BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- The sun is barely up, but the movie theater parking lot holds dozens of cars.There's no early matinee. The cars belong to Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans -- nursing students waiting for class to start.So in Theater 4, nursing management will be followed by "Serenity." After the Research in Nursing class, "Elizabethtown" is showing in Theater 6. An anatomy exam in 7 precedes "The Gospel." And in Theater 11, Mothers and Childbearing Families (aka obstetrics) is followed by the Wallace and Gromit movie "The Curse of the Were Rabbit.""It's just like an auditorium-style classroom," says Jenelle Johnson, 24. "They use PowerPoint. But we can smell popcorn on our way out."And there aren't any flip-up desktops -- something that helps explain the big box of free clipboards plopped in front of the theater, along with boxes of freebie pens, pencils, notepads, scrubs and warm socks (the air-conditioning is fierce) donated by businesses and other schools.Louisiana State University's nursing school gets to use the theater free as long as everyone clears out by 11 a.m. Other classes are held at more predictable spots around Baton Rouge, though many dental school courses are taught at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.While New Orleans' universities will not reopen until spring semester, LSU's medical school cranked up again just a month after Katrina, setting up shop in the state capital. Tulane's med school opened a week later, in Texas."We were amazed at their resilience," says Joe Keyes, senior vice president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.The vast majority of medical students -- LSU's 2,800 and Tulane's 2,600 -- stayed with their schools. The dental school reports only one of its 316 students transferred.Student living conditions vary. Johnson, who will graduate within months, lives half of the time on a Finnish ferry in the Port of Baton Rouge with students and faculty members. She also lives part-time with an aunt.The ferry, FinnJet, which had sailed the Baltic Sea for nearly 30 years, was obtained for housing by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Students get to live there free; about 500 have taken the offer."The food is great," Johnson says.There is the occasional collision between Nordic and Southern tastes -- the grits served are too watery and too finely ground, for instance."They try to get the grits out of grits," says Alecia Oden, an occupational therapy student.Oden owns a house on New Orleans' Louisiana Avenue. "It's 50-50," she says. "Fifty percent wet, 50 percent not. Not including the mold all over the walls."Dr. John Rock, chancellor of the LSU Health Sciences Center, says it was crucial to get the medical school back in business quickly. Other schools had begun recruiting top teachers and researchers almost immediately, he says."This class -- the class of 2005-2006, these men and women -- will be an important part of our recovery effort. They will be staffing our hospitals, caring for our patients," Rock says. "We felt it was just so important we not fall behind a year."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The door to a Hunter College lecture hall opens, and in steps Madonna. There's no tweed for this professor-for-a-day; she wears a black dress and form-fitting boots that stretch to her knees.She's the latest participant in "Stand In," one of MTV Networks' hottest features, particularly given its brevity and relative lack of visibility.The MTVu network, a spinoff seen primarily on college campuses, invites celebrities to be surprise lecturers. Since Jesse Jackson inaugurated the series in January 2004, "Stand In" has featured Bill Gates, Shimon Peres, Tom Wolfe, Kanye West, Ashley Judd, Russell Simmons, Snoop Dogg, Sen. John McCain and Sting."It brings the class to life in a way that few would ever imagine," said Stephen Friedman, MTVu's general manager.MTVu had envisioned a series where colleges would compete to hear a celebrity speak. But that proved too time-consuming to organize and when its second speaker, Marilyn Manson, nailed his appearance at Temple University, MTVu knew it had a better format.Manson walked into a class on art and politics in full makeup, writing "Mr. Manson" on the blackboard and setting down a bottle of absinthe before the startled students. He then led a discussion on the role of provocative art in society, saying "art to me is a question mark. I don't think it should ever be an answer."Gates, the one-time computer geek turned world's richest man, surprised a University of Wisconsin class on introduction to programming. McCain requested a visit to his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, to talk politics.The students' reaction is key; most episodes someone with mouth agape at who has just walked into their sleepy classroom.Participating colleges and MTVu try to keep the secret by telling fibs to students who may wonder about the cameras when they show up to class.At Hunter last week, a film class was told it was screening Madonna's new documentary, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret," and discussing it with the film's director. With an endless stream of adults walking in and out of the room during the movie, smart students figured out what was happening."Since there were security guards all lined up I figured she was coming," said Pinar Noorata, a junior film major. "That was kind of a dead giveaway. But I think everybody was still surprised. It was kind of surreal."As the students stood and applauded Madonna, about a half-dozen pointed their cell phone cameras in her direction so their friends would believe them later.They lobbed mostly softball questions about the film, Madonna's interest in kabbalah and her two-decade journey through different musical incarnations."I don't feel like I'm trying on personas," she said. "What I always hope to do is change and evolve. I have no regrets because that's life and life is about change."She looked back at students who weren't much younger than her when she made her journey from her home in Michigan to New York City, hoping to make it first as a dancer, then as a singer. She counseled self-confidence and tenacity."The biggest mistake that any of us can make is to believe what other people say about us," she said.Creating excitementFor the celebrities, the appearances offer a dose of hero worship in a carefully controlled environment, before a youthful audience many of them need to court. The white-suited Wolfe seemed genuinely juiced to stand before a class that was studying one of his novels.There's also the chance to promote a pet cause, like on Thursday when actress Cameron Diaz jolted awake an 8 a.m. Stanford University civil engineering class. She appeared with architect William McDonough to talk about building designs that protect the environment."I was expecting like 10 kids to show up," Diaz told The Associated Press later. "It's exciting. A few of the kids came up afterward and said, 'This is so great, this is something I'll remember.' Hopefully, it's something they'll be thinking about when they are sitting down trying to create."Sting brought his band to an advanced musical composition class at the University of Illinois-Chicago, offering one thrilled student the chance to add a flute solo to "Every Breath You Take.""To make it more meaningful, you really have to have the right class," Friedman said. "What makes this work is the setting of the right person in the right class."Seeing much of the stand-ins is a challenge, though. MTVu leaves most of the appearances on the cutting-room floor, boiling each down to a four-minute sound bite. MTVu is available only on television systems in dorms and dining halls at 730 college campuses, although this fall it became the first MTV Network streamed continuously on the Web. Past appearances are archived and can be viewed through the station's Web site.MTV is considering giving "Stand In" some exposure on the main network, Friedman said, and is also mulling making extended versions of the appearances available on the Internet.For Hunter College senior Ruomi Lee-Hampel, it turned out to be one class definitely not worth skipping."Hearing a director speak about his work was my purpose in coming," he said. "It was just an added bonus to see Madonna in fishnets."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- It could be midweek before normal service resumes at major Florida airports, meaning hundreds of thousands domestic and international fliers will be inconvenienced at least another day because of Hurricane Wilma and the troubled airline industry will lose millions of dollars in revenue.Airports in Miami, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, which were closed because of extensive hurricane-related damage and power outages, were struggling to reopen by the end of Tuesday, but officials said there were no guarantees such goals would be met. At least 2,000 flights have been canceled into and out of South Florida's three major airports."For all practical purposes, if we don't get power by 2 o'clock or so, we probably will not be able to open up" until at least Wednesday, said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport spokesman Steve Belleme. The airport terminal and at least one concourse sustained damage.Officials also were trying to figure out how a Broward County curfew that begins at 7 p.m. would affect arriving passengers.Miami International Airport, the busiest U.S. hub for Latin American travel and the busiest state hub for foreign travel, had power on Tuesday morning, but repairs were still being made to roofs, fences and loading bridges, according to spokesman Marc Henderson.Miami's airport is open to relief flights, but most air carriers won't start flying until Wednesday night or Thursday morning, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said.The hurricane also wreaked havoc at some smaller airports and made others inaccessible by downing trees on access roads. Boca Raton lost most of its hangars, and Hollywood-North Perry sustained extensive damage to its tower and roof.The runway at Key West is under water from the storm surge, Brown said.The Air Transport Association, the trade group representing U.S. airlines in Washington, said it wasn't just flights in and out of Miami that were being disrupted, but that service problems in other parts of the country were limited because the industry had days of advance warning before Wilma hit."Still, with fuel prices so high, the last thing you want is an interruption in your revenue stream," said ATA spokesman John Heimlich, who estimated that carriers had so far lost millions of dollars in revenue.Hurricane Wilma caused billions of dollars in insured damage, cut the electricity of millions of Floridians and killed at least five people."The bottom line is, it has basically disrupted or stopped the traffic flowing from Latin America into North America," said John Hotard, a spokesman for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines -- which has a major hub in Miami. "Miami is a major point, and this is a major disruption."American has at least 500 scheduled flights per day into and out of Miami, and travelers with tickets on flights into or out of South Florida are finding themselves with few options."We always tell people to check the Web site or their travel agency," Hotard said. "Most people know that when the hub is closed or the airport is closed, they're not flying tomorrow. When we can accommodate them, we try to, but most of our passengers are going to have to wait until we get going again."Southwest Airlines Co. did not operate any flights into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Palm Beach International or Fort Myers airports on Monday. "When we resume depends on the condition of those airports," Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said.Southwest operations in Orlando and Tampa were largely unaffected.Virtually all carriers, including JetBlue Airways Corp. -- which services Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, and West Palm Beach -- were allowing passengers whose flights were canceled by Wilma to rebook their travel without change fees or fare differences.Federal Aviation Administration officials said Wilma necessitated the closure of nine Florida airports; others included facilities in Boca Raton, Hollywood-North Perry, Key West, Kissimmee Gateway, Marathon, Fort Myers Page Field, Pompano Beach Airpark and Witham Field in Stuart.