Iraqi officials say that at least three people were killed and 13 others wounded in a roadside bombing in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad.
The attack comes just over a week before U.S. troops are to withdraw from urban areas in Iraq. Officials have warned they expect militants to step up attacks around the June 30 …
The 50th anniversary of the Danish Jews' rescue will becelebrated June 15-18 in Chicago with programs sponsored by theThanks to Scandinavia scholarship fund and Anshe Emet Synagogue.
Danish Chief Rabbi Bent Melchior will be a featured speaker atthe commemorations, which include a daylong symposium at North ParkCollege; a concert at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest; anevening program at Anshe Emet, and a Daley Center reception. Therewill be a photo exhibit on the rescue at the Daley Center.
"This will be an opportunity not only to honor the brave effortsof the Danish people, but also to open a dialogue on the altruisticpersonality," says Rabbi Michael …
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic's 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 victory over Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final was the longest men's Grand Slam final in terms of duration, the ATP said Sunday.
— the time of 5 hours, 53 minutes included a 10-minute delay while the roof on Rod Laver Arena was closed due to rain. That time was included because the match was not officially suspended.
— the previous longest men's Grand Slam final was 4:54 when Mats Wilander defeated Ivan Lendl in …
The mother of a Florida girl who was killed and found in a Georgia landfill supports the death penalty for the man charged in her daughter's death.
Prosecutor's have not indicated whether they will seek the death penalty, but Diena Thompson said Friday she would support the decision for capital punishment.
Authorities have charged 24-year-old Jarred Mitchell Harrell in the sexual assault and killing of 7-year-old Somer Thompson. Somer was reported missing Oct. 19 and her body was found two days later in a Georgia landfill about 50 miles from her north Florida home.
Harrell has been in custody since he was …
Where can you get a decent cup of coffee around here? Morally decent, that is.
Such was my most recent spiritual quest: to buy a steaming cup ofcoffee from a beverage purveyor that gets its beans from farmers whomake a living wage.
The quest seemed simple. But lo, I say to thee, it was fraughtwith peril.
Perhaps peril is a bit strong. Fraught with . . . with . . .impatience, flagrant disregard for parking ordinances, excessivecarbon dioxide production -- and some minor scalding.
How is a cup of coffee a spiritual quest, you say?
It is according to this Roman Catholic theologian in Boston I knowwho published a book recently about what he calls …
Rufus Hunt, board member of the Friends of Meigs Field, last week unveiled his video -- which will air on cable television -- that shows the potential of a resurrected Meigs Field that will boost the city's economy and once again be the training ground of young pilots. Hunt's video also revealed how the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) can give the Chicago Park District $40 million "the day they decide to resurrect that airport...." Hunt said during a luncheon held at Maggio's Restaurant, 516 N. Clark Ave., where he showed his 30-minute film, entitled A vision for Miegs Field and Northerly Island -- a video Hunt says proves how and why the airport should be reopened.
Mayor Daley, …
Olympic bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson of the United States won the 400-meter hurdles Tuesday at the Super Track and Field meet.
Jackson got off to a slow start but recovered to surge ahead of Kenji Narisako of Japan down the stretch in 49.33 seconds. Narisako finished in 49.68.
American Miriam Barnes won the women's 400 in 53.18. Damu Cherry of the U.S. took the 100 hurdles in 13.07, …
Power * Today: vs. Rome, 11:05 a.m. * Thursday: vs. Rome, 7:05p.m. * Friday: vs. Hagerstown, 7:05 p.m. * Saturday: vs. Hagerstown,7:05 p.m. * Sunday: vs. Hagerstown, 2:05 p.m.
Reds * Today: vs. Brewers, 7:10 p.m. * Thursday: Off * Friday: atCardinals, 8:15 p.m. * Saturday: at Cardinals, 4:10 p.m. * Sunday:at Cardinals, 2:15 p.m. Indians * Today: vs. White Sox, 12:05 p.m. *Thursday: at Mariners, 10:10 p.m. * Friday: at Mariners, 10:10 p.m.* Saturday: at Mariners, 10:15 p.m. * Sunday: at Mariners, 4:10 p.m.
Pirates * Today: at Cubs, 2:20 p.m. * Thursday: Off * Friday: vs.Nationals, 7:05 p.m. * Saturday: vs. Nationals, 7:05 p.m. * Sunday:vs. Nationals, 1:35 …
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - LeBron James was unstoppable. Then, he said the Cleveland Cavaliers can be, too. James scored a season-high 41 points, leading the Cavaliers to a 101-97 overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.
"If we play well, nobody can beat us," James said. "We believe that."
James almost won the game in regulation with a 27-footer, but a video review negated the dramatic shot.
He set the tone early in the overtime, making free throws and blocking Richard Hamilton's shot with a fantastic block in front of the rim.
James had a chance to make it a two-possession game with 17 seconds left, but missed the first of two free …
UEFA president Michel Platini said Wednesday that the 2012 European Championship would likely generate lower revenues than last year's tournament.
The European football body awarded Poland and Ukraine the right to stage the tournament in April 2007, despite concerns they would not be able to build the necessary roads, airports, stadiums and hotels.
The situation at the organizational level was "not easy" for either Poland, Ukraine or UEFA, Platini said as he opened the annual UEFA Congress.
"These two countries, Poland and Ukraine, are working hard," Platini said. "UEFA too makes all necessary efforts to move forward. And …
Larry Himes did it again. He got rid of another popular WhiteSox player. Last season, it was Harold Baines. Now, it's RonKittle.
Whoever put Himes in charge of the Sox should be tarred andfeathered or put on a chain gang. We fans will miss Kittle, but hewill be reunited with general manager Roland Hemond.
Himes said he is not running a "popularity contest." Therecent losses to the Royals could mean the White Sox have a moraleproblem - and that problem is Himes.
Jeff Torborg deserves better than to have Himes for a boss -and so do all the White Sox. Where are you, Jerry Reinsdorf, when weneed you? Camille T. Loni River Grove …
NEW YORK (AP) — A strong jobs report is tempering what has been a volatile week for commodities.
Gold, wheat, soybeans and some metals used in manufacturing rose Friday while silver and oil fell at a more moderate pace.
The Labor Department says companies created 268,000 jobs in April. That's the biggest gain since February 2006, although the unemployment rate rose to 9 percent from 8.8 percent in …
In an unprecedented meeting, Iran's top leader told the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday that the U.N. Security Council had no remaining justification for focusing on the country's nuclear program, state-run television reported.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, told Mohamed ElBaradei that the IAEA should exclusively handle Iranian nuclear questions, saying resolution of the controversy would be a "great success" for the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Many Iranian officials, including hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have called Security Council pressure unjustified, especially in the wake of recent IAEA reports saying Iran had increased cooperation with the agency. But Saturday's statements were the first of this nature by Khamenei.
"There is no justification for Iran's nuclear dossier to remain at the U.N. Security Council," state TV quoted Khamenei as telling ElBaradei.
ElBaradei, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, urged Iran to "accelerate" its cooperation with the agency so he could address outstanding questions before he presents his next report to the IAEA Board of Governors in March.
Ahmadinejad said during a separate meeting with ElBaradei on Saturday that he hoped the IAEA would not be influenced by the "pressure of big powers" while probing Iran's nuclear program.
The U.S. and many of its allies have accused Iran of using its nuclear program as a cover for future weapons development _ a claim Tehran denies, saying its activities are focused on electricity generation.
"Some countries assume that the IAEA has been set up to enforce their policies," state TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "This assumption disturbs natural and just conditions."
Khamenei said Iran would not succumb to U.S. pressure on its nuclear program.
"The Americans wrongly assume that they will be able to break the Islamic Republic of Iran by pressuring Iran over the nuclear issue, but they will not be able to bring the Iranian nation to its knees by raising this issue or other issues," state TV quoted him as saying.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, told ElBaradei that Iran would not agree to U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, but insisted Tehran would not use the process to make weapons.
