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.

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.

AUBURN, Alabama (AP) -- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has more golf holes per person than any other city in the nation, and Orlando, Florida, is the home of Tiger Woods. But two towns in east Alabama have them both beat for those who like to tee it up.With at least seven good public courses that charge modest fees, Auburn and neighboring Opelika are an oasis of pure putting bliss in a state that has become a nationally known destination for inexpensive, high-quality golf.Sure, anybody can go to California and play the renowned Pebble Beach Golf Links, but a round with a cart starts at $425. North Carolina's famed Pinehurst No. 2? That'll be $375, please.But 18 holes with a cart is just $55 in the summer at the acclaimed 54-hole Grand National layout in Opelika, and the most expensive course around, the semipublic Auburn University Club, is advertised at $75 tops.It's that blend of low prices and carpet-like fairways that Golf Digest cited recently when it ranked Auburn and Opelika -- with a combined population of 67,000 -- as the nation's No. 1 spot for public golf. They beat out 329 other golfing cities large and small, including Myrtle Beach (14); Orlando (73); and Augusta, Georgia (36), home of Masters course Augusta National.The average green fee in the Auburn-Opelika area is $38.33, according to the magazine, and the warm weather means 269 playing days a year. Can anyone stand that much golf?No, none of the Alabama courses have the reputation of Pebble Beach or Pinehurst, site of this year's U.S. Open Championship. And Auburn's popular municipal course, Indian Pines, will never be mistaken for Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.But for the money, Golf Digest decided nowhere in the United States was better for a long golfing weekend than Auburn-Opelika, which is better known for college football than doglegs. The magazine ranked cities on the basis of the number of courses available to the public; weather; and the quality of courses.Local boosters are trying to make the most of their golf courses, which they view as a nice complement to the area's other big draw, Auburn University."It's a college town, and those are the two things that are really marketable for us -- the university and golf," said Robyn Bridges of the Auburn-Opelika Convention & Visitors Bureau.John Karabasz, head golf pro at the $39-a-round Auburn Links at Mill Creek, said his course -- just seconds off Interstate 85 and about 40 miles east of Montgomery -- draws players from all over the region."I moved here seven years ago and just couldn't believe the prices for the quality of golf that is around here," he said. "What sets it apart is the number of quality courses in the area."Jackie Maness didn't have any competition when he began running Auburn's first public golf course, Pin Oaks Golf Club. "When I bought Pin Oaks 33 years ago it was the only (course) here aside from the country club," he said.Everything changed in 1992, when the state pension system built Grand National, part of Alabama's popular Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Soon it seemed like as many people were coming to Auburn for golf as for football."Really, all over the state, the Robert Trent Jones courses have helped promote golf because of the exposure they've gotten," Maness said. Another Alabama city, Gadsden, was ranked No. 9 nationally.Maness still runs Pin Oaks off U.S. 29, but it's strictly a beginner's course these days with rough fairways and greens to match for $21 a round. While public golf in Auburn may have started at Pin Oaks, it's not included in the magazine's list of top courses.But just up the road, Auburn Links stays busy with a challenging creekside layout that's been called one of the best public courses in the Southeast.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BILOXI, Mississippi (AP) -- The beachfront cottage where Jefferson Davis wrote his memoirs stood for a century and a half in the shade of towering oak trees, but Hurricane Katrina reduced it to rubble in just a few hours.Like nearly all historical homes on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, the cottages at Beauvoir were swept away by Katrina's winds and storm surge."It's a horrifying sight," said Todd Sanders, a coordinator with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. "It's hard for me to put into words."The main house at Beauvoir, built in 1852, survived the storm better than most buildings. A blue tarp covered a hole in the roof, and the house itself has been gutted, but Sanders believes it can be saved.Other famous homes on the coast, with their large columns and wraparound porches, are simply no longer there."Businessmen from New Orleans and upcountry planters always built the finest homes," Sanders said. "They built these estates along the water, (and) now they're gone. Beauvoir, the Longfellow House and a couple of others are the only antebellum houses that remain on the coast."The Longfellow House was built in 1850 and remains largely intact on Beach Boulevard in Pascagoula. The home, which took its name from a local legend that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once stayed there, now towers over the bare foundations where neighboring homes once stood.Homes such as Beauvoir and the Longfellow House can be saved if the restoration process is swift enough to stabilize the structures before they are further deteriorated by the elements, said Mississippi Heritage Trust director David Preziosi.But it will be up to local leaders and property owners whether the homes that were destroyed are rebuilt."We've lost a great deal of our cultural history," Preziosi said. "Even if you rebuild one, you lose an actual piece of history."A dozen miles west of Biloxi, down a tree-lined gravel road in Ocean Springs, the family of late artist Walter Anderson sifted through what's left of two homes built in the 1830s. The artist's son, John Anderson, wiped his brow and said, "There's nothing left."At least 16 buildings were destroyed at the Shearwater artist community made famous by his father's nature works, including Shearwater Pottery's showroom and a vault that housed most of the painter's work."You expect to see something, boards or something. But there's nothing there," he said in a soft voice.Blue tarps covered what was left of the Sullivan House, designed by renowned architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Only two of the original four structures remained after the storm, but the wood shell of those -- painted nearly the same hazy blue as the nearby gulf -- has been heavily damaged.An uprooted tree and scattered debris is all that's left on the site of the Dantzler House, which once faced the Gulf of Mexico with wide porches and tall white columns. It was home to a Mardi Gras museum."It sort of erases a part of the past," Preziosi said. "You no longer have that visual history."The Brielmaier House, built in 1895 and home to the Biloxi Visitor's Center, was known for its Victorian woodwork and arched lattices before Hurricane Katrina leveled it.And the Pleasant Reed House, built by a freed slave around 1887, once gave a glimpse into the lives of a black family in early 20th-century Biloxi. Now, nothing remains but the chimney."A lot of the collections in the house were moved before the storm, but the actual house is gone," Preziosi said. "Even if you rebuild one just like it, it's not his house. It's not the one he built."Preziosi said the Pleasant Reed House would likely be rebuilt, but it's hard to know if any other homes would be resurrected. In the meantime, preservationists are wondering how Katrina will change the way the past is viewed."It's making us look at the way we can preserve the history of the coast," Sanders said. "We've lost major character-defining buildings. These were buildings that defined the community."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- After 2 1/2 hours out on the ocean, Randy Fernley returns to dock with six deep plastic bins filled with tropical fish destined for home aquariums.Fernley keeps a list of about 400 sites where he collects the sleek, jewel-like beauties to make sure he doesn't hit a particular one too often. That ensures the waters he depends on for his livelihood are not overfished -- but it's not something the state requires."I'm into protecting the reef because I know that's my life. And I need to have that reef around the rest of my life," said Fernley, owner of Coral Fish Hawaii in the town of Aiea.While the islands are valued the world over for their spectacular coastlines and aquamarine waters, the industry of harvesting fish and other marine creatures for home aquariums is largely unregulated here, raising concerns over damage to the environment, the tourism industry and the aquarium fishery itself.With the notable exception of a five-year-old regulation project along the Big Island's Kona Coast, a $50 permit allows collectors across most of Hawaii to net as many of a species as they want, wherever they want and whenever they want. That sometimes means harvesting hundreds of thousands per year of a single species from a single bay.The situation doesn't sit well with a number of marine biologists, who worry that removing plant-eating fish from near-shore reefs already threatened by urban runoff could lead to an overgrowth of algae.Fernley also said he is concerned that short-term collectors not counting on next year's catch may be to blame for damaging fragile coral colonies in Kaneohe Bay in their search for fish.Among the most unhappy are dive shop owners whose tourist clientele are the lifeblood of the state's economy."It just doesn't look as pretty any more as it used to," said Brian Tissot, a professor of environmental science at Washington State University.Robert Wintner, owner of the dive shop Snorkel Bob's, which operates trips throughout the main islands, said Hawaii's reefs are being strip mined by aquarium collectors."There's no place else in America that has what we have. And you know the cookie jar is wide open and the bad kids are robbing it," he said.According to state figures, collectors brought in 557,673 marine creatures during the 2004 fiscal year with a reported value of $1.08 million. But state officials believe those figures to be three to five times below the industry's true worth in Hawaii, which is the nation's biggest aquarium species exporter.While aquarium fishermen have been required since the 1970s to submit monthly catch reports, many don't.Forty-seven percent of the reports required of collectors working in the islands' biggest collections area, along the west coast of the Big Island, went unfilled between January 1998 and July 2003, according to a 2004 state Department of Land and Natural Resources report.Enforcement of the reporting requirement, however, is likely to be tightened, said Bill Walsh, an aquatic biologist with the Department of Land and Natural Resources.Walsh oversees the West Hawaii Regional Fisheries Management Area, a project that includes the state's most aggressive rules for managing of the aquarium industry.On the last day of 1999, a little more than 35 percent of the west coast of the Big Island became off-limits to collectors after a local coalition of residents pushed a collection control measure through the state Legislature.In December the department told lawmakers that the number of the most collected fish species, the yellow tang, has since gone up 49 percent in both protected and unprotected areas along the