LONDON (AP) — British authorities say they are preparing to extradite to Kenya a self-styled archbishop who claimed to help infertile couples produce "miracle babies."
Gilbert Deya faces charges in Kenya of abducting five children from a hospital.
Britain's Home Office said Wednesday that Deya has exhausted all appeals and will be deported.
Deya's wife Mary …
Germany's Marcel Siem eagled the par-5 ninth hole for an 8-under 64 and a one-stroke lead Thursday in the Avantha Masters.
"I can't remember the last time that I shot 64," said Siem, who won the 2004 Dunhill Championship for his lone European tour title. "It must be at least three years ago, so I am pretty happy with that. It's definitely my best round for a few years."
Taiwan's Chan Yih-shin opened with a 65, also making an eagle No. 9, in …
A man loses the ability to sleep deeply at a surprisingly earlyage, and this can lead to middle age love handles, University ofChicago researchers report.
Men under age 26 spend 19 percent of their sleep time in thedeepest stages of sleep. After age 35, generally, they spend lessthan 5 percent of sleep time in deep sleep.
Men secrete growth hormones while in deep sleep. Thus, growthhormone levels drop as men age and sleep deteriorates. In turn,reduced growth hormone levels lead to weight gain, muscle loss andreduced exercise capacity.
Researcher Eve Van Cauter and colleagues studied the relationbetween sleep patterns and growth hormones in 149 healthy men aged …
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The board of directors for Micron Technology Inc. has named president and chief operating officer Mark Durcan as the company's interim chief executive officer.
The move comes hours after CEO and Chairman Steve Appleton died in a plane crash at the Boise Airport. Appleton was flying an experimental plane Friday morning and crashed moments after takeoff.
Micron officials say the …
Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that its investment in a joint venture to offer mobile Internet access to subscribers could be finalized by the end of the year.
Steve Burke, president of Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the new service would let cable companies offer "wireless data speeds that Verizon and AT&T can't match."
Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, in May joined Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and other partners to form a $14.55 billion communications company that will offer high-speed mobile Internet access.
The company, to be called Clearwire, will use WiMax …
THE letter which appeared under my name recently in the Journalwas of necessity a truncated version of the original; it concernedthe behaviour of a Ceredigion County Councillor who representsCardigan.
It was correctly stated that the Code of Conduct to whichCouncillors have to adhere had apparently been contravened when MrAdams Lewis had, at two council meetings, called a fellow councillora liar. It is considered that the relevant parts of the Code need tobe quoted. They are in part two, and state: "You must show respectand consideration for others ... you must not conduct yourself in amanner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office …
RENO, Nev. - Nick Fazekas wasn't concerned about coming out flat after a weeklong layoff since No. 21 Nevada's last game. Marcelus Kemp scored 22 points and Fazekas added 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead the three-time defending Western Athletic Conference champions to an 81-55 victory over Idaho on Saturday night.
Kemp made 8-of-13 from the field and Fazekas 7-of-8 for the Wolf Pack (13-1, 1-0), who went on a 20-6 run late in the first half and shot 57 percent on the game en route to their sixth straight victory since their lone loss to rival UNLV.
Nevada had not played since beating Gonzaga in Seattle last Saturday.
"We were wanting to play," Fazekas said. "We …
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday expressing its intention to establish a U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia, but putting off a decision for several months in order to assess the volatile situation in the Horn of Africa nation.
The resolution adopted by the council renewed the mandate of the African Union force, known as AMISOM, that is currently deployed in Somalia for six months. It urged African nations to beef up its troop strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally authorized.
It expressed the council's "intent to establish a United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Somalia as a follow-on force to …
The Hubbard Street Dance Company, which opened its annualRavinia Festival season yesterday, is dancing two different programsthrough Sunday in the Ravinia pavilion.
At 8 tonight, Lou Conte's popular company dances "Line Drive,"a jazzy piece by Conte and his assistant artistic director, ClaireBataille; the witty "The Envelope" by David Parsons; "Decisions,Decisions, Decisions" by Richard Levi; the tango-derived "Cobras inthe Moonlight" by Margo Sappington, and "The '40s," which Conte setto Big Band music.
The evening's Chicago area premiere will be "Rose from theBlues," a three-part work by Conte, Levi and Hubbard Street dancerRick Hilsabeck to music of Willie …
SAN DIEGO - Chargers safety Terrence Kiel pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges he shipped bottles of codeine-based cough syrup to Texas.
Kiel, 25, a starter with the Chargers, faces a maximum of seven years and four months in state prison if convicted of all five felony drug counts against him, according to Deputy District Attorney James Fontaine.
Kiel was arrested Sept. 26 in the locker room after authorities turned up at Chargers headquarters. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said Kiel admitted to shipping at least two parcels of prescription cough syrup to Texas via FedEx.
The agency has found widespread abuse in Texas of codeine-based cough syrup …
Julia Goerges of Germany beat sixth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-3 Tuesday in the opening round of the Generali Ladies.
The 79th-ranked Goerges converted six of 13 break points against Cirstea, who struggled with her serve throughout the match.
Eighth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy advanced by beating Arantxa Parra …
Beer companies are targeting young consumers with new drinkscontaining a potent mix of alcohol and caffeine.
These alcoholic energy drinks, including Miller Brewing's Sparksand Anheuser-Busch's Bud Extra, are raising concerns that caffeinemasks the intoxicating effect of alcohol.
Drunks "may falsely believe that they can continue to drink andfunction without impairment, even behind the wheel of a car,"Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and 29 other state attorneysgeneral wrote in a letter to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax andTrade Bureau.
The trend began when bartenders started mixing Red Bull, anonalcoholic energy drink popular with youth, with vodka.
Now, companies are combining energy and alcohol in one drink.It's a cheap, convenient alternative -- but critics say it's alsodangerous.
The attorneys general noted a recent study in which 26 youngpeople reported feeling less headache, dry mouth and impairmentafter drinking Red Bull and vodka than they did after drinkingalcohol alone. However, tests measuring coordination and visualreaction showed they were just as impaired.
The study was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical andExperimental Research.
"It's totally irresponsible to market these kinds of products tokeep young people drinking longer," said George Hacker of the Centerfor Science in the Public Interest.
The energy drinks typically contain higher alcohol contents thanregular beer. Liquid Charge, for example, is 6.9 percent alcohol byvolume. Most beers are less than 5 percent. Liquid Charge also hasas much caffeine as a cup of coffee.
Alcoholic energy drinks also contain such ingredients as ginseng,an herbal stimulant, and guarana, a tropical fruit.
The drinks account for less than 1 percent of the beer industrymarket. But sales are expected to increase 50 percent this year, to$100 million, said Charge Beverages president Tim Baggs.
Brewers say they target consumers only over age 21. "Weresponsibly market our products to legal drinking age consumers,"Miller said.
And Anheuser-Busch vice president Francine Katz said caffeinatedalcohol drinks "are nothing new. For years, adults have enjoyed rumand Coke, Irish coffee and liqueurs mixed with coffee."
"The way to fight illegal underage drinking is not to limitproduct choices for adults," Katz said. "Rather, the key ispreventing youth access to alcohol."
This year, Anheuser-Busch ran afoul of attorneys general overSpykes, an energy drink with 12 percent alcohol. Spykes came infruit and chocolate flavors favored by young people and was sold in2-ounce bottles easily concealed in pockets or purses.
In May, the company announced it would stop selling Spykesbecause of "limited volume potential and unfounded criticism."
jritter@suntimes.com
Gold for current delivery closed at $1211.90 per troy ounce Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $1213.30 late Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — DirecTV Group Inc., the country's largest satellite TV broadcaster, raked in more subscribers than ever in the third quarter, helped by the NFL Sunday Ticket.
DirecTV, the added a net 327,000 U.S. subscribers in the July to September period, the best third-quarter result in at least five years. Including Latin American operations, net gains were 901,000, the best for any quarter.
Analyst Thomas Eagan at Collins Stewart had expected the company to add 90,000 U.S. subscribers in the quarter. DirecTV has again shown that it can attract "massive" numbers of subscribers while competing cable and satellite companies are losing them, he said.
