Some call it salt-and-pepper; others call it newfound gravitas. But face it -- your hair is going prematurely gray.The good news: Losing color doesn't make you an old man. Just don't wear it like Phil Donahue.Going gray is like ejaculation. You know it can happen prematurely, but when it actually does, it's a total shock.I had brown hair until I was 20. Then the gray began to sprout.Today, 15 years later, it's spread like some mutant melanin virus and now completely envelops my head.I still refuse to admit I'm gray. Salt-and-pepper is about all I'll cop to.Of course, I'm just about out of pepper. We all cling to delusions. This is mine. Leave it alone.Did you know that according to legend, the guy who became Buddha decided to seek enlightenment the day he got a touch of gray? "Gray hairs," the would-be Buddha said, "are like angels sent by the god of death."Translation: Gray is nature's way of whispering "You're dying."I may not like the way my gra... I mean, salt-and-pepper hair looks, but I can't honestly say it's done me any harm.In the TV news business, gray equals gravitas. In fact, in just about any line of work being prematurely gray is an advantage.On a guy, gray hair says, "I'm mature, stable. I can be relied on." Think George W. Bush.Even the Bible promotes the myth. "Gray hair is a crown of glory," one proverb states. "It is gained in a righteous life."Premature gray means you reap the benefits of living the righteous life without having to actually live the righteous life. You get to cut in line. So consider yourself lucky.On the other hand, women don't get a free pass.When was the last time you saw a sexy gray-haired woman in a movie? Rogue and Storm don't count; they're cartoon characters."It's not fair," says Diane Harris, a media image consultant, "but men see gray on a woman and they think she's old."My friend Cathy went gray in her early thirties. She was attractive and successful, but guys backed away."Men instantly assumed Birkenstock-wearing, protest-rally-organizing cat lover," Cathy says. "You could see it in their eyes."Needless to say, Cathy's no longer gray.For men, of course, it's a different story. I don't get it, but gray on guys drives a lot of folks wild.Think Bill Clinton. Huge head of gray, not to mention a monster-truck tire around his waist, and he had an intern pizza-delivery service.There are millions of follicle fetishists out there, and at the first hint of tint they find you and ogle your albino tresses like a hot pair of buns.The other thing that happens when you start getting gray: You begin checking out every other gray-haired guy.It's a Darwinian survival response -- the need to check out the competition.This can deteriorate into something of an obsession. For a while, every time I saw Phil Donahue, I had to reassure myself: It's okay. I'm not as gray as he is.Note to Phil: Big white hair was fine for the Snow Miser, but again, cartoons don't count.The most important thing about going gray: Keep it short. Grow it long and all of a sudden you look like a roadie for Peter, Paul & Mary. Not the image you want to go for.You can, of course, dye. Plenty of guys do, but if you ask me, you might as well advertise your desperation.Why not just wear a button that says "I sit in a salon once a month with silver foil in my hair"?You can also try dying your hair at home, but isn't there something sad about habitually locking yourself in the bathroom and doling out dye into your trembling hands like some aging junkie?My advice? Give in to gray. Make the most of it while you're still young.Remember, there will come a time in the not too distant future when you're no longer prematurely gray. People will stop using the word distinguished.By then, you'll have a wattle, baggy eyes and sagging skin, and pretty young things won't even notice your hair. Only other guys will.Bald guys.

CORAL SPRINGS, Florida (AP) -- Jaime Chehova spent two weeks getting supplies and decorations for her fourth-graders' first day of school in a new classroom -- for the second time this year.The teacher welcomed her students Monday to a new portable classroom. Their other classroom at Park Trails Elementary in Parkland was damaged when Hurricane Wilma rushed across Florida two weeks ago."It was like the first day of school all over again. All the kids' stuff got destroyed. I had to hand out new pens, new books, all new supplies," Chehova said.Public schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties reopened Monday for the first time since Wilma hit Florida on October 24, causing billions of dollars in damage across the state and making many schools temporarily unusable.The state's largest school district, Miami-Dade County, reopened last week.Children missed more than two full weeks of classes, and educators worried about how they would make up for lost time."We're doing some testing to see how this affected them," said Nat Harrington, spokesman for the Palm Beach School District. "We're repeating all the rules, all the expectations, and getting an assessment of where the students are skill-wise."The district planned 15 emergency makeup days for this year's academic calendar, and officials have decided to make the first two, Veterans' Day and November 23, regular school days, Harrington said.One major concern was how the delay would affect preparation for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The standardized exam factors into whether some students advance to the next grade or, if they are in high school, graduate. The FCAT scores are also used to grade schools, and failing performances can ultimately lead to a school's closure.Broward schools Superintendent Frank Till said the district planned to ask the state to push back the FCAT, which is normally given in February and March.Till said student and faculty attendance were at normal levels Monday, and all schools were open with power."You couldn't have asked for better. ...They're back on track," he said.As of Monday afternoon, about 95 percent of the 3.2 million customers who lost power because of Wilma had it back, according to Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility. The rest -- about 161,000 customers -- should have power restored by Sunday, the company said.More than 1,200 people remained in shelters in affected counties, state officials said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (AP) -- Public outrage was immediate after police in Miami used a Taser to shock a 6-year-old last year in an elementary school office.Police said the Taser was used because the boy, a special needs student, had cut himself twice with a shard of glass and threatened to slash himself again or any approaching officer."When you first hear the story, you think, 'Oh my gosh, cops Tased a 6-year-old,"' said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticella. "But you've got to take a look at the entire situation to realize why it was done."Now, to help better examine how Tasers are used, manufacturer Taser International Inc. has developed a Taser Cam, which company executives hope will illuminate why Tasers are needed -- and add another layer of accountability for any officer who would abuse the weapon.The Taser Cam is an audio and video recorder that attaches to the butt of the gun and starts taping when the weapon is turned on. It continues recording until the weapon is turned off. The Taser doesn't have to be fired to use the camera.Taser Chief Executive Tom Smith said that if a Taser Cam had been used in the case of the 6-year-old, it could answer at least one important question with certainty: "If not the Taser, then what?""The Taser Cam could have shown why police didn't have any other option," he added. "This wasn't just Tasing someone because he was being naughty."Unlike dashboard-mounted cameras in patrol cars, which capture the action only if it transpires where the lens happens to have been directed, the Taser cameras always face where the gun is pointed, to capture what is said and done in the moments leading up to a suspect being jolted by the device's 50,000 volts."It's going to give real accountability," Smith said as he demonstrated the device recently at the company's headquarters in this Phoenix suburb. "Now you'll have absolute proof."The company plans to start selling Taser Cams as early as March. The cameras won't come standard -- they'll cost around $400. Tasers generally run $800 to $1,000, depending on the model and order size.Analysts see the cameras as a potential boost for the company's sluggish sales, which have come amid a growing controversy over the weapon's safety. Taser's profits in the first nine months of 2005 sagged 93 percent from last year, pressing the company's stock price into the $7 range, well below the 52-week high of $33.45.Joe Blankenship, an analyst with Source Capital Group, said most of Taser's sales come from selling dart cartridges that reload the device. Now, he said, the Taser Cam "could also be considered a very necessary accessory."Even people critical of Tasers say the cameras are a good idea. But the critics also are skeptical that this latest technology won't be plagued by the same record-keeping problems as other accountability features already on the stun gun.Tasers record the time and date of use, the number of times the trigger was pulled and how long it was held down each time--essentially how long a person was shocked.But no single agency keeps track of all Taser use. The manufacturer can only ask police departments to submit their use records voluntarily, so they're incomplete."There's a capacity to download data now and it's not being fully used," said Edward Jackson, a spokesman for Amnesty International. "What guarantees are there that this new technology will be used to prevent the abuse of Tasers?"Amnesty International has compiled a list of more than 100 people the group says have died after being shocked by Tasers in encounters with law enforcement since June 2001.The deaths have prompted some police departments to reconsider the necessity of the devices. Lawmakers have introduced bills restricting their use.Taser denies that its products are to blame in the deaths, arguing that drugs, health conditions or other factors, not the electrical shock, have been the cause. The company also contends Tasers have saved the lives of thousands of suspects who might otherwise have been shot by police.Taser has been selling its weapons to law enforcement since 1998. Today, about 171,000 Tasers are being used by more than 8,000 agencies in the United States, according to the company.The weapon uses compressed nitrogen to fire two barbed darts that can penetrate clothing. The darts are attached to the stun gun by wires that deliver the 50,000-volt shock, overwhelming the nervous system and temporarily paralyzing people.Taser executives hope the new cameras show suspects complying with officers' orders at the mere threat of a Taser being used, what they consider a best-case scenario.The Taser Cam records in black and white but is equipped with infrared technology to record images in very low light. The camera will have at least one hour of recording time, the company said, and the video can be downloaded to a computer over a USB cable.Al Arena, a project manager with the International Association of Chiefs of Police research center in Virginia, said the Taser Cam could "only be a good thing." But he cautioned that police departments should create policies on downloading the material to ensure no video footage is deleted."That transfer really needs to have some standards and requirements, otherwise there's no security there," he said.A Taser rival, Tampa, Florida-based Stinger Systems Inc., announced October 10 that it had begun selling stun guns that can also be equipped with an audio-video recorder. The guns sell for about $600 and the recorders for about $200. The company won't say who has bought the weapons.Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonprofit research group, said police agencies "that don't invest in Taser Cam technology are playing with PR fire.""The first local police force that gets accused of excessive force without video to refute the claim will be the last one," he said. "This technology pays for itself in the court of public opinion. What you lose in revenue, you gain in public trust."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Visitors checking out a sculpture exhibit now at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum are likely to find the modern art moving -- even if it's at a snail's pace.When the half-dozen live snails in the exhibit move at all, they move very little.The snails are only a small part of a show that opened on Thursday, including some of the museum's recent acquisitions.Housed in a glass case without their shells and with two cabbages for sustenance, the snails are part of a sculptural installation called "palimpsest." It's a librarian's name for a manuscript hard to decipher because one layer of writing has been erased and another layer written over it.This "palimpsest" consists of a whole room about 14-feet high, all walls covered from floor to ceiling with hundreds of little rectangular notes in small handwriting, which seem to be parts of several women's autobiographies."I remember when I was nine years old how frightened I was the first time I stepped on an escalator...,," says one."When I was 19, life was dark...," says another."The first time I had sex was very disappointing... I cried all night," confides a third.Olga Viso, director of the Hirshhorn, did not explain the meaning of the object called "palimpsest" in her introduction to the show for reporters."I won't say much about it," she said. "You have to experience it."The artist, Ann Hamilton, 49, of Lima, Ohio, did not appear at the briefing.Tacked to the walls with map pins, the notes flutter slightly in the breeze from an electric fan placed above the door to the room."It is really lovely," said Gabriel Einhorn, chief publicist for the Hirshhorn.The show as a whole is called "Gyroscope" -- after the mounted wheel that can spin in any direction, used in modern steering systems.Members of the staff explained that the exhibit, occupying all the museum's galleries, has rearranged its treasures so they can be viewed in a variety of different ways instead of just chronologically. The hope is that new relationships perceived among them will enable visitors to view them in different perspectives.There's a new "black box" theater without seats where films can be projected or actors positioned in many different directions. It makes its debut with five shorts by Hiraki Sawa of Japan, black-and-white digital works set in his own apartment. They feature teapots that magically grow legs and toy airplanes that fly from room to room."Gyroscope" will be on view through January 2006. Admission is free.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- If you live in the chilly Northeast, you'll be able to vacation in your bathing suit this winter without flying to Florida or Jamaica.An indoor water park has just opened in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, a convenient drive from Philadelphia, New Jersey or New York, and another will open shortly in upstate New York's Adirondacks region.Great Wolf Lodge opened its 78,000-square-foot indoor water park in Scotrun, Pennsylvania, in late October, and Six Flags is scheduled to open the Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom in Lake George, New York, in February.There are 68 indoor water parks around the country, but the majority of them are in the Midwest, according to David Sangree, president of Hotel & Leisure Advisors, a consulting firm. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, which is considered the water park capital of the world, has 18 indoor water parks.But the concept has been slow to take hold in other regions, with a few exceptions. Great Wolf opened one in Williamsburg, Virginia, earlier this year, and Pennsylvania has another indoor water park, Splash Lagoon, in Erie, in the northwestern part of the state.Like all Great Wolf resorts, the new Poconos lodge has a rustic backwoods theme. With 401 suites in a log-sided building, an arcade, a spa, restaurants and fitness facilities, it boasts all the amenities expected of a full-service family resort -- with a price tag to match. Rates range from $189 per night in the offseason to $564 for a luxury suite during the peak holiday season.The main attraction is the water park, an enclosed, 90-foot-tall space with 11 slides, a wave pool, a winding river and whirlpools. "Fort Mackenzie," a 12-level wooden fort, features a gigantic bucket at the top that dumps nearly 1,000 gallons of water a minute on guests standing at the base.Great Wolf's co-founders, Bruce Neviaser and Marc Vaccaro, saw their first indoor water park in Wisconsin Dells some years ago. Driving past what was then called the Black Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells in the dead of winter, they saw a full parking lot, stopped in and fell in love with the concept, according to Great Wolf Resorts' CEO John Emery.Neviaser and Vaccaro bought the lodge in 1999 and renamed it Great Wolf. The company, which is based in Wisconsin, has opened five Midwest resorts since the late 1990s. It also plans to build resorts in Niagara Falls, Ontario; Mason, Ohio; Chehalis, Washington; and Grapevine, Texas, by 2007. It ultimately hopes to open 20 to 25 resorts at a rate of two per year.The Poconos were chosen for Great Wolf's first indoor park in the Northeast because of the area's "multigenerational history" as a vacation destination and its proximity to New York and Philadelphia."We are really happy at the number of people who have discovered the property already and booked reservations," Emery said, declining to provide specifics.The resort is also offering tie-in promotions with the nearby Camelback Ski resort in Tannersville, Pennsylvania.Officials predict the resort will give a boost to Poconos tourism, which is on the rebound after dropping off in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Already, Great Wolf's arrival has prompted other resort companies to take a fresh look at the region, said Robert Uguccioni, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau."After September 11, we had a downturn," Uguccioni said. "I was getting tired of talking to the press about why a place closed. I feel very happy to be talking to the press about a place that's opening."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

URUMQI, China (Reuters) -- Fairy lights twinkle beside a miniature tank and helicopter at SunOasis headquarters, as manager Zhang Xihai explains how his technology is making life easier for soldiers guarding the country's isolated border posts.The model also features a cosy-looking nomadic tent home, nodding-donkey oil pumps and irrigation systems -- all powered by solar panels -- showing the extent of the five-year-old firm's ambition.China is trying to expand the portion of energy it gets from renewable sources to tackle a growing dependence on imported oil and the dangerous smog from coal-burning power stations and stoves that blankets many of its cities.SunOasis is already riding the wave of government investment, although high costs of solar generated power mean it cannot dream for now of competing in conventional markets -- hence the emphasis on isolated or pioneering buyers for its products.Borders in remote and restive Xinjiang province, where the company is headquartered, connect China to conflict-torn Afghanistan and a series of central Asian nations.Because they are key to national security, Beijing is prepared to splash out to help keep soldiers warm and happy."Border regions used to have to use kerosene for heating and other power needs, but it is costly and hard to get supplies, particularly in winter when roads are icy or blocked by snow," said Zhang.The firm, which is also supplying solar power for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, chalked up 202 million yuan ($25.02 million) in sales last year, and made a 20 million yuan profit.Foreign environmentalists are excited by China's rapid economic growth, seeing in the country's vast appetite for power the possibility of manufacturing solar panels on a scale that might finally make them able to compete with coal or hydropower.At present, thermal power stations generate electricity at a cost of 0.3-0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and hydropower costs just 0.1-0.2 yuan/kWh. SunOasis' solar power at 2 yuan/kWh was up to 20 times that cost, said Zhang.So government subsidies that are part of a program to develop the vast and impoverished Western regions of China were one reason the firm chose to put its headquarters in Xinjiang -- together with the blazing desert sunshine.The company has had two visits from President Hu Jintao, and one from Premier Wen Jiabao, a sign of government favor.But Beijing's support can't boost balance books, and Zhang said fewer government orders would limit sales growth this year, making the firm more dependent on foreign expansion."The company is oriented outwards; 80 percent of raw materials come from abroad and 80 percent of output goes abroad, mostly to Germany," Zhang shouted over the clatter of workers assembling 25-watt boxes designed to light isolated rural homes.The firm has been in talks with BP for three years over a deal it hopes to seal before the end of 2005, although Zhang declined to reveal any details.SunOasis has also bid for international aid contracts, turning some of the country's poorest people into customers -- it is currently working with Shell to bring light to nearly 80,000 peasant families, as part of a 2.4 billion yuan program.Its humble water heaters are scattered across Urumqi's rooftops and it even makes solar-powered bug killers.But charity doesn't start at home, and part of the reason for the company's impressive profit growth is to be found in a rigorous stick-and-carrot incentive scheme.Pay is tied to how fast the workers can churn out boxes or panels, with the most productive workers able to earn twice as much as their slower colleagues and among the candidates each year for new jobs are former workers who have been sacked."The least productive worker in each team is let go each year," said one manager who did not want to give her name. "They can reapply for recruitment if they want."Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Scientists were counting down Tuesday for the blast off of a Russian booster rocket carrying a European-built probe aimed at exploring the hot, dense atmosphere around Venus.The launch of the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe is planned for 0333 GMT Wednesday at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.Venus Express was originally scheduled to go up on October 26, but the launch was postponed after checks revealed problems with the thermal insulation in the upper stage of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Once it separates from the rocket, scientists at ESA's mission control in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, plan to make contact with the probe."We've just had the pre-launch briefing and everything is in the green zone," said ESA spokeswoman Jocelyne Landeau. "Everything is ready for go."The mission, Europe's first to Venus, will concentrate on the greenhouse effect around the planet and the permanent hurricane force winds that constantly encircle it.In addition, instruments on the probe will try to find an indication as to whether Venus' many volcanoes are active."Venus is still a big mystery," Gerhard Schwehm, head of the planetary missions at ESA said Monday.The probe will take 155 days, or roughly five months, to reach Venus. It is expected to begin its experiments in early June.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Gonorrhea has fallen to the lowest level on record in the United States, while the rates of other sexually transmitted diseases -- syphilis and chlamydia -- are on the rise, federal health officials said Tuesday.The seemingly paradoxical findings can be explained by the cyclical nature of syphilis outbreaks and a rise in risky sexual behavior among gay men, researchers said.The nation's gonorrhea rate fell to 113.5 cases per 100,000 people last year, the lowest level since the government started tracking cases in 1941, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.At the same time, health official saw increases in syphilis, which is far more rare but has been increasing since 2000. The rate of reported early-stage syphilis was 2.7 cases per 100,000 in 2004, up 29 percent since 2000.The chlamydia rate rose to 319.6 cases per 100,000 in 2004, up about 6 percent from the year before. But researchers said it is not clear whether the rise represents a real increase in the prevalence of the disease, or simply reflects better awareness and detection.All three diseases are caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.London researchers reported earlier this year that because of the life cycle of the syphilis bacteria, infections tend to peak at eight- to 11-year intervals. Sexual behavior affects the overall number of people infected, but regular ups and downs are intrinsic to the disease, the researchers said. Gonorrhea does not follow the same pattern, they said, and rates have been gradually falling since the 1980s.Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, acting director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, said that may be part of the explanation for the rebound in syphilis, but a primary reason appears to be an increase in risky sexual behavior.In 2004, about 64 percent of reported early-stage syphilis infections occurred among men who had sex with men, up from 5 percent in 1999, according to the CDC."It's very clear that for the last four years, when we've seen an increase it's primarily been in men and predominantly in men who have sex with men," Valdiserri said. "We know that's being fueled by increases in high-risk sexual behavior. We have good data to substantiate that."CDC officials are hoping stronger efforts to educate gay men and others about syphilis will help arrest the infection trend, he said.As for chlamydia, a urine screening test is becoming increasingly common, and health officials are working to make chlamydia screening routine in yearly gynecological exams for sexually active young adult women.Chlamydia is the most common of the three diseases. A total of 930,000 cases were reported last year. But health officials believe as many as 2.8 million new cases may actually be occurring each year.About 330,000 cases of gonorrhea -- once known as "the clap" -- were reported in 2004. The CDC said there may really be as many as 700,000 cases of that disease each year.Syphilis, a potentially deadly disease that first shows up as genital sores, has become relatively rare in the United States, with about 8,000 cases reported in 2004. Detection is believed to be much better for that disease, and the total number of annual cases is probably no more than 10,000.Infection rates for all three diseases vary from state to state and city to city. Rates generally are highest in the Southeast _ Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina have the highest gonorrhea rates, while Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana have the highest rates of chlamydia. Among cities, Detroit and St. Louis lead both categories.The CDC does not count cases of herpes and human papilllomavirus, which are believed to be among the most common sexually transmitted diseases.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Erin O'Neal has two daughters and a fridge stocked with organic cheese, milk, fruits and vegetables in her Annapolis, Maryland, home.She is among the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep their children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or genetic engineering."The pesticide issue just scares me -- it wigs me out to think about the amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid," said O'Neal, 36.Since last year, sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent, double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.As demand has risen, organic food for children has popped up at more than just natural food stores.For example, Earth's Best baby food, a mainstay in Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets, just reached a national distribution deal with Toys R Us and Babies R Us. Gerber is selling organic baby food under its Tender Harvest label. Stonyfield Farm's YoBaby yogurt can be found in supermarkets everywhere.The concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins in their diets, said Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern California. As children grow rapidly, their brains and organs are forming and they eat more for their size than do grown-ups, Greene said."Pound for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides than adults do," said Greene, who promotes organic food in his books and on his Web site, www.drgreene.comNew government-funded research adds to the concern. A study of children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched back to conventional food."We didn't expect that to drop in such dramatic fashion," said Emory University's Chensheng Lu, who led the Environmental Protection Agency-funded research. Lu's findings will be published in February in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.Scientists are still trying to figure out how pesticides affect children, Lu said, but he notes that it took years to prove the health hazards of lead.Conventional food is considered safe by the government.Still, the uncertainty is leading parents, especially new or expecting mothers, to switch to organic food. Many are even making their own baby food from organic ingredients."Maybe that has the reputation of being difficult, but it doesn't have to be, and once you get into the habit of doing something regularly, it gets to be easier," said Jody Villecco, a nutritionist for Whole Foods.In a traveling lecture series for Whole Foods and Mothering magazine, Villecco demonstrates by shaving a peeled banana with a knife to make mush -- "There, we just made baby food," she said. She recommends people make baby food in big batches and freeze it in ice cube trays.Eating organic is definitely not cheap. But Green and Lu said parents have options if they can't afford the food or don't want to search for it or make it: Buy fruits and vegetables known to have lower pesticide residues.The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group, has produced a guide to the pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables commonly sold in grocery stores, basing the findings on data from the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.The guide says the lowest pesticide levels are found in asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples and sweet peas.The highest pesticide levels, meanwhile, are found in apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and strawberries.The rating system is unnecessariy, according to industry representatives who say conventional food is safe and affordable."There are some people in the organic food industry and the environmental industry who have unfortunately scared parents into thinking you have to turn to organic sources for baby food, based on claims that have no basis in science or fact," said Jay Vroom, spokesman for CropLife America, an industry group. "The products my industry produces are safe" for everyone.Beyond baby food, dairy and produce, snacks are also a rapidly growing segment of organic food, according to the Organic Trade Association, an industry group.Snacks are a priority for Susan Guegan, 44, a mother of four boys in Boulder, Colorado. Guegan made their food from scratch when they were babies. Now she buys organic versions of the cookies and hot dogs they ask for."They love Oreos," she said. "They'll say, 'Can we get this?' I'm like, 'Can you read me the ingredients?' They'll laugh and try to say some of them. I'll say, 'You can put that back.' "Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two executives of the International Longshoremen's Association and a reputed mobster who went missing mid-trial were acquitted Tuesday of charges that they helped the Mafia keep its grip on the New York waterfront.Supporters gasped and burst into tears as a federal jury in Brooklyn found union officials Harold Daggett and Arthur Coffey not guilty of extortion and fraud charges.The jury also acquitted Lawrence Ricci, an alleged Genovese crime family associate who had been accused of wire and mail fraud.But the victory may turn out to be empty for Ricci, who vanished in the middle of the trial and is suspected to have been slain by the mob.His attorney said after the verdict that he believed Ricci had been killed, but he hoped the verdict gave his family solace.Prosecutors had accused Ricci of working to award a lucrative union contract to a mob-tied pharmaceutical company. Daggett and Coffey were charged with conspiring with the Genovese crime family to install Daggett as the mob-controlled puppet president of the ILA.