Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells

President Barack Obama said Monday he is allowing federal taxpayer dollars to fund significantly broader research on embryonic stem cells because "medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," and promised his administration would make up for the ground lost under his predecessor.

Fulfilling a campaign promise, Obama signed an executive order expected to set in motion increased research that supporters believe could uncover cures for serious ailments from diabetes to paralysis. Obama's action, before a packed East Room audience, reverses former President George W. Bush's policy on stem cell research by undoing a 2001 directive that banned federal funding …

Land costs spur zero-lot-line houses

Zero-lot-line houses with no lawn on one side are becoming morepopular as land prices rise.

"The zero-lot-line concept was not one that was looked upon toofavorably at one time," said Dick Van Schaardenburg, president ofTown and Country Homes.

With land at a premium, developers and buyers alike are findingthat spacious, quality houses can be built by situating them with anoutside wall constructed directly on top of one of the lot lines ofthe site, he said.

Town and Country Homes is building zero-lot-line units at theEnclave, a 108-unit condominium development in Arlington Heights, andFarmington Glen, where 125 single-family houses are planned …

UN: gunmen attack Darfur camp, kill teenage girl

CAIRO (AP) — The U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur says gunmen have attacked a refugee camp in the troubled region of Sudan, killing a 16-year-old girl and wounding three people.

UNAMID said Wednesday that the assailants also burned several houses in the Um Dersay camp in North Darfur. The peacekeepers say the attack took place Feb. 28 and that the attackers fled after local …

Somali pirates hijack $20M of oil going to US

NAIROBI, Kenya _ Crews on oil tankers aren't allowed to smoke above deck, much less carry guns, for fear of igniting the ship's payload. That's one of the main reasons Somali pirates met little resistance when they hijacked a U.S.-bound supertanker carrying $20 million in crude.

The Greek-flagged tanker _ traveling from Saudi Arabia to New Orleans _ had no escort when it was hijacked Sunday because naval warships are stretched too thin. The problem has been further exacerbated because pirates have expanded their operations to hundreds of miles out at sea.

The hijacking, one year after seizure of a Saudi supertanker led to heightened international efforts to …

Seven things you didn't know about copenhagen

Fc Copenhagen were only founded in 1992, by the amalgamation ofKjobenhavns Boldklub (KB) and Boldklubben 1903, who knocked theDons out of Europe the year before.

SINCE then they have won six Danish Superliga championships,three Danish Cups and the Scandinavian tournament Royal Leaguetwice.

They also qualified for the Champions League for the first timelast season.

THEY were undefeated at home in the Champions League, beatingManchester United 1-0, Celtic 3-1 and drawing 0-0 with Benfica.

But losing all of their away games cost them the chance toadvance to the …

One-handed tourniquet

When a wounded soldier, far from a buddy or medic needs to put a tourniquet on a severely injured arm or leg, simpler is better. With this in mind, 3 years ago a research and development effort among three U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command organizations set out to create a tourniquet that a wounded soldier could use with one hand to replace the …

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Space shuttle Discovery pulled away from the international space station on Wednesday and began its journey home, ending a nine-day visit highlighted by the installation of a new Japanese lab.

The shuttle and its crew of seven, including a Japanese astronaut, are due back on Earth on Saturday.

"We wish them the best with their expedition and we hope we left them a better, more capable space station than when we arrived. Sayonara," shuttle commander Mark Kelly told the space station crew before leaving.

"We wish you guys a terrific flight back, an awesome landing and look forward to seeing you on the ground," responded Gregory …

'Vengeance' swipes cake, eats it, too

A 6-foot-tall, 275-pound bearded man crashed a children's birthdayparty in Oak Forest, identified himself as "vengeance," then helpedhimself to a piece of cake, police said.

The incident occurred earlier this month at a home in the 14800block of South Landings Lane in the south suburb, Deputy Police ChiefNick Sparacino said.

When the owner of the home asked the man who he was, the intruderreplied, "I am vengeance. I am the knight. …

The importance of July 4; Looking around makes us proud and grateful beyond measure

REFLECTING ON THE TIMES IN WHICH HE lived, the Scottish philosopher and author Thomas Carlyle wisely noted nearly 175 years ago how, when our comfortable situation is threatened, we most appreciate what we have.

"The healthy know not of their health, but only the sick," is the "Physician's Aphorism" with which Carlyle begins his famous essay "Characteristics".

Carlyle's observation comes to mind for this Independence Day not because American civilization is in an historically unique squeeze, but because each day we are reminded of how people suffer -- knowingly or unknowingly -- because of the failed leaders who govern them, or groups who wish to do so. And we suffer from …

Campbell Soup 1Q earnings down 3.7 percent

Campbell Soup Co.'s higher soup sales were watered down by commodity hedging losses in its first fiscal quarter, as the soupmaker said Monday that profits fell 3.7 percent even as more cash-strapped consumers reached for its brands.

Shares of the Camden, N.J.-based company tumbled 8 percent as investors worried about the nation's largest soupmaker's ability to keep ahead of currency fluctuations and to translate a bigger thirst for soup into higher earnings.

The company lowered its outlook for the year on worries about currency translation, which affects companies with sizable portions of their business overseas as the U.S. …

Reagan stoops in war of words

While the United States may have scored one for the good guys on thebattlefield against Libya last week, it would appear that the war ofwords has sunk well below the trenches.

In calling Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy "the mad dog of theMiddle East," President Reagan has stepped up - or in the opinion ofothers stepped down - the quality and eloquence of internationalrhetoric.

Some observers of diplomacy and speech communication suggestRea-gan's affection for so-called street language represents anevolution in presidential discourse that has been on the declinesince the end of the Vietnam War and the increasing influence oftelevision on political debate.

…

James Taylor, Selena Gomez join Swift onstage

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift closed her "Speak Now World Tour" with her best friend and the man her parents named her after.

The 21-year-old brought out James Taylor and Selena Gomez at her concert Tuesday night at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Swift said her parents named her after Taylor, and the two performed his hit "Fire and Rain." Taylor also played the guitar while Swift performed her …

Georgia's opposition blocks railway station

Thousands of angry protesters converged on the central train station in the Georgian capital Tuesday, trying to block the trains as the opposition raised the stakes in its push to get President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign.

Throngs of demonstrators surrounded one train, sitting on the track and climbing on the engine to prevent it from leaving the station. The engine started and then cut off quickly as protesters banged on its sides, shouted and whistled. Police were not visible.

The move marked a change in the opposition's tactics, reflecting protesters' exasperation after six weeks of daily rallies without result. It followed debates between the opposition leaders, some of whom strongly opposed more forceful action for fear of provoking violence.

The blockade at the train station followed a massive rally in which at least 60,000 opposition supporters gathered at the national stadium before marching to the parliament building to push for Saakashvili's resignation. The president has remained defiant, saying he will stay through his second term, which ends in 2013.

Opposition leaders warned Tuesday that protesters will also block highways and the Tbilisi main airport to force Saakashvili to resign.

The opposition chose a patriotic national holiday to raise the pitch of its protests which it has been conducting almost daily in Tbilisi since April 9.

"Today the Georgian people have shown to the world and to themselves that they're ready to struggle to the very end," Nino Burdzhanadze, the highest-profile opposition politician, told the crowd at the stadium.

"You have frightened those who want to frighten you," she said to deafening cheers.

Demonstrators are angry with Saakashvili for leading Georgia into the war against Russia, in which Georgia lost territory and saw its military crushed, its towns bombed and large chunks of its land temporarily occupied by Russian troops. Russia then recognized independence of Georgia's breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but Georgia still considers them to be under Russian occupation.

The opposition also accuses Saakashvili of backtracking on democracy.

