MIAMI It didn't take long for rookie Jim Harbaugh to make adramatic impression.
On his first professional pass, Harbaugh hit Ron Morris for a65-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Mike Tomczak's quarterbacking probably was better than the threepoints the Bears put on the scoreboard in the first half, and DougFlutie's probably was better than the …
CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Browns built an early lead and held on for a 41-31 win Sunday that handed the Miami Dolphins a franchise-record ninth consecutive loss.
The Browns (3-3) scored on three of their first four possessions to go up 17-3 before Leigh Bodden intercepted a Cleo Lemon pass and quarterback Derek Anderson turned it into a 24-yard touchdown throw to Braylon Edwards on the very next play.
After the Dolphins (0-6) pulled within 27-24 in the third quarter, Anderson threw his second and third TD passes of the game to Edwards to put it out of reach.
Now Cleveland can go into its bye week with some peace of mind. After taking the week off, the Browns play …
A union official says construction workers are continuing with their strike that has crippled work on World Cup projects in South Africa.
National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said Monday that workers are holding out for a 13 percent pay increase. Employers have …
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Milton Katz, a legal scholar who helped overseethe rebuilding of Europe after World War II as head of the MarshallPlan, has died. He was 87.
The cause of death was cardiac arrest. He died Wednesday nightat Beth Israel Hospital in Brookline, Mass.
Mr. Katz spent much of his career at Harvard Law School, wherehe began as a lecturer in 1939 and went on to help establish theinternational legal studies program he directed for 20 years.
During World War II, Mr. Katz served first as part of the WarProduction Board and the Combined Production and Resources Board andlater as a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.
He spent a year as …
KITZBUEHEL, Austria (AP) — Alistair Brownlee won his second successive world series triathlon in Kitzbuehel and took the lead in the overall standings on Saturday.
Brownlee, who won in Madrid two weeks ago, was first out of the water, tied for the lead after the cycle leg, then powered home on the run to beat second-placed Alexander Brukhankov of Russia by 44 seconds. Sven Riederer of Switzerland was third.
Brukhankov also moved into second overall, while Javier Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee, Alistair's brother, didn't race and dropped to third and fourth after three …
Author Ishmael Beah has disputed newspaper reports that the best-selling memoir of his time as a child soldier contained inconsistencies, during an interview marking his first return to Sierra Leone since the book was published.
Beah defended his version of events in "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," saying the 2007 book is based on personal recollection and was not a historical account.
"I decided to write because I wanted to shed light on this experience from my own personal point of view. I never claimed I was going to write a history of the war," he told The Associated Press Tuesday. "Only Ishmael Beah can tell his …
Children can get in for free to next Tuesday's Scottish Cupreplay between Celtic and the Dons in Glasgow.
Adults will pay just pounds15 after the clubs agreed to slashticket prices in the wake of the 10,909 attendance at Sunday's 1-1draw at Pittodrie which was the lowest for a clash between Aberdeenand one of the Old Firm for 77 years.
Dons managing director Duncan Fraser said: "Celtic and ourselvesare mindful of the fact it has been a costly period for our fans dueto a heavy programme of domestic and European games.
"It's hoped the reductions will make it easier for more fans tocome along.
"Children accompanied by an adult will get in free, on a one …
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
It is a pleasure to address you, my friends and colleagues of ASEE. My term as president is now in the 10th month. It's been a phenomenal year, filled with a lot of adventure and growth. It's also been quite the challenge just keeping up with what has to be done. I have had the opportunity to work with many fine individuals, both at ASEE headquarters and within the rank and file of our volunteer organization. Let me tell all of you, I have enjoyed every minute serving you and the society.
I want to convey to you something that you may already know, or intuitively feel: ASEE is alive and very well, incredibly healthy during this time of ill-health for some …
Deanna Nolan scored 21 points and Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 19 to help the Detroit Shock reach the WNBA finals for the third straight season with a 75-73 win over the New York Liberty on Monday.
The Shock won the best-of-three Eastern Conference finals and advanced to play the San Antonio Silver Stars for the championship. Detroit beat Sacramento in 2006 for its second league title, then lost in five games to Phoenix last year.
On Monday, the Shock led by 20 in the first half, but had to fight off the deeper Liberty in the second half. Sixth woman Plenette Pierson, who played well in Sunday's Game 2 just seven days after …
A Charlton Adam pub is to get a new landlord at the end of hismonth.
Mark Walton, 43, has been landlord at the Swan Inn in Rowberrowfor the past three-and-a-half years, establishing himself as part ofthe community in the village and turning the Swan into a traditionallocal family pub.
Mark will be taking …
LONDON - The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies in European trading Friday morning. Gold rose.
The euro traded at $1.3485, down from $1.3492 late Thursday in New York.
Other dollar rates:
- 121.35 Japanese yen, up from 121.27
- 1.2264 Swiss franc, down from 1.2278
- 1.0943 …
U.S. airports and border agents waved people through with little or no additional screening for Mexico's deadly swine flu _ a far more muted reaction than the extreme caution elsewhere around the world.
The number of confirmed U.S. cases rose to 50, most of them mild and none fatal. The government said it was shipping millions of doses of flu-fighting medicine from a federal stockpile to states along the Mexican border or where the virus has been detected.
But the American reaction to swine flu, which has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and on Monday led the World Health Organization to raise its alert level, was mostly limited to steps that hospitals, …
New Trier managed only one hit off Barrington on Saturday.
It was big enough.
Leading off the top of the seventh, Pat Bader homered over theleft-field fence as the top-ranked Trevians beat host No. 14Barrington 2-1."It was 0-2 and I was thinking curve," said Bader, the Trevians'third baseman. "It came in and I reacted."Bader's first home run of the year for New Trier (13-1) came offDimas Moreno, who relieved freshman Dan Pohlman.Pohlman, a 6-1, 185-pound right-hander, allowed no hits andstruck out seven for Barrington (12-7) in 5 1/3 innings."He was hitting spots and throwing strikes," Bader said. "Hewas hitting the outside corner all day."The last player to play a significant role as a freshman for theBroncos was Dan Wilson, who now is catching for the Seattle Mariners."Wilson caught half the season his freshman year," Barringtoncoach Kirby Smith said. "I wouldn't be starting (Pohlman) if hecouldn't play.""We don't see too many sliders," New Trier coach Mike Napoleonsaid. "We see a lot of curves and good fastballs. For a freshman,he was throwing a nice tight slider."Barrington took a 1-0 lead in the first when Jess Sayre singledwith two outs and scored on Moreno's single.Starter Justin Nyweide "gets in a funk in the first inning; hedid the same thing against Lockport," Napoleon said. "Maybe we haveto do something when he warms up."In the fifth, New Trier managed to tie the game without a hitoff Pohlman when Tim DaRosa walked, stole second, advanced on a wildpitch and scored on an error."We ran the bases real well," Napoleon said. "Our problem wasgetting to first."DaRosa, Colin Rogers, Mark Floersch and Mark Tapley all stolebases for New Trier. Nyweide (5-0) went the distance for theTrevians, scattering seven hits, striking out seven and walking one.
Javed Miandad resigned as director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board after being offered a "low" monthly salary, a report said Saturday.
The News newspaper published a handwritten letter from PCB's human resources director Wasim Bari to chief operating officer Salim Altaf after discussing the contract with Miandad.
The report said Miandad was offered 500,000 rupees ($6,300) per month in the contract which the former test captain and coach refused last Wednesday, resigning the position he had held on an honorary basis since November.
"He (Miandad) earns 75,000 rupees/50,000 rupees for a one hour program on TV," Bari's letter read.
"As he is a renowned international cricketer therefore he should be paid accordingly as (former India coach) Greg Chappell and (ex-Pakistan coach) Geoff Lawson."
The letter also said that Miandad wanted to take full charge of all cricketing affairs so that he could bring the desired results.
Miandad, 51, cited his "limited role" as a reason to resign and denied he quit in protest at the pay being offered.
"Salary was not the issue because had I gone after the money I would have become the coach of national team when the PCB offered me the post in last October," Miandad had said.
