia, or even cancer may very well be decreased by keeping your brain in a healthy state."

Group Warns American Pets Are Overweight 
Mon Sep 8, 2:27 PM ET 
Add Science - 

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The old wives' tale holds that people start to look like their pets. Turns out it's the other way around: America's pets are starting to look like Americans - overweight. 

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Whether it's round hounds or corpulent cats, as many as one-fourth of cats and dogs in the Western world are overweight, according to a the National Research Council (news - web sites), an arm of the National Academies. 

It's the council's first update since 1986 of its "Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats" and, while aimed at veterinarians, pet food makers and scientists, the 500-page report also contains useful pointers for people with pets. 

Kathryn Michel, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of Pennsylvania, said she has noted more overweight pets in recent years, particularly cats, and the problem seems to occur at younger ages than in the past. 

"A big problem that people don't always recognize," she said, is that pets "are members of our families, we show them affection, and one way is by sharing food and giving treats." 

People don't have to ignore those hopeful eyes looking up, she says, just be careful. A piece of a biscuit will help bond with the animal just as much as the whole biscuit. 

Like people, obese pets have a greater risk of developing such diseases as diabetes, heart disease and other health problems, said Donald C. Beitz, chairman of the committee that prepared the report. 

Beitz, a professor of animal science at Iowa State University, said the new study adds a chapter on physical activity for pets and points out that the council has established a Web site for pet owners to learn more about nutrition for their animals, how to determine if they are overweight and suggestions for helping them lose weight. 

The Web site can be accessed at http://national-academies.org/petdoor. 

"Obesity is estimated to occur in 25 percent of dogs and cats in Westernized societies," the report states, noting that obesity increases with the age of the pet and occurs more frequently in neutered animals. 

Cats, the report notes, are descended from carnivores, and their digestive system is designed for absorbing nutrients from animal-based proteins and fats. 

A cat should not be fed a vegetarian diet because it could result in harmful deficiencies of certain amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins, the report says. 

While dogs prefer animal-based food, they can survive on vegetarian diets as long as they receive sufficient protein and other nutrients, the report adds. 

Cats like to snack, the report found, while dogs are gorgers. 

In tests where animals were allowed to eat whenever they wanted, cats ate smaller meals, more often, than dogs. Cats ate 12 to 20 meals, spread out through day and night, while dogs ate seven or eight times, mostly in daytime. 

The report stresses that fresh water always should be available to dogs, especially during exercise, to prevent overheating. 

It's fine to feed an adult dog just one or two times a day, but puppies need to eat two to three daily meals. Puppies, kittens and lactating dogs and cats need more daily calories, as may pets that are sick or injured. 

Cats don't drink as much water as dogs, perhaps because cats evolved as desert animals. Given a choice, however, they usually will choose moist over dry food. The weak thirst of cats puts them at higher risk for urinary tract stones. 

The report says owners should be able to feel the ribs of a healthy dog, and it should have a discernible waist without fat deposits. However, if the ribs and pelvic bones can be seen, it's too thin. 

If a cat looks overweight, it is, the report says. There should be no heavy fat deposits on the back, face or limbs or a rounding of the abdomen. 

Help them trim down by offering less of their usual food, cutting back on or eliminating table scraps. Also, within limits, offer foods with more fiber. 

Pa. Tests Roadway Dots to Reduce Crashes 
Mon Sep 8,10:34 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By DAN LEWERENZ, News Source Writer 

JULIAN, Pa. - Introducing the latest innovation from the state that brought you the line and the bump: The commonwealth of Pennsylvania gives you the dot. 

Engineers at the state Department of Transportation have found that painting dots on the roadway to advise drivers about safe spacing can reduce the number of rear-end collisions. 

The agency has seen signs of success where it tested the program. 

"This is still, for the most part, a pilot program," said Rich Kirkpatrick, a spokesman for the state transportation department. "We're still studying the details and hope to get to the point where we set the specific criteria and take the program statewide." 

The idea is simple: Take a relatively vague concept - the 2-second rule, which states that drivers should stay at least 2 seconds behind the vehicle in front of them - and give it a visual reference. 

Signs warns motorists to beware of aggressive drivers and to keep two dots between them and other cars. The dots, which are actually oval in shape, measure 7 1/2 feet-by-2 1/2 feet on two-lane highways, 12 feet-by-4 feet on interstates. They are spaced 115 feet apart, giving drivers an easy way to measure their safe driving distances. 

The idea came from Europe, where Pennsylvania's transportation engineers noticed chevrons painted on the highway for the same purpose. The engineers returned home and identified stretches of road that had a history of trouble with aggressive drivers and rear-end collisions. 

So far, five pilot locations have been established across the state, and a sixth is scheduled to be painted with dots in the coming months. 

The Federal Highway Administration has no records of any states with programs like Pennsylvania's. Kirkpatrick said a handful of other state transportation departments have asked for information, but he didn't know of any that has adopted the program. 

"It's a good idea if someone is riding you," said Joe Price, of Tipton, who often drives over the dots on U.S. Route 220 in Centre County. "Especially on a road that's as dangerous as this. Because it's not even the road that's dangerous, it's the morons who are driving out there. Sometimes you'll be two dots apart, and someone will pass you and try to slide inside." 

So far, the program has been a success. On Route 11, where the program was first tried, the state transportation department reported a 60 percent reduction in rear-end collisions in the six months after the dots were first painted in October 2000. A year later, the Federal Highway Administration awarded the agency a National Highway Safety Award for the program, citing its low cost and effectiveness. 

Martin Pietrucha, associate professor of civil engineering at Penn State and a research associate at the university's Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, also is a fan, although he said he'd like to see crash statistics evaluated over a longer period. 

And while rear-end accidents might be the easiest measure of success, encouraging drivers to maintain a safe distance can have other benefits, as well. 

"Following distance does not reduce rear-end accidents only," Pietrucha said. "The farther you are behind somebody, the better you are in terms of your entire view of the road and anticipating problems." 

In a way, it's no surprise that Pennsylvania was the first to develop such a measure. Newton Moore, widely credited with conceiving the idea of a center line to divide roads, was a Bucknell University student, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was the first state agency to install rumble-strips along the center line to keep drivers from drifting into oncoming traffic. 

"Given the challenge we have of trying to maintain as safe an environment as possible on our highways, the folks in our safety areas are just constantly trying to come up with whatever innovations they can ... for ensuring the safety of themselves and others," Kirkpatrick said. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation: http://www.dot.state.pa.us/ 

PSU Pennsylvania Transportation Institute: http://www.pti.psu.edu/

Judge Rebuffs Legal Challenge to Pop-Up Ads
Mon Sep 8, 5:37 PM ET 
Add Technology - Internet Report 

By Peter Kaplan 

WASHINGTON  - A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge by truck and trailer rental company U-Haul to pop-up Internet advertisements, in a ruling that could embolden providers of the ads. 

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U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, in a ruling handed down on Friday, dismissed U-Haul's lawsuit, which sought to ban software by Internet advertising company WhenU that launched rival pop-up ads when customers access U-Haul's Web site. 

Lee said the ads don't violate the law because WhenU's software didn't copy or use U-Haul's trademark or copyright material, and because computer users themselves had chosen to download the pop-up software. 

"While at first blush this detour in the user's Web search seems like a siphon-off of a business opportunity, the fact is that the computer user consented to this detour when the user downloaded WhenU's computer software from the Internet," Lee said. 

Arizona-based U-Haul, a unit of AMERCO Inc. (Nasdaq:UHAEQ - news), filed the lawsuit against WhenU in October last year in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, claiming the ads were a violation of its trademarks and copyrights and also violated unfair competition laws. 

If other courts reach the same conclusion as Lee, it would remove a potential obstacle for companies like WhenU and 

Gator Corp., which also offers software that triggers pop-up ads related to Internet addresses a user visits. 

The pop-up software comes packaged with free software such as screen savers. It monitors the addresses a user is visiting. When it detects a Web site like U-Haul's, the software may interrupt by displaying an offer from a rival company. 

U-Haul's lawsuit sought both monetary damages and an injunction barring the pop-up ads running on its Web sites. 

WhenU described Lee's ruling as "very favorable." 

"This is a victory for consumer choice -- it ultimately protects consumers' right to control what they see on their computer screens," WhenU chief executive Avi Naider said in a statement. 

U-Haul issued a statement expressing disappointment about the ruling, but insisting that Web site owners "have the right to display their Web sites without having their sites hidden behind such invasive advertisements. 

"We are currently evaluating our options for appeal," the company's statement says. 

Judge Lee acknowledged that pop-up ads are often troublesome and annoying. "Alas, we computer users must endure pop-up advertising along with her ugly brother unsolicited bulk e-mail, 'spam', as a burden of using the Internet," he wrote.

Telepathy Gets Academic Seal of Approval

Sep 8, 10:36 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - Sweden's Lund University, one of the oldest seats of learning in Scandinavia, will take a leap into the unknown by appointing northern Europe's first professor of parapsychology, hypnology and clairvoyance.

Almost 30 candidates, including a self-professed Indian medium and an American named Heaven Lord, applied for the post, financed by a donation, whose holder the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has joked will be a "Ghost Professor."

The first professor, to be appointed by Lund University Dean Goran Bexell, is expected to start work in 2004, faculty secretary Kerstin Johansson told The News Source.

Hypnology is the science of the phenomena of sleep and hypnosis.

Despite decades of experimental research and television performances by people such as spoonbending psychic Uri Geller, there is still no proof that gifts such as telepathy and the ability to see the future exist, mainstream scientists say.

"Verifying the existence of paranormal phenomena does not seem to be a promising field of science," said Sven Ove Hansson, professor of philosophy at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Scotland's Edinburgh University also have chairs in parapsychology.

AAA on Trial in Slaying of Motorist Mon Sep 8, 3:10 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By DENISE LAVOIE, News Source Writer BOSTON - In the summer of 1999, AAA got a call about a young woman whose car had broken down in a parking lot on Cape Cod. The auto club told the woman's stepfather it would send help. Melissa Gosule never made it home that night. Her body was found in a shallow grave eight days later. She had been raped and stabbed to death. Gosule's family sued AAA for unspecified damages, claiming that if the auto club had done its job that night, she would be alive today. Jury selection began Monday in state court in the negligence and wrongful-death case. The case is being watched closely because it is the first time AAA has been sued in the death of a motorist who was killed after seeking assistance from the auto club, legal experts said. Every year, the American Automobile Association, with a dues-paying membership of more than 46 million in the United States and Canada, gets about 30 million calls from motorists who need help with dead batteries, flat tires and other roadside problems. In their lawsuit, Gosule's parents, Leslie Gosule and Sandra Glaser, and her stepfather, Peter Glaser, claim AAA left Gosule stranded and forced to turn to a stranger for help. That stranger, Michael Gentile, killed her. "AAA is not who they say they are," Leslie Gosule said recently in a statement. "Had AAA done what they tell the world they do and what they said they were going to do - provide reliable and reasonable emergency roadside assistance that night - Melissa would still be with us." Gosule's parents note that AAA, in its marketing materials, touts the peace of mind it provides to motorists in trouble. "One call to AAA and your worries are over," reads one brochure. AAA also refers to itself as "family" and warns against depending on strangers: "In today's world, relying on strangers has become a scary (and sometimes dangerous) thing to do." The lawsuit names national AAA; its local affiliate, AAA Southern New England; and the tow truck driver. AAA disputes the family's claims that it did not offer Gosule help, and says it should not be held responsible for her death. Gentile, a newspaper delivery man with a long criminal record, was convicted of her murder and is now serving a life sentence. On July 11, 1999, Gosule, a 27-year-old elementary school teacher, had returned at 5:30 p.m. from a bike ride at a park in Bourne to find that her 1986 Pontiac would not start. It was about that time that she met Gentile, according to testimony during Gentile's trial in 2000. Gosule used Gentile's cell phone to call her mother and stepfather, who told her he would call AAA for help. Gosule was not a member of AAA, but her stepfather was, and it is routine for the auto club to help out relatives of AAA members. In their lawsuit, Gosule's family says her stepfather immediately called the AAA's 24-hour emergency roadside assistance number and asked that the car and Gosule be taken to a garage in Boston. John Cubellis, a tow truck driver whose company is an agent for AAA, arrived at the parking lot about 90 minutes later. According to both sides, Cubellis told Gosule he was busy and it would be three to four hours before he could take her or her car to Boston, about 60 miles away. The Gosule family says Cubellis did not try to start the young woman's car, make sure she was taken to a safe location or call another AAA driver to help. Gosule then accepted a ride from Gentile. In court papers, AAA says Cubellis had no reason to believe Gosule was in danger. She was in a busy parking lot at the Sagamore Rotary with restaurants, a gas station and a fire station nearby. When he pulled into the parking lot, he saw Gosule talking and sharing a cell phone with two men - Gentile and a mechanic friend Gentile had called to look at the woman's car. AAA says Gosule could have taken a taxi or had a family member come pick her up. In a statement, a spokesman for AAA Southern New England called Gosule's death a "terrible tragedy." "Our hearts go out to Melissa Gosule's family and friends," said Robert Murray. "In our history, we have never seen a case like this. We believe the auto club will be properly and completely exonerated." Paul Martinek, editor in chief of Lawyers Weekly USA, a national legal newspaper, said the lawsuit was initially considered a long shot, but some of the claims could resonate with a jury. "Proving that this was a foreseeable danger is a huge challenge - that AAA could have foreseen that a motorist would have accepted a ride from a total stranger and then be killed by that total stranger," Martinek said. "But when you read these things about how AAA holds itself out as a protector of motorists and basically tries to get business by representing itself as a service that motorists need in part because it can be dangerous when your car breaks down, you start to see the lawsuit in a different light."

Record Industry Sues Music File Swappers 29 minutes ago 

By ALEX VEIGA, News Source Writer LOS ANGELES - The recording industry filed hundreds of lawsuits Monday against individual music lovers whom music companies accuse of illegally downloading and sharing songs over the Internet, an industry source said. The lawsuits, filed in federal courts around the country, had been expected as the industry becomes increasingly aggressive in cracking down on the trading of pirated music files online. The 261 lawsuits were filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) on behalf of its members, which include Universal Music Group, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The music industry says file-sharing is a violation of copyright laws and blames the practice for a 31 percent decline in compact disc music sales in the last three years. In June, the industry announced that it would target hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files, hoping to cripple online piracy by suing fans. The announcement came just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files. Earlier, the recording industry association sued four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available for illegal downloading on campus networks. The group settled those cases for $12,500 to $17,000 each. Monday's lawsuits resulted from subpoenas sent to Internet service providers and others seeking to identify roughly 1,600 people the group believes engaged in illegal music sharing. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has promised hearings on the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders. Coleman has expressed concerns that the campaign could ensnare innocent people, such as parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren are using their computers to download music. He also said some downloaders themselves might not know they are breaking the law. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the industry group has said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants. The recording industry also is expected to announce an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music online. They must, among other things, promise to delete any illegally downloaded music and not participate in illegal file-trading again. Individuals targeted by Monday's lawsuits would be ineligible. The industry in recent weeks also has served subpoenas on at least 10 universities in an effort to identify individual file-swappers. In response, many universities are now educating students that such file-sharing is illegal and have taken steps to make it more difficult for students to share music files over campus computer systems.

2,168-Mile Trail Awaits 'Bionic' Hiker Mon Sep 8,10:16 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, News Source Writer WASHBURN, Tenn. - Scott Rogers, whose daily journey begins with a single step on a bionic leg, is preparing for a hike up the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail. "I have been told I can't do it, that I won't make it. But how do you know?" the 34-year-old says. Rogers hikes with the help of the "C-Leg" - a prosthetic powered by a battery, driven by hydraulics and controlled by microprocessors that monitor his movement 50 times a second to create a natural, stable gait. The affable Georgia native, whose Web and e-mail addresses say "onelegwonder," finished a grueling seven-day, 65-mile practice hike on the Laurel Highlands Trail in Pennsylvania. Next April, he plans to start a seven-month trip along the Appalachian Trail, walking from Georgia to Maine. "If I fail at it," he says, "at least I tried." Rogers lost his left leg below the knee in 1998 when he accidentally shot himself while hunting a snake. He says the accident, unexpectedly, made him stronger. "What can hurt worse than being shot by a shotgun and surviving?" he asks. With only one leg, he learned to water ski, bought an ultralight aircraft and returned to work as a paramedic. Wearing a below-knee prosthesis was "no more of a chore than putting on a shoe." But when chronic pain got worse two years ago, Rogers had to quit his job. He sold his house and moved his family from Milledgeville, Ga., to Washburn, about 50 miles north of Knoxville, just to be closer to the mountains. The leg was amputated in March 2002, and he faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life on crutches and in a wheelchair. But four months later, Medicare helped pay for a $48,000 "C-Leg," an artificial knee, shin and foot made by the German company Otto Bock Orthopedic and available in the United States since 1999. "Science will never be able to replace what God gave me, but they came close with this," says Rogers. Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics in Kingsport fitted the artificial leg on Rogers, but even the specialists there are amazed by his plans for the Appalachian Trail. "You've got to have somebody who's got the nerve to do all this," says prosthetist Paul Meyer. "I am not sure I would walk 65 miles on a trail, and I have both of my God-given legs. He's a real gutsy guy." On the practice hike in Pennsylvania, Rogers drained all the power from the battery on his bionic leg after the first day, and found he'd left his backup battery at home on the kitchen counter. Otto Bock had specially designed a soft panel, solar-powered battery charger, but Rogers was hiking in a steady downpour. Without power, the C-Leg goes into fail-safe mode - the leg stiffens, although the knee continues to flex. Rogers walked for three more days before a charger that Meyer shipped from Kansas City reached a ranger station along the trail. "I was hoping he would succeed because I didn't want to live with him if he didn't," his wife, Leisa, says with a laugh. "I figured if he didn't do it he was going to be miserable. ... He did real good." She paralleled his route in the family van and left love notes along the trail to encourage him. The oldest of their six children, Tyler, 12, and Hannah, 11, walked with him part of the way. Around 2,400 backpackers each year set out on the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine. Fewer than one in five completes the journey. A few have used crutches. At least one was blind. But none so far had an artificial leg, says Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conference in Blacksburg, Va. "It is tough for anybody," King says. "There are hard places, especially coming down hills, even if you have two original legs." With technical support and a backup leg from Otto Bock and Hanger Prosthetics, Rogers is ready to try. He hopes to raise money for a motor home so Leisa and the children can meet him at various points along the trail. Paddy Rossbach, president and CEO of the Amputee Coalition of America, finds Rogers' plans exciting. Her home in Salisbury, Conn., overlooks the Appalachian Trail. An amputee athlete herself, Rossbach says, "I think it is absolutely wonderful ... to hear about people taking on things that people who are able-bodied find difficult anyway." "I have a lot of friends that are disabled," Rogers says. "If what I do motivates one of them, I guess that is what it is all about. "And I guess also to prove to myself: 'Yeah, you can do it, Scotty.'" ___ On the Net: Scott Rogers: http://onelegwonder.faithweb.com Hanger Prosthetics: http://www.hanger.com/ Otto Bock Health Care: http://www.ottobockus.com/ Amputee Coalition of America: http://www.amputee-coalition.org

Scientists Set Goal of $1,000 Genome 
Sun Sep 7, 2:45 PM ET 
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By JUSTIN POPE, News Source Business Writer 

WOBURN, Mass. - It's been three years since scientists completed a rough draft of the human genetic code, but nobody's rushing out yet for a personal DNA analysis. That's because the first draft took 12 years and cost billions of dollars. 

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Today, the cost has fallen, but only to around $50 million. The target price is orders of magnitude away: $1,000 for an individual's DNA sequence. 

That's the price considered essential for giving scientists the thousands of sequenced samples they need to understand how genes work, and giving patients access to a personalized DNA snapshot at the doctor's office that could show the diseases they are at risk of developing. 

Some scientists believe the old methods of sequencing DNA, though improving, will never produce a $1,000 genome, and they are exploring radically different ways to map the blueprint of human life. 

Their methods remain far from proven. But there have lately been signs of headway on several fronts. 

"It's not clear which of these things will be the ultimate success, but I think these are all pieces of the puzzle moving us in the direction we need to go," said Jeff Schloss, program director for technology development at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites)'s National Human Genome (news - web sites) Research Institute. 

The human genome project (news - web sites) yielded the first complete sequence of the 3.2 billion base pairs that comprise the DNA molecule of a person (actually, it sequenced a composite of a few people). Each base is one of four chemicals, their order governing a human being's development. 

But that was only a starting point. 

While the DNA of one person is 99.9 percent identical to another's, it is the 0.1 percent of variation that interests many scientists because the differences may answer questions like why some people develop certain diseases and others do not. 

To answer those questions, scientists must compare the DNA sequences of thousands of people. To get them, they must find a way to sequence DNA that, unlike the first sequencing, doesn't require thousands of lab technicians and dozens of supercomputers. 

"To actually deliver everybody's genome, you can't apply that kind of brute force strategy," said George Church, a researcher at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites). 

For years, scientists sequencing DNA have relied on a lumbering technique called electrophoresis. But it requires expensive chemicals, and without expensive hardware an average lab would be hard-pressed to sequence more than 1,000 base pairs a day. At that speed, it would take almost 10,000 years to get through the 3.2 billion base pairs in human DNA. 

The new techniques start from scratch. 

In April, a group led by Caltech researcher Stephen Quake published the first successful results from "single molecule sequencing," or reading DNA one base pair at a time. Quake's group uses a flourescent label to mark the free molecules that surround DNA, then tracks which molecules are used when the DNA makes a copy of itself. The technique works on only five base pairs at a time, but Quake says many sequences can be read at once. 

Meanwhile, in an article published in the August edition of Science, Church's lab reported progress on bathing DNA in different frequencies of light to produce a color-coded snapshot revealing the order of a DNA sequence. 

Daniel Branton, a Harvard colleague of Church's, is working on a method Schloss considers among the most promising: shooting DNA through a tiny hole called a nanopore and measuring the electric signals each base pair emits. 

And in another recent development, a Branford, Conn., company called 454 Life Sciences announced it had sequenced the genome of a virus - about 30,000 base pairs long - by dropping DNA into tiny wells and is now working on bacteria, with 2 million to 8 million base pairs. The company hopes to work its way up to humans. 

Other technologies can compare one strand to a reference, like that provided by the human genome project, and highlight differences. That could help scientists identify the 99.9 percent of identical base pairs, and allow them to focus on the remaining 0.1 percent. 

Woburn-based U.S. Genomics, for example, tags certain sequences then shoots them past a laser, which detects the tags as they go by. 

Many of these techniques solve some shortcomings of electrophoresis, but none solves them all. Knotty obstacles remain, like "blurring" of the base pairs' fluorescence, or finding computers that can crunch all the numbers these methods produce. 

One skeptic, Elaine Mardis, a genetics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, worries that too many labs are releasing "data by press release" rather than subjecting the information to scientific review. She isn't convinced that scientists are solving problems such as how to read longer DNA snippets or in developing precise instruments to perceive fluorescent light. 

"Honestly, it's going to take us 10 or 15 years to get there," she said of the $1,000 genome. "The non-scientific public is hearing this and saying that sounds really great, and people must be at that goal because they're talking about it. That's totally not the case. This is the plan for the future, and the future is not now." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Human Genome Project background: http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome/project/info.html 

Stephen Quake: http://thebigone.caltech.edu/quake/ 

George Church's Work: http://arep.med.harvard.edu/Polonator/ 

Daniel Branton's Work: http://mcb.harvard.edu/branton/index.htm 

454 Life Sciences: http://www.454.com/ 

Possible Blackbeard Shipwreck Probed 
Sun Sep 7, 4:09 PM ET 
Add Science - 

BEAUFORT, N.C. - Archaeologists are investigating whether a burned shipwreck off the North Carolina coast is the remains of the last ship captured by the pirate Blackbeard. 

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A nonprofit marine archaeology and exploration team announced in July that it had found the shipwreck in Ocracoke Inlet, along the state's barrier islands. 

Officials with Surface Interval Diving Company have said the wreckage could also be that of a Civil War-era vessel burned by retreating Confederate officers in 1861. 

The wreck is about 40 feet longer than those Blackbeard commandeered in the early 1700s, which were 80 to 90 feet long, said the company's vice president, David Pope. 

And one historian and Blackbeard expert, also citing the vessel's length, says it is unlikely that it is Blackbeard's ship. 

"In my mind, the possibility that it's Blackbeard's last prize is probably one in 300," said David Moore, nautical archaeologist and historian for the N.C. Maritime Museum. 

But the location of the wreckage makes the Blackbeard theory plausible. 

Historical documents show that Blackbeard captured two ships in August 1718 off Bermuda - one carrying sugar and the other nearly empty. 

Blackbeard allowed the ships' crews to take the empty vessel, but he kept the full one, Moore said. 

He brought the vessel back to Ocracoke Island where he stripped it of its valuables, Moore said. Then he received permission from North Carolina Gov. Charles Eden to burn the ship under the pretense that it was leaky, he said. 

Virginia Gov. Alexander Spottswood sent British troops after Blackbeard a short time later and the pirate died in a battle off the island on Nov. 22, 1718. 

The diving company's president, Rob Smith, said he believed the vessel could be a lightship that was burned along with Fort Ocracoke as Union forces approached. The ships were used in the 19th century to light the way in and out of inlets. 

The diving company has sent wood samples from the wreck for analysis and is continuing to investigate the site.

Is Leader Afraid of Hairy, Eight-Legged Things?

Jul 29, 10:49 am ET 

ROME  - Put international diplomacy and high politics aside. The real question Italians want answered is whether their prime minister is afraid of spiders.

He may be a self-confident billionaire capable of putting a brave face on any situation, but if a new law is anything to go by, Silvio Berlusconi is terrified of arachnids.

The Senate Monday rushed through a decree banning scorpions, tarantulas and various other venomous eight-legged creatures from being brought onto Italian soil.

The law might not have attracted much attention had it not been expressly drawn up by Berlusconi and rammed through parliament in lightning speed, at a time when the prime minister was already swamped by an international diplomatic row.

While Berlusconi was trying to smooth fevered European brows after his comparison of a German politician to a Nazi concentration camp guard, his aides were plotting against "spiders that are dangerous to man."

The bill was presented to parliament in the form of a decree -- a method usually reserved for matters of the greatest urgency.

A spokeswoman in Berlusconi's office was unable to confirm Tuesday whether the prime minister suffers from arachnophobia, saying only that he is an animal lover who also wants to protect Italians from potential danger.

But Italian newspapers were full of speculation about how Berlusconi may have been stung into action on the issue.

A carton of 300 lethal scorpions was flown into Milan earlier this year destined for an Italian collector of rare species and for a small pharmaceutical laboratory.

The laboratory, according to La Stampa newspaper, sits just down the road from Arcore, Berlusconi's private residence on the outskirts of Milan, and there were fears some might escape and crawl into the villa's gardens.

"He was going on and on about how dangerous the little things were," Antonio Catricala, a senior official in Berlusconi's office, told the newspaper. "He insisted that a law be passed banning the importing of scorpions." 

Disgraced Journalist to Review Another Media Fraud

Jul 28, 10:15 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Disgraced journalist Jayson Blair, who resigned from The New York Times over his fraudulent reporting, has been commissioned to write a magazine review of a film about another famed media fraud.

Blair has been commissioned by Esquire to write a movie review of "Shattered Glass," a film about Stephen Glass, who admittedly made up sources and whole stories while a staff writer at The New Republic, the magazine confirmed on Friday.

"We thought it was a clever way to do a movie review, to have the most infamous fabricator review another infamous fabricator," said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger.

Esquire would not reveal the fee for the review, but said it had been agreed that payment for the brief piece would be donated to two charities -- one that protects journalists and another for research and treatment of depression, magazine spokesman Ed Tagliaferri said.

The review is scheduled to appear in Esquire's November edition.

Blair resigned from the Times on May 1, and 10 days later The Times published an extraordinary, four-page mea culpa detailing how Blair had pretended to travel when he was home, made up colorful details about places he had not been and lifted large chunks from other people's work.

The ensuing scandal led to the resignations of the executive and managing editors of The Times.

Esquire is a New York-based men's fashion and general interest magazine published by Hearst Corp. 

Drunk Admits Driving on '20 Beers at Most'

Jul 28, 10:05 am ET 

BERLIN  - An inebriated German driver's honesty cost him his license after he told police he had drunk "20 beers at most," authorities said Monday.

During a routine traffic check in the western city of Essen, police asked if the 25-year-old man had drunk anything. He answered: "Twenty beers at most if you want me to be perfectly honest, officer. But that's it, really."

Police carried out a breath test, confirming the man's claims, and confiscated his license. "I've no idea why he told them," said Raymund Sandach, a spokesman for Essen police. "Maybe because he was drunk." 

'Roman Cosmetics' Found at London Temple Dig Mon Jul 28, 7:43 AM ET Add Science 

By Jeremy Lovell LONDON  - Archaeologists excavating the site of a major Roman temple in London have found a sealed box containing a white cream still bearing the fingermarks of the person who last used it, nearly 2,000 years ago. "This is of major significance," said Museum of London curator Francis Grew Monday. The substance, which will now be chemically analyzed, could be face cream or even face paint, he told reporters. "We are in completely uncharted territory here. Not only is the quality of workmanship of the box exceptional, but to find one in such good condition still sealed and with its original contents will raise huge interest around the world," he added. Museum conservator Liz Barham who opened the fist-sized cylindrical tin box for the first time Monday, in front of the world's media, described the smell from the half-full container as "sulphurous" and "cheesy." The box was found at the bottom of a ditch on the edge of the site of the temple next to the merging of two major roads into Roman London -- Watling Street from the port of Dover and Stane Street from the garrison town of Chichester. The site -- which last year revealed a stone tablet with the earliest known inscription bearing the Roman name of London -- dates from 50 AD and contained two small temples, a guest house for travelers, plinths for statues and a stone pillar. "The site has been remarkable. It has revealed far more than we could possibly have expected," said Gary Brown, managing director of Pre-Construct Archaeology, which has been digging the soccer pitch-sized area for the past year. Apart from the tin box and stone tablet, the site in modern day Southwark about two miles south of central London has also revealed pieces of statues, leather shoes and a wooden writing tablet among many other artifacts. It will disappear under concrete this Summer when construction of a shopping and housing complex starts. 

FTC Finds Conspiracy in Three Tenors Case Mon Jul 28, 1:59 PM ET Add Business 

WASHINGTON  - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday upheld charges that three subsidiaries of France's Vivendi Universal conspired to fix the price of a 1998 recording by The Three Tenors, the agency said. The FTC's five commissioners voted unanimously to back an earlier ruling that Vivendi's PolyGram unit had improperly agreed with an AOL Time Warner Inc. subsidiary to halt discounting and advertising to boost sales of recordings based on the tenors' concert in Paris during the 1998 soccer World Cup. The Three Tenors -- Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti (news - web sites) -- have performed together every four years since 1990 at the site of the World Cup soccer finals for a combination live concert and recording session. The FTC had charged that PolyGram agreed not to discount or advertise the 1990 Three Tenors album and video from Aug. 1, 1998, to Oct. 15, 1998. In return, Warner would not discount or advertise the 1994 Three Tenors album and video during this period. As part of Monday's order, the FTC barred PolyGram from agreeing with competitors to fix the prices or restrict the advertising of products they have produced independently. In an opinion ratified by all the commissioners, FTC chairman Timothy Muris wrote that the agreement was "antithetical to the fundamental policies of our antitrust laws and will not be countenanced." Vivendi officials responded with a statement saying that they "strongly disagree with the decision of the FTC and we intend to vigorously pursue this matter through appeal." Monday's vote upholds a ruling last year by a U.S. administrative law judge, who also concluded that the companies had engaged in anti-competitive tactics. The FTC first filed the case in 2001. Agency officials accused Warner and PolyGram of forming a joint venture to distribute the 1998 performance of the three renowned singers and agreed not to discount or advertise certain catalog products for a limited time. Vivendi unit Universal Music Group has said that the "alleged activities" occurred before Universal acquired PolyGram in Dec. 1998 and that they took place for only a brief period. AOL unit Warner Communications settled the previous year by agreeing to refrain from similar agreements in the future. But Universal Music Group vowed to defend its position in court. 

New Yorkers become a mob for fun Fri Jul 25, 4:41 PM ET By Caroline Humer NEW YORK  - New Yorkers often become part of unexpected mob scenes -- huge crowds on subway platforms, at clothing sales, or at free concerts in places like Central Park. Now they are doing it on purpose, for fun. "Flash mobs," in which people show up at an assigned place at a certain time, perform some brief acts, and then leave, have descended on stores, a hotel and even a piece of a park in New York. In the latest occurrence, about 200 people converged on a Central Park ridge across from the Museum of Natural History on Thursday. Once in place, the mob tweeted like birds and crowed like roosters, chanted "Na-ture," and then dispersed. If you're wondering what's the point, there isn't one. The gathering was the fifth instalment of the New York-based Mob Project, which started in June with a guy named Bill who sent an e-mail to some friends, who forwarded it to their friends, and so on. Bill, who declined to give his last name, aims to make the project last a few more months. For him, it's a way to get people out, just like inviting them to a friend's play. "The idea was to dispense with the event altogether and have the audience come together for no reason," Bill said. Among the New York sites that have been mobbed are a Hyatt Hotel, where members spontaneously began clapping. In Macy's, they pretended to shop for a "love rug" for their joint home. And at a high-end shoe store in Soho, they acted like tourists from Maryland. The absurdist idea is catching on outside New York too. Bill said the Internet has been used to organise "flash mobs" in cities like Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, London, Rome and Vienna. Four-time New York mob participant Theodore Grunewald was among those who received a Mob Project e-mail advising them to synchronise their watches and go to one of four Upper West Side bars on Thursday evening. Once at the bars, the would-be mob members were given flyers telling them to assemble in Central Park at a certain time, make bird noises, chant, cheer, and leave. Grunewald described the mobs as being urban poetry with no real purpose. "It turns New York into an enormous toy," the 36-year old said. "And it brings all sorts of people together unexpectedly." 

Hi-Tech Study Fails to Find Nessie Tue Jul 29, 8:32 AM ET 

By SUE LEEMAN, News Source Writer LONDON - The Loch Ness monster is a Loch Ness myth. At least according to the British Broadcasting Corp., which says a team which trawled the loch for any signs of the famous monster came up with nothing more than a buoy moored several yards below the surface. The team used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch, but found no trace of any monster, the BBC said in a television program broadcast Sunday. Previous reported sightings of a large beast in the gray waters of the lake led to speculation that the loch may contain a plesiosaur, a marine reptile which died out with the dinosaurs. The BBC researchers said they looked at the habits of modern marine reptiles, such as crocodiles and leatherback turtles, to try to work out how a plesiosaur might have behaved. They hoped the air in Nessie's lungs would reflect a distorted signal back to their sonar sensors. "We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one, we have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch," said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC. His colleague Hugh MacKay added: "We got some good clear data of the loch, steep sided, flat bottomed - nothing unusual I'm afraid. There was an anticipation that we would come up with a large sonar anomaly that could have been a monster, but it wasn't to be." The BBC team said the only explanation for the persistence of the monster myth - and regular "sightings" - is that people see what they want to see. To test this, the researchers hid a fence post beneath the surface of the loch and raised it in view of coach full of tourists. Interviewed afterward, most said they had observed a square object but when asked to sketch what they had seen, several drew monster-shaped heads, the BBC said. There have been reports of sightings of a "monster" in the loch since the time of St. Columba in the 6th century. Many who have reported sightings have described a beast similar to a plesiosaur, but experts say it is 65 million years since the last fossil record of plesiosaurs. Loch Ness is only 10,000 years old, so anything living there must be much younger. BBC TV plans to broadcast a documentary on the investigation, "Searching For The Loch Ness Monster." ___ On the Net: BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk 

Pentagon Abandons Terrorism Betting Plan 2 hours, 55 minutes ago 

By KEN GUGGENHEIM, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - The Pentagon (news - web sites) will abandon a plan to establish a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) said Tuesday. Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., said he spoke by phone with the program's director, "and we mutually agreed that this thing should be stopped." Warner announced the decision not long after Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle took to the floor to denounce the program as "an incentive actually to commit acts of terrorism." Warner made the announcement during a confirmation hearing for retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, nominated to be Army chief of staff. "This is just wrong," declared Daschle, D-S.D. Warner said he consulted with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, and they agreed "that this should be immediately disestablished." He said they would recommend that the Pentagon not spend any funds already in place for the program and said they would pull the plug on it during House-Senate budget conference committee negotiations later on this year. The little-publicized Pentagon plan envisioned a potential futures trading market in which speculators would wager on the Internet on the likelihood of a future terrorist attack or assassination attempt on a particular leader. A Web site promoting the plan already is available. When the plan was disclosed by two Democratic senators Monday, the Pentagon defended it as a way to gain intelligence about potential terrorists' plans. Earlier, Warner had said that his staff was looking into the program and would report on it later Tuesday. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), D-N.Y., said she was appalled to hear of plans to set up "a futures market in death." Other Democrats expressed similar alarm. "The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," said Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., one of two lawmakers who disclosed the plan Monday. The program is called the Policy Analysis Market. The Pentagon office overseeing it, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, said it was part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." Traders would buy and sell futures contracts - just like energy traders do now in betting on the future price of oil. But the contracts in this case would be based on what might happen in the Middle East in terms of economics, civil and military affairs or specific events, such as terrorist attacks. Holders of a futures contract that came true would collect the proceeds of traders who put money into the market but predicted wrong. A graphic on the market's Web page Monday showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown. Although the Web site described the Policy Analysis Market as Middle East market, the graphic also included the possibility of a North Korea (news - web sites) missile attack. That graphic apparently was removed from the Web site hours after the news conference in which Wyden and fellow Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota criticized the market. Dorgan described the market as "unbelievably stupid." "Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in ... and bet on the assassination of an American political figure or the overthrow of this institution or that institution?" he said. But in its statement Monday, DARPA said markets could reveal "dispersed and even hidden information. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions." According to its Web site, the Policy Analysis Market would be a joint program of DARPA and two private companies, Net Exchange, a market technologies company, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of the publisher of The Economist magazine. DARPA has been criticized by Congress for its Terrorism Information Awareness program, a computerized surveillance program that has raised privacy concerns. Wyden said the Policy Analysis Market is under the supervision of retired Adm. John Poindexter, the head of the Terrorism Information Awareness program and, in the 1980s, national security adviser to President Reagan. The Web site does not address how much money investors would be likely to put into the market but says analysts would be motivated by the "prospect of profit and at pain of loss" to make accurate predictions. Trading is to begin Oct. 1. The market would initially be limited to 1,000 traders, increasing to at least 10,000 by Jan. 1. The Web site says government agencies will not be allowed to participate and will not have access to the identities or funds of traders. The market is a project of a DARPA division called FutureMAP, or "Futures Markets Applied to Prediction." "The rapid reaction of markets to knowledge held by only a few participants may provide an early warning system to avoid surprise," the FutureMap Web site said. Dorgan and Wyden released a letter to Poindexter calling for an end to the program. They noted a May 20 report to lawmakers that cited the possibility of using market forces to predict whether Israel will be attacked with biological weapons. "Surely such a threat should be met with intelligence gathering of the highest quality - not by putting the question to individuals betting on an Internet Web site," they said. Wyden said $600,000 has been spent on the program so far and the Pentagon plans to spend an additional $149,000 this year. The Pentagon has requested $3 million for the program for next year and $5 million for the following year. Wyden said the Senate version of next year's defense spending bill would cut off money for the program, but the House version would fund it. The two versions will have to be reconciled. ___ On the Net: Policy Analysis Market: www.policyanalysismarket.org DARPA's FutureMap Web site: http://www.darpa.mil/iao/FutureMap.htm 

Pentagon's Futures Market Plan Condemned Mon Jul 28, 9:52 PM ET 

By KEN GUGGENHEIM, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - The Pentagon (news - web sites) is setting up a stock-market style system in which investors would bet on terror attacks, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Defense officials hope to gain intelligence and useful predictions while investors who guessed right would win profits. Two Democratic senators demanded Monday the project be stopped before investors begin registering this week. "The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque," Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., said. The Pentagon office overseeing the program, called the Policy Analysis Market, said it was part of a research effort "to investigate the broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." It said there would be a re-evaluation before more money was committed. The market would work this way. Investors would buy and sell futures contracts - essentially a series of predictions about what they believe might happen in the Mideast. Holder of a futures contract that came true would collect the proceeds of investors who put money into the market but predicted wrong. A graphic on the market's Web page showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown. Although the Web site described the Policy Analysis Market as "a market in the future of the Middle East," the graphic also included the possibility of a North Korea (news - web sites) missile attack. That graphic was apparently removed from the Web site hours after the news conference in which Wyden and fellow Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota criticizing the market. Dorgan described it as useless, offensive and "unbelievably stupid." "Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in ... and bet on the assassination of an American political figure, or the overthrow of this institution or that institution?" he said. According to its Web site, the Policy Analysis Market would be a joint program of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, and two private companies: Net Exchange, a market technologies company, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of the publisher of The Economist magazine. DARPA has received strong criticism from Congress for its Terrorism Information Awareness program, a computerized surveillance program that has raised privacy concerns. Wyden said the Policy Analysis Market is under retired Adm. John Poindexter, the head of the Terrorism Information Awareness program and, in the 1980s, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. In its statement Monday, DARPA said that markets offer efficient, effective and timely methods for collecting "dispersed and even hidden information. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions." The description of the market on its Web site makes it appear similar to a computer-based commodities market. Contracts would be available based on economic health, civil stability, military disposition and U.S. economic and military involvement in Egypt, Iran, Iraq (news - web sites), Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. Contracts would also be available on "global economic and conflict indicators" and specific events, for example U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state. Traders who believe an event will occur can buy a futures contract. Those who believe the event is unlikely can try to sell a contract. The Web site does not address how much money investors would be likely to put into the market but says analysts would be motivated by the "prospect of profit and at pain of loss" to make accurate predictions. Registration would begin Friday with trading beginning Oct. 1. The market would initially be limited to 1,000 traders, increasing to at least 10,000 by Jan. 1. The Web site says government agencies will not be allowed to participate and will not have access to the identities or funds of traders. The market is a project of a DARPA division called FutureMAP, or "Futures Markets Applied to Prediction." FutureMAP is trying to develop programs that would allow the Defense Department to use market forces to predict future events, according to its Web site. "The rapid reaction of markets to knowledge held by only a few participants may provide an early warning system to avoid surprise," it said. It said the markets must offer "compensation that is ethically and legally satisfactory to all sectors involved, while remaining attractive enough to ensure full and continuous participation of individual parties." Dorgan and Wyden released a letter to Poindexter calling for an immediate end to the program. They noted a May 20 report to lawmakers that cited the possibility of using market forces to predict whether terrorists would attack Israel with biological weapons. "Surely such a threat should be met with intelligence gathering of the highest quality - not by putting the question to individuals betting on an Internet Web site," they said. Wyden said $600,000 has been spent on the program so far and the Pentagon plans to spend an additional $149,000 this year. The Pentagon has requested $3 million for the program for next year and $5 million for the following year. Wyden said the Senate version of next year's defense spending bill would cut off money for the program, but the House version would fund it. The two versions will have to be reconciled. ___ On the Net: Policy Analysis Market: www.policyanalysismarket.org DARPA's FutureMap Web site: http://www.darpa.mil/iao/FutureMap.htm 

New Light Shed on Nixon Role in Watergate Scandal
1 hour, 33 minutes ago 
Add Politics 

By Chris Baltimore 

WASHINGTON  - Thirty years after it happened, a former top aide to Richard Nixon says the former president personally ordered the 1972 burglary of the Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. 

Jeb Stuart Magruder, the deputy director of Nixon's 1972 campaign, revealed in a PBS documentary to air on Wednesday that Nixon personally ordered the bungled break-in at the luxury Watergate Hotel complex. The incident began a series of events that led to impeachment hearings. He became the only U.S. president to resign in 1974. 

In the PBS interview, Magruder said he overheard Nixon tell John Mitchell to go forward with the break-in on June 17, 1972. "John ... you need to do that," Magruder said he overheard Nixon say in a telephone exchange with Mitchell on March 30, 1972. 

Mitchell resigned as Nixon's attorney general on March 1, 1972, to head Nixon's reelection campaign. 

John Dean, the White House counsel under Nixon, said during a CNN interview on Sunday that he had no evidence to prove or disprove the exchange, and called Magruder's report as "a bit of historical minutia." 

If true, the allegations could significantly sharpen history's answer to one of the major questions in modern U.S. politics: What did Nixon know and when did he know it? 

Watergate experts have widely accepted that Nixon knew of the attempt to break into the office of then Democratic party chairman Larry O'Brien at Washington's Watergate complex and conspired to cover up White House involvement. 

However, G. Gordon Liddy, the former FBI (news - web sites) agent who spent nearly five years in prison for refusing to testify, has been painted as the mastermind who ordered it. 

"I must say I did suspect it," Dean said about Nixon's personal link to the order, pointing to reported Nixon links to other break-in orders. "It's not something that strikes me as something Nixon would never do." 

Magruder was charged with perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his role in the Watergate cover-up. He spent seven months in prison. 

Dean said there was "a little shred of evidence out there" that Nixon ordered the break-in, pointing to a March 1973 audio tape in which then-White House Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman said an unnamed lawyer on Nixon's re-election committee said Magruder had confirmed Nixon's approval of the Watergate break-in. 

Dean said he had no reason to doubt Magruder's story. "I can't imagine why Jeb would have any motive to lie at this point. I understand why he delayed," he said, pointing out that congressional Watergate investigators never asked Magruder about the incident. 

"I wish (Magruder) had done it 30 years ago when it wasn't just a bit of historical minutia," Dean said. After his time in prison, Magruder began a career as a Presbyterian minister. 

Substantiating the story will be difficult: Many of the cast of characters including Nixon, Haldeman and Mitchell are deceased. 

MCI Faces Federal Fraud Inquiry on Fees for Long-Distance Calls Sun Jul 27, 8:55 AM ET  - The New York Times 

By STEPHEN LABATON The New York Times WASHINGTON, July 26 Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation in the United States and Canada into accusations that MCI, the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, defrauded other telephone companies of at least hundreds of millions of dollars over nearly a decade, people involved in the inquiry said. The central element of MCI's scheme, people involved in the inquiry said, consisted of disguising long-distance calls as local calls to avoid paying special access tariffs to local carriers across the country. Those tariffs are the largest single source of MCI's costs for carrying calls and data transmissions. The investigation is based on internal documents and information from former MCI executives and three other telephone companies: AT&T, SBC Communications and Verizon. They have provided significant technical evidence that shows, they say, that MCI is continuing to avoid paying access charges through the scheme, according to people involved in the inquiry. Telecommunications experts said that in the 1990's, it became common for long-distance providers to seek legal ways to shift telephone traffic to reduce access tariffs. But there have also been criminal prosecutions of companies that improperly avoided the tariffs. The three other telephone companies have long been bitter rivals of MCI (formerly WorldCom) and have competitive motives to try to derail the company's plan to reorganize and emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings it entered last year after the admission that it had committed the largest accounting fraud in history. But the Justice Department (news - web sites) is taking seriously the evidence that they and the former executives have presented, people close to the inquiry said. MCI received a subpoena late this past week ordering it to turn over documents and other material. MCI executives said they believed that the allegations were unfounded and that the investigation was the latest effort by rivals to introduce new problems in its bankruptcy proceedings. The executives said they suspected that their competitors prompted the inquiry to raise questions among officials who are considering whether to continue to allow the company to do business for the federal government, which is MCI's largest client. Nonetheless, the executives said they were conducting their own internal review to determine whether the company had redirected telephone traffic in improper ways. "Access charges between local and long-distance carriers have existed for decades and are routine in the industry," said a statement issued by the company this morning. "As always, we take all inquiries by the U.S. Attorney's Office very seriously and will cooperate fully with any investigation." The main scheme of avoiding access charges was referred to in company documents variously as "Project Invader" and "Project Scorpion," according to former technicians at the company. In statements provided to investigators, they described the enormous pressure they faced to reduce access fees. Long-distance telephone companies are required to pay "origination" and "termination" fees to local telephone companies at each end of a call. The origination fees vary and the termination fees are typically 2 to 3 cents per minute for calls between states. Justice Department officials have evidence that MCI may, in effect, have "laundered" calls through small telephone companies, and even redirected domestic calls through Canada, to avoid paying access fees or shift them to rival long-distance carriers, according to people involved in the investigation. Lawyers from AT&T, SBC Communications and Verizon (formed through a merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE in 2000) have told prosecutors that extensive tests by the companies show that MCI continues to redirect telephone traffic. The lawyers told the investigators that the tests also showed that the billing codes that are transmitted with telephone calls in data packets had been doctored. Prosecutors have also received detailed statements from former company employees who have described the details of a program, which operated out of the company's carrier management group. "Everyone understood that we were stiffing Bell Atlantic, but I did not consider whether it was illegal," one design engineer who formerly worked at MCI said in a sworn statement provided to investigators. "We were told that Project Invader was an exploitation of a tariff loophole, a trick. We kept the project a secret. The traffic was ramped up slowly to avoid detection." The engineer said that he was "sure that the originating point codes were changed because that was critical to the deception." Former MCI executives, their lawyers, telecommunications experts and others involved in the inquiry said that the company saved at least hundreds of millions of dollars in access fees owed to other companies by systematically rerouting telephone traffic, although exact figures are not known. Industry lawyers, extrapolating from thousands of recent test calls made by AT&T, SBC and Verizon using MCI lines, said the results showed that 40 to 50 percent of MCI's telephone traffic may have been diverted in some markets, and that MCI may ultimately have avoided more than $1 billion in access tariffs since 1994. In recent years, the industry has made a total of about $3 billion in access payments annually. The investigation may pose major new legal and financial problems for MCI, according to lawyers involved in the company's bankruptcy case. Its rivals assert that the company should be liquidated, with major assets sold to other companies. Executives at MCI have said that the company should emerge from bankruptcy intact because it has fixed its accounting problems. The new inquiry, which began in May, threatens to undermine that claim and could place significant new financial liabilities on the company. Industry executives said that other phone companies that were deprived of the access fees have been considering filing lawsuits to recover them. The inquiry into the calls began as separate investigations in the United States Attorney's offices in Dallas, which was tipped off to problems by SBC Communications, and in New York, where federal prosecutors received information from a corporate whistle-blower who had first contacted Verizon last May. In the case of SBC, Texas customers were complaining that the caller identification function on their telephones was not working because it showed a local call when, in fact, the call was long distance. Investigators said they believed that the phones were not malfunctioning, but that the caller identification reflected that the phone codes had been altered to disguise the origin of the call. The inquiries have now merged into one investigation under the supervision of the United States Attorney's Office in Manhattan, which has been leading a separate investigation in the accounting fraud case. The technicians told investigators that the schemes were planned by MCI in 1994, five years before its merger with WorldCom. The plan began after MCI engineers discovered that the regional Bell companies had unmetered lines coming from independent telephone carriers that carried only local traffic. Local telephone traffic, unlike long-distance traffic, is generally not subject to any access fees. According to the technicians, MCI then sought to sign low, fixed-cost contracts with small telephone companies to redirect the long-distance traffic to make the calls appear to be local. Describing confidential documents outlining the scheme in 1995, the former MCI design engineer said, "The Project Invader memo describing the project said MCI wanted the traffic to ramp up slowly enough that Bell Atlantic would not notice it. The arrangement was intended to go on indefinitely." "Employees at MCI were strongly motivated to cut access costs," the engineer said. A report issued last month by lawyers retained by MCI to investigate the accounting fraud described how MCI's senior executives had long been troubled by those expenses and put enormous pressure on managers to take steps to reduce them. In a second scheme, known by technicians as the "Canadian gateway project," MCI was said to have routed domestic telephone traffic to Canada through a series of small companies with which MCI had contracts. The technicians said that the billing codes were altered and that the calls were transferred to AT&T lines into the United States so that AT&T would have to pay the tariffs. Joseph S. Friedberg a criminal lawyer in Minneapolis, said that he represented a client, a former MCI executive whom he would not identify, who had recently gone to prosecutors to outline what he called "a pattern of defrauding other companies out of fees." "The magnitude of it I cannot begin to describe," said Mr. Friedberg, who said his client had been interviewed recently by federal investigators after receiving a subpoena. 

Foreign Earthworms Threaten Forest Health Fri Jul 25, 4:38 AM ET 

By DAN LEWERENZ, News Source Writer STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - From the Poconos in Pennsylvania to the forests of Alberta, there's an invasion under way - and underground. Exotic species of earthworms from Europe and Asia are devouring the leaf litter that is so vital to northern forests, altering soil conditions, enabling the spread of invasive plant species and changing the food chain for forest animals. It's not a new problem - explorers often used soil as ballast for their ships so earthworms have probably been arriving for as long as foreign visitors have come to America's shores. But only recently have scientists began to understand the effect earthworms are having on their newfound ecosystems. "It's a big issue for forest health," said Mike Blumenthal, forest health supervisor for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry. The idea of earthworms as ecological enemy seems as foreign as the earthworms themselves. But because glaciers eliminated earthworms from vast reaches of North America thousands of years ago, forests across the northern part of the continent have evolved without earthworms. "In agricultural settings, in gardens, everything that our grandmothers told us is true: They are good for the soil, they aerate the soil, they turn over organic matter, they break down and loosen the soil, they allow moisture," said Dennis Burton, director of land restoration at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia. "But when you put them into a forest situation, that's where the problems begin." That's because in a forest, earthworms quickly devour the leaf litter and other surface material that form an integral part of the ecosystem. In doing so, the earthworms reduce acidity and boost the nutrients available in the soil. In a garden, that's great; but most of the plant species in northern forests have evolved to do well in the low-nutrient, high-acid soils - conditions that had also prevented weeds and other invasive species from gaining a foothold. At sites in New York and in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, John C. Maerz and colleagues from Cornell University found that areas with earthworm infestations also were more likely to have invasive plant species. Maerz also found that the presence of earthworms often signaled a sharp decline in salamander populations. By eating the leaf litter, worms destroy the habitat that housed tiny insects and arthropods that salamanders fed on. "We think that the earthworms are affecting the (food) chain below them," Maerz said. "And there are lots of things, at least historically, that would have fed on salamanders - snakes, shrews, thrushes, screech owls, everything." Most foreign worm infestations are found in urban forests, like the one the Schuylkill Center manages, and in residential areas where worms might have arrived in the root balls of ornamental plants. But increasingly, invasive worms are being found in more remote forest systems, accidental deposits along logging roads and hiking trails, and escapees from fishermen's bait batches, said Patrick Bohlen, biologist and director of research at the Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid, Fla. Once the worms are entrenched, trying to get rid of them would take a "Herculean effort," Bohlen said, "and you'd probably end up harming other species as well." But despite the effects foreign earthworms are having, Maerz suggests that they might eventually find a peaceful equilibrium in North American forests. "In places like Europe, where these earthworms are from, they have forests with lots of leaf litter and lots of herbs and plants that survive there in the presence of earthworms," Maerz said. "So are we maybe looking at a situation where we just have to be patient? "The system may come into some degree of balance." 

Is the End Near for Netscape? Thu Jul 17, 9:00 AM ET

Joris Evers, IDG News Service The death knell is sounding for the Netscape browser, industry observers said, following America Online's decision Tuesday to lay off about 50 Netscape software developers and end development work on the Mozilla browser technology. "I would not say the patient is dead, but certainly it is more zombie-like. I don't see a new version of the Netscape browser coming out anytime soon," said Jonathan Gaw, research manager at market researcher IDC in Mountain View, California. Geoff Johnston, vice president for StatMarket, a division of San Diego-based Web tracking company WebSideStory, agreed. "It sounds like AOL is really throwing in the towel. I think we have seen our last version of Netscape," he said. AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein denied that the final hour has come for the Netscape browser. "We will continue to support the Netscape browser and Netscape remains a part of our multibrand strategy," he said. Moving Slowly However, many signs point to a slow death for the browser. "I don't think anybody is working on the Netscape browser anymore after the Tuesday layoffs," said one industry insider who asked not to be named. His comments are echoed in online bulletin boards about Netscape and Mozilla, the technology underlying the Netscape browser. The last major release of the Netscape browser and associated software was in August last year with version 7.0. However, most Netscape users never upgraded past version 4.7, according to WebSideStory's Johnston. Netscape was the most popular browser in the early years of the Web. However, its market share started crumbling when Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer in the mid-nineties. The acquisition of Netscape by Microsoft rival AOL in late 1998 and a lengthy antitrust trial could not change the browser's fortune. AOL's concession to Microsoft in the browser space was really already clear when it negotiated a seven-year, royalty-free license to use Internet Explorer with its AOL client software as part of a lawsuit settlement with Microsoft in May, Johnston said. "That is when AOL conceded the war, surrendered to Microsoft and turned things over," he said. Microsoft's Internet Explorer held over 94 percent of the browser market in June 2003, leaving just over 5 percent to be divided between Netscape, Apple Computer's Safari, and other browsers including Opera, from Opera Software, and Mozilla, according to WebSideStory. Money Matters In the end, it all comes down to dollars and sense, said Ken Smiley, research director at Forrester Research of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has regarded the Netscape browser dead for the last few years. "AOL is divesting itself of something that was a bad decision in the first place. They found that the time, effort, and money required to develop their own browser was just insurmountable in a world where the vast majority of Internet users use Internet Explorer," Smiley said. AOL's actions may spell the end of the Netscape browser, but could be the beginning of the Mozilla browser. Also on Tuesday the people behind the Mozilla open source project announced the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, which will promote the Mozilla browser and e-mail software. Several of AOL's software developers will work for the foundation, which will get a $2 million donation over two years from AOL. Though the Netscape browser may be on its death bed, the Netscape brand has plenty of life in it, IDC's Gaw said. "There is still a lot of value in the organization and the brand," he said. Other analysts agreed.

World - News Source Asia Japanese Toymaker Goes Meowlingual Wed Jul 16,10:30 AM ET TOKYO - After selling 300,000 pet-lovers on the Bowlingual gadget that supposedly translates a dog's bark into human language, a toymaker hopes to parlay that success into a new hit product: Meowlingual. The cat-shaped machine set to go on sale in Japan in November translates meows and purrs into human phrases such as "I can't stand it," although exact wording hasn't been decided yet, Tokyo-based Takara Co. said Wednesday. The translation device will likely sell for about $74, slightly cheaper than the $125 Bowlingual, which has been a big hit in Japan. Both gadgets use scientific data on animal sounds from a Tokyo laboratory that also analyzes human voices, helps solve crime and takes part in designing software for mobile phones. Takara plans to start selling Bowlingual in the United States in August. Overseas sales plans for Meowlingual are still undecided. "Cats are smaller and more finicky than dogs so we had to change the design a little," Takara spokeswoman Maiko Hasumi said. The feline version won't strap on the collar as does the Bowlingual, and a person must hold the microphone in the machine up to the cat's mouth and hope it says something, she said. In case your cat's not in the mood, the machine will have "playful features," such as a horoscope reading for cat lovers, she said. 

'The Beers Are in the Fridge'

Jul 16, 7:51 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German construction worker fed up with burglars breaking into his mobile home decided to leave the door unlocked and put up a sign reading "Beer in fridge, please don't damage anything," police said Wednesday.

The 48-year-old told authorities in the western town of Oggersheim that six bottles of beer had been stolen from his fridge during the weekend but nothing else was missing and there was no damage. 

Hawaiians Reward Good Samaritan Turned Victim

Jul 16, 7:50 am ET 

HONOLULU  - A U.S. Marine who helped revive the victim of a near-drowning on Oahu on Monday was dismayed to learn that his personal belongings had been stolen during the rescue.

But Quentin Gwynn was heartened when Hawaii residents read about him in The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper on Tuesday and showered the Good Samaritan with gifts.

Gwynn and his girlfriend were relaxing at Waimea Bay when an unconscious 16-year-old youth was pulled from the ocean. The Honolulu Fire Department credited the 21-year-old Marine with saving the teen-ager's life by administering CPR.

After the commotion, Gwynn discovered that his girlfriend's backpack -- with their identification, wallets, credit cards and a camera inside -- had been stolen.

The public responded with money, meals, free accommodations in a Waikiki hotel and clothing, said Rika Ikeda, head of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, which coordinated the donations.

"People don't even ask questions," Gwynn said. "I am really seeing the good side of Hawaii that a lot of people don't get to see."

Gwynn was on liberty from the USS Bonhomme Richard, which had been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since January. The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor on Sunday. 

The Incredible Shrinking Country

Jul 16, 7:47 am ET 

TORONTO  - Prince Edward Island, a popular holiday destination, has vanished off the Atlantic coast -- or at least according to a new magazine designed to promote Canada's hard hit tourism industry.

The first edition of "PureCanada," designed by U.S.-based Fodor's Travel Guides, contains maps that also omit northwestern Ontario and the Yukon Territory, Canada's vast chunk of land next to Alaska.

"That was certainly an error that Fodor's has made and we've asked them to make corrections and they've agreed to do that in all their material," said Patrick Gedge, a spokesman for Canada's tourism commission.

The spokesman said Fodor's was chosen because its guides offer the most detailed information.

Each magazine comes with a Fodor's micro guide, which also contains the same errors about the world's second largest country.

The Canadian government, which is struggling to promote a tourism industry hurt by the SARS outbreak in Toronto, spent C$600,000 ($430,000) on the new magazine, which has a circulation of 270,000 in Canada and the U.S.

Corrected maps that include all of Canada's 10 provinces and three territories will be sent out in the fall/winter issue, the government spokeswoman said. 

Judge Rules Against New York Vegan Inmates

Jul 16, 7:46 am ET 

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK  - A U.S. judge has refused to order New York City to provide vegan meals to prison inmates who say their Jewish beliefs forbid the unnecessary infliction of pain on animals, according to court papers released on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin denied the three inmates, who are being held at facilities on Rikers Island, a motion for a preliminary injunction that would have forced the city's prison system to immediately offer vegetarian meals.

The inmates, who are Jewish and vegan, allege that their right to free exercise of religion is being violated because they believe Judaism prohibits mistreatment of animals. Vegans avoid using or consuming any animal products. They do not eat meat, dairy products, eggs and honey, and do not use fur, leather, wool, down or other animal products either.

The plaintiffs, who are charged with property damage and trespass stemming from a protest against animal testing, say that because they are denied vegan foods, they are existing on peanut butter, crackers and potato chips and thus suffering from such health problems as fatigue and weight loss.

The judge said that although she did believe the inmates' views were sincere, they had not proven that very serious damage would result without such an order.

The plaintiffs, aged 17 to 24, have all been vegans for at least five years. Although they are serving terms from one to six years, they are scheduled to be transferred to other facilities this month.

Scheindlin said that the fact the inmates had waited for at least nine months before bringing the case provided some evidence that they would not be irreparably hurt without immediate action.

She also said she felt the prison system could meet their dietary needs.

"I can't let this decision pass without my saying that I think they could rather easily and inexpensively and with the goal of an efficient system provide a vegetarian alternative," she said.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons began offering vegetarian entree choices to federal inmates in 2000. 

Elderly Man Ends Argument with Grenade

Jul 16, 7:57 am ET 

BELGRADE  - An elderly Serb ended a heated argument with his neighbor by lobbing a hand grenade and severing the man's arm, Tanjug news agency said Tuesday.

Milan Djokic, 70, was charged with attempted murder and illegal weapons possession after attacking Slavko Grujic, also 70, in the northern town of Zrenjanin Monday.

Grujic first caught the grenade and threw it back, but the device exploded on a second try by Djokic. Tanjug did not say what they were arguing about. 

Conventioneers share alien theories

Dearborn discussion is UFOs, crop circles

July 7, 2003 BY ZLATI MEYER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

While millions of Americans were enjoying traditional July 4 weekend amusements, a few hundred of them took part in that Earthling pasttime -- discussing alien lifeforms.

They swapped Thomas Jefferson for the Mutual UFO Network's 34th Annual International conference held at the Hyatt Hotel in Dearborn from Friday through Sunday.

Jay Benson traveled from Atlanta to attend. The 40-year-old IT consultant, quoting his favorite lecturer Neil Freer, said the aliens who "jump-started our DNA," the Annunaki, wanted to make humans a slave race to mine gold for Annunaki leaders living on planet Nibiru.

The attendees were believers -- and those who wanted to hear the facts about other-worldly visitors. Audience members included an Oakland County psychologist and an aspiring police officer.

"I think it's real; I think things are out there," said Jerry Beekel, 53, a steel-foundry worker from Pittsford, near Hillsdale, who was wearing a UFO-emblazoned T-shirt. "Anyone who believes in God believes He made things other than man. I believe there's a cover-up."

Beekel's comment coincided with a speech entitled, "Cosmic Watergate," by presenter Stanton Friedman.

Friedman suggested that a directive to "get the heck off our planet" made President Richard Nixon nix Apollos 18 and 19. Friedman hypothesized that aliens come to Earth to monitor their "neighbors," whom he described "as idiot Earthlings," who killed thousands of their own in World War II and created destructive atom bombs, V2 rockets and radars.

"They make sure we don't get out there. Would you want us out there? We don't even have someone to speak for the planet. Would aliens want us in an intergalactic agency?" Friedman asked his audience.

Lecturers filled their well-attended talks with pseudo-science theories such as the existence of a magnetic-propulsion system that could move saucer-shaped vehicles, and that the star over Bethlehem the Bible says shone on the night Jesus was born was likely a UFO.

The convention program listed dozens of Ph.Ds as MUFON consultants, but Bruce Maccabee, who has a doctorate in physics from American University, was the only person with an advanced degree presenting.

Crop-formations expert William C. Levengood's bio didn't list any academic credential. In his lecture, Levengood explained, "Energies come down in very precise patterns and penetrate the soil. The soil changes properties -- I won't get into that -- which, in turn, enhances the seeds."

His multimedia presentation included aerial photographs of the mysterious formations, pictures of flies "not associated with wheat plants" on the same plants, pieces of corn that germinated before their husks open and burned kernels next to untouched ones.

In a makeshift marketplace down the hall, vendors hawked books and remote-viewing training sessions on video for $110.

Other items included an audiotape titled "How the War on Terror Interrupted ET Contact;" 144 pages of newspaper and magazine articles about mind-control for $22; a music CD subtitled "A Soundtrack to My Abduction," and a children's picture book to introduce the concept of extraterrestrials.

And even on this holiday weekened when Americans rejoice in freedom from royal rulership, the King made an appearance. The book "Elvis' Search for God" shared tablespace with a Tennessee accountant's memoir of her abductions.

Tony Sivalelli runs the Weight Station gym in Mt. Clemens.

"I don't think people are ready for the bigger picture, for understanding," he said. Contact ZLATI MEYER at 734-432-6503 or meyer@freepress.com. 

Climber survives quarter-of-a-mile fall

An Austrian mountain climber survived a quarter-of-a-mile fall after landing in a snow drift. Hans-Juergen Marzahn suffered nothing more than shock and bruising after the ice ledge he had strayed on to in thick cloud snapped off. The ledge remained underneath him as he fell and stiff upward currents of air probably slowed his descent before he smashed into powder-fine snowdrifts 10 feet deep. His brother Volker, who was walking behind him before the accident, feared he would never see him again as he disappeared over the edge with a shout and vanished through the clouds below. He said: "He waded through a deep snowdrift and could not see on the other side, then there was a crack and a large chunk of the mountain together with my brother vanished from view. I thought - he's dead." Hans-Juergen, 35, from Salzburg, was rescued by helicopter with a rope after his brother called for help from a near-by mountain hut. The brothers had been climbing in snowy and foggy conditions in the Tennengau region of Austria when they strayed onto a snow drift at the edge of the Hohen Goell Mountain. Rescue helicopter pilot, Reinhard Kraxner, said: "To survive a fall from this height without injury is amazing - if that is not a miracle I don't know what is. "He probably came out of it so well because he was wrapped up in the snow that broke off. There were rocks on both sides of him and if he had hit one of them he would definitely have died." Story filed: 10:15 Wednesday 8th January 2003

Prehistoric 'shoes' better than modern hiking boots Prehistoric 'shoes' made out of bearskin and hay are better for mountain walks than modern hiking boots, claims an expert. Shoe specialist Petr Hlavacek has been studying the shoes found on the feet of a prehistoric iceman whose mummified body was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991. Mr Hlavacek, who reconstructed a pair of the shoes, said they kept the foot at an optimal temperature, allowed sweat to evaporate and dried quickly if they got wet. The footwear engineer's version went on display this week at the Leather Museum in Offenbach. Christian Rathke, the museum chief, said the shoe was the "most interesting and best tested" reconstruction yet. The discovery of the iceman, a Copper Age hunter who was killed on a mountain trek, has triggered a wave of new science, with studies of both his physical health and all the equipment he wore and carried. Rathke said the shoes were far from waterproof, but if the iceman stepped in a puddle he would only be cold for a few seconds and the shoes would dry quickly as he walked. "This shoe is optimal for places where it's damp and cold," he said. "It would not be suitable for the savannah or desert." The sole was of thin bearskin, padded on the inside with hay as protection against the cold. Hlavacek's reconstruction is like a slipper, with no leather upper behind the heel, just a net. Story filed: 10:30 Friday 20th June 2003

Is Your Stuff Fake? 19-Jun-2003 Michael S. James writes for abcnews.com that the scotch you love to drink, your favorite shampoo, that watch you like to wear-all these and many other items you use and own could all be fakes. There are fake versions of almost everything for sale: auto parts, drugs, toys, cosmetics and even vintage wines, artwork and airplane parts. Author David M. Hopkins says, "It's now possible to fake everything." He says, "It's not just the contents. It's the ability to fake the packaging. It's the ability to fake the labels. In some cases, it's certificates of authenticity. Everything is fake." Although the worst problem is abroad, where fakes are less regulated, there's a thriving market in fake goods here in the U.S. as well. "We reckon that counterfeiting accounts for about 5 to 7% of world trade every year, which equates to a figure of approximately $350 billion," says crime investigator Peter Lowe. The San Diego FBI estimates that as much as 50 to 90% of sports memorabilia on the U.S. market could be fake. It can be dangerous: A counterfeit bolt may have caused a 1989 plane crash in Scandinavia that killed 55 people, and fake medicine is blamed for the 1990 deaths of dozens of children in Nigeria. Last year, the FDA warned pharmacists to beware of counterfeit Epogen, a drug that treats anemia, which was 20 times weaker than the real thing. How to spot a fake? Look for obvious signs like misspellings and typographical errors, incorrect packaging or brand logos. If you buy a brand-name product from a street vendor, you're sure to get a fake. But sometimes even legitimate stores sell fakes, Lowe says, because of "high profit" and "low risk." "Some can be quite deceptive," Hopkins says. "If [the product] you're buying is packaged in something that looks authentic, shrink-wrapped...you don't know for sure whether that's authentic software or not." Even the companies that make the goods can't always tell the difference. "Some manufacturers have said to me that we can't really tell the fake from the genuine unless we really take them to bits and examine the pieces," Lowe says. "There's a recent case in the U.K. where Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky was counterfeited. It actually contained methanol, which is a harmful substance. The fake was actually a fairly convincing one...You could only really tell the slight differences when you had the genuine and the fake articles side by side." There's a lesson we can take from all this, if we want to. Aside from dangerous dupes, when we discover we're using a fake version of an expensive product, we should ask ourselves if we were just as happy with it, before we knew the truth. That might tell us we're buying it for the brand name rather than what's really in it and convert us to the cheaper, generic items. 

Truce 19-Jun-2003 Sixty descendents of the Hatfield and McCoy families, who waged Appalachia's most famous feud, have signed a truce. At least a dozen people from both families were killed in over 100 years of fighting. The whole thing started with an argument over a pig, and got worse during a battle over timber rights in the 1870s. The truce was the idea of Reo Hatfield of Waynesboro, VA. He says, "We're not saying you don't have to fight because sometimes you do have to fight. But you don't have to fight forever." The truce reads: "We ask by God's grace and love that we be forever remembered as those that bound together the hearts of two families to form a family of freedom in America." Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton and West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise signed proclamations declaring June 14 as Hatfield and McCoy Reconciliation Day. 

Pagan band demands 'quiet area for sex' A pagan rock band is demanding a "quiet area for fornication" during a summer solstice celebration in Birmingham. The event, billed as a family fun day out, has been condemned by the Church of England, reports the Birmingham Evening Mail. Headliners Inkubus Sukkubus demanded the "fornicatorium" at the event, which is being held to mark the longest day of the year. Managers at the Custard Factory venue confirmed a quiet area would be provided for the group, fronted by female vocalist Candia. A spokesman said: "They said they needed a quiet fornicatorium. They say it is a fertility rite. The singer goes into a trance-like state. We don't quite know what will happen once the frenzied activity begins." Druids from across the country will descend on the Custard Factory for the celebration, which is billed as a perfect day out for the whole family, on Saturday. Rhiannon Biddulph, of the UK Pagan Association, said: "There are certain festivals were we celebrate the creation of life where you have to have sex. Most pagans have a fairly relaxed attitude to sex." But a spokesman for the Church of England in Birmingham said: "It seems the Druids have overdosed on the magic mushrooms when arranging this event. It beggars belief that this kind of tackiness and tawdriness is being promoted as a cultural family event."

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)

China's 'Loch Ness Monster' Resurfaces Tue Jul 15, 7:04 AM ET Add Oddly Enough 

BEIJING  - China's legendary "Lake Tianchi Monster" has surfaced anew, with local officials reporting sightings of as many as 20 of the mysterious and unidentified creatures in a lake near North Korea (news - web sites). Sightings of the strange beast -- China's version of the "Loch Ness Monster" -- date back more than a century, but like Scotland's famed "Nessie" reports vary and remain unconfirmed. On the morning of July 11, several local government cadres caught sight of a school of mysterious creatures swimming through the lake in the Changbai mountains, in northeastern Jilin province, the Beijing Youth Daily said on Tuesday. "Within about 50 minutes, the monsters appeared five times," it quoted one of the officials, provincial forestry bureau vice-director Zhang Lufeng, as saying. "At times there was one, at times there were several. The last time, there was as many as about 20." He said the creatures, two to three kilometers (1.25-2 miles) in the distance, appeared only as white or black spots. But from the ripples in the water, he and others determined the spots were "living beings." Officials were not reachable for comment. In 1903, according to local records, a creature resembling a huge buffalo with a deafening roar sprang out of the water and attempted to attack three people before one them shot it in the belly six times. The beast roared and disappeared back into the water. A more recently documented sighting compared the head of the monster to that of a human -- except with big round eyes, a protruding mouth and a neck 1.2 to 1.5 meters long. It also had a white ring separating its neck and torso and smooth, gray skin. 

'Bitch Boss' Remark No Way to Win a Job

Jun 20, 8:22 am ET 

LONDON  - One called her boss a "bitch from hell" while another admitted "lying through his teeth" at interview.

Both the British job candidates were -- not surprisingly -- turned down after prospective employers discovered their candid comments on a public Web site.

The London recruitment firm which revealed the cases warned on Friday that employers were increasingly scouring the Internet to check what candidates are really like behind the rosy image they seek to project in CVs and interviews.

"One media sales executive aged 24 had a job offer withdrawn after a quick check on www.friendsreunited.co.uk revealed that the applicant only planned to stay in London for a few months before embarking on a world tour," London's Media Contacts said.

As well as missing out on the jobs they were aiming for, the frankness of some also cost them their current employment.

"Another candidate, an account manager, 26, for a well-known PR agency was forced to resign when she described her boss as a "Bitch from Hell" and her employer as "a bunch of cowboys," Media Contacts said.

In a third case, a senior sales executive seeking a move also ended up getting fired after boasting to the Friends Reunited site, set up to keep old school pals in touch, that he lied at interview and his CV was "a masterpiece of fiction."

"People should think carefully what they say about employers -- past and present -- and what they say about themselves in any public domain," Media Contacts' recruitment consultant Gordon Cherrington said. "Having fun...is a good thing, though negativity in any form, rarely reflects well on the writer." 

Aaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Jun 20, 9:16 am ET 

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK  - Despite the bone through his nose, his shaved head and pierced face, the 25-year-old pacing a seedy stretch of New York sidewalk admitted he was terrified of what he was about to do.

But after a few minutes, a couple cigarettes and several deep breaths, he sat in the basement of a storefront tattoo parlor, closed his eyes and let a friend split his tongue down the middle with a scalpel.

The latest trend among teens and 20-somethings who indulge in so-called extreme body modification, forking one's tongue like a serpent's "is an art form," said T.J. McGillis, who offers the service for a $250 charge.

"Everybody wants to get it done. It could be the next mainstream thing aside from piercing," he said.

That may be an exaggeration. The number of people with split tongues is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 people by the editor of a Web-based magazine devoted to body modification, but the trend is attracting enough attention that a few U.S. state legislatures have moved to ban the procedure.

Ian, the young man with the bone through his nose who did not want to reveal his last name, opted for tongue splitting after earlier adventures left him with huge rings in his ears, silver barbells piercing his face, myriad tattoos and who-knows-what-else under his baggy shirt and pants.

"I like the way it looks," he said, listing his reasons. "Two, I think it will be more fun during oral sex and the girls will get a kick out of it. Three, everyone and their mother has their tongue pierced and four, I'm an idiot."

FRESHLY CUT MEAT

The process is nothing short of gory. In Ian's case, his tongue was clamped in place, numbed and slit 2 inches up the middle, looking uncomfortably like a piece of raw liver freshly cut by a butcher.

Other methods entail tying increasingly tighter pieces of thread through a pierced hole or cutting with a laser.

Blood gushed out of Ian's mouth and over the silver barbell in his lip for a few minutes, then abated with several doses of mouthwash.

"Go home and pull it apart," McGillis ordered him, suggesting a regimen of separating the two halves each morning and night to prevent reattachment.

After splitting his tongue, Emrys Yetz, 20, said it wasn't long before he could move each half independently and do party tricks like picking up pens and pencils.

"It's done to better yourself," he said, opening his mouth to wiggle each half like a snail waving its antennae.

Yetz argues tongue splitting is no different than a far more socially acceptable face lift or breast enhancement. The only downside, he said, is eating ice cream, since it's harder to make a scoop of your tongue when it's split in two.

NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES...

Not surprisingly, doctors say there are more downsides to tongue-splitting than dripping ice cream.

"There's the potential for life-threatening hemorrhage and the potential for life-threatening infection," said Dr. Lee Pollan, an oral surgeon based in Rochester, New York.

If that's not enough, he added, tongue-splitting can damage speech and taste and cause permanent numbness.

And reattaching a split tongue can be a complex process of reconstructive surgery and skin grafts, he added.

Dire warnings notwithstanding, tongue splitting is kids being kids, said psychology professor Stephen Franzoi at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who specializes in issues of physical attractiveness and body esteem.

It's a form of self-expression, alienation, rejecting mainstream culture and asserting independence, he said.

Comparing tongue splitters to young people wearing long hair and ragged jeans in the 1960s, he said: "This is the same psychological process, albeit more extreme.

"We encourage kids to be independent and express themselves and find their own personal identity," he said. "Every generation has a different way to find themselves in our culture. Some of them are more extreme than others."

After splitting his tongue, Ian made plans to pierce each tip, even as one waiting friend dampened his hope that the girls would love it.

"I think it's gross. It creeps me out," said hairdresser Jill Johnson. "I've dated guys with tattoos all over. I've seen it all, but that's too much for me. Imagine when you're 60 years old and you have your tongue like that."

But for believers in modification, a split tongue is merely a start. Split penises, sliced lengthwise in half, are not unheard of among aficionados. 

McDonald's to End Growth Antibiotic Use in Meat
Thu Jun 19,12:53 PM ET

CHICAGO  - McDonald's Corp. on Thursday told its meat suppliers to phase out growth-promoting antibiotics that are also used in human medicine, prompted by concerns that overuse could reduce the effectiveness of the drugs in people. 

Slideshow: McDonald's Restaurant

McDonald's, the largest fast-food chain in the world, uses more than 2.5 billion pounds of chicken, beef, and pork annually. 

McDonald's said its new policy calls for the elimination of antibiotic drugs some producers have used to help animals grow faster. It sets standards for its direct suppliers and encourages indirect suppliers to take similar steps. 

"We take seriously our obligation to understand the emerging science of antibiotic resistance," the company, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, said in a statement. 

Two major U.S. meat producers that supply McDonald's, Tyson Foods Inc. and privately held agribusiness conglomerate Cargill Inc., were part of a coalition that created the policy, McDonald's said. 

The policy comes amid heightened consumer awareness over the use of additives in food production, including a backlash against genetically modified crops. 

McDonald's said its antibiotics policy for food animals was developed with help by Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy organization, and Elanco Animal Health, an animal pharmaceutical company. 

Also participating were Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital physician Thomas O'Brien of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Oxford University animal welfare expert Marian Dawkins. 

Breast cancer risk nearly halved by frequent miso soup intake
Wed Jun 18, 6:36 AM ET 
NEWS SOURCE 

TOKYO (NEWS SOURCE) - The risk of developing breast cancer (news - web sites) was nearly halved among Japanese women who had miso soup at least three times a day compared with those who had one or less bowl of the traditional soya-based dish per day. 

 

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A team of Japanese researchers concluded that "frequent miso soup and isoflavone consumption was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer," in the study published Wednesday in the US-based Journal of the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites). 

Miso is pureed steamed soybeans, mixed with salt and other fermenting agents. 

The research team, headed by Shoichiro Tsugane of Japan's National Cancer Center, tracked 21,852 Japanese women, aged 40 to 59 years old, across Japan over 10 years from 1990 and studied their consumption of soyabean products, such as miso soup and tofu. 

On average, 0.098 percent of those who had one or less bowl of miso soup developed breast cancer every year, while the incidence was reduced to 0.057 percent among those who had at least three bowls per day, the study found. 

"Consumption of miso soup and isoflavones ... was inversely associated with the risk of breast cancer," said Seiichiro Yamamoto, a researcher at the Japanese institute and leading author of the study. 

Laboratory studies have already shown that isoflavones, a group of compounds that the soyabean contains in abundance, inhibit breast cancer. 

Until now, however, various epidemiological studies had shown inconsistent associations between the breast cancer risk and consumption of soyabean and isoflavones, Yamamoto said. 

The study could not show statistically significant evidence that other soyabean products are associated with reduced breast cancer risk, Yamamoto said. 

"The tendency for lowered breast cancer risk (associated with other soyabean products) was observed but we need to do further studies to confirm it," he said. 

Researchers also believe frequent miso soup consumption may reduce the risk of prostate cancer (news - web sites) among men, Yamamoto said. 

But Yamamoto cautioned that miso is no miracle food, as it contains a lot of salt, which can cause stomach cancer and high blood pressure, among other diseases. 

He added, though, a balanced diet containing a lot of soyabeans "is healthy overall" and was believed to reduce the risk of developing cancer. 

"Very generally speaking there is a perception that the traditional Japanese diet is healthy. We will study what part of it had what kind of effect on people. Some were good, some were bad," Yamamoto said. 

It's Good for You 18-Jul-2003 Douglas Fox writes in New Scientist that although males have long been told that masturbation is bad for them, it's actually healthy. Australian researcher Graham Giles found out that the more men masturbate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer. He asked 1079 men with prostate cancer to fill out a questionnaire about their sexual habits, and compared their answers with those of 1259 healthy men. This contradicts the results of previous studies, which suggested that many sexual partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity, increases the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40%. The main difference is that earlier studies defined sexual only as intercourse, and transmitted sexual diseases may affect prostate cancer levels. Giles says, "Men have many ways of using their prostate which do not involve women or other men...The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them." Sex educator Anthony Smith says, "If these findings hold up, then it's perfectly reasonable that men should be encouraged to masturbate." 

Health - HealthDay A Tomato a Day Keeps Heart Disease Away 41 minutes ago HealthDay 

By Janice Billingsley HealthDay Reporter (HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.) MONDAY, July 21 (HealthDayNews) -- Just one serving a day of tomato-based foods such as pizza or tomato sauce could lower your risk for heart disease by as much as 30 percent, contends a new Harvard study. "The results are pretty enticing," says study author Howard Sesso, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "They're encouraging enough for us to do more studies." Sesso and his colleagues reviewed the diets of approximately 40,000 women from the ongoing Women's Health Study, which was begun 11 years ago to follow women who, at the time, were free from cancer and cardiovascular disease. Controlling for factors such as age, family history, smoking status and other health indicators, they found that women who consumed seven or more servings of tomato-based foods a week -- including tomato juice, tomatoes, tomato sauce or pizza -- had a nearly 30 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease compared with women who ate less than one and one-half servings a week. The study was sparked by research that has shown a connection between an increase in the diet of the antioxidant lycopene and a reduction in risk for prostate cancer (news - web sites), Sesso says. Since tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene, he and his colleagues were interested to learn if the same antioxidant qualities, when eaten in tomatoes, might also lower heart disease risk. Interestingly, however, when the researchers tabulated the result, the lycopene intake itself was not significantly associated with reduced heart disease risk. However, when they looked at food intake, as measured by self-reported servings, there was a clear cardiovascular benefit for those who consumed the tomato-based products on a regular basis. This could be due to errors in measuring lycopene, Sesso says, because of the limited information available in the questionnaire. Or, another substance in the tomato-based foods could be providing the heart benefit, he says. Whatever the cause, he says, "our study suggests preliminary evidence that consuming a number of servings of tomato-based foods per week may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease." The finding appears in the July issue of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition for Washington University in St. Louis, finds the study promising, both because the large number of women surveyed make the results significant and because the findings concur with other work on the topic. "The results may still be inconclusive, but the indication that lycopene/tomatoes may aid in the prevention of disease continues to evolve," she says. "I would encourage people to take these results and add them to the growing list of studies that point to the benefits of more fruits, vegetables and whole grains." Sesso points out that those people who showed the benefit from eating the tomato foods might just have an overall healthier diet than those who had fewer servings of tomatoes. "It could be the diet itself, one that includes more fruits and vegetables," he says. "Those people would have a better cardiovascular profile." "It's hard to be specific," he says of the findings, "but there's a potential that regular servings of tomatoes can have a dramatic effect on cardiovascular risk." More information The American Academy of Family Physicians has helpful recommendations for healthy eating and other ways to reduce heart disease risk. And, a chicken ratatouille recipe that includes tomatoes can be found at Stay Young at Heart, a Web offering of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Pizza Cuts Cancer Risk?

Jul 21, 7:25 am ET 

ROME  - Gorging pizza could help reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer -- Italian scientists say.

In a twist to the accepted medical wisdom that food you really enjoy tends to be bad for you, researchers at a Milan pharmacology center found that eating one or more pizzas a week dramatically reduced the incidence of some types of cancer.

A study of 8,000 Italians found that regular pizza-eaters were 59 percent less likely to contract cancer of the esophagus, while the risk of developing cancer of the colon fell by 26 percent.

"We knew that tomato sauce was protective against certain tumors, but we certainly didn't expect that pizza as a whole would provide such strong protection," researcher Silvano Gallus told Sunday's La Repubblica newspaper. 

Norway Police Seek Media Help for Mystery Amnesiac

Jul 21, 7:17 am ET 

OSLO  - A man suffering from amnesia has caused a headache for Norwegian police, prompting them to enlist media help on Friday to identify the well-dressed, educated man after two months of fruitless investigations.

Speaking what police called "sophisticated and very polite" English and understanding some Japanese but no Norwegian, the man they have nicknamed "Dodo" showed up in the center of Oslo in mid-May and was first taken for a psychiatric patient.

Through hypnosis doctors determined that the man, who speaks good English and looks in his early 20s, was not intentionally holding back information but simply cannot remember anything about his past. Interpol could not trace his fingerprints.

"It is a very bizarre case. I have never heard of anything like it," Oslo police superintendent Sindre Flaate told The News Source.

"Police thought he was a psychiatric patient and took him to hospital. He has an incredible vocabulary, is unable to tell us anything about himself but is very polite," Flaate said.

Under hypnosis, he recalled waking up in the cold and dark in Switzerland and mentioned Marseille and London. Carrying dollars, euros and Norwegian crowns when found, he referred to weight in pounds and temperatures in Fahrenheit, indicating a link to Britain or the United States.

He told doctors he remembered staying in hotels on his trip through Europe and his clothes were clean and neat.

"He has probably traveled by bus or train through Europe without needing any documentation," Flaate said.

But it is a mystery how he would have got into Switzerland, not a member of Europe's Schengen Agreement which lets citizens pass through 15 countries, including Norway, without a passport.

Names that came up in conversations with doctors are Roy Lee and Juaniu Lee. The latter could be his father and there may be a link to the leather trade, Flaate said. 

Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
1 hour, 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON  - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon (news - web sites) projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday. 

"It's my understanding that he ... expects to, within a few weeks, offer his resignation," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. 

Poindexter was involved with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's abandoned futures-trading market for predicting assassinations, terrorism and other events in the Middle East, and earlier with the so-called Total Information Awareness program that drew fire from civil rights groups. 

The official indicated that Poindexter had become a lightning rod for criticism. Poindexter served as President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s national security adviser in the 1980s and was convicted for his role in the Iran-contra scandal, a conviction that later was set aside. 

"Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said. 

Woman Accused of Stealing Dead Man's Ring

Jul 31, 10:35 am ET 

NEW ORLEANS, La.  - A Louisiana woman has been charged with stealing the ring off the hand of a dead man at his funeral wake, police said on Wednesday.

Susan Duhon, 44, was accused of taking the diamond ring while mourning at the deceased man's open casket on Friday, said Capt. Richard Sammartino of the Crowley, Louisiana police department.

"Employees of the Geesey-Ferguson Funeral Home noticed she was leaning over the casket at the time she was visiting it, which they thought was suspicious," he told The News Source.

They questioned her and she admitted to having the ring, which was valued at $500, so police were called in, Sammartino said.

Duhon was charged with theft and placed in the Acadia Parish Jail until Wednesday when she was released on $10,000 bond, he said.

Duhon signed the visitor's book at the wake, according to Sammartino, but her relationship to the deceased was not clear.

"We don't know if she was a family member or just a friend," he said. 

New Mexico Says Goodbye to Its Highway to Hell

Jul 31, 10:07 am ET 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  - Oh heck. You can't drive on the Devil's highway in New Mexico anymore.

Route 666, often referred to by locals as the "Highway to Hell" or "Satan's Highway" was formally re-christened Route 491 on Wednesday. Several prominent voices wanted new numbers for one of the state's deadliest roads that lacked associations with the biblical beast.

"After 77 years of concern and discontent we have finally removed any reference to the devil from this highway," said Gov. Bill Richardson in a ceremonial dedication.

The tortuous stretch of road runs through mountain valleys from Gallup to Shiprock for just over 100 miles in the northwest part of the state. It has some of the highest fatalities per mile of any highway in New Mexico because of its poor condition.

In 2002, 11 people were killed in crashes on U.S. 666 in New Mexico, while in the first six months of this year, six have perished, the state transportation department said.

The number 666 is called the number of the beast because of a passage in the New Testament -- from Revelations -- and over the centuries triple sixes have become associated with Satan.

The road was renamed Route 491 because it is the fourth route off U.S. 191.

Most of the 666 highway signs were stolen after the name change was announced in May. Officials blame thieves looking for souvenirs and not the Devil. 

Ark. Official Quits Over E-Mailed Poem Wed Jul 30, 8:57 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By MELISSA NELSON, News Source Writer LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas' top emergency official resigned Wednesday for sending his 66 employees an e-mail poem making fun of immigrants and welfare recipients. Gov. Mike Huckabee's office said that it accepted W.R. "Bud" Harper's apology and resignation. "The forwarded e-mail was neither humorous nor acceptable," Huckabee said. "In spite of all best intentions and dedication, we sometimes make mistakes," Harper, 72, said in his resignation letter. "Some of these mistakes are so simple that it seems unreal that they can carry us into a situation I must now address." Harper said earlier that he received the verse, titled "Illegal Poem," from someone else and sent it along because he found it humorous. Among the poem's lines: "Welfare checks, they make you wealthy, Medicaid it keep you healthy." Another line accuses immigrants of bilking the system: "By and by, I got plenty of money, Thanks to you American dummy." A copy of the poem was obtained Tuesday by The News Source. Asked about it, Harper initially said he found nothing wrong. "It was just a poem that I got that I thought was funny and you know how you exchange things with people," he said. "I believe in a strong work ethic. Aside from that I have no statement, cause or agenda," Harper said. "Whoever got concerned about this really had to reach to find something. I am very sensitive to people and I care about people. There was no intention ... to create any hard feelings." Bob Trevino, director of Arkansas' chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens and Huckabee's liaison to the Hispanic community, said the poem was an insult. "We are not a drain on our community, we add value to our community. I would say to Bud Harper or anyone else out there, 'Show me how we are a drain on the public rolls,'" Trevino said. "In our culture if you don't work, you don't eat." Huckabee appointed Harper, a former judge, in 1997, praising his work in handling the devastation from a 1996 tornado that killed six people and caused millions of dollars of damage in the Fort Smith area. 

Farmed Salmon Heavy in Chemicals, Group Says Wed Jul 30, 1:13 PM ET Add Health 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON  - Farmed salmon, which Americans are scarfing down because it is supposed to be healthy, may actually be carrying high levels of cancer-causing chemicals called PCBs, an environmental group said Wednesday. Wild salmon fished out of rivers and streams may actually be healthier for the time being, the Environmental Working Group said. They bought and tested farmed salmon filets from 10 grocery stores in Washington, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon, and found seven were contaminated with high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls. "These first-ever tests of farmed salmon from U.S. grocery stores show that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the U.S. food supply," the group, a non-profit organization that investigates environmental matters, said in a statement. "EWG's analysis of seafood industry fish consumption data shows that one quarter of all adult Americans (52 million people) eat salmon, and about 23 million of them eat salmon more often than once a month," the group said in a statement. "Based on these data we estimate that 800,000 people face an excess lifetime cancer risk ... from eating farmed salmon." They called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) to do its own study and issue health warnings as needed. PCBs come from hydraulic fluids and oils, electrical capacitors and transformers. They are endocrine disrupters -- chemicals that act like hormones. They and related chemicals known as dioxins can cause cancer, infertility and perhaps other sexual changes. A BANNED CHEMICAL In the United States, PCBs have been banned for use in all but completely enclosed areas since 1979. But they persist in the environment and in animal fat. Predators such as salmon eat other fish, which carry the chemicals in their tissues, and it can build up. The EWG said its limited study found the farmed salmon had 16 times the PCBs found in wild salmon, four times the levels in beef, and 3.4 times the levels found in other seafood. They said their findings are supported by other studies done in Canada, Ireland and Britain. "In the case of farmed salmon, you have high-density fish pens off the coast of British Columbia, for example, where you have an environment that is relatively pristine but these fish are fed fishmeal from all over the world," EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan said in a telephone interview. Often this fishmeal is heavily contaminated with PCBs, Houlihan said. "On top of that, the fish farming industry produces fish with up to twice the fat of wild salmon," she added. The fat is the source of the omega-3 fatty acids that are supposed to be healthful -- but also provides a place for the PCBs to build up. Terry Traxell, director of the FDA's office of plant and dairy foods, told the Washington Post newspaper his office was reviewing PCBs in salmon and other foods. Wild Oats Markets, Inc., which specializes in selling organic and "natural" foods, said it had a new source of salmon from Ireland that, while farmed, was lower in PCBs. "Testing revealed the feed used for the Clare Island farmed salmon tested to .568 parts per trillion for PCB levels," the company said in a statement. "This is significantly lower than the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) recommendation for twice-a-week consumption of 4-to-6 parts per billion, and the current FDA standard of 2,000 parts per billion." 

Missing 1913 Liberty Head Nickel Appears 1 hour, 15 minutes ago Add U.S. National - 

By SARAH BRUMFIELD, News Source Writer BALTIMORE - A million-dollar mystery was solved early Wednesday with experts certifying that a nickel that had been missing for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel. Relatives of the late George Walton, a North Carolina coin dealer, took the coin to the experts at the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday. The relatives did not want to be identified. The family had put the coin away after Walton's death because they didn't believe it was genuine, said Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries, a Louisiana-based coin dealer and auction house. They decided to bring it out for inspection after learning that Montgomery had offered a $1 million reward for the coin and $10,000 just to be the first to see it. The association brought the six experts together late Tuesday. After comparing the coin to four documented coins, they declared the coin authentic early Wednesday. The family had no immediate plans to take Montgomery up on his offer of $1 million for the coin. However, Montgomery said he would write the relatives a check for $10,000 for letting him be the first to see it on Tuesday. The Liberty Head Nickel was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel after 1912, Montgomery said. But five Liberty nickels with 1913 dates were minted illegally by Mint official Samuel K. Brown. The coins weren't put into circulation and for many years they were considered illegal to own because they weren't regular issue. Two of the coins are now in private collections and the other two are in museums. The reward amount was based on the auction of a 1913 nickel for $1.4 million in 1996. It was the first coin to sell for more than $1 million. 

Young Activist Changes Name to GoVeg.com 
Thu Jul 31, 2:42 AM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By MARTHA IRVINE, News Source National Writer 

She knew her new name might finally stick when she got a phone message recently: "Hi, GoVeg.com. This is your mother. Please call me." 

It might sound more than a little odd - but it's true. A young animal rights activist from Indiana once known as Karin Robertson has legally changed her name to that of a Web site run by her employer, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 

It's not a first name or a last name - just one name. And don't call her "Veg" or "Dot," as some have tried to do. 

"I like the whole name together," says the 23-year-old recent college graduate, who is now a youth educator for PETA and living in Norfolk, Va., where the organization is based. 

The point, she says, isn't necessarily to promote PETA, where her bosses were as surprised as anyone when she came to them with the idea this past spring. 

She says she made the switch to get people talking about vegetarianism and animal rights wherever she pulls out her new driver's license - at the airport, the bank or anyplace else. 

"People are really perplexed," she says. "They say, 'You've got to be joking.'" 

They usually laugh - and so does she. 

"Every time I go to the bank, the tellers will report back about vegetarian food they've tried," she says, gleefully. 

Her decision to take on such an unusual name also offers a chance to talk about the treatment of animals on farms and in processing plants - a source of heated debate. 

The conditions under which chickens are raised and slaughtered was, for example, the topic of much discussion at the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta earlier this year. 

Agriculture experts there said animal rights activists are simply choosing sentimentality over science and practicality. 

Now those in the agriculture field are rolling their eyes over GoVeg.com's name change. 

"It sounds like she needs to get a life," says Kara Flynn, a spokeswoman for the National Pork Producers Council, a lobbying group in Washington. "If she actually went on a farm and saw what was happening there, she might be pleasantly surprised." 

The activist formerly known as Karin Robertson seems undaunted by the criticism - and that's not unusual, says her mother, Melanie Robertson, of Culver, Ind. 

She says her daughter first became concerned about conditions of animals on farms after doing a science project for school. While still in high school, her daughter then joined an animal rights group on the campus of nearby Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. 

Admittedly, her mother says, the name change has been difficult to get used to. 

"My first comment was 'But your real name is so pretty. Why would you want to do that?'" says Melanie Robertson, a kindergarten teacher who named her daughter for a college friend. 

GoVeg.com's father, Bob, regularly eats vegetarian food, too, since having triple bypass surgery two years ago. But when it comes to his youngest daughter's name change, the fisheries biologist, who counts many hunters among his friends, is taking his share of ribbing. 

Still, the family - most of whom GoVeg.com says aren't vegetarians "yet" - is standing behind her. 

"To us, she will always be Karin," her mother says. "But I think she has a good reason for doing what she's doing." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Pork Producers: http://www.nppc.org 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.peta.org 

___ 

Martha Irvine can be reached at mirvine(at)ap.org 

Disabled Woman Trains Mini Pony for Chores

Aug 1, 8:10 am ET 

BERLIN  - A disabled German woman is training a Shetland pony to help her lead a self-sufficient life but animal experts have questioned whether it is right that a small pony is pressed into such a role.

Evelyn Allhoff-Menke, a former veterinarian who lives on a farm in eastern Germany, said she wants the pony to pull her wheelchair and aid her in everyday chores.

"I could take the little horse everywhere," Allhoff-Menke, who lost the use of her legs four years ago in a riding accident, told The News Source. "He could fetch things for me, and someday pull me in my wheelchair around the farm."

But other vets and animal rights groups said they had doubts. Although it is not unheard of to use Shetland ponies as guide animals for the blind, none had heard of them being used to assist people with physical disabilities. 

All That Glitters Is Not Old Gold

Aug 1, 8:09 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - A gold bar exhibited in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History as a relic of the 19th century California gold rush has been exposed as a fake, a specialist magazine reported on Friday.

Scientists compared the museum piece to ingots recovered from a ship that sank off the coast of California in 1857 while carrying thousands of gold rush coins and bars, according to a study published in the August issue of Numismatist magazine.

The bar, a gift from the estate of pharmaceutical tycoon Josiah Lilly, was revealed to be of modern origin. Bob Evans, the geologist who coordinated the investigation, said in a statement that Lilly had not known the bar was a forgery. 

Why Webvan Drove Off a Cliff 

By Joanna Glasner | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1 

02:00 AM Jul. 10, 2001 PT

In the sober days of 2001, it's hard to imagine a time when a company with an untested plan for an online grocery shopping service could inspire
private investors to instantly part with hundreds of millions of dollars. 

It's even more difficult to believe that the same company could convince the general public to cough up similar sums of their own cash to build
automated warehouses for the super-tech task of sorting groceries. 
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And perhaps it's even more perplexing that the recipient of all this largesse somehow managed to piddle it all away. 

But Webvan Group -- the company that promised to revolutionize the business of grocery shopping -- somehow managed to accomplish all these
things in little more than 18 months. 

On Monday, the Foster City, California, company said that it closed all operations and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the
announcement, which came just a year and a half after Webvan's remarkably successful IPO, the company said it has no plans to re-open. 

The cause? Rapidly disappearing cash reserves. 

In a Monday statement, Robert Swan, Webvan's current CEO, said that the volume of orders from Webvan (WBVN) customers dropped considerably
in the last three months. He said the company chose to quickly shut down "rather than continuing to operate with high losses and decreasing cash." 

Webvan's abrupt closure wasn't exactly a shock. In its last annual report, the company said there was a strong chance that financial troubles would
force the company to shut down. 

In the first quarter of the year, Webvan had reported a net loss of $217 million and an accumulated deficit of $830 million. And things only seemed to
be getting worse. 

"We all knew it was going to happen," said Phil Terry, CEO of Creative Good, a consulting firm that has worked with online grocers. He blamed the
company's aggressive expansion into multiple cities, combined with an overly complex website, for causing its demise. 

On another obvious note, Webvan was also too optimistic about people's willingness to ditch traditional grocery stores in favor of something new and
different. This type of extreme optimism was pervasive in late 1999, when Webvan went public. 

"One of the fundamental mistakes that everybody made is the assumption that because there are some problems with the offline experience that
everyone would flock to online," Terry said. Although many people grumble about tedious checkout lines at regular grocery stores, that doesn't mean
they intend to stop standing in them. 

In the final analysis, Webvan's demise seems to have had little to do with the quality of its delivery service. While there were, of course, customers who
complained of late deliveries or squashed produce, the grocery service generally received very favorable reviews from customers. 

On ratings site Epinions.com, Webvan enjoyed an 89 percent approval rating from 109 customers who submitted reviews. Parents of young children in
particular raved about how Webvan saved them from the hassle of regular trips to the grocery store. 

In a survey by Gomez Advisors last fall, Webvan ranked first among all Internet grocery stores, followed by Albertsons.com, which delivers groceries
in Seattle, the now-defunct Shoplink.com and Peapod.com. 

In fact, Webvan's problems never really had much to do with its customers. It was the lack of customers that was the trouble. 

Ken Cassar, a Jupiter Media Metrix analyst, believes that Webvan "may well have been 10 or 20 years ahead of its time." And, like many businesses
born in the maniacal days of the dot-com boom, it tried to get too big, too fast. 

At the time it closed, Webvan delivered groceries in Chicago; Los Angeles; Orange County, California; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; San Francisco;
and Seattle. 

But while the company built up its empire of tech warehouses and fleets of delivery trucks, shoppers weren't signing up quite so quickly. A recent
Jupiter survey found that only 2 percent of Web users had bought groceries online in the last year. 

It didn't help that while customers were slow to buy Webvan's munchies, investors had been too quick to buy its stock. Their early enthusiasm pushed
Webvan to expand more quickly than was wise. 

"When Webvan began making incredibly aggressive investments, that's exactly what investors were telling it to do," Cassar said. "Then Wall Street one
day changed its mind, and Webvan suddenly found itself with an extraordinary amount of infrastructure and without the ability to get to profitability." 

Inventor Designs Sign Language Glove 
Mon Aug 4, 7:39 AM ET

By CARL HARTMAN, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - An electronic glove that can turn American Sign Language gestures into spoken words or text, designed to help the deaf communicate more easily with the hearing world, is under development. 

Researcher Jose Hernandez-Rebollar of George Washington University has demonstrated that his "AcceleGlove" can translate the rapid hand movements used to make the alphabet and some of the words and phrases of sign language. 

His is not the only such experimental device; the military is exploring similar technology to silently help soldiers in combat. But Hernandez-Rebollar says his invention goes further than others because it also can translate into spoken words and simple sentences some of the more complex arm and body motions of ASL. 

The 34-year-old native of Mexico came to Washington through the Fulbright Program, which makes grants for graduate students, teachers and others to study abroad. His field is electrical engineering, and the sensor-studded glove was his doctoral engineering project. 

Not deaf himself, Hernandez-Rebollar said his invention was driven by a desire to help others live fuller lives. 

"I want to produce something that deaf people can use in everyday life," he said. 

According to the National Campaign for Hearing Health, which promotes research and education about hearing loss, 28 million people in the United States have hearing trouble. 

More than one-third of the cases are caused at least partly by piled-up exposure to noise from everyday encounters with airplanes, air conditioners, hair dryers, dishwashers, garbage disposals, lawnmowers, auto theft alarms and rock music. 

The AcceleGlove is a wearable computer with super-small electronic circuitry. Sensors in the glove work with a micro-controller attached to the wearer's arm, mapping the placement and movement of the arm and fingers. That information is turned into data a computer can read and convert to words heard from a loudspeaker or read on a computer screen. 

Deaf parents with hearing children, and vice versa, could find the glove helpful, said Corinne K. Vinopol, who heads the Institute for Disabilities, Research and Training Inc. The commercial laboratory in suburban Wheaton, Md., is where Hernandez-Rebollar has been doing much of his work. 

She especially was interested in his work to make his device translate American Sign Language into spoken Spanish as well as English because of the help it could give to immigrant families. 

"The small deaf children go to school and learn English and ASL," she said. "The parents go on speaking Spanish. Gradually they lose any means of communication." 

But the idea of turning sign language into speech annoys some deaf people who see ASL - used in the United States and English-speaking Canada - as part of their unique culture. 

"Some feel that being deaf is not a deficiency," said Andy Lange, president of the National Association of the Deaf. "It's simply another way of life and the deaf should not use artificial means to overcome a loss of hearing." 

Other researchers are working on wearable devices for translating movement to sound. 

A baseball cap with cameras to capture movement was another experiment. Ryan Patterson, 18, of Grand Junction, Colo., won top honors in the 2001 Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology competition and in the 2001 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his design of a glove that translates hand movements into text on a screen. 

Hernandez-Rebollar demonstrated his invention during a recent interview. He wore a right-hand glove and two small armbands, one near his wrist and the other on his upper arm. 

His software converted the signs he made with his hand into sound from a small loudspeaker - all in milliseconds. After a few taps on a laptop keyboard, he made standard American Sign Language gestures and the loudspeaker came out with single words - "food," "drink," "restaurant," "father." The words can also appear typed on a screen. 

The single glove can make the signs that correspond to all 26 letters of the alphabet, so any word can be spelled out. But this is a slow process. 

American Sign Language also includes hundreds of gestures that express single words and simple sentences, but most require two hands. So far the single glove can produce fewer than 200 words that can be signed with the one hand, and a few expressions such as "What's the matter?" and "I'll help you." 

Some further testing is needed, Hernandez-Rebollar said. He believes the right hand glove could be manufactured and on the market next year, while a two-handed version with much greater possibilities could be ready in 2005. 

He said the device usually is accurate, though the precision declines with complicated movements; for example, words that start with the same hand movement or orientation. 

He said the glove could be attached to existing wireless (news - web sites) equipment and used by a squad commander to send hand signals from outside a building to soldiers hiding inside. They would feel the signals as gentle coded vibrations in their chests or typed on a screen. 

That is an idea the military has been working on. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and other federal agencies have given contracts to develop sensor-equipped gloves that would allow soldiers to send silent wireless notes to one another with hand motions. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Jose Hernandez-Rebollar: http://home.gwu.edu/jreboll 

Video of glove available at http://datacenter.ap.org/wdc/glove/index.html 

Kozmo Kills the Messenger 

By Michelle Delio | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next � 

02:00 AM Apr. 13, 2001 PT

NEW YORK -- They pedaled, scooted and motored through big-city streets. They wore puffy, garish orange jackets on their backs, delivering ice
cream, chips and movies -- often of the blue variety -- to urbanites of every imaginable and unimaginable socio-economic-political faction. 
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They had names like Spike, Sledge, Speedo, Fish and Gaz, and sometimes in their haste, they might have put the right porn movie in the wrong viewer's
hands. 

They were the Kozmo runners, and they are all gone. 

Kozmo.com, the Web-based, one-hour delivery service born from a late-night munchies attack, is dead. 

And those stories flowed like poteen at an Irish wake Thursday, a day after CEO Gerry Burdo announced the company was shutting down in all of its
nine cities -- putting 1,100 people out of work. 

About 475 of them were based in the home office on 80 Broad Street in Manhattan, and they gathered in a gloomy morning rain to hear the news and
reminisce about a heady time that in many ways encapsulated the entire atmosphere of the giddy, short-lived dot-com experience. 

Sure, they were sometimes offered drugs and sex as tips. Some customers begged them to walk their dogs. Others asked them to change their light
bulbs, shave their backs, pick up their medicine, and offer fashion advice. 

The streets they rode were their world, and they were the kings and queens of it -- Kozmo uniforms aside. 

"We all felt like we had the coolest jobs in the world," said Jeffrey Adams, one of the few remaining original employees. "We were roaming all over
the city, getting a peek at how people lived, and what they needed to sustain themselves at 2 in the morning. We moved fast, and we were a part of the
city's weird and wonderful nightlife. We thought we were a modern-day Pony Express." 

The messenger known as Gaz said that Kozmo supervisors encouraged them to see themselves as "rock stars" on a roll. 

"It's kinda hard, though," said Gaz, a Columbia University student, "to feel like a hot dude when you're wearing a puffy orange jacket and riding an
orange scooter. I mostly felt like a fat pumpkin." 

"I was asked by one customer, who had the flu, if I would walk her dog," said Andy Verdano, who was fired from Kozmo during a previous round of
layoffs. "After I said yes, I was told that she started placing small orders three times a day, right around dog-walking time. 

"Another older woman asked me if I would go and get her medicine. She lived in a fourth-floor walkup apartment. And one guy asked if I would help
him shave his back. I said yes to the drugstore run, no to the back shaving," Verdano said. 

Bad Feng Shui Blamed for German MPs Lacking Ideas

Aug 2, 7:05 am ET 

BERLIN  - If German politicians lack ideas for reforming the country's struggling healthcare and pensions systems, they can now blame an adverse flow of energy in their workplace.

The German parliament's glass dome, a Berlin landmark, makes for bad feng shui, according to an expert in the Chinese art of positioning objects, buildings and furniture.

"The energy is downright sucked out of MPs' heads by the glass dome," feng shui adviser Wilhelm Wuschko told the mass-circulation daily Bild on Saturday.

To keep the energy inside, the dome should be coated with a protective foil, he said.

Bild said the office of parliament president Wolfgang Thierse would not comment on the suggestion. 

New Law Allows Drunks to Vote

Aug 1, 8:17 am ET 

OSLO  - It will be two pints of lager and a ballot, please, in Norway this year after a change in the law allowing voters to get drunk and then go out to vote.

"The election board can no longer refuse anyone to vote because they are intoxicated," an adviser at the Local Government Ministry said Thursday.

Until now, Norway's election law has denied entry to polling stations anyone with "seriously impaired judgment" or "reduced consciousness" from booze, but that law has been scrapped, adviser Steinar Dalbakk told the Bladet Tromsoe newspaper.

But Norwegians will have to sober up again for the 2005 general elections. Politicians -- possibly fearing the effects of a political hangover -- have re-enacted the law banning drunken voting.

The new law will however not take effect until after September's local government polls.

Young Women Underestimate STD Risk Fri Aug 1,11:46 PM ET HealthDay 

(HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.) FRIDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDayNews) -- Sexually active single women are at greater risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than they may believe, says a study in the August issue of Preventive Medicine. The study researchers say their findings show the need for doctors and other health-care professionals to spend more time talking with young women about STD risk factors, explaining the consequences of unprotected sex and promoting the use of condoms. The researchers from Duke University Medical Center, the University of Washington and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound conducted a phone survey of 1,210 women, aged 18 to 25. They were asked about risk behaviors such as binge drinking, history of vaginal sex and STDs, perceived STD risk, overall condom use and partner-specific condom use. All the women surveyed were sexually active, unmarried, not pregnant and heterosexual. The survey included students and non-students. Non-students tended to be older and non-white and reported more lifetime partners and more partners over the previous 12 months than students. The non-students were also more likely to have had prior STDs. Both groups reported the same rates of unprotected sex within the previous three months, and more than 75 percent of all the women surveyed believed they were at low risk for acquiring an STD in the next year. "Even though they are having unprotected sex, most young women would say they are a low risk of contracting an STD. Some don't see STDs as a big deal and are desensitized to the risk," lead author Dr. Kimberly Yarnall, associate clinical professor, department of community and family medicine at Duke, says in a news release. "In both groups, women were less likely to use condoms as they were older, white, on birth control pills or had partners that didn't see condoms as important. In the non-student women, binge drinking was significantly associated with unprotected sex... but that was not the case with the students," Yarnall says. It's important to recognize predictors of unprotected sex for health-care professionals to identify and counsel women who may not believe they're at high risk of contracting STDs. "We can't assume that all women of the same age have the same risk behaviors. By pinpointing patterns involving condom use and partner type, we can then create screening questions that may alert us to this behavior. Once we identify at-risk women, we should refer them for appropriate testing, follow-up counseling and education," Yarnall says. More information Here's where you can learn more about STDs.

Anti-War Nuns Sentenced to 2 1/2 Years Fri Jul 25, 5:31 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By JUDITH KOHLER, News Source Writer DENVER - Calling them "dangerously irresponsible," a federal judge sentenced three nuns to at least 2 1/2 years in prison Friday for vandalizing a nuclear missile silo during an anti-war protest last fall. Despite his strong words, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn gave the women less than the six-year minimum called for under sentencing guidelines. Jackie Hudson was sentenced to 2 1/2 years, Carol Gilbert to two years, nine months, and Ardeth Platte to three years, five months. "We're satisfied," prosecutor Robert Brown said. Hudson, 68, Gilbert, 55, and Platte, 66, were convicted in April of obstructing the national defense and damaging government property. The Roman Catholic nuns cut a fence and walked onto a Minuteman III silo site last October, pounding the silo with hammers and painting a cross on it with their blood. Officials said they caused at least $1,000 in damage. The nuns had until Aug. 25 to report to prison but chose to go immediately. Some peace activists have said the felony convictions were harsh and intended to have a chilling effect on other protesters, but the prosecutor said the nuns were repeat offenders who deserved prison. He said Platte had been arrested at least 10 times at anti-war protests, Hudson five times and Gilbert at least 13 times. "These ladies could not be deterred for the last 20 years. They will be deterred for the time the court sentences them," Brown said. On Friday, the defense asked the judge for leniency, saying even prosecution witnesses agreed the nuns did not harm the national defense. Beforehand, the nuns defiantly told a crowd of 150 supporters outside the courthouse they were not afraid of prison. "Whatever sentence I receive today will be joyfully accepted as an offering for peace and with God's help it will not injure my spirit," a choked-up Platte said. As for vandalizing the silo, Hudson said: "When someone holds a gun to your head or someone else's head do you not have a right and a duty to enter that arena and stop that crime?" Many of those outside court waved anti-war banners, including one that read: "No Blood for Oil." The Roman Catholic nuns are longtime anti-war activists. Platte and Gilbert lived in a Baltimore activist community founded by the late peace activist Philip Berrigan. Hudson lived in a similar community in Poulsbo, Wash. After their arrest, the women chose to stay in jail, refusing the government's offer to release them on their own recognizance. Hudson's lawyer, Walter Gerash, insisted during the trial the nuns did nothing to prevent the missile from "doing its demonic damage." He compared the women to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the American colonists who dumped tea into Boston Harbor. 

Rare Flower Creates Stinking Sensation

Jul 24, 8:15 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Something stunk on Capitol Hill on Wednesday -- and it had nothing to do with politics.

Dozens of people lined the Botanic Garden Conservatory, just behind the U.S. Capitol where Congress meets, for a rare glimpse -- and whiff -- of the titan arum flower, or amorphophallus titanum, infamous for an odor resembling rotting flesh that it gives off when blooming.

The bud will only remain open for about 48 hours, Botanic Garden officials said. "It looks like the air was shimmering above the plant, (and it) smelled like a very large, very dead possum," said Elliott Norman, the gardener that has raised the 4 1/2-foot plant from a seedling for 11 years.

The world's largest flower, first discovered by botanists in Indonesia in 1878, opens only once every few years. 

Archeology Leads to War 24-Jul-2003 An abcnews.com exclusive reports that many archeologists work in the midst of wars and sometimes they have even started wars. As empires and superpowers fade, cultural, religious and nationalistic movement depend on archaeology to give them historic validation of history. In northern India, archaeologists have started digging in the ruins of a 16th-century mosque to see if a Hindu temple also existed in the spot. What they find could settle a dispute between Hindus and Muslims that began 500 years ago. Hindus say the mosque was built by Muslims after they destroyed a temple to the god Ram. In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the mosque, setting off a religious war in which 3,000 people died. If proof of the temple is found, Hindu militants will feel justified in having destroying the mosque and will want to rebuild the temple, setting off another war. Archaeologists in the Middle East have had the most experience with war. Where "time seems to be immaterial ... there is no shortage of political interests," says archeologist Guillermo Alcazar. One example is Masada, the 2,000-year-old fortress on the edge of the Dead Sea, where hundreds of Jewish fighters made their last stand after the fall of Jerusalem in 74 AD. Israelis now use the site to swear in soldiers, vowing never again to suffer the same fate. When the Palestinians established a state, Alcazar says, "One of the first things they did was to establish a department of antiquities and dig like crazy." They targeted the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam. This is where Muslims built the Dome of the Rock on the remains of the Jewish temple. Jewish archaeologists say the Islamic trust is trying to erase any evidence that a Jewish temple ever stood on the site by secretly carting away artifacts. The dispute has gotten so hot that Jewish archaeologists have hired private aircraft to take aerial pictures of the site every few weeks. During the last major archaeological dispute over the Temple Mount in 1996, Israeli archaeologists opened up an exit to a tunnel in the mount. Palestinians claimed it was a plot to undermine the foundation of the mosque, and riots followed. During the Bosnian war, both sides tried to erase the archeological traces of their enemy. Serbs consider Kosovo the birthplace of their civilization because the area was once the seat of the Serb Orthodox Church before their 1389 defeat by the Ottoman Turks. Albanians trace their ties to another civilization that lived in the Balkans as far back as 1200 BC. One of the reasons for the 1991 Gulf War is that Saddam Hussein claimed Kuwait was once part of ancient Mesopotamia, which is now modern Iraq. Kuwaitis trace their origins to a nomadic tribe that settled there in the 18th century. In the U.S. archeologists and Indian tribes are battling over the remains of Kennewick Man, the oldest and most complete skeletal remains ever found in North America. Indians say they have a right to all remains found on Indian land, while scientists say Kennewick Man has European features and is not Indian. This challenges the idea that Native Americans were here first. One problem is that each civilization tends to build its holy sites on top of the holy sites of the people they conquer. This helps them assert their power, but it also means that one site can be special to several religions or cultures. Even the national cathedral of Mexico is built over an Aztec holy site. "Christians built over pagan temples except there are no pagans left," says archeologist Oleg Grabar. "Islam is also the civilization in more constant contact with more civilizations." 

Health Drink 24-Jul-2003 Jill McGivering writes in bbcnews.com that sick people in Thailand are trying a unique cure. One patient says, "I started drinking my own urine after hearing from a monk that if you have any kind of disease, urine drinking will help." Her doctor, Dr. Banchob, recommends that patients collect their own urine in the morning and start drinking small amounts, until they're drinking a glassful a day. He says, "In the ancient times or early days in the rural areas, I think Thai people practiced this." Kidney specialist Dr. Siribha says, "If somebody asks my opinion, I will warn them not to do that. If something is too much and not useful in our body, then the body will excrete [it] in the urine...The body didn't want it any more. So I don't think it's a good idea to re-eat or to re-drink the things our body doesn't need it any more." Supporters of urine therapy say it's been practiced in Thailand for hundreds of years. But the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine says there's no record of this. Deputy Director Dr. Pennapa Subcharoen says she's tried to organize research projects on it, but can't get enough volunteers. 

Yeti DNA Matches No Known Creature 22-Jul-2003 Explorers may have proven that a Yeti-like creature is living in Sumatra, because hairs and a footprint found there do not belong to any known species. They're searching for the Orang Pendek, also known as the Sumatran Yeti. According to legend, it's about 5 feet tall, walks upright, and is either brown or orange in color. Hair expert Hans Brunner spent 18 months analyzing the hair's DNA and concluded that it matches no known animal. Adam Davies, one of the expedition members, says, "Hans Brunner... confirmed it's an unknown primate. People describe the Orang Pendek as being quite small but very strong and stocky-and eye-witnesses all talk of a primate which walks upright. It's a very exciting discovery." Primatologist David Chivers says, "We are still hoping to get a photograph or find a carcass, but Adam and his mates found hard evidence. Dr. Brunner has analyzed the hairs and they are not like anything we know. The footprints I have looked at are unique. It has something in common with the apes, gibbons and humans, but it is different. Local people shot one once, but because it was so like a human they were embarrassed and buried it and it couldn't be found again." 

Birds No Longer Scared of Us 24-Jul-2003 Attacks on humans by gulls and buzzards are increasing, meaning some birds may be learning to fear us less. Other birds are adapting to our presence by changing their songs, so they can be heard above the traffic noise. Simon de Bruxelles writes in the Times of London that buzzards have been divebombing walkers and even attacking people in their cars. Experts say they're protecting nests in nearby trees. Former Royal Air Force Captain Richard Bridges, 69, had to be taken to the hospital after suffering wounds in the head. He's been attacked twice, and was chased off by a flock of five birds a third time. Gulls have been attacking visitors in a resort town in Cornwall in the U.K. People are used to them swooping down to grab food out of their hands, but now the gulls seem to have become smarter and more ruthless. They line up on rooftops waiting for unsuspecting victims to come walking along carrying snacks. Sharon Arthurs-Chegini had her lunch stolen when five gulls swooped on her from behind. She says, "It was exactly like something from [the movie] 'The Birds.' They work in groups. One of them snatches the food while the others go for you. There were wings and beaks all around me. They didn't draw blood, but one did peck my hand. It was terrifying." Peter Exley, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says, "There is evidence that some gulls are becoming less scared of humans...an animal that has lost its fear can be dangerous. They've got a 2 inch beak and they will use it." Maybe they're trying to get us to shut up so their eggs can hatch in peace. Helen Briggs writes in bbcnews.com that urban birds are creating new songs in response to the noise of the city. Great tits, a common British bird, are singing at a higher pitch in order to be heard above the traffic noise. Biologists say this is the first known case of a wild bird changing its song to cope with the modern world. "One reason behind the success [of urban birds like the great tit] may be because they can adjust the signal that is crucial in breeding," says ornithologist Hans Slabbekoorn. "Other species that lack such flexibility in their songs may perish or lose the opportunity to breed under noisy conditions." A Note: On July 20, Whitley Strieber was attacked by a hawk while walking down a street in Los Angeles, where he was on a business trip. He was unhurt, but had to run to escape the hawk. 

Why the Moon Flag Waves 24-Jul-2003 Gina Treadgold writes for abcnews.com that planting a flag on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission was a top secret project in 1969. NASA engineer Tom Moser says, "...It had to be done quietly, because putting a U.S. flag on the moon was politically sensitive." Historian Anne Platoff says the UN had passed a treaty stating "outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies is not subject to national appropriation." But the main problem was getting the flag to fly. Moser experimented with a store bought flag that cost $5.50. NASA developed a collapsible flagpole with a telescoping horizontal rod sewn into a seam on the top of the flag so it would extend outward. The flag was put into a heat resistant tube attached to the ladder of the lunar module, so Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could detach it on their way down the ladder, after their landing. Moser says that when he watched lunar landing on July 20, 1969, "I watched Neil Armstrong go down the ladder ... it looked like he fell, I thought he had caught his spacesuit on the ladder, that it had ripped his suit open, and that was the end of manned space flight and it was all my fault." But he didn't fall, he just skipped the last step and jumped to the moon's surface, saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He later explained he meant to say, "That's one small step for A man." Buzz Aldrin says, "It took both of us to set it up and it was nearly a public relations disaster. A small telescoping arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which should have been flat had its own permanent wave." It turned out that the wrong coating had been applied to the telescoping rod, so it wouldn't fully extend, which is why the flag looks like it's waving in the breeze, although there's no wind on the moon. Conspiracy theorists say the picture of Buzz Aldrin posing next to the flag proves the moon mission was a hoax, since the flag is rippled. There are now a total of six U.S. flags on the moon, each one left by an Apollo mission. Each flag was deliberately designed to have the same ripple. 

Top Stories - The News Source
Ice Cream Treats Disguise Meals as Snacks, Group Says
Wed Jul 23, 4:14 PM ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent 

WASHINGTON  - The healthy food watchdog that took all the fun out of Chinese take-out and movie popcorn has done it again, this time with summer's favored treat -- ice cream. 

"Everyone knows that ice cream isn't a health food," the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an independent, nonprofit group, said in a study released on Wednesday. 

"But the staggering calorie and saturated fat content of most of the treats served up at chains like Baskin-Robbins, Ben and Jerry's, Cold Stone Creamery, Friendly's, Haagen-Dazs and TCBY is bound to surprise most consumers." 

The CSPI said an empty Ben & Jerry's chocolate-dipped waffle cone, designed to hold at least two scoops of ice cream, itself packs 320 calories and 10 grams or half a day's worth of saturated fat. 

"If you put a regular scoop of Chunky Monkey ice cream in that cone, it is going to be worse for you than (a) one-pound rack of baby back ribs, with with 820 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat," CSPI nutritionist Jayne Hurley told a news conference to publicize the study. 

"This is something eaten by people strolling around a mall," she added. "They have no idea they have just eaten 820 calories and one and a half days worth of saturated fat." 

Haagen-Dazs's Mint Chip Dazzler, a sundae in a cup, has three scoops of ice cream, fudge, cookies, sprinkles and cream -- and 1,270 calories, the group said. 

Its 38 grams of fat is more more than the day's allowance as calculated by the U.S. government, which says the average American should eat between 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day. 

The CSPI called on restaurants and ice cream parlors to list the fat and calorie content of food on menus, helping them make better choices about the food they eat. 

AMERICANS TOO FAT 

The CSPI's Michael Jacobson said the report backed his group's argument that restaurants carry at least some responsibility for the obesity epidemic in the United States. 

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight and 30 percent are obese, both of which raise the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other big killers. 

"It is clear that companies are using every means that they can devise to get us to eat more and bigger products and therefore to spend more in their shops," Jacobson said. "The least they can do, the least they must do, is provide customers with factual information." 

He said even food that is labeled may be incorrectly labeled. "Cold Stone Creamery offers fat-free frozen yogurt, or so they would have you believe," Jacobson said. CSPI tests showed a small, 7 ounce serving contained 11 grams of fat and 7 grams of artery-clogging saturated fat. 

"Ice cream is an indulgent dessert, and like any indulgence, is meant be enjoyed in moderation," Cold Stone Creamery spokesman Kevin Donnellan responded. 

"Lower calorie options for our customers, such as yogurt, sorbet and lowfat and nonfat mix-ins are also made available in all our stores," he said in a statement. 

Spokeswomen for Friendly Ice Cream Corporation and Ben & Jerry's could not immediately be reached. 

Baskin-Robbins is owned by British food and drink group Allied Domecq Plc, Anglo-Dutch group Unilever owns Ben & jerry's and Haagen-Dazs is marketed by Swiss food giant Nestle . 

In the past CSPI has put out reports publicizing the health-threatening qualities of other popular foods, including Chinese take-out meals and popcorn. 

Texas Puts Gutenberg Bible on Internet Wed Jul 23,10:50 AM ET 

By JIM VERTUNO, News Source Writer AUSTIN, Texas - The University of Texas has put its entire two-volume Gutenberg Bible on the Internet, making it easier for scholars and the public to browse one of the world's most valuable books. "Just as Johann Gutenberg made knowledge more accessible with the invention of the printing process, this digitization project continues that legacy," said Richard Oram, head librarian at the university's Harry Ransom Center, one of the world's top cultural archives. The Ransom Center edition is not the first to go digital. Gutenberg Bibles in England and Japan already have been posted on the Internet and the Library of Congress (news - web sites) has one available on CD-ROM, Oram said. However, Ransom Center officials think their copy is the best of the lot, calling it the most-used version still in existence. Gutenberg's Bible revolutionized printing in Western civilization. Printed in Mainz, Germany, in the 1450s, the books were the first major Western book printed from movable type. According to the Ransom Center, only about 200 were produced and only 48 copies exist today, each one of them unique since local artisans were hired to illuminate the letters opening each book. The Ransom Center acquired its two-volume copy, which includes some illuminations in gold leaf, in 1978. Oram estimated the copy, which is 1,268 pages in two volumes, is worth up to $20 million. The Texas Gutenberg was used in monasteries in southern Germany as late as the 1760s. It was marked up by monks who scratched out some passages and corrected others. Other markings indicate which sections were to be read aloud or reserved for church services. "Our copy is the most interesting in the world," Oram said. One top scholar agreed. "This is probably the most extensively annotated and corrected copy surviving," said Paul Needham of Princeton University's Scheide Library. "This is a very great treasure." Needham said the online access, and the soon-to-be-developed high resolution CD-ROM, will be a boon to scholars who want to look at the Bible without traveling to Austin where it is enclosed in temperature-controlled glass and under the watch of 24-hour security. Ransom Center staff began digitally scanning the Bible's linen pages in June 2002. The finished project gives Web viewers 7,000 images and special software was used to allow for full visibility of the text and illuminations. ___ On the Net: Harry Ransom Center: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu 

Vegetarian diet is as effective for heart as drugs MARTIN WILLIAMS

SCIENTISTS have drawn up a vegetarian diet that they say can protect the heart as effectively as cholesterol-fighting drugs.

The super-healthy diet combined almonds, soya, high fibre cereals such as oats and barley, and plant sterols found in vegetables and fruits.

The Canadian study found that the special vegetarian diet cut levels of "bad" LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol by 29%.

In a comparison test it effectively fared as well as the standard anti-cholesterol drug lovastatin, normally only prescribed to people at serious risk.

The findings suggested that patients with high cholesterol should try the diet for six to 12 weeks before turning to cholesterol-lowering drugs, Dr James Anderson, of the University of Kentucky, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Professor David Jenkins, the chief researcher from the University of Toronto, said: "As we age, we tend to get raised cholesterol, which in turn increases our risk of heart disease. This study shows that people now have a dietary alternative to drugs to control their cholesterol, at least initially."

He thought the reason the foods were so effective may be that an "ape" diet of high fibre, nuts and vegetable proteins suits humans.

A group of 46 men and women with raised cholesterol who took part in the month-long study were randomly assigned to one of three vegetarian diet groups. One group ate meals low in saturated fats, while another had the same low fat diet plus a daily 20mg dose of lovastatin.

The third group was given the "special" cholesterol-lowering diet which included foods such as oat bran bread and cereal, soy drinks, and fruit. A typical dinner for those on the diet was tofu bake with eggplant, onions, and sweet peppers, pearl barley, and vegetables.

Professor Jenkins said experts in the US already recommended diets containing the cholesterol-lowering foods. They were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the American Heart Association and the National Cholesterol Education Program.

"We have now proven that these foods have an almost identical effect on lowering cholesterol as the original cholesterol-reducing drugs," Professor Jenkins added.

The British Heart Foundation estimates that almost half of deaths from heart disease are due to raised cholesterol. Coronary heart disease kills more than 11,900 Scots a year.

Many experts are worried by the extent to which statins such as lovastatin are draining NHS resources, even though they save lives. In Britain, statins are prescribed to an estimated million people. The recommended target level for blood cholesterol in the UK is less than 5 millimoles per litre. But men in England have an average level of 5.5 mml/litre and women 5.6.

Dr Frankie Phillips, a nutrition scientist from the British Nutrition Foundation, said the results were exciting but said for most people the diet would be unacceptable.

"You're talking about a vegan (non-dairy vegetarian diet), rather than a vegetarian diet, which requires a lot of commitment," he said. "It's also quite difficult to obtain all the iron, calcium and fatty acids you need from these foods alone.

"The first thing you should do if you're worried about your heart is to think about lifestyle, because diet isn't the only factor. Being overweight, taking no exercise and smoking are all massive factors too." On the menu

Breakfast Hot oat bran cereal, soya beverage, strawberries with sugar and soluble fibre, and oat bran bread with enriched soya margarine and double fruit jam.

Snack Almonds, fresh fruit, and a soya drink.

Lunch Black bean soup, and a soya turkey, lettuce, tomato and cucumber sandwich using oat bran bread and enriched soya margarine.

Snack Almonds, soluble fibre, and fresh fruit.

Evening meal Tofu bake with ratatouille with a side dish of pearl barley and vegetables such as broccoli or cabbage.

Bedtime snack Fresh fruit, soluble fibre, and soya milk. -July 23rd

'Ape diet' lowers bad cholesterol levels 21:00 22 July 03 NewScientist.com news service A vegetarian "ape-diet", based on the foods our simian cousins eat, is as effective in lowering cholesterol as an established cholesterol-lowering drug, reveals a new study. High cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The key components of the ape diet are plant sterols, found in plant oils and enriched margarines, viscous fibre, found in oats, barley and aubergine, and soy protein and nuts.

People with raised cholesterol following this primitive diet had their levels of bad cholesterol slashed by about a third - the same reduction provided by the statin drug, lovastatin.

Study leader David Jenkins, a vascular biologist at the University of Toronto, says these foods are accepted to have cholesterol-lowering properties. "The thing we did was to put them all together and see that they didn't cancel out but actually added up," he told New Scientist.

He believes that humans may be evolutionarily adapted to the diet, which is similar to that eaten by gorillas and orangutans.

Tofu bake

Jenkins and colleagues assigned 46 patients to either the special ape diet, a standard cholesterol-lowering diet or the standard diet plus lovastatin. A typical dinner from the ape menu would be tofu bake with ratatouille of aubergine, onions and sweet peppers, with pearled barley and vegetable side dishes, says the team.

After four-weeks, levels of the harmful LDL-cholesterol plummeted by 29 per cent on the ape diet, and 31 per cent for those on lovastatin. Bad cholesterol fell by only 8 per cent for those on the standard low-fat diet. Jenkins points out many people with raised cholesterol are being put on medication before they give diet a chance. "Although many drugs are extremely safe, there's always a slight chance of risk of the drug and drug interactions," he says.

Lovastatin has an "excellent" safety profile, but the drug can cause liver or muscle enzyme problems in a small minority of people.

Filet mignon

The drug is reasonably cheap now it has come off patent, says Jenkins. But the cost of the ape-diet will depend on people's individual tastes. It might seem dear to those who like fast food. "But if you like filet mignon and West Coast salmon then this is not going to be more expensive - it's going to be cheaper," he says.

The patients generally found the ape diet acceptable, with the main complaint being the large quantity of food that had to be eaten in order not to lose weight.

However, the British Heart Foundation says: "There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that statins are superior to diet in lowering cholesterol levels." The BHF also points out "this is a small short-term study supported by numerous food manufacturers, which may have influenced the findings".

Nonetheless, the BHF acknowledges that diet is important: "Statins should always complement a healthy balanced diet, rather than replace it."

Journal reference: Journal of the American Medical Association: (vol 290, p 502) Shaoni Bhattacharya

Housing Market Too Tough for Potter

Jul 23, 10:10 am ET 

LONDON  - Defeating Britain's unpredictable housing market proved one magic test too many for boy wizard Harry Potter on Tuesday.

The prim suburban house that played host to the loathsome Dursely family in the hit movies failed to sell at auction in London.

A spokesman for property company FPD Savills said the house in Bracknell, southeast England -- No 4 Privet Drive in the movies -- failed to reach its reserve price of 250,000 pounds.

"We had instructions to withdraw the property from auction if it failed to meet the reserve," John Vaughan told The News Source.

"It fell 1,000 pounds short. It's obviously disappointing."

With fans gripped by the fifth book in JK Rowling's series, the house in Privet Drive -- in reality Picket Post Close -- was expected to attract a good price.

The detached house is the place to which Harry reluctantly returns from wizarding school Hogwarts for his holidays, spending much of his time in the cupboard under the stairs.

It was first used by Warner Brothers when they filmed "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" -- known as "The Sorcerer's Stone" in America -- in 1999.

From its gleaming front door to its pristine lawns, the house was selected by a location spotter for its lack of interesting features.

But, said Vaughan, even Harry Potter "can't predict the housing market." 

Aggressive Pig Sparks Helicopter Chase

Jul 22, 10:16 am ET 

BERLIN  - German police deployed a helicopter Monday to track and kill a ferocious little pig after it attacked some cows, chasing one around a barn until it died.

The knee-high animal, described by police as a Siamese pot-bellied pig, entered the barn near the western German town of Geldern Monday morning.

"One cow died after being chased round the barn, and a second cow suffered bite wounds," said police spokesman Dieter Brauers. "We thought it might be infected with rabies because it was so aggressive."

Police launched a search for the pig, scrambling a helicopter, which located it in a nearby field. "We surrounded the field and a marksman killed it with a single shot," said Brauers. 

Secret Papers in Trashcan on the Street

Jul 22, 10:17 am ET

NICOSIA  - Cypriot authorities are trying to find out how sensitive intelligence documents ended up in a dustbin in the street, a
government spokesman said Tuesday.

An investigation was launched after a newspaper reported that it had
the cabinet papers, which contained information about military deals and security at the island's airports.

"There will be a complete investigation to find out who was the last
person in possession of these papers and how they ended up in the trash," the
spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear from what period the documents dated.

Mars Ready for Close-Up, Best View in 60,000 Years
Tue Aug 5, 2:13 PM ET 
Add Science 

By Deborah Zabarenko 

WASHINGTON  - Mars is getting ready for its close-up, with the red planet coming as near to Earth this month as it has in almost 60,000 years. 

The News Source Photo 

The News Source 

Slideshow: Planet Mars

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Its closest pass will come on Aug. 27 at 5:51 a.m. EDT, when Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles away. 

The last time it came nearer was around Sept. 12 in 57,617 B.C. when Mars came about 25,000 miles closer, at a distance of 34.62 million miles from Earth. 

"If Neanderthals had telescopes, they would have seen it a little bit better than we will on August 27," said astronomer Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. 

To backyard observers, Mars will be the brightest natural object in the sky except for the sun and the moon, Chester said in a telephone interview. Even though it will be close, it will not look much bigger than it usually does. 

"People are kind of all thinking that all you've got to do is go outside and you're going to see this big red blob that's half the size of the moon," Chester said. "That's not the case." 

What people will most likely see is a brilliant pinkish object dominating the southern sky. At that point, Mars will be the brightest thing in the heavens. Venus would have shone bright if it had been visible, but it will be hidden behind the sun when Mars comes closest to Earth. 

Mars will appear to be about the same size as a middling-sized crater on the moon, Chester said. 

To get an idea of how big Mars will seem at its closest, the typical thumb held at arms' length covers about one degree of the sky, or 3,600 arc seconds. The moon is about half a degree of the sky, or 1,800 arc seconds. Mars at its closest will appear to be 25.11 arc seconds -- only about one more arc second than its usual 24. 

Mars will get even closer to Earth on Aug. 28, 2287 -- but still not as close as it did in the Neanderthals' time. 

"It is a marvelous opportunity to get people interested in astronomy and what you can see from your own backyard," said Stephen Maran, an astronomer and spokesman for the American Astronomical Society. "We hope that more and more people will get used to looking at the sky so they will be interested in efforts to cut down on light pollution." 

As Earth's next-door planetary neighbor, Mars has always been a subject of fascination. Recent NASA (news - web sites) probes have sent back images suggesting water once flowed on or near the martian surface -- an exciting prospect for those curious about whether Earth-type life ever existed on Mars, since water is seen as a prerequisite for life on other planets. 

On Monday, NASA selected the low-cost Phoenix probe as the first so-called Scout mission to Mars. Phoenix is expected to land on Mars in late 2008, in terrain suspected of harboring large quantities of ice within 1 foot (0.348 meter) of the surface, and then will analyze subsurface material, NASA said in a statement. 

Brewers Asked to Create Beer for Women

Aug 5, 10:30 am ET 

LONDON  - British beer-makers should brew a real ale directed at women, the chairwoman of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said Tuesday.

Paula Waters said the British brewing industry had become too set in its ways and the number of women trying real ale had declined.

"Someone in the industry needs to lead the way by launching an all-new beer aimed at women -- the world's first Fem-ale. This will help dispel the myth that beer is strictly for the boys," Waters said on the first day of the Great British Beer Festival in London.

Camra said its research showed more women would be willing to try beer if it was presented in more stylish glasses than ordinary pint pots.

"Just look at the beer drinking culture in Belgium. There is a wide range of fruity Belgian beers that are served in stylish branded glasses and you see a large number of women drinking these traditional styles of beer in cafes and bars," Waters said.

The annual Great British Beer Festival runs from Tuesday to Saturday at London's Olympia. Organizers expect some 45,000 visitors. 

Star-Crossed Space Wedding Back On?

Aug 5, 10:27 am ET 

MOSCOW  - Long-distance relationships are always tricky, but this one has been more remote than most.

The first space wedding, which will unite Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and his earth-bound bride some 240 vertical miles away, is back on, after being canceled last month by the spaceman's superiors.

"As far as I know, it is planned for August 10," said Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, Tuesday.

Malenchenko, 41-year-old commander of the International Space Station since April, has overcome technical and legal problems, as well as the objections of his bosses, to wed U.S. citizen Ekaterina Dmitriev, 26, by space telephone.

Gorbunov said Malenchenko had deputed an American lawyer to sign the marriage documents for him at the ceremony in Houston, the home of U.S. space mission control.

The zero-gravity bridegroom will still look the part.

"He has definitely been sent a tailcoat," said Gorbunov. 

Kansas Really Is Flat as a Pancake

Jul 22, 10:18 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Kansas really is flatter than a pancake, U.S. geographers reported on Monday.

A scientific comparison of the topography of Kansas to a pancake shows the state, known for its vast, even fields, is in fact really, really flat, geographer Mark Fonstad of Southwest Texas State University and colleagues found.

"While driving across the American Midwest, it is common to hear travelers remark, 'This state is as flat as a pancake,"' they wrote in their report, published in the Annals of Improbable Research.

"Simply put, our results show that Kansas is considerably flatter than a pancake."

While the study, written for a humorous journal, is tongue-in-cheek, the researchers used serious methodology.

"There are bigger questions that we ask even though we are doing this sort of thing for fun," Fonstad said in a telephone interview.

"The kind of question we ask is: how do you compare two things that aren't the same size? We like to play games in our heads to try to answer these questions."

A United States Geological Survey digital elevation model of Kansas provided one set of data for the comparison.

Photographs of the pancake were translated into digital data and scaled to enable a comparison with Kansas. Scaling is the process that map makers use when they represent an entire state, for instance, on a single page.

"We used a comparison called a flattening ratio," Fonstad said. "It is the same comparison as used for figuring out how spherical the Earth is."

While Kansas has some hilly parts, on an overall average it is quite level, the analysis showed. 

Trained NYC Hawks Attack Chihuahua 
Wed Aug 6, 5:54 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

By LARRY McSHANE, News Source Writer 

NEW YORK - Trained hawks employed to keep pigeons from making a mess on visitors in a midtown park have been grounded because one of the birds mistook a Chihuahua as its lunch. 

An 18-inch hawk swooped down and gouged the diminutive pooch with one of its talons while the dog was nosing around in the bushes of Bryant Park, located behind the landmark New York Public Library. 

The hawk was quickly separated from the pooch Tuesday afternoon. A park employee flagged down a cab so the dog's owner could take it to a veterinarian, said Richard Dillon, vice president of security for Bryant Park. 

The dog owner asked that her identity not be released. 

The program, which aims to scare pigeons out of the park, could be finished. A final decision is expected by the end of the week. 

"I sincerely believe the bird mistook it for a rat because it was in the shrubbery," said Thomas Cullen, the falconer hired to run the anti-pigeon program. 

The hawk, named Galan, was taken to Cullen's headquarters in Goshen, N.Y. 

The Bryant Park Restoration Corp. picked up the vet's bill, Cullen said at a news conference with another of the sharp-taloned birds, Starbuck, perched on his left hand. 

Daniel Biederman, executive director of the Bryant Park group, said the hawk program has been a success since it was started in April, with pigeon infestation down 50 percent and fewer complaints from visitors. 

However, city Parks Department officials called for its end. 

"We place the safety of park users, including their pets, over any minor inconvenience that may be caused by pigeons," said spokeswoman Megan Sheekey. 

Some park visitors disagree. 

"I don't think this should be done away with because of one misstep," Ward Miller, a lawyer from Glen Ridge, N.J., said of the hawks while taking his daily walk in Bryant Park. "This is a great idea. It's better than the alternatives, like poison." 

___ 

On the Net: 

Bryant Park: http://www.bryantpark.org/ 

FBI Warns of Common Items Hiding Weapons 
1 hour, 13 minutes ago

By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The FBI (news - web sites) is warning security personnel about dozens of everyday items - from belt buckles to keys to a deadly deck of cards - that can conceal knives or other weapons terrorists could use to hijack an airliner. 

Many items cost less than $20 and can be difficult to detect using airport screening devices, according to an FBI statement accompanying the 89-page catalog obtained Wednesday by The News Source. 

The catalog has been converted into a CD and circulated to airport screeners and law enforcement around the country amid heightened vigilance aimed at preventing another suicide hijacking by al-Qaida. 

"It was designed to raise security awareness for law enforcement and airline security," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said. 

U.S. law enforcement officials previously have warned that al-Qaida might use improvised or easily obtained substances to mount attacks, especially chemicals that are dangerous when mixed. What makes the FBI weapons list unusual is that most of the concealable knives, pepper spray devices and other items are inexpensive and can be purchased from manufacturers in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Italy, Sweden, China and elsewhere. 

Knives are concealed in belt buckles, hairbrushes and combs, working cigarette lighters, crucifixes, lipstick cases, canes, umbrellas, keychains, pens, mock credit cards and money clips. While many of the blades are small, others are at least four inches long and some are sword-length. 

Among the more exotic items is a deck of fake playing cards made of metal, with sharp edges, that can be thrown with deadly results. One fake key made in Japan conceals a knife and a smaller key that could be used to escape from handcuffs. 

One device, called a "shuckra," is a metal tube containing a wire that, when locked into place, becomes a hardened spike that could be used as a dagger. 

There are false name-brand soup, hairspray, shaving cream and cleanser cans with hidden compartments - the FBI calls them "can safes" - where weapons or dangerous substances could be placed. Fake books with hollowed centers are used as safes. 

Each item in the catalog is shown with a ruler to give security personnel a sense of scale and an X-ray image of how it might appear when viewed in an airport screening device. 

The FBI's collection was purchased through catalogs, at knife shows and through other commercial outlets. Officials said none of the items were confiscated from passengers. 

The 19 men who hijacked four jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001, used common boxcutters as weapons, and the FBI catalog is circulating at a time of increased security at airports based on intelligence collected from captured al-Qaida operatives and al-Qaida safe houses about plans for another attack using the nation's air travel system. 

The Transportation Security Administration forbids air travelers from carrying sharp objects into an aircraft cabin. The agency bans such items as boxcutters, metal scissors with pointed tips, meat cleavers, swords and ice picks. 

But the FBI catalog notes there are many other razor knives and penknives that are used in construction and other businesses that could be just as deadly in the hands of a terrorist. Even plastic knives are included. 

"Each of these tools was designed to cut and is fully functional in that respect," the FBI statement says. "Whether used to cut paper, cardboard or other material, these knives should be treated as potentially dangerous weapons." 

The Homeland Security Department on Tuesday warned travelers to expect greater scrutiny of cameras, cell phones and other electronics because of evidence al-Qaida had experimented with using cameras to house stun guns or explosives. 

The government also recently tightened visa rules for international travelers passing through U.S. airports after warnings in late July that al-Qaida teams might try to hijack international flights. 

The FBI concealed weapons catalog is unrelated to these latest warnings. Officials say a worker at the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., began the catalog shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks so that security personnel would be aware of the vast array of dangerous items that can be legally purchased and might be difficult to detect. 

___ 

On the Net: 

Link to view the weapons: http://datacenter.ap.org/wdc/fbiweapons.pdf 

Italian Dies of Mad Cow-Linked Disease 
2 hours, 50 minutes ago 
Add World - 

ROME - A 27-year-old Sicilian woman died Wednesday of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), becoming Italy's first victim of the brain-wasting malady linked to mad cow disease, doctors said. 

Dr. Fabrizio Tagliavini, director of the division of neuropathology of the Carlo Besta National Neurological Institute in Milan, said the patient was Italy's only diagnosed case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. 

Testing done in England confirmed the infection, he said by telephone. It was not known how the woman contracted the disease. She had been hospitalized in Milan for several months. 

Experts say variant CJD appears to be contracted by eating meat tainted by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (news - web sites), or mad cow disease. 

BSE (news - web sites) is believed spread by recycling meat and bones from infected animals and grounding them into cattle feed. 

Earlier this week, the Italian Health Ministry said there have been 104 cases of cattle testing positive in Italy for mad cow disease. The nation detected its first case in cattle in 2001, after the European Union (news - web sites) ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. 

Mad cow disease has infected cattle in much of Europe, and variant CJD has killed more than 100 people worldwide, mostly Britons. 

It's Official Santa Is from Greenland

Jul 22, 10:21 am ET 

COPENHAGEN  - It's official: Santa is from Greenland, according to an edict from the world's top Father Christmases at their annual summit in Denmark.

Sweating it out in the summer heat in white beards and red hats and robes, 130 Father and Mother Christmases and Santa's helpers from 12 countries including Japan, Canada, Britain and Spain put an end to debate about which Nordic nation was their real home.

"It's a fact: he comes from Greenland," said Kurt Flemming, chairman of the 40th annual Father Christmas World Congress.

Greenland's delegate quashed rival claims to the title with the argument: "We have lots and lots of reindeer in Greenland. Didn't you know that?" But Finnish Lapland, traditional rival of Greenland for the title, was not represented at the congress.

The Santa summit also ignored historical evidence rooting their traditions in Turkey, where fourth-century Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra helped the poor and needy.

After their debate, the delegates paraded through Copenhagen to the strains of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." They cooled their feet on a beach and enjoyed Danish pastries and beer.

Suitably cheered, the Santas promised bigger presents for children this year -- "if they've been nice. And most have. But politicians get smaller ones," said Flemming, who doubles as a circus clown outside the Christmas season. 

Road Kill Impressionism

Jul 23, 10:16 am ET 

By Holly McKenna

PAWLET, Vermont  - Marion Waldo McChesney takes a mummified frog she has nicknamed Dorset George from a dusty cigar box and presses him into clay to make an impression on a stoneware meat platter for some friends.

George is one of a dozen stiff frogs in her gory road kill treasury which also contains petrified seahorses, starfish, lizards and chopped off bird feet. Their destiny is to rest in her large cigar box collection above an old work table and then be used to make impressions in her pottery pieces.

"My road kill work is not my most serious, but it's my draw," McChesney said surrounded by her eerie artwork.

"Life can get too serious. We need an occasional dead frog to lighten things."

McChesney is known as the Pawlet Potter, creating artwork for more than a quarter of century which has been recognized by national critics and home design magazines.

"It's an example of advanced senility because when you get old you revert to being a 12-year-old again," she said. "Kids like to put things in boxes and keep collections."

McChesney said she still works with George, her first road kill "pet," which she found dead but uncrushed in a Dorset, Vermont driveway 15 years ago. At that moment, she said she switched from serious potter to dead creature collector.

"He was perfectly preserved and I wondered what he would look like in clay," she recalled about her first piece of "road kill impressionism."

These days she is on a constant quest for good road kill and the corpses have taken on a life of their own.

Some specimens come in the mail, others are slipped into envelopes and tacked to her door. One friend sent her a lizard in a blue Tiffany box. A gecko from Hong Kong was found by a boater friend in Connecticut and another amphibian was smuggled back from Hawaii in her husband's clothes.

"I can tell who my best friends are by who gives me road kill," McChesney joked.

She molds the clay into bowls, dishes and platters, presses the impression of her chosen prey onto cream-colored earth, adds a light green glaze as trim around each piece and fires it at high temperatures for shiny stoneware.

Prices range from $18 for a soap dish to $125 for a meat platter. She proudly displays her morbid road kill assortment alongside more conventional vases and sculptures.

McChesney works in a rustic pottery barn attached to her husband's real estate business in a farm house in Pawlet -- a thriving artist community nestled among corn fields and cows.

Her customers come from all over the world including Australia, England, South Africa and Hawaii who find out about her work while on bicycle tours through Vermont. These days it's her road kill pieces that are her hottest sellers.

Assembling her spooky specimens requires an eye for treasures that will work well in clay.

"Most road kill you don't want to use. Mine has to be flat, dry and recognizable," she said. "I can do an occasional minor cosmetic surgery to repair dangling limbs."

"Dorset George" is not the only piece of road kill McChesney has given names to. Her most famous is "Fred and Ginger," which look like two frogs dancing complete with a cane fashioned from a grape leaf.

Then there is "Grumpy Old Men," which looks strangely like Walter Matthew and Jack Lemon in the hit movie by the same name. "Mr. Peanut Frog" resembles the Planter's peanut man and then there's "Steve the School House Bat," who was found in mint condition by her son at his former school.

"When you name your road kill, you know it's a long winter around here," said McChesney, a grandmother who was raised on New York's Long Island and moved to Vermont when she married.

Another popular item carries a crow's feet design, which is popular for 40-year-old birthday gifts. She calls these "the only acceptable crow's feet." The feet were collected by a friend who found a dead crow at his house and chopped off the feet and gave them to McChesney for her collection.

She also has turkey feet for a Thanksgiving platter and has been known to wear the feet to as earrings to local cocktail parties. 

BBC Has Tape of Dead Scientist Briefing - Sources 49 minutes ago  

LONDON  - The BBC has a tape of talks between one of its reporters and the weapons expert who was apparently driven to suicide by a row over the government's case for war in Iraq (news - web sites), BBC sources said on Wednesday. The tape records a conversation between reporter Susan Watts and Dr David Kelly, who was found dead last week after he was named as the BBC's source for stories alleging the government exaggerated its case for war against Iraq. A BBC spokeswoman refused to confirm or deny reports of the tape. The BBC, Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), and many of his top ministers and advisers have come under fierce attack in the row over Kelly's death. Kelly, a government scientist and weapons expert, was found dead in woods near his home last Friday. He had bled to death from a slashed wrist. He had been forced into the media spotlight after telling his Defense Ministry bosses he may have been the source behind a BBC report which claimed Blair's government had exaggerated intelligence about banned Iraqi weapons to make a case for war. The BBC, which had consistently refused to name its source, only confirmed Kelly as the source on Sunday, after the scientist's death. The tape is likely to form a key part of evidence presented to Lord Hutton, the man asked by Blair to conduct an inquiry into events leading up to Kelly's death. Susan Watts, science editor for the BBC's Newsnight program, used Kelly as her source for reports on June 2 and June 4 which claimed the government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to justify going to war. Watts quoted the source as saying the government was "obsessed with finding intelligence on immediate Iraqi threats." "They were desperate for information, they were pushing hard for information which could be released," she quoted the source as saying. 

West Nile Can Cause Lasting Motor Damage 2 hours, 10 minutes ago HealthDay 

By Adam Marcus HealthDay Reporter (HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.) TUESDAY, July 22 (HealthDayNews) -- While most people who fall sick with the West Nile virus (news - web sites) generally can expect a full recovery, some may suffer long-term and perhaps permanent movement problems, new research says. The study, by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) and their colleagues, followed 16 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne infection that surfaced in St. Tammany Parish, La., last summer. One patient died, but most of the rest regained full or essentially full function, returned to work and resumed normal lives. For a few, however, the infection left a lasting legacy of weak limbs, tremors, serious muscle ticks and other motor trouble. In that way, West Nile virus resembles other emerging microbes that attack the nervous system. "We're getting a sense that persistent motor problems can be seen with a number of viruses," says study author Dr. James Sejvar, a CDC West Nile expert. Among these germs are Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne pathogen related to West Nile that's the leading cause of encephalitis in Asia, and Nipah virus, another Asian organism. As of July 18, the CDC had received reports of seven human cases of West Nile infection this year in four states: Alabama, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas. Last year was a breakout for West Nile in the United States: 4,156 people developed confirmed infections and 284 died of the disease, according to the CDC. It was by far the highest caseload since the virus appeared in this country in 1999. Experts believe only one in 100 infected people develop symptoms. Since its U.S. arrival in New York City, the pathogen has marched steadily westward. Its range now extends from coast to coast. Scientists last year determined that West Nile could spread through blood transfusions and organ transplants. They also documented the first case of a mother passing the infection to her infant by nursing. Earlier this month, Ohio scientists reported in the journal Neurology on 23 West Nile patients treated at the Cleveland Clinic. Half of people there with the infection had either brain or spinal cord inflammation accompanied by acute flaccid paralysis, or limb weakness. The latest study, which appears in the July 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites), offers a similar picture. Led by Sejvar, of the CDC's division of viral and rickettsial diseases, the researchers analyzed 16 confirmed cases of West Nile infection. Of those, five had meningitis -- inflammation of the brain and spinal cord lining -- and eight had encephalitis, or swelling of the brain itself. Three had flaccid paralysis akin to that seen with polio (news - web sites). All but one patient developed some form of movement trouble, such as tremors, jerkiness and symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease (news - web sites). That may be because the virus can attack areas of the brain involved in motion, including the thalamus, basal ganglia and the pons. "These movement disorders can be seen when you damage those parts of the brain," Sejvar says. Flaccid paralysis occurs when the virus attacks cells in the spinal cord, called anterior horn cells, he explains. Although one person in the study group with confirmed West Nile infection died of the disease, the outlook for patients with the disease was generally quite good. All five who developed meningitis, for example, were able to return to work within eight months and reported feeling normal or nearly so, the researchers say. Even patients with severe encephalitis rebounded well, with five of the eight mostly recovered within four months of falling ill. Still, headaches, nerve pain and fatigue often lasted several months. Difficulty walking and other movement problems also lingered in six patients, including in all three people with flaccid paralysis. "There really is no improvement in the weakness," Sejvar says. "Many of these patients will experience permanent paralysis." More information For the latest on West Nile, check with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health.

Co. Launches Sale of Implantable Chip 
Thu Jul 17, 7:35 PM ET

By ALONSO SOTO JOYA, News Source Writer 

MEXICO CITY - Borrowing from technology for tracking pets, a U.S. company on Thursday launched Mexican sales of microchips that can be implanted under a person's skin and used to confirm health history and identity. 

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The microchips, already available in the United States, could tap into a growing industry surrounding Mexico's criminal concerns. Kidnappings, robberies and fraud are common here, and Mexicans are constantly looking for ways to protect themselves against crime. 

The microchip, the size of a grain of rice, is implanted in the arm or hip. Hospital officials and security guards use a scanning device to download a serial number, which they then use to access blood type, name and other information on a computer. 

In a two-hour presentation, Palm Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions Inc. introduced reporters to the VeriChip and used a syringe-like device and local anesthetic to implant a sample in the right arm of employee Carlos Altamirano. 

"It doesn't hurt at all," he said. "The whole process is just painless." 

Another chip user, Luis Valdez, who is diabetic, said the chip is "as innovative to me as the cell phone." 

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has said it would not regulate the implant as long as it contains no medical data. Thus, the information is stored in a separate database and not on the chip itself. Although regulations are different in Mexico, the Mexican version of the chip will still use the database framework. 

Antonio Aceves, the director of the Mexican company in charge of distributing the chip here, said that in the first year of sales, the company hoped to implant chips in 10,000 people and ensure that at least 70 percent of all hospitals had the technology to read the devices. 

One chip costs $150 and has a $50 annual fee. The scanning device and related software cost $1,200. Users can update and manage their chips' information by calling a 24-hour customer service line. 

Similar technology has been used on dogs and cats as a way to identify the pets if they are lost or stolen. 

Company officials said they are working on developing similar technology that would use satellites to help find people who may have been kidnapped. 

While the idea of using the chip to track people has raised privacy concerns in the United States, the idea has been popular with Mexicans. 

For now, VeriChip can help confirm a kidnap victim's identity only after a body is found. 

____ 

On the Net: 

http://www.adsx.com 

Family Suing Over Hell Prediction at Funeral

Jul 17, 8:40 am ET 

By Zelie Pollon

SANTA FE, N.M  - A New Mexico family is suing their local Catholic church over a funeral Mass in which they claim a priest said their relative was only a middling Catholic and going straight to hell.

Lawyers for the family of Ben Martinez said on Tuesday they had filed a lawsuit in June against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe and one of its priests.

Court papers filed last month say that Rev. Scott Mansfield said at Martinez's funeral last year that the deceased was "living in sin," "lukewarm in his faith" and that "the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell."

Martinez, 80, died June 17, 2002. Roughly 200 people attended the funeral at St. Patrick's Parish in Chama, New Mexico, a small town north of Santa Fe. Family members say he was a practicing Catholic all his life, but was too ill to attend church in the last year of his life.

Nine members of the Martinez family are seeking punitive and compensatory damages for severe emotional and physical suffering. Lawyers did not say how much the family was seeking in damages.

One of the plaintiffs said the townspeople "are staring at her, thinking her father is in hell," their lawyers said.

The complaint also said that as Mansfield walked to the grave, he laced his comments about Martinez -- a former town councilman -- with profanities.

"These people are profoundly hurt," said attorney Kathleen Kentish-Lucero, representing the Martinez family. "If you are Catholic and a representative of your church says your father is going to hell, that's perhaps the most devastating thing someone can say to you."

But church officials deny the family's claims.

"We deny the allegations and Father Mansfield denies the plaintiff's allegations," said Celine Baca Radigan, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Radigan said that Mansfield has been moved to a parish outside of Albuquerque on a routine transfer. 

World's luckiest man wins the lottery A Croatian dubbed the world's luckiest man after surviving seven major disasters has won the jackpot with his first lottery ticket in 40 years.

Frane Selak, 74, who has won �600,000, said: "I am going to enjoy my life now - I feel like I have been reborn. I know God was watching over me all these years." His first lucky escape came in 1962 when a train he was travelling on from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik jumped the rails and plunged into an icy river. Seventeen people drowned and he barely made it to the riverbank suffering from hypothermia, shock, bruises and a broken arm. A year later, he was thrown out of a DC-8 airplane between Zagreb and Rijeka when a door flew open. This time 19 people died but Mr Selak landed in a haystack and escaped with cuts, bruises and shock. In 1966, a bus he was travelling on in Split lurched into a river, killing four. He swam to safety with cuts, bruises and even more shock. Accident number four was in 1970 when his car caught fire as he drove along a motorway and he managed to get out with seconds to spare before the fuel tank exploded. His friends began to call him Lucky and he said: "You could look at it two ways. I was either the world's unluckiest man or the luckiest. I preferred to believe the latter." Three years later, he lost most of his hair when a faulty fuel pump spewed petrol over the hot engine of his Wartburg car and blew flames through the air vents. In 1995 came his sixth accident when he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb but sustained only minor injuries - plus the inevitable shock The following year, he was driving in the mountains when he turned a corner to see a UN truck coming straight for him. His Skoda car crashed through the barrier and over the edge but Mr Salek managed to jump out at the last minute and landed in a tree to see his car explode 300ft below him. He has also had four failed marriages and, after his lottery win, commented: "I suppose my marriages were disasters too!" But he is now buying a house, a car, a speedboat and is planning to marry his girlfriend who is 20 years his junior. Story filed: 14:39 Tuesday 17th June 2003

Family face eviction for painting door green A Norwegian family of four is facing eviction for painting their front door green. Tor Ole Eriksen's colour choice has put him at odds with his local homeowners' association in Kristiansand. The Brattbakken homeowners' association allows doors to be painted only blue, red, gold or white, reports Aftenposten. "When someone wants to throw out a family of four because I won't repaint my door, it's going too far," said Mr Eriksen. The board sent Eriksen a letter saying it had ruled that residents' doors can only be painted in one of the four approved colours. Failure to follow the rule gives grounds for forced resignation from the association, which is tantamount to eviction. Eriksen claims the board ruled on the colour code after he painted his door green. However, Svein Eriksen, leader of the board, defended its colour code. He said: "I can see for myself people painting their doors both pink and purple if we let people choose." Story filed: 09:46 Tuesday 17th June 2003

Drinker set himself on fire while drinking 96 proof vodka A Japanese man set himself on fire when he tried to light a cigarette while drinking 96 proof Polish vodka. It happened as the 35-year-old sipped vodka in a bar in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, reports Mainichi Shimbun. The vodka caught fire and the man made matters worse by dropping the glass and spilling the burning drink over himself. He suffered burns to his arms and the accident prompted Tokyo fire officials to urge Japan's liquor association to warn drinkers of the dangers of hard liquors. Fire department officials said under the Fire Service Law, any drink of 60 proof or over is designated as a dangerous material. "When you are under the influence of alcohol your ability to make decisions quickly is hampered, so we expect this kind of incident to happen again," a spokesman said. Story filed: 09:44 Tuesday 17th June 2003

Husband's sex diary lands him in divorce court A Romanian woman is filing for divorce after finding a diary in which her husband listed his entire sexual history. The 60-year-old, from Bucharest, had listed nearly 10,000 sexual acts. Only around 3,000 of them involved his wife. The former tax office clerk included masturbation and even "accidental ejaculations" in his diary. He told National newspaper that he decided to keep the diary to challenge a theory he had heard as a teenager that a man could have no more than 10,000 sexual acts in a lifetime. The man said he now regretted that he was going to lose his family and also his "most precious" diary. His wife is using the diary in court as evidence of her husband's infidelity. Story filed: 11:58 Monday 16th June 2003

Shoplifter pays for shoes he stole in 1988 A guilt-ridden shoplifter has sent �35 to a shop to pay for a pair of shoes he stole 15 years ago. Nico Poelman, manager of the Scapino shop in Drachten, Holland, said he had never come across anything like it. The thief sent the money anonymously with a letter saying how much he regretted stealing the shoes. Mr Poelman told Algemeen Dagblad: "I've never experienced such a thing in my career "Usually a thief is sorry only when caught on the spot. And of course, everything is forgiven." Story filed: 10:12 Monday 16th June 2003

Marathon runner sets slowest race record An athlete dressed in a deep-sea diving suit has set a new world record for the slowest marathon time. Lloyd Scott, 41, finished the Edinburgh Marathon six days, four hours, 30 minutes and 56 seconds after setting off in his 130lb diving suit. The former footballer and firefighter who previously battled to overcome leukaemia, completed the 26 mile 385 yards course to raise money for charity. Mr Scott, a father of three from Rainham in east London, crossed the finish line at the Meadowbank Stadium in the Scottish capital shortly after 1pm. He said: "I'm feeling OK. It was a fantastic finish at the stadium, everyone was on their feet clapping and we had a piper. It was a wonderful reception. I'm still on a bit of a high and I will probably still be on one tomorrow when I realise I don't have to get the suit on. Now I'm having a dram of whisky to celebrate." Last year Mr Scott took five days to complete the London and New York marathons in the suit, but this time it took him even longer because he was hit by food poisoning. He said: "I had to keep dashing to the loo and on the Royal Yacht Britannia there was a problem trying to get the suit off in time to get to the toilet." Mr Scott walked for an average nine hours a day and covered just half a mile every hour although on the Wednesday he only managed one mile because of stomach cramps. Despite his slow time, Mr Scott was not the last person to cross the finish line because he set off on Monday while the other runners started this morning. Later this year he is hoping to complete a marathon under water by walking the full length of Loch Ness in diving equipment, and next year he is planning to run the Edinburgh marathon in a suit of mediaeval armour. Story filed: 18:35 Sunday 15th June 2003

Boy, 4, calls police because he didn't want to go to kindergarten A German boy made an emergency call to police because he didn't want to go to kindergarten. Police in Essen received a call from a four-year-old early in the morning. He told officers he didn't want to go to kindergarten and asked them to help him. He then started crying and hung up. Police rang back and talked to the boy's mother. She said her son had threatened to call police if she made him go, but she hadn't thought anything of it. The boy ended up having to go after all, a police spokesperson said. Story filed: 08:58 Tuesday 17th June 2003

German motorists fall for joke traffic tickets Motorists in Germany have been falling foul of hoax traffic tickets, listing offences as absurd as being caught driving without a hat. Dozens of motorists in Loewenberg found the tickets had been stuck behind their windscreen wipers. According to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, all notes bore the heading of the city of Entenhausen, the German version of Duckburg. Nevertheless, several victims reported to local authorities in order to pay their fines. Police say the tickets were probably photocopied from a cartoon book and distributed by children as a joke. Story filed: 13:15 Monday 16th June 2003

Big Brother contestant requests morning-after pill A contestant in the German version of Big Brother has made an urgent request for the morning-after pill. Hella, 21, has captivated viewers with her raunchy relationship with 28-year-old Sava. The couple, who became an item shortly after the show started, have kept audiences guessing for weeks about what exactly was going on when they repeatedly got into bed together. Now that question seems to have been answered by Hella's request, reports Bild newspaper. Earlier, she and Sava had argued after he accused her of being unfaithful to him by kissing fellow contestant Gabriel. But Hella said it was just her being playful, and that she needed Sava to trust her. They made up and went to bed to celebrate. Shortly afterwards, a visibly flustered Hella ran into the diary room where, according to Bild, she urgently asked for the morning-after pill. Hella and Sava's relationship has been so steamy that Big Brother even imposed a sex ban on them earlier in the series. They successfully completed two days without touching each other - and celebrated with a predictably passionate reunion. Story filed: 13:31 Monday 16th June 2003

Crowded zoos must give animals contraceptives A German vet says zoos will increasingly have to give their animals contraceptives Klaus Eulenberger from Leipzig Zoo says zoo animals now live longer leaving no room for their offspring. "Hardly any zoo still has room for young tigers, bears and hippos," he told Zeit weekly. "The pill, injections or hormone implants are the only way out." Mr Eulenberger gives a female hippo called Brandy a 120-gram contraceptive pill every night. He says contraceptives have become necessary because modern medicine makes zoo animals live longer. He says the alternative would be to let the animals get pregnant: "We could let them give birth and then occasionally butcher a surplus hippo. "Then the lions would eat a zoo animal once in a while. But you couldn't get through with this idea because of the public. "The zoo would be overrun by protesters," he said. Story filed: 11:04 Tuesday 17th June 2003

Nicotine By-Product May Block Alzheimer's Mon Jun 16,11:48 PM ET HealthDay 

By Adam Marcus HealthDay Reporter (HealthDay is the new name for HealthScoutNews.) MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDayNews) -- A broken-down form of nicotine seems to prevent the formation of the protein thickets implicated in Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites). The substance, called nornicotine, joins up with sugar and binds to the potentially harmful proteins in such a way that they can no longer clump, a new study says. But don't think nicotine's your best friend. Aside from being highly addictive, the substance is toxic to cells. Still, the researchers say the new finding should help guide further studies with nicotine substitutes designed to avoid the harm and preserve the benefits of the molecule. "We could try to look at similar structures that don't have the toxicity or addictive problems" associated with nicotine, says study co-author Kim Janda, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. A report on the work appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites). An estimated 4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, a brain wasting disorder with no cure. The Alzheimer's Association projects that number will reach 14 million by the middle of the century. Although it's still a matter of debate, many researchers generally believe that Alzheimer's disease is caused by sticky protein fibers, or plaques, that gradually spread over healthy brain cells. Plaques consist of a substance called beta-amyloid. A major focus of Alzheimer's research is to block the clustering of amyloids. Some population studies have hinted that heavy smokers may be less prone than nonsmokers to Alzheimer's disease, and that somehow nicotine delays the onset of the illness. More recent research has questioned those results, says Nigel Greig, a pharmacologist who studies Alzheimer's disease at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (news - web sites)'s Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore. "The epidemiological studies are no longer quite so forceful," Greig says. Janda and his Scripps colleague, Tobin Dickerson, combined nornicotine, glucose and beta-amyloid in test tubes to see what would happen. In the presence of the two other molecules, beta-amyloid clumping fell by about 20 percent, they found. Analysis of the chemical reaction showed that nornicotine and glucose attach themselves to beta-amyloid in a process called glycation, which (minus the nicotine) is also involved in the browning of food. By doing so, they change the structure of the brain proteins in a way that force them to slide by each other without hooking up. "They just can't come together," Janda says. Glycated proteins are targeted for removal by cell cleanup systems, he says. Michael Zagorski, a chemist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, calls the study "a great starting point" for additional research. However, Zagorski -- who in earlier work speculated that nicotine might tie up beta-amyloid -- says it's a big leap from test tube to brain. Scientists would have to find beta-amyloid in the brain that had been modified by the nicotine-glucose bond, he says: "If they found it, then that would be very significant, but it might not be easy." Janda says he would like to explore ways to demonstrate that the nicotine mechanism is at work in Alzheimer's. He also hopes to learn if the same reactions explain why some smokers may gain protection from Parkinson's disease (news - web sites), another progressive neurologic ailment. As with Alzheimer's and nicotine, the evidence here is mixed, he adds. More information The Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke have more on the disease.

Housing Mart at Risk if Recovery Falters
Tue Jun 17,12:59 AM ET 
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NEW YORK  - The U.S. housing market could be in trouble if the economic recovery continues to stumble, an otherwise optimistic report released on Tuesday said. 

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The housing sector is the one prop supporting an economy struggling to recover for over two years as geopolitical tension as increased and the 1990s investment bubble has burst. Analysts are watching the sector carefully for signs of weakness. 

So far, housing has proven remarkably resilient, even as job losses and a slowing economy have forced more homeowners into foreclosure, according to a report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. 

But home prices have risen quickly over the last few years, forcing many consumers to spend a higher percentage of their income on housing and leaving them even more vulnerable to foreclosures if they are laid off. 

If layoffs do increase, some neighborhoods could face instability and price declines from the resulting glut of homes put up for sale, the report said. 

The U.S. job market has been stagnant for months. Unemployment last month reached its highest level in nearly nine years. 

Despite potential trouble from the broader economy, the outlook for the housing market is still strong, the report said. 

Demographics are supporting demand, as baby boomers reach their peak wealth ages and look into remodeling and buying more expensive homes, while their children buy their first homes. 

Plus, the number of immigrant and minority households is growing, providing a huge source of demand, the report said. 

These sources of demand should prevent broad declines in housing prices, the report said. 

AFFORDABILITY A PROBLEM 

But even if housing prices do not fall dramatically in the long term, housing is increasingly unaffordable, the report said. Home prices and rents have grown faster than inflation since 1975, while incomes for the bottom 40 percent of households have held more or less steady, the report said. 

Thirty-six percent of households struggling with affordability are minority households, the report said. 

Affordability problems increasingly affect middle-class households. Seventy-six percent of households that do not live in affordable housing are well above the poverty level, the report said. A household faces an affordability problem if it spends more than 50 percent of monthly pretax income on housing, according to the report. 

AMA Endorses Cloning for Research 1 hour, 15 minutes ago 

By LINDSEY TANNER, News Source Medical Writer CHICAGO - The American Medical Association on Tuesday endorsed cloning for research purposes, saying it is medically ethical but allowing doctors who oppose the practice to refuse to perform it. Policymaking delegates adopted the measure without debate after discussing the issue Sunday. "It makes a stance for science," said Dr. Michael Goldrich, incoming chairman of the committee that drafted the cloning report. The proposal focused on a laboratory procedure designed to create embryos to cultivate their stem cells, which are master cells that can potentially grow into any type of human tissue. Scientists believe such cells could potentially be used to treat a wide range of human diseases. Such early embryos would be discarded when they consist of only a few cells, but they could theoretically develop into a human if implanted into a woman's uterus. The AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs submitted the proposal with hopes that it would become official AMA policy. The proposal received wide support from doctors and medical groups including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. But some adamantly opposed it with arguments reminiscent of the nationwide abortion debate. Calling embryo cloning for research purposes medically ethical is "totally inappropriate ... when a number of us believe that human beings start with two cells," said Dr. John McMahon of Helena, Mont. The proposal echoed recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) panel last year, which advocated a government ban on cloning to produce humans but said cloning for research should be allowed. The U.S. House earlier this year passed a Bush administration-backed measure that would ban both types of cloning. The measure hasn't been acted on in the Senate. In other action Tuesday, the AMA agreed to investigate the ethics of letting drug company sales representatives sit in on patients' visits with their doctors. Drug companies sometimes pay doctors up to $500 a day to allow their reps to observe patient visits - a practice they maintain is educational but which opponents say violates patients' privacy. The AMA opposed the practice unless the patient has clearly consented without coercion and asked for guidelines to make sure patients are not coerced. 

Report: Terror System Flags David Nelsons 
2 hours, 35 minutes ago 
Add U.S. National - 

LOS ANGELES - David Nelson is not an easy name to have these days. Across the country men with this name say they have been pulled off airplanes, questioned by FBI (news - web sites) agents and harassed when traveling by air. 

The nationwide dragnet for terrorists has caused the name to raise red flags on airline screening software, but some federal officials say the problem is essentially a computer glitch, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Sunday. 

David Nelsons in at least four states, including California, Oregon, Alaska and South Dakota, have reported getting stopped. 

Even the former child star of ABC-TV's "The adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," was stopped by a ticket agent at John Wayne Airport in December while en route to visit his daughter in Salt Lake City. 

Now a Newport Beach film producer, David Nelson, 66, told the Daily News that after airline ticket agents stopped him, two police officers quickly recognized him, and he was allowed to board his flight. 

"I don't think (terrorists) have the middle name 'Ozzie,'" he recalled telling an agent. 

For other David Nelsons, the experience was more difficult. 

Actor David Nelson, 35, of Hollywood said that on a recent trip to Hawaii, a ticket agent at Los Angeles International Airport took one look at his driver's license and said, "Oh boy. Here's another David Nelson." 

Nelson said the ticket agent told him the name brings up a "red flag" for terrorists. 

A few months before on a New York-bound airplane, he had been told to exit the plane and was searched by FBI agents before reboarding. 

"When you get back on the plane, people look at you funny," he said. 

After agents requested to search him several times before the Hawaii flight, Nelson said he turned around and went home. 

A so-called "no-fly" list was introduced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and is meant to prevent potential terrorists from boarding planes. The TSA gets names from law enforcement officials and hands the list over to airlines to screen passengers. 

In April, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said those on the no-fly list pose, or are suspected of posing, a threat to civil aviation and national security. 

"We do not confirm the presence of a particular name of an individual on a list," he said. "It's security information that we just won't do." 

Melendez told the Daily News that the "David Nelson" problem is due to a name-matching technology used by many airlines. He said it's not the name but letters in the name that are randomly flagged by the software. 

But David Kennedy, director of research services for TruSecure Corp., a Virginia-based firm that specializes in intelligence security, said he thinks it's more likely the name is on the no-fly list. 

"I'm more inclined to believe there is a bad David Nelson out there they're looking for," he said. 

Either way, since there is little to identify those on the list other than their names, it is difficult for many to get their names removed. 

In response, TSA has established a hot line for those who feel they were wrongly selected. 

Reports of HIV 'Superinfection' Increase Tue Jul 15, 7:08 AM ET 

By EMMA ROSS, News Source Medical Writer PARIS - Evidence is growing that "superinfection" with more than one strain of HIV (news - web sites) may be more common than previously thought, which could complicate efforts to make a vaccine, experts said Monday at an international AIDS (news - web sites) conference. Scientists reported three new cases of HIV-infected people who initially were doing well without drugs but became sick years later after contracting a second strain of the AIDS virus. "Superinfection is sobering," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (news - web sites), the chief U.S. AIDS research agency. He was not involved in the studies. "That means that although you can mount an adequate response against one virus, the body still does not have the capability to protect you against new infection, which tells you that the development of a vaccine is going to be even more of a challenge." Fauci said it is too early to tell how big a problem superinfection will become but that he does not believe superinfections are the reason patients on treatment can suddenly deteriorate. None of the patients in the three cases discussed at the conference were being treated for HIV, which can become resistant to drugs over time. At the meeting, Dr. Luc Perrin, a professor of clinical virology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, reported finding superinfections in two Swiss intravenous drug users. In the study, Perrin followed 136 drug users with HIV and found that the amount of HIV in the blood of five patients suddenly shot up after years of control without drugs. Tests confirmed that two of the five had a superinfection, Perrin said. "I think superinfection most of the time is transient and is not detected," he said. "It may be that you are more frequently infected than you think but that frequently, you are able to take care of it." In another study, Dr. Harold Burger of Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y., said genetic tests on a superinfected woman showed the two viruses mixed and produced a hybrid that took over from the original virus. Although the development of a hybrid was not surprising - scientists estimate there are 14 mixed strains circulating - the report is the first documented case of two HIV strains, or subtypes, combining in one person to form a third strain. "The issue is can you get a vaccine that will cover all subtypes?" said Dr. Anton Pozniak, an AIDS specialist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, who was not connected with the research. "Say you do. Imagine somebody with a subtype 'C' has sex with someone with subtype 'A' and the two viruses then, circulating in the blood, combine in some way and suddenly some vaccine, because the infection is an 'A/C,' won't work," he said. "Or, perhaps an 'A/C' is more virulent and will attack the immune system in a much more aggressive way than either the 'A' or the 'C' - These are all theoretical possibilities." Surveys of HIV patients have found many mixtures of virus strains. Scientists suspect they occur when two viruses mix in the bloodstream, but this is the first time they've proven it can happen that way, Pozniak said. "We just don't know how common it is. People say it's rare but we just don't know," Pozniak said. "This reinforces the message that we've got to stop HIV today so that we can deal with what we have now and not generate a whole load of new mutants that wouldn't have been there otherwise," Pozniak said. 

Emergency Declared After Riots in Michigan
Wed Jun 18, 4:09 PM ET

DETROIT  - Authorities have clamped a state of emergency on a small city in southwest Michigan where riots, sparked by the death of a motorcyclist during a high-speed police chase, left at least 15 people injured. 

The News Source Photo 

Slideshow: Michigan Riots

The riots, in which police said five buildings and five cars were set ablaze, began on Monday after the death of the biker in economically depressed Benton Harbor. 

The violence erupted again Tuesday night and 150 state police officers were dispatched to the city after emergency rule was declared by local authorities, who acted with the backing of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. 

Lt. William Tucker, a spokesman for the Berrien County Sheriff's Department, which is jointly responsible for law enforcement in Benton Harbor, said between 15 and 20 people were injured in the riots, including one gunshot victim and others with beating or stab wounds. 

Tucker said none of the injuries were serious but tensions remained high in the predominantly black town, which is the home base of Whirlpool Corp. and has a mostly white police force. 

The 27-year-old man who died after losing control of his motorcycle on Monday was an African-American and found to be carrying a small amount of marijuana, according to Tucker. 

"This is not about racist cops," he said, alluding to allegations of police harassment 

Granholm said she hoped to avoid using National Guard troops to restore law and order in the city, something that has not been done in Michigan since race riots in the mid-1960s. 

"You don't want to overreact because that may cause other unintended consequences," Granholm told reporters. 

She said Benton Harbor's troubles clearly extended beyond the deadly high-speed chase incident on Monday, however. 

"There's a breakdown between police and community trust. That needs to be resolved," she said. 

Scientists try to clone cow but get bull instead Scientists at a Brazilian university expecting to produce a cloned cow have ended up with a bull instead. The team at the University of Sao Paulo are investigating two explanations for their host cow giving birth to a male calf. They believe the cow may have jumped a fence and got pregnant by a bull in a neighbouring field just before they inseminated her with the cloned cow embryo. Alternatively, one of the experts may have blundered and inseminated her with a bull embryo from their laboratory stores instead of a cow embryo. Head of the team Professor Jose Antonio Visintin told the Agora SP newspaper: "She must have cheated on us!" The scientists are trying to produce the first cloned cow from the nelore cattle breed. Story filed: 16:34 Tuesday 30th April 2002

US gyms offer yoga for dogs

A chain of gyms in the US has started offering yoga classes for dogs.

Crunch is offering "Ruff Yoga" at its New York branch and is considering
offering it in other locations.

During a recent session in Madison Square Park, the class attracted nearly
20 people and their pets.

"We do the traditional poses. The dogs just get incorporated," Crunch's
yoga director Suzi Teitelman told Fox News.

Yoga guru Bruce Van Horn says the relaxed state people achieve through
yoga rubs off on their animals if they're nearby during the exercises.

"It actually reduces the stress levels of animals," Van Horn said. "When
people have crazy animals, it's usually because the people themselves are
crazy."
Story filed: 12:05 Wednesday 18th June 2003

Man eats own toes An Austrian man cut off his toes, fried them up and ate them between two slices of bread after getting high sniffing butane gas. When ambulance men arrived he offered to share his meal with them, passing over a toe and saying: "It tastes like chicken, do you want some, there's a few still left over." Police said the 35-year-old suddenly became very hungry after sniffing the gas and had searched all his kitchen cupboards, but found nothing to eat. Grabbing a kitchen knife he cut off his toes on his left foot and dropped them in the frying pan. The man's sister called the police when she walked into the kitchen and saw him making the toe sandwich. By the time ambulance men arrived there was little of the hacked-off toes left and a spokesman said: "What there was, was too badly burned to re-attach." A police spokesman added: "He told the ambulance men that he had more toes than he needed and didn't think he would notice if he got rid of a few." He was taken to a hospital in Steyr where he is recovering from his injuries. Story filed: 08:54 Wednesday 18th June 2003

Prisoner made pregnant through bars of her cell A female prisoner who was made pregnant by a fellow inmate through the bars of her prison cell has given birth to a son. The Turkish woman, who has been in the mixed prison in Istanbul for two years, had fallen in love with her neighbour who was also serving time. She successfully impregnated herself with his sperm after he ejaculated into a glass bottle and passed it through the bars. The man's lawyer told Turkish press agency Anadolu that the pair were now planning to marry. Story filed: 10:48 Wednesday 18th June 2003

Weeds are Good 18-Jun-2003 Jennifer Viegas writes in Discovery News that if our flowers and vegetables are surrounded by weeds, they're less likely to be attacked by insects. By adding and removing weeds from around test plants, horticulturists Stan Finch and Rosemary Collier found that insects would investigate the weeds, find them unsuitable and often fly away, leaving the valuable plants alone. Plant-eating bugs look for three things: plant smells that tell them when to land, visual cues that tell them where to land, and the touch and taste of the plants, which tell them if they should stay or fly away. Finch says, "To paraphrase one of the songs made popular by 'Meatloaf,' 'Two out of three ain't bad.'...[But] plant-feeding insects must get three out of three from an appropriate plant if they, and their progeny, are to survive." Finch and Collier compared cabbages planted in bare soil with cabbages grown in fields of clover. 36% of root flies laid eggs on the bare soil cabbage, compared to only 7% on the cabbages surrounded by clover. Horticulturist Don Mahoney says most weeds also produce small flowers that attract helpful insects, like ladybugs, that prey on damaging bugs, like aphids. He says, "I once read where weeds were described as 'Mother Nature's Red Cross.'" 

Why are We the Only Hairless Ones? 18-Jun-2003 While men are agonizing about going bald, scientists are wondering why humans are so hairless. Our close cousins the chimps have no hair loss problems. Researchers think we humans may have lost our body hair so we'd have fewer parasites. Nakedness is extremely rare among mammals. Other naked mammals are elephants, walruses, pigs, whales and mole rats. Scientists used to think we lost our hair in order to control our body temperature, since we evolved in Africa, where it's hot. "The body cooling hypothesis is interesting, but some of the advantages in not having fur in the sun become disadvantages at night," says evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel. "In animals, ectoparasites like biting flies, exert tremendous fitness costs-they really affect our health. Our view is that hairlessness is an adaptation for reducing the ectoparasite load." So why didn't apes lose their hair too? Pagel reminds us that we're the only ones who did other things as well, like learning how to make fires, shelters and clothes. Chimps spend a lot of time picking bugs out of each other's hair. If we'd spent that much time on grooming, we wouldn't have had time for all those achievements. And once we had fires, shelter and clothes, we didn't need a lot of hair anymore. "It's one of those nice cases of gene/culture co-evolution," says Pagel. "It's the culture which helped us acquire the means to lose our hair." 

Cheating Women Catching Up with Men?

Jun 18, 8:24 am ET 

BERLIN  - The modern Western woman is now almost as likely to cheat on her partner as a man, according to a new survey carried out for a German women's magazine.

In an online survey of 1,427 men and women aged between 25 and 35 by the Hamburg-based GEWIS institute for social research for "Woman" magazine, 53 percent of women said they had been unfaithful to their partner, compared with 59 percent of men.

"In recent years, numbers of unfaithful men and women have evened out a lot," GEWIS head Werner Habermehl told The News Source on Tuesday.

The survey revealed that non-sexual desires, such as the need for reassurance and understanding, were a primary motive among women for infidelity.

Habermehl said demographic factors were also behind the change in attitudes but more liberal attitudes to sex, greater knowledge about contraception, and more freedom for women had made having affairs less taboo than ever before.

As the frequency of cheating rose, the gap between the sexes was reduced, and eventually reversed.

Some 17 percent of woman said they had cheated two or three times, as against 22 percent of men. But when it came to having cheated four or five times in the course of a relationship, women moved ahead of men with eight percent against four. 

Man Scared to Death by Horror Movie?

Jun 18, 8:23 am ET 

NEW DELHI  - A man was found dead in his seat at a cinema in the Indian capital after the late-night screening of a horror film which the director has warned could pose a health risk to those of a nervous disposition.

A police official told The News Source that the theater's cleaning staff found the man -- aged around 50 -- slumped in his seat early on Tuesday morning after the end of the showing of an Indian horror movie, "Bhoot," or "Ghost."

Police said they had found no identification papers on the man or external injuries on his body.

"Nobody has come forward to claim his body. Maybe he got frightened, I don't know," said the police official.

"Bhoot" is a spooky thriller about a possessed housewife and is set in a high-rise Bombay apartment. It is running to packed houses in many parts of the country.

Before the movie starts, a message from the director appears on the screen warning people with heart problems or pregnant women that they view the film at their own risk. 

Prisoners Marry, May Honeymoon in 2036

Jun 18, 8:20 am ET 

SAN ANTONIO, Texas  - Two Texas prisoners who have never met were married by proxy on Tuesday in a San Antonio courtroom and can now look forward to their honeymoon -- in 2036 at the earliest.

State District Judge Johnny Gabriel married Diane Zamora, 25, and Steven Mora, 27, using her mother and Mora's friend as stand-ins, Bexar County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff said.

The husband and wife have not met, but began writing letters to each other after Mora saw Zamora on television, his family said. They are in prisons 130 miles apart.

Zamora is a former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman who, along with then-boyfriend David Graham, an Air Force Academy cadet, was sentenced to life in prison in a 1996 trial for the murder of a 16-year-old girl who was her romantic rival.

She must serve at least 40 years in prison and will not be eligible for parole until 2036, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said.

Mora is scheduled to get out of prison next March after serving a four-year sentence for threatening retaliation against someone who helped put him in prison on an earlier charge.

Rickhoff gave the pair a marriage license after the Texas Attorney General's office ruled there was no reason not to. 

Hospital Flooded by Virgin Mary Image Peepers

Jun 18, 8:16 am ET 

BOSTON  - A Massachusetts hospital has asked the Catholic Church for help after being swamped by thousands of pilgrims seeking a glimpse of what they claim is a shimmering image of the Virgin Mary, officials said on Tuesday.

Some 25,000 people flocked to Milton Hospital over the weekend to gaze up at a window in a medical office building where believers say the mother of Jesus Christ has appeared, hospital spokeswoman Susan Schepici said.

The Boston-area hospital, which is bracing for another flood of visitors this weekend, has asked pilgrims to limit their viewing hours to between 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. for the sake of patients and neighbors, Schepici said.

She confirmed that hospital officials had asked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese Boston for "guidance" on how to deal with the apparition and the ensuing crowds. The church has not yet responded to the request, she said.

The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that hospital officials say the image is made by a chemical deposit inside the window, but Schepici said the hospital has "no official position with respect to the issue of an apparition."

The Globe also said the crowds have made it hard for hospital janitors to keep bathrooms clean and the grounds free of trash. 

Cuba's Castro Apparent Victim of Radio Prank

Jun 18, 8:15 am ET 

By Frances Kerry

MIAMI  - Cuban President Fidel Castro or someone sounding very much like him fell for a trap laid by Miami radio pranksters on Tuesday, thinking he was talking on the phone to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and abusing the callers when he realized he was being duped.

The radio station, Spanish-language station El Zol 95.7, delightedly and repeatedly broadcast the recording from its popular program "El Vacilon de la Manana" (Morning Joker) in a city that is home to many anti-Castro exiles.

There was no immediate way of telling whether it really was Castro on the line, but to Spanish speakers familiar with the Cuban leader's well-known voice it seemed to be him. There was no immediate reaction from government officials in Havana.

The Vacilon hosts, Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero, used the same technique they used in January to catch Chavez on the program, when they cobbled together real phrases spoken by Castro to make the Venezuelan leader think he was talking to his Cuban ally.

This time, they used phrases spoken in a speech by Chavez.

A presenter posing as a Chavez aide wound his way through a series of Cuban official switchboards -- receptive because Chavez is a strong Castro admirer -- with a story that Chavez needed to speak to Castro because he had lost a suitcase with sensitive documents on a recent trip both leaders made to Argentina.

Finally, Castro came on the line and listened to the story of the suitcase.

The Chavez "aide" asked Castro if he agreed to help by getting his security detail hunt down the suitcase and the Cuban leader said, "I absolutely agree."

"Do you agree with the shit on the island (Cuba), killer?" the Chavez "aide" asked, quickly adding, "You fell for it" and announcing he was on the Miami radio program.

"What did I fall for, you shit?" said Castro. "What did I fall for, bastard?," he said. He added a few more words of strong abuse before hanging up, as whoops of joy erupted at the Miami end of the call. 

African AIDS Came From Needles, Not Sex 21-Feb-2003 A new study says that the re-use of dirty needles in healthcare is the main cause of the AIDS epidemic that is depopulating Africa. For years, researchers puzzled over the fact that they could find no common sexual practices that explained the rise in AIDS among heterosexuals there. "We've gathered all the literature we can on AIDS in Africa and the best we can estimate, for sexual transmission, is a quarter to a third," says anthropologist David Gisselquist. This means that AIDS prevention should concentrate on providing single- use needles rather than on sexual education or condoms. Yvan Hutin, an HIV specialist with the World Health Organization, disagrees. He says, "We estimate that dirty needles account for 5% of cases worldwide, but with large variation," and notes that Hepatitis B, which is even more easily transmitted by unsterilized needles than HIV, has not spread as rapidly as AIDS. Health organizations are afraid this news may make Africans stay away from clinics where they receive immunizations. "The other worry is that it might encourage complacency in sex," says Catherine Hankins of UNAIDS. Gisselquist says his data contradicts the idea that Africans must be unusually promiscuous, or engage in a lot of unsafe sex. In a 1987-88 study of factory and bank workers in the Congo, most of the HIV-positive subjects said they had been faithful to their partners. No one has ever identified a large amount of unsafe sexual activity in Africa and some researchers assumed that African men were embarrassed to admit engaging in homosexual activity. Gisselquist also thinks the part prostitution plays has been overstated. In Zimbabwe during the 1990s, an increase in HIV of 12% occurred at the same time as a decrease of 25% in the spread of other sexually transmitted diseases, so an increased amount of prostitution is unlikely. There's also a link between other ailments and HIV that suggests that people who seek medical help as children later come down with AIDS, because they've been given injections with dirty needles. One study showed that HIV-positive children had an average of 44 injections in their lifetimes, compared with 23 for virus-free children. In one clinic, Gisselquist found that 28% of the patients who received injections had HIV, compared with 17% who did not get injections. In the 18th century, doctors were considered to be killers, with their blistering and use of leeches-but who would have thought it could still happen 200 years later? 

Study on Moderate Exercise Questioned Mon Jun 16, 3:43 PM ET 

By IRA DREYFUSS, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - New research labels as an "illusion" a major study's conclusion that couch potatoes who take up at least moderate regular exercise can reduce their risk of dying early. The apparent benefit "can be entirely attributed to measurement error," said researcher Paul T. Williams, a biostatistician in the Life Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. However, the lead scientist in the original study says additional data from the research project can prove him right. And other experts say that even if Williams' analysis is correct, other studies have shown so many health benefits from exercise that it must extend lifespan. Williams examined a landmark study published in 1995 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites) by scientists at the Cooper Institute, a Dallas-based organization that studies exercise and lifestyle. However, his conclusions could be applied to other studies that used the research format employed by the Cooper Institute project, Williams said. The Cooper Institute team looked at data on 9,777 men who had taken two treadmill exercise tests almost five years apart. The scientists then followed the men for more than five years. The researchers adjusted statistically for age and other risk factors, so they could focus on seeing if exercise affected the risk of death. Men in the least-fit 20 percent on both treadmill tests were most likely to die, the study found. However, men whose times had improved enough on the second test to pull themselves out of the least-fit group had a lower risk of death, the study found. Men who were unfit on the first test and fit on the second had a 44 percent reduction in their risk of death, compared with men who were unfit on both tests, the study found. The researchers concluded that getting out of the least-fit group could pull people out of the group at highest risk of early death. The finding is commonly cited to support current federal guidelines on physical activity, which call for doing at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most, if not all, days of the week. But Williams contends the researchers did not account sufficiently for the fact that the treadmill test is not a perfect measurement of physical ability. The test has a good day-bad day problem: A person might go longer in one test and shorter in another while having the same underlying fitness, he said. In his experiment, Williams ran numbers on a computer model. He created two hypothetical treadmill tests, and varied the scores according to his assumptions of measurement error. His results were the same as the Cooper scientists described in the JAMA article, Williams said. And if the article's results can be explained by measurement error, scientists must reject the conclusion that there were improvements due to physical activity, Williams said. "It hasn't been proved that changing to moderate exercise would affect your life expectancy," he said. Williams believes physical activity can improve health, but that moderate activity such as brisk walks are not enough to reap a big benefit. "Real health benefits are achieved with more vigorous exercise," he said. "If you are unfit and you become substantially fit, I believe that will change your life expectancy." Williams' challenge is itself challenged by Steven N. Blair, president and CEO of the Cooper Institute, who led the JAMA article study team as a scientist, before his promotion. Men whose fitness improved on the treadmill tests also reported a corresponding change in their physical activity, Blair said. Those self-reports are a sign that the improved lifespans were the result of improved living, not a glitch in the methodology, he said. A colleague of Blair, digging deeper into the Cooper Institute data, said he was seeing physical changes which also argue that the lifespan improvements are real. "The idea that people don't change on repeated measures is absolute nonsense. They do, and we've got the data to prove it," said Tony Jackson, a professor of health and human performance at the University of Houston. "People who actually changed their treadmill times altered their body composition in desirable ways," Jackson said. At Stanford University, medical professor and physical activity researcher William Haskell felt Williams made a point in criticizing the design of the Cooper study. "It does raise an issue about how much weight we should be putting on those studies," he said. Haskell, who also is a member of the Cooper Institute's board of scientific advisers, does not consider the case closed. He's waiting for Blair's response. Another institute board member, I-Min Lee of the Harvard School of Public Health, noted that some measurement error is a normal part of science. But, she said, other studies give lots of reasons to think that moderate exercise should improve health enough to reduce the risk of an early death. "If (Blair's) study were the only one, I probably wouldn't put as much weight on it, but it is a piece of the puzzle that fits into the larger picture," Lee said. Other studies have shown that exercise reduces such health risks as body fat, cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity, and those improvements are markers of long-term good health, Lee said. ___ On the Net: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise: http://www.ms-se.com Surgeon General's report on physical activity: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/sgr.htm 

Deadly AIDS Combo 16-Jun-2003 Dr. David Whitehouse writes in BBC News Online that AIDS arose from a combination of two chimpanzee viruses. Chimps could have had one form of SIV (the simian form of HIV), then eaten smaller monkeys, and caught another form of SIV from them. When humans ate the chimps, they contracted HIV from the combination of the two SIV viruses. Scientists now know that HIV was passed from chimpanzees to humans sometime after 1860 in the Guinea-Bissau region of Africa. The transfer may have happened more than once, because of the different strains of HIV. They know the date because no 19th century slave traders report cases of AIDS. The first U.S. case was discovered in 1981, although there may have been an earlier case here in 1969. In Africa, HIV was found in a blood plasma sample from a Congo man in 1959. The rate of genetic divergence between HIV-1 and HIV- 2 suggests it jumped to humans around 1940. 

Sex Gum 16-Jun-2003 The Wrigley gum company is planning to develop a gum that contains Viagra, which would work faster than taking the pill. The gum would begin to work after about 2 minutes of chewing, while the pill takes an hour or more. And think of the potential for practical jokes! Meanwhile, people who live near a Viagra manufacturing plant say they just have to sniff the air to benefit from the drug. Richard Gizbert writes in abcnews.com that when the went blows over the Viagra plant in Ringaskiddy, Ireland, resident Charles Allen heads downwind. He says, "They're grinding the tablets and the wind is coming from that direction. So there's bound to be a certain amount in the air all the time. That's why we're sitting here." Construction worker Bill McKenna says his sex drive increased when he and his wife moved here. "My wife thought I was going to lap dancing clubs or something ..." he says. "There's a bit of happiness in the air about it," says resident Kevin O'Donovan. "You'd never see 60-, 70-year-olds walking around smiling before ... holding each other, kissing." But Pfizer thinks it's all in their minds. Spokesman Paddy Caffrey says, "From our perspective, there is absolutely no question anything like that can happen. Absolutely not." 

Shroud of Turin Created by Bacteria? 15-Jun-2003 The controversy over the image of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin never seems to end-is it a miracle or a hoax? Microbiologist Stephen Mattingly says it's neither-he thinks it was created by bacteria from a dying man's body, despite the fact that there's no other known shroud from ancient times with similar markings on it. Mattingly believes the image on the shroud wasn't hoaxed by humans or made by supernatural means. Instead, he thinks it was created by microbes in the wounds of a person who was slowly dying. Since crucifixion took as long as 72 hours to kill, the victim would have had time to lose a lot of blood and bodily fluids, which would encourage bacteria to multiply to unusually high levels. When the body was washed before being wrapped in the linen shroud, the washing made the wounds sticky, so the cloth stuck to them and became impregnated with bacteria. When the bacteria finally died, it shed proteins that gradually oxidized, staining the cloth. The stain turned yellow and darkened, like a slowly developing photograph. This theory clears up some mysteries about the image, such as how it got its three-dimensional quality. This could have been caused by varying densities of bacteria accumulating in the crevices of the dying man's body. The fact that the image only appears on one side of the cloth would also be explained by his theory, as well as the absence of brushstrokes. Mattingly says, "Bacteria do not need a paintbrush." One of the most common types of bacteria found on the human skin is Staphylococcus, which is harmless in low concentrations. Mattingly swabbed the Staph from his skin and grew the microbes to greater concentrations, killed them to prevent infection, then smeared them back on his skin. He found this made his skin extremely sticky. Then he applied a damp linen cloth to his body, allowed it to dry, then peeled it off. He found there were straw-yellow imprints of his body on the cloth that became darker as time went by. The bacterial imprint revealed fingernails, a ring and facial features, very similar to the details on the Shroud. While Mattingly is a Catholic and believes in the resurrection, he says he doesn't need the Shroud of Turin to bolster his belief. "Is this the burial linen of Jesus of Nazareth?" he asks. "We will never know for certain." 

