Bundesliga scrambles to make antitrust deal to save lucrative TV deal

The Bundesliga scrambled Sunday to find solutions to an antitrust ruling that could threaten the finances of smaller clubs by blocking a lucrative broadcast deal.

The Federal Cartel Office in Bonn ruled Thursday that highlights from the six games each Saturday must be available to show on free television shortly after the final whistle _ jeopardizing a euro3 billion (US$4.72 billion) six-year deal with pay-TV channel Premiere for exclusive rights.

The Bundesliga and Premiere hope to placate the antitrust agency with a new proposal, German media reported Sunday.

"This decision has serious consequences for the whole league and especially for …

911 tape of Calif. toy store shooting released

PALM DESERT, Calif. - A 911 recording reveals the sounds ofshoppers screaming during a shootout between two men at a toy storein Southern California.

The tape was released by the Riverside County Sheriff'sDepartment Tuesday.

The …

Economists optimistic about outlook

Economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City say the Kansas and Missouri economies stayed on stride during the past year, enabling the region to gain a modest lead on the nation. And the regional and national economies look forward to another solid year in 1996.

The economists, Alan Barkema and George Kahn, assistant vice presidents, and William Keeton, senior economist, addressed banking, business and community leaders during a series of eight economic forums conducted in Kansas and Missouri.

Barkema, in discussing the regional economic outlook, said that while the pace in the U.S. economy slowed, the Kansas and Missouri economies stayed on stride, enabling the …

Obama uses humor at White House summit

Add another job description to Barack Obama's title: facilitator in chief.

The president presided over a White House fiscal summit Monday, and showed his hand as both a policy wonk and a gracious host _ to allies and adversaries alike.

Easygoing though always in charge, Obama melded serious talk about ways to control the exploding federal deficit with frequent doses of humor and familiarity. That mix provided moments of levity that defused what could have been a tense session of finger-pointing between Republicans and Democrats on a painfully dry subject _ fiscal policy.

By Washington's stuffy standards, it was a rollicking good time.

…

Reality TV adventurers to relive Branson trips

NEW YORK -- As Donald Trump basks in the popularity of NBC's "TheApprentice," the Fox network has announced that Virgin Group'sRichard Branson will be leading a group of young entrepreneurs on aglobal journey.

"Branson's Big Adventure," the working title of the show, will airlater this year, the network said.

The show will feature "a select group of America's …

Boone authorities still investigating fatal crash

Daily Mail staff

Boone County Sheriff's Department officials say they are waitingon blood tests and other evidence to be processed before heading to agrand jury in the case of an Ashford man who died in a head-on crash.

Sheriff Rodney Miller had said criminal charges were to be filedin the case.

Miller said Monday that charges would most likely be decided by agrand jury.

The two-vehicle crash took place shortly after 5 a.m. March 19 onRoute 3 near Foster.

James L. Morgan, 41, of Ashford was killed while traveling west inhis 1987 Ford Ranger pickup.

His truck was hit head on by a 2003 Ford pickup truck traveling.

According to police …

High Court to Announce Opinions Tuesday

The Supreme Court meets Tuesday morning to issue opinions in cases that were argued in the fall and to hear oral arguments.

The justices, who grappled …

Whole lotta store

The third-largest Whole Foods store in the world opens May 20 in Lincoln Park, introducing Chicagoans to a riverwalk, seven neighborhood-themed eateries, mix-and-match cookie and trail-mix stations, and express checkout lanes with a screen directing shoppers to the next open cashier.

"We asked, 'What do we want this store to be?' We decided we wanted it to reflect all of Chicago in one place," said Rich Howley, store team leader, during a store tour for the Sun-Times.

The new 75,000-square-foot store at Kingsbury and Sheffield is two blocks south and more than double the size of the neighborhood's existing Whole Foods store at 1000 W. North Ave. that it will …

TRUE CRIME

This is the place, Boise, Idaho.

We live here ... we're Boiseans.

The stories you are about to read are true.

NAMPA COPS TO DRAW BLOOD IN DUI STOPS

If anybody out there needs another reason not to drink and drive, how about needlewielding cops?

That's right. Nampa Police Department patrol officers are undergoing phlebotomy training. That's a class in which they learn to draw blood.

It's part of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program to test whether drawing the blood of allegedly impaired drivers who refuse breath tests will help cut the number of DUI cases that make their way to court. A second test is being conducted in …

Invoking history, White House asks judge to stay out of subpoena fight

If there is one thing Congress and the Bush administration can agree on, it is that they have got a fight of historic proportions on their hands.

The House Judiciary Committee is demanding documents and testimony from President George W. Bush's closest advisers about the firing of federal prosecutors.

When the White House refused, the Democrat-led committee went to court. Lawyers called the president's actions the most expansive view of presidential authority since Watergate.

Late Friday night, the Bush administration responded with court documents of its own, similarly steeped in history. Lawyers called the lawsuit unprecedented. Citing former …

Online retailers make push for late Christmas shoppers

It's crunch time for online retailers aiming to meet their salesgoals for the holiday season.

A survey of more than 100 online retailers released Wednesdayshowed that 28 percent plan to guarantee Christmas Day delivery foritems ordered with standard shipping on Dec. 20 or, in some cases, aday or so later, according to the Online Holiday Mood Study. Thestudy was conducted Dec. 6-7 by BizRate.com, a Web ratings site, andShop.org, an online retail trade association and a division of theNational Retail Federation.

The merchants plan to meet their ambitious delivery goals bybeefing up their work forces and their shipping programs.

"Online retailers are turning their …

Girlfriend to Girlfriend: Everyday Wisdom and Affirmations From the Sister Circle

Girlfriend to Girlfriend:

Everyday Wisdom and Affirmations

From the Sister Circle

by Julia A. Boyd

Plume, October 1999,135 pp., $10.95 ISBN 0-452-27392

Wisdom with pizzazz! A collection of heartwarming affirmations, prayers, and quotes contributed by African American …

England to host Australia to assist Fijian rugby

England has canceled a match against financially struggling Fiji and will instead host Australia at Twickenham on Nov. 7

The Rugby Football Union announced the move Wednesday in a bid to strengthen the financial position of rugby in Fiji. A "significant portion" of the estimated 7 million-pound ($11.5 million) surplus from the Australia game will be funneled directly into Fijian rugby.

The deal allows Fiji to continue with its planned tests against Ireland and Scotland and replace the game against England on Nov. 28 with a test in the United States.

Australia has also confirmed it will host Fiji on June 5 next year, a week before England begins a two-test series.

The schedule change was approved by the International Rugby Board as part of a global package of measures designed to support Fijian rugby.

The team has lost the backing of its major sponsor, Flour Mills of Fiji, and recorded a financial loss last year of 770,000 Fiji dollars ($367,000).

"Moving around our autumn schedule is not ideal but to be able to offer Fiji substantive support we needed to find a multi-union approach," RFU chief executive Francis Baron said. "Playing a test against Australia in replacement for the Fiji Test will allow us to generate additional revenue to provide meaningful financial support to the Fiji Rugby Union as part of the global package."

Australia will now embark on a tour in November, with fixtures against Grand Slam champion Ireland, Scotland and Wales to follow the Twickenham clash with England.

United looks to extend lead in Premier League

LONDON (AP) — With second-place Arsenal not in Premier League action this weekend, Manchester United can increase its lead at the top of the standings with wins at Wigan and fading rival Chelsea in a four-day span.

United's cushion is down to one point following Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Stoke on Wednesday, but the Gunners face a 10-day break from league play, allowing their northwest rivals an opportunity to take advantage.

Faced with the prospect of going seven points clear, United must beat a Wigan team battling to avoid relegation before turning its attention to Chelsea, whose focus now is qualifying for next season's Champions League rather than defending its title.

Arsenal will look to end its six-year trophy drought when it plays Birmingham in the League Cup final on Sunday, but will have one eye on developments in the Premier League title race.

The Gunners, who have played one game more than United, need Alex Ferguson's side to start slipping — so far, it has lost just once in the league.

"We have some massive games coming up," United winger Nani said. "The next few weeks are going to be very important for us.

"We are focused on winning every game because we know the results in the next few matches could prove decisive."

Wigan is third from bottom in the standings, but is unbeaten in its last three league games and halted Liverpool's upward surge with a 1-1 draw at Anfield in its last match.

"We will go into the game believing we can be better than them on the day," said Wigan left back Manuel Figueroa ahead of Saturday's game.

"After the last three league games, our confidence is high and instead of worrying ourselves with league positions, we're focusing instead on our own performances, which been the key."

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti all but conceded the title after his team's 0-0 draw at Fulham last week but a victory over United on Tuesday, which would leave the Blues nine points off the lead, could alter his view.

