Famn Law

WASHINGTON – The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain's white peak — made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway — is rapidly melting, researchers report.
Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.
If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said.
The Kilimanjaro glaciers are both shrinking, as the ice at their edges melts, and thinning, the researchers found.
Similar changes are being reported at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa and at glaciers in South America and the Himalayas.
"The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause," Thompson said in a statement. "The increase of Earth's near surface temperatures, coupled with even greater increases in the mid- to upper-tropical troposphere, as documented in recent decades, would at least partially explain" the observations.
Changes in cloudiness and snowfall may also be involved, though they appear less important, according to the study.
On Kilimanjaro, the researchers said, the northern ice field thinned by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) and the southern ice field by 16.7 feet (5.1 meters) between 2000 and 2007.
Researchers compared the current area covered by the glaciers with maps of the glaciers based on photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 and satellite images from 1976 and 1989.
The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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On the Net:
PNAS: http://www.pnas.org

KOROR, Palau – Six former Guantanamo Bay detainees brought to Palau for resettlement have received a warm official welcome, but a plan to deport Bangladeshi workers could halve this Pacific Island nation's already-tiny Muslim community, making integration harder.
The ex-detainees, who are Muslim ethnic Uighurs from a region in China's far west, already face tough challenges to adapt to their new lives in Palau after eight years in the U.S. military camp in Cuba, although they will be provided housing, job training and a full-time interpreter.
President Johnson Toribiong himself welcomed the group when they arrived before dawn Sunday on a secret flight, and he will treat them to a personal tour of the Rock Islands, a diving attraction that is country's top tourist destination, later this week as part of their orientation.
But Toribiong has also announced plans to send home between 200 and 300 Bangladeshi Muslim migrants whose work visas have expired, and last month he banned anyone else from the South Asian country from entering Palau. No timetable has been set for deporting the Bangladeshis.
Palau's Muslim community of about 500 is made up almost completely of Bangladeshi migrant workers. Reducing their number by half could make the Uighurs' transition to island life that much more difficult.
"They need a community of Muslims," Mujahid Hussain, the only Pakistani in Palau, said of the Uighurs.
"They need to sit together and pray together. So if they send home a lot of the Bangladeshis, that's going to be a problem," Hussain, 36, told The Associated Press on Monday.
Announcing the decision to repatriate the Bangladeshis whose visas have expired, Toribiong said last week it has nothing to do with the Uighurs but is a reflection of his administration's commitment to the rule of law.
"We follow the principles of justice and fairness," he said, adding that Bangladeshis with valid work permits have nothing to fear.
The Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) have been kept out of the public eye and away from media since they arrived.
They hail from one of the most landlocked regions on earth and are making the jump from the prison-like conditions of Guantanamo to another alien environment — the leisurely pace of a palm-fringed tropical island.
Muslims here say they will accept the newcomers.
"All the Muslims, they are our brothers," said Mohammed Main Uddin, 26, as he gathered with about 50 others recently for traditional Friday prayers at the small tin-roofed building sitting atop bamboo stilts that serves as one of just two mosques in Palau.
The Uighurs will be welcome as long as they "follow the Muslim rules" on tolerance and peace, said Uddin, a sweet potato farmer who moved to Palau from Bangladesh four years ago.
The Uighurs brought here were among 22 Chinese Muslims picked up by American forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 on suspicion of terrorism. They were taken eventually to Guantanamo, where they were held without trial as "enemy combatants."
The Uighurs were approved for release after a federal court ruled they were not enemy combatants, but they spent months in legal limbo as U.S. officials tried to find somewhere to send them. China calls them terrorists and has demanded they be returned. Uighur activists say they would face persecution and possibly death in China.
After protracted negotiations, the six agreed to accept Palau's offer of resettlement. Seven others are still at Guantanamo. One of them did not receive an invitation to resettle in Palau over concerns about his mental health.
Lawyers for the remaining Uighurs at Guantanamo say that among their clients' concerns about going to Palau is the lack of an existing Uighur population.

Palau is an archipelago of about 200 islands 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) east of the Philippines. It has just 20,000 residents, most of them of Micronesian origin with strong clan and family ties. The country is overwhelmingly Christian, with church pews filled on Sunday mornings. The community is close-knit, and, like other outsiders, the Uighurs are likely to find it hard to fit in.

"Some Palauans want (the Uighurs) to come here and some don't," says Johnson Salii, 41, a taxi driver. "Palauans are good people, so they will make friends with them."

Bangladeshis began arriving in Palau about a dozen years ago seeking steady work and a reprieve from the conflict and poverty plaguing their homeland. They mostly work as farmers, laborers and night watchmen, and they are at the bottom rung of Palauan society.

Most of them make the minimum wage for foreigners of $1.50 an hour — a dollar below the rate for Palauans. Like other immigrants in Palau — Palau hosts as many as 6,000 Filipinos — they don't mix much with the locals.

"The tourists come here for the natural beauty," said Harun Rashid, a 40-year-old gas station attendant who moved to Palau 13 years ago. "We are like tourists also, but we work here."

An influx of Bangladeshi immigrants in 2004 and 2005 more than doubled Palau's Muslim community, before the government moratorium on new arrivals.

"Language barriers and fraud among recruiters have resulted in social tensions and problems for the Palauan government, which does not have formal diplomatic ties with Bangladesh," the U.N. refugee agency said in a 2007 report. It did not elaborate, and there have been no reports of fighting between Palauans and migrants.

The United States is paying Palau a little less than $100,000 for each Uighur to cover housing, educating and food costs, Toribiong said.

Toribiong has stressed the Uighurs' resettlement is temporary, saying it could last "a few months or a few years."

Though they won't get Palauan passports, Toribiong says, the Uighurs will be free to leave Palau — if they can find a country that will take them.

Fantasy football is a fantasy sports game in which participants (called "owners") are arranged into a league. The person who creates the league is called the commissioner, and that person invites other owners into his/her league. Each team drafts or acquires via auction a team of real-life American football players and then scores points based on those players' statistical on-the-field performances. A typical fantasy league will employ players from a single football league, such as the NFL or an NCAA division. Leagues can be arranged in which the winner is the team with the most total points at the end of the season, or in a head-to-head format (which mirrors the actual NFL) in which each team plays against a single opponent each week. At the end of the year, win-loss records determine league rankings or qualification into a playoff bracket. Most leagues set aside the last weeks of the regular season for their own playoffs.

Leagues can consist of anywhere from 4 to as many as 20 teams. There are three major types: redraft, "keeper" leagues, and dynasty leagues. In a redraft, each owner starts with no players at the beginning of each season and drafts an entire fantasy team. Each owner in a keeper league is allowed to retain a small number of players they owned during the previous season, eliminating these players from the draft, while each owner in a dynasty league is allowed to retain as many players as desired from the previous season, with the draft encompassing only rookies and other unowned (or un-retained) players.

http://www.fantasysportsday.com/football

WASHINGTON – Eleven of the nation's largest business groups are beginning a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign that says the health overhaul legislation in the House would raise taxes and worsen the economy without curbing medical expenses.
"Over $500 billion in crushing tax increases. But nothing to control rising health care costs," says the ad, which is to begin running Monday evening on national cable TV and in 19 states. It calls the legislation "a bill America can't afford to pay."
The commercial is the latest example of stepped-up opposition by large segments of the business community as the House and Senate prepare to vote on Democratic bills revamping the nation's health care system.
Calling themselves Employers for a Healthy Economy, the coalition of sponsoring groups ranges from the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small businesses, to organizations representing large corporations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The House plans to vote on the Democratic-written legislation this week. Senate Democratic leaders have not written a final version of their legislation.