Killer Kites 15-Jun-2003 Kite flyers in Pakistan face murder charges and the death penalty if the sharpened strings of their kites kill anyone else. Several people have had their throats cut by strings that are either metallic or coated with glass shards, and police are treating these deaths as murders. Kite flyers take part in "dog fights," where the objective is to cut their opponent's kite string, but they sometimes cut their opponents instead. Some of the victims have been children. Police are raiding shops selling that sell banned strings and arresting the owners. The kites threaten motorcyclists and pedestrians in the busy residential areas where they're flown and have caused power outages by cutting electric lines. People have also been killed or injured by falling from buildings or by walking into the paths of cars while they're flying kites. 

Do the Suburbs Make Us Fat? 15-Jun-2003 Americans have been gradually getting fatter every year since World War II, and more and more of us have moved to the suburbs during that time, as well. Researchers now think it may be the suburbs that make us fat. Researcher Arlin Wasserman noticed that when he moved from his native Philadelphia, where he biked everywhere, he gained weight every time. "The move to Ann Arbor, where I logged 15,000 miles a year driving, gained me 15 pounds, even though I was still biking to work," he says. "But the move to Traverse City gained me another 20." "It's not just a matter of our having 'super-sized' our meals or that we don't exercise enough," says public health researcher Thomas Schmid. He thinks Americans are the victims of life style changes where we drive everywhere, rather than walk or bike. Many suburbs don't even have sidewalks, and are near busy expressways, where it's dangerous to walk. The scale of the obesity epidemic, and the speed with which it's grown, mean it can't be laziness or genetics alone that are causing the problem. Researcher Lawrence Frank says, "We know that if you look at all the factors that have come into play during the last two decades, one of the most significant is that people are driving more and more and have less time for discretionary, leisure activities." 

Boy Breeds Eggs in His Body, Produces Beetles?

Jun 17, 8:38 am ET 

NEW DELHI  - A 13-year-old Indian boy has begun producing winged beetles in his urine after hatching the eggs in his body, a senior medical official said Monday.

Doctor Chittaranjan Maity, Medical Education Director of West Bengal state where the boy is from, said doctors found the beetles while examining him for pain in the groin area.

"Doctors were really surprised to see the beetles," he told The News Source. "There are eggs of the beetle in a fistula in his body and he is getting medical treatment to try to kill the eggs," Maity said.

The boy had been taken to hospital Sunday after complaining of pain while urinating.

The beetles -- more than half a centimeter in length -- belong to the Staphylinidae rove beetle family of insects. Most types are predators but some feed on fungi, algae and decaying plant matter.

An expert in urology, Doctor N. Subramanian, said that in theory it was possible for insects to hatch in the body and come out in urine but said he had not heard of such a case. 

Drug Turns Crime Victims Into Zombies

Jun 17, 8:43 am ET 

By Phil Stewart

BOGOTA, Colombia  - The last thing Andrea Fernandez recalls before being drugged is holding her newborn baby on a Bogota city bus.

Police found her three days later, muttering to herself and wandering topless along the median strip of a busy highway. Her face was badly beaten and her son was gone.

Fernandez is just one of hundreds of victims every month who, according to Colombian hospitals, are temporarily turned into zombies by a home-grown drug called scopolamine which has been embraced by thieves and rapists.

"When I woke up in the hospital, I asked for my baby and nobody said anything. They just looked at me," Fernandez said, weeping. Police believe her son Diego was taken by a gang which traffics in infants.

Colorless, odorless and tasteless, scopolamine is slipped into drinks and sprinkled onto food. Victims become so docile that they have been known to help thieves rob their homes and empty their bank accounts. Women have been drugged repeatedly over days and gang-raped or rented out as prostitutes. In the case of Fernandez, the mother of three was rendered submissive enough to surrender her youngest child. Most troubling for police is the way the drug acts on the brain. Since scopolamine completely blocks the formation of memories, unlike most date-rape drugs used in the United States and elsewhere, it is usually impossible for victims to ever identify their aggressors. "When a patient (of U.S. date-rape drugs) is under hypnosis, he or she usually recalls what happened. But with scopolamine, this isn't possible because the memory was never recorded," said Dr. Camilo Uribe, the world's leading expert on the drug.

Scopolamine has a long, dark history in Colombia dating back to before the Spanish conquest.

Legend has it that Colombian Indian tribes used the drug to bury alive the wives and slaves of fallen chiefs, so that they would quietly accompany their masters into the afterworld.

Nazi "angel of death" Joseph Mengele experimented on scopolamine as an interrogation drug. And scopolamine's sedative and amnesia-producing qualities were used by mothers in the early 20th century to help them through childbirth.

Finding the drug in Colombia these days is not hard.

The tree which naturally produces scopolamine grows wild around the capital and is so famous in the countryside that mothers warn their children not to fall asleep below its yellow and white flowers. The tree is popularly known as the "borrachero," or "get-you-drunk," and the pollen alone is said to conjure up strange dreams.

"We probably should put some sort of fence up," jokes biologist Gustavo Morales at Bogota's botanical gardens, eyeing children playing with borrachero seeds everywhere.

"If you ate a few of those, it would kill you."

Although scopolamine can be easily extracted from the seeds, experienced criminals hardly ever bother with them, police say.

Pure, cheap scopolamine is brought across the border from neighboring Ecuador, where the borrachero tree is harvested for medical purposes, Uribe said. The alkaloid is used legally in medicines across the world to treat everything from motion sickness to the tremors of Parkinson's disease.

The use of scopolamine by criminals appears to be confined to Colombia, at least for now, and it's not clear why the drug is such a rampant problem in Colombia. Some analysts blame it on a culture of crime in the Andean nation, home to the world's largest kidnapping and cocaine industries, not to mention Latin America's longest-running guerrilla war.

There are so many scopolamine cases that they usually don't make the news unless particularly bizarre. One such incident involved three young Bogota women who preyed on men by smearing the drug on their breasts and luring their victims to take a lick.

Losing all willpower, the men readily gave up their bank access codes. The breast-temptress thieves then held them hostage for days while draining their accounts.

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota takes scopolamine very seriously and offers staff tips on how avoid being drugged. One piece of advice may seem obvious: Don't let your drinks out of your sight when at a Bogota bar or nightclub.

Still, at least three visiting U.S. government employees here have been drugged and robbed over the past two years. Other American victims from time to time appear at the embassy seeking help, still shaking off a scopolamine hangover.

"I remember one case, an American reported being drugged," an embassy official said. "He says to his doorman 'Why did you let them walk out with my stuff.' The doorman says, 'Because you told me to."' 

Study Finds Antioxidant Vitamins Useless 
Thu Jun 12, 8:01 PM ET 


By EMMA ROSS, News Source Medical Writer 

LONDON - Vitamin E and beta-carotene pills are useless for warding off major heart problems, and beta-carotene, a source of vitamin A, may be harmful, an analysis of key studies has concluded. 

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Many experts say the finding, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, settles the issue of antioxidant vitamins for heart health. 

But others argue that the pills might still prove useful if started earlier and that while they do not seem to prevent heart attacks and premature death, further studies may show they help to delay the onset or progression of heart disease or other blood vessel problems. 

Antioxidant nutrients, especially vitamin E, were widely recommended a few years ago as a way of keeping the heart healthy. However, several recent large studies failed to show any benefit, and a few raised the possibility that the pills might be harmful for some. 

The latest research, conducted by scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, analyzed the pooled results from 15 key studies involving nearly 220,000 people. 

"The public health viewpoint would have to be that there's really nothing to support widespread use of these vitamins," said Dr. Ian Graham, a professor of cardiology at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. 

Most of the participants in the studies either already had heart or blood vessel disease or were at increased risk of such problems. Seven of the studies involved vitamin E alone or in combination with other antioxidants. Eight involved beta carotene alone or with other antioxidants. The follow-up period ranged from one to 12 years. 

The researchers found that vitamin E did not reduce death from cardiovascular or any other cause and did not lower the incidence of strokes. 

Beta carotene was linked with a 0.3 percent increase in the risk cardiovascular death and a 0.4 percent increase in the risk of death from any cause by the end of the study. 

"For heart health, we've answered the question and one is potentially hazardous," said one of the investigators, Dr. Mark Penn, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist. 

Alice Lichenstein, nutrition spokeswoman for the American Heart Association (news - web sites), agreed. 

"I think there are enough studies that have looked at a diverse enough group of individuals that it's unlikely that we're going to have a flip-flop," said Lichenstein, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University who was not connected with the research. 

The idea that antioxidant vitamins might ward off heart trouble was plausible. Test tube studies indicated that antioxidants protect the heart's arteries by blocking the damaging effects of oxygen. The approach works in animals, and studies show that healthy people who eat vitamin-rich food seem to have less heart disease. 

However, experts say that perhaps antioxidants work when they are in food, but not when in pills. Some even think antioxidants may have been a red herring and that maybe people who eat vitamin-rich food generally take better care of themselves and that's why they have lower heart disease risks. 

However, Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor of nutrition and chief of the Tufts antioxidants research lab, maintained that scientists should not write off antioxidants for heart health just yet. 

"If in a six-year study, the same number in the vitamin E group and the control group died, but the ones in the vitamin E group died a little later in that six-year period, that is something that needs to be looked at," Blumberg said. 

"Some of the studies showed benefits in other areas, such as ... cardiac arrythmias, which suggested there were some benefits in some subsets of groups," he said. 

John Hathcock, vice president of scientific and international affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for makers of antioxidants and other dietary supplements, noted that although animal studies and observations in humans suggested the pills would best be used in healthy people, the key studies were done in people who were already either sick or at elevated risk of heart disease. 

"Ultimately, the end points of deaths and heart attacks are valid, but if you start when the person is already at high risk or has disease, then it may be too late for the benefit to occur," Hathcock said. 

Women spot uncle on park bench en-route to his funeral Two Brazilian women were on their way to their uncle's funeral when they saw him sitting on a park bench. Elizete and Elizangela da Silva decided to take Onofre Moreira to his own funeral in Cruzeiro, Sao Paulo. But their plan did not go down well, as many guests were scared and confused, and some fainted. The mix-up happened after Mr Moreira's brother, Valerio, went to the local hospital and identified a body as being his brother, who had been missing for 24 hours. Valerio told Agora Sao Paulo online: "The two of them looked so much alike that no one at the funeral saw it wasn't Onofre." Mr Moreira told the police he had just gone for a walk, and hadn't realised he had been gone for more than a day. Story filed: 15:38 Thursday 12th June 2003

'Man's income determined by his growth in first year' A man's income may be partly determined by the speed at which he grew in the first year of life, scientists are claiming. Findings from a study of 4,630 Finnish men showed that those who were shorter than average at the age of one earned significantly less than others in their peer group. They were also less likely to attain a high level of education. The result was striking and held true irrespective of social background, said the researchers. They believe slower growth during the crucial brain development period in an infant's first year may impair an individual's mental abilities. This would lead to disadvantages throughout life, including poorer performance in school and a lower income. Professor David Barker, from the University of Southampton, who co-led the study, said: "What we have shown is that boys who don't grow so well in the first year of life do less well at school, and 50 years on are earning less money, than those who grew faster. "The differences are significant irrespective of social origins. Something is happening to the brain that's pretty much worked out in the first year of life, and it's very amazing to be able to see it." The study was made possible because in Finland people's incomes are public information freely available in the census records. Story filed: 11:15 Sunday 8th June 2003

Hen lays boomerang-shaped egg A Slovakian farmer says one of her hens has laid an egg shaped like boomerang. Maria Kertesova, from Novy Zivot village in western Slovakia, says she has yet to identify the hen who produced the egg. "I wish I knew which one it was, but we are now going to make a determined effort to find out which hen can lay these funny shaped eggs," she told Slovak daily Novy Cas.

Publisher bans employees from smoking at home A Berlin publishing house says its workers are not allowed to smoke - even at home. All 13 employees of Eitmann-Verlag have signed an affidavit in which they confirm they don't smoke at all. "We want to send a signal to protect non-smokers," business manager Frank Woeckel told Bild newspaper. "The books we publish deal with the environment, health and the dangers of second-hand smoking. Smoking employees don't go with this." Mr Woeckel says the clause isn't just restricted to work hours. "They can't smoke in their free time, either, that would be a breach of contract," he told the paper. "All we want is employees who support what we do." Story filed: 08:57 Tuesday 10th June 2003

Supermarket traps shopper A man who walked into a German supermarket had to call police when he realised it was closed. Police say the automatic doors opened to let the man in but would not let him out again. The supermarket, in Alsdorf near Aachen, was closed because it was Sunday. But the man had forgotten the day and did not realise the lights were off until he was inside. He couldn't leave again because the exit doors were locked and the entrance doors could only be activated from the outside. He phoned police, who already knew from an automatic alarm that somebody was inside the shop. An employee of the supermarket had to be called out to bring her keys and let the man out. Story filed: 12:31 Monday 9th June 2003

Woman froze gullet eating ice cream A Chinese woman spent a week in hospital after she froze her own gullet by eating too much ice cream. The Hong Kong edition of China Daily, quoting Southern Metropolis News, said the woman seriously damaged her oesophagus. Li, 23, started eating ice cream out of her refrigerator after returning home from work. She went to see her doctor the following day, complaining of pains in her throat and stomach, and was checked into hospital. Doctors in Guangzhou said Li's oesophagus froze because she ate too much ice cream too quickly. Story filed: 10:44 Thursday 12th June 2003

Automatic key fob blows up car An Austrian motorist blew up his car when he tried to open it with his remote control key fob. The Ford Cougar exploded, sending car parts flying hundreds of feet in all directions. Police in Sollenau initially treated the case as a possible bomb attack but it turned out the owner of the car was to blame. He was carrying two containers of oxy-acetaline gas in his car boot, reports Die Krone newspaper. Police Chief Inspector Rudolf Scheidl said: "On both containers, the valves weren't closed." When the owner of the car used the remote, a spark set off the mixture of gas and air inside the car. Nobody was injured but eight other cars were damaged. Story filed: 10:01 Tuesday 10th June 2003

World's most expensive shoes go on display A pair of sandals, which have gone on display at a Tokyo department store, are believed to be the most valuable shoes in the world.

Based on the pair of ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, they are worth about �920,000. The sandals are studded with 690 rubies and were made for an actress to wear at the Oscars. But the sandals were never worn as Oscar stars decided to dress-down for the ceremony because of the Iraq war. They are worth 50% more than the previous record holders which were also designed by Stuart Weitzman. That pair were woven from platinum thread with 464 diamonds set in pure platinum and were worn at last year's Oscar's ceremony by Mulholland Drive actress Laura Harring. Story filed: 10:09 Friday 13th June 2003

Woman wakes from coma after husband's bedside vigil A woman has awoken from a coma in China after her devoted husband stayed by her hospital bedside for four-and-a-half years. Li Zhongqiu has lived in a Shanghai hospital and cared for his wife Jin Meihua since she suffered brain injuries after falling from her bicycle. Doctors held out little hope of recovery but retired soldier Li, who married Jin in 1967, refused to leave her side, reports the South China Morning Post. He once refused treatment for burns when he scalded his foot carrying boiling water because he did not want to spend a night away from her. Li's devotion was rewarded when his wife eventually woke and smiled and nodded at her husband, the newspaper says. She can now move the left side of her body and communicates by nodding. Li said he never gave up hope: "After serving in the army for 29 years, I was able to stick to what I believed in," he told the newspaper. Story filed: 11:01 Tuesday 10th June 2003

Chinese zoo stops allowing visitors to shoot animals A Chinese zoo has agreed to suspend its policy of allowing visitors to shoot some of its animals. The zoo, in Dandong, rented out rifles and allowed people into special areas where they could shoot the animals. It was seen as a unique attraction to bring in more visitors but led to numerous complaints from animal lovers. Zoo staff defended themselves, saying visitors were only allowed to kill unprotected species. But they have now agreed to stop letting visitors shoot animals altogether, reports the South China Morning Post, quoting Liaoshen Evening News. Story filed: 10:05 Friday 13th June 2003

Bogus policeman tried to pull over real cop A bogus policeman was arrested in Kansas after he tried to pull over a real police officer. The off-duty officer became suspicious because the lights on the imposter's car were blue. Kansas City police use a combination of blue and red flashing lights, says police spokesperson Captain Rich Lockhart. A nearby patrol car tried to stop the suspect, who was driving a blue Crown Victoria, a vehicle commonly used by police. The suspect led police on a six-mile chase that ended after officers used "stop sticks" to puncture the suspect's tires. The man lost control of his car and crashed into a telegraph pole. The 30-year-old suspect, who was not identified, jumped out of his car and ran a short distance before he was captured. He faces charges of impersonating a police officer. (c) News Source

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Villagers demand reinstatement of atheist vicar Hundreds of Danish villagers have come to the defence of their vicar after he was suspended for not believing in God. Parishioners in the village of Taaarbaek are demanding the reinstatement of 55-year-old Thorkild Grosboell. They condemned the state Lutheran Protestant Church for its decision to suspend Pastor Grosboell after he spoke of his lack of beliefs in a newspaper interview. "If there is no place for our pastor in this Church, then there is no place for many of us either," said the head of the parish council, Lars Heilesen. Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel suspended Pastor Grosboell, calling his comments "totally unacceptable". He ordered him to make a statement "clarifying that he did not want to sow doubt about the Church's confession but rather trigger a debate". Since he has yet to do so, the suspension has not been lifted, although the pastor and the Bishop are due to meet this week. Denmark's Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Tove Fergo, has taken the Bishop's side in the matter, saying a pastor cannot work in the State church if he or she does not believe in God. However, a committee fighting corruption and abuse of power in Denmark has denounced what it described as censorship against the pastor. It has filed a police complaint against the Church, accusing it of violating the Danish constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Story filed: 11:36 Thursday 12th June 2003

Penis-shaped lollies seized in Greece Council officials in Greece have seized a batch of penis-shaped lollipops which were on sale at a popular beauty spot. The sweets were on sale at a highway rest stop in the Vale of Tempe in northern Greece. Larissa regional authority officials visited the shop and confiscated all the lollipops on sale following a complaint from a bus passenger. The woman passenger was travelling with her young child who drew her attention to the lollies which were available in a variety of colours and sizes. The Athens News Agency reports the phallic sweets were traced to a wholesaler in Halki, near Larissa. Story filed: 13:59 Friday 13th June 2003

Missing Indian boy spotted on TV winning exams award The family of an Indian boy who disappeared from home two years ago were amazed to see him on television receiving a national award. Prasad Akkanouri's relatives had almost given him up for dead when they saw him winning the award for being top scorer in his exams. Prasad says he ran away from home to "become something in life", after his family forced him to enroll in an electrician's course against his wishes. He went to Bombay and then to Nagpur, where he worked as a waiter at a tea stall during the day, and studied at night. His family had no idea what had happened to him until they saw him receiving his award for scoring 86.5%, the highest among millions of students, in his Higher Secondary exams.

Bush loses fight with space-age scooter President George Bush has lost a battle of wills with a Segway scooter.
The US commander-in-chief took a tumble during a family break in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Tennis racket in hand, the president strode up to the space-age scooter, jumped on and then stumbled right off the machine. Mr Bush was spending a long weekend at the family compound to celebrate George Bush Snr's 79th birthday yesterday. Undeterred by his slip, Mr Bush got back on again. His father then climbed on a second Segway, and this time they cruised off with his dog Barney leading the way. The president's two daughters, Jenna and Barbara, and former first lady Barbara Bush all took turns on the Segways too. In January, the president rode inventor Dean Kamen's own Segway, and was said to have handled it like a pro - that time.

Couple to Take Plunge After Airy Engagement

Jun 13, 11:05 am ET 

BOMBAY  - An Indian couple who got engaged in mid-air plan to marry underwater later this month.

Dipti Pradhan, 31, and Chandan Thakoor, 33, plan to exchange Hindu wedding vows in an hour-long ceremony in a swimming pool in Bombay on June 23.

Ravi Kulkarni, 35, a diving instructor who will officiate at the wedding, has been training the couple for nearly a month for the ceremony, in which they will wear scuba-diving gear.

"In the beginning, they were scared to be in water," he said. "Now they tell me that they are ready for the big day."

Kulkarni conducted a mid-air engagement ceremony for the couple Thursday. Held up by ropes, they exchanged rings hanging 50 feet above the pool in a north Bombay suburb.

The bride's father and four relatives will be among those who witness the wedding ceremony underwater, while at least 250 guests are expected to watch on a giant screen by the poolside.

The couple will wear traditional wedding clothes with metal strips sewn into the hems so they keep their shape in the pool.

Kulkarni said the couple wanted a unique wedding and it would be the first traditional Hindu ceremony conducted under water. 

Husband Killed in Fight About Goats?

Jun 13, 11:06 am ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - An Eldon, Oklahoma, woman has been charged with shooting her husband dead after an argument over who should feed the couple's goats, police said on Thursday.

Authorities charged Pearl Lynne Smith, 47, with first-degree murder for the death of her husband, Thomas Smith, 51. Sheriff's deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call at the couple's rural eastern Oklahoma home on Tuesday and found the husband dead, shot once through the chest.

"We were told that what prompted this disagreement was her failure to feed the goats," Cherokee County Undersheriff Dan Garber said.

Garber said the wife pointed a 9 mm pistol at her husband and demanded that he go feed the goats. Thomas Smith then dared his wife to shoot him, Garber said. When he took a step toward Pearl, she killed him with a single shot, Garber added.

The two had a history of domestic trouble, Garber said, and the argument over feeding the goats was the breaking point.

"Something like that is the trigger that unlocks something deeper," Garber said.

Pearl Smith is in jail on $100,000 bail, pending her arraignment on Friday, court officials said. She could face the death penalty if convicted. 

Student Accused of Creating Fake Airline Fri Jun 13,12:52 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By MARTIN FINUCANE, News Source Writer BOSTON - A college freshman created a fake airline that offered bargain-priced tickets on flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles, authorities said Thursday. Luke Thompson, of Yardley, Pa., incorporated Mainline Airways in Pennsylvania, established a business address in the Boston suburb of Wellesley and set up an elaborate Web site, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly. Thompson, who attends Babson College in Wellesley, offered fares as low as $89 one way between Los Angeles and Honolulu, Reilly said. Flights were to begin July 3, but Mainline had neither planes, crews nor the required permits and approvals as recently as a few weeks ago. Thompson told The News Source that the allegations were "absolutely untrue," but he did acknowledge that he was the only person behind the company, other than a consultant and an investor he did not identify. "We had every intention of doing this operation," he said. "We had 15 airlines we had contacted or were in serious negotiations with, regarding the actual providing of the (air) service." He offered no details on which airlines were involved. Thompson's Web site, which has been taken down, described the company's "fleet," outlined various policies and answered travelers' questions. Reilly won a temporary restraining order Wednesday that keeps Thompson from using any Mainline bank accounts for anything other than providing refunds. A judge in Hawaii last week ordered ticket sales halted. Thompson faxed letters earlier this week to Hawaii officials, promising refunds by the end of the week to 120 "pre-reservations" and maintaining that Mainline Airways was "only to be the tour operator." ''

Japanese Firm Finds Way to Keep Lost Dogs on Leash

Jun 16, 6:36 pm ET 

TOKYO  - Scared of losing your pooch?

Japan's largest home and office security provider Secom Co. Ltd. (9735.T) thinks it can offer the paranoid pet owner a little peace of mind.

Secom said Monday it plans to unleash a new service later this month to track missing dogs, using satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS) and mobile phone networks.

Owners can place a sensor -- which Secom said is the world's smallest and lightest mobile GPS terminal at 1.7 ounces -- around the dog's neck in a small pouch or on its back using a full-body harness.

The company said the sensor might be too heavy for small dogs and cats.

Dog owners can locate their missing pet within 164 feet on a Web site by typing in a username and password or by placing a call to the Secom phone center.

The technology used by Secom is an extension of a similar service offered since April 2001 for tracking young children, the elderly and missing automobiles.

Secom aims to bite into the lucrative accessories' market catering to Japan's 9.5 million dogs and 7.1 million cats. Tokyo-based toymaker Takara Co. Ltd. (7969.T) has sold about 300,000 dog "translation" devices called the "Bowlingual" in Japan and plans to launch an English-language product in the U.S. market during the summer for about $120.

Secom's service will carry a 5,000 yen ($43) registration fee and a monthly fee of 800 yen. Each call to the Secom center will cost the dog owner 200 yen.

Secom said it aims to register about 10,000 canines by the end of the business year in March at a pace of about 1,000 dogs a month. 

Coke Driver Who Drank Pepsi Told to Hit Road?

Jun 16, 8:13 am ET 

ATLANTA  - It doesn't pay to take the Pepsi challenge if you happen to work for Coca-Cola.

Rick Bronson, a union activist and driver at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Southern California, apparently learned that lesson the hard way this week when he was fired for allegedly drinking a Pepsi-Cola.

Management at the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Sylmar, California, told Bronson on June 12 he was being dismissed for violating a policy prohibiting slander of Coke products, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The union, however, claims Bronson was actually fired for his work organizing Coke merchandisers in Southern California.

"Rick Bronson was actively involved in those organizing campaigns and Coke management knew it," said Jim Santangelo, a spokesman for Teamsters Local 848, which represents Bronson. "That's why he was fired."

The Teamsters have filed unfair labor practice charges against the California bottler, which is owned by Atlanta-based bottling giant Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. .

Bob Phillips, a Coca-Cola Bottling Co. spokesman, declined to comment on the specifics of Bronson's case and would not say whether drinking a competitor's products was a disciplinary offense.

Phillips noted that the bottler had a strict policy prohibiting retaliation against union members and other employees and hoped to reach a "satisfactory resolution" of Bronson's case.

There are more than 300 workers at the Coca-Cola plant in Sylmar, which is in the Los Angeles area. 

Now, THAT'S Reality!

Jun 16, 8:26 am ET 

DUBLIN  - An Irish reality television show nearly sank without trace Friday after the ship carrying contestants around the country's treacherous coastline hit the rocks and broke up.

Terrified contestants taking part in state broadcaster RTE's "Cabin Fever" program were winched to safety by helicopter after the boat they were supposed to stay aboard for eight weeks ran aground near Tory Island, Donegal, in northwest Ireland.

A producer with the company making the program -- flagged as the Irish television event of the summer -- said all precautions had been taken, the ship thoroughly checked before setting out and the crew trained in sea survival.

"I have no idea how it happened," he told RTE.

He said the incident had not been caught on film as the camera crew had not been on duty.

"(But) we would rather not have one hell of a program -- we would rather have a safe ship," he said.

Lifeboats rushed to the ship's aid after crew members sent out a distress call Friday afternoon.

RTE said the vessel, carrying 10 contestants competing for a cash prize, the camera team and ship's crew, had later "completely broken up" and was "unsalvageable."

However, it added the show would go on. A replacement ship was being found in England, and filming of the endurance test contest -- an Irish version of British reality TV hit "Big Brother" -- would continue on nearby Tory Island. '

Researchers Trace the Ancestry of AIDS Thu Jun 12, 3:26 PM ET 

By PAUL RECER, News Source Science Writer WASHINGTON - The ancestry of the virus that caused the AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic has been traced to two strains of virus found in monkeys in Africa. The viruses probably passed into chimpanzees when the apes ate infected monkey meat, researchers say. Earlier studies have shown that HIV1, the virus that causes the most common form of human AIDS, originated from a simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, that is found in chimpanzees. But how chimps came to have SIV has been a mystery. American and English researchers analyzed the genetic pattern of a number of SIV strains in African monkeys and concluded that at least two strains found in the red-capped mangabeys and in the greater spot-nosed monkeys in south-central Africa combined to form the type of SIV now found in African chimps. It was this form of SIV that spread into the human population to start the HIV1 epidemic that has killed millions of people, researchers report Friday in the journal Science. "The recombination of these monkey viruses happened in chimpanzees and the chimp transmitted it to humans on at least three occasions," said Frederic Bibollet-Ruche, a virologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and a co-author of the study. "The transfer between chimps and humans probably happened before 1930." Bibollet-Ruche said that three types of HIV1, called M, N and O, probably were transmitted from chimps to humans decades ago. A second type of AIDs, called HIV2, is known to have been transmitted from the sooty mangabey in West Africa to humans directly, without going through the chimp. Monkeys and chimps both represent a reservoir of SIV viruses that could, in theory, be spread to humans, forming a new type of immunodeficiency disease, he said. The viruses were most likely spread from species to species when chimps eat monkey meat and hunters in Africa eat chimp meat, Bibollet-Ruche said. "Chimps are known to hunt and eat whatever monkey species they can catch," he said. As for humans, Bibollet-Ruche said "it is not such a good idea to hunt and eat monkeys. There is a risk for humans to come into contact" with a new form of HIV (news - web sites). Bibollet-Ruche said the genetic studies suggest that lower monkeys first became infected with SIV 100,000 years ago or even earlier. SIV was passed to chimps after the animals split up into different subspecies living as separate bands in West Africa and in southern and central Africa. He said the easternmost subspecies of chimps is infected with SIV, but the virus has not been found in chimp tribes in West Africa. Although SIV can infect chimps and the lower monkeys, the virus does not cause disease in those animals. Bibollet-Ruche said that the virus attacks the white blood cells, called CD4 cells, but it does not make the animals sick or cause a decline in their white blood cells. In humans, HIV attacks and kills white blood cells and eventually overwhelms the body's ability to replace them. Without these disease-fighting white blood cells, the body becomes defenseless against infections that are easily controlled by the by the immune system in healthy people. Elizabeth Bailes of the University of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom is the first author of the study. The other co-authors are from Duke University, the University of Montpellier in France and the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Covington, La. ___ On the Net: Science: www.sciencemag.org 

More U.S. Crop Circles 13-Jun-2003 Keith Inman writes in the Jonesboro (Arkansas) Sun that there are 10 crop circles in a wheat field in Knobel, Ark. Farmer Todd Young says, "It's kind of eerie, really. It's real precise. It's real symmetrical. Your average idiot couldn't have gone out there and done that, including myself." This spring, circles are appearing in the U.S. and in other countries, as well as in the usual U.K. crop circle country. The non-U.K. circles tend to be plain, rather than intricate- but then so did the early U.K. circles. "I think it's somebody with a handheld GPS and too much time on their hands," says farmer Bruce Catt, who discovered the circles as he flew his airplane over them last Saturday. "We just happened to fly over the field. It just sticks out from the air like a sore thumb." The circles ranged from 38 feet in diameter to about eight feet, and they were all within 10 feet of each other. "Knobel's pretty small. Looks like it would get out who done it," Catt says. "If somebody used a stake and a string and went around trying to make a perfect circle, they did a good job." Catt thinks the circle maker walked down a ditch through the field in order to prevent leaving a path. "He told my wife at church Sunday that we had crop circles," Young says. "I finally found it about noon Monday. And there have been numerous people out here looking at it. At one time there were four planes inside this little area, looking at it." Young flew over the field last Friday and saw no circles, so Catt said he believes the crop circles were made Friday night. "A lot of people fly over here, and if it had been there a long time, somebody would have noticed," he says. Cooperative extension agent Roger Gibson says, "All I can say about it is they had to know what they were doing." "We just hope they get all the wheat harvested before they do it again," says agent Andy Vangilder. The circles are gone now-Young harvested the wheat on Tuesday. He says, "I farm for a living, and that's how I make my living-harvesting my crops." 

Suicide Pacts on the Internet 13-Jun-2003 Kari Huus writes on msnbc.com that the Japanese, who have one of the highest suicide rates in the world, are forming suicide pacts on the internet. On Sunday, the bodies of four young Japanese men were found in a car, and evidence that they'd all agreed to kill themselves together was found on their computers. These suicide pacts have resulted in 18 deaths so far this year. The victims are usually young and meet in an internet chat room, where they encourage each other to kill themselves. In May, police discovered the bodies of a man, age 30, and two women, ages 22 and 18, who all died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a coal-burning stove after sealing themselves in a room with plastic sheeting and duct tape. None of them had known the others before they met online and started planning their suicides. Suicide sites recommend this method as fast and painless. Not all suicide attempts work-two girls, ages 14 and 17, jumped off a five-story building together and were badly injured, but didn't die. "We are picking up a lot (of suicide sites) that are just in Japanese," says Parry Aftab of WiredSafety. "We report them to local law enforcement, or the ISP to have them take down the sites. But they just pop up someplace else" "The way they bill it is, 'If you're going to do it, don't hurt yourself-do it right,'" says the WiredSafety director of security, who uses by the pseudonym Gambler. "They portray themselves as philanthropists." "Generally, they have a serious emotional problem, which is that they have difficulty dealing with others face-to-face, a kind of phobia or fear of talking about their feelings in front of others," says Methodist minister Yukio Saito, who founded Japan's first suicide-prevention hotline. "Maybe this is quite a Japanese-type emotion. They have difficulty having personal relationships, so they tend to use the Internet to communicate their feelings." There is a lot of pressure to conform in Japan-to do well in school and get the right job-which can lead to depression. Depressed people isolate themselves from others and in Japan, where 40% of the population is online, the web is the natural place for them to go. Author Mitsuyo Ohira, who wrote about her own teenage suicide attempts, says, "In the virtual realm of the Internet...many such youngsters feel they can open up to strangers because everyone is 'faceless,' so to speak. They reveal their honest thoughts and their Net buddies reciprocate. This convinces them they have finally met their true soulmates for the first time in their lives. But unfortunately, this is an illusion." 

Group: Hydrogen Fuel Cells May Hurt Ozone Thu Jun 12, 6:56 PM ET Add Science - 

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Widespread use of the hydrogen fuel cells that President Bush (news - web sites) has made a centerpiece of his energy plan might not be as environmentally friendly as many believe. Scientists say the new technology could lead to greater destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. Researchers said in a report Thursday saying that if hydrogen replaced fossil fuels to run everything from cars to power plants, large amounts of hydrogen would drift into the stratosphere as a result of leakage and indirectly cause increased depletion of the ozone. They acknowledged that much is still unknown about the hydrogen cycle and that technologies could be developed to curtail hydrogen releases, mitigating the problem. But they say hydrogen's impact on ozone destruction should be considered when gauging the potential environmental downside of a hydrogen-fuel economy. Ever since Bush this year singled out hydrogen development as an energy priority, the fuel has been the buzzword in energy debates. Congress plans to pump more than $3 billion into hydrogen research over the next five years in hopes of putting fuel-cell-powered cars into showrooms by 2020. Industry is spending billions more to develop fuel cells, although their widespread use is probably still decades away. Fossil fuels - coal, oil or natural gas - produce chemicals that pollute the air as well as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. A hydrogen fuel cell, when making energy, releases only water as a byproduct. In an article in this week's edition of Science magazine, researchers at the California Institute of Technology raised the possibility that if hydrogen fuel replaced fossil fuels entirely, it could be expected that 10 percent to 20 percent of the hydrogen would leak from pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and fuel cells in cars and at power plants. Because hydrogen readily travels skyward, the researchers estimated that its increased use could lead to as much as a tripling of hydrogen molecules - both manmade and from natural sources - going into the stratosphere, where it would oxidize and form water. "This would result in cooling of the lower stratosphere and the disturbance of ozone chemistry," the researchers wrote. It would mean bigger and longer-lasting ozone holes in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where drops in ozone levels have been recorded over the past 20 years. They estimated that ozone depletion could be as much as 8 percent. Nejat Veziroglu, president of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy and director of the Clean Energy Research Institute at the University of Miami, expressed skepticism about the Cal Tech findings. "Leakage will be much less than what they are considering," he said. An Energy Department spokeswoman, Jeanne Lopatto, said the Cal Tech study will influence some of the government's fuel cell research, especially in areas of hydrogen transport and storage. She said the administration "welcomes new scientific knowledge on the potential effects of hydrogen production, storage and use." The loss of some of the Earth's ozone layer is of concern because ozone blocks much of the sun's ultraviolet light, which over time can lead to skin cancer, cataracts and other problems in humans. Ozone depletion has been contained with international treaties banning and phasing out ozone-killing chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. But the Cal Tech researchers said huge increases in the concentration of hydrogen in the stratosphere "could substantially delay the recovery of the ozone layer," even if a hydrogen economy is still decades away. John Eiler, an assistant professor of geochemistry at Cal Tech and one of the article's authors, acknowledged that the concerns raised in the study might eventually be resolved when more is learned about the hydrogen fuel cycle. For example, much of the leaking hydrogen might become absorbed in the soil instead of drifting into the sky, he said. "If soils dominate, a hydrogen economy might have little effect on the environment. But if the atmosphere is the big player, the stratospheric cooling and destruction of the ozone ... are more likely to occur." Cal Tech scientist Tracey Tromp, another of the authors, said that with advanced warnings of a problem, a hydrogen energy infrastructure could be fashioned to allow more control of leaks and reduce the adverse environmental impact. ___ On the Net: Science: http://www.sciencemag.org 

Government May Replenish Rare $2 Bills Thu Jun 12, 8:24 AM ET 

By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Like 200 bad pennies, it keeps turning up. The $2 bill, shunned by the American public for decades, could be making a comeback. After seven years, the government is thinking of printing the forgotten greenback once again. "We do contemplate ordering more $2 notes," said Federal Reserve (news - web sites) spokesman David Skidmore. The Fed has been talking to the makers U.S. paper money, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, about the matter. The Federal Reserve, the supplier of cash to the nation's banks, had a huge pile of the $2 bills stashed away in its vaults back in 1996, when the last batch of the notes were printed. Although the Fed still has a supply of the $2 notes, it's a much smaller one. No one knows exactly why, but some blame the human tendency to make a keepsake of an oddity. "They are collected mostly," said Lyn Knight, president of Lyn Knight Currency Auctions. "People like to save $2 bills_ kind of like half dollars." Roughly 9.5 million of the notes are currently held at the Fed's vaults, down from around 160 million in 1996, Skidmore said. (The Fed's inventory of $1 bills, by comparison, stands at 2.37 billion.) The Bureau of Engraving and Printing may print 121.6 million new $2 bills in fiscal year 2004, which starts Oct. 1, said BEP spokeswoman Claudia Dickens. "Around July or August we will be able to confirm that number positively," she said. When new $2 bills were last printed in 1996, some 163.6 million of the notes were made. The government stopped making the bills because there wasn't much demand for them from banks and their customers. Cash registers typically don't have bins for the $2 note. "I think people are just saving them. The general population, when something is unusual in terms of money, they pull it and set it aside - `Gee, I haven't seen one of those,' " said David Sundman, a paper money expert and president of Littleton Coin Co. "It is just human nature." Some people like to give them as gifts or use them at $2 betting windows at horse racetracks, a few money mavens suggested. The $2 note can be traced back to the days of the American Revolution, when the Continental Congress issued $2 denominations in "bills of credit for the defense of America," the bureau says. Some experts say there were cases of $2 notes even earlier. The current $2 bill, features the visage of Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and author of the Declaration of Independence on the front. On the back of the bill, the signing of the Declaration of Independence is featured. This version of the note came about in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial. Around 655 million $2 notes are currently in circulation worldwide. Even so, "people don't see many of them and aren't used to seeing them," said Doug Tillett, a spokesman at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "You have to think back to seventh grade civics and think is this legal tender? Is there a $2 bill?" The bureau doesn't have plans to make over the $2 bill as part of its broader, redesign effort. A new, more colorful $20 bill aimed at thwarting high-tech counterfeiters is first in line for the new look and will be put into circulation later this year. The $20 bill is the most knocked-off note in the United States. The $2 bill could became a staple in cash registers and wallets, if the government ever were to decide to give the $1 bill - the most commonly used bill in the United States - the boot, experts said. But barring that unlikely event, the $2 bill - just like the penny - is probably going to stick around for a while, experts said. "It is part of our history," said Sundman. "It is kind of a relic. A survivor." __ On the Net: Bureau of Engraving and Printing: http://www.moneyfactory.com/ 

Egypt Dismisses Briton's Nefertiti Mummy Claim

Jun 12, 9:32 am ET 

CAIRO  - Egypt's antiquities chief has dismissed a British Egyptologist's claim she may have found the mummy of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, the stepmother of legendary boy King Tutankhamen.

Nefertiti, the wife and co-ruler with pharaoh Akhenaten, has long been considered one of the most powerful women of ancient Egypt. Her husband ruled from 1379 to 1362 BC.

Joanne Fletcher, a mummification specialist from England's University of York, announced Monday she thought one of three mummies found in a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings may have been that of Nefertiti.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, dismissed the idea. "This mistake and these statements are not based on sure facts or evidence," Hawass told Egypt's official Middle East News Agency late Tuesday.

Fletcher based her theory partly on the similarity between the swan-like neck of one of the mummies and that of Nefertiti, whose likeness was sculpted in a limestone bust now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

Hawass said the theory could not be based on a resemblance between the mummy and artistic representations of the Amarna period in which Nefertiti lived.

"Art in the Amarna era was based on beautifying the king or queen and not on reality or actual features," he was quoted as saying.

Fletcher found other physical links, including the impression of a tight-fitting browband Nefertiti once wore, a double-pierced ear lobe and shaved head.

Nefertiti was one of only two of Egypt's royal women believed to have worn two earrings in each ear.

The tomb of Tutankhamen, a boy king who ruled Egypt in the 14th century BC, was discovered in 1922 in one of Egyptology's most famous finds. It was packed with artifacts that took almost 10 years to remove from the site. 

Wedding Boom Hits Baghdad, but No Divorces

Jun 12, 9:30 am ET 

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD  - The good news for Baghdad residents is that it is possible to get married legally once again, after a two-month hiatus during the U.S.-led war.

The bad news is that they can't get divorced.

Adhamiya civil court, the only functioning civil court in the Iraqi capital, began registering marriages again on May 22. Since then, chief judge Jamal al-Rawi has approved more than 800 marriage contracts.

Before the court system collapsed during the war that deposed leader Saddam Hussein, he processed around 20 a month.

Sitting behind a desk piled high with papers as young couples and their families crowded outside his office waiting to get their marriages approved, a weary Rawi said that he was working as fast as he could. But rebuilding the legal system will take a lot of time and effort, he said.

"All the other civil courts in Baghdad were looted or set ablaze," he said. "This is the only one left. Everybody who wants a marriage contract has to come here now. And there was a backlog of weddings because of the war. It has been very busy."

The court is so overwhelmed and under-resourced that the only service it currently provides is approving marriages. Rawi says he hopes to restart hearing divorce cases and settling family disputes later this month.

"Divorces can take a long time," he said. "It's fine if both parties agree, but usually there is a disagreement and they are quarrelling and there are all sorts of things to resolve. We can't handle that sort of thing at the moment."

In the gloomy corridor outside, families dressed in their best clothes wait their turn. Before the war, couples needed to bring proof of identity, but because many public records were destroyed in the anarchy that followed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, judges now accept a sworn statement instead.

One couple, Ali Khader, 31, and Shaima Hussein, 26, stood nervously in the corridor surrounded by relatives. Three manacled men staggered past, being dragged by Iraqi policemen to criminal court offices upstairs.

"We had to postpone it because of the war and all the problems in Iraq," Khader said. "But now we can get married, after waiting all this time."

Outside the courthouse, bespectacled 47-year-old Abdul Shaqer Said sits behind a makeshift desk with an ancient typewriter. A tattered umbrella shades him from the fierce sun. He makes a living typing legal statements.

"Business has been very good," he said. "So many people have been coming to get married. It's great." 

Mystery of Vanished Jumbo Jet 13-Jun-2003 Pierre Thomas writes in abcnews.com that U.S. intelligence has launched a secret search for a Boeing 727 passenger jet that mysteriously disappeared in Africa three weeks ago. "When an aircraft of this size has been missing for so long it does raise some questions as to where it is and what it's being used for," says Chris Yates, editor of Jane's Civil Aviation Security. "It's extraordinarily troubling that you can literally disappear off the face of the Earth once you are airborne and fly across a continent like Africa." The Boeing 727 is hard to miss: it's 153 feet long and weighs 191,000 pounds. The plane flew out of Angola on May 25, then disappeared. Since Angola does not require pilots to file flight plans, they don't know if it was bound for Burkina Faso, South Africa, Libya or Nigeria, or how many people were on board. The U.S. thinks the plane may have been stolen to run drugs or guns, or crashed for insurance money. It could resurface on the black market, refurbished and repainted. It could also be used as a 911-style flying missile. Former White House terrorism head Richard Clarke says, "An aircraft could be either stolen or hijacked overseas, fly to the U.S., on schedule, and it wouldn't be seen on FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] radar, if it didn't want to be seen, until the very last minute." 

Food Can Be as Addictive as Heroin 11-Jun-2003 If you're frustrated because you can't seem to stay away for certain foods, it may make you feel better to know that, according to Dr. Neal Barnard, "Certain foods-chocolates, cheeses, sugars, starches and meats-are capable of stimulating the same part of the brain that responds to alcohol, tobacco, even heroin. They unleash a chemical called dopamine, the brain's feel-good chemical, and that's why those foods are addictive." Lots of us are food junkies, and those of us who are hooked have withdrawal symptoms if we don't get our fix. "That's where the cravings come from," Barnard says. "People feel hooked on these foods." Some foods aren't only addictive- they actually stimulate your appetite, making you more hungry. When we mainline starches and sweets, they cause sugar to rush into the blood, making our energy level rise too quickly. Then it falls just as fast, so we feel like we need to eat something to bring it back up again. Some starches, like pasta, don't do this, however. "Eat it - it's not a bad starch," Barnard says. How to get that monkey off your back? Take a break from your substance abuse. "If you haven't had chocolate for three weeks, you won't crave it," Barnard says. "You'll break the cycle." Drug addicts and alcoholics have to stay away from their substances for life, but food addicts can still have their favorite stuff-occasionally. Barnard says, "You can have it once a week, and enjoy it without a care." 

Waiter Plotted Revenge Over Veggie Order?

Jun 11, 8:30 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - What happens when a waiter gets one complaint too many?

Police in Corona, California, say a waiter at a Sizzler restaurant there went to the home of a family who complained about his service and cooked up a special order on their lawn -- eggs, flour, maple syrup and toilet paper.

Jonathan Voeltner, 20, was arrested on Saturday, suspected of vandalism and contributing to the delinquency of minors -- his 17-year-old girlfriend and two younger brothers -- who helped him deliver the midnight snack, police said.

All four were released pending a July 24 court appearance. Sizzler has fired Voeltner, a corporate spokeswoman said.

Voeltner apparently became incensed on Friday evening when Darlene Keller complained to a manager that he refused to swap the potatoes that came with her meal for vegetables.

Keller subsequently got the cauliflower and broccoli she requested, while Voeltner laid plans for a special recipe of his own, said Corona police Sgt. Jerry Rodriguez.

"He had his girlfriend, a minor, follow the family home when they left the restaurant to get their address," Rodriguez said. "When he got off work she picked him up with his 17- and 10-year-old brothers."

The foursome went to a nearby grocery store and picked up the ingredients for their revenge recipe, Rodriguez said.

After throwing eggs against the house, festooning the trees with toilet paper and sprinkling the lawn with flour and maple syrup, they rang the doorbell several times at about 1 a.m. and waited to see Keller's reaction, Rodriguez said.

Upon seeing the mess, Keller called police, who arrived a short time later and arrested the girlfriend and younger boys. "The server came out of the bushes and (Keller) recognized him," Rodriguez said. "She said, 'That's my waiter!"'

Sizzler spokeswoman Susan Hernandez said the chain "deeply regrets" the incident and has offered the Kellers a free meal and a landscaper to repair any damage to their home. 

New Book Hails Glory of D.H. Rumsfeld, Poet

Jun 11, 8:26 am ET 

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES  - You might think that he's just Secretary of Defense, but Donald H. Rumsfeld is also a poet even though he doesn't know it.

In fact, says journalist, humorist and verse compiler Hart Seely, the man's poetry has been hidden -- embedded, if you will -- deep inside his numerous press briefings and it took round-the-clock perusals of Pentagon transcripts to liberate the poems, free the verses.

Seely says there's gold to be mined in Rumsfeld's words as in the poem "The Unknown," which takes pride of place in the just-published book he edited, "Pieces of Intelligence: the Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld" (Free Press):

"As we know,

"There are known knowns.

"There are things we know we know.

"We also know

"There are known unknowns.

"That is to say

"We know there are some things

"We do not know.

"But there are unknown unknowns

"The ones we don't know we know."

Seely, a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard who specializes in "the long stories in the paper that people never read," said he first realized that America did not know what it had in Rumsfeld during his rambling Iraqi war press briefings. NOT YOUR AVERAGE TALKER A lot of the Pentagon press corps just thought that the 70-year-old former Congressman was just a garrulous old codger and they would click off their pens at the moment when Seely started taking notes. In classic journalistic style, Seely realized that the circumlocutions and gerunds gone astray contained a folk wisdom worthy of a Spiro T. Agnew, Casey Stengel or even Yogi Berra, who once noted of a popular restaurant, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." Take for example this poem on a woman journalist that Seely titled "'Cheating woman" in a section in the tiny 118-page book called "Nine Poems for the Media":

"She said she had a question

"And she asked three

"I asked for an easy one

"And she gave me a tough three."

Seely said he even found a Rumsfeld poem that rhymed, which he titled "Flying, Too":

"Now that is not always true.

"Think of the B fifty-two.

"It's still flying just fine, thank you.

"And so am I ... thank you."

Seely said the book is all Rumsfeld's words and that he was helped in recognizing the value of Rumsfeld's "poems" by a book he collaborated on about a decade ago about a similar figure in public life, "O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto," the great Yankee shortstop and broadcaster.

In fact, when asked to name the poet that Rumsfeld most reminds him of, Seely says "Rizzuto," without missing a beat.

"If I did anything except use Rumsfeld's words, it would be cheating. As a result my eyes practically had a film on them because the Pentagon's transcripts don't have paragraph marks. I have driven roads that are shorter than some of these paragraphs; they're longer than a baby's leg," Seely said.

So far, the Secretary of Defense has had no comment.

But as he said in the poem "Gerbil":

"I feel like a gerbil

"I get on that thing

"And I run like hell."

Woody Allen Becomes Pitch Man for France

Jun 11, 8:19 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Film director Woody Allen, known for his fierce devotion to New York, is working as a pitch man for France, urging Americans to eat french fries, to French kiss and travel to the European nation.

In a French tourism promotion video, Allen, whose movies are enormously popular in France, says it is time to put behind them the animosity over France's opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which soured the long-standing relationship.

"Recently there has been a lot of controversy between the two countries, and I would hope that now the two countries could put all that behind them and start to build on what really has been a great, great friendship," he said in the video, called "Let's Fall in Love Again."

The tourism board is playing the video at lunches for travel journalists across America, hoping to boost the number of Americans traveling to France, down 15 percent in the first three months of 2003 compared to the same period one year ago.

American resentment of the French stand was reflected in many ways, with some calling for a boycott of French wine and cheese and some restaurants renaming french fries "freedom fries."

Allen, who has worked with the French tourist office before, said he doesn't want to refer to his french-fried potatoes as "freedom fries."

"And I don't have to 'freedom kiss' my wife when what I really want to do is French kiss her," Allen added. 

CDC: Use Smallpox Shot Against Monkeypox 1 hour, 43 minutes ago 

By DANIEL YEE, News Source Writer ATLANTA - The government recommended smallpox shots Wednesday for pet owners, health care workers and others who have may have been exposed to monkeypox, the exotic African disease that has spread from prairie dogs to people. The vaccine can prevent the disease up to two weeks after exposure to the virus. The recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) came the same day that the federal investigation of the monkeypox outbreak was expanded to eight more states, bringing the total to 15. This is the first outbreak of monkeypox in the Western Hemisphere, and CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the serious illness must be controlled. "We must do everything we can to protect persons who are exposed to monkeypox in the course of investigating or responding to the outbreak," she said. The CDC said anyone who has cared for or had close contact with infected people or animals should get smallpox vaccinations. The agency also warned veterinarians and doctors to be on the lookout for the symptoms, especially in owners of prairie dogs or exotic rodents from Africa. Monkeypox-infected prairie dogs distributed from Phil's Pocket Pets of Villa Park, Ill., may have been sold to numerous buyers in 15 states since April 15, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) emergency warning issued Wednesday. The states where possibly infected prairie dogs were being sought were Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and South Carolina. As of Wednesday, health officials had confirmed a total of nine human cases of the disease - four in Wisconsin, four in Indiana and one in Illinois. Fifty possible cases had been reported - 23 in Indiana, 20 in Wisconsin, six in Illinois and one in New Jersey, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said. No one has died of the disease. Monkeypox, which produces pus-filled blisters, fever, rash, chills and aches, is a milder relative of smallpox. It has a mortality rate of 1 percent to 10 percent in Africa, but U.S. officials believe better nutrition and medical treatment here probably will prevent deaths. Investigators are seeking people who have bought or swapped exotic pets distributed since April by Pocket Pets, where a shipment of prairie dogs is believed to have been infected by a Gambian giant rat imported from Africa. CDC investigators found that Phil's Pocket Pets sold some of the animals at three swap meets. Sales were made at Lee Watson's Reptile Show in Schaumburg, Ill., on April 20, May 3 and May 18; the Midwest Reptile Show in Indianapolis on April 27 and an unspecified date in May; and the All-Ohio Reptile Show in Columbus on April 19. A Wisconsin dealer also sold three prairie dogs from Pocket Pets at a swap meet in Wausau, Wis., in May, the USDA said. ___ On the Net: CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox 

Oldest Nearly Modern Human Skulls Found Wed Jun 11, 4:20 AM ET Add Science - 

By RICK CALLAHAN, News Source Writer Scientists have unearthed three 160,000-year-old human skulls in Ethiopia that are the oldest known and best-preserved fossils of modern humans' immediate predecessors. The nearly complete skulls of an adult male and a child and the partial skull of a second adult appear to represent a crucial stage of human evolution when the facial features of modern humans arose. Discovered in Ethiopia's fossil-rich Afar region, the skulls have clearly modern features - a prominent forehead, flattened face and reduced brow - that contrast with older humans' projecting, heavy-browed skulls. "They're not quite completely modern, but they're well on their way. They're close enough to call Homo sapiens," said Tim White, a University of California, Berkeley paleontologist who was co-leader of the international team that excavated and analyzed the skulls. Previously, the earliest fossils of Homo sapiens found in Africa had been dated to about 130,000 to 100,000 years, although they were less complete and sometimes poorly dated, White said. The new skulls, which were dated at between 160,000 and 154,000 years old, are described in two papers that appear in Thursday's issue of Nature. White and his colleagues assigned the new creatures to a subspecies of Homo sapiens they named Homo sapiens idaltu - idaltu meaning "elder" in the Afar language. Two other scientists not involved with the research said the skulls are an important find that fill a big gap in the African human fossil record, the period between about 100,000 and 300,000 years ago. They agreed with White that the skulls' age and appearance strongly support genetic evidence that modern humans arose in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago - and not at multiple locations in Europe, Africa and Asia as some researchers suggest. Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites), said the skulls, while still large and thick-boned, are undeniably modern. Unlike the heavy brows and projecting facial features of earlier humans, in the news skulls those features have retracted dramatically under the braincase and there is a prominent forehead. Potts said that while White and his colleagues conclude that the fossil skulls are likely those of ancestral subspecies of Homo sapiens, he believes they represent modern Homo sapiens. "My view of it is that these fossils have enough modern traits to be considered the earliest well-dated fossils of our species of modern Homo sapiens," he said. Potts said he would not be surprised if additional excavations in Africa push back the origins of modern humans to about 200,000 years - humans who would have then spread to Europe and Asia. G. Philip Rightmire, a paleoanthropologist at State University of New York at Binghamton, called the skulls a "spectacular" find. He said they provide the clearest fossil evidence to date for an African origin of modern humans, and strike another blow against the idea that modern humans had a "multiregional" origin both within and outside the African continent. "I think this pretty much serves as another nail in the coffin of multiregionalism," Rightmire said. A proponent of the multiregional theory disputed that conclusion, saying the paper ignores fossils of about the same age of nearly modern humans found in Europe, China and Indonesia. Milford Wolpoff, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, also said the skulls, while significant, shed little light on the origins of modern humans. "It tells us something about dates, it tells us something about features but it doesn't resolve the issue of where modern humans came from," he said. The skulls were found in a desolate area about 140 miles northeast of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, near the village of Herto. Skull fragments from a total of 10 individuals were unearthed, but conspicuously lacking were their jaws and any bones below the neck. White said two of the skulls appear to have been scraped clean of flesh, suggesting an ancient mortuary practice, or possibly cannibalism. Scattered across the same area were thousands of stone tools, including hand axes, along with the butchered bones of hippopotamus and antelope. White said the site, once the lush shoreline of a large lake, was probably a seasonal foraging ground for the humans. On the Net: Nature: http://www.nature.com University of California http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/hominid/ 

Egypt bans US blockbuster movie Matrix Reloaded 2 hours, 1 minute ago Add Entertainment - NEWS SOURCE 

CAIRO (NEWS SOURCE) - The Hollywhood science fiction hit movie Matrix Reloaded has been banned in Egypt for threatening to offend traditional religious views on the creation of humankind, the chief censor revealed. The director of artistic censorship, Madkur Thabet, said that "despite its excellent technical level, the film was banned because it deals with subjects like human existence and creation. "And these are questions linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in," Thabet added. "These questions have in the past provoked crises and tension." He said the decision was taken by a "committee of university professors and cinema experts." In addition, he said, "the film has too many scenes of violence at a time when we are trying to fight this phenomenon." The distributors of the movie have the right to appeal the ruling to a committee within the culture ministry. Egyptian censors banned the original Matrix in 1999, but the distribution company had obtained permission to show it after appealing it to the ministry commission. The sequel, starring Keanu Reeves (news), took 91.7 million dollars at the US and Canadian boxoffice -- the second-best weekend opening ever, box office trackers Exhibitor Relations said May 18. "The Matrix Reloaded," the second in a planned trilogy -- had the best opening of all time for an R-rated film, the label given to movies not recommended for children under 17. The film is a dark fantasy, which retains the mix of pseudo eastern philosophy and Western mythology, spectacular fight scenes and lavish special effects that made the 1999 original such a hit. Reeves, who plays the series' Kung fu kicking, shades-wearing hero, Neo, is back as part of the band of rebels who battle intelligent machines in a future in which humans are enslaved within the Matrix -- a virtual reality that looks very much like Los Angeles today. It was released by the US studio Warner Bros. 

SARS Lives 3 Days on Surfaces 01-Jun-2003 The reason SARS passes so easily from one person to another has been discovered: the SARS virus can live for as long as 3 days on walls, glass, plastic, stainless steel and other common household and hospital surfaces. WHO spokesman Iain Simpson says, "It is very difficult to give it a specific length of time because it varies from surface to surface and even place to place." Most viruses do not last nearly that long on exposed surfaces. This means that if a family member gets SARS, everyone who comes to the house will be likely to get it unless all surfaces are carefully sterilized. Also, when the SARS virus is deposited on surfaces in hospitals, it has plenty of time to be picked up spread around, unless everything that comes in contact with SARS patients is thoroughly disinfected. "The worry is...so-called 'invisible cases'," says doctor Sydney Chung in Hong Kong. "The elderly people sometimes can have SARS and show no typical symptoms, not even fever. Those are dangerous situations." 

Spam E-Mail Is Reaching Most Children, Study Says Mon Jun 9, 8:51 AM ET Add Technology - Internet Report 

SEATTLE  - Four out of every five children receive inappropriate spam e-mail touting get-rich-quick schemes, loan programs and pornographic materials, according to a study released on Monday by Internet security provider Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) A majority of 1,000 children ages 7 to 18 interviewed for the survey said they felt "uncomfortable and offended when seeing improper e-mail content." "Parents need to educate their children about the dangers of spam and how they can avoid being exposed to offensive content or becoming innocent victims of online fraud," said Steve Cullen, Symantec's senior vice president for consumer products. One in five children opened and read spam, the study found, and more than half of the them checked e-mail without parental oversight. Among the other findings in the survey: -- 80 percent of the respondents said they are bombarded by sweepstakes messages. -- 62 percent received spam touting dating services. -- 47 percent received e-mails with links to pornographic Web sites. -- 34 percent have felt uncomfortable receiving spam. Symantec commissioned Applied Research, a market research firm, to conduct the study. 

U.S. Warns Banks of Virus-Like Infection 
Mon Jun 9, 7:38 PM ET

By TED BRIDIS, News Source Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON - The government is warning financial institutions about a virus-like infection that has targeted computers at roughly 1,200 banks worldwide, trying to steal corporate passwords. 

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Today: Digital Music
Is it time to pay for digital downloads? Get your exclusive guide to finding the right songs, at a price that's music to the ears.

The FBI (news - web sites) is investigating what private security experts believe to be the first Internet attack aimed primarily at a single economic sector. 

Virus experts studying the blueprints for the latest threat to Internet users were astonished to find inside the software code a list of roughly 1,200 Web addresses for many of the world's largest financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., American Express Co., Wachovia Corp., Bank of America Corp. and Citibank N.A. 

The destructive infection, known as "BugBear.B," has spread to tens of thousands of consumer computers across the Internet since last week, but investigators and industry experts said they were unaware if any financial institutions had been significantly affected. 

Industry executives told Treasury Department (news - web sites) officials and other banking regulators during a meeting Monday in Washington that while they were concerned that the infection targeted them, they were unaffected because of tight corporate security. 

The infection "was hammering the outside servers but it was being rejected," said Suzanne Gorman, head of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a bank cybersecurity organization that works with the government. "People weren't reporting that it got through to their personal organizations." 

The analysis center distributed information from the Homeland Security Department to the nation's banks using its highest-priority alert on Thursday, Gorman said. The discovery of the banking Web addresses inside the software code "raised a lot of eyebrows," she said. 

FBI spokesman Bill Murray confirmed the agency was trying to trace the author of the attacking software. 

Experts said the BugBear software was programmed to determine whether a victim used an e-mail address that belonged to any of the 1,300 financial institutions listed in its blueprints. 

If a match was made, it tried to steal passwords and other information that would make it easier for hackers to break into a bank's networks. 

The software transmitted stolen passwords to 10 e-mail addresses, which also were included in the blueprints. But experts said that on the Internet, where anyone can easily open a free e-mail account using a false name, knowing those addresses might not lead detectives to the culprit. 

"Depending on how those e-mail boxes are used, it could make investigating this a little easier," Murray said. "But it's not that easy. Those addresses may be blind boxes." 

So, Wait -- I Didn't Get the Job?

Jun 10, 12:10 pm ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - A note to all job seekers: you know that your employment interview did not go well when your prospective boss calls the police in to arrest you.

Anthony Kaleb Phillips, 20, was hauled away from an interview for a job with a construction company in Stillwater, Oklahoma last week after employees recognized the job applicant as the person seen on a surveillance videotape robbing the same business just one day before, police said on Monday.

Phillips is expected to be arraigned this week on burglary charges for stealing a $100 tool from the construction company and about $1,000 worth of items from an employee's car parked at the office, court officials said.

"When he went out there to apply for the job, there was no one there. So he just helped himself to some items and left," said Payne County Undersheriff Kenneth Willerton. "However, he was caught on videotape."

A day after the robbery, Phillips applied for a job with the construction company, and was arrested. Needless to say, he didn't get the job. 

Hanged Man Cleared of Murder, 53 Years Too Late

Jun 10, 11:10 am ET 

LONDON  - A British man who was hanged for murder had his conviction quashed Tuesday, 53 years too late.

George Kelly was executed in 1950 for the murder of cinema manager Leonard Thomas during a robbery in Liverpool the previous year.

Kelly's family claimed vital material was not disclosed to his defense lawyers during the trial. This included a statement to police by a prosecution witness who said another man had confessed to the crime.

Tuesday, three of Britain's top judges ruled Kelly's conviction was "unsafe."

Kelly was 27 at the time of his hanging. Britain abolished the death penalty 15 years later in 1965. 

No Buyers for Marcos Home at Philippine Auction

Jun 10, 10:59 am ET 

MANILA  - A sprawling hillside estate of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was declared forfeited to Manila's cash-starved government Tuesday after no one turned up to buy it at a state auction.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been hoping to use proceeds from the sale of the ancestral Marcos home in the Manila suburb of San Juan and five adjoining parcels of land to alleviate a staggering budget deficit expected to hit 202 billion pesos ($3.78 billion) this year.

But except for a balding man dressed in a crumpled pink shirt and smudgy cowboy boots, no one showed interest in the six pieces of real estate worth a total of 175.3 million pesos.

The government had taken temporary custody of the property and was auctioning it on behalf of taxpayers in the hope of at least partially recovering due estate taxes, officials said.

The failed auction coincided with efforts by die-hard Marcos supporters to rehabilitate the name of the former president, who died in exile after allegedly amassing hundreds of millions of dollars during his 20-year rule.

Some lawmakers have filed a bill in Congress proposing to declare September 11 -- Marcos's birthday -- a holiday.

Marcos' daughter, Imee, a House of Representatives member, is also talked of as a senatorial candidate in 2004 elections.

At the auction, the boots-shod man protested that the floor price was too high and said the winning bidder might even face lawsuits from the Marcos family.

Lugging a backpack, he stalked out of the session, throwing his unfilled bid form to the ground.

"We are now declaring this bidding a failure," Bureau of Internal Revenue lawyer Efren Martinez said. "The property will now be declared forfeited in favor of the government."

The revenue agency had previously taken custody of the assets for them to be auctioned as partial payment of 43.3 billion pesos in estate taxes which it said the Marcoses owed the government.

Marcos was ousted in "people power" revolt in 1986 and died three years later in exile in Hawaii.

State prosecutors have filed hundreds of cases against the Marcoses and their business associates over their alleged ill-gained wealth. Many of the cases were later dismissed but others remain pending in courts, bogged in technicalities.

$1-53.4 pesos 

Humans Almost Became Extinct 10-Jun-2003 We almost went the way of the dinosaur. Humans came close to extinction 70,000 years ago, when genetic research shows that there were only about 2,000 of us alive. Just one major disease or environmental disaster (like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs), and we wouldn't be here today. Unlike chimps, who are our closest relatives, all human DNA is almost identical. We split off the family tree 5 or 6 million years ago, which is plenty of time for lots of genetic differences to turn up. The fact that we're all so alike means that in the recent past, there weren't many of us around. Everyone on Earth today came from that tiny, struggling population. 

The Pew Oceans Commission, made up of 18 scientists, says the U.S. has a "frontier mentality" when it comes to our oceans, which includes ignorance, neglect and short-term planning (sounds like the way the government handles everything else as well). We know from Linda Howe's recent Dreamland report that big fish are being fished to extinction, all over the world, but this is just one of the problems. Commission chairman Leon Panetta says we "have reached a crossroads" because of overfishing, coastal development, pollution, nutrient runoff, and the ability of alien species to establish themselves off U.S. coasts. More than 175 alien invaders live in San Francisco Bay alone, killing off the native fish there, and almost a million farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped into the wild since 1988. These fish are often genetically-modified to grow quickly, and they're killing off the native fish. Another major danger has to do with climate change. Warmer oceans bleach and kill coral and rising sea levels damage wetlands. We've passed "a hodgepodge of narrow laws on a crisis-by- crisis...basis...," according to the commission. "Every eight months, nearly 11 million gallons of oil run off our streets and driveways into our waters-the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez oil spill." 

Saudi's Powerful Morality Police in Firing Line

Jun 10, 11:01 am ET 

By John R. Bradley

JEDDAH  - They prowl the streets and shopping malls, hunting down women who don't shroud themselves and Muslim men who ignore the call to prayer.

Saudi Arabia's pervasive and powerful morality police have been a pillar of the ultra-conservative kingdom since its foundation.

Answerable only to King Fahd and separate from ordinary police, members of the "Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" patrol with police escorts, ensuring that their strict interpretation of Islamic social customs remain the norm among a youthful, Westernized population with wide access to the internet and satellite TV.

They check that women wear the abaya, the all-enveloping black cloak, that men and women together in public are related, that drugs and alcohol are not being traded and that Muslims do not observe "frivolous" customs such as Valentine's Day.

Their Web Site invites citizens to inform on those suspected of any manner of immoral behavior.

The role of the morality police has come under unprecedented scrutiny in Saudi Arabia, which has been accused in the West of breeding Islamic radicalism which in turn creates more recruits for Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.

The influence of the morality police varies throughout Saudi Arabia and is strongest in the central Riyadh area, a bastion of the kingdom's unique, strict Muslim creed known as "Wahhabism."

The austere brand of Islam, and its ramifications on all aspects of Saudi society, was thrust in the international spotlight after the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

Most of the men blamed for the attacks were Saudis linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

U.S. officials accused the Saudi education system of breeding "terrorists," but this appeared to have been largely ignored by the authorities until suspected al Qaeda militants struck in the heart of Riyadh on May 12 with devastating suicide attacks on expatriate housing compounds.

The bombings, the first indiscriminate attack against civilians in the kingdom, caused much soul-searching among ordinary Saudis and their rulers, who admitted publicly they have a serious problem.

Some Saudis say that the religious police -- known as the "mutawaeen" or "enforcers" -- are the core of this problem.

Saudis say the mutawaeen, with their trademark beards and loose-fitting red headscarves, are on the lookout for people using the latest mobile phones with cameras, lest they use them for flirting and to identify possible suitors.

REFORM HOPES

Last month, dozens of Saudis approached the mass circulation, reformist daily al-Watan newspaper with tales of being mistreated by the mutawaeen.

One woman from a remote southern town wrote to say that she had been beaten and held in solitary confinement for riding alone in the back of a taxi. A distraught man went to the paper's Riyadh bureau saying he would commit suicide if they did not run his story of being detained incommunicado detention.

"The whole thing was started by the religious police when they arrested one of our reporters, insulted him and even cut his hair," said Jamal Khashoggi, a former editor who was sacked after a senior Islamic scholar called for a mass boycott of the paper as a result of the stories.

Other, more conservative papers criticized the mutawaeen last year after they prevented men from rescuing girls in a burning school because they were not relatives.

Fourteen girls died in the blaze and dozens were injured.

The rare public discussion about the mutawaeen comes amid much anticipation of reform in the kingdom, ruled largely by royal decree with an unelected parliament.

Businessmen and well-known Saudis in January petitioned the royal court asking for elections, more rights for women and equality among the country's diverse social groups.

There has been growing domestic and foreign criticism that giving religious leaders a free hand to act, preach, and police society fosters the kind of fanaticism and intolerance which encourages young Saudi men to become suicide attackers.

Religious figures are concerned that pressure is mounting to crowd them out of public life.

A statement issued by prominent clerics has said "extremist writers" are using the Riyadh blasts to attack the religious establishment.

And in a recent interview Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, the kingdom's top religious authority, rejected calls to dismantle the morality police.

Anthropologist Saad Sowayan said the Saudi royal family would never scrap the morality squad because it bolsters their own rule, which has involved decades of absolute power.

But he added that the authorities could use the mutawaeen to advance reforms, as King Faisal did in the 1970s to push education for women and the spread of television.

"The government should choose people among the mutawaeen to justify reforms today. People will accept anything more readily if it is framed in a religious discourse," he explained. 

Wis. Family Quarantined for Monkeypox 
30 minutes ago

By ROBERT IMRIE, News Source Writer 

WAUSAU, Wis. - When a young family of three brought home two $95 prairie dogs from a Mother's Day event, they never guessed the furry little additions to their five-acre hobby farm could confine them to their home. 

The News Source 

Slideshow: Monkeypox

But that's just where Tammy Kautzer is biding her time with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, quarantined after suffering a bout with suspected monkeypox linked to the burrowing rodents. 

"They said we can't leave until the scabs fall off the sores," said Kautzer, 28, of nearby Dorchester in central Wisconsin. "I only have a few more scabs to fall off. My daughter's are gone." 

Health officials were working to contain the spread of the monkeypox virus, which is related to smallpox and apparently never before found in the Western Hemisphere. 

The disease in humans is not usually fatal but causes rashes, fevers, chills and sores. 

In all, 33 cases of monkeypox are either suspected or have been confirmed in three Midwest states. In Wisconsin, 16 cases are suspected and three were confirmed; health officials have not identified who the confirmed cases are. 

Thirteen cases are suspected in Indiana. And in Illinois, there are four suspected and one confirmed case. 

Investigators say a shipment of prairie dogs likely was infected with the virus by a giant Gambian rat, which is indigenous to Africa, at a Chicago-area pet distributor, Phil's Pocket Pets. Federal and state health officials were trying to track down 115 customers - both individuals and pet stores - that bought animals since April 15 from the business. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) could not say how many people or animals may have come in contact with the virus. 

The distributor, Phillip Moberley, said Monday that he voluntarily quarantined his home-based business and has destroyed 70 prairie dogs. A 24-year-old employee of Moberley's was Illinois' confirmed monkeypox case. 

In Wisconsin, state officials had accounted for two-thirds of the 30 prairie dogs shipped to the state and issued two more quarantines barring people from moving mammals on their property to help stem the spread. Health officials also issued an emergency order banning the sale, importation and display of prairie dogs. 

Eileen Whitmarsh, who fell ill after handling an infected prairie dog at her suburban Milwaukee pet store, said at first one of the animals just seemed fatigued. But then the symptoms spread to another prairie dog in the store. 

"Nobody knew. Everybody thought, 'Oh, just a prairie dog not feeling well,'" Whitmarsh said. 

Kautzer said she bought her two 6- to 8-week-old prairie dogs at a Mother's Day event in Wausau for $95 apiece. Two days later, the eyes of one crusted over and swelled up. 

"I figured it had a cold," she said Monday in a telephone interview from her home. By then, she said, the animal had bitten her daughter on the finger. 

Kautzer eventually took the animal to a veterinarian, who diagnosed a swollen lymph node. Then her daughter began running a 103-degree fever - and the prairie dog died May 20. 

"I just threw it in the garbage. I didn't think nothing of it," Kautzer said. 

In  Overcoming Depression 
------------------------------------------------------------------------ More from : � Check your symptoms

� How is it diagnosed?

� New treatments

That day, she took her daughter to a doctor and mentioned the bite. "That started a scare, especially since they found it had died," she said. 

Health professionals had her retrieve the animal's body for testing. 

By May 22, her daughter was admitted to a hospital; the child began feeling better by the fourth day. The quarantine of the Kautzer home and five-acre hobby farm was ordered last Friday. 

The second prairie dog - named Chuckles - also got sick but is recovering and is being kept in a pet carrier, she said. Health officials will decide his fate. 

"Why get rid of it because it caught something like we caught something? It is not its fault that it caught it from a rat," Kautzer said. 

Ancient Batteries Could be Lost in War 27-Feb-2003 Archeologists are worried that the extraordinary ancient relicts of Iraq may be injured or destroyed during the upcoming war. Iraq is supposed to be the site of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel, and its early civilizations invented writing and the wheel. It's also the home of ancient batteries, which are in the museum of Baghdad. German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig found the first battery in 1938. It's a five-inch-long clay jar containing a copper cylinder surrounding an iron rod. The vessel showed signs of corrosion, and tests revealed that vinegar or wine had been used in it. Konig decided it must have been used as a battery. About a dozen of the batteries have been unearthed so far. "The batteries have always attracted interest as curios," says Paul Craddock, of the British Museum. "As far as we know, nobody else has found anything like these." The batteries are dated to around 200 BC, which means they were made by the Parthians, who were skilled warriors but not known for scientific achievements. "Although this collection of objects is usually dated as Parthian, the grounds for this are unclear," says St. John Simpson, who also works at the British Museum. "The pot itself is Sassanian. This discrepancy presumably lies either in a misidentification of the age of the ceramic vessel, or the site at which they were found." The Sassanian period (225-640 AD) marks the end of the ancient and the beginning of the more scientific medieval era. It's known that the batteries work, because Professor Marjorie Senechal has created replicas that conduct an electric current. "I don't think anyone can say for sure what they were used for, but they may have been batteries because they do work," she says. They can produce 0.8 to almost two volts. If the batteries were connected by wires, they could have produced higher voltages. "It's a pity we have not found any wires," says Craddock. "It means our interpretation of them could be completely wrong." Some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics seem to contain images of batteries, and primitive batteries may be lying in museums misidentified, especially if some of the parts are missing. The low voltage put out by these batteries couldn't have driven machines, but they might have been used in medicine. The ancient Greeks wrote about the pain killing effect of electric eels. The Chinese had developed acupuncture by this time, and they still use acupuncture combined with an electric current. This may explain the needle-like objects that have been found with some of the batteries. Other scientists believe the batteries were used for electroplating jewelry or money. Arne Eggebrecht connected many replica batteries together using grape juice as an electrolyte, and deposited a thin layer of silver on another surface. However, no electroplated items dating from that period have been excavated from that part of Iraq. Connected batteries may have been hidden inside a metal statue or idol, so that anyone touching it would get a tiny shock and experience the god's "power." Craddock says, "I have always suspected you would get tricks done in the temple." 

The Right Oil Helps Men Lose Weight 08-Jun-2003 We've been warned that supersaturated tropical oils, like palm oil and coconut oil, are bad for the heart. These are often used in manufactured baked goods, because they keep them fresh and moist longer. Now a new cooking oil has been developed containing these "dangerous" oils, plus some olive oil and flaxseed oil, which helped men lose a pound a month, without dieting. But it doesn't seem to work for women. Over a 27-day period, overweight male volunteers substituted the special oil for regular cooking oil, without changing their diets, and lost an average of one pound. However, women didn't lose any weight using the special oil. The Canadian researchers who developed the oil say it goes straight to the liver and is burned up there, without adding any fat to the body. Most oils contain fats called "long chain triglycerides," but the new oil blend contains fats called "medium chain triglycerides." Despite earlier warnings, the oil might actually lower cholesterol by as much as 13%. Canadian researcher Peter Jones says, "After consuming the oil over a year, a man could lose one pound per month or 12 pounds per year." Men may not have to diet to lose their beer bellies, as long as they cook everything in the right kind of oil. Could all the things the medical establishment has been telling us about unsaturated oils be wrong? 

Global Warming Makes the Earth Greener 08-Jun-2003 Global Warming has made the Earth greener over the past 18 years, as plants get more heat, light, water and carbon dioxide. This means that while global warming is destructive for some parts of the world-causing floods, droughts or heat waves-it may be beneficial for others. Not every place has become greener: about 7% percent of the Earth had lower plant growth. "The biggest winners seem to be India, Brazil and Canada," says researcher Ramakrishna Nemani. "Losers are parts of Mexico and northern Siberia. The most surprising result is that of the Amazon." The Amazon rain forest had more than 40% increased plant growth, since the reduced cloud cover let in more sunlight. Researcher Ranga Myneni says,"[Plant] productivity may have increased 6% in the last 18 years, but human population has increased by over 35% over that same time. These...changes have not improved global habitability in any significant way." We know there's been global warming in the past, and it would help us cope with the future if we could learn more about this. Scientists are now looking for 5,000-year-old Sumerian tablets in Iraq that may tell us about weather patterns in the ancient past. Experts say they're "the longest single, largely-unbroken climate record known on earth." U.K. Foreign Minister Bill Rammell says, "Foreign Office officials have spoken to Professor Richard Grove at the University of Sussex who is a leading expert on these issues. He has explained that these tablets date back to 2900 BC and are thought to be the oldest scripts in the world. He has said that these tablets contain important data on climatic events of the time and are of huge importance to developing our understanding of climate change today and that it was vital efforts were made to find and secure these treasures." 

Evidence of Ancient Cuban Civilization 08-Jun-2003 Paranormalnews.com has translated a story from the Juventud Rebelde newspaper in Cuba about ancient stone tools that have been unearthed there. They could be relicts from the culture that built the pyramids that are now sunken off the coast of Cuba. A group of amateur archeologists found stone tools that are exceptionally large and include large axes, cutting tools, arrow heads and enormous spears. Cuban scientists think they date from the Paleolithic age of the first human populations. Previously, based on earlier archeological finds, Cuba was thought to have first been inhabited 10,000 years ago. Researcher Ramiro Ram�rez Garc�a says they were made by a culture that hasn't been studied in Cuba before, "from a time period I wouldn't dare to calculate, since it would tear down established theories and hypotheses not only about the occupation of Cuba, but of the Americas." Another archeological site has also been found, containing 2,000-year-old human burials, with red-tinted skulls that indicate a belief in magic and religion. Experience shows us that it's wise never to underestimate the achievements of our ancient ancestors. Translation (C) 2003 by Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU), with special thanks to Virgilio Sanchez Ocejo, of the Miami UFO Center. 

Counting Critters 05-Jun-2003 It's been discovered that salamanders can count and dogs can do calculus. When salamanders have a choice between tubes containing two fruit flies or three, they always go for the tube of three. And dogs always figure out the most efficient route to take when catching a ball. However, the mathematical abilities of salamanders are limited, according to researcher Claudia Uller, who says they "failed in the same way that babies and monkeys do" when confronted by more than three objects. Primates do a little better-they can tell the greater of two quantities, as long as it's smaller than four, without any training. "There is a limit on the number of objects that can be tracked at one time," says brain researcher Alan Leslie, because the part of their brains that focus attention can't deal with more than four objects. Math professor Tim Pennings has a Welsh Corgi named Elvis who can do calculus. Pennings was teaching a calculus class where he drew diagrams on a blackboard showing Tarzan getting stuck in quicksand and Jane trying to find the best way to rescue him. He said, "So Tarzan is in the quicksand, and Jane is across the river and down the bank a ways, and she's got to get to him as quickly as possible. She can run at a certain speed, and she can swim at a certain speed, which is obviously slower than when she runs, and the question is, what's her best strategy for getting to Tarzan in the quickest amount of time?" This is a basic problem in calculus, which is used to find the quickest route from point A to point B. The shortest route is not always the quickest. It would take longer for Jane to jump in the river and swim straight to Tarzan than it would for her to run part of the way to a point closer to Tarzan and then jump in the river and swim across. Later that day, Pennings tossed a ball to Elvis at the beach and noticed that he didn't swim straight out to get it, but ran down the beach first. He says, "I thought, man, that's exactly what I drew on the board. He's doing the very same thing." The next day, Pennings took one of his students to the beach with Elvis, and together they calculated the routes he took when he chased a ball. Back in the math lab, they plotted his routes on a graph and "it turns out that all the choices he made were right in line, or very close, to the optimal choice," Pennings says. The dog was doing calculus. Elvis is now on a lecture tour with Pennings, helping to explain math to students. 

Dolphins Dying in California 04-Jun-2003 We've learned that dolphin DNA is closer to humans than cows, horses or pigs, despite the fact that they live in the water. Now it's been discovered that record numbers of these friendly relatives, along with sea lions, are being killed by a deadly toxin from sea algae that grows in the waters along California's southern coast. The poison is domoic acid, a nerve toxin made by a species of microscopic algae. Scientists think there's so much more of this algae around because it's feeding on nutrients from agricultural runoff or sewage. Changing weather patterns, causing warmer ocean waters, could also cause the algae to thrive. Since April, five dolphins and 148 California sea lions have been found stranded on beaches from Santa Barbara through Orange County. All of the dolphins died, but many of the sea lions, mostly pregnant females, are being treated at marine mammal rehabilitation centers. Pelicans, grebes and loons have also been affected. Domoic acid has also been found in mussels, oysters, sardines, and anchovies from Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Since it can also cause human illness or death, the California Department of Health Services warns people not to harvest their own shellfish between May 1 and Oct. 31. 

U.S. Probes 33 Suspected Monkeypox Cases 
1 hour, 56 minutes ago 


By NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON, News Source Writer 

CHICAGO - Federal health officials investigating an outbreak of monkeypox that apparently spread from pet prairie dogs to people in three Midwestern states said Monday the number of possible cases has risen to at least 33. 

The News Source 

Slideshow: Monkeypox

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) reported four confirmed human cases Monday of monkeypox, a smallpox-related virus that has never before appeared in the Western Hemisphere. Seven people have been hospitalized; no one has died. 

Steve Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, said he expects the numbers to rise as human and animal samples are tested. 

But Ostroff said that only people who had direct contact with infected prairie dogs, or in one case a rabbit, have come down with the illness. 

"For the average citizen, I would not necessarily be concerned at this point of being exposed to monkeypox," he said. 

State health officials have reported 18 suspected cases in Wisconsin, 10 in Indiana and five in Illinois. 

There have been no instances in this outbreak of the virus being spread from person to person, though that has happened in Africa in the past. 

Investigators said the prairie dogs were probably infected with the virus by a giant Gambian rat, which is native to Africa, at a Chicago-area pet distributor. 

The Illinois Department of Agriculture, along with state and federal health officials, is trying to track down 115 customers - both individuals and pet stores - that bought exotic animals from Phil's Pocket Pets since April 15. 

The distributor, Phillip Moberley, said Monday that he voluntarily quarantined his home-based business and put to death 70 prairie dogs. 

Monkeypox in humans is not usually fatal but causes rashes, fevers and chills. Doctors initially feared they might be facing smallpox, which causes similar symptoms. 

Two patients at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee were reported in satisfactory condition Sunday. The two were isolated, and doctors treating them wore caps, gowns and masks. Other suspected victims were treated and released. 

The human mortality rate from monkeypox in Africa has ranged from 1 percent to 10 percent, but the virus may be less lethal in the United States because people are typically better nourished and medical technology is far more advanced. 

Health officials are trying to contain the virus by preventing more animals from becoming infected. 

Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture warned people not to release prairie dogs into the wild. The agency also told state humane societies to isolate any prairie dogs people bring in. 

Both Wisconsin and Illinois have banned the sale, importation and display of prairie dogs. The Illinois ban also covers Gambian rats. 

The popularity of prairie dogs as pets has grown in recent years. Last year 10,000 prairie dogs were shipped out of Texas to become pets, said David Crawford, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Animal Defense. 

Police Rescue Pre-School from Rubber Spider

Jun 9, 9:37 am ET 

BERLIN  - Trembling teachers at a German pre-school called in police to confront a giant spider crawling in a sandbox but it turned out to be a rubber toy, police in the western town of Heilbronn said Sunday.

"They were all highly agitated and trembling with fear," a police spokesman said. Two officers closed off the sandbox and surrounded the "spider" before discovering it was just an imitation toy. 

Canada's 'Beautiful Mind' Wins Fight to Shun Drugs

Jun 8, 9:04 am ET 

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA  - A mentally ill Canadian genius, incarcerated for making death threats, won the right to refuse anti-psychotic drugs that he said would dull his mind and his passion for physics. In a case reminiscent of the movie "A Beautiful Mind," the Supreme Court of Canada ruled, 6-3, on Friday that a medical review board had wrongly concluded Scott Starson could be given medication against his will to curb a number of severe mental ailments.

"The enforced injection of mind-altering drugs against the respondent's will is highly offensive to his dignity and autonomy and is to be avoided unless it is demonstrated that he lacked the capacity to make his own decision," the court said.

Although Starson, 47, has no formal scientific training, he is the author of papers on topics such as anti-gravity. His thinking was termed "10 years ahead of its time" by a professor at Stanford University in California.

But since 1985 he has shown increasing signs of mental illness and delusion. In 1998 he was found not criminally responsible of uttering death threats and a court ordered he be detained in a maximum security mental institution in Ontario.

In various media interviews over the years Starson has claimed to be married to U.S. comedienne Joan Rivers and said that Pope John Paul works for him.

Doctors at the Ontario hospital wanted to treat him with mood stabilizers, anti-psychotic drugs, anti-anxiety drugs and medication to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Starson refused, saying his previous encounters with such medications "have always been the most horrible experiences of my life" because they fogged his brain.

"(Normalizing medication) would be worse than death for me because I have always considered normal to be a term so boring it would be like death," he told a hearing into his case.

The case echoes that of schizophrenic U.S. mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Nash, who was forcibly given medication after suffering a breakdown. His story was told in the 2001 Hollywood film "A Beautiful Mind."

The Ontario review board ruled Starson could be forcibly given the drugs because he was incapable of making up his own mind. Two lower courts backed the patient's right to refuse but his doctors appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.

The top court ruled that while Starson acknowledged he was mentally ill and knew medication could improve his condition, he was within his rights to refuse medication.

"His choice, which he was entitled to make, was to remain as he was and to continue psychiatric therapy, in spite of his condition and the hope of others. I would dismiss the appeal," said Justice John Major, writing for the majority.

Starson has already made it clear he wants to stay in psychiatric hospital to allow his condition to be treated. 

A Tax on Fatty Foods?

Jun 9, 9:38 am ET 

By Corinne Amoo

LONDON  - Hamburgers, soft drinks and cakes could be hit with a "fat-tax" in a bid to combat Britain's growing levels of obesity, doctors said Monday.

The British Medical Association is proposing a 17.5 percent VAT on high-fat foods like biscuits and processed meats to solve obesity-related problems, which cost the NHS roughly 500 million pounds ($825 million) a year.

"There is an epidemic of obesity in the UK," said BMA spokesman Dr Martin Breach. "You are what you eat and if that is the case the British public have a huge problem."

"Charging VAT on saturated foods found in processed meat products like sausages, pies and pastries, butter and cream, may help save some lives."

According to government statistics, one in five men and one in four women is obese. Obesity is a serious risk factor for heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, muscle and respiratory problems and certain types of cancer.

A levy on fatty foods would be widely perceived as a regressive tax because people on lower incomes tend to eat proportionally larger quantities of cheap, high-fat food.

"We need to educate people about the benefits of eating healthy foods and make them more responsible for their health," said Belinda Linden, Head of Medical Information at the British Heart Foundation.

"We also have to be sure that a fat tax does not just end up penalizing the poor without actually changing eating habits."

But Breach said the tax would hit food manufacturers hard and have little effect on the poor.

"A fat-tax will remove food manufacturers' incentive to pump food full of fat. Instead they will fill processed foods with healthier ingredients and better selections of meat," he said.

"Fat is a cheap by-product of the meat processing industry -- they have mountains of the stuff and are desperate to use it, so they use it as cheap padding in foodstuffs," he added.

More than a billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, according to World Health Organization. Roughly 17.6 million are overweight children under five. 

Three States Battling Monkeypox Outbreak 
2 hours, 25 minutes ago 


By TODD RICHMOND, News Source Writer 

MADISON, Wis. - A virus similar to smallpox apparently jumped from pet prairie dogs to at least four people - possibly dozens - in the disease's first appearance in the Western Hemisphere. 

Four Wisconsin residents have confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus and 14 others have suspected cases, said Milwaukee health commissioner Dr. Seth Foldy. At least 10 more cases are suspected in Indiana, officials confirmed Monday. Illinois has three suspected cases. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said Saturday the prairie dogs likely were infected with the virus by a giant Gambian rat, which is indigenous to Africa, at a Chicago-area pet distributor. 

The four people confirmed with the virus contracted it by close contact with prairie dogs, Wisconsin officials said. Thirteen of the people suspected of having the virus in Wisconsin had been around prairie dogs and the other apparently contracted it while handling a sick rabbit that had been near a prairie dog. Foldy said it doesn't appear anyone contracted the virus from another person. 

Monkeypox in humans is not usually fatal, but causes rashes, fevers and chills. Doctors initially feared they might be facing smallpox, which causes similar symptoms, but scientists quickly eliminated that possibility after discovering the link between people and prairie dogs. Monkeypox's incubation period is about 12 days. 

Two patients at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee were in satisfactory condition Sunday, hospital spokesman Mark McLaughlin said. The two were isolated and doctors treating them wore caps, gowns and masks. Other suspected victims were treated and released. 

Health officials are trying to contain the virus by preventing more animals from becoming infected. 

Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection warned people not to release prairie dogs into the wild, agency spokeswoman Donna Gilson said. Prairie dogs are burrowing herbivores indigenous to the West and Southwest, not to Wisconsin. The agency also told state humane societies to isolate any prairie dogs people bring in. 

The human mortality rate from monkeypox in Africa has ranged from one to 10 percent, but Foldy said the virus may be less lethal in the United States because people are typically better nourished and medical technology is far more advanced. 

The prairie dogs were sold by a Milwaukee animal distributor in May to two pet shops in the Milwaukee area and during a pet "swap meet" in northern Wisconsin, the CDC said. 

Both Wisconsin and Illinois have banned the sale, importation and display of prairie dogs. The Illinois ban also covers Gambian rats. 

The Illinois Department of Agriculture prohibited Phil's Pocket Pets, the pet distributor in Villa Park, Ill., where the prairie dogs may have been infected, from selling animals until the animals' health is verified. 

The owner of Phil's has given Illinois officials a list of all who bought prairie dogs, Gambian rats or other exotic animals since April 15, the Illinois Department of Public Health (news - web sites) said. No telephone listing could be found for the store Sunday. 

The popularity of prairie dogs as pets has grown in recent years. Last year 10,000 prairie dogs were shipped out of Texas to become pets, said David Crawford, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, a nonprofit organization that advocates for animal freedom. 

Tammy Kautzer's Dorchester farm in central Wisconsin has been quarantined because she purchased two prairie dogs at the Wausau swap meet. Less than two weeks later, her 3-year-old daughter, Schyan, was bitten by one of the animals and spent seven days in the hospital with a 103-degree fever, swollen eyes and red bumps on her skin. 

"It was getting a little scary," Kautzer said. "Three days straight (in the hospital), she just slept and cried." 

Kautzer and her husband, Steve, also developed similar rashes but are recovering. The prairie dog that bit Schyan has died. The other animal became ill but is recovering. 

Chicken loves garlic bed A chicken in South Africa is refusing to move after finding a comfortable place on a pile of garlic. Pie, an 18 month-old bantam hen in a Cape Town, has been sitting on top of her bed of garlic bulbs for two months. She sits there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the Cape Argus. Freda Pienaar, manager of the Barnyard Farmstall, says she has no idea what could have caused Pie's devotion to garlic. She said the hen pecks at anyone who tries to move her, and so she has been receiving "room service" with her food. "When one of the hens lays new eggs, we will try to replace the garlic with them," Pienaar said. Story filed: 11:47 Friday 6th June 2003

Norway bank bans ties Male staff at a Norwegian bank have been banned from wearing ties to work after the manager deemed them too "alienating." Mette Norbye Olsen, manager of the Postbanken branch in Tromsoe, says loosening the tie regulation is the first step towards a new image for the bank. She said: "Male staff will no longer be allowed to wear ties. They are a symbol for leadership and solemnity and we believe this alienates customers." Olsen says she wants to create a more relaxed working environment and a popular image that would show customers they do not have to be afraid of the bank manager. Story filed: 13:16 Thursday 5th June 2003

Norway bank bans ties Male staff at a Norwegian bank have been banned from wearing ties to work after the manager deemed them too "alienating." Mette Norbye Olsen, manager of the Postbanken branch in Tromsoe, says loosening the tie regulation is the first step towards a new image for the bank. She said: "Male staff will no longer be allowed to wear ties. They are a symbol for leadership and solemnity and we believe this alienates customers." Olsen says she wants to create a more relaxed working environment and a popular image that would show customers they do not have to be afraid of the bank manager. Story filed: 13:16 Thursday 5th June 2003

Most men happy with prosthetic penis A German doctor says 70% of men with a prosthetic penis are satisfied with it. Edina von Rottenthaler, 30, interviewed 66 patients for her doctoral thesis. All of them had received spongy body implants. Asked about their reasons, the men most frequently said it was a medical recommendation by their doctor. But many also told von Rottenthaler they wanted to improve their quality of life. The study shows most men are happy with the results of the operation, the Express newspaper writes. Within eight weeks after the operation, most of them had successfully had sex again. Story filed: 10:49 Thursday 5th June 2003

Driver 'paints over' yellow lines near home A man who allegedly painted over double yellow lines near his home so he could park for free has been charged by police. A police statement said the 35-year-old from Edinburgh had been charged with contravening the Roads (Scotland) Act and malicious mischief. A report on the matter will also be sent to the procurator fiscal. A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police said the move followed "ongoing inquiries" into the incident, which is alleged to have taken place in the Upper Craigour area of the capital. It was alleged the driver, who has not been named, had blacked out a section of double yellow lines just long enough for his own car. But the city's traffic wardens, who have become infamous for their zealous approach after a series of high-profile ticketing incidents, were powerless to do anything about the situation. Story filed: 18:12 Wednesday 4th June 2003

Woman caught hanging topless and upside down on train A woman in the US state of Washington has been arrested on suspicion of hanging topless and upside down from a moving train. Robin Bishop has been charged with assault, trespassing and resisting arrest following the incident in Hoquiam. The 31-year-old was reported to police by an engineer on a Puget Sound & Pacific train who discovered her hanging from the rear of the train as it approached a bridge. "She was wearing jeans and nothing else," Hoquiam police lieutenant Mike Whittaker told The Daily World of Aberdeen. "She was hanging upside down, topless, from a moving train." Police Captain Jim Maloney says engineers stopped the train, which had only four or five carriages, and approached the woman. She shouted at them and struck one with a rock before climbing to the roof of one of the carriages. "The officers thought she might have been under the influence of alcohol," Maloney said. Police don't know how the woman got onto the train. (c) News Source Story filed: 14:07 Wednesday 4th June 2003

Ninety-year-old wins �10m on Florida state lottery A 90-year-old man who won almost �10m in Florida's state lottery has decided not to take his winnings in yearly payments. Instead, Luis Salazar, who lives in Osceola County, has chosen to receive a lump sum of �6.1m. He plans to give some of his winnings to his church in Kissimmee, to his grandchildren and other family members. He said he might also travel back to his native Puerto Rico. Salazar moved to Osceola County 14 years ago after retiring from a Puerto Rico cement-distribution company, where he worked as a purchasing agent. (c) News Source Story filed: 14:05 Wednesday 4th June 2003

Naked motorcyclist crashes after bee sting A naked motorcyclist wearing just a scarf, sunglasses and a pair of sandals crashed his bike after he was stung on the inner thigh by a bee. The 36-year-old, who had been driving to the swimming area at a German nudist colony, lost control of the bike as he swatted the insect away. He fell on to the road, but escaped with just a shoulder injury and minor cuts and bruises. Police said they are considering pressing charges after the incident at Giessen in Hessen - as the man was not wearing a crash helmet. Story filed: 10:20 Monday 2nd June 2003

Naked motorcyclist crashes after bee sting A naked motorcyclist wearing just a scarf, sunglasses and a pair of sandals crashed his bike after he was stung on the inner thigh by a bee. The 36-year-old, who had been driving to the swimming area at a German nudist colony, lost control of the bike as he swatted the insect away. He fell on to the road, but escaped with just a shoulder injury and minor cuts and bruises. Police said they are considering pressing charges after the incident at Giessen in Hessen - as the man was not wearing a crash helmet. Story filed: 10:20 Monday 2nd June 2003

114-year-old twins die on same day Indian twin sisters have died on the same day at the age of 114. Kali Bi Sheikh and Batul Bi Sheikh were born in Siya in central India. They were also married on the same day into two different families. After their husbands died, they lived together and had about 125 grand and great grandchildren between them. Kali Bi fell ill and died on her way to hospital. It was nearly at the same time that Batul Bi, who was sleeping at home, also died. They have been buried side by side, news website sify.com reports.. Story filed: 15:14 Sunday 1st June 2003

Drug barons escape after Hollywood style con trick Two drug barons have escaped from custody after prison guards were fooled by a "Hollywood movie scale con trick", complete with a set and large cast. Jose Ramon Hidalgo from Colombia and Luis Mauricio Palacios Gamboa from Guatemala were being taken to a prison in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, when armed police stopped the convoy. The pair, who had been sentenced to 16 years for drug dealing, were a few miles from arriving at Choluteca Prison when the officers blocked the road for a "routine road inspection." Witnesses say the scam to release the prisoners was then performed "very quickly" by numerous officers who pretended to be policemen. Police say there were so many men involved it was impossible for the guards to react. A spokesman said: "The whole thing was so carefully done that the prison guards believed it was a real inspection and stopped. "Their uniforms were exactly like ours and they had three trucks painted just like police trucks, it was worthy of a Hollywood movie production." Police say all country's borders are being watched but that they have no clues about the gang's whereabouts. Story filed: 16:25 Tuesday 3rd June 2003'

Dead man told to buy computer A man who died more than 30 years ago has been sent a grant by the Italian government. A scheme there provides grants to young people to help them by computers. The man would have been 116 if he was still alive. In the letter to Nicola Valeriani, innovations minister Lucio Stanca, wrote: "Dear Nicola, this year, to congratulate you on coming of age and to mark this special occasion, I want to congratulate you with a special gift. "As part of an initiative by my ministry known as the 'Fly with Internet' project you have been selected to receive a grant to help you get on-line and buy a new PC." Valeriani died in 1974 and a spokesman at the Italian Innovations ministry said a computer glitch had resulted in the computer assuming the dead man was 16 and alive, not 116 and dead. Valeriani's daughter who was sent the letter handed the cheque back. She said her dad was born in 1887 and fought in two world wars.;

Horses triumph again in race against humans The annual 22-mile man versus horse race saw four legs once again triumph over two. Some 30 horses and riders lined up against nearly 400 people and 50 relay teams in the contest in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, mid Wales. No human running alone has yet defeated a horse in the competition and hopes a single runner would triumph over equine opponents for the first time in more than 20 years were dashed again. A never claimed prize, which increases by �1,000 every year, will stand at �25,000 for next year's race on June 12. Horse Druimgiga Shemal, ridden by Robyn Petrie-Ritchie from Devon, won in two hours and two minutes, beating runner Mark Croasdale from Lancaster, the first human to cross the line in two hours and 17 minutes. Royal Marine Croasdale, 38, who has recently returning from serving in the Iraq conflict, celebrated his win against his human opponents with a glass of beer. The marine, who won the race as a single runner for the sixth time, said: "It went well and I took it steady." Croasdale, who returned from southern Iraq a month ago, also holds the record for getting closest to winning the William Hill Man versus Horse Marathon coming in just a minute behind a horse. William Hill offered odds of 25/1 that one of the runners can beat the four-legged contestants to the finishing line. William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said former soap star Mark Little, who played Joe Mangel in Neighbours, did not compete in the race after all, but supported the competitors as an observer. Story filed: 16:35 Saturday 7th June 2003

Cheese 'can be as addictive as morphine' An American doctor has claimed that cheese can be as addictive as morphine. Dr Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine, says cheese is addictive because it contains small amounts of morphine from cows' liver. In his book - Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings and Seven Steps to End them Naturally - he explains why people are hooked on products like cheese, meat, sugar and chocolate. He says: "There's a biochemical reason many of us feel we can't live without our daily fix. "Cheese, for example, contains high levels of casein, a protein that breaks apart during digestion to produce morphine-like opiate compounds, called casomorphins. "These opiates are believed to be responsible for the mother-infant bond that occurs during nursing. It's no surprise many of us feel bonded to the refrigerator." Dr Barnard says his research could help overweight people currently suing fast food restaurants, by proving the food is addictive like tobacco. He has developed a three-week diet and lifestyle program to help people kick their 'addiction' by changing their eating habits, exercising and sleeping well. Story filed: 13:51 Friday 6th June 2003

Will China Take Over the Moon? 01-Jun-2003 Robert S. Walker, former chairman of the House Science Committee, writes in the Washington Times that the Chinese are planning not only to go to the moon, but to set up a base there and occupy it. When we went to the moon, we erected an American flag there, but we've never claimed it as ours. What will happen if China claims the moon belongs to them? The European Space Agency is getting ready to go to Mars with robots, just like we did, but neither of us wants to annex Mars as one of our territories. However, as soon as valuable minerals are found on a planet, and an inexpensive method is devised to get them back to Earth, it's inevitable that countries will start to stake claims in outer space. We know that Helium 3, which is rare on Earth, is abundant on the moon. Walker is convinced that "China intends to be on the moon within a decade and will announce they are there for a permanent stay. An investment of less than 1% of their growth revenues over the next decade would provide revenue for a very robust program." Besides access to Helium 3, annexing the moon would bring international prestige to China, which is something they dearly desire. China's ambitions are waking other countries up to the need to stake their own claims. Walker says, "Many Japanese space observers are convinced that China has a moon program and that, ultimately, Japan may be drawn into the competition. India already has created its own moon mission, in large part because they are monitoring Chinese space efforts." This happened before in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, so there's no reason it can't happen with nearby planets and satellites. What comes after that?-Will we fight "no trespassing" wars in space? "At my Washington office a few weeks ago, I met with a visiting Japanese parliamentarian who specializes in science and technology issues," Walker says. "I related to him my belief that the Chinese would be on the moon within a decade with a declaration of permanent occupation. He disagreed. He smiled and said my conclusion was accurate but my timing was off. In his view, the Chinese would be on the moon within three to four years." And once they get there, will they claim it for themselves? 

TiVo to Sell Reports on Users' TV Viewing Habits Mon Jun 2,11:35 AM ET Add Entertainment TV 

By Franklin Paul NEW YORK  - TiVo (news - web sites) Inc., a maker of television-recording devices, on Monday unveiled a TV audience measuring system that allows it to report the second-by-second viewing habits of its subscribers to advertisers and network programmers. The system represents a potential new revenue stream for the maker of digital video recorders (DVR), which is trying to transform itself into a media services company and seeking other ways of making money beyond the monthly subscriber fees it collects. The new service, which will produce a quarterly viewing report, would track a sample of TiVo's more than 700,000 users, whose DVRs allow them to record more than 40 hours of shows, pause live TV, instantly replay favorite scenes or fast-forward through commercials. The report would, for example, tell advertisers which commercials audiences watched in their entirety during an episode of the comedy "Friends." It can also inform "Friends" creators that viewers changed the channel when a particular character entered the scene. "With the Olympics -- as (a reporter) gives a heartwarming story about an athlete, (TiVo tracks) second-to-second what is causing viewers to stay tuned or what is causing them to flip over to something else," said Martin Yudkovitz, president of TiVo. He noted that TiVo does not intend to compete with rival Nielsen Media Research, the ubiquitous voice in the television industry for tracking audience viewership. Instead, TiVo stresses that its service could perhaps be a companion to Nielsen data that advertisers and networks use to make decisions about programming. Yudkovitz, a veteran of General Electric Co.'s NBC who was brought on in April to spur TiVo's media drive, added that TiVo has not signed any major clients. But he said it is confident that in a business where shifts in audience trends can sway millions in ad dollars, customers will find the data compelling. TiVo allows its users to decline the monitoring of their viewing habits, but a spokesman said that most do not. The company has targeted total subscribers of 1 million by early 2004, which would give it a robust sample of technology-savvy and better-than-average income TV watchers. Although TiVo's name has become synonymous with DVRs, the digital television recording segment is still young, with less than 3 million of the pricey devices in use, analysts say. While the outlook for DVRs is bright, TiVo has tried to diversify, scratching up alternative revenue streams such as its recently introduced system that turns its device into a home media center for enjoying music, digital snapshots and video. In its most recent annual report, for the fiscal year ending January 2003, the company said revenues from advertising and research services were "not material." San Jose, California-based TiVo earned $60.2 million in the period. TiVo shares rose 20 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $9.20 on Nasdaq. Earlier, the stock hit $9.50, its highest level since May 2002. 

Published: May 28, 2003 Author: Catherine Arnie For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use. This article contains several links, but I don't have time for the coding. So click here. 

The Secret Saudi Flight on 9-13 Could be the Key to the Bush-Saudi-Al Qaeda
Connection By Catherine Arnie 

About a month after the September 11th attacks, I read an article in the Tampa
Tribune by Kathy Steele entitled "Phantom Flight From Florida." The intriguing report told the tale of a flight out of Florida that allegedly took place on September 13 - a day when ALL civilian air traffic in the United States was grounded. 

"This was out of a Tom Clancy movie," according to a retired homicide detective who was hired for the flight. Its mission was to spirit the son of a Saudi prince, the son of a Saudi army commander, and another unidentified Saudi from Florida to Kentucky,  because "there was a perceived threat, and the family of the person wanted him home right away." 

The "person" in danger was the son of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is no minor figure in the Saudi Royal family. Rather, Prince Sultan is the kingdom's minister of defense, the third-ranking position in the Saudi Government, whose powers exceed those of even America's super-powerful Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. 

Dan Grossi and Manuel Perez were the two Floridians who were hired to serve as
private bodyguards on the flight. 

According to the article in the Tampa Tribune, Dan Grossi is a retired Tampa cop who worked in internal affairs and homicide. Perez is a retired FBI man whose experience was in counter-terrorism and bomb-making. Perez now runs a detective agency and the two men provided security for the National Football League at Raymond James Stadium in September of 2001. 

The article reported that shortly after the September 11 attack, Lexington police Lt.  Mark Barnard received a request from a prominent Saudi Kingdom official for the protection of three young Saudi men in Florida, at least one of whom - Prince Sultan's son - had been studying English at the University of Tampa for three weeks. (Tampa police records listed Sultan Bin Fahad as the individual who specifically requested protection for the three men. That is probably Prince Sultan Bin Fahad, head of the Saudi General Presidency of Youth Welfare. In family-run Saudi Arabia, there is apparently a whole Ministry devoted to keeping Royal youth out of trouble - something the Bush family elders no doubt dream of copying.) 

Apparently Barnard then contacted the Tampa police department and two "off-duty"
Tampa intelligence detectives were assigned to watch the three Saudis for their
protection. At around 11:00 AM on September 13, Dan Grossi received a phone call
from the Tampa police detectives who needed help with a problem: escorting the Saudi men they were protecting on a flight to Kentucky. 

Grossi and Perez evidently felt they were up to the task, and at 2:30 PM Grossi was contacted by the Tampa Police Department with specific instructions. And by 4:35 PM a plane carrying Grossi, Perez, Prince Sultan's son, the son of an unidentified Saudi military commander, and third unidentified Saudi, was in the air and en route to Kentucky. The private Lear jet originated from Raytheon Airport Services, which owns a private hangar on the outskirts of the Tampa International airport. 

Tampa, of course, is home to General Tommy Franks and the Pentagon's Central
Command (CentCom), which directly rules Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirectly rules the entire oil-rich Middle East and Central Asia through its growing network of Halliburton-supplied military bases. 

Their destination, according to the two bodyguards, was the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, where the three Saudis were to link up with relatives who were in Kentucky to purchase race horses. 

Grossi and Perez further stated that upon landing they saw several 747's parked on the tarmac with Arabic writing. The article suggests that at least one of these 747's flew back to Saudi Arabia with the boys, although their Floridian chaperones appear to have left the airport before that occurred. If true, the flight of these 747's would validate at least part of the Michael Moore story about powerful Saudis being allowed to fly out of the U.S. on the second day of the prohibition of all civilian flights. 

Perez stated that he was unaware of who their charges were until they landed. Both men told of what a strange feeling it was to fly in an almost empty sky, and Perez recalls asking the pilot, "We're not going to get shot down are we?" - a legitimate fear,  given the fact that fighter jets were urgently patrolling the skies looking for any more terrorists. 

Regarding the curious fact that the flight had taken place when all other air traffic was still grounded, Dan Grossi said "he was told that clearance for the flight had come from the White House after the Prince's family pulled a favor from former President Bush." 

If so, this was no ordinary ex-Presidential favor. In debunking a Michael Moore-inspired Internet rumor about a secret flight of relatives of Osama Bin Laden, Snopes.com describes exactly how restricted the skies were that day: 

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered all flights in the United States grounded immediately following the terrorist attacks, and that ban stayed in effect until September 13. (Even then, for that first day commercial carriers were either completing the interrupted flights of September 11 or were repositioning empty aircraft in
anticipation of the resumption of full service. New passenger flights did not resume until the 14th.) During that two-day period of full lock-down, only the military and specially FAA-authorized flights that delivered life-saving medical necessities were in the air. The enforcement of the empty skies directive was so stringent that even after the United Network for Organ Sharing sought and gained FAA clearance to use charter aircraft on September 12 to effect time-critical deliveries of organs for transplant, one of its flights carrying a human heart was forced to the ground in Bellingham, Washington, 80 miles short of its Seattle destination, by two Navy F/A-18 fighters. (The organ completed its journey after being transferred to a helicopter.) After reading the Tampa Tribune article, I distinctly remember blinking and checking the URL to see if I had accidentally clicked on a link to one of those "publications" that spots Elvis, or reports that ninety year old women have just given birth to Bigfoot's baby. But no, this was indeed the Tampa Tribune. 

I remember wondering how on earth our government could have authorized a flight out of the country before they even knew who the perpetrators of the attacks were? 

And further, why did the families of the young men "perceive a threat" when it wasn't yet clear on the 13th of September exactly WHO had attacked America or where they were from? 

According to a transcript on the State Departments website of a statement given by a "Senior White House Official" on September 13 at 5:22 PM it had not yet been announced that Bin Laden was behind the attacks when protection was requested for the three young men. 

When this "Senior White House official" was asked if Osama Bin Laden had perpetrated the attacks against the US at 5:22 PM on September 13th, to which he replied: "I think that right now what we need to do is -- as I said, again, this happened 60 hours ago.  We don't want to be premature, not because we don't want to name or finger someone, but because we want to make sure that we understand all the connections, not just a connection." 

Was Prince Sultan a psychic who somehow mysteriously predicted that 15 of the 19
hijackers would turn out to be Saudi nationals? Or did he perhaps know who was
behind the attacks since he was funding charities linked to Al Qaeda? 

Now fast forward about a year and a half and imagine my surprise last week when I read a "Newsweek web exclusive" that reported that Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz - THE VERY SAME defense minister of Saudi Arabia - is being sued on the behalf of the victims of 9-11 for his alleged role in the financing of groups suspected to have links to the terrorist attacks of 9-11! 

"Wow," I thought, "wasn't this the SAME Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz who had the kid on the Phantom flight?" 

After further checking, I discovered that - yes, my friends - they are one and the same!

According to the Newsweek article, when three attorneys from the "prestigious
Houston firm" that represents Sultan bin Abdul Aziz filed a motion in court in the Prince's defense, they also inadvertently provided evidence in the form of "stacks of affidavits and canceled checks" that indicated that the Prince had personally authorized the funneling of millions of dollars on the behalf of Saudi Arabian government to organizations that the US has identified and raided as terrorist front operations sympathetic to Osama Bin Laden. 

But it gets worse... 

The name of the "prestigious Houston Law firm" that is representing this suspected supporter of terrorism? 

Why that would be none other than Baker Botts of Houston - as in JAMES Baker, as in THE James Baker: George Herbert Walker Bush's former Secretary of State and George W. Bush's counsel during the 2000 election recounts (you know, "Mr. the votes have been counted and recounted and counted again and even though we still lost we're taking the crown"?) 

It seems that in spite of the fact that Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz and his government have been accused of funding charities linked to Al Qaeda, James Baker's firm still feels the need to defend the Prince against those "evil" trial lawyers representing the orphaned families of the 9-11 victims. 

Bush devotees would probably claim that this is not a conflict of interest, that all powerful mover and shaker types in the private sector cross paths with "our friends" the Saudis - but what is little known is the fact that James Baker is not actually, wholly,  in the private sector, since Mr. Baker is also serving as Counsel for Intelligence Policy to the Justice Department's Office for Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR). 

For those who are not familiar with OIPR, I am going to copy and paste right from the horse's mouth: 

The Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, under the direction of the Counsel for Intelligence Policy, is responsible for advising the Attorney General on all matters relating to the national security activities of the United States. The Office prepares and files all applications for electronic surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, assists Government agencies by providing legal advice on matters of national security law and policy, and represents the Department of Justice on variety of interagency committees such as the National Counterintelligence Policy Board. The Office also comments on and coordinates other agencies' views regarding proposed legislation affecting intelligence matters. The Office serves as adviser to the Attorney General and various client agencies,  including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the
Defense and State Departments, concerning questions of law, regulation, and guidelines as well as the legality of domestic and overseas intelligence operations. 

So Baker Botts, a law firm whose senior partner advises the nation on all matters of national security as well as a host of other spooky activities, is defending an individual and a kingdom that have been accused of being complicit in the funding of the attacks of the September 11th against the United States. But perhaps what is just as shocking to me is the allegation that the son of this SAME Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz was reportedly flown out of the United States when all other planes were grounded following the special orders of Bush's own father! 

Moreover, the entire 9-13 mission of the Lear jet is shrouded in mystery. That mission began in Ft. Lauderdale, stopped in Tampa and Lexington, and returned to Tampa to bring Grossi and Perez home. But then the jet flew to New Orleans "to pick up someone who needed a ride to New York." So this plane made AT LEAST 5 flights on
9-13, but the FAA told the Tampa Tribune, "it's not in our logs... it didn't occur." The White House, the State Department, and the National Security Council all refused to answer the Tribune's questions. 

Now the Bush administration is refusing to make public an 800-page Congressional report on the attacks of 9-11. In fact, this administration is so hell-bent on keeping the report from the public that they are even "re-classifying" information that was already a part of the public record! 

According to a new Newsweek bombshell by Michael Isikoff, 

Among the portions of the report the administration refuses to declassify, sources say,  are chapters dealing with two politically and diplomatically sensitive issues: the details of daily intelligence briefings given to Bush in the summer of 2001 and evidence pointing to Saudi government ties to Al Qaeda. Bush officials have taken such a hard line,  sources say, that they are refusing to permit the release of matters already in the public domain -- including the existence of intelligence documents referred to on the CIA Web site. As average citizens struggle to carry on their daily business and keep their blood pressure in check in the midst of a new "orange alert," Mr. Bush & Co. are still busy protecting their buddies in Saudi Arabia and lying to the American public. 

Why can't we know the truth about who our enemies are, Mr. Bush? 

One has to wonder when George W. said, "You're either with us or against us" - just exactly who he meant by "us." "Us" is beginning to look like a Bush-Saudi-Al Qaeda conspiracy, especially when one includes the well-known business ties between George H. W. Bush, James Baker, and the Bin Laden family through the infamous Carlyle Group. 

In a scandal this potentially huge - one implicating the President's close family and family lawyer - shouldn't a Special Prosecutor be appointed? If the President was Bill Clinton, the family member was Hillary Clinton, and the family lawyer was Webster Hubbell, the media - not to mention the Republican Party - would be demanding a Special Prosecutor at the top of their lungs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even
though the post-Watergate Special Prosecutor law was repealed after Ken Starr's legal lynching of President Clinton, pre-Watergate-style Special Prosecutors can still be appointed by the Attorney General. 

But the Attorney General's lawyer on such sensitive matters is none other than James Baker. And with the media entirely "in-bed with" the Bush organized crime family, the term "Special Prosecutor" has been scrubbed from the media lexicon - and with it, the last hope for fighting corruption and deadly conspiracy at the very top of our government. 

A real "kicker" to this story is the identity of the owner of the plane that picked up the Saudis on 9/13 when every other plane in the U.S. was grounded. That plane was
owned by a man named Hilliard, the same person that owned the flight school in Venice FL that trained the hijackers. Hilliard's various air services have to be CIA fronts to be employed as they were.

A New Remedy for the Economic Blues -- Hugging

Jun 3, 9:46 am ET 

TOKYO  - A middle-aged holy woman from India has come up with a remedy for Japan's economic blues that has escaped even the most astute politician -- give everyone a hug.

For the past three days, thousands of Japanese have flocked to a hall in Tokyo for a loving embrace from Ammachi, a woman from India's southern state of Kerala on the Japan leg of her world hugging tour.

A hug from Ammachi, short for Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, is said to bring happiness -- something that many Japanese feel is in short supply as the nation's economic slide throws more people out of work and cuts into their savings.

All this week, people have been lining up patiently outside Ammachi's carpeted room, breathing in the incense-filled air and listening to strains of Hindu devotional songs.

"Japan is suffering from deflation and I think there are a lot of people who want to be helped," said one businessman, who had already been hugged twice.

"I don't think so many people would come here if the economy were better."

Hugging is not a common custom in Japan and many people were overcome by emotion when embraced.

"When you watch the news or read the newspaper, there are so many depressing things, but that's not all there is in the world. That's what I felt when she embraced me," said housewife Teruko Nakamura as she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

The 51-year-old holy woman attributed the emotion to nothing more than a lack of love in the modern world. 

SARS Researchers Discover Another New Virus 03-Jun-2003 Researchers searching for SARS have discovered another new virus in American children. At the Yale School of Medicine, they found that 19 out of 296 local children they studied had respiratory infections of an unknown cause-but they didn't have SARS. The new virus is called hMPV, and its discovery solves a long mystery about where certain childhood illnesses come from. "I think this virus probably accounts for a small but significant portion of respiratory tract illness in children," says Dr. Jeffrey S. Kahn. Before this, 15 to 34% of pneumonia cases in children, along with a lung infection called bronchiolitis, had no known cause. "If you step back and look at pneumonia in general, about 50% of the time we can identify a cause," Kahn says. "Obviously, in the other 50% we don't know what causes it. So that suggests that there are unknown pathogens out there." Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) was discovered in 2001 in the Netherlands. "When it was first reported, everybody said, 'wow, that's very interesting,' and everybody started going back to their freezers where they kept samples, and started to probe samples. Now it's been found in many countries," Kahn says. It's been found in adults in New York, meaning it's spreading throughout the U.S. It's also been found in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland, and France. While it can make patients sick enough to need hospitalization, there's no indication that hMPV spreads as quickly as SARS. Kahn says, "The disease caused by this virus is really just beginning to be explored." 

Missing Iraqi Antiquities Found in Secret Vault Sat Jun 7,10:26 AM ET  

By Andrew Marshall BAGHDAD  - Almost all of the priceless items feared stolen from the Baghdad Museum when it was ransacked by looters have been found safe in a secret vault, the U.S.-led administration for Iraq (news - web sites) said on Saturday. A special team of U.S. investigators working at the museum to check the extent of the looting has concluded that around 3,000 items were still lost or stolen, compared with initial estimates of up to 170,000. Most of the missing items were used for research, rather than exhibition. "Earlier this week, 179 boxes that contained the vast majority of the museum's exhibition collection were discovered safe in a secret vault," the administration said in a statement. "The discovery of these boxes containing nearly 8,000 of the most important items from the museum's collection means that the work of the investigation team is drawing to a close." The failure of U.S. forces to prevent Baghdad Museum being plundered sparked a storm of protest around the world in April. The U.S. military said its men were initially too busy fighting in the streets around the museum to halt the looting. But many of the items feared lost have been discovered. Some were taken home by staff for safekeeping, and others were found hidden elsewhere, including the large haul in a secret vault. Staff initially refused to reveal the location of the vault until U.S. troops had left Iraq, but later relented. TREASURE OF NIMRUD Another trove of priceless jewelry, the Treasure of Nimrud, was found in a flooded Central Bank vault on Thursday. The Nimrud artefacts, hundreds of gold and gem-studded pieces from the ancient kingdom of Assyria, were retrieved by U.S. investigators after the vaults below the gutted shell of the looted bank building were drained. The treasures, discovered between 1988 and 1990 in ancient royal tombs below an Assyrian palace dating from the ninth century BC, had been feared lost. But U.S. investigators learned they had been placed in a central bank vault in the early 1990s, possibly to protect them during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). "They were never lost," acting Central Bank Governor Faleh Salman said. "We knew all along they were there. It just took a bit of time to get at them because of the flooding." U.S. customs agents who helped with the recovery of the treasure said that when they first entered the vaults they found bodies of looters killed in shootouts with rival gangs. But the seals on the crates of treasure were intact. The U.S.-led administration said the Nimrud treasure seemed to be in good condition. A team of experts from the British Museum would arrive soon to assess conservation needs. The customs agents said it was not known how the vaults came to be flooded, but they suspect Iraqis deliberately let water in to stop looters -- or members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s inner circle -- making off with the money and valuables inside. Despite the recovery of many of the museum's treasures in the last week, the U.S.-led administration said 47 items from the main exhibition -- the museum's most treasured pieces -- had not been found. 

New System Could Speed Up Internet Downloads
Wed Jun 4, 3:28 PM ET 
Add Technology 

LONDON  - Scientists in California are working on a fast new Internet connection system that could enable an entire movie to be downloaded in a matter of seconds. 

Related Links
� Packet tracking promises ultrafast internet (at New Scientist)

Missed Tech Tuesday? 
You can still master "Movies on Your PC." Check out exclusive features for the inside track on Do-It-Yourself DVDs and more.

The Fast TCP system, designed by a team of researchers at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, runs on the same Internet infrastructure currently used but is designed to be much quicker. 

Internet traffic is controlled by a system called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which was developed in the 1970s and breaks down files into small packets of about 1500 bytes. 

"The sending computer transmits a pack, waits for a signal from the recipient that acknowledges its safe arrival, and then sends the next packet," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. 

But if there is no reply, the packet is sent again and again at successively slower speeds until it arrives. So minor problems can make connections sluggish. 

"The difference (in Fast TCP) is in the software and hardware on the sending computer, which continually measures the time it takes for sent packets to arrive and how long acknowledgements take to come back," the magazine added. 

The Fast TCP reveals the delays and predict the highest data rate the connection can support without losing data. 

When the researchers tested 10 Fast TCP systems together it boosted the speed to more than 6,000 times the capacity of the ordinary broadband links. 

"Caltech is already in talks with Microsoft and Disney about using it for video on demand," the magazine added. 

Pulling the Plug on Sex Workers' Tip Sheet

Jun 5, 9:25 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian state has pulled funding for a sex workers' support group after it published a pamphlet teaching prostitutes tricks to make sure customers keep coming back for more.

The pamphlet by the Phoenix organization in Western Australia gave sex workers tips such as "always act like you enjoy it" and don't wear shoes in bed." It was called "Regulars."

A spokeswoman for the Western Australian health minister, Bob Kucera, said an audit of Phoenix also found it was using state government money to publish a magazine the minister considered to be virtually pornographic.

Phoenix received A$242,000 ($160,000) in state funding last financial year and was supposed to spend that on promoting health care among sex workers in Western Australia, where prostitution is illegal but to some extent tolerated, the spokeswoman said.

"The material Phoenix has produced appears to glamorize and promote the sex industry and much of it has nothing to do with health outcomes," Kucera said in a statement.

Phoenix did not immediately return calls to The News Source. 

AP � The News Source � Photos

James Bond-Style Aircraft Robbery Fails

Jun 4, 10:36 am ET 

By Richard Ayton

LONDON  - Tools prosecutors say a thief used in a "James Bond-style" plan to rob an aircraft hold in mid-flight were shown to London jurors on Tuesday.

They helped Rawson Watson, 37, stow away in the cargo hold of a passenger jet in a daring plot to steal 1.5 million pounds in cash, the court heard.

But the plan failed when clumsy cargo handlers in London dropped the box he had hid in to escape, tumbling him out onto the tarmac.

Christopher Hehir, prosecuting, told jurors: "A thief, no matter how much his activities may smack of a James Bond adventure, is still just a thief."

Opening the case at the Old Bailey on Monday, Hehir described how Watson's accomplices at London's Heathrow airport had smuggled him into the hold of a British Airways Boeing 767 before a regular January 2000 flight to Madrid.

He was armed with a tool kit of masking tape, rubber gloves, nail varnish, and a drill, as well as two flat-pack boxes.

Once on board, Watson cut into the hold's inner lining, hiding between the lining and the plane's metal structure.

Hehir told the court safety experts thought the rips in the lining, which Watson had covered with masking tape to avoid detection, could have interfered with the plane's fire protection system.

The cargo hold was heated and pressurized while it was in the air for the 3 1/4-hour flight.

After arriving in Madrid, ground workers loaded 1.5 million pounds worth of Spanish pesetas in security boxes destined for travel agents Thomas Cook.

Once the plane had begun its return flight to London, Watson emerged from his makeshift hiding place.

Hehir told the court Watson's plan had been to assemble his two flat-pack boxes, put the cash in one of them and hide himself in the other.

He and the money would be unloaded from the plane and then smuggled out of the airport by accomplices.

But he discovered his plan to use green nail varnish to cover the breaks in the green security box seals would not work, and decided to pack just 200,000 pounds into one box and seal himself in the other.

The plan almost succeeded, but his own box was too heavy for the London cargo handlers to carry and they dropped it, spilling Watson out onto the tarmac.

"They were amazed and flabbergasted by what they saw," Hehir said. "He quite casually got up and made off. He told them 'don't worry about me, I'm all right."'

Watson disappeared and was arrested in October 2002 -- over two and a half years later.

He denies attempted theft of banknotes and damaging an aircraft in a way likely to endanger its safety in flight. 

World Leaders Show Their Thirst

Jun 4, 10:30 am ET 

EVIAN, France  - How much designer bottled mineral water do you need while you address the world's shortage of adequate drinking supply?

The answer, in the case of G8 leaders and their media entourage camped out in the spa town of Evian this week, was estimated at 7,800 gallons -- enough to keep a healthy adult's thirst at bay for 40 years.

In the press center alone, a poorly ventilated sports complex that became a giant sauna for sweating reporters, officials had to quadruple their order from the local Evian factory.

To add insult to injury, sweltering journalists were forced to cross a gangway between two enticing but off-limits swimming pools each day to reach the press working area, while television reporters broadcast in front of a fountain they could not touch.

The summit tackled the serious problems of access to clean water for the world's poorest, but promised no fresh funds to help and was criticized by environmentalists.

Don't Lose the Snooze, Nap Activists Say

Jun 4, 10:25 am ET 

LISBON  - Portugal's tradition of the after-lunch siesta is under threat and needs to be upheld, according to an association of nap defenders.

The new Portuguese Association of Friends of the Siesta aims to wake up Portuguese to naps as a defense against the rapid pace of modern life and as a way to stay healthy, said Prates Miguel, a lawyer and one of the group's founders.

The association wants "to make Portuguese citizens conscious that the siesta is not a vice of deadbeats," he told the Lusa news agency. About 18 journalists, politicians, artists and others formed the association in Ansiao, a mountain town about 100 miles northwest of Lisbon. The group might lobby to have Portugal's labor laws eased to allow for after-lunch naps.

Labor Minister Antonio Bagao Felix, architect of an overhauled labor code that would make it easier to hire and fire workers, called the idea of a workplace snooze "interesting."

"A lot of times I sleep 10 minutes, a quarter of an hour (after lunch), and I feel fine," the privately held TSF radio station's Web site quoted him as saying. 

Building a Cruise Missile in His Backyard

Jun 5, 9:26 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - A New Zealand handyman with a passion for jet engines says he is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and technology freely available over the Internet.

Bruce Simpson, a 49-year-old Internet site developer, has a site entitled "A DIY Cruise Missile" on which he says he was prompted to build the missile because so many people had told him it could not easily be done.

"I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my garage, on a budget of just US$5,000," he said on his Web site (www.interestingprojects.com).

"I like to think of this project as a military version of 'Junkyard Wars'," he says referring to a television program about teams building big machines from scrapyard materials.

He said he would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site about how to make the jet-powered missile, which would be able to fly 100 km (60 miles) from his home, north of the main city of Auckland, in less than 15 minutes.

The missile could carry a small warhead weighing 10 kg (22 lb), would be hard to detect on radar, and would be impossible for the New Zealand Air Force to stop, Simpson said.

"Obviously the goal is not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with plans for a working cruise missile but to prove the point that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack from within their own borders."

The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Simpson had imported a radio control transmitter, global positioning equipment, and a flight control system, among other things, without encountering problems from New Zealand customs.

"We are aware of the initiative," a Defense Force spokesman told The News Source, but declined any further comment. 

Bulls Sold in Montana Linked to Mad Cow Thu Jun 5, 9:21 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By MATT GOURAS, News Source Writer HELENA, Mont. - In the first sign of a U.S. link to Canada's investigation of its mad cow scare, officials said five bulls from the Canadian herd that had a cow with the disease ended up in Montana. State authorities said Wednesday that the five bulls had since been slaughtered, but it was not known what happened to the carcasses. None of the animals ever showed signs of the disease, said Karen Cooper, spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Livestock. Ron DeHaven, a spokesman for the U.S. Agriculture Department's animal inspection service, also played down fears, noting negative tests so far on other animals linked to the infected cow. The slaughter would have occurred after the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) had banned the use of animal parts in livestock feed. Given that fact, DeHaven said it is unlikely the meat would have been fed to other cattle. He added that the chance of someone getting the human form of the disease from the five bulls is "immeasurably small." Two weeks ago, Canadian officials disclosed that a cow in Alberta had been identified as having the disease. The United States immediately banned all imports of Canadian beef and cattle. Canada has since ordered the slaughter of more than 1,700 cattle in its effort to determine the disease's source. So far, 800 animals have tested negative, including animals that had been in the same herd as the infected cow. Canadian authorities said Wednesday some of the bulls from Alberta apparently were subsequently resold in South Dakota and Montana. DeHaven said authorities are still tracking the animals using brand inspection reports and interviews with the Montana rancher who bought the bulls. U.S. officials did not identify the rancher. Mad cow disease was first diagnosed in Britain in 1986. The human form is the fatal brain-wasting illness variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). Scientists believe people get it by eating some meat products from infected animals. 

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). 

Underarm Sweat Turns Women On 06-Jun-2003 New research shows that the smell of male armpit sweat calms women down. Sniffing a lot of it can alter women's menstrual cycles, so this discovery could be the start of a line of perspiration-derived contraceptives or fertility drugs. "The underarm contains physiologically active pheromones," explains chemist George Preti. Pheromones are chemicals that affect the brain and alter our sexual behavior. Female volunteer were exposed to male armpit odor for six hours, masked by perfume, so they wouldn't consciously notice the smell, while their levels of luteinizing hormone were monitored. More luteinizing hormone is released from the brain as a woman approaches ovulation, and exposure to male armpit odor accelerated the arrival of the hormone. The volunteers also reported feeling less tense and more relaxed. This may be because relaxation can be a prerequisite to getting into a sexually responsive mood. Swedish researcher Ivanka Savic says, "Our biology is primitive but we're living in a sophisticated world." Prospective parents are always searching for new fertility drugs. Preti says, "People have looked in the rainforests and under the seas, but there are some very interesting physiologically active chemicals under the arm." Strong smells of all kinds can influence women's behavior. Psychologists divided 63 females into two groups. The first group was asked to play a computer game that was impossible to win (but they didn't know that), while being exposed to an smell developed in a laboratory. The second group watched a video in a room sprayed with the same scent. Then they were all given a set of word tests in 3 separate rooms-one containing that same smell, one with another new smell and one with no scent at all. Researchers found that the first group of women didn't spend a lot of time trying to solve them. Researcher Rachel Herz says, "They showed an unwillingness to work on a challenging task." She thinks they associated the smell with frustration and were less inclined to try to solve the problems. The second group of women, who watched the video, performed well on the word tests. Researcher Tim Jacob says, "The smell area lies next to the memory area in the brain. There are strong links between how the brain associates smell with experience and emotions. Certain smells can reinforce an experience or emotion." 

Pollution Protects Us from Global Warming 06-Jun-2003 The smoke in the atmosphere is protecting the Earth from the effects of global warming. This means that as we send out less pollution in the future, we may find that global warming is two or even three times more than we predicted. Top atmospheric scientists got together recently in Berlin for a meeting of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These scientists have suspected for a long time that smoke and other particles from burning rainforests, crops and fossil fuels are blocking the sunlight and protecting us from the warming effect of carbon dioxide emissions. They used to think pollution was reducing greenhouse warming by a quarter, but at the Berlin meeting, they decided it's really reducing warming by as much as three-quarters. Carbon dioxide will keep on building up in the atmosphere in the near future, as smoke and other aerosol pollutants continue to diminish. That means there will be "dramatic consequences for estimates of future climate change," the scientists say. So maybe we shouldn't be trying to reduce airborne pollution-except that particles from smoke and other emissions are a health hazard because they damage people's lungs and shorten their lives. "It looks like the warming today may be only about a quarter of what we would have got without aerosols," says Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen. "You could say the cooling has done us a big favor. But the health effects of many aerosols in smog are so great that even in the poor world, they are already cutting emissions." Aerosol pollution only stays in the atmosphere for a few days, while most greenhouse gases remain there for a century or longer. So as time goes on, pollution particles will protect us less and less from global warming. Crutzen says, "They are giving us a false sense of security right now." 

Cops on Silly Summons Blitz

Jun 6, 11:06 am ET 

NEW YORK  - It's the city where anything goes. Just don't sit on a milk crate, take up two subway seats or have a loud conversation.

The Big Apple is hard up and the city's cops are writing tickets to beat the band. Among the myriad offenses to be avoided: carrying an open bottle of water onto a bus or being a man in a playground without a child.

"This city has become a summons machine intent upon picking the pockets it is supposed to serve," Patrolmen's Benevolent Association spokesman Al O'Leary said in an interview.

The so-called ticketing blitz has kept the city's tabloids busy. The Daily News has made it an almost daily routine to highlight the preposterous ticketing policies of the city's men and women in blue.

Among the gems lately are the man fined for sitting on a milk crate, enforcing a transit rule forbidding riders to use more than one seat on a bus or subway and a Queens woman who was ticketed for talking loudly to her neighbor.

"I couldn't leave the food on the stove," Noris Lopez, the criminally loud talker, told the newspaper. "So I opened my door and my friend opened her door and we stood in front of our apartments talking."

The result? A $25 ticket from a cop who had just responded to a nearby disturbance.

"Is there a ticket blitz?" Jordan Barowitz, a City Hall spokesman asked rhetorically. "There are millions of summonses given out by the city every year. This year, compared to last year, fewer tickets are being given out."

That may be the case, but with the city facing a massive budget crunch, all manner of fines have skyrocketed, most notably parking fines, which now often run at more than $100 a pop. Even free Sunday parking has been outlawed in most of Manhattan in an effort to fill dwindling city coffers.

Even if there is a ticketing blitz, city officials insist quality of life summonses are nothing new. In 1996, an amusement park was fined $250 for having a coin operated game three feet (one meter) onto the sidewalk, Barowitz said, citing several other wacky examples of yesteryear.

Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he has not ordered police to go on a ticketing tear, even in the face of a multibillion dollar budget deficit.

"There is no ticketing blitz," he said in a radio interview on Friday. "Maybe there should be, but there is none.

"If you want to have great quality of life, the way to have it is giving tickets to people when they break the law," he said.

"We don't make money on these things," he added. "Quite the contrary. It costs more to write the summons than we get in revenue. The purpose is to get people to comply with the law."

But one police advocacy group has run full page advertisements in local papers insisting that cops are also unhappy about the high number of quality of life tickets. 

Cookies on the Web 06-Jun-2003 ...Not the kind that pop up on the internet, asking for your vital statistics, but the kind you dip into tea and eat. There's now a website devoted to these kinds of cookies (or "biscuits," as the English call them), that rates which ones taste best. The site features a "biscuit of the week" and helps people track down their childhood favorites or brands they didn't think were being made anymore. "Many people think if a supermarket does not carry a biscuit they will not find it anywhere," says webmaster Stuart Payne, "but what we find is that big supermarkets do not stock what you find in the corner shops." He says, "I've been surprised by the interest and the level of emotion biscuits arouse. Biscuits were very much treats as a child and they have a disproportionate amount of worth attached to them." In other words, people get attached to certain brands and are willing to work hard to track them down. Payne's own favorite is McVities Abbey Crunch, which he describes as "groundbreaking." Readers send Payne cookies from overseas and try to get him to review their favorites, and he's invited to parties where new cookies are launched. Simon Mowbray, of The Grocer magazine, says more than 5,000 new products are introduced in the U.K. every year, and many of these are snacks. "Britons are huge snackers," he says, "particularly on confectionery and compared to other European countries that might have healthier diets than we do." You could say the same thing about most of us here in the U.S. 

Artist Refuses to Speak for 29 Years

Jun 6, 11:08 am ET 

BERLIN  - An aspiring German painter refused to speak for 29 years until his father's death because of paternal opposition to his chosen career.

"All I was interested in was art, but he was always against it. There came a point when I simply had nothing more to say," Rainer Herpel, 51, told The News Source on Friday.

Herpel's mother Waltraut, 78, with whom he has lived in the western spa town of Bad Ems all these years, said he gave up talking when his father stopped him from attending art school. "He stopped talking then. He is a stubborn lad," she said.

During his mute period, Herpel was looked after by his mother and concentrated on painting. All his pictures are named after Beatles lyrics, from songs such as "The Fool on the Hill" and "You Won't See Me."

Herpel had no visitors to his room for 29 years. When outdoors, he preserved his silence by blocking out sounds.

"I always leave the house with ear protectors on," he said speaking slowly in a quiet voice. "I can't concentrate properly with all that racket outside."

Last year his father died, after which Herpel gradually began talking again. The public response was remarkable.

"Before people walked around with angry faces when they saw me. Now that I'm talking again, they're really happy," he said.

Herpel now plans to concentrate on his artistic career and is undaunted by the task ahead. "All the great artists were outsiders before they had success," he said. '

Agents Throw Wrench Into Golden Screw Scheme

Jun 6, 11:01 am ET 

NEW YORK  - U.S. authorities said on Thursday they threw the wrench into South American drug lords' newest money laundering scheme in which narcotics proceeds were exchanged for gold disguised as tools and screws and smuggled into Colombia.

Federal prosecutors said that 11 people working in Manhattan's diamond district were arrested on Wednesday in a sting operation in which they accepted more than $1 million in cash represented as drug money in exchange for 220 pounds (100 kg) of gold. The smelted metal was molded and painted to look like common items that could get past customs inspectors.

Informants had told authorities that when similar items arrived in Colombia, they were sold to gold refiners for Colombian pesos and delivered to narcotic traffickers.

Among items recovered by federal authorities in New York was a working solid gold wrench, which was painted red and gray, worth about $10,000. Other items included pellets inside bottles of shampoo, light switch plates and even a fashionable belt, made up of thin gold bars, that had been painted silver.

The 11 were charged with money laundering, the prosecutors said. 

Bellyflop champion jailed for breaching house arrest A Florida man has been jailed for breaching his parole to take part in a bellyflop championship. Michael Sullivan was supposed to be under house arrest when he won the contest at last year's annual Red Belly Day festival. He was arrested after Columbia County sheriff's officials saw his picture in the local newspaper. Sullivan was jailed for three years after a court heard he had been sentenced to house arrest for an earlier breach of probation. He was originally put on probation as part of his punishment for leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a licence. His jail sentence meant he was unable to defend his title at this year's Red Belly Day festival on the Suwannee River in Fanning Springs. (c) News Source Story filed: 14:44 Tuesday 27th May 2003

Wrigley plans 'Viagra' gum Fri Jun 13, 7:55 PM ET By Christopher Bowe in New York Wm Wrigley Jr Co has received a patent to deliver Viagra in chewing gum. Its US advertising jingles tell you to "kiss a little longer" with Big Red. With a patent on Viagra gum, that slogan and gum might assume a greater significance. The Chicago-based group has received a patent for chewing gum formulations and methods of use to deliver the main ingredient in Viagra, sildenafil citrate. Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, has a patent on Viagra, the well-known Pfizer male impotence drug, that lasts until 2011. In US patent 6,531,114, Wrigley claims "a method for treating erectile dysfunction in an individual comprising the steps of providing a chewing gum composition that includes a therapeutically effective amount of sildenafil citrate in the chewing gum composition". Chewing causes the drug to be released into the blood stream through the mouth, making it potentially less irritable on the stomach. Apparently it would be chewed about 30 minutes before sex. Viagra is soon to encounter competition for the first time. Germany's Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline of the UK are expected to gain approval for Levitra some time this year. Eli Lilly, US drugmaker, and partner Icos also expect US approval for another male impotence drug Cialis late this year. Viagra, one of the most recognised brands in the world, has become a social icon with sales expected to reach $1.9bn this year. Over the last few years, Wrigley has looked to expand growth in the slow but steady chewing gum market. It has formed a health unit to explore potential of delivering drugs in its gum. Pfizer appears to have no plans to repackage Viagra at this time. Wrigley could, however, wait until Viagra loses patent protection and can be copied as a generic drug. 

Banking error ends 35-year marriage A Brazilian couple have won �10,000 compensation after a banking error ended their 35-year marriage. Maria Rodriques filed for divorce after her bank wrongly told her that her husband Luiz Gonzaga had a joint account with another woman. However, Mrs Rodrigues says she might stay divorced - even though the bank has admitted being at fault. The dispute started five years ago when she went into the Estado de Santa Catarina bank in Santa Catarina to withdraw her husband's pension. Mrs Rodrigues told Jornal Nacional: "They told me I wasn't my husband's wife and even showed me on the computer screen the name of another woman who would be his real wife." Refusing to listen to her husband's protestations of innocence, Mrs Rodrigues filed for divorce. Meanwhile, Mr Gonzaga hired a lawyer and set about trying to prove the bank was at fault. Finally, he won his case in the courts and the bank was ordered to pay the couple �10,000 compensation. But, even after the court ruling, Mrs Rodrigues says she is not sure about getting back together with her former husband. Mr Gonzaga said: "The money is good, but it doesn't make up for a failed marriage, does it?" Story filed: 14:50 Friday 30th May 2003

Rogue AOL Subsidiary Leader to Resign 
Tue Jun 3, 2:41 PM ET

By MATTHEW FORDAHL, News Source Technology Writer 

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A young programmer whose software startup, Nullsoft, was gobbled up by America Online - and then caused numerous headaches for its corporate parent - plans to resign after his latest piece of rebel code was pulled from the Internet. 

Today: Movies on Your PC 
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Justin Frankel, 24, announced his intentions late Monday, less than a week after a file-sharing program called Waste was posted and then pulled from the Nullsoft Web site. 

"The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have," he said in his Web log. "This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav (sic). I don't know when it will be, but I'm not going to last much longer." 

Attempts to reach Frankel by telephone were not successful. An AOL spokeswoman declined to comment. 

AOL paid $86 million for Nullsoft in 1999. At the time, the San Francisco company was best known for creating a popular music player called Winamp. 

Despite the new corporate ownership, Nullsoft's team of programmers managed to maintain a freestyle hacker culture. 

In March 2000, Nullsoft briefly posted a decentralized file-sharing program called Gnutella (news - web sites) before it was axed by AOL. But the genie had been set free, and other developers refined the code to create post-Napster (news - web sites) file-sharing programs. 

Nullsoft's latest creation was a file-sharing program that allowed users to set up secure networks of no more than 50 people. 

Within hours of its posting, Waste was deleted. In its place was a notice that said the program had been posted without Nullsoft's permission. 

"If you downloaded or otherwise obtained a copy of the software, you acquired no lawful rights to the software and must destroy any and all copies of the software, including by deleting it from your computer," the statement said. "Any license that you may believe you acquired with the software is void, revoked and terminated." 

Frankel, who is called "Our Benevolent Dictator" on the Nullsoft site, founded the company in 1998 after dropping out of the University of Utah. 

Suit Says Drugs Made From Tainted Blood 
Tue Jun 3, 2:56 PM ET

By KIM CURTIS, News Source Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO - Several hemophiliacs filed a lawsuit against Bayer Corp. and other companies, claiming they exposed patients to HIV (news - web sites) and hepatitis C by selling medicine made with blood from sick, high-risk donors. 

The lawsuit alleges the companies continued distributing the blood-clotting product in Asia and Latin America in 1984 and 1985, even after they stopped selling it in the United States because of the known risk of HIV and hepatitis transmission. 

The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court seeks class-action status on behalf of thousands of foreign hemophiliacs who received the product, said attorney Robert Nelson. It accuses the companies of negligence and fraudulent concealment. 

"This is a worldwide tragedy," Nelson said. "Thousands of hemophiliacs have unnecessarily died from AIDS (news - web sites) and many thousands more are infected with HIV or hepatitis C." 

Bayer rejected the claims, saying in a statement from its headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany Tuesday that it would examine the lawsuit and prepare its defense. 

"Bayer at all times complied with all regulations in force in the relevant countries based on the amount of scientific evidence available at the time," the company said, adding that decisions made 20 years ago should not be judged by today's scientific knowledge. 

Nelson said the lawsuit was filed in California because defendant Cutter Biological, now a division of Bayer, was formerly based in Berkeley. Several plasma donation sites also were located in the San Francisco Bay area, he said. 

The lawsuit was filed less than two weeks after an investigation by The New York Times accused the company of selling old stock of the medicine abroad, while marketing a newer, safer product in the United States. 

Bayer told Times it sold the old medicine because some customers doubted the effectiveness of a new version of the product, and because some countries were slow to approve its sale. 

While the company said it acted responsibly and in line with the best medical knowledge at the time, Bayer and three other companies that made the concentrate settled 15 years of U.S. lawsuits from people who took the drug, paying about $600 million. 

The medicine, called Factor VIII concentrate, can stop or prevent potentially fatal bleeding in people with hemophilia. 

Early in the AIDS epidemic, the medicine was commonly made using mingled plasma from 10,000 or more donors. Because there was not yet a screening test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, thousands of hemophiliacs were infected. 

But the lawsuit alleges Bayer and the others refused to take precautions that could have made the product safer. 

As of 1992, the contaminated blood products had infected at least 5,000 hemophiliacs in Europe with HIV. More than 2,000 had already developed AIDS and 1,250 had died from the disease, the lawsuit said. 

By the mid-1990s in Japan, hemophiliacs accounted for the majority of the country's 4,000 reported cases of HIV infection and virtually all infections of Japan's hemophiliacs have been linked to contaminated blood products imported from the United States, the lawsuit said. 

In Latin America, at least 700 HIV cases are linked to use of contaminated blood products by hemophiliacs, the lawsuit said. 

Potent British Absinthe Mix Stirs Up Controversy

Jun 1, 9:05 am ET 

LONDON  - Absinthe, the fiery tipple with purported hallucinogenic properties, has stirred up fresh controversy in Britain where it will go on sale in nightclubs and bars next month packaged to be mixed with beer.

"Deco" comes with a small bottle of Kronenbourg lager with a shot of absinthe attached. The idea is to down the 45 percent-strong absinthe and drink the five-percent strength lager as a chaser.

Popularly held responsible for painter Vincent Van Gogh's mutilation of his own ear, absinthe has been banned in many countries but was never outlawed in Britain.

Campaigners for sensible drinking attacked manufacturer Scottish Courage for launching the potent tipple, the latest in a long line of so-called designer drinks.

Charity Alcohol Concern said it was concerned "Deco" would add to the problem of binge drinking among young people.

Scottish Courage said it encouraged the product to be consumed sensibly and said it would not be available off the shelf in supermarkets.

"The actual alcohol content in a Deco is 2.5 units," said David Jones, a company spokesman. "This is actually slightly less than the 2.8 units in a pint of Kronenbourg or lager of similar strength."

Taken with ice water and a lump of sugar, the bitter drink became popular in 19th century Europe. It was distilled with a blend of herbs and was nicknamed "the green fairy" because of its emerald hue.

But many countries banned it after an outcry by the temperance movement amid fears it caused insanity.

Irish writer Oscar Wilde described its devastating kick.

"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were," absinthe lover Wilde wrote. "After the second, you see things as they are not."

"Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world," Wilde concluded. 

Self-milking cows boost dairy farm production A dairy farmer says production on his farm has shot up by 20% since the installation of machines which let the cows milk themselves. Tim Gibson uses the robotic machines on the family farm in Crakehall, near Bedale, North Yorkshire. The two pieces of equipment, which cost �60,000 each and come from Holland, automatically feed the cattle, clean their udders and latch on the suction cups using a computer guidance system. Mr Gibson, 23, who farms with his father David and mother Denny, said: "Cows want to be milked all the time. They have an inbuilt system which tells them when they have to go. It's like going to the toilet for them. "It is unnatural for them to store it up so this allows them to come in and be milked when they want. "It took a while for them to get used to it but they are fine now." Normally cows are milked twice a day, once in the morning and again in the early evening. Mr Gibson says the 130-strong herd visit the machines on average seven times as day, although their milk is normally taken on just three occasions. The machines have caused so much interest that 735 people, mainly farmers from the North East, attended an open day organised by Mr Gibson. Story filed: 13:07 Friday 30th May 2003

Burglary suspect left easy trail after 'stepping in paint' US police had no trouble tracing a suspect who stepped in wet paint during a burglary. Police in Grants Pass, Oregon, say the intruder stepped in the paint and left a well-marked trail when he left. Officers followed the footprints to a motel where they arrested a 22-year-old man. They say evidence recovered there included a pair of paint-covered shoes. The suspect was charged with burglary and theft and is being held in jail in lieu of �40,000 bail. (c) News Source Story filed: 10:26 Friday 30th May 2003

Homeless monkey arrested in Russia A monkey has reportedly been arrested as a tramp in Russia after joining a group of homeless people. Gosha, a macaque, was bought by a rich family in Biysk, eastern Siberia, but was kicked out of their home after becoming uncontrollable, IMA-Press reported. The monkey lived on the streets for months and was befriended by a group of homeless people. Police arrested him after a raid on house where homeless people were squatting. Police officials said they would settle Gosha in Novosibirsk Zoo because it was too expensive to "extradite" him back to Africa. Story filed: 10:05 Friday 30th May 2003

Swimming gold medallist scared of going in the sea German swimming ace Franziska van Almsick has revealed she is afraid of swimming in the open sea.

Van Almsick is currently starring in a TV commercial, where she is shown swimming from Europe to the US. But the five-time Gold medalist at the 2002 European Swimming Championships said: "I am terrified at having to swim in the open sea. "I would never dare to go that far out from the shores, because I am dead scared when I don't know what's underneath my feet." Speaking to German women's magazine, Gala, she added: "I get shivers already imagining that a slimy fish could touch or even attack me."

Levels of Carcinogen Higher in Marlboro Cigarettes
2 hours, 55 minutes ago 
Add Health 

By Paul Simao 

ATLANTA  - Marlboro, the world's No. 1 selling brand of cigarettes, contains significantly higher levels of a cancer-causing agent than its rivals when purchased in many of the largest markets overseas, U.S. scientists say. 

Tests by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) found that the U.S. brand contained higher amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) than other locally available cigarettes in 11 of 13 countries. 

In 10 countries, including Japan and Germany, Marlboro cigarettes purchased locally had at least twice the amount of TSNAs, one of the major classes of carcinogens found in tobacco products, than competitor brands. 

The findings, published in the latest edition of Nicotine & Tobacco Research, come at a time when worldwide demand for American-style, blended cigarettes is outpacing demand for other types of cigarettes. 

David Ashley, a CDC tobacco expert and the lead author of the article, said it was not known whether higher levels of TSNAs would lead to a greater prevalence of cancer and other smoking-related diseases. 

Ashley did, however, note that reducing TSNAs in tobacco products would not make cigarette smoking any safer. 

The World Health Organization (news - web sites) has estimated that there are more than 1.2 billion smokers on the planet and that 4 million people die each year from cancer and other smoking-related diseases. 

Philip Morris USA, which markets Marlboro cigarettes, said the CDC findings were not surprising since the levels of TSNAs found in American cigarettes were traditionally higher because of differences in curing and processing. 

Philip Morris USA is a unit of Altria Group Inc. 

"We're aware of these higher TSNAs and have worked to reduce them," Philip Morris USA spokesman Brendan McCormick said. He added that the company had spent $35 million to lower the levels of this type of carcinogen in its products. 

But anti-tobacco activists said the tobacco giants had done precious little to strip harmful contaminants from cigarettes. 

"Today's study is just the most recent example of the tobacco industry's reckless disregard for the health of smokers and yet another compelling reason why cigarettes need to be regulated by the federal government," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 

About 440,000 people in the United States die each year from lung cancer and other diseases caused by smoking, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the nation. There are about 46.5 million smokers in the United States. 

Bioweapons Buried on U.S. Base 30-May-2003 After two years of digging at Fort Detrick, Maryland, officials have uncovered 2,000 tons of hazardous waste, including over 100 vials of live bacteria and viruses, as well as anthrax, that the military says they didn't know were there. They also found autopsied rats. This is material left over from the U.S. biological weapons program. "When Nixon shut us down, we had a deadline, we were given six weeks to clean up the post. Well you couldn't do it. People sneaked out to the good area, and dumped it in a pit," says Hubert Kaempf, the retired Army maintenance engineer who was in charge of cleanup. A few weeks ago, the FBI found a clear box with holes that rubber gloves could fit through, as well as empty vials, in a Maryland pond near Fort Detrick. Steven J. Hatfill, who is suspected of sending the anthrax letters, once worked there. They think the box was used to put the anthrax into the envelopes underwater, so that the sender would not get poisoned. From the recent find, it's clear that he, or anyone else who worked there, wouldn't have had much trouble getting hold of the anthrax. Workers at Fort Detrick wear biohazard suits and breathe through air hoses. They work inside a specially pressurized and filtered vinyl tent, where they operate bulldozers under blast shields, so they're protected from small explosions. The site is quarantined for two hours at the end of each day, while the tent's air is tested for pathogens. Lt. Col. Donald Archibald says, "Nothing that we removed from the pit has been released into the environment." When the digging began 2 years ago, the Army expected to find debris such as lab chemicals and incinerator ash. But the bulldozers soon found buried, corroded drums of herbicides and unidentified chemicals, syringes, and lab instruments. There are unidentified substances mixed in with the dirt, which is bleached to kill any bacteria, then sent in sealed containers to a disposal facility in Texas. Archibald says, who is Fort Detrick's director of safety, says, "The documentation for where this came from doesn't exist." 

Treasury Chief Gets Currency Refresher Wed May 28, 6:45 PM ET Add Strange News - 

By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary John Snow is the nation's top money man, but he might need a refresher course on the greenbacks the United States makes these days. Snow was asked during an online "chat" Wednesday what form of currency he would like to have his image on. "I would put it on the $500 bill," Snow replied. "It has the least circulation. That way I wouldn't have to see myself too often." Oops. The United States stopped printing new $500 bills in 1945 and stopped issuing them altogether - along with $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes - in 1969, due to lack of use, says the Treasury Department (news - web sites)'s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Since 1969, the $100 bill has been the largest denomination note cranked out by the bureau and in circulation. The image of William McKinley, the 25th president, appears on the front of the $500 bills, which along with the other higher, discontinued denominations are more likely to be turn up in the hands of collectors than in cash registers. Even if the $500 bill were brought back, Snow's image couldn't be put on it, at least not right now. Living people's visages cannot appear on U.S. currency. Afterward, Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said that Snow was joking when he made the comments during an interactive exchange posted on the White House Web site. 

School Holds Rock-Paper-Scissors Contest Thu May 29,11:00 AM ET Add Strange News - 

By The News Source ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. - Rock smashes scissors. Paper covers rock. Scissors cut paper. Student insists there's a deeper meaning. Thomas Shaffer, who organized a rock-paper-scissors tournament at his high school, says the game is based on patterns, so the odds of winning increase when a player better observes his opponent. "At first I was one of the believers that it is a game of luck," Shaffer said. "I'll let you in on a little secret: Most people open with scissors. Novice players rarely throw the same thing twice in a row." Shaffer recruited 75 classmates at Elizabethtown Area High School to compete, got the school to let him hold the contest in the gym and even convinced a sponsor to donate money for trophies. A dairy donated chocolate milk. Shaffer managed to back up his bluster about the game's intricacies, making the final round by winning 19 matches in a row. But in the end, he lost to Jeff Leggett. "It's not about luck," Leggett said. "It's about being on your game. Some days you can't pick up patterns." Shaffer is scheduled to graduate next week, but Leggett, a junior, said he will organize next year's tournament. 

Cat-Centric TV Show Set for Its Debut Thu May 29, 8:13 PM ET Add Strange News - 

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, News Source Entertainment Writer NEW YORK - Balls of yarn, little plastic toys with bells inside and the occasional whiff of catnip simply aren't enough to satisfy the entertainment needs of today's sophisticated, high-tech felines. Cats need television. And now they have it. "Meow TV," which bills itself as being for cats "and the people they tolerate," debuts at 7:30 p.m. EDT Friday on the Oxygen network. The tongue-in-furry-cheek comedy mixes video of squirrels and fish with segments titled "Cat Yoga" and "Cat Haiku." An interminably perky host on "The House Cat Shopping Network" urges kitties to "use those paws - you've seen your owners do it, you know how to dial a phone." And an ad for a collection of favorite feline songs includes "Spay You, Spay Me" and "Mice, Mice Baby." Lazy, lasagna-loving Garfield had his own animated series for a while. So did the cranky comic-strip cat Heathcliff and the animated troublemaker Felix. Then there was Salem, the spooky animatronic talking cat on "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." And of course, there was the "Toonces the Driving Cat" sketch on "Saturday Night Live (news - Y! TV)." "Meow TV" executive producer Elyse Roth likened her show to "Cat-urday Night Live," and said at least two more episodes are in the works. Actress Annabelle Gurwitch, formerly of TBS' "Dinner and a Movie," plays host while sitting on the couch with her 9-year-old black cat, Stinky. "The artistic mission was to create programming you could watch with your cat," Roth said. "I don't know that you're going to park your cat and do whatever." (A recent advance showing of "Meow TV" at a Brooklyn loft, however, failed to hold the attention of a certain pair of overfed 11-year-old cats. Cali, the calico, licked herself the whole time, while Silver, who's gray and white, stared blankly out the window, then slinked away for food about halfway through.) But some cats really do watch television, insisted Pat Marengo as she cuddled her brown-and-orange Persian, Maggie. "She watches anything that's fast. She likes sports, she likes cartoons. She likes to see other cats on TV," said Marengo, who lives on Long Island with her husband and a family of cats who act and model. "We have a cat perch near the television, and she goes up, looks at it and tries to touch it." Marengo and Maggie were at the "Meow TV" launch party on Tuesday night. Also in attendance was Vincent Pastore, who starred in "The Sopranos (news - Y! TV)" as Big Pussy. ___ On the Net: "Meow TV" Web site: http://www.meowtv.com/ Oxygen Web site: http://www.oxygen.com 

Television Show for Cats Set to Debut 
Thu May 29,12:03 PM ET 
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DECATUR, Ala. - A Decatur manufacturer is hoping a new television show will be a cat-alyst for a new wave of programming. 

"Meow TV," developed by the Meow Mix Co., debuts Friday at 6:30 p.m. on the Oxygen Network. It's the first show targeted at cats. Not cat lovers. Cats. 

Decatur is home to the Secaucus, N.J.-based company's only manufacturing facility. 

The half-hour program was developed after research showed that one-third of cats enjoy watching television, said Ira Cohen, marketing director for Meow Mix. 

"It's real fun," Cohen said. "The mission of the Meow Mix Co. is to keep cats happy, so we developed this program for cats and the people they tolerate." 

The feline-friendly show will air on the Oxygen Network several times in June. 

Local workers at the manufacturing plant offered input on the show, which features cat yoga, cat haiku and sporadic video of squirrels and fish. 

Actress Sandra Bernhard narrates mock infomercials geared toward humans, such as "The House Cat Shopping Network." 

Viewers also can send in birthday greetings to their cats and videos of their cats doing "something cool." 

The first episode features a cat that eats with chopsticks and a cat surfing in the ocean. 

Comical Ali video on way Gulf War icon Comical Ali is to star in his own video featuring his greatest soundbites.

The Iraqi information minister became a celebrity for his optimistic outlook as the Allied invasion of Baghdad loomed. Now footage of his briefings has been gathered for a DVD and video release, Comical Ali, in the near future. Producers of the video are donating 10% of profits to the Red Cross for Third World aid. Ali - real name Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf - has already appeared as a cult figure on best-selling t-shirts after finding fame with his rants. As US forces were reported to have taken over Baghdad's airport, he famously declared: "They are nowhere near the airport, they are lost in the desert ... they cannot read a compass ... they are retarded." A spokesman for the firm behind the video, which calls itself the Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation, said: "The media throws up unlikely heroes, men or women that touch us, those that triumph in the face of hardship and adversity, those that strike a resonant note in these beleaguered times. "And the last 12 months has given us one such man, a warrior of unshakeable belief, a titan amongst publicists, a hero for the modern media age." Story filed: 18:06 Thursday 29th May 2003

Our Health Depends on What Happens Before We're Born 29-May-2003 Tara Pepper writes in Newsweek that the secret of heart disease, and other deadly diseases, lies in the womb. U.K. researcher David Barker has discovered that some diseases actually start before we're born. Harvard's Nurses Health Study, which started in 1976 and surveyed 121,000 women, found a 23% increase in heart disease and 80% increase in diabetes among people with low birth weights. Another study found a 40% increase in severe kidney disease among adults who weighed less than 5 * pounds at birth. Barker started researching health in the womb when he noticed that lifestyle changes in adults, like exercising more and eating less fatty food, didn't change the rate of heart disease nearly as much as doctors had hoped. Using statistics, he eventually discovered that people who had low birth rates were more likely to die of heart disease. He then found the same results with people who had diabetes and kidney disease. One reason is that smaller babies have fewer cells in basic organs like the heart and the kidney. You only make kidney cells during a brief period of before you're born, so you're born with all you'll ever have. If you have a smaller kidney you're more likely to get higher blood pressure. If you're not getting much glucose from your mother, which is very important to a fetus, you don't store it, but keep it in the blood so that there's lots of it available. That works well for the baby, but in later life it causes diabetes. Also, small babies are more vulnerable to stress. If a baby isn't growing well, its body will activate its cortisone, which is a stress response. That speeds up the maturation of organs such as the lungs, but it sets up high stress responses for life. This is an important finding, since more premature babies are being kept alive today, and they may grow up to have major health problems. Also, fertility drugs are causing many more multiple births, and these babies are also likely to be smaller. It turns out that it's dangerous for mothers to diet too much even before conception. Babies don't live off what the mother eats, they live off the mother's body. Proteins within cells are constantly broken down and released into the mother's blood, where they nourish the baby. Women who are thin don't release as much from their bodies because they need it for themselves. The babies of thin women will have problems 40 or 50 years later in the way they handle sugar. It's important to feed babies correctly after they're born, as well. Scientists now know that babies who are fed a dairy- based formula grow up to have higher blood pressure than babies who are breast-fed. When many of the people reaching old age right now were infants, breast feeding wasn't fashionable, so most of them started out on milk- based formula, and this is the group having heart trouble today. It could be that the high sodium content of cow's milk affects the development of young babies, or the problem might be that cow's milk is higher in fat and calories. Overfed babies, who gain too much weight early in life, are more likely to be obese and have heart disease later on. Those of us trying to have healthy hearts through good diet, enough exercise and taking medications may still have to work at being healthy, but we no longer have to feel guilty. Doctors don't tell us that many things about our health were predetermined before (and shortly after) we were born. 

Swimming pool chlorine linked to asthma epidemic Wed May 28, 6:32 PM ET NEWS SOURCE 

PARIS (NEWS SOURCE) - Chlorine used to disinfect indoor swimming pools could be one of the causes behind an astonishing surge in childhood asthma in developed countries in the past few decades, according to a new study. The suspected culprit is trichloramine, a gassy, easily inhalable irritant that is released in a complex process when chlorinated water reacts with urine, sweat or other organic matter brought by swimmers. Trichloramine has previously been fingered as a trigger for three proteins that destroy the cellular barrier protecting the lungs, making it permeable and more prone to the passage of allergens -- the substances that unleash an asthma attack. Belgian researchers, writing in the British research journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, took blood samples from 226 young primary schoolchildren who had swum regularly at indoor pools since early childhood. They also took samples from 29 adults and children both before and after a session in an indoor pool. The samples show that youngsters who regularly attend indoor pools accumulate these proteins, making them more at risk from asthma. Most frightening of all: the children who swam most frequently had protein levels of the kind found in regular smokers. Protein levels even rose measurably among people who had been sitting at the poolside and had not swum. "The increasing exposure of chlorination products in indoor pools might be an important cause of the rising incidence of childhood asthma and allergic disease in industrialised countries," say the scientists, led by Alfred Bernard, a toxicologist at Brussels' Catholic University of Louvain. The effects were the same for children wherever they lived, and remained after taking account of other environmental pollutants. But they were strongest in the youngest children. Levels of trichloramine -- chemical name nitrogen trichloride (NCl 3) -- vary a lot, however. It depends on how crowded the pool is, the ventilation and how clean the swimmers are. The authors were astounded when they were unable to locate a single serious study to check whether chlorine or other disinfectant chemicals pose a risk for swimmers, especially youngsters who are the most frequent users. "The belief that the swimming pool environment is safe is so deeply rooted in our minds that it is regarded as a healthy practice to send schoolchildren swimming as frequently as possible -- much more than necessary for swimming training -- even from the youngest age," they say. "The question needs to be raised as to whether it would not be prudent in the future to move towards non-chlorine based disinfectants, or at least to reinforce water and air quality control in indoor pools, in order to minimise exposure to these reactive chemicals," the authors say. In the United States alone, some 17.3 million people suffer from asthma. Since 1980, hospitalisation of patients and deaths occurring from asthma in the United States have risen 75 percent. According to a 2002 study, one in eight British children suffers from asthma while one in five has been diagnosed with the illness at some stage in their life. 

German Shepherds 'are unluckiest dogs' German shepherds are Britain's unluckiest breed of dog. A new survey also found border collies are the second most accident-prone, followed by German pointers and Great Danes. The statistics are based on an online poll of 500 owners. The top three "unlucky" incidents were swallowing a toy, followed by running away from the vet and getting a head trapped in the cat flap. Another frequent accident for dogs was falling down the toilet. Among the tales told by pet lovers included how a greedy bull terrier swallowed a bottle cap, cling film, a toy car and some wire. The dog was operated on and put on a drip. It then ate the drip. Another dog got stuck between the conservatory and the garden wall and had to be removed with fairy liquid. The research also showed that dogs generally appear to be unlucky animals, with 44% having visited the vet due to illness or injury and 21% returning more than once.

Video games 'good for you' New research suggests that playing certain types of video game can sharply improve your visual perception. The study found that 'shoot-em-up' style games that feature enemies that pop out of nowhere sharply improve attention skills. Experienced players of these games are 30% to 50% better than non-players at taking in everything that happens around them, according to the report cited in Nature. They identify objects in their peripheral vision, perceiving numerous objects without having to count them, switch attention rapidly and track many items at once. Dr Daphne Bavelier, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at New York state's University of Rochester who led the study said the games increase the brain's capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events. Other types of action games, including those that focus on strategy or role playing, do not produce the same effect. While some researchers have suggested possible links between video games and other abilities, this study is thought to be the first to explore their effects on visual skills. Though the number of subjects was small, Dr. Bavelier said, the effects were too large to be a result of chance. "We were really surprised," Dr Bavelier told The New York Times, adding that as little as 10 hours of play substantially increased visual skills among novice players. "You get better at a lot of things, not just the game." But she stressed that playing video games should not be regarded by children as a substitute for other learning activities. Dr Bavelier - a mother of six-year-old twins and a two-year-old - concluded: "Please, keep doing your homework."

Smoking Speeds Up Memory Loss in Middle Age
Wed May 28, 5:06 PM ET 
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By Alison McCook 

NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Cigarette smokers who continue the habit through middle age may see their memory suffer as a result, according to new study findings released Wednesday. 

UK researchers found that, from their 40s to their 50s, smokers showed a faster decline in their scores on tests of word memory, relative to non-smokers. 

Furthermore, people who smoked in their 40s did worse on tests that measure how fast they could pick out certain letters from a page than non-smokers of the same age, the authors write in the American Journal of Public Health. 

The relationship between smoking and memory loss appeared strongest in people who smoked more than 20 cigarettes each day, and persisted even when the authors controlled for the influence of socioeconomic status, gender and a range of medical conditions. 

Just why smoking may speed up age-related memory loss is not yet clear, study author Dr. Marcus Richards of University College London told The News Source Health. 

He said that he and his colleagues suspected that smoking may accelerate memory loss by increasing the risk of high blood pressure, which can damage the brain. However, the relationship between smoking and brain functioning may be slightly more complicated, Richards said. 

"Our results for memory still held up after taking blood pressure into account, but smoking could have been causing changes in the brain's blood supply that we were not able to measure," he said. 

Alternatively, chemicals in cigarette smoke could also damage the brain directly, Richards added. 

Whatever the reasons for why smoking accelerates memory loss, the message from these results should be clear, Richards said. 

"This is yet another reason to quit smoking," he said. "If you can't, then cut down as much as you can." 

During the study, Richards and his team reviewed information collected from 5,362 people born in 1946. Study participants were contacted 21 times by the time they turned 53. 

Researchers measured people's mental functioning via a series of tests. In one test, which looked at verbal memory, the investigators showed people 15 words for two seconds each, then asked them to write down as many as they could remember. 

During tests of speed and concentration, people had to look for and cross out as many Ps and Ws they could find in a page of other letters within one minute. 

Although smokers in their 40s performed just as well as non-smokers in the verbal memory tests, puffers' performance deteriorated much faster from their 40s to their 50s. 

And people who said they smoked while in their 40s scored worse during speed tests conducted in their 40s than non-smokers. 

But the findings also suggest that quitting may help, for the researchers discovered that people who stopped smoking before age 53, and especially those who stopped before age 43, tended to exhibit a slower decline in memory. 

"Our results suggest that quitting may slow down the negative impact of smoking on cognitive function," Richards said. 

Penisaurus welcomes sex exhibition ladies' day visitors A mascot called Penisaurus has welcomed visitors to a sex exhibition's ladies' day in Sydney. Organisers of the Club X Sexpo have been giving free gifts to all women on the first day of the four-day event. There were extra male events on stage as well as stalls selling sex toys and pornography. Around 50,000 people are expected at the Fox Studios for the exhibition which ends on Sunday. In a statement, the organisers said: "It's important to note that men and women are welcome on any day at Sexpo, but the ladies' day theme is something of an icebreaker. "Our previous experience has shown that many women hold off visiting until the weekend, when they can come along with their partner. This is a way to make them feel comfortable visiting themselves, or with some of their girlfriends." Sexpo began in 1996 and has since grown into Australia's busiest public exhibition.

Neighbours petition against woman's noisy sex An Australian woman's loud love-making has caused her neighbours to complain to the council. They raised a petition to Port Phillip Council in Melbourne asking that she tone down her bedroom behaviour. But the woman, in her 30s who asked to not be identified, told the Herald Sun she was shocked by the claims. She said she did not believe she was excessively loud: "It's probably because my bed is up against the wall," she said. "There is no sound-proofing in these apartments. I can hear people snoring next door and clearing their throat. I can even hear them having sex. I have to wear ear plugs when they are watching videos." She said her flatmates had never complained and said she would not be bullied into selling her apartment in the exclusive development. But one of the neighbours, in a letter to the woman, said: "I hear you every time you have sex. You will not be able to play music at any time, entertain guests or wear shoes." A Port Phillip Council spokeswoman said it had investigated the claims and encouraged both parties to seek mediation. "This is an unusual complaint that is not covered by local council laws," she said. Story filed: 09:41 Wednesday 28th May 2003

Jacko never gave me what I wanted in bed says Lisa Marie Lisa Marie Presley says Michael Jackson never really gave her what she wanted in bed.

In a preview of an interview with Playboy, she reveals that she likes sex "the way they do it in porn movies." Presley says Jackson is "not sexually seductive, but there is something riveting about him." And she says Nicolas Cage threw her diamond ring in the water, only to replace it two days later with a bigger one. Presley also admitted: "I think I'd be much better as a lesbian." Story filed: 10:10 Wednesday 28th May 2003

Russians suffering after drinking vodka to ward off Sars Six Russian men suffered alcoholic poisoning after going on a week-long vodka binge to ward off Sars. The men, from Blagoveschensk, thought the vodka would protect them from Chinese workers on a nearby building site. Doctors who examined the men after they were admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning said it would take a week for them to recover. Russian scientists recently claimed that vodka could ward off the Sars virus. In another incident, a woman who was drinking vodka to protect herself from Sars thought she had contracted the virus after getting drunk. The 20-year-old, from the Russian city of Perm, went to doctors after what she claimed was "close contact with a Chinese man" at a local Chinese market, the Novy Region newspaper reported. She complained of a pain in her throat after every shot of vodka, and that she was sweating and had a high temperature. Doctors examined the woman and sent her home after discovering she was merely drunk. Story filed: 12:47 Wednesday 28th May 2003

Mad Cow Made into Dog Food 28-May-2003 When a Canadian cow recently tested positive for Mad Cow Disease, meat producers began quarantining and testing their beef. Now the FDA has announced that part of the affected cow may have been used to make dog food that was shipped to the U.S. There's no scientific evidence that dogs can Mad Cow or transmit it to humans. However, deer and elk do get a form of the disease, and do transmit it to humans who eat the meat of diseased animals. The dry dog food was made by Champion Pet Food of Canada and distributed in the U.S. by Pet Pantry, in Nevada. It was put into 50 pound bags and sold by home delivery only, so it won't turn up in stores. The dog food is called "Maintenance Diet" and has a label with a use-by date of Feb. 17, 2004 and "Beef with Barley" with a date of March 5, 2004. If you find any of this dog food, don't discard it, but call the company for pickup, since they want to account for the entire batch. 

Seniors Get New Lease on Love and Sex

May 28, 8:16 am ET 

By Andrea Orr

SAN FRANCISCO  - What happens when a sexually frustrated 66-year-old woman advertises her plight and calls for men of all ages to step up to the plate?

If Jane Juska's experience is typical, she spends a weekend in a romantic hotel room with a man who makes her feel young again. Young by comparison, at least. Her new lover is 82.

So much for friendly companionship in the golden years. Juska's new memoir "A Round Heeled Woman" is a graphic reminder that not everyone approaching 70, 80 or even 90 is content just to hold hands and gaze at the sunset.

Long-divorced, widowed and never-married older people are finding it easier than ever to satisfy their desires, partially due to the growing popularity of online dating. The same dating Web sites that were first adopted by people a third their age are helping isolated senior citizens connect with others who do not wish to spend all their days doting on grandchildren.

The popular Internet dating service Match.com features hundreds of members over the age of 80, including one 83-year-old man from Missouri who said he wanted a woman who was "lovely to look at, delightful to know and heaven to kiss." One 70-year-old retired New Jersey school teacher who tried the service thinking it might be a good way to find someone to go to lunch with said she was turned off by the overtly sexual messages of most of the men who wrote to her. Match.com said a survey of its members suggests that seniors as a whole remain a lot less romantically and sexually active than their children and grandchildren. Only 20 percent of those who responded to one survey said they had been in a romantic relationship in the last year. Just 37 percent said they had been kissed.

Juska, a long-divorced schoolteacher living in liberal Berkeley, California, took a more conservative approach when she decided it was time to end a 15-year celibacy. Rather than placing an ad on the Internet, she turned to the august New York Review of Books, where she thought she might meet someone who shared her love of literature.

"Before I turn 67," her ad said, "I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."

Juska minced no words either, when she began to hear from eager suitors. "If I can't kiss you all over then cancel your travel plans," she wrote to one suitor. "Because long walks on the beach will simply not do."

A recent study of 1,300 men and women over the age of 60 by the National Council on the Aging found that 61 percent of the men and 37 percent of the women were sexually active. Some 61 percent of the men and 62 percent of the women said that sex was as satisfying or more satisfying than it was in their 40s.

Juska, who slept with a handful of men ranging from 32 to 84, and her book are drawing attention to sex among seniors.

"Dating is just as terrifying and interesting, risky, fun and exciting at 70 as it is at 26," she said in an interview. The "round-heeled woman" the book is named for is an old-fashioned term for a promiscuous female.

Still, her frank memoir also devotes considerable time to showing that sex after a certain age is different.

"What once was firm was loose, what once went up went down," she writes of her own body. Perhaps because of these flaws, a baggy sweater is her preferred attire when she goes to meet a new man.

The men, of course, are flawed too.

"His color is gone, his hair is gone, and My God, I think this man is old," she wrote of her initial reaction when her 82-year-old lover stepped off the plane.

But Juska spent a torrid weekend with him anyway. After a 15-year dry spell, she said, just about any man would have done.

"I was just teeming. If he had gotten off the plane in a wheelchair -- or on a stretcher -- it probably would not have dissuaded me. I was just in white heat." 

Who would've friggin known...

__

Wine Tasting Takes Brains, Italian Study Finds

May 28, 7:57 am ET 

By Estelle Shirbon

ROME  - Wine-tasting takes more than a perfect palate and a fruity vocabulary -- you have to use your brains.

That's the finding of a study undertaken by a team of researchers at a Rome hospital.

"We wanted to find out whether there was a difference at brain level between a trained and an untrained person drinking wine," said Gisela Hagberg, a Swedish bio-physicist, at the study's presentation at the Wine Academy in Rome Tuesday.

"What we found is that the training does not just educate your palate, it also affects how your brain responds to the taste of wine."

Researchers conducted brain scans on seven sommeliers and seven casual drinkers while they sampled wines.

The scans showed strong activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that reacts to sensations of pleasure, in both groups.

But the sommeliers also displayed a burst of activity in parts of their frontal cortexes, an area of the brain used for thinking, while the amateurs showed no reaction there at all.

"Both groups were asked to pay close attention to what they were drinking, so it's not that the control subjects weren't thinking," said Hagberg.

The difference appears to be that while both groups' brains processed the sensory aspects of drinking, the taste of wine triggered a rational, even intellectual response in the experts.

Andrea Sturniolo, one of the sommeliers who participated in the experiment at the Santa Lucia research hospital, was thrilled with the results.

"This is fantastic. This proves the reasoning, the intellectual effort that goes into breaking down the many tastes of a wine and assessing its full flavor," he said.

"It's not that sommeliers are superior beings of course, it's all in the training and the experience."

Sturniolo's only objection to the whole experience was having to drink wine lying down and through tubes inserted in his mouth -- a technique necessary for the brain scan to be conducted even as the subjects tasted the wine.

"It certainly didn't do much for the seeing and smelling parts of wine-tasting," he said. "I wouldn't recommend it." 

Bride whisked to reception in giant yellow digger A bride who asked for a chauffeur driven limo to pick her up from church was stunned when a giant yellow digger arrived instead.

Elaine Hesketh refused point blank to risk spoiling her expensive wedding gown by clambering aboard the huge excavator. But when groom Gary gave her no choice, she finally jumped into the bucket for the 5mph journey to the wedding reception. Former JCB driver Gary had been planning the stunt for weeks behind Elaine's back after he could not "fix it" for a limo. Elaine had suspected he would try to play some kind of practical joke - and was proved right when they were exchanging vows at Dukinfield, near Tameside, Manchester. When asked by the vicar if he would take Elaine to be his wife, Gary, an Elvis nut, put on a black wig and responded with "Uh huh" instead of "I do." As she left the church with Gary, thinking there was a ribboned Rolls-Royce waiting outside, the Bob the Builder theme tune blasted out from the church speakers - and then she saw the digger. Elaine, 38, who runs a pub with Gary, said: "I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, although looking back it should have come as no surprise. "At first I told him there was no way I was getting on the thing. I did not want to ruin my dress. But I knew I had no choice and eventually I climbed on to the front. He's an absolute lovable loon." Gary, 37, said: "I suppose you could say it brought new meaning to the phrase getting hitched. I'm known as a bit of a practical joker so I thought I better live up to my name."

Revising students behind surge in brain food sales Students studying for exams are buying more and more so-called 'brain foods'. Tesco says sales of fish, broccoli, asparagus, spinach, all types of fresh fruit and vitamin supplements are soaring. Demand for coffee and bottles of drinking water has also risen especially in towns which are also homes to large universities and colleges. Tesco fresh produce category director Steve Murrells said: "Students now prepare for their studying in the same way that athletes prepare for their races. "For the first time, they are now using a good diet as well as intensive study to help boost performance during this critical time in their academic lives." Tesco's sales figures show that the move towards good food and exams has been taking place in university towns and cities for the last two years. Sales of fish, particularly for salmon, trout, and cod, have leapt by up to 34 per cent, with demand highest in university towns such as Cambridge, Oxford, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Durham. Story filed: 12:11 Tuesday 27th May 2003

Youthful Hostility Linked to Adult Heart Disease Mon May 26, 5:38 PM ET Add Health 

By Alan Mozes NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Children and adolescents who approach the ups and downs of life with a hostile attitude might be at a heightened risk of developing health complications that can progress to adult heart disease, according to U.S. and Finnish researchers. "There is a need for interventions designed to reduce hostility in young people to prevent the precursors to cardiovascular disease, like obesity or type II diabetes, which has become a huge health problem in children in the U.S.," the study's lead author, Dr. Karen A. Matthews of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, said in a statement. Parents, Matthews told The News Source Health, should try to address any conflicts their children might be having in order to ease hostile feelings. Among the children and teens her team studied, the researchers found that anger, cynicism and aggression were associated with several cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure and a condition called insulin resistance that can be a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Such chronic conditions -- grouped together under the heading of "metabolic syndrome" -- have been shown to promote cardiovascular disease, the researchers note. Matthews and her colleagues examined 134 children and adolescents in the Pittsburgh area who had no history of heart disease, mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse. The children were between the ages of 8 and 10, while the adolescents were between 15 and 17. The participants were divided roughly equally between male and female, and black and white. Blood samples -- to assess the presence of the metabolic syndrome factors -- were drawn at the start of the study, and then again three years later. The children also underwent psychological testing to measure hostility levels. Children and adolescents who had a clean bill of health at the start of the study but who had high hostility levels were more likely than other children to develop at least two components of the metabolic syndrome during the next three years, the researchers found. Hostility was most strongly associated with the later development of obesity and insulin resistance, Matthews and her team report in the May issue of Health Psychology. The researchers stress that the study did not explore all the variables that might contribute to hostile attitudes or to the development of the metabolic syndrome among young people. For example, they suggest that future studies might focus on the role played by hormonal changes during puberty. They also note that diet, unhealthy lifestyle, stress and poverty might all have an impact on the association between hostility and heart disease. Still, the authors conclude that taking steps to reduce kids' hostility -- in conjunction with promoting other lifestyle changes -- might end up reducing the risk of future heart disease. "Parents can encourage their children to avoid over-eating (and to) exercise, and discuss areas of conflict as a way to prevent the development of the metabolic syndrome," Matthews told The News Source Health. SOURCE: Health Psychology 2003;22:279- 286. 

Most Drivers Admit They're Road Risks Tue May 27, 6:59 AM ET 

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - A majority of drivers admit they routinely speed, eat or even read while driving in a new poll designed to measure drivers' attitudes about safety. Ninety-one percent of drivers of all ages acknowledged at least one risky activity in the previous six months, including 71 percent who said they sped; 59 percent who ate while driving; 37 percent who used a cell phone; 28 percent who wore no seatbelt and 26 percent who used no signal when turning. Fourteen percent admitted to reading while driving. At the same time, drivers were likely to say that someone else on the road is more dangerous than they are. Drivers ages 26-44 were most likely to engage in risky driving, but when that age group was asked which drivers should be retested to make sure they're driving safely, 83 percent said seniors and 69 percent said teens. Only 56 percent said everyone should be retested. "We worry about the car, the weather, the driver in front or behind us. But we don't spend nearly enough time worrying about our own driving habits," said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations. Of those 65 and older, 68 percent said teens should be retested and 59 percent said seniors should be retested. Of those under 26, 83 percent said seniors should be retested and 47 percent said teens should be retested. The survey, released Tuesday, was conducted for Volvo Cars of North America, AAA and Partners for Highway Safety as part of a new safety campaign. The groups plan a Web site that invites drivers to test their knowledge of safe driving habits and learn about safe driving techniques. The group also plans to air a half-hour television special this summer on safe driving. "So far, the focus has been on making cars and roads safer," AAA Vice President Susan Pikrallidas said. "But driving is a complex task and many of us have poor driving habits." The drivers polled also said drivers have gotten more dangerous. Of those polled, 81 percent said cars are safer than in the past and 57 percent said roads are safer, but only 27 percent said drivers are safer. The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. from May 13 to 16. It questioned 1,100 drivers ages 16 or older and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

Laughter Really is the Best Medicine 26-May-2003 A Japanese study shows that diabetics can process sugar better if they laugh during the meal. Laughter has also been shown to help high blood pressure, stimulate the nervous system, heighten the immune system, release natural painkillers and make the heart stronger. During the study, Dr. Keiko Hayashi measured the blood glucose levels of 19 diabetics and five non-diabetics before and after they ate the same meal, on two separate days. On one day, participants listened to a 40-minute lecture, which was "monotonous" and "without humorous content." On the second day, participants were part of an audience of 1,000 people who watched a Japanese comedy show. At the end of the show, "most" participants "considered that they laughed well," according to Hayashi. He found that blood glucose levels after the meal were higher after participants heard the boring lecture than after they heard the comedy show, in both diabetics and non-diabetics. The reasons why laughter reduces blood glucose aren't clear, but Hayashi thinks laughter could increase energy consumption by working the abdominal muscles. Hayashi says, "If positive emotion such as laughter reduced blood glucose, both patients and medical providers should recognize the importance of it...We should laugh more."

Hauntings are Real-but Ghosts Aren't? 26-May-2003 According to psychologists, ghosts are the mind's way of interpreting how the body reacts to certain surroundings. A chill in the air, low-light conditions and magnetic fields have long been associated with hauntings. Now researchers think these things may be what "create" ghosts, by triggering feelings that "a presence" is in a room. Dr. Richard Wiseman worked with hundreds of volunteers in two of the U.K.'s most haunted locations-Hampton Court Palace in England, and the South Bridge Vaults in Edinburgh, Scotland. Hampton court is said to be haunted by the ghost of the executed Catherine Howard, the 5th wife of Henry VIII. People from different cultures have consistently reported similar experiences over hundreds of years in these places. Volunteers were asked to record any unusual experiences they had there, such as hearing footsteps, feeling cold or sensing a presence in the room. The volunteers didn't know which parts of these places were haunted. Wiseman found that the volunteers actually did record a higher number of unusual experiences in the places in Hampton Court that are supposed to be have ghosts, such as the Georgian rooms and the Haunted Gallery. The same experiment was conducted in Edinburgh and the results were the same: the areas considered to be haunted were where the most unusual encounters occurred. The researchers say this is evidence that hauntings are a real phenomenon, because they are concentrated in specific places over time. But they don't believe the experiences are caused by ghosts. "Hauntings exist, in the sense that places exist where people reliably have unusual experiences," says Wiseman. "The existence of ghosts is a way of explaining these experiences." So hauntings are real but ghosts aren't? "People do have consistent experiences in consistent places, but I think that this is driven by visual factors mainly, and perhaps some other environmental cues," Wiseman says. Wiseman thinks that people are responding unconsciously to environmental cues and the general "spookiness" of their surroundings. This may also be why mediums can tell which parts of a building are haunted, with no prior knowledge of them. Skeptics says ghostly encounters are influenced by a person's knowledge of the place, but Wiseman proved this isn't true, since his experiments showed that prior knowledge did not affect the areas in which strange experiences were recorded. "We found little if no evidence that people's prior knowledge mattered," he says. "If anything, it made them veer away from having experiences in the known haunted sites." 

Full-Term Fetus Knows Mom's Voice: Study Tue May 27,10:31 AM ET Add Health 

By Alison McCook NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - New study findings suggest that shortly before birth, a fetus may be able to distinguish mom's voice from others. U.S. researchers found that heart rate in full-term fetuses increased when a recording of their mothers' voices was played, but decreased in response to the voice of a female stranger. This shows that the fetus can distinguish between the voices of its mother and other women before it is even born, study author Dr. Barbara S. Kisilevsky of Queen's University in Canada told The News Source Health. "It is not the increased heart rate per se, but the different ways in which the fetuses responded to the two voices ... that tells us that the fetus had to recognize its own mother's voice," she said. "If not, then the response to both voices would have been the same." These results add to a body of research suggesting that biology prepares the fetus to bond to its mother after birth and take on the daunting task of learning language, Kisilevsky noted. Furthermore, showing that a fetus can distinguish its mother's voice adds credence to the theory that both genes and experience help a fetus understand speech, because the tendency to respond differently to different voices "had to occur through experience," Kisilevsky said. During the study, reported in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science, Kisilevsky and her colleagues played a tape recording through speakers held around 10 centimeters over the mothers' abdomens. The tapes consisted of two minutes of silence followed by two minutes of either the mother or a female stranger reading the same poem, then two more minutes of silence. On average, the fetuses had spent about 38 weeks in the womb, and so were full-term. Thirty fetuses were exposed to tapes of their mothers speaking, and another 30 the voices of a female stranger. Although mothers' voices did not appear to elicit significantly more body movement in the fetuses than did the voices of female strangers, fetal heart rate increased when listening to their mothers, and appeared to decrease in response to a recording of a female stranger. In terms of why a stranger's voice might lower a fetus's heart rate, Kisilevsky said that a decrease in heart rate is often a sign of attention, and the fetus may have paid more attention to a voice it didn't recognize. "I think it already knew its mother's voice, and was now learning about other voices," she said. SOURCE: Psychological Science 2003;14:220-224. 

Hangovers Emerge as Top Excuse for Skiving Workers

May 27, 9:43 am ET 

LONDON  - A third of British workers think it is acceptable to take a bogus day off sick, and the top reason for doing so is a hangover, according to a survey.

Over 60 percent of respondents in the research released on Tuesday said they had "pulled a sickie" after hard drinking.

Workers in Yorkshire, the Midlands, the southwest of England and Wales were more likely than the national average to use a hangover as a reason to call in sick.

Scots and Londoners were least likely to let a hangover get in the way of a working day.

The survey also found that half of all respondents would be more likely to haul themselves into work if they were in danger of losing pay.

Four in 10 would think again if they knew their bosses were monitoring their sick leave closely. A third would be less likely to skive if their working hours were more flexible.

But an undeterred one in 10 in the survey conducted among almost 1,000 people said nothing would stop them from calling in sick.

Mike Hawkesford, managing director of Crown Computing, the software company behind the research, said the results showed the need for bosses to manage sick leave.

"Keeping an eye on absences can help identify trends and patterns...Businesses need to manage absence as and when it happens," he said.

The Confederation of British Industry, an umbrella organization for employers, says bogus absence costs businesses as much as 11.6 billion pounds ($19 billion) a year. 

Hangovers Emerge as Top Excuse for Skiving Workers

May 27, 9:43 am ET 

LONDON  - A third of British workers think it is acceptable to take a bogus day off sick, and the top reason for doing so is a hangover, according to a survey.

Over 60 percent of respondents in the research released on Tuesday said they had "pulled a sickie" after hard drinking.

Workers in Yorkshire, the Midlands, the southwest of England and Wales were more likely than the national average to use a hangover as a reason to call in sick.

Scots and Londoners were least likely to let a hangover get in the way of a working day.

The survey also found that half of all respondents would be more likely to haul themselves into work if they were in danger of losing pay.

Four in 10 would think again if they knew their bosses were monitoring their sick leave closely. A third would be less likely to skive if their working hours were more flexible.

But an undeterred one in 10 in the survey conducted among almost 1,000 people said nothing would stop them from calling in sick.

Mike Hawkesford, managing director of Crown Computing, the software company behind the research, said the results showed the need for bosses to manage sick leave.

"Keeping an eye on absences can help identify trends and patterns...Businesses need to manage absence as and when it happens," he said.

The Confederation of British Industry, an umbrella organization for employers, says bogus absence costs businesses as much as 11.6 billion pounds ($19 billion) a year. 

Sea Air a Life Pursuit for Asthmatic Boy

May 27, 8:57 am ET 

CREMONA, Italy  - How far would you go for fresh air? Would you leave home, job, and even dry land?

An Italian couple whose son suffers from an acute type of asthma have adopted a radical solution: to live at sea, where the clean air improves the boy's condition.

They sailed away, down the River Po, from the northern Italian city of Cremona on Saturday in a 26 meter (85 foot) boat they built themselves. When they reach the sea they will make for the waters near Sicily, where they plan to stay. "This is the best way to improve our son's quality of life," said Paola Frascisco, mother of 6-year-old Niky.

"The boat will be our home, our workplace and the means for Niky to get better without having to stuff himself with medicines all the time."

The boy will attend school using a Webcam that will allow him to see a classroom in an elementary school in Lipari, a small island near Sicily.

The Italian Ministry of Education approved the arrangement and even said it could pioneer similar plans for other children whose poor health prevents them from attending school normally.

Niky's parents plan to make a living by taking tourists out on the homemade boat, christened Walkyrie, for short trips.

"This will open up our son's horizon in every sense. He will make many more friends than he would staying in his sick bed most of the time," Frascisco said. 

Perilous Annual Cheese Chase Called Off

May 27, 8:55 am ET 

By Peter Graff

LONDON  - This year, ankles will go unbroken and heads will go ungashed, because the perilous cheeses of Gloucestershire will, alas, go unrolled.

For centuries, residents of the English county of Gloucestershire have practiced the timeless and surprisingly dangerous springtime ritual of chasing large, speeding, round cheeses down steep hills. The winner gets to keep the cheese.

But this year's event, scheduled for Monday, was canceled because emergency crews who volunteered to help clear the tumbling casualties from the hillside were summoned to Algeria to rescue earthquake victims, organizers said on Saturday.

"We are very disappointed its not going to be on, but obviously without having the first aid and rescue cover we just can't put the event on. We've had to cancel it," Richard Jefferies, a member of the organizing committee, told The News Source.

A spokeswoman for emergency search and rescue charity RAPID UK confirmed that the charity had pledged a crew, but pulled out at the last minute to send it to Algeria, where Wednesday's earthquake has left more than 1,750 dead.

"Apparently, it's not just running down a hill, it's almost like jumping off a cliff. People are often breaking arms and legs," she said of the cheese rolling event. "The RAPID side was hoisting the bodies up the cliff with their broken limbs."

Organizers say the annual cheese rolling contest dates back centuries, perhaps even to the Middle Ages. During World War II, when cheese was rationed, a wooden model cheese was used with a symbolic mini-cheese attached.

Last year, according to the organizers' Web site, "there were only three casualties requiring hospital attention," including a spectator who fainted.

"It's not very dangerous. People do get injured but usually minor abrasions, the odd broken arm or leg or something... nothing serious," said Jefferies. "I'm on the committee which organizes it but I've never done it. I've got more sense." 

Were Einstein, Newton Austistic?

May 1, 9:35 am ET 

Release at 2 p.m. EDT

LONDON  - Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were geniuses but British scientists believe they may have suffered from Asperger syndrome -- a form of autism.

The condition, first described by Viennese physician Hans Asperger in 1944, is a disorder that causes deficiencies in social and communication skills and obsessive interests.

But it does not affect learning or intellect and many people with AS have exceptional talents or skills.

Although it is impossible to make a definitive diagnosis in people who are dead, Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University and Ioan James of Oxford University studied the personalities of Einstein and Newton to see if the two scientists had symptoms of AS.

"Newton seems a classic case. He hardly spoke, was so engrossed in his work that he often forgot to eat, and was lukewarm or bad-tempered with the few friends he had," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

Baron-Cohen said Einstein was also a loner and as a child he repeated sentences obsessively. Although Einstein made friends and spoke out on political issues, Baron-Cohen suspects he showed signs of Asperger syndrome.

"Passion, falling in love and standing up for justice are all perfectly compatible with Asperger syndrome," he told the weekly science magazine.

"What most people with AS find difficult is casual chatting -- they can't do small talk," he added.

But Glen Elliott, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco, said geniuses can be socially inept and impatient with other people without being autistic.

"Impatience with the intellectual slowness of others, narcissism and passion for one's mission in life might combine to make such an individual isolative and difficult," he told the magazine.

Baron-Cohen said he hopes the research can improve understanding of Asperger syndrome and make life easier for people who suffer from the condition.

Sex aid steals show at women's invention awards A mother-of-three has stolen the show at the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards, with a gadget that provides satisfaction for women with sexual difficulties.

The clitoral stimulator designed by Liz Paul from Ilkley, Yorkshire, offers hope to the estimated five million women in Britain who have trouble reaching orgasm. The device, called Vielle, is a small plastic stimulator with eight nodules which fits over the finger. Speaking at the award ceremony in Cafi Royal central London, Mrs Paul said clinical tests had proved the device could halve the time it takes for a woman to climax and intensify the orgasm. Mrs Paul, 49, said: "Through research I discovered it was often a lack of understanding of the anatomy which caused problems climaxing. "Women are not told how to have an orgasm and it needs explaining to them.I wanted to break through this barrier and help women with their sexual needs. I hope my invention will help all those women who have sexual problems." The disposable device, which comes in a pack of three costing �9.95 has already proved a big hit on the internet with 1,000 packs sold since it went on sale 24 hours ago. Vielle is likely to be available for consumers to buy on the high street as soon as August and will be on sale next to the condoms. Mrs Paul hopes to sell 300,000 devices by the end of the year. The actual winner of the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards was Trish Fearn with a lightweight ergonomic fork for mucking out stables. Mrs Fearn, from Wetherby, West Yorkshire, spent 12 years developing the Lite-Lift Shaving Fork after she was told she could no longer look after her 200 rescued horses due to chronic tendonitis caused by heavy stable work.

Ashcroft: Organized Groups Stole Iraq Art 2 hours, 5 minutes ago By JOSEPH COLEMAN, News Source Writer LYON, France - Organized criminal groups were involved in the looting of Iraq (news - web sites)'s national museum and the United States will fully back international efforts to retrieve the stolen artifacts, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) told an Interpol meeting Tuesday. The comments came at a conference of art experts and law enforcement officials aimed at creating a database listing items looted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "From the evidence that has emerged, there is a strong case to be made that the looting and theft of the artifacts were perpetrated by organized criminal groups - criminals who knew precisely what they were looking for," Ashcroft said. "Although the criminals who committed the theft may have transported the objects beyond Iraq's borders, they should know that they have not escaped the reach of justice," he added, praising Interpol's efforts so far. Ashcroft did not say whether he suspected international organized crime - such as the Mafia - was involved in the looting, but other experts at the conference said they did not have any evidence of such involvement so far. "We are waiting for more information," said Jean-Pierre Jouanny, an Interpol specialist in theft of cultural objects. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, has said the opposite - that the Baghdad looting did not appear to be carried out by organized thieves Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble said one of the group's top tasks was to collect and distribute descriptions of missing objects so they can be tracked down. He said such information was still sorely lacking. "Right now we are operating only on rumors and anecdotal evidence," Noble said, adding that after the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), Interpol was able to log only one looted item into its database. The two-day conference in southeastern France began Monday with presentations by officials from the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Interpol, the State Department and university experts. Iraq's museums held millennia-old artworks from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian cultures. Ancient Mesopotamia - modern-day Iraq - was the cradle of urban civilization. Some experts fear thousands of pieces of art, including priceless antiquities, may be missing. But figuring out what's missing depends in large part on the condition of written inventories from the looted museum. While the catalog at Baghdad's National Museum has been kept for the most part intact, the status of inventories at museums in other parts of Iraq is unknown. And experts say they have no idea of the looting toll at archaeological sites. Outside lists, descriptions and photographs of Iraqi holdings also help. The British Museum, for example, has provided records of some Iraqi items suspected of being looted. A British Museum official who recently returned from Iraq estimated on Monday that 30 to 40 antiquities were missing from the National Museum in Baghdad - fewer than initially feared. But John Edward Curtis also stressed that no one knows the status of 100,000 to 200,000 antiquities kept in storage, as well as an untold number of smaller, portable items that museum officials removed for safekeeping months before the war. Interpol already has a database of 21,000 other stolen artworks that includes photographs and descriptions. Its 181 member countries have quick computer access to that information. Interpol also publishes a CD-ROM for the private sector, prints posters of "most-wanted" stolen treasures and lists recent thefts on its Internet site.

FTC, FDA to Crack Down on Bogus SARS Treatments
1 hour, 12 minutes ago 
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WASHINGTON (The News Source Health) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) announced Friday they would take joint action to crack down on Internet marketers of bogus SARS (news - web sites) treatments. 

NEWS SOURCE 

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� Feds Crack Down on Bogus SARS Products 
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� FTC, FDA to Crack Down on Bogus SARS Treatments 
The News Source - 1 hour, 12 minutes ago 
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The agencies said warnings have been issued so far to 40 Web sites that have been marketing therapies ranging from dietary supplements to medical devices to ward off the potentially life-threatening disease. 

There is no approved treatment or diagnostic test for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. 

Canadian authorities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) are helping the investigation, the agencies said. 

"Our goal is to assure that consumers are getting accurate information," FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark B. McClellan told reporters. 

According to the CDC's Web site, 63 probable cases of SARS have been diagnosed to date in the U.S. But all of these cases have been associated with travel to high-risk areas. 

As a result, McClellan said the best advice for people in the U.S. was to practice good hygiene, such as washing hands. The agencies said a consumer advisory would be issued to provide specific recommendations to people. 

Precautionary steps consumers can use to avoid SARS have also been listed on the FDA Web site at www.fda.gov and will be provided on the FTC Web site at www.ftc.gov, the agencies said. 

McClellan added that diagnostic tests are being developed, but the FDA had yet to receive an approval application. 

"I expect to see some real progress in the coming months," McClellan said. 

British Lawyers Ponder a Wigless Future

May 9, 1:23 pm ET 

By Peter Graff

LONDON  - They have been wearing them since the 17th century when an elegant fake curl was the height of men's fashion, but Britain's lawyers were in turmoil on Friday at the prospect of a future without their horse-hair wigs.

