(CNN) -- Thanksgiving is the time of year when individuals and families celebrate all things great in their lives. It's a time for good food, parades, fun and some serious reflection.And, as CNN.com found out when we asked readers to send in their favorite holiday memories, Thanksgiving also can be a time for some seriously funny family antics. Here's a sampling of those Thanksgiving stories, both funny and sweet, sent in by e-mail. (Some have been edited.) My sister and husband have a housecleaning service in Westchester County, New York. They responded to desperate customers who arrived home after a long Thanksgiving weekend to find their house occupied by a half dozen wild turkeys and a tremendous mess. Apparently one crashed through a window and the others followed. I guess turkey day has taken on a whole new meaning for the owners. Robert F. Johnson, Kerteminde, DenmarkWhen I was 8 years old, my parents invited the priest from our church over for Thanksgiving dinner. Before we ate, my mom thought she would impress the pastor by asking ME to say grace. Put on the spot, I didn't know what to say. As everyone joined hands, I slammed my hand on the turkey and shouted "BE HEALED!" Darrin C., San Antonio, TexasMy first husband and I got married in 1963, when I was 17 and he was 19. I had always dreamed of having my own home and husband to care for. Instead of going to family for Thanksgiving that year I roasted my first turkey. My dad was the cook in my family and I watched him many times prepare the bird. He always put cheesecloth on the top and basted it frequently. Bud and I made the stuffing and got the turkey ready for the oven. We didn't have any cheesecloth but we did have a red bandana. We put the bandana on the turkey and popped it in the oven. We basted it later and put it back in to roast some more. By the time of the second basting, the color from the bandana had bled onto the turkey! I am now 59 years old and have never baked a prettier turkey!! It was delicious too. Cheri Sharp, Decatur, IllinoisMy funniest Thanksgiving memory has to be the time when our outside cat, "Puff-Puff," climbed up a tree and onto a branch that hung over our roof. He navigated around the roof of our story-and-a-half house until he found an open window, snuck in, and found our unattended Thanksgiving turkey sitting on the dining room table, waiting to be carved. Needless to say, he made a feast of that turkey before my mom walked in and busted him. The cat jumped out the window, and down that tree with the turkey flying after him (my mom threw the turkey at the cat). Back then, during the '70s the stores all closed for the Holidays so there was no buying another until the next day. That was the Thanksgiving where the cat had turkey and we didn't! Sherri Dadey, Clairton, PennsylvaniaThis Thanksgiving story could be put into the worst and funniest category. My mother comes from a large family, five brothers and one sister. When we were younger, all the siblings would gather at my mother's house, spend the night and enjoy a long Thanksgiving. My Dad and uncles went out into the garage where they found a cattle prod. They then decided to shock each other to see how it felt (how redneck). When they shocked my youngest uncle, it sent him into a seizure sending us to the emergency room for Thanksgiving. The ironic part is that years later, I married an EMT's son and his father was one of the EMT's that responded to our house that Thanksgiving. They had just set down for dinner when the call came on the scanner, "seizure from cattle prod". We had never made the connection until I told him about my worst Thanksgiving, which happened to be his too. Kelley, Eminence, KentuckyThe best Thanksgiving dinner was 1987 in Honduras while deployed with the U.S. Army. The local children were brought in to the base to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Grand Opening of our Dining Facility. By the time the kids got through there was literally nothing left for the troops to eat except some desserts and some bread. Normally that would have upset me. I was away from my family and now I had no Turkey Dinner. That soon faded when I saw the expressions on the children's faces. This kid normally had nothing, but today was like no other day in their life. Some had to borrow clothes that they could wear to come to the base to have dinner with the American soldiers. I realized then just how lucky my family and I are. I finally understood the meaning of Thanksgiving. Andy T., Anchorage, AlaskaBack in the '70s my sister and I picked up a huge fresh turkey at the local Safeway that our Mom had ordered. We brought out dog in the car with us. She was a ten pound, blind Dachshund. We left "Heidi" in the front seat of the car while we ran a second errand. When we returned to the car, the breast of the raw turkey was gone! Heidi had leaped over the back of the bench seat into the backseat and polished off the turkey! Boy, was our mother mad. Betsy, San Bruno, CaliforniaOn Thanksgiving we have always split up what everyone provides for the dinner. One year my grandparents were bringing the Turkey. When we went to carve the Turkey it was frozen solid! We ended up going to KFC and getting chicken. Teresa Anderson, St. Peterson, FloridaWhen I was newly married I went to my ex-husband's house to have Thanksgiving with his family. This included my daughter, his sister and her husband, their two children, and their grandmother of