Mom working at gas station finds $10, buys winning ticket
NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.
"I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said.
This time, her advice was no joke.
The single mother -- with nine maxed-out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate's degree -- bought what turned out to a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the store Friday.
"I thought someone was playing a trick on me" when she found the sawbuck, she said.
After showing a customer that she did indeed have a winning ticket, she locked the store while she took a moment to be sick in the bathroom.
"I was numb. I still am," she said.
Schneider, 32, opted to take 20 yearly payments of $50,000, or $34,500 after taxes.
"If I'd have taken a lump sum, I'd be broke again within five years," she said.
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Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Mom working at gas station finds $10, buys winning ticket
NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.
"I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said.
This time, her advice was no joke.
The single mother -- with nine maxed-out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate's degree -- bought what turned out to a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the store Friday.
"I thought someone was playing a trick on me" when she found the sawbuck, she said.
After showing a customer that she did indeed have a winning ticket, she locked the store while she took a moment to be sick in the bathroom.
"I was numb. I still am," she said.
Schneider, 32, opted to take 20 yearly payments of $50,000, or $34,500 after taxes.
"If I'd have taken a lump sum, I'd be broke again within five years," she said.
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This informations is copied from www.cnn.com
Child in day care dies after being bound with tape
TULSA, Oklahoma (AP) -- A day care worker was being held Saturday in the death of a 2-year-old boy whose hands were bound and his mouth covered with masking tape, police said.
The boy, who had been on life support, died late Thursday, Officer Jason Willingham said.
Vicki Leigh Chiles was being held without bail on a complaint of first-degree murder. She was the only worker at the facility at the time, looking after eight children ages 7 and younger, Willingham said.
Chiles told police the boy would not be quiet for nap time, so she used tape to silence him, an arrest report states.
Chiles told investigators she left the boy unattended for a few minutes and came back to find him lying on the floor unresponsive, the report states. She said she called for an ambulance and tried to perform CPR.
The state agency that oversees child day care operators was investigating Chiles' business, said Mary Leaver, an agency spokeswoman.
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Juveniles' sentences called improper; Texas to free 226
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The agency that runs the Texas state juvenile prison system said it will release 226 inmates after a review found their sentences were improperly extended.
Advocates for Texas Youth Commission inmates and their families have complained that sentences are often extended inconsistently or in retaliation for filing grievances.
Jay Kimbrough, who is heading an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the agency's facilities, formed a panel to review the records of nearly all inmates with extended sentences. The six-member panel, which included community activists and prosecutors, reviewed the cases of 1,027 inmates whose sentences were extended.
"For the youth we're releasing, we did not find that the extensions were warranted," agency spokesman Jim Hurley said Friday. "The others will be reviewed on a regular basis."
Hurley said the 226 inmates will be released on parole as soon as guardians can pick them up or they can be transferred to an interim halfway house.
Kimbrough said in March that the panel would review the documentation on each inmate's sentencing extension and discuss whether the decision was just and appropriate, and then refer their recommendation to a retired judge.
The review is one of many ongoing reforms to the state's juvenile system after the disclosure of allegations of sexual abuse of inmates by staff and a possible cover-up by agency officials. The commission incarcerates about 4,700 offenders ages 10 to 21.
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Searchers find shallow grave in missing constable case
CAMERON, South Carolina (AP) -- Crews looking for a state constable last seen making a traffic stop found a shallow, freshly dug grave Saturday, authorities said.
A special team trained to preserve clues was painstakingly digging up the body, which had not been identified, Charleston County Sheriff's Capt. John Clark said.
Robert Lee Bailey, 67, was last seen Monday night in Lincolnville, 50 miles from the grave.
A few minutes later and a few blocks down the road, gunfire was heard. Bailey's hat and gun and a pool of blood were found in a yard, and his burning cruiser was found a few miles away off Interstate 26.
Later, his badge and handcuffs case were found in a wad of burned rags near Harleyville, about 20 miles farther up the interstate.
Authorities moved their search Saturday after talking to the girlfriend of the main suspect in the case, Clark said.
Bailey, a retired deputy, was a constable with Lincolnville for about five years, volunteering his time to the small town which has only one paid officer.
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Al Qaeda Aussie 'happy' to be jailed on home soil
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- David Hicks, the first Guantanamo Bay inmate to face a U.S. military tribunal, was flown back to his hometown of Adelaide on Sunday to serve out the remainder of his sentence in a maximum security prison cell.
The former Outback cowboy and kangaroo skinner pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al Qaeda, including attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Under a plea deal, he was sentenced to nine months in prison -- a fraction of the life term he faced for his crime -- and allowed to return to Australia to serve out his term.
Accompanied by police and prison officials, Hicks was flown from Cuba in a Gulfstream G550 jet chartered by the Australian government and landed early Sunday at the heavily fortified Edinburgh air force base on the outskirts of Adelaide. (
Watch Hicks emerge from luxury jet )
Hicks, shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit, was then taken to the Yatala Labor Prison, where he will serve the final seven months of his sentence in the high security G Division alongside the prison's most dangerous criminals.
Nevertheless, lawyer David McLeod said Hicks was thrilled to be home after more than five years at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"He is happy to be back on Australian soil," McLeod told reporters outside Yatala prison. "He visibly was elated when we touched down."
Prison officials have said Hicks will be kept in a 2-meter-wide (6-foot-wide) single-bed cell similar in size to the one he left in Cuba.
The 31-year-old will be barred from having any personal items in his cell, and his visits with family will be strictly limited, with no physical contact allowed.
His telephone calls will be monitored, and he will be allowed little or no contact with other inmates, authorities have said.
Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock declined to comment on security arrangements, saying only "public safety is the primary concern."
A high school dropout and Muslim convert, Hicks was captured in December 2001 in Afghanistan by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, and became one of the first terrorist suspects to be transferred to the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
He was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by U.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001. The system has come under criticism as a violation of the prisoners' right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.
Hicks was accused of attending al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training.
He had spent only two hours on the Taliban front line before it collapsed in November 2001 under attack by U.S. Special Forces and the Northern Alliance.
While fleeing, Hicks came across a group of Arab fighters who told him they were heading back to the front to fight to the death. Hicks declined to join them and was captured as he tried to escape into Pakistan, according to the military's charge sheet.
As part of his plea deal, Hicks agreed to a 12-month order prohibiting him from talking to the media and stated he had "never been treated illegally" since he was captured in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo.
He is due to be released at the end of December, and the Australian attorney general has said he may be free to speak to the media about his ordeal, despite the U.S. gag order.
Ruddock said he did not believe Australia could enforce the media ban. But under local law, Hicks, a convicted criminal, would not be allowed to sell his story.
"We are of the view that he's free -- once he has concluded his penal servitude -- to speak as he wishes, but not to profit," Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Sunday.
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Israel pounds militant targets in Gaza
GAZA CITY (AP) -- Israeli warplanes sent missiles slamming into a car carrying Hamas militants and a load of weapons before dawn Sunday, then demolished arms factories belonging to two Palestinian militant groups, the army said, in widening reprisals against Gaza rocket squads.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened tougher action if the intensified rocket fire on Israeli border communities didn't cease.
The sixth straight day of airstrikes came as an uneasy truce between warring Palestinian factions set in. Masked Hamas and Fatah gunmen who had controlled the streets and taken over apartment buildings in the previous week scaled back their presence sharply, and residents who had holed up at home seeking refuge from the gunbattles ventured out to stock up on supplies at busy shops.
Children went back to school in time for final exams, and adults returned to work.
Four previous truces last week quickly collapsed, but Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he expected the cease-fire deal reached Saturday to stick because of Israel's military action.