The head of the British legal profession is studying whether to change the dress code for lawyers and judges, including the itchy white courtroom wigs that are as much a symbol of Britain as Big Ben, mushy peas and red double decker buses.

'There is no justification for retaining working court dress on the grounds of tradition alone -- our courts are not a tourist attraction,' the office of Lord Chancellor Irvine of Lairg proclaimed in a paper announcing the review.

The paper said 60 percent of people surveyed in man-on-the-street interviews wanted to see some change in the dress code.

But barristers were not pleased.

'Deprive me of my wig? The idea's ridiculous!' declared John Mortimer, the barrister and author whose fictional creation Horace Rumpole is probably the best-known lawyer in England.

'A barrister without a wig would be like a doctor without a stethoscope; a cook without a spoon...or a middle manager without a flip chart,' he told The Times newspaper.

Supporters of wigs and robes argue that they help instil respect for the law. Prosecutors and criminal court judges say the wigs help protect them from offenders who might recognize them in street.

But the Lord Chancellor's office said it was concerned that the practice could 'intimidate victims and witnesses, especially the young and vulnerable' or even 'provoke derision at the legal system as outdated and backward looking.'

The survey found more than two thirds of respondents wanted to eliminate the wigs in civil cases, although most said criminal court judges should still wear them.

At Thresher & Glenny Tailors, where customers have bought fine wigs since 1755, tailor Mike Morling said a move to doff wigs be a blow to 'a cottage industry.' All are made by hand, although he would not say where.

Wigs range in price from the basic barrister's model at 350 pounds ($560), which perches on the back of the head with a tiny pony tail, to 1300 pounds for the grand, shoulder-length locks worn on ceremonial occasions.

Morling sells them in four colors, 'but they're all shades of off-white, really.' They have to be professionally cleaned. One customer put his wig in a washing machine and 'it came out looking a bit like Jimi Hendrix.'

Like all fine, eccentric British traditions, wigs carry stories. A good wig can last throughout a barrister's career, and having a ragged, old one conveys authority.

'You don't want it to look like you have a brand new wig,' said barrister Tom Weisselberg of the firm Blackstone Chambers. 'Then you look like a fresh goat ready for slaughter.'

Are We Grown Up Yet? U.S. Study Says Not 'Till 26 Thu May 8, 6:37 PM ET Add Science 

CHICAGO  - Most Americans believe someone isn't grown up until age 26, probably with a completed education, a full-time job, a family to support and financial independence, a survey said on Thursday. But they also believe that becoming an official grown-up is a process that takes five years from about the age of 20, concluded the report from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. The findings were based on a representative sample of 1,398 people over age 18 surveyed in person in 2002. It had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percent. The poll found the following ages at which people expect the transitions to grown-up status to be completed: Age 20.9 self-supporting; 21.1 no longer living with parents; 21.2 full-time job; 22.3 education complete; 24.5 being able to support a family financially; 25.7 married; and 26.2 having a child. 'There is a large degree of consensus across social groups on the relative importance of the seven transitions,' said Tom Smith, director of the survey. 'The only notable pattern of differences is on views about supporting a family, having a child and getting married. 'Older adults and the widowed and married rate these as more important than younger adults and the never-married do,' he added. 'This probably reflects in large part a shift in values across generations away from traditional family values.' The most valued step toward reaching adulthood, the survey found, was completing an education, followed by full-time employment, supporting a family, financial independence, living independently of parents, marriage and parenthood.

Tea is Good-and Bad-for You 07-May-2003 Drinking tea is both good and bad for you. How can that be? Regular tea boosts the immune system (unlike coffee), but herbal tea contains acids that eat away tooth enamel. Regular tea contains chemicals called alkylamine antigens, which are also present in some bacteria, cancer cells, parasites and fungi. When the body is exposed to them through tea drinking, it can build up a defense against them and will be more able to fight them off. Green and black teas contain the antigens, but coffee does not. Gamma-delta T cells in the immune system are our first line of defense against infections. When these cells were first exposed to alkylamine antigens, then exposed to bacteria, they multiplied up to 10 times more than usual and secreted disease-fighting chemicals, while cells not exposed to tea didn't respond to the infection. Next, researchers asked volunteers to drink either five small cups of tea or coffee every day for four weeks. After two weeks, the gamma-delta T cells from tea drinkers were better able to ward off disease than those from the coffee drinkers. But if regular tea is good for us, certainly herbal tea must be better, since it's long been thought of as a health food. But dentists have discovered that many herb teas erode tooth enamel, allowing decay to set in. The researchers say, "Many epidemiological studies show a high prevalence of tooth wear, even in young patients. One factor that may be contributing to this problem is the consumption of herbal teas that are often considered to be 'healthy' alternatives to other beverages." However, different herb teas have different levels of acidity. A spokesman for Twinings tea disagrees, and says, "...Fruit and herbal teas have been proven to have many benefits to mind and body. We believe that consumers should not be concerned, as when consumed normally, any acid remaining on the teeth will be neutralized by the saliva in the mouth." 

EU Gets Sanctions Go-Ahead Against U.S. 1 hour, 6 minutes ago Add World 

By Patrick Lannin and Richard Waddington BRUSSELS/GENEVA  - The European Commission (news - web sites) gave the United States an autumn deadline on Wednesday to change disputed tax break laws for major corporations or face the threat of up to $4.0 billion in sanctions. The long-running row over an export scheme for U.S. majors such as Boeing and Microsoft is one of a series of EU-U.S. trade spats. It re-emerges days after the two pledged to work together to boost stalled global trade talks. "The Commission will review the situation in the autumn," said European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy after the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) gave the EU the final green light to impose the sanctions. "If there is no sign that compliance is on the way at that time, it (the Commission) would then start the legislative procedure for the adoption of countermeasures by January 1, 2004," he added in a statement. The United States has been discussing ways it can comply with the WTO rulings against the system of tax breaks, known as the Foreign Sales Corporation, and two bills have been introduced in Congress in recent months. Lamy said the EU was encouraged by the determination of Congress and the U.S. administration to change the law and hoped that any solution would be fully in line with WTO rules. But he has also said in the past that EU patience is not infinite. The row over FSC goes back to 1998 and the level of the punitive duties was set according to the annual loss in earnings claimed by EU companies. The sum of $4.04 billion set by the WTO was a record for retaliation allowed by the trade body. The ruling means the EU can set duties up to 100 percent on hundreds of U.S. imports, including live animals, aluminum and copper goods, cereals like buckwheat and nuclear reactor parts. TRADE TALKS CLOUD The tax dispute is one of a number of spats involving the world's two biggest economic blocs and both Brussels and Washington are anxious not to stoke tensions, particularly as key WTO talks to free up global commerce have run into trouble. Lamy and his U.S. counterpart Robert Zoellick pledged last week to try to give the global trade talks, the Doha Round, a push by focusing on where they agree rather than disputes. Apart from the risk that sanctions could trigger a trade war at a time when the world economy is already struggling, many economists argue that their use could be counter-productive. The economies of Europe and the United States are so closely intertwined that Europe would also suffer, they argue. The two economic powerhouses are also at odds over other issues including U.S. duties on steel and a European block on genetically modified foods.

Twins 'pretended to be in two places at once' Identical teenage twins in Germany pretended to be the same person to frighten younger children into giving them money, a court has heard. A juvenile court in Nuremburg heard the twin teenagers, who have not been named for legal reasons, had terrorised local children for months. Dressed identically and choreographing their actions, the 17-year-old boys allegedly bullied children into handing over money, sweets and other property. "They had a slick racket going," an investigator officer told Nuremberg State Court, where the youths face more than 200 charges. "One twin would confront a child and force the kid to run down a street where, on rounding a corner, it would come face-to-face with the other twin and freak out," he added. By telling their victims "you can run but you can't hide", the boys established a lucrative criminal operation "based on fear and intimidation", the officer said. As their notoriety spread, children would "voluntarily" hand over protection money, police said, rather than have to deal with the twins who it seemed could be everywhere at once. The reign of terror ended last July when one child broke down and told his parents how multiple bruises had been inflicted by a mystery youth who could be in two places at once. The parents notified neighbours whose children had also been targeted by the pair and police were called in.

Lawsuit Seeks Ban on Beloved Oreo Cookies

May 13, 9:18 am ET 

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO  - A lawyer who has spent much of his life enjoying Oreo cookies has sued Kraft Foods Inc. seeking to ban the much-loved cookies in California because they contain trans fat, an ingredient he calls inedible.

Kraft boasts that people have eaten 450 billion Oreo cookies since they introduced the chocolate wafer sandwich cookies with a creamy filling in 1912.

But if British-born attorney Stephen Joseph has his way, that culinary love affair will come to an end, at least until Kraft stops using hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils to make the cookies.

Kraft calls the suit filed in Marin County Superior Court just north of San Francisco baseless but Joseph says he is taking advantage of a provision of the California civil code that holds manufacturers liable for common products if not "known to be unsafe by the ordinary consumer."

The ingredient is used in thousands and thousands of products. In an interview on Monday, Joseph said, "I am probably full of hydrogenated fat because until two years ago I didn't know about it. I resent the fact that I have been eating that stuff all my life."

Hydrogenation adds hydrogen gas to vegetable oil, helping to solidify it into products such as margarine. Health experts say the process makes them as unhealthy as real butter, if not more so, as the hydrogenated fats act like cholesterol in the body. Trans fats are common in cookies and crackers and part of both the cookie and filling in Oreos.

'SHOCKING' CASE

"That's what's so shocking; that it has been so well hidden," said Joseph, who has set up an advocacy group called BanTransFats.com Inc. "I hope if nothing else comes of this lawsuit that more people know about trans fat than before."

Kraft says it is already testing alternatives to trans fats but said they will vigorously fight the lawsuit.

Its parent company Altria Group Inc. is also the owner of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, itself no stranger to legal battles over product safety.

"We know the importance of good nutrition and we are committed to helping people lead a healthy lifestyle, but we have no choice than to draw the line against baseless lawsuits like this," Michael Mudd, Kraft's senior vice president for corporate affairs, said in an interview.

"We've been ... exploring ways to reduce trans fat in Oreos and those efforts are continuing," he continued. "You can make a cookie without trans fat but what you're trading off is the unique taste and texture that people have come to expect."

U.S. companies, the world masters in processed foods, are showing an awareness of trans fats. Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo Inc., announced last year it would eliminate trans fats from snacks such as Doritos. McDonald's Corp. also said it would make French fries with less trans fat.

In February, a federal court threw out a lawsuit against McDonald's that claimed its burgers and fries cause obesity.

The commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the agency will soon require labeling information about trans fats in foods.

World's strongest beer heads to UK A beer billed as the world's strongest is to go on sale in British supermarkets. Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout is 23% alcoholic strength - five times more powerful than most other beers. Dogfish is dubbed "extreme beer" in the US where it's brewed. It is due to go on sale this autumn in Safeway stores at �6 for a third of a litre, says The Sun. Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said: "If you drink too much of this stuff you won't just drop down drunk, you could drop down dead. It should be sold in smaller quantities."

Deafness Epidemic Coming Up 09-May-2003 Three out of four young people who go to clubs or concerts regularly experience signs of hearing damage afterwards, such as ringing in their ears, and risk having permanent deafness by middle age. The future generation may think of hearing aids as ordinary as glasses are now, and hearing aid batteries may be sold at the check out counter, the way cigarettes are today. 66% of young people ages 18 to 30 go to clubs at least once a month, and 73% of people who've never been to a club, concert or festival, have ringing in their ears. While 46% say they know that ringing in the ears is a sign of damage, 59% didn't realize that the hearing damage is permanent. Brian Dow, of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) in the U.K., says, "We need to get to a stage where remembering to take your ear plugs out with you on a big night out is as common-place as remembering safe sex protection. If we don't, we are roller coasting towards an epidemic of premature hearing loss in middle age." The RNID is also calling on the music industry to place speakers at a safe distance from audiences and dancers. Kim Morgan, of the Persula Foundation, says, "Hearing is like any other sense: your brain compensates for loss, until one day you realize that you can't hear properly."

'I remember when I was 4 years old, I told my mother I wanted to be a rock star when I grow up. She said, 'You can't do both."

-- AEROSMITH lead singer STEVEN TYLER accepting an honorary doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music, quoted in The Boston Globe.

What Is SARS? Provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention SARS is a respiratory illness that has recently been reported in Asia, North America, and Europe. For additional information, check the World Health Organization (WHO) SARS Web site or visit the CDC's SARS Web site. What are the symptoms and signs of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)? The illness usually begins with a fever (measured temperature greater than 100.4�F [38.0�C]). The fever is sometimes associated with chills or other symptoms, including headache, general feeling of discomfort, and body aches. Some people also experience mild respiratory symptoms at the outset. After 2 to 7 days, SARS patients may develop a dry, nonproductive cough that might be accompanied by or progress to the point where insufficient oxygen is getting to the blood. In 10% to 20% of cases, patients will require mechanical ventilation. If I were exposed to SARS, how long would it take for me to become sick? The incubation period for SARS is typically 2-7 days; however, isolated reports have suggested an incubation period as long as 10 days. The illness usually begins with a fever (100.4�F [38.0�C]) (see signs and symptoms, above). What medical treatment is recommended for patients with SARS? CDC currently recommends that patients with SARS receive the same treatment that would be used for any patient with serious community-acquired atypical pneumonia of unknown cause. Several treatment regimens have been used for patients with SARS, but there is insufficient information at this time to determine if they have had a beneficial effect. Reported therapeutic regimens have included antibiotics to presumptively treat known bacterial agents of atypical pneumonia. Therapy also has included antiviral agents such as oseltamivir or ribavirin. Steroids also have been administered orally or intravenously to patients in combination with ribavirin and other antimicrobials.

SARS Virus Mutating Quickly Into 2 Forms 2 hours, 24 minutes ago 

By MARGARET WONG, News Source Writer HONG KONG - Like a "murderer who is trying to change his fingerprints," the SARS (news - web sites) virus is mutating rapidly into at least two forms, complicating efforts to develop a solid diagnosis and a vaccine, researchers say. Scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong say they analyzed the genetic sequences of virus samples taken from 11 SARS patients and found by late March that two forms of the virus were present in Hong Kong. One strain was detected in a woman whose illness was linked to an outbreak caused by a mainland Chinese man who spread SARS to others at a Hong Kong hotel. The other strain came from a Hong Kong man believed to have caught it in the mainland border city of Shenzhen. "This rapid evolution is like that of a murderer who is trying to change his fingerprints or even his appearance to try to escape detection," said Dr. Dennis Lo, a chemical pathologist at the university. But while Lo said researchers have shown "the SARS coronavirus is undergoing rapid evolution in our population," he noted more work is needed before researchers can say whether the virus has become more infectious and lethal. Researchers also need to find out whether people who get SARS from one strain can develop immunity to other strains, he said. If not, finding ways to better diagnose it and to develop a vaccine could be more difficult. The World Health Organization (news - web sites) says there's no evidence that the mutations have any effect on the disease itself. WHO scientists also say it's not surprising the SARS bug shows genetic changes, because the coronavirus family is prone to mutations. A U.S. coronavirus expert, David Brian, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, agreed that a rapidly mutating SARS virus could complicate work toward a vaccine and reliable diagnostic tests. The crucial question is where the mutations occur in the SARS virus genome, he said. If they affect the shape of an outer protein on the virus, it could hamper vaccines, which rely on training the immune system to recognize particular protein shapes, he said. Diagnosis, meanwhile, is based on specific features of the bug's genetic sequence. So if one of the crucial features is removed by mutation, the detection kit becomes less sensitive to recognizing the virus, he said. Hong Kong scientists are also concerned that the virus may survive in an infected person's body for at least a month after recovery. Doctors are urging patients to avoid personal contact such as hugging and kissing when they go home. "The virus still exists in the patients' urine and stool after they were discharged. It will persist for at least another month or maybe even longer," said Dr. Joseph Sung, head of the Department of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. What's more, scientists here also fear that 12 people may have relapsed. The new findings raise questions as to how doctors can tell whether a patient has fully recovered, underscoring the difficulty health authorities face in tackling this new disease. Sung, who works at the Prince of Wales Hospital, which was hard-hit by SARS, has monitored the cases of about 240 recovered SARS patients. He said none has spread the disease to others. If recovered patients wear masks, avoid close contact with family members and are particularly careful about toilet hygiene, things should be "quite safe" in their households, he said. Sung believes the virus can survive in the environment longer than a day. "If your saliva gets on a table surface, don't assume that it will be all right after it dries up," he said. Dr. David Heymann, WHO's chief of communicable diseases, said the relapses are disappointing, and it's not clear what caused them. He said he hadn't heard of similar reports outside Hong Kong. "We don't yet have the data ... as to exactly what has happened, what these people were treated with," Heymann said. He said one theory is that some relapses may have happened because patients stopped taking steroids too quickly. The steroid therapy is being prescribed in Hong Kong. Heymann said in some other infectious diseases, it's not uncommon to find virus in body excretions after a patient's symptoms are gone. "So it's not a new phenomenon that viruses remain, but certainly a relapse is concerning," he said.

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Ananova:

Women's Institute helping to solve puzzle of perfect cuppa Thousands of members of the Women's Institute are helping a tea firm settle the argument of how to make the perfect cuppa. They're hoping to help discover if the best cup of tea is made with milk added first, or with it poured in afterwards. Ten thousand members are helping D J Miles & Co, of Minehead, Somerset, reach a conclusion. Each of the members has been given samples of tea and will serve it to friends and family in two ways, once with milk added first, and once with it poured in afterwards. Taste tests will then take place and the results will be recorded and analysed by the tea firm, to settle the question once and for all, reports theWestern Morning News. John Halls, D J Miles & Co director, said: "We are trying to provide the definitive answer, and as the Women's Institute is synonymous with tea drinking, we are sure they can help." Edna Ford, president of the Atherington and Umberleigh WI, said: "Personally, I have always put the milk in first, especially if you use a pot. "But nowadays so many people use mugs; putting milk in with a tea bag may not produce the best taste." The results will be published later this year.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030513/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/money_makeover_14

U.S. Adding Color to $20 Bill 
1 hour, 42 minutes ago 


By JEANNINE AVERSA, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - American greenbacks are getting a bit more colorful. A touch of peach, blue and yellow along with the traditional green and black are featured on the new $20 bill, the first to be colorized in a project to thwart counterfeiters. 

Slideshow: U.S. Adding Color to $20 Bill U.S. Adding Color to $20 Bill 
(AP Video)

The Treasury Department (news - web sites)'s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which makes the nation's paper currency, took the wrappers off the redesigned $20 Tuesday. The new bills won't appear in cash registers or ATM machines until late this year. 

The $20 bill is the most-counterfeited note in the United States. 

"The purpose of the new design is to stay ahead of anyone who would compromise the security and integrity of the dollar through counterfeiting," said Treasury Secretary John Snow. 

On both the front and back of the new twenties, moving from left to right, there's a faint wash of green tint, then peach down the middle, then green again in what had been the neutral-colored background of the old notes. 

The image of Jackson, the seventh president, appears slightly bigger because more of his neck and shoulders are in view and the border around his oval portrait has been removed. But his head is the same size on the new bill. 

The new design also includes a faint blue eagle in the background on the front of the bill to the left of Jackson's image and a metallic green eagle and shield to the right of Jackson. Also on the front, hovering near the eagle and shield, are the words 'Twenty USA' printed in a faint blue. 

On the back, the White House still dominates on the new $20, but a border once around the image is gone. Also, tiny number 20s are printed on the back in yellow, floating in the background. 

"The White House, numbers and border have always been green and will continue to be green no matter what tint we put on there. It will always be a greenback," bureau Director Tom Ferguson said. 

New designs for $50 and $100 bills - the latter the most knocked-off note outside the country - are expected in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Colors will vary by denomination, something that should make it easier for people to distinguish notes from one another, officials said. 

The government is considering whether to change $5s and $10s. There are no plans to alter the $1 or the obscure $2 bill, which are not worth counterfeiting. 

The new $20 also features more distinct color-shifting ink. The number "20" in the lower right corner on the front of the note changes from copper to green when the note is tilted. 

Some anti-counterfeiting features included in the $20s' last redesign, in 1998, are retained. They include watermarks, visible when held up to light; and embedded plastic security threads that are visible when held up to light. The words "USA Twenty" and a small flag can be seen along the thread. 

Over the years, counterfeiters have graduated from offset printing to increasingly sophisticated color copiers, computer scanners, color ink jet printers and publishing-grade software, all readily available. 

Still, worldwide counterfeiting of U.S. bills is at low levels - one or two bogus notes in every 10,000 genuine ones, said Secret Service Director W. Ralph Basham. Around $650 billion of U.S. currency circulates worldwide, he said. 

___ 

On the Net: Bureau of Engraving and Printing: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/ 

Regular Drinking May Raise Rectal Cancer Risk Tue May 13,10:17 AM ET Add Health 

By Alison McCook NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - People who down at least 14 alcoholic drinks each week, regardless of the type of alcohol, may be more likely than non-drinkers to develop rectal cancer, researchers said Tuesday. But what a person drinks does have some influence on risk, the authors note, for people who included wine in their menu of alcoholic beverages had a lesser increase in risk than those who stuck mainly with beer and spirits. And the study found no association between alcohol intake and the risk of colon cancer. Regardless, the increase in rectal cancer risk provides heavy drinkers with another reason to cut back, study author Dr. Morten Gronbaek of the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen, Denmark, told The News Source Health. "Heavy drinkers should worry about so many other diseases and conditions, and simply try to cut down their intake anyway," Gronbaek said. Cancers that originate in the colon and rectum are the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancers in the U.S., and represent the second-leading cause of death from cancer. Approximately one-third of the cases of colorectal cancer are actually cancers of the rectum, Gronbaek said. During the current study, Gronbaek and colleagues followed around 30,000 men and women for an average of almost 15 years, recording how much alcohol they drank each week and who developed cancer of the colon or rectum. By the end of the study period, 411 people had developed colon cancer, and another 202 were diagnosed with rectal cancer, the authors report in the journal Gut. People who reported drinking more than 14 servings of beer and spirits every week, but not wine, were more than three times more likely than non-drinkers to develop rectal cancer, Gronbaek and colleagues report. However, those who drank just as much but included wine as more than 30 percent of their total alcohol intake had a lower risk -- though it was still close to twice that of non-drinkers. This increase in risk seen with relatively heavy drinking is as significant as other known risk factors for rectal disease, Gronbaek said, such as physical inactivity and low amounts of dietary fiber. The researcher added that it is unclear why including wine may reduce the risk associated with drinking. He noted that the beverage contains ingredients not present in beer or spirits that are known to have anti-cancer properties. The lack of a relationship between alcohol drinking and colon cancer risk is also somewhat of a mystery, according to Gronbaek. "The tissue is rather similar in the two parts of the organ -- colon and rectum -- and one might expect the same mechanism in developing the disease," Gronbaek said. However, he added that previous studies have also found that alcohol has an effect on the rectum but not the colon. SOURCE: Gut 2003;52:861-867.

Vegetable Oil-Powered Bus Opens Road Trip 

Groups Get $10M in Beef-Laced Fries Case Tue May 20,12:48 PM ET Add Business - 

CHICAGO - A Cook County judge has named 24 groups to divide a $10 million McDonald's settlement intended to make amends to customers who unwittingly ate the fries cooked in beef-flavored oil during the 1990s, when the burger chain had said it used only pure vegetable oil. Lawsuits filed in Illinois, California, New Jersey, Texas and Washington charged the restaurant chain with deceiving people who don't eat meat for personal or religious reasons. The ruling Monday by Circuit Judge Richard Siebel followed months of legal wrangling since McDonald's agreed to the settlement last year. The judge's ruling resolves a dispute over which organizations would share in the awards. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's offered 60 percent of the settlement to vegetarian groups, 20 percent to Hindu and Sikh groups, 10 percent to children's nutrition and hunger-relief efforts and 10 percent to promoting understanding of Kosher practices. But some vegetarian groups protested recipients chosen by McDonald's and other plaintiffs' lawyers, saying some were anti-vegetarian or otherwise inappropriate. Siebel last month rejected three of the 26 proposed groups because attorneys in the case had family members or other personal involvement. On Monday, he added the Hillel Jewish campus organization to the list of participants and said the group would receive $300,000. McDonald's attorney Peter Hecker said all the groups on the company's settlement list are responsible and intend to educate the public about vegetarianism. 

Chimps May Have Closer Links to Humans Tue May 20, 1:51 AM ET Add Science - 

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - It may be time to move over and share the human branch of the family tree with chimpanzees, says a researcher who has studied how closely the two are related. Humans and chimps share 99.4 percent of DNA - genetic code for life - according to a team led by Morris Goodman of the Wayne State University School of Medicine. "We humans appear as only slightly remodeled chimpanzee-like apes," said Goodman. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, proposes that chimps be added to the genus Homo, currently reserved only for humans. It's an idea sure to spark renewed debate about evolution and humanity's relationship with animals. The battle over whether humans are related to chimps, gorillas and other primates has raged since 1859, when Charles Darwin described evolution in "Origin of Species." The dispute between religious and scientific factions got its greatest notoriety in 1925 when Tennessee school teacher John Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution. It continues to this day. Kansas reinstated the teaching of evolution 18 months after the state school board voted to drop it from classes. Alabama's school board voted to put stickers on biology books warning that evolution is controversial. Goodman's team did not address evolution directly but proposed that humans and chimps be considered branches of the same genus because of their similarities. A genus is a group of closely related species. The human species, Homo sapiens, stands alone in the genus Homo. But there have been other species on the branch in the past, such as Homo neanderthalensis, or Neanderthal man. Chimpanzees are in the genus Pan, along with bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees. Goodman's proposal would establish three species under Homo. One would be Homo (Homo) sapiens, or humans; the second would be Homo (Pan) troglodytes, or common chimpanzees, and the third would be Homo (Pan) paniscus, or bonobo chimpanzees. There is no official board in charge of placing animals in their various genera, and in some cases alternative classifications are available. "If enough people get agitated by this and think it's something to be dealt with, there may be a symposium that takes this as the central issue and determines if this is a reasonable proposal," Goodman said. "I think it's a reasonable proposal, of course, or I wouldn't have proposed it." Richard Sherwood, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, isn't so sure. That chimps and humans are closely related and share a common ancestor about 7 million years ago is well known, Sherwood said, but that doesn't mean they belong in the same genus now. Goodman's paper cites a proposal by George Gaylord Simpson that chimps and gorillas be combined in one genus; gorillas are in the genus Gorilla. Goodman says chimps are more closely related to humans than to gorillas and thus should be added instead to Homo. Sherwood says Simpson made his chimp-gorilla proposal in 1963, and no one is arguing today to put both species in the same genus. "To go hunting for an historical reference like that and then use it as the sole criteria for suggesting a major shift in primate systematics is difficult to take seriously," Sherwood said. Reclassification of chimpanzees would cause major changes in the way anthropology students learn the relationships among various types of animals. In their study, Goodman and colleagues compared 97 genes from humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, Old World monkeys and mice. Genes from humans and chimps most closely resembled each other, followed by orangutans and Old World monkeys. None of the other creatures was closely related to mice. Tracking mutation rates in the genes, the scientists estimate that the common ancestor of chimps and humans diverged from gorillas about 7 million years ago, and then separated into two species between 5 million and 6 million years ago. ___ On the Net: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites): http://www.pnas.org

U.S. Bans Canadian Beef on Mad Cow Case 5 minutes ago 

By TOM COHEN, News Source Writer TORONTO - The United States banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow disease was discovered in the heart of Canada's cattle country on Tuesday. The discovery raised concern because Canada and the United States had put in place feeding practices authorities thought would prevent the infection from spreading in North America. Still, officials stressed it was an isolated case. "Information suggests that risk to human health and the possibility of transmission to animals in the United States is very low," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said in a statement. The infected cow, an 8-year-old from a farm in northern Alberta, was slaughtered on Jan. 31, Canadian Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief told a news conference in Edmonton. He said it was killed because it was believed to have pneumonia, and testing in England confirmed Tuesday it had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (news - web sites), or BSE (news - web sites). It was the first case of BSE in North America in a decade. He stressed the diseased animal never reached human or animal consumption, the known method of spreading the infection. It cannot be transmitted between live animals. "The herd has been quarantined," Vanclief said. "A trace on the animal is being done. The animal did not go into the food chain." The only previous known North American case of BSE, also called mad cow disease, was in 1993 involving an animal born in Britain, he said. That herd was destroyed and there was no further spread of the disease, he said. Beef imports to the United States were not banned at the time because officials said it was just one cow and the source of the disease was Britain. It was not immediately clear where the cow in the new case was born. Reaction to the announcement was immediate. Canada voluntarily stopped issuing certificates that declare its cattle free of BSE, officials said, and U.S. authorities banned imports of Canadian cattle, beef, beef-based products and animal feed. Shares of big U.S. hamburger chains fell sharply following the news. Shares in McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant company, fell $1.02, or 5.6 percent, to $17.14 in late afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). Also sinking were fast-food rival Wendy's International, Jack in the Box and Tyson, the world's largest meat company. Outback Steakhouse Inc. also fell. U.S. companies quickly tried to put any potential consumer fears about their meat to rest. "McDonald's worldwide has the highest beef safety standards and will continue to strictly enforce them," the Oak Brook, Ill., company said. "McDonald's Canada only purchases beef from facilities federally inspected and approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency." The company said it does not import beef from Canada. Outback Steakhouse said its restaurants serve only USDA top choice or prime U.S. Midwestern grain-fed beef. No case of mad cow disease has ever been found in U.S. cattle. The U.S. government routinely bans the import of meat and livestock from countries where mad cow disease is found. In Hereford, Texas, John Josserand of AzTx Cattle Co. said the fact that Canadian safeguards detected the BSE case was encouraging. He said U.S. and Australian cattle producers could benefit in the short run from a ban on Canadian exports, "although that's not the kind of competitive advantage I want." A note to investors from John Ivankoe, restaurant analyst for J.P. Morgan, was more cautious. "The discovery of one cow is concerning, even though it did not enter the food chain, as the discovery of other cases is possible," Ivankoe said. If only the Canadian industry is affected, he added, then it is a "relatively minor issue." Mad cow disease first erupted in Britain in 1986, and is thought to have spread through cow feed made with protein and bone meal from mammals. The human form of mad cow disease is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), which causes paralysis and death. Scientists believe humans develop new variants of Creutzfeldt-Jakob when they eat meat from infected animals. Both Canada and the United States outlawed the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and goats in 1997, a rule believed to be the main defense against the disease. The incubation period for BSE can be eight years, so the cow in Canada could have been infected by feed predating the ban. Authorities will trace the origin of the cow as part of an investigation into any possible spread of the disease, Vanclief said. They have also quarantined the farm and will slaughter the herd of the infected cow, along with any other herds that come into question. Alberta controls about 40 percent of Canada's cattle industry, and the oil-rich province is one of the country's wealthiest. It draws millions of visitors each year to the Canadian Rockies. Canada is the top foreign supplier of live cattle to the United States, exporting 1.7 million head last year, or 75 percent of the total U.S. imports. About seven percent of beef consumed by Amercians is from Canada, said Michelle Peterson, a spokeswoman for the National Cattleman's Beef Association, which represents U.S. beef producers. The FDA (news - web sites) and U.S. Agriculture Department are working with Canadian officials to get more information about the sick cow, including records concerning its past ownership and what animal feed it was given. It is the second time this year a disease outbreak is threatening Canada's economic well-being, after severe acute respiratory syndrome from Asia killed 24 people in the Toronto area in the past two months. The World Health Organization (news - web sites) removed Toronto from its list of SARS (news - web sites) hotspots earlier this month. 

Farmers' Dispute Leads to Tractor Joust

May 20, 10:37 am ET 

BERLIN  - Unable to resolve their row over a disputed field, two middle-aged German farmers staged an impromptu joust on their tractors, police said Tuesday.

After he planted the field near the southern town of Ansbach with maize and potatoes, one of the farmers spotted his adversary advancing on the same piece of land with one tractor trailing a plow and another in escort, police said.

Quickly mounting his own tractor, the angered farmer sped toward the intruders and rammed both opposing tractors, crippling their engines, before police arrived at the scene to restore order. He was charged with causing bodily harm.

"He plowed into both of them and knocked them out of action," Ansbach police spokesman Toni Spreiter told The News Source. He said it was unclear which farmer controlled the disputed land.

Artificial Back Discs May Come to U.S. 1 hour, 47 minutes ago 

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, News Source Medical Writer WASHINGTON - Russ Rice's back pain was so intense he could hardly walk. Two surgeries had failed to offer lasting help for his damaged spinal disc, and only large doses of painkillers got him through each day. Then, as part of a study, doctors implanted an artificial disc in Rice's back. Just four days later, the California man returned to work, pain-free for the first time in over a year. Artificial discs have long been used in Europe but remain experimental in this country. Two major studies nearing completion could change that: For the first time, scientists will know just how such implants compare to the only other alternative patients like Rice have had - major surgery to fuse together two vertebrae in the lower back. Preliminary results are promising enough that doctors expect one artificial back disc to be on the U.S. market as early as next year. Researchers aren't stopping there: Studies recently began of artificial discs designed for the more delicate neck, which don't bear as heavy a load but must be more moveable. And scientists hope to begin studies within a year of injections of collagen-like material to prop up a collapsing disc, buying time before more surgery is needed. The bones of the spine have spongy discs between them - tough collagen rings surrounding a fluid-filled cushion - that act as shock absorbers, keeping verterbrae properly separated, cushioned and flexible. But a disc damaged from injury or aging can cause intense pain, especially if nearby nerves are crunched or the disc degenerates enough that bone grinds on bone. Back pain affects millions of Americans, and a degenerating disc is one of the main reasons. Time to heal and painkillers help most recover; some need special exercises. But a small percentage need surgery, called a microdiscectomy, to remove damaged pieces. When even that doesn't help, more than 200,000 Americans a year undergo spinal fusion - completely removing the degenerated disc and grafting the bones on either side together. It eases pain, but causes a problem: Freezing proper spinal motion puts more pressure on other discs below that spot. As many as 20 percent of fusion recipients need surgery for another disc problem in the next 10 years, says Dr. John Regan of Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The hope is that an artificial disc, by allowing more movement, won't have that problem. The earliest artificial discs failed miserably, says Dr. David Bradford of the University of the University of California, San Francisco. They could become dangerously loose in the spine. Then in the late 1980s, European scientists developed different materials that stayed in place until they grew into the bone - and tracking of European patients suggests those discs offer significant pain relief with few side effects. Two European models - the SB Charite and Prodisc - are the furthest in U.S. studies that, unlike the European research, directly compare the implants to spinal fusion to prove whether the artificial disc is as effective and safe as standard treatment. Results of the Charite study - comparing how 300 patients fared two years after surgery - are due in December, and the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) is expected to evaluate that disc next year, Regan says. Prodisc is still under study at about a dozen U.S. hospitals. The discs are similar - metal plates pressed into the surrounding vertebrae that hold in place a soft plastic cushion. Preliminary results from both are promising, say Regan, who is studying the Charite (pronounced shar-ee-TEH) disc, and Prodisc investigator Bradford. Another company, Medtronic Sofamor Danek, recently began U.S. studies of its own artificial disc. However those studies turn out, doctors already know recovery from disc implantation is faster: Implant recipients are encouraged to start moving around the same day, while fusion patients are put in a back brace for three months while their bones meld. "I'm only 40, so I didn't want a fusion - really, you're never the same after that," said Rice, a Santa Clarita, Calif., business executive who was dreading a plane trip abroad to get an artificial disc when he learned Regan had an opening. He needed a midday nap for about a week after returning to work, but otherwise rapidly recovered. "Every day I wake up and I just thank the Lord because I'm like a new guy," he says. ___ EDITOR'S NOTE - Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The News Source in Washington.

Science Confirms: Politicians Lie

May 19, 11:05 am ET 

LONDON  - After intensive research, scientists have concluded that politicians lie.

In a study described in Britain's Observer newspaper, Glen Newey, a political scientist at Britain's University of Strathclyde, concluded that lying is an important part of politics in the modern democracy.

"Politicians need to be more honest about lying," he told the newspaper.

According to Newey, whose findings were published by the government-funded Economic and Social Research Council, voters expect to be lied to in certain circumstances, and sometimes even require it.

"Politics should be regarded as less like an exercise in producing truthful statements and more like a poker game," he said. "And there is an expectation by a poker player that you try to deceive them as part of the game."

Newey said lying by politicians can occasionally be entirely justified, such as when national security is at risk, and the public even has a "right to be lied to" in cases where they do not expect to be told the whole truth, such as during a war.

But the main cause of lying is increased probing by the public into areas that the government would rather not discuss candidly. If voters only asked fewer questions, politicians would tell them fewer lies.

Bill Clinton famously lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, while earlier philandering U.S. presidents never had to lie about their affairs, because nobody ever asked.

"When journalists or parliamentary colleagues start to probe at that area which the government wants to keep secret, you are more likely to be pushed further and further toward the territory of lying," Newey said.

Hungry Ferret Terrorizes Train

May 19, 11:04 am ET 

LONDON  - A hungry ferret caused chaos on a commuter train in central England on Sunday, leaping from passenger to passenger before ducking into the driver's cab and devouring his lunch.

The wild ferret jumped on to the northbound Midland Mainline train as it picked up passengers at Leicester Station.

"It ran up and down the train causing more than a little consternation -- although it is hard to say if the ferret or the passengers were more frightened," a company spokeswoman said.

"It then got into the driver's cab and ate his lunch -- a cheese sandwich I think -- before he realized what was going on," she told The News Source.

The quick thinking driver radioed ahead for experts from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) to meet the train, capture the ferret and remove it so the journey could continue.

"So we have a hungry driver and a full ferret -- which is spending the night with the RSPCA while they try to find it a new home," the spokeswoman said, adding that it was a first for the company.

Lecturer unlocks formula for hit movie The formula for creating the perfect film has been discovered by an academic.

To create a hit movie directors need to combine seven essential elements in the right proportions to ensure they have success, according to university lecturer Sue Clayton.

Her research has revealed the blueprint for a perfect feature must have: action 30%, comedy 17%, good v evil 13%, love/sex/romance 12%, special effects 10%, plot 10% and music 8%. The study was based on detailed analysis of a cross-section of the highest grossing films in the UK in the past 10 years, ranging from The Full Monty and Notting Hill to blockbusters like Die Another Day and Titanic. Ms Clayton, who is a movie director and screenwriting lecturer for the University of London and the British Film Council, was commissioned by Diet Coke to carry out the research in order to better understand what the British public love about popular movies. The research will be used to assess the potential success of prospective film sponsorship deals. Toy Story 2, a Disney Pixar production, was the film that had the closest match to the blueprint for the perfect feature. The film grossed more than �44 million at the UK box office and took more than Gladiator and Independence Day. Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love came very close to matching the recipe, it had similar proportions of plot, action, comedy and music, but had the film made greater use of special effects its appeal might have been even wider, the report concluded. Ms Clayton said: "During this project, I was amazed to see how finely balanced the different components of a film need to be in order to achieve perfection. Using these elements in the right proportion might just be the difference between making a popular film and one that goes gold at the box office."

Sex comes second to 'time alone' for women Sex comes second for many women according to a new survey. More than half of those surveyed in the 35 to 39 year age range said they preferred an hour totally to themselves than in the bedroom with their partner. An overwhelming 91% of all respondents would like more time to themselves according to RED magazine's Me Time survey. The survey claims to show how little time women have to themselves. The importance of 'me-time' to women in this age group is further highlighted by the fact that 61% of respondents aged 30-39 would be willing to take a pay cut to have more free time. The overwhelmingly favourite 'me time' activity is shopping, with 83% of those surveyed considering it the ultimate way to spend their spare moments. While 78% of respondents consider beauty routines and grooming pure feelgood territory, whilst more than two-thirds enjoy watching television or curling up with a good book. The majority of women, 59% prefer to spend their 'me-time' with friends, 59%, rather than with partners, 41%. Family members rate low on the priority list with only 8% choosing to spend free time with mum, dad or siblings.

Mountain-top proposal backfires when couple drop ring A romantic Colorado man proposed to his girlfriend at the top of a mountain - but the pair dropped the �4,000 ring. Derek Monnig, 33, and Debra Sweeney, 34, lost the diamond-and-platinum engagement ring in a foot of fresh snow at 12,000 feet. They had hiked to the top of South Bowl at Keystone Resort, reports the Rocky Mountain News. Debra said: "He said: "I have something for you. Honey, I love you. Will you marry me?" "He pulled this box out, opened it up, went to put the ring on my finger - and it dropped. It was horrible." She would not say who actually fumbled the ring: "We made a pact up there: We are not going to tell anybody who dropped it," she added. The ring bounced off her sleeve and fell into the snow by her boot. A passer-by called the ski patrol for them and then stayed to help in the search. For about three hours, six ski patrollers helped the couple sift through the snow. The couple returned to the mountain the next day to search with a metal detector - but to no avail. Luckily, the ring was insured. Debra said she could live with the loss anyway: "It's much better to lose the ring than the guy," she said.

Suit to Ban Oreos in Calif. Crumbles Thu May 15,10:36 AM ET Add News Source - Feature Stories 

California children can rejoice. They won't have to smuggle Oreo cookies into the state after all. San Francisco attorney Stephen Joseph said his move to outlaw the tasty cookies has crumbled. He is withdrawing his lawsuit against Kraft Foods. Joseph said he only wanted to get the word out about the dangers of unlabeled trans fats in the chocolate-cookies-with-white-stuff-in-the-middle. Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd says the courts aren't the place to make nutrition policy. He says Kraft Foods continues to research ways to get trans fat out of Oreos while preserving the flavor. The big difference between this suit and others that have targeted tobacco and McDonald's fast food is that consumers know that tobacco is bad for their health and that McDonald's food contains a lot of fat, Joseph said. "Trans fat is not the same thing at all. Very few people know about it," he said, explaining that his suit focuses on the fact that trans fats are hidden dangers being marketed to children. The National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites)' Institute of Medicine (news - web sites), which advises the government on health policy, said last summer that this kind of fat should not be consumed at all. It is directly associated with heart disease and with LDL cholesterol, the 'bad' kind that accumulates in arteries. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which contain trans fats, are present in about 40 percent of the food on grocery store shelves. Cookies, crackers, and microwave popcorn are the biggest carriers of trans fats, which are created when hydrogen is bubbled through oil to produce a margarine that doesn't melt at room temperature and increases the product's shelf life. The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has tried to force food companies to list trans fat content with other nutritional information on food packages, but manufacturers have challenged the rule. Even food labeled "low in cholesterol" or "low in saturated fats" may have high percentages of trans fats. Informing customers about trans fats on food labels could prevent 7,600 to 17,100 cases of coronary heart disease and 2,500 to 5,600 deaths per year, the FDA has estimated. Joseph said he has targeted Nabisco because, while other major snack food makers have reduced the amount of trans fats in their products, Nabisco has not.

Moon takes stage in a ballet with Earth's shadow tonight Thu May 15, 7:53 AM ET Add Entertainment - USA TODAY 

Dan Vergano USA TODAY Clouds permitting, sky watchers in the Americas, Western Europe and Africa will enjoy a total lunar eclipse tonight, one of nature's most compelling special effects. The partial lunar eclipse will start at 10:03 p.m. ET as the Earth blocks sunlight from the moon, gradually sliding into full eclipse at 11:14 p.m. ET. African and Euro-pean viewers will see the eclipse before or at dawn Friday. In the USA, viewing will be best in the western and central states, but storm clouds and rain threaten elsewhere. In Europe, skies should be clear over Spain, southern France and Italy, but clouds may impede viewing in the United Kingdom and from northern France to Germany. Mostly clear viewing is forecast for northern and southern Africa, but clouds and thunderstorms could block the view in central Africa. The moon technically begins the eclipse about an hour before the partial eclipse phase, as the moon begins to pass into a region of half-shadow on the Earth's dark side called the penumbra. During the total eclipse, the moon will pass entirely into the full shadow of the Earth, a region called the umbra, from the Latin word for shadow. It leaves it an hour later at 12:06 a.m. ET. ''You'll actually see the hard-edged shadow of the Earth as the total eclipse begins,'' says astronomer Fred Espenak of NASA (news - web sites)'s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The partial eclipse ends at 1:17 a.m. ET. And the moon finally exits the penumbra about an hour later. A faint red or gray glow will cover the moon during the total eclipse, making it still faintly visible. The glow comes from sunlight scattered off the edges of the Earth, which is bathed in light from the setting and rising sun, even as it places the moon in shadow. Partial lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes only partway through the umbra region. The amount of dust in the Earth's atmosphere affects the size of the umbra and can throw off eclipse time predictions by a few moments, a measurement of some interest to atmospheric scientists. Though lunar eclipses offer little scientific value to astronomers, Espenak says they are a powerful reminder of our place in the solar system. He maintains a Web site on eclipses at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html. The last total lunar eclipse took place in 2001; typically there are up to three every year. Anyone who misses out on the event has a second chance this year. On Nov. 8, a total lunar eclipse is expected to be viewable from North and South America. Two more should take place in 2004.

We may not be cousins to Neanderthals, after all: study Mon May 12, 8:51 PM ET Add Science - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - Today's humans are not genetic relatives of Neanderthals, an Italian study suggests. Cro-Magnon man won out over Neanderthal man, but without genetic mixing, Italian researcher Giorgio Bertorelle and his team report in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites). The report lends evidence to the theory that anatomically modern humans emerged from Africa some 150,000 years ago and eventually displaced earlier humans, such as Neanderthals in Europe, but without mixing. They extracted DNA from the skeletons of two anatomically modern Cro-Magnon men (Homo sapiens sapiens), who inhabited Europe between 23,000 and 25,000 years ago. The DNA was compared with extracts from the anatomically archaic Neanderthal who lived approximately 29,000 to 42,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon humans differ widely in their genetic makeup from Neanderthals studied. That finding, according to the researchers, suggests modern man's ancestors has no links with genes from Neanderthal man. "This discontinuity is difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis that both Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans contributed to the current European gene pool," researchers conclude. Their findings appear to contradict the theory that Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man had mixed gene pools that would form an evolving species that contributed to the genes of modern humans. The study was carried out at the University of Florence, Italy.

Roadside Sex Romp Captivates Commuters

May 14, 9:53 am ET 

TIRANA, Albania  - An amorous Albanian couple's very public highway hanky panky mortified motorists this week in a country emerging from decades of social conservatism.

The daily Korrieri newspaper reported on Wednesday that travelers on an eastern highway were amazed at the cheek of a couple who emerged naked from a car, had a brief roadside romp and then scampered off before the police arrived.

"The couple came out of their car completely naked and started making love on the asphalt," taxi driver Vangjush Poci told Korrieri. "They did not care about onlookers. After a few minutes, they kissed and walked back to their car."

Korrieri said police had confirmed the incident but said no actions would be taken against the "wild sex couple."

Albanian social behavior has become more libertine since the collapse of communism over a decade ago, but the asphalt intercourse incident is anecdotally considered a first.

WHO: Traffic Is Four Times as Lethal as War

May 14, 9:56 am ET 

GENEVA  - Traffic kills four times as many people as wars and far more people commit suicide than are murdered, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

In two reports on injuries, both accidental and deliberate, the United Nations agency said they killed more than five million people in 2000, one tenth of the global death toll.

Nearly 90 percent of injury-related deaths took place in poorer countries.

Road deaths, totaling 1.26 million, claimed the highest number of victims, followed by suicide at 815,000 and interpersonal violence at 520,000.

Wars and conflict ranked sixth -- between poisoning and falls -- with 310,000 deaths.

WHO said age, sex, geographical region and income level all played a part in the distribution and incidence of fatal injuries.

Such fatalities were twice as prevalent among men as women, the reports said. Three times as many men, for example, died in road traffic accidents as women. And men were also three times as likely to be murdered.

Death rates from road accidents, burns and drowning were particularly high in Africa and Asia, and homicides were three times as frequent as suicides in Africa and the Americas.

But in Europe and southeast Asia suicide rates were more than double murder rates.

When Words Get in the Way 29-Apr-2003 In You Can Be Blind & Not Know It, we reported that people see much less than they realize, which is a problem when police take eyewitness statements. Now research reveals that people's memories of a criminal's face are much poorer among eyewitnesses who described what the perpetrator looked like shortly after seeing him, compared with those who didn't- and the words seem to be the problem. Psychologist Jonathan W. Schooler says this is caused by "verbal overshadowing of visual memories." Studies have found that verbal descriptions impair people's memories of faces and other hard-to-describe things as well, like the taste of wine or the sound of a person's voice. In order to study the verbal-memory problem, Schooler showed volunteers a 30-second video of a man robbing a bank. Participants then spent 20 minutes doing something else. Afterwards, half of the group was asked to write a detailed description of the robber's face. Then all of the participants tried to identify the robber from a group of 8 photographs, only one of which showed the real "criminal." Two-thirds of the people who did not write down a description picked the correct photo, compared to only one- third of those who wrote down what he looked like. The words got in the way. But why? At first, Schooler thought that errors in the descriptions changed the way people visualized the suspect. When it's hard to find words to describe someone, our visual memories may change to fit our verbal description. However, Schooler now thinks the act of describing a face causes the brain to go from a visual to a word-based mode. And once we do that, it's hard to recall our visual memories, because we're using the wrong part of our brain. Kim Finger asked people to write a description of a man's face after studying the face for 5 minutes, and found they suffered no memory loss if she first got them back into a visual state of mind. To do this, Finger asked them to follow a printed maze or listen to 5 minutes of instrumental music. After doing one of these tasks, they could identify the correct face at the same rate as the volunteers who didn't write down a description. Schooler found that verbal descriptions disrupted white volunteers' ability to identify whites more than blacks, and thinks this might be because they had more experience looking at white faces, so could sum them up more easily in words. They had to spend more time looking for individual characteristics in black faces, meaning the images became more imprinted in the visual parts of their brains. Research on verbal overshadowing challenges the idea that language is necessary for thought. "Various forms of inexpressible knowledge may be best served by avoiding the application of language," Schooler says. Albert Einstein said, "I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards."

New Study of Psychics Shows They're Real 30-Apr-2003 Karin Goodwin writes in the Scottish Sunday Herald that scientists have found evidence of ESP after studying how mediums get information from the dead. University of Glasgow professor Archie Roy says, "There is no doubt from the work we have done that mediums can obtain information using more than the five normal senses. The results so far have been assessed with hard maths and statistics. We believe that we have disproved the idea that all mediums are able to do is make general statements." Think you're psychic? Take our poll! Roy used double blind testing in which the medium and the recipients were placed in separate rooms. Communication was established using a microphone and the identities of all involved were kept secret. He says, "We now have to move beyond these findings. One theory is that the medium can access information in other people's minds but how does the medium do this? This research will have to be followed up by all sorts of investigation." His results are the same as those of U.S. researcher Gary Schwartz. Gordon Smith, one of the mediums Roy studied, says, "Basically you are using a heightened sense. It is just like radio waves. If there is an emotional tie with the person you want to contact a medium can pick up the signals. A lot of scientists would argue that I am downloading the information from somewhere and I wouldn't argue with that. There's not always a spirit contact. If you were very emotional you'd give off a lot of feeling and I would be able to pick up the fact that you were going through a crisis time. 'However with a lot of the work I've done with Archie Roy I can't even see the audience and so I can't fall back on body language. When you are working with the scientific community you can't make general statements -- it is totally different from the way you might see people on TV just trawling for information with general statements like 'I can feel someone over here has lost someone'". John Weir, Scottish chairman of the Spiritualist National Union, says, "The only person who can really know if it is genuine is the one who gets a message. When that happens it is certainly a wonderful experience and it can be really uplifting for someone going through grief. People are mostly in need of comfort."

Good dancers make good lovers, says survey Men who know how to move on the dance floor know all the right moves in the bedroom, according to a new report. A survey of 2,000 women, commissioned by Phones 4U, has revealed the way a man dances is a dead giveaway to his performance between the sheets. More than 80% of the women questioned said there was a definite link, and that magic movers were certain to be able to perform more than a few tricks in the bedroom. More than half admitted to trying to get a man on to the dance floor to check out his technique before "taking the plunge". Sex expert Flic Everett analysed the responses, taken from five UK cities, and concluded that dance floor duffers are unlikely to score highly in the passion stakes. Flashy, over-the-top dancers are the very worst, according to 67% of women. "They are so proud of their moves that they'll spend more time in bed making sure they look good rather than trying to please their partner," said Ms Everett. But men who are shy on the dance floor are just as shy in bed according to 62%. "Beware the bloke that does the side-to-side shuffle on the dance floor. Boring, unimaginative and uninspiring, he'll generate even less energy in bed," Ms Everett added. Ballroom dancers, too, score zero in the sex stakes. They demand perfection in their partner and expect nothing less, according to the expert.

FBI: Looted Iraqi Antiquities Surfacing Mon Apr 21, 5:41 PM ET By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Art collectors and dealers say they already are getting queries about artifacts looted from Iraq (news - web sites)'s museums, and the FBI (news - web sites) said Monday that at least one suspected piece has been seized at an American airport. Thousands of items, some dating back many thousands of years, were taken when U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime. The FBI has begun working with U.S. and international law enforcement agencies, as well as art collectors, auctioneers and experts, to try to recover them. Lynne Chaffinch, manager of the FBI Art Theft Program, told a small group of reporters that she expects the thieves will attempt to sell most of the stolen pieces in wealthy countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, France and Switzerland. People in the United States already buy about 60 percent of the world's art, both legal and illegal. "We've had some interesting motives, but mostly it's money," she said of the reasons behind art theft. Chaffinch said Customs agents at an unspecified U.S. airport seized at least one item believed stolen from a Baghdad museum. Customs officials declined comment, citing an ongoing investigation. But they did say that Customs agents at ports of entry nationwide are on the lookout for Assyrian, Sumerian, Mesopotamian and other treasures believed stolen. Thieves usually attempt to sell stolen art and artifacts on the legal market. The FBI frequently hears about a suspect piece from a dealer or expert, then dispatches an undercover agent to contact the seller. Some of these agents have art history training so they can move undetected in a highly specialized world. "You've got to be able to talk the talk," Chaffinch said. The FBI will work closely with art collectors, auction houses, museum curators and even online sellers such as eBay to track down any Iraqi pieces offered for sale in the United States. Key to that will be getting documentation about the stolen pieces from Iraq so that law enforcement officials here and abroad can authenticate those that are recovered. This case is far different from many art thefts, which can involve famous works by artists such as Picasso or Van Gogh rather than ancient pieces of pottery or writing tablets that only experts recognize. "Somebody steals a Picasso or a Rembrandt, it's going to be hard to sell," Chaffinch said. The FBI soon will send a team of agents, probably along with Chaffinch, to Baghdad to collect that information. That will be posted for police on the FBI's National Stolen Art File, which along with private and international databases list descriptions of some 100,000 pieces of stolen art. The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has also begun posting on its Internet site descriptions of some important artifacts believed stolen. Experts at the university say between 50,000 and 200,000 items were stolen from Baghdad museums after the city fell to U.S. forces. A U.S. government task force that includes the FBI and Justice Department (news - web sites), State Department, Customs, CIA (news - web sites) and Interpol is figuring out how to tackle the Iraqi looting case. Some thought is being given to using an amnesty or reward program to get thieves to return items, though officials stressed no final decisions have been made. In addition, Interpol plans a conference May 5-6 in Lyons, France, to organize and coordinate international efforts to both recover the stolen pieces and arrest the perpetrators. Some Interpol investigators are already in Kuwait, awaiting U.S. military permission to travel to Baghdad. The sheer scale of the thefts has sparked unprecedented publicity that is already helping law enforcement officials investigate the case, Chaffinch said. The fact that the items date to civilization's earliest times has led to worldwide interest in the case, she added. "That's the cradle of civilization," she said. "It isn't just Iraqi cultural heritage - it's the world's cultural heritage." ___ On the Net: FBI: http://www.fbi.gov. University of Chicago Oriental Institute: http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/ Interpol: http://www.interpol.int.

Ancient Village Located in Illinois Mon Apr 21, 8:53 AM ET Add Science - 

DAMIANSVILLE, Ill. - Digging crews have found hundreds of 1,200-year-old stone arrowheads and pottery fragments buried under an Illinois hillside. The discovery near this village about 35 miles east of St. Louis represents an important archaeological find, said Brad Koldehoff, a state archaeologist. "It's a significant site. They discovered a keyhole-shaped house and what appears to be a small village," he said. "Keyhole" houses are dwellings made of clay and logs with rooms half submerged in the ground. The large, dome-shaped living area at one end was reached by a long, straight, covered entrance, giving rise to the name "keyhole." Microscopic examination of debris from their ancient garbage pits shows the inhabitants ate venison and turkey, plus what are today considered weeds. One common dish was a sort of pancake made from the seeds of knot weed. The village dates from the Late Woodland period, from about 600 to 800 A.D., said Koldehoff. What is learned from the dig will be integrated with knowledge gained from other finds in Illinois in recent years, including the 2001 discovery of 70 handmade ceremonial stone ax heads beneath a field in Shiloh. The hillside where the artifacts were found last week was chosen for excavation because the landowner wants to sell its dirt to the state as fill for a nearby highway project. State law requires that an archaeological team search for artifacts and excavate any that might be found. 

Virus Spreads in Hong Kong, Cockroaches Eyed
Tue Apr 8, 1:55 AM ET 
Add Science 

By Tan Ee Lyn 

HONG KONG  - A deadly virus has spread to another densely populated part of Hong Kong, and a top health official warned on Tuesday that cockroaches might be carrying the respiratory disease from apartment to apartment. 

The News Source Photo 

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Slideshow: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Hong Kong Reels From Virus
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Residents from at least 14 housing estates in the suburban town of Tuen Mun had been infected, a district lawmaker said, raising fears that a disease that has killed 23 people in the territory is far from contained. 

Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin told a radio program that cockroaches might have carried infected waste from sewerage pipes into apartments in another huge housing complex, Amoy Gardens, where more than a quarter of the city's 883 cases have occurred. 

Health workers have confirmed that an infected man with kidney problems visited a relative in one Amoy Gardens block before the virus swept through the building like wildfire. 

"The drainage may be the reason, it is possible that the cockroaches carried the virus into the homes," Leung said. 

Doctors believe the virus is spread through droplets by sneezing and coughing or by direct contact. If it can be carried by cockroaches it would be even harder to contain. 

Hong Kong, a territory of nearly seven million people, has the second highest number of infections in the world outside of mainland China, where it first emerged. 

NUMBER OF ESTATES 

The infections in Tuen Mun were spread over a number of housing estates, district councilor Chan Wan-sang told The News Source. Half a million people live in Tuen Mun. 

"They are all from 14 different estates, but we believe the total number of people infected may be more than 14," he said. 

Some of those infected in Tuen Mun were hospital staff and at least one caught it during a recent holiday to Beijing, he said. 

About half of the 278 people infected in the Amoy Gardens estate come from one wing of a single block. Residents from that block have been evacuated and quarantined in isolation camps. 

A government spokesman said they would be allowed to return home from Thursday if they passed medical checks and government workers had disinfected drainage pipes in the estate. 

The virus has been carried around the globe by travelers. It has killed more than 100 people and infected over 2,600 in 20 countries. 

The epidemic is dealing a severe blow to the Hong Kong economy, which was just starting to show signs of recovery after two harsh downturns in the last five years. 

Many travelers have canceled trips to the city and residents are steering clear of usually crowded places like shopping malls and restaurants. 

Continental Airlines was the latest to join a growing number of carriers cutting services. It suspended nonstop flights between New York and Hong Kong because of plunging demand. 

U.S. Officials Find SARS Virus in 6 Suspect Patients Thu Apr 24, 5:57 PM ET  

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON  - The virus that causes SARS (news - web sites) has been found in six U.S. patients suspected of having the sometimes deadly respiratory illness, and further tests will help doctors learn how extensive the epidemic is, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. The United States reported 245 "suspect" SARS cases in 37 states, but only 39 were "probable" cases -- meaning the patients had pneumonia as well as fever, a cough, diarrhea or other symptoms of the virus, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). "Of the 39 probable SARS patients, 37 had traveled to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi, or Toronto; one was a health-care worker who provided care to a SARS patient, and one was a household contact of a SARS patient," the CDC said in a statement. That suggests the disease is not spreading freely inside the United States. The CDC said 27 of the patients were ill enough to have been hospitalized and one was put on a ventilator. The United States has so far avoided an epidemic of SARS, but Gerberding said it could be due to luck. She said the CDC would continue to move quickly to identify and isolate anyone with suspected SARS, erring on the side of caution. The virus that causes SARS has only been identified in recent weeks and the tests used to find its presence in patients are experimental and could be unreliable, the CDC says. The test results released on Thursday are helping paint the first picture of what the epidemic really looks like. Tests found it in only six patients -- seven "suspect" and 32 "probable" cases tested negative and the rest were pending, the CDC said. Gerberding said the numbers were still far too small to allow doctors to draw any conclusions about how virulent the disease is. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has killed 264 worldwide and infected about 4,000. It has a fatality rate of about 6 percent, but Gerberding said that number would change as doctors were able to determine who actually had SARS and who may have a similar-looking infection. "I don't infer anything from the death rate except I wish it were zero," Gerberding said. "The more people who go off the list, the higher the proportion of mortalities will really be." Dr. Robert Webster, a respected virus expert who returned from Hong Kong this week, said he believed the SARS virus had mutated and perhaps a more pathogenic strain was emerging in Canada. Gerberding said there was no evidence of that so far, but noted the family of viruses was prone to mutation. "We are not characterizing this as a severe strain or a less severe strain," she said. "There are so many factors that affect disease severity. One is the characteristics of the virus, another is the host." Healthier people may be less likely to become severely ill when infected, although that is not always the case. Another possibility is how big a dose a person gets when initially infected. If more virus enters the body, perhaps the patient becomes sicker, Gerberding said. "There may be differences in the care that a patient receives," she added. "There are many reasons why there are differences in mortality. This is typical for infectious diseases and not something surprising or unique about SARS." 

ACLU Seeks Gov't Data on 'No-Fly' List Wed Apr 23, 6:38 AM ET Add U.S. National - 

By DAVID KRAVETS, News Source Writer SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) sued the FBI (news - web sites) and other government agencies Tuesday on behalf of two peace activists detained at an airport because their names popped up on a secret "no-fly" list. The women were among 339 travelers briefly detained and questioned at San Francisco International Airport during the past two years after their names were found in the database, the ACLU said, citing government documents. Those travelers ultimately were allowed to continue on their journeys. "Thousands of passengers are likely being subjected to the same sort of treatment at airports across the country," said Jayashri Srikantiah, an ACLU attorney. The database was created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a way to prevent potential terrorists from boarding planes. The Transportation Security Administration gets names from law enforcement officials and gives the lists to airlines to screen passengers. The ACLU is asking a federal judge to demand that the TSA, FBI or the Justice Department (news - web sites) disclose who is on the list, how they got on it and how they can get off it. The plaintiffs, Rebecca Gordon and Janet Adams, publish the San Francisco-based War Times. They were stopped in August while checking in for a flight to Boston. "It was very distressing," Gordon said. The two invoked the Freedom of Information Act to demand that authorities reveal why they were stopped. The TSA did not respond to their request and the FBI said no files on the two existed, the ACLU said. An FBI spokesman on Tuesday referred inquiries to the TSA. TSA spokesman Niko Melendez said those on the no-fly list pose, or are suspected of posing, a threat to civil aviation and national security. He added that the agency does "not confirm the presence of a particular name of an individual on a list."

Media, Troops Investigated in Iraq Theft Wed Apr 23, 5:57 PM ET By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Members of the news media and U.S. soldiers are being investigated for taking art, artifacts, weapons and cash from Iraq (news - web sites), with criminal charges already brought in one case, federal officials said Wednesday. At least 15 paintings, gold-plated firearms, ornamental knives, Iraqi government bonds and other items have been seized at airports in Washington, Boston and London in the last week, according to the bureaus of Customs and Border Protection and of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. None of the items displayed at a news conference were priceless antiquities looted from Iraqi museums. Still, Customs and military officials stressed there will be no tolerance for American service personnel or civilians bringing Iraqi souvenirs or war trophies back to the United States. "This is theft," said Jayson Ahern, a senior field operations official at the Customs and Border Protection bureau. "We are there to liberate. This must cease." So far, only Benjamin James Johnson, who worked as an engineer for Fox News Channel, has been charged. But officials said more charges could be brought and more seizures of stolen items are expected in what is being dubbed "Operation Iraqi Heritage." "This activity is clearly illegal," said Michael T. Dougherty, operations director at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. Museums, businesses, government offices and homes were looted in Baghdad and other cities after the fall of President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime. Among the items stolen were thousands of artworks and other antiquities, some thousands of years old, from Iraq's vast collections of items from Assyrian, Mesopotamian, Sumerian and other cultures. Customs agents are in Baghdad working with the museums to inventory what was stolen. The FBI (news - web sites) and the Interpol law enforcement network also are helping investigate and recover lost items. U.S. military officials also say that about $900,000 was taken by American soldiers from a cache of about $600 million in U.S. currency found in Baghdad palace complexes. Officials say most of the money has been recovered. Five soldiers are under investigation. Johnson, 27, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., with attempting to smuggle 12 paintings taken from a palace in Baghdad through Dulles International Airport outside Washington in a large cardboard box. After initially telling inspectors the paintings were given to him by Iraqi citizens, Johnson admitted that he took them from a palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's sons, while traveling with the U.S. military. The paintings, depicting Saddam, Uday and Arab historical scenes, have little historical value but could bring sizable prices because of their links to the deposed regime, officials said. Johnson told inspectors he wanted them mainly for decoration. An examination of Johnson's luggage also turned up 40 Iraqi Monetary Bonds and a visitor's badge from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait. Johnson, of Alexandria, Va., faces up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines on both smuggling and false statements counts. Attempts to reach Johnson by telephone Wednesday were unsuccessful. Johnson worked for six years as a satellite truck engineer for Fox, which fired him after learning he had acknowledged taking the paintings, a network statement said. Customs officials said unidentified U.S. service personnel attempted to ship a rifle, pistol, and AK-47 assault rifle - all gold-plated - as well as swords and knives taken from an Iraqi government facility to a military base in the United States. The items were intercepted last Friday at London's Heathrow Airport, then shipped to Fort Stewart, Ga. U.S. soldiers have been warned repeatedly not to bring home war trophies and will be searched by military police and Customs inspectors as they return from Iraq, said Mark Raimondi, spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigative Division. Customs officials in Boston said they confiscated several souvenirs, including a painting, from Boston Herald reporter Jules Crittenden when he returned Saturday from Kuwait. The U.S. attorney's office in Boston decided not to charge Crittenden with a crime, a spokeswoman said. The Herald said Crittenden declared the items and cooperated with Customs. Additional Iraqi items, including a painting, gold-plated emblem, gun holster and knife, that were being shipped by several other unidentified members of the media, were seized at Dulles on Monday. Those cases are still being investigated.

Teacher Lands Dream Job Teaching Solitary Pupil

Apr 22, 8:41 am ET 

LONDON  - With many British teachers complaining of overcrowded classrooms and lack of resources, one teacher begins her dream job on Tuesday.

Jane Puckey will have just one pupil -- a six-year-old girl -- when she takes up her new post at the primary school on Papa Stour, one of the Shetland islands off the northeast coast of Scotland, with a population of just 24.

The school has been closed for the last nine months after its former teachers, a couple, retired and the only other pupil moved on to secondary school.

"It has everything a teacher a could want," 59-year-old Puckey told the Independent newspaper, including a secretary, three computers, a television and an art room as well as a school house with three bedrooms.

"The ability to provide individual one-to-one attention all day, every day, is a major benefit for the child and satisfying for me as teacher," she said, adding that more children reaching school age might be joining soon.

Fox News Engineer Charged With Smuggling Wed Apr 23,11:35 AM ET By CURT ANDERSON, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - A television news engineer faces smuggling charges after attempting to bring into the United States 12 stolen Iraqi paintings, monetary bonds and other items, federal officials said Wednesday. A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., charges that Benjamin James Johnson, 27, tried to bring the paintings into this country last Thursday. They were contained in a large cardboard box that was examined by Customs agents at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint says that Johnson, who accompanied U.S. troops in Baghdad, gathered up the paintings at a palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s sons. The paintings depict Saddam and Uday. Johnson, who initially told Customs officials he was given the paintings by Iraqi citizens, said he had planned to keep them "for decoration" and to provide one to his employer, the affidavit says. It is U.S. policy that all such items belong to the Iraqi people. Johnson worked for six years as a satellite truck engineer for Fox News Channel, which fired him after learning he had admitted to taking the paintings, a network statement said. "This is an unfortunate incident and his supervisor took the appropriate action for this transgression," the statement added. The case was one of several to be detailed later Wednesday by Customs officials, who have seized other Iraqi artworks, weapons and other materials people have tried to smuggle into this country. Museums, businesses, government offices and homes were widely looted in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam's regime. Among the items stolen were thousands of artworks and other antiquities, some thousands of years old, from Iraq (news - web sites)'s vast collections of items from Assyrian, Mesopotamian, Sumerian and other cultures. An examination of Johnson's luggage also turned up 40 Iraqi Monetary Bonds and a visitor's badge from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait. Johnson, who lives in Alexandria, Va., has not been arrested but is to appear before a federal magistrate next Tuesday.

Global health report touches off row in US over sugar 1 hour, 36 minutes ago NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - A row over sugar has been touched off in the United States as a result of Wednesday's World Health Organization (news - web sites) report that calls for limiting sugar intake for health reasons. The Sugar Association, a lobby group for the US sugar industry, called the report "dubious" earlier this week after examining a draft. The WHO report released in Rome along with Food and Agriculture Organization (news - web sites) recommended limiting sugar intake to 10 percent of total calories, linking sweeteners to a host of problems including obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. But the US sugar lobby group said the WHO report is based on some studies as much as 30 years old, and neglected to reference a September 2002 study by the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) which gives more liberal guidelines for sugar intake. The report "causes WHO's credibility to be called into question when (it) continues to assert that the 'best available science' was considered," the Sugar Association said. "We will exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature of the Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases Report," the Sugar Association said in a letter earlier this month to the WHO director general in Geneva. The group said it may ask Congress to eliminate the 400 million dollars the United States contributes to the World Health Organization because of the report, and that effort drew a sharp reply from some public health activists. "Naturally, the sugar lobby would reflexively oppose any suggestion that sugar contributes to obesity and dental disease," said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "But we're shocked by the bluntness of the Sugar Association's thuggish threats. Theres nothing sweet about Big Sugar's blackmail campaign, and we applaud WHO and FAO for resisting it." 

'Motor City' a Deadly Place for Pedestrians

Apr 23, 10:07 am ET 

DETROIT  - The industry that made Detroit famous has made its streets especially deadly for pedestrians, federal safety regulators said on Tuesday.

Among U.S. cities with a population of more than 500,000, based on yearly averages from 1998 to 2000, Detroit, also known as the "Motor City," had the highest annual pedestrian fatality rate with 5.05 deaths per 100,000 people, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

That means the pedestrian death rate in the cradle of the U.S. auto industry was twice as high as that of New York City, according to NHTSA.

It said other large U.S. cities showing high per capita death rates for pedestrians included Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco and Dallas.

Among cities with populations of 100,000 or more, according to 2000 census data, NHTSA said Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa were the most treacherous places for pedestrians, followed by Newark, New Jersey, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Nearly one in five pedestrians killed in accidents on U.S. streets is the victim of a hit-and-run collision, according to NHTSA, which said children and senior citizens are especially likely to be victims of fatal crashes involving pedestrians.

Almost 175,000 pedestrians in the United States died in vehicle crashes between 1975 and 2001, NHTSA said. As part of a long-term trend, it said the number of victims had dropped from a high of 8,096 in 1979 to 4,882 in 2001.

"Most of the pedestrian fatalities in single vehicle crashes were associated with urban roads, night time crashes, male pedestrians and high alcohol use among pedestrians," NHTSA said, adding that pedestrian alcohol use accounted for about 40 percent of auto-related fatalities overall.

Scientist: Everyone Should Be DNA Fingerprinted

Apr 23, 2:39 pm ET 

LONDON  - Everyone should be DNA fingerprinted to help tackle crime and enhance personal security, the British inventor of the modern forensic technique suggested on Wednesday.

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the department of genetics at the University of Leicester, said existing criminal DNA databases were too small to catch criminal suspects.

"At the moment, we have a criminal DNA database of about two million profiles in the UK," he told reporters as scientists met at Britain's top scientific body, the Royal Society, to celebrate the discovery of DNA 50 years ago.

"The real problem in a typical crime is that even if you get DNA from a crime scene, you can't pick up a suspect because they don't have a record, so one possibility is to extend the database to include the entire population."

Jeffreys said he would feel "very uncomfortable" if such a database was run by the police.

"That would give entirely the wrong perception. But I would certainly be in favor of a database like that being established by a quite independent agency."

The database would carry a person's individual DNA profile and would certify their identity. "So it is not just a criminal investigation database but a personal security and assurance database as well," he said.

DNA fingerprinting -- from the tiniest of human specimens -- is already widely used in criminal investigations, paternity testing and to help settle applications for immigration, affecting the lives of thousands of people in a way Sherlock Holmes could not have dreamed possible.

The technique was developed in 1984 by Jeffreys after he noticed the existence of certain sequences of DNA that do not contribute to the function of a gene are repeated within the gene and in other genes of a DNA sample.

In most cases it provides an accuracy of identification in the tens to hundreds of millions to one. Its use has trapped perpetrators but has also exonerated the innocent who might otherwise have been found guilty due to circumstantial evidence.

It's a Dog's Life -- Amazing Story of Survival

Apr 23, 10:12 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - In an amazing story of canine survival California-style, a dog named Dosha has shown she has nearly as many lives as the average cat.

Dosha was hit by a car near her owner's Clearwater, California, home on April 15. Next, a police officer shot her in the head to put her out of her misery. Then, presumed dead, she was put in a freezer at an animal control center.

Two hours later, when a veterinarian opened the door to the freezer, she was shocked to find Dosha, a 10-month-old of mixed-breeding, standing upright in a plastic orange bag -- the equivalent of a human body bag.

Appearing on national television on Wednesday, Dosha seemed in fine spirits apart from a gunshot wound to her head and other injuries sustained from being hit by the car.

"When she first came in we called her miracle girl because we couldn't believe what she had gone through and was still with us," said veterinarian Deborah Sally on NBC's "Today" show.

"She's doing amazingly well," added Sally, who said the dog had suffered from hypothermia after being put in the fridge.

Pre-Inca Link April 19, 2003 A 4,000-year-old gourd discovered north of Lima, Peru has caused the rewriting of the history of civilization in South America. The gourd has an image of the "Staff God" who is part of the local inhabitants' creation myth. The human race, according to legend, came from a Reptilian-like being that had fangs, clawed feet, and a headdress of snakes. This fits in perfectly with Lemurian/Draco refugees to coastal South America after this continent was destroyed. Little by little, revelations as to true human history are being disseminated to the public. We should start hearing more information about discoveries in Rennes Le Chateau, Israel, and China.

Human v. Machine,

Poetry v. Pictures 

On May 11, 1997, Grandmaster Gary Kasparov lost a chess match to a supercomputer named Deep Blue. This watershed event challenges our understandings of intelligence and our relationship to the machines we create. 

It's the stuff of poetry. 

Some schools of remote viewing emphasize the visual aspects of an event. These schools prefer a visual chronicle, the ultimate depiction being an accurate rendering of reflected light, like a Polaroid photograph. Anything less than this literal interpretation is dismissed. 

A photograph does indeed contain much information. A picture is, after all, worth a thousand words. But what words? Who chooses them? 

The moment one begins to translate human experience into words one has crossed the threshold into poetry and narrative. And this is exactly what is occurring during a session. We at the Discovery Group are continually struck by the poetic descriptions of viewers who are wrestling with feelings. Simile and metaphor are their tools of expression. 

A camera, like a computer, is a machine that can provide information. But providing meaning is something only a human can do. Read our poet's reflections on this event. 

Tasking: Gary Kasparov losing his first match with Big Blue. 

Note, as with all taskings, the viewers were only given a random reference directive (for administrative purposes) and a random eight-digit number. To the viewer, the objective could be anything in the universe. Data from sessions appear in quotations. 

Dogstar - Shootout at the Ok Corral 

Dogstar's Kasparov is a male subject like a "cowboy," and deducts a "gunfight" or "shootout at the OK Corral." The viewer writes, "seems like everyone's trying to hide their intentions." Concepts of "maneuvering, strategy. It's like there's a big chess match going on. Central subject being quietly observed by others. Central subject knows this, and is playing it cool, but trying to access a situation." 

Dogstar's opponent appears to be inside a building structure. It should be noted that viewers often describe computers as complex buildings. 

Dogstar's sketch: Deep Blue: 

In this session, the viewer perceives two buildings, one lower than the other, and a second subject. Could this second subject be Deep Blue's human helper on the laptop in the picture below? The viewer writes, "I see central subject standing in the street in front of a building. Subject's attention is down the street, like he's looking at someone else in the street, or in a building down the street, or both. Subject seems concerned about someone or something coming out from the building, like a surprise attack kind of thing." 

Chess Match: Dogstar's Shootout: 

The viewer blends with the central subject: "I think there's someone else in that building. Watch out for that. Step carefully and slowly. Keep your eyes open for anything. There's talking going on, like I'm trying to buy some time by keeping others preoccupied. Try to appear calm. No sudden moves." 

Finally, the viewer performs a consciousness map of the central subject. 

Conscious Condition - "Stay alert. On edge. In control. Trying to keep aware of everything around. All focus is here and now. Enjoys this. This is simple and direct. 

Conscious Thoughts - "I think there's someone in that building. Keep steady, no sudden moves. You can outsmart these guys. They're just ants." 

Subconscious Condition - "Enjoying this. This is when you are living. Very straight forward. Direct mentality, no pretensions, other than being a tough opponent. Simple mentality, but not an unintelligent guy." 

Subconscious Thoughts - "Not afraid to die. Not afraid to push the edge. This is the way life is lived. You can't get me. I'm too good for that." 

Galaxy - A Series of Kings 

Galaxy's chess board is a "flat, striated, land" with concepts of a "field." "Sections-pieces crumbling-stone-like. Sense of old, historic-represents national pride somehow. Pointed aspects with diagonal sides-rectangular aspects. Moving parts, bordered, flat in center. Traditional." 

Galaxy's Chess Board:

The viewer's central subject almost blends with the king chess piece. Subject has a "male energy, stiff, posed, poised. Something on or about head. Stiffness in clothing, also uniform or special clothing. Old traditional, amuses some, duty, working, unusual stillness, air of importance, figurehead, representative, more than one of a kind, tightness of continence, like standing attention or on guard, observed in action, draws the attention of many, contrasting of dark and light, sometimes lonely although gets lots of attention, seriousness, supervises, walks around, inspections." 

"Somehow the structure gives representation to a subject. Like they define each other. Subject appears to move in and out of structure. Sense previous subjects in same position have functioned in this structure, like the White House and series of presidents or a castle and series of kings." 

Coyote - 4th Dimensional Realm 

Coyote's Deep Blue is a complex structure that transforms energy. "Lots of parts - rods and circles. It's like lots of moving parts under a rubber thing that stretches and pops out in places with these mechanical movements. Like it picks up speed. It's like the more energy that moves into this thing the more quickly it moves to transform it. Like it is transforming a type of energy. There is a crackling and popping as it fills up with energy. Seems like the structure has sentience but it may be that it takes on the feeling of the energy coming into it. There is a heat that grows when energy is taken into it then the energy is transformed and cooled down." 

Coyote's Sketch:

The viewer then morphs with the structure: "Structure feels happy. It's like it is happy to do what it is doing-like it has a consciousness to it." 

(This sounds eerily reminiscent of HAL from 2001!) 

Coyote's central subject is male, who is "doing something seriously but with love or compassion-a sense of humor but from compassion within a serious attitude." The viewer focuses on the subject: "Taking pains to do something which almost seems like it won't matter. The mind frame of the subject is more beneficial than what the job is. It's like it is a nuts and bolts thing, (the job), but the way the subject sees reality is the most beneficial thing. This subject directs the structure with his mind, pulls in energy with his mind. It's odd because I almost feel like the structure is unnecessary to what the subject is doing, like the subject can really just do it himself. But I think that he can do it in the 4th dimensional realm and the structure has to do it for the 3rd dimensional realm." 

Stop! Remember, folks, these viewers have no conscious idea what it is they are viewing. If you judged their sketches against a literal expectation, you would quickly conclude that none matches. But are these sessions meaningless? 

It is interesting to note that Deep Blue's power allows it to analyze 200 million moves per second. Kasparov can handle a mere 3 moves per second yet has beaten the computer in many games. Perhaps there is something to Coyote's analogy of a dimensional difference between human capability and the machine's. The language that Galaxy intuitively chooses is both befitting of Kasparov and the chess king, who, in the viewer's words, define each other. Dogstar even uses the simile of a chess match to describe the more colorful drama of a western showdown between a self-assured gunfighter and his unseen opponent. 

Ask yourself, what is more meaningful? A sketch that accurately depicts the reflected light off the face of Gary Kasparov playing chess with a supercomputer, or these narrative, often poetic, insights? 

Do you want a picture, or a poem? A computer or a Kasparov? 

Awaken that poet within. Express your feelings. Learn to view! 

For more information on the match, go to: 

http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/ 

http://whyfiles.org/040chess/main1.html

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Clergy: Veggie Jesus Ad Is Sacrilegious Thu Apr 17, 9:21 PM ET Add Strange News - 

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Christian and Jewish clergy say a billboard that promotes vegetarianism by claiming "Jesus was the prince of peas" is historically inaccurate and sacrilegious. The billboard includes a picture of Jesus with an orange slice in place of a halo and was erected by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, to coincide with Passover and Easter. PETA's Bruce Friedrich said the campaign is meant to provoke the thought that if people are eating meat, they are promoting cruelty to animals. "The way that animals are treated on factory farms and slaughterhouses is egregiously cruel and mocks God," Friedrich said. But Rabbi David Ostrich of Temple Beth-el, said historical evidence indicates that Jesus, like other Jews of the time, was a meat eater. He said a ritual part of the Passover meal was a lamb slaughtered in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Driver awarded for accident free motoring had no licence A German pensioner on his way to collect an award for 25 years of accident free motoring was pulled up by police for driving without a licence. Wilibald Schmidt had to admit he did not have a driving licence when he was stopped at a routine roadside check. The 77-year-old had been forced to hand over his licence for driving offences 25 years earlier but had carried on driving illegally without it, reports German daily Bild. Because he had not had a single accident the local motoring club in Essen, Germany, where he was a member, had invited him to receive an award for his "careful driving and good example to other motorists". Story filed: 11:09 Wednesday 16th April 2003

New vodka helps beat hangovers A drinks manufacturer claims to have come up with a new brand of anti-hangover vodka. Bosses at the Vinprom AD firm in Bulgaria say their Shock vodka makes the morning after the night before a much more pleasant experience for drinkers. The vodka contains a mix of C, B1, and B2 vitamins, honey, milk, and other bio-active elements that help speed up the body's absorption of alcohol and therefore reduce a hangover after drinking, local daily Dnevnik reports. Vinprom Executive Director Marusja Jordanova says a US firm has already expressed an interest in importing the drink for the American market. Story filed: 10:35 Thursday 17th April 2003

Noah's Ark internet game launched A virtual reality game show aimed at stripping Christianity of its "stained glass and Sunday School" image is being launched today. Billed as a religious version of Big Brother, 12 giants from the Bible are due to fight it out for up to two hours a day for the right to stay on board a virtual Noah's Ark. A web audience will vote at regular intervals to make one of the Ark inhabitants walk the plank in the game after nominations by fellow contestants. The contestants voted to take the plunge will be led to their fate by the Archangel Gabriel and will be able to give their final statement to the world before they drown. The game will allow web audiences to tour the 3D Ark without the knowledge of contestants. More than 1,000 people expressed an interest in the game with the 12 final contestants whittled down from 30 "holy heavyweights" auditioned in an online chatroom. The game aims to revive popular interest in the Bible and was the idea of the satirical Christian web magazine shipoffools.com. Dr Andrew Walker, professor of theology and education at King's College, London, said: "While The Ark will not preach nor intentionally inform, it will stimulate religious and moral debate and feed our still-hungry imaginations." The contestants in the game will play Moses, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, Nebuchadnezzar, Martha, Paul, Samson, John the Baptist, Simon Peter, Esther, Eve and Job. The winner will be chosen on May 30 after 40 days and 40 nights on a virtual sea. The prize is �666.

A Diet Just for You 09-Apr-2003 Your boyfriend can lose weight just by giving up desserts for a week, while nothing you do will budge that extra ten pounds. Researchers have discovered that different genes are responsible for obesity in different groups of mice, so they assume it must be true for humans as well. This means there needs to be different ways to lose weight. Some people may have a hormone problems, while others have flawed hunger message signals or emotional reasons to overeat. Pre- diabetic people have an especially hard time dropping more than a few pounds, since their bodies are programmed to grab onto extra weight. When different types of genetically altered mice are put on high-fat diets, some don't put on weight, while others do. The overweight mice can be divided into two genetic types. Scientists have also found a "hotspot" of obesity-related genes on chromosome 2. Dr. Eric Schadt says, "While the end result is the same, in that you get obese, the reasons why you get obese are varied, and genetically controlled." Structured diets like Weight Watchers often don't work- people don't lose much or else they gain it all back quickly when the diet is over. Researchers found that Weight Watchers participants lost an average of only six pounds over a two year period. Really diligent dieters lost only eleven pounds in the same period of time. That weight "is not very much in comparison to what people hope they will lose, or what people need to lose in order to reach the desired, svelte self," says Dr. Stanley Heshka. Dr. Ian Campbell says, "Our understanding of obesity is growing all the time. Some of the discoveries in the field of genetics are opening up possibilities of a whole new range of treatments. The more we understand about obesity, the less it seems to be the patient's fault. It's more a combination of genetic and environmental influences."

Vegans guilty on all counts for malnourishing baby Fri Apr 4, 4:59 PM ET Add Crimes and Trials - Court TV 

By Harriet Ryan, Court TV (Court TV) - A jury in Kew Gardens, N.Y. convicted a vegan couple of nearly starving their baby to death with a strict diet that the prosecutor described as "a path to hell." Joseph and Silva Swinton, both 32, were found guilty in Queens Supreme Court of assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. The couple fed their toddler daughter, Ice, a homemade soy bean and herb infant formula that left the little girl with the appearance of a Third World famine victim and the developmental abilities of a newborn. At 15 months, Ice had no teeth and could not sit up, crawl or walk. The Swintons will face up to 25 years in prison when sentenced at a later date by Judge Richard Buchter. With their verdict, which came after two days of deliberations, the jury rejected arguments of the Swintons' attorneys, who said the couple wanted only the best for their baby and did not realize the harm the diet was causing her. The felony assault and reckless endangerment convictions indicate the panel found the couple acted with "depraved indifference," or recklessness "so wanton" that it is equivalent to purposefully starving Ice. If the jury had found the Swintons simply reckless, they could have convicted them on misdemeanor charges that carry no mandatory jail time. Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum said the pair treated their daughter "like a gerbil" and called the diet "a grotesque science project." He argued that the couple were well aware that their daughter was sick and showed "willfull blindness" to the problems. "A 15-month-old child who cannot walk, cannot stand and cannot crawl &mdash; that tells you that something is very, very wrong," Rosenbaum told the jury during closing arguments. All the panelists had experience caring for small children. None are vegetarians. The girl, who will celebrate her third birthday in July, and her baby brother, Ini, born after the Swintons' arrests, now live with relatives of the couple. (Court papers spell the girl's name Ice, although the parents have spelled it Iice.) The testimony of Silva Swinton was the three-week trial's dramatic highpoint and may have ultimately proved harmful to her defense. She told jurors that Ice "was thriving" on the vegan diet and suggested that it was hospitalizations and medical care ordered by social services that had made her daughter sick.

Saucy Princess seeks Sensitive Pirate for Midnight Raid

State officials are at a loss to explain how several boulders have found their way to the tops of tall trees in Yellowwood State Forest in Brown County. � Here's how to find them: The Yellowwood State Forest office (1-812-988-7945) has maps showing the general location of Gobbler's Rock. To reach the office, travel west of Nashville on Ind. 46. After about five miles, turn north on Yellowwood Road and follow the signs. To reach Gobbler's Rock, head north on Yellowwood Lake Road from the office about three miles, and then turn west on Lanam Ridge Road. Turn left onto Ind. 45, and then quickly turn left (south) on Tulip Tree Road. Follow this gravel road about two miles, and park in a small pull-off near the gate. From this point, having a compass is suggested. Continue walking south about a half-mile, and look for a cleared, grassy area on the left. Look for an old logging path that leads east from the cleared area, and follow it east and south. Gobbler's Rock is high on a south-facing slope overlooking a ravine. (GPS coordinates: N39 12.204, W86 21.955) � To find two other rocks: From the Yellowwood Forest office, travel north on Yellowwood Lake Road about three miles. Turn right (east) on Lanam Ridge Road. Follow the road about three miles, and turn west on Dollsberry Lane (it's about a mile south of Helmsburg). Follow the gravel road until it ends; park in a small parking area on the south side of the roadway. From this point, a compass is required; there is no marked trail or path, and underbrush in some areas is thick. Follow the old roadway west, and then southwest. South of the pond (which is on private property), you must bushwhack southwest to Plum Creek, then follow the creek as it meanders west. The two sycamores holding rocks are on the north creek bank, about a third of a mile west-southwest from the parking area. The trees are about 100 yards apart, but not visible from each other. (GPS coordinates: N39 14.986, W86 18.492; N39 14.984, W86 18.560) Be sure to note landmarks while hiking in to assist you in finding your way out

The mystery of Gobbler's Rock Yellowwood State Forest visitors are mystified by the large rocks perched high in several trees. By George McLaren george.mclaren@indystar.com April 4, 2003 NASHVILLE, Ind. -- Rocks and trees are natural sights in the forest. But there's definitely something unnatural going on in Yellowwood State Forest. Somehow, large boulders have found their way to the tops of tall trees and gotten wedged among the branches. There are at least three, maybe five, maybe more. The first was discovered a few years ago and was dubbed Gobbler's Rock, because it was found by a turkey hunter scouting in a remote area of the 23,000-acre forest. Since then, curious hikers have worn a path to the 80-foot-tall chestnut oak tree. High in a fork in its branches, nearly 30 feet off the ground, a massive slab of sandstone is nestled. The triangular rock, perhaps 4 feet wide and a foot thick, is estimated to weigh about 400 pounds. The boulder itself isn't that unusual. It's the where -- not to mention the how -- that makes it so intriguing. About five miles away, on the banks of Plum Creek, sandstone boulders are wedged in the upper branches of two tall sycamores 100 yards apart. One boulder is nearly 45 feet off the ground; both rocks appear to weigh about 200 pounds. And a local hiker says there are two more in yet another part of the forest. Carol Carr, 58, of Edinburgh, had visited Gobbler's Rock. Then a friend led her to the two sycamores, in a remote, seldom-visited part of Yellowwood southwest of Helmsburg. One day, Carr was hiking with an acquaintance in a different area of the forest, on a ridge near Yellowwood Lake. "We just wanted to go down and see the creek. All of a sudden, there's two more (boulders in trees) by the creek," Carr recalled. What in the world is going on? Theories range from engineering students working on a class project to fraternity boys with too much time on their hands, to tornadoes or high winds or floods or dynamite demolition gone awry. Or UFOs. Don't snicker. This story has "other world" written all over it. The boulder-topped trees are up to a half-mile from the nearest road access, in remote areas of the state forest, miles apart. There's no apparent reason why the locations were picked, no damage to the trees, and no signs of any type of heavy equipment having been used to hoist the heavy rocks. In fact, there's no signs of anything. Except the boulders. "You know 'Signs' (the movie) . . . Instead of crop signs, we've got tree 'signs,' " said Brenda Stine, a state forest employee at Yellowwood. She was kidding. We think. In fact, the bizarre rock case is highlighted at abduct.com, a UFO-related Web site. Go to http://abduct.com/taylor/lt58.htm and scroll down. The Web site (which offers a new book for sale: "Healing the Hurt of Alien Abduction") posts a few comments from a UFO investigator about Gobbler's Rock. Included in a list of topics such as "Alien Mark Appears on Woman" and "Dogs Under Attack From UFOs," the Web site ponders this question: Did a UFO put a boulder in this tree? "If the rock was blown into the tree, why isn't there some sign of damage to the bark? It had to be gently rested in the branches, I would think, but by what?" the investigator asks. Brown County Sheriff Buck Stogsdill laughed nervously when asked about the prospect of UFOs operating in his county. "That's one of those . . . How can you answer that?" Stogsdill replied, avoiding a direct answer. Stogsdill said a law officer was dispatched to investigate a few years ago when Gobbler's Rock was discovered. "There really wasn't much to do," he admitted. "Just look at it and try to figure it out." They couldn't. No one yet has been able to solve the boulder mystery. The rocks may have originated near the trees, because sandstone boulders are scattered around the forest and the trees are a considerable distance from the nearest roadway. Yellowwood officials say many people have claimed credit for Gobbler's Rock -- casting doubt on all the claims. "Maybe it's some kind of club that goes around putting rocks in trees and they have a little dinner celebration afterward. I've heard that rumor," said Jim Allen, Yellowwood property manager. "Or it could be some college kids that don't have anything better to do." Some have wondered if a boulder had been placed in the tree years ago, and had risen as the tree grew. But trees don't grow that way. The boulders must have been placed high in the trees after their trunks were sturdy enough to support them. "You could use a block and tackle, I suppose," Allen said, referring to a rope-and-pulley system. The fact that there are at least three boulders, possibly five or more, diminishes the likelihood of a weird tornado incident. Plus, there's no sign of wind damage to surrounding trees. And no one remembers any mishaps involving dynamite anywhere nearby. For now, the Unexplained Resting Boulders (URBs) are being left alone by forest officials. But Allen says workers may be forced to bring them down if too many are lifted up. He doesn't want somebody to get hurt while hoisting a 300-pound boulder 40 feet into a tree. "I would prefer this go away because of the liability issues," Allen said. "I try not to encourage stories." The government may not want you to know about the URBs. But we're telling you anyway. Because, well, the truth is out there. Somebody, possibly with a few friends, has the answer. "It's kind of a mystery of who and how," said Sheriff Stogsdill. "And why. That's another one. Why?"

Tree Rocks 08-Apr-2003 Something strange is going on in the 23,000 acre Yellowwood State Forest in Indiana. At least 5 large rocks are sitting in the tops of tall trees, wedged in the branches. The first one was discovered a few years ago, 30 feet off the ground in an 80-foot-tall chestnut oak tree and has been named Gobbler's Rock, because it was found by a turkey hunter. The triangular rock is about 4 feet wide and a foot thick and weighs around 400 pounds. How did it get up there? About five miles away from Gobbler's Rock, more sandstone boulders are wedged in the upper branches of two tall sycamores that stand 100 yards apart. One boulder is nearly 45 feet off the ground, and the rocks weigh about 200 pounds each. Hiker Carol Carr says she's seen two more in two sycamores in another part of the forest. "We just wanted to go down and see the creek. All of a sudden, there's two more (boulders in trees) by the creek," she says. There's no sign of heavy equipment having been used to hoist the rocks up into the trees, and the trees aren't damaged in any way. Some people think a boulder could have been placed in the tree years ago, and then rose up as the tree grew. But the trunks of young trees wouldn't be strong enough to support a rock of that size. "If the rock was blown into the tree, why isn't there some sign of damage to the bark? It had to be gently rested in the branches, I would think, but by what?" an investigator says. Brown County Sheriff Buck Stogsdill remembers when Gobbler's Rock was first discovered. "There really wasn't much to do," he says. "Just look at it and try to figure it out."

Porno Sites Blocked, Called Evil

Apr 7, 10:43 am ET 

KARACHI  - Pakistani telecommunication authorities have blocked more than 1,800 pornographic Web sites in an attempt to protect internet users from what they call their corrupting and evil influence.

More than 60 percent of an estimated one million internet users in Islamic Pakistan visit pornographic sites, said Zahir Mohammed Khan, a senior official of the state-run Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd (PTCL).

"We launched a campaign to block such web sites in February and, so far, have identified and blocked 1,800 of them," he told The News Source by telephone from Islamabad.

"But it's a difficult task as such sites are in millions."

The PTCL was also identifying what Khan called anti-Islamic and blasphemous sites.

"They too are being blocked," he said, without giving details.

Internet service providers (ISPs) say a majority of those accessing pornographic sites are youngsters. Middle-aged people are also said to be regular visitors.

Thousands of internet cafes have sprung up in major cities and in remote, often conservative towns where youngsters spend hours surfing pornography sites for as little as 35 cents an hour.

New Mousetrap Invented with Herpes Virus

Apr 7, 10:42 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australia, regularly hit by the worst mouse plagues in the world, is claiming an international first with a genetically modified herpes virus to knock out population explosions of the small rodent.

The government-backed Co-operative Research Center (CRC) for Biological Control of Pest Animals has produced a genetically modified herpes virus that makes sexually prolific female mice infertile, by blocking sperm from entering their eggs.

"We know it works in a shoe box-level experimental setting. Now we want to try it in a field setting," CRC director Tony Peacock told The News Source on Monday.

The CRC is applying to Australia's watchdog on transgenic applications, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, for permission to trial the herpes virus in sample populations of mice, in rodent-proof pens.

The disease can only be spread by mouse-to-mouse contact, after inoculation of rodents with gene-spliced material containing the modified virus.

Rigorous testing to prove the virus is "species specific" -- which means that it cannot be transferred to other animals or humans -- will be required before expected full release in three years.

The main beneficiary of the virus would be Australian farmers, who grow one of the world's biggest grain export crops.

Scientists Clone Endangered Asian Banteng

Apr 8, 10:26 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - A pair of banteng calves born last week were cloned from an animal that died more than 20 years ago, researchers said on Tuesday -- adding they hoped to rescue more endangered animals using cloning.

The two bantengs were cloned from the San Diego Zoo's "frozen zoo," a project launched before anyone knew whether cloning would work. Bantengs, found in Asia, are a species of wild cattle.

Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technologies said cells frozen from an animal that died in 1980 without leaving any offspring were successfully cloned using cells from cattle, and two of the babies made it to birth last week.

The experiment, a collaboration including ACT, the San Diego Zoo, Iowa State University and Trans Ova Genetics, worked in part because bantengs are closely related to domestic cattle, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientist for ACT.

"The San Diego Zoo sent us a vial of frozen cells from a banteng (Stud #319) that was unique in its conservation value," Lanza said in an e-mail exchange.

"The bantengs were cloned by transferring the DNA from these cells into empty eggs from ordinary domestic cows. We implanted the cloned embryos into a herd of beef cattle which served as surrogate moms. Although we started with 16 pregnancies, only two of them went to term."

ACT did that two years ago with an oxlike animal called a gaur. The little calf died after only a few days.

NY Police Admit Keeping Anti-War Protest Database
2 hours, 16 minutes ago 
Add Politics 

By Grant McCool 

NEW YORK  - New York police admitted on Thursday to compiling and then destroying a database of people arrested during anti-war protests, but rights groups decried the practice as an erosion of civil liberties in the name of the U.S. war on terrorism. 

Latest news: 
� U.S. Forces Will Be in Control of Kirkuk: W.House 
The News Source - 4 minutes ago 
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AP - 7 minutes ago 
� Agencies US-Led Troops Must Rein in Iraq Looters 
The News Source - 8 minutes ago 
Special Coverage

A "debriefing form" was used by detectives to record information on hundreds of people arrested in a series of protests since mid-February against the U.S.-led war on Iraq (news - web sites). 

"After a review, the department has decided to eliminate the use of the Demonstration Debriefing Form," NYPD chief spokesman Michael O'Looney said in a statement that was first reported in Thursday's New York Times. 

"Arrestees will no longer be asked questions pertaining to prior demonstration history, or school name. All information gathered since the form's inception on Feb. 15 has been destroyed." 

The practice ended after pressure from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which received complaints from demonstrators that they felt coerced and that their constitutional rights of free speech and free association were being violated. 

Thursday's disclosure came just weeks after a judge cited "fundamental changes in the threats to public security" in lifting decades-long restrictions on the New York Police Department's ability to spy on political groups. 

Law enforcement authorities, free speech advocates, media commentators and courts have all acknowledged that the hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 and the U.S. war on Iraq have created a different atmosphere for policing in America for possible terrorism. 

The collection of personal information of demonstrators, however, has not gone down well in New York, a city with a tradition and history of protest and dissent. 

"We've had numerous demonstrations in New York in the past 18 months, but is their any evidence or connection whatsoever that people exercising their first amendment rights have anything to do with terrorism?" asked Jeffrey Fogel, legal director of New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. 

Police said they would continue to tally the names of organizations, but not individuals, to help in deciding how many officers to assign to future demonstrations. 

But Fogel charged that still amounted to "intelligence gathering" by police that should be stopped. 

New York Civil Liberties Union head Donna Lieberman said the United States was at "a crossroads" on the issue. "The country has to decide whether to preserve our democratic values or sacrifice them needlessly as the Bush administration would have us do on the altar of some inaccurate notion of national security. Safety is critical of course, but it's not necessary to give up our liberties," Lieberman said.

Haiti Officially Sanctions Voodoo 
Thu Apr 10, 2:12 AM ET

By MICHAEL NORTON, News Source Writer 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's government has officially sanctioned voodoo as a religion, allowing practitioners to begin performing ceremonies from baptisms to marriages with legal authority. 

Many who practice voodoo praised the move, but said much remains to be done to make up for centuries of ridicule and persecution in the Caribbean country and abroad. 

Voodoo priest Philippe Castera said he hopes the government's decree is more than an effort to win popularity amid economic and political troubles. 

"In spite of our contribution to Haitian culture, we are still misunderstood and despised," said Castera, 48. 

In an executive decree issued last week, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide invited voodoo adherents and organizations to register with the Ministry of Religious Affairs. 

After swearing an oath before a civil judge, practitioners will be able to legally conduct ceremonies such as marriages and baptisms, the decree said. 

Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, has said he recognizes voodoo as a religion like any other, and a voodoo priestess bestowed a presidential sash on him at his first inauguration in 1991. 

"An ancestral religion, voodoo is an essential part of national identity," and its institutions "represent a considerable portion" of Haiti's 8.3 million people, Aristide said in the decree. 

Voodoo practitioners believe in a supreme God and spirits who link the human with the divine. The spirits are summoned by offerings that include everything from rum to roosters. 

Though permitted by Haiti's 1987 constitution, which recognizes religious equality, many books and films have sensationalized voodoo as black magic based on animal and human sacrifices to summon zombies and evil spirits. 

"It will take more than a government decree to undo all that malevolence," Castera said, and suggested that construction of a central voodoo temple would "turn good words into a good deed." 

There are no reliable statistics on the number of adherents, but millions in Haiti place faith in voodoo. The religion evolved from West African beliefs and developed further among slaves in the Caribbean who adopted elements of Catholicism. 

Voodoo is an inseparable part of Haitian art, literature, music and film. Hymns are played on the radio and voodoo ceremonies are broadcast on television along with Christian services. 

But for centuries voodoo has been looked down upon as little more than superstition, and at times has been the victim of ferocious persecution. A campaign led by the Catholic church in the 1940s led to the destruction of temples and sacred objects. 

In 1986, following the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier's dictatorship, hundreds of voodoo practitioners were killed on the pretext that they had been accomplices to Duvalier's abuses.

Receiving Accurate Messages from the Future

Jeffrey Mishlove and James Spottiswoode invite you to participate in a novel precognition experiment. This experiment will test whether it is possible to send small amounts of information backwards in time with a high accuracy. The experiment is based on an automatic response in our physiology. It has been known for a hundred years that when we are alarmed or surprised we sweat slightly and this can be measured by monitoring the electrical resistance of our skin. Recently it has been discovered that a similar effect occurs just before the surprising event - that is our skin conductance shows that we react about 3 seconds in advance of stimulation.

With medically approved equipment, we monitor the properties of your skin at your fingertips. Our skin sometimes reflects our emotional state. That is, if you are a little nervous or you are suddenly surprised, your hands become a bit damp. Our sensitive equipment can sense that change long before it is obvious to you.

This experiment is very important because it is showing us that our nervous system can correctly anticipate the startling sound-even before the system has randomly decided whether to present the sound. This appears to be physiological evidence of precognition-peeking slightly into the future.

If this experiment is successful it will be an important demonstration of a backwards-in-time, or retrocausal, communication channel. A demonstration of this effect poses a major challenge to existing physics and opens the way for a number of interesting experiments in causality.

What is Involved in Participating During the experiment you will be sitting in an auditorium for approximately 20 minutes. Two electrodes will be attached to your fingertips which are connected to a medically certified Skin Conductance measuring system. During this period you will hear approximately 10 bursts of white noise, each lasting one second. These sounds are designed to be quite loud (about 95 dB), which is not painful, but rather startling. We shall ask everyone to sit quietly through the 20 minute session while concentrating on anticipating when the sounds will occur.

Results Your individual results will be emailed to you after the experiment, or snail-mailed if you prefer. We will also let all participants know how the whole group performed and how much information we were able to transmit backwards in time.

How To Participate To save time on the day of the experiment and to ensure that we can get your results to you in a timely fashion, we would ask you to register your intent to participate online before you arrive. The link below will take you to a form where you can enter your name, age, gender and contact information. You will then be given a unique registration ID number. Please make sure that you bring this number with you to the experiment. The information you give us in registering will be treated in complete confidence and will not be passed on to any third parties, but used only for this experiment. Register Here Please http://www.jsasoc.com/rpsr.htm We are hoping to have 100 participants in each experiment. So we encourage you to join us and to bring your friends!

Experiment 1 - Los Feliz, Los Angeles Sunday, March 2, 2003, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Philosophical Research Society 3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, California (click here for directions) For Further Information: PRS: 323 663 2167 James Spottiswoode 310 927 1054 or

In Canada, the hardest hit country outside Asia, scientists at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver worked 24 hours a day for six days to sequence the genetic code of the virus suspected of causing SARS. Researchers reported that the gene sequence suggests a previously unknown coronavirus unrelated to any known human or animal viruses.

Rat-Trap Nets Fisherman

Apr 10, 9:55 am ET 

PHNOM PENH  - A Cambodian who set out to catch fish with car batteries and electrodes got a taste of his own medicine when he stepped on an electric rat-trap and died.

The Kampuchea Thmey newspaper said on Thursday that fisherman Roeun Bo, 36, died instantly when he stumbled into a mesh of bare wires hooked up to a large truck battery.

He had been on his way to fish illegally in the middle of the night in a stream near his home in Takeo, around 40 miles south of the capital Phnom Penh, the paper said.

Rat-traps using electricity or glue are common around rice fields in the impoverished southeast Asian nation. Once caught, the rats are sold for around $1 each for food.

"This business now appears to be dangerous. Not only does it kill wildlife -- it also kills human beings," one police official said.

Knife Thrower Slices Assistant on Live TV

Apr 10, 9:57 am ET 

LONDON  - A record-breaking knife thrower shocked Britons on Thursday when one of his daggers sliced into the head of his assistant on live TV.

Circus performer Jayde Hanson, 23, was demonstrating his skills when one of his knives hit his assistant and girlfriend, 22-year-old Yana Rodianova.

As she clutched the side of her head, horrified presenter Fern Britton shouted: "Oh my God, there is blood, quick -- get her off."

A spokeswoman for ITV's "This Morning," one of the country's most popular daytime programs, said the wound was only "a nick."

"She's absolutely fine and recovering well," the spokeswoman said, before adding ruefully: "You don't really expect that kind of thing from a world record-holder."

Over one million viewers had been watching as Hanson, who works for the British-based Cottle and Austen Circus, showed off how many knives he could hurl at Yana in 60 seconds.

He had been trying to emulate the pace of his world record-breaking effort of 120 knives thrown in two minutes which he achieved as part of National Circus Day on Tuesday.

"He felt confident as he has been throwing his mother's kitchen knives since the age of 10," the show said on its Web Site before the accident.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Hanson, whose father was an elephant tamer and mother a trapeze artist, is currently having to advertise for a new assistant as Yana, who bears two scars from previously mis-directed knives, wants to concentrate on her hula-hoop act.

His previous assistant reportedly left the job after being hit in the foot, her third injury from a wayward knife.

"In 11 years of performing, I've only hit my assistant on five occasions," he told the Daily Mail newspaper recently.

Web Site for Iraqi Minister Rocks Cyberspace

Apr 11, 10:42 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A member of Saddam Hussein's vanquished regime has sprung up as an unlikely hero in cyberspace on a Web site embraced by both supporters and foes of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Television news junkies transfixed by daily briefings by Iraqi Minister of Information Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf are now logging onto a day-old Web site featuring his finest invective against U.S. and British "infidels."

The site, (http:/www.WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com), is a "coalition effort of bloodthirsty hawks and ineffectual doves" united in their admiration for al-Sahaf and his pronouncements, such as: "I now inform you that you are too far from reality."

Among al-Sahaf's now-famous declarations was: "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"

Writer and former Greenpeace activist Kieran Mulvaney, a Briton living in Alaska, said he and friends got the idea for the site while watching cable news coverage of the three-week-old war.

"I mentioned to one of my friends that the best part is watching this guy," Mulvaney told The News Source on Thursday. "He is so brazen that I could almost admire him."

Mulvaney and his friends designed, built and put up the site in three days. Within hours of going live on the Internet, the site "has exploded," Mulvaney said. The same day, U.S. troops marched into Baghdad and al-Sahaf disappeared, or in the view of his new Web site, went on "administrative leave."

"I hope he is alive somewhere so he knows how famous he has become," Mulvaney said. "We've had all kinds of e-mail from literally all over the world. We even had a few e-mails from within the Pentagon saying, 'We really like this guy and we miss him."'

The site already is offering T-shirts and mugs bearing al-Sahaf's best-loved statements ("My feelings -- as usual -- we will slaughter them all!") and has selected actor and director Sydney Pollack to play the information minister in the Hollywood version of the war.

In the meantime, Mulvaney said he will appeal for sightings of al-Sahaf, and there are plans to poll fans about what the beret-wearing minister should do after the war.

One fan has advocated an urgent campaign to spare al-Sahaf if he is found: "He is too much of a global asset to be murdered/shot/stabbed or otherwise wasted."

NASA picks two exploration sites for robots on Mars Fri Apr 11, 7:05 PM ET Add Science - NEWS SOURCE 

WASHINGTON (NEWS SOURCE) - NASA (news - web sites) has selected two sites on Mars where it plans to deploy robotic rovers early next year to hunt for evidence of past conditions supporting life on the red planet, the US space agency said. One site is a giant crater that may have contained a lake, while the other has deposits of an iron oxide mineral considered a "chemical signature of past water," the agency said in a statement. "Landing on Mars is very difficult, and it's harder on some parts of the planet than others," said NASA's associate administrator for space science, Ed Weiler. "In choosing where to go, we need to balance science value with engineering safety considerations at the landing sites. The sites we have chosen provide such balance," he added. The first of the two Mars Exploration Rovers that will carry out the geological studies is set for launch by Delta II rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 30, headed for the Gusev Crater, some 15 degrees south of the planet's equator, where it is scheduled to land on January 4, 2004. The second Rover will be launched on June 25 destined for the opposite side of Mars to the Meridiani Planum, some two degrees south of the equator. Its landing is scheduled on January 25. The tricky Martian landings will be slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags in a method tested by the Pathfinder mission to Mars in 1997. The solar-powered Rovers are expected to complete their primary missions over three months, after which their efficacy is expected to decrease because of dust accumulating on their solar arrays, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration communique explained. 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030412/wl_nm/iraq_baghdad_museum_dc_4

Powell Regrets 1973 U.S. Actions in Chile Wed Apr 16,12:43 PM ET 

By GEORGE GEDDA, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - When a student asked Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) about the 1973 military coup in Chile, the retired general turned diplomat made no secret of his deep misgivings about the U.S. role in that upheaval. "It is not a part of American history that we're proud of," Powell said, quickly adding that reforms instituted since then make it unlikely that the policies of that Cold War era will be repeated. The matter might have ended there had not Washington operative William D. Rogers taken notice of Powell's televised comment. Rogers served under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1975-76 as the department's top official on Latin America and maintains a professional relationship with Kissinger. In a highly unusual move, the State Department issued a statement that put distance between the department and its top official. The statement asserted that the U.S. government "did not instigate the coup that ended Allende's government in 1973" - a reference to the elected president, Salvador Allende. Rogers was concerned that Powell's comment was reinforcing what he called "the legend" that the Chile coup was a creation of a Kissinger-led cabal working in league with Chilean military officers opposed to Allende. He called the department legal office to point out that there was a pending law suit against the government and Powell's comment was not helpful. "I also called Kissinger," said Rogers. "I talked to him about it. I wouldn't say he was upset. ... I told Henry I think this is bad stuff. It doesn't help the U.S. legal position." Rightly or wrongly, Kissinger has been linked to the coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites)'s military government to power. Rogers said the Chilean military acted not because the United States urged it to do so, "but because they believed that had the Allende regime continued much longer, Chilean liberties would be irretrievably lost." Peter Kornbluh, a student of Latin American issues, whose book, "The Pinochet File," will be released in September, disputed Rogers' account. "The U.S. government carried out a clear effort to undermine and destabilize Allende's ability to govern, creating the climate necessary for a coup to take place," Kornbluh said. Rogers insists Kornbluh overstates the case. "Climate is one thing. Instigating a military attack on the civilian regime is quite another." Kornbluh said the perceived U.S. role in Chile did not end with the coup. He added that the U.S. government helped the Pinochet regime consolidate its power with overt and covert support, "despite the full knowledge of its atrocities." The notion of Nixon administration involvement in the post-Sept. 11, 1973, period was reinforced last November when 11 residents of Chile filed a complaint against Kissinger and the U.S. government seeking damages for deaths and other rights abuses by the Pinochet government. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, also names Michael Townley, a U.S.-born former Chilean intelligence agent. Under the long-standing rules, Rogers said Kissinger's role as defendant is assumed by the U.S. government on grounds that Kissinger was not acting as an individual but was carrying out government policy. Rogers said his main concern is not the court proceeding but the perception that the U.S. government was working hand in hand with Pinochet and his allies to oust Allende. "The accusation that the U.S. is morally, legally or factually responsible for the coup is a canard," he said. "This is the issue raised by Powell's comment." The State Department statement that the U.S. government "did not instigate" the coup is more in line with Rogers' view than with Powell's. As for the suit against Kissinger and the U.S. government, the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages "in excess of $11 million" for rights abuses committed in the post-coup period. They also asked for punitive damages in an amount "at least twice the compensatory damages." ___ EDITOR'S NOTE - George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The News Source since 1968.

Experts Say China Has Greatly Underestimated Virus Cases Wed Apr 16, 3:00 PM ET  - The New York Times 

By ERIK ECKHOLM The New York Times BEIJING, April 16 Chinese authorities have significantly understated the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Beijing, international medical investigators said today. Cases are possibly now in the range of 100 to 200 rather than the 37 that were officially reported on Monday, they said. "My guess is that we are in the 100 to 200 range now," said Alan Schnur, an infectious disease expert from the World Health Organization (news - web sites)'s Beijing office who led the expert team on the outbreak, known as SARS. "We are not talking about a wild, out-of-control outbreak," Mr. Schnur said, noting that the city has a population in excess of 13 million. "But the systems for surveillance, investigating and reporting SARS cases are not good enough," he added, hampering effective control and creating uncertainty about the future course of the disease, which is fatal in about 4 percent of patients. A major problem with the Beijing data, the team discovered, is that, contrary to repeated assertions last week by senior national and city officials, the city's case reports have not included patients in hospitals run by the military, which serve both military families and civilians but do not answer to civilian health agencies. That revelation, which emerged from the team's visits on Tuesday to two major military hospitals, vindicated Dr. Jiang Yanyong, 71, a military surgeon who in an unusual protest letter said officials were not counting at least 60 SARS patients in military hospitals. He later told reporters that the number of overlooked patients surpassed 100. "We came to the conclusion that it was very credible," Henk Bekedam, resident representative of the W.H.O., said of Dr. Jiang's letter. Yet the experts said they are still prohibited from revealing the actual figures from military hospitals without special permission from the Defense Ministry. A second source of undercounting, the experts said, is that many cases have been labeled in local hospitals or district offices as "suspect" when the patients clearly had SARS. Beyond patients with confirmed or suspected SARS, Beijing's hospitals are holding more than 1,000 people in temporary quarantine for observation, the team was told. These include some people who were closely exposed to sick patients and others with forms of pneumonia that may be more ordinary and curable, but have not yet been identified. Many of these quarantined people are not likely to develop SARS, the experts said, and they called for more consistent criteria for putting people in isolation. But the presence of large numbers of sequestered patients may help explain the rampant rumors about high case loads at various city hospitals. SARS, which scientists say is caused by a new form of corona virus, may have originated in China's Guangdong Province last fall and then spread to Hong Kong. Those two locations have borne the brunt of the epidemic. After a recent mission to Guangdong, which recorded a total of 1,273 cases with 45 deaths as of April 15, W.H.O. officials said that officials there had belatedly tackled the disease well, and that new cases are declining. Mr. Schnur said that Beijing's research and records on SARS patients were not good enough to enable calculation of the epidemic's future course. But he said he believes that, with the more extensive and determined control measures that are now starting, the city can avoid a spread on the scale seen in Guangdong. In Beijing, perhaps in part because of concern about the image of the nation's capital, officials for weeks have played down the threat and the numbers. But a growing credibility gap emerged as local doctors and international news media reported seeing far more patients than were officially reported. With public fears and economic losses mounting, the Chinese last week finally asked for the review of Beijing's programs and the team said it was generally satisfied with the cooperation they received. "We were allowed to visit any place we asked to, sometimes at the last minute, and we had a good feeling about our access," said James Maguire, an epidemiologist on loan from the American Centers for Disease Control. While the international team painted a dismal picture of Beijing's early measures to track and fight the disease, they also said they were encouraged by a new recognition of the threat by top national and city leaders. In recent days the president and prime minister have spoken more frankly of a "grave" problem, called for openness and pledged to spend whatever sums it takes to defeat SARS. W.H.O. experts said that in discussions today of their findings, Chinese officials pledged to fix the reporting problems, including the incorporation of military data. The international experts also recommended that, in part to counter rumors, Beijing should publicly report on suspected cases and patients put under observation, though officials apparently made no commitment to do so. Apart from political sensitivities and a longstanding official penchant for secrecy, China has been slow to confront SARS because it has neglected public-health measures, Mr. Bekedam said. "The government has under-invested in health in the last 20 years, leaving it to individuals to pay the bills," Mr. Bekedam said. "Things like disease surveillance and control are `public goods' and the government needs to invest." Mr. Bekedam also said that it was vital that the government offer advanced medical care to all SARS patients regardless of income. "If patients can't be treated and isolated properly, for sure you'll have a major outbreak," he warned. Officials have announced that destitute SARS patients will receive free care, but it is not clear how the policy will be enforced around the country, where hospitals are struggling financially and often turn away those who cannot pay. These experts are most worried about the potential spread of SARS through poorer, medically backward interior provinces and rural areas. The May 1 holiday period, traditionally a time for travel, poses a special challenge. This week the government announced new steps to discourage sick people from boarding planes, buses and trains, but these will be hard to enforce. The W.H.O. will continue investigations in Beijing, Mr. Bekedam said, and also plans missions to several other sites around the country in coming weeks. Mr. Bekedam noted that SARS, for all the damage it has done in a hurry, does not spread nearly as easily as some common threats. "If this were influenza, we'd have one or two million cases in the world now, instead of 3,000," he said. "We hope this will be a wake up call for China and the world, a call to prepare for the bigger epidemic that one day will come."

Turning to Turnips as a SARS Cure

Apr 15, 10:32 am ET 

BEIJING  - A turnip a day keeps the SARS virus away, or so many in China's capital believe.

Turnip prices have jumped in Beijing after the vegetable was touted as a key ingredient in a potion to fight the deadly virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, peddlers said.

Carrots, leeks, garlic and ginger have leapt in popularity, too, after the popular Star Daily tabloid published a recipe for fighting SARS last week that included them along with turnips.

"A lot of people want turnips," said vegetable vendor Hu Benqiang, adding he expected prices to keep rising.

Long, white turnips are already selling for three yuan per kg ($0.16 per pound) at one neighborhood market, up from 2.40 yuan per kg last week, said Hu. Wholesale prices have shot up more than 30 percent.

Chinese have been trying antibiotics, cold medicines and home remedies such as boiling vinegar and eating whole cloves of raw garlic to fight SARS. One official health newspaper recommended dead silkworms and cicada skins as part of another recipe.

Health experts say there is no known cure for SARS, which has infected more than 3,300 people and killed at least 144 -- nearly half of them in China -- since it emerged in China's southern province of Guangdong in November.

McCartney's 'Flu Germs' for Sale

Apr 16, 11:31 am ET 

LONDON  - Fans of former-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney have been invited to bid for a tiny piece of musical history -- germs from a bout of flu that caused him to cancel a recent gig.

After two days on the ebay.co.uk Web Site, the germs have received two bids, the highest for 1.20 pounds (about $2) and come from British fan Ian Mears who claims he caught the bug from McCartney when he met him earlier this month.

"I believe this is the same strain of flu, and effectively his virus," Londoner Mears told the Daily Star newspaper on Wednesday. "I had no cold on the Saturday, then on Sunday I spent most of the afternoon with Paul and by Tuesday I too had a cold."

Successful bidders will receive their germs by post. "The highest bidder will receive a resealable bag that I will cough into," he said. "Or if preferred, they can have a plastic container full of mucus."

LSD Takes Trip Down Memory Lane at Age 60

Apr 16, 11:32 am ET 

By Michael Shields

ZURICH  - LSD, the hallucinogenic drug that launched a million trips for hippies, was discovered 60 years ago when a Swiss chemist accidentally inhaled a substance that made his bike ride home something special.

Albert Hofmann was actually trying to develop stimulants for the circulatory system in his Sandoz AG lab on April 16, 1943 when he mixed up a batch of LSD from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye.

Instead, he created one of the most powerful agents ever to change perceptions of reality, an icon of the 1960s Flower Power movement and the drug of choice for a generation of musicians and writers who rode the psychedelic wave.

Hofmann, now 97 and living near Basel, recalled in a newspaper interview 10 years ago that he had made LSD in his lab that fateful day after discovering it five years before.

"Afterwards on the way home I suddenly had hallucinations, a beautiful and pleasant trip. The only thing was, I could not at first explain what had made me so high," he recalled.

Only three days later did he conduct a direct experiment on himself with lysergic acid diethylamide-25.

"I took what I then thought to be a very small amount, namely 25 mg. Then it all became clear," he remembered.

Researchers seized on the drug as a tool to probe human consciousness and perhaps shed light on psychoses such as schizophrenia, but it also became an underground cult drug whose illicit use Hofmann came to decry.

Sandoz, which also isolated hallucinogen psilocybin from Mexican mushrooms in 1958, never marketed either drug but distributed them free to research labs and clinics until 1966, when it halted shipments.

"Unfortunately, increasing abuse of hallucinogenic drugs is being noticed of late, especially among young people abroad," it said at the time, blaming sensational media reporting that gave rise to "an unhealthy interest" in mind-bending drugs.

Hofmann always insisted LSD should remain administered only by researchers and psychiatrists because of the danger that people high on the drug could unwittingly do themselves harm.

"The great danger of LSD is that one cannot come to grips with and integrate the shock of being transported into a different reality, that one 'flips out'," he once recalled.

Some Types of Genital Herpes Don't Often Recur Thu Mar 13, 6:11 PM ET Add Health 

By Alison McCook NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - Genital herpes can result from either of two types of the herpes simplex virus (HSV), and new research suggests that people infected with the HSV-1 type can expect less frequent recurrences of the disease. HSV-1 typically causes cold sores in the mouth. Recently, however, the virus has become a more frequent cause of genital herpes. However, genital herpes still most commonly results from infection with herpes simplex virus 2, or HSV-2. Most of the time, HSV-1 and HSV-2 are inactive, or "silent," and cause no symptoms, but some infected people have periodic outbreaks of blisters and ulcers. Once infected with HSV, people carry the virus for life. Now, Dr. Anna Wald and her colleagues at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle report that 43 percent of people with genital herpes caused by HSV-1 don't experience another outbreak during the first year after infection. And the rate of recurrence appears to only decline over time, the authors note: Almost 70 percent of people with HSV-1 genital herpes did not experience another outbreak during the second year after infection. This recurrence pattern is markedly different from that seen in people with HSV-2, Wald and her team note, suggesting that all patients with genital herpes should know which virus type caused their condition. Knowing which virus is behind a person's outbreaks "has big prognostic implications," Wald told The News Source Health. Based on these findings, Wald recommended that people with HSV-1 avoid the expense of taking daily suppressive therapy, a treatment designed to stave off future outbreaks. However, daily suppressive therapy is likely still called for in patients with genital herpes caused by HSV-2, Wald noted. The authors obtained their findings by following 77 patients diagnosed with genital herpes from HSV-1. Half of the patients were followed for at least 736 days. On average, the authors found that people experienced 1.3 recurrences of their herpes during the first year after infection, and 0.7 during the next year--a 50 percent decrease in recurrence rate. In contrast, Wald and her team note that people infected with HSV-2 experience a recurrence rate five times that seen with HSV-1 during the first year after infection, and the rate of recurrence decreases at a much slower pace. In an interview, Wald said that HSV-1 now causes approximately 30 percent of all new cases of genital herpes, depending on geographic region. This is a significant increase from previous years, she noted. Just why the virus is causing more cases of genital herpes is unclear, Wald added. However, due to improvements in hygiene and standards of living, people are no longer developing cold sores from HSV-1 when young, she said, leaving them open to acquiring the virus through sexual contact when older. SOURCE: Sexually Transmitted Diseases 2003;30:174-177. 

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More Agent Orange Sprayed in Vietnam Than Thought Wed Apr 16, 5:31 PM ET Add Health 

By Keith Mulvihill NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - The U.S. military sprayed roughly 1.8 million more gallons of dioxin-containing herbicides like Agent Orange in Vietnam then had been previously estimated, scientists announced Wednesday. What's more, a new look at military data indicates that millions of Vietnamese people were likely to have been sprayed directly with the chemicals and that many U.S. military personnel were also sprayed or came in contact with herbicides in recently sprayed areas. The new study was conducted under contract to the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) in order to develop a method for evaluating the extent of exposure of Vietnam veterans to herbicides, the study's lead author Dr. Jeanne Mager Stellman explained in an interview with The News Source Health. "The U.S. and Hanoi signed an agreement last year to cooperate on research and remediation of environmental damage (that resulted from the spraying)," said Stellman. "Our data will help to guide that research to the most exposed people and places." Millions of gallons of Agent Orange, named after the striped orange barrels used to transport it, and other herbicides were sprayed over Vietnam by the U.S. military beginning in 1961. The aim was to clear forests and damage enemy food crops during the Vietnam War. Seven years after the program began, studies linked the chemical to birth defects and the use of all defoliants was stopped. Dioxin, which has been fingered as the toxic component in Agent Orange, caused the 1983 evacuation of the town of Times Beach, Missouri, and the 1978 evacuation of the Love Canal site in Niagara Falls, New York. Dioxin builds up in living tissue over time, so even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels. While many reports about the use of the defoliants have been published during the decades following the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, many aspects of their use remains controversial -- including how much of the defoliants were actually used and where they were sprayed. Now, Stellman, of Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues have published revised estimates after combing through a more complete set of original military spraying records. Her team's finding are published in the journal Nature. "We are the first people to look at a lot of the military records, like Air Force operational folders, that had been 'secret' during the war and have pretty much been in the National Archives for years without having been looked at critically," said Stellman. The re-estimated volume of herbicides sprayed between 1961 and 1971 is 7,131,907 liters (approximately 1.8 million gallons) more than an "uncorrected" estimate published in 1974 and 9.4 million more liters than a 1974 "corrected" inventory, the authors report in their study. "We've found much more dioxin contamination than had been previously estimated and we also have found the specific targets that the Air Force (sprayed in) Vietnam," Stellman told The News Source Health. The study "gives new figures about how much dioxin was dispersed and clarifies where the 'hotspots' are likely to be," added Stellman. The investigators report that 3,181 villages were sprayed directly with herbicides. "At least 2.1 million but perhaps as many as 4.8 million people would have been present during the spraying," they write. Evidence also indicates that some people were sprayed with herbicide at levels an order of magnitude greater than levels used in the U.S. for similar purposes. What's more, Stellman emphasized that that even after all these years, health experts still don't know what effects the veterans may have suffered. "We don't even have a good count of how many of them served in sprayed areas," she added. "That's why our particular studies were undertaken." And, Vietnamese people also benefit from the investigation because interested scientists can zero in on the "hot spots" and see what sort of remediation is needed, explained Stellman. "(The Vietnamese) may also learn more about the health effects (of the herbicides)," added Stellman, who noted that "there are a number of researchers around the world interested in working with them on these problems and we've drawn an exposure roadmap for them." In the past, health experts have often said that little could be done for people potentially exposed to Agent Orange without an evaluation of how and where the spraying was conducted, explained Stellman. "Well, now we have the (spraying inventory), we know where the hot spots are and we've developed an-easy-to-use computer system for researchers to assess exposure opportunity. "We should be designing and undertaking definitive health studies as soon as possible," Stellman concluded. SOURCE: Nature 2003;422:681-687.

Worm Sex 15-Apr-2003 Worms that used to reproduce asexually are now having sex. Why should we care? These are worms that were contaminated by radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, and they can reproduce more efficiently this way. Ukrainian scientists think they've changed their sexual behavior in order to increase their chances of survival. This shows that at least some forms of life can adapt to radioactivity, so a nuclear war might wipe out mankind, but life would still survive. Gennady Polikarpov and Victoria Tsytsugina compared the behavior of 3 species of worms that live in a lake near Chernobyl with worms living in a lake approx. 20 miles away. The lakes had similar temperatures and chemical composition, but the worms in the Chernobyl lake had received 20 times as much radiation as those in the other lake. They found that two species in the Chernobyl lake had switched from asexual to sexual reproduction. One species increased its rate of sexual reproduction by 50%. Sexual reproduction allows natural selection to promote genes that offer better protection from radiation damage. Polikarpov says, "The resistance of populations as a whole will be increased."

Do Your Houseplants Have Jet Lag? 13-Apr-2003 Scientists have discovered that plants, like animals, have a 24-hour biological clock. Just as our body clock tells us to wake up, plants have clocks that tell them to prepare for the sun. Plant clocks are set to go off around the same time every morning, usually just a few hours before noon. This tells them to prepare for intense sunlight, triggering photosynthesis, the process that help plants make food. The clock controls an enzyme that modifies a protein called D1, which is needed for photosynthesis. Plant physiologist Autar K. Mattoo says, "[Plants] cannot run away. Their roots are stuck in the soil, so they have devised and perfected processes that allow them to survive in the harshest extreme environments." If the exposed to too much ultraviolet radiation, "plants produce molecules called flavonoids, which act as the sunscreen," Mattoo says. Plant clocks shut off when the sun goes down. But you can set their biological clocks artificially. Mattoo says if you "...put the plants into artificial light, they remember this clock." If plants are brought to the U.S. from tropical climates, as most houseplants are, do they get jetlag if they can't reset their biological clocks? This may be the reason so many of us experience failure as indoor gardeners.

Alzheimers Linked to Aluminum-But Not Pots & Pans 16-Apr-2003 Scientists once told us not to cook with aluminum pans or foil in order to avoid Alzheimer's, but then decided it had no effect on the disease. Now the subject has come up again, since researchers have found the disease is more common in regions of Italy with high levels of aluminum in their drinking water. The confusion comes because there are two types of aluminum. Monomeric-single molecule-aluminum is the dangerous kind that kills human cells. The kind of aluminum used in pots and pans is made of multiple molecules and does not appear to affect human cells. "There is almost no evidence that the cookware is dangerous," says researcher Paolo Prolo. Monomeric aluminum kills off human cells in the lab, while aluminum made of multiple molecules does not, because it's not absorbed by cells. When single-cell aluminum is paired with beta-amyloid, a protein found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, the combination kills off even more cells than monomeric aluminum alone.

Scientists Confirm Virus As Cause of SARS 
1 hour, 26 minutes ago 


By EMMA ROSS, News Source Medical Writer 

LONDON - Scientists have confirmed the identity of the virus that causes the lethal new disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said Wednesday, marking an important step toward developing new drugs to combat the disease. 

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In experiments conducted at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, scientists infected monkeys with the coronavirus suspected of causing of SARS and found that the animals developed the same symptoms of the disease that humans do. 

The test was a crucial step in verifying the cause of the disease, which so far has killed 161 people worldwide, mostly in China and Hong Kong, and made 3,293 people ill in 22 countries. 

Verifying the cause is important for creating a vaccine, should that be needed, and for refining diagnostic tests to help stop the disease's spread, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, a WHO virologist participating in a Geneva conference. 

It also will help scientists trace the virus' evolution and possibly determine whether it jumped from animals to humans. Pigs and poultry currently are being tested to determine how susceptible they are to SARS. 

Scientists were almost certain that a new form of coronavirus first isolated from sick patients on March 27 by the University of Hong Kong was the cause of SARS. 

But they could not say for sure until they had satisfied what is known as the Koch's postulates - four scientific tests that verify whether a bug causes a certain disease. 

"The Koch's postulates have been fulfilled, so we can now say for certain that the new coronavirus is the cause of SARS," Stohr said. 

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong said a new genetic sequencing of the SARS virus proves conclusively that it came from animals. 

But, the virus nonetheless is "something that is new to science," university microbiologist Malik Peiris said before the WHO findings were announced during a meeting of scientists from around the world working on SARS. 

Asked about the possibility that the virus was man-made, Peiris said there was no chance of that. 

"That whole genome is essentially new," he said. "Nature has been the terrorist throwing up this virus." 

Although experts believed the new coronavirus - discovered by Peiris - was the main cause of SARS, it has remained unclear whether infection with a second type of virus - the human metapneumovirus, which belongs to the paramyxovirus family - makes the illness worse. 

But the tests on monkeys showed that the second virus does not play a major role, said Albert Osterhaus, a virologist at the lab in Rotterdam. 

Researchers at a Singapore government-run institute reportedly are almost ready to begin trials of a test to detect the presence of SARS in a patient's blood before the onset of symptoms. 

The University of Hong Kong researchers also said they believe - but have not proven - that the virus mutated into a more dangerous form that infected about 300 people in one hard-hit apartment complex there. 

"This virus did not originally exist in humans, it definitely comes from animals," said Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

Winning World Cup Lowers Heart Attack Deaths-Study Tue Apr 15,10:46 AM ET Add Health 

LONDON  - Winning soccer's World Cup not only lifts a nation's spirits, it lowers the death rate from heart attacks, doctors said on Tuesday. During the 1998 World Cup when France defeated Brazil in the final, deaths from heart attacks in men and women dropped on the day of the match, which was watched by 26 million French TV viewers. Instead of about 33 deaths a day in the five days before and after the match, 23 men died of a heart attack on match day. There were also fewer deaths in women but the decrease was not as significant. Dr. Frederic Berthier, of Nice Teaching Hospital in southern hospital, is not sure why the death rate fell but he suspects it could be due to reduced stress. "Decreased activities and/or euphoria before and after the final could result in less stress," he said in a report in the journal Heart. He believes the national euphoria of the victory, combined with a day off from work also contributed to the fall in heart attack deaths a few days later on Bastille Day on July 14, the national holiday in France. SOURCE: Heart 2003;89:555-556.

No link between smoking or drinking and impotence A Norwegian study of impotence presented at the 16th World Sexology Congress in Cuba Friday found an increasing number of men are finding the courage to discuss their problem with a doctor, but surprisingly found no correlation between impotence and smoking or drinking. The study of 1,600 Norwegian men in three counties was the largest ever carried out in Europe, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports. Medical researchers were particularly baffled by the lack of a correlation between smoking and erectile dysfunction in men over 40, which had been noted in many previous studies. "This deviates from the world's largest study in America. We know that smoking leads to arteriosclerosis which could contribute to lower blood transfer to the penis, but this result is a surprise," said Dr. Stein Vaaler who headed the research team. Vaaler could not explain why the Norwegian study results deviated in regard to smoking, but did not rule out methodological errors. No correlation between alcohol consumption and impotence was discovered - only age and general health seemed consistent factors. "At some point or other impotence becomes a normal problem of aging. But today a 73-year-old can correct this with medication and have a good sex life," Vaaler said. The research team took pains to clarify that they had been partially funded by Pfizer, which manufactures potency drugs such as Viagra. "But they have not had influence on the research. We have had an independent administration group," Vaaler said. Twice as many men, compared to three years ago, allow themselves to be treated for impotence and most of these take pills such as Viagra. The numbers of men with erectile dysfunction remained constant - one out of 10 in their 40s and 29 percent of those over 40 - compared to research carried out in 1998. The conclusion is that men are more willing to discuss the problem than before, and the prospect of a solution in pill form has likely encouraged them to do so.

Looters Ransack Iraq's National Library 1 hour, 52 minutes ago By CHARLES J. HANLEY, News Source Special Correspondent BAGHDAD, Iraq - Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq (news - web sites)'s National Library, leaving a smoldering shell Tuesday of precious books turned to ash and a nation's intellectual legacy gone up in smoke. They also looted and burned Iraq's principal Islamic library nearby, home to priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves swept through the National Museum and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled this region's role as the "cradle of civilization." "Our national heritage is lost," an angry high school teacher, Haithem Aziz, said as he stood outside the National Library's blackened hulk. "The modern Mongols, the new Mongols did that. The Americans did that. Their agents did that," he said as an explosion boomed in the distance as the war winds down. The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu, sacked Baghdad in the 13th century. Today, the rumors on the lips of almost all Baghdadis is that the looting that has torn this city apart is led by U.S.-inspired Kuwaitis or other non-Iraqis bent on stripping the city of everything of value. But outside the gutted Islamic library on the grounds of the Religious Affairs Ministry, the lone looter scampering away was undeniably Iraqi, a grizzled man named Mohamed Salman. "It was left there, so why leave it?" he asked a reporter as he clung to a thick, red-covered book, a catalog of the library's religious collection. The scene inside was total devastation. Not a recognizable book or manuscript could be seen among the dark ash. The destruction has drawn condemnation worldwide, with many criticizing U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to prevent or stop the looting, sometimes carried out by whole Iraqi families. The United Nation's cultural agency and the British Museum announced Tuesday they will send in teams to help restore ransacked museums and artifacts. Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, called on customs officials, police, art dealers and neighboring countries to block the trading of stolen antiquities. Among the National Museum's treasures were the tablets with Hammurabi's Code - one of mankind's earliest codes of law. It could not be immediately determined whether the tablets were at the museum when war broke out. Thieves smashed or pried open row upon row of glass cases at the museum and pilfered or destroyed their contents. Missing were the four millennia-old copper head of an Akkadian king, golden bowls and colossal statues, ancient manuscripts and bejeweled lyres. The looting and burning - the museum in the northern city of Mosul also was pillaged - has dealt a terrible blow to a society that prides itself on its universities, literature and educated elite. "I can't express the sorrow I feel. This is not real liberation," said an artist in a wing of the National Library that had been looted but not burned. The thin, bearded, 41-year-old man, who would not give his name, was going through old bound newspapers and tearing out pages whose artistic drawings appealed to him. "I came yesterday to see the chaos, and when I saw it, I decided to take what I could," he said. The three-story, tan brick National Library building, dating to 1977, housed all books published in Iraq, including copies of all doctoral theses. It preserved rare old books on Baghdad and the region, historically important books on Arabic linguistics, and antique manuscripts in Arabic that teacher Aziz said were gradually being transformed into printed versions. "They had manuscripts from the Ottoman and Abbasid periods," Aziz said, referring to dynasties dating back a millennium. "All of them were precious, famous. I feel such grief." No library officials could be located to detail the loss. Haroun Mohammed, an Iraqi writer based in London, told The News Source some old manuscripts had been transferred from the library to a Manuscript House across the Tigris River. Except for wooden card catalog drawers and a carved-wood service counter which somehow escaped the flames, nothing was left in the National Library's main wing but its charred walls and ceilings, and mounds of ash. The floor on the ground level was still warm from the flames. Long rolls of microfilm littered the courtyard. "This was the best library in Iraq," said music student Raad Muzahim, 27, standing among piles of paper in the periodical room. "I remember coming as a student. They were hospitable, letting students do their research, write their papers. Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, manned by U.S. Marines. They did nothing to stop Tuesday's continuing trickle of looters.

Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum 2 hours, 41 minutes ago Add World 

By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD  - Looters have sacked Baghdad's antiquities museum, plundering treasures dating back thousands of years to the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia, museum staff said on Saturday. They blamed U.S. troops for not protecting the treasures. Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told The News Source: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars." She blamed U.S. troops, who have controlled Baghdad since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s rule on Wednesday, for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters who moved in to the building on Friday. "The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum." The looters broke into rooms that were built like bank vaults with huge steel doors. The museum grounds were full of smashed doors, windows and littered with office paperwork and books. "We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters. "As soon as I saw the American troops near the museum, I asked them to protect it but the second day looters came and robbed or destroyed all the antiquities," he said. ARMED GUARDS Amin told four of the museum guards to carry guns and protect what remained. Some of the museum's artifacts had been moved into storage to avoid a repeat of damage to other antiquities during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). It houses items from ancient Babylon and Nineveh, Sumerian statues, Assyrian reliefs and 5,000-year-old tablets bearing some of the earliest known writing. There are also gold and silver helmets and cups from the Ur cemetery. The museum was only opened to the public six months ago after shutting down at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. It survived air strikes on Baghdad in 1991 and again was almost unscathed by attacks on the capital by U.S.-led forces. Iraq (news - web sites), a cradle of civilization long before the empires of Egypt, Greece or Rome, was home to dynasties that created agriculture and writing and built the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon -- site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.

Genital Wart Virus Common in Men Seeking STD Care Wed Apr 16,12:23 PM ET Add Health 

By Alison McCook NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - A new study shows that almost one-third of men visiting a single clinic for sexually transmitted diseases were infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause genital warts and, in women, cervical cancer. However, most of the HPV detected in the men was in forms of the virus that appear unrelated to cancer. In contrast, in women, HPV infection more commonly involves potentially cancer-causing types of the virus than other forms -- although most HPV infections never result in cervical cancer. HPV infection in male study participants also showed a number of other differences from HPV infection commonly seen in women -- including an age-related decline in the rate of infection. Although many men in the study carried the virus, in the general male population, the rate of HPV may not be this high, study author Dr. Susie B. Baldwin told The News Source Health. Furthermore, study participants tended to have higher rates of other STDs -- such as herpes and gonorrhea -- than other clinic clients who did not participate in the study. "In the end, I can only characterize the study population as men at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases," Baldwin said. Baldwin, who is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, suggested that men with more infections may have engaged in more unprotected sex, and were therefore more willing to participate in a research study about HPV because they suspected they were at risk. There are around 100 types of HPV, some of which cause genital warts. Some types have also been linked to an increased risk of cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus and penis. Researchers suspect that many adults are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, although most people clear the infection on their own and never develop cancer. HPV has been extensively studied in women, in whom particular "high risk" strains of the virus have been consistently linked to cervical cancer. To investigate how many American men might carry the virus, Baldwin and her colleagues performed penile skin swabs for the virus in more than 400 men attending a Tucson STD clinic. The study included men of a wide range of ages, and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Baldwin and her colleagues detected HPV in samples taken from 28 percent of the men. However, only 12 percent of the men carried forms of the virus linked to cancer. While in many women, the rate of HPV drops with age, Baldwin and her team found no such age pattern in men. For example, a higher percentage of men between the ages of 40 and 70 were HPV-positive compared with men in their late 20s and 30s. Moreover, only six percent of men carried more than one type of HPV, while reports show that women commonly have multiple types of the virus, the authors write in the April issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Just why the characteristics of HPV may differ between men and women remains unclear, Baldwin said in an interview. HPV may be more of a transient infection in men than in women, she noted, and the two sexes may have different immune responses to the virus. "These are big questions which only further study will allow us to answer definitively," Baldwin said. She added that rate of HPV reported in this study should be interpreted with caution, as HPV testing in men is relatively new, and its accuracy is unknown. SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases 2003;187:1064-1070.

Pigs and horses can fly says US The US says pigs, cats, monkeys and horses can fly on airlines but only in first-class. New Department of Transportation regulations allow the animals on board as long as they can fit into the luxury cabin of a Boeing 777. The new guidelines have been introduced so all "service animals" - not just guide dogs for the blind - can be transported with their owners. The rules come into force this month, but have just been tested on Cuddles, a miniature horse just over 2ft high and weighing 70lb. Cuddles was given a seat in the first-class cabin of an American Airlines jet. Cuddles was with Dan Shaw, a blind man from Maine, who uses a horse because it lives longer than a dog. The Boston to Chicago flight record later noted that the passenger in seat 3a "had a bowel movement on the carpet". The aircraft's next flight was delayed for cleaning but waiting passengers weren't told why, reports The Times. Story filed: 09:36 Thursday 22nd May 2003

Women's mag triggers oven explosions An Argentinian women's magazine had to publish an apology after issuing advice which led more than 100 microwave ovens to explode. Claudia magazine said women could restore old bottles of nail varnish by putting them in a microwave oven for three minutes. But many of the women who tried it found the chemical reaction caused their microwave ovens to explode. The magazine received more than 100 complaints. Story filed: 08:35 Thursday 22nd May 2003

Sex change could be good for your heart! Men who undergo sex changes are likely to reduce their chances of developing heart disease, says a Dutch doctor. Dr Erik Giltay, who conducted the research over two years at Wageningen University, says he is not surprised by his findings. "We know that women are less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases than men before they reach the menopause," he said. "One of the reasons is that the female sex hormone estradiol keeps their cholesterol healthy. This ceases to be the case after the menopause as the estradiol production stops." Men who undergo sex changes receive synthetic estrogens to block out their testosterone. Story filed: 10:32 Wednesday 21st May 2003

Scientists have maths formula for perfect beach Scientists have come up with a mathematical formula after spending three years researching what makes the perfect beach. Experts from Wales, Turkey and Malta came up with D=(-2xA12) + (1+A23) + (1xA34) + (2xA45) divided by AT. The team first asked 1,000 holidaymakers to compile a list of 28 features which make the perfect beach. They include cliffs, scenery, small tidal range, colour of sea water and absence of sewage and litter. A ruined castle or mountain backdrop were also considered desirable. A ranking between one and five was given to all 28 categories which was fed into a computer. It carried out the complex calculation and produced a final "D" rating denoting the overall standard of the beach, says The Sun. The top five beaches in Wales, Turkey and Malta have been named as Cirali, Turkey, then Dingli Cliffs, Malta, Little Haven, Wales, Fungus Rock, Malta and Poppit Sands, Wales. Dr Alan Williams, from the University of Glamorgan, said the research was valuable to tourism bosses. "If you work on tourist boards you have to have objective facts." Story filed: 08:07 Wednesday 21st May 2003

Dog 'opened door' for burglar A woman who trained her dog to open doors lost her computer when it opened the front door and let in a burglar. Police in Germany say the pet had been trained to jump up and put its paws on the porch door handle of a house in the town of Borken. During the weekend, burglars stole a computer, two screens, a mouse and keyboard as well as a small cash sum from the house. The woman living in the house told police what she had trained her pet to do. Since police found no traces of the door being forced open, they believe the dog must have let in the burglars.

Girl finds two-headed turtle in pond A two-headed turtle has been found on the edge of a pond in Albany, New York. It was discovered by nine-year-old Gabrielle Pascarell, whose family already have six dogs, three cats, four horses, 11 fish and one hamster. The little girl thought it was a cool-looking rock - until the heads moved. "It's so cute," said Rebecca Pascarell. "We can't call it a 'he' or a 'she' because we don't know what it is." The reptile now lives in a 25-gallon fish tank filled with gravel, water and a plastic plant. The right head seems to be the more dominant, the family said, but both heads move independently. Sometimes they look in different directions. Ward Stone, a state wildlife pathologist, said he's never seen a live two-headed animal in his 34 years with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Only one in three of us turn left to snog. 13 February 2003 JOHN WHITFIELD For the past two and a half years, neuroscientist Onur G�nt�rk�n has hung around airports, railway stations, parks and beaches, watching people kiss. "After two years, I could feel when people were approaching to kiss," he says. His motives were scientific. G�nt�rk�n, who works at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, was noting which way kissers turn their heads. They turn to the right twice as often as to the left, he found1. About twice as many people also prefer their right foot, eye and ear to their left. But the head-turning habit precedes all of these: it develops during the final weeks in the womb. Until now, no one knew whether adults retained it. "I think head-turning comes first, and the body has a tendency to attend to the right side," says G�nt�rk�n. The initial preference may be small, but experience reinforces it until kicking a ball with the left foot - or approaching a kiss from the left - feels weird. It's a reasonable idea, comments child-development researcher David Lewkowicz, of the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. "Babies attend and act more to the right," he says. "All of these things cascade one after the other." Kiss and tell G�nt�rk�n's study began during a five-hour stopover in Chicago. He realized that airports, where loved ones from many races and cultures mix, are good places to collect data on whether adults have a head-turning preference. But getting a good kiss turned out to be a lot harder than he thought.

Pecks on the cheek were out, as "they're deeply influenced by culture", says G�nt�rk�n. Also excluded was any kisser who was carrying something - a shoulder bag, for example - that might skew their movements. Five hours yielded only a couple of data points. Over the next two and a half years, G�nt�rk�n recorded 124 scientifically valid kisses in public places across the United States, Germany and Turkey.

When not watching snoggers, G�nt�rk�n also studies chicks, most of which turn their heads to the right inside the egg. Such off-centre trends are widespread in vertebrates. For hands, the rightist tendency is far stronger - there are eight for every lefty. This may be because handedness is controlled differently to other preferences, or there may be cultural influences that drive more people to use their right hands. References 1.G�nt�rk�n, O.Adult persistence of head-turning asymmetry. Nature, 421, 711, (2003). |Article|

(c) Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

EATING FRUITS INCREASES RISK OF PARKINSON'S - Aerielle Louise @ 12:43 am ET

EATING FRUITS INCREASES RISK OF PARKINSON'S http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s824974.htm Eating fruit increases risk of Parkinson's disease Tuesday, 8 April 2003 A link between high fruit consumption and Parkinson's disease in middle-aged men has been found by U.S. researchers, possibly caused by toxins in the fruit, herbicides or pesticides. Epidemiologist Dr Andrew Grandinetti, at the University of Hawaii and Manoa, and his team from the Honolulu-Asia Ageing Study found a positive correlation between fruit consumption and Parkinson's disease. "The significance of our paper is it indicates environmental and behavioural factors may alter risk for Parkinson's disease later in life," Grandinetti said in an interview. "Fruit consumption may just be a marker for other behaviours, or possibly greater exposure to food-borne toxins, such as pesticides." But there was no association of the disease with vitamin C intake, either from dietary or supplementary sources, the team told the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Honolulu. While previous studies have associated tropical fruit with Parkinson-like syndromes, and linked fruit and vitamin C intake to Parkinson's disease risk, they were retrospective. The new research draws on a study where risk factor data was collected before the onset of Parkinson's disease. The researchers drew their data from cases of Parkinson's disease detected in a 34 year longitudinal study of 8,004 Japanese-American men in Hawaii, who were aged between 45 to 65 in 1965. Grandinetti said that regular consumption of fruit and fruit juice showed only a moderate increase in Parkinson's disease risk by between 55 and 80% - a statistically significant amount. Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that is estimated to affect one or two people in every 1,000 worldwide, including more than 30,000 Australians. The actual cause of Parkinson's disease is not known, but is suspected to result from the combination of genetic conditions and as yet unidentified environmental triggers. The strongest risk factors for Parkinson's disease identified by the team were age, not smoking (two or three times higher), low caffeine intake, and decreased bowel frequency (about three times higher). Past work on a plantation was also linked to increased Parkinson's disease risk. "We first suspected that smokers with less than healthy lifestyles may eat less fruit. Since smokers are at lower risk this could be a source of confounding. We did adjust for this in our analyses, but the fruit association was still similar and statistically significant in two out of three sources of dietary data," he said. The research does not detail the types of fruit involved. "Two questionnaires asked about general fruit or fruit juice consumption in servings per day or servings per week," Grandinetti said. "There are no electronic data files with the actual types of fruits consumed. We hope to look at this in a future study." It is still unclear how much fruit must be eaten to increase the risk of Parkinson's disease. "Since the association is relatively weak in this case, and Parkinson's disease is relatively uncommon, we must emphasise that fruits are still a very important part of a healthy diet," said Grandinetti. "It may be prudent to wash fruit carefully before eating fruit with the skin, but we do not recommend reducing fruit intake." Pesticides have been implicated in research elsewhere. U.S. findings in 2000 linked Parkinson's disease with the pesticide rotenone. Their methodology directly injected mice with rotenone to produce Parkinson's disease -type brain lesions. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority assessed the research and concluded it did not mimic human use of rotenone. A spokesperson told ABC Science Online that the authority is awaiting the results from a U.S. government review of its registration of the pesticide. Mark Horstman - ABC Science Online More Info? Parkinson's - the missing clue, News in Science 17 Apr 2002 Caffeine fix may reduce risk of Parkinson's, News in Science 16 May 2001 Mouse catches Parkinson's disease, News in Science 18 Feb 2000 http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s824974.htm

Prolonged erection 'saved patient's life' Doctors say a prolonged erection almost certainly saved the life of a Romanian hospital patient. Mihai Tancau. 44, from Bacau, was being treated for concussion and several fractures after a road crash. But doctors missed the fact that his spinal cord was also damaged - until they investigated why he could not get rid of his erection. The patient was taken for tests, where his spinal injury was quickly diagnosed. Doctors said Mr Tancau would almost certainly have died if his injury had remained undiagnosed.

Camera Orbiting Mars Snaps Photo of Earth 
May 23, 10:01 am ET 
WASHINGTON  - For the first time, earthlings can see what our planet looks like from Mars, thanks to a camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor that snapped a picture of Earth from this vantage point.

The photograph, released by NASA on Thursday, also includes a view of the giant planet Jupiter and some of its larger moons, because Earth and Jupiter were in alignment when the picture was taken on May 8.

Mars Global Surveyor has been taking pictures of the Martian surface for more than six years, so the photograph of Earth was a break from routine.

"Taking this picture allowed us to look up from that work of exploring Mars and take in a more panoramic view," Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, who operates the Global Surveyor's camera, said in a statement. "This image gives us a new perspective on that neighborhood, one in which we can see our own planet as one among many."

The image shows Earth in a sort of half-moon -- or half-Earth -- phase, with the bright area at the top of the image showing clouds over central and eastern North America, a darker area including Central America and the Gulf of Mexico and a display of clouds over northern South America.

The image also shows the Earth-facing hemisphere of the Moon, as well as Jupiter and three of its moons: Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa.

The image is available online at http://www.msss.com/mars-images/moc/2003/05/22/.

HISTORY OF REMOTE VIEWING - Paul H. Smith - Remote viewing (RV) did not spring into existence overnight. Its earliest ancestors can be traced back thousands of years to the days of the early Greeks and beyond. But RV's most direct precursors date from the 1930's, beginning with experiments in clairvoyance under conscientious scientists like J.B. Rhine. Research into telepathy and "thought transference" by notables such as Upton Sinclair (described in his book Mental Radio) and Rene Warcollier (Mind to Mind), together with investigations into out-of-body states contributed further to developments that would eventually produce remote viewing.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, out-of-body experiments were conducted in New York City by researchers at the American Society for Psychical Research. One of the subjects of these experiments was Ingo Swann, an artist and student of the paranormal who had come to New York years before from Colorado. Tiring of the standard research protocols, Swann suggested a number of changes in and improvements to the experiments, which among other things led to a successful series of attempts to mentally describe the current weather in various cities around the US. After Ingo's descriptions, the weather conditions in these cities were verified by a phone call to a weather station or other reliable authority.

These experiments suggested to others that something unusual to current understanding was involved by the "remotely viewed" locations and objects otherwise inaccessible to direct human perception. The results were provocative and underscored the value of further research.

In 1972 Dr. Hal Puthoff, a physicist at SRI-International, a California-based research institute that had been spun off from Stanford University, expressed his interest to a researcher in New York in conducting research into a form of non-conventional communications. The New York researcher was an acquaintance of Swann's, which fact eventually led to Swann and Puthoff getting together to conduct an experiment that ultimately attracted attention and funding from the Central Intelligence Agency. Research physicist Russell Targ soon joined Swann and Puthoff at SRI, forming the core of a team that researched and refined understanding of what had now become known as "remote viewing." For the next two decades most remote viewing research was funded by the government and performed in secret. But a few less-secretive sources also provided support, and a limited amount of non-classified information about RV was published.

In the mid-'70s government support for the growing RV program moved from the CIA to the Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as certain other military organizations. Subsequent experiments and research explored the edges of what remote reviewing could do and tried to improve quality and consistency of the results.

In 1978 the US Army created a unit to use RV operationally in collecting intelligence against foreign adversaries. This program continued under Army sponsorship until 1986, when the operational and research arms of the government remote viewing program were combined under the leadership of DIA. In about 1991 DIA renamed the program "Star Gate."

By this time, the research part of the program had itself been transferred from SRI to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and was directed by Dr. Edwin May, who had replaced Hal Puthoff in 1985 when Puthoff moved to assume directorship of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Austin, TX.

Concurrent with the government RV program, civilian researchers were exploring phenomena related to remote viewing. Some of these were replications of SRI's experiments, while others followed complementary avenues of research. Most prominent of the latter were Charles Honorton's "Ganzfeld" techniques, and the "remote perception" experiments conducted at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory. Civilian applications were being explored as well.

In 1995, an act of Congress transferred responsibility for the Star Gate program from DIA back to CIA. That fall, the CIA declassified portions of the program and released a controversial research report purporting to show that remote viewing was not useful as an intelligence collection tool. By the time this document was released, the CIA had already terminated the remote viewing program.

In the years since the 1995 closure of the government program, a number of persons previously associated with it have gone public by publishing books, giving media interviews, and/or offering training commercially in remote viewing methodology.

Offshore Cos. Make $1B in Deals With U.S. 
Mon May 26, 1:04 PM ET 
Add Business - 

By JONATHAN D. SALANT, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - Companies that reduced their U.S. tax bill by incorporating overseas did $1 billion worth of business with the federal government last year, an News Source computer analysis of federal contracts showed. 

The Bermuda-based consulting company Accenture Ltd., a spinoff of the former Big Five accounting firm Arthur Andersen, was the biggest federal customer. It received $662 million in contracts between Oct. 1, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2002, mostly from the Transportation Security Administration. 

The engineering firm Foster Wheeler Ltd. received $293.2 million. Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd., which boasts that its equipment helped carve Mount Rushmore, received $7.6 million. 

During the federal fiscal year that ended in September 2001, companies with offshore headquarters received $846 million in federal contracts, according to the House Ways and Means Committee's Democratic staff. 

"It's outrageous that we would do business with these folks," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., who has introduced legislation to continue taxing companies that move their headquarters overseas. "They are shirking their citizenship." 

The process is known as corporate inversion: A company moves its headquarters - sometimes nothing more than a post office box - to a low-tax enclave such as Bermuda or the Cayman Islands while leaving its operations and employees in the United States. 

The Senate twice has passed legislation to prevent the new Homeland Security Department from doing business with companies that relocate overseas, but both times the provision was removed from the final bill by House Republican leaders. 

Jonathan Grella, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the issue should be addressed as part of an overhaul of the tax system. Republicans have blamed high U.S. taxes for the problem. 

Corporations that have moved overseas spent $5 million to lobby Congress and the federal agencies and donated $1.2 million to campaigns in 2001 and 2002, according to an AP analysis of data from Political Money Line, an Internet site. 

To fight legislation restricting their ability to move offshore, the companies have assembled an all-star team of lobbyists, including former Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.; former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas; and former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., according to disclosure forms filed with the House and Senate. 

Company officials said the tax breaks that result from moving their headquarters overseas keep them competitive. 

"We felt that American companies, based upon the tax laws that are written today, are clearly put at an economic disadvantage to foreign companies," said Victoria Guennewig, a spokeswoman for Cooper Industries Ltd., a company that makes electrical products and tools. It moved from Houston to Bermuda in 2002 and received $3.6 million in government contracts last year. 

Lawmakers estimate corporations that have moved to low-tax countries cost the U.S. treasury $4 billion a year. 

"People should be screaming to the rafters about the hypocrisy involved in corporations moving offshore and then coming back to the taxpayers for a handout in the form of government contracts," said Charlie Cray, director of the campaign for corporate reform at Citizen Works, an advocacy group affiliated with consumer advocate Ralph Nader (news - web sites). 

Ingersoll-Rand spokesman Paul Dickard said preventing companies such as his from seeking government contracts would hurt the company's 26,000 U.S. workers. 

"They're not necessarily hurting the company as much as they're hurting U.S.-based employees," Dickard said. "That would be unfortunate." 

One of the Homeland Security Department's agencies, the Transportation Security Administration, gave Accenture a contract of close to $515 million to handle human resources for the agency's employees, including administering health insurance, life insurance and retirement benefits. 

Accenture, which began as the consulting arm of Chicago-based Andersen Worldwide, said the company shouldn't be included on a list of corporate expatriates because it never was a U.S.-based corporation. 

But House Democratic lawmakers and others who want to change the law disagree. 

"They are a spinoff of Arthur Andersen," said Robert Borosage, co-chairman of the Campaign for America's Future, a liberal research and advocacy group. "Their contracting is significantly done with American companies. If they want to get contracts with the federal government, they ought to pay taxes." 

___ 

The bills are H.R. 737 and S. 384

Archaeologists Unearth Stonehenge Bodies Wed May 21, 3:45 PM ET Add Strange News - 

By SUE LEEMAN, News Source Writer LONDON - Archaeologists who last year unearthed the remains of a Bronze Age archer at Stonehenge said Wednesday they have found six more bodies near the mysterious ring of ancient monoliths. The remains of four adults and two children were found about half a mile from that of the archer, dubbed "The King of Stonehenge" by Britain's tabloid press. Archaeologists said he came from Switzerland and may have been involved in building the monument. Radiocarbon tests will be done to find out more precise dates for the burials but the group is believed to have lived around 2300 B.C., during the building of Stonehenge at Amesbury, 75 miles southwest of London, said Wessex Archaeology, which excavated the site. The latest bones discovered are about the same age of those of the archer, said Wessex Archaeology. "This new find is really unusual. It is exceptionally rare to find the remains of so many people in one grave like this in southern England," said Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology. "The grave is fascinating because we are seeing the moment when Britain was moving from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age, around 2300 B.C." Wessex Archaeology said it is possible the bones are those of people from different generations, as the grave seems to have been reopened to allow further burials. The grave contained four pots belonging to the Beaker Culture that flourished in the Swiss Alps during the Bronze Age, some flint tools, one flint arrowhead and a bone toggle for fastening clothing, Wessex Archaeology said. The large number of bodies placed in this grave is something more commonly found in the Stone Age, but the Beaker style pottery is characteristic of Bronze Age burials. The archer was identified by the flint arrowheads found by his body. Archaeologists said some 100 artifacts found in his exceptionally rich grave, discovered about three miles from Stonehenge, indicate he was a man of stature and likely involved in constructing the monument. Although the indigenous British originally came from mainland Europe, they settled thousands of years before the arrival of the archer, who clearly belonged to a different culture, marked by a new style of pottery, the use of barbed flat arrow heads, copper knives and small gold ornaments. His grave contained teeth and bones as well as two gold hair tresses, three copper knives, flint arrowheads, wrist guards and pottery. The copper knives came from Spain and France. The gold dated to as early as 2470 B.C., the earliest dated gold objects found in Britain. ___ On the Net: Wessex Archaeology, http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/archer.

Lost Dog Found 800 Miles From Home Wed May 21, 9:02 AM ET Add Strange News - 

SOLOMON, Kan. - A couple whose dog turned up 800 miles from home in Auburn, Ala., won't have to take the more than 20-hour drive to retrieve their wandering beagle. Another Auburn couple who already planned to travel to Kansas to visit relatives in El Dorado called Tim and Jennifer Cross after reading about their dog Norman in a local newspaper and offered to bring the dog back. The Crosses were scheduled to pick up their dog Wednesday evening. "It's crazy," Tim Cross said Monday. "I don't know what in the world he did. If he could only talk." Cross last saw Norman on March 28, when he took the 8-year-old beagle and the couple's other dog on a walk, off-leash, about a quarter-mile from their home, which is near Interstate 70. Norman showed up Friday outside an Auburn University computer repair shop. "Sometimes he likes to go hunting, and he puts his nose down and takes off," Cross said. "He doesn't always watch where he's going. Usually he'd go out hunting and 10, 15 minutes later, here he'd come. He usually found his way home." The couple's best guess as to how Norman found his way to Alabama was perhaps in the company of a truck driver or an Auburn University student returning east from a spring break skiing trip to the Rocky Mountains. "I really can't see a short, round dog (walking) between 20 and 23 miles a day," Cross said. "He was two pounds heavier than he was when he left."

Study: Couples Love Kissing Right 

By Kristen Philipkoski | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1 

02:00 AM Feb. 13, 2003 PT

A couple's first kiss can be mellifluously passionate. Or it can be a cacophony of clashing teeth, locking braces and bumping noses. 

Just in time for Valentine's Day, a study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature might help prevent the latter scenario. A German
researcher has found that your kissing partner is twice as likely to turn his head to the right than to the left for smooching.

Looters Return Some Pieces to Iraq Museum Fri Apr 18, 4:08 PM ET Add World - 

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, News Source Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prodded by Muslim clerics and their own guilty consciences, Baghdad residents returned 20 looted pieces Friday from Iraq's ransacked national collection - even as the nation's antiquities chief blamed U.S. forces for allowing the pillaging. "If the American forces had been here, nothing would have happened ... but it seems they had other priorities than the museum," said Jabar Hilil. He called the looting of the museum "the crime of the century." On Friday, U.S. forces and one tank guarded the museum. U.S. officials have acknowledged they were surprised by the rampage, and said troops were too occupied by combat to intervene when they first reached Baghdad. Items confirmed lost from display galleries include an alabaster vase from 3200 B.C., bronze reliefs from 3500 B.C., and other ancient treasures of Assyrian, Sumerian and other early civilizations, Hilil said. Heads from Roman statues on display were hacked off or stolen, he said. Either carelessly or vengefully, the robbers smashed the bodies of the statues to shards on the floor. The destroyed works were still surrounded by sandbags placed around their cases, Ministry of Culture adviser Muayad Damedji said. "We were afraid of bombing," he said. "We never thought it would be looted." Hilil left open the possibility that the loss wasn't as absolute as first thought. With no electricity in Baghdad, he said, museum operators had yet to make a full assessment of the underground vaults where many pieces were stashed for safekeeping. Even in the dark, though, it was clear the storage rooms had been breached. "We cannot say how many pieces were taken, but it is disastrous," said Donny George, director general of research for the state board of antiquities. George spoke with reporters at an impromptu press conference on the collection's lawn, next to sandbags of an abandoned Iraqi military bunker. Museum officials declined to let journalists into the museum Friday. Workers were busy with the first assessment of the destruction, they said, and couldn't be disturbed. Among the items left behind were marble statues and other large pieces too heavy to cart away. Baghdad's Muslim imams, encouraged by museum operators, had urged the faithful to return works. And on Friday, the first ones did. "They come and say, 'Sir, sir, look in the bag,'" said Army Lt. Eric Balascik, among the U.S. soldiers manning the museum gates. "And you look in the bag, and it's a vase or something." The returned works included pottery and metal pieces. "It was their conscience that made them bring that stuff back," Hilil said. Recognition of the gravity of the loss - however great the toll turns out to be - shook U.S. President George W. Bush's White House. Three members of a U.S. White House cultural advisory committee resigned in what they called disappointment at U.S. forces' failure to protect the treasures. Interpol and the FBI pledged to help recover the goods, although museum officials indicated they had not heard from the U.S. investigators. The officials also said the most likely markets for the stolen goods to appear were Switzerland, the United States, Israel and Japan. Officials have said professional thieves likely targeted some of the pieces. The museum is recognized as the Middle East's leading archaeological collection. It held thousands of years of fragile artworks and clay tablet inscriptions from the Tigris-Euphrates valley, home to many of mankind's innovations. "Iraq really was the cradle of civilization - the first agriculture was here, the first villages, the first laws," said Hilil. "The wheel was invented here, writing was invented in this area." It remained uncertain Friday just how much of the museum's collection was relocated for safekeeping before the looting. Journalists in the weeks leading up to the war saw a number of goods carted out of the museum by staffers. News reports since the looting have quoted top staffers as saying small gold works in particular were taken to Baghdad bank vaults just before the war. The key deposit spot was said to be the Central Bank - itself gutted and burned by looters. The bank building was too unstable Friday for U.S. forces to determine if the bank vaults were intact under the rubble. Hilil said Friday that only manuscripts were taken off museum grounds for safekeeping. Those were now in an exceptionally safe, undisclosed place. 

Lip size key to sexual attraction It seems as though the Cher hit It's In His Kiss was right all along.

Scientists have found that the size of somebody's lips plays a key role in determining whether they are sexually attractive to other people.

Basically, the bigger the better - but, in a warning to those who are thinking about opting for surgical enhancement, it is possible for somebody to have lips that are too big.

And while men love a full pout on a women, the Mick Jaggers of this world are not necessarily on to a guaranteed winner with the opposite sex.

Professor Michael Cunningham, a psychologist from the University of Louisville, explained his findings to the BBC Radio Four programme The Kiss.

"Generally speaking, big is better than small," he said. "But it is possible to go a little too far and then be unattractive."

Professor Cunningham said that women are looking for an elusive combination that suggests both sensuality and ruggedness.

Macho

However, it is also important that a man's lips should convey the impression that he is virile, and any sign of femininity is a big no-no.

"At the same time, there should be some hint of generosity and warmth," said Professor Cunningham.

"So medium-sized lips are probably better on men, than either too small or too large."

The research suggests that men, on the other hand, are looking for a sizzling combination of fullness, redness and warmth.

And women who purse their lips send out a signal, subconsciously or not, that they are not really interested in a sexual advance.

According to Professor Cunningham: "If a woman is holding her lips very tightly clenched, that is not a good sign."

Minute changes

Professor Cunningham's team drew their conclusions from a series of experiments which involved making minute adjustments to parts of the face to find out how the changes altered sexual attraction.

They found that while good lips can make an attractive face even more attractive, they cannot salvage a face that is unattractive in other respects.

"The lips can convey real warmth and receptivity," said Professor Cunningham.

"They are so expressive, and when someone is genuinely pleased to see you, they flush and become fuller and darker.

"They show that sensuality and warmth that we all look out for in a partner."

Roy Levin, a psychologist from Sheffield University, UK, said the act of kissing was loaded with sensory stimulation.

"In the lips are touch and pressure receptors which fire off messages to the brain," he said.

"So you know straight away that this is a friend's kiss or a lover's kiss."

In general, the researchers found that a small nose, big eyes and voluptuous lips are sexually attractive both in men and women.

Bush Cultural Advisers Quit Over Iraq Museum Theft 1 hour, 31 minutes ago Add Politics 

WASHINGTON  - The head of a U.S. presidential panel on cultural property has resigned in protest at the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum. "It didn't have to happen," Martin Sullivan said of the objects that were destroyed or stolen from the Iraqi National Museum in a wave of looting that erupted as U.S.-led forces ended President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s rule last week. Sullivan, who chaired the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, said he wrote a letter of resignation to the White House this week in part to make a statement but also because "you can't speak freely" as a special government-appointed employee. The president appoints the 11-member advisory committee. Another panel member, Gary Vikan, also plans to resign because of the looting of the museum. "Our priorities had a big gap," Sullivan told The News Source on Thursday. "In a pre-emptive war that's the kind of thing you should have planned for." The National Museum held rare artifacts documenting the early civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, and leading archeologists were meeting in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to rescue Iraq (news - web sites)'s cultural heritage. Earlier this week, antiquities experts said they had been given assurances from U.S. military planners that Iraq's historic artifacts and sites would be protected by occupying forces. U.S. archeological organizations and the U.N.'s cultural agency UNESCO (news - web sites) said they had provided U.S. officials with information about Iraq's cultural heritage and archeological sites months before the war began. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has rejected charges the U.S. military was to blame for failing to prevent the looting, noting the country has offered rewards for the return of artifacts and information on their whereabouts. "Looting is an unfortunate thing. Human beings are not perfect," Rumsfeld said, earlier this month. "To the extent it happens in a war zone, it's difficult to stop." The Advisory Committee on Cultural Property convenes when a country requests U.S. assistance under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on international protection of cultural objects. 

FBI Probed Composer Copland in 1950s Sun May 11, 9:45 AM ET 

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - FBI (news - web sites) file 100-HQ-370562 begins simply enough. On July 21, 1950, the subject, thought "to be self-employed as a composer of music," is reported linked to communist front groups. Within six months, he is classified outright as a communist. So begins the government's surveillance of Aaron Copland, one of the country's most important composers, creator of such stirring music as "Appalachian Spring," "Fanfare for the Common Man," "Billy the Kid" and the patriotic "Lincoln Portrait." The government, using informants, spends the next two decades and more monitoring Copland's whereabouts, analyzing his comments and taking note of his friends and associates. The result is an inch-thick FBI file, replete with blacked-out passages, released to The News Source in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from late 1997. The papers make clear that the government's interest in Copland did not end with his 1953 testimony at Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist hearings - transcripts of which were released this month. Copland (pronounced COPE'-land) died in 1990 at age 90. In dry bureaucratic language, the file discloses that the FBI wanted to prosecute Copland for perjury and fraud for denying he was a communist, and that Director J. Edgar Hoover got involved by enlisting the CIA (news - web sites)'s help in tracking the composer's travels. "Copland has been abroad for some time and on June 25, 1951, he arrived in New York from Bombay, India, on TWA flight 6022-C," Hoover wrote to the CIA chief. "It would be appreciated if you would furnish the bureau any information you have received concerning Copland's activities while abroad." Copland's music was pulled from President Eisenhower's inaugural concert in 1953 due to the suspicions about his politics. He denied ever being a communist when called to testify to Congress. After the perjury-fraud investigation was dropped, Copland sought State Department guidance in 1956 on an invitation to attend an expenses-paid convention of Soviet composers. He asked whether the department encouraged U.S. citizens to accept such trips. "Although I am free to go," Copland wrote, "I would not wish to attend the convention without the advice of the Department." The file suggests he did not make the trip. Copland was deleted from the FBI's "security index" in 1955. In 1958, its "security-type investigation" of the composer was put on "closed status" but remained "subject to being reopened." But the scrutiny of his activities continued. For nearly two decades after that, memos and newspaper clippings trickled in with details of Copland's doings. The investigation ended in 1975. A three-page FBI memo concluded there was "no additional pertinent information concerning the captioned individual." Left unanswered, however, is the question of whether Copland, who never married and left no immediate survivors, ever was a communist. Terry Teachout, a New York-based music critic and commentator, said there is no question in his mind that the man sometimes called the "dean of American music" was a communist sympathizer. "He was involved with the Communist Party up to his ears," Teachout said. "Whether or not he was an actual card-carrying member of the party, nobody knows." Teachout noted, among other things, a 1934 speech by Copland to Minnesota farmers suspected of being communists. Copland also supported the 1936 Communist Party presidential ticket, the FBI file says. "The espousal of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the Communist Party surely means some degree of Communist sympathy." But Vivian Perlis, an American music historian at Yale University who spent hours interviewing Copland for a two-volume autobiography, said he was not a communist - and was not political at all. Quincy Hilliard, a composer and University of Louisiana-Lafayette music professor who has studied Copland's life and music, laughed at the notion of him as a closet communist. Unlike other beginning musicians who studied abroad in the 1920s, Hilliard said Copland returned from his first study trip to Paris bent on composing music that did not sound European. Copland "was very interested in writing music that sounded American and that most people would recognize as American," he said. Indeed, Copland blended jazz rhythms of the South, Appalachian folk songs and cowboy tunes from the prairie to create a distinctly American brand of classical music. That did not seem to matter much to the government. Confidential government sources and newspaper reports helped document Copland's alleged communist involvement in the 1930s and 1940s, suggesting guilt by association. One newspaper report says he was as "one of 450 persons who signed a statement urging the president and Congress to defend the rights of the Communist Party." The FBI file also includes a list of more than 40 "communist projects" to which the composer was linked. Scrutiny of Copland peaked on May 26, 1953, with a two-hour, closed-door hearing before McCarthy's investigations subcommittee, which was examining communism in the United States. Copland repeatedly denied affiliating knowingly with communists and said he withdrew from some organizations when they were branded as communist-controlled. Copland said he signed many petitions in support of liberal causes, but told McCarthy that his involvement was superficial. "I spend my days writing symphonies, concertos, ballads, and I am not a political thinker," he said. Copland was called to testify because he had been hired by the State Department to lecture overseas, and he complained at the hearing about having to appear just days after receiving a subpoena. Copland seemed to take that period of his life in stride. "I became a victim of a political situation," he said in his memoirs. "I tried to carry on as usual. But I lost a great deal of time and energy (not to mention lawyers' fees) preparing myself against fictitious charges." "It was not a happy time. What can one do but go through it and carry on." Copland declined to discuss McCarthy in the interviews with Perlis. "He was just very proud of his honesty and his integrity, and I think he was very hurt by the whole thing," Perlis said. Three months after the hearing, Copland again denied being a communist in an affidavit submitted with a passport application. The statement went against information provided by the government informants, and formed the basis of the FBI's perjury and fraud investigation. Copland had said he began cutting his ties to leftist groups after learning some of them might be "communist or communist front." This may explain why the FBI ultimately dropped the perjury investigation. In December 1955, Assistant Attorney General William Tompkins concluded in a memo that there was "insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution."

Psychic Girl Challenges Amazing Randi 17-Apr-2003 The magician who calls himself the Amazing Randi is a skeptic who will pay $1 million to anyone who can offer proof of the paranormal. He's made a career out of debunking psychics, and he's now investigating 11-year-old Natalia Lulova, a Jewish immigrant from Russia who now lives in Brooklyn and claims to be able to see through blindfolds. Lulova tried to win the prize last year, and lost. But a year later, she says her psychic powers have improved. She wears a special blindfold that looks like two Mickey Mouse ears. Despite wearing the blindfold, she can still read, play word games and identify colors. Journalists who look through her blindfold can't see a thing. "I don't believe in miracles," says Mark Komissarov a Russian cabdriver who is Lulova's teacher. Komissarov holds a weekly circle of psychics, composed of all Russians, where they spend 4 hour sessions testing their paranormal abilities. He says Lulova "is one of my best students." "She's doing a blindfold act that a lot of kids can do," says Randi. "...Particularly in the former Soviet Union, [it's] a popular trick, but I've seen it all over Europe and in Korea." When a reporter said he tried reading through Lulova's blindfold and could see nothing, Randi said, "Of course! You don't play the violin just by accident. You practice." When Randi tested Lulova last year, Lulova read while wearing the blindfold, but Randi said she was peeking through tiny gaps the blindfold left between her nose and cheek, so he sealed the edges with duct tape. Lulova said she was so upset that her psychic powers left her for 10 months. Komissarov says, "In Russia we have an expression, 'blind from rage.'" But now Lulova has regained her powers and is ready to try again.

You Can Be Blind & Not Know It 17-Apr-2003 New technology shows that people often see much less of what's around them than they think. Tests show subjects miss even major events that happen right before their eyes. This may be one reason why police find eye witnesses so unreliable. During the recent D.C. area sniper spree by John Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, witnesses said they saw a white van, but it turned out no white van was involved. Most people don't notice their own blindness. ''It used to be thought that perception was about us creating a copy of our environment inside our heads,'' says researcher Ron Rensink. Now he knows that people can take in and store only a tiny portion of the scene around them and often don't notice when major things change. Rensink started studying ''change blindness'' in the 1990s, while studying the psychology of driving. He noted many traffic accidents were categorized as ''driver looked but failed to see.'' As he learned more about change blindness, he became afraid to cross the street. ''You stop trusting your visual system,'' he says. Researchers aren't sure how change blindness comes about. They think that our brains don't process a complete picture of our surroundings, so we don't notice when something changes, unless our attention is grabbed by movement. To investigate change blindness, researchers show people scenes, interrupt their view while they make significant changes (so they won't be tipped off by motion), then note whether or not they can tell what's different. In one experiment, people look at a scene of soldiers boarding a plane. The screen briefly goes blank, then the scene reappears with a large part of it different. A large patch of color or a large object may be added or missing. Researchers are shocked by how much people fail to see. A whole tree can come and go or a large patch change color but this remains undetected for a long time. In one experiment, 90% of subjects said they would notice if the scarf on a woman in a video disappeared, but in reality, none of them noticed. Rensink says, ''You don't realize you're missing all kinds of stuff. Even when it's right in front of you, you're missing stuff all the time.''

Experts: Looters Had Keys to Iraqi Vaults 
55 minutes ago

By JOCELYN GECKER, News Source Writer 

PARIS - Some of the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities appeared highly organized and even had keys to museum vaults and were able to take pieces from safes, experts said Thursday at an international meeting. 

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One expert said he suspected the looting was organized outside the country. 

The U.N. cultural agency gathered some 30 art experts and cultural historians in Paris on Thursday to assess the damage to Iraqi museums and libraries looted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion. 

Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of the thieves clearly knew what they were looking for and where to find it, suggesting they were prepared professionals. 

"It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes." 

"I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was," Gibson said. He added that if a good police team was put together, "I think it could be cracked in no time." 

Cultural experts, curators and law enforcement officials are scrambling to both track down the missing antiquities and prevent further looting of the valuables. 

The pillaging has ravaged the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia, and the losses have triggered an impassioned outcry in cultural circles. 

Many fear the stolen artifacts have been absorbed into highly organized trafficking rings that ferry the goods through a series of middlemen to collectors in Europe, the United States and Japan. 

Officials at the UNESCO (news - web sites) meeting at its headquarters in Paris said the information was still too sketchy to determine exactly what was missing and how many items were unaccounted for. 

The experts, which included Iraqi art officials, said some of the most valuable pieces had been placed in the vault of the national bank after the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), but they had no information on whether the items were still there. 

At U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, officials said they weren't aware of the reports of organized looting and couldn't comment. 

"I have no knowledge of what looters used to get access to the museums, but it was a terrible loss to all of humanity, and we are working with the Iraqi people to find those responsible," said a spokesman, Navy Lt. Herb Josey. 

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, began the meeting Thursday by calling for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities. 

Matsuura said it was urgent to repair the antiquities that remain and to keep them from the hands of those who traffic in the lucrative market of stolen objects. 

"It is always difficult, when communities are facing the consequences of an armed conflict ... to plead the case for preservation of the cultural heritage," Matsuura said. 

Matsuura said he would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) to seek a resolution against illicit trafficking that would also impose an embargo "for a limited period" on the acquisition of Iraqi cultural objects. Such a resolution would also call for the return of such items to Iraq (news - web sites), he said. 

In addition, Matsuura said the establishment of a nationwide "heritage police" was necessary to watch over cultural sites and institutions. Such a force could be set up by "the authorities on the ground," an apparent reference to U.S. and British forces in Baghdad. 

"To preserve the Iraqi cultural heritage is, in a word, to enable Iraq to successfully make its transition to a new, free and prosperous society," he said. 

He reiterated a call for governments to adopt emergency legal and administrative measures to prevent anyone's importing objects from Iraq and to museums and art dealers to refuse transactions in such objects. 

A database of all cultural objects needs to be quickly established so police, museums, customs authorities can act against any traffickers, he said.

Vatican Confirms Pope Has Parkinson's 
35 minutes ago

By NICOLE WINFIELD, News Source Writer 

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II has used prayer to cope with his advancing age and Parkinson's disease (news - web sites), a top Vatican (news - web sites) official said in published remarks Saturday - the first time a senior official has publicly acknowledged the pontiff suffers from the degenerative disease. 

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, made the comments in an interview with the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on the eve of the pope's 83rd birthday. 

"If we want to look for the secret weapon that has allowed him to beat the years and Parkinson's, we must look to prayer: He puts himself in the hands of God and feels God and the Madonna (news - web sites) by his side in the path of life," he was quoted as saying. 

The Vatican has never officially attributed the source of the pope's trembling hands and slurred speech - typical symptoms of Parkinson's. 

The cause of Parkinson's is unknown, but it results from the degeneration of nerve cells that produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is needed to control muscle activity. 

Symptoms of the disorder, which afflicts about 500,000 Americans, include tremors, stiffness and a shuffling gait. 

Vatican officials have cited the pope's need for privacy as the reason they have not described his physical condition. 

Several years ago, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, said the pope may have an "extra pyramidal syndrome" - which could be one of many problems, including Parkinson's. Extra pyramidal refers to the part of the motor system that controls non-voluntary movement. 

Doctors watching the pope from afar, however, have said the problem clearly was Parkinson's. 

The pontiff also has crippling knee and hip ailments which have made it virtually impossible for him to walk. 

Calls placed to the Vatican spokesman seeking comment on Re's remarks were not returned Saturday. 

Despite his age and ailments, John Paul has appeared remarkably well in recent months - seeming stronger and speaking more clearly. The Vatican has attributed those improvements to more rest and physical therapy. 

He still keeps up a vigorous work schedule and is due to make his 100th foreign trip - to Croatia - in June. 

The Vatican also said there was a strong chance that John Paul in August would visit Mongolia, a predominantly Buddhist Asian nation with a Catholic community of fewer than 200 people. 

But in an interview with the La Stampa daily newspaper Saturday, Navarro-Valls said the threat of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS (news - web sites), virus spreading through Asia might scuttle the visit. 

"We haven't officially announced the visit. Mongolia might be included by the World Health Organization (news - web sites) among the countries at risk for SARS. We'll have to see," Navarro-Valls said. 

The Vatican also was seeking agreement for a stopover in Russia en route to Mongolia - a visit long desired by John Paul as part of his efforts to promote greater Christian unity. 

A Russia visit so far has been thwarted by opposition from Russia's Orthodox Church, which accuses the Roman Catholic Church of trying to gain converts in traditionally Orthodox lands in the former Soviet Union. 

No pope has ever visited Russia.

Study: Fasting Shows Some Health Benefits Periodic Fasting Seems to Improve Health As Much As Cutting Back on Calories, New Study Says The News Source

WASHINGTON April 28 - Periodic fasting can be just as good for the health as sharply cutting back on calories, even if the fasting doesn't mean eating less overall, a new study indicates. Researchers are now planning to see if what works in mice is also good for people. Several recent studies have reported a variety of benefits from a sharply restricted diet, including longer life span, increased insulin sensitivity and stress resistance. In the new report, mice that were fed only every other day but could gorge on the days they did eat saw similar health benefits to ones that had their diet reduced by 40 percent, a team of researchers reports in Tuesday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The cause of health improvements from cutting back on diet isn't fully understood, though many researchers had assumed that a long-term reduction in calories was involved. But the new study by Mark P. Mattson and colleagues at the National Institute on Aging found equal benefits for mice that ate only every other day, but didn't cut total calories because they ate twice as much on days they weren't fasting. Mattson said a study is in the planning stages to compare the health of a group of people fed the normal three meals a day with a similar group, eating the same diet and amount of food, but consuming it within four hours and then fasting for 20 hours before eating again. "Overeating is a big problem now in this country, it's particularly troublesome that a lot of children are overweight. It's still unclear the best way to somehow get people to eat less .... One possibility is skipping a meal a day," Mattson said. "Our study suggests that skipping meals is not bad for you." Dr. Carol A. Braunschweig of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not part of the study team, said she was intrigued by the suggestion that a drastic change in eating patterns might have benefits. "With the current epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity facing the U.S. today, identification of a beneficial eating pattern that could address some of the untoward effects of excess weight would be a very significant finding," she said. Mattson said an earlier study found that mice that fasted every other day had extended lifespans and the new experiment found the mice also did better in factors involved in diabetes and nerve damage in the brain similar to Alzheimer's disease. "We think what happens is going without food imposes a mild stress on cells and cells respond by increasing their ability to cope with more severe stress," Mattson said. "It's sort of analogous to physical effects of exercise on muscle cells." He said the researchers think this stress occurs throughout the body, and that may be the reason fasting seems to increase lifespan and the animals become more resistant to the diseases of aging. The dieting mice consumed 40 percent less food than mice eating normally and lost nearly half their body weight (49 percent) in the experiment, while the fasting mice weighed only a little less than mice eating normally. In recent years, some nutritionists have recommended eating smaller amounts more often, but this study did not deal with that type of eating pattern. In the new report, the researchers said both the fasting mice and those on a restricted diet had concentrations of blood sugar and insulin that were significantly lower than mice allowed to eat whenever they wanted. Indeed, insulin levels in the fasting mice were even a bit lower than the dieting ones. At the end of the experiment all three groups of mice were injected with a toxin that damages cells in the part of the brain called the hippocampus. It's cell damage there that that is involved in Alzheimer's in humans. When the mouse brains were later analyzed the scientists found that the brains of the fasting mice were more resistant to damage by the toxin than the brains of either dieting mice or those eating normally. On the Net: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

Feast & Fast to Stay Healthy & Slim 16-May-2003 Periodic fasting is good for the health and can help you lose weight, even if you gorge afterwards. It's known that mice live longer on a severely restricted calorie diet and it protects them from diseases and stress as well. But do we have to live a life of starvation? Scientists now think we can get the same benefits from alternately fasting and feasting. Mice living on a semi-starvation diet have lower weights, less risk of diabetes and Alzheimer's, and less stress. When scientists fed mice every other day, but let them gorge on the days they ate, the mice had the same health benefits as mice living on a 40% reduced calorie diet all the time. At first researchers thought this was because the mice were eating less overall, but they found this wasn't true. They now want to find out if alternate feasting and fasting works for humans as well. Mark P. Mattson, of the National Institute on Aging, wants to compare the health of a group of people who eat normal three meals a day with a similar group, eating the same diet and same amount of food, but eating it all within four hours and then fasting for 20 hours before eating again. "Overeating is a big problem now in this country, it's particularly troublesome that a lot of children are overweight. It's still unclear the best way to somehow get people to eat less," he says. "...One possibility is skipping a meal a day. Our study suggests that skipping meals is not bad for you. "We think what happens is going without food imposes a mild stress on cells and cells respond by increasing their ability to cope with more severe stress," Mattson says. Stress may make the body more susceptible to the diseases of aging, so being able to cope with it better keeps you young.

Why Some Men Make Better Lovers 16-May-2003 Ladies: If you want to celebrate Mother's Day next year, find a symmetrical man. If your boyfriend has different sized feet or one ear larger than the other, his sperm isn't as strong as that of a symmetrical guy. Scientists who measured almost everything on the male body that is paired found a link between sperm quality and bilateral symmetry. The greater the difference between one side of the body and the other, the poorer a man's sperm quality will be. This happens to male fetuses while they're still in the womb, because the skeletal parts of the body develop at about the same time as the sexual parts. If something goes wrong with the mother, it will affect both areas of her fetus' development-meaning body symmetry is one way to spot good sexual functioning. Australian scientists measured the ear length, wrist diameter, elbow diameter, ankle diameter, and foot length and width of volunteers ages 18 to 35. The right and left sides of each man were measured separately. They compared the results to each man's semen and say, "We found significant negative relationships between (the measurements) and total numbers of sperm, and the (mobility) of sperm." Another marker for poor sperm is the ratio between the ring and index fingers on a man's hand. Men usually have longer ring than index fingers, and the longer the ring finger, the more likely it is that the man has been exposed to high levels of testosterone before birth. There's also a link between finger length and sperm production. Researchers have found that very long ring fingers are associated with more sperm, that's also more active. Also, symmetrical men have been found to be more jealous. We aren't the only ones with this problem-Canadian scientists say stags with lopsided antlers find it harder to attract a mate.

Psychologist aims to deconstruct luck

New book posits that attitude and expectations influence how often it comes your way

Monday, May 12, 2003 By Byron Spice, Post-Gazette Science Editor

Luck, says Richard Wiseman, isn't something to be left to chance. He should know. The British psychologist has spent 10 years studying lucky and unlucky people. And though luck is by definition unpredictable, his research findings have convinced him that people nevertheless can determine their own luck. It sounds paradoxical, but Wiseman insists it's not. "Luck often means being in the right place at the right time," explained Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. Lucky people, according to studies he summarizes in a new book, "The Luck Factor," live life in ways that tend to put them in that place and time. Luck involves chance, but also something more -- expectations. It occurs when things go significantly better, or worse, than one might expect. That makes it a slippery subject for scientific study, Wiseman acknowledged, but one worth exploring because of its importance. Certainly, luck smiled on Jack Whittaker on Christmas Day, when the West Virginia man won a $315 million Powerball jackpot. Kris Leija's luck held during three heroic trips into a burning apartment building to rescue four children in Abilene, Texas, last month; his luck ran out during a subsequent TV interview when a sheriff's officer recognized him as a probation violator and arrested him; authorities now suspect he started the fire. People who were unable to book passage on the Titanic's maiden voyage later counted themselves lucky, just as John Jacob Astor understood that his wealth was no defense against bad luck as the ship sank beneath him in 1912. Luck can be less dramatic, but no less significant. Two people can be lucky at love if they chance to meet at a party -- or unlucky if one has car trouble and never arrives. A lucky tip from an acquaintance might lead to a dream job, or point a student toward a rewarding career. Stepping off the curb as a driver runs a red light, however, could cut short a promising life. Luck is not the same as fortune. A person who is born into a loving or well-to-do family might be fortunate, as is someone who is born with a talent for music, or mathematics, or who is physically attractive. But that's not a matter of luck; that's just who they are. It's unfortunate when someone gets sick; someone is unlucky, however, when they get sick the day of a job interview or the day they are to compete in a football playoff game. Given the extremely high odds he faced, Whittaker was very lucky to win the Powerball jackpot. Given the same odds, however, no one who lost out on the jackpot could be considered unlucky -- just unfortunate. 'Brilliant randomness' Nicholas Rescher, a University of Pittsburgh philosopher and formerly director of its Center for Philosophy of Science, notes that luck's unpredictability stands in contrast to one of the characteristics that has made humans such a successful species: the capacity to plan, to reason and to anticipate events. "If we humans were not as good at prediction as we are, and did not live in an environment that makes predictions possible in substantial degree, then we would not be here to tell the tale as the sorts of intelligence-guided creatures we are," he wrote in his 1995 book, "Luck: The Brilliant Randomness of Everyday Life."

Yet luck is an inherent part of life, Rescher said, and most people cherish it. "Our psychological and emotional condition is such that we would not want to live in a preprogrammed world -- a world where the rest of our fate and future is preordained ... Even at the price of falling victim to chance and haphazardness, we yearn for novelty and innovation," he wrote. Most people realize that they likely will never win a lottery jackpot, but that doesn't stop them from buying tickets and hoping that luck will swing their way. People have long tried to improve their luck and, faced with such a mysterious force, often have resorted to equally mysterious methods -- superstitions.

Often, an object becomes associated with great good luck. So, after winning an important tennis match, a player may attribute his good fortune to his shirt. After people learned that Admiral George Dewey wore a rabbit's foot during the Spanish-American War's battle of Manila Bay -- his squadron virtually destroyed Spain's fleet in the Philippines without suffering a single casualty -- the rabbit's foot became a favorite talisman. Religious beliefs underlie some luck-associated superstitions. Knocking on wood was thought to bring good luck because of ancient beliefs in benevolent tree gods. The number 13 is thought unlucky because 13 people were at Christ's Last Supper. Walking under a ladder is unlucky, or so the thinking goes, because a ladder leaning against the wall forms a triangle and walking under it would break the Holy Trinity the triangle symbolizes. The problem is that none of these work, for good or for ill, Wiseman said. Once a professional magician, Wiseman has devoted much of his career as a psychologist to investigating and dispelling beliefs about psychics, ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. Study after study has shown that these superstitions are groundless. But the subject of luck often arose during these studies. "People would tell me, 'I'm not psychic, I'm just lucky," he said. So he began advertising in newspapers and magazines, looking for people who considered themselves either lucky or unlucky. A matter of perception? About 12 percent of people in the general population identify themselves as lucky, 9 percent as unlucky and most people consider themselves neither lucky nor unlucky, Wiseman said. For what would become the 10-year Luck Project, he used roughly equal numbers of lucky and unlucky subjects. In one of his first experiments, Wiseman had his subjects enter the national lottery. The "lucky" people did no better in the lottery than the "unlucky" people, demonstrating that nothing supernatural was going on. "But the lucky people expected to do much better," Wiseman noted, which led him to study more of the psychological aspects of the two groups. The two groups were indeed different, he found. For instance, lucky and unlucky people might describe the same event in different ways. A lucky person might marvel that she had escaped an automobile accident without serious injury; an unlucky person might say it was bad luck that she was in an accident at all. But this wasn't just a "Is the glass half full or half empty?" situation. "The lucky people were obviously doing much better" overall than the unlucky people, he said. They were more likely to say they had a good marriage or relationship and that they enjoyed their jobs. Was this a function of luck? In all, Wiseman identified about 1,000 lucky/unlucky people and studied about 400 in depth. In interviews, in tests of intelligence and intuition and in a variety of experiments, he identified characteristics that help explain the disposition of luck. In one experiment, Wiseman asked his subjects to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. Unlucky people averaged about two minutes to finish the task, lucky people just a few seconds.

Why? On the second page of the paper was a message, in letters two-inches high, "Stop counting -- there are 43 photographs in this newspaper." Lucky people usually noticed it. Unlucky people tended to miss it, as well as second message halfway through the paper: "Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250."

Personality tests show unlucky people tend to be more tense than lucky people and that makes it less likely that they notice the unexpected. Lucky people are more relaxed and able to see what is there, rather than what they are looking for. This ability to recognize and capitalize on chance opportunities is important, Wiseman said. So is creating the opportunities -- something that lucky people seem to do without even thinking. Lucky people often go to considerable lengths to break from routine and introduce variety to their lives. They may try new activities, or make an effort to talk with new people, or just try to do things in a different way, such as by taking a new route to work.

These new or random experiences introduce new opportunities that, in turn, lucky people recognize and act upon. And the more opportunities a person encounters, the more likely it is that one of those opportunities will turn out to be golden. Attitude counts Another important difference is how lucky people deal with bad luck. As in the example of a person who is in an auto accident, a lucky person tends to think about how things could have gone even worse, rather than dwelling on what went wrong. This is called counter-factual thinking. It's something that has been documented in Olympic athletes -- bronze medalists tend to be happier than silver medalists. Silver medalists often think, "If I had been just a little bit better, I could have won the gold," while bronze medalists think, "If I had done just a bit worse, I wouldn't have won anything." As Rescher points out, lucky people not only are open to opportunities, but make preparations and develop skills so that they can protect themselves from bad luck. "Napoleon's well-known tendency to entrust commands to marshals whose records showed them to have 'luck on their side' did not [in all probability] so much betoken superstition as a sensible inclination to favor those who had a demonstrated record for sagacious management of risks in warfare," Rescher wrote. Wiseman acknowledges that these principles are hardly new, but said he was able to prove that they can be used to change a person's luck. Two years ago, he invited people who considered themselves unlucky or luckless to "Luck School." They were asked to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to break routines and open them to opportunities. Four out of five subsequently reported they were happier, more satisfied and, in their own estimation, luckier, he said.

Wiseman himself may be happier. Whereas he once spent much of his time telling people what they didn't want to hear -- that ghosts aren't real and psychics have no special powers -- he's now telling them they can improve their luck. "You're telling them something they want to hear," he explained.

Meditation Shown to Light Up Brains of Buddhists
Wed May 21, 2:48 PM ET 
Add Science 

LONDON  - Buddhists really are happy, calm and serene people -- at least according to their brain scans. 

The News Source Photo 

Using new scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, which indicates positive emotions and good mood. This happens at times even when they are not meditating. 

"We can now hypothesize with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy," Professor Owen Flanagan, of Duke University in North Carolina, said Wednesday. 

Dharamsala is the home base of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. 

The scanning studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison showed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced Buddhist practitioners. The area is linked to positive emotions, self-control and temperament. 

Other research by Paul Ekman, of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, suggests that meditation and mindfulness can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. 

Ekman discovered that experienced Buddhists were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry as other people. 

Flanagan believes that if the findings of the studies can be confirmed they could be of major importance. 

"The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Flanagan said in a report in New Scientist magazine.

Plastic Can Cause Birth Defects 21-May-2003 Think how many times a day you drink out of a plastic soda or water bottle-we even feed babies with plastic bottles. Now researchers have found disturbing new evidence that exposure to a substance found in plastic food and drink containers may cause an unborn child to develop abnormal chromosomes. Down syndrome is one example of a birth defect caused by an extra chromosome. The substance, called Bisphenol A (BPA), interferes with cell division in female mice and may affect humans as well. The disruption of cell division can result in an abnormal number of chromosomes in the eggs, which is the leading cause of mental retardation and birth defects in humans. Researcher Patricia Hunt began studying BPA after normal mice used in research projects showed genetic abnormalities. The defects were traced to their plastic cages and plastic water bottles, which had been cleaned with a harsh detergent that caused the BPA to leach out of them. She gradually reduced the BPA to very low levels, but still found that mice were affected. Hunt says, "We can't say anything about the effects of BPA on humans. Nevertheless, the cell division program for eggs is extraordinarily similar in mice and humans, and the results of our studies in mice are disturbing because brief exposure during the final stages of egg growth were sufficient to cause significant increases in... abnormalities."

How to be Lucky 16-May-2003 Byron Spice writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about U.K. researcher Richard Wiseman, who's spent 10 years studying lucky and unlucky people. His conclusion: people can learn how to become luckier. Wiseman says, "People would tell me, 'I'm not psychic, I'm just lucky," so he began advertising in newspapers and magazines for people who considered themselves to be either lucky or unlucky. He discovered that about 12% of us considered ourselves lucky, 9% unlucky, and the rest of us don't think we're either one. Lucky and unlucky people see the world in different ways. A lucky person would be delighted to escape an automobile accident without serious injury, while an unlucky person would say it was bad luck to have had an accident in the first place. Wiseman decided to test people to find out if certain psychological characteristics brought people "luck." In one experiment, he asked his subjects to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. Unlucky people took about two minutes to finish the job, while the lucky took just a few seconds. On the second page of the paper was a message, in two-inches high letters, that said, "Stop counting-there are 43 photographs in this newspaper." Lucky people noticed it, but unlucky people usually missed it and kept on counting. A second message halfway through the paper said, "Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250." Unlucky people missed this one too. His personality tests showed that unlucky people are more tense, and less likely to notice the unexpected. Lucky people are more relaxed and notice what's actually there, instead of what they expect to see. Lucky people are able to break away from routine and add variety to their lives. They try new activities, talk to new people, or try to do things in a different way. These new experiences bring new opportunities, and the more opportunities you have, the more chance that something will go right and you'll be "lucky." Two years ago, Wiseman invited people who considered themselves unlucky to "Luck School," where they spent a month carrying out exercises designed to break their routines and open them up to new opportunities. Four out of five later reported they were happier, more satisfied and luckier.