eighty-plus years. Everyone was seated at the table. I wanted to be accepted in this wonderful family and decided in order to attempt to acquire that honorable status, I should carry out the large brown luscious smelling turkey and place it on the table. I picked up the tray and also a large silver serving fork and proceeded out of the kitchen into the dining room. When I passed by "Granny Fudd," I accidentally brushed her hair with the serving fork only to find I now had a silver colored wig dangling from the utensil. I had speared Grannie's wig right off her head! My face turned crimson, but my embarrassment soon faded as the entire clan burst into peels of laughter. Lynn Farina, Dover, DelawareMy funniest Thanksgiving was when I was a child living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had 20 or so people over, so my mother decided to cook two turkeys, one in the oven, and the other on the gas grill. Both turkeys were finished and my father went out to get the turkey off the grill. It was cold and a little rainy out, so dad was hurrying the turkey into the house. Next thing we knew, his foot hit a patch of ice and the turkey went flying! Only a few of us saw it happen, so we grabbed it, took it in the kitchen, and washed it off. We served it alongside the other bird, and the guests raved about the grilled turkey. They just didn't know about a little secret seasoning that was used. We still laugh about that day every Thanksgiving. Amy, Medford, MassachusettsSome friends purchased a new camp trailer right before Thanksgiving, so we decide to all go camping for the holidays. Unfortunately we didn't realize the turkey wouldn't fit in the camper's oven until we were out in the "boonies". Not to be done out of a turkey dinner our friend wrapped the turkey in foil and ran over it several times with the truck until it was flat enough to fit into the oven. It was very tender. Kay, Elko, NevadaI was 11 years old; my brothers were 9 and 7. Mom had made dinner, but she had to work Thanksgiving Day. My brothers and I were very close and we played "a lot". We were ready to eat, I grabbed the turkey which was still in the roaster and took off through the house and up the stairs with my brothers running as fast as they could behind me. About 3 stairs from the top my foot caught the tip of the stairs and we witnessed the bird take flight. It flew across the hallway and hit the door of my brother's bedroom. We laughed so hard, we cried. We had to get everything cleaned up and back to normal before Mom got home. We never told her about the "flying turkey". Lucille, Winston-Salem, North CarolinaNot sure if this holiday was worst or funniest. Many years ago dishwashers and ovens had large lock levers at the top. Grandmother was always after Granddad to lock the dishwasher so no grandchild could open the door. Granddad was "helping" with Thanksgiving dinner. We had pulled the turkey out for basting; Granddad returned the turkey to oven and proceeded to "lock" the turkey in the oven. This "lock" was the self-cleaning cycle, and the oven could not be opened until the temperature dropped. We turned off the power, pulled the oven away from wall and then removed the outside oven case and door to get to the now very well done turkey. Martha, Hillsdale, MichiganThanksgivings at my parents' home in tiny Marengo, Illinois, are tons of fun and a little crazy, needless to say, thanks to my fun-loving dad, Larry. Thanksgiving is an all-day event at their house, and everyone on both sides of the family participates. (About 30 people and growing every year!) Every Thanksgiving is a different theme. Past themes have been Pajama Party, '50s & '60s Rock 'n' Roll, Wild West, Beach Party, Murder Mystery Dinner, and yes, we all dress our part. This year our theme is "Vegas, BABY!" We are dressing up and playing Vegas games, including a poker tournament and roulette as we drink famous Vegas Cocktails! The day begins with morning mass at 9, a walk in the woods at 10:30 and dinner at 1. After the dishes are done, everyone changes into their afternoon/evening "theme" attire and the fun and games begin! Jodi Heitkamp, Sycamore, IllinoisI have a fond and funny memory of one Thanksgiving when my mother, attempting to do something innovative and new, decided to BBQ our turkey. There it was in all its glory stuffed with an incredible shrimp stuffing that we had prepared that morning. It took several hours to roast the bird on the BBQ and it smelled incredible. I could hardly wait. When the time came to take the bird off the spit my father carried in the turkey and we saw that sometime during the cooking process the thermometer inside the bird had broken!! Our lovely turkey was filled with mercury from the thermometer and was completely inedible. We were so hungry by then that we raced to our freezer where we promptly found some frozen hamburgers. We feasted on burgers and fries that year. Kelly Liljeros, Anaheim, California

