COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man says a great white shark knocked him off his surfboard near Winchester Bay.
The World newspaper in Coos Bay reported that 29-year-old David Lowden was paddling his board near the south jetty of the Umpqua River last week when a shark he estimated at nearly 14 feet broke the surface behind him and sent him flying.
Lowden said the shark emerged halfway from the water, broke the fins …
SAN MARINO (AP) — Moldova beat San Marino 2-0 Tuesday in Group E of European Championship qualifying.
Nicolae Josan put the visitors in front in the 20th minute and substitute Anatolie Doros doubled the lead with a penalty in the 86th.
Moldova has six points in the group, six behind leader Netherlands, while San Marino remained last with zero points.
San Marino next plays Finland on Nov. 17, while Moldova visits Sweden in March.
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Lineups:
San Marino: Aldo …
PEOPLE: promotions, appointments and hires
ACCOUNTING
KPMG LLP named Matt Detar, Wayne Groff, Kyle Horst, Scott Moody and Robert Smith to the management team of its Harrisburg office. Detar and Groff are with the audit practice; Horst and Smith are with the taxpractice; and Moody is with the advisory practice.
Walz, Deihm, Geisenberger, Bucklen & Tennis named Kelly Walraven a tax accountant with the tax division. She has two years of experi- ence in tax preparation, tax research and pension plans. She will prepare corporate, partnership and individ- ual income-tax returns and assist with income tax research projects and tax planning. Cheri Palmer was named a …
The general manager of Berlin's famed Staatsoper is leaving with immediate effect due to differences over programming, the city government said Thursday.
Peter Mussbach has been general manager at the Staatsoper, where Daniel Barenboim remains the music director, since 2002. His contract was set to run through the 2009-2010 season.
The foundation that oversees Berlin's three opera houses decided in consultation with Mussbach, 59, to "release him irrevocably with immediate effect," a statement from the city government said.
"Both sides were prompted to take this step because they were unable to reach agreement on the future …
| Minnesota @ Toronto @ |
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| Span cf 5 1 1 0 FLewis rf 5 1 1 0 |
| OHudsn 2b 5 1 2 1 A.Hill 2b 5 0 0 0 |
| Mauer c 5 2 3 0 Lind lf 4 0 2 0 |
| Mornea 1b 4 3 3 4 V.Wells cf 4 0 3 1 |
| Cuddyr rf 3 0 0 0 Overay 1b 4 0 0 0 |
| Kubel dh … |
NEW YORK Baseball's executive council, responding to allegationsthat Marge Schott made statements offensive to minorities, appointeda four-person committee Tuesday to investigate the Cincinnati Redsowner.
The 11-member council met for about one hour in a telephoneconference call and decided to appoint the committee "to investigatethe alleged racial and ethnic remarks attributed" to Schott.
The Reds owner again denied some of the allegations against herand said she was "prepared to fight" the charges. But she also leftopen the possibility she would sell, saying, "I never want to besomeplace if I'm not wanted."
American League president Bobby Brown, …
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A rare and pristine copy of Action Comics has set a record for highest price paid for a comic book, selling for more than $2 million in an online auction.
Neither the name of the buyer nor seller was disclosed for the issue put up for auction on www.comicconnect.com Nov. 11. Bidding for the comic, which is graded at 9.0, …
Patrick Sullivan and Trent Hutchin each scored a career-high 27 points and Southeastern Louisiana beat Nicholls State 84-65 on Saturday.
Rodney Jones added 11 points and Robert Tibbs 10 for the Lions (12-8, 4-3 Southland Conference), who outscored the Colonels 42-25 in the second half.
Sullivan, who also grabbed 12 rebounds in notching his 18th career double-double, scored four points in a 10-2 run that turned a 47-44 lead into a 57-46 …
Ninety-six units are planned at the Condominiums at the Preserve,an Orland Park development.
Preconstruction base prices range from $149,900 to $169,900.
"For only $1,000 down, buyers can reserve a unit, and lock inthe current prices at significant savings," said Bryan Nooner,chairman of Distinctive Homes Ltd., the builder. "Once the unit isdry-walled, buyers have two weeks to go to contract if …
TROY, Ala. (AP) — Vernon Taylor scored a game-high 21 points and four others scored in double figures as Troy blew out Huntingdon 100-59 on Friday night in both teams' season opener.
The Trojans shot 34 of 61 from the field, including 13 of 27 (48.1 percent) from three-point range in the victory.
DeAndrae Ross scored 17, Regis Huddleston added 15, Levan Patsatsia had 14 and Tim Owens 13 to lead the offensive surge for …
Consumer prices fell for the third straight month, providing some bargains to American shoppers.
The government says consumer prices dipped 0.1 percent in June. Less expensive energy bills were a big factor behind the drop. Prices for some food items and airlines fares …
JANNA CHILDS
MASSAGE THERAPIST
51
GOLD COAST
When I first started massage, people still thought I was aprostitute. It's really, really changed. It's a much more respectedcareer. I rarely get those phone calls anymore. When I first began,I didn't necessarily know when a gentleman would call on the phone,when they would say, "Do you do the whole package?" I had this oneold guy come in and he literally could barely walk to my table. Hewas 80 something. So I massaged his back, and he turned over, andthen he goes, "Are you going to massage this?" I'm like, "Noooo."He's like, "Well my other massage therapist always did." And I'mlike, "I guess you'll …
KAUPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — Dan Forsman won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship on Sunday for his third Champions Tour title, closing with a 3-under 69 in windy conditions for a two-stroke victory over Jay Don Blake.
The 53-year-old Forsman, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, finished with a 15-under 201 total at Hualalai Resort. He opened with rounds of 67 and 65 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round.
Blake finished with a 67.
John Cook, the 2011 winner, shot a 68 to tie for third with Michael Allen at 12 under.