The new subscribers drove revenue up 14 percent from a year ago to $6.84 billion.
But NFL programming is expensive, and net income was $516 million, or 70 cents per share, up only 7.7 percent from last year's $479 million, or 55 cents per share.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 73 cents per share on revenue of $6.74 billion.
DirecTV shares rose $2.77, or 6.2 percent, to close at $47.63.
The NFL Sunday Ticket gives access to every out-of-market Sunday NFL game, with bells and whistles like the ability to show eight live games simultaneously, side-by-side. DirecTV charges $53 per month for it.
Average revenue per U.S. user was $92.21 per month, a modest increase of 3.6 percent from a year ago. Latin American subscribers paid an average of $64.63, a figure that was up 7.7 percent from a year ago, after adjusting for currency fluctuations.
The flood of new subscribers comes after a dismal second quarter, which saw DirecTV gain just 26,000 U.S. subscribers, a record low. Rival Dish Network Corp. lost more subscribers than that, which meant the U.S. satellite industry posted a net subscriber loss for the first time ever.
DirecTV ended the quarter with 19.8 million U.S. subscribers, making it the second-largest provider of pay-TV service after cable company Comcast Corp. In Latin America, it had 7.3 million subscribers.
Dish reports third-quarter results on Monday.
Stocks bounced back modestly Monday after a brutal close to the previous week.
Corporate earnings will be a key focus this week as investors hope to recover some of Friday's steep losses. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 50 points in morning trading Monday after falling 261 on Friday. Other indexes also rose.
The forecasts companies issue will be pored over for signs that growth will pick up in the second half of the year, despite some discouraging signs from economic reports. Earnings and outlooks will be even more important this week when there are only a few economic reports due out that could provide insight into the pace of recovery.
Halliburton Co. delivered some encouraging news, reporting stronger results even though it faces costs associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Investors were upbeat because of the potential growth in land-based oil services business for the company since deep-water drilling will be curtailed following the oil spill.
Halliburton's shares jumped nearly 5 percent and helped lift other energy stocks. Other oils services companies like Schlumberger Ltd. and Baker Hughes Inc. were also higher.
In morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.27, or 0.5 percent, to 10,147.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.89, or 0.5 percent, to 1,069.77, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.96, or 0.6 percent, to 2,192.01.
About three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 139.4 million shares, compared with 379.6 million shares traded at the same time Friday.
Halliburton rose $1.37, or 5 percent, $28.88. Baker Hughes jumped $1.53, or 3.3 percent, to $47.53, while Schlumberger rose $1.60, or 2.8 percent, to $58.28.
Stocks are recovering some of the big losses they suffered Friday, when they fell on concerns that revenues at big banks like Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. could be hurt by new financial regulations.
More insight into the banking sector will come this week when Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley report results. As two of the largest investment banks, they could be facing the biggest effects of the recently passed financial reform regulation.
Financial stocks were some of the few losers again Monday. Bank of America shares fell 35 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $13.63. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. dropped 33 cents to $57.90. Citigroup shares rose a penny to $3.91.
Bond prices dipped as investors opted for riskier assets. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.97 percent from 2.93 percent late Friday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 3.12, or 0.5 percent, to 613.51.
REGION
There was a time when J. Roger Moyer Jr. called Sterling Financial Corp.'s acquisition of EFI the best business decision of his life.
The deal looked like a coup.
Sterling, of Lancaster County, paid $30.5 million for EFI in February 2002. EFI finances logging and landclearing equipment.
EFI reported profit of about $4.2 million for Sterling in 2002, or about 17 percent of the corporation's total earnings. By 2006, EFI's reported profits had grown to about $17 million, more than 46 percent of Sterling's total.
But EFI's apparent success was based on deception, Moyer now says. He is Sterling's president and chief executive officer.
On May 24, Sterling said it had evidence that EFI employees at various levels had falsified deals and hidden loan delinquencies in a scheme dating back to at least 2004.
Bankers and analysts were taken aback by the scope of the damage, using words such as "shock" and "disaster." EFI's longtime leader, George W. Graner, has stepped down in what Sterling described in an April 30 news release as a voluntary departure. Reached by phone at the time, Graner declined to comment beyond confirming his resignation. Sterling also announced May 24 that five EFI employees had been fired.
EFI makes loans to help small logging companies in the southeastern U. S. buy equipment - machines with names such as fellerbunchers and log-skidders. Those machines can cost as much as $350,000, according to accounts EFI provided the Business Journal in 2005.
EFI officials described logging finance as a niche industry in which few lenders have lasted for long. They said their biggest strength was their legwork - their willingness to get into the woods and their knowledge of loggers' culture.
EFI previously was called Equipment Finance Inc. It's now a limited liability company but still goes by the old acronym.
As its earnings figures swelled, EFI became a staple of the overall company.
Sterling has been steadily working to expand its line of nonbanking businesses, often through acquisitions. Moyer has said that EFI's profits took earnings pressure off Sterling. The unit's success enabled Sterling to invest in other acquisitions, he told American Banker newspaper in 2004.
It is too early to say how EFI went so wrong - and how the alleged fraud went undetected for so long. But several analysts and local bankers said they see the EFI drama as a warning about managing businesses outside the straightforward borrowing-and-lending of a typical bank.
"I think it's going to force bankers to look at other investments and what they are doing, and whether it's the right thing or not," said Kenneth Shoemaker, president and chief executive officer of Orrstown Financial Services Inc., basedin Shippensburg, Cumberland County.
EFI stands out as an example of what can go wrong with non-core businesses, said Mac Hodgson, a stock analyst who follows Sterling for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta.
Most banks are trying to build other lines of business such as insurance brokerage, leasing or investments. Banks want to diversify and become less dependent on interest-rate conditions, which are especially trying now. Many also see a natural business opportunity in related financial services.
Such income represents a smaller proportion of total earnings at many other banks than it did at Sterling.
It was surprising that Sterling allowed EFI to become such a big part of the overall business, said Patricia A. Husic, president and chief executive officer of Dauphin County-based Centric Bank.
"It's amazing, it is, and especially for a company as conservative as Sterling is," she said
The incident underscores the importance of auditing ancillary businesses with the same intensity as the traditional banking side, said Jim Gibson, chairman and chief executive officer of Camp Hill-based Integrity Bank.
"You manage every business subsidiary with the same type of controls that you have in running a bank," he said. Not to do so, he said, is to gamble with a corporation's future.
Several bankers said they hold Sterling's management in high regard.
"Bad things aren't supposed to happen to good people, and they are absolutely terrific bankers," Shoemaker said. "I have the utmost respect for them."
Husic expressed similar sentiments.
"I know if anybody can get out of this and turn this around ... I know that they can," she said.
Moyer, who was 58 as of April, has been with Sterling since 1978. He became the company's chief operating officer in January 2001, president in January 2002 and chief executive officer in May 2002, shortly after the EFI deal.
Moyer has a calm style, and he has previously taken reporters' calls at home.
"I have great faith and pride in our employees, customers and services," he said in a May 24 conference call on EFI, "so an event like this has been especially difficult for me."
[Sidebar]
"I think it's going to force bankers to look at other investments and what they are doing, and whether it's the right thing or not."
Kenneth Shoemaker,
Orrstown Financial Services Inc.
[Sidebar]
The fallout
Sterling Financial Corp. estimated the losses from the alleged fraud at EFI at $145 million to $165 million - more than the entire corporation earned in the last four years. The EFI investigation has not been completed, and Sterling management said it's unclear how much could be recovered from insurance or reclaimed collateral.
But the loss may well mean the end of Sterling, as stock analysts predict the company will be sold.
As of May 29, Sterling's stock price had plunged more than 50 percent since April 19, the day the EFI probe was announced. And the company's book value also will be cut by about 50 percent, said Mac Hodgson, a stock analyst who follows Sterling for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta.
The Bank of Lancaster County, facing a sudden reduction in capital as a result of the EFI losses, was merged with three other Sterling-owned banks. Branding, branches and personnel will remain the same, according to Sterling.