"The contract read that I will look after domestic cricket, development of the grounds and development of the game which was not sufficient for what I really wanted to do for the promotion of cricket in Pakistan," he said.
Miandad was one of the six former test cricketers appointed by chairman Ijaz Butt after he took over as chairman PCB in October, along with Altaf, Bari , Aamir Sohail (national academy director), Abdul Qadir (chief selector) and Intikhab Alam (coach).
Miandad _ who has three times held the post of national team coach _ is Pakistan's highest run-getter in test matches with 8,832 runs in 124 tests. He played 233 ODI, making 7,381 runs.
NEW YORK - Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plans to slash the prices of almost 300 generic prescription drugs, offering a big lure for bargain-seeking customers and presenting a challenge to competing pharmacy chains and makers of generic drugs.
The drugs will be sold for as little as $4 for a month's supply and include some of the most commonly prescribed medicines such as Metformin, a popular generic drug used to treat diabetes, and the high blood pressure medicine Lisinopril.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will launch the program Friday at 65 Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sams' Club pharmacies in Florida's Tampa Bay area. It will be expanded statewide in January and rolled out to the rest of the nation next year, company officials said Thursday.
The news sent the shares of big pharmacy chains like Walgreen's and CVS slumping because of fears that Wal-Mart's price cuts could cost them market share. Analysts said consumers will save an average of 20 percent and up to 90 percent in some cases. Shares of prescription drug management companies and some generic drugmakers fell as well.
Minneapolis-based Target Corp., the country's No. 2 discounter behind Wal-Mart, said it would match its rival's lower prices in the Tampa Bay area immediately. A news release issued Thursday night did not say if Target would also do so as Wal-Mart expands the program, and the company did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, but the statement said Target's long-standing practice is to be price-competitive with Wal-Mart.
Analysts said the risks to Wal-Mart are slim because profit margins on most of the drugs already are low - and the program could help the Arkansas-based retailer address an image problem stemming from its policies on health insurance coverage for employees.
"They are doing something that may be good for consumers, but they don't have altruistic motives," said Patricia Edwards, a portfolio manager and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle. "They are capitalists. They still need to make a profit."
Tampa Wal-Mart pharmacy customer Pat Sullivan, a retired Massachusetts police officer, said $4 generic prescriptions would be a tremendous help.
"I'm on disability and my benefits run out by the end of the month," he said. "It comes down to where do I go for a $100 prescription? I have no outlet other than to break a pill in half and take half today and half tomorrow."
The $4 prescriptions are not available by mail order and are being offered online only if picked up in person in the Tampa Bay area.
Bill Simon, executive vice president of the company's professional services division, told reporters that the generic drugs would not be sold at a loss to entice customers into the stores, a strategy that has been used in Wal-Mart's toy business.
"We're able to do this by using one of our greatest strengths as a company - our business model and our ability to drive costs out of the system, and the model that passes those costs savings to our customers," he said at a Tampa Wal-Mart. "In this case, we're applying that business model to health care."
Simon said Wal-Mart is working with the 30 participating drug companies to help them be more efficient. "We are working with them as partners. We are not pressuring them to reduce prices," he said.
David W. Maris, an analyst at Banc of America, said in a report issued Thursday that the plan could "squeeze the generic manufacturers." But Kathleen Jaeger, president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, disputed that, saying Wal-Mart's plan will have "little impact" on its members.
The initiative follows a series of moves by Wal-Mart to improve its health benefits since last October. They include relaxing eligibility requirements for its part-time employees who want health insurance, and extending coverage for the first time to the children of those employees. Last October, Wal-Mart offered a new lower-premium insurance aimed at getting more of its work force on company plans.
Wal-Mart's shares fell 41 cents to close at $48.46 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. But shares of the nation's largest drug chain, Walgreen Co., slumped 7.4 percent and the stock of rivals CVS Corp. and Rite-Aid Corp. dropped more than 8 percent and more than 5 percent, respectively. Shares of generic drug makers Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s and Mylan Labs also fell, as did the stock of Caremark RX Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager firm.
Still, Rite-Aid and Walgreens executives both noted that Wal-Mart's list of the discounted generics contains only a small percent of the 1,500 and 1,800 generic drugs each offers, respectively.
Faced with soaring drug costs, consumers are increasingly turning to generic drugs, which often are made by multiple companies after the original patent on the medicines expire. The average monthly cost for a generic drug prescription is $28.74, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. For branded drugs, that figure is $96.01.
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association, a trade association, said generic medicines account for 56 percent of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States, but only 13 percent of all dollars spent on prescription drugs.
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Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Fla. and Shaila Dani in New York contributed to this report.
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On the Web:
For a list of generic drugs to be sold at discounted prices and details about the program: http://www.walmartfacts.com
President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a package of tax breaks and spending designed to give the U.S. a jobs boost by encouraging the private sector to start hiring again.
It is the first of several such measures Democrats have promised this election year to address the public's top worry: jobs. The measure includes about $18 billion in tax breaks and pumps $20 billion into highway and transit programs.
At a ceremony at the White House, Obama said the bill is necessary "but by no means enough."
"There is a lot more we need to do to spur hiring in the private sector and bring about full economic recovery," he said.
There is plenty of skepticism that the new law will do much to foster hiring. Optimistic estimates are that the tax break could generate perhaps 250,000 jobs through the end of the year; some 8.4 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession.
Small businesses in particular will benefit, the president said.
"Many of them are on the fence right now about whether to bring on that extra worker or two, or whether to hire anyone at all," Obama said. "This jobs bill should help make their decision that much easier."
Under the new law, businesses that hire anyone unemployed for at least 60 days would be exempt from paying the 6.2 percent payroll tax through December. Employers also would get an additional $1,000 credit if new workers remain on the job a full year. Taxpayers will have to reimburse Social Security for the lost revenue.
The new law also extends a tax break for small businesses buying new equipment and modestly expands an initiative that helps state and local government pay for transportation and infrastructure projects.
It is paid for over the coming decade in part by cracking down on offshore tax havens, though it would add $13 billion to the debt in the coming three years.
In a show of bipartisanship toward the election-year goal of job creation, the Senate passed the bill Wednesday with 11 Republicans among the 68 senators who voted to send it to the president.
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 condemned U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon as enemies of Islam and warned the terror group will strike the Persian Gulf and Israel, suggesting new fronts in its war against the West in a video Monday marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The video of Ayman al-Zawahri was one of three al-Qaida released for the anniversary, showing increasingly sophisticated techniques as the group tries to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force five years into the U.S. war on terror.
One video showed images of the planes striking the World Trade Center, lionizing the 19 suicide hijackers as men "who changed history." Another was a 91-minute documentary-style video in which Osama bin Laden is seen smiling and chatting with the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp.
Al-Zawahri spoke in the third and longest video, warning Americans of more attacks to come.
"We have repeatedly warned you and offered a truce with you. Now we have all the legal and rational justification to continue to fight you until your power is destroyed or you give in and surrender," he said. "The days are pregnant and giving birth to new events."
He also called on his followers to attack the U.S. in response to its jailing of a prominent Muslim cleric.
"I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," he said.
Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric from Egypt, was convicted in the U.S. of seditious conspiracy for his advisory role in a plot to blow up five New York City landmarks, including the United Nations in 1995.
Al-Zawahri's comments also pointed to new fronts for al-Qaida attacks. The terror network has had few operations in Lebanon, Israel or in the Gulf region - except for in Saudi Arabia, where its branch carried out a campaign of violence in recent years but has been heavily damaged by a government crackdown.
He urged his followers to attack Western targets to stop what he said was the stealing of oil from Muslim countries.
Both Lebanon and Israel have warned of a possible growing al-Qaida presence.
"We have seen over the last months increased al-Qaida activity in our area," in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt's Sinai peninsula, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "We've seen an attempt by al-Qaida to also infiltrate in Gaza and even in the West Bank, so we take the threat very seriously and we're taking the appropriate countermeasures," he said, without elaborating.
Addressing the United States, al-Zawahri said "you should not waste your time" reinforcing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, "because they are doomed to defeat."