Yao Ming in spat with Coca-Cola over use of image Fri May 16, 8:55 AM ET Add Entertainment - NEWS SOURCE 

SHANGHAI (NEWS SOURCE) - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming claims that the Coca-Cola Company is using his image without permission and has demanded it be removed from products, state media and company officials said. The spat stems from just released commemorative Coke bottles in China which feature a photo of Yao and fellow Chinese national team stars Mengke Bateer and Guo Shiqiang wearing their national team shirts. "I have never permitted Coca-Cola to use my image to promote their products," Yao said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency. "I require Coca-Cola to withdraw immediately all the products bearing my image and all promotion materials which use my names or images." The news comes after Yao signed a multi-year deal earlier this month to become PepsiCo's image frontman, making him the first Chinese athlete to secure a major worldwide marketing deal, Han No Leung, PepsiCo's China marketing manager, said. The new agreement extends Yao's existing promotion of Gatorade to all of Pepsi's products, Han told NEWS SOURCE, and in the coming months Yao will be featured on Pepsi cans, posters and television ads in China. For Coca-Cola's part, it claimed it has the right to use Yao's image because it signed a three-year deal on March 21 with the Chinese Sports Management Company, the agent of the Chinese national men's basketball team. The contract permits pictures of the national team to be displayed on a variety of its soft-drink packages and advertising materials, said Brenda Lee (news), director of external affairs for Coca-Cola China. "We are the sponsor of the team and we have the right, as it is stated in our contract, to display three or more people on our products from the Chinese national team," Lee told NEWS SOURCE. "The photos are given to us by the official marketing agent of the China Basketball Association for China Men's National Basketball Team ... we've been assured that they have the right to give us those images," Lee said. A likeness of the popular basketball sensation can now be found on 2.5 litre and 500 millilitre Coke bottles sold in China. Wang Jian, general manager of the Chinese Sports Management Company, agreed that Coca-Cola was within its rights to use the group image of the Chinese national team. "Yao Ming isn't alone in the photo and he is with his national teammates Bateer and Guo," Wang said, according to Xinhua. Yao disagrees and says he maintains the right to sue Coca-Cola. "We hope Coca-Cola will take an honest attitude to correct their wrongdoing otherwise we will tell the whole truth including taking legal action against them," said Yao's lawyer Wang Xiaopeng. "Our deadline is May 22." Yao, the first pick in last year's National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, played for China in last year's Asian Games and has just returned home to Shanghai after his rookie season in the US league. The rising NBA star, who has already pocketed millions of dollars from endorsement deals with Visa, Apple Computer and China Unicom, is joining his national team for the Asian championships in China's northeastern city of Harbin this summer.

Yao Ming in spat with Coca-Cola over use of image Fri May 16, 8:55 AM ET Add Entertainment - NEWS SOURCE 

SHANGHAI (NEWS SOURCE) - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming claims that the Coca-Cola Company is using his image without permission and has demanded it be removed from products, state media and company officials said. The spat stems from just released commemorative Coke bottles in China which feature a photo of Yao and fellow Chinese national team stars Mengke Bateer and Guo Shiqiang wearing their national team shirts. "I have never permitted Coca-Cola to use my image to promote their products," Yao said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency. "I require Coca-Cola to withdraw immediately all the products bearing my image and all promotion materials which use my names or images." The news comes after Yao signed a multi-year deal earlier this month to become PepsiCo's image frontman, making him the first Chinese athlete to secure a major worldwide marketing deal, Han No Leung, PepsiCo's China marketing manager, said. The new agreement extends Yao's existing promotion of Gatorade to all of Pepsi's products, Han told NEWS SOURCE, and in the coming months Yao will be featured on Pepsi cans, posters and television ads in China. For Coca-Cola's part, it claimed it has the right to use Yao's image because it signed a three-year deal on March 21 with the Chinese Sports Management Company, the agent of the Chinese national men's basketball team. The contract permits pictures of the national team to be displayed on a variety of its soft-drink packages and advertising materials, said Brenda Lee (news), director of external affairs for Coca-Cola China. "We are the sponsor of the team and we have the right, as it is stated in our contract, to display three or more people on our products from the Chinese national team," Lee told NEWS SOURCE. "The photos are given to us by the official marketing agent of the China Basketball Association for China Men's National Basketball Team ... we've been assured that they have the right to give us those images," Lee said. A likeness of the popular basketball sensation can now be found on 2.5 litre and 500 millilitre Coke bottles sold in China. Wang Jian, general manager of the Chinese Sports Management Company, agreed that Coca-Cola was within its rights to use the group image of the Chinese national team. "Yao Ming isn't alone in the photo and he is with his national teammates Bateer and Guo," Wang said, according to Xinhua. Yao disagrees and says he maintains the right to sue Coca-Cola. "We hope Coca-Cola will take an honest attitude to correct their wrongdoing otherwise we will tell the whole truth including taking legal action against them," said Yao's lawyer Wang Xiaopeng. "Our deadline is May 22." Yao, the first pick in last year's National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, played for China in last year's Asian Games and has just returned home to Shanghai after his rookie season in the US league. The rising NBA star, who has already pocketed millions of dollars from endorsement deals with Visa, Apple Computer and China Unicom, is joining his national team for the Asian championships in China's northeastern city of Harbin this summer.

Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs Fri May 16, 3:32 PM ET Add Technology 

LOS ANGELES  - This disc will self-destruct in 48 hours. That is the warning The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - news) will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned. Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said on Friday. The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser. Buena Vista hopes the technology will let it crack a wider rental market, since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back. The discs work perfectly for the two-day viewing window, said Flexplay Technologies, Inc., the private company which developed the technology using material from General Electric Co.(NYSE:GE - news) The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism which closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology. However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window. Buena Vista did not disclose pricing plans but said the discs, dubbed EZ-D, would be available in August in select markets with recent releases including "The Recruit," "The Hot Chick," and "Signs."

Movie Studios Sue Makers of DVD Copying Software Thu May 15, 7:48 PM ET Add Technology 

By Bob Tourtellotte LOS ANGELES  - Hollywood's major movie studios on Thursday turned up the legal heat on makers of DVD copying software, squaring off against one company in a California court and suing five others in New York. In the latest development, lawyers for Paramount Pictures Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. filed for an injunction in U.S. District Court in New York to bar five companies from selling DVD copying software. The suit names Internet Enterprises Inc., RDestiny LLC, HowtocopyDVDs.com, DVDBackupbuddy.com and DVDSqueeze.com as defendants. None could immediately be reached for comment. In federal court in San Francisco, lawyers for other film companies argued that the DVD X Copy and DVD Copy Plus software made by St. Louis-based 321 Studios could not be judged to be legal because it violates copyright law. Both suits center on the same basic issue of whether selling DVD copying software is illegal under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) as the studios claim, or whether it is legal under "fair use" provisions of U.S. copyright law as the companies believe. Last year, in its preemptory suit, 321 asked a federal judge to rule its software did not violate the DMCA. The studios, under the Motion Picture Association of America, countersued seeking a summary judgment to dismiss the case. On Thursday, Judge Susan Illston of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, heard arguments from attorneys, then adjourned to consider the case, according to both sides. The judge did not say when she might issue a ruling, they said. BILLIONS AT STAKE At stake in the cases, the movie studios argue, are potentially billions of dollars in lost future revenues if people can make perfect, digital copies of movies on DVD, then put the movies in digital files stored on the Internet to be distributed around the world, free. 321 claims people have the right to copy DVDs for personal use to make backups in case their DVDs are lost or damaged. The company, which Moore said has sold some 500,000 versions of its software, has said teachers use it to copy portions of a DVD to use in presentations to classes or seminars. Doing so, 321 believes, falls under the "fair use" provisions of U.S. copyright law. The studios and the MPAA claim "fair use" isn't the issue because circumventing copy protection is illegal. "At the end of the day, this is not a lawsuit against consumers or about copyright infringement. It is a lawsuit about a company that traffics in an illegal product," said Russell Frackman, attorney for the MPAA. The studios involved in the 321 suit are various divisions of Sony Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), Walt Disney Co.(NYSE:DIS - news), Vivendi Universal (EAUG.PA), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (NYSE:MGM - news), Pixar Animation Studios Inc. (Nasdaq:PIXR - news) and Saul Zaentz Co. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. VIAb.N, and Twentieth Century Fox is part of the Fox Entertainment Group (NYSE:FOX - news) unit of News Corp. Ltd. (NCP.AX).

Oreo Lawsuit Withdrawn After Wide Publicity

May 16, 1:00 pm ET 

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO  - A lawyer who generated international publicity by seeking to ban Oreo cookies in California said on Thursday he would withdraw his suit, explaining the news coverage had made people aware of the health risks of eating one of America's favorite snacks.

But British-born attorney Stephen Joseph was criticized in legal circles for possibly abusing the U.S. courts system.

Joseph filed a lawsuit against Kraft Foods Inc on May 5, seeking a ban on Oreos, citing a provision of the California civil code that holds manufacturers liable for products if not "known to be unsafe by the ordinary consumer."

He argued the public did not know the cookies, like thousands of consumer products, have trans fat -- hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils -- which health experts say are best avoided.

After media outlets far and wide reported the story, Joseph stood down, saying in a statement; "The factual and legal basis for the lawsuit when it was filed was that the American people did not know about trans fat.

"After three days of incredible national publicity, everyone in America knows about trans fats ... The factual and legal basis for the lawsuit has totally disappeared."

A leading scientist in researching trans fat said the Oreo lawsuit succeeded in getting more publicity than years of serious academic study.

"This suit is sort of the first time there has been ... a tremendous amount of publicity," said Mary Enig, who has warned of the dangers of trans fatty acids for two decades. "It's been difficult to get the message out."

Some experts said that if designed as a publicity stunt, Joseph's action could prompt sanction against him.

"This is not a legitimate use of the courts," said Philip Howard, vice chairman of New York law firm Covington & Burling who advocates major reform of the U.S. lawsuit culture.

"Bringing your claim that has no business in the courts that is really a regulatory or legislative issue is itself inappropriate," he said. "Doing so simply to gain publicity and then withdrawing that claim is probably, or at least arguably, a violation of professional ethics."

John Montgomery, executive officer of the Marin County Superior Court said any slap on the wrist would likely come from the State Bar of California, which keeps its investigations confidential.

Joseph defended his actions. "No money was ever requested in the lawsuit. There is no greed factor," he said.

Who Was Dracula's Mother?

May 16, 10:51 am ET 

By Dina Kyriakidou

SIGHISOARA, Romania  - Who was Count Dracula's "mother?" Are vampires sexy? Was the world's first vampire film in Hungarian?

Academics and amateur vampirologists are sinking their teeth into such burning questions during the third World Dracula Congress taking place in the heart of Transylvania this week.

The participants have flocked to the Carpathian town of Sighisoara to explore the world's fascination with the vampire hero of Bram Stoker's gothic novel which inspired scores of Hollywood films and a cult following.

"In the dark world of the occult there is no more terrifying figure," Alan Murdie, chairman of England's Ghost Club, said.

Murdie, whose presentation was titled "Scared to Death: the Power of Fear to Injure and Kill," said the aristocratic count who took his blood-sucking habits to 19th century London, had a certain sex appeal.

"Two of the most important drives are the sex drive and the fear of death and the vampire is a symbol for both," he said.

The May 15-18 congress is set within the walls of the medieval birthplace of the Romanian hero who is said to have inspired Stoker's fictional Dracula -- 15th century Prince Vlad Tepes the Impaler.

But there are doubts how much Stoker, who never set foot in Transylvania, knew about Tepes, who was notorious for his cruelty, and debate rages at the congress about where the author drew his inspiration from.

At least one speaker claimed to have identified Dracula's "mother": Scottish novelist Emily Gerard, whose 1885 travel book on Transylvania was all Stoker was said to know of the region.

"She is known as the mother of Dracula," Lokke Heiss, a Los Angeles medical doctor and film expert, told The News Source.

Heiss said he had also discovered the world's first vampire film, produced by a Transylvanian-born Hungarian director in 1921, months before "Nosferatu," which was long believed to have launched the Dracula movie genre.

"It doesn't exist anymore but as far as we know it's the first Dracula film," Heiss said.

Amateur occult investigators went head to head at the congress with university-trained folklorists who have tried to trace Dracula's links with other creatures from the dark side, presenting rival presentations and competing on the details of the count's history.

"I guess you can say I've moved from one blood-sucking business to the next," said one much-applauded delegate who is a London-based lawyer.

The Transylvanian Society of Dracula, organizers of the congress first held in 1995, said it was pleased every such meeting brought more clarity to a dark and obscure subject.

"Dracula is uneasy. With every congress we get a bit closer to his lair," said society president Nicolae Paduraru.

Health Effects of Passive Smoking Questioned Fri May 16,10:27 AM ET Add Health 

LONDON  - Researchers reporting in a British medical journal said Friday that passive smoking may not be as harmful as previously thought -- leading critics to question the study's method and ties to the tobacco industry. Inhaling second-hand cigarette smoke has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease, but scientists in New York and California said in a report in the British Medical Journal that the effects may have been overstated. They based their conclusion on analyzing data from a study funded by the tobacco industry. "The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed," said James Enstrom, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the study's lead author. He called the backlash against the findings "discouraging." Some other scientists and the American Cancer Society (news - web sites) disputed the findings, saying the research is flawed and inadequate to measure the impact of passive smoking. "There is overwhelming evidence, built up over decades, that passive smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease, as well as triggering asthma attacks," said Dr. Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association. "In children, passive smoking increases the risk of pneumonia, bronchitis, and reduces lung growth, as well as both causing and worsening asthma," she added in a statement. The American Cancer Society's rebuttal was even stronger. "We are appalled that the tobacco industry has succeeded in giving visibility to a study with so many problems it literally failed to get a government grant," said Dr. Michael Thun, the society's national vice president of epidemiology. The U.S. cancer group said Enstrom's study is based on a small subset of data first collected in 1959, when second-hand smoke was everywhere, and does not distinguish between people who were exposed to smoking and those who were not. Enstrom said his detractors were applying a double standard because several major studies routinely quoted as proving the risks of second-hand smoke also relied on a comparison between smoking and nonsmoking spouses. Enstrom and Geoffrey Kabat, of the State University of New York in Stony Brook, analyzed data from a cancer prevention study of 118,094 California adults from 1959 to 1998, which was funded by the tobacco industry. They focused on more than 35,500 people who had never smoked but who had spouses who did. The researchers found that exposure to passive smoking was not associated with deaths from heart disease or lung cancer. Enstrom said tobacco industry funding was used toward the end of the study. "The industry has a bad reputation. That doesn't mean they can influence anyone," he said. Through the 1970s, secondhand smoke was so pervasive that virtually everyone was exposed, whether or not they were married to a smoker, says the American Cancer Society. Enstrom counters that his study was even more rigorous in keeping track of smoke exposure than major studies routinely quoted as demonstrating the risk of second-hand smoke. "The study included four assessments -- in 1959, 1965, 1972 and 1999 -- over the 39 year follow-up period," he said. "Maybe the feelings about this issue are so strong that no one cares what the evidence shows," the researcher added. 

U.S. Urged to Put Warning Labels on Teflon Pans Thu May 15, 4:17 PM ET Add Science 

By Christopher Doering WASHINGTON  - An environmental group on Thursday asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission (news - web sites) to require that cookware coated with Teflon and similar chemicals carry a label describing potential health risks of the non-stick coating. The Environmental Working Group said in a study released on Thursday that cookware coated with Teflon-like coatings could reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit in 3-5 minutes, releasing 15 toxic gases and chemicals, including two carcinogens. In its study, the advocacy group said that internal documents from DuPont Co., which produces Teflon, show that toxic particles that can kill birds are given off at temperatures as low as 464 degrees. Because of the threat to birds, and possibly humans, each pan should carry a label detailing the potential health risks, the advocacy group said. Studies investigating the long-term impacts on humans have not been conducted. Still, Teflon and other nonstick chemicals can lead to flu-like systems such as fever or shortness of breath, a condition called polymer fume fever. "If Teflon fumes kill birds, what do they do to people?" said Jane Houlihan, a vice president with the Environmental Working Group who said consumers often exceed 500 degrees Fahrenheit when they cook. DuPont has long acknowledged that cookware heated below 500 degrees is harmful to birds, but not humans because the chemical has not yet begun to break apart. A company official said it is not safe to use cookware in temperatures above 500 degrees, and most consumers rarely exceed this level while cooking as the group argued. "We know of no adverse conditions or long-term affects associated with polymer fume fever, and if that were the case, we would have known about it and would have reported it," said Cliff Web, a spokesman for DuPont. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) launched an in-depth study to determine the safety of chemical C8, which is used in hundreds of products including Teflon. Government officials said toxicity concerns have been raised, but there is currently no proof the chemical causes developmental or reproductive harm in humans as the Environmental Working Group and others have argued.

U.S. Forces Feast on Gazelle at Preserve Fri Apr 18, 5:22 AM ET By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, News Source Writer TIKRIT, Iraq - Supper time has become a double treat at a Marine base outside Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s hometown - not only is there fresh meat, but it's from Saddam's personal hunting preserve. The Tikrit South airfield, where Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 set up base in this week's campaign to take the city, is on the edge of a preserve where Saddam and favored guests once hunted gazelle. Now, Marines are venturing into the woods to hunt the animals, which stand about waist-high. They haul back the carcasses as a welcome substitute for the prepackaged Meals Ready to Eat that have been their staple. "It was delicious. I don't know if it's because we've been eating MREs for two months, but everyone's enjoyed it a lot," said Cpl. Joshua Wicksell, 26, of Corpus Christi, Texas. Wicksell's review may be biased - he's the cook, and has been putting his two-year culinary arts degree to good use in an unexpected setting. Each of the squadron's platoons has been limited to killing one gazelle a day to make sure the herd isn't depleted. The soldiers are using 9mm pistols to hunt after initially being forbidden to use firearms for fear that gunshots in the woods might be mistaken for enemy fire. "We hunted them with rocks, as Stone Age as that sounds," Wicksell said. "We gutted them and skinned them and pretty much carried them over our shoulders barbarian-style." The preparation is almost as primitive: a fire pit dug in the ground, covered by a radiator grill from one of the Marines' trucks. Wicksell tenderizes the meat with a fork and rubs in salt, pepper, sugar and seasonings scavenged from MREs. To cut the meat's gaminess, he adds some juice from oranges, which have started coming to the Marines now that supply lines are secure. The mealtime ambiance lacks a lot and the diners' dress is less than chic, but the gazelle gastronomes nonetheless feel a touch of elegance because of the meat's fine quality. "I was worried about tenderizing the meat at first, but the gazelles here had obviously been fed grain and corn," Wicksell said.

Vegans guilty on all counts for malnourishing baby Fri Apr 4, 4:59 PM ET Add Crimes and Trials - Court TV 

By Harriet Ryan, Court TV (Court TV) - A jury in Kew Gardens, N.Y. convicted a vegan couple of nearly starving their baby to death with a strict diet that the prosecutor described as "a path to hell." Joseph and Silva Swinton, both 32, were found guilty in Queens Supreme Court of assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. The couple fed their toddler daughter, Ice, a homemade soy bean and herb infant formula that left the little girl with the appearance of a Third World famine victim and the developmental abilities of a newborn. At 15 months, Ice had no teeth and could not sit up, crawl or walk. The Swintons will face up to 25 years in prison when sentenced at a later date by Judge Richard Buchter. With their verdict, which came after two days of deliberations, the jury rejected arguments of the Swintons' attorneys, who said the couple wanted only the best for their baby and did not realize the harm the diet was causing her. The felony assault and reckless endangerment convictions indicate the panel found the couple acted with "depraved indifference," or recklessness "so wanton" that it is equivalent to purposefully starving Ice. If the jury had found the Swintons simply reckless, they could have convicted them on misdemeanor charges that carry no mandatory jail time. Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum said the pair treated their daughter "like a gerbil" and called the diet "a grotesque science project." He argued that the couple were well aware that their daughter was sick and showed "willfull blindness" to the problems. "A 15-month-old child who cannot walk, cannot stand and cannot crawl &mdash; that tells you that something is very, very wrong," Rosenbaum told the jury during closing arguments. All the panelists had experience caring for small children. None are vegetarians. The girl, who will celebrate her third birthday in July, and her baby brother, Ini, born after the Swintons' arrests, now live with relatives of the couple. (Court papers spell the girl's name Ice, although the parents have spelled it Iice.) The testimony of Silva Swinton was the three-week trial's dramatic highpoint and may have ultimately proved harmful to her defense. She told jurors that Ice "was thriving" on the vegan diet and suggested that it was hospitalizations and medical care ordered by social services that had made her daughter sick.

Man will become ex-wife's stepfather when he marries her mother A man who ended his marriage after just 10 days will become his ex-wife's stepfather when he marries her mother. George Greenhowe, 22, will marry Pat Smith, 44, in Arbroath, and his ex-wife Allison has agreed to act as bridesmaid. The wedding will take place in the town's Register Office - the same venue for the wedding of Allison, 19, and George last year. Until recently, the three lived under the same roof in Wardykes, Arbroath, says the Daily Record. Allison only moved back in with her father, Allan, because there was no room in the council house she shared with her mum, ex-husband and pets, including an alsatian, five pups, two cats, a hamster and a parrot. Pat says Allison has forgiven her for taking her husband. "Allison told us she hopes we are happy and she even calls my future husband her stepdad." But Patricia Williamson, Pat's elderly mother, has disowned her daughter. She said: "I have completely washed my hands of my daughter. It is news to me that they are getting married. I certainly won't be going to the service and I don't know anyone from the family who will be attending."

Nine day computer game exhausts boy A 14-year-old Romanian boy has suffered a breakdown after reportedly playing a computer game for nine days and nights in a row. Michel Savin collapsed in an internet cafe and was taken to hospital where doctors said he was physically and mentally exhausted. His mother said he had become so addicted to playing Counter Strike that he had lost weight, missed classes and stopped washing. Magda Savin, from Iasi, says she intends to ask the authorities to ban youngsters from internet cafes after 10pm. Mrs Savin told National newspaper: "My son spends his nights and days in front of the computer playing this game. "He missed hundreds of classes, he lies, steals things from the house to sell them and get money for the internet. He didn't wash for days and lost about 18lbs."

Delta to Test New Airport Security Plan 2 hours, 42 minutes ago 

By LESLIE MILLER, News Source Writer WASHINGTON - Delta Air Lines will begin testing a new government plan for air security next month that will check background information and assign a threat level to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight. The system, ordered by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, will gather much more information on passengers than has been done previously. Delta will try it out at three undisclosed airports, and a comprehensive system could be in place by the end of the year. Transportation officials say a contractor will be picked soon to build the nationwide computer system, which will check such things as credit reports and bank account activity and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists. Civil liberties groups and activists are objecting to the plan, seeing the potential for unconstitutional invasions of privacy and for database mix-ups that could lead to innocent people being branded security risks. "This system threatens to create a permanent blacklisted underclass of Americans who cannot travel freely," said Katie Corrigan, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites). There also is concern that the government is developing the system without revealing how information will be gathered and how long it will be kept. Advocates say the system will weed out dangerous people while ensuring law-abiding citizens aren't given unnecessary scrutiny. Transportation officials say CAPPS II - Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System - will use databases that already operate in line with privacy laws and won't profile based on race, religion or ethnicity. "What it does is have very fast access to existing databases so we can quickly validate the person's identity," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta (news - web sites) said. An oversight panel, which will include a member of the public, is being formed. The Transportation Security Administration will set up procedures to resolve complaints by people who say they don't belong on the watch lists. Transportation Department spokesman Chet Lunner said a Federal Register notice saying the background information will be stored for 50 years is inaccurate. He said such information will be held only for people deemed security risks. Jay Stanley, an ACLU spokesman, was skeptical. "When it says in print, 50 years, we'd like to see something else in print to counter that," he said. Airlines already do rudimentary checks of passenger information, such as method of payment, address and date the ticket was reserved. The system was developed by Northwest Airlines in the early 1990s to spot possible hijackers. Unusual behavior, such as purchasing a one-way ticket with cash, is supposed to prompt increased scrutiny at the airport. Capt. Steve Luckey, an airline pilot who helped develop the system, said CAPPS II will help discern a passenger's possible intentions before he gets on a plane. Unlike the current system, in which data stays with the airlines' reservation systems, the new setup will be managed by TSA. Only government officials with proper security clearance will be able to use it. CAPPS II will collect data and rate each passenger's risk potential according to a three-color system: green, yellow, red. When travelers check in, their names will be punched into the system and their boarding passes encrypted with the ranking. TSA screeners will check the passes at checkpoints. The vast majority of passengers will be rated green and won't be subjected to anything more than normal checks, while yellow will get extra screening and red won't fly. Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, which advocates airline safety and security, is skeptical the system will work. "The whole track record of profiling is a very poor to mixed one," Hudson said, noting incorrect profiles of the Unabomber and the Washington-area snipers. Nine to 11 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were flagged by the original CAPPS, but weren't searched because the system gave a pass to passengers who didn't check their bags, Hudson said. People without checked bags are now included.

PETA Wants Beer As Wis. State Beverage Wed Feb 26, 9:49 AM ET Add Strange News - 

MADISON, Wis. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Gov. Jim Doyle to change Wisconsin's official beverage from milk to beer, saying milk is harmful to humans and is meant for calves. PETA said in a letter to Doyle Tuesday that beer is healthier than cow's milk, which the group argued could cause heart disease, cancer, allergies, diabetes and obesity. Milk consumption causes dairy cows stress because they are kept in a constant state of impregnation, the letter said. Cows also suffer because their calves are "ripped" away from them so humans can have the milk meant for the calves, PETA said. PETA first came up with the beer-for-milk national campaign two years ago, but it was retired after being criticized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other groups. The animal rights group renewed the campaign last spring. Doyle spokeswoman Jessica Erickson said Tuesday she had not seen the letter. 

Mystery Bug Spreading Throughout U.S. 23-Mar-2003 Twenty-two people in states from New York City to California have symptoms similar to those of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the mysterious disease that's striking people worldwide. Health department officials believe they got their infections abroad, since most of them recently returned from trips to Hong Kong or southern China, where the disease started. SARS has made hundreds of people ill, around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting other possible cases in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. Dr. Duc Vugia, of the California Health Department, says, "These numbers change all the time. It's a very fluid situation." Hong Kong has started shutting down schools so they can be disinfected. "Now that the virus is in schools, this may just explode. Schools are so congested and children don't know how to take precautions. If they even suspect an infection, they must close the schools," says mother Olivia Lo. Hong Kong's health chief Yeoh Eng-Kiong says the infected children have family members working in hospitals. Doctors in Hong Kong may have identified a drug that can beat SARS, which is caused by virus from the paramyxoviridae family, which also causes measles and mumps. The anti-viral drug ribavirin has helped the most seriously-affected patients.

Tracking our Every Move 23-Mar-2003 A new tracking system called Auto-ID uses highly miniaturized computers to track products, even when they're being used and worn. Every physical item, from a can of Coke to clothes to toothpaste, will have its own unique information in the form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out a signal that allows it to communicate with reader devices. Auto-ID will eventually replace bar codes, because it not only identifies the kind of object-it identifies each object separately. You and your friend may have bought the same sweater at the same store, but you'll each be wearing a different Auto-ID. This number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag (RFID) in or on the product. These tiny tags will cost less than 1 cent each and are "somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." The Auto-ID will not only be read when you purchase a product. It will also be read in airports, seaports, highways, distribution centers, warehouses and retail stores. Companies will be able to find out where their products are at all times. One Auto-ID official says, "Theft will be drastically reduced because items will report when they are stolen, their smart tags also serving as a homing device toward their exact location." The European Central Bank will embed these tags in the fibers of Euro bank notes by 2005, so they can trace where each one has been, meaning that the anonymity of using cash will be eliminated. Health surveillance is another way Auto-ID can be sued. Prescription bottles be tagged with devices that allow doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with prescriptions. If the pill bottle is given to another person, who does not have a prescription for the medication, it can be traced. One of the first clothing manufacturers to embed microchip transmitters in its clothes is Benetton, which is surprising considering its left wing advertising. The Italian retailer will be able to track its garments from their point of manufacture to the moment they're sold in any of its 5,000 shops worldwide. Other manufacturers, including luxury retailer Prada, plan to use the inventory tags. Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and British retailer Tesco are researching the smart tags for restocking, anti-theft and anti-counterfeit purposes. An Auto-ID tag could be programmed to store information about the person who bought a garment, allowing salespeople to make suggestions to the shopper the next time he or she enters the store. These "spy clothes" make Wayne Madsen, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, nervous. He says, "There really needs to be legislation if companies are doing this. They say it's for internal use. But what would prevent them from sharing it with third parties, with the government or criminal investigators?" The Bush administration is planning to require Internet service providers to be part of a centralized system that will allow broad monitoring of the Internet and surveillance of all its users. The proposal is part of a report called "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace." Besides intercepting terrorist communications, the monitoring system would attempt to prevent the infiltration of new computer viruses. A central monitoring system would be a technical challenge because the internet has thousands of independent service providers, from tiny operations to giant corporations like AOL. Stewart Baker, a lawyer who represents several large internet providers, says, "Internet service providers are concerned about the privacy implications of this as well as liability," since providing access to live feeds could be interpreted as an illegal wiretap. Tiffany Olson, of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, says the proposal does not necessarily require monitoring at an individual user level. "We don't have anybody that is able to look at the entire picture," she says. "When something is happening, we don't know it's happening until it's too late." An early draft of the proposal suggested the monitoring would be controlled by private industry, but the new proposal wants the government to be in control. An official of a major data services company says monitoring capabilities can't be provided to the government without real-time monitoring of individuals, and compares the new proposal to Carnivore, the internet wiretap system set up by the FBI. He says, "Part of monitoring the internet and doing real-time analysis is to be able to track incidents while they are occurring...Am I analogizing this to Carnivore? Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10 times worse. Carnivore was working on much smaller feeds and could not scale. This is looking at the whole internet."

The Mythology of Saturn

Saturn, the sixth planet away from the Sun is the second largest planet in the Solar System at 74,600 miles in diameter (120,000 kilometers). It takes 29 ? years to orbit the Sun. Saturn has 12 moons, the largest of which is Titan. It is encircled by rings which are actually particles of ice and rock. 

In Babylon he was called Ninib and was an agricultural deity. Saturn, called Cronus by the Greeks, was, at the dawn of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Rhea, (called Ops by the Romans) was a Harvest Helper. Cronus was one of the the Seven Titans or Numina and with them, reigned supreme in the Universe. The Titans were of incredible size and strength and held power for untold ages, until they were deposed by Zeus. 

The first inhabitants of the world were the children of Gaia (Mother Earth) and Ouranos (Father Sky). These creatures were very large and manlike, but without human qualities. They were the qualities of Earthquake, Hurricane and Volcano living in a world where there was yet no life. There were only the irresistible forces of nature creating mountains and seas. They were unlike any life form known to man. 

Three of these creatures were monstrously huge with one hundred hands and fifty heads. Three others were individually called Cyclops, because each had only one enormous eye in the middle of their foreheads. Then, there were the Titans, seven of them, formidably large and none of whom were purely destructive. One was actually credited with saving man after creation. 

Ouranos hated the children with the fifty heads. As each were born he placed them under the earth. Gaia was enraged by the treatment of her children by their father and begged the Cyclopes and the Titans to help her put an end to the cruel treatment. Only the Titan, Cronus, responded. Cronus lay in wait for his father and castrated him with his sickle.  From Ouranos's blood sprang the Giants, a fourth race of monsters, and the Erinyes (the Furies), whose purpose was to punish sinners. They were referred to as "those who walk in darkness" and were believed to have writhing snakes for hair and eyes that cried blood. Though eventually all the monsters were driven from Earth, the Erinyes are to remain until the world is free of sin. 

With the deposing of his father, Cronus/Saturn became the ruler of the Universe for untold ages and he reigned with his sister, Rhea/Ops, who also became his wife. 

It was prophesied that one day Cronus would lose power when one of his children would depose him. To prevent this from happening, each time Rhea delivered a child Cronus would immediately swallow them. When her sixth child,  Zeus, was born, Rhea had him spirited away to the island of Crete. She then wrapped a stone in his swaddling clothes.  Her deception was complete when Cronus swallowed it, thinking it was the child. When Zeus was grown, he secured the job of cup-bearer to his father. With the help of Gaia, his grandmother, Zeus fed his father a potion that caused him to vomit up Zeus's five siblings, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. 

A devastating war that nearly destroyed the Universe ensued between Cronus and his five brothers and Zeus and his five brothers and sisters. Zeus persuaded the fifty headed monsters to fight with him which enabled him to make use of their weapons of thunder, lightning and earthquake. He also convinced the Titan, Prometheus, who was incredibly wise, to join his side. With his forces, Zeus was victorious and the Olympians reigned supreme. Cronus and his brothers were imprisoned in the Tartarus, a dark gloomy region at the end of the Earth. 

In Roman mythology when Jupiter (Zeus) ascended the throne, Saturn (Cronus) fled to Rome and established the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and harmony, which lasted as long as he reigned. In memory of the Golden Age,  the Feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter at the Winter Solstice. During this time no war could be declared, slaves and masters ate at the same table, executions were postponed and it was a season for giving gifts. This was a time of total abandon and merry making. It refreshed the idea of equality, of a time when all men were on the same level. Christians adopted the feast and renamed it Christmas. When the festival ended, the tax collectors appeared and all money owed out to government, landlords, or debtors had to be accounted for. This is another side to Saturn and it's ruling sign, Capricorn: the settling of accounts. 

Hesiod wrote of the five ages of mankind: Gold, Silver, two ages of Bronze and an age of Iron. The Age of Gold was the purest age, when no labor was required and weather was always pleasant. It was virtually a place of pleasant surroundings and of abundance. Death was not an unpleasant eventuality and people occupied their time in pleasant pursuits. Cronus ruled over this Golden Age. 

Medieval and Renaissance scholars associated Saturn with one of the four humors of ancient medicine, melancholy.  Physicians, scholars, philosophers and scientists, which includes writers and musicians, seem to have a strong Saturn placement which tends to lean such natives toward melancholy. The bright side is that Saturn can impart serenity and wisdom. And the wisdom of Saturn is the wisdom of the Earth itself. 

Astrological Saturn has always been associated with the letter of the law and Gnostics and Kabbalists have identified Saturn with the god of Early Scripture, whom they regarded as a tyrannical father, obsessed with rigid enforcement of the law. There is a symbolic link between Saturn and the God of Early Scripture through the use of Saturday.  Saturn's Day, the seventh day of Scripture, the holy day of rest. 

There is a symbolic connection between the Trinity of the New Testament and Ouranos (Uranus) Saturn (Cronus) and Jupiter (Zeus). Ouranos, the first father figure, was the Greek version of Varuna, the Vedic creator god. Then Saturn castrated Ouranos, ending his generative power. Finally, came Jupiter, who, like a Jesus figure, was perceived as a savior, so that future generations would not be tyrannized by an obsessed deity. 

Saturn is the most complex sign in the zodiac. Most of the other planets reveal their negative or problematic side when combined with Saturn yet, when Saturn is in a beneficent position, it's rewards are more substantial than those of any other planet. 

Saturn has a somewhat polarized role against Jupiter in astrology. Saturn gets the blame for all the things sad,  unfortunate, and terrible while Jupiter gets the credit for all things positive, good and however, as in real life, this unfair and untrue. 

Saturn often stands for the father in the natal chart, as does the however, with Saturn it usually indicates problems with the father. Saturn indicates a tyrannical, domineering parent who seeks to mold his children in his own image and force them to live by his standards. Children often become "swallowed up" by such domination. Cronus became domineering and swallowed up his children in a need to control Fate. It was the fathering style he was taught, which modern day psychologists tell us is what happens in dysfunctional families. We learn how to parent from our parents.  Zeus broke the pattern, which is the example which we ideally seek in dysfunctional parenting. To break the pattern,  one must learn to develop the positive side of Saturn. Mastering Saturn as the inner teacher is a difficult task as it forces one to deal with the problematic side of Saturn as well. 

Saturn is esoterically linked to Karma. Saturn intensifies feelings of isolation, sadness, depression, etc. Cronus spent the last of his life as a prisoner of Tartarus, a dark, gloomy place that can be described as a pit of blackness. Depression is often a pit of darkness to those who suffer from it. Saturn, badly aspected, gives us this feeling. But once the dark side of Saturn is recognized, his bright side can be brought into view and enhanced. Sadly, Saturn has been regarded only as miserable and attributed to despair and darkness, lending to the thought that there is no way to escape it's confines.  Feelings of shame, fear, guilt and humiliation shackle us and keep us confined to the pit of darkness. The way to get out of the pit is to stop placing blame on others and take personal responsibility for our situation in life. 

Saturn, therefore, represents our limitations in power and control {by his rulership and its coming to an end), in confinement or isolation (by his banishment to Tartarus) and capacity (as Saturn's placement as a planet, which until modern times was the boundary of our Solar System). Taking all this into consideration, it is no wonder we face difficulty when attempting to transform Saturn from a controlling force to a teaching force because we encounter all our limitations in every aspect of our lives. 

Saturn's connection with agriculture suggests the nature of time. Seeds must be sown at their proper times and harvest can only occur when their time of fruition has occurred. Chronos is derived from the Greek word Cronus meaning "time". Cronus/Saturn represents limitations. He is the symbol for Father Time, for he brought all things to an end that have a beginning. Saturn's domain is patience, stability, maturity and realism. Saturn effects us bydelaying rewards until they are earned. 

The Golden Years is a term we use to describe the retirement years and Saturn rules old age. Those who have learned the lessons of Saturn; perseverance, confrontation of limitations, tyrannies, and inner darkness; who learn to accept the world around them with tolerance of others and self-acceptance, age with dignity and acquire wisdom. 

Saturn represents our limitations, our restrictions,yet it is also our inner mentor and teacher. His lessons are manifested only over time, after which we go through inner rebirth and enjoy spiritual growth. The times these life changing events can occur are usually when Saturn returns and testing takes place within different disciplines. Saturn returns every 29 ? years with appearances at age 29, when we face the discipline of maturity; at 58, when we face the discipline of acceptance and wisdom; and at 87, few people make it to the third return. However, coming in right behind a Uranus return, it is without a doubt, a profound event. 

Sources: 

Mythology: Edith Hamilton 

The Only Astrology Book You Will Ever Need: Joanna Martine Woolfolk 

Mythic Astrology: Archetypal Powers In The Horoscope: Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson. 

Parker's Astrology: Julia and Derek Parker

Dog Lovers Decide if Bark Worth the Bite

Mar 22, 4:16 pm ET 

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA  - If you're wondering why your pooch howls at the moon, growls at the mailman or barks uncontrollably at squirrels, the answer may be only a click  away.

A Japanese toy maker claims to have developed a gadget that translates dog barks into human language and plans to begin selling the product -- under the name Bowlingual -- in U.S. pet stores, gift shops and retail outlets this summer.

Tokyo-based Takara Co. Ltd. (7969.T) says about 300,000 of the dog translator devices have been sold since its launch in Japan late last year. It is forecasting far bigger sales once an English-language version comes to America in August.

The United States is home to about 67 million dogs, more than six times the number in Japan.

"We know that the Americans love their dogs so much, so we don't think they will mind spending $120 on this product," Masahiko Kajita, a Takara marketing manager, said during an interview at a recent pet products convention in Atlanta.

"YOU'RE TICKING ME OFF"

Cited as one of the coolest inventions of 2002 by Time magazine, Bowlingual consists of a 3-inch long wireless microphone that attaches to a dog collar and transmits sounds to a palm-sized console that is linked to a database.

The console classifies each woof, yip or whine into six emotional categories -- happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, assertion and desire -- and displays common phrases, such as "You're ticking me off," that fit the dog's emotional state.

Takara says it has spent hundreds of millions of yen developing the device in cooperation with acoustics experts and animal behaviorists and hopes to sell 1 million units in the United States in the first eight months after its launch.

It is undeterred by those who scoff at the idea of paying $120 to read a dog's mind. "Of course people are always really skeptical at first, but once they see a demo they are amazed and impressed," Takara spokesman Kennedy Gitchel says.

GLOBAL TENSIONS MAY BOOST SALES

It is no secret that the product is being launched at a time of solid growth in the $30-billion U.S. pet products market, often considered to be one of the best examples of a recession-proof industry.

Sales in this niche sector have been buoyed in recent years by a steady rise in pet ownership, which has fueled demand for basic pet necessities as well as high-end items such as air-conditioned dog houses and rhinestone ferret collars.

The increasing importance of the industry was highlighted by the nation's reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Many Americans found consolation in the familiar routines of their pets and were willing to pay to pamper their furry friends.

That trend continued in the months afterward as U.S. authorities tightened security across the nation and moved closer to considering a military attack on Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein, industry insiders say.

"As fear, tension and insecurity continue to rise in the nation, people are turning to their pets for comfort," says Robert Vetere, executive vice president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group. "They don't mind spending more on them."

Whether the same will hold true when Bowlingual hits the U.S. market is anybody's guess.

Sharper Image Corp. (SHRP.O) and Petsmart Inc. (PETM.O), the No. 1 U.S. pet products company, are among the retailers that have expressed an interest in carrying the product, but so far no deals have been reached, according to Takara.

One thing that does appear certain is that the market for animal translation products will likely remain a dog's world since Takara has no plans to develop a similar device for cats.

"They are too unpredictable," Kajita said.

Happy Space Alien Day!

Mar 11, 9:40 am ET 

SANTA FE, N.M.  - E.T.: Phone New Mexico. They may have a little something special for you.

A New Mexico legislator proposed on Monday having the state honor all extraterrestrial beings with a special day that will "celebrate and honor all past, present and future extraterrestrial visitors" to New Mexico, the measure reads.

Rep. Dan Foley, a Republican from Roswell, the spot where some say aliens crash-landed more than 50 years ago, said he introduced the legislation to "enhance relationships among all the citizens of the cosmos, known and unknown."

Extraterrestrial Culture Day would be held the second Thursday of February and would honor space travelers from other worlds and even give a nod to creatures made famous in movies, such as E.T. in Steven Spielberg's 1982 blockbuster film.

In July of each year, thousands of earthly visitors descend on Roswell, the self-appointed alien capital of the world, where many UFO buffs believe an alien craft crash-landed in 1947, based on claims that alien bodies were discovered there.

The town's population of 45,000 doubles and even triples during the week long festival that includes speakers on extraterrestrial life, UFOs and other anomalies such as crop circles.

Foley feels the same excitement -- and economic benefit-- can be spread to the rest of the state by adding a state-sanctioned day of alien celebration.

"If we can capitalize on something that did or did not happen in 1947 then it can help the entire state," Foley said. 

Icy Weather Freezes Surface of Three Great Lakes

Mar 12, 7:51 am ET 

By Rajiv Sekhri

TORONTO  - Three of North America's Great Lakes -- Lake Huron, Lake Superior and Lake Erie -- have frozen over for the first time in nearly a decade after icy weather lasting more than a month, experts at Environment Canada said on Tuesday.

A month of temperatures below minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) has caused an ice blanket averaging as much as 60 cm (24 inches) on the lakes, creating problems for shipping companies and ferries.

"The large lakes freeze once every decade," said John Falkingham, chief of forecast operations, at the Canadian Ice Service, which is part of Environment Canada. "A sustained long, cold spell causes such an extensive ice cover."

The three lakes are part of the five Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario, which constitute the largest fresh water system in the world and represent 18 percent of global fresh water supply and 95 percent of the U.S. supply, according to the Great Lakes Information Web site (www.great-lakes.net).

Lake Superior, the largest of the five, is more than 82,000 square kilometers (32,000 square miles) -- or almost the size of Austria.

Canadian Ice Service said satellite images showed that Superior and Huron froze over for the first time this year on Feb. 27, after record low temperatures, without a hint of the warming trend that is normal for this time of year.

That frigid weather continued into March. Last week, the temperature fell below minus 25 Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) in southern Ontario, the coldest for March in a century, according to Environment Canada.

The cold weather has affected the St. Lawrence Seaway, which will now open on March 31, almost a week behind schedule, said Ivan Lantz, director of marine operations for the Shipping Federation of Canada, an organization of shipowners and agents involved in the overseas trade.

"My estimate is that before the 15th of April, shipping is going to be very difficult," Lantz said.

On Canada's east coast, ferry service between Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, has also experienced difficulty because of ice. A ferry spent part of Sunday caught in ice and had to be helped by an icebreaker.

Falkingham said the ice is expected to thaw by the end of April. See Pic.

WASHINGTON, DC-At a Pentagon press conference Monday, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld touted the military's upcoming Gulf War II: The Vengeance as "even
better than the original."
"If you thought the first one was good, just wait until you see the sequel," Rumsfeld
said of Gulf War II, scheduled to hit Iraqi theaters of operation March 22. "In the
original, as you no doubt know, we defeat Saddam Hussein, only to let him slip away
at the very end. This time, we're going back in to take out the trash."
Rumsfeld said the soon-to-be-unleashed war will feature special effects beyond
anything seen in the original.
"Gulf War I was done 11 years ago, and war-making technology has advanced
tremendously since then," Rumsfeld said. "From the guns to the planes to the
missile-guidance systems, what you'll see in this one puts the original Gulf War to
shame."
"The budget for Gulf War II: The Vengeance is somewhere in the neighborhood of
$85 billion," Rumsfeld continued. "And every penny of it is up there on your screen."
Waged in 1991 at a cost of $61 billion, the first Gulf War was a major hit, making
household names out of stars Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Wolf Blitzer.
Asked who would star in the sequel, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, was coy.
"I don't want to give away too much, but let's just say you're likely to see a few
familiar faces pop up," Myers said. "I will say that the son of one of the key
characters in the first one, back then just a boy, is now all grown up and ready to
take his rightful place at the head of the alliance."
Myers did confirm that the plot revolves around the Rebel forces' efforts to capture
arch-nemesis Hussein, whom they believe is building a weapon of mass destruction
somewhere deep within the mysterious and forbidding No-Fly Zone.
"Obviously, Saddam will be back," Myers said. "He's the perfect villain: ruthless,
efficient, and sinister. It would be an affront to all the fans not to include him. Beyond
that, what's going to happen is anybody's guess. One thing, though, is guaranteed:
We're going to have more action, more danger, and definitely more kill power than
the first time around."
"We've already started preliminary shooting," Myers said, "and so far, what we've
got is unbelievable."
In addition to a major PR push, Gulf War II will be accompanied by a major
merchandising campaign. Pentagon has secured the commitment of Topps for a
series of cards supporting the effort. It has also brokered a first-look deal with CNN,
guaranteeing the network full access to the front lines, as well as first crack at
interviewing the men and women behind the scenes. The Pentagon has also signed
Dan Rather to a two-cry deal.
In the 11 years since the original Gulf War, few conflicts have come close to matching
the level of support and press attention generated by that operation.
"We were disappointed by our numbers in Bosnia," Rumsfeld said. "That particular
conflict played primarily to an art-house crowd. Your mainstream audiences didn't
connect with the complexities of the centuries-old ethnic clash you had going there.
But this time, we feel we've got something very accessible that will play in Peoria. I
mean, how can you go wrong with an 'Axis of Evil'?"
Gulf War II...has screened for select audiences in Los Angeles. Ain't It Cool News, the
popular website run by Harry Knowles, recently leaked an advance review of the
conflict.
"The battle sequences are even better than Black Hawk Down," Knowles wrote. "And
Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, while only given a little action, exudes a Tarantino cool."
Pentagon officials, meanwhile, are already thinking about a third installment.
"There's no reason this Iraq thing can't be a franchise for us like those wars with
Germany or the Communists used to be," Rumsfeld said. "The public loves it, the
soldiers love it, the media love it. And even if the U.S. wins at the end of the second
one, there are still plenty of possibilities for a third: Saddam could be destroyed, only
to be replaced by an even greater evil. Then, of course, there's the prequel set in the
Stone Age, the era we bomb Iraq back to at the end of the third one. As far as we're
concerned, this thing is just getting started."

U.S. May Use 'E-Bomb' During Iraq War Wed Mar 19, 4:21 PM ET By MATT CRENSON, News Source National Writer U.S. forces may use a new "e-bomb" during the expected invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) as part of a 21st century blitzkrieg designed to render Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s forces blind, deaf, dumb and incapable of retaliation. The highly classified bomb creates a brief pulse of microwaves powerful enough to fry computers, blind radar, silence radios, trigger crippling power outages and disable the electronic ignitions in vehicles and aircraft. "They would be useful against any adversary that is dependent on electronic systems," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think-tank based in Arlington, Va. In modern warfare, electronics undergird virtually every weapon more sophisticated than a rifle or hand grenade. For that reason, Air Force scientists have worked for decades on a practical way of producing powerful but brief pulses of microwaves that can incapacitate electronic equipment without damaging buildings or harming people. Officially, the Pentagon (news - web sites) does not acknowledge the weapon's existence. Asked about it at a March 5 Pentagon news conference, Gen. Tommy Franks said: "I can't talk to you about that because I don't know anything about it." However, military analysts say a number of unclassified documents suggest such a device is ready for the battlefield. "There's been a lot of discussion behind closed doors in the Pentagon and in the trade press that these things are now being tested," Thompson said. According to a 2000 report by Air Force Col. Elaine M. Walling, scientists at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico have created microwave sources that generate up to 10 times the amount of energy that Hoover Dam produces in a day. Such powerful pulses can incapacitate electronic equipment without damaging buildings or harming people, making them an attractive weapon whenever civilian casualties are a concern. In laboratory tests, microwave pulses can melt silicon chips, pushing their circuits far beyond their capacity to conduct electricity. But on the battlefield, even the most impressive e-bomb's effects rapidly diminish with distance. Although e-bombs' capabilities are classified, military analysts believe their range is a few hundred yards at most. That relatively short range decreases the odds that hospitals, orphanages and other civilian infrastructure will be affected, unless they are directly adjacent to or networked with military targets. "I think it is almost always more humane to use this compared to a conventional weapon," Thompson said. The bombs' effects are also hard to predict, analysts say. The surge of electricity produced by a microwave pulse could go directly to the nearest bank of military supercomputers, or it could just as easily be shunted harmlessly into the ground. "The effects are hard to focus. The moment the energy is absorbed into wiring or other electrically conductive material you don't know where it's going to go," Thompson said. Those uncertainties and others may prevent e-bombs from playing a major role in the anticipated U.S. offensive against Iraq, said Lt. Col. Piers Wood, a military analyst at the defense policy think-tank globalsecurity.org. "There will be a few commanders who will see these and get to try them out," Wood said. "We're not talking about arsenals of these things." Defense experts are particularly eager to see if e-bombs can reach into deep underground bunkers that could otherwise be neutralized only by tactical nuclear weapons. By shutting off the electricity, a microwave weapon could render a bunker uninhabitable by disabling lighting, security systems, ventilation and computers. Eventually, Wood said, other nations may acquire high power microwave weapons; American forces, which depend so heavily on technology, would be particularly vulnerable to them. He predicted that soon all military electronics will have to be protected from high power microwaves by metal casings, with sophisticated circuit breakers connected to any incoming wires. 

Beef vs. Bagels: U.S. Food Firms Take on Dr. Atkins

Mar 18, 8:47 am ET 

By Carey Gillam

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas  - It has been months since Tina Moore last bit into a bagel or a slice of toast.

"Protein is good. Carbs are bad," says 41-year-old Moore, who altered her diet five years ago in a bid to lose weight.

Moore, the owner of a hair salon, is one of an estimated 15 million-plus Americans seen as devoted followers of dieting guru Dr. Robert Atkins, who recommends eating a diet high in protein for those who want to lose weight and keep it off.

"Carbs and sugar...they give you a quick high, then you get really low. You get tired and hungry," said Moore, who sees herself as a reformed "carbohydrate addict."

The hamburger patty is good, the hamburger bun bad, according to the teachings of Atkins, who has turned his philosophies into a dieting revolution, starting with his first book, "Dr Atkins Diet Revolution," in 1972.

Atkins' books -- his latest, "Atkins for Life," was published this year -- routinely top best-seller lists. Atkins companies have racked up millions of dollars in sales of specialty low-carb food products and carb-counting scales. But the popularity of Atkins's eating advice, now appealing to another generation, is fraying the nerves of some food companies who rely on the consumer appetite for carbohydrate-laden foods such as pastas and pizzas, cakes, cookies and cereals, to add heft to their own bottom lines. They claim Atkins is falsely disparaging food groups that serve as a foundation for American eating. And that by teaching people to limit severely the use of flour-based products, Atkins is eating into sales of some bread and cereal products in the United States.

"Our industry has to do something, and soon. It is starting to become a mainstream belief that carbohydrates are bad," said Judi Adams, director of the Wheat Foods Council, a consortium of industry players.

"This Atkins diet -- or, I call it Fatkins diet -- is going out unchallenged. People are starting to believe it," Adams said.

Part of the consortium's push will be in Washington, where federal health officials are starting talks on revisions to the nation's 11-year-old Food Guide Pyramid.

Wheat Foods will be actively involved in defending the grains, Adams said.

Currently, the pyramid puts bread, cereals, rice and pasta as the foundation for healthy eating, recommending six to 11 servings a day. But some are pushing for changes that would move grains off the foundation and cut back servings.

SLIM PICKINS

There is limited funding for the anti-Atkins campaign, as most food companies spend their advertising dollars on product specific programs to tout such things as a new breakfast cereal brand.

So, with only a slender budget to try to counter the Atkins phenomenon, the Wheat Foods Council is aiming its "educational" campaign" at nutritionists and the medical community.

The strategy is a direct attack on Atkins: Americans who follow the Atkins diet increase their risk of health problems that include cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, kidney damage and some cancers, the Wheat Foods Council says.

Adding insult to injury, it claims that Atkins followers can also suffer headaches, constipation and bad breath.

The council says obesity is not specifically tied to carbohydrates but is the simple result of lazy overeaters.

"Healthful grain-based foods have become the scapegoat for weight gain, when over eating and under exercising are at issue," said Carol Pratt, a Kellogg nutrition and regulatory affairs expert, and incoming chairwoman for Wheat Foods.

FEWER COOKIES AND CAKES

Consumer eating habits are hard to track, but the latest Consumer Expenditure Survey of the U.S. Department of Labor does indicate a possible shift away from grain-based foods.

According to the government survey, consumer spending in 2001 for ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, pasta, flour, flour mixes and bakery products dropped from the previous year even as consumer spending for meat, poultry, fish and eggs and other similar products increased for the third year in a row.

Moreover, the 0.2 percent decrease in spending came as the consumer price index for those foods grew 2.9 percent. Wheat consumption in the United States dropped four percent from 1997 to 2001, according to industry research.

"I'm very much concerned," said Mark Dirkes, spokesman for Interstate Bakeries, the country's largest wholesale baker and the maker of Wonder Bread. "He (Atkins) has run a very effective campaign. That just can't be good for our industry."

CLEANING OUT THE CABINETS

Atkins calls for the elimination of "white flour-laden junk food" from kitchen cabinets. He says research shows carbohydrates work to slow the body's burning of fat and make people feel hungrier faster.

And after decades of rejecting Atkins's theories, some new scientific research studies, including work by Harvard University, have started lending credence to his ideas.

Colette Heimowitz, director of research at the Atkins Health and Medical Information Services, says over-consumption of bread, cereal and baked products is partly to blame for overweight Americans. Products made with white flour, sugars and hydrogenated oils are the worst.

Still, she says, Atkins is not looking to go to war with the food companies, and that even Atkins die-hards allow for an occasional doughnut or cookie.

"We teach people how to respect it and, on rare occasions, have it in moderation," she said. "We know people can't stay away from it forever."

Study: Spell-Check Can Make Writing Worse Fri Mar 14, 4:42 AM ET Add Strange News - 

By CHARLES SHEEHAN, News Source Writer PITTSBURGH - How might you drag a good writer's work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button. A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software. In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to proofread a one-page business letter - half of them using Microsoft Word with its squiggly red and green lines underlining potential errors. The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads. Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores. Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly. "It's not a software problem, it's a behavior problem," he said. Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not solve all their problems. The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences flagged by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct. For instance, the letter included a passage that said, "Michael Bales would be the best candidate. Bales has proven himself in similar rolls." The software - picking up on the last "s" in "Bales" - suggested changing the verb from "has" to "have," as if it were a plural. Meanwhile, the spell-check ignored "rolls," which should have been "roles." Richard Stern, a computer and electrical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University specializing in speech-recognition technology, said grammar and spelling software will never approach the complexity of the human mind. "Computers can decide the likelihood of correct speech, but it's a percentage game," he said.

French Fry Ban Targets Wrong Country?

Mar 13, 9:40 am ET 

PARIS  - The U.S. Congress picked on the wrong country when it replaced "French fries" with "Freedom fries" on its menus to protest France's opposition to a possible U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to a Belgian fry expert.

Michel Mes, who runs the Web Site www.belgianfries.com, said that fried potatoes were invented in Belgium, not France, and were only referred to as French fries in the United States.

"Of course, in good food tradition, the French claim to be the inventors of our beloved fries," he writes on the Web Site. "Anyway, we modest Belgians don't mind the French claim, because we know that fries are God's gift to our people."

Restaurants in the U.S. House of Representatives replaced the name "French fries" with "Freedom fries" on Tuesday in a small ceremony widely broadcast with bemused commentaries on French television.

The fast food staple -- known simply as chips in Britain -- is considered a national treasure in Belgium, where "pommes frites" are sold on many street corners in shacks known as "fritures" and are generally served with mayonnaise.

Historians are divided on its origin but agree it became a popular dish in both Belgium and France during the 19th century.

According to legend, American soldiers stationed in French-speaking Belgium or France during World War One brought back a taste for fries, which were subsequently associated with Gallic culture in the United States. Mes said this was a myth.

"In fact, the explanation is quite simple. In English, 'to french' means (or at least meant) 'to cut into lengthwise pieces'," he explained. "So logically, French fries is short for 'frenched and fried' potatoes."

Such distinctions may not matter much to members of the U.S. Congress, which has taken no such symbolic step against Belgium.

Belgium has stood up against the United States on several occasions during the crisis over Iraq, joining France and Germany last month in briefly blocking a request to NATO to protect Turkey in the event of war in Iraq.

Man trapped in bathroom by cat A Canadian man had to be rescued by police after his cat went berserk and trapped him in a bathroom. It took two police officers and animal control officer Ron Sabean, to subdue the seven-year-old cat. The pet was snarling and hissing at the bathroom door in the house near Greenwood, Nova Scotia, when Mr Sabean arrived. He said: "I've been in this business going on 24 years and I've never seen a cat focus on a person like that one did." He had been called by police, who were unable to catch the cat on their own. Mr Sabean said the cat has lived indoors all its life and has had no contact with other animals. Although it had previously been good with its owners, it has been known to spit and hiss at strangers. The trapped man suffered scratches in the incident, reports the Canoe website. Story filed: 13:19 Tuesday 11th March 2003

Vatican accused of destroying history to build car park The Vatican has been accused of destroying ancient Roman burial grounds to build a new underground car park for tourists. Tempers frayed between Vatican officials and archaeologists after bulldozers uncovered tombs dating back 2,000 years to the time of Nero. Work was temporarily halted to allow archaeologists to examine the site, but officials insisted that it should carry on as they had a tight schedule and urgently needed the 300 space car park. Among the tombs uncovered was one bearing the name of Nero's secretary and his wife, and apart from Roman graves, early Christian ones dating back to the 4th century AD were also found. A Vatican Museum source said:''This whole area is rich with history and heritage and work should stop so a proper excavation can be carried out. We are talking history here but the public works department are just not interested.'' Bishop Giovanni Danzi, of the Vatican public works department, said:''The car park is vital to the Vatican. It is very difficult to park near here and it really does need to be built. ''Yes, some small items were found, but I don't think they were historically very significant. The whole of Rome is full of ancient history so it's not unusual to uncover items such as this, but as I have said the car park is vital.'' Professor Andrea Carandini, who has led numerous digs in Rome, said:''I think the Vatican should really think whether this car park is absolutely necessary, especially if items of a historically value have been discovered.'' Story filed: 09:09 Wednesday 12th March 2003

Scientists say rare Brazilian monkey 'talks' like humans Scientists say a rare Brazilian monkey has speech patterns that are similar to that of human beings. They say the muriqui, or woolly spider monkey, uses at least 534 different phonetic phrases to communicate. They talk most often after they wake up in the morning and before they go to sleep at night. Scientist Eleonora Cavalcante Alvano said they have recorded 140 hours of the monkeys talking. "There is no simian in the world with a language so close to humans," he told the Pesquisa science magazine. Scientists from Campinas University in Sao Paulo say the species is also unusual because of the way they live. Muriquis live in groups that are led by the best-loved - rather than the strongest - monkey. Ther are among the world's rarest animals with fewer than 1,000 left in the wild. They live in the jungle northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Global Extraterrestrial Hunt to Revisit Old Signals Tue Mar 11, 9:22 AM ET Add Science - Space.com 

By Tariq Malik Staff Writer, SPACE.com Researchers spearheading a worldwide effort to find ET, or anyone else out in space besides us humans, plan to revisit a group of their most likely candidate radio signals using the world's largest radio telescope. The SETI@home program, a distributed computing effort that uses the personal computers of millions of volunteers to examine radio signal data, is planning a stellar countdown to check the extraterrestrial-potential of up to 150 radio signals detected with the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The signal batch is cream of a candidate crop of five billion radio observations pulled from the SETI@home network, which program organizers will recheck to see if they are strong enough to be an extraterrestrial communiqu�, repeating and emanating from portions of sky bearing sun-like stars and planets. "Our chances right now [of finding something] are small," said SETI@home chief scientist Dan Werthimer in a telephone interview. "But you have to plan for success." The Arecibo Observatory will work for three and a half days, starting March 18, to revisit the candidate signals identified by SETI@home users. In addition to onsite analysis, each of the new observations will also be fed into the global program for a more detailed examination, Werthimer said. Launched in May 1999, SETI@home uses the computers of four million astronomy buffs in 226 countries. Together they act as a supercomputer, collectively sifting through the 35 terabytes of raw data collected by the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo dish and reporting the results to the program headquarters at the UC Berkeley. One terabyte is about the equivalent of 231 million pages of typed text, but SETI@home volunteers received a fraction of that - 350 kilobytes - at a time to examine. Volunteers download a screensaver-like program that examines Arecibo radio observations while the computer user is away. Once the analysis is complete, varying from a few hours to a few days depending on the computing power of each machine, the program alerts the user and sends the examined material to SETI@home researchers via the Internet. "It was always the idea to revisit observations once the first analysis was complete," said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, SETI@home's founding and primary sponsor. "The question is, are these signals really good enough? That's still an unknown, and it's what this next phase of the program is going to tell us." SETI@home is a separate extraterrestrial search effort from the SETI Institute, a group that pursues several scientific and education projects aimed at the discovering intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. SPACE.com has a partnership with the SETI Institute.

Man reunited with wallet ten years after it fell down back of sofa A German man has been reunited with his wallet more than ten years after losing it down the back of a sofa. It happened after the new owner of the sofa was looking for something else that he had lost. Instead, he found a wallet containing an ID, a driver's licence and money. Since no member of his family knew the name on the papers, the man contacted local police. He told them he had bought the couch two weeks previously in an internet auction. Before that, it had been standing in the rooms of a Frankfurt insurance assessors' agency. After a number of phone calls, police finally managed to trace the owner of the wallet. He had reported it missing after a visit to the agency in the late 1980s.

Beijing bans car number plates ending in 4 Car number plates ending in four have been banned in Beijing because they are said to be unlucky. The move has been taken because the word for "four" sounds like the word for "dead" in Mandarin. No vehicle registration numbers ending in four will be issued in the Chinese city from now on, says the South China Morning Post quoting the Beijing Times. Beijing is the first Chinese city to introduce such a measure although many buildings have no floors ending in four, so they have no fourth, 14th or 24th floors. Story filed: 12:35 Wednesday 26th March 2003

So Neighbors Don't Get Spooked, CIA Sends Postcards

Mar 11, 12:24 pm ET 

WASHINGTON  - What's that noise?

Hearing unfamiliar sounds in any neighborhood is unsettling, but can be outright spooky if the neighbor happens to be the CIA.

So for three years the spy agency has hand-delivered postcards to homes near the fence that encloses its headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

It gives phone numbers to call if neighbors have questions about activities or odd sounds emanating from the bosky CIA campus.

Like the time a new air conditioning unit was being installed on top of a building and a helicopter delivered it up there. Or during the recent snowstorm the CIA rented snow melters which caused a stir.

"There are lots of houses that are adjacent to our fence line or close to it. Sometimes they see and hear things that gets them nervous," CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said.

"If they see something or hear something which disturbs them, they need to know who to contact," he said.

Harlow said it was standard for government installations to have outreach programs with the community.

The Washington Post, which printed the content of the postcard, said it asked residents to report "anything unusual or suspicious" to CIA's 24-hour Security Operations Center.

The postcard was signed "Marie."

Bad Luck Cited in Australia Rock Samples Sat Mar 8,10:43 AM ET Add Strange News - 

SYDNEY, Australia - Thousands of rock fragments and soil samples taken from the giant Australian monolith Uluru have been returned by tourists who complained the souvenirs brought them bad luck, local media reported Saturday. Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is considered sacred by its Aboriginal owners and its preservation is protected by law. But for years, tourists from around the world have been taking fragments from the rock, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported. Uluru Kata-Tjuta national park manager Brooke Watson said the rock fragments had been returned from places as far away as Germany, France and Spain, as well as within Australia, over the past 15 years. "It's just a weird phenomenon," the newspaper quoted Watson as saying. "Everyone seems to say that they have had bad luck." One of the largest fragments returned was a 7.5 kilogram (16 pound) chunk mailed from Germany last year. Park staff pack the fragments in boxes, "and every now and then we try and return them (to Uluru) so that people's bad luck is dissolved," Watson was quoted as saying. It is illegal to remove anything from the Uluru Kata-Tjuta park, which hosts about 500,000 visitors each year. 

Ancient Batteries Could be Lost in War 27-Feb-2003 Archeologists are worried that the extraordinary ancient relicts of Iraq may be injured or destroyed during the upcoming war. Iraq is supposed to be the site of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel, and its early civilizations invented writing and the wheel. It's also the home of ancient batteries, which are in the museum of Baghdad. German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig found the first battery in 1938. It's a five-inch-long clay jar containing a copper cylinder surrounding an iron rod. The vessel showed signs of corrosion, and tests revealed that vinegar or wine had been used in it. Konig decided it must have been used as a battery. About a dozen of the batteries have been unearthed so far. "The batteries have always attracted interest as curios," says Paul Craddock, of the British Museum. "As far as we know, nobody else has found anything like these." The batteries are dated to around 200 BC, which means they were made by the Parthians, who were skilled warriors but not known for scientific achievements. "Although this collection of objects is usually dated as Parthian, the grounds for this are unclear," says St. John Simpson, who also works at the British Museum. "The pot itself is Sassanian. This discrepancy presumably lies either in a misidentification of the age of the ceramic vessel, or the site at which they were found." The Sassanian period (225-640 AD) marks the end of the ancient and the beginning of the more scientific medieval era. It's known that the batteries work, because Professor Marjorie Senechal has created replicas that conduct an electric current. "I don't think anyone can say for sure what they were used for, but they may have been batteries because they do work," she says. They can produce 0.8 to almost two volts. If the batteries were connected by wires, they could have produced higher voltages. "It's a pity we have not found any wires," says Craddock. "It means our interpretation of them could be completely wrong." Some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics seem to contain images of batteries, and primitive batteries may be lying in museums misidentified, especially if some of the parts are missing. The low voltage put out by these batteries couldn't have driven machines, but they might have been used in medicine. The ancient Greeks wrote about the pain killing effect of electric eels. The Chinese had developed acupuncture by this time, and they still use acupuncture combined with an electric current. This may explain the needle-like objects that have been found with some of the batteries. Other scientists believe the batteries were used for electroplating jewelry or money. Arne Eggebrecht connected many replica batteries together using grape juice as an electrolyte, and deposited a thin layer of silver on another surface. However, no electroplated items dating from that period have been excavated from that part of Iraq. Connected batteries may have been hidden inside a metal statue or idol, so that anyone touching it would get a tiny shock and experience the god's "power." Craddock says, "I have always suspected you would get tricks done in the temple."

Lawyer Arrested While Using Internet 06-Mar-2003 Former Santa Fe public defender Andrew J. O'Connor was handcuffed last Thursday at the St. John's College library and interrogated by Secret Service agents for several hours. He was taken from the school's library about 9 p.m. while he was using a computer. "They Mirandized me, handcuffed me and took me to the police station where two Secret Service agents from Albuquerque interrogated me for hours," O'Connor says. "This whole level-orange (terror alert) thing has them all paranoid, I guess." Bill Scannell agrees-he's boycotting Delta Airlines, which is testing the new CAPS II security system of background checks on all passengers. The FBI and the Secret Service field office in Albuquerque refuse to comment on the O'Connor case, saying it's "classified," and Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen referred all inquiries to the Secret Service. O'Connor says he's being accused of making threatening remarks about President Bush in an Internet chat room, but he denies doing this. He was using the computer to look for a new job and thinks he may not have logged off and a later user may have actually made the threats. But internet chat is fast and loose-who defines what a "threat" is? This is a case that should chill any internet user. O'Connor says, "There is this thing called freedom of speech. I never said anything close to threatening Bush. ... (The government) is just so paranoid right now about anyone who is anti-war, and they just took this way too far." He was a member of a pro-Palestinian group in Boulder, Colo., before moving to Santa Fe last year. Bill Scannell is calling for a boycott on Delta Airlines, which is testing a new Homeland Security plan that will do background checks on all passengers. The CAPPS II Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System will check passengers' credit reports, banking and criminal records, and some will not be allowed to fly. Delta will try out CAPPS II at three undisclosed airports during March, and the program will be used throughout the country, by all airlines, within a year. Scannell says. "CAPPS II treats all Americans who want to board a plane as if they were thugs. It's a horribly misguided attempt to make flying safer. It's ridiculous and horrible, and it has to stop...Every time a credit report is run on you, it hurts your credit rating. Frequent fliers will not only have a nice thick Delta dossier, but a damaged credit history to boot." "CAPPS II threatens our liberty, but its security benefits are far from clear," says ACLU's Barry Steinhardt. "It will leave security screeners at sea in an ocean of private data; some of that data will be fraudulent, and much of it just plain wrong." "This system threatens to create a permanent blacklisted underclass of Americans who cannot travel freely,'' says ACLU's Katie Corrigan. "Anyone could get caught up in this system, with no way to get out." Passenger information will be stored for up to 50 years.

Website Offers Salvation for Busy Vicars

Apr 4, 11:20 am ET 

LONDON  - Busy British vicars have been offered a helping hand with their Sunday services -- a Web Site that provides a selection of ready-to-use sermons.

The site, www.lastminutesermon.com, describes itself as "a fast-response service designed to help busy Christian ministers and teachers with sound, ready-made sermons."

Vicars can browse the site and buy a sermon of their choice for eight pounds ($12.50). Each piece is written to last between 10 and 12 minutes.

"Preachers...are getting busier and busier and busier these days and sermons tend to go down to the bottom of the pile," said Web Site owner Bob Austin, a professional writer and preacher in the Church of England.

"You come to the end of the week and you think 'Good heavens! I've got a sermon to preach on Sunday'," he told BBC Radio on Friday.

Writing on the site, Austin said it was important for all vicars to feel comfortable with their sermons."

"To be honest, how many of us have secretly wished that we could come up with something different to say about Palm Sunday, Easter, Harvest, the Good Samaritan et al this year?" he writes.

Lion Tamer on Run with Lions and Son of Circus Boss

Apr 4, 11:23 am ET 

BERLIN  - A woman lion tamer has run away from a circus in Germany with eight lions, two tigers and the circus director's son, police said on Friday.

The woman, in her late 40s, is believed to have developed a close relationship with the 20-year-old man she was training to become a lion tamer, a police spokesman in the northern German town of Melle said.

The couple eloped with a truck containing the animals and is still on the run since disappearing on Monday night.

"If she can handle lions and tigers she shouldn't have trouble with a 20-year-old man," said Georg Dongowski, spokesman for the Melle police.

The circus director reported the matter to police, saying the theft amounted to a value of around 100,000 euros ($107,300).

Record Industry, Webcasters OK Rates 
Fri Apr 4, 3:14 AM ET

By DAVID HO, News Source Writer 

WASHINGTON - The recording industry and Internet music broadcasters hope a new agreement will prevent a repeat of their recent battle over online music royalties, allowing them to focus instead on providing better music services for consumers. 

The two sides agreed Thursday on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. 

The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates. 

"We are delighted to have reached an agreement that will bring compensation to musicians without a costly arbitration," said Thomas Lee, president of the American Federation of Musicians. "We hope webcasting will bring more music to more fans." 

Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, which represents webcasters, said that by saving his industry millions of dollars in legal fees, the agreement will allow webcasters to focus on providing "high-quality programming that is enjoyed by millions of listeners." 

Internet radio - either simulcasts of traditional over-the-air radio or Internet-only stations streamed over the Internet to computers - is becoming more popular as people get high-speed connections. 

A 1998 law required that organizations broadcasting music and other radio content over the Internet pay fees to record companies to compensate artists and music labels for use of their songs. 

After the two sides were unable agree on rates on their own, the Copyright Office ruled in June that webcasters must pay about 70 cents for every song heard by 1,000 listeners as counted by the webcasters. 

The larger webcasters complained the fees, which they paid retroactively back to 1998, cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars for each year, more than some of them get from advertising or listener contributions. 

The Copyright Office was to begin another arbitration between the parties next month to work out royalty payments for 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved, will make that process unnecessary. 

The agreement proposes a per-song rate similar to that set by the government last year, but allows 4 percent of a webcasters' songs to be free from royalties. The proposal also gives webcasters the option of paying royalties as a percentage of their revenue or at an hourly rate. 

Potter said those choices will allow webcasters to save money by picking the method that works best for them. 

The new proposal does not apply to Internet simulcasts of traditional over-the-air radio or to noncommercial webcasters such as college radio stations. 

Small webcasters - typically operations that are listener-supported and reach, at most, just a few thousand people - had complained the Copyright Office rates would force them out of business. Legislation passed last year allowed them to pay less. 

Those small webcasters can choose to keep paying those rates or follow the new ones.

Is Iraq a Religious War? 03-Apr-2003 It may not be a religious war for most Americans, who tend to identify with their country, rather than their religion, when it comes to war. However, Muslims see themselves much more as a single religious "nation," and thus are more likely to see the Iraq war as an invasion of one religion by another. Since we need to win Iraqi confidence, we should avoid giving this impression. Instead, we're doing the opposite by allowing religious groups to distribute pamphlets with titles like "A Christian's Duty" to U.S. soldiers. Thousands of marines have been given these pamphlets, which have a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House, pledging that the soldier in has been praying for the President. The pledge says, "I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult. May God's peace be your guide." It's produced by a group called In Touch Ministries. While this is a worthy sentiment, the presence of the pamphlets in the war zone present a powerful propaganda opportunity for Moslem fundamentalists, who want to galvanize Arab opinion against the US by characterizing our troops as a Christian invasion force. Arab television has been reminding viewers in the Middle East of the slaughter and the violence that happened during the Middle Ages when the pope sent Christian crusaders to fight against against Islam. Fawaz Gerges , professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern studies, says, "There is a high risk that Iraq will become a symbol of Muslim resistance against American military presence similar to Afghanistan for the Soviets." When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, they set up an atheist Communist state. One thing we've done right is try hard to avoid damagin ancient Muslim religious sites. Many of these sites are mentioned in Jewish and Christian scriptures as well. Troops that invaded from the south crossed the area that has traditionally been considered the site of the Garden of Eden. They passed by Abraham's birthplace of Ur and the heart of ancient Sumer, whose poetry told of a creation and flood like that in the book of Genesis. They avoided the tomb of the founder of Shi'ite Islam and the world's largest Muslim graveyard, as well as ancient Babylon. The most sensitive place to Muslims is the city of Karbala, the site of Shi'ite martyrdom during the fight in 680 about who would rule world Islam. The rivalry was between the prophet Muhammad's family and the caliph in Syria, who was backed by a group of the prophet's followers. At Karbala, the Muslim caliph massacred the prophet's Muslim nephew. Sulayman Nyang, an historian of Islam, says, "That [memory] is one reason the [coalition] forces have apparently bypassed Karbala. You don't want to re-create any mythical revivification of that martyrdom of the past." The Sunni- backed regime of Iraq has persecuted Shi'ites since the founding of Iraq in 1932. We don't want to seem to be supporting Shi'ites or Sunni Muslims-just liberating the citizens of Iraq. After the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632, there was struggle for the leadership of Islam between a council of followers, who gave rise to the caliph, and the blood relatives of the prophet, who backed his son-in-law, Ali. The caliphs won and founded Sunni Islam, to which the vast majority of Muslims worldwide belong. The Sunnis built the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem. When Ali was alive, he lived in what is now Iraq. In 680 his son Husayn went to Damascus, Syria, to claim Muslim leadership. At Karbala, the caliph's forces massacred Husayn's family and displayed his severed head in Damascus. Shi'ite means "followers of Ali." Archeologists want the military to avoid sacred areas as well. "The military have taken some precautions to find out where these sites are and to avoid them as possible," says Jack Meinhardt, of Archaeology Odyssey magazine. "I know they have contacted archaeologists...This is a cradle of civilization and the origin of some of the biblical traditions. The region is one of the world's richest, if not the richest, sites of archeological remains."

Texas Drug Sting Cop Found Not Credible by Court

Apr 2, 9:00 am ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS  - Tom Coleman was hailed as the Texas lawman of the year for busting a drug ring in the Panhandle town of Tulia, but on Tuesday a court moved to say that he cannot be taken at his word and his sting operation was a scam.

Attorneys fighting to overturn the conviction of four people imprisoned by Coleman, and lawyers for the state reached an agreement under state district Judge Ron Chapman to request that all 38 felony convictions obtained by Coleman's testimony in the drug sting be overturned by a higher court, the lawyers in the case said.

There has been mounting criticism that the arrests were racially motivated.

"It is stipulated by all parties and approved by the court that Tom Coleman is simply not a credible witness under oath," Chapman said in a statement in court, the lawyers said.

Coleman rose to prominence in July 1999 when his sting led to the arrests of 46 people, almost all black, for involvement in an alleged drug ring in Tulia. Those arrested by the white officer made up about 10 percent of the black population of Tulia, which has a total population of about 5,000.

No drugs, money or weapons were found in the sting, and the convictions were largely based on Coleman's testimony, lawyers said. Coleman was not immediately available for comment.

Coleman was the lone detective on an 18-month undercover operation and court records show he submitted no audio or video surveillance material as evidence, while taking scant notes.

Coleman, wearing a cowboy hat and black leather jacket, testified in the finding of fact case headed by Chapman in late March. He said in testimony he often used racial slurs in daily speech, and at times, he appeared at a loss when asked to comment on specific information that was used to obtain drug convictions, court watchers said.

'ACTIVE MISREPRESENTATION'

"The hearings were the first opportunity in open court for defense attorneys to expose the active misrepresentation that had occurred at the trials in Tulia. And to expose Tom Coleman's utter lack of credibility as to his background and the manner in which he conducted the sting," said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, one of the groups in court fighting to overturn the Tulia convictions.

She said she was thrilled at the agreement reached in the case, and a lawyer for Texas said he felt the agreement was warranted given Coleman's testimony.

"I'm absolutely convinced it was the right thing to do," Rod Hobson, a special prosecutor said.

The tide started to turn in the Tulia drug sting when charges were dropped last year against Tonya White who allegedly sold cocaine to Coleman. Prosecutors dropped the charges when White produced bank documents showing that she was out of Texas at the time Coleman said she sold drugs to him.

Since then several other people arrested in the Tulia sting had charges against them dropped or were freed from jail.

Gupta said there are still 13 people in prison from the Tulia sting and civil rights groups are working to overturn their convictions.

The next step is a statement of finding of fact from Chapman, to be sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

That court will have the final say on whether to accept the findings. If it does accept findings that Coleman was not a credible witness, the appeals court can order new trials, or overturn the previous convictions.

"Based on Tom Coleman's testimony here, I would be hard pressed to understand why the state would ever want to put him on the stand again," Gupta said.

If You Don't Look Good, I Don't Look Good...

Apr 2, 9:09 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Celebrity hairstylist Vidal Sassoon sued consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. on Tuesday, alleging neglect, sabotage and the destruction of his brand and name. Sassoon alleged breach of contract and fraud over a line of hair care products that bear his well-known name in the suit, which was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles according to a law firm representing Sassoon.

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble could not be immediately reached for comment.

In the suit, Sassoon alleged that since Procter & Gamble acquired his hair care brand through its purchase of Richardson-Vicks in 1985, it has withdrawn the big budget media and sophisticated marketing it promised.

"I feel betrayed," Sassoon said in a statement. "I trusted one of the world's most powerful marketing machines when they assured me that my name represented a billion-dollar brand. Instead, they systematically decimated my brand."

Sassoon argued Procter & Gamble cannibalized his brand name and product in recent years to support other hair care brands, especially Pantene.

"I am a contractual prisoner," Sassoon said.

The suit included four claims: breach of fiduciary duty, actual and constructive fraud, and breach of implied covenant.

Sassoon has tried to buy his brand back from Procter & Gamble, but has been unsuccessful in doing so, his spokesman said. The spokesman said this is the first lawsuit Sassoon has ever filed individually.

Sassoon's suit asked for trial by a jury. He asked for compensatory damages of more than $75,000, "the exact amount of which has yet to be ascertained," termination and/or cancellation of Sassoon's contract with Procter & Gamble, punitive damages on certain claims and more relief if the court deems any "just and proper."

Sassoon's name is licensed by Procter & Gamble to other companies for hair dryers, other products and for a group of styling salons.

Shares of Procter & Gamble were up 75 cents at $89.80 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sperm Turned on by Lily of the Valley

Apr 2, 9:12 am ET 

BERLIN  - Human sperm become excited when exposed to the scent of lily of the valley, doubling their speed and homing in on the aroma, a German scientist said on Wednesday.

Hans Hatt, a biology professor at Ruhr University in Bochum, said knowledge about a newly discovered odor receptor on the sperm's surface could enable researchers to devise alternative contraception methods or ways to boost fertility.

"This is the first time sperm has been shown to respond to smell," Hatt, who said the findings came after three years of study, told The News Source. "The application of the substances in a salve to the vaginal area could raise the chance of conceiving."

He said receptors in the sperm's membranes are attracted to two chemical compounds, cyclamal and bourgeonal, used in the cosmetics industry to imitate the plant's smell.

Another compound, undecanal, was found to block the attraction and could be used for contraceptive ends, he added.

'TIME-TRAVELER' BUSTED FOR INSIDER TRADING Wednesday March 19, 2003 By CHAD KULTGEN NEW YORK -- Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges -- and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256! Sources at the Security and Exchange Commission confirm that 44-year-old Andrew Carlssin offered the bizarre explanation for his uncanny success in the stock market after being led off in handcuffs on January 28. "We don't believe this guy's story -- he's either a lunatic or a pathological liar," says an SEC insider. "But the fact is, with an initial investment of only $800, in two weeks' time he had a portfolio valued at over $350 million. Every trade he made capitalized on unexpected business developments, which simply can't be pure luck. "The only way he could pull it off is with illegal inside information. He's going to sit in a jail cell on Rikers Island until he agrees to give up his sources." The past year of nose-diving stock prices has left most investors crying in their beer. So when Carlssin made a flurry of 126 high-risk trades and came out the winner every time, it raised the eyebrows of Wall Street watchdogs. "If a company's stock rose due to a merger or technological breakthrough that was supposed to be secret, Mr. Carlssin somehow knew about it in advance," says the SEC source close to the hush-hush, ongoing investigation. When investigators hauled Carlssin in for questioning, they got more than they bargained for: A mind-boggling four-hour confession. Carlssin declared that he had traveled back in time from over 200 years in the future, when it is common knowledge that our era experienced one of the worst stock plunges in history. Yet anyone armed with knowledge of the handful of stocks destined to go through the roof could make a fortune. "It was just too tempting to resist," Carlssin allegedly said in his videotaped confession. "I had planned to make it look natural, you know, lose a little here and there so it doesn't look too perfect. But I just got caught in the moment." In a bid for leniency, Carlssin has reportedly offered to divulge "historical facts" such as the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and a cure for AIDS. All he wants is to be allowed to return to the future in his "time craft." However, he refuses to reveal the location of the machine or discuss how it works, supposedly out of fear the technology could "fall into the wrong hands." Officials are quite confident the "time-traveler's" claims are bogus. Yet the SEC source admits, "No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002." Weekly World News will continue to follow this story as it unfolds. Keep watching for further developments.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20030319/104808600007.html

Time traveller urban legend Ok, now I've learned it. Check out the urban legends archive first. The story about Andrew Carlssin, the 'inside trader' who claimed to be a time traveller from 2256, was originally written by the Weekly World News, obviously an American tabloid never intended to be taken seriously. I, and many other bloggers, wrote about the story when I first read about it on Yahoo! News. It's good to see, in hindsight, that I expressed strong skepticism about it. But kudos to WWN for spinning an entertaining little tale. Thanks to Throatwobbler who gave me the link to Snopes in a comment.

Global markets continue to take a beating. Last week "The Dow lost 4.4 [%]...the S&P 500 lost 3.6 [%] and the Nasdaq lost 3.7 [%]." Investors are reeling from market uncertainty: "'People have been stopped in their tracks,' said Jon Burnham, portfolio manager at Burnham Securities. 'It's impossible to trade the market right now because there's no way to know what's going to happen in Iraq hour to hour, day to day, so I think most individual investors are hanging back...'". But what if you knew what's going to happen from hour to hour, day to day, even year to year? What if you possessed clairvoyance, a crystal ball that allowed you to predict market movements? What if you had access to an oracle, a palm-reader? What if you possessed a time-machine, a DeLorean perhaps? In Back to the Future II, McFly nemesis, Biff Tannen comes across an old issue of Gray's Sports Almanac in 2015 which he takes back with him to 1955. By making bets on the outcomes of baseball games delineated in the almanac, Biff becomes the richest man in America. In a peculiar, analogous development, "investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges - and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!" Boys and girls: Andrew Carlssin's back from the future! "Carlssin declared that he had traveled back in time from over 200 years in the future, when it is common knowledge that our era experienced one of the worst stock plunges in history." So the man's a nutjob, right? Well, "Sources at the [SEC] confirm that...with an initial investment of only $800...[he] had a portfolio valued at over $350 million...in two weeks. Every trade he made capitalized on unexpected business developments, which simply can't be pure luck." Actually, statistically, it can just be pure luck. Yet, "No one can find any record of...Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002"

If only Nick Leeson had though of it. A 44-year-old man called Andrew Carlssin, currently in the hands of an FBI team investigating allegations of insider trading, is offering a unique excuse as part of his plea bargain. Carlssin claims he is a time traveller from the year 2256 who, after making profits of $350m in just two weeks from an initial investment of $800, let greed get the better of him and attracted the attention of Wall Street's security and exchange commission. A case of Back to the Futures Market, if you will. But the SEC isn't laughing: "We don't believe this guy's story. He's either a lunatic or a pathological liar," said a spokesman. "Every trade he made capitalised on unexpected business developments, which simply can't be pure luck. The only way he could pull it off is with illegal inside information. He's going to sit in a jail cell on Rikers Island until he agrees to give up his sources." Carlssin's downfall, it seems, is that he didn't follow the basic rule of time travel: namely, never draw attention to yourself by exploiting your omniscience. What Doctor Who or Marty McFly would make of this amateur isn't clear, but even a non-time traveller could have told him that profiting from 126 consecutive high-risk trades over two weeks was sure to get him noticed. He also forgot another cardinal rule: never get parted from your time machine when on a day trip to the past. Part of his plea bargain, it has been revealed, is that he is offering to tell the authorities the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and a cure for Aids if they just let him return to, as he calls it, his "time craft". But at least he is now showing signs of repentance. "It was just too tempting to resist," Carlssin (on whom the FBI can't find any records dated before December 2002) allegedly said in his confession. "I had planned to make it look natural - you know, lose a little here and there so it didn't look too perfect. But I just got caught in the moment." He is refusing to budge on one fact, though - the location of his time machine. He fears the technology could "fall into the wrong hands". However, one question must linger in the minds of the FBI: if he can predict the future, why didn't he foresee his arrest?

Lawyer Arrested for Wearing a 'Peace' T-Shirt

Mar 5, 8:29 am ET 

NEW YORK  - A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall.

According to the criminal complaint filed on Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, New York, near Albany.

"I was in the food court with my son when I was confronted by two security guards and ordered to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall," said Downs.

When Downs refused the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, charged with trespassing "in that he knowingly enter(ed) or remain(ed) unlawfully upon premises," the complaint read.

Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall "was like a private house and that I was acting poorly.

"I told them the analogy was not good and I was then hauled off to night court where I was arraigned after pleading not guilty and released on my own recognizance," Downs told The News Source in a telephone interview.

Downs is the director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges and can admonish, censure or remove judges found to have engaged in misconduct.

Calls to the Guilderland police and district attorney, Anthony Cardona and to officials at the mall were not returned for comment.

Downs is due back in court for a hearing on March 17.

He could face up to a year in prison if convicted.

Witness Claims Terrorist not Arrested--May Already be Dead 03-Mar-2003 The sister of a Pakistani man arrested this weekend says he was the only man arrested in the raid and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 911, wasn't there. Pakistani intelligence officials say Khalid Shaikh Mohammed died in an earlier shootout in Karachi. Another senior al-Qaeda figure, Ramzi Binalshibh, was taken alive during that raid and handed over to the U.S. and is now on a warship somewhere in the Gulf, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's wife and child were handed over FBI. The wife, under intense interrogation, has revealed information that is likely to lead to new arrests. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has been dead for 6 months, who was arrested this weekend and why was the arrest announced? After al-Qaeda was chased out of Afghanistan, they set up in Karachi, Pakistan, headed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has been described by Pakistan intelligence as "probably the only man who knows all the [al-Qaeda] pieces of the puzzle." Last April, a phone call was traced that led the FBI to him. On September 11, 2002 (a date obviously chosen on purpose), the FBI raided his apartment. They wanted to take him alive, but a policeman threw a hand grenade, which started a gunfight in which he was killed. They arrested other people who were in the apartment, one of whom turned out to be Ramzi Binalshibh. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's body was secretly buried, and news of his death was suppressed while officials followed up leads. Intelligence now believes that a new 911 style terrorist attack is being planned, although not in the U.S., and other countries have been warned to check the records of their flight training schools. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has been dead for 6 months, then who was arrested this weekend? Pakistani authorities announced they arrested him plus two other suspects, but the sister of one of the men, Ahmed Quddus, says, "My brother was the only man in the house when the raid took place. He was taken away while his wife and kids were herded into a room and locked in. They didn't even know when they took him...or where. My brother has never been involved in any bad things. Actually, he's a bit slow, he's not very clever, so I can't even begin to imagine that he could be involved with any terrorist organization. He does not have any links with any terrorist organization. They're saying such strange things about him in the press. He's been living in the neighborhood for fifteen years and everyone knows him to be a placid person." Ahmed's cousin Omar Khan says the security men took away a computer when they searched the house, as reported in the press, but we can assume it did not belong to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Ky. Bible College Gets 666 Prefix Removed Fri Feb 28, 3:17 PM ET Add Strange News - 

By ROGER ALFORD, News Source Writer VANCLEVE, Ky. - After months of asking for a new telephone number, the Kentucky Mountain Bible College has finally dropped the 666 prefix that disturbed Christians who recognized it as the biblical mark of the beast. "We're just elated that the number has been changed," said Rob Roy MacGregor, the college's vice president of business affairs. "It was like we had this Scarlet Letter attached to us." The college is now removing the number from printed material, including its official letterhead. The 666 prefix had been the only one available in Vancleve since telephone service arrived here. The need for more phone lines forced telephone companies to add new numbers, and the college tried for several months to get the new 693 prefix. "We were glad we could finally get a number that the school is happy with," said Kaye Davis, general counsel for Access Point, a North Carolina-based telephone company that serves the college. In the Book of Revelation, 666 is stamped into people's foreheads or right hands during the last days. Those who receive the mark, according to Scripture, are damned to eternal punishment. MacGregor said the beast represents Satan. True Christians, he said, will not accept the mark. Davis said it took longer than expected to change the prefix because the college wanted to keep the last four digits of its number - 5000. The Rev. Vaughn Rasor, pastor of First Baptist Church in nearby Jackson, said this wee that most people seemed to see the 666 prefix as a curiosity. "If people start giggling when I give my phone number, I know they have at least read the Bible," Rasor said. 

Thais Set Up Blood Bank for Dogs Tue Mar 4, 7:48 AM ET Add Strange News - 

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Thai animal protection group campaigning to help the hundreds of thousands of stray dogs roaming the streets of Bangkok said Tuesday it had set up a blood bank for needy canines. Chai-anan Hongthongkham, director of the Animal Lovers Group, said he was inspired to establish the bank after a local veterinary hospital called him asking for blood for a transfusion to save an ailing dog hit by a car. Since then, he has regularly brought 12 of his dogs, including a towering Saint Bernard, to donate blood at private and state-run animal hospitals. "The blood is needed for storage at the bank to save the lives of dogs in case of emergency," Chai-anan said. The group plans a blood drive on March 9 at a Buddhist temple. It is storing the blood in refrigerators to supply two private animal hospitals when needed. "We hope that hundreds of dogs and their owners will turn up to donate their blood for our project," Chai-anan said. He said that unlike humans, dogs have a common blood type, making all dogs potential "universal donors." The amounts of blood drawn will range from 0.6 pints to 2.1 pints, depending on the size of the dog. Larger breeds such as Golden Retrievers, Rottweilers and Labradors will be encouraged to donate as they can offer more than smaller dogs. On Sunday, the group hopes to fill 600 of the 0.6-pint packets used to store the blood. The group is also urging the public to adopt some of the 300,000 stray dogs that live on the streets of the Thai capital, and help them escape a sterilization campaign. Last year, city authorities launched a plan to sterilize more than 100,000 strays to keep down numbers and to vaccinate them against rabies within two years. Previously, strays caught without identifying collars were killed. In 2001, some 37 people died in Thailand from rabies contracted from stray dogs. Bangkok was the worst affected area, with eight deaths. 

Sponge Contraceptive on Sale Again Tue Mar 4, 2:46 PM ET 

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, News Source Writer ALLENDALE, N.J. - The Today Sponge contraceptive is back on the market, eight years after it disappeared from U.S. drug store shelves in an alarming turn famously depicted on a "Seinfeld" episode. The return of the sponge is expected to lead to bulk buying - and perhaps more spontaneous romance - among its fiercely loyal users. Allendale Pharmaceuticals, a start-up business in New Jersey, bought rights to the Today Sponge from the drug company that discontinued it. Allendale began selling it this month through two Canadian Internet sites. More sponges, priced at the U.S. equivalent of about $2.90 each, will hit the shelves at 4,000 pharmacies, Wal-Marts and other stores across Canada, according to Allendale. The manufacturer is hoping for Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) approval to sell them in U.S. stores within a year. "I think there's just thousands of people out there waiting for it," said Marisa Dawson, a nurse in Ocoee, Fla., who is awaiting a dozen sponges she paid for in advance last spring. Roughly 250 million polyurethane Today Sponges were sold from 1983 to 1995. Originally made by a pharmaceutical giant now called Wyeth, it was taken off the market in 1995 after problems were found at the company's Hammonton factory. The FDA said the sponge's safety and effectiveness were never questioned. Wyeth simply stopped selling it rather than pay to upgrade its plant. In a 1995 "Seinfeld" episode, Elaine runs around New York seeking the sponge, her favorite birth control. She finally locates a whole case at a pharmacy, and stretches the supply by deciding whether a boyfriend is "spongeworthy." She makes her boyfriend scrub his bathroom and pass other tests before she will have sex with him. The episode was apparently more than a work of imagination: Plenty of real women ran store to store, buying up all they could. Dawson was living in New York City in 1995, and went hunting for sponges. "I didn't do the `spongeworthy' test, but I was hoarding them," Dawson said. "You want to talk about art imitating life!" Since the disappearance of the Today Sponge, two foreign brands have been available over the Internet, but not in U.S. stores. Protectaid, made in Canada, lacks a withdrawal cord, and some women find it difficult to remove; Pharmatex, made in France, costs twice as much as the Today Sponge. In 1998, Gene Detroyer, Allendale's president and chief executive, and a few partners scraped together money to buy the patents and the complex manufacturing equipment. Detroyer hoped to get the product back on shelves in a couple years. Instead, tougher new FDA standards for manufacturing and record keeping forced repeated delays and a switch from a contract manufacturer in Mainland, Pa., to one in Norwich, N.Y. The first sponges will go mostly to 700 people who pre-ordered - 24 each, on average - as far back as January 2001, and to some of the 8,000 subscribers to The Spongeworthy Watch, an e-mail newsletter from birthcontrol.com, said Barbara Bell, co-owner of the Internet women's products seller. She said subscribers ordered about 1,000 boxes of a dozen sponges each in the past week. The sponge helps prevent pregnancy in two ways: It covers the cervix, and it contains a spermicide. Many women preferred the sponge. It was not messy like creams and foams, was easy to insert and remove, could be kept in a purse or pocket, did not limit sensitivity, could be bought without a prescription and could be inserted well in advance of having sex. Unlike a diaphragm, the sponge does not have to be fitted by a doctor; one size fits all. Many women also found it preferable to the pill, which has been linked to blood clots, heart attacks, strokes and other side effects and is not recommended for women who have heart problems or have had breast, cervical or ovarian cancer. But contraceptive sponges do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases and do not prevent pregnancy as well as the pill, which is 99.1 percent to 99.5 percent effective if taken every day. "For people who are very concerned about getting pregnant, it's probably not a good option, because it has a high failure rate," noted James Trussell, director of Princeton University's Office of Population Research and author of the book "Contraceptive Technology." For women who use contraceptive sponges every time they have intercourse, 9 percent who have never had a child will become pregnant over a year, Trussell said. The rate rises to 20 percent after having a baby. Still, Dr. Andrew M. Kaunitz, former chairman of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and a gynecologist at University of Florida Health Science Center in Jacksonville, "Lots of women would be delighted to see it become available again in this country." Diane Butler, 45, of Westland, Mich., has had breast cancer (news - web sites) and a mastectomy twice and was warned to avoid pregnancy. She never got pregnant while using the Today Sponge, but had two miscarriages on other methods. "I'm out of options" for birth control, said Butler, who ordered $130 in sponges through the waiting list.

Watchdog Beefs About McDonald's Ad

Mar 4, 9:05 am ET 

LONDON  - Fast food giant McDonald's has something to chew on after Britain's television watchdog decided on Monday that its "Steak Premiere" was short on topping.

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) ruled the advert for a "steak in ciabatta with chargrilled peppers, onions and a black pepper mayo" could not be shown again because it misled viewers about how much topping to expect.

The Steak Premiere was a temporary line which formed part of McDonald's drive to follow customers' tastes upmarket.

Regulators at the ITC chomped on the Steak Premiere themselves after four viewers complained the sandwich was short on peppers, onions and mayonnaise.

"There was a disparity between the quantity of toppings in the purchased products against the television advertisement," the ITC said.

McDonald's told the ITC it put no more topping in the advertised sandwich than in any other. The company added that during filming it had spread the topping toward the edge, so viewers could see it better.

"This method of presentation gave a misleading impression of the amount of toppings supplied with the product," the ITC ruled.

McDonald's said in a statement they were disappointed with the ITC's decision.

Brothel for Sex-Starved Dogs

Mar 4, 9:08 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German artist has applied for a license to open a brothel in Berlin for sexually frustrated dogs and says it will be the first of its kind anywhere.

Karl-Friedrich Lenze, 54, said he planned to charge dog owners $27 per half hour of happiness.

"If dogs can't get what they want, they get cranky -- just like people," Lenze told The News Source.

The establishment would offer patrons a variety of carefully vetted "employees" of both sexes, rooms for private encounters and even a "bar" where customers could sniff out their preferred partners.

Here's an Amazing Idea!

Mar 4, 9:11 am ET 

PARIS  - Conmen used fake barcode stickers to buy hundreds of bottles of vintage wine at rock bottom prices in Parisian supermarkets, police said on Tuesday.

Police arrested three young Romanian men and found 900 bottles of wine and champagne in a shed in a Paris suburb. They said the wine was destined to be sold on to restaurants at a comfortable profit.

Police said the conmen donned suits to minimize suspicion as they replaced shop barcodes with barcode stickers of their own to fool supermarket checkout machines.

The three were arrested last week but police said they had yet to track down the maker of the fake barcodes.

http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

Jewish Groups Decry PETA's Holocaust Ads Fri Feb 28, 5:54 PM ET Add U.S. National - 

By MICHELLE MORGANTE, News Source Writer SAN DIEGO - An animal-rights campaign comparing the suffering of livestock to that of Holocaust victims is drawing sharp criticism from a leading Jewish group for "trivializing" the mass murder of Jews. "The Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, debuted this week in California and will make a national tour. The display is a set of eight 6-foot-by-10-foot panels showing photographs of Holocaust victims - emaciated men, crowds of people being forced onto trains, children behind barbed wire, heaps of human bodies - set next to similar images of cattle, pigs and chickens. The Anti-Defamation League denounced the project and PETA's appeal for support from the Jewish community as "outrageous, offensive and taking chutzpah to new heights." Abraham H. Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and ADL national director, said linking the deliberate, systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights was "abhorrent." PETA member Matt Prescott, the creator of the campaign, said he is Jewish and his family lost several members in Nazi concentration camps. He said the campaign was funded by a Jewish philanthropist who wishes to remain anonymous. He said criticism of the project was expected. "The fact is all animals feel pain, fear and loneliness," he said Friday. "We're asking people to recognize that what Jews and others went through in the Holocaust is what animals go through every day in factory farms."

Bermuda Defends Use of Hawaii Photos Fri Feb 28, 5:53 PM ET 

HAMILTON, Bermuda - A model on a beach might not surprise anybody in the Atlantic Ocean island of Bermuda. But a diver swimming in a school of barracuda? Bermuda's Department of Tourism is defending its use of photographs from Hawaii and elsewhere in a promotional campaign, saying it's standard practice. Generic stock pictures often are used in advertising, Michael DeCouto, the government agency's assistant director for marketing, said in comments published Friday by The Royal Gazette newspaper. He said the photos were used by advertising agency Arnold McGrath to create "an emotion." The Boston-based company did not immediately return calls seeking comment. DeCouto also could not be reached for further comment. Local photographer Graeme Outerbridge investigated the photographs after he recognized one, of a model on a beach, as being from Hawaii rather than Bermuda. It was published in February's edition of Travel and Leisure magazine. Outerbridge said the practice was dishonest. "It's clearly not a Bermuda beach," he said. "It's pretty outrageous for us to be using elements of other tourist destinations in our advertising campaign." The campaign includes two other photographs that DeCouto agreed were not of Bermuda - one of a person swimming with a dolphin and one of a diver swimming in what appears to be a school of barracuda. Such schools of barracuda aren't found off the shores of Bermuda, and would be misleading to divers who saw the photo, Outerbridge said. DeCouto said it was impossible to tell what kind of fish they were. The advertising campaign, which began in January, targets wealthy American adults and portrays Bermuda as sophisticated and close to the United States while retaining a British colonial charm. Bermuda, which is a couple of hours flight from most East Coast cities, is known for its fabulous pink sand beaches - the color derived from particles of shells and coral - and the knee-length shorts that share the territory's name. 

While the 1960s movie and TV series "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" poked fun at the idea of the Army sailing ships, the
Army's Dugway Proving Ground and Fort Douglas actually had a secret navy to test germ and chemical arms in the Pacific.

Unlike the Hollywood comedies about World War II, Dugway's Vietnam War era work was deadly serious:

- Their ships sailed through clouds of germ and chemical agents, and some sailors now blame cancer and other diseases they
suffer on it - or on the mix of chemicals used for decontamination.

- While germ and chemical tests usually occurred in remote areas oft he Pacific for safety and secrecy, at least one test was
conducted in San Francisco Bay.

- Some of the ships had already been contaminated by radiation when used earlier as test ships during ocean nuclear bomb
tests - which sailors also say may have sickened them.

- The ships also conducted tests designed to see if migratory birds could be infected far from an enemy's shores to later fly in
and spread diseases - or whether examining birds from afar could show if enemies were working with deadly germs.

- One of the sailors says he was even sent into Laos and Cambodia to discharge germ and chemical weapons for tests - which, if
true, likely violated treaties.

The story about Dugway's navy emerges from once-secret documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the
Deseret News and from interviews with sailors involved.

More documents, including some from a request specifically for data about any U.S. chemical and germ arms work in Cambodia
and Laos, have not yet been released. The Pentagon has been reviewing them for months to determine if they will be
declassified after they were identified by Dugway.

THE BEGINNING

Documents said the Navy was worried about how to protect and decontaminate its ships in the event of chemical or germ attacks.
So Army scientists in Utah assembled an ocean-based test project similar to trials conducted on land at Dugway for decades.

The at-sea testing was overseen by the Deseret Test Center - named for the Mormon pioneers' proposed-but-rejected name for
the state of Utah - located at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City and later moved to Dugway Proving Ground.

Deseret's insignia showed it was not only an Army program but a joint operation with the Navy, Marines and Air Force.

Because Deseret Test Center oversaw the experiments, documents often call its overall testing program "Project Deseret."

Its small support navy was called "Project Shad." That was both an acronym for "Ship Habitation and Decontamination" studies
and the name for small fish similar to herring.

The earliest at-sea testing mentioned in documents obtained occurred in 1956, and tests appear to have continued through the
late 1960s.

For the experiments, Deseret Test Center obtained the use of two "liberty" ships, the mass-produced Merchant Marine cargo
ships made during World War II. Tests also included five tug boats and the occasional use of submarines, jets, barges and
assorted smaller vessels.

The idea, documents said, was to have various ships crisscross through germ and nerve agent clouds to collect information
about exposure and decontamination. Crew members occupied protected spaces, and information was evaluated by on-board
lab facilities.

RADIOACTIVE SHIPS

The liberty ships selected - the Granville S. Hall (with call letters YAG40) and the George Eastman (YAG39) - were uniquely
configured and had a dubious history before Project Shad.

They were rigged in the early '50s so they could be steered by remote control so they could be "driven through downwind
radiation clouds resulting from atmospheric detonations of nuclear devices" near Eniwetok and Bikini atolls, according to Guy
Willis of Tennessee, who wrote about his work on the Hall in the mid '50s for a newsletter, "The Navy Liberty Ship Sailor."

Willis wrote that the crew, which reboarded the ship only hours after passing through such clouds to wash it down, "experienced
considerable radiation exposure," especially during long voyages back to the United States.

Despite the radiation exposure, the Hall and Eastman were included in Deseret Test Center's navy, possibly because of the
remote steering capability or because of their rigging with cages for test animals and lab equipment that would be needed
again.

Still, Frank Tetro, who sailed on the Hall between 1966 and 1968, said the Hall would set off alarms at Pearl Harbor that were
designed to detect radiation leaks from nuclear submarines. "Once they found out it was us, they would let us come on in," he
said.

TRAINED FOR EXOTICS

Sailors selected for Project Shad operations had to obtain clearance to work with "secret" data and were sent to Dugway for
special classified training.

Training outlines from 1962 show they were briefed on work with germs causing some of the deadliest diseases known to man,
including tularemia, anthrax, parrot fever, Q fever, African swine fever, the plague and botulism.

Participants were also given numerous inoculations, although documents do not say specifically which ones, for such diseases.

Sailors also worked with nerve agents GB and VX - a small drop of which is deadly - and were taught how to protect themselves
and use gas masks if accidents occurred.

They were trained how to prepare germ and chemical "agents" for spraying in field testing, how to perform autopsies on test
animals, how to decontaminate areas with chlorine and other chemicals, and how to test for contamination.

Several training sessions were devoted to "safeguarding of classified information" - including its transmission, storage and
destruction - and making clear participants were restricted to "need-to-know" information and were warned against "excess
knowledge."

A SAN FRANCISCO TEST

One of the ships' first tests occurred in San Francisco Bay in 1956 as part of "Operation Transit III," designed for "the
assessment of the ship's protective defenses against a covert BW (biological warfare) attack."

In September 1956, plans called for a 40-foot munitions boat to create clouds of bacillus globigii germs that the Eastman would
travel through and then turn over its sampling devices to labs on the Hall for study.

Plans called for enough germs to ensure "a minimum respiratory dose of 10,000 organisms is received on deck."

Planners considered bacillus globigii a safe "simulant" of more dangerous germs, and the Army still uses it for some field
testing.

However, Rutgers University political science professor Leonard Cole, who has written books on secret Army testing, notes that
standard bacteriology textbooks warn the germ can cause serious infections to people who are already sick. And its spores can
live literally for centuries before causing such infection.

Planning documents said later phases of Operation Transit III were to use the more dangerous serratia marcescens germ at
open sea if the San Francisco test proved successful.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

But the mere mention of a test series involving serratia and San Francisco raises eyebrows among some researchers because of
mysterious serratia infections in San Francisco hospitals.

The first such infections occurred in 1950 days after, the military later admitted, it had sprayed serratia around San Francisco
Bay. Such infections had never been seen there previously. One man died. His family later sued in 1981. The case made the
early 1950 test widely known.

Doctors reported a later epidemic of serratia infections around San Francisco in the 1960s. John Mills, then a professor at the
University of California Medical Center, wrote a paper questioning whether Army tests "could have seeded the Bay area" with the
germs.

Mills, now at the Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, now doubts Army tests were related to
the serratia outbreaks.

"Subsequently we were able to serotype some of the strains causing endocarditis (a heart infection) . . . and none of them were
the same serotype used by the Army - (and) the latter information was not made available to us willingly! Therefore, the
outbreak was unrelated to the Army's biological warfare testing," he told the Deseret News.

YEARS OF FIELD TESTS

Documents show tests occurred for years with both chemical and biological agents, usually in remote areas of the Pacific.

As documents for "Operation Flower Drum Phase I" in 1964 said, "Isolation from shipping and air traffic lanes is required.
Incidental presence of unidentified vessels and aircraft in this area (170 miles from Pearl Harbor) will be avoided."

One reason for that is the test spread 600 pounds of deadly, vaporized nerve agent GB (laced with radioactive particles to make
it easier to trace) that had been flown to Hawaii from Utah. The remoteness provided safety and secrecy.

Virgil Hodges of Portland, Ore., who commanded five tug boats assigned to the Dugway navy, said during such tests, the tugs
would often crisscross through clouds of agent while detection devices on board collected information.

"The crew stayed inside a citadel," which was airtight and pressurized, he said. "One crew member always stayed on deck, but he
wore a full M-3 protective suit and breathed air that was pumped to him."

Documents show that the larger liberty ships also had "safety citadels" where crew members would retreat during testing. Crews
in protective suits would then handle initial decontamination detail and the collection of dead test animals.

The range of such tests included dropping "20,000 gallons of BG (bacillus globigii) slurry" from helicopters and jets during
Operation Autumn Gold in 1963 to working with nerve agents GB and VX and other tests where agents used remain "secret."

One test in 1965 involved a submarine. The USS Carbonero had bacillus globigii placed aboard to see if fumigation could
decontaminate it.

The number of all such tests is unknown. Documents obtained by the Deseret News mention only a dozen or so trials. But a
letter obtained by one of the sailors show hundreds are likely.

When Tetro, who sailed on the Granville Hall, requested help from former Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, to prove that the testing
may have caused diseases he suffered, Maj. Gen. L.J. Del Rosso, Army director of space and special weapons, wrote Symms in
1992 with a summary of some of Project Shad's activities.

Del Rosso said Project Shad ships "participated in some 111 tests" from January 1963 to September 1965 and used the nerve
agents GB and VX and biological "simulants" bacillus globigii, Serratia marcescens and Escherichia coli.

However, Del Rosso's 1992 letter does not mention the tests as early as 1956 found by the Deseret News. It also does not
mention other biological and germ tests it found planned for 1966 with "secret" agents flown from Utah.

And Dugway historical records show it maintained a Pacific liaison office in Hawaii to help coordinate such tests through at least
1967 - after Del Rosso's letter suggests such work ceased.

FOR THE BIRDS

Del Rosso's letter also does not mention a series of tests involving migratory birds - tests the Washington Post uncovered in
1985. The Post was most interested in disclosing that the Smithsonian Institution had participated in germ weapons research
contrary to its non-military scientific mission.

The Post's story said the bird experiments occurred on the Granville Hall and were designed by Deseret Test Center. Those tests
involved visiting many out-of-the-way islands and water routes to document which birds and other animals migrated there to
help determine whether birds could be infected with germs before they migrated toward an enemy's borders.

Tetro says he remembers scientists shooting many birds and trying to get them to land on the deck of the Hall. He retrieved
those that fell into the sea with a whaling boat.

He said he remembers the birds were often gutted and sent to the ship labs for study. Most of the remains were dried and sent
back to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Richard Smith, Tetro's shipmate on the Hall, said he remembers hearing that scientists also studied the dead birds to determine
whether the Soviet Union or other nations may have been experimenting with germ weapons - which could be shown through
traces found in the birds.

The Washington Post said such migratory bird research continued through 1970, when funding disappeared after President Nixon
renounced the use of chemical and biological arms. Nixon's action was prompted by a Dugway nerve gas accident that killed
6,000 sheep in Skull Valley.

LAOS AND CAMBODIA ASSIGNMENT

Also not mentioned in Del Rosso's letter is a six-week assignment Tetro says he's reluctant to mention because it brings trouble
whenever he does. But he says he was sent to spray chemical and germ weapons in Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam
War.

"We took canisters of them on gunboats up the river to test them. I set them off at predetermined locations." He said he had
the understanding that other personnel would monitor and measure their effect.

The only monitoring devices he said his ship carried were some petri dishes on the deck.

The United States, however, had signed treaties agreeing not to use chemical and biological arms. For that reason, Tetro says
former shipmates have warned him not to discuss it and said they won't either. He says he brings it up only to try to help prove
for his VA disability claims that he was exposed to such agents.

Tetro said the mission required boats designed to go 50 miles per hour with the ability to skim on as little as 6 inches of water,
powered by engines in both front and back. Only three of the special-mission boats were made, he said. Two of the boats and
three-member crews were used in the operation.

Tetro also says he helped transport some special operations soldiers into Laos and Cambodia on the boats.

He said the spraying rig used would send the agent far from the ship - and that he and others wore no special protective
clothing. "Dungarees, T-shirts, shower shoes and tank helmets were the uniform of the day," Tetro said.

Other Project Shad participants contacted by the Deseret News either said they had no knowledge of such an operation or said
they would not discuss details of any specific operation because of vows of silence they had taken.

Smith, however, said when Tetro told him of the assignment in later years, he tried to find references to the boats he mentioned
- and did find mention of their use in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and how they were loud but so fast the enemy often didn't
have time to target them.

The Deseret News has requested documents that might verify Tetro's story about missions into Cambodia and Laos. Dugway
identified documents that possibly respond to those missions and sent them to the Pentagon, which has had them under
possible declassification review for months, following the Deseret News' Freedom of Information Act request for them.

ENDINGS

By all accounts, Dugway's navy disbanded by the early 1970s - and sailors who had served with it "were given heavy-duty security
debriefings and told never to talk about it. I am still under that commitment," said Jack Alderson of Ferndale, Calif., who
commanded five tugboats assigned to the project.

Some sailors, however, began experiencing health problems that they blame on the tests. They have had trouble proving a
connection or receiving disability payments because, in part, of military secrecy. (See accompanying story.)

Tetro, for example, said his service on the Hall is to blame for memory problems, boils, sores and incisions that will not heal,
severe headaches and extreme sensitivity to chemicals.

Several others have reported skin cancer they believe might be related to the radiation on the boats, the chemical and germ
weapons tested or the chemicals used for decontamination. They are still fighting to find out exactly what was used.

While they fight to ensure they are not forgotten or tossed aside - that is more or less what happened to their old ships. For
example, Tetro's wife, Ruth, found in research that the old Granville S. Hall had been sold as surplus in 1972 to a Japanese
company that dissembled it as scrap. "I suppose some of the Japanese cars running around contain parts of it now," she said.

The tug boats attached to the project will soon be up for sale, too. Those last-remaining portions of Dugway's navy are now tied
up on a pier at a naval operations center in Stockton, Calif. The warrant officer at the pier said he suspects they will go for scrap,
too.

U.S. Sees First Cases of Smallpox Shot Reactions Thu Feb 27, 3:19 PM ET  

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON  - Three people vaccinated against smallpox as part of U.S. preparations for a possible biological attack developed symptoms that could be an adverse reaction to the shots, health officials said on Thursday. None of the cases is life-threatening and two of them appear to be associated with other conditions, but health officials are scrutinizing any reactions from the program, which has run into considerable public resistance. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said a 39-year-old woman, a nurse, developed a general rash that could be generalized vaccinia -- a skin infection caused by the vaccine -- and said a 60-year-old man developed chest pain. Both lived in Florida, the CDC said. The rash is a well-known side effect of the vaccine, while chest pain, or angina (news - web sites), is not, the CDC said. The chest pain patient had a history of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. In addition, Florida health officials reported a third possible case. "The third individual appears to have suffered acute gallbladder inflammation resulting in removal of the gallbladder," the Florida Department of Health said. Gallbladder troubles are not known to be a side-effect of smallpox shots. "Although two of the individuals appear to have suffered ailments that have no previously known association with the smallpox vaccine, it has been several decades since individuals were vaccinated against smallpox, and we must therefore report on even the most unlikely associated clinical events," Florida Health Secretary Dr. John Agwunobi said. The vaccine is generally safe but sometimes people can develop a reaction. When in general use, it was known to have killed one to two people per million vaccinated, and made up to 52 per million seriously ill. The vaccination program was begun when after fears of possible terrorist incidents were raised after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The CDC's Dr. Eric Mast said the agency was erring on the side of caution in reporting illnesses in people vaccinated. "We have known from the outset that reactions will occur," Mast told a telephone briefing. "We know that there will be a wide range of illnesses that are reported. We need to recognize that some of them may be caused by the vaccine and some may not be," Mast said, adding the CDC would investigate all reported adverse events. Overall, 7,354 civilian health care and public health workers have been vaccinated against smallpox as part of the program. The U.S. Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department hopes to eventually vaccinate 450,000 health care workers in the first round of the program. These people will then be able to vaccinate up to 10 million more health and emergency workers and police in case it is needed. But the month-old program is off to a very slow start. Unions have resisted the vaccination plan until issues over compensation of those who do get sick are resolved. HHS and Congress are working on a plan to cover health workers who may lose time from work due to vaccine-related illness. The smallpox vaccine is decades old, because smallpox was declared eradicated around the world in 1979. It uses a live virus called vaccinia, which is related to smallpox. The man with chest pain was treated with angioplasty to clear a clogged artery. The woman's rash is healing, Mast said, and her pustules have been tested to see if they contain vaccinia virus. He said she was not ill enough to have been hospitalized. 

Clouds: They're New & Blue 23-Feb-2003 Global warming may have created a new type of cloud called noctilucent or "night shining" clouds (NLCs). They're thin and wispy and have an electric blue glow. "Over the past few weeks we've been enjoying outstanding views of these clouds above the southern hemisphere," says space station astronaut Don Pettit. "We routinely see them when we're flying over Australia and the tip of South America." He estimates they're 50 to 62 miles above the Earth's surface, "literally on the fringes of space." You can see them from Earth as well, glowing in the night sky after sunset. "Noctilucent clouds are a relatively new phenomenon," says Gary Thomas, who studies them. "They were first seen in 1885," about two years after the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, which sent ash high into Earth's atmosphere. Ash from that volcano caused such wonderful sunsets that watching them became a popular pastime all over the world. One sky watcher named T. W. Backhouse also noticed wispy filaments glowing electric blue against the black sky-NLCs. Scientists at that time thought they were caused by volcanic ash. But when the ash eventually settled, the NLCs remained, and now we're seeing even more of them. "It's puzzling," says Thomas. "Noctilucent clouds have not only persisted, but also spread." A century ago, you had to go to places like Scandinavia, Russia and Britain to see them, but today they can be seen as far south as Utah and Colorado. "Although NLCs look like they're in space," says Thomas, "they're really inside Earth's atmosphere, in a layer called the mesosphere ranging from 50 to 85 kilometers high." The mesosphere is very cold and very dry-"one hundred million times dryer than air from the Sahara desert." NLCs are made of very tiny ice crystals, and sunlight scattered by these crystals gives them their blue color. Clouds form when water molecules stick to dust in the atmosphere, which creates ice crystals. What scientists don't understand is how ice crystals can form in the dry mesosphere. Also, ordinary clouds get their dust from things like desert wind storms, but dust from the Earth can't get all the way up to the mesosphere. "Krakatoa may have seeded the mesosphere with dust in 1883, but that doesn't explain the clouds we see now," says Thomas. "Perhaps the source is space itself." There is dust in outer space, which comes from debris cast off by passing comets and asteroids. And the water? "Upwelling winds in the summertime carry water vapor from the moist lower atmosphere toward the mesosphere," says Thomas. This is why NLCs appear in the summer, rather than the winter. The reason for the recent increase in NLCs could be global warming. Noctilucent clouds were first seen during the Industrial Revolution, which was a time of rising greenhouse gas production. "Extreme cold is required to form ice in a dry environment like the mesosphere," says Thomas. Global warming creates a colder mesosphere because, while greenhouse gases warm Earth's surface, they actually lower temperatures in the high atmosphere. This is what causes blocks of ice to form in the mesosphere and fall out of the sky.

Gas Gobbling Trees 25-Feb-2003 Scientists have invented fake trees that can clean up carbon dioxide emissions. Now Brazilian botanist Marcos Buckeridge has found a living tree that's a CO2 gas gobbler. The Jatoba is a rainforest tree that grows much faster in atmospheres with high levels of carbon dioxide. "We took seeds and grew them in normal air, which has 360 carbon dioxide parts per million, and in parallel grew plantlets at 720 parts per million, which is the concentration expected for 2075," Buckeridge says. "The first thing we saw was that photosynthesis doubled in the plants that were growing at the higher CO2 concentration." If Jatobas were planted in yards and along highways all over the world, we'd have less global warming. Planting trees to absorb CO2 is much easier than convincing factories not to pollute and consumers to drive hybrid cars. But we need to start planting soon, because the trees take a long time to mature (and all immature trees give out CO2 rather than absorb it). However, some Jatobas live to be 500 years old, so once planted, they'll last a long time. Buckeridge thinks we may be able to genetically engineer other trees and plants to gobble up large amounts of CO2 too, once we understand how the Jatoba does it. "It will take years for us to understand how these things work," Buckeridge says. "We have to have the technology to provide for an emergency. We must be thinking of this research now; we do not know how high CO2 levels will be in 75 years' time." 

Gene Makes You Sensitive to Pain-or Not 25-Feb-2003 A small variation in a single gene makes the difference when it comes to how much pain you can stand. This gene makes catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT), an enzyme that cleans up the brain chemical linked with pain sensation. A guy who can take a lot of pain-maybe an NFL player or a professional boxer-will have a different form of the gene than someone who wimpers whenever he skins his knee. Researcher Jon-Kar Zubieta found that people with an active form of COMT felt less pain, while people with the less active type felt pain more acutely. Those with both forms of the gene, a different one from each parent, experienced a medium amount of pain when injured. When testing people's pain thresholds, Zubieta found that,"Depending on the genotype you got-which had lowest, intermediate and highest activity-people had a gradation in response." He says a quarter of the population are pain sensitive types, a quarter are stoic types, and half are in-between.

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name but your bank will know how you sign your checks. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks -- you can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards, etc. Unfortunately I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know: We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important: (I never even thought to do this) Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them in their tracks. The numbers are: Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 Explain (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 Trains Union: 1-800-680-7289 Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271 We pass along jokes; we pass along just about everything. Do think about passing this information along. It could really help someone you care about.

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their
conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you
want.

FOUR. When you say, "I love you", mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams
don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only

way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer,
smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great
risk.

FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others;

and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps
to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your

voice.

TWENTY ONE. Spend some time alone.

Sun in Capricorn:

Capricorn - Key Words: The analytical constipated mind

Persuading Capricorns to make love has to be done under hypnosis, otherwise it is a fruitless endeavor. In fact, when choosing a long time relationship Capricorn, choose someone who has been dead for at least 50 years. Capricorns are so controlled, that they may actually die a statue, trouble is, no one may know the difference. The author of this whimsy was married to a Capricorn lady once, and being a Leo I was interested in my performance in that very intimate moment. To make a long story short, as I looked at my Capricorn mate in bed afterwards, I actually thought she had passed away. It was difficult to distinguish life from lifelessness at that moment. This summed up intimacy and marriage to a Capricorn. The Capricorn's lovemaking technique has all of the warmth of an iceberg, but good news, if they held onto their partner in lovemaking like they do their career, they would get the academy award for sensuality. Don't worry though, it'll never happen. In business, arguments, relationships or career, Capricorns would never enter into anything that they have the slightest possibility of losing at. If you want to completely screw up the Capricorn mind, give them a computer for their birthday, or go away and "forget" to leave instructions for the food processor, microwave, washing machine or dryer. Try to tape it for future reference, as the laughs will be precious as their analytical minds try to unboggle the mysteries of DOS in computers, or Convection in Microwaves. As an example, Al Capone was a Capricorn. He had a whimsical habit of beating people to death with a baseball bat. How can you spot a Capricorn at a party? They are the ones telling the same old joke, over and over again, thinking it is something new and exciting, and, for the first time. Like the sign Taurus, Capricorns use the same restaurants and same Motel/Hotel year after year after year, whether they enjoyed it or not. You can always tell a Capricorn home, there is only one phone, placed in the middle for access from any part of the house. A Capricorns career is one where as an administrator they excel because they are cold and suspicious. These are some of Capricorns most charming attributes. There are ways to get through that tough Capricorn exterior though, as they are very vulnerable to criticism. Even though Capricorns will never admit it, it rumbles there beneath the surface. Keep at it long enough and watch the alarms and overloads go off in their heads. Although Capricorns always look in control, they have the inner anxiety control of a meadow muffin, and fear of public opinion is right up there with constipation for any Capricorn. To get a Capricorns attention to make love, interrogate them, it will blow their mind, and start the inevitable wheels a turnin' (What are they after? What is their motivation?) If you do turn this Capricorn on, then I hope you don't mind wearing the bracelets slaves used to wear, because this is the kind of loyalty this love munchkin needs. Capricorns do fall in love though, with the same consistency of Halley's Comet, lasting about as long as the observation of it. Okay, so now you are in tight with this Capricorn, you are in a relationship of master and slave and . . . what happens next? It's like a blasted soap opera, you have to wait for script changes and do everything exactly as it is written, and for goodness sake, no method acting, that will spoil everything! As far as marriage goes, if you can strike a good bargain with your Capricorn, they will resemble a good companion, like a dog. Capricorns often marry early just to get out of the circumstances they are in, usually making life no better than it was to begin with. Women of the species would be better off marrying a Golden Retriever. After all, loyalty is everything!

Alleged continuation of Challenger Tape Transcript

The following transcript begins two seconds after NASA's official version ends, with pilot Michael Smith saying, " Uh-oh! " Times from the moment of takeoff are shown in minutes and seconds and are approximate. 

The sex of the speaker is indicated by M or F. 

T+1:15 (M)
What happened? What happened? Oh God, no - no! 
T+1:17 (F)
Oh dear God. 
T+1:18 (M)
Turn on your air pack! Turn on your air... 
T+1:20 (M)
Can't breathe... choking... 
T+1:21 (M)
Lift up your visor! 
T+1:22 (M/F)
(Screams.) It's hot. (Sobs.) I can't. Don't tell me...God! Do it...now... 
T+1:24 (M)
I told them... I told them... Dammit! Resnik don't... 
T+1:27 (M)
Take it easy! Move (unintelligible)... 
T+1:28 (F)
Don't let me die like this. Not now. Not here... 
T+1:31 (M)
Your arm... no... I (extended garble, static) 
T+1:36 (F)
I'm... passing... out... 
T+1:37 (M)
We're not dead yet. 
T+1:40 (M)
If you ever wanted (unintelligible) me a miracle... (unintelligible)... (screams) 
T+1:41 (M)
She's... she's... (garble) ... damn! 
T+1:50 (M)
Can't breathe... 
T+1:51 (M/F)
(screams) Jesus Christ! No! 
T+1:54 (M)
She's out. 
T+1:55 (M)
Lucky... (unintelligible). 
T+1:56 (M)
God. The water... we're dead! (screams) 
T+2:00 (F)
Goodbye (sobs)... I love you, I love you... 
T+2:03 (M)
Loosen up... loosen up... 
T+2:07 (M)
It'll just be like a ditch landing... 
T+2:09 (M)
That's right, think positive. 
T+2:11 (M)
Ditch procedure... 
T+2:14 (M)
No way! 
T+2:17 (M)
Give me your hand... 
T+2:19 (M)
You awake in there? I... I... 
T+2:29 (M)
Our Father... (unintelligible)... 
T+2:42 (M)
hallowed be Thy name... (unintelligible). 
T+2:58 (M)
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall...not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil... I will dwell in the house... 
T+3:15 to end
None. Static, silence. 

A number of cosmetic products are made up of ingredients that could be harmful to your health. Since the
FDA has not set standards for the safety testing of cosmetics, it's up to you to be your own watchdog. 

Following are seven ingredients that should be on everyone's alert list: 

Alpha-Hydroxy Acids

Found In: Moisturizers, toners, cleansers, masks, age-spot removers 

Cause for Alarm: AHAs are known for accelerating the exfoliation of dead skin cells. But they can also increase the skin's sensitivity to the sun by as much as 50 percent, leaving you exposed to accelerated skin aging and the possibility of skin cancer. 

Safe Bet: AHAs are best used at a concentration that is less than 10 percent.

Formaldehyde

Found In: Nail polish, shampoos, soaps, skin creams. 

Cause for Alarm: This potentially irritating preservative can be absorbed into the skin and cause allergic reactions, headaches, even asthma. The ingredient, if listed at all, is often referred to as formalin. Its use in cosmetics is banned in Japan and Sweden. 

Safe Bet: Read labels carefully: products containing levels that might trigger an adverse reaction are required to carry a caution. 

Propylene Glycol 

Found In: Suntan lotions, lipsticks and other cosmetics and toiletries.

Cause for Alarm: Its humectant properties are used to stop products from drying out. But it has also been linked to liver abnormalities and kidney damage. It is also known as a skin and eye irritant. 

Safe Bet: Avoid it altogether and instead opt for alternative products containing glycerin or sorbitol. 

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate 

Found In: Bubble baths, toothpastes, shampoos and lotions 

Cause for Alarm: This detergent, which has been found to enter the brain, heart and liver and impair the immune system, has been linked to eye irritations, skin rashes and allergic reactions. The biggest problems occur when it is mixed with other chemicals, like those typically used in toiletries, because it can form carcinogenic compounds. 

Safe Bet: Minimize the risks by using products with SLS sparingly and rinsing off quickly afterwards. 

Talc 

Found In: Makeup and body powders 

Cause for Alarm: Mineral talc has been linked to ovarian cancer and has been found to induce cancer in rodents. 

Safe Bet: Avoid using talc-based powders, especially on genital areas. 

Mineral Oil 

Found In: Makeup removers, lipsticks, lotions 

Cause for Alarm: A petroleum derivative, it has been linked to everything from clogged pores to cancer. Its density does not allow skin to breathe. 

Safe Bet: Most experts advise to avoid it. 

Methyl Methacrylate 

Found In: Nail products, primarily used in application of acrylic nails 

Cause for Alarm: The chemical has been linked to fungal infections, nail deformities and other problems. Prolonged exposure can lead to eye, skin and lung irritation, abnormal liver or kidney function, nervous system damage or reproductive problems. 

Safe Bet: Stick with salons that use ethyl methacrylate, a safer bonding liquid, instead. It's more expensive, but isn't your safety worth it? 

Vanessa Bush has covered the beauty and fashion scene for a host of magazines including Glamour and Honey, and she is
currently an editor at Essence. She is the co-author, with supermodel Tyra Banks, of Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out. Vanessa
and her family make their home in New Jersey.

Discuss this article with others right now at The Salon! 

Your Mac and Its Memory 

Memory Basics
RAM basics. When someone refers to a computer's memory, they're generally referring to RAM, its random access memory. It's called random access because you can get to any piece of it without having to go through the information in order. (A brief informational side trip: in the stone ages of computers, any information storage was referred to as memory - including disks. Before disks, there were tapes that stored information, and that "memory" was read into a computer serially - from beginning to end. Hence the random access phrase to describe non-serial access to stored items.) 

What's in RAM is there only as long as the computer stays on. If you turn off the computer or something interrupts the power supply, everything in RAM disappears. That's why it's so important to save your work at frequent intervals. 

iMac Month!

Table of Contents
Peripherals: Keyboard and Mouse
The Interface: Starting Up and Shutting Down
Graphics: Graphics on the Mac

Related Books 
The Macintosh Bible, 7th Edition

Memory versus disk space. Just a helpful reminder: When you get a Not enough memory message, that's referring to RAM, not to space on your disk.This often causes confusion among beginners. There's a big difference between the two dialogs here - with one, you're out of disk space; the other means you really don't have enough memory. 

How much memory do you have? To find out how much memory you have (well, not you, but your computer; you can assume your memory is diminishing with age), choose About This Computer from the Apple menu when you're in the Finder. You'll get a full report on not only how much memory you have, but how it's being used. The part labeled Built-in Memory is the RAM you have in your computer; the part labeled Virtual Memory is the standard RAM plus whatever amount of virtual memory is turned on. (All of this is detailed later in the chapter.) 

How much memory do you need? As much as you can afford, and then some. Luckily, the cost of RAM is peanuts compared to what it once was, so load up - it's the cheapest but most effective upgrade around. You can run multiple programs, and everything will run faster when there's lots of RAM available. But more specifically, what's bare minimum and comfortable minimum when it comes to RAM? The operating system eats up quite a bit; you need room for at least one program to run along with the Finder, and high-end programs need very large chunks. Later OS's use more than earlier ones, and PowerMacs need more than 68K machines.

A lean OS 8 system takes around 10MB of memory just for itself. If you have 16MB of memory, that's barely enough room to run a large application - and many applications won't run under such constraints. While there are various tricks to get beyond the physical RAM limitations (like virtual memory), nothing is as fast as standard RAM, and upping the RAM in your machine is the best way to go. 

Think of 16MB of RAM as your absolute minimum. For running a very large program, or two small-to-medium applications, you'll need at least 20 to 24MB. For high-end graphics or multimedia, even 48MB might feel a little tight. 

Macs have memory limitations. Buying more memory for your Mac isn't always the neat solution it might seem to be: Macs have a limit as to how much memory they can use. The maximum amount of usable RAM varies from one model to another. The oldest Macs, for instance, are limited to 4MB of RAM; some middle-aged ones, including many early PowerBooks, have 8MB limits. The limits of each model are listed in Chapter 2. But note that the limitations are for physical memory - the RAM that you install. Using virtual memory (described later in the chapter), each Mac can break its RAM barrier and go a little further. 

More About Memory
The Memory control panel. There are three basic tools and procedures you can use to control how your Mac's memory is being used. The first is the About box, where you can see how much memory you have and how it's currently allocated. Another is the Info window of every application you run, where you can set minimum and maximum memory allocations; that's covered a little later. The third basic tool is the Memory control panel, where you can control basic memory features: the disk cache, virtual memory, and the RAM disk, all of which are covered later in this chapter.

The Shift effect. Turning off extensions at startup by holding down S also turns off the Memory control panel, so if you turn off extensions, you won't have any virtual memory on, the disk cache will be either turned off (on older Macs) or set to the 96K minimum (for newer Macs), and no RAM disk will be created. But the settings in the control panel aren't affected, so at your next startup with extensions on, all the Memory settings will be used again. 

Subtle low-memory warning signs. Some problems that crop up as a result of tight memory situations won't trigger a helpful dialog telling you that more memory would solve the problem. Here are some of the things that could be due to low memory; some of them can be cured by re-allocating existing memory or by buying more memory for your Mac. 

� Applications quit unexpectedly.

� The Finder says you have to close some windows. 

� You can't save a document. 

� It takes a long time to do something that is normally speedier - opening windows on the desktop, making changes in a document, and so on. 

� Documents print slowly or not at all.

Sure fixes for memory shortages. If your system seems chronically short of memory, here are some possible solutions (most of which are detailed later in the chapter). 

� Trim down the amount of memory the system is using by getting rid of unneeded extensions and control panels. 

� Change the allocations for the applications that you run so they won't use so much memory. 

� Use virtual memory; it uses space on your hard drive as if it were RAM. It's free, since it comes with the system software. However, it can be slow, especially on older machines, and it takes up drive space that may be at a premium on older machines.

� Use RAM Doubler (described later in the chapter); it's cheaper than real memory and faster than the Mac's virtual memory, a solid product that works with almost everything except Photoshop. 

� Buy more real memory. It's a great investment, and may be well worth it even for someone on a tight budget because of all the time and grief it saves in the end. 

Out of memory (not). Don't assume you have to go out and buy more RAM if you get a dialog telling you that you're out of memory and can't do something in an application - or even if it says there's not enough memory to run the application. You might just need to reorganize the memory that you do have. 

If you run out of memory inside an application, you can give it more from the total memory available on your Mac. Details appear a little later in the chapter, in the section Memory Allocations. If there's not enough room to launch an application, it might be just because you've got too many others running and have to quit some or simply shuffle them around, so to speak. That's covered a little later, too, under Memory Fragmentation. 

Then again, sometimes you really are out of memory and do have to buy more. 

The not-so-modern memory manager. In early versions of System 7, there was a special setting in the Memory control panel for something called the Modern Memory Manager, which improved memory performance for PowerPC-based Macs. It's been rolled into OS 8, so you won't find the setting in the control panel anymore. 

The 32-bit problem - solved. This is of only historic interest to owners of current and recent Macs. But if you have an older Mac, or ever trouble-shoot for someone who uses one, it's good to know. 

The Mac's operating system was designed right from the start to accommodate 8MB of memory. Every spot in memory has an "address" that the computer uses for referencing; the highest number originally available is, in binary, a string of 24 ones - which allows for 8MB worth of memory addresses (24-bit addressing). Starting with System 7, the Mac added another byte for memory addressing; with 8 bits to the byte, that means it went from 24- to 32-bit addressing, letting it track 4,096MB of memory addresses - more than it can physically accommodate. 

At first, the system software provided a setting in the Memory control panel to let you turn 32-bit addressing on and off because some programs couldn't run with it on. Later, you didn't have a choice, because the system always turned it on and didn't let you turn it off. This is still the case with OS 8. 

But there was one other 32-bit problem. Macs up through the IIcx couldn't see more than 8MB of memory, even if you tried turning on 32-bit addressing, because of a problem in their ROMs (these are generally referred to as dirty ROMs). For those models, you also had to add an extra extension from Apple or Connectix, variously named Mode32 or 32-bit Enabler. Those capabilities are also rolled into OS 8, so all these problems should be things of the past. 

RAM Doubler can triple your memory. Connectix's RAM Doubler ($55) is one of the utilities that a large majority of Mac owners use. With it, you can double or even triple the amount of memory your computer has - or at least trick the Mac into thinking it has more memory. 

RAM Doubler does its magic in the background, using a combination of amazing tricks. It compresses the information going into RAM and decompresses it on the way out; it grabs memory that's been allocated to other things but is not currently being used; and, when necessary, it uses part of the disk instead of RAM to store information. All this happens in the background, so you don't have to do a thing once you set it up. 

There is, of course, a penalty, and it's the usual one in the computer world: Your Mac slows down. But if you're not too greedy in adding this "fake" memory to your total, the five-to-ten percent performance hit it extracts is easy to live with. Also, keep in mind Connectix's recommendation: have at least 8MB of physical memory before using RAM Doubler. 

PRAM
The PRAM. PRAM ("P-ram," not "pramm") is parameter RAM, a small portion of memory that stores some basic but important information - the parameters that your Mac uses. (Don't get me started on the misuse of this word by the general populace. Parameters means variables, not limits. Even the holographic doctor on Star Trek Voyager defined it wrong for his simulated family when his "daughter" asked what it meant.) 

Information stored in PRAM includes many items set through control panels: 

� date and time 

� insertion point and menu blink rates

� keyboard repeat rate 

� mouse tracking and double-click speed 

� volume setting

� modem and printer port settings

� startup disk setting

� virtual memory and RAM disk settings 

PRAM is special not because of what it holds, but because it lives through shutdowns and even the unplugging of your Mac. Like regular RAM, it needs constant electrical refreshing, but it gets power from an internal battery that lasts for years. (That's why the time and date can remain set even when your computer's unplugged.)

Zap! Pow! Sometimes the information stored in PRAM gets corrupted (that is, just generally confused), so you have to clear it and reset the parameters; the procedure is known as zapping. To zap PRAM, restart the computer and hold down the Apple key, the Option key, P, and R while it's starting up. You'll hear your usual startup tone, the screen might flash, and the system will restart all over again with the startup sound. Keep those keys down through another round or two - Apple used to recommend a single zap, but for some systems, it's suggested that you wait until the third try before you release the keys and let the system start up. 

For an older, NuBus-based Mac, you can zap the PRAM on a restart. For newer Macs, you have to shut down the Mac and then start up again with the keys down. That's because PCI-based Macs store some settings in NVRAM - non-volatile video RAM, which also has to be zapped. You can do that only at a startup, and you have to get the keys down immediately. You also have to then drag out the Display preferences file from the Preferences folder and then restart once more! 

This procedure resets all the options in PRAM to their defaults, except for the time and date, which remain set. You'll have to open a lot of control panels and reset your options. 

In the Beginning
A PRAM zap used to reset the time and date as well as other control panel settings. On early Macs, the date defaulted back to January 1, 1904.

What's so special about that date? It makes the date calculation easier from the Mac's point of view. The year 1900 was not a leap year, despite the fact it's divisible by four. By not starting at 1900, but four years later (in the leap year), the Mac and its programmers didn't have to worry about convoluted calculations to figure out how many days in a given month or on what day of the week a certain date falls. It's the earliest date in this century that could be used without running into mathematical problems.

Healthy lamb born with six legs A healthy lamb has been born with six legs on a farm in Holland. Farmer Rob Adriaans, from Nuenen, says the lamb seems perfectly happy with his extra legs. He told Brabants Dagblad: "I was helping the ewe to deliver, when I suddenly felt a lot of legs. "I thought two others were to come, when I saw it was only one little lamb." He has called the lamb Hermes, and says it is highly unusual as lambs born with extra limbs rarely survive. Mr Adriaans added: "Little Hermes is very healthy and can stay on his feet and drink from his mother." The two extra legs could be removed surgically, but Mr Adriaans said the lamb doesn1t seem to be troubled. He said: "I want to keep the little fellow alive as long as possible. I will take good care of him." Story filed: 14:22 Friday 14th February 2003

http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=2399

Meditation Changes Your Brain 16-Feb-2003 Scientists have found evidence that meditation can make physical changes in our bodies, by boosting parts of the brain and the immune system. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin studied people who practiced "mindfulness" meditation, a technique developed by stress reduction specialist Jon Kabat- Zinn to help hospital patients deal with pain and discomfort. Out of 41 patients, 25 attended a weekly class and one seven-hour retreat, and they also practiced exercises at home. The rest didn't meditate, so they acted as a control group. After 8 weeks, the researchers measured the electrical activity in the frontal part of the brains of all 41 subjects and found this region was more active on the left side in the people who meditated. The left side of the brain is associated with less anxiety and a more positive emotional state. They were also all given a flu shot at the beginning of the study, and those who meditated had higher levels of the antibody.

Wash. Man Builds Dream House in a Tree Wed Feb 12, 9:44 AM ET Add Strange News - 

STEVENS PASS, Wash. - With a chain saw, a rope and a hatchet, Tony Detmer built his three-story dream house - suspended 20 feet up, in a stand of Douglas fir and cedar. Detmer, 31, often starts his day with a plunge into the snow below. In the deep chill of a mountain morning, he said, the jolt is better than a cup of coffee. "There's something about being off of the ground," he said. "I feel lofty. I want to fly. This is the closest I can get." Detmer began working on the tree house in the fall of 1999. The deck went up first. Then straps were wrapped around trees to hold up parts of the house. The whole thing cost less than $2,000, most of which went for a 3,000-watt generator to run a saw and a television. "I never used a level, it's all by eyeball," he said. Detmer's girlfriend, Betsy Delph, 23, and another roommate, Brett Hoisington, 19, also live in the house, which has a wood-burning stove and a rope swing on the deck. Detmer sleeps on the third floor. The only way to get there is by climbing over a couch, up a wall and through a small, square hole. There are no bathrooms, and showers come once a week at a nearby ski area. Detmer's envisions a worldwide community of tree houses. In the meantime, he wants to build a village in the trees, and have rope swings connecting all the houses. "I've pretty much been a monkey all my life," he said. "This is what makes me happy." 

City Has Real Fork in the Road Mon Feb 17, 8:03 AM ET Add Strange News - 

ROCK CITY, N.Y. - You'll know you're in the upstate hamlet of Rock City when you get to the fork in the road. Really. The 31-foot-high silver metal fork is the creation of local businessman Steve Schreiber. He started off the year 2000 by planting the sculpture at the intersection of two roads in the tiny Hudson Valley community about 90 miles north of New York City. The fork is made from forged scrap steel and it took Schreiber and some friends nine months to construct. "I did it as a goof," he said. "I didn't think they would let me leave it there. Nobody has said anything." 

Woman Gets Allergic Shellfish Reaction from Kiss

Feb 16, 9:06 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Here's a tale to dampen romantic passions: sometimes a kiss is not just a kiss, if you have food allergies.

A 20-year-old woman with shellfish allergies went into severe anaphylactic shock after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a few shrimp, doctors reported on Friday.

"It is important to warn susceptible patients that food does not actually have to be eaten to trigger an allergic reaction," Dr. David Steensma of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said in a statement.

"Touching the offending food and kissing or touching someone who has recently eaten the food can be enough to cause a major reaction."

Writing in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Steensma and colleagues reported that the woman had a sever reaction -- her throat swelled up and she had cramps and nausea. A quick trip to the emergency room saved her life.

Both the woman and her boyfriend worked at a seafood restaurant, and Steensma said the patient may have sensitized herself to the shellfish by repeatedly touching it.

Kissing the Right Way May Start in the Womb

Feb 13, 10:20 am ET 

LONDON  - How people kiss, with a preference to turn the head either to the right or left, is a trait that is developed in the womb but probably lasts throughout life, a German psychologist said.

Although they may not realize it, people turn to the same side before planting a kiss on the lips and twice as many people turn to the right.

"There could be one very early habit given to humans before birth which still influences our behavior for the rest of our life and is visible in subtle habits during, for example, kissing," said Onur Gunturkun of Ruhr University in Bochum Germany.

The preference for turning the head to the right is one of the earliest examples of behavioral asymmetry and scientists suspect it influences sidedness, such as favoring the right foot, ear, eye, or kissing side, for life.

To test the theory, Gunturkun secretly observed 124 kisses of couples in international airports in the United States, Germany and Turkey.

St. Valentine's Relics Are a Haven for Lovers

Feb 14, 10:27 am ET 

DUBLIN  - A little-known church hidden among the back streets of Dublin will become a haven for young lovers as they seek spiritual guidance at the final resting place of St. Valentine.

For over 160 years, priests of the Carmelite Order have been looking after the saint's remains at their city center priory.

On St. Valentine's Day, a stream of courting couples flock to the Whitefriar Street church to have their engagement rings blessed. Married couples can also renew their wedding vows.

The relics of the third century martyr, who worked and died in what is now Italy, ended up in Dublin as a present to a local priest from Pope Gregory XVI.

"When you think of presents you would normally imagine bibles and rosaries as opposed to the actual relics of saints," said Father Patrick Breen, who looks after the remains.

Men Who Don't Shave Have Less Sex, More Strokes

Feb 6, 9:05 am ET 

By Richard Woodman

LONDON  - Men who don't shave every day enjoy less sex and are 70 percent more likely to suffer a stroke than daily shavers, a new study shows.

A team at Bristol University who examined the link between shaving, coronary heart disease and stroke in 2,438 middle-aged Welsh men, said that men who did not shave every day were more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

Over the course of the 20-year study, there were 835 deaths, they reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology. In all, 45% of the men who shaved less than daily died, compared with 31% of those who shaved at least daily.

Many of the excess deaths were due to higher rates of smoking and the poorer lifestyles of men who did not shave daily but the scientists said this did not explain their substantially raised risk of strokes.

The findings show that men who don't shave every day are less likely to be married and are more likely to be blue-collar workers. They also have fewer orgasms, tend to be shorter, and to suffer from angina.

"The association between infrequent shaving and death is probably due to underlying smoking and social factors, but a small hormonal effect may also exist," Professor Shah Ebrahim, of the department of social medicine, said in a statement.

He said the association with stroke did not fall away after discounting lifestyle factors and remained unexplained.

Ebrahim told The News Source the link between circulating sex hormones and beard growth was first established when a man on a remote island in the Hebrides noticed that his beard grew vigorously when he was about to rejoin his girlfriend on the Scottish mainland.

He said the low frequency of orgasm in men who did not shave regularly might be because they had low levels of testosterone or might simply reflect the fact that they were unmarried and had less opportunity for sex.

One possible explanation for the raised risk of stroke was that levels of circulating sex hormones in the body might influence the atheroma process in which fatty deposits build up in the arteries.

Was Nibiru a Mothership?

While I can't discount that there is "at least" one saturn-like object orbiting the far/inner reaches of our solar system...

Has anyone considered that "planet x" may be nothing more than the "mothership of the gods." If anyone here follows Sitchin's theory on Planet X, it seems to me it is just "as" plausible that the gods were merely on a "vending route" to pick up "their" gold, and their schedule brought them into our neighborhood every 3 or 4,000 years.

Interesting how we're still so infatuated with Gold (good programming), and how we hoard it. So, when will "they" return to collect it?

Any thoughts on this pet-theory of mine are appreciated...

Bayer Knew of Cholesterol Drug Risk - NY Times Sat Feb 22, 3:50 PM ET  

NEW YORK  - Executives at Bayer AG knew of problems with the company's anti-cholesterol drug Baycol years before it was pulled from the market, according to newly disclosed company documents, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Documents made public by lawyers suing Bayer, including e-mail messages, memos and sworn depositions, suggest the company promoted Baycol even as its own analysis found that patients on it were contracting a rare muscle disorder at a higher rate than patients on similar drugs, the Times reported. Some 100 deaths and 1,600 injuries have been linked to the drug, according to Bayer, and thousands of patients who took the drug or the families of those who died have filed suit against Bayer, based in Germany, along with its British marketing partner, GlaxoSmithKline Plc . Bayer contends the drug was marketed appropriately and is safe when properly used. A GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman told the Times that the company's "promotion of Baycol was fully consistent with the product label that the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approved." One letter that is part of the court filing shows that executives at Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline knew that higher doses of Baycol could cause problems as early as 1997, when the drug was approved by the FDA, the Times reported. Bayer pulled the drug from the market in 2001. Philip Beck, a lawyer with Chicago-based Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott who is representing Bayer, said in a statement provided to The News Source: "We are currently presenting our case to a jury in Corpus Christi, Texas. We are showing them the full context of many of the documents referenced in the article, as well as other documents and evidence giving them the complete story about the development and marketing of Baycol." GlaxoSmithKline executives were not immediately available for comment.

Subject: Mexican Flies? ... Grisly Mexico Factory Breeds Man-Eating Flies By Elizabeth Fullerton 2-21-3 TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico  - Tucked away in southern Mexico's jungly Chiapas state, scientists work around the clock using radiation and powdered blood to produce one of the area's most cutting-edge exports -- man-eating flies. Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, better known for spawning an armed rebellion in 1994 by guerrillas fighting for Indian rights, is home to the world's only New World screwworm plant, breeding millions of insects each week. Named for the corkscrew motion with which they burrow into flesh, the screwworm larvae can kill their victim -- human or animal -- in five days. The worm's Latin name, cochliomyia hominivorax, means "fly that devours men". "They feed off fresh blood, not dead tissue as other species do. That's why they are extremely dangerous. It's very hard for an animal to defend itself against something like that," said Alfredo Alvarez, a biologist at the plant. In the 1950s, U.S. scientists pioneered a strange but effective way of eradicating the pests. The flies are zapped with high doses of radiation to sterilise them then released into the wild to mate with their fertile counterparts. The females only mate once, so if they do so with the sterile flies, they will not reproduce. Using this technology, the United States by 1982 wiped out the bug that had threatened swathes of the nation's livestock. With the aim of gradually eradicating the worm from the American continent, the fly-producing factory in southern Mexico was started in 1976 by a joint U.S.-Mexican government commission and by 1992 Mexico was declared free of the screwworm. But there have been recurrences in Mexico recent years, some, ironically, due to errors at the fly factory that allowed millions of the killer flies to escape. Machine failure at the plant caused an outbreak of the disease in January that Alvarez described as a "disaster." But thanks to the 27-year-old plant, the flies have been mostly wiped out in the southern United States, Mexico, Libya and across most of Central America. In the early 1990s, Mexico exported the flies to Libya, which was contaminated by South American cattle imports. The U.S.-Mexican commission is now selling its unusual product to Panama and Jamaica, where what look like cardboard lunch-boxes packed with black buzzing flies are dropped from planes to rid those areas of the bloodthirsty insect. VITAL ORGANS A foetid, overbearing stench of decay -- the odour from the waste that about 90 million flies produce each week -- hits a visitor on arrival at the fly plant. It pervades clothing, hair and nostrils long after one leaves the plant, despite obligatory rigorous showering. Security is tight. All visitors and personnel are given clean overalls and boots for entering the production area, which is locked after them and has no windows. In the so-called "fly colony," a loud buzzing emanates from row upon row of metal cages where thousands of fertile flies are kept alive and fattened for breeding. To the untrained eye, they resemble common house flies with blue-green bodies but these have bulging orange eyes. After seven days, the flies are mature enough to lay their eggs and are taken to a darkened room. They lay their eggs along long wooden sticks smeared with a gel that to them smells similar to a wound. The fly's average life cycle is 20 days. One fly can lay up to 400 eggs in a wound. Within 24 hours these hatch into larvae and begin burrowing into the meat. In two days, an open sore in an eye, for example, will turn into a grapefruit-sized festering wound of raw, pulpy flesh. The larvae eat their way towards the victim's vital organs. "If the wound is in the stomach, they'll try to get to the liver or intestines. If it's in the head, they'll attack the eyes, the ears. They can reach the brain and then it's adios," said Alvarez, who is employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. The worm comes in two species -- the New World screwworm, native to the Western Hemisphere, and the Old World screwworm, found in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. TRICKING THE WORMS In the incubation room, live wounds are mimicked in racks of hundreds of trays, using a brown gel containing powdered blood, milk and egg among other ingredients. Workers scrape the fly eggs off the wooden sticks and deposit them in these trays on top of a piece of paper towel. As they hatch into larvae, tiny white grubs begin to swarm over the brown muck. "They are totally convinced they are attacking a warm animal," said Alvarez. Within 48 hours, the grubs have grown fatter and their diet must be replenished. "This is equivalent to a worm moving to another zone of the body to find fresh flesh," said Alvarez. From a distance, the huge trays resemble baking trays of brownies but at close range the mixture bubbles with the gouging and squirming of around 20,000 worms per tray. By the third day the trays brim with thick brown-red goo as more gel is added to satisfy the worms' rapacious appetite. The smell is at its most rancid. As they reach maturity, the grubs jump out of the trays, falling into funnels where they are scooped up and poured by the thousands into trays with sawdust covering them. They are left for 24 hours to develop a shell and become pupae. After five and a half days the pupae are put in plastic cylinders and exposed to around two minutes of radiation. The amount of radiation is 11 times the minimum needed to kill a human being but the flies are tough. Once they have been irradiated, the pupae are placed in ice coolers to slow the process of their maturing into flies. The high-tech plant, a rarity in the impoverished and heavily agricultural state of Chiapas, exports the "chilled flies" twice-weekly to Panama and Jamaica. INVASION OF THE FLIES The United States now plans to build a plant in Panama to create a sterile fly barrier against flies from South America. But the story has its failures too. Despite stringent security procedures such as numerous fly traps in and outside the plant, special clothing and the stationing of boxes of sterile flies around the perimeter to mate with fertile escapees, there have been outbreaks. Last month, the plant had its worst ever when a radiation machine malfunctioned. Millions of fertile flies were sent into the wild in Mexico and Panama. To date 50 cases of the disease have been found in animals in Panama and 44 in Chiapas. The damage could escalate and take months to repair. "It's a disaster for us. We're on national alert," said Alvarez. "The outbreak gives us an inkling of what could happen if the flies were used as a biological weapon in a terror attack. It could be very dangerous."

GEORGE WASHINGTON PROFILE IN PREPARATION AND COURAGE by George H. Jones, M.D., P.M. St. James Lodge No. 47 

George Washington was the man for the time in which he lived. If there had been no Washington, it is quite likely that our lives would be very different and probably there would be no United States. It is impossible to overestimate the man. But how did he get this way? He must have been some superman and might have had an easy time. We all know of the hero but whence came the man? 

George Washington's father had respect for a good education and sent George's two half-brothers to England for the best education. available. Unfortunately the father died before George's time had come so he missed out on the English education. George's mother also believed in a sound education and gave George excellent home schooling. His first teacher was an English convict, or at least was considered so by English law. He was an English exile but a well educated gentleman named William Grove, nicknamed "Hobby" The instruction was reported to consist of "reading and writing, a little geography, and a little arithmetic." 

After this early training, George lived with his half-brother Augustine. He studied at the Henry Williams School where he learned his first surveying, including the first and most noble of sciences - Geometry. After this period, he returned to Fredericksburg, Virginia, his mother's home that he always considered his home, and attended the school of Rev. James Marye. At 15 his preparatory schooling was over. Perhaps it seems short but for the times it was excellent. Most of the schooling was done by the teacher-pupil relationship and was very efficient. 

Washington now was faced with making a living. His half-brother Lawrence had inherited the farm at Mt. Vernon according to the law of inheritance and invited George to live with him. The family had a meeting and decided that George should become a surveyor. He had the aptitude and surveyors were few and their earnings were excellent. 

There are some records of George's surveying at Cornell University which has a "Book of Surveys 1746" made by Washington when he was 14 years old. The Library of Congress has a book "The Art of Measuring Land" dated 1745 also by Washington. There is also the plan of Major Lawrence Washington's turnip patch dated February 27, 1747 done while George was attending the Henry Williams School. 

Lawrence Washington was married to the daughter of Lord Fairfax, the most influential man in Virginia. Lord Fairfax was attracted to George because of "his good sense, courtly manners, good horsemanship, fearless sportsmanship, courage, and poise." Due to Lord Fairfax's influence, George was appointed assistant to James Germ, the Prince William County Surveyor. This gave him a chance to have a wilderness adventure in 1748 when he surveyed Lord Fairfax's land in the Blue Ridge Mountains. During this period he slept in the open and viewed an Indian war dance around a scalp. He met dangers and hardships and not only survived but became a seasoned wilderness adventurer. 

William and Mary College, founded in 1693, had jurisdiction over the Surveyor General's Off ice and appointed the surveyors of Virginia. Washington took the examination and was certified, thus making him a graduate of William and Mary College. He received a salary of 21 pounds a year which was a fine income. He had many offices in many towns and shared an office with Major L'enfant. Major L'enfant pressed the Continental Congress into authorizing true maps for the army which heretofore relied on sketches made from opinions of many people, consequently were inaccurate. Washington was interested in surveying until the end of his life. In 1799, the year he died, there is a detailed record of part of Mt. Vernon done in great detail. 

Washington, the man, was well prepared for life though lie could not have imagined the trials to come. Surveying developed in him precision in the use of language, mathematics, and thought. His wilderness adventures made him a frontiersman. His pleasing personality and his experience with people of all occupational classes gave him the ability he was to use in military leadership and political offices. People trusted him and he was worthy of the trust. 

Washington was subjected to physical as well as leadership challenges. He was known as a rail-splitter and a championship wrestler. It would seem certain that he possessed excellent health throughout his life. Nothing could be further from the truth, but he must have had more stamina than anyone known in history. 

Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington is the one most people think of when visualizing him. Stuart reported that he filled out Washington's cheeks with cotton when posing him for the portrait because Washington rarely wore his dentures which were made of ivory and fitted poorly. Paul Revere made one set of dentures for him. Teeth were extracted any time they had problems. Washington had his first tooth extracted when he was 22 and the last one at the age of 63. Washington was almost bald and wore a white wig. It is reported he had reddish hair. 

His brother Lawrence suffered from tuberculosis and accompanied by George went to Barbados for treatment. In his diary, George says, while there, he was "strongly attacked with a case of smallpox", which left him with many pockmarks on his face. lie also had a sallow complexion. All of this was painted as rosy by Stuart. 

George also had a sunken chest probably from rickets, a deficiency of vitamin D. He wore a padded coat to cover his deformity. Immediately after his death his good friend and physician, Col. Tobias Lear, measured him for posterity. He was 1 foot 9 inches across the shoulders which is normal for a
man of his height. He was 6 feet 3-1/2 inches tall and probably I inch more when young. This is very large for a man at that time and is the same height as Abe Lincoln. 

If Washington did not have enormous stamina, he would not have survived his diseases, which, at that time, where identified by symptoms and not causes so ii is only possible to speculate on the diseases. He had rickets as an infant, malaria at 17, lasting throughout his life, smallpox at 19 and tuberculosis at the same times, many fevers and bouts of diarrhea or dysentery. Quinine and mercury were about the only medicines. The popular treatment was bloodletting. One pint was removed to get rid of the bad humors. If the patient didn't recover, another pint was removed and so on. Other treatments were purgatives, emetics, enemas and blistering. George Washington survived all of these until the last in 1799. 

In 1753 Washington was commissioned a major in the Virginia militia. He fought the French in the Ohio territories, where the army was badly defeated and he was overcome with malaria. In 1755 General Braddock requested Washington to go with him to the French and Indian War. From Washington's diary we read: 

"Immediately upon leaving camp I was seized with violent fevers and pains. I was relieved by General Braddock's physician giving me Dr. James' powders which gave me immediate relief. This remedy was a faerocious nostrum, which in full doses produced vomiting, sweating and diarrhea. My illness was too violent to suffer me to ride, therefore, I was carried in a covered wagon." Then at the battle of Monongahela General Braddock was killed and Washington had two horses killed while riding them and had four musket balls rip through is coat, but he saved what was left of the detachment. He returned to Mt. Vernon and was very ill for five weeks. For the next two years, he had severe dysentery, high fever, and malaria off and on. 

It is interesting to know that the only period of good health Washington had was during the Revolutionary War. Should he have had his usual periodic diseases then, our history would have been quite different. One grandfather died at 37; his father at 49; but his mother lived to 82. Ile lived until 67 which is amazing considering his medical history. 

Again at the request of the new English General, Washington went to fight the French at Fort Duquesne. This time he was victorious and returned to his home at Mt. Vernon. In 1759 he married Martha Curtis, a widow with two children. This is the best thing that ever happened to him for she was a loving, caring, happy lady who made a wonderful home for him the rest of his life. 

Succeeding years brought him bouts of malaria or typhoid fever and severe dysentery. His medical history records that Dr. Craik used "The bark", quinine, which relieved his malaria but caused him severe loss of hearing for the rest of his days. This deafness caused him to appear aloof in his later years. 

After his presidency, at 65 years of age, he refused a third term of office and retired to Mt. Vernon to enjoy a well earned rest though far too short. Two and a half years after retirement he developed a severe infection in his throat which appears in looking back with today's knowledge, to be a streptococcal
infection. He was subjected to several blood lettings until in a weakened condition he refused further treatment. A young doctor, Dr. Dick, wanted to make a "hole in his windpipe", now called a tracheotomy, but the older physicians refused to experiment on this important figure and he expired on Dec. 14,1799. 

George Washington was completely American, He never went abroad, spoke no foreign languages, had no foreign habits, and was content to live and serve his country. When he was 20 years old, he sought admission into our fraternity. His age would indicate that his father had been a Mason for a man of 18 could petition Masonry under those conditions. An initiate under 21 was called a Lewis. He was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 in Virginia on August 4, 1753. 

In 1788 he became the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. In 1793 he laid the cornerstone for the nation's Capitol. He was buried with full Masonic Honors. 

George Washington guided his life by the principals of justice, love, and right. He was true to his responsibilities of charity, country, fraternity and family he was happily married 40 years. No man ever went from labor to refreshment to find more loving support at home than did Washington. He was a simple man, a strong man, and a humble man. Without him our country would be quite different. Let us honor him on his birthday, especially in our lodges. 

The Louisiana Freemason

There's a little mnemonic I learned in college to remember the macros and some of the micros, here it is, if you ever want to impress your friends: "See Hopkins Cafe, Managed by my cousin Mozel." Or C HOPKiNS CaFe, Mg B Mn CuZn MoCl, In order, the nutrients are Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, (K)Potassium, Iodine(animals only), Nitrogen, Sulphur, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Boron, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum, and Chlorine. There's three others, Sodium (Na), Silicon (Si), and Nickel (Ni), but they don't fit into the rhyme, the rest are all trace minerals, but are still needed, if even in minute quantities. We only get about 20 or so in our normal diet. My apologies for the technicality of it all...

Computer Users Warned of Clot Risk Tue Jan 28,12:03 PM ET Add Health 

By Stephen Pincock LONDON (The News Source Health) - Sitting in front of the computer for hours on end could increase the risk for the type of blood clots that cause "economy class syndrome" in long-haul airplane passengers, researchers said on Tuesday. A team of New Zealand-based doctors diagnosed a life-threatening case of this type of clot in a 32-year-old man who regularly spent up to 12 hours a day using his computer, often going hours without standing up. The man had no other risk factors for the condition, known as venous thromboembolism, in which blood clots that form in immobile limbs travel to the lungs, so Dr. Richard Beasley, from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, and colleagues dubbed it "eThrombosis." "In view of the widespread use of computers in relation to work, recreation and personal communication, the potential burden of eThrombosis may be considerable," they write in the European Respiratory Journal. "It may be similar to the situation with the risk of blood clots with long distance air travel--it was not until there was publicity with individual cases that the real extent of the problem was recognized," Beasley said. The patient originally developed painful swelling in his calf, which cleared up after 10 days, according to the report. For the next four weeks he had increasing trouble breathing, which culminated in him losing consciousness and being admitted to the hospital. He recovered after treatment with the blood-thinning drugs heparin and warfarin. "With the current state of knowledge it would seem prudent to advise all individuals who commonly sit for prolonged periods at a computer to undertake frequent leg and foot exercises and take regular breaks for mobilization away from the computer," the study authors suggest. Dr. John Scurr, a vascular surgeon and thrombosis expert from University College and Middlesex Hospitals in London, said he had treated several people with similar experiences. "This is something that I think we're going to see more of," he told The News Source Health. "I think one must say that this is going to be relatively rare, but potentially something that might happen if you do sit still." "It's very common for people sitting still for a few hours to get little tiny clots, and when they walk they disappear," Scurr said. "But if they then sit there for long periods of time you can see how the clot might grow and the leg might swell, and how a bit (of the clot) might break off and go to the lung." For most fit, young people, sitting at a desk would probably not be enough to trigger a dangerous blood clot, Scurr said. "But if you add to that other risk factors, like somebody who perhaps in the past broke their leg, or somebody with some sort of co-existing illness, then you get to a point where you might develop a serious blood clot." SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal 2003;21:374-376.

What Makes Music Unforgettable? 17-Dec-2002 What makes a song stick in your head, and why does a wrongly played note sound so awful? New research shows the brain has specific structures that are designed to perceive and remember musical patterns. This area of the brain gives people their innate sense of melody and is the reason why familiar tunes can almost become part of our brains. Neurologist Petr Janata thinks his research can also explain why we tap our feet to music and like to dance. It turns out the part of the brain that interprets music also plays a role in directing the body's motion. To map the brain's response to music, Janata had eight students with musical experience listen to a 8-minute piece of originally composed music while an imaging scanner took detailed pictures of their brains. The melody was designed to use all 24 major and minor keys. As the students listened to the music, they performed two simple tasks. Janata noted their brain activity as they performed the tasks and used this information to figure out what part of the brain keeps maps of the melodies it hears. Some people are more musical than others because their brains have absorbed and mapped many melodies. Researcher Mark Tramo says, "Four of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century-Stevie Wonder, Irving Berlin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney-wrote most of their music without musical training or before they had studied music theory. That's because they could rely on implicit knowledge about how to become the most effective manipulators of music." One thing we don't know is to what extent the brain's music hardware is there at birth and how much is acquired through listening to music. Tramo thinks it's a combination of both. "There's fairly good evidence that it's possible to acquire structures through repeated exposure to music," says Janata. One way to test this question would be to compare brain scans of experienced musicians with people who have no musical background.

Females Weigh in as the Winners in Spider Study

Jan 31, 8:18 am ET 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON  - Think your love life is a nightmare? One species of male spider is strongly attracted to big, plump females -- the very mates most likely to succeed in eating them, scientists reported on Thursday.

The finding is surprising because biologists did not think spiders were so discriminating in who they chose as mates, said Peter Smallwood, a professor of biology at the University of Richmond in Virginia who led the study.

"This is the first evidence that an invertebrate species is aware of this and chooses its mates based on body condition, i.e. weight divided by length -- how fat you are for your size," Smallwood said.

Smallwood's team studied spiders both in the lab and living wild outdoors and found males consistently preferred females who were fat for their length, rather than just large overall.

Other animals, including many humans, value fat mates, probably because chubbiness suggests success in finding food. Fatter animals, and people, are also more likely to survive lean times -- although this advantage is generally lost in modern, affluent society.

But the finding is surprising in spiders, which usually have short life spans and do not live long enough to benefit from putting on weight.

"They are going to die so it is not like they are going to put on a layer of fat to get through the winter," said Smallwood, whose report is published in the February issue of the Journal of Arachnology.

Instead, in the spiders, plumpness could be a sign that the female is about to lay her eggs. Spider eggs are fertilized just before they are laid.

In the species studied, the last male to mate with the female is likely to be the father of her babies. Or it could be the bigger females have more eggs -- which could mean more babies for the father, Smallwood said.

MALES ARE DISCRIMINATING, AFTER ALL

Either way, the finding turns spider sex research on its head. "The received wisdom for a long time has been that females are very coy about who they mate with and males don't discriminate at all," Smallwood said.

"The joke we tell is for males they mate with anything that moves and a few things that don't move just to make sure you don't miss anything. But this (study) shows ... they factor more things into mating than we thought."

A mystery remains -- the spiders do not see very well, so how do the males find the fat females?

"We know they are extremely responsive to vibrations through the web," Smallwood said. One theory is that they can tell through web vibrations how fat a female is as well as how big or long she is overall.

"My hypothesis is it has something to do with pheromones instead," he said. Pheromones are given off by all animals, including humans, but how they are detected is unclear.

Smallwood and his students studied Tetragnatha elongata, known commonly as long-jawed spiders, who live near water and are extremely common in North America.

They have long, thin bodies and ferocious-looking jaws -- which figure into their love lives. "These guys may have invented what is for them safe sex," he said.

"When they mate the usual process is the male comes to the edge of the female's web. What usually happens is she rushes at him, he runs for his life and that's it. But sometimes she doesn't. He approaches her face to face and puts his jaws in her jaws and spreads them apart."

The males uses a special structure on his jaws to prop the female's jaws open, so he can mate with her without getting eaten.

And usually the male gets away. "The idea that female spiders all eat their mates is massively overblown," Smallwood said.

That said, after the spiders mate, through an appendage coming off the head called a pedipalp, there is a scramble.

"He's got two or three feet on her head and he is pushing for all he's worth to get away from her. She is trying to bite him," Smallwood said. "Every now and then she manages to catch him and eat him."

The History of 4/20

This is from some phish website re meaning of 420--this should answer everyone's questions. 

Connotative Use/Meaning 

420 is a phreak's (and not just a hippie's) favorite number for a variety of reasons, or maybe for no reason at all, but colloquially the number says pot -- "let's smoke pot", or "someone's smoking pot", or "gee, i really like pot", or "time to smoke pot", either by time (4:20 a.m. or p.m.), date (April 20th), or otherwise (e.g. State Route 420). April 20th at 4:20 is marked by annual events in Mount Tamalpais, CA (an informal gathering); Marin Conty, CA (the 420 Hemp Fest); Ann Arbor, MI (the Hash Bash); and Washington, D.C. (buildup towards the July 4th Smoke-In). 

Original Source(s) 

Conventional wisdom: The most common tale is that 420 is the police radio code or criminal code (and therefore the police "call") in certain part(s) of California (e.g. in Los Angeles or San Francisco) for having spotted someone consuming cannabis publicly, i.e. "pot smoking in progress"; that local cannabis users picked up on the code and began celebrating the number temporally (esp. 4:20 a.m., 4:20 p.m., and April 20); that the number became nationally popularized in the late 1980s and, more ferverently, in the early- to mid-1990s; and is colloquially applied to a variety of relaxed and/or inspired contexts, including not only pot consumption but also a "good time" more generally (in contrast to the drug war surrounding). 

Conventions are legends: 420 is not police radio code for anything, anywhere. Checks of criminal codes (including those of the City of San Francisco, the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, the State of California, and the federal penal code) suggest that the origin is neither Californian nor federal (the two best guesses). For instance, California Penal Code 420 defines as a misdemeanor the hindrance of use ("obstructing entry") of public lands, and California Family Code 420 defines what constitutes a wedding ceremony (Marco). One state does come close: "The Illinois Department of Revenue classifies the Alcoholic Liquor Act under Part 420, and the Cannabis and Controlled Substances Tax Act are next, under Part 428." (RB 5/19/99)

True story?: "According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971, among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur, to smoke pot. ``Waldo Steve,' a member of the group who now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would salute each other in the school hallway and say ``420 Louis!' The term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one that caught on. ``It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of things, like `Do you have any?' or `Do I look stoned?' ' he said. ``Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.' The term took root, and flourished, and spread beyond San Rafael with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420's history, primarily a collection of postmarked letters from the early '70s with lots of mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com. ``We have proof, we were the first,' Waldo Steve said. ``I mean, it's not like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San Rafael.'" Maria Alicia Gaura for the San Francisco Chronicle, 4/20/00 p. A19; and thanks to Noah Cole for the submission 

Alternate explanations 

There are a variety of other explanations, all much more interesting than "police code", and many plausible. Some are more likely uses of the 420/hemp connection rather than sources of it, such as the score for the football game in Fast Times at Ridgement High, 42-0. 

Known Myths: It isn't police code (see above). There are 315 chemicals in marijuana, not 420. And although tea time in Amsterdam is rumored to be 4:20, it is actually 5:30 (Gerhard den Hollander).

Sixties Songs: For instance, Bob Dylan's famous "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" is a possible reference, or source -- 12x35=420. And Stephen Stills wrote (and Crosby Stills Nash & Young performed) a song "4+20" (first recorded 7/16/69, released on Deja Vu 3/11/70) about an 84-year-old poverty-stricken man who started and finished with nothing. (Thanks to Sherry Keel 12/6/98.) Dylan aslo mentions "4 and 20 windows" in "The Balland of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" (on John Wesley Harding).

Older Verse: But 420 in poetry is older than that - Greg Keller notes the old nursery rhyme line, "four and twenty black birds baked in a pie". Revelation 5:14 (in the King James Version of the Christian Bible) reads, "And the four beasts said 'A-Men.' And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." (Travis Spurley 2/15/99) And in Midnight's_Children, Salman Rushdie wrote, "Inevitably, a number of these children failed to survive. Malnutrition, disease and the misfortunes of everyday life had accounted for no less than four hundred and twenty of them by the time I became conscious of their existence; although it is possible to hypothesize that these deaths, too, had their purpose, since 420 has been, since time immemorial, the number associated with fraud, deception and trickery." (Comet 2/14/98) Comet's "best guess is that this refers to something in Indian mythology or numerology, since the book is set in India and frequently involves Indian history, culture, and religion. Given the high interest in Eastern religion among the phish/dead community, this seems a likely origin of 420's current significance."

Temporal Significance: "Hands on analog clock at 4:20 look like position of doobie dangling from mouth" "Larry in Tuscan" and Alex Mack 5/19/99). Disruptive students are out of detention and safetly away from school by 4:20, also rumored to be "the time that you should dose to be peaking when the Dead went on stage" Hart. "The Waldos" were a group of teens back in the 70's that lived in San Rafael, CA. 420 was the way they talked about pot in front of teachers, non-smoking family members etc. Also it was the time of day they could just go relax, and get baked." ("PhunkCellar") Jamaicans purportedly "worked till 4 then walked home then lit up. They would talk 420 like our parents talked about after 5. That's when partying began" "Larry in Tuscan"). Albert (not Abbie) Hofmann supposedly first encountered LSD at 4:20 p.m. on 4/19/1943 (Bart Coleman citing Storming Heaven by Jay Stevens, recommended by Mickey Hart in Planet Drum). Surrealist painter Miro was born April 20, 1893. And www.filmspeed.com says the propoganda film Reefer Madness has a copyright date of April 20, 1936 (i.e. 4/20). (Patrick Woolford)

Misc: Could be that it comes from hydroponics, the practice of cultivating plants in water often used by indoor marijuana cultivators, since 4 is used for H on a calculator (420/H20). (Nick Lowe 3/30/00) The number 80 (eight) is "quatre vingt" (pronounced "cah-truh vahn"), meaning "four (times} twenty". Dan Nijjar 1/27/00 (No connection yet between the number 80 and pot. A quarter pound is roughly 120 grams, rounding quarter-ounces to 7.5.) The titanic was supposed to arrive 4/20/1912. (Thanks to RB.) Perhaps the heavy use of vt420 terminals in the Berkeley area is to blame? (BTW, 420 in binary code is 110100100.) 

Ubiquitous? 

Now there's a 420 Pale Ale. One of the late-97/early-98 "Got Milk" ads featured a character eating cookies without milk and then passing a sign that reads "Next Rest Area 420 miles" (as Ross Bruning). Reportedly, all of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20. Shirts with the number 420 on the red-and-blue interstate highway shield (Interstate 420?) have show up on the sitcom Will and Grace (Paul Risenhoover 5/14/99) and in several videos. UPS' labelling software has a "420 postal code" legend for next-day/2-day deliveries (which is how Phish tickets are sent). (Jack Lebowitz 10/3/98) MTV's 1997 Viewer's Choice Award (for the MTV Video Awards) was decided by calls to 1-800-420-4MTV. And by May of 1998, the number was appearing in so many ads (eg Copenhagen 5/14/98 Rolling Stone p54, Corvette p55 5/98 Car & Driver) that its presence is presumed to be intentional. Many songs are around 4 minutes 20 seconds long (since many songs fall between 2:30 and 5:30), including for example Pink Floyd's "A Great Day for Freedom" (on The Division Bell, 1994), the Foo Fighters' "My Hero", and "Smokin'" from Boston's first album. "There have also been some 420 references on The Simpsons. In the re-run episode aired on April 20th, 1999 at a special time (probably in honor of those college students staying in the holiday spirit ;-), Homer mentions to Flanders that Barney's birthday is April 20th. Also, the jackpot sign in one part of the casino says $420,000. There are a couple less concrete ones, but these two have to be legit, especially since they decided to air THAT particular episode on 4/20/99." (Submitted by Matt Meehan 4/21/99) And (as of Fall '99) the 60 free minutes that Working Assets Long Distance offers, at the 7 cents per minute rate, is $4.20 free. There's even a band named 420, and another names . In the first fifteen pages of Karel Capek's novel War with the Newts, a man diving under wonder stayed down for four minutes and twenty seconds. Grant Garstka 1/6/00 At the suggested retail price ($3.96) and Michigan (6%) sales tax, a deck of Uno cards costs $4.20. Nic Boris 4:20 marks the first downbeat of the drums in Led Zeppelin's epic "Stairway to Heaven." (Dan Harris) The bill authorizing force after the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11/01 passed 420 to 1, and news reports in following months noted many times that there are (or were then, anyway) 420 airports in the U.S. Allan Morris And don't forget that Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, macabely "celebrated" (or at least referenced) via the Columbine High School shootings.

PETA Launching Boycott of KFC 
Mon Jan 6, 2:57 PM ET 
Add U.S. National - 

NORFOLK, Va. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Monday it is launching a boycott against KFC because of alleged animal-rights abuses by the chain of fried-chicken restaurants. 

The Norfolk-based animal rights group said it has tried for nearly two years to persuade KFC's parent company, Yum Brands Inc. of Louisville, Ky., to change the way it raises and slaughters chickens. 

PETA said that because those negotiations failed, it will launch a campaign to put public pressure on the company. 

Yum denied PETA's allegations. 

"We require all of our suppliers to follow welfare guidelines, developed by us with leading experts on our animal welfare advisory council," the company said. "Our suppliers are receiving unannounced audits at their poultry facilities throughout the year. Failure to comply with our strict guidelines would result in termination of our supplier agreement, if remedial action is not taken." 

PETA said it wants an end to "crude and ineffective electric stunning and throat-slitting" of chickens, and called for improvements in the conditions under which the chickens are raised. The organization said the birds should be allowed more space. 

Yum, which was created in 1997 as a spinoff of food businesses formerly owned by PepsiCo, also owns the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver restaurant chains.

Subject: WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT? A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2" in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous -- yes. The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar -- effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed "Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children--things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued "there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Pentagon Seeks Robots for $1 Million Arms Race

Jan 13, 9:43 am ET 

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON  - The Defense Department said it was offering $1 million cash prize to the winner of a planned robot vehicle race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The Grand Challenge, scheduled to take place on Feb. 28, 2004, is intended to spur development of technologies that could be used by the U.S. military.

The contest was the brainchild of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's cradle for revolutionary technologies.

"The race is intended to spur the accelerated development of autonomous robotic vehicle technologies for military applications," Jan Walker, a DARPA spokeswoman, said Friday. It offered a unique chance to help shape "this promising new dimension of our national defense," she added.

Robots are already playing a growing role in the U.S. arsenal, including devices that scout enemy positions, sniff for chemical and biological warfare agents and slither down sewers or under doors to collect intelligence.

In a separate category are remotely piloted aircraft such as the RQ-1 Predator, being used for surveillance and as armed attack drones in the U.S.-declared war on terror.

In announcing the race, DARPA said it would hold a conference on Feb. 22 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for all organizations and individuals interested in competing.

Among those encouraged to attend were futurists, inventors, journalists, off-road racers, robotic engineers, science writers, software designers, technology companies, universities and "trail-blazers," the Pentagon agency said.

"Our goal is to help connect the people who have ideas with the business and organizations that have the resources to bring them to fruition," Walker said. "It's the kind of approach that will allow us to plan a race that leads to some major breakthroughs."

The course will feature both on-road and off-road segments and will include extremely rugged terrain and obstacles, DARPA said on its Web site (www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge). It said the vehicles must be unmanned and autonomous, not remotely driven.

All computing and intelligence must be contained onboard. Apart from an emergency stop feature, automatic communication at checkpoints and Global Positioning System signals, no external communication will be allowed.

The prize will go to the team whose vehicle completes the course first, provided it also beats a pre-set maximum time limit, DARPA said without specifying the cut-off point.

If no vehicle finishes within the time limit, no prize will be awarded. The race is open to U.S. "entities," including corporations, non-profit groups and universities, though U.S. teams may have individual members who are foreign.

Bananas' Days May Be Numbered

Jan 16, 12:12 pm ET 

LONDON  - It is one of the world's favorite fruits, but the banana hasn't had sex in years and its days may be are numbered.

Without scientific help the sterile, seedless fruit could disappear with 10 years, according to a Belgian plant pathologist.

Emile Frison, the head of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain in Monpellier, France, said the fruit lacks the genetic diversity to fight off diseases and pests that are plaguing banana plantations and only biotechnology and genetic manipulation may be able to save it.

"Frison sees it as the only hope for the banana," New Scientist said on Wednesday.

Without assistance banana production could drop and mark the beginning of the end of the fruit.

"We may even see the extinction of the banana as both a lifesaver for hungry and impoverished Africans and as the most popular product on the world's supermarket shelves," the magazine added.

Babies' Mental Delay Tied to Moms' Vegan Diet Thu Jan 30, 4:40 PM ET Add Health 

By Alison McCook NEW YORK (The News Source Health) - The breast-fed infants of two mothers who did not eat any animal products, including milk and eggs, developed brain abnormalities as a result of a vitamin-B12 deficiency, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) reported Thursday. The primary sources of vitamin B12, which is essential for brain development, are animal products like meat, dairy products and eggs. Since the mothers ate little or no animal products, too little vitamin B12 was transmitted to their children through breast milk, according to the CDC's Dr. Maria Elena Jefferds. Jefferds added that these cases serve as a reminder to parents and pediatricians to ensure that both pregnant women and mothers who breast-feed their infants consume enough B12, either through diet or B12-containing supplements. "You have to make sure you're getting it," she said, in reference to vitamin B12. And don't abandon breast-feeding altogether, Jefferds cautioned. Breast-feeding has many advantages, and mothers who choose to not eat animal products should still continue to breast-feed their infants. "Vegetarians should absolutely breast-feed, there's no question about that," she said. In the January 31st issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jefferds and her colleagues describe the cases of two babies who showed signs of brain abnormalities as a result of a deficiency in vitamin B12. In one case, doctors examined and diagnosed the deficiency in a 15-month-old child with slow growth and mental development. Her mother said she had avoided consuming all animal products for many years, and had breast-fed the baby for 8 months after birth. After receiving supplements of vitamin B12, the child began to improve, but was still below her age group in speech and language at 32 months of age. Jefferds explained in an interview that many children fully recover from vitamin-B12 deficiencies but that, in some cases, a prolonged period of low consumption of vitamin B12 can cause irreversible damage. "I think it really depends on how severe the deficiency was, and how long it was taking place for," she said. She added that while both children described in the report showed lingering symptoms of low vitamin B12, over time, those impairments may disappear. The initial symptoms of low vitamin B12 in infants are often vague and not obvious, Jefferds noted. She recommended that doctors keep the possibility of a deficiency "on their radar screen," and ask mothers if they eat animal products or take supplements that contain enough vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin. Vegans eat only plant-based foods, using grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables to fill all their dietary needs. Vegetarians, on the other hand, typically avoid meat, but may eat some animal products, such as milk, eggs and possibly fish. SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2003;52:61-64.

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name but your bank will know how you sign your checks. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks -- you can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine, do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards, etc. Unfortunately I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know: We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them easily. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important: (I never even thought to do this) Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them in their tracks. The numbers are: Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 Explain (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742 Trains Union: 1-800-680-7289 Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271 We pass along jokes; we pass along just about everything. Do think about passing this information along. It could really help someone you care about.

Love, Not Diet, Key to Weight Loss, Report Says

Jan 22, 10:14 am ET 

ROME  - Forget dieting -- there's nothing like love to help you shed those extra pounds, according to a survey published by an Italian health magazine this week. Eight out of 10 Italians find that a new love interest is the best way for both men and women to get into shape, Dimagrire (Lose Weight) said in its February issue. They talked to 74 Italian weight loss experts for the article.

Chocolate, other sweets and carbohydrates stimulate neurotransmitters cause a general feeling of well-being, but also pile on the calories, one nutritionist said.

"So, if being in love brings the same happiness, the organism doesn't need these foods to achieve well-being," Amleto D'Amicis was quoted as saying.

But the slimming effects of romance don't last forever. For a third of Italians, the pounds stay off only until marriage and for 23 percent, a first child can bring those love handles back on for both mama and papa.

A lucky few -- about 12 percent -- never put weight back on.

Heartbroken by Divorce, Man Burns Family Assets

Jan 23, 10:03 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A Swedish man, desolate after his wife filed for divorce, converted the family's shares and mutual funds into cash and burned the money -- $81,300, a newspaper reported Thursday.

"Bitterness is not uncommon in connection with divorces but it is almost unique that one of the spouses puts fire to all their wealth," Bengt Svensson, public prosecutor in the town of Jonkoping in southern Sweden, told the daily Aftonbladet.

Disordered? Dysfunctional? or Plain Delusional?

Jan 10, 7:37 am ET 

By Toni Clarke

NEW YORK  - Women: Turned off by your partner's eating habits, dirty clothes, beer-swilling football buddies?

You're probably sexually dysfunctional.

That, at least, is what a growing number of researchers would have you believe. Over the past three years, a new consensus has begun to emerge on what constitutes female sexual dysfunction: everything from pain to boredom to bad dates. Critics of the pharmaceutical industry claim drug makers are seizing on such loose definitions to unnecessarily "medicalize" an ever-widening range of human behavior in the hope of selling more drugs.

Personal characteristics are increasingly being recast as pathologies: Restlessness is attention deficit disorder. Shyness is social phobia. Excessive shopping, fast driving or an overly sweet tooth now warrant psychiatric analysis.

"There are some conditions, such as 'sick building syndrome,' that we are totally perplexed by," said Mark Beers, Editor in Chief of the Merck Manual, the world's most widely used general medical textbook.

Sick building syndrome is a term used to describe symptoms such as runny nose, headache or cough suffered by people inside a particular building. It is difficult to decide whether to include such conditions in the Manual, Beers said.

"There is no single agency or entity that defines these evolving conditions," he said. "Disease definition comes from a consensus that evolves over time."

Most of that consensus is developed within the medical community. But other factors also come into play, including pressure from patient lobbying groups, drug companies and medical associations.

After complaints from patients, doctors changed the name of a condition known as benign intercranial hypertension -- a disorder that leads to pressure in the brain, visual loss and headaches, but is not caused by a tumor -- to pseudotumor cerebri.

"Patients wanted it," Beers said. "They thought the term benign implied their condition wasn't serious."

Pharmaceutical companies are keen to spread the concept of illness to as broad a population as possible, critics say.

"Once we define something as a medical disorder, we prescribe drugs for it, so the pharmaceutical companies have a strong interest in doing that," said Allan Horwitz, professor of sociology at Rutgers University and author of the book 'Creating Mental Illness.' "They are actively going out and creating disease."

Drug companies argue they are simply developing treatments for unmet medical needs. Trevor Jones, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that, while drug companies spend most of their money on big diseases such as cancer, "there is no reason why we shouldn't ... treat real conditions like sexual dysfunction as well."

Eli Lilly and Co.'s antidepressant Prozac recently won U.S. approval for treating children ages seven to 17 for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The new indication could boost sales for a drug now threatened by competition from cheaper generics.

This month a new study will begin to evaluate the effects of Ritalin, a treatment for attention deficit disorder, in girls aged 12 to 17. The study will focus on improvements in girls' relationships with family members and friends, self- esteem, mood and academic performance.

A survey sponsored by Novartis AG, the maker of Ritalin, found last year that girls face greater "impairment" in these areas than boys.

Many experts have questioned the validity of attention deficit disorder as a medical condition.

"We, as a society, should recognize that there are pressures coming from pharmaceutical companies," said Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal. "Whether or not you have a disease is not easily defined."

Pfizer Inc.,, which developed the male impotence pill Viagra, is one of numerous drug companies eager to find an equivalent for women.

"The positive thing is the issue of women's sexual problems is now on the table and I'm optimistic that good will come of this," said John Bancroft director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. "But I'm not sure the good will be dependent on giving women drugs."

According to Horwitz, the biggest predictor of sexual dysfunction is simple: a bad relationship.

London's Trafalgar Square Pigeons Put on Diet

Jan 10, 7:39 am ET 

LONDON  - The battle over the pigeons of London's Trafalgar Square looked set for a peaceful solution on Thursday after the city's mayor announced a plan for a gradual reduction in feeding the birds.

City officials, who see pigeons as a dirty nuisance, have agreed with animal rights campaigners to introduce a phased feeding program to reduce their numbers. Under this plan the public will be banned from giving the pigeons large amounts of food.

The outlook had been bleak for the pigeons, some 5,000 of which gather in the square around Nelson's column at any given lunchtime.

City authorities had banned vendors of bird seed from the square and last Autumn, Mayor Ken Livingstone even sent in falconers to scare the birds off.

But campaigners accused him of condemning the pigeons to death by starvation and said they must stay because they are a big tourist attraction.

"We hope we have found a solution for reducing the number of pigeons in the square without causing them any harm," said a spokeswoman for the Greater London Authority.

An independent scientist still to be appointed will monitor the six-month program which will see the authority overseeing the feeding of the birds, gradually shifting mealtime from lunchtime to early morning and reducing the amount of food.

"We are glad an agreement has been reached," said Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid group. "But we wait for the assessment of an independent scientist and if he thinks that the birds would suffer because of the feeding program, Mr Livingstone will have to find another solution." Pigeon droppings are definitely not part of Livingstone's ambitious plans to enhance Trafalgar Square, which involve pedestrianizing one side and linking it via a flight of steps to the National Gallery.

Subject: Origin of Sayings! In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back, while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are "limbs," therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the statement "Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg," ****************************************************** As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year! (May & October) Women always kept their hair covered while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs. The wigs couldn't be washed so to clean them, they could carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term "big wig." Today we often use the term "here comes the Big Wig" because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy. *************************************************** In the late 1700s many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board was folded down from the wall and used for dining. The "head of the household" always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Once in a while an invited guest would be offered to sit in the chair during a meal whom was almost always a man. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. Sitting in the chair, one was called the "chair man." Today, in business, we use the statement/title "Chairman." ****************************************************** Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told "mind your own bee's wax." Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term "crack a smile." Also, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt and therefore the statement "losing face." ***************************************************** Ladies wore corsets which would lace up in the front. A tightly tied lace was worn by a proper and dignified lady as in "straight laced." ****************************************************** Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the "ace of spades." To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't "playing with a full deck." ***************************************************** Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to "go sip some ale" and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times ."you go sip here" and "you go sip there." The two words "go sip" were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term "gossip." ****************************************************** At local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in "pints" and who was drinking in "quarts." Hence the term "minding your "'P's and Q's.

33 Previews of Your Super Life by Tom Russell 1. Spiritual Light will begin to take you over. There is nothing anywhere that can stand in your way. And these higher feelings will increase and grow in intensity. Yes, right in the middle of your day, down at the office or at home with the children, higher feelings will start to inspire you. And with these higher feelings, you will want nothing from any other human being on earth. 2. You will know that whatever happens, whatever you do, whatever road you take, that GOOD is going to happen to you, and ONLY GOOD. You know that whatever comes up around the next corner, that it is no problem because through Reality's wisdom and energy, you can handle anything. 3. Gradually, you will begin to cool down, spiritually speaking, until you reach the exact perfect spiritual temperature of 72 degrees. At a certain point, you will enter Reality. 4. As you acquire more and more spiritual light, a wonderful thing will happen by a definite spiritual law. What will happen is that people who are in love with darkness will move away from you. They will want absolutely nothing to do with you. The torment of being unable to pull you back into the mud will be too great for them. They will move away from you and will never want to come near you again. For you remind them of their own darkness. 5. When the dawn comes, everywhere you go it is nice. You still see evil, but because your nature is bright, you are not influenced by what you see. 6. Truth and Happiness are there and nothing is needed on your part to keep it in place. So you relax, you smile, you laugh and you enjoy your day to the fullest. For now you are a receiver of something coming from a Higher World. 7. Picture yourself in a spaceship, moving away from this world to the cosmic world. You look toward the front of the ship. There is a big window and through it you see incredible sights, great stars, and you look in awe at what is happening to you and where you're now going. What you see is Reality as it lights itself up! This is the intensity of the spiritual journey that begins to unfold after a certain point. 8. The time can come when your inner light is always on, always with you, no matter where you go or what you do. Just like a miner's lighted helmet always turns in the direction that he wants to look. 9. You can have the excitement of knowing that when you wake up in the morning you will learn more about Reality. You will know a Truth today that was hidden from you yesterday, hidden from you by your own unawareness of its presence. 10. Spiritual health makes you healthy in every area. You will be healthier physically, you will rest well at night. Everything will be better as a result of spiritual health. 11. It is possible for you to go through your day, doing business or whatever else you must do, living with the awareness of the Higher World. The Light of Reality will direct your ears and your eyes. All of your senses will be a thousand percent sharper. 12. The spiritual energy from above comes down to earth. It is then used by human beings. But almost everyone uses the energy wrongly, causing enormous pain and tension. The energy is powerful and abundant. If we don't harmonize with it, we allow ourselves to be terrorized by a lack of understanding. 13. There is a power that will tell you exactly what to say and how to act when around any other person. You will know when to speak, when not to speak, what to say and what not to say. There will be no strain, but only quiet relaxation. 14. The spirit has an interesting effect on the body. When living by the spirit you are full of pep. 15. When a man or woman is awake they enter practical thought and when the task is done they return immediately to cosmic awareness. 16. Here is the good news! As one eagle appears a thousand vultures disappear. And what a welcome the eagles extend to you! What a feeling comes over you when you arrive in the Higher World! 17. Eventually Reality enters and stays, never to be "unnoticed" again. 18. Picture yourself sailing away from an old, dusty village. When you are 20 miles out, you can still hear the calls from the village. They want you back. When you're 50 miles out, something different begins to happen. Truth begins to notice you. It notices that you did NOT turn back. And it is here that you start to have a marvelous experience that happens for the next 50,000 miles. All the confusion and inner turmoil is still going on. But there's something else. There's a disappearing of tension and frustration, and the entrance of a wonderful new feeling of inspiration and higherness. As you continue sailing you become purer and purer. But you take no credit at all for this, for you know it is coming from a very high place. 19. You will feel so good that you never want to leave your own company. You're always pleasant, ALWAYS! Your inner pleasantness reflects itself outwardly at all times and wherever you go, whatever you meet. 20. You will be alert, aware, observant. You will see accidents and problems coming toward you and you will avoid them. Like a wise driver, you will not drive out to meet them. 21. Your life will be one spiritual revelation after another. Just as a scientist gets rightly excited when he is about to make a discovery, so will you be rightly excited as you move from one spiritual insight to the next. 22. More and more as you work with these principles you will experience a falling away. Wrong reactions to other people will fall away. All your secret fears and angers will fall away. You will more and more understand that inwardly, loss is gain. You will see yourself rising from the earth. You will know that you are being transformed. 23. More and more the spiritual feeling reaches you. You feel something new, something clean, something higher. And you find that the best two words to use in describing this feeling are RELEASE and RELIEF. 24. This new feeling begins to SPIRITUALIZE words for you, so that you really begin to live their meaning. Take the word "love" for example. In previous years the word was all you had. But this new and increasingly powerful feeling begins to reveal to you the state behind the word. 25. A marvelous healing force begins to enter your mind. It happens all by itself. 26. Once you really have a glimpse of Reality, there will be more and more of an opening until the glorious day when you stand in full view of it all. 27. More and more you will see that all you really have to do is spend your day ENJOYING the spiritual realms. They are already present. 28. After awhile, even the body will be different. It won't be seen as this massive, heavy thing we carry around. It will be a body of light and spirit. 29. Sustained attention returns one of the greatest rewards. Once you finally begin to understand, you will know everything about religion, politics, money, all that has a direct connection with your life. You will know precisely what you need to know, for you are living from the SUPREME SOURCE. 30. You will live in a mansion that spans the entire universe! How can you ever again by jealous of anyone? You own everything! 31. One of the great gifts of the spiritual life is the ability to be 100% FINAL. You have the ability to drop anything at anytime and no longer carry it with you. Your decisions are final, your life is final. You no longer carry around a bundle of yesterday's newspapers. FINALITY IS FREEDOM. 32. You can always be at the spiritual banquet. You don't have to ever go away, but can be there all the time. And the spiritual waiter will keep bringing you more and more delicious steaming dishes. There is no end to it. You see, presently you cannot conceive of a never,ending abundance. But that is what the spiritual life is. 33. The day will come when you crack through the ceiling and the Light from the Spiritual World floods in. As this happens, it will feel so good that you will want to triple your efforts to clear away the ceiling so that more Light can break through. copyright (c) 1998 by Tom Russell Permission is given to quote from this material if immediate and corresponding mention is made of www.superwisdom.com.

Honey is Antibiotic 29-Nov-2002 Honey helps treat wounds that refuse to heal because it stops bacteria from growing, and even fights strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. This discovery is especially important because conventional antibiotics no longer work well, since many strains of bacteria are no longer affected by them. People covered wounds in honey in ancient Egypt, and scientists used to think it worked because it kept the air out and its high sugar content slowed bacterial growth. Now we know it's a real antibiotic. Real honey kills bacteria three times better than an artificial solution with the same thickness and sugar concentration, according to microbiologist Rose Cooper. Her team tested strains of Staphlyococcus and Enterococcus that can withstand "last resort" antibiotics, such as methicillin and vancomycin. The microbes were collected from wounds and from hospital surfaces. Some types of honey form hydrogen peroxide when diluted, which kills bacteria, but Cooper doesn't think that's the only effective ingredient, because both pasture honey, which generates hydrogen peroxide, and manuka honey, which doesn't, stop bacteria from growing in the lab. Honey may be antibiotic because of enzymes that are secreted by bees. It could also be due to its acidity or to chemicals from the original plant nectar. "It's a traditional remedy that has been overlooked," Cooper says. "To reintroduce it, we must have evidence to support its antibacterial and healing properties." But she says, "We're not suggesting that anyone should rush out and buy honey in supermarkets to treat wounds" because the heat-processing of store-bought honey probably destroys its antibacterial properties.

Mystery Race Here Before Indians 04-Dec-2002 New radiocarbon testing on 27 skulls that were found in Mexico 100 years ago shows some of them are almost 13,000 years old, the oldest found so far in the Americas. Domestic tools 14,500 years old have been discovered in Chile, but no human remains were found with them. The two oldest skulls are long and narrow, while more recent skulls are short and broad, like those of American Indians. This suggests that a race of narrow-headed humans were living in the Americas before the arrival of the ancestors of present-day Native Americans. Before this, archeologists thought Indians were the first people to arrive on the continent, by way of a temporary land bridge from Asia. Dr. Silvia Gonzalez says, "We believe that the older race may have come from what is now Japan, via the Pacific islands and perhaps the California coast. Mexico appears to have been a crossroads for people spreading across the Americas. Our next project is to examine remains found in the Baha peninsula of California, and look at their DNA to see if they are related. But this discovery, although it is very significant, raises more questions than it solves." Scientific analysis of early indigenous skeletons found in the U.S. has not progressed as far, because of laws which give Native American tribes rights to all remains found on their property so they can be given a ceremonial burial. Gonzalez says, "My research could have implications for the ancient burial rights of north American Indians."

Controversial Artist Hot Favorite for Prize

Dec 6, 10:09 am ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - The creator of a Kentucky Fried Chicken menu encased in lead is hot favorite to land the Turner prize, one of the art world's most controversial awards.

Bookmakers made Keith Tyson 6-4 favorite to land Sunday's prize, derided by critics as a farce and condemned by Britain's Culture Minister Kim Howells as "conceptual bullshit."

Tyson found fame by feeding data into a computer which then instructed him to paint 366 breadboards and cast a Kentucky Fried Chicken menu in lead.

For the 20,000 pound ($30,000) prize, he has offered a giant black pillar packed with computers. It is his take on Rodin's "The Thinker."

Graham Sharpe, spokesman for bookmakers William Hill, told The News Source: "I hope this Tyson does better than the last one when Mike Tyson ended up flat on his back against Lennox Lewis."

Second favorite at 5-2 is Catherine Yass with her vertiginous short films "Descent" and "Flight."

The big outsider in the four-horse field for the Turner Stakes is 5-1 shot Fiona Banner.

But she is the clear winner on press coverage after she wrote out in graphic detail on a giant canvas the plot of porn movie "Arsewoman in Wonderland."

The tabloids tore into her works, giving Banner the most hostile coverage since Tracey Emin made the shortlist in 1999 with her soiled bed covered in condoms and champagne corks.

Emin's failure to win the prize still clearly rankles. She told the Guardian on Friday: "The Turner prize is so unfair."

"It was very stupid of me to accept the nomination because there was no chance I was going to win because none of them (the judges) really knew me," she said.

The prize invariably grabs the headlines and, despite the critical scorn, the annual exhibition of the shortlisted works attracts up to 70,000 visitors.

Pop superstar Madonna swore live on television last year when presenting the prize to conceptual artist Martin Creed who won with his creation of a bare room with a light that switches on and off.

In 1998, avant-garde artist Chris Ofili won with a Virgin Mary made of elephant dung. In 1995, Damien Hirst won with a sheep pickled in formaldehyde.

Artist Tony Kaye once tried to submit a homeless steel worker as his entry for the competition.

Culture Minister Howells, himself a former art student, was appalled by the shortlist for Turner 2002, complaining "If this is the best British artists can produce, then British art is lost. It is cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit." He was particularly scathing about a colored perspex ceiling, the work of artist Liam Gillick.

"I've sat under perspex roofs like that in canteens since the mid-1960s," he said. "It's very, very boring."

Thieves Steal $2,000 from Christmas Tree

Dec 5, 11:25 am ET 

OSLO  - A Christmas tree decorated with banknotes worth about $2,000 has been stripped by thieves at Oslo's main railway station, police said on Wednesday.

Magne Furuholmen, of Norwegian pop group a-ha, made flowers and stars out of banknotes when he was paid 14,000 Norwegian crowns ($1,930) to decorate a six-foot tree at the station, a popular hang-out for heroin addicts.