"If we want to put in a charge for the Premier League then we must beat Manchester United," Chelsea captain John Terry said. "A draw is no good and obviously losing is no good at all.

"We will go into the game with no fear, plenty of passion and being able to put pressure on them will be great. We have been there, we have seen it, done it and we have got the T-shirt. We have got a lot of experience and trust in one another and belief that we can still do it. That's a testament to ourselves."

Manchester City is eight points adrift of its cross-town rival after losing the Manchester derby 2-1 on Feb. 12 and, like Chelsea, will now be concerned about preserving its place in the top four.

On Sunday, City hosts Fulham, whose run of one defeat in seven league matches has lifted the team four points clear of the relegation zone. The London club also has a superb record at the City of Manchester Stadium, having lost just once since City moved there in 2003.

Fourth-place Tottenham has the weekend off, so resurgent Liverpool can move five points behind Harry Redknapp's side by beating second-bottom West Ham in Sunday's other match.

There are four other matches on Saturday, with last-place Wolverhampton Wanderers hosting Blackpool, fifth-bottom Aston Villa at home to Blackburn, Sunderland at Everton and Bolton traveling to Newcastle.

Stoke hosts fourth-bottom West Bromwich Albion in Monday's match.

Arsenal could be without a number of important players for the trip to Wembley.

England winger Theo Walcott is out with a sprained ankle while captain Cesc Fabregas (hamstring), striker Robin van Persie (hamstring) and defender Laurent Koscielny (back) are all doubts.

Fabregas was forced off after 14 minutes of the win against Stoke but said he would try his hardest to prove his fitness.

"I don't know if I'll make Sunday or not, but all I know is that from this moment to Sunday I won't sleep if it's necessary," the Spain midfielder posted on his Twitter account. "I've waited too long to captain a final for Arsenal and I won't give up till the last second."

The Gunners' last trophy came in 2005, when they beat Manchester United on penalties to win the FA Cup.

The 1963 League Cup is the only piece of major silverware in Birmingham's history.

Industrial production flat in Oct.; factories hum

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories renewed hopes that they can be an engine of economic growth as they revved up production of big-ticket goods for consumers and businesses in October.

Overall production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities was unchanged last month — but that was only because of a sharp drop in utility output due to warmer-than-normal weather, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday.

The key manufacturing sector gained 0.5 percent in October, led by increased output of long-lasting goods such as autos, appliances and business equipment.

The Fed also revised September's factory production to a 0.1 percent gain, boosted by steel, machinery and chemical producers. Earlier reports had said factory output fell 0.2 percent that month.

Factories are the largest single component of industrial production. They helped lead the economy out of recession but have grown more slowly in recent months. October's solid gain eased fears that the manufacturing recovery could stall, weighing down the broader economy.

The report shows that manufacturing will grow faster than the broader economy through 2013, said Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist at the trade group Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI. Meckstroth said demand for factory goods is growing overseas, while U.S. consumers and businesses still are making purchases that they put off during the recession.

"Strong growth in the third quarter just confirms that the fourth quarter will be strong as well," Meckstroth said. "People have been postponing auto purchases and furniture purchases, and I don't think you've scratched the surface on (demand from) business equipment spending and exports."

Production by utilities fell by 3.4 percent in October, as warm weather eased demand for electricity and gas heat. Mines produced 0.1 percent less.

U.S. industry operated at 74.8 percent of its capacity in October, unchanged from September.

Factory production is still 9.2 percent below its pre-recession peak in Dec. 2007, Meckstroth said. He said the manufacturing sector shrank more than the broader economy during the recession, so it must grow more quickly to recover from the bust.

Mexico grows, with migrants' numbers falling

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's census shows the population has grown more quickly than expected, in part due to a drop in the number of people leaving to seek work.

Preliminary data released Thursday by the National Institute for Statistics and Geography says Mexico had 112.3 million inhabitants as of July. That was 3.6 million more than experts had projected.

The head of the institute, Eduardo Sojo, says the bigger-than-expected increase was likely due to a rise in births and a fall in migrants leaving the country.

Sojo says Mexico had been losing about 500,000 people a year to international migration but that number has likely fallen by about half. The global economic crisis, particularly the U.S. slump, has cut into the jobs available for migrants.

Wednesday TV

VILLAGE SOS (BBC1, 8pm). Sarah Beeny has just made her biggestmove to date - this series sees her relocating from Channel 4 toBBC1. It isn't just a simple matter of her fronting another showabout would-be developers for a different broadcaster either.Instead, Village SOS finds her following an ambitious project. TheBig Lottery Fund has offered six villages a lifeline in the form ofa six-figure sum to help start rural businesses. But Sarah findsthat even with the help of a village champion - an outside businessexpert willing to abandon their old life for a good cause and ahoped-for army of volunteers, the schemes still face hugechallenges.

Gang violence stuns Canada's Olympic city

With its spectacular bay and stunning, snowcapped peaks, Vancouver ranks as one of the world's most beautiful cities. But in recent months, the people of Canada's Olympic city have been living in fear.

Even as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games, its crime rate is going up. Since January alone, there have been 45 shootings in the region, 17 of them fatal. There were 58 murders last year in this region of 2.7 million people, up from 41 the year before, according to the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

"It's terrifying," says Doris Luong, who lives near the scene of a double murder on March 10. "This used to be the best city in the world... I fear for my children." At a nearby elementary school, students' movements were immediately restricted as word of the killings spread.

The root of the problem seems to be drugs, or rather a shortage of them.

The Mexican cocaine supply line extends through the United States, especially Los Angeles, up to Vancouver, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Pat Fogarty. But now the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to curb cartel activity. That has driven up the price of cocaine in Vancouver from $23,300 per kilogram to almost $39,000, Fogarty says, and gangs are killing each other.

"People are nervous ... and so are the police," says Fogarty, head of the regional gang task force. "The public's outraged. The government's outraged."

Vancouver social activist Jamie Lee Hamilton, who lives in Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside, says she no longer has much faith in the justice system.

"I'm really apprehensive about going out in the evening," Hamilton says. "We've turned into an American city."

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan recently called Vancouver the country's gang capital, and said the violence is the worst in Canada. Canada's largest city, Toronto, has seen only 11 murders this year in a population of 5.1 million, almost double that of the Vancouver region.

On a visit to Vancouver earlier this month where he met with family members of victims, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed a new law that would label gang killings as first-degree murder with a sentence of at least 25 years and no parole. The law would also create a new offense with a minimum four-year jail term for drive-by shootings.

Harper has said people planning to attend the Winter Games should not worry about violence, with 15,000 police officers, private security and military personnel expected to provide security.

But shopkeeper Nandal Oad disagrees. He says nobody should feel safe coming to the Games.

Oad's suburban convenience store is just across the street from where shots were fired over morning rush-hour traffic March 10, leaving two brothers aged 19 and 22 dead. The violence has spread far beyond the city's notoriously drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

Oad says he has removed a wire cash transfer business from his store because of the violence. Police warned him weeks earlier of people carrying guns in the neighborhood, and he believes unemployment and addiction are fueling the violence. The unemployment rate in British Columbia jumped to 7.25 percent in February, up from 4.4 percent last February.

"It's very, very scary," Oad says. "We can't carry money here."

In one particularly brazen shooting last month, a mother was shot dead in her husband's luxury vehicle in broad daylight as her 4-year-old sat in the back seat. Hundreds turned out to protest gang violence last month after the string of shootings.

Local authorities say they have stepped up actions to curb the gangs and their violence. Police announced the arrests of 10 gang members recently, and four more were arrested on drugs and weapons offenses earlier this month.

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu acknowledged the city is in the middle of a "brutal'" gang war, and said the strategy is to detain gang members on as many charges as possible. However, some of those arrested are being released on bail by the courts.

Vancouver's mayor, Gregor Robertson, has offered his own blunt assessment: Police are fighting a losing battle.

Vancouver may in part be paying the price for some of the very features that help make it so attractive. Rob Gordon, director of the criminology school at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, noted that the city has a laid-back attitude, easy access to the U.S. border and a vast backcountry with a climate ripe for growing potent marijuana. Police say British Columbia marijuana, known as B.C. bud, is often traded for cocaine, and Vancouver is known for marijuana grow-ops, or growing operations.

"Vancouver has become a safe place in which to grow and produce a variety of drugs," Gordon said. "It's a combination of our geography, a somewhat more laid-back approach to drugs and drug use, and the proximity to the border, easy export routes primarily to the United States_ I can't think of any other city in Canada that shares those characteristics."