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WAMEGO, Kansas (AP) -- Those who think that "The Wizard of Oz" is the story of a Kansas farm girl singing about rainbows and skipping down a yellow brick road in red slippers should think again.There's a lot more to the world of Munchkins and witches than most people realize, as a trip through the Wizard of Oz Museum in this rural town shows.The fascination for all things Oz goes back more than a century but was boosted by the 1939 movie classic. Oz festivals are scattered around the country, including one here in October. Oz collectables are big business. Scores of Web sites are devoted to Oz, and there's even the International Wizard of Oz Club.As just about any Kansan knows, mention the state beyond its borders and there always seems to be some obligatory Oz reference, such as this one, spoken by Dorothy to her dog, Toto: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.""The mystique is that Oz is the good place, where people are happy and differences are respected," said Oz scholar Stephen Teller, an English professor at Pittsburg State University. "The place was the American utopia."Teller, on the international Oz club's board of directors, said while most people know the story through the movie, it was L. Frank Baum who wrote the classic American fairy tale, published in 1900. Baum wrote 14 Oz books, and after his death in 1919, the franchise continued with other writers. There are now some 40 Oz books."The books were written to amuse children. That is what Baum wanted to do," Teller said. "He wanted to write stories that weren't moralistic and not too frightening like many European fairy tales."Teller said there are some significant differences between the book and the movie, including the ending."The one thing Oz book fans don't like about the movie is the trip was a dream, where the book was a real place. The filmmakers may have been influenced by 'Alice in Wonderland,' which was a dream, and thought people might not accept Oz being a real place," he said.The movie put Dorothy in red slippers, but in the book, they're silver."The red shoes were visually striking on the screen. They had Technicolor and, by golly, they were going to use it," said Anne Phillips, a Kansas State University English professor, also an Oz scholar.'Universal appeal'The museum isn't the only Oz place in Kansas.Liberal has Dorothy's House, a relocated farmhouse built in 1907, along with the original model of the house used in the film and a selection of Oz memorabilia.But Jim Ginavan, executive director of the Columbian Theater Foundation, which operates the Wamego museum that opened in November 2003, does claim bragging rights in one area. The museum has more than 2,000 items in its inventory and about 1,500 of them are on display at any one time."I don't think any other museum has as much Oz material," Ginavan said. "I think we are the largest Wizard of Oz museum, and it's fitting that it's in Kansas."Neither Baum nor the movie mention specifically where Dorothy lived in Kansas."That's good for us," Ginavan said. "If it was Hutchinson, what claim would we have to place the museum here? It's the notion of Kansas."Ginavan said the idea of an Oz museum first came up a decade ago. It became a reality when Tod Machin, who grew up in Wamego and lives in the Kansas City area, loaned his collection to the museum.It's the story itself that attracts the visitors -- some 25,000 annually."They apply the values Dorothy learned to their own lives -- wanting something better and seeking it out and then finding they had it the whole time at home," Ginavan said. "That's the universal appeal."Oz collections Illustrated pages from the first edition of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" are on view at the museum. The entry to the exhibits looks like an old wooden farmhouse, complete with a screen door that opens to a life-size figure of Dorothy and Toto. Scattered throughout are life-size figures of other Oz characters from the movie.Copies of Baum's books are on display, including some first editions. There also are paper cutout figures from the 1930s, dolls, figurines, Christmas ornaments, coloring books, Halloween masks, hand puppets and the dress Diana Ross wore in the 1978 movie "The Wiz."There's even a copy of the 1925 silent film version of "The Wizard of Oz" playing.There are a couple of rarities, including one of only three surviving small flying monkeys used as a prop in the film, fashioned from rubber with a pipe cleaner tail, and a doll based on a TV cartoon show that never took off.From the 1939 film are test photographs of actors in costume and makeup. Original costume sketches are on display along with marketing tie-ins, such as Oz peanut butter jars.Marketing tie-ins came long before the movie classic, said Phillips, the Kansas State professor. She said that from 1913 until his death, Baum wrote a new Oz book every year, in time for Christmas shoppers."It was the Cabbage Patch doll and Tickle Me Elmo of its time -- the thing you really hoped would be under the tree when you got up Christmas morning," Phillips said.The one thing the museum lacks are the red slippers worn in the movie, of which four pairs are known to exist, including one pair on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Another pair sold at Christie's auction house in 2000 for $666,000.But Ginavan has the next best thing on display -- a replica pair and the MGM studio blueprints from which they were fashioned, exact in every detail down to the label inside the shoes.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Scientists are mapping out a plan for a network of marine parks to save the world's oceans from fish stock depletion and growing pollution.Achim Steiner, director-general of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), said a conservation plan for the unregulated high seas -- part of a U.N.-backed plan -- would be produced by 2008, for adoption by world governments by 2012."We've had a good century of developing terrestrial protected areas, national parks on land," Steiner told Reuters late on Monday at the world's first conference on marine protected areas."But in the face of big challenges such as habitat loss, pollution of coastal zones, and species loss, and the high seas collapse of fish stocks, the whole marine realm is becoming rapidly more important," Steiner said by telephone from Geelong, a southern Australian city where 700 scientists from 70 countries gathered for the conference.An IUCN report released on Tuesday said that up to half of the world's coral reefs might be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures were taken to protect them against climate change and other threats.As much as 20 percent of the Earth's coral reefs have been effectively destroyed, Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of IUCN Marine Program, told the conference on Tuesday.Another 30 percent would be seriously depleted if no action was taken in the next 20-40 years.In some cases coral reefs have been 90 percent lost. Warming sea surface temperatures can cause bleaching of some reefs and coral can take years to recover. Bleaching is the whitening of coral colonies due to the loss of symbiotic zooxanthellae -- microscopic plants -- from the tissues of coral polyps.Sediment run-off from farming is also harming reefs.Scientists say marine protected areas could help save coral reefs, for example by preventing the overfishing that can decrease coral cover or deplete fish populations important for the coral reef ecosystem.The attempt to bring the seas under greater control follows increasingly lawless acts, epitomized by Australia's dramatic 21-day chase in 2003 of a Uruguayan-flagged boat which had been poaching the Patagonian toothfish -- prized as a delicacy -- in treacherous Antarctic seas.While the world's first marine park was established almost 100 years ago, the hundreds that now exist around the globe were mostly set up in the past 15-20 years.Australia established the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Marine Park in 1975 over an area of 35 million hectares (87 million acres) -- bigger than Italy.Marine parks also exist in the United States, Europe, Africa and elsewhere, but they could be just the start."The situation in oceans around the world is deteriorating, and at an escalating pace," Steiner said.Of the 17 largest fisheries around the world, 15 are at either maximum exploitation levels or are depleting the level of their fish resource base."The offtake is unsustainable," Steiner said.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Spirit, the robot on wheels that reached the top of a Martian hill this summer after an epic climb, is heading back down toward its next target for exploration.After two months at the summit of Husband Hill, the six-wheeled rover is descending to a basin where the scientific instruments it carries will examine an outcrop dubbed "home plate" because from orbit it looks like home on a baseball field.Spirit's yearlong climb to the peak was a major feat for the Mars rover, which along with its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite sides of the Red Planet in January 2004.Last month, scientists released the first full-color panoramic photo of the landscape taken by Spirit from the 270-foot-high summit. It shows the rover's distinct tracks in the dust, the flat plains of the surrounding Gusev Crater region and distant plateaus on the crater rim.Spirit also has been studying rocks and using its robotic arm to sift the soil to determine how the hill formed. The leading theory is that Husband Hill became uplifted as a result of crater impact.Mission scientists say a comparison of the summit rocks reveal similar geologic features to those found on the side of the hill. In both cases, the rocks' makeup reveal they have been altered by water.It will take about two months for Spirit to make it all the way down Husband Hill, which is named after Rick Husband, the commander of the space shuttle Columbia that broke apart as it was returning from Earth orbit in 2003.Meanwhile, Opportunity is in good health again after recovering from a recent computer glitch while surveying the Meridiani Planum region.The rovers, operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, have long outlasted their primary, three-month missions.