"Iran, while insisting on its obvious rights in attaining and using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, is committed to its obligations under the NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty)," state TV quoted Jalili as saying.
ElBaradei's trip overlaps with President George W. Bush's Middle East tour and comes as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high following an incident Sunday in the Persian Gulf between the countries' respective navies.
Bush's attempt to rally international pressure against Iran's nuclear program has been complicated by a U.S. intelligence report released last month saying Iran stopped its atomic weapons program in 2003 and had not resumed it.
Tehran says it never worked on atomic weapons and wants to enrich uranium only to produce fuel for reactors that would generate electricity. The U.S. and its allies say that even if Iran no longer has an active weapons program, it could easily resume such work unless strong international oversight is put in place.
In November, an IAEA report said Iran had been generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but warned that its knowledge of Tehran's present atomic work was shrinking.
Tribune Co. executives see signs of a bright future in everythingfrom resurgent help-wanted ads to "Sex and the City." In Los Angeles,however, they have a Schwarzenegger problem.
The Chicago-based media conglomerate -- whose holdings include 13newspapers, 26 television stations and the Chicago Cubs -- will postdouble-digit profit growth in 2004 after logging record profits thisyear, Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons said Thursday. And though itfaces increased pension and newsprint costs, it will inch ahead withexpansions on nearly every front of its far-reaching empire.
"As the only media company with television stations, newspapersand Web sites in the nation's top three markets of New York, L.A. andChicago, we ... have a unique edge," said FitzSimons, appearing at amedia conference in New York. "We share content, cross-promote andcross-sell our advertising among our businesses."
The "cross-selling" this year included a magazine promotingTribune's WB network -- home of shows like "The Gilmore Girls" -- asa supplement to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times.
FitzSimons and other Tribune brass touted a number of businessdeals and new ventures as signs that the company was humming along.Tribune will sell its 8.6 percent stake in the Golf Channel toComcast Corp. for $100 million. And while pocketing that cash, it isstarting a local sports channel in September with Comcast to belaunched next September.
Help-wanted ads increased 1 percent in November from the yearbefore, the first increase seen in 36 months at the company'snewspapers, FitzSimons said. If more companies start to hire,Tribune's Careerbuilder Web site also stands to gain. The site isreplacing Monster.com as the exclusive job listings provider for AOLand Microsoft Networks.
On the television side, the WGN Superstation will add 7 millionsubscribers to its current 58 million. And the acquisition of "Sexand the City" reruns will help attract young viewers to its localstations, said broadcasting chief Patrick Mullen.
Circulation at Tribune's newspapers has been "flattish," saidTribune Publishing President Jack Fuller. A story in one of thosepapers, the Los Angeles Times, "caused a protest that cost them somecirculation," Fuller said. The story dealt with allegations of sexualmisconduct against Arnold Schwarzenegger that was published rightbefore his recent election as governor of California. It has cost thepaper 10,000 subscribers, or 1 percent of its seven-day averagecirculation, according to newspaper spokeswoman Martha Goldstein.
Addressing the possible sale of newspapers owned by HollingerInternational, the owner of the Sun-Times, FitzSimons told Reutersthat "some clarity has to come out with regards to the process"before Tribune would consider a bid.
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's security court on Thursday convicted a Shiite opposition activist and sentenced him to five years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman during anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom.
The Bahrain News Agency said another activist was acquitted of the same charge in the court that was set up after emergency rule was imposed in March. The report said the convicted protester, Abdulla Mohammed Habib, can appeal his sentence.
Bahrain's king declared martial law March 15 to crush weeks of demonstrations by the island's Shiite majority, which has campaigned for greater freedoms and an elected government in the Sunni-ruled nation.
At least 30 people have died since the protests, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, began in February. Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, athletes, activists and Shiite professionals such as doctors and lawyers have been detained in the past month.
Last week, four Shiite activists were sentenced to death for killing two policemen during the protests. Three others were convicted as accomplices and were sentenced to life in prison.
On Tuesday, Bahrain's Justice Minister Khaled bin Ali Al Khalifa said 23 doctors and 24 nurses have been charged for their role in the unrest, including for participating in attempts to topple the island's Sunni monarchy and taking part in illegal rallies.
Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, Washington's main counterweight against Iran's expanding military influence in the oil-rich Gulf.
In Geneva, the U.N.'s top rights official said Bahrain's use of closed-door trials violates international legal codes.
"The trial of civilians before military courts is always a cause of concern. The application of the death penalty without due process and after a trial held in secrecy is illegal and absolutely unacceptable," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
"The defendants are entitled to fair trials before civil courts, in accordance with international legal standards and in keeping with Bahrain's international human rights obligations," she said.
Pillay said more than 1,000 people may remain in custody, including lawyers, journalists, bloggers and activists. She also urged Bahrain's authorities to open a probe into violence by security forces against protests.
NEW YORK (AP) — Cristian Pasquato scored in the first half as Juventus held off Mexican side Club America 1-0 in a rain-delayed match in the World Football Challenge on Tuesday.
Juventus played 15 minutes of the second half with 10 men after Claudio Marchisio hobbled off with a bruised left chin caused by a sliding tackle. There was no immediate word on the severity of his injury.
After three near-misses, Juventus broke through in the 42nd minute. Mexican goalkeeper Armando Navarrete punched another cross to his right, directly to Pasquato 12 yards away and the forward sent the ball into the upper right corner.
Club America, which played a Mexican League game on Sunday, substituted six players at halftime and all 11 by the 79th minute.
INSTANT SEARCH: Google is offering its users instant gratification by showing search results while a request is being typed.
WHAT IT MEANS: People will start to see search results that may change with each character that's entered into Google's search box.
THE GOAL: A lightning-fast search engine that knows so much about people's intentions that it almost seems to be reading minds. In doing so, Google hopes to maintain its commanding lead in the lucrative Internet search market.
INDIANAPOLIS Despite a broken left shoulder blade, crackedsternum and bruised pelvis, Dale Earnhardt qualified his No. 3 car12th fastest, which puts him in the sixth row Thursday for theBrickyard 400 on Saturday.
In constant pain, Earnhardt said he was "just taking it easy.The car is a lot faster than I ran it. I'm just sorry I'm not goingto get to race it hard."
Earnhardt, trying for a record eighth season championship, needsto start the race to get points, even though relief driver MikeSkinner would finish.
Just when Earnhardt will get out of the car probably won't bedecided until during the race. In fact, car owner Richard Childresssuggested Earnhardt start the car from the rear of the field just toavoid middle-of-the pack accidents.
"Knowing Dale Earnhardt, he's going to start where he's at,"Childress said. "Sometimes he can be a little hard-headed and I'mtrying to keep him from it.
"I told him no championship was worth getting himself hurtworse. He gave me his word not to do that. He's got a long time towin that eighth."
WHAT'S FAST? NASCAR rules prohibit unlimited speed, usingcarburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars bunched.
What it creates is remarkably close racing. For instance, the25 qualifiers from Thursday all broke the track record (172.536m.p.h.) set last year by Jeff Gordon.
In fact, pole-winner Gordon smashed his own record by nearly 4m.p.h. at 176.419 around the 2 1/2-mile asphalt strip at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway.
That speed is nothing like Indianapolis 500 speeds. ArieLuyendyk set the one-lap record of 237.498 m.p.h. and four-lap recordof 236.986 m.p.h. in May's qualifying.
Luyendyk's speed is 61 m.p.h. faster he did it in a year-oldcar.
MONEY TALK: The Daytona 500 may still be the jewel of theWinston Cup circuit, but the Brickyard pays more.
Last year, there was $4.5 million to be split, with winnerEarnhardt making $565,000. This year's Daytona winner, Dale Jarrett,was paid $360,775.
