BELLE CHASSE, Louisiana (AP) -- Tammy Galjour already has a job, working 12-hour shifts as an X-ray technician at a hospital in this normally tidy suburb just outside New Orleans.These days, when she gets home just after dawn, she's grateful to be exhausted, to fall into bed and sleep away the destruction that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rained down on her town and her state.But Galjour -- like hundreds of other parents across Louisiana -- has been handed a second, unpaid job: She'll be home-schooling her 12-year-old son, at least until classes start again in Plaquemines Parish, where six of nine schools were washed away by the storms."I think it will be a challenge just to get him to sit down and listen to me," Galjour said, juggling four fat textbooks she had just picked up.Across Louisiana, families are turning to home-schooling as officials scramble to reopen shuttered schools. At least 800 families in Plaquemines Parish alone are affected, according to school officials.Nationally, about 1.1 million students are home-schooled, according to the U.S. Department of Education, a movement that's been growing steadily for decades. Usually, though, it's not a decision made under duress, since home-schooling demands patience and commitment from both parents and students."This is a beautiful short-term solution, especially given where we are now," said Stephanie Riegel, a New Orleans resident now relocated to Baton Rouge with twin 9-year-old girls.Louisiana has done its best to encourage parents not to leave the public school system, urging them instead to enroll in schools wherever they've landed, said Meg Casper, a spokeswoman for the state Education Department. The East Baton Rouge Parish district, for example, has taken in more than 2,000 new students since Katrina hit.But other parents have pulled back, some because they eventually hope to send their children back to their local schools. Others simply got fed up with seeing their children in new, unfamiliar and crowded classrooms."At her school in East Baton Rouge, there were four drug busts one day, and the next someone was selling pills," said Michelle Pellegal, gesturing at her 16-year-old daughter, April Kent. "She said, 'I can't go to that school any more."'Like Galjour, Pellegal works in the produce department of a grocery store. She will oversee her daughter's lessons in chemistry and algebra after work, she said, until Plaquemines Parish schools reopen.Some, like Pam Ricouard, followed the state's wishes and enrolled her five children in school in Erath, a rural town in coastal Louisiana, after Katrina only to flee before Rita put the small farming town underwater.Now, she said, she's home-schooling her fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 12th grade children until her local school district reopens."Math'll be hard," she said, sighing. "It's not just addition and subtraction -- it's everything."Even the students seem fed up with the seemingly endless vacation that Katrina and Rita bestowed upon them, stuck as they often are at home in the sticky Louisiana heat."I'm ready to go back and see all my friends," Kent said. "I don't like being at home, all bored."Home-schooling parents can be sent Louisiana's curriculum, which outlines what students need to know at each grade level, Casper said. And help is available from some districts -- in Plaquemines Parish, for example, volunteer teachers are staffing tutoring sessions at a local church five days a week.Learning how to become a home-school parent on the fly will not be easy, said Dianna Van Timmeren, a Baton Rouge mother who home-schools her children and is helping a family of evacuees make the transition."For parents who have never considered it before, there's always the feeling that maybe they can't do it, that they don't have the education," she said. "But it is possible. There's tons of curriculum out there to choose from, and all kinds of help for parents who might feel wobbly about educating their children."Avis Fitte and her sons -- 13-year-old Beau and 12-year-old Evan -- recently worked together on a unit on vocabulary. Fitte asked her sons to figure out the meaning of the word "burden" by looking at its context in a sentence."Not wanting to burden her mother further, Sally rode her bike to soccer practice," Fitte read out.There was a pause, then "to bother?" Beau ventured, earning a proud beam from his mother.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Have a bad habit you'd like to break? Want to shed a few pounds? Confused about where to begin?Then check out these tips from CNN's New You Revolution. The series follows five people -- Thekla Fischer, Harald Fricker, Sandra Garth, Jonathan Karp and the Rev. Leigh Ann Raynor -- as they attempt to forge paths to healthier and happier lives under the guidance of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's senior medical correspondent.1. Keep a journalKarp, 28, had a nasty nail-biting habit that left his fingers gnarled. To stop, he tried acupuncture and hypnotherapy. Neither worked very well.What did make a difference was the support of his fiancee, exercise and writing in a journal."Every day, just quantifying to make sure I hit that zero," Karp said of recording results his journal. "I've stopped biting, so now I don't even want to start again. So, that's my major motivation."Tip: To help you achieve your goals, keep track of your progress in a journal. This will force you to be honest with yourself while giving you a clear sense of how close you are to your goal.2. Train smarterFricker, 45, enjoys pushing his body to its limits. As a younger man, Fricker competed in triathlons and ultramarathons."I'm addicted to running," he said.But when Fricker became a dad his eating habits changed, as did his exercise routine. So, when Fricker entered the New You Revolution earlier this year, he was 100 pounds overweight.Doctors said his problem was that he ate too much and slept too little. He was told that a lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain and that his regular running routine was not the most effective way for him to train. Fricker needed to mix some weight-training and even walking into his exercise program.Tip: To get better results, try mixing up your workouts. Train smarter, not harder. Aerobic exercises, which push your cardiovascular system, and weight-training, to strengthen muscles and bones, are both important. One should not be done to the exclusion of the other.3. Consult a doctorRaynor, a New You participant, has a serious heart condition -- hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, an excessive thickening of the heart muscle -- and underwent a procedure for this condition last year. But she needed to lose some weight, and exercising would be a big part of that.So after consulting a doctor, Raynor, 50, eased into an exercise routine. Now she works out five or six days a week. The workouts aren't strenuous, and she'd like to do more, but Raynor's heart condition won't let her. Yet the hard work is paying off. After eight weeks in the New You program, she lost 14 pounds."I feel better than I've felt in 20 years, at least," Raynor said.Tip: Be patient when starting an exercise program. And consult a doctor. This is especially important for people with health issues. Your body needs to get used to exercising, or exercising again. Going slow will pay off in the long run.4. Eat betterGarth, 50, a grandmother and former fitness instructor, loves to eat. A typical breakfast used to include cheese, eggs, French toast and bacon. Dinner might include beef tacos, deep-fried.No longer. In an effort to lose some weight, Garth now prepares healthier versions of her favorite foods. She eats egg whites, whole wheat toast, peanut butter and a banana for breakfast. She makes turkey tacos, and doesn't fry them."I think back now at what I used to eat, and I was eating a ton of food," she said.With this new diet, as well as a new exercise program, Garth feels great. She lost 22 pounds by week eight of the New You Revolution.Tip: Instead of dieting, try eating healthier versions, preferably home-cooked, of your favorite foods. They should include whole grains, fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and low-fat meats. It worked for Garth, and it could work for you.5. Get organizedThekla Fischer, 34, wanted to get healthy and get her life in order so she could have a baby. This involved starting an exercise plan, eating better and cutting down on her work schedule, which involved late nights at the law firm.Doctors suggested taking a prenatal vitamin to get enough nutrients to have a healthy baby. An organizational expert wanted Fischer to avoid e-mails and phone calls for the first hour of the day and tackle her various projects one at a time to keep from being overwhelmed."What scares me the most is the time commitment," Fischer said about having a baby.Tip: Plan ahead, weed out unnecessary tasks and focus on one project at a time. Americans are busy and stressed-out. Trying to fit a new exercise plan into a busy life can raise the stress level even higher. Simplify and get organized to achieve the best results.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned whether school districts should have to carry the burden of proof when parents demand better programs for children with special education needs.The court delved into the case of a Maryland family that undertook an administrative challenge to the school district's special education program designed for their son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."I have never seen a case where a private party coming in and challenging government action does not have the burden of proof," Justice David Souter told the family's lawyer.Arguing for the parents of Brian Schaffer, lawyer William Hurd said federal law sets up "a unique partnership" between parents of the learning disabled and school districts. When there are disagreements, school districts have better access to relevant facts and witnesses and the playing field is tilted against parents.The Individuals With Disabilities Act is silent on whether parents or the schools have the burden of proof in disputes.In baseball, the tie goes to the runner, said Hurd, and "here the tie should go to the child."Under the law, which served 6.7 million students in the 2003-04 school year, Congress provides money to the states to ensure that all children with disabilities have a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and services to meet their needs.Switching its stand from the Clinton years, the solicitor general's office of the Justice Department is siding with school systems, saying the law does not put the burden on schools.Souter indicated he would be more sympathetic to an extreme set of circumstances in which the school district decided to throw the student with special needs "in the pot with everybody else." In the Maryland case, Souter pointed out, the parents have been presented with a proposed program by the school district.Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that disputes under the law are no different from other types of cases in which parties seeking relief have the burden of proof.Scalia looked at the costs of protracted disputes, saying "this is not play money."Hurd urged Scalia to look at the "squandering of human potential" if special ed programs are not appropriately designed.The cost figure for disputes quoted during arguments before the justices was $146.5 million, "a drop in the bucket" compared with the $11.4 billion appropriated for the program, said Hurd.Chief Justice John Roberts is not participating in the case. Four lawyers from his old law firm are representing the school district.The case is Brian Schaffer v. Jerry Weast, Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, 04-698.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Amtrak resumed passenger rail service to New Orleans on Saturday, bringing mass ground transportation back to the city for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.The train called the City of New Orleans arrived with 29 passengers aboard, greeted by a handful of well-wishers, after leaving Chicago on Friday.As he stepped off the train, Marty Robinson, of Paducah, Kentucky, sank to his knees, sang a song and proposed to his girlfriend as she greeted him. She accepted."I'm nervous. I'm shaking," said Lorraine Talbot of Houma, Louisiana, who embraced the man who sang songs to her by phone in the weeks since the storm.Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said he expected more than 30 passengers to arrive Sunday and that "the business will grow steadily but slowly over the next several weeks." Greater numbers of passengers are expected next year, after tracks to the east are repaired. Service to the west should resume before that, he said."This helps return the area to some normalcy," Magliari said. "We're far from normal here right now. But each step toward normalcy is important."Jimmy Elliott, 63, leaned on his cane as he was helped off the train. He was returning from Chicago for the first time since evacuating on August 28."There's no place like home," he said.Elliott said he was told his home in the Algiers neighborhood on the city's West Bank did not sustain much damage, but he still gazed through the train window as it arrived."I was trying to see what I was coming home to," he said.Michael Anderson, 21, a senior airman in the Air Force, was visiting from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, after returning from a four-month tour in Iraq.He first tried to get a flight, but an early winter storm that dumped heavy snow across the northern Plains canceled those plans, forcing him to get on a train to Chicago to catch the City of New Orleans.Waiting for him were his 15-year-old brother, 12-year-old sister and mother, Paulette Anderson, who cried as they embraced."I'm so happy he's home," she said. "It's a good day."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Hitting local shops and markets for mementos of your travels is a good way to curb the temptation to add to that miscellaneous T-shirt and shot glass collection. "Focus on things that are ... unique to the local area, especially hand-crafted type items," advises Ron Krannich, who with his wife, Caryl, is co-author of the "Impact Guides" books on travel shopping. Each culture has its own specialties: from blankets and baskets in Bolivia to silks in Vietnam and Thailand. Kathy Borrus, a retail consultant and author of "The Fearless Shopper: How to Get the Best Deals on the Planet," also looks for things that remind her of the place and its culture. "Just having the name 'Paris' slapped on the Eiffel Tower or something like that, to me, doesn't say anything about the culture," Borrus said. Instead, Borrus looks for locally made textiles, jewelry, ceramics or packaged food items to take back as gifts and souvenirs. Paprika from Hungary, tea from India and mustard from France are all local items that aren't too difficult to carry. Interacting with shopkeepers and craftspeople also gives travelers an opportunity for cultural exchange and immersion, Borrus said. Since shopping etiquette varies all over the world -- for example, bargaining is pervasive in some cultures and rare in others -- she advises travelers to learn a little bit about the country's customs and commerce before arriving. "Getting a little bit of knowledge in advance on the kinds of things that are expected in a particular culture would be one of the most important things you can do," Borrus said. Looking for a dealLocal markets generally have good prices and there usually is room to bargain, Borrus said.Some vendors speak English, but sign language and a calculator can help with negotiations."Usually what you ought to have in mind is the highest amount that you would pay for something, and then ask them what the price is," Borrus said.Krannich advises travelers to find out the asking price and counter with a much lower price, working up in negotiations from your low price rather than down from the vendor's asking price."Go into Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, places even in India; they say $10. You offer them half and then you work up from there," he said."It just depends on the country. But, generally, you cut the price in half or by 60 percent," Krannich said.Borrus is more likely to pay a little bit more when she's bargaining directly with an artist or craftsperson."They can probably use that dollar or 50 cents more than you can, so to bargain with a little bit of compassion is important," she said. If you know you're looking for something that may be available at home, Borrus suggests doing some comparison shopping in advance to make sure that you get a good deal when you purchase abroad.Krannich advises against shopping with a tour guide, because often guides receive commissions from the shops they steer tourists into."Get some information about where the shops are and go on your own," he said.Getting your purchases homeIf you fall in love with something that's too big to carry home, consider having it shipped."Shipping is really not a problem in most places," Krannich said. "It's something that needs to be arranged, and once you figure out how to arrange it, a whole new shopping world opens up to you."In established shops in countries where the infrastructure is good, shipping can be arranged through the store, Borrus said.She recommends purchasing items to be shipped with a credit card so that there will be a record and some recourse in the event of a mishap.Borrus advises travelers to arrange shipping independently if the market or shop is not in the habit of shipping merchandise or the country's infrastructure is suspect. Your hotel may be able to recommend a reliable shipper, she said.Also consider customs regulations as you're making your purchases. At re-entry into the United States, everything acquired outside the country must be declared. In most cases, each traveler has a duty-free personal exemption of $800 worth of merchandise.Be careful with food items. Most fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry products and soft cheeses are prohibited. Visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site for more information on how to make sure your purchases make it home.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first private space ship took its place Wednesday next to Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, a hoped-for symbol of a new era of space tourism alongside the icon of trans-Atlantic flight.SpaceShipOne's designer, Burt Rutan, and its financier, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, were on hand as the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum took ownership of the 28-foot star-spangled spacecraft.A year ago, Rutan and Allen captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize when SpaceShipOne dashed to the edge of space twice. The prize was aimed at encouraging space tourism through the development of low-cost private spacecraft.Rutan told several hundred visitors in the building's giant lobby that he was pleased the Smithsonian so quickly recognized the importance of SpaceShipOne."I knew that the significance would be known and understood by everyone in 10 years," said Rutan, 62. "I'm extremely pleased to see it here this early."Like many space entrepreneurs, Rutan thinks the private sector can do what NASA cannot: inspire tomorrow's astronauts and scientists by offering them the real promise of a trip to space.NASA is phasing out the space shuttle and instead plans to return to the moon, for $104 billion over 13 years. It is a plan Rutan dismisses."We'll go back to the moon by not learning anything new," Rutan said.He envisions a day in the not-too-distant future when resort hotels orbit the earth and offer excursions around the moon.Federal Aviation Administration chief Marian Blakey shares his optimism."I don't expect it will be too long before we can all book an aisle seat 62 miles up," Blakey said.There are signs that SpaceShipOne's historic suborbital flights marked the dawn of a new space age.Of the 26 teams that entered the Ansari X Prize competition, 10 are now viable companies, according to Ian Murphy, spokesman for the prize's successor, the X Prize Cup.Rutan has a deal with British entrepreneur Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, to build a fleet of five spacecraft. The new company, Virgin Galactic, will take passengers on 2 1/2-hour trips into space for $200,000 each.On Monday, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis announced in New York that he'd formed the Rocket Racing League, which will take NASCAR style racing to 5,000 feet. Diamandis' plans call for rocket planes to fly at about 300 mph in league races that will start in about two years.Also Monday, Greg Olsen, an American scientist and multimillionaire, was delivered by a Russian spacecraft to the international space station. He reportedly paid $20 million for the trip, organized by Space Adventures of Virginia."People are figuring out how they can possibly make money out of the concept of affordable, reusable access to space," said James A.M. Muncy, a Virginia-based space consultant. "This is just the beginning of the new industry."Entrepreneurs already are selling their services to the government and to universities for research purposes.Three-year-old SpaceX, for example, intends to become the first company to send a privately funded rocket into orbit. SpaceShipOne's flight was suborbital.The El Segundo, California-based company will launch its Falcon I from the Marshall Islands at the end of the month. SpaceX spokeswoman Dianne Molina said the company has eight government and commercial contracts, and a contract with the Air Force.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A great white shark named Nicole logged more than 12,000 miles swimming from Africa to Australia and back, the first proof of a link between the two continents' shark populations, researchers say.A second report details the movement of dozens of salmon sharks from summer waters near Alaska to warmer winter quarters off Hawaii and Baja California."Sharks have home ranges that are at the scale of ocean basins," said researcher Barbara A. Block of Stanford University. She added that conservation management of sharks such as the white shark and salmon shark will require international cooperation.Tracking a shark from Africa to Australia "is one of the most significant discoveries about white shark ecology and suggests we might have to rewrite the life history of this powerful fish," said Ramon Bonfil, lead author of that study.Both reports appear in Friday's issue of the journal Science.George H. Burgess, a shark expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said while sharks are known to travel long distances, this was the first evidence of movement between Australia and Africa."These are large animals that have the capability of making large movements," he said.Enric Cortes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Shark Population Assessment Group in Panama City, Florida, agreed this is the first direct evidence of a connection between African and Australian white sharks.Using satellites to track sharks is new technology that may provide new perspective on their movements, he said.Peter Klimley, a shark expert at the University of California, Davis, called a trip of that length "amazing." He said there have been genetic indications that these two shark groups might be connected, "but that's not the same as showing actual movement."Bonfil, of the Bronx, New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said he "suspected that these sharks could be doing these kinds of travels ... but there was previously no proof of this. Everybody thought they were mostly coastal in behavior."A satellite tracking device temporarily attached to Nicole documented her 99-day swim from South Africa to Australia. About six months later, she was identified from photos back off the coast of South Africa.Some 24 other white sharks tagged off South Africa engaged in wide-ranging coastal migration, but only Nicole headed out to sea. Nonetheless, Bonfil said, "I don't think we got one in a million."Nicole was tagged in November 2003 with a device that reports her position. The researchers said the shark was renamed Nicole in honor of Australian actress Nicole Kidman.Block's group tagged 48 salmon sharks in Alaskan coastal waters and tracked them by satellite from 2002 to 2004.They found some sharks remained in the North Pacific all year, eating salmon in summer and herring in winter, while others swam south to Hawaii or Baja California in winter. As they swam south, they dove deeper into cooler waters, the researchers found."The shark heart slows down in the cold, just as our own heart would," Block said. "But ... where our heart would simply stop, the salmon shark keeps on ticking."The researchers found the hearts had high concentrations of proteins that control uptake of calcium ions, which help maintain the heart's rhythmic contractions.It was the first time that has been seen in sharks, but Block reported similar proteins in the hearts of giant bluefin tuna last year."The sharks are expressing mammalian levels of these cardiac proteins, which is highly unusual for a gill-breathing shark," she said.Could there be human applications?"We could potentially recommend that, when subject to cold stress, stimulation of these pathways with drugs may have potential benefit for getting the heart going and delivering its oxygen," she said.Funding for the Nicole study came from conservation groups and the South African government, while the salmon shark research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation and private foundations.