"No one would accept to fight one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza," he said.
More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in fighting that broke out after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah stationed thousands of loyalist security forces on the streets of Gaza City without consulting Hamas, its partner in the Palestinian governing alliance.
The infighting has threatened the survival of the fragile national unity government, formed in March to end an earlier round of factional bloodshed.
Israel added an overlapping layer of violence by sending warplanes after Hamas rocket squads whose attacks on Israeli border towns have sown panic and sent thousands fleeing to safer ground.
Israel has carried out 21 airstrikes against Gaza since Tuesday, the army said, and at their weekly meeting on Sunday, Cabinet ministers discussed how to respond to the rocket barrages.
"If the diplomatic and military efforts we have taken do not bring calm, we will have to escalate our response," Olmert said at the start of the session.
He did not elaborate, but on Saturday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said time was not ripe for a broad offensive in Gaza.
One idea that was being floated was the stationing of an international force along Gaza's border with Egypt to curb weapons smuggling to militants, and possibly to disarm them, a Cabinet minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea was preliminary.
It wasn't clear whether the international community would be willing to assume such responsibilities or whether the idea would enjoy broad support in the Israeli government.
Israeli intelligence says an international force stationed along its northern border hasn't prevented Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas from replenishing stocks depleted during last summer's war with Israel.
"We are concerned that extremists in Gaza have taken Lebanon as an example and are determined to build up a terror military machine that can be an even greater threat to Israel," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Regev said the success of the U.N. force in Lebanon would be a test case influencing Israel's view of possible future international deployments.
Three rockets struck Israel on Sunday, including one that hit an empty home. In all, more than 120 rockets have landed since Tuesday, none of them causing serious casualties.
The rockets and airstrikes have destroyed a 6-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza militants.
Three people, including at least one Hamas militant, died Sunday in the air attack on the car in Gaza City, bringing to 27 the number of Palestinians killed in the strikes. The vehicle burst into a ball of flame, witnesses said, and the army attributed that to the weapons inside.
Mohammed Madhoun said aircraft mistakenly targeted his stereo and video store in the northern town of Beit Lahia for a weapons workshop, destroying it. A storefront next door, empty for the past year, had been a metal workshop, Madhoun said. The army stood by its claim that the site was a Hamas weapons factory.
For the first time since the airstrikes began, Israel targeted weapons operations belonging to Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group that has also been involved in rocket attacks on Israel. The army explained that it would go after all rocket operations, including Islamic Jihad's.
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States seek sex offender data from MySpace
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Top law enforcement officers from eight states asked MySpace.com on Monday to turn over the names of registered sex offenders who use the social networking Web site.
In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders are using the site, and where they live. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper signed the letter, along with attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
MySpace did not say whether it would comply with the request.
"We are in the initial stages of cross referencing our membership against (a) registered sex offender database and removing any confirmed matches," Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement.
MySpace and Sentinel would then provide the information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children so the organization could work directly with law enforcement, he said.
Nigam also said legislation requiring sex offenders to register e-mail addresses would expedite the process.
In a statement, Cooper's office said media outlets in 2006 "reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children."
In December, MySpace announced it was partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to build a database with information on sex offenders in the United States.
"It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members," the letter said.
In an interview, Cooper said the information was provided by "absolutely credible" sources, whom he declined to identify.
The attorneys general also asked that MySpace describe the steps it has taken to warn users about sex offenders and remove their profiles. They asked the Web site to respond to their requests by May 29.
"They are by far the largest social networking site," Cooper said. "They certainly should be the standard bearer for changes that need to be made."
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the site a "virtual playground" for predators. "That combination of sex offenders and children is a recipe for tragedy," Blumenthal said.
The site is owned by media conglomerate News Corp. On Monday.
MySpace's policy prevents children under 14 from setting up profiles, but it relies on users to specify their ages.
Cooper said MySpace should confirm ages though services used by online vendors of lottery tickets and alcohol, and also require parental permission for young users.
"MySpace can certainly take its own action to remove those sex offender profiles from their site," Cooper said. "They say they are doing that but we want to know ... exactly what steps they are taking."
Cooper has presented legislation to the North Carolina General Assembly that would make it a felony for registered sex offenders to use social networking sites.
In North Carolina last year, a former sheriff's deputy was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of molesting a 15-year-old boy he met on MySpace, and a Boiling Spring Lakes police officer was charged with the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl he communicated with on the site, Cooper said.
MySpace and other social networking sites allow users to create online profiles with photos, music and personal information, including hometowns and education. Users can send messages to one another and, in many cases, browse other profiles.
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Source: Hilton 'traumatized' over jail sentence
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Paris Hilton is "emotionally distraught and traumatized" over her 45-day jail sentence and is not capable of testifying in a civil lawsuit against her, the socialite-reality TV star's psychiatrist said.
Dr. Charles Sophy has been seeing Hilton, 26, for the past eight months and has talked with her several times since her May 4 hearing for violating the terms of her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case, according to court papers.
Sophy said Hilton needs time to recover from the shock of receiving jail time before testifying in a civil case brought against her by actress and diamond heiress Zeta Graff.
Messages left with Hilton's spokesman and lawyer were not immediately returned early Tuesday. (
Watch a Hilton family friend say Paris deserves to do time )
In court papers filed Monday, Sophy said Hilton is "distraught and traumatized as a consequence of the findings at the May 4 hearing ... and her fear of incarceration."
"At this point in time," he continued, "Ms. Hilton cannot effectively respond to examination as a witness or provide any significant input into her defense."
Graff filed a $10 million lawsuit against Hilton in 2005, claiming the reality TV star spread "vicious lies" about her. Hilton has denied that she was behind a report alleging Graff once tried to grab a necklace worth $4 million from her throat.
Superior Court Judge Linda K. Lefkowitz postponed the trial to August. It had been scheduled to begin this month.
Hilton and her pal Nicole Richie star on "The Simple Life," which throws them into everyday situations. After famously feuding and filming their parts separately last season, the celebutantes have reunited as camp counselors for the show's upcoming fifth installment.
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Lindsay Lohan tops Maxim's 'Hot 100'
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lindsay Lohan rules.
According to Maxim magazine, at least this month, she's the hottest woman in the world.
The "Georgia Rule" actress-troublemaker tops the magazine's eighth annual "Hot 100" list, a ranking by editors weighing buzz and beauty for women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion. (
Watch how Lohan's "troublemaking" may be hurting her career )
"There is no other star in the world (who) causes more of a stir in the public eye than Lindsay," said Maxim Editor in Chief Jimmy Jellinek in a statement. "Her every move is watched and reported on."
Not surprisingly, Jellinek described his young, male readership as being "obsessed" with the 20-year-old Lohan, a ubiquitous party girl who spent the weekend soaking up the sun (with a new boyfriend) in the Bahamas.
Jessica Alba had to settle with the No. 2 on the list, which is in the magazine hitting stands Saturday. She's followed, in order, by Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Biel, Ali Larter, Eva Mendes, Rihanna, Eva Longoria, Fergie, Sienna Miller, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles and Katherine Heigl. (
Watch clips of some of these stunning women )
Celebrity sisters Ashlee and Jessica Simpson are on the list at No. 16 and No. 41, respectively. Ashley Olsen, half of the mogul acting twins, placed 37th, while sister Mary-Kate didn't make the cut.
The cover of the Hot 100 June issue features a picture of No. 29: Sarah Silverman.
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U.S. academic held in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- A U.S.-based academic -- and dual American-Iranian citizen -- is being investigated for "crimes against national security" after she was arrested in Tehran last week by the Intelligence Ministry, Iranian judiciary officials said Tuesday.
Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Middle East program, was arrested on May 8 and taken to Tehran's Evin prison, the center and her family said last week.
The arrest took place at a time of rising tension between Washington and Tehran over Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at making atom bombs, and the conflict in Iraq.
"She is right now under the authority of the Intelligence Ministry," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters.
"Her crime is security issues, investigations over crimes against security are still going on," he said.
Jamshidi did not give details but a judiciary source later told Reuters Esfandiari was suspected of "crimes against national security," a broad legal term covering acts deemed to endanger the stability of the Islamic state.
Terrorism, spying, political unrest and assassination attempts are examples of crimes falling within this category under Iranian law. The charge could carry the death sentence.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the arrest of Esfandiari, who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship, and said she was among a number of U.S.-Iranians being detained by Tehran.
Last week's statement from the center and her family also said she needed medical attention but did not say why.
Esfandiari flew to Tehran in December to visit her mother. As she drove to the airport to catch a flight back she was robbed of her belongings, including her passports, it said.
She applied for replacement Iranian travel documents and was interviewed by the Intelligence Ministry. There then followed weeks of interrogations focusing on her work for the center, it said.
The center's president, former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, sent a letter in February to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explaining the work of the organization and seeking his help in securing Esfandiari's return to the United States.
Hamilton was the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group which last year issued recommendations for ending the violence in Iraq, including engaging with longtime U.S. foe Iran.
The center's Middle East program focuses on the political, social and economic developments in the region and examines U.S. interests in the region and the threat of terrorism.
U.S. officials believe Tehran may also be holding former FBI official Robert Levinson, who went missing early in March while on a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. Iran has denied this.
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Poll: Local governments ready for disaster; feds not
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Most people say their families and local emergency agencies are ready for the next natural disaster but the federal government is not. Women and minorities are less confident on both counts.
A poll on the subject was released Monday, less than three weeks before the official start of an Atlantic hurricane season that some forecasters say will be an active one.
The USA Today/Gallup poll found that two-thirds of people said their local first responders were prepared for a disaster, while nearly as many said their hospitals and families were ready.
Only three in 10 expressed the same confidence in the federal government, underscoring earlier polls that showed a lingering wariness from the slow response to Hurricane Katrina's 2005 devastation of the Gulf Coast.(Watch why the feds don't have resources to handle domestic crises )
Ten percent more men than women, and 24 percent more whites than minorities, said their families are ready to cope with a disaster. More men and whites also expressed confidence that the federal government was ready.
Studies show that "women tend to be more worried about threats, and they are still the principle person responsible for children or older parents" in times of trouble, said Robert Blendon, a health policy expert at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Katrina, whose victims were disproportionately black, left many minorities wary of relying on the government during disasters.
Minorities were also less likely than whites to think local emergency workers are ready for future disasters, though men and women were split.
Easterners were likelier than people from other regions to say their families are not ready for a disaster. Two of three Southerners -- the highest rate in the U.S. -- said their families are prepared.
Democrats were also less confident than Republicans that their families, local emergency agencies and Washington were ready for a disaster.
The telephone survey of 1,007 adults was conducted from April 13 to 15. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Survey finds Miami worst road rage city
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- For the second consecutive year, rude Miami drivers have earned the city the title of worst road rage in a survey released Tuesday.
Miami motorists said they saw other drivers slam on their brakes, run red lights and talk on cell phones, according to AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based automobile membership club offering travel services and roadside assistance.
Other cities near the top of the rude drivers list were New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
South Miami resident Erik Pinto told The Associated Press that he has probably seen every bad driving habit on Miami's roads.
"You don't want to know what I've seen," Pinto said. "I've seen everything. I'm from L.A., and we don't see the crazy drivers that you see here."
The most courteous drivers can be found in Portland, Oregon; Pittsburgh; the Seattle-Tacoma area; St. Louis; and Dallas-Fort Worth, the survey found.
Portland drivers were the least likely to see other motorists tailgating on the roadways, and St. Louis motorists were the least likely to swear at another driver, according to the survey.
Minneapolis-St. Paul was rated the most courteous city in 2006 but fell to No. 12 this year.
The most frequent cause of road rage cited in the survey was impatient motorists. Drivers also said road rage can stem from poor driving in fast lanes and driving while stressed, frustrated or angry.
"The best piece of advice is to take a deep breath. Slow down, be aware and be careful," AutoVantage spokesman Todd Smith said, adding the aim of the survey is to increase driver safety across the nation.
More than 2,500 drivers who regularly commute in 25 major metropolitan areas were asked to rate road rage and rude driving in telephone surveys between January and March.
The survey was conducted by Prince Market Research has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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Police 'quiz missing girl suspect'
LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Police searching for a 4-year-old British girl who disappeared nearly two weeks ago in southern Portugal have placed a man under formal investigation, a news report said Tuesday.
Portugal's national news agency, Lusa, quoted unidentified police sources as saying the man was one of three people questioned Monday after detectives and forensic experts searched a villa near the hotel where Madeleine McCann apparently was abducted.
Police officials at national headquarters would not confirm the report nor identify anyone under investigation.
Under Portuguese law, opening a formal investigation is a first step toward possibly bringing formal charges. The legal measure is designed to safeguard a citizen's constitutional rights, granting access to potential evidence in order to mount a legal defense.
Lusa also reported that police took computers and cell phones from the villa, which is about 100 yards from the Ocean Club holiday village in Praia da Luz where the girl was apparently taken from her hotel room May 3.
Detectives questioned the three in Portimao, the nearest large town to Praia da Luz, Lusa reported.
The girl vanished after her parents left her, and her brother and sister, both aged 2, alone while they went to a nearby restaurant inside their hotel complex. Police called off their ground search last week.
Her parents are still at the hotel.
British media have said that promised contributions to a reward fund total more than $5 million, including reported donations from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, tycoon Sir Richard Branson and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell. Celebrities including soccer star David Beckham have made public appeals for help in finding Madeleine.
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Falwell reportedly found unconscious, hospitalized
LYNCHBURG, Virginia (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell was found unconscious in his office Tuesday and taken to the hospital, a Liberty University executive told a newspaper.
Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of the school, told The News & Advance of Lynchburg that Falwell was found unconscious after missing an appointment Tuesday morning. Falwell arrived at Lynchburg General Hospital around noon, the newspaper reported on its Web site.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Godwin said he couldn't talk at that time.
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NBC cans 'Studio 60,' 'Jordan'
NEW YORK (AP) -- With "Heroes" its only new hit of the season, struggling NBC announced a fall schedule Monday that includes a spinoff and three other dramas also trading on supernatural themes.
The network took a risk by keeping its Thursday night comedy lineup intact. NBC has drawn strong critical praise but few viewers for shows like "30 Rock" and "The Office," leaving the network faltering on a night it once dominated.
NBC, the first of the broadcast networks to unveil a new schedule to advertisers this week, canceled "Crossing Jordan" and the high-profile failure "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Another critical favorite that hasn't found a big audience, "Friday Night Lights," was renewed.
"Law & Order" will be back for its 18th season and "Medium" will return, but not until January, when they take over a Sunday time slot filled by football in the fall.
Fourth-place NBC showed signs of life last fall with critically acclaimed shows. The bottom dropped out this spring when the network had its least-watched week in at least 20 years -- then went even lower the following week.
"We've got the class and next season we're ready to add some mass, with new shows that build on the creative accomplishments of last season and are as broad as they are good," NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly said. (
Blog: What do you think of NBC's choices?)