-David Dagan
[Sidebar]
"I know if anybody can get out of this and turn this around ... I know that they (Sterling Financial Corp.) can."
Patricia A. Music,
Centric Bank
[Author Affiliation]
BY DAVID DAGAN
davidd@journalpub.com
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Thursday to turn Seoul's presidential palace into a "sea of fire," stepping up its rhetoric one day after South Korea conducted large-scale military drills near a front-line island attacked by the North last year.
On Wednesday, South Korea mobilized aircraft, rocket launchers, artillery guns and naval boats for the first anniversary of the artillery attack on a military garrison and fishing community on Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. Two marines and two construction workers were killed in the 2010 attack, the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Pyongyang accuses Seoul of provoking last year's attack, saying it struck after warning the South not to hold live-fire drills in the disputed waters. South Korea has said it fired shells southward, not toward the North, as part of routine exercises last year.
"If they dare to impair our dignity again, the deluge of fire on Yeonpyeong Island will lead to the sea of fire in Blue House" in Seoul, the North's People's Army warned in a statement from Pyongyang. "They should not forget the lesson taught" by the island shelling.
If provoked again like last year, the North's military will launch merciless, annihilating and more powerful strikes to "blow up the island without any trace," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a separate statement later Thursday.
Both statements were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The North has issued similar threats over the years at times of tension with South Korea.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because their conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. However, North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn by the U.N. in 1953, and the waters have been a flashpoint for violence over the years.
Since then, South Korea has spent millions of dollars beefing up its arsenal. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jung Seung-jo said his forces would "crush the enemy" if they strike again.
Wednesday's maneuvers took place off Baengnyeong Island, South Korean-held territory near the maritime border. The drills were meant to send a strong message to North Korea but did not include live-fire exercises, military officials said.
Relations between the two Koreas sank to the their lowest point in years in 2010 after two incidents — the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies involvement in the sinking.
However, there have been some signs tensions are easing, with both sides seeking to discuss ways to resume nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks and allowing South Korea's religious and cultural figures to travel to North Korea. On Thursday, a group of South Korean scholars visited the North Korean border town of Kaesong for a joint project of recovering and preserving the site of an ancient palace.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday during a visit to a military command that he was sorry North Korea had not yet apologized for the shelling. He said Pyongyang must apologize if it wants relations to improve.
__
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.
BP began slowly burning oil siphoned from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday as part of its plans to more than triple the amount of crude it can stop from reaching the sea, the company said.
Energy giant BP PLC said it had burned 52,500 gallons of oil by noon Wednesday using a specialized flare system. Oil and gas siphoned from the well first reached a semi-submersible drilling rig on the surface of the Gulf around 1 a.m.
Once that gas reaches the rig, it will be mixed with compressed air, shot down a specialized boom made by Schlumberger Ltd. and ignited at sea. It's the first time this particular burner has been deployed in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP spokesman Tristan Vanhegan said engineers were still working to optimize the system, which the firm previously said could incinerate anywhere from 210,000 gallons of oil to 420,000 gallons of oil daily once it's fully operational.
Under pressure from the Coast Guard, the energy firm is attempting to expand its ability to trap leaking oil before it reaches the water. Already, oil and gas are being siphoned from a containment cap sitting over the well head and flowing to a drill ship sitting above it in the Gulf of Mexico.
Adding the burner is part of BP's plan to expand its containment system so it can capture as much as 2.2 million gallons of oil a day by late June, or nearly 90 percent of what a team of government scientists have estimated is the maximum flow out the well.
Only a relief well, which BP says will be completed in August, will completely stop the flow of oil. Still, comments from President Barack Obama and federal officials have raised expectations that the flow of oil could be significantly contained by the end of the month.
The Coast Guard has been pushing the British energy firm to bring more equipment and boats to the scene to deal with the leak. But plans remain subject to uncertainty.
An earlier containment box clogged with an icelike slush. A smaller "top hat" containment was abandoned. Attempting to clog the blowout preventer with junk did not work. Neither did forcing heavy drilling mud down the well bore to stanch the flow.
While the new containment cap placed on the well has been collecting more than 630,000 gallons of oil daily, the system has its own limits. A single bolt of lightning Tuesday struck the drilling ship collecting oil from the cap, started a fire and forced oil collection to stop for hours.
Lightning storms are the least of the weather worries as the Gulf approaches hurricane season.
Christina Applegate is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, but the disease was caught early and the actress is expected to fully recover, her publicist said.
The Emmy winner's cancer was detected through an MRI ordered by a doctor and is not life-threatening, publicist Ame Van Iden said in a statement Saturday.
Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour television special, "Stand Up To Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
The 36-year-old actress has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the show "Samantha Who?", in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.
The show, which debuted last October, marked a return to series television for Applegate, who helped establish the Fox network in 1987 as ditzy teenager Kelly Bundy on "Married ... With Children." The raunchy comedy ran 11 seasons and has been airing in syndication since.
"I'm really grateful that acting is the job that was chosen for me," Applegate told The Associated Press in April. "I get really lost when I'm not working. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with myself. Thank God for dance class and the New York Times crossword puzzle and 'American Idol.' But acting is what I really have to do."
Applegate won an Emmy as outstanding guest actress in a comedy series in 2003 for her role as one of Jennifer Aniston's younger sisters in "Friends." She was nominated for a Tony in 2005 for the Broadway musical "Sweet Charity."
Applegate began acting in films and television as a child and has appeared in such shows as "Quincy," "Family Ties," "21 Jump Street," "Charles in Charge" and Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories."
Soon after "Married ... With Children," she starred in "Jesse," playing a single mother raising a young son. The show lasted two seasons.
Her films include "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead," "Wild Bill, "Wonderland" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy."
___
On the Net:
Stand Up to Cancer: http://www.standup2cancer.org
NEW YORK - Ageless Orlando Hernandez baffled Pittsburgh on four hits through seven innings Wednesday night, pitching the New York Mets to a 5-0 victory over the Pirates.
Hernandez, listed as 36 but believed to be older, used his full arsenal, mixing his pitches with his herky-jerky motion and keeping the Pirates off balance as the Mets became the first National League team to win 50 games.
For the veteran right-hander, acquired in a trade with Arizona on May 24 to boost the back end of the Mets' rotation, the effort was reminiscent of a complete game three-hitter he threw against the Diamondbacks on June 8.
The first six pitches he threw missed the strike zone but he recovered quickly and dominated the Pirates, allowing four singles. Hernandez (5-8) walked two and struck out seven before turning the game over to the bullpen for the final two innings to complete the Mets' fifth combined shutout of the season.
The Mets jumped in front against Kip Wells (0-4) getting all four of the hits he allowed in the first inning.
Jose Reyes led off with his major league-leading 12th triple and scored on a single by Paul Lo Duca. After Carlos Beltran walked, Carlos Delgado struck out but Cliff Floyd was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Jose Valentin followed with a two-run double. Floyd scored on a wild pitch and Endy Chavez singled, scoring Valentin.
Wells was making his fourth start of the season following surgery on March 6 in which a vein from his leg was transplanted to replace a blocked artery that was restricting blood flow in his right arm.
In his longest outing since coming back, Wells pitched six innings and threw 99 pitches, 59 for strikes.
It was the second straight victory for the Mets after they had lost six of seven.
Notes:@ RHP Pedro Martinez (sore hip) delayed his throwing session one day. After he throws Thursday, the Mets will decide whether he will start Saturday or go on the disabled list. ... Rickey Henderson was a visitor in the Mets clubhouse. ... The five-run first inning gave the Mets 70 opening-inning runs this season, second only to the Chicago White Sox, who scored four Wednesday night and have 78. ... Well's fifth-inning sacrifice appeared to be foul but was ruled fair by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.
Severe weather was expected across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Thursday, with some storms possibly producing hail, damaging winds and heavy downpours.
Very hot temperatures were expected to continue in the Central and Southern Plains, with highs from 105 to 112 degrees in many parts of Texas and Oklahoma.
The Pacific Northwest was to start drying out, with warmer temperatures and clearer skies with highs in the mid-70s.
In the East, mostly sunny skies and pleasant weather were forecast. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic was to continue seeing highs in the 70s and 80s.