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United Nations is launching a global campaign to combat the AIDS pandemic which is threatening children as never before: every minute a child under the age of 15 dies as a result of AIDS and every day nearly 1,800 youngsters are newly infected with the HIV virus.At a pre-launch press briefing on Monday, UNICEF's Executive Director Ann Veneman said children are the "invisible face" of a very visible disease and are missing out on the help that is going to adults to fight AIDS and help prevent its spread.According to a new report from UNICEF and UNAIDS, children under 15 account for 1 in 6 global AIDS-related deaths and 1 in 7 new global HIV infections. An estimated 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, but less than 10 percent receive any public support."It is critical that the world unite for children and unite against AIDS," Veneman said. "The size of the problem is staggering, but the scale of the response has been inadequate."At the official campaign launch on Tuesday, Veneman is scheduled to join U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UNICEF goodwill ambassador Sir Roger Moore, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot and young people affected by AIDS. Launch events are also being held in India, El Salvador, Brazil, Mozambique, Djibouti, the Netherlands, Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, and Australia.The campaign's message is simple: AIDS is a growing threat to children and if serious action isn't taken immediately the world will not achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the AIDS pandemic by 2015.According to the report, the children of sub-Saharan Africa have been hardest hit, accounting for more than 85 percent of all children under 15 living with the disease. The next largest group of youngsters with HIV and AIDS is in South and East Asia, but new HIV infections are increasing rapidly in Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia."In Latin America, low national prevalence is disguising epidemics that are concentrated in major urban areas and among certain populations," the report said. "In countries in the Middle East and North Africa potential epidemics are being overlooked, in part because of cultural inhibitions against discussing sexual and reproductive health."Veneman said the campaign to reduce HIV/AIDS among children is targeted at governments and policymakers. She urged countries to follow the example of the United States, Britain and most recently Ireland which have earmarked part of the funds they contribute to the global fight against AIDS to youngsters.Peter McDermott, chief of the HIV/AIDS division at the U.N. Children's Fund, said the campaign has set international goals, and UNICEF will work with UNAIDS, voluntary organizations, the private sector and governments to achieve them.At present, over 600,000 babies are still born HIV positive, but by 2010 the campaign expects to reach 80 percent of women in need with treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, he said.Of the 600,000 HIV positive babies born every year, 500,000 die before their first birthday, he said. By 2010, the campaign expects to provide either antiretroviral treatment or a US$10-a-year antibiotic to 80 percent of the children in need to improve their life expectancy.Most importantly, McDermott said, the campaign will focus on prevention because 15- to 24-year-olds now account for half of all HIV infections. By 2010, the campaign expects to achieve a 25 percent drop in infections by providing education, information and services to young people, he said.By 2010, the campaign also aims to provide support for 12 million of the 15 million AIDS orphans, McDermott said."The magnitude of the problems of children affected by HIV/AIDS dwarfs the scale of the existing response," the report said. "Children and adolescents around the globe are increasingly at risk of infection, and many of those affected by HIV/AIDS are being left to grow up alone, grow up too soon, or to not grow up at all."A global campaign is essential to work towards an AIDS-free generation where not one child will die of AIDS, be infected with the HIV virus, or lose a parent, teacher or friend, it said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- At least 70 million doses of influenza vaccine will be available for the U.S. market this year and everybody who wants a shot should be able to get one, health officials said on Monday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened flu vaccination to everyone on Monday, saying the priority groups, such as seniors, who need the vaccine first had been given plenty of time to get them."There is no reason for anyone to delay or go without their annual flu shot," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told reporters in a telephone briefing.Last week the CDC reported that too few Americans are getting their flu shots. An estimated 185 million Americans are considered at high risk of complications including death from influenza.But only about 65 percent of them get the shots. Last year fewer than 60 million people got flu shots. The American Lung Association said only 40 percent of adults with asthma and 10 percent of children with the disease are immunized although they are considered high risk."Seasonal flu kills an average of 36,000 Americans every year. It sends some 200,000 to the hospital," Leavitt said."Much of this can be prevented with simple flu shot."The annual flu vaccine must be formulated fresh every year, and made anew, to match circulating strains. This annual vaccine does not provide any protection against H5N1 avian flu, which in any case is not yet infecting people widely.Last year, Chiron Corp., suffered contamination problems at its British flu vaccine manufacturing plant and lost its license to sell the jabs. That cost the United States half its anticipated 100 million dose supply for the season, although officials later squeezed a few million more doses out of other suppliers.Long lines formed at vaccine clinics and people complained they were unable to get vaccines when they wanted them.This year, Chiron believes it will be able to make somewhat less than 18 million planned doses -- but it is not sure how much it will be able to make, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.But Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and MedImmune, which makes a nasal vaccine, all will have their full production available. Gerberding said Sanofi would have 60 million doses, GlaxoSmithKline would have 8 million and MedImmune would have 3 million.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) -- Jury selection is to begin Tuesday after a judge rejected a terror suspect's claim that his confession was obtained illegally through torture. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a confession by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who charged with joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush.The ruling came after a six-day hearing in which Abu Ali testified that Saudi Arabian security officers whipped his back, kicked him in the stomach and pulled on his beard to obtain a confession.The judge issued a one-page ruling and said he would explain his reasoning later in a written order.Abu Ali's lawyers wanted the confession tossed out and the entire case dismissed. But the ruling means the trial will go forward this week, with opening statements as early as Thursday.During the hearing, the judge reviewed photographs of Abu Ali's back that showed thin lines or scars that the 24-year-old said were proof of a flogging. Prosecutors argued the faint markings could have been caused by anything and might have been self-inflicted to bolster a torture claim. They argued the confession was voluntary, citing the 13-minute videotape in which he made jokes and pantomimed the use of an assault rifle.In the confession, Abu Ali said he joined al Qaeda because he hated the United States for its support of Israel. He said he discussed several potential plots with other al Qaeda members, including plans to assassinate Bush, conduct a September 11-style attack using planes hijacked from outside the United States, establish an al Qaeda cell inside the United States and free Muslim prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.Abu Ali, of Falls Church, Virginia, was born in Houston and graduated from an Islamic high school in Virginia in 1999. He is charged with joining al Qaeda while studying in Saudi Arabia.Saudi security officers said in a deposition that Abu Ali confessed almost immediately when confronted with evidence obtained from other cell members.One officer likened him to "a bag of water" spilling its contents once poked with a hole.Abu Ali was arrested in June 2003 while taking final exams at the Islamic University of Medina. He said he was tortured the next day after he refused many times to speak with interrogators.Abu Ali also confessed to FBI agents in September, but prosecutors have acknowledged that confession is invalid because agents disregarded Abu Ali's request for an attorney.The hearing did not delve into whether Abu Ali was telling the truth when he confessed. His lawyers have argued in court papers that he gave a false confession to stop the torture. Abu Ali testified that "many of the things were false" in his confession.Abu Ali is charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al Qaeda and other crimes. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Police found a bloody shoe print on the lid of a storage container at the hilltop estate where Pamela Vitale was beaten to death, a court affidavit revealed. The document, released Monday, also provided details of the violent beating the wife of prominent attorney Daniel Horowitz received before she died. Vitale's injuries included a four-inch stab wound in her abdomen, a traumatic head injury and multiple wounds on her legs, an affidavit stated.On October 15, Horowitz called police at 5:53 p.m. and screamed, "Help me, she's dead," the affidavit said.Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies searched the home of Scott Dyleski on October 19. He was charged as an adult with murder last week in connection with Vitale's death. Investigators seized two laptops, a computer central processing unit, bedding, knives and a duffel bag from Dyleski's house, just down the hill from Horowitz and Vitale's estate in Lafayette, an affluent community east of Oakland.Also, the affidavit said, a neighbor told Lafayette police that his credit card had been stolen and used to buy hydroponic growing equipment -- often used to cultivate marijuana.The equipment was scheduled for shipping to Horowitz and Vitale's address, according to the affidavit. The supplier withheld the shipment, believing the purchase was fraudulent.The neighbor, Doug Schneider, contacted police because he believed the purchase may have been related to Vitale's murder, according to the affidavit, parts of which were sealed.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic senators Tuesday questioned whether President Bush's nominee to lead the State Department refugee program is qualified for the job.Bush has nominated Ellen Sauerbrey, who twice lost bids for Maryland governor, to be assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. If confirmed, she would manage a nearly $1 billion budget for refugee crises overseas."I don't think we see the requisite experience that we've seen in other nominees" for the job, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, at Sauerbrey's confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.In the wake of ousted disaster relief chief Michael Brown, Democrats especially have complained that some of Bush's nominations carry the whiff of cronyism because they lack experience in the jobs for which they are nominated. Brown resigned after the government failed to act quickly to the disaster wrought on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina.Despite the criticism, Sauerbrey is expected to win Senate confirmation.Sauerbrey told the committee that she possesses the management, budgetary and humanitarian experience of three decades of public service in Maryland Republican politics and, currently, as U.S. envoy on women's issues to the United Nations."I think these are the skills that one needs along with the humanitarian heart to get the job done, to protect the most vulnerable people that this bureau is charged with protecting," Sauerbrey, 68, told the panel.