National League

All Times EDT

East Division

W L Pct GB

New York 64 56 .533 _

Philadelphia 64 56 .533 _

Florida 63 58 .521 1 1/2

Atlanta 55 65 .458 9

Washington 44 77 .364 20 1/2

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Chicago 73 47 .608 _

Milwaukee 70 51 …

City could move to block defender's Terras switch

Bath City may attempt to block Martin Slocombe's proposed move toWeymouth.

The 20-year-old left back verbally accepted a new deal at TwertonPark but the club were surprised to hear yesterday that he hasagreed to join the Terras instead.

Because Slocombe was a contracted player last season, City arenow looking at whether they can oppose the transfer or seekcompensation from Weymouth.

As he is under the age of 24, City will retain Slocombe's playerregistration under the Bosman ruling if they can prove they offeredhim terms in line with or better than the contract he was on lastseason.

The details were supposed to be provided in letter form at theend of …

Study: Most Diabetics Don't Exercise

DENVER - Bad news when it comes to diabetics and exercise: Most people with Type 2 diabetes or at risk for it apparently ignore their doctors' advice to be active.

Fewer than 40 percent get exercise, a new study found, and the more in danger the patients are, the less likely they are to be active.

That's despite an earlier study that found nearly three-quarters of diabetics said their doctors had advised them to exercise. The patients who got the strongest warnings to get moving were the least likely to listen, according to research being released Friday.

"People should exercise more, that story is out," said Dr. Elaine Morrato, who led both studies. "What we're …

Police: Wal-Mart shooting suspect kills self

Authorities say a suspect the shooting of an elderly couple outside an Arizona Wal-Mart has killed himself after being stopped by police in New Mexico.

Donald Belanger died Tuesday after being pulled over near Albuquerque for driving slowly, New Mexico state police spokesman Peter Olson says.

The 55-year-old Belanger was suspected in a shooting Monday outside a Wal-Mart in Show Low, …

Beijing starts gating, locking migrant villages

The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control.

It's Beijing's latest effort to reduce rising crime often blamed on the millions of rural Chinese migrating to cities for work. The capital's Communist Party secretary wants the approach promoted citywide. But some state media and experts say the move not only looks bad but imposes another layer of control on the already stigmatized, vulnerable migrants.

So far, gates have sealed off 16 …

The Money Tree

While candidates may schmooze or send out direct mail pieces as part of their fund-raising efforts, sometimes they only need to shake the money tree of PACs and 527s, which don't face the same contribution limits (or mortgage payments) that the average donor does.

In 2004, 527s and PACs became more prominent as groups learned to exploit the loopholes of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. High-spending PACs that year included America Coming Together, MoveOn.org and the Media Fund on the left, and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the College Republican National Committee on the right.

While PACs are more limited in their influence (they can only give $5,000 to each …

Cathay Pacific to buy 8 Airbus A330 aircraft to expand fleet; total list price US$1.7 billion

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said Thursday it will buy eight A330 Airbus aircraft with a total basic price of US$1.7 billion (euro1.15 billion) to expand its fleet capacity.

It didn't disclose the actual cost of the planes. Airlines usually receive significant discounts from list prices on large orders.

The Hong Kong-based airline said delivery is scheduled for before the end of …

This & That

PARKER GETS INVITE

Robert A. Black Magnet star Jabari Parker of the Mac Irvin Fire has accepted an invitation to the NBA Players Association Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, Va. Parker, a 6-4 guard/forward, will attend Simeon in the fall.

TOP OF HER GAME

Georgia third baseman Alisa Goler, a former Lincoln-Way East softball star, is one of 25 players nominated for college player of the year. She is one of only three sophomores nominated. Among the 21 seniors nominated are DePaul's Amber Patton and Northwestern's Tammy Williams.

COLEMAN'S PICKS

Recruiting analyst Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com rates five Illinois players among the top 100 in the …

Live 'In the Woods' Show Offers Educational Opportunity

With a mandate to promote education within the forest industry, the PLC show in Oregon gave school kids a good look at career opportunities.

Over 4,000 people attended the live "In the Woods" show put on by the Pacific Logging Congress (PLC) in late September. The 3.5-day event was held on Longview Timber Company's Nehalem Tree Farm near Clatskanie, Ore.

"We were pleased with the turnout, especially the number of students and teachers that attended the event," says Rikki Wellman, the PLC's executive director and one of the main organizers of the show. "We view the show as a great way to promote the forest industry and to educate kids and their teachers about logging and …

G-8 nations express 'strong concerns' about sharp rise in oil prices

The finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations say they have "strong concerns" about the recent dramatic rise in oil prices.

They say the surge in prices of oil, food and other commodities requires cooperation among members to tackle the global challenges.

The G-8 ministers issued a joint statement Saturday at the end of their two-day meeting in …

JOHNSON FAMILY CAN'T FIND NOTE, FLOWERS

JOHNSON FAMILY CAN'T FIND NOTE, FLOWERS

Linda Johnson Rice, president and CEO of Johnson Publishing Co.,issued the following statement in reference to the controversybetween Roland Martin of the Chicago Defender and Oprah Winfreyregarding John H. Johnson's funeral:

"Ms. Winfrey said she sent flowers and a note to the chapel and wehave no reason to question her statement. She called me [Thursday]and explained that she had sent the flowers and a note.Unfortunately, they did not …

Ostrom thanks husband, colleagues for Nobel prize

Elinor Ostrom says it's an honor to be the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics _ and she promises she won't be the last.

Ostrom became the first woman to win the prestigious economic prize on Monday and was honored along with fellow American Oliver Williamson for analyzing economic governance.

Ostrom told reporters at Indiana University that people discouraged her from seeking a Ph.D. when she applied for graduate school but she loved studying economics.

The 76-year-old political scientist says she doesn't know exactly how she will spend her share of the $1.4 million in award money but will invest it in her students and "wonderful" colleagues.

___

On the Net:

http://www.nobelprize.org

London's FTSE-100 index up 46.4 points at 5,667.2

Share prices on the London Stock Exchange closed higher Monday.

The FTSE-100 share index was up 46.4 points, or 0.83 percent, at 5,667.2.

Griffey pays special tribute to race pioneer Robinson

Opening Day was even more special to Seattle Mariners star KenGriffey Jr. this season because it honored Jackie Robinson.

Griffey hit two home runs in a victory against the New YorkYankees, one of which passed over a right-field banner honoring the50th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball.