NEW YORK (Billboard) –
Another track from Rihanna's upcoming "Rated R" album, a song titled "Wait Your Turn (The Wait Is Ova)," has leaked on the Internet days before she gives her first public interview since the February altercation involving ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

Not nearly as dark as first single "Russian Roulette," the song -- which leans more toward a hip-hop feel than pop -- finds the Barbados native tapping into her island drawl.

"I pitch with a grenade / swing away if you're feeling brave / there's so much power in my name... I'm such a fragile lady / you don't have to be afraid," Rihanna twangs over a static thump and handclaps.

Rihanna's Def Jam Records label, did not return calls about whether "Wait Your Turn" is actually the second single from the album, which is set for a November 23 release.

Rihanna will appear on "Good Morning America" on Thursday and a special "20/20" episode on Friday, having kept largely silent about her showdown with Brown in Los Angeles. Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault, and was sentenced to probation and community labor.

MARRAKECH, Morocco – Trying to mute Arab criticism that the Obama administration had retreated from its tough stance on Israeli settlements, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday softened her praise for Israel's offer to restrain new housing in Palestinian areas.
While Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, Clinton said, its offer "falls far short" of U.S. expectations.
Clinton said her earlier praise of Israel's offer, during a stop in Jerusalem, had been intended as "positive reinforcement." But her comment drew widespread criticism from Persian Gulf ministers who interpreted it as a U.S drawback on settlements, which have been the main obstacle to a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
In a sign of U.S. eagerness to calm Arab concerns, Clinton is extending her trip by one day to fly to Cairo to meet with President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday, her staff announced. She had been scheduled to return to Washington on Tuesday.
Clinton's comments in Jerusalem on Saturday appeared to reflect a realization within the Obama administration that Netanyahu's government will not accept a full-on settlement freeze and that a partial halt may be the best lesser option. Her appeal on Saturday seemed designed to make the Israeli position more palatable to the Palestinians and Arab states.
Clinton had traveled to the region only reluctantly, concerned her visit might be seen as a failure, according to several U.S. officials. She agreed to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders after pressure from the White House, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.
During a photo-taking session Monday with her Moroccan counterpart, Clinton was asked by a reporter about the Arab reaction, and she responded by reading from a written statement that appeared designed to counter the skepticism about the Obama administration's views on settlements.
"Successive American administrations of both parties have opposed Israel's settlement policy," she said. "That is absolutely a fact, and the Obama administration's position on settlements is clear, unequivocal and it has not changed. As the president has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
Clinton's tweaking of her earlier remarks appeared to satisfy at least some of the Morocco meeting attendees. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday that "we have heard her say something completely different from that statement in line with previous statements, so we are happy that such a position was highlighted and brought back to the right line and right now we will see how things will go."
Malki added that "we completely appreciate the sincere efforts made by President Barack Obama and his team to take this issue as a top priority and to try to deal with it from day one."
In her recalibrated comments Monday, Clinton also called on the Israelis to do more to improve "movement and access" for Palestinians and on Israeli security arrangements.
She added, however, that Israel deserved praise for moving in the right direction.
"This offer falls far short of what we would characterize as our position or what our preference would be," she added. "But if it is acted upon, it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth."
In her statement to reporters, Clinton also stressed that the Palestinian authorities deserved credit for what she called "unprecedented" steps to improve security in the West Bank and praised the Palestinians for progress in training their security forces.
On Monday evening, Clinton met with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus officials from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Morocco. Clinton also flew Monday to the south-central city of Ouarzazate for an audience with King Mohammed VI, then returned to Marrakech for talks with foreign ministers of several Persian Gulf nations.
Clinton was expected to meet separately with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who has rejected U.S. appeals for improved Arab relations with Israel as a way to help restart Middle East peace talks.
After taking office in January, Obama buoyed Palestinian hopes for progress toward establishing a Palestinian state with his outreach to the Muslim world and an initially tough stance urging a full freeze to all settlement construction.
But after making little headway with the Israelis in recent months, Clinton urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a face-to-face meeting in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to renew talks, which broke down late last year, without conditions. Abbas said no, insisting that Israel first halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Then, at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday in Jerusalem, Clinton praised Netanyahu's offer to curb some settlement construction, saying it was an unprecedented gesture.

That statement provoked a chiding by Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. Jordan and Egypt also issued statements Sunday critical of the latest U.S. approach.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

All washer machines work by using mechanical energy, thermal energy, and chemical action. Mechanical energy is imparted to the clothes load by the rotation of the agitator in top loaders, or by the tumbling action of the drum in front loaders. Thermal energy is supplied by the temperature of the wash bath. The spin speed in these machines can vary from 500 to 1600rpm.

Removal of soap and water from the clothing after washing was originally a separate process. The soaking wet clothing would be formed into a roll and twisted by hand to extract water. To help reduce this labour, the wringer/mangle was developed, which uses two rollers under spring tension to squeeze water out of the clothing. Each piece of clothing would be fed through the wringer separately. The first wringers were hand-operated, but were eventually included as a powered attachment above the washer tub. The wringer would be swung over the wash tub so that extracted wash water would fall back into the tub to be reused for the next wash load.

Smelly Washers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, data showed on Thursday, indicating the labor market remains fragile despite signs of economic revival.

Initial claims for state jobless insurance increased 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 531,000 in the week ended October 17 from a revised 520,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said, after declining for two consecutive weeks.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims nudging up to 515,000 last week from a previously reported 514,000.

U.S. stock index futures briefly trimmed gains on the report, while government bond prices held losses.

"There is a little bit of noise this time of year with seasonal adjustments," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"The four-week average is still bouncing down but is still relatively high, which is consistent with a moderate economic recovery, but the job market is going to lag."

While data strongly indicates the economy started growing again in the July-September period after four quarters of declining output, persistently high unemployment is raising questions about the durability of the recovery.

White House economic advisor Lawrence Summers told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday the economy was firmly set for a recovery, but cautioned that the growth pace might be moderate and the job market would not revive immediately.

The recession that started at the end of 2007 is the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s and has been characterized by massive job destruction. The unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September.

Still, the pace of job losses has moderated considerably from early this year. The four-week moving average for new claims fell by 750 to 532,250 last week, the lowest level since mid-January, the Labor Department said.

It was the seventh straight week of decline in the four-week moving average, which is considered a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility.

There were more encouraging signs, with the number of people collecting long-term unemployment benefits dropping 98,000 to 5.92 million in the week ended October 10, the latest week for which the data is available.

That was the lowest level since March and it was the first time that continuing claims fell below the 6 million mark since April.

This measure has trended lower for five straight weeks. Analysts view this steady decline as an indication that unemployment might be close to peaking, but it could be an indication that many jobless workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell 59,250 to 6.03 million, the lowest reading since early April this year.

The insured unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of the insured labor force that is jobless, edged down to 4.5 percent in the week ended October 10 from 4.6 percent the prior week, the department said.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

http://www.ahealthybabynaturally.com/

The umbilical cord of a newborn is bluish-white in color. After birth, the umbilical cord is normally cut, leaving a 1–2 inch stub. The umbilical stub will dry out, shrivel, darken, and spontaneously fall off within about 3 weeks. Occasionally, hospitals may apply triple dye to the umbilical stub to prevent infection, which may temporarily color the stub and surrounding skin purple.