While the president still has a broad base of support in the former Soviet republic _ which has experienced significant economic growth during his five years in office _ opposition leaders hoped Tuesday's demonstration would prove to be a tipping point.

Tuesday's rally would have coincided with the annual military parade celebrating Georgia's short-lived independence before it was taken over by the Red Army in 1921. After decades of Soviet rule, independence was restored in 1991.

But the government canceled the parade, fearing clashes with the opposition.

No police were visible inside or outside the stadium during Tuesday's rally.

Waving red-and-white Georgian flags, the demonstrators in the stadium cheered, sang the national anthem and burst into chants of "Sakartvelo! Sakartvelo!" _ the name of the country in Georgian.

Giorgy Gachechiladze, a well-known singer and opposition figure, ran onto the soccer field and knelt in the center of a giant Georgian flag, pumping his fists.

Later, outside the parliament, he told demonstrators: "While blood runs through my veins I will not allow Saakashvili to preside over our country."

Opposition supporters poured in from around the country. Overnight, hundreds of demonstrators carrying flags marched into Tbilisi in a torch-lit parade.

Saakashvili has offered to hold talks with opposition leaders on constitutional changes, but they have said they are prepared only to discuss his resignation.

___

Associated Press Writer Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili contributed to this report from Tbilisi.

Baker still in sheriff's race

The Cook County Sheriff candidate backed by several Black elected officials is still in the race despite a challenge to his nominating petitions.

The Cook County Clerk's office last week overruled a challenge to Sylvester Baker's candidacy based on the validity of his nominating papers. A complaint was filed by Michael O. Fleming, who was unable to be reached for comment.

Kelly Quinn, a spokeswoman for the clerk's office, said she did not know whom Fleming was associated with.

David Lowery Jr., spokesman for Baker, said he expected the electoral board to rule in Baker's favor.

"It should have never even been an issue," said Lowery. "We can expect games, but we're going to win this."

Baker primary opposition in the March 21 primary is Tom Dart, a former state representative in the 28th district, who currently serves as chief of staff to retiring Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan.

Dart has the backing of the Cook County Democratic organization, as well as Cook County Board President John Stroger Jr. and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Baker, a retired Cook County Sheriff's Office sergeant, was the candidate chosen by a group of Black elected officials at a November meeting, including Rep. Bobby Rush (D-1st), Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) and state Sen. James Meeks (D-15th), and at least a dozen other Black elected officials.

Former Cook County Corrections employee Richard L. Remus, the third Democratic sheriff's candidate in the March 21, primary filed an objection to Dart's nominating papers, but that challenge was overruled Jan. 6.

Article copyright REAL TIMES Inc.

Álvarez, Julia

ÁLVAREZ, Julia

Born 27 March 1950, New York, New York

Julia Álvarez's family fled the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, when she was ten years old. They went to live in New York City, where Álvarez's grandfather had worked as the Dominican cultural attaché to the United Nations. By the time she attended Connecticut College, Álvarez was already receiving prizes for her poetry. She transferred to Middlebury College in Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1971 and was awarded the college's creative writing prize. In 1975 she received a Master's degree in creative writing from Syracuse University. She has taught writing to students of all levels and all ages, from young children to senior citizens. In 1996 she received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the City University of New York, John Jay College. She is currently a full professor in the English Department at Middlebury and a frequent scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

It was the emotional upheaval caused by leaving her homeland and her language behind which led Álvarez to become a writer. Of her childhood in the Dominican Republic she states: "The power of stories was all around me." Álvarez was a reluctant student, who seized every opportunity to play hooky from the Carol Morgan School that she attended with her three sisters, but who relished furtively reading The Thousand and One Nights under the bedskirts or hearing legends and stories told by her elders, from the aunts and uncles in her extensive family to the domestic servants who worked for them.

With the move to the U.S., Álvarez began to realize the power of language in giving one a sense of place and belonging. As an adolescent at the Abbott School, a boarding school north of Boston, Álvarez says she "landed in the English language." The process of assimilation took her away, however, from the Spanish of her youth. Writing novels and poetry that center on the immigrant experience is a way for Álvarez to reclaim her cultural identity.

Her first book-length work of fiction, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), was awarded the Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles award. This collection of interconnected short stories centers around the character of Yolanda García, the third child in a Dominican family that has fled their homeland and resettled in New York City. Yolanda and her three sisters, Carla, Sandra and Sofia, struggle to be accepted in their new country. As the title reveals, this story is one of assimilation and the loss that assimilation inevitably entails. Arranged in reverse chronology, the grown-up García girls at the beginning of the work have already lost their accents, but like many immigrants, they have also come to realize the importance of holding fast to the ties that bind them to Caribbean culture and to the country they were born in. As the stories work their way backward to the girls' childhood in the Dominican Republic, they become increasingly assured and powerful. Donna Rifkind, in a review for the New York Times Book Review, said that Álvarez has "beautifully captured the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory and the future remains an anxious dream."

In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), Álvarez's second novel, takes place in the Dominican Republic during Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's brutal 31-year regime. The novel weaves historical fact with fiction to tell the story of the coming of age of four sisters: Minerva, Patria Mercedes, Dedé and María Teresa ("Mate"). Known throughout Latin America by their code name, "Las Mariposas," the butterflies, Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa Mirabal, were murdered by Trujillo's henchmen in 1960 on the way home from visiting their husbands in jail. The novel traces the transformation of these ordinary girls into extraordinary young women, revolutionaries who lose their lives in their country's struggle for democracy.

As In the Time of the Butterflies opens, Dedé, the one sister who survives, is preparing to be interviewed by a Dominican-American novelist who is writing a book about the Mirabal sisters and the events leading up to their murders. Using first-person narratives, Álvarez gives each of the sisters a turn to tell her story. The youngest, Mate, confides her secrets—mostly the giggly, romantic variety—to a diary. The voice of Patria, the pious sister who as a young girl dreams of becoming a nun, is at times almost prayer-like, as if her words were meant for the Virgin Mary's ears or for a hushed confessional. Minerva speaks with authority and insight, like the lawyer she studies to become (only to be prevented from practicing by a direct order from Trujillo himself). Dedé's story, however, alternates between the first and third person. She is the one who survives to tell and retell her sisters' story, living out her years in their childhood home, which has been turned into a museum where the curious flock like pilgrims to see the relics ofthe Mirabal sisters, martyrs to the cause of democracy, brought to life again by Dedé's words and by Álvarez's own skillful writing.

In Álvarez's third novel, Yo! (1997), she continues the exploration of multiple narrators that is a hallmark of her fiction. Yo, Spanish for "I," is also short for Yolanda, but the Yolanda of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is now a thirty-five-year-old free spirit who has been waylaid from her early promise as a scholar by hippie boyfriends and bad decisions. Seen only in this novel from without, by family, friends, and others, she is still "caught between two cultures" but manages finally to find a place for herself as a happily married and successful writer.

Before turning to fiction, Álvarez focused on poetry. She received the American Academy of Poetry Prize in 1974 and a 1987-88 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Grant. She has published three collections of poetry: Housekeeping Book (hand printed in 1984), Homecoming (first published in 1984, with a revised, expanded edition appearing in 1996), and The Other Side/El Otro Lado (1995). Álvarez's poetry and essays have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Hispanic magazine, the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the Washington Post Magazine.

Álvarez has also written nonfiction. Something to Declare, a collection of her essays, deals with many of the themes she treats in her fiction and poetry: the immigrant experience, the politics of language, the importance of retaining cultural identity. Inasmuch as they treat becoming and living as a writer, however, the essays in Something to Declare also explore new territory. They are particularly revealing in that they illustrate just how much of Álvarez's creative work parallels her own life history: "There is no such thing as straight-up fiction," Álvarez declares. "In spite of our caution and precaution, bits of our lives will get into what we write."