"Instead, you have to reinforce your troops in two regions. First is the Gulf, where you will be thrown out after you are defeated in Iraq, at which point your economic ruin will be achieved," he said. "The second is Israel, because the jihad reinforcements are getting closer to it."
He also denounced the U.N. peacekeeping force now moving into Lebanon under terms set out in a U.N. cease-fire resolution that on Aug. 14 ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. He suggested Muslims should prevent the peacekeepers' deployment.
"What is so terrible in this resolution ... is that it approves the existence of the Jewish state and isolates our mujahedeen in Palestine from Muslims in Lebanon," he said. "This is consecrated by the presence of international troops who are hostile to Islam."
"Anyone who accepts this resolution means that he accepts all these catastrophes," he said.
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri called on the Muslim world "to rush with everything at its disposal to the aid of its Muslim brothers in Lebanon and Gaza" and accused Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia of being "traitors" when it came to those two conflicts.
The comments about Lebanon - which indicated the video was recent - were the first indirect threat against the French-led force deploying there, tasked with enforcing a border zone free of Hezbollah weapons.
But it is not clear al-Qaida has the means to carry out significant attacks in Lebanon. The Sunni-led al-Qaida and Shiite Hezbollah are considered enemies. The Shiite guerrillas were angered over the terror group's interference in December, when al-Qaida in Iraq claimed a rocket attack from Lebanon into northern Israel, provoking Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base in Lebanon.
Al-Zawahri also called on Iraq's Kurds to shun America and Israel.
"I appeal to my brothers in Islam, the Kurds, to renounce these calls which support America and Israel," he said.
Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed to be on the run in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Many analysts believe that they no longer have centralized control to order or organize attacks by militants around the world. The capture and killing of many midlevel commanders has left the organization more diffuse and amorphous.
At the same time, the central leadership's propaganda machine has gotten more sophisticated, aiming to rally militants and romanticizing the jihad, or holy war, against the United States as a heroic fight.
The three videos were all issued by As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media production arm.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto put her supporters on a collision course with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Wednesday, urging them to defy a clampdown on protests against the U.S.-backed strongman's emergency rule.
In an opening skirmish, police swung batons and fired tear gas at 400 supporters of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party who were headed to parliament, where lawmakers moments earlier had rubber-stamped the emergency declaration. Police beat and arrested the few activists who broke through barricades topped with barbed-wire, including several women.
Naheed Khan, a close female aide to Bhutto, waded into the brief melee, whacked a policeman on the shoulder and screamed at him: "Who are you? How dare you take action against women?"
The demonstrators pulled back through the choking gas, chanting "Benazir! Benazir!" and "Down with the emergency!"
Thousands of people have been rounded up and put in jail or under house arrest since Musharraf suspended the constitution and assumed emergency powers Saturday. Despite past promises to restore democracy, he has ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on the media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.
Ahmad Raza Khan Qasuri, a senior member of Musharraf's legal team, warned the U.S. not to attempt to direct Pakistani politics.
"Do we ask for a checklist from the United States, 'Why did you go to Iraq? Why did you go to Afghanistan?'" he said at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "The United States, instead of dictation, they should give us friendly advice."
Asked about whether he expected the U.S. to cut back aid it provides Pakistan because of the state of emergency, Qasuri said: "I think the U.S. is more interested in the security of the region rather than the democratic values."
Three days of protests by lawyers _ fuming over his attacks on the judiciary _ have been quickly put down. However, violent clashes with Bhutto's party, Pakistan's biggest, could deepen the uncertainty engulfing a country already shaken by rising Islamic militancy.
Police in the southern city of Karachi said they were trying to arrest eight lawyers on treason charges for distributing anti-Musharraf leaflets. The charge can be punished with the death sentence.
With the encouragement of the United States, Musharraf had held negotiations with Bhutto widely expected to lead to a power-sharing arrangement after parliamentary elections originally slated for January.
Both have vowed to toughen Pakistan's line against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who are spreading their influence in regions near the border with Afghanistan and beyond.
But with the elections schedule up in the air, Bhutto urged supporters to defy the crackdown by marching on Parliament and attending a mass rally in the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday.
The mayor of Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of Islamabad, said police would be out in force to prevent anyone reaching the park where Bhutto hoped to address supporters Friday.
"We will ensure that they don't violate the ban on rallies, and if they do it, the government will take action according to the law," mayor Javed Akhlas told The Associated Press.
Akhlas said there was a "strong threat" of another suicide attack against Bhutto, who escaped a blast that killed more than 140 people in Karachi during a procession welcoming her home from exile on Oct. 18.
Another bomber blew himself up several hundred yards from Musharraf's office in Rawalpindi last week, killing seven.
Bhutto has put the talks on ice since Musharraf's resort to authoritarian measures. She said security forces arrested more than 400 members of her Pakistan People's Party on Wednesday alone.
However, she said negotiations could still resume if Musharraf yields to growing domestic and international pressure to end the emergency soon.
"If Gen. Musharraf wants to kick start the negotiations for a peaceful transition, then he must revive the constitution, retire as chief of army staff by Nov. 15 and hold the election as scheduled," Bhutto said.
She said her party would stage a "long march" from Lahore to Islamabad _ a distance of 200 miles _ next Tuesday unless Musharraf announces he will meets the conditions.
The United States and other foreign donors to Pakistan are pressing loudly for the elections to be held on time and the end of the emergency. They are also urging Musharraf to keep a promise to quit his powerful army post.
Pakistani ministers have suggested that the election could be postponed for up to a year. However, the president of the ruling party expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could be held as scheduled.
"God willing, it (the emergency) will end as soon as possible and elections will be absolutely on time," Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on state-run Pakistan Television.
Though it has called for a return to democratic rule, the Bush administration's public response has been fairly mild, out of concern of going too far in rebuking a close anti-war ally.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was expected to tell Congress Wednesday that the crackdown has been a major disappointment to the U.S. But his remarks were not likely to include any announcements on changes to U.S. policy. Congress is currently reviewing the billions of dollars in aid Washington gives to Pakistan.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has sought to placate foreign critics, telephoning Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday.
"It is clear to me from our conversation that President Musharraf understands the consequences for his country and for relations with the United States if he does not return Pakistan to the path of democracy," said Biden.
Musharraf says he suspended the constitution because the courts were hampering his country's efforts against extremism _ for instance by ordering the release of suspects held without charge.
But opponents accuse him of mounting a last-ditch maneuver to stay in power.
Musharraf purged the Supreme Court just before it ruled on the legality of his contested re-election as president last month. The court has also pressed authorities to let Nawaz Sharif, the man he toppled in his 1999 coup, return from exile.
Sharif's party as well as Pakistan's main religious groups shunned a meeting Wednesday called by Bhutto to coordinate opposition to Musharraf.
In an interview with AP, Sharif ruled out teaming up with Bhutto unless she broke definitively with Musharraf. He also urged the West to abandon the general, saying he had outlived his utility against terrorism.
"One man is holding the entire nation hostage for his personal interests," Sharif said by phone from Saudi Arabia. He forecast civil unrest unless Musharraf gives ground.
Lawyers are particularly incensed by the ouster of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, an independent-minded judge whom Musharraf tried unsuccessfully to fire earlier this year.
Chaudhry is under house arrest in Islamabad but managed to use a cell phone Tuesday to urge lawyers to continue their agitation.
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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Zarar Khan and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad; Ashraf Khan in Karachi; and Foster Klug and Anne Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.
Stevie Wonder had a secret to share.
It was about his mother, LuIa Mae Hardaway.
She died a little more than a year ago at the age of 76, and she did more than simply give birth to him.
Back in the day, when he was known as "LiI' Stevie," she negotiated his first contract with Motown.
She co-wrote "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" and "I Was Made to Love Her."
And she was on Stevie's mind when he walked on stage last Thursday night before a sold-out, gently graying crowd at the Bank of America Pavilion. His daughter Aisha Morris - the subject of yet another Stevie hit, "Isn't She Lovely" - accompanied him.