coast."Even though everybody said, 'Aw, you know, if you ban these areas to us, you're going to ruin the fishery, we'll be out of business, there'll be all these unemployed people' ... it didn't happen," he said.The project already shows that collecting can coexist with other activities such as tourism, recreation and subsistence fishing. It also demonstrates what can happen to a fishery if the government creates marine protected areas, Walsh said.Similar regulations are being considered for the state's other waters. Last month Gov. Linda Lingle signed new rules creating a massive marine refuge in the state waters around the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which stretch 1,200 miles from Kauai."I think if you talk to anyone, they would say that the nearshore waters are not in the condition they remember that they used to be," said Peter Young, chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (AP) -- Several thousand space enthusiasts swarmed to the city's airport for a glimpse of a future in which you might just as easily book a rocket to space as you would a plane to Las Vegas.The final day of X Prize Cup Week in New Mexico on Sunday drew a throng of would-be astronauts, entrepreneurs and curiosity seekers. They milled about the wind-swept airport grounds transformed for the afternoon into a Tomorrowland-type theme park.The organizers' goals were to show off what clever things entrepreneurs are doing to get into space, and to promote the X Prize Cup, a weeklong competition scheduled to begin in southern New Mexico next year. The contest will include a rocket race that backers pitch as a NASCAR event in three dimensions.State officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson, are hoping that rocket races and space tourism will one day be a major part of the economy in New Mexico, a place that boasts the needed clear skies, wide open spaces and abundant controlled air space. They successfully bid to host the X Prize Cup, a spinoff of the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which was won last October by SpaceShipOne, which blasted into space two times in five days from a California desert.Sunday's event in Las Cruces was considered a dress rehearsal for next year's larger event, and a barometer for how the public would respond. Some complained of too much hype, but it also drew some raves."It's a way to get me connected to the big picture, see what concepts people are trying out," said Ryan Sloan, a 26-year-old student from Albuquerque who was waiting in line to get an autograph from NASA astronaut Ken Cockrell.Sloan said he'd be a willing space tourist. "But if they can't strap me into a rocket today, at least I can hear the message and shake the hands of people who have done it," he said.Rick Homans, the state's economic development secretary, called the day "the successful launch of a whole new industry in the state."The highlights were the live demonstrations of rockets, although long lines formed between launches for hands-on exhibits, including a computer simulated rocket ride. Inside a big white tent, entrepreneurs pitched everything from robotic pets to colonization maps for Mars.In a brief talk, Cockrell described for the crowd what it's like to see a sunrise from outer space."It just stops you, takes away all your stress, and the beauty just washes over you," he said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- Two of the main hospitals serving New Orleans are unsalvageable, and it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace them, the head of the hospitals said Wednesday."The big Charity and University hospital buildings were issued their 'death warrant' by Katrina and the cataclysmic floods it spawned," said Donald R. Smithburg, the chief executive of Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division. "Both facilities are dangerous, dangerous places."Charity Hospital, the main trauma center for southeastern Louisiana, and University Hospital sustained major damage during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Charity's basement, where the morgue was, was so flooded that workers resorted to storing bodies in stairwells.The hospitals have been vacant since the storm, and inspectors have been assessing the damage."The buildings have unsafe air to breathe, pervasive mold growing, and mechanical systems that were completely destroyed by the storm," Smithburg said before the LSU Board of Supervisors in Baton Rouge.Both hospitals, which treated a total of more than 500,000 patients a year, are damaged beyond repair and must be replaced, he said. Smithburg estimated damage at Charity Hospital at more than $340 million; at University Hospital around $105 million.Smithburg noted that the main Charity building was built in the 1930s, and University Hospital in the 1960s. "Even before the storms, these old facilities were on the ropes," he said.He added that the buildings do not have the environmental, structural or mechanical capacity needed by 21st century health care facilities and that new facilities are needed."We are going to build newer, more modern facilities that will withstand the test of time. They will withstand the next storm, and the one after that," Smithburg said. "Charity and University have anchored the health care system of southern Louisiana for over 100 years," he said. "We believe they should be replaced quickly to ensure they provide health care for the next 100 years and beyond."

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Health officials have identified Legionnaire's disease as the illness that killed 16 elderly people at a Toronto nursing home, a medical officer said.There have been no new deaths and the spread of the illness has been contained, said David McKeown of Toronto's health department."Some people are fragile enough that they may still succumb to this," McKeown said at a briefing that included Toronto Mayor David Miller and Dr. Donald Low, medical director of Ontario's Public Health Laboratories.Health experts, including the World Health Organization, earlier insisted the illness is winding down and emphasized it has been contained to the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged in the eastern suburbs of Toronto.Their inability to at first identify it spooked the elderly and cast a shadow over a city still trying to shed bad publicity from the SARS epidemic.Provincial and city officials are concerned over the growing international media coverage of the mystery bug, worried tourists will flock from Canada's largest city, as they did during the SARS outbreak in the spring of 2003.Legionnaires' disease is a type of pneumonia named after a severe outbreak that affected a meeting of the American Legion in Philadelphia in 1976.In the United States, an estimated 8,000-18,000 cases occur each year, but only a fraction of these are reported, officials say.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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 (CNN) -- Former FBI Director Louis Freeh on Sunday accused former President Bill Clinton of ditching the investigation into the 1996 bombing of a U.S. barracks in Saudi Arabia to pursue better relations with Iran.In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Freeh said Clinton failed to seek Saudi cooperation with the investigation into the Khobar Towers attack, which killed 19 U.S. airmen. He said Clinton instead pressed then-Crown Prince Abdullah, now king, for a donation to his presidential library -- a charge the former president's spokesman and a former adviser told CBS was false."I was very disappointed that the political leadership in the United States would tell the families of these 19 heroes that we were going to leave no stone unturned and find the people who killed them, to give that order to the director -- because that's the order that I got -- and then do nothing to assist and facilitate that investigation, and, in fact, to undermine it," Freeh said.Representatives of the former president did not return CNN calls seeking comment. But former Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart said Freeh's accusation has been disputed by "everyone who was in those meetings.""All he is trying to do is follow the right-wing playbook, which is to make up a bunch of charges about President Clinton and do it in a way that you can line your own pockets," Lockhart said.Freeh is promoting a new memoir, "My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton and Waging War on Terror." He said his Khobar Towers investigation pointed to Iran, but said the probe was derailed by Clinton's desire to improve relations with the reformist Iranian government elected in 1997.He said U.S. investigators only gained access to Saudi suspects in the bombing when former President George Bush, who sent American troops to defend the kingdom in the first Persian Gulf War, asked Abdullah for his assistance.Asked why he did not resign and go public earlier, he said, "I had a different response. I said, 'This is too damn important for me to stop investigating it,' and I didn't stop investigating it. I wanted for a change of administration, which happened when this President Bush was elected."Clinton named Freeh, a former FBI agent and federal judge, to lead the bureau in 1993 after the fiery raid that ended the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas. But Freeh's agents ended up conducting multiple investigations of his boss during the 1990s -- including the probe of the president's sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which resulted in his 1998 impeachment and eventual acquittal by the Senate.Freeh said those investigations dominated his tenure. But Lockhart said Freeh wasted his time pursuing allegations of wrongdoing leveled by Clinton's political opponents."No one made Mr. Freeh go around and chase political rumors and scandals, to go and get into the depths of the president's personal life," Lockhart told CNN. "He did that to win favor and curry favor with the far right wing of this country. What he didn't do was run the FBI."In his book, Freeh writes that he realized the United States was in a global war with terrorists after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and responses to terrorist attacks in the 1990s were inadequate."We lacked the political will, the spine, to take military action against our enemies," he told CBS. "It was obvious for years that that's what our position had been."The 9/11 commission report issued in 2004 credited Freeh with recognizing the terrorist threat early on -- but it also criticized him for failing to shift FBI resources to combat it. And the Justice Department criticized him for failing to improve the FBI's computer network, which investigators said kept agents from "connecting the dots" before the 9/11 attacks.Freeh told CBS that he had to ask Congress for permission to reassign agents.Freeh resigned in June 2001, less than three months before al Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington. On his last day in office, he revealed indictments against 13 Saudis and a Lebanese citizen in connection with the Khobar Towers bombing, all accused of being members of the Iranian-backed Islamic militia Hezbollah. The indictment stated that Iranian officials directed the bombing, but none were charged.He said he remained in office until 2001 because he didn't want Clinton to name his successor."I was concerned about who he would put in there as FBI director because he had expressed antipathy for the FBI, for the director," he said. "I was going to stay there and make sure that he couldn't replace me."