But a stationary front dominating the Southeast was expected to continue triggering scattered showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. Humid conditions were to persist with some areas experiencing severe weather.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 30 degrees at Truckee-Tahoe, Calif., to a high of 105 degrees at Hearne, Texas.
___
On the Net:
Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com
National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov
Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com
It would be putting it mildly to say that fashion's newest risingstar is being caught on the fly.
Five minutes before an interview, Stella McCartney is vacuuming.
"When I get stressed out, I have to clean - and this placewas filthy," says the young designer - named last week to succeedKarl Lagerfeld at the French fashion house Chloe - as she casts alook of relief at the now dust-free floorboards of her London studio.And there are other signs that McCartney, 25, is slightlystressed as she prepares to move to Paris and into the spotlight.There's nothing to eat at the studio, and who's going to lookafter Sid and Nancy, the goldfish, when she leaves?"I don't want to think about it," she says. "Something willhappen - and Mum says she'll have Sid and Nancy.""Mum" would be Linda McCartney, wife of ex-Beatle Paul. And"something" already has happened to the woman who until last Tuesdaywas better known in the gossip columns as a friend of actress PatsyKensit and Oasis' Liam Gallagher and for hanging out with hersupermodel friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.Now McCartney, who graduated from the Central St. Martin'sCollege of Art and Design in London only 18 months ago and has neverput on a big catwalk fashion show, is known as the youngest chiefdesigner taken on by Chloe - and the first unknown."I'm the breath of fresh air that Chloe needs," she says."Let's face it, my generation is not desperate for Chloe, whereas mymother's generation was. That's what got me interested in fashion inthe first place. Mum used to buy Chloe; as I got older, I'd wearthem all. My job is to bring back that kind of excitement to theChloe name."McCartney's job at the venerable Paris house carries a salaryrumored to be $160,000 a year."I'm so surprised I'm there," she says. "Of course I'm not goingto tell you how much they're paying me, but it is a lengthycontract."But the appointment of the virtually unknown McCartney hasgiven rise to predictable criticism that she got the position only onthe basis of her name. One story even claimed her clothes fit onlyskinny models with big busts."That's odd," says McCartney, rubbing the tiny roll of fat aroundher waist. "They fit me, and I'm not exactly Kate Moss."Chloe's house style centers on fluid slip dresses in fadedprints, similar to those McCartney has designed for her owncollections, which blend vintage Savile Row and lingerie with aquirky English-ness.Today, she is wearing a black cotton V-neck T-shirt, orangenylon boating trousers "made for a 10-year-old" and a pair of Nikes.Her mass of strawberry blond hair frames a lightly freckled face,bronzed from a week's holiday in Morocco."All that negative stuff doesn't affect me," she says."Anyway, I don't read (it). The thing about my father has been athread throughout my life; even if people don't say it, I suppose Ithink it. But there'd be no point in doing anything if I let it getto me. The reason why I did fashion and not music was to get awayfrom all that."Of course my name opens doors, but they can close just as quicklyif I don't deliver. I don't think Mr. Mouffarige (president ofChloe) would be paying me all that money if he didn't think I hadsomething."Mounir Moufarrige said McCartney - Paul and Linda's youngestdaughter - was exactly right and vigorously defends his choice ofsuch a young designer. "Talent has no age," he said.Mouffarige said she beat 40 other designers vying for theposition. "We are very happy about it. It is a nice marriage, and Iam delighted by her charm and attitude," he said.One note of dissent came from Luisa Beccaria, a designer basedin Milan, who had been considered for the position. "Who is she?"she asks about McCartney. "I have never heard of her."She will. McCartney and her assistant will soon begin work on aspring-summer collection that will hit the catwalk at the Parisready-to-wear shows in October.And she will close her other lines in order to workexclusively for Chloe.She says, "As far as I am concerned, Stella McCartney is Chloenow."Contributing: Scripps Howard News Service
The chairs have to be folded and taken away. The floor has to beremoved and hidden under the stands. The glass has to be installedand wiped clean.
Then the ice must be flooded twice and shaved to perfection.It's the facelift before faceoff, and it's a job that normallyrequires 25 men and three hours.
But after the Bulls' playoff game Sunday against the Miami Heat,40 men were employed to turn the Stadium from a basketball court toan ice rink for the Hawks' playoff game against the St. Louis Blues.
And immediately after the Bulls' victory, they stored the 300chairs and rolled up the red carpeting. The basketball floor wasremoved section by section - 256 in all - and wheeled away onflatbeds.
The plywood cover for the ice then was removed, the boards wereinstalled and the penalty boxes erected. Then the ice was given anextensive manicure.
The job was finished in just more than 2 1/2 hours.
The hardest part? "Getting the writers off the floor (after theBulls' game)," Hawks executive vice president Michael Wirtz said.
| All Times EDT |
| East Division |
| W L Pct GB |
| Florida 14 11 .560 _ |
| Philadelphia 12 10 .545 1/2 |
| Atlanta 11 13 .458 2 1/2 |
| New York 10 13 .435 3 |
| Washington 6 17 .261 7 |
| Central Division |
| W L Pct GB |
| St. Louis 17 8 .680 _ |
| Chicago 13 11 .542 3 1/2 |
| Cincinnati 13 11 .542 3 1/2 |
| Milwaukee 13 12 .520 4 |
| Pittsburgh 12 12 .500 4 1/2 |
| Houston 11 14 .440 6 |
| West Division |
| W L Pct GB |
| Los Angeles 17 8 .680 _ |
| San Francisco 11 11 .500 4 1/2 |
| San Diego 11 13 .458 5 1/2 |
| Arizona 11 14 .440 6 |
| Colorado 9 13 .409 6 1/2 |
| ___ |
| Saturday's Games |
| Chicago Cubs 6, Florida 1 |
| Washington 6, St. Louis 1 |
| Houston 5, Atlanta 1 |
| Philadelphia 6, N.Y. Mets 5, 10 innings |
| Colorado 5, San Francisco 1 |
| Arizona 4, Milwaukee 1 |
| Pittsburgh 8, Cincinnati 6 |
| L.A. Dodgers 2, San Diego 1, 10 innings |
| Sunday's Games |
| Houston 7, Atlanta 5 |
| Cincinnati 5, Pittsburgh 0 |
| N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia, ppd., |
| St. Louis at Washington, ppd., Rain |
| Milwaukee 4, Arizona 3 |
| Chicago Cubs 6, Florida 4 |
| Colorado at San Francisco, 4:05 p.m. |
| San Diego at L.A. Dodgers, 4:10 p.m. |
| Monday's Games |
| Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 7:05 p.m. |
| Houston at Washington, 7:05 p.m. |
| N.Y. Mets at Atlanta, 7:10 p.m. |
| Cincinnati at Florida, 7:10 p.m. |
| San Francisco at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 p.m. |
| Philadelphia at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m. |
| Colorado at San Diego, 10:05 p.m. |
| Arizona at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. |
| Tuesday's Games |
| Houston at Washington, 12:35 p.m. |
| San Francisco at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 p.m. |
| Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, 7:05 p.m. |
| N.Y. Mets at Atlanta, 7:10 p.m. |
| Cincinnati at Florida, 7:10 p.m. |
| Philadelphia at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m. |
| Colorado at San Diego, 10:05 p.m. |
| Arizona at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. |
Laid-off migrant worker Chen Li had red scrape marks on his right cheek from a scuffle with riot police outside his factory that went bust this week in southern China.
Now the angry young man is going home early to his village in northern Hubei province for the annual Chinese New Year holiday, where he says he will be bored and idle for a couple of months. It's restless migrants like Chen who are among the biggest worries for Chinese leaders trying to maintain social order during a souring economy.
"I've grown used to living in the city now," said Chen, 25, looking urbane Friday in a new but slightly dusty blue suit. "I just can't stand the country life anymore."
During boom years, workers like Chen would still be toiling on the assembly line, looking forward to banking another month or so of pay before the Chinese New Year, which begins Jan. 26. But this year thousands of factories have gone belly up in Guangdong province _ the country's main manufacturing hub _ forcing the migrants to head home early.