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The White House on Tuesday sidestepped questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney passed on to his top aide the identity of a CIA officer central to a federal grand jury probe.Notes in the hands of a federal prosecutor suggest that Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's editions.A federal prosecutor is investigating whether the officer's identity was improperly disclosed. (Read about a poll finding few doubt wrongdoing)The Times said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003, conversation between Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists."This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's ongoing," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.Pressed about Cheney's knowledge about the CIA officer, McClellan said: "I think you're prejudging things and speculating and we're not going to prejudge or speculate about things."McClellan said Cheney -- who participated in a morning video conference on the Florida hurricane from Wyoming, where he is speaking at a University of Wyoming dinner tonight -- is doing a "great job" as vice president. The spokesman also said Cheney's public comments have always been truthful.The New York Times identified its sources in the story as lawyers involved in the case.Libby at center of inquiryLibby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions -- although not necessarily by name and without indicating he knew she was undercover.Libby's notes show that Cheney knew Plame worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to -- but not by name -- in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet, but said there was no indication he knew her name.The notes also contain no suggestion that Cheney or Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified, the paper said.Disclosing the identify of a covert CIA agent can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent is classified as working undercover.Charges against Cheney unlikelyThe Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no indication Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with a crime.But the paper said any efforts by Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Cheney might be viewed by a prosecutor as attempt to impede the inquiry, which could be a crime.According to a former intelligence official close to Tenet, the former CIA chief has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for more than 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury even though he was interviewed by Fitzgerald and his staff.The official told the Times that Tenet declined to comment on the investigation.Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls and e-mail to his office.Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment. McClellan said both Rove and Libby were at work on Tuesday.Fitzgerald questioned Cheney under oath more than a year ago, but it is not known what the vice president told the prosecutor.Little from CheneyCheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into intelligence -- some of it later deemed unreliable -- that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there."I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."Asked Tuesday whether Cheney always tells the truth to the public, McClellan said, "Yes.""Frankly I think it's a ridiculous question," he said. "The vice president, like the president, is a straightforward plainspoken person."The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.A year after Wilson's trip, President Bush cited British intelligence in his State of the Union address as suggesting that Iraq was pursuing uranium in Africa.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Entertainment Weekly) -- There's a nostalgic comfort to be found in the ear-shredding buzz-saw alarm that revs up Depeche Mode's 12th studio album. It's a reminder that after 25 years, the band can still -- with a few hundred meticulous knob twirls and a sprinkling of computer dust -- craft the sort of industrial-Goth sounds that dial in to the fragile psyche of our inner self-loathing 13-year-old. Though Depeche Mode began as new-wave dance tarts and endured an early-'90s apex (and near implosion) as stadium-size alterna-gods, they now seem to be quietly settling into a role as the elder statesmen of electronic angst. Given the commercial success of young synth-heavy bands like the Killers, it seems like a perfect time for a splashy Depeche Mode comeback. (Their last two albums, 1997's "Ultra: and 2001's "Exciter," failed to ultra-excite anyone beyond hardcore fans, though the latter's gently soulful suite of ditties deserves another spin.) And "Playing the Angel" turns out to be their most self-assured and accessible release in over a decade, with highs not heard since the gloomy heyday of 1990's "Violator." But now the bad news: The album also hits a few spirit-sapping lows, tripping up on sluggish, self-indulgent ballads that prevent the band from truly reclaiming peak form.But darn it, they come mighty close at times. If only all of the songs oozed pretty pain like the first single ''Precious,'' an exquisitely understated ode to busted love. It's easily their most memorable track since "Violator's" sweeping dance hit ''Enjoy the Silence.'' Hearing vulnerable lead singer Dave Gahan's detached lament over the subtly busy midtempo beat produces a musical moment that might actually appeal to both tortured teens and adults -- proving it is possible for dance acts to age gracefully. (And even grow -- for the first time in the group's history, Gahan has contributed a few songs of his own, and the resulting three tracks are, surprisingly, among the album's strongest.)While such elegant moping is engrossing throughout the album's first five songs (the rousing electro-gospel celebration ''John the Revelator'' and the dark techno bounce of ''Suffer Well'' evoke their hip-shaking '87-'90 golden era without stooping to self-derivation), the my-soul-is-corrupt-so-won't-you-redeem-me lyrical script and melodramatic compositions sometimes drag after the first half.Particularly egregious are a pair of tunes (''Macrovision'' and ''Damaged People'') sung by Martin Gore, the band's main songwriter. Depeche fans have come to expect a few Gore-fronted ballads on every album, and his sensitive vocals usually act as a foil to Gahan's rough-hewn croon. But on these offending tunes, ornate arrangements and trembling vibrato ramblings about ''depraved souls'' and the ''whispering cosmos'' finally feel like one pretentious sin too many.But even "Angel's" more plodding numbers provide some great moments, as the music occasionally veers into arresting extended codas that easily dwarf the preceding tunes. That actually makes sense in the larger picture: It wouldn't be Depeche Mode if they didn't sometimes go astray and then find redemption, whether it's within a five-minute pop song, a quarter-century career, or a flawed comeback disc that still manages to inflict some satisfying pain.EW Grade: B'All the Right Reasons,' NickelbackReviewed by Whitney PastorekThose convinced that Nickelback has given us one of the century's greatest rock songs (''How You Remind Me'') will find quite a bit to like on "All the Right Reasons." The band is exploring a richer, more diverse sound (ripping off both Hoobastank and Seal), and the first single, ''Photograph,'' is a dreamy slice of autumn-weather radio rock that's sure to linger well into winter. Maybe 17 million Nickelback fans really can't be wrong.EW Grade: B'A Time to Love,' Stevie WonderReviewed by Raymond FioreFew artists will ever rival Stevie Wonder's scary-great crop of groundbreaking 1970s works. Unfortunately, his first album in 10 years, "A Time to Love," feels like "Stevie Wonder: The Musical," a tedious revue of diluted funk knockoffs.Wonder once brought soul a caffeinated jolt of fearlessness and moral authority, but these toothless, '80s-embalmed tracks -- like the unfortunately titled ''Passionate Raindrops'' -- are the aural equivalent of Sleepytime tea.EW Grade: C

NEW YORK (AP) -- With the political relevance of "The Daily Show" and the huge DVD sales (and subsequent hiatus) of "Chappelle's Show," it's easy to forget about that other Comedy Central show, "South Park."But Matt Stone and Trey Parker's crude cartoon began its ninth season last Wednesday -- and it remains the network's most-watched program. It is also, perhaps, still the most manic thing on TV, with entire episodes created just days before they air.With a ripped-from-the-headlines approach, it's the "Law & Order" of comedy. The first episode, "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," tackles Hurricane Katrina -- by way of the neighboring town flooding.Parker, who turned 36 last week, and Stone, 34, last month inked a deal for three more seasons and "South Park" has begun appearing in syndication in some markets -- both of which assure the world of Cartman, Stan, Kyle and the rest will continue to expand.Q: Cartman once described independent movies as "gay cowboys eating pudding." Now we have "Brokeback Mountain," an upcoming movie by Ang Lee about gay cowboys.MATT STONE: If they have pudding in that movie, I'm going to lose my mind.TREY PARKER: No, if there's pudding eating in there, we're going to sue.Q: Are you guys prophets?STONE: No, but Cartman is. (Laughs) We went to Sundance a lot in the mid-to-late '90s, and you could just tell it was going toward gay cowboydom.Q: It's a fast process for you [to make an episode], isn't it?PARKER: It is. We take a lot of time before just to come up with the broad ideas, but until the Thursday before that Wednesday, that's when we really sit down and go "OK, how can we tell this story?" And it leaves us a lot of room, too. A lot of times on a Thursday, we'll sit down and go, "Hey, have you seen this Terri Schiavo thing? This is huge, we should do a story about that."Q: Sometimes "South Park" is quite topical.PARKER: Yeah, the reason we're able to do that is it's still just Matt and I really doing most everything. We still write, direct and edit every episode ourselves. ... We can sit there on a Tuesday night and (rewrite the third act), run in the booth next door, record all the voices, get the storyboards together, edit it and see it in a couple hours. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing, too, having done it almost nine years.Q: Does the fast process backfire sometimes?STONE: I actually think that makes the show better in a weird way. It's kind of a punk-rock ethic. Like albums that are too produced, you can tell they produced all the magic out of it.PARKER: It's a little more White Stripes.Q: Are you surprised at the longevity of "South Park"?STONE: It's totally crazy. When we first did the show, we thought it would be six episodes and then we'd be done -- and now we're in our ninth season and signed up to do three more years.Q: What do you do to keep it fresh?PARKER: It's so much fun, since we still do everything, you can sort of see our growth as writers. When we started this show, we knew how to do funny, outrageous stuff, but we didn't know how to write. Trey Parker and Matt Stone thought the show would be "six episodes and then we'd be done." Q: Is there something you're personally sensitive about or is everything fair game?STONE: We have a really funny breast cancer episode coming up. (Laughs) I just think it's not contradictory to make fun of something and be sensitive about it. It's just the way we examine the world. "Sensitive" isn't the right word, but we actually have thoughts and feelings about all this stuff; it's not just destruction-oriented.PARKER: Just last week we were on a plane and we were pretty positive we were going to die -- and we were making jokes. It really, really felt like the end, and we were making jokes.Q: Are you thinking about another movie?PARKER: Um, no.STONE: "Team America" almost killed us. We'd like to figure out a way to do our own movies, but not die doing them, and maybe help some other people produce their movies, like graduate to the next level because we are getting up there in age.Q: What about a live-action movie?STONE: Like "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo"? (laughs) That's what we should do, really.PARKER: We could make so much money if we would just write scripts like that and go shoot them and put big stars in them. But, first of all, we hate actors. And second, I just can't imagine being on a set of a movie like "Deuce Bigalow."