NORMAL, Ill. The runner-up trophy was beside a box of bandagesin a corner. For healing purposes, it had been placed beyond view ofthe Wheaton Central football players, who sat in a circle on the coldgym floor, silent except for their sobs.
Outside, raindrops began to fall over the ironing-boardlandscape of rural Illinois. They had to be the tears of Red Grange.In the year of his passing, the team from his high school that playsin his namesake stadium came within minutes of its first statechampionship.
Wheaton Central is an everyday public school with 5-6 backs andsideline heaters provided by a local plumber. Mount Carmel, itsopponent in Saturday's Class 5-A final, is a private South Sidepower that recruits the area's finest players, publishesyearbook-sized game programs and wins titles as often as it stagessock hops. It shouldn't have been a game.
Instead, it was a scholastic treasure. Remember "Hoosiers?"Wheaton Central was Milan High, leading 14-7 with seven minutes left."We're gonna do it!" yelled Central alum and former football starDana Noel, now the White Sox publicist. "This is unbelievable!"
In the bitter end, it turned out to be unbelievable, a littletoo wild for real prep life. Milan High can happen in the movies,but Wheaton Central couldn't happen on a field. Mount Carmel chargedback in a frenzied finish, forcing a turnover, tying the score withfour minutes left, then winning in the last seconds on a 41-yardoption keeper by star quarterback Mike McGrew. Red Grange's teamlost 21-14.
Still, wherever he was, the Galloping Ghost had to beenormously proud of the lads. The beauty of teenage competition,unlike the adult version, is how it allows us to look at sportsclearly, without the irritating fog of big egos, huge salaries andbig business trappings. Wheaton Central didn't win. But don't daretry to say it lost.
"No one out there gave you any chance at all," coach JohnThorne, in impassioned tones, told his players in the gym. "Theysaid you didn't belong on the same field with that team. They saidyou had no business being here.
"Well, you stood up and took over the football game. Took itover. We are one team, one goal, one dream. The dream didn'thappen. But you don't stop dreaming. You don't stop setting goals.You don't stop winning because you're all winners."
The man could teach Mike Ditka something about drama. But,then, all Thorne did was convey the proper words. His team didn'thave one player who will become a Division I college star. Itdoesn't have the luxury, as a public school, to recruit greatplayers. It must rely on its own resources. But what resourcesWheaton Central has.
Mostly, they are human resources. School enrollment is 1,628students, but judging by the far sideline at Illinois State's HancockStadium, you'd have thought every student and parent in the districtwas present. "It's a wonderful school," Noel said. "It's partbluecollar, part white-collar, and everyone pulls for each other.It's almost too good to be true. Everyone rallies around football.You don't see any petty things. All good feeling."
The wind was frosty, but the stands were warm as the Tigerstook a 14-0 lead. It has been an emotional season, with Grange'sdeath and an impending consolidation with Warrenville, and the fanscould sense a fairy tale from heaven. Looking at them, you wonderedwhat antics John and Jim Belushi would have been pulling if they werepresent. John was an all-conference linebacker at Central. Jim toldjokes.
"Watching our boys is what high school athletics is about,"school principal Charles Baker said in the third quarter. "They playhard, they're all home-grown boys and they believe they're not goingto lose. There are no big egos here. It's all teamwork."
Alas, just as the story was getting weepy, it suddenly turnedon us. Mount Carmel's Simeon Rice, 6-5 and 225, sacked quarterbackJeff Brown and forced the pivotal turnover. Central's moms and popshuddled under blankets. Players, for the first time all day,gathered beside the heaters. They were braced for the worst. And itcame.
The champs, in a classy scene, consoled the losers. MattCushing came over and hugged Peter Economos. McGrew, the hero,walked up to each Wheaton player and said, "Great season." No onecould be soothed, of course.
You get the feeling, though, that the kids will be all right,that they will benefit from what happened on a cold, overcastafternoon on a plastic rug. "There isn't a principal in the state ofIllinois who wouldn't trade places with me right now," Baker saidafterward. "The only way these kids are losers is if we attach ouradult values to them. And no one's going to do that. They've madeus too proud."
The rainfall was only brief. Red Grange must have started tosmile.
British and other delftware takes its name from the town ofDelft in the Netherlands.
The glazed pottery was the European attempt to imitate Chineseporcelains being imported in growing quantities in the 17th century.
As a knock-off, it was a failure, because the European potterscouldn't imitate the translucent white body of Chinese porcelain.
As an inexpensive thing of beauty in its own right, delftwarewas a great success, available to a wide spectrum of society.
During the first half of the 18th century, delft probably wasthe most-used ceramic in Colonial America.
"British Delft from Colonial Williamsburg" offers a look atsocial usage in past centuries via such items as a barber's shavingbowl, a punch bowl and a posset pot.
This pot was used for brewing a hot drink of spiced wine or aleand milk, which separated into solid curds and liquid whey.
Lucky winners will get the drive of their life after scooping arally session.
MSA Academy British Junior Rally Driver Chris Reid donated mastertuition and an adrenaline-filled drive as part of a prize at theActivityMix charity ball for Children 1st.
The winners were Mark Reynolds from Inverurie and George Mairfrom Aberdeen who will be behind the wheel of the speedy Peugeot 205 1.6.
Chris, 24, took part in Aberdeen's Granite City Rally, dominatinghis class until the final stage where a puncture saw him drop downto second place.
"Children 1st is such a worthy charity and the work that they dois brilliant," he said.
Earth's first nearly full look at Mercury reveals that the tiny lifeless planet took a far greater role in shaping itself than was thought, with volcanoes spewing "mysterious dark blue material."
New images from NASA's Messenger space probe should help settle a decades-old debate about what caused parts of Mercury to be somewhat smoother than it should be. NASA released photos Wednesday, from Messenger's fly-by earlier this month, that gave the answer: Lots of volcanic activity, far more than signs from an earlier probe.