ELIZABETH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- An elementary school principal resigned after parents denounced her for parading an 8-year-old girl from class to class after a classmate falsely accused her of stealing $5.Marlene Whitby, principal at William Penn Elementary School in the Pittsburgh suburb of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, submitted her resignation Wednesday, and the district's school board accepted it unanimously.Whitby and the school's administration came under fire this month when the parents of third-grader Katie White protested that Whitby had not been punished for the September incident.After the classmate accused the girl of stealing the $5, Whitby took her from room to room, calling her a liar and thief. The other child later recanted the story.The girl's father, Ryan White, said that when he spoke to Whitby she acknowledged that she didn't look at a school bus video or talk to the bus driver to verify the theft accusation.He said Superintendent Paul Mueller and Whitby agreed that the principal would publicly apologize, but parents said the apology wasn't clearly worded and their children didn't understand what Whitby was saying. Whitby was also suspended for three days with pay.Whitby earlier declined to comment. No telephone listings in her name could be found this week.Police had to be called to Wednesday's board meeting because some in the crowd of about 70 people became upset when board President Lowell Meek said there would be no public comment on a personnel and discipline matter.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tinkering again with enforcement of the No Child Left Behind education law, the government plans to let some states fundamentally change how they measure yearly student progress.In an experiment that's been months in the making, up to 10 states will be allowed to measure not just how students are performing, but how that performance is changing over time.Currently, schools are judged based only on how today's students compare to last year's students in math and reading -- such as fourth-graders in 2005 versus fourth-graders in 2004.Many state leaders don't like the current system of comparing two different years of kids because it doesn't recognize changes in the population or growth by individual students.Education Secretary Margaret Spellings was announcing the "growth model" policy on Friday to a gathering of state school chiefs in Richmond, Virginia, The Associated Press learned."We're open to new ideas, but we're not taking our eye off the ball," Spellings said in remarks prepared for delivery to the state school officials.The latest shift in enforcement of the President Bush's No Child Left Behind law is significant politically. Frustrated states have been pleading for permission to measure growth by students, which may make it easier for schools to meet their goals and avoid penalties.Spellings has promised to be flexible in enforcing the law, one that is central to Bush's domestic agenda and often faces criticism in statehouses and schoolhouses.Other recent changes have dealt with testing, teacher quality and students with disabilities. Yet student progress is the cornerstone of the law.How it is measured has big implications.New measurement standardsSchools that receive federal poverty aid but don't make "adequate yearly progress" for at least two years face mounting penalties, from allowing students to transfer and providing tutoring to poor children to eventual restructuring of the school and its staff.Spellings said it makes sense to give schools credit for progress that students make.The states that win approval for the new flexibility, however, must do more than show growth. They still will have to get all children up to par in reading and math by 2014, as the law requires, and show consistent gains along the way.The Education Department, eager to show it is not weakening the law, will require states to take many steps before they can qualify for the "growth" option.States must have data systems to track individual students, close achievement gaps between whites and minorities, and prove they have at least one year of baseline testing.The law requires yearly testing in grades three through eight and once in high school.The department has not chosen the 10 states that will be part of the experiment. In practical terms, many states won't qualify because they don't have the kind of data systems to track individual students across grades. And others may not find the change helpful.To start, states that gain approval to measure student growth will also be required to chart progress the old way, comparing this year's students with last year's. The Education Department wants to see that data to help determine whether charting growth is a fair, accurate measure.Patricia Sullivan, director of the independent Center on Education Policy, praised federal leaders for showing flexibility and clearly outlining what states must do to get it.A growth model could benefit not just struggling students but also gifted ones who may be challenged anew to show their own yearly progress, beyond the school's standard benchmark."This is clearly what states have been asking for," Sullivan said. "It makes a lot of sense to measure growth. It's so discouraging for teachers when students make tremendous gains but don't get the credit because they don't get all the way over the bar."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts (AP) -- He was as adept at drawing a charging brigade of Civil War soldiers as he was painting outdoorsmen scouting a mountaintop view in the Adirondacks.And the seascapes illustrated from his vantage point on the rocky Maine coast captured an uneasy balance between the violence of whitecapped ocean waves and the tranquility of a sunrise over the Atlantic's horizon.Winslow Homer was a chronicler of American times and a recorder of the country's landscapes, a mostly self-taught artist who did not have to wait for a posthumous nod from critics and collectors who called him one of the most important artists of the 19th century.A sweeping exhibit of Homer's works on display through January 16, 2006, at the Clark Art Institute showcases the artist's diversity of subjects and the mediums he chose to illustrate them."Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History," displays about 170 works from the Clark's extensive collection of Homer's engravings, etchings, watercolors and oil paintings, collected by Robert Sterling Clark between 1916 and 1955. The show will not travel elsewhere."In all these realms, he achieved not only the highest levels of quality, but he altered what it meant to work in these mediums," said Marc Simpson, the Clark's curator of American art.The wood engravings he did as a freelancer for magazines like Harper's Weekly cast the mass produced images as works of fine art. The works marked the start of the Boston native's career as an artist and display his talent of being able to create realistic scenes from his imagination.Although he was often commissioned to illustrate Civil War battle scenes, he never witnessed a confrontation between Union and Confederate soldiers. Not all his journalistic work focused on the war. Several prints from his wood engraving drawings show the pleasant and bucolic side of America, with men and women gathered at social engagements and lumberjacks working on a winter day.Homer started painting with oils when the war ended, and his works in the late 1860s and 1870s reflect a shift in the country's focus from the ravages of war to the escapism of leisure activities.He found plenty of inspiration in the mountains of the Northeast, where he painted a woman on horseback at the top of New Hampshire's Mount Washington and a pair of woodsmen stopping along an Adirondack trail.Homer's compositions draw in the viewer to see things from his subject's perspective.In "Two Guides," Homer's outdoorsmen stand at the center of the canvas. A glint of light reflects from the older man's ax blade, first attracting the viewer's eye and then leading it to follow the guide's outstretched hand and the gaze of his younger companion.But the painting leaves one nagging question: What are they observing?In 1873, Homer began working with watercolors, a medium that gave his work a looser feel. In "An October Day," he frames a deer swimming across a mountain lake with the glowing colors of fall's foliage reflecting off the water."He's letting serendipity work its way throughout the image," Simpson said.He also tried his hand at etchings, doing some of the work of which he was most proud. But after devoting most of his time to the medium after two years, he stopped doing etchings because they weren't selling.By the mid-1880s, Homer had moved to Prout's Neck on the coast of Maine and produced some of the nautical images with which he's most commonly associated.In "West Point, Prout's Neck," Homer's sea splashes in the foreground as the sun casts a blaze of orange over the horizon.While the Clark's exhibit spans the shifts in Homer's work, it also captures the museum founder's fascination with the artist. Clark began collecting Homer's illustrations in 1916, six years after the artist died. He acquired more than 200 of Homer's works between then and his last purchase in 1955."His collection of Homer is the best collection assembled by anyone since the artist's death," Simpson said.While the exhibit doesn't display all the museum's holdings, it gives viewers an overwhelming sense of the scope of Homer's work.Pamela Allen, an art conservationist visiting the museum from Yorkshire, England, said she was surprised by the etchings and drawings she never associated with Homer."Much of what I'm seeing here is completely different from what I had expected from a Homer exhibit," she said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(AP) -- Each year, families set out on the country's interstate highways risking frayed nerves, cramped legs and juice-stained upholstery to share a few days of holiday cheer with far-flung relatives.But do road trips really have to turn into your customized sequel to "National Lampoon's Vacation"? Not necessarily, say parents who've mastered the carefully orchestrated mix of creativity and gadgetry that can make long car trips not only bearable, but also fun.Strategies for success vary widely, but one theme is consistent among experienced road-trippers: Plan ahead. While most people think of preparing for the vacation itself, parents with young children also need to map out the way they'll spend time on the road.That's what Vicky Cusick did when her three kids were younger. "We would plan the trip, breaking it down," says Cusick, of Nashville, Tennessee, who makes several interstate car trips each year with her family.The Cusicks would leave home around 5 a.m. "and bank on the kids sleeping for three hours." When they awoke, Vicky would hand out pre-packed cups of cereal while her husband drove. "Finally we got smart and we'd make them go to sleep in their clothes the night before. Because in their pajamas, they'd wake up wanting to stop and get dressed."That's just the sort of planning recommended by Michael H. Popkin, psychologist and author of "Doc Pop's 52 Weeks of Active Parenting," who advises getting plenty of rest before you leave so that parental tension and crankiness doesn't rub off on the