Before he got down to business, Wonder had a few words of caution about his striking daughter. It was something about being a blind man with a shotgun.
The laughter subsided when Stevie began talking about the secret.
"I never mentioned this to anybody before," Wonder said. "My mother died last year and when it happened, I cancelled all of my shows. That was my way of grieving.
"It was devastating," Stevie said, choking on his words. "... Then one night, I dreamed that my mother called me on the phone and I said to her in the dream, 'Ma? How is this happening? I thought you died.' My mother then asked me in the dream how I was doing and I told her that I had cancelled my shows and wasn't doing too well at all.
"Then she said to me, in her voice, 'Boy, you better get out there and do what you do.'"
And that is what Stevie does. Even at the relatively young age of 57, even after performing and working the business for nearly five decades and earning 25 Grammy Awards, Stevie still does what he does.
He talks about love. He talks about caring. He talks about making an impact.
It took less than three hours for last Thursday's show to sell out, and the paid attendance number of about 5,000 doesn't include the hundreds of folks crowded on their boats in Boston Harbor or outside the front gates at the Bank of America Pavilion.
Stevie and Aisha began the concert with a duet of "How Will I Know."
At the close of that song, Aisha joined the backup singers to harmonize on songs like "Living Just Enough," "Ribbon in the Sky," "A Place in the Sun," "Overjoyed" and a slew of other favorites.
Throughout the night, Stevie alternated between the piano and keyboards, and even cried while singing "As," his mother's favorite song by him.
At the end of the concert, Stevie spoke to the Banner from a comfy tan love seat in a cabin backstage.
Sipping soup from a Styrofoam cup, he began the interview by introducing Akosua Busia, the U.S.-based Ghanaian actress who starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg as Nettie in Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple." She also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Toni Morrison's award-winning novel, "Beloved."
Once Busia was gone, Stevie became playful, sipping his soup and asking questions about Boston.
"I've been to Roxbury before," he says. "I had a couple of friends who used to live there. I knew [Angela Paige], who founded [Paige Academy]. She was the friend of a woman named Malachia who used to braid my hair. I spent two days at Paige Academy."
Glad to know that the school is still around today, Stevie had a few words to say about the current state of America, and while he didn't use the word "conspiracy," he clearly was heading in that direction.
"I think it's very unique how things are done - like they were planned," Wonder said. "The whole O.J. thing that I have been following was all a setup because it so conveniently happened around the time when the Jena sentencing [in Louisiana] was about to happen. I mean, all of sudden the media is talking about O.J. Simpson and him getting arrested for armed robbery and then it flips and says, 'We don't think he had a gun.'"
Wonder is no fan of the mainstream media.
"I think that possibly the media might be the downfall of America," Wonder said. "I mean, you have to tell stories, but somebody has to have - to me - enough sense or dignity to understand that there are people who are hungry for information, and when you feed them garbage and trash and stupidity all the time, then thaf s what they look forward to. It's just trash or sensationalism."
Case in point: Britney Spears.
"That's a major thing in the media," Wonder said, "and it's like they're laughing at her situations, the issues that she's dealing with. I think if s just that, they're mocking and laughing at her. What about giving her some help? What about talking about some of these things that keep happening on and on and on?
"What about guns?" Wonder asked. "We have 40,000 suicides a year. Young people killing themselves, and people getting fed up and, conveniently, there is a gun and they just blow their heads off. Why can't we deal with that kind of stuff?"
Then, Stevie went celestial.
"I think that if there was an asteroid coming toward this planet and it was maybe 4 million miles away and traveling at some ridiculous speed toward Earth, people would be so enthralled in the ridiculousness of it," he said. "But the people who Iwe a way of being protected will say, 'Let's do what we can do, but for those who can't move or who might cause panic and mass hysteria, let's wait for the last minute and tell them about it, [and then say] we didn't know.'"
What Stevie knows, more than most, is music, and he was quick to give his opinion on the state of the art.
"You have some good R&B; you have some bad R&B," Wonder said. "I think hip-hop is great. It's unfortunate when people say things about rap because it's a form of expression no different than when they were saying 'Shake your booty,' and everybody was saying, "Oh my God, why you saying 'Shake your booty?'
"I don't give any juice or appreciation to someone using the b-word or the ?-word, I'm not feeling that at all, but I think that there are ways where people can express themselves without getting stuck on stupid."
Wonder went further. "I think that on a certain level, people are caught between a rock and a hard place," he said. "Corporations want to go for what's hot and what sells and what's going to get them on BET or MTV, and they go for that thing that works out there."
[Sidebar]
Stevie Wonder performs during the final show of his summer tour at the Bank of America Pavilion, Thursday, Sept 20, 2007. Alternating between piano and keyboards, the 57-year-old Grammy Award-winner wooed the crowd of 5,000 strong with Wonder staples like "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)" and "I Was Made to Love Her." (Lolita Parker Jr. photo)
[Sidebar]
He talks about love. He talks about caring. He talks about making an impact.
[Sidebar]
Ceretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., embraces singer Stevie Wonder during a celebration on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 1983, after U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill making the civil rights leader's birthday, Jan. 15, a national holiday. Wonder received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Civil Rights Museum on Oct 17, 2006. (AP photo/Ron Edmonds)
Stevie Wonder smiles as he sings beside his daughter, Aisha Morris, at a Bank of America Pavilion concert on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. Morris accompanied her father on such Wonder favorites as "How Will I Know," "Living Just Enough" and "Overjoyed." Wonder also sang "Isn't She Lovely," a song written for Aisha, and cried while performing the song "As," his recently deceased mother's favorite song. A crowd of around 5,000 attended the concert, which brought an end to the "A Wonder Summer's Night" tour that began on Aug. 23, 2007 in San Diego. (Lolita Parker Jr. photo)
[Sidebar]
Stevie Wonder on the cover of last week's issue of Jet magazine. He performed the final concert of his tour last week at the Bank of America Pavilion. (Photo courtesy of Jet Magazine)
[Sidebar]
District of Columbia police officers flank singer Stevie Wonder following his arrest outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., Feb. 14, 1985, during an anti-apartheid protest. Wonder said his Valentine's Day arrest was "my expression of love to all the people of South Africa who are against the barbaric policies of apartheid." (AP photo/Ron Edmonds)
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. An orbiting observatory has detected amysterious cloud of antimatter particles that appears to be boilingup from the center of our galaxy to form a massive spewing fountainmore than 17,400 trillion miles into space.
Scientists from Northwestern University and the Naval ResearchLaboratory who announced the discovery at a scientific meeting hereMonday said they were amazed, perplexed and delighted by the enormouseruption apparently 3,000 light years out from the heart of Earth'shome galaxy, the Milky Way.
"It is like finding a new room in the house we have lived insince childhood," said Charles Dermer of the Naval ResearchLaboratory in Washington, a researcher from one of five collaboratinginstitutions that discovered the fountain. "And the room is notempty. It has some engine or boiler making hot gas filled withannihilating antimatter."The discovery not only changes scientists' perspective on ourhome galaxy, but also should provide new insights to the workings ofbasic processes in other galaxies throughout the universe, theresearchers said.To most people, antimatter is exotic-sounding stuff frequentlyassociated with science fiction. But the concept of antimatter flowsnaturally from leading theories of physics developed by AlbertEinstein and others early in this century. In the form of subatomicparticles, antimatter has been created in laboratories and detectedin nature.Ordinary matter is constructed of the basic atomic buildingblocks of protons, neutrons and electrons. Antimatter particles areexact duplicates of these except that they have opposite properties.An electron, for example, carries a negative charge while itsantimatter counterpart carries an equal, opposite charge - a positivecharge - and is therefore called a positron.The researchers were astounded to find evidence of a cloud ofantimatter particles towering above the plane of the galaxy, aneighborhood believed to be so empty of material that someparticularly violent or unusual mechanism - a smoking "positron gun"- will be required to explain it, they said."The origin of this new and unexpected source of antimatter is amystery," said William R. Purcell, of Northwestern University.The two most likely sources are antimatter factories at theverge of black holes, such as one called the Great Annihilator, or "athousand star deaths" occurring in waves of titanic explosions, orboth.Earth's solar system inhabits the outskirts of the Milky Way,about 25,000 light years from its core.