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- When it comes to reading or arithmetic, Marvin Calvin is delighted to help his two children. He missed out on many of the duties of parenthood during a 10-year stretch in prison for armed robbery.But when it comes to MP3 players, video game consoles, computers or the Internet, he is just baffled."I won't even sit down with them and play that little game thing because I don't even know how to operate it," said the 48-year-old Calvin, who was freed in July.He is a technological Rip Van Winkle.Because of the rapid pace of technological change, thousands of inmates like Calvin leave prison every year to find a world very different from the one they knew when they went in."Technology is like a giant steamroller," said David McHaney, who spent nearly four years behind bars for drug offenses. "Either you're on it or you're under it, and you know what happens to that pile of asphalt when that big giant wheel gets to rolling."McHaney now works at The Osborne Association, a New York City organization that helps released prisoners rebuild their lives. He teaches them the basics of Internet and computer use, as well as how to create resumes and look for work.The need for technological knowledge has grown so much that even Osborne cannot hire many former inmates, said executive director Elizabeth Gaynes. "We need our work force to be computer literate," she said. "We do not have any entry-level jobs that do not require technical competence."The digital divide, the chasm before computer haves and have-nots, is awfully wide when talking about America's prison population.The average inmate among the nation's 2.1 million prisoners is a 34-year-old man without a high school diploma, said Christy Visher, a researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington.That means someone whose education ended in the 1980s, long before the technological transformation of the past decade. Longer prison terms can make the technological gap even wider.Prisons offer educational courses, but inmate advocates say they are limited and constantly at risk of being eliminated because of shifting public opinion. And advocates and former inmates say prisons are rarely the places to learn about the newest technologies."Very few things in there are even close to state of the art," said Terry Reed, an Osborne instructor released from prison last year after an 18-year term. "They're always behind the times. Nothing is kept current."The skills that inmates do learn are generally geared toward helping the prisons function, not toward creating job skills valuable on the outside, said Debbie Mukamal, director of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.John Nuttall, deputy commissioner for program services for the New York state Corrections Department, said the state's prisons are focusing more on preparing inmates for the outside.He said New York offers classes on general business, where inmates can learn about computer programs such as spreadsheets, as well as a computer technology course that teaches the hardware side.But he also acknowledged that enrollment in the computer courses is limited. And with technology changing all the time, the costs of keeping equipment in prisons up to date is prohibitive.Similarly, in Texas, the Windham School District runs about 70 schools around the state with computer labs and offers courses on such topics as computer maintenance.Inmate advocates said preparing prisoners for life on the outside is vital to keeping them from winding up behind bars again."If you don't help people who are coming out of prison become successful, start a conventional life, they're going to be out there creating problems for you, your family, and your neighborhood," Visher said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.The threat comes in large part from Ajax, a set of Web development tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over."It definitely supports a Microsoft exit strategy," said Alexei White, a product manager at Ajax developer eBusiness Applications Ltd. "I don't think it can be a full replacement, but you could provide scaled-down alternatives to most Office products that will be sufficient for some users."Ironically, Microsoft invented Ajax in the late 90s and has used it for years to power an online version of its popular Outlook e-mail program.Ajax's resurgence in recent months is thanks partly to its innovative use by Google Inc. to fundamentally change online mapping. Before, maps were static: Click on a left arrow, wait a few seconds as the Web page reloads and see the map shift slightly to the left. Repeat. Repeat again."It's slow. It's frustrating," said frequent map user Fred Wagner, a petroleum engineer in Houston. "We're all getting spoiled with wanting things to happen."So he sticks with Google Maps these days. There, he can drag the map over any which way and watch new areas fill in instantly. He can zoom in quickly using an Ajax slider.No more World Wide Wait."Everybody went, 'Ooooh, how did they do that?"' said Steve Yen, who runs a company developing an Ajax spreadsheet called Num Sum. "It turns out the technology's been there for awhile."Jesse James Garrett, an Adaptive Path LLC usability strategist who publicly coined the term 'Ajax' 10 days after Google Maps launched in February, said such examples "convinced a lot of Web designers to take another look at something they may have previously dismissed as experimental."Also contributing are faster Internet connections, more powerful computers and better browsers able to handle Ajax, which is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.Consider e-mail.Until recently, Web mail meant sending forms back and forth online. Check an item to delete and hit a button. A remote mail server receives instructions and responds with an entirely new page, which is missing only the one deleted item.Enter Yahoo Inc. and an interface it is testing using technology from an Ajax pioneer it bought, Oddpost. Delete an item this time, and Ajax reconfigures the page immediately without waiting for a response.Open a message to read, and the browser fetches only the message's body -- it already has the subject line and other header information and doesn't have to waste time duplicating that data.Yahoo also is developing an Ajax tool that instantly updates flight options as travelers narrow their choices of airports, airlines and travel times.This summer, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc. which also owns CNN.com, started using Ajax to let users rearrange, display and switch photo albums with fewer clicks.And last week, Dow Jones & Co.'s MarketWatch began embedding news articles with stock quotes updated several times a second, blinking green and red as prices fluctuate."A Web page takes longer to load than that," said Jamie Thingelstad, MarketWatch's chief technology officer. "Your computer would just be hung."Microsoft, which uses Ajax in a new map offering and an upcoming Hotmail upgrade, is even starting to build new tools to promote Ajax development -- even as it pushes a next-generation alternative.The alternative technology, known as XAML, will permit even richer applications over browsers. Alas, unlike Ajax, it will run only on Microsoft's Windows computers -- no Macs, no Linux.Startups, meantime, are embracing Ajax for Office-like tools. Such applications won't replace Office but could find a niche _ parents collaborating in a soccer league could jointly update a Num Sum spreadsheet with scores, while users too poor to buy Office or students always on the go could compose a letter from anywhere using Writely word processor.Scott Guthrie, who oversees the Microsoft Ajax tools called Atlas, believes Ajax has a future but not one at odds with Microsoft's."Ultimately when you want to write a word processing document or manage a large spreadsheet, you are going to want the capabilities ... that are very difficult to provide on the Web today," Guthrie said.Computer-intensive applications like Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop image editor and high-end games won't come to browsers anytime soon.Even Google had to create desktop mapping software, called Google Earth and requiring a download, to permit 3-D and advanced features."Ajax cannot do everything," said Bret Taylor, who oversees Google's mapping products. "Web applications have a way to go."Other limitations are intentional. For security reasons, a browser cannot seamlessly access files or other programs on a computer. And, of course, Web applications require a persistent Internet connection -- making work difficult on airplanes.Usability expert Jakob Nielsen also worries that loss of productivity -- a minute here, a minute there, multiplied by thousands of employees -- will offset any savings in installation costs."When you do a lot of transactions, you want something that's optimized for the transaction, not something optimized for information browsing," he said.Among other criticisms, developer tools for Ajax aren't as mature as those for one of its chief rivals, Macromedia Inc.'s Flash. And many Ajax programs don't work well beyond Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox browsers.Yet Web-based applications are increasingly appealing at a time separate computers for home, work and travel are common and people get used to sharing calendars and other data with friends and relatives.Ajax can make those experiences richer."There's a lot of power sitting on that Web browser ... that people are just tapping into," said White of eBusiness Applications. Web developers "are beginning to push its limits in terms of creative uses and new applications."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The BBC World Service has announced it is to set up a new Arabic television channel, in what it describes as its "biggest transformation in 70 years."The World Service says it will close 10 language services to fund the new station. BBC radio broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai will cease by March next year.The new station is expected to be a rival to the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, which is itself launching an English-language service next year.The World Service says its new Arabic language television service is "part of a wide-ranging package of proposals aimed at maintaining and enhancing BBC World Service's pre-eminent position and impact in an emerging multimedia age."It will be the first publicly-funded international TV service launched by the BBC and marks a departure for the World Service, which has concentrated mainly on radio broadcasting. Its BBC World TV service is a commercial venture. The Arabic channel, due to launch in 2007, forms part of a £30 million (U.S.$53 million) package of new initiatives unveiled on Tuesday.The World Service also plans to boost investment in its interactive services, initially concentrating on South America, Russia, South Asia and the Middle East.Funding will come from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and from a "vigorous program of efficiencies."The BBC initially forecasts 236 jobs will be cut as a result of the restructuring proposals.Of those, 218 will go due to the closure of the language services -- 127 in the UK and 91 overseas.The move will see the World Service portfolio of language services cut from 43 to 33.BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman said: "Many of the European services being closed had their roots in the Second World War and have served their audiences well right through the Cold War years."But Europe has changed, fundamentally, since the early '90s. Now the countries to which these languages are broadcast are members of the EU, or are likely to join soon."There has been a huge change in the media scene, with many new services opening up which subscribe to similar values as the BBC. BBC audiences are declining in many markets as they discover these new national and local services."The contribution of all staff in the BBC language services in these areas has been immense. It is acknowledged that their presence has contributed to the building of freedoms now enjoyed by their citizens. We believe this will be a lasting legacy."The 10 countries will continue to be served by World Service radio in English.Of the new Arabic language channel, Chapman said: "BBC World Service is already the most successful, trusted and respected voice in the Middle East with more than 60 years experience of broadcasting in the Arabic language on radio, and more recently and successfully, online."The BBC Arabic Television Service will build on this legacy by offering trusted and accurate news with an international agenda."It would mean the BBC will be the only major broadcaster who will provide a tri-media service in Arabic to the Middle East -- using TV, radio and online for sharing views and perspectives across the region and the wider world."Our research suggests there is strong demand for an Arabic television service from the BBC in the Middle East."The channel will initially broadcast 12 hours a day and will be freely available to everyone with a satellite or cable connection in the Middle East.Around 200 new jobs have been, or will be, created by the new investment program, with 148 new posts at the Arabic channel, the World Service says.