Lowest payout at the 1995 Brickyard was to Kenny Wallace, andthat was $47,625.
FOYT FAILS: Thursday was not a good day for A.J. Foyt, who haswon both an Indy 500 and Daytona 500. Foyt was the 42nd fastestqualifier, which means he gets another chance today.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — Patrick Yu has nightmares and headaches since a fireball from a natural gas explosion caused his ceiling to crash down next to him while he slept.
He was one of many residents who returned to the ruined hillsides of their suburban San Francisco neighborhood Sunday after Thursday's pipeline blast and fire destroyed nearly 50 homes and damaged dozens of others.
Yu crouched in the doorway after the blast, thinking he was in the middle of an earthquake. When the shaking subsided, he found that the heat had warped the door so much he had to pull with all his strength just to get out of the bedroom.
The 62-year-old learned Sunday that his house had been red-tagged, meaning it has extensive damage and will require closer inspection before authorities can declare it safe.
"I have lots of memories in that house," Yu said. "Lots of stuff you can't replace."
Some houses have collapsed into black and white debris on ground, with a smell like charcoal in the air. All that remain standing is a row of brick chimneys, while across the street, some homes are undamaged.
Pat and Roger Haro and their dog, Rosie, have been living in a hotel room since Thursday after fleeing with the clothes they were wearing, dog food, water and an iPad.
When they returned, their home was marked with a green tag — indicating less damage than others with yellow or red tags — but their electricity was still off.
"Once I saw the house was still there then I felt a whole lot better," Pat Haro said.
Investigators were still trying to confirm just how many people died.
The remains of at least four people have been found, and authorities have said four are missing and at least 60 injured, some critically. Two people reported missing after blast were located Sunday.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said they're still trying to confirm whether some of the remains they found are human and identify victims.
Meanwhile, local and federal officials are probing the cause of the explosion that blew a segment of pipe 28 feet (8.5 meters) long onto the street 100 feet (30 meters) away, creating a crater 167 feet (51 meters) long and 26 feet (8 meters) wide.
A risky segment of the gas line was due to be replaced, the utility responsible said, because it ran through a heavily urbanized area and the likelihood of failure was "unacceptably high." That 30-inch (76-centimeter) diameter pipe a few miles north was installed in 1948, and was slated to be swapped for new, smaller pipe.
California regulators ordered the utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, to survey all its natural gas lines in the state in hopes of heading off another disaster.
Crews on Sunday packed into a crate the 28-foot (8.5 meter) section of the pipeline that blew out of the ground, National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Christopher Hart said.
Investigators were to ship the pipeline to the NTSB's metallurgy lab in Washington, D.C., for intensive examination, he said.
Also being shipped were two 10-foot (3-meter) sections of pipe removed from the crater Sunday from either side of where the ruptured section had been.
Investigators believed they had collected all the sections needed to reconstruct the metal pipeline but asked that anyone who found metal fragments in the blast area contact the NTSB. The agency also wants to know of any instances of dead vegetation prior to the explosion, which could indicate a gas leak.
PG&E submitted paperwork to regulators for ongoing gas rate proceedings that said a section of the same gas line about two and a half miles away (3.5 kilometers) was within "the top 100 highest risk line sections" in the utility's service territory, the documents show.
The company also considered the portion that ruptured to be a "high consequence area" requiring more stringent inspections called integrity assessments, federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration spokeswoman Julia Valentine said.
Nationwide, only about 7 percent of gas lines have that classification, she said.
PG&E spokesman Andrew Souvall said the company had planned to replace the piece of the gas line mentioned in the documents with 24-inch (61-centimeter) pipe as a part of its broader proposal to upgrade infrastructure that the commission began considering last year.
Souvall said Sunday that no one complained to the utility's call centers of smelling gas in the San Bruno neighborhood in the week leading up to the blast.
He said the ruptured section, which was installed in 1956, was last checked for leaks in March. The company said later Sunday no leaks were found. The segment farther north was checked for leaks on Friday and none were found, Souvall added.
"We take action on a daily basis to repair our equipment as needed," he said. "PG&E takes a proactive approach toward the maintenance of our gas lines and we're constantly monitoring our system."
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press video journalist Haven Daley and writers Lisa Leff and Marcus Wohlsen in San Bruno and John S. Marshall and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco. Burke reported from Fresno, Calif.
CHICAGO (AP) — Derrick Rose scored 23 points in Chicago's seventh straight win, a 98-79 victory over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night that moved the Bulls into sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference.
Luol Deng added 20 points and Keith Bogans scored 17, his highest total since joining the Bulls. Bogans took all of his 10 shots from behind the 3-point arc, hitting a season-high five.
The Bulls (48-18) moved a half-game ahead of the Boston Celtics. Chicago has not held the East's top spot this late in the season since 1997-98, the season the Bulls won their sixth NBA championship.
Washington center JaVale McGee had a rare triple-double with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 12 blocks, the most by an NBA player since Toronto's Keon Clark had 12 on March 23, 2001.
Rookie Jordan Crawford scored 27 points for the Wizards, who have lost five straight and 12 of13.
McGee fell just short of the franchise record for blocks in a game. Manute Bol swatted 15 shots for the then-Bullets on Feb. 26, 1987. It was the most blocks a player has had against Chicago in a regulation game.
The Bulls jumped to a 31-19 lead in the first quarter with little resistance from the Wizards, who fell to 1-30 on the road. Chicago outrebounded Washington 17-5 in the opening period despite the absences of center Joakim Noah and power forward Carlos Boozer.
Crawford heated up in the second quarter against the Bulls' reserves, scoring 15 points in the period on 5-for-6 shooting and hit a jumper from the right wing that brought Washington within 47-46 with 1.1 seconds left in the half.
Kurt Thomas sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer, putting the Bulls up 50-46 at the break. It was Thomas' first 3-pointer since April 10, 2005.
The Bulls pulled away with a 25-14 third period, highlighted by Deng's 10 points. Bogans' 3-pointer with 2:56 left put Chicago up 71-55, its biggest advantage to that point.
The Bulls have won 10 of of their last 11 games and improved to 30-4 at home. Only San Antonio (31-3) had done better on their home floor.
Chicago played its third straight game without Boozer, who sprained his left ankle in a win over Charlotte on March 9. Boozer, who didn't dress for the game, was seen limping toward the Bulls locker room before the game. A timetable for his return has not yet been established.
Noah missed the game because of flu-like symptoms. Noah was sent home from the team's shootaround on Tuesday morning after reporting that he wasn't feeling well. The illness isn't believed to be serious.
The beleagured Wizards suited up just nine players, six of which were rookies. It could have been worse as John Wall's availability was in question before warmups. Wall had some soreness in his foot, which was stepped on during Washington's loss to Oklahoma City on Monday. Rashard Lewis (knee), Cartier Martin (knee), Josh Howard (knee), Andray Blatche (shoulder) and Nick Young (flu) were all unavailable.
Notes: Only one team has gone 1-40 on the road since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule in 1967-68: the Sacramento Kings in 1990-91.
Afghanistan's election commission Tuesday ordered a Nov. 7 runoff in the disputed presidential poll after a fraud investigation dropped incumbent Hamid Karzai's votes below 50 percent of the total. Karzai accepted the finding and agreed to a second-round vote.
The announcement came two months to the day after the first-round vote and follows weeks of political uncertainty at a time when Taliban strength is growing.
Karzai said final results showing the need for a runoff were "legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of Afghanistan."
The Afghan leader spoke at a press conference alongside U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the head of the U.N. in Afghanistan, Kai Eide _ a sign of the intense international pressure which preceded the announcement.
Karzai and Kerry were in talks as late as Tuesday afternoon, suggesting that up until the last moment there was a chance he would return to insisting on a first-round victory.