children.Dr. Popkin also suggests frequent breaks. "Stop every two hours for a five-minute break," he says. "And bring a ball or a Frisbee."Just about everyone who's done the family road trip or studied it has a tip for smoothing the ride:Combine breaks with meals to save travel time -- and choose places that have play areas. "Let them run, burn off some steam, and then take the food in the car and risk the mess," says Jeanne Murphy, an author of child-care books and program director of the iParenting Media Awards.Burn up travel time by preparing for a meal or snack in the car, eating it, then having the kids pitch in with clean-up.Fill a bag with a mix of new toys and older ones that are awaiting rediscovery, especially for kids below school age. Carla Lev of Chicago, who has traveled across states and oceans with her three school-age daughters since they were born, suggests plundering the dollar store for gifts to wrap up and dole out gradually. "Every hour it's, 'Look what's in the grab bag this hour!"' she says.Read to the kids or play books on tape, then talk about the stories, imagining alternate endings and discussing how characters might have felt at certain moments.Build in special stops that will capture the kids' imaginations. That's Elizabeth Lasseter's solution. "We're going to do our first leg and try to make it to Louisville," says Lasseter, of Birmingham, Alabama, who is planning a car trip to Wisconsin with her two sons. "The Louisville Slugger baseball museum and factory are there."Making the most of 'forced togetherness'But success often depends on children's temperaments. Some families find that brief stops create more stress than they relieve, and prefer simply reaching their destination as fast as possible.Some opt to drive at night. That was the solution for Stephanie Werren of Canton, Ohio, a mother of triplets who wanted to get them to Florida painlessly. "We'd leave at 5 p.m., stop for dinner at eight and they were asleep by 10," she says. "By the time they woke up in the morning, we were there by 10 a.m."The overnight drive can be peaceful, but it can also be exhausting. After a sleepless night, parents may have little energy left to handle their well-rested children.Now that Werren's children are 7, the family no longer drives overnight. But on recent back-to-back trips to New York, Massachusetts and Michigan, they stopped only for a few quick bathroom breaks. Her secret weapon? Consumer electronics."It was so different when we were kids. I came from a family where it was too expensive to fly, so we drove. And my mom would get so mad at us, she wouldn't be talking to us halfway down," Werren says. "But if we'd had a DVD or Gameboys -- they are just amazing."Others, like Lasseter, haven't been helped much by DVDs: Her kids fought over movies and refused to take turns. Besides, movies don't necessarily help families make the most of the hours together."If your goal is to just make the trip not negative, then the DVD is great," says Wendy S. Grolnick, whose research at Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts, explores children's ability to manage their emotions. "But if your goal is to make it especially positive and even educational, then you may not want to go in that direction."Many families also turn to an old standard: word games -- searching out letters of the alphabet on license plates or naming state capitals. That can be a great way to sneak in a bit of education amid the entertainment.On last year's Thanksgiving road trip, Vicky Cusick made paper turkeys with her kids before leaving. "The feathers said all the things we were thankful for. We saved some of it to do in the car," she says. And on the way home, after passing through Washington, D.C., she suggested a poetry contest to occupy her restless kids. "This took them hours, writing and rewriting and trying to win."It may seem like extra work, but the dividends can be enormous."In this busy world that we have, it's forced togetherness," Grolnick says. "These are things your kids are going to remember: a joke-telling contest or a 20 Questions ritual or an 'I'm Going on a Picnic' game. They remember that more than they'll remember the trip."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- So many deer inhabit the area around Pig's Eye Lake just east of St. Paul that one frustrated local official has compared them to unwanted vermin.In a recent aerial survey of the 11-square-mile, mostly residential area, county biologists expecting to find about 100 deer instead counted more than 500. Some of the hoofed creatures have been wandering into town, showing up at places like the emergency entrance of Regions Hospital and in front of the pro hockey arena.Most notably, a big buck broke several windows at the state Capitol before bounding just a few feet away from Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his startled security detail."They're just everywhere. You see them every day," said Kathy Lantry, a city councilwoman who represents the area Pig's Eye Lake area. "They've become like rats."The problem of deer encroaching on cities and suburbs is not new, with some communities considering everything from hiring sharpshooters to deer contraception to cut down the populations.Earlier this month, a man in Bentonville, Arkansas, struggled with a deer for nearly 40 minutes after it crashed into his daughter's bedroom, ultimately killing it with his bare hands. A few days earlier, authorities