With the global economic downturn, Christmas export orders were down for Chinese factories, and more bad economic news has followed. In November, growth in China's factory output fell to its lowest level in nearly seven years. More than 7,000 companies in Guangdong closed down or moved elsewhere in the first nine months of the year, the official China Daily newspaper reported.
For workers like Chen, the chances of finding another job are low. This is the slow season, with Christmas orders already shipped off. A new hiring frenzy normally kicks off after the New Year holiday, when migrants flood back to industrial zones in one of the world's biggest annual human migrations.
Until then, authorities will be under pressure to keep a lid on discontent in villages, where many workers may still be simmering over how their jobs came to a bad end.
It has become common in Guangdong for factory owners to suddenly shut down their cash-strapped plants and disappear without paying laborers.
That's what happened at Chen's factory _ the Jianrong Suitcase Factory in the city of Dongguan. The plant shut down Tuesday without warning and its 300 workers began taking to the streets, demanding full payment of wages.
Local government officials eventually glued an announcement to the factory's walls, saying its Japanese owner could not be located and the workers would only get 60 percent of the monthly wages they had earned since October. The laborers, paid an average monthly salary of 1,500 yuan, or about $220, refused to accept the deal.
Calls to the factory rang unanswered Friday, and there was no information on the owner or his whereabouts; the workers said the factory's Taiwanese manager had not been seen since Tuesday.
On Friday morning, riot police with helmets and shields were called in and sealed off the factory compound, blocking the workers, who live in dormitories inside, from leaving. The plan appeared to be to keep them from protesting outside the factory until they collected their final wages and left for the holiday.
But by noon, about 100 workers got fed up and marched out of the factory. They were led by a short, stocky worker named Dai Houxue, who chanted, "There are no human rights here!" as he pushed away the arm of a policeman who tried to restrain him.
"They have been trying to lock us up in the factory because they don't want us to come out and have the international media cover our protest," Dai said.
The scene challenged the popular stereotype of Chinese migrant workers as being simple country folk, subservient to officialdom and great at "eating bitterness" _ enduring hardship without complaint. In fact, for many, factory work is a mind-opening experience that exposes them to protest tactics and concepts like labor rights.
One worker, Yang Xiwei, said police with riot sticks hit her in the stomach when she tried to leave the factory Friday morning to do some shopping.
"We work so hard in this factory and then we get beaten by the police. What kind of system is this?" asked Yang, a mother of two from Hubei.
One of the officers leading the police denied anyone was hit. He declined to give his name.
Another worker, Fu Yuankui from southwestern Sichuan province, also complained the workers' rights were violated. "China has developed so much economically in recent years, but it's still like this," he said.
As about 30 riot police guarded the front gate, the workers boldly shut another gate that led to a courtyard where they gathered. They screamed and yelled when police tried to enter.
Then, catching sight of a plainclothes policeman in a crew cut, khaki pants and black shirt who had slipped inside and was eavesdropping on their conversations, they quickly surrounded him and shouted: "You are not employed here. Leave now!"
Using loudspeakers, officials urged the workers to take their final wages and leave. But the workers refused and remained in the compound, shouting from their dormitory balconies, "We don't want it. You're uncivilized. You beat people."
The officials left after an hour, refusing to comment to an Associated Press reporter.
How to manage the disgruntled workers flocking back to the countryside has been a frequent topic in the Chinese media in recent weeks. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that officials were setting up special job-training programs and encouraging migrants to start their own businesses in farming and raising fish and poultry.
But Liu Shanying, an analyst at the Institute of Political Science in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the fears of unrest are overblown. The workers will be less likely to run wild when they're back in their patriarchal clans and under the control of family and relatives, he said.
"When they get back to their hometowns, they will be better-behaved," he said.
_____
Associated Press writers Chi-Chi Zhang and Gillian Wong contributed to this report from Beijing.
WIGAN, England (AP) — Sunderland maintained its revival under Martin O'Neill by moving into the top half of the English Premier League standings with a 4-1 win over Wigan on Tuesday.
Following the shock 1-0 win over league leader Manchester City last Sunday, Sunderland won its fourth match from six since O'Neill took over as manager from Steve Bruce.
Wigan, without suspended captain Gary Caldwell, dominated the first half but hit the posts twice, and Sunderland led into halftime thanks to Craig Gardner's 30-meter free kick goal.
James McClean made it 2-0 before Hugo Rodallega halved the deficit, but Sunderland finished strong with scores to Stephane Sessegnon and David Vaughan.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The Tamil Tigers launched a ground and air assault on an air force base in northern Sri Lanka early Monday, military officials said, in one of the most brazen rebel attacks on a military target here in months.
The attack on the Anuradhapura air base wounded eight airmen and damaged two helicopters on the ground, the military said. However, officials in the local morgue reported that the bodies of at least two airmen were brought there after the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Hours later, a helicopter involved in searching for the attackers crashed because of mechanical failure, killing the four airmen aboard, the military said.
The attack began about 3:20 a.m. when a small group of rebels invaded the air base about 40 miles south of rebel territory, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. Soon after, two rebel planes dropped two bombs on the base, he said.
Residents living near the base reported hearing loud explosions throughout the morning and seeing repeated barrages of anti-aircraft fire coming from the base.
The fighting lasted about two hours and the air force sent teams into the surrounding area to search for the attackers, he said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said the combined air and land attack targeted the military's "biggest logistics base," which supplied government troops along the front lines with rebel-held territory.
"There was significant damage," he said, declining to say whether any rebel fighters were killed.
The Tamil Tigers stunned the military in March when they launched their first air assault, bombing an air force base near Colombo. They carried out several more attacks, including a strike on a fuel refinery and gasoline storage site, but they have not waged an air strike in nearly six months.
Over the past month, violence has escalated between troops and rebels facing each other across the front lines separating the government-controlled area from the Tigers' mini state in part of northern Sri Lanka.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils after decades of discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting, 5,000 of them since a 2002 cease-fire broke down in late 2005.
KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistan's army spokesman said Tuesday that the military used intelligence from U.S.-led coalition forces in a helicopter attack that left 80 people dead. Thousands of angry tribesmen decried both governments over the killings.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, told The Associated Press that American forces did not take part in Monday's attack on a religious school, or madrassa, that Pakistan called a front for an al-Qaida training camp.
But he said his government received intelligence as part of long-standing cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan to battle terrorists operating along the porous border between the countries.
"Intelligence sharing was definitely there, but to say they (the coalition) have carried out the operation, that is absolutely wrong," Sultan said. "One doesn't know ... what was the percentage of help (was provided)."
Sultan later contacted the AP to deny he had made the remarks.
In Kabul, Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman, said it is common knowledge that the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan share intelligence as part of a three-way military agreement. But he said he had no information regarding the recent operation in Pakistan.
Another U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said the U.S. did not participate in the attack or provide the Pakistanis with any forces, aircraft or equipment. He declined to say, however, if other American assistance was provided.
"Pakistan is a U.S. ally in the war on terror and the United States does routinely share intelligence with its allies, however, I cannot comment on any particular operation," he said.
As many as 20,000 people protested Tuesday in Khar, the main town in Pakistan's northwestern tribal Bajur district, claiming innocent students and teachers were killed in the attack. They chanted: "God is Great!" "Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!" and "Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor!"
"We will continue our jihad (holy war)! We will take revenge for the blood of our martyrs!" a local Islamic cleric, Maulana Roohul Amin, yelled into a loudspeaker at the rally. "The forces of infidelity are trying to erase us from existence!"
In the northwestern city of Peshawar, 500 members of a hard-line Islamic group burned an effigy of President Bush and denounced Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. A smaller protest was also held in the southern city of Multan.
Islamic leaders had called for nationwide protests Tuesday to denounce the raid in Chingai village, about 6 miles from Khar near the Afghan border. It was the deadliest military operation known to have been launched against suspected militants in the country.
Pakistan said its helicopters fired five missiles into the madrassa, flattening the building and killing 80 people inside. Three men survived with serious injuries.
The attack threatened efforts by Musharraf to persuade deeply conservative tribespeople to back his government's efforts against pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, who enjoy strong support in many semiautonomous regions in northern Pakistan.