Furuholmen, who gained world fame with the a-ha song "Take on Me" and is also an artist, used 50, 100, 200 and 500-crown notes as decorations to symbolize the commercialization of Christmas. He also hung up chains made of five-crown coins.

He shrugged off the widely predicted theft. "There was a distinct possibility that this was going to happen," Furuholmen told NRK public radio.

Asked if he would ask the police to track the thieves, he said: "I don't see it in that way. I see it more that a person has completed the work and taken an incredibly good payment."

Police told The News Source that railway staff had reported the theft on Wednesday.

Furuholmen was paid by Norway's state railways to decorate the tree, but decided to use his artist's fee to create the decorations themselves.

The station is guarded by security cameras, but they do not catch everything as they turn constantly.

Homeless Man Found with $30,000 in Pockets

Dec 6, 10:11 am ET 

MILAN  - It was a rags to riches story at a hospital in northern Italy when a homeless man turned out to be carrying some $30,000 in his pockets.

The 80-year-old bearded man was checked into the psychiatric ward of the hospital three days ago when he was found aimlessly wandering around the city of Como, police told The News Source on Thursday.

The man, apparently without family, had been living in a shelter and on the streets.

But to the hospital staff's surprise, they found 10,000 euros (dollars) and 40 million lire, equivalent to another 20,000 euros, in his pockets.

"He said it was his life's savings," the police source said.

But the Bank of Italy has foiled a happy ending, by refusing to exchange the lire, which are no longer in circulation, for the euro currency because the man's identification papers expired 13 years ago.

Under Italian law, currency exchanges can only be carried out with proper identification and in many cases a tax number, which the homeless man does not possess.

We're Controlled While We Shop 17-Dec-2002 Since most of us are doing our Christmas shopping this week, we should know that stores are subtly influencing our purchases. In a store called Once Famous, researchers study customers from behind one-way mirrors-but they're not looking for shoplifters. While the store works like a regular retail outlet and makes a small profit, it's really a laboratory for the company FAME, which uses social science techniques to study consumers' shopping habits for major retailers, including Target and Marshall Fields. A blinking light at the store entrance warns customers they're being monitored for research purposes. According to the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, 70% of all purchases are impulse buys. The longer a store can keep a customer browsing-even if it's only for an extra minute or two-the more likely they are to make a sale. FAME explored ways of drawing shoppers into "dead zones," which are areas of a store that customers tend to stay away from. They found that displaying different items of the same color together drew shoppers to the back of the store. Red was especially effective and passed what FAME president Tina Wilcox calls the "squint test" - "If you squint your eyes, whatever you pick up in that squint is pretty much what registers when they're shopping," she says. Target now uses this method for TV and print advertising. FAME has found that U.S. customers have natural tendency to start shopping on the right, while in the U.K., it's the opposite: shoppers gravitate towards the left side of a store. Researchers think it might be because they drive on the left. They've discovered that the two sexes shop differently. Men keep their distance from an item, asking questions about its construction and features. "...The way they would shop for a car," Wilcox says. Women are more likely to touch items and react personally with them, since their buying decisions are more emotional. FAME found that women often "visit" products they like three or four times before finally buying them, which is something men don't do. During these visits, before they actually buy an expensive item, retailers have a chance to sell them other, less expensive things. Researcher Bill Abrams of Housecalls Inc. studies how consumers use products in their own homes. "People on their own turf tend to tell more of the truth and to reveal more, because they feel safer in their own surroundings," he says. For a recent study for Colgate-Palmolive, Housecalls went to the homes of popular teenage girls to how they used underarm deodorant, which is a $1 billion-a-year market. They wanted to know what kind of deodorant they bought, how many swipes they used, and whether they took it with them when they went out. They discovered that teens want their own brand and don't want to use what one girl called "an older woman's" deodorant. They'll also use a different scent each day, depending on their mood. You may have noticed the results of these studies: in the last few years, special deodorants for teens have come out in a wide range of fragrances.

What Makes Music Unforgettable? 17-Dec-2002 What makes a song stick in your head, and why does a wrongly played note sound so awful? New research shows the brain has specific structures that are designed to perceive and remember musical patterns. This area of the brain gives people their innate sense of melody and is the reason why familiar tunes can almost become part of our brains. Neurologist Petr Janata thinks his research can also explain why we tap our feet to music and like to dance. It turns out the part of the brain that interprets music also plays a role in directing the body's motion. To map the brain's response to music, Janata had eight students with musical experience listen to a 8-minute piece of originally composed music while an imaging scanner took detailed pictures of their brains. The melody was designed to use all 24 major and minor keys. As the students listened to the music, they performed two simple tasks. Janata noted their brain activity as they performed the tasks and used this information to figure out what part of the brain keeps maps of the melodies it hears. Some people are more musical than others because their brains have absorbed and mapped many melodies. Researcher Mark Tramo says, "Four of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century-Stevie Wonder, Irving Berlin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney-wrote most of their music without musical training or before they had studied music theory. That's because they could rely on implicit knowledge about how to become the most effective manipulators of music." One thing we don't know is to what extent the brain's music hardware is there at birth and how much is acquired through listening to music. Tramo thinks it's a combination of both. "There's fairly good evidence that it's possible to acquire structures through repeated exposure to music," says Janata. One way to test this question would be to compare brain scans of experienced musicians with people who have no musical background.

Chemist Claims to Produce Human Clone Fri Dec 27, 2:05 PM ET 

By MALCOLM RITTER, News Source Science Writer HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A member of a sect that believes life on Earth was created by extraterrestrials claimed Friday to have produced the world's first human clone, a baby girl. The 7-pound baby was born Thursday by Caesarean section, said Brigitte Boisselier, a chemist and head of a company that did the experiment. She wouldn't say where the baby was born; she did say the birth was at 11:55 a.m. local time. Even before her news conference, other scientists expressed doubt that her group could clone a human. Boisselier said the baby, dubbed "Eve" by the scientists, is a clone of the 31-year-old American woman who donated the DNA for the cloning process, had the resulting embryo implanted and then gestated the baby. If confirmed, that would make the child an exact genetic duplicate of her mother. Boisselier said the mother had resorted to cloning because her mate was infertile. "It is very important to remember that we are talking about a baby," she said. "The baby is very healthy. She is fine, she doing fine. The parents are happy. I hope that you remember them when you talk about this baby, not like a monster, like some results of something that is disgusting." Boisselier did not immediately present DNA evidence showing a genetic match between mother and daughter, however. That leaves her claim scientifically unsupported. Dr. Michael Guillen, a former medical correspondent at ABC's "Good Morning America," told reporters at the news conference he was lining up "independent world-class experts" to perform DNA test on the mother and baby. He said he was not being paid by Clonaid. The group expects four more babies to be born in the next several weeks, another from North America, one from Europe and two from Asia. Two of the couples are using preserved cells taken from their own children before their deaths, and one is a lesbian couple, she claimed. "I do believe that it is the choice of every parent to choose the child they want, even if they don't have any infertility problem," Boisselier said. "Who are we to tell the parents the child that they should have?" The couples were not asked to pay for the procedures but some had invested in Clonaid, she said. She said the baby will go home in three days, and an independent expert will take DNA samples from her to prove she had been cloned. She said results would come within nine days. "You can still go back to your office and treat me as a fraud," she said. "You have one week to do that." Most scientists, already skeptical of Boisellier's ability to produce a human clone, will probably demand to know exactly how the DNA testing was done before they believe the announcement. Clonaid was founded in the Bahamas in 1997 by Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and leader of a group called the Raelians. Vorilhon and his followers claim aliens visiting him in the 1970s revealed they had created all life on Earth through genetic engineering. Cloning produces a new individual using only one person's DNA. The process is technically difficult but conceptually simple. Scientists remove the genetic material from an unfertilized egg, then introduce new DNA from a cell of the animal to be cloned. Under the proper conditions, the egg begins dividing into new cells according to the instructions in the introduced DNA. Boisselier, who claims two chemistry degrees and previously was marketing director for a chemical company in France, identifies herself as a Raelian "bishop" and said Clonaid retains philosophical but not economic links to the Raelians. She is not a specialist in reproductive medicine. Legislation or guidelines to ban human cloning are pending in dozens of nations, including the United States. Several countries, including Britain, Israel, Japan and Germany, already have banned it. There is no specific law against it in the United States, but the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) contends it must approve any human experiments in this country. Boisselier would not say where Clonaid has been carrying out its experiments. Bush administration officials had said they were aware of rumors of an announcement but had no plans to comment until after the details were known. In Rome, fertility doctor Severino Antinori, who said weeks ago that a cloned baby boy would be born in January, dismissed Clonaid's claims and said the group has no scientific credibility. The news "makes me laugh and at the same time disconcerts me, because it creates confusion between those who make serious scientific research" and those who don't, Antinori said. "We keep up our scientific work, without making announcements," he added. "I don't take part in this ... race." So far scientists have succeeded in cloning sheep, mice, cows, pigs, goats and cats. Last year, scientists in Massachusetts produced cloned human embryos with the intention of using them as a source of stem cells, but the cloned embryos never grew bigger than six cells. Many scientists oppose cloning to produce humans, saying it's too risky because of abnormalities seen in cloned animals. Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the Massachusetts company that last year produced the first reported cloned human embryo, said before the announcement that Clonaid has "no scientific credibility at this point." But he and other experts do not dismiss the possibility of success. In some respects, cloning to produce a baby may be easier than the task Lanza is undertaking, which is to clone an embryo to produce stem cells for medical research. "They may be able to bypass many of the problems that we would encounter in the lab," he said. He said his work has found that implanting a very early stage cloned embryo in an animal's uterus can be successful, while trying to grow the embryo in the lab is more difficult.

Fuzzy Strands Fill Skies Over Texas City Sat Dec 21, 7:33 PM ET Add Strange News - 

GALVESTON, Texas - Galveston residents are still trying to figure out what caused the skies over their coastal city to literally be filled on Friday with floating strands of wads that looked like spider webs. The webs were visible in the air for five hours, and poles were left wrapped with the sticky strands and fuzzy wads. "It blew my mind. I have never seen anything like it before," said Lorenzo DeLacerta, who saw the webs about noon when he delivered building material to a site a mile east of the San Louis Pass Bridge. DeLacerta said he called his sister, Gloria, who saw the same thing in the sky over nearby La Marque, The Galveston County Daily News reported Saturday. A spokesman at the National Weather Service (news - web sites) Office in League City said the service had received no reports of flying webs - and that flying webs weren't really their thing. The phenomenon has occurred in at least two other places. The News Source reported Oct. 8 that "long, floating spider webs" were "bobbing through the skies of Santa Cruz, Calif., ... confusing some community members concerned about biological weapons, UFOs and other phenomena." And the Wallowa Chieftain in Oregon reported on Dec. 22, 2000, the sightings of "web-like material ... falling from the sky" that some locals thought came "from three military jets that had been flying back and forth in an east-west flight pattern at high altitude." A University of Wyoming microbiology professor attributed the webs in Santa Cruz to young spiders that launch themselves on their homemade parachutes after hatching to be blown to a new home. In Wyoming, dozens of the webs can been seen floating across the prairie in the spring, the professor was quoted as saying in the AP story. However, on the Internet, some conspiracy connoisseurs remain convinced the webs are man-made and could be part of an elaborate government plot.

Windsurfing Santa is arrested by border guards A windsurfing Santa has been arrested in the US after accidentally crossing the Canadian border. John Fulton dresses up as Father Christmas and windsurfs on the Niagara River every year to support the homeless. But strong winds blew him off course and he ended up on the American side of the river where he was arrested by border patrol guards. Fulton was taken into custody, then taken back to Canada after he agreed to sign a form stating he had illegally entered the United States. Story filed: 10:16 Friday 27th December 2002

Christmas Reindeer Loses, Uh, Its Ornaments

Dec 13, 11:00 am ET 

CAPE TOWN, South Africa  - A star reindeer in a South African shopping mall's Christmas display lost a little of its seasonal pride and joy after complaints from shoppers.

Managers at one of Cape Town's upscale malls, "castrated" the plastic animal after receiving complaints about shiny golden Christmas tree ornaments hanging between its hind legs, officials said Thursday.

Hein Conradie, a spokesman for the company which made the display, told the Cape Argus newspaper that the ornaments were "anatomically correct for an animal of that size" and were prominent because of the reindeer's central position in the display.

"Generally, we find it wiser to use sexless reindeer," Conradie said.

Electrical Strangeness in Canada 18-Nov-2002 For two years, residents of a suburb in Victoria, British Columbia, have had garage doors open by themselves, sprinklers that come when they're not supposed to and radios that play several stations at once. VCRs and TV sets go on spontaneously and one person's brass bed got warm. Chris Burke says his electrically-controlled bed has been folding up at night. "The legs start to come up and the head starts to come up," Burke says. "That's pretty scary when you are in the middle of a sleep." The Canadian government has appointed a retired university professor to investigate the strange electrical phenomena that began after two 200-foot transmitting towers went up 50 feet from a suburban neighborhood, without consulting with the local government. Melanie Roberts, an Industry Canada spokeswoman, says they need to expand cell phone and coverage across the country. "People usually don't want towers in their back yard, but they want access to services," she says. "We are the party trying to ensure that both of these needs gets addressed." The new towers are used to broadcast three FM radio stations and are also supposed to improve cell phone service, but Burke says cell phone signals in the area are still poor. He's unplugged his electric bed and stopped listening to the radio. "While you are listening to one station, you are getting overrun by another. It's just not fun any more," he says. "It's very frustrating."

Coffee Can Be Healthy 21-Nov-2002 The buzz from you get from coffee may not be caused by caffeine after all, meaning decaf may raise your blood pressure just as much as the regular brew. Also, coffee has been shown to help diabetes and little old ladies who drink lots of it stay mentally sharp. Researchers gave triple espressos, in both regular and decaf versions, to six regular coffee drinkers and nine people who never drank caffeine. To their surprise, both drinks had the same effect on the non-coffee drinkers, raising their blood pressure. The results could be caused by the placebo effect, meaning they expected to get a buzz from the coffee-so they did. But Swiss scientist Roberto Corti thinks something other than the caffeine in coffee produces its stimulating effect. Researchers from the Netherlands asked over 17,000 people how much coffee they drank each day. Those who drank seven or more cups of coffee a day were 50% less likely to develop type-2 diabetes, compared with those who drank two cups a day or less. This study backs up previous research showing that when people increased their coffee consumption for 14 days, their blood glucose levels were reduced. And elderly women who drink large amounts of coffee over their lifetimes do better on tests of mental abilities. San Diego researchers found that women who are frequent lifetime coffee drinkers perform better than non-coffee drinkers on memory tests involving words, shapes, and memory. Ladies who were at least 80 years old outperformed non-coffee drinkers on 11 out of 12 tests. This suggests the relationship between coffee and mental sharpness may become stronger as women age. The researchers don't know why better mental functioning wasn't linked to coffee drinking in men and think that men and women may react differently to coffee.

(Illustration: Ross Macdonald) 
WHY COMPANIES FAIL
Introduction
CEOs offer every excuse but the right one: their own errors. Here are ten mistakes to avoid. 
FORTUNE
Monday, May 27, 2002
By Ram Charan and Jerry Useem 

Send to a Friend Print Subscribe to Fortune 

Introduction
The 10 Corporate Sins 

1. Softened by Success 

2. See No Evil 

3. Fearing the Boss more than the Competition 

4. Overdosing on Risk 

5. Acquisition Lust 

6. Listening to Wall Street more than to Employees 

7. Strategy du Jour 

8. A Dangerous Corporate Culture 

9. The New-Economy Death Spiral 

10. A Dysfunctional Board 

Ten Big Mistakes 

� Three Quick Fixes
� Single-Digit Stocks
� Don't Get Burned
� Dirty Rotten Numbers
� When Stock Prices Lie
� Going For Broke

Qwest Communications
Xerox
WorldCom
Enron
Kmart
How many more must fall? Each month seems to bring the sound of another giant crashing to earth. Enron. WorldCom. Global Crossing. Kmart. Polaroid. Arthur Andersen. Xerox. Qwest. They fall singly. They fall in groups. They fall with the heavy thud of employees laid off, families hurt, shareholders furious. How many? Too many; 257 public companies with $258 billion in assets declared bankruptcy last year, shattering the previous year's record of 176 companies and $95 billion. This year is on pace, with 67 companies going bust during the first quarter. And not just any companies. Big, important, FORTUNE 500 companies that aren't supposed to collapse. If things keep going like this, we may have trouble filling next year's list. 

Why do companies fail? Their CEOs offer every excuse in the book: a bad economy, market turbulence, a weak yen, hundred-year floods, perfect storms, competitive subterfuge--forces, that is, very much outside their control. In a few cases, such as the airlines' post-Sept. 11 problems, the excuses even ring true. But a close study of corporate failure suggests that, acts of God aside, most companies founder for one simple reason: managerial error. 

We'll get to the errors in a moment. But first let's acknowledge that, yes, failures usually involve factors unique to a company's own industry or culture. As Tolstoy said of families, all happy companies are alike; every unhappy company is unhappy in its own way. Companies even collapse in their own way. Some go out in blinding supernovas (Enron). Others linger like white dwarfs (AT&T). Still others fizzle out over decades (Polaroid). Failure is part of the natural cycle of business. Companies are born, companies die, capitalism moves forward. Creative destruction, they call it. 

It was roughly this sentiment that Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was trying to convey when he said that Enron's failure was "part of the genius of capitalism." But aside from sounding insensitive, O'Neill got one thing wrong. Capitalism's true genius is to weed out companies that no longer serve a useful purpose. The dot-coms, for instance, were experiments in whether certain businesses were even viable. We found out: They weren't. Yet many recent debacles were of companies that could have lived long, productive lives with more enlightened management--in other words, good companies struck down for bad reasons. By these lights, Arthur Andersen's fall is no more part of the "genius of capitalism" than the terrorism on Sept. 11 was part of the "genius of evolution." 

By "failure," we don't necessarily mean bankruptcy. A dramatic fall from grace qualifies too. In the most recent bear market, for instance, 26 of America's 100 largest companies lost at least two-thirds of their market value, including such blue chips as Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Cisco, AT&T, AOL Time Warner, and Gap. In the 1990 bear market, by contrast, none did, according to money management firm Aronson & Partners. 

The sheer speed of these falls has been unnerving. Companies that were healthy just moments ago, it seems, are suddenly at death's door. But this impression may be misleading. Consider, for instance, a certain Houston institution we've heard so much about. There was no one moment when its managers sat down and conspired to commit wrongdoing. Rather, the disaster occurred because of what one analyst calls "an incremental descent into poor judgment." A "success-oriented" culture, mind-numbing complexity, and unrealistic performance goals all mixed until the violation of standards became the standard. Nothing looked amiss from the outside until, boom, it was all over. 

It sounds a lot like Enron, but the description actually refers to NASA in 1986, the year of the space shuttle Challenger explosion. We pull this switch not to conflate the two episodes--one, after all, involved the death of seven astronauts--but to make a point about failures: Even the most dramatic tend to be years in the making. At NASA, engineers noticed damage to the crucial O-rings on previous shuttle flights yet repeatedly convinced themselves the damage was acceptable. Companies fail the way Ernest Hemingway wrote about going broke in The Sun Also Rises: gradually, and then suddenly. (For some solutions, see Three Quick Fixes.) 

What undoes them is the familiar stuff of human folly: denial, hubris, ego, wishful thinking, poor communication, lax oversight, greed, deceit, and other Behind the Music plot conventions. It all adds up to a failure to execute. This is not an exhaustive list of corporate sins. But chances are your company is committing one of them right now. Next Sin 

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remain seated until the ride has come to a complete stop. Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement.
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> In case you needed further proof that the human race is doomed through
> stupidity, here are some actual label instructions on consumer goods:
> 
> 1. On Sears hairdryer: "Do not use while sleeping". [Gee, that's the
> only
> time I have to work on my hair]
> 
> 2. On a bag of Fritos: "You could be winner! No purchase necessary.
> Details
> inside." [Evidently, the shoplifter special]
> 
> 3. On a bar of Dial soap: "Directions: Use like regular soap." [And that
> would be how...?]
> 
> 4. On some Swanson frozen dinners: "Serving suggestions: Defrost." [But
> it's
> *just* a suggestion]
> 
> 5. On Tesco's Tiramisu dessert (printed on bottom of box): "Do not turn
> upside down". [Oops, too late!]
> 
> 6. On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding: "Product will be hot after
> heating".
> [As sure as night follows the day ....]
> 
> 7. On packaging for a Rowenta iron: "Do not iron clothes on body". [But
> wouldn't this save even more time?]
> 
> 8. On Boot's Children's Cough Medicine: "Do not drive a car or operate
> machinery after taking this medication." [We could do a lot to reduce
> the
> rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5-year-olds
> with
> head-colds off those forklifts.] 
> 
> 9. On Nytol Sleep Aid: "Warning: May cause drowsiness" [One would hope] 
> 
> 10. On most brands of Christmas lights: "For indoor or outdoor use
> only".
> [As opposed to where?]
> 
> 11. On a Japanese food processor: "Not to be used for the other use". [I
> gotta admit, I'm curious].
> 
> 12. On Sainsbury's peanuts: "Warning: Contains nuts". [NEWS FLASH]
> 
> 13. On an American Airlines packet of nuts: "Instructions: open packet,
> eat
> nuts." [Step 3: Fly Delta]
> 
> 14. On a child's Superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not
> enable
> you to fly." [I don't blame the company. I do blame parents for this
* one!]

Newspaper's readers complain over 'let's have sex' picture caption Readers of an African newspaper have complained after a picture caption about jewellery contained the words "let's have sex". The mix-up highlights the problems caused by the wide range of languages spoken in Namibia. Callers to the Namibian were angered by the use of the word tulumweni, which translates roughly as "let's have intercourse" in the Oshiwambo language. It was used in a caption concerning people in the Caprivi who use rings from the femidon - female condom - as jewellery. According to the The Namibian , an activist involved in care for Aids/HIV patients spelt the word tulumweni for the journalist. He intended it to mean "you will see for yourselves" in the Siyeyi tongue. One caller said the complainants "should be considerate of other people's languages. It is very clear that the picture was taken in the Caprivi ...And that the word is from Siyeyi. It is not Oshiwambo". Others indicated that various words might have different meanings in various Namibian languages, such as omakende, an Oshiwambo word for glasses which in Siyeyi means testicles. Another word with a double-meaning is tulikunde, which in Oshiwambo translates as let's talk, but which in Sisubiya translates as let's have intercourse. The Herero word for a hat is ekoli, which is an Oshiwambo word for a vagina.

BA staff walk out over sausage row Staff at British Airways have threatened to walk out in a row over a sausage. The row was sparked by a member of the cabin staff offering the left over sausage to one of BA's drivers. The driver was suspended because according to BA removing the sausage from the plane constituted "theft". A spokeswoman told The Mail On Sunday: "Our clear policy is that we have a zero-tolerance approach to anyone caught taking any items from our aircraft". The driver's colleagues refused to work following his suspension. He was eventually reinstated and given a written warning. "What one staff member may see as acceptable, another staff member may decide to take further and make off with a couple of miniatures of spirits," said the BA spokeswoman.

Mysterious Fireballs Return Every Year 01-Nov-2002 In Thailand, half a million people gather every year to watch fireballs rise out of the Mekong River. Thousands of reddish- pink balls of light shoot up into the sky above the Mekong, which runs through five nations before flowing out to sea in Vietnam. Locals say the phenomenon has been going on for half a century. The fireballs appear during the full moon of the eleventh lunar month in Nong Khai province, 360 miles northeast of Bangkok. This year the weather was rainy, so only a few dozen were seen. The fireballs are called "bung fai phaya naga," or "naga fireballs," after a mythical giant serpent. There's never been a scientific explanation for them, but it's been speculated that they are the result of natural gases rising from the river bottom. Local myth says they come from an ancient waterworld. The rain disappointed the half a million people who came to Non Khai especially to see the fireballs. All 30 hotels in town were fully booked and several hospitals and Buddhist temples offered room and board. Thousands camped along the highways and the river bank. "I don't know how they happen," says 72-year-old fisherman Poon Matawong, who first saw the fireballs when he was 20. "But I believe that the waterworld exists."

State to Decide if 'Idiots' Can Vote

Nov 4, 8:54 am ET 

By Zelie Pollon

SANTA FE, New Mexico  - New Mexico voters will decide on Tuesday whether they want "idiots" and "insane persons" to vote in their state.

Under the state's Constitution, drafted in 1912, "idiots" and "insane persons," as well as those "convicted of a felonious or infamous crime" are currently prohibited from voting.

Proposed Amendment 2 on the November 5 ballot would strike the terms "idiots" and "insane persons" from the Constitution. The measure will better reflect current understanding of mental health and remove archaic language, supporters said.

"There are so many varieties of mental illness with people who are perfectly capable of making a decision," said Bureau of Elections official Denise Lamb.

"I'm more worried about unstable people with guns than I am about unstable people voting," Lamb said.

The same type of amendment, with different wording, was on the ballot once before in the mid 1990s but did not pass because voters interpreted the wording as denying people a right to vote, Lamb said.

"I think it's good to bring your Constitution more in line with reality," she said.

The state's nonpartisan research group, Legislative Council Services, said the arguments in favor of the amendment are that it will remove wording that is "archaic, offensive and meaningless from the list of people ineligible to vote."

"The terms 'idiots' and 'insane persons' may not have been considered offensive in 1912, but today they are an embarrassment," the group said in a guide to voters.

It said the opposing argument suggests that removing the terms "without replacing it with terms that more accurately reflect contemporary understanding of mental health may be too sweeping a change."

The proposed amendment also lowers the voting age from 21 to 18 years, bringing the voting age in compliance with federal requirements.

Early voter Kathleen MacRae said changing the language made sense to her.

"I'm for liberalizing all voting laws. Voting should be open and easy for everyone," she said. "And God knows there are already a lot of idiots voting."

Did Guy Fawkes Worry About Insurance?

Nov 4, 9:02 am ET 

LONDON  - Residents of a southern English village will have to make do with a fake bonfire on Guy Fawkes night because a real one would cost too much to insure.

Organizers of November 5 celebrations in Sherston, Wiltshire, say the cost of insurance has soared to 2,500 pounds ($3,898) from 237 pounds a year ago.

They say they can't afford it and have made an artificial bonfire instead.

"All we've got are some beanpoles, 12 foot high," said Eric Thacker, one of the organizers of the event.

"We've got colored lights in it, we've got a smoke machine in it, we've got lamps inside it, and colored tin foil which will give us some idea of a bonfire," he told BBC Radio.

"But it's not the real thing."

Millions of Britons will huddle around public bonfires on Tuesday night to mark the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his associates were thwarted in their bid to blow up parliament.

Local councils usually take out insurance in case the fires get out of hand.

Peruvian teenagers 'possessed' by Japanese TV cartoon The parents of three Peruvian teenagers say their children have been possessed by a Japanese TV cartoon show. Christian Vilchez, who's 16, and 19-year-olds Jorge Vela and Edy Frank Castillo are fans of Dragon Ball Z and never miss an episode. But, according to their parents, since watching it last week they have gone mute, had convulsions and lost their memories. One of the teenager's fathers told Terra Noticias Populares: "It is all Dragon Ball Z's fault. My son is numb. I beg the authorities and the church to support me." Doctors on the town of Tarapoto have examined Edy Frank Castillo and have not yet come up with an explanation for his condition. They continue to study the cases. One of the cartoon's characters is Babidi, a mind altering wizard who uses his powers to "bring out the evil in people's hearts and control them". Story filed: 15:22 Monday 4th November 2002

High-tech ghost hunting
Spirits: Sure, some spooky sights can be laughed off as fog or fakery. But what about when devices pick up voices and apparitions? 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Kevin Washington
Sun Staff
Originally published October 31, 2002

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- As dusk falls on the Triangular Field, where scores of Confederate and Union soldiers lay dead and dying on July 2, 1863, author Mark Nesbitt stands with a digital voice recorder and recites a series of questions.

We hear no response this Thursday evening. But when we turn the Panasonic RR-QR60 to playback, it appears that we had had a visitor.

"Thomas Lewis Ware," Nesbitt's voice says, "Are you here with us?"

What sounds like a gruff, short bark of "Yes" comes from the recorder.

One other question from Nesbitt seems to get an answer -- unintelligible, but definitely there.

I look around nervously to make sure no one's lurking nearby. Nesbitt, a former Gettysburg National Park Service ranger/historian who has written the Ghosts of Gettysburg books, smiles. This is very cool.

It's not the first time Nesbitt has recorded what believers say are the disembodied voices of long-dead soldiers called electronic voice phenomena, known as EVP. He and other ghost hunters claim their recordings are part of an evidentiary record of paranormal activity.

While skeptics wonder what sort of substances these folks have been smoking, ghost hunters say they're just average people discovering a realm that we of the 21st century have become too sophisticated to believe in.

Thousands haul digital voice recorders, camcorders, film and digital cameras, temperature and electromagnetic field detectors to haunted houses, cemeteries and battlefields to see, hear and occasionally speak to the dead.

Surf to ghost hunter Web sites and you'll find all sorts of paranormal phenomena: ghostly balls of light called orbs; red, white or blue clouds called ectoplasm; and sound files of voices from fields and cemeteries. On rare occasions, you'll find a photograph of an apparition as well.

Much of the evidence is highly interpretative. One ghost hunter's picture of hundreds of orbs is a cloud of dust to another. Some EVP sound like garbled static. And an ectoplasm with a face? Well, it might be exhaled breath.

"There are ghost hunters and ghost wanters, " says Chris Bravner, who recently took up the pursuit and joined the Pennsylvania Ghost Hunters Society.

The "wanters," he explains, see a ghost in everything.

Many ghost hunters say they're not out to prove that ghosts exist -- they're just having fun gathering evidence and showing people what they've photographed or recorded.

Eager skeptic 

But it's all nonsense to Pat Linse, co-founder of the Skeptics Society, a national organization that rejects the paranormal and publishes a handbook for debunkers of myths called the Baloney Detection Kit. Linse, who at one time created photo-realistic illustrations, says the 1984 film Ghostbusters and its sequel reignited interest in ghost hunting.

She's particularly skeptical about using cameras to catch the spirits, noting that "Ghost photography started about the same time as photography."

Nor does she trust ghost hunters' claims from using other devices. She argues that they can be rigged to provide all kinds of feedback that can be misinterpreted as the supernatural.

Al Tyas, who runs D.C. Metro Area Ghost Watchers, believes that paranormal activity takes place but agrees with Linse that many ghost sightings have explanations in the natural world.

"A lot of times, it's not an entity at all," says Tyas, whose group will discreetly investigate a haunted home for free. "It could be anything from leaky pipes banging in wintertime to someone [taking] too much of their prescribed medication."

Rick Fisher, a Lancaster, Pa., resident and founder of the PGHS, says serious investigators actively try to rule out all ordinary explanations for what appears to be paranormal activity.

A pioneer in the use of digital cameras for ghost investigation, Fisher says he doesn't shoot in dusty conditions or when it's raining or snowing. He says he follows strict protocols for capturing data on cameras, camcorders and voice recorders.

Fisher, who lectures on paranormal activity and publishes a magazine on the supernatural, says he has nothing against psychics but works with them sparingly.

"A psychic can tell you that they're feeling something, but I can't verify that," he says.

So he, like many ghost hunters, relies on a variety of tools in addition to cameras and voice recorders such as:

* Electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors ($35 to $150) to pick up ghostly energy.

* Infrared temperature -- measuring devices ($70 to $150) to find cold spots in homes and other locations that might indicate the presence of ghosts.

* Camcorders ($800 and up) that have the ability to shoot video at night. The ability to shoot infrared images is critical to some. Fisher discovered that by turning up the volume during playback of video, he could even find EVP.

Having the equipment is one thing; using it properly is another, ghost hunters warn -- one reason why newcomers should hook up with someone who has experience.

Emil Detoffol, who owns Less EMF Inc. in Ghent, N.Y., and sells most of his equipment to people concerned about electromagnetic fields in their houses, says a careless ghost hunter can pick up EMF readings from a variety of sources, ranging from refrigerators to cars passing by on the street.

"For example, if you're going to do ghost hunting in a home, you should turn off power at the main," says Detoffol, who doesn't hunt ghosts himself but fields constant inquiries from amateur paranormal investigators.

Infrared thermal detectors can even be fooled by pointing them at glass or the sky, he adds.

Tools detect -- what? 

With those caveats in mind, I recently accompanied Rick Fisher and two companions to the Hans Graf cemetery about 14 miles northeast of York, Pa., where a German immigrant and his descendants are buried. There he demonstrated each piece of equipment.

His infrared thermal sensor measured a temperature of 18 degrees in one corner of the cemetery -- far below the ambient temperature of 48.

His EMF detector also went off -- on a side of the cemetery away from his parked car. There were no electrical lines near enough to affect the device.

An inexpensive motion detector I brought along chirped twice when all of us were standing well back from the graves.

Armed with an Olympus E-20N digital camera, I snapped about 260 photos that produced eight pictures of orbs -- spheres of light against the wooded background. All were shot after one of the ghost-detecting devices had alerted us to a presence.

Fisher deemed the orbs to be genuine. I then asked an Olympus representative to take a look.

John Knaur, the company's senior product manager for digital cameras, says he's seen such "orbs" before.

"They're particulate matter of some sort such as dust, or pollen or moisture -- all it needs is a little bit of reflective value," he says of some of the images. "I don't disbelieve in ghosts, but this is dust."

Knaur says other orbs look like enlarged reflections from sap on broken branches. He explained that pixels in digital camera sensors, exposed to intense light, can "bloom" and spill their contents to neighboring pixels.

Similar orbs, although not as bright, might appear on images shot with film cameras too, he adds.

Fisher doesn't buy the brushoff. Why, he asks, did we get dust particles only when the other measuring equipment seemed to indicate spirits? Moreover, he notes, both he and fellow ghost hunter Scott Ditmer recorded the orbs with their cameras from different angles.

In addition to still photographs, Fisher has taped orbs zipping and floating around rooms with a Sony camcorder -- a phenomenon with no immediate rational explanation. In fact, the Web has several videos shot by ghost hunters' camcorders displaying orbs in motion similar to the ones in the E-20N photographs.

Fisher didn't pick up any orbs with his camcorder on this night, given that it was pointed away from where the globes of light appear in the pictures. But in the first couple of minutes of camcorder taping, a woman's voice can be heard softly saying, "Cobal," which he believes may be a last name -- possibly of someone buried in the cemetery. It is a clear example of EVP.

While some ghost hunters have proffered protocols for all to follow -- such as not smoking during an investigation so no one mistakes cigarette smoke for ectoplasm -- no one is bound by the rules.

And a few debates still rage about what the protocol should be in some instances. For example, some hunters believe digital cameras fail completely as evidence-collection tools because there is no negative to be reviewed.

Author Katherine Ramsland, who wrote the book Ghost about her experiences hunting spirits, remains skeptical of some claims.

Orbs in photographs were not what she was expecting when she went looking for proof that ghosts exist.

"I still want to see a ghost or get knocked around by a ghost," says Ramsland, who teaches forensic psychology at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa. "I want to see something that is real and supernatural. I've seen things that were ambiguous, but I want clarity."

For now, the most persuasive evidence may be EVPs, the sound recordings.

"EVP is the best ... they're real voices," Ramsland says of the purported ghost voices collected on tapes and digital recorders. But just whose voices or where they're coming from isn't clear.

Mark Nesbitt, who does a little bit of ghost hunting from time to time, likes EVP, too. He has collected several recordings at several places around the sprawling battlefield where 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers died. He has received responses before from Thomas Ware, who fought with the 15th Georgia Volunteer Infantry regiment and died in the Triangular Field.

"I'm still a skeptic, but you can't deny what you see and record on tape and film," says Nesbitt, who has written books on the Civil War and runs the Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tour service.

"I've collected almost 500 ghost stories and still, some of this stuff gives me the willies."

Kevin Washington can be reached at kevin.washington@baltsun.com.

CIA Killed Al Qaeda Suspects in Yemen, Official Says Mon Nov 4, 5:39 PM ET By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON  - A missile fired by an unmanned CIA (news - web sites) drone aircraft hit a car believed to be carrying suspected al Qaeda members in Yemen Sunday and killed several occupants, a U.S. official said Monday. The official, who asked not to be identified, told The News Source the American military was not involved in the attack, which reports from the capital Sanaa said killed six alleged al Qaeda members. They included Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, a key suspect in a bombing attack on the U.S. warship Cole in Aden two years ago, according to Yemen's news agency. "As I understand it, it was an agency drone" that conducted the weekend strike in the oil-producing Marib province east of the capital Sanaa, said the U.S. official, who did not provide any details. The CIA previously has used remote-controlled "Predator" drones to fire missiles at suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan (news - web sites). The Defense Department and CIA refused to comment on the incident, but Yemen's news agency reported in Sanaa that a car explosion had killed the members of al Qaeda. The radical Muslim group led by fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) is blamed by Washington for the devastating attacks on America in September of last year. In Bentonville, Arkansas, President Bush (news - web sites) did not comment directly on the Yemen incident, but reiterated Monday that he was determined to break up al Qaeda. "The only way to treat them is (for) what they are -- international killers. And the only way to find them is to be patient, and steadfast, and hunt them down. And the United States of America is doing just that," Bush said. "We're in it for the long haul." SIX TRAVELING IN AUTOMOBILE Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon (news - web sites) briefing on Monday, praised the anti-terrorism cooperation between Washington and Yemen. Elite U.S. military trainers were sent there this year to advise Yemeni troops on striking al Qaeda guerrillas believed hiding in remote parts of the country. An Interior Ministry official told Yemen's Saba news agency that arms, traces of explosives and communications equipment were found in the car, in which the six suspected al Qaeda members were traveling. He said one of the dead men was believed to be al-Harthi, also known as Abu Ali, one of two key suspects hunted by security forces since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington that killed about 3,000 people. Al-Harthi was the senior al Qaeda representative in Yemen and among the top dozen al Qaeda leaders worldwide, a U.S. official said. A former bin Laden bodyguard, he was "known to be involved in planning terrorist attacks in and around Yemen," the official said. Al-Harthi is suspected of involvement in the 2000 suicide bombing on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen's Aden harbor that killed 17 U.S. sailors. Washington also blames that attack on the Saudi-born bin Laden, whose ancestral home is in Yemen. U.S. officials believe al-Harthi may have also been involved in the recent French tanker explosion off the coast of Yemen. The U.S. military has 800 or more Marines and elite Special Operations troops and, according to published reports, some CIA paramilitary personnel in the Horn of Africa. Most of the troops are at a French military base in Djibouti.

Scientists Studying NDEs and Prayer 04-Nov-2002 Two highly reputable scientists are studying what used to be a disreputable phenomenon in straight science: Near- death experiences. With the advent of modern medicine, NDEs have become a much more common experience that include seeing a white light and being greeted by dead relatives. Patients rise above their own bodies and see doctors frantically trying to resuscitate them. Dr. Sam Parnia and Dr. Peter Fenwick plan to place cards in places where heart-attack victims will be treated that can only be seen from the ceiling, if they have out-of-body experiences. Parnia has published a study showing that 10% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated reported NDEs. Some of the evidence includes patients recognizing hospital staff they had never met but who helped resuscitate them. Others remembered overhearing conversations between doctors. According to known medical science, this should be impossible, because they don't have any brain activity during this period. Most scientists assume near-death experiences and out-of- body experiences are a result of a lack of oxygen in the brain. However this is changing-in December 2001, Dutch neurologist Dr. Pim van Lommel published an article in The Lancet, a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, showing that 18% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated recalled near-death experiences years after the event. NDE researcher Kenneth Ring studied blind patients who were resuscitated from cardiac arrest who described seeing their body while clinically dead, although it was slightly out of focus. If near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences don't come from the brain, where is consciousness based? "There are two ways to view the universe," says Fenwick. "Our current world model is that everything is matter." But this doesn't explain consciousness. A new theory says the basic building blocks of the universe are not made of matter but of consciousness. "This second, transcendent, view of the universe makes it much easier to understand NDEs," says Fenwick. He thinks quantum mechanics, which shows that matter can have both a physical form and a wave form at the same time, is a step in that direction. Scientific studies of prayer are also beginning to influence scientists. These studies show that subjects benefit from the prayers of others even when they don't know that someone is praying for them. This has been interpreted as an indication that consciousness behaves like a field, such as magnetism, which can be affected by other fields. If that's true, then it's possible for one person's consciousness to affect another's. Will this finally convince the skeptics? "No, nothing will, but that's OK," says Fenwick. "It's how science progresses. Any research that says you have to have a major rethink in your world model is always rejected. But it will prove that consciousness is not in the brain." Can other consciousnesses attack us and can we defend ourselves from psychic attack? Robert Bruce tells how in "Practical Psychic Self-Defense," click here. Listen to a fascinating interview, where Robert tells Whitley Strieber how to protect himself against this type of attack, by clicking "Listen Now" at the top of our homepage. 

Yoga ban at church hall over New Age link A West Yorkshire vicar has banned a yoga group from his church hall because he says the exercise is against the teachings of the Bible. The Rev John Walker claims yoga is inextricably linked with Hinduism and New Age thinking. The Telegraph & Argus says he has given the yoga class notice to quit St Wilfrid's Church of England Hall, in Calverley. Yoga teacher Olivia Douglas says the ban by the Parochial Church Council is totally against the spirit of the Christian faith. She says one letter from the Rev Walker claimed however "innocently and ignorantly" people practised yoga, it conflicted with Biblical teachings. In a second letter he said yoga students were, in Biblical terms, lost. Mrs Douglas has taught yoga weekly in the hall for 15 years. The Rev Walker said: "If it was a simple exercise class I would not have a problem with it. "I don't have a problem with Christian meditation but I do have a problem with other forms of meditation that connect humans as part of a universal mind and spirit, seen by some as a source of wisdom and creativity." In August, a vicar in Wiltshire banned yoga classes from a church hall because of association with the Hindu faith.

Council says woman ran 'haunted house' without licence A woman in the US has been forced to close her 'haunted house' because the local council says she doesn't have a licence for it. Kim Yates's home a in Rosedale, Maryland, had Michael Myers from the Halloween movies on the roof and monsters on her front lawn. But the main attractions at Kim's Krypt have now gone after orders from Baltimore County authorities. According to the The Baltimore Sun all that's left is an old hearse parked in her driveway. The paper says neighbours had complained after long lines formed outside the home this month and eerie screams wafted beyond her property line. "The kids are going to miss it," said Ms Yates, who has run a haunted house in eastern Baltimore County for nearly a decade. "It's like going to see Santa at Christmas. At Halloween, they come to see me." Her problems began this month when the commercial space she had planned to rent for her haunted house wasn't available. Yates decided instead to use her home on Berkwood Road, where an electric chair sits in the dining room all year round. She is due to appear in court next month to answer allegations brought by Baltimore County that she operated a haunted house without proper permits. She says most people liked her haunted house because it gave local youngsters something to do. She uses a crew of teenage helpers who must be drugs and alcohol free.

Man in hospital three times in two days A Hampshire man ended up in a New Zealand hospital three times in two days on what was supposed to be a holiday of a lifetime. Roy Dennis was visiting his son Edward in Auckland when he hit the unlucky streak. Firstly he needed emergency surgery after snapping an ankle while skydiving and was released from hospital in a wheelchair. The following day he was bitten by a puffer fish at an aquarium and needed a tetanus injection Twenty-four hours later Edward took his father to an adventure park where staff put the wheelchair-bound 60-year-old in a special car for a tour. The Sun says the chair wasn't secured properly and he careered out of the car and into a window, breaking his nose. Roy is now back home and faces two months in plaster. "We wanted to make it a memorable trip and it was -for all the wrong reasons." Edward said: "I've been left feeling like a bit of a jinx."

Prisoner sends judge letter meant for his girlfriend A prisoner in the US sent a letter intended for his girlfriend to the judge who was about to sentence him. In the note, Kent Coulson tells his girlfriend that he has to write a "suck up" letter to the "crusty old judge" in a bid to get a lighter sentence for manufacturing methamphetamines. However, the Salt Lake Tribune says the letter ended up in an envelope addressed to US district judge David Sam. In the letter, Coulson, who was in Wasatch County Jail in Utah, says: "Hey Baby, how is my little thing? I have been sweating my ass off. It is a hot one in here. As you know, I have not been sentenced yet, but that is coming up soon. But I do have some good news concerning that subject." He says his father plays golf with judge Sam, which he believes will go in his favour. The letter continues: "Not only that, but the old [deleted] lives up here in Heber somewhere and the church people who come every Sunday morning happen to know him. So it all looks good for me. Ha! Ha!" The letter was stamped as an official court document made part of Coulson's file. Coulson's lawyer suggested in a letter to the court that it might have been written by another inmate playing a practical joke on Coulson. Judge Sam sentenced Coulson to 70 months in federal prison, the minimum penalty under federal sentencing guidelines.

Dutch trucker crashes three days before party to celebrate accident-free record A Dutch trucker was involved in a crash three days before he was due to hold a party to celebrate one million kilometres of accident free driving. Marinus Boogaerts was driving from Holland to France when he was in collision with another lorry on the motorway, near Brecht. A Danish trucker hadn't noticed a traffic queue and ploughed into the back of Mr Boogaerts's lorry after he hit the brakes too late. Two people were slightly hurt. Mr Boogaerts' lorry was badly damaged but he said he was more upset about having to cancel his party. "After driving nearly a million kilometres without having one single accident I wanted to celebrate," he told Het Laatste Nieuws

Golfers complete round of golf in protective suits A team of hazardous materials workers in the US have completed a round of mini golf wearing their protective suits. They were fulfilling a legal requirement to spend two hours a year moving around in the suits, which include face masks. More than a dozen of Harford County's 27 part-time hazardous materials team participated in the game at Churchville Golf and Baseball park in Churchville, Maryland. Many took time off from their full-time jobs as firefighters to play 18 holes of miniature golf. It took each team of two players about 45 minutes to finish the round. The team normally takes part in drills with leaking drums several times a year but say miniature golf is a lot more fun. According to Baltimore Sun a similar idea has caught on with at least one of the state's other 11 hazardous material teams. Allegany County's squad will try its hand at tennis this year. Linda Kumer, manager of Churchville Golf and Baseball, said last year was a little more exciting because the team played at the height of the anthrax scare. Cars wouldn't even pull into the lot. "It wasn't too busy while they were here," she said. Story filed: 17:10 Friday 1st November 2002

Beard Liberation Front wants to ban burning of Guy Fawkes effigies The Beard Liberation Front wants Home Secretary David Blunkett to ban the burning of Guy Fawkes effigies on bonfire night. The organisation, which describes itself as an informal network of beard wearers, says they have no sympathy with Fawkes. However, it says they believe burning the effigies encourages "irrational prejudice" against beard wearers. Organiser Keith Flett said: "We have no problems with bonfires or fireworks. We do want the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes stopped and we have asked David Blunkett to act. "We've noticed that Mr Blunkett like sbanning things, so we are hopeful of success." Story filed: 17:06 Saturday 2nd November 2002

Man's fiancee sees someone else, he asks him to be best man A man who found out his fiancee was seeing someone else, has invited him to be best man at their wedding. Stewart Parkes discovered bride-to-be Christine Browning was seeing Clint Gordon. Mr Parkes, 28, arranged to meet Mr Gordon in a pub to sort matters out. But Stewart says the two men ended up getting on so well, he asked Clint to be his best man. The News of the World says Stewart and Christine, who live in Leamington, Warwickshire, are getting married next April. Christine said she was "devastated" when she heard the two men were getting on so well. "The thought of them getting together and talking about me was awful," said Christine. Stewart said he and Clint had much in common: "We're both builders, we both like football..and of course there was Christine." Clint added: "It's incredible we've ended up such mates." Story filed: 08:41 Sunday 3rd November 2002

'Swamp monster' halts road scheme Work on a New Zealand road scheme has been stopped after a Maori tribe warned it could upset a swamp monster. Members of the Ngati Naho tribe told the country's highway agency it was too close to the home of a taniwha. The monsters are believed to act as guardians for landmarks such as rivers. In Maori legend a different taniwha guards each bend of the river. Chris Allen, of Transit New Zealand, says road work, 550km north east of Wellington, will stop until tribe members can "confirm whether it is or isn't an issue". Brenda Maxwell, a member of the Maori community, said they believe a number of past road deaths were caused by the local taniwha. According to news.com.au, Ms Maxwell wants the new road to be built away from the swamp and across high ground. She warns that if it is built near the swamp "we're going to have more problems than what it's worth". To cut highway costs, "they're willing to trample on our culture. Get away from the swamp. It's as simple as that," she said. Mr Allen said the agency had been told about two other taniwhas living near the construction route. But he said in those cases the highway was not deemed close enough to the monsters' homes to require a change of route. Story filed: 08:37 Monday 4th November 2002

No Apollo Moon Landing? NASA Book to Combat Doubts Tue Nov 5, 1:15 PM ET By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON  - Moon rocks weren't enough. Neither was testimony from astronauts or even photographic evidence. So NASA (news - web sites) has commissioned a mini-book to show that yes, indeed, Americans did land on the Moon. Most humans on Earth accept that U.S. astronauts first got to the moon aboard the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. But those who don't believe have created a sort of cottage industry of doubt, and that is what NASA wants to combat. "I'd been concerned for some time that there was this story that's circulating about how we never landed on the Moon and we would get, periodically, calls from people about how to respond to that, especially from teachers," said Roger Launius, NASA's former chief historian. Launius had long wanted to put together an educational aid for teachers and others who wanted to counter the doubters, and in September, NASA agreed to pay aeronautics engineer James Oberg $15,000 to write a monograph gathering up materials answering the skeptics, point by point. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dealt with the controversy for decades, without much fanfare, but Launius said the questioning intensified in 2001 after the Fox television network aired "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" This program gave another voice to the doubters, whose arguments are scattered broadly over the Internet and have even spawned a backlash from scientists who view the doubters' contentions as simply ridiculous. Those who doubt the Apollo moon landings maintained the United States lacked the technology to send humans to the Moon and was so desperate to appear to win the space race against the Soviet Union that it faked the moon mission on movie sets. The doubters said the fake was done so poorly that there is ample evidence of fraud, including a picture of astronauts planting the American flag that allegedly shows the flag rippling in the wind. The skeptics contended there can be no breeze on the moon, so the picture must have been faked. On its own Web page debunking the Apollo doubters -- http:/liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2001/news-moonlanding.asp -- NASA agreed that there is no Earth-type breeze on the moon, and there is no atmosphere either. DID THE FLAG WAVE IN THE WIND? But when the astronauts struggled to plant the U.S. flag in the lunar surface, they twisted it around a bit before it stuck, and that naturally created ripples in the flag. The ripples would have dissipated within seconds on Earth, where the atmosphere would have stopped them. But on the Moon, the rippling went unchecked, making it look as if it were being carried by the wind. There are other sites, including www.badastronomy.com, that take aim at the substance of the doubters' claims. The site's creator, astronomer Phil Plait, was blunt in his condemnation of the doubters, whom he calls conspiracy theorists. "The craziness involves people who think that the NASA Apollo Moon missions were faked," Plait said on the site. "There are lots of rumors spreading around about this, and rest assured they are all completely false. The claims made by these conspiracy theorists are actually all wrong, sometimes laughably so." The controversy recently emerged from cyberspace in the person of Bart Sibrel, who has made a film questioning the Apollo Moon missions and who confronted astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a Beverly Hills hotel on Sept. 9 and demanded that Aldrin swear on a Bible that he had in fact walked on the moon. The 72-year-old Aldrin, the second man ever to touch the lunar surface, punched the 37-year-old Sibrel in the face. Sibrel asked that assault charges be filed, but Los Angeles County prosecutors declined. A videotape of the incident showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and calling him a "thief, liar and coward," one prosecutor said. Launius, who recently moved from NASA headquarters to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, said he has no illusions about whether the upcoming monograph, which he describes as a short book, will change every doubter's mind. "We know that there are groups of people out there, individuals out there, that you're never going to convince of something like this," Launius said. "That's not the audience. "The audience are those who are basically coming to NASA, looking for information, and obviously they'll make up their own minds, but we'll try to put the best possible information in their hands," Launius said.

Wife Sets House on Fire After Fruit Argument

Nov 5, 8:41 am ET 

CAIRO  - A woman set fire to her Cairo apartment after an argument with her husband over his refusal to buy dried fruit and nuts traditionally eaten in the holy month of Ramadan, Egyptian newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The blaze started when the woman doused the flat with kerosene and caused an estimated 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($6,500) of damage before firefighters brought it under control, al-Akhbar reported.

Dried apricots, figs and nuts are relatively expensive and can often be the cause of domestic strife in Egypt if a family's wage earner refuses to buy them for Ramadan.

During the month, which begins on Wednesday in Egypt, Muslims fast by day and eat and drink only at night. Many Egyptians like to celebrate in the evening with special foods.

Top Places to See Before You Die

Nov 11, 12:29 pm ET 

LONDON  - The Grand Canyon in the United States, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Disney World in Florida are the top three "must see" destinations in the world, according to a British television poll.

Over 20,000 viewers voted in the BBC's "50 Places to See Before You Die" survey -- and none of the dream locations is to be found in Britain, the BBC said on Friday.

The United States proved most popular in the poll, which forms part of a BBC "Holiday" program to be screened on Sunday.

New York was at number nine in the survey, carried out in April 2002, reflecting that the city remained popular with British tourists after last year's September 11 attacks.

Other top 10 entries included New Zealand's South Island, Cape Town, the Golden Temple in India's AmriCzar, Las Vegas, Sydney and the Taj Mahal.

Among U.S. destinations, viewers also voted for Lake Louise in the Rocky Mountains, the Niagara Falls (which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border), Yosemite National Park, Hawaii, Alaska and San Francisco as top destinations.

The favorite three European destinations were Venice at number 18, Paris at 27 and Rome at 35.

Motherhood Makes You Smarter 11-Nov-2002 Motherhood may make women smarter and help prevent Alzheimer's by bathing the brain in protective hormones. Tests on rats show that the ones who raise two or more litters of pups do better in tests of memory and skills than rats who have no babies. Their brains also show changes that suggest they may be protected against Alzheimer's. "Our research shows that the hormones of pregnancy are protecting the brain, including estrogen, which we know has many neuroprotective effects," says researcher Craig Kinsley. "When people think about pregnancy, they think about what happens to infants and the mother from the neck down. They do not realize that hormones are washing on the brain." After the rats went through the tests, they were killed and researchers looked at their brains, especially the hippocampus, which is associated with learning and memory. The rats that had several pregnancies had lower levels of a protein called amyloid precursor protein. In humans, this is associated with the development of Alzheimer's. Kinsley says, "Nature seems to provide the mother with a boost to enable her to care, long term, for the most important and costly genetic and metabolic investment she will ever make-her offspring." Want to live longer?-Marry a smart woman. Men with smart, well-educated wives are less likely to have heart attacks. Norwegian researchers think smart women may have a calming effect on their husbands, as well as a positive influence on their diets and lifestyles. They looked at the health of 20,000 married men aged 35 to 56 from 1977 to 1992 and found that men with smart wives were less likely to be overweight and more likely to exercise. They also had lower blood pressure and cholesterol and smoked less. Dr. Haakon Meyer says, "This may be because the women make decisions about nutrition and lifestyle."

Find God in a Magnet 07-Nov-2002 Scientists have done experiments to make people believe they've felt the presence of God by exposing them to a specific series of pulses from TMS magnetism. The subjects described feeling an invisible presence near them or feeling connected to the whole world. Researchers think naturally occurring magnetism could be behind mystical and paranormal experiences, and may be the reason why some places are felt to be sacred. All perception and thought is based on electrical activity in the brain. If you change the current, you should change the perceptions, since the human brain can't tell the difference between magnetically stimulated reality and natural reality. TMS works on principals of electrical current. In 1831, Faraday discovered that a rapidly changing magnetic field can induce electrical current in a nearby conductor. In 1985, this was used to cause twitches in the arm and leg muscles of human subjects. Now it's being used to investigate basic brain function. Dr. Michael Persinger thinks TMS could be used for mind control. He's trying to identify magnetic pulses that cause specific reactions in the brain. One kind of pulse induces a general feeling of well-being, while another creates sexual arousal, and he thinks it might be possible to find one that could trigger the immune system. Australian researcher Dr. Robyn Young used TMS to increase creativity in the brains of 17 volunteers. Five of them showed an increase in creative skills during the experiment. "We had to hold the experiment in a hospital; the subjects had to be young, with no case history of epilepsy, very healthy subjects," she says. "...If we had been allowed to zap them harder, we might have had even more remarkable results."

Why Girls Aren't Geeks 07-Nov-2002 There may be more male geeks than women because women don't have the genetic programming for "geekiness." Women are programmed to be more adept in social situations because genes on the female X chromosome seem to give them better social skills. Men have only a single X chromosome, while women have two. "Having two X chromosomes may be protective against whatever predisposes someone to not being able to make sense of the social world," says Dr. Ruth Campbell. "It makes sense for women (because)...their survival, and that of their babies, is particularly dependent on reading social situations accurately." A study of women with Turner's Syndrome, a female genetic condition caused by a missing or defective X-chromosome, shows that women with Turner's have difficulty with social interactions and find it hard to read body language, despite having normal intelligence. These women were shown pictures of two faces, one looking directly forward and the other with a slightly averted gaze. The researchers found that women with Turner's Syndrome couldn't tell if they were being looked at directly. Campbell says men aren't necessarily bad at social interaction, but if you isolate a group of people who are socially inadequate, you're more likely to find men there than women. Autism and autism-like conditions such as Asperger's syndrome are far more common in men, but scientists don't know why. David Potter of the National Autistic Society thinks it could be because of their lack of a 2nd X chromosome. He says, "It's another small piece of the jigsaw but it's not going to explain all cases of autism." Geeks, note this: Scientists studying people who go to clubs and discos have discovered you get up to 400% more attention if you take off your glasses. London psychologists told 38 volunteers, aged 18 to 26, to try to pick up a member of the opposite sex at a London bar. The male and female volunteers were split into three groups. One group was told to wear their glasses, the second to change from contact lenses to glasses and the third to change from glasses to contact lenses. "Changing methods of eyesight correction proved to have a far-reaching effect on the volunteers' feelings of self-confidence-85% of those that had switched to contact lenses reported increased self- confidence," says Dr. June McNicholas. "By comparison, not one of those that had switched to glasses said the same. On the contrary, 75% of them complained of feeling less confident...80% of those who wore glasses on the night felt less able to attract a mate." But McNicholas says, "In other contests, such as a job interview, glasses are an advantage."

Almond liqueur ads dropped because they smell like cyanide gas An advertising campaign that wafted the aroma of almond liqueur through the London Underground has been dropped because the smell is similar to cyanide gas. Amaretto Di Saronno dropped the ads from their �1.5m Christmas marketing campaign after Home Office advice about the threat of terrorist activity, reports The Independent. The scent of the sweet-tasting drink was replicated using aromatherapy oils, but, unfortunately for the manufacturers, cyanide gas also smells of almond, although it's bitter almond. Jon Evans, the brand manager, said: "The production of aroma is only one element of the campaign, and whilst we regret that Underground passengers will no longer enjoy this aspect, security issues are clearly more important than marketing activity."

700-year-old picture of 'Mickey Mouse' found in Austrian church What appears to be a 700-year-old picture of Mickey Mouse has been discovered on a church fresco in Austria.

Walt Disney first sketched his character in 1928 but an Austrian art historian spotted an uncannily similar drawing. The painting, which has been dated back to the early 14th Century, is in the Community Church in Malta, Carinthia. Next to a large sketch of St. Christopher is a clear drawing of the mouse. Art historian Eduard Mahlknecht believes the similarity to Mickey is pure coincidence. He told Austrian daily 'Krone: "St Christopher was often depicted surrounded by various animals and sea-life, and in this case something that resembles Mickey Mouse. "It is most likely to be a drawing of a beaver or a weasel." However, Carinthia's tourism office is already thinking of ways to cash in on the sketch. Siggi Neuschitzer, manager of the Malta Tourism Association, said: "The similarity of the painting to Mickey Mouse is so astounding that the Disney concern could even lose its world-wide copyright licence. "Our Mickey Mouse is 700 years older than Disney's and we will get it legally examined."

Sex Urged for More Productivity

Nov 14, 8:08 am ET 

SINGAPORE  - An international conference on sex started in strait-laced Singapore on Thursday.

And if that wasn't unlikely enough, participants said they may have found a pleasurable way to boost the drooping world economy.

Healthy sex lives make happy workers, who will in turn create a more robust economy, said Emil Ng, sex therapist and founder of the Asian Federation of Sexology.

"Sexual health is not just about absence of diseases or dysfunction...It is about the ability to enjoy sex," Ng told reporters on the sidelines of the 7th Asian Congress of Sexology. "This will improve the whole nation's well-being and productivity.

"When your economy is down, sexual activity will be lower, not because of sexual problems, but financial problems. This is a vicious cycle."

Experts also said that sexual myths rooted in Asia's diverse religions and cultures could create social problems that spread into an adult's working life.

"In the Asian context, there are more myths and misconceptions surrounding sexuality which can contribute to dysfunction and family disharmony," said Ganesh Adaikan, president of this year's congress.

Sex and the economy also crossed paths in the 1960s when "the pill" gave women control over reproduction and heralded an influx of women into the work force, they said.

The four-day congress has a host of topics on the anvil -- the "P spot," the "G spot" and other erogenous zones, enhanced Viagra-like drugs to cure male erectile dysfunction, sexuality after 50 and new dimensions of the Kama Sutra, India's ancient treatise on sex.

Aimed at enhancing awareness of sexual health in Asia, the congress has been held previously in Hong Kong, China, India, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Archeologists Look for UFO at Famed Roswell Site 2 hours, 38 minutes ago Add Science 

By Zelie Pollon ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico  - In trying to unravel a mystery that may involve the war of the worlds, cable TV's SCI FI Channel has turned to a group of educated men and women with shovels and set them loose on the southern New Mexico desert. In an effort to verify once and for all whether a UFO crash-landed in New Mexico more than 50 years ago, the cable TV channel sent a team of archeologists to conduct an in-depth study of the legendary crash site. And just like the alleged government conspiracy by those who say aliens landed near Roswell, New Mexico, the results of the scientific study are top secret. That is until Nov. 22, when SCI FI airs "The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence," which will include what network representatives are calling a "smoking gun." Until then believers and debunkers will just have to wait, said Bill Doleman, the principal investigator with the University of New Mexico archeology team. Doleman, along with three other archeologists and six volunteers were hired by the SCI FI Channel to conduct the research, which took place over 10 days last September. "We found things -- some things I still don't know what they are -- but they surprised me," Doleman said, reiterating his confidentiality agreement with SCI FI. SCI FI representatives say the program promises never- before-seen eyewitness interviews, late-breaking revelations and a "smoking gun bombshell," which does not necessarily coincide with the archeological findings. "The smoking gun is fascinating and compelling. It's going to raise a lot of questions afterwards," said Thomas Vitale, a senior vice president of programming at the SCI FI Channel. The supposed crash of an alien ship in Roswell on July 3, 1947 has become legendary. According to some accounts, the ship crashed in an empty field with several aliens on board. Witnesses claim to have seen extraterrestrial beings, which were taken away by military personnel never to be seen again. Those who believe an alien craft landed are adamant the incident involves a huge government cover-up. The government, in turn, says the incident involved a weather balloon and the accounts of aliens comes from anti-military conspirators. Doleman says his team was directed to use purely scientific methods, such as geophysical prospecting and archeological testing of anomalies, to find any evidence of a crash. They primarily investigated what is called the "skip site," the second site of impact where the craft supposedly spewed debris before skipping 17-25 miles away to its final crash site. "We weren't out there to bunk or debunk. We were just scientists using scientific methods," he said. Along with evidence found at the scene, the "smoking gun evidence sheds light on government truthfulness about this whole event," Vitale said. ((Dallas Bureau +1 972 980-4192, jon.herskovitz@the News Source.com)

The Sunday Times Magazine 

The Sunday Times Magazine 

November 10, 2002

Super snoopers: How psychic spies are using remote viewing to fight the war against terror

American psychic spies say they're helping to fight President Bush's war on terror. They claim they predicted the September 11 attacks in a drawing (above). But can 'remote viewing' really beat Al-Qaeda? By Tony Barrell

Believe it or not, some Americans can see clear over to the East Coast from the West Coast. I am with one of them - a 36-year-old woman called Prudence Calabrese, who runs an extraordinary company called TransDimensional Systems. We are in California but, through the miracle of 'remote viewing', we're looking at New York City, and a large circular structure that is mostly underground. It has a lift of some sort, a boxy elevator that carries people down into the interior. A girl or woman has just come out of the elevator and is running frantically. She has an urgent mission; she is worried sick about something and has to get somewhere fast. She may be tripping or stumbling. It is a matter of life and death, and most likely concerns an act of terrorism. It could be a chemical or biological attack, and a large body of water is involved.

I'm told that this is the future. We don't know who the panicky runner is, or whether she's one of the good guys or the bad guys. We can't be sure where it is in New York, and we don't have the date, but Pru Calabrese and the team she heads are sure it's going to happen. 'This will be related to whatever the next attack is in New York,' she says, as she pores over the dozen A4 pages of pen-scribble that constitute the prediction. 'And it sure looks like a terror attack on the water supply. But it could be something that's affecting the groundwater, or something that's been let loose where there's a big pool of water.' Pru and her colleagues at TDS say they are psychic spies of the type that both the Americans and the Russians employed during the cold war. Amazingly, remote viewers claim to be able to extend their consciousness to see, feel, smell and taste things that are thousands of miles away. Spooks in both senses of the term, their highly trained, supernaturally attuned minds supposedly allow them to walk through walls and pull out heavily guarded information without detection. Even linear time is no obstacle to their talents: they can zip back into history, and into the future. Unlike America's cold-war viewers, who worked for highly classified programmes with weird code names like Stargate and Grillflame, Pru and her team don't operate under the aegis of government departments like the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency. TDS is a one of several commercial companies formed in a kind of privatisation of this craft that accelerated after the US remote-viewing programmes were officially declassified in 1995. So, while she claims to pass information regularly to agencies such as the FBI, Pru's firm also takes on a coruscating variety of private projects: everything from tracing embezzled money and predicting the outcome of corporate mergers to scanning human bodies, Fantastic Voyage-style, to diagnose health problems. Stuck in a characterless office building in the city of Carlsbad, a drab sprawl between Los Angeles and San Diego in California, I initially wonder if I have somehow wandered into a story by Philip K Dick, the paranoid American sci-fi writer who lived most of his life in this US state, and whose near-future dystopias were often peopled by 'precogs' and 'teeps', freaks with precognitive and telepathic powers. Indeed, the Spielberg movie Minority Report, based on a Dick story of 50 years ago, is uncannily close to home for Pru. Tom Cruise plays the head of a police department known as Precrime, which obtains data about future murders from 'precogs' and then arrests the would-be perps before they perpetrate - just as Pru and co try to anticipate Al-Qaeda attacks. 'We target the minds of terrorists and spill their demonic plans onto paper,' she says, 'and cross our fingers that our report helps lock them behind bars.' Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were true, if an ability normally relegated to genre fiction, tacky comic books and gypsy shacks on rotting seaside piers could be harnessed to defeat the most terrifyingly and unpredictably destructive force of the modern age?

It would be the fulfilment of a mass childhood fantasy; as if all the wishful thinking that generated America's most vivid fictional creations - Superman, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and their ilk - had accelerated human evolution in a supreme imitation of art by life. Disappointingly, Pru and her staff don't wear capes or drive Batmobiles. When I meet five of her co-viewers I am impressed by how pleasant and, well, ordinary they are. I would say 'down to earth' if they didn't claim to frequently enjoy out-of-body experiences. My impression appears to confirm what the US secret services reportedly discovered back in the 1970s: that remote viewing is a skill that can be taught to almost anyone, even meatheads in the military. 'I don't consider it a special ability,' says one of the team, Cy Shinkawa, a 49-year-old Hawaiian Clark Kent who used to work in an electrical-gadget shop. 'In fact, I'm probably a good example of somebody who doesn't have any special abilities. I heard an interview with a remote viewer on a night-time radio show, I heard it was teachable and I just decided to take this thing on.' If there is a common quality uniting these psi-spies, it's a sense that there is much more to this universe than meets the eye, that the world is not enough - though this may be a mindset you arrive at when you've been astral-travelling a few times. 'You realise after a while that what you see here as reality is just a sliver of what's out there,' says Cy. 'It does something to your ego first of all; it's a humbling feeling.' 'I was interested in the perspective of some kind of galactic coalition - you know, is there a bigger cosmic connection to other beings that we have?' says another TDS viewer, Roma Strong Zanders, 37, who still has a jewellery business with her father and calls herself a 'jill of all trades'. 'I have a very holistic viewpoint,' says the team's second in command, John Vivanco, 35, a Buddhist who used to do marketing work for a clothing store. 'We wouldn't be able to do this work if we weren't truly one with everything.' Pru, whose background is in the hard-science world of cyclotronics - esoteric particle-acceleration stuff - agrees. 'You get this weird understanding of humanity - you start to see that we're very much interconnected, and you see the underpinning of everything. It changes you.' There are no crystal balls or sheep's entrails involved in this psychic day job: just pen and paper and the subconscious mind, essentially. Remote viewing may be the freakball bastard offspring of ESP and automatic writing, but it is presented as hocus without the pocus, mumbo without the jumbo. Their methods are adapted from American military techniques from the 1970s and 80s, so they have a strict, pseudo-scientific protocol. Much of their viewing is totally 'blind' - that is, the 'objective', or target, is described on a piece of paper that the viewers do not see; it may be sealed in an envelope somewhere. They assign eight random digits to each objective - 4585 2254, say, for 'What will be the next terror attack in New York City?', or 7160 2588 for 'The crucifixion of Jesus Christ' - and mark their first sheet with the date, the time, and a secret-agenty code name, like Pink Panther or Modesty Blaise. 'We always use code names,' says Pru, 'because if you're turning them in to law enforcement, you'd never want a perpetrator to find out who might have collected information.' Then the viewer starts doodling, much in the way that you or I create Biro masterpieces while on the phone. The first doodle, known as the 'transit line', can fill much of the first page, and is merely a 'psychological tool', a gateway to the right mental state. The goal is a theta brain-wave pattern, a kind of cerebral twilight zone, encouraging both the subconscious mind and the body to give up the data they secretly hold. The rationalising conscious mind is kept out of the task as much as possible. Brian Eno-ish ambient music is often used, with earphones, to help you reach remote-viewing nirvana.

Theta waves, which have a frequency range of four to seven cycles per second, are normally present during sleep, profound meditation and transcendental shamanic rituals. On the second page, Pru explains, 'The viewer starts out by writing down the random numbers again, and then they let their hand do this quick, automatic doodle; it's called an 'ideogram', and it tells us on a kind of gestalt level something very basic about your objective.' The basic ideograms are redolent of Jungian archetypes, encapsulating ideas such as 'mountain', 'water', 'man-made structure', 'subject' (person or other living thing) and 'energetics' (movement) in simple lines and squiggles. These are then 'probed' with the pen or the hand to access mystical information. The viewing-and-writing process then becomes more elaborate, with written descriptions of sensations and more detailed sketches, and ends with a complex tabulation known as 'the matrix' - a term that brings yet another reality-stretching sci-fi movie to mind. 'The whole process is very draining,' says Pru, 'and it burns a lot of calories, so you have to eat a lot. You'll lose weight! And it requires so much concentration, you'll get headaches if you're not used to it.' Remote viewing is one of the few fields in which the consumption of chocolate is recommended. 'It really helps,' says Pru. Coffee, too, 'as long as you time it so that you do your session at the height of your caffeine high'. Other viewers will brave the taste of mugwort tea. Often a viewer will work with a 'monitor', someone who will metaphysically hold their hand as they scan a target, offering esoteric advice like 'Focus on the most recognisable part of the objective,' or asking sensible-sounding things like 'What kind of building are you in?' All 14 of TDS's operational viewers will sometimes be looking at the same target simultaneously. 'And it takes a lot of sessions to put together a formal report to really answer a question,' says Pru. If what they say is true, TDS predicted an American nightmare 4 1/2 years before it happened. Pru shows me scribbles that describe 'crashing', 'screaming', 'smoke', and there is a big drawing of an aeroplane crashing into one of a pair of skyscrapers, with a crude representation of the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. The viewing is dated March 10, 1997. 'Ain't that amazing? We stuck these things up on the internet and wrote an open letter to the FBI, warning them that something was going to happen, but at the time no one seemed to take it seriously. Most people laughed at us, frankly.' On September 12, 2001, Pru set her team the objective of 'the next terror attack in the United States'. What they came up with was 'that the next thing would be biological, like anthrax. And we knew it was domestic: it wasn't Middle Eastern terrorism, it was somebody associated with the military'. At some point the authorities apparently started taking TDS seriously, because they called the company in to check on the integrity of the retaining wall under the Hudson river, says Pru. After the collapse of the World Trade Center, there was concern that the wall could be damaged by the clean-up operation. 'It could have flooded all of lower Manhattan. So we looked at that, and we figured out very quickly that there would be no problem - it was rock-solid.' Predictably secretive, America's intelligence organisations refuse to confirm or deny that they use information from TDS and similar bands of super-heroes. Nor can Pru reveal the names of her government contacts. That's exactly how it should be - but the fact that it gives me no access to evidence that these people really are government spies, and not delusional screwballs, seems very convenient. And even if we assume the federal link is genuine, how can we be certain that their remote viewing works? Anyone with real precognitive abilities would surely not need to work at all, having gathered enough future lottery numbers and stock-market tips to permit them to retire in the tropical paradise of their choice. And even that argument presupposes that 'time travel' of any kind is possible, when 'time' is arguably a man-made, poetic abstraction, offering no more potential for travel than 'dignity' or 'fashion'.

But our super-heroes claim not only to visit the future: they alter it too. 'If you look at a future terror event,' says Mike, 'and you inform the FBI or the homeland security people, and they act on it and increase security, when you revisit the same event later...' '... you see the extra security that was not there before,' Pru chips in.

How, I ask her, does remote viewing work? 'Nobody knows - that's the really cool thing,' she says. 'If you ask the military guys or different researchers, everybody has their own theory.' These include the idea that Jung's 'collective unconscious' is real and can be tapped into, the concept that an electromagnetic force is being projected from the body, and even more abstruse notions concerning quantum physics. Some hard-line Muslims, hearing that remote viewers were being recruited by the US, have fingered demonic forces. 'People communicating with the jinn who have extraordinary power of movement?' speculates a UK mujaheddin website. The most obvious application of remote viewing in the war on terror is to look for the chief perp, the elusive Osama Bin Laden. 'We've done that internally, just for kicks,' says Pru, 'but we would never do a formal report on it and send it in, because that might be used to drop bombs, which would be a problem for some of the viewers. Not that they're sympathetic to terrorists, but it's a humanitarian concern. But we know where he is now. He's still alive. His health is not great, but he's not close to death at the moment.' Another remote-viewing company, Psi Tech, based in Seattle, has been more co-operative on this score. On February 22 its president, Joni Dourif, reported that 'we have looked at Osama Bin Laden's present location and to my surprise we find him alive and being held captive.

He is injured and would prefer to die and become a martyr for his cause. However, his captors are keeping him alive'. Just over a week later, Psi Tech announced that he appeared to be in Bangladesh - one of its viewers had spontaneously received the colours of the Bangladeshi flag, and others sketched famous monuments in the same country. Mid-August, via the wonders of remote communication, I ask Joni for an update. Bin Laden is not being held captive any more, she says. 'The situation changed within weeks after his capture. He then moved on to one of his sanctuaries, where he still remains. We speculated that he was captured by rogues and that some kind of exchange was negotiated for his release.' Is Psi Tech giving its remote-viewing data to the US government? And is the government acting on it? 'Yes, we have, and I don't know - I haven't asked and they haven't offered up information.' Commercial remote-viewing companies are, of course, in competition with each other, so there is much talk about differences of method and quality of service in the field. Joni Dourif stresses that Psi Tech uses are the authentic, unchanged protocols from the military programmes. TDS, however, admits it has adapted the protocols - and has plans to continue changing them to obtain better results.

'Remote viewing is really at an embryonic stage,' says John Vivanco. 'We're missing something here; there's a bigger picture. We work within this very strict framework to keep our conscious mind busy, in order for the subconscious to communicate the information that we're looking for. But there's something a bit too restrictive about it; I can feel something on the periphery which is bigger and more profound than just staying within this little protocol here. And I'm desperately searching for that.' The viewers' chat is richly seasoned with jargon. They talk about 'blending' - becoming one with certain people, or even animals, in the past, present or future: getting into their heads, thinking their thoughts and seeing out of their eyes. Pru and her staff claim to have blended with Adolf Hitler. Monica Lewinsky and all of the Beatles. Then there's 'bilocation' - being present in two places at once, and thereby suffering remote physical consequences. John says he has been in Dresden during the 1945 allied fire-bombing of the city, and he came back with real flesh burns. And they love talking about 'paraphysicals'. These are weird, supernatural entities that they occasionally encounter when viewing. 'I've gotten specific information from ghosts of human beings,' says John. 'They seem to be caught in a cycle of thoughts that keep them in the same place.' Aliens can also count as paraphysicals. Pru says the whole team has travelled back to 1947 to see the UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 'That's one of our favourite things to go to, because it's so interesting. I actually had a conversation with one of the aliens who were dying. I'm going to start crying now thinking about it, because this military guy was kicking this alien and it was dying, and the alien was screaming at me, 'Help me, help me,' and there was nothing I could do.' These folk, it transpires, are oracles for any conspiracy theory you can think of. For example, who really shot JFK? 'I've sent viewers out to that many times,' replies Pru, 'and there are multiple gunmen -the whole nine yards.' Mark Faber, 53, says he has seen his own death - in 1804. 'In one of my past lives I was a historical figure - Alexander Hamilton. He's on the $10 bill. He was killed in a duel. When I viewed it, I knew it was me; the dominant feeling was d�ja vu.' Nor are their wanderings restricted to planet Earth. In a project carried out for a toy company, TDS has been to the open star cluster of the Pleiades and retrieved the design of a popular child's plaything; Earth's first 'alien toy' is, they say, already on its way to the terrestrial market. The viewers seem very gung-ho about going 'off planet'. Mark has 'travelled' to Mars and seen aliens building the structure that has gained notoriety among believers as 'the face on Mars'. 'It had a humanoid face,' he says. 'I saw it being constructed in a manner unlike Earth structures, using energy.' Has he been to the moon? 'I've been inside the moon,' he says. 'I drew a very detailed man-made corridor lined with patterned tiles, and I observed a medical procedure being performed on someone by human beings.' Lost in a conversation of spiralling strangeness about whether the moon might really be an artificial construction, I hunger for evidence that these lovely people aren't total charlatans or away with the fairies. It turns out that they have two ways to vindicate themselves. Firstly, as part of their evangelical mission to spread this technique around the world, they give regular classes - and I can attend some of the lessons they are giving in Carlsbad before I leave, and become a viewer myself. Secondly, they will do a demonstration: I can choose any subject, anything in the universe, not tell them what or where or when it is, and off their little astral bodies will fly. I can hardly wait. '6088 3382' were the magic numbers of one of the class's objectives. We all sat at our desks, floaty music in our lugholes, pens scratching wildly. Maybe it was the mugwort tea I sipped, but I was 'receiving' something almost immediately.

I drew a loop, the kind of ideogram that usually indicates a 'subject', or living thing. I ended up with a sketch of a bearded bloke smoking a cigarette, in front of what could have been a glass of whisky. 'Smell of soap or cologne,' I wrote. 'Manual work... Plain clothing.' I went on to draw a stack of burning twigs. 'Rhythmic music... tribal sounds... people running from smoke and loud noise.' Eventually, Mike Faber revealed where he tried to send us. It was 'Elton John playing at Princess Diana's funeral'. Well, you can speculate wildly that my hairy man was just one of the spectators, my burning twigs really a candle in the wind, but I'm not remotely convinced. We had homework, the numbers '7899 1492', which I tackled in my hotel room. I got this: 'Structure, natural... jagged lines... beeping sound... water, splashing... red glow... crevices... engineering... smell of oil, petrol... hard work... wheels with tyres...' When I get into class, I find I was viewing 'Evel Knievel jumping Snake River Canyon'. I suppose this was a partial success. But it was within the bounds of coincidence - always an underestimated factor in life - and I could even have picked up the nature of the target at an early stage through sophisticated suggestion. After all, the lessons I attended were so long and intensive, they did put me into a hypnagogic state. 

At 7.30am on my last day in Carlsbad, four super psi-spies rap on my hotel-room door. They are relaxed but serious. They have a ream of A4 paper, some pens and refreshments. I let them in. My written objective is safely concealed in a brown envelope. Pru is viewing, with Roma as her monitor, and John and Cy are similarly paired. As people whack tennis balls outside and small aeroplanes come in to land at the nearby airport, they start remote-viewing. Here are the highlights: The idea of something regular and repeating... There's a weird sound, too, a kind of scratching, repeating sound... He's looking at something... There's something about his eyes: maybe he's got glasses on, or goggles... He knows what's going to happen, or he's waiting for it. It's kind of useless to try and stop it... The subject's thinking: 'Don't look at it!' I don't know why he won't look at it... Plexiglas... Some control-type desk, with lights on it... But there was an unexpected element involved with this, out of the subject's control... It's like they're trying to fit something together... Feeling of sadness... It's a space kind of thing... You can't judge what's going to happen before it happens...'Wow! Oh cool!' says Pru when I reveal the objective after just over an hour. It was 'The making of the movie Minority Report'. Pru generously gives me a paperback book she has written, in which she admits to being an alien contactee. Apparently, every morning for more than three years, she met a 'short grey dude' in her bathroom.

Oh, hell. Like Tom Cruise in the movie, I need to escape. Fast. 

Just before this feature goes to press, Pru calls me in London. I ask, just jesting, if she has looked into the future and read the piece already. Yeah, she says, and laughs. I ask if she is joking.

She says no, she is deadly serious: they viewed the feature a while ago. It looked 'okay', and that was their basis for agreeing to talk to me in the first place.

British Study Warns of Health Danger of Cannabis Mon Nov 11,12:32 PM ET LONDON  - Smoking three pure cannabis joints is as bad for your lungs as smoking 20 normal cigarettes and marijuana is more dangerous now than it was in the 1960s, British researchers said on Monday. In what it described as a shocking new report, the British Lung Foundation (BLF) said tar from cannabis cigarettes contained 50% more carcinogens--the agents that produce cancer--than tobacco. "Three cannabis joints a day cause the same damage to the lining of the airways as 20 cigarettes," it said in a statement. It also said the health dangers of cannabis have substantially increased since the 1960s because today's marijuana has increased amounts of a key chemical compound. Campaigners for the legalization of cannabis disputed some of the findings. "Saying that cannabis is stronger now than it used to be is like saying that orange juice is stronger these days," said Alun Buffry, spokesman for the Legalize Cannabis Alliance. "I smoked stuff in the 1960s which was certainly stronger than what's available now and, anyway, when it's stronger, people smoke less of it." BFL chairman Mark Britton said: "These statistics will come as a surprise to many people, especially those who choose to smoke cannabis rather than tobacco in the belief it is 'safer' for them." "It is vital that people are fully aware of the dangers so they can make an educated decision and know the damage they may be causing," he said. The BFL stressed it was not taking a moral stance on the contentious issue of legalizing the drug. "We're not trying to say 'smoke' or 'don't smoke' cannabis," BLF Chief Executive Dame Helena Shovelton told BBC Radio. "We're saying that if you do, understand the risks involved in doing so. "Don't have the same situation we had with tobacco, which was years of denial about the problems," she said. The BFL urged the government to implement a public health education campaign on health risks of the drug.

Scientists Studying NDEs and Prayer 04-Nov-2002 Two highly reputable scientists are studying what used to be a disreputable phenomenon in straight science: Near- death experiences. With the advent of modern medicine, NDEs have become a much more common experience that include seeing a white light and being greeted by dead relatives. Patients rise above their own bodies and see doctors frantically trying to resuscitate them. Dr. Sam Parnia and Dr. Peter Fenwick plan to place cards in places where heart-attack victims will be treated that can only be seen from the ceiling, if they have out-of-body experiences. Parnia has published a study showing that 10% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated reported NDEs. Some of the evidence includes patients recognizing hospital staff they had never met but who helped resuscitate them. Others remembered overhearing conversations between doctors. According to known medical science, this should be impossible, because they don't have any brain activity during this period. Most scientists assume near-death experiences and out-of- body experiences are a result of a lack of oxygen in the brain. However this is changing-in December 2001, Dutch neurologist Dr. Pim van Lommel published an article in The Lancet, a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, showing that 18% of clinically dead patients who were later resuscitated recalled near-death experiences years after the event. NDE researcher Kenneth Ring studied blind patients who were resuscitated from cardiac arrest who described seeing their body while clinically dead, although it was slightly out of focus. If near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences don't come from the brain, where is consciousness based? "There are two ways to view the universe," says Fenwick. "Our current world model is that everything is matter." But this doesn't explain consciousness. A new theory says the basic building blocks of the universe are not made of matter but of consciousness. "This second, transcendent, view of the universe makes it much easier to understand NDEs," says Fenwick. He thinks quantum mechanics, which shows that matter can have both a physical form and a wave form at the same time, is a step in that direction. Scientific studies of prayer are also beginning to influence scientists. These studies show that subjects benefit from the prayers of others even when they don't know that someone is praying for them. This has been interpreted as an indication that consciousness behaves like a field, such as magnetism, which can be affected by other fields. If that's true, then it's possible for one person's consciousness to affect another's. Will this finally convince the skeptics? "No, nothing will, but that's OK," says Fenwick. "It's how science progresses. Any research that says you have to have a major rethink in your world model is always rejected. But it will prove that consciousness is not in the brain."

Is Airplane Water Safe to Drink? 05-Nov-2002 Most of us drink bottled water or sodas when we fly, but sometimes we use water from the airplane lavatory to take a pill or brush our teeth. Airlines insist this water is safe, but recent studies found dangerous things lurking in the tank water, including E. coli, the germ that causes Legionnaire's disease, Salmonella, Staphylococcus and tiny insect eggs. Flight attendants will even hand this water out, when they run out of bottled water. Under federal regulations, it's supposed to be safe to drink. "It's absolutely drinkable," says a United Airlines spokesman. A group of scientists took sample vials on 14 different flights from Atlanta to Sydney, Australia. On each flight, they collected water from the galley and lavatory taps, sealed them up and sent them to a lab for analysis. The results were a long list of microscopic life you wouldn't want to drink. And contamination was the rule, not the exception- almost all of the bacteria levels were tens or even hundreds of times above U.S. government limits. "This water is not potable by any means," says Donald Hendrickson, the director of Hoosier Microbiology Laboratories, the company that tested the samples. "Someone with dirty hands must have used that sink," says a spokesman from National Airlines, where the water sample came back positive for coliform bacteria. But human contamination wouldn't explain the results. Some of the water collected on a short flight to St. Louis contained Pasteurella pneumotropica, a bacterium carried by rodents. A Chicago-to-Los Angeles trip turned up Pseudomonas, a highly resistant bacterium associated with a range of infections. The lab counted more than four million per milliliter in a single sample, which about the same bacterial concentration you find in a tainted raw hamburger, says Hendrickson. "If I were the airline, I would worry about what these results say about the sanitation in their galleys," says Abigail Salyers, of the American Society for Microbiology. Travelers have long worried about the quality of recirculated in airline cabins. But the tank water may be the real reason fliers find themselves getting ill after plane trips.

David Hoye: Ghosts making contact via computer? Stories abound

By David Hoye -- Special to The Bee
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, October 31, 2002
Manfred Boden was at his computer when letters and entire lines of text on the screen began changing by themselves. Gradually, the German cabinetmaker saw a message from a recently deceased friend take shape: "I am here ... Manfred ... Yours, Klaus."
Believers in something called instrumental transcommunication (ITC) say the message Boden received nearly 22 years ago on a Commodore CBM 8032, an early personal computer, was the first known instance of a spirit using a computer to contact a living person.
It's a spooky story fit for Halloween until you talk to someone like Joe Nickell, senior research fellow for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), which publishes the bimonthly magazine Skeptical Inquirer. "This is just the latest flowering of an old root -- spiritualism," said Nickell, a former stage magician and detective. "I've devoted more than 30 years to this. I've sat in myriad seances. And I've seen nothing that was evidence it was coming from the other world."
Such skeptical views don't seem to matter to those who believe it's possible to communicate with the dead. In fact, many believers point to anecdotal evidence and the popularity of television shows like "Crossing Over" and "Beyond" as proof that their numbers are growing.
"Even Jay Leno is including afterlife jokes in his monologues," said Mark Macy, a Colorado-based author, researcher and expert in ITC. "If Jay's talking about it, you can be sure it's on the minds of most Americans today."
Macy operates the World ITC Association's Web page (www.worlditc.org), which includes the history of ITC and how spirits supposedly communicate with the living using not only computers but also cameras, voice recorders, telephones and televisions.
ITC traces its roots to 1901, when a U.S. scientist made a recording of "conjured spirits" while visiting a shaman in Siberia. Since then, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of instances where believers say contact has been made with the dead.
Among the claims: Englishman Ken Webster received some 250 spirit messages on his computers in 1984 and 1985. A picture of Hollywood filmmaker Hal Roach appeared on a Luxembourg computer in 1992, the year of his death. Earlier this year, Macy aimed a Polaroid at a woman and ended up with what many believe is an image of the late singer John Denver.
ITC believers say contacts are possible because teams of spirits are committed to opening channels of communication between both worlds. Such teams, they say, require harmony and cooperation among their living contacts for successful ITC to occur.
Macy said one form of computer-aided ITC involves spirit teams working closely with a living researcher who has "certain psychic qualities." When successful, spirits are able to turn computers on and leave messages, even planting files on hard drives or floppy discs.
A second form uses the computer as an audio recorder. With background noise, such as a radio tuned between stations, a researcher records himself asking seven or eight questions spaced 30 seconds apart. The recording is then reviewed to see if it picked up spirit voices.
Macy said communication typically occurs on Windows machines, and has come in the form of simple text messages, Microsoft Word document files and a wide variety of digital image formats, including ".tif," ".jpg" and ".gif." With the popularity of the Web and e-mail, one might think that the spirits would use the Internet as a communication medium. But Macy said the Internet includes too many "troubled thoughtforms" that disrupt the harmony necessary for ITC contacts to occur.
"The Internet corrupts that harmony," Macy said, "by distributing all facets of human thought, from the light and loving to the dark and dirty."
Halloween or not, the concept of ITC is too far-fetched for Kevin Christopher, a computer buff who handles public relations for CSICOP and the Skeptical Inquirer.
"That spirits can affect hardware is quite a leap," he said. "It's an extraordinary claim, and I'd need extraordinary proof to believe anything like that can happen."
Want to hear more about ITC? Macy is a scheduled speaker at the New Science and Ancient Wisdom conference in Berkeley Nov. 9-10. For details, check with the event's sponsor, the Bay Area Consciousness Network (www.bacn.org).

Vegetarian Fish? 06-Nov-2002 British scientists are trying to turn fish into vegetarians, in order to save the dwindling stocks of fish around the world. Fish farming looked like the answer at first, but salmon, trout, haddock and cod in fish farms are fed on smaller, wild fish. Since they consume up to five times their own weight, farmed fish are using up much of the world's fish supplies. But researchers think they've discovered a chemical that makes farmed fish eat vegetables. Dr. Andy Moore has developed a synthetic version of the chemical that makes them hungry. When it's spread in the water, fish start frantically looking for something to eat. If they get hungry enough, they'll eat anything-including vegetables. Don Staniford, of Friends of the Earth, says, "The fish may swallow the idea-but will consumers?" Don't forget, British agricultural scientists are the ones who thought up the idea of having cows-which are natural vegetarians-eat ground-up cattle parts, leading to the scourge of Mad Cow Disease.

In a Nutshell, Sex Sells

Oct 30, 10:54 am ET 

By Alice Hung

TAOYUAN, Taiwan  - A young woman wearing little more than her underwear and lurid makeup sits in a glass booth waiting for customers. What's for sale here?

It's not her body. It's just betelnut, the mildly narcotic seed from the fruit of the betel pepper which trucker drivers and laborers use to help them stay awake.

For years the "betelnut beauties" have been a common sight along busy highways across Taiwan, but now one local government has decided it's time to cover them up.

"People wanted the government to take action because it has affected social order and corrupted social values," said Bill Liao, deputy county mayor of northern Taoyuan -- home to the island's international airport.

"It's the first thing many people see when they get off the planes," Liao said. "This can't be good."

Aside from damaging the island's international image, Liao said the skimpily clad women caused car accidents and spurred juvenile crime. He said they attracted the attention of teenagers who got into fights, even though sex isn't generally on offer.

Rules now require the girls to cover their breasts, bellies and buttocks.

The trouble is, many of the girls have taken precious little notice and outside the county, the rules don't apply anyway.

EARN MORE, DRESS LESS

"I don't feel making those rules is necessary," complained betelnut seller Huang Ya-ling, 22, whose four years in the business have taught her the only way to make more money is to wear fewer clothes.

"Why do I dress like this?" she said in her purple and red underwear covered only by white lace. "Because men like it."

Huang's tiny roadside stand, Green Apple, is illuminated by neon even during the day to attract customers. Close by is another called the Forbidden City.

The new rules have drawn protests from some women's rights groups, arguing the Taoyuan government has stepped beyond its mark.

The regulations even sparked an editorial in the Asian Wall Street Journal which said they smacked of unnecessary government intervention and were against free enterprise.

"Whether (the new rules) succeed depends mostly on law enforcement," said Peng Tien-le, secretary-general of the Taoyuan Betelnut Association.

"As to whether the girls hurt our national image, I know there are nudist camps in the United States and in other countries. I don't know if people will view the United States as an erotic country."

Peru Finds Pre-Inca Ruins Beneath Lake Titicaca

Oct 31, 9:03 am ET 

By Monica Vargas

LIMA, Peru  - Peruvian divers have found pre-Inca stairways, ramps and walls beneath the waters of Lake Titicaca, but experts said on Wednesday the discoveries were not the remains of a legendary lost city.

"The remains were found at a depth of between 6.5 and 26 feet on the eastern side of the lake. ... They are built with interlocking stones," oceanic engineer and expedition member Gustavo Villavicencio told The News Source.

Lake Titicaca, a sweeping expanse of brilliant blue water high in the Andes at an altitude of 12,540 feet, is shared by Peru and Bolivia. The world's highest navigable lake, it attracts flocks of visitors a year to see its floating reed islands, Aymara-speaking Indians and Inca ruins.

According to tradition, the Inca sun god, Manco Capac and his sister, Mama Ocllo, sprang from Lake Titicaca to found the city of Cusco and the Inca dynasty that held sway over a swathe of Latin America from Colombia to Chile for more than three centuries until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

But Villavicencio said the discoveries -- made in the past two weeks by a team of navy divers and oceanographic experts -- were not the vestiges of a lost underwater world.

"There are studies that show that the lake used to be ... around 66 to 98 feet lower, and that was where ancient Peruvians built," he said.

As well as the algae-covered pre-Inca ruins, the divers also found a stone platform on which fragments of ceramics and bits of llama bones were recovered.

"Everything suggests it was a place where offerings were made, a sacred site," Villavicencio said.

Archeologists consulted by the expedition said they could be remains of the Tiahuanaco culture, which flourished in the ninth and tenth centuries, and was known for its stone work.

Poking 10 feet out of the middle of the lake, the team also found what they dubbed the "mystery rock" that measures 66 feet across.

A stone statue in the shape of a llama was found on the rock, which divers nicknamed after seeing how lightning always struck it during storms, Villavicencio said.

The expedition also located the remains of the first iron-hulled ship that sailed on Lake Titicaca in the 19th century and which sank beneath its icy waters in 1876 near the tourist islands of Taquile and Amantani.

Who You Gonna Call? Ghosters bent on divining the truth By Jody Callahan callahan@gomemphis.com October 31, 2002 Shelley Sullivan firmly believes she's been visited by something she can't quite explain. Dr. Chris Wetzel listens to stories about the supernatural and delves into the recesses of the brain for explanations. Although Sullivan and Wetzel have never met, they frame an appropriate question this Halloween: Is the paranormal real? A 2001 Gallup poll showed 38 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. Another 50 percent believe in extrasensory perception (ESP) while 54 percent believe in psychic healing. Each of the numbers has increased since a similar poll, taken in 1990. One year ago, Sullivan and Michele King founded a Millington group called Ghoststalkers of West Tennessee, http://ghoststalker.topcities.com. "(We want) to prove that there is another side, that there is life beyond death," said Sullivan, 28. For seven years, Wetzel has taught a class at Rhodes College called Psychological Explanations of the Paranormal. "I say that I am a skeptic," said Wetzel, 53. "I do believe there is no conclusive evidence for the paranormal." Skeptic Sullivan also considered herself a skeptic until she and her husband were relocated to a Navy base in Guam. One summer night two years ago, Sullivan was in the living room watching television. She went to the kitchen, returned to the living room, then realized she'd forgotten something. When she went back into the kitchen, the refrigerator door and all the cabinets were open. She was out of the room for less than two minutes. "A lot of stuff happened that piqued my interest," she said, adding that she heard unexplained footsteps. "I was skeptical, too, until something happened to me." Believer Growing up in Chicago, Wetzel's Aunt Pat was a "diehard believer" in the paranormal. "She believed in everything," he said. "She communicated with spirits. She had garlic all over the house to keep evil spirits out." So, borrowing from Houdini, Wetzel and his aunt crafted a message - Wetzel won't reveal it, except to say it's a series of symbols, statements, images and words - that one would relay to the other from beyond the grave, if possible. After she died in 1990, Wetzel added to the pact. "If a psychic produces these symbols in the appropriate sequence," he said, "I'll pay out $1,000." He's presented the challenge to three psychics. None of them even tried. Stalkers Since meeting through the Internet, Sullivan and King - joined by two anonymous members - figure they've investigated an average of four or five incidents a month at spots ranging from graveyards to houses to schools, at no charge. Last Saturday night, they spent five hours at a Memphis business called Graphic Systems, investigating mysterious sounds and "orbs" that appeared in photos. For their third visit there, the group began with tape recorders. "We just say, 'If there are any spirits here who would like to talk to us, please do.' " said King, 47. They snapped dozens of photos and shot video. They used thermal meters to try to locate unusual temperature readings, hot or cold. They waved something called a "dowsing rod" to find any wayward spirits. Two hours into the visit, Sullivan says she saw a "dark, shadowy figure" out of the corner of her eye. Others thought they heard voices. They plan to analyze the rest of their data to see what, if anything, they found. Graphic Systems manager Don Kopcial called the visit fruitful. "We've picked up voices on tape recorders, and of course orbs and whatnot," said Kopcial, who joined the group for their visit. "I think it confirmed for myself, and a lot of other people, there's something there." Teacher In his class, Wetzel teaches that a rational, psychological explanation can be found for most paranormal phenomena, that they are "mistakes of judgment or mistakes of interpretation." Alien abductions, Wetzel says, can often be explained by "hypnogogic hallucinations," a state that can occur just as a person is falling asleep or waking. For clairvoyant dreams, Wetzel argues that, with a person having as many as 50 dreams a night, it's possible that pieces of them can come true. However, many don't. For psychic healing, Wetzel argues that the "placebo effect" - belief in a cure can lead to improvement, even if no true medicine is involved - can be a powerful aid. To explain ghosts, Wetzel says perception can be fooled. "Your brain can think it's seeing something that really isn't there," he said. "And, most of the conditions in which people see ghosts are far from ideal." Still, Wetzel admits he's not a complete skeptic, saying it's possible aliens - although not the kidnapping kind, mind you - could certainly have visited Earth. "There's a possibility of the paranormal existing," he said. "Here's why I'm not a total skeptic. I can say the paranormal has not been proven, (but) we haven't tested everything." Wetzel and the Ghoststalkers are in accord on at least one thing: People believe in ghosts, telepathy and other elements of the paranormal because they want to believe in something that, in Wetzel's words, makes this less of a "grim universe." "It gives people a sense of awe and mystery. It gives meaning to events they can't explain," Wetzel said. "It gives them a sense of control in the world." Added King: "It's very comforting for me to know there's something beyond."

Here's the conundrum: Both Seville, Spain and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic insist they have the remains of Christopher Columbus. Only one of them can have them. Which one is it? 

The News Source reports that the Spanish investigative team--which includes a geneticist, an historian, a biologist, and a forensic scientist--has to get permission from Spanish and Dominican authorities to dig up the two purported sets of Christopher Columbus' remains and compare the DNA samples with Diego's to determine which one is real. 

This much is known: Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain in 1506, but requested that he be buried on the Caribbean island that is now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. To honor that request, his remains and those of his son were taken there in 1537. The bones were twice removed due to political unrest--first to Cuba in 1795 and then to Seville, Spain in 1898. That is why Seville claims to have the remains of the world's most famous explorer. But The News Source reports that 12 years ago, workers at the Cathedral in Santo Domingo found an urn with Columbus' name inscribed on it. Those remains are now buried in the Dominican capital beneath a monument erected for Columbus. 

The only question is which grave is really that of Christopher Columbus? Diego's old bones may finally put that mystery to rest. 

--Cathryn Conroy 

PARIS  - French is such a rich language that it

Dec 10, 10:29 am ET 

PARIS  - French is such a rich language that it now has, by state decree, two words for "+" -- the "at" sign that has become a worldwide symbol for the Internet -- but only one official way to pronounce it.

A special commission struggling to defend French against the spread of English in cyberspace has decided that the popular e-mail sign can be named either "arobase" or "arrobe."

But the august commission, which failed a few years ago to impose the name "jeunes pousses" ("young sprouts") for Internet start-up companies, decreed that the French should only call it "arrobe" when they give out their e-mail addresses. The problem is that most people say "arobase" -- the traditional French name for the "at" sign -- and have never heard of the old Spanish measure of weight "arroba" that the commission used to create its new term.

"Nobody uses arrobe," lexicographer Christine Ouvrard told the daily Liberation after the decree was published in the Official Journal Sunday. "The bureaucracy may issue its decrees, but in dictionaries, we reflect how people use words."

The same decree concerning the "at" sign also advised the French to say "le site" instead of "le site web" to describe a Web site.

Even if these new terms never catch on, France's ever-active linguistic guardians have not worked completely in vain.

They have successfully fought off other English terms, imposing "ordinateur" for computer, "logiciel" for software and "informatique" for computer science.

Musician to make album of sex noises An electronic musician from Winnipeg, Canada is making an album out of the noises he and his partner make during sex. Aaron Funk and his girlfriend Rachael Kozak recorded their love-making sessions on mini-disk. Funk, who normally records under the name Venetian Snares, sampled the noises and turned them into music. The album, to be called Nymphomatriarch, is due to be released next year. "People I've played it for don't believe it," Funk told a forthcoming issue of Playboy. "They're like: "No, no, no - you've sampled high hats there, I know it." It's essentially alchemy, shaping sex into a new form. "It's weird to deconstruct the sounds of sex. It makes you conscious of a lot of stuff you'd normally ignore. I remember thinking, like, oh, that slap will make a good snare drum. "Or, wow, that was a freakish set of grunts and moans - I want to make that into a choir later." Songs completed so far include Hymen Tramp Choir, Pervs, and Blood on the Rope.

>>This poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from >>George W. Bush. The quotes have been arranged for >>aesthetic purposes by Washington Post writer Richard >>Thompson. Too good not to share, especially during >>National Poetry Month... >> >>MAKE THE PIE HIGHER by George W. Bush >> >>I think we all agree, the past is over. >>This is still a dangerous world. >>It's a world of madmen and uncertainty >>and potential mental losses. >> >>Rarely is the question asked >>Is our children learning? >>Will the highways of the Internet become more few? >>How many hands have I shaked? >> >>They misunderestimate me. >>I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity. >>I know that the human being and the fish can coexist. >>Families is where our nation finds hope, where our >>wings take dream. >> >>Put food on your family! >>Knock down the tollbooth! >>Vulcanize Society! >>Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

New Study Shows Cell Phones Cause Brain Changes E-mail to a friend

A study by scientists in Finland has found that mobile phone radiation can cause changes in human cells that might affect the brain. The study at Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority found that exposure to radiation from mobile phones can cause increased activity in hundreds of proteins in human cells grown in a laboratory.

Nonetheless the study, the initial findings of which were published last month in the scientific journal Differentiation, raises new questions about whether mobile phone radiation can weaken the brain's protective shield against harmful substances.

The study focused on changes in cells that line blood vessels and on whether such changes could weaken the functioning of the blood-brain barrier, which prevents potentially harmful substances from entering the brain from the bloodstream.

They also found that one hour of exposure to mobile phone radiation caused cultured human cells to shrink. The researchers believe this is triggered by a response that normally only happens when a cell is damaged. In a person, such changes could disable safety mechanisms that prevent harmful substances from entering the brain from the bloodstream.

Radiation-induced changes in the cells could also interfere with the normal death process of apoptosis. If cells that are "marked" to die do not, tumors can form. The study found that a protein called hsp27 linked to the functioning of the blood-brain barrier showed increased activity due to irradiation and pointed to a possibility that such activity could make the shield more permeable, he said.

Increased protein activity might cause cells to shrink -- not the blood vessels but the cells themselves -- and then tiny gaps could appear between those cells through which some molecules could pass.

The News Source June 20, 2002 Helsiniki, Finland

The Formula for Happiness?

Jan 6, 10:24 am ET 

LONDON  - If you're happy and you know it then it's clearly a result of: P + 5E + 3H.

A pair of British researchers said Monday they had worked out a simple equation to quantify happiness that could put an exact figure on the emotional state.

After interviewing 1000 people, the researchers -- a psychologist and a self-styled "life coach" -- concluded that happiness equals P + 5E + 3H.

In the equation, P stands for Personal Characteristics (outlook on life, adaptability and resilience); E for Existence (health, friendships and financial stability) and H represents Higher Order (self-esteem, expectations and ambitions).

Psychologist Carol Rothwell co-authored the report with Pete Cohen. They asked interviewees -- a mix of men and women all over 18 years old -- to choose five scenarios that made them more happy or less happy from a list of 80 different situations.

They also asked a series of questions about their own natures, outlooks and situations.

Not surprisingly, the results showed that men and women found happiness in different ways.

Sunny weather, being with family and losing weight were more of an influence on women's happiness, while romance, sex, hobbies and victories by their favorite sports teams were more important to men.

"This is the first equation that enables people to put a figure on their emotional state," Rothwell said. "The findings show that certain events, such as job promotion, can impact positively on your overall happiness."

The study was commissioned by a holiday company that wanted to understand what made people happier.

THE KING IS NAKED! 

The slides are made under "60IF" directions (see below). 
The method is the same of corpse legal recognition. 
Fixing a distance like nose base - eyes line, the rest of the face, if is the same person, MUST NOT CHANGE 
e.g. eyes distance or overall skull shape etc... 
This analysis has full legal value.

Based on the last photo of Sir James Paul McCartney (1966), 
and the various photos of Mr. William Sheppard or Billy Shears or Faul or...etc... 
The one before plastic surgery is that mirror printed at the bottom-left of a "White Album" poster page. 

Here source images 

Here other visual evidences 

Here audio evidence 

60IF 

(For who doesn't still understand this above is the REAL and the ONE James Paul McCartney) 

36 Years Ago. 

Sunday 11th September 1966, Evening 

and Paul were returning from their trip in good spirits. 
It had been a wonderful time. 
After John's notorious phrase which had instigated the storm in the world against the Beatles and the turmoil over the "butcher album" cover, everything seemed to have returned back to a normal routine. 

The last photo of "The Beatles" 

And Paul had had a sudden burst of extraordinary creativity over a very short period of time, perhaps as a reaction to all that had happened. 

It had been a typically seasonal rainy day. 
At a semaphore stop a van suddenly cut across the street, blocking the car and Paul were in. 
The car didn't quite stop in time and hit the van, but not seriously enough to do any real damage. 
They expected to discuss what had happened with the occupants of the other vehicle but instead men dressed in black appeared from the van and grabbed , Paul and one of the girls who happened to be with them at the time and forced them into another car that had turned up in the meantime. 
The second girl who was with them, however, had the presence of mind to run away. 

The morning afterwards, not knowing what had happened, we tried to call and Paul but strangely we couldn't get hold of them. 
We retraced their steps through our common friends but nobody had seen or heard from them. 
We were on the telephone all day. 

And then the next day the police phoned to tell us that they had a girl with them confirming that and Paul had been kidnapped. 
Ringo was the first one to arrive where the kidnapping had taken place; the vehicles were empty. 
The girl told us what had happened. 
We began to panic. 
John became hysterical and we didn't know what to think or what to do. 
But we were able to suppress the story from the Wednesday newspapers thanks to some acquaintances of ours. 
We had directly contacted the intelligence service who understood the gravity of the situation and the social ramifications if word got out. 
They told us that they would take care of everything. 

We waited for the kidnappers to contact us, a ransom demand of some sort. 
Time passed and nothing happened. 
As more days passed, our apprehension grew. 

It was the Tuesday of the following week when we received the call, but not the one we had been waiting for. 
We were called out in order to identify Paul's and 's bodies.

was found in a car which had been pushed over a cliff and set alight. 
Paul, however, was found at the foot of a hill a little distance from a white Volkswagen.

The photo of the hill and the car
The place where the corpse was found
( from the "White Album" poster ) 

He was in a ghastly state.
He had been dead for a while and beasts had begun to eat at him; 
his lips looked as if they had been torn by some animal, the left side of his face had also been torn to pieces and the whole of his right ear had been bitten off. 

The poor corpse of Paul McCartney
(a frame from the "Free as a bird" video) 

Those wretches had tried to burn him to eliminate the evidence but only the legs had managed to be burnt before the rain had extinguished the fire. 

When we arrived there was a line of police officers blocking us while a crowd of men in shirts were retrieving material for further investigation. 
They were so oblivious to the grief we felt that one of them had the audacity to exclaim right in front of the Paul's dead body: 
" Look ...it seems like a walrus!" 

Well, with his teeth hanging outside of his eaten-up lips and with a shiny swollen ear and dripping wet he really did look like a walrus. 
John confronted the man who had spoken so insensitively and they began to brawl. 
He had to be pulled away as he howled: 
"I.., I am the walrus ..not him (Paul), I.., I am the walrus!" 

We were desperately aware that Paul, and the Beatles were finished. 
But our anger made us think: we would not stop, we would not give up. 
Paul had left a lot of material that was yet to be published. 
We met: nobody had to know and Paul could still be kept alive. 
The only question was how. 

It was announced to the press the Beatles' wish not to make any more concerts and only work in the recording studio which gave us a bit of breathing space. 
It was suggested to us from the same intelligence service department what to do: 
they had in their secret labs at their disposal cosmetic surgeons with the technical skills to recreate perfect doubles but in exchange for their help we had to keep quiet about what had happened; the penalty for refusing to remain silent was death. 

We found a look-alike for and a few contenders for Paul but the main problem was to find one with the most similar voice possible. 
We had to check out a number of imitators (and there were many at that time) and find one with a face compatible with Paul's. 
We found a boy with a beautiful voice that was able to imitate Paul in a cogent manner but his face presented problems that would not be compliant with the cosmetic surgery needed. 

The photo of the mysterious vocal imitator
( from the "White Album" poster ) 

We decided however to use him to complete the songs for the album that was in current preparation so it could be released as quickly as possible in order to divert the suspicions and rumours that had begun to hound us. 
When we had all but given up the right man was found. 

His name was William Sheppard and he was with the Canadian Military Police. 

The photo of Faul just before the first set of plastic surgery
( from the "White Album" poster ) 

He liked to sing and knew how to strum a bit on the piano. 
He had a beautiful voice but the quality of his Paul voice imitation was not as good as that of the boy who had already been working with us; however his face as presented was wonderfully compatibile as regards to the profile and jaw, two key factors in determining the correct candidate that the cosmetic surgeons could use. 

Despite this, there were a number of differences: 
Paul was long-sighted 
Bill was short-sighted 
Paul had hair that naturally went from left to right 
Bill had (has) hair that went naturally from right to left 
Paul had a round face 
Bill had a dug face 
Paul was left handed 
Bill was right handed 

From Sgt.Pepper to Faul 

After a while Bill accepted the job because he had had the left part of his face broken by an old accident and he wanted cosmetic surgery to fix it. 

In an irony of fate the "substitutes" had inverted heights: The substitute of Paul was taller and the counterpart of was smaller. 
For this, they suggested tricks that we were to adopt when we were filmed together. 

In the meantime the record corporation, not knowing if the operation would be successful or not, decided to hurriedly publish a Xmas album of old songs of the Beatles without a photo on the cover but with one old photo retouched in the back; the color of Paul's suit was changed to black. 
And with this cover began the "hidden clues". 

When Bill was in the police he was nicknamed (playing on his last name) "Sgt.Pepper" because he liked to drink and his nose, a bit rounded, was often red. 
After plastic surgery John gave Bill the nickname of "Faul" which means False Paul or only Faul(t). 
Our introduction to Faul was the national hymn at start of "All you need is love" and "Sgt.Pepper" was the first album with the photos of Faul even though they needed to be retouched. 

This album cover is full of messages.
Many of those that you have discovered are true, others are not, others have been badly interpreted. 

One of the most important is "Welcome The Rolling Stones" written with blood. 
We hadn't had news about who it was that had killed Paul and John was sure that his murder had been commissioned by the Rolling Stones as they were well-known as delinquents. 
The crowd is made up those that Paul would have wanted at his funeral. 

The following facts are true: 
In the lowest row of flowers the word "Paul?" is written. 
The goddess Shiva (not Kali!) indicates the old and new Paul - Alpha and Omega. 
"Be at LESO" should be taken special note of - the truth lies in LESO. 
LESO is not a island but the intelligence service department where there is the file brief with the name "Walrus". 
The band had its name changed; they were no longer called "The Beatles" but only "Beatles". 
Most effectively in the bass drum there are mirrored words: 
it's the date of and Paul's disappearance : 1ONE IX (September).

The famous Sgt.Pepper bass drum words
( from the front cover of "Sgt. Pepper" Album ) 

The references that you found on the back of the cover are all correct; it is also true that the photo has been taken with the text printed on a transparent sheet as a target.
George points out the last completed song sung by Paul: "She's Leaving Home". 

Faul had an older appearance in respect to Paul and so to confuse the issue we all grew beards and moustaches so we would all seem "a bit older".
Despite this, Faul wore contact lenses to darken his natural green color eyes.
They were quite discreet but someone noticed that something had changed: the surgeons had forgotten to duplicate the small ditching that Paul had on his chin.
This was retouched in the photos.
Also Faul had to endure other plastic surgery sessions with some improvement although the result still wasn't perfect.
The surgeons altered his mouth again: his teeth and his chin were fully rebuilt, and the cheeks (and the chin) had to be increased with time limited botuline injections when we were in public or when any photos were taken because his face was too thin compared to Paul's.

The photo of Faul after the second set of plastic surgery 

In spite of these operations today's traces of the old scar can still be seen on Faul's chin along with ears which are orientated differently; a nose that does not look the same overall: Faul's is smaller and is not shaped the same; 
but above all the distance between the eyes is completely different: Paul's were much wider.
This is the main reason why many photos were retouched. 

"...Faul has a smaller nose with a different shape..." 

And the old Faul - what happened to him? That's right, he's the one in the ticket photo in the left bottom side of the White Album poster. 
To divert suspicion the photo was mirror printed. 
Faul slowly learned to play left handed and to sing better. 

Faul and the imitator together in recording studio 
( from the "White Album" poster ) 

The counterpart of could not hold up the role for very long: we had to get him out of the picture as quickly as possible while we worked on the legal aspects of how to manage the musical material that Paul had left to us.
And so Apple was born. 
Here also John wanted to leave a strong reference to Paul: for "Apple Corp Ltd" read "A Paul Corp Ltd". 

The trip in India was our attempt to put Paul's soul into Faul's body but of course it didn't succeed; yes, I know, it was a crazy idea, but we were almost going out of our heads with grief. 

After some time we discovered that it was and NOT Paul who was the main target of the kidnappers. 

The game was initially liked by John but as time went by the memory of Paul replaced his happiness and the idea to not let the Beatles die or allow those who had killed and Paul to win. 
Without our knowing it, he inserted phrases into the tracks which whispered the truth. 
He risked wrecking everything but the phrases were replaced in the next copies of the albums. 
In spite of this John succeeded with a maximum amount of astuteness to publish the "White Album" poster which actually is the "White Book" of the whole matter. 
When the material left by Paul was all published John did not find any reason to continue the Beatles but he didn't want them to fold completely until he had inserted all the clues in the songs so that everything that had happened could be reconstructed. 

Also the end of Faul's role was supposed to coincide with the end of the Beatles but Faul didn't respect the contract that had been made and, feeling he would be strongly protected by the secret service, published his first solo album which had actually been prepared by other musicians. 
So we were tempted in the last album to reveal the truth but corporate managers and lawyers prevented it. 
The reference "28IF" on the Volksvagen plate in the "Abbey Road" cover is correct because the album was to suppose to come out a year later than it actually did but there was a fear that some of the truth would come out prematurely so it was released earlier. 

In spite of his betrayal, we should give Faul an immense "thank you" however. 
Thanks to him because above all he sacrificed his life for the Beatles; 
and also he helped prevent those fans who, if they had heard of Pual's death, would've killed themseves. 
While this ruse has been financially successful to him, he has felt out of place quite a bit and (let the truth be known) many clues have actually been inserted by him! Unfortunately, after the Beatles, he merely became a puppet in Linda's hands because she wanted to become a rockstar at any cost. 
But in the end, despite it all, he became a very small McCartney or perhaps slightly better than small. 

He wrote "McCartney the Second" on one of his album covers. 

Dedicated to all those that helped keep this story alive until today. 

Addendum: Sir James Paul McCartney did not die assassinated; he died by a spasm because he suffered from a rare disease of which he had continuous need of medication to keep under control. 
His fianc�e was made aware of the true facts of the case and a annuity was given in recognition to her. 

Yoko Ono is a spy of the foreign office. She was part of John Lennon's assassination. 

In memory of Paul John George 

From a Beatles Interview 1992 

Lies McCartney Walrus 
60IF 

(For who doesn't still understand this above is the REAL and the ONE James Paul McCartney) 

THE END 

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
- Carl Sagan

I would just like to take a moment to remember my father, Pasquale LaCanfora Jr., who passed away exactly 3 years ago tonight at 1:53am. I was by his side when he slipped away, and let me tell you, he went out fighting! This New York Italian was not going to go peacefully into that good night, uh huh, no way! But the heart attack got the better of him, & that was that. I always thought that this sort of thing was supposed to get easier to deal with as the years went by, but for some inexplicable reason, I'm having a particularly tough time this year. We didn't always get along, but he was there for me, & he tried. He loved the beach, nothing made him happier then swimming in the wide ocean waters. He had the soul of an artist, was a marvelous oil painter/drawer, & of course, singer. He could croon like Sinatra, or wrinkle up his nose & do Dylan. He could bellow through octaves as a Pavarotti or sing Jambalaya in a Guthrie-esque down-home kinda way. As a child, he was my pal. We'd play ball, he'd show me chords on the guitar, he'd give me sips of his beer when Mom wasn't looking. He'd let me dress him up in silly clothes while I giggled away & he'd bring me home odd trinkets always, like an abalone shell, or a scorched can from a fire he'd help put out from his job as a fireman. Navy guy, ad exec. Session musician for Phil Spector. Fireman, realtor, actor, painter, sailor. He emerged from a working-class background, reared initially on the mean streets of Little Italy, New York City, then the docks of San Pedro, California. Anyway you slice it, he was my dad, and I'm sorry that he had to go.

From childhood, I felt a compassion for animals. Even before I started school, I found it impossible to understand why, in my evening prayers, I should pray only for human beings. Consequently, after my mother had prayed with me and had given me a good-night kiss, I secretly recited another prayer, one I had composed myself. It went like this: "Dear God, protect and bless all living beings. Keep them from evil and let them sleep in peace." 

The founding of societies to protect animals, which was actively promoted during my youth, made a great impression on me. People actually dared to announce publicly that compassion toward animals was a natural thing, a sign of true humanity and that one must not hide one's feelings about it. I believed that a light was beginning to shine in the darkness of ideas, and that it would glow with ever greater brilliance. 

In the closing years of the century, I continuously pondered the question: does our civilization truly possess the ethical character and energy essential to its complete fulfillment? This led me further and further into studies of civilization and ethics as they appeared in philosophical writings from 1850 to 1900. The most important philosophical writings of the time, I discovered, looked upon civilization and ethics as things we had received, things left to us, to be taken for granted and accepted as such. I could not escape the impression that an ethical system regraded as final did not demand much of people or of society. It was, in fact, an ethic "at rest." 

In looking back to the end of the century, I could never understand the optimism over the achievements of the times. Everywhere, many seemed to suppose that we had not merely advanced in knowledge, but that we had reached heights in spirituality and ethics we had never attained before and would never lose. But to me it seemed that we not only had failed to surpass the spiritual life of past generations, but that we were really only nibbling from their accomplishments, and that in many respects, our spiritual inheritance was dribbling out of our hands. 

On numerous occasions, I was deeply distressed when inhumane ideas, publicly pronounced, met simple acceptance instead of rejection and censure. More and more, I turned my attention to the civilization and ethics of the last decade of the 19th century. As I did so, I decided to write a thorough and critical study on the spiritual state of the times in which I lived. 

I had to tackle a more basic question: could a lasting, more profound, and more vital ethical system be brought about? The sense of satisfaction that came with my recognition of the nature of the problem did not last long, however. Month after month went by without my advancing one step toward a solution. Everything I knew or had read on the subject of ethics served only to confound me even more. 

In the summer of 1915, I took my wife, who was in poor health, to Port-Gentil on the Atlantic. I brought the meager drafts of my book along. In September, I received word that the wife of the Swiss missionary, Pelot, had fallen ill at their mission in N'G�m�, and that I was expected to make a medical call there. 

The mission was 120 miles upstream on the Ogoou� River. My only means of immediate transportation was a small, old steamboat, towing heavily laden scows. Besides myself, there were only a few Africans aboard. Since I had no time to gather provisions in the rush of departure, they kindly offered to share their food with me. 

We advanced slowly on our trip upstream. It was the dry season, and we had to feel our way through huge sandbanks. I sat in one of the scows. Before boarding the steamer, I had resolved to devote the entire trip to the problem of how a culture could be brought into being that possessed a greater moral depth and energy than the one we lived in. I filled page on page with disconnected sentences, primarily to center my every thought on the problem. Weariness and a sense of despair paralyzed my thinking. 

At sunset of the third day, near the village of Igendja, we moved along an island set in the middle of the wide river. On a sandbank to our left, four hippopotamuses and their young plodded along in our same direction. Just then, in my great tiredness and discouragement, the phrase, "Reverence for Life," struck me like a flash. As far as I knew, it was a phrase I had never heard nor ever read. I realized at once that it carried within itself the solution to the problem that had been torturing me. Now I knew that a system of values which concerns itself only with our relationship to other people is incomplete and therefore lacking in power for good. Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need us. 

It also became clear to me that this elemental but complete system of values possessed an altogether different depth and an entirely different vitality than one that concerned itself only with human beings. Through reverence for life, we come into a spiritual relationship with the universe. The inner depth of feeling we experience through it gives us the will and the capacity to create a spiritual and ethical set of values that enable us to act on a higher plane, because we then feel ourselves truly at home in our world. Through reverence for life, we become, in effect, different persons. I found it difficult to believe that the way to a deeper and stronger ethic, for which I had searched in vain, had been revealed to me as in a dream. Now I was at last ready to write the planned work on the ethics of civilization. 

The fundamental fact of human awareness is this: "I am life that wants to live in the midst of other life that wants to live." A thinking man feels compelled to approach all life with the same reverence he has for his own. Thus, all life becomes part of this own experience. From such a point of view, "good" means to maintain life, to further life, to bring developing life to its highest value. "Evil" means to destroy life, to hurt life, to keep life from developing. This, then, is the rational, universal, and basic principle of ethics. 

We must try to demonstrate the essential worth of life by doing all we can to alleviate suffering. Reverence for life, which grows out of a proper understanding of the will to live, contains life-affirmation. It acts to create values that serve the material, the spiritual, and ethical development of man. 

Early in 1923, the text of my work, now called The Philosophy of Civilization, was ready for printing. But where to find a publisher? The prospects were unfavorable. In Germany, people were raving about Oswald Spengler's fascinating and brilliant work, The Decline of the West. For Spengler, Western culture was something that had bloomed in history and was now dying. This tragic point of view was in keeping with the spirit of the time - the disillusionment and cynicism that came after World War I. In reality, Spengler had not investigated the nature of culture, but was merely describing the historical fate of a culture. How could I, in this climate, expect people to consider my views on civilization and ethics? Thus, because I lacked courage, I did not undertake to make contact with a publisher. 

At that time, Mme. Emmy Martin, the widow of an Alsatian pastor, was assisting me with my correspondence. She asked to be allowed to take the manuscript along during her visit to a friend in Munich. She hoped to find a publisher there, even though she did not know any personally. While on an errand, she stopped off at the publishing firm of C.H. Beck and asked to talk to the director. A Mr. Albers introduced himself as the director's representative. Mme. Martin explained her mission. Mr. Albers glanced through the first few pages of the manuscript and said: "We take this manuscript for publication unread. Albert Schweitzer is no stranger to us." 

By chance, C.H. Beck was also the publisher of Spengler's book. This is how Spengler and I met. Instead of fighting with each other, Spengler and I became friends and often amiably discussed our conflicting conceptions of culture. The Philosophy of Civilization was published in 1923. A deep friendship developed between Mr. Albers and me. It ended when Hitler came into power, and Mr. Albers took his life rather than live under a dictator. 

Today, many schools throughout the world are teaching reverence for life. Everything I hear and learn about the growing recognition of reverence for life strengthens my conviction that it is the fundamental truth mankind needs in order to reach the right spirit, and to be guided by it. 

For today's generation, this is of a special significance. Compared to former generations, inhumanity has actually grown. Because we possess atomic weapons, the possibility and temptation to destroy life has increased immeasurably. Due to the tremendous advances in technology, the capacity to destroy life has become the fate of mankind. We can save ourselves from this fate only by abolition of atomic weapons. 

We must not allow cruel national thinking to prevail. The abolition of atomic weapons will become possible only if world opinion demands it. And the spirit needed to achieve this can be created only by reverence for life. The course of history demands that not only individuals become ethical personalities, but that nations do so as well. 

Dr.Albert Schweitzer, from "The Origins of the Reverence for Life."

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their
conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you
want.

FOUR. When you say, "I love you", mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams
don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only

way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer,
smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great
risk.

FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others;

and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps
to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your

voice.

TWENTY ONE. Spend some time alone.

> > And God created woman, and she had 3 breasts. He then asked the woman, "Is > there anything you'd like to have changed?" > > > > She replied, "Yes, could get rid of this middle breast?" And so it was > done, and it was good. Then the woman exclaimed as she was holding the third > breast in her hand, "What can be done with this useless boob?" > >
* > And God created man.

Subject: Re: Latin Saying
From: Mfpajak@aol.com
Date: Mon Jun 14 1999 - 14:07:01 EDT 

Next message: David Meadows: "hmmm"

Previous message: Sipesprngs@aol.com: "Re: sexual supplication?" 

I saved a few items from the last time it appeared on a list. Perhaps they 
may be of some use. (I did not save the one attributing it to MIT student.) 

>>From that invaluable document, the alt.usage.english FAQ by Mark Israel: 

"Illegitimis non carborundum" 
----------------------------- 

Yes, this means "Don't let the bastards grind you down", but it is not 
real Latin; it is a pseudo-Latin joke. 

"Carborundum" is a trademark for a very hard substance composed of silicon 
carbide, used in grinding. (The name "Carborundum" is a blend of "carbon" 
and "corundum". "Corundum" denotes aluminium oxide, and comes to English 
from Tamil _kuruntam_; it is related to Sanskrit _kuruvinda_ = "ruby".) "The 
"-ndum" ending suggests the Latin gerundive, which is used to express 
desirability of the activity denoted by the verb, as in _Nil desperandum_ = 
"nothing to be despaired of"; _addendum_ = "(thing) fit to be added"; 
_corrigendum_ = "(thing) fit to be corrected"; and the name Amanda, from 
_amanda_ = "fit to be loved"). 

_Illegitimis_ is the dative plural of _illegitimus_ = "illegitimate"; the 
gerundive in Latin correctly takes the dative to denote the agent. 
_Illegitimus_ could conceivably mean "bastard" in Latin, but was not the 
usual word for it: _Follett World-Wide Latin Dictionary_ (Follett, 1967) 
gives _nothus homo_ for bastard of known father, and _spurius_ for bastard of 
unknown father. 

The phrase seems to have originated with British army intelligence early 
in World War II. It was popularized when U.S. general Joseph W. "Vinegar 
Joe" Stilwell (1883-1946) adopted it as his motto. Various variant forms are 
in circulation. 

--- Gianfranco Boggio-Togna Milano (Italy)
AND:
The Rest of the Story...
about "Illigitimi Non Carborundum"
Courtesy of Nicholas Humez
It's double-dutch -- or reverse macaronic. 
Carborundum was originally a trade name for a kind of grit (silicon carbide 
crystals, in fact) used as a grinding compound. (SiC is its chemical formula 
and its hardness is 8 or 9 on the Mohs' scale, right up there with silicon 
dioxide, SiO2, i.e. common quartz). There may possibly be an association with 
corundum (aluminum oxide, Al2O3) which is hardness 9 and the technical name 
for what we call, depending on their trace impurities, rubies when they're 
red and sapphires when they're blue. 
Corundum isn't from Latin at all but from a Tamil word, kuruntam, I presume 
meaning sapphire or ruby or both. 
The popularity of this phrase is undoubtedly due to its continuing a 
tradition going back at least as far as Shakespeare, in which the vernacular 
speaker who does not know Latin spoofs the presumed pedantry of those who do 
(itself a comic tradition going back to Roman comedy and beyond; arguably, 
Aristophanes' Clouds pokes fun at Socrates under this head -- the man whose 
show of learning is patent claptrap to the rest of us).
Illegitimate is the fancier/politer/more latinate word for the coarser 
Anglo-French "bastard," in its legal sense; hence illegitimi a good guess for 
"What's the Latin word for 'bastards'?" [Here Browning's malicious 
Spanish-cloister soliloquizer chimes in, "What's the Greek for 'swine's 
snout'?" -- itself another example of parodying the erudite, though in this 
case deliberately self-deflating; Brother Lawrence, the object of the 
speaker's venom, has, after all, merely asked a civil question about parsley, 
and by no means an off-topic one were he, say, compiling a herbalist's guide.]
While the durability of this phrase is certainly buoyed by a rich tradition 
of anti-intellectualism peculiar to the United States, it is entirely 
possible that it may have originated elsewhere (e.g. in England), ironically 
as someone whose Latin was actually reasonably good playing a joke on someone 
whose Latin was much shakier or even nonexistent; one can imagine the 
inventor and his schoolfellows saying, "Let's play a wizard wheeze on old 
Molesworth, and persuade him that "Illegitimi non carborundum" is the Latin 
for "don't let..." etc. 
Whatever its origin, it has gained a permanent toehold at the oldest college 
in the USA, where it is sung by the college band at football games to the 
tune of "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard."
And you can quote me on that! Best --Nick 
AND: "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard"
A. PUTNAM '18
1st Verse 
Illegitimum non Carborundum; Domine salvum fac.
Illegitimum non Carborundum; Domine salvum fac.
Gaudeamus igitur!
Veritas non sequitur?
Illegitimum non Carborundum--Ipso facto! 
4th Verse 
Ten Thousand Men of Harvard want victory today
For they know that o'er old Eli
Fair Harvard holds sway.
So then we'll conquer all old Eli's men,
And when the game ends we'll sing again:
Ten thousand men of Harvard gained vict'ry today. 
Michael F Pajak

Merry Christmas everybody. 

I AM THANKFUL FOR ......

THE PARTNER WHO HOGS THE COVERS EVERY NIGHT, BECAUSE HE/SHE IS NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

THE TEENAGER WHO IS NOT DOING DISHES BUT IS WATCHING TV, BECAUSE THAT MEANS HE/SHE IS AT HOME AND NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES THAT I PAY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I, AM EMPLOYED.

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK, BECAUSE IT MEANS I, AM IN THE SUNSHINE.

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME.

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT, BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND THAT I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL, BECAUSE IT MEANS I, AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH THAT SINGS OFF KEY, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS, BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT I AM ALIVE. AND FINALLY.......

FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL, BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

Quebec Man on Gas Run Winds Up in U.S. Jail

Nov 4, 9:00 am ET 

BANGOR, Maine  - A Canadian woodcutter arrested during a routine trip across the U.S. border to buy gasoline has become the victim of intensified security in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, his lawyer said on Friday.

Michel Jalbert drove from his hometown of Pohenegamook, Quebec to Estcourt Station, Maine to fill up on cheap American gas before a hunting trip. As he was leaving the station, U.S. border patrol agents arrested him for illegally entering the country with a firearm.

"He's become the poster boy for stricter enforcement of border laws," Bangor attorney Jon Haddow told The News Source about his client, who speaks no English and is being held in a Maine jail.

The residents of Pohenegamook, including Jalbert, have for years nipped over the border to buy gasoline at the Gazbar gas station, which sits on U.S. soil about a mile before the U.S. Customs checkpoint.

In the past, Canadians would drive in to the station, fill up their tanks, and drive back home -- never bothering to register at the U.S. checkpoint further down the road. U.S. border agents tended to look the other way.

But on Oct. 11, they zeroed in on Jalbert, who was carrying a gun and who has a criminal record in Canada, Harrow said. Jalbert could be jailed for up to 10 years if convicted on the felony charges facing him. 

British Navy Rescues Man Adrift in Caribbean

Nov 4, 8:59 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's Royal Navy has rescued a man who said he had been adrift at sea for 26 days and survived by drinking rainwater after his speedboat broke down off the Caribbean coast.

Lenny Leon Peter was rescued on Friday after a sailor on board British frigate HMS Grafton spotted the boat adrift on the ocean, 700 miles from Peter's home on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

"It really was a tiny boat on a very big ocean," Grafton's commander Richard Thomas said. "It was really a one in a million chance that my lookout spotted him."

Sailors pulled Peter aboard where he was treated for severe dehydration, malnourishment and exposure. He was then airlifted to Jamaica, where he was recovering in hospital.

"He was in quite a state and we're just piecing together the story," Thomas told Sky Television News. "He'd rigged up a water catchment device...so he managed to survive on some rain water.

"As far as I'm aware he didn't have any food during the period."

HMS Grafton is patrolling the Caribbean to combat drug traffickers.

In August, the ship's crew rescued an injured American yachtsman and took him to shore. 

Magazine Suspends Publication After Nude Photo

Nov 4, 8:58 am ET 

HONG KONG  - A Hong Kong gossip magazine said it was suspending publication after public fury over a cover featuring a local actress's topless photo taken during her reported abduction 12 years ago.

"We take entire responsibility for the matter," publisher Chan Yiu-on said on behalf of himself and two other editors of East Week late Saturday.

Some Hong Kong tabloid newspapers and magazines have built a reputation for racy reporting, showing gruesome pictures from accident scenes. Some sport daily supplements featuring brothel guides, complete with ratings.

But last week's East Week cover even caught the attention Hong Kong's top political leader, chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, who said Saturday the government was monitoring the incident.

"We regret the suspension of East Week. We deeply apologize to the victim, the public, the media, and the employees of the magazine," publisher Chan told local television stations.

Magazine officials did not specify if or when publication would resume.

The magazine hit newsstands Wednesday. The cover used a photo it said was of an actress, although it did not identify her.

Though the woman's eyes were shaded out in the photo, many film fans in Hong Kong know her identity. Local papers say she was kidnapped and viciously assaulted 12 years ago, though a police report was never made.

More than 20 grassroots groups protested outside the magazine's offices Saturday to denounce the publication for using the photos.

More than a dozen entertainers and directors, including Asian stars Jackie Chan and Bond-girl Michelle Yeoh, condemned the photo publication Friday, appearing at a news conference in Hong Kong to call for a boycott of the magazine. 

Paratrooper Survives Chute Failure at 3,300 Feet

Nov 4, 8:57 am ET 

BELGRADE  - A Yugoslav Army paratrooper survived a drop from an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) after both his parachutes malfunctioned, the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti reported on Friday.

The paper said 40-year-old Dragan Curcic escaped with minor cuts and bruises after his main and spare parachutes first failed to open and then became tangled when they opened simultaneously during an exercise on Tuesday.

"He went through the roof of an army building. Only God himself saved him from certain death," an eyewitness said.

Curcic, a Yugoslav vice-champion with more than 3,000 jumps to his name, performed another parachute drop on Thursday, this time without problems.

Another Yugoslav holds the record for surviving a fall from the greatest altitude without a parachute. Air hostess Vesna Vulovic plunged 33,330 feet into a snowbound forest in Czechoslovakia in 1972 when the airliner she was on exploded. 

Tolkien Fans Camp Out in Hobbit Village

Nov 4, 8:56 am ET 

By Inger Sethov

OSLO  - About 800 fans of the fantasy trilogy "Lord of The Rings" camped overnight Sunday in a Norwegian 'hobbit' village in freezing weather -- an unorthodox queue for tickets for the second film "The Two Towers."

Dressed as hobbits, elves or wizards, the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's films huddled in hobbit houses or tents in an Oslo park to secure tickets for the follow-up to the blockbuster "The Fellowship of the Ring," which go on sale Monday.

The most eager have slept in the village for two weeks in sub-zero temperatures -- without the protection of the thick hairy feet of the quirky dwarf-life hobbit characters.

"It's freezing, but it's definitely worth it," Tom Bentsen, a 23-year-old student and Tolkien fan, said Sunday night. He and his 25-year-old student friend Emil Benoni C. Johansen were the first to settle in the hobbit camp.

Dressed in long gray coats with big hoods and short trousers like hobbits, the two will lead a parade from the park across the street to the cinema early Monday to pick up one of about 550 tickets going on sale for the December 18 movie release.

"We will stay up all night to make the best of it. It will be sad to leave," said Johansen, who was among the few sleeping in one of two small wooden hobbit houses with tiny round doors and windows reserved for those first in line.

The rest of the campers were staying in tents covered in leaves to resemble a hobbit cave. Others had small hand-made huts of pine trees -- giving a modest shield against temperatures down to minus 7.0 Celsius (19.40 Fahrenheit).

Sverre Munderheim, a postman aged 25, came last Friday in a homemade jacket made of 26,000 steel rings and carrying a weapon of two steel balls with spikes chained to a piece of wood.

However, he is 264th in line and probably won't be able to get a ticket to the premiere, since everyone in front of him can buy up to four tickets each.

"It doesn't matter," he said, sitting by a bonfire to warm up. "The experience of being here makes up for it."

To pass time, he has played games like 'wife carrying', tree root throwing and participated in role play games based on Tolkien's world of Middle Earth.

From midnight, organizers are showing the first Tolkien movie on a wide screen in the middle of the camp. Two men dressed as orcs, the bad guys of Tolkien's fantasy with ugly teeth and rotten-looking skin, sneaked around in the bushes.

"It's like a religion," said Linda Nordheim Kling, chief coordinator of the hobbit village and a Tolkien fan. "I don't know of anybody else in the world doing this."

She said the idea came up after around 600 Norwegian Tolkien fans queued for several days in the streets outside an Oslo cinema last year for tickets to the first film. 

Iranian Woman Bus Driver Puts Men in Back Seat

Nov 4, 8:55 am ET 

TEHRAN  - Iran's first female bus driver has taken to the road in a small victory for gender equality that has already forced men to take a back seat.

Seating on Iranian buses has been segregated since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with women forced to sit at the back so that they do not distract the normally male driver.

But on Masoumeh Bolaghi's bus, the seating order will be reversed for the same reason.

Official news agency IRNA said university graduate Bolaghi had taken to the wheel in the city of Karaj, about 38 miles west of Tehran, Thursday.

IRNA quoted Bolaghi as saying she hoped her example would have "a positive effect on women's morale."

Iran started its first women taxi driver service earlier this year in the holy city of Qom. But the women drivers are only allowed to pick up female passengers. 

State to Decide if 'Idiots' Can Vote

Nov 4, 8:54 am ET 

By Zelie Pollon

SANTA FE, New Mexico  - New Mexico voters will decide on Tuesday whether they want "idiots" and "insane persons" to vote in their state.

Under the state's Constitution, drafted in 1912, "idiots" and "insane persons," as well as those "convicted of a felonious or infamous crime" are currently prohibited from voting.

Proposed Amendment 2 on the November 5 ballot would strike the terms "idiots" and "insane persons" from the Constitution. The measure will better reflect current understanding of mental health and remove archaic language, supporters said.

"There are so many varieties of mental illness with people who are perfectly capable of making a decision," said Bureau of Elections official Denise Lamb.

"I'm more worried about unstable people with guns than I am about unstable people voting," Lamb said.

The same type of amendment, with different wording, was on the ballot once before in the mid 1990s but did not pass because voters interpreted the wording as denying people a right to vote, Lamb said.

"I think it's good to bring your Constitution more in line with reality," she said.

The state's nonpartisan research group, Legislative Council Services, said the arguments in favor of the amendment are that it will remove wording that is "archaic, offensive and meaningless from the list of people ineligible to vote."

"The terms 'idiots' and 'insane persons' may not have been considered offensive in 1912, but today they are an embarrassment," the group said in a guide to voters.

It said the opposing argument suggests that removing the terms "without replacing it with terms that more accurately reflect contemporary understanding of mental health may be too sweeping a change."

The proposed amendment also lowers the voting age from 21 to 18 years, bringing the voting age in compliance with federal requirements.

Early voter Kathleen MacRae said changing the language made sense to her.

"I'm for liberalizing all voting laws. Voting should be open and easy for everyone," she said. "And God knows there are already a lot of idiots voting." 

Man Sues After Finding Girl Not His Daughter

Nov 1, 10:44 am ET 

MELBOURNE  - An Australian man is suing his former partner to recover more than $10,000 he spent on a little girl, for things such as presents, zoo trips and meals, after discovering she was not his daughter, a newspaper said on Friday.

"I want it all back -- every cent for every toy, every blanket, every bit of food," the man, who can't be identified for legal reasons, said.

"I wouldn't have spent all that money had I known five years ago she wasn't my kid," he was quoted saying by the Herald-Sun.

The claims include take-away McDonald's food over five years, four visits to an amusement park, three Barbie dolls, a Pooh Bear play tent, a day of skating, and child support payments.

The Herald-Sun said the man took the action after DNA tests found the girl was not his daughter.

The girl's mother said she was willing to repay the child support payments but that she should not have to pay back anything else.

"She had a good time with him that's the main thing," she was quoted as saying. "I don't think he should carry on too much about it. He should treat it like doing something nice with a friend." 

Not Exactly Your Low-Scoring Soccer Match

Nov 1, 10:39 am ET 

ANTANANARIVO  - Newly-crowned Madagascan champions AS Adema thrashed their opponents 149-0 in a top national league soccer match after the opposition deliberately scored one own goal after another in a protest over a refereeing decision.

Radio Madagascar reported Friday that Stade Olympique l'Emyrne scored the own goals against Adema as a protest after SOE's coach Ratsimandresy RaCzarazaka lost his temper with the referee.

Spectators told the radio that following the row Thursday between RaCzarazaka and the referee at Adema's home ground in the port of Toamasina, SOE repeatedly kicked the ball toward their own goal after each kickoff and scored 149 own goals in the process.

Adema's players reportedly stood around looking bemused, doing nothing to stop the opposition from self-destructing.

Radio Madagascar claimed the result represented a new world record score in a first class match.

SOE were last year's Malagasy champions who surprisingly won through to the second round of the African Champions League this season. Adema clinched the Malagasy title last weekend. 

Bratwurst Stand Gets the Boot

Nov 1, 10:32 am ET 

BERLIN  - Not even German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's famed fondness for grilled sausages could stop officials from banishing bratwurst at the Brandenburg gate.

The license for the only bratwurst stand at the gate, which marks the old border between East and West Germany, expired on Thursday and will not be renewed despite widespread protests.

"They say my bratwurst stand isn't appropriate for the square's historic surroundings," said Curt Boesenberg who has sold his sausages from a stand in front of the gate for years. "That's ridiculous. Sausages have a long tradition in Berlin."

Expensive restaurants have opened in the renovated buildings around the square in recent years. The Gate was unveiled after months of renovation early in October.

"The German people need their bratwurst. Even the chancellor has an occasional craving for sausages," said pensioner Bernhard Teufel who was walking by with his wife.

But Schroeder, who recently claimed he knew every bratwurst stand in Berlin and has been known to jump out of his limousine for a late night snack, will now have to drive on past the Brandenburg gate if he is feeling peckish on his way home from work at the nearby parliamentary building. 

Smokers Fined for Lighting Up in Tokyo Streets

Nov 1, 10:30 am ET 

TOKYO  - Lighting up on Tokyo's streets became hazardous to more than health on Friday as the first luckless Japanese were fined for smoking in some downtown areas.

Smoking on the street was banned in busy parts of central Tokyo's Chiyoda ward a month ago, but a system of fines -- up to $163 for multiple offences -- began on November 1.

By noon, cigarette patrol officers had issued citations ordering 13 people to pay fines of 2,000 yen for smoking or discarding cigarette butts on the streets, an official said.

One woman caught early in the morning told the officers: "Will you take responsibility if I'm late for work? All I have to do is pay money, right?" Kyodo news agency said.

She angrily threw three 10,000 yen bills on the street and walked away, prompting the officials to race after her to return it.

The regulations, rare in a country where about 31 percent of all adults and nearly half of men smoke, were introduced by the ward office to help keep the area litter-free and cut down on the number of incidents where people are burned by passing smokers.

Another man paid the fine on the spot and was quoted by Kyodo as saying: "I knew the fines would start today, but I thought this area was all right.

"I was unfortunate," he added. 

Help Beat the Drought - Shower Together

Nov 1, 10:28 am ET 

MELBOURNE  - Australians hit by one of the worst droughts in a century should shower together according to the minister responsible for water restrictions in the nation's second most populous state.

Victoria state Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt said even those not in a relationship could "find a sympathetic friend" and shower together to save thousands of liters of water over the southern hemisphere summer.

"I would urge Victorians to share their shower," she said in the Herald-Sun newspaper.

"It is a very popular idea around my office for people to be showering with a friend. It is a great way to add to the overall water savings."

Water restrictions take effect in Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, from November 1 for the first time in 20 years. They target mainly outdoor water use, such as swimming pools.

This year's drought is being exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern, which tends to cut rainfall in eastern Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.

The weather bureau said Friday that parts of Sydney, Australia's largest city, had recorded their driest six months since records began 144 years ago.

Water restrictions are also likely to be imposed on Sydney in November, officials say. 

Sexy Putin Storms Into the Pop Charts

Nov 1, 9:56 am ET 

MOSCOW  - Few ex-KGB spies have been immortalized. But Russian President Vladimir Putin, already sure of his place in history, is fast becoming a pop icon -- thanks to a racy all-girl band.

"And now I want a man like Putin," croons a saucy female voice on Russian radio.

Her sticky pop tune -- called "A Man Like Putin" -- can be heard blasting from Moscow's shops and cars. It suggests a remarkable high point in the president's career -- the country's top bureaucrat might soon turn into its chief sex symbol.

In the song, the lead singer of the band Singing Together is fed up with Russia's violent and vodka-guzzling men and chirps about the usually stern-looking president:

"And now I want a man like Putin who doesn't drink. A man like Putin who wouldn't hurt me..."

Putin, also celebrated in books and T-shirts, has enjoyed spectacular popularity since becoming president in 2000 for his tough approach to restoring law and order after a decade of political and economic turmoil.

Putin is married and the father of two daughters.

His image got a fresh boost with his forceful handling of a Moscow hostage crisis despite the deaths of 119 hostages in the raid by security forces that ended the drama.

Below is the full text of the song:

My boyfriend is in trouble again,

He got into a fight and got stoned on something,

I am sick of him and so I told him, get out of here,

And now I want a man like Putin.

A man like Putin, full of energy,

A man like Putin who doesn't drink,

A man like Putin who wouldn't hurt me,

A man like Putin who wouldn't run away from me.

I saw him in the news yesterday,

He was saying the world was at the crossroads,

It's easy with a man like him at home or out and about,

And now I want a man like Putin. 

Dracula Lures Fans to Transylvania for Halloween

Oct 31, 9:08 am ET 

By Dina Kyriakidou

BORGO PASS, Romania  - Die-hard Dracula fans are flocking to the Carpathian Mountains to visit the count's old haunts, watch a medieval witch trial and attend the Miss Transylvania pageant for this year's Halloween.

They come to the remote Romanian countryside lured by both the blood-thirsty vampire of Hollywood movies and the historic prince whose notorious cruelty toward Turkish prisoners inspired the novel "Dracula."

"They are welcome to come but they must know that they might not survive the experience," said Nicolae Paduraru, president of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, which organizes some of the expeditions.

Banned by the communist dictators, Dracula was translated in Romanian as late as 1992, and the small Balkan country only recently has started to capitalize on one of its most-recognizable names.

At the Borgo Pass, home to Bram Stoker's fictional character, the snow-covered hotel is a communist imitation of Romanian castles but the guests appeared not to mind. They took their drinks to the nearby cemetery for a midnight stroll.

"There is a fascination with the unusual," said Howard Cohen from London, who is on his fourth tour of Dracula land. "What you have is the added mystique because the whole concept of Dracula was banned for so long here."

The two dozen, mostly American and British visitors on the Transylvanian Society of Dracula's weeklong tour, will have a chance to join the society and even become knights of Count Dracula Order -- for a small fee.

They will then attend the pageant, where 13 Transylvanian maidens will compete for the honor of becoming "Countess Dracula." After coronation, the winner descends a staircase only to return white-faced and with bite marks on her neck.

'I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT'

"It's a nice fairy tale. I wanted to do something different," said Tony Whiting from Tamworth, Britain, who was planning to take the six chivalry tests, including arm-wrestling, archery and riddle-solving, to win a knighthood.

The real 15th century Prince Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes, who defended his country from hordes of invading Ottomans, has little to do with Stoker's Dracula, whose legend is set around 1890. But Romania, which emerged from decades of communism almost 13 years ago, is quickly filling in the blanks.

Like Castle Dracula, the Golden Crown hotel in Bistritsa, where Stoker's innocent London lawyer Jonathan Harker spends the night, is a concrete communist hotel complex.

"People are creating the history to match the myth," Paduraru said.

Bran Castle, a medieval fortress 156 miles from the count's traditional feeding grounds, often is called Dracula's Castle because it resembles the typical horror film backdrop but is not part of Stoker's novel and Vlad never set foot there.

The Prince was born in 1431 in the medieval town of Sighisoara, where the society holds a Halloween witch trial every year. Although vampires are not part of Romania's folklore, witches were tortured and burned as late as 1753.

Paduraru's tours are filled with such historical and cultural facts, but he denies he uses Dracula almost as a pretext for getting tourists to know his long-isolated country.

"I am only a humble servant of the Count," he said. 

Welsh Pony Takes Spotlight Off Cup Entrants

Nov 4, 9:03 am ET 

MELBOURNE  - A little Welsh pony who has never entered a race in his life has emerged as one of the star attractions of the Melbourne Cup.

The pony, nicknamed Henry, was flown to Melbourne as the traveling companion to Jardines Lookout, one of the English entrants in Australia's richest and most famous race.

Despite their differences in size and appearance, the two horses are inseparable, sharing the same field and barn, and traveling the world together.

It cost an extra A$30,000 (US$16,800) to send Henry all the way to Australia but Alan Jarvis, the trainer of Jardines Lookout, said he couldn't have made the trip without him.

"Without Henry we wouldn't have come," Jarvis said.

"They're a pair, you couldn't separate them. The horse wouldn't have traveled well, he wouldn't have eaten. It would have been waste of time."

While Jardines Lookout is among the early favorites for Tuesday's A$4 million classic, most of the attention in the lead-up to the race has been on his diminutive companion.

He has been featured in local newspapers and television reports, racing Web Sites have diary of Henry's daily events on their pages.

Victorian Racing Club officials are also considering allowing Henry to join Jardines Lookout in the winner's enclosure if Jardines Lookout wins the race.

"I wouldn't want Henry to miss out on his moment of glory," Jarvis said. 

Hens Saved from Execution on Stage

Oct 29, 12:22 pm ET 

BERLIN  - Two hens escaped public execution during performance of a play when animal lovers stormed the stage, a spokeswoman for an animal shelter in the south German town of Wuerzburg said on Tuesday.

The fowl were due to be killed as part of a performance of "The Slaughter of Two Chickens" by German playwright Alf Poss, but animal welfare activists struck before any feathers flew.

"It was our duty to rescue the hens and ensure their welfare," a spokeswoman for the animal shelter said.

Theater director Wolfgang Schulz defended his production, saying it was meant as a comment on Third World hunger.

"In the end, it's all about the tension," Schulz said. The play required the slaughter of two chickens per performance -- a total of 48 for the play's season.

Killing chickens without a license carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment or a fine for cruelty to animals, Wuerzburg prosecutor Clemens Lueckemann said. 

Crime Writer Says She's Got the Ripper's DNA

Oct 29, 12:20 pm ET 

LOS ANGELES  - Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell thinks she may have uncovered Jack the Ripper's DNA and that it could be a match for a British artist who liked to paint morbid scenes of violence against women.

In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed" published in the November issue of Vanity Fair, Cornwell said that the Ripper's DNA could be a match with the DNA of Walter Sickert, an artist who used prostitutes as models and who painted scenes similar to the murders committed by the Ripper, a serial killer who terrorized London in the 1880s.

Cornwell said she discovered that a letter Jack the Ripper claims to have written from Manchester on Nov. 22, 1888 had the same watermark stationary used by Walter and Ellen Sickert after their marriage three years earlier.

Sickert, who died in 1942, was cremated and no DNA of his exists except on some letters and envelopes whose stamps he had licked. They were compared with the DNA of the Ripper from taunting letters he sent authorities.

Cornwell said that of 55 samples tested, 2 had a sequence of numbers that came from only one person: one sequence belonged to the American artist James Whistler with whom the German-born Sickert studied, and the other to the person who left DNA on a stamp of a Ripper letter sent to Dr. Thomas Openshaw, the curator of the London Hospital Museum.

The Whistler sequence had nothing in common with any Ripper letter or any non-Whistler item tested. But the other sequence is found in five samples: the front stamp of the Openshaw envelope; an Ellen Sickert envelope (which could have been handled by her husband); the envelope from a Walter Sickert letter; a stamp from a Walter Sickert envelope; and a Ripper envelope with a stain that tests positive for blood.

Cornwell said that some of Sickert's paintings bear a chilling resemblance to photographs of Jack the Ripper's victims and that some of the Ripper's letters contained phrases used by Whistler that were often mocked by his student Sickert. 

'Arsewoman in Wonderland' in Top Art Prize Battle

Oct 29, 12:19 pm ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - The creators of "Arsewoman in Wonderland" and a Kentucky Fried Chicken menu encased in lead battled Tuesday for top honors in one of the art world's most controversial competitions

The Turner Prize, derided by critics as a farce, has been won in the past by pickled sheep and elephant dung. This year it could be the turn of pornography.

The works submitted by the shortlist of four provoked a protest outside the Tate Britain museum by traditional artists.

"The Turner Prize is a national joke. It is the Emperor's new clothes," complained Charles Thomson of the "pro-painting, anti-conceptual art" Stuckist movement.

Among the leading contenders for Turner 2002 is Fiona Banner who graphically wrote out the plot of porn movie "Arsewoman in Wonderland" in lurid pink words on a giant canvas.

"My response to the film was very emotional. It was intimate yet distant, seductive, yet sometimes repulsive," the artist said of the painting that comes with a health warning.

Exhibition creator Katharine Stout, showing reporters round the exhibition Tuesday, said: "Visitors will be warned there is explicit language. If they don't want to read it, they don't have to."

Fiercely defending the shortlist against accusations that the exhibits were pretentious and mediocre, she said: "I think contemporary art in Britain is among the best in the world."

The exhibition is invariably an enormous success, attracting up 70,000 visitors a year. This year's prize will be presented on December 8.

Bookmakers have installed Keith Tyson as hot 11-8 favorite to land the prize after taking a string of hefty bets on him.

Tyson found fame by feeding data into a computer which then instructed him to paint 366 breadboards and cast a Kentucky Fried Chicken menu in lead.

For the Turner Prize, he offers a giant black pillar packed with computers. It is his take on Rodin's "The Thinker."

Liam Gillick offers a colored perspex ceiling that may not fill all art fans with unbridled enthusiasm. He is the first to admit: "If some people just stand there with their backs to the work and then talk to each other, then that's good."

The shortlist was completed by Catherine Yass with her vertiginous short films "Descent and "Flight."

The Turner invariably grabs the headlines.

Pop superstar Madonna swore live on television last year when presenting the prize to conceptual artist Martin Creed who won with his creation of a bare room with a light that switches on and off.

Tracey Emin won fame in 1999 with her unmade bed surrounded by soiled underpants, condoms and champagne corks.

In 1998, avant-garde artist Chris Ofili won with a Virgin Mary made from elephant dung.

In 1995, Damien Hirst won with a sheep pickled in formaldehyde. Artist Tony Kaye once tried to submit a homeless steel worker as his entry for the competition. 

Leader Says His Depression No Joking Matter

Oct 29, 12:18 pm ET 

By Alister Doyle

OSLO  - Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has shown that there are limits to his sense of humor.

The 55-year-old premier, who made headlines in 1998 when he took three weeks off work because of depression caused by the stress of his job, hit back at a comedian who lampooned him on television over his absence from his post.

And in so doing he spurred a heated public debate about how far humor should go.

Independent TV2, bowing to a storm of criticism, canceled a scheduled repeat late Monday of a program in which comedian Otto Jespersen suggested hiring an assassin to kill Bondevik.

Jespersen caused most furor by saying that Bondevik, a priest in Norway's Lutheran state church, had to be "on heavy medication to get through daily life."

When he took his brief rest from office, the prime minister won wide sympathy in Norway for being candid about his problem.

"To say nothing is the same as to be threatened into silence. That's a danger for public debate," Bondevik said of his decision to hit back at Jespersen's program.

"I tolerate a lot of irony and humor," Bondevik said. "But (the program) goes over the limits."

Tuesday's newspapers were full of debate about whether it was a laughing matter.

The father of Crown Princess Mette-Marit urged Bondevik to sue.

"When the prime minister himself feels harassed and exposed to evil, I think it's important to get a boundary set by the courts," Sven Hoiby told the daily Verdens Gang.

The crown princess has been a frequent target for comedians because she attended parties where drug use was frequent before marrying Crown Prince Haakon last year. Jespersen has also repeatedly poked fun at Hoiby.

An Internet poll of Verdens Gang readers showed that about 80 percent did not think Bondevik should sue, with just 20 percent backing Hoiby's proposal. Bondevik has made it clear he has no plan to sue.

Jespersen repeatedly makes fun of everyone from Norway's royal family to immigrants. The jokes often stretch the limits of what is acceptable in the equality-minded Nordic nation.

"I'm surprised that what I say...should have a slanderous power for the country's prime minister," Jespersen told NRK radio Tuesday.

"No one can seriously believe that I literally mean what I say." 

Plane Lands After Toothbrush Scare

Oct 29, 12:11 pm ET 

NEW DELHI  - A British Airways flight from Singapore to London carrying 178 passengers made an emergency landing in the Indian capital on Tuesday after a package containing a toothbrush sparked a bomb scare, police said.

"A crew member saw a suspicious packet on the plane and thought it was a bomb," S.K. Kain, New Delhi's special police commissioner, told The News Source. "But it was found to be a gift packet containing some items like a toothbrush."

Kain said the aircraft landed at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 2.00 a.m. (2030 GMT) and was taken to a "cooling pit."

Passengers on the flight, which originated in Sydney, were asked to leave the aircraft and security officials conducted a search.

Kain said the aircraft was in Indian air space when the pilot diverted it to New Delhi.

A British Airways official said the Boeing 747 flight, BA 16, was scheduled to resume its journey at 5.30 p.m. (1200 GMT).

She said passengers had been moved to a hotel after they were given temporary visas to enter India. She said she had no other information.

A British Airways spokeswoman in Sydney said the flight crew "act with great caution at all times" and the captain decided to divert to New Delhi after the suspicious package was found.

"Since then, it has been established that the package was nothing else than a toiletries bag in a box," spokeswoman Tessa Sexton told The News Source.

"Passengers applauded the captain when he arrived in Delhi for his textbook handling of the situation," she said. 

Politics Can Spoil Your Meal

Oct 29, 12:10 pm ET 

CARACAS, Venezuela  - The political conflict in Venezuela between President Hugo Chavez and his foes is becoming so polarized that even dining out can be risky -- depending on where you eat and which side you support.

Ask National Guard commander Gen. Eugenio Gutierrez, a loyal military ally of the leftist president whose meal in a posh steakhouse in east Caracas was disrupted on Sunday night by a mob of about 200 noisy anti-Chavez demonstrators.

The protesters, beating pots and pans and shouting "Out, Out," besieged the Lee Hamilton steakhouse for several hours in the city's wealthy Chacao district, a stronghold of opposition to the populist Venezuelan leader, witnesses said.

While his escorts and police in riot gear kept the protesters at bay, the portly general finished his meal, slipped out the back door into a waiting car and rode off.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" the noisy protest against Gutierrez. It took place near a square where several dozen dissident military officers are waging a public campaign calling for a peaceful revolt against Chavez, a former paratrooper elected in 1998.

Gutierrez and other military commanders across the country had appeared on television declaring their loyalty to Chavez.

When Rangel criticized what he called the "violence" of the anti-government protesters in east Caracas, reporters reminded him that several opposition politicians, and some journalists, had been the victims of attacks by pro-Chavez mobs in central and western Caracas over the last year.

The conflict over Chavez's rule in the world's No. 5 oil exporter has split not just the country but also the capital.

While downtown Caracas and poor western neighborhoods and slums seem dominated by Chavez supporters, opponents of the president control the wealthy east, where several Chavez allies have had restaurant meals ruined by pot-beating protesters.

Chavez says his self-proclaimed "revolution" is aimed at closing the gap between rich and poor, but his opponents, who include business leaders and much of Venezuela's middle and upper classes, say he is leading the nation to economic ruin.

In a bid to heal the split and avert violence, Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria began talks with Chavez and his foes Monday to try to foster a dialogue. 

Tank Blown Away -- by the Wind

Oct 28, 12:43 pm ET 

LONDON  - The British Army appealed on Monday for anyone hiding one if its borrowed inflatable tanks -- which blew away in a weekend gale -- to kindly return it.

"If anyone has seen a flying tank please contact us. We would like it back," Army spokesman David Webb told The News Source from breezy Wales.

"We borrowed six of the inflatable tanks from the Royal Air Force and would very much like to give six back to them. At the moment we only have five."

The dummy tank, which takes three men to handle, was being used in an exercise involving troops from Britain, the United States, Canada, Belgium and Poland high in the Brecon Beacon mountains.

The annual exercise is supposed to give troops a feel of what it is like to operate patrols deep behind enemy lines.

Inflatable tanks and artillery pieces are staked out in various locations for the patrols to find. Not only are they less lethal than their real life counterparts, they do less damage to the countryside.

However, the violent gales that swept Britain at the weekend killing several people and causing widespread damage also took the tank with them.

"It just took off and hasn't been seen since," Webb said.

"They are very realistic from a distance and hard to miss. But by now it might have been punctured so it would look more like a giant tarpaulin than a tank."

Court Defines What Is a Chicken

Oct 28, 12:32 pm ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has laid down the law: a chicken is a chicken no matter how it is raised.

The trial court rejected an organic farmer's claim that he did not need a production license from the Canadian province's chicken marketing board because, he said, it had authority only to regulate conventional, non-organic chicken farms.

Justice Lynn Smith ruled on Thursday there was nothing in the law that established the British Columbia Chicken Marketing Board that would "exclude organically raised chicken from the meaning of the word 'chicken'."

The farmer had objected to paying fees to the board. The board argued that would be unfair to other farmers, including at least one who also raised his chickens organically but abided by the board's production quotas. 

Halloween Looks Less Scary, More Whimsical

Oct 28, 12:32 pm ET 

By Steve James

NEW YORK  - Forget the ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night.

This Halloween, after more than a year of al-Qaeda attacks, talk of war with Iraq and, most recently, the Washington-area sniper, scary and violent are out. Whimsy and fantasy are in for American trick-or-treaters.

Even last year's popular police and firefighter costumes are likely to be scarcer this October 31 as cartoon and fantasy characters, musketeers and fairies -- along with a few more grown-up Marilyn Monroes, Lucille Balls and Carmen Mirandas -- seek candy on the front stoops of the nation.

Martha Stewart may even make a, ahem, stylishly late appearance!

"We have not sold a lot of gory," said Valerie Murray, co-owner of United Masks & Party Manufacturers in Sebring, Florida. "Things changed after 9-11."

She said the hottest Halloween item now is angel or fairy wings. "It's probably our Number 1 item, isn't that unbelievable! I've been shipping them all over the world."

Murray, whose company sells costumes and masks online and to retailers, said she has sold out of Hamburglars -- the McDonald's character who steals hamburgers, a figure of fear hardly on the scale of the angel of death.

Another big seller is Sailor Moon, she said. But not to young fans of the Japanese anime super-hero character, but to their mothers, who are buying the sexy outfit with thigh-high red boots, mini-skirt, bustier and sailor's collar.

The shift to less violent costumes is understandable, said Dr. Joyce Brothers, a popular syndicated psychologist. "It's all fairyland now. We've had so much real fear, people don't want ersatz.

"The whole point of Halloween is that it gives us a chance to change our image, to deal with fears and show we can handle them. But we've been so flooded that we just don't need it now," she said.

Paul Blum, owner of the giant Abracadabra store in Manhattan, which sells masks, costumes and props, said: "People are not going for the scary stuff, Frankensteins and Mummys."

Although Halloween has become the second-biggest shopping holiday behind Christmas, manufacturers and retailers are not expecting a bonanza this year.

A survey by the National Retail Federation forecast that U.S. sales of candy, costumes and decorations for Halloween will be flat compared with 2001, at about $6.9 billion.

Many retailers, like Gap Inc's Old Navy, promote special lines of Halloween products seasonally. "Our top sellers are frogs and firemen for baby, and the all-time favorite, the pumpkin," said spokesman Jonathan Finn.

Old Navy does not sell adult Halloween costumes, but has lots of accessories for kids, including glow-in-the-dark skeleton or pumpkin T-shirts, special flashlights and bunny and doggie ears.

George Garcia, manager of Chicago's huge Fantasy Costumes, said cheerleaders are big this year, including themed Zombie cheerleaders and patriot cheerleaders.

Also big are the usual cartoon characters and super-heroes -- Spiderman and Batman, as well as Peter Pan. Another popular item is the Scooby-Doo family -- both human and canine -- following the successful movie version of the TV cartoon.

"We're still selling a lot of props -- skeletons, bones, blood, but lots of adults want to dress up in '70s' stuff," said Garcia. "No (Iraqi leader) Saddams (Hussein) this year, and usually Presidents are big sellers, but not this year."

A surprise hit is Marilyn Monroe, who was found dead 40 years ago this year, Garcia told The News Source.

He said some people were asking for Martha Stewart masks, after TV's doyenne of good taste who is caught up in an insider-trading scandal.

And an enterprising man in California has a successful line of Martha Stewart items.

Gary Mittin, who works in real estate in the Los Angeles area, has Web sites (www.marthastewartlivinginjail.com and www.surrendermartha.com) cashing-in on Stewart's notoriety.

But he took down www.marthamask.com, because he couldn't handle the demand for his homemade masks of the style guru. "They took too long to make and I have a full-time job," Mittin said.

But he said he was doing brisk business in his $9.99 line of T-shirts. There's an orange "Department of Corrections" with Martha on the chest, a "Surrender Martha" and the classic black with "Martha Stewart Living in Jail" written behind prison bars, a nod to Stewart's namesake magazine.

"Martha is such a prime target because people didn't like her to start with," said Mittin. "I wish her a happy Halloween and maybe I will dress as her warden," he said. 

Penis Size Big Worry for UK Men, Poll Says

Oct 28, 12:31 pm ET 

LONDON  - Almost one in four British men is unhappy with the size of his penis, according to a survey of sexual behavior published Sunday.

And such concerns do not diminish with age.

While those aged 35 to 44 are most likely to worry, a sizeable 26 percent of over 65s admit to being less than happy with their organ.

The ICM poll, which quizzed 1,027 adults for the Observer newspaper, also found that four million husbands and wives -- more than one in six -- had committed adultery.

For those in long-term relationships, the figure was one in five.

"The figures for extra-marital affairs may even be an underestimate," psychologist Philip Hodson told the Observer.

"All the evidence is that women tend to conceal the extent of adultery, even from professional researchers."

The survey found that men were more likely to have been unfaithful than women -- 22 percent compared with 13 percent -- and women are more likely to stray on just one occasion.

Those seeking a trustworthy partner should look in the British capital, London, where just seven percent admitted to having cheated on their partner.

Among Scottish partners, meanwhile, one in three in long-term relationships have had at least one affair, according to the poll.

More than half of those surveyed have had a one night stand and 21 percent have had sex with someone without knowing their name.

Britons have sex on average twice a week and just under half have used a sex aid. Sixty percent believed prostitution should be legalized and 41 percent said they would consider having sex for money if the amount offered was large enough. The poll found that one in 10 Britons have had same-sex contact and half believed in gay marriage. However, almost a quarter of respondents said gay sex should be made illegal.

When asked about health, almost a third admitted they did not practice safe sex with a new partner and 42 percent of those who had contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the past also failed to practice safe sex. 

Reckless Driving Is a Sin?

Oct 28, 12:31 pm ET 

VALLETTA  - Reckless driving violates God's fifth commandment (Thou shall not kill) because it risks lives, a Maltese bishop said Monday.

Bishop Nikol Cauchi said government authorities may also become partners in sin if they turn a blind eye to poor road conditions in the country.

"Reckless driving is prohibited by the fifth commandment because it is not lawful to expose oneself or others to the probable risk of death," the bishop of the small island of Gozo also wrote in an opinion piece in Malta's The Times newspaper.

Cauchi's editorial, published on the annual October 28 Traffic Victims Day called for action to curb accidents which have claimed the lives of 12 people in nearly 10,600 traffic accidents on the Mediterranean island state in nine months.

The editorial said driving test standards should be raised and the government should look into limiting the type of vehicles inexperienced drivers are allowed to use.

Malta, which is a mere 17 miles at its broadest end, boasts one vehicle for every two people among the country's 380,000 people, making it the most traffic congested country in Europe. 

Surgeons Deliver 46-Year-Old Fetus

Oct 24, 1:42 pm ET 

RABAT  - Moroccan surgeons have relieved a 75-year-old woman of what she thought was a long-standing tumor but turned out to be the remains of a 46-year-old fetus, Moroccan newspapers said Thursday.

The woman had complained of abdominal pains, so she underwent surgery in July by a team led by Professor Taibi Ouazzani in Rabat's Avicennes hospital, the newspapers Al Ahdath al-Maghribia and L'Opinion said.

How the team determined how long the woman had carried the fetus was not disclosed, and officials at Avicennes were not immediately available for comment.

Ouazzani's team plans to show a video about the surgery at a news conference Friday.

Canada: Airplane Discomfort Not Discrimination

Oct 24, 10:24 am ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - The Canadian Transportation Agency made it official: narrow airline seats are uncomfortable for many people and that does not make them discriminatory.

The federal regulatory agency ruled Wednesday against a woman who had complained in 1997 about Air Canada's policy of charging obese passengers a higher fare if they require the use of more than one seat or upgrade to wider seats.

Linda McKay-Panos argued the policy was discriminatory because her obesity was a disability that made it too uncomfortable to sit in the a single narrow seats used in the airplane's standard class section.

The Calgary woman wanted to upgrade to a wider business class seat at the same price, but the airline said no and she paid the extra fare.

"The agency finds that being unable to fit comfortably in the seat should not be enough evidence of the existence of a disability, as many people experience discomfort in the seat because of, among other things, its size and legroom." a CTA panel wrote in its decision.

The three-member panel's majority said that McKay-Panos's obesity was also not considered a disability because it had not prevented her from using airport facilities or boarding the aircraft with other non-obese passengers. 

Is Wine Less Risky Than Beer??

Oct 24, 10:23 am ET 

SANTIAGO, Chile  - Wine is less likely than beer or spirits to lead to cirrhosis of the liver among people who consume alcohol, an international health congress heard.

A study by the Alcohol Research Center in Copenhagen showed only 9.6 percent of 300 Danes with alcohol-induced cirrhosis drank more wine than other alcoholic drinks put together.

The research center, presenting the study Wednesday to the "Vinsalud 2002" wine and health congress in the Chilean capital, said everyone who drank alcohol was at greater risk of contracting cirrhosis than abstainers.

"There seems to be an increased risk also for wine drinkers but this is much, much lower than for those who drink beer or spirits," the center's Morten Gronbaek told the congress.

Gronbaek, a world leader in research into the health effects of alcohol, said 40.8 percent of the cirrhosis cases were drinkers whose alcohol intake was less than 1 percent wine.

Cirrhosis is a potentially fatal disease often associated with overconsumption of alcohol. It blocks the flow of blood through the liver, the biggest organ in the body.

Congress delegates said a reason for the lower cirrhosis rate in wine drinkers could be that polyphenol, a substance found in the skin of red grapes, might protect the liver from damage.

Researchers say polyphenol, a strong anti-oxidant also found in green tea and curry spice, may help fight heart disease and some cancers.

Gronbaek said a separate study showed that wine drinkers were also less at risk from becoming excessive drinkers than people whose favorite tipple was beer. 

Mother Challenges King in Landmark Case

Oct 24, 10:23 am ET 

MBABANE  - A future mother-in-law can be difficult -- even for a king -- as Swaziland's monarch is finding out in a landmark test case this week.

A distraught mother alleges King Mswati III, 34, had her 18-year-old daughter abducted two weeks ago to become his 12th wife and is demanding the palace hand her back.

Observers said on Thursday they expected the dispute would become an historic test of the king's absolute power over his tiny kingdom -- to drag on for a month.

"I think it's a test case against the royalty," Prince Mfanasibili Dlamini told The News Source.

"I think they want to draw as much publicity as they can to ridicule the kingdom and its customs," said Dlamini, who helped to run the country between the death of Mswati's father and the accession of the king to the throne in 1986.

Traditional leaders swathed in brightly-colored cloth mixed with students and activists in the packed court overlooking the capital, Mbabane, where the case is being heard.

Lindiwe Dlamini's daughter, Zena, has not been seen in public since palace aides snatched her from school two weeks ago. She wants her daughter back, insisting she was taken without parental consent. But court officials said they want to hear Zena's side of the story.

Women in land-locked Swaziland cannot own property or enter into legal contracts. Human rights groups hope the trial will highlight their plight. 

'Lava' Ad Too Hot for Watchdog

Oct 24, 10:17 am ET 

DUBLIN  - A television advertisement for Ireland's national drink Guinness which shows a man walking barefoot over crusted hot lava for a pint has proven too hot to handle for the Irish advertising watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland has banned the ad for Guinness which the agency said Wednesday is in breach of new guidelines intended to cut down on under-age drinking.

"We've instructed the media not to run them," Edward McCumiskey, ASAI chief executive, told The News Source.

"It's an instruction to them that this ad is not to appear again, although they can come back with a modified version."

The ad for Guinness was filmed in Poland and depicts a village devastated by a volcanic eruption.

When the sparks have settled, a bare-footed man walks over crusted lava to enter the village pub to open it so everyone can enjoy a drink of stout.

In banning the ad, the Irish watchdog in a bulletin said a code in place since last April "requires that an advertisement for alcoholic drink should not imply that drinking has therapeutic qualities or that it can contribute to social or other success." 

Help May Be at Hand for Overheated Athletes

Oct 24, 10:15 am ET 

LONDON  - Scientists have developed a glove-like device that allows athletes to cool their overheated blood and could improve their performance by up to a fifth in sports like cycling and weight training.

The body normally cools blood by pumping it to the surface of the skin where heat is released into the air. But this method means less blood is available to carry oxygen to muscles, and with less oxygen muscles cannot work as hard.

The Rapid Thermal Exchange (RTX), invented by Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn from Stanford University, draws heat rapidly out of the body through a water-cooled steel plate in a hand-size device.

"When an athlete puts their hand in the chamber, the steel plate efficiently draws heat from blood circulating through their hand. The cooled blood flows back to the heart and is recirculated, cooling other organs by as much as three degrees Centigrade (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit)," New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

Athletes can return to the field legally reinvigorated after a session with the RTX, with more oxygen reaching their muscles in the cooled-down blood, according to the scientists.

Julian Nikolchev, president of Avacore Technologies which has been licensed to market RTX said the hi-tech glove could also help save lives. 

New Hunt Planned for Clues to Pyramid Doors

Oct 24, 10:14 am ET 

CAIRO, Egypt  - Archeologists will scale one of Egypt's ancient pyramids in December to hunt for clues about the purpose of mysterious doors blocking two shafts in the edifice, Egypt's antiquities chief said Wednesday.

Zahi Hawass said if the shafts stretching from a room inside the pyramid of Cheops did not emerge on the surface, it would show that the passages lead to burial chambers hidden behind the doors, which might be probed from the inside "within one year."

"If they (the shafts) do appear from the outside, they are symbolic doors. If they don't appear, they are not symbolic doors (and) there are burial chambers hidden," Hawass told reporters.

He said part of the surface of the 4,500 year-old pyramid would be cleaned by brush to look for signs of outlets to the shafts, which measure 8 by 8 inches.

Both shafts were explored in September using a robot which drilled through a door with copper handles 213 feet up one of the passages before inserting a camera on live television only to reveal a second stone slab blocking the way.

"The second one is not a door," Hawass said. "It's like a screening -- something that's hiding something. If you look at it, it has cracks." 

Elephant Signs Petition to Save Friends

Oct 24, 10:08 am ET 

BERLIN  - A baby elephant in Germany has signed a petition to protect wild elephants around the world, an environmental protection group says.

Sayang, who escaped elephant poachers in Borneo three years ago, signed the petition Wednesday by holding a paintbrush dipped in paint with her trunk, said a spokesman for NABU, an environmental protection group based in Germany's former capital Bonn.

A zoo in Hanover had nominated Sayang as a signatory, after discovering her writing talent, he added.

"Sayang had been practicing for days before signing the dotted line," a spokeswoman for the zoo said.

Sayang signed along with the president of NABU. The group plans to give the petition to a German delegation attending a conference in Chile next month on international trade in endangered species.

"NABU hopes this symbolic union of man and beast will raise awareness of unregulated ivory trade," the spokesman said. 

Policewoman Makes Blind Date to Nab Thief

Oct 23, 9:13 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German policewoman snared a wanted criminal after she arranged a blind date with him, police said Tuesday.

The policewoman found the 29-year-old man's mobile phone number and landed a date after flirting with him, said a police spokesman.

"It all began as a wrong number call, which then turned into a conversation, and eventually a date in a bar downtown," he said.

The criminal -- wanted in the town of Recklinghausen, north of Cologne, for crimes worth a total of three years behind bars if he is convicted -- not only fell for the ploy, but turned up "all dressed up," he said.

The policewoman arrested the man at the end of the date, surrounded by other police officers who had been posing as fellow revelers.

The police spokesman could not confirm whether there had been mutual attraction. He said: "In any case, it was all purely professional." 

End of the Road for Oxford's Bulldogs

Oct 23, 9:12 am ET 

By Emma Graham-Harrison

LONDON  - Oxford University is to disband an institution which has been keeping a beady eye on its students for almost 800 years.

The bulldogs -- a suited, bowler-hatted private police force whose traditional role was to keep students out of pubs and in the libraries -- have fallen victim to cost and safety concerns, the University said Tuesday.

"It's the end of an era in the university's history, but we have to move on," marshal Richard Hartley, commander of the 23-strong force told The News Source.

"It's a nice cuddly image but it's not appropriate for modern policing. A stab-proof vest under a suit looks ridiculous."

The bulldogs were founded in 1215 and probably picked up their nickname in the 1950s when their uniform was modernized from Victorian frock-coats to the bowler hats associated with British bulldogs, he said.

The university decided to scrap the historic force because of new accountability laws that would require them to hire an inspector and a superintendent to supervise three full time employees.

"We have got public money to spend and we are aware of that," said Hartley. "The cost of implementing the measures was too expensive."

Civilian officers -- with limited powers -- will replace the bulldogs, but will call in regular police to cover events that require an official presence.

The bulldogs are currently responsible for overall student safety, stewarding events like award ceremonies and exams and policing celebrity visits to the university.

But until the end of the World War II they exercised almost parental powers.

"They would chase you out of pubs and catch the male students trying to climb into women's colleges," Carol Stewart, an Oxford undergraduate in the 1930s told The News Source.

Student Union president Will Straw, son of foreign secretary Jack Straw, said he welcomed the decision, as long as the bulldogs' replacements could ensure student safety.

"We think in their current state they're a costumed pantomime and not accountable but there is definitely a call for student safety to be upheld," he said.

"Just as long as they get rid of the bowler hats -- the way they dress is a relic."

But the bowlers could live on. Hartley said uniforms for the bulldogs' replacements were "still in the discussion stage," and there might be more bad news for students.

From next year, regular police will supervise demonstrations and post exam celebrations, when students traditionally throw eggs, flour and champagne at each other

The demise of the bulldogs may also mean more student run-ins with police. "It will make a difference to the way student over-exuberance is treated," Hartley said. 

Sea-Faring Drug Smugglers Burn Boat -- Not Cocaine

Oct 23, 9:12 am ET 

BOGOTA, Colombia  - Their plan was to burn $75 million worth of cocaine before the Colombian navy reached their speedboat -- far, far off the country's Pacific coast.

Instead, the quick-thinking drug traffickers had to jump ship when their boat caught fire. To their surprise, the bagged cocaine also spilled into the ocean -- and some even was found bobbing alongside the crew when authorities arrived.

"When they saw themselves surrounded, the crew of the boat set a fire to erase the evidence. But the boat didn't burn completely and some packets of the drug wound up floating," the navy said in a statement.

The navy added that it "rescued" the five crew members, who were subsequently arrested and brought to shore. Colombia supplies the vast majority of the world's cocaine, producing more than 580 tons of the white powder every year -- the bulk of which ends up on U.S. streets. Colombia says it has seized 79 tons of cocaine this year, most of it as the drug was being smuggled north by sea. 

Crocodile Kills German Tourist in Australia

Oct 23, 9:11 am ET 

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY  - A large saltwater crocodile attacked and killed a young German woman swimming under a full moon in a remote Australian outback waterhole, police said on Wednesday.

"The sister of the deceased person felt something bump her and then saw a large shape which took hold of her sister," Northern Territory police commander Max Pope told reporters.

The 12-foot crocodile only released the woman's body from its jaws hours later when rangers in the Kakadu National Park tracked it down and harpooned it, some 1.2 miles from the attack site, police said.

"This morning the crocodile was located still holding the deceased," said Pope. "It was harpooned by wildlife officers which caused it to drop the deceased. The crocodile was secured and is now deceased."

The name and other details of the victim have not been released yet by police.

Fatal crocodile attacks are rare in Australia and the last fatal attack in the Northern Territory was in 1998.

But crocodiles are very prevalent in Australia's northern tropics and frequently leave their swamp and ocean habitats to wander into northern towns.

Crocodiles attack by locking their jaws around their prey and executing a "death roll" underwater. They do not usually eat all their prey immediately, but wedge it under a rock or underwater log, returning later.

The woman, in her early twenties, was on a group adventure tour of Australia's outback. The tourists camped near the Sandy Billabong (waterhole) south of Jabiru in the park on Tuesday.

The waterhole was clearly marked with crocodile and swimming prohibited signs.

"I am not sure why they entered the water. There were signs there," Pope said. "I assume that because of the warm night, the full moon, the billabong would have looked idyllic and may have caused the people to overlook the dangers that lurk there."

Police said about seven tourists were swimming in the waterhole when the attack occurred. Some told police they saw a dark shape moving through the water just before the German woman disappeared around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The leader of the tour group used a satellite telephone to call for help. Another large crocodile in the waterhole prevented police from retrieving the woman's body until dawn.

Swimming is also prohibited in Darwin harbor, the Northern Territory's capital, due to crocodiles and the city operates night trapping patrols to stop crocodiles entering city limits.

"Attacks of this type highlight the type of product we have here. It is somewhat dangerous if people do not take note of signs," said a tourism spokeswoman for the Northern Territory.

"This highlights to everybody that this is a big country, big nature," she said. 

Woman Shrugs Off Scorpion Stings, Sets Record

Oct 23, 9:11 am ET 

PATTAYA, Thailand  - A Thai woman emerged on Wednesday from a 130-square-foot room she shared with 3,400 live scorpions for 32 days, setting a world record.

Kanchana Ketkaew, 30, who had built up immunity to scorpion venom over six years performing with the bugs for tourists, smiled as she told reporters she had been stung nine times during her record-breaking stint.

About 400 scorpions had died, but they were replaced by new hatchlings. "Over 500 baby scorpions were born, and all the scorpions go into a frenzy late at night," Kanchana was quoted as saying by the Nation newspaper.

The Guinness Book of World Records sent Kanchana a $1,000 reward for her feat. The record was previously held by a Malaysian woman who spent 30 days with 2,700 scorpions. 

Bombs Shoo Off Guinness Record Keepers

Oct 23, 9:10 am ET 

MANILA  - Bomb blasts in the Philippines appear to have shooed off representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records who had been due in the country to size up what is being promoted as the world's largest footwear.

The Guinness representatives failed to turn up for the Monday night judging of a five-meter (yard) long pair of men's shoes.

The no-show comes hard on the heels of canceled pop concerts in the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia by rock groups Oasis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and jazz guitarist George Benson.

Ten people have been killed and almost 200 wounded in bomb attacks in the Philippines over the past week. On October 12, more than 180 people died in bomb attacks on nightclubs in the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

"Among the reasons (for the Guinness non-appearance) perhaps is the bomb scare not only here in the Philippines but in Bali as well," said Marides Fernando, mayor of the Philippines' shoe capital, Marikina.

Guinness representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Marikina, which is laying claim to the record, is a sleepy riverside town near Manila and the site of a museum that houses some of former first lady Imelda Marcos's vast and notorious footwear collection.

Fernando said documents supporting Marikina's claim had been sent to Guinness and she hoped it would be verified within a month. 

High-Heeled Fur Protesters Strip in Chilly Beijing

Oct 23, 9:09 am ET 

BEIJING  - Two animal rights activists wearing nothing but a protest banner and underwear shouted anti-fur slogans on Beijing's most bustling shopping street on Wednesday before being pushed into a police van and hauled off.

"Compassion is the fashion. Fur is dead!" chanted Kayla Worden and Yvonne Taylor as they strutted into a small plaza in front of a shopping mall and shimmied out of their red silk robes.

The two high heel-wearing blondes, covered only with a white banner around their torsos that read "We'd rather go naked than wear fur" in Chinese and English, quickly attracted a crowd of 50 to 100 gawking onlookers.

"We are really cold out here, but this is nothing compared to what the animals go through," said Worden, a nurse from New York as Taylor, who works at a dog and cat shelter in London, waved to the gathering crowd.

The temperature in Beijing on Wednesday was forecast to rise to a maximum 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

The two women are members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which says the fur trade is cruel and unnecessary and has long campaigned to abolish it. A PETA spokesman said the protest was timed ahead of a fur show in Beijing on Friday.

"Cruelty is never in fashion and we want people to think twice before they buy fur," Taylor said during the brief protest.

Police tried to disperse the crowd and told Worden and Taylor to put on their robes and leave.

The women, who appeared not to understand Chinese, were nudged into a van and driven away after they continued to smile and wave and shout slogans.

Onlookers were amused by the small protest, which took place near Tiananmen Square where student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 were brutally crushed by the army.

"I've never heard of anything like this happening in China before," said Lee Bai, who was passing by on a bicycle.

Another man focused his attention on the women rather than their cause, saying in heavily accented English: "So beautiful!" 

Soccer Team Blames Empty Stomachs for Poor Play

Oct 23, 9:08 am ET 

LIMA, Peru  - The goalkeeper of struggling Peruvian soccer team Juan Aurich has blamed empty stomachs for his team's poor results.

"We don't know what to do," Marco Flores told the sports daily Libero. "A lot of us can't afford to eat or get to training. And they still want us to win.

"It's difficult to compete with other professional clubs on an empty stomach and without the necessary strength.

"The situation is chaotic. We've no money in our pockets and, even so, they threaten to sack us."

Juan Aurich, based in the northern city of Chiclayo, is near the bottom in the second stage of the Peruvian championship, having picked up only nine points in 15 games.

They were hammered 4-1 by Estudiantes de Medicina on Sunday.

Last week, Libero photographed two Juan Aurich players eating $1 set lunches at Chiclayo's central market. Both claimed they needed to borrow money from relatives to get by.

As in much of Latin America, Peruvian soccer is in serious financial difficulties and players at several clubs complain they are being paid several months late. 

Ronald McDonald at Large in South Wales

Oct 23, 9:07 am ET 

LONDON  - A 25-foot-high inflatable Ronald McDonald was on the loose in South Wales Tuesday after it escaped from its roof-top home.

The brightly colored plastic clown, mascot of the McDonalds fast food chain, had been anchored to the roof of an outlet near the town of Newport, but when staff went to inflate it in the morning, they found it had blown off.

At first it was feared to have settled on a nearby railway track that links South Wales to London.

"We received a call to warn us of the possibility of a large inflatable object lying on the track near Newport West," a spokesman for rail operator Railtrack told The News Source.

"At first our log showed it was a hamburger but it later emerged it was a Ronald McDonald.

"As a precaution we carried out an inspection of the track but nothing was found. It must have blown off somewhere.

By nightfall, Ronald was still missing.

"We're offering a Big Mac to anyone who can give us information leading to his safe return," a McDonalds spokeswoman said. 

'Rude' Doctor Barred from Practice

Oct 22, 9:53 am ET 

LONDON  - A British surgeon reported to have told a patient "you have cancer, I have asthma, we all have to die some time" was struck off the rolls Monday.

The General Medical Council said Dr. Mohannad Al-Fallouji's conduct "has rightly been described as bizarre."

The surgeon, dubbed "a walking terror in a white coat" by the media, made lewd remarks to female colleagues and occasionally groped them. He wrote nasty and deliberately misleading references about junior doctors, the GMC said.

He also sent a flirtatious card to a young female patient, trying to arrange a date without her parents finding out.

And he had a habit of informing patients they had cancer in a manner that was "abrupt, insensitive, rude and below a reasonable professional standard," the council found.

He once informed a patient who had been told she may have gallstones "words to the effect that she had a malignant cancer and that she should feel privileged that she had time to prepare for her death and make a will."

"In view of your behavior toward patients and colleagues there are no conditions which would enable the Committee to conclude that you could safely resume practice," it said. 

Cat Starts Fire, Raises Alarm, Saves Family

Oct 22, 9:40 am ET 

BERLIN  - A cat saved its family by raising the alarm after it touched off a fire, German police said on Monday.

Mimi the black-and-white cat was playing in the family kitchen in the northwest town of Luedenhausen when a misstep switched on an electric oven, which ignited papers stacked next to it.

But Mimi then awoke the family by miaowing loudly and pushing heavy objects on the floor.

"Mimi saved the family. There would have been a major fire had she not raised the alarm," a police spokesman said. 

Man Dies After Fish Sauce Rescue

Oct 22, 9:38 am ET 

HANOI  - A Vietnamese man died and three of his co-workers nearly suffered the same fate after trying to rescue a colleague who fell into vat of fish sauce.

The state-run Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said the accident happened Monday in southern beachside Phan Thiet town when a man at a fish sauce factory fell into a 2.2 meter (7.2 foot) sauce tank.

Four other workers, including the man's wife, who came to his aid also fell in, and all lost consciousness after inhaling the gas from the fish being fermented to make the sauce, the article said.

A doctor at the emergency unit at Binh Thuan provincial hospital told The News Source Tuesday one of the rescuers, a 34-year-old man, died after being taken to the hospital. The cause of death has not been established, he said.

"The fish sauce tank is very tall and the victims had been lying in the sauce for a while before being rushed here," said the doctor who declined to be identified. "When they came, the man (who died) was already in critical condition."

Phan Thiet, the capital town of Binh Thuan, lies 190 km (118 miles) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Besides being a center for fish sauce manufacturing, it is known for beachside resorts.

Fish sauce is ferociously pungent and commonly used in southeast Asia to spice up dishes. 

Anglicans Propose Dress-Down Sundays

Oct 22, 9:36 am ET 

LONDON  - Casually dressed priests could soon be conducting marriages and holy communions if November's Anglican Synod passes a dressing-down motion, the Synod said on Monday.

"It could be a particularly difficult subject because of the great diversity of practice," Synod secretary general William Fittall said, fearing a sartorial fallout between rival factions in the Church of England.

One Synod representative feared that priests who initially opted for well-cut suits would eventually amble along to mass in a woolly jumper.

David Williams, clerk to the Synod which will run from November 11 to 15, said a bishop's consent for dress code experiments would be a useful half-way house.

The Bishops of Blackburn and Liverpool are endorsing a scheme to entice the young into the Church of England's pews. "Young people today have a stronger sense of spirituality than was the case a generation ago," they said.

Divorcees wishing to remarry in church will be watching November's Synod with interest because in exceptional cases they may be given the green light. 

'Scary' Apples Make Their Appearance for Halloween

Oct 22, 9:35 am ET 

LONDON  - Stenciling, long the preserve of interior decorators, has been adapted by British apple growers to create fruit with Halloween designs on their skins.

They fixed food-friendly plastic stencils of pumpkins and witches on a English apple variety called Falstaff, before the fruit had ripened.

Once exposed to sunlight, the apple's skin turned red while the part covered by the stencil remained green.

The result is a ready-made prop for October 31, said supermarket chain Waitrose which is stocking the enhanced fruit.

The store said other designs, such as love hearts for Valentine's Day, are planned. 

Mystery Fireball Phenomenon a Damp Squib

Oct 22, 9:33 am ET 

By Orathai Sriring

NONG KHAI, Thailand  - Almost half a million people flocked to witness the annual rising of fireballs from the Mekong where the river snakes between Thailand and Laos, but the phenomenon turned out to be a damp squib.

A four-hour downpour from twilight on Monday put the dampers on the show for most of the crowd camped out along a 10-km (six-mile) stretch of river bank opposite the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

Usually thousands of reddish-pink balls of light are said to shoot up into the sky above the Mekong, which runs through five nations before flowing out to sea in Vietnam.

But this year only a few dozen balls were seen.

The fireballs, called "bung fai phaya naga," or "naga fireballs," after a mythical giant serpent, have never been proved scientifically, but some speculate they are the result of natural gases rising from the river bottom.

Others say they are a hoax, while local myth tells of an ancient waterworld beneath the brown waters of the Mekong. Locals say the phenomenon has been occurring for half a century.

They happen during the full moon of the eleventh lunar month in Nong Khai province, 600 km (360 miles) northeast of Bangkok.

"This is terrible," complained a disgruntled grandmother, who spent hours on traffic-clogged roads to see the event.

"The fireballs weren't that spectacular and my grandchildren were crying and starving."

The fireballs this year drew more than four times the usual crowd because a recent movie on the same subject.

"Usually we get around 100,000 visitors, but the crowd this year is estimated at 450,000-500,000 because of the movie," said Saroch Laowilai, a spokesman for the Nong Khai provincial administration.

All 30 hotels and inns in the town of Nong Khai were fully booked and several hospitals and Buddhist temples offered room and board, officials said.

Thousands also camped along highways and the river bank.

But despite the disappointment from out-of-towners, locals enjoyed the show.

"I don't how they happen," said Poon Matawong, a 72-year-old fisherman who says he first saw the fireballs when he was 20.

"But I believe that the waterworld exists." 

Politician Detained for Speaking Kurdish

Oct 22, 9:31 am ET 

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey  - Police in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast briefly detained a politician on Monday for speaking Kurdish while campaigning for next month's general election, an official working for him said.

Abdulmelik Firat, who is running as an independent candidate in the November 3 parliamentary elections, was released later in the day after appearing before a judge who ruled he had committed no crime, his aide Fehmi Demir said.

Firat had only greeted voters in Kurdish during a campaign stop in Lice on Monday, Demir said.

Turkish election laws bar politicians from campaigning in languages other than Turkish.

Turkey recently lifted bans on broadcasting and education in Kurdish in a bid to meet European Union human rights standards.

Ankara has been pressing the European Union to set a date for the start of negotiations on Turkish membership, but the bloc has said Ankara must prove it is implementing human rights reforms before it can start membership talks.

Firat is a well-known politician in the regional capital Diyarbakir and is expected to attract a large number of votes as an independent candidate.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) is also expected to poll well in Diyarbakir. 

Panamanians Beg Pardon at Black Christ Festival

Oct 22, 9:30 am ET 

By Robin Emmott

PORTOBELO, Panama  - Thousands of Panamanians, many of them thieves, prostitutes and drug dealers, on Monday came to purge their sins at the annual Roman Catholic festival of the black Christ, Panama's wildest and most chaotic celebration of faith.

Some 50,000 people, mud-splattered and weary, made the pilgrimage to the Atlantic coastal village of Portobelo, 60 miles from Panama City.

Many Panamanians see the festival as the patron day of criminals who may ask Christ for clemency.

Thousands of worshipers fell to their knees to crawl to the Portobelo church where the black, life-size wooden statue of Christ is displayed. The statue is reputed to possess miraculous powers.

"I'm here to plead forgiveness," said a man who gave his name only as Miguel, his body dripping with wax from candles in an act of penance.

"I've done bad things. I've done drugs and sold arms," he said. "I'm asking the Christ to help me."

Law-abiding believers also paid homage to the black Christ, asking the idol to solve seemingly intractable problems or cure serious illnesses, showering it with golden chains.

"My colleagues were seriously burned in a fire. I'm here to ask the Christ to save them," said Nelson Sioneros, 46, a fireman from Panama City, who had crawled along the street on his hands and knees.

The statue, carved from black cocobolo wood with an agonized face and eyes raised to heaven, is Panama's most revered religious figure.

"We love the Christ. He is our savior," a group of homeless and unemployed men shouted in the church.

It is unclear how the black Christ came to Portobelo, once the most important Spanish colonial port on the Atlantic coast, later sacked by English pirates in 1668.

Poor children tell different versions of the story for $1.

Some say the black Christ was found floating in the sea on Oct. 21, 1658, during a cholera epidemic, which ended when the Christ was brought into the town.

Others say the figure was on a ship bound for Colombia that stopped at Portobelo for supplies and was repeatedly prevented from leaving the bay by bad weather, sailing successfully only when the statue was left ashore.

Aside from the mystery of the festivities, police were on the lookout for fugitives from justice.

Around 400 officers, including 20 special detectives and 12 immigration officials, were combing the scene for delinquents on the run.

"Our main aim is provide security for the worshipers. But we are also looking for known criminals. Last year we caught 10 serious criminals as well as other petty thieves," Portobelo Mayor Nelson Jackson told The News Source. 

Bank Robbed by Own Security Guard

Oct 21, 8:43 am ET 

JERUSALEM  - An Israeli bank was robbed at gunpoint Sunday by its own security guard, who made off with 100,000 shekels ($21,000), police said.

A police spokesman said he expected police to catch the guard, who fled on foot, soon because "we know everything about him."

The guard was employed by a security company that has a contract with Bank Leumi, Israel's second largest bank, bank spokeswoman Ricki Carmi said.

She said the guard went into the Leumi branch in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva after the bank closed to customers but bank employees were still working and told a teller to give him the money.

Carmi said the bank was investigating the incident with the security company, whose guards are licensed to carry weapons. 

King Caught Speeding, but Escapes Fine

Oct 21, 8:42 am ET 

OSLO  - Norway's King Harald was caught speeding in his car but will escape a fine due to royal immunity, a Norwegian daily said on Saturday.

Verdens Gang said that King Harald was stopped while driving his private car 10 kph over the speed limit.

He will not pay a fine because Norway's 1814 constitution grants the monarch blanket immunity from prosecution for any crime or misdemeanor. An ordinary citizen would be fined about 1,000 crowns ($130) for the infringement. 

Women Want Sensitive, Sober, Virgin Men

Oct 21, 8:40 am ET 

NEW DELHI  - You're a tall, dark, handsome hunk with a bulging wallet. And you think women fancy you.

If you're in India, think again.

Indian women are looking for a man who understands women, is honest and responsible and doesn't drink too much.

It would also help if you can treat women as equals, are intelligent, faithful, a homemaker and a good father, don't have a violent temper and don't talk loosely about women.

Oh, and you must be good in bed. The long wish list is the outcome of a survey aiming to find out what Indian women want in a man.

The survey, conducted by the Center for Forecasting and Research for the weekly magazine Outlook, covered 2,150 women across 10 cities, Outlook said in its issue which hit the stands Sunday.

"It wasn't money, property, career prospects, or even looks and a good body that mattered the most," Outlook said. "He had to listen to her, treat her as an equal and be honest to be in her good books."

The magazine said the respondents, who ranged from teenagers to women over 40, were asked to rate on a 10-point scale the attributes they loved or loathed in men.

"Alcoholics were the most despised across all age groups, regions and occupations," Outlook said.

"Good sex was almost unanimously considered important for a good relationship."

Seventy-five percent of the surveyed women said good sex was very important, although 51 percent of them said their man should be totally inexperienced in bed.

"Intriguingly, while women expressed a desire for sex, even taking the initiative sexually (43 percent), as many as 55 percent of the respondents thought that men should be virgins when they marry," Outlook said. 

Realistic Toy Guns Banned

Oct 21, 8:39 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - Mexico said on Sunday it had banned toy guns that look like the real thing, because they were being used by real bad guys to commit crimes and get away with lighter sentences.

The Economy Ministry said it had issued a decree banning the import, manufacture and sale of replicas of assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns and pistols.

The aim of the new law "is to permanently remove replicas of firearms sold in national territory that are frequently used to commit various types of crimes, and to protect people's well-being and health," the ministry said.

It said recent legal reforms requiring stiffer sentences for crimes in which firearms are used has led to the use of fake guns by criminals.

Toy guns will still be allowed to be sold, however, if they are not the same size and color as real models, and that are preferably made of clear or florescent plastic, it added.

Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard applauded the new law, telling reporters his force would seize gun replicas sold by street vendors and toy merchants in the crime-ridden capital. 

Police Object to This Union, Arrest Groom

Oct 21, 8:38 am ET 

BERLIN  - A deported Albanian drug dealer was arrested just half an hour before his wedding in Germany, police said Saturday.

The 30-year-old man was deported to Albania in 1999 after serving just two years of a five-year sentence for drug dealing.

Police in the western city of Cologne said in a statement investigators believed the groom had slipped back into Germany using various identities.

They said they only caught up with him when he registered to marry his 23-year-old girlfriend.

"Instead of appearing before the registrar in the town hall, he was taken into custody," the statement said, adding the man was now serving the remaining 700 days of his sentence. 

Saddam Who? Most Britons Prefer Soaps -Survey

Oct 21, 8:35 am ET 

LONDON  - Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader dominating the world's newspapers and television bulletins, registers less with Britons than soap stars and winners of reality TV shows.

A poll carried out for Whitaker's Almanac found that only a quarter of Britons could name the Iraqi president compared with 44 percent of people who knew Phil Mitchell -- resident bad-boy in the "Eastenders" soap.

The findings are unlikely to upset Saddam -- who won 100 percent of the vote in an uncontested election last week in his homeland -- but it will be unhappy reading for British politicians struggling to combat voter apathy.

Turnouts for recent elections have been falling, perhaps unsurprisingly given that the survey of 1,000 adults found nine percent -- or 4.32 million Britons, do not watch, listen or read any news or current affairs.

"As for those that say they do read or watch news and current affairs, they do not seem to be taking much in," said Dr. Cherry Taylor who conducted the poll.

Forty-two percent of Britons could not name any cabinet ministers, Taylor told The News Source. Conversely just under a third of Britons could name at least one winner of the "Big Brother" reality show.