Babies cannot walk, although more mature infants may crawl or scoot; baby transport may be by [[perambulator (stroller or buggy), on the back or in front of an adult in a special carrier, cloth or cradle board, or simply by being carried in the arms. Most industrialized countries have laws requiring infants to be placed in special child safety seats when in motor vehicles.

The human embryonic heart begins beating around 21 days after conception, or five weeks after the last normal menstrual period (LMP), which is the date normally used to date pregnancy. It is unknown how blood in the human embryo circulates for the first 21 days in the absence of a functioning heart. The human heart begins beating at a rate near the mother’s, about 75-80 beats per minute (BPM).

The structure of the heart varies among the different branches of the animal kingdom. (See Circulatory system.) Cephalopods have two "gill hearts" and one "systemic heart". Fish have a two-chambered heart that pumps the blood to the gills and from there it goes on to the rest of the body. In amphibians and most reptiles, a double circulatory system is used, but the heart is not always completely separated into two pumps. Amphibians have a three-chambered heart.

Ultrasound Equipment

MINNEAPOLIS – Two Northwest Airlines pilots failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.
The plane landed safely Wednesday evening, apparently without passengers realizing that anything had been amiss. No one was hurt.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew told authorities they became distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of their location, but federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might also have played a role.
The National Transportation Safety Board does not yet know if the crew fell asleep, spokesman Keith Holloway said, calling that idea "speculative."
Flight 188, an Airbus A320, was flying from San Diego to Minneapolis with 144 passengers and five crew. The pilots dropped out of radio contact with controllers just before 7 p.m. CDT, when they were at 37,000 feet. The jet flew over the airport just before 8 p.m. and overshot it before communications were re-established at 8:14 p.m, the NTSB said.
The FAA notified the military, which put Air National Guard fighter jets on alert at two locations. As many as four planes could have been scrambled, but none took to the air.
"After FAA re-established communications, we pulled off," said Michael Kucharek, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman.
Andrea Allmon, who had been traveling from San Diego on business, said no one on the plane knew anything was amiss until the end of the flight.
"Everybody got up to get their luggage and the plane was swarmed by police as we were getting our bags down from the overhead bins," she said.
She said they were kept on the plane briefly while police talked to the crew, then allowed off. She said she was "horrified" to learn what had happened.
"When I do my job I do my job," she said. "These guys are supposed to be paying attention to the flight. The safety of the passengers should be first and foremost. (It's) unbelievable to me that they weren't paying attention. Just not paying attention."
As of Thursday afternoon, NTSB investigators had not yet examined the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were being sent to Washington for analysis. He said the agency was also seeking to interview the pilots, but had not scheduled a meeting.
One of the two pilots should have been paying attention to the radio, said Ronald Carr, a former Air Force and American Airlines pilot who teaches flight physiology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. But he added that "sometimes you can have such heated discussions and get so distracted that you lose situational awareness, and when you're traveling seven miles a minute, that can happen pretty quick."
The two pilots have been suspended from flying while Delta Air Lines Inc. conducts an internal investigation, said Anthony Black, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based airline, which acquired Northwest last year. He refused to name them or give further details on their background or what happened in the air.
Air traffic controllers in Denver had been in contact with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. But as the plane got closer to Minneapolis, she said, "the Denver center tried to contact the flight but couldn't get anyone."
Denver controllers notified their counterparts in Minneapolis, who also tried to reach the crew without success, Brown said. Controllers and the pilots finally resumed communication when the plane was over Eau Claire, Wis.
"Radar controllers were the whole time trying to make audio contact with that plane," said Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago. He said he was not aware of controllers diverting any other flights, which was unnecessary because the Northwest jet was flying high enough to safely avoid planes approaching Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
It was not clear who initiated communications when contact finally was made, Brown said.

After the plane landed, two airport police officers boarded the plane at the gate, which authorities said is standard procedure after a crew loses communication with air traffic controllers.

Kelly Regus, a spokeswoman for the Delta branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, declined to comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration is updating decades-old rules governing how long commercial pilots can fly and remain on duty. The NTSB also cautioned government agencies this week about the risks of sleep apnea contributing to transportation accidents.

The board cited an incident in January 2008 when two go! airlines pilots feel asleep for at least 18 minutes during a midmorning flight from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii. The plane passed its destination before controllers raised the pilots, who landed safely. The captain was later diagnosed with sleep apnea.

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Associated Press Airlines Reporter Joshua Freed in Minneapolis, AP writers Martiga Lohn and Brian Bakst in St. Paul, David Koenig in Dallas and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

FlightAware.com tracking of Northwest Flight 188: http://bit.ly/2QV9hX

WASHINGTON – Pigs in Minnesota may have tested positive for the H1N1 virus in a preliminary test, the first potential U.S. cases in swine, Agriculture Department officials said Friday.
The officials cautioned that further tests were needed to confirm that the pigs had been infected with H1N1, also known as swine flu virus. The pigs did not exhibit signs of sickness and may have been infected by a group of children with the virus, they said.
Samples from the pigs that may have tested positive were collected at the Minnesota State Fair between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1. USDA officials did not say how many pigs may have tested positive.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement that testing was under way and results should be available in a matter of days. He says the USDA was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vilsack said the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories would be conducting tests to confirm the results.
Vilsack asked for caution from consumers and said people should not react to the news by avoiding pork products.
"I want to remind people that people cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products," he said.
Pigs regularly get influenza viruses and recover quickly. While the chance of a pig infecting a person is considered remote, they're a concern because they can act as mixing vessels if they happen to catch two different strains at the same time, allowing mutation of a new one. So agriculture officials already were working on a pig vaccine and would quarantine and monitor infected herds.
Still, the news was clearly unwelcome for the pork industry, which has worked assiduously to distance itself from the H1N1 virus.
Mike Wagner, a spokesman for the National Pork Board, stressed that there is no threat to public health. "Pigs get sick from the flu every winter just like humans get sick from the flu every winter," he said.
Duane Woebbeking, a hog producer outside of Gladbrook, Iowa, said Friday's news presented a potential "public relations risk" to pork producers.
"I'm more concerned with the public fear," he said. "How many thousands of people die a year from the flu? Most years nobody thinks about it, but now everyone is up in arms because of this H1N1 thing."
Minnesota is the country's No. 3 pork-producing state behind Iowa and North Carolina. Minnesota pork producers had 7.3 million hogs and pigs as of Sept. 1, according to USDA figures, while the national investory was 66.6 million head. The pork industry contributes nearly $1.5 billion and more than 21,000 jobs to the state's economy, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Agriculture officials have said they expected H1N1 to reach domestic pigs this year. It has led pork producers to push for a hog vaccine for the virus. H1N1 infections of swine herds have previously been reported in Canada, Australia and Argentina but not previously the United States.
The potentially positive test was discovered by a CDC research project conducted by the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota, which is documenting instances of influenza viruses where humans and pigs regularly interact, such as state fairs.
A record crowd of nearly 1.8 million people attended the 2009 Minnesota State Fair, which is held annually in a St. Paul, Minn., suburb.
More than 100 students from two 4-H programs were sent home from the fair on Sept. 2 after health officials confirmed four students had come down with swine flu. Friday's USDA announcement said no link between the pigs and the children had been made and said current information suggests the children were not sickened by the pigs.
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Associated Press writers Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has signed up 55 state and local law enforcement agencies to help enforce immigration laws, including an Arizona county sheriff under investigation for racial profiling, the Homeland Security Department announced Friday.
Another 12 agreements have been approved and are awaiting local or state approval.
The administration had previously suspended the program, which critics say was mismanaged and allowed racial profiling and discrimination. Before it was suspended, there had been 66 local and state agencies participating.
Under the new agreement, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies will be able to check whether inmates in the Maricopa County jail are in the country legally. But they will not be given the power to arrest immigration violators as they had previously, said John Morton, the assistant homeland security secretary who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As the federal government moved to limit the sheriff's powers, he launched a crime and immigration sweep in the Phoenix area.
Morton said he would treat Arpaio's sheriff's office like any other law enforcement agency when the sheriff contacts ICE to turn over people he has rounded up and evaluate each case on its merits. Arpaio was allowed to continue in the program because it has been changed to add more accountability and oversight and focuses on the deportation of criminal offenders, Morton said.
"They identify and remove in partnership with us a very large number of serious criminal offenders that protect the public safety in Arizona," Morton said. "We determined his sweeps were not consistent with the priorities of the revised program."
Many immigration and civil rights advocates continue to criticize the program. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked Obama to end it. Others say it is needed to reduce illegal immigration.
Many lawmakers, including the chairman of the House panel that approves the Homeland Security Department's budget, have pressured ICE to deport more immigrant criminal offenders.
The continuation of the "287(g) program" with some changes is reflective of the administration's approach to immigration enforcement thus far. The Homeland Security Department has reworked some Bush administration policies and programs by adding more oversight and trying to prevent civil rights abuses. But they have tread carefully to avoid appearing to weaken or abandon enforcement.
"We are not trying to suggest if you are here unlawfully, or here unlawfully and committing minor crimes, you are not going to be subject to removal from the U.S.," Morton said.
Four local and state law enforcement agencies decided against renewing their 287(g) agreements and two withdrew their applications. They are the sheriff's offices of Brevard and Manatee counties in Florida; Framingham, Mass. police department; Cumberland County, N.C. sheriff's office; Mesquite, Nev. police department and Houston Police Department.
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Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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On the Web: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: http://www.ice.gov/index.htm
(This version CORRECTS SUBS lead to correct spelling of county.)