BRENTWOOD: Five fire engines were sent to a high-rise block inBrentwood after residents reported smelling smoke in an entrancehall on Saturday night.
On arrival at Drake House, in Sir Francis Way, firefighters foundevidence of a small fire at the entrance door, which had been putout before they arrived.
Crews carried out an inspection to make sure the area was safebefore leaving the scene at 9.15pm. The cause of the fire is undetermined.
The fire service said five engines were sent to the incident asthis is a pre-determined attendance for a building of this kind.
NEW YORK - Pepsi is offering a new low-calorie version of Gatorade in an effort to keep customers who have strayed from the sports drink in search of lower calorie drinks.
PepsiCo Inc., which announced plans for the low-cal G2 version of Gatorade on Friday, and its bigger rival The Coca-Cola Co. are aggressively competing for sales of non-carbonated beverages as health-conscious consumers shy away from carbonated soft drinks.
PepsiCo, the nation's second biggest soft drink company, said in July that its sales of carbonated soft drinks fell 4 percent in the second quarter while non-carbonated drinks grew 3 percent.
Last year, non-carbonated beverages accounted for 69 percent of PepsiCo Beverages North America's $9.57 billion in 2006 revenue, more than double that from soft drinks that made up 31 percent of the unit's total. Gatorade has been a key growth driver but sales have slowed recently.
"G2 should help limit the downside risk to a Gatorade slowdown," Morgan Stanley analyst Bill Pecoriello told investors in a research report.
Gatorade sales slowed in the second quarter after a 2 percent to 3 percent price hike in March and in comparison to sales that had grown 29 percent a year earlier.
G2, PepsiCo said, will have 25 calories per eight-ounce serving and is the first new Gatorade product since the original drink was introduced in 1967. The original lemon-lime Gatorade has 50 calories per eight-ounce serving.
Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo said it will distribute G2 starting in December to convenience stores, gas stations and retail outlets. The new Gatorade will come in three flavors: fruit punch, grape and orange.
PepsiCo also announced on Friday that it would introduce a bottled water with caffeine and vitamins called Propel Invigorating Water; reformulate its SoBe Life Water with sucrose, antioxidants, vitamins and fewer calories; and use a new sweetener blend with fewer calories for its Aquafina Alive water.
In June, Coca-Cola bought VitaminWater maker Glaceau for $4.1 billion, a price tag that signaled the company's seriousness in pursuing growth of non-carbonated beverages. Since then, the company has also given its Glaceau management team control of its Powerade sports drink brand, which competes directly with the more popular Gatorade.
PepsiCo also owns the Frito-Lay snacks, Quaker foods and Tropicana orange juice businesses.
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AP Business Writer Lauren Shepherd in New York contributed to this report.
The recent release of school-by-school scores on the firstIllinois Standards Achievement Test no doubt set off warning bells indistricts across the state. Despite cautions not to read too muchinto the test's first-year numbers, the results raised questionsabout our schools' ability to deliver in the classroom. More thanhalf of Illinois eighth-graders, for example, failed to meet the mathstandards established by the new test.
But not all of the news is so grim. The Chicago Schools AcademicAccountability Council made its own headlines not long ago when itannounced that reading and math scores are soaring at 39 cityschools. Since 1995, more than 20 percent of the students in suchschools as Albany Park and Ebinger moved from below to above thenational norm in math and reading. What's more, these schools haveachieved dramatic improvement over a relatively short period. But theimprovement isn't happening just because someone wished it so. It'shappening because the schools are making an investment in improvingthe quality of their teachers.
Eight of the 39 schools cited have taken part in an innovativeprogram established by the Teachers Academy for Mathematics andScience. The program was developed based on two simple assumptions:First, that the best student results come from teachers who teach inbetter ways, and second, that teachers equipped with solid, coreknowledge of their subjects will elicit better results.
It sounds fundamental, but the truth is that many of the teachersinstructing our children in math and science have not themselvesmastered the concepts, theories and equations that make up so much oftoday's curriculum. Under the academy program, teachers - like theones at many of the "most improved" schools - are immersed in a whole-school, content-driven, three-year process emphasizing science, math,technology and research-based teaching methods. They learn whatconcepts to teach and the best methods for teaching them. When theycomplete the program, they are better teachers. You need look nofurther than at their students' test scores to see the positiveresults.
The academy is not alone in realizing the importance of teachertraining. The National Staff Development Council released a reportjust this week concluding that school districts across the countryare failing miserably when it comes to providing adequateprofessional development. According to the report, a typical schooldistrict spends just 10 percent of what the experts recommend shouldbe devoted to teacher training.
We cannot expect our students to achieve their fullest potentialunless the people leading them in that effort are bringing a highlevel of knowledge and expertise to the classroom. Schools that actto make this a reality will continue to break the mold - withspectacular results. Lourdes Monteagudo, executive director, TeachersAcademy for Mathematics and Science Clean lungs for all
Today is a historic day for the residents of this state becausethe General Assembly has been presented with a once-in-a-lifetimeopportunity to reduce tobacco use. The first payment - $111 million -from the tobacco settlement has been deposited into the state'scoffers, and now it is time for the General Assembly to spend itcorrectly.
A recent poll conducted by Half for Tobacco Prevention revealedthat an overwhelming majority of Illinoisans agree that settlementfunds should be spent on tobacco prevention.
Ninety-one percent favor spending a portion on programs that helpchildren and teenagers stop smoking and prevent others from starting.Seventy-nine percent support spending on programs to help adultsquit, and nearly half of Illinois' registered voters said they wouldbe less likely to vote for a candidate who opposes programs thatadvocate tobacco control and smoking prevention and cessation.
We urge legislators to remain focused on the reason we receivedthis money - to repair the damage inflicted upon the people ofIllinois by decades of tobacco use. Don't waste this opportunity.Diana Hackbarth, Half for Tobacco Prevention An idea bearing fruit
The Board of Trustees and the staff of the Golden Apple Foundationare delighted with the unveiling of some of the details of theNational Teaching Academy (news stories, Dec. 6). When we firstoutlined the idea to Chicago School Board President Gery Chico lastyear, we said that as far as we know, there is no similar institutionanywhere in the country. In the last 12 months, we have spenthundreds of hours developing the notion that master teachers shouldplay a significant role in passing on the craft of teaching to thenext generation of professionals.
The Teaching Academy offers us the opportunity to serve thechildren of Chicago as well as the teaching profession. We lookforward to continuing the work with Chicago Public Schools,developing a fruitful partnership. Peg Cain, president, Golden AppleFoundation Our return to nature
I applaud Chicago Gateway Green's mission of transformingChicago's sterile roadways into beautiful landscape. But I have aconcern. Illinois is rich in beautiful, hardy native species. Whyimport even one plant from abroad?
Why not restore the view beheld along Illinois roads in 1847 whenJ.H. Buckingham of Boston traveled by stage? "The tall grass . . .looked like the deep sea. There were all sorts of flowers in theneighborhood of the road - and all the colors of the rainbow wereexhibited on all sides . . . as if the sun were shining upon the gayand dancing waters. We saw the white-weed of our New England, thewild indigo, the yellow mustard, the mullen, the clover, red andwhite, the purple nettle, the various colored phlox, numerous yellow,pink and crimson flowers and almost everything else that isbeautiful."
Today, 99.9 percent of Illinois' 22 million prairie acres areforever gone. Extinct are the passenger pigeon and the carolinaparakeet, Illinois' only native parrot. With so little prairie leftin the "Prairie State" little exists to prevent Illinois' endangeredcreatures from going extinct.
Next to habitat loss, introduced species are the biggest U.S.environmental problem. Purposely introduced exotics like Siberiancrested wheat grass, Norway maple and Japanese honeysuckle now areinvasive pests.