Bibliography:

American Book Review (Aug. 1992). CLC (1996). Hispanic Journal (Spring 1993). Nation (7 Nov. 1994). New England Review (Summer 1993). NYTBR (6 Oct. 1991). PW (16 Dec. 1996). WRB (May 1995).

—HELENA ALONSA

ANA ROCA

Rebels tighten hold on Libya oil port

BREGA, Libya (AP) — Rebels strengthened their hold on the strategic oil installation at Brega on Thursday after repelling an attempt by loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi to retake it. International pressure on the Libyan leader increased as an international court began investigating whether to charge him and his inner circle with crimes against humanity.

Army units allied with the rebels fanned out in the oil facilities and port at Brega, armed with machine guns and rocket launchers. Government warplanes launched a new airstrike on the town in the morning, according to witnesses. It was not clear what they targeted, but it was likely an airstrip that belongs to the huge oil complex on the Mediterranean coast.

But there were no reports of casualties, and pro-Gadhafi forces had withdrawn to another oil port, Ras Lanouf, 80 miles (130 kilometers) west along the Mediterranean coast after their defeat a day earlier.

"We are in a position to control the area and we are deploying our forces," a rebel army officer in Brega told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

In the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, east of the oil port, hundreds of mourners chanted "Down with Gadhafi" as they buried three of at least 14 rebel fighters killed in Wednesday's battle.

"Our message to Gadhafi is we are coming and we will make Libya free," said one man in the crowd, Sami Mosur. "He is a criminal. We are coming to him from Benghazi. We are coming from everywhere. He is a killer."

The fighting at Brega halted for now the regime's first counteroffensive on the opposition-held eastern half of the country. It also underlined the deadlock that Libya appears to have fallen into more than two weeks into its upheaval.

Gadhafi's forces seem unable to bring significant strength to dislodge rebels from the territory they hold. But the opposition does not have the capability to go on the offense against Gadhafi's strongholds in the west, including the capital.

Gadhafi's regime has unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab nation to the wave of anti-government protests in the region. Hundreds are known to have been killed, and some estimates top 1,000.

In the Netherlands, the top prosecutor at the Hague-based International Criminal Court said Thursday he would investigate Gadhafi and his inner circle, including some of his sons, for possible crimes against humanity in the violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Gadhafi and several commanders and regime officials had formal or de facto control over forces that attacked protesters. There will be "no impunity in Libya," he vowed. Besides Gadhafi, he specified the titles of seven others to be investigated, including the commander of the 32 battalion, the head of Gadhafi's personal security, the national security adviser and several other security chiefs. Gadhafi's son Khamis commands the elite 32nd battalion and another son, Muatassim, is the national security adviser.

Opposition leaders are pleading for foreign powers to launch airstrikes to help them oust Gadhafi as the United States moves military forces closer to Libyan shores to put military muscle behind Washington's calls for Gadhafi to give up power immediately.

But the Pentagon on Wednesday tried to play down the idea of using military force in Libya, including a "no-fly zone" that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said would first require attacking Gadhafi's government.

"Let's just call a spade a spade: A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses," Gates told lawmakers. He added that the operation would require more warplanes than are on a single U.S. aircraft carrier.

Italy's foreign minister on Thursday ruled out any military action by his country, citing Italy's history as a colonial occupier of Libya.

Gadhafi on Wednesday warned the U.S. and other Western powers not to intervene. "Thousands of Libyans will die" if the West does so. "We will distribute arms to 2 or 3 millions and we will turn Libya into another Vietnam." He warned that any foreign troops coming into Libya "will be entering hell and they will drown in blood."

There have been stirrings of a diplomatic effort. Gadhafi's ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proposed that his country and a bloc of "friendly" nations mediate between the Libyan leader and the opposition.

Oil prices eased below $102 a barrel Thursday on profit taking and hopes that the conflict in Libya might be resolved by international mediation.

But so far there's been no response from Gadhafi or the rebels to the mediation idea. The head of the Cairo-based Arab League — also contacted by Chavez on the proposal — seemed cool on the offer. League spokesman, Hisham Youssef, said the idea was still not clearly drawn out and added that any mediation must "take into consideration the aspirations of the Libyan people" — an apparent reference to those who joined the uprising.

At Brega, army units that have joined the opposition moved in to keep security after Wednesday's battle, waged by citizen militias from nearby towns and cities. Despite having little central organization or command, the ragtag anti-Gadhafi fighters — armed with automatic weapons and some heavy machine guns and rocket launchers — was able to repel a force of several hundred regime troops that attacked after dawn.

Farj Lashrash, a soldier with the opposition, said the rebel fighters had captured 10 pro-Gadhafi soldiers since last night.

The troops came in from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Brega. Dozens of the rebel forces, armed with Kalashnikov rifles and dressed in camouflage army uniforms with checkered keffiyehs around their necks or heads fanned out around Brega, which has a port, airstrip, oil installation and a small town. They were backed by at least a dozen pickup trucks with machine-guns bolted onto their beds or rocket launchers in tow.

There was no sign of any pro-Gadhafi forces around Brega. Aside from the airstrike, the area was calm. No casualties from the airstrike were reported, but a few rebel fighters were rushed to the hospital with wounds after a mortar they were handling exploded.

In the nearby rebel-held town of Ajdabiya, which sent fighters to the battle, morgue officials said the death toll from the Brega fighting rose to 14 from at least 10 a day earlier. The western gate of the town was reinforced with heavy weaponry as defense against any attack — including a tank, four anti-aircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks and four rocket launchers.

Brega is the second-largest petroleum and natural gas facility in OPEC-member Libya and has been held by the opposition since last week.

Amid the chaos sweeping the country, exports from the country with Africa's largest proven oil reserves have all but stopped. Crude production in the southeastern oil fields that feed the facility at Brega has been scaled back because storage facilities there are filling up.

The uprising has sent world oil prices spiking to the highest levels in more than two years, above $100 per barrel. Overall, Libyan crude production has dropped from 1.6 million barrels per day, nearly 2 percent of world consumption, to as little as 600,000 barrels per day.

"In the last 24 hours, we had a bit of a panic here," oil company employee Osman Rajab told the AP. "Now they (the rebel army) are trying to control the industrial areas," he said, referring to the oil complex.

At the edge of Brega's massive oil facility, the rebel army set up a line of defense, with soldiers, four pickup trucks mounted with machine guns and one truck towing a rocket launcher.

For the past week, pro-Gadhafi forces have been focusing on the west, securing Tripoli and trying to take back nearby rebel-held cities. But the regime has seemed to struggle to bring an overwhelming force to bear against cities largely defended by local residents using weapons looted from storehouses and backed by allied army units.

Pro-Gadhafi forces succeeded over the weekend in retaking two small towns. But the major western rebel-held cities of Zawiya and Misrata, near Tripoli, have repelled repeated, major attacks — including new forays against Zawiya on Wednesday.

Zawiya was quiet Thursday, and residents have set up defenses at the city entrances, said resident Alaa al-Zawi, an opposition activist. "Our information is that there is a big (pro-Gadhafi) force amassed on the eastern side of the city," he said. "There might be an attack but we are ready to repulse it."

He said the city has enough food and water to last up to six months, though the worry is lack of medicine if fighting resumes.

The turmoil in Libya has set off a massive exodus of 180,000 people — mostly foreign workers in Libya — who have fled to the borders, U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told the AP.

Jones Belts 350th Homer to Lift Braves

MILWAUKEE - Bobby Cox's cigar might still stink, but at least his team didn't. The Atlanta Braves manager said he enjoyed his postgame treat a little bit more than usual on Monday, because it was a victory cigar.