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leaders' $54 billion deficit reduction package is encountering objections from many GOP lawmakers -- and not just the usual moderates upset about cuts to social programs.Objections to Arctic drilling cut across the spectrum, and the generally conservative Florida delegation is in an uproar over coastal drilling. Killing a program that compensates companies hurt by unfair trade practices is losing support among stalwart Republicans from Idaho and Alabama.The sweeping bill is the first in eight years to take on the automatic growth in government programs like Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies, but it will have to be rewritten if it is going to have a chance to pass later this week. (Read bill details)For many Republican moderates there is simply too much in the bill to dislike, in particular a roster of cuts to social programs used to finance a companion tax-cut bill.But several other provisions -- such as oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- established pockets of opposition. Even loyal Republicans are threatening to kill the entire bill over the single issue they care about.That's why GOP leaders are losing votes from lawmakers such as such Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey, who opposes plans to permit oil drilling in an Alaskan wilderness area and along the U.S. coast.Since there are so many political hotspots, Republican leaders' headaches have multiplied."This thing is getting to be very top-heavy as a bill," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts. "It's an incredible package deal for moderates one year out from an election."Often, when GOP leaders are building a vote tally toward the magic 218 votes needed to capture a majority of the House, Republican moderates such as Chris Shays of Connecticut and Mike Castle of Delaware are among those most reluctant to come on board.But these House GOP moderates also have a reputation for cracking under pressure when it come time to vote. So far this time, they seem to be holding firm.It's not just moderates who are unhappy with the House budget bill. The dissatisfaction extends to a far broader spectrum of Republicans, including Florida's Mark Foley and Connie Mack, who are opposed to lifting a ban on offshore oil drilling.Other flash points in the House budget bill:Oil Drilling. Twenty-four Republicans have signed a letter opposing drilling in ANWR as part of the broader budget bill, which means it can't be debated to death in the Senate. Environmental activists are confident that at least half of these lawmakers would carry out the threat if the issue were put to a vote. There is growing speculation that the Arctic drilling provision will be dumped before floor debate, though GOP leaders would probably try to revisit the issue in final House-Senate talks.A separate issue is whether to lift a 24-year ban on drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and open a contested tract off the Florida Gulf coast to oil drilling. Several Florida Republicans are among those most strongly opposed to the plan.Unfair trade practices. Twenty-one Republicans have threatened to opposed the bigger budget bill if it contains a provision to kill a program established by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-West Virginia, to dedicate duties paid by foreign companies who unfairly "dump" their exports to U.S. companies harmed by such unfair trading practices. Republican loyalists from states including Idaho, Ohio, Alabama and North Carolina are threatening to defect unless the program is kept alive.Medicaid. Already, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-New Mexico, has voted against a plan to curb Medicaid spending by $9.5 billion over five years during debate before the Energy and Commerce Committee. Earlier, she drafted a letter -- signed by 43 other Republicans -- urging no cuts to Medicaid this year.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Slam dunk. Don't go there. What were you thinking? Disconnect. Net-net. Yessssssss!Sound familiar?These are words and phrases that are on the cutting edge. Unless, of course, they're so five minutes ago.As author Leslie Savan observes in her engaging "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers" (Knopf), these language chunks are a shorthand to showcase hipness, pop culture knowledge, shared identity and a desire to get to the point (or, as the phrase would have it, "cut to the chase").They're more than slang, she says: They're "pop," the glib, snappy language that has pervaded our culture in the Information Age.And they're everywhere nowadays, which is one reason Savan, the former advertising columnist for The Village Voice, wrote the book."I started to notice that certain phrases were appearing more often in ads ... [and] were also flying around in movies, sitcoms, reality shows, conversations I'd overhear and my own writing," she says in an interview."Regardless of their context, these words seemed to work as punch lines -- as if they came with built-in applause signs and laugh tracks," she says. "I started to think of these phrases as mini-ads: They could help sell cars, political arguments and, ultimately, ourselves."Mass marketingSlang and euphemisms are nothing new, of course. Shakespeare used them (he even made up countless now-common words, from "academe" to "too much of a good thing" to "zany") and so did strait-laced Victorians. Traditionally, it has bubbled up from the grass roots to the mainstream.Today, in the era of mass communication, the roots of slang have expanded: ethnic -- particularly African-American -- argot, advertising, movies, television, music, sports, psychology, corporations, the Internet, along with the intermixing of any combination of the above (African-American slang through music, pop psychology through movies and TV).But what separates pop from slang, Savan says, is the push it gets from marketing and media companies, until what was once a relatively private reference becomes a commonplace fashion -- even a clich�."Unlike the slang that may never get beyond the streets, office cubicles or middle schools where it originated, pop is totally mainstream and used by millions. ... It's this sense of a crowd speaking it that makes pop language so persuasive," she says.Thanks to the media, such language also gets "a new glamour," she adds. "Whassup?", a query used by African-Americans, became ubiquitous in 2000 thanks to a Budweiser campaign that used the parodistic work of a black filmmaker, Charles Stone III. "Not!", which dates back at least a century, received a new lease on life with the "Saturday Night Live" skit "Wayne's World."For that matter, using a phrase such as Dirty Harry's clenched "Make my day" (from 1983's "Sudden Impact") gives the speaker a ready-made buzz -- and yet ties him or her in with millions of listeners who have virtually no knowledge of the phrase's origins. Witness Ronald Reagan's use of "Make my day" in a 1985 tax standoff, which rendered a tough, barrel-of-a-gun threat from Clint Eastwood's detective into something ... different."That's one reason I call this stuff pop and not hip or, to use another overused pop phrase, cutting edge," Savan says. "Pop language is by definition mainstream and ... has very little edge. It's round, bouncy, and, despite its occasional bad-boy swagger, safe."'It grabs you by the neck' Leslie SavanAnd yet, as the world gets faster, pop becomes more necessary to whoever's using it -- marketers, politicians, your boss -- to break through the clutter. It might oversimplify or dehumanize, but it gets to the point.Savan learned that lesson many years ago, in her first job out of college -- working for the supermarket tabloid The Star."[The Star's style] runs counter to lots of my beliefs, but it taught me some valuable lessons: Be dogged and talk with a pop pulse," she says. "It grabs you by the neck. ... I really have to use pop [in the way I think] because if I do it in a blander way, I lose my audience."Indeed, Savan notes that the emphasis offered by pop can be persuasive on many levels. Sitcoms use pop for easy laughs, though the laughs quickly become empty from repetition. Politics, in particular, values the pop zinger: President Bush's cousin, John Ellis, told The New Yorker that Al Gore could have tipped the 2000 campaign in his favor if he'd just told Bush during a debate, "What, exactly, is it about peace and prosperity that you don't like?"But pop can also hide complexities in favor of the hard sell, the gut reaction, Savan adds. When then-CIA Director George Tenet and a deputy presented a variety of intelligence regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, his audience -- Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Chief of Staff Andrew Card -- was concerned it wouldn't convince the public. To which Tenet responded, famously, "It's a slam dunk case!"So much of pop, in fact, comes back to selling. Advertising, observes Savan, "is much more about selling you a world or worldview, so you're more likely to buy." As advertising has become more pervasive, so has its insinuation into language, making products (and people) seem rebellious and mainstream at the same time: "We learn from each other and we learn from advertising," says Savan, "and it learns from us. So the gap between us narrows."Which is not to say she's against pop, though she's been accused of that in some reviews. "This is how we all talk [now], and I want to look at it," she says. "When these words and phrases start out ... they can be creative acts of art, sheer poetry."But, she adds, "It's useful to be aware of who's talking pop and why. When advertisers or politicians use shiny, pretested phrases, they're a little more likely to get the response from us they want; they're more able (to use another popism) to 'push our buttons.' "After all, she says, pop finds its way everywhere -- especially into the mouths of babes. "When my 7-year-old son talks pop ... I feel pretty ambivalent," she says. "I am simultaneously proud that he can use this language so vividly ... and at the same time, I'm concerned that his snappy comebacks, his tone and attitude are coming straight from [snarky TV shows]. "And yet when he speaks more from the heart or with a sense of wonder, he doesn't need pop," she says. "He can be just as funny and communicate just as well without it."