The Irish model

Off the record

Strangely enough, we always seem to need to be inspired by one economic model or another. In the 1980s, all eyes were fixated on Japan. After that, attention turned to New Zealand and its fight to reduce the deficit. And now it's Ireland's turn to be held up as a shining example of a dynamic economy. Yet we all know how these earlier successes ended. Japan has since sunk into a recession, while New Zealand, with a return to social democracy, has had some trouble staunching the wounds left by the new liberalism. As for Ireland, which recently came under fire from the European Commission, we will have to wait and see.

The Irish experience is regularly held up as an example by Quebec's traditionally interventionist government. The Emerald Isle, to paraphrase eminent Quebec economist Pierre Fortin, has experienced the most spectacular turn-- around of the decade. Indeed, it has become a genuine source of inspiration. And not only in Quebec; Industry Canada has ordered studies of Ireland as well. Closer to home, Ontario has begun to study Quebec to find out how the province has been able to more effectively diversify its industry and position itself as a world leader in aeronautics, multimedia and biopharmaceutics.

However, Ontario could run into problems if it plans to use the "Quebec model." There's no sure-fire recipe. It all depends on dialogue between the labour market, government and business, as well as a sense of urgency - two ingredients Ontario lacks.

Quebec, like Ireland, has long felt the need for a vigorous, aggressive industrial policy. For decades, Ireland has played the trump card of a 10% corporate tax. Suffering from the confusion created by the unrest in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic did not have any other choice if it wanted to attract businesses to its shores. Quebec, too, has long been forced to offer tax incentives to companies that would be more inclined to head next door to Ontario.

Today, fortified by powerful economic levers such as the Caisse de dep6t et placement, Mouvement Desjardins and the Fonds de solidarite des travailleurs FTQ, and by an industrial policy based on tax credits and partnerships with private enterprise, Quebec has little reason to envy Ireland - apart from its record 10% growth and 4.1% unemployment rate.

To achieve these results, Ireland opted for low corporate taxes and pay restraints, as reflected in national wage and income tax agreement. It also counted on a free education system, a hospitable industrial policy, grants and free trade. And let's not forget its membership in the European Union. Its adoption of the euro alone enabled it to do away with high interest rates and benefit from the convergence to German rates, which are currently among the lowest in Europe.

But the price to pay for all of this is an inflation rate of 4.6% (the highest in the euro zone and far from the European Central Bank's 2% objective), as well as a manpower shortage, and an overuse of resources, which has led to wage pressures and problems of demand over supply.

Not only will Ireland's economy have to absorb wage increases of close to 26% over a three-year period, but the government has also promised to introduce a minimum wage. Unable to depend any longer on the powerful lever of a monetary policy, Ireland now finds itself at a crossroads, armed only with one of the loosest fiscal policies in Europe. The Irish government doesn't have many options left, as illustrated by the fact that it had no alternative in its last budget but to reduce sales and gas taxes to curb inflation. These measures will increase the average disposable income, which should rise by 3% in 2001, and trigger an 8.5% increase in private consumption. Lastly, Ireland is under pressure from the European Commission in Brussels to adopt a tighter fiscal policy and submit to European Union discipline.

Ireland is an example that, like many others, may one day be looked upon as a passing trend or a special case because of the times or its geographic location. Yet, the current Quebec government insists on frequently citing Ireland and the European Union as models. In light of the above, is this such a good idea?

[Sidebar]

With its powerful monetary lever now gone, the Irish government has few options left

[Author Affiliation]

Gerard Berube is editor of the Economie et finance section of the newspaper Le Devoir in Montreal.

WORLD at 1000GMT

NEW THIS DIGEST:

CAMBODIA-KHMER ROUGE. Former Khmer Rouge appeals detention.

G-8-BUSH AND FRIENDS. Bush's final G-8 may be harmonious.

AUSTRALIA-DOWNER. Former FM Downer quits politics.

RWANDA-MEMORIAL TOURS. Visitors can tour genocide sites.

TOP STORIES:

COLOMBIA-HOSTAGES

BOGOTA, Colombia _ Ingrid Betancourt woke up, as always, at 4 a.m., for another numbing day in her seventh year as a rebel captive. Then she was told to pack _ helicopters were coming. The sound always gave her dread, but this time, she and 14 other hostages _ including three Americans _ were lifted to freedom in an audaciously "perfect" operation involving military spies who tricked the rebels into handing over their prize hostages without firing a shot. Moved. By Frank Bajak.

WITH: FRANCE-COLOMBIA-BETANCOURT

WITH: US-COLOMBIA-US HOSTAGES

INDONESIA-TERROR ARRESTS

JAKARTA, Indonesia _ Anti-terror police arrest 10 suspected Muslim militants and seize a large cache of high-powered bombs, foiling a major attack targeting Westerners in the Indonesian capital. Moved. By Niniek Karmini. AP Photos.

CAMBODIA-KHMER ROUGE

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia _ Cambodia's genocide tribunal hears an emotional plea from the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, who asked to be moved from his pretrial confinement in its jail because of ill health. Moved. By Ker Munthit. AP Photos.

US-AFGHANISTAN

WASHINGTON _ Grappling with a record death toll in an overshadowed war, President George W. Bush promises to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan by year's end. He concedes that June was a "tough month" in the nearly 7-year-old war. Moved. By Ben Feller. AP Photos.

G-8-BUSH AND FRIENDS

WASHINGTON _ The issues are as difficult as ever, but the conditions are likely to be more conducive to agreement as President George W. Bush attends his eighth and final economic summit of industrial democracies. The annual Group of Eight meeting, which begins Monday on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, comes amid economic turmoil in most of the member nations, as well as political uncertainty for many of the leaders. Moved. By Tom Raum.

WITH: GERMANY-CLIMATE SCORECARDS

MONGOLIA-ELECTION

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia _ Smoke hangs in the air as people sweep up in Mongolia's capital on the second day of a state of emergency imposed after at least five people died in rioting sparked by allegations of election fraud. Moved. By Christopher Bodeen. AP Photos.

US-ELECTIONS

WASHINGTON _ John McCain denies claims by a Republican colleague that he had roughed up an associate of Nicaragua's leftist president two decades ago. Barack Obama promotes public service programs for Americans. Moved. AP Photos.

WITH: US-MCCAIN-STAFF

WITH: COLOMBIA-MCCAIN

AUSTRALIA-DOWNER

ADELAIDE, Australia _ Alexander Downer announces he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade. Moved. AP Photo.

ARGENTINA-DIRTY WAR SUSPECT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina _ An ex-navy captain has been charged with the 1977 kidnapping of a prominent journalist during Argentina's former dictatorship, but the Supreme Court denies a request to extradite a former president to face similar charges in Germany. Moved. By Nicholas Kusnetz.

RWANDA-MEMORIAL TOURS

KIGALI, Rwanda _ Visiting places famous for death is nothing new. You can tour the Nazi concentration camps of Dachau in Germany and Auschwitz in Poland, or the killing fields of Cheong Euk, Cambodia. Now Rwanda has become another destination where visitors can bear witness to the mass slaughter of innocents. Macabre memorial sites scattered throughout the country mark the horrific genocide in 1994 when extremist Hutus slaughtered more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. By Jody Kurash. AP Photos.

BUSINESS & FINANCE:

OIL PRICES

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia _ Oil soars to a record above US$145 a barrel in Asia, fueled by concerns over a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. stockpiles and the threat of conflict with Iran. Developing. By Eileen Eng. AP Graphic.

CHINA-CURRENCY CONTROLS

BEIJING _ Beijing is tightening financial controls on trade to curb multibillion-dollar flows of speculative "hot money" into China that regulators say could fuel inflation, the government announces. Moved. By Joe McDonald.

JAPAN-MARKETS

TOKYO _ Japan's key stock index extends its sell-off to an 11th straight session _ its longest slide in 54 years. Moved.

___

YOUR QUERIES: Contact your local AP bureau, the Europe & Africa Desk in London at +44 207 427 4300 or the Asia-Pacific Desk in Bangkok at +66 2632-6911.

Popular mayor nominated as Romania's new PM

A mayor from a small political party was nominated on Wednesday to be Romania's new prime minister following the collapse of the country's government.

Klaus Johannis, mayor of the central city of Sibiu, held talks with the Social Democrats, the Liberal Party and the party that represents the interests of Romania's 1.4 million ethnic Hungarians. Together, the parties have a comfortable majority in parliament.

They sent the nomination to President Traian Basescu who needs to make an official proposal to Parliament which will then vote on it.

Given the political infighting and economic crisis that brought down Romania's government, the parties that nominated Johannis see it as a plus that his small party has never had a member of Parliament, and that his region of the country _ Transylvania _ is considered more Western-oriented in its outlook than other areas.