Astronomers used to dismiss Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, as mere "dead rock," little more than a target for cosmic collisions that shaped it, said MIT planetary scientist Maria Zuber.
"Now, it's looking a lot more interesting," said Zuber, who has experiments on the Messenger probe. "It's an awful lot of volcanic material."
New images of filled-in craters _ one the size of the Baltimore-Washington area and filled in with more than a mile deep of cooled lava _ show that 3.8 to 4 billion years ago, Mercury was more of a volcanic hotspot than the moon ever was, Zuber said.
But it isn't just filled-in craters. Using special cameras, the probe showed what one scientist called "the mysterious dark blue material." It was all over the planet. That led Arizona State University geologist Mark Robinson to speculate that the mineral is important but still unknown stuff ejected from Mercury's large core in the volcanic eruptions.
That material was seen with NASA's first partial view of Mercury by Mariner 10 in the 1970s. It was spotted again in Messenger's first images of Mercury's unseen side earlier this year. The latest Messenger images, added to earlier photos show about 95 percent of the planet, and the blue stuff was in many places, more than astronomers had anticipated.
Although Robinson described the material as "dark blue," it only looks that way to special infrared cameras. In normal visible light, it would have "a soft blue tinge and it would be less red" than the rest of Mercury, he said.
It's too early to tell what that material is, but it may have iron in it, Robinson said. That would be a surprise because Mariner 10 didn't find much iron, he said.
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On the Net:
NASA's Mercury mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html
Telecom Argentina SA said Friday that net income fell 52 percent in the fourth quarter as government caps prevented the company from raising rates even as inflation boosted expenses.
Profit dipped to 130 million pesos ($35.6 million) in the October to December period, from to 270 million pesos last year, Argentina's third-largest mobile phone service provider said. Analysts at the Buenos Aires-based consultancy Grupo SBS had predicted a 38 percent drop.
Regulations freezing mobile phone fees kept the Buenos Aires-based company from raising rates to keep up with soaring administrative, advertising and rent costs, a company filing said.
Operating costs rose 15 percent to $8.6 billion pesos in 2008, while sales rose just 10 percent, the company said.
Argentina's official inflation index reached 7.2 percent last year, although independent economists claim that yearly consumer price gains are closer to 20 percent, but have been underreported since 2007 to save the government money on inflation-linked bonds.
Telecom Argentina shares fell 0.5 percent to 5.37 pesos in Buenos Aires ahead of the earnings report. Telecom Italian and an Argentine investor group are majority shareholders in the company.
Canada's industry minister says he will review the sale of Nortel's enterprise division to U.S. telecom company Avaya to determine if the deal significantly benefits Canada.
The insolvent company announced last week it would sell the enterprise division to New Jersey-based Avaya Inc. for $900 million. The firm makes telecom equipment used by companies, governments and other big customers.
Industry minister Tony Clement told an investment group Thursday that the Canadian government will review the deal under the Investment Canada Act to ensure the transaction benefits the country.
Earlier this week, Nortel announced plans to sell its last major unit, its Carrier Networks business, in an auction.
BAGHDAD - Iraq's foreign minister warned on Monday that a quick American military withdrawal from the country could lead to a full-scale civil war, the collapse of the government and spillover conflicts across the region.
The White House said President Bush is not contemplating withdrawing forces from Iraq now despite an erosion of support among Republicans for his war policy.
But the administration also tried to lower expectations about a report due Sunday on whether the Iraqi government is meeting political, economic and security benchmarks that Bush set in January when he announced a buildup of 21,500 U.S. combat forces.
Attacks in Baghdad killed 13 people as prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including one of the deadliest attacks of the four-year Iraqi conflict.
The burst of violence comes at a sensitive time. U.S. forces are waging offensives in and around Baghdad aimed at uprooting militants and bringing calm to the capital.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraqis "understand the huge pressure that will increase more and more in the United States" ahead of the progress report by the U.S. ambassador and top commander in Iraq.
"We have held discussion with members of Congress and explained to them the dangers of a quick pullout (from Iraq) and leaving a security vacuum," Zebari said. "The dangers could be a civil war, dividing the country, regional wars and the collapse of the state."
"In our estimations, until Iraqi forces are ready, there is a responsibility on the United States to stand with the (government) as the forces are being built," he said.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said that all of the additional troops had just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress now.
"You are not going to expect all the benchmarks to be met at the beginning of something," Snow said. "You are hoping that you are going to be able to see progress in terms of meeting benchmarks from that beginning stage to what you see in two months."
Zebari, a Kurd from northern Iraq, also said Turkey has massed 140,000 soldiers at Iraq's northern border, where the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has bases and launches attacks on Turkish forces.
"Turkey's fears are legitimate but such things can be discussed," Zebari said. "The perfect solution is the withdrawal of the Turkish forces from the borders."
The Iraqi calls for the arming of civilians to fight insurgents reflected the growing frustration with Iraqi security forces' inability to prevent extremists' attacks - like Saturday's devastating suicide truck bombing in the Shiite town of Armili, north of Baghdad, that killed more than 150 people, according to the latest toll from police and officials.
On Sunday, Armili residents shouted insults at the governor of Salahuddin province, Hamad Hmoud Shagti, and the provincial police chief as they visited for funerals of the victims in the town with longtime tensions between Shiites and Sunnis, police and other officials said.
Shagti had detained the Armili police chief and put him under investigation for security failures. Shagti told The Associated Press that 250 new police were sent to Armili - a town of 26,000 that one lawmaker said had only 30 policemen before the attack.
Violence resumed in Baghdad, with a roadside bomb and two cars wired with explosives that killed eight around the capital and the discovery of a body with bullet wounds and torture marks dumped in the street, an apparent victim of sectarian death squads.
Around dawn, police discovered gunmen trying to plant bombs near the security wall surrounding the Sunni district of Azamiyah. In a gunbattle that followed, two soldiers and two policemen were killed, police said. There were no immediate reports about the casualties among the gunmen.