President Barack Obama welcomed Karzai's willingness to run in a new election against his main rival Abdullah Abdullah, saying his decision "established an important precedent for Afghanistan's new democracy."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also commended Karzai, as did U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Ban, however, also stressed that a runoff will be a "huge challenge" and promised more help from the world body.
Shortly before the press conference, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission, which organized the Aug. 20 vote, did not want to "leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty" any longer. He said Karzai no longer had more than 50 percent of the vote needed for a first-round victory and ordered a Nov. 7 runoff.
Kerry said the agreement on a second round had transformed the crisis into a "moment of great opportunity," and praised Karzai for "genuine leadership in the decision he has made today."
He complimented Karzai for his "openness to finding ways of resolving differences."
"The international community is 100 percent committed to helping to carry out this election," Kerry said.
The possibility of a runoff emerged Monday after a U.N.-backed panel threw out nearly a million of Karzai's votes from the Aug. 20 ballot, pushing his totals below 50 percent and setting the stage for a runoff against Abdullah, a former foreign minister.
The commission determined that Karzai won 49.7 percent of the vote _ higher than independent calculations but still low enough to force a runoff, according to a statement.
In a sign that political fissures are not completely smoothed over, the statement said the commission still had "some reservations" about the fraud rulings but decided to announce the runoff because of "time constraints, the imminent arrival of winter and existence of the problems in the country."
One alternative to a runoff that diplomats say was being discussed was a power-sharing deal, though the form that could take is unclear. And it could take weeks or months to hammer out an agreement between the two rivals. Karzai ruled out a coalition government, telling reporters, "there is no space for a coalition government in the law."
Yet the agreement that a runoff is required could be just the first step in negotiations to iron out these differences between the Karzai and Abdullah camps. Kerry said he had not discussed power-sharing with Karzai, but other diplomats have said that it has been part of discussion.
There are serious worries that a runoff _ which Karzai is widely expected to win _ may not produce any better result.
Another election risks the same fraud that derailed the Aug. 20 vote, along with inciting violence and increasing ethnic divisions. If there are any delays, the vote could also could be hampered by winter snows that block off much of the north of the country starting mid-November.
"I hope that the international community and the Afghan government and all others concerned will take every possible measure to provide security to the people so that when they vote, that vote is not called a fraud," Karzai said.
The August poll was characterized by Taliban attacks on polling stations and government buildings that killed dozens of people. In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of people who had voted.
Taliban threats dampened turnout in the first round and many say even fewer people would come out in a runoff.
Yet in Kandahar city _ a Karzai stronghold that was plagued by both violence and ballot-box stuffing on election day _ a group of about 90 tribal elders who back the president said they would tell their people to come out to vote.
"We are very happy he didn't agree to a coalition government and all of our tribes have decided today that we will take part in a runoff election," said Fazel Uddin Agha, a middle-aged elder who spoke for the group.
"This election we will give even more votes to Karzai," Agha said.
___
Associated Press Writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
DESPITE ME GAINS THE MIDWIFERY PROFESSION HAS MADE IN CANADA OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS, IT STILL FACES MANY CHALLENGES. SOME PROVINCES ARE STRUGGLING FOR FUNDING AND OTHERS FOR LEGITIMACY. MANY DOCTORS AND NURSES NOW CONSIDER MIDWIVES COLLEAGUES AND MAY RECOMMEND MIDWIFERY CARE TO THEIR PATIENTS OR CHOOSE IT FOR THEIR OWN BIRTHS. HOWEVER, IN SOME COMMUNITIES, INDIVIDUAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS MAY FEEL HESITANT OR EVEN HOSTILE ABOUT MIDWIFERY, THE WOMEN WHO PRACTISE IT AND THEIR CLIENTS.
Access to midwifery training is an issue for women who live outside major centres where education programs are based, or in provinces with no midwifery education programs at all. First Nations and Inuit midwives still face great challenges around training and regulation.
Advocates fight for funding on a yearly basis, even in provinces where midwifery has been established for years. Malpractice insurance remains one of the most difficult issues for midwives and for health care ministries; the premiums increase exponentially, at one time jumping by more than 400% in a single year.
The consumer movement so integral to the formation of professional midwifery remains strong in some parts of the country, while in others, having slept through the post-legislation years, it is waking up to the new issues of the day.
In some areas, midwives' increasing comfort with medical technology is causing concern. For example, will allowing midwives to administer epidurals change the core values of midwifery or will it support choice and continuity of care? Will schools continue to graduate midwives who are comfortable with homebirth, the roots of midwifery, and who are committed to care that is truly woman-centred?
A poster we spotted in practices around Toronto aptly proclaims midwifery to be "the oldest and newest profession." Rich in history and with a solid philosophical stance, Canadian midwifery is still defining itself, one mother at a time.
Midwifery in Canada:
75% of the world's children are born into the hands of midwives. How does Canada compare?
- In Ontario, the Canadian province with the most midwives, 4.5% of children are caught by midwives.
- Five provinces/territories have no midwifery legislation or funding, 2 provinces have legislated midwifery but have not provided funding, and Quebec does not sanction homebirth, making this safe and inexpensive option nearly impossible for women who want reliable care.
- In legislated and unlegislated provinces, many women seek midwifery care but are turned away because of a shortage of midwives.
The result is a radically different picture of midwifery care depending on where you live in Canada and many barriers to accessing midwifery care.
Why we need accessible midwifery care across the country:
- By the year 2020, there will not be enough doctors to deliver Canadian children.
- Midwives provide a type of care that doctors cannot or do not.
- Midwives can provide excellent prenatal care, operating on the principle of "informed choice," which provides women with the information they need to make smart choices that work for themselves and their families.
- Midwives provide excellent emotional support through longer appointments with their clients, offering on average, 20 to 30 minutes more time per appointment than medical professionals.
- Midwives provide "continuity of care," which means that mothers know that the people caring for them during their pregnancy will be the same people attending their births and making sure that they and their babies are off to a healthy start, including six weeks of postpartum care.
- Midwives are respectful of women's choices to have their babies their way. Midwives offer the highest standards of practice and are supportive no matter what the outcome of the birth.
- Midwives are the only legislated professionals who routinely attend births outside hospitals.
- Midwives are strong advocates of birth without unnecessary interventions (epidurals, continuous fetal monitoring, episiotomies), and are experts in helping women birth in health and happiness without requiring these interventions. While medical interventions do help women when used appropriately, they have become routine in many medically attended births, often at great cost to the woman and to the health system itself.
- Midwives provide care to women from every walk of life and are well trained to serve women from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.
- Hundreds of women have told us that the care they received from midwives has allowed them to become strong and confident mothers that raise strong and confident children.
- In some areas of the country, a shortage of doctors means women cannot get proper, well-woman care, such as tests to detect cervical cancer or birth control counselling or prescription drugs. Midwives are capable of providing these services to their clients on an extended basis.
- In some communities, women require costly transfers to larger centres to give birth to their babies.
- Midwives have great success in aiding mothers to breast-feed, which has been proven to have long-term health benefits for children. The common problem of dehydrated new-borns being brought into hospital emergency wards for treatment is solved by frequent home visits and nursing support from a known and trusted caregiver.
- Six weeks of regular check-ups for mother and baby, often in the home, means that potential problems, such as post-partum depression, can be avoided or detected early by someone who not only knows the signs of depression, but knows the woman well enough to note changes in her personality and behaviour.
Barriers to Universal Canadian Midwifery Care:
1) Lack of government support (legislation)
In provinces without legislation, very few midwives practice because of the difficulty of practicing in a quasi-legal way, and because of the difficulty in earning a living. In unlegislated provinces, the few midwives practicing cannot order routine blood and urine tests, or serve women whose particular pregnancies, or personal beliefs, would make a hospital birth a better option.
2) Lack of government funding
In provinces without legislation, or those where midwifery is legislated but not funded, women must pay for their midwifery care themselves. Even with the common practice of accepting payment on a sliding scale geared to income, many women cannot afford the cost of a midwife, leaving those already marginalized by society (the poor, new immigrants, young mothers) without access to midwifery care.