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As delegations from around the globe discussed how to limit the threat of a bird flu pandemic, President Bush talked with drug company executives on Friday about what it would take to speed up production of a vaccine.Representatives from about 80 countries, meeting at the State Department, focused on prevention and containment of the virus. Meanwhile, at the White House, the president made it clear to the executives that he takes the threat of a pandemic seriously, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said."We talked about the need for our discussions to not just be about the short-term but the long-term," Leavitt said of the White House meeting. "We talked about the need for us to be looking at pandemic influenzas as well as the annual flu, and ways to integrate our approach to those two public-health problems."Leavitt said the government's goal is to increase capacity for annual flu vaccines to the point that companies could make a rapid transition to a pandemic flu vaccine if necessary.Executives were concerned about greater protection from litigation. If healthy people suffer side effects from a vaccine, manufacturers can face huge lawsuits, Leavitt said."We're going to have to deal with the indemnity issue," he said. "Also, if we're to build additional capacity with the speed necessary for readiness, we're going to have to create a streamlined regulatory process for the development of new facilities."Leavitt said the government would also have to assure vaccine manufacturers that they'll have a market for the extra product that they make.Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive officer at GlaxoSmithKline, said the administration mainly wanted to hear from the manufacturers about what they could do to help."The president was quite happy with what he heard," Garnier said. "There's clearly a spirit of cooperation with the administration and with other governments throughout the world."This month, vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur begins the first mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu, producing $100 million worth of inoculations for a government stockpile.But it would take months to create a new vaccine from scratch if a different strain of bird flu than today's emerges. Even if the vaccine works, Sanofi is producing enough to protect anywhere from 2 million to 20 million people -- depending on how much must be put into each dose -- and it's not clear when or where similar large stockpiles could be produced.Leavitt briefed reporters on the private State Department conference before preparing to leave Saturday on a 10-day trip to Southeast Asia, where he will gauge for himself various countries' capacity to monitor the virus and prevent its spread.The bird flu so far has killed about 60 people in Asia, mostly poultry workers. Millions of birds have been slaughtered to try to prevent the spread of the virus.Health officials are concerned about the possibility that the virus will mutate into a form that can be spread easily from person to person. Such a scenario would be catastrophic because people have no natural immunity to it."In a world with international travel as prevalent as it is now, if there is a pandemic influenza anywhere, there is risk everywhere," Leavitt said.He said he was heartened by the willingness of so many countries to participate in the conference and pledge their cooperation.A group of Democratic senators wrote Leavitt on Friday that they believe the U.S. response to the threat of a pandemic has been inadequate. Specifically, they said the government has not stockpiled enough medication to treat viral infections once they occur."While other nations have ordered enough antiviral medication to treat between 20 and 40 percent of their populations, the federal government has only ordered enough to treat less than two percent of Americans," the six lawmakers wrote.The lawmakers asked Leavitt to explain why the U.S. preparations are "behind those of other countries" and to "explain your plan to provide sufficient protection for the American people." The letter was signed by Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois.The ordinary flu kills 36,000 Americans every year, far more than bird flu has killed anywhere so. The danger is that bird flu virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Preliminary tests indicate a 4-year-old boy in Indonesia has been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, according to officials from the national Department of Health's bird flu monitoring center.If confirmed, the case would be the sixth in Indonesia.The boy, Herdi Setiawan, is from Lampung province on Sumatra, officials said. Initial tests were performed in Jakarta, and blood samples have been sent to Hong Kong for confirmation of the results. Those test results are expected early next week, officials said.Four Indonesians suffering from the H5N1 strain have died since July.Since December 2003, the strain has turned up in at least 10 Asian countries, infecting more than 100 people and killing at least 60. It is believed to spread when humans come in contact with an infected bird or a contaminated surface, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. Human-to-human transmission of the virus is rare and has not continued beyond one other person, the CDC said.However, last month the World Health Organization warned that an avian flu pandemic among humans was "imminent" and urged nations to prepare to battle an outbreak.As a result, U.S. officials have sprung into action, hosting a two-day conference earlier this week on preventing the spread of the avian flu and drafting plans to handle a possible pandemic.On Friday, White House officials met with representatives of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry to encourage them to get involved in the manufacture of a flu vaccine.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter Friday, admitting she fatally stabbed her 11-year-old playmate after a tug-of-war over a rubber ball went sour. The girl, identified by the city only as Shanice K., admitted she stabbed Queen Washington once in the chest at a Memorial Day gathering in Brooklyn, the city said in a statement after the proceeding. Judge Jane Pearl ordered that Shanice remain in a non-secure setting pending sentencing. She also ordered an investigation into the child's background. "We are confident this is an appropriate resolution of this tragic matter," said Assistant Corporation Counsel Suzette Rivera. "The plea takes into account the great harm caused by the respondent and holds her accountable" for the slaying. Shanice was accompanied by her mother and defense attorney Nicole Barnum in Brooklyn Family Court, the city said. Shanice and the victim were described as close friends. The girls' mothers were best friends as well when Queen was invited to Shanice's home for a Memorial Day barbecue. Police said the death occurred when Shanice's mother stepped out of her apartment to borrow something from a neighbor. She returned to find that her daughter had plunged a steak knife into Queen's chest, police said. Queen stumbled into a hallway and collapsed. Police, who could not recall a younger suspect being arrested for a killing in the city, said Shanice confessed shortly after the stabbing. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday that he had not expected President Bush to nominate him to replace the late William Rehnquist as chief justice."I'm not even sure I wanted it, to tell you the truth," Scalia told reporters at a media briefing before a gala dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.Bush, who had in the past mentioned Scalia as one role model for an ideal chief justice, passed on Scalia and nominated John Roberts after Rehnquist's death.Scalia said the time he would have had to devote to administering the court as chief justice would have taken away from his thinking and writing. However, he said, "The honor would have been wonderful."Asked if he knew why he wasn't nominated, Scalia said the reason "is locked in the heart of the president."Scalia was the only justice who did not attend a September 29 White House swearing-in ceremony for Roberts. Scalia said Saturday that he had a commitment that could not be broken.According the Federalist Society Web site, he was leading a two-day seminar on the separation of powers in Avon, Colorado.Questioned about Harriet Miers, Bush's nominee to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Scalia said he had never met her."Never having met her, I have no impression of her," he said.Scalia, who is of Italian-American heritage, was in New York to serve as the grand marshal of Manhattan's Columbus Day Parade on Monday.Scalia was scheduled to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony Sunday to commemorate the explorations of Christopher Columbus. He was among a handful of honored guests of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, an Italian-American group organizing the parade.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush countered conservative displeasure Saturday with a detailed defense of his Supreme Court nominee, saying White House counsel Harriet Miers would bring to the bench vast experience in the courtroom and at the highest levels of government."No Supreme Court nominee in the last 35 years has exceeded Harriet Miers' overall range of experience in courtroom litigation; service in federal, state and local government; leadership in local, state and national bar associations and pro bono and charitable activities," Bush said in his weekly radio address."Throughout her life, Ms. Miers has excelled at everything she has done," he added.A growing number on the right have expressed displeasure with Bush's selection of Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.The grumbling stems from Miers' career, which encompassed 28 years as a corporate attorney in Texas, stints as a member of the Dallas City Council and as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and, since 2001, as a top member of Bush's White House staff.None of the positions provide a public record clearly identifying her as a strong conservative.Some worry that Miers could end up disappointing the right much like Justice David Souter, a little-known judge nominated to the court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, who later turned out to be more liberal than expected.Other critics have expressed concern about her lack of experience grappling with constitutional reasoning.Robert Bork -- whose nomination to the high court was rejected by the Senate in 1987 -- called the choice of Miers "a disaster on every level.""It's a little late to develop a constitutional philosophy or begin to work it out when you're on the court already," Bork said Friday on MSNBC's "The Situation with Tucker Carlson." "It's kind of a slap in the face to the conservatives who've been building up a conservative legal movement for the last 20 years."Bush sought to give a rebuttal to the critics -- offering a point-by-point recounting of her background and talents that revealed the level of concern at the White House about the conservative reaction.The president touted the "hundreds of cases in state and federal courts, from massive commercial litigation to criminal cases to civil disputes" that Miers handled as an attorney at a large Texas law firm. And he said, as White House counsel Miers addresses complex matters of constitutional law and "sensitive issues