"Not a losing cigar - for a change," Cox said.

Cox's team rebounded from a trying weekend in a rough month with a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday afternoon, thanks to starting pitcher Chuck James, who tied a career high with eight strikeouts, and Andruw Jones, who belted the 350th home run of his career.

"It's nice after being swept to get the jump on these guys," James said.

Atlanta and Milwaukee came into Monday's game with identical 28-22 records and fairly similar profiles. Both teams got off to hot starts in April, only to fall on hard times in May.

Atlanta was swept at home by Philadelphia over the weekend and had lost 10 of its last 14 games. But they got a jolt from James on Monday, who gave up one run and five hits in six innings.

Milwaukee now has lost six straight and 13 of its past 17, but still holds the lead in a weak NL Central.

"We're still in first place, so there's no reason in panicking," center fielder Bill Hall said. "Yeah, we're not playing as well, but we're still in first place and that's all that matters."

James (5-4), who went 11-4 as a rookie last season but had lost two of his past three decisions coming into Monday's game, held Milwaukee scoreless until Prince Fielder smacked his National League-leading 16th home run of the season to lead off the sixth inning.

The Brewers didn't see much of James last season, but Hall said he fits the template of a typical Braves pitcher: Staying down and away with his fastballs, making few mistakes and relying on a good changeup.

"He just does what Atlanta Braves pitchers have been doing for a long time," Hall said.

James said he recently made an adjustment to his delivery after sensing that he was throwing across his body too much, a mechanical flaw he said made his pitches flatten out.

"Today is really the first day I could throw strikes," James said.

James had the Brewers baffled for the first six innings, but Cox opened the door for Milwaukee when he lifted James in favor of pinch hitter Martin Prado with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh. Prado struck out, and Brewers starter Chris Capuano (5-4) got out of the jam with a popout by Kelly Johnson and a flyout by Matthew Diaz.

Atlanta reliever Tyler Yates then allowed the first two runners he faced to reach base in the seventh, and Rickie Weeks' sacrifice bunt gave Milwaukee runners at second and third with one out. But J.J. Hardy then hit a screaming line drive that was picked out of the air by first baseman Scott Thorman.

"We were getting those hits earlier in the year," Hall said.

Reliever Rafael Soriano then came in to strike out highly regarded Milwaukee rookie Ryan Braun, who was making his home debut after being called up last week. Braun also struck out with runners on second and third to end the fifth inning.

Brewers manager Ned Yost said his players generally aren't pressing at the plate, but Braun might have been.

"(He) tried a little too hard, came out of his approach a little bit," Yost said.

Capuano held the Braves hitless through two outs in the fourth, when the 30-year-old Jones drove a 1-2 pitch just over the wall in right field for his eighth home run of the season and 350th of his career.

Jones, who has homered in the Braves' last two games, said he has been working on his balance.

"I'm feeling good right now at the plate," Jones said.

Capuano was trying to get Jones to chase a high fastball well out of the strike zone.

"That was certainly the last result I expected," Capuano said.

Capuano has lost four straight games, tying a career high. Although he has been struggling with his command of late, the Brewers have been held to a single run in each of those four losses.

Still, Capuano isn't blaming the offense.

"Everyone's doing their best," Capuano said. "There's no pointing fingers around here."

With his team's hot start now swirling down the drain, Yost compared hitting to a faucet.

"You don't know when it's going to come on, and when it comes on, the hits just start coming," Yost said.

Notes:@ Yost said RHP Ben Sheets would start against John Smoltz on Tuesday night. Sheets left his most recent start, a loss in Los Angeles May 22, with a blister on his throwing hand. ... Braves 3B Chipper Jones missed his fifth straight game with a sore right hand. Cox said the team is considering placing him on the disabled list. ... Bob Wickman pitched a perfect ninth for his eight save in 10 chances. ... The Brewers announced a crowd of 41,139, their eighth sellout of the season.

News in Brief

DNA CONFIRMS SEVERED BODY PARTS FROM ONE MAN

The severed upper and lower portions of a male body found three weeks apart earlier this year in two northwest suburbs are from the same man, police said Tuesday. DNA testing completed Aug. 20 confirmed the two body halves are from one person, but police investigating the bizarre slaying said they still haven't identified the murdered man. Police now are enlisting the FBI to try to reconstruct the man's facial features based on the remains of his skull, Arlington Heights police said. The man's lower body -- cleanly severed just above the pelvis -- was discovered April 16 in a plastic bag outside an apartment complex trash container in Arlington Heights. On May 6, a decomposed upper section of a male body was found in a Cook County forest preserve near Des Plaines.

MOSQUITO SPRAYING TODAY

The city will continue its efforts against West Nile virus today by spraying portions of the West and Northwest sides. Spraying will be in the Austin and Belmont Cragin neighborhoods where city Department of Public Health traps recently yielded mosquitoes carrying the virus.

Explosion hits NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan

An explosion tore through a NATO convoy traveling on a road in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest attack targeting international forces. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Local government spokesman Mubarez Zadran said a suicide car bomber struck the convoy as it rolled through Khost province's Mando Zayi district. He said foreign troops quickly cordoned off the road.

The international force confirmed the Khost explosion but spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Katie Kendrick said the convoy apparently hit a roadside bomb. She said no casualties were immediately reported.

Insurgents have intensified attacks across the country as 30,000 more American troops arrive to try to turn around the 9-year-old war against the Taliban and stabilize the Afghan government.

Afghan soldiers foiled an attempted suicide attack on an army base Saturday morning in the southern province of Zabul, killing a man approaching the entrance wearing a suicide vest and capturing his two accomplices, the government said.

Guards at the base gate noticed the man approaching at about 7 a.m. and shot him dead, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. It said the soldiers found the man was wearing a vest full of explosives and was carrying hand grenades and an AK-47 assault rifle.

Soon after, soldiers captured two other insurgents armed with another rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, the ministry said.

John Edwards asks for delay in US sex tape case

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) — A judge in North Carolina will hear arguments over whether former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards should have to testify this month in a case involving a purported sex tape.

The hearing is scheduled to take place Thursday in Raleigh.

Edwards filed a motion last week asking that his scheduled June 20 deposition be postponed. He's being called to testify in a lawsuit filed by his former mistress, Rielle Hunter. Hunter claims a former Edwards campaign aide took sensitive materials from her, including a reputed sex tape showing Edwards. She wants the items returned.

The former senator says his deposition should wait until the resolution of federal criminal charges against him. Earlier this month, Edwards was indicted on charges of violating campaign finance laws. He's pleaded not guilty.

Czechs win first Fed Cup title in 23 years

MOSCOW (AP) — The Czech Republic won its first Fed Cup title in 23 years on Sunday after Lucie Hradecka and Kveta Peschke beat Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-2 in the decisive doubles match to secure a 3-2 win over Russia in the final.

It was the sixth title in the competition for the Czechs but their first since 1988, when it competed as Czechoslovakia and beat the Soviet Union 2-1 in the final. The victory also caps a breakthrough season for second-ranked Petra Kvitova, who won both of her singles matches for the Czechs. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova then beat Czech No.2 Lucie Safarova to set up the decisive doubles.

"Petra won two points, but we needed one more," Czech captain Petr Pala said. "I'm glad we've managed to (get) the third one. We all won it because victory is made of small pieces you have to put together. It's team work."

Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev also praised Kvitova.

"The Czechs won thanks to Kvitova's superb play," Tarpischev said. "She was just great."

The Russian pair broke early for a 4-2 lead, but the Czechs won four consecutive games to take the first set and then jumped to a 5-2 lead in the second. The Russians saved three match points on Vesnina's serve before she sent a shot wide on the fourth.