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.

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's when he's standing in a supermarket or drug store, forced to wait by an indifferent clerk, that "7th Heaven" actor Stephen Collins never forgets that he's also the Rev. Eric Camden.He feels his blood boil. He's about to explode with impatience, but he sees the other customers around him. Eric wouldn't throttle some rude teenager, would he?"There's a different kind of light that shines on it because I'm supposed to be an icon of patience and humility," he said. "It probably does proscribe my behavior in a certain way. It would make a better headline if I make a nuisance of myself in public."So he blends in with the crowd, sort of the way "7th Heaven," which debuted in August 1996, has in the TV landscape. Even its milestones are reached quietly: the WB just aired its 200th episode, eclipsing "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie" this fall as television's longest-running family drama.Collins is the patriarch of the Camden clan, a family of five children that expanded to seven with the birth of twins in 1999. His job as a minister puts him on a higher moral plane, but on "7th Heaven," he's a dad first.Growing up in the suburbs north of New York City, Collins was a fan of programs such as "Leave it to Beaver," "Father Knows Best" and "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.""I would walk to school and it would really look like a lot of those shows," he said. "Those shows were like reality television to me. In a million years, I never thought I would play some sort of iconic image of fatherhood. I'm tremendously grateful for it."He makes an excellent father figure, said Melissa Caldwell, chief researcher for the Parents Television Council."He's not the dumb one in the household," she said. "He's communicative, he's responsible, he's involved in his kids' lives. He's a great role model."She suspects many TV executives don't understand the show's appeal.'There's a certain mythology that prevails in Hollywood that kids are only interested in risky or edgy stuff," she said, "and I don't think that's always the case."'We've always kind of gotten short shrift'Although family shows can be considered bland, "7th Heaven" (8 p.m. EDT Mondays) has recently dealt with son Simon's loss of virginity and a subtext for this season is the consequences of teenage sex.Teenage girls were the first to discover "7th Heaven" a decade ago, Collins said. Many got their parents hooked on watching, too, which is why the series has consistently ranked as the WB's most popular. Of the 20 most-watched shows in the WB's history, 19 were "7th Heaven" episodes (topped by the twins' birth).Yet the series often seems like an afterthought at the WB, obsessed through the years with being hip and trendy.The cast remembers a few years ago being told it was being considered for an Entertainment Weekly cover photo to illustrate the WB's success. But Sarah Michelle Gellar of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" got the cover, "Dawson's Creek" got much of the article's attention and "7th Heaven" was barely mentioned, Collins said."We've always kind of gotten short shrift," he said. "We were never really the WB's brand."It hasn't really affected the show, which has remained remarkably stable. The creator, Brenda Hampton, is still on board. The original cast members -- with the exception of oldest Camden daughter (played by Jessica Biel) -- are still with it.Hampton and Aaron Spelling Productions run a comfortable set where there is less of a chance of actors burning out, Collins said."Brenda and Aaron have this idea that if we're doing a show that celebrates families, we ought to be able to spend as much time as we can with our families," he said.Most days he takes his 16-year-old daughter to school and is able to have dinner with his family in the evening.At 57, Collins has a couple of dreams as an actor -- playing Hamlet and playing a baseball player -- that are unlikely to be fulfilled. (Although you never know with "7th Heaven": Collins once sang four Elvis Presley songs during a scene in which he was hallucinating while under medication.)In real life, Collins sings informally with a rock band, and has recently recorded an album of Ricky Nelson songs.How long does he want to continue playing the reverend?"I don't know," he said. "This year could be the last year or it could go on for a couple of years. If I had been 10 years younger, I think I would have wanted to leave by now. I'm old enough now to appreciate the longevity of it."So he'll have to continue to keep his guard up in public. He's a man of the cloth to prying eyes."I think it's probably been tricky for my daughter, although she never complains, in that she's in many ways a preacher's kid because her friends are liable to say, 'you can't do that, he'll kill you,' as though I am Eric Camden," he said."That's actually a good thing in many ways."The WB is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Japan conducted a successful test flight of a supersonic jet in the Australian outback on Monday, taking a step closer to its goal of developing a successor to the Concorde.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the prototype supersonic jet was launched on the back of a rocket from the remote Woomera rocket range in the South Australian desert and completed a 15-minute flight.Japanese developers hope that a new supersonic jet could some day make the trip from Tokyo to New York in just under six hours -- less than half the current time."We were able to conduct a test flight and to gather data as planned. We think we have marked a major step in the development of (supersonic flight) technology," Kimio Sakata, executive director of JAXA, told reporters in Tokyo via audio link from Australia.JAXA hopes that its research will eventually lead to the development of a commercially viable supersonic jet after clearing technological hurdles such as improving fuel efficiency and reducing noise levels, agency officials said.It will "probably take another 15 years" for the project to become commercially-viable, Sakata said.But doubts have been raised about whether the project will ever be commercially viable given that the Concorde, which was retired two years ago, never managed to turn a profit.The new jet would carry 300 passengers, three times as many as the Concorde, and travel at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, roughly the same as the Concorde.The Concorde was developed jointly by Britain and France in the 1960s. In July 2000, a Concorde taking off from Paris crashed, killing 113 people.A previous test in 2002 ended disastrously when the unmanned prototype dived to earth and exploded in the Australian desert.The 2005 flight at Woomera, an abandoned British rocket testing range populated with kangaroos and located in some of Australia's harshest desert, was delayed several days due to bad weather.JAXA's video footage showed the 11.5-meter (38 feet) dart-like model jet riding piggy back on the back of a rocket, and soaring into a clear, blue sky as the rocket booster left behind a trail of thick, grey smoke.The jet climbed to about 20 km (12 miles) above the Earth on the back of the rocket and then detached. It reached around twice the speed of sound and glided back to Earth using parachutes, JAXA officials said.A picture released by JAXA showed that the jet returned to earth intact this time with no obvious signs of damage.Data gained through the test will be used in joint research by Japan and France towards a next-generation supersonic jet following an agreement between the two nations in June, though the test itself is not a result of the agreement.Despite the successful test flight, however, Japan will not immediately embark on joint international development, Sakata said, adding that more work was needed first.No budget projections have yet been made for the entire project, but the costs are considerable.