of executive-congressional relations."Bush also spoke glowingly of a candidate outside the realm of sitting judges. Since 1933, he said, 10 of the 34 justices -- such as the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- came to the Supreme Court directly from positions in the executive branch."Harriet Miers will be prudent in exercising judicial power and firm in defending judicial independence," he said.As of Friday, the end of Miers' first week as the nominee, she had met with 16 senators. She was spending the weekend in Texas gathering material from her legal career to answer the Senate's questions, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush predicted Friday that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers will be confirmed, but a Senate Republican said she must overcome "the Souter factor," underscoring conservative worries that she'll vote the wrong way on the bench.Asked he if would rule out ever seeing Miers' name withdrawn, Bush did not answer directly -- substituting instead words of confidence about her confirmation process. "She is going to be on the bench," he said. "She'll be confirmed."Miers and her supporters are working the phones and knocking on doors to rally conservatives who argue that Bush has reneged on his promise to name justices with proven records as strong conservative."It's the Souter factor," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, referring to Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a little-known judge nominated for the court by the first President Bush who later turned out to be a liberal justice."I think conservatives do not have confidence she has a well-formed judicial philosophy, and they are afraid she might drift and be a part of the activist group like Justice Souter has," Sessions said Friday. "She will need to articulate a vision of the Constitution and the role of a judge that is sound or she could be in trouble with the Republican senators."She met Friday with Sen. Conrad Burns, who called her an "outstanding woman" when Bush first revealed her as his pick. "Ms. Miers has a great sense of humor and a great understanding of the importance of the legal arena in our nation," the Montana Republican said after meeting her."I think conservatives do not have confidence she has a well-formed judicial philosophy, and they are afraid she might drift and be a part of the activist group like Justice Souter has," Sessions said Friday. "She will need to articulate a vision of the Constitution and the role of a judge that is sound or she could be in trouble with the Republican senators."She met Friday with Sen. Conrad Burns, who called her an "outstanding woman" when Bush first revealed her as his pick. "Ms. Miers has a great sense of humor and a great understanding of the importance of the legal arena in our nation," the Montana Republican said after meeting her.Because the 60-year-old Miers spent her career in private practice and as a member of Bush's White House staff, conservatives outside the nation's capital have little to hang their hopes on except the president's word that she would be a judge in the mold of Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas."She's got to convince the conservative world that she understands the word 'strict constructionist,"' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, one of three Judiciary Committee conservatives who met Thursday with Miers. "She's going to have to fill in those blanks and create a comfort level."While Miers worked conservatives inside the Capitol, her White House supporters worked the telephones to reassure grassroots conservatives that she won't become a liberal or a moderate if confirmed by the Senate.Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, and other conservative leaders held a national teleconference Thursday with conservatives, trying to reassure listeners that Miers is the right person to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate whose vote has been critical on issues including abortion and affirmative action.Miers also picked up an endorsement from first lady Laura Bush. "I think she'll be really terrific," she said.But the White House hasn't convinced everyone."I think the president has created political trouble for himself by appointing a cypher after promising something else," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "She may turn out to be a great judge. I'm sure she's going to get confirmed because Democrats seem to like her, but my own reaction to it is that it is not my fight, and I think that's the way that most conservatives feel about it."Conservatives would have preferred a justice with proven conservative credentials, said GOP Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a Senate Judiciary Committee member and possible 2008 presidential contender. "We're left gathering shreds of evidence in trying to determine how the candidate would vote on the key issues of the day," Brownback said after sitting down with Miers.In an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week, two-thirds of those surveyed did not know enough about Miers to have an opinion about her. Just 41 percent said the Senate should confirm her, lower than similar ratings for Chief Justice John Roberts after his nomination in July; 27 percent said she should not be confirmed; 32 percent were not sure.Miers is getting support from some prominent conservatives. Former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana, who was ambassador to Germany, will serve as Miers' escort through the confirmation process. Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tennessee, did the same for Roberts this summer.As a senator, Coats pushed legislation to restrict abortion, tried to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts because of grants it made to artists he said mocked God, and led the opposition to allowing gays in the military.An internal battle over the nomination may hurt the GOP in next year's congressional elections, said Manuel Miranda, who used to work on judicial nominations for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee. Miranda now runs the conservative Third Branch Conference.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jessica Biel has been proclaimed "the sexiest woman alive" by Esquire magazine.The actress dons the cover of Esquire's November issue, following last year's honoree, Angelina Jolie. The 23-year-old Biel, who began as a teenager on the family TV series "7th Heaven," plays a supporting role in the upcoming "Elizabethtown" and starred earlier this year in "Stealth.""It seemed like it would be great -- having named Anglina Jolie sexiest woman of the year last year -- to try to come up with somebody who was on everyone's radar screen, but who was also fresh," said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger. "It just seemed like Jessica Biel's moment."The magazine also picks a woman for three older age brackets: the Chinese actress Gong Li, 39; the 47-year-old Sharon Stone; and Rene Russo, 51."It's easy to appreciate womanhood without any consideration of age," Granger says. "Youth isn't the automatic turn-on it used to be."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ricky Gervais is fascinated by how a camera can skew the flow of ordinary life.On "The Office," his hilarious British "mockumentary" series, he explored the effect of a film crew on David Brent, the fame-lusting office manager who clowns it up as cameras occupy his dreary workplace for a TV reality show.Now, on his new comedy "Extras," Gervais has turned his attention to actor manque Andy Millman and the show-biz obscurity of being an extra. Portrayed by Gervais (who also played Brent), Andy is what is called "background talent." His workdays are spent on London film shoots helping fill the frame with his unnoted presence -- and laboring to justify his marginal status.Extras, as Gervais explains, "are just bodies. They're pushed in and told where to stand. It's like hanging drapes." He chortles with delight. "We try to show how Andy is desperate for respect."On a recent episode (10:30 p.m. EDT Sunday on HBO) Andy's role was that of a nameless prisoner in a film about modern-day genocide directed by, of all people, Ben Stiller."If I find a little orphan child in a war zone, how do I help him?" poses Stiller, who's afflicted by severe high-pretension. His lofty solution: "Make this movie. Make people think. Change attitudes."Meanwhile, Andy tries to wangle from Stiller a line or two of dialogue by approaching the bereaved war victim whose story Stiller is filming. Then he anxiously waits."I can't push it," Andy frets to Maggie, his chum and fellow extra. "I can't go up to him and remind him, 'Sorry to interrupt you again while you're thinking about your slaughtered loved ones, but that line -- you done anything about it?' ""It might seem a wee bit insensitive, eh?" allows Maggie. Not that Andy can hold off bugging him very long.Ashley Jensen is perfect as the dimwitted Maggie, while Stephen Merchant is a whiz as agent Darren Lamb who, after five years, has failed to score Andy a single speaking role. ("I'm as annoyed as you are," he assures Andy pleasantly.)The character: 'The world owes him a living'As it happens, Merchant is not only Gervais' co-star, but also his behind-the-scenes partner, having co-written and co-directed "The Office" and now "Extras."They met eight years ago when Gervais, working at an alternative radio station in London, took him on as an assistant.Gervais must have needed help. The Reading, England, native was already a self-confessed sloth and budding late bloomer. After graduating from college in philosophy, he had performed in one rock band, managed another, and been a talent booker for a student union. Once they got around to it, he and Merchant created "The Office."Wildly successful in Britain, "The Office" turned Gervais (pronounced jer-VAZE) into an unsuspecting star.And as a cult sensation in the United States, it spawned an Americanized version for NBC last season that currently airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. With Steve Carell playing a Yank equivalent of Brent, the U.S. edition operates independently of Gervais -- who has been plenty busy with his new series.At first glance, "Extras" may seem overly similar to "The Office." But first impressions can deceive."Brent was essentially an idiot who wasn't that bad but just wanted to be popular," says Gervais, "whereas Andy has a different theme: The world owes him a living."David Brent was a doughy bloke with a goatee and a cajoling grin. Andy Millman shares that gift of glib, often loutish, gab. But he has lost the foppish goatee and gained a measure of unrealized ambition. He craves stardom, and thinks he's entitled. Comparing Robert De Niro to himself, he thinks: not better, just luckier.In short, he's ripe to be taken down a few pegs, and is, with regularity."He was born smart, and he can't let it go," says Gervais. "He'd rather make a joke than listen. He's clever, but he hasn't applied it as well as some other people."Making matters even worse, Andy has a conscience. For instance, he just can't bring himself to fire that pitiable agent.'What I love is the work'Preparing to move Andy forward for a second season of six more episodes, Gervais remains fascinated by fame and how so many people chase it. But he disavows his own."It's the one thing I actively don't like: just being recognized," says Gervais, a 44-year-old chap who, casually dressed for this interview in slacks and sports shirt (shirttail out), gives the strong impression he is on no star trip."What I love is the work," he insists. "I get excited by the creativity, not because I think I have the best ideas in the world. I'm excited, because they're my ideas."But having said that, Gervais, who is often given to reflective comic riffs, confides his fear that the sum of creativity allotted him might fail to be in synch with his lifespan."It's like Keats: 'When I have fears that I may cease to be, before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain ...' You don't want to die before you've got out all your ideas. But you don't want to run out of ideas before you die."You've got to time it right," he goes on. "It's like the perfect meal: You don't want to have toast left over, with no bacon. You've got to time it just right: 'The End,' " whereupon he plops his head on an imaginary writing desk. Then he cackles with laughter. No end in sight for his funny ideas.HBO is a division of Time Warner, as is CNN.