"The Czechs played unbelievably well, they dominated the game and left us no chance," Vesnina said. "It was tough to get something going today, but we fought until the very end."

Earlier on Sunday, Kvitova rallied to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova then replaced Kirilenko and kept the Russians' hopes alive by beating Safarova 6-2, 6-4.

Pavlyuchenkova won five consecutive games in the first set and broke decisively in the fifth game of the second to serve out the match at love, closing it with an ace.

Pavlyuchenkova also helped Russia get out of the first round against France in February, when she won the first reverse singles to start Russia's comeback from 2-0 down.

In their first ever meeting, Kvitova and Kuznetsova traded breaks three times in the first set before the Czech, 5-4 down on her serve in the 10th game, saved a set point before netting a backhand to go 1-0 down in the match. But the Wimbledon champion won five consecutive games in the second set and, trailing 3-0 in the decider, went on to win the rest of the games and close the match with a backhand winner on her second match point.

"I wasn't playing my tennis in the first set, making too many mistakes, while Svetlana moved and returned very well," Kvitova said.

Kvitova, who made 19 unforced errors, said she had forced herself to begin playing cross-court shots instead of her favorite flat drives in the second set and it paid off.

"It was tough to come back into the match in the second set, " Kvitova said. "In the third set I was 3-0 down and I didn't think I could still win. I managed to come back on Svetlana's (Kuznetsova) serve and it was a very important moment in the match."

Kvitova remained unbeaten in six Fed Cup matches this season. The victory was her 12th in a row after winning back-to-back titles in Linz, Austria, and the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul last weekend.

"She (Kvitova) began to play much better after she fell behind 3-0 in the third set," Kuznetsova said. "I was just unlucky on some points. The difference between us today was that she had played so many such matches this season, while I rarely had such intriguing matches."

Kvitova won six titles this season and moved to No. 2 in the rankings.

"I played well today, but she was just a bit better on key moments," Kuznetsova said.

Russia was without its top players. Maria Sharapova has an ankle injury and wasn't selected for the final, while Vera Zvonareva was forced to pull out on Friday because of shoulder injury.

Tarpischev said Zvonareva's late injury forced him to make some emergency decisions and call up Kirilenko, who was already on vacation.

Russia has won the Fed Cup title four times since 2004 and was unbeaten at home in 10 ties since losing to France in the semifinals in 2003.

Dear Abby: ; Sister's affair with mentor costs boyfriend his job

DEAR ABBY: My long-distance boyfriend, "Wayne," moved here twoyears ago to take a job working for my twin sister "Kim's" mentor.After five months on the job, Wayne was terminated and was replacedby - my sister! To say there are hurt feelings is an understatement.

Wayne and I were unaware that Kim had been having an affair withthis much-older married father of two. He has now left his wife andkids and is living with my sister. Kim is enjoying her job as hisassistant and reaping all the benefits of his long-establishedbusiness.

I'm devastated by the betrayal. It frustrates me that aftermonths of deception, my twin is benefiting from a massiveindiscretion that ended a marriage and destroyed a family. We werealways close, but I don't want to include her lover in any upcomingevents in my life. She says they're a "package deal." How do I movepast this - or should I?

Deceived by my evil twin

DEAR DECEIVED: I'm not sure what "upcoming events in your life"you're referring to, but if they include Wayne, his feelings shouldalso be taken into consideration. How angry and resentful will hefeel if he's forced to interact with the man who fired him so hecould be replaced by your sister?

I can't decide for you how you will work this out, but I willoffer this advice: For the present, make no hard and fast decisions.This could play out in any number of ways. Her boss could marry her,or he could return to his wife and family. Wait and see what thefuture brings. It's often full of surprises.

DEAR ABBY: I am a single adult female. I have a neighbor andfriend I'll call Kurt. He has been terrific to me. He has given methings, taken me out a few times and seems very caring. I enjoy thetime we spend together and I have developed romantic feelings forhim. My problem is Kurt is gay.

I know I can't have the kind of relationship with him that I'dlike to. Once, we spent the whole day together and I spent the wholetime wishing it had been a real date. It seems like whenever we goout together I don't know how to handle the situation. Because he'sa neighbor, I run into him a lot. I could use some advice on this.

So near and yet so far

Texas

DEAR NEAR AND FAR: You and Kurt appear to be compatible on manylevels, but you must accept that as wonderful a person as he is - hecannot give you the romantic love you're looking for. He isn't"wired" that way. Wishing, hoping and dreaming won't change that -but it WILL waste your time and prevent you from looking foreligible men.

You need to put the brakes on this friendship until you haveregained your balance and/or have met someone else. And tell Kurtwhy, so his feelings won't be hurt. I'm betting it won't be thefirst time he's heard it.

DEAR ABBY: Is a grandmother being disrespectful when shepurposely continues to misspell her 12-year-old grandson's name oncards and gifts?

His name is Joe!

DEAR H.N.I.J.!: Not knowing the grandmother, I can't say forcertain. She may be letting you know she's disappointed you didn'tname the boy after his grandfather "Morris." She could also beilliterate or somewhat demented, but I'm betting she's letting youknow she's not happy with the name you chose.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as JeannePhillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. WriteDear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA90069.

AP-FBC--T25-Tennessee-Arkansas Stats, FBC

*2064 AP-FBC--T25-Tennessee-Arkansas Stats

Chavez clashes with US on human rights

President Hugo Chavez ratcheted up his rhetoric against Washington on Friday following the release of State Department reports on drug trafficking and human rights problems in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan leader's barbs suggested relations will continue to be rocky even though both he and President Barack Obama have expressed willingness to meet.

"Obama should recognize before the world that rights are being violated in his own country and do something to solve it before accusing us... using lies and cynicism," Chavez told reporters.

The State Department's report cited a politicized judiciary in Venezuela, widespread corruption and harassment of the political opposition and the news media, among other problems.

Chavez said the United States is more of a human rights violator than Venezuela.

"I don't care what Obama and his secretary of state say. Let them be cynical," Chavez said.

Asked about a possible meeting with Obama at an Americas summit in Trinidad in April, Chavez said: "I don't have great expectations. ... It doesn't matter to me a bit whether Obama is there or not."

Chavez did not respond to another State Department report slamming Venezuela for its lack of cooperation in counter-drug efforts. Venezuela is a major conduit for Colombian cocaine, and the State Department said drug trafficking in the country had shot up fivefold since 2002, from 50 metric tons to an estimated 250 metric tons in 2007.

Chavez has said Venezuela is fighting drug trafficking and that Washington is blowing the issue out of proportion for political purposes.

Ex-Pakistan Premier Goes Back Into Exile

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ordered police commandos to the airport Monday and sent a bitter rival packing just hours after he returned from exile in hopes of making a political comeback and opposing the military leader.

The expulsion of Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted as an elected prime minister by Musharraf in a 1999 bloodless coup, could deepen the general's unpopularity and undermine the legitimacy of upcoming elections.

Not long after he arrived from London to cheers from supporters accompanying him on the plane, Sharif was charged with corruption and money-laundering and bundled away by police from the airport VIP lounge. Four hours after landing, he was on a special flight to Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan's deputy information minister, Tariq Azim, told British Broadcasting Corp. that Musharraf's government obeyed a ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court to let Sharif enter the country, but he said Sharif chose to go back into exile to avoid facing trial.

"It was a choice given to him that either he goes to a detention center and be detained and tried, or he goes and completes his 10-year (exile) agreement that he has signed with the Saudi government," Azim told the BBC, according to an except provided ahead of its broadcast Monday night. "No hindrance or obstacle was placed upon his entry into Pakistan. He came here and he was given every assistance."