"Let them stand as my tribute to Jackie," Griffey said. "I'mnot going to try to tell you I tried to do that. I just try to dowhat I can to help this team win. But since they came and I'd liketo have something to mark this game for Jackie, they'll do.""Kenny rises to an occasion as well as anybody I've ever seen,"Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "When adrenaline flows, theconcentration gets sharper. Add the ability factor, and you've got ahell of a mix."FOOD FOR THOUGHT: After the St. Louis Cardinals arrived inMontreal last Sunday, manager Tony La Russa sponsored a get-togetherfor his players at an Italian restaurant.The players all received special National League CentralDivision championship watches, then proceeded to get swept by theExpos in three games."We had such a great season last year, then it ended so abruptlythat we never had a chance to enjoy it and really reward theplayers," general manager Walt Jocketty said.La Russa said he wanted his players to have a tangible reminderof what they had accomplished last season."Some of my best memories are winning division titles in 1983(with the White Sox) and 1992 (with the Oakland Athletics)," he said."But those are just memories. This is something the players can lookat."NOTES: The Cleveland Indians led all teams in merchandise saleslast season, followed by the Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Mariners andWhite Sox.What is holding up a trade involving Los Angeles knuckleballer TomCandiotti is how much of his $3 million salary the Dodgers will pickup.

Bush Urges Nations on Emissions Standrards

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday urged 15 major nations to agree on a global emissions goal for greenhouse gases and to reach a consensus by next year.

With the United States often accused of dragging its feet on combatting climate change, Bush called for a meeting this fall of 15 countries identified as major emitters of greenhouse gases. This list would include the United States, China, India and major European countries.

The president outlined his proposal in a speech ahead of next week's summit in Germany of leading industrialized nations, where global warming is to be a major topic. Bush urged other nations to eliminate tariffs on clean energy technologies.

Germany, which holds the European Union and Group of Eight presidencies, is proposing a so-called "two-degree" target, whereby global temperatures would be allowed to increase no more than 2 degrees Celsius - the equivalent of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit - before being brought back down. Practically, experts have said that means a global reduction in emissions of 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

The United States has rejected that approach.

Stocks Mixed on Credit Worries

NEW YORK - Wall Street traded mixed in volatile trading Monday, with investors jittery about the credit and housing markets and an uneven batch of corporate earnings.

The market remained uneasy, although several companies including drug maker Merck & Co. reported decent third-quarter results. Investors were unhappy with rival drug maker Schering Plough Corp.'s results, and remained mindful of the downbeat profit outlooks from some blue chip companies last week.

Disappointing earnings and Standard & Poor's downgrade of another series of mortgage-backed securities sent stocks plunging Friday, taking the Dow Jones industrials down 366 points.

Over the weekend, the world's economic leaders not only said that calming the turbulent global financial markets will require vigilance, but they also warned of inflation risks - which puts central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve in a tight spot. The Fed lowered interest rates on Sept. 18 to make borrowing cheaper amid a growing credit market crisis, and Wall Street hopes policy makers reduce rates again when they meet next week.

Fed Governor Randall Kroszner at a speech in Washington reaffirmed that the central bank will "act as needed" to calm the financial markets. He also said problems with structured credit products - which dampened the profits at several banks in the third quarter - are recovering, but gradually.

Though the Fed is willing to help boost liquidity, concerns about problems in the financial industry are running high - concerns that make the record highs reached last week by the Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index appear unreasonable.

"It may take a little time here, a week or two, of trying to heal," said Steven Goldman, chief market strategist, Weeden & Co. "As we enter the last two months of year, we have a better opportunity to get back to those levels by year end."

In midday trading, the Dow was off 52.27, or 0.39 percent, at 13,469.75, after falling more than 100 points early in the session.

Broader stock indicators were mixed. The S&P 500 index fell 4.32, or 0.29 percent, at 1,496.31, but the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.94, or 0.29 percent, at 2,733.10, as bargain hunters snapped up tech stocks.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies also rose, adding 0.88, or 0.11 percent, to 799.67.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 652.5 million shares.

Overseas markets were unsettled. In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei stock average declined 2.24 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 3.7 percent. In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.05 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.13 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.38 percent.

Treasury bonds slipped as investors cashed in on Friday's steep gains. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, rose to 4.41 percent from 4.40 percent late Friday.

On Friday - the 20-year anniversary of the Black Monday crash - investors sold off stocks and bought up safer assets like U.S. Treasury bonds as the prospect of a thaw in the frozen credit markets grew dimmer.

The Dow finished last week down 4.05 percent; the S&P 500 index finished down 3.92 percent; and the Nasdaq composite index ended down 2.87 percent.

Most major companies reporting earnings Monday posted solid increases in income, but Schering-Plough Corp.'s profit gain fell short of expectations. The drug maker fell $4.39, or 13.4 percent, to $28.32.

Crude oil futures fell $1.95 to $86.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold also declined, while the dollar rose against most other major currencies, except the yen.

---

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Parker's post-'Sex' life includes 'Family'

NEW YORK -- Gone are the Manolo Blahniks. They've been replaced bypeach satin pumps by some designer that no one can pronounce.

Gone are the three girlfriends riding shotgun. They've beenreplaced by one woman expressing great loathing for Sarah JessicaParker.

Film icon Diane Keaton rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Sheacts. She produces. She has a perfume line. Frankly, it's disgusting.It's vile to me," Keaton says. "I had a little chat with Sarah in thedressing room the other day and said, 'Exactly how much money do youhave?' "

All this talk clearly embarrasses Parker, 40, who recently -- andmuch to her horror -- landed on a list of the wealthiest females ofNew York City.

"I was stunned to be on this list," says the actress, who arrivesfor an interview at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in a flouncy, A-line peachdress and her long hair pulled back in a ponytail. She's a rail inperson, but full of the same spunk and the same voice that became arole model to single women everywhere on "Sex and the City" (1998-2004).

If you believe the rich babes of New York list, Parker couldafford a lot of Jimmy Choos.

"First of all, I don't have $38 million, which is what they said."My God! I worked in cable," she quips.

"I'm well-paid, and I'm not complaining because it's pretty great,compared to what most Americans make who work much harder than me.

"Believe me, I'm aware of my good fortune on a daily basis."

Her good fortune includes a second act. It quickly becomes clearthat Carrie Bradshaw has left the building.

Now she's the "bitch from Bedford" -- uptight, brittle, self-confidence-gone-AWOL Meredith Morton in "The Family Stone," openingFriday. Parker plays a type A, career-driven professional, who is outof her element when brought home to New England for the holidays tomeet her boyfriend's (Dermot Mulroney) eclectic family.

It's hate at first sight.

Parker wasn't worried about shedding her plucky, good-girl imageto play bitchy.