Before meeting with political leaders to discuss the nomination, Basescu said he wants a government of` "national unity" or one formed of mainstream politicians. He did not rule out Johannis, but only if his Cabinet ministers would be from main political parties.

Basescu added that he did not want a shaky government that would last only until Romania's Nov. 22 presidential elections. Earlier in the day, the president met with European Union ambassadors. Romania joined the EU in 2007.

Johannis, 50, told reporters he would prefer a government of nonpolitically aligned ministers and would reduce the size of the Cabinet. He said he was politically independent but would name ministers after consulting with the political parties that nominated him.

Romania's minority centrist government led by Prime Minister Emil Boc fell Tuesday after he lost a confidence motion in Parliament. Boc will continue to be prime minister, with limited powers, until a new government is approved by Parliament.

Commentators said that Johannis enjoys wide political and public support because he is an ethnic German and not a member of any of the mainstream parties. He is viewed as being removed from the bitter political feuding that has engulfed Romania in recent years.

Johannis is seen as having a West European approach in his management style. Sibiu was named the European cultural city of the year in 2007, and local authorities have been praised for the refurbishment of the old city center.

Meanwhile, concerns about political instability affecting Romania's agreement with the International Monetary Fund continued.

Romania's IMF representative, Mihai Tanasescu, said a delegation would arrive in Bucharest next week to determine whether the country _ which is suffering a recession _ can keep its agreement with the IMF, which gave it a $17.1 billion loan to help pay public salaries and pensions. The IMF is concerned that instability could lead to Romania being unable to meet a budget deficit of 5.9 percent.

Johannis, a former physics teacher and school inspector, was first elected mayor of Sibiu in 2000 and has been re-elected twice. In the last 2008 ballot, he received more than 80 percent of the vote. Johannis heads the Democratic Forum of Germans, a small centrist party devoted to the interests of Romania's 60,000 ethnic Germans. The party has never been represented in the Romanian parliament.

Officials: Suicide bombs kill 35 on Moscow subway

Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 30, the city's mayor and other officials said.

Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Chumikova said 23 people were killed at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.

A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later. Chumikova said at least 12 were dead there.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said both explosions were believed to have been set off by female suicide bombers as the trains entered the stations. In the first case, officials said the explosion was on the train; there was no immediate information on the location of the second blast.

"The first data that the FSB has given us is that there were two female suicide bombers," Luzhkov told reporters at the Park Kultury site.

Russia's top investigative body also said terrorism was suspected.

The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.

Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels and suspicion in Monday's explosions is likely to focus on them and other separatist groups in the restive North Caucasus region.

The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around 7 million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.

The blasts practically paralyzed movement in the city center as emergency vehicles sped to the stations. Helicopters hovered over the Park Kultury station area, which is near the renowned Gorky Park.

Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over "This is how we live!"

At least a dozen ambulances were on the scene.

___

Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Residencies test limits of doctors' endurance

Maida Lynn has cried twice.

Once, for a precocious 6-year-old boy who didn't get a new liver.

The second time, for a premature newborn hooked up to every bag ofmedicine imaginable to keep her heart, liver and lungs functioning.

"No child should ever die alone," an attending doctor told Lynntwo years ago during her first year of pediatric residency at RushChildren's Hospital.

But nobody told the third-year resident it would take the newbornthree hours to die, each hour passing slower with the occasional gaspfor air, the blanket around the fragile body soaked in blood.

Medical residents work hard. They work very hard.

They work 36 hours straight when they're on call. Other days arecalmer. Just 12 hours.

But the work never stops. Patients don't plan their illnessesaround residents' schedules. They don't plan their own deaths,either.

Sometimes, residents are the first voices a child hears in themorning after throwing up all night. Sometimes, residents are themessengers who explain heaven to a 7-year-old girl with leukemia. Andsometimes, residents are the only family holding a dying man's hand.

Residency programs haven't changed much in almost a century. Theystill run on a pay-your-dues hierarchy: long hours, little sleep,lots of coffee, junk food and the daydreams of a soft bed.

But the attitude has changed. Residents are demanding rights.

The National Labor Relations Board has sided with them, allowingthem to unionize at private and public hospitals alike.

A New York state law tries to protect the rights of residents,limiting work weeks to 80 hours. They should have at least one dayoff out of every seven. They shouldn't be on duty more often thanevery third night. Four hundred residents and interns at two privateNew York hospitals recently joined the Committee of Interns andResidents, a union affiliated with the Service EmployeesInternational Union.

In Chicago, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center has had ahouse staff organization, a step below a union, for 20 years. Thelabor group, represented by 20 to 25 residents from each department,negotiates with the hospital for salary raises, book funds, bettercall-room conditions and other resident life issues.

"It's about having a say in the decision-making," said MaureenMacMahon, chief internal medicine resident and a former president ofthe organization.

But the very idea that residents can bargain scares many doctors,who say it violates the trust between student and teacher.Northwestern Memorial Hospital residents formed a house stafforganization last month, causing tensions to mount between theadministration and the students.

"Residents start out 100 percent students, and they end up 100percent physicians," said Dr. Samuel Gotoff, chairman of Rush MedicalCollege's pediatric department. "They need to be completely prepared.Doctors can't work 18 hours and then stop because they want to."

8 a.m. 5 Pav (fifth floor), Rush Children's Hospital

"General Hospital," Lynn said, grinning, her eyes curved into half-moons. "I'm serious. I wanted to be this rich doctor with a beautifulhusband, a beautiful house and play golf all the time."

Four years of medical training and two years of residency later,the "General Hospital" dream that urged her on this seven-yearmedical pilgrimage seems far away.

The accomplishments along the way, though, are plenty: the M.D.after her name, the white coat, the stethoscope and the confidencethat oozes doctor-ness.

Then there are the children on 5 Pav.

There is the 17-year-old girl with cancer, hanging by the threadof her life. Her mother died of cancer a few years ago. Her fatherdied last year of a heart attack. Her remaining family members havesigned a "DNR"-do not resuscitate-order for her.

"DNR doesn't mean we shouldn't treat her, though," Lynn told afirst-year resident. "We should at least try, right? I know she'sreally frail, but she may surprise us. She has surprised us to date."

There is the 8-year-old boy in the intermediate ward-a halfwaypoint between normal and intensive care units-with severe braindamage. He had meningitis when he was 2 months old, leaving him withlittle ability to do much other than smile widely when his tummy istickled.

He has been in and out of Rush Children's for most of his life.The rest of the time, he lives in a rehabilitation center forchildren.

"Will you let us look at you?" Lynn asked the little boy, ticklinghim to a giggle, as her team of medical students and first-yearresidents crowd around to watch, listen and learn. "Now, hisbreathing seems to have gotten better. Is there any action we shouldplan for today?"

The decision today is no.

The learning process never stops.

Medical students learn from first-year residents, also known asinterns. Interns learn from senior residents. Senior residents learnfrom their attending physicians.

There also are small group discussions, journal article reviewsand drills by senior residents, attending physicians and departmentchairmen.

"It's a chance to either show off or bomb," Lynn said. "At onepoint or another, I got asked and tortured with the same questions. .. . The education you get, it's what you make of it."

Applying for a residency is like sorority rush.

Hospital work during the last two years of medical school iscrucial to the process: surgery or radiology? Pediatrics orneurology?

In the fall of their fourth year of medical school, they choose afocus.

Medical students court the teaching hospitals of their preference.They have a few hours to sell themselves, explain the "C" in organicchemistry or the summer they fished in Alaska instead of working in ahospital.

The hospitals make their pitch, flash their state-of-the-artfacilities and list famous alumni of their residency program.

Students and hospitals then rank each other for that match made inheaven.

"It's very barbaric, but it's the most systematic and organizedway to do it," Lynn said. "You get this envelope. When you open it,it's your destiny."

3 p.m. Nursing station

"I just had trouble dealing with the fact that adult illnesses areoften self-inflicted," Lynn said, her second Diet Coke in hand. "IfI'm going to hear whining, I'm going to hear it from a kid. Theyreally get sick by no fault of their own."

Eight hours into the shift, the day seems to have just started.

Ten more children are admitted to the hospital through theemergency room. Eight-year-old Tyler with chronic constipation.Thirteen-year-old Nichelle with cystic fibrosis. Twelve-year-oldReggie with a spinal tumor.

"Oh no, Reggie's back," Lynn told Rebecca Weiss, a family medicineintern. "He has a left foot drop."

Reggie was in Rush Children's just last week. Both of his feethave gone numb now. He can't control his bladder very well anymore.Reggie needs an MRI to see whether the tumor is causing compressionson the spine, which can cause paralysis.