3) Lack of midwives
In provinces where midwives are legislated and funded, midwives are highly sought after and many mothers who seek care cannot be accommodated.
4) Lack of training opportunities
In order to get more midwives, you need to train more midwives. Though Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia offer university training for midwives, the aspiring midwives in other provinces need the opportunity to train in the areas where they currently live and work. Entering the existing programs is not feasible for many potential midwives, and ultimately means fewer midwives entering those already midwife-hungry provinces where the profession is already established.
5) Lack of intra-professional understanding
In our own care, we have benefited from respectful relations between midwives and physicians. However, there are many cases -- some well-documented -- of midwives being treated as lesser professionals by doctors and nurses. When this happens, women's care is compromised.
In some legislated areas, individual hospitals grant -- and deny -- privileges to individual midwives. Should a hospital decide not to make privileges available to a midwife, she can be left unable to take clients who choose to birth in hospital, leaving these women without care, or forcing them to accept medical care instead.
6) Inability to practice in a home setting
Some medical professionals still refuse to acknowledge the safety of homebirth, and campaign against allowing midwives to catch babies at home, and stalling or altering the move towards legislating midwifery. This despite studies showing homebirth is a good option for many mothers and babies, including a recent study by the Canadian Medical Association.
What Still Needs to be Done?
Lobby the federal and provincial governments for:
1) Legislated and funded midwifery care in every province and territory, making this a truly Canadian option, available to the diverse populations of Canada.
2) Decentralized educational opportunities for potential midwives. This can be achieved through the creation of satellite schools and investing in on-line learning. Also, experienced midwives in areas other than those with existing university educational programs must be allowed to act as preceptors for future midwives. This means allowing students to apprentice and study away from their midwifery education programme.
3) Professional recognition of midwifery within the health care system through greater education about the benefits of midwifery care and the way in which midwives practice in Canada today. This will lead to better working relationships and increased privileges for midwives within hospitals.
4) Recognition of home birth as a safe and viable option for women in all provinces and territories, and permission for trained professionals to attend these women.
Colorado landscape architect Bryan Harding skied about 50 days on Aspen-area mountains last year, using a free season pass that was a perquisite of his job. But then he was laid off because of the bad U.S. economy.
Harding has since started his own landscaping company in Basalt, a small central Colorado town near Aspen. Despite his location near pricey Aspen, however, Harding is considering using less-expensive resorts for this year's ski outings.
Colorado, bisected by some of the Rocky Mountains' most challenging peaks, was one of the first states in the United States to establish a major skiing industry and remains at the heart of the industry.
Harding and his fiancee, Kim Noah, have not decided how many days they will take to the slopes this season.
"Last year, it was however many days we can get in," said Noah, 28.
"This year, it's however many we can afford," said Harding, 30.
With the recession's effects lingering, many Colorado ski resorts are adding value to their season passes, holding pass prices steady, or giving customers flexibility in booking lodging and paying for lift tickets to encourage mountain riders to visit and not to wait until the last minute to make plans.
"It's all about discretionary income," said Bob Bray, 74, a part-time instructor at Winter Park Resort. "You gotta pay for gas, tickets, equipment. If you don't have a job, you're probably not going to go as often.
"But dedicated skiers will find a way."
Resorts are helping. Wolf Creek _ http://www.wolfcreekski.com _ in southwest Colorado has 14 "Local Appreciation Days" scheduled this season, when a one-day lift ticket costs $31 for adults and $18 for seniors and children. Telluride and Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort, two of the Rocky Mountain state's better-known resorts, are expanding expert terrain, while resorts including Ski Cooper, Powderhorn and Sunlight Mountain are holding pass prices steady this season.
Several resorts say early pass sales were up, but that could be because the added benefits and not a matter of more discretionary income.
For instance, Monarch Mountain _ http://www.skimonarch.com _ kept season pass prices the same but now offers free or discounted access to 10 other resorts, up from eight last season.
Winter Park sold some passes online, allowing out-of-state skiers and riders to take advantage of deals that previously were claimed only by people who could buy them in person.
Melanie Mills, president of the trade group Colorado Ski Country USA, said she is guessing skier visits could be up slightly this season, based on feedback from ski shows around the country.
Heavy October and November snowstorms have not hurt either.
"We had all this great early snow in Colorado. That got people really fired up to go out and ski," Mills said.
Colorado resorts reported about 11.85 million skier visits last season, down 5.5 percent from the season before, according to Colorado Ski Country USA. The National Ski Areas Association saw a similar dip across the country, although resorts that were within driving distance of big cities and had lower-priced lift tickets fared better than ones that host a larger number of guests who have to hop airplanes to get there.
Echo Mountain President and CEO Gerald Petitt said his ski area _ http://www.echomt.com _ about 45 minutes from Denver, expects a 30 to 40 percent increase in skier visits from last season. That is on top of the roughly 30 percent increase it had last season from the season before.
At $45, single-day Echo Mountain adult lift tickets are about half the peak window price of tickets at Aspen or Vail. The early season price for a season pass was $169.
"We're the closest resort to Denver. We're also the least expensive. In tough economic times, that makes a pretty good deal," Petitt said.
Here is a sample of deals at other Colorado resort offerings:
_COPPER MOUNTAIN _ http://www.coppercolorado.com _ is letting people buy three to six nights of lodging that can be used one or two nights at a time, any time during the season, with some restrictions.
_WINTER PARK _ http://www.skiwinterpark.com _ says guests who book at least two nights' lodging at certain nearby properties through Christmas get a free lift ticket for each night. Again, with restrictions.
_CRESTED BUTTE _ http://www.skicb.com _ has deals that let children fly into town, ski and stay free, if adults book a qualifying trip.
_ ASPEN SKIING CO._ http://www.aspensnowmass.com/deals _ says kids can ski and stay free in March if an adult buys a qualifying four-day, five-night lift ticket and lodging package by Jan. 15.
_ VAIL RESORTS_ http://www.snow.com _ is sprucing up its cafeteria burgers without raising prices, adding value meals and offering guests less expensive options for guided skiing and expert tips from its ski schools. The company runs the Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone resorts in Colorado, plus Heavenly in California.
As always, Colorado Ski Country USA _http://www.coloradoski.com/Resorts/Gems/GemsCard _ is offering the Colorado Gems card, which offers discounts and free skiing on certain days at smaller resorts. The card is $10 this year. The Web site's specials page is http://www.coloradoski.com/Resorts/Deals/.
German manufacturers of textile machinery succeeded in increasing their exports during the first three quarters of 2001. Exports during this period increased by 3.3% compared to the same three quarters of the previous year to almost 2.7 billion euro.
Exports of spinning machinery grew by about 15%, along with those of weaving machines by more than 20%.
The ranking of markets also showed some changes. U.S. fell to second as it was overtaken by China, which ranked fourth in 2000. Exports to China more than doubled to 342 million euro, followed by Italy, Turkey and Brazil. Exports also sharply increased to the Czech Republic (94 million euro (up 47%), rising from thirteenth to sixth in ranking), Hong Kong (83 million euro (up 26%), from eleventh to seventh), and India (81 million euro (up 27%), from fourteenth to eighth).
Business is expected to revitalize from the middle of 2002. Especially, the markets of Central and Eastern Europe as well as Asia offer good growth opportunities. Exports to these markets have contributed considerably to the results of the first nine months by far more than 30% each.
CHA cuts $1.8 million in energy bills by good planning
CHA CEO Terry Peterson said he was able to save about $1.8 million on the agency's heat and light bills last year by installing energy-efficient appliances and believes he'll save even more each year with additional improvements.
`We're committed to good fiscal management," he said. "The cost savings we're experiencing allows us to invest more in every day quality of life for our residents."