The police officials who described the Baghdad violence all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Fifty miles north of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi military bus, killing nine Iraqi soldiers and injuring 21, according to an officer with the Iraqi 4th Division who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.
Iraqi commanders say U.S. and Iraqi troops are making progress in a three-pronged security sweep launched in mid-June - one in Baghdad, another to the northeast in Baqouba and the third to the south. The offensives on Baghdad's doorsteps aim to uproot al-Qaida militants and other insurgents using the regions to plan attacks in the capital.
But Saturday's attack on Armili - a town of Shiites from the Turkoman ethnic minority - indicated extremists were moving further north to unprotected regions.
Ali Hashim Mukhtaroglu, deputy head of Iraqi Turkoman Front, said Monday the toll had reached 154 dead and 270 injured, and that 30 people were believed to be buried under the rubble of more than 100 mud-brick homes leveled in the town. Two police officers - Amin and Col. Sherzad Abdullah - said 150 people were killed.
Turkoman leaders accused the security forces of "negligence" and called for the arming of their community. "We demand the Iraqi government form Turkoman military units to protect Turkoman areas and their surroundings," Mukhtaroglu said.
The call for civilians to take up arms in their own defense was echoed Sunday by the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi.
"People have a right to expect from the government and security agencies protection for their lives, land, honor and property," al-Hashemi said in a statement. "But in the case of (their) inability, the people have no choice but to take up their own defense."
Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to provide services and security but he stopped short of saying his followers would seek to topple the Shiite-led government in a no-confidence vote.
CBS Evening News reported Saturday that a large block of Sunni Iraqi politicians will ask for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence against al-Maliki's government on July 15.
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AP correspondent Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk and AP White House correspondent Terence Hunt in Washington contributed to this report.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England has held interest rates steady at a record low of 0.5 percent for the 20th consecutive month as the British economy shows signs of unexpected strength.
The British central bank also kept its 200 billion pound ($323 billion) asset-purchase program on hold in Thursday's announcement — declining to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve in injecting more stimulus into the economy.
Economists say the case for monetary policy easing in Britain is nowhere near as strong as in the United States. Gross domestic product growth of 0.8 percent in the third quarter was double the expected improvement.
Still, many economists believe the bank may restart the so-called quantitative easing program to boost the money supply next year as harsh government spending cuts take effect.
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Heavy rains and flooding in Panama have left at least eight people dead and damaged hundreds of homes, the government said Friday.
The rains, which began Monday and were predicted to last until Saturday, have caused rivers to overflow and bridges to collapse, cutting off several communities northwest of the capital of Panama City, authorities said.
The dead included two men killed in a landslide, two men who drowned, a couple killed when a tree fell on their house, and a pregnant woman who suffered a spike in her blood pressure but failed to receive medical attention because her community had been cut off, said National Civil Protection Director Roberto Velasquez.
The eighth fatality occurred in the community of Capira, 50 miles west of the capital, Velasquez said. He did not release any details.
A search was also under way for a park guard reported missing in the Colon province, the federal Environment Department said.
On Friday, officials sent first aid, bottled water, dry goods and other domestic items by helicopter to the Cocle, Colon, and Panama provinces, Interior Minister Ileana Golcher said.
More than 200 houses have been destroyed and nearly 700 others damaged, the Civil Protection Department said.
The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum reopened on the former president's 85th birthday after an overhaul that devotes more space than any other presidential library to a commander-in-chief's work after the White House.
Carter beamed Thursday as he spoke to hundreds at the opening ceremony, saying: "There's no way any of you can imagine the emotions that fill my heart and my mind in this moment."
About a third of the Atlanta museum explores the Georgia Democrat's life after he was defeated by Ronald Reagan. It includes dozens of photos and videos detailing his efforts to eradicate disease, resolve conflicts and monitor elections.
The museum was closed in late April. The $10 million project is the first major update to the museum since it was built 23 years ago.
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On the Net:
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ATLANTA (AP) _ The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum reopens Thursday on the former president's 85th birthday after an overhaul that devotes more space than any other presidential library to a commander-in-chief's time spent after the White House.
"We want to present the truth about every aspect of my past experiences in politics and so forth, and particularly to let people get an insight on what a former president might do when they're involuntarily retired from the White House four years before they anticipated," Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press.
About a third of the Atlanta museum explores the Georgia Democrat's life after he was defeated by Ronald Reagan, with dozens of photos and videos detailing his efforts to eradicate disease, resolve conflicts and monitor elections.
As if to remind visitors of the impact of his work since leaving the White House, the exhibit ends by featuring the Nobel Peace Prize and other humanitarian awards that Carter has received for his work in and out of the Oval Office.
The museum was closed in late April. The $10 million project, which took about five months to complete, is the first major update to the museum since it was built 23 years ago. Attendance had fallen about 50 percent in the last five years as newer Atlanta attractions, such as the Georgia Aquarium, drew in more tourists and students, said Jay Hakes, the library and museum's director.
Hakes points to two "awe factors" in the updated museum that he hopes will command people's attention.
The first is an interactive exhibit with six towering high-resolution video screens giving visitors a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of a president.
It focuses on a busy day _ December 11, 1978 _ that starts with Carter receiving a wake-up call at 5:30 a.m. and follows him as he grapples with the aftermath of a Middle East peace deal, the teetering regime of a U.S. ally in Iran and efforts to normalize relations with China.
"The major lesson is that the president is juggling a lot of balls in a day," said Hakes. "And a lot of the things he was struggling with then, we are still struggling with today."
The second comes later, in the section on Carter's work beyond Washington. It's a smooth touch-screen video table dotted with interactives that take visitors to countries where Carter and staff at the nonprofit Carter Center have worked. They can learn more about the mission and meet some of the people the Carter Center has helped.