(Entertainment Weekly) -- Maybe it's the facility with language, or the practice at telling tall tales. One way or another, a career as a rapper sure seems to prepare MCs for starring roles in movies that earn big box office bucks and-quite often-raves from critics. In his autobiographical drama "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " (opening Wednesday), Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is the latest chart-topping rapper to make a bid for such crossover success. He even developed a unique Method-acting technique. To prepare for a role that required him to cry and display uncharacteristic vulnerability, he told EW, "I imagined failing."The transition from pop star to movie star used to be a rough one. Before the hip-hop era, only a few top recording artists (Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby) became successful screen stars, while most (Elvis Presley, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie) had mixed results at best. That changed, however, after Mario Van Peebles cast Ice-T as a cop in "New Jack City" (1991) and John Singleton cast Ice Cube as a Los Angeles gangbanger in "Boyz N the Hood" (also '91). Soon, an ever-growing roster of rappers, including Will "Fresh Prince" Smith and Queen Latifah, delivered memorable performances that drew throngs to the multiplex. (Click here for some of the best.)"Rappers are natural actors," director Rob Cohen told Entertainment Weekly in 2002. (He directed Ja Rule in "The Fast and the Furious" and Eve in "XXX.") "Between their videos and their own onstage theatricality, it's very easy to direct them once you explain the language of film." Plus, many rappers may have the quality director Curtis Hanson saw in Eminem when he directed him in "8 Mile." "What he had from the beginning is a natural charisma," Hanson told EW, "a thing that makes you interested in watching him and hearing what comes out of his mouth. As frustrating as it is to all the wannabe actors out there, that's God-given. You either have it or you don't."50 Cent's first movie could put him in that club. In the meantime, here are the past performances you need to see-by 10 rappers who definitely have it.Click here to see the gallery.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Communications Commission won't require Internet phone service providers to cut off customers who don't have reliable 911 emergency call service.The agency in a notice issued late Monday said providers that have not achieved full 911 compliance by November 28, will not be forced to discontinue such service to any existing customers.At the same time, the FCC said it expected providers to discontinue marketing Internet call service and accepting new customers in areas where the companies are not routing 911 calls to emergency response centers.In May, the FCC ordered providers of Internet-based phone calls to certify that their customers will be able to reach an emergency dispatcher when they call 911. Dispatchers also must be able to identify the caller's phone number and location.The companies were given until late November to comply, and many providers worried that they would be forced to disconnect customers who didn't have full 911 service.The FCC issued the order after a series of highly publicized incidents in which Internet phone users were unable to connect with a live emergency dispatch operator when calling 911.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- When Makeda Stephenson compared flight simulator games sold in computer stores and didn't find anything she liked, she didn't stop there.The 13-year-old used a set of computer-controlled manufacturing tools at a community center to make her own simulator -- one that lets her "fly" an airplane of her design over an alien planet born of her imagination.In a room filled with computers and tabletop-sized manufacturing equipment, Stephenson created a pilot's control yoke with motion sensors she fashioned from a melange of old electronic toys and parts.A computer program Stephenson wrote with help from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology students guides the plane's movements on her computer screen.She did it all through a teen learning program at one of seven so-called Fabrication Labs that MIT has established in places as distant as Norway and Ghana. Each lab has tool sets that, costing about $25,000, would be out of the reach of most fledgling inventors.Advocates of such "Fab Labs" think they have the potential to vastly expand the creative powers of tinkerers and usher in a revolution in do-it-yourself design and manufacturing that can empower even the smallest of communities."If you give people access to means to solve their own problems, it touches something very, very deep," said Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT physicist and computer scientist whose is among the movement's chief proponents. "Somehow it goes back to nest-building, or mastering your own environment."There's sort of this deep thing inside that most people don't express that comes tumbling out when they get access to these tools," he said.Fab Lab output can be practical, or whimsical.Herders in northern Norway erected a telecommunications network to track their sheep's wanderings with radio antennas and electronic tags.In India, farmers created measurement tools to ensure a safe milk supply and measure fat content, and women found a way to scan and print carved wooden blocks used for a local kind of embroidery. In a separate project, villagers designed small LED lights for use in areas lacking electricity.Villagers in Ghana, meanwhile, harnessed solar power to make electricity and cook food rather than relying on firewood.On the fanciful front, a teenage girl in Boston created a diary security system that photographs anyone coming near the owner's private writings -- say, a nosey brother. And an MIT student created something called "ScreamBody" -- a backpack-sized wearable air chamber into which someone can voice a muffled scream in a public place. The scream is recorded for subsequent "release" in private.MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms began setting up Fab Labs three years ago as free community resources, using part of a $12.5 million National Science Foundation grant and local financing.Each lab is equipped with commercially available tools, including a laser cutter and milling machine to carve out two- and three-dimensional parts; a sign cutter for creating graphics or plotting flexible electronic circuits; and electronic assembly tools.Open-source software and MIT-written programs control the devices, machining parts to tolerances that once could be achieved only using equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.Citizen inventors with only modest technical expertise swap ideas with counterparts at other Fab Labs around the world by electronically sharing design blueprints or going to a Fab Lab Web site that offers project ideas."In a sense, this is like open-source software, but for hardware," Gershenfeld said.Industrial designers say such ventures hold great promise."I'm not worried about being out of a job, but I think there would be new uses for this technology that people can't even imagine," said Gianfranco Zaccai, president and chief executive of Design Continuum, a Boston-based design and development firm. "It might be a harbinger for the return of the village craftsman in a world of high technology."Leslie Speer, an industrial design professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, expects Fab Labs will do much to encourage local solutions to developing world problems.But she wonders whether the planet can handle the spread of customized manufacturing to potentially billions of people, many whom lack material wealth."Where are the raw materials going to come from?" Speer said. "Can we as humans on a planet with finite resources afford this decentralized, individualized production model?"Gershenfeld is emphasizing the project's practical potential in his search for long-term funding. The five-year NSF grant is entering its final year, and funding from other potential sources as the World Bank has so far eluded him.However, Norway's federal government established a foundation to support Fab Labs globally, and a New York-based startup is offering venture capital for lab users.In the meantime, the invention flourishes.Teenagers at the Boston Fab Lab used its tools to fashion scrap material into jewelry for sale.And in an MIT class called "How to make (almost) anything," a student used a campus Fab Lab to create the "Interpet Explorer," a computer interface for parrots featuring a specialized mouse that can be manipulated by the bird's beak.Then there's the "Defensible Dress," equipped with wires programmed to spike outward that can be activated when the wearer's personal space is invaded.It doesn't matter to Gershenfeld, in the end, whether a Fab Lab product has any commercial value."A Web browser for parrots isn't meant to serve a scalable business market," Gershenfeld said.That's exactly what drove Stephenson, the young flight simulator designer:"It's different if you make it yourself," she said. "It's more personal."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) -- Election workers toiled by lamplight on Wednesday to count votes from Liberia's presidential election pitting millionaire soccer star George Weah against former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.In the shattered capital Monrovia, racked by a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, large groups gathered on the darkened streets outside tea houses to debate the outcome, as local radio announced results polling station by polling station."This is about Liberia. It doesn't matter if Ellen wins or George wins," said Dash Hammond, 30, to cheers from friends. "Today we Liberians are living like animals. We need someone who can unify the Liberian people."The runoff to choose the first post-war president pits the celebrity of Weah, 39, against the qualifications of Johnson-Sirleaf, a 66-year-old Harvard trained economist who has served as finance minister.Weah's opponents say the former FIFA world player of the Year --- a high school drop-out and political novice -- lacks the experience to reconstruct the West African country, still without running water or mains electricity two years after the war.But his supporters say "King George" is untainted by politicians' responsibility for the conflict, which killed 250,000 Liberians and sent a generation of Kalashnikov-wielding child soldiers spilling over the borders into Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire.The footballer topped the October 11 first round with 28 percent of the vote, ahead of Johnson-Sirleaf on 20 percent, and twenty other candidates.Whoever wins the runoff, the result will make history.Grandmother Johnson-Sirleaf could become Africa's first elected female president, while a win for Weah would make him the world's first top international footballer to become a head of state.Step forwardWith U.N. military helicopters patrolling Liberia's skies and blue-bereted troops outside polling stations across the country, Alan Doss, head of the 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Liberia, said the runoff vote went smoothly without serious incidents. Five people were arrested."Liberia's voters have taken a major step toward rebuilding their nation," Doss told a news conference.In contrast to the Oct. 11 ballot when enthusiastic Liberians swamped polling stations, Tuesday's turnout was more subdued.Results are expected to take several days to trickle in from across the war-ravaged country, with more than 1.3 million people registered to vote in 3,070 polling stations."We Liberians are sick, weary and tired of war. All we hope for is peace, and once we have peace in Liberia, all the other things will come, said Sawyeah Torley, 36, a computer company employee voting in Monrovia.Founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, Liberia enjoyed years of prosperity until resentment with the tiny ruling elite descended from slave families bubbled over into years of sporadic warfare.The United Nations maintains an export ban on Liberian timber and diamonds, but many observers have called for that to be lifted following the exile of former warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor to Nigeria."When you see all the warring leaders come together, it means the problems in Liberia are over, the problem of war is over," former rebel leader Prince Yormi Johnson told Reuters in the northern town of Ganta.Johnson, who became notorious in 1990 when he drank beer while his men cut off the ears of President Samuel Doe and then tortured him while video cameras rolled, was elected a senator in last month's parliamentary polls.He and other well-known rebel leaders are supporting Weah, who they say is the only person with the broad-based support required to unify Liberia."I have learned there are plans by (Johnson-Sirleaf's) United Party to indict former soldiers and warlords. I do not think that would be good for the peace process," he said, flanked by two bodyguards.