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PRIMM, Nevada (AP) -- An unmanned vehicle has successfully navigated a forbidding 132-mile section of the Mojave Desert. The next stop for the technology may be Afghanistan or Iraq.A souped-up VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the course in six hours and 53 minutes Sunday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails.The robotic vehicles had to navigate a course designed to mimic driving conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including winding dirt trails and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush. Parts of the route forced the robots to zip through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals.The race is part of the military's effort to fulfill a congressional mandate to cut casualties by having a third of the military's ground vehicles unmanned in 20 years.The Stanford team -- which spent $500,000 on the race, some of which was provided by sponsors -- celebrated by popping champagne and pouring it over their mud-covered car called Stanley."This car, to me, is really a piece of history," Stanford computer scientist Sebastian Thrun said Sunday after receiving an oversized check for the $2 million prize, funded by taxpayers. He said he did not know how he would spend the money, but jokingly said he needed to buy cat food.The race, called the Grand Challenge, displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line.In second place was a red Humvee from Carnegie Mellon University called Sandstorm, followed by a customized Hummer called H1ghlander. Coming in fourth was a Ford Escape Hybrid named Kat-5, designed by students in Metairie, Louisiana, who lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.The race began Saturday with a field of 23 autonomous vehicles. Eighteen failed to complete the course because of mechanical failures or sensor problems.It's unclear how the Pentagon plans to harness the technology used in the race for military applications. But Thrun said he wanted to design automated systems to make next-generation cars safer for everyone, not just the military."If it was only for the military, I wouldn't be here today," Thrun said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Conservative leader Angela Merkel says she will become Germany's first woman chancellor under a deal with Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats.The deal, which ends Schroeder's seven years in office, breaks a three-week deadlock that started when voters gave Merkel's conservatives a narrow victory but not the majority needed to form a center-right government.Instead, the two leaders' parties will form a "grand coalition" that bridges the country's right-left split.Speaking at a news conference Monday, Merkel called the deal "good and fair" and said the parties agreed that "there is no alternative to a reform course" for Germany.The two parties were "obliged to be successful," she said, expressing confidence she would find agreement on a common foreign policy with the Social Democrats. She also said establishing good relations with the United States was "an important task." "We have unanimously agreed that we will start coalition negotiations with the SPD aimed at creating a grand coalition," Merkel told reporters. "The conservatives will occupy the chancellery. The conservatives and SPD will be represented equally in the Cabinet with ministers. That means it is not possible that the one outvotes the other." Merkel said her party, the Christian Democrats, and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, would have six seats in the new Cabinet in addition to the chancellery, with Schroeder's SPD getting eight seats.Under the deal, the SPD would head the foreign, finance, labor, justice, health, transport, environment and development ministries, The Associated Press reported.Merkel's CDU/CSU would get defense, interior, agriculture, families, education and economy. CSU head Edmund Stoiber would become economy minister.Party leadership committees on both sides approved the deal Monday, officials said.SPD leader Franz Muentefering said his party was committed to a stable government that could last the entire four years of parliament's term, AP reported.The deal paves the way for detailed coalition talks and the formation of Germany's second "grand coalition" between its top two parties since World War II.Muentefering said the deal was a "good basis" on which to finish important details such as who would occupy which Cabinet posts. He wouldn't say what specific role Schroeder would play other than help in the talks, AP reported.Merkel said the major parties were aiming to complete coalition talks by November 12.The deal must still be approved by party conferences and parliament once formal coalition negotiations are completed. Until Monday, Schroeder's SPD had refused to relinquish its hold on the chancellery.By securing many of the most important ministries in return for sacrificing Schroeder, the SPD was expected to force concessions from Merkel on economic policy, Reuters said.Germany has been in political limbo since the September 18 election, and economists have warned that further delay could harm the struggling economy.Financial markets were watching closely to see how much Merkel would have to dilute her reform plans to appease the SPD."Under the grand coalition agreement, some compromise will obviously have to take place for things to work," Ian Stannard, senior foreign exchange strategist at BNP Paribas, told Reuters."The reform mandate is probably not going to be as strong as it would have been under an outright victory by Merkel. But the fact that they have a coalition led by Merkel -- the market hope is that reform will to some extent be kept alive."CNN's Chris Burns 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.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Recent tensions between Iraqi forces and the British military are threatening the upcoming constitutional referendum, the governor of Basra province warned Monday.British forces arrested 12 people in a raid last week, including three police officers in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Among them was a police captain.Gov. Mohammed Al-Waili expressed concern over the British military's actions, saying the arrests have created "chaos among the people of Basra.""They are threatening the upcoming referendum," he said. Al-Waili said the British military should deal with his office on a more regular basis and let him know what troops in the region are doing, "for both the safety of the people and the British forces."Al-Waili has threatened to stop dealing with the British military, but he said he opened negotiations two days ago. (Full story)He said he expected an apology from the British forces for their conduct. He added that Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari and the Interior Ministry have sent a fact-finding delegation to Basra to probe recent events.In a statement Friday, the British military said it was concerned "that members of Basra police are involved in terrorism. We know that there are good people in the Iraqi police service, and the actions of the few should not be allowed to obscure that fact." The statement, issued by the commander of Britain's 12th Mechanized Brigade, said that "it is our right to protect ourselves and innocent citizens."Relations have been strained since late September when British troops staged a raid to free two British undercover soldiers who were being held first by police and then, according to British officials, by a militant group.Basra officials said the two men, dressed in civilian clothes, were arrested after they began firing on civilians. Al-Waili and other Basra officials have demanded an apology from the British over the raids.Iraqis are scheduled to go to the polls Saturday to vote on the country's draft constitution.The government announced over the weekend there would be a four-day national holiday ahead of the vote and that 70,000 Iraqi troops and police would provide security.About 152,000 American troops are in the country, according to the U.S. military.Iraqi police commandos killedTwo Iraqi police commandos were killed and eight others wounded Monday in roadside bomb explosions while on their way to provide security for an Arab League delegation.The attack occurred while the delegation was inside a mosque in western Baghdad. The Arab League group had been invited for a Ramadan iftar feast at the Muslim Scholars Association, a Sunni organization.Earlier, police and the U.S. military said two Iraqi policemen and a U.S. soldier were killed Monday in separate attacks in Baghdad.Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi police convoy on a western Baghdad highway near the al-Adil neighborhood, killing two officers and wounding six others, Baghdad police said.Elsewhere in the capital, a car bomb exploded outside a checkpoint near the International Zone, killing a Task Force Baghdad soldier.Initial reports indicated an Iraqi soldier, an interpreter and an Iraqi civilian were wounded in the blast.The death brought the number of U.S. troops killed since the start of the Iraq war to 1,965.Gunmen also opened fire on civilians in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Saydiya, killing two people and wounding one, police said.Other developmentsNajaf Gov. As'ad Abu Gilal survived an assassination attempt Monday when a bomb went off near his convoy on the main road south of Baghdad in the city of Mahmudiya, according to a Najaf police official. The official said the convoy came under small-arms fire after the explosion. A high-ranking Najaf police officer and another member of the police escorting the convoy were wounded.Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said a majority of Sunnis support the constitution despite the vocal opposition of many Sunni leaders. He said the constitution was a huge step forward for Iraq and that he thought that it would pass. (Full story)Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is scheduled to stand trial October 19 in the 1982 killings of Shiite Muslims in the village of Dujail that followed attempts by opponents to assassinate him. CNN's Arwa Damon, Enes Dulami and Mohammed Twfeeq contributed to this report.