Chicago has a unique opportunity to restore and expand the habitatthat greeted its first settlers. Miles along Illinois roadwaysrestored to resemble historic Illinois should be the goal. CharlotteAdelman, Wilmette Big world, tiny minds
This mild-mannered grandmother was not in Seattle kicking inwindows, but I too oppose the World Trade Organization as it exists.President Clinton is acting responsibly - not "pandering," as the Sun-Times would have it - when he says the protests have raised issuesthat must be addressed.
Essentially, the WTO is the legal arm of multinationalcorporations and industries. It allows national governments tochallenge one another's domestic laws and regulations as violationsof WTO rules. A tribunal of just three people hears and decides allcases. Proceedings are always secret. Dissenting governments can beheavily fined or otherwise penalized, or simply be locked out ofworld trade.
The WTO is promoting two broad principles. First, products may notbe banned on the basis of their method of production. Second,restrictions must be "necessary," as defined by those secret panelsof three with their probable corporate ties. The United States has toaccept tuna caught with Mexico's dolphin-killing nets, and importedshrimp caught in ways that harm endangered sea turtles. Since 1997we've had to accept imported high-polluting gasoline, even thoughusing it here violates the U.S. Clean Air Act.
All this is only tip of the iceberg. And consumers who thinkthey'll be keeping things under control by shopping wisely can thinkagain. The Clinton/Gore administration now wants the WTO to crackdown on labels that reveal the method of production.
Clearly, we need to go back to the drawing board with the WTO. Anyfair-minded government that would accept it "as is" needs to have itscollective head examined. Margaret Nagel, Evanston Voice of thepeople
I was amused by reading your editorial denouncing the World TradeOrganization protesters as "anti-democratic." What does the WTO haveto do with democracy? Who elected them?
Apparently anti-democratic actions are just fine when imposed fromthe top down. It's only when they move from the bottom up thateditorial writers burn with righteous outrage. David Stein, UptownStart building an ark
Much has been said about zero tolerance in our schools. The pastorof my church said it best: "Would we have Christmas if God had a zerotolerance policy? The answer is clear. If God had a zero tolerancepolicy regarding our behavior, he would have sent another floodinstead of sending the Messiah." Dean Koldenhoven, Palos Heights
Following the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., many people want topay respects or explain Kennedy family history to their children.Here are 10 places of pilgrimage across the United States:Massachusetts
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston, (617)929-4500.
Twenty-one exhibits cover the life, work and family of John F.Kennedy. All exhibits are permanent except for those in theCentennial Room, which houses visiting exhibits involving ceremonialculture and the arts associated with the Kennedy White House years.
A 17-minute introductory film is shown daily in the library's twotheaters and is repeated every 20 minutes until 3:55 p.m. Exhibitsinclude a Cuban Missile Crisis film, a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassisexhibit and a repository for Ernest Hemingway memorabilia.
Admission is $8 for adults; $6 for seniors and college students,$4 for students age 13-17. Others free. Visitors can signcondolence books at the JFK Library and the nearby John. F. KennedyNational Historic Site in Brookline, Mass. The books eventually willgo to the Kennedy family. New York
Apartment of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn BessetteKennedy, 20 N. Moore St., New York City.
The late couple's home is in the TriBeCa section of lowerManhattan, and the sidewalk out front became a makeshift memorial ofpersonal notes, floral tributes and candles - just as the lawns ofKensington Palace in London did after the death of Diana, princess ofWales. Floral tributes are being sent to charities.
Church of St. Thomas More, 65 E. 89th St., New York, (212) 876-7718.
The small Catholic church frequented by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassisand her family and the church chosen by Caroline Schlossberg for amemorial service for John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn BessetteKennedy.
To inquire about masses, call (212) 876-7718. Florida
La Guerida, 1095 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Front Estates, Palm Beach,Fla.
The Kennedy winter home established by family patriarch Joseph in1933 is about one hour north of Miami. Named La Guerida by itsbuilder in 1925, it first was the home of Philadelphia departmentstore magnate Redman Wanamaker, who sold the estate to Kennedy for$120,000.
The Mediterranean revival style complex became known as the"winter White House," during Kennedy's presidency. It was sold in1995 for $4.9 million and is now a private residence. Texas
The Sixth Floor Museum, Dealey Plaza, 411 Elm St., Dallas, (214)747-6660 or www.jfk.org.
Located on the sixth floor of the former Texas School BookDepository, from which Lee Harvey Oswald is suspected of havingassassinated President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, this once-macabresite has become a premier Dallas tourist draw with exhibits on thelife, times, death and legacy of JFK.
On exhibit: 400 historic photos, interviews on video, artifacts,interactive attractions and family-friendly exhibits. The site isnow recognized as the Dealey Plaza National Historic LandmarkDistrict.
Open daily (except Thanksgiving and Christmas) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for senior citizens 65 years old andup; $5 for students. Children under 6, free. California
Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.
Built between 1919 and 1921 on the site of a dairy farm onWilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, the 24-acre resort hostedearly Academy Awards banquets. It probably will be best-known as thesite where Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, making a victory speech after theCalifornia presidential primary June 5, 1968, was gunned down bySirhan Sirhan. The hotel closed in 1990 and is expected to bedemolished. Washington, D.C.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Call (800)444-1324. or visit www.kennedy-center.org.
Opened to the public in 1971, this "living memorial" to the slainpresident actually was begun in 1955 when President Dwight Eisenhowersigned legislation approving plans for a national cultural center.Upon his election, JFK took an active role in raising money forconstruction of the center.
Two months after his assassination, Congress designated theproject a memorial to JFK. The center contains three performing artstheaters, a movie theater, library and grand halls and foyers. Ofspecial note is a bust of JFK by sculptor Robert Berks. According tosome visitors, it changes as viewers walk around it, looking youngeron one side and older on the other.
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Perhaps the best-known tribute to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, theWhite House as it is seen today is the result of a major fund-raisingand renewal effort made by the first lady during her 1,000 daysthere.
Jacqueline hired some of the nation's best curators of Americanart, furniture and accessories to redecorate and repurchase lostitems to restore what she called "the nation's house" to illustratethe best of U.S. work.
White House tours are open to the public mornings only, Tuesdaysthrough Saturdays. Tours are free, but schedules and availability offree tickets are subject to last-minute changes.
Call (202) 456-7041.
Holy Trinity Church, 36th Street between N and O streets,Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., (202) 337-2840.
This small parish church in the Colonial area of Georgetown waswithin walking distance of the home of young Sen. John F. Kennedy andhis wife until they moved into the White House. It was their primaryWashington, D.C., house of worship. Virginia
Arlington National Cemetery. For more information, visit the Website at www. arlingtoncemetery.com
Located on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, this cemeteryof U.S. veterans and heroes since the years following the Civil Waris the final resting place of John F. Kennedy, his widow JacquelineBouvier Kennedy Onassis and two of their children - an unnameddaughter stillborn on Aug. 23, 1956, and a son, Patrick Bouvier, wholived two days after being born Aug. 7, 1963.
The stillborn daughter had been buried in Brookline, Mass., buther grave was moved to Arlington after her father's death.
Nearby is the grave of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, marked by a simplewhite cross.
Open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 1 through Sept. 30 and from 8a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 1 through March 31. Free.
Three cyclists are recovering from injuries after an oak tree fell on them during a California triathlon.
Officials say Howard Holderness, a 43-year-old San Francisco attorney, suffered a severe back injury and broken arm Sunday during the Vineman Ironman race in Sonoma County. Two other competitors sustained broken collarbones.
The incident occurred early in the 70-mile competition and hampered the race for at least 15 minutes.
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Information from: The Press Democrat, http://www.pressdemo.com
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Suspected pro-Taliban militants ambushed a military convoy in troubled northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, triggering a shootout that killed 10 militants and wounded seven soldiers, an army spokesman said.
The fighting began after a group of armed militants opened fire on troops traveling through Shawal on the edge of North Waziristan, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.
Pakistan - a close U.S. ally in the war against terrorism - has deployed some 90,000 troops to the Pakistan-Afghan border region to track down militants but is facing pressure from the United States to do more. Washington is concerned that al-Qaida may be regrouping in the region.