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Jun Mung-gyu remembers the throbbing pain in his head and shoulder aches from spending as many as 15 hours a day hunched over a computer keyboard battling his online foes."You have no life, you only focus on gaming, putting off everything, like getting a haircut," recalled the 27-year-old Jun, who was able to kick the habit earlier this year though he remains in the milieu, running an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul.For others, the addiction has become all-consuming, raising concerns about the health of the millions of gamers in the world's most wired country.The habit has even been deadly: In August, a 28-year-old man died after nearly 50 straight hours of playing online computer games. The man, whom police refused to identify by name, was moved to a hospital after he collapsed while gaming and died three hours later.Many of South Korea's 17 million gamers -- some 35 percent of the population, principally males in their teens and twenties -- are obsessive. At the 1,000 won-per-hour ($1) Internet cafes popular among young South Koreans, they'll sit eyes glued to monitors for hours on end. Sometimes play will extend for days."I've seen people who play games for months, just briefly going home for a change of clothing, taking care of all their eating and sleeping here," Jun said.Gamers camped out at Internet cafes typically live on instant cup noodles and cigarettes, barely sleeping and seldom washing.In this country of 48 million people with the world's highest per-capita rate of broadband connectivity at 70 percent, the rise in addiction to multiplayer online gaming is alarming psychologists.The number of counseling sessions for game addiction quadrupled last year, the government says. There were 8,978 sessions in 2004 compared with 2,243 cases the previous year, and the first seven months of this year saw 7,649 sessions.This year's gaming death wasn't the first such case of someone dying at a computer terminal in this game-crazed nation: In 2002, a man died in Kwangju after 86 hours of marathon gaming.The latest casualty collapsed August 5 in the southern city of Daegu after having eaten minimally and not sleeping.Doctors said they presumed he died of heart failure; no autopsy was performed. So obsessed by gaming was the man that he was reported to have lost his office worker job due to absenteeism."Such an addiction upsets the foundation of your life," said Kim Kyung-bin, a Seoul psychiatrist who counsels gaming addicts.'I do it to win' Players stake out computers at an Internet cafe. One of Kim's patients, a high school student, would leave his house and not come back for weeks, practically living in Internet cafes playing games, Kim said.Computer games can also be a path to big rewards. Three cable channels are devoted to broadcasting game matches and a total of 4.5 billion won ($4.4 million) is given out as prize money in competitions each year.Even the government is embracing electronic sports, or "E-sports," funding construction of the world's first e-sports stadium, to be completed by 2008, where online competitions will be displayed on huge screens.Hong Jin-ho, a 24-year-old professional gamer, earns more than 133 million won ($130,000) a year, living and training with his fellow game team members in an apartment in central Seoul.Hong, who specializes in Starcraft, a science-fiction strategy game, says he has never thought of video games as an addiction.He admitted, however, that the seven to eight hours of daily training -- which sometimes drags on for nearly 24 hours before competitions -- can be physically challenging."My body doesn't welcome it, but I do it to win," Hong said.Physicians working with professional e-sports teams recommend gamers rest 10 minutes with their eyes closed after every five matches, and never play in the same posture for more than two hours."The energy you consume (while playing) is immense. The degree of concentration and absorption is so great that you lose yourself," said Han Hye-won, 30, a university lecturer who says she plays four hours a day.Han said she went through a phase when her mother had to pull the plug to get her to stop playing the battle simulation game Starcraft. She teaches "digital storytelling," the craft of writing scenarios for computer games.Even Han's interaction with her students has gone virtual. She sets a certain time at which the class meets inside the game world, each in their virtual persona."You can play games like that because others are involved," Han said of serious game addiction. "It's not a game problem, it's people who had difficulty communicating with others resolving that difficulty through online games."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PRIMM, Nevada (AP) -- Four robotic vehicles finished a Pentagon-sponsored race across the Mojave desert Saturday and achieved a technological milestone by conquering steep drop-offs, obstacles and tunnels over a rugged 132-mile course without a single human command.The vehicles, guided by sophisticated software, gave scientists hope that robots could one day wage battles without endangering soldiers."The impossible has been achieved," cried Stanford University's Sebastian Thrun, after the university's customized Volkswagen crossed first. Students cheered, hoisting Thrun atop their shoulders.Also finishing was a converted red Hummer named H1ghlander and a Humvee called Sandstorm from Carnegie Mellon University. The Stanford robot dubbed Stanley overtook the top-seeded H1ghlander at the 102-mile mark."I'm on top of the world," said Carnegie Mellon robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker, who said a mechanical glitch allowed Stanley to pass H1ghlander.The sentimental favorite, a Ford Escape Hybrid by students in Metarie, Louisiana, was the fourth vehicle to finish Saturday. The team lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast.The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, plans to award $2 million to the fastest vehicle to cover the race in less than 10 hours. The taxpayer-funded race was intended to spur development of robots that could be used on the battlefield without remote controls.The race announcer did not immediately declare a winner because 22 of the 23 robots left the starting line at staggered times at dawn, racing against the clock rather than each other. Stanley finished in less than 7 1/2 hours.Thron says the technology developed for the race will help the Pentagon reach its goal of having one-third of its vehicles be driverless within ten years, but will mean safer cars within a few years.Race officials planned to resume the race Sunday so the sole remaining vehicle, a mammoth six-wheel truck, could compete in daylight.The so-called Grand Challenge race is part of the Pentagon's effort to cut the risk of casualties by fulfilling a congressional mandate to have a third of all military ground vehicles unmanned by 2015.Last year's much-hyped inaugural robot race ended without a winner when all the self-navigating vehicles broke down shortly after leaving the starting gate. Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm chugged the farthest at 7 1/2 miles.Of the 23 robots that competed Saturday, 18 vehicles failed to navigate the entire 132-mile course, but most still managed to beat Sandstorm's mileage last year.The unmanned vehicles must use their computer brains and sensing devices to follow a programmed route and avoid hitting obstacles that may doom their chances.Vehicles have to drive on rough, winding desert roads and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush and man-made obstacles. The machines also must traverse a narrow 1.3-mile mountain pass with a steep drop-off and go through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals.This year's field was more competitive. Even before Saturday's race, many teams tested their vehicles in parts of the Southwest desert under race-like conditions including some that practiced on last year's course from Barstow, California, to Primm.The vehicles were equipped with the latest sensors, lasers, cameras and radar that feed information to several onboard computers. The sophisticated electronics helped vehicles make intelligent decisions such as distinguishing a dangerous boulder from a tumbleweed and calculating whether a chasm is too deep to cross.Cornell University's military light strike vehicle traveled about nine miles when it failed to cross a bridge. Team members were trying to figure out what went wrong."We're at a loss," said Ephrahim Garcia, a Cornell mechanical engineer. "It's a disappointment."The military currently has a small fleet of autonomous ground vehicles stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the machines are remotely controlled by a soldier who usually rides in the same convoy. The Pentagon wants to eliminate the human factor and use self-thinking robotic vehicles to ferry supplies in war zones.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) -- Polish center-right parties in talks to form a government said on Sunday they will not make final decisions on their coalition before a presidential election run-off on October 23 which pits their leaders against each other.Pro-business moderate Donald Tusk came first in Sunday's election ahead of conservative Lech Kaczynski but failed to gain the 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a second round of voting in two weeks.In the September 25 general election, it was the conservative Law and Justice that narrowly beat Tusk's Civic Platform, with ensuing cabinet-building talks quickly engulfed by the presidential race."I will present the make-up of the new government on October 24 at the earliest," Law and Justice's candidate for prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, told reporters.He added that he could present some of his government's strategic goals and a road-map for talks as early as Monday.Jan Rokita, Civic Platform's choice for deputy prime minister, said that in his view talks over the new government's policy would prove crucial, not the tone of the campaign."Over the next two weeks Poland will not have a government. Negotiations will not be completed during this election campaign," Rokita told reporters."The fate of this cabinet depends on how far these parties will go to reach a compromise -- I am more worried about differences in programs than about the presidential campaign."Law and Justice is more skeptical about economic reforms and seeks to protect the welfare state, while the Civic Platform seeks to radically cut taxes to revitalize the economy.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The terrorists fighting against Iraq's fledgling government would consider a "no" vote in next week's planned constitutional referendum to be a victory, the country's national security adviser said Sunday.Mowaffak al-Rubaie told CNN's "Late Edition" the insurgents fear democracy."I believe these people are the dark forces, the anti-Iraq forces, who would not like democracy in Iraq," al-Rubaie said."They want to bring to Iraq a Taliban-style regime like in Afghanistan," he said, referring to the ultraconservative Islamic religious and political faction that ruled much of Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until November 2001.Al-Rubaie said he hoped voters will approve the constitution at Saturday's vote."I hope and I think and I pray that the Iraqi people will say 'yes, yes' -- loud and clear -- for this constitution, because it's a huge step toward building a new Iraq," he said.Al-Rubaie predicted that, despite vocal opposition to the document from some Sunni representatives on the constitutional committee, the "overwhelming majority of the ... ordinary [Sunni] people" favor the draft constitution.Iraqis cannot be bullied, he said. Threats from Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads al Qaeda in Iraq, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, will not have "any influence on our Iraqi citizens, which are really determined to go to the ballot boxes," al-Rubaie said."We are so determined to proceed with our political process and to move on to the next step, which is the general election in December," he said.If the measure is rejected by two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces, a new government must be formed and the constitution process would begin again.The national security adviser's comments on the referendum came one day after the government announced stiff security measures ahead of the historic vote.Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said more that 70,000 Iraqi police and soldiers will be responsible for security during the referendum.Iraqi authorities say they hope the constitutional referendum will help lead to the establishment of law and order and social stability in the country, where a largely Sunni insurgency has been targeting the Kurdish and Shiite-dominated government, the U.S.-led coalition forces and civilians regarded as their supporters and abettors.Government authorities say they hope Iraqis will feel safe enough to go to the polls as they did in January, when more than 8 million people -- more than half the Iraqis eligible -- voted in the election for a 275-member transitional national assembly.The announced security measures include border closures and curfews in the period surrounding the referendum.Polling centers will have three rings of security. Local police will be closest to the polls; Iraqi soldiers will form the second ring; and coalition forces will serve on the perimeter. Saddam court date nearsSaddam Hussein is expected to appear in court when his trial begins October 19, a source close to the tribunal told CNN on Sunday.The former Iraqi leader will be accompanied by his attorney, Khalil Duleimi, the source said.Defense attorneys likely will tell the judges running the trial they need greater access to court materials or more lawyers, and they might make motions regarding legal aspects of the case, the source predicted. Even if the trial begins as scheduled, the source said, it may soon take a break. "I would call this the beginning of an ongoing process," the source said. "How much time between that first day, whether or not they have business for one or two days and adjourn for some time, how long the adjournment would be would be up to the trial bench." Though the government has promised the proceedings would be transparent and public, the source said the judges have not decided whether the proceedings can be televised.Saddam and seven others are charged in connection with a series of 1982 detentions and executions in Dujayl, a Shiite town north of Baghdad after assassination attempt against him. Other developmentsA U.S. Marine was killed Saturday when the vehicle he was in was hit by a roadside bomb in the Anbar province capital of Ramadi, the U.S. military said Sunday. Since March 2003, 1,962 U.S. service members have died in the war, including 28 this month.A car bomb in the second-most populous city in Iraq wounded four Iraqis on Sunday, an Iraqi army official said. The bomb exploded outside a building used by the Badr Brigade -- a military wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq party, an Iraqi police official said. Basra is about 280 miles (450 kilometers) south of Baghdad.CNN's Kevin Flower, Ingrid Formanek and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Dissident rebels kidnapped a group of African Union personnel and an American monitor in Sudan's powder keg western Darfur region, AU and U.S. officials said, but some of the hostages were later released.The abductions near Sudan's western border with Chad on Sunday came a day after two African Union troops were killed by another rebel group -- the first fatalities suffered by the pan-African body since it deployed peacekeepers to Darfur in April 2004.The rebel killings and kidnappings have been condemned by the African Union, which has described them as major violations of a shaky cease-fire deal aimed at ending the Darfur conflict that started in 2003 and has claimed the lives of more than 180,000 peopleThe Ethiopian-based AU is expected to discuss the incidents at an emergency meeting Monday.Eighteen AU members and one American were taken hostage by a faction from one of two main Darfur rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, said an AU official who declined to be identified further as he was not authorized to speak to the media.It was unclear if the American was among those released, nor what his exact role was, but he may have been a monitor working with the African Union, said Elizabeth Lukasavich, a spokeswoman for USAID in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum."Some people have been released but we don't know who," Lukasavich said. "The American may have been an observer or a contractor. There are quite a lot of Americans out there working as observers with the African Union troops."Americans have also been supporting the AU mission in Darfur by providing logistics and helping fly in troops.The other hostages included AU military observers, civilian police and a Justice and Equality Movement official, according to the AU official.AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare demanded "the immediate release of all abducted" personnel, who are being held by armed men led by rebel commander Mohammed Saleh in Tine, a town on the border with Chad, according to a statement.The culprits were a dissident faction of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said Konare spokesman Adam Thiam."We see it as a very serious attack on the mandate of the African troops in Sudan," Thiam said.The AU first deployed to Sudan with fewer than 500 peacekeepers, but its mission has grown to 6,200 with financial and logistical support from the EU, the United States and others.The African Union on Sunday also accused the other main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, for ambushing an AU patrol a day earlier and killing two Nigerian soldiers and two Sudanese drivers attached to the team in South Darfur."The deaths [of the AU soldiers] were a sad incident and we regard them as major cease-fire violations that we condemn," said the acting head of the AU mission in Darfur, Jean-Baptiste Natama, in a telephone interview.The violence occurred in generally SLA-controlled territory with a history of previous rebel interference and attacks against African Union teams, according to a statement released by the African Union Mission in Sudan."The AMIS soldiers clearly identified their attackers as men dressed in SLA uniform and that they escaped in typical SLA vehicles into which they loaded their own casualty," the statement said. "All the evidence shows SLA direct responsibility."The AU's mission commander had protested personally to the SLA's secretary general, Mini Minawi Arkoi, over the violence, the statement added.Darfur's conflict started two years ago after rebels took up arms against government forces after what it regarded as years of state neglect.Sudanese authorities are accused of subsequently unleashing militias known as the Janjaweed against the rebels and fanning a conflict that has sparked what the U.N. has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

KEENE, New Hampshire (AP) -- Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes after more than a day and a half of drenching rain washed out roads and flooded homes in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.At least three deaths were blamed on the storm.New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch declared a state of emergency Sunday and called in 500 National Guard members to assist in relief efforts. Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray said police and highway crews blocked damaged roads before dawn, a move that likely prevented injuries."A quick assessment is we're probably looking at months, not weeks" to make repairs, she said.The most severe flooding in New Hampshire was in Keene, where some major roads were under as much as 4 to 6 feet of water, fire officials said. About 500 people were evacuated, and about 150 were staying at a shelter in the city's recreation center. In nearby Stoddard, residents were also told to leave.A house was washed into a river in Langdon, Murray said.In New Hampshire, at least one person was killed when a car went off a washed-out bridge in the town of Unity, said Pam Walsh, the governor's spokeswoman.In Pennsylvania, a person died after a car struck a guardrail in Bucks County and flipped into a creek, trapping the driver. A car accident in New Jersey killed a 2-year-old boy, police said.Pennsylvania authorities rescued two boys from an Allentown creek on Saturday after their inflatable raft overturned. As the boys clung to a small tree, firefighters tossed them a pair of life jackets and then pulled them to safety with a rope. Authorities said a family was rescued from an apartment when a retaining wall collapsed, and another six were evacuated from a mobile home park.Eight-foot-high flood waters from the Ramapo River caused officials in New Jersey's Bergen County to evacuate about 30 residents Saturday night and early Sunday, Mayor John Szabo said. Rain also knocked out electricity to as many as 6,000 utility customers across the state.Forecasters said 10 inches of rain fell in Allentown in the 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday. Rain fell at a rate of up to 2 inches per hour in parts of New Hampshire, they said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Investigators are trying to determine if anyone involved in an alleged terror plot against the New York City subway system is in the United States, the city's top police official said Sunday.New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN's "Late Edition" that authorities have been looking into reports that a suspect might be in the country."We have information that indicated perhaps there were people here, but it just didn't have a sufficient description ... for us to put that information out," he said. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials told CNN Friday they have been unable to verify that claim -- or if the person even exists. Kelly said there were ongoing interrogations in Iraq and he thought investigators would soon learn if there was "real substance" to the threat.The terror threat originated in Iraq and involved the use of explosives hidden in bags or baby strollers, officials familiar with the investigation have told CNN.The tipster in Iraq failed some sections of the polygraph test, but passed the section pertaining to the information about the New York threat, an official said. The source, who previously had given reliable information, tipped authorities to a plot involving 15 to 20 people, one official said.That information, sources said, led to a military operation Wednesday night in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad, where, military officials said, three al Qaeda suspects were arrested. (Full story)However, some intelligence officials have downplayed the New York information, saying it was not credible.The threat, which was revealed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg three days ago, mentioned Friday and Sunday as possible days that an alleged attack might occur, according to one official with knowledge of the investigation.Friday was three months to the day that four bombers carried out attacks on three London subways and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people and wounding 700. The July 7 morning rush-hour attacks were the city's bloodiest since World War II.Kelly said that since city officials learned of the plot, security in New York has been stepped up. About 4.5 million people ride the subway each day. "We've increased our officers in the transit system," Kelly told "Fox New Sunday." "... We've increased our bag searches. You'll see more dogs in the subway system. "We've done quite a bit, and we're continuing to do that until we have a level of comfort that the threat has been reduced."Security heightened at baseball gameCounterterror police squads will be aboard the subway ahead of Sunday night's major league baseball playoff game.The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels originally had been scheduled to play Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Saturday afternoon, but the contest was postponed because of an all-day rain.More than 55,000 people are expected to attend the game, and many fans will ride the subway to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.Police officials said the counterterror teams will also patrol during the game, scheduled for 7:55 p.m. ET.CNN's David Ensor, Deborah Feyerick and Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- Nathan Ruffin and Shawna Rubbeck know what it's like to be teased about their weight."People would call me cupcake as a joke, and I would just sort of laugh about it, 'cause I knew I couldn't do anything about it," says 14-year-old Shawna.Ruffin, now 13, was a 2-pound preemie. He began putting on the pounds in grade school, overeating he says in response to the stress of being teased. He remembers one day in particular."I think I ate two packs of noodles and a hot dog, and chips and dinner. That was a lot to eat that day," he recalls.Ruffin and Rubbeck knew they had to get control of their weight and address the associated health risks like adult onset diabetes and heart disease. With the help of their families, they applied for scholarships to Wellspring Adventure Camp, a weight loss camp and one of many options for the growing number of overweight children."My whole family just jumped in on it and we all just started working on it, like we gotta get him in here, we gotta get him in here," said Nathan's mother Sharon Ruffin.Nathan and Shawna are just two of millions of Americans struggling with weight issues.