"Only 12 percent of people questioned could name five current world leaders compared with 46 percent of people who could name five "Eastenders,"" Taylor said. 

Daughters of Confederacy Up in Arms

Oct 21, 8:24 am ET 

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  - Plans by Vanderbilt University to drop "Confederate" from the name of a dormitory called the "Confederate Memorial Hall" has prompted a lawsuit by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a service group that helped pay for the building.

"You might say my clients are steel magnolias who won't be pushed around," Bob Notestine, a lawyer representing the group, said on Friday.

The group, whose members are descendants of those who served in the military of the Confederacy during the Civil War, sued Vanderbilt in Davidson County Chancery Court on Thursday seeking an injunction to stop the university from changing the name of the white-columned building.

Vanderbilt officials said the university decided to drop the word from the name because it was an unpleasant reminder of slavery in the Old South and the ensuing war between the Confederate States and the Union.

The daughters group, which now numbers about 1,300 in Tennessee, paid $50,000 to help build the Confederate Memorial Hall in 1935 -- 70 years after the war ended. It originally was built for George Peabody College for Teachers, which later became part of Vanderbilt. 

Police Hunt for $1.5 Million Necklace Thieves

Oct 21, 8:20 am ET 

MANAMA  - Bahraini police are searching for two European men suspected of stealing a $1.5 million diamond necklace from a jewelry show, newspapers said Sunday.

The English-language Gulf Daily News said the necklace, an exquisite creation of renowned jewelers Cartier, was on display Friday at the Jewelry Arabia exhibition when the two men struck.

"An employee at the stand handed it to them (the suspects) to inspect, then turned to deal with another customer," the paper said, quoting an official at the shop which ran the stand.

"When he turned back, one man had vanished with the necklace and the other man melted into the crowds in the ensuing confusion," the paper added.

The paper said the necklace was insured. Renowned jewelers such as Chopard also had their glittering ware on display at Jewelry Arabia, which is held annually in the oil-rich Gulf. 

Highway Yields to Path Walked by Daniel Boone

Oct 21, 8:16 am ET 

MIDDLESBORO, Ky.  - Politicians, history buffs and a few hundred spectators gathered at a notch in the Allegheny Mountains known as the Cumberland Gap on Saturday to celebrate the unbuilding of a highway.

They came to dedicate the newly restored Wilderness Road, a footpath through the Gap traveled first by American Indians and marked out in 1775 by famed frontiersman Daniel Boone.

Located at the point where Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee meet, the route served as a gateway for westbound pioneers but evolved in modern times into a dangerous stretch of pavement for drivers.

Saturday's ceremony capped a 30-year effort to obliterate a section of U.S. Highway 25-E known as "Massacre Mountain" and restore the mile-long (1.6-km-long) earthen path through the Cumberland Gap to the way it looked more than two centuries ago.

"Now you can walk out on the Wilderness Road in the Gap, where Boone and all the others passed through, and actually see deer and turkey. It's a major transformation from a highway that was carrying 18,000 vehicles a day six years ago," Mark Woods, superintendent of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, told The News Source.

Through a joint project of the U.S. National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration, traffic was diverted to a pair of nearby tunnels that were completed in 1996. Woods said the old highway recorded fatal accidents every year, but the new road has had none in six years.

Work to restore the Wilderness Road footpath began in August 2001. In addition to grinding up pavement from the old highway, crews moved hundreds of tons of earth to restore hills and a ravine that existed in Boone's time but were filled in when the U.S. highway was built in the 1900s.

"We have taken it back to its natural state," Woods said, adding that local college students helped plant some 20,000 native-species trees last spring. The Cumberland Gap restoration was completed in May, but the dedication was delayed until October to allow nature to smooth the scars left from the project, Woods said. 

World Series Cashing in on Monkey Business

Oct 20, 9:02 am ET 

By Steve Keating

ANAHEIM, Calif.  - Until the Rally Monkey steps up to the plate and gets a hit, the San Francisco Giants say they have nothing to fear from the Anaheim Angels celebrity chimp.

The Angels mascot, appeared to be up to his usual Rally Monkey business in Game One of the World Series Saturday when, as according to script, he came out of hiding in the sixth inning.

He appeared on the Jumbotron with Anaheim trailing 4-1 to ignite the crowd and one of the home team's trademark comebacks.

Forty-three times during the regular season and twice in the playoffs, the Angels have come from behind to steal victories and looked poised for another when Troy Glaus tagged Giants starter Jason Schmidt for his second home run of the game.

Adam Kennedy then drove in Brad Fullmer to cut the San Francisco lead to 4-3.

But despite the frenzied urging of monkey and 44,000 supporters -- thousands of them with stuffed Rally Monkeys draped around their necks or hanging from poles -- the Angels comeback would fall short.

"If it's got them a few wins, that's great," said Giants first baseman J.T. Snow, who scored the game winning run with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth.

"But I've yet to see him get a hit, throw a strike or get somebody out.

"As long as you keep your attention on what's going on in the field, that's all that matters."

OVERNIGHT SENSATION

Like most stars who come to Southern California looking to be discovered, the Rally Monkey is not an overnight sensation.

In fact, the Rally Monkey first hit the Edison Field Jumbotron two years ago when two students working on the video crew put a clip from the movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" on the screen.

While the white-faced capuchin monkey bounced up and down, the words Rally Monkey were put on the screen and a star was born.

In the glare of the postseason spotlight the Rally Monkey has turned into a money spinning marketing dream.

Even in Anaheim, home of Disneyland, the Rally Monkey is eclipsing Mickey Mouse in popularity.

During Game One of the Series more fans were hoping for a glimpse of the Rally Monkey than a sighting of movie stars Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta.

"He (the Rally Monkey) is making someone a lot of money," smiled Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia. "But I didn't see him get a hit.

"Actually I sort of had a laugh ... it's great gimmick.

"I mean, if that's what it takes to get the fans going, a monkey jumping up and down then good for them." 

YSL Goes Full-Frontal with Men's Fragrance Ad

Oct 18, 10:39 am ET 

PARIS  - American designer Tom Ford has set a new milestone for sex in advertising with the print commercial for the new Yves Saint Laurent men's fragrance, which features a reclining full-frontal nude male model.

The black-and-white publicity shot for the M7 fragrance, which stars former martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber, will be published from Oct. 24 in a handful of fashion magazines, including the French edition of Vogue.

So-called porn chic has swept the advertising industry in recent years, but no company had previously dared to go all the way in showing a full-frontal nude.

"Perfume is worn on the skin, so why hide the body?" Ford, YSL's artistic director, said in a statement. "The M7 campaign is really pure, it's a very academic nude."

Advance peeks of the X-rated shot are already causing a stir in local media and could lead to a repeat of the protests triggered by the Yves Saint Laurent campaign for the relaunch of its women's perfume Opium two years ago.

Britain's Advertising Standards Authority ordered YSL to remove the billboard commercials, featuring model Sophie Dahl reclining in the nude, because they were "sexually suggestive."

Ford said the M7 campaign was a homage to a now infamous picture of Saint Laurent posing naked -- though with his legs modestly crossed -- for the photographer Jeanloup Sieff in 1971.

"I wanted to subtly remind people that the house of Yves Saint Laurent has always been a front-runner in presenting provocative images," he said.

Ford, who took over the design of YSL's ready-to-wear and perfume divisions in 2000, is offering mainstream media a toned-down version showing de Cubber from the waist up.

The model's hairy chest contrasts sharply with the waxed pectorals of the Australian modeling sensation Travis Fimmel, who stars in the campaign for Calvin Klein's new scent Crave.

"I wanted to show a man who represents a natural and relaxed image of male beauty," explained Ford.

YSL is owned by the Italian design house Gucci, an affiliate of Pinault Printemps Redoute. 

Cockpit Intruder Gets Two Years in Prison

Oct 18, 10:36 am ET 

MIAMI  - An airplane passenger subdued by an ax-wielding pilot after crashing through a cockpit door on a flight from Miami to Argentina in February was sentenced to two years in prison, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

A judge also ordered Pablo Moreira Mosca, a banker from Uruguay, to pay $1,091 in restitution for repairs to the United Airlines plane.

Moreira pleaded guilty in July to interfering with a flight crew and was sentenced on Thursday.

Moreira boarded United Airlines Flight 855 in Miami on Feb. 7, bound for Buenos Aires. Five hours into the flight he rushed the cockpit door with his shoulder, kicked through the lower part of the door and crawled halfway into the cockpit, prosecutors said.

The relief pilot hit him on the head with the blunt end of an ax, stunning him enough that passengers and other crew members were able to subdue him.

Moreira was sedated for the rest of the flight and arrested when it returned to Miami. Investigators said he had drunk some whiskey before takeoff and told the crew that he "wanted to destroy everything."

The cockpit door had been reinforced after the hijacked plane attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But Moreira managed to smash through a lower panel designed as an escape hatch for the pilots, investigators said. 

Woman May Have Bitten Husband to Death?

Oct 18, 8:28 am ET 

MODESTO, Calif.  - A California woman who allegedly flew into a rage and bit her husband repeatedly after he refused to have sex with her is being held on charges that police say may eventually include murder.

Modesto police said that Kelli Pratt, 45, attacked her 65-year-old husband Arthur on Oct. 7, holding him down and biting him some 20 times after a dispute over sex.

"Most of the bites were confined to his arm and his abdomen and a few were very deep with major tissue damage," Sgt. Al Carter of the Modesto police told a television news reporter Thursday.

The Modesto Bee newspaper reported that Arthur Pratt, whose skin was covered with more than 20 deep tooth marks, died Sunday at a local hospital and that the local forensic pathologist believes the bites are the likely cause of death.

"He (the husband) was able to dial 911 (emergency) that night," Carter told the newspaper. "We have a tape recording of him screaming while she was biting him. When officers arrived, he was screaming that he'd been assaulted. She fought with the officers and tried to bite them, too."

Arthur Pratt had a history of medical problems including diabetes, heart and circulation problems. An official ruling on the possible homicide charge is awaiting toxicology tests, which could determine whether the bites caused an infection that proved fatal, the Bee said.

Carter said police were already persuaded that "his death was a direct result of being bitten."

"I've seen cases where dogs have bitten kids, and blood loss or infection led to death," Carter said. "I've never heard of anyone being bitten to death (by a human) before."

Kelli Pratt is currently being held in Modesto, about 90 miles east of San Francisco, on charges of elder abuse, domestic violence and assault on a police officer. 

Bird the Size of a Plane Spotted in Alaska?

Oct 18, 8:26 am ET 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska  - A bird the size of a small airplane was recently spotted flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week.

The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak as saying the creature, like something out of the movie "Jurassic Park," had a wingspan of 14 feet -- making it the size of a small airplane.

"At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes," the paper quoted Moses Coupchiak, 43, a heavy equipment operator from Togiak, as saying. "Instead of continuing toward me, it banked to the left, and that's when I noticed it wasn't a plane."

The Daily News, the largest daily in Alaska, said scientists had no doubt that people in the region, west of Dillingham, had seen the winged creature but they were skeptical about its reported size.

"I'm certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been alive for the last 100,000 years," the paper quoted raptor specialist Phil Schemf as saying.

Coupchiak said the bird disappeared over the hill and he then radioed Togiak residents to tell them to keep their children in.

Another local resident, a pilot who had initially dismissed the reports, said he recently saw the bird from a distance of just 1,000 feet while flying his airplane.

"The people in the plane saw him," John Bouker was quoted as saying. "He's huge, he's huge, he's really, really big. You wouldn't want to have your children out."

Schemf and Rob Macdonald of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said there had been several sightings over the past year and a half of a Steller's eagle, a fish-eating bird that can weigh 20 pounds (10 kg) and have a wingspan of eight feet, the newspaper reported. 

Spanish Wine Could Derail Iranian State Visit

Oct 18, 8:23 am ET 

TEHRAN, Iran  - A dispute over serving wine at a state banquet might lead to the cancellation of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's planned visit to Spain, a newspaper said Thursday.

The conservative Resalat daily said the visit, due to take place in the next few weeks, had been overshadowed by a dispute which broke out when Iranian officials demanded a non-alcoholic banquet.

"Spanish protocol services rejected the demand and insisted on serving alcohol at meals," Resalat quoted unidentified sources as saying.

Under the strict Islamic law practiced in Iran, drinking alcohol is forbidden for Muslims.

The same problem occurred before Khatami's visit to France in 1999. The visit was postponed when Paris refused to bar wine from the table.

In 1999, Khatami's conservative opponents used a photograph of the moderate cleric in Italy at a banquet table laden with wine glasses as a propaganda tool to attack his reforms.

Diplomats in Tehran and Madrid confirmed that there had been discussions over alcohol in preparation for the visit.

"We still have not found a solution, the program has not been finalized ... but we are going to reach some kind of formula, which is currently being negotiated," the Spanish sources said.

Resalat said Khatami may simply skip the Spanish banquet to avoid embarrassment. "As no agreement has been reached with the Spanish authorities on respecting Islamic and national norms, the Iranian side has said that Khatami will not attend the Spanish king's banquet," the daily said. 

Booker Prize 'Winner' Named by Mistake

Oct 18, 8:22 am ET 

LONDON  - Organizers of Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for literature were red-faced on Thursday after they accidentally named one of the short-listed candidates as the winner.

An announcement on the prize's official Web site said Canadian writer Yann Martel had won for his book "Life of Pi" -- even though the judges have not met and are not due to do so until next Tuesday.

The 2002 winner will be officially named on Tuesday.

The leak prompted several punters to place money on Martel with bookmakers William Hill, prompting them to halt betting on the outcome of prize.

"We were baffled by the string of bets for the Martel book, several of them stakes of one hundred pounds ($155) a time, and then concerned when the book had already been announced as the winner," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said. "We thought it might be wise at this point to close the (wagering) book pending inquiries."

Booker Prize organizers said the announcement was an innocent mistake and stressed Martel was not necessarily the winner.

"It was just a daft, administrative error," a spokeswoman for the award told The News Source.

"We write six press releases in advance and then release one of them when the judges make their decision.

"One of the releases was being sent to a development Web site as a test but unfortunately it was accidentally sent to a site which could be seen by the public.

"It just happened to be the Martel press release as his name is first of the six alphabetically."

She said the erroneous announcement had only been on the Web site for 20 minutes before it was deleted.

Martel is competing against Rohinton Mistry ("Family Matters"), Carol Shields ("Unless"), William Trevor ("The Story of Lucy Gault"), Sarah Waters ("Fingersmith") and Tim Winton ("Dirt Music") for the 50,000-pound ($77,000) prize.

Established in 1968, the Booker aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or Republic of Ireland.

Past winners of the award, which virtually guarantees a worldwide audience and a dramatic increase in book sales, include Salman Rushdie, William Golding and Iris Murdoch. 

Dinamo Zagreb Calls in Spiritual Ghost Buster

Oct 18, 8:20 am ET 

ZAGREB  - Croatia's top team Dinamo Zagreb has asked clerical leaders in this predominantly Roman Catholic country to provide a priest who would become part of the team and its spiritual guide.

"This club is full of demons and they must be chased away," Dinamo's maverick coach Miroslav Blazevic told Vecernji List daily newspaper Friday.

"The priest would travel with us everywhere, he would be at the players' disposal all the time so they don't need to go to church. He would hold spiritual trainings and boost the family spirit," Blazevic said.

Dinamo, which currently tops domestic standings and plays English side Fulham in the second round of the UEFA Cup, has forwarded its formal request for a priest to the Zagreb Archbishopric, the Kaptol.

Kaptol officials said they were "looking for a suitable person for this demanding job, someone who would have some knowledge of other religions as well, because of the non-Catholic players in Dinamo," the daily said. 

Police Sniff Out Shoe Fetish in Man's Attic

Oct 17, 1:03 pm ET 

TEL AVIV  - Israeli police have arrested a computer programmer who gets his kicks by stealing and sniffing the shoes and socks of female colleagues.

Police found 205 pairs of ladies shoes, as well as socks and items of underwear, hidden in the attic of the 33-year-old married man, a spokeswoman for the Sharon region police department said on Thursday.

"He would take the keys of his co-workers, make copies and then go to their houses when they weren't home," the spokeswoman said. "We also found ladies underwear, but mainly it was shoes and socks."

The man was caught after 14 women reported missing shoes. A private investigation agency planted one of their own female detectives as a new employee at the high-tech company where the man worked.

The police spokeswoman said the man got sexually aroused by smelling the shoes and that he swapped stories and shoes over the Internet with others who have the same fetish. 

Engineer Designs 'Airbag Desk' for Tired Staff

Oct 17, 1:02 pm ET 

BERLIN  - A German engineer has designed a desk that converts into a giant pillow at the push of a button for flagging office workers in need of a quick snooze.

"At work I was often tempted to just lie down and take a quick afternoon nap," said Matthias Knigge whose "airbag table" will soon be on display at a Hamburg art gallery.

"The airbag table is designed for everyone who works hard at their desk and needs to take a quick nap," he told The News Source Thursday.

A prototype of the desk, made out of walnut, looks perfectly ordinary until a small button is pressed underneath. This activates a fan that inflates a bright orange airbag, which unfolds through an opened panel on the desktop.

But Knigge, a 32-year-old designer from the northern town of Ottensen, said he hoped his invention wouldn't encourage people to work even longer hours.

"The aim isn't to keep people chained to their desks 24 hours a day," he said. "I think people should get away from their desks at some point and get a life." 

Famous Photographer Fed Up with 'Hollywood Bimbos'

Oct 17, 1:01 pm ET 

BERLIN  - Photographer Helmut Newton, famed for his portraits of beautiful naked women, said Wednesday he had met far too many stupid models in his career.

Newton, 82, has courted controversy with his portrayals of sexual violence, sado-masochism and fetishism. But the renowned photographer told Germany's Stern magazine that working with beautiful women had often been boring and tiresome.

"Either they are so dumb that they can only sit there silently staring straight ahead with vacant looks on their faces, or they get on my nerves because they can't stop blabbering," said Newton, an Australian who lives in Berlin.

"And then there are those who believe they have to talk about important issues," he added. "Those are the worst of all."

Newton said he had become so bored that he had nothing to add to memoirs which tell the story of his life until 1982.

"What could I have written about the last 20 years? That I met an awful lot of incredibly boring Hollywood bimbos, that I earn a bit more money now and that I only fly first class," he said. "Not much more has happened."

Newton opened an exhibition in Berlin two years ago featuring photographs of big-name models in various states of undress and in poses not normally seen on the catwalk.

Newton was born into a prominent Jewish family in Berlin but fled Nazi Germany in 1938.

Many critics, including leading feminists, have slammed aspects of his work which depict women bound and gagged or wearing leg irons. But fans call his photographs erotic masterpieces.

In the Stern interview Newton said he was disliked the word erotic.

"I hate all the talk about erotic," he said. "Let's talk about sex. Then I know what is meant." 

Toilet Swallows Hand After Shower Slip

Oct 17, 12:59 pm ET 

MILAN  - A guest at a hotel in Milan had reason to be grateful for having his mobile phone in the bathroom after ending up with his hand stuck down the toilet for more than an hour on Thursday.

The unnamed 65-year-old slipped as he stepped out of the shower and accidentally jammed his hand down the funnel of the toilet as he tried to break his fall, rescue workers said.

Still naked, he was saved by firemen more than an hour later after calling an emergency number from his phone. The firemen had to dismantle the lavatory to set his hand free.

He was taken to hospital with broken ribs and a sore arm. 

Pets Aren't Just for Life, They're Forever

Oct 17, 12:58 pm ET 

By Michelle Green

LONDON  - Long mocked for treating their pets better than their children, Britain's animal lovers are extending their extraordinary dedication into the afterlife.

Gone are the days when the family goldfish was given a watery toilet grave or the hamster a resting place among the weekly rubbish.

Today, Flipper and Harry can look forward to a hand-carved casket and tear-jerking memorial to send them on their final journey.

"Twenty years ago most dead pets went to the glue factory or ended up in landfill," Howard Jones, general manager of the Cambridge Pet Crematorium, told The News Source.

"Now days people like to know their pets have been treated with dignity after death."

With new demand has come a new generation of entrepreneurs and an explosive growth in what can loosely be described as the "pet death industry."

There are pet crematoria, pet coffins and pet sympathy cards.

Support groups and helplines lend grieving pet owners a sympathetic ear, while on the Internet, virtual pet cemeteries commemorate departed companions with poems, anecdotes and photographs.

"Pet cremation and memorials are becoming much more acceptable," Antony Ringer, manager of Peaceful Pets crematorium in Norfolk, eastern England said. "That has sparked a rapid growth in services for bereaved owners."

The number of pet crematoria in Britain has more than doubled over the past 20 years to around 320 today.

Cambridge Pet Crematorium in eastern England is one of the country's oldest at 25 years.

"When we started it was a very, very small business. We carried out perhaps one or two cremations a day, now we carry out several hundred a week," manager Jones said.

As well as cremations, the crematorium sells urns and caskets -- including a wooden urn in the shape of a sleeping cat -- and provides memorial plots in a seven-acre (2.8-hectare) garden of remembrance, complete with waterfall.

Customers can opt to have their pet cremated individually or with other animals and can even attend a cremation ceremony.

"People like to know where their deceased pets are," Jones said. "It's really no different from losing a relative."

The reasons for the apparently bottomless well of pet devotion in Britain, home to around 11 million animal companions, are economic as well as psychological.

Animal indulgences -- from diamond studded collars to pet counseling -- have been made possible by a decade of prosperity.

Childless career couples and rich singletons spend around 3.5 billion pounds ($5.4 billion) a year on their pets in Britain, according to Mintel, the international research company.

The break up of the traditional family has also brought Britons closer to their pets.

"People are more mobile and less in touch with family," Jones said. "Pets have replaced the traditional family unit."

And like the loss of a relative, the death of a treasured pet can be devastating.

Jo-Ann Dono, head of the Blue Cross charity's Pet Bereavement Support Service, said a lack of understanding -- the age-old phrase "it's only an animal" -- was driving pet owners to seek professional help.

"Sadly when a pet dies people often don't understand the owner's grief," she said. "We have found that most people just need someone to listen and understand how they are feeling."

FROM TASTEFUL TO TACKY

On the whole, Britain's pet death industry has an aura of taste about it but inevitably the tacky and plain weird creep in.

Take the two foot-high (0.6 meter-high), heart-shaped headstone for a goldfish erected in a London pet cemetery or the weekly "Candle Ceremony" held by Web Site petloss.com.

Conducted in 13 languages and lasting 20 minutes, the ceremony invites pet lovers across the globe to "join together in love and spirit" by lighting a candle in memory of their departed friends.

There have even been requests from owners wishing to be interred with their pets.

"A number of our customers have asked to have their ashes interred with their pets," Jones said. "It's something we do.

"It's understandable. They're companions, they don't want to leave them."

But the award for true extravagance must still go to America's pet crematoria, where caskets are to be found that make the Cambridge Pet Crematorium's wooden cat urn look positively neglectful.

For 17,000 pounds ($27,000) grieving owners can purchase a solid maple and black walnut casket, lined with aromatic cedar and guaranteed to remain intact for 100 years -- even underground. 

Mother Ends Bizarre Custody Battle in China

Oct 17, 12:55 pm ET 

BEIJING  - An American mother fighting a bizarre custody battle with her Chinese ex-husband in his native province said Thursday she had left the central city of Zhengzhou by car after paying him $60,000.

"We are on the road," Camille Colvin told The News Source by mobile telephone as she, her son Griffin and her brother Cal rode north to Beijing from Zhengzhou, a journey of around 500 km (300 miles).

Colvin said they were trapped in a hotel for nine days under threats from her ex-husband, Guo Rui, who was staying in an adjacent room in the same suite.

She said Guo, accused of snatching and fleeing with the five-year-old boy from New York, posted dozens of associates throughout the hotel and demanded up to $130,000 to let her leave with the boy.

Guo and his relatives have denied allegations against them, calling them "propaganda" drummed up by Western media.

Two privately hired bodyguards and a driver were escorting the three Americans after Colvin struck a deal with her former spouse.

"The money demanded by Guo Rui was remitted and arrived in Zhengzhou this afternoon," a source close to the family said. "It was around $60,000."

Guo handed over a second copy of Griffin's passport to Colvin as part of the deal, the source said.

The family was expected to arrive Beijing by morning and fly back to the United States soon, he said.

A U.S. court granted Colvin custody of the boy when she divorced Guo last September. Guo, a permanent U.S. resident, was allowed weekly visits under supervision, members of the Colvin family say.

Guo slipped away with Griffin during a visit in July, shaking off a private investigator hired to watch them, they say. Manhattan and federal arrests warrants for Guo on kidnapping charges were issued, they say.

Colvin, 35, went on to talk shows and gave press interviews during the summer as part of a bid to track down her son.

She and her brother found Griffin last week at the home of Guo's parents in Zhengzhou.

The families ended up staying in adjacent rooms of the same hotel suite after an angry confrontation at a police station.

U.S. embassy and Chinese foreign ministry officials met over case. It was complicated because China has not signed the Hague convention on child abductions and because U.S. court custody orders are not automatically binding abroad. 

'Tear-Free' Onions Could Soon Be on the Menu

Oct 17, 12:52 pm ET 

LONDON  - Tear-free onions that don't reduce cooks to sniveling cry babies could soon be on the menu.

Japanese scientists have identified an enzyme in onions that make grown men and women weep. It could be the first step toward a genetically modified onion that tastes as good but doesn't produce floods of tears when it is chopped.

"We discovered a novel enzyme in onion indispensable for the formation of lachrymatory factor -- the tear-inducing compound," Shinsuke Imai, of the House Foods Corporation in Chiba, Japan, said Wednesday.

The enzyme is responsible for the production of the pungent, irritating chemical that produces tears but Imai and his team suspect other flavor compounds give onions their characteristic taste.

The scientists, who reported their findings in the science journal Nature, are planning further studies to determine the role the enzyme plays in flavor production. They believe a genetically modified onion that does not produce the enzyme but tastes as good could be the answer. 

Airline Lovers Flock to Swissair Jumble Sale

Oct 17, 12:50 pm ET 

By Marcel Michelson

BASSERSDORF, Switzerland  - Several hundred airline lovers rushed Thursday to buy the remains of failed flag carrier Swissair, snapping up cutlery and miniature wine bottles in a liquidation jumble sale of a great aviation name.

"I want a souvenir from Swissair, a Swiss airline that no longer exists and that is a great pity," said Anita Maerkli, 32, who came with her mother.

Security guards restrained the crowd as doors to the sale opened close to the former headquarters of the 71-year-old company that folded under a mountain of debt one year ago. They were allowed into the building in batches of 200.

Liquidator Kurt Hoss expects at least 100,000 people to buy articles ranging from tiny mementos such as a Swissair-labeled wine bottle for one euro to expensive porcelain crockery from Hutschenreuther and Langenthal over the next few weeks.

Expected proceeds of over 10 million francs will refund a fraction of the debts of more than 12.5 billion Swiss francs ($8.36 billion).

On sale are 1.6 million stainless-steel steel knives, forks and spoons and 360,000 pieces of first-class silver. More than two million plastic bowls and glasses, blankets, baseball caps and ski bags are up for grabs.

Beat Werfli was the first to arrive at the scene at 0200 GMT, some five hours before the doors opened. "I want a warm blanket, a jacket and a ballpen," he said.

An overambitious foreign expansion plan saddled Swissair with minority stakes in loss-making airlines such as Belgium's Sabena and France's Air Liberte.

The collapse in passenger traffic after the September 11 attacks in the United States put the last nail in the airline's coffin. State money funded long-distance flights until March when Swiss International Air Lines took over.

Computer Pulls Even in $1 Million Chess Challenge

Oct 16, 11:06 am ET 

MANAMA  - Deep Fritz, the German-developed chess computer, produced a near flawless game to outwit world champion Vladimir Kramnik in just 34 moves Tuesday and pull even in the $1 million eight-match series.

The second win in a row for Deep Fritz brought the eight-match series to 3-3 in what has been billed the "Brains in Bahrain" challenge.

"It had the potential to be the best game I have ever played in my life," the 27-year-old Russian said after the match.

"I'm not depressed. When you play such a wonderful game you can't be. It could have gone either way. Fritz played such great defense. I think I can still win the match," Kramnik said.

The computer, which can evaluate 3.5 million moves in a second, made a Queen's Indian defense, giving the opponent a clear advantage but keeping its pieces -- and especially its queen -- on the board.

On move 19 the world champion could not resist a piece sacrifice which could have made this game "the most beautiful of my career," Kramnik said. But Fritz found a brilliant defense and took the point.

The contest -- postponed last year following the Sept. 11 attacks -- is a sequel to Gary Kasparov's 1997 defeat by the supercomputer Deep Blue in New York. 

Sentences Cut After Prisoners Memorize Koran

Oct 16, 10:34 am ET 

DUBAI  - Dubai has cut the jail terms of 12 inmates by up to five years after they memorized parts of the Koran, prison authorities said on Wednesday.

Head of prisons Mohammed al-Suweidi told reporters the inmates, some of them facing 25-year terms, took advantage of a drive launched by Dubai to raise religious awareness.

Under the initiative, prisoners who memorize five of the 30 sections of the Muslim holy book get their term cut by one year while those memorizing 10 sections get five years shaved off. Inmates memorizing the whole Koran get 15 years off.

"Since the initiative was only introduced in March, nobody has yet memorized the whole book," Suweidi said.

The 12 prisoners were from the United Arab Emirates and other countries including Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Authorities did not say what they had been convicted of. 

Out Go the Lights as Oklahoma Cuts Costs

Oct 16, 10:33 am ET 

OKLAHOMA CITY  - When the going gets tough, the state government in Oklahoma turns off the lights.

Beset by a budget shortfall running close to $200 million, state officials have removed up to half of the light bulbs from some state buildings to cut costs.

"We aren't going to make people work by candlelight or flashlight or anything like that," said Oklahoma Department of Central Services spokesman Tom Hall.

"It does add up. It adds up to a noticeable amount, although I'm not sure what it is," Hall said.

The state has already implemented cost-cutting measures that include slashing programs, implementing unpaid furloughs for state employees and refinancing state bonds to lower interest rates.

The state's central services department came up with the bright idea of taking out the lights, but it is not sure if it will make a big dent in the budget shortfall.

Hall said the measure is taking place in the state's 14-building capitol complex in Oklahoma City, as well as some state buildings in Tulsa and a smaller town, Ada. In addition to dimming the lights, state employees are being asked to turn out any remaining lights when no one is on the room.

Hall said working without the normal level of light wasn't all that bad. "I'm sitting under half the number of light bulbs I could put up there and it's not inconveniencing me in any way," Hall said in a telephone interview.

Several state employees did not see things the same way.

"It's a stupid idea. It's dark in here," one state employee said. "If we had better budget planning, we would not have to resort to this." 

Prosecutor Won't Probe Chirac's Food Bill

Oct 16, 10:31 am ET 

PARIS  - The Paris public prosecutor will not investigate some $2.16 million of eating expenses run up by President Jacques Chirac and his wife while Chirac was mayor, a judicial source said Tuesday.

Incumbent Socialist Mayor Betrand Delanoe in July handed over to prosecutors an audit by public inspectors that found some of the expenses had been of a personal nature, to buy wine and food for private receptions between 1987 and 1995.

The Paris prosecutor's office told Delanoe in its reply, which has not been made public, that it saw insufficient grounds to press ahead with a investigation, the source said.

Delanoe can still launch a civil suit on the grounds that the funds were not used for official engagements while Chirac was mayor.

Chirac, who held the post of mayor for 18 years between 1977 and 1995, was approached by Paris authorities in connection with the audit but declined to respond.

Chirac has also been the center of an investigation into suspect cash payments he made for private trips abroad in the 1990s. He has denied any impropriety and remains immune from questioning or possible prosecution as long as he is head of state. 

Seven Rastafarian Candidates in Jamaican Election

Oct 16, 10:30 am ET 

KINGSTON, Jamaica  - In a narrow West Kingston lane, behind a plain wall that bears the name of the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, Jamaica's largest Rastafarian political party plots its campaign strategy to spread its ideals of helping the poor throughout Jamaica.

The Imperial Ethiopian World Federation Inc. Political Party has seven candidates on the ballot for Wednesday's national elections.

The peace-loving Rastafarians, who consider Selassie divine and marijuana a sacrament, say they have a pragmatic program to lift the lot of all Jamaicans.

They have little hope of winning. Polls indicate the election will be a cliffhanger between the Caribbean nation's entrenched political forces, the ruling People's National Party, and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

Commentator Clinton Hutton, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, said the Rastafarians "don't have a chance" of gaining a seat in Jamaica's parliament." The People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party are likely to win all 60 seats.

But "they (Rastafarians) should be taken seriously, given the fact that Jamaica is in a political crisis," Hutton told the Observer newspaper, lauding Rastafarians for being at the forefront of social change.

"We emphasize education, housing for people, low-income housing, and Rasta rights," Junior Anderson, a 54-year-old dreadlocked candidate for Kingston Central, said on Tuesday. "Community development, more incentive for people. Let the private sector and government put in more."

While Jamaica's election campaign has been plagued by violence -- stonings, clashes between rival parties, shooting at motorcades -- the Rastafarians said they have encountered only acceptance from Jamaicans.

"Within Rasta concept, the hungry be fed, the naked clothed, the sick nourished," said Ascento Ammanuel Foxe, 65, president of the federation.

Foxe, a bearded philosopher who wears a medallion with Selassie's image around his neck, estimated there are as many as 400,000 Rastafarians in Jamaica, a figure others said was much too high.

Smoking marijuana is common among Rastafarians and if they ever gain a foothold in Parliament, the party would try to modify Jamaica's law to decriminalize marijuana use.

"If you're smoking in private property it should not be criminal," Foxe said. "But there are people who don't want you to smoke in public."

Despite their slim chances for victory, the Rastafarians seem undeterred, saying their growing party will field candidates in all 60 constituencies next election.

"It's not about winning," Foxe said, "It's about your voice being heard." 

Iranian Women Seek the Same 'Blood Money' as Men

Oct 16, 10:29 am ET 

By Parinoosh Arami

TEHRAN  - Iranian women began talks with Islamic clerics on Tuesday to demand that "blood money" compensation for a murdered woman should equal that of a man.

Under Iran's strict Shi'ite interpretation of Islam, compensation for the loss of a woman's life is half of that paid for a murdered man.

"We have sent letters to high-ranking clerics...to have their opinions on equal blood money for a Muslim man and a Muslim woman," said woman parliamentarian Akram Mosavarimanesh.

A recent proposal to make compensation for families of murdered non-Muslims equal to that offered to Muslims has given the "blood money" debate fresh impetus, said the group of women parliamentarians campaigning for the change.

Iran's penal code has kept an old Islamic definition of blood money as one of the following: 100 camels, 200 cows, 1,000 sheep, 200 silk dresses, 1,000 gold coins, or 10,000 silver coins. But authorities have set cash equivalents to simplify matters. Iran's judiciary has set the amount that a killer can pay to his victim's family to avoid execution at a flat $18,750 for a murdered man, and half of that for a woman.

Changing the legislation is a sensitive issue in Iran where all laws must be in accordance with Islamic principles.

"Some preparations have been made to get it approved, but it is clearly stipulated in the Koran that women get half blood money," a high-ranking cleric told The News Source.

Hard-line clerics' objections also stem from men's traditional role as breadwinners, meaning that the death of a man inflicts a greater financial burden on the family.

But Iranian women, who enjoy better rights than in many other Middle Eastern countries, are now active members of the workforce, filling many senior public and private-sector positions.

"By participation in society women have changed the economic conditions of their families. Most of them are responsible for covering family expenses," said Fatameh Rakei, head of the parliament's committee on women's issues.

One cleric empowered to issue religious decrees, Ayatollah Youssef Sanei, last year openly supported the concept of equal blood money.

"Blood money is the price of a human life and the essence of life is driven from the soul," he said in the holy city of Qom. "The soul that God gave women is no less than the soul God gave men."

If the proposal is approved by parliament it must then be sent to the hard-line Guardian Council, which is responsible for ensuring that legislation conforms with Islamic sharia law. 

Pop Star Spared Jail over Ferrari Crash Scam

Oct 16, 10:29 am ET 

By Carrie Lee

HONG KONG  - A Hong Kong court spared pop star Nicholas Tse from jail on Wednesday, ordering him instead to do 240 hours of community service for allowing his chauffeur to take the blame after crashing his Ferrari himself.

The 22-year-old heart-throb, who is dubbed Hong Kong's "bad boy of pop," was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice two weeks ago and has since been held on remand.

The sentencing was laced with drama. Court officials received a bomb threat on the phone minutes before the verdict was to be handed down, prompting the evacuation of fans and reporters.

The court session began about 45 minutes later after police conducted a sweep of the building and searched the bags of reporters and fans and declared the venue safe.

"The sentence that I am imposing on you is 240 hours of community service," magistrate Allan James Wyeth said, triggering a round of applause from gleeful fans.

Wyeth said he spared Cantopop star Tse from jail considering his age, clear record and his having served 14 days in remand.

Tse's lawyer said the star had pledged to stop driving and surrender his car keys to his mother.

Prosecutors said Tse crashed his black Ferrari around dawn on March 23, walked away and allowed his chauffeur, Shing Kwok-ting, to take the blame for the accident.

No one was injured in the crash.

Paparazzi photographers have been staking out the Pik Uk prison since his remand, supplying tabloids with daily stories and photographs of the star in prison uniform and closely cropped hair as he was led out for exercise each day.

Policeman Lau Chi-wai, 28, who handled the Ferrari crash report and was convicted of the same charge as Tse, was jailed for six months.

Both Tse and Lau had pleaded not guilty and the offence carries no fixed penalty.

In May, Tse's driver Shing was sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to falsely claiming he had been driving the car at the time of the crash.

News for Redheads

Oct 15, 1:08 pm ET 

WASHINGTON  - Redheads may actually have another trait that makes them stand out -- sensitivity to pain, specialists reported on Tuesday.

People with natural red hair need about 20 percent more anesthesia than people with other hair colors, they told a meeting of anesthesiologists. The unexpected finding not only suggests that redheads are more sensitive to pain, but offers insights into how anesthesia works in people.

"Red hair is the first visible human trait, or phenotype, that is linked to anesthetic requirement," Dr. Edwin Liem of the University of Louisville in Kentucky said in a statement.

"In a nutshell, redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain," he added.

Liem, who reported his findings to a meeting in Orlando, Florida of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, said the finding is important news for specialists who monitor patients during surgery.

"The art and science of anesthesiology is choosing the right dose," he said. "There is very little difference between the effective dose and the toxic dose of most anesthetics. Patients can awaken during surgery if they are given insufficient anesthesia or suffer cardiac and pulmonary complications when they are given too much."

He said scientists do not fully understand how anesthesia works, but the findings offers clues, as people with red hair have a certain genetic variant.

"Since red hair can be traced to particular mutations (variations) in the melanocortin 1 receptor, we now have the opportunity to evaluate central nervous system pathways that may influence or mediate anesthetic requirement," Liem said.

"Investigating the role of melanocortin system in the central nervous system is thus likely to help us understand fundamental questions such as which systems in the brain produce unconsciousness and which modulate pain perception."

Liem's team studied white women aged 19 to 40 who were given the inhaled anesthetic desflurane. Their physical responses were closely monitored, especially unconscious reflex arm or leg movement in response to painful stimulation.

More anesthesia was needed to block movement in redheads than in participants with dark or blond hair, Liem said. 

Drunken Saudi Motorist Hits U.S. Consulate Gate

Oct 15, 1:07 pm ET 

RIYADH  - A drunken Saudi motorist accidentally hit a gate at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and has been taken into custody, the Saudi Press Agency said Tuesday.

It quoted the head of traffic police in the Red Sea port city as saying Monday's collision was accidental and that the driver had been under the influence of alcohol.

It gave no further details. U.S. diplomats in Saudi Arabia were not immediately available for comment.

Alcohol is banned in the conservative Muslim kingdom but it is often smuggled in. If caught, drunks are flogged, in accordance with the kingdom's strict Islamic laws.

Westerners living in the kingdom and other Gulf Arab states have been concerned about rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the region over Washington's policies in the Middle East.

These concerns were sharpened after an attack on U.S. troops in Kuwait a week ago killed a Marine. A string of bombings in Saudi Arabia in the last two years has killed at least three Westerners and injured several more.

Saudi authorities blame the bombings on score-settling between rival gangs of alcohol smugglers, but some analysts believe they are motivated by hostility to the West. 

Riches of Asia's Wealthiest Woman Hang in Balance

Oct 15, 1:06 pm ET 

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG  - Lawyers for Asia's richest woman said Tuesday that a will bequeathing her late husband's massive estate to her could not have been fake.

Wrapping up one of Hong Kong's most colorful probate cases oozing tales of adultery and murder, lawyers described Nina Wang and her late husband Teddy Wang as having been very close and said testimony of handwriting experts proved the will was genuine.

The marathon, 171-day hearing, which began in August last year, surrounds Teddy's multi-billion dollar estate, over which Nina and her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, 90, are battling.

Forbes magazine this year estimated Nina's fortunes at US$2.4 billion (HK$18.7 billion), with the company her husband left behind making up the bulk of it.

At the heart of the case is a handwritten will which Nina says was penned and signed by Teddy in March 1990, a month before he was kidnapped and never seen again.

Teddy was declared legally dead in September 1999.

The will, which contains the purported signatures of Teddy and witness Tse Ping-yim, named Nina sole executor and beneficiary of his entire estate, including Chinachem Group, Hong Kong's largest private property developer.

However, Teddy's father, Wang Din-shin, says the will was forged. He wants the court to recognize a March 1968 will in which Teddy made him the sole executor and beneficiary.

"That signature (on the handwritten 1990 will) was not written by him (Teddy)...that would be an instance of forgery," said Edward Chan, Wang's lawyer.

But Nina's lawyer, Martin Lee, said there was no way the 1990 handwritten will could have been fake, adding that the signatures of Teddy and Tse matched samples and had been written naturally.

"Whenever a forger forges signatures, there's bound to be unnatural strokes," Lee told the court.

"But Mr. Wang's signature has altogether 33 strokes and Mr. Tse has 34 strokes. For the forger to get all 67 strokes right on one sheet of paper...surely it'll be a very difficult exercise."

The bitter court battle has thrown up unexpected twists from what seemed to be a fairytale romance between two childhood sweethearts in old Shanghai.

Nina and Teddy, whose well-to-do families were bound by business, played together as children and she moved to Hong Kong in 1955 to marry him when she was 18.

Never seen in public without her schoolgirl pigtails and gaudy dresses, Nina, 64, is one of Hong Kong's best recognized women.

But Wang told the court last year Teddy cut his childhood sweetheart out of his 1968 will after private detectives found she was having an affair with a warehouse owner that year.

Dozens of photographs purporting to show the alleged affair were produced in court.

But Tuesday, lawyer Lee said Teddy was widely known to be very close to his wife before his kidnap.

"They went to work together, dined out together, visited sites together, holding hands and so on. Your Lordship has evidence of joint accounts, huge sums of money that would go to the survivor," he said.

The court did not say when it will give its verdict. 

Guns, Gadgets and Girls Abound in 007 Exhibition

Oct 15, 1:04 pm ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - From Oddjob's deadly bowler hat to Scaramanga's golden gun, James Bond celebrated his 40th anniversary in the movies Tuesday with an exhibition celebrating the world's most famous spy.

Scaramanga even reached for his golden gun and posed with Pussy Galore on Bond's elegant Aston Martin to herald one of the silver screen's longest-running superheroes.

For Barbara Broccoli, whose late father "Cubby" was the mastermind behind the cinema's most successful spy films, the exhibition at London's Science Museum was like a walk down memory lane.

"It is like seeing my whole life," Broccoli told The News Source at the press launch of the show which was also attended by Christopher Lee and Honor Blackman who fondly recalled their Bond days as Scaramanga and Pussy Galore.

"I am 42. This really is like walking through my whole life," said Broccoli of the movies that began in 1962 with "Dr No" and reach number 20 next month with "Die Another Day."

Broccoli said: "I started on school vacations working on the set making tea and coffee. The first one I had a full-time job on was Octopussy. Now I am a producer with my brother Michael Wilson."

Pierce Brosnan has just starred in his fourth Bond movie and Broccoli would dearly love him to stick with the role which he has said is "like slipping on a comfy pair of old slippers."

"I'd love him to do another Bond," Broccoli said. "People always ask me who the next Bond is. That is like asking a bride walking down the aisle who her next husband is going to be."

And from Sean Connery to Roger Moore, she refused to be drawn into the old game about who was the definitive Bond.

"It is like asking someone who is their favorite sibling is. Each one has meant a lot to me growing up and I have been lucky to be friends with them," she said.

"In fact last night I was with Roger Moore who was celebrating his 75th birthday," she added.

More than half the world's population has seen a Bond film. They used to be compulsory viewing for KGB agents fascinated by Bond's killer gadgets. Bikini-clad starlets launched a million male fantasies.

And when it comes to the girls, guns and gadgets, the exhibition does not stint.

Signing in with a Bond switch card, you are taken into spymaster M's plush London office and whisked through to Q's gadget room.

Then pause to admire Rosa Klebb's infamous flick-knife shoes. Cling to the Golden Gate Bridge and relive one of Bond's deadliest fights. Boo the baddies from Blofeld to Goldfinger. Plunge into the villain's lair as the special effects blast off.

The exhibition runs in London until next March when it goes on world tour.

Broccoli promises to keep on stirring the Bond movie cocktail for many years to come: "We will keep making them as long as the public wants to see them."

But would she still be making Bond movies in another 40 years? She laughed and said: "Let's hope we are on a beach somewhere having a gin and tonic on my 82nd birthday." 

Hookah Pipe Ban Targets Truant Workers

Oct 15, 1:02 pm ET 

CAIRO  - An Egyptian governor has banned shisha waterpipe smoking in coffee shops to stop employees from skipping work, an Egyptian newspaper reported Monday.

The ban went into effect Sunday in all cities of Qena governorate in central Egypt, Qena Gov. Adel Labib was quoted by al-Wafd newspaper as saying.

Labib said he had noticed people who should have been working were instead sitting in cafes and smoking the popular "hubbly-bubbly" pipes.

Shisha smoking is widely popular among both men and women in Egypt, with coffee shops serving a wide array of flavored tobacco such as apple, strawberry and rose.

Cafes which violated the ban would be closed and face a fine of $108, the paper said. Smokers would also be fined. 

Vatican Angry over Apartment Used as Brothel

Oct 15, 1:01 pm ET 

VATICAN CITY  - The Vatican voiced outrage Monday after a church property in Moscow was turned into a brothel, saying it was part of what it sees as a long-running smear campaign against the Catholic Church in Russia.

In a statement, the Vatican said Franciscan friars in the Russian capital had rented out one of their apartments to a private individual who had assured them it would be used for "charitable purposes."

Instead it became a house of ill repute with prostitutes dressed as nuns, the Vatican said.

Pope John Paul's spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls branded the incident "a despicable operation designed to discredit the...brothers...and through them the Catholic Church."

Navarro-Valls' statement said the episode and Russian television broadcasts of people in religious attire acting immorally was part of a campaign "bent on damaging the reputation of the Catholic community."

Relations between the Vatican and Russia have been particularly tense recently, with three Catholic priests being expelled in the past six months.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which split from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054, accuses Roman Catholics of using their new-found freedoms in the former Soviet Union to poach Orthodox believers.

Navarro-Valls said the Vatican had formally complained to Russian authorities about the brothel. 

Cousins Split Village in Local Vote

Oct 15, 12:49 pm ET 

ATHENS  - They say that politics in Greece is a family affair. Never more true than in the case of a northern Greek village where voters had to choose between two cousins during local and municipal elections on Sunday.

Instead of sparking a family feud, voters in the village of Vlasti opted to split their votes down the middle and gave each of the two candidates an equal 477 votes, Greek media reported on Monday.

The winner will now be chosen with a flip of the coin according to Greek election rules. 

Yet Another Use for Duct Tape: Wart Removal

Oct 15, 12:47 pm ET 

CHICAGO  - Duct tape, already legendary for its many uses, can also be deployed to get rid of warts, U.S. Army researchers said on Monday.

Dean Focht of the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, said taping over a wart takes about a month to work. The growth is effectively suffocated, and dead tissue can then be gradually rubbed off with an emery board or pumice stone.

Placing standard adhesive tape over a wart is sometimes recommended by dermatologists and is a well-known home remedy. Duct tape, however, may be more sticky and less likely to unravel than some medical adhesive tapes.

The common wart, or verruca vulgaris, is a harmless growth caused by the papillomavirus. Warts can be contagious and annoying, but eventually will go away by themselves with the body creating an immunity.

Doctors can freeze them off with chemicals, called cryotherapy, but the treatment can scare children and may not be as permanent.

Focht had 26 subjects aged 3 to 22 years treat their warts with the duct tape method, where the growth was covered for six days then soaked with water and the dead tissue rubbed off. Twenty-five others underwent up to six treatments of cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen.

The duct tape method worked for 85 percent of the patients, while cryotherapy was effective for 60 percent.

Sticky-sided duct tape has many uses that range from patching to repairing to binding to removing nail polish.

"In our study, duct tape occlusion therapy was shown to be more effective than cryotherapy in the treatment of verruca vulgaris, and it caused few adverse effects," Focht wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a journal published by the American Medical Association. 

Astronaut Crew Completes Work on Space Station

Oct 14, 6:15 pm ET 

By Broward Liston

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  - Astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis made the third and final spacewalk of their mission on Monday, putting some finishing touches to a new truss segment they added to the International Space Station.

David Wolf and British-born Piers Sellers began their day on the space station railroad, working their way hand-over-hand to the astro-track that will eventually span a 350-foot truss still under construction.

Their first task was to free a balky bolt on a small trolley used to move the station's 58-foot robot arm along the fledgling rail system. The Big Arm, as it is known, will play a vital role hoisting laboratory modules into place as construction on the orbiting outpost continues.

"Outstanding, Dave! That's wonderful," called out Pamela Melroy, the Atlantis pilot, as Wolf used a pistol-grip power tool to retract the safety bolt.

Had that fix not worked, Wolf and Sellers were prepared to replace an entire safety system on the trolley.

On Saturday, the same pair activated a handcart that will be used by astronauts to move along the rails.

The remainder of their work focused on completing connections to a 45-foot segment of the truss that Atlantis brought to space in its cargo hold.

The truss will eventually support huge solar arrays to power the station and support laboratory modules to be added by NASA's international partners. NASA calls it the station's backbone.

The spacewalkers worked their way quickly through a lengthy to-do list during their six hours and 36 minutes outside the space station, even performing a number of "get-ahead" tasks scheduled for future spacewalks.

The pair spent a total of 19 hours and 41 minutes in the risky vacuum of space during their three sojourns outside.

GETTING HANDEL ON SPACE STATION

A recording of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" echoed through the chambers of the space station earlier on Monday, a celebratory note sounded by the astronauts after Mission Control managed to extend a 75-foot radiator panel that is part of the newly installed truss.

Mission Control was supposed to hoist the panel on Sunday but postponed the event because of an electrical problem.

Once a second radiator is in place, they will act like air-conditioning on the station, dissipating heat from the living and science modules into the chill of space.

Monday's was the 46th spacewalk dedicated to space station construction since the first elements were launched in late 1998. U.S., Russian, French and Canadian astronauts have all participated. Sellers, though born in Britain, is considered a U.S. astronaut because he took U.S. citizenship before joining the NASA astronaut corps.

Atlantis and its crew of six leave the station on Wednesday and land back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday.

The three astronauts now living on the station -- two Russians and an American -- will return to Earth in November aboard another shuttle. 

Alleged Serial Groom Nabbed

Oct 14, 9:14 am ET 

NICOSIA  - An alleged serial groom has been nabbed by police in Cyprus on suspicion of being married to at least three women at the same time.

The 27-year-old was in custody on Saturday and faces polygamy charges after police rejected his story that he only wanted to help the women obtain residency permits, newspapers reported.

He married a Romanian in 1997, a Ukrainian woman six months ago and another Ukrainian woman last month, police said.

Authorities told a district court they were investigating reports he may have even more brides in Cyprus.

Cleric Targets Dogs in Anti-Corruption Drive

Oct 14, 9:13 am ET 

TEHRAN  - Dogs and their owners could become the latest target of a clampdown on moral corruption in Iran after a hardline cleric called for canines of all shapes to be arrested.

"I call on the judiciary to arrest all long-legged, medium- legged and short-legged dogs along with their long-legged owners," the newspaper quoted Gholamreza Hassani, Friday prayer leader in the northwestern city of Urumiyeh, as saying.

"Otherwise I'll do it myself," the Etemad newspaper on Sunday quoted the cleric as saying.

While canines are reviled by strict Muslims for being "unclean," dog-ownership has increased in Iran in recent years especially among well-to-do, Westernized Iranians.

"In our country there is freedom of speech, but not freedom for corruption," said Hassani, famous for his often eccentric outbursts. "Some evil people interpret freedom to promote un- Islamic and corrupt behavior."

Police and hardline judiciary agents have carried out sporadic clampdowns on dogs in Iran, fining owners and confiscating their pets in streets and public parks.

In his latest comments, Hassani appeared to be widening the net of his anti-canine campaign since last year when he thanked police for confiscating short-legged dogs in Urumiyeh.

Model Agency Worker Wins Miss Tibet Crown

Oct 14, 9:08 am ET 

By Sunil Kataria

DHARAMSALA, India  - Dolma Tsering won the first Miss Tibet beauty pageant Saturday, an event its organizers said the event would reinforce Tibetan identity.

Tsering, who beat three others in the contest criticized by conservative Tibetans as defying Buddhist modesty, was crowned by a veteran fighter for Tibetan independence from China, Ama Adi, at the end of a spectacular three-hour event at the Himalayan foothill town of Dharamsala, India.

Nearly 2,000 spectators, mostly Tibetans, cheered wildly under a star-studded sky as contestants paraded down a ramp, first in evening gowns, then in traditional Tibetan dresses.

"I feel very great and very thankful to my people. I can't believe I am Miss Tibet," an ecstatic Tsering told The News Source moments after being crowned as fireworks lit up the sky.

"I would strive to be a role model for the other Tibetan girls, someone they would be proud of," said Tsering, who works for a modeling agency in New Delhi.

Thousands of Tibetans live in India, which recognizes Chinese rule in Tibet but has let the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile live in Dharamsala.

Thirty contestants originally planned to participate, but most pulled out because of social and family pressures. Traditional Tibetans disapprove of the public display of women. Most women in the conservative Tibetan society wear ankle-length skirts and long-sleeved blouses.

Organizers bowed to sensibilities by closing the swimsuit round to the public, but critics called that insufficient.

"The Tibetan government feels that it is against the spirit of the teachings of Buddha," Thupten Psamphel, spokesman of the Tibetan government in exile, told The News Source. "The whole purpose of Buddhist civilization is to liberate the ego from the tyranny of the human body."

Tenzin Deki, a pageant participant, said before the event contestants could voice their feelings for an independent homeland throughout the contest.

"I think it is something important for Tibetan women and it's a different way of saying, 'Free Tibet'," she said.

"To the Tibetan community scattered across the globe, this (pageant) will provide a unifying platform, a sense of bonding and identity," organizer Lobsang Wangyal told The News Source.

The beauty pageant took place as a thaw of sorts was developing between the Dalai Lama and China.

A three-member delegation of the Dalai Lama recently concluded his camp's first visit in more than seven years to Beijing and Lhasa, on what could pave the way for an eventual rapprochement and reconciliation with Beijing.

Cheese Protection a 'Feta-Compli'

Oct 14, 9:05 am ET 

BRUSSELS  - Feta cheese from Denmark will become a thing of the past under a ruling from the European Union Monday that is likely to please Greece.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said it had adopted a formal decision that feta cheese was only feta if it was made in specific parts of Greece, giving the product the same kind of protection as parma ham or champagne.

"After this ruling feta cheese can only be made in certain regions of Greece and respecting strict product specifications," the Commission said in a statement.

"Other member states or those who do not respect these specifications have a maximum of five years to modify their description or to stop production," it added.

Although Denmark is one of the best known makers of feta, the cheese is also produced in other EU states such as Germany.

The EU ruling is a victory for Greece, where the salty, soft white cheese is believed to have been produced for around 6,000 years. Athens had lobbied furiously to have feta protected.

Britain Jails Man for Aircraft Bomb Hoax

Oct 12, 10:32 am ET 

LONDON  - A man who arrived too late to catch a flight from London to Pakistan received a five-year jail sentence on Friday for telling police he had planted a bomb on board the plane, Scotland Yard said.

Yasrub Hussain Shah, 23, from Luton, north of London, had arrived at Heathrow Airport too late to catch the Pakistan International Airlines flight in July.

After a verbal confrontation with check-in staff who refused to let him on board, Shah left and phoned police saying "Pakistan International Airlines, there is a bomb on it leaving at 8 p.m.," Scotland Yard said in a statement.

The call sparked a major security alert. All passengers and luggage were taken off the plane, which was subjected to a thorough overnight search. Nothing suspicious was found.

The bogus threat was traced to Shah's mobile telephone and police arrested him when he arrived at the airport to catch another flight four days later.

Shah pleaded guilty to the bomb-hoax charge in August and was sentenced to five years in jail at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.

Zookeepers Suspended for Eating Animals

Oct 11, 12:17 pm ET 

BERLIN  - Two zookeepers in a small northwest German town have been suspended and put under police investigation for eating the zoo's animals, police said on Friday.

A police spokesman in Recklinghausen north of Cologne said the keepers in a section of the zoo popular with small children had slaughtered and barbecued five Tibetan mountain chickens and two Cameroonian sheep.

"The animals were in the 'pet' zoo where all the children would go to stroke them," the spokesman said. Suspicious zoo managers called police after the animals went missing.

What Older Women Want, Men Can't Deliver?

Oct 11, 9:07 am ET 

CHICAGO  - Many older women still want to have sex, but they might find their men cannot oblige.

So says a global survey of 27,780 adults aged 40 to 80 from 30 countries that found aging women become sexually dysfunctional at about half the rate of men.

"To the extent that women are (sexually active), they may be facing men who have problems," said lead researcher Edward Laumann, a University of Chicago sociologist due to present some of his findings at a Vancouver, British Columbia, conference on Thursday.

The survey found that 31 percent of middle-aged and older women lacked interest in sex, 22 percent were unable to achieve orgasm, 21 percent did not find sex pleasurable, 20 percent had trouble lubricating, and 14 percent experienced pain with sex.

Among men, about 20 percent suffered from erectile dysfunction, which increased to nearly half by age 80, according to the survey, which was funded by Pfizer, Inc., the maker of the impotence treatment Viagra.

Among the health problems common to older people associated with sexual dysfunction were diabetes and hypertension, especially in men. But psychological factors, especially depression, diminished interest in sex after 40.

In the United States, two-thirds of men aged 70 or older have a companion who is a potential sex partner, while less than one-third of women do because of women's longer life spans and divorce patterns.

What Older Women Want, Men Can't Deliver?

Oct 11, 9:07 am ET 

CHICAGO  - Many older women still want to have sex, but they might find their men cannot oblige.

So says a global survey of 27,780 adults aged 40 to 80 from 30 countries that found aging women become sexually dysfunctional at about half the rate of men.

"To the extent that women are (sexually active), they may be facing men who have problems," said lead researcher Edward Laumann, a University of Chicago sociologist due to present some of his findings at a Vancouver, British Columbia, conference on Thursday.

The survey found that 31 percent of middle-aged and older women lacked interest in sex, 22 percent were unable to achieve orgasm, 21 percent did not find sex pleasurable, 20 percent had trouble lubricating, and 14 percent experienced pain with sex.

Among men, about 20 percent suffered from erectile dysfunction, which increased to nearly half by age 80, according to the survey, which was funded by Pfizer, Inc., the maker of the impotence treatment Viagra.

Among the health problems common to older people associated with sexual dysfunction were diabetes and hypertension, especially in men. But psychological factors, especially depression, diminished interest in sex after 40.

In the United States, two-thirds of men aged 70 or older have a companion who is a potential sex partner, while less than one-third of women do because of women's longer life spans and divorce patterns.

'Alive' Crash Survivors Retrace Doomed Andes Flight

Oct 11, 9:05 am ET 

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay  - Almost 30 years after their airplane crashed in the Andes and forced them to eat human flesh to stay alive, survivors of an Uruguayan rugby team retraced their fateful flight.

About a dozen former teammates took a commercial jet to Chile that flew over the snowy, jagged peaks where they fought off cold and hunger for 72 days in a plight made internationally famous by the 1993 Hollywood movie "Alive."

Accompanied on the trip by more than 100 family members and current rugby and soccer players, the middle-aged men plan to play a symbolic match this weekend against former members of the Chilean squad they had been scheduled to face prior to the accident on Oct. 13, 1972.

There also will be a Mass, a formal dinner and speeches.

"It was very difficult for me to get on the plane. It wasn't the plane as such. It was the fact that the squad was there again," Roy Harley, one of the survivors, told a news conference after landing in the Chilean capital Santiago.

Of the 45 passengers on the original flight from Uruguay to Santiago, Chile, 13 were killed upon impact when the plane plowed into a mountain due to pilot error. Others died soon after from their wounds and a massive avalanche. Only 16 of the passengers were rescued.

Another Whale of a Reunion Eyed Off Canadian Coast

Oct 11, 9:02 am ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - Canadian and U.S. scientists, who successfully reunited a lost orca whale with her family pod this summer, are wondering if they should launch a similar effort for a second killer whale.

The whale, known to scientists as L98, has been living alone off Vancouver Island's west coast since last year, after becoming separated from a pod that normally summers in the waters of Washington state's Puget Sound.

Canadian fisheries officials said Thursday that a panel of whale experts will decide if they should attempt to capture the young male next summer and relocate it closer to where its relatives normally are.

Scientists successfully relocated a young orphaned female orca in July. The whale, known as A73 and nicknamed Springer, was taken by boat from a busy shipping channel near Seattle to Canadian waters where she was reunited with her family pod.

Orcas rarely separate from their pods for long periods and the effort to help A73 -- the first time scientist have successfully staged a family reunion for killer whales in the wild -- drew international attention.

Scientists had hoped that L98, who they have nicknamed Luna, would rejoin the family pod on his own this summer, but it was unclear if the other whales ever got close enough for him to hear them.

Mystery of Decomposed Body Baffles Hospital

Oct 11, 9:00 am ET 

PARIS  - Was the hospital waiting list too long or did the patient just get lost?

Questions are being asked at the Hotel Dieu hospital in Paris where a plumber working in the basement last week came across a decomposed corpse wearing hospital pajamas, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Thursday.

Hospital administrators are asking whether the corpse could be that of a tramp who got into the hospital and donned pajamas for some creature comfort, or a patient who absconded and was never found.

An autopsy is to be carried out to try to identify the macabre discovery.

But would-be patients at the hospital, located near Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris, may be perplexed to hear a comment from a staff member who preferred to remain anonymous.

"We lose about six or seven patients a year," he told Le Figaro.

Man Fined for Stealing Racing Champion's Helmet

Oct 11, 8:58 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German obsessed with Formula One motor racing champion Michael Schumacher has been fined for stealing his 50,000-euro ($49,360) helmet, a court said on Friday.

The 53-year-old man, who was not named, handed the bright red helmet to a priest two days after he stole it from the manufacturer. He told police he idolized the five times world champion.

The court ordered the man, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment, to pay 2,000 euros to a charity and gave him a suspended jail sentence.

The Schubert manufacturing company was checking the helmet after Schumacher crashed while wearing it during a test drive in Barcelona in January.

The theft did not deprive Schumacher of head protection because he has eight helmets.

Canada Criminals Want to Sweeten Lives of Victims

Oct 11, 8:57 am ET 

By Roberta Rampton

WINNIPEG, Manitoba  - Inmates serving life sentences in a Canadian prison want to make life sweeter for crime victims by starting a chocolate factory and donating the proceeds to charity, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Rene Durocher, an ex-convict who works with prisoners in Stony Mountain Penitentiary near Winnipeg, said he wants to train up to eight of the 508 inmates to make and sell boxed chocolates to the public.

The money would go to help victims of crime, but Durocher admitted he does not know how Canadians would feel about eating soft-center chocolates made by criminals doing hard time.

"This is the question," Durocher said. "We have to be able to look further than what we feel and see the impact that good can do."

Durocher runs a program that arranges meetings between inmates serving life sentences, for crimes such as murder, and their victims.

"When you are an offender, you have to try to put a face on people. Then you are able to see and feel the pain from what you have done," he said.

Prisoners have donated more than C$10,000 since 1999 to a victim fund administered by a third-party charitable foundation, from sales of silent auction tickets in the penitentiary.

In Canada, inmates earn C$1.60 to C$6.90 ($1 to $4.35) a day working in prisons to spend on things like clothing, cigarettes and toothpaste.

"Ten thousand dollars is a drop in a bucket of water for what we need (for the victim fund)," said Durocher, who envisions starting a walk-in clinic where victims could get help from counselors.

Inmates in Canadian jails more commonly produce items such as furniture and clothing for sale outside prison walls, said Tim Krause, a spokesman for Correctional Service of Canada, the federal agency that runs the prisons.

Krause noted there is also a minimum security prison next to Stony Mountain Penitentiary that makes chocolate milk and cheese from a herd of dairy cattle, for use inside prisons.

Durocher learned the baking trade while serving 23 years in 17 different prisons across Canada for armed robbery. He was released in 1990, and has been working with inmates since.

He said it would take C$50,000 to start the chocolate factory, but said it will have to come from outside government.

"There's no money in (Correctional Service's budgets) to do this," Durocher said.

The government has not yet received a formal proposal for the chocolate factory, Krause said, but it would carefully review food safety issues before it could go ahead.

The government would also have to determine whether the chocolate factory would raise commercial concerns about unfair competition because of inexpensive prison labor, he said.

"It is sometimes viewed as unfair by commercial producers if they see there is a production facility up and running in a federal penitentiary."

Crocodile Puts Bite Into Stock Market

Oct 11, 8:53 am ET 

SINGAPORE  - Bulls and bears in Singapore faced a toothy competitor when a crocodile wandered into the financial district.

The reptile, about 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) long, was spotted basking in a storm drain by a passerby before the business day began on Thursday at nearby banks and brokerages.

Police waded in to bundle the Australian saltwater crocodile to Singapore Zoological Gardens, where it will spend two to three months in quarantine.

"After that, it could join us as a family member," Zoo spokeswoman Amelia Lee said on Friday.

Zoo officials said the beast could have been an illegal pet or an immigrant from another country, as the "saltie" is known for its prowess in covering vast distances at sea.

Scientists Find Earliest Roman London Plaque

Oct 11, 8:52 am ET 

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON  - Archaeologists excavating an ancient site in London said on Friday they had unearthed the oldest known plaque inscribed with the city's Roman name.

"This is hugely important," Francis Grew, curator of archaeology at the Museum of London told reporters. "It is the first real monumental inscription with the word Londinium on it.

"It is also visually the most important inscription we have even found in London. The words are just as clear as people would have seen them 2,000 years ago," he added.

The Italian marble plaque, found in the Southwark area of London at the junction of three key Roman roads, is dedicated to the Roman emperors and the god Mars from London-based merchant Tiberinius Celerianus.

It refers to "Londiniensium" which Grew said could either be a variant of the more usual "Londinium" or, more likely, a reference to Tiberinius as being "of the people of Londinium."

Gary Brown of Pre-Construct Archaeology which is carrying out the major dig on the one hectare site on the southern banks of the River Thames said the plaque was found in a pit near the remains of two large Roman brick buildings.

"The buildings could have been trading guild houses or even villas. We just don't know yet," he said.

Grew said the plaque probably dated from between 50 and 150 AD and would have been placed prominently either on a building or in a shrine.

"The whole purpose of this was to advertise the importance of the man who by his name was from northern Gaul, probably in the Champagne region of Rheims, and who in Rome would have been treated as a yokel but who had made it in London," he said.

He said that in cities like the French river port of Lyon there was plentiful evidence from inscribed plaques of the important merchant classes.

But to date, despite much anecdotal evidence of the importance of London as a trading center, little actual physical evidence such as the Southwark plaque had been discovered.

"This is in part what makes it so important. It is clear evidence of the emergence of the merchant class in London," Grew said.

Brown, who is just six weeks into a 40-week dig on the site before it is covered by a housing development, said Southwark had been a bustling commercial center.

The site is on the river at the junction of Watling Street bringing people and goods up from the port of Dover and Stane Street coming up from the garrison town of Chichester to the south west.

As Southwark lies on the other side of the river from the walled Roman city of Londinium, there is another main road connecting Watling and Stane streets to the city proper.

"I can't stress how important this site is. We have already gone back to the pre-historic occupation of the site and we have found vast quantities of artifacts," Brown said.

"We have so far only dug 15 percent of the site and we have already found this plaque, so the potential for more staggering finds is there. Who knows what more we will find?" 

Sex with a Twist ... Lemons Provide Protection?

Oct 10, 8:33 am ET 

CANBERRA  - Australian scientists believe they have rediscovered an effective use for lemon juice -- as a contraceptive and also a killer of the AIDS virus.

Reproductive physiologist Roger Short, from the University of Melbourne's obstetrics department, said a few drops of lemon juice can be a cheap, easy-to-use solution to protect women from both HIV and pregnancy.

The juice should be squeezed onto a piece of sponge or cotton wool and placed into the vagina before sex, he said.

"We can show in the lab that lemon juice is very effective in immobilizing human sperm and also very effective in killing HIV," Short told Australian Broadcasting Corp television in a science program to be shown later on Thursday.

He said lime juice, which has similar acid levels, can also be used, with both fruits often freely available in poor countries where contraception is hard to come by.

Short said laboratory tests found not only does lemon juice kill sperm, it also kills the AIDS virus itself.

Short said using lemon juice as a contraceptive was not a new idea but it had fallen by the wayside over the years.

The ancient douche-style contraceptive was encouraged by such luminaries as Casanova, renowned for his sexual prowess.

"This has been used for hundreds of years and we've just forgotten about it," said Short, who is planning to conduct some field trials in Thailand.

"About 300 years ago, Mediterranean women used lemon juice as their main method of contraception." 

Toilet Paper Novels Hit Stalls

Oct 10, 8:31 am ET 

FRANKFURT  - Germans who like to read on the toilet no longer need to take newspapers in with them, but can instead turn to novels and poems printed onto toilet paper, a German publisher said on Wednesday.

"We want our books to be used. That's our philosophy," said Georges Hemmerstoffer, head of the Klo-Verlag which publishes the toilet paper literature. About half of all people liked to read on the toilet, he said.

Poems by German literary giants Heinrich Heine and Christian Morgenstern, as well as tales and detective stories could be found on the toilet rolls, Hemmerstoffer told The News Source at the Frankfurt book fair.

Each text was printed several times on one roll, so that readers could actually use the paper and still leave behind some entertainment for the next toilet visitor. 

Muslim Faces Dismissal for Praying

Oct 10, 8:11 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian Muslim faces dismissal from his job for taking 10 minutes off work to pray.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission said on Thursday it had received a complaint from Lebanese Australian Kamal El-Masri against his Internet industry employers over a threat to fire him if he continued to pray during work hours.

Unions and Islamic community representatives said they were astonished by the Sydney firm's attitude to El-Masri's religious beliefs, under which he must pray to Allah five times a day -- two of those times falling within normal work hours.

"We are extremely disappointed that the company would begrudge an employee 10 minutes to connect with God," said Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association in Sydney.

"(Workers take time off to)smoke cigarettes or have a chat with each other or take the required 10 minute break to have a stretch every hour after working on a computer."

The Industrial Relations Commission decided Thursday to give Internet service providers Total Peripheral Group (TPG), and the Australian Services Union, representing El-Masri, until October 14 to negotiate before it arbitrates, a spokesman said.

No one was immediately available to comment at the company, a receptionist said.

In comments published by Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph, TPG general manager Julie Jules said: "I'm the last person to be a racialist.

"I just can't have people taking breaks whenever they want. We run a business here."

Australian Muslims were reluctant to connect the case to rising anti-Muslim sentiment since last year's September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by Islamic militants.

The union movement said El-Masri had offered to make up the time lost by working an extra 10 minutes at the end of the day.

"This appears a case of outright religious discrimination," New South Wales Labor Council secretary John Robertson said in a statement. "We hear a lot about employers demanding flexibility but it works both ways." 

Game Show to Send Contestants Into Space

Oct 10, 8:10 am ET 

By Tara FitzGerald

MOSCOW  - Who wants to be a cosmonaut?

Space agency Rosaviakosmos and Russia's state-owned First Channel have joined forces to create a high-stakes television game show that will send the winner blasting off on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

"We have signed a contract with the First Channel. I can't say yet what amount it was for, but this may be released in December," Rosaviakosmos spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told The News Source on Wednesday.

The game show is the latest in a string of creative efforts to make ends meet by the cash-strapped Russian space program, struggling since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rosaviakosmos was the first agency to send paying tourists to the ISS.

The First Channel reported that according to the deal, signed on Tuesday, anyone can apply for the program. Sixteen candidates will then be chosen to train in the Star City cosmonaut center outside Moscow.

"A series of programs will be created in which volunteers selected by a special commission will undergo cosmonaut training," Konstantin Ernst, the general director of the First Channel, said in remarks broadcast on television.

"The best one will spend a week in the Russian section of the International Space Station," he said, adding that a number of series were planned over the coming years.

Television viewers will be able to see preparations for a space launch happen in real time, the First Channel reported.

"The flight is planned for October 2003, and it will probably take six months to go through the participants and allow time for preparation as well," Gorbunov said.

The winner will be the third member of the Russian crew scheduled to travel to the ISS in October 2003.

Gorbunov added that the agency had received a number of applications from people interested in producing the show, including Western companies, but chose the First Channel because they offered "a better deal." He gave no further details.

FIRST TOURISTS, NOW GAME SHOWS

Rosaviakosmos first courted controversy last year by becoming the first to take paying "tourists" to the ISS. The price tag for a single tourist is almost enough to cover the entire cost of launching a manned craft.

U.S. businessman Dennis Tito made space history when he visited the ISS in 2001 and last April South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth followed in his footsteps. Both were reported to have paid around $20 million for their trips.

Tito's trip sparked tension between Russia and the U.S. agency NASA, which feared the inexperienced tourist might endanger the ISS, but Shuttleworth's trip went off with barely a murmur.

U.S. pop star Lance Bass was scheduled to be the third space tourist, blasting off in October. But Rosaviakosmos scrapped the 'N Sync singer's plans last month after he failed to pay.

Russia has said it badly needs payment to service its fleet of Soyuz craft, used as safety vehicles and essential to ensure the station remains permanently manned.

Valery Ryumin, director of the Russian section of the ISS, has said the station might have to become a "temporary" outpost if the cash crisis continues.

The ISS, manned since 2000, is being built mainly by Russia and the United States with the participation of space agencies from Europe, Canada and Japan. 

Churches Urged to Embrace Harry Potter

Oct 10, 8:06 am ET 

By Pete Harrison

LONDON  - British and Irish churches are being urged to acknowledge the escapades of Harry Potter in their teachings, defying a global Christian trend of denouncing the boy wizard's adventures as a corrupting force.

Many churches around the world greeted the arrival of the bewitching bestseller with ceremonial book-burnings and angry sermons, leading to criticism that they have lost touch with the modern world.

But a new independent report "Presence and Prophecy" commissioned by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CBTI) said on Wednesday the stories posed some serious theological questions and were an example of the type of popular culture Christians should embrace.

"We're not trying to Christianize Harry Potter," Simon Barrow, CBTI Assistant General Secretary told The News Source on Wednesday. "But the books deal with serious, adult issues -- the struggle for love, truth and self-giving sacrifice for others."

CBTI is an umbrella organization for British and Irish churches, including the Church of England. The report will be debated by the Church of England's General Synod next month.

The tale of the schoolboy sorcerer has sparked off a storm in many corners of the globe, particularly in the deeply Christian United States, but also in Australia, where the book was banned from 60 church schools.

Harry has been roundly denounced from the pulpit in Bulgaria, Germany and Taiwan.

"There have been some Christians who get very upset about this and say Harry Potter is leading people into the occult," said Barrow. "But Christians, rather than standing around and being sniffy about this, should actually be immersed in this culture."

A new book by U.S. author Connie Neal "The Gospel according to Harry Potter" concurs, describing 52 examples in Harry Potter of what she describes as "glimmers of the gospel."

Barrow quoted from a booklet "Transparencies," which was published alongside the 241-page "Presence and Prophecy" report: "How can we use popular interest in Harry's story to ask people to think again about the selfish material world and the presence within it of Christian values?"

"Is this just to be a magic world in a story book? Or can it point toward the world that we really want to make a reality?"

Alongside Harry Potter, the report also embraces several other elements of modern culture including Europe's largest shopping mall Bluewater, in southern England, which it praises for its welcoming ambience.

The book "Girlfriend in a Coma" by Douglas Coupland is also lauded, as is "The Muppets Christmas Carol" television show. 

Don't Go Fly a Kite...

Oct 10, 8:04 am ET 

SHANGHAI  - Shanghai has appealed to people not to fly kites, a centuries-old Chinese pastime, in city parks in an effort to spruce up the city's image as a modern metropolis, an official said on Thursday.

A growing network of power lines in the city -- China's largest and richest -- pose a danger to kite enthusiasts, who range from toddlers to the elderly, he said.

Kites shaped like dragons, butterflies and birds now float between the modern steel and glass skyscrapers which increasingly dominate the skyline.

State media said the city had barred kite flying in all its 125 parks, but the official said the ban mainly covered areas with power lines.

"There are some places that do not allow people to fly kites, especially areas where there are high voltage electric wires," an official at the city's Gardening Administrative Bureau told The News Source.

Shanghai has staged numerous international events as it bids to prove itself as an international city, including an Asia-Pacific summit last October attended by President Bush.

A month after that, city officials said Shanghai would increase fines on people who draped laundry on bamboo poles overhanging sidewalks along major streets. 

Greek Orthodox Church Refuses Priest Dress Change

Oct 10, 8:03 am ET 

ATHENS  - Greece's Orthodox church has rejected a request from its clergy for an image change that would do away with their long black robes and beards as well as their tall headgear.

The church said Wednesday the dress code of the all-male Orthodox clergy will not change despite complaints that the long black robes and the tall caps were uncomfortable and far too hot in the scorching summer heat.

Some priests have also said their centuries-old dress is out of touch with the times, giving them a forbidding image rather than their role as a friend of the people.

But the pleas fell on deaf ears.

"The Holy Synod has unanimously decided there is no issue regarding the change of clothing of our church's Orthodox priests," the Church said in a statement.

Archbishop Christodoulos, a controversial and influential figure in Greek social affairs, told the Holy Synod Monday "the robe makes us responsible and protects us from any wrongdoing."

More than 95 percent of the 11 million Greeks are Christian Orthodox. 

British Royal Ordered to Appear in Court

Oct 9, 12:55 pm ET 

By Jason Hopps

LONDON  - Britain's Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth's only daughter, was ordered on Wednesday to do what no senior member of the royal family has done in over a century -- appear in court.

The Princess Royal and her husband are due in the dock next month after one of their bull terrier dogs allegedly attacked two children in April as they walked in a royal park.

The last time a senior member of Britain's royal family took part in court proceedings was 1890, when the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, testified in the so-called "royal baccarat scandal" over gambling irregularities.

Wednesday's summons came as Princess Anne was touring drought-hit parts of Africa on a five-day charity trip, carrying out her role as president of Save The Children UK.

The 52-year-old Princess and her husband Tim Laurence, 47, were earlier charged under the Dangerous Dogs Act after one of their dogs allegedly bit the children -- aged seven and 12 -- in Windsor Great Park near Windsor Castle, west of London.

At Wednesday's preliminary hearing, Judge Terence English said the court would expect both defendants to be personally present at the next hearing on November 21.

"They are not proceedings that can take place in their absence," he said.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the case.

If found guilty, the couple could face punishment of up to six months in prison and a 5,000 pounds ($7,759) fine, but royal watchers doubt they would spend time behind bars.

"I can't see that either would be imprisoned in this case, but they may face a fine, or perhaps the dog will be put down," said Monarchist League spokesman Don Foreman.

"It is highly unusual for members of the royal family to appear in court...though Anne has several speeding violations these are always dealt with without a court appearance being necessary," he said.

The couple are expected to have the charges formally put to them at their appearance next month. Anne, younger sister of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was divorced from her first husband in 1992 and is known as an enthusiastic equestrian and tireless charity worker.

Her speeding violations date back to the 1970s but caused only minor embarrassment for the royal family.

In an ironic twist, the case was listed as Regina vs. Anne, Elizabeth Alice Laurence -- a legal battle symbolically pitting mother against daughter. 

'Frying Squad' Swoops on Drivers in Fuel Scam

Oct 9, 7:41 am ET 

LONDON  - A Welsh police team dubbed "the Frying Squad" has been formed to sniff out motorists who fuel their cars with cooking oil from fish and chip shops in a bid to avoid paying high government fuel taxes.

Three Welsh motorists have already been caught and fined for using waste oil from restaurants selling Britain's favorite deep-fried dish, the Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

"I have halved my motoring costs since I started running my Subaru on cooking oil," the paper quoted one of those stopped as saying.

"The car runs just as well and even smells a lot better than diesel."

The drivers were fined 500 pounds ($780) and warned that persistent offenders may face up to seven years in jail. 

Police Sent on Wild Tiger Chase

Oct 9, 7:40 am ET 

POTSDAM, Germany  - A five-year-old tiger escaped from a circus, spreading fear and forcing Germans to stay indoors for more than two hours on Wednesday until authorities captured the animal.

The Siberian tiger named Dawa, a bright orange animal with black and white stripes, was tracked down in a park on the outskirts of Potsdam and shot by veterinarians with a tranquilizer gun.

The tranquilized tiger was then taken back to her cage. No people were hurt.

"It's a wild animal and obviously dangerous," a police spokeswoman said after the tiger was seen wandering on a road near the central train station in the eastern German town.

About 20 police hunted for the animal along with the director of the traveling circus Probst and the veterinarians. They sealed off the park. It was not known how the tiger escaped from her cage.

Potsdam, southwest of Berlin, is where World War II allies held a conference in 1945 that sealed the division of Germany. 

Couple Arrested for Cocaine-Stuffed Sofa

Oct 9, 7:37 am ET 

NEW YORK  - An El Paso, Texas couple was indicted Tuesday for their link to an abandoned cocaine-stuffed sofa that spewed millions of dollars worth of white powder when heaved into a New York City sanitation truck.

Eddie Gutierrez and Susan Hernandez were indicted in Manhattan federal court for narcotics conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute and distribution of the 400 pounds (182 kg) of cocaine. Authorities estimated its street value at some $8 million.

If convicted each defendant could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

According to the indictment, the sofa was left inside an abandoned U-Haul trailer attached to a pickup truck parked on Manhattan's upper east side. The truck had parking tickets dating back to March 28, 2002, on it and Gutierrez's name was handwritten on the truck's temporary Texas license plate.

According to the charges, the couple allegedly used the truck and trailer to transport the couch filled with cocaine from El Paso to Manhattan.

The New York Police Department notified U-Haul about the trailer and U-Haul took the trailer back to a rental center in the Bronx. U-Haul employees then left the couch for sanitation pick-up on East 137th Street near Bruckner Boulevard in May.

According to newspaper reports at the time, sanitation workers heaved the sofa into a city garbage truck and fine white powder filled the air when the truck's compactor smashed the sofa.

Authorities traced the couch back to the couple, who were arrested last month in El Paso. 

Inventor Says No More Tears with Baby-Cry Gadget

Oct 9, 7:37 am ET 

MADRID  - A Spanish inventor, intrigued by his son's incessant crying, has designed a detector that he says will tell harassed parents within 20 seconds if their baby is hungry, bored, tired, stressed or uncomfortable.

Electronic engineer Pedro Monagas said Tuesday the gadget called "Why Cry" would go on sale at pharmacies in Spain by the end of the month for 95 euros ($93).

"I started (studying) the different kinds of cries of my son. Then I continued on 100 babies," Monagas told radio station Cadena Ser.

He said he identified five distinct crying types, which the noise-sensitive gadget is able to recognize.

The device, the size of a calculator and powered by batteries, has five faces on a screen on the back representing the possible reasons why a baby is crying.

"When the baby cries, it sets off the Why Cry and in 20 seconds the little faces light up," Monagas said.

The Catalan inventor, who plans to give a share of any profits to a baby charity, is already working on a more advanced model to "make the family environment a little easier." 

Ships Clog River After Bridge Breaks

Oct 9, 7:31 am ET 

St. PETERSBURG, Russia  - Ships and barges queued up St. Petersburg's Neva river Tuesday after one of the city's most famous drawbridges refused to open, closing off access to the Baltic Sea.

The rising bridges which symbolize Russia's "Venice of the North" are one of the most popular attractions during the city's "White Nights," when the northern summer cloaks the city in a permanent twilight. The bridges, kept down during the day, are lifted during the night to allow boat traffic to pass through.

"At night, during the second lifting, one of the cogs of the lifting mechanism broke and we could not open the bridge," an Emergency Ministry official said.

The Palace Bridge, one of the most famous of the city's 800 bridges, was expected to be fixed by Wednesday. Built in 1916 and ignored by repairmen since the 1970s, the bridge links the Winter Palace of Russia's Czars to Vasilyev Island, home to the city's university and naval museum.

Twenty-one ships were blocked on the Neva by Tuesday evening. But St. Petersburg residents annoyed at being unable to return to Vasilyev Island late at night were sure to celebrate.

A sunken barge caused shipping chaos in the Neva in August, clogging traffic to the Gulf of Finland for a week. 

Forget Tennis Elbow, What About Rock Star Finger?

Oct 9, 7:30 am ET 

LONDON  - Wannabe rock stars thrashing away on their electric guitars often drive their neighbors to distraction -- but they could be doing themselves an injury, British researchers said Tuesday.

A study undertaken at the Robens Center for Health Ergonomics at the University of Surrey found that young and inexperienced electric guitar players could develop musculoskeletal problems, such as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) because of their poor posture and excessive grip on the strings.

"Performance anxiety and concern about their prospects of future employment as a musician were also seen as contributory to the problem," the research team said in a statement.

Researcher Kathy Lewis found that novice players often had poor posture because they had to look at their strings while playing. They also had a tendency to exert more pressure on the strings and frets than experienced musicians.

The most common symptoms were neck, shoulder, wrist and hand pain.

While the team found that fewer injuries were incurred when the musician chose to sit down, a sedentary stance seems unlikely to gain favor with would-be rock stars.

But it is not just beginners who are in danger of injuring themselves for the sake of their music. British rock band Status Quo canceled three concerts last year after guitarist Rick Parfitt was diagnosed with RSI. 

Frito-Lay Takes Small Bite Out of Potato Chip Bag

Oct 9, 7:27 am ET 

NEW YORK  - New Yorkers are being short-chipped.

PepsiCo Inc., the nation's largest salty snack maker, on Tuesday said it will cut the number of Lay's potato chips it puts in a common-sized bag sold in the U.S. Northeast.

In a move to standardize the size of its bags sold in the Northeast with those of competitors, PepsiCo said unit Frito-Lay North America will reduce the weight of its 12.25-ounce bags sold in that area by a quarter of an ounce.

The 2 percent loss in weight will result in four or five less chips in every bag.

The company is making the move to bring the weight of its snack bags in line "with regional competitors," PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Reinemund said.

Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo did not single out any competing brands when it outlined the change.

But Utz Quality Foods, based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, sells a 12-ounce bag of UTZ potato chips along the East Coast for about $2.99, the same price Lay's charged on a bag with a handful more of chips.

The move cuts the size of the 12.25-ounce bag by about 2 percent -- or a small handful of chips.

Frito-Lay, which in the past has cut the size of other bags of chips while keeping prices steady, does not plan such a "weight-out" across its whole line of snacks, which also includes Doritos, Fritos and Cheetos, Reinemund said.

"We'll respond to the marketplace and the competitive opportunities," he said during a conference call. "But that's just a question of getting the right price in response to consumer or the competition."

Reinemund said the move will have "a minor impact" on revenue per pound at Frito-Lay, PepsiCo's largest unit.

"There might be similar actions like this," Reinemund said, but he did not provide details on any other brands or regions.

A spokeswoman for Frito-Lay was not immediately available to comment on the move. 

Nasdaq Chairman Receives Marine Fighting Knife

Oct 9, 7:26 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Nasdaq chairman Hardwick Simmons handled a military fighting knife at the Times Square based market on Tuesday evening during a reception held for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Simmons, a former Marine, held the knife, referred to by Marines as a Ka-Bar, the correct way after Brigadier General Andrew Davis presented it to him.

Simmons, who served between 1960 and 1966, which includes the first part of the Vietnam War, told about using the knife when he was wearing a uniform rather than a business suit. 

Livid Callers Raging at Call Center Staff -Study

Oct 9, 7:25 am ET 

LONDON  - Thousands of people who answer phones in Britain's tightly-staffed call centers are subjected to daily abuse from customers, a study showed on Tuesday.

The problem is getting so bad that staff increasingly need stress counseling.

The study, commissioned by technology firm Vocalis, said the 650,000 Britons who work in call centers receive, on average, one abusive call each day.

Callers rage about everything from their bank statements to the length of time it takes to get a washing machine delivered.

Employees are trained to deal with verbal abuse, but it doesn't solve the problem.

"This training only helps staff to handle abusive calls, it doesn't put a stop to them," Paul Wright, Chief Executive Officer of Vocalis said in a statement.

More than 40 percent of call agents said they had suffered increased anxiety this year and over half of all call centers said low morale was a major concern.

Vocalis said it hoped the advent of "voice driven systems" -- which allow customers to talk to soothing recorded messages rather than negotiating their way through push-button menu options -- would help ease the problem. 

Iranian Police Arrest 120 Party-Goers

Oct 8, 9:06 am ET 

TEHRAN  - Iranian police have arrested 120 party-goers at three private gatherings in wealthy districts of the capital Tehran and charged them with mingling with the opposite sex and dancing, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The conservative daily Jam-e Jam said the unusually large haul of young lawbreakers were released after paying fines and signing pledges to stay away from future parties.

Under Iran's strict laws, implemented after the 1979 Islamic revolution, unrelated men and women are not allowed to dance together.

Despite the strict rules, Western-style parties, held in private homes in wealthy Tehran neighborhoods, are a nightly occurrence and in recent years they have rarely been raided.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday called for a police crackdown on immoral behavior in public following a storm of protest over a kiss between a well-known actress and a director at a film awards ceremony in the central city of Yazd.

In another report by Jam-e Jam, police busted a prostitution ring led by two women based in Tehran. The women bought girls from their families and sent them to work as prostitutes in the United Arab Emirates, the paper said.

The women were arrested Saturday after police grew suspicious of three sisters dressed in an "inappropriate" manner when leaving for Dubai. The girls said they had been sold to the two women by their mother for 50 million rials ($6,250). 

Maternal Lioness Adopts Its Fifth Baby Antelope

Oct 8, 9:05 am ET 

NAIROBI  - It's nurture over nature for a lioness in Kenya who keeps choosing to dote on baby antelope rather than devour them.

Kamuniak, a lioness in northern Kenya's Samburu National Park has adopted her fifth new-born oryx this year, a Kenya Wildlife Service warden told The News Source Monday.

The oryx is a type of African antelope more likely to be viewed by lions as lunch than a little one to mother. Kamuniak, whose name means "the blessed one" in the local Samburu language, has been adopting oryxes since the start of the year.

On each occasion she has tried to protect the calves from other predators and even allowed their natural mothers to come and feed them. But eventually the calves escape with the help of their natural mothers, are rescued by park wardens or in one case made into a snack by a male lion while Kamuniak napped.

The wardens think Kamuniak's adoption of the little calf nicknamed Naisimari ("Taken by Force") took place at the weekend after they saw the two together Monday morning.

"She must have adopted her yesterday because they are in harmony," Samburu warden Gabriel Lepariyo said.

Naisimari's natural mother has been seen following her offspring and its unlikely surrogate parent at a distance. 

Crime-Fighting Super Granny Is a Fraud

Oct 8, 9:03 am ET 

ATHENS  - A Greek grandmother, dubbed "super granny" after claiming she had put two knife-wielding burglars to flight, turned out to be a fraud Monday when police said she had made up the tale to get her husband's attention.

Maria Grepsiou, 66, became an instant heroine when she said Saturday that she had disarmed one man and stabbed him with his knife after he and an accomplice broke into her home near Serres in northern Greece.

"There were no robbers, there was no burglary or stabbing," a Serres police official told reporters.

"The woman had made it all up because she wanted to convince her husband to spend more time with her at home," he said.

The Greek media hailed Grepsiou as a super granny after she gave them a graphic account of her encounter with two thugs wearing hoods.

"I grabbed his arm, pulled the knife from him and stabbed him in the gut," she said. "The two men were forced to flee."

But instead of blood, police found tomato sauce on her clothes. Grepsiou later confessed to having made the story up to attract the attention of her husband who was often away working on the farm or with friends at the local coffee shop.

Grepsiou was charged with obstructing police work. 

Dishing Up a Quality Seal for Authentic Eateries

Oct 8, 9:02 am ET 

ROME  - So long soggy spaghetti, tasteless tagliatelle and papery pizza -- at least if the Italian government's taste police get their way.

Ministers said Monday they wanted to clean up the red-white-and-green credentials of the estimated 60,000 restaurants around the world passing themselves off as Italian.

So the government is creating a certificate that will be awarded to deserving establishments abroad from the 300 or so in the Middle East and 25,000 in Europe.

The dual aim is to promote Italy abroad and ensure tastebuds are being tickled by authentic Mediterranean fare.

"There are people out there who don't realize pizza is an Italian word and ask us what we call it," lamented Adolfo Urso, deputy industry minister, at a news conference.

And Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno said even if eateries did flaunt Italian roots, it was often a false claim.

"Most have nothing more Italian about them than the name above the door or a tricolor flag draped outside," he said.

The seal of certification, still without a name, would ensure restaurants offered genuine Italian menus and used authentic produce, instead of ingredients such as a German cheese marketed with the Italian-sounding name of cambonzola.

Some argue that Italy's taste police will be toothless because restaurants will have the final say on whether or not they want to be tested under the voluntary scheme. 

Rationalists Doubt Mother Teresa's Miracle

Oct 8, 8:58 am ET 

CALCUTTA, India  - A group of Indian rationalists challenged Tuesday a miracle attributed to Mother Teresa that has put her on the path to sainthood and called for a government inquiry into whether it took place.

Last week, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican said the disappearance of a tumor in an Indian woman, Monica Bersa, was due to a miracle by the Albanian-born founder of the Calcutta-based Missionaries of Charity.

But Probir Ghosh, general-secretary of the Science and Rationalists Association of India, said the West Bengal communist government "should look seriously into whether this so-called miracle took place."

"We're sure there's a medical reason for her cure. There's no such thing as a miracle cure," he told The News Source.

The association, which claims 20,000 members across the country, was founded in 1985 to free Indians from superstition and to promote scientific thinking. "Promoting miracle cures is unscientific and encourages false beliefs," Ghosh said.

No one from the Missionaries of Charity, established in 1950, was immediately available for comment.

The Vatican's recognition of the miracle means that Mother Teresa -- who died in 1997 -- will likely be beatified, or declared blessed of the Roman Catholic church, next year.

Beatification would a key step toward sainthood for the nun who spent much of her life helping the world's most destitute.

Last week, Bersa, 34, told The News Source her stomach tumor was healed overnight after she held a medallion blessed by Mother Teresa and prayed to her.

Bersa's cure was reviewed at a Vatican meeting last week where doctors said they had no medical explanation. A second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa would be needed after beatification for her to be made a saint. 

Mass Yodelling World Record

Oct 8, 8:57 am ET 

BERLIN  - A band of 937 yodellers set a new world record for "largest simultaneous yodel" by holding their melody for a full minute, the organizer of the mass concert in southern Germany said on Monday.

Most participants were Germans who had been studying yodelling on training courses for months, but some Swiss yodellers helped out, said Stefanie Stiefenhofer, spokeswoman for the Ravensburger Amusement Park.

As required for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, the yodellers in the southern German town of Meckenbeuren held their tune for a full minute, she said.

In their effort to beat an existing record of 807 people set earlier this year in Dublin, Stiefenhofer said the yodellers held songbooks in front of them during the Saturday afternoon concert.

She said the yodellers faced Switzerland in homage to its yodelling tradition and mountains, but failed to get an echo. Meckenbeuren is 40 km (25 miles) north of the Swiss border.

"We felt it was important that the record set in Ireland be broken right here in the heart of yodelling country," she said. 

Man Claims 14 Wives, 86 Children

Oct 8, 8:56 am ET 

HANOI  - Keeping one family happy may be a challenge for most people but one Vietnamese man claims to have successfully juggled living with 14 wives and over 80 offspring.

Local newspapers have been reporting on the feats of retired bricklayer Tran Viet Chu, born in 1927 in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. He said he was just unable to resist the ladies during his travels to far-flung construction sites.

"Poor me, every time I see a voluptuously shaped woman I find no way to resist my sensitive feeling. I seem to have been born with this flirtatious tendency," Chu was quoted as telling the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Public Security) newspaper.

Local officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The newspaper reported Saturday that Chu bedded down with at least one woman everywhere he worked during his six decades of travels.

He now lives with some members of his unusually large family in the central province of Quang Tri. The group manages to survive as each wife supports her children while Chu meets his own needs.

While Chu admits he's lost count of the numerous branches of his family tree, he told the newspaper he has at least 14 wives. The article said that based on interviews with Chu and one of his sons, the former bricklayer has sired at least 86 children, one of whom died in the Vietnam war.

It hasn't been easy to live with his fatal attraction, Chu acknowledged.

"I know doing so harasses my wives, my children in many ways, but a million times I tried to break with the habits, a million times I failed."

The paper said half of Chu's wives were either widows or divorced, a sign of his soft-hearted and compassionate character.

But the article did not address a weightier issue -- how Chu has managed to accumulate a family of such scale. Polygamy is illegal in communist Vietnam, which also orders its 80 million population to have no more than two children per family. 

Historic Wellington Miniature Up for Sale

Oct 8, 8:55 am ET 

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON  - An historic miniature of the Duke of Wellington, painted on the eve of his crucial victory over Emperor Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo will be offered for sale in early November, auction house Bonhams said Monday.

"It is so important. It is such a slice of history," art specialist Emma Rutherford told The News Source. "We think it belonged to someone who fought in the battle."

Not only was the painting, which stands just over three inches high and shows Wellington in a scarlet uniform with the badge and sash of the Order of the Garter, made on the eve of the battle but it has not been seen in public for 25 years.

Adding to its oddity is the fact that it was painted by Frenchman Jacques Rochard who was fleeing conscription and hoping to find shelter in the refugee court in Brussels.

Rochard, who went on to fame and wealth after the painting, complained that it was very hard to carry out the work as the Duke was extremely busy reading dispatches and issuing orders as the bloody clash approached on June 18, 1815.

Wellington is said to have attended a ball in Brussels until dawn before riding south to the hamlet of Waterloo to direct the battle.

On that Sunday 187 years ago, some 40,000 soldiers -- one in five of the combatants -- and 10,000 horses were butchered in 12 hours of fighting.

It was a very close call -- turned in the allies' favor by the timely arrival of 80,000 Prussian troops -- but the battle changed the course of European history by breaking the French stranglehold on Europe.

Although the miniature, conservatively expected to fetch up to 8,000 pounds ($12,500) at the sale on November 5, was originally commissioned by King Ferdinand VIII of Spain, Wellington quickly saw its value -- as did Rochard.

Wellington, Britain's top general and something of a ladies' man, ordered several copies to be made for his own use.

"He distributed them to his lady friends," Bonhams' Rutherford said. "He was very popular with the ladies."

One or two of these copies have come to auction, but the one being sold in November is quite rare.

"This is the only one with both the month and the year on it, so we conclude it must have been one of the very first," Rutherford said.

Rochard, trading on his fame and connections from the painting, went on to move among the rich and famous of the era, eventually moving to London where he had a studio in fashionable Bond Street.

"Interestingly the French have never really recognized him. He is considered as an English painter," Rutherford said. 

Kamikaze Instructor Meets War Veterans

Oct 8, 8:54 am ET 

By Peter Graff

LONDON  - A man who trained Japanese kamikaze pilots had a friendly meeting with some of their former targets in London Monday -- but at a time when suicide air attacks have a new meaning, not all were quick to forgive.

Hichiro Naemura, who volunteered to be a kamikaze bomber pilot but was ordered to train others before carrying out his own suicide mission, visited London's Imperial War Museum to help present a book in which he served as a source.

"I am deeply moved that I am standing here greeted by the former adversaries I fought 57 years ago as friends," he told a gathering of war veterans, museum staff and journalists.

Kamikaze, or divine wind, was the term given to Japanese suicide pilots who were trained to aim their bomb-laden planes directly at allied ships toward the end of World War II.

"All kamikaze fliers were fun-loving ordinary young men, the type you might meet on the streets of London or Tokyo," Naemura wrote in remarks prepared for the event promoting the book "Kamikaze."

"These young men chose to join the ranks of suicide pilots out of patriotism, willingness to sacrifice their lives for the good of the crown, motherland and their families."

In the end, Naemura was never ordered to carry out a kamikaze attack, although he flew many non-suicide missions.

He said the pilots were nothing like the hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States last year, because they only struck military targets.

David Nash, a torpedoman aboard the HMS Formidable warship, which was struck twice by kamikaze, recalled the "terrific" noise of the planes crash landing from down in the torpedo room, and being blinded by dust after the impact.

Yet he said he had met Naemura with "no animosity at all."

"They were doing their job and we were doing ours," he said.

But Ron Wren, a veteran who wore an enamel badge of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center alongside his World War II medals, said the mission of the Japanese kamikaze was "nothing but terrorism, just like al Qaeda or the Palestinian suicide bombers."

"It is unnatural to kill yourself. It's even more unnatural for a person, an adult of the age when instinct tells you that you should nurture young people, to train them, or brainwash them, to kill themselves," he said.

His ship, the HMS Kenya, was never struck by a kamikaze, but had to shoot down three of them.

"When I got out to the Pacific and heard that they don't only drop their bombs, they dive (into ships) with their aircraft, I was terrified. But after we shot a few down, we realized they were only aircraft." 

Teddy Bears in the Limelight 100 Years On

Oct 8, 8:53 am ET 

LONDON  - For 100 years they have been hugged and collected but never neglected -- the Teddy Bear is celebrating its first centenary this year.

Marking the anniversary, auction house Christie's is hosting what it is billing as a major sale of the cuddly creatures in London in early December.

Among the specimens up for grabs, perhaps the most poignant is Edwin, a five-inch (12 cm) tall bear with only one eye found inside the jacket of his loving owner Percy Kynnersley-Baddlely after he was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Edwin was sent back to Kynnersley-Baddlely's young widow Verna who put him on a shelf next to her husband's picture and never let anyone touch him.

Top lot in the sale on December 3 is a black bear by German Teddy maker Steiff which was one of a batch made up for the English market to mark the national mourning following the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912.

Christie's said the black bear was expected to fetch up to 30,000 pounds.

Also in the auction will be a rare Steiff hot-water bottle bear and a collection of other bears by Steiff -- among the most collectable in the world -- as well as other makers such as Farnell, Schuco and Merrythought.

The term "Teddy Bear" itself comes from the United States and commemorates a meeting in late 1902 between President Teddy Roosevelt and a real life bear. 

New York Museum Exposes City's Sexy Side

Oct 7, 8:44 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Sex in the city just got serious. New York's Museum of Sex, an adults-only institution that takes a journey through the city's sexual landscape over the centuries, opened to the public on Saturday.

The museum's debut exhibition, "NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex," chronicles the way key events in the city's sexual history, as well as the everyday rebellions of anonymous New Yorkers, have influenced Americans' attitudes about sex.

"It's strange to stand around with other people watching porn," said Michael Schachner, a freelance writer in New York, although he added: "I think people check their inhibitions at the door in an exhibit like this."

Visitors plunked down $17 for admission and packed into narrow corridors to peer studiously at photos, films, objects and art that delve into the history of prostitution, burlesque, birth control, fetishes and other sex-related subjects.

Ranging from the tame to the X-rated, the exhibit aims to entertain -- the audio tour features a woman's excited moan -- as well as educate.

"We want people to ask questions. We want them to be informed," said Rebecca Ames, the museum's assistant curator. "We're here to show you what's out there."

Ads for brothels around New York city from the mid-1800s, photos of burlesque and striptease queen Gypsy Rose Lee and stag films from the early 1900s featuring nudity and sex acts are included among the museum's earlier items.

But one of the biggest draws seemed to be a section in the area dealing with sex in the 1960s and 1970s. Visitors -- who must be over 18 years old to enter -- eyed four video screens showing graphic films featuring 1970s porn star Vanessa Del Rio engaging in a variety of sexual acts.

Another wall displays photos of a blond pouty-lipped Linda Lovelace, another 1970s porn star who helped create "porn chic" with her movie "Deep Throat."

Other sections explore major turning points in America's sexual history, like the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich village that helped spark the gay pride movement. Recordings of accounts by police and witnesses help paint the scene.

In the "Bizarre" section, which explores the fetish and sadomasochism subculture in 1930s New York, a severe-looking woman wearing high black boots and holding a riding crop glares out of one photo. Further down the wall are examples of early fetish gear from the 1960s.

More shocking than any of the explicit photos was the idea that kinky behavior is nothing new, said Danielle Morfi, 21, a recent graduate of Boston University, who was most intrigued by the museum's collection of vintage condom tins.

"When you think back about the 1800s, you weren't thinking people back then were having sex," Morfi said.

A portion of ticket proceeds from NYC Sex will benefit ACRIA (The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America), The Kinsey Institute and The Lesbian Herstory Archives. 

Man Dies in His Own Booby-Trapped House

Oct 7, 8:42 am ET 

BRUSSELS  - A Belgian man died of a gunshot wound after setting booby-traps throughout his house using hunting rifles and explosives, to police and local news reports said Sunday.

The 80-year-old former chemical engineer had apparently set the traps to prevent his children from entering the house after a family dispute in the town of Aiseau-Presles near Charleroi, south of Brussels, the local Belga news agency said.

Police, who had worked from before dawn searching and dismantling the traps, had yet to determine whether the man died from self-inflicted wounds or one of his own traps, it said.

"(The traps are in) the whole house," a police officer told the RTBF television network. "It's very, very dangerous."

They were set to go off with the opening of a door or some other makeshift trigger, the officer said. 

Leader Calls for Crackdown After Kiss

Oct 7, 8:40 am ET 

TEHRAN  - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday called on police to crackdown on immoral behavior in public after a storm of protest over a kiss at a film awards ceremony.

Well-known actress Gohar Kheirandish kissed the forehead of Ali Zamani and shook his hand as he collected the top director's prize at a ceremony last week in the central city of Yazd.

Under Iran's strict Islamic laws, implemented after the 1979 revolution, physical contact between unrelated men and women is forbidden.

"People expect a society where their youth are not exposed to immoral hazards as soon as they leave the house," Khamenei said in an address to police officials, state television reported. "The police should sternly confront promoters and agents of social and moral insecurity in the country."

Clerical leaders in Yazd organized a street protest after the kiss and conservative media have lambasted the pair, accusing them of harming Islam.

Kheirandish, who is in her 50s, appeared in court on Thursday to hear charges of immoral behavior and was released on $3,750 bail. Zamani, in his 20s, appeared in court earlier in the week. His bail was set at $2,500.

Lawyers said the pair could face a jail sentence or up to 74 lashes for their actions, but were more likely to be fined.

The pair have apologized for what they said was a spontaneous, maternal gesture by Kheirandish. The young director was a student of her late husband.

Colleagues have rallied to their defense.

"I am sorry for what happened to her. There was no intention behind it on her side and those who fan the incident have other intentions," film producer Hossein Farahbaksh told The News Source.

"The problem could have been resolved by giving her notice to prevent such things happening again," he said. 

Man May Stay in Apartment, Pig Must Go

Oct 7, 8:34 am ET 

MONTREAL  - A tenant in a Montreal apartment building hasn't paid his rent since July but it was his pet pig that got him in trouble.

Edgar, the pig, made too much noise and was probably too dirty, the neighbors said, and Quebec's Real Estate Board agreed, ordering Jean-Francois Labrosse to get rid of Edgar by Sunday, Montreal newspapers reported.

Labrosse, who's in his thirties, told reporters his Vietnamese pig is both cleaner and more intelligent than dogs, and noted that Edgar was very nervous ahead of Thursday's hearing.

"He cried out because he felt it. Pigs are very sensitive. I think he knew something was going on."

The board ruled that Labrosse must not keep an animal in his apartment but may bring over his mother's dog for visits sometimes.

Labrosse said he had invited his landlord for dinner to make peace. He did not reveal what was on the menu. 

Roman-Era Statue Unearthed in Building Site

Oct 7, 8:34 am ET 

NICOSIA  - A Cypriot retiree saw a marble elbow protruding from rubble at a building site and unearthed a large 2000-year-old Roman-era statue.

"It is in very good condition, it is the best preserved we have found in Paphos," said Efstathios Raptou, head of the Paphos division of the antiquities department.

The white marble statue, missing its head, was possibly cast in the mold of a woman who lived at the time, he said.

The statue was discovered in the western town of Paphos on Saturday and has been moved to a local museum for maintenance.

Cyprus was under Roman rule from 30 BC to 330 AD. 

Needles Blur in Speed Crochet Stitch-Off

Oct 7, 8:31 am ET 

By Akiko Mori

NEW YORK  - Fast fingers and 32 years of practice gave American Lily Chin an unofficial world title on Sunday -- queen of the speed crochet circuit.

In a duel of flashing needles and whirring wool, Chin, 40, beat her British rival Susan Broscoe to win the first national U.S. speed crochet contest in New York.

Chin, a New Yorker of Chinese descent, completed 92-1/2 double crochet stitches in the allotted three minutes while Broscoe -- who holds the British title for the pursuit -- trailed with 76-1/2.

"I think it is so thrilling," Chin said, adding that she expected her feat to win her a listing in the Guinness book of records.

"My mother thought I would be less hyper if I took up knitting," she told The News Source. "Now I can do this with my eyes closed."

Chin, author of "The Urban Knitter," a book aimed at the new generation of hip young knitters, said her immigrant mother from China inspired her and her sister to start knitting at the age of 8.

She has parlayed her passion for knitting and crochet into a successful career as a designer and teacher.

Chin was influenced by her sister to turn knitting into a speed game, but her Chinese heritage played little part in her career as a professional knitter, she said.

"My designs are very structural, but that is because I have a math-science background," Chin said. "People say there is an Asian influence in my work but that is very subliminal."

Leslie Barber, Managing Editor for Vogue Knitting International that has more than 400,000 subscribers, cited an increased appreciation for family time after Sept. 11 as one of the reasons for the increased popularity of knitting.

"It is back to simpler days. It is very nurturing," Barber said. "It is huge on college campuses too." 

Iraqi Refugees Name Baby After Australian Minister

Oct 7, 8:29 am ET 

MELBOURNE  - An Iraqi couple, grateful to Australia for granting them refugee status, have named their new-born child after the Australian immigration minister.

Baby Philip Ruddock -- whose surname is unknown -- was born about a month ago at Port Moresby Hospital in Papua New Guinea, a spokesman for the minister told The News Source Monday.

The baby boy remains in detention with his parents and two older siblings on the Papua New Guinean island of Manus while they await resettlement in Australia.

"They wrote Mr. Ruddock a letter expressing their gratitude. They sent a photocopy of the birth certificate and the letter," the minister's spokeswoman said.

"Mr Ruddock hasn't seen the letter yet as he has been overseas, but I would imagine he will be surprised and touched."

No further details were known about baby Philip and his family, who are among more than 100 asylum seekers being held on Manus.

Human rights groups have strongly criticized the Australian government, and Ruddock in particular, for their handling of refugees since the navy stopped a Norwegian freighter carrying 433 rescued boat people from landing on the country's remote Christmas Island last August.

The United Nations has condemned Australia's "Pacific Solution" policy, where unauthorized boat-people arrivals are intercepted by the navy and asylum seekers are sent to detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing.

The few thousand asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia each year by boat is a trickle compared to the 500,000 annually entering the European Union. ($1-A$1.85) 

Sputnik Still a Source of Pride 45 Years On

Oct 7, 8:28 am ET 

By Oleg Akhmetov

BAIKONUR  - On a day of pride and bitter memories, this wind-swept town in the Kazakh steppe Friday celebrated the launch of the Soviet Union's first sputnik 45 years ago, which humiliated its arch rival the United States.

A brief telegraph report by Tass news agency on Oct. 4, 1957 told the world that Moscow had successfully launched an artificial satellite, or "sputnik" in Russian, into earth's orbit.

The news that a 186-pound ball of metal was bleeping radio signals from space stunned Washington and dealt a severe blow to U.S. prestige as it emphatically lost the first round in the unfolding space race.

"Sputnik" instantly became a new international word, now listed in dictionaries around the world. The satellite itself lived for 92 days, emitting radio signals for just three weeks.

Soviet leaders at the time were initially only interested in the capacity of the R-7 military booster rocket, used to launch the sputnik, which they hoped might one day hit targets in the West.

The main Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, gave the news just a few scant lines in small type at the bottom of its second page, under the bland headline "Tass reports."

The sheer technical mastery of the event dazzles the imagination even now, as hard-up Russia, trying to emerge as a modern and market-oriented society and to discard much of its tragic Soviet legacy, badly needs achievements to be proud of.

Brass bands played bravura Soviet-era marches in central Baikonur Friday, as thousands of townsfolk and grizzled veterans and generals from Russia gathered to watch a military parade of Russian Space Troops.

Many jubilant servicemen were decorated under decrees by Russian President Vladimir Putin, read out after the parade. Rock groups from Moscow staged a concert.

Anatoly Semikin, now 81 and the only member of the satellite launch team still living in Baikonur, said those working on the project did not even know each other's name.

"Every worker at the cosmodrome had his own number. Taking photos was strictly forbidden, and all correspondence could only be sent from (the Uzbek capital) Tashkent," roughly 600 miles away, Semikin, then a senior engineer, told The News Source.

"Some people may say nowadays that such precautions were overdone and unnecessary," he said. "But as an eyewitness and participant of those events, I can say we did it right in those conditions."

Friday's festivities were overshadowed by memories of those who perished in the tough space rivalry with the U.S. It is an open secret that Moscow was primarily interested in developing military rockets capable of hitting NATO capitals.

Sergei Korolev, the designer who built the rocket that blasted the world's first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, into space in 1961, lived under an alias until his death to conceal his top-secret work on military projects. Only after his death was his achievement revealed and recognized.

Flowers were laid Friday at a monument to Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin and 91 others who died on Oct. 24, 1960.

On that day, the battle-scarred World War II hero was sitting near a new R-16 military rocket as it readied for launch. The rocket suddenly exploded, and like many around him, Nedelin was engulfed by burning fuel.

A handful of ashes and his gold star honoring him as a Hero of the Soviet Union were all that was left of him. The Soviet leadership said he died in an air crash.

Exactly two years later, seven Baikonur space center workers were burned alive as flammable gas leaked from an R-9 rocket.

The Soviet Union gradually lost its edge in space exploration after a U.S. crew landed on the Moon in 1969. As Moscow lurched toward bankruptcy, it had to wind up many space projects, while the United States launched its Space Shuttle program. 

Wanted: Lawyer for Vietnam Mafia Don

Oct 7, 8:26 am ET 

HANOI  - It might be the biggest criminal case ever in Vietnam, but lawyers are apparently gun shy of representing the star defendant, mob king Nam Cam.

Truong Van Cam, accused of ordering the killing of a rival gang member, gambling, extortion and fraud, is expected to stand trial in his home turf of Ho Chi Minh City in early December, but so far no lawyers have agreed to defend him, state-run media said.

Cam, known by his alias Nam Cam (five orange), is one of three defendants who have been turned down by communist Vietnam's legal elite. The other defendants are two former police officials.

"All lawyers, when being invited to defend them, have refused or simply say they need to think carefully before giving (an) answer, although the payment their families promise is rather attractive," reported the Gia Dinh & Xa Hoi (Family and Society) newspaper Monday.

If no one agrees, the Ho Chi Minh City Lawyer Society will appoint lawyers for the defendants, the newspaper said.

Probes into the gang have swept up nearly 180 people and more than 150 are expected to be in the dock. Among the 24 charges they face are murder, gambling, extortion, bribery and the falsification of case files, official media have reported.

In August, Hanoi stripped government positions from two senior communist party members who had been expelled from the powerful Central Committee over allegations they had direct links to the gang.

The case is seen as a test of Vietnam's resolve to combat corruption. The country's newly installed legislative body this year made an anti-graft drive one of its key goals.

Among those accused of connections to the gang include 19 government officials, 14 police officers, three prosecutors and two journalists, state-run media have said. 

Sailor Missing Since July Rescued Off S. Carolina

Oct 4, 12:01 pm ET 

GEORGETOWN, S.C.  - A Florida sailor, emaciated and delusional after being lost at sea for as long as 11 weeks, was rescued from his disabled sailboat off South Carolina, the Coast Guard said on Friday.

The man, Terry Watson, 43, of Homosassa Springs, Florida, was listed in stable condition on Friday at Georgetown Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated for dehydration and exposure.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Carr said Watson was emaciated and "in pretty bad shape" when brought ashore on Thursday night.

"The guy could barely stand," he said. "I don't know when was the last time he actually ate anything."

Watson left Miami in his 23-foot sailboat Psedorca on July 19. Another boater reported him missing four days later when they became separated while sailing in the Florida Keys.

The Coast Guard launched a search but gave up after covering more than 8,000 square miles in two days and finding no sign of the Psedorca.

A fishing boat captain spotted the vessel, broken-masted and adrift about 40 miles off the South Carolina coast on Thursday and alerted the Coast Guard.

It sent a helicopter to rescue him but Watson, suffering from delusion and shock, refused to leave his boat, the agency said. Rescuers eventually persuaded him to come aboard a Coast Guard patrol boat and brought him ashore.

"He's improving physically," Carr said. "I think eventually he will be OK."

Watson was unable to tell rescuers when the vessel's mast broke or whether he had been at sea since July, Carr said.

"It's quite possible he was adrift the entire time. It's also possible he did pull in somewhere and then headed back out," Carr said.

Watson's boat was towed ashore. The Coast Guard planned to interview him at the hospital to learn more about his odyssey.

His rescue came three weeks after the Navy found a California sailor, Richard Van Pham, adrift off Costa Rica after being lost at sea for four months. He survived by collecting rainwater and eating turtles and fish that swam near his boat. 

Austria's Haider Met Saddam Lookalike--Report

Oct 4, 11:44 am ET 

VIENNA  - Austrian rightist Joerg Haider, the best-known West European politician to visit Iraq in recent years, was proudly photographed in February beside President Saddam Hussein -- or was he?

A German coroner says the man Haider met was one of at least three Saddam Hussein lookalikes, men who have undergone surgery and mimic the president's gestures and expressions perfectly.

Dr. Dieter Buhmann told the Austrian weekly Format he was certain after analyzing video footage of the real Saddam from April 1990 that Haider had met a Saddam double, in German a "Doppelgaenger."

"Despite a certain likeness (to Saddam Hussein), there are ...differences, thanks to which one can exclude the possibility that this was the real Saddam," Buhmann said.

Buhmann first aired his research in a program last week on the German television network ZDF, saying that minor details such as the size of the ears, hands and shape of the shoulders distinguished Saddam from his doubles.

Haider's visit to Baghdad sparked such fierce criticism at home and abroad that he was forced to abandon his last national party post -- a seat on the committee that sets policy for the two-party coalition government.

Last month, the far-right firebrand announced he was leaving national politics for good. 

Britain's First Cannabis Cafe Owner Jailed

Oct 4, 10:32 am ET 

LONDON  - The man behind Britain's first Dutch-style cannabis cafe was jailed for three years on Thursday for possessing and supplying the drug, court officials said.

Pot pioneer Colin Davies, 44, a leading British campaigner for the legalization of cannabis who once presented Queen Elizabeth with a bouquet of marijuana plants, opened the cafe in the northern English town of Stockport last September.

Within minutes of the launch of the "The Dutch Experience," it was raided by police and Davies was arrested.

On Thursday he was jailed at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on eight charges including perjury and possessing a class B drug with intent to supply while on bail for other drug-related offences.

Davies, a founder of the Medical Marijuana Co-operative, a non-profit organization that provides cannabis to people who suffer from multiple sclerosis and arthritis, said he had wanted to give sufferers of debilitating diseases a safe place to buy the drug.

"The Dutch Experience," which makes no secret of its business, has been raided by police a number of times since last September but has remained open for business.

In July, Britain's Home Secretary (Interior Minister) David Blunkett announced plans to ease laws governing cannabis users from next summer, downgrading the drug to low risk Class C. Although still illegal, the change would make discreet possession of small amounts of the drug or smoking it in private a non-arrestable offense.

An ICM survey said five million Britons used cannabis regularly and even royalty has tried it. Prince Harry, second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, made headlines this year when it was revealed he had smoked cannabis. 

Busboy Admits Stealing Data of U.S. Rich and Famous

Oct 4, 10:31 am ET 

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK  - A 32-year-old restaurant busboy pleaded guilty on Thursday to pilfering personal and financial data belonging to America's rich and famous -- including billionaire investor Warren Buffett -- in what authorities believe is the largest identity theft in Internet history.

Abraham Abdallah, a high-school dropout, entered his guilty plea in response to a 12-count indictment charging him with wire, mail and credit card fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.

The federal case accuses Abdallah of using the information as part of a scheme to steal more than $80 million from individuals, corporations, and financial institutions.

Although he pleaded guilty, Abdallah told U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska he was not driven by greed.

"This case is not about money," he said. "I have extensive history in this sort of thing ... it always had to do with my ability to control my compulsions. If there is anyone on this earth that wants this to stop, I do."

He said he was taking numerous medications, including those to combat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

The indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, does not identify the targets of his scheme. But the crime made headlines last year when some names were released in a similar state action. In the state case, authorities said Abdallah has used telephones and computers in public libraries to obtain credit records of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, movie director Steven Spielberg and CNN founder Ted Turner.

Police said last year that Abdallah had also breached bank, brokerage and credit card accounts belonging to Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. whose investing prowess earned him the nickname "the oracle of Omaha," as well as the accounts of Martha Stewart, George Lucas, Oprah Winfrey, Ross Perot and Michael Bloomberg, now mayor of New York City.

STALKING THE FORBES 400

When Abdallah was arrested in March 2001, he had 800 fraudulent credit cards and 20,000 blank credit cards. Police said at the time he had ordered a type of machine that could emboss them.

In searching Abdallah's home, authorities found the October 2000 issue of Forbes magazine entitled "The 400 Richest People in America," which contained handwritten notes containing victims' personal and financial information.

Their search revealed photographs, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and addresses of more than 200 CEOs and more than 400 credit card numbers with matching addresses and personal information.

After the hearing, his defense lawyer Lee Ginsburg told reporters that Abdallah has a history of mental problems and that his compulsions stem from a need to prove himself.

According to the charges, Abdallah used stolen information to open fraudulent on-line accounts at Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments in the name of various CEOs, a corporate president, and an investor. In several instances, these victims already had legitimate accounts at those firms.

The indictment said he then attempted to transfer more than $80 million in funds from legitimate bank and brokerage accounts into these fraudulently opened accounts, by requesting electronic wire transfers and securities transfers, as well as by depositing counterfeit checks.

In each instance, fraud investigators or the victims successfully stopped or reversed the requested transfers. 

Teddy Bears Gather in Japan for Anniversary

Oct 4, 10:30 am ET 

OSAKA, Japan  - For thousands of teddy bears in Japan, the weekend will be a huge party.

A two-day exhibition with 5,000 teddy bears from around the world will start on Saturday in the western city of Osaka to celebrate the classic stuffed animal's 100th anniversary.

About 130 owners of teddy bear shops and devotees of making their own versions of the furry toy will gather to sell bears of various styles, old and new. Although Japan is known for its slavish devotion to all things cute and cuddly, teddy bear fans and sellers have gathered from far and near, including some from the United States, Europe, Singapore and New Zealand.

Tricia Stewart, from New Zealand, said she and her husband Cliff came prepared for some serious selling of teddy bears made by artists in New Zealand and Australia.

Asked how many bears they brought, Stewart answered: "Too many. We stuffed our suitcases."

Others have stalls devoted to antique bears.

Organizers said that about 10,000 fans are expected to visit the exhibition during the two days.

The 1902 invention of the teddy bear is claimed by both the United States and Germany.

The most frequently told story of its origin, however, says it was invented in the United States and inspired by then President Theodore Roosevelt, a noted hunter, who refused to shoot a bear cub that had been tethered to serve as an easy target.

The bear reportedly gained its name from Roosevelt's nickname, "Teddy." 

Limp-Eared Rabbit Gives Penthouse the Edge

Oct 4, 10:29 am ET 

BUDAPEST  - Penthouse has won the first round of its battle to rival Playboy in Hungary's top-shelf adult magazine market, thanks to a pair of limp rabbit's ears.

Penthouse, owned by General Media Communications, is a late arrival in Hungary and recently launched a poster campaign to dislodge Playboy.

Its posters showed a rabbit, similar to Playboy's copyright bunny logo, in the cross-sights of a hunting rifle under the slogan: "Rabbit hunt begins."

Playboy complained to the ethical committee at Hungary's Advertising Association, claiming that Penthouse, which has just published its first issue in Hungary, had used its logo.

The committee found in favor of Penthouse, saying that the rabbit in its posters was facing right, had droopy ears and no bow tie, the daily Nepszabadsag said on Friday.

The Playboy Bunny looks to the left, has erect ears and sports a bow tie. 

Indiana Teen Saved After Online Suicide Bid

Oct 4, 10:28 am ET 

By Reed Stevenson

SEATTLE  - In what may be the Internet's first attempt at a public suicide, a young Indiana man posted his efforts to kill himself with drugs on a Web discussion board, sparking a flurry of sympathy and taunts before he was located and saved by police.

The teen survived after a Seattle woman reading the discussion board intervened and alerted authorities.

As more people flock to the Internet in search of communities and companionship, it was inevitable that an online suicide attempt would occur, psychologists said.

After tracking down the identity of the suicidal teen, Jennifer Martini of Seattle, who works as a moderator of an online game, said she was able to call police in Highland, Indiana, where he lives, and alert them.

Pete Nelson, of the Highland Police Department, confirmed that a suicide incident involving a minor had happened, but declined to provide further details.

The incident began on Monday night with postings by "Vegas (Cats)," the teen's "handle," or screen name on a gaming discussion board for the fantasy world game Ultima that involves online role-playing gamers.

"I'm not scared anymore. Tears and sweat are joining my face which is completely soaked."

"I have said all my goodbyes...the only thing I am sorry for is the person that has to walk in and see me....cold....and dead. 16 pills down the drain........"

".........miss ya guys," he wrote.

The posting sparked a flurry of replies, similar to a crowd gathering underneath a suicidal jumper, with responses ranging from sympathy to encouragement to the Internet cries of "Jump."

"There really is no point man, no point at all," wrote one online participant., "Whatever problems you have, like all others, are only temporary."

Another wrote: "Kill yourself in the forest so you decompose. Really the way to go."

Others were more clinical.

"Obviously you want someone to talk you out of it because you are posting about this here," someone else wrote. "Don't be so selfish as to kill yourself and ruin the lives of those around you."

Another posting consisted merely of a smiley face graphic waving goodbye.

PLEA FOR HELP

"I didn't know what to do," Martini said, "I was aware that it might be a potential hoax but I decided to try and risk making a fool out of myself because someone could have died."

Other online participants also suspected a hoax, as they made their own investigations into the real identities of those involved.

But Martini said she was later contacted by a Highland police officer who found the teen still alive and able to talk. He was taken to the hospital and treated for a drug overdose.

After returning home, the young man immediately reconnected with his online community to track down his rescuer, according to Web postings.

"We've recognized that teens have a degree of intimacy of communicating over the Internet that is astounding," said Eric Trupin, a juvenile and adolescent psychology professor at the University of Washington.

"It doesn't totally surprise me that this youth was having this kind of interaction," he said.

Trupin agreed that the public Web posting was very similar to a plea for help, very much like a suicidal person standing on a bridge or high-rise building.

The online incident, and the reaction it got from the community, was reminiscent of a suicide attempt in Seattle in August of last year.

A young woman leapt off a 160-foot-high bridge after passing motorists, tangled up in the traffic snarls she created, yelled things like, "Jump, bitch, jump!."

The woman lived, but ignited remorse in a city that once prided itself on being free from big-city woes.

"People view the Internet as faceless, and it is really easy to dismiss people and dehumanize them, but there is a caring community there," Martini said. 

Tumor Victim Says Mother Teresa Miracle Saved Her

Oct 4, 10:27 am ET 

By Manush R. Banerjee

DANOGRAM, India  - Monica Bersa says she could have died but for Mother Teresa.

The 34-year-old Indian woman had a large stomach tumor that she says disappeared after she prayed to the Nobel Peace Prize winning nun.

Earlier this week, the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints agreed with her. It approved the disappearance of Bersa's tumor as a miracle and attributed it to Mother Teresa, who died in 1997.

This means Mother Teresa, known as the "saint of the gutters," will likely be beatified, or declared blessed of the church, next year. Beatification is a key step toward sainthood.

"I am fine now. It is all due to the blessings of Mother Teresa," Bersa told The News Source in Danogram, some 220 miles north of Calcutta, headquarters of the global order of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by the Catholic nun in 1950.

Bersa was 30 in September 1998 when she held an aluminum medal blessed by Mother Teresa to her stomach and prayed to the nun. "The next day, my tumor was gone. Mother Teresa's blessings cured me," said Bersa, a tribal woman dressed in a yellow sari with a red border.

The miracle was discussed at a closed-door meeting at the Vatican Tuesday in which doctors explained it to cardinals, bishops and priests. At such meetings, doctors tell members of the congregation they have no medical explanation for the cure.

"A MIRACLE INDEED"

The head bishop of the Catholic Church in West Bengal state, under which Danogram falls, told The News Source by phone the disappearance of the tumor "was indeed a miracle."

"We took Bersa to doctors all over the state. But after she prayed holding the medal Mother Teresa used to give out, the approximately five-kilogram (11-pound) tumor disappeared. Doctors had no explanation for its sudden disappearance," Bishop Alphonse D'Souza S.J. told The News Source.

After her death at the age of 87, devotees of Albanian-born Mother Teresa asked the Vatican to hasten the process to canonize her.

Normally, under Church rules, five years must pass after a person's death before the process toward sainthood starts.

In 1999, the pope granted a dispensation so the procedure for her sainthood could start less than two years after her death.

If the pope signs the decree approving the miracle, probably in December, a beatification ceremony can be held next year. A second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa would be needed after the beatification for her to be declared a saint.

Car Presented by Hitler to Nepal King Gathers Dust

Oct 4, 10:26 am ET 

KATHMANDU, Nepal  - A 1939 Mercedes Benz presented to the king of Nepal by Adolf Hitler is rusting at an engineering college in the capital because there is no money to repair it, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

The Rising Nepal, a state-run newspaper, said the car given to the late King Tribhuvan by the Nazi leader was one of only three of its kind left in the world.

"Its doors are coming off, the inside of the bonnet (hood) is rusting and the seats are torn," the newspaper said.

The car was carried by laborers over the Himalayan kingdom's southern plains to the Kathmandu valley in 1940, a time when Nepal had no roads.

King Tribhuvan, grandfather of present King Gyanendra, died in the 1950s. He used the car at a time when Nepal had no other motor transport.

Biswanath Khanal, chief of the Thapathali Engineering Campus where the vintage car is parked, told The News Source: "We have not been able to recondition the car and run it now for the lack of funds."

He said $5,500 was needed to replace old parts in the vehicle which was being used as a model to train mechanics. "We are already working on a very low budget and don't have that amount for the car," Khanal said.

A former Nepali prime minister once offered to buy the car, but the college had no ownership documents to sell the vehicle, the newspaper said.

Nepal, wedged between China and India in the central Himalayas, opened up to modern development in the 1950s and now has more than 9,000 miles of roads crisscrossing the nation. There are now more than 200,000 vehicles, including motorcycles, running in Nepal. 

Yacht Rushes Food to French Rower on Atlantic

Oct 3, 10:33 am ET 

By Greg Frost

BOSTON  - A yacht stocked with food rushed on Wednesday to assist a young Frenchman so he can keep rowing across the Atlantic, defying experts who have urged him to give up his attempt.

Emmanuel Coindre, who left Massachusetts in late July and was still around 900 miles from his stated destination of Ouessant, France, needs the food because several capsizes have damaged his rations, according to Kenneth Crutchlow, executive director of the London-based Ocean Rowing Society.

"You've got one hell of a determined guy there," Crutchlow told The News Source. "He's got it in his mind to row to France and he's suffering all kinds of agonies and dramas to do it."

Crutchlow has called on Coindre, 29, to change course and land in Portugal or Spain, a move that would shorten his trip by 300-400 miles and, more importantly, limit his time on the increasingly treacherous waters of the North Atlantic.

No rower trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo from west to east has survived at sea beyond Sept. 24.

Coindre holds the record -- 57 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes -- for rowing solo across the Atlantic from east to west and wants to become the second solo rower in history to have completed the trip in both directions. Only six others have succeeded on a solo crossing from west to east, whereas 13 have completed the trip going east to west.

A bitter reminder of the dangers facing the French rower came on Monday when Crutchlow and others marked the first anniversary of the disappearance of Nenad Belic, a U.S. doctor who, like Coindre, was trying to row from west to east.

"LIKE RUSSIAN ROULETTE"

The South African yacht Muirsheen Dirkin was headed from the Azores to meet Coindre's 19-foot (5.7-meter) rowboat, Lady Bird, after the rower requested food. Crutchlow said the two vessels would likely meet on Saturday.

"It often happens on these trips that food gets spoiled -- it's been hard for him to keep food dry because of all his capsizes," he said.

But as the Atlantic turns more and more stormy, food may not be all Coindre needs to reach France, Spain or Portugal. Forecasts call for a weather front to overtake Coindre on Sunday or Monday, packing winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour and bringing seas of 12 to 15 feet.

Jenifer Clark, a U.S. oceanographer, urged Coindre to give up, saying his luck would eventually run out.

"To be out in the North Atlantic in September and October is like playing Russian Roulette," she said.

Clark, who served as a consultant to Belic on his ill-fated odyssey last year, said she was getting an eerie sense of deja vu from watching Coindre stubbornly refuse to give up.

"It's not worth his life. Nothing is worth his life and I'm afraid it's going to end up that way," she said

Clark also served as a consultant to Tori Murden, who in 1999 became the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic from east to west. Like Clark, Murden said Coindre should call it quits. 

The World's Funniest Joke -- Official

Oct 3, 10:32 am ET 

By Corey Ullman

LONDON  - After a year of painstaking scientific research, the world's funniest joke was revealed on Thursday.

In a project described as the largest-ever scientific study into humor, the British Association for the Advancement of Science asked Internet users around the world to submit their favorite jokes and rate the funniness of other people's offerings.

More than 40,000 jokes from 70 countries and two million critiques later, this is it:

"Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his phone and calls emergency services.

He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: "Take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There is a silence, then a shot is heard.

Back on the phone, the hunter says, "Ok, now what?"

Researchers found significant differences between nations in the types of jokes they found funny.

People from the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand preferred gags involving word play, such as:

PATIENT: "Doctor, I've got a strawberry stuck up my bum."

DOCTOR: "I've got some cream for that."

Americans and Canadians favored jokes where people were made to look stupid.

TEXAN: "Where are you from?"

HARVARD GRAD: "I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions."

TEXAN: "OK -- where are you from, jackass?"

Meanwhile, many Europeans liked gags that were surreal or made light of serious subjects such as illness, death and marriage:

A patient says, "Doctor, last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my mother-in-law and wanted to say: 'Could you please pass the butter?'

"But instead I said: 'You silly cow, you have completely ruined my life."'

Marriage-mocking also featured in the top American joke:

"A man and a friend are playing golf one day. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course.

"He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: 'Wow that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You are truly a kind man.'

"The man then replies: 'Yeah, well, we were married 35 years."'

Death earned big laughs in Scotland:

"I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers."

And animals figured prominently. Take the number one joke in England:

"Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other one. He screams, 'I slept with your mother!'

"The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do.

"The first again yells, 'I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!'

"The other says: 'Go home dad, you're drunk."'

The survey revealed other fun facts:

-- Of the countries rating the highest number of jokes, Germans, perhaps surprisingly, laughed the most. Canadians laughed least.

-- If you want to tell a funny animal joke, make it a duck.

-- The most frequently submitted joke, at 300 times, was: "What's brown and sticky? A stick."

Researchers said no one ever found it funny.

The findings can be read at www.laughlab.co.uk 

Pet Snake Is Linked to Fatal Blood Donation

Oct 3, 10:31 am ET 

By Gene Emery

BOSTON  - Medical detectives tracking the source of a fatal blood infection have concluded that a pet boa constrictor was indirectly responsible.

The strange case, reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that salmonella bacteria often carried by reptiles could be an unrecognized source of contamination when patients receive platelets taken from apparently healthy blood donors.

Platelets, the tiny particles that help blood clot, can be a serious source of infection because they have to be stored at room temperature, allowing the bacteria to grow.

Up to 1 percent of platelet products have some type of contamination, even after blood centers try to screen out donors whose blood may be tainted.

The first case showed up on April 11 last year, when a 51-year-old woman received platelets as part of her treatment for leukemia. She immediately fell ill.

The next day, a 50-year-old woman suffering from severe stomach and intestinal bleeding was given the remaining platelets from the batch. She died later that day, but the first patient recovered..

A week later, investigators tracked down the donor -- the 47-year-old owner of a boa constrictor who regularly donated blood and who had felt well when he gave blood on April 7.

The donor had, however, he had fallen ill with fever, cramps and diarrhea two and a half weeks before his donation.

Bacteria subsequently taken from the snake matched that taken from the owner and the two patients, providing an answer to the mystery.

"Up to 3 percent of U.S. households have a pet reptile, and these reptiles may account for as many as 3 to 18 percent of the estimated 1.4 million cases of salmonella infections that occur annually in the United States," said the team of doctors led by Mehrdad Jafari of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the chief author of the study.

The team said blood donors should be questioned on whether they have reptiles at home, and platelets should be routinely tested for contamination.

Meanwhile, techniques to sterilize products containing platelets are in advanced stages of development, they said. 

Outrageous Lawsuits Battle for 'Grand Caesar'

Oct 3, 10:29 am ET 

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES  - Heard the one about the sex offender who, having lost two toes to frostbite during an escape bid, threatened to sue the local Sheriff because deputies were too slow in finding him?

Or the couple who sued an airline and an airport for a whopping $15 million dollars for losing their cat?

Alas, truth proved all too often stranger than fiction when it came to filing outrageous lawsuits in U.S. courts in 2002.

In a bid to highlight the growing trend of civil lawsuit abuse -- and the climbing cost to Americans through clogged courts and higher taxes -- a California grass-roots campaign group on Wednesday launched an only slightly tongue-in-cheek vote for the most outrageous lawsuit of the year.

The winner, to be chosen by votes to the Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse Web site, http://www.cala.com, will be awarded the "Grand Caesar" -- in honor of Caesar Barber, the 272-pound (123-kg) New Yorker who in July sued four fast food chains for making him obese.

CALA says California is one of the nation's leading states in judicial frivolity, with some 1.5 million civil lawsuits filed in 1998-99, or one for every 21 Californians.

"When all of those lawsuits are entered into the court system, whether they are meritorious or frivolous, it clogs the courts. Those people that deserve their day in court now have to wait on average a year and a half before their issue gets heard," CALA executive director Michael Vallante said on Wednesday.

Vallante said consumers and taxpayers end up paying for the damages handed out by civil juries through insurance liability taken out by companies and municipalities to protect themselves against lawsuits.

Vallante traced the boom in such lawsuits to the early 1990s. "It was an era of the loss of personal responsibility. Everyone started to blame someone else for something they had done, and suddenly they saw they could get a check for it."

CALA has been campaigning for almost 10 years for changes in the law that would disallow lawsuits from people injured while they were drunk, or committing a crime, and says defendants should be able to insist on mediation before going to trial.

Vallante said some lawyers, as well as individuals, should shoulder the blame for ridiculous claims that CALA believes are bringing the entire judicial system into disrepute.

"Don't sue somebody, don't clog the courts as a way of not taking responsibility for your actions," he said.

"If you're going to go to McDonald's every day, order a salad." 

Italian Kids May Have HIV from 'Snow White' Hooker

Oct 3, 10:27 am ET 

ROME  - "Snow White," an Italian prostitute whose clients were as young as 12, may have infected them with the AIDS virus, a legal source said Thursday.

The 32-year-old woman called "Snow White" by her teen clients was arrested this week but her lawyer has requested she be released because she is HIV positive, the source said.

"Now magistrates fear that some of the youngsters would have been contaminated," the source said.

Police said the young woman confessed to charging up to $20 per visit, often accepting the pocket money given to the kids by their parents.

But according to the source the woman's lawyer has filed a request for her client to be released due to "incompatibility with prison" because she is HIV positive.

The request was initially denied but will be reviewed by authorities.

"Snow White," whose real name was not revealed, worked out of her apartment which was painted pink and filled with stuffed animals and toys, the police said.

The only client to provide testimony so far -- a 13-year-old boy -- said he always used protection. 

Crocodile Luggage Left on Bus

Oct 3, 10:25 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australia's quirky Northern Territory has more crocodiles than humans, but they don't normally take the bus.

Driver Baz Young told the Australian News Source news agency he did not notice his reptilian passenger until a woman passenger pointed under his seat.

"I've got no idea where he came from," Young said on Thursday near Darwin, capital of the northern Australian region that covers an area five times the size of Britain stretching from tropical rainforest to desert.

"I believe someone must have taken him into the bus thinking that they'd take him somewhere and maybe he was too strong for them to hold so he disappeared under the seat and they've done a quiet exit and left me with the crocodile," he said.

"It's just one of those things that happen in the Territory."

The 75-cm (30-inch) crocodile had its jaws taped shut but still managed to scratch a police officer's hand when it was taken into custody before being handed to game wardens. 

Foreign Nurses to Watch UK Soap Opera for Training

Oct 3, 10:24 am ET 

LONDON  - Nurses from the Philippines about to start work in northern England are to be shown episodes of Britain's longest running soap opera, "Coronation Street," to familiarize them with local customs and accents.

A hospital in Macclesfield, Cheshire, has recruited the 24 nurses because it cannot get enough locally trained staff.

"They will watch 'Coronation Street' so they can understand the vernacular," James Middleton from the East Cheshire NHS Trust told The News Source Thursday.

The soap, set in a fictional working class district of Manchester, has been a favorite in Britain for 42 years.

Although the 24 nurses all speak English, their vocabulary is more American than British and there are worries it might lead to misunderstandings.

"If a patient whispered 'I want to spend a penny' I doubt whether a Filipino nurse would know what it meant," said Middleton.

The phrase is old-fashioned slang for wanting to visit the lavatory.

Britain faces an acute shortage of nurses and many hospitals have already recruited thousands of foreign medical staff. 

Underage Italian 'Bonnie and Clyde' Amass Toy Loot

Oct 3, 10:23 am ET 

ROME  - A pair of Italian children have been dubbed the junior Bonnie and Clyde after stealing more than $500 worth of soft toys from a supermarket in one week.

The eight-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy confounded security staff at the Upim supermarket in the northeastern town of Trieste for days, before police were called in to put a stop to their thieving spree.

"Shoplifting is part of our daily routine in this business. But these children were making off with such quantities of toys I was worried they were being used by an adult, so that's why I called the police," Upim manager Francesco Mialich told The News Source.

"As it turned out they were acting alone, or rather as a pair."

Police searched the apartments of the children's families and in the girl's cupboard found a pile of loot, mainly stuffed animals and soft toys representing popular cartoon characters.

Mialich said the children's parents had refunded the price of the toys and thus no charges were being pressed.

Local media have compared the underage thieves with notorious bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who terrorized parts of the southern United States in the 1930s. 

Kiss Lands Iranian Actress and Director in Court

Oct 3, 10:22 am ET 

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN  - A kiss planted on the forehead of a young Iranian director by a well-known actress has landed the pair in court and sparked heated protests in the Islamic Republic over physical contact between the sexes.

Under Iran's strict Islamic laws, implemented after the 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, touching between unrelated men and women, even a handshake, is forbidden.

So there was stunned silence at a film awards ceremony in the central city of Yazd last Friday when respected actress Gohar Kheirandish kissed the forehead of Ali Zamani and shook his hand when presenting the prize for top director.

"I was chosen as the best film maker in the festival, I was a student of Kheirandish's late husband, and she became emotional and kissed my forehead," Zamani was quoted by the Etemad daily as saying on Thursday.

The pair apologized for their actions and insisted it was a spontaneous gesture not intended to cause offence.

"She kissed me like a mother kisses her child," he said. But conservative authorities present at the ceremony saw it differently. The local justice department chief ordered their arrest for disturbing public morality. Zamani, who is in his 20s, appeared in court on Wednesday and was released on bail of $2,500. Kheirandish, who is in her 50s, was reported to be returning to Yazd to face the charges.

On Monday, Mohsen Talebpour, representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Yazd, organized a protest to condemn the kiss, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Today the enemy has targeted our Islamic beliefs," he said.

ENEMIES TRYING TO HARM ISLAM

Iranian cinema has an uneasy existence. Although lauded at international festivals around the world, Iranian films often struggle to make it past strict local censors.

Conservative media lambasted the pair. "Our enemies are trying to harm Islam through our culture and this event is an example of that fact," an editorial in Ya Lessarat weekly said.

A local Culture Ministry official was also arrested, accused of being an "accomplice" in allowing the pair to leave Yazd. He was later released on $6,250 bail.

"Although we condemn the move it should be underlined and considered that the event happened in a very emotional atmosphere and it was not pre-planned," a senior Yazd Culture Ministry official said.

Social restrictions have relaxed somewhat since moderate President Mohammad Khatami stormed to a 1997 election win.

Dress codes, particularly for women, have become more liberal with lipstick and sandals now tolerated, although they still have to cover their heads with scarves and wear loose-fitting ankle-length clothing.

But physical contact between the sexes remains taboo, something one official found awkward when meeting Western women.

"During ceremonies, I hold a glass in one hand and my bag in other hand to avoid shaking women's hands," Iran's former representative to the United Nations Hadi Nejad Hosseinian was quoted as saying by the Ya Lessarat weekly newspaper.

"Foreign women are not aware of Islamic rules and when you don't shake their hands they become red and yellow," he said.

Nejad Hosseinian said he had written to Supreme Leader Khamenei to ask whether, under certain circumstances, it was permissible to shake a woman's hand. The answer was a firm "no." 

Blondes Headed for Extinction? UN Agency Demurs

Oct 2, 10:29 am ET 

UNITED NATIONS  - In the end, it seems it was just another dumb blond joke.

The World Health Organization, the Geneva-based health arm of the United Nations, insisted on Tuesday that despite the many media reports to the contrary, it had never conducted a study predicting the extinction of the natural blond hair gene.

This despite stories around the world citing WHO research stating that natural blondes would become extinct by 2202.

Reports to that effect had appeared in recent days on CNN and ABC News and in the London Daily Mail, among others. But WHO said it has never conducted research on the topic.

WHO "has no knowledge of how these news reports originated but would like to stress that we have no opinion on the future existence of blondes," it said in a statement released at United Nations headquarters in New York.

According to the published reports, the supposed WHO study had predicted that the last blond on earth would be in Finland, which today has the world's highest concentration of true blondes.

The reports said blond hair was caused by a recessive gene, so both sides of the family have to have it to extend the shade into the next generation. But too few people carry the gene to assure its long-term survival. 

Fleeing Miami Robber Leaves Behind His Gold Teeth

Oct 2, 10:27 am ET 

MIAMI  - A man dubbed by authorities as the "bumbling bank robber" had his two gold teeth knocked out as he ran into traffic and was hit by a van while fleeing a heist, FBI agents in Miami said on Tuesday.

The suspect, who also may have shot himself accidentally, escaped in a waiting get-away car but police recovered his teeth from the street and held them as evidence, the FBI said.

The suspect walked into a Wachovia Bank branch in North Miami Beach on Monday, pulled a gun from his pocket as he approached a teller and demanded that she fill a bag with money, the FBI said.

The teller gave him an undisclosed sum of money and he turned to flee, discharging the gun as he stuffed it back into his pocket, the FBI said.

"It is unknown at this time if the robber shot himself when the gun discharged," the FBI said in a statement headlined "update on bumbling bank robber."

The suspect ran out of the bank into the street and was hit by a white van and dragged under it, authorities said. He managed to get up and run to a waiting car that sped away, leaving his teeth behind, the investigators said.

Police and the FBI were looking for him at hospital emergency rooms and medical centers. The suspect was described as a tall, thin black man in his late 20s to early 30s. 

Child Dials Police to Report Grandma's Dumplings

Oct 2, 10:26 am ET 

LINZ, Austria  - A four-year-old Austrian boy was so disgusted by his grandmother's plum dumplings that he dialed emergency services for help, Austrian state television ORF said on Tuesday.

When the startled policeman on the other end of the line in Linz, Upper Austria, asked the young caller what he thought the police should do, the boy was clueless, the report said.

The officer pleaded with the boy to give grandmother's plum dumplings (Zwetschkenknoedel) another chance. He agreed and hung up. 

Hole-Digger the Perfect Woman for New Zealand

Oct 2, 10:25 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - A remote bar in New Zealand's mountainous South Island is searching for the perfect woman -- a southern belle who can back a trailer load of hay, change a car tire and dig in a fence post.

Publican Stew Burt, who runs the Bullock Bar in the town of Wanaka, said he has 15 entries for his Perfect Woman competition, which offers a cash prize of $474 and a trip for two to a rugby game or other sports event in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city around 620 miles to the north.

Competitors must also throw a set of curling stones, clear a pool table, darn a sock, blow a dog whistle, lift a ram into shearing position, and use anything but a bottle opener to uncap a bottle of beer.

New Zealand has a strong history of promoting women to top positions, including Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The country, home to 3.9 million people and 44 million sheep, has nearly 14 million hectares of land used mainly for grazing sheep, cattle and deer.

Burt said the late October charity event was, in part, a recognition of the Southern pioneering woman.

"She might not be a picture, but she can do a lot of things a lot of other women can't do," Burt told The News Source. 

Life Imitates Art as Russian Nose, Er...Goes

Oct 2, 10:23 am ET 

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia  - The great Nose of Russian literature, which in Nikolai Gogol's masterpiece goes on a surreal walk-about, seems to have taken off on its own again.

A sculpture of a huge Nose was erected on a street in Russia's second city eight years ago to honor Gogol's bizarre short story in which a nose detaches itself from its owner's face overnight.

Now the marble sculpture has gone missing.

"The nose seems to have gone for a walk," said its sculptor Vyacheslav Bukhayev.

"It could not have been stolen for its material. I really don't know who could have taken it -- maybe it was some art lover who prefers admiring works of art in private."

Gogol's odd story, called simply The Nose, tells how a Major Kovalyov goes on a frantic search through the Czarist capital in search of his nose, which takes on a life of its own and gets up to all kinds of mischief while running round the city.

St. Petersburg police official Pavel Rayevsky said the sculpture had probably been stolen by a collector. This would be no mean feat since it weighs around 220 pounds.

"It required a ladder, significant physical strength as well as a lot of motivation," said Vladimir Timofeyev, director of the city's sculpture museum.

Bukhayev said he had already given some thought to sculpting a replacement. "Maybe it's for the best. In Gogol's story, the nose has a birthmark which I omitted in my sculpture. In my second nose, I will be more faithful to the story and add the birthmark," he said. 

Tenant-Turtle's Bath Costs Landlord Dear

Oct 2, 10:14 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - Mystified by soaring hot water bills, the landlord of an apartment building in southern Sweden installed water-saving shower nozzles and checked for leaking pipes before finally discovering the culprit.

A pet turtle had enjoyed living in a stream of running water at a steady temperature of 36 Celsius for 18 months.

The local utility estimated the turtle's consumption at 5,000 cubic meters of water and 160,000 kWh of district heating at a cost of $15,15O, a local newspaper in the town of Helsingborg reported Wednesday.

The tenant, who has agreed to repay the landlord for the extra costs, and the turtle still live in the apartment but nowadays the pet only gets fresh bathing water every now and then, the newspaper reported.

Record Breaking Buzzard Has Bird Lovers Buzzing

Oct 2, 10:13 am ET 

LONDON  - Bird lovers were clinging to hopes on Wednesday that a baby honey buzzard is still alive after a record breaking flight that has stunned ornithologists.

The buzzard, fitted with a satellite transmitter, left its nest in the Scottish Highlands on September 15 at the start of its long migration to Africa for the winter.

But after becoming lost off the west coast of England, the fledgling buzzard veered off over the Atlantic ocean instead of traveling over France and Spain.

The 5,000 km journey it has completed so far is thought to be a record, said Roy Dennis, director of the Highland Foundation for Wildlife charity, which fitted the transmitter in an attempt to learn more about the birds' migration patterns.

"We never believed they could go that far. We think it's the longest recorded overseas migration by a bird of prey in the world ever," he told The News Source.

"It's absolutely incredible when you think it only started to fly in late August and it was only born in late July. It just shows you what nature is all about."

After just missing the Azores and Madeira islands as it headed back toward land, the buzzard is now somewhere off the west coast of Africa, its transmitter still sending signals.

Sadly for the bird lovers, and the many surfers who have been following its daily exploits on the charity's Web site, Dennis thinks it may have succumbed to fatigue and hunger.

"The last couple of days makes me pretty sure that it's on something, floating in the water," he said. 

Sex on the Menu for Hungry Britons

Oct 2, 10:13 am ET 

LONDON  - Young Britons are using cooking as foreplay to sex, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Eight percent of 18-34 year-olds have cooked naked with a partner while 62 percent regard cooking as sensual, it said. The report was compiled by psychologist Dr. Colin Gill on behalf of food company Sharwood's.

In spicing up their love lives, a third of young Britons said a wok was their most essential kitchen item. "As the consumption of eastern foods is set to increase, we can hope to see more people having fun in the kitchen and using food as an effective social tool," said Gill.

Only seven percent of young people wear an apron in the kitchen and only four percent use a rolling pin, the report said.

"The decline in the use of the apron represents a significant change in the nation's cooking habits," it added. "The apron can be seen as representative of an older generation's more formal and restrictive views on cooking." 

DNA-Print on Drug-Stuffed Teddy Nabs Bank Robber

Oct 1, 9:13 am ET 

VIENNA  - Traces of DNA on a cocaine-stuffed teddy bear helped bring charges against a man who got away with a bank robbery five years ago, police said on Monday.

The main post office in the Upper Austrian city of Linz intercepted a teddy bear with a seven-ounce belly-full of cocaine in July, and traced the recipient to a 40-year-old man.

The Austrian said he had the drug sent from Brazil "for his personal use," and was released after five weeks in custody.

But tests on the furry toy matched DNA evidence found at the scene of a botched bank robbery in 1997, when two thieves threw their booty out of the window of the getaway car after an alarm went off in the money bag.

The man admitted to the robbery on questioning, and said his then accomplice was his brother. Both are in custody.

Doctors Grow Pig Teeth in Rat Intestines

Oct 1, 9:07 am ET 

BOSTON  - U.S. doctors have managed to grow pig teeth in rat intestines, a feat of bioengineering they said could spark a dental revolution.

Researchers at the Forsyth Institute said their successful experiment suggests the existence of dental stem cells, which could one day allow a person to replace a lost or missing tooth with an identical tooth grown from his or her own cells.

The research may signal that the days of synthetic dental implants -- dentures, bridges and crowns -- are numbered.

"The ability to identify, isolate and propagate dental stem cells to use in biological replacement tooth therapy has the potential to revolutionize dentistry," Dominick DePaola, president and CEO of the Boston-based research institute, said on Thursday.

The experiment involved taking seeded cells from immature teeth of six-month-old pigs and then placing them within the intestines of rats.

Within 30 weeks, small recognizable tooth crowns -- containing enamel and dentin, a bone-like material found under the enamel -- had formed, the researchers said.

The researchers said they hope that within five years they will have developed techniques to grow teeth of a specific size and shape, and that within 10 years it will be possible to regenerate human teeth.

The research was due to be published in the Oct 1 issue of Journal of Dental Research.

Peru Finds 200 Fishermen Sacrificed to Sea God

Oct 1, 9:05 am ET 

By Missy Ryan

HUARMEY, Peru  - The Pacific Ocean had always been the fishermen's lifeblood -- until the day they knelt blindfolded before its blue waters and the knife pierced their hearts, making them offerings to Ni, the god of the sea.

In the biggest find of human sacrifices in South America to date, archeologists have uncovered the remains of 200 fishermen savagely stabbed on a beach in central Peru 650 years ago.

"This is the first time that human sacrifices on this scale have been documented," said Hector Walde, chief archeologist for the Punta Lobos project, holding a discolored skull recovered from a beach some 170 miles north of Lima.

Archeologists say the fishermen were knifed through the collarbone -- straight into the heart -- in a giant human sacrifice ceremony by members of the powerful Chimu people as a sign of gratitude to their revered sea god Ni after they conquered the fishermen's fertile seaside valley in 1350 A.D.

The remains of the 107 intact bodies were found lying on their stomachs, their heads toward the water and their hands tied behind their backs.

Unwrapping a leg bone with cracked, blackened flesh at the end, Walde said the discovery was important because it confirmed a long-standing theory, based on testimonies and etchings on stone temples or ceramics, that some cultures in this archeology-rich nation practiced large ritual killings.

"It's impressive to think that even though 600 years have gone by, the pain and anguish these people went through when they died can be seen in the cadavers and even the outlines they left in the sand," he said.

Many of the fishermen, believed to be between 18 and 35 years old, were found arched backward as if in their death throes. Despite the passage of time, they were found in varying states of decay -- some just bones and rags, others complete with muscle tissue, hair, even fingernails.

The fishermen were blindfolded with the turban they used to control their flowing black hair and wore only a loincloth. Their bodies, left unburied by the Chimu and later covered up by wind-driven sand, were not accompanied by the kind of ornate offerings often found with high-caste or sacred burials.

RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE

Peru is known for a wealth of highly developed now-extinct cultures like the Inca, who built the famed citadel Machu Picchu -- now a major attraction for tourists from all over the world -- and whose legendary gold treasures spurred a frenzied invasion from Spanish conquistadors.

Or the Nazca culture, who 1,500 years ago etched giant figures of birds and spiders in the sand. Only visible from the air, some say the etchings were meant as greetings to aliens.

But little was known about how the Chimu, who were eventually defeated by the Inca decades before the Spanish invasion in the 1530s, treated the other cultures they conquered during the height of their 150 years in power.

At their peak, the Chimu -- known as the finest metalworkers of pre-Hispanic Peru and whose leaders wore emerald-encrusted gold nose rings -- controlled some 600 miles of Pacific coast.

"This confirms that the Chimu were part of a long religious tradition that included human sacrifices in their ceremonies," Walde said, adding that as the Chimu empire grew, the frequency and scale of human sacrifices increased as well.

Walde and his team of experts stumbled across the find in 1998 when they were performing obligatory archeology impact studies for a port project for copper-zinc mine Antamina. Their discovery was made public only recently.

At first they thought the partially decomposed bodies they found on the beach some 170 miles north of Lima were part of an ordinary cemetery like the thousands of other nearby graves. But as they examined the remains, they realized they were looking at something unprecedented.

"The position that the fishermen were in -- face down, their hands tied and faces covered -- made us think that this was no ordinary (death)," he said. "It was very dramatic."

According to Walde, the fishermen's feet, some of which were also bound, are the best preserved parts of their bodies. The bodies were all found with knees bent and feet upward, he said, to drain out organic liquids that can decay flesh.

Of the 200 fishermen found near one another on the beach, 107 were recovered intact. The others had been mutilated by invaders and thrown into a mass grave nearby, or were destroyed over the years by grave robbers.

Archeologists say that those who survived the invasion -- the wives and children of the sacrificed fishermen, or older people -- made a giant offering nearby of everyday items the fishermen could use in the next life, including simple jugs filled with grains or liquor, even a fishing net.

PROJECT SPONSORED BY ANTAMINA

The remains of the fishermen sacrificed are now stored in a tiny warehouse of a museum in the nearby town of Casma until Antamina builds an on-site museum near the beach.

Antamina, which is owned by Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, Canada's Noranda Inc. and Teck-Cominco Ltd. and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp., is a key project for this mineral-rich nation.

After the remains were removed from Punta Lobos, the beach was destroyed to make way for a port installation for Antamina, which pipes minerals down to the sea from the highland mine.

The government of President Alejandro Toledo, who took office last year, says Antamina is expected to generate 1.4 percent economic growth this year.

The mining company has so far spent around $100,000 on the Punta Lobos project, Walde said. It said it will fund further excavations, for example, in nearby temples built by the Chimu, as well as the sacrifice museum.

Archeologists are also hoping to take DNA samples from the hair, skin and teeth of the fishermen to determine, for example, if the inhabitants of today's Huarmey -- a quiet fishing town of around 24,000 people -- are descended from those sacrificed hundreds of years ago.

Using that information, they hope to be able to identify hereditary diseases or physical traits passed on from generation to generation.

"We've obtained a lot of new information but there are still lots of holes. We are going to try to plug those holes with more investigations," Walde said.

Canadian Man Tries to Bungee on to Ship - Misses

Oct 1, 9:04 am ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A man was charged with criminal mischief on Monday after he attempted, unsuccessfully, to bungee jump from a Vancouver bridge to the deck of a passing cruise ship.

William Dean Sullivan miscalculated the ship's speed and suffered minor head injuries on Sunday when he bounced off its tennis court, volleyball net and a deck railing, before being left dangling in mid-air as the ship sailed away, Vancouver Police said.

Police said Sullivan has planned to bungee jump from the Lions Gate Bridge, which spans the entrance to Vancouver harbor, stopping just above the passing ship so he could then lower himself a short distance to the deck.

"There were shrieks of horror from down below. I guess the people saw him coming, you know, on the ship. I guess he missed," witness Kate Hill told the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

After failing to land on the ship, Sullivan, of Nanaimo, British Columbia, rappelled himself down to the water where he was rescued by a passing water taxi, which turned him over for arrest, according to police.

Sullivan's motive remained unknown, although his friends told local media he was an aspiring stunt man. Sullivan was released on bail on Monday on the condition he promise not to attempt any more jumps pending a trial.

A police spokesman said they were taking the incident seriously because of the danger it posed. "The individual himself could have been killed," Det. Scott Driemel said.

Have Yourself a Warhol Christmas for $3 Million

Oct 1, 9:02 am ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS  - For a few million dollars you can have yourself a shagadelic Christmas, complete with a party just like that international man of mystery, Austin Powers.

Dallas-based department store Neiman Marcus rolled out its 2002 Christmas catalog on Monday chock full pricey goodies that might appeal to Powers.

They include private jets, Andy Warhol art and a mod London taxi.

The most expensive item in the catalog is a 10-portrait collection of sports stars produced and signed by pop-artist Warhol. The set -- which has portraits of Pele, Chris Evert and O.J. Simpson among others -- can be had for a groovy $3 million.

For the globe trotter, there are private-jet flights going for $109,000 to $299,000, depending on the type of plane and the flight hours.

And of course, on the ground, one needs the proper set of wheels.

The catalog offers a Burberry London taxi for $58,900 with an interior in the distinctive plaid and an exterior sign above the windshield that reads "London."

For travel on the other side of the Atlantic, Neiman Marcus has a limited edition Cadillac convertible luxury roadster, in a stunning shade it calls Ultra Violet, for sale at $85,000.

For all points in between, there is the gift of a high-powered Hinckley yacht for $285,000.

At the end of a hard day, the department store will construct in your backyard a Balinese hut made of long-stem grass and bamboo, perfect for a couple in love wanting to snuggle and watch the sunset.

If material goods are not enough, the company can also help with image management. For $7,500, a person can buy a pair of personalized action figures, standing 6 inches (15 cm) high and handcrafted by a team of figure artisans.

This is the 75th year that Neiman Marcus has published its Christmas book. This year's edition contains 550 featured items "ranging from practical to whimsical, all with one common thread -- each is unforgettable," the company said.

It is sent to sent to 2 million homes in more than 100 countries. In past years, some of the specialty gifts included his and hers Hovercrafts and a 14-karat gold toy train set with an engine encrusted in diamonds.

There are some gifts under $100 for more frugal consumers, such as two miniature snow-globe bottle stoppers for $55. The cheapest item is a tin of Christmas cookies for $18.

Smoking Stubbed Out in Central Tokyo Streets

Oct 1, 9:00 am ET 

TOKYO  - If health concerns and the danger of singeing passers by have failed to deter Tokyo's smokers from lighting up on the city's crowded streets, perhaps a $164 fine will do the trick.

Smoking on the street was banned in parts of central Tokyo on Tuesday, in a blow to Japan's reputation as a tobacco addict's paradise.

Fifty uniformed cigarette patrol officers set out in the morning, armed with ashtrays and placards entreating smokers to stub out their cigarettes.

Although smokers complied, not all approved of the new regulation.

"If I can smoke without bothering anyone, I don't see what the problem is. I think they're being a bit too strict," said company employee Atsuya Goto, smoking as he punched out a message on his mobile phone.

Others were contrite about the effects of their habit.

"It's absolutely the right thing to do," said Natsuo Tanaka, a 40-year-old patent attorney. "We are polluting the streets, and it's not really right to smoke where there are a lot of people nearby," he added.

The new regulations, rare in a country where an estimated 53 percent of men smoke, had been publicized in advance by a troop of young people in cigarette costumes who jigged through the streets handing out leaflets at the weekend.

As of next month, anyone caught smoking on certain busy streets more than once will face a $164 fine.

The ward office introduced the regulation to help keep the area litter-free and cut down on the number of incidents where people are burned by passing smokers.

Hungry Attic Rats Save Swedish Tax Fraud Suspect

Oct 1, 8:59 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A Swedish woman suspected of tax fraud has been found not guilty by a district court after it proved impossible to produce evidence against her, the Swedish TT news agency reported Tuesday.

The woman told the court that rats in her attic had eaten up the cashier records she stashed there after her restaurant, which was under investigation for tax fraud, went bankrupt, TT quoted the local Orebro-Kuriren as saying.

Twin Towers Cake Pulled from Australian Show-Report

Oct 1, 8:59 am ET 

SYDNEY  - A cake showing a plane crashing into New York's World Trade Center has been pulled from a show in Western Australia after parents complained their children could be upset, a local news agency reported Tuesday.

The 12-inches-tall fruit cake depicting the Twin Towers and a plane made from spaghetti covered in icing caused considerable controversy at the Perth Royal Show, the Australian News Source reported.

Show organizers first tried to stifle the furor by turning the cake around to hide the aircraft, but complaints continued to flow in from parents who feared their children would be traumatized by memories of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The news agency said the cake was baked by a former academic identified only as John.

The man said he had entered the cake in the show to stimulate debate about a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq just over a year after hijacked passenger jets were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, killing about 3,000 people.

Leechcraft Fans Keep Poor Albanian in Business

Sep 30, 9:27 am ET 

By Benet Koleka

BERAT, Albania  - The man they call the "doctor" is illiterate. He cleans the public toilet and can afford only salads in the summer, beans in the winter and vodka throughout the year.

But come May or August, Kujtim Selami and the leeches he catches for a living are a fashionable commodity in the southern town of Berat, the oldest settlement in poverty-stricken Albania.

Townspeople and outlying villagers alike knock at his door to have leeches applied where their bodies ache, hoping the worm-like creatures will suck out the "bad blood."

Selami refers to the leeches he catches in the marshes near Berat as "pills." He sells them for a pittance on which he ekes out the most meager of existences.

"This is just like changing the oil and filters of a car," said Selami in an attempt at a scientific explanation.

"She cleans the bad because she has a liquid she throws inside your body and sucks out the bad blood."

BENEFICIAL BLOODSUCKERS

The leech is a parasite the size of a man's little finger which clamps itself to the flesh of its host and sucks out blood, injecting a foamy anti-coagulant at the same time.

The backs of the ones Selami sells in Berat are covered in black, red and blue dots and their bellies are a deep green. On a feast of blood they can grow to the size of an adult's middle finger and drop away from the body.

Then, Selami says, they should be disposed of carefully "not to let the bad blood spill out," and be buried.

Leeches were a popular form of medical treatment for centuries throughout Europe, believed to be a cure for anything from headaches to gout, much like in Berat nowadays. But they were discarded with the advent of 20th century medicine.

Now, they are back in vogue as a clean, effective treatment for wounds. Since the 1970s surgeons have regained respect for the little bloodsucker, whose body was seemingly tailor-made for establishing and maintaining blood flow to damaged limbs.

Hospitals need them so much that leeches are being farmed.

Only in Albania, however, can you see them in the market.

When Selami sits by the sidewalk exhibiting his writhing leeches in glass jars and looking at women's legs, his thoughts are on sales.

"Leeches are very good for bulging veins in the backs of the legs. But the women are afraid of using them," he said.

He used to sell leeches at about 100 leks (70 cents) each but competition from two other leech-catchers from Berat forced him to cut the price to 30 or even 20 leks.

Sipping his glass of cheap vodka with a trembling hand, Selami says he may break even at the end of the month or have as much as four dollars left over.

He splits the work and the proceeds with Shame Karavolli, a broad featured man whose job it is to sell the leeches on the market when Selami is out hunting in the marshes.

In Berat people apply leeches for illnesses such as high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, skin afflictions and boils.

A local engineer said he took the treatment in addition to mainstream medicine to lower his cholesterol level "because even respected doctors and pharmacists told me to go ahead and friends told me they felt relaxed after the cure."

"It felt just like the light pricking of a bee for 45 minutes and I have to admit I felt better," he said.

Selami says old people take his cure regularly even when they are in good form.

BY THE FISTFUL

He reaches the leech marshes through a field full of oil well pumps. His hand stops trembling, his lost look focuses on the pond and he starts stirring the water with his legs and hands.

A few minutes later, his fist comes out full of what looks like thick, writhing worms which he detaches with difficulty.

He returns to his bare room, a bed and table full of plastic and glass containers. He bottles his catch in plain water, no more than 20 at a time "because they might eat each other."

"Last year I had 30 live for one year by changing their water every day," Selami said, smiling with pride at this rare feat of leechcraft.

Despite being the only respectable leech man in town, he has not yet achieved the status of his teacher "Sadik The Leech," who died 30 years ago.

But while Sadik is enshrined only in memory, an Albanian national daily has devoted a small story to Selami, which he cut out and keeps in his jacket pocket.

"This is about me but I cannot read. I have had it read to me, but I guess that is nothing compared to reading it myself."

Three Iranians to Be Lashed for Filming Women

Sep 30, 9:25 am ET 

TEHRAN, Iran  - An Iranian court has sentenced three Iranian men resident in Germany to 64 lashes each for filming and harassing women in the streets, the official Iran newspaper said Thursday.

It said the three men from Hamburg, aged between 18 and 24, came to Tehran on holiday and attempted to make what they said was a documentary film on social life in the Islamic Republic.

"We started to shoot films of every woman we made friends with from the time we met them until the time we left them," the newspaper quoted one of the men as saying.

According to Iran's strict Islamic law, social contact between unmarried members of the opposite sex is officially illegal, although enforcement of these laws has been more relaxed in the last five years.

The men were also sentenced to pay $1,200 and banned from leaving the country until "the necessary investigations have been completed," the newspaper said.

Princess Anne Faces Court over Alleged Dog Attack

Sep 30, 9:23 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's Princess Anne has been ordered to appear in court after one of her bull terrier dogs allegedly attacked a couple in a royal park.

Buckingham Palace said Tim Laurence, the husband of Anne who is formally known as the Princess Royal, has also been summoned to appear.

"We can confirm that the Princess Royal and Commodore Tim Laurence have received a summons to appear before magistrates in due course," a palace spokesman told The News Source, without giving further details.

Earlier, the Mail Sunday newspaper reported that the attack allegedly happened in July while Anne and her husband were exercising their dogs in the sprawling Windsor Great Park, west of London and close to Windsor Castle. The paper said no one was seriously hurt.

The paper said Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth and younger sister of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had been called to court on October 9.

It said the pair could face prosecution under Britain's Dangerous Dog Act and a possible fine of up to $7,800.

It is very unlikely the royals will attend in person.

It was thought to be the first time that a royal of Anne's seniority has been summoned to appear in a criminal court for anything other than a speeding offence.

Blood and Guts on Menu for Romania Dracula Park

Sep 30, 9:21 am ET 

By Adrian Dascalu

BUCHAREST, Romania  - Scary jelly, blood pudding and brains will be on the menu if Romania goes ahead with a Dracula theme park, but critics are more afraid it could spoil the nearby medieval birthplace of "Vlad the Impaler."

Romania plans to build the park near the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara, birthplace of 15th century Romanian Count Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, who is thought to have inspired Irish author Bram Stoker's Gothic novel "Dracula."

The government said Monday it planned to go ahead with the $30 million Disney-style park despite widespread resistance .

U.N. cultural body UNESCO says the park -- expected to feature a horror castle, a "vampirology" institute and restaurants serving gory dishes -- would kill the medieval atmosphere of Sighisoara, which dates back to the 13th century.

A Tourism Ministry spokesman told The News Source Monday the location of the park depended on a study due out next month, rather than UNESCO's views.

"We respect UNESCO's stand ... but this is a government project and UNESCO cannot put constraints on it. If the experts think that Sighisoara is the right place, we will build it there, there is no doubt about it," he said.

Government promises of around 3,000 new jobs in the park have won over many locals, hit hard by unemployment. But some fear the provincial town's morals will be eroded.

"This place will be invaded by those who practice satanic rites and by drugs. I already saw satanic graffiti in our cemetery," local Lutheran priest Hans Frolich said.

"What could children see in such a park? People who sharpen their teeth and drink blood or some crazy guys clad in bed sheets and posing as ghosts? It's ridiculous," Frolich said.

Glossy Tourism Ministry brochures advertise workshops for sharpening teeth into fangs at the park, as well as mock torture chambers with stakes and knives.

"Building a Dracula park near Sighisoara would endanger the cultural value of the city," UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura said this month after visiting the town, which is listed as protected by the U.N body.

Critics also point out the park would be far from any big city or international airport, which could hinder its success.

Chewing Gum Back in Castro's Cuba-Just for Show

Sep 30, 9:19 am ET 

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA  - M&M's are back in Cuba.

So is Wrigley's Spearmint gum, and a host of American products -- from Kellogg's Corn Flakes to Uncle Ben's rice and Sara Lee cakes -- not sold on the Communist-run island since the 1950s.

So far, however, they are just on show, tantalizingly close for many Cubans who recall the days of American influence before Fidel Castro's revolution turned to the Soviet Union and Washington slapped trade sanctions on Cuba.

Classic American household names and the fast food king -- the burger -- went on display on Thursday at the first trade fair by major U.S. food companies trying to take advantage of new rules and recover a market they lost four decades ago.

"As kids, we would fight for M&M's," says Cuban journalist Enrique Lopez Oliva, 65, for whom the little candies are a symbol of his generation. "We ate them at the cinema, watching films of cowboys and gangsters."

M&Ms and chewing gum were part of the U.S. influence in Cuba, along with baseball, basketball and the American cars of the 1950s still chugging along dilapidated Havana streets.

"Gum was chewed here until 1961. It was sold at the cinema entrance in those days, and popcorn too," recalls Angel Tomas Gonzalez, another Cuban reporter. Castro banned gum in 1959 as ideologically unacceptable in the new socialist workers' state.

It wasn't until 1993, when Cuba was forced to accept the inevitable and legalize the dollar, the currency of its main political foe, that chewing gum reappeared.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro -- an avowed enemy of capitalism -- has allowed a limited opening to a free market and flirted with foreign investors. Late last year, Cuba started buying U.S. food -- wheat, corn, rice, chicken, apples -- after Washington eased its trade embargo under pressure from farm states and agribusiness eager to return to a traditional nearby market.

Chewing gum is among items classified as food.

HAVANA AS PLAYGROUND

Back in the 1950s, when Havana was a playground for Americans and Mafia bosses, supermarkets sold meat that was cut and packed in the United States, ready for the Cuban consumer, Oliva said.

Today, young Cubans have no "chewing gum culture," said Gonzalez, and fast food joints that arrived in the 1940s to replace the Spanish cafes disappeared.

Since opening up to tourism and the U.S. dollar in the last decade, Cuba has created fast food outlets -- some called El Rapido -- that are a pale imitation.

The Castro government is now seeking to improve the quality of food products in Cuba by turning to the old enemy.

' Earlier this year, Marsh Supermarkets of Indiana became the first U.S. company to sell branded products to Cuba in 43 years. Marsh soda bottles are now sold in dollar-priced shops in Havana.

At the five-day U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition, chief sponsor Archer Daniels Midland erected a 1950s diner, the icon of American cuisine, complete with stools and Wurlitzer juke box. Cuban officials will get to taste soy burgers and vanilla shakes mixed with Cuban bananas.

Master Foods Interamerica, subsidiary of Mars Inc., makers of M&Ms, Milky Way and Mars bars and Uncle Ben's rice, does not expect to land an enormous quantity of contracts.

So far the company goods are only sold in duty-free shops at Cuba's airports. "We are looking at Cuba's 1.8 million tourists a year, who know our products," said Master's international marketing manager, Philippe Belland.

Man in Wheelchair Scales World's Tallest Tower

Sep 30, 9:18 am ET 

TORONTO  - Canadian paralympian Jeff Adams climbed the 1,776 stairs of the world largest tower in a wheelchair to show the disabled world some of the biggest obstacles can be overcome.

Adams, a four-time competitor at the Paralympics, believes stairs are among the biggest barriers to people in wheelchairs.

"The best part of living is standing up to a barrier," Adams told reporters.

Adams, 31, is the first person to attempt and complete climbing Toronto's CN Tower in a wheelchair. It took some 5 hours to climb Thursday, moving backwards in a specially made wheelchair, the inside staircase of the tower that dominates the skyline of Canada's most populous city.

"It's so outside the box and also something you never thought was possible in a wheelchair," he said.

The challenge was part of his campaign to raise money for a program run by the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons that addresses some of the challenges faced by the disabled.

Adams started the program after he was asked to leave a restaurant where his wheelchair was considered a fire hazard.

"We decided to respond to the negative situation in a positive way," he said.

At the age of 9 when he was struck with transverse myelitis, a disorder that sometimes results in the loss of movement in the legs, Adams quickly learned that stairs were his biggest foe.

Adams has won 12 medals at Paralympic games, two silvers at World Championships and was the prior World Record holder in the 1,500m men's wheelchair event.

According to his fund-raising group, donations topped $63,000.

Britain's 'Loony Party' Courts Votes for Insanity

Sep 30, 9:17 am ET 

By Georgina Prodhan

LONDON  - As Britain's main political parties hold their weighty annual conferences, the country's official lunatic fringe is meeting in the Dog and Partridge pub for a very different convention.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party has been bringing flamboyant madness to Britain's political scene for almost 20 years, and this year's annual conference in the genteel town of Yateley, southern England, is no exception.

Friday saw a 'cabinet' reshuffle. "That basically consisted of us all standing in a cabinet and being shuffled. It fell to bits so now there's a cabinet split," leader Alan "Howling Laud" Hope told The News Source by phone from the pub, where he is the landlord.

The Loony Party -- called "Official" to distinguish it from what the party calls the "unofficial loony" ruling Labor and opposition Conservative and Liberal parties -- was founded by the late David "Screaming Lord" Sutch in 1983.

Intending to rattle the self-importance of mainstream parties, one-time rock musician Sutch in his trademark top hat and leopard-skin coat contested 39 elections, and lost them all.

But he delighted a British public increasingly disillusioned with politics, adopting unlikely policies and the slogan: "Vote for Insanity -- You know it makes sense!"

On Friday, the party's manifesto collator, who delights in the name of "R.U. Seerius," was mulling a variety of proposals in preparation for a general election in 2005.

"Whereas in other parties you have to be a member, with us anyone can send one in," Seerius told The News Source from the pub where some 30 loyal members have been meeting since Thursday with a determined lack of agenda.

Policies included improving rail safety by tying a cushion to the front of trains and teaching paintball in schools.

But Loony policies do exist on more serious issues.

"We're not going to join the euro," Seerius said, referring to the debate over whether Britain should join Europe's single currency. "We're going to invite all the other countries to join the pound."

But among past proposals such as turning Europe's 1980s butter surplus -- or "butter mountain" as it was known -- into a ski slope, some came to look less silly as time went on.

Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, legalizing commercial radio in Britain and the abolition of dog licenses were Loony policies that made it onto the statutes.

Sutch committed suicide in 1999, shocking a public who had only seen his buffoonish side.

"He was nothing like you imagined. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, he didn't swear," said Hope.

"He was very, very quiet, he was a gentleman," he added, saying he would carry on Sutch's tradition with this year's conference -- "a giant step backward for mankind."

Poles May Shun Guinness if Irish Reject EU Vote

Sep 30, 9:15 am ET 

BERLIN  - Ireland's Guinness beer won't taste as good if Irish voters reject the European Union's Nice treaty and sink the bloc's expansion plans, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski was quoted as saying Saturday.

Ireland is due to hold a second referendum on the EU's Nice treaty on October 19. A "yes" vote is seen as crucial if the EU is to admit up to 10 new members, mainly east European countries including Poland, as planned in 2004.

"If it all goes badly, we won't go to war, but Guinness consumption could fall dramatically because the beer will taste more bitter to us," Kwasniewski said in an interview with Tagesspiegel newspaper's Sunday edition.

The EU aims to conclude negotiations with the candidates this December to give both sides time to ratify accession treaties.

Poland plans a referendum on membership. Latest opinion polls put supporters of the EU well ahead of those opposing membership, but Kwasniewski noted there was a risk that the turnout might be less than the required 50 percent.

He said Poland had a contingency plan.

"In the case of an invalid referendum, the decision would automatically be delegated to parliament. No one can then say they were not asked."

Stretching to Accommodate a Giant Athlete

Sep 28, 2:57 pm ET 

PUSAN, South Korea  - A South Korean furniture firm has made a huge chair and table for giant North Korean basketball player Ri Myung-hun to use during the Asian Games starting in this port city Sunday.

Ri is 7-feet-7 tall and a member of the North Korean team attending the region's top sporting event. The Games run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 14.

Ri's table and chair have been made to measure. The table is about eight inches higher than other normal size tables in restaurants at the athletes village, Kim Yu-su, an official at furniture maker Daehan, said by telephone.

For the North Korean basketball player, once a candidate to reach the American National Basketball Association, Pusan Asian Games organizers attached an extension to a normal bed to make it more than 20 inches longer, said Asian Games organizing committee official Choi Hyung-joo.

The organizers also decided to remodel a bus for Ri by removing one of the front seats so he could comfortably sit and stretch his legs, Choi said.

A ferry carrying North Korean supporters is scheduled to arrive Saturday, completing the largest delegation the North has sent to the rival South.

Monday, 173 North Korean athletes and team officials arrived in Pusan. Another 152 athletes and officials are due to arrive Friday and will stay at athletes' village, where communist North Korea's flag is hoisted. 

Zoo Workers Kick Up a Stink over Wages

Sep 27, 10:57 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Workers at Sydney's harborside Taronga zoo are refusing to collect animal dung in a protest over wages.

The Australian Workers' Union said Friday that the maintenance workers would down shovels to press their demands for a three percent pay increase.

"Something stinks at the zoo and, come tomorrow, the public will be able to witness it for themselves," said the union's state secretary for New South Wales, Russ Collison.

"What has outraged the workers is that management have given themselves the three percent pay rise but are denying it to the workforce," Collison said in a statement.

The managers of the zoo, where elephants, lions and other wildlife graze and prowl in sight of the famous Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge, said animals would be on display as usual over the weekend.

The zoo had "adequate holding facilities" for storing animal waste without disturbing visitors, the zoo's chief executive Stephen Rees said in a statement. 

Parliament Speaks Out for Ostrich Rights

Sep 27, 10:56 am ET 

BERLIN  - German parliamentarians stood up for the rights of ostriches on Friday, calling on the government to lay down minimum standards under which the birds should be kept before being killed for their meat.

The Bundesrat upper house asked for existing animal protection legislation to be fleshed out to include the ostrich.

The bird has become a popular dish for Germans seeking alternatives to traditional meat and poultry after a number of Europe-wide health scares.

The regional government of Schleswig-Holstein, which is home to 20 ostrich farms, said studies had shown the birds, which can grow up to six feet tall and weigh up to 330 pounds, each need 2,150 square feet of space.

It said safeguards were also needed to ensure the animals, usually found in Africa, do not freeze in cold German winters. 

Doctors Advised to Stop Interrupting and Listen

Sep 27, 10:55 am ET 

LONDON  - Doctors should keep quiet and let patients explain their problems instead of interrupting them, Swiss scientists said Friday.

Most patients can explain what is wrong with them in less than two minutes and many may even be swifter, according to Dr. Wolf Langewitz of University Hospital in Basle.

But research from the United States has shown that doctors usually start talking after about 22 seconds.

"Doctors do not risk being swamped by their patients' complaints if they listen until a patient indicates that his or her list of complaints is complete," Langewitz said in a report in the British Medical Journal.

When he and his colleagues used a hidden stopwatch to time patients until they were finished talking, the average time was 92 seconds, although elderly patients tended to take longer.

"Even in a busy practice driven by time constraints and financial pressure, two minutes of listening should be possible and will be sufficient for nearly 80 percent of patients," Langewitz added. 

U.N. Upholds Ban on 'Dwarf Throwing'

Sep 27, 10:54 am ET 

GENEVA  - A tiny stuntman who protested against a French ban on the bizarre practice of "dwarf throwing" lost his case before a U.N. human rights body, which said the need to protect human dignity was paramount.

Manuel Wackenheim had argued the 1995 ban by France's highest administrative court was discriminatory and deprived him of a job being hurled around discotheques by burly men.

In a statement Friday the U.N. Human Rights Committee said it was satisfied "the ban on dwarf-tossing was not abusive but necessary in order to protect public order, including considerations of human dignity." The committee also said the ban "did not amount to prohibited discrimination."

The pastime, imported from the United States and Australia in the 1980s, consists of people throwing tiny stuntmen as far as possible, usually in a bar or discotheque.

The stuntman wears a crash helmet and padded clothing which has handles on the back to facilitate throwing the human projectile.

The Frenchman, who measures 1.14 meter (3 ft 10 inches), filed his case in 1999 with the U.N. committee made up of 18 independent experts who examine states' compliance with the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

A New Line of Work for the Tooth Fairy?

Sep 27, 10:53 am ET 

BOSTON  - The tooth fairy may soon have a new line of business.

U.S. doctors said they have managed to grow living pig teeth in rats, a feat of biotechnology that experts said could spark a dental revolution.

Researchers at Boston's Forsyth Institute said their successful experiment suggests the existence of dental stem cells, which could one day allow a person to replace a lost tooth with an identical one grown from his or her own cells.

"The ability to identify, isolate and propagate dental stem cells to use in biological replacement tooth therapy has the potential to revolutionize dentistry," said Dominick DePaola, president and CEO of the institute that focuses on oral and facial science.

The researchers said they hope that within five years they will have developed techniques to grow teeth of a specific size and shape, and that within 10 years it will be possible to regenerate human teeth. 

Does Saddam Have Three Doubles??

Sep 27, 10:53 am ET 

BERLIN  - A German television network said on Thursday it had made a scientific study of 450 photographs of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and concluded there are at least three doubles posing as the Iraqi president.

The ZDF public television network, working with a German coroner, said it took the photographs and film clips of Saddam which it had in its archives and used facial recognition technology to determine that men said to be him were lookalikes.

"In the film sequences since 1998 only the doubles appear," said Dieter Buhmann, a Homburg coroner. "He himself has not been seen again."

ZDF said in a news report and statement on its Web site (www.heute.t-online.de) ahead of the broadcast of its findings later on Thursday that "a scientific investigation proved that the 65-year-old ruler allows at least three doubles to replace him at official appearances."

ZDF said it was difficult to tell which were the doubles and which was the real Saddam Hussein.

"They have apparently undergone surgery to appear to look like the statesman," ZDF said. "The doubles have mastered Saddam's gestures and perfectly mimic Saddam, with only tiny details separating them from the real Saddam Hussein."

ZDF also quoted a physician, Muslim Al-Asadi, whom it said has been studying lookalikes for years.

"Between Saddam Hussein and another person who appeared in Iraqi television I was able to detect five different facial differences between the original and the double presented by Iraqi television," he was quoted telling ZDF. 

Boat Offered to Man Lost at Sea for Months

Sep 27, 10:52 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A California man inspired by a Vietnamese-born sailor's harrowing four-month journey adrift at sea said he would like to give his sloop to Richard Van Pham, who survived by eating turtles and fish that swam near his tiny sailboat until his rescue by a Navy warship.

The hair-raising tale of Pham's accidental 2,500-mile voyage on the Pacific Ocean, carried around the world by media outlets, has prompted several offers of financial help and new boats.

Pham, 62, lost his home and nearly all of his belongings when Navy engineers scuttled his 26-foot sailboat, the Sea Breeze, after rescuing him near Costa Rica on Sept. 17.

In an interview with "Good Morning America," Pham said he prayed to God during his ordeal, asking: "Let me go right away. Don't let me stay like this."

The rainwater he drank and sea creatures that sustained him, as well as his rescue by the Navy frigate McClusky were God's answers to those prayers, he said.

Erwin Freund, a 49-year-old scientist and recreational sailor from Long Beach, California, said he wanted to donate his boat to the diminutive Pham, who has been forced to rely on charity for food and shelter since he returned to Los Angeles. 

Top-Selling Recording Artist Returns to Jail

Sep 27, 10:50 am ET 

BOGOTA, Colombia  - Colombia's top-selling musician ended a year and a half on the run by walking into prison, where he will serve time for his lover's fatal overdose -- and, Sony hopes, record a new album.

Diomedes Diaz, whose wailing Vallenato songs about love and country life have sold 16 million copies in this Andean nation of 40 million people, resurfaced Thursday in front of a prison in the sweltering northern town of Valledupar to start a sentence recently reduced from 12 to three years, his lawyer said.

The 45-year-old musician was convicted for the wrongful death of Doris Adriana Nino, whose body was found outside of Bogota five years ago after the two sniffed cocaine at his apartment. She was 22 years old.

Now that he's no longer a fugitive, Sony Entertainment Music says that -- with the right paperwork -- Diaz can start recording again.

"We were waiting for him to turn himself in, and now it's a legal process," said Viviana Torres, a spokeswoman for Sony Colombia. "If he puts out a record, it will sell."

Diaz, benefiting from an illness that temporarily paralyzed him, had spent less than a year under house arrest when a judge decided to send him back to jail. The singer quickly bolted.

Many Colombians sympathized with Diaz's dash for freedom. Especially in Valledupar, the birthplace of Vallenato music -- in which yelping vocals are laid over bouncing accordion music, anchored only by a slow, steady rhythm. His lawyer, Evelio Daza, called the conviction a "dark and sinister conspiracy." 

Man in Wheelchair Scales World's Tallest Tower

Sep 27, 10:47 am ET 

TORONTO  - Canadian paralympian Jeff Adams climbed the 1,776 stairs of the world largest tower in a wheelchair to show the disabled world some of the biggest obstacles can be overcome.

Adams, a four-time competitor at the Paralympics, believes stairs are among the biggest barriers to people in wheelchairs.

"The best part of living is standing up to a barrier," Adams told reporters.

Adams, 31, is the first person to attempt and complete climbing Toronto's CN Tower in a wheelchair. It took some five hours to climb Thursday, moving backwards in a specially made wheelchair, the inside staircase of the tower that dominates the skyline of Canada's most populous city.

"It's so outside the box and also something you never thought was possible in a wheelchair," he said.

The challenge was part of his campaign to raise money for a program run by the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons that addresses some of the challenges faced by the disabled.

Adams started the program after he was asked to leave a restaurant where his wheelchair was considered a fire hazard.

"We decided to respond to the negative situation in a positive way," he said.

At the age of nine when he was struck with Transverse Myelitis, a disorder that sometimes results in the loss of movement in the legs, Adams quickly learned that stairs were his biggest foe.

Adams has won 12 medals at Paralympic games, two silvers at World Championships and was the prior World Record holder in the 1,500m men's wheelchair event.

According to his fund-raising group, donations topped $63,000. 

The Picnic for Bears Is Over

Sep 27, 10:45 am ET 

BUCHAREST  - When Romanians shot Nicolae Ceausescu, it was good news for the bears -- the Communist dictator had shot hundreds of them personally.

Now, though, the party's over -- the bears have become so numerous in some areas that Romanians are shooting them again.

In Brasov, more than a dozen brown bears have been picnicking on garbage among the city's drab tower blocks, prompting authorities to begin culling the animals, which have been hunted to extinction in much of the rest of Europe.

"We've put down three and plan to kill another four in the coming weeks," the head of the local hunting association, Tudor Danet, told The News Source on Thursday. "They might become dangerous."

Since Ceausescu's summary execution on Christmas Day 1989, bear numbers have risen sharply, Danet added -- Ceausescu used to invite cronies and foreign dignitaries to lavish shooting parties, sometimes bagging dozens of bears in a single day.

Some locals who have been making money by acting as guides for Western tourists keen for a sight of the animals are not happy about the cull. But Danet said the area of Transylvanian mountain around Brasov could not support the 34 bears there now. "It's a pity," German tourist Erich Zimen told television in Brasov, some 100 miles north of Bucharest. "They are wonderful. And if you are courageous you can even feed them." 

'Rampant Rabbit' Sex Toys Recalled in Safety Scare

Sep 26, 11:23 am ET 

LONDON  - A rabbit-eared sex toy was recalled on Thursday by British retailer Ann Summers out of concern it could cause injury to an unsuspecting user.

The lingerie and sex toy chain said a batch of about 150,000 of the top-selling "Rampant Rabbit" vibrators were found to have defective seals that might allow the spillage of tiny beads contained in the shaft.

The firm warned in newspaper advertisements and on its Web Site it was recalling those vibrators sold between May and September 2002 "in the interest of public safety."

"It is a precaution -- the chances of anything going wrong with it are actually minuscule," Ann Summers spokeswoman Rebecca Franklin told The News Source.

She said the company checked its stocks after a customer wrote to say she was unhappy with the quality of the seven-inch device, which contains pearly colored beads and is topped with two attachments resembling rabbit ears.

The Rampant Rabbit has been flying off store shelves since a character praised it in the hit U.S. television series "Sex and City." 

Sex Has a New Home in New York City

Sep 26, 11:22 am ET 

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK  - Sex has a new home in the city.

The porn shops and peep shows of Times Square may be gone but they will not be forgotten, courtesy of The Museum of Sex, an adults only institution dedicated to chronicling some of the most basic urges known to man and woman.

Four years in the conception, the high-brow museum among the low-rise office buildings on Fifth Avenue and 27th Street opens to the public on Saturday with its debut exhibition, "NYC Sex: How New York City Transformed Sex in America."

Part historical, part educational, part entertaining and certainly part titillating, the museum offers a journey through the sexual landscape of the city starting from the mid-19th century via photographs, posters, art, objects, documents, film and cartoons ranging from the benign to X-rated graphic.

Why a museum of sex? Executive director Daniel Gluck said the absence of one screamed out at him.

"It's not like it has been a lifelong dream to open a museum of sex. It just struck me," Gluck said at Wednesday's press preview. The gallery was in a state of virtual undress with only a third of the exhibition available for viewing.

"It's like if there was no Museum of Modern Art. I said, 'Why isn't there a museum of sex?' It's as important as that."

You must be at least 18 years old to plunk down the $17 admission price for the museum (http://nycsex.museumofsex.com), which might become a dating destination with its closing time of 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays.

The museum takes itself, and its subject, seriously.

DISTINGUISHED CURATOR

The curator, Grady Turner, was formerly director of exhibitions at The New York Historical Society, where his tenure included "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America," among the museum's best-attended exhibitions.

The museum's Board of Historian Advisors numbers 14, most of whom are college academics.

"The surprising thing is that this is the first serious museum of sex to open in the United States," said Dr. June Reinisch, former director of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and a senior advisor to the museum.

"It says a lot about America. America is still conservative sexually.

"You see them in Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, in Spain. Japan has one, even Shanghai has one."

The exhibit builds from the exuberance of post-Civil War times to law enforcement attempts to clamp down on abortion and gay lifestyles around the turn of the century.

Graphic stag films, one predating 1920, show sex acts and full nudity on a wall across from a sophisticated display of so-called "Tijuana Bibles" -- sexually explicit comic books, some drawn by noted cartoonists for fun and profit depicting movie stars and public figures engaged in lewd acts.

Those displays reside in the Flesh and Smut sections. Other sections are named Bizarre, Gear, Changing Sex, Beefcake, Cheesecake, Butch/Femmes, Homoerotics and Marketing Kink.

PROGRESSIVELY MORE GRAPHIC

Gluck, who holds an arts degree from The Graduate School of Fine Arts at The University of Pennsylvania and a business degree from The Wharton School at the university, said sections of the exhibition not displayed on Wednesday get progressively more graphic.

"Some of the historical displays are very straight," he acknowledged about the tame nature at the very start.

"The '60's and '70s were the golden era of porn," he said of the sections still to come. "We're not trying to titillate, but we show bits of "Deep Throat," for instance, which started porn chic and is one of the best selling films ever."

Gluck said the goal was to educate and entertain. "We're riding that line," he said. "We have the kind of subject we can easily push on either side of that line."

Turner said there were interactive sections not yet on display, including what he considered a compelling look at a police raid on a gay bathhouse in 1903.

The curator said undercover police in the bathhouse pointed out those who had engaged in sex to the uniformed officers that conducted the raid.

The undercover cops gave recorded testimony, awkward in their accounts and somewhat humorous to the modern-day ear, which gallery goers can read or hear read aloud.

"It is kind of funny to hear," said Turner. "But chilling to know that 26 men were charged with sodomy and one man was sentenced to 20 years for sodomy involving consensual sex."

A portion of ticket proceeds from NYC Sex will benefit ACRIA (The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America), The Kinsey Institute and The Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Unemployed Turn to TV Show to Win Jobs

Sep 26, 11:13 am ET 

BERLIN  - Germans competing in a new television gameshow will not be bidding to win a luxury car or exotic holiday. In a country where four million people are out of work, the prize is much more sought-after: a job.

Two unemployed people will compete for one job contract in each show, and viewers will get to decide who they think is best suited to the post, said Marcus Wolter, program director at the Neun Live channel.

"There might be two hairdressers for example, who have to show how well they treat customers and, of course, how well they can cut hair," he said on Thursday.

Neun Live, a game and quiz show channel, largely finances itself through viewers' phone calls and by selling holidays.

The new show, which will go on air in late autumn has triggered criticism from unions and social organizations.

"Those who want to exploit the unemployed for visual ends are playing with the fears and hopes of people in a shameless and despicable manner," said Walter Hirrlinger, president of the VdK social federation.

Germany's DGB trade union federation told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper finding jobs for the unemployed should rest with professionals and not a TV show.

But Wolter said TV audiences were well-equipped to choose the better candidate without being employment experts: "If people can vote for their favorite song in the Eurovision song contest without having a music degree, why shouldn't they also vote in our show without being job experts?" 

Fire Ban Rains on Uncle Sam Protest

Sep 26, 11:09 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australia's looming bushfire season claimed its first victim Thursday -- anti-U.S. demonstrators who tried to burn an American flag in Sydney.

"No, you can't do that, there's a total fire ban," a police officer said as he yanked the flag from two protesters who had set a corner of the flag afire with a lighter.

The demonstration of several dozen people against a possible U.S. military offensive in Iraq fizzled.

After one of the driest winters on record, and with the El Nino weather event promising to bring more drought and heat, Australia is bracing for another ferocious bushfire season.

Fire bans were imposed in New South Wales state.

No fires can be lit in the open. Electric or gas barbecues can only be used within 65 feet of a home and must be supervised by "responsible adult" with running water at hand. 

Ladyshaver Sets Off Bomb Alert

Sep 26, 11:08 am ET 

HELSINKI  - A buzzing ladyshaver in the luggage of the Finnish prime minister's wife set off a bomb alert near the European Union-Asian summit in Copenhagen earlier this week, Finnish media reported on Thursday.

The Danish police's bomb squad was called in after the driver of the car carrying the luggage of Paivi Lipponen heard a suspicious sound coming from one of her bags. The area was sealed off but did not disrupt the EU-Asia (ASEM) summit.

"It was suspected that there might be a bomb in my bag. But there was no bomb," she told tabloid Iltalehti.

Security was extra tight in Copenhagen for the meeting of representatives from 25 European and Asian countries, including many leaders.

Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen said police overreacted.

"Over-zealous policemen checked our bags with bomb sniffing dogs. Instead of using their sense they used something else," Paavo Lipponen told Ilta-Sanomat. 

Vietnamese Woman May Be World's Oldest Person

Sep 26, 11:07 am ET 

HANOI  - A few days after the Japanese record holder celebrated her 115th birthday, Vietnam may have turned up its own candidate for the title of world's oldest person.

Like Kamato Hongo, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living woman, Vu Thi Dao in northern Vietnam was born in 1887.

But while Hongo celebrated her 115th birthday on September 16, only Dao's year of birth is recorded in Vietnamese identification documents.

Dao's potential status as the oldest person came to light in local media. The Phu Nu (Women) newspaper splashed pictures of a grey-haired, heavily wrinkled Dao flashing a toothless grin in its Wednesday edition.

She lives in southern Vietnam with her 52-year-old grandson Nguyen Thanh Chuong, who says she is in good health, able to converse and was walking easily until a fall a few years ago.

"Had she not fallen, I'm sure she would still have been able to live the way she did, walking around the house just like a normal person," said Chuong, a pig farmer.

"She can now just eat and sleep on her bed for most of the day," he added.

Authorities in Dao's northern home town confirmed her age.

"She was born in 1887. Her identification document, like most other similar documents in the old days, doesn't have details about her date of birth," said Pham Thien Minh, the chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Nai precinct in Dong Nai.

Minh said the precinct had two other elderly women, born in 1891 and 1902. He said all three were honored with presents each October 1 for the International Day for Elderly People.

Dao, a long-term widow with one son, outlived two sisters and a brother, all of whom died in their 90s. She has numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Chuong said he did not know the longevity secret of his grandmother, who lives on rice-gruel with minced meat and other soft food.

"She hasn't had vegetables and fruit for some time as she has no teeth left. I just don't know why she can live that long," he said.

Japan is also home to the world's oldest man, 113-year-old Yukichi Chuganji. 

Enron's 'Crooked E' Sign Sold at Auction

Sep 26, 11:03 am ET 

By C. Bryson Hull

HOUSTON  - Enron Corp. sold a prized asset for 88 times its asking price, but this time it didn't need an accountant, banker or chief financial officer to make the deal -- just an auctioneer.

The Houston company Wednesday sold off a 5-foot chrome sign of its "Crooked E" logo for $44,000 -- about the price of a nicely equipped Lexus sedan -- as part of a huge auction to raise money for creditors owed billions in its collapse.

The Enron sign, fittingly marked "Lot No. 1," was the centerpiece of a two-day auction of thousands of company surplus TVs, computers, printers, chairs, knicknacks and other items that washed up after Enron filed for bankruptcy last December amid questions about its accounting.

The winning bidder, Jimmy Luu, said he did it on behalf of his boss at Microcache, a three-store Houston computer retail and repair chain. The opening bid for the "E" was just $500.

"He said do anything to get it," Luu said, declining to identify his boss. "He just said 'Get the E."'

All Luu had to do was keep bidding higher, prompted by a raucous crowd that stood on its tip-toes to see the contestants. The auction at a Houston hotel drew a capacity crowd and lines that stretched outside. More than 12,000 bidders were signed up to bid via the Internet as well.

As the auction climaxed for the sign, the crowd grew so large that auctioneer Kirk Dove had to run to the back of the room and stand on a chair so he could call the duel between Luu and his chief competitor, Mir Azizi.

Dove, as much a stand-up comic as a stoker of bidding frenzy, whipped the crowd up with rapid patter and one-liners.

"Remember, this auction is brought to you by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, so think before you bid," he cracked.