A call to radiology. A call to anesthesiology. The two departmentscan't coordinate their schedules to give Reggie the MRI he needstoday.

"That's ridiculous. Do you realize this is an emergency?"

Lynn slouches back in her chair at the nursing station, hands overher forehead, elbows propped up against the desk. Reggie's biopsyfrom last week isn't back from pathology yet. They don't know whatkind of tumor he has.

"So much for tertiary care. . . . This is a medical legalnightmare waiting to happen."

Managed care is increasingly governing the medical world: morebureaucracy, less funding. But the physicians' commitment to carehasn't changed. A child's chuckles are all the encouragement theyneed. The sobs are reasons to care.

The worst part of the job?

The phone calls, the coordination, the paperwork.

Reggie's MRI is scheduled for 6:30 the next morning.

The big hope overnight is Reggie's condition will remain stable.

"I think I'm all caught up now." Lynn sighs, looking through her 5-by-7-inch index cards, notes about each patient scribbled all over."This was standard chaos. Well, a little more than standard chaos.But this is how the day usually is."

7:30 p.m. Home, Forest Park

Without her white doctor's coat, Lynn appears younger than herage, her hair pulled back loosely with a black clip, strands ofsilver and gray hair shimmer in the warm light of the living room.

Her husband, Herbert Chen, looks at his watch and shakes his head.

"You're home late tonight."

"Yeah, this boy Reggie is back again. . . . He has the spinaltumor."

Conversation is sparse between Lynn and her husband, her headstill twirling with thoughts about Reggie's MRI, Nichelle'santibiotics, the 17-year-old girl with cancer.

"It's so easy to feel very lonely when you come home," said Lynnwho met her husband in medical school. "You have to have a socialbase, or otherwise you'll lose it."

The social circle for residents shrinks after medical school. The36-hour on-call shifts strain marriages and friendships. But marriagehas also been a default social base.

"I'm lucky that I'm married. . . . I don't usually have anoverwhelming desire to paint the town red."

A simple dinner, movie or a long walk with her husband willsuffice.

Next year, Lynn will follow her husband to Los Angeles, where hewill start his radiology residency at UCLA, leaving behind theirfriends who, in other cities, also will practice the skills they'velearned in residency.

But another class of residents will come to Rush Children'sHospital.

In one day, they will be the gentle voices a sick child hears inthe morning. They will explain heaven to little girls with cancer.And they will cry for the little boy who didn't get a new liver.

AROUND THE CLOCK

7 a.m. Patient visits: Interns and medical students find out whathappened overnight, then do rounds with the medical team, includingthe interns, medical students and senior residents.

8:30 a.m. Morning report: Senior residents attend closed sessionwith chief resident and department chairman to discuss the cases thatcame in overnight.

9 a.m. Journal review discussion: Required for all residents andinterns.

10 a.m. Rounds: Presentation of patients to the attendingphysician.

11 a.m. Mini-lecture: Discussion among the medical team on a topicpertaining to one of their patients on the floor.

Noon. Conference: A specialist or attending physician gives alecture to all doctors, including the medical students.

1 p.m. Followup: Time to take action on decisions made in themorning rounds, such as looking at chest X-rays or lab results,calling specialists, doing discharges and admissions.

5 p.m. Sign-out: Those not on-call present summaries of theirpatients to the on-call team, cautioning them on what to expectovernight.

6-6:30 p.m. End of shift for those not on-call. For on-callers,another day just started.

Russian Killer: 1st Victim Unforgettable

MOSCOW - A man accused of killing dozens of people and keeping count of them on a chessboard reveled in the memory of his first murder at his trial Tuesday, saying "it's like first love - it's unforgettable," news reports said.

Alexander Pichushkin also insisted that prosecutors charge him with all the murders he has taken credit for, saying to do otherwise would be unfair, RIA-Novosti and Interfax reported.

Pichushkin, who went on trial last month in one of Russia's most gruesome serial killing sprees, has confessed to murdering 63 people, with the goal of marking all 64 squares on the chessboard. Prosecutors charged him with 49 murders, most of them committed earlier this decade over the course of five years in Bittsa Park, a sprawling wild green area on the southern edge of Moscow.

The killings terrorized the capital and Russian media dubbed him the "Bittsa Maniac."

Experts at the Russia's main psychiatric clinic have found that Pichushkin is sane.

In testimony at Moscow City Court, he recounted the details of his killings and reveled in the memory of his first killing - committed in 1992, long before the start of the murders that he is now charged with.

"This first murder, it's like first love, it's unforgettable," he was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

He said in an earlier televised confession that he had killed his first victim, a classmate, in 1992 when he was 18. Police had questioned him then, but no charges were filed.

Prosecutors have focused on the series of killings in Bittsa Park in 2001, although he claims to have killed several people years earlier. Most of the victims were men, whom Pichushkin had lured to the park with the promise of a drink of vodka to mourn the death of his "beloved" dog.

Pichushkin killed 11 people in 2001, including six in one month, prosecutors said. He killed about 40 of his first victims by throwing them into a sewage pit, and in a few cases strangled or hit them in the head.

From 2005, he began to kill with "particular cruelty," hitting his intoxicated victims multiple times in the head with a hammer, then sticking an unfinished bottle of vodka into their broken skulls, prosecutors have said. He also no longer tried to conceal the bodies, leaving them at the crime scene.

Despite his claims to have killed many more, prosecutors have only charged Pichushkin with 49 murders and three kidnappings - the incidents apparently investigators have been able to definitively link him to.

He claimed that he was aware that a woman whom he intended to kill left a note at home saying she was going for a stroll with him - but killed her anyway. Police arrested him quickly afterward in June 2006.

"I burnt myself, so there's no need for the cops to take credit for catching me," he was quoted as saying. "I'm a professional."

On Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported, the court judge tried to limit Pichushkin from testifying about murders other those he was charged with.

"And the 63 doesn't interest you? Even though they found the bodies?" he was quoted as saying. "I thought it would be unfair to forget about the other 11 people."

In a confession that was televised earlier, he made similarly lurid claims about his need to commit murder saying: "For me, a life without murder is like a life without food for you."

Russian media have speculated that Pichushkin may have been motivated by a macabre competition with Russia's most notorious serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of killing 52 children and young women in 12 years.

9/11 Spawned Tech-Security Market

During the Cold War, Canada's National Optics Institute developed a system to detect which type of enemy tank or fighter jet was approaching. After the Soviet Union's demise, such threats were deemed less likely, and the technology sat on the shelf.

Until 2003, when entrepreneur Eric Bergeron toured the institute with Sept. 11 on his mind.

"The flash I had was that we no longer look for Russian planes in the sky, but we do look for bad things in luggage," Bergeron said.

The X-ray analysis company that emerged, Quebec-based Optosecurity Inc., is only on the verge of putting its devices in real-life checkpoints. But its hopes are emblematic of the massive homeland security technology industry spawned by Sept. 11.

Contrary to the promises from technologists that began almost immediately after the attacks, these five years have seen few dramatic security improvements. But the market remains a source of riches - real for some companies, still largely dreamed-of for others - primed with billions of dollars from the U.S. and international governments.

Spending on domestic security across all U.S. federal agencies is expected to reach $58 billion in fiscal 2007 - up from $16.8 billion in 2001, according to the Office of Management and Budget. States and cities are annually contributing $20 billion to $30 billion more, Gartner Inc. Vice President T. Jeff Vining estimates.

Much of it lands with large defense contractors and systems integrators with long government ties and the heft to tackle huge projects. For example, Unisys Corp. got a $1 billion contract to set up computers, cell phones, Web sites and other network technology for airport security staff. BearingPoint Inc. won a $104 million deal in August to provide secure identification cards to federal employees and contractors.

Still, a lot of no-names are angling for a piece. Even a tiny slice could be revolutionary for them.

When Salient Stills Inc. was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founder Laura Teodosio figured its software - which enhances the quality of frames captured from video, making them clearer to publish or analyze - would find its biggest success with media companies.

But after Sept. 11, the FBI became a user, and Salient Stills' customer focus shifted to law enforcement.

Today, revenue is less than $5 million, but it has increased every year. Teodosio credits the explosion in surveillance footage being captured by authorities and by regular people.

Optosecurity is at an earlier stage, having gotten only initial funding for upcoming trial deployments of its gear at North American airports.

Using the optical-recognition technology licensed from the Canadian institute, Optosecurity's devices attach to existing X-ray machines and are programmed to automatically spot weapons or their components. (Optosecurity will not say how many items it can recognize.)