To stretch the normal 22-episode season of "Heroes," which faltered after its long hiatus this year, NBC will add "Heroes: Origins." The spinoff will introduce a new character each week, and viewers will select which one stays for the following season. The two series will have 30 new episodes combined.
Since it found an audience this season with superpowered stars, NBC will remake "Bionic Woman" with Michelle Ryan in the title role.
New series "Journeyman" is about a San Francisco newspaper reporter who travels through time to alter people's lives, and "Chuck" is a thriller about a computer geek who becomes a government agent after spy secrets are embedded in his brain.
Brooke Shields headlines an hour-long series about three high-powered women friends, a script from "Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell.
NBC's other new series, "Life," is a drama about a detective given a second chance after spending years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Illustrating the difficulties in introducing new comedies, NBC said it will have only one new sitcom next season -- and it didn't even earn a spot on the fall schedule. "The IT Crowd" is about a group of people who work in technical services at a large corporation.
The successful game "Deal or No Deal," often NBC's most popular program, will air on Monday and Wednesday nights.
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Military puts MySpace, other sites off limits
DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.
The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.
The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.
"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.
The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.
Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall. The Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis.
But the new rules mean many military personnel won't be able to watch those achievements -- at least not on military computers.
If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired magazine.
"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."
The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.
Several companies have instituted similar bans, saying recreational sites drain productivity.
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Commentary: Latinos give PBS a history lesson
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.Special to CNN
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SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- There is an ongoing battle between filmmaker Ken Burns and a coalition of Hispanic veterans, organizations and lawmakers over plans by Burns and the Public Broadcasting System to release a documentary on World War II that ignores the 500,000 Hispanics who fought in the war.
Now there could be a truce. After initially insisting that he wouldn't make any changes, Burns said last week that he would re-edit the film to add stories about Hispanic soldiers -- not as an addendum as was suggested earlier in a lame compromise, but as part of the film itself.
The word came after Burns met with the Hispanic Association of Corporate Responsibility, which had asked Anheuser-Busch and General Motors Corp. to end their sponsorship of "The War" -- a 14-hour documentary slated to air in September. HACR Chairman Manuel Mirabal warned the companies to cut ties or they would "not be held harmless." Was that a threat? You bet. Hispanics control more than $800 billion in annual spending power and that merits respect.
Burns said that he would include interviews with Hispanic veterans in "another layer of storytelling." But he didn't say how he would do so, only that nothing in the film would be changed. How would that work, exactly?
One person who is still skeptical is the individual who started this affair: Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, journalism professor and head of the U.S. Latino & Latina Oral History Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
When Rivas-Rodriguez learned that PBS was planning a documentary on World War II absent Hispanics, she and her associates wrote letters, launched an online campaign, and demanded meetings with the PBS brass (
http://www.defendthehonor.org/ ).
Like the Hispanic veterans of World War II, they were ignored. That was a mistake. It also made clear that the activists were dealing with folks whose knowledge of Hispanics didn't go beyond salsa lessons and whatever is on the No. 3 combination plate.
If either PBS or Burns knew more about the ethnic group, they might have known that they were playing with dynamite. Hispanics are famously proud of their veterans, whose military service has produced a higher ratio of Medal of Honor recipients relative to population than any other ethnic group.
A special source of pride are the World War II veterans, who came home to segregated schools, restricted restaurants, and bans on speaking Spanish. So they waged a new battle -- for civil rights. It is a great story. Too bad PBS and Burns missed it the first time around.
Now, Burns seems ready to correct the oversight. Let's hope that he does -- before the corporations weigh in, and the war starts up again. As for PBS, it's a goal of the network to provide educational programming. And on this issue, there is much educating to be done.
Consider the white male reader who, after reading a column on the subject, wrote to inform me that "no 'Latinos' fought in the war. They were Americans."
That's a lovely thought, and I can't wait to share it with those in my grandparents' generation who suffered through decades of second-class citizenship. They weren't "Mexicans." They were Americans all along. How about that? They'll be so relieved.
Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist.
You can read his column here. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) -- All of the passengers aboard a U.S. cruise ship were evacuated early Monday morning after it ran aground off the southeastern coast of Alaska
(CNN) -- All of the passengers aboard a U.S. cruise ship were evacuated early Monday morning after it ran aground off the southeastern coast of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska state ferries and about 50 volunteer rescue boats removed the 248 passengers aboard the Empress of the North approximately 50 nautical miles (57 miles) from Alaska's capital, Juneau, near Icy Strait and Chatham Strait.
The ship was still flooding, but was traveling to Juneau under its own power. Thirty-three of its 75 crew members stayed on board for the trip.
An oil tank was breached, but there is no pollution in the water, officials said.
Coast Guard spokesman Mark Guillory said the Coast Guard was trying to decide where to send the ship for an investigation into why it hit rocks in the island-dotted Alaska coastal area. Empress of the North was on the second day of a seven-day cruise from Juneau.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said it is sending a team to investigate.
Dan Miller, a spokesman for the ship's owner, Majestic America cruise lines, said the passengers were being taken to Juneau.
The ship had stabilized after taking on water and listing in the chilly 45- to 50-degree Fahrenheit, glacier-fed water.
The rescue effort was conducted in rainy conditions with winds blowing at about 17 mph (15 knots).
"Not perfect, but manageable," Coast Guard Cmdr. Jeff Carter said of the weather regarding the rescue.
There were no reports of casualties or people in the water.
Carter said a tug and barge with a capacity of 200 people was sent as well as a cutter, the Liberty, and a helicopter.
In March of last year, the same ship, which was built to resemble a Mississippi River paddleboat, slammed into a sandbar while cruising the Columbia River, which separates Oregon and Washington State, according to reports.
In that incident, a sister ship, the Queen of the West, pulled alongside and took on the Empress of the North's passengers. The Empress also ran aground in the Columbia River in 2003, the year it made its debut as a cruise ship.
That incident was blamed on human error, according to reports.
Passengers rescued from cruise ship off Alaska
(CNN) -- All of the passengers aboard a U.S. cruise ship were evacuated early Monday morning after it ran aground off the southeastern coast of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska state ferries and about 50 volunteer rescue boats removed the 248 passengers aboard the Empress of the North approximately 50 nautical miles (57 miles) from Alaska's capital, Juneau, near Icy Strait and Chatham Strait.
The ship was still flooding, but was traveling to Juneau under its own power. Thirty-three of its 75 crew members stayed on board for the trip.
An oil tank was breached, but there is no pollution in the water, officials said.
Coast Guard spokesman Mark Guillory said the Coast Guard was trying to decide where to send the ship for an investigation into why it hit rocks in the island-dotted Alaska coastal area. Empress of the North was on the second day of a seven-day cruise from Juneau.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said it is sending a team to investigate.
Dan Miller, a spokesman for the ship's owner, Majestic America cruise lines, said the passengers were being taken to Juneau.
The ship had stabilized after taking on water and listing in the chilly 45- to 50-degree Fahrenheit, glacier-fed water.
The rescue effort was conducted in rainy conditions with winds blowing at about 17 mph (15 knots).
"Not perfect, but manageable," Coast Guard Cmdr. Jeff Carter said of the weather regarding the rescue.
There were no reports of casualties or people in the water.
Carter said a tug and barge with a capacity of 200 people was sent as well as a cutter, the Liberty, and a helicopter.
In March of last year, the same ship, which was built to resemble a Mississippi River paddleboat, slammed into a sandbar while cruising the Columbia River, which separates Oregon and Washington State, according to reports.