BILOXI, Mississippi (AP) -- When Hurricane Katrina finished pounding this seaside city, it appeared the Beau Rivage hotel-casino had escaped serious damage.It was built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, and initial reports suggested the $800 million crown jewel of Gulf Coast casinos might recover quickly, a bright spot in an economy desperate for some good news.But a closer look has revealed a gloomier picture. The chairman of MGM Mirage Inc., the Las Vegas-based company that owns the property, predicts the Beau Rivage will be the single-biggest loss of any of the 13 casinos lining the Mississippi coast.Company officials estimate fixing the 1,740-room resort could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take 12 to 16 months -- a frustrating setback for the 3,400 employees who worked there.The exterior walls appear largely unscathed by Katrina's powerful winds, but the real damage is inside.The MGM Mirage allowed a reporter inside the Beau Rivage for the first time this month, giving The Associated Press a tour of the damage caused by a tidal surge towering more than two stories -- a height the resort's designers hadn't planned for.The company has hired a small army to revive the Beau Rivage, but debris remains visible in all corners of the expansive first floor, the portion that was literally washed away and has since been gutted.Large sections of the southern wall facing the Gulf have huge gashes from the giant waves that crashed into them repeatedly, and the first two floors of the parking garage were wiped away."When you look at it your heart kind of sinks," said Cindy Nieder, a security supervisor and a Beau Rivage employee since the property opened in 1999 -- one of the largest single investments ever made in Mississippi.What remains of the front desk is a pile of battered computers. The atrium has been reduced to rubble thanks to the heavy equipment tearing up the floors. The only people milling around are constructions workers trying to piece the Beau Rivage back together.The gamblers are gone."It was so pretty in here," Nieder said. "We had flowers and little shrubs. It was beautiful."MGM Mirage spent millions improving the Beau Rivage, recently adding a nightclub and new restaurants. Those investments were flushed out to sea. The new $4 million club is gone save the center bar and the coral glass above it.Many seats in the cavernous showroom that holds 1,550 people were yanked out along with the slot machines on the casino floor. Nickels are scattered everywhere.The popular restaurants have disappeared. George Goldhoff, vice president of food and beverage at the Beau Rivage, said his operation was wrecked. A custom-made smoker for barbecuing the meat has vanished."It's not there," he said. "There's no telling where it went."The brewpub's gleaming, stainless steel beer tanks didn't survive, and the four 10,000-gallon aquariums that held sharks and other marine life were flushed out to sea. He had no idea what happened to the creatures."Free Willy, baby," he said.Architects who inspected the Beau Rivage say it's structurally sound because the design helped mitigate and divert the force of the winds. The barge on which the casino rested managed to remain in place.Goldhoff knows he has a daunting rebuilding job in front of him.The thought of it, he said, "makes the hair on my arm stand up."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York City police said Monday they will reduce the increased security measures put in place last week on the city's subways."We're scaling back the levels to a heightened level that was in place prior to October 6," said New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul J. Browne .Browne said the security reduction was to begin Monday afternoon."Since the London bombings in July, the police department has added additional personnel and introduced bag inspections that will remain in place," he said."However, the added measures beyond that that were put in place after this latest terror threat were reduced."Law enforcement sources said last week the person who passed along the New York tip also gave information that prompted a military operation in Iraq, which led to the arrests of three al Qaeda suspects in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad."We've been informed that as a result of the operation overseas that there were individuals captured and that they have not corroborated some of the earlier intelligence, and that's allowed us to scale back somewhat," Browne said.Government sources said Monday the three men arrested in Iraq with suspected links to the possible plot had been interviewed and underwent lie detector tests showing they knew nothing about such a plan.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Thursday that the city had received information from the FBI about a "specific threat," prompting the heightened subway security. The threat mentioned Friday and Sunday as possible days an 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 in which 52 people were killed and 700 wounded. (Full story)After Bloomberg's warning some intelligence officials played down the New York information, saying it was not credible.Browne said the specificity of the original intelligence left the police department "no choice" but to put in extra security measures.Bloomberg stood by last week's decision to increase security."Over the immediate future we'll slowly be winding down the enhanced security, but we, remember, stay at level orange in this city," the mayor told reporters Monday, referring to the advisory color denoting a "high" risk. "We have since 9/11, and we're going to take every single threat that has any chance of being credible seriously and do exactly what we did," Bloomberg said.

(CNN) -- As New Orleans residents begin the painstaking task of rebuilding their hurricane-ravaged city, many wonder: What will the new New Orleans be like? CNN.com asked readers whether New Orleans will ever be the same and what would need to be saved or rebuilt to maintain the spirit of the city. Here is a sampling of those responses, some of which have been edited:Ideally, this would be the perfect opportunity to use all of the wonderful technology available to us (construction and civil engineering, levee systems, etc.) that companies have spent billions in R&D on to rebuild New Orleans bigger and better than before. The unfortunate reality of the situation is that New Orleans is completely lost. It may be rebuilt elsewhere, but it won't be New Orleans. We should learn from this lesson and be ready for the next disaster that may occur (i.e. earthquake in San Francisco). Joshua Day, San Francisco, CaliforniaThe spirit of New Orleans was in its decadence and the decadence of its buildings. Building something new and mimicking the old will only give it a Disney feeling that cannot capture the old. Some of the old neighborhoods may be saved but New Orleans as a whole will never be the same and would waste human and national capital to try. Rich, Whitewater, WisconsinThe most important thing that needs to be saved (and rebuilt) is lower- and middle-income housing. .... Shotguns, Double Shotguns, Corner stores, Creole Cottages and Camelbacks all combine to make an urban fabric that does not exist in any other city. Residential areas constitute the bulk of the character and spirit of New Orleans.What visitors see -- the famous spots -- remain largely intact. Rebuilding should be a combination of salvaging and reconstructing with a keen eye focused on the vernacular. For this to happen, native New Orleanians need to be employed on all levels -- urban planners, architects, designers, historians, contractors. It would be a shame to see a national panel of designers without any sort of deep and personal knowledge of New Orleans import suburban-type housing. New Orleans' spirit is unique among American cities -- we have an opportunity to keep it that way. Erin Rensink, New Orleans, LouisianaYes, they should rebuild New Orleans. N'awlins is a unique place historically and ethnically and should not be abandoned. Instead, take a page from Galveston's book, a city demolished by the 1900 "perfect storm," and raise the level of the city at least three feet, possibly more, and build a sandbar or breakwater with some of the concrete and brick rubble left behind by Katrina. Make sure the breakwater or sandbar is navigable so that essential shipping can still get in and out of the great port and harbor. Residents of the lowest ground should just get a land swap for a lot on higher ground, and make the lowest ground a nature sanctuary or leave it as a floodplain. Take heart, N'awliners, from Galveston and San Francisco and Atlanta and many other cities devastated by natural disasters or wars, they all were rebuilt. Laura Sosnowski, Milwaukee, WisconsinAnyone familiar with New Orleans knows the economic value of the French Quarter is the city's main asset and will, at some point, be restored. ... But what will be done about the devastation of the poverty ridden areas of New Orleans? The wards and city projects should become a focus or focal point as well as the French Quarter. Put as much effort into restoring those areas as well and help those people get back to what they've known all of their lives as home. Kevin Batiste, Galveston, TexasNew Orleans has a rare opportunity to radically approach the city's high poverty rate, the worst problem plaguing the city. The entire public school system needs to be radically overhauled and the actual school buildings torn down and built again. In the long run, this approach would lift the city out of extreme poverty and ultimately slash the crime rate. However, my hope that the current administration would do such a thing is not high. They would rather worry about tourism than our own citizens. Sarah Risen, New Orleans, LouisianaAs a native of New Orleans, I know that the spirit and soul of that city rests within her people. While other Southern cities -- like Atlanta, Houston and Tampa -- are great places filled with good