The museum tour starts with exhibits on Carter's childhood in segregated southwest Georgia and a model of a nuclear submarine where the president once worked as a young naval officer. It then tracks his political career, first as a state senator, then as governor and finally as president.
The White House section includes a full-scale replica of the Oval Office _ one of the few exhibits from the old museum that's largely untouched _ and an exhibit depicting Camp David, where Carter's "cabin diplomacy" helped broker a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. Some 27 million pages of documents from Carter's term sit behind a glass wall in a nearby rotunda.
Hakes said he sought to present Carter's term, warts and all. One area tackles his final year in office, with an exhibit on rising inflation rates, the Iran hostage crisis and other foreign and domestic issues that contributed to his defeat.
Carter said he hopes the challenges and triumphs that he and his wife Rosalynn have faced will inspire visitors to do more to help others.
"We want the visitors who come here to have an exciting and challenging opportunity to learn more about our nation and our world," he said. "It also shows how our lives have been tied into the most momentous things on Earth and every single visitor who comes here will have the same feeling: 'My life can be meaningful.'"
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On the Net:
A smoky basement fire has forced the evacuation and closure of a New York City courthouse and postponed rap star Lil Wayne's sentencing in a gun case.
Courts spokesman David Bookstaver says Manhattan's main criminal courthouse shut down for the day Tuesday because of a midmorning fire. He says it apparently started in a wooden contractor's shed.
More than 1,000 people were forced to leave the building. The Fire Department says eight people suffered minor injuries, including five firefighters. Court officers were seen helping a woman with an oxygen mask walk out of the courthouse.
Lil Wayne had been expected to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon to a year in jail. He pleaded guilty in October to attempted criminal possession of a weapon.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Georgia Bulldogs celebrated in the end zone early and on the sideline late. They probably should have hoisted Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford on their shoulders for both.
Moreno ran for a career-high 188 yards and three scores, Stafford threw three touchdown passes and No. 20 Georgia upset ninth-ranked Florida 42-30 on Saturday in a game filled with costly penalties, big plays and momentum shifts.
The Bulldogs (6-2, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) sacked Tim Tebow six times and contained the Gators' high-scoring offense most of the game. The result was a rare Bulldogs victory in one of the South's most heated rivalries.
Florida (5-3, 3-3) had dominated the series since 1990, winning 15 of the last 17 meetings and eight of nine. Georgia turned it around Saturday, taking advantage of Tebow's bruised non-throwing shoulder and Florida's porous defense.
Detectives investigating a collapsed currency firm have made anarrest - the eighth so far in a complex seven-month investigation.
The arrest is part of the ongoing investigation into CrownCurrency Exchange and Crown Holdings Ltd, which went intoadministration in October owing more than Pounds 16 million.
Former Glastonbury town councillor Edward James had been ashareholder with the company, and a director on their board beforehe resigned from the role in December 2009.
A 48-year-old man was taken by officers from Devon and CornwallPolice's Economic Crime Unit from his home in west Cornwallyesterday morning and questioned.
A police spokesman said the man had not previously been arrestedin connection with collapse of the Hayle-based firm.
Seven people - four men and three women - have previously beenarrested and have all been released on bail until July, including MrJames.
Hanoi, Vietnam
To our western eyes, this organized chaos shouldn't work, yet the bicycles, motorcycles, cars and trucks all manage to get through the narrow streets of Hanoi. On the narrow sidewalks, pedestrians weave their way around parked vehicles and vendors. Crossing the street is an act of faith.
Half the size of Saskatchewan, Vietnam has a population of 76 million. Amid the noise and confusion, Jake and Louise Buhler's home here reflects their 20 years in Asia. Their one-bedroom apartment, in a French-built structure that used to be a seminary, is a comfortable blend of east and west: some Asian furniture, delicious Vietnamese food prepared by Louise, classical CDs and English reading material.
The Buhlers arrived in Asia in 1981 with their young daughters for what they thought was a few years with Mennonite Central Committee. Jake was MCC representative for Thailand, Louise for Vietnam. Louise was based in Bangkok since foreigners were not permitted to live in Vietnam at the time. She travelled to Vietnam for weeks at a time. Jake's work included refugee and development work in Thailand, as well as support for the MCC staff in Laos and Cambodia.
Louise's early work in Vietnam, from 1981-1987, was pioneering.
"As a western woman, by herself, in the post-war years in north Vietnam, she developed some key relationships by being able to spot people with potential for leadership and providing opportunities for those people to study outside Vietnam," said Jake.
Louise was always accompanied by state security staff in those years.
"People watching me had to travel with me for weeks at a time; they became my best friends," she said. Her excellent relationship with officials developed because she followed through on her commitments. If books or mechanical parts were needed, she tried to get them. Vietnamese officials soon knew she was totally trustworthy.
[Graph Not Transcribed]
After six years with MCC, Louise accepted a position with Bread for the World, a German aid agency. She continued with that agency until 1999. Bread for the World provides money for local groups, while MCC says people (volunteers) are their best resource, she observed.
"Both approaches are important," said Louise. Currently she is human resource specialist at the Canadian embassy, working on Vietnam-Canada bilateral programs.
Her status as a foreign aid worker in Vietnam may well be unparalleled, and was facilitated by her passable knowledge of the language. Senior officials introduce Jake and Louise to diplomatic visitors as "our oldest friends."
In 1988, Louise was one of the first westerners invited to northern Vietnam to assess the damage of an earlier Chinese invasion. In 1999, the president of Vietnam presented her with the highest award given a foreigner: the Friendship Medal for outstanding contributions to Vietnam.
Louise has also received awards for her contributions to agriculture, higher education, and development from central and provincial governments in Vietnam.
When asked what made her work effective, she said, "Doing something concrete and not just talking." Building relationships was also important.
"I worked a lot at getting scholarships for Vietnamese professionals in southeast Asia; they were very isolated," she said. She arranged the first visit of a Vietnamese delegation to Canada in 1985.