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The murder of a second defense attorney in the trial of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi leaders Tuesday raised doubts about the trial's future and calls from legal experts for the court to be relocated outside of Iraq.Adel al-Zubeidi, the lawyer for former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was shot to death and attorney Thamir al-Khuzaie was wounded in an ambush in the Iraqi capital. It was the second such assassination in a month.Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, told The Associated Press that the latest killing was a signal that it was time to pack up and move the court."I don't understand how you can have a fair trial in this atmosphere of insecurity, with bombs going off," Goldstone said in a telephone interview from San Diego, California. "It is just impossible to have a public trial if you can't guarantee the safety of witnesses, judges of defense counsel."Goldstone led the first prosecution of Balkan war criminals at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, set up in 1994 when wars still raged in the republics of the former Yugoslavia."If the security situation doesn't radically improve, I don't see any possibility of having an appropriate trial in Baghdad," he said. "The trial should be held in some appropriate neighboring country, one of the Arab countries. My advice would be to start from square one."Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's leading attorney, blamed the government for the killings and also called for a new, foreign venue.Saddam and seven others have been charged with the 1982 killings of Shiite villagers in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, following an assassination attempt against him. The trial opened October 19 and was suspended until late November to allow the defense time to prepare its case.But Michael Scharf, a former U.S. State Department lawyer who helped train the Iraqi judges hearing the case, said the defense lawyers themselves were partly responsible for their murders because they refused protection from the Iraqi government and U.S. military."The defense attorneys in part brought this tragic situation upon themselves when they elected to have their faces and identities broadcast during the first day of the trial," said Scharf, professor and director of Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University, in an interview. "Now they are seeking to exploit the tragic -- but not unforeseeable -- murders of their colleagues in an attempt to derail the proceedings."Scharf said the murder "will certainly raise questions" about the capacity of the court "to guarantee a fair trial and to stick to its schedule."International law expert Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, called for a drastic tightening of security and expressed concerns about the trial's future."This killing today and the wounding of a third attorney involved in the Dujail case raises the question as to whether or not the trial can go forward. It cannot go forward if effective measures are not implemented to provide security for defense attorneys who are clearly at risk."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush has ratcheted up pressure on China on to do more to allow the yuan to appreciate and said the trade imbalance between the two countries was "bothersome."Speaking before a four-nation trip to Asia, Bush said revaluation of China's yuan in July was a "a strong step forward" but he plans to discuss his hopes for more currency flexibility in meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao."I will remind him that this government believes they should continue to advance toward market-based evaluation of their currency, for the sake of the world, not just for the sake of bilateral relations," Bush told a roundtable with Asian journalists."The trade balance between China and the United States is bothersome to people here," added Bush, who urged greater access for U.S. businesses to China's markets.Before attending the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, Bush will visit Kyoto, Japan. After APEC, he will go to Beijing and then on to Mongolia.The comments on China's currency system came as traders on foreign exchange markets speculate China might allow the yuan to appreciate more in the period surrounding Bush's visit.The United States has led the call for China to liberalize its currency system and let the yuan rise in value as politicians and business lobby groups complain it has been kept at too low a level.They have argued that has made Chinese products artificially cheap and exacerbated global trade imbalances.Gradual flexibilityIn July, after some two years of intense speculation in markets of a currency adjustment, China revalued the yuan by 2.1 percent, scrapped an 11-year-old peg to the dollar and said it would allow its currency to appreciate as much as 0.3 percent per day against the dollar.But since then the yuan has moved little, rising a total of about 0.3 percent against the U.S. dollar over three months.Chinese officials have repeatedly said they will allow greater yuan flexibility but only gradually.Bush and Hu last met on the sidelines of the United Nations summit in September. Hu had been scheduled to visit Bush at the White House in early September but the meeting was postponed because of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.Bush said that he and Hu had a "very good" personal relationship but described Sino-American relations as "mixed."Bush said he hoped at the APEC meeting to place "a strong focus on intellectual property rights throughout the world" as well as the need for further discussions about cooperation on energy issues."China is a vast, significant, growing economy that is -- using more and more energy. And here is an area where all of us can work together -- and that is on how to share technologies and use technologies in such a way that we become less dependent on hydrocarbons," Bush said.He said he plans to emphasize on the Asia trip the importance of making progress at the World Trade Organization's Doha round of trade talks in Hong Kong in December. (Ministers may delay deadline)Preparations to deal with a possible bird flu pandemic were also among the issues Bush said he wanted to raise with Hu and other Asian leaders."I'll bring it up again, because I am concerned about a pandemic -- and I'm not suggesting it's going to break out in any country. But if it were to break out anywhere in the world, it becomes an international issue," he said.Earlier, the United States and China said they had reached agreement on reining in China's booming clothing and textile shipments to the United States until 2008. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai announced the deal at a joint news conference in London on Tuesday and hailed it as a success for both sides. (Full story)Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

EVANSVILLE, Indiana (CNN) -- All residents of a Vanderburgh County mobile home park were accounted for Tuesday, two days after a tornado made a 43-mile run from Kentucky across the southern Indiana countryside, killing 22 people.Eighteen people died in the mobile home park and four in neighboring Warrick County. (Full story)Of 350 homes in the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville, 100 were destroyed, and another 125 badly damaged. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth said that residents of the mobile home park will be allowed to return to search for belongings, beginning Wednesday."We know that is an important part of this process, to let the victims back in here to try to find pictures, mementos, family albums and things that make them feel better," he said. "So we're going to escort those people back in, give them a chance to come in and collect belongings."The twister that hit the trailer park and other homes was part of a line of thunderstorms that smashed through the region about 2 a.m. Sunday. More than 200 people were injured. (Watch how a tornado left a 500-yard wide path of destruction -- 1:40)The National Weather Service said Tuesday the tornado was an F3 on the Fujita scale, with up to 200 mph winds.(The Fujita scale explained)Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has declared a statewide emergency and plans to ask for federal disaster assistance as well, Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman said.She said President Bush called Daniels, his former budget director, on Monday and asked how the federal government could help.Daniels "felt like the response that we had given was appropriate at this time," said Bush, who was in Panama on Monday.Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were on the scene.Authorities said they weren't sure how many tornadoes hit the area. The destruction came in the middle of the night when most people were sleeping and sightings weren't possible. And county tornado sirens weren't much help -- nor could they have been, Knight Township Fire Chief Dale Naylor said."It was 2 o'clock in the morning," he said. "I'm not sure what else you could do. I heard the alarms."

PEARLINGTON, Mississippi (AP) -- Rows of new, bright blue water pumps sit at Charles B. Murphy Elementary School, ready for delivery.Across the parking lot, the Salvation Army hands out hot food. Signs taped to the school gym doors announce its reopening as the "Super-Duper Pearl-Mart." Inside is everything a well-outfitted Hurricane Katrina survivor needs, from blankets to board games.Help is here. Finally.Pearlington is one example of the tiny communities hidden in the pine forests and bayous along the Mississippi-Louisiana border that Katrina all but erased two months ago. While national attention focused on horror stories coming out of New Orleans, folks in these small towns say they were left to fend for themselves.It's been a slow, painful struggle since then, and some towns are doing better than others.Streets are still lined with smashed homes, cars are stuck in the mud where Katrina deposited them and the woods are jungles of fallen timber. But the roads up and down the state line are open, FEMA trailers are arriving, utility crews are busy, and there is ample food and water."It looks a lot better than it did on August 29th," said Shirley Crawford, 60, of Hickory, Louisiana, a hamlet of several hundred people about 30 miles north of New Orleans, as she watched workers cart off the last of the fallen trees from her yard. Her neighbors cleared her road themselves in the hours after the hurricane, she said.Overwhelming scopeEmergency officials said the scope of Katrina was overwhelming. The hurricane came ashore with 145 mph winds and a storm surge up to 30 feet high that sent Gulf waters surging over homes and businesses more than a mile inland.Eric Gentry, a FEMA operations specialist, said the agency set up a base camp at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi, to insure rural communities weren't forgotten.But the storm clogged roads with fallen trees and debris -- sometimes even entire houses -- and slowed response times by days. Once the roads were clear, emergency workers set up supply distribution centers in areas that could serve the most people, Gentry said."The reality of it is it's just an overwhelming disaster," Gentry said. "It was days into the storm until all the roads were passable. That's one of the reasons people were told to evacuate. It takes time to get back in."Katrina destroyed emergency