ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Yemaya Stallworth came to Clark Atlanta University to get an engineering degree at a school where her teachers and classmates looked like her: black.But that option may soon disappear -- if not for her, then for the students who come after her.The historically black university has decided to eliminate the engineering department in May 2008 as part of a cost-cutting move at financially troubled Clark Atlanta. The department is Georgia's only black engineering program."It's really our cultural responsibility to graduate from and be taught by our own people and to bring more children in and have them follow our path. That's going to be taken away from us," said Stallworth, a 20-year-old sophomore from New York City who hopes to earn her degree before the shutdown.Clark Atlanta's trustees voted in 2003 to eliminate the engineering department along with the school of library studies, the international affairs department, the allied health professions program and the systems science doctorate program.The board cited the university's $7.5 million deficit and a need to concentrate on areas like business, mass media, biology, education and social work -- disciplines President Walter Broadnax said would draw more donors and raise Clark Atlanta's profile."We got into financial trouble because we had spread ourselves too thin," Broadnax wrote last March.Eight engineering professors and a group of engineering students filed a lawsuit last Friday in hopes of saving the program, which has 85 students. A hearing is set for November 10."There's a dire need for us to produce black engineers," said Kester Garraway, a senior in mechanical engineering. "The faculty can better relate to our struggles -- some of us need that one-on-one time that we get at CAU."The lawsuit alleges Broadnax based the phase-out on personal preferences, not on financial needs or department performance."We want the issue revisited," department chairman Lebone Moeti said. "It will be clear that the department should be put back together."Provost Dorcas Bowles said the trustees' decision is final.Clark Atlanta's program, which began in 1994, offers students majors in mechanical, chemical, electrical and civil engineering.With the program closed, students will have to rely solely on an existing program where students attend Clark Atlanta for three years before transferring to one of 11 other schools to finish their engineering education, getting two degrees after five years from both institutions. One popular choice is engineering powerhouse Georgia Tech.But that would mean Clark Atlanta students would have to leave their alma mater. And at a school like Georgia Tech, they would miss the unique experience of attending a historically black college, the engineering program's defenders say."The drive they have to get postdoctoral degrees, to create their own businesses, to become consultants, is because of the foundation they got at a historically black college," said Temitayo Akinrefon, a graduate student in engineering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and regional chairwoman of the National Society of Black Engineers.The move also means paying for an extra year of tuition. Many of Clark Atlanta's students are on financial aid.The department's closing would bring the number of engineering programs at historically black colleges nationwide to 13. Most are in the South, including two each in Alabama, Louisiana and Virginia."The need that led to the creation of the program at Clark Atlanta has not been fully met or addressed," said Georgia Tech engineering professor Augustine Esogbue, his school's longest-serving black professor. "Apart from educating more black engineers, there's a need for our people to develop the ability and the skills to run technical institutions that will not be met by Tech or any other majority school."Clark Atlanta's department has produced 102 graduates between 1999 and 2003, Many have gone on to careers in academia or jobs with NASA and companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Ford -- corporations that also donate to the school.Faculty members say their program is not a drain on Clark Atlanta and actually generates more than $2 million a year in corporate sponsorships.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AMHERST, Massachusetts (AP) -- Accustomed to low and flat New Orleans, Tameka Noel finds herself huffing and puffing as she walks the hilly campus of Amherst College near the Berkshire Mountains. And though it's just October, it already feels like winter to her.She misses friends, and Cajun food, and Bourbon Street, which puts small-town Amherst's nightlife to shame.She and the six other students from Xavier University who wound up here this semester won't lie and tell you Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to them, just because they get to spend time at an elite liberal arts college. They will, however, say they are grateful for the hospitality, and that -- when all is said and done -- their time at Amherst might have broadened their education."Some days are difficult and others aren't," said Noel, a senior from New Boston, Texas, who is part of Xavier's well-regarded premed program. "But I think being outside your comfort zone is something everybody should experience."An estimated 75,000 college students were displaced from New Orleans by the storm. Many are still in the South, or at least at schools close to family. But others are temporarily enrolled at colleges far from home, both geographically and culturally. About a dozen from Xavier, a historically black, Roman Catholic school, were taken in by Amherst and nearby Williams -- schools some would call archetypal New England liberal arts colleges.Around the country, host schools have worked hard to make the students feel welcome. Loyola of Chicago, which accommodated about 300, hosted a Midwest-themed welcome barbecue and a party to watch a New Orleans Saints football game. Washington & Lee University had Cajun night in the dining hall. Santa Clara University in California gave students skateboards and offered a one-time class called "Skateboard Etiquette 101" -- figuring it would help students both get around and feel more Californian.Amherst took its visitors shopping for the winter clothes they suddenly needed, and is even paying for them to fly home for Thanksgiving. In the classroom, it organized tutorials to help them catch up after missing the first two weeks of class. College officials say the students are doing fine academically.For the Xavier students, it's a way to get the courses they need to stay on track to medical school. But it's also a chance to try some new things. At Xavier, they said, most classes are in a lecture-and-drill format. Their Amherst seminars have been a nice change of pace in both structure and content."We discussed homosexuality, which is definitely a big taboo at Xavier, being Catholic and all that," said Noel, who added an elective on "cross-cultural constructions of gender" to her science coursework. The different classroom experience "is something I've enjoyed," she said.In interviews with students scattered across the country, several said they had found the chance to spend a few months at another college unexpectedly valuable."I wouldn't take it back. I honestly wouldn't," said Dawnyel Verrett, a junior from Loyola of New Orleans who is at Santa Clara and says she has been warmly welcomed -- and enjoyed discovering Mexican food. One of 19 displaced undergraduates at Washington & Lee, in tiny Lexington, Virginia, Tulane sophomore Jennifer Comarda says she has enjoyed some aspects of small-town life, like getting to know the man who works at a local ice cream shop.And being at Loyola of Chicago has allowed Zac Markey, who had expected to start at Loyola of New Orleans this fall, the chance to sample some bands on the local music scene.But make no mistake: Small and unexpected pleasures aside, being displaced is tough, for all sorts of reasons."I think all of us here are getting a little bit of cabin fever," said Comarda, who had never spent more than a few days outside her home state of Louisiana. "We're so used to going to the movies and having so many opportunities in a big city, going to the mall. There's no mall here. There's a Wal-Mart."Markey says he's never quite felt comfortable at Loyola of Chicago. "I'm not getting used to anything here," he said. "I kind of just see it as getting a few credits out of the way."People have been friendly, but he hasn't made close friends: "There's definitely a division between the Chicago students and the (New Orleans) students. They're from two different cultures."Some, like Josh Solowiejczyk, a Tulane student relocated to the University of Pennsylvania, have done New Orleans-related charity work to keep up their connection to the city. He has raised over $15,000 for a children's charity by selling bracelets. Others are showing up at recruiting events for their New Orleans colleges.But most students said they hadn't become involved with campus extracurricular activities; catching up on coursework was a higher priority.In some respects, the upperclassmen, who are far away from friends and feel like they are missing the best years of college, seem the most frustrated. Freshmen were already prepared for a new scene this fall, so the change is not necessarily as jarring."The hardest part is to know how to find the things we need to live day-to-day," said Terilyn Lake, a Xavier senior from Jackson, Mississippi, who talked about her experience while at an Amherst dining hall. "I don't feel much of a culture shock. It's just a lot of unknowns.""I feel like a freshman again," she said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- When architect Eero Saarinen was creating the design of this city's famed Gateway Arch, he constructed his first model out of pipe cleaners.A long way from its humble beginnings, the shimmering steel Arch celebrated its 40th anniversary Friday.The original builders autographed posters of the monument as they answered questions from visitors, and an exhibit on Saarinen opened in the museum beneath the Arch. Book signings were held for an anniversary publication, "The Gateway Arch, An Architectural Dream."Schoolchildren who had never seen the Arch came for the first time."Well, 40 years," said a silver-haired Susan Saarinen of Golden, Colorado, daughter of the late architect, who last saw the Arch at age 20. "Not very much time compared with the pyramids, but the last time I was here I had blonde hair and computer-aided design didn't exist."The idea for a memorial in St. Louis began in 1933 with lawyer Luther Ely Smith, who was looking for a way to beautify the city's run-down riverfront, the first glimpse many visitors got of St. Louis.Although work was done to secure and clear 90 acres, the idea for a memorial was not revitalized until two years after World War II.Saarinen created a design that would mark President Thomas Jefferson's role in the nation's westward expansion (Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States) and honor the 19th century migration of hundreds of thousands of people to the West at a time when St. Louis was the last major city before the frontier.Saarinen recounted in a 1948 newspaper article how he came up with the Arch's design by thinking about how earlier memorials to "our three greatest men" -- Jefferson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln -- each had a distinct geometric shape.He began to envision a dome with a design more open than the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, perhaps one that touched the ground at three points."We tried it in a very crude way; the only things we could find to make it with were some pipe cleaners. But three legs did not seem to fit in the plan, so we tried it with two legs, like a big arch."The design competition that Saarinen's team entered in 1947-48 had 172 submissions, including one from his father, the well-known architect Eliel Saarinen. Eero was just 38 and his father's reputation far surpassed his own at the time.When a Saarinen advanced in the competition, Eliel received a telegram congratulating him and the family broke out a bottle of champagne."Two hours later the family received a phone call from an embarrassed competition official," Eero's daughter, Susan Saarinen, Susan Saarinen said in the new book. It was young Eero, and not his father, who had a chance to win. "Eliel, a very proud father, broke out a second bottle of champagne" to toast his son.Eero Saarinen died in 1961, before the Arch's construction from 1963 to 1965. The new exhibit runs through July 16.