Some of the additional improvements totaling $15 million include installation of 35,000 lighting fixtures in senior units to reduce energy use, installation of 9,000 shower heads, faucets and low-volume toilets to cut down on water usage, and installation of a decentralized heating system at the Midwest Terrace Apartments, which is a 125-unit senior building that currently receives steam for heat and hot water from the Rockwell Gardens heating plant.
Within the next 18 months, the improvements affecting 9,735 senior units will be completed to save the agency an additional $2 million a year," said Duwain Bailey, who heads CHA Operations.
The CHA Board approved the Operation's Department to move forward on an agreement with Citizens Conservation Services needed to increase the agency's energy service improvement contract from $15 million to $30 million.
Peterson said the opportunity is made available through HUD which provides additional funds to housing authorities that take action to reduce their utility usage and costs.
Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.
Shops and supermarkets in Ireland and elsewhere were clearing their shelves of bacon, sausages and ham Sunday after authorities announced some Irish pork products had been tainted with a chemical linked to cancer.
Ireland's departments of health and agriculture on Saturday announced the discovery of dioxins in pigs and pig feed at 80 to 200 times the safety limit. Health officials said the recall of all pig products produced since Sept. 1 was precautionary, but the farmers said it was a nightmare for the industry.
On Sunday the crisis spread to the U.K. as the government of Northern Ireland announced that nine farms in the province had used the same tainted pig feed.
"We're actually reeling in shock at the moment at the scale of this disaster," Tim Cullinan, an official with the Irish Farmers Association and a pig farmer told Irish state radio RTE.
He said he believed authorities had identified the source of the contamination and hoped to get fresh pork back on the shelves within days. Meanwhile, he said, the recall had dealt a body blow to pig farmers and processors.
"It couldn't have come at worse time, the weeks leading up to Christmas. ... It's a nightmare to be honest," he said.
Irish Europe Minister Dick Roche told Sky News television that the recall was necessary because "very high levels of dioxins were found in a number of samples," including one in France.
Dr. Tony Holohan, the Irish Department of Health's chief medical officer urged people not to purchase or consume pork products, but stressed that the move was precautionary.
"We're not anticipating significant health effects," he told RTE.
Ireland's farms produce more than 3 million pigs a year, nearly half of which are consumed within the Republic of Ireland. But Irish pork also is heavily exported to neighboring Northern Ireland and Britain _ and appears in grocery stores and processed meats through much of Europe and Asia.
Last year Ireland exported 113,000 tons of pig meat, nearly half of that to the United Kingdom. Ireland also shipped more than 500,000 live pigs to the U.K. for slaughter and processing there.
Tesco PLC, Britain's largest supermarket, said it didn't import fresh pork from Ireland but was going through its stock to see if any other products contained Irish pig products. Other British grocers said they were also checking their shelves.
Scientists said the recall was a good idea but the levels of dioxin were unlikely to be any immediate cause for concern.
"These compounds take a long time to accumulate in the body, so a relatively short period of exposure would have little impact on the total body burden," said toxicologist Alan Boobis at London's Imperial College. "One would have to be exposed to high levels for a long period of time before there would be a health risk."
European Union authorities said they were monitoring the situation and were working to pass details of the contaminated food products on to member states. Britain's Food Standards Agency said it was not too concerned that Britons' health would suffer from Irish pork products already consumed since September.
___
On the Net:
Food Safety Authority of Ireland, http://www.fsai.ie/about/index.asp
Event Class. Record holder Record Year
100-m. dash AAA boys Bradley, Charleston 10.70 1984
Williams, St. Albans 10.70 1988
Tabor, St. Albans 10.70 1992
AA-A boys Knapper, Dunbar 10.50 1986
AAA girls Arline, Beckley 11.70 1988
AA-A girls Spotts, S.Point, Ohio 12.00 1996
200-m. dash AAA boys Hunter, N. Marion 21.66 1983
AA-A boys Knapper, Dunbar 22.04 1985
AAA girls Marshall, Danville,Va. 24.90 1994
AA-A girls Calhoun, Fairland,Oh. 25.60 1981
Campbell, Ironton, Oh. 25.60 1994
400-m. dash AAA boys Robinson, Beckley 48.80 1980
AA-A boys Redman, Poca 49.40 1997
AAA girls Easter, Ripley 56.50 1997
AA-A girls Calhoun, Fairland,Oh. 59.10 1981
800-m. run AAA boys Dent, DuPont 1:54.25 1984
AA-A boys Patterson, Mt.Hope 1:54.90 1980
AAA girls Velay, Wheeling Park 2:19.70 1981
AA-A girls Taylor, Fayetteville 2:19.80 1999
1,600-m. run AAA boys McClintic, Gr. East 4:19.10 1993
AA-A boys Cox, Athens 4:17.53 1993
AAA girls Davis, Hampshire 5:14.05 1999
AA-A girls Taylor, Fayetteville 5:10.80 2000
3,200-m. run AAA boys Kominsky, Oak Hill 9:23.50 1980
AA-A boys Cox, Athens 9:11.13 1993
AAA girls Hines, Huntington 11:04.50 1982
AA-A girls Taylor, Fayetteville 11:22.94 1999
4x100-m. AAA boys Beckley 42.79 1987
relay AA-A boys Liberty-Raleigh 44.00 1982
AAA girls Milton 49.90 1981
AA-A girls Dunbar 50.60 1981
4x200-m. AAA boys Beckley 1:27.16 1987
relay AA-A boys South Point (Ohio) 1:30.77 1988
AAA girls Gallia Academy 1:44.34 1998
AA-A girls Dunbar 1:47.78 1985
4x400-m. AAA boys Beckley 3:23.20 1981
relay AA-A boys Mount Hope 3:28.90 1980
AAA girls Danville, Va. 4:06.64 1995
AA-A girls St. Mary's 4:14.50 1982
4x800-m. AAA boys Parkersburg 8:05.20 1981
relay AA-A boys Berkeley Springs 8:15.64 1986
AAA girls Parkersburg South 10:02.80 1987
AA-A girls Grafton 9:59.43 2000
High hurdles AAA boys Hayes, Huntington 14.30 1990
AA-A boys Mitchell, Gr. West 14.30 1981
AAA girls Dickey, Huntington 14.70 1997
AA-A girls Hepler, Winfield 15.60 1994
Intermediate AAA boys Hayes, Huntington 38.60 1990
hurdles AA-A boys Mills, Fairland (Ohio) 39.34 1993
Low hurdles AAA girls Marshall, Danville, Va. 45.94 1995
AA-A girls McCallister, Poca 46.80 1992
Shuttle AAA boys Beckley 56.50 1981
hurdle relay AA-A boys Linsly 58.30 1981
AAA girls Huntington 1:09.20 1997
AA-A girls Winfield 1:07.50 1998
Discus AAA boys Wood, Gallia Academy 175-8 1996
AA-A boys Maynard, S.Point, Ohio 161-10 1992
AAA girls Compton, Oak Hill 137-7 1999
AA-A girls Sherman, S.Point, Ohio 155-0 1989
Shot put AAA boys Barnes, St. Albans 66-91/2 1985
AA-A boys Lucas, Fairland (Ohio) 54-6 1988
AAA girls Allen, Parkersburg 38-10 1998
AA-A girls Hypes, Winfield 42-3 1993
Long jump AAA boys Tyson, Charleston 24-01/2 1973
AA-A girls Dillon, Fairland (Ohio) 22-111/4 1988
AAA girls Robinson, Charleston 18-0 1977
AA-A girls Perry, Valley-Fayette 17-6 2000
High jump AAA boys Four tied at 6-8
AA-A boys Pleasant, Dunbar 6-10
AAA girls Worstell, Parkersburg 5-6 1991
Williams, Buck-Up 5-6 1992
AA-A girls Patterson, Williamstown 5-7 1984
Pole vault AAA boys Kessler, Nitro 14-11 1998
AA-A boys Manns, Fairland (Ohio) 14-6 1987
AAA girls Compton, Oak Hill 8-0 1999
Stewart, Hampshire 8-0 2000
AA-A girls Jenkins, Winfield 10-3 2000
Then there was "Davy Crockett," the television adventure andpopular song that became hits in the 1950s.