The $44,000 nearly tripled the price paid in a London auction for a similar sign from in front of Enron House, the fallen energy giant's European headquarters.

"I felt like a star in there, with everybody cheering," the shell-shocked Luu told a crush of reporters that followed him out of the auction room.

Azizi, standing nearby, carped, "It wasn't his money, damn it. It was my money!" Azizi said he had planned to put the sign atop an 18-unit loft development he is building near downtown Houston.

"I was going to call it 'The E-Lofts.' It was a marketing gimmick," he said.

As far as marketing gimmicks, the auction proved effective. Those looking for bargains found them few and far between as the strange psychology of auction bidding took hold, replacing cool-headed reason with head-to-head competition.

One small television that retails new for less than $250 snared a bid of $600, prompting Dove to remark: "I have two words for you: Circuit City," a reference to the discount electronics retailer. Several dozen used plasma screen televisions all sold at around $8,000, about the cheapest price for which they can be purchased new.

"Our creditors should be pleased," Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne said. 

Dog language device proves a hit A computerised gadget to help canine owners understand their dog's needs has proved an immediate hit after going on sale in Tokyo. Bowlingual comprises an 8cm microphone to be attached to a dog collar, which transmits sounds to a palm-sized console. The console immediately classifies the sounds into six emotional categories: frustration, menace, joy, sorrow, demand and self-expression. It then shows Japanese language phrases to fit the emotional state, such as "I am sad. I want to play" and "I am super angry. I am going to explode!" A spokeswoman for manufacturers Takara, told ABC Online : "For the word patterns, we tried to use many playful expressions to make it more fun for dog owners to communicate with their pets." Retailers in Tokyo say the gadget is in great demand. Harumi Ogishima, spokeswoman for Hakuhinkan toy store in Tokyo, said: "We sold out of the ones that we had today. "We have received a number of phone calls from customers all day about Bowlingual, and we will start selling the product again as soon as we can get another shipment." By the end of March 2003, Takara hopes to sell 300,000 units of Bowlingual, which retails at �78. It has no immediate plans to sell the product overseas, though Takara sees lots of interest in foreign countries. "We are exploring ways to apply this technology to other uses, maybe to other animals," a firm spokesman said. Takara, a joint research with Japan Acoustic Laboratory, claims to have made Bowlingual compatible with more than 50 dog species, from Chihuahuas to German shepherds.

Gems stolen with vacuum cleaner A thief in Denmark drilled a small hole in a jewellery shop window and used a vacuum cleaner to suck out �8,200 worth of jewellery. Police in Kolding say he used an extension cord and a power socket in a nearby building site. The cleaner, which was abandoned at the scene of the crime, did not set the alarm off. Kirsten Lykke Salling, the owner of Lykke's Gold and Silver store, said: "We discovered it when we came to work in the morning. "It was terrible but at the same time funny because who would have thought of doing it that way." Ms Salling says the thief sucked up small items including rings, necklaces and earrings. Police spokesman Carsten Thostrup, said: "The thief slipped in the extremity of the vacuum cleaner through the window and therefore the alarm didn't go off when he vacuumed the displayed jewelry. He added that no-one has been arrested.

Blind lawyer 'can't be judge because she cannot see defendants' A blind lawyer has been told she cannot be a judge in Austria because she can't see what defendants look like. Andrea Zweibrot, from Spittal, has branded the Graz Superior Court ruling "disgraceful and discriminatory". The 29-year-old qualified lawyer spent months preparing for her final exams to be told just two weeks beforehand she could not pass because of her disability. The Superior Court says while the applicant was professionally qualified, she did not have the "physical suitability" necessary to be a judge. The court added it was impossible to judge a person or a state of affairs "without having a personal picture". The ruling has led to heavy protests from local politicians and disabled associations. Minister of Justice Dieter Boehmdorfer who was called in to review the case as part of a special commission, also ruled against Andrea. A spokesman for the commission says although they are sympathetic to her disability, appointing a blind judge "would not be responsible to the public seeking recourse to the law". Andrea has rejected the ruling saying she didn't need sight to be able to judge a person. She said: "People who are blind compensate the loss of sight with other senses and perceptions. I can sense a person's credibility by the tone of their voice and the expressions they use." She argued that blind judges were accepted in Germany and modern technology allowed them to read evidential documents in Braille on a PC.

Alleged 'Bumfights' Video Makers Arrested

Sep 25, 11:01 am ET 

SAN DIEGO  - Two men who allegedly paid street people to fight each other as part of the Internet video sensation "Bumfights" have been arrested in San Diego, police say.

The arrests of Las Vegas residents Zachary Bubeck, 24, and Ryan Edward McPherson, 19, followed a three-month probe by the La Mesa Police Department into the "Bumfights" tapes, Lt. Raul Garcia said. La Mesa is a suburb of San Diego.

Bubeck surrendered on Monday and detectives arrested McPherson in La Mesa two weeks ago, Garcia said Tuesday.

Police said they were still looking for two other Las Vegas residents, as well as others who may have been involved in the production of "Bumfights."

Producers claim to have sold more than 300,000 copies of "Bumfights" over the Internet for $19.99 each.

"Bumfights, Vol 1" -- touted by its producers as "the fastest-selling independent video" featuring "drunks" and "crackheads" -- shows bedraggled men engaging in fistfights and acts of self-abuse, such as running headlong into steel doors and leaping off bridges.

Police say the "Bumfights" producers persuaded street people to fight for the camera in exchange for cash payments, food, liquor and hotel rooms but warned the participants not to tell authorities about the remuneration.

One person broke his leg during a taping session in La Mesa, and producers threatened another witness in the case, police said.

Bubeck and McPherson were charged with conspiracy, solicitation of a felony crime and illegally paying people to fight.

They are due in court on Oct. 10 for a preliminary hearing. 

Drink Sends Bank Robber to Sleep on Heist

Sep 25, 11:00 am ET 

GRAZ, Austria  - A man went to rob a bank in the Austrian city of Graz but was found by police asleep in his car after downing a bottle of schnapps for courage, police say.

A passer-by alerted the police after noticing that the parked car had different number plates at the front and back, a police spokesman told The News Source Tuesday.

On the seat next to the slumbering driver police found a balaclava, a pistol and an empty bottle of high-proof schnapps.

The 33-year-old man admitted he had planned to rob the bank but had drunk the schnapps to calm his nerves. He was arrested for questioning and will have to answer charges of attempted robbery in court. 

Eagle-Eyed Worker Unravels Toilet Roll Rip-Off

Sep 25, 10:59 am ET 

LONDON  - Counting toilet roll sheets proved a success for a vigilant British worker who won his employer thousands of pounds in compensation after he discovered that some rolls were not as long as they should be.

West Somerset District Council said on Wednesday it went to court after its employee Ian Jewell counted several rolls and found they had only 200 sheets, not the 320 stated in the contract with its supplier.

Jewell became suspicious after staff of the western England council said they felt they ran out of toilet roll too quickly.

"We immediately discovered the errors and realized there was a large cost implication to the council which needed to be recovered," Jewell said.

The council, which uses an estimated 40,000 toilet rolls a year, won $28,100 in compensation and said it was now considering to give Jewell time off for his detective work.

The supplier, Allscan, declined to comment. 

Scientist Seeks Body to Make New, Improved Human

Sep 25, 10:58 am ET 

LONDON  - A German scientist who caused a storm of protest with an exhibition of flayed human corpses is now looking for someone he can cut up and recreate as a new improved person.

The whole process -- from the search for a donor through their death, dissection and reconstruction -- will be broadcast on British television.

"This person will be a landmark human being," said Gunther von Hagens, whose Body Worlds exhibition was slammed by critics as a sick freak show when it opened in London in March.

"They will pave the way for a future life with a more healthy, capable and longer lasting body," he said in a statement released by the television company involved.

Von Hagens and his panel of experts are looking for a terminally ill patient who will die in the next few months.

The donor will be asked how his or her body has served them during their life and how it could have been better.

Once the donor dies, the body will be deep frozen and dissected. Within nine months, von Hagens' team hopes to unveil the preserved corpse as a redesigned human being and put it on public display.

Von Hagens has said an ideal human being would have features such as spare vital organs and hyper-flexible joints.

"This is a serious, scientific and educational exercise, albeit a provocative one," Nick Curwin, executive producer of the team which plans to film the project, said in a statement.

"Our donor will go down in history, preserved forever as what might have been if evolution had got us right."

The Body Worlds exhibition, which has toured Japan, Germany, Belgium and Austria, consists of around 30 preserved corpses displayed in various poses. The flagship piece is a preserved horse and rider -- both skinned to display their muscles, bones and innards.

Since the exhibition opened in London, at least 20 people in Britain have agreed to donate their bodies to von Hagens' institute for future preservation. 

Jedi and Klingons Invade Dictionary, Muggles Wait

Sep 25, 10:57 am ET 

By Peter Graff

LONDON  - Science fiction's "Jedi" warriors and "Klingon" bad guys have entered the newest edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, along with "asylum seekers," "asymmetrical warfare" and "spin control."

The first new edition in nearly a decade of the short version of the classic word bible will appear Thursday, with 3,500 new entries, from "ass-backwards" to "warp drive."

Britain's prime minister Tony Blair is immortalized with "Blairism," "Blairite," "New Labor," "Old Labour" and the ill-fated construction project, the "Millennium Dome."

New slang terms include "get real" and "badass."

There are also 500 new quotations. Among the writers whose literary citations appear for the first time are best sellers Tom Clancy and Nick Hornby, Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding and, inevitably, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.

But although new words from science fiction films like Star Wars and Star Trek have made it, words coined for the Harry Potter books are still too new to appear.

"Generally, a word has to be used five times in five different places over five years, although something like 'text messaging' got in quicker because it became so widely used so quickly," said spokeswoman Claire Turner.

Rowling gets credit for notable uses of old words, such as "beefy" -- an adjective describing Harry's awful uncle Vernon -- and "stump," as in: "Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was."

But "muggle" -- Rowling's made-up word for people who are not wizards -- is still listed only as an early 20th century American slang term for a marijuana cigarette.

Bet you didn't know that. 

No Bull, Some Believe This Magic Cow Cures the Ill

Sep 25, 10:56 am ET 

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia  - Hundreds of stiff-jointed Cambodians are flocking to see a large brown cow whose lick is believed to cure rheumatism and other ailments, officials said Wednesday.

"Over the last four weeks, as many as 20 people per day have been coming to see this cow," Puth Chandarith, governor of Kompot province in southern Cambodia, told The News Source. "Even I went to see it yesterday."

Ailing peasants in the impoverished southeast Asian nation offer incense, candles, flowers and water to the beast, which consumes the latter and then performs its licking duties on the prostrate patient.

The cow's owner, Thun Nao, 59, a local teacher, said it all started after the animal escaped from its pen and started massaging his leg with its horns.

"I was having problems with my legs and could not walk to school, but one day the cow ... came up to me and rubbed its horn against my leg. Afterwards I could walk fine," he told a local newspaper.

Authorities are keeping a watchful eye on the cow and its owner to make sure gullible patients, who buy their offerings for the cow from its owner, are not taken advantage of -- and that nobody ends up regretting their bovine faith. "Some people believe that it works, but if they are seriously ill, I would urge them to go to hospital instead of magic cows," Puth Chandarith said.

Belief in the magical powers of animals is a relatively common phenomenon in Cambodia, where over a third of the population lives on under $1 per day and cannot afford modern medicines. Snakes and turtles are often associated with supernatural healing powers. 

Coffee Can Kill Pain... but Only in Women

Sep 25, 10:55 am ET 

LONDON  - Coffee can kill pain, but only in women, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The London Times said researchers in London had asked a sample of men and women to plunge their arms into buckets of freezing cold water and keep them there as long as they could.

They then gave the volunteers coffee in the expectation that it would ease the pain. Caffeine increases blood pressure which usually, according to the paper, leads to a lowering in the perception of pain.

The study found that while the caffeine did little for the men it had "a strong impact" on the women.

"A double espresso probably would make the pain of something like leg-waxing more bearable," the paper quoted one of the researchers as saying. 

Wacky World Records Abound in New Guinness Book

Sep 25, 10:54 am ET 

By Paul Majendie

LONDON  - Who discovered the world's oldest vomit? Who stuffed the most live rattlesnakes in his mouth? Who has lived longest with a bullet in his head?

All is revealed in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, an international Who's Who of the weird, wacky and wonderful, from the world's longest tongue to the man with the biggest collection of traffic cones.

Competition for a place in the world's most famous record book is as fierce as ever -- the publishers said on Tuesday they have received 60,000 record claims in the past 12 months.

British scientists landed their coveted place in the book by unearthing the world's oldest vomit, dating back 160 million years to the time of the dinosaurs, during a dig in eastern England.

American Jackie Bibby made his claim to fame by holding eight live rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth without any assistance.

Japan offers one of the most offbeat entries.

Schoolboy Satoru Fushiki was accidentally hit in his left eye by a bullet on January 23, 1943. The bullet was only removed on September 25, 2001 when the sight in his eye miraculously returned.

The French always pride themselves on being great lovers and the flame of Gallic love certainly still burned brightly for 96-year-old Francois Fernandez and 94-year-old Madeleine Francineau. They made this year's edition for being the world's oldest couple to marry.

The book even boasts a record of its own -- it has now sold more than 95 million copies to become the world's best-selling copyright book.

The new edition, published in Britain on September 28 and around the world in the next two weeks after that, is printed in 23 different languages and will be available in over 100 different countries.

Guinness, one of publishing's longest-running success stories, was launched in 1954. It was the brainchild of Hugh Beaver, managing director of the Guinness brewery.

He was out shooting in Ireland and got into an argument about whether the golden plover ranked as Europe's fastest game bird.

Beaver, believing that records sparked pub and bar disputes around the world, decided the time was right to produce the ultimate reference book for superlatives.

Twins Norris and Ross McWhirter, who were running a fact-finding agency for British newspapers, were picked to launch the book which has changed up to 25 percent of its records each year. 

Congressman Challenges Vice President to Duel

Sep 25, 10:37 am ET 

LIMA, Peru  - An irate Peruvian congressman challenged Vice President David Waisman to a duel with pistols on a Lima beach, saying he had been insulted and called a coward, and his honor was at stake.

Eittel Ramos, who quit the governing Peru Posible party in April over policy differences, told The News Source on Tuesday the trouble started earlier this month when he criticized first lady Eliane Karp for saying "two-bit parties" were trying to undermine her husband, President Alejandro Toledo, whose popularity has plummeted.

Ramos, 54, said Waisman, who is 65 and had heart surgery last year, "called my attitude cowardly because I said what I said about a woman.

"If the gentleman insulted me and called me a coward, I have the right to demand...a duel. Since I am the injured party, I choose the weapons and the place," declared Ramos.

He said he would send a letter to Waisman challenging him to the shoot-out on a beach south of Lima. "I'm not backing down...unless he apologizes publicly," he vowed.

Waisman, Peru's second vice president who would take power if either Toledo or first Vice President Raul Diez Canseco died or were removed, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ramos has set no date, but said he had chosen a doctor friend to be his second for what would be Peru's first political duel since 1957.

In that contest, the late Fernando Belaunde -- who went on to be president from 1963-68 and 1980-85 -- fought a political rival with swords. The referee ended the duel when Belaunde nicked his rival, drawing blood. 

New Miss Universe Crowned After Russian Is Fired

Sep 24, 3:53 pm ET 

By Maureen Bavdek

NEW YORK  - A 24-year-old Russian cop who would rather catch criminals than cut ribbons was stripped of her crown as the reigning Miss Universe because she failed to fulfill her duties, pageant organizers said on Tuesday.

The Miss Universe pageant said it "terminated" Oxana Fedorova, and passed the title to first runner-up Justine Pasek, 23, of Panama City, Panama, because Fedorova cost them money by not attending events, photo-shoots and other duties of her job.

But Fedorova, the first Russian woman to hold the title in the pageant's 52-year history, and the first to lose her crown, said her career and studies were more important.

"The responsibilities of Miss Universe are great for me, (but) at the top of my priorities are my studies and my career here in Russia," Fedorova told Russian television.

Fedorova, a St. Petersburg police lieutenant in addition to being a post-graduate university student with a law degree, has returned home, pageant officials said.

Pasek, who was a "crowd favorite" at the pageant in May, took over as Miss Universe 2002, far from the glamorous stage show that usually accompanies the crowning.

"When she's not traveling, she (Miss Universe) is based here in New York," Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, said at the news conference following Pasek's crowning. "It is imperative that we have an active, reliable partner.

"More than once we were invoiced for photo shoots where Oxana did not show up," she said.

There were reports that pageant officials were concerned that Fedorova might have "secretly" married her boyfriend, in violation of pageant rules, and could even be pregnant.

But Fedorova denied to Russian television that she had ever been wed or was expecting a child, saying it was "still a dream."

"I have never been married and certainly don't have any children. But I hope I will in the future," she said.

FEDOROVA GIVES BACK TIARA

Organizers of the pageant, which is co-owned by NBC Inc. and New York real estate mogul Donald Trump, said although Fedorova "graciously" gave back her tiara and never took advantage of many of the other prizes that go with the title -- such as personal development classes and extensive wardrobe for appearances -- they "would have preferred that she resign" and regretted having to take other action.

"Paula (Shugart) gave her a chance to resign and when Oxana did not, or could not, Paula had no choice but to terminate her," Trump said. "She gave it (the title) up one way or another."

When a Russian reporter suggested that Fedorova still believed herself to be Miss Universe, Trump replied quickly: "She is not. It's very simple. I think Oxana agrees very much with what we're doing."

Meantime, Pasek, who works in television production and plans to complete a degree in environmental engineering, stepped into the role of Miss Universe with about 24 hours notice and said she felt "ready and prepared" for the job.

"I'm very excited to bring this honor to Panama. I can only hope I can make my country as proud as can be," Pasek said, in both Spanish and flawless English. She added she would promote fund-raising for AIDS research.

Panama's President, Mireya Moscoso, publicly congratulated Pasek, who is of Polish decent, saying the young model would "go far and make Panama proud."

Jean Figali, organizer of Miss Universe 2003, which will take place in Panama City next year, said, "It's the best publicity in the world for Panama and should really help make the pageant a great success."

A show business perennial launched by a swimsuit company 51 years ago, the Miss Universe pageant draws an estimated global television audience of 600 million people in 176 countries. 

Alligator Bites Off Man's Arm at Florida Garden

Sep 24, 3:51 pm ET 

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI  - An 11-foot bull alligator tore off a man's arm and swallowed it at a north Florida botanical garden, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

Trappers killed the alligator and recovered the severed arm from its stomach but doctors said it was too badly mangled to try reattaching it.

The injured man, Dan Goodman, was listed in fair condition at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, where he was "in good spirits," a spokeswoman said.

Goodman, 58, is the director of the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens near the north central Florida city of Gainesville.

He was weeding a lily pond on Monday, standing in about 4 feet of water, when he apparently stepped on the 392-pound male alligator, Capt. Roy Brown of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

The alligator "lunged up and grabbed ahold of his right arm and severed it just below the elbow," Brown said.

Goodman climbed out of the pond and shouted for a co-worker, who took off his shirt and fashioned it into a tourniquet to help stanch the bleeding until paramedics arrived.

Trappers harpooned the alligator and hoisted it to the bank, where a sheriff's deputy shot it in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun and killed it, Brown said.

"I physically slit the alligator open, reached in, and I could feel the victim's arm in the stomach," Brown told The News Source by phone. "I was able to sever the stomach and pull the victim's arm out."

The arm was recovered about 90 minutes after the attack, he said. Paramedics took it to the hospital but it was too badly damaged to be reattached.

WILD ALLIGATOR NAMED MO-JO

Goodman will need hospital care for at least several more days, said Dr. Larry Chidgey, who operated on him.

"The biggest risk now is infection," Chidgey told a news conference. "He will need additional surgery to try and make sure there are no other dead tissues present that could lead to infection."

He said Goodman was alert enough to describe the attack when he arrived at the hospital.

"He did recall that the alligator obviously grabbed his arm, there was a twisting type action," the doctor said.

The alligator was a wild alligator that lived at a nearby pond and occasionally wandered into the lily pond at the botanical garden, where workers called it Mo-Jo.

Goodman told wildlife officials he did not see the alligator until it attacked.

They said the alligator might have mistaken Goodman's splashing the pond for that of a duck or wading bird, their natural prey. Because it was used to being around people, it had probably lost its natural fear of humans, Brown said.

Signs posted around the gardens warn people to watch out for alligators.

Florida wildlife officials have documented 300 alligator attacks on humans, 12 of them fatal, since they began keeping records in 1948. Brown estimated Florida's alligator population at 1 million.

"When you say Florida, that's almost synonymous with alligators," he said. 

Transvestite Settles Beauty School Lawsuit

Sep 24, 7:56 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - The man who sued a Los Angeles beauty school because it would not let him go to class dressed as a woman has settled the lawsuit and will be allowed to attend after all, his lawyer said on Monday.

Attorney Gloria Allred said in a statement that her client, identified only as "Sandy," had negotiated a settlement with Marinello School of Beauty and would begin classes to become a hairstylist on Tuesday.

"She's very happy," Allred said. "She's very excited and she's looking forward beginning her education to become a hairstylist tomorrow."

Allred declined to elaborate on the terms of the settlement, which she said were confidential, and a spokeswoman for the beauty school declined to comment.

Sandy brought the lawsuit, the first of its kind under a city law that prohibits businesses from discrimination based on sexual orientation, in August in Los Angeles Superior Court. That ordinance defines sexual orientation not by physiology, but as "a self image not associated with one's biological maleness or one's biological femaleness."

Sandy claimed that the school administrators initially enrolled him because they thought he was a woman, but changed their minds after learning that he was a man and expressing concerns over which restroom he would use.

According to the lawsuit, Sandy offered to use the restroom of the school's choice or to go off campus to answer nature's call but the school refused the offer, Allred said.

Allred said that, under the settlement, Sandy will use a special restroom with a lock that has been set aside for him. 

Kmart Web Site for Well-Wishers Only

Sep 24, 7:54 am ET 

CHICAGO  - If you don't have anything nice to say about Kmart, go to another web site.

Fed up with the masses of anti-Kmart commentary filling web sites and newspapers, the discount chain store operator struggling to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy has set up a new web site -- for good news only.

Kmartforever.com, billed as a "gathering place for all those interested in supporting Kmart," launched with little fanfare in late August and now boasts 300 subscribers and 7,000 visitors so far.

Subscribers can post uplifting or just plain unusual messages -- although they are filtered for profanity or mean-spiritedness, Kmart spokesman Dave Karraker said.

So far, a few dozen messages have been posted, a far cry from the more than 7,000 postings -- many of them negative -- on some non-company boards.

"There are a lot of bashers out there," Karraker said, referring to the proliferation of anti-Kmart web postings. "We're quite frank with the idea that this is a positive site. This is for people who truly want to see the company succeed."

The web site includes tips on how to write a pro-Kmart letter to the editor and even a story about a woman who went into labor in a Kmart store.

"When I least expected it, my water broke right there in checkout 19," wrote Celena Hernandez.

She named her son after his father, but everyone calls him "Marty" after Kmart. 

Many Sports Teachers Overweight?

Sep 24, 7:49 am ET 

MANAMA  - Nearly half of Bahrain's sports teachers are overweight, making them poor models of healthy living for their students, according to a study cited in the Al-Ayam newspaper on Monday.

The report quoted a study of 243 teachers that found more than 35 percent of physical education instructors were overweight, while nearly nine percent were obese.

"Teachers of sports are a model to their students, so it is important to discuss their health and convince students about the importance of losing weight," Shaikha al-Jeeb, the researcher who compiled the report, was quoted as saying. 

'Reward Mondays' Mean Money Booth for Informer

Sep 24, 7:48 am ET 

BOGOTA, Colombia  - Stung by criticism that publicly handing wads of cash to hooded informants was inappropriate, Colombia has overhauled its "Reward Mondays" to pay off tipsters by handing them money through a curtain.

Before an applauding audience and television cameras, a police commander in the northeastern city of Bucaramanga took part in the new system on Monday, pushing money into hands that emerged groping from a green curtain.

The government of President Alvaro Uribe, who took office on Aug. 7, introduced the "Reward Mondays" for people who provide information about leftist rebels, far-right paramilitaries or criminals.

The identities of informants have to be kept secret in Colombia, riven by a 38-year-old civil war that claims thousands of mainly civilian lives a year.

Human rights groups and some politicians were horrified by the spectacle of police commanders handing money to the hooded informers, saying the system could encourage abuses.

But the new system is unlikely to defuse criticisms such as those by Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus, who has said that rewarding informers incorrectly suggests that people should only cooperate with the state because it pays them to.

Uribe, who heads for the United States on Monday to seek financial assistance, has declared a state of emergency and given the security forces the power to arrest suspects without warrants.

Colombia's top human rights officer, the official Ombudsman, said on Monday that the security forces' new powers were excessive.

"The state has to be strong, but at the same time it has to be legitimate. Giving the army so much power really gives them room to act as they like in a way which we can't allow," he told reporters. 

Silence Plagiarism Case Settled

Sep 24, 7:45 am ET 

LONDON  - A copyright dispute over two pieces of silence, one by American avant-garde composer John Cage and the other by a composer best known for novelty tunes, has been settled, Cage's publishers said on Monday.

Mike Batt was accused of plagiarism by Edition Peters, publishers of the late Cage's work, after he put a track called "A Minute's Silence" on his latest album "Classical Graffiti," performed by pop-classics group The Planets. The piece was credited it to Batt/Cage.

Cage's ground-breaking silent composition, 4'33," was first performed half a century ago. The piano piece, divided into three movements, consists entirely of silent notes and takes four minutes 33 seconds to perform.

Nicholas Riddle, managing director of Peters, told The News Source Batt had paid an "adequate sum" to the John Cage Trust by way of settlement.

"It's been very gentlemanly. We haven't called each other names or anything like that," Riddle said. "Of course he was a very humorful person and I think he would have seen the funny side of what Batt was doing," Riddle said of Cage, who once famously said: "I have nothing to say and I'm saying it."

"The struggle was one of the most amusing disputes I've ever, er, disputed," Batt said on his Web Site (www.mikebatt.com).

"I'm sure John Cage had a dry sense of humor, and would have loved the spectacle of The Planets being all over the press protesting that their (my) silence was original silence and not a quotation from his silence," he added.

Earlier this year, the parties attempted to prove their points by each staging a performance of their piece. The result was inconclusive. 

Culture on Metro Line, Below Chaos Above

Sep 24, 7:44 am ET 

CAIRO  - Below the noise and grime of one of the world's more chaotic cities, the finer arts are now on offer on the Cairo underground system.

This month the Cairo metro authority allowed the Opera House to display art by local painters and let small orchestras play classical music in a bid to make travel more bearable.

"Commuters can now watch paintings and listen to music played by musicians from the Opera while passing through the station," said Fayza Abdel-Moneim Mursi, the Opera's director of exhibitions and museums. "We have won new interest (in art)."

Artists on display, who often complain that the general public has little time or interest in the arts, are ecstatic.

"These exhibitions realize the dream of Egyptian artists to bring their art to the street," said artist Esmat Daustashi.

At present, the main stops on the metro system blast ads from television screens, and mural art involves epic panoramas evoking past presidents and workers with pickaxes building the modern nation.

Cairo -- which with a population of up to 16 million, is one of the most polluted and noisy cities in the world, has two main underground lines, but a third is in the planning process.

Around three million commuters use the underground trains every day. 

Burglary Suspects Pick Wrong Victim

Sep 24, 7:42 am ET 

DALLAS  - A pair of would-be burglars picked the wrong home to visit over the weekend when they allegedly broke into the residence of one of Dallas's best-known police officers.

One suspect was shot in the leg trying to flee the scene and both men were arrested after they allegedly tried to rob the home of Senior Cpl. Chris Gilliam, a spokesman for the Dallas police, who was home at the time, police said on Monday.

Gilliam, who is often seen in the local media delivering news on crime in Dallas, made the news by giving chase to the suspects, shooting one in the thigh, police said.

The suspect who was shot was arrested by Gilliam and is recovering at a local hospital while police captured the other suspect later.

Gilliam, who is usually quick to respond to media inquiries, said he was not able to comment on the matter until the standard investigation into an officer firing his weapon had been completed. 

Hold the Phone! Copper Wire Theft Soars

Sep 24, 7:41 am ET 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina  - Half a million Argentines have been robbed of phone service in 2002 amid the nation's worst-ever crisis as thieves have stolen 500 tons of copper wire, one phone company said on Monday.

The local unit of Spain's Telefonica said 125,000 miles of its copper wires -- a distance equal to five times the circumference of the planet or 16 times Earth's diameter -- have been stolen so far this year.

"The theft of wires, a long-standing problem in this country, has been on a growing and irreversible trend," Telefonica said in a statement.

"At the start of 2002, what was an occasional and controllable problem has become a massive and structural one, putting at serious risk the continuity of service," it added.

Utility firms said service outages have multiplied in 2002 as scrap-metal scavengers strip phone lines, transformers and electric wires in and around Buenos Aires as well as the Andean city of Mendoza and deep in sparsely populated Patagonia.

One newspaper last month reported $195 million-worth of copper has been exported in the first half of 2002, when Argentina has never before exported the base metal.

A recession in Argentina since mid-1998 forced the government to default on part of its $104 billion debt and devalue the peso currency in January, leading many people to take drastic measures to make ends meet.

With half of Argentina's 36 million people unable to meet basic food needs and one-fifth of the work force out of a job, some have sold their hair to a wig factory while one woman placed an ad to sell her kidney to pay for her mother's health care. 

Man Dies After Detergent Mistaken for Hummus

Sep 23, 11:54 am ET 

JERUSALEM  - A 91-year-old Israeli died after his caregiver spread a paste-like dishwashing detergent on his bread instead of hummus, police said on Monday.

The caregiver, who had worked for the old man for five years, told police he could not read the Hebrew writing on the detergent's container and served it up when the man asked for some hummus, a chickpea spread popular in the Middle East.

Police said the caregiver called an ambulance when his employer fell ill on Saturday but the man died in the hospital.

"We are checking to see whether there was criminal intent or whether it was a negligent homicide," a police spokesman said. 

Three Times Unlucky for Drunk Driver

Sep 23, 10:05 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - Swedish police caught a drunk Norwegian driver three times in as many hours over the weekend, a Swedish newspaper reported on Monday.

Police pulled the man over after spotting him hitting speeds of 140 km per hour (85 miles per hour) on a stretch of road where the limit varies between 50 and 70 km per hour, the daily Aftonbladet said.

Officers found he had an alcohol level of 0.66 parts per thousand, or more than three times the maximum allowed under Swedish law.

Police confiscated the man's driver's license, but set him free.

Undeterred, he drove on toward Norway but was caught, and released, a second time.

The Norwegian tried his luck a third time but was caught yet again, and this time a prosecutor confiscated his car.

Big Outsider Lands 200-1 Shock

Sep 23, 10:04 am ET 

LONDON  - Beechy Bank, a 200-1 outsider, shocked punters at the Midlands track of Warwick on Saturday, winning the second race of the day.

The four-year-old filly was the longest-priced winner in British racing since a horse called Equinoctial was successful in a minor race at Kelso in Scotland in 1990 at 250-1.

Beechy Bank had never been anywhere near being placed in the previous four starts of her career. On her last run, eight months ago, she had trailed in last of 11 at odds of 33-1, beaten 59 lengths.

Ridden by Vince Slattery for trainer Mary Hambro, the long-shot took Saturday's nine-runner race by a length from Miss Gigi (8-1) with the 11-10 on favorite Miss Pitz three-quarters of a length away in third.

A spell away from racing, a slight drop in class and a longer distance race seemed to have done the trick for Beechy Bank, a well-bred daughter of 1983 Irish Derby winner Shareef Dancer.

The most high-profile long-price winner of a big race remains Foinavon who was a 100-1 chance when triumphing in the 1967 Grand National steeplechase at Aintree.

Three Fined for Abandoning Rosy the Rat

Sep 23, 10:04 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian court fined three people A$375 ($206) Monday for abandoning a pet rat named Rosy.

Animal rights campaigners in the eastern state of Queensland were delighted with the fine and dozens of people had offered to take in Rosy the albino rat, which was dumped in a cage by the side of the road, local media reported.

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals inspector Gary Langford told reporters outside the magistrates court in Mackay, a small town in northern Queensland, that he had received at least 40 offers to give Rosy a home.

"There's an extremely large amount of rodent fans out there in Mackay," Langford told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Neither Langford nor the Mackay magistrates court could be reached for comment.

Woman, 92, Given 30-Year First Home Loan

Sep 23, 10:03 am ET 

SYDNEY  - A 92-year-old Australian woman has become the nation's oldest first-time home buyer after securing a housing loan she does not have to pay off for another 30 years.

Her local financial institution is banking on the mother-of-five living to 122 under the terms of the loan.

Margaret Cole, who grew up in a poor coal-mining town in Wales, Britain, decided concerns among the nation's traditionally risk averse banks about her age would not stop her embracing the "great Australian dream" of home ownership.

"She has been a battler all her life and was not taking no for an answer," James Hunt, her real estate agent at First National Wyong, told The News Source on Monday.

She also bagged a A$7,000 ($3,850) grant from the government for first-time homebuyers, an incentive normally aimed at the young.

Cole, who emigrated to Australia in 1976, has had a little help from her daughter and brother-in-law, whose names are also on the ANZ Bank mortgage as co-guarantors.

She plans to move into her A$198,000 three-bedroom home at Watanobbi, a suburb north of Sydney on the New South Wales central coast, later this week.

Lights Out for Britain's Professional Hermit

Sep 23, 10:02 am ET 

LONDON  - More than two hundred years since professional hermits went out of fashion in Britain, a performance artist moved into a dank, dark grotto on the grounds of an English country estate on Friday.

Ansuman Biswas answered a newspaper advertisement placed by the Shugborough estate in Staffordshire, central England, and fought off competition from about 200 other would-be recluses from as far afield as Poland and Pakistan to become "hermit in residence."

Biswas, 36, will live without food or modern conveniences and will spend his time in quiet contemplation, "moving as little as possible," Staffordshire County Council said in a statement.

Three hundred years ago, it was considered chic for country estates to have a hermit holed up on their land, and they were often hired on five-year contracts.

As part of the experiment, launched for National Heritage Week, visitors are invited to watch Biswas live like his 18th century counterparts in the chilly caves.

But it will be a short stab at the solitary life for Biswas. He is set to re-emerge into civilization on Sunday evening.

Temples Packed to See 'Miracle' Statues

Sep 23, 10:00 am ET 

AHMEDABAD, India  - Thousands of Hindu devotees flocked to temples in western India after rumors spread of water flowing from holy phallic symbols believed to represent the Hindu god of destruction, police said Monday.

Police across Gujarat state struggled to keep order as crowds jostled to get a glimpse of a "Shiva Linga," worshipped by Hindus as a symbol of the Hindu god Lord Shiva.

"Everyone was rushing to the nearest Shiva temple. But I couldn't see a thing except that I sprained my neck," said Prakash Dave, a resident of Gujarat's largest city Ahmedabad.

Some devotees said they had also heard about the appearance of the Hindu symbol "Om," meaning "cosmic force," on top of carved, stone linga statues.

A senior police official in Ahmedabad said the whole thing was "pure mass hysteria." The rush to see the statues began late Sunday but appeared to have died down Monday, police said.

Hindus make up nearly 90 percent of Gujarat's 50 million people. The state was racked earlier this year by Hindu-Muslim violence in which more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.

Four Arrested for Shipwreck Theft

Sep 23, 9:59 am ET 

MILAN  - Four Germans have been arrested for stealing ancient amphorae from a third century BC shipwreck off the coast of the southern Italian island of Sicily, police said on Saturday.

Police said the Germans had been noticed in recent days on small boats with diving equipment around the area of the historical shipwreck, off Lipari -- one of the islands of the Eolian archipelago north of Sicily.

Amphorae are two-handled jars with a narrow neck used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to transport wine and oil.

The shipwreck, which lies 64 meters under sea, belongs to the local museum of Lipari.

"Last night four Germans were caught red handed when with the help of miniature submarines they were stealing some amphorae," police told The News Source.

The four, two women and two men, were from Munich.

Lonely Farmer Stages Mass Singles Party

Sep 23, 9:57 am ET 

By Julia Hayley

EL HOYO DE PINARES, Spain  - Concerned by the high numbers of single people in his small town in central Spain, a lonely farmer brought in five busloads of women for a mass blind date Sunday.

Mariano Navas, 46, has been recruiting for weeks by publicizing his mobile phone number and the message: "Don't be sad. Sign up if you want to get married."

"We've got 400 women coming and about 150 men," said Navas, resplendent in a wide-brimmed hat festooned with pink scarves.

The men were mostly from El Hoyo de Pinares or nearby towns, while the women were brought in from Madrid.

El Hoyo de Pinares, population 2,700, is hardly isolated. The town is 85 km (52 miles) from Madrid, albeit partly on winding mountain roads, and only 50 km from the provincial capital Avila. In the summer, and when there are fiestas, the population easily swells to 10,000.

But the farmer insists there are deep social divides between men and women which his own type of fiesta can overcome.

"The problem with this country is that men are only interested in football and, excuse my language, tarts, while the women have different priorities," he told The News Source.

Few others seemed to agree there was a problem, but they were all happy to take part in the reception.

"There are single men here, just as there are single women and there's nothing wrong with the women -- I'm married to one," said the mayor, Fausto Santamaria Estevez.

"Of course this is good for the town and we'll get a lot of publicity," he told The News Source.

PERSONAL INTEREST

His much younger deputy, Carlos Javier Galan, was taking more of a personal interest. "I've got a girlfriend but I can always have a look," he said grinning.

Navas, a tall, rotund figure in a loud checked shirt, was in his element, giving interviews right and left.

"He'll be running for mayor himself at this rate," muttered an elderly onlooker.

As the buses arrived and the women emerged, the men were suddenly attentive.

"They're not exactly young sprites," said one.

"There's a bit of everything. They look mostly Spanish to me, not Latin American as I'd heard," said another.

Whatever their age or girth, the visitors were determined to have a good time. After a drink, the town band led them through the steep streets to the square for more drinks to be followed by a long, late Spanish lunch and a dance.

"They've given us a wonderful reception so far," said a well-dressed woman called Mariluz.

Did she think she could stay the pace and dance until three in the morning? "I hope so," she said with a beaming, if gap-toothed smile, adding that she was 70.

Backlash Fear KO's Mike Tyson Ad

Sep 23, 9:55 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Fox Sports Net's commercial that made a baby-sitter out of boxer Mike Tyson -- who once famously threatened to eat the children of an opponent -- is down for the count, pulled by the network for fear of a backlash from an outraged public.

"We thought that it potentially could have crossed the line," spokesman Lou D'Ermilio told The News Source.

The ad, promoting the sports talk show "Best Damn Sports Show Period," had Tyson baby-sitting an infant for co-host John Kruk in an attempt to get on the program.

Tyson, a convicted rapist, told a group of reporters earlier this year he wished "you guys had children so I could kick them in the (expletive) head or stomp on their testicles so you could feel my pain because that's the pain I have waking up every day."

The boxer told heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis prior to their fight in 2000: "I want your heart. I want to eat your children."

He was not paid for doing the Fox Sports Net commercial, which was created by independent ad agency Cliff Freeman and Partners and began running on Monday, D'Ermilio said.

The network received no complaints from viewers or advertisers, but after fielding several media inquiries Fox Sports decided it would be best to pull the spot.

"(Network executives) saw it as an early signal that perhaps Mike Tyson's use in this manner was more provocative than they anticipated," he said.

Cliff Freeman has done several edgy, award-winning spots for Fox Sports Net, including ads that show men jumping from a cliff and being hit in the head with a club.

Dan Kelleher, an art director at Cliff Freeman who helped create the Tyson spot, told the New York Times that the Tyson ad "will break through the clutter, and when you can do that, if it's controversial, it's O.K."

Executives at the ad agency could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fox Sports Net is a unit of News Corp Ltd.

Love Means Sharing the Same Diseases

Sep 20, 9:21 am ET 

LONDON  - Married couples share more than their homes, cars and finances -- they are also likely to have some of the same diseases, experts say.

If a spouse suffers from asthma, depression, peptic ulcers, high blood pressure or raised cholesterol levels, the chances are their partner will be afflicted with the same illness.

"Partners of people with specific diseases are at increased risk of the disease themselves -- at least 70 percent increased risk for asthma, depression and peptic ulcer disease," Julia Hippisley Cox of the University of Nottingham, central England said on Friday.

Cox and her team said the most likely reason for the shared diseases was environment. Married couples usually eat the same foods, are exposed to the same allergens and often have similar exercise patterns. These can contribute to ailments such as allergies, high blood pressure and raised cholesterol.

The British Heart Foundation said there was also likely to be a strong association with coronary heart disease (CHD), one of the biggest killers in industrialized countries.

"Sharing a home environment means that partners may well have similar diet, physical activity and smoking patterns so that if one develops CHD the other has a similar risk of developing the disease," said Belinda Linden, the head of medical information at the foundation.

Cox and her colleagues studied the medical history of 8,000 married couples, aged 30 to 74.

After adjusting for age, obesity and smoking status, which also have an impact on disease risk, they found that spouses whose partners had a certain illness had a higher risk than the general population of suffering from the same disease.

The scientists, whose findings are published in the British Medical Journal, believe screening spouses for some diseases should be considered.

"The findings could have implications for targeting screening or disease prevention measures at partners of participants with one of these diseases," Cox added.

No Sex Please, We're Soldiers

Sep 20, 9:20 am ET 

BERLIN  - Germans mulling joining the army may think twice now thanks to a new regulation banning soldiers from having sex while in active service.

The Defense Ministry said on Friday it had issued a decree stating that sleeping with fellow soldiers of either sex, or indeed their partners, would be bad for morale, threatening "mutual trust and soldiers' willingness to help each other."

The army originally laid out a series of proposals on how to behave with female colleagues when women were first allowed into active army service at the beginning of 2001. Now they have set them in stone.

Women soldiers will also have to take down their favorite pin-ups, as one clause, expressly formulated to include both men and women, prohibits them from hanging up pornographic images that might offend others.

Lady 'Luck' Leaves Bus Before Bombing

Sep 20, 9:18 am ET 

TEL AVIV  - An Israeli woman whose name means "luck" said she had her third brush with death when she got off a Tel Aviv bus after spotting a man who looked like a Palestinian suicide bomber about to strike.

The woman, named Mazal, told Israel's Channel 1 television the blast Thursday tore through the number 4 bus on the coastal city's tree-lined Allenby Street seconds after she disembarked. It killed at least five people.

"I was sitting in the middle section, and he was near the door," said Mazal, who declined to give her last name. "He was wearing a black blazer and jeans, and he had a mustache and black hair.

"The blazer was buttoned up and I thought: 'In this heat'?"

"He was standing right behind me. All he did was look around all the time -- right, left, up, down. He had a very strange look on his face."

She said she disembarked at the stop just before the blast.

Mazal said she warned the driver before getting off, but "he took no heed." According to other witnesses, the driver died in the blast, which wrecked the front part of the bus.

Police called the attack a suicide bombing, a tactic favored by Palestinian militants in the uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian group.

Thursday's close call was nothing new for Mazal -- which is Hebrew for "luck."

"It's the third terrorist attack I've been through," she said, her hands shaking as onlookers crowded around. "I was in one in Jerusalem half a year ago and the one in (Tel Aviv mall) Dizengoff six years ago. Talk about trauma."

Shoes Spare Gays from Nudity Charges

Sep 20, 9:16 am ET 

TORONTO  - Seven men who bared all in Toronto's Gay Pride Parade have been cleared of public nudity charges because they were wearing shoes, their lawyer says.

The men, from a social group calling itself Totally Naked Toronto Men Enjoying Nudity (TNT!MEN), were arrested and charged under Canada's Criminal Code after they marched in the annual festival wearing only footwear -- and sunscreen.

But prosecutors dropped the charges this week after conceding there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction, said lawyer Peter Simm, a TNT!MEN member himself.

Simm said Thursday his clients were technically not naked even though one had a "sort of a codpiece on."

"The law is very straightforward if someone is absolutely and completely bereft of clothing...however things become a little more complicated if there is a scrap of apparel anywhere on the body and the Crown has to show that the person is indecently clad which gets into what the current Canadian legal test is for indecency," he said.

"Because everyone wore at least footwear the Crown had to prove indecency and it couldn't."

Simm said his clients, two of them visitors from Texas, were relieved at the decision but upset that they were arrested in the first place.

TNT!MEN nude marchers have joined in the gay festival, which attracts tens of thousands of marchers and onlookers in downtown Toronto each year, ever since the group was first formed in 1997.

But before this year they had never been arrested.

"Besides the fun of marching in the parade, the marchers did have some serious intent as well, addressing issues of body shame and also what is regarded in the gay community as 'body fascism'," Simm said, adding that the men arrested ranged in age and size -- the youngest was 25 and the oldest was 61.

The Crown, worried about more such incidents, wrote to Simm saying the decision to drop charges should not be seen as a precedent for more incidents in the future.

Taxi Company Seeks Slice of London

Sep 20, 9:14 am ET 

CHICAGO  - London's roomy taxis may soon roam the streets of Chicago if a taxi operator gets his wish to obtain more than 500 of the diesel-powered cabs.

Yellow Cab Management Inc., which claims to be the nation's oldest and largest taxi company, said on Thursday it awaits approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation and local regulators to replace its fleet of 573 American-made sedans with the beloved black models manufactured in England.

The Chicago taxi firm's chief executive, Casey Decker, said he also wants permission to display advertising inside and outside the new taxis to help defray their $40,000 cost. He wants riders to be able to avail themselves of a touch computer screen to guide them to restaurants and theaters.

London Taxis of North America, the Sudbury, Massachusetts-based distributor, said Chicago would have the first major fleet of its cabs in the United States. However, it has received a smattering of orders from operators in Boston and a couple of other U.S. cities. Federal regulatory approval for the taxis -- which seat three comfortably with room for two more passengers riding on jump seats -- was expected within weeks, a spokesman said.

But what about fixing some American cab drivers' reputation for rudeness and not knowing their way around?

"We try to impress on our drivers that if the meter rate is the same on all cabs, what's going to separate you from losing a ride is your appearance, your demeanor," Decker said.

Chicago's cabbies may not get the same intensive training required of London drivers, but Decker said his drivers are trained to use the company's dispatch system "so they're not lost."

Gang Name for Baby Slated as 'Abuse'

Sep 20, 9:13 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - New Zealand's main advocate for children has branded as "psychological abuse" the naming of a child after a notorious criminal gang.

Commissioner for Children Roger McClay said he received a complaint about a baby boy named Triple M Rogue, which is short for Mighty Mongrel Mob, Rogue Chapter.

Police say Mongrel Mob members have been associated with criminal activity in New Zealand, including violence and selling drugs.

McClay said small children like Triple M Rogue may be subjected to abuse and neglect before realizing their name was out of the ordinary.

"People need to show a bit of compassion and reasonableness in regards to naming their children." McClay told The News Source.

"This is a label on a child that most people would think inappropriate, although the people who named the child obviously do not think so."

The complaint cannot be acted on but McClay wants parliament to consider setting guidelines for naming children.

He said he did not think the naming problem was widespread, despite hearing about another child called Satan.

New Zealand law bans names that are offensive or more than 100 characters long.

Earlier this month a Turkish couple living in Germany was refused permission to name their baby Osama Bin Laden after the al Qaeda leader blamed by the United States for the attacks on the World Trade Center a year ago.

Triple M is a boy -- born last year and his parents are members of the Mongrel Mob.

Weather Hampers Record Skydiving Jump

Sep 20, 9:13 am ET 

SASKATOON Saskatchewan  - A French parachutist's attempt at a record jump from a balloon 25 miles above the Canadian Prairies will likely have to wait until spring, organizers say.

Poor weather at the launch and landing site in central Saskatchewan and excessive high-altitude winds have stymied several attempts by Michel Fournier to make the jump over the past two weeks.

Organizers of the effort told reporters that while a final decision on postponing the jump until May would be made on Saturday, it was a "virtual impossibility" the weather conditions would allow a jump before then.

If eventually successful with his stunt, the 58-year-old former French army parachutist, will set three records -- for the highest jump, the fastest and the longest freefall -- as well as an unofficial record for the highest balloon ascent.

A $1 Million Coffee Spill

Sep 20, 9:12 am ET 

LIMA, Peru  - Former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos is not only accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to dirt-poor Peru's government, but he might have also been the man who spilled the world's priciest cup of coffee, a state attorney says.

"One time Montesinos lost $1 million when he carelessly spilled his cup of coffee on a bank certificate, which was ruined. From then on he put his money in bank accounts," attorney Luis Vargas, who heads the government's mammoth case against Montesinos, told reporters Wednesday. In Peru, bank certificates are used like cash and cannot be replaced.

Montesinos, who faces more than 50 separate trials, kicked off the 2000 corruption scandal that toppled his former boss ex-President Alberto Fujimori when he was seen in a secret video paying a bribe to an opposition politician.

He was accused of piling up a illegal fortune of more than $250 million in state funds and kickbacks as well as orchestrating bribes, arms deals and even human rights abuses as the right-hand man to Fujimori, who ruled this Andean nation with an iron fist from 1990-2000.

Montesinos is locked up at a top-security Lima naval base while Fujimori is in exile in Japan.

The ranks of more than 1,000 people charged in crimes linked to Montesinos include high-profile politicians, military officers, businessmen, judges and journalists.

Vargas said the million-dollar coffee accident was one of the reason Montesinos began depositing ill-obtained money in bank accounts.

Peru has repatriated some $150 million in corruption-linked funds that were squirreled away in foreign bank accounts and is seeking more.

Hallowed Lord's Turf Gets the Boot

Sep 20, 9:09 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australia's hardline quarantine inspectors have barred entry to two boxes of turf from the world famous Lord's cricket ground in England, fearing that they might be a haven for bugs and pests.

Two souvenir sods of Lord's grass, ordered by Australian cricket lovers, arrived through the mail in boxes bearing the customs declaration "sporting (cricket) goods." But quarantine officials dug their heels in and refused to admit them.

"It is hallowed turf and we have quite a number of cricket enthusiasts who were quite impressed to see this, but obviously from a quarantine perspective we cannot allow this into Australia," said Craig Hall, manager of the Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry mail program Friday.

Lord's, owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club, is seen as the home of cricket and its spiritual headquarters. With the historic arena now being relaid, the MCC decided to raise funds by selling chunks of the old turf to cricket lovers around the world.

Australia, an isolated continent with unique flora and fauna, bans imports of fresh plant material or soil in case they contain pests or diseases or become weeds. There is a similar ban on fresh food and sea shells, and customs carefully screen wooden articles for bugs or mold.

Last year's outbreak of foot and mouth livestock disease in Europe prompted authorities to ask airline passengers arriving at Australia's airports to declare any mud on their shoes.

Famous Sept. 11 Flag Disappears 
Thu Sep 5, 9:01 AM ET

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) - The American flag that was raised by three firefighters over the wreckage of the World Trade Center, one of the most enduring images of Sept. 11, has disappeared. 

After it was removed from the site during cleanup, the flag was believed to have been flown on U.S. ships serving in the war in Afghanistan ( news - web sites), then returned to New York City officials in March. 

But the flag that city officials preserved measures 5 feet by 8 feet. The flag the firefighters raised on Sept. 11 measured 4 feet by 6 feet, according to its original owners. 

"It's just a really awkward and difficult situation," said Lark-Marie Anton, a spokeswoman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "What it represents is really what's important." 

Bloomberg has asked city fire officials to investigate what happened to the flag. 

The New York Times reported that city officials had traced the 5-by-8 flag as far back as a Sept. 23 appearance in Yankee Stadium. They believe the original flag may have been accidentally switched or misplaced sometime between Sept. 11 and that event. 

Officials say they are unaware of anyone claiming to possess the original. 

The original flag came from a yacht, the Star of America, that was in a Hudson River marina near the World Trade Center that day. Firefighter Dan McWilliams took it from the yacht and walked back to Ground Zero, where he and two colleagues, George Johnson and Bill Eisengrein, raised it on a slanted pole. 

The scene was captured by Thomas Franklin, a photographer with The Record of Bergen County, and distributed worldwide by The News Source. 

The discrepancy about the flag size was discovered last month when the yacht owners, Shirley Dreifus and her husband, Spiros Kopelakis, borrowed the flag for an event on board the Star of America. 

The couple had been preparing to formally donate the flag to the city when they said they noticed the flag was too big to be theirs. 

"It's a mystery," Glen Oxton, an attorney representing the owners said Thursday in The Record. "Who knows what happened to it after the firefighters put it up and the photograph was taken? There was so much activity down there." 

Gun-Toting Musician Forces DJ to Play His Album

Sep 19, 9:41 am ET 

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil  - A gun-toting musician forced a southern Brazilian radio station to play his debut album for more than an hour after apparently having no luck opening the doors of show business, the man's father said.

Marcus Vinicius dos Santos, 27, the vocalist for the rock group ACC -- a Portuguese acronym for "Beyond the Gray Sky" -- stormed disc jockey Marcio Paz's booth at Atlantida FM in the city of Porto Alegre and forced him to play his album "Phases of Life."

"He is a quiet boy," his father, Getulio dos Santos, told The News Source. "I'm surprised by what happened."

The five-member band portrays itself on its Web site http://www.accpop.com as futuristic superheroes living in a post-apocalyptic world. Vinicius dos Santos goes by the name "Cram" and wears Alice Cooper-style black eye makeup.

The episode on Wednesday was reminiscent of the 1994 Hollywood movie "Airheads," in which dimwitted members of a rock band, fed up with rejection from music industry executives, take matters into their own hands and hijack a radio station to air their songs.

The Brazilian incident ended after about 70 minutes when Vinicius dos Santos surrendered to police, who had evacuated the building. Nobody was injured in the incident and Paz later informed listeners where they could buy the band's album. 

Man Slices Off Four Body Parts

Sep 19, 9:40 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian man cut off the little finger on his right hand, then his scrotum, then his penis and finally his left hand in a drug-induced act of self-mutilation after arguing with his wife.

The man, believed to be high on amphetamines, attacked himself with a carving knife Tuesday in the town of Inverell 400 miles north of Sydney, police said Thursday.

"It is the most bizarre thing I have seen in 16 years in the police force," Inverell inspector Dave Harrington told The News Source.

Harrington said the 38-year-old man cut off his little finger while arguing with his wife inside their Inverell house and then chased her outside.

"He then proceeded to dismember his member," he said.

Police said the man was lucky ambulance officers witnessed the attack and prevented him from bleeding to death, adding that police recovered several body parts and packed them in ice in the hope they could be reattached.

The man was flown to Sydney for emergency microsurgery and was now in a stable condition, police said. 

Robber Steps in Dog Poo, Lands in Jail

Sep 19, 9:40 am ET 

SYDNEY  - A glob of dog excrement on a Queensland robber's shoe has been used as evidence to identify him, landing him with a 10-year stretch for a betting shop hold-up on Australia's Gold Coast.

Police said Thursday they had used enhanced photos from a security camera to match the pattern of excrement found at the crime scene to that on 26-year-old Jacob Smith's shoe.

"It's not rocket science. It's as plain as poo on your shoe," police sergeant Alan Piper, a veteran scientific officer, was quoted by local media as saying.

"It could have been one of a thousand or ten thousand shoes, but because that poo was there it was creating a great big feature that allowed us to go to a positive identification."

"I'd say there has been some more poo on the shoe but it has worn away," said Piper, who admitted to also doing a smell test.

Smith, who had wrapped a sheet around his face to hide his identity during the heist, was jailed in June for 10 years and 10 months on charges of robbery, being armed and in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle. 

Man Dies After 25 Years in a Bus Shelter

Sep 19, 9:39 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australians bade farewell on Thursday to a German-born homeless man who died after living for 25 years in a Sydney bus shelter.

Karl Kulper died last weekend after living in the brick bus shelter close to Saint Vincent's hospital in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst for more than a third of his 66 years.

"In memory of Carl (sic), resident of this shelter for 25 years who passed away 14/9/02, God Bless -- Vinnys," read a note from the hospital's emergency department, placed among roses and orchids left on the blackened bench where Kulper lived.

The heavily bearded man's death made the front page of Australia's only national daily paper, The Australian. It was suspected that the man died of natural causes, it reported.

Hospital social workers said they believed that after Kulper's wife and child died he no longer felt the need to lead an orthodox life.

Hospital staff and locals would buy him coffee and give him cigarettes and send postcards addressed to "Karl at the bus stop outside St. Vincent's" when they went on holiday.

"Every morning he'd be sitting outside waiting for us to open...he was a very private person but very polite, we knew he was German but didn't no anything much about him really," said Winifred Campbell, a waitress at Una's Cafe where Kulper celled in each morning for his breakfast bacon sandwich.

A memorial service was held at the shelter Thursday, to be followed by the funeral Monday.

Patience Doesn't Pay Off for Everyone

Sep 19, 9:39 am ET 

LONDON  - Patience may be a virtue, but it doesn't always pay off.

A man suspected of trying to steal jewelry from one of Britain's poshest stores was arrested after police discovered him concealed behind a false ceiling where he had been hiding for several hours.

A police spokeswoman said on Thursday officers from the Metropolitan force had gone to Harvey Nichols in London's swanky Knightsbridge on Wednesday morning to investigate an overnight break-in.

They left only to be called back in the afternoon by shop staff who noticed a ceiling panel moving. Police officers then discovered the man in a false ceiling cavity.

"The man, who is of East European appearance, is being questioned at Notting Hill police station," the spokeswoman said.

The police refused to say how much the jewelry, which has been recovered, was worth or to speculate on how long the suspect had been hidden.

The Times however said the jewels were worth about 100,000 pounds and that the man had been hidden for more than 12 hours.

Saint's Dried Blood Liquefies in 'Miracle'

Sep 19, 9:38 am ET 

NAPLES, Italy  - The substance many Neopolitans believe is the dried blood of their patron saint liquefied right on cue on Thursday, in a twice-yearly "miracle."

Thousands of faithful crammed into Naples cathedral to see the blood of the fourth century Saint Gennaro turn from powder to liquid, which they see as a good omen for the city and the world. The miracle has been recorded almost without fail for the past 600 years -- on September 19, the saint's feast day, and on the first Saturday in May. When the blood has remained dry, tragedies have followed.

Scientists have confirmed that the substance inside the closed vial is blood but cannot explain why it regularly turns to liquid.

Cardinal Michele Giordano told the congregation this year's miracle was particularly good, because the blood had liquefied in less than an hour.

"It's an extraordinary event, also because you can clearly see that the blood has changed color and there's more of it," Girodano said holding up the glass vial.

Disaster has struck at least five times after the blood failed to liquefy. In 1527 the plague killed 40,000 people and more recently in November 1980 some 3,000 people died in a massive earthquake that struck southern Italy.

A Pizza Strike??

Sep 19, 9:35 am ET 

ROME  - Italy is famous around the world for strikes in every sector from transport workers to doctors, from teachers and even prostitutes.

Now the first "pizza strike" has been called for Saturday.

The consumer group ADUC says the price of a pizza is just too high and disproportionate to the cost of ingredients.

The group estimates that the ingredients for a classic Pizza Margherita -- tomato, mozzarella and basil -- cost a mere 49 euro cents (about 50 U.S. cents), but restaurant goers are charged an average of 5 euros, an increase of some 1,000 percent.

Using the same proportions, the group says, a dish of choice fish in a good restaurant would cost a consumer some 150 euros, but in reality it costs only a fraction of that.

In order to protest against the high cost of the national staple, the group has called on consumers not to buy pizzas all day this Saturday, September 21.

Ex-Communists Lure Votes with Sex and Drugs

Sep 19, 9:33 am ET 

BERLIN  - Germany's ex-communist PDS party is enticing young and first time voters with the lure of sex and drugs on the Internet ahead of Sunday's general election.

However, it is likely to disappoint those hoping for a cheap thrill. The link www.sexunddrugs2002.de provides access to the party's Web site and its stance on gender issues and its plans to legalize cannabis and tackle addiction to hard drugs.

More frivolous electoral treats are to be had elsewhere.

For the floating voter, www.yippy.de/wahlen2002 allows the undecided to create their own ideal chancellor from the hair, eyes, nose and chins of the various candidates.

Meanwhile, www.bundesdance.com ("federal dance") sets the party leaders in motion, grooving in character to a variety of tunes. You pick the rhythm, the leader and the degree of pelvic gyration.

And the mainstream parties are not about to miss out on using the online fun for their own ends.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left Social Democrats have equipped www.nichtregierungsfaehig.de ("unfit to govern") with animated cartoons ridiculing the conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber and the liberal Free Democrats.

One likens Stoiber, the Bavarian premier, to the Star Wars villain Darth Vader -- with a Bavarian beer glass in his hand.

The rival conservative-run www.wahlfakten.de (election facts) takes a more, well, conservative approach.

It invites the reader to make unflattering comparisons between the words of Schroeder and the Greens' most prominent member Joschka Fischer and their actual policies -- or even with their own earlier comments.

It stubbornly calls Fischer, the foreign minister, Joseph rather than the more affectionate "Joschka" that he prefers.

Magazine Offers a Prize to Die For

Sep 19, 9:31 am ET 

LONDON  - A leading science magazine is offering readers a prize to die for -- cryonics treatment.

The lucky winner of the prize promoting the revamp of New Scientist magazine won't be able to collect the award until death when he or she will be cooled to a temperature at which decay of the body stops and then suspended in liquid nitrogen in a state known as cryonic preservation.

"We think that the cryonics promotion is a way of making science interesting to everyone, not just scientists, which is exactly the same message we are trying to communicate about the magazine itself," editor Alun Anderson said in a statement.

If and when the medical technology allows, the winner preserved at The Cryonics Institute of Michigan in the United States, will be revived to continue their life.

If the winner is not eager to be preserved, the magazine is offering an alternative prize -- a week in Hawaii and a visit to the Mauna Kea observatory.

Bald Corpse Mistaken for Mop-Haired Uncle

Sep 18, 10:24 am ET 

BOGOTA, Colombia  - A mop-haired Colombian scrap dealer disappeared for 15 days and returned home to discover his family had decided he was dead and was preparing to bury a bald man's corpse, a relative said on Tuesday.

After he went off recently without telling anyone from his home in a poor neighborhood of the Pacific Ocean port of Buenaventura, Aladino Mosquera's relatives were asked to identify a dead body in the local morgue.

"I went to look at the dead man and he was his spitting image, so I thought it was him," Mosquera's niece, Emilsen Angulo, told The News Source.

She admitted she didn't notice the dead man was bald, whereas her uncle has a full head of black hair.

Before the misidentified cadaver was buried, however, she said her uncle spotted Mosquera walking in the street.

"He asked him if he was dead, because he'd just seen his body at home. My uncle thought he was a ghost coming after him and ran away," said Angulo.

Mobster in Solitary Confinement to Become a Father

Sep 18, 10:23 am ET 

ROME  - A Sicilian Mafia man who has been behind bars in a strict isolation regime for a decade has announced he will soon be a proud "papa."

The 40-year-old man, named only as G.R., and his 37-year-old partner are expecting a baby early next year, more than 10 years before the convicted mobster is due to be released, Italian newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The amazing fatherhood feat was achieved with the help of science and a nod of approval from the government.

Under the "41 bis" prison regime, introduced after the Mafia murders in 1992 of star magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, mob bosses are isolated from other prisoners and put behind glass when a family member visits.

But after seven years of appeals to the Justice Ministry, G.R. was authorized to bear a child with his partner through artificial means -- the first time a Mafia prisoner has been granted the privilege.

After repeated efforts, G.R.'s partner finally succeeded in getting pregnant using in vitro fertilization, with the couple's lawyer mediating.

"It was a unique experience. The technical time periods were limited and it was a desperate and continuous effort in which all have participated with considerable sensitivity," the lawyer Alessia Bonanno told "La Repubblica."

G.R., behind bars in the maximum security Le Costarelle penitentiary in L'Aquila in the center of Italy, will be allowed to hold the baby for 10 minutes per month once it is born.

In another high-profile case, two Mafia brothers impregnated their wives while in prison even without government permission.

The men, Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano, claim the family had set up a private sperm bank in the event they were arrested, but some investigators suspect lawyers for the brothers smuggled their sperm out of prison.

All Aboard! Except for Driver of Runaway Train

Sep 18, 10:21 am ET 

LONDON  - A British train driver was forced to sprint 100 yards along the station platform to catch his train after it decided to start its journey without him.

"The ticket-collector climbed on and seconds later the train started moving. When I looked out the window I noticed the driver still on the platform. He ran as fast as he could past my window, then jumped on the train and stopped it," passenger Ann Sutton told the Daily Telegraph.

The driver had been chatting to railway workers on the platform before the unscheduled departure of the local commuter service in south Wales between Rhymney station and Cardiff.

Rail bosses have begun an investigation over the incident.

"If the driver hadn't been so quick, the train would have stopped automatically after about another 50 yards," operator Valley Lines told the paper.

Better Late Than Never

Sep 18, 10:21 am ET 

DUBAI  - A 42-year-old United Arab Emirates man finally got his high school diploma after sitting for the exam 17 times, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Gulf News said hospital worker Abdul Samad Moosa had repeatedly tried to pass the exam which students normally sit at the age of 17 or 18 -- and failed.

But this year, Moosa studied very hard and made the grade in English and mathematics to receive the certificate he coveted.

"Thank God," the paper quoted the father of five as saying. "I intend to go to university and want to specialize in IT."

Trailer Park Bids for Historic Monument Status

Sep 18, 10:20 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A Los Angeles trailer park could soon be joining the world-famous Hollywood sign and the city's Spanish Mission-style Union Station as a protected historic-cultural monument.

The Cultural Heritage Commission has asked the city council to give the 1.7-acre Monterey Trailer Park, which dates back to the early 1920s, monument status because of its place in the history of the great American road trip.

"It is not your typical trailer park," said Ken Bernstein, director of preservation for the Los Angeles Conservancy which is backing the bid.

"It began as an auto camp. It was a precursor of the motel, a place where car travelers to California could come and were offered temporary housing in this collection of landscaped camp sites and cabins," Bernstein said.

The trailer park, on a hilly and tree-filled site outside Pasadena, still has two 1920s Craftsman style houses, the original bathing and laundry building, and a structure thought to have been one of 10 original guest cabins. It is now home to about 30 people in 20 permanent trailers and mobile homes, many of them dating back to the 1950s.

The site was originally called the Monterey Auto Camp and was opened just as Americans were beginning to take their first long road trips in Model T's, before the first modern motels were built.

"There are other trailer parks all around southern California, but we think this is perhaps the most unique. And there are no other historic monuments in Los Angeles that are auto camps or trailer parks," said Bernstein.

The city council is expected to vote on the designation within the next few weeks.

Puffins Return to Breed as Rats Are Vanquished

Sep 18, 10:19 am ET 

LONDON  - Puffins have returned to a Scottish island to breed after the rats that preyed on them for more than a century were finally ousted.

Scientists at Glasgow University said Wednesday an 11-year project to eradicate rats on Ailsa Craig had succeeded in encouraging the birds back after an absence of 50 years. "We are very pleased to see puffins breeding there again," the university's Professor Pat Monaghan told The News Source. "It's a very difficult thing to do to get rid of rats."

The tiny volcanic island eight miles off the coast of Ayrshire, southwest Scotland, was home to tens of thousands of puffins before brown rats invaded in the late 19th century and found the birds' burrow nests easy targets.

The university said huge flocks of puffins flying over Ailsa Craig in the 1870s used to cause "a bewildering darkness."

The first rat was seen on the island in 1889 at around the time the first lighthouse was built there.

It is thought to have escaped from a ship bringing coal or possibly from shipwrecks on the rocks before the lighthouse was built, the university said.

The huge project to get rid of them involved tons of rat poison airlifted to the island by navy helicopter.

No rats have been seen on the island since 1992.

Californians Get Pot in Medical Marijuana Protest

Sep 18, 10:18 am ET 

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.  - Hundreds of cancer and AIDS patients along with other sick wheelchair-bound people lined up outside Santa Cruz's City Hall to receive medical marijuana and protest a recent U.S. government raid on local pot growing cooperative that distributes it.

Several patients, including a 70-year-old man suffering from post-polio syndrome received on Tuesday small bags of marijuana or tinctures containing its active ingredient.

The group distributing it said there was not enough to go around and warned that many patients could lose their most effective means of pain relief, or be forced to buy it on the street, if the federal government continued to fight California's practice of allowing pot to be grown and handed out for medicinal use.

Local cooperatives have been providing pot to patients since 1996, when voters approved a medical marijuana initiative. But federal drug enforcement agents last week raided one such cooperative here, run by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, and destroyed all the group's plants.

The California law allowing the use of marijuana to treat illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and glaucoma, has always been in conflict with federal law, and last year the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal ban on marijuana.

Among those protesting the raid were Harry Boyle, a 24- year-old brain cancer patient who said pot had helped offset nausea brought on by chemotherapy, and helped him maintain his weight.

"I was devastated when all our plants were torn up," said Boyle, who also volunteers at the Wo/Men's Alliance and said the group had always followed a strict procedure of checking with doctors to make sure patients' health claims were legitimate, before they distributed the pot.

Shy Koalas to Be Lured with Taped Mating Calls

Sep 18, 10:18 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Australian wildlife officers began playing taped koala mating calls into bushland south of Sydney Wednesday in the hope of finding koalas there and increasing their protection.

A two-year survey by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is one of a raft of initiatives announced by the state government of New South Wales to stop further decline in the numbers of the shy marsupial.

Koala populations have shrunk with development, land clearing and bushfires driving the gum-leaf eating animal out of its habitat.

"Using the male's mating call in the breeding season has been found to be a good way to attract males who are territorial and the females so that we can confirm any koala population," NPWS spokesman Daniel Connolly told The News Source.

"Our cuddly national icon might look cute as anything but its mating call is like a mix between a donkey and a pig and can be heard for miles in the bush."

The survey in the Warrangamba Dam catchment area, a 865,000-acre protected area of bushland southwest of Sydney, was organized after recent anecdotal sightings of the koala, which was not known to live in that area.

Connolly said NPWS officers would use the mating call technique, examine droppings and scratchings on trees and spotlight over 300 sites in the study area to try to confirm if there is a resident koala population.

"If we can locate a koala population in the area we can try to improve the protection of that location," he said.

The koala is not an endangered animal in Australia and there are an estimated 100,000 or more living along the country's east coast.

But animal welfare groups argue that the koala population has fallen dramatically in the past century with millions of koalas shot in the 1920s for their fur, loss of habitat taking a toll, and cars and dogs believed to kill up to 4,000 a year.

'White Fox' Gives a Bear

Sep 18, 10:16 am ET 

ASHGABAT  - What to do when your country is short of energy but you know the president of a gas-rich nation nearby likes to be flattered? Give him a bear, of course.

That's what Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, known as the White Fox of the Caucasus, gave Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov, known as Saparmurat Turkmenbashi the Great, on Tuesday.

"The bear personifies the strength and might which are a such a distinctive feature of Turkmenistan's presidential power," the White Fox told Turkmenbashi (the name means "leader of the Turkmen") in a letter.

Georgia receives most of its gas from Russia, and is facing an energy crisis as a row simmers over claims by Moscow that rebels from Chechnya are hiding in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.

Shevardnadze will have noticed that Ukraine, a laggard when it comes to paying for gas, has had great success by switching from Russia to Turkmenistan for part of its supply, feting Turkmenbashi regularly in Kiev, and then paying for gas late, or not at all, or with galoshes and television sets.

Pity the poor bear, who now faces summer temperatures of over 100 degrees in Ashgabat zoo, after leaving his cool mountainous home in the Caucasus.

Sexy Pin-Ups Model Coffins for Funeral Home

Sep 17, 10:57 am ET 

ROME  - Death is hardly something to look forward to, but one Italian funeral home is trying to make the afterlife a tad more tempting by using bikini-clad women to sell its coffins.

On its site http:/www.cofanifunebri.it, the Rome-based funeral home and coffin factory Cisa features its hand-crafted caskets alongside models sipping champagne or reclining seductively on the lids.

"We wanted to make the whole idea of picking your coffin less serious, maybe even make people laugh a bit," Giuseppe Tenara, one of the partners, said.

Near-naked women are used to sell everything in Italy from computers to chocolate bars, but Cisa has taken the advertising ploy to new limits.

The page featuring the firm's "Madonna" coffin shows a pouting woman in zebra shorts and high-heel boots kneeling next to the casket, while in "Empire Style," a blonde donning a black G-string leans on a coffin and turns her backside to the camera.

"Unfortunately the site hasn't helped sales much, because we mostly get calls from far away places like Greece and Spain instead of Rome," Tenara told The News Source.

That hasn't stopped Cisa from creating an online "sexy calendar" with yet more temptresses frolicking among the coffins.

Still, not all clients have been charmed.

"Some people are scandalized, but we just explain that we're trying to make people laugh," Tenara said. 

Cadaver Takes Unexpected Detour

Sep 17, 10:56 am ET 

SAN JOSE, Calif.  - The body of a California man headed for burial in his native Mexico mistakenly ended up in Greece and weeping relatives only discovered the mix-up when they opened the casket and found a stranger inside.

Robert Castaneda's family, who raised $8,000 to bring back the body of their 68-year-old patriarch to a final resting place, were shocked to find a dead African-American man with a cigar and a book displaying a picture of the World Trade Center, the San Jose Mercury News reported on Monday.

Castaneda died 10 days ago in California and his relatives thought they had flown the body back to his home town of Apatzingan in the Mexican state of Michoacan. They realized, however, it was the wrong cadaver when they opened the casket on Friday.

"My sister called us immediately," Belen Castaneda, the Mexican dead man's daughter, told the newspaper. "She was in shock. She said that wasn't my father, and we couldn't believe what was happening to us."

Delta Air Lines officials phoned the family to inform them Castaneda's body had somehow ended up in Greece, according to the newspaper.

That casket was flown to New York and is scheduled to arrive in San Francisco on Monday along with the mystery cadaver, whose identity was not known, the newspaper said.

Delta spokeswoman Peggy Estes said on Monday the airline was conducting an investigation to determine whether proper procedures for transporting human remains were followed.

Family members added they do not know whether the airline, airport workers or the funeral home made the mistake but were trying to raise more money to get Castaneda's body back to Mexico, according to the Mercury News. 

Enron Puts 'Crooked E' Sign Up for Sale

Sep 17, 10:55 am ET 

By C. Bryson Hull

HOUSTON  - For Enron memorabilia seekers, nirvana may be at hand.

The ultimate symbol of the bankrupt power trader -- one of the ubiquitous chrome signs dubbed "the Crooked E" for its distinctive slant and commentary on the company's questionable dealings -- is on the auction block, a company spokeswoman said.

It is one of thousands of items the company is selling to raise cash for creditors in a sale set for Sept. 25 and 26.

The "Crooked E" that potential buyers will bid on once stood in front of one of Enron's auxiliary office buildings in downtown Houston, spokeswoman Karen Denne said.

The best-known of the signs, located in front of the company's silvered headquarters and used as a backdrop for many a television report, is not for sale and remains in place, its fate as uncertain as Enron's.

"It's a sign of the times," Denne said of the auction, the second since Enron declared bankruptcy last December in a huge financial scandal. An earlier auction took place in London when Enron sold off equipment there.

Before Enron collapsed, it was known as a company with expensive tastes and the goods on sale do not disappoint.

A host of brand-new 50-inch flat-screen plasma monitors, which were destined for Enron trading floors, are on auction, as are dozens that were already in use.

The spiffy high-tech screens retail for about the same as a compact car -- $7,000 to $11,000 -- and are already causing a buzz among former employees who would like to buy them.

On www.1400smith.com, a web site for former employees, one quipped that he "wants the one with PJM burned into it," a reference to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland power grid map that was displayed continuously on one of the screens.

Several hundred Herman Miller Aeron ergonomic chairs, a prime status symbol among the Internet set that retail for around $700, are also for sale. Those were strong sellers in the London auction, Denne said.

About 3,000 desktop and laptop computers are on auction, as are hundreds of flat panel monitors, servers and computer networking components.

But there are, as with all things Enron, caveats: all items for auction are being sold as-is, and winning bidders must make their own arrangements to carry home their booty.

Enron officers, directors and vice presidents are prohibited from bidding in the auction, can be done with the Internet or in person at the Houston Radisson Astrodome hotel. A preview of the merchandise is set for Sept. 24 at an Enron warehouse just a few miles from its downtown headquarters. 

Oktoberfest Bans Garish World Trade Center Mural

Sep 17, 10:55 am ET 

MUNICH, Germany  - The German city of Munich has told a fairground operator to take down a mural of New York's World Trade Center in flames decorating his horror ride before the city's beer festival opens Saturday.

The painting on the front wall of the "House of Horrors" ride depicts both towers billowing black smoke, echoing the hijacked-plane attacks of September 11 last year.

Thousands of foreigners, including Americans, visit the Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, every year, and locals sent letters of complaint about the mural to newspapers.

"The facade will be gone by the start of Oktoberfest on Saturday," said a spokeswoman for the city's tourism office. "They will have to change it."

The operator of the ride could not be reached, but the spokeswoman said the apocalyptic mural had been painted long before September 11, 2001.

Based on the horror film "Godzilla," it also features another New York skyscraper, the Chrysler building, exploding near the top and collapsing as fighter jets fly nearby.

The ride was not used at last year's Oktoberfest, though there were no complaints when it appeared at other fairgrounds. 

'Free Willy' Star Set to Spend Winter in Norway

Sep 17, 10:54 am ET 

OSLO  - Keiko the killer whale looks set to spend the winter in Norway where rival coastal communities are lobbying to offer a home to the star of the "Free Willy" movies, his handler said on Monday.

The people-loving orca has made a splash with the locals since he showed up in western Norway two weeks ago -- even letting children ride on his back. But experts say that what he really needs is some killer whale company.

"We would like to find a cozy spot for him, preferably a peaceful place where we can be around and where he can also be in contact with other killer whales -- so that he gets the best of both worlds," Colin Baird told The News Source.

He said Keiko's monitoring team, which has tracked him since he was released from his pen in Iceland in July, regarded Norway as a "transit" before the 24-year-old animal is fully ready for the wild. And several fjords in Norway were suitable, he said.

Millions of dollars have been spent on preparing Keiko for the wild after the 1993 movie "Free Willy" prompted a campaign for his release. But Keiko, who has lived almost all his life in captivity, still seems to prefer human company to whales.

"We don't expect Keiko to join a group of killer whales, but we hope he can find a group just to socialize a little, hang out and play around with -- and maybe even mate," Baird said.

Groups of killer whales travel up and down the coast off Norway, which has plenty of herring. But the food situation as well as the weather would be better for Keiko in the spring, when the winter storms ease and the herring spawn.

Keiko swam some 1,400 km (870 miles) from Iceland by chance to the only nation in the world that hunts whales commercially. Norway, defying a global memorandum, hunts the minke whale.

But the playful orca has managed to charm Norwegians, who have flooded him with offers for new retirement homes in fjords -- which attract thousands of tourists every year.

"Do like Keiko. Pick Halsa," reads the new slogan of Halsa local municipality, the home of the Skaalvik fjord, Keiko's current home.

"The world's most famous whale in the world's most famous fjord," declared the tourist chief of the famous Geiranger fjord in western Norway, a rival winter home for Keiko.

The leader of the U.S.-based Free Willy Foundation is due to arrive in Norway this week for talks with Norwegian authorities on Keiko's future. 

No Thanks to Alco-Milkshake 'Moo Joose'

Sep 17, 10:54 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Prospects have turned sour for "Moo Joose," Australia's first alcoholic milkshake, which has been banned by licensing authorities and slammed by health groups as encouraging under-age drinking.

Victoria-based Wicked Holdings is set to appeal against the ban, saying its chocolate, strawberry and banana flavored milk drinks were aimed at 18- to 35-year-olds and would only be sold on licensed premises, Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported Tuesday.

With an alcoholic content of 5.3 percent, the drinks are stronger than most standard Australian beers.

Australian Drug Foundation spokesman Geoff Munro told the newspaper that Moo Joose was a nightmare that would put alcohol within the reach of every child in the state.

"It's a sad day when we would take such a risk and trade our children's health in for a dollar," he said.

Liquor Licensing Victoria last week rejected Wicked Holdings' application for a pre-retail liquor license but the company intends to appeal against the decision, the paper said. 

Fugitive Kangaroo Takes Nightlife Tour

Sep 17, 10:53 am ET 

MILAN  - A kangaroo briefly joined Milan's hip crowd Tuesday after hopping away from a nearby circus.

Police found "Skippy" -- about five-and-a-half feet tall and sporting only a pouch -- heading for Corso Como, a trendy street lined with bars and boutiques.

"We were all very surprised. He'd never done anything like that before," circus troupe member Paolo Miletto told The News Source.

Surrounded by a dozen police officers, Skippy was led quietly back to the circus by the grandson of his trainer in the early hours of the morning. 

Candidate Admits Brush with Pot

Sep 17, 10:52 am ET 

CHICAGO  - Democratic Rep. Rod Blagojevich, front-runner in the race for governor of Illinois, may have raised the bar when it comes to answering the "Have you used marijuana?" test that has become a staple of American politics.

The 45-year-old politician admitted on Monday he had tried the drug twice as a young man -- but he didn't know whether he had inhaled or not. He was sure, however, that he didn't have an attack of the munchies afterward.

"I don't know if I did or not. I never liked the smell of it ... I was so inept at it I don't know whether I did or didn't (inhale)," he said in response to the same question once put to former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton said he tried the drug but did not inhale. The question of drug use is often posed to political candidates.

Blagojevich added he had "vivid" recollections of both encounters in college with the weed and was sure he did not come down with the post-smoking snack attack that often accompanies marijuana use.

He has a substantial lead in polls over Republican Jim Ryan, the state's attorney general. A spokesman said Ryan had never used marijuana. 

Transit Cops Turn to Music to Fight Crime

Sep 16, 10:23 am ET 

BOSTON  - Boston transit police have enlisted the late American composers George Gershwin and John Philip Sousa in their fight against crime.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police are piping in a mix of show tunes and marches at a city subway station in order to drive away the large numbers of aggressive teens who used to loiter there after school, the Boston Globe newspaper reported on Sunday.

"We tried arresting the kids last year. That didn't work at all. We just wanted to try something different," William Fleming, acting chief of the MBTA Police, told the paper.

MBTA officials said the sounds of brass and strings blaring over the newly installed speakers are already having their desired effect, reducing crowds at the Forest Hills station, where there had been two to three fights daily.

Although several youths have complained about the music, fewer of them are loitering -- to the delight of officials and those who work in the station.

"Music soothes the savage beast," a clerk who works in the station was quoted as saying. "They're leaving, and I ain't seen no fights." 

'Mile High Club' Forces Airplane Refit

Sep 16, 10:22 am ET 

LONDON  - Virgin Atlantic Airways is to replace tables in its newest planes because passengers have broken them during illicit trysts, the Sun newspaper said on Monday.

The $200 million Airbus A340-600, which was introduced several weeks ago, has a "mother and baby room" with a plastic table meant for changing diapers. But passengers have destroyed them by using them for love making.

"Those determined to join the Mile High Club will do so despite the lack of comforts," a Virgin spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

"We don't mind couples having a good time, but this is not something that we would encourage because of air regulations." 

Bonus Helps Censors Return to Their Senses

Sep 16, 10:20 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - New Zealand censors are given $498 a year to spend on the likes of piano lessons or aerobics to help rid "psychological pollution" encountered in their work, local media reported.

Twelve staff of New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification, a government body responsible for classifying publications that may need to be restricted or banned, are entitled to the allowance, The Dominion Post newspaper reported Saturday.

Under New Zealand law, "publications" include films, videos, music, books, magazines and computer games.

Chief censor Bill Hastings said objectionable material, containing pornography or violence, had the potential to harm.

"We're not machines. We're humans. Given that we have to do this job, we have to take some steps to negate the harm," Hastings reportedly told the newspaper.

Last year the office viewed 1,224 publications, including 201 it classified as objectionable, according to its official Web Site www.censor.govt.nz.

"As this ($498) is part of their salary, we don't monitor how staff spend it, but some have told me that they spend it on gym memberships, music lessons and the like," Hastings said.

Staff are also entitled to eight counseling or supervision sessions a year. 

Man Divorces Quarrelsome Wife for Mute Woman

Sep 16, 10:20 am ET 

SANAA  - A Yemeni man divorced his first wife because she was loud and argumentative and picked a deaf and mute woman as his new bride, a local newspaper said on Monday.

Al-Thawra daily said a 40-year-old man named as Yahya from the southern Dhamar province so tired of his wife's "screaming and endless disputes" that he left her after 15 years to remarry.

"He chose one deprived of hearing and speech and who is quiet and mild-mannered," it said.

Men in Muslim Yemen can marry up to four wives and can in practice divorce without giving reasons. 

Farmers: From Crops to Chops... and Then Cops

Sep 16, 10:18 am ET 

BEIJING  - A Beijing court has sentenced nine former farmers to up to 17 years in prison in the Chinese capital's largest case of forging official seals, known as "chops," that are vital for doing business in the country.

State television said the sentences were the latest victory in a battle against forgers who sell everything from fake driver licenses to university degrees.

The Beijing Second Intermediary People's Court found the counterfeit ring earned nearly $2,400 by making fake stamps of government departments, military offices and companies, the television report said.

Official stamps are used in nearly every transaction in China -- whether clinching a big business deal or getting a restaurant receipt -- and are the cornerstone of the sprawling bureaucracy.

They typically include a circle with the name of a company or government department stamped in red ink on a document.

The three main culprits were sentenced to 15 to 17 years in prison, while six accomplices were given terms up to six years, the report said.

Members of the ring were all former farmers from China's eastern province of Jiangsu. 

World's Oldest Person, Turns 115

Sep 16, 10:16 am ET 

TOKYO  - A Japanese woman said to be the world's oldest person turned 115 on Monday.

But Kamato Hongo, who lives in the southwestern city of Kagoshima, failed to stay awake for her big day.

"She has been in a deep sleep since 2 a.m. this morning, maybe because she got excited after seeing many visitors yesterday, on Respect for the Aged Day," the Kyodo news agency quoted daughter Shizue Kurauchi, 78, as saying.

Hongo, born in 1887, now sticks to a unique cycle of staying awake for two straight days and then sleeping for two days.

Although she can no longer walk without help, Hongo enjoys singing and "dancing" with her hands, Kyodo said.

Japan is also home to the world's oldest male, Yukichi Chuganji, a 113-year-old native of Fukuoka prefecture.

Both Fukuoka and Kagoshima are located on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island. 

Caviar Sales Hit by First Class Travel Slump

Sep 16, 10:15 am ET 

TEHRAN  - Iranian caviar exports have been hit by the decline in the numbers of first class airline passengers in the wake of the September 11 attacks, officials said Monday.

The main market for Iran's caviar exports is catering for first class passengers on international airlines flying out of the Islamic Republic.

A spokesman for the Fisheries Trade Company said exports dropped two-thirds to 10 tons in the first half of the Iranian year ending in March 2002, compared to 30 tons in the same period last year.

"Most of Iran's exported caviar was served in first class international flights," the spokesman told The News Source. "After September 11, the number of first class passengers has decreased and so has the demand for caviar."

The Caspian Sea's five littoral states -- Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan -- have sharp differences on how to divide the sea, including the rights to rich caviar stocks and reserves of hydrocarbons beneath the sea floor.

Pollution, over-fishing and lack of environmental cooperation among the five countries are diminishing the numbers of sturgeon, which produce caviar. 

Europe Gets First Lesbian Fertility Clinic

Sep 16, 10:13 am ET 

LONDON  - Europe's first fertility clinic for lesbians and single women is due to open in London on Monday, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper said.

The Women's New Life Center is being launched by the founders of www.mannotincluded.com, a Web Site dedicated to helping lesbians find sperm donors.

"It (the clinic) has been launched in response to the insensitive way in which lesbian and single women are treated by a number of clinics due to social prejudice," founder John Gonzales was quoted as saying.

The Web Site has been hugely successful, attracting 3,000 couples and, within ten days of opening, 5,000 willing donors.

Gonzales said he expected about 800 customers a year at the clinic, which would be followed by others in the northern city of Manchester and Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Pair Survive 14 Days Adrift in Life Raft

Sep 16, 10:12 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Two Australian men were plucked from a life raft off the Queensland coast after a marathon 14 days adrift at sea, surviving on a two-day ration pack and used their shoes to catch rainwater to drink.

The pair said they were forced to abandon their fishing boat after it caught fire and sank beneath them.

"We thought we were dead. We definitely thought we were dead," Steven Wong, one of the survivors told Channel Ten television news.

A fishing trawler came across the two dehydrated sailors on Saturday around 40 miles east of Cape Morton in Queensland and while the two had been reported as overdue at their destination, a full-scale had not been organized.

Suffering from shock and exposure, they described how they had been ignored by passing ships prior to their rescue.

"When you are in such dire need for help I just couldn't believe that someone could turn away like that," Wong said.

But a Queensland Rescue Helicopter crew officer said the raft would have been virtually impossible to see from the air or sea.

"It just goes to show how close the trawler must have come to the raft for its crew to see it," he said. 

Reunited Sex Pistols Showered with Beer

Sep 16, 10:11 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - In true punk spirit, rowdy music fans pelted the Sex Pistols with beer as the one-time scourge of the British establishment played its first U.S. concert in six years outside Los Angeles.

The hailstorm on Saturday may have been meant as an homage to the band's own anti-establishment roots, but drenched singer John Lydon was having none of it, labeling one thrower a "turd" and a "wuss," to the delight of the 50,000-strong crowd.

The Sex Pistols, who briefly ruled the music world in the late 1970s with such incendiary anthems as "God Save The Queen" and "Anarchy in the U.K.," reunited to headline a punk rock festival at the Glen Helen Pavilion in Devore, 55 miles east of Los Angeles.

In July, the quartet dusted off their instruments for the first time since November 1996 to play a London show marking their 25th anniversary. Guitarist Steve Jones told The News Source before Saturday's show there were no plans for the group to perform again although he was eager for more action.

The band originally broke up during a calamitous American tour in 1978. It reunited in 1996 -- with original bass player Glen Matlock subbing for his replacement, the late Sid Vicious -- for a five-month world tour. 

Scrap Worker Accidentally Fires Howitzer

Sep 13, 10:07 am ET 

KIEV  - A Ukrainian scrap metal worker destroyed two roofs and singed his face when he cut into a 1940s howitzer and accidentally fired off a shell no one had noticed was lodged inside, local media reported Thursday.

Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported the worker had heated the metal by cutting the gun and had triggered the shell, which flew about 800 yards. It said there were no other casualties in the central Ukrainian city of Berdychiv.

The news agency also said the company had paid for repairs to the roofs but work at the scrap yard had been stopped after local prosecutors launched a criminal investigation.

Ukraine, situated between Russia and an expanding European Union, has a huge arsenal of rusting weapons, which often end up in the country's dozens of scrap yards. 

New York Lottery Draws 9-1-1 on Sept. 11

Sep 12, 4:20 pm ET 

NEW YORK  - A daily New York lottery randomly drew the numbers 9-1-1 on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and nearly 15,000 people were counting their winnings on Thursday after using the fateful date for their lucky picks.

But those looking for some hidden meaning in the New York Numbers lottery game's outcome may be disappointed to find out that the odds of that combination were not as big a long shot as they might have imagined.

"There is nothing special about the number 911," said Gerard Ben Arous, professor at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. "On any given day, the odds for that number to be drawn are 1-in-1,000."

A Lottery spokeswoman said there were 14,878 winning tickets, with the top prize at $500. There are different ways to play the Numbers lottery, but those who bet $1 that 9-1-1 would be drawn in this order will get about $500.

The total payout will be almost $5 million.

The Lottery halted bets on 9-1-1 on Tuesday after too many people chose the combination. The Lottery routinely closes out betting on a number when its liability would reach $5 million if that number wins. On average, the Lottery closes out between seven and 10 numbers every day, a spokeswoman said. 

Chocolate Lovers: Get It While You Can

Sep 12, 9:37 am ET 

By Eric Onstad

AMSTERDAM  - A blistering rally on cocoa markets is starting to hit the wallets of chocolate lovers, with prices of pure, rich products climbing the most.

Addicts who savor the intense semi-sweet taste of chocolate with high cocoa content are likely to shell out more in coming months as speculators show no signs of curbing a buying frenzy that has kept cocoa prices hovering at 15-year highs.

Prices of other sweets with chocolate coatings, however, are less affected since cocoa is only a fraction of the total contents, while in Germany a price war and weak economy has forced makers to swallow the extra costs.

"The way it looks now we will have to raise our prices considerably again next year," said an official at Dutch premium chocolate maker Droste, which raised prices by four percent earlier this year.

"The rising prices for cocoa...are the topic of the day in our management discussions," said sales and marketing director Henk Bijma.

Droste, the third largest Dutch producer of pure chocolate products, is especially hit by cocoa prices since it specializes in semi-sweet chocolate containing up to 72 percent cocoa mass.

Industry giant Nestle pushed up the cost of chocolate on the Swiss market by an average of 4.5 percent in August, with prices of various products rising between 0.5 percent and seven percent.

Competitors had already hiked prices in March, said Nestle spokesman Marcel Rubin.

Cocoa bean prices have increased steadily over the past two years due to deficits in the supply/demand balance on world markets, but speculative buying has sent them shooting up in recent months.

Earlier this week cocoa bean prices on London markets surged to fresh 15-year peaks, up nearly 50 percent since the start of the year.

On Thursday afternoon, most active second-month futures were trading at around 1,430 pounds ($2,223) per ton, up from 978 at the start of the year and a low of 547 pounds in December 1999.

Cocoa beans, however, are also priced in dollars and the weakening of the dollar against European currencies has helped dampen the rise for many European makers, Nestle's Rubin said.

In Britain, a sweets industry spokesman pointed out that many popular confectionery products contain a range of products including milk, nuts and sugar.

"Cocoa is important, but is nevertheless just one of a number of raw material ingredients in chocolate," said the spokesman for the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance.

The British unit of Nestle does not immediately respond to fluctuations in the market price of commodities, a spokeswoman said.

"It is too early to say whether the retail price will be affected in the longer term. We are obviously monitoring the situation very closely," she added.

Chocolate addicts might want to head to Germany, where manufacturers are under pressure to keep prices under control.

"German industry tells me almost every day they would like to raise chocolate prices but they cannot," a cocoa trader said.

"The German economy is in a mess and in bad times people cut down on luxury products like chocolate. Germany's chocolate industry is working well under capacity and retail prices are down," he added.

German market researcher GfK recently estimated German January to end June chocolate sales were down 4.3 percent on the year in volume and down 5.5 percent by value.

Discount supermarkets in Germany have been slashing prices of chocolate as a loss-leader to lure shoppers in.

"Big brands cannot raise prices against such pressure from discount retailers, who are raising their market share. The German chocolate industry is just having to take the cocoa price increase without passing it on," the trader said. 

Playing with Their Food...

Sep 12, 9:36 am ET 

VIENNA  - They call it "music with taste."

Forget the cello, just listen to that cucumberophone. The land of Mozart will be exporting its latest cultural product next week when the First Viennese Vegetable Orchestra goes on its nine-date debut European tour.

The orchestra, which consists of eight musicians, one sound technician and one cook, plays vegetable-based instruments they make themselves.

"We believe that we can produce sound that cannot be easily produced by other instruments. You can hear the difference, it sometimes sounds like animals, sometimes just abstract sounds," the band says in its homepage (www.gemueseorchester.org).

It takes the band about half an hour to make a carrot flute, and under 15 minutes to make a cucumberophone, which has a pepper bell and cucumber tubing. Other instruments include celeriac bongos, eggplant cymbals and pumpkin drums.

The sounds are amplified using a variety of microphones.

At the end of a performance, which can include free jazz, experimental music, or the Radetzky March by Austrian Johann Strauss, the stage is cleared and a cook uses the instruments to prepare a soup for both audience and musicians.

"The audience has the possibility of once again enjoying what they just heard," the band adds. "We employ a real chef for the preparation of the soup so it is indeed tasty and very special."

Their mothers obviously never told them not to play with their food. 

Research Holds Hope for Genitally Challenged Men

Sep 12, 9:34 am ET 

LONDON  - Scientists in the United States have come up with news that may help millions of men -- they have succeeded in growing major parts of penises in the laboratory.

The test tube penile parts were successfully used to rebuild the members of rabbits who -- after rest and recuperation -- put them to the use that rabbits are famous for.

"They were able to copulate, penetrate and produce sperm," Anthony Atala, whose team at Harvard Medical School carried out the experiments, told New Scientist magazine.

He said the researchers were now trying to grow entire penises in the test tube.

But he also said the technique was at an early stage and that it would be a while before the technique was tried with human tissue.

The scientists had only been successful in growing the erectile tissues of rabbit penises -- not the entire organ -- and in all cases the erect member had the reduced firmness of a 60-year-old against that of a more virile 30-year-old. 

And Rock's Vilest Villain Is...

Sep 12, 9:33 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - Mark David Chapman, the deranged fan who shot John Lennon to death, has topped a list of rock 'n' roll's most dastardly villains.

The roster of rock's 25 worst nemeses, published in the upcoming issue of music publication Blender, also includes Tipper Gore, the motorcycle club Hell's Angels and several record executives.

Chapman is serving 20 years to life after pleading guilty to gunning down Lennon outside the former Beatle's Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980.

The other killer on the list is the Rev. Marvin Gay, who fatally shot his son, soul legend Marvin Gaye, in 1984. Gay, who was sentenced to five years on probation for involuntary manslaughter and died in 1998, ranked No. 4.

R&B icon Ike Turner, the "husband from hell" who beat Tina Turner, ranked No. 2, followed by the Hell's Angels, who stabbed to death one fan and beat countless others with pool cues at the Rolling Stones' infamous 1969 Altamont concert. Gore, wife of former vice-president Al Gore, ranked No. 7 for her efforts to censor music.

The tongue-in-cheek roster also lists "white people" at No. 9 for ripping off black musicians; Muzak at No. 21 for its bland mood music; and the pioneers of power flight, the Wright Brothers, at No. 24 for the aviation deaths of such music stars as Buddy Holly, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Aaliyah. 

Waves Sparked by Boredom?

Sep 12, 9:30 am ET 

LONDON  - It only takes a handful of bored spectators to spark off one of the famed Mexican waves that can engulf an entire stadium, according to a study published in Nature magazine on Wednesday.

Scientists at the University of Budapest studied videotapes of 14 Mexican waves and concluded that the average wave was triggered by a group of 25 to 30 people surging to their feet with their arms in the air during flat periods of a game.

They then sit down again as the group next to them copies their behavior in a ripple effect running through the crowd.

"The wave usually rolls in a clockwise direction and typically moves at a speed of about 12 meters (or 20 seats) per second and has a width of about 6-12 meters (corresponding to an average width of 15 seats)," the study said. They said their findings on the Mexican wave or La Ola, which jumped to prominence during the 1986 soccer World Cup in Mexico, might prove useful in predicting when otherwise peaceful crowds in street demonstrations could suddenly run amok. 

Seeking to Punish 'Exhibitionist' Prostitutes

Sep 12, 9:27 am ET 

BORDEAUX, France  - Prosecutors in the southwest French city of Bordeaux have sought fines for four prostitutes and their clients on unprecedented charges of "sexual exhibitionism," court officials said.

The move is an attempt to close a loophole in French law under which prostitution is legal but the act of soliciting is illegal. Parliamentarians are under pressure to deal with a perceived increase in the numbers of prostitutes on the streets.

"They just want to make a big hit in the media," said Benoit Ducos-Ader, lawyer for the defense, of fines of up to 1,200 euros ($1,174) sought by prosecution lawyers in a hearing late on Wednesday.

"It is riding roughshod over the texts of law," he added. Sexual exhibitionism is a rare charge normally reserved in France for the most blatant acts of exposure or sex in public places. It carries a maximum one-year jail sentence.

The accused were arrested earlier this summer during a police sweep in the city now run by ex-Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a close conservative ally of President Jacques Chirac.

The accused were all in cars when they were arrested at night in a known red-light area. The verdict is due October 9.

Residents have complained about the nuisance caused by around 300 prostitutes, increasingly from African and east European countries, pitching for business on the street.

One National Assembly deputy has proposed reopening the brothels France tolerated for years until a crackdown some 50 years ago. But the idea prompted a backlash, with hardline Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pledging to deport foreign sex workers found without the necessary papers. 

Astronomer Sees Possible 'Wild West'-Style Mars

Sep 12, 9:24 am ET 

LEICESTER, England  - Mars could resemble the lawless Wild West if privately funded adventurers seeking to exploit the planet get there before government-backed expeditions, a leading British astronomer said on Wednesday.

Before humans make it to Mars, the entire solar system will probably have been explored by flotillas of tiny robotic craft, but within a century there could be a permanent presence on the planet, Sir Martin Rees of the Institute of Astronomy told a science conference.

Once an infrastructure is established the costs of getting to Mars will go down, which could open up the possibility for different types of expeditions.

"If they were governmental or international (expeditions), Antarctic-style restraint might be feasible. On the other hand, if the explorers were privately funded adventurers of free-enterprise, even anarchic disposition, the Wild West model would be more likely to prevail," he said.

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, was first photographed from space in 1965. More recent missions landed on the surface of the rocky, cold Red Planet and discovered the possible presence of liquid water.

Amateur astronauts have already paid millions for a trip in space. If more efficient propulsion systems and fuel needed to escape the Earth's gravity could be situated on the ground, rather than as part of the cargo, the trip would be much easier and cheaper.

Rees envisions a type of "space elevator" that could lift people and payloads from the ground to a satellite.

"The rest of the voyage could be powered by a low-thrust, perhaps nuclear, rocket," he told the British Association science conference. 

Politicians May Be Asked for Mental Exams

Sep 12, 9:22 am ET 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina  - Argentine politicians, blamed by voters for leading the country to its worst economic crisis, would have to undergo psychiatric tests to ensure they are mentally fit to hold office if a bill before Congress is approved.

Sen. Jorge Capitanich, a former Cabinet chief, has submitted a bill that would require all congressional and presidential candidates to take mental as well as physical exams, a spokesman for the legislator said Wednesday.

The bill, possibly due for debate this week, would also require future leaders to present any criminal records and proof they have paid taxes in a country where half of potential revenues are lost to evasion.

Politicians are increasingly the target of public anger among voters fed up with a recession now in its fifth year. Few lawmakers can venture out in public without being insulted or spat on in the streets.

As March presidential elections approach, the most common popular street slogan is "Get Rid of Them All!" Soaring poverty and unemployment have sparked food riots over the last year and forced four presidents since December 2001 to leave their posts. 

Government Refuses to Shut Down Ailing Town

Sep 12, 9:21 am ET 

QUEBEC CITY  - The Quebec government refused on Wednesday to bow to pressure from residents of a remote mining community who voted to shut down their town after the area's main employer closed.

Some 65 percent of the population of Murdochville, about 600 km (375 miles) east of Quebec City in the province's Gaspe region, voted to dismantle the community after mining company Noranda Inc. shuttered the local smelter in April, putting 300 people out of work.

"The Quebec government took the decision to keep the town open," said cabinet minister Remy Trudel, adding the government did not intend to compensate residents to leave the ailing community.

The closure of the town, which has a population of 1,000, would have cost the Quebec government up to C$50 million ($32 million) in compensations for householders, businesses and tenants.

Trudel said on Wednesday that the government was studying different options to bolster the area's economy and keep a maximum of jobs in the Gaspe region.

Noranda will continue to pay its municipal taxes, which made up two-thirds of the town's budget, until the end of 2003. 

Bin Laden Lookalikes Audition on 9/11

Sep 11, 10:37 am ET 

By Katie Nguyen

ZICHEM, Belgium  - Bearded Belgians eager to play Osama bin Laden queued Wednesday to audition for a role in a film inspired by the Saudi-born Islamic militant -- as the world remembered the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Posing for cameramen with the would-be actors, some in turbans and robes, film director Rob Van Eyck admitted the timing of the audition was a publicity stunt.

"It's the only day when you are going to get such media coverage. When I did the casting in May, no one came," said the Flemish director, who has gained minor cult status in Belgium with low-budget science-fiction movies.

Asked whether auditioning on the first anniversary of the deadly attacks on the United States was not in bad taste, Van Eyck shrugged: "It's not pleasant for the Americans, but every day people are killed in attacks."

More than 3,000 people died when suicide attackers from bin Laden's al Qaeda movement flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Van Eyck, 63, said his comic book-style film would be a black comedy.

"It's good to shock people sometimes with humor. Americans are incapable of laughing at themselves," he added.

The film -- "Afterman 2" -- is set in 2012 and pits the eponymous hero against "bin Laden," who comes to Belgium as an asylum seeker and rises through the ranks of the European Union.

Afterman eventually saves the world from "bin Laden," who has closed the borders and established a dictatorship.

Van Eyck said his fascination with bin Laden, missing since the U.S. war in Afghanistan, stemmed from the fact that "for one side he's evil and for the other he's a hero."

Van Eyck is not the first Western entertainer to portray bin Laden. Controversial American rapper Eminem dressed up as the elusive al Qaeda leader in the music video, "Without Me."

Most of the aspiring actors in the film, in search of their 15 minutes of fame, defended it as a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun.

"I'm not serious about a real film career. Anyway when you watch Rob Van Eyck's films you realize that you don't need acting experience," said 27-year-old student Raf Linmans.

"It's nothing to do with good taste. I don't think he (Van Eyck) is going for the Golden Palm," he added, referring to the top prize awarded at the prestigious Cannes film festival.

Another aspiring star, 53-year-old Herman Durwael, said: "I want to be involved to show what kind a bastard he (bin Laden) really is, and the first reaction of the director was, it will be black humor and he won't be praised."

Shooting is expected to start next year. 

Dead Batteries Dim Headlight Parade

Sep 11, 10:02 am ET 

SYDNEY  - Hundreds of motorists in Sydney were stranded with dead batteries Wednesday evening as they headed home from work after a morning headlight parade in memory of September 11 victims, local media reported.

The National Roads and Motorists Association (NRMA) said it had received 400 calls from drivers with dead batteries due to leaving their lights on.

"We have had double the calls for flat batteries due to lights left on," the NRMA spokesman said, but added he did not know how many were directly linked to the headlight parade. 

Ex-Astronaut Accused of Punching Man

Sep 11, 10:01 am ET 

BEVERLY HILLS  - A man who publicly confronted astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin over whether he actually went to the Moon said on Tuesday that the Apollo 11 hero almost sent him into space with a punch to the jaw.

Bart Sibrel, an independent filmmaker from Nashville, Tennessee, said he was trying to conduct an ambush interview with Aldrin outside a hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday when the astronaut punched him and ran away.

"I approached him and asked him again to swear on a Bible that he went to the moon, and told him he was a thief for taking money to give an interview for something he didn't do," Sibrel told The News Source.

The incident was videotaped for Sibrel's second film, which claims to prove that the Apollo 11 astronauts faked footage of their July 1969 trip to the Moon to fool the Soviet Union into thinking the United States had won the 1960s space race.

Sibrel, 37, said he reported the assault to police and was seeking an assault charge against the 72-year-old astronaut.

A spokesman for Aldrin could not be reached for comment. Beverly Hills police confirmed that they are investigating the incident.

The encounter with Aldrin was Sibrel's third since he said he discovered footage in NASA's archives showing that the Apollo 11 astronauts had placed a transparency of the Earth in front of their space capsule window and videotaped it to simulate a journey to the Moon.

Aldrin was the second man to take a walk on the Moon, a feat recorded on grainy black-and-white film footage and transmitted around the world on July 20, 1969.

But Sibrel contends in his first film, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon," that Apollo 11 never left Earth's orbit and that no one has ever walked on the Moon. He also produced a Fox TV show last year entitled "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" 

Long Toilet Stay Triggers Airplane Security Sweep

Sep 11, 9:57 am ET 

BERLIN  - A passenger who spent a long time in an airplane toilet Wednesday prompted a security alert and full search of the Lufthansa plane, the airline said.

"It was quite amusing," Lufthansa spokesman Thomas Jachnow said. "He was on the toilet for quite some time. That was enough reason to alert the federal border police."

The man went to the toilet after the plane had landed in Berlin's Tegel airport from Frankfurt. His lengthy stay prompted the flight attendant to alert security officials.

The border police detained the man once he had emerged and conducted a thorough search of the plane which did not produce anything unusual, spokesman Lars Rebel said.

Jachnow said the incident only occurred because of heightened security around the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States.

"The day put people's nerves on edge. Thank god, it turned out to be nothing," he said. 

Leader's Aides Fired over Cook-And-Tell Book

Sep 11, 9:56 am ET 

SEOUL  - They didn't reveal any top secret recipes, but two junior aides to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung were fired Wednesday after publishing a book entitled "What do people eat at the Blue House?"

The low-ranking staffers, a nutritionist and a secretary for civil affairs, were dismissed for divulging security secrets in their book about daily life in South Korea's ornate blue-tiled presidential mansion, Kim's spokeswoman said.

"This government cooperates to the fullest extent possible every time there is a media request to cover aspects of the president's life or the Blue House which citizens are curious about," presidential spokeswoman Park Sun-sook told reporters.

"Every government in the world treats as important secrets select information about its highest leaders," she told a news conference.

Without repeating what was divulged, Park said the book contained a number of secrets of various degrees of classification on security facilities and procedures at the Blue House, where the president both lives and works.

She said the book also contained "not a few accounts of past presidents' eating habits, favorite foods and dining information about foreign guests."

The health of the 77-year-old Kim had been a subject of intense speculation after a recent bout of pneumonia, but the president ate lunch and joked with foreign reporters last week, telling them his doctors declared him "100-percent healthy." 

Fight over Fortune of 'Non-Existent' Boxer

Sep 11, 9:54 am ET 

PANAMA CITY, Panama  - Former world champion boxer Pedro Alcazar never existed on paper so the country's courts cannot settle a dispute among his three sons over the dead boxer's estate, lawyers said on Tuesday.

The confusion appears to have arisen from Alcazar's humble beginnings as an orphan raised by a Colombian in Panama's rural Darien region, Alcazar's family lawyers told The News Source.

The boxer, who died from a brain injury after losing his World Boxing Organization junior bantamweight title fight in Las Vegas in June, was never entered into Panama's civil or electoral registry during his lifetime.

Alcazar had no official documents confirming his nationality and the 23-year-old boxer traveled to the fight in the United States on a temporary passport, Alcazar's former trainers said.

In the absence of a will, claims to his estate cannot be mediated through the courts, a Panamanian court has ruled.

"The name of every Panamanian appears in the Civil Register. But Alcazar's does not," said a spokeswoman for Panama City-based Judge Lina Castro, who oversaw the case.

"For this reason, claims to Alcazar's estate have been thrown out," the spokeswoman said after the Aug. 30 ruling was made public this week.

The real name of the Panamanian fighter was unclear, so the court considered the case under various names, court officials said.

Lawyers for the three sons said they would appeal the court's decision. 

Italians Yawn at Too Wholesome Contest

Sep 10, 9:16 am ET 

By Philip Pullella

ROME  - Italians have much to complain about these days. Prices are rising, jobs are scarce and the "country of the sun" has been swamped by rain this summer.

But along with the highs and lows of the mercury and the economy, another moan this past week has been that the Miss Italy pageant, one of the country's most hallowed institutions, is producing girls that are, well, just too wholesome.

Italians are just plain tired of the girl-next-door, which they like to call "acqua e sapone" (soap and water look) and apparently want more sex, spice and suspense in their misses.

So great was the disappointment over the four-day pageant, which ended Monday night, that one mainstream national newspaper branded it "Miss Yawn 2002."

The television audience share plummeted by two million viewers over last year and commentators and newspapers put the blame on goodness.

"Too many girls seemed to be reciting from a script -- God, country and family," said Fabrizio Del Noce, head of RAI state television's Channel One, which broadcast the pageant.

The angst over the failure of the pageant to move hearts and hormones was such that La Stampa, a respected national daily, dedicated almost as much space to an interview with Del Noce as they did to Vice President Dick Cheney on Iraq.

The title was won by Eleonora Pedron, a 20-year-old blonde from the rich city of Padua in northern Italy. Even her chosen profession -- accountancy -- was considered too boring.

La Repubblica, another mainstream national newspaper, declared her victory that of "a blonde in the year of boredom."

Sociologists even got into the act over the past week, telling radio talk shows about the problem.

Some said the girls all seemed the same -- same regulation swimsuits, same sweet smiles, same ambition to juggle a family and a career.

"The girls seemed to be in plaster casts," Corriere della Sera newspaper said.

The pageant, a past springboard to stardom, this year was a victim of a summer contest of long legs and buxom busts called "Veline," which was broadcast on a rival private network owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Veline captivated Italians much more, apparently because the only strings attached to the behavior of the participants where those holding up their bikini tops.

That contest, which has traveled up and down Italy all summer to select two showgirls to dance and smile for a nightly news satire show, was a hit.

The Veline girls were allowed to dress as they wanted -- usually hot pants and bikini tops -- and dance as they wanted.

It wasn't Swan Lake or the Nutcraker but in today's pageant-eat-pageant world of Italian television, it did put Miss Italy in the ratings doghouse. 

Misprint Unleashes Hate Campaign on Landlady

Sep 10, 9:16 am ET 

LONDON  - A British seaside landlady was targeted by a hate campaign after an advertisement for her flat mistakenly said she was seeking a "white person" as a tenant rather than a "quiet person," newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The woman, a disabled grandmother who used to be a nurse, insisted she was no racist and the advertisement was a misprint by a local newspaper in the coastal town of Brighton.

She was inundated by protest calls, while a local pressure group issued a statement demanding the police investigate her under the Race Discrimination Act, said Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"Lots of people have rung up over the weekend swearing at me... I've tried to explain, but they don't listen," she was quoted as saying. "I'm now frightened to pick up the phone."

"I sponsor a nine-year-old girl in Zimbabwe called Becky," she added. "I would hardly do something like that if I was prejudiced." 

Fur Flies After Road Workers Paint over Dead Badger

Sep 10, 9:13 am ET 

LONDON  - Local officials in Britain were reported to be furious after road workers apparently painted a white line on the side of a highway right over the furry body of a dead badger.

Britain's Sun newspaper on Tuesday splashed a photo of the badger across half a page, saying the picture was taken by a passerby who saw it on the side of the highway in Somerset, southwestern England.

The freshly-painted white line at the road's edge went right over the dead animal's back.

"This is totally unacceptable and we will be asking for an explanation," the paper quoted a local government spokesman as saying.

The lines were painted by an independent contractor, he said. 

Fox Steals Golf Balls, No Help from Rule Book

Sep 10, 9:10 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A fox snapped up two balls hit from the seventh tee on to the fairway by players in a tournament at Gronhogen golf course on the island of Oland off Sweden's southeastern coast, TT news agency said on Tuesday.

The players saw the fox run off into nearby woods and when tournament director Bo Rodensjo consulted the rule book he found no guidance about how to proceed.

He chose to allow the players to drop new balls near where they had stopped. The fox, hoarding food for the winter, had apparently mistaken the golf balls for bird eggs. 

Conch Shell Yields Emerald Treasure

Sep 10, 9:09 am ET 

By Laura Myers

KEY WEST, Fla.  - A diver has discovered the treasure of a lifetime -- a 40.2-carat emerald embedded in a conch shell -- while diving at the site of a Spanish galleon wrecked in a Florida Keys hurricane 380 years ago.

The part-time wreck diver, who teaches elementary school in northern Florida but does not want his name revealed, discovered the giant raw emerald while washing a bucket of shells in a classroom laboratory.

"Out popped a 40.2-carat emerald," Patrick Clyne, vice president at Key West-based wreck salvage company Mel Fisher Enterprises, said on Monday.

"It was one of those freak-of-nature things that somehow got swept up in the conch shell."

The diver had gathered the shells from a dive off the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita, which sank on Sept. 6, 1622, about 30 miles west of Key West, an island city at Florida's southern tip.

"This is an excellent indication that the Margarita had raw emeralds smuggled aboard the ship," Clyne said. "There were no emeralds listed on its cargo manifest."

The diver works with Amelia Research & Recovery Co., a salvage company in Amelia Island, Florida, hired by Mel Fisher Enterprises to search the remains of the Santa Margarita.

"This is a very, very important find. The emerald is worth a lot of money, but it's the first found at the Margarita site, which means hopefully, there are many many more emeralds out there," said Doug Pope, Amelia Research & Recovery Co.'s chief executive officer.

The stone, measuring one inch by 1.5 inches (2.5 cm by 3.8 cm) with a dark green center surrounded by lighter shades of green quartz, is believed to be from Colombia's Muzo Mines.

"The diver will get a nice bonus for his find and his honesty," Clyne said.

There were no estimates for how much the emerald might be worth. But in 1985, a 77.7-carat emerald from the vessel Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a sister ship of the Santa Margarita, was appraised at $1.2 million.

The vessels were part of a 28-ship fleet that left Havana, Cuba, on Sept. 4, 1622, bound for Spain -- laden with emeralds and gold from Colombia, silver from Mexico and Peru and pearls from Venezuela.

Two days later a hurricane overturned three of the vessels, scattering the ships' debris and their treasure of gold, silver, jewelry and artifacts in a swath stretching from the Marquesas Keys to the Dry Tortugas in the Florida Keys. 

Record Number of Japanese Live to 100 or More

Sep 10, 9:05 am ET 

TOKYO  - Hitting the age of 100 need not mean you quit work or stop pacing the fairway, according to a Japanese government survey released on Tuesday.

A 100-year-old woman farmer who modeled in an advert and a 99-year-old man who plays golf regularly are picked as examples of active old age in a Health Ministry report on the country's centenarians.

The report also says the number of people aged 100 or over hit a record high this year -- a sharp reminder of the graying of Japan's population. Birthrates are tumbling, raising concerns that pension obligations could become unmanageable.

The number of centenarians rose by 2,459 to reach 17,934 this year, compared with just 153 in 1963, the survey said. More than 80 percent of the centenarians are women.

Included in their number are the world's oldest person, Kamato Hongo, who turns 115 on September 16 and the oldest man in the world, Yukichi Chuganji, who is 113.

Both live on the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu, but the even more southerly Okinawan chain of islands boasts the largest proportion of centenarians, with an average of 39.5 of every 10,000 people aged at least 100.

Researchers have said the warm climate, healthy diet and tight-knit social networks in southern Japan may contribute to longevity in the area. 

Villagers Lock Horns for Annual Dance

Sep 10, 9:04 am ET 

LONDON  - Grown men wearing reindeer antlers charged about in a quiet village Monday in one of Britain's longest-standing rural traditions.

The Horn Dance has been performed in Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire since 1226, and attracts visitors from around the world, village officials say.

The Horn Dancers -- comprising six deer-men, a fool, hobby horse, bowman and a "Maid Marion" -- perform their ancient ritual to traditional music.

The dance starts in the morning when the participants pick up the antlers at the local church before showing off their skills at the village green.

They continue along a 10-mile route, taking in farms and pubs around the village.

The event is believed to have religious or ritualistic associations as a fertility dance or a celebration of hunting rights. 

aying 'I Do' Gets Dearer in Shanghai

Sep 10, 8:57 am ET 

SHANGHAI  - Marrying in Shanghai now costs eight years' salary of an average Chinese worker as DVD players and cars replace radios and bicycles as essentials for newlyweds setting up their first home, a state newspaper said Tuesday.

The China Daily said the average cost of getting married in Shanghai was 150,000 yuan ($18,000) -- double the amount five years ago -- while the average urban worker earned 1,530 yuan ($184) a month.

Chinese, especially in fast-growing coastal cities like Shanghai, are embracing displays of wealth accumulated since late leader Deng Xiaoping launched market-oriented reforms two decades ago, telling the Communist nation: "To get rich is glorious."

Twenty-first century marriage essentials now include a lavish banquet for several hundred guests, studio wedding photos, a honeymoon, household appliances and an apartment.

That is a radical change from the pre-economic reform 1970s when a couple amassed a bicycle, a radio and some furniture then had their union rubber-stamped at a local government office.

But the traditional Chinese wedding gift is still cash, stuffed in red envelopes which are discreetly slipped to the couple then counted behind closed doors. 

Tennis Star Robbed in Geneva

Sep 10, 8:54 am ET 

GENEVA  - Former Olympic tennis champion Marc Rosset was held-up at gunpoint and his car was stolen in his hometown of Geneva, police said Tuesday.

Police spokesman Jacques Volery confirmed a report in the daily Tribune de Geneve that Rosset handed over his car keys and cellphone to the thief. The damaged car was found abandoned hours later in neighboring France after the incident on September 3.

Such incidents are rare in Switzerland, which is generally considered one of the safest countries in Europe.

Rosset, who took Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992 and has won 15 singles titles in his career, has also started working as a coach with Russia's Marat Safin who has moved to the Swiss city. 

D'oh! There's One Tiny Flaw in This Plan...

Sep 9, 10:13 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - Swedish police must wish all criminals were as naive as the Halmstad robber.

The 47-year-old man walked into the post office of the small town in southern Sweden, told the cashier he was armed and demanded a bag of cash -- plus 350 million crowns ($37.2 million) to be paid into his bank account, whose number he handed her on a piece of paper.

Police had no trouble tracking him down and made a speedy arrest, the Swedish news agency TT reported Monday. 

Police Investigate Rodent in a Roadster

Sep 9, 8:47 am ET 

LONDON  - British detectives are investigating the mystery of a hamster found driving a toy racing car along a promenade at a northern seaside resort, newspapers said on Saturday.

The hamster, nicknamed Speedy, was handed in by a member of the public who found him cruising through Cleveleys, near Blackpool in the modified toy, which he powered by a treadmill.

"It is a model hotrod racing car with large wheels at the back and small ones at the front," the Daily Express quoted Constable Quentin Allen as saying.

"In the center is a typical hamster wheel you can buy at any pet shop... As the hamster went round and round it powered the car along at high speed."

Officers removed Speedy from the car after he made several escape attempts from their front desk, and they took him to a nearby animal sanctuary. Detectives are appealing for the owner to come forward. 

King Preaches Abstinence to Parading Maidens

Sep 9, 8:40 am ET 

By Toby Reynolds

ENYOKENI PALACE, South Africa  - Thousands of bare-breasted Zulu girls paraded outside the palace of their king as part of an ancient wife-choosing ceremony this weekend, and were told to stay virgins to keep them safe from AIDS.

The Royal Reed Dance was once a chance for the head of South Africa's largest tribe to pick new wives from his assembled subjects, but lately King Goodwill Zwelithini has used the occasion to address his subjects on morality and development.

His shoulders draped with the skin of a leopard, Zwelithini called on around 2,000 Zulu maidens on Saturday to abstain from pre-marital sex and to use contraception to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS among his people.

"Today we are facing a war against AIDS," the king said, after a royal praise-caller had introduced him with a shouted litany of his and his ancestors' great deeds.

"I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my appeal to young people, male and female, to abstain from sex until they get married or until they decide to raise their families," he said. The ceremony continues on Sunday.

One in nine of South Africa's population of around 43 million carries the HIV virus, making it one of the worst affected country's in the world.

The highest HIV infection rate in the country is in the mostly-Zulu state of Kwazulu-Natal, where more than a third of the population is believed to be infected.

Zwelithini, who counts among his ancestors the great Zulu nation-builder Shaka, and Dingane, who fought the British army in the nineteenth century, called for a revival of the traditions and culture of the tribe, once the most powerful in Southern Africa.

The king is the titular ruler of the six million-strong tribe. His uncle, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, claims the post of traditional prime minister, and leads the opposition Inkatha party to represent the Zulus in national politics.

Buthelezi was not at the ceremony.

Girls, mostly aged between 10 and 18, carried five-meter (15-foot) reeds from the Umfolozi river to the Enyokeni Royal Palace where they are used to line the fence surrounding the royal compound.

Dressed in beads and colored skirts or loin cloths, the girls danced and sang songs in praise of their king and sexual abstinence.

"These maidens that are sitting here, all of them are virgins. I think the whole nation should be proud of that," Zwelithini said, leaning over a leopard skin-covered lectern.

The spread of HIV/AIDS and other associated problems, such as drug-taking and promiscuity, reinforced the need for traditional values and unity, Zwelithini said.

He added the ceremony was no longer arranged to facilitate his future nuptials, but was a chance for the young women of the Zulu nation to greet their king.

Zwelithini, who celebrated three decades of power this year, also called on Africans to launch a drive for self-sufficiency and stand on their own feet independent of foreign aid.

He said farmers should grow more crops to produce both money and food, and drive away a threat of famine that currently hangs over much of Southern Africa.

"It is high time African leaders realized that their countries cannot rely indefinitely on aid," he said.

Nomagugu Ngobese, a mother and traditional virginity tester who brought a bus load of girls to Enyokeni from Durban, said the ceremony played a role in emancipating young girls from traditional roles.

Far from reinforcing stereotyped subjugation, the parade raised girls' self esteem and enabled them to make their own choices in life, she said.

"We are expecting (them to become) teachers...we are expecting ministers," Ngobese said. "We are teaching them to abstain from sex...we teach them to have that self esteem. Sex is not the only way to live.

"The reed dance is one of the most important festivals in our culture as Zulus. It helps girls come together and get that sense of belonging," she said. 

Catholic Leaders Outraged by Film Award

Sep 9, 8:39 am ET 

By Crispian Balmer

ROME  - Roman Catholic leaders denounced the Venice Film Festival Monday for honoring a British movie that depicts cruelty and abuse in an Irish Catholic institution.

Peter Mullan's hard-hitting "The Magdalene Sisters" won the Festival's prestigious Golden Lion award late Sunday -- a decision that infuriated churchmen who branded the film anti-Catholic propaganda.

"I feel enormous bitterness...This doesn't do any credit to the Venice Festival," said Cardinal Ersilio Tonini. "This isn't a truthful portrayal of the Church and its director has made libelous statements against Catholics," he told reporters.

The movie follows the lives of four, supposedly promiscuous girls interned in Ireland's Magdalene Asylums in the 1960s, forced to work like slaves in laundries and abused by the nuns.

Based on a true story, the girls are locked up for shocking reasons, such as having being raped or being "too" pretty.

Mullan's film comes at a difficult moment for the Catholic Church, which is reeling from priestly child abuse scandals in the United States, and religious leaders are desperate to restore the Church's battered image.

The movie's world premiere was warmly received by audiences at Venice last week, but was immediately condemned by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano as an "angry and rancorous provocation" that misrepresented the Church.

INTOLERANCE

Mullan, a Scottish actor-turned director, has defended himself from charges of bias, arguing that his film is a statement against all types of religious intolerance.

"To say that my movie is a scandal is absurd," he told a news conference Sunday. "I didn't create the Magdalene Asylums, they created them. I just wanted to expose one of the great injustices of the second half of the 20th century."

His protestations did nothing to placate the controversy in a country where the Catholic Church remains an influential voice, and even some festival board members distanced themselves from the decision to reward Mullan's movie.

"I want an explanation of how this happened. My opposition to this is total, and I'm not talking as a Catholic. Mullan's film is bad propaganda," said Valerio Riva, one of the festival administrators.

The prize was bestowed by the festival jury, headed by Chinese actress Gong Li, and mainstream Italian newspapers largely applauded the decision.

In the months leading up to Italy's premier film event, some members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government had denounced past Venice festivals for favoring left-wing ideologies and demanded a change of emphasis.

Newspapers said Mullan's triumph showed that the festival had managed to maintain its independence and urged Catholics to see "The Magdalene Sisters" with an open mind.

"Those who attack the film should remember that the same Catholic Church has criticized its own social errors and that the Pope has asked forgiveness for them," La Stampa newspaper said in a front page editorial entitled "Where's the Scandal?"

Pope John Paul has made a series of appeals during his 24-year Pontificate for the Catholic Church to come to grips with its sometimes tainted past and last November he apologized to the victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy. 

Anti-Capitalist Artists Rename Squares

Sep 9, 8:36 am ET 

PARIS  - Some tourists visiting Paris may have briefly lost their bearings Friday after anti-capitalist protesters renamed a dozen famous squares around the city with trademarks and other names from the market economy they oppose.

Place d l'Etoile, the "Star Square" where the Arc de Triomphe stands, became Bill Gates Square, according to a fake street sign plastered over the real one overnight.

The elegant Pantheon Square, at the heart of the Latin Quarter, was given the far more workaday name of Auchan Square, after a French supermarket chain.

Place de la Concorde, the historic square at one end of the Champs Elysees, was turned into LVMH Square, after the world's biggest luxury goods group.

"Our society is completely ruled by economic and capitalist values, so I don't see why people would be offended if we changed historical street names for economic names," one of the street artists who pasted up the signs told French television.

The street artists, who named their operation "Free Marketeering -- Where does it stop?," were arrested by the police at the break of dawn for illegally putting up the posters, which were soon taken down. 

Five Arrested, Suspected of Diamond Theft

Sep 9, 8:33 am ET 

BRUSSELS  - Five Brussels airport employees have been arrested on suspicion of stealing diamond shipments worth 1.5 million euros ($1.48 million), Belgian authorities said Saturday.

The five, who worked as baggage handlers, were arrested following several months of investigation, the Federal Police said.

The arrests were made after police caught one of the alleged robbers in the act, the authorities said. Authorities were then able to track down the other four suspects. Following a serious of raids in both Brussels and the southern city of Namur, police found diamonds and 60,000 euros in cash.

The diamonds, shipped in postal bags, were stolen as they were being loaded onto aircraft, with most of the shipments stolen on flights to Zurich, Geneva, Madrid and Stockholm. The authorities suspect the diamonds were stolen from about 20 flights. The remaining contents of the bags were then thrown away or hidden in the airport.

The police said they still had to determine where exactly the diamonds came from.

Belgium's $23-billion diamond industry, the world's biggest, is based in the port town of Antwerp. Belgium distributes 80 percent of the global production of uncut diamonds. 

Diva Not Murdered, Autopsy Shows

Sep 9, 8:31 am ET 

By Elizabeth Fullerton

MEXICO CITY  - A post-mortem scandal starring Mexico's biggest film legend Maria Felix fizzled on Friday after tests on her corpse showed she died of natural causes, and was not poisoned by her friends as some family members alleged.

Felix's brother Benjamin Felix prompted the somewhat undignified exhumation last week of the body of Mexico's most famous movie actress, claiming her death on her 88th birthday may have been the result of poisoning by two friends.

"We conclude it was a natural death and that there was no external element involved, no violence, no toxic substance, no type of possible poisoning," Mexico City prosecutor Bernardo Batiz told a news conference.

A glamorous brunette with pale skin and a sultry pout, Maria Felix was Mexico's answer to Greta Garbo. She starred in 47 films during the nation's golden age of cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.

Famed for her beauty and roles as a strong woman of few words, Felix avoided Hollywood but was acclaimed throughout Latin America, Spain, Italy and France.

A man-killer on and off screen, Felix had four husbands and was romantically linked with Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Last week around 100 riot police were deployed during the exhumation to keep potential protesters, fans and curious onlookers out of the capital's smart French Cemetery where Felix was buried.

But the only crowd that showed up was of journalists who clambered onto a waiting hearse trying in vain to catch a glimpse of the action inside the leafy cemetery.

Forensic experts spent four hours taking tests on the body but did not remove it from its tomb.

"According to ... tests of the corpse's organs, like the brain, lungs, heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, aorta the results conclude that Maria de los Angeles Felix Guerena died of a heart failure ..." Batiz said.

The result concurred with the findings of Felix's physician after her death in her Mexico City home on April 8.

Benjamin Felix had claimed two of his sister's friends, television soap opera producer Ernesto Alonso and restaurateur Estela Moctezuma blocked an autopsy and prevented family members from seeing her body after she died.

The silver screen diva surprised her family by leaving most of her fortune, including precious artworks and property to her 28-year-old personal assistant Luis Martinez de Anda.

Batiz said Benjamin Felix's accusations arose from "the change of (Maria Felix's) will two days before her death, the coincidence that she died on her birthday and suspicions that he might have had over not being able to see the body."

Mexican authorities last week said de Anda would be questioned but Batiz said the investigations had now ended.

Benjamin Felix last Friday accepted the initial findings of the tests on his sister's remains showing she died of natural causes but Batiz insisted on completing the investigation.

Born in 1914 in Alamos, northern Sonora state, her real name was Maria de los Angeles Felix Guerena but she became affectionately known as "La Dona," or "The Dame," in Mexico after her film hit "Dona Barbara" in 1943.

Felix made her film debut in 1942 in "El Penon de las Animas" ("The Crag of the Souls") alongside popular Mexican actor Jorge Negrete, whom she married.

"I have only been a woman with the heart of a man," she used to say to explain her success as an actress.

On her death, Mexico mourned the passing of an era and followers thronged to pay their last respects to their idol, whose closed coffin was placed in the Bellas Artes Palace in the historic center of the capital.

Little has been published about Felix's background, adding to the myth that surrounds her name. 

Man Runs Amok in Swiss Village, Injures 14

Sep 9, 8:31 am ET 

ZURICH  - A young man ran amok in a Swiss village on Friday, injuring 14 people with an iron bar before trying to flee in a postal vehicle, police said.

Two of the 14 were seriously hurt and had to be airlifted to the hospital after the afternoon attack in the village of Obfelden in the canton of Zurich.

Swiss police said they had arrested the attacker who had no obvious motive.

The incident revived memories of the killing of 14 local politicians by a lone gunman with a grudge in the picturesque town of Zug almost exactly a year ago. The gunman then killed himself. 

Animal Sacrifice Ritual Sparked L.A. Fire-Officials

Sep 6, 11:12 am ET 

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES  - A wildfire in a forest north of Los Angeles that forced thousands of holiday campers to flee the fast-moving flames was ignited by candles used in an animal sacrifice ritual, fire officials said on Thursday.

U.S. Forest Service investigators initially believed that lightning started the 17,000-acre (6,880 hectare) Curve Fire, which started on Sunday in a bend of a highway that wends through the Angeles National Forest.

But after inspecting the point of origin, clues emerged that human activity was involved, said Rich Phelps, a fire information officer.

"The Curve Fire investigation team has concluded candles associated with a ritual involving the use of fire and animal sacrifices started the fire," Phelps said.

The Angeles National Forest, home to the San Gabriel Mountains, has long been a popular site for practitioners of Santeria, a Westernized form of African deity worship.

Santeria rituals commonly include the sacrifice of goats, chickens and other small animals, and take place in a forest, which is considered a sacred place akin to a house of worship, experts said.

Law enforcement officers routinely find tableaus of dead animals, votive candles and shredded clothing in secluded spots throughout the Angeles National Forest, said Deputy David Smail.

Deputies rarely see the rituals in progress but about once a month they find leftovers that are not carried off by animals, Smail said.

"They go off into the woods and do their little thing," Smail said. "It's hard (to catch them) because they sometimes have lookouts."

No other information was made public about the items found at the Curve Fire site, nor had investigators identified suspects in the case.

The Curve fire erupted at about noon on Sunday as thousands of campers enjoyed the final weekend of summer vacation in the 650,000-acre (263,000-hectare) national park.

Gusty winds combined with record heat and drought conditions to propel the fire up the rugged slopes, driving more than 7,000 campers out of their sites within hours.

By Thursday, the fire had consumed more than 17,000 acres and destroyed 72 structures, including three forest service buildings and about 50 vacation cabins, Phelps said.

It threatened to sever one of the major arteries of the state's power grid, which could have cut off power to some commercial consumers in Southern California.

The fire was 15 percent contained on Thursday and firefighters anticipated that it would be under control by Sept. 10. 

Fed Up with TV Porn, French Want It Banned

Sep 6, 11:12 am ET 

PARIS  - With television now showing 950 X-rated and violent films a month, two-thirds of the French say they want pornography banned from broadcast and cable channels, a poll by the audiovisual watchdog CSA said Friday.

Some 76 percent of women responding backed a ban and even 51 percent of the men thought that French television was getting too hot, said the survey published in the daily Le Parisien.

A total of 64 percent of those questioned wanted both cable and non-cable channels to stop broadcasting X-rated films, which are often violent as well as sexually explicit, while 35 percent were against the ban altogether.

According to CSA, several cable channels plan to show more porn films in future to boost their audience ratings.

"Television today broadcasts 950 violent or pornographic films a month and we have to stop this drift," Christian Jacob, minister for family affairs, told Le Parisien.

"It would be simple to apply existing laws (to enforce a ban) and that would let us avoid having youths find images on their screens that are upsetting and poisonous at an age when they are developing their sexual identities," he said.

French media have recently reported a growing number of sex crimes among youths, especially gang rapes by teenage boys. Psychologists say the boys act out on teenage girls the sex abuse scenes they see in pornographic films.

Discussion of the issue has been growing in France, especially among women politicians shocked by the indifference or contempt the gang rapists show for their victims.

The CSA recommended in July banning X-rated films even from encrypted cable channels, saying it had found that many youths had access to films officially banned for anyone under 18 years old despite encryption.

France's new center-right government wants to review laws governing pornographic material on television, videos and Internet sites. 

Boulder-Size Meteor Almost Struck Australia?

Sep 6, 11:11 am ET 

SYDNEY  - A large meteor possibly the size of a boulder came close to striking the earth in South Australia state on Thursday night, local media reported on Friday.

Residents of Goolwa and Victor Harbour, south of the state capital Adelaide, inundated police with reports of a flash of blue light, smoke trails and two sonic booms.

Bryan Boyle of the Anglo-Australian space-watching telescope in the eastern state of New South Wales told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that the sightings suggested the object was a meteor which came within 19 miles of the ground.

"Occasionally you get a very large size of rock, the size of a stone up to a boulder, and they only occur one at a time," he said.

Having worked all night, Boyle was unavailable for comment early on Friday.

Residents of South Australia said they heard a whoosh.

"It came straight over the top and left a huge smoke trail and there was two huge sonic booms afterwards," a man named Ken told ABC. "It was incredible." 

People Born in Autumn Live Longer?

Sep 6, 11:10 am ET 

BERLIN  - People born in the autumn live longer than those born in the spring and are less likely to fall chronically ill when they are older, an Austrian scientist said Thursday.

Using census data for more than one million people in Austria, Denmark and Australia, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in the northern German town of Rostock found the month of birth was related to life expectancy over the age of 50.

Seasonal differences in what mothers ate during pregnancy, and infections occurring at different times of the year could both have an impact on the health of a new-born baby and could influence its life expectancy in older age.

"A mother giving birth in spring spends the last phase of her pregnancy in winter, when she will eat less vitamins than in summer," said Gabriele Doblhammer, one of a team of scientists who carried out the research.

"When she stops breast-feeding and starts giving her baby normal food, it's in the hot weeks of summer when babies are prone to infections of the digestive system."

Babies born in the autumn weighed more than those born at springtime, she said. In later life, low birth weight was associated with increased blood pressure, cholesterol levels, some forms of obesity and a decrease in lung function.

In Austria, adults born in autumn (October-December) lived about seven months longer than those born in spring (April-June), and in Denmark adults with birthdays in autumn outlived those born in spring by about four months.

In the southern hemisphere, the picture was similar. Adults born in the Australian autumn -- the European spring -- lived about four months longer than those born in the Australian spring.

The study focused on people born at the beginning of the 20th century, using death certificates and census data. Although nutrition at all times of the year has improved since then, the seasonal pattern persists, Doblhammer said.

In a separate study, Doblhammer analyzed the birth weight of about 3,000 twins born in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s and found that those born in spring and summer weighed less than those born in autumn. 

Picture-Postcard Church Destroyed by Fire

Sep 6, 11:08 am ET 

BRASILIA, Brazil  - A fire engulfed a historic Brazilian church early on Thursday, ripping through its gold-leafed interior and reducing a treasured national heritage site to a charred shell, witnesses said.

Residents of Pirenopolis, one of the few Colonial sites in Brazil's vast central interior, watched in dismay as the walled remains of the three-century-old church smoked and its tower crumbled.

The cause of the fire was unknown.

"The town is in shock," said Nayron Santana, the owner of a guest house near the cathedral-sized Our Lady of the Rosary church. "Pirenopolis is very Catholic, people would go there to pray even when there was no mass," she said.

Brazil is the world's largest Catholic country.

Television images showed flames ripping through the church's baroque interior, consuming gold and artwork imported from Portugal in colonial times. Built by slaves in 1728, the church was decorated with imported treasures as Pirenopolis developed into a rich regional center for silver mining.

Pirenopolis, 150 miles from the capital Brasilia and surrounded by waterfalls, is a favorite weekend getaway spot for Brazilian cabinet ministers and politicians. The town is also famous for an ancient Portuguese festival where locals reenact a horseback battle between Moors and Christians. 

Players Banned from Letting Hair Down

Sep 6, 11:07 am ET 

CONAKRY  - Quirky hair styles might be the in thing on the world's soccer pitches, but Guinea's ruler is not amused.

President Lansana Conte, a retired soldier who brooks little opposition, told players with dreadlocks or other "odd" haircuts to get a trim before Sunday's African Nations Cup qualifier against Liberia, state radio said.

Conte told the players at a reception on Friday that he wanted them all to look respectable, adding: "I don't like defeat, so do all you can to win this match."

The game marks Guinea's return to major competition after being expelled from international games by FIFA last year following a row with the country's football association. The disagreement with the government was resolved in February.

The match is also politically charged because of tension between Guinea and Liberia, which accuse each other of backing rebel groups waging a bloody struggle in the diamond-rich region near their border. 

Hedgehogs Face Thorny Future

Sep 6, 11:06 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's hedgehogs face a prickly problem after their numbers fell into a sharp decline, scientists said Thursday.

The spiny mammals are dying out as modern intensive farming destroys their habitats and food supply, a survey suggests.

"The decline has probably gone unrecorded for a long time," Dr. Paul Bright, of Royal Holloway College, University of London, told The News Source. "It may actually be much more serious than we think.

"We are looking at a decline in numbers of 50 percent in areas which are most intensively farmed."

Bright said intensive farming wipes out the hedges where hedgehogs nest and the wild edges of fields where they feed.

The nationwide survey suggests numbers have been halved since 1991 in the worst hit areas. Nearly 6,000 people joined the research, funded by the Mammals Trust UK charity and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the government's wildlife adviser.

Volunteers counted dead hedgehogs and other mammals on roads across Britain last year. Conservationists used the figures to estimate the hedgehog population.

Hedgehogs have held a place in Britain's affections for many years, partly thanks to English author Beatrix Potter's popular 1904 children's book "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle" which featured a hedgehog.

More recently, the Japanese computer games maker Sega adopted a blue and red hedgehog called Sonic as its mascot and star of many of its titles.

But Britain's hedgehogs are not without enemies. A campaign to cull 5,000 hedgehogs on a Scottish island gathered pace this summer after they ate the eggs of important sea birds. 

Maryland Sees End to Snakehead Fish Saga

Sep 6, 11:05 am ET 

WASHINGTON  - Maryland declared victory over the snakehead fish on Thursday after state game officials dumped poison into a pond to kill the land-crawling predators and prevent them from spreading to other waterways.

Snakeheads, which are native to China, grow up to 3 feet (1 meter) long and can slither across land in search of food. They have a voracious appetite and gobble up other fish, frogs and even their own young.

Since Rotenone poison was sprayed on Wednesday morning on the four-acre (1.5-hectare) pond in Crofton, Maryland, several hundred 4-inch (10 cm) baby snakeheads have died, said a spokeswoman for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.

"We are pretty hopeful that most of the fish are dead by now," she said.

About 800 pounds (363 kg) of dead snakeheads, sunfish, crappies and other gill-breathing critters have been scooped out of the pond so far, including a 19-inch (48 cm) adult snakehead. More dead fish that sank to the bottom of the pond are expected to float to the top in a few days when they start decomposing.

The state's use of Rotenone, which blocks oxygen from getting into the fish's blood, has drawn criticism from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. While the animal rights group agreed that the snakeheads should be destroyed, it wanted the state to use a more humane method.

The U.S. Interior Department has proposed banning the import and trade of live snakeheads.

The snakeheads were dumped into the Maryland pond by a local resident who bought them from a New York City market to make soup for a sick relative. When the relative got better, the unneeded fish were released into the pond and reproduced. 

Pitch Dark Bar Opens for Blind Dates

Sep 5, 10:06 am ET 

BERLIN  - Diners at Berlin's newest restaurant cannot see what they are eating and have to be guided to their table by blind waiters because the bar is pitch black.

The restaurant, which opened Wednesday, aims to make guests concentrate on senses other than sight.

Holding on to one another, the first visitors followed waiter Roland Zimmermann, 33, into the dining room. Although the PhD student has been blind since childhood, he is the only one able to point out chairs, cutlery and drinks.

"I'm putting your plate right in front of you," Zimmermann said. "I can't find my mouth," one voice replied out of the dark. "I wonder what this dish is -- Lasagne? Or some casserole?" another invisible guest said.

In the "unsicht-Bar," which means invisible in German, diners cannot choose complete dishes from the menu but can only indicate whether they would like a fish, meat or vegetarian option.

"We want people to have an extraordinary experience of tasting, feeling and smelling," said Manfred Scharbach, head of the organization for blind and sight-restricted people, which is running the bar.

"People are surprised that their tongues and taste senses are taking over and are sending signals, which their eyes would normally have sent," he added.

Of the 30 staff, 22 are blind.

An average meal lasts about three hours and the waiters are always around to help, Scharnbach said.

And at the end of the night, they will even reveal what customers have actually been eating. 

Turkish Couple Wants to Call Baby Osama Bin Laden

Sep 5, 10:05 am ET 

BERLIN  - A Turkish couple living in Germany who want to call their child "Osama bin Laden" have been refused permission by German officials but will lobby a judge for a change of heart.

Names are only accepted for registration in Germany if they fulfil certain criteria. A name must clearly identify the child's gender and must not ridicule the child or be offensive. "Hitler" is banned as a name for that reason.

Registrations officials in Cologne, where the young couple live, rejected the name because it would not be allowed in Turkey, a spokeswoman for the magistrates court now dealing with the case said Thursday.

"Another reason was the obvious association of the name with the terror attacks of September 11," she said.

The German rules on babies' names also say that if the parents decide on a foreign name the name must be acceptable in the family's home country.

However, registration officials do not have the power to ban the couple from using the name of the al Qaeda leader for their child and the case has been referred to a judge.

The parents, both under 30, have been asked to make a statement to the judge, the spokeswoman said.

She declined to comment on whether the couple had other children and what their names were. 

Flying Toilets: a First Earth Summit Test?

Sep 5, 10:04 am ET 

By Matthew Green

NAIROBI  - Martha Njoki jumped when she heard a thud on the corrugated iron roof of her shack.

Seconds later, she was confronted with a familiar sight.

"I heard a bang on the roof, and when I went outside to look, I saw it was a plastic bag full of human waste," she said, gesturing toward her dwelling in the slums of Nairobi.

"You might just be relaxing in your house, then you hear a noise on your roof and someone has thrown a bag of sewage up there," said Njoki, 27, wrinkling her nose with disgust.

There are only five toilets for the more than 2,000 people living in the slum known as "Ghetto" -- a fetid labyrinth of claustrophobic dirt lanes and streams of stinking effluent.

For most people here, the "flying toilets" are the only way of answering nature's call: you simply use a plastic bag, then fling it as far out of sight as possible.

World leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg pledged on Wednesday to halve the number of people in the world who do not have access to basic sanitation by 2015.

Walk into "Ghetto," or any one of scores of slum settlements housing two million people in the Kenyan capital, and the scale of the task for one African city alone seems staggering.

At almost every turn, a sickly sweet stench of urine wafts from between the huts. Barefoot children play by trenches frothing with scum. The edges are strewn with telltale bags.

"First thing in the morning, the flying toilets are rampant," said Njoki, as a gaggle of other women in a courtyard nodded in agreement. "Sometimes you are walking down the path and you see human waste, people have just thrown it there."

Consider that Njoki and her neighbors are just a handful of 2.4 billion people worldwide who lack access to decent sanitation, and the scale of the Earth Summit pledge seems even more mind-boggling.

In Njoki's neighborhood, the only sign of hope comes not from the government -- who consider much of the slums a virtual no-go zone -- but from residents determined to help themselves.

On the edge of the sea of rusting iron roofs stands the only public toilet around.

Four women got together to build the facility three years ago -- paying off their investment with the two shillings ($0.02) a time paid by 50 or so visitors each day.

On Sundays, when the toilet attendants say many residents decide to treat themselves, the number of users rises to 100. 

Woman Finds Husband's Head on Beach

Sep 5, 9:59 am ET 

HONIARA  - A woman searching for her missing husband found his severed head on a beach in the strife-torn Solomon Islands, police said on Thursday.

Police said it appeared the man, who disappeared on Wednesday, had been beheaded, but they could not say whether it was linked to fighting between rival ethnic militia which has lefts hundreds dead in the past two years.

"Details of the incident are sketchy but reports we have received is that the man, a Seventh Day Adventist deacon from Veramogho Village in the Weathercoast area had gone to a nearby village," police spokesman Charles Lemoa told The News Source.

"But when he failed to return, his wife went to search for him but only found his head which has been cut off and left without the rest of the body on the beach.

"At this stage the motive for this cruel killing is not known but we are investigating it."

Shootings and robberies are commonplace in the troubled South Pacific nation, with armed ethnic militiamen operating with virtual immunity. Police are outgunned and unable to investigate killings in areas controlled by local warlords.

Fighting between militias over land and jobs in the capital Honiara flared in June 2000. The enmity goes back to World War II, when many people from Malaita island moved to Guadalcanal, the Solomons' main island, angering another ethnic group.

The fighting has crippled the Solomons' economy, which is now being propped up by aid, and left hundreds dead. 

Animal Therapy Group to Honor 8 Dogs

Sep 5, 9:54 am ET 

HONG KONG  - A Hong Kong animal rights group will honor eight dogs this weekend to raise awareness of the therapeutic benefits of man's best friend.

The group says studies have shown that close proximity to animals such as cats and dogs can help lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Eight dogs, accompanied by their handlers and owners, will be presented with trophies at a ceremony Sunday, said Anneleise Smillie of Animals Asia Foundation.

Most of them are part of a therapy program known as Animals Asia Dr. Dog, which has a 300-strong canine force that has made regular visits to hospitals, orphanages, schools, centers for the disabled and geriatric homes since 1991.

Among those honored would be Ocha, a 10-year-old Pekinese which lost her sight in an accident several years ago but which has turned out to be a favorite with blind children.

A two-year-old golden retriever called Jungle will be singled out for the inspiration he gave his cancer-stricken owner.

The owner was diagnosed with lung cancer and given six months to live, but her love for Jungle made her cling on to life for two-and-a-half years before succumbing to the disease in May, Smillie said.

Three are police dogs. One captured over 100 criminals and another found 60 grams of heroin on someone arriving at a border check point. 

Sears Pulls T-Shirts After Mental Health Outcry

Sep 5, 9:53 am ET 

NEW YORK  - Sears, Roebuck & Co., the fourth largest U.S. retailer, has stopped selling a line of T-shirts after an outcry from mental health advocates who said the slogans on them make fun of the mentally ill.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) praised Sears for withdrawing the T-shirts that bore the inscription: "You should hear the NAMES the VOICES in my head are calling you."

The organization also called on Wal-Mart Stores, Kmart Inc., Kohl's Corp., and Target Corp. to stop selling the T-shirts and similar merchandise "mocking mental illness" or risk facing potential legal liability under federal or state anti-discrimination laws.

"The T-shirt perpetuates prejudice and discrimination against people with mental illnesses through the intimation of threats flowing from auditory hallucinations," said Ron Honberg, NAMI national legal director. "They reinforce an unfair perception of violence."

There was no immediate comment from Sears or any of the other retailers.

Last week, Target asked its stores to remove a line of clothing and baseball caps sporting the "88" symbol after the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national organization that tracks racist groups, said the two eights were a clandestine Neo-Nazi symbol.

Also, earlier this year, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. pulled shirts off their shelves after protesters complained they had caricatures the group complained were racist to Asians. 

'Bridges of Madison County' Span Burns

Sep 5, 9:49 am ET 

WINTERSET, Iowa  - One of the historic covered bridges in central Iowa, the setting for Robert Waller's best-selling novel "The Bridges of Madison County," was destroyed by fire, officials said on Wednesday.

The Cedar Bridge, which burned Tuesday night, was the only one of the county's remaining six covered spans still open to vehicular traffic.

"How can this happen?" said Don Menken, director of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce, who said he got a "huge lump in his throat" when he heard of the loss.

The bridge was featured on the cover of the 1992 novel, a love saga featuring a farm wife and an itinerant photographer that sold more than 12 million copies in more than two dozen languages. In 1995 it was turned into a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.

"Thousands of people a month drove across it just to say they had driven across a covered bridge," Menken said. "About 10 years ago, after the book came out but before the film, Oprah (Winfrey) did her (TV) show at the Cedar Bridge."

He said the fire reminded residents of a similar blaze in the autumn of 1983 that destroyed another bridge, a blaze later determined to be arson. Fire officials said, however, that no cause had been found for the latest fire.

The Cedar Bridge was built in 1883 and restored in 1998 at a cost of $128,000. It and the county's five remaining spans are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The area holds an annual "Covered Bridge Festival" each autumn. 

First Murder on Remote Island Since 1986

Sep 5, 9:47 am ET 

SANTIAGO, Chile  - Easter Island, the most remote inhabited land on Earth, has been shaken by its first murder case in more than 15 years, residents said on Wednesday.

They said police on the Pacific island had arrested farmer Alberto Tepije, 40, on suspicion of stabbing to death his estranged wife Maria Icaparati, 34, earlier this week.

"In all the time I've been here I've never seen anything like this," detective Jorge Oliva told The News Source by telephone.

Residents said the couple had recently separated.

Easter Island is 2,370 miles away from the South American mainland but is part of Chile. The nearest inhabited land is French Polynesia, 1,375 miles to the west.

The island, with a population of around 4,000, is famous for its statues of "moais," volcanic rock sculptures of giant heads that dot the coastline believed to have been made by the Polynesian ancestors of today's inhabitants, known for their gentle and hospitable nature.

Local official Pedro Edmunds Paoa told the news media this was only the third murder on Easter Island in 113 years, the last one taking place in 1986.

Residents of Easter Island, also known in a Polynesian dialect as "Navel of the World," earn a living mostly from agriculture but tourism has grown in importance in recent years. 

Woman Rescued Hollywood-Style from Wildfire

Sep 4, 9:21 am ET 

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES  - A woman about to shoot herself to death to escape being burned alive by a wildfire racing toward her mountaintop home was saved seconds before pulling the trigger in a daring rescue worthy of a Hollywood film, authorities said on Tuesday.

The wildfire that erupted at about noon on Sunday drove about 7,000 campers from Angeles National Forest, a 650,000-acre park in the San Gabriel Mountains popular with Los Angeles residents. The mountains make up the north rim of the Los Angeles Basin, which encircles the city of Los Angeles.

In some cases, campers had just seconds to pick up their gear and drive down the winding Angeles Crest Highway to safety after authorities discovered the fire about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

The wind-whipped fire reached Crystal Lake, a popular fishing and camping spot at the top of a mountain ridge about four hours later.

Sigrid Hopson, 60, was alone at her Crystal Lake home with her three dogs when she noticed the fire surrounding her house and called emergency services, said sheriff's Lt. Tim Cornell.

Cornell said Hopson was "distraught" and "suicidal" by the time she reached sheriff's dispatchers, convinced that she would die in the flames.

"She believed the fire was going to get her, and she was right because the entire area was in flames," Cornell said.

Deputies Paul Archambault and John Rose, who regularly patrolled the remote area and knew Hopson, took the call.

Driving a sheriff's Ford Expedition through walls of flames and dodging rockslides on the remote mountain roads, the deputies had to stop about 1/8-mile from Hopson's home because of smoke and flames.

"They put themselves in peril because the fire had engulfed the area around their vehicle but they just kept moving," Cornell said.

Blinded by smoke, Rose ran the remaining distance to Hopson's home. As the deputy approached, a gunshot rang out.

When Rose got closer, he saw Hopson holding a gun to her head and a dog lying dead at her feet.

The deputy yelled, "Dammit, don't shoot! It's Rose."

He ordered Hopson to drop the gun, but she didn't immediately respond, saying she had to shoot her other two dogs, Cornell said.

With the flames threatening to block their escape to the SUV, Rose asked Hopson what she planned to do about her cat.

"She looked at him and said, 'The cat?' and pulled the gun away from her head," Cornell said. Hopson has no cats. Rose seized the pistol and pulled Hopson into the waiting vehicle.

The Expedition plunged down the narrow mountain road through walls of flaming chaparral and through a narrow pass littered with fallen boulders. The vehicle grew so hot that its tires began to smoke and the deputies could not touch the interior panels, Cornell said.

About 5 miles from Hopson's home, two of the Expedition's tires melted. They pressed on, but a short time later the vehicle's engine seized from the heat and died, Cornell said.

The perilous drive had taken the deputies and Hopson below the fire line, and they were able to walk out of the forest to safety, Cornell said. Hopson was later released unharmed to her husband.

The deputies went back to the area the next day and found the home untouched by fire and Hopson's other two dogs alive, Cornell said.

"The firefighters couldn't explain it," Cornell said. "All around the house was completely destroyed.

The heat- and wind-driven wildfire, known as the Curve fire, had consumed 14,000 acres of thick underbrush by Tuesday and was expected to be contained by Sept. 10, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said.

The fire added to the record acreage consumed by a series of mammoth blazes that have plagued the drought-stricken western United States this fire season.

The cause of the Curve fire was under investigation on Tuesday. 

Firm Sold Out-Of-Date Food as It Was 'Tasty'

Sep 4, 9:16 am ET 

TOKYO  - Fine wines and cheese may improve with age, but Japanese consumers were probably shocked to find that one company executive thought Chinese spring rolls did too.

That, at least, is what Reiko Yoshida, head of a small food firm in western Japan, told a news conference on Wednesday when asked to explain why her company sold frozen spring rolls and other products that were well past their sell-by date.

"I was told that the products were past their expiry date, but I gave the order to sell them after I tried them and found them tasty," a spokesman for the company, Shinsho, quoted Yoshida as telling a news conference.

The company sold about 2,600 frozen spring rolls to stores even though some were nearly six months past their expiry date, the spokesman said.

Yoshida accepted now that the company should have thrown the food away after the sell-by date passed and that it would take care from now on.

The firm has voluntarily halted business in 21 of its 23 shops around the country for an indefinite period of time.

Japanese consumer confidence in food products has been shaken by several recent scandals, include cases of mislabeling. 

Man's Visit to His Future Grave Kills Him

Sep 4, 9:13 am ET 

LASCARI, Sicily  - Giovanni Greco sent himself, literally, to an early grave.

Greco, 63, was so keen that his future mausoleum would be a perfect fit that he liked to visit it ensure the builders were making it just right.

But his latest visit proved to be his last.

According to local media reports, Greco was making his regular trip to the construction site in the small cemetery in his hometown of Lascari at the weekend.

He climbed a ladder to get a better view of the top of the mausoleum when he slipped, hit his head on a marble step, and fell into his own tomb. 

Get Sexier, Keep Husbands, Mayor Tells Wives

Sep 4, 9:11 am ET 

MISSAGLIA, Italy  - Husband's eyes wandering? Make yourself sexier. At least that's the solution proposed by an Italian mayor -- and a woman mayor at that.

Wives in the northern town of Missaglia had complained to mayor Marta Casiraghi about a young woman who sunbathed topless on her terrace.

They complained that the men in the town of some 7,000 people were spending too much time ogling, so they asked Casiraghi to order the woman to put her clothes back on.

But the mayor, far from sympathizing, told the wives to get sexy if they wanted to keep their men. "The girl was very pretty and was soaking up some sun. Topless sunbathing is largely tolerated and widespread nowadays. There's nothing we can do," Casiraghi told Il Nuovo, a web-based newspaper.

"Instead, I'd advise the wives to play their rival at her own game -- make themselves more beautiful." 

Ethics Programs Curtail Employee Theft?

Sep 4, 9:10 am ET 

COLUMBUS, Ohio  - Come on, admit it. Practically everyone has filched a pen or pad from the company stockpile for personal use.

But putting employees through an ethics course can curtail thievery of business supplies that cost U.S. companies billions of dollars a year, a business professor said on Tuesday.

The willingness to steal from one's employer was measured among 270 customer service employees of a large unnamed company by asking them to take just $2 in pennies for staying an hour late to complete a survey, said study author Jerald Greenberg of Ohio State University.

While workers felt underpaid for the extra work, those who went through the company's ethics program stole less from a bowl of pennies than those who did not, said the study, which was published in this month's issue of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

But employees who had shown a less developed sense of morality in a previous survey were more likely to take as much as 10 cents more than the allotted $2. Workers prone to thievery stole less if they went through the ethics program.

However when workers were told the money came from their managers' pockets they were less likely to steal it, showing it was easier to steal from a "faceless company" than a person.

"Merely instituting the ethics program or merely reaching a higher stage of moral development does not deter stealing -- you have to have both," Greenberg said in a telephone interview.

All those missing pens, pads and other items add up, Greenberg said, citing an estimate that internal theft costs American companies $400 billion annually. 

Gourmet Burglars Feast in Restaurants

Sep 4, 9:07 am ET 

VIENNA  - Gourmet burglars have targeted restaurants in northern Austria, leaving behind empty cash registers -- and a pile of dirty dishes.

"That is just so cheeky, they plundered my supplies," said one restaurateur from the town of Wieselburg, after burglars had a beer and a bite in his kitchen after raiding the till.

"They ate a whole kilo of bread and my best sausages," he was quoted as saying in the Austrian tabloid Kronen.

The daily mentioned other similar cases, also in the province of Lower Austria, where thieves cooked up steaks in the kitchens after emptying restaurants of cash. 

Police Hire 'Eye in the Sky' to Fight Crime

Sep 4, 9:06 am ET 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil  - The police of Brazil's beautiful but violent seaside city of Rio de Janeiro may now boast about their newest crime-fighting tool -- and it's a lot of hot air.

As of Friday, a rented blimp will begin patrolling the city's drug-infested favela slums and monitoring the traffic-choked highways from up above.

It will fly 5 miles above danger areas -- well out of range of handguns, said Flavio Kauffmann, director of the blimp company, adding that the two-man crew will be protected by a bulletproof cabin.

The blimp, which will cost 586,000 reais a month ($190,000) to operate, is equipped with cameras able to identify a vehicle's license plates and people's faces from up to 9 miles.

Rio's mostly hilltop favelas have been turned into "no-go" areas by drug traffickers who wage daily gun battles with police, while an average of seven tourists are attacked daily on the city's streets and beaches. 

Uninvited Gliders Drop in on Queen's Castle

Sep 4, 9:04 am ET 

LONDON  - Britain's Queen Elizabeth had two unexpected visitors during her Scottish holiday on Tuesday as two gliders made forced landings in the grounds of Balmoral Castle near Aberdeen, her spokeswoman said.

"There were two gliders taking part in a local competition. They landed in the grounds of the estate after running out of air to fly in," she told The News Source.

She said the two pilots -- a man and a woman -- landed safely and, after police were called and established there was no security risk, were allowed to leave with their aircraft.

She said the Queen, at her favorite summer holiday retreat after a grueling national tour lasting several months to celebrate 50 years on the throne, witnessed the whole event.

"The boss was there and saw it all. She was very glad the pair were safe," the spokeswoman said, adding that this was the first incident of its type at the castle that she was aware of. 

'Free Willy' Killer Whale Turns Up in Norway Fjord

Sep 4, 9:03 am ET 

OSLO  - Keiko the killer whale, star of the "Free Willy" movie, has turned up in a narrow Norwegian fjord, where he has made a splash with the locals.

The 10-meter- (30-foot-) long whale, released into the wild just six weeks ago, even allowed children to ride on his back as he put on a display for them, showing he is the same playful orca in real life as on screen.

Keiko showed up in western Norway after swimming some 1,400 km (870 miles) from an Icelandic sea pen following his release in July. He was spotted in the fjord Sunday by two 12-year-olds fishing in a small rowboat.

"After the children spotted him, he popped up just a meter (yard) away from the boat. At first, we got scared and sped up to get to land, but then we realized he just wanted to play," Arild Birger Neshaug, 35, father of one of the children, told The News Source Tuesday.

Keiko was captured near Iceland as a young calf and performed in marine amusement parks in Canada and Mexico for almost 20 years.

He was returned to Iceland in 1998 after people saw him as the captive whale in the 1993 movie "Free Willy" and campaigned for him to go home. Millions of dollars have since been spent on preparing him for life in the wild.

"He swam alongside and under our boat all the way to land and stayed with us in the harbor all day and all night," said Neshaug. "It seemed like he was seeking human contact."

Neshaug said his children and their friends later swam with and petted Keiko and even climbed on his back. At night, he said the family could hear the whale breathing in the Skaalvik fjord just outside their holiday home.

He said although he had heard stories about killer whale attacks he was not worried about his children's safety because Keiko "seemed so trusting and kind."

A monitoring team, which has tracked Keiko since he left Iceland, confirmed the whale was the "Free Willy" star.

Norway is among a handful of countries that hunts whales, however, it only kills the minke whale. 

Man Found with Mouth Sewn Shut in City Square

Sep 3, 9:05 am ET 

ZURICH  - A knife-wielding man who had apparently sewn his own mouth shut with thick red thread has been transferred to a psychiatric clinic while officials probe the bizarre case, Zurich police said on Tuesday.

Passers-by discovered the 39-year-old man from Iraq sitting on the ground at a central Zurich square on Monday with his lips stitched together.

The man, who was foaming from his mouth, pulled a dagger on police officers who confronted him, but dropped the weapon when they threatened to unleash their dog on him.

An ambulance crew cut open the thread on the way to hospital.

Swiss police did not know why the man's mouth was sewn closed, but did not believe he was making a political protest.

"He was so confused that we had to bring him to a clinic," a police spokesman said.

"It is possible but not probable in his case (that he was making a political statement)....this action did not seem to have a political background."

Earlier this year, dozens of asylum seekers detained in Australia sewed their mouths shut in protest at the length of time it was taking to process their refugee claims. 

Fried Spiders: Crispy and Gooey

Sep 3, 8:24 am ET 

By Ed Cropley

SKUON, Cambodia  - First unearthed by starving Cambodians in the dark days of the Khmer Rouge "killing fields" rule, Skuon's spiders have transformed from the vital sustenance of desperate refugees into a choice national delicacy.

Black, hairy, and packing vicious, venom-soaked fangs, the burrowing arachnids common to the jungle around this bustling market town do not appear at first sight to be the caviar of Cambodia.

But for many residents of Skuon, the "a-ping" -- as the breed of palm-sized tarantula is known in Khmer -- are a source of fame and fortune in an otherwise impoverished farming region in the east of the war-ravaged southeast Asian nation.

"On a good day, I can sell between 100 and 200 spiders," said Tum Neang, a 28-year-old spider-seller who supports her entire family by hawking the creepy-crawlies, deep fried in garlic and salt, to the people who flock to Skuon for a juicy morsel.

At around 300 riel (eight U.S. cents) a spider, the eight-legged snack industry provides a tidy income in a country where around one third of people live below a poverty line of $1 per day.

The dish's genesis is also a poignant reminder of Cambodia's bloody past, particularly under the Khmer Rouge, whose brutal four years in power from 1975-1979 left an estimated 1.7 million people dead, many through torture and execution.

Turning back the clock hundreds of years, Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas emptied Cambodia's vibrant cities and destroyed businesses and universities in a bid create a totally agrarian, peasant society.

For the millions forced at gunpoint into the fields, grubs and insects such as spiders, crickets, wasps and "konteh long" -- the giant water beetles found in lakes near the Vietnamese border -- were what kept them alive.

"When people fled into the jungle to get away from Pol Pot's troops, they found these spiders and had to eat them because they were so hungry," Sim Yong, a 40-year-old mother of five, told The News Source.

"Then they discovered they were so delicious," she said, proffering a plate piled high with hundreds of the greasy fried arachnids. "And our spiders are by far the best in Cambodia.

For Roeun Sarin, a 35-year-old minibus taxi passenger on his way to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, the Skuon spider is definitely a matter of taste, not history.

"I cannot go through Skuon without having a few spiders, I love them so much," he said, as yet another crispy tarantula disappeared into his mouth.

"They taste a bit like crickets, only much better," he added.

Meanwhile, in the service station in the center of town, the ebb and flow of Skuon life continues as more minibuses full of spider-starved Phnom Penh residents pull up, to be besieged by a cluster of excited spider-sellers.

Travelers from the capital, 60 km (38 miles) to the southwest, often buy dozens of the spiders at a time, fresh from the soil around Skuon, rather than wait for what might be inferior produce in the Phnom Penh markets.

Conservationists and vegetarians might blanche at the relentless pursuit of so many spiders for the sake of a snack, but locals are confident the arachnid population will hold up.

Indeed, the only time a crisis threatened was around the Millennium when an extra-large number of spider-eaters passed through Skuon on their way to celebrate the New Year at Angkor, the stunning 1000-year-old temple complex in the northwest.

According to aficionado Tum Neang, the best spider is one plucked straight from its burrow and pan fried with lashings of garlic and salt over a traditional wood fire until its skin goes a deep red-brown color.

Crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, it should then be served piping hot.

But the spider's remarkable popularity does not stop with its taste. Like many of her fellow Cambodians, Chor Rin, a 40-year-old market stall trader, swears by its medicinal properties -- especially when mushed up in a rice wine cocktail.

"It's particularly good for back ache and children with breathing problems," she said, dipping a glass into a jar of murky brown liquid, at the bottom of which sits a rotting mass of hairy black legs and bloated spider bellies.

"People could not afford medicine under the Khmer Rouge so they had to use traditional medicines. They drank it and it made them feel stronger. With the wine, it's very important they still have their fangs or the medicine loses its power," she said. 

For truckers making the long trip up to Cambodia's northern reaches, a bracing slug of the liquor is an obligatory tonic, and a liter of top grade spider wine can fetch as much as $2, a huge sum in local terms.

Prices of fried spiders in Phnom Penh are also on the rise as supply struggles to keep pace with demand -- although it looks as though it will be some time before non-Cambodians cotton on.

"They are becoming more and more popular, but I don't think there's much demand from Europeans yet," said spider-trader Chea Khan. 

Thief Gets Ride to Follow His Own Car Chase

Sep 3, 8:20 am ET 

OSLO  - A Norwegian newspaper reporter sent to cover a car chase was shocked to find that a hitch-hiker he had picked up was the fugitive police were chasing.

"He looked like a normal modern guy," Lars Gustavsen, 28, told The News Source of the fugitive, whom police suspected of stealing a car.

Gustavsen had stopped to ask the man for help to track down the car chase that he was covering for the Ostlendingen daily in southeast Norway.

The fugitive told Gustavsen he had been following the chase in a car with his cousin, but that he had left the vehicle and continued alone by foot.

Gustavsen spent 10 minutes chatting with the man, who was bare-chested under his overalls and had a large tattoo on his shoulder.

He only realized who his passenger was when he was pulled over at a police barrier. "I started to be a bit suspicious, but I was still surprised to find out who he was."

The man was arrested on the spot. 

Thieves Steal Polite Parrots from Zoo

Sep 3, 8:19 am ET 

BERLIN  - Six talkative parrots, trained to chat in the most polite terms only, have been stolen from a German zoo.

A spokesman for the zoo said on Monday thieves broke into the cage of gray parrots Robby, Bobby, Tobby, Recky, Coco and Emil on Friday night and took the birds, which together are worth about 10,000 euros ($9,800).

"We're very sad. The birds were able to say things like 'Good Morning', 'Here's breakfast', 'Thank you' and so on," zoo spokesman Michael Bussenius said. "They never picked up a bad or insulting word from anyone."

Bussenius said he hoped the birds would be brought back to his park in Saxony-Anhalt, where they are the stars in the zoo's parrot show. People should listen out for unusual bird sounds in their neighborhood and report them to police, he said. 

Rome Steps in to Stop Gladiators Making a Killing

Sep 3, 8:18 am ET 

By Claire Soares

ROME  - Forget lions and tigers. Rome's modern gladiators were under fire from city authorities on Monday after tourists complained about exorbitant prices and shabby uniforms.

Rome's council has vowed to clamp down on the costumed characters who hang around the Colosseum, offering tourists a glimpse of 80 AD when a 100-day festival of ferocious warfare opened the city's most famous monument.

Twenty-first century gladiators, who only pose for photographs, will have to charge fixed rates and display prices prominently under new rules, due to come into force before the end of the year.

"It sounds like a good idea. We were forced to pay $20. It was a total rip-off as we didn't know we had to pay when we took the photos," said LaJoyce Brown, an irate tourist from Pennsylvania.

Shannon Shogren from Atlanta, Georgia, suffered a similar fate. "They came up to me and gave me a helmet to wear so I took a photo with two of them and then they said it was five euros (dollars) apiece. I didn't want to mess with them," he said.

The Colosseum is Italy's most visited archaeological site, attracting almost three million tourists a year. City fathers fear the unregulated gladiators are giving the whole country a bad name.

"We want to create a new professional gladiator figure and make visitors feel confident they are paying fair prices," Daniela Valentini of the council's business department told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The city also plans to ensure gladiators look more like the real thing -- making them discard plastic helmets, T-shirts and sandals and invest in metal headgear, authentic breast-plates, tunics and shin-high leather boots.

"They definitely look plastic and cheap at the moment. The less like Halloween costumes and the more authentic the better," said American tourist Sergio Buccilli, as one T-shirt-clad gladiator brandished his sword.

Roberto Coen, self-styled head of a 40-strong gladiator troupe, said he'd have to go shopping.

"I'll need to buy a new helmet which will probably set me back 300 euros, but it's just something I have to do. Anything that improves the city for tourists is a positive step for us," said the seven-year veteran of the Colosseum.

Although plastic helmets are out, plastic swords are still in. In March, police caught a gladiator with a real sword and he faces up to three years in jail for carrying illegal arms.

Coen, a swarthy 42-year-old, insisted the five-euro photo charge was standard but said gladiators often asked for less if they thought tourists came from poorer countries.

He was unfazed by proposals to make gladiators register and take a mini-exam in English and people management.

"We regulate ourselves now but under these plans, we will be officially qualified and it will improve our standing."

Belgian tourist Martine Bekaert said the gladiators needed an etiquette and acting coach as well as a makeover.

"It's a good idea to try to recreate history, but it should give a real natural flavor of the times. At first glance the gladiators are very nice, but then you get a bit closer and it's a group of men hanging around smoking." 

German Public Toilets Shine Around the Globe

Sep 3, 8:16 am ET 

BERLIN  - Germany, known for exporting cars and beer, is also addressing the more basic needs of international consumers -- its public toilets.

Clients in the United States, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and Turkey are already using green high-tech cabins, which look like giant elevators.

And in the German capital, Berlin, manufacturers Wall AG were feting the 10 millionth customer on Monday.

"Before we had these toilets, it was a nightmare to find a public loo in Berlin," said Horst Lemke as he rolled out in his wheelchair to receive a bottle of wine and flowers.

The toilets, the world's smallest, fully automatic toilets with wheelchair access, have been an export hit with 250 cubicles already built around the world.

Electronic music plays inside the cubicles and the toilet cleans itself after each usage. Water floods out of the walls and washes over the floor, raising some visitor's fear of taking an involuntary shower inside the loo.

But Hans Joachim Fenske, leader for technology and services at Wall, said sensors would prevent anyone being locked inside.

"The doors open automatically after 20 minutes. That gives you all the time to even read a newspaper if you want. And a recorded message gives you an advance warning that the doors will open so that you can pull up your pants," he said. 

Iran Grants First 'Blood Money' to a Christian

Sep 3, 8:11 am ET 

TEHRAN  - An Iranian court has for the first time granted the family of a murdered Christian man the same "blood money," or compensation, as that of a Muslim, the official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

The ruling was part of moves to give Iran's non-Muslim minorities the same right as Muslims to have killers pay their victims' families to avoid execution.

The agency said the court in a south Tehran suburb granted the family of Christian pastor Haik Hovsepian-Mehr 150 million rials ($18,750).

It said the blood money for a non-Muslim man had earlier been one-twelfth that of a Muslim under Iran's Islamic laws.

Judiciary head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi recently asked courts to pass equal judgements in such cases and the parliament is to debate a formal legal change.

Hovsepian-Mehr, a Protestant pastor, was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1994.

Authorities blamed an exiled opposition group for his killing. Western human rights groups said the murder might have been part of alleged extra-judicial killings of dissidents.

IRNA said the blood money was to be paid from public funds, which is usual in unresolved killings. 

Bare-Flesh Posters, Saucy Slogans Woo Voters

Sep 3, 8:09 am ET 

By Clifford Coonan

BERLIN  - German parties are breaking new taboos in a closely fought election campaign, using posters of naked lesbians and gays, thinly veiled innuendo and even a reference to smoking cannabis to sway voters.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are neck and neck with Edmund Stoiber's conservatives in opinion polls ahead of the September 22 election and some of the racy campaign tactics are causing quite a storm.

The most controversial poster belongs to the Green party, junior partners in the ruling center-left coalition. It depicts two topless same-sex couples, one male, one female, with one partner in each pair holding the other's nipple.

The poster is modeled on a 16th century French Mannerist painting and carries the message "Equal rights for lesbians, gays and heteros."

The poster has drawn fire from religious leaders and local authorities.

"This goes way beyond the borders of good taste. With these kind of posters, the party automatically disqualifies itself," Christoph Heckeley, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cologne, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

The town of Koenigstein near Frankfurt has banned the poster and was considering slapping a fine on the Greens, who have between six percent and seven percent of the vote in opinion polls.

The Greens responded by painting bikini tops over the offending breasts.

Schroeder's glossy posters depict him as a statesman and problem-solver. But the youth wing of his Social Democrats has adopted a steamy slogan to convince voters that after four years in power the party's reforms are just beginning.

A picture of two lips pursed in a kiss promises: "That was just foreplay. The peak is yet to come."

The liberal Free Democrats, potential partners for the conservatives, have a controversial placard for their Young Liberals. It shows a young woman holding up a polling card beneath the slogan: "Stick it in."

The former Communist Party of Democrat Socialism is also wooing young voters with a vengeance even though opinions polls show the party will not make the threshold of five percent of the vote needed for representation in parliament.

"Today I'll have a shag. Tomorrow I'll smoke a joint. The day after that I'll vote," said a party advertisement in the left-wing Tageszeitung newspaper.

Elisabeth von Baumgartner of the Jung van Matt advertising agency said the racy campaigns would have little impact.

"The parties are breaking new taboos and think they can win votes with naked skin. They're completely wrong. It's all just election tomfoolery," she told Bild. 

Family Says Screen Legend Died of Natural Causes

Sep 3, 8:09 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - Family members of Mexican screen legend Maria Felix said on Friday they were satisfied she died of natural causes, the day after her body was exhumed to investigate claims she was poisoned, television news reported.

In a statement broadcast by Televisa news, Benjamin Felix, the movie star's younger brother, said the initial results of tests on her remains resolved doubts about the cause of her death.

"There was no pressure," he said. "We were after the truth and we found it."

The body was exhumed on Thursday as photographers outside the cemetery clambered to get a picture and dozens of riot police kept guard.

Felix's physician said she died of a heart attack on April 8, her 88th birthday, but Benjamin Felix said he believed she had been poisoned.

But in comments broadcast by Televisa Friday night, a lawyer for the family said the possibility that Felix was poisoned now seemed remote.

Mexico City prosecutor Bernardo Batiz told the television station the forensic examination would continue. It is expected to be complete in about a week.

Maria Felix starred in 47 movies during Mexico's golden era of cinema in the 1940s and 1950s and won acclaim in Latin America, France, Spain and Italy, but she shunned Hollywood.

The diva left the bulk of her fortune, including precious artworks and property, to her 28-year-old personal assistant, Luis Martinez de Anda, who is due to be questioned by investigators.

On her death, Mexico mourned the passing of an era and followers thronged to pay their last respects to their idol, whose closed coffin was placed in the Bellas Artes Palace in the historic center of the capital. 

Oops! Bulldozer Rams Wrong Florida Home

Sep 2, 8:42 am ET 

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.  - A Florida couple's dinner was interrupted when a bulldozer tore down part of the roof of their house as they sat inside.

The bulldozer was set to demolish several homes in Hollywood, Florida, but it rammed into the wrong house, police said on Friday.

Carlos Suarez and Yesenia Reyes were having dinner on Thursday when the bulldozer came in through the back of their house, police spokesman Tony Rode said. It hit the rental home a second time before screaming neighbors and the couple prompted the driver to stop.

"I started yelling at him, 'What the hell are you guys doing?"' Reyes told the Sun-Sentinel.

Nearby homes in the neighborhood, 20 miles north of Miami, were slated to be demolished as part of a renewal project but the couple's rental home was not on the list.

"What can you say? They screwed up. They hit the wrong house," Rode said.

Hollywood Fire Rescue officials estimated the damage between $5,000 and $10,000. The contractor, George Zaragozi General Contractors of Miami, promised to repair the roof immediately, local media said. 

Couple Bed Down in Shop for Art's Sake

Aug 30, 11:23 am ET 

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON  - A naked couple has taken to bed in the front window of a London art gallery for a week in the name of art and to promote safe sex.

Local estate agent Max Whatley, 24, and his 22-year-old nanny girlfriend Meg Zakreta from Poland, will remain in their sloping bed eating, sleeping, chatting and making love until September 5. They are allowed out for just 30 minutes a day.

"The best part is watching people's reactions. I was worried at first, but people have been very positive," a laughing Zakreta told The News Source, her blue eyes twinkling.

"Last night a kid came by with a pair of binoculars, and he wasn't looking at me," added an unshaven Whatley.

All that separates them from the gawking public at the Blink gallery in Soho, sleaze heart of the capital, is a pane of glass and a translucent white curtain that can be discreetly drawn round the bed when passion gets the better of them.

The only tangible proof of their horizontal activities -- glimpsed only in silhouette -- is a mounting pile of used condoms on the floor of their crimson boudoir.

"We are very much in love and want to live together, so this is a bit of an experiment," said Whatley, whose hairy toes poked out of the bed. "But I suppose I am a bit of an exhibitionist. You wouldn't get any Tom, Dick or Harry doing this."

The project, "No Inhibition," is the brainchild of artist Liam Yeates who said he got his inspiration from Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono's love-in at the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969.

"The work is meant to make people sit up and take notice of this new sexual revolution," he said. "Sex in 2002 is terrifying but amazing. HIV and AIDS are an increasing threat, but we live in a society that is more open and more sexualized than ever."

Yeates, 31, said the work -- sponsored by condom-maker Condomi -- took a year from conception to production.

He picked Whatley and Zakreta after finding them kissing and cuddling in the nearby bustling Covent Garden tourist venue.

Whatley said he had told his parents what he was up to, and they were busy collecting newspaper cuttings of his antics.

Zakreta, on the other hand, said she had been rather more vague with her parents in Poland's historic city of Krakow.

"They're very liberal. But Poland is a very Catholic country and their friends might not be so open-minded," she said. 

Shoelace Strangler Subdued on Flight

Aug 30, 10:28 am ET 

PODGORICA, Montenegro  - An ethnic Albanian man being deported from Germany to Kosovo tried to strangle a flight attendant with his shoelaces on Thursday, the airline said.

The incident occurred aboard a special flight from Duesseldorf to Pristina by Montenegro Airlines, which has been ferrying planeloads of Kosovo deportees home from Germany twice a month for the past several months.

"A serious incident occurred on this flight," the airline's general manager, Zoran Djurisic, told The News Source.

"One of the deportees on the plane asked to go to the toilet, where he took the laces out of his running shoes. He then came up from behind on our stewardess, Irena Radonjic, and tried to strangle her," he said.

"But special Montenegrin police who accompany each flight reacted immediately and prevented any more serious consequences. They subdued the attacker and they landed safely in Pristina."

Montenegrin Interior Minister Andreja Jovicevic told The News Source that the special police on duty on the flight from Dusseldorf to Pristina stopped a man when he tried to kill a flight attendant. He said they handed him over to the authorities in Pristina.

Police in Kosovo identified the attacker as 20-year-old Shaban Isufi. A spokesman said that police secured Pristina airport ahead of the plane's landing and immediately took the attacker to hospital for medical checks.

He was then placed under arrest, the spokesman said. Djurisic said there were about 60 passengers on the flight.

"We don't really know what was in his head. When she was serving refreshments and asked him what he would like to drink he replied: "A little blood from you."

The flight attendant had bruises on her neck and was still a bit shocked but otherwise relieved, Djurisic added. 

Relief as the Cows Upstairs Move Out

Aug 30, 10:23 am ET 

ISTANBUL  - A Turkish woman has begun selling the cows she kept in upstairs apartments in the city of Trabzon, to the relief of her neighbors.

Local alderman Osman Terzi said health and safety officials had ordered the cows to be cleared out of the first and third floors of the building in the Black Sea port city.

"I have learned that Fatma Kocaman has started selling her cows, which is a very pleasing development," the Anatolian news agency quoted him saying on Thursday. It said she had kept "a large number" of cows there.

"It's hard to believe someone would keep cows in an apartment. For years me and the locals have wondered what to do...The area has suffered a lot. Noise, smell and manure everywhere make a very ugly scene," Terzi said. 

Relief as the Cows Upstairs Move Out

Aug 30, 10:23 am ET 

ISTANBUL  - A Turkish woman has begun selling the cows she kept in upstairs apartments in the city of Trabzon, to the relief of her neighbors.

Local alderman Osman Terzi said health and safety officials had ordered the cows to be cleared out of the first and third floors of the building in the Black Sea port city.

"I have learned that Fatma Kocaman has started selling her cows, which is a very pleasing development," the Anatolian news agency quoted him saying on Thursday. It said she had kept "a large number" of cows there.

"It's hard to believe someone would keep cows in an apartment. For years me and the locals have wondered what to do...The area has suffered a lot. Noise, smell and manure everywhere make a very ugly scene," Terzi said. 

Relief as the Cows Upstairs Move Out

Aug 30, 10:23 am ET 

ISTANBUL  - A Turkish woman has begun selling the cows she kept in upstairs apartments in the city of Trabzon, to the relief of her neighbors.

Local alderman Osman Terzi said health and safety officials had ordered the cows to be cleared out of the first and third floors of the building in the Black Sea port city.

"I have learned that Fatma Kocaman has started selling her cows, which is a very pleasing development," the Anatolian news agency quoted him saying on Thursday. It said she had kept "a large number" of cows there.

"It's hard to believe someone would keep cows in an apartment. For years me and the locals have wondered what to do...The area has suffered a lot. Noise, smell and manure everywhere make a very ugly scene," Terzi said. 

Court Bans 'Champagne' Yogurt Marketing

Aug 30, 9:44 am ET 

STOCKHOLM  - A Swedish commercial court has fined dairy group Arla Foods AB for advertising a yogurt by saying it tastes of champagne, ruling that Arla must not in any way allude to the reputation of the bubbly French wine.

The market court's ruling handed down on Thursday said Arla must pay the plaintiffs 800,000 crowns ($86,060) to cover their legal fees.

Two champagne lobbies based in France, INAO and CIVC, as well as French producers Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and Pierre Cheval, sued Arla after the cooperative owned by Swedish and Danish dairy farmers in November 1999 launched products it said had champagne flavor.

Sweden and Denmark are members of the European Union, whose trade rules grant special protection to wines and foods with strong geographic associations, such as Champagne -- a name reserved for the sparkling wines from that French region.

Arla's Swedish public relations chief Inger Soderlund said the controversial yogurt had been withdrawn in January 2000.

"It was intended as a temporary product launch all along, a special thing for the new millennium," she said, adding that Arla was unlikely to appeal the court's ruling. 

Deli-Sized Vending Machine Debuts

Aug 30, 9:43 am ET 

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON  - It's late, the shops are closed and you simply must have a roasted eggplant-and-ricotta sandwich and an iced cappuccino. There's really only one place to go: the deli-sized vending machine on the corner.

Feed in your money or your credit card, touch a few squares on a computer screen, and voila -- the robotic metal shopping basket finds your items and delivers them to your waiting hands.

The monster vending machine, smaller than a typical suburban convenience store but about the same size as an inner-city deli, made its Washington debut this month in the city's raffish Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The Tiktok Easy Shop Big Box, as it is known, is still in the testing phase, and drew more window-shoppers than customers on Thursday, two weeks after it opened at the edge of a restaurant parking lot.

"When we listed the space (for rent), we knew something cool was coming, but we didn't know what," said Luis Reyes, who works at the parking lot. He used a credit card to buy one of the Big Box's more expensive items, a men's travel kit for $8.75.

"I like it very much, very convenient," Reyes said. "It's got a brain."

It certainly seems so. The Box knows not to pile a heavy glass bottle on top of a carton of eggs, which it sells for $1.50 per half-dozen, and will refuse to sell outdated milk or a stale sandwich if their expiration dates are programmed into the machine.

It can be a bit impatient, though: Hesitate for more than a few seconds before entering an item's number on the touchpad and it cancels the order. And customer service is necessarily more impersonal than it would be with, well, a person.

There is at least one human in attendance, however. Arun Dev manages the Box, keeping it stocked and clean.

The Washington Big Box was stocked with the essentials of life appropriate to a slightly funky but upscale clientele. Health-food juices, fresh pasta and designer coffee drinks shared shelf space with milk, snack chips and condoms. An attached booth offers DVD movies for rent.

Matt Allen, who bought a jug of water, was enthusiastic.

"It was really cool," Allen said. "It was good to just pull in, get something and go."

Such machines have been used previously in Japan and Europe, but they are new to the United States.

The actual vending machine is made by Automated Distribution Technologies Inc., of Exton, Pennsylvania. The company calls the device Shop 2000, and bills it as the first fully automated convenience store.

Michael King, an engineer and one of the designers of Shop 2000, said an earlier, less sophisticated version of the machine was tested near Howard University in Washington and before that, there was an earlier test in York, Pennsylvania.

King declined to say which company was operating the Washington Big Box. 

Rugby Referees Are a Joke - and That's Official

Aug 30, 9:41 am ET 

CARDIFF  - Welsh rugby referees became an official joke Thursday when it was announced that their new sponsors were Britain's largest chain of opticians.

Placards carrying the message 'Get your blinking eyes tested, ref' will be distributed by Specsavers to fans at matches in the coming season, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) said.

Clive Norling, the WRU's Director of Referees, welcomed the four-year deal, saying it should help to improve the traditionally tense relationship between referee and Welsh rugby follower.

"Like all referees, I was subjected to humorous comments from the terraces on match days such as 'open your eyes ref, you're missing a great game,"' said Norling in a statement.

"This agreement therefore is not just a major financial boost but it is also hoped that it will assist in bringing back to the terraces some traditional humor."

Norling said he hoped the new sponsorship deal would boost the number of people on referee coaching courses in Wales, which has slumped 50 percent.

"Verbal abuse hurled at referees by coaches and spectators has contributed hugely to the problem in that it turns potential referees away from taking up the whistle," he added.

"It is hoped that the partnership with Specsavers will encourage a swift return of the more humorous comments aimed at referees, replacing the foul personal abuse that, sadly, is nowadays hurled at match officials." 

Town Holds Legal Bullfights to Death

Aug 30, 9:40 am ET 

LISBON  - A small Portuguese town on Thursday held the country's first legal bullfight to the death in 74 years.

The town of Barrancos had held the Spanish-style bullfights illegally at the end of August for decades and defended them as part of its customs.

Parliament legalized them in July, despite protests from animal-rights supporters, including former actress Brigitte Bardot.

"This is a tradition of this people who work here, who get together here, who live here, who want to be here, because there is really no other means of having a joyful time," a resident of Barrancos, about 210 km (130 miles) southeast of Lisbon on the Spanish border, told private SIC television.

The fights between two bulls and bullfighters had been ending illegally with the killing of bulls, which has officially been banned since 1799. Barrancos had flouted the law with a summer festival featuring the illegal fights since 1928.

Bullfighting is popular in Portugal. Unlike in neighboring Spain, where the fight ends in the death of the bull, the bull is usually led away at the finish.

Officials in Barrancos, which has about 1,900 residents, expected about 25,000 people to attend a festival featuring the bullfights, Diario de Noticias newspaper reported.

Animal-rights activists have called for protests outside Portuguese embassies in 21 cities in Europe and North America. About 15 protesters gathered at the embassy in Madrid for a half-hour demonstration, the Lusa news agency reported. 

School Admits Copying Comic Book's Soldier Image

Aug 29, 9:34 am ET 

By Greg Frost

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  - When MIT announced in March that it won a $50 million grant to design high-tech gear for the U.S. Army's "soldier of the future," the project was hailed as the stuff of science fiction and comic book heroes.

It turns out there was a lot more to those plaudits than most people realized.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology grudgingly acknowledged on Wednesday that it copied images from the sci-fi comic book "Radix" as part of its winning bid to host a research center that aims to make soldiers partly invisible and allow them to clear 20-foot walls in a single bound.

But with the Canadian creators of "Radix" crying foul and weighing their legal options, the tale may not end there.

The illustration in question -- a masked female soldier -- appeared on page 13 of a grant proposal MIT submitted to the Pentagon to host the high-tech Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

When MIT won the grant, beating out other schools such as Cornell University, national news media used the image to illustrate the kinds of futuristic warrior gear that the institute hoped to develop.

"It was an innocent use," MIT spokesman Ken Campbell said. "We didn't know it was from anyone else's artwork." The university issued a statement explaining its stance on Wednesday after an article appeared in the Boston Globe.

MIT officials have not explained how the illustration made it into their grant proposal, but Campbell said the university pulled the artwork from its Web site in April as soon as it learned of the problem.

However, MIT's lawyers have argued in at least one letter to the comic book's Canadian creators that the university was within its legal right when it copied the "Radix" image and submitted it to the Pentagon.

"Radix" creator Ray Lai said fans of the comic book were the first to notice the similarities between gun-toting lead character Val Fiores and MIT's female warrior.

"The fans were calling our publisher saying MIT had plagiarized Val," Lai told The News Source from his home in Montreal, where he writes "Radix" with his brother Ben.

"When we found out, we were shocked."

Placed side-by-side, the two drawings bear a striking resemblance.

In the Lai brothers' image, Val Fiores stands with her feet wide apart, a futuristic pistol in her right hand and a monstrous assault rifle slung behind her back.

The MIT image shows a woman standing in a similar pose, wielding similar weapons and even sporting similar leg and chest armor as Fiores.

Lai said that following the box-office success of the movie "Spider-Man" this summer, several Hollywood studios have expressed interest in "Radix."

"That's why it's very important for us to clear the air and come out and say 'We didn't copy MIT; MIT copied us,"' he said. "We could still file a lawsuit. We're weighing our options." 

Chilled-Out Serbs Urged to Cut Diet of Downers

Aug 29, 9:28 am ET 

BELGRADE  - In a decade of chaos, war and impoverishment, nobody had a word to say against tranquilizers. But now the stress has eased off, Serbs are being urged to break their heavy-duty pill habit.

From now on, over-the-counter sales are out, newspapers announced Thursday. Diazepam and all related stress-killers will require a doctor's written prescription.

The country mellowed out last year with the help of 144 million little pills, a consumption rate that alarmed the health authorities of the reformist government.

"It looked like the entire nation was high on drugs," acting federal health secretary Milos Knezevic was quoted in the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti as saying.

"We have decided to bring the situation under control."

He said authorities decided to tighten up earlier this month after reviewing the official statistics.

"The records show that last year we sold 41 million tablets of Bensedin, 63 million of Bromazepam and 40 million pills of Diazepam," Knezevic said.

National dailies warned readers that kicking the habit would be uncomfortable.

"These drugs can cause addiction in less than three months. It takes more than two or three months to drop the habit under the constant medical supervision," psychiatrist Jovan Maric told Glas Javnosti.

Bensedin was the drug of choice among Serbian pensioners, who reached for the pills when state banks under the control of former president Slobodan Milosevic confiscated their life savings and the state defaulted on their pensions.

"Everyone could get as much of these drugs as he liked and doctors were easy on prescribing them," said the head of the Hospital for Addiction Treatment, Julijana Puric-Pejakovic.

"That's why I see the administration's move as a very good one," she said.

Cats Set Purring to Their Own Music

Aug 29, 9:27 am ET 

VIENNA  - Is your cat bouncing off the walls, in need of serious relaxation? Then tune in to a little music designed to soothe the fussing feline.

Animal behaviorist Hermann Bubna-Littitz, professor at the Veterinary University of Vienna, said the music was designed to lull cats into a pleasant, relaxed state.

"We were able to prove with guaranteed statistics that our house cats sought out the proximity of the loudspeakers when we played this music...and the tendency toward aggressive behavior declined," he said in a statement on Thursday.

"Music for Cats and Friends" features electronically-composed numbers such as "Moonlight Walk," "Endless Time" and "Coming Home." The two compact discs retail at 19.50 euros ($19.21) each.

The producers at www.petsandmusic.com are not planning a cover version for dogs. 

Target Yanks 'Neo-Nazi' Clothing Off Shelves

Aug 29, 9:26 am ET 

MINNEAPOLIS  - Retail giant Target Corp has called on its 1,100 stores to remove shorts and baseball caps marked "eight eight" or "88" -- code among neo-Nazis for "Heil Hitler" because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

"Target is a family-oriented store and company and it is not our intent to carry any merchandise that promotes hate," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Minneapolis-based Target, one of the largest discount chains in the country, directed its stores to remove the items after being alerted to the problem through the efforts of a California shopper and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national organization which tracks racist groups.

Joseph Rodriguez, a 51-year-old video producer/director at the University of California-Davis, discovered the "88" products in a Sacramento-area Target store in late July.

Rodriguez was looking at a pair of red shorts -- marked with skulls and other symbols -- when he noted that they also bore the numeric white supremacist code.

"I just thought they were cool," Rodriguez said in a release provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center. "But when I saw the 'EIGHT EIGHT,' I couldn't believe it."

Rodriguez said he knew of the significance of the "88" from watching a recent documentary about white supremacist music, and immediately sought to alert Target to the problem.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said white supremacist groups often use symbols or codes "as a way of communicating with each other under the radar screen of the public."

"The noxious thing is when these symbols make their way into popular culture and gain widespread acceptance in the mainstream," he said.

A Target spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday. But the Sacramento Bee reported that the clothing was manufactured by UTILITY, one of Target's private labels, and that the company was investigating how it ended up being approved.

Target offered refunds for any shopper who wished to return the merchandise.

Students Punished for Playboy Pose

Aug 29, 9:25 am ET 

WACO, Texas  - A fraternity at Baptist-run Baylor University has been suspended for a year after its members posed for Playboy magazine, even though everyone in the picture was fully clothed, a school spokesman said on Wednesday.

The students -- about 50 members of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and four women -- were found to be in violation of the school's sexual misconduct policy, spokesman Larry Brumley said.

The students posed on a volleyball court for the photograph, which was published in the October issue.

Playboy spokeswoman Elizabeth Norris said the magazine was dismayed. "I'm sure if you ask all the guys, in their heart of hearts they were thrilled to be in the magazine," she said. "You have to wonder what kind of education they're (Baylor) giving students." 

Baby Turtles Take Wrong Turn, Gatecrash Home

Aug 29, 9:23 am ET 

ROME  - A batch of 51 sea turtles took the wrong turning after they hatched on a moonless night and instead of heading out to sea walked into a vacationer's house.

La Repubblica newspaper reported Thursday that the tiny turtles were attracted by the house lights close to the Agrigento beach on the Mediterranean island of Sicily.

The animals were collected in a bucket by the astonished resident, Andrea Crapanzano, and taken down to the sea at dawn.

Marine experts said the turtles' eggs had been laid on a busy stretch of beach and were amazed they hadn't been crushed by the crowds of summer visitors.

Turtles lay eggs on a number of Mediterranean islands and 2002 looks like throwing up a bumper crop of the endangered species.

On the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, environmentalists say there are seven egg nests waiting to hatch which could produce more than 500 turtles.

Lampedusa normally sees one or two nests a season. Seven is the biggest number since marine groups started monitoring the area 27 years ago. 

Pepsi-Cola Pulls Ads Starring Rapper Ludacris

Aug 29, 9:22 am ET 

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES  - The latest ad campaign aimed at cultivating a new Pepsi generation among minority consumers has lost a lot of its fizz.

Pepsi-Cola of North America said on Wednesday that it was yanking its 30-second television spot featuring rapper Ludacris off the air because of consumer complaints about his sexually explicit, profanity-laden lyrics.

"We have a responsibility to listen to our consumers and customers and we've heard from a number of people that were uncomfortable with our association with this artist," the PepsiCo Inc. unit said in a statement.

"We've decided to discontinue our ad campaign with this artist and we're sorry that we've offended anyone."

A spokeswoman for the rap star's label, Def Jam, said she was "shocked" to learn Pepsi was pulling the ads. She had no other immediate comment.

The move comes a day after cable TV's Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," assailed Pepsi as "immoral" for using Ludacris to promote its product and urged his viewers to boycott the beverage company.

"I'm calling for all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt particularly the poor in our society," O'Reilly said.

He cited lyrics from a song on the 2001 Ludacris album "Word of Mouf," in which the hip-hop artist raps the refrain, "I've got ho's in different area codes," using street slang for the word "whores."

Ludacris was one of several entertainers, including Colombian-born singer Shakira and TV star Bernie Mac, enlisted by Pepsi this year as part of a new "multicultural" ad campaign aimed at minorities.

The Ludacris spots, showing him performing and drinking Pepsi, began airing nationally in June, Pepsi spokesman Bart Casabona said.

The Atlanta-based Ludacris, one of the biggest names in hip-hop's "Dirty South" movement, has earned a reputation as among the most carnally oriented of the chart-topping rappers on urban radio.

"I don't think we knew the extent" to which his material was sexually explicit, Casabona said, adding that the decision to drop the ads was "driven by the responses from our consumers."

Ludacris was not the first recording star to land Pepsi in hot water. After paying Madonna a reported $5 million for a yearlong contract, Pepsi in 1989 dropped a commercial featuring the pop singer. It claimed too many people confused it with the controversial video "Like A Prayer," in which Madonna appeared with stigmata wounds on her hands and sang in front of burning crosses.

Of course, that spot may seem tame compared to the provocative costumes and stage antics of pop princess Britney Spears, who has become one of Pepsi's biggest celebrity endorsers. 

Can Airbags Save the World, Scientist Asks

Aug 29, 9:20 am ET 

LONDON  - Giant airbags could one day save the world from the disaster of a cosmic collision with a giant comet, according to a scientist in the United States.

Forget nuclear warheads to stop a crash with a comet that could have cataclysmic effects such as the one that is believed to have triggered the demise of the dinosaurs, Hermann Burchard of Oklahoma State University told New Scientist magazine.

Far better to send up a space ship equipped with a massive airbag that could be inflated to several kilometers (miles) wide and used to gently buffet the invading solar body away from a collision course with earth.

"It seems a safe, simple and realistic idea," Burchard told the magazine's latest edition.

However, he admitted there were still numerous details to be worked out including the material for the airbag which had to be light enough to cart into space yet strong enough to bounce the comet off its course to earth. 

Giant Squid Washes Up on Portuguese Beach

Aug 29, 9:18 am ET 

LISBON  - A giant squid has washed up on a Portuguese beach, a rare occurrence for the deep-water creature, a museum spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Bathers found the dead 21.5-foot-long animal on Wednesday on a beach near Melides, about 50 miles south of Lisbon, a spokeswoman for the Oceanographic Museum of Portinho da Arrabida said.

Nature reserve workers transported the 110-pound cephalopod to the museum, she said. It has been frozen awaiting examination and classification.

Giant squid normally live at depths of 1,600 to 3,300 feet, and usually sink when they die.

A giant squid with tentacles measuring at least 15 yards in length washed up on an Australian beach in July. 

Price of Elton John Tickets? 38,000 Grasshoppers

Aug 29, 9:18 am ET 

By Kanina Holmes

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA  - A concert by pop star Elton John had music fans hopping in Canada's farming heartland as they braved a plague of grasshoppers in an unusual quest to win a pair of tickets.

"All I kept thinking is, is this enough?" Brandy Elliott told The News Source on Wednesday after winning a radio contest for the prized tickets by capturing 38,000 grasshoppers.

"I knew I was grossed out and, honestly, every night I went to bed all I could dream about was grasshoppers -- and just bags and bags of grasshoppers," she said.

Elliott was one of more than 100 Saskatchewan residents to respond to the contest launched by a popular Regina radio show.

The rules were simple: whoever collected the most grasshoppers over a two-day period, would win the two highly coveted tickets to see Elton John at a sold-out concert.