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Southern Living) -- My husband loves a good scary story, so we decided to take a ghost tour in Charleston, South Carolina -- home to legions of haints, spirits, specters and a banshee or two. Waiting with a group at Waterfront Park at 7:30 p.m., we met our guide, Nick, who took us on a wonderful walking tour filled with spooky tales.Nick began by explaining that he took his tales from the book "The Ghosts of Charleston," written by Julian T. Buxton III. "Charleston doesn't have more ghosts than other cities," said Nick. "Charleston just knows how to cash in on it." The first story he told involved the old Cooper River Bridge."A family was coming back from staying on Sullivan's Island in 1966," Nick began. "They were starting over the bridge when the father saw a car up ahead. It looked like it was out of 1945 -- an old green Oldsmobile -- and it was stopping and starting on the bridge. He decided to move around the car."Nick said the old car held two young children and a lady in the back seat, looking pale and lifeless, wearing 1940s clothing. In the front seat, a man and woman sat, both with eyes sunken into their skulls. Frightened, the father slammed on his brakes and let the old car pass. Then it vanished.Research later revealed that a ship, which had broken loose from its moorings in 1946, hit one of the main support pillars of the Cooper River Bridge and caused its collapse. One car -- a green 1940 Oldsmobile with a family of five inside -- was trying to get across the bridge and went into the river.Strange bedfellowsAnother ghost tale had a different twist. Nick guided us to the location of a popular inn on South Battery as he relayed the story of the Gentleman Ghost. "While elderly twin ladies were staying here at the Battery Carriage House Inn in Room No. 10, one went to sleep, but the other one had an odd feeling about the room," related Nick. "As she lay awake in the middle of the night, she saw a man walking back and forth across the floor. He was dressed for a fancy party." Nick said that the ghost floated up next to the amazed elderly woman in bed and put his arm around her. When she called out to her sister, the man disappeared. Charleston offers visitors a wealth of activities year-round. "We think the spirit is the ghost of a young Charleston man," said Nick. "He found that his best friend had married his girl. He probably climbed to the third-floor balcony and jumped, landing where Room No. 10 is. We think he's come back to get a wife." Nick added that only women see this ghost.He continued his stories, leading our enthralled group through Charleston's historic downtown, pausing for stories at St. Philip's Episcopal Church and its cemetery, East Bay Street and the Wagener Building (now Southend Brewery & Smokehouse), and the Dock Street Theatre."We find that people who are very skeptical are the ones who see ghosts," noted Nick. No, I didn't see a real, un-live ghost on my tour, but I certainly learned a lot about Charleston and its otherworldly inhabitants. Plus, we had a spirited good time.Photography by Gary Clark, Art Meripol

(SPACE.com) -- A major dust storm has just broken out on Mars and the event will be visible this weekend with good-sized backyard telescopes.The timing is incredible. Amateur skywatchers around the world are planning to gaze at Mars Saturday night because it will be closer to Earth than anytime until the year 2018. (Full story)The dust storm was no more than a small bright dot Thursday yet it was large and obvious Friday, as seen in images taken by Clay Sherrod at the Arkansas Sky Observatories.NASA took note and is monitoring signals from its Mars rovers, one of which has detected signs of the storm, SPACE.com has learned.The storm "will be quite obvious and plainly visible in even small telescopes from the Western Hemisphere for about the next week," Sherrod said in an email to colleagues that was forwarded to SPACE.com.The storm has seven appendages that stretch in all directions, Sherrod said. The overall cloud is about 700 to 800 miles across, according to estimates by longtime Mars-watcher Joel Warren, Sherrod said.Warren, of Amarillo, TX, told SPACE.com that he took the first image of the storm rotating into view early Friday using his 8-inch telescope. He notified Sherrod and others of its existence.The dusty cloud is spreading at a speed of about 35 mph and may become larger by the weekend.Dusty planetDust storms are fairly common on Mars. Small storms have been known to swell and engulf the entire planet, as occurred in 2001.In 2003, Mars made the closest pass to Earth that had occurred for 60,000 years. This weekend, it won't be quite that close, but still better than the other close approaches it makes every 26 months.Earth is closer to the Sun, so it effectively passes Mars every 26 months as both worlds orbit the central star.Mars will be 43,137,071 miles (69,422,386 kilometers) from Earth at around 11:25 p.m. ET Saturday. In truth, the view will be basically the same as the night before and the night after. But the event is being marked by star parties in many communities.Sherrod said the dust storm is not currently visible during nighttime hours from Europe or Australia.Mars is a fuzzy point of light in the late evening sky now, in the East. In the predawn, it looms in the western sky. Small telescopes will reveal Mars as a disk, rather than a point of light. Good-sized backyard telescopes, generally about 3 inches or larger, show details of the planet's surface.The view from MarsNASA's Mars rover Opportunity, currently exploring the Meridiani Planum, has seen some signs of the dust storm, which is apparently nearby."This may be the second biggest dust storm that Opportunity has seen," Mark Lemmon, a rover science team member from Texas A&M University, told SPACE.com, adding that he has seen the images taken by Sherrod. "I'd seen those this morning and I waited very impatiently for the rover's downlink to come in."Lemmon said that data returned to Earth Friday by Opportunity showed elevated dust levels at Meridiani Planum, which were measured at an optical depth of about 1.4. The largest dust storm experienced by the rover occurred in June and rated an optical depth of about 2, he added.For comparison, a smoggy day in Los Angeles would rate an optical depth of about 1.0, and moderate days on Mars are about 0.5, NASA officials said.Martian dust storms blot out sunlight from rover panels, but otherwise are relatively harmless to the robotic explorers, Lemmon said.While dust storm activity in Opportunity's region of Mars is winding down, team members with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiters noticed a rise in activity about two weeks ago, Lemmon said, adding that researchers are not sure how large the current storm could grow."We started seeing more and more dusting on the solar panels," he added. "And we have indirect evidence that these storms are windy. We've seen material blown out of the rover tracks over the last two weeks."Tickled by the fingersLemmon suspects that Opportunity experienced one of the "fingers" of the storm photographed by Sherrod, adding that later atmospheric measurements were lower than the 1.4 optical depth seen earlier, but not quite at the moderate 0.5."Because we got the warning that something was happening...we were able to get in some atmospheric observations in," Lemmon said. "So if this does give us a direct hit over the rover, we're ready."Lemmon said he and other researchers are eager to learn the properties of the dust within the storm and compare it to the material Opportunity sees daily.Meanwhile, Opportunity's robotic twin Spirit has found some signs of additional atmospheric dust at its Gusev Crater landing site on the other side of Mars.Lemmon said Spirit detected an optical depth of about 0.6, still well within the moderate range, but would likely not experience as significant an increase in dust levels as Opportunity.SPACE.com's Tariq Malik contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- NASA trumpeted five years of human flight on the international space station on Thursday, at a time when U.S. astronauts need Russian vehicles to get there and space agency finances are under fire for mismanagement.Former residents of the orbiting outpost gathered at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to reminisce about their voyages in a televised briefing featuring video clips of weightless space voyagers caroming around with such props as bite-size candies, a guitar and Hawaiian shirts.The first station crew arrived at the complex on November 2, 2000. Ed Lu, a member of the first two-person crew to travel to the station after the fatal disintegration of space shuttle Columbia in 2003, described his impressions."We closed the hatch ... Yuri (Malenchenko, Lu's Russian crewmate) and I looked at each other and said to each other, 'What have we gotten ourselves into? You're stuck with me and I'm stuck with you for the next six months. I hope this goes well,'" Lu said. "As it turned out, it went extremely well. It went by much faster than I ever thought it would go."The cost of the ISS, including its development, assembly and operation, could well exceed $100 billion, shared between the participating nations.Only one shuttle has traveled to the station since the Columbia accident, which killed all seven shuttle crew members. With the shuttle fleet grounded until at least May 2006, Lu and Malenchenko were ferried aloft by a Russian Soyuz space taxi, currently the only mode of human transport to the station.Both houses of the U.S. Congress had to pass legislation to ensure that Americans will continue to have a ride aboard Soyuz until 2011, because of the Iran Nonproliferation Act, which bars the U.S. use of most Russian space technology as long as Russia exports nuclear and missile technology to Iran.President George W. Bush is expected to sign a waiver to the act that allows astronaut travel to the station aboard Russian space ships. The waiver would cover astronauts until the shuttles are phased out in 2010 after the completion of the space station.First envisioned in the 1980s, the 16-nation project has been repeatedly scaled down as costs rose. At this point, NASA figures it will take 18 shuttle flights -- down from 28 -- to complete construction. No station construction flights will occur until after next May's mission, while NASA tackles a persistent problem with falling debris on liftoff.The U.S. space agency must deal with physical challenges, including unexpected delays prompted by recent hurricanes, but it also must get its finances in order.A report issued on Thursday by Congress' General Accountability Office found a long-term high risk for waste, fraud and abuse at NASA, largely due to the lack of reliable information on how much it spends on contractors and how well the contractors perform.In 2003, NASA's independent auditors found the agency could not reconcile a $1.7 billion difference between what NASA thought it had and what was actually in its balance in the U.S. Treasury.That difference was whittled to $46.6 million by the end of September, according to Gwendolyn Sykes, the space agency's chief financial officer, in testimony at a congressional hearing on NASA's finances."The testimony we've heard has been depressing, totally depressing," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. "NASA has an image of overcoming challenges that are preventing humankind from going into space. It seems that NASA has been unable to overcome the challenge of good financial record-keeping."Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Worried that bird flu in Asia could morph into a human flu pandemic, healthy patients, schools and even some doctors are asking if they should stock up on Tamiflu -- the one medicine experts believe might help fight the virus.Although some doctors' groups say no, the agency in charge of the nation's public health has no answer. That has frustrated local health officials who want to know how to advise people."Those are questions that are under discussion," Christina Pearson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said this week. "Right now we're focused on the seasonal flu."HHS includes the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose job includes dispensing public health recommendations."A lot of people have asked the CDC to provide some guidance about this, with patients asking doctors for prescriptions," said Dr. Craig Conover, medical director for the Illinois Department of Public Health.Personal hoarding isn't fair, he said, "but on the other hand, I have heard people say that the more this gets used, the more manufacturing ability they'll develop. We've chosen to wait for CDC guidance on this."Tamiflu is a prescription pill designed to treat regular flu. But it also seems to offer some protection to people against the type of flu that has devastated Asian poultry flocks and is spreading to birds in Europe. Bird flu has killed more than 60 people over the past two years.On Thursday, Tamiflu's Swiss maker, Roche Holding AG, said it was temporarily suspending shipment to private U.S. suppliers because of increased global demand."We've seen recently some very large purchases at the wholesale level, companies or large entities who are possibly hoarding Tamiflu right now," said Darien Wilson, spokeswoman at Roche's U.S. offices in Nutley, N.J.Prescriptions for the drug last week were nearly quadruple what they were a year before, according to Verispan, a Pennsylvania-based company that monitors pharmacy sales.And this winter's flu season hasn't even started yet.Maura Robbins of Chicago said she and her husband have discussed whether to seek prescriptions for their two young children as a precaution against a pandemic. They won't for now, because they "didn't want to buy into the hysteria or overreact," she said.Dr. Bennett Kaye, a pediatrician affiliated with Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, said he tells patients that stocking up on Tamiflu "is definitely a bad, bad idea."The virus circulating among Asian birds is not spreading between people and is not even very easy for people to catch from birds."Parents should not be worried about their kids catching bird flu this year unless they're planning on visiting a chicken farm in Vietnam," Kaye said.Published reports suggest that some doctors are keeping supplies of Tamiflu to give to family and friends in case the bird flu mutates into a bigger threat, but no doctors reached for this story acknowledged that.The American Medical Association is against personal stockpiling and says the misuse of Tamiflu could lead to drug-resistant flu strains.The American Academy of Pediatrics is preparing a statement urging pediatricians "not to do personal or organizational stockpiles," said Dr. John Bradley, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' infectious disease committee. "The last sentence of the statement is that no pediatrician on this committee has a personal stockpile or is prescribing the drug" for healthy people.Dr. Deborah Yokoe, an infectious disease specialist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said, "Doctors are human, too. They have the same sorts of anxieties themselves. I'm sure some are keeping supplies, too."Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a notice advising against personal stockpiling, prompted by patients' questions, and Yokoe said such messages will discourage some doctors from writing advance prescriptions for a potential flu pandemic.Tamiflu isn't the only hot commodity being sought because of pandemic worries.Kimberly-Clark Health Care says it has "ramped up to full capacity" face mask production to keep up with bird flu-linked demand from governments, hospitals and individuals. Surgical N-95 masks protect against airborne disease transmission.Company spokesman David Parks declined to specify numbers but said some orders have been 50 times higher than usual.3M spokeswoman Jacqueline Berry also reported a rise in face-mask orders but said reasons for demand include hurricane-related mold problems.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (AP) -- The ringleader of a scheme that bilked investors out of millions of dollars was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday, but not before the screaming defendant was removed from the courtroom.Janet Mavis Marcusse was convicted of defrauding 577 people of $12.7 million and laundering the money through bank accounts opened under the names of nonexistent churches.Marcusse, 49, spoke for more than an hour at the hearing, accusing the government of setting her up. She walked away from the lectern as U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell began issuing her sentence, prompting the judge to order U.S. marshals to bring her back, prosecutor Mike Schipper said.Marcusse yelled repeatedly at the judge while she was restrained, saying "I don't recognize you" before she was removed from the courtroom, Schipper said. Bell sentenced her and ordered the court reporter to give the defendant a copy of the transcript, the prosecutor said."It's unfortunate that she was unable to maintain the decorum of the court and show the respect to Judge Bell that Judge Bell showed her by allowing her to speak for over an hour," said David L. Kaczor, a federal public defender assigned to help Marcusse prepare her defense. She had refused to be represented by a lawyer.Prosecutors said Marcusse led a ring that preyed on investors including many retirees who lost their life savings. There were victims throughout the United States, but most were from western Michigan.Paul Stinger, 63, of Spring Lake, lost about $150,000 in the scam. He had retired from his production job at Steelcase Inc., a Grand Rapids-based maker of office furniture where about a quarter of the victims worked, but he now has a construction job to make ends meet."I lost everything," he said. "I have no retirement."Marcusse was convicted in June of 61 counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering. Seven others convicted in the case were sentenced this month to prison terms ranging from five to 20 years.Marcusse was living in Grand Rapids when the investigation started but fled with her investment records to the Branson, Missouri, area in 2002. She remained a fugitive until 2004, when authorities tracked her to a cabin in a wooded area of rural Missouri, prosecutors said.Marcusse accused the government of tampering with witnesses and other prosecutorial misconduct. Schipper called the allegations "absolutely baseless."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Black civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks would become the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda under resolutions considered Thursday by lawmakers.Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 led to a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system and helped spark the modern civil rights movement. She died Monday in Detroit at age 92.The Senate approved a resolution Thursday allowing her remains to lie in honor in the Rotunda on Sunday and Monday "so that the citizens of the United States may pay their last respects to this great American." The House was expected to consider the resolution Friday.In most cases, only presidents, members of Congress and military commanders have been permitted to lie in the Rotunda.Parks would be the first woman and second black American to receive the accolade. Jacob J. Chestnut, one of two Capitol police officers fatally shot in 1998, was the first black American to lie in honor, said Senate historian Richard Baker.Parks also would be the second non-governmental official to be commemorated that way. The remains of Pierre L'Enfant -- the French-born architect who was responsible for the design of Washington, D.C. -- stopped at the Capitol in 1909 -- 84 years after his death in 1825.The most recent person to lie in repose in the Capitol was President Reagan in 2004.Officials with the Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit said at one point that Parks would lie in repose at the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service, however, said those plans were never formalized.Lila Cabbil, the institute's president emeritus, said Thursday the information was released prematurely and the foundation and the Parks family were working with Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Michigan, and the White House to make arrangements to have a viewing in Washington.The Capitol event was one of several planned to honor the civil rights pioneer. Parks will lie in repose Saturday at the St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and a memorial service will be held at the church Sunday morning.Following her viewing in the Capitol, a memorial service was planned for Monday at St. Paul AME Church in Washington.From Monday night until Wednesday morning, Parks will lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. Her funeral will be Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit.Officials in Detroit and Montgomery, Alabama, meanwhile, said the first seats of their buses would be reserved as a tribute to Parks' legacy until her funeral next week. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick put a black ribbon Thursday on the first passenger seat of one of about 200 buses where seats will be reserved."We cannot do enough to pay tribute to someone who has so positively impacted the lives of millions across the world," Kilpatrick said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the White House turns its attention to finding a new Supreme Court nominee, conservative activists relieved at Harriet Miers' withdrawal are vowing to oppose President Bush's next nominee unless the candidate has solid conservative credentials."I think [conservative groups] will swing into action again" if they disagree with his next pick, said Phyllis Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum. "The judicial issue was a major issue in the 2004 elections, and it was a reason why many people voted for Bush even though they might have been unhappy [with him] for other reasons."No announcement concerning a new nominee was expected Friday.Schlafly said Bush has "a dozen" possible people that conservative activists would accept, while she singled out U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a nominee they could not embrace. (Possible nominees)"It is hard to find anyone else like Miers, unless you are talking about Gonzales," she said. "Most of the same arguments would be there. I think [conservative critics] would simply pick up where they left off."Leaders on the far right opposed the nomination of Miers, the White House counsel, because they did not believe she would fit in the conservative mold of current Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. And for many of these leaders, the same fear lies with Gonzales.Choosing Gonzales, who preceded Miers as White House counsel, also could conflict with Bush's explanation for Miers' withdrawal -- concerns that senators wanted documents of privileged discussions between the president and his top lawyer. (Full story)A senior administration official told CNN that the next choice will be based at least in part on the "lessons learned" from Miers' nomination. (See video on lessons learned -- 1:53)Meanwhile, Americans surveyed in a national poll Thursday expressed mixed feelings about Miers' withdrawal as a nominee for the Supreme Court. (Full story)In addition to Miers' perceived lack of conservative credentials, the White House also could consider two other points of criticism on her nomination: her lack of experience as a judge or with constitutional law; and her close ties to the president, which prompted Democratic concerns about her judicial independence.Conservatives expressed concern that Miers' lack of a paper trail left few clues on how she might rule on issues important to them. (Watch video on why the nomination fell apart -- 2:51)By comparison, Bush's choice of John Roberts, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to replace the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist encountered little resistance, winning Senate approval in a 78-22 vote. Bush said he would name his new selection "in a timely manner," and after the selection process that resulted in the Roberts and Miers nominations, considerable research has been done.Democrats, however, urged the president to have patience with the process and to pick a nominee in the judicial "mainstream.""The president now should take his time," said Sen. Charles Schumer. "The president should do it right: slowly, deliberately, carefully, with real consultation and real consensus.""These are very difficult times for the country, and the nation cries out for unity," said the New York Democrat, who serves on the Judiciary Committee. Addressing his comments to Bush, Schumer added, "Please help bring America together with a choice that unites, not divides us."Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, another Democrat on the committee, called for "the necessary independence from partisan factions."Conservatives said they would refrain from endorsing a particular candidate before Bush chooses a nominee to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was nominated by President Reagan and became a moderate, swing vote on the high court.But Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said leaders within the conservative movement would not remain silent on what type of person they want on the bench."Very clearly, there is going to be a call for a nominee that can have the enthusiastic support from the people that supported the president," he said.Gary Bauer, president of the conservative American Values organization, acknowledged that "there is a great relief" among his conservative allies that Miers ended her nomination bid. He said it offers Bush a second chance to nominate someone with a defined conservative philosophy."It has been a difficult three weeks, not only for her and the president but for those of us on the outside who were not able to justify or rationalize the nomination," Bauer said.Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee called for "a highly qualified nominee who is committed to upholding the Constitution and who believes in the limited role of a judge to interpret the law and not legislate from the bench." (Watch video on potential nominees -- 3:42)Choosing a woman?While conservative activists seem to agree the next candidate for the court should subscribe to a conservative philosophy, there might be a split on whether the next nominee should be a woman -- an option supported by O'Connor and first lady Laura Bush.Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Louis P. Sheldon said he favors replacing O'Connor with another woman and cited three appellate court judges as possible choices: Edith Hollan Jones and Priscilla Owen of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Janice Rogers Brown, who recently joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."I think we should have a woman this time," Sheldon said. "Isn't the [justice] retiring a woman?"Another judge on the 5th Circuit, Edith Clement, was among the finalists interviewed by Bush before he selected Roberts.But a senior official with Concerned Women for America said gender should not be a determining factor as Bush decides who should be his next nominee."For us it is not about sex, race or creed," said Lanier Swann, the conservative group's director of government relations. "It is really about their ability to fairly interpret the Constitution."One potential female candidate whom some observers have called a "Roberts clone" is Maureen Mahoney, a private attorney at Latham & Watkins in Washington. Like Roberts, she once clerked for Rehnquist.The only woman on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, objected to the mention of Brown as a candidate. "That would be a real problem," the California Democrat said. "Her opinions are extraordinarily, extraordinarily out of the box. They didn't even make sense." She called for the president to name a nominee "in the mainstream of American jurisprudence, who can help bring this nation together." Both Brown and Owen have been the subject of Democratic filibusters. (Full story)One conservative leader suggested Bush could help bring together a Republican Party in "disarray" by nominating a conservative that Democrats would vehemently oppose."A fight I think would be helpful," said the leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "What will bring people together is to have a common goal, and that would be the nomination of a conservative nominee."But not all conservative activists were pleased that Miers chose not to stay and fight for her nomination."I am just very disappointed that it had to come to this," said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America. "I wish she would have stayed in. I don't think she deserved this."The most recent Supreme Court nominee to withdraw was Douglas Ginsburg in 1987, whom President Reagan selected after Robert Bork was rejected. Ginsburg withdrew his nomination after admitting he had used marijuana, and Reagan's subsequent pick of appeals court judge Anthony Kennedy was successful.CNN's Mark Preston contributed to this report.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Two authors are taking Dan Brown's publisher to court in Britain over claims that his best-selling book, "The Da Vinci Code," features stolen ideas.Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing publisher Random House, claiming that Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" lifts ideas from their 1982 nonfiction book, "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail." Their work explores theories that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that their blood line continues to the present day.A similar theme is explored in Brown's novel, which has sold some 25 million copies around the world and is being made into a Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks.Lawyers for both sides met Thursday at London's High Court to agree on details of a trial, scheduled to start February 27. They reached an agreement outside court on technical details of the case.A spokesman for Random House said the parties had agreed that a "substantial part" of the claim would be dropped.In August, a U.S. judge ruled that "The Da Vinci Code" does not infringe on the copyrights of a book published in 2000 by another author.U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels said Dan Brown's book exploring codes hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork is not substantially similar to "Daughter of God," by Lewis Perdue, who had threatened to sue and demanded $150 million for perceived infringement.Brown's book "is simply a different story," Daniels said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- For someone used to confronting vengeful gods, vampire bats must seem like chicken feed.In the CBS movie "Vampire Bats," Lucy Lawless -- forever famous as the scantily clad, weapon-wielding superwoman in the syndicated action series "Xena: Warrior Princess" -- plays Dr. Maddy Rierdon, "an everywoman," as Lawless calls her.Lawless, 37, first appeared as Rierdon in April, taking on a plague of bioengineered insects in "Locusts." That movie's appeal to a younger demographic (so vital now that the CBS Sunday night movie is up against the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives") has spawned this sequel, which airs Sunday at 9 p.m Eastern. Dylan Neal reprises his role as Rierdon's husband, and Timothy Bottoms and Brett Butler co-star.Lawless has no pretensions about "Vampire Bats" having a serious message, although the two-hour tale does indicate industrial pollution mutated the bats into little monsters."It's really fun and the people who make it are fun. They don't take themselves too seriously," says Lawless, explaining why she again signed on to play a character, who is -- bats aside -- closer to her own reality as a working mother of three.She's usually more interested in roles that provide escapism from her daily norm.Producer Frank von Zerneck says Lawless was an apt pick to play "a smart, headstrong woman, very well-trained, with connections in Washington, who really takes charge.""Lucy's got two feet on the ground; she's very, very strong and yet has a wonderful soft side that she reveals here. She's a dream to work with -- and talk about tricky circumstances," he adds, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which forced the production to move out of New Orleans.Lawless spent hours in a car with "dramatic weather rolling over us," en route to Baton Rouge, where she stayed with other crew members for a few days.Luckily, no real bats had to travel with them because the creatures are computer-generated. "Live bats are very hard to wrangle," quips the New Zealand-born actress.But one oversized animatronic bat was created. "Its mouth opens. Its tongue comes out. Its eyes bulge. Its head moves side to side. All those delicious things," von Zerneck says, laughing.Even before "Xena" ended production in 2001 after six seasons, Lawless started displaying her versatility. In 1997 she appeared on Broadway as Rizzo in the musical "Grease." Earlier this year in Seattle, she performed in a production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."Those experiences reminded her that being a musical star was her dream back in Mount Albert, Auckland, where she grew up as Lucille Ryan -- possibly a "throwback" to her great-grandmother, a vaudevillian.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. is doubling the price of its online music subscription service for portable MP3 players, ending a short-lived promotion that sought to lure consumers from Apple Computer Inc.'s market-leading iTunes store.Effective November 1, Yahoo will charge about $120 annually for access via download to more than 1 million songs that can then be transferred to portable players. The Internet powerhouse has been charging just under $60 annually -- a price most industry observers predicted wouldn't last when Yahoo entered the market in early May.Subscribing to the service on a monthly basis will cost $11.99, up from $6.99 under the initial pricing plan. That's closer to but still below services from Napster Inc. and RealNetworks Inc., which each charge just under $15 per month.With its service, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo joined Napster and RealNetworks in trying to sell the concept of renting an unlimited amount of tunes for a set fee instead of buying copies individually.The rental approach is supposed to encourage customers to sample different genres and discover new artists. But if the subscription expires, the previously downloaded music becomes unplayable. Customers at Apple's iTunes store, by contrast, keep the songs they buy.Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Yahoo's low rental prices didn't impress most consumers because the service isn't compatible with Apple's iPod -- which boasts about 75 percent of the market for portable players."About 90 percent of the (iTunes) music store's success has to do with the devices that it works with," Munster said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(AP) -- Watching a TV show requires far more attention than listening to a song, so it would be no surprise if Apple Computer Inc.'s new video-capable iPod music player provided a less-than-satisfying viewing experience.After all, the stylish design that puts thousands of songs in your pocket may not seem so cool after you've held it up to your face for hours. And while a tiny screen is great for displaying tune titles, a full-length TV show is another story.Though Apple could not overcome the inherent shortcomings of video on its popular portable, the latest iPod does a superb job of making the drawbacks seem far less significant than might be expected.For one, it's touting video as a feature, not the focus, which remains music. It's also kept the same price as the previous generation -- $299 for the 30-gigabyte model (7,500 songs) and $399 for the 60 GB model (15,000 songs).The color display has been bumped up to 2.5 inches from 2 inches while the gadget's overall size has been kept to roughly the length and width of a playing card. Both models are noticeably less thick than previous models.And the battery life has been extended to 12 hours on the 30 GB model and 20 hours on the 60 GB model when playing music.The improvements not only enable the video feature but also enhance music listening and slideshow viewing. Apple has created a compelling reason to buy an iPod even if it's never used to watch a single video.But with all the attention given to video in the months leading up to the launch earlier this month, most new iPod owners will give it a try.Purchasing and transferring a show is just as easy as music at Apple's iTunes Music Store. The content, once downloaded to the computer, automatically transfers to the portable as soon as its connected via a USB cable.With a 6-megabit-per-second DSL connection, an episode of "Desperate Housewives" was downloaded and transferred to a unit in about 10 minutes. Using the click wheel, you start the video just as you would a song or a slideshow.The program looked remarkably clear, and had no problem reading the tiny credits at the beginning and end of the show. The video was largely stutter-free, the audio quality pristine.Surprisingly you can hold the iPod in a comfortable viewing position for the 44 minutes of the episode (no commercials!). This might turn out to be a very popular iPod use on subways, buses and airplanes.But continuous video playing severely cuts down the battery life. A 30 GB model lasted just 2.5 hours -- still 30 minutes longer than Apple promised -- before it ran out of juice.Unlike music bought at the online store, video can't be transferred to a CD or DVD from the new iPod, thanks to copyright protection technology though an optional cable can be used to display an iPod show on a regular TV.The biggest problem is the anemic selection of commercial programming.Outside video can, of course, be transferred to the new iPod. But so far, offerings are slim in the video department of Apple's iTunes music store.There are episodes from five Disney television shows -- including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" -- for $1.99 a pop. ITunes charges the same to download one of the 2,000 music videos or a half-dozen Pixar Animation Studios shorts.The business model is promising. If only more content owners would open their vaults.Even when counting the music videos and video podcasts, the selection pales compared to the 200,000 song tracks available when the iTunes Music Store launched in 2003. Today, it has more than 2 million songs.Movie studios, television networks and other content providers must determine whether there's money to be made in Apple's latest online venture without cannibalizing their existing businesses.While waiting for the number of titles to grow, iPod owners can fill their players with home movies and other video, provided their software can encode the video in a supported format (H.264 or MPEG-4 video) and other specifications.It's a fairly easy process on a Mac equipped with Apple's iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Windows users are advised to buy QuickTime Pro ($30), which has an export setting specifically for iPod video.Though watching home movies is fun, the promise of commercial content will interest a lot more people. But there's no indication when more TV shows or even movies might arrive on an iPod near you.In the meantime, there's always music.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein manipulated the United Nations oil-for-food program so that his regime received $1.8 billion in illicit payments, a U.N.-backed independent report said Thursday.The investigation, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said kickbacks came from some 66 member states and illicit surcharges came from 40 member states."Oil surcharges were paid in connection with the contracts of 139 companies and humanitarian kickbacks were paid in connection with the contracts of 2,253 companies," the report said.In a speech to the General Assembly, Volcker recommended the United Nations undertake "fundamental and wide-ranging administrative reform" to ensure future programs are not similarly corrupted."Corruption of the program by Saddam and many participants could not have been nearly so pervasive with more disciplined management by the United Nations," he told the U.N. governing body."At stake is whether the organization will be able to act effectively."He called for the secretary-general -- typically selected for diplomatic rather than organizational skills -- to hire a strong chief operating officer to ensure oversight, auditing and inspection functions are better insulated from management influence and control."What's needed is a widely respected, independent oversight body ... equipped with enough staff to review budgeting and staffing," he said.In the audience was Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who told reporters afterward he would "take measures to strengthen the organization," adding that he had already had received proposals "to ensure that, in the future, we are better equipped to handle this sort of program."The report -- the probe's eighth and final document released about the now-defunct program since August 2004 -- describes "how thousands of contractors, wittingly or unwittingly, facilitated the process," Volcker told reporters earlier at a New York hotel.It is based in large part on data from the former regime itself, supplemented by banking and other records, Volcker said.He called the oil-for-food program -- which began in late 1996 and ended in 2003 -- "the mother of all humanitarian programs," noting that thousands of employees were involved in running it.A critical point came in 2000, when the program was almost three years old and "the regime began openly to demand illicit payments from its customers," the report said."Iraq's largest source of illicit income under the program came from kickbacks paid by companies that had been selected to receive contracts for humanitarian goods," the report said."Available evidence indicates that Iraq derived more than $1.5 billion of income from the kickbacks."Once the kickbacks and payoffs became generalized, "it should have been caught. There were provisions in the program and in its management and oversight that should have permitted it to be caught."By the time the surcharge program ended two years later, the Iraqi government had received $228.8 million in illicit income, the report said.Program had separate goalThe program sought to ease the toll of sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the 1991 Persian Gulf War by allowing Iraq to sell oil to provide revenue for humanitarian needs.Volcker blamed Hussein's ability to decide how much to charge and to whom to sell for making it easy for him to manipulate the program.In addition to its humanitarian component, oil-for-food had a separate goal, which was to keep Hussein from obtaining or maintaining unconventional weapons, Volcker said. Though the program appears to have succeeded on both counts, "that success came with a high cost; in my judgment, an intolerably high cost," he said.The 630-page report said there was plenty of blame to go around. Though the oil overseers expressed concern to the U.N. secretariat and to the Security Council about Iraq's demands for payment, "little action was taken," it said.The report cited Banque Nationale de Paris, which held the escrow account for the $64 billion program and provided the letters of credit needed for the financing, saying it "was in a position to have firsthand knowledge" of what was going on but "did not recognize a particular responsibility to adequately inform the U.N."In response, BNP said it operated through subsidiaries and affiliates that could not share customer information with each other, an argument the report described as "unpersuasive."In addition, the report said countries that "were responsible for approving their national companies to do business with the program took no action."The report pointed to a number of contracts with Russian companies, which it said accounted for about 30 percent of oil sales."By far, the largest portion of surcharge payments went through the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow between March 2001 and December 2002," when more than $52 million in surcharges was paid, the report said.Companies deny involvementThe companies have denied involvement, despite being confronted with evidence, the report said.Among those cited were subsidiaries for Siemens, one of the world's largest electrical engineering and electronics companies.The subsidiaries -- in France, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates -- "paid kickbacks to the Iraqi regime in order to obtain program contracts," the report said.The company, in a written response published in the report, said its own inquiries "cannot confirm the committee's allegations" and that its management considers the conclusions "premature" and "unjustified."Volvo of Sweden, which sold $11.8 million in heavy construction equipment to the regime under the oil-for-food program, was cited for having paid kickbacks of more than $317,000 in April 2002 to Iraq's central bank account in Amman, Jordan.The company decided not to furnish any contrary evidence, the report said, though its vice president and general counsel said in a letter to the commission, which was published in the report, that the conclusions were not supported by the evidence.The report said Marc Rich & Co. financed 4 million barrels of oil under a 9.5-million-barrel contract awarded to the European Oil and Trading Co., a French-based shell company."Surcharges were imposed on the oil," the report said, and "Marc Rich & Co. directed BNP Paris not to disclose its identity to BNP NY in connection with its financing of the U.N. contract."It added, "According to an individual familiar with the companies, EOTC and Marc Rich & Co. agreed that the premium paid to EOTC would cover a commission and a surcharge. The premium paid by Marc Rich & Co. of 30-40 cents per barrel was sufficiently high to cover both."The company responded that it "continues to dispute vigorously" the report's conclusion.The report named Daimler Chrysler for having "knowingly made or caused to be made a kickback payment of