Sharif had said he was willing to risk going to prison if it meant advancing his fight to restore a fully democratic government.

"We are not scared of anything - prisons and jails - we have gone through all that," he said before boarding his flight from London to Islamabad.

After Sharif was ousted by the coup, he reportedly agreed in 2000 to go into exile in Saudi Arabia and stay out of Pakistan for a decade in return for avoiding corruption charges.

The unceremonious departure scuttled Sharif's plans for a grand homecoming to campaign against the U.S.-allied Musharraf's bid for election to a new presidential term amid growing public resentment over military rule.

"Musharraf has probably taken a decision to twist any law to do what he can do to stay in power. This is the politics of survival," Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore University of Management Sciences, said soon after Sharif left. "He is relying on strong-arm tactics, not the law and the constitution."

Sharif's departure drew criticism from the European Union, which noted the ruling last month by the Pakistani Supreme Court barring authorities from blocking Sharif's return.

The United States, which has valued Musharraf as an anti-terrorism ally since the Sept. 11 attacks, had a more guarded reaction.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said deportation "runs contrary to the Supreme Court decision." But he declined to comment further, saying the "matter is still under legal consideration."

Sharif's party appealed what it called his deportation to the Supreme Court, which has issued a series of rulings challenging Musharraf's dominance since his failed attempt in March to oust the court's top judge ignited protests demanding democracy and civilian rule.

The president is also struggling against Islamic extremism that has spread from the Afghan border region, where pro-Taliban militants are gaining sway and al-Qaida is feared to have regrouped.

"Pakistan is entering a period of great instability," said Talat Masood, a retired general and political analyst who predicted Sharif's removal would cause more unrest. "This will agitate those people who are trying to fight for the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and wanting the army to go back to the barracks."

Clashes broke out Monday between security forces and Sharif supporters who attempted to greet him at the airport.

Police blockaded roads with trucks, tractors and barbed wire. They fired tear gas and Sharif supporters threw rocks in at least two locations near Islamabad and a bridge on the main highway leading to the capital from Pakistan's northwest frontier. Several people were injured at each clash, Associated Press reporters said.

Protests were called for Tuesday, and a hard-line Islamic coalition allied with Sharif said it would join the demonstrations.

"This is an insult to our judiciary. This is a joke played on democracy and the constitution of Pakistan," said Ameer ul-Azeem, the coalition spokesman.

Not everyone condemned Sharif's treatment. The opposition party led by Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former prime minister with ambitions to return for parliamentary elections, adopted a neutral stance.

Her Pakistan People's Party said the Supreme Court "rightly ruled" that Sharif had a right to return home, but added that his reported 1999 agreement to avoid corruption charges by going into exile for a decade was a matter between him, those who helped broker the deal and Pakistan's courts.

Sharif's renewed exile could help clear the way for Bhutto and Musharraf to reach a power-sharing agreement.

Musharraf wants her party's support to help him secure a new five-year presidential term when parliament elects a leader by mid-October. Bhutto wants corruption charges against her dropped and a chance to become prime minister for a third time after parliamentary elections due by mid-January.

Bhutto could face public criticism and dissent within her party if she teamed with Musharraf.

Musharraf and Bhutto "might think the path is now clear for them, but the longer term ramifications are going to be a new political polarization and doubts about the fairness of the electoral process," said Rais, the political scientist in Lahore.

At least four senior opposition leaders were under house arrest, among several hundred political party activists rounded up recently, officials said.

They included the head of an political alliance that supports Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed; another hard-line Islamic lawmaker, Liaqat Baluch; the acting president of Sharif's party, Javed Hashmi; and party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, party and government officials said.

Sharif, the son of a wealthy industrialist, appointed Musharraf to the post of military chief in 1998, but his attempt to fire the general a year later triggered the coup that put Musharraf in power.

Accused of denying landing rights to a plane carrying Musharraf that was short on fuel, Sharif was jailed but later released and sent to Saudi Arabia after allegedly pledging not to return for a decade.

The government has accused Musharraf of reneging on the deal, which was reached with the assent of the Saudi government. The Saudi intelligence chief said Saturday in Islamabad that Sharif should respect the accord.

---

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan, Sadaqat Jan, Munir Ahmad, Chris Brummitt and Alisa Tang contributed to this report.

FA argues over Capello contract mixup

WEMBLEY, England (AP) — The English Football Association's leadership clashed with its former chairman on Tuesday over how an escape clause was removed from coach Fabio Capello's contract before the World Cup.

FA General Secretary Alex Horne claimed at a British parliamentary inquiry into football governance that his former boss, David Triesman, amended the contract without fully consulting the board.

But Triesman responded by insisting the changes were only made last May after he had been forced to quit over an unrelated newspaper sting.

England reached the second round at the World Cup but lost to eventual semifinalist Germany. Had the clause been in place after the tournament, Capello or the FA would have been able to activate a cut-price deal to terminate the coach's four-year contract two years early.

"I'll hold my hands up on behalf of David Triesman and say, in hindsight, it was a whole board decision (to remove the clause) and should have gone to the whole board," Horne, who was acting chief executive at the time, told legislators. "It did not go to the whole board ... the decision has been reviewed internally and we hold our hands up to a corporate governance mistake."

After the loss to Germany, many England fans wanted Capello to be fired. But after the contract amendment, that would likely have proved too costly for the FA. Capello's contract is worth a reported 6 million pounds ($10 million) annually.

Horne defended the decision to retain Capello, but regretted how the initial contract decision was taken — saying it had been handled by Triesman and "four or five people" on the board. Horne said he was "not comfortable" with naming the others who were consulted.

"David was the senior member involved as chairman of the association and clearly felt he had the authority to make that commitment," Horne said. "It was only after he left that the board questioned the decision."

Triesman responded by denying he made changes to Capello's contract without seeking the board's approval.

"I never saw Fabio Capello's contract, not once," Triesman told Sky Sports. "Changes to Mr. Capello's contract were negotiated after I had left the FA and I know only what everyone read in the newspapers.

"My expectation would have been, in accordance with my normal approach, that those who conducted the final negotiation and signed the document would have taken the contract to the board."

Psychedelic lights yield to Web-driven imagination

Old Town's Pipers Alley at 210 W. North, once filled with mind-expanding head shops, psychedelic lights and black-light posters, nowhouses "The Imagination Environment," an 8-by-4-foot technologyperformance art exhibit.

It features an array of nine flat-screen monitors mounted behind aplexiglas shield. The center screen plays a continuous feed of FoxNews. Taking the news reader's words from the closed-caption feed,the exhibit connects to Internet search engines. Pictorial searchresults are visualized in real time on the remaining screens. Thedisplay can be truly mind blowing.

"Because it uses search engines, sometimes the images are onpoint. Sometimes they are enlightening. Sometimes they are justbizarre," says Kris Hammond, director of Northwestern University'sIntelligent Information Laboratory, which created the exhibit alongwith Second City and Northwestern's Program in Network Arts.

"We can use technology to surprise and entertain," says KellyLeonard, Second City executive producer, whose new revue, "Show TitleDeemed Indecent by FCC," takes on censorship.

Leonard likens "The Imagination Environment" to Second City'simprovisation process: "It spits out pop culture. It is searching forthe most popular images that go with the words. That's what we do onstage when we create our shows. The times when our scenes work thebest is when they take an unexpected turn. That's what makes improvcomedy so interesting."

Adds Hammond, "People become transfixed. When people first look,they think it's random. Then they realize it's being guided by whatthe reporter is saying. They go, 'Wow!' It's an amplifier. It takesyou into a machine's notion of the world based on what we've createdon the Web."

Northwestern graduate student David Shamma designed the exhibit.It's worth a look.