The television show returns tonight on Channels 4 and 10 at 7.
Three segments of the original show, together with two morethat were televised the following season, may be consideredtelevision's first miniseries. It was one of the highest-ratedseries of its time, telecast as part of the Frontierland adventuresof "Disneyland" from 1954-55.
The three segments, which starred Fess Parker as American folkhero Davy Crockett, originated with "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter"on Dec. 15, 1954. It was followed by "Davy Crockett Goes toCongress" on Jan. 26, 1955, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," Feb. 23,1955, "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race," Nov. 16, 1955, and "DavyCrockett and the River Pirates" on Dec. 14, 1955.
"Disney later admitted that the enormous popularity of thefirst three segments (especially 'Davy Crockett at the Alamo')caught everyone at Disney Studios by surprise; fortunately,however, Disney was quick to capitalize on the hit show bylicensing the distribution and sales of all kinds of Davy Crockettparaphernalia; hundreds of thousands of 'coonskin' caps and bubblegum cards were quickly bought by young fans," according to AlexMcNeil's "Total Television."
Disney tried for the next several years to develop a characteras popular as Davy Crockett, launching several miniseries between1957 and 1960, but none of them came close to achieving thepopularity of the original stories.
The new version of "Davy Crockett" is a special two-hourpremiere, "Rainbow in the Thunder," on NBC's "The Magical World ofDisney." It features Tim Dunigan as young Davy and guest starJohnny Cash as Colonel Crockett, the elder statesman. Guest starSamantha Eggar plays Ory Palmer.
The story recounts a reunion between Colonel Crockett and hisold friend and adversary, President Andrew Jackson (David Hemmings)as well as Ory Palmer, now head of the White House housekeepingstaff.
The reunion inspires a flashback to the more exciting frontierdays of 25 years earlier. Young Jackson (Matt Salinger) andCrockett (Dunigan) fight to crush a Creek Indian uprising, withCrockett leading a ragtag unit of Tennessee volunteers that mergedwith Jackson's soldiers.
When one of Crockett's men schemes to surrender young Ory tothe Creeks, Crockett must defuse the scheme and rescue the girlwith the help of his friend Georgie Russell (series star GaryGrubbs).
Presently, when President Jackson wants Crockett's help withCongress in passing an Indian bill, the men no longer seeeye-to-eye. While the attraction between Ory and Davy lingers, hismarriage precludes any romance.
In real life, Crockett broke with President Jackson over thePresident's orders to break the treaty with the Creek Indians.Finally defeated in an election, he made up his mind to help theTexans win their independence and died fighting heroically at theAlamo. MCCABE;11/08 LDRISC;11/18,17:12 TVCOV20
MEET THE NEW DAVY CROCKETT First there was the real Davy Crockett, born in Tennessee in1786, a frontiersman, public official, soldier and autobiographer,a bear-killer elected to Congress who became known as "the coonskinCongressman."Then there was "Davy Crockett," the television adventure andpopular song that became hits in the 1950s.
The television show returns tonight on Channels 4 and 10 at 7.
Three segments of the original show, together with two morethat were televised the following season, may be consideredtelevision's first miniseries. It was one of the highest-ratedseries of its time, telecast as part of the Frontierland adventuresof "Disneyland" from 1954-55.
The three segments, which starred Fess Parker as American folkhero Davy Crockett, originated with "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter"on Dec. 15, 1954. It was followed by "Davy Crockett Goes toCongress" on Jan. 26, 1955, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," Feb. 23,1955, "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race," Nov. 16, 1955, and "DavyCrockett and the River Pirates" on Dec. 14, 1955.
"Disney later admitted that the enormous popularity of thefirst three segments (especially 'Davy Crockett at the Alamo')caught everyone at Disney Studios by surprise; fortunately,however, Disney was quick to capitalize on the hit show bylicensing the distribution and sales of all kinds of Davy Crockettparaphernalia; hundreds of thousands of 'coonskin' caps and bubblegum cards were quickly bought by young fans," according to AlexMcNeil's "Total Television."
Disney tried for the next several years to develop a characteras popular as Davy Crockett, launching several miniseries between1957 and 1960, but none of them came close to achieving thepopularity of the original stories.
The new version of "Davy Crockett" is a special two-hourpremiere, "Rainbow in the Thunder," on NBC's "The Magical World ofDisney." It features Tim Dunigan as young Davy and guest starJohnny Cash as Colonel Crockett, the elder statesman. Guest starSamantha Eggar plays Ory Palmer.
The story recounts a reunion between Colonel Crockett and hisold friend and adversary, President Andrew Jackson (David Hemmings)as well as Ory Palmer, now head of the White House housekeepingstaff.
The reunion inspires a flashback to the more exciting frontierdays of 25 years earlier. Young Jackson (Matt Salinger) andCrockett (Dunigan) fight to crush a Creek Indian uprising, withCrockett leading a ragtag unit of Tennessee volunteers that mergedwith Jackson's soldiers.
When one of Crockett's men schemes to surrender young Ory tothe Creeks, Crockett must defuse the scheme and rescue the girlwith the help of his friend Georgie Russell (series star GaryGrubbs).
Presently, when President Jackson wants Crockett's help withCongress in passing an Indian bill, the men no longer seeeye-to-eye. While the attraction between Ory and Davy lingers, hismarriage precludes any romance.
In real life, Crockett broke with President Jackson over thePresident's orders to break the treaty with the Creek Indians.Finally defeated in an election, he made up his mind to help theTexans win their independence and died fighting heroically at theAlamo. MCCABE;11/08 LDRISC;11/18,17:12 TVCOV20
Thieves briefly stole the car of AS Roma defender Philippe Mexes, unwittingly kidnapping his daughter who was sleeping in the back seat, police said Friday.
Two people stole the car late Thursday in front of the player's home, after Mexes' wife had briefly left the vehicle to carry the couple's sleeping son inside, police said.
The car was abandoned a few …
WASHINGTON -- Rejecting U.S. disarmament demands, North Korea saidThursday it will prove to the world that it possesses nuclear weaponsby carrying out a nuclear test, a U.S. government official said.
At a six-nation meeting in China that included the United States,North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il also said, accordingto the U.S. official, that his country has the means to delivernuclear weapons, an apparent reference to its highly developedmissile program.
The State Department declined comment on the deliberations inBeijing except to reiterate that the U.S. goal at the conference isto focus on "the complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination"of …
North Korea says it will conduct a nuclear testWASHINGTON -- Rejecting U.S. disarmament demands, North Korea saidThursday it will prove to the world that it possesses nuclear weaponsby carrying out a nuclear test, a U.S. government official said.
At a six-nation meeting in China that included the United States,North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il also said, accordingto the U.S. official, that his country has the means to delivernuclear weapons, an apparent reference to its highly developedmissile program.
The State Department declined comment on the deliberations inBeijing except to reiterate that the U.S. goal at the conference isto focus on "the complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination"of …
Winnipeg, Man.
Barbara Nkala, a Brethren in Christ Church leader from Zimbabwe, visited Winnipeg October 1-7 to make several presentations. She spoke at the North American Mennonite History Conference, and gave the John and Margaret Friesen Lectures at Canadian Mennonite University (see cover).
Nkala also spoke to a full house at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery about the Mennonite World Conference assembly in her country in 2003 where she led worship. She noted that the event has put the city …
After TCI, Jerome Kern confronts another entrepreneurial test
When Jerome Kern dealt himself out of a job as vice chairman of TCI, he could have worked anywhere. Or, given his substantial wealth, nowhere at all.