LONDON – European stock markets fell modestly Friday and Wall Street futures turned negative following a set of downbeat U.S. earnings reports, most notably from Bank of America Corp.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 20.88 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,202.07 while Germany's DAX fell 28.30 points, or 0.5 percent, at 5,802.47. The CAC-40 in France was 18.17 points, or 0.5 percent, lower at 3,865.66.
European shares had earlier been higher after Thursday's strong finish on Wall Street — despite early jitters the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,000 for the second day running.
However, disappointing results from Bank of America, in particular, reined in expectations that Wall Street would close the week strongly. Dow futures were 33 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 9,931 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 3.7 points, or 0.3 percent, at 1,086.10.
Results from Bank of America showed that it's still a long way from getting its finances into health. It reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter loss of $1 billion as the recession continued to cause loans to go sour.
Bank of America, along with Citigroup Inc. on Thursday, showed that the financial sector in the U.S. still has not recovered fully, despite the successes posted at JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. earlier this week.
Bank of America wasn't the only company disappointing investors Friday. General Electric Co. said its profit dropped 44 percent in the most recent quarter, largely because of weakness in its financial unit, GE Capital.
So far the earnings out of the U.S. have generally impressed — statements from Google Inc., IBM Corp. and chip makers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. have been strong — and that has helped stocks to rally strongly this week. Many of the world's major indexes have struck year highs as a result.
"The majority of Q3 earning announcements continue to come in broadly ahead of expectations, helping to support risk appetite," said Geoffrey Yu, an analyst at UBS.
"With this week's announcements having already set the tone, the market impact of further earnings reports is likely to be muted," he added.
The rally in stocks since March's lows has been predicated on hopes that the global economic recovery will be quicker and more substantial than valuations were implying.
Many now think that the valuations could be too optimistic, especially if governments and central banks think their job is done and start withdrawing some of the stimulus measures they have enacted over the last year or so.
For now though, most analysts doubt that there will be any near-term changes.
"Equity markets may already be seen as fully valued by some and at risk of retrenchment should the 'pump-priming' process begin to lose its traction, but in view of this status quo on the policy front, the moment of reckoning can arguably be postponed to another day," said Neil Mellor, an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon.
Earlier, stocks in Asia were mixed, though Thailand's market rebounded after falling 7 percent over two days amid panic about the health of 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 18.91 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,257.56, while Taiwan gained 0.1 percent. China's Shanghai index fell 0.1 percent and Singapore's market also shed 0.1 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 69.18, or 0.3 percent, to close at 21,929.80. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.1 percent and Australia's benchmark fell 0.5 percent.
Earlier, oil prices continued a weeklong rally, briefly jumping above $78 a barrel after U.S. gasoline inventories unexpectedly fell.

However, those gains were erased and benchmark crude for November delivery fell 44 cents to $77.14 a barrel. The contract rose $2.40 to settle at $77.58 on Thursday.

The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.4877 while the dollar rose a further 0.7 percent to 91.15 yen.

____

AP Business Writer Kelly Olsen in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

The basket or frame must be designed for rigidity to avoid deformation, which will change the magnetic conditions in the magnet gap, and could even cause the voice coil to rub against the walls of the magnetic gap. Baskets are typically cast or stamped metal, although molded plastic baskets are becoming common, especially for inexpensive drivers. The frame also plays a considerable role in conducting heat away from the coil.

Very few manufacturers use electrically powered field coils as was common in the earliest designs. The size and type of magnet and details of the magnetic circuit differ, depending on design goals. For instance, the shape of the pole piece affects the magnetic interaction between the voice coil and the magnetic field, and is sometimes used to modify a driver's behavior. As well, a 'shorting ring' or cap is sometimes used near the magnetic gap to reduce adverse distortion effects of high current in the voice coil.

http://www.gracedigitalaudio.com/wireless-audio-c-4.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros said on Thursday that the world's current "currency arrangements" are fraught with danger and that the world needs global regulation.

Soros, who runs hedge fund firm Soros Fund Management and has made his reputation with bold currency bets, said the U.S. dollar ought to be falling in value against the Chinese currency to allow the United States to contain its current account deficit.

However, Soros said because the renminbi is tied to the greenback, the Chinese currency is constantly undervalued leaving the dollar to sink against the world's other major currencies.

The dollar has lost about 7 percent this year against a basket of the world's major currencies.

Meanwhile, an undervalued yuan makes Chinese consumer goods cheaper in foreign markets. Beijing has powered the country's growth by targeting U.S. and other consumer markets with its exports, putting many producers in those markets out of business because they cannot compete.

Soros, who earned $1 billion in 1992 by betting against the British pound, said current currency arrangements are "fraught with danger."

He said that the globalization of financial markets was built on a "false pretense" that financial markets could be left to their own devices and said global regulation was needed.

"That is a tremendous challenge," he said at an event sponsored by the Economist magazine held at the New York Stock Exchange.

Soros spoke only hours after the U.S. Treasury Department said that China is not manipulating its currency but is piling up foreign exchange reserves at a rate that threatens progress in reducing global economic imbalances.

Turning to the world economy, Soros said "the world economy is going to have some growth, but we are bound to be flat."

He also said the U.S. is going to be a drag on world growth.