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1999-2002, 16 percent of children and teens aged 6 to 19 are overweight -- triple the amount from 1980. Further, data showed that an estimated 65 percent of adults in the United States are either overweight or obese.Shaping up at campUpon arrival at Wellspring, designed for children 11 to 16 years old who are at least 20 pounds overweight, counselors check for hidden food, ensuring campers don't sneak snacks and undermine the program.Campers eat measured portions, take morning walks, compile journals that monitor their food intake and attend counseling sessions four times per week.Besides the health benefits, fitness camps might help overweight children avoid feeling singled out, according to Alice Ammerman, an associate professor in the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina."It sometimes can be stigmatizing with intervention, especially if it's part of an after school program or something, if it's set up in a way that it's 'only the fat kids that go,'" she says.Shawna finds her comfort zone at camp, bonding with others facing the same physical and psychological issues."I know that because they're [fellow campers] overweight and have been teased, and are struggling with it and are here for the same reason that I am, that they're not going to tease me because I'm fat," she said.Another plus, Ammerman said, is that camps are most often voluntary. Children attend because they are serious about tackling their weight problem.Camps aren't the only option available for young, overweight Americans.For example, the William J. Clinton Foundation and American Heart Association launched an initiative in May aimed to "stop the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity" in the United States by 2010. (Full story)The plan emphasizes proper diet and exercise at an early age, so that children will grow up to be healthy adults and reduce obesity-related health costs. The two groups will also work with the food and restaurant industry, target its media message and push for more physical activity and healthier lunches in schools.The CDC, with its State-Based Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases, has also pitched in by funding obesity prevention programs for children and adults.In North Carolina, one of seven states that has implemented these measures, the "Eat Smart, Move More" program targets families and prompts them to eat more healthily and engage in more everyday physical activity.Twenty-one other states are currently gathering data to start their own state-based obesity prevention programs.Life after campAfter four weeks of journaling, counseling, eating right and learning not to use food as a crutch, Nathan shed 19.5 pounds and Shawna lost 23. She said she also gained confidence, even at the two-week mark, when she had lost just 13 pounds."Before I didn't really like mirrors, I didn't like what was looking back at me. I love to look in the mirror now because I really think I'm pretty," she said.The real test will come when they return home, away from the environment they've grown accustomed to and firm structure of camp where they were compelled to be active and eat right.Jeffrey Solomon, executive director of the National Camp Association, said that many weight loss camps deal with this wild card by continuing the learning process for campers and their families through the Internet."[Communicating] helps a lot to continually give the kids positive reinforcement and often to involve the families as well in providing kids with diets and things that they can take home to help the family become more educated and to reinforce that change in lifestyle that's necessary if a child's gonna continue making progress of losing and maintaining a proper weight level," said Solomon.Dr. Nancy Krebs, co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' obesity panel, also stresses the importance of building new healthy behaviors into the family's routines."There's kind of reinforcement for at least for the younger kids to be around their parents ..." she says, " ... but it is this message that you don't just sit in front of the TV or computer all day long."Nathan is already thinking ahead, saying that he hopes to include his mother and sister in his new lifestyle."At home, I'm going to ask my mom or two older sisters to maybe do a little workout once in awhile or maybe help me cook once in awhile," he said.CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Lauren Gracco contributed to this report.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- The message is clear on storefront marquees, brightly colored banners and the handwritten signs taped by merchants inside windows across this battered city: businesses reopening after Hurricane Katrina have a surplus of jobs and not enough workers to fill them.The shortage is obvious at the city's fanciest hotels, where a lack of staff means maid service is offered just once a week. It is just as glaring at fast-food restaurants, where long lines of cars snake through parking lots because most have only enough workers to operate drive-through windows. It's virtually impossible to pass through any functioning part of town without seeing "Now Hiring" posted somewhere."Two months ago if you were looking for a job, it probably wasn't that easy," said Darren Aucoin, manager of a Shoe Carnival store in Gretna, a New Orleans suburb that saw minimal flooding and was relatively quick to get power and water back. "Now if you can't find a job, you're not trying."Burger King, which first reopened its New Orleans restaurants by busing kitchen crews about 80 miles from Baton Rouge, has now taken the unprecedented step of offering $6,000 bonuses to hourly employees agreeing to work full-time for at least a year in the metropolitan area.Most of the people who've been able to return to New Orleans have been either wealthy or in the middle class, in part because their neighborhoods were damaged the least -- leaving a hole for business owners who depend on unskilled labor."The service industry and unskilled labor jobs are the ones really in demand and the people in that category have not come back," said John Trapani, a professor and vice dean at Tulane University's business school. "There will be a shortage of labor until population starts to return and who knows what percentage is going to return and when?"The demand by services businesses for workers is set against a parallel demand for people to work in hurricane clean-up. Some employers have turned to immigrant workers from Central and South America to fill those jobs.But with thousands of New Orleanians scattered across the country, scores of more ordinary jobs remain open. And the demand for workers is similarly dire on the Mississippi coast.All along Highway 49 in Gulfport, Mississippi, are signs advertising jobs. Most are variations on this theme: "Now hiring for all positions."'We're not even being super selective'One of those looking for workers is Rolf Howard, the general manager at Applebee's, which is operating with half its normal staff despite seeing its sales more than double since the storm.Howard was able to reopen a week after Katrina. But many of his employees have relocated and can't return because there was no place to live. To fill in behind them, Howard says, he can no longer afford to be picky."We're not even being super selective. We can't afford to. We are literally hiring every day."In New Orleans, a large "Now Hiring" banner hung in Shoe Carnival's storefront window. And Aucoin said he had increased staff by nearly double from pre-storm levels because of a spike in sales with some shoppers replacing shoes destroyed in the floodwaters.He declined to say how much better business was, but said he understood why. Residents in areas where power and water are back have returned faster than most stores could reopen, leaving those first few that were up and running flooded with customers looking to replace household items or simply to get out of the house for some shopping therapy."It really is a great opportunity for businesses that can open to take advantage of this before the city gets back into economic equilibrium," Trapani said.A Best Buy electronics store had a line of customers out the door earlier this week. A large banner read, "Now hiring at all locations." The store had set up a computer station a few feet inside the front door for applicants.Kelly Cahill, controller at the Arden Cahill Academy in Gretna, Louisiana, said the private school put many of its regular employees' families to work as they tried to clean up in time to reopen for students this month."We've had anybody's boyfriend or husband, anybody that wanted to come by -- basically anybody that needed work, we gave a job to for cleanup," she said.The few restaurants open have been packed. They've had to shorten operating hours because of curfews but still have to lengthen servers' shifts because there aren't enough employees to do a complete shift change in a given day."We're pulling 12-hour shifts," said Nicole Blais, a server at Houston's in suburban Metairie. She was brought in from a New Orleans location that hasn't been able to reopen. "When they reopened they only had a couple servers back, so they started hiring, but whatever people they didn't have to train they were desperate for."Houston's is still hiring, she said, and with the restaurant always jammed, the money's been good for people like her who rely on tips.In downtown New Orleans, hospitality industry workers are in short supply, especially in the hotels that now are trying to house as many relief workers and contractors as they can.Le Pavillon, distinguished by its huge columns and ornate interior of gold-painted crown molding and giant crystal chandeliers, was operating with about 20 percent of its staff this week. Along with cutting back maid service, all meals are buffet style with disposable plates and utensils."We're doing better than most hotels. A lot haven't opened yet because they have absolutely no employees. There's no place for them to live," said Ed Morin, the hotel's managing director.Pressure will mount on businesses to increase lower-level wages to entice hourly workers back, Trapani said. They'll also have to help employees address immediate housing needs, and some already have.At Le Pavillon, some key employees who lost their homes have been allowed to live in the hotel temporarily. Morin said he hasn't decided how long they can stay."Some people, the water was up so high in their homes -- it depends on how this situation progresses. I haven't given it a deadline," Morin said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Posted: 6:49 p.m. ET From Andreas Preuss, CNN Gulf Coast BureauI've been through many New Orleans neighborhoods this past week. But the one that really stands out for its complete and utter Katrina destruction is the Lower 9th Ward. The bottom rung of the economic ladder, this part of the city is predominantly African-American and home to some of the meanest streets. Most tourists would never venture here, but it was a thriving, vital part of the New Orleans puzzle.Driving out of the French Quarter along North Rampart, to St. Claude Avenue and a police checkpoint, then over the Industrial Canal brings you to this desolate place. There are not many standing structures: most houses, lives, property are now