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Alpha, the Atlantic season's record-breaking 22nd named storm, left at least eight people dead and 23 missing in Haiti before moving north into the Atlantic Ocean and weakening into a tropical depression, authorities said Monday.At least three people also were missing in the neighborhing Dominican Republic as mudslides and overflowing rivers flooded streets and destroyed homes, according to officials in both countries.Alpha passed over the two nations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and heavy rains on ground already saturated from other recent storms, including Hurricane Wilma -- which was blamed for 12 deaths in Haiti. (Full story)Alpha rumbled ashore Saturday as a tropical storm with maximum winds of 50 mph near the southern Dominican town of Barahona and doused the region with showers.It was later downgraded to a tropical depression after passing over the mountainous zone near the Dominican border with Haiti. The system moved into the open Atlantic after passing over the southeastern Bahamas. It posed no threat to the United States and was expected to dissipate.Emergency authorities were still assessing the damage from Alpha, and the death toll could rise, Maria Alta Jean Baptiste, the head of Haiti's civil protection agency, told reporters.The deaths from Alpha included three people who drowned in flooding in the village of Anse Rouge in northern Haiti and a fourth in the northeastern town of Hinche, Jean Baptiste said.In the south, two people were swept away to their deaths after a river broke its banks in rural Grande Anse, Jean Baptiste said. Two people died after being electrocuted during flooding, one in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour and the other in the southern town of Jacmel.Floods and mudslides damaged or destroyed at least 400 homes around the country, leaving hundreds stranded in shelters, said Abel Nazaire of Haiti's Risk and Disaster Management agency.Twenty-three people have been reported missing since the storm in Haiti, including 19 who were swept away by floodwaters in the town of Leogane, west of the capital."We are conducting searches right now, and we're extremely worried," Leogane Mayor Taylor Rigaud said in a telephone interview. He said dozens of families were in shelters after their homes were inundated.In the Dominican Republic, authorities searched Monday for two fishermen who went missing at sea during the storm, said Jose Luis German, spokesman for the country's emergency operations committee.Officials were also searching for a 14-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in the northern town of Guaricanos, German said.The Atlantic storm season officially ends November 30.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NYALA, Sudan (Reuters) -- Refugees released on Tuesday the last of the aid workers they had taken hostage in Darfur's largest camp, but police continued to detain one of their leaders, a U.N. spokesman said.Armed police had arrested a tribal leader on Sunday in Kalma camp outside Nyala in South Darfur state, prompting the camp residents to take up to 34 hostages to barter for his release, sources in the aid community said.The hostages were released gradually, with the last five, who worked in the government water and sanitation agency, freed on Tuesday evening, the sources said."Everybody has been released," said a U.N. spokesman from Khartoum. "But the sheikh is still being detained by the authorities."Kalma, which houses almost 90,000 Darfuris who have fled their homes during a 2 1/2-year-old revolt, has been a hotbed of unrest. Authorities have said rebels have launched attacks from within the camp.Camp residents have attacked and burned down the government humanitarian agency's offices in Kalma, complaining the officials did nothing to stop daily attacks and rape in and around the camp.The abducted aid workers were from the Sudanese Red Crescent, the U.S. CHF aid agency and the Sudanese water and sanitation agency (WES).The United Nations says at least 2 million Sudanese have been turned into refugees in their own country by fierce fighting between rebels, the Sudanese army and Arab militias known as Janjaweed, believed to be backed by Khartoum.U.N. officials say recent violence has hindered vital aid to the refugees and restricted the movement for many of the 11,000 humanitarian workers in the remote western region.Rape, murder and robbery are rampant throughout the vast region the size of France.Non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglect and of monopolizing wealth and power.The United States has called the violence genocide and blamed the government and its allied militias. Khartoum denies the charge but the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating alleged war crimes committed during the revolt.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Rosa Parks was remembered Tuesday as the mother of the civil rights movement, a powerful but quiet voice for equality and as a humble woman who did not seek the limelight.Parks died Monday night in Detroit, Michigan. She was 92. President Bush opened a speech to a group of military spouses Tuesday by praising Parks as "one of the most inspiring women of the 20th century." (Watch Bush's comments -- 1:27)"Rosa Parks' example helped touch off the civil rights movement, and transformed America for the better," Bush said. "She will always have a special place in American history, and our nation thinks of Rosa Parks and her loved ones today." Parks is best remembered for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955. (See video on an activist's life and times -- 2:52)That act led to her arrest, which triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Read an account of Park's history-making decision)The boycott ended after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Montgomery's segregated bus service was unconstitutional. But it wasn't until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated."It was so unbelievable that this woman -- this one woman -- had the courage to take a seat and refuse to get up and give it up to a white gentleman," said Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, who watched the drama unfold as a teenager. "By sitting down, she was standing up for all Americans." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told an audience in Canada that Parks "inspired a whole generation of people to fight for freedom.""And Mrs. Parks, who was 92 years old and lived a life that was long and inspirational well beyond that single act -- I think for all of us, her inspiration will live on." Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote and work toward racial peace.Parks would sometimes travel with the students on trips to key sites in the civil rights movement."I recall leaning over to some of the other students and saying 'Wow, we're sitting on a bus with Rosa Parks, and she's sitting in the front,' " said Nate Philips, who met Parks on one of those trips."I think that what was so compelling about her to me was that, considering who she could have had access to and who she could have wanted to spend her time with, she really enjoyed having young people around."He said it was hard to explain how important that was, but said "it means a lot."Lila Cabbil, a longtime friend and president of the institute, described Parks as passionate, loyal and dedicated, but said "What has stuck with me most outstandingly was her humility."She never required a celebrity, never sought celebrity status, and managed to operate in that humble way," Cabbil said. "And that is so rare and so unique and it's something that I've aspired to and it takes a lot of discipline to emulate that particular part of her character."Conyers said he first met Parks during the early days of the civil rights struggle. He said that she worked on his congressional staff when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964."I think that she, as the mother of the new civil rights movement, has left an impact not just on the nation, but on the world," he told CNN. "She was a real apostle of the nonviolence movement."He remembered her as someone who never raised her voice -- and called her an eloquent voice of the civil rights movement."You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene -- just a very special person," he said, adding that "there was only one" Rosa Parks.Bus boycottShe was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her marriage to Raymond Parks lasted from 1932 until his death in 1977.Parks' father, James McCauley, was a carpenter, and her mother, Leona Edwards McCauley, a teacher.Before her arrest in 1955, Parks was active in the voter registration movement and with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where she also worked as a secretary in 1943. At the time of her arrest, Parks was 42 and on her way home from work as a seamstress.Years later, Parks said "When I got on the bus that evening I wasn't thinking about causing a revolution or anything of the kind. ..."But when that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night." (Parks obituary)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Across South Florida's largest cities, Hurricane Wilma forced residents, hospital administrators, airport staff and emergency personnel to cope with sweeping power outages that may not be quickly remedied.More than 6 million people were without power early Tuesday, and while utility company officials said they would try to restore service within days, they also indicated that it could take up to four weeks to fully restore service to all customers."We ask your patience," said Armando Olivera, president of Florida Power & Light Company. "We will do everything we can to get the lights back on."More of the company's 4.3 million customers have been affected by Wilma than by any other natural disaster in the company's history, Olivera said. In heavily populated areas such as Miami-Dade County, as many as 98 percent of its customers lost power.Storm-weary Floridians resigned themselves for the wait."You manage. You have lights, you have candles, portable fans, portable TVs and batteries," said Marilyn Jacobs, a widow who lives in the Westchester area of Miami-Dade County. "There's nothing much you can do right now."Miami-Dade County enacted a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., in large part because only 18 of the region's 2,600 traffic lights were working. Broward County's curfew was from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and police assigned additional officers to patrol streets and protect businesses from looting.The corridors of Miami International Airport, usually teeming with 90,000 passengers on a Monday night, were dark and empty. The third busiest airport in the U.S. -- like others in the region -- was closed.Many hospitals worked on auxiliary power as they reduced services such as elective surgeries, plus coped with a lack of water and other problems churned by Wilma's furious wrath.At Broward General Hospital, air conditioning was limited to intensive care and other patient areas. The emergency room was open and the facility was accepting patients from nearby hospitals that lost essential services.Progress Energy, which has 1.5 million customers in central and north Florida, had 52,000 customers lose power at one point; by 5 a.m. Tuesday, that number was down to 1,259."We did get lucky," said Progress Energy spokeswoman Deborah Shipley.Another bit of luck: When Wilma left, temperatures plunged quickly across the peninsula, so air conditioning wasn't exactly necessary. Overnight lows were expected to range from the low 40s in north Florida to around 54 near Miami."It looks like nature's going to give us her own air conditioning," said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Gregoria.