In China, Soros said he also believes there is a something of an asset bubble.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba and Svea Herbst in New York and Glenn Somerville in Washington; Editing by Carol Bishopric, Bernard Orr)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) –
U.S. President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started.

In recent weeks, Obama has faced criticism both from liberals who want him to do more to advance causes such as gay rights, and conservatives who accuse him of taking too long to decide whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

A comedy skit on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" program a couple of weeks ago drew attention to the issue. An actor playing the president said, "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is: Nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it."

The criticism was magnified after Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a week ago when even some commentators sympathetic to the president said it seemed premature.

Obama, making his first trip as president to see efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, opened a town-hall meeting by saying his work had led to some improvement in the U.S. economy and brought an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system within reach this year.

"Now, just in case any of you were wondering, I never thought any of this was going to be easy," he said. "You know, I listen to sometimes these reporters on the news (who say) 'Well, why haven't you solved world hunger yet?'"

As the crowd laughed, he said: "Why hasn't everybody done it? It's been nine months. Why? I never said it was going to be easy. What did I say during the campaign? I said change is hard. And big change is harder."

In what seemed a reference to Republicans opposed to Democratic healthcare proposals, Obama accused them of "trying to stand in the way of progress."

"Let me tell you: I'm just getting started," Obama said.

'WHY DO PEOPLE HATE YOU?'

The town-hall meeting showed evidence of the partisan divide in America.

When the Democratic Obama introduced Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a rising star in Republican politics, some in the crowd booed until Obama settled them down and hailed Jindal as a hard-working politician.

At the end of the event, a young schoolboy named Terence Scott asked Obama, "Why do people hate you?"

"Well, now, first of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now," Obama replied. "I got a whole lot of votes."

"But you know, what is true is if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time," Obama said, blaming the climate in part on politics and on concerns among Americans about losing jobs or their healthcare.

"And when things are going tough, then, you know, you're going to get some of the blame, and that's part of the job. But you know, I'm a pretty tough guy," he said.

At a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco later on Thursday, Obama pressed the counterattack against his conservative critics, saying he believed in having a "loyal opposition" but rejected it "when some folks decide to sit on the sidelines and root for failure."

He insisted that he and his Democratic allies in Congress were "busy with a mop cleaning up somebody else's mess," alluding to the litany of pressing problems he inherited from his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

"We don't want somebody sitting back and saying 'you're not holding the mop the right way, you're not mopping fast enough, that's a socialist mop,'" Obama said to laughter from hundreds of party donors.

(Writing by Steve Holland and Caren Bohan; Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Beech)

Personalized Pens

A pen (Latin penna, feather) is a writing instrument used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper. There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, and felt-tip. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used.

Bíró filed a British patent on June 15, 1938. In 1940 the Bíró brothers and a friend, Juan Jorge Meyne, moved to Argentina fleeing Nazi Germany and on June 10, filed another patent, and formed Bíró Pens of Argentina. By the summer of 1943 the first commercial models were available. Erasable ballpoint pens were introduced by Papermate in 1979 when the Erasermate was put on the market.

SYDNEY (AFP) –
The company at the centre of a massive oil spill off Australia's northwest said Tuesday it was still about two weeks away from plugging the leak, which has already been gushing for more than a month.

An estimated 400 barrels of oil has spilled daily into the Timor Sea since the West Atlas drilling rig began leaking on August 21, forcing the evacuation of 69 workers, according to Bangkok-headquartered PTTEP Australasia.

PTTEP said it began drilling a relief well to divert the leaking oil and gas on Monday, after a mobile rig arrived from Indonesia. It needs to bore 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles) under the seabed, which will take about a week.

"This will be followed some 24 hours later by a specialist crew boarding the West Atlas rig and well head platform to further secure the situation by plugging the well bore," the company said in a statement.

"This operation is expected to take about another week."

Heavy mud would be used to plug the leaking bore, it said, adding that more than 300 people were involved in the relief effort about 250 kilometres off the Australian coast.

Tonnes of dispersant chemicals have been dumped on the spill, reportedly Australia's worst since offshore drilling began more than 40 years ago, and ecologists fear the toxic cocktail could threaten marine and coastal species.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez rallied the New York Jets to a surprise 16-9 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday.

New England had won eight consecutive games against the Jets at the Meadowlands but on Sunday it was Sanchez, not veteran Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who ended with the victory.

"This meant a lot, man," said wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who caught four passes for 87 yards. "Today's a special day," he added of snapping the streak to the Patriots.

"It's something you have to carry with you year after year.

The fans rose to the occasion today and we wanted to make sure we did our job. It was a collective effort."

Sanchez threw for one touchdown and helped set up two Jay Feely field goals for the Jets in the second half while their defense shut down the Patriots (1-1) in the final two quarters.

The rookie completed 14 of 22 passes for 163 yards without an interception, while his nine-yard pass to Dustin Keller a minute into the third quarter gave the Jets a 10-9 lead, which they did not relinquish.

"It took until the second half, but what an amazing team win," Sanchez told reporters after the victory put the Jets (2-0) on top of the AFC East standings.

Jets coach Rex Ryan agreed.

"I just thought we were the better team today," New York's first-year head coach said. "We went out and showed it."

Brady, meanwhile, failed to complete a touchdown pass and was intercepted once while completing 23 of 47 passes for 216 yards.

"We didn't do much," said the veteran quarterback, who had never lost to the Jets at the Meadowlands.

"It was poor execution a lot of the time," Brady said.

"We (have) all got to do a better job. I've got to do a better job throwing the ball. Be more accurate."

He failed to complete three consecutive passes on the Patriots' final drive, ending their comeback bid at the New England 28 with a minute to play.

The Jets then ran out the clock.

Stephen Gostkowski kicked three field goals for the Patriots, who led 9-3 at halftime.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina. Editing by Ed Osmond and Greg Stutchbury)

Live food is living food for carnivorous or omnivorous animals kept in captivity; in other words, small animals such as insects or mice fed to larger carnivorous or omnivorous species kept in either in a zoo or as pet.

Mealworm beetles (darkling beetles) are prolific breeders. Mating is a three step process: 1) The male gives chase until the female relents. 2) The male then mounts the female and curls his genitals (aedagus) underneath himself and inserts it into her genital tract. 3) The male then injects a packet of semen into the female. Dependent on incubation temperature, just days after mating the female will burrow into soft ground and lays about 500 eggs.

http://www.thenaturesway.com/

HONG KONG (Reuters) –
Asian shares inched up on Tuesday with softer commodity prices weighing on Australian stocks, while the New Zealand dollar hit a 13-month high on signs of a recovery in prices for the country's key dairy exports.

The U.S. dollar ran out of steam, holding steady at around 92 yen, as short covering waned, after it jumped on Monday to as high as 92.53 yen. However, analysts do not expect the U.S. currency to slip much ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve monetary meeting beginning later Tuesday and a G20 summit this week.

Volumes were capped as Japanese financial markets are closed until Thursday for public holidays.

Malaysian and Indonesian markets were also closed for public holidays.

In Australia, shares were little changed, dampened by an overnight drop in commodities prices although gold edged back up in Asian trade and oil recovered to just below $70 a barrel.

South Korean shares climbed 1 percent, helped by gains in tech stocks but telecom shares fell on worries that tariffs will be slashed.

Treasury bond futures fell after the Bank of Korea said it was ready to use monetary policy to help calm rising property prices.