"There is not a lot of money that has trickled down to startups," Bergeron conceded. "But the problem is that now (government customers) are running out of innovation. If you look at the checkpoint now, it is the same as the checkpoint 10 years ago, and the checkpoint 20 years ago."

Some measure of technology's limited impact since Sept. 11 can be gleaned from the Department of Homeland Security's budget request for 2007.

DHS cited 25 "key accomplishments" in the three years since it corralled 22 federal agencies, but most of the victories surrounded organizational changes or improved use of resources.

Only three items linked technology to better Sept. 11-style safety. One celebrated the rise of a data-sharing network that routes secret information among 56 federal sites.

The other two related to a single program, US-VISIT, which incorporates biometrics and machine-readable passports to tighten border control. DHS touted this about the program: Of the 44 million foreign visitors it had processed, US-VISIT had detected 950 people with criminal histories or immigration violations.

Requests for future technology initiatives, meanwhile, were more numerous. For example, DHS sought $692 million for explosive detection devices, $157 million for radiation monitors and $5 million to upgrade the satellite capabilities of the emergency alert system.

"The themes around much of the successes involving technology have been relatively basic at this point," said Greg Baroni, who heads the federal business for Unisys. "I see this as an emerging market. The large, advanced, state-of-the-art technologies are still being explored."

Even this basic phase has been pivotal for Unisys. Before Sept. 11, Unisys' federal business was so weak that the company was trying to sell it. Now the unit has doubled to nearly $1 billion a year, about $400 million of which comes from homeland security contracts. The group had 1,200 employees in 2001, but now has nearly 4,000.

Helena Wisniewski has worked in homeland security from multiple angles: At the CIA, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, defense contractors and a biometrics company she founded. Now an administrator at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Wisniewski says innovations in the post-Sept. 11 tech market have been limited because of the pressures to get basic technologies in place quickly.

That environment also shoehorned some ideas into places they didn't work. Witness the rush to use facial-recognition biometrics to scan crowds for evildoers, even though the access-control technology was built for settings where people present themselves one at a time under good lighting.

"It's very difficult in a lot of circumstances to reduce a technology to practice in six months," she said. "We haven't really organized to sit back and look at an effective strategy for the longer term. I think we need an overall strategy, not just tactical solutions."

Gartner's Vining says the most successful security technologies so far have been improved communications systems and networks for information sharing. Police and intelligence agents have also benefited from new data-mining programs, he believes.

Several analysts expect the next wave to make more use of chemical, biological and radiological sensors, which figure to play a role in a $2 billion border security contract to be awarded shortly. Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., LM Ericsson and Raytheon Co. are seeking prime-contractor status on the deal.

Brian Ruttenbur, homeland security analyst for Morgan Keegan & Co., is also watching companies that help analyze intercepted communications and those that manage video surveillance.

Of course, even as technologies improve, none is likely to end the post-Sept. 11 era of hyper vigilance.

"We can't catch everything," Ruttenbur said. "I don't know of any single technology that can be right 100 percent of the time."

---

On the Net:

DHS budget documents: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme12

Church Life in Cuba: An MC Canada Learning Tour

Learning Tours are becoming an increasingly popular way for Canadian Mennonites to connect with the ministries the Mennonite Church Canada Witness does on behalf of its area conferences and congregations.

According to Al Rempel, director of resource development for MC Canada, "To date, we have conducted and/or facilitated excursions to Colombia, Israel, and Cuba to meet with ministry workers and get a sense of the work and the impact these ministries are having. As the tours become more popular, they get sold out more quickly. The Cuba tour filled up fast."

The participants of the recent Cuba Learning Tour experienced Cuba in a way that no other tourist would, meeting with local Christians in homes, joining them for worship, and enjoying the hospitality of fellow Christians with few resources in out-of-the-way places. Few will forget the passionate singing and prayer, the Bible study, and in particular the keen interest shown by Cuban church leaders in Anabaptist theology, Rempel says.

The tour was guided by Jack and Irene Suderman, in collaboration with Cuban church leaders Andres Olivares and Madelin Ramos.

Upon their return, some of the Canadian participants struggled to rationalize the low standard of living (when compared to Canada) with Cuba's 98 percent literacy rate, free public health care system, and free university education. Other surprises for Cuba Learning Tour participants included a new awareness that the ministry in Cuba is just one small slice of what Mennonite Church Canada Witness is doing on behalf of Canadian area conferences and congregations in 39 countries around the world.

Trudy Federau shared that her faith in God, and the church as God's instrument, have been restored. Beth Ann Lichti spoke of her prior cynicism about the need for international mission, and how her own thinking had been transformed. Anne Harms noted how the experience has helped her make the leap from the mission work of the former Commission on Overseas Mission (COM) to MC Canada Witness.

Guide Jack Suderman told participants that last year the ministry in Cuba cost $6,000. "The dollar to peso exchange rate in Cuba means that we can do a lot with a little," he said. "The high impact is very evident in not only the growth of the Evangelical Missionary church here, but also in the call for leadership training, an indicator that these folks are committed to leading and growing the church from within their own ranks." Limited Anabaptist training material in the Spanish language makes it difficult for local leaders to teach themselves.

With MC Canada Witness help, a little church is starting its own revolution of Christian restoration, looking at the Biblical message within the context of a 45-year-old political revolution, using new (to them) teaching methods, and reaching out to neighbours, families, and newcomers. May God bless Cuba, its people, and its church, all agreed.

The next Mennonite Church Canada learning Tour is being planned for the fall of 2005, departing for Asia. A limited number of openings are still available. Interested individuals should contact Al Rempel at arempel@mennonitechurch.ca.

-MC Canada release

Scotland defends decision to free Lockerbie bomber

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Scottish officials said Saturday they were right to release a Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he was dying of cancer, even though he is still alive two years later.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of murdering 270 people, most of them American, by blowing up a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988.

He was freed on Aug. 20, 2009, after prison doctors said he had prostate cancer and estimated he had only three months to live.

He is still alive, and last month he appeared at a televised rally in Tripoli alongside Moammar Gadhafi.

In a statement, a spokesman for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the decision to release al-Megrahi was made "on compassionate grounds and compassionate grounds alone" and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors.

"Whether people support or oppose the decision, it was made following the due process of Scots law, we stand by it, and al-Megrahi is dying of terminal prostate cancer," he said.

A leading cancer specialist, however, said 59-year-old al-Megrahi appeared to be receiving a cutting-edge hormone treatment and could live for several more years.

Prof. Roger Kirby, a consultant urologist at the Prostate Cancer Center in London, said doctors in Scotland would have been unaware of the new hormone-based therapy abiraterone, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is still not available in Europe.

"He has long outlived the speculative three-month prognosis, and it appears he may continue to do so for a while yet," Kirby said. "I strongly suspect that this drug has been central to that."

Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is the only person convicted over the Lockerbie bombing, Britain's worst terrorist attack.

His release infuriated the families of many Lockerbie victims, who suspected Britain's ulterior motive was to improve relations with oil-rich Libya. Some relatives, however, believe al-Megrahi was wrongly convicted and that evidence points to Iranian-backed Palestinian militants as the perpetrators.

American politicians and British leaders also have condemned the decision by Scotland's semiautonomous government to free the convicted bomber.

The second anniversary of al-Megrahi's release comes as Libyan rebels gain ground in their six-month civil war against Gadhafi's Tripoli-based regime. Some politicians in Britain and the U.S. have called for al-Megrahi to be re-imprisoned if Gadhafi is overthrown.

George Foulkes, a Labour Party member of Britain's House of Lords, said this week that al-Megrahi should be sent back to Britain by a post-Gadhafi government.

Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said any new Libyan government should agree to extradite the bomber to the United States.

Guma El-Gamaty, the British organizer for Libya's opposition, said last month any decision on al-Megrahi's future would have to wait for "an elected democratic government in Libya."

Until that time, he said, "we are not in a position to give that commitment."

The British government said it was powerless to intervene.

"Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish court under Scottish law," a Foreign Office spokesman said, on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. "He could be returned under the terms of his release but this is matter for the relevant judicial authorities and it is not something that the British government can interfere with."

Officials in Scotland tasked with overseeing al-Megrahi's parole conditions said they monitored him by regular video link conferences — and expected to continue to do so.

"We have been with him regularly and recently and he has never breached his parole," said George Barber, a spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council near Glasgow.

"Our contact with him is direct and not through any third party or the Libyan government, so we are operating on the basis that the arrangement will continue regardless of what happens in Libya."

___

Lawless reported from London.

World leaders slam North Korea, Iran

The leaders of the world's eight top industrial democracies on Saturday condemned the alleged sinking by North Korea of a South Korean warship and called on Iran to halt its suspect nuclear program and do more to respect human rights.