"Believe me when I say that I was very prudent and patient after'Sex and the City' ended," she says. "Playing a bitch was somethingthat was the exact opposite of Carrie. And frankly, I got into itright away. It was a radically different role and one I wasn't surewould come my way again."

Parker wanted to work with Keaton, who is one of her role models.They bonded in the makeup trailer. "They put the ladies of a certainage in the same makeup trailer, so we were together every singlemorning," Parker says.

"Of course, I was there much earlier than Diane. I need themaximum time to look like what you see on the screen. I'd be sittingin the chair bleary-eyed and tired, and Diane would walk in fullydressed with the hat, the glasses, the huge cinch belt, a huge skirtand heels.

"Finally, I said to her, 'How do you do it? I can barely pull onthese jeans,' " Parker says. "Diane replied, 'Well, I've been upsince 4 in the morning with the kids, eating breakfast and startingthe day."

"It only happens because I'm jacked up on coffee," Keaton says.

Parker is jacked up on starting the next chapter of her life, andmovies are her current focus. She just wrapped a romantic comedy withMatthew McConaughey called "Failure to Launch," and in an upcomingproject -- a movie called "Slammer" -- she will play a prisoner atSing Sing who puts together an inmate musical.

Her other focus is her husband of eight years, actor MatthewBroderick, and their 3-year-old son James Wilkie. As for having morechildren, she smiles and says, "We'll see what happens. We have ahealthy, happy, young boy, which is just amazing."

Her secrets to a happy marriage are simple:

"Matthew and I have a sense of humor with each other," she says."We also just like each other. I still think he's the funniest personI've ever known. I find him sexy, attractive and I really love him."

"I still annoy him and he annoys me," she adds. "That's normal.That's marriage."

Ducks Rally to Take Stanley Cup Opener

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Travis Moen helped shut down Ottawa's big three, then scored a goal that trio would have been proud of. Moen, part of Anaheim's primary checking unit, took a pass in the slot from Rob Niedermayer and snapped the puck past Ray Emery with 2:51 left, giving the Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Senators in the Stanley Cup finals opener Monday night.

Moen's fifth of the playoffs came after Ryan Getzlaf's tying goal 11:25 earlier erased the 2-1 lead Ottawa carried into the third period.

In the first matchup of the teams this season, Moen, along with Niedermayer and Samuel Pahlsson, held Ottawa's top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley to two assists and handed the Senators their first series-opening loss in these playoffs.

Mike Fisher staked Ottawa to a 1-0 lead in the first period with a power-play goal, and defenseman Wade Redden also scored on the man advantage in the second.

Andy McDonald scored in the first period for the Ducks, who will look to take a 2-0 lead at home on Wednesday night.

The Senators looked ready to win their first Stanley Cup finals game since the franchise was reborn in 1992, but the Ducks fought back and stole it away. Ottawa lost only one game in each of its other three playoff series and now faces its first deficit.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 18 saves to improve to 10-3 in the playoffs. Getzlaf's goal put the Ducks in a great position : Anaheim is 13-0 in the playoffs when scoring at least twice.

Then Moen put them right where they want to be - ahead in the finals.

Even after grabbing an early lead, Ottawa goalie Ray Emery and the rest of the Senators showed a bit of rust in the first period following an eight-day layoff.

After leaving juicy rebounds and looking a bit unsteady in his crease, Emery bounced back in the second period, stopping all 10 Anaheim shots, including one he grabbed out of the air as it threatened to bound past him.

Redden broke a 1-1 tie in the middle frame, making up for losing the puck in the opening period that led to McDonald's tying goal.

It was nearly enough to give the Senators a win in their first venture out of the Eastern time zone since March. Ottawa fell to 7-2 on the road in the playoffs.

Two sweet Crumb cake, cowboy cookies a pair of desserts to make others pale in comparison

Think back to your own or your children's grammar school days andthe memories might include a favorite teacher's caring face, passingnotes to your best friend, mastering reading or school yard antics.

If you happen to ask Diane Ketchen of Hickory Hills what one ofher favorite memories from her son's school days is, she may saycrumb cake.

Ketchen sent us a recipe for a streusel-topped, sour cream crumbcake that she received from a friend she met during her son's grammarschool days, more than 25 years ago.

Baked in a jelly roll pan, this simple yet elegant, finelytextured cake is irresistible. Serve it warm from the oven and itwill melt in your mouth. Bake it ahead of time and serve it at roomtemperature at your next brunch, family breakfast or dinner.

Judith Neher of Crown Point, Ind., answered a recent request forMargie's Cowboy Cookies, which happens to be one of my all-time-favorite cookie recipes ever. These cookies are chock-full of oats,chocolate chips, flaked coconut and chopped nuts; think of them asToll House cookies on steroids.

Once you try these, you'll never go back to plain chocolate chipcookies again, and if eating raw cookie dough is a guilty secretpleasure, you've found heaven.

Requests

I am looking for a cookies and cream pie recipe like the oneserved at Baker's Square restaurants. It is so good and I have beenunable to find a recipe that even comes close to it. Please help.

N.W., Des Plaines

Does anyone have a recipe for a peanut butter pie? I think it ismade with crunchy peanut butter, cream cheese and whipped cream in apastry crust. Thanks in advance.

T.K., Lockport

I have misplaced my recipe for a bar cookie made with Germanchocolate cake mix and caramel. They are so easy and really good butI can't remember how to make them, please help.

R.J., Chicago

Send recipes and requests to: Swap Shop, Chicago Sun-Times, 350 N.Orleans, 9th Floor, Chicago 60654. All mail must include a daytimetelephone number. Sorry, requests can't be answered personally.

Sour cream crumb cake

MAKES 24 SERVINGS

Batter:

7/8 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sour cream

Streusel topping:

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

7/8 cup butter (1 stick)

To prepare batter: Lightly grease a 10-by-15-inch jelly roll panand set aside. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter andsugar on high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs andvanilla and mix until blended. Stir in flour, baking powder andbaking soda. Add sour cream and mix until well blended. Pour batterinto prepared pan and set aside.

To prepare topping: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and coldbutter with a pastry cutter or two knives and mix until it resemblescorn meal. Sprinkle topping over reserved batter and bake in apreheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until top is lightlybrowned.