But he picked LinkShare, a little-known Internet start-up that seeks to become a major clearinghouse for e-commerce transactions, becoming CEO. In doing so, Kern has sent an unmistakable message to the investment community and Internet aficionados alike: LinkShare's obscurity is about to end.
Kern was TCI vice chairman from June 1998 until TCI's merger with AT&T--which he helped engineer--closed in March. His other credits include a stint as an attorney at …
This paper is an empirical examination of the notion of self-reconstruction whereby, it is argued, individuals constantly monitor, update and amend their biographies in order to present a particular conception of self to themselves and others. The study looks in detail at case studies of women going through th transition to motherhood, comparing their real-time accounts of how the pregnancy is affecting their sense of identity with retrospective accounts, fiv months post partum, when the mothers reflect back on their pregnancy.
Social cognition has begun to look at the biases or preferences employed by the individual in various tasks, so that people are seen to show preferential treatment for self-referential information (Rogers, Kuiper & Kirker, 1977), employ self-categorical schemata (Markus, 1977), and favour positive self-feedback (Swann & Hill, 1982). Markus (1980) argues that, overall, self-relevant information is more easily processed, better remembered, resists counter-information and is important in terms of evaluating new input. Greenwal (1980) argues that a self-referential bias in cognition has a motivational component, in helping to enhance self-esteem.
There has been much less work, however, on the way people may employ similarly self-enhancing, cognitive selective strategies at a more global level, in terms of recalling their autobiography or constructing life plans, for example. The review by Markus & Wurf (1987) confirms the sense of uneven progress. While the are able to discuss findings and make fairly definitive statements on social cognition when handling small chunks of information, the review is much more tentative on the processes involved in the construction, organization and examination of self and identity at a more global level.
Self-construction and reconstruction
Mead (1934) proposed a reflexive model of the person, of the individual as active agent able to monitor and modify her/his view of the self. For while, he argued, the self initially arose from social interaction, the individual become autonomous through the internal, symbolic replay of the social nexus:
After a self has arisen, it in a certain sense provides for itself its social experiences, and so we can conceive of an absolutely solitary self ... who stil has himself (sic) as a companion, and is able to think and to converse with himself as he had communicated with others.
Thus while mind is primarily a social construct:
there is nothing odd about a product of a given process contributing to, or becoming an essential factor in the further development of that process.
A number of writers are beginning to signal this reflexive turn. Gergen & Gerge (1983) argue for a model of the self which implicates the individual as activel constructing her/his view of the self, and treats the self as an emergent being This reflexivity can be invoked at a life-span level, suggesting a dynamic mode of biographical studies. Datan, Rodeheaver & Hughes (1987) suggest that adult personality or life-span psychology should be concerned more with how the individual creates a sense of order or biography, rather than assuming or measuring the order itself.
This turn to a reflexive, active self and the study of order as constructed, rather than given, suggests a dynamic role for memory in the process of constructing identity:
All I wish to propose is that for all practical purposes the past exists only when we re-create it by training our thinking on it, or that the past as individual and collective history cannot be recovered but has to be reconstructed (Wyatt, 1964, pp. 315-319).
Interestingly this reconstructive view of memory echoes voices within mainstrea experimental psychology. Bartlett's (1932) classic collection of repeated and serial reproduction studies vividly demonstrates the constructive process of memory as participants attempt to recreate the story they have previously been told. The studies were extremely constrained however, Bartlett attempting to provide context-free stimuli of no particular significance to the participant and therefore saying little about how individuals organize the important aspect of their lives.
More recently Cohen (1989) in part echoes Wyatt in arguing:
This integration of past, present and future in a unified personal history is achieved by interactive processes. New memories are stored within pre-existing knowledge structures; old memories are modified by new ones; prospective plants are built out of elements abstracted from past experience. This intricate interaction of past, present, and future allows us to maintain a coherent identity and to develop flexibly and adaptively in knowledge and experience.
Gergen & Gergen (1988) take a strong constructionist position in arguing that this coherence and flexibility are socially sanctioned properties, suggesting there is a need in our culture for individuals to have a sense of, and so construct a narrative of, both stability and change. So for example:
Functioning viably in a relationship often depends on one's ability to show tha one has always been the same and will continue to be so and, yet, contrapuntall to show how one is continuing to improve. One must be reliable but demonstrate progress: one must be changing but maintain a stable character. Achieving such diverse ends is primarily a matter of negotiating the meaning of events in relationship to each other. Thus with sufficient skill one and the same event may figure in both a stability and a progressive narrative.
Thus we see the agenda for a radically different biographical project. Such a project would, rather than taking as given the individual's biographic record, examine how that autobiography is constructed, focusing particularly on the pressure of differing forces, for example, for stability and order, change and progress.
Empirical studies in self-reconstruction
In a series of studies Ross and colleagues have examined experimentally the revising self. For example, Conway & Ross (1984) carried out an experiment on a study aid programme. While the programme did not lead to an improvement in students' performances compared with controls, the students in the study programme overestimated their improvement at test time and six months later, an underestimated their original performance. Ross (1989) claims people invoke implicit theories of the self, either of continuity or of change, and that data is then selected to confirm the chosen theory. Therefore 'recall is inaccurate if a theory dictates greater or lesser change than has actually occurred' (Conway & Ross, p. 745). In this instance the students invoked a model of self-development and progress and therefore adjusted to the reality of lack of improvement by exaggerating previous inability. This confirms Greenwald's (1980 notion of the self as a personal historian which as well as selecting self-relevant and self-enhancing information, also revises autobiographical memory to conform with the current self-concept.
Miell (1987) conducted a study with a similar temporal design. Participants wer asked to draw weekly graphs of the course of the relationship with their partner. Each time they had to start the graph at week 1 and therefore each wee the graph grew longer. This enabled comparison of actual and retrospectively perceived trajectories. Miell found considerable retrospective reconstruction o the relationship courses. She describes her results as showing a recency effect the most recent move in the relationship is retrospectively exaggerated, so tha for example if last week has seen an improvement in the relationship a previous point is downgraded, increasing the extent of the positive change. Miell seems to draw on mainstream cognitive psychology and schema theory to interpret her results. However, this author would suggest further motivational interpretation It could be argued that Miell's results demonstrate that the participants are changing the view of the past to promote the present. Thus for example if the relationship is improving, downplaying the past produces a self-enhancing story of increased progress. If the relationship is not improving, inflating the past suggests a stability rather than a decline.
Lowenthal, Thurner, Chiriboga and associates (1976) asked people facing important life transitions to reflect on the course of their lives. The transitions were: leaving high school, marriage, onset of middle age, retirement. People in all age groups tended to see the best time of their lives as being within five years of the present, the worst time as distant -- in thei adolescence for the older groups, in future old age for the youngsters. All groups tended to emphasize the positive attributes of the current period, so that the young describe it as exciting, the older group as easier. Lowenthal et al. do interpret their findings motivationally, suggesting an essentially self-promotional, present-enhancing, biographical construction. However, Lowenthal et al.'s study is cross-sectional and is not therefore able to separate individual or ageing from cohort effects. Also there is no real-time line or account to compare these retrospective stories with.
Taylor (1983) discusses the strategies employed by cancer victims in coping wit their illness. Taylor suggests her interviews reveal three central themes: a search for meaning in the experience, an attempt to regain mastery of ones life an attempt to enhance self-esteem. A common strategy was the perception of a discontinuity between the present and past, that is a separation of the previou cause and course of the illness from a present more successful position and prognosis. For example one woman suggests a changing diet is helping her contro the disease; another woman accuses a first husband of being a boorish rapist in contrast to her current husband who provides unstinting support. These strategies are of course flexible, Taylor arguing that an individual will attempt to find a currently self-enhancing explanation which will then be discarded later if no longer appropriate. The …