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Italian model Mariacarla Boscono will replace Britain's Kate Moss when Swedish clothing chain Hennes & Mauritz launches a new collection.H&M dropped Moss last month after British tabloids published photographs of her allegedly using cocaine.Boscono will appear in TV commercials for a limited collection designed by Stella McCartney which goes on sale in November, the company told The Associated Press.However, no model will be featured in posters and newspaper ads for the collection, H&M spokesman Liv Asarnoj said. Instead, the ads -- which were originally intended to feature Moss -- will use a "graphical solution," she told AP, adding that McCartney was involved in selecting Boscono.A limited women's collection of about 40 items designed by McCartney -- daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney -- will go on sale in 400 stores on November 10. Last year, H&M released a similar collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld, which sold out in a few hours in many stores worldwide, AP said.Following newspaper reports in September, supermodel Moss issued an apology to "all the people I have let down.""I take full responsibility for my actions. I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them," Moss said in a statement."I want to apologize to all of the people I have let down because of my behavior, which has reflected badly on my family, friends, co-workers, business associates and others," she said. (Full story)Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- A majority would vote for a Democrat over President Bush if an election were held this year, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday.In the latest poll, 55 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if Bush were again running for the presidency this year.Thirty-nine percent of those interviewed said they would vote for Bush in the hypothetical election.The latest poll results, released Tuesday, were based on interviews with 1,008 adults conducted by telephone October 21-23.In the poll, 42 percent of those interviewed approved of the way the president is handling his job and 55 percent disapproved. In the previous poll, released October 17, 39 percent approved of Bush's job performance -- the lowest number of his presidency -- and 58 percent disapproved.However, all the numbers are within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, so it's possible that the public's opinion has not changed at all.More than half, 57 percent, said they don't agree with the president's views on issues that are important to them, while 41 percent said their views are in alignment with those of Bush on important issues.Democrats preferred on issuesOn separate issues, a majority of those questioned felt the Democrats could do a better job than Republicans at handling health care (59 percent to 30 percent), Social Security (56 percent to 33 percent), gasoline prices (51 percent to 31 percent) and the economy (50 percent to 38 percent).Forty-six percent also believed Democrats could do better at handling Iraq, while 40 percent said the GOP would do better.In 2003, 53 percent said Republicans would better handle Iraq and only 29 percent believed the Democrats would do better.The only issue on which Republicans came out on top was in fighting terrorism: 49 percent said the GOP is better at it, while 38 percent said the Democrats are.And there was a dramatic shift downward in the latest poll, compared with September, in the percentage of people who said that it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq.This time, 49 percent said it was a mistake, versus 59 percent who felt that way last month.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Only one in 10 Americans said they believe Bush administration officials did nothing illegal or unethical in connection with the leaking of a CIA operative's identity, according to a national poll released Tuesday.Thirty-nine percent said some administration officials acted illegally in the matter, in which the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was revealed.The same percentage of respondents in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said administration officials acted unethically, but did nothing illegal.The poll was split nearly evenly on what respondents thought of Bush officials' ethical standards -- 51 percent saying they were excellent or good and 48 percent saying they were not good or poor.The figures represent a marked shift from a 2002 survey in which nearly three-quarters said the standards were excellent or good and only 23 percent said they were fair or poor.The latest poll questioned 1,008 adults October 21-23 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.Federal law makes it a crime to deliberately reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is heading a probe into the matter. (Fitzgerald profile)With the grand jury investigating the leak set to expire Friday, FBI agents interviewed a Washington neighbor of Plame for a second time.The agents asked Marc Lefkowitz on Monday night whether he knew about Plame's CIA work before her identity was leaked in the media, and Lefkowitz told agents he did not, according to his wife, Elise Lefkowitz.Lefkowitz said agents first questioned whether the couple was aware of Plame's CIA work in an interview several months ago.Members of Fitzgerald's team also talked to a former White House official to gather last-minute information about the role of Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN. Plame and her husband, retired State Department career diplomat Joseph Wilson, have accused Bush administration officials of deliberately leaking her identity to the media to retaliate against Wilson after he published an opinion piece in The New York Times. The July 2003 article cast doubt on a key assertion in the Bush administration's arguments for war with Iraq -- that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium for a suspected nuclear weapons program in Africa.Wilson, who was acting ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, said the CIA sent him to Niger, in central Africa, to investigate the uranium claim in February 2002 and that he found no evidence such a transaction occurred and it was unlikely it could have. (Full story)Days after Wilson's article was published, Plame's identity was exposed in a piece by syndicated columnist and longtime CNN contributor Robert Novak.Rove has testified before the Fitzgerald grand jury that he believes it was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, who first told him that Plame worked for the CIA and had a role in sending her husband to Africa, according to a source familiar with Rove's testimony.New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt before finally agreeing last month to tell grand jurors that Libby told her Wilson's wife may have worked at the CIA, although she said Libby did not identify Plame by name or describe her as a covert agent or operative.Libby has also testified before the grand jury.Report links Cheney to caseThe New York Times reported Tuesday that notes in Fitzgerald's possession suggest that Libby first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself. (Full story)But the newspaper reported that the notes do not indicate that Cheney or Libby knew Plame was an undercover operative.The Times said its sources in the story were lawyers involved in the case.The notes show that George Tenet, then the CIA director, gave the information to Cheney in response to questions the vice president posed about Wilson, the Times reported.Cheney said in September 2003 he had seen no report from Wilson after his assignment in Africa."I don't know Joe Wilson. I've never met Joe Wilson. I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," he told NBC.Cheney's office had no comment, and the White House would neither confirm or deny the Times report. "The policy of this White House has been to carry out the direction of the president, which is to cooperate fully with the special prosecutor," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who was peppered with questions about the report at his daily briefing."There's a lot of speculation that is going on right now. There are many facts that are not known. The work of the special prosecutor continues and we look forward to him successfully concluding his investigation," he said.McClellan said he had not sought any clarification about Cheney's involvement from the vice president or his office and bristled when a reporter asked if Cheney always tells the truth to the American people, dismissing the query as "ridiculous."In 2003, McClellan used the same word to deny that either Rove or Libby had been involved in the leak.The Justice Department opened a criminal probe in September 2003 at the request of the CIA.Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Illinois, was named special prosecutor at the end of 2003 after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the probe.As the grand jury term expires, Fitzgerald could ask for an extension of the grand jury's service, request indictments or end the probe without bringing charges.CNN's Kelli Arena, Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- A draft U.S.