Diane Ketchen, Hickory Hills

Nutrition facts per serving: 214 calories, 10 g fat, 6 g saturatedfat, 43 mg cholesterol, 28 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 74 mgsodium, 0 g fiber

Margie's

cowboy cookies

MAKES 4 DOZEN

17/8 cups butter or margarine (3 sticks), at room temperature

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 cups old-fashioned oats

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped nuts

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, whip butter or margarine andsugar on high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, vanillaand salt and beat well.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and baking powder.Slowly add to the creamed butter-sugar mixture and stir until wellblended. Remove from mixer and using a large wooden spoon, stir inoats, chocolate chips, coconut and nuts until well combined.

Line cookie sheets with baking parchment and drop dough, byrounded tablespoonful onto prepared pans, about 2 inches apart. Bakein a preheated 350-degree oven for 7-12 minutes or until light goldenbrown with tiny cracks on top of the cookies.

Nutrition facts per serving: 239 calories, 12 g fat, 6 g saturatedfat, 34 mg cholesterol, 32 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 123 mgsodium, 2 g fiber

Meaty Ideas Fill Menu Of `Fences'

PICKET FENCES: FINAL JUDGMENT (STAR) (STAR) (STAR) (STAR) WBBM-Channel 2, 9 to 10 tonight. `Picket Fences," winner of television's best drama Emmy for the pasttwo years, has been neglected by critics during its third CBS season.

ABC's "NYPD Blue" generated most of the media buzz last season,only to be upset by "Picket Fences" at the Emmy ceremony inSeptember. This year, NBC's "ER" has become the hottest new drama,adored by critics and viewers.

Can the moderately popular "Picket" come from behind again andscore an Emmy threepeat? Does David E. Kelley's quirky creationdeserve to win against "ER," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Law &Order," "The X-Files," "NYPD Blue" and "Chicago Hope," Kelley's newhospital drama?

With tonight's "Final Judgment" episode, writer-producer Kelleyreaffirms the vitality of his strange, confrontational,issue-oriented series. Set in the small, fictional city of Rome,Wis. - where Middle America intersects with "Twin Peaks" - "PicketFences" continues to raise hard questions on hot-button topics.

This season, Kelley's characters have offered eloquent, equallyper suasive arguments for and against court-ordered busing to ensureschool integration, the legal rights of murder suspects and convictedchild molesters, biogenetic experiments involving human fetuses,euthanasia and the existence of God.

"Things in this town are never what they appear," saysexasperated Sheriff Jimmy Brock, a conservative pillar of integrityplayed with strength and conviction by Tom Skerritt. He won the bestactor Emmy for his intelligent, uncompromising work in the first"Picket" season.

In last week's "Without Mercy" episode, Dr. Jill Brock (Jimmy'scompassionate wife) was convicted of manslaughter in a test caseinvolving physician-assisted suicide. At 9 tonight on Channel 2, thedoctor's lawyers move to overturn the jury's verdict on the groundsthat the law against physician-assisted suicide is unconstitutional.An ironic subplot involves serial swan killers roaming through Rome.

Kelley devotes the bulk of "Final Judgment" to the pros and consof the law against euthanasia. Jill could have avoided her arrest bylying about her reasons for increasing the morphine dosage to asuffering man dying of cancer.

"This hypocrisy has gone too damn far," the doctor says. "Whenare we going to start telling the truth?" Now she faces a prisonterm because she told the truth about what she believed to be an actof mercy.

Capturing Jill's fear and indignation as a doctor, mother, wifeand humanitarian, Kathy Baker builds a convincing case for her second"Picket Fences" Emmy for best actress. Kelley gives Baker a movingspeech as Jill makes a closing argument in defense of her action.

"When you're looking into the eyes of a dying man, it's tough toconcentrate on the big societal picture," she tells Judge Henry Bone(Ray Walston). "When a patient begs you for peace, it's hard toprioritize the integrity of the law over the dignity of that man'slife. . . . The law says that I should have let him suffer."

Episodes like "Final Judgment" leave viewers with more than foodfor thought. Kelley's dramas are banquets for the brain. That's why"Picket Fences" still deserves your attention - and the seriousconsideration of Emmy voters.

Aguero says Tevez's problems at City are a 'shame'

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero feels sorry that teammate Carlos Tevez has been unable to settle his differences with manager Roberto Mancini.

"Unfortunately, the club and Carlitos (Tevez) haven't reached an agreement and it pains me, as an Argentine and a teammate, it makes me sad," said Aguero, who is in the Argentina squad for World Cup qualifying matches against Bolivia and Colombia.

Tevez, left out of the Argentina squad, provoked a scandal in September when Mancini believed he refused to come on as a substitute during City's 2-0 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich.

Tevez has insisted he was misunderstood and never refused to play.

"I can't get involved in defending Carlos or the club because I don't know what happened," Aguero said, "Only they know. It's a shame for everyone."

Mancini says he is willing to forgive the striker if he says he's sorry, but Tevez has not yet apologized and hasn't played for City since the incident.

Aguero was in the starting lineup for City's 3-2 win against Queen's Park Rangers on Saturday, with Tevez again absent.

As well as being sidelined by City, Tevez's last match for Argentina was during the 2011 Copa America in July, when he missed a penalty in the 5-4 shootout loss to Uruguay.

Argentina opened World Cup qualifying with a 4-1 home win against Chile, but lost 1-0 at Venezuela in its second match.

Bolivia will visit Buenos Aires on Friday, with Argentina traveling to play Colombia four days later.

Argentine coach Alejandro Sabella has added Boca Juniors duo Agustin Orion and Clemente Rodriguez and Estudiantes pair Rodrgio Brana and Leandro Desabato to the squad for the two matches.

KEEPING TRACKS

Skiing the backcountry, following those who have come before

I'm headed for the Shoulder, a pyramid-shaped, tree-gladed slope on the end of one of the ridges of 13,000-foot-plus Mt. Morgan in the Sierra Nevada. It's a sunny day and it has barely snowed for over a month. Yet the beauty of the Shoulder is that it's north facing - I've skied fresh powder up there weeks after a storm.

I'm crossing the Tamarack Bench and there are ski tracks everywhere, traces of a dozen or more skiers traveling the Bench since our last major storm system. Passing over the parallel lines in the snow gets me thinking of who has been here and where they were going. A dozen tracks roll over and drop off the edge toward slopes that I know are lapped by backcountry skiers staying at the lodge. Other ski tracks - some in pairs, some alone - lead off into the trees. I see a set of tracks that I can tell are old, and I wonder if they're mine from early January.

Ski tracks can be a blessing and a curse. I've often worried, as I'm sure countless skiers have over the years, that they'll betray entrance into some secret powder stash that should be kept hidden. But today, ski tracks give me something else.

I'm looking for my friend Todd's tracks because I know he was at the Shoulder a couple of days before me. I know his tracks will lead me straight to where I want to go.