people, they are not New Orleans. This means that the only way the city can be the same (or "revived" if you will) is for her citizens to lead the effort and do most, if not all, of the work. Ideally, we would take this opportunity to rid ourselves of governmental corruption and become better organized. Having said that, it is also worth noting that fuzzy politics and "charming unorganization" are as much a part of New Orleans as jazz, good food and second-lining. The worst thing that could happen would be the federalization of the city's cleanup efforts, and the apathy of her people to take charge and rebuild. We're strong people who still maintain a deep pride in our city. We cannot allow the true spirit of New Orleans to become a footnote to history. Colin Schmit, Covington, LouisianaLiving in Chicago, we are always mindful of the calamity of the Great Chicago Fire and the productive re-engineering and planning for the city that followed. The city, its streets, its planned uses were all reconsidered and redesigned, as were its standards for building codes, materials and construction techniques. The masses of debris which resulted from the fire were used to extend the lakefront with landfill, making a buffer for buildings along Lake Michigan and creating a 14-mile stretch of public lakefront parkland, which is the envy of mayors everywhere. New Orleans must do the same -- completely rethink what the city can and should be, while not ignoring the forces of nature, nor the need to be a model of a vibrant, mixed-income and multiethnic urban metropolis. Michael Rohrbeck, Chicago, IllinoisOf course New Orleans will never be the same. But not being the same doesn't have to equate to being worse, or lesser than, or not as good as before. What New Orleans and its residents, new and old, can do is make the most out of this seemingly overwhelming devastation by taking advantage of the old mantra "if I had only known then what I know now." What New Orleans has before it is a historic opportunity to rebuild nearly an entire city with the knowledge of prior mistakes as well as successes from the old one. I suggest to them, incorporate that knowledge into making the best city in the U.S., if not the world, to live. Anthony J. Nowak, New YorkOnly the downtown and French Quarter. I think anything that was under water should be bulldozed because of the bacteria and mold that can never be removed. They need to get over it and start fresh. Sandy McDonald, Melbourne, FloridaThe spirit of the city is in the people, not the buildings. ... Bulldoze that rotting, decaying mess and move inland a few miles to higher ground. People in the 1700s did not think about things related to construction that we do now. You simply do not build a city in a hole that is going to fill with water. Bryan, St. Louis, MissouriYes, New Orleans can evolve and its spirit thrive if it does not throw out its family jewels: Its rare scale for humans rather than for cars; its wisdom that we work to live, not live to work; its joie de vivre and architecture. We'll need Dutch help for stronger levees; otherwise, New Orleans got it right in so many ways in its past. Architecturally, I would rather be poor in New Orleans than rich in Dallas, Houston, or Atlanta. Rebuild in New Orleans style. Jamie Rein, San Francisco, California

Posted: 11:36 a.m. ET From Andreas Preuss, CNN Gulf Coast BureauIt was what some in the media business call a "dog and pony show." Hospital officials and engineers wanted reporters to see the bowels of the Medical Center of Louisiana, otherwise known as Charity Hospital. The press release said: Come see firsthand why Charity has been deemed unsalvageable. Before our tour, the officials said it would cost at least $340 million to repair Katrina damage to the building. They also said the hospital was a bio-hazard zone. Members of the press had to sign a medical release form, don gloves and masks, rubber boots and use flashlights to navigate the destruction. Depths of despairAlong with photojournalist Rich Brooks, and audio tech Jerry Appelman, I went down a dank stairwell with hospital engineer Walt Adams. Sloshing through puddles of water, we were shown damage to the basement, where the flooding reached to the ceiling and beyond. Adams pointed out electrical malfunctions, broken lines and other infrastructure problems.But the real impact of the tour was seeing places where the living and dead once resided. The cafeteria had chairs and other debris piled high. It was a mess. Up next on this haunted history tour -- the morgue. I can only try to paint a picture for you. Adams pointed out the morgue and opened up the door. There were no house lights so everything was illuminated by flashlights or camera lights. The journalists started poking around. The morgue freezers were open. With the murky lighting, rank smell and those puddles of water, I won't be back anytime soon. Rebuild or relocate?The people leading this tour want the building torn down, relocating the hospital to a brand new building. But others want to restore Charity. What it all comes down to is money. Where will the cash come from and when will it arrive? This is a predicament for many New Orleanians as they try to rebuild their lives. In the Charity emergency room is the hospital's motto: Where the unusual occurs and miracles happen.

(CNN) -- In the year since she graduated from law school, Melissa Nunley was starting to build a life for herself in Gulfport, Mississippi. She landed her first job in a small law firm, and bought her very first home, just two blocks from the beach. But Katrina ravaged the home, put an end to the law firm, and put her on the road."I loved the Gulfport area. It was just becoming home to me. And to see it how it is now is very hard," Nunley told CNN.Like so many survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Nunley is hoping to find a new job as a step toward rebuilding her life. Preliminary estimates from the U.S. Department of Labor indicate the hurricanes may have wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Gulf Coast region, primarily in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Congressional Budget Office predicts Katrina alone could cost the United States some 400,000 jobs this fall as the storm's impact ripples throughout the economy.Looking for workSome of the newly unemployed survivors are staying in the region, hoping to re-open their businesses or participate in the rebuilding process. Others are fanning out across the country in search of better opportunities. Many will remain in the cities to which they evacuated.In cities with the most evacuees, such as Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the job search could be difficult, analysts say."The question is how many people are entering the low-skilled markets in these new towns," said Rebecca Blank, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. "My guess is there is going to be pretty heavy and extended unemployment in the areas with the most evacuees."A fortunate few evacuees were able to remain with their employers, but in new locations."We told associates that they could go to any facility in the country and have a job," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said. "We have associates today who are relocated all the way from the Gulf Coast to Alaska."Roughly 2,400 Wal-Mart employees took the company up on its relocation offer, according to Clark.Finding a helping handMany companies and civic organizations are reaching out to hurricane survivors to help them find new jobs.Regional civic and business organizations have sponsored dozens of Katrina-related job fairs across the country. Some individual companies, such as Station Casinos in Las Vegas, actively sought evacuees, particularly those with experience in casinos in Biloxi and New Orleans."We currently have 400 positions open, ranging from entry level through management," said Station Casinos spokeswoman Lori Nelson. "Knowing that we haven't filled them locally, we started getting the word out to evacuees."Nelson said Station cut the usual three-week hiring process to two hours for evacuees. Station shuttled job-seekers from a community center to their job fair. The company gave evacuees a skills and interests assessment. And Station employment managers conducted final-round interviews. The company extended 84 offers. For Internet-savvy job-seekers, CareerBuilder.com and Monster Worldwide have designed Web pages where employers and survivors can post and search jobs free of charge. The Monster site also includes a section for people who want to work in the reconstruction effort. (CareerBuilder.com is a CNN.com partner.)Many new jobs could result from Gulf Coast reconstruction. Congress and private organizations are expected to spend tens of billions of dollars in the region to help it recover. Tens of thousands of homes and business need to be rebuilt."This is very good for the construction industry. This goes for the whole Gulf Coast, not just New Orleans," Michigan's Blank said.Moving back homeThe reconstruction effort could draw some evacuees back to the region. So could the difficulty of finding a new job in a new city.Deborah Brown, her three children and her husband, Michael, evacuated from Slidell, Louisiana, to Newton, Texas, as Katrina rolled in. She had been working at a Wal-Mart in Slidell and quickly found a new position at a Wal-Mart in Texas."I just thought this is where I'm most comfortable. I'm going to come to Wal-Mart," Brown said.But Michael Brown, a drafting engineer, was not as fortunate. He couldn't find comparable work in Texas, so the whole family decided to move back to Louisiana."It feels wonderful," she says of being back in Slidell. "But nothing looks the same. Everything is trashed, but we're going to rebuild."Other evacuees may not have that option.Nunley, the young attorney, would like move back to Gulfport. But it doesn't seem likely."My house is gone. And my job is gone," Nunley told CNN. "So at this point, there really is nothing to go back to down there."