The latest attack came a day after dozens of masked militants stormed a military post in another northwestern tribal region, Bajur, abducted two soldiers and bombed the building, an official said Sunday.
More than 30 assailants attacked the security post Saturday night, local security official Yar Mohammed Khan said. They blew up the building before fleeing with two paramilitary soldiers from the Bajur Levies, a border security force.
Pro-Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent weeks and are holding about 240 troops who were abducted in South Waziristan on Aug. 30.
The abductions underscore the army's problems in controlling Pakistan's lawless border regions, where the state holds little sway.
The militants have demanded the army withdraw from their areas and release more than a dozen comrades in return for freeing the troops.
Six of the abducted troops in South Waziristan were released on Wednesday.
Wall Street turned higher Wednesday as another drop in oil prices helped offset concerns about a jump in inflation last month. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 125 points.
Stocks drew support from oil prices that pulled back for a second straight day on concerns that a slowing economy will damp demand. Light, sweet crude fell $4.84 to $133.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, compounding a drop of $6.44 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, bond prices fell sharply as investors retreated from the safety of government debt.
And a decision by Wells Fargo & Co. to boost its dividend countered some of the market's concerns about the health of banks. The San Francisco-based bank's move to raise its payout to investors is being seen as a bullish sign for the troubled banking sector. Still, the Labor Department's report that consumer prices shot up in June at the second fastest pace in 26 years is reminding investors that rising prices still pose a threat to economic growth.
Despite falling oil and the Wells Fargo move, investors remain worried about the economy and specifically the financial sector. This week has brought fresh attention to potential trouble spots in the mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered mortgage giants, remain a concern, as do regional banks that could have bad mortgage debt on their books.
In late morning trading, the Dow rose 133.61, or 1.22 percent, to 11,096.15. On Tuesday, stocks ended mostly lower on continuing worries about the financial sector and the Dow logged its first close below 11,000 since July 2006.
Broader stock indicators also rose after moving in and out of negative territory. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 13.44, or 1.11 percent, to 1,228.35, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 39.42, or 1.78 percent, to 2,255.13.
Advancing issues narrowly outpaced decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 494.8 million shares.
While Wednesday's advance likely indicates some enthusiasm among investors it can also reflect simple bargain hunting and traders laying down a few bets rather than any great change in conviction. With many quarterly reports due in the coming weeks, many investors remain uncertain about the health of the economy.
Bond prices declined. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, jumped to 3.94 percent from 3.82 percent late Tuesday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Oil prices declined after Energy Department figures showed that domestic inventories of crude oil and gasoline rose last week, rather than declining as analysts had expected.
The Labor Department's report that its Consumer Price Index rose 1.1 percent in June came as economists had expected a gain of 0.8 percent. Two-thirds of the increase is linked to surging energy prices. The core reading, which excludes often volatile food and energy costs, ticked up 0.3 percent.
Wall Street is concerned that rising prices for necessities like food and fuel will force investors to curb their spending in other areas. A pullback is a disturbing prospect for investors as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. In addition, rising prices could force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and risk throwing a wrench in economic growth by making access to capital more expensive.
Beyond the inflation reading, which follows a report Tuesday that showed a 1.8 percent increase in wholesale prices for June, investors are digesting a Fed report that industrial production rose 0.5 percent in June after declining 0.2 percent in May. The increase was the highest since a 0.6 percent gain in July of last year.
Wall Street is also awaiting minutes from the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the arm of the Fed that sets interest rates. The Fed last month broke a string of reductions by leaving rates unchanged at its last meeting, a recognition that lower rates had weighed on the dollar and led to increases in commodities such as oil and food. The minutes are due at 2 p.m. EDT.
In corporate news, Wells Fargo & Co. said its second-quarter earnings fell 22 percent as more customers at the nation's fifth-largest bank failed to repay loans. But the company's results beat Wall Street expectations, and investors appeared pleased by Wells Fargo's decision to raise its quarterly dividend to 34 cents from 31 cents. Wells Fargo rose $3.97, or 19 percent, to $24.48.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., an iron and coal miner, said it agreed to acquire coal producer Alpha Natural Resources Inc. for nearly $10 billion in cash and stock in a move aimed at increasing its role as a supplier to the world's steel industry. Alpha Natural surged $15.76, or 17 percent, to $110.68, while Cleveland Cliffs fell $8.76, or 7.9 percent, to $102.70.
Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 58 cents, or 12 percent, to $5.25 after reporting that high fuel prices led to a hefty second-quarter loss despite a strong increase in sales. The results topped Wall Street estimates, however, which excluded one-time items.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.80, or 1.63 percent, to 673.15.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.05 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.08 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.20 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.88 percent.
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WASHINGTON - Renewing expired tax breaks for businesses and college tuition is the Democrats' top tax priority in the wake of their election victory this week.
Next up, increasing and simplifying tax breaks for college and fixing the alternative minimum tax that threatens millions of middle-income families with higher taxes.
Oil companies, watch your back. Some of your tax breaks are on the chopping block.
The measures are a sharp contrast to Republicans' warnings to voters before the election that Democrats were eager to raise taxes on wages, married couples and investments.
"If the Democrats take the House, your taxes are going up," Bush said at a Georgia campaign rally last week. "They may try to hide their intentions, but that's what's going to happen."
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said reviving several popular business and middle-class tax breaks that expired at the end of 2005 will be at the top of his party's agenda when Congress returns next week for a lame-duck session.
Republicans had conditioned renewing them this year to also reducing estate taxes on the heirs of multimillionaires. Democrats balked, even when the GOP tried to sweeten the package with an increase in the minimum wage.
Among the expired provisions are federal tax deductions for student tuition and expenses and for state and local sales taxes, intended to help residents in states that don't have an income tax. Another provision allowed educators to write off some of the money they spend on classroom supplies.
Capitol Hill's top tax writer will be Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who's in line to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Republicans painted a campaign caricature of Rangel as a tax-happy liberal from Harlem who wouldn't renew a single one of President Bush's tax cuts.
In fact, in a Democratic-controlled House, there's little chance taxes will go up, at least not by much in the next two years.
Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rangel know it would be political suicide to even try to roll back Bush's tax cuts. Even if they could pass bills doing it, Bush would relish the chance to veto them.
Most of Bush's tax cuts - including the $1,000 per child tax credit, a 15 percent top rate on capital gains and a 3 percentage point cut in most income tax brackets - expire at the end of 2010. Bush and his GOP allies contend that not extending the tax cuts equals a tax increase.
Chairman-to-be Rangel is disinclined to extend the tax cuts in the upcoming two-year session of Congress.
At the same time, he is making no promises about extending them in 2010, telling reporters Wednesday that it would depend on the state of the economy and other factors. If Democrats keep the House in 2008, cuts for upper bracket taxpayers may not get extended.
Rangel says he instead wants to focus first on solving the vexing alternative minimum tax, a complicated portion of the tax code originally aimed to catch wealthy tax dodgers but hitting more and more middle class taxpayers. About 4 million tax filers are estimated to pay the AMT when doing their 2006 taxes, but that figure jumps to 23 million filers for the 2007 tax year.
"Quite frankly, I'm more concerned about them and this unfair tax threat that's over their head than I am about what we're going to do in 2010," Rangel said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's something that takes place now."
However, fixing the alternative minimum tax is very expensive. Bush and Congress have been addressing the issue only a year or two at a time because the long-term price tax tag is so high. It would cost almost $1 trillion over the next decade to hold the number of AMT payers at 4 million
The AMT also is a priority of incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., as is extending the research and development tax credit for businesses.
Complicating matters for Democrats is their promise to reinstate so-called pay-as-you-go budget rules that would require any upcoming tax cuts to be "paid for" with spending cuts or new revenues.
Democrats promise to find revenue by closing tax loopholes and shelters, rolling back tax breaks for oil companies and for income earned by overseas affiliates of U.S. corporations. They also vow to raise revenues with an aggressive effort to close the "tax gap" - the more than $300 billion a year in taxes owed that go uncollected.