In a clearing where I can see the granite rim and jagged summits of the western edge of Rock Creek Canyon, I find what I'm looking for. I remove my pack and shove my jacket and gloves inside. I'm sure I've found Todd's tracks because he told me this was his approach. But I can tell by the number of ski pole holes alongside the tracks that more than one person traveled this line, and I also know that about a week before, two guests at our lodge skied the Shoulder. I'm sure that this was their route as well.

Even though I'm alone, I almost don't feel like it. Knowing that Todd and the lodge guests gazed upon the same lodgepole pines, heard the same birds calling and maybe paused to take a closer look at the exposed wood core of a tree for the faded lines of a decadesold carving left by Basque sheepherders gives me the feeling that we're traveling side by side rather than at different places in time. I pretend that they're out of sight, a few hundred yards ahead of me. I imagine that I skied with them yesterday or the day before and they're skiing with me today. It makes the skiing more worthwhile because I feel like Fm sharing my day with someone.

And also the darker side of the traces that we're leaving occurs to me: the betrayal that these marks in the snow could lead to after I'm gone. A few years ago, my friend Jeff and I discovered my own favorite stash outside of Bogus Basin by following a faint set of tracks. They led us into a small bowl, maybe only 400 vertical feet, with a rocky face and rock columns enclosing an hourglass chute that gave the feeling of big mountain skiing, although there is no big mountain skiing anywhere around Bogus. It takes a while to get there and a while to get back, but one dry winter month, I was the only one to ski it. I know because I stopped at the bottom each time and counted the tracks and how many times I'd been out there. When the two numbers matched up, I felt thankful they all belonged to me.

Once I skied out there and discovered an unknown set of tracks winding down the chute and I felt hurt, as if a secret had been revealed. Obviously I had no right, considering it's public land and I was leaving my own set of tracks. But I wonder if I felt that I had no way to connect. Unlike heading up to the Shoulder now, where I can put a name and a face and that gives me a shared experience, that day back at Bogus I was unable to piece together any connection.

The skiing on the Shoulder is uninspiring, but the sun feels good so I climb to the ridge and sit where I can see all of Rock Creek Canyon. The most direct way to leave the Shoulder is to descend the Malorn Tree Gully. It's easy to see it from the top of the Shoulder, but once you drop down, it's difficult to find your way. I've discovered that, while standing on top of the Shoulder, I can draw a line of sight from me over the gulch and off to a sub peak across canyon, and if I head toward that peak, it will lead me into the gulch.

But today I have Todd's tracks to follow. I'm still enjoying the sentiment of sharing my day of skiing with Todd and that somehow he is with me. I drop into a shallow bowl along with Todd's tracks and while gliding across, I see a set of withered tracks like the petrified tracks from earlier in the day on the side hill above. I recall staying high like that my last time coming this way, and I also know this was Todd's first trip through here this season. I calculate in my head that those must be my old tracks as I fly along the flats and I keep dropping toward the Malorn Tree Gully. I'm still following Todd's way, but those old tracks stay high like I remember heading a month ago.

It's me following Todd's tracks, which are following my old tracks. Maybe two days earlier while Todd skied down toward home he figured out to whom those tracks belonged. Maybe while he was following my tracks, Todd was feeling the same way I am feeling now.

Typhoon Nuri lands in Hong Kong

Typhoon Nuri weakened to a severe tropical storm as it landed in Hong Kong on Friday, bringing strong winds and rainfall but inflicting little damage.

No major destruction was reported, unlike in the Philippines, where Nuri killed seven people and triggered landslides and floods in the north.

But with Nuri landing in Hong Kong late Friday afternoon, the Hong Kong Observatory said it had weakened from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm. By late Friday night, the storm was headed northwest toward the southern Chinese city Guangzhou.

In Hong Kong, a man went missing while swimming off a local beach and 11 people were injured during the storm, with three in serious condition, the government said in a statement.

There also were reports of toppled trees, collapsed walls and scaffoldings.

The Hong Kong Observatory issued its second-highest tropical cyclone warning.

Flights, bus and ferry services were canceled, and offices, schools and financial markets were closed. At least 388 passenger flights were either canceled or delayed and another 15 diverted, the government said in a statement.

Officials have evacuated 87,000 people and recalled more than 45,000 vessels in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The bad weather didn't affect the Olympic equestrian competition, which finished late Thursday.

7 rebels, 1 soldier killed in Kashmir

Seven suspected Islamic militants and one Indian soldier died in gunbattles in India's portion of Kashmir this week, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

The rebels have engaged in sporadic fighting with soldiers in India's Jammu-Kashmir state since Monday, said Col. Uma Maheshwar, a spokesman for the Indian army.

Maheshwar said the guerrillas apparently infiltrated Indian territory from across the de facto border with Pakistan and the army was searching for other infiltrators.

A rebel and an army officer were killed in fighting Monday, and six rebels were shot dead Tuesday, he said.

The fighting took place in Tangdar region, roughly 80 miles north of Srinagar, the state capital, Maheshwar said.

There was no independent confirmation of the gunbattle and no rebel group claimed responsibility.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed by both. The two countries have fought two wars over the Himalayan territory since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Rebels have been fighting since 1989 to win Kashmir's independence or have the Indian-controlled two-thirds of the predominantly Muslim Himalayan region merged with Pakistan.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have died since the start of the rebellion.

Asustek's low-priced Eee PC helps boost revenues

A low price laptop product line is helping Taiwan's Asusteck Computer Inc. generate record revenues despite signs of slowing global growth, a senior company executive said Tuesday.

Chief Executive Officer Jerry Shen said the company is expecting revenues will grow 26 percent to US$834.31 million (New Taiwan dollars 27 billion) in September with the prospects for October and November even brighter.

Shen attributed much of the success to Asustek's budget Eee PCs, whose prices range from US$300 to US$1,000.

"The sales of computers, as daily necessity goods, are only slightly affected during a financially turbulent period," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since launching the Eee PCs last year, Asusteck has shipped about 4 million models, according to company officials.

Asustek's success with Eee PCs has already prompted competitors, including Taiwan-based Acer Inc. and U.S.-based Dell Inc., to launch their own low-price laptops.

On Tuesday, Asustek unveiled a new Eee PC model, the S101, aimed at Christmas shoppers in Europe and the United States that costs US$699. The new machine boasts an ultra-thin, ultra-light style. It weighs only 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and is a half-inch (1.8 centimeters) thick.

Asustek stock has lost about 18 percent in the past month _ a drop Shen attributed to the generally pessimistic tone on world markets.