"When we first thought of this contest we thought, oh you know, we might get a few hundred, maybe even a thousand grasshoppers from people. She (Brandy) showed up with 38,000 grasshoppers which blew us away," said Buzz Elliot, a morning show host on Z99, the station that launched the bug-gathering gimmick.

Elliott rigged up 1.5-meter (5-foot) nets made out of window bug-screens and plastic tubing. She then recruited her room-mate and some young nephews and nieces to ride in the back of a large pick-up truck and help with the harvest.

"We drove in the ditches and stirred up the grasshoppers and they all just flew into the nets," said Elliott.

Her team, over a 10-hour period, managed to stuff two large garbage bags, a big bucket and several old detergent containers full of the grasshoppers, which have plagued Canada's drought-stricken Prairie provinces this summer.

Saskatchewan, a province known for its vast fields of wheat, also has a reputation for vast, cyclical grasshopper invasions. The green and brown insects devour crops and have even been known to eat the paint off of barns.

"You can't walk through a park without being pelted by them, basically. We just thought we'd have some fun with it," said Elliot, who is also the music director at Z99.

"It was way beyond our expectations. It just goes to show you that people will do anything for Elton John tickets."

The British rocker will perform in Regina, Saskatchewan, on Friday to an audience of about 13,000. 

School Makes Offer Sopranos Can't Refuse

Aug 28, 2:55 pm ET 

CALGARY, Alberta  - The trials and tribulations of television's favorite dysfunctional crime family, "The Sopranos," are set to be yanked from New Jersey's mean streets and dissected alongside Shakespeare at a Canadian university.

The University of Calgary is offering a course this fall that will examine how the gritty, award-winning HBO series that features mob boss Tony Soprano, his wife Carmela, his gang and his troubled psychiatrist fit into the gangster film genre.

Inappropriate subject matter for an institute of higher learning?

Fuhgedaboudit, said English professor Maurice Yacowar, who will be teaching the credit course as part of the university's film studies program.

"The Sopranos" episodes represent the evolution of the gangster film style by showing that even denizens of organized crime suffer the same basic human problems as the rest of us, said Yacowar, author of the recent book "The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series."

"They really do stand up to the kind of analysis I'm used to giving for a (Harold) Pinter play, or a Tennessee Williams play, or a Hitchcock film, or a Shakespeare play," he said on Tuesday. "The text is that rich, the context is that lively. They really are remarkable works as individual films."

The course has been booked solid for months.

Students will first view the 1931 gangster classic "The Public Enemy," starring James Cagney, then Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" series before studying six episodes of "The Sopranos" from the first two seasons.

The hit series, which pulls no punches with its raunchy dialogue, features James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, the unlikely mob capo whose struggles to keep his gang of thugs in line and maintain some semblance of suburban life leaves him prone to anxiety attacks.

Wife Carmela, played by Edie Falco, is "First Lady of the New Jersey Mob" whose religious faith and desire to be a good homemaker is constantly at odds with Tony's brutal line of work, and his propensity to stray from the marital bed.

Yacowar said the course fits well into the mushrooming field of popular culture as an academic study.

"For me, while 'The Sopranos' are a very rich and very serious-minded text, the real purpose is about the student learning to analyze the text. 'The Sopranos' is the excuse for that," he said.

There will be no excuses for not making good on the assignments, however. They will include three short essays and one major research project. 

School Makes Offer Sopranos Can't Refuse

Aug 28, 2:55 pm ET 

CALGARY, Alberta  - The trials and tribulations of television's favorite dysfunctional crime family, "The Sopranos," are set to be yanked from New Jersey's mean streets and dissected alongside Shakespeare at a Canadian university.

The University of Calgary is offering a course this fall that will examine how the gritty, award-winning HBO series that features mob boss Tony Soprano, his wife Carmela, his gang and his troubled psychiatrist fit into the gangster film genre.

Inappropriate subject matter for an institute of higher learning?

Fuhgedaboudit, said English professor Maurice Yacowar, who will be teaching the credit course as part of the university's film studies program.

"The Sopranos" episodes represent the evolution of the gangster film style by showing that even denizens of organized crime suffer the same basic human problems as the rest of us, said Yacowar, author of the recent book "The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series."

"They really do stand up to the kind of analysis I'm used to giving for a (Harold) Pinter play, or a Tennessee Williams play, or a Hitchcock film, or a Shakespeare play," he said on Tuesday. "The text is that rich, the context is that lively. They really are remarkable works as individual films."

The course has been booked solid for months.

Students will first view the 1931 gangster classic "The Public Enemy," starring James Cagney, then Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" series before studying six episodes of "The Sopranos" from the first two seasons.

The hit series, which pulls no punches with its raunchy dialogue, features James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, the unlikely mob capo whose struggles to keep his gang of thugs in line and maintain some semblance of suburban life leaves him prone to anxiety attacks.

Wife Carmela, played by Edie Falco, is "First Lady of the New Jersey Mob" whose religious faith and desire to be a good homemaker is constantly at odds with Tony's brutal line of work, and his propensity to stray from the marital bed.

Yacowar said the course fits well into the mushrooming field of popular culture as an academic study.

"For me, while 'The Sopranos' are a very rich and very serious-minded text, the real purpose is about the student learning to analyze the text. 'The Sopranos' is the excuse for that," he said.

There will be no excuses for not making good on the assignments, however. They will include three short essays and one major research project. 

New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned

Aug 28, 2:25 pm ET 

LONDON  - With flippers, snorkel and determination, Philip John from south Wales beat an international field of competitors on Monday to be crowned World Bog Snorkeling Champion.

To cheers from bog snorkeling enthusiasts and local onlookers, John took 1.45 minutes to complete the course -- a 60 yard long and four-foot deep trench cut in a peat bog outside Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales.

The 90 competitors who took part in the 17th World Championships were allowed snorkels and flippers, but according to the rules could not use conventional swimming strokes.

"It has been a very good day. We have had competitors from the United States, Russia, Australia, Ireland and of course Britain," organizer Gordon Green said.

Bog snorkeling may not have thousands of adherents, but what supporters might lack in numbers they make up for in enthusiasm.

"Its an unforgiving sport. You get bitten by insects, very dirty, smelly and you are wet all day," said Julia Galvin, a competitor from Ireland who in 1999 was runner-up in the woman's race.

"The best bit is having a warm bath at the end," she said. 

Ship Plows Into Istanbul Fish Restaurant

Aug 28, 2:21 pm ET 

ISTANBUL  - A drifting ship crashed into a Bosphorus-shore restaurant in Istanbul frequented by economy guru Kemal Dervis but nobody was hurt, Turkish newspapers said Tuesday.

The Atanin coaster plowed into the fish restaurant in the upmarket suburb of Yenikoy Monday afternoon, destroying part of the wooden building. No one was injured and tugs soon pulled the ship free. It was not clear what caused the accident.

Former Economy Minister Dervis, a focus of financial market hopes in November elections, is a regular guest at the restaurant, manager Marko Nikolaidis told Turkish newspapers.

"And (former Prime Minister) Tansu Ciller sometimes comes. Thank God the crash did not happen at a time like that," Nikolaidis said in the Hurriyet newspaper.

The Bosphorus, one of the world's busiest waterways, runs through the heart of Istanbul past historic Ottoman mansions and mosques. Turkey has long called the heavy traffic a safety hazard and is investing in new radar controls to guide vessels through the narrow channel's treacherous currents. 

You Say Tomato, Spain Says... 'Food Fight!'

Aug 28, 1:44 pm ET 

By Daniel Flynn

BUNOL, Spain  - The world's biggest food fight painted the Spanish town of Bunol red on Wednesday as 35,000 revelers pelted each other with 120 tons of ripe plum tomatoes in the annual "Tomatina" festival.

In an hour-long frenzy, the small town's central street was transformed into a blur of flying fruit as Spaniards and visitors from around the globe hurled tomatoes and cavorted in the shin-deep pools of puree which give the "Tomatina" its name. "This is probably the craziest place on earth right now," gasped Paul Vandergraaf, a 21-year-old American student from St. Louis, Missouri, as ketchup dripped from his dreadlocks. "I promised myself I would come here once. It's been amazing!"

On the stroke of noon, a rocket gives the signal for a procession of six dump trucks each bearing 20 tons of tomatoes to inch through the adrenaline- and alcohol-fueled crowds.

The trucks tip huge piles of tomatoes -- and a few hapless passengers -- from their backs, and waves of cheering partygoers drive into the piles of fruit, flinging them in every direction.

When no whole tomatoes remain, revelers scoop up handfuls of juice, pips and skin to hurl.

Burly men wearing ballerinas' tutus flung fruit while green leprechauns picked pips from their beards amid the mayhem.

"The Spanish sure know how to hold a party. Where else in the world can you still have a food fight in your twenties?" said Ben Turner, a 26-year-old from Melbourne who was "swimming" breast-stroke with a friend in a pool of tomato juice.

Locals say the Tomatina, which caps a week-long festival in the eastern Spanish town some 375 km (230 miles) from Madrid, began as a spontaneous food fight between a group of young locals having lunch in the tiny "People's Square" in 1945.

TV TOMS

It has been repeated every year since, aside from a brief break during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco after residents pelted a government official with tomatoes.

But its scale has ballooned since television discovered the fiesta in the early 1980s and brought it worldwide attention.

For many Spaniards, the Tomatina was a welcome break from tensions surrounding the recent banning of Basque political party Batasuna. While a handful of the crowd chanted slogans against Basque separatism, many more sang invitations for blonde-haired female visitors to remove their clothing.

"Its great to be here. I feel really saucy! ... It was insane. Viva Tomatina!" said Jessica Clarke from New York, covered in red slime.

Bunol's tradition contrasts with the fascination of nearby villages in the eastern Spanish province of Valencia with the more traditional Spanish pastime of bull-fighting.

"Here in Bunol we have never liked bulls. A bull's horns can hurt you, but a tomato never does you any harm," said Carmen, 54. Like many residents, she covered the front of her house in the central square with plastic and had boarded up her windows as if preparing for a storm.

The only injury reported this year was a woman who suffered a broken leg when she fell beneath one of the construction trucks bearing the ripe fruit. Local television said she had been taken to hospital in Valencia.

Shortly after a rocket signaled the end of the hour-long battle, cleaning teams with high-power water hoses doused the tomato-splattered walls of the main street, washing torrents of red sludge into the sewers. Within hours the village returned to normal and its thousands of visitors moved on. 

Airline Sued for Millions over Lost Cat

Aug 28, 1:42 pm ET 

TORONTO  - A couple who say Air Canada lost their cat on a flight from Toronto to San Francisco are seeking $5 million in compensation in the largest ever lawsuit filed over a pet, the Toronto Star said on Wednesday.

The newspaper said Andrew Wysotski and Lori Learmont, former residents of Oshawa, Ontario, are suing Air Canada and Continental Airlines, which handled baggage for the flight in San Francisco, as well as ten workers who were on duty when the animal, a 15-year-old tabby named Fu, went missing.

"What most people don't know is that if they (an airline) lose or kill your pet in transit, their liability is generally limited to $14 per pound, the same as if your pet was a mere suitcase," Wysotski a self employed artist, told the paper.

Fu was one of five cats traveling with the couple. They said a second crate was badly damaged and litter was scattered all over the third crate, which had two cats inside. The fifth cat rode with the couple in the passenger section of the plane.

The suit was filed a San Francisco court. The newspaper said Air Canada would not comment on the case because litigation was pending. "Animals are precious cargo and are treated accordingly," an airline official said. 

Curious Wife Risks Jail for Reading Husband's Mail

Aug 28, 1:41 pm ET 

ROME  - Curiosity killed the cat and it could land one Italian wife in jail for a year.

A man in the northeastern city of Turin has taken his wife to court for repeatedly opening his personal mail, despite his stream of pleas to stop.

The Italian news agency ANSA said Tuesday a Turin court had opened an inquiry into the complaint.

ANSA did not name the couple but said the wife's prying could be punished by a prison sentence or a $516 fine. 

School Offers African Leaders an Alternative

Aug 28, 1:32 pm ET 

By Greg Frost

BOSTON  - Attention African leaders: don't wait to be forced from office in a messy coup -- Boston University wants to show you the art of giving up your job gracefully.

The private university announced Tuesday it has created a residency program to foster democracy in Africa by demonstrating to the continent's leaders that there is life after office.

The first head of state to take part in the Lloyd G. Balfour African Presidents in Residence Program will be Kenneth Kaunda, who led Zambia to independence in 1964 and then ruled the southern African state for 27 years.

Over the coming year, the school will furnish Kaunda with a house in Boston's posh Back Bay district, round-the-clock security and a stipend of an undisclosed amount.

In exchange, Kaunda will give lectures and take part in policy discussions both on campus and around the country. His papers will also be compiled by the university's African Presidential Archives and Research Program.

Charles Stith, a former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania who now runs the African presidential archives at BU, said he hoped Kaunda would be the first in a long line of African leaders to take part in the unique residency program.

"What we're doing represents an example of the potential opportunities after the presidency. If that can serve as the impetus for some folks to move on (and leave office), then we're happy," he told The News Source.

Stith said it was a "real coup" for the university to have landed Kaunda, who will take up his one-year post next month.

Democracy in Zambia experienced a bumpy ride under Kaunda, who declared the country a one-party state in 1972. Nearly two decades later he called multi-party elections, and stepped down gracefully when he lost to trade union leader Frederick Chiluba. 

"He's really a man for all seasons," Stith said of Kaunda. "He is a living embodiment of Africa's past struggle against colonization, and his commitment to democracy and free-market reform makes him a symbol of Africa's present and future challenge to live with globalization."

Stith said he had his eye on at least a dozen current or former African leaders to succeed Kaunda, including former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, who helped negotiate the country's transition from apartheid.

Others on his shortlist include current Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, former Botswana President Ketumile Masire, and former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings.

"There are a significant number of folks who are in their last terms and folks who are presently out (of power) who represent a pretty deep reservoir to tap," Stith said.

Even Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the former freedom fighter who led his country to independence in 1980 but who is now widely seen as a tyrant, has not been ruled out.

Stith said the program was open to those leaders who abided by the democratic process even if -- like Kaunda -- they strayed from the path during their term in office.

"Anybody who falls under those criteria, we're certainly willing and interested in considering," he said. "Depending on what President Mugabe decides to do, if for instance he stepped aside at a duly scheduled and legitimate election, we'd certainly look at it." 

8-Year-Old Caught in Crack Cocaine Sting

Aug 28, 1:11 pm ET 

CALGARY, Alberta  - An 8-year-old Canadian boy has been placed in foster care after he was caught aiding a drug dealer by holding crack cocaine for sale, police said on Tuesday.

An undercover officer discovered the child when he tried to lure the dealer into selling him 3.5 grams (an eighth of an ounce) of cocaine in a well-known drug-trafficking area east of the downtown core in Calgary, Alberta, on Friday.

The boy was found holding nearly three grams of the drug. It did not appear he had been using crack, Sgt. Sean Doyle of the Calgary police drug unit said.

"We have nothing to say that he's been at it for any length of time, but he was clearly under the direction of this older trafficker," Doyle said. "We had uniforms come in and arrest both of them."

The child is too young to be charged under Canadian law, so police turned him over to Family Services. It is not clear whether his parents knew of his activities, although Doyle said authorities had "intervened" with the family.

"It's an unfortunate situation to have an 8-year-old involved in trafficking crack," he said. "This is not usual. My thoughts are that this person who was the trafficker knows full well that the police can't arrest this 8-year-old." 

Pet Shop Rents Dogs as Recession Bites

Aug 28, 1:08 pm ET 

HONG KONG  - In another sign Hong Kong's economy may be going to the dogs, a local pet shop is renting out pooches by the week in a bid to bring in more business.

Shop owner Danny Tam said his strategy of "rent first, buy later" could also cut down on the growing number of dogs being abandoned in the territory because their owners have grown tired of them.

"This allows consumers to decide if they really want to keep pets and it also helps generate business," Tam told The News Source in a telephone interview on Wednesday, shouting over the noise of yelping dogs in the background.

Tam said his business has grown five fold since he launched the new marketing strategy in early summer and fewer than 10 percent of his dogs have been returned.

Rental charges vary from HK$700 to HK$1,400 (US$90-180) a week, depending on the breed of the dog. But customers have to pay a deposit equal to the full value of the animal. 

Name Your Baby for Video Game 'Turok,' Win $10,000

Aug 28, 1:05 pm ET 

By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES  - But dear, Turok is such a nice name for the baby!

Video game publisher Acclaim Entertainment Inc. said on Tuesday it will give $10,000 in savings bonds to the first family to have a child on Sept. 1 and name it "Turok," after Acclaim's new game of the same name to be released on that day.

The game, "Turok: Evolution," is Acclaim's biggest title of the year; it will be released simultaneously on all major game platforms Sept. 1, which the company has taken to calling "Turok Bloody Sunday."

In the straight-forward shooter game, Turok must battle his way through "reptilian hordes" in a place called the Lost Land, according to the game's Web site.

"People for generations have been naming their children for sports celebrities, movie star, musicians," said Acclaim spokesman Allan Lewis. "It's a natural evolution ... people are going to start naming their children for video games."

To participate, expecting parents will have to preregister on the game's Web site, and once the baby is born, they will have to provide proof of birth from a U.S. hospital, including the exact time and date.

However, Lewis cautioned that parents should not immediately name their new children Turok -- unless they are so inclined anyway -- as the company will first have to certify exactly which contestant was born first.

The winning parents will have to sign a letter of intent promising to name their child Turok for a period of one year and then prove that they have done so in order to collect.

Acclaim's British operation is also running a similar stunt; Lewis said the company will pay up to five British adults the equivalent of about $800 to change their given names to Turok for one year.

"Turok: Evolution," which carries a "Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, is the latest game in a franchise that Acclaim said has generated more than $250 million in sales, with 6 million copies of the games sold.

The promotion, while unique, is not a first, as companies have in the past tried to buy naming rights to children as a promotion for their brand.

The Internet Underground Music Archive, or IUMA, ran a contest in 2000 urging parents to name their children "Iuma" in exchange for $5,000. A total of 10 babies ended up getting the name as part of the program.

Teacher Spends All Summer Riding Rollercoaster

Aug 26, 9:32 am ET 

BERLIN  - An American teacher has ridden a rollercoaster for ten hours a day for the past three months in his pursuit of a world record.

Richard Rodriguez, a 42-year-old Chicago University lecturer, has to hold out for another week at a German leisure park to bag his 15th world record for rollercoaster endurance.

Rodriguez tries to keep himself busy during the stomach-churning rides on the giant rollercoaster in the western town of Hassloch.

"I read the newspapers...I have a walkman, I have my cellphone, so I try to talk to people and message people during the day," he said. "I've been on this rollercoaster for quarter of a year now, so I am kind of anxious for the ending."

Officials Probe Prison's Buff Barbecue

Aug 26, 9:31 am ET 

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan  - Canadian prison officials have launched a probe into a barbecue held at a Saskatoon psychiatric facility following reports that potentially violent inmates dined on steak, climbed trees and stripped naked.

Corrections Canada officials said in local newspaper reports on Friday that they had launched the review after photographs from the party, held in early August at the Regional Psychiatric Center in Saskatoon, were distributed to journalists.

Newspaper reports, some of which dubbed the prison "Club Fed," said the pictures show seven inmates from the aggressive behavior control unit grilling filet mignon and climbing trees. One inmate was also snapped in the buff standing in a makeshift swimming pool.

Officials at the center have said that while barbecues are part of normal activities at the unit, those inmates should have been better supervised.

Inmates in the unit have a history of violence, officials said, with many transferred there from Canada's regular prisons.

Avowed Polygamist Could Go to Jail for Life

Aug 26, 9:30 am ET 

By James Nelson

SALT LAKE CITY  - Polygamist Tom Green has spent a lot of time extolling the virtues of taking multiple wives. On Tuesday, he will learn what price he must pay for his lifestyle when he is sentenced for raping a minor -- a girl he married when she was just 13 years of age.

The man who lived with five wives and 29 children and has gone on national television to talk about his life was convicted in June of raping Linda Kunz Green after he married her in 1986, when he was 37 and she was 13. The marriage produced a son, Melvin.

Green, 54, has been in prison since last year for a term of up to five years after being convicted of bigamy. The latest conviction could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

But while he has been a vocal advocate of multiple wives, his days are now spent quietly.

"He's quite depressed, very sad," said Green's attorney, John Bucher. But Green still stands by his belief in creating a polygamist family, the lawyer said.

Linda Kunz Green and her son Melvin, now 15, are expected to take the stand before Green is sentenced.

In prepared statements filed with the court, relatives said Green never meant to commit a crime.

"Even though Tom and I made an error in judgement in 1986, our intent was not to commit a crime. We had a religious ceremony before we had sex in which we made lifetime commitments to each other. It was not a situation where Tom 'knocked up' some girl and then decided that he had better marry her," Linda Kunz Green said in her letter.

"The most important thing to be considered now is the 29 children that need their father and what their future holds without him being there for them," she wrote. In all, Tom Green has fathered 33 children.

Anti-polygamy groups say many people in rural Utah practice plural marriage, believing it adheres to the original guidance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- commonly called the Mormon church. Green holds such beliefs.

Polygamy was originally encouraged by Mormons, who settled in the Utah territory after fleeing religious persecution. But the church banned the practice in 1890 to win full statehood in the United States for Utah. Polygamists are now ex-communicated from the Mormon Church.

Melvin Green told the judge his father is not a criminal.

"To view me as the product of a crime hurts me. It makes me feel abnormal. I am very normal. I was a member of the West Desert High School basketball team. ... I ran and was elected for the student body representative," the youngster said.

Juab County prosecutor David Leavitt, brother of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, said investigators started looking into the case after seeing Green and his wives on television.

Green and the women appeared on Dateline, "Jerry Springer" and "48 Hours" and talked about how the children were cared for and their sleeping arrangements, giving a rare glimpse into the polygamist lifestyle.

The family no longer lives in the remote compound in Utah's west desert where they lived at that time. With Green in prison, the women and children, struggling to make ends meet, have moved to the Salt Lake City area.

Prosecutor Leavitt said he has been meeting with some of the wives to determine their needs. "I have always seen these women as victims," Leavitt told The News Source. He said private money has been raised, but declined to disclose details.

The specter of life in prison or at least a long stretch behind bars for Tom Green has forced the family to move on.

"We just have to deal with whatever happens. That's all we can do. We don't know what to expect, we don't know what's going to happen we just know we have to survive through it." Linda Kunz Green told The News Source recently.

Majority of Britons Want to Leave Country

Aug 26, 9:27 am ET 

LONDON  - More than half of Britons would like to emigrate from their homeland, fed up with the price of living and terrible weather, and would prefer to live in the United States or Spain, a survey published Monday said.

Fifty-four percent of Britons surveyed by pollsters YouGov for the Daily Telegraph newspaper said they would like to settle abroad if they were free to do so.

Similar polls found just 42 percent wanted to emigrate in 1948 shortly after World War II, and only 40 percent in 1975.

Of those wanting to leave Britain behind, the United States was the most popular destination followed by Australia.

However, if language wasn't a barrier -- Britons are the worst linguists in Europe according to an EU poll -- then Spain would be their preferred country of residence followed by France, with the U.S. pushed back into third place.

The survey found that being able live more cheaply and the chance of new opportunities were cited as the main reasons for moving abroad. Unsurprisingly the notoriously wet and shifty British climate was the next most popular reason for leaving.

However, the much maligned British cuisine was less of a problem with only 25 percent citing it as a problem.

The biggest draw for staying in Britain was being with family and friends, whilst the second most common reason was Britain's proud history.

Wired Goose Shot Down by Arctic Hunter

Aug 26, 9:20 am ET 

LONDON  - Scientists tracking the migration of rare geese across the North Atlantic were surprised and dismayed to find one of the birds dead in a hunter's house.

Six light-bellied Brent geese were fitted with satellite transmitters which monitored their journey from their home in Northern Ireland to the Canadian Arctic, but only five set out on the return trip.

Scientists went in search of the missing goose and found it in a remote hunter's lodge -- dead.

"It was planning to come back to the United Kingdom when it was shot," Tony Richardson of Britain's Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust told BBC Radio on Monday.

"This chap (the hunter) was surprised to learn it had a rather expensive transmitter on its back... It's a rather sad end to one particular bird's life."

Air Guitar Champions Strike a Chord

Aug 26, 9:18 am ET 

By Gleb Bryanski

OULU, Finland  - Can't play the guitar? With a lot of nerve but little shame you too can be a rock star at the air guitar world championship.

Toby Peneha, a Maori from New Zealand, had never been on a plane or traveled abroad. His life changed when his girlfriend put his name up for a national air guitar competition.

"I went on stage and just made a complete fool of myself," Peneha, a 28-year-old meat factory worker, told The News Source.

Within minutes he was the air guitar champion of New Zealand and got a ticket to the other side of the globe to compete at the annual world championships in Oulu, a Finnish city some 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle.

Dressed in a heavy metal T-shirt, leather trousers and Union Jack-capped shoes, Peneha twirled his long curly hair to hard rock band Pantera, winning squeals of delight from the 2,500-strong mostly Finnish audience.

He came second, conceding first place to last year's winner Briton Zac Monro, whose simple performance to the tune of "Fell in Love With a Girl" by The White Stripes went down well with the jury late Friday.

"I like the improvisation, living the moment, and this year's winner did just that," jury head Juha Torvinen said.

The art of playing the air guitar goes back to the 1970s when breathtaking electric guitar solos by bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin inspired teenagers throughout the world grab their tennis rackets and mime their idols, swinging and prancing around their bedrooms.

"One should not be ashamed of playing air guitar. It's like masturbation. Everyone did it at some point," Torvinen, himself a Finnish "real" guitar legend, told The News Source.

The first air guitar championship was held in Oulu in 1996. Soon national championships sprang up around the world.

"There is that moment on stage when all the adrenaline has gone through and you are left there with absolutely nothing, just you and an audience, and your air guitar," Monro, a 32-year-old architect from London, told The News Source.

The prize is a real electric guitar.

Twelve finalists from eight countries contested the title.

In summer Finland also plays host to wife-carrying and mosquito-killing contests.

Rare White Bear Gets Protection

Aug 26, 9:16 am ET 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska  - A rare white bear spotted in a forest near the city of Juneau got special protection on Friday from Alaskan officials, who passed an emergency regulation barring hunting of any white-colored bear in the region.

The animal is a black bear, but almost all of its fur is stark white.

It was spotted by state biologists. Last week, Juneau photographer Pat Costello snapped a picture of it and petitioned the state Board of Game to pass an emergency regulation banning its hunting.

The board did so in an emergency teleconference meeting. "I'm thrilled," said Costello, who is trying to keep the bear's location as secret as possible.

When he first saw the animal, his reaction was one of "disbelief," even though state biologists had spoken about it, Costello said. "There is no mistaking this for anything other than a white bear. It is not gray," he said.

Costello said he petitioned the Board of Game for the protection because he feared that, with a bear-hunting season soon to open in the area, the animal would be shot as a trophy.

He is still concerned about the welfare of the white bear, he said. "It's protected legally now, but there are all sorts of morons in this world," he said.

Nonetheless, public response to his efforts has been positive. He received 1,200 e-mailed messages on Friday, and only one opposed a special protection for the bear, he said.

Although they are termed "black bears," members of the species can come in different colors. Those with reddish-brown fur are called "cinnamon" bears, while those with light, sometimes blue-tinted fur are called "glacier bears."

There are a few white-colored black bears in parts of coastal British Columbia, where locals have traditionally referred to them as "spirit bears." But there has never been a reported sighting of a white-colored black bear in the Juneau area, according to Frank Rue, commissioner of the state Department of Fish and Game.

Thais Consider Vomit Fix to Stop Drug Abuse

Aug 26, 9:15 am ET 

BANGKOK  - Thailand is considering manufacturing fake speed pills that cause headaches and vomiting to stop people abusing drugs, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Monday.

"I want the public health ministry to talk to psychiatrists and chemists on whether the government should produce drugs that give people headaches and nausea," Thaksin told a drugs seminar.

Sitha Thiwaree, a member of parliament from Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party, told the seminar the government should produce fake methamphetamine pills as a deterrent.

"If drug addicts take these fake pills and vomit, they may later feel scared and not want to touch them again," said Sitha, a former jet fighter pilot in the Thai Air Force.

Thailand regards widespread methamphetamine addiction as one of its main social problems. Hundreds of millions of pills are trafficked into the country every year, mostly from Myanmar.

Storks Delay Filling of Reservoir

Aug 26, 9:14 am ET 

LISBON  - A nest of endangered black storks has delayed the filling of a Portuguese reservoir that will be the biggest in Europe, local media reported Saturday.

Authorities at the Alqueva dam on the Guadiana River have slowed the filling because of a nest holding three young black storks, Lusa news agency and Expresso weekly newspaper said.

The species is in danger of extinction. Because of the young birds, the reservoir's filling is expected to be delayed for about five weeks until the storks are old enough to migrate to winter nesting grounds in Africa, Expresso said.

Water has been released from the dam on Portugal's southeastern border with Spain at a rate up to four times normal to protect the birds' nest.

The Alqueva dam was completed this year as part of a regional development project. When the reservoir is filled it will cover about 100 square miles.

The project has drawn fire from environmentalists who contend it will destroy the habitats of floral species and animals that include eagles, kites and some of the few remaining Iberian lynxes.

Escaped Emu Mistaken for Naked Man

Aug 23, 12:45 pm ET 

HAMBURG, Germany  - An escaped emu caused confusion in Hamburg after a woman called police to report what she thought was a bare-chested man with two big white dots on his forehead staring into her window, police said on Friday.

The large, flightless, Australian bird resembling an ostrich has been on the run from a local zoo since Thursday.

"The woman heard someone tapping at the window at night and when she looked out she saw a head with two big eyes and a bare chest," a Hamburg police spokesman said.

Officers said they knew there was an emu on the run and put two and two together after they found no one suspicious.

"We're still looking for either a naked man with huge eyes or an emu," the spokesman added.

The bird has escaped twice in two weeks. Last week it ran away and frightened a horse, but was eventually captured.

Tenor Stomps Off Stage in Stormy Opera

Aug 23, 9:10 am ET 

MILAN  - Heartfelt performances are expected in opera but emotions spilled off stage in Sicily this week when a tenor stormed out, sticking two fingers up at the audience.

Complaining the conductor was taking Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" too slowly, tenor Franco Bonisolli broke off and started yelling abuse at the orchestra pit of Taormina's ancient Greek theater.

When the audience started whistling in disapproval, he stuck two fingers up at them -- a vulgar gesture in Italy -- and stormed off stage.

Bonisolli will be replaced as the rogue lover Turiddu for the rest of the opera's run at the theater, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea with Mount Etna smoking silently in the background.

The singer was not reachable for comment.

Where's Felix? Just Track Him on the Mobile...

Aug 23, 9:07 am ET 

HELSINKI  - Lost your cat or dog? No need to whistle or call on a fruitless search -- just track your pet with your mobile phone.

A Finnish firm says "wanted" posters of lost pets will be a thing of the past thanks to new technology: a mobile phone and a tracking unit that is strapped on the back of the animal.

When the pet goes missing its movements are followed via an electronic map displayed on a handheld monitor by the owner.

The device is also expected to be popular among hunters needing to trace their dogs searching for game, said Matti Koskelo, sales manager at Pointer Solutions, one of the firms marketing the system.

Suspect Skips Jail in Look-Alike Ruse

Aug 23, 9:06 am ET 

PARIS  - A suspected member of Basque separatist group ETA escaped from France's notorious Sante jail by swapping places with his brother during a visit, red-faced French prison authorities said on Thursday.

Ismael Berasategui Escudero, arrested by French police in May in possession of a loaded pistol and suspected of being linked to a large haul of weapons found in southwest France in April, pulled off the switch on Saturday.

Prison officials only noticed the ruse on Thursday when Escudero's brother, who bears a family resemblance but is not a twin, made them aware of it himself, a prison authorities spokeswoman told The News Source.

Escudero's whereabouts were not known. His brother was immediately placed in custody.

A trade union for French prison officers said the incident, now the subject of an internal inquiry, was inevitable given the severe overcrowding in Sante, one of the oldest jails in Paris.

"Is it right that someone seen as a senior ETA member should be placed in an overcrowded detention center that is among the most run-down in France?" asked Emmanuel Gauthrain of the Force Ouvriere union.

Prison regulations require inmates to be marked with indelible ink on the back of their hand during visits by family, precisely to avoid such swaps. But a prison source said the practice was frequently waived after objections from inmates.

The incident comes five months after failings in French custody practice were brought to light when a mass murderer escaped through the window of a police building during questioning and plunged to his death four floors below.

The policemen questioning Richard Durn, who killed eight Paris suburb councilors during a shooting spree in March, were found not to be at fault and were not disciplined.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since 1968 to press its demands for an independent state in Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France.

Mr. Potato Head Served Up on a License Plate

Aug 23, 9:05 am ET 

PROVIDENCE, R.I.  - A 50-year-old plastic spud with holes in his face is about to have his head served up on a plate -- an automobile license plate, that is.

Mr. Potato Head soon will appear on a special license plate in Rhode Island, state officials said on Thursday as they unveiled the plate design.

Proceeds from the $40 license plates will go to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank to help feed the estimated 20,000 people who experience hunger in the state, officials said.

The plates, due to appear in January, feature an image of the mustachioed tuber next to the words "Help End Hunger."

Launched in 1952 as the first toy advertised on U.S. television, Mr. Potato Head is manufactured by Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toy maker Hasbro Inc. . Mr. Potato Head also appeared as an animated character in the "Toy Story" movies.

Crackdown on Diplomat Parking

Aug 23, 9:01 am ET 

By Ross Finley

NEW YORK  - For most New Yorkers, finding a quick and legal parking spot is an exercise in frustration. Diplomats and consular officials soon will share their pain.

New York City officials and the State Department said on Thursday that the number of diplomatic and consular vehicles allowed to park on city streets will be slashed by three-quarters, to 530 from 2,600.

Diplomats and consular officials from the city's 189 diplomatic missions have a reputation for being parking scofflaws and owe nearly $22 million in parking fines that the city has been unable to collect.

City officials also announced measures aimed at getting diplomats to pay up.

While international law effectively bars the city from collecting on the lion's share of past fines -- three-quarters of the total are owed by diplomatic-only licenses that are protected -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city is cracking down on new offenders.

"Diplomats are finally going to play by the rules and pay their tickets," Bloomberg said in a statement.

"We think it is very much in the interests of the people of New York City and we think will be accepted by the diplomatic community," Bloomberg added at a news conference held with Patrick Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform.

Without naming specific countries, Bloomberg said "a very small minority" of scofflaws had taken the shine off the diplomatic and consular community's parking record.

Egypt, Kuwait and Nigeria are top offenders, city officials have said.

Under the deal, which is to take effect on Nov. 1, the city will allot 530 specific spaces on the street, and a diplomatic car must bear a sticker that matches that spot.

State Department officials will physically remove consular plates and refuse renewals of diplomatic plates to consulate officials who fail to pay three or more tickets after 100 days.

Consular plates will come off vehicles owned by officials who do not pay 60 percent of their outstanding parking tickets by Sept. 1.

As for ordinary New Yorkers who might want to use one of the 530 assigned spots, the mayor outlined simple consequences.

"You get a ticket," he said. "It's illegal. Don't do it."

Hospital Offers Cut-Rate Surgery to Boost Business

Aug 23, 8:59 am ET 

HONG KONG  - A private hospital in Hong Kong is offering discount packages and fixed prices for some operations in a bid to attract patients during the territory's crushing economic downturn.

"Currently, private hospitals have only six percent share of the market and private hospitals will need to come up with all sort of ways to fight for market share," the Union Hospital said in a statement obtained on Friday.

Most Hong Kong residents balk at seeking treatment at private hospitals, which are notorious for charging astronomical fees that shoot far beyond original estimates.

Under the new offer, circumcisions will be fixed at a price of HK$9,300 (US$1,192). Previously, they ranged from HK$8,660 to HK$18,050.

The prices include surgery fees, consultation, anaesthetic fees and hospitalization. It did not explain why prices had varied so much previously.

Robbers Make Off with Scrooge at Dickens Museum

Aug 23, 8:58 am ET 

LONDON  - Robbers at the Charles Dickens House museum in London made off with three copies of valuable first editions in broad daylight, police said on Thursday.

They said thieves had used a glass cutter to open a locked cabinet and swiped three first editions of "A Christmas Carol," while visitors toured the central London museum on August 15.

The volumes of the Dickens novel about tightfisted boss Ebenezer Scrooge were worth 20,000-30,000 pounds ($30,000-$45,000) each.

The robbers also tried to cut glass from a cabinet containing copies of "The Pickwick Papers" but failed, the police said.

Police said they knew nothing about the identity of the suspects and asked the public to phone in any information.

In the Pink After Matching Mum's Ace

Aug 23, 8:55 am ET 

SEOUL  - A South Korean golfer has achieved a hole-in-one at the same hole where his mother aced out six years earlier.

Kim Joong-min, a 45-year-old businessman, aced the 200-yard 15th hole at Nambu Country Club south of Seoul and is having thousands of pink golf balls inscribed with 'hole-in-one' in black lettering to commemorate his achievement.

"I'm even thinking of sending this to the Guinness Book (of Records)," Kim told The News Source on Friday.

"We've never seen anything like it," said Hyun Deuk-kwon, an official at Nambu Country Club.

South Koreans believe that a hole-in-one brings 30 years of luck, but the fortunate golfer is obliged to make a donation to the club where the ace was achieved.

Kim's 70-year-old mother, Choi Sook-hee, aced the 15th on June 22, 1996 and a tree and a stone monument have since marked the spot.

"I had always dreamed of a hole-in-one there, whenever I've been looking at my mother's tree," Kim said, after producing his own ace on June 16 this year. "My dream has finally come true."

Golf is hugely popular in South Korea, where more than three million people out of the country's population of 47 million play the game regularly.

Women's professionals Pak Se-ri and Kim Mi-hyun have been instrumental in giving golf a significant boost in recent years with their success in international competition.

A Mane's a Pain, but Equals Gain for Lions - Study

Aug 23, 8:54 am ET 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON  - A big, black mane is hot, shaggy and attracts trophy hunters, but it makes a lion irresistibly sexy to the lionesses, researchers reported on Thursday.

The bigger and darker the mane, the more mates a lion attracts, and the better his cubs survive, Peyton West and Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

A male with a long, dark mane intimidates other lions and for good reasons, they found. He has higher levels of testosterone and wins fights more often.

But he pays for this. He is hotter than lions with lighter manes, eats less in summer and produces more abnormal sperm, the researchers found.

"We suggest the mane's evolution is the result of sexual selection," said West, a doctoral candidate whose dissertation led to the paper.

Lions' manes vary from light blond to black and can be up to a foot (a third of a meter) long.

One big question about lions is why the males even have a mane, said West, who studied lions in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.

Like a peacock's elegant but heavy tail, it signals biological fitness to females. Females choose mates with beautiful tails, or in the case of lions, with big, black manes, because it turns them on. Thus the trait is passed on.

West and Packer checked to see what good the mane does to a lion. Some people have suggested it protects the head and shoulders during fights or hunting, but West said their data didn't show the neck and head were a special target.

West set up pairs of model lions with short and long manes and watched to see which ones wild lions would approach. Males chose the short-maned dummy nine out of 10 times, she found, while females approached the darker-maned dummy, 13 out of 14 times.

West and Packer also found that the higher the testosterone level in the blood of male lions, the darker the mane. "Therefore, it isn't surprising that females would prefer darker manes and males would be intimidated," West said.

Scarecrow Guards Jail Birds

Aug 26, 9:33 am ET 

SAO PAULO, Brazil  - A judge on an inspection visit to a Brazilian jail discovered a straw scarecrow dressed in police uniform on the watchtower "guarding" some 735 jail birds, police said on Friday.

The judge removed the scarecrow, which had apparently been manning the watchtower for days, on Thursday and took it to the court as evidence. Police opened an investigation.

"It is considered a grave breach of security rules," a police spokesman said, adding that a prison guard or a police officer should have been on the tower at all times.

The Taubate Provisional Detention Center for prisoners awaiting trial near Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo was opened at the end of last year and has already had one publicized escape via an underground tunnel.

Brazil's prison system is plagued with break-outs and violent riots due to extreme overcrowding, lack of funds and poor pay for prison officers. 

French Mayor Bans Residents from Dying

Aug 22, 10:23 am ET 

LE LAVANDOU, France  - The mayor of a French Mediterranean town, faced with a cemetery "full to bursting," has banned local residents from dying until he can find somewhere else to bury them.

Gil Bernardi, mayor of Le Lavandou on the coast 15 miles west of Saint Tropez, introduced the ban after a court rejected his plans to build a cemetery in a tranquil setting by the sea.

Bernardi said most locals had obeyed the edict so far, but he was desperately trying to find a resting place for a homeless man who had recently passed away in the town.

"Initially, the decree has been remarkably well followed," the mayor said.

Bernardi has appealed against the ruling preventing the seaside cemetery being built, saying it would be the best final resting place for his townsfolk.

"What people want here, because it's a local tradition, is their own little personal plot of land, their burial spot, not an impersonal pigeonhole," he said. 

Brazil Drug Film Gala Turns Fiction Into Reality

Aug 22, 10:22 am ET 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil  - A 28-year-old drug trafficker was arrested at the premiere of a film about the growth of drug dealings in a Rio de Janeiro slum, the police narcotics squad said on Wednesday.

Authorities said Paulo Sergio Savino Magno, alias the "Little One," the main drug dealer in a local slum, was arrested when he turned up with his wife to see the film "Cidade de Deus" (City of God) on Tuesday night.

The premiere was attended by Rio de Janeiro State Governor Benedita da Silva and Rio's civilian police chief.

Drug gangs have seized control of many slums in Rio de Janeiro, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with 37 violent deaths per 100,000 people registered last year. 

Your Family Stinks, Researchers Say

Aug 22, 10:21 am ET 

LONDON  - Family members tend not to like the way each other smell, researchers say, speculating that the unpleasant stink of your closest relatives may be one of nature's ways of discouraging incest.

In research described on Thursday in Britain's New Scientist magazine, a team at Wayne State University in Detroit recruited 25 families with children aged between six and 15, and gave them T-shirts to sleep in and odorless soap to wash with.

They were told to keep the T-shirts in plastic bags. They were later asked to sniff two T-shirts, one worn by a family member and another worn by a stranger.

The researchers first tested whether family members could recognize each other.

They found that mothers and fathers could usually tell when they were smelling their pre-adolescent children, with mothers being slightly better at it than dads, but they could not say which child was which.

Children younger than nine -- with the notable exception of sons who had been breastfed -- generally could not recognize their mothers, while older children could. All the children recognized their fathers.

Interestingly, whether or not they recognized which T-shirt belonged to a family member, volunteers usually said they far preferred the smell of the stranger's shirt.

Mothers particularly did not like the smell of their children, and children had a strong aversion to the smell of their fathers. Children of the same sex were not offended by each other's smell, but children of opposite sex were.

Researcher Tiffany Czilli said that she believed the dislike of each other's odors was part of nature's way of preventing incest, by making people less appealing to their closest relatives.

Other family issues could be at work too: the particular aversion that children have to the smell of dad could also be a sign of children trying to grow up and be independent.

But Dustin Penn of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City warned that asking people about their preferences could be unreliable.

"Just because people say they 'prefer' something doesn't mean they'll act in a preferential way," he said. 

Heroin Dealer Can Write Off Stolen Drug Money

Aug 22, 10:20 am ET 

SYDNEY  - An Australian court has given a convicted heroin dealer the all-clear to write off $118,800 in stolen drug money from his tax bill.

The Federal Court ruled that as jailed felon Francesco Dominico La Rosa had earned his taxable income through selling drugs, he was likewise entitled to deduct from his taxes expenses incurred as part of his criminal endeavours.

Perth resident La Rosa was jailed for 12 years in 1996 for importing and selling heroin.

As soon as he was behind bars, Australia's meticulous tax authorities pounced and presented him with a $243,000 tax bill based on what court proceedings had revealed about his estimated illicit income.

La Rosa fired back with a claim to deduct the $119,000 he said he had buried in the garden of his daughter's home and which he intended to use to buy more drugs. He said the money had been stolen by other criminals when he went to make a deal.

He had already won an earlier court case but the Australian Taxation Office appealed.

Federal Court Justice Robert Nicholson rejected the appeal on Wednesday, according to court documents.

"The findings of the tribunal are that the occasion of the loss occurred during an intended drug purchase and was directly connected with the carrying on of the taxpayer's illicit drug dealing business," Nicholson said in his ruling.

"For these reasons I do not consider that this ground of appeal as pressed can succeed." 

Transplanted Mouse Womb Bears Fruit, Scientists Say

Aug 22, 10:16 am ET 

LONDON  - Mice with transplanted wombs have successfully carried pregnancies to term and produced healthy offspring, Swedish scientists reported Wednesday.

The research raises hopes that women who have had a hysterectomy or other uterus problems could one day carry their own child in a transplanted womb, although experts cautioned there were hurdles to overcome before that became a reality.

Dr. Mats Brannstrom from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Goteborg University and colleagues transplanted mouse wombs, together with blood supply vessels, into other mice alongside their own uterus. This allowed them to compare the function of the transplanted womb with the existing one.

In the August issue of the Journal of Endocrinology, they reported that they then transferred three mouse embryos into each uterus.

"Embryos in both native and transplanted uteruses gave rise to pregnancies," Brannstrom told The News Source in a telephone interview.

The journal article reported that the pregnancy was carried to term, and in subsequent work healthy mice were born from transplanted wombs.

"We have had several mice born from a transplanted uterus," Brannstrom said. "We did a Caesarean section at term, and the interesting thing is that the pregnancy rate was as high in the transplanted uterus as in the native uterus."

"We think this is a very important step toward doing this in humans. With this model I think we have the necessary research to do the developmental work, and we hope to do this in humans within two to three years," he said.

In March, Saudi doctors reported that they had completed the world's first human womb transplant, but leading fertility experts were quick to question the ethics and success of the operation.

The Saudi pioneers transplanted a womb into a 26-year-old woman who had lost her own uterus after a complex birth. It was deemed a success by the Saudi doctors but the transplanted womb had to be removed 99 days later because of blood clotting.

Brannstrom said he thought they had undertaken the procedure prematurely.

"I think we have to know a lot more about the physiology of a transplanted uterus, how the pregnancies develop, and also the rejection of a transplanted uterus," he said. "That is why we've developed this mouse model."

Dr. Richard Kennedy, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist and secretary of the British Fertility Society, said the Swedish research was interesting but he expressed caution about how applicable it would be in humans.

"I think there are a number of major obstacles to overcome before this type of technology could even be considered in humans," he told The News Source when asked to comment on the research.

"If it happens at all, we're a decade away." 

Jealousy Trouble? Measure Your Lover's Ears

Aug 22, 10:14 am ET 

LONDON  - If you are worried about jealousy ruining your love life, here's the latest scientific advice: try measuring your partner's ears. Or feet.

Researchers have found that asymmetrical people are more likely to be jealous in love than those who are symmetrical.

Scientists have long shown that people whose faces and bodies are the same on both sides are considered more attractive and have an easier time attracting mates.

William Brown of Dalhousie University in the Canadian city of Halifax wanted to test how that effects jealous behavior, one of the strategies people use to keep their lovers from roaming, New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday.

"If jealousy is a strategy to retain your mate, then the individual more likely to be philandered on is more likely to be jealous," Brown said.

He looked at 50 men and women in heterosexual relationships of varying degrees of intensity, and compared paired features such as feet, ears and fingers to see who was symmetrical.

The volunteers then filled in a questionnaire already used in other studies to test who was jealous in love.

Brown found that lopsided people were considerably more likely to be jealous lovers, with symmetry possibly accounting for 20 percent of the difference in romantic jealousy between people.

Brown also tested whether lopsided people were jealous in other areas, such as work, but found that asymmetrical people are not more jealous in general -- just, alas, in love. 

Cathedral Sex Case to Go to Manhattan Grand Jury

Aug 22, 10:13 am ET 

By Jeanne King

NEW YORK  - A man and woman accused of having sex inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in hopes of winning a radio show contest must wait until October to learn if they have been indicted by a grand jury, a judge said on Wednesday.

Loretta Lynn Harper, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Brian Florence, of Quantico, Virginia, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court after being arrested last Thursday inside New York's famous Fifth Avenue Cathedral.

Witnesses said the couple was having sex in a vestibule, just a few feet away from worshippers observing the Feast of the Assumption.

The 35-year-old woman and 37-year-old man were trying to win a contest sponsored by the WNEW-FM afternoon talk program, "Opie and Anthony," in which the hosts challenge listeners to have sex in various public places, officials said.

As part of the contest, six couples were given a list of 54 risky locations to have sex in New York, police said. For example, a couple having sex in a church would win 25 points, while sex in Rockefeller Center was worth 30 points.

It was unclear what the winning couple would earn as a prize. In past contests, winners won trips to a beer brewery in Boston, Massachusetts.

Also arrested in the cathedral was Paul Mercurii, a radio producer who allegedly was positioned near the couple and relaying the stunt to the radio station via cell phone.

In court on Wednesday, Judge Analisa Torres ordered the couple to return on Oct. 2, when they will learn whether they have been indicted by a grand jury. They were arrested on charges of obscenity and public lewdness.

The couple's lawyer, Miranda Fritz, says they were not having sex.

The live talk show has been suspended, and the program will run repeat broadcasts indefinitely, Infinity Radio spokesman Dana McClintock said.

"They will not be doing live broadcasts," McClintock said.

The general manager and the program director for WNEW-FM also were suspended, he said. A Federal Communications Commission spokesman declined comment but said all complaints received about the matter would be reviewed.

So-called shock-jocks Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia were unavailable for comment. 

Diamonds Are Forever, and You Could Be Too

Aug 22, 10:13 am ET 

By Brad Dorfman

CHICAGO  - They say diamonds are forever. And now the dearly departed can be, too.

A Chicago company says it has developed a process for turning cremated human remains into diamonds that can be worn as jewelry.

"We're building on the simple fact that all living creatures are carbon-based and diamonds are carbon-based," said Greg Herro, head of LifeGem Memorials.

The blue diamonds are the answer to people who think a tombstone or an urn full of ashes is not personal enough. And they are portable, Herro said.

Herro, who describes himself as an entrepreneur, said he has spent the past three years refining the process, successfully making a diamond from cremated human remains in July.

A small thimbleful of carbon can be made into 0.25 carat diamond, for which LifeGem would charge $4,000. A full karat would cost $22,000.

HEAT AND PRESSURE

The ash is first purified in a vacuum induction furnace at about 5,400 degrees. It is then placed in a press under intense pressure and heat, replicating the forces that create a natural diamond. It takes about 16 weeks.

Synthetic, or man-made, diamonds have been manufactured from carbon since the mid-1950s, when General Electric Co. developed the process for making small diamonds for industrial uses.

Avrum Blumberg, a chemistry professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said it is feasible to make a quality diamond from the carbon in a cremated human.

"If it's done slowly and with a great deal of care, one could have a reasonably high-quality diamond," Blumberg said.

In a telephone interview, Herro said his diamonds are of the same quality that "you would find at Tiffany's."

He said that he has had two of the diamonds certified for quality by European Gemological Laboratory, an independent laboratory that vouches for the quality of diamonds. The diamonds were submitted anonymously by a partner who sells synthetic diamonds to avoid any bias in the appraisals.

In a news release, Herro said that EGL would certify LifeGem's diamonds, though EGL said it has no formal relationship with LifeGem.

"At this time, EGL USA does not have enough information about this new product to comment about the use of the EGL name in conjunction with it." Mark Gershburg, director of EGL USA, said in a prepared statement in response to inquiries. But he said it is impossible to distinguish LifeGem synthetic diamonds from other synthetic diamonds.

A SERVICE FOR THE FAMILY

LifeGem's Web site lists a handful of funeral homes in the United States that will offer the service to customers.

One is Fergerson Funeral Home in North Syracuse, New York. Funeral director Patricia Fergerson said nobody has asked that a loved one be turned into a diamond yet. But the funeral home sees this as another service it can offer.

Meanwhile, an Illinois man with emphysema has signed up with LifeGem.

About 26 percent of U.S. residents who died were cremated last year. But Herro has his eye on a growth market. "Japan is at 98 percent," he said. 

Mexican Cops Raid Prison to Restore Order

Aug 22, 10:11 am ET 

MEXICO CITY  - Mexican police on Tuesday stormed an overcrowded penitentiary in the city of Tijuana on the U.S.-Mexico border to restore order in the prison where inmates had set up businesses to sell drugs, alcohol and pizza.

Some 1,350 police officers raided the prison known as "El Pueblito," or little town. Inmates offered no resistance and some 2,250 were transferred to nearby facilities, leaving 4,700 inmates in the Tijuana penitentiary, authorities said.

Human rights groups have for years denounced irregularities at El Pueblito, which was built for a maximum capacity of 1,800 prisoners.

"This operation had the objective of ending the overcrowding that existed in the place and (saying) goodbye to the vices and impunity concerning the clandestine sales of drugs, alcohol and protection," police said in a statement.

"In El Pueblito all sorts of drugs were being sold and protection was sold to prisoners with lesser physical capacities (than others)," the statement said. "Big power groups had formed that nobody had dared to touch."

Police said the clampdown on the illicit business activities inside the prison was because the jail was operating like a "main town square ... the envy of any luxury mall."

Businesses sold traditional Mexican food and seafood, pizzas, while others rented films, the officials said. 

Berlin Playboy Offers Jackpot to Final Bedmate

Aug 21, 8:41 am ET 

BERLIN  - An aging Berlin playboy has come up with an unusual offer to lure women into his bed by promising the last woman he sleeps with an inheritance of about $244,000.

Rolf Eden, a 72-year-old west Berlin disco owner famous in the German capital for his countless number of sex partners, said he could imagine no better way to die than in the arms of an attractive young woman -- preferably under 30.

"I put it all in my last will and testament -- the last woman who sleeps with me gets all the money," Eden told Bild newspaper Wednesday.

"I want to pass away in the most beautiful moment of my life. First a lot of fun with a beautiful woman, then wild sex, a final orgasm -- and it will all end with a heart attack and then I'm gone."

Eden, who is selling his popular "Big Eden" nightclub later this year, said "applicants" shouldn't wait long because of his advanced age.

"It could end very soon," he said. "Maybe even tomorrow." 

Autistic Child's Mom Tries to Buy Him a Friend

Aug 21, 8:39 am ET 

LONDON  - A British mother who offered to pay other children about $7 an hour to play with her four-year-old autistic son received a gentle rebuke from the British Autistic Society Wednesday.

Part-time nurse Emma Upfold, 25, stuck an advertisement in a shop window in the central English city of Leicester seeking playmates for her son Jack, whose condition makes it difficult for him to make friends.

"It was a last resort really," Upfold told BBC radio.

"Jack has very poor eye contact and communication skills and finds it very difficult to interact with children his own age and I thought this was worth a try to help him make friends," she said.

But a spokeswoman for Britain's National Autistic Society disagreed.

"We would rather do things in as safe a way as possible and you certainly wouldn't want somebody acting in an inappropriate way with an autistic child," the spokeswoman said.

"Our group matches adult volunteers with children, which can help autistic children learn to improve their communication skills," she said.

Autism, a condition marked by sometimes severely limited physical and emotional responses to other persons, affects about 500,000 people in the United Kingdom. 

Passenger Strips Naked, Tries to Storm Cockpit

Aug 21, 8:37 am ET 

BRUSSELS  - An Air France flight made an emergency landing in Belgium after a naked passenger tried to force his way into the cockpit, the Brussels prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

The captain of the Paris-Oslo flight appealed to Belgian air traffic controllers for help after the 31-year-old man stripped off his clothes and headed for the flight deck.

The man, a French national of Tunisian origin, was removed from the plane and questioned after the aircraft landed, but was released without charge late Monday evening, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said. 

Judge: County Can't Afford Death Penalty Trial

Aug 21, 8:34 am ET 

COLUMBUS, Ohio  - Prosecutors have appealed a ruling by an Ohio judge that an accused murderer should not face the death penalty because such a trial would be too expensive, officials said Monday.

Vinton County Judge Jeffrey Simmons decided earlier this month that accused double murderer Gregory McKnight should not face the death penalty because the county could not afford to provide him with an adequate defense at taxpayers' expense.

Joe Case, spokesman for Attorney General Betty Montgomery, said Montgomery's office had asked the judge to reconsider his ruling and had filed a motion with a state appeals court to overturn it.

"The bottom line is the judge is saying we can put a price tag on justice, which undermines justice," Case said.

He said the judge's ruling also removed the possibility of a sentence of life in prison without parole for McKnight, 25, meaning he could one day obtain his freedom even if he is convicted of killing Kenyon College student Emily Murray and Gregory Julious, both 20, Case said.

Prosecutors said Simmons overstepped his authority and may not be aware of state resources available to pay trial costs, which could exceed $75,000 in view of the likelihood of defense appeals in case of a conviction.

The largely rural county lies in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and is the least-populated in the state.

Death penalty opponent Rob Warden, of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, said the McKnight case "shows how arbitrary and capricious the imposition of the death penalty can be."

"You commit a crime in a poor county and it's not punishable by death. But if you happen to commit it in a county with resources, it is," Warden said.

A hearing in front of Simmons was set for Wednesday. 

Thailand to Ban Elephants from Streets

Aug 21, 8:34 am ET 

BANGKOK  - Thailand is to ban elephants from city streets in an effort to prevent maltreatment by their owners, who make a living selling food for passers-by to feed the animals.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Prapat Panyachatirak told reporters the new law would also allow authorities to adopt abused elephants.

Elephants suffer badly in Thai city streets, particularly in traffic accidents in Bangkok. Road vehicles hit about 20 a month.

"Raising an elephant must be done in a way that does not humiliate the pride and dignity of the national animal," Prapat told reporters.

Prapat said the Thai elephant population was dwindling at a rate of 150 a year, mostly because of maltreatment by their owners.

Southeast Asia is home to around 60,000 elephants, 5,000 of which are in Thailand. 

Camels Get Hump, Desert Circus for Austrian Alps

Aug 21, 8:30 am ET 

VIENNA  - A man driving through Austria's picturesque lakes district in the early hours of Wednesday must have thought he was dreaming when he ran into three camels sauntering along the road.

The camels broke free from a small traveling circus at Lake Atter in the northern province of Upper Austria at around 7 p.m. EDT, police said.

"They were just strolling along the road -- maybe they wanted to take a look at the lake," a police spokesman told The News Source.

The animals were rounded up and sent back to the circus. 

Ex-Cons Protect Cars in Crime Capital Johannesburg

Aug 21, 8:28 am ET 

JOHANNESBURG  - Crime-ridden Johannesburg is offering South African ex-convicts an honest job -- as car park security guards.

Visitors to the city during next week's U.N. Earth Summit may well find their cars watched over by attendants from the National Institute of Crime prevention and Reintegration of Offenders.

"Most of the guys are ex-offenders," said Sibusiso Msomi, supervising the NICRO parking operation at the summit's Ubuntu Village. "They really love it," he said. "It gives them a step back into society."

The NICRO attendants are not paid for their work directly, but gets tips from drivers for finding parking spaces and guarding their empty cars -- a common practice in Johannesburg.

Car crime is a serious problem in the city, which is home to most of the people living in Gauteng, the country's wealthiest province. During 2000, Gauteng suffered about 120,000 car-related crimes -- including nearly 12,000 car and truck hijackings, police statistics show.

Social worker Gloria Mojela said she hoped the scheme would spread to other cities and other services, such as car washing.

She said the summit, which organizers say could draw as many as 45,000 people to the city, had given an opportunity to showcase the project.

But car-guard Jerome Dahile said the scheme was only a stepping-stone toward other things and did not bring in enough money to live on. "It is good but not as good as having a real job," he said. 

Toilet Paper Maker Finds Way to Support Art

Aug 21, 8:28 am ET 

ROSWELL, Ga.  - Who says support for the arts is going down the toilet?

Toilet paper maker Kimberly-Clark Professional said on Tuesday it has sent a year's supply of its Kleenex Cottonelle tissue to a California gallery that staged an exhibit of hand-painted toilets.

"We like to support projects that celebrate toilets and toilet paper," said Jan Gottesman, tissue category manager for Roswell, Georgia-based Kimberly-Clark Professional, a division of Kimberly-Clark Corp.

The How Original gallery in Laguna Beach launched the "In the Toilet" exhibit in June, and it is currently on display at the Southern California Home and Garden Show in Anaheim.

"After spending all this time exhibiting these beautiful toilets we thought the gallery would appreciate a care package of high-quality toilet paper," Gottesman said.

Gallery owner Loretta Alvarado had no immediate comment on the year's supply of toilet paper, but was flush with pride about her colorful commode collection.

"This exhibit was conceived as I was staring at my toilet, which had been placed on my front porch after leaking all over the floor," she said.

"As I stared at it, I thought: Why are they not more beautiful? They are made of porcelain and could be painted just like a beautiful ceramic vase."

Through a jury process, five area artists were selected to paint brand new toilets.

But this was not a case of art for art's sake, said Alvarado. The completed pieces are still "usable for the originally intended purpose." 

Canadian Whale Family Reunion Seen as a Success

Aug 21, 8:27 am ET 

By Allan Dowd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A groundbreaking bid to reunite a young killer whale with her family pod in Canada, after she was orphaned near Seattle, appears to have been a success, an official said on Tuesday.

The orca, known officially as A-73 but nicknamed Springer, has gained the stamina needed to remained with her relatives, which allowed her to break a potentially dangerous habit of befriending boats when other whales were not around.

The effort marked the first time scientists have attempted to reunite a lost killer whale in the wild with its family and has taught biologists important lessons, said John Nightingale, director of the Vancouver Aquarium.

Officials may soon have to decide if they will use that knowledge to help a second whale, who has been swimming alone in an inlet on western Vancouver Island after becoming separated from his U.S.-based family pod.

Springer, a 2-year-old, 545 kg (1,200 pound) whale was sick when she was found in January in a busy shipping channel near Seattle, apparently after her mother died. Officials eventually agreed to capture her so she could be nursed back to health.

In July, a team of Canadian and U.S. scientists transported the whale by boat to Johnstone Strait off northern Vancouver Island on British Columbia's Pacific coast, where members of her family pod normally spend the summer months feeding on salmon.

Biologists were initially worried about the success of the reunion because A-73, equivalent in age to a human toddler, appeared physically unable to keep pace with the other whales. When left alone she would attempt to make social contact with boats just as she had near Seattle.

Experts who monitor whales in the Johnstone Strait area say A-73 has since been spotted repeatedly swimming and feeding with members of her pod, just as she naturally would in the wild. Pods normally remain together for life.

Nightingale said the effort has taught biologists lessons on how to reunite whales and what happens to orcas that become separated from their family units -- including that they develop an "extreme fascination" with boats.

The whale swimming off western Vancouver Island, L-98, has also begun to demonstrate that interest in humans, forcing Canadian fisheries officials to step up efforts to keep boats out of the inlet where it has lived alone since last fall.

Officials had hoped that L-98 would hear the sounds of its family pod and rejoin them as they swam through the area toward their summer feeding grounds off Washington state's Puget Sound, but that has so far not happened.

The bid to reunite Springer with her family garnered international media attention, and Nightingale said that political pressure may build on fisheries officials to mount a similar reunification effort for L-98. 

Cash-For-Oxygen Catching on in Polluted Calcutta

Aug 20, 9:23 am ET 

CALCUTTA, India  - Lean back in a plush leather chair, pay cold cash and breathe pure oxygen.

That's a deal increasing numbers of people are lapping up in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta as they struggle to cope with the metropolis's foul air.

Cashing in on rising concerns about air pollution, two brothers have started Calcutta's first oxygen parlor, where customers can sink back in soft leather chairs, inhale oxygen flavored with various scents and be lulled by soothing music.

"The response has been great. We get bureaucrats, policemen, college students, housewives, corporate bigwigs -- all looking for a way to fight pollution and stress," Rajeev Madhogaria, who owns "Oxyzone" along with his brother, Sanjeev.

A U.N.-sponsored study released earlier this month said a cloud of smog covering southern Asia is putting the health of millions at risk.

Calcutta is one of India's most polluted cities. Many of the city's 15 million inhabitants complain of fatigue and headaches due to emissions from the thousands of taxis and buses.

The brothers said they were surprised by the response with hundreds willing to shell out $3.60 for 20 minutes of pumping oxygen into their lungs.

Besides single sittings, Oxyzone also offers memberships, although its rates are likely to be out of reach for many people in a country where the average annual per capita income is $450.

But Purbasha Majumdar, a 20-year-old college student, is an oxygen-seeker who evidently believes it's worth the money.

"The smoke from diesel vehicles gives me a headache and makes me tired," Majumdar said, waiting for her turn to breathe oxygen scented with an array of aromas such as sandalwood, lemon, orange and lavender.

"This is good way to fight pollution, relax and feel refreshed." 

Judo Students Pummel Would-Be Carjacker

Aug 20, 9:22 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - If there was a "Bad Career Move" award for car thieves, police in Los Angeles say they have a candidate -- a man who tried to steal a minivan with a judo team inside.

The co-ed team from Florida International University of Miami was in town to teach a self-defense course and were taking a tour of Hollywood before heading to the airport on Sunday afternoon when they crossed paths with the carjacker at a gas station about six blocks from where he had carjacked a Nissan minutes earlier.

In that incident, police said, the carjacker punched the Nissan's driver and pulled him out of the car then drove away with the female passenger.

The carjacker pushed the woman out of the car after trying to steal her purse, police said.

The suspect apparently was trying to ditch the first vehicle and steal another when he approached one of the students, police said. He demanded money and got into a scuffle with judo student Nester Bustillo.

"We get into a little bit of a struggle and he eventually winds up jumping into, trying to take our car," Bustillo told a local TV station.

The other students piled on and subdued the suspect in a body hold until police arrived.

"They hit him a couple of times and brought him to ground," said LAPD Officer Jack Richter. "Our department does not condone or recommend that people do that in a carjacking because you never know if the carjacker is armed."

Police identified the suspect as Tyrone Jermaine Hogan, 20, who was being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

Would-Be Hermits Keen to Live in Dank Cave

Aug 20, 9:22 am ET 

LONDON  - Sitting on your own in a cold, damp British cave miles from anywhere may seem like the job from hell, but more than 100 candidates -- some from as far afield as Poland and Pakistan -- have applied for just such a post.

Stately home Shugborough in Staffordshire, central England, is sifting through applications for the job of "hermit in residence" and will appoint the successful candidate next month.

"A whole range of people have expressed an interest, from office workers to a Tibetan monk," organizer Corinne Caddy told The News Source Monday. She said most of the applicants were from Britain, with a few from as far afield as Pakistan and Poland.

"Our hermit will have to live as near as possible the life of an 18th century hermit," Caddy said.

In the 18th century, members of the landed gentry considered it the height of fashion to have a hermit living on their country estates. Usually given a five-year contract, hermits were often very well paid.

The Shugborough hermit, however, will receive only a "small stipend" but he won't have to be deprived of modern amenities for too long -- the post is a temporary one. "We are doing it for Heritage week beginning September 21, so our hermit, whoever it is, will only have to give up amenities for a few days," Caddy said.

Japan Hot-Spring Passion Hit by Disease Outbreak

Aug 20, 9:20 am ET 

By Stuart Grudgings

TOKYO  - Japanese are being forced to think twice about their favorite leisure activity after contaminated water at a hot spring caused an outbreak of deadly Legionnaire's disease that has killed six people and infected up to 272 others.

All of those infected with the disease, including 22 who are in hospital, had been bathing at a spa in southern Miyazaki prefecture, engaging in a pastime enjoyed by millions of Japanese every year in the belief that it will relieve stress and benefit health.

"The exact cause is still under investigation by the prefecture. Because six people have died, the police are carrying out their own investigation," said Toshiro Atae, a spokesman for the prefecture's health department.

The outbreak has apparently claimed another victim -- a 49-year-old local public health worker who committed suicide by taking cyanide last week after days of dealing with the outbreak.

By that time, checks on the water at the newly opened Sun Park hot springs in Hyuga town had discovered Legionnaire's bacteria present in levels up to 150,000 times greater than those set by the Health Ministry.

The disease, which recently claimed four lives in Britain, is a form of pneumonia caused by bacteria living in water droplets.

Disease is the last thing that most Japanese would expect to find in their beloved hot spring, or "onsen."

Sitting naked in warm, mineral-rich waters in the middle of scenic countryside is a national institution, not to mention the cornerstone of Japan's tourist industry. Before climbing in, bathers have to thoroughly scrub and rinse themselves to ensure the onsen water stays clean.

About 137 million people stay at onsens each year, according to the Japan Hot Spring Federation, not including the millions more who just pop in for a quick dip.

In the few weeks since the Sun Park onsen had opened, Atae said about 20,000 customers had bathed in its waters and were now extremely worried about their health.

"We're fielding a lot of calls from worried people who used the onsen, most of them from the local area," he said.

"Other onsen in the area are being checked to see if they are following hygiene procedures, but there are a lot of them so it will be some time before we get the results."

Worryingly for Japan's tourist industry, a recent study suggested that the Miyazaki hot spring may not be an isolated case of poor hygiene.

DANGER IN THE DEEP

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) said that danger may be lurking in thousands of hot springs where Health Ministry cleaning standards are not being properly followed.

Its researchers found 64 percent of the 237 hot springs they tested contained amoebae, which can serve as hosts for dangerous bacteria, including the variety that carries Legionnaire's disease.

"The Japanese are crazy about onsens, that's the big problem," said Takuro Endo, the head of the NIID laboratory. "They don't pay any attention to the water from a hygiene point of view. They just want to go to bigger onsens."

Endo said growing hygiene problems in what is supposed to be a symbol of purity are partly a hangover from Japan's bubble economy that burst in the early 1990s.

Like many other businesses, onsen owners splashed out on bigger facilities during the boom times, but maintaining proper hygiene -- through regular water changes, for example -- has become more of a burden in the subsequent decade-long slump. Endo stressed that the chance of anyone falling ill from an onsen remains slim, but he is advising people to inquire more closely about hygiene practices before they take the plunge. "The user should be wise. They must ask what kind of facilities they have before they visit. The consumer has the right to ask. That's the only way to prevent infection."

Seal Dies Exhausted After 180-Mile Flood Ride

Aug 20, 9:19 am ET 

PRAGUE  - A seal that rode surging flood waters in an escape bid from the Prague Zoo -- and captured a nation's attention during a desperate period -- died on Tuesday after being captured in Germany, zoo officials said.

Gaston, a 12-year-old male seal, grabbed the headlines after making a bid for freedom by swimming more than 188 miles)north into Germany when the worst flood ever recorded in Prague swelled the waters of his aquarium beyond its walls.

He was finally lured by rescuers and caught in Wittenberg, some 50 miles southwest of Berlin on Monday afternoon, but was apparently exhausted and possibly ill, the zoo said.

Gaston died at around 6 a.m. while being taken back to Prague, said zoo spokesman Vit Kahle. The exact cause of the death was not yet known. "We are very, very sad," Kahle said. "He could have become the hero of the floods."

Gaston and several other Prague seals made a break for the wild when their tank overflowed. Their quest became a cause celebre at home as Czechs, desperate to find something to smile about as floods ravaged their country, urged the truants on "to snack on fresh fish in the North Sea."

One of the other seals returned home on its own, while a second was captured about 15 miles north of Prague.

But Gaston proved trickier to corral as his keepers tried in vain to lure him into their waiting clutches.

Video footage on Czech TV showed officials enticing the seal with fish, but each time he made off with a snack before they could snare him.

The Prague Zoo has been hit hard by the flooding, suffering many other casualties, including dozens of birds, an elephant, four hippos, a lion, a bear and a gorilla.

Austin Powers Works His Mojo for Thai Gas Shop

Aug 20, 9:17 am ET 

BANGKOK  - A Thai cooking gas shop that saw its sales climb after its staff wore Spiderman costumes has switched to Austin Powers outfits hoping the mojo will continue.

Sales trebled in two weeks to 60 tanks a day at the Bangkok shop after owner Saowanee Suthiviriyakul, 31, gave her six staff head-to-toe Spiderman suits and sunglasses instead of overalls.

Visitors flocked to the shop to see the superheroes until a local agent of the Marvel comics cartoon character told the shop last week to stop using the costumes for copyright reasons.

Now Saowanee's staff are dressed as the 1960s spy Austin Powers, this time with the permission of WPM Film International, the distributor of the film, "Austin Powers in Goldmember," which opens in Bangkok on Friday.

Poisonous Snake on Run in Munich After Biting Woman

Aug 20, 9:16 am ET 

BERLIN  - A Munich woman was in a coma on Tuesday after being bitten by a poisonous snake that police said was still at large in the Bavarian capital.

Police in the south German city, where deadly snakes are extremely rare, said the 36-year-old woman appeared to have been bitten by a viper in her apartment.

"We haven't found the snake. We turned the apartment upside down but there was no sign of it," said a police spokesman.

"She noticed a bite at 3 a.m., then went into hospital at 6 a.m. but since then she's been in a coma and we can't ask her any more details. It looks more like a viper bite than a cobra bite, but we're still investigating," he said.

Police said the woman was minding another snake for her brother in her flat but that snake was not poisonous.

Thailand Bans Giant Cockroaches Due to Health Fears

Aug 20, 9:15 am ET 

BANGKOK  - Thailand on Tuesday banned the sale and ownership of a breed of giant cockroaches from Madagascar, saying the popular pets could spread diseases.

Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphun said health officials had begun raids on shops and farms that distribute the insect, the Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroach, which grows to 4 inches, three times longer than the native variety.

"We are very worried that if these cockroaches are released into public places, they will expand in numbers at a very fast speed, which could introduce many unknown diseases to the country," Sudarat said.

"Pet owners who want to discard them should call the Public Health Ministry or the department of livestock," she said.

Until recently, the insects have been sold by pet shops and at stalls in Bangkok's Chatuchak open air market for $1.20 each.

World War II Hero Breaks Wing-Walking Record

Aug 20, 9:14 am ET 

LONDON  - A one-legged 88-year old British war hero became the world's oldest "wing walker" Tuesday after he spent over an hour in mid-air strapped to the top wing of a biplane.

Les "Dizzy" Seales broke the record held by an 87-year-old South African woman.

"It's very enjoyable," the new record holder told Sky News.

But the daredevil octogenarian said he would have a bruised back after a bumpy landing on the grass airstrip in southern England.

Seales, who acquired his "Dizzy" nickname after a World War II exploit when he crawled from his air gunners' turret to rescue his plane's pilot, said he would make his next wing walking attempt in two years' time.

One of Seales' friends, watching his high-flying feat, said his pal was "an absolute inspiration."

Couple Arrested for Sex in Cathedral

Aug 19, 8:04 am ET 

NEW YORK  - A Virginia couple was arraigned on Friday after they were arrested for allegedly having sex in a vestibule of St. Patrick's Cathedral while parishioners worshiped nearby.

Loretta Lynn Harper, 35, of Alexandria, and her boyfriend, Brian Florence, 37, of Quantico, were charged with obscenity in the third degree and public lewdness.

Another man, Paul Mercurio, 42, of New York, who allegedly engaged in a live radio commentary on the sex act, also was arraigned on a charge of acting in concert with the couple.

The three were arrested on Thursday.

The couple had entered a radio contest of the WNEW afternoon talk program, "Opie and Anthony," a police spokesman said. As part of the live show, six couples were given a list of 54 different high-risk locations at which to have sex in the city, including St. Patrick's on Fifth Avenue, and nearby Rockefeller Center.

An usher observed the couple and also saw Mercurio on his cell phone allegedly relaying the stunt back to the radio station, where he worked as a field producer, the police spokesman said.

Joe Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, called the incident, "Disgusting."

They Needed a Study for This?

Aug 19, 8:02 am ET 

LONDON  - Want to be more attractive? Make sure those around you are having a drink.

British scientists have found even modest amounts of alcohol will make the opposite sex appear better-looking.

"We have carried out experiments which show that what is known in the trade as the 'beer-goggle effect' does actually exist," Barry Jones, professor of psychology at Glasgow University, told The News Source Monday.

The study of 120 male and female students found drinking up to four units of alcohol -- about two pints of beer or four glasses of wine -- increased the perceived attractiveness of members of the opposite sex by about 25 percent.

Jones said alcohol apparently stimulates a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which judges facial attractiveness.

"There is a strong link between facial attractiveness and signals about the quality of a potential mate," Jones said.

The professor said the study had been prompted by the causal link between risky sex and alcohol consumption.

Its findings come at a time when young Britons are increasingly binge drinking, which has serious health risks.

'Dead' Man Caught Stealing; Police Baffled

Aug 19, 7:56 am ET 

ROME  - Pasquale Antonino Iacopino committed suicide on July 21 and was buried by his grieving family on the island of Sicily. On Aug. 13, Iacopino was caught robbing tourists, was tried and then vanished.

Confused? Well, so are the Italian police.

The saga began in April when Iacopino's mother reported that her 48-year-old son was missing.

The weeks passed and nothing was heard of him until last month when a man jumped into the path of a train and died. There were no identification papers on the body, but Signora Iacopino heard of the incident and feared it might be her son.

A trip to the morgue confirmed her fears. Both she and her husband identified the body and brought their son home to the Sicilian city of Messina for burial.

A few days later police caught a man on the nearby island of Vulcano as he was stealing from bathers' rucksacks on the beach. The offender was carrying identification papers which showed clearly that he was Pasquale Antonino Iacopino from Messina.

He went before the magistrates who found him guilty but did not jail him. By the time police realized they had arrested a "dead man," Iacopino had vanished into thin air.

In a bid to resolve the mystery, Ansa news agency reported that Italian authorities Sunday disinterred the man's coffin and were preparing to carry out DNA tests on the body.

The southern Italian newspaper Gazzetta del Sud quoted friends of Iacopino as saying they were convinced they had sighted him after his funeral. But the paper said the parents remained convinced that their son was dead and buried.

Dentist Gives Eagle New Beak, Waives Bill

Aug 19, 7:55 am ET 

CALGARY, Alberta  - A bald eagle that was left for dead after its beak was shot off is alive and tearing its prey to shreds again thanks to a Canadian dentist who fashioned an artificial bill out of acrylic denture material.

Now Dr. Brian Andrews is working to improve on the prototype, which is pinned to the tiny bit of beak left after the gun shot, so the 4-1/2-year-old bird of prey can one day return to the wild.

"Because this is new ground for us, and I'm new at this, we expect to make three or four or five or a even dozen until we get it right," Andrews said on Friday from his dental practice in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

"As a matter of fact, tomorrow I'm going up to fit the Mark II model, and we hope to make it even more successful."

He based the design, complete with breathing holes, on a picture of an eagle on a recent cover of National Geographic magazine as well as a dried beak specimen.

The director of the Vancouver Island wildlife preserve where the eagle is being cared for has named it Brian in the 62-year-old dentist's honor.

Two people found the injured bird on the roadside two months ago near the town of Tofino on the western coast of the island. Wildlife officials determined it had been shot out of a low tree limb that day with a high-powered rifle. It is not known why the eagle was targeted.

"It's not an unusual occurrence out here. We've got quite a number of eagles, and we have birds with legs gone and wings gone," Andrews said. "While we've been treating Brian there's been three others brought in with gunshot injuries."

The director of the preserve nursed the 18-pound (8- kilogram) bird back to health, but the soft, remaining nub of its bill prevented it from eating anything but small morsels.

Andrews formed a plaster impression of the remaining beak and took it to a dental technician, who made a replica out of orthodontic acrylic, the same material used to make some false teeth and mouth guards for hockey players, he said.

He stained the device yellow, to make it look realistic. The bird took to it immediately.

"He's tearing at his prey. When we first put it on, he gave us this nice, great big yawn and squawk, and we were quite thrilled that it stayed together," Andrews said.

The eagle can eat an entire fish, although concerns remain about food becoming lodged between the artificial beak and the skull, prompting the need for improved models.

Andrews is doing all the work free of charge.

"I'm fond of wildlife. I'm a carver and I make duck decoys as a hobby. I figured: I can carve a wooden beak, maybe I can make a plastic one for this guy," he said.

Court Acquits Fetish Shop Trio

Aug 19, 7:47 am ET 

HONG KONG  - A Hong Kong court acquitted the owner of a popular fetish shop Monday of charges of hosting wild sex parties, one of the most lurid cases in the memory of this conservative Chinese territory.

Brenda Scofield, owner of the shop "Fetish Fashion," beamed when the court dismissed all charges against her and told reporters later: "I just feel thankful that the ordeal is over and grateful that common sense has prevailed."

Local tabloids had splashed eye-popping testimony across their front pages during the trial earlier this year, complete with graphic details and even computer-generated images of alleged sadomasochistic acts, shocking many readers.

Although Hong Kong has a thriving sex trade and some newspapers even offer brothel reviews, the Chinese territory is still largely conservative and sex is seldom discussed openly.

The case has sparked a rare debate over modern morality and whether the public interest can be harmed by what goes on between consenting adults behind closed doors.

Magistrate Allan Wyeth acquitted Scofield, 55, and her shop manager Loretta Mui. Each had faced seven charges -- one of "keeping a disorderly house" and six of "managing an objectionable performance."

Scofield's American husband Laurence Richard Scofield, 48, was also acquitted of aiding and abetting the pair.

"I'm satisfied from all the evidence that all the activities are consensual role-playing between adults who were BDSM (bondage, discipline, sado-masochism) adherents to whom no harm came," Wyeth told the court. His reading of the verdict lasted over an hour.

The sex parties at Scofield's shop in the trendy Soho night district came to light after coverage by a local magazine in early 2001 sparked an undercover police investigation.

Two undercover policemen testified that they posed as observers at a party in March last year.

They said they saw a man in a G-string licking the boots of a woman, licking her toes and barking like a dog when she told him to. The court also heard how a blonde woman dripped wax for 45 minutes over a Japanese man who was bound and gagged.

In his verdict, Wyeth said almost all the activities described were "in keeping with movies screened in Hong Kong, albeit sometimes with age restrictions."

Lost Hippo Found as Floods Recede

Aug 19, 7:45 am ET 

PRAGUE  - A hippopotamus lost for days during record flooding in Prague has turned up unharmed but bad-tempered after his ordeal, city zoo officials said on Sunday.

Slavek, an 18-year-old male hippo, was carried up out of his enclosure by the flood waters and staff eventually found him on the second floor of a pavilion used to house elephants, a zoo spokeswoman said.

While elated at the discovery, staff said they had to be careful when approaching the animal.

"Understandably, he's quite hungry, and therefore quite angry. He was in attack mode," said zoo head Petr Fejk. Zoo officials have been sharply criticized for their handling of the floods, which killed dozens of animals, and many asked how creatures weighing more than a ton could disappear.

The zoo lies on the banks of the River Vltava in the north end of Prague. Wednesday, river levels reached some of their highest in Prague's 800-year history.

With water levels receding, zookeepers put out a trail of food to lure the hippo back down to ground level.

"He's eating, so I think he will be just fine," Fejk said.

Man Buys Suitcase, Finds It Full of Cocaine

Aug 19, 7:44 am ET 

CALGARY, Alberta  - A Canadian man paid less than a dollar for a used suitcase at an auction house only to find when he got home that it was crammed with nearly 11 pounds of cocaine with a street value of C$280,000 ($180,000), police said on Friday.

Now, investigators in Calgary -- calling the seizure of the crack and powder-form cocaine one of the western city's biggest ever -- are trying to find out where the baggage came from, and who is missing the drugs.

"It would be nice if they phoned and said, 'Hey that's really mine.' But that's not likely to happen," Staff Sgt. Roger Chaffin of the Calgary Police drug unit said.

"I imagine the people who the money's owed to really don't care about why he abandoned it -- it's abandoned and there's a price to pay for that.

"In the organized crime world that would be a significant debt."

The Calgary resident bought the carry-on size luggage along with several other items at a local auction house on Thursday, Chaffin said.

He contacted police after he opened the bag to find a hard substance separated into 158 small bags, later determined to be crack for street sale. Another 2.2 pound block of powdered coke was also inside.

Police were not identifying the man who bought the suitcase, or the auction house, while they tried to track the bag back to its original owner.

"Obviously they felt enough peril of one sort or another that the risk of losing it was better than the consequences they were facing at the time," Chaffin said.

Bad Dog Prompts Airline to Ban Pit Bulls

Aug 19, 7:42 am ET 

By Jon Herskovitz

FORT WORTH, Texas  - A rambunctious pit bull terrier with a taste for electrical wiring has prompted the world's largest airline to stop flying that dog breed and others it also considers too aggressive.

Spokeswoman Tara Baten said on Friday that American Airlines implemented the ban last month after a pit bull escaped from a cage in a cargo hold on a flight and chewed through wiring on a Boeing 757 jetliner.

"It turns out the dog did quite a bit of damage. As a result, we are restricting certain breeds of dogs from being carried as cargo," Baten said.

American banned Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Bull Terriers and American Pit Bull Terriers from its flights, she said. The prohibition went into effect on July 27, she said.

American is a division of Texas-based AMR Corp. .

Baten said the case of pit bull air rage that helped the airline decide on the ban occurred on a flight on July 22 in which the dog escaped from its cage and gnawed through cables as thick as garden hoses that were used for systems such as ground-to-air communication, as well as chomping through other parts of the plane's interior.

The pilot heard scratching from the cargo hold during the flight, and when the jet touched down, the ground crew found a pit bull on the loose in the belly of the plane, Baten said. The dog did not cause damage to any critical systems, she said.

The ban did not sit well with the American Kennel Club, which sent a letter to American Chief Executive Officer Donald Carty asking the carrier to lift the prohibition.

"Regulations should not be based on breed identity. A dog's behavior, and not its breed, should determine whether it is accepted for air shipment," the American Kennel Club said.

Among the other Texas-based carriers, Southwest Airlines does not transport animals and Continental Airlines bans American Pit Bull Terriers.

Suspected Thief Drowns, Weighed Down by Loot

Aug 18, 7:32 am ET 

TULSA, Oklahoma  - A suspected thief, weighed down with more than 50 pounds of stolen cameras and CDs, among other items, drowned as he attempted to evade police by swimming across the Arkansas River, officials said.

The man, identified as Edward McBride, 37, was carrying a duffel bag weighing 50 pounds that contained stolen items and was found Friday with stolen goods also stuffed in his pockets, said Tulsa police spokesman Lucky Lamons.

He was being pursued by Tulsa police who suspected him of robbing a Tulsa home when he jumped into the muddy Arkansas River.

"He got about 40 yards out and yelled for help," Lamons said. "The officers took off their shirts, shoes and belts off and jumped into the river. By the time they reached him, he had gone under."

Lamons said rescue workers retrieved McBride's body about an hour later from about 8 feet to 10 feet of water along with the duffel bag containing stolen goods.

Kabul Bomb Blast an Afghan Police Exercise - Media

Aug 17, 9:39 am ET 

KABUL  - A small explosion outside the Afghan Ministry of Communication this week was a training exercise for Kabul police, a local news agency reported on Saturday.

General Basir Salangi, chief of Kabul's police force, said he organized the late night blast to teach security forces not to rush headlong to the scene of every minor explosion, the private Hindokosh News Agency reported.

"The enemy usually wants to organize a small explosion to use the haste and confusion of security personnel and then organize a bigger explosion once they have gathered at the site," Salangi was quoted as saying.

"Therefore, to prevent such an occurrence and to speed up co-ordination between police forces, this event happened."

The damage from the blast was limited to a few smashed windows at the ministry.

Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak arrived at the scene of the blast, which a senior intelligence official had blamed on a "wider plan" by the former Taliban regime and the al Qaeda network to destabilize the government.

The agency said Wardak had complained to the police chief about his failure to warn authorities about the exercise.

Motorway Masseuses Soothe Driver Nerves in France

Aug 17, 8:50 am ET 

PARIS  - Roadside masseuses offered free sessions to drivers on a busy motorway route to the south of France on Saturday to ease frayed nerves at the height of the holiday season.

Motorway operating company Escota said the massages were being laid on this weekend along with sporting and other recreational activities at a rest stop on the A51 motorway just north of Aix-on-Provence.

"It means people tend to stop that bit longer than they intended to and go off more relaxed," Escota spokeswoman Isabelle Escapin said of the 15-minute hand and neck massages.

"People like it. They want more, but we've got a lot of people to get through so time is limited," Thi Au, one of two masseuses hired for the event, said by telephone between sessions.

France's southern motorway routes are saturated every summer with tourists from across Europe heading for the sun-soaked French Riviera, often causing huge traffic jams and an increase in fatal accidents. 

Elvis Bust 'Weeps' in Dutch Town

Aug 16, 2:30 pm ET 

DEURNE, Netherlands  - A plaster bust of Elvis Presley wept "miracle" tears Friday on the 25th anniversary of his death, its Dutch owner said.

The 50-year-old professional Elvis impersonator in the small town of Deurne in the southern Netherlands also said the ghost of the "King of Rock n' Roll" appeared in his house last week.

Wearing a tasseled black leather jacket, a wig and sunglasses, Toon Nieuwenhuisen said the bust, which he keeps in a spare room he has converted into a shrine to Elvis, started weeping just shortly after breakfast Friday.

The room is plastered in photographs of Elvis and has candles flickering beside the white statue, which has a rhinestone collar. Beside it are a pair of white slip-on leather shoes that Nieuwenhuisen said were once worn by his idol.

"Everybody is thinking about Elvis today. He's been dead for 25 years. This is my special room," he said, pointing out a trickle of moisture running from the eye-socket of the bust he has owned for 15 years.

"The tears you can see started at 10 o'clock. When you taste it, it's salty. It's a miracle," he said.

Nieuwenhuisen, a spiritual medium who says he speaks regularly to Elvis, said he believes the statue was weeping tears of gratitude for the adoring fans around the world.

The bust started shedding tears five years ago and has cried several times since then. Hundreds of curious visitors have come to see the shrine, Nieuwenhuisen said.

Termites Chew Up Voter Register

Aug 16, 12:05 pm ET 

LAGOS  - Termites have chewed up much of Nigeria's voter register, biting into efforts to organize the next election, the chief electoral officer said Friday.

"We have no data base for the electoral process," electoral commission chairman Abel Guobadia told AIT television.

In previous polls the voter list was written down on paper and photocopies made for elections, he said.

"Today there are some polling stations that if an election is to be conducted, there will be no voter register because many of the loose papers have either been eaten by termites or destroyed by various violence across the country," he said.

Nigerian authorities this month postponed indefinitely local elections, the first polls since 1999 when 15 years of military rule ended.

The move raised doubts about presidential and national elections due next year in the West African country, ruled mostly by the military since independence from Britain in 1960.

Guobadia said his Independent National Electoral Commission, which has complained of being cash starved, was now planning to compile a computerized voter register.

Big Mouth Lands Texas Talk Radio Caller in Jail

Aug 16, 12:02 pm ET 

SAN ANTONIO  - A man who allegedly bilked an insurance company for a fraudulent settlement was arrested on Thursday after he bragged about the crime on talk radio, the FBI said.

Humberto Perez, 31, was taken into custody on a charge of mail fraud for falsely claiming that his truck was stolen and getting a new truck and cash from his insurer.

FBI agent Steve McCraw told reporters the case came to the agency's attention after someone who identified himself as "John" described the crime on a San Antonio Spanish-language radio show entitled "What is Your Biggest Lie?"

"John" said he had a friend steal the truck and even gave the time and place of the incident.

McCraw said a quick check of stolen vehicle reports led agents to Perez, who faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Souls Stuck in Purgatory Send Signals to Rome

Aug 16, 12:02 pm ET 

By Claire Soares

ROME  - If you end up in purgatory after you die, never fear. Just remember to send a message to those surviving you, care of a riverside church in Rome.

The Church of the Sacred Heart houses one of the world's most unusual and smallest museums -- a collection of signs sent from beyond the grave by souls stranded in purgatory.

Scorched fingerprints on prayer books, handprints burned on to wooden tables, and singed pillowcases and shirt sleeves seem to be the purgatory equivalent of paper and pen.

"Most of our visitors are motivated by curiosity. But faith is the key to understanding the relics," Roberto Zambolin, the church's priest-cum-tour-guide, told The News Source on Friday.

Catholics believe spirits, stuck between heaven and hell until they have atoned for their sins, can hasten their entry to paradise if family and friends on earth pray for them.

And some purgatory residents obviously felt their loved ones needed a gentle reminder.

Branding an imprint of his left hand on to a light-brown wooden table was one 18th-century friar's way of reminding colleagues to say more masses and speed his soul to heaven, Zambolin says. On a single day in 1731, the deceased Friar Panzini not only marked the table, but burned a handprint on to paper and twice clutched at the sleeves of a nun's tunic, leaving scorch marks. Panzini's spiritual smoke signals are a taster of what's on display in a bare room, dubbed the Little Purgatory Museum, off to the side of the church. While most tourists to Rome flock to the Coliseum or the Vatican, some stray off the beaten track to the quiet and unassuming museum to ponder the mysterious relics, gathered from all over Western Europe.

"I'd say we get about 4,000 visitors a year -- young, old, Italians, foreigners, believers, non-believers," Zambolin said.

Peering at four fiery fingerprints emblazoned on a prayer book, Austrian students Michael Weisskof and Karl-Heinz Larcher debated the validity of the relics.

"I believed in purgatory before, but seeing these relics reinforces my faith," 25-year-old Larcher said. But his 19-year-old friend was more hesitant.

"I'm not sure what I think. They are certainly spooky but even if it's not true, it's a good story," Weisskof said.

The museum, about 100 years old, was the brainchild of Victor Jouet, a French priest who traveled to Belgium, France, Germany and Italy, scooping up relics to display in his gothic church on the banks of the Tiber.

Jouet died in the museum's only room in 1912, surrounded by his treasures, but the collection lives on despite a discussion in the late 1990s about whether to close it.

"We realized that most visitors were not Christians but those interested in the paranormal, or in some cases the devil," Zambolin said.

"The Church didn't want to encourage something that wasn't to do with faith. But in the end the decision was made to keep it open. The collection does start discussions about Catholic ideas," he added.

And although most of the fiery signals date back to the 19th century or earlier, Zambolin doesn't think the lack of modern-day signs has any significance.

"We don't get any new objects sent to us, but we don't need new signals to believe in purgatory today."

Robot Grass Cutter Cuts Through Tedium of Mowing

Aug 16, 11:57 am ET 

WELLINGTON  - Tired of mowing the lawn? New Zealand researchers say they have a device that could make your neighbors green with envy.

It's a lawnmower operated via the Internet.

The robotic grass cutter is controlled through a web page which monitors the mower by a small camera on the side of a house.

"What our technology allows us to do is to control lawnmowers and other robotic devices while people are away at work," Massey University's Glen Bright told The News Source.

The electric mower, smaller and more compact than a normal mower, moves in a sequence across the grass, stopping in places that require trimming.

It motors out once during the day and then again at night with the computer directing its every move.

The mower should be up and trimming by the end of the year and commercially available soon after that, Bright said.

The device needs physical boundaries to navigate but by the end of the year it will be able to self-navigate and adjust to different grass heights as well as carrying out gardening tasks such as soil testing, he said.

The mower was developed in collaboration with lawnmower and chainsaw company Husqvarna, part of the Sweden-based AB Electrolux home appliance maker.

The next step is an automatic vacuum cleaner, Bright said.

Busted: Web Gang Posing as Central Bank

Aug 16, 11:56 am ET 

JOHANNESBURG  - South African investigators said Friday they had arrested a gang of suspected Internet racketeers who fooled people into sending them money by posing as the central bank.

The elite Scorpions investigation unit of South Africa's public prosecutors arrested 19 people, mostly foreigners, in raids connected with the scam.

"They set up a Web page that looked very much like the central bank Web site, but had nothing to do with it whatsoever," said Gerhald Nell, spokesman for the Scorpions.

The gang had contacted the victims and referred them to the Web site to support their story. "The Web site gave the scheme legitimacy," Nell said.

He could not confirm how much money was involved but a police spokesman said the figure could run into millions of rand (hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Nell said the gang had diverted phone calls and created fictitious email addresses to dupe its targets.

"Typically, you would receive an email saying 'I have $10 million available, and I need an account to put it in,' and promising to give you a commission in exchange," Nell said.

He said the victims would then be asked for advance payments to cover insurance fees and the costs of releasing the money. "You would deposit these, but never see your money back," he added.

Corrections Workers Cited in Identity Theft

Aug 16, 11:55 am ET 

MIAMI  - Two Florida corrections officers are accused of using children's Social Security numbers to get credit cards used to pay for tummy tucks and liposuction, federal officials said on Thursday.

The Miami-Dade County employees, Della Savoury-Mayo and Xiomara Lobo, were charged with identify theft, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The women each face a maximum prison term of 15 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

In addition to surgery, Savoury-Mayo and Lobo were accused of using the credit cards to pay for cars and home mortgages.

The complaint also alleges the officers did not repay the credit they obtained using the stolen Social Security numbers.

Thailand to Ban Smoking in Toilets, Restaurants

Aug 16, 11:52 am ET 

BANGKOK  - Thailand has stepped up its aggressive campaign against cigarettes by imposing a complete ban on smoking in air-conditioned restaurants and public toilets, officials said on Friday.

Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphun told a news conference she had signed a ministerial regulation to extend the smoking ban to 19 categories of public places from 16 currently, including shopping malls, cinemas and hair salons.

"We would like to improve the health of the Thai people so we have imposed a complete ban on smoking in air-conditioned restaurants," Sudarat told reporters.

The law, which takes effect on November 8, will carry a fine of 2,000 baht ($47.50) for smokers and 20,000 baht for owners of places that violate the law, she said.

Thailand said in May it would force manufacturers to put graphic health warnings, complete with photos of cancerous lungs, on cigarette packets in hopes of countering the rise in teenage smoking.

Strange Tale of Latin 'Geisha' Leaves Japan Poorer

Aug 16, 11:49 am ET 

By Stuart Grudgings

TOKYO  - Greed, sex, deception, Latin cool and Asian corruption. The scandal that has Japan in a sweat this summer seemingly has it all.

And if that isn't enough to make the average person care, there are about 800 million other reasons -- that's roughly the number of yen in taxpayers' money that a former Chilean hostess has allegedly made off with.

The unlikely saga linking the fleshpots of Tokyo to a rural Japanese backwater and the Chilean capital Santiago has come to light during the trial of Yuji Chida, a former accountant at a public housing firm in northern Japan charged with embezzling 1.45 billion yen ($12.36 million).

Chida admitted at the opening session of his trial that he embezzled the money over several years until his arrest last December.

Prosecutors and officials at the firm say more than half the amount was funneled to the leggy Chilean wife he apparently met in 1997 while spending the ill-gotten gains in Tokyo's sleazy Roppongi district. After they married, Anita Alvarado returned to her native country and began buying things -- an upmarket restaurant, a nightclub and a couple of medical centers to name a few -- and she is proving reluctant to give up her newfound wealth. In response to demands that she hand back the money, she appeared on a top Chilean chat show earlier this month to say the money was fair reward for her time in Japan as a "sex slave." "In Asia, they use Latinas as slaves," she said, giving graphic descriptions of the times she was forced to perform sex 30 times a day with Japanese businessmen.

"As of now, I'm saying I will not return anything, because the money I was given was something like an indemnity."

Even before her televised admission made the evening news in Japan, prosecutors did not need to look far for the money.

The 29-year-old Alvarado had already written a book titled "My Name is Anita Alvarado" which shot straight into Chile's best-seller list.

The scandal has been an entertaining distraction for Japan's chattering classes as they while away the summer doldrums, but the people of remote Aomori prefecture are embarrassed and angry.

Their economy is suffering along with the rest of Japan and the idea of Alvarado building a business empire while becoming a national celebrity on their money has not pleased them.

"People here are very angry about the whole thing. Lots of people have been calling us to complain about it," said Takashi Inoue, an official at the Aomori Housing Loan Corporation where the 45-year-old Chida worked.

"The money that was embezzled was a very large amount, especially given that the economy is so bad."

The housing corporation is one of thousands of public firms in Japan that do everything from laying roads to planting trees.

Taxpayers have grown used to hearing about them wasting money and running up debt, but the Alvarado saga is a novel twist on bureaucratic incompetence.

"People aren't just annoyed with Chida, they're angry with his superiors who could let so much money disappear," said Masaru Nakatsubo, a writer for the local newspaper who has been covering the story.

In recent days, hopes that Aomori may be able to recover some of the money have risen.

Newspapers in Chile reported earlier this week that a Santiago court has decided to auction Alvarado's luxurious mansion on behalf of the housing loan corporation. Chida has said he wants a divorce, which could entitle him to half the money.

Alvarado was reported in Chilean media as saying she would destroy the house "with a heavy machine" before the court got its hands on it.

Depressed residents of Aomori, a rural prefecture with a population of 1.5 million, can at least reflect that they are getting more attention than usual. "Aomori doesn't usually get much international focus so people are a bit surprised," said the housing firm's Inoue.

Is Elvis Really Dead? You Bet...

Aug 15, 8:54 am ET 

LONDON  - British gamblers are still convinced that Elvis has not left the building.

It may be 25 years since the death of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but bookmakers William Hill are still taking bets on Elvis Presley being alive.

"We have just taken a bet of 50 pounds ($76.58) at odds of 1,000-1 that Elvis is still alive," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said on the eve of the 25th anniversary of his death.

"We take scores of fiver and tenner (5-10 pound) bets each year on the same theme," he said in a statement.

"I know he would be an elderly gent were he still about -- but with a six figure payout on the cards we'd be the ones who were 'All Shook Up' if Elvis does reappear," he added.

Amateur Brain Surgeon Nabbed

Aug 15, 8:52 am ET 

CAIRO  - Egyptian police have arrested a man who performed brain surgery on a number of people even though he had only a primary school education, court sources said Wednesday.

The 40-year-old saw around 200 patients a week in the oasis town of Fayoum near Cairo. He charged 22 Egyptian pounds ($4.74) per patient and operated on a number of people but the fate of his victims was not immediately known.

The man had forged a secondary school certificate and claimed to have studied brain surgery in Cairo and Germany.

Anti-Prostitution Law Targets Men's Cars

Aug 15, 8:49 am ET 

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES  - Explain this to your wife: Honey I lost the car because I stopped to ask a pretty woman for directions.

Men arrested for soliciting prostitutes on the mean streets of Los Angeles could have their cars taken away from them under a proposed law introduced on Wednesday.

The proposed ordinance would allow police to seize and impound for 30 days the cars of motorists caught picking up prostitutes, the measure's sponsor, City Councilman Tom LaBonge, said.

A second-time offender's car would be taken for 60 days, and a third arrest would result in a permanent auto seizure, LaBonge said, describing his "Three strikes and you take the bus" law.

The City Council was expected to vote on the measure in the next 90 days, he said, even though civil libertarians complained that the proposed ordinance is unconstitutional because a conviction is not required for a "john's" car to be impounded.

"The idea of picking up a john and not letting him go through a court system ... and taking his auto seems to me violates the due process cause of the constitution," Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said.

LaBonge said two other California cities -- Oakland and Sacramento -- have adopted similar laws whose constitutionality was tested successfully in California courts.

"I have a great concern for everyone's civil rights but I have a greater concern for everyone's neighborhood rights," LaBonge said. "I don't like to see them violated by disrespectful people."

LaBonge characterized cruising for prostitutes along Hollywood's famous Sunset Boulevard and other areas as "a very big neighborhood pollution problem."

"If you talk to people who live in these neighborhoods ... multiple times during the night people park in front of their houses and engage in illegal activities, then leave their trash on the street for children and residents to find," LaBonge said.

The area's prostitution problem also poses embarrassing scenarios for club-hopping "fashionistas," he said.

"There are a lot of people in L.A. who dress very fashionably and like to walk along the streets and a lot of times disrespectful people will come along and (solicit sex from them)," LaBonge said. "I want to make the streets safe and pleasant for them too."

Not to mention easing traffic jams by having fewer cars on the road.

Actors Step in to Save 'Great Escape' Pig's Bacon

Aug 15, 8:46 am ET 

LONDON  - A pig on the run after escaping from a Scottish slaughterhouse has attracted the support of two top actors keen to save its bacon.

Martin Shaw and Jenny Seagrove offered on Wednesday to buy the freedom of the pig nicknamed "McQueen" because of actor Steve McQueen's famous escape role in the 1963 film "The Great Escape."

"This pig wants to live. We are prepared to pay double the market value to save McQueen," the actors, currently filming a TV drama called "Judge John Deed," said in a joint statement.

They joined forces with two animal protection groups to appeal for the pig to be saved, and Shaw offered to adopt him.

"McQueen" escaped on Tuesday and was last sighted in a forest two miles from the abattoir in Dunblane, northwest of Edinburgh.

Fashion-Conscious Judge Bans Bare Midriff

Aug 15, 8:44 am ET 

TORONTO  - A Canadian judge who once ejected a female lawyer for showing too much cleavage hit the headlines again on Wednesday after she ordered an accused shoplifter out of the courtroom for wearing a belly-button revealing top.

Ontario Justice Micheline Rawlins told the teenager to go and change and scolded the youth's lawyer for his client's appearance, the Chatham Daily News said.

"Frankly, your honor, I didn't notice," lawyer David Jacklin replied, before leaving to "check to make sure my other clients are appropriately dressed."

Newspapers quoted Rawlins as saying that since the teenager did not have to stare at the judge's midriff, the court should not have to eye hers either.

The teen returned to the courtroom clad in a buttoned-down shirt and was thanked by the judge. Rawlins noted that, while the tank top was inappropriate for the courtroom, it had looked nice on the girl.

In March, Rawlins refused to hear arguments from lawyer Laura Joy because she wore a tight V-necked shirt under a pantsuit. The judge deemed the outfit too revealing for a courtroom and told her to return dressed more conservatively.

"I don't want to see bra straps. I don't want to see cleavage. I don't want to see belly buttons. I don't want to see stocking tops...in a court of law," Rawlins, a judge in Chatham, Ontario, 290 km (180 miles) southwest of Toronto, said at the time.

She added that Joy's outfit "in a static position was fine, but unfortunately people move, people bend over. They don't have to look at my cleavage. I don't have to look at theirs."

Fashion-Conscious Judge Bans Bare Midriff

Aug 15, 8:44 am ET 

TORONTO  - A Canadian judge who once ejected a female lawyer for showing too much cleavage hit the headlines again on Wednesday after she ordered an accused shoplifter out of the courtroom for wearing a belly-button revealing top.

Ontario Justice Micheline Rawlins told the teenager to go and change and scolded the youth's lawyer for his client's appearance, the Chatham Daily News said.

"Frankly, your honor, I didn't notice," lawyer David Jacklin replied, before leaving to "check to make sure my other clients are appropriately dressed."

Newspapers quoted Rawlins as saying that since the teenager did not have to stare at the judge's midriff, the court should not have to eye hers either.

The teen returned to the courtroom clad in a buttoned-down shirt and was thanked by the judge. Rawlins noted that, while the tank top was inappropriate for the courtroom, it had looked nice on the girl.

In March, Rawlins refused to hear arguments from lawyer Laura Joy because she wore a tight V-necked shirt under a pantsuit. The judge deemed the outfit too revealing for a courtroom and told her to return dressed more conservatively.

"I don't want to see bra straps. I don't want to see cleavage. I don't want to see belly buttons. I don't want to see stocking tops...in a court of law," Rawlins, a judge in Chatham, Ontario, 290 km (180 miles) southwest of Toronto, said at the time.

She added that Joy's outfit "in a static position was fine, but unfortunately people move, people bend over. They don't have to look at my cleavage. I don't have to look at theirs."

Helicopter Beach Chaos

Aug 15, 8:43 am ET 

ROME  - The United States and Italy launched a joint inquiry Wednesday into why U.S. Airforce helicopters flew at low altitude over a packed beach, panicking vacationers and leaving five people injured.

The rotating blades of the three helicopters whipped up ferocious whirlwinds as the pilots skimmed along Italy's southeastern coast Tuesday, yanking up umbrellas and scattering beach chairs in their wake.

Italian media have reported that the two large Chinooks and one Blackhawk helicopter only swooped down on the beach so crews could wave to the local beauties sunbathing.

The U.S. embassy in Italy said in a statement that the military helicopters had "caused disruption and injuries to people on the beach."

"U.S. officials, in close cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Defense, have begun an inquiry and will be sending a joint fact-finding team to fully investigate the incident," the statement said.

It added that Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino called U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler to discuss the affair. "Ambassador Sembler expressed his sincere regret over the incident," it said.

U.S. officials said the helicopters were on a NATO-authorized mission from Germany en route to the Balkans, to support the NATO peacekeeping mission in the region.

Witnesses said the helicopters appeared to slow down as they approached the beach and then waved to the tourists as they clattered overhead, Italian media reported.

The five who were injured were slightly hurt by flying beach furniture.

Witnesses reported seeing the helicopters do the same thing 10 km (six miles) north of the affected beach and then once again further south. No damage was reported at those locations. In 1998, a low flying U.S. jet on a training flight in northern Italy hit the support cables of a cable-car, sending 20 vacationers plunging to their deaths.

Locals accused the pilot of flouting legal flying limits for kicks, but he was acquitted of malpractice by a U.S. military court. He was later sentenced to six months in prison and sacked from the Marines for helping destroy a videotape of the flight.

Diamonds Are Forever for Scotland Yard

Aug 15, 8:42 am ET 

LONDON  - Diamonds are forever for Scotland Yard.

The De Beers Diamond Trading Company presenting London's police headquarters on Thursday with a replica of the world's most valuable diamond to commemorate the day the Flying Squad foiled the spectacular Millennium Dome heist.

"The replica Millennium Star will act as a lasting reminder of one of our most successful operations," said Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens.

Stevens said of the heist: "Their efforts to pull off one of the largest robberies in the world in broad daylight were utterly audacious and worthy of a James Bond film plot."

The replica diamond, now being given a permanent home in New Scotland Yard's Crime Museum, was substituted for the real gem ahead of the attempted robbery.

The gang tried to steal diamonds worth 200 million pounds ($306 million) from the Dome, escape along the River Thames in a speedboat and smuggle them out of the country into the hands of the Russian mafia.

Among the stones they hoped to steal was the Millennium Star, at 777 carats one of the world's largest gems.

The robbers may have been inspired by the Bond film "The World is Not Enough," which featured a speedboat chase to the Dome -- showpiece of Britain's year 2000 celebrations -- in the opening sequence.

But the audacious plan was foiled by the Flying Squad, who had switched the real diamonds for fakes and were lying in wait for the robbers.

In February, the gang were sentenced to a total of 71 years in prison.

Want a Venetian Pad? Surf the Net for an Island

Aug 15, 8:40 am ET 

MILAN  - Of the thousands of tourists who gaze at the beauty of Venice each year, many have dreamed of living it up in one of the elegant water-lapped palazzi that line the city's canals.

Now there's an alternative -- how about buying a whole Venetian island on the Internet?

The two-acre Tessera Island, which lies north of the main clump of islands that make up the lagoon city, is up for sale for $4.5 million on www.vladi.de -- including speed boat.

The Web Site lists more than 100 islands for sale or to rent from Greece to the Bahamas because "nearly everyone dreams of owning an island."

Tessera Island is currently owned by creative thinking guru Edward de Bono who holds a brain-training course there once a year, according to his Web Site www.edwdebono.com.

Jordan Editors Held for Belly Dancing Emir Cartoon

Aug 15, 7:32 am ET 

AMMAN  - A Jordanian newspaper boss and editor have been arrested for publishing a cartoon portraying Qatari ruler Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani as a belly dancer, officials and judicial sources said Thursday.

Al-Shahed group media publisher Sakhr Abu Anaza and the editor of the weekly satirical al-Jazeera, Mamoun Rousan, were detained Wednesday on the orders of State Security Prosecutor Colonel Mahmoud Obeidat, judicial sources said.

They are charged with offending a head of an Arab state and publishing material interpreted as causing harm to bilateral ties, state news agency Petra quoted Minister of Information Mohammad al-Adwan as saying.

"What was published is deemed a clear breach of the ethics of journalism...and it is something we reject and would not allow toward a friend or a brother," Adwan added.

The cartoon shows the emir and his foreign minister singing and dancing in a nightclub.

Both pro-government dailies and independent weekly tabloids have launched a tirade against Qatar after Doha-based Arabic satellite station al-Jazeera aired a program last week seen as an affront to the Hashemite ruling family.

Lawyer Haytham al-Kayed told The News Source the charges carry a maximum three-year prison sentence.

"The arrests are a political decision by the government to win favor with the Qataris at the expense of freedom of the press," said Osama al-Ramini, the deputy editor of al-Shahed.

LONDON  - Half of Britain's stressed-out office workers say they have come close to punching a colleague, according to a survey published Wednesday.

Overwork, faulty computers and annoying workmates were the main cause of "office rage" -- and women are more likely to snap than men.

"Our research shows that common occurrences such as broken computers and interruptions can push people over the edge at work," said Tim Watts, chairman of Pertemps, the British recruitment agency which commissioned the survey.

The report found 51 percent of women had nearly punched a colleague, compared to 39 percent of the men questioned.

Three quarters of workers felt they worked less productively in a bad mood. Some 15 percent said fear of making a mistake when their boss was angry made them work more slowly.

Pertemps said employees can cut tension by avoiding gossip, talking to managers and not disturbing colleagues.

Bosses should defuse conflicts early, listen to staff complaints, avoid overcrowding and set realistic workloads and deadlines. Pertemps said it surveyed 450 employees at offices across Britain.

Chubby Thief Caught Out by Wide Girth August 14, 2002 09:00 AM ET

ROME  - A chubby thief was caught by Italian police because he could not squeeze through a hole drilled in the wall of a bank he was about to break into, Italian media reported Tuesday.

A criminal gang, of which 54-year-old Giovanni Sollami was the largest member, had drilled the hole in the wall of the bank in the northwestern port city of Genoa.

But once his two accomplices had slipped through, Sollami found the hole was too narrow for him.

So he then walked around to the front door of the bank where closed-circuit security cameras picked him up, making it easy for police to track him down.

French Move Villagers to Blow Up World War 2 Bomb August 14, 2002 08:59 AM ET

LILLE, France  - French authorities ordered the evacuation of about 4,000 people Wednesday after a World War II bomb was discovered in northern France, local officials said.

Bomb disposal experts said they planned to blow up the 250-kg (550-pound) British bomb because it was too dangerous to move.

Workmen digging trenches for water pipes found the bomb on Monday near the villages of Outreau and Portel in the Pas-de-Calais region, officials in nearby Arras said. Both villages suffered heavy bombing during the war.

Bomb disposal experts cordoned off the area and ordered residents to leave their homes by noon.

Frisbee Pioneer Dies, Ashes to Be Made Into Discs August 14, 2002 08:58 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO  - "Steady" Ed Headrick, the California inventor who figured out a way to make the Frisbee fly fast and straight, has died at the age of 78. His family said his ashes will be made into Frisbees.

Headrick died in his sleep early Monday at his home in La Selva Beach, California, his son Ken told the Santa Cruz Sentinel on Tuesday.

While no services are now planned, Headrick's ashes will be molded into a limited number of "memorial flying discs" which will be distributed to family and friends, and sold to help fund a future Frisbee/disc golf history and memorabilia museum, his son, Ken Headrick, said.

The elder Headrick, who had high blood pressure, had suffered two strokes while attending the Professional Disc Golf Association Amateur World Championships in Miami last month and returned home to California after doctors determined that his condition was likely to deteriorate.

Hailed as the father of the modern Frisbee, Headrick helped to perfect the popular flying disc beloved by generations of college students while working at Emeryville, California-based toymaker Wham-O Inc. in 1964.

The Frisbee -- said to be named after the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose round metal tins were used as toys by students at Yale University in the late 19th Century -- took on new life with the advent of industrial plastics.

After World War II, an inventor named Walter Morrison worked on perfecting a plastic version of the toy and came up with the "Pluto Platter" prototype, a plastic mini-flying saucer.

But the platter still proved to be a wobbly throw. Headrick, who was then working on research and development at Wham-O, took a look at the design and added aerodynamic ridges on the top of the disc, making it more flight-worthy.

Awarded the patent for the first "professional" model Frisbee in 1966, Headrick went on to popularize a wide variety of Frisbee-related sports, founding the International Frisbee Association and later the Professional Disc Golf Association, which involves throwing a Frisbee at a metal cage.

"We all wished for a miracle that would have had him up and out of bed throwing discs and joking around once again. That miracle that was Ed will have to live on in our hearts and souls now," the Disc Golf Association said in a release on Tuesday.

Headrick is survived by his wife as well several children and grandchildren.

In an interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel last year, Headrick acknowledged the special power of the Frisbee -- one of the simplest and most successful toys ever devised.

"I felt the Frisbee had some kind of a spirit involved. It's not just like playing catch with a ball. It's the beautiful flight," Headrick said.

"We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion -- 'Frisbyterians,' we'd call ourselves," he said. "When we die, we don't go to purgatory. We just land up on the roof and lay there."

'Dead' Woman Tells Bureaucrats She's Alive August 14, 2002 08:51 AM ET

BERLIN  - A retired cleaning lady has finally managed to convince German bureaucrats she is alive -- two months after an office blunder listed her as dead on nationwide computer records.

Vjekoslava Smajic, a Croatian who has lived in Germany for 33 years, had to get a medical certificate confirming she was alive before anyone would believe her after her health insurance, pension and bank account were canceled.

"At first it was all rather amusing but there came a point when it wasn't at all funny," Smajic, 64, told The News Source. "It's nice to be alive again."

The troubles began for Smajic, who lives in Durmersheim near Stuttgart, two months ago when a health insurance clerk told her the computer listed her as deceased. She met a similar response when she tried to withdraw money from her bank.

Smajic finally broke the vicious cycle by submitting the medical certificate saying she was alive, signed by the mayor of Durmersheim, to the state health insurance agency.

It turned out another woman named Smajic had died in May and the pension payment agency had incorrectly booked Vjekoslava Smajic as dead. All her frozen accounts were reopened.

Man Dies in Freak Pea Drop August 14, 2002 08:50 AM ET

STOCKHOLM, Sweden  - A Swedish man died Tuesday when he was buried alive under a 13-ton pile of peas in a storage silo, local media reported.

The man, who was around 30 years old, was working on an electrical installation on a farm near the town of Mjolby in southeastern Sweden when the peas were dumped on him.

Rescue workers pulled the man from the silo but were unable to revive him, a radio station reported.

Trickster Cons 4,000 Hoping to See Pope August 14, 2002 08:48 AM ET

WARSAW  - Police were Wednesday hunting a conman who ripped off 4,000 Poles hoping to see Pope John Paul hold a huge open-air mass in the southern city of Krakow this weekend.

In an elaborate scam, the trickster signed a contract with the state railways to lay on four chartered trains from the northern port city of Gdansk. He even persuaded organizers of the Papal visit to issue him tickets to Sunday's mass.

The man, identified by police as Piotr K., collected 120,000 zlotys ($25,000) from churchgoers who thought they were buying tickets for the round trip. He then disappeared with the cash.

"The man seemed trustworthy," said a crestfallen Father Zbigniew Zielinski, head of the parish organizing the pilgrimage from Gdansk.

"He organized the transport. Everything was prepared professionally, we even received phone calls giving references from the members of the pilgrimage," he told public radio.

Tall Men Likely to Have More Children? August 14, 2002 08:44 AM ET

LONDON  - Height matters when it comes to having children, according to a study showing that tall men are likely to have more kids than their shorter contemporaries.

But the reverse is true for women, according to details of the study published in the Independent newspaper Wednesday.

The survey of 10,000 people born in 1958 found that height plays an important role in finding a partner and having children by the age of 42.

British men of average height -- 5ft 10in -- had significantly fewer children by middle age than a 6ft 1in tall man, the newspaper reported.

For women, however, those most likely to be married with children by the same age were between 4ft 11in and 5ft 2in, below the average female height of 5ft 4in.

The study's author, Daniel Nettle of the Open University, said the findings showed the difference in height between the sexes continued to play a role in the likelihood of someone finding a partner and having children with them.

"It is known from psychological tests that women find tall men attractive but that men don't particularly find tall women attractive," Nettle was quoted as saying.

"These results show that this does play out in real life," he said. The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, a publication of the UK scientific academy.

Mother Goes to Court over Newborn Named After Horse August 13, 2002 08:17 AM ET

ROME  - An outraged Italian mother has gone to court after her husband furtively named their newborn son after a prize-winning horse.

Before his wife was out of hospital, the man went to the records office in the small southern town of Boscotrecase to register his son as Varenne Giampaolo.

Varenne is a seven-year-old horse considered the greatest trotter in history and Giampaolo is his jockey's name.

"He said his wife agreed," an official at the records office told The News Source.

Varenne is, after all, no ordinary horse. The dark brown racer is a national hero in Italy where he was awarded athlete of the year in 2001.

But when the mother discovered she couldn't change the baby's name to Christian, she went to court.

"She just wouldn't accept that the name isn't embarrassing or insulting," the official said. The court's ruling is pending.

Woman's Secret Uncovered - She's a Man August 13, 2002 08:12 AM ET

TIRANA  - An Albanian who lived for half a century as a woman was found after her death to have been a man.

Vangjeli Llambro, 64, who died of a heart attack, had some female features, including breasts, but a coroner's examination revealed Llambro was in fact male, the Albanian daily Gazeta Shqiptare reported Tuesday.

Born a boy in a village near the southern town of Vlore, Llambro's feminine side took over at the age of 14, probably due to a hormone imbalance. Llambro was treated as a woman by family and fellow villagers from then on. She never married, and guarded her secret to the end.

On-The-Spot Fines Piloted for Anti-Social Britons August 13, 2002 08:11 AM ET

On-The-Spot Fines Piloted for Anti-Social Britons August 13, 2002 08:11 AM ET Email this article Printer friendly version

LONDON  - British police began trials on Monday of a scheme designed to crack down on anti-social behavior by issuing parking ticket-style fines to offenders.

Those caught committing minor crimes such as being drunk and disorderly or using threatening behavior could now face and instant fine -- a fixed penalty of 40 or 80 pounds ($60 or $120) instead of being cautioned or charged.

"Giving officers greater flexibility to issue penalty notices on the street or at police stations for disorderly behavior will hit the offender in the pocket and avoid lengthy paperwork and court proceedings," said Home Office minister John Denham.

Prime Minister Tony Blair heralded the scheme during his first term in power, declaring that hooligans could be dragged to cashpoint machines to pay instant fines. The plan was hurriedly dropped amid a welter of criticism but has now been revived in a different guise.

Police in four parts of Britain are piloting the scheme: Croydon in south London, the West Midlands in central England, Essex in the east, and part of North Wales.

The scheme was criticized Monday by civil liberties group Liberty for giving too much power to police.

"This scheme lumps together some trivial offences that shouldn't be criminal and some more serious ones that should be and are criminal," said campaigns director Mark Littlewood. "It puts policemen in the position of having to be a judge and jury for these offences -- but without the flexibility to apply a punishment tailored to the offence and the offender."

The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file police officers, was also skeptical.

"There is a potential Achilles' heel to the whole thing," the Federation's chairman, Glen Smyth, told BBC radio.

"We need to make sure that the enforcement of those fines takes place because currently collection of fines for those that have been convicted by the courts and ordered to pay compensation is utterly woeful.

Britain's lower magistrates' courts will be responsible for collecting the fines.

While welcoming a likely reduction in bureaucracy, Smyth also questioned whether the new measures would actually target those responsible for the majority of hooligan-type crimes.

"When you look at the list of offences that are in here, for instance throwing fireworks in the street...plus the offences of drunkenness -- that's very often committed by juveniles and you can't use this process for that."

But Chief Inspector James Andronov of West Midlands police defended the scheme.

"A 40-pounds or an 80-pounds fine is a lot for anyone to be able to afford on top of the cost of a night out," he told the BBC. "We think that it is going to be a good deterrent."

Bunnies Unearth Ancient Artifacts August 13, 2002 08:09 AM ET

LONDON  - An intrepid bunch of rabbits have emulated Indiana Jones, turning into archaeologists to unearth a rare and ancient glass window in central England.

State body English Heritage said on Tuesday that the bunnies uncovered shards of the window, which belonged to a 14th century manor house, while burrowing into an unremarkable grassy hump.

"Over the years, as the rabbits have done their own home improvement work, the glass, shards of pottery and fragments of animal bone have been kicked out of their burrow," said Dr. Paul Stamper, English Heritage Ancient Monuments Inspector in the West Midlands.

"Pieces of glass were discovered six months ago by a team of dedicated local archaeologists."

Now they face a race against time to preserve the window before its designs are corroded by the open air, which it hasn't been exposed to for centuries.

The house, complete with moat, was demolished in the 15th century when its owners built a bigger home nearby and found the first one blocked their view.

And the bunnies, finders of the trove, may now become part of the problem.

Further research will need to be done before English Heritage decides how to minimize "future rabbit damage," the body said.

Splayed Corpse Show Prompts Rush of Body Donors August 13, 2002 08:00 AM ET

LONDON  - A London exhibition of flayed human corpses that caused a storm of protest has prompted a rush of "body donors" who want to be preserved and displayed in the future.

More than 20 people in Britain have signed up to donate their bodies to an institute run by German professor Gunther von Hagens, whose chosen preservation method is to skin the corpse, splay its insides and put it on display to the public.

Juanita Carberry, a 77-year-old from Kenya, is convinced this is the right thing to do in death.

"The most certain thing about life is death," she told The News Source during an interview at the exhibition Monday. "And I believe in recycling everything that is recyclable."

"My body is a shell I live in. When I die I will have finished with it. If I can dispose of any part of my body for a useful purpose then that is great."

The Body Worlds exhibition, in London after having toured Japan, Germany, Belgium and Austria, consists of around 30 corpses displayed on stands in various poses designed to provoke, educate or shock.

The flagship piece is a horse and rider -- both skinned to display their muscles, bones and innards -- and then "plastinated" like all their other specimens to preserve them and fix them in a pose.

Von Hagens says he invented the "plastination" technique in 1977. The process involves soaking the corpse in formaldehyde, freezing it, thawing it and then dissecting it.

Fat and water are then removed and replaced with plastic, leaving them perfectly preserved, odorless, and both rigid and flexible enough to be free-standing.

When it first opened in March, the exhibition was slammed as a "freak show" with no artistic or educational value by some of the country's leading art critics.

It also prompted outrage among families of the victims of several scandals which have hit Britain in recent years in which organs and body parts were stolen by hospitals -- often from the corpses of children, babies or fetuses -- without any consent.

But von Hagens is delighted his exhibition has persuaded more people to donate their bodies in future. He sees it as an "appreciation " of his work, which he insists is about education not sensationalism.

Raymond Edwards, 51, said his decision to donate his body was about being in control.

"I want to take control of my death," he said. "And what better way is there to die happily? -- knowing that your body is going to go on to inform, educate and stimulate other people for years into the future."

Darren Mudd, a 35-year-old who admits that he hopes he still has "a long way to go" before he gets to the body donation stage -- said he saw it simply as "a different option to burial."

Asked whether his family had objected to his decision, Mudd said they had not. "My mum likes bodies and body parts anyway," he told The News Source. "So she just said 'go ahead, do you own thing'."

Activists Save Snakes on Festival Day

Aug 14, 9:05 am ET 

BOMBAY  - Indian animal rights activists said Tuesday they had rescued about 50 snakes from cruel treatment by their owners during an annual festival.

Every year the "Naag Panchami" festival draws snake charmers to cities, especially Bombay and Calcutta, hoping to make money from Hindus who believe the snakes bring good luck.

But Jyoti Nadkarni from the state-run Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the snakes were often ill-treated.

"Some are defanged in the most unprofessional way. They suffer from mouth infection and their poison gland is punctured. We have kept them under medical observation," she told The News Source.

Forest officials would release the healthier snakes in the jungle, animal rights activists said.

For several years animal groups and SPCA inspectors, armed with bags and sacks, have conducted raids before and during the festival to rescue the snakes, many of them cobras.

But undeterred, the snake charmers return every year, gathering in Hindu areas, around temples or at railway stations.

Poor nomads hunt down the snakes in fields and forests during the monsoon season when they come out in the open after their holes are inundated with rain water.

Since the nomads are unable to feed them, the snakes are starved and suffer from severe infections even before being sold to snake charmers, activists say.

"A snake is considered a farmer's friend because of its carnivorous nature. It survives on rats, birds, lizards, frogs and not milk as people would like to offer," said Issac Khemkar, spokesman for the Bombay Natural History Society.

Animal rights activists say hundreds of snakes die during the festival every year, many as a result of drinking milk which causes severe dehydration and allergic reactions.

Driver Leaves Trail of Destruction

Aug 12, 8:57 am ET 

BORDEAUX, France  - A woman drove for almost 12 miles on the wrong side of a French motorway Sunday, causing seven collisions involving 18 vehicles as oncoming traffic swerved to avoid her, police said Monday.

The 54-year-old woman caused havoc for 18 km on the A62 motorway, the main route linking the southwestern cities of Toulouse and Bordeaux, before turning her Renault Clio into busy traffic on a Bordeaux bypass, where police stopped her.

Two people were slightly injured in the chaos and police said it was a miracle no one was killed. They arrested the woman who was admitted to a hospital which specializes in treating psychiatric patients. 

Rules to Capture Heart of Mr. Right in Cyberspace

Aug 12, 8:45 am ET 

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES  - You've used it for shopping, playing solitaire, checking your horoscope, booking a hotel room and diagnosing that mysterious rash.

So why can't you find Mr. Right in cyberspace?

Maybe it's because you are breaking "The Rules."

Seven years after urging millions of women to adopt a play-hard-to-get, 1950s-style strategy to catch and marry a man, the authors of "The Rules" have come up with some new female strictures for the world of online dating.

For when it comes to online dating, men, according to Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider "are having a ball. They are laughing all the way to the bank."

"The women are so forward, men are having a party. You cannot believe the excuses these men are coming up with to juggle four or five women at a time," Fein told The News Source.

"It was starting to become a really bad bar scene. Women are e-mailing with abandon, answering men's ads, meeting a guy, e-mailing him the next day -- making a million mistakes!

"That's why we wrote the book," she said.

"The Rules for Online Dating," published by Pocket Books, was launched in U)S. bookshops on July 30.

Back in 1995, when their first book, simply called "The Rules," was on its way to becoming a best-seller translated into 27 languages, Fein and Schneider had nothing good to say about online dating.

They regarded cyber romance as potentially dangerous and a threat to the guiding principles of mystery and challenge in relationships between the sexes.

But the huge popularity of personal computers, e-mail and online dating forced the pair to adapt precepts of the Eisenhower era (Stop dating him if he doesn't buy you a romantic gift for your birthday) to the 21st century (Never e-mail on a Saturday night; it smacks of desperation.)

"We wrote this book because we realized people were having trouble transporting The Rules to online dating. You have good-looking girls, putting up their picture and thinking they can do what they want -- answer a man's ad, chat up a storm with him and get to know him so well that by the first date they can sleep with him," said Fein.

According to the book, an e-mail is equivalent to a phone call (never initiated and only rarely returned), a first date is a sexless date, no matter how long you have been e-mailing, and Instant Messaging is "like a free date, which we don't allow. We want men to court us, to ask us out in advance."

Other advice includes tips on how to create a good screen name (never too boring or too sexy), waiting 24 hours to respond to e-mails and dumping men who don't ask for a date by the fourth e-mail.

There is also a chapter containing common-sense but invaluable safety precautions about meeting men found on the Internet in public places and never giving out your home address.

The original "Rules" were handed down to Fein and Schneider by the grandmother of one of their friends and quickly went on to sell more than two million copies some 20 years after liberated women first began burning their bras along with their inhibitions.

The pair wrote a sequel, "The Rules II," in 1997, followed by "The Rules for Marriage" in 2001. "Marriage" came out when Fein had separated from her husband and was heading for divorce, a delicious irony that critics of the series pounced on.

Call them old-fashioned and misguided -- and many commentators have -- but Fein and Schneider insist that strict application of The Rules brings the desired results for women looking for love and marriage in a world apparently inhabited chiefly by cads and rogues.

The authors cite men who "insult" women by wanting to sleep with them on a Tuesday or a Thursday but who don't want to take them out on a Saturday night.

The Rules are not intended for women interested in casual sex or one-night stands, nor should they be seen as taking a moral or religious stance.

But Fein and Schneider say they do believe it is up to a man to pursue a woman, and that women who break The Rules -- by being too forward, too available and too honest -- invariably end up getting dumped, and getting hurt.

They warn that online dating means women have to be even more vigilant about applying The Rules.

"Online dating lends itself to more fantasy relationships. You don't really know if he's married, if he's living with someone. So you have to be really strict," said Schneider.

"The fallout is greater...Men will e-mail 25 girls in a night, so if you do get a guy who answers your ad, seems to like you, and you go on a date and never hear from him again, just chalk it up to experience.

"You have never seen so many men with elderly sick parents who have to be visited Saturday nights. It is unbelievable! But that doesn't mean that Tuesday or Thursday night, he won't try to sleep with you," she said. 

Bomb Found on Beach, 3 Days After Warning

Aug 12, 8:44 am ET 

MADRID  - Thousands of vacationers relaxed on a Spanish beach over the weekend, blissfully unaware that a bomb planted by Basque separatist group ETA lay buried in the sand beneath them.

Officials said Spanish explosives experts uncovered the bomb on Monday, three days after a telephone call from ETA warning of the bomb in the Mediterranean resort of Santa Pola.

Searchers initially failed to find the explosives.

Authorities, thinking the warning a hoax, reopened the beach on Saturday, only to close it again on Sunday after ETA called again with more specific details of where the bomb was hidden. Santa Pola Mayor Francisco Conejero said a rucksack containing around 11 pounds of explosives was found buried five feet deep in the sand.

A town hall spokesman said the bomb was safely de-activated.

Thousands of people flocked to the beach after it was re-opened at the weekend, the spokesman said. "The beach was full, normal ... It was like any Sunday," he said. One vacationer from Madrid told El Pais newspaper she had been asleep in her deck chair on Sunday.

"I was woken up by police whistles and they told me to leave the beach because there was a bomb," she said.

One bomb did explode on Friday in a fast food restaurant at the nearby east coast resort of Torrevieja but the area had already been evacuated and no one was hurt.

ETA habitually targets Spanish tourist resorts in the summer in a bid to damage one of Spain's key industries.

A much bigger car bomb exploded without warning outside a civil guard barracks in Santa Pola on August 4, killing a six-year-old girl inside and a man waiting at a bus stop.

The child was the youngest fatality since ETA resumed violence in January 2000 after a 14-month cease-fire in its more than 30-year campaign of shootings, bombings and kidnappings to back its demands for an independent Basque state carved out of northern Spain and southwestern France. 

Reindeer Alcohol? No Whey!

Aug 12, 8:42 am ET 

OSLO  - Santa Claus could get a new warming tipple this Christmas -- a Norwegian company aims to distill reindeer milk.

"We're going to run a test project to see if the whey can be distilled," Halvor Heuch, master blender at Norwegian alcohol group Arcus, told The News Source.

The firm would try to distill alcohol from the watery whey left over after making cheese from the milk of 21 female reindeer at a farm in south Norway.

It may not be to everyone's taste, of course, and Heuch said that he doubted if any reindeer alcohol could win a big market even if the test were successful: "This is unlikely to be anything more than a curiosity," he said.

But reindeer herders in Norway attempt to use all parts of the animal -- the meat is eaten, skins are used as blankets and in some countries in the Far East powdered horn is considered an aphrodisiac.

Nordic nations, the North Pole and Greenland vie with each other in claiming to be the home of Father Christmas, whose sleigh, children are told, is drawn by reindeer. 

Phantom Goatsucker on Government Payroll

Aug 12, 8:40 am ET 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina  - Argentina's bankrupt government is notorious for writing checks to workers who have never showed up, but eyebrows were raised when an imaginary "goatsucker" showed up on payroll recently.

Registered as "goatsucker, male, born in 1900," the mythological figure blamed for animal maulings throughout Latin America is eligible to receive unemployment benefits of about $42 per month, local media reports said on Friday.

"It could be in doubt whether he deserves the money or not, but he is registered as a real person with an identity number and everything," a systems analyst investigating the case for the government of Catamarca province told television. His name was not given.

Officials blamed the error on a technical glitch, saying the name may have been entered by a government employee, and the goatsucker would be eliminated from the benefits list as quickly as possible.

Excessive government spending and corruption are cited as the two root causes of Argentina's worst-ever economic crisis, which has left more than 21 percent of the workforce without jobs and half the nation living in poverty.

The government said the goatsucker never showed up to collect his checks. 

Rome Throws Cold Water on Dolce Vita Fantasies

Aug 12, 8:33 am ET 

ROME  - Life in Rome isn't so sweet after all. A new urban code approved by city officials this weekend imposes stiff fines for fountain swimmers like Anita Ekberg in Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita."

The diva would have to cough up 500 euros ($500) for the pleasure of splashing around in the famed Trevi fountain in today's Rome.

Under the new list of regulations, many of which are extensions from the previous code, bathers in non-historic fountains will be fined a mere 100 euros, Corriere della Sera reported Sunday.

Bathers aren't the only problem at the Trevi fountain. A homeless man who has long made his living fishing coins out of the Renaissance masterpiece was arrested last week for theft. A mother and son team was nabbed when they attempted it.

Rome residents can also be slapped with fines for hanging their laundry out to dry in the open or allowing their dogs to defecate on the streets. They can even be fined for not taking along a shovel and bag in case of accidents, the newspaper said.

But a stroll through Rome on a sunny summer afternoon shows just how tough it will be to impose the sanctions. Tourists freely dip their toes and even their heads in the historic fountains that dot the city's center while sheets, shirts and athletic socks dangle out of windows and beloved pooches squat at the curbs. 

Police Finally Uncover 'Bushman's' Lair

Aug 12, 8:32 am ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - Canadian police have finally found the hideout of the "Bushman of the Shuswap" who repeatedly taunted them through the media as he eluded capture for two years.

Police captured John Bjornstrom in November, but it was not until this week that they were able to locate his hideout in the rugged mountains of south-central British Columbia near Shuswap Lake.

Tips from boaters on the lake helped locate the hideout, which included "an elaborate underground shelter carved into the rock hillside," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement on Friday.

Bjornstrom survived by stealing from houses and camps in the area, and the Mounties said they recovered a "staggering amount" of stolen property that will take them weeks to sort through and identify who it belongs to.

Bjornstrom, who fled into the wildness in 1999 from a low-security prison near Kamloops, British Columbia, gained national publicity -- and his nickname -- by calling the news media to taunt the investigators trying to find him.

Police eventually used his interest in publicity against him, luring him into a trap by posing as television reporters seeking an interview -- a tactic that was roundly condemned by media organizations.

"The Bushman" told reporters he was eluding police as he attempted to expose a variety of conspiracies, including those surrounding the 1990s collapse of fraudulent Canadian gold-mining firm Bre-X Minerals Ltd.

Bjornstrom is awaiting trial on charges including escape, assault and burglary. Police said new charges may be added based on the evidence recovered from his hideout. 

Elvis Fans Gather in Memphis for 25th Anniversary

Aug 12, 8:30 am ET 

MEMPHIS, Tenn.  - Sporting blue suede shoes and pompadour wigs, thousands of Elvis Presley fans will shake rattle and roll their way to Presley's famed Graceland mansion this week, still captivated by burning love of the rock and roll king on the 25th anniversary of his death.

Beginning Thursday and stretching into the early morning hours of Aug. 16, the date in 1977 Presley died of a drug-induced heart attack at age 42, fans bearing candles and tributes will file past his grave in the garden of his white-columned home on the outskirts of Memphis.

Organizers of "Elvis Week," which kicked off on Saturday in this river town along the muddy Mississippi, said they expected between 50,000 to 75,000 devotees to show up from around the world.

The Mississippi-born Presley's fame only seems to grow with each passing year, illustrated by the June release of a remix of Presley's little-known song "A Little Less Conversation." The song, punched up with a techno beat by a Dutch disc jockey, is a No. 1 single in much of Europe, giving Presley 18 lifetime No. 1 hits in the United Kingdom and edging him ahead of the Beatles on that score. While fans of Elvis span generations, many of those expected to attend the anniversary events grew up in the staid, post-war 1950s, organizers said. The hip-swiveling Elvis, the sole surviving twin of struggling parents, personified the soulful rebel when he burst on the music scene in 1956 with a youthful blend of country and rhythm and blues, which became recognized as rock and roll.

"Elvis' music was, in its time, revolutionary and a lot of people got caught up in that controversy and invested a piece of their lives in defense of Elvis. They just feel he's a part of them," said John Bakke, a communications professor at the University of Memphis and organizer of a seminar to weigh Presley's significance.

"He was perceived as someone who represented freedom and diversity, versus the conformity and drive for security that was so much a part of the Depression and post-war eras," Bakke said.

Elvis' gyrating presence will be seen and felt around Memphis over nine days, beginning with a parade down club-lined Beale Street, videos of his performances, renditions of his music by impersonators, and reminiscences by his friends. Ex-wife Priscilla Presley and daughter Lisa Marie were expected to attend a Friday night concert at the Pyramid venue.

Sun Studio, where Presley recorded his first songs as a teen-ager, will hold a "block party" in the street. An Elvis-themed fashion show is planned and area clubs, restaurants and hotels will hold dinners and dances.

At Alfred's, a club on Beale Street, sometime disc jockey and Presley friend George Klein are scheduled to hold forth with other members of the "Elvis Mafia" who hung out with the man dubbed "The King" of rock and roll.

"I've been working here nine years and we're expecting the largest year ever," said Jay Uiberall, Alfred's general manager. "Elvis had such a big impact on the music industry and people's lives, people just flock here."

"His career is at an all-time high," said Todd Morgan of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., which licenses his image to merchandisers of anything from T-shirts to a furniture line.

"We always want to present Elvis in a positive light," he said. "We try to keep his work in front of new audiences."

Elvis' enduring popularity is revealed in the 600,000 people who trouped through Graceland in 2001, steady sales of repackaged versions of his albums, and a compilation album entitled "ELV1S 30 #1 Hits" that is set to hit stores in September.

Of course, Presley also lives on as the butt of jokes, in parodies and in suspicious sightings of him. His image in his last years was as a toiling, overweight performer addicted to drugs. 

Woman Killed After Leaping Into Thai Crocodile Pit

Aug 11, 2:06 pm ET 

BANGKOK  - A Thai woman killed herself by jumping into a pit of more than 100 crocodiles, shocking crowds of onlookers at a Bangkok reptile farm on Sunday.

The woman, 40, climbed a 6-foot-high fence and jumped into a concrete enclosure at the Famut Prakarn Crocodile Farm on the outskirts of the Thai capital, a tour guide who witnessed the event said.

A crocodile dragged the woman into a pond and several animals swarmed over and tore her body apart.

"She did not cry or scream when she was bitten," Tanet Virayaporn, the tour guide, told The News Source. "It happened so quickly. Nobody could do anything."

Police said the woman had left a suicide note in which she complained about her husband and apologized to family members.

Hundreds of people were visiting the crocodile farm, a popular tourist attraction, when the woman committed suicide. 

Tattoo Bearers Get Short Shrift in Cyprus Army

Aug 11, 7:22 am ET 

NICOSIA, Cyprus  - Cyprus may pull out the stops to get every eligible man into its army, but it draws the line at tattoos and facial disfigurements in its senior ranks, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The army has yet to clarify whether "disfigurements" means facial piercing or natural defects, but body art on visible areas are a definite no-go if a recruit hopes to rise above the rank of sergeant.

The army says it is following regulations, which also include minimum height requirements, approved by the cabinet and parliament, but human rights activists say the rules have got to go.

"These regulations belong to a different era ... it is actually a form of racism against certain groups of people," said George Christophides, chairman of the Cypriot committee for the restoration of human rights.

"These regulations should be reconsidered," he told The News Source. 

Aquarium Visitors Fall Into Shark Tank

Aug 9, 11:28 am ET 

NEW ORLEANS  - Ten people found themselves swimming with the sharks after a catwalk over an aquarium tank collapsed unexpectedly and dumped them into the water.

Although no one was seriously injured, an investigation is under way into why the platform fell, plunging the group -- including small children -- into the water alongside sand tiger and nurse sharks, Aquarium of the Americas spokeswoman Melissa Lee said on Thursday.

Aquarium staff quickly helped the visitors out of the water after the incident on Wednesday night. The ruckus apparently scared the sharks, which are about 8 feet to 10 feet long, away from the frightened swimmers.

"They weren't in any danger of being bitten by sharks," said Lee. "The second it happened, those sharks took off."

The sharks are well-fed and are accustomed to people being in their 400,000 gallon tank, because divers are frequently in there, she said.

Two people were treated for scratches and bruises after bumping into artificial barnacles in the tank.

The group was taking part in a special behind-the-scenes tour held for aquarium donors. Usually only staff members are allowed onto the catwalk. 

Human Remains Found in USS Monitor Gun Turret

Aug 9, 11:26 am ET 

MIAMI  - Human remains were found in the gun turret of the famed Civil War battleship USS Monitor, two days after the 140-year-old relic was raised from the Atlantic Ocean floor off North Carolina, project officials said on Thursday.

The bones, along with buttons, cloth and a pocketknife, were found on Wednesday by workers who are clearing debris from the 150-tonturret to prepare it for shipping to a museum, officials said.

Portions of another skeleton were brought to the surface on Sunday. Sixteen men died when the Monitor sank during a storm in December 1862.

Officials said there may be more remains inside the turret. The bones were to be shipped to the U.S. Army's identification laboratory in Hawaii for analysis.

Experts consider the Monitor, the first U.S. warship without masts or sails, to be the forerunner of the modern Navy.

Powered by steam alone, it was constructed almost entirely of iron and bore a revolutionary revolving gun turret 9 feet high and 22 feet in diameter housing two 11-inch (28-cm) cannons.

Launched on Jan. 30, 1862, the Monitor was rushed into service following brief sea trials. It fought one significant battle, with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, which was constructed over the modified hull of the USS Merrimack after Union forces burned that ship.

The March 9, 1862, battle ended in a draw but is considered by historians to have marked the end of the era of wooden battleships.

The Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras on Dec. 31, 1862, as it was being towed to Beaufort, North Carolina, less than a year after its launch. The U.S. Navy built more than 60 other ships during the Civil War based on the revolutionary design of the Monitor.

The wreck was found in August 1973.

The salvage barge Wotan, carrying the turret, was en route from the wreck site, about 16 miles south-southeast of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, to Newport News, Virginia. It was expected in port on Friday. 

Jeremy Irons Cleans Up in Airport Lounge

Aug 9, 11:20 am ET 

DUBLIN  - Britain's multi-faceted screen star Jeremy Irons has revealed shining new talents after cleaning up a scruffy Irish airport lounge during a flight delay, newspapers reported on Thursday.

Upset by the sight of beer-soaked tables and overflowing ashtrays in a lounge at Shannon airport in southwestern Ireland, the Oscar-winning star grabbed a cleaner's trolley and cloth and started mopping up the mess, much to the surprise of fellow passengers.

"I had done enough reading and I looked around me and the place was a tip so I decided to clean up," Irons was quoted as saying in the tabloid Irish Daily Mirror newspaper.

"I find being diverted at airports quite depressing and I felt much better after cleaning up."

He was en route to his castle in Cork, southern Ireland, when his plane was diverted to Shannon.

Doctor Leaves Surgery Patient to Visit Bank

Aug 8, 10:56 am ET 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  - A Massachusetts doctor has been suspended for leaving a patient on the operating table midway through spinal surgery so he could deposit a check at his local bank, authorities said on Thursday.

The state board of medicine said David Arndt, an orthopedic surgeon, posed "an immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare" after he left the patient last month with an open incision in his back.

Arndt left behind a surgeon who was not qualified to complete the surgery, according to board documents. After his 35-minute trip to the bank, Arndt returned to the operating room and finished the surgery within a few hours.

The patient, who was anesthetized during the procedure to restabilize his spine, apparently did not suffer any harm from Arndt's absence and was able to recover in the intensive care unit of Mount Auburn Hospital.

The board on Wednesday suspended Arndt's license to practice medicine in Massachusetts, but he will have a chance to appeal the decision.

According to a board investigator, Arndt acknowledged he had "exercised remarkably horrible judgement."

Arndt explained to the investigator he had been waiting for his paycheck because he had to pay some overdue bills, and had been hoping to finish the surgery before his bank closed for the day.

The procedure took longer than he expected, however, and Arndt decided to make a break for the bank midway through surgery.

Arndt, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, was not available for comment on his suspension. 

Robber Gives Victim First-Aid

Aug 8, 10:17 am ET 

KUALA LUMPUR  - A robber slashed a former Malaysian state governor during a break-in, then felt remorse and gave him first-aid before fleeing, The Sun newspaper said on Thursday.

Abdul Rahman Yaakub, 74, ex-governor of Sarawak state in eastern Malaysia, needed surgery after suffering a fractured arm and severed finger in the attack at his bungalow in a posh Kuala Lumpur suburb on Wednesday.

The robber, one of seven intruders, slashed Abdul Rahman when the elderly man tried to fight him off with a walking stick. But then he took his victim to a bathroom and dressed his wounds.

The Sun said the robbers got away with some Indonesian currency and about 3,600 Malaysian ringgit ($950).

Police were not immediately available for comment. 

Transvestite Sues Beauty School over Rejection

Aug 8, 10:16 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - A transvestite sued a Los Angeles beauty school, claiming his application was rejected when school officials realized he was not a woman.

The lawsuit, brought Wednesday by a plaintiff known only as "Sandy," is the first of its kind under a 1979 city ordinance that prohibits businesses from discrimination based on sexual orientation, "Sandy's" attorney, Gloria Allred, told The News Source.

"Sandy is not required to appear as a man because she is a man or has male genitalia," said Allred, a high-profile Los Angeles lawyer.

When he enrolled last month at the Marinello School of Beauty in Los Angeles, Sandy was perceived to be a woman, Allred said.

After passing a test and paying a $100 fee, he was accepted to the school and told to report for classes in August. "Sandy was very happy, but her happiness did not last very long," Allred said, referring to her client as a woman. "It had been her dream to attend beauty school."

Two hours later, after learning from Sandy's passport that she was legally a man, school officials called to say that she would not be permitted to attend classes because of concerns over which restroom he would use at school, Allred said.

Sandy offered to use the restroom of the school's choice or to go off campus to answer nature's call but the school refused the offer, Allred said.

"I have never ever fought for anything in my life but now it is time to fight for my rights," Sandy told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.

School officials had no comment on the lawsuit.

The Los Angeles ordinance that Allred cited in the lawsuit defines sexual orientation not by physiology, but as "a self image not associated with one's biological maleness or one's biological femaleness."

Sandy, who surprised her friends by coming out as a man, told The News Source that his dream is to open his own salon.

"I want to make people look nice and look good and I want to make people happy," he said. 

Wanted: Professional Hermit for Cave-Dwelling Duty

Aug 8, 10:15 am ET 

LONDON  - More than 200 years after they went out of fashion in Britain, professional hermits are back in the job market.

A newspaper advertisement seeking a resident hermit for the stately Shugborough Home in Staffordshire, central England, has prompted a flood of replies from men eager to ditch stressed-out modern life for a spot of peaceful cave-dwelling. "There have been a few hermits in Britain since their heyday but they've usually just been recluses and loners. This is the first time the job of a resident hermit has been advertised in more than 250 years," organizer Corinne Caddy told the Daily Express.

"(We) have been stunned by the number of applications we have received. It seems there are lots of people out there who just want to be a professional hermit," she said.

The successful applicant will be expected to live in a cave on the grounds of the estate and abandon human contact, except for scaring visitors -- and will probably have to give up shaving and bathing as well.

Artist Anna Douglas, who came up with the idea to highlight National Heritage Week, told the paper that it had been very fashionable in the 18th century to have a hermit living in a remote corner of an estate.

Hermits were always men and were paid handsomely in return for being tied to a five-year contract.

"We are keen to see whether we can recreate this fashion and whether people are equally eager to escape from the pressures of everyday life as they were in the 18th century," Douglas said. 

President Renames Month After Himself

Aug 8, 10:14 am ET 

ASHGABAT  - Turkmenistan's flamboyant President Saparmurat Niyazov, after whom cities, airports and even a meteorite have been named, has proposed a new honor for himself -- the month of January will now bear his name.

Niyazov, officially known as Turkmenbashi, or Head of all the Turkmen, but usually known as Turkmenbashi the Great, proposed that January be renamed Turkmenbashi at a meeting of the People's Council, the country's highest consultative body.

The former Soviet state currently uses the 12-month international calendar, and the names directly translate from its Latin origins. The official state language is Turkmen, a Turkic language.

Other months are to be given names such as "The Flag," "Independence" and "Rukhnama," the title of a quasi-religious spiritual guide written by Niyazov and published last year. Names of national heroes and poets will also be used.

But April will be called "Mother" in an apparent reference to Niyazov's own mother, who died when he was a child. Statues of her have appeared across Ashgabat in recent years, although they are far outnumbered by monuments to her son.

Niyazov was offered the presidency for life in 1999, although he has said he may step down and hold elections in 2010.

But Thursday's People's Council, broadcast live on state television (which carries a golden silhouette of Niyazov at all times), firmly rejected this, as delegate after delegate insisted they wanted him to stay in power until he died. 

Fans Beg Gaddafi to Buy Soccer Team

Aug 8, 10:13 am ET 

ATHENS  - Fans of Greek premier league team PAOK, who are in talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to buy a stake in the club, have written to Gaddafi begging him to save the troubled club.

In a letter sent to the Libyan embassy in Athens, the largest fan club of the Thessaloniki-based team said it wants Gaddafi to take over the club and oust current cash-strapped owner George Batatoudis.

"We ask you to be the savior of our souls and the leader of the new revolution that will originate in the north," said the 'Makedones' letter obtained by The News Source on Thursday.

"Gaddafi, our God, buy PAOK."

The northern Greek club was founded in 1926 by Greeks forced to leave Istanbul in a 1920s population exchange with the then Muslim Ottoman Empire of Turkey.

It has said it is in talks with Gaddafi, who already owns a 7.5 percent stake in Italian soccer giant Juventus, to invest money in the team. 

Slithering Snakes Glide Without Wings

Aug 8, 10:11 am ET 

LONDON  - Forget the wings, disregard the flaps and ditch the rotors, it's possible to soar effortlessly through the air without the usual aerial props -- if you're an Asian paradise tree snake.

The Singapore native snake knows nothing about aerodynamics but it can leap from heights and glide through the air by simply flattening and undulating its body.

"It is doing something that no other flyer, either natural or man-made does, which is moving side-to-side while going forward," said Jake Socha, a biologist at the University of Chicago.

Most flying squirrels, lizards or frogs use wings or flaps to generate lift but the paradise tree snake, or Chrysopelea paradisi, lives in trees and has no appendages so it forms its body into an "S" shape to keep it in flight.

The snake steers, not by banking as in an airplane, but changing the pattern of how it slithers and undulates.

Its glide ratio, how far it travels horizontally compared to how far it falls vertically, is comparable to flying squirrels and lizards.

"They can locomote with a similar ability," said Socha. "These animals are real gliders."

He described the snake an "all-purpose athlete" because it can swim, climb trees and slither on the ground. But he is most interested in its aerial abilities.

Socha studied the snakes in the Singapore zoo and reported his findings in the science journal Nature.

He believes its gliding ability has some evolutionary purpose although he is not sure what it is. He also doubts humans will be able to incorporate its tricks into their own attempts to conquer the skies.

"I don't think we are going to see flying snake planes in 20 years but you never know..," Socha added. 

Nude Lovers Found Dead Inside Garaged Car

Aug 8, 10:10 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - The nude bodies of two young lovers were found inside a garaged car in what appeared to be a tragic accident after an evening of making out.

Police said the bodies of a 16-year-old girl and a man believed to be her boyfriend were discovered Wednesday shortly after midnight in a sports utility vehicle parked in a residential garage in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale.

The coroner's office said no foul play was suspected and gave the probable cause of death as accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police said the car was not running when officers arrived at the scene at about 1 a.m. PDT on Wednesday but the source of the carbon monoxide was believed to be car exhaust.

The identity of the couple was being withheld until next-of-kin were notified. 

Rats, Jelly Fish, Diarrhea Follow Spain's Rains

Aug 8, 10:10 am ET 

MADRID, Spain  - Dead rats and a plague of jelly fish were floating off Barcelona on Wednesday after heavy rains, and authorities in a nearby town said the downpour could have caused an outbreak of diarrhea.

"There are jellyfish, the storm killed rats...they're now in the sea," Barcelona resident Lozano said.

In nearby Santa Maria de Palautordera, seven people were hospitalized and 174 others affected by an outbreak of diarrhea, vomiting and fever, which local authorities said could be linked to a water main contaminated by the heavy rains.

"The sewers too...there's a lot of rubbish," Lozano said. "The jellyfish normally live around the rocks all together...but they've come out and now they are looking for each other."

Despite the hazards and warnings on some beaches, many of the vacationers who flock to the Catalan coast every summer, particularly from Britain and Germany, were still sunbathing and swimming. 

Off Come the Thongs for the Gay Samurai Revue

Aug 8, 10:09 am ET 

By Paul Majendie

EDINBURGH  - The good people of Edinburgh must wonder what is going to hit them next at the madcap Fringe Festival.

First came the "Ladyboys" of Bangkok to woo fans at the annual extravaganza billed as the world's largest arts festival. Now it is the turn of the J-Boys from Tokyo with their gay Samurai revue that leaves nothing to the imagination in the tale of two reincarnated warriors locked in a passionate affair.

The strait-laced Scottish capital throws off its inhibitions with a vengeance every August -- and it certainly needs to with some of the more exotic shows on offer.

Last year, the Ladyboys grabbed the headlines when female impersonator Tor Athapon was so worried about his silicone breast implants at high altitude that he wanted to insure them for the flight from Thailand. It was the perfect publicity stunt to pull in the crowds.

But things went from bad to worse. They were beset by more breast problems -- first their silicone implants hardened in the chilly Scottish climate and then a fetishist stole a pair of their conical fake breasts.

For the J-Boys, the toughest assignment has been attracting crowds down to the club nestled beneath the walls of Edinburgh Castle where they are performing up to three shows a day. In week one, audiences have been averaging 15-20.

It is hard graft for the dancers. "We have no time for romance here. We are far too busy, pure in body and spirit -- just like priests," said Hiroshi Jin, founder of Company East.

Jin has taken the 12-strong troupe around the world for three months this year with trips to arts festivals in Adelaide in Australia, Avignon in France and now Edinburgh. Next year the globetrotters are off to Montreal in Canada.

Hiroshi Jin certainly hasn't had a chance to go and see the Ladyboys of Bangkok on their return trip to Edinburgh and is quick to highlight the differences.

"I want to make a different show from the Ladyboys. We are guys who want to be sexual on stage but we don't want to be transvestites," he told The News Source after Wednesday night's show.

The audience certainly sees plenty of the dancers. For the glittering costumes soon fall to the floor and they are down to their skimpy thongs. They in turn are quickly discarded and, as their publicity blurb says, then comes a show "highly recommended for women and men who relish high camp, great fun and are not offended by total nudity."

Hiroshi Jin and fellow performer Sho Tohno launch into an impassioned love scene that stuns into silence the smattering of middle-aged gay couples in the audience.

"It is just simulated. I cannot have real sex on stage otherwise we would be finished," Hiroshi Jin said after their erotically charged performance.

"Anyway, I don't need a lover. The stage is my lover," he added.

And then the J-Boys show ends on what must rank as one of the most surreal sights at the Edinburgh Fringe -- the scantily-clad troupe launch into their last flamboyant dance routine to the strains of Latino heart-throb Ricky Martin singing "She Bangs, She Bangs." 

Hope You Like This, Honey -- I Can't Return It...

Aug 7, 1:41 pm ET 

BOCA RATON, Fla.  - A 16-inch diamond necklace apparently swallowed by a jewel thief was put up for auction on the Internet on Tuesday by its owner, who hopes to cash in on the gems' unusual provenance.

Police said they recovered the necklace, studded with 83 diamonds, from a man who was charged with grand theft after X-rays showed the missing necklace and two loose diamonds in his digestive system last week.

The incident was widely reported by the news media and the necklace became the butt of jokes on the talk shows, prompting a flood of phone calls to Harold's Jewelers in Boca Raton.

"We have been getting so much attention over the matter, we decided to auction the item on eBay," store owner Lee Mendelson said on Tuesday.

He set the minimum bid at $75,000 for the necklace, which contains nearly 30 carats of diamonds. He said he expected it to sell for well over $100,000 in the 10-day auction.

"It's a valuable piece on its own regardless of its provenance," store employee Josh Stefanoff said.

The suspect, 38-year-old Mark Kennedy, went to the store on July 31 and asked to see a ring, police said. While the store owner was distracted, Kennedy grabbed the jewels, stuffed them into his shorts and left in his car, according to the arrest report.

Police pulled Kennedy over on Interstate 95 but could not find the missing jewelry on his person or in his car. They did find the end of a marijuana cigarette and arrested him on a drug possession charge, the police report said.

Kennedy became ill at the police station and was taken to a hospital, where X-rays solved the mystery of the missing loot.

Kennedy told police he had swallowed the loose gems and hidden the necklace in his rectum. But the doctor who examined the X-rays was puzzled by the necklace's position high up in his digestive tract, a police spokesman said.

Store employees said Kennedy had swallowed the necklace.

"When they X-rayed him, it showed it to be in his stomach," store employee Josh Stefanoff said.

He said the necklace was sterilized, boiled and cleaned with alcohol and jewelry cleaner. Mendelson said he would hand-deliver the necklace to the winning bidder if the buyer lives in the continental United States.

One loose diamond was recovered but police were still awaiting recovery of the second one, Stefanoff said. 

Man Dies After Fiery Summer Snowmobile Stunt

Aug 7, 12:49 pm ET 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A Canadian man who tried to drive his snowmobile through a ball of flames during a drunken summer party has died of his injuries, police said on Tuesday.

Josh Chapman was severely burned in the July 20 incident in Squamish, British Columbia.

Witnesses told police the 23-year-old from Whistler, British Columbia, near Vancouver, rode the snowmobile in a "wheelie" down a paved public street and attempt to drive it through a gasoline fire at the end of the run.

Local media reported Chapman's stunt was also being recorded for use in a video of extreme sports events.

Chapman had been hospitalized in critical condition since attempting the stunt and died on Monday. No criminal charges have been filed, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the incident was still under investigation. 

Tortoise Victim of Violence Gets TV Set Wheels

Aug 7, 12:47 pm ET 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil  - A domesticated tortoise that lost the use of its hind feet after being hit by a stray bullet during a shootout in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown has won a pair of wheels to move around again.

Doctors at a veterinary clinic in Rio's beachside Copacabana district said Tuesday the 20-year-old animal was learning to walk, or roll, using its front feet and a pair of wheels from a television rack, attached to the bottom side of its shell with adhesive bandage.

The owner of the animal, who lives in the shantytown, cannot afford to pay for the treatment, but one of the doctors is taking care of the reptile, whose thick bony shell had failed to protect it from the bullet, for free. 

Town Finds Its Golden Egg in Koala Dung

Aug 7, 12:46 pm ET 

SYDNEY  - A fairytale goose may have laid a golden egg, but the tiny Australian town of Gunnedah hopes to make money from koala dung.

Gunnedah, self-styled "Koala Capital of the World," is packaging its bountiful koala droppings and selling them to tourists at A$1 (around 53 U.S. cents) a bag.

Tourism official Chris Frend said his little town in New South Wales state had begun packaging marsupial feces as "Koala Kitsch" six months ago.

"It's early days as far as marketing them is concerned and who knows, we might end up with gold ones, or something like that, as earrings or pendants," Frend told The News Source on Wednesday.

"The mind boggles as far as where we can go with it all."

The aim is to promote Gunnedah, about 480 km (300 miles) north of Sydney and with a population of 13,000, as a tourist destination because of its large, healthy koala population.

Hygiene is not a problem, Frend insisted.

"Well, they're in a plastic bag, a la natural," he said. "Obviously you don't encourage people to take them out of the bag or anything like that but they don't smell, they're just naturally dried."

The current main source of Koala Kitsch is a female marsupial who has taken up residence in a tree outside the tourist office.

Demand has not yet reached a point where officials have to put a bucket under the tree but, even if interest soared, it shouldn't cause too much of a problem.

"It's so renewable," Frend said. 

Jailed Prostitute Sues over Pay

Aug 7, 12:45 pm ET 

HELSINKI  - An Estonian prostitute is suing Finland for 21,930 euros ($21,230) in lost income and personal damages after she was jailed for almost two months without being charged, her lawyer said.

Known only as Tatyana, the 28-year-old was arrested in the spring for pimping when police broke up a prostitution ring operating in the Helsinki area and the southwestern city of Turku.

After 51 days in jail, Tatyana was released when the prosecutor decided not to press charges. Prostitution is not a crime in Finland, but pimping is.

Attorney Hans Mannsten told The News Source his client wanted 350 euros in lost revenues for every day spent in prison and an additional 80 euros per day for suffering.

"The court initially said the amount we require for lost salary is too high, but we stand by our demands," Mannsten said.

"Her friends made money and she could not when she was in jail, that is the problem."

Court officials in Helsinki were not immediately available to comment on the case. Mannsten said he expected the suit to go to trial before the end of 2002. 

Bear Kills Woman in Retirement Home

Aug 7, 12:44 pm ET 

HANOVER, Germany  - A performing bear entertaining pensioners in a German retirement home accidentally sat on a 90-year-old and killed her, the manager of the home said Wednesday.

"Nora," a 485-pound brown bear, was being led into a hall when she stumbled over the woman's wheelchair, lost her footing and fell on the woman, who later died in hospital from her injuries.

"The bear was only supposed to sit on a bench and eat fruit while her handler talked about the history of bears," said Klaus J., director of the home in Hanover, northern Germany.

He declined to give his full name because he and the handler face charges of culpable manslaughter.

Nora, who has appeared on German television, is still performing. The incident happened during a Christmas party for 40 elderly people in 2000 and has now come to trial. 

Walesa Shaves Trademark Mustache, Regrets It

Aug 7, 12:42 pm ET 

GDANSK, Poland  - Legendary Polish pro-democracy leader Lech Walesa, who once turned down a million-dollar offer to shave his trademark mustache, has at last taken a razor to his upper lip.

But he's not happy with the results.

"I wanted to cause a bit of a fuss over the summer holidays, but my wife Danuta and I realized it wasn't a good idea," said the former shipyard electrician and leader of the Solidarity trade union which toppled communism.

Walesa's drooping walrus mustache became a symbol of defiance when he refused to shave during the Gdansk shipyard strikes of 1980 which marked the beginning of the end for Soviet-backed communist rule.

He later turned down a $1 million offer from a U.S. razor firm to shave the mustache for an ad campaign.

Walesa, now 58, did crop his graying mustache during his five-year stint as Poland's president in the early 1990s but, until this week, never went all the way.

Wife Danuta told The News Source Wednesday Walesa had shaved the mustache without telling her. But she said it was already growing again and "will already look natural" in time for a speaking tour to Venezuela starting this weekend. 

Presidents Left in Dark at Party

Aug 7, 12:40 pm ET 

KINGSTON, Jamaica  - A power failure at another gala dinner hosted by the Jamaican government on Tuesday left more distinguished guests, including visiting presidents, in the dark.

Among the guests were Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo and world heavyweight boxing champion, Lennox Lewis.

Hosted by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson at his office, Jamaica House, the dinner was the second such embarrassment for his administration in six months.

Last February, the power went when Britain's Queen Elizabeth and more than 100 guests were at a function at the Governor General's residence, King's House.

Unlike that power failure lasting more than an hour, the loss in electricity supply on Tuesday night lasted 32 minutes just as guests were being treated to a musical presentation.

A faulty stand-by generator also malfunctioned.

While ushers hurriedly lit candles, government officials were busy on mobile telephones, apparently trying to get word from the lone electricity provider, the Jamaica Public Service, now controlled by United States-based Mirant Corp . 

Baby Survives 17 Hours in Trash Can

Aug 7, 12:39 pm ET 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.  - An abandoned newborn girl survived 17 hours in a trash can before she was found in good health, Florida police said on Tuesday.

The infant was discovered shortly after noon on Monday after neighbors heard her crying. Police initially thought the baby had been born about two hours before she was abandoned.

But St. Petersburg Police spokesman George Kajtsa said they traced the baby's mother and she later told them the infant had been born on Sunday night and placed in the garbage can then.

Despite the sweltering Florida summer temperatures, the unnamed baby was in good condition at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

The mother, identified as Stephanie Smith, 24, of St. Petersburg, was jailed on an attempted first-degree murder charge.

Police searched the neighborhood and questioned Smith after finding traces of blood near another trash bin next to her house. She lived across the street from the home where the infant was found. 

Trevi Fountain Fisher Finally Reeled In

Aug 6, 9:27 am ET 

ROME  - A homeless man who has long made his living fishing coins out of Rome's famed Trevi fountain was arrested Tuesday, police officials said.

Thousands of tourists stand with their backs to the Renaissance masterpiece and throw coins over their shoulders into the fountain every day in the hope they will return to the eternal city.

The money is supposed to go to charity but police said since 1968, Roberto Cercelletta, who could face theft charges, has waded into the water at Neptune's feet every morning to retrieve the coins left behind, amassing a small fortune.

"Every five days he bagged between 5-6,000 euros (dollars)," said Massimo Impronta, a local police chief, although in the low tourist season his daily catch was much smaller.

But after a flurry of media attention that embarrassed local officials, police moved in to put a stop to the pilfering.

When Cercelletta, 50, arrived at around 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the police were waiting for him, but the homeless man was undaunted. He plunged into the fountain and in less than 10 minutes had raked up 22 kg of coins worth about 1,000 euros.

It took several policemen to arrest Cercelletta, who could also face charges of resisting arrest and insulting public officials.

Police have fined him in the past, but because Cercelletta has no address and is unemployed, he has got away without paying. When police tried to stop him last week Cercelletta slashed his stomach with a razor in protest.

Rome's city authorities estimate the charities that are supposed to get the money have lost out on as much as 12,000 euros a month.

Women to Worship Goddess of Beer

Aug 6, 9:26 am ET 

LONDON  - British beer lovers have enlisted the support of a Sumerian goddess in their efforts to shake off the masculine image of their favorite tipple.

Fed up with the drink's beer bellied image, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said on Tuesday it had adopted the goddess Ninkasi -- said to have created a recipe for beer 4,000 years ago -- as patron in a bid to attract more women to the pumps.

"We think real British beer is something to be proud of and it should be marketed to women as well as men," said Camra's Mike Benner.

"Almost all the advertising we see on our TV screens...is a real turn off for women. Ninkasi, the new Goddess of British beer, is here to change all that."

Ninkasi, worshipped by one of the world's earliest civilizations in what is now Iraq in around 3500 BC, is thought to be one of the early brewers of beer.

She was worshipped by both men and women at a time when ale was made and served exclusively by women.

Camra decided to adopt the cult after its research revealed that less than a quarter of British women had tried real cask ale in a pub, Benner said.

Almost a fifth of women polled by Camra said they thought it was an old-fashioned drink, while a third believed it was "unfeminine."

"Brewers need to present beer in a more original and modern way if they are going to build a following with women," Benner said in a statement. "It needs to be a little less Inspector Morse."

To tempt female taste buds, the society is launching a range of 10 "female friendly" ales at its Great British Beer Festival in London this week.

While none is brewed to the recipe used by Ninkasi, Benner said the 10 beers on offer demonstrated the wide variety available.

He added that women would also not be expected to drink the beer in the same way as ancient Sumerian women -- from bulky clay jugs through lengthy drinking straws.

The annual Great British Beer Festival is on at London's Olympia from Tuesday to Saturday. Some 45,000 beer lovers are expected to attend.

Camra surveyed 1,000 people across Britain in June this year.

Pop Songs Challenge Funeral Favorites

Aug 6, 9:24 am ET 

LONDON  - It's never easy to say goodbye but when the time comes, more Britons are choosing a pop ditty over a mournful dirge.

Contemporary pop songs rather than traditional hymns provide the music for an increasing number of funeral services, the Co-operative Group's Funeral Service said Monday.

Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" from the 1988 tearjerker "Beaches" topped the funeral chart in a Co-op poll conducted throughout Britain.

"Perhaps mourners want to recreate the emotion of their favorite films and ensure their loved ones receive a funeral worthy of a star," Lorinda Sheasby of the Co-op, one of Britain's biggest undertakers.

The Co-op said 68 percent of its undertakers reported increased use of pop songs.

Weepy Hollywood film ballads are the most popular choice.

In second place was Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," the theme from the blockbuster film "Titanic." Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was number three.

Other top 10 selections were "Candle in the Wind," sung by Elton John at the funeral of Britain's Princess Diana in 1997, and "Angels" by Robbie Williams.

There were also those who chose to bid a more whimsical farewell. Among the more unusual requests were the Village People's "YMCA" and Wham's "Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go," not to mention the Queen classic "Another One Bites the Dust."

Hundreds Flock to LA for Monroe Death Anniversary

Aug 6, 9:23 am ET 

LOS ANGELES  - Hundreds of fans, coming from as far away as Europe, turned out on Monday at a Los Angeles cemetery to mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe by placing flowers on her crypt and sharing their memories of the screen love goddess.

The service, held yearly on the date of Monroe's death at age 36, attracted about 250 Marilyn devotees to the chapel at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, a cemetery spokeswoman said.

The two-hour service, conducted by 17 presidents of Marilyn Monroe fan clubs, was the largest in at least 20 years, said cemetery spokeswoman Kathy Boyett.

Among those attending was Robert Slatzer, who wrote a book about Monroe's life and mysterious death and claimed to have been married to her briefly.

The circumstances surrounding Monroe's apparent drug overdose at age 36 at her Brentwood home has long prompted rumors that she was murdered, although the death was listed a suicide.

Unsubstantiated reports linked her death to affairs she purportedly had with President John F. Kennedy and his brother, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

British Monument Adorned with Giant Condom

Aug 6, 9:22 am ET 

LONDON  - The Cerne Abbas Giant, a giant fertility symbol cut into a hillside in southern England, bore a new accessory on Monday: a 21-foot condom.

In a publicity stunt carried out by the British Family Planning Association to raise sexual health awareness, the 197-foot tall figure famous for its erect phallus was adorned with the huge sheath overnight Sunday.

The image, etched into the chalk rock of a Dorset hillside, is believed to date from the second millennium BC. At least one couple claim to have cured their infertility by making love in its one-foot-wide trenches.

"It does get used rather by people doing stunts...we just hope it doesn't do any damage," said a spokesman for the National Trust, which owns the chalk man. He added, however, "We've got a sense of humor too."

Firm Fights for Right to Sell Titanic Artifacts

Aug 6, 9:21 am ET 

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA  - A U.S. company that has the rights to salvage and display artifacts from the Titanic said Monday it had asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that bans it from selling items recovered from the sunken ship.

RMS Titanic Inc., a publicly traded company based in Atlanta, argues that a federal appeals court was wrong when it ruled in April that the company did not have proper title to the 6,000 items it has salvaged from the famous vessel.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, meant that the company could be compensated for its salvage work but could not sell any artifacts from the wreck or surrounding waters.

The Titanic struck an iceberg and sank off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland on April 15, 1912, killing 1,523 people.

Arnie Geller, president of RMS Titanic, said the company was the first to recover objects from the shipwreck. It then went through a legal process that resulted in a federal court granting it ownership rights to the Titanic's treasures in 1994, allowing the salvage operator to recover and, if it wished, sell the artifacts.

He noted that the firm had spent millions on expeditions to the wreck site and on efforts to preserve and restore artifacts plucked from the depths of the North Atlantic.

"Investors bought stock in the company in reliance upon the fact that a United States federal court awarded us ownership of everything we recovered," said Geller, who noted that the company's shares had fallen to about 25 cents a share from about $3 a share last year.

The company has, however, been able to recoup some of the money it spent by displaying Titanic artifacts, which include a 15-tonpiece of the ship's hull, in shows and exhibitions that have attracted millions of visitors.

The legal battle over the spoils of the Titanic comes amid a growing effort by the United Nations to designate and protect ancient shipwrecks and drowned civilizations as underwater cultural heritage sites.

Last November in Paris, the 138 member states of the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO ratified a new convention outlawing the plundering of ancient shipwrecks and underwater archeological sites. The measure was bitterly opposed by private salvage operators.

Although many countries already protect and manage historic wrecks and sites within their waters, those in international waters, such as the Titanic, are not governed by any statutes or regulations.

UNESCO estimates that more than 3 million undiscovered shipwrecks litter the world's ocean floors.

Pets Offered Luxury Lifestyle After Owners Die

Aug 6, 9:20 am ET 

By Pablo Bello

CHICAGO  - Tiger, Snowball and Snookie will be able to play all day long in their own yard, take in a movie, and then get a massage to relieve the stress of the day -- all in the comfort of their own kitty condominium.

But only if the pet cats outlive their owner.

A trust fund set up by cat owner Erica Parker, 41, will provide her orphaned pets with their own suite equipped with television, a yard and other services such as grooming.

"I hope that people understand that when people care for their pets it's not eccentric, it's just caring," said Parker, who lives in Littles Town, Pennsylvania, and does not have children.

Pet Estates in Melrose, New York, has arranged to care for Parker's beloved Tiger, Snowball, Snookie, Alex, Kelly Cat and Pinball in the event she cannot.

While cats might not be interested in the swimming pool at the seven-acre (2.8-hectare) estate near Albany, New York, owner-less dogs can take a dip while listening to music and wolfing down treats.

Pampered pets will enjoy warm meals and a raised, heated bed in the serenity of their own private rooms, as opposed to a kennel cage.

Parker and her husband decided during a daily commute to provide for their cats. "We were concerned that, God forbid, something happens to us," she said.

Parker's will sets aside money for either a semi-private suite with shared community room and play yard, costing $7,300 per year, or a two-room condo with enclosed porch for $11,000.

If she opts to arrange for massages for her cats, it will cost $35 per 40-minute session.

Not a bad life for cats she rescued from the streets.

For dogs, prices are higher with a semi-private suite, shared community room and play yard costing $14,600. A two-room condo with enclosed porch is $21,400.

Dogs also can receive a half-hour bath for $40.

Other groups take in pets after their owners die, including a program at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary at Kanab, Utah, but Pet Estates is the only one providing a luxury lifestyle.

Mary Lynn Gagnon, Pet Estates' owner, came up with the idea after spending years in the pet boarding business.

"We noticed that some of our older clients, as they were passing away, didn't make provisions for their pets, so they were euthanized," Gagnon said.

Sometimes, orphaned pets were placed in new homes, giving Gagnon the idea to launch her business.

She also is a registered nurse in tune with proper health care and hygiene practices. She said her goal is to treat the pets like her own.

Chicago cat owner Cynthia Metivier, a housewife, liked the idea of someone taking care of her three cats in a comfortable, clean environment after she's gone.

"It is our responsibility. Cats or dogs can't feed themselves," Metivier said, adding she had arranged with a friend to take care of her pets if she were to die.

An expert on grieving said the service could give solace to a pet's human owners.

"The unconditional love and acceptance from a pet is very powerful, and the idea that a person is going to die and there is no one to look after their pet, and they will be euthanized, will break an owner's heart," said Russell Friedman, executive director of the Grief Recovery Institute of Sherman Oaks, California, which helps people cope with death, divorce or other losses.

Marketing expert Marian Salzman conducted a study entitled "Pampered Pet" that found Americans spent more than $28 billion in 2001 feeding, healing and pampering their pets.

"Their pricing structure seems a little bit over the top to me," Salzman, of Euro RSCG Worldwide in New York, said of Pet Estates.

"Pet Estates will succeed if they figure a way to make it financially viable for the pet owner," Salzman added. "We have been watching a trend that indicated that people felt virtually as passionately about their pet as they feel about their children."

Anxiety can overwhelm pet owners when they ask what will happen to their pets if they pass away or become disabled, she said. Increasingly, considerations are made for pets in wills and insurance policies, particularly by single people without children, Salzman added.

Gary Kish of the Oregon Humane Society said the idea of keeping a dog or cat in a shelter after the owner dies seemed wrong.

"Household pets should remain household pets," Kish said. "Shelter employees go home at night but pets are accustomed to being with a family. It's probably better than the animals not having a home, but they would be better off if they were in a permanent home with a permanent family."

Kish recalled similar arrangements to Pet Estates turning out badly, citing a shelter in New York state where the animals were locked in a barn and neglected -- and began devouring each other. He also questioned what would happen if the shelters go out of business.

"People should work with their attorney and local humane societies to try to make the best plans that they can for their pets," Kish said.

Cheesecake Factory Recalls Listeria-Tainted Cakes

Aug 6, 9:17 am ET 

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif.  - The Cheesecake Factory Inc., an owner and operator of 52 upscale restaurants nationwide, said on Monday that it has recalled some cheesecakes found to be contaminated with the potentially deadly listeria bacteria. It also issued a wider recall of all its baked goods made between July 18 and July 21.

No illnesses have been reported due to the contaminated cakes, said a spokeswoman for the company. Listeria is a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in children, frail or elderly people, or those with weakened immune systems.

The company said it has recalled a batch of white chocolate raspberry cheesecakes made in its facility at Calabasas Hills, California, that were destined for sale at Olive Garden, a chain of 496 moderately priced Italian restaurants owned by Darden Restaurants .

The presence of the listeria, which the company attributed to human error, was discovered after routine testing, said the spokeswoman. None of the contaminated cakes was made for or sent to Cheesecake Factory restaurants or other wholesale customers besides Darden, she said.

The company is now working with the Food and Drug Administration and the Olive Garden since it uncovered the problem.

"All of the Cheesecake Factory product has been removed from the system since last week," a Darden spokesman said. "We can't rule out the possibility we may have served Cheesecake Factory products in 19 restaurants before we received notice from the company about the listeria contamination. However, we have destroyed all of the Cheesecake Factory products in our Olive Garden restaurants nationwide and have had no reports of any illness."

The decision to recall all baked goods made during the three-day period in July is a precautionary move, and there is no sign of contamination in any of the products. Consumers with questions should call the toll free number 1-888-290-9437, the Cheesecake Factory spokeswoman said.

Cheesecake Factory shares sank more than 9 percent, or $2.81, to end Monday at $28.20 on the Nasdaq market. They have gained about 15 percent so far this year, compared with a nearly 5 percent decline in the Standard & Poor's Restaurant Index.

Shares of Darden, which are down nearly 9 percent so far this year, declined a penny to close at $21.49 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Separately, food scientists at the Georgia Department of Agriculture on Monday said they found listeria-contaminated bay leaves pulled from a store sample.

The bay leaves, sold in the produce section of grocery stores under the brand "Melissa's Fresh Bay Leaves," are distributed by World Variety Produce, Inc. of Los Angeles.

Hunting Burundi's Giant Crocodile

Aug 6, 9:17 am ET 

By Maria Eismont

RUZIZI NATURAL RESERVE, Burundi  - With his leathery back basking in the hot Burundian sun, Gustave lounges on a rock near the Ruzizi river, oblivious to a plot to end his century-long freedom.

Gustave is a crocodile -- the biggest and most dangerous in the tiny central African country.

And Patrice Faye, a French snake dealer who came to Burundi 20 years ago, wants to catch him.

"In the beginning I wanted to kill this crocodile because he eats people, that's the reality," Faye, who has been following Gustave for eighteen months, told The News Source.

"But then I followed him, and I felt that it would be interesting to capture him, because while following him I have almost developed an affection for him.

"He is maybe 100 years old, so he could well be the oldest living being in Burundi. It would be a shame to kill him for a trophy."

Gustave, according to Faye, has killed about 50 people since he was born. The beady-eyed reptile weighs about a ton-- twice as much as an average crocodile -- and is thought to be at least six meters (20 feet) long.

A special French team is coming in September to take part in his capture, and if all goes according to plan, Gustave will be enticed by an animal used as bait into a huge metal trap.

He will then be transported to the capital Bujumbura, where tourists will be able to pay to come to see him.

Faye's love of animals does not stop at the crocodile. The garden of his suburban home in the capital Bujumbura is a veritable menagerie of snakes, birds of prey, guinea pigs, parrots and even a house-trained jackal called Le Pen after the right-wing French politician whom Faye says he resembles.

Arriving in Burundi in the 1980s, the Frenchman quickly built a reputation based on his passion for exotic and dangerous creatures.

Capturing snakes and selling them to European markets was a highly profitable business at the time, but a civil war which broke out in Burundi in 1993 has taken its toll.

Few airlines fly to Bujumbura, tourism is all but unheard of and Faye says it is difficult to make a living as a snake dealer.

"I only manage to make a sale about twice a year," he said. "It's quite hard to survive on it now."

Not everyone is impressed with Faye's maverick projects, saying he takes advantage of local know-how to earn his trade.

Every Wednesday, dozens of Twa hunters, forest dwellers ethnically close to pygmies, converge on a roadside market in Burundi's northern Bubanza province to sell snakes, frogs and birds they have managed to catch.

Covering the animals -- many of which are potentially deadly -- with bags made from palm leaves, the Twa say Faye, who often buys the creatures they have spent hours tracking through the forests, owes them his success.

"This white man became what he is now because of us," Bwaniki Mukosomali, an old snake hunter, told The News Source. "But for a job that we are doing he is paying us peanuts."

But Faye, who lives a relatively modest lifestyle by Western standards, could argue that he provides poor tribesman with a rare chance to earn money in a country where war has destroyed much of the economy.

FISHERMEN UNFAZED

Gustave is not likely to be missed from the Ruzizi river where he lives among the hippos and local fishermen who risk their lives to fish in the murky waters.

Rebels are thought to hide out in the thick bushes that line the river, but nearby villagers are seldom fazed. Hunger, for them, is a bigger risk than either rebels or crocodiles.

"We can see the danger when Gustave is in the water," one fisherman said. "But we continue to fish to feed our families. If the crocodile kills you -- I guess that means your time has come."

For Faye, his project to turn Gustave into an attraction for any future tourists and make the Ruzizi river safe for villagers could be a dream come true.

The Frenchman is visibly excited about his self-appointed mission. Huge metallic beams lie in the courtyard of his house, ready to build the trap that will carry Gustave's giant body.

A book about crocodiles sits on his table, open to a diagram of what the trap should look like.

"I think we all have a sort of childhood dream which follows us until we die," he said, playing with the baby owl perched on top of his armchair. "And Gustave is part of that dream. Maybe one day I'll die in Gustave's jaws. I'm not really in a hurry for that, but it would be a beautiful death..."

Police 'Rescue' Sex Doll from Lake

Aug 5, 9:31 am ET 

VIENNA  - Austrian police following up on reports of a corpse floating in Lake Constance found only an abandoned inflatable sex doll, police said Monday.

Police rushed to the lake bordering Switzerland and Germany after a boatsman Friday called to say he had spotted a body. A 20-minute search turned up the female sex dummy, they said.

Vacation Mix-Up: a Tale of Two Sydneys

Aug 5, 9:30 am ET 

LONDON  - A British couple are getting over the shock of landing on the wrong continent after the tickets they bought for a dream holiday in Sydney took them to a sleepy town in Canada instead of the sun-kissed Australian metropolis.

Emma Dunn and Raoul Sebastian, both 19, booked their tickets from London over the Internet and only realized something was amiss when they were asked to transfer to a small propeller plane in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Andrea Batten, an employee of Air Canada in Sydney, Nova Scotia, took pity on the couple. She told The News Source she was dropping off a friend at the airport when a colleague asked: "Can somebody go to the counter and help these people? They think they're in Sydney, Australia."

"They were obviously very surprised," says Batten, who said she had never heard of such an incident in her 13 years of working there.

The couple are now making the most of the attractions of the industrial town known as "the steel city" -- population 26,083 -- during their unexpected visit.

"They decided they might as well stay for a few days, having come all this way," said Batten. "It's going to be a trip to remember."

European Women Marry U.S. Death Row Inmates

Aug 5, 9:29 am ET 

By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON  - Hester Patrick has been married for five years but she has never hugged or kissed her husband, or even touched him.

She may never do those things because Jesse Patrick is on death row in Texas with a September 17 execution date.

The 47-year-old British stage designer may have an unconventional marriage but she is far from unique. Although there are no statistics, authorities in several states say it is not unusual for men on death row to marry, often to women from Europe.

According to Death Penalty News, a newsletter published by death penalty foes, 10 women have married men on Florida's death row alone since 1997. Hester Patrick knows of three other women, all of them Europeans, married to inmates on Texas' death row.

Marriages between condemned men in America and women from Germany and Scandinavian countries, where opposition to the U.S. death penalty is strong, seem to be particularly common.

Like many of these women, Patrick met her husband through a pen pal club that matches correspondents with some of the 3,650 men facing death sentences in the United States. There have been 37 executions so far this year.

"I go over to Texas every two months. I get a non-contact visit. You go into a visitation room and we speak on a phone through bullet-proof glass," she said.

"We were not allowed to be together even for our wedding. A friend stood in for Jesse," Hester Patrick said in a telephone interview.

"I have nightmares about him being executed but if it comes to that, I will be there for him. I couldn't bear to let him go through that alone, without a single person who loves him."

Jesse Patrick, 44, was convicted of the 1980 murder of 80-year-old Nina Rutherford Reddan in Dallas.

Police found a sock and toilet paper soaked with the victim's blood in Patrick's house. The murder weapon, a knife found at the scene, was identified as belonging to Patrick. Sperm was found in the victim's body, and an officer testified she had been sexually assaulted but the sperm was not tested.

Now Hester Patrick is fighting the state of Texas to have that DNA tested at her expense. Her lawyer, Keith Hampton, does not believe the test will clear his client but hopes to postpone the execution by raising other irregularities in his trial.

Even death penalty opponents say they cannot understand what would impel women to marry men on death row.

"I know of several cases but I don't know if I can explain it," said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

"Although some women may be looking for notoriety, most seem to have genuine feelings. They start corresponding with an inmate to provide comfort and support to someone in a terrible situation and it goes from there," he said.

One defense lawyer, who asked not be named, said some women who might lead dull everyday lives, seemed to be attracted by the thrill of danger and the glamour of being associated with a convicted killer.

Hannah Floyd, a Danish mother of three, started writing to an inmate on Florida's death row in 1997. After a year of correspondence, she decided to visit him.

"I went home after that first visit, packed my bags and went back to Florida with my two youngest kids. I knew it was the right thing to do. It was God's will," said Floyd, a committed Christian who converted her husband from Islam and says he has "found an inner glow."

Unlike Texas, in Florida death row inmates are allowed to meet their wives every weekend for six hours, during which they can hold hands, eat together and walk around in a room. But they are never alone together.

Floyd, who said she could not discuss her husband's case without his permission and asked that his name not be published, now runs a guest house in Stark, Florida, near her husband's prison.

"I'm over here for a million different reasons. I'm very active in the anti-death penalty movement. I'm not a crazy woman coming over here. I truly believe one day we will live a normal married life," she said.

Andrea Faust, a 37-year-old divorced mother of two living in Germany, plans to marry an inmate on Florida's death row soon. She too is a fierce opponent of the death penalty.

"I could never understand implementing such a cruel, inhuman and barbaric sentence," she said in an e-mail exchange, in which she asked for her fiance not to be named.

Describing him, she wrote: "He is not the person any more who he used to be while being on the streets. I got to know a very warm-hearted, caring, honest, understanding, intelligent and highly educated man who appreciates life more than anything else...

"I have to live with resistance toward this relationship from friends and family who can't seem to understand something that is normal to me," she wrote.

Dagmar Polzin, a German waitress in her early 30s, saw a picture of North Carolina death row inmate Bobby Lee Harris in an advertisement on a bus stop in Hamburg. Harris was one of seven inmates featured in a $20 million ad campaign by the Italian clothing company Benetton.

"I knew he wasn't a killer. I could see it in his eyes," said Polzin, who quickly made plans to visit Harris in prison and moved to North Carolina to be with him. Harris was almost executed last year but a judge set aside his death sentence, though he still faces life in prison.

Polzin continued to visit regularly though she cannot touch her fiance. "No glass, no people can destroy love," she told a North Carolina newspaper.

Even serial killers can hope for love. Richard Ramirez, known as the "Night Stalker," got married in 1996 in California's San Quentin prison to Doreen Lioy, a freelance editor. Ramirez was convicted of 14 brutal murders.

In 1998, Rebecca Torrijas, a former prison nurse, married Henry Louis Wallace, who is on death row in North Carolina for the murder of nine women and may have murdered as many as 20 across the world while he was on naval duty.

The couple exchanged vows in a small room next to the death chamber. Wallace still is awaiting execution with no date set.

Mothers Break Breastfeeding Record

Aug 5, 9:27 am ET 

BERKELEY, Calif.  - More than 1,000 mothers and babies set a new mass breast-feeding record Saturday in an event aimed at promoting the health benefits of nursing, organizers said.

The 1,135 mothers in Berkeley, the famously liberal university town near San Francisco, broke the Guinness record for "Most Women Breast-feeding Simultaneously" set this week by 767 women in Australia, said Ellen Sirbu, co-chairwoman of the California event.

"It was more than a success," Sirbu said. "It was a smashing success because the women loved it, the band was great and everything went right."

Organizers, who marched the mothers and their babies from a park to a nearby theater for the mass nurse-in, said they planned to send the results to Guinness judges in England to verify the new world record.

Volunteers from the Bay Area Lactation Association and two independent observers -- including Berkeley's mayor -- were on hand to help count the nursing mothers. The city sponsored the event as part of its women, infants and children nutrition program.

Organizers said the event would promote the health benefits of breast-feeding, which research has shown reduces a woman's risk of breast cancer.

A recent study in the British medical publication Lancet, for example, calculated that for every year a woman breast-feeds, it cuts her risk of breast cancer by 4.3 percent.

Iran Debates 'Chastity Houses'

Aug 5, 9:26 am ET 

By Parinoosh Arami

TEHRAN  - Loosely veiled and wearing heavy makeup, young women line the main streets in northern Tehran, looking out for prosperous customers in new cars.

Such scenes, taking place with ever greater frequency, have become a big headache for Iran's Islamic rulers who have long tried to eradicate "social corruption" and realize their dream of a puritanical society.

Based on official figures, about 300,000 women are engaged in the sex trade in Iran and the numbers is steadily rising. Newspapers routinely report of a crackdown on "corrupt networks" preying upon naive runaway girls from small towns.

Until several years ago, Iran's ruling Shi'ite Muslim clergy either denied adamantly that they faced a prostitution problem or blamed it on the "bad influences" of Western culture, transmitted by videos and satellite television.

But with the practice spreading to even small towns closed to outside influences, many are waking up to the reality and looking for solutions other than sheer force.

The latest idea is the so-called "chastity houses," regarded by some religious leaders as a more acceptable version of brothels, to both shelter poor street women and satisfy the sexual needs of men who cannot afford to get married.

The idea has been widely publicized in the Iranian media but, with prostitution long held as a "cardinal sin," few dare to openly endorse it and most officials have dissociated themselves from it.

At least one senior cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Mousavi Bojnurdi, has come out strongly in defense of the plan, provoking an uproar among feminist and conservative groups.

"We face a real challenge with all these women on the streets. Our society is in an emergency situation, so the formation of the chastity houses can be an immediate solution to the problem," the ayatollah told a newspaper. "This plan is both realistic and conforms to the Sharia (Islamic) law."

Under the scheme, couples would register for a temporary, Islamicly correct marriage and receive a license as well as free contraceptives and health advice.

The license would legitimize their relationship and make them immune from harassment by the modesty police, who prowl the streets looking to arrest young couples who are out together but are not related.

Many women are outraged by the idea.

"Chastity houses would be an insult and disrespect to women," said Shahrbanou Amani, a woman parliamentarian.

The Cultural Council for Women, an Islamist feminist group, said such houses would be a "deceitful and thinly disguised" name for prostitution.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled the secular government of the shah, the clergy closed all Iran's brothels and turned the main one in Tehran into a park.

But the practice went underground and spread because of rising poverty and what many see as the breakdown of society's moral fabric. Critics say social restrictions after the Islamic Revolution have helped to encourage relations out of wedlock.

Last year, a cleric was arrested for smuggling unsuspecting young women to Gulf Arab states to work as prostitutes. A serial murderer was hanged recently for killing more than a dozen prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad.

OPTING FOR TEMPORARY MARRIAGE

The idea of "chastity houses" is similar to "Sigheh," or temporary marriage, practiced among some Shi'ites as an alternative, though it is not common in Iran.

In Sigheh, couples exchange vows for a limited period. The man pays a small sum to the woman but is not bound by any other obligations.

The cost of a traditional wedding in such a status-conscious society as Iran, as well as that involved in setting up a home, deters many men from tying the knot. Officials say the average age for marriage has jumped to about 30 from the early 20s just two decades ago.

This has created a dilemma for the Islamic state, which has on occasion resorted to using force to discourage premarital sex. Unmarried boys and girls caught together are often lashed if they are proved to have had sex.

To encourage marriage, state-run charities routinely arrange and finance mass weddings and government banks offer low-interest loans to help young couples start married life.

Police See Through Suspect Jewel Thief

Aug 5, 9:25 am ET 

BOCA RATON, Fla.  - Florida police nabbed a suspected jewel thief but were unable to find the missing gems until the man fell ill and was X-rayed.

In his stomach and intestines were a 16-inch (40 cm) gold necklace studded with 83 diamonds, as well as two loose 0.75-carat diamonds, Boca Raton police said on Friday.

The necklace and one loose diamond were recovered, police spokesman Jeff Kelly said. The suspect, 38-year-old Mark Kennedy, was being held in the Palm Beach County jail on grand theft charges and was in the infirmary awaiting recovery of the other diamond, Kelly said.

Police said Kennedy went to Harold's Jewelers in Boca Raton on Wednesday and asked to see an engagement ring to buy for his girlfriend. While the store owner was distracted, Kennedy grabbed the jewels, tucked them into his shorts and left in his car, another store employee told police.

The store owner called police, jumped in his car and followed Kennedy. Police pulled Kennedy over on Interstate 95, searched him and the car but could not find the jewelry. They did find some marijuana and arrested him on a drug possession charge, the police report said.

Kennedy became ill at the police station and was taken to Boca Raton Community Hospital, where X-rays solved the mystery of the missing loot.

"The doctor was quite puzzled," Kelly told The News Source.

Kennedy retrieved the necklace, valued at about $115,000, from his rectum and he later passed one of the loose diamonds.

The store owner said the incident would not damage the stones but that the jewels would be washed, sterilized, and boiled before being resold.

Bible-Reading Prison Workers Win Minnesota Lawsuit

Aug 5, 9:24 am ET 

ST. PAUL, Minn.  - Two prison employees reprimanded for reading their Bibles in silent protest of an employer-sponsored training session on homosexuality have been awarded $78,000 in damages by a federal jury, their attorney said on Friday.

The U.S. District Court jury on Thursday agreed that the workers were discriminated against during the 1997 diversity training session entitled, "Gays and Lesbians in the Workplace," said attorney Francis Manion of The American Center for Law and Justice, a Virginia-based public interest firm that frequently supports religious causes.

The employees, Thomas Altman and Ken Yackly, contended in their lawsuit that their silent objection to the mandatory session put on by Minnesota's Department of Corrections was to read silently from their Bibles. The lawsuit charged that the session amounted to state-sponsored indoctrination aimed at changing their religious beliefs about homosexuality.

After receiving reprimands for "inappropriate and unprofessional conduct" they filed suit, arguing their right of free speech was abrogated and that they were discriminated against on the basis of religion.

A spokesman for Minnesota's Department of Corrections said the two remain employees but could not comment on the verdict pending further court action on the case.

Bible-Reading Prison Workers Win Minnesota Lawsuit

Aug 5, 9:24 am ET 

ST. PAUL, Minn.  - Two prison employees reprimanded for reading their Bibles in silent protest of an employer-sponsored training session on homosexuality have been awarded $78,000 in damages by a federal jury, their attorney said on Friday.

The U.S. District Court jury on Thursday agreed that the workers were discriminated against during the 1997 diversity training session entitled, "Gays and Lesbians in the Workplace," said attorney Francis Manion of The American Center for Law and Justice, a Virginia-based public interest firm that frequently supports religious causes.

The employees, Thomas Altman and Ken Yackly, contended in their lawsuit that their silent objection to the mandatory session put on by Minnesota's Department of Corrections was to read silently from their Bibles. The lawsuit charged that the session amounted to state-sponsored indoctrination aimed at changing their religious beliefs about homosexuality.

After receiving reprimands for "inappropriate and unprofessional conduct" they filed suit, arguing their right of free speech was abrogated and that they were discriminated against on the basis of religion.

A spokesman for Minnesota's Department of Corrections said the two remain employees but could not comment on the verdict pending further court action on the case.

Brazil's Air Force Allows Women to Fly High

Aug 5, 9:21 am ET 

BRASILIA, Brazil  - Brazil's Air Force for the first time will allow women into its elite flying academy in a move that will enable women soon to pilot military planes and possibly someday command the Air Force, a spokesman said.

The Air Force was the penultimate redoubt of the Brazilian armed forces barring women from joining the army or taking commanding posts. The infantry remains all-male.

Maj. Ivo Brancaleao, an Air Force spokesman, said on Friday that a woman could become the chief of the Air Force by 2050, the minimum time for "a cadet of an exemplary career" to reach the highest post of lieutenant brigadier.

The exams for the four-year course start on Nov. 11. This year, there will be only 20 positions for women, but starting next year all limits will be lifted, Brancaleao said.

Man Recovers After Battling, Killing Cougar

Aug 3, 8:57 am ET 

By Allan Dowd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  - A man was recovering from serious injuries on Friday after he managed to use a pocketknife to fight off a vicious attack by a cougar on a remote road on northern Vancouver Island.

Attacked in the head, 62-year-old David Parker was able to pull out his small folding knife and kill the cat during the incident on Thursday evening. He then walked more than half a mile to get help from workers at a log-sorting facility.

"The will to live was definitely in this person," said Corporal Jeff Flindall of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Port Alice, a small coastal logging community about 195 miles northwest of Vancouver.

Police said Parker was walking alone down a private road in the woods outside Port Alice when the adult male cat weighing about 90 pounds attacked him from behind, injuring his head and face.

The logging workers took Parker to Port Alice's medical clinic, but because of the extent of his injuries he was quickly transferred to a hospital in Victoria. He was listed in critical but stable condition after surgery on Friday.

Vancouver Island is estimated to have between 1,000 and 1,200 cougars. Although it is rare for the carnivorous cats to hunt humans, there have been at least four attacks in recent years on the northern end of the island.

An 8-year-old girl from Nevada received minor wounds in June when she was attacked in June while on a kayak trip, and in February 2001 a man was injured when a cougar pounced on him as he rode his bicycle into Port Alice.

Wildlife officials advise people in the area they should always be aware of potential of cougars while in the woods. If confronted, you are warned never to attempt to flee because running away only provokes the cat's hunting instinct.

"It's very seldom that person is a winner in a cougar attack. Usually it's the cougar, so its quite something for Dave to do something like this all by himself with a small knife," Port Alice mayor Larry Pepper, a long-time friend of Parker, told CBC Radio.

Attacks on humans often involve cougars that are injured and unable to catch other prey such as deer. The cat involved in Thursday's attack was described by a conservation officer as thin, but "not starving."

Pepper said the deer population in the area is lower than usual this year, and cougars will wander into the relatively isolated community looking for other prey.

"When they come to town usually cats and dogs are the first choice, but eventually it will get to be a person if they (the cougars) hang around," Pepper told CBC.

Officials hope to give the dead cat's body a more complete examination in the next few days to see if it was suffering from any illnesses.

World's Greatest Job, Up for Grabs

Aug 2, 9:08 am ET 

LONDON  - Calling all chocoholics. One of Britain's most exclusive grocery stores needs a new chocolate taster -- and will pay 35,000 pounds ($54,400) a year for the successful candidate.

Fortnum & Mason in London's Piccadilly -- one of the capital's most prestigious addresses -- is looking for a chocolate buyer to travel the world, taste as much chocolate as possible and select only the best for its discerning customers.

Friday's Daily Telegraph newspaper said the Fortnum's personnel director Cathy O'Neill has already been bombarded with applications after she advertised the post as the "best job in the world."

But not all of those interested have the right qualifications.

"We only advertised it Sunday," O'Neill told the Telegraph. "But already we have we have had loads of people writing in saying they have absolutely no experience, or they work in the metal industry or something, but they love chocolate."