communications and wrecked all but one or two of the eight rescue vehicles the state deployed along the Gulf Coast, said Mike Womack, deputy director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Still, he said the National Guard managed to drop supplies in isolated areas by helicopter.State emergency officials are looking into improving disaster response training for local governments, he said, adding: "It overwhelmed the state of Mississippi without a doubt, and it overwhelmed the federal government for a period of time. Could we have done better? Absolutely. But how much money are you willing to spend to prepare for a hurricane?"Residents in threatened areas should have left before the storm, he said. "It was a mandatory evacuation area out there. Some decided not to leave."In Pearlington, a town of 1,680 people on the Louisiana-Mississippi line, the storm surge pushed houses off their foundations and deposited tugboats in woods.Pearlington doesn't have a mayor or a city council. The closest thing to a government is the volunteer fire department, and most of its members evacuated ahead of the storm. They needed three days to hack their way through the debris and get back into town, said Fire Chief Kim Jones.His firefighters did their best without outside help, Jones said, fighting fires, transforming their station into a makeshift shelter and acting as a surrogate police force. More than two weeks went by before U.S. Department of Forestry firefighters arrived and converted the elementary school into a shelter, which the Red Cross eventually took over, Jones said.Shaun Clark, who ran the Red Cross shelter in Pearlington, blamed the delays on the size of Katrina."Responding to a few families displaced by a fire is one thing. Responding to a disaster that displaced tens of thousands of people is another," Clark said of the initial delays in reaching rural areas. "FEMA just wasn't ready for this. The blueprint ... just wasn't appropriate for the scope of the disaster."Fewer than 10 people were in the shelter one recent night, down from 57 when it first opened, Clark said. Pallets of bottled water and other supplies were stockpiled in the elementary school parking lot. Shelter workers were busy distributing water pumps to local residents courtesy of Water Missions International, with another 300 pumps on their way.'One day at a time'The Rev. Bobby McGill, pastor of Holmes Chapel United Methodist Church in Pearlington, held services for about a dozen people outside the Pearl-Mart, telling them they should rely on God to get them through."As the songwriter said, we can only take it one day at a time," McGill said.But people are still hurting. Their homes are piles of splintered lumber piled in roadside ditches. Clusters of tents have sprouted all over town, and everyone wants to know why they're still waiting for a FEMA trailer when their neighbors got theirs a week ago."It was 41 [degrees] this morning, and the night before, the wind," said Debbie Drum, 40, who's been living in a tent with her husband, Ray, 45, for a month and a half. "I don't know how long we can hang on."The story was the same in Lakeshore, a loose collection of homes in the woods that surround Bay St. Louis in rural Hancock County. The Rev. Don Elbourne Jr., pastor at Lakeshore Baptist Church, said the storm shoved his church off its foundations into the road, along with 20 homes. It was three weeks before relief workers arrived, he said.Now, the roads are clear and the local elementary school is back up and running, Elbourne said. A trip through the woods revealed shiny white FEMA trailers in people's yards, but just as many tents.Over in Pearl River, Louisiana, home to about 2,000, shattered billboards and blue tarps draped across roofs are reminders of the hurricane's powerful winds, even miles inland.But traffic signals are working again, the Family Dollar store has returned to its normal 9 a.m.-8 p.m. hours and "help wanted" signs hang in the windows of the Wishbone chicken restaurant."Everything's getting back to normal now," said 27-year-old Cindy Blanchard of Pearl River.Not according to Don Lee in Pearlington. Green mold caused by flooding covers the walls and ceiling of his house. Lee, 50, who received a FEMA trailer after about a month, looked around at his demolished neighborhood and shook his head."I can't see where it's gotten a whole lot better," he said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Page Kennedy, who plays a fugitive from the law on "Desperate Housewives," was fired from the hit ABC drama for improper conduct, a series spokeswoman said Tuesday.Kennedy, who joined the show this season, was let go Friday after a "thorough investigation by the studio" of the allegations against him, publicist Janet Daily said. "Desperate Housewives" is produced by Touchstone Television, part of The Walt Disney Co.Details of the allegations were unavailable, Daily said. A call by The Associated Press to Kennedy's agent for comment wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.The alleged misconduct didn't involve another cast member, a source close to the production said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Kennedy played Caleb, a character shrouded in mystery and seen only briefly as he was held captive in the basement of Wisteria Lane newcomer Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard). In the October 23 episode, it was revealed that Caleb may be responsible for a teenager's murder in Chicago.The role of Caleb is being recast, Daily said. Kennedy's final appearance on the ABC series is Sunday.In an Associated Press interview last month, Kennedy, 28, said the "Desperate Housewives" role represented the chance of "making a name for myself."He was so intent on joining the show, he said, that he passed on other jobs, including a recurring role on Showtime's "Barber Shop" and parts on WB's upcoming Rebecca Romijn series, "Pepper Dennis," and on UPN's "Love, Inc.""I needed this opportunity to play this kind of character," Kennedy said. "It isn't the kind that comes around often and it's usually played by a name (actor). This is an opportunity for me to showcase all the years of training I've had."The Detroit native had appeared in the HBO series "Six Feet Under" as a football player who died of heat stroke and made his film debut as a bad guy in 2003's "S.W.A.T." He's in the movie "In the Mix," which is set to open on his birthday, November 23."Desperate Housewives," among the top-rated series with about 25 million viewers weekly, represents "the biggest exposure I'll have gotten," Kennedy told the AP. He lauded Woodard as his favorite actress, and said the rest of the cast "has been so sweet and nice to me."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Two Oregon couples Tuesday claimed the second-largest lottery jackpot in history -- an announced $340 million -- which the woman who bought the ticket called "a tremendous blessing."Frances and Bob Chaney, their daughter, Carolyn West, and her husband, Steve, told reporters that they will share the prize from the October 19 Powerball drawing.They went to Oregon State Lottery headquarters in Salem to verify their ticket and inform authorities how they want the money distributed.The four, who chipped in to buy $40 worth of tickets at Ray's Food Place in the small town of Jacksonville, in southwest Oregon, will take their winnings in one lump sum of $164.4 million, before taxes, said Frances Chaney, 68.Powerball spokeswoman Marlene Meissner said that would come to about $110 million after taxes.The couples' other payment option would have been 30 annual installments of about $8 million each after taxes."I'm still in disbelief that we won the big one," Chaney said. "We have a long road ahead of us, and I just pray every day that the Lord will lead us and guide us with this blessing he has bestowed on us."She added, "I'm glad we are able to share with our family."Asked how they planned to spend the money, Chaney said her 72-year-old husband had been wanting a yellow Hummer: "There is one in our driveway now."She said they waited a while before coming forward so they could get legal and financial advice. She said she couldn't believe their luck."I went on the Internet that night to check the numbers," she said.When she found a match, she checked several other Web sites before calling her daughter to tell her the news. The family checked and rechecked. Then they heard that the winning number was in Oregon, with a ticket bought in Jacksonville, "and we thought, 'Maybe it is us.'"Steve West, who is self-employed, said he will continue working -- "to keep us grounded." He said he may buy a sports car, and his wife wants a new car, but "we plan on not changing a lot."The media attention already has changed his life, he said, with people recognizing him everywhere he goes."You daydream a lot of times about what you'd do with the money," West said. "But you don't really expect how it would change your life and how things around you might change, until you've actually won the money, and things then begin to fall into place. It's scary."The odds against matching five numbered balls (out of 55) and one red ball (out of 42) to win the grand prize add up to one in 146,107,962, lottery officials said.The $340 million jackpot was the largest in Powerball history. This year's previous biggest Powerball winner was Brad Duke of Star, Idaho, who won more than $125 million in May.Twenty-seven states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands all participate in Powerball.The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was $363 million, won by two ticket holders in Illinois and Michigan in 2000.

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- At the risk of re-igniting the same heated nationwide debate it sparked six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.The 6-4 vote was a victory for "intelligent design" advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.Critics of the language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the separation of church and state.All six of those who voted for the standards were Republicans. Two Republicans and two Democrats voted against them."This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that," said board member Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat.Supporters of the standards said they will promote academic freedom. "It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today," said board member John Bacon, an Olathe Republican.The standards state that high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that some concepts have been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology. The challenged concepts cited include the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and the theory that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life.In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.The standards will be used to develop student tests measuring how well schools teach science. Decisions about what is taught in classrooms will remain with 300 local school boards, but some educators fear pressure will increase in some communities to teach less about evolution or more about intelligent design. (Read how Kansas came to this point)The vote marked the third time in six years that the Kansas board has rewritten standards with evolution as the central issue.In 1999, the board eliminated most references to evolution, a move Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said was akin to teaching "American history without Lincoln." Two years later, after voters replaced three members, the board reverted to evolution-friendly standards. Elections in 2002 and 2004 changed the board's composition again, making it more conservative.Many scientists and other critics contend creationists repackaged old ideas in scientific-sounding language to get around a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1987 that banned teaching the biblical story of creation in public schools.The Kansas board's action is part of a national debate. In Pennsylvania, a judge is expected to rule soon in a lawsuit against the Dover school board's policy of requiring high school students to learn about intelligent design in biology class. (Read about the Dover debate)In August, President Bush endorsed teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.