He did however, adopt a cautious attitude about 2009, based on competitors' possible responses to Asustek's continuing dominance in the small laptop market.

"The worst I am expecting is that next year's profit growth might be cut in half if our competitors start to offer ludicrously low prices to attract consumers in a sluggish economy," he said.

Probe Finds E. Coli in Spinach Package

WASHINGTON - The E. coli outbreak spread to two more states Wednesday, and investigators reported finding contaminated spinach in the refrigerator of one victim.

The outbreak has sickened at least 146 people in 23 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person has died and 76 others have been hospitalized, some with kidney failure.

In a break that could help isolate the source of the outbreak, New Mexico's public health laboratory isolated E. coli from an opened package of spinach, the CDC said. Spinach had only been the suspected source of the bacteria, based on interviews with victims.

The package of Dole brand baby spinach came from the refrigerator of a patient who ate some of the leafy greens before becoming ill, New Mexico department of health officials said. The New Mexico laboratory completed "DNA fingerprinting" tests late Tuesday, and state and federal officials then matched it to the strain of the bacteria - E. coli O157:H7 - implicated in the outbreak.

That find could help investigators narrow their hunt for the source of the contamination to a specific producer or processor.

Dole is one of the brands of spinach recalled Friday by Natural Selection Foods LLC, of San Juan Bautista, Calif.

Meanwhile, FDA inspectors began visiting California farms this week, seeking signs of past flooding or cases in which contaminated surface areas had come into contact with crops. They also were looking for potential sources of bacteria inside packing plants.

California produces 74 percent of the nation's fresh spinach crop. The Salinas Valley accounts for roughly three-quarters of the state's share, and it has been the focus of the investigation. The area has links to both Natural Selection Foods and a second company that's also recalled fresh spinach products, River Ranch Fresh Foods of Salinas.

Also Wednesday, Arizona and Colorado joined the list of states reporting E. coli cases.

The other states are California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Wisconsin has reported the most cases, as well as the lone death.

Among those sickened, 71 percent were women. Among those victims who could provide a date, they reported falling sick between Aug. 19 and Sept. 5, according to the CDC.

Officials continued to recommend consumers not eat fresh spinach.

Israeli airstrike kills 5 militants in Gaza, sparking rocket threat from militants

Gaza militants threatened Saturday to fire longer-range rockets and target larger Israeli communities, after five Hamas members are killed in an Israeli airstrike.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group said its engineers are trying to produce local copies of Russian-made 122mm Katyusha rockets, that have a reach of up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) or halfway from Gaza to Tel Aviv.

Israel carries out regular military operations in Gaza, targeting militants launching near-daily rocket barrages into Israel. Its pinpoint airstrikes have intensified in the past week. Some 17 Gaza militants have been killed in strikes or clashes with the army since the US-hosted Mideast conference began Monday in Annapolis, Maryland.

At the meeting, Israel and the Palestinians, in the presence of representatives of nearly 50 states, announced that peace talks would resume after a violent seven-year hiatus.

Hamas and other militant groups have strongly opposed the resumption of peace talks with Israel, saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not have the political legitimacy to speak on behalf of Palestinians. Hamas overtook the Gaza Strip by force in June, leaving Abbas in control of only the West Bank.

Hamas says its current barrage of rocket attacks against Israel has been one of the ways of showing its resistance to peace talks. Over the weekend, four rockets and 15 mortars were launched into Israel, the army said.

Early Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed five Hamas militants near the southern town of Khan Younis. Eight others were wounded, one critically, medical officials said.

Hamas said the men were on a night patrol east of Khan Younis. The army said it carried out the strike after identifying armed men near its border with Gaza.

A senior Hamas official said his group was developing a more lethal type of warhead for the rockets it regularly lobs into Israel, and Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a group allied with Hamas, said his organization had plans to fire longer-range rockets.

"The real barrage of rockets has not yet begun," said Abu Mujahed, whose brother was killed in Saturday's airstrike, adding that "22 kilometers is not the ceiling."

It was an apparent reference to 122mm Katyusha rockets that can hit targets 19 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) away, about twice the range of the thousands of homemade Qassam projectiles that Gaza militants have fired at Israel communities in recent years.

Katyushas are deadlier than the homemade rockets and put larger Israeli communities near Gaza into rocket range. Netivot, a town of 25,000, is 15 kilometers (10 miles) northeast of Gaza, and Ashkelon, a port city where 115,000 Israelis live, is about 12 kilometers (8 miles) away.

Katyusha fire from Gaza has been rare. The Islamic Jihad militant group claims to have fired three Russian-made rockets at Israel since March 2006, and to have "many" in their possession.

Israel estimates that a dozen Katyushas were smuggled into Gaza since it left the strip in September 2005.

Israeli military officials said there has recently been "an improvement in the range and capabilities" of the crude Qassam rocket fire into Israel, adding that militants "have managed to bring in expertise in rocket technology into Gaza."

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

Isaac Ben-Israel, a military expert at Tel Aviv University and a former army general, estimated that militants were continuing to smuggle rockets into the strip.

But Abu Hamza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said the group was developing its own industry aimed at extending its rocket range beyond its current 18 kilometers (12 miles).

"These are not imported rockets, but are homemade. We have developed the size, propellent and warheads in our rockets. We are working to make them go longer than (18 kilometers)," he said. "They have created a balance of terror."

He said the group's Katyusha engineer, Mohammed al-Dahdouh, was killed in an Israeli strike days after they launched a Katyusha in May 2006, but he had trained others who are working on developing the local prototype that has already reached the outskirts of Ashkelon. He said the group now uses Google earth and a compass for greater accuracy.

It's 9,000 or bust for the stock market

Dow Jones hits 4,000: Feb. 23, 1995.

Dow Jones hits 5,000: Nov. 21, 1995.

Dow Jones hits 6,000: Oct. 14, 1996.

Dow Jones hits 7,000: Feb. 13, 1997.

Dow Jones hits 8,000: July 16, 1997.

Worst stock market crash in history: Fill in the date. Something for the natives

Tomorrow is International Day of the World's IndigenousPeople, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 49/124,establishing 1994-2004 as the International Decade of the World'sIndigenous People and Aug. 9 as International Day of the World'sIndigenous People, in accordance with the establishment of theWorking Group on Indigenous Populations of the …

Swedish truckmaker Scania says 4Q profit rose 48 percent; lifts sales forecast

Swedish truck maker Scania AB on Wednesday said fourth-quarter net profit rose 48 percent due to strong sales and raised its revenue forecast for the next two years.