In that incident, a sister ship, the Queen of the West, pulled alongside and took on the Empress of the North's passengers. The Empress also ran aground in the Columbia River in 2003, the year it made its debut as a cruise ship.
That incident was blamed on human error, according to reports.
Original Dell PC added to Smithsonian collection
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Michael Dell never imagined his work would end up in a museum when he was sitting in his college dorm room in 1984, dreaming of building and selling his own personal computers.
Now, one of his original computers is going to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
The 42-year-old chairman and chief executive of Texas-based Dell Inc. donated a collection of materials Wednesday to the Smithsonian, including his employee badge, one of the company's newest computers and a PC Limited computer from 1985.
The objects will join an Altair computer, a first-generation IBM PC and an original Apple Macintosh in the museum's collection.
"If we do our jobs right, I suspect that much of the technology developed right now in 2007 will be ready for the museum in another two or three years or so," said Dell, who dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin 23 years ago when his business took off.
Parts of the Dell collection will be temporarily displayed beginning Thursday at the museum's "Treasures of American History" exhibit housed at the National Air and Space Museum.
The American history museum, which is closed for a major renovation, will reopen in summer 2008 with new thematic exhibits. A gallery focused on American enterprise and innovation is expected to open in 2011 and will include stories of how technology has driven the U.S. economy.
"When you think about it, American history and its economic history are synonymous," said Brent Glass, director of the museum. But he said economic history can be a complex story to tell. "We hope with our new exhibition ... we will make that story come alive."
One piece of the Dell collection came from a couple in Ashe County, North Carolina. They recently traded their 1985-era PC Limited, Dell's original brand, for a new computer from Dell when they realized it could be a historic artifact.
"We had it wrapped up in a garbage bag and kept it," said Clint Johnson, a nonfiction writer. He said the old computer, with its amber-colored screen, was stored in their attic.
Dell also gave the Smithsonian videos, graphics and documents to show how the business transformed into a global company.
Dell would not answer questions about the company's internal review of accounting errors and evidence of misconduct in previous earnings statements. Despite those troubles, he said the Dell company will have a long future.
"There's no perfect path to success but we've had a lot of fun and it's been great," Dell said. "I think it's still just getting started."
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This informations is copied from www.cnn.com
NYC cabbies not sold on touch-screens
NEW YORK (AP) -- To taxi officials, the touch-screen monitors popping up in cabs help passengers make the most of the 13 New York minutes spent on an average ride.
Passengers can pay by credit card -- no more fumbling for cash and tip. As a cab heads through Greenwich Village, for example, passengers can find ads and reviews for neighborhood bars and restaurants. They can also view news stories and an electronic map of their cab's progress.
The monitors are now in 200 city cabs as an experiment, but a plan to put them in all 13,000 cabs has angered many drivers. They see the technology as an expensive imposition that would cost them money and allow taxi owners and officials to check up on them.
The issue has a delicate history: A 2003 experiment with touch-screen television in taxis ended within months, amid passenger antipathy. And the drivers' group leading the opposition to the monitors notes that it carried out a crippling one-day taxi strike over other issues in 1998.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is scheduled Thursday to consider an October 1 deadline for all of the city's cabs to start installing the systems.
"This project is nothing short of revolutionary and evolutionary for the taxi industry," Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew W. Daus wrote in a recent agency newsletter.
The commission called for the technology while approving a 26 percent fare increase in 2004, and the agency argues that both riders and drivers stand to benefit.
The credit-card option is expected to prove popular with customers in what is now a mostly cash, $1.8 billion-a-year business. Officials say it could translate to bigger tips and more fares from riders short on cash.
The global positioning system in the technology will also automate required record-keeping and give drivers crucial information about traffic or lost items. If a customer reports losing a wallet, for example, the taxi commission could send alerts to drivers in the neighborhood where the customer was dropped off to be on the lookout.
The commission has approved tests of four systems and may endorse them for sale within days. Taxi owners would choose from the four systems, at a maximum three-year cost of $7,200 for equipment and various fees, although commission officials expect the cost will be far less in many cases. Vendors say advertising can offset at least some of owners' costs.
Objecting drivers have raised concerns about the costs of the hardware, credit-card fees and potential working time lost if the systems need repair. Some worry that the global-positioning system will be used to track their movements, although the taxi commission says it will record only the pickup and drop-off points and fare, which drivers already are required to log.
"It's trampling on our constitutional rights, and it will cut deeply into our income," said Bill Lindauer, who drove a cab for 30 years and is a member of the organizing committee of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group with more than 7,000 members.
The alliance held a rally in March to protest the new systems, and Lindauer said this month that the group was exploring legal and political avenues for trying to block the plan.
But some drivers embrace the technology, which came free for those who offered their cabs as proving grounds.
Cesar Norena, a 17-year taxi driver testing a system made by Englewood, New Jersey-based TaxiTech, says passengers have made liberal use of its features, and he believes the credit-card option will boost business.
"People really like it," he said, "and as a driver, I really like it, too."
Copyright 2007 The
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This informations is copied from www.cnn.com
Study: iPods can make pacemakers malfunction
CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.
The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds.
The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.
In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.
The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University. The results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver.
Jay Thaker, lead author of the study and a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, concluded that iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose actual heart function.
Thaker, whose father is an electrophysiologist and whose mother is a rheumatologist, said he asked his dad about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods.
"We looked online but didn't see anything. Then, one of his patients asked him if there would be a problem, so (my father) put me in touch with Dr. Krit (Jongnarangsin)," Thaker said in a telephone interview.
Jongnarangsin, a long-time friend of Thaker's father, is the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan.
"Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin said. For that reason, he said, it is unclear how often iPods cause misdiagnosis.
"This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin added.
Thaker said he is interested in doing a similar study about how implantable cardioverter defibrillators, known as ICDs, are affected by iPods.
Copyright 2007
Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
'Entropia Universe' opens virtual pawnshops
NEW YORK (AP) -- Online games give players roles like warriors, space explorers and wizards. Now, there's an exciting new profession: pawnbroker.
"Entropia Universe," a science-fiction game whose currency is convertible to real-world U.S. dollars at a fixed 10-1 ratio, said this week that five pawnshops will make real loans to people who turn in virtual items like laser rifles and bionic implant chips.
The pawnshop licenses sold for a total of $404,000, according to the Swedish company behind the game, MindArk PE AB, and the holders may be able to extend their services to function like banks, potentially boosting the game's economic vitality and sophistication.
"It's just like the construction business in the real world -- none of that would happen without banks," said Jon "Neverdie" Jacobs, who with a business partner paid $90,000 for a license to create a "Gamer's Bank."
Jacobs, who already runs a hunting and entertainment resort that pulls in as much as $20,000 a month in revenue, said players have a lot of money tied up in hunting and mining equipment, and the pawnshops will free up that capital.
Another license winner was Anshe Chung, the online persona of Ailin Graef, a Chinese-born woman who created a minor fortune trading real-estate in "Second Life," another virtual world. The other winners were a German Internet bank, a Russian payment processor and an unnamed private investor.
Last year, a player set up a bank in another science fiction game, EVE Online, but that one was unsupported and unregulated by the game's operator, CCP hf of Iceland. The player tried to abscond with the deposits, but CCP froze his account before he could sell them for "real" money, CCP spokesman Magnus Bergsson said.
Unlike Entropia, EVE does not allow conversion of the in-game currency to cash. The deposits would have been worth between $140,000 and $170,000 on the black market, Bergsson said.
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This informations is copied from www.cnn.com
Chips on DVDs could prevent theft
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- New technology designed to thwart DVD theft makes discs unplayable until they're activated at the cash register.