HAYWARD, Wisconsin (AP) -- A Hmong immigrant convicted of murdering six deer hunters and attempting to kill others after a trespassing dispute was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday with no chance for parole.Judge Norman Yackel ordered Chai Soua Vang, 37, to serve six life prison terms, one after the other, guaranteeing he would never be freed from prison. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty.Yackel described Vang as a "time bomb ready to go off" at the slightest provocation."These crimes are not isolated acts, but a pattern of anti-social conduct," the judge said.Vang, a truck driver from St. Paul, Minnesota, was convicted on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in the November 21 slayings.The homicide charges carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison, but Yackel could have set a parole eligibility date for Vang. The judge also sentenced Vang to three concurrent terms of 40 years in prison on the attempted homicide charges.The slayings occurred during the state's beloved deer hunting season and exposed racial tension between the predominantly white north woods residents and immigrants from the Hmong ethnic group.Vang was a member of the Hmong minority in Laos. He came to the United States in 1980.Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager sought the maximum sentence for Vang, a father of seven children. She argued Vang would kill again unless he was locked up for the rest of his life, given his "explosive temperament" and lack of true remorse or regret.Vang addressed the victims' families in court Tuesday but did not apologize."I understand your anger, your frustration, your grief," he said.According to trial testimony, Vang said he got lost, went into a tree stand on the private land and was asked by another hunter, Terry Willers, to leave. Vang said he apologized and started walking away.Other companions of Willers arrived, and there was an angry verbal confrontation and threats to report Vang to game wardens for trespassing.Vang testified he fired in self-defense after one hunter angrily shouted profanities at him and used racial slurs before another fired at him.Willers and the other wounded hunter, Lauren Hesebeck, said no one in their group pointed a gun at Vang before he opened fire.Willers and Hesebeck indicated only one shot was fired at Vang -- by Hesebeck, who was already wounded and some of his friends lay mortally wounded on the ground.Vang was convicted of killing Robert Crotteau, his son Joey Crotteau, Denny Drew, Allan Laski, Jessica Willers and Mark Roidt. All were relatives and friends who gathered to hunt from the Crotteaus' cabin near Exeland.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA has sent a report to the U.S. Justice Department indicating classified information may have been leaked to The Washington Post for its recent story about secret prisons run by the spy agency, according to U.S. officials.The newspaper reported last week that the CIA was holding top suspected al Qaeda terrorists at undisclosed prisons in eastern Europe and other locations.The Justice Department refused to confirm or deny a referral was made.The action by the CIA general counsel was taken immediately after the Washington Post article was published, an official said.It is similar to one taken when covert officer Valerie Plame's name was made public in an article written by a syndicated columnist.By law, when there is the possibility that classified information has been leaked, the CIA is required to inform the Justice Department, which generally launches an investigation into the matter.Earlier Tuesday, Republican congressional leaders asked for an investigation into the matter, and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested his own GOP colleagues could be to blame for the possible leak.Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Senate majority leader, and Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the House speaker, asked the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees to look into the report, saying the disclosure could damage national security."If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," they wrote in a letter requesting the investigation.Lott told reporters the information in the Post story was the same as that given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney last week."Every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper," he said. "We can't keep our mouths shut."Lott, a former Senate majority leader who was pushed out in 2002, suggested the information was passed along by a senator to a staff member.He said the investigation Frist and Hastert want may result in an ethics probe of a Senate member.Citing U.S. officials and those from other governments familiar with the arrangement, the Post reported Wednesday that top al Qaeda suspects were being held for questioning "at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe" and other locations around the world.Critics said the arrangement suggests U.S. agents are engaged in activities that would be illegal under American law.Top U.S. officials would not confirm or deny the report, but insisted all prisoners are being treated humanely. President Bush said flatly Monday, "We do not torture."A Washington Post spokesman said the paper had no comment on the possibility of an investigation.The leak probe request was announced as top administration officials battled a Senate-approved measure that explicitly bars "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of prisoners in U.S. custody.The White House has threatened to veto a $440 billion Pentagon spending bill if it includes that measure, which is backed by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona -- who as a prisoner of war during Vietnam was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors.And it came a day after Democrats called for an independent investigation into the treatment of prisoners in American custody.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged GOP leaders to initiate a broader investigation -- one that would include the 2003 leak of Valerie Plame's identity and the faulty intelligence used to argue for the invasion of Iraq."There is plenty to investigate about the Bush administration's use and misuse of intelligence," the California Democrat said in a written statement. "The American people deserve the truth."Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate minority leader, told CNN the GOP announcement was "just for show."And a senior Democratic aide called it a way for Republicans to divert attention from the grand jury probe into the exposure of Plame, whose husband had publicly challenged a key element of the Bush administration's case for war.That disclosure led to the October 28 indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned as Cheney chief of staff.Libby was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to federal agents investigating who revealed Plame's identity to reporters.CNN's David Ensor, Pam Benson, Ed Henry and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

PARIS, France (CNN) -- As midnight passes in France a government-declared state of emergency begins, triggering curfews in cities and towns after 12 days of the worst civil unrest the nation has seen in decades.Saying "the republic is at an hour of truth," French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced sweeping reforms aimed at stopping the of violence and treating the social problems that caused them.Shortly after he spoke on Tuesday, local officials began imposing curfews in cities around France, a step that will allow police to jail rioters for up to two months.In remarks to the National Assembly, France's parliament, de Villepin acknowledged the social unrest was the result of France's failure to provide hope to thousands of young people, most of them French citizens, the children of Muslim immigrants from northern Africa. (Watch France's problem of inequality -- 3:12)The rioting in dozens of towns around the country has shocked France, resulted in more than 1,500 arrests and the torching of thousands of vehicles. "What is in question," said the prime minister, "it is our republic and our model of integration," which he said was "founded on the equal recognition of all our citizens.""The fight against all discrimination must be a priority because it has an incredible cost on our community."De Villepin divided his address, spending the first portion on steps the government will take to crack down on violence and the last half on social programs to deal with discrimination."The state will be firm and just," he vowed.On Tuesday morning, the French cabinet invoked a 1955 law that allows for local officials to impose curfews on French cities."We will guarantee the public order for each of our citizens," said De Villepin.He said 9,500 police, including police reserves, had been called up to deal with the unrest, which has spread to more than 200 French towns and cities.Of the 1,500 people arrested, he said, 600 had been placed in temporary detention and about 100 jailed.De Villepin said moves were already under way to strengthen the intelligence-gathering capability of French authorities, noting that some of the violence had been organized through Internet blogs that have now been shut down.In order for French society to provide the same changes and opportunities to all its citizens, said de Villepin, 30 billion euros will be spent in France's riot zones, with the focus primarily on helping young people.The prime minister said the French employment agency would focus on 239 hot zones to help provide jobs for 1.5 million people. France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, but in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.He said money will be spent to provide apprenticeships for students 14 years old and older who want to leave school. But he stressed the program will allow those young people to go back to school to gain the knowledge they need to succeed better at the jobs.In addition, said de Villepin, funds will be channeled toward providing 100,000 scholarships as well as providing better access to upper-level colleges and universities.To entice people off state subsidies and back to work, de Villepin said, unemployed workers will get 1,000 euros plus a monthly supplement to go back to jobs.De Villepin announced the creation of an agency for "social cohesion" which will go into riot zones, be in direct contact with mayors and local officials, and provide programs to deal with hot-button issues like joblessness and discrimination.In addition, he announced that local associations, such as civic and religious groups, would receive 100,000 euros for outreach programs.But CNN's Jim Bittermann said the emergency measures allowing curfews had provoked outrage in many of the communities affected by the unrest. "They could have a dramatic effect," he said. "Many Muslims told us these laws were last used in Algeria in the 1950s, and were a provocation for those who lived through what they described as the 'outrages and torture' of the war of independence."President Jacques Chirac has said the new powers are "necessary to accelerate the return to calm." Besides curfews, other measures include allowing police to carry out raids for suspected stockpiling of weapons. The emergency powers can last up to 12 days. Curfews had already been imposed in some parts of Paris overnight Monday, although the intensity of violence that has hit nearly 300 towns across the country eased from the night before.Youths killedThe first death of the riots was reported on Monday. Jean Jacques Le Chenadec, 61, a resident of the Paris suburb of Stains in the region of Seine-Saint-Denis, died from injuries suffered outside his apartment building Friday night, officials said.The riots began after two youths of North African descent were electrocuted when they hid in an electric power station, believing they were being followed by police.Since then, the rioting has spread from the Paris outskirts to inside the city limits as well as to poor neighborhoods across the country, shocking French society.Rioters have hit towns such as Lille in the north to Rouen and Orleans in the west, the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Cannes, and Strasbourg and Colmar in the east, with youths attacking shops, schools and a police station.Fears were also growing that the unrest could take hold elsewhere in Europe. Cars have been torched in both Brussels and Berlin, and police said they were investigating if they were copycat attacks. (Full story)Opposition groups on the left, including the Green Party and the Communist Party, have called for Sarkozy to resign after he called the rioters "scum" last week -- language that inflamed the vandalism. (Watch French teens explain why they're angry -- 2:08)The spreading violence has shocked national leaders and community residents into action, with mediators and religious leaders talking to the youths in an effort to stop the violence.French Muslim groups also issued a fatwa against the violence, Reuters reported. (Full story)The Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) condemned the disorder and destruction the riots had caused.Australia, Austria, Britain, Germany and Hungary advised their citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- Gov. Bob Riley called for a nationwide travel boycott of Aruba on Tuesday on behalf of a missing Alabama teenager's family, who accuse the island's government of not fully cooperating with the investigation into her disappearance.Riley asked his fellow governors to join him in urging the boycott of Aruba, where 18-year-old Natalee Holloway was last seen on May 30."There are no other alternatives to get Aruban authorities to take this as seriously as they should," Riley said. (Watch governor talk of "moral persuasion" -- 1:11)Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, joined Riley at the Alabama Capitol for the boycott announcement. She contends Aruban authorities have failed to adequately investigate the possible murder of her daughter, who was with a Dutch teenager and two Surinamese brothers on the night she disappeared.The young men were held for a time but have been released.Aruba Police Chief Gerald Dompig said later Tuesday the investigation into Holloway's disappearance is not complete, and that authorities want to interview other American teenagers who were on the high school graduation trip with Holloway."We want to talk once more with various students because their first statements, taken by the FBI, were very short," Dompig said. "There are a few crucial questions that they still have to answer."He would not say what those questions are.Riley was asked if parents should allow their children to go to Aruba on similar trips as long as Holloway's disappearance is unsolved."I would not allow my daughter to go to Aruba," he said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.