The company said it now expects sales growth for 2007 to 2009 of more than 10 percent, while it had previously forecast growth of around 10 percent. The operating margin is still expected to be between 12 and 15 percent.

Shares in Scania rose 2.3 percent to 134.5 kronor (US$20.86; euro14.3) in Stockholm Wednesday.

Scania earned 2.71 billion kronor (US$420 million; euro288 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, up from 1.82 billion kronor a year earlier. For the full year 2007, …

Republicans revive idea to privatize Social Security.(Front)

By Stephen Ohlemacher

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Most of the top Republicans running for president are embracing plans to partially privatize Social Security, reviving a contentious issue that fizzled under President George W. Bush after Democrats relentlessly attacked it.

As President Barack Obama sidesteps ways to keep the retirement system viable, his would-be rivals are keen on letting younger workers divert part of their payroll taxes into some type of personal account to be invested separately from Social Security.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a version. Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Ron Paul of Texas …

Republicans revive idea to privatize Social Security.(Front)

By Stephen Ohlemacher

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Most of the top Republicans running for president are embracing plans to partially privatize Social Security, reviving a contentious issue that fizzled under President George W. Bush after Democrats relentlessly attacked it.

As President Barack Obama sidesteps ways to keep the retirement system viable, his would-be rivals are keen on letting younger workers divert part of their payroll taxes into some type of personal account to be invested separately from Social Security.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a version. Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Ron Paul of Texas …

Inside politics: The follies

Campaigns & Elections presents its biennial citations and recognitions for amazing achievements and embarrassing blunders along the 1998 campaign trail

Upset of the Year Former pro wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota as the nominee of the Reform Party.

Big U.S. Senate Win of the Year

Cong. Chuck Schumer (D) defeated three-term Sen. Al D'Amato (R) in New York. D'Amato, long viewed as a political survivor who could overcome any adversity to win an election, finally met his match. Runner-up: the victory of wealthy trial lawyer John Edwards (D) over incumbent Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R) in North Carolina.

Big Gubernatorial …

Carols by Candlelight take place at Christ Church Constantia (corner Ladies Mile and Constantia Main Road) 7.30-8.30pm on Tuesday. Refreshments available, or bring a picnic. Entry is R5 for carol sheet and candle. Info: parish office 021 794 5051.

Carols by Candlelight take place at Christ Church Constantia (corner Ladies Mile and Constantia Main Road) 7.30-8.30pm on Tuesday. Refreshments available, or bring a picnic. Entry is R5 for carol sheet and candle. Info: parish office 021 794 5051.

Help the Rural Child Charity Bookshop will be hosting a Christmas Carols, Cookies and late night shopping evening, 6.30pm-8pm on Tuesday, 369 Main Road, Sea Point. Info: 021 434 7393.

The annual sunset Christmas Carols concert at Steenberg takes place on the rolling lawns in front of the hotel 6-8pm on Wednesday. Under the baton of conductor Leon Starker, the 25-piece Cape Town String Ensemble will headline the bill, and the highlight of the evening will be the candle-lit sing-along to traditional Christmas Carols, with all voices raised in unison. Credit card pre-bookings are essential at a cost of R90 per …

CUOMO TO STUMP FOR DUKAKIS GOVERNOR PLANS FUND-RAISER FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.(Main)

Byline: Richard Wexler Capitol bureau

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said Thursday that he will make speeches around the country on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

Cuomo said he also has been asked to work on certain issues for the Dukakis campaign, which he declined to specify, and he said he will hold a fund-raiser for Dukakis.

At a news conference Thursday, Cuomo said that just hours before he was officially nominated for president, Dukakis met privately with him to discuss Cuomo's role in the coming campaign.

About an hour later, Cuomo met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "One of the things we talked about in his room was …

WASTE SITE ACTIVISTS ORGANIZE STUDY U.S. PLAN FOR STATE LOCATION.(Local)

Byline: Associated Press

Environmental activists and a group of citizens met Saturday to plot strategies on a federal plan that would put a low-level radioactive waste site in New York.

About 70 people turned out for the day-long brainstorming session in this Oswego County community near one of 10 sites proposed for the waste site.

"We are not of the NIMBY (not in my back yard) school of thought," said Mary Bartholomew, co-chairman of the Fulton Safe Drinking Water Action Committee, which sponsored the meeting. "We want to work together with other groups statewide to come up with a plan that will be in the best interest of the entire state." …

Pilots eject safely as B-2 stealth bomber plunges to ground on Guam in aircraft's first crash

A B-2 stealth bomber plunged to the ground shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on Saturday, the first time one crashed, but both pilots ejected safely, U.S. Air Force officials said.

The aircraft was taking off with three others on their last flight out of Guam after a four-month deployment, part of a continuous U.S. bomber presence in the western Pacific. After the crash, the other three bombers were being kept on Guam, said Maj. Eric Hilliard at Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii.

At least one B-2 bomber had taken off safely from Andersen Air Force Base but was brought back when another aircraft plunged to the ground.

There were no …

Some waltz through life but never learn to dance

Today's discussion is about faking it.

And when it comes to faking it, guys do it a whole lot more thanwomen.

"I've been faking it for years," says Mike. "And I've hated thedeception. But the truth is, I really can't dance."

Yes, we are talking about the kind of faking it that makes youfeel like the social scourge of the century. We are talking aboutguys like Mike, a perfectly coordinated, perfectly intelligent manwho says, "It's like I have two dunce caps on my feet. None of thiscomes easily to me. And yet I'm real determined this time. BecauseI'm getting married and no way am I starting out my marriage fakinganything."

"That's almost always …

State controlling bodies to develop checking lists for entrepreneurs before October 29.

The Government and state controlling bodies have to adopt a number of measures in connection with approval of amendments and additions to the law on the order of business checks, the press service of the Economic Regulation Ministry said. The Government will have to approve criteria for classification of businesses by degree of risks of their activities for safety of people and environment. The state controlling bodies will have to develop and approve checking lists, to create a database on checks within 6 months after publication of the law. Checking lists will contain …

Schwan Food Co. president/CEO Lenny Pippin to leave company.(People in the News)

Schwan Food Co. announced that President and Chief …

AHL WILL CONTINUE TO EXPAND HORIZONS.(SPORTS)

Byline: MATT GRAVES Staff writer

At age 64, the American Hockey League is alive and well -- and apparently getting bigger and better with age.

Despite the loss of an old friend in the Adirondack Red Wings after last season, the AHL is at an all-time high with 19 teams and will climb to 20 when Norfolk, Va., comes aboard next fall as an affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Louisville began play this year.