It also sparked claims of U.S. collusion with Pakistan, with villagers saying fixed-wing drone aircraft were seen flying over the town in the days before the attack, according to the Dawn daily newspaper.
In January, a U.S. Predator drone fired a missile targeting al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman-Al-Zawahri in Damadola, near Chingai. The strike missed al-Zawahri, but killed several other al-Qaida members and civilians and sparked massive anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan.
Fears were high that Monday's attack will fan unrest across Pakistan, which also witnessed violent protests this year after European newspapers published cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and after the August killing of a ethnic-Baluch tribal chief in another Pakistani military raid.
Scores of pro-government tribal police deployed throughout Bajur on Tuesday and blocked roads with stones to prevent political activists and journalists reaching Khar and Chingai, a local government official said on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.
Small protests were held in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar, Karachi and Multan on Monday. The unrest caused Britain's Prince Charles, currently in Pakistan, to cancel his planned Tuesday trip to Peshawar in the country's northwest.
Many local lawmakers and regional Cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the attack. The planned signing of a peace deal between tribal leaders and the military was also canceled Monday in response to the airstrike.
"Islamabad is acting against its own citizens who profess loyalty, promise to maintain peace and to ... eliminate foreign militants," a Pakistan daily, The Nation, said in an editorial.
Ali Dayan Hasan, a South Asia representative for Human Rights Watch, accused Pakistani authorities of "persistent use of excessive and disproportionate force ... in pursuing counter-terror operations."
Among those killed Monday was Liaquat Hussain, a fugitive cleric and al-Zawahri associate who ran the targeted madrassa. The raid was launched after Hussain rejected government warnings to stop using the school as a terrorist training camp, the military said.
Another al-Zawahri lieutenant, Faqir Mohammed, left the madrassa 30 minutes before the strike, according to a Bajur intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Pakistan's most influential Islamist political leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was to lead a convoy of cars Tuesday from the northwestern city of Peshawar to Khar and Chingai, his spokesman, Shahid Shamsi, said.
"They killed 80 teenagers who were students of the Quran," Ahmed told reporters on Monday. "This is a very cruel joint activity (between the U.S. and Musharraf governments)."
---
Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report. Sadaqat Jan reported from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Pakistani Airstrike Sparks ProtestsKHAR, Pakistan - Pakistan's army spokesman said Tuesday that the military used intelligence from U.S.-led coalition forces in a helicopter attack that left 80 people dead. Thousands of angry tribesmen decried both governments over the killings.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, told The Associated Press that American forces did not take part in Monday's attack on a religious school, or madrassa, that Pakistan called a front for an al-Qaida training camp.
But he said his government received intelligence as part of long-standing cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan to battle terrorists operating along the porous border between the countries.
"Intelligence sharing was definitely there, but to say they (the coalition) have carried out the operation, that is absolutely wrong," Sultan said. "One doesn't know ... what was the percentage of help (was provided)."
Sultan later contacted the AP to deny he had made the remarks.
In Kabul, Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman, said it is common knowledge that the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan share intelligence as part of a three-way military agreement. But he said he had no information regarding the recent operation in Pakistan.
Another U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said the U.S. did not participate in the attack or provide the Pakistanis with any forces, aircraft or equipment. He declined to say, however, if other American assistance was provided.
"Pakistan is a U.S. ally in the war on terror and the United States does routinely share intelligence with its allies, however, I cannot comment on any particular operation," he said.
As many as 20,000 people protested Tuesday in Khar, the main town in Pakistan's northwestern tribal Bajur district, claiming innocent students and teachers were killed in the attack. They chanted: "God is Great!" "Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!" and "Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor!"
"We will continue our jihad (holy war)! We will take revenge for the blood of our martyrs!" a local Islamic cleric, Maulana Roohul Amin, yelled into a loudspeaker at the rally. "The forces of infidelity are trying to erase us from existence!"
In the northwestern city of Peshawar, 500 members of a hard-line Islamic group burned an effigy of President Bush and denounced Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. A smaller protest was also held in the southern city of Multan.
Islamic leaders had called for nationwide protests Tuesday to denounce the raid in Chingai village, about 6 miles from Khar near the Afghan border. It was the deadliest military operation known to have been launched against suspected militants in the country.
Pakistan said its helicopters fired five missiles into the madrassa, flattening the building and killing 80 people inside. Three men survived with serious injuries.
The attack threatened efforts by Musharraf to persuade deeply conservative tribespeople to back his government's efforts against pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, who enjoy strong support in many semiautonomous regions in northern Pakistan.
It also sparked claims of U.S. collusion with Pakistan, with villagers saying fixed-wing drone aircraft were seen flying over the town in the days before the attack, according to the Dawn daily newspaper.
In January, a U.S. Predator drone fired a missile targeting al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman-Al-Zawahri in Damadola, near Chingai. The strike missed al-Zawahri, but killed several other al-Qaida members and civilians and sparked massive anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan.
Fears were high that Monday's attack will fan unrest across Pakistan, which also witnessed violent protests this year after European newspapers published cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and after the August killing of a ethnic-Baluch tribal chief in another Pakistani military raid.
Scores of pro-government tribal police deployed throughout Bajur on Tuesday and blocked roads with stones to prevent political activists and journalists reaching Khar and Chingai, a local government official said on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.
Small protests were held in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar, Karachi and Multan on Monday. The unrest caused Britain's Prince Charles, currently in Pakistan, to cancel his planned Tuesday trip to Peshawar in the country's northwest.
Many local lawmakers and regional Cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the attack. The planned signing of a peace deal between tribal leaders and the military was also canceled Monday in response to the airstrike.
"Islamabad is acting against its own citizens who profess loyalty, promise to maintain peace and to ... eliminate foreign militants," a Pakistan daily, The Nation, said in an editorial.
Ali Dayan Hasan, a South Asia representative for Human Rights Watch, accused Pakistani authorities of "persistent use of excessive and disproportionate force ... in pursuing counter-terror operations."
Among those killed Monday was Liaquat Hussain, a fugitive cleric and al-Zawahri associate who ran the targeted madrassa. The raid was launched after Hussain rejected government warnings to stop using the school as a terrorist training camp, the military said.
Another al-Zawahri lieutenant, Faqir Mohammed, left the madrassa 30 minutes before the strike, according to a Bajur intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Pakistan's most influential Islamist political leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was to lead a convoy of cars Tuesday from the northwestern city of Peshawar to Khar and Chingai, his spokesman, Shahid Shamsi, said.
"They killed 80 teenagers who were students of the Quran," Ahmed told reporters on Monday. "This is a very cruel joint activity (between the U.S. and Musharraf governments)."
---
Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report. Sadaqat Jan reported from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Vancouver City Councilor Pat Campbell is 66. But that doesnt meanhes too old to have an elder put him in his (at least chronological)place.
Resident Ralph Peabody, who is in his late 70s and frequentlycomments about different issues, visited the city councils CitizenForum last week to talk about traffic issues in his neighborhood.
Cars come ripping and snorting speeding down Ninth Street,especially now that work is being done on 18th Street, Peabody said.He said he hasnt seen the police patrols he was promised.
Campbell chimed in after Peabody asked for a remedy: I travelNinth Street quite a bit. Theres series of speed bumps that make itimpossible to travel at the speeds youve named here.
He said he only hears this complaint from Peabody, and if it werethe disaster area Peabody describes it to be, hed hear from morepeople.
That didnt sit well with Mr. Peabody.
Let me get one thing straight, Peabody said. Youre calling me aliar, and thats not going to work, young man. I am not a liar, and Ireally resent that.
With all due respect to Mr. Campbell, we bet that hasnt happenedto him in a couple of decades.
(The citys also looking in to putting one of those your speedtrailers on Ninth Street that record a drivers speed and thendisplay it electronically to them.)
Andrea Damewood
Never a dull moment
The Clark County commissioners meeting last week was one for thebooks.
Not just for length, even though it was longer than four hours.
But all of the topics were actually compelling.
Put it this way: The tamest subject was a tax increase.