Jellifish's riff on Chicago

Robb Hendrickson, founder of Oakbrook Terrace-based JellifishInc., a manufacturer of high-tech guitar accessories, has his eye onthe $1.5 billion guitar-products market. Using Chicago-based high-tech manufacturing techniques, Hendrickson hopes to transform theindustry and enable guitar players to create richer sounds.

His Jellifish product replaces a traditional guitar pick, issuingmore melodious tones through the welding of small metal strands thatwave across the guitar strings.

"We're using very high-tolerance injection molding and two Nd:YAGlasers for the welding, fusion and cutting of the sub-assembly," saysHendrickson. "Chicago has a unique array of advanced manufacturingtechnologies available on an outsourced basis."

Hendrickson drew positive feedback from a standing-room-only crowdat last week's Monday Morning Meeting, sponsored by the IllinoisCoalition, ARCH Development Partners and the ChicagolandEntrepreneurial Center.

The monthly sessions, moderated by Tom Churchwell, ARCHDevelopment's managing partner, offer entrepreneurs a platform forfeedback. Other presenters came from Dan Schramm, president, TopiaryCommunications, a local knowledge-management software company, andKrishna Jayaraman, CEO of Genomics USA Inc., which develops DNA andprotein microarray technologies.

Can CEOs and CIOs coexist?

Corporate technology marriage counseling is on the agendaWednesday at the Mid-America Club. Longtime rental-car-industry CEOWilliam Plamondon, who led Budget Rent a Car, Alamo Rent a Car andNational Car Rental, joins Dick Smith, his CIO, to talkrelationships.

"What the CIO wants is the most direct linkage to the business,"says Plamondon, who advocates CIOs reporting to CEOs.

CIOs are major corporate spenders who don't always deliver theresults they promise. Sparks often fly in these relationships, justlike many marriages. Gartner senior program director Henry May playsthe therapist role. The program is organized by the Society forInformation Management.

Bits & bytes

Chicago's zuChem raised $500,000 in Series A financing from theBiotechnology Research and Development Corp., ARCH DevelopmentPartners and a number of angel investors.

Merrill Lynch created a 26-company nanotech index. It includesfour Chicago companies: Amcol International (Nanocor), Nanophase,BioSante Pharma, and Cabot Microelectronics.

Michael Krauss is a Chicago-based tech writer and consultant, andsenior vice president for Hostway Corp., Chicago.

Montana fires shroud valley in smoke/More than 941,000 acres burning in 11 Western states

HAMILTON, Mont. - Hundreds of residents driven from their homesby smoke and flames were allowed to return for a few hours Sunday,but later wind-driven blazes erupted and forced additional emergencyevacuations, including a major fire camp.

"This is the most awesome fire I've ever experienced," JodyEberly, an information officer with 20 years' experience fightingwildfires. The blazes shrouded the Bitterroot Valley in southwesternMontana with smoke.

Elsewhere, crews made progress against dozens of wildfires in thenorthern Rockies.

The blaze near Hamilton crossed a highway and was threateningnumerous buildings in the area, authorities said.

Residents of the area where a voluntary evacuation was requestedearlier were being rousted by Ravalli County sheriff's deputies andtold to leave immediately.

Hundreds of firefighters camped at Sula, at the base of LostTrail Pass into Idaho, were shifted to a safer location as the firesadvanced north and east, officials said.

Forecasts Sunday offered little hope of relief from the hot, dryweather that has helped create what officials are calling the worstfire season in the West in 50 years.

The Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, listed 64 majorfires burning Sunday on 941,700 acres in Arizona, California,Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,Washington and Wyoming.

Fires have blackened 62,000 acres in the Bitterroot Valley, wheremore than 1,200 firefighters are at work.

About 300 residents evacuated Wednesday as the Blodgett Creekfire neared their homes were allowed to check their property duringthe day Sunday. At the same time, another 300 people in the Pinesdalearea, about 10 miles north of Hamilton, were told they might have toleave. About 30 percent of the Blodgett blaze was contained by firelines, but there was no containment of a 42,000-acre fire at thesouth end of the Bitterroot Valley.

Sections of U.S. Highway 93 through the Bitterroot Valley werereopened Sunday, but the smoke was so thick that officials sent outpilot cars to guide motorists.

Firefighters in Nevada reported they were near containment onseveral large blazes, but one grass and brush fire near Fernley,about 30 miles east of Reno, exploded from 900 acres to more than5,000 Sunday after winds picked up.

On the Net

National Fire Information Center: www.nifc.gov

Forest Service links: www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml

Montana fires shroud valley in smoke/More than 941,000 acres burning in 11 Western states

HAMILTON, Mont. - Hundreds of residents driven from their homesby smoke and flames were allowed to return for a few hours Sunday,but later wind-driven blazes erupted and forced additional emergencyevacuations, including a major fire camp.

"This is the most awesome fire I've ever experienced," JodyEberly, an information officer with 20 years' experience fightingwildfires. The blazes shrouded the Bitterroot Valley in southwesternMontana with smoke.

Elsewhere, crews made progress against dozens of wildfires in thenorthern Rockies.

The blaze near Hamilton crossed a highway and was threateningnumerous buildings in the area, authorities said.

Residents of the area where a voluntary evacuation was requestedearlier were being rousted by Ravalli County sheriff's deputies andtold to leave immediately.

Hundreds of firefighters camped at Sula, at the base of LostTrail Pass into Idaho, were shifted to a safer location as the firesadvanced north and east, officials said.

Forecasts Sunday offered little hope of relief from the hot, dryweather that has helped create what officials are calling the worstfire season in the West in 50 years.

The Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, listed 64 majorfires burning Sunday on 941,700 acres in Arizona, California,Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,Washington and Wyoming.

Fires have blackened 62,000 acres in the Bitterroot Valley, wheremore than 1,200 firefighters are at work.

About 300 residents evacuated Wednesday as the Blodgett Creekfire neared their homes were allowed to check their property duringthe day Sunday. At the same time, another 300 people in the Pinesdalearea, about 10 miles north of Hamilton, were told they might have toleave. About 30 percent of the Blodgett blaze was contained by firelines, but there was no containment of a 42,000-acre fire at thesouth end of the Bitterroot Valley.

Sections of U.S. Highway 93 through the Bitterroot Valley werereopened Sunday, but the smoke was so thick that officials sent outpilot cars to guide motorists.

Firefighters in Nevada reported they were near containment onseveral large blazes, but one grass and brush fire near Fernley,about 30 miles east of Reno, exploded from 900 acres to more than5,000 Sunday after winds picked up.

On the Net

National Fire Information Center: www.nifc.gov

Forest Service links: www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml

Montana fires shroud valley in smoke/More than 941,000 acres burning in 11 Western states

HAMILTON, Mont. - Hundreds of residents driven from their homesby smoke and flames were allowed to return for a few hours Sunday,but later wind-driven blazes erupted and forced additional emergencyevacuations, including a major fire camp.

"This is the most awesome fire I've ever experienced," JodyEberly, an information officer with 20 years' experience fightingwildfires. The blazes shrouded the Bitterroot Valley in southwesternMontana with smoke.

Elsewhere, crews made progress against dozens of wildfires in thenorthern Rockies.

The blaze near Hamilton crossed a highway and was threateningnumerous buildings in the area, authorities said.

Residents of the area where a voluntary evacuation was requestedearlier were being rousted by Ravalli County sheriff's deputies andtold to leave immediately.

Hundreds of firefighters camped at Sula, at the base of LostTrail Pass into Idaho, were shifted to a safer location as the firesadvanced north and east, officials said.

Forecasts Sunday offered little hope of relief from the hot, dryweather that has helped create what officials are calling the worstfire season in the West in 50 years.

The Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, listed 64 majorfires burning Sunday on 941,700 acres in Arizona, California,Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,Washington and Wyoming.

Fires have blackened 62,000 acres in the Bitterroot Valley, wheremore than 1,200 firefighters are at work.

About 300 residents evacuated Wednesday as the Blodgett Creekfire neared their homes were allowed to check their property duringthe day Sunday. At the same time, another 300 people in the Pinesdalearea, about 10 miles north of Hamilton, were told they might have toleave. About 30 percent of the Blodgett blaze was contained by firelines, but there was no containment of a 42,000-acre fire at thesouth end of the Bitterroot Valley.

Sections of U.S. Highway 93 through the Bitterroot Valley werereopened Sunday, but the smoke was so thick that officials sent outpilot cars to guide motorists.

Firefighters in Nevada reported they were near containment onseveral large blazes, but one grass and brush fire near Fernley,about 30 miles east of Reno, exploded from 900 acres to more than5,000 Sunday after winds picked up.

On the Net

National Fire Information Center: www.nifc.gov

Forest Service links: www.fs.fed.us/fire/links2.shtml

UK officials says British diplomats detained in Zimbabwe have been released

British diplomats seized in Zimbabwe on Thursday are safe and no longer under detention, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said Thursday.

But the spokesman, Michael Ellam, said British authorities had not yet established how many diplomats had been involved, or the details of the attack.

The United States later announced the U.S. officials who also were detained had been released.

Ellam said, "We can confirm that there has been an incident involving U.K. diplomats. ... The U.K. diplomats are no longer being detained."

Ellam said Britain was in the process of establishing the facts.

…

IN THIS CORNER: ; Treating hypothermia

Bitter cold temperatures can expose hunters, hikers, skiers andothers who spend time outdoors in winter to hypothermia, whichhappens when the body's temperature drops below 90 degreesFahrenheit. People suffering from hypothermia may shiveruncontrollably, slur their speech, stumble frequently, have memorylapses, and show signs of drowsiness or exhaustion.

If you're with someone who shows signs of hypothermia:

* Seek immediate medical help.

* Slowly warm the person's body, using your own body heat ifnecessary. Start with …

IN THIS CORNER: ; Treating hypothermia

Bitter cold temperatures can expose hunters, hikers, skiers andothers who spend time outdoors in winter to hypothermia, whichhappens when the body's temperature drops below 90 degreesFahrenheit. People suffering from hypothermia may shiveruncontrollably, slur their speech, stumble frequently, have memorylapses, and show signs of drowsiness or exhaustion.

If you're with someone who shows signs of hypothermia:

* Seek immediate medical help.

* Slowly warm the person's body, using your own body heat ifnecessary. Start with …

IN THIS CORNER: ; Treating hypothermia

Bitter cold temperatures can expose hunters, hikers, skiers andothers who spend time outdoors in winter to hypothermia, whichhappens when the body's temperature drops below 90 degreesFahrenheit. People suffering from hypothermia may shiveruncontrollably, slur their speech, stumble frequently, have memorylapses, and show signs of drowsiness or exhaustion.

If you're with someone who shows signs of hypothermia:

* Seek immediate medical help.

* Slowly warm the person's body, using your own body heat ifnecessary. Start with …

IN THIS CORNER: ; Treating hypothermia

Bitter cold temperatures can expose hunters, hikers, skiers andothers who spend time outdoors in winter to hypothermia, whichhappens when the body's temperature drops below 90 degreesFahrenheit. People suffering from hypothermia may shiveruncontrollably, slur their speech, stumble frequently, have memorylapses, and show signs of drowsiness or exhaustion.

If you're with someone who shows signs of hypothermia:

* Seek immediate medical help.

* Slowly warm the person's body, using your own body heat ifnecessary. Start with …

Homeless group seeks Stroger's support

A homeless group held a rally outside of the offices of Cook County Board President John H. Stroger Tuesday asking him to support a bill that gives alternatives to incarcerating non-violent women.

Led by Samir Goswami, senior policy analyst for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the group is seeking passage of HB 1961 which recently passed out of the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee in an 11-0 vote.

Goswami said only the Cook County Board opposed the legislation and that if approved would create a pilot residential treatment and transition center for women who are detained at the Cook County Department of Corrections.

Cook County Comm. Bobbie Steele is …

TRINIDAD & TOBAFO: MAJOR OIL, GAS CONTRACT.

The Government on February 4 signed a major oil and gas exploration contract with two international companies, Trinidad Shell Exploration Production B.V and Agip Trinidad and Tobago Exploration B.V. The production sharing contract is for oil and gas exploration in Block 25 A, 80 kilometers off the east coast. The area awarded covers 1,388 square kilometers and is in water depth up to 1,300 meters. Shell (60% share) and Agip (40% share) plan to invest US$48.4 million for the first exploration period in order to perform geological activities, acquire seismic data and drill …

Baviaanskloof leopards at risk.(News)

BYLINE: Staff Writer

THE death at the weekend of the 20th leopard in four years in the Baviaanskloof is putting the big cats' sustainability under "tremendous threat" in that area of the Eastern Cape.

The adult female leopard was struck by a car on the road near Zaaimanshoek within the Baviaanskloof. It appeared to have been an accidental killing.

The director of the conservationist Landmark Foundation, Bool Smuts, said that what was of most concern was the fact that, within a radius of some 25km, six leopards had been removed from the area within the past 12 months - two rescued from traps and four had been killed.

"This take-off of the …

DEBATE LOOMS OVER WHICH VERSION OF CAPITALISM IS BEST.(Main)

Byline: Charles A. Radin Boston Globe

Bright yellow leaflets pasted to walls and bulletin boards around Harvard Square put starkly the question troubling sympathizers of the left in America.

"Has Capitalism Won?" they blare, addressing a common perception.

"In the minds of most Western politicians, academics and media pundits, 1989 was about the death of socialism as a political ideology," according to the authors, the International Socialist Organization. "The crisis in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union signified the ultimate victory for capitalism."

Leaders and thinkers on the left, and many others with socialist sympathies, say it isn't so.

Rather, they argue, the American left - defined, in this context, as the segment of people who believe that society's responsibility for its members is more important than the ideals of free-market economics - is gathering its forces. The collapse of totalitarian communism in the East, they assert, will prove either irrelevant or beneficial to the effort.

Many leftists and …

Fiji defies court order, deports second newspaper publisher

Fiji's military government defied a High Court order and deported the Australian publisher of the South Pacific country's leading newspaper Friday, continuing a campaign of media intimidation it began within days of seizing power.

The coup-installed government said Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah was a threat to national security and breached his work permit conditions. He was put on a flight Friday to South Korea.

It was the second deportation of a senior media figure this year. In late February, Russell Hunter, the Australian-born publisher of The Sun, was deported for what Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama called "destabilizing" reporting.

…

Post Office Enters First Day Cover Business

The U.S. Postal Service has dropped a little bomb on first daycover collectors with its announcement that it has begun producingfirst day covers.

The word came on the back page of the Postal Service's "Stampsetc" catalog in the form of a listing for the first 25 sets orsingles, ranging from 50 cents for a 29-cent Hank Williams cover to$3.50 for a complete set of 7 Rock & Roll/Rhythm & Blues covers.

Michael Jardine, an Elk Grove Village cover dealer, said the newoffering was unfair competition.

"I don't think it's right," Jardine said. "They don't even haveto buy stamps. They are going to be taking business away from thecover dealers."

Jardine …

Young Azeri female karate fighter becomes European champion.

Baku, November 01, 2011 (AzerTAc) -- Azerbaijani U-7 female fighter Sevinj Movsunzade has claimed the title of the European koshiki karatedo championship in Donetsk, Ukraine. The tournament brought together nearly …