The AHL might add as many as two or three more teams for 2001-02, according to David Andrews, the league's president and CEO. Manchester, N.H., is expected to be among the expansion cities for 2001-02.

``We're …

Etched in time: Chattanoogan Lee Reynolds saved canteen inscribed by Marine during bloody WWII fight.

Byline: Matt Wilson

Oct. 8--Chattanooga native Lee Reynolds did not expect to find a piece of history as he performed his routine work detail at Camp Lejune, N.C., more than 40 years ago. Then a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, Mr. Reynolds was carrying an armful of scrapped canteens to the crusher when he noticed something etched into one. "It's not easy to see," he said. "But I saw it was a message and I saved it." The message, scratched into the canteen's metal with a bayonet, a knife or possibly a C-ration can opener, told the story of a soldier in the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima who wanted to get a message to a woman named Betty. "Iwa …

3 killed in Turkish police shootout with militant

A police crackdown on radical groups in Istanbul led to a five-hour shootout with a leftist militant who hurled explosives and opened fire from an apartment building.

Three people were killed and eight others injured, the government said.

The militant attacked police as they closed in on him Monday during a police sweep against leftist, Kurdish and other radical groups operating in the city. Police rounded up more than 40 people in 60 overnight raids, and the governor of Turkey's largest city said the suspects were planning "sensational armed attacks soon."

The gunman identified by the government as Orhan Yilmazkaya, a top member of the …

Combination harvester/forwarder has potential cost advantages for smaller operators and commercial thinning

Last fall's METKO 96 bi-annual Finnish forest equipment machine show unveiled a unique concept in integrated log harvesting and forwarding. Held about 200 km north of Helsinki in early September, METKO '96 featured a combination forwarder/harvester based on a Pika eight-wheel 728T forwarder. This particular model was equipped with a Pika combi head that can be used both as a harvester head and a grapple to load wood on the forwarder bunk.

This double-duty machine is a new concept that is gaining a lot of interest in both Sweden and Finland, with a number of companies working on prototypes. The motivation behind the concept is to reduce the expense of buying and transporting both a …

TACA ADDS JFK FLIGHTS TO GUATEMALA, HONDURAS.

Grupo TACA, the airline of Central America, said May 21 that it will add nonstop service between New York's JFK Airport in New York City and Guatemala City, Guatemala and San Pedro Sula, Honduras starting June 19, 1999. The service will continue through early September 1999. JFK-Guatemala will be served …

Love hurts in '2 Days in Paris'.(Life-Scene)(Movie review)

Byline: ROGER EBERT - Universal Press Syndicate

I once gave flowers to a French girl and was told they were "flagrant." When Marion, the character played by Julie Delpy in "2 Days in Paris," makes mistakes like that, she knows what she's doing. Her relationship with her lover, Jack, is coming apart at the seams. The movie covers the end of a European vacation that was intended to mend their relationship but the holiday has gone badly. Sometimes when you want to know, really know somebody, you find out that actually you'd rather not.

Jack (Adam Goldberg) had a bad time in Venice. How can that be? Was it Woody Allen who said the worst sex he ever had wasn't …

P-I-S-T-A-C-H-I-O WINS WAKILEH A SPELLING BEE.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: Kathleen Dooley

Abdallah Wakileh spelled ``pistachio'' to become the 1994 RegionalSpelling Bee champion at Proctor's Theatre last month. He is a seventh-grader at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Middle School. By spelling the word correctly, Wakileh earned the right to represent the Capital Region at the National Spelling Bee in Washington May 29-June 4.Peter Bryce of Amsterdam, a sixth-grader in the Amsterdam City School District, was runner-up. Michael Lapetina, a Shaker Junior High School seventh-grader; Jiwoo Park, an eighth-grader at Van Antwerp Middle School; and Megha Padi, an Iroquois Middle School seventh-grader; were also regional winners.

…

South Korea on high alert for more cyber attacks

Seoul was on high alert Thursday for more cyber attacks amid suspicions that North Korea was behind a recent wave of Web site outages in South Korea and the United States. The South warned that computer networks of key infrastructure could be targeted.

The National Intelligence Service said in a statement it was strengthening cyber security measures for government computer networks, citing a possible new wave of attacks that could target national infrastructure operators like energy, telecommunications and media companies.

Earlier Thursday, the country's leading computer security company also warned another wave of attacks was expected in South Korea later in the day. There …

NU recruit Koszyk hasn't made grade

The item was buried at the end of a recent Northwestern footballstory in the Sun-Times. But it leaped off the page.

"(Former Hinsdale South lineman) Jason Koszyk will deferadmission to Northwestern for a year to shore up his grades at acommunity college."

Is that the same Jason Koszyk who scored 29 on his ACT and 1,310on his SAT? Weren't his test scores better than any other member ofcoach Gary Barnett's incoming freshman class? Why does he have to"shore up" his grades at a junior college?Koszyk, a 6-6, 260-pounder, blames nobody but himself."It was a situation where certain things were expected and noteverything went as planned," he said. "It was my doing. …

University of Colorado Researchers Find First Definitive Evidence for Ancient Lake on Mars.

Byline: University of Colorado, Boulder

BOULDER, Colo., June 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- A University of Colorado at Boulder research team has discovered the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars, an indication of a deep, ancient lake there and a finding with implications for the discovery of past life on the Red Planet.

Estimated to be more than 3 billion years old, the lake appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep -- roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said CU-Boulder Research Associate Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study. The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, …

REPORT TELLS NEW YORK HOW TO SAVE MILLIONS ON ELECTRICITY.(BUSINESS)(Correction notice)

Byline: JULIE CARR SMYTH Business writer

ALBANY -- New York could save $72 million and create 77,000 new jobs by 2010 by implementing the right energy efficiency policies as it deregulates, according to a new study released Tuesday.

Energy bills in the state could fall by as much as 27 percent through efficiency measures implemented by businesses, individuals and utilities, reported the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an independent, Washington-based group.

Air pollution, meanwhile, could be reduced by 29 percent of what is expected by 2010.

Report co-author Steven Nadel said that $27 billion would have to be invested to …

Photos of North Korean leader add to uncertainly

The first photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il released in two months show him in a setting very similar to photographs from August.

And the verdant background looks more like summer than autumn, adding to uncertainty about Kim's health after reports he underwent brain surgery.

North Korea released the undated still photos and video frame grabs Saturday accompanying a report by North Korean television that Kim visited a military unit. They were the first photos of Kim published since Aug. 14; and in both sets of pictures he wears his trademark dark sunglasses and a khaki jumpsuit.

"They didn't appear to have been taken recently," Kim …