Louise arranged for Dr. Khai to study in Thailand and establish a "doctor on the spot program." Together they setup a training program for health volunteers, teaching about basic hygiene, immunization and nutrition. She also arranged irrigation projects enabling two crops per year rather than one.
Jake began work for CIDA's Canada Aid Fund in Thailand in 1987, and continued with this work in Vietnam when they moved to Hanoi in 1996. He visited nearly every province in Vietnam, focusing on rural poverty reduction.
"Vietnamese people are very confident and daring," said Jake, "and have a great sense of humour. Poverty does not stop people from having fun and being hospitable."
Some projects for which he arranged funding include a school dormitory for hill tribe children, providing drinking water for villages, assisting women entrepreneurs to get credit, building schools that require a certain number of girls be enrolled, and helping hill tribe groups grow grapes. All projects are local initiatives with Canadian assistance.
Nguyen Huong succeeded Jake as head of the Canada Fund in April.
"Jake and Louise are very kind and generous; they understand the culture," she said. She called Jake "an ordinary person," paying him a high compliment. In the Vietnamese context, "ordinary" means he treats all people with respect and relates to others as an equal rather than a superior.
The Buhlers plan to return to Saskatoon later this year. They realize that life there might feel remote after 20 years in Asian urban centres. They'll miss the International Church of Hanoi where Jake is a leader.
They do look forward to being closer to friends and relatives. Their two daughters are attending university in Canada. Louise thinks the culture shock will come from not working full time.
"It's been a stimulating, most exciting time here," she said. Despite their considerable accomplishments, Jake and Louise play down their contributions.
"We have tried to do our work with much the same spirit and energy that we followed in Canada, and probably with less effectiveness than many people who work in social, education or development in Canada."
Meanwhile, they have made a profound and lasting impact on thousands of people in Vietnam. Their passionate concern will leave a strong legacy of the best of the Christian faith.
Henry and Tena Neufeld, from Delta, B.C., worked with MCC in Thailand from 1985-88, while Jake Buhler was the MCC representative there.
When archaeologists on a dig in southern Portugal last year flipped over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years, they were elated.
The enigmatic pattern of inscribed symbols curled symmetrically around the upper part of the rough-edged, yellowish stone tablet and coiled into the middle in a decorative style typical of an extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script.
"We didn't break into applause, but almost," says Amilcar Guerra, a University of Lisbon lecturer overseeing the excavation. "It's an extraordinary thing."
For more than two centuries, scientists have tried to decipher Southwest Script, believed to be the peninsula's oldest written tongue and, along with Etruscan from modern-day Italy, one of Europe's first. The stone tablet features 86 characters and provides the longest-running text of the Iron Age language ever found.
About 90 slate tablets bearing the ancient inscriptions have been recovered, most of them incomplete. Almost all were scattered across southern Portugal, though a handful turned up in the neighboring Spanish region of Andalucia.
Some of the letters look like squiggles. Others are like crossed sticks. One resembles the number four and another recalls a bow-tie. They were carefully scored into the slate. The text is always a running script, with unseparated words which usually read from right to left.
The first attempts to interpret this writing date from the 18th century. It aroused the curiosity of a bishop whose diocese encompassed this region where the earth keeps coughing up new fragments.
Almodovar, a rural town of some 3,500 people amid a gentle landscape of meadows punctuated by whitewashed towns, sits at the heart of the Southwest Script region. It created a museum two years ago where 20 of the engraved tablets are on show.
Though the evidence is gradually building as new tablets are found, researchers are handicapped because they are peering deep into a period of history about which they know little, says professor Pierre Swiggers, a Southwest Script specialist at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Scientists have few original documents and hardly any parallel texts from the same time and place in readable languages.
"We hardly know anything about (the people's) daily habits or religious beliefs," he says.
Southwest Script is one of just a handful of ancient languages about which little is known, according to Swiggers. The obscurity has provided fertile ground for competing theories about who wrote these words.
It is generally agreed the texts date from between 2,500 and 2,800 years ago. Most experts have concluded they were authored by a people called Tartessians, a tribe of Mediterranean traders who mined for metal in these parts _ one of Europe's largest copper mines is nearby _ but disappeared after a few centuries. Some scientists have proposed that the composers were other pre-Roman tribes, such as the Conii or Cynetes, or maybe even Celts who roamed this far south.
Another translation difficulty is that the writing is not standardized. It seems certain that it was adapted from the Phoenician and Greek alphabets because it copied some of their written conventions. However, it also tweaked some of those rules and invented new ones.
Experts have identified characters that represent 15 syllables, seven consonants and five vowels. But eight characters, including a kind of vertical three-pronged fork, have confounded attempts at comprehension.
There's also the problem of figuring out what messages the slate tablets are intended to convey. Even when they can read portions of text, scientists don't really understand what it is saying _ like a child mouthing the words of a Shakespeare play.
"We have a lot of doubts," says Guerra, who has written scholarly articles about Southwest Script. "We can read characters and see the phonetics in action ... but when we try to understand what they actually mean we have a lot of problems."
There are clues, however.
The symmetrical, twisting text gives the impression of a decorative flourish. Some stones also feature crudely rendered figures, such as a warrior carrying what appear to be spears. The lower part of the rectangular stones is left blank as if intended to be stuck in the ground.
That has led experts to a supposition: The tablets were gravestones for elite members of local Iron Age society. Repeated sequences of words perhaps mean "Here lies..." or "Son of...," Guerra explains. Since most people probably couldn't read, the ornamental elements lent distinction.
These are educated guesses, says Guerra, as he surveys the hilltop dig by a small river where the big stone was found last year. His team here has excavated through centuries of occupation: Islamic (Almodovar is a corruption of the Arabic word al-mudura, meaning encirclement or enclosure), Roman and pre-Roman. Nowadays, it is within view of a wind farm's turbines.
Last year's find has helped, but it wasn't the breakthrough scientists had hoped for, Guerra says. If all the Southwest Script found so far were transcribed onto paper, it would still barely fill a single sheet. Without an equivalent of the Rosetta stone, which helped unlock the secrets of hieroglyphic writing, efforts to reconstruct the ancient language are doomed to slow progress.
"We have to be patient _ and hopeful," Guerra says.
| Status | Endangered |
| Listed | March 11, 1967 |
| Family | Scolopacidae (Sandpiper) |
| Description | Long-legged wading bird; dark brown with a pale throat and long, down-curved bill. |
| Habitat | Open tundra, tidal marshes. |
| Food | Insects, snails, berries. |
| Reproduction | Clutch of three or four eggs. |
| Threats … |
I don't know who wrote Mendip District Council's response to NickCottle's letter on car parking charges in June 10's paper, but theymust assume the public is naive.
These heinous charges may have been discussed at length in publicand they may have been widespread consultation but, as a councillor,I know little of it. Did the public welcome car parking chargeincreases with open arms? Did they look forward to them, as ameasure of generosity by our Conservative leaders? Did they standin wonderment watching the machines be changed so they could paymore? At the event in Frome, did people recall that theConservatives lost valuable seats there at the last Mendip electionsdue …
According to recent research published in the journal Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, "It is obvious that the application of solid waste compost improves the soil fertility. These wastes, however, may also have some negative effects on the agricultural environment due to their metal content."
"This research aimed at evaluating the influence of Tunisian municipal solid waste compost and farmyard manure on some chemical properties and the distribution of heavy metals in a calcareous Tunisian soil (clayey-loamy soil). A field plot experiment, without vegetation, was installed since 1999 at the experimental farm of the Agronomic National Institute of Tunis (INAT) in …
Byline: TOM KIRCHOFER Associated Press
BOSTON -- In a move that could hamper the music industry's efforts to thwart Internet bootleggers, the popular Web site Lycos said Monday it is starting a new search service that offers easy access to a half-million high quality recordings.
The search service looks up titles on the Internet that use a technology called MP3, a method of encoding music that allows computer users to transfer an entire album from a Web site in about two hours, and listen it on a Walkman-like player.
All the Web surfer has to do is type in the name of an artist to find links to MP3 files.
The proliferation of MP3 files on …
by Elaine Canfield, October 2002
This lesson was a "realistic" success with my second-grade art classes. The students viewed and discussed the landscape artworks of Claude Monet and Winslow Homer. We added cool color and a textural dimension to the lesson by using spray bottles and blue …
Robeson uncensored in son's new book
When the biographer is an only son, one could expect a deliberately neat and cleaned-up version of the life of Paul Robeson, one of the most talented, scholarly and sanguine human rights crusaders of the 20th century.
But Paul Robeson Jr., wants the whole truth to prevail-including their human frailties-when his parents' names are mentioned in serious discourse.
His father, in particular, evidenced a commitment so meaningful, so unambiguously dedicated to freedom for his people that whatever foibles he displayed, they all wither in the glare of the total Paul Robeson.
Last week Robeson's son visited Chicago for the promotion …
The IRS has a major effort under way to educate new small businesses about tax laws. The program focuses on four areas:
* Avoidance of tax schemes, including not withholding income taxes from wages paid to employees;
* Increasing e-filing and decreasing the number of re-submissions-e-filing the same form more than once because of unfamiliarity with the proper process or accidentally hitting the "send' button;
* Taxpayer burden reduction; and
* Voluntary agreements.
This push by the IRS was just one of the topics discussed at the CaICPA Committee on Taxation's annual IRS liaison meeting in Los Angeles in November. The meeting included 12 IRS representatives, who reviewed policies and responded to questions.
Because Congress has …
Literary Fiction
Last Night in Twisted River | JOHN IRVING: In New Hampshire, a 12-year-old boy shoots the town constable's girlfriend, thinking she was a bear. He and his father become fugitives as the constable feverishly tracks them. Irving tells the story of the boy's life over five decades. LATE OCT
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The Humbling | PHILIP ROTH: Roth's Indignation (*** Nov/Dec 2008) was published just one year ago, and here, in his 30th book, he ruminates again on aging, life, and death. Simon Axler was once a leading stage actor, but now in his 60s, he has lost his confidence and, he feels, his talent. It will be no surprise to Roth fans that, as the publisher puts it, "into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire." NOV
Too Much Happiness …
Byline: Gary Langer Associated Press
The president of the city Board of Education and two of his fellow members endorsed calls for the board's abolition Wednesday, proposing it be replaced with a larger panel controlled by the mayor.
While the officials' preference for a restructured board under mayoral control had been known, their statement was their first formal call for its abolition and replacement with a specific alternative, a spokesman said.
"Sweeping action is necessary for the sake of the city, the public schools and the children they serve," board President Robert Wagner Jr. and members Edward Sadowsky and Richard Beattie said in a …
Byline: VIC OSTROWIDZKI Times Union Washington bureau
WASHINGTON The House of Representatives on Monday will take up controversial legislation to limit damages in civil lawsuits. Speaker Newt Gingrich predicts a ``real brawl.''
As part of their Contract with America, Republicans hope to push through legislation that would cap punitive damages and make it more difficult to sue companies. A separate bill would require losers in most circumstances to pay the winners' legal fees and would limit testimony from so-called expert witnesses.
Gingrich says the legislation is ``the most contentious bill of the second 50 days'' in part because of the …
Broadcasters say they can deal with the tricky technical glitches that create nighttime interference for AM digital stations. The NAB has asked the FCC to let all AM stations authorized to air analog at night add digital signals. At present, AM stations need special approval to do digital at night. Digital is expected to …
Joe Torre grew up in Brooklyn rooting against the Dodgers. Now, a half-century after they moved west, he's their manager.
Torre was hired by Los Angeles to succeed Grady Little on Thursday, taking the job two weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.
The winningest manager in postseason history, Torre moved from one storied franchise to another, agreeing to a three-year, $13 million contract. He becomes the Dodgers' eighth manager since they left his hometown, where he rooted for the rival New York Giants.
"As a kid growing up, you didn't like them," Torre said on WFAN radio in New York less than an hour before the hiring was …
Runaway commercialisation and too rapid a growth, followed by aclampdown by the Andhra Pradesh government, has led to the mess theIndian microfinance sector currently finds itself in. A totaldisconnect between microfinance institutions, or MFIs, and theirborrowers, near absence of regulation to check fly by nightoperators and lack of product innovation, have added to the crisis.
"The sector needs fresh thinking and significant reorientation.There should be a clear focus on demand profile and proper designingof products," says Vijay Mahajan, founder of BASIX, a leadingmicrofinance and livelihood institution.
"Microfinance in India was appreciated for its …
According to a study from the United States, "Aboveground biomass predictive equations were developed for a highly productive 47-year-old mixed Douglas-fir and western hemlock stand in southwest Washington State to characterize the preharvest stand attributes for the Fall River Long-Term Site Productivity Study. The equations were developed using detailed biomass data taken from 31 Douglas-fir and 11 western hemlock trees within the original stand."
"The stand had an average of 615 live trees per hectare, with an average dbh of 35.6 cm (39.1 cm for Douglas-fir and 33.3 cm for western hemlock) and an average total tree height of 31.6 m (32.8 m for Douglas-fir and 30.2 m for …
Byline: BEN DOBBIN Associated Press
CORNING -- It lends more than a little sparkle to special occasions -- a dinner party, a 15th wedding anniversary, a visit by a foreign head of state.
Renowned for its light-catching clarity, fluid form and intricate engraving, Steuben is the only luxury lead crystal still handcrafted in the United States. What's more, this customary gift of state of U.S. presidents dating back to Harry Truman has just hit the century mark.
``The very fact that an American company has survived 100 years and has kept its fundamental themes of craftsmanship and quality is just an amazing thing,'' said Thomas Dimitroff, a historian …
"Australia is a good friend of Thailand and a good friend of Asia." That was the key message from Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, the deputy prime minister of Thailand back in 1993 at the APEC summit in Seattle. Now, 11 years on, Australia is an even better friend of Thailand thanks to the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) which was provisionally inked by Thai prime minister Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra and Australian PM John Howard in Bangkok at the 2003 APEC summit.
The agreement--now fully in force--is Australia's second FTA with an ASEAN economy following the successful completion of negotiations of the Singapore Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and was, …
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says 77 foreign troops …
NEW YORK - Hyundai Motor America has no intention of buying market share.
With sales up 36 percent so far this year, Hyundai plans to keep on rolling by increasing ad spending by 10 percent and avoid throwing money after costly 0 percent financing programs.
``Two years ago, we were running somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 in incentive costs (per vehicle),'' said David Weber, Hyundai's vice president of marketing.
``What we decided to do is try to get our products repriced, repackaged, put more value into the cars and get off the rebate. We're down over $1,000 (per vehicle).
``We have 0 percent on the XG, but at this point in time, I …
Byline: Mary Chris Kuhr Staff writer
If the plows didn't keep Capital District residents shoveling Saturday, the wind did.
"The big problem today is the drifting snow," said meteorologist Greg Gerwitz, who works with the National Weather Service at the Albany County Airport.
A half-inch dusting Saturday brought the snow total since the start of Friday's storm to an even 14 inches at the airport, officials there said.
Wind speed, estimated at 20 to 35 mph Saturday, was expected to decrease today to 10 to 20 mph, Gerwitz said. "You'll still notice some wind tomorrow, but there won't be anything like today," he predicted Saturday. "I think this will be the worst of it."
Sunny skies were expected today, with highs near 30. No snow was forecast for today, but the chance of snow Monday was 50 percent, Gerwitz said.
Saturday's winds made the 23 afternoon high temperature feel like 10 below zero, Gerwitz said.
Blowing snow …
NEW YORK -- Thanks to a highly competitive shaving segment and the rapid growth of specialized skin care, the men's grooming market has been flourishing in recent months.
While Information Resources Inc. data shows a double-digit decline in the sales of razors during the 12 months ended October 2, every other segment of men's grooming has continued to move forward at a brisk pace.
The category's largest product areas--blades and cartridges--accounted for a combined $1.89 billion in mass market sales and $635.2 million in drag store volume during the period.
Sales of razor blades--still the largest segment--increased 5.5% overall and 8.3% in drug …
Huntington 0 6 0 6 - 12
Riverside 12 0 15 0 - 27
R - T.J. Richards 2 run (run failed)
R - Richards 37 run (run failed)
H - Hiram Moore 16 pass from Marquis Martin (kick
failed)
R - Rusty Taylor 23 run (Adison Ealey pass from Taylor)
R - Kashif Ealey 1 run (Adam Lilly kick)
H - Martin 30 run (pass failed)
TEAM STATISTICS
Hun Riv
First downs 10 10
By run 7 9
By pass 2 1
By penalty 1 0
Rushes-yards 40-166 43-255
Comp-Att.-Int. 5-18-0 2-6-1
Passing yards 40 35
Total yards 206 …
Byline: HOWARD BRYANT Bergen Record
Yankees3 Orioles2 BALTIMORE -- Jason Giambi had seen just about enough. He had seen the Baltimore Orioles slapping base hits and scurrying around the bases. He'd seen enough of their celebrating -- some Yankees would say overzealously celebrating -- at his expense.
So Thursday, Giambi left the Orioles a little reminder, just in case they forgot the order of the universe. Giambi banged out two homers, accounting for all the Yankee runs in a 3-2 win.
Hence, the Yankees avoided being swept by the mediocre but spunky Orioles. The Bombers even climbed into a share of the lead in the American League East, as the Red …