During public comment, four people who live near Rotschys YacoltMountain Quarry told commissioners the Storedahl mining operationhas affected their well water, both quality and quantity, anddescribed problems with trucks taking corners too fast on NortheastKelly Road.
The neighbors were so upset that Commissioner Steve Stuartreminded them it was a different board of commissioners that votedin 2003 to overturn a hearings examiner and allow the quarry.
(Then-Commissioners Craig Pridemore and Betty Sue Morris votedfor the quarry, while Judie Stanton dissented. Morris and Pridemoretold neighbors then that the county has zoned the Yacolt Mountainarea for resource production, not rural living.)
All the current board can do, Stuart said, is make sure thecompany complies with permit conditions.
Neighbors were told Clark County Public Health and other agenciesare looking into their concerns.
Our goal is to get it right this time, said Commissioner TomMielke.
It was an hour into the meeting before public hearings began.
Seven people spoke about the 911 excise tax, all in favor for it.The 20-cent monthly increase passed with yes votes from Stuart andMarc Boldt.
Then it was on to an ordinance regarding group homes that waswritten to address Hazel Dell House, 7515 N.W. 15th Ave., a state-funded group home for teenagers in foster care.
Trent Hall of New Vision Programs, who operates the home, and hisattorney said they dont need a conditional-use permit because thecounty allows adult family homes. The county wants to clarify thecode to make clear adult family homes, refers to adults, notteenagers.
The hearing was only on extending an emergency ordinance, so thisfight will go on.
Neighbors and the staffers who work with the teenagers areequally frustrated. The young men who live at the home testifiedthat this is their family and they dont want to leave. Neighbors saythe teenagers arent properly supervised and the county needs toenforce its own rules and demand a permit.
Boldt expressed frustration with the state Department of Socialand Health Services for not returning his calls about Hazel DellHouse.
Apparently they know I dont live in Olympia anymore, so they dontcare who I am, said Boldt, a former 17th District legislator.
Mielke asked Marty Snell, director of the county Department ofCommunity Development, why the state hasnt stepped up to make surethe publicly funded, privately operated home is in compliance.
The operator has known since last fall they needed a permit,Snell said. If they are not responsive to a commissioner, I doubtthey will be responsive to the director of a department.
Hall said he was first told he did not need a permit.
Stay tuned.
At this point, it was 1 p.m., three hours into the meeting.Mielke called for a 15-minute recess.
Last on the agenda? Home rule. First there was a lengthydiscussion about what the county did to promote the idea and howmuch it could cost, and how Administrator Bill Barron came up withthat cost estimate.
Thirteen people testified. Ten people were against going throughthe home rule charter process; three people were in favor of it.
Instead of at least voting to allow charter supporters to collect14,000-some signatures to put it on the ballot, commissioners justkilled the whole idea.
It was a quick death to an idea theyve been talking about formore than a year.
At least something about the meeting was quick.
Stephanie Rice
Im your child
The long meeting included Vancouver resident Carolyn Crain, whocame to talk about betrayal.
She feels betrayed that Commissioner Steve Stuart promised adistrictwide C-Tran vote, but then he and Commissioners Marc Boldtand Tom Mielke didnt put off enough muscle and allowed themselves tobe pushed around by Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt during a May 10 C-Tran meeting.
During the May 10 meeting, the C-Tran board put off deciding theboundaries for a 2012 sales tax vote on light rail and bus rapidtransit.
I am not happy with that, Crain said.
Josephine was right, said Crain, referring to Josephine Wentzelof notolls.com. It was a ruse.
Crain said she doesnt like when she goes to Vancouver CityCouncil meetings and Leavitt points out she lives outside of citylimits.
But she shops in the city, she said. She drives on city streets.Isnt that enough? Does she really need to be treated as, in herwords, the bastard child of the community?
While Leavitt is elected only by people who live within citylimits, commissioners have to act on behalf of every countyresident. And they cant just grandstand and make promises that theydont follow through on, she said.
Im your child, Crain told the commissioners. I want you to be thetough guys. Stand up and defend my American freedoms. ... Make meproud. Not ashamed.
Stuart explained that both the county and the city have threemembers on the C-Tran board. Leavitt is on the board with CouncilorsLarry Smith and Bart Hansen. Both the county and city have vetorights. The county did stand up for its citizens, Stuart said, butthe board reached a stalemate.
They could vote not to do a districtwide vote, we could vote notto do a subdistrict vote, Stuart said. And then theres no votes.
Stephanie Rice
Read the All Politics is Local blog at www.columbian.com/weblogs.
Dont call him a liar, young manVancouver City Councilor Pat Campbell is 66. But that doesnt meanhes too old to have an elder put him in his (at least chronological)place.
Resident Ralph Peabody, who is in his late 70s and frequentlycomments about different issues, visited the city councils CitizenForum last week to talk about traffic issues in his neighborhood.
Cars come ripping and snorting speeding down Ninth Street,especially now that work is being done on 18th Street, Peabody said.He said he hasnt seen the police patrols he was promised.
Campbell chimed in after Peabody asked for a remedy: I travelNinth Street quite a bit. Theres series of speed bumps that make itimpossible to travel at the speeds youve named here.
He said he only hears this complaint from Peabody, and if it werethe disaster area Peabody describes it to be, hed hear from morepeople.
That didnt sit well with Mr. Peabody.
Let me get one thing straight, Peabody said. Youre calling me aliar, and thats not going to work, young man. I am not a liar, and Ireally resent that.
With all due respect to Mr. Campbell, we bet that hasnt happenedto him in a couple of decades.
(The citys also looking in to putting one of those your speedtrailers on Ninth Street that record a drivers speed and thendisplay it electronically to them.)
Andrea Damewood
Never a dull moment
The Clark County commissioners meeting last week was one for thebooks.
Not just for length, even though it was longer than four hours.
But all of the topics were actually compelling.
Put it this way: The tamest subject was a tax increase.
During public comment, four people who live near Rotschys YacoltMountain Quarry told commissioners the Storedahl mining operationhas affected their well water, both quality and quantity, anddescribed problems with trucks taking corners too fast on NortheastKelly Road.
The neighbors were so upset that Commissioner Steve Stuartreminded them it was a different board of commissioners that votedin 2003 to overturn a hearings examiner and allow the quarry.
(Then-Commissioners Craig Pridemore and Betty Sue Morris votedfor the quarry, while Judie Stanton dissented. Morris and Pridemoretold neighbors then that the county has zoned the Yacolt Mountainarea for resource production, not rural living.)
All the current board can do, Stuart said, is make sure thecompany complies with permit conditions.
Neighbors were told Clark County Public Health and other agenciesare looking into their concerns.
Our goal is to get it right this time, said Commissioner TomMielke.
It was an hour into the meeting before public hearings began.
Seven people spoke about the 911 excise tax, all in favor for it.The 20-cent monthly increase passed with yes votes from Stuart andMarc Boldt.
Then it was on to an ordinance regarding group homes that waswritten to address Hazel Dell House, 7515 N.W. 15th Ave., a state-funded group home for teenagers in foster care.
Trent Hall of New Vision Programs, who operates the home, and hisattorney said they dont need a conditional-use permit because thecounty allows adult family homes. The county wants to clarify thecode to make clear adult family homes, refers to adults, notteenagers.
The hearing was only on extending an emergency ordinance, so thisfight will go on.
Neighbors and the staffers who work with the teenagers areequally frustrated. The young men who live at the home testifiedthat this is their family and they dont want to leave. Neighbors saythe teenagers arent properly supervised and the county needs toenforce its own rules and demand a permit.
Boldt expressed frustration with the state Department of Socialand Health Services for not returning his calls about Hazel DellHouse.
Apparently they know I dont live in Olympia anymore, so they dontcare who I am, said Boldt, a former 17th District legislator.
Mielke asked Marty Snell, director of the county Department ofCommunity Development, why the state hasnt stepped up to make surethe publicly funded, privately operated home is in compliance.
The operator has known since last fall they needed a permit,Snell said. If they are not responsive to a commissioner, I doubtthey will be responsive to the director of a department.
Hall said he was first told he did not need a permit.
Stay tuned.