"We will take proper steps (against rising property prices) including monetary policy if necessary, taking a look at conditions of financial markets and the economy in the future," the central bank said in a draft version of a report to parliament obtained by Reuters.

China shares were slightly higher but investors across the region were subdued after the Dow Jones (.DJI) dipped 0.4 percent on Monday and demand concerns depressed commodities prices.

The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan edged up 0.7 percent and the Asian Development Bank raised its growth forecasts for developing Asia to 3.9 percent for 2009, from 3.4 percent, and lifted its 2010 forecast to 6.4 percent from 6 percent.

KIWI SURGES

The U.S. Federal Reserve begins a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and while it is likely to hold interest rates, markets will be watching for any comments indicating the Fed might wind back its super-accommodative policy stance given improving economic data. That would be a boost for the dollar if it does, analysts said.

Oil prices picked up after Monday's fall on renewed concern about weakness in energy demand while commodities prices were steady after the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index of commodities (.CRB) tumbled 2.2 percent in New York trade, its largest percentage drop in five weeks.

Dairy prices, in contrast are showing signs of rebounding, pushing the New Zealand dollar to a 13-month high above $0.7159, after the country's Fonterra group, the world's largest dairy exporter, raised its estimated payout to farmer shareholders for the 2009/10 season by 12 percent.

Fonterra generates about 7 percent of New Zealand gross domestic product.

The Kiwi, which has rallied more than 40 percent from a six-year low plumbed in early March, was also supported by current account data that showed New Zealand's second quarter deficit at its lowest level in nearly five years.

Australia lifted its production forecast for metals including iron ore and copper, predicting that China will remain a fervent buyer, but cut its export earnings estimate because of lower prices.

(Additional reporting by Chang Tae-min and Cheon Jong-woo in Seoul; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles pharmacist told Anna Nicole Smith's internist that the drugs the internist prescribed to the model after her son died were "pharmaceutical suicide," according to unsealed documents written by state officials.
Smith's doctors were warned about prescription drugs by three pharmacists, according to unsealed affidavits obtained Monday by the Los Angeles Times.
The pharmacist refused to fill the prescriptions and later recalled thinking, "They are going to kill her with this."
The documents are part of an investigation of the role that Smith's doctors, psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and internist Sandeep Kapoor, had in her overdose death in February 2007.
The physicians and Smith's boyfriend and attorney Howard K. Stern pleaded not guilty May 13 to conspiring to illegally provide her with controlled substances. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next month.
In court papers filed last week, prosecutors said they plan to call the model's bodyguard and Larry Birkhead, the father of her daughter, Dannielynn, as witnesses.
The documents also cite evidence that both physicians crossed professional boundaries by having sexual contact with their famous patient. Calls to attorneys representing Eroshevich and Kapoor were not immediately returned Monday.
The first request for drugs for the former Playboy Playmate came five days after her son died and asked for two sedatives, 300 tablets of methadone, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and four bottles of a strong painkiller.
___
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Deposed President Manuel Zelaya made a dramatic return to Honduras' capital Monday, taking shelter from arrest at Brazil's embassy and calling for negotiations with the leaders who forced him from the country at gunpoint.
The interim government initially ordered a 15-hour curfew, but then extended it to a 26-hour shutdown of the capital, but thousands of Zelaya supporters ignored the decree and remained outside the embassy, dancing and cheering.
Others in the capital rushed home, lining up at bus stands and frantically looking for taxis. Electricity was cut off for hours at a time on the block housing the embassy and in areas of Tegucigalpa where news media offices are located — something that happened the day of the coup that ousted the leftist leader.
Security Vice Minister Mario Perdomo said checkpoints were being set up on highways leading to the capital to keep out Zelaya's supporters from other regions, to "stop those people coming to start trouble." Later, Defense Minister Lionel Sevilla said all flights to Tegucigalpa had been suspended indefinitely.
Without giving any specifics, Zelaya said he snuck into the country by traveling for 15 hours overland in a series of vehicles — pulling off a homecoming that created a sharp new challenge for the interim government that had threatened repeatedly to throw him in jail if he returned.
Chants of "Yes we could! Yes we could!" bellowed from the crowd outside the Brazilian Embassy.
Zelaya told The Associated Press that he was trying to establish contact with the interim government to start negotiations on a solution to the standoff that started when soldiers flew him out of the country June 28.
"As of now, we are beginning to seek dialogue," he said by telephone, though he gave few details. Talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have been stalled for weeks over the interim government's refusal to accept Zelaya's reinstatement.
He also summoned his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protests and urged the army to avoid attacking his supporters.
"It is the moment of reconciliation," he said.
The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti, who took power after Zelaya's ouster and has promised to step aside following a presidential election scheduled for November, said the curfew would continue until 6 p.m. (0000 GMT) Tuesday. It first declared a curfew running from 4 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday.
The government said in a statement the army and police were ready to "guarantee the safety of people."
The shifting orders reflected the surprise of Zelaya's arrival, which caught the interim government off guard. Only minutes before he appeared publicly at the embassy, officials said reports of his return were a lie.
Zelaya's presence could revive the large demonstrations that disrupted the capital following the coup and threatens to overshadow the presidential election campaign.
Teachers union leader Eulogio Chavez announced that the country's 60,000 educators would go on strike indefinitely Tuesday to back Zelaya's demand to be reinstated.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged both sides to look for a peaceful solution to the crisis.
"It is imperative that dialogue begin, that there be a channel of communication between President Zelaya and the de facto regime in Honduras," Rodham Clinton told reporters on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session in New York.
The U.S. State Department announced Sept. 4 that it would not recognize results of the presidential vote under current conditions. The coup has shaken up Washington's relations with Honduras, traditionally one of its strongest allies in Central America.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, called for calm and warned Honduran officials to avoid any violation of the Brazilian diplomatic mission. "They should be responsible for the safety of president Zelaya and the Embassy of Brazil," he said.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said neither his country nor the OAS had any role in Zelaya's journey before taking him in.

"We hope this opens a new stage in negotiations," Amorin said. He also warned: "If something happens to Zelaya or our embassy it would be a violation of international law," which bars host countries from arresting people inside diplomatic missions.

Honduras' Foreign Relations Department criticized Brazil, saying it was violating international law by "allowing Zelaya, a fugitive of Honduran justice, to make public calls to insurrection and political mobilization from its headquarters."

Micheletti urged Brazil in a nationwide radio address to turn Zelaya over to Honduran authorities.

In the days following the coup, at least two of the thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets were killed during clashes with security forces. Thousands of other Hondurans demonstrated in favor of the coup.

The country's Congress and courts, alarmed by Zelaya's political shift into a close alliance with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba, backed Zelaya's removal.

He was arrested on orders of the Supreme Court on charges of treason and abuse of power for ignoring court orders against holding a popular referendum on reforming the constitution.

Micheletti said Zelaya sought to remove a ban on re-election — grounds for immediate removal from office under the Honduran constitution. Zelaya denies any such plan.

International leaders were almost unanimously against the armed removal of the president, alarmed that it could return Latin America to a bygone era of coups and instability. The United States, European Union and other agencies have cut aid to Honduras to press for his return.

Zelaya said he had "evaded a thousand obstacles" to return, traveling 15 hours by land in different vehicles. He declined to give specifics on who helped him cross the border, saying that he didn't want to jeopardize their safety.

His staunch supporter, Chavez, described the journey: "President Manuel Zelaya, along with four companions, traveled for two days overland, crossing mountains and rivers, risking their lives. They have made it to Honduras."