The countries _ the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia _ also called current restrictions on the flow of goods to Gaza "unsustainable." And they sketched out a five-year exit strategy on Afghanistan.

But the joint statement by the so-called Group of Eight powers did not go as far as some nations, including the United States and Japan, wanted.

The statement was released at the end of a meeting in Canada of the eight powers and before a larger group of 20 nations convenes that also includes fast-growing economies like China.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters at the conclusion of the G-8 talks that there was a consensus among world leaders that "we can't afford some sort of cataclysmic event" like the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

"We remain very engaged and very watchful of those situations," he said.

The G-8 discussions took place at a resort in Canada's forested Muskoka lakes region. The leaders took helicopters back to Toronto. President Barack Obama gave British Prime Minister David Cameron a ride in Marine One. The two were scheduled to have one-on-one talks later in the day.

The G-8 leaders turned to foreign policy matters after finding themselves at odds on how to continue to spur world economic growth in the aftermath of the worst recession since the 1930s. The countries were divided over whether to continue government stimulus spending, as the United States wants, or to cut mushrooming deficits, as Europe and Japan want.

On the March sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, the leaders cited an independent report that found that the ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo. The leaders said: "We condemn in this context the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan."

Japanese officials said that the Russians were the only ones in the G-8 to resist tougher language condemning North Korea.

An official in the Russian delegation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the leaders were meeting, said that Russia still did not consider the results of the commission to be final and because of this, felt that condemning Pyongyang further could lead to negative consequences.

"We condemned North Korea for its irresponsible behavior," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters.

The G-8 communique criticized Iran's nuclear program and urged greater adherence to human rights.

"We are profoundly concerned by Iran's continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium," the G-8 communique said.

On Afghanistan, the joint G-8 statement said that a conference in Kabul in July would be an important setting for assessing progress in implementing commitments made in January to train more than 100,000 additional Afghan security forces by the end of next year.

The G-8 leaders said it was important to accelerate efforts to make sure the country's own security forces can "assume increasing responsibility within five years."

Cameron had said in a television interview on Friday that he did not expect British troops _ now numbering about 10,000 _ to be in Afghanistan in five years' time.

"We can't be there for another five years, having been there for nine years already," he told Britain's Sky News.

"We are profoundly concerned by Iran's continued lack of transparency regarding its nuclear activities and its stated intention to continue and expand enriching uranium," the G-8 communique said.

South Korea has already referred the ship sinking to the U.N. Security council, which could adopt a resolution condemning the North for the sinking or issue a less stringent presidential statement. Either action would require support from China, North Korea's main ally, and Beijing has thus far resisted. China is a member of the G-20 but not the G-8.

On Iran, the U.S. and European nations are pushing other countries to join them in imposing tough new sanctions on Tehran over its suspect nuclear program, a move that would build on expanded Security Council measures adopted this month. But China and Russia only reluctantly supported those sanctions and have balked at new unilateral steps against Iran.

Previous summit gatherings have attracted massive protests by anti-globalization forces. But so far the Canadian protests have been smaller. The largest demonstration, a march in downtown Toronto sponsored by labor unions, was scheduled for Saturday.

Police said before the Saturday march that 32 arrests had been made with security being provided by an estimated 19,000 law enforcement officers drawn from all regions of Canada.

The foreign policy discussions among the leaders of the G-8 took place Saturday after an opening day of talks during which the group failed to resolve a dispute over the proper mix of government spending and deficit reductions needed to keep the global economy on track.

Obama made the case that the global economy remained fragile and should not be put at risk by countries moving too rapidly to trim their bulging deficits through spending cuts and tax increases, which can slow economic growth.

But leaders of Britain, Germany, Canada and Japan argued that deficit cuts were needed to reassure nervous investors, given the severe market turmoil experienced in May after the near-default of Greece on its huge debt burden.

The G-20 will begin with a dinner Saturday night at the Royal York, one of Toronto's oldest hotels. The topic at dinner will be the state of the global economy.

The G-20 meetings will continue Sunday and will conclude with a joint communique and closing news conferences by various leaders including Obama.

The G-20 leaders' summit, launched in response to the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, has now replaced the G-8 as the world's premier forum for discussing and coordinating economic policy.

But Harper said the G-8 leaders had discussed over dinner Friday night the need to continue meetings of the smaller group which he said was more capable to getting consensus in crisis situations.

In addition to the group discussions, the leaders were holding a series of one-on-one talks.

Obama was meeting Saturday with new British Prime Minister David Cameron for the first time since Cameron took power last month. Those talks were expected to cover the difficulties posed by the BP oil spill, the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Obama was also to meet with Cameron, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday.

___

Crutsinger reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Jane Wardell, Emma Vandore and Jeannine Aversa contributed from Huntsville; Rob Gillies, Foster Klug and Tom Raum from Toronto; and Matthew Lee from Washington.

Monday, June 26

The Associated Press
AP Worldstream
06-19-2006
Today is Monday, June 26, the 177th day of 2006. There are 188 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1541 - Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru, is slain in Lima by rival conquistadors.

1549 - The 17 provinces of the Netherlands are declared independent of the Holy Roman Empire.

1714 - Spain and Holland sign Peace of Utrecht.

1848 - Artillery blasts apart the barricades put up by rebelling workers in Paris, ending the "June Days" civil war with the loss of 1,500 lives.

1858 - Treaty of Tientsin ends war between Britain and China, whereby China opens additional ports to British commerce and legalizes opium trade.

1941 - Finns side with Germans in attack against Soviet Union leading to three-year Finnish-Soviet war.

1945 - Charter establishing United Nations is signed in San Francisco, California, by 50 nations.

1948 - The Berlin airlift begins after the Soviets blockade West Berlin. The lift feeds two million Berliners for eleven months.

1960 - Madagascar proclaims its independence as the Malagasy Republic; British Somaliland becomes independent.

1962 - United States declares it will not support any attempt by Chinese nationalists on Formosa to land forces on the Chinese mainland.

1964 - The Roman Catholic Church and Spain's government say they have reached basic agreement on proposed legislation to grant legal recognition and certain rights to Spain's Protestants.

1989 - Hungary's new Communist Party chief says his country is "breaking away from Stalinism."

1990 - Nelson Mandela speaks before U.S. Congress, thanking it for imposing sanctions against South Africa and asking that sanctions be maintained until "irreversible" reforms are enacted.

1991 - Martial law is lifted in Kuwait and death sentences for 29 people convicted of collaborating with the Iraqis during their invasion of Kuwait are commuted to life imprisonment.

1992 - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali gives Serbs 48 hours to halt their offensive against Sarajevo.

1993 - Despite peace talks in Brussels, seven people, including a 4-year-old boy, are killed in shelling attacks on Sarajevo between Croats and Muslims.

1994 - Northern forces shell residential areas in the southern Yemen city of Aden, hitting a school and wounding 15 women and children.

1995 - Six gunmen open fire on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's motorcade shortly after he arrives in Ethiopia, but Mubarak escapes hurt.

1996 - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd offers a $2.7 million reward for those responsible for a truck bomb that killed at least 19 Americans and wounded hundreds.

1997 - Attackers fire grenade at police in Northern Ireland in an apparent rebuff to a British offer of peace talks participation in exchange for a new IRA cease-fire.

1998 - In a ceremony heavy in symbolism, U.S. President Bill Clinton opens a state visit to China in Tiananmen Square, where a protest movement for democracy was brutally suppressed nine years earlier.

1999 - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta returns to his native Indonesia for the first time in 24 years. He had accused Indonesian troops of atrocities and genocide after the U.S. and several western nation-backed invasion of East Timor, in 1975.

2000 - Scientists announce that the human genetic code has essentially been deciphered, a monumental achievement that opens a dramatic new frontier in medicine.

2001- Seven North Koreans take refuge in a U.N. office in Beijing and request asylum; highlighting the plight of North Korean famine victims whom China refuses to regard as refugees.

2002 - Pakistani troops raid a group of members of the Al Qaida terrorist network who had taken refuge in a tribal region near the country's western border with Afghanistan. Ten soldiers are killed.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, that a Texas law banning sodomy between consenting same-sex adults is unconstitutional.

2004 - The United States and the European Union agree in a joint statement to back Iraq's request for NATO military and support the training of Iraqi security forces, and to reduce Iraq's international debt.

2005 - Gunmen on motorcycles in Sao Paulo, Brazil kill six people after opening fire at patrons of an outdoor bar.