A chip smaller than the head of a pin is placed onto a DVD along with a thin coating that blocks a DVD player from reading critical information on the disc. At the register, the chip is activated and sends an electrical pulse through the coating, turning it clear and making the disc playable.
The radio frequency identification chip is made by NXP Semiconductors, based in the Netherlands, and the Radio Frequency Activation technology comes from Kestrel Wireless Inc., based in Emeryville.
The two companies are talking to Hollywood studios and expect to announce deals this summer, Kestrel Wireless Chief Executive Paul Atkinson said.
The companies said their technology also can be used to protect electric shavers, ink jet cartridges, flash memory drives and even flat-screen TV sets by preventing some critical element from functioning unless activated.
Retail theft of entertainment products, including video games, accounts for as much as $400 million in annual losses, according to the Entertainment Merchants Association.
Many retailers now keep consumer-entertainment products behind glass cases, but that can inhibit browsing. With technology that renders stolen products useless, retailers could display items openly, thus encouraging more sales, said Mark Fisher, vice president for strategic initiatives at the EMA.
"It will also get product into a lot more outlets that are afraid of theft, including grocers," Fisher said.
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This informations is copied from www.cnn.com
Critics: LAPD clings to 'warrior culture'
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The Los Angeles Police Department's violent response at the end of an immigrant demonstration is the latest incident highlighting what critics describe as the force's "warrior culture."
It's an ethos that's been on display before -- the use of clubs and tear gas to disperse 15,000 peaceful anti-war protesters in Century City in 1967, the Rodney King beating in 1991, the harsh crackdown on demonstrators at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
Public outcry and inquiries that followed each event haven't deterred some officers from cracking a few kneecaps to assert order, even in front of cameras.
Chief William Bratton's criticism of his department and decision to quickly reassign two high-ranking officers after the immigration rally nearly two weeks ago were roundly applauded, though skeptics say it's not nearly enough to address deep-seated issues that produce violent responses by some officers.
Bratton was appointed in 2002 to steer the LAPD after a rogue anti-gang unit scandalized the department by assaulting and framing people in the tough Rampart district. Dozens of criminal convictions were tossed out as a result of the scandal.
Bratton has since had some success in improving community relations, including his swift action following the May 1 immigration rally violence.
However, skeptics say none of these efforts are enough to address the culture that has encouraged use of excessive force.
"The LAPD is a big ocean liner and it will take a long time to turn around," said Joe Domanick, a senior fellow of criminal justice at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism. "(Bratton) has not focused on the paramilitary culture and us-against-them mentality that seems to still persist in the LAPD."
William H. Parker's urban army
He said the culture originated during the reign of William H. Parker, hired as chief in 1950, who imagined the city's police force as an urban army.
Domanick said Parker's view was: "We're the only thing standing between chaos and anarchy. We are the professionals. We know better. No one tells us better."
After the King beating, lawyer Warren Christopher, who later became U.S. secretary of state, was tapped to lead a commission in dissecting the department.
The Christopher Commission examined five years of reports, police radio communications and hearings and interviews with dozens of residents and police, and found that "a significant number of officers" routinely used excessive force.
"The Department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions," according to the report.
Civil rights attorney Connie Rice led a similar investigation after the Rampart scandal and, in a 2000 report, found little had changed.
The anti-gang unit, known as CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), "developed an independent subculture that embodied a 'war on gangs' where the ends justified their needs," the report said. "They resisted supervision and control and ignored LAPD's procedures and policies."
Since then, Bratton has had to take a number of actions in response to police use of force.
He restricted police from firing on cars in most cases after officers killed a 13-year-old car theft suspect who rammed a squad car in 2005. In 2004, Bratton banned police from carrying long metal flashlights after video showed a Hispanic police officer using one to repeatedly beat a black suspect who was lying on the ground.
'Institutional memory is very short'
Critics say it will take a lot more to change the LAPD's warrior culture.
Particularly telling of a resistance to change was the department's decision to put Cmdr. Louis Gray in charge of policing the May 1 rally, said National Lawyers Guild attorney Carol Sobel. Gray was the one who gave the order to fire rubber bullets at demonstrators outside the 2000 convention, said Sobel, who said one of the rubber projectiles hit her between the eyes.
"The institutional memory is very short," said Sobel, who worked with police afterward to revise crowd control protocols.
Bob Baker, president of the police union, turned down a request for an interview, but issued a statement defending the police role in the May 1 clash, saying officers responded appropriately when some members of the crowd threw bottles and rocks at police.
"As Chief Bratton says, 'Sometimes policing isn't pretty and there is little if any time for reflection and discussion before action,' " Baker said. "... In the coming days it will become clear what transpired. Until then there should be no rush to judgment."
Copyright 2007 The
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Fort Dix arrest slices father's business
COOKSTOWN, New Jersey (AP) -- The father of one of the six men charged with plotting to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix says the business that he's nurtured near the base for years is all but ruined since his son's arrest.
Muslim Tatar, who has owned Super Mario's Pizza for five years, said his lunchtime crowd from nearby McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix has largely disappeared, replaced by empty tables and nasty words from passing motorists.
"Now I am a target," Tatar, 52, said, adding that his business is "99 percent dead."
Tatar's son, 23-year-old Serdar Tatar, was arrested Monday along with five others. Authorities say the men were preparing to buy automatic weapons to use in an attack on Fort Dix when they were arrested.
They targeted the Army post, partly because one of them had delivered pizzas there and was familiar with the base, according to court filings. Authorities said the objective was to kill "as many American soldiers as possible."
Five of the men are charged with conspiring to kill uniformed military personnel, an offense punishable by life in prison. A sixth is charged with helping illegal immigrants obtain weapons, and could face 10 years in prison if convicted. All six defendants are being held without bail.
In Venice, Italy, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told The Associated Press that the arrests were a "vivid example of" the terror threats facing the world. He declined to comment further on the case, saying it was ongoing.
Since authorities announced the arrests on Tuesday, a cook and two waitresses quit the restaurant out of fear they would be targeted, said Warren Cline, another cook at the pizzeria.
"Normally we'd be almost full. People liked this place, and Tatar is a very friendly owner," Cline told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's newspapers. "But people drive by, they give us the finger."
Cline said delivery business is also hurting since the restaurant can no longer bring food to Fort Dix or McGuire Air Force Base.
Federal authorities say there is no evidence that the elder Tatar knew of his son's plot, and Muslim Tatar said their relationship had waned in recent years, as his son had fallen in with what he described as a bad crowd.
Copyright 2007 The
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Swollen river begins to recede in Missouri capital
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (AP) -- The Missouri River neared its highest point in the state's capital city Saturday after a week of flooding towns upstream, but hydrologists said it wasn't nearly as bad as feared.
The river reached about 29 feet Saturday morning, some 6 feet above flood stage.
That was high enough to flood stretches of the riverside Katy Trail hiking and biking route and some low-lying roads, plus nearly 1,400 acres of farmland.
However, it was short of the predicted 34-foot peak, which could have wiped out many farmers' crops for the year and inundated the Jefferson City Airport.
The Missouri and other waterways have breached or topped dozens of levees across the state since heavy rain during last weekend's widespread thunderstorms that also produced tornadoes across the Plains states.
One of those tornadoes devastated Greensburg, Kansas, killing 12 people. No serious injuries or deaths had been reported in the flooding in Missouri, although Kansas and Oklahoma each reported one drowning death.
The National Weather Service forecast moderate to major flooding along the Grand River near Sumner in north-central Missouri, where flood stage is 26 feet.
The river rose to near 40 feet but had fallen slightly by Saturday morning and should keep dropping, the weather service said.