Sevilla, the defense minister, told reporters that Zelaya allegedly entered Honduras from Nicaragua in a car licensed in a South American nation that "is not Venezuela."

If the interim administration attempts to imprison Zelaya, protesters who have demonstrated against his ouster could turn violent, said Vicki Gass at the Washington Office on Latin America.

"There's a saying about Honduras that people can argue in the morning and have dinner in the evening, but I'm not sure this will happen in this case," said Gass. "It's been 86 days since the coup. Something had to break and this might be it."

___

Associated Press writers Catherine E. Shoichet, Martha Mendoza and Alexandra Olson in Mexico City, Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Venezuela, and Matthew Lee in New York contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration warned insurance companies Monday they face possible legal action for allegedly trying to scare seniors with misleading information about the potential for lost benefits under health care legislation in Congress.
"As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to immediately discontinue all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your Web sites," said a notice from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
Teresa DeCaro, an agency official, sent the notice to all companies that sell private Medicare coverage and stand-alone drug plans to seniors. The warning came as President Barack Obama's health care legislation is moving toward key tests in a Senate committee over the next several days, and with public polls showing widespread skepticism among seniors.
In one case, the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees CMS, launched an investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry.
"It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject — particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform," Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation.
Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is cooperating with the investigation and stopped the mailer earlier this month, company spokesman Tom Noland said Monday.
Federal subsidies to private Medicare plans average about 14 percent higher than those involved in traditional fee-for-service coverage under the program for those aged 65 and older, and the health care bills pending in Congress call for reducing or eliminating the difference.
The insurance industry is fighting the change, in part by trying to mobilize seniors to oppose them.
The Senate committee that Baucus chairs — Finance — will vote this week on a sweeping health care plan that he's proposed to expand coverage and try to control costs. It would cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by about $500 billion over 10 years, but Baucus says that would lead to greater efficiency, not reduced benefits.
"The health care reform bill we released ... strengthens Medicare and does not cut benefits," said Baucus. "From lower prescription drug costs, to free preventive care, to better treatment for chronic conditions, seniors have so much to gain from health reform — and I'm not going to let insurance company profits stand in the way of improving Medicare for seniors."
Humana is one of the largest private carriers serving seniors under a program called Medicare Advantage. About one-fourth of the elderly and disabled people covered under Medicare participate in the Advantage program, which offers a choice of private plans that usually deliver added benefits.
Humana has about 1.4 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, and the program accounts for about half the company's revenue, Noland said.
The Humana mailer focused squarely on the Medicare Advantage program.
"While these programs need to be made more efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable," it said.
It urged seniors to sign up with Humana for regular updates on the health care legislation, and encouraged them to contact their lawmakers in Washington.
In a warning letter to Humana, HHS said the government is concerned that the mailer "is misleading and confusing" partly because the company's lobbying campaign could be mistaken for an official communication about Medicare benefits.
HHS ordered the company to immediately halt any such mailings, and remove any related materials from its Web site. In the letter, the government also said it may take other action against Humana.
Although most prominent Democrats back a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with private carriers, Baucus did not include one in his proposal because he doesn't think it can pass the Senate. During the Bush administration, he broke with his party to support a Medicare prescription drug benefit delivered through private insurance plans, with no government role in negotiating prices.

Insurers, however, are pushing back against his plan to revamp health care. Not only would it cut payments to private Medicare plans, but it would also impose a $6-billion annual fee on the industry, partly to recoup profits from an influx of new taxpayer-subsidized customers.

Humana opposes a government-run insurance option, arguing that it would "undermine the coverage that is working today for millions of Americans," Noland said.

Polls show that seniors are more skeptical of the health care overhaul than the U.S. population as a whole.

___

Associated Press writers Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Ky., and David Espo in Washington contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
A New York judge on Monday said he will let 86-year-old Viacom Inc Chairman Sumner Redstone be questioned over former TV news anchor Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS Corp.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman also set a December 22 hearing in the case, in which Rather claims he was fired over a controversial election-year report on former President George W. Bush's Vietnam War-era military service.

CBS is trying to get Rather's lawsuit dismissed, but said it was not moving for dismissal at Monday's hearing. Gammerman said he could not dismiss the case while also allowing further depositions.

"Let's get this case moving," Gammerman said. "I would really like to get this case ready for trial."

Rather, 77, sued CBS in 2007 and has filed a separate fraud case against CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward over his firing from the network, his home for more than four decades. CBS was spun off from Viacom in 2006.

CBS has acknowledged it could not authenticate documents used in the September 8, 2004, report on Bush's National Guard service, which aired two months before Bush won a second term in the White House.

Rather accused the network in his lawsuit of breaching his contract in part by not giving him enough on-air assignments following his March 2005 removal as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," a job he held for 24 years.

RATHER SAYS PRINCIPLE AT STAKE

"It was definitely a positive day for us," said Martin Gold, a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP who represents Rather, after Monday's roughly 40-minute hearing.

"They saw their best interest was to abandon the story whether it was accurate or not and to get rid of Dan Rather," he said. "That's what this case is about."

James Quinn, who co-chairs Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's litigation practice and represents CBS, said he had expected Gammerman to keep the case alive. "If we have to go to trial, we're ready," he said after the hearing.

CBS spokesman said the hearing constituted a "good day," for the company, noting that Gammerman agreed with its request that testimony from Redstone be limited to half a day.

Rather hopes to show Redstone wanted him fired. CBS lawyers argued that Redstone had no such recollection, and that deposing him would as a result accomplish nothing.

A representative for Redstone had no immediate comment.

A Manhattan appeals court is considering CBS' appeal of other rulings and its decision could moot the case.

Speaking outside the courthouse, Rather said the case puts "an important principle" at stake: "Are we going to let big corporations and big government decide what we hear and see on the news?"

He accused CBS of having "buried an important story to curry favor with and protect the powerful politicians who regulate them. That's a big part of this lawsuit."

CONTRACT DISPUTE

In July, Gammerman reinstated a fraud claim against CBS after Rather's lawyer contended the network's decisions cost his client several million dollars. Rather sued Moonves and Heyward the following month.

"I don't think you can cloak this case in the noble cause of journalism," Heyward said after the hearing. "Underneath it all, it's a contract dispute."

Rather now produces a news program, "Dan Rather Reports," for HDNet, a high-definition television channel chaired and co-founded by Mark Cuban, the Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

The lawsuit is Rather v. CBS Corp, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan), No. 603121/2007.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; additional reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Andre Grenon and Steve Orlofsky)

Molecular systematics indicate that the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) descends from one or more populations of wild wolves (Canis lupus). As reflected in the nomenclature, dogs are descended from the wolf and are able to interbreed with wolves.

Mixed-breed dogs or Mongrels (also called "mutts") are dogs that do not belong to specific breeds, being mixtures more than two in variant percentages. Mixed breed dogs and purebred dogs are both suitable as companions, pets, working dogs, or competitors in dog sports. Sometimes different breed dogs are deliberately bred, to create cross-breeds such as the Cockapoo, a mixture of Cocker Spaniel and Miniature Poodle. Such deliberate crosses may display some degree of hybrid vigor and other desirable traits, but may or may not inherit any of the desired traits of their parents, such as temperament or a particular color or coat. Without genetic testing of the parents, the crosses can end up inheriting genetic defects that occur in both parental breeds.