in giant rubble heaps.The barren landscape is dotted with overturned cars and trucks. What really gets you is the color. Everything has a pale brown-gray tone. The only hint of color is the few trees that survived. And when it's windy, there's an irritating dust.The neighborhood was flooded when the levee cracked open, pouring up to 10 feet of water into the area. To make matters worse, once the streets finally dried out, Hurricane Rita sent more water in to the Lower 9th. Anything that could be saved is now probably gone forever.The most symbolic image is the tiny East Jerusalem Baptist Church. It's near the corner of North Derbigny Street and Jourdan Road, right alongside the ruptured canal. Amazingly, the structure still stands, though the back was smashed by a house.The striking feature is the church's interior: velvet-cushioned pews crushed on top of each other, sodden floorboards and a broken drum set -- picture perfect upheaval. But the structure hangs on.What about the future of this ruined place? Is it worth saving? There may not be many architectural gems, but the 9th Ward is a cultural jackpot. Some of the city's best musicians, cooks and workers come from the area. The most famous resident is Fats Domino. He stayed in the neighborhood, though he could probably afford a suburban mansion. Fats knows his roots.New Orleans down; is Mardi Gras out?Posted: 7:34 p.m. ET, Friday, October 7 From Andreas Preuss, CNN Gulf Coast BureauA quick trip over the Greater New Orleans Bridge brought the CNN krewe to Algiers and Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World. He is one of carnival's most prolific float builders, creating the rides of some major parades like Orpheus, Endymion and Bacchus. Their revelers snake through the streets in huge, blinking double-deck floats.Obviously, Mr. Kern has a huge stake in the success of Mardi Gras. New Orleans is always looking for a good celebration -- in the best of times and worst. The business of bead tossing brings in an estimated $1 billion to the city's economy. It's a worldwide party event and a major fundraiser for New Orleans. Katrina damage at Mardi Gras World if(!cnnUseDelayedCSI){cnnAddCSI('imageChanger11','/2005/US/10/09/blog.sun/imgChng/p11-0.exclude.html','pNo=11');}We interviewed Mr. Kern in his gigantic Mardi Gras emporium. It was like a sauna. I was really sweating ... another NOLA summer humidity affliction. He was cool as a cucumber in his seersucker suit.Another classic New Orleans character, Blain Kern was really upbeat. He said more people have signed up for the carnival than ever before. Call it support or sympathy, but it seems like the world is ready to help New Orleans get back to the business of partying.He has talked about the idea of a scaled-down Mardi Gras. He did not explain what that meant. A route change, fewer attendees, different logistics? The reality is that you can't invite the world without hotel rooms. I also asked about the idea of corporate sponsorship, which is illegal in Orleans Parish.He said he was not in favor of corporate logos on the floats, but was very happy to have companies pay the way for riders. At about $1,000 a pop for beads, costume and daylong party, there's big money to be made. It's a cottage industry that goes from local pizza vendors on the street to the factories of Asia, which supply most of the "throws" -- beads, cups, stuffed animals and other trinkets of carnival.Kern is a very savvy man. Many locals believe he's a bit of an opportunist, but he definitely has his heart in the right place. And he's been out there bringing up the issue.Old haunts and what has become of them

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Clay paid off at the box office for "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." The clay-animated family film debuted as the top weekend movie with $16.1 million.The airplane thriller "Flightplan," which had held the top box-office slot the previous two weekends, slipped to second place with $10.8 million, lifting its total to $60.9 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.A rush of new wide releases filled out the top five, led by Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine's tale of squabbling sisters, "In Her Shoes," which opened at No. 3 with $10 million.Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey's sports-gambling flick "Two for the Money" debuted in fourth place with $8.4 million."The Gospel" -- starring Boris Kodjoe as an R&B singer making peace with his faith and his estranged father, a church bishop -- had a surprisingly strong opening of $8 million, placing fifth for the weekend. The movie played in just 969 theaters, barely one-fourth of the cinema count for "Wallace & Gromit."The restaurant comedy "Waiting," with Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris and Luis Guzman, premiered at No. 7 with $5.7 million.Overall revenues slipped, with the top 12 movies taking in $87.8 million, down 10 percent from the same weekend last year.Two acclaimed movies opened strongly in limited release. Actor-director George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck," featuring David Strathairn as legendary broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, took in $420,000 in 11 theaters."The Squid and the Whale," starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney in a comic drama of a family's bitter divorce, grossed $124,000 in four theaters."Audiences are evidently paying attention to critical raves and really showing up in big numbers for these independent movies that have been very well-reviewed and kind of get a must-see vibe going for them," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations."Wallace & Gromit" was based on three short films made for British television about the adventures of a cheese-loving inventor and his long-suffering canine pal.Featuring the voices of Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes, the big-screen "Wallace & Gromit" pits the duo against a monster rabbit ravaging the town's vegetable gardens."Wallace & Gromit" follows "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" as the fall's second film created through stop-motion animation, which involves photographing inanimate objects a frame at a time. The last big stop-motion film was "Chicken Run," from the makers of "Wallace & Gromit," which debuted with $17.5 million and went on to become a $100 million hit.Distributor DreamWorks is counting on the film's stellar reviews and strong word of mouth to give "Wallace & Gromit" a long run in theaters. Though popular in the United States through the TV shorts, the characters have been far better known in their native Britain."In the U.S., they weren't as well-known as people might imagine," said Jim Tharp, head of distribution for DreamWorks. "I think they certainly will be after this weekend.""The Gospel" was a late addition to the schedule of distributor Sony, whose strategy of marketing the movie heavily to black church groups paid off. Blacks accounted for 85 percent of the movie's audience, said Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court drew testy comments Sunday from conservatives who leveled their ire at other conservatives.The remarks spotlighted a rift in the Republican Party between those who support President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and those who do not.At the heart of the matter was whether enough was known about Miers' positions to satisfy conservatives who want to see a seismic shift in what they perceive as a liberal Supreme Court. (See video on Miers' supreme battle -- 1:33)Despite the court's perceived leanings, seven of the current nine justices, including O'Connor, were appointed by Republican presidents.Bush announced his nomination of Miers on Monday, just minutes before his first pick for the court, John Roberts, took over as chief justice.Bush since then has defended the 60-year-old Miers, who came to Washington with him from Texas in 2001 and has been White House counsel since February, against Democratic charges of cronyism and questions about her degree of conservatism.If confirmed Miers would be the only Supreme Court justice currently sitting with no previous experience as a judge, and her lack of experience on the bench has left few clues to suggest how she might rule on hot-button issues. Some conservative legal activists had hoped Bush would nominate an outspoken conservative to replace O'Connor, a moderate swing vote on the court.Pat Robertson, head of the Christian Coalition, said Miers "shares the president's philosophy.""I think what the president wants is a vote that reflects his point of view," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "You look at some of the so-called great scholars. They depart substantially from the presidents that picked them."George Bush wants somebody who follows through on his strict constructionist concept," he said. Gary Bauer, director of the American Values Coalition, took issue with comments made by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, who said last week that critics of the nomination should "shut up for a few minutes" and give people a chance to learn more about Miers."We're not going to find out anything more," Bauer told "Fox News Sunday." "The whole strategy here is the so-called stealth strategy: picking candidates for the Supreme Court who have no judicial record on things that really matter."The approach has been tried before, he said, and "the only ones who get fooled by it are conservatives." Graham said on the same program that Bush decided to pick a woman for the post and then "picked the person he knew the best and he trusted the most, and that's classic George W. Bush.""I think if people will listen and give her a shot and understand who she is and how she's lived her life, she will be a very fine choice," he said.Bauer intimated that "the worst elements in the Democratic Party" may have intimidated the president to "not nominate people with clear judicial records."Former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan stood with Bauer on the Miers nomination."Ms. Miers' qualifications for the Supreme court are utterly non-existent," he told NBC's "Meet the Press.""This is a faith-based initiative," he said. "The president of the United States is saying, 'Trust me.' And when you have the decisive vote on the United States Supreme Court, that is not enough."But other conservatives -- even some religious conservatives, including Focus on the Family's James Dobson -- are fine with the president's choice."I don't believe he would have nominated Harriet Miers if he knew that she was going to assassinate what he believed in and that the court would not be reformed the way he wants it to be," said Dobson on Citizen Link, a Web site associated with Focus on the Family. Dobson has indicated he was told privately how she would vote on certain matters.Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said on ABC last week that there was "a good chance" he would vote against Miers if she said that Roe v. Wade was "settled law." But on CBS' "Face the Nation," he complained about the "litmus test on the left" that draws filibusters "if you don't support Roe, if you don't support abortion rights."Brownback, less than enthusiastic about Miers, said she lacks "a track record and doesn't seem to be well-formed in her judicial philosophy.""We should have a vigorous debate about where candidates stand on the issues," Brownback said, though Roberts skillfully skirted direct discussion of his positions on various matters during his confirmation process.Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the sniping represented "a stampede to justice.""She's faced ... one of the toughest lynch mobs ever assembled in Washington, D.C., and we really assemble some tough lynch mobs," he told ABC's "This Week."Specter said Miers "might have potential to be an outstanding Supreme Court justice if given a chance" -- although he also told The New York Times that she would need a "crash course in constitutional law" if she's confirmed.Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic co-chair of the committee, told ABC that he had recommended to the president that he "pick somebody outside the judicial monastery" but that he probably should have added: "And also consider somebody outside the White House compound."Leahy urged that senators and the American public reserve judgment on Miers until her hearing in the Senate.