approximately $7,134."The report said the payment was known to at least one managerial-level person working for the company in Germany.The company issued as statement saying it was aware of the report and "in light of ongoing investigations" had no comment.Volcker cautioned that just because a company's individual contract was identified as the subject of an illicit payment "doesn't necessarily mean that company made, authorized or even knew about the illicit payment."The report names British Member of Parliament George Galloway for receiving proceeds, either directly or through an associate, from 18 million barrels of oil. (Galloway challenges senators)Galloway, a critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, heatedly denied the allegation.Volcker said he had found no evidence linking former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who led the world body from 1992 to 1996, to any of the corruption schemes.Annan's son was employed by a contractor that got an oil contract, and Volcker's panel in September released findings that criticized the elder Annan. (Full story) Annan himself authorized an inquiry into his son's dealings, but Volcker was not impressed at the elder Annan's move."It was not much of an inquiry," Volcker said Thursday. "We have criticized him, I think, about as severely as you can in saying he made a mistake."Volcker said the commission members would make themselves and their information available to any law enforcement or regulatory agencies that might want to pursue particular cases, but would disband in about a month.In New York, meanwhile, Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. pleaded not guilty Thursday to felony charges of conspiring to pay kickbacks as part of the oil-for-food program.U.S. District Judge Denny Chin set a June 20 trial date for Wyatt, former chairman of Coastal Corp.CNN's Liz Neisloss contributed to this report.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- France has informed the Thai government that three tourists who became ill after visiting Thailand are not carrying the deadly bird flu virus, said a statement issued Friday by the Thai Public Health Ministry.All three were first tested for the virulent H5N1 virus on Reunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. After getting mixed results, more sophisticated follow-up tests were conducted in Paris by the Pasteur Institute.The three were part of a 20-member group of tourists who were reported to have visited a bird park in Thailand."The lab result shows that the three French men suspected of being infected with H5N1 actually have H3N2, which is a normal human flu," Dr. Thawat Suntarajarn, director-general of the ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control, told The Associated Press.Thawat said that he received the information from Dr. Didia Houssin, who he said is overseeing the bird flu tests in France.The initial results on the men were done by "rapid test," which showed positive results but did not distinguish between bird flu and human flu, he said.Even though the men proved free of bird flu, Thai authorities have asked bird parks around the country to stop allowing bird watchers to have close contact with birds, Thawat said, adding that no cases have been found of birds in such parks infected with the virus.Since bird flu swept into Asia in late 2003, Thailand has confirmed 19 human cases of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which have resulted in the deaths of 13 people. The latest fatality -- the first in just over a year -- was a 48-year-old man who died in the past week after handling his neighbors' sick chickens.The man's 7-year-old son also contracted the disease but is recovering. The human cases occurred as fresh outbreaks have also been found among poultry and wild birds in several parts of ThailandDeadly H5N1 bird flu has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing more than 60 people. In recent weeks, cases have also been found in birds in Europe.So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds, but health authorities fear that the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans, possibly causing a global pandemic.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli aircraft fired a rocket Friday targeting a car carrying Islamic Jihad militants, killing one person and wounding another, Palestinian sources said.The sources said the militants were attempting to fire rockets toward Israeli sites in Beit Hanoun, just northeast of Gaza City. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the military targeted militants, saying they were on their way to carrying out a rocket attack.Earlier, the Israeli military said militants fired two rockets from Gaza -- one fell inside Gaza and the other landed in an open field in Israel.The military said it has launched at least three missile strikes on an open field it says Palestinian militants use to fire rockets. There were no reports of damage or injuries.Late Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a car carrying Palestinian militants north of Gaza City, killing seven people, including an Islamic Jihad commander and three other members of the group, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. Three civilians, including a 15-year-old boy and a 60-year-old man, also were killed and at least 14 other Palestinians were wounded, some of them seriously, a source said.The strike came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to crack down on terrorists in response to a suicide bombing on Wednesday that killed five Israelis and wounded 28 people in a market in Hadera, in central Israel.Sharon also said he would not meet with President Mahmoud Abbas until the Palestinian leader takes "serious and tangible action against terrorism."Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide bombing.Sharon approved a number of measures, including targeted killings and arrests, to prevent terror attacks, a Sharon adviser said. (Watch the aftermath of the deadly bombing -- 3:25)Israeli forces surrounded the home of the alleged Hadera bomber, Palestinian sources said, and they also entered the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur al-Shams in the West Bank. No other details were available.On Thursday afternoon, Israeli troops entered Jenin and arrested Abdel Halim Izzedine, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, according to Palestinian security sources. The Israeli forces, traveling in jeeps and helicopters, immediately began a withdrawal from Jenin after the arrest, the sources said. Israeli military sources confirmed that the army had been operating in Jenin, carrying out arrests. The sources said the troops had withdrawn from the West Bank town. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bombing in a crowded Hadera marketplace. In a telephone call to CNN, the group said the attack was in retaliation for Monday's killing of one of its leaders in the West Bank.Fat'halla Sa'adi, 26, the head of Islamic Jihad in Tulkarem, was killed by Israel forces along with another member of the group, the Israeli military said.Sa'adi was planning more attacks, including "a suicide bombing inside Israel ... to be committed within the next few days," according to a statement Monday from the Israeli Defense Forces.The Hadera attack was the first inside Israel since an August 28 suicide bombing in the southern town of Beersheba that wounded 21 people.Palestinian negotiator condemns attackChief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack. He urged all sides to maintain the cease-fire agreement reached by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in February."We don't want to go back to this vicious cycle," Erakat said. "We've been there before. Israelis and Palestinians will pay the heaviest price if the cessation of violence is undermined."Ra'anan Gissin, spokesman for Sharon, dismissed the Palestinian Authority's condemnation and accused its leaders, including Abbas, of "sitting back and doing nothing."Hadera was the site of numerous terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians in 2001 and 2002. The most recent previous attack in Hadera was in October 2002, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a bus packed with passengers. Fourteen people were killed.U.S. urges Palestinian Authority to actIn Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan condemned the Hadera terror bombing as a "heinous attack on innocent civilians" and called on the Palestinian Authority "to do more to end the violence."On Thursday, Israeli airstrikes also targeted a road in Gaza City and a bridge in Beit Hanoun, also in Gaza, the IDF said. For a second day, the IDF said, Israeli airstrikes were aimed at fields in Gaza. There were no reports of injuries in those strikes. The actions came after a Qassam rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel.Earlier this week, the IDF closed off the West Bank because of security alerts. Two crossings into and from Gaza were closed after the Hadera bombing.CNN's Michal Zippori contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In death, Rosa Parks is joining a select few, including presidents and war heroes, accorded a public viewing in the Capitol Rotunda. It's the place where, six years ago, President Clinton and congressional leaders lauded the former seamstress for a simple act of defiance that changed the course of race relations.On Sunday, Parks becomes the first woman to lie in honor in the vast circular room under the Capitol dome.The House agreed by voice vote Friday that the body of Parks will lie in honor in the Rotunda on Sunday and Monday "so that the citizens of the United States may pay their last respects to this great American." The Senate approved the resolution Thursday night.Congress has authorized this rite only 29 times since homage was paid to Henry Clay in 1852. Those honored include Abraham Lincoln, Gen. John Pershing, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey and unknown soldiers from the world wars, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The most recent was President Reagan in June last year.Parks is one of the few not to be a government official or a member of the military. In 1909 Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the architect who designed Washington, D.C., was commemorated 84 years after his death. In 1998 two Capitol Police officers slain in the line of duty lay in the ornate room 180 feet below the Capitol dome.Parks, arrested in 1955 after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, turned to her minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King, for aid. King in turn led a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system that helped initiate the modern civil rights movement."This brave, courageous spirit ignited a movement, not just in Montgomery, but a movement that spread like wildfire across the American South and the nation," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s."The Capitol serves as a beacon of American liberty, freedom and democracy, and Rosa Parks served as the mother of the America we grew to be," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a joint statement.Parks, who for many years worked in the office of Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in ceremonies in the Rotunda in June 1999.Clinton said he was 9 years old when Parks refused to give up her seat. and he and his friends "couldn't figure out anything we could do since we couldn't even vote. So we began to sit in the back of the bus when we got on."In 1987, Parks co-founded a nonprofit group, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, to help young people in Detroit, her home since 1957.According to Conyers' office, a memorial service will be held for Parks at the St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery on Sunday morning.Her body will then be flown to Washington for viewing in the Capitol on Sunday evening and Monday. President Bush is scheduled to attend memorial services at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington on Monday, Conyers' office said. The White House said Bush would also go to the Rotunda to pay his respects.From Monday night until Wednesday morning, Parks will lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, which has restored the bus on which she refused to give up her seat, will truck it to the Wright museum for display.Aretha Franklin is to sing at the funeral Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit, said an official with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute of Self Development.Officials in Detroit and Montgomery, meanwhile, said the first seats of their buses would be reserved as a tribute to Parks' legacy until her funeral. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick put a black ribbon Thursday on the first passenger seat of one of about 200 buses where seats will be reserved."We cannot do enough to pay tribute to someone who has so positively impacted the lives of millions across the world," Kilpatrick said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Do the dividers of your cubicle seem to be closing in on you? Is that awful sound coming from your office actually your career gasping for breath? Does work seem to drone on, week after week, with each day the same as the last? If so, you may be experiencing what Sander Marcus, Ph.D., a professional career counselor with Friedland & Marcus in Chicago, calls "Career Depression Syndrome."Career Depression Syndrome, or discouragement or unhappiness in your job, could stem from high stress levels at work, job burnout or a turbulent job market. Read through this list to see if you recognize yourself in these situations and to find out if you could be at risk for Career Depression Syndrome.1. Overload: When people leave your company, instead of being replaced, are the remaining employees expected to pick up the slack and work two jobs for the price of one? Doing double-duty temporarily until the department is reorganized or a replacement is hired is fine. However, you cannot continue like this for long.2. Unsung hero: Are your extra hours and "go the extra mile for the client" attitude unrecognized or unrewarded? If so, you need to start making some noise about your accomplishments. "Sometimes, you can't just do your best," Dr. Marcus advises. "You have to let people know you're doing your best. Show how your actions positively impact the company."3. Out of the loop: Has a change in management left you out in the cold? Heed the signs. This could bring your career to a screeching halt or worse, signal the end of your job. "Always keep an updated list of accomplishments ready," Dr. Marcus says. "This information may help influence your new boss, or it makes it easier to update your resume if you think your job is in jeopardy."4. Looming dread: Do you dread getting out of bed in the morning because it means you have to face another day at work? Is your weekend cut short because Sunday is spent dreading Monday and the return to grind? Then it's time to rejuvenate your interest in your job. Set some new goals for yourself and stick to attaining them.5. Is this all there is? Do you find your productivity slipping and that you lack a general interest in your job? It could mean it's time for some career enrichment. "Take courses, seminars. Find out what's new in your industry. These are necessary moves to keep you interested and from becoming obsolete," Dr. Marcus warns.6. Temper, temper: Do you find minor challenges either at work or at home touch you off more often? Then it's time for an attitude adjustment. "Don't ever lose your professionalism even if you are being treated poorly," Marcus says. It's never a good idea to burn bridges.7. Alienation: Do you no longer feel like investing emotionally in your co-workers? If you start daydreaming when your co-worker tells you the funny thing her cats did last night, or if the extent of your participation in lunchroom conversations is, "Uh-huh," in your mind you may already have one foot out the door.If you've answered, "Yes," to five or more of these questions, your job is most definitely at a dead end and you are at risk for Career Depression Syndrome. It's time to look at the "big picture" of where your career is headed and map out a strategy to get you where you really want to go.If you see yourself in three to four of the situations described, your career is definitely on cruise control. You need to revisit your career plan and get yourself back on the right path.If only one or two of these scenarios look familiar, you're probably OK, but keep an eye out for the symptoms which can lead your career down a dead end.

(CNN) -- Development and storms have eroded much of the coastal wetlands that provide "speed bumps" for approaching storms. CNN.com asked readers whether steps should be taken to rebuild them. Here is a sampling of those responses, some of which have been edited:It's terrible to me to think of the loss of New Orleans, as I grew up there. But I'd much rather see us spend "my" money rebuilding the wetlands than rebuilding cities on sand. "Build not your home upon the sand but upon a rock." Most of us who actually work hard for the pittance we earn simply cannot afford to continue rebuilding homes and businesses for those who choose to live on a delta, coastline, fault line, or national forest. Suzanne Core, Cripple Creek, ColoradoRebuilding Louisiana's coastal wetlands offers an opportunity to rebuild more than just a natural buffer to approaching storms. Those wetlands destroyed by short-sighted development are vital to the life histories of many marine animals and the industries dependant on them. They would also provide living space for many "noncommercial" species facing unrelenting habitat destruction. To those who say Nature can take care of itself, Nature has little defense against a bulldozer. Learn from our mistakes, and let's give these areas the appreciation and respect they deserve. David, North Charleston, South CarolinaI live in Florida and see everyday the destruction development has on coastal areas. My thoughts are simple, rebuild the damaged wetlands as a barrier, but do not allow commercial or residential development. I agree that for every disaster, insurance premiums rise -- why should I have to pay for someone else's lifestyle? If you choose to live close to the coast, you are choosing to place yourself closer to the forces of nature. Toni Anderson, Hilliard, FloridaWetlands are a major source of American food and need to be protected for that reason alone. Congress needs to back the Corps of Engineers so they can channel development away from wetlands. Today they exist without purpose, rubber stamping almost every wetland permit. Restoring and preserving wetlands should be a national priority. Catherine Driessen, Kimberly, WisconsinIsn't the ocean reclaiming its own territory anyway? Why are people arrogantly or ignorantly building up shorelines when we have professionals claiming a rise in the ocean levels every year? We've partly done this to ourselves; our world and climate are changing. But what I don't understand is how people can continue to build in these areas and have their damage compensated by taxpayers. If private citizens want to build in those areas, let them do so and insure it from their own pocket. Public or state contractors should be listening to those environmentalists that are shouting their concerns about global warming and its effects. Remember "The Day After Tomorrow"? Charles, Suffolk, VirginiaConsidering most of the comments against wetland rebuilding posted on the feedback page, I do not believe there is an accurate picture of the destruction that has occurred by unnatural processes (by us). Much of the Gulf Coast region has been prevented from regenerating itself by our "progress." We can build smarter without breaking the bank. Rita, Katrina, Ivan, and other hurricanes did not wipe out several hundred square miles of wetlands. We did. If there is no value to the coastal wetlands other than a "speed bump," please consider their value the next time you eat a plate of seafood. Stephen R., Meridian, Mississippi Wetlands are of vital importance to the coastal protection. They help to slow down and diminish storm surges, filter water of contaminants, and provide habitat that promote the spawning of fish, shellfish, and keep waterfowl populations up. The benefits are endless, both economic and environmental, that there should be no question, especially in this post-Katrina world, to save and preserve this nation's wetlands. Jennifer Heller, Washington Large-scale restoration projects, such as the proposed Third Conveyance Channel are the only projects capable of moving enough silt to build up the deltas we have lost to coastal erosion. And, these channels should rightfully receive 15-20 percent of the Mississippi River water above New Orleans, because when the silt continues flowing down past New Orleans, it drops off the outer continental shelf at the mouth of the river, not helping anyone. Henri Boulet, Larose, LouisianaYes. The rich natural resources of the region and the culture that they nurture, resources and culture that benefit and are enjoyed by many throughout the nation, depend on it. Restoration is vital to the productivity of the region and, based on engineering and science, is doable with the support of the American people and a commitment from Louisiana citizens to make the adjustments and sacrifices to make it work. Restoration is linked directly to the feasibility of securing flood protection sufficient to support commerce and economic activity that supports the region and the nation. Randy Lanctot, Baton Rouge, LouisianaThe loss of the state's coastal wetlands is a complicated issue. No matter how much money is thrown at the issue, some areas can be restored while others simply cannot be restored at any cost. The state's comprehensive Coast 2005 proposal should be used as a guide and funds spent only where there is some reasonable chance for effective action. Jay Huner, Boyce, LouisianaThe issue of rebuilding the coastal wetlands is not a choice between nature or business/commerce. Rebuilding the wetlands is the wisest decision for the environment AND for the economy. When wetlands thrive, so does the business of eco-tourism. If the wetlands are reconstructed, the coastal cities will be better protected saving millions (billions?) of dollars in future storm damage and savings perhaps thousands of lives. Healthy wetlands mean cleaner coastal waters and a flourishing fishing industry. It is time to realize that protecting the environment is about far more than hugging trees. Protecting the environment is about the economic health of a region, the physical well-being of area residents, and respect for Mother Nature and her creatures ... including mankind. Steve, Boulder, ColoradoI live along the Pacific coast in Costa Rica. We have three kilometers of beachfront and one kilometer of river frontage and all is natural forest or mangrove. Much of the forest and mangrove was here when the land was purchased and cleared land was allowed to return to its natural state with species common to this area. There was no planting of foreign species to the area. During the rages of Katrina, Rita and Wilma we, too, were affected indirectly with torrential rains. Our land remained intact with no serious flooding and no erosion. But our neighbors who had cleared wetlands, beachfront and riverfront all received major damage both in property and homes. A lesson to be learned? Definitely! Respect and learn to live with nature and you will be protected. Destroy nature and a high price will be paid. Diane, Dominical, Costa RicaKatrina took out 30 miles of land that wasn't wetland but was people's homes and businesses. Do the math on how many storms like that it'll take before your back yard is on the Gulf of Mexico. Adam, New Orleans, LouisianaYes, we should rebuild the wetlands. The Mississippi is the watershed for one-third of our nation's rain. It deposited sediment at the Gulf, creating the marshland, for thousands of years. When we rebuild, serious effort should be made to channel off the sediment all along the coastline to start rebuilding the marshes. In addition to providing a buffer for storms, the wetlands improve water quality, provide habitat for numerous wildlife species and support a multi-billion dollar fishing, sports and tourism industry. David Lindley, Boerne, Texas