Dog Tags

ATLANTA – Surging floodwaters ripped apart a west Georgia trailer home, drowning a 2-year-old boy swept from his father's arms. In Atlanta, stranded motorists scrambled to the tops of their car as waters rose on one of the city's busiest highways. To the north, crews worked furiously to shore up a levee holding a surging river back from an isolated town.
Storms that pounded the Southeast on Monday turned sleepy creeks into rivers, and rivers into raging floodwaters. Six people were killed across the region, including five in the Atlanta area. Aerial shots showed schools, football fields, even entire neighborhoods submerged by the deluge, sending some unlucky residents scurrying for higher ground.
"It's a mess all over," said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
At least two people were missing, including a Tennessee man who went swimming in an overflowing ditch on a $5 dare and a 15-year-old Georgia teen who never returned from a swim in the surging Chattooga River.
The storm came after days of rain pounded most of the region and saturated the soil. Some parts of Georgia have had more than 20 inches since Friday.
"Any rain that fell has no place to go," said Georgia climatologist David Stooksbury. "This rainfall on top of already saturated soils really made the situation worse."
Many parts of north Georgia have experienced "historic" amounts of rain well in excess of so-called 100-year predictions, which describe a storm with the likelihood of happening once every century, said Stooksbury. The downpours come just months after much of the region emerged from an epic drought that plagued the region since 2007.
As the storm front rumbled through west Georgia, it turned a normally docile creek into a surging headwater that tore apart 2-year-old Preston Slade Crawford's mobile home around 2 a.m. The boy's body wasn't found until hours later, but his parents had been rescued as another son, age 1, clung to his mother's arms in the county west of Atlanta.
"By the time we got into our vehicle, they were screaming at the back of our house," said Pat Crawford, the boy's grandmother, who watched as the family's mobile home was whisked away. "We could see them, but the current was so bad, we couldn't get to them."
Crawford said she was on higher ground, unable to help her family members. Craig Crawford clung to his 2-year-old son, but the boy was pulled away in a strong undercurrent.
To the northwest, crews in the tiny Georgia town of Trion worked to shore up a levee breached by the Chattooga River and in danger of failing. The town evacuated more than 1,500 residents, and Red Cross workers quickly set up an emergency shelter able to help hundreds nearby.
"It's a grave situation for us," said Lamar Canada, Chattooga County's emergency management director.
Most of the dead were motorists trying to navigate the treacherous roadways. Seydi Burciaga, a 39-year-old woman from Georgia's Gwinnett County, was found dead in her vehicle after it was swept off a road by flooding, said Gwinnett County Fire Capt. Thomas Rutledge.
But the surging waters weren't just dangerous for drivers. A 22-year-old Alabama man, James Dale Leigh, drowned when a pond's rain-soaked bank collapsed beneath him, said Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin.
Among the hardest-hit areas was Georgia's Douglas County, where as much as a foot of rain fell Monday. Flooding there was blamed for the deaths of a man and two women in three separate situations, said county spokesman Wes Tallon.
Emergency officials were often forced to improvise to rescue dozens of people stranded in their homes and cars.
"We're using everything we can get our hands on," Tallon said. "Everything from boats to Jet Skis to ropes to ladders."
Other southeastern states were hit less severely.

In Kentucky, rescue crews went on more than a dozen runs to help stranded people after 4 inches of rain fell on parts of Louisville Sunday, said Louisville fire department spokesman Sgt. Salvador Melendez.

Water rose as high as window-level on some houses in North Carolina's Polk County, forcing emergency officials to evacuate homes along a seven-mile stretch of road. Flooding in more than 20 counties in western North Carolina closed roads, delayed school and forced evacuations.

The forecast held little good news for Georgia: Another round of storms was expected to move in Tuesday from the west.

"Don't remind me," Carroll County Emergency Management Director Tim Padgett said of the forecast. "That's the worst news we could hear."

___

Associated Press Writers Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Kate Brumback in Carrollton, Ga., Johnny C. Clark in Trion, Ga., Errin Haines in Atlanta and Randall Dickerson in Nashville contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Even more U.S. troops will likely be needed in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000 who will have deployed there by the end of this year, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not estimate how many more troops would be needed but said he expected a request for more resources from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in a couple of weeks.

Mullen said he felt a sense of urgency about the war but also pleaded for patience as skepticism about it grows among members of Congress, especially in President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, and the American public.

"A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces," Mullen told the U.S. Senate's armed services committee.

"We can get there. We can accomplish the mission we've been assigned," he said.

"But we will need resources matched to the strategy, civilian expertise matched to military capabilities, and the continued support of the American people."

Obama is considering a formal assessment of the war from Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, whose report is expected to result in a request by the military for more combat forces. Members of the Senate will be briefed on Wednesday on McChrystal's report, a congressional aide said.

In Kabul, the head of a U.N.-backed watchdog that monitored last month's Afghan elections said on Tuesday a partial recount ordered to prevent voter fraud will cover more than 10 percent of polling stations.

That means that enough votes are likely to be subjected to the fraud investigation to potentially alter the outcome, prolonging uncertainty over the result for weeks or months.

The preliminary results give President Hamid Karzai a majority of 54.3 percent, but the U.N. watchdog has already annulled votes from dozens of polling stations and can discard even more.

GROWING AMERICAN DISAPPROVAL

Fifty-eight percent of Americans now oppose the Afghan war while 39 percent support it, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released on Monday.

Obama himself acknowledged that continued public support for the mission was important but rejected comparisons between Afghanistan and the deeply divisive Vietnam War.

"Afghanistan is not Vietnam," he said in an interview with CNBC television and the New York Times published on Tuesday.

"But the dangers of overreach and not having clear goals and not having strong support from the American people, those are all issues that I think about all the time," Obama said.

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Robert Gates had not yet come to a conclusion on whether more troops were needed.

"The secretary's thinking on this is a work in progress," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has almost doubled this year from 32,000 to 62,000 and is expected to grow by another 6,000 by the year's end. There are also some 38,000 troops from other nations, mainly NATO allies.

Insurgent violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001. Adding to the country's difficulties are allegations of fraud surrounding last month's Afghan presidential election.

Grant Kippen, the Canadian, U.N.-appointed head of watchdog the Electoral Complaints Commission, which has the power to veto the election result, told Reuters 2,516 polling stations were subject to a recount order his commission issued last week.

Opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, said that if a result is delayed into next year, he wants a transitional government led by neither himself nor Karzai.

DEBATE SNAPSHOT

Abdullah says ballot stuffing took place on a large scale, especially in southern areas where the reported result overwhelmingly favors Karzai.

Karzai's lead is big enough that fraud would have to be uncovered on a huge scale to force another round.

The Senate hearing to consider Mullen's nomination for a second term as the top U.S. military officer and military adviser to the president -- which is expected to be approved -- offered a snapshot of the current debate over Afghanistan.

The committee chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, took the opportunity to restate his proposal not to send more combat troops for now and instead focus on training and expanding Afghan security forces.

Senator John McCain, the panel's ranking Republican, strongly rejected the idea, saying it resembled the failed U.S. policy of relying too soon on local forces in Iraq.

"With all due respect, Senator Levin, I've seen that movie before," McCain said.

Mullen pushed back more subtly against Levin's proposal, saying a greater focus on Afghan forces was needed but could only be part of the solution in Afghanistan.

"Sending more trainers more quickly will give us a jump start -- but only that. Quality training takes time and patience," he said.

(Additional reporting by Golnar Motevalli and Peter Graff in Kabul, editing by Philip Barbara)

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