"They're getting some impact to the homes," weather service hydrologist Mark Fuchs said. "They may be escaping the worst of it."
During the 1993 flooding across the Midwest, the Grand River at Sumner reached 42.5 feet.
Fuchs, in St. Louis, said levee breaks in the western part of the state earlier this week allowed the river to spread out, relieving the pressure and the height of the water downstream as the flood crest moved eastward.
"The bigger effects do not look like they're going to happen," Fuchs said.
The most recent levee break occurred Thursday afternoon between the towns of DeWitt and Brunswick, flooding farmland, slowing traffic on U.S. 24 and damaging railroad tracks.
Another Carroll County breach south of Norborne had flooded about 15,000 acres of cropland and left about 75 rural homes surrounded with Missouri River water.
Big Lake, in Holt County in northwestern Missouri, suffered some of the worst damage in flooding Monday night and Tuesday, after several area levees were breached. Most of the rescues the Missouri State Water Patrol has conducted since flooding began have been in the Big Lake area. (
Watch why one Big Lake resident insists on staying in the flooded town )
Statewide, the flooding led to the evacuation of several hundred people, including some residents of Levasy and the Ray County town of Hardin, where the 1993 flood surge toppled headstones and unearthed hundreds of caskets.
In Levasy, a breached levee left at least 15 homes with up to 8 feet of water in them, said Deputy Ronda Montgomery, a spokeswoman for the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
State officials said two other communities -- Rushville and Napoleon -- were within 500 feet of levees that were broken or had been topped. But the damage was less extensive, Hauswirth said.
Although the river crests were lower than forecast in many areas, residents remained anxious. Many were here for the 1993 floods, among the most costly in U.S. history.
The rain-swollen rivers and streams that make up the Missouri River system are causing damage in different spots as the water makes its way eastward toward St. Louis, where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi, said Suzanne Fortin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Copyright 2007 The
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3 killed in bombings in Somali capital as U.N. official visits
MOGADHISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Wearing a flak jacket over a blue pinstriped suit, the top United Nations humanitarian official crawled into a hut made of sticks and plastic tarp Saturday and asked the owner how he survives in one of the world's most violent cities.
Hussein Moamin Dahir had no answer for John Holmes, the highest-ranking U.N. official to visit Somalia's capital in more than a decade.
"It's not safe here," Dahir said, surrounded by some clothes and a few pots.
Violence cut Holmes' visit short. Two bombs went off in the capital during his stay, one of them just 1,300 feet from the U.N. compound, killing three civilians.
Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, left Somalia the same day he arrived rather than spend the night as planned.
But he did travel through Mogadishu in an armored Land Cruiser to the presidential palace, where he urged President Abdullahi Yusuf to allow humanitarian aid to get to those in need immediately.
At least 400,000 fled Mogadishu during weeks of fighting that pitted the government and its Ethiopian allies against Islamic insurgents. The fighting between March 12 and April 26 killed at least 1,670 people.
The government declared victory about two weeks ago, and there has been relative calm. But in a city teeming with guns after more than a decade of chaos, the government has declared victory before only to have insurgents reappear.
"While the fighting was going on, we were very, very concerned about the plight of civilians. Clearly it was not the normal respect for humanitarian law," Holmes told the president.
He asked Yusuf to allow humanitarian aid to enter Mogadishu without delay and to dismantle any checkpoints inside and outside the city so that food and relief supplies could get through.
Yusuf told Holmes his government was trying.
"We are doing our best. Unfortunately, these terrorists are conducting guerrilla warfare. Now they have been defeated twice," Yusuf said. "Many of them fled away, but they left a group of terrorists in the city, so they continue these terrorist actions."
"What we did was in self-defense," the president said about the latest fighting. "We had to defend the government."
Yusuf told Holmes that "humanitarian aid will reach whoever needs it."
After the meeting, Holmes said the fighting in the city had violated international humanitarian law. "When you have a pitched battle going on in a city full of civilians, that is not in accordance with the Geneva Conventions," he said.
U.S. helped oust rebels
The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six quiet months last year. They were ousted in a swift operation with the crucial help of troops and helicopter gunships from neighboring Ethiopia and U.S. special forces.
The United States has accused the group of links to al Qaeda, which the courts have consistently denied. The militants reject any secular government and have sworn to launch an Iraq-style insurgency.
Holmes said he was disappointed that his trip was cut short, but he got "a first-hand appreciation for the appalling situation in Mogadishu."
Besides his meeting with Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, Holmes got to see the makeshift camp where Dahir and more than 200 others live in squalor on the former site of the British Embassy in this once-beautiful seaside capital.
He also saw a cholera treatment center, a crumbling white building with small wooden cots for children suffering from the waterborne disease.
Hawa Ali Said said she arrived at the cholera center this week to look after her 2-year-old nephew, Said, who was sprawled on a cot with an intravenous tube in his arm. Her sister's other son, 8, had died a day earlier from the disease.
"Said is getting better, but I still see he is ill," she said. "Before he came here, he was crying, the diarrhea was terrible. Now, at least, he sleeps."
Somalia's life expectancy is 48 years, and a quarter of children die before they reach 5. In many areas of Somalia, malnutrition rates are 20 percent or above.
The country has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against one another.
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Turks rally to support secularism
IZMIR, Turkey (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of secular Turks demonstrated on the seafront of Turkey's third-largest city on Sunday, fearful that the Islamic-rooted government is conspiring to impose religious values on society.
Police deployed thousands of officers, a day after a bomb at an Izmir market killed one person and injured 14 others. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, nor evidence that it was linked to the demonstration.
Izmir is a port city on the Aegean coast that is a bastion of secularism, and Islamic parties fare poorly there.
The rally -- a show of strength ahead of general elections on July 22 -- follows similar demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul last month. The huge turnouts were staged to pressure Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which nominated a presidential candidate deemed by the secular establishment to be Islamist.
The candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, was forced to suspend his bid after the opposition boycotted the voting process in parliament. But the political turmoil exposed a deepening rift in Turkey, whose population of 75 million people is mostly Muslim, but endowed with a secular legacy designed to separate state and religion.
"These rallies have been useful in forcing the government to take a step back," said protester Neslihan Erkan. "The danger is still not over. These rallies must continue until there is no longer a threat."
Protesters, many of whom traveled to Izmir from other cities, gathered under sunny skies on the packed seafront called Kordon, usually a romantic spot where couples stroll.
They carried anti-government banners, red-and-white Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered leader who founded the secular republic in 1923. Turkish flags hung from balconies and windows, as well as buses and fishing boats and yachts bobbing in Izmir's bay.
"I am here to defend my country," said Yuksel Uysal, a teacher. "I am here to defend Ataturk's revolution."
Throughout the morning, thousands were trying to reach Izmir and traffic choked highways leading to the city. Police initially estimated the crowd at about 200,000, but the number was believed to be much higher as more people arrived.
Gul, Erdogan's close ally, abandoned his presidential bid after pro-secular lawmakers boycotted two rounds of voting in parliament, creating a political deadlock.
Erdogan's government called early general elections and passed a constitutional amendment to let the people, instead of parliament, elect the president. The amendment must be endorsed by the current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
Gul has indicated he could run for president in a popular vote.
Secularists fear that if Gul becomes president, the Islamic-rooted ruling party could challenge the country's secular system unchecked. Sezer, a staunch secularist, had acted as a brake on the government by vetoing numerous bills and blocking the appointment of hundreds of officials.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, which commands a strong majority in parliament, came to power in 2002 as Turkey struggled to emerge from a financial crisis and quickly established a strong reform record. The opposition, viewed by detractors as an elitist group resistant to change, now seeks to overcome internal differences before the July polls.