-French resolution being circulated Tuesday among the U.N. Security Council says Syria "must detain" Syrian officials or individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.The resolution also calls for freezing the assets of and placing a travel ban on any individual named as a suspect in a U.N. investigation. The draft also says Damascus must allow investigators to interview Syrian officials and individuals outside of Syria "and/or outside the presence of any other Syrian official." "Syria must stop interfering in Lebanese domestic affairs, either directly or indirectly, refrain from any attempt aimed at destabilizing Lebanon, and respect scrupulously the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of this country," the draft says.The draft threatens sanctions if Syria does not cooperate.It also says that if it is determined that Syrian officials are involved "in this terrorist act," it would "constitute a serious violation by Syria of its obligations" to refrain from getting involved in state-sponsored terrorism.U.S. President George W. Bush told Al Arabiya television Tuesday that he had instructed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "call upon the United Nations to host a foreign ministers meeting as quickly as possible."He said Syria must stop "meddling" in Lebanon, and that Damascus "must take the demands of the free world very seriously."Asked if the United States and other countries were headed toward confrontation with Syria, Bush said, "I certainly hope not."A preliminary report released last week by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor appointed by the United Nations to investigate Hariri's death, concluded there was "converging evidence" that Syrian and Lebanese officials were involved. (Full story) That conclusion was strongly denied by the Syrian government, which has dismissed the report as false and politically motivated.Speaking to reporters after the Security Council discussed preliminary results of the investigation the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said the goal was to have the resolution considered by the council on Monday."We want a very strong signal from the council to the government of Syria that its obstructionism has to cease, and cease immediately," Bolton said. "And we want substantive cooperation in the investigation from Syria."We want witnesses made available. We want documents produced. We want real cooperation, not simply the appearance of cooperation," he said.'Fill in the gaps'Hariri, a veteran Lebanese politician who had become a critic of Syria's military occupation of Lebanon, was killed in February by a car bomb that also killed 20 other people. His assassination triggered massive protests that eventually led to Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon.On Tuesday, Mehlis briefed the Security Council about the investigation. He said investigators would continue to "look into emerging leads" until December 15, when the probe was scheduled to end.The next seven weeks would "provide yet another opportunity for the Syrian authorities to show greater and meaningful cooperation and to provide any relevant, substantial evidence on the assassination," he said.Speaking later at a news conference, Mehlis said that while the entire investigation would not be completed by December 15, "We feel that the Lebanese authorities by then will be in a very good position to pursue the investigation, if necessary."He also said Syria might want to carry out its own investigation into Hariri's death."This would enable the commission to fill in the gaps and to have a clearer picture about the organizers and perpetrators," Mehlis said.Mehlis also told the Security Council that his 30-member investigative team had received numerous "credible" threats."Despite all the precautionary measures, the level of risk, which was already high, will increase further, particularly after the issuance of the report," he said.Syria takes issueSyria's U.N. ambassador, Fayssal Mekdad, disputed Mehlis' findings, telling the Security Council that "every paragraph in this report deserves comment to refute it."In contrast, Boutros Asaker, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, praised the report.In an interview with CNN, Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, took issue with the charge that Syria was not cooperating in the investigation, saying Syrian officials had challenged Mehlis "to tell us if he has ever complained to us, or hinted to us, about any dissatisfaction.""The first time we ever heard about our non-cooperation was when we read this report," Moustapha said.State Secretary Rice reiterated Tuesday that Syria should not dismiss the Mehlis report.Speaking at a joint news conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, she said both the United States and Canada supported "sending a strong message to Syria" to take the report seriously."No one will tolerate efforts at or means of intimidation of the Lebanese people in response to this report," Rice said. "This is a serious matter for the international community when you have these kinds of charges."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Many Floridians could be without electricity for weeks, authorities said Tuesday, a day after Hurricane Wilma plowed across the peninsula.About 6 million people in the Sunshine State were without power, Gov. Jeb Bush said."That's by a factor of five or six, the amount of people who didn't have power with [Hurricane] Katrina in the Gulf states region," Bush said. Florida Power & Light said it could be a month before service is fully restored to all areas. (Watch as Wilma slams into Florida -- 3:52) (Full story)The power outages leave millions of Florida residents lacking other basic necessities, such as food, hot water and fuel.Longtime residents and veterans of past hurricanes appeared surprised by Wilma, which roared ashore early Monday with 125 mph winds, storm surge flooding and heavy rain. (Watch preps for Wilma in Massachusetts -- 1:44)"We've lived here 37 years and we've never had a hurricane like this," Broward County resident Paul Kramer, 71, told The Associated Press. "We didn't expect this. This one got our attention." A firm that does catastrophe modeling for the insurance industry estimated insured losses from Wilma at between $6 billion and $9 billion -- a figure behind only Hurricane Katrina and 1992's Hurricane Andrew in terms of insured losses. ( Full story)"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez told the AP.In hard-hit southeast Florida, officials advised people to boil tap water before using it because of broken water lines. Miami-Dade Emergency Management spokesman Louie Fernandez said his county's first priority is, "How can we get aid as quickly as possible to our residents?"He said he was getting enough help from federal emergency officials.Florida Power & Light said about 6,000 workers -- many from other states -- were repairing power lines downed by Wilma, which was still spinning in the Atlantic.As of 5 p.m. ET, the storm's center was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) south-southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.Maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph, and meteorologists anticipated additional weakening.Moving at 53 mph (85 kph), Wilma was not expected to make landfall again, although it could brush southern Newfoundland on Wednesday and would continue to contribute to a nor'easter along the upper Eastern Seaboard, forecasters said. (Full story)Seventeen deaths were blamed on the hurricane, including six people killed in Florida, four in Mexico and at least seven who died in Haiti a week ago in related flooding. (Watch how one Floridian survived Wilma -- 2:24)'We survived it'Despite Wilma's power, most buildings in south Florida appeared to escape major structural damage, said officials in several areas.On Florida's west coast, about 20 miles north of where Wilma's center came ashore, Naples Mayor Bill Barnett said many trees were downed and power and water were out, but homes and buildings appeared to have weathered the storm surprisingly well. (Watch Wilma's destruction of mobile homes -- 1:31)"We survived it," Barnett said. In Key West, where 120 mph winds blew for two hours and a storm surge left much of low-lying island under 3 to 5 feet of water, most of the flooding had receded by Tuesday. Officials estimated 60 percent of the homes had been flooded. Cancun tourists get helpInternational tourists stranded by Wilma in the resort of Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began leaving Tuesday on Mexicana Airlines.Eight hundred people boarded five flights from Cancun to Mexico City, said airline spokesman Adolfo Crespo. (Watch thousands of tourists trying to get home -- 1:15) "We're going to be sending four flights tomorrow," he said. "Then we're going to be playing it by ear."Mexicana was the sole airline flying from the airport and can fly only during daylight because the storm rendered the site's radar inoperable, Crespo said.Earlier, hundreds of tourists were turned back at the Cancun airport before it opened. (Full story)The State Department Tuesday defended its efforts to help between 10,000 and 15,000 stranded American tourists."Our priority ... is to provide them assistance and to get them home quickly and safely," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. He said the United States also was working with Mexican authorities to ensure supplies and medical attention were available at about 180 shelters where about 1,300 Americans were waiting to evacuate.In a message to the stranded Americans, Ereli said, "We're out there. Don't worry. We're going to get to you. And we're doing a lot that you may not see."Ereli said 23 U.S. consular officers were scrambling to reach those stranded in hotels and shelters.The United States already had helped 1,900 Americans get out of Cancun by bus to nearby Merida, where the airport is open, he said.CNN's Miles O'Brien and Elise Labott 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.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration has abandoned research into a nuclear "bunker-buster" warhead, deciding instead to pursue a similar device using conventional weaponry, a key Republican senator said Tuesday.Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico said funding for the nuclear bunker-buster as part of the Energy Department's fiscal 2006 budget has been dropped at the department's request.The nuclear bunker-buster had been the focus of intense debate in Congress, with opponents arguing that its development as a tactical nuclear weapon could add to nuclear proliferation.An administration official, speaking on condition on anonymity because negotiations on the department's spending bill have not yet been completed, confirmed that a decision had been made to concentrate on a non-nuclear bunker-buster.Administration officials have contended the country must try to develop a nuclear warhead that could destroy deeply buried targets, including bunkers tunneled into solid rock. Potential adversaries increasingly are building hardened retreats deep underground, immune to conventional weapons, the officials said.But Congress has been cool to the idea of a new nuclear warhead. The House blocked funding for the program, even though the Energy Department had requested only $4 million, scaling back earlier requests.The Senate approved the $4 million, but a final decision was up to lawmakers working out a compromise between the House and Senate on the department's budget.Domenici, chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Energy Department's budget, said the conferees had agreed to drop funding for the program at the request of the department's National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that oversees nuclear weapons programs."The focus will now be with the Defense Department and its research into earth-penetrating technology using conventional weaponry," Domenici said in a statement. The nuclear security administration "indicated that this research should evolve around more conventional weapons, rather than tactical nuclear devices," the senator said."This is a true victory for a more rational nuclear policy," said Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nuclear nonproliferation advocacy group. "The proposed weapon, more than 70 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, would have caused unparalleled collateral damage."Last April a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded that an earth-penetrating nuclear device would likely cause the same casualties as a surface burst if the weapons are of the same size. Such a bomb could cause from several thousand to 1 million casualties, depending on its yield and location, the panel said in a report requested by Congress.At a congressional hearing earlier this year, nuclear security administration chief Linton Brooks acknowledged there is no way to avoid significant fallout of radioactive debris from use of a bunker-buster warhead.He said the administration never intended to suggest "that it was possible to have a bomb that penetrated far enough to trap all fallout. I don't believe the laws of physics will ever let that be true."Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, one of Congress' most vocal opponents of the bunker-buster, has said the nuclear bunker-buster "sends the wrong signals to the rest of the world by reopening the nuclear door and beginning the testing and development of a new generation of nuclear weapons."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.