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- New Orleans' historical jazz funeral procession returned to the city's debris-lined streets Sunday to honor a famous chef who died last month in Georgia, where he had evacuated after being rescued from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.More than two dozen people carrying black and white photos of a smiling Austin Leslie marched down the streets of the devastated 7th Ward in New Orleans, celebrating the life of the famous chef whose Chez Helene soul food restaurant inspired the television show "Frank's Place" in the 1980s.Leslie, 71, was rescued from his home two days after Hurricane Katrina and went to Atlanta, Georgia, to be with relatives. He died September 29 after falling ill. An autopsy report was pending.A brass band started Sunday's procession with a spiritual hymn, "A Closer Walk With Thee," which was followed by dancing, singing and the waving and twirling of yellow umbrellas.Stan "Pampy" Barre, the owner of Pampy's Creole Kitchen in New Orleans, the restaurant where Leslie had last worked and where the procession began, said the crowd was "going to march into New Orleans and dance him into heaven."The group made several stops, including the former location of Chez Helene, dancing past debris and garbage that remained along the streets six weeks after Katrina flooded the city."It's going to get back to normal eventually," said snare drum player Dinerral Shavers, 24. "We're going to bring the life back."As the procession made its way toward the Backstreet Cultural Museum on the outskirts of the French Quarter, the few residents who have returned home came out of their houses and joined in the jubilance by dancing, clapping and singing.Mildred Matthews, 79, was swaying on her front porch waving a fly swatter in the air as they passed."You all come back to New Orleans," she yelled out.Gralen Banks, a member of a local social club leading the procession, said the scaled-back procession was a first step toward restoring New Orleans' jazz heritage."This is how we do it. We ain't closed. Tell your friends," he said.But Jason Berry, an author who has written a history of New Orleans music and is working on a book about the history of jazz funerals in the city, said the city's musical establishment still has a way to go before returning to its pre-Katrina status."On a sentimental level, one can't help but be delighted," he said. "It certainly speaks about the endurance of the art form of jazz and the funeral traditions associated with it."Until all the musicians are back, and until the brass bands as a community gather and begin to play funerals on a regular basis, I don't think it's fair to say that New Orleans has regained that cultural territory that was so rich and beautiful."A similar jazz funeral for Leslie was held Friday in Atlanta.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Officials in Louisiana have identified only about 200 of the more than 1,000 people killed in Hurricane Katrina, and less than half of those have been released to their families, the state's top emergency medical official said Monday.This ratio contrasts sharply with efforts in Mississippi, where almost 200 people have been identified of about 220 who died.In an interview with CNN, Louisiana's emergency medical response director, Dr. Louis Cataldie, said the state is having a tough time identifying many of the dead. (Watch New Orleans officials say some bodies may never be identified -- 3:16)"Unfortunately, the condition in which we're finding our individuals essentially eliminates any chance of a visual identification," Cataldie said.As of Friday morning, there were 1,021 confirmed deaths in Louisiana. Of those, 93 victims have been publicly identified.Another 121 identities have been determined, but authorities have not been able to reach the families of about 50 victims, he said. Those bodies will remain in the morgue while authorities try to contact their families.The remaining 70 or so victims will be released soon, and their identities will be issued.The process of releasing the bodies also has been complicated because many were considered part of "possible crime scenes," Cataldie said. Those include any bodies found in nursing homes and hospitals."If a person was left in a nursing home and died in that nursing home," the attorney general may consider it a crime scene, he said.In those cases, special steps and precautions were taken, slowing down the identification process.Also, Cataldie said, the computers in the morgue and in a family assistance center "weren't talking to each other," which he called "frustrating." The family assistance center was set up to help people find missing loved ones. In many cases, those people provide information that can assist in identifying bodies.In one particular case, Cataldie said, officials could not identify a person who had a pacemaker. But when the computers were back up, they were able to access information about the serial number on the pacemaker, identifying the victim.On top of it all, Hurricane Rita created additional delays, he said.Some victims' families have openly criticized the government for taking so long.Six weeks after Katrina struck, hundreds of families still wait for word on what happened to their loved ones."My heart goes out to the folks here locally," Cataldie said.He said there are 300 individuals awaiting identification at the central morgue in St. Gabriel, "and we have absolutely no identification on them."

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Oops! ... It happened again. Britney Spears' jewel-encrusted bra has been removed for a second time from Internet auction site eBay -- this time by the pop singer herself.The bra was one of dozens of wardrobe items and other personal belongings that Spears put up for bid on eBay to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and bidding on the bejeweled undergarment had surpassed $60,000 before it was withdrawn on Saturday, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said on Monday.In a message posted on her official Web site, Spears, 23, told fans she was "concerned that some of you might be confusing this bra with something that it's not."The message says eBay accurately described the bra as having been worn by Spears during a promotion for an HBO concert special, but "it is not the one I wore onstage during the 'Baby One More Time' performance.""I feel the correct thing to do is remove this item from the auction because I don't want any of you to feel misled," she wrote. Spears did not explain how the confusion might have arisen.Earlier during the auction, an eBay staffer had pulled the bra from the site after deciding that it violated company policy that bars listings for used underwear. But eBay executives later reversed the decision on grounds that the bra was really a piece of entertainment memorabilia, Durzy said.Spears, who recently became a mother, has sold more than 60 million albums since she shot to fame in the late 1990s with her 1999 debut album "... Baby One More Time" and its hit title track, becoming a worldwide phenomenon at age 16.With the subsequent albums "Oops! ... I Did It Again" and "Britney," Spears became the first female performer in the history of Billboard magazine to have her first three albums open at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Four Brazilian cities in the Amazon jungle state of Amazonas have been declared disaster areas as the worst drought in 60 years dries up rivers that thousands of families depend on to receive food and medicine, authorities said Monday.By declaring Manaquiri, Atalaia do Norte, Anori and Caapiranga disaster areas, the state government will be able to receive federal aid.Officials are mainly concerned with the dwindling supplies of medicine in these cities, where more than 42,000 people live, Roberto Rocha of the Amazonas state Civil Defense Department said by phone.In Manaquiri, the hardest hit of the four cities, small rivers have all but disappeared, cutting off some 2,000 families from regular supplies of medicine and food, Rocha said.With the rivers drying up, drinking water has also become scarce, said fire department official Col. Mario Belota, a coordinator of the state's relief efforts.He said workers have been sent to dig wells in Manaquiri, about 1,645 miles (2,650 kilometers) northwest of Sao Paulo."The little water that exists in the rivers is polluted," he added.Belota also fears a yellow fever epidemic in the region because vaccines are not reaching the region on a regular basis.Another 17 cities and towns declared a state of alert and the federal government may be asked to provide help by furnishing boats and helicopters, Belota said.Many cities in the vast Amazon region have little or no road access and rely on rivers for transportation. But a shortage of rain during several months caused the level of the Amazon River to drop to 51.8 feet (15.8 meters) on Monday, far below the average low of 58.1 feet (17.6 meters), said the Brazilian government's Geological Service.In Tabatinga, near the Colombian border, the Solimoes River, a major Amazon tributary, has dropped to 5 feet (1.5 meters), the lowest ever recorded, the Geological Service's Jayme Azevedo da Silva said.The level of the Amazon rises and falls regularly, but this year the dry season has been more severe than usual. The fires that farmers and ranchers use to clear the forest have helped raise the temperature in the western Amazon, da Silva said, helping to quickly evaporate the little rain that fell this year.Rainfall in July was 1.21 inches (30.8 millimeters), 65 percent less than the average of 3.44 inches (87.5 millimeters). In June and August rainfall was about two-thirds the normal amount.Water levels are expected to rise in early November at the start of the rainy season.