"Unite! Unite! Unite!" the protesters shouted.
Erdogan spent time in jail in 1999 for reciting an Islamic poem that prosecutors said amounted to a challenge to Turkey's secular system. Many of his party's members, including Gul, are pious Muslims who made their careers in the country's Islamist political movement.
Erdogan's supporters have spoken against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style head scarves in government offices and schools and supporting religious schools. His government also tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense European Union pressure, and some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol.
However, Erdogan's government rejects the claim that it has an Islamist agenda. It has done more than many other governments to implement Western-style reforms as part of its effort to join the EU, and has worked closely with the International Monetary Fund on economic reforms.
Some protesters in Izmir held banners that denounced the EU, which many Turkish nationalists believe is interfering in their country's affairs, as well as the United States, whose forces occupy neighboring Iraq.
Turkey's secularism is enshrined in the constitution and fiercely guarded by the judiciary and by the military, which had threatened to intervene in the presidential elections in order to safeguard secularism. The military has ousted civilian governments in the past.
Copyright 2007 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Insurgent group says it captured, killed U.S. troops
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A terror group with links to al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility Sunday for the weekend attack that sparked a manhunt for three missing U.S. soldiers, according to a statement on the Internet.
Islamic State of Iraq -- an umbrella insurgent group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq -- said in the statement that it fought Saturday with "Crusader" forces in a "blessed operation," killing some and taking others prisoner. It was unclear from the statement if the captured soldiers were alive.
The posting thanked Allah for "the help and accurate targeting" and said further details about the attack would be released later.
Though the posting appeared on Web sites commonly used by the group -- and such statements in the past have rung true -- CNN is unable to verify the authenticity of the claim.
Five personnel were killed in the Saturday ambush south of Baghdad, including three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter, military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Sunday. The fifth person has not been identified. (
Watch the dangers troops face in the "Triangle of Death" )
About 4,000 troops fanned out across the volatile region Sunday to search for the missing members of the U.S.-led military patrol.
Attackers struck the team of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter early Saturday, the military said. (
Watch a general explain how the troops were killed, captured )
U.S. forces are using "every means" in their search for the missing troops, who are listed as duty status whereabouts unknown, Caldwell said.
"We have a soldier's creed that says, 'I will never leave a fallen comrade,' " Caldwell said. "We believe in this deeply and still make every effort available to find our three missing soldiers."
Checkpoints have been established throughout the region and aircraft including helicopters, drones and jets have been deployed in the search.
The predawn attack occurred 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya, a city south of the capital in a region that has been nicknamed the Triangle of Death. (
Map)
About 4:44 a.m., a nearby unit heard explosions and attempted in vain to establish communications. Fifteen minutes later, a drone aircraft spotted two burning vehicles, according to a U.S. military statement.
Forty U.S. troops have been killed this month in Iraq. The number of U.S. military personnel killed during the Iraq war stands at 3,384. Seven civilian contractors also have been killed.
Sunday's search is reminiscent of the hunt last June for two soldiers who were seized at a checkpoint in Yusufiya.
The two also were listed as duty status whereabouts unknown until their bodies were found three days later.
Dozens killed in bombings
Two vehicle bombs in Iraq -- one in a small market, the other outside a mayoral office -- killed at least 55 people Sunday, government sources said.
The deadliest of Sunday's bombings killed 43 people and wounded 115 more when a suicide truck bomb erupted in northern Iraq, local health officials and a Kurdistan government spokesman said. (
Watch how the rural offices fell victim to the blast )
The brunt of the blast destroyed the Kurdistan Democratic Party building that houses the mayor's office in the town of Makhmoor, the spokesman said. Makhmoor is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Mosul. It is located near the borders of Irbil and Nineveh provinces, just outside the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq.
The bomb exploded at a gas station, damaging several other local government offices, the Makhmoor police chief told Iraqi state TV.
The blast erupted as local officials from various nearby towns held a meeting, a KDP official said. It is unclear if the officials were among the dead and wounded.
The wounded were rushed to area hospitals. Hospital officials in Irbil said they received at least 12 dead people and at least 60 with injuries. At least 50 people were hospitalized at Mosul General Hospital, but there was no breakdown of the casualties.
The attack comes four days after at least 12 people were killed and 50 were wounded when a truck bomb exploded outside an Interior Ministry office in Irbil in northern Iraq, according to a Kurdish Coalition spokesman. Also, last month, suicide bombers targeted KDP offices in Zamar and Tal Iskuf, killing more than a dozen people.
The KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are the two major Kurdish political movements in Iraq.
Another Sunday blast at a market in central Baghdad killed 12 people and wounded 41 more, an Interior Ministry official said.
Three policemen were among the dead and four police officer were wounded in the attack, the official said.
The bomb detonated at al-Wathab Square, the entrance to Baghdad's Sadriya and Shorja markets. The square is often crowded with cars because it is the closest point to which vehicles can travel around the markets, which are closed to traffic because of past bombings. The crowded markets are now surrounded by blast walls.
Sadriya market was the target of an attack last month that killed 140 people -- the worst bombing in the capital since the war began.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
Three more dead in Pakistani riots
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's pro-government supporters and opposition party members continued to clash in the southern port city of Karachi on Sunday, resulting in exchanges of gunfire that left three dead, police said.
The angry mobs also burned tires and threw stones, prompting police to use tear gas and batons in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
A day earlier, at least 36 people were killed in similar clashes in Karachi, including many supporters of the country's ousted chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Chaudhry had been scheduled to address a bar association meeting in Karachi on Saturday but was forced to turn back to Islamabad from the airport because of the upheaval.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf removed Chaudhry from his post on March 9, accusing him of misusing his powers. The dismissal has sparked widespread and largely peaceful demonstrations.
The atmosphere in Karachi grew tense on Saturday after unknown gunmen shot and killed six political workers of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League. Police said the gunmen opened fire on them as they were putting up welcome posters for Chaudhry.
More than 15,000 police officers were deployed in Karachi along with paramilitary troops to help sustain the peace, according to police. However, they were not been able to control the situation, police said.
More than 800 pro-Chaudhry labor and student organization members were arrested prior to Chaudhry's arrival.
Musharraf accused Chaudhry of misusing his powers. Chaudhry subsequently was placed under house arrest, a move that outraged many Pakistanis as well as attorneys who have boycotted the courts. It has since been rescinded.
Pakistan's Supreme Court bar and many legal experts have said Musharraf does not have the constitutional power to remove the chief justice from the bench. So far, 14 superior and civil court judges and two deputy attorney generals have resigned over the matter.
Chaudhry was appointed to the court by Musharraf in 2005, but he recently started exercising independence from the government in a number of cases involving the disappearance of terror suspects and human rights activists.
The United States has tiptoed around the matter, partly because Musharraf is a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.
Musharraf's critics accused him of removing Chaudhry in an effort to intimidate the judiciary ahead of crucial elections and a vote in parliament to extend his rule later this year.
At a public rally in Islamabad on Saturday, Musharraf condemned "people who are talking about justice, but creating chaos that is not justice."
He said the Karachi incident occurred because the judicial dispute "was given a political flavor."
Musharraf said he would respect the decision of the Supreme Court over Chaudhry.
"My heart is crying to see people dying, being martyred, destroying properties, destroying TV stations," he told the rally.
"If you think you are gaining freedom for the judiciary, then you are wrong. This is no way to gain freedom for the judiciary. Don't get into politics and let (the) judiciary do justice. This is the only way."
-- CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report.