in Helena, Montana, killed four deer that had harassed a newspaper carrier.Deer flourish in forest areas where there is development but no sport hunting or natural predators and food is plentiful in the form of weeds and residential landscaping.John Moriarty, natural resource manager for St. Paul's Ramsey County, said residents of deer-heavy areas usually start out liking their hoofed neighbors because it seems a little exotic."For a long period of time, people were willing to tolerate a little bit of damage, but then you hit people's breaking point," he said. "Then they become the bad, nasty deer that everyone wants to get rid of."Deer wander on to highways and get hit by cars, 15,000 a year in Minnesota alone. They also damage gardens, lawns and crops, spread Lyme disease and disrupt habitat for species ranging from nesting songbirds to forest vegetation."You can't plant anything. They eat it all," said Ann Mueller, who until recently lived near Pig's Eye Lake. At certain times of the year she said she saw deer daily.Later this month, a sharpshooter hired by Ramsey County will take to the woods to thin the herds around Pig's Eye Lake, a Mississippi River backwater. The goal is to kill about 200 does to both bring down current numbers and reduce future reproduction.There will be little sport to what Tony DeNicola, president of Connecticut-based White Buffalo Inc., will do when he carries out the project.For several weeks, he will drop bait at the same time each day to train deer to come to areas where can safely shoot them. He said he typically shoots from a tree or vehicle.If 200 deer are killed, that means about 10,000 pounds of venison for local food shelves, Moriarty said.But some oppose this means of thinning the deer population.In Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, residents a few years ago formed the "Coalition to Save Our Deer" after the state Department of Natural Resources proposed letting bow hunters into a fenced-off reservoir where a herd of deer had been trapped by post-September 11 security measures.Hoping to avoid controversy, states like New York and Ohio have had some success shooting does with darts charged with contraceptives. Animal rights groups have advocated wider use -- but that in turn has prompted criticism."It just takes forever and it's expensive," said DeNicola. "You contracept a deer and it's still out running around in the field, it can still get hit by a car."However, John Hadidian, director of urban wildlife programs for the Humane Society of the United States, said he believes the strongest opposition to deer birth control has come from hunters who are afraid populations will decline too much."That gets enabled by state fish and game agencies that depend on hunting license revenue for their operations," Hadidian said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The rate of newly reported HIV cases among blacks has been dropping by about 5 percent a year since 2001, the government said Thursday. But blacks are still eight times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with the AIDS virus."The racial disparities remain severe," said Lisa Lee, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The falling rate among blacks seems to be tied to overlapping drops in diagnoses among intravenous drug users and heterosexuals, CDC researchers said.The study was based on 2001-04 data from 33 states that have name-based reporting systems for HIV. Health officials do not know which diagnoses represent new infections and which ones were infections people had for years but had just discovered.The CDC found that overall diagnoses in the 33 states decreased slightly, from 41,207 cases in 2001 to 38,685 in 2004. The rate fell from 22.8 cases per 100,000 people in 2001 to 20.7 per 100,000 in 2004.The decline was more pronounced among blacks -- the rate dropped from 88.7 per 100,000 in 2001 to 76.3 in 2004. Among whites, the rate rose slightly from 8.7 to 9.0.At least part of the decline among blacks appears to be tied to a 9 percent annual decline in diagnoses among intravenous drug users, who can get the virus from contaminated needles. More than half of the drug users were black, Lee said.The decline is also linked to a 4 percent decline in diagnoses among heterosexuals. About 69 percent of the heterosexuals diagnosed with HIV were black.Diagnoses among men who have sex with men remained roughly stable from 2001 to 2003 but climbed 8 percent between 2003 and 2004. That was true for men of all races, CDC officials said. But they could not explain the recent increase.In New York, needle exchange programs helped explain declining HIV infection rates, said state Health Department spokeswoman Claire Pospisil. New York introduced needle exchanges in 1992, and 114,500 people have participated, she said.Most public health researchers say such programs have been clearly effective against the spread of HIV, but some argue they work against efforts to fight drug abuse."The AIDS virus is spread through voluntary behavior. An unlimited supply of needles will not alter behavior patterns of irresponsible and often psychotic addicts," the conservative Family Research Council said in a statement.The government does not know exactly how many people have HIV. Roughly 25 percent of people living with HIV do not know they are infected, health officials said.The study for the first time includes data from New York, which accounted for more than 20 percent