At this point, it was 1 p.m., three hours into the meeting.Mielke called for a 15-minute recess.
Last on the agenda? Home rule. First there was a lengthydiscussion about what the county did to promote the idea and howmuch it could cost, and how Administrator Bill Barron came up withthat cost estimate.
Thirteen people testified. Ten people were against going throughthe home rule charter process; three people were in favor of it.
Instead of at least voting to allow charter supporters to collect14,000-some signatures to put it on the ballot, commissioners justkilled the whole idea.
It was a quick death to an idea theyve been talking about formore than a year.
At least something about the meeting was quick.
Stephanie Rice
Im your child
The long meeting included Vancouver resident Carolyn Crain, whocame to talk about betrayal.
She feels betrayed that Commissioner Steve Stuart promised adistrictwide C-Tran vote, but then he and Commissioners Marc Boldtand Tom Mielke didnt put off enough muscle and allowed themselves tobe pushed around by Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt during a May 10 C-Tran meeting.
During the May 10 meeting, the C-Tran board put off deciding theboundaries for a 2012 sales tax vote on light rail and bus rapidtransit.
I am not happy with that, Crain said.
Josephine was right, said Crain, referring to Josephine Wentzelof notolls.com. It was a ruse.
Crain said she doesnt like when she goes to Vancouver CityCouncil meetings and Leavitt points out she lives outside of citylimits.
But she shops in the city, she said. She drives on city streets.Isnt that enough? Does she really need to be treated as, in herwords, the bastard child of the community?
While Leavitt is elected only by people who live within citylimits, commissioners have to act on behalf of every countyresident. And they cant just grandstand and make promises that theydont follow through on, she said.
Im your child, Crain told the commissioners. I want you to be thetough guys. Stand up and defend my American freedoms. ... Make meproud. Not ashamed.
Stuart explained that both the county and the city have threemembers on the C-Tran board. Leavitt is on the board with CouncilorsLarry Smith and Bart Hansen. Both the county and city have vetorights. The county did stand up for its citizens, Stuart said, butthe board reached a stalemate.
They could vote not to do a districtwide vote, we could vote notto do a subdistrict vote, Stuart said. And then theres no votes.
Stephanie Rice
Read the All Politics is Local blog at www.columbian.com/weblogs.
Dont call him a liar, young manVancouver City Councilor Pat Campbell is 66. But that doesnt meanhes too old to have an elder put him in his (at least chronological)place.
Resident Ralph Peabody, who is in his late 70s and frequentlycomments about different issues, visited the city councils CitizenForum last week to talk about traffic issues in his neighborhood.
Cars come ripping and snorting speeding down Ninth Street,especially now that work is being done on 18th Street, Peabody said.He said he hasnt seen the police patrols he was promised.
Campbell chimed in after Peabody asked for a remedy: I travelNinth Street quite a bit. Theres series of speed bumps that make itimpossible to travel at the speeds youve named here.
He said he only hears this complaint from Peabody, and if it werethe disaster area Peabody describes it to be, hed hear from morepeople.
That didnt sit well with Mr. Peabody.
Let me get one thing straight, Peabody said. Youre calling me aliar, and thats not going to work, young man. I am not a liar, and Ireally resent that.
With all due respect to Mr. Campbell, we bet that hasnt happenedto him in a couple of decades.
(The citys also looking in to putting one of those your speedtrailers on Ninth Street that record a drivers speed and thendisplay it electronically to them.)
Andrea Damewood
Never a dull moment
The Clark County commissioners meeting last week was one for thebooks.
Not just for length, even though it was longer than four hours.
But all of the topics were actually compelling.
Put it this way: The tamest subject was a tax increase.
During public comment, four people who live near Rotschys YacoltMountain Quarry told commissioners the Storedahl mining operationhas affected their well water, both quality and quantity, anddescribed problems with trucks taking corners too fast on NortheastKelly Road.
The neighbors were so upset that Commissioner Steve Stuartreminded them it was a different board of commissioners that votedin 2003 to overturn a hearings examiner and allow the quarry.
(Then-Commissioners Craig Pridemore and Betty Sue Morris votedfor the quarry, while Judie Stanton dissented. Morris and Pridemoretold neighbors then that the county has zoned the Yacolt Mountainarea for resource production, not rural living.)
All the current board can do, Stuart said, is make sure thecompany complies with permit conditions.
Neighbors were told Clark County Public Health and other agenciesare looking into their concerns.
Our goal is to get it right this time, said Commissioner TomMielke.
It was an hour into the meeting before public hearings began.
Seven people spoke about the 911 excise tax, all in favor for it.The 20-cent monthly increase passed with yes votes from Stuart andMarc Boldt.
Then it was on to an ordinance regarding group homes that waswritten to address Hazel Dell House, 7515 N.W. 15th Ave., a state-funded group home for teenagers in foster care.
Trent Hall of New Vision Programs, who operates the home, and hisattorney said they dont need a conditional-use permit because thecounty allows adult family homes. The county wants to clarify thecode to make clear adult family homes, refers to adults, notteenagers.
The hearing was only on extending an emergency ordinance, so thisfight will go on.
Neighbors and the staffers who work with the teenagers areequally frustrated. The young men who live at the home testifiedthat this is their family and they dont want to leave. Neighbors saythe teenagers arent properly supervised and the county needs toenforce its own rules and demand a permit.
Boldt expressed frustration with the state Department of Socialand Health Services for not returning his calls about Hazel DellHouse.
Apparently they know I dont live in Olympia anymore, so they dontcare who I am, said Boldt, a former 17th District legislator.
Mielke asked Marty Snell, director of the county Department ofCommunity Development, why the state hasnt stepped up to make surethe publicly funded, privately operated home is in compliance.
The operator has known since last fall they needed a permit,Snell said. If they are not responsive to a commissioner, I doubtthey will be responsive to the director of a department.
Hall said he was first told he did not need a permit.
Stay tuned.
At this point, it was 1 p.m., three hours into the meeting.Mielke called for a 15-minute recess.
Last on the agenda? Home rule. First there was a lengthydiscussion about what the county did to promote the idea and howmuch it could cost, and how Administrator Bill Barron came up withthat cost estimate.
Thirteen people testified. Ten people were against going throughthe home rule charter process; three people were in favor of it.
Instead of at least voting to allow charter supporters to collect14,000-some signatures to put it on the ballot, commissioners justkilled the whole idea.
It was a quick death to an idea theyve been talking about formore than a year.
At least something about the meeting was quick.
Stephanie Rice
Im your child
The long meeting included Vancouver resident Carolyn Crain, whocame to talk about betrayal.
She feels betrayed that Commissioner Steve Stuart promised adistrictwide C-Tran vote, but then he and Commissioners Marc Boldtand Tom Mielke didnt put off enough muscle and allowed themselves tobe pushed around by Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt during a May 10 C-Tran meeting.
During the May 10 meeting, the C-Tran board put off deciding theboundaries for a 2012 sales tax vote on light rail and bus rapidtransit.
I am not happy with that, Crain said.
Josephine was right, said Crain, referring to Josephine Wentzelof notolls.com. It was a ruse.
Crain said she doesnt like when she goes to Vancouver CityCouncil meetings and Leavitt points out she lives outside of citylimits.
But she shops in the city, she said. She drives on city streets.Isnt that enough? Does she really need to be treated as, in herwords, the bastard child of the community?
While Leavitt is elected only by people who live within citylimits, commissioners have to act on behalf of every countyresident. And they cant just grandstand and make promises that theydont follow through on, she said.
Im your child, Crain told the commissioners. I want you to be thetough guys. Stand up and defend my American freedoms. ... Make meproud. Not ashamed.
Stuart explained that both the county and the city have threemembers on the C-Tran board. Leavitt is on the board with CouncilorsLarry Smith and Bart Hansen. Both the county and city have vetorights. The county did stand up for its citizens, Stuart said, butthe board reached a stalemate.
They could vote not to do a districtwide vote, we could vote notto do a subdistrict vote, Stuart said. And then theres no votes.
Stephanie Rice
Read the All Politics is Local blog at www.columbian.com/weblogs.