Today's Birthdays:

George Morland, English artist (1763-1804); Bartolome Mitre, Argentine president (1821-1906); Baron William Homson Kelvin, English physicist (1824-1907); Pearl Buck, U.S. author (1892-1973); Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (1904-1964); Chris Isaak, U.S. singer (1956--); Chris O'Donnell, actor (1970--).

Thought For Today:

When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps; when he says perhaps, he means no; when he says no, he is no diplomat _ Anonymous.

Copyright 2006, AP News All Rights Reserved
Monday, June 26The Associated Press
AP Worldstream
06-19-2006
Today is Monday, June 26, the 177th day of 2006. There are 188 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1541 - Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru, is slain in Lima by rival conquistadors.

1549 - The 17 provinces of the Netherlands are declared independent of the Holy Roman Empire.

1714 - Spain and Holland sign Peace of Utrecht.

1848 - Artillery blasts apart the barricades put up by rebelling workers in Paris, ending the "June Days" civil war with the loss of 1,500 lives.

1858 - Treaty of Tientsin ends war between Britain and China, whereby China opens additional ports to British commerce and legalizes opium trade.

1941 - Finns side with Germans in attack against Soviet Union leading to three-year Finnish-Soviet war.

1945 - Charter establishing United Nations is signed in San Francisco, California, by 50 nations.

1948 - The Berlin airlift begins after the Soviets blockade West Berlin. The lift feeds two million Berliners for eleven months.

1960 - Madagascar proclaims its independence as the Malagasy Republic; British Somaliland becomes independent.

1962 - United States declares it will not support any attempt by Chinese nationalists on Formosa to land forces on the Chinese mainland.

1964 - The Roman Catholic Church and Spain's government say they have reached basic agreement on proposed legislation to grant legal recognition and certain rights to Spain's Protestants.

1989 - Hungary's new Communist Party chief says his country is "breaking away from Stalinism."

1990 - Nelson Mandela speaks before U.S. Congress, thanking it for imposing sanctions against South Africa and asking that sanctions be maintained until "irreversible" reforms are enacted.

1991 - Martial law is lifted in Kuwait and death sentences for 29 people convicted of collaborating with the Iraqis during their invasion of Kuwait are commuted to life imprisonment.

1992 - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali gives Serbs 48 hours to halt their offensive against Sarajevo.

1993 - Despite peace talks in Brussels, seven people, including a 4-year-old boy, are killed in shelling attacks on Sarajevo between Croats and Muslims.

1994 - Northern forces shell residential areas in the southern Yemen city of Aden, hitting a school and wounding 15 women and children.

1995 - Six gunmen open fire on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's motorcade shortly after he arrives in Ethiopia, but Mubarak escapes hurt.

1996 - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd offers a $2.7 million reward for those responsible for a truck bomb that killed at least 19 Americans and wounded hundreds.

1997 - Attackers fire grenade at police in Northern Ireland in an apparent rebuff to a British offer of peace talks participation in exchange for a new IRA cease-fire.

1998 - In a ceremony heavy in symbolism, U.S. President Bill Clinton opens a state visit to China in Tiananmen Square, where a protest movement for democracy was brutally suppressed nine years earlier.

1999 - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta returns to his native Indonesia for the first time in 24 years. He had accused Indonesian troops of atrocities and genocide after the U.S. and several western nation-backed invasion of East Timor, in 1975.

2000 - Scientists announce that the human genetic code has essentially been deciphered, a monumental achievement that opens a dramatic new frontier in medicine.

2001- Seven North Koreans take refuge in a U.N. office in Beijing and request asylum; highlighting the plight of North Korean famine victims whom China refuses to regard as refugees.

2002 - Pakistani troops raid a group of members of the Al Qaida terrorist network who had taken refuge in a tribal region near the country's western border with Afghanistan. Ten soldiers are killed.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, that a Texas law banning sodomy between consenting same-sex adults is unconstitutional.

2004 - The United States and the European Union agree in a joint statement to back Iraq's request for NATO military and support the training of Iraqi security forces, and to reduce Iraq's international debt.

2005 - Gunmen on motorcycles in Sao Paulo, Brazil kill six people after opening fire at patrons of an outdoor bar.

Today's Birthdays:

George Morland, English artist (1763-1804); Bartolome Mitre, Argentine president (1821-1906); Baron William Homson Kelvin, English physicist (1824-1907); Pearl Buck, U.S. author (1892-1973); Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (1904-1964); Chris Isaak, U.S. singer (1956--); Chris O'Donnell, actor (1970--).

Thought For Today:

When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps; when he says perhaps, he means no; when he says no, he is no diplomat _ Anonymous.

Copyright 2006, AP News All Rights Reserved
Monday, June 26The Associated Press
AP Worldstream
06-19-2006
Today is Monday, June 26, the 177th day of 2006. There are 188 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1541 - Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru, is slain in Lima by rival conquistadors.

1549 - The 17 provinces of the Netherlands are declared independent of the Holy Roman Empire.

1714 - Spain and Holland sign Peace of Utrecht.

1848 - Artillery blasts apart the barricades put up by rebelling workers in Paris, ending the "June Days" civil war with the loss of 1,500 lives.

1858 - Treaty of Tientsin ends war between Britain and China, whereby China opens additional ports to British commerce and legalizes opium trade.

1941 - Finns side with Germans in attack against Soviet Union leading to three-year Finnish-Soviet war.

1945 - Charter establishing United Nations is signed in San Francisco, California, by 50 nations.

1948 - The Berlin airlift begins after the Soviets blockade West Berlin. The lift feeds two million Berliners for eleven months.

1960 - Madagascar proclaims its independence as the Malagasy Republic; British Somaliland becomes independent.

1962 - United States declares it will not support any attempt by Chinese nationalists on Formosa to land forces on the Chinese mainland.

1964 - The Roman Catholic Church and Spain's government say they have reached basic agreement on proposed legislation to grant legal recognition and certain rights to Spain's Protestants.

1989 - Hungary's new Communist Party chief says his country is "breaking away from Stalinism."

1990 - Nelson Mandela speaks before U.S. Congress, thanking it for imposing sanctions against South Africa and asking that sanctions be maintained until "irreversible" reforms are enacted.

1991 - Martial law is lifted in Kuwait and death sentences for 29 people convicted of collaborating with the Iraqis during their invasion of Kuwait are commuted to life imprisonment.

1992 - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali gives Serbs 48 hours to halt their offensive against Sarajevo.

1993 - Despite peace talks in Brussels, seven people, including a 4-year-old boy, are killed in shelling attacks on Sarajevo between Croats and Muslims.

1994 - Northern forces shell residential areas in the southern Yemen city of Aden, hitting a school and wounding 15 women and children.

1995 - Six gunmen open fire on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's motorcade shortly after he arrives in Ethiopia, but Mubarak escapes hurt.

1996 - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd offers a $2.7 million reward for those responsible for a truck bomb that killed at least 19 Americans and wounded hundreds.

1997 - Attackers fire grenade at police in Northern Ireland in an apparent rebuff to a British offer of peace talks participation in exchange for a new IRA cease-fire.

1998 - In a ceremony heavy in symbolism, U.S. President Bill Clinton opens a state visit to China in Tiananmen Square, where a protest movement for democracy was brutally suppressed nine years earlier.

1999 - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta returns to his native Indonesia for the first time in 24 years. He had accused Indonesian troops of atrocities and genocide after the U.S. and several western nation-backed invasion of East Timor, in 1975.

2000 - Scientists announce that the human genetic code has essentially been deciphered, a monumental achievement that opens a dramatic new frontier in medicine.

2001- Seven North Koreans take refuge in a U.N. office in Beijing and request asylum; highlighting the plight of North Korean famine victims whom China refuses to regard as refugees.

2002 - Pakistani troops raid a group of members of the Al Qaida terrorist network who had taken refuge in a tribal region near the country's western border with Afghanistan. Ten soldiers are killed.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, that a Texas law banning sodomy between consenting same-sex adults is unconstitutional.

2004 - The United States and the European Union agree in a joint statement to back Iraq's request for NATO military and support the training of Iraqi security forces, and to reduce Iraq's international debt.

2005 - Gunmen on motorcycles in Sao Paulo, Brazil kill six people after opening fire at patrons of an outdoor bar.

Today's Birthdays:

George Morland, English artist (1763-1804); Bartolome Mitre, Argentine president (1821-1906); Baron William Homson Kelvin, English physicist (1824-1907); Pearl Buck, U.S. author (1892-1973); Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (1904-1964); Chris Isaak, U.S. singer (1956--); Chris O'Donnell, actor (1970--).

Thought For Today:

When a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps; when he says perhaps, he means no; when he says no, he is no diplomat _ Anonymous.

Copyright 2006, AP News All Rights Reserved