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ARKALYK, Kazakhstan (AP) -- A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying U.S. millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a two-man, Russian-American crew hurtled through the Earth's atmosphere and landed early Tuesday in the windswept steppes of Kazakhstan.The bone-jarring descent brought an end to Olsen's space station visit, the third trip by a private citizen to the orbiting laboratory. The Soyuz covered the approximately 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the station to terra firma in just 3 1/2 hours.At 4:19 Moscow time (0019 GMT), the Soyuz fired its engines for about five minutes to slow the capsule as it began moving into the Earth's atmosphere. Less than a half-hour later, somewhere over the eastern Mediterranean Ocean, the landing capsule separated from the section used for docking and the section holding the main propulsion engines, which were to burn up in the atmosphere. The parachutes deployed on schedule to further brake the capsule's descent.Ground officials established radio and visual contact with the craft about five minutes before the scheduled landing around dawn Tuesday on the broad, empty steppes of Kazakhstan, where Russia's manned-space facilities are based. Four search planes and 17 helicopters scrambled to meet the spacecraft.Returning U.S. astronaut John Phillips' wife Laura, monitoring the landing at Russian Mission Control at Korolyov outside Moscow, said her husband was launched into space on his birthday and was returning on hers."I guess it's the best present a person could ask for," she said.Olsen, American astronaut William McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev blasted off from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan on October 1 and arrived at the space station two days later. McArthur and Tokarev are to stay aboard for a six-month mission, while Olsen returned with Phillips and Russian Sergei Krikalev, who had been on the space station since April.After landing, the crewmen were to spend two hours undergoing medical checks, then be shuttled by helicopter to a Kazakh staging point and ultimately back to Moscow for further examinations.McArthur and Tokarev are to conduct two spacewalks during their time aboard the station, as well as an array of scientific experiments, medical tests and routine maintenance.Olsen, who spent two years in training and paid US$20 million (euro16 million) for his trip, conducted experiments during his visit, including one to determine how microbes that have built up on the space station are affected by flight, particularly if their rate of mutation has been impacted.In addition, he took videos and photos and "enjoy[ed] being here, floating free in space," he told The Associated Press by e-mail last week.A Russian Space Agency official said that Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was in line to be the world's fourth space tourist, following Olsen, fellow American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth. Alexei Krasnov, the head of manned programs, said in an interview posted on the agency's Web site that the Japanese could face a challenge by another American, whom he did not name."Whoever is better prepared will fly," he said, adding that the next space tourist probably would not travel to the station until autumn 2006.The Soyuz spacecraft and Russia's unmanned Progress cargo ships have been the station's lifeline since the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. The shuttle program was suspended for more than two years; the shuttle Discovery flew to the station in July, but problems with its insulation raised doubts about when the next shuttle would go into space.Russia's space program, despite chronic funding problems, has enjoyed the image of reliability in recent years. But that reputation was tarnished over the past week by a pair of failed unmanned missions, including the loss of the estimated euro173 million (US$210 million) CryoSat European satellite due to the failure of a Russian Rokot booster.That dealt a major blow to the European Space Agency, which had hoped to conduct a three-year mapping of polar sea ice and provide more reliable data for the study of global warming.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ALSTEAD, New Hampshire (AP) -- Prolonged, heavy rain caused flooding from North Carolina to Maine over the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, knocking out electricity, weakening dams and making roads impassable.At least 10 people died in flooding or in rain-related crashes, including two young people killed in New Hampshire when a car apparently drove off a washed-out bridge into flood waters, officials said. At least one other person was seen being swept away in a swift-flowing river.Gov. John Lynch returned from Europe to take charge of relief efforts in New Hampshire. He declared a state of emergency and called in 500 National Guard members for assistance."This is the worst damage they've seen from flooding in 25 years in New Hampshire," the governor said Sunday night.By Monday, the floodwaters were receding in some areas. But with rain in the forecast for the next several days, the National Weather Service warned that dams could fail or overflow. A surge over Warren Lake dam in Alstead, New Hampshire, sent a 4- or 5-foot wall of water downstream during the weekend, damaging at least a half dozen bridges and washing away several homes.The two New Hampshire residents who died in the car were identified as Steven Day, of Unity, and Ashley Gate, of Claremont, both 20, state police said.The body of an unidentified man was spotted from the air in a cornfield near a river in Langton, and his death appeared to be flood-related, authorities said. And a kayaker on New Hampshire's North Branch River was feared dead after he was washed away while clinging to a tree as rescue workers tried to reach him.In Hoosick Falls, New York, 6-year-old Michael Hackett slipped into the rain-swollen Hoosick River on Sunday. His mother's boyfriend, 39-year-old Robert Scanlon, dove in to save him, and witnesses watched helplessly as the two bobbed in the swift-moving rapids before being swept under a bridge and disappearing. Their bodies were found Monday morning.In Pennsylvania, state police said Tiffany Wieand, 19, of Milford Township died Saturday when she tried to drive through a flooded roadway, while in New Jersey, 2-year-old Shane Belluardo of Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, died from head injuries Saturday after his parents' car went out of control on a highway in Knowlton. Rain was also cited as a factor in traffic accidents over the weekend that killed three people in Maine.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 customers across the state. In Vermont, more than 200 people, including residents of a Brattleboro senior citizen home, were evacuated Saturday night.The National Weather Service reported that more than 5 inches of rain fell in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday. The state's Brunswick and Pender counties saw between 7 and 10 inches of rain in four days.Allentown, Pennsylvania, received 10 inches between Friday and Saturday. Rainfall also totaled 10 inches in parts of Connecticut and 8 inches in parts of Maine."They didn't predict this much rain," said Joan Kinney, mayor of Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, which unofficially measured more than 15 inches. "It took us all by surprise." Rivers and creeks in North Carolina were already high from Hurricane Ophelia last month. The state's Department of Transportation reported 41 roads closed.New Hampshire roads swampedThe most severe flooding in New Hampshire was in and around Keene, where some major roads were under as much as 4 to 6 feet of water, fire officials said. The city had no electricity and was awash in the sounds of generators and pumps Monday when the governor visited."It's nice to see the support and all the help," said Darcey Zecha, whom Lynch met outside her mother's home. About 500 people were evacuated, and about 150 were staying at a shelter in a recreation center Sunday.In Hinsdale, southwest of Keene, 19-year-old Sean Weeks was awakened by firefighters early Sunday and warned to leave. Shortly afterward, a house across the street collapsed into the raging water, but no one was in it at the time."I looked out my window and all I could see -- straight down -- was water, right up against the building," Weeks said. "I saw all this New Orleans stuff happening and I was thinking, 'This can't happen to me,' then bada-bing, bada-boom, it just happened."In Alstead, north of Keene, several residents were unaccounted for, and firefighters safely retrieved three people from a home that appeared ready to be washed away.Capt. Don Martin had to make the trip through the rising and rushing water three times, each time lending his rescue belt to one of the residents. He held onto a rope loop and signaled his fellow firefighters 200 feet away to start pulling."I fell into one ditch that had to be at least 4 feet deep," Martin said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.