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department -- 45 officers and six civilian employees -- were fired Friday for allegedly abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina."They were terminated due to them abandoning the department prior to the storm," acting superintendent Warren Riley said. "They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them."Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.The mass firing was the first action taken against the missing officers. Another 15 officers resigned when placed under investigation for abandonment."This isn't representative of our department," Riley said. "We had a lot of heroes that stepped up after the storm."Another 45 officers resigned from the force after the August 29 storm. The resignations were for personal reasons ranging from relocation to new employment, Riley said.The fired officers do not have the right to appeal, Riley said."The regulation says that if you leave the job for a period of 14 days without communication you can be terminated," Riley said. "I don't think they have the right to a civil service appeal."Lt. David Benelli, president of the New Orleans police union, said he had no sympathy for those who abandoned their post."The worst thing you can call a police officer is a deserter," Benelli said.None of the officers had contacted the union about fighting the dismissals, he said.Two former New Orleans police officers and a New Orleans firefighter were rejected for jobs in the Dallas Police Department because of allegations they deserted their jobs during Hurricane Katrina."When you are ready and take an oath of office and you do not fulfill that office, that's an issue for us and it should be an issue for law enforcement in general," Dallas Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson said Thursday.Hearings for the New Orleans officers that remain under investigation for abandonment will begin November 8 and last four to six months, Riley said.The department is also investigating the beating of a man during his arrest and the alleged assault of an Associated Press television producer."It's still ongoing, but we hope to have a conclusion within a few weeks," Riley said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. has issued 73 subpoenas in an investigation into allegations that euthanasia may have taken place at one of the hospitals flooded by Hurricane Katrina, he told CNN Wednesday night.The subpoenas were served on employees of all levels at Memorial Medical Center, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare, because "cooperation, lately, has not been as good as I had hoped," Foti said. The subpoenas require that people appear before investigators for questioning."Some people were not coming forward. We learned Tenet sent out a letter that had a chilling effect," Foti said. "We had no choice but to issue these subpoenas.""They [Tenet] seem to be in a position of protecting themselves, while we are just trying to get to the facts of what happened at the hospital," the attorney general said.CNN obtained the memo -- dated October 14 -- to which Foti was referring. In it, Tenet's assistant general counsel, Audrey Andrews, advised staff members that "in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you may be contacted by a government representative or a representative of the media.""In fairness to you, if you are contacted by a representative of a state or federal agency, or if you are contacted by the media, you may wish to first confer with legal counsel. You have certain legal rights about which you should be aware."First, you have the right to decide whether or not you wish to be interviewed. You can consent or decline. The decision as to whether or not you consent to be interviewed is yours alone," Andrews said.However, she added that if anyone spoke to investigators, they were obliged to "provide truthful information in response to questioning."Three days after Katrina flooded most of New Orleans, staff members at Memorial had repeated discussions about euthanizing patients they thought might not survive the ordeal, according to a doctor and nurse manager who were in the hospital at the time. Katrina came ashore August 29. (Full story)After allegations of mercy killings surfaced, Foti's office asked that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital after the storm.Tenet has told CNN that most of the 45 patients who died were critically ill, and about 11 patients died the weekend before the hurricane struck and were placed in the morgue."We have asked for certain records from Tenet 15 days ago, and we have yet to receive them," Foti said. "We have also asked for the location and address of every employee working at the hospital at the time of the hurricane, and they have not provided that either."A spokesman for Memorial denied that the hospital has been uncooperative."We have never discouraged any employee from working with the Louisiana attorney general's office. In fact, we know that some have already spoken to his representatives. We've been cooperating with the attorney general's office, and have spoken regularly about employee interviews," the spokesman said.

MEDFORD, Oregon (AP) -- A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said.Christina Goodenow, 38, of White City in southern Oregon faced numerous theft-related charges, forgery and possession of methamphetamine, said authorities, who searched her home Thursday. The card belonged to a deceased relative, they said.If convicted of any of the charges, Goodenow will not be able to collect prize money from the winning ticket, said police Lt. Tim George.Oregon Lottery officials refused to discuss specifics of the case because an investigation is still under way."I'll be fascinated to see how this shakes out," Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said. "In my 12 years with the Oregon Lottery, this is the first time I've encountered something like this."Goodenow purchased the winning ticket October 9 using a credit card that had belonged to her mother-in-law, who died more than a year ago, police said.Goodenow traveled to Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem on October 12 to accept an installment payment of $33,500. The $1 million grand prize is paid out over 20 years.Detectives began tracking Goodenow on Wednesday after learning that she had used the credit card to purchase several items, including the ticket.A search warrant served at her home Thursday turned up some methamphetamine, but little money, George said."Our investigation is still trying to determine what happened to the $33,500," George said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- George Takei, who as "Star Trek's" Sulu was part of the Starship Enterprise crew through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community.Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality.Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.The current social and political climate also motivated Takei's disclosure, he said."The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay," he said. "The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young."The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together for 18 years.Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation."It's against basic decency and what American values stand for," he said.Takei joined the "Star Trek" cast in 1966 as Hikaru Sulu, a character he played for three seasons on television and in six subsequent films. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986.A community activist, Takei ran for the Los Angeles City Council in 1973. He serves on the advisory committee of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and is chairman of East West Players, the theater company producing "Equus."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Thousands of Iranians staged anti-Israel protests across the country Friday and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president demanding the Jewish state's destruction. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- marching with the protesters -- signaled he stood by his remarks, even as Iranian officials tried to defuse the issue."My word is the same as that of (the) Iranian nation," he told the official IRNA news agency."They are free to say but their words lack any credit," he said, when asked about global reaction to his comments. During a meeting with protesting students at Iran's Interior Ministry on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini -- founder of Iran's Islamic revolution -- that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world." (Full story)But on Friday, Iran's Moscow embassy -- often used by Tehran to issue statements on foreign policy --said Ahmadinejad did not mean to "speak up in such sharp terms."The embassy said Ahmadinejad "did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict.""It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories," Reuters quoted the embassy statement as saying.Ahmadinejad's comments drew swift and harsh reaction from governments in Europe and North America, as well as from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. (Full story)Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in remarks issued Thursday by the Israeli government press office, said he believed any country that calls for the destruction of another cannot be a member of the United Nations.At the United Nations on Friday, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. said the Security Council was addressing Ahmadinejad's comments."We're very happy that the Security Council has taken up the matter of that mad, dangerous and extreme statement we heard from the president of Iran," Dan Gillerman said in an interview."I certainly think that a country whose head of state calls for the destruction of any other member state of the United Nations does not deserve a seat in this very civilized organization."He said it is an indication of the "grave concern" that the international community has about the head of state of one member U.N. state calling for the "destruction" and "wiping out" of another member state."It was just 60 years ago that another leader, democratically elected in a European country, called upon the destruction of a whole people," he said, referring to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. "The fact that 60 years later these voices are coming from Tehran (is) very ominous."Gillerman said that Iran has emerged not only as a threat to Israel but as a "global threat."He said Iran is a "terrorist-supporting country, and the statements made by its president illustrate in the clearest way, and without any doubt, what this regime is all about."Meanwhile in Iran, thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran and other cities across the country part of Jerusalem Day protests.Demonstrators held banners with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans. One banner read "Death to Israel, death to America," The Associated Press reported.The state-organized rallies were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.