KARACHI, Pakistan - Pro-government and opposition groups blamed each other Sunday for Pakistan's worst political violence in years, as new riots broke out and the toll from street battles in Karachi rose to 37 dead and over 150 wounded.
Security forces in armored personnel carriers and pickup trucks topped with machine guns patrolled the streets, which were largely deserted.
But gunmen traded shots between neighborhoods dominated by rival ethnic groups, and police found the bullet-ridden body of a pro-government activist. Firefighters were called after a funeral procession left a row of shops in flames.
A crisis has been brewing since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on March 9 over allegations he abused his office. Critics accuse Musharraf, also army chief, of trying to sideline the independent-minded judge in case of legal challenges to efforts to prolong his nearly eight-year rule.
The push to reinstate Chaudhry as chief justice has galvanized Pakistan's opposition and amounts to the biggest challenge to Musharraf's rule since his 1999 coup.
Competing rallies timed for Chaudhry's planned visit to Karachi on Saturday sparked gunfights and clashes between rival political activists that left corpses in the streets and raised new fears for the nation's stability.
Opposition parties have accused the pro-government Mutahida Qaumi Movement party of initiating much of Saturday's violence.
"It appeared at times as if there was no government in Karachi and it was gunmen who ruled the nation's biggest city," the respected Dawn daily lamented in a Sunday's newspaper.
Officials contacted at four hospitals across Karachi said the casualty toll had risen to 37 dead and about 150 wounded.
Karachi police chief Azhar Faruqi said several people have been arrested in connection with Saturday's violence but gave no details. He declared that authorities were "now in control of the city."
On Saturday, officials said a security force of 15,000 was deployed in the city, but there was no sign of intervention in the violence.
Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, said the government and Musharraf were "equally responsible for what has happened."
"It shows that the government wanted to create a situation of civil strife to find an excuse for imposing an emergency and postponing elections," Babar said.
But in his own mass rally in Islamabad late Saturday, Musharraf insisted he would not declare an emergency, and said a presidential vote by lawmakers and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned by year's end.
He urged opposition parties to stop protests in support of the judge.
"My heart was weeping when I saw that people were dying, they were being killed, they were being martyred," he told a crowd.
On Sunday, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said said there was no "definite proof" of who was involved in the rioting.
The exiled leader of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, blamed Chaudhry for the violence, saying he should have heeded warnings from officials to stay away from Karachi. He said the MQM, a Karachi-based party has a reputation for militancy, was attacked.
Opposition members and lawyers accused the MQM of launching the attacks with batons and guns as supporters of the judge attempted to greet Chaudhry on Saturday at the airport, ahead of a planned address to a gathering of lawyers in the city. Gunbattles broke out as MQM rivals retaliated.
A private TV network accused MQM activists of firing at its building because of its live coverage of the violence. The channel stayed on the air as rioters torched vehicles outside.
The violence trapped Chaudhry at the airport. He returned to Islamabad late Saturday without addressing the rally. An MQM rally went ahead as planned.
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Associated Press writers Afzal Nadeem in Karachi and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
WARLEY: World champion swimmer Mark Foster has teamed up withEsporta health club to help members get the most from theirswimming.
Mr Foster met with staff at Clearview Health and Racquets Club inLittle Warley Hall Lane to launch the Amateur Swimming Association's(ASA) partnership with the local …
SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn is under scrutiny from business and ethics experts after she oversaw an invasive and possibly illegal effort to snoop into the home phone calls of fellow HP board members.
Dunn, a former freelance journalist who has become one of the most powerful women in corporate America, oversaw the ouster of former HP CEO Carly Fiorina in February 2005 and the hiring of Mark Hurd as her successor. Now analysts say she may be the next one to leave.
"When you start spying on your own board, you darn well better have probable cause," said Peter Morici, professor at the Professor Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. "If the chairman thinks this is the way business ought to be conducted, maybe it's time for her to take a sabbatical. It's arrogant and inappropriate."
HP disclosed in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company sought the private telephone records of board members in a bid to determine which director leaked confidential company information to the media.
In the SEC filing, the company said it would decline to nominate one board member, George A. Keyworth II, for re-election because he was a source of the leaks. Keyworth, who has acknowledged leaking information, will end his service on the HP board no later than March 2007.
But HP also revealed that lawyers hired to review its tactics could not determine if the investigation "complied in all respects with applicable law," the company said in the filing.
California's attorney general subpoenaed some HP officials Wednesday and is examining the tactics of the investigation, which relied on a data mining method known as "pretexting."
In this case, investigators hired by HP called the phone company and impersonated at least one board member to get logs of phone calls to and from his home, said the attorney of a former HP director.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer characterized the state's investigation as being in the "early fact-finding stage" and refused to say whether criminal charges would be brought against any director or the private investigators HP hired.
"I don't have a settled view on whether it was illegal yet, but it certainly was colossally stupid," he said in a phone interview Wednesday.
HP said in the filing it would cooperate with the state probe and that no recording or eavesdropping of directors' phone conversations had occurred. Spokesman Ryan Donovan said the company would not provide other further details of the investigation. Dunn declined to comment through Donovan.
Keyworth's departure comes after a January article on CNET Network Inc.'s News.com, which included a quotation from an anonymous HP source who described a gathering of HP directors at a posh spa in Southern California. Although the source didn't leak high-level strategic details or say anything inflammatory, the statement angered Dunn, who has been on the board for eight years.
At a board meeting in May, Dunn identified Keyworth as CNET's source, as well as the source of other leaks dating to early 2005. The board asked Keyworth, 66, to resign, but he refused.
The attempted ouster riled another board member, Tom Perkins, 74, who resigned and stormed out of the May 18 meeting.
In the months since his resignation, Perkins - co-founder of venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers - complained to other executives and journalists about the investigation's ethical implications. He decried it as an invasion of privacy.
His attorney, Viet Dinh, a former assistant U.S. attorney general, says he discovered that one of HP's private investigators also obtained the last four digits of Perkins' social security number.
The investigator used that information to open an online account with AT&T, Dinh said. The investigator then called the telephone company and impersonated Perkins, offering up his social security digits as proof of identity and asking AT&T to send a record of phone calls to and from his house in December 2005 and January 2006 to a free, Web-based e-mail account.
In August, Dinh asked the SEC to require HP to submit a regulatory filing with details of Perkins' resignation. HP acknowledged in the filing Wednesday that the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance sent the company a letter about Perkins' resignation.
Perkins was unavailable for comment but issued a statement through his lawyer.
"Despite this current disagreement, Tom Perkins has a warm place in his heart for HP and believes in the prospects and performance of HP under the leadership of Mark Hurd," Dinh said.
Dunn, 52, resigned as CEO of Barclays Global Investors in 2002 to battle breast cancer and melanoma, but she's taken an active role as chairwoman of HP, the 11th largest company on the Fortune 500.
She was one of the board members who hired Fiorina in 1999, but Dunn became disillusioned after years of lackluster stock performance and, in December 2004, wrote a four-page report to Fiorina detailing her concerns.
Dunn announced Fiorina's resignation in February 2005, and two months later introduced Hurd, who was favored by Keyworth and Perkins, among others.
Bruce Oliver, professor and director of the Center for Business Ethics at Rochester Institute of Technology, said Dunn had the right to seek out the source of leaks, but she crossed an ethical line in going after the home phone logs.
"To engage in some activity where you're hiring someone to do something on the QT where they're misrepresenting themselves, that's over the line of what constitutes ethical behavior," he said.
Experts say the fall of Enron Corp. and other recent scandals has made boards far more important in the governance of U.S. companies.
"The paradigm has shifted in the direction of the board as being at the top of the corporate governance pyramid," said Patrick McGurn, executive vice president and special counsel at Institutional Shareholder Services. "With that pressure, there's going to be greater opportunities for disagreement in the board room."
Others said the scandal could erode morale on HP's Palo Alto campus.
"This sends a message to employees that the company is willing to do just about anything to protect itself," said John W. Dienhart, business ethics professor at Seattle University. "This sends a bad message to existing employees, and it's bad for attracting good employees from outside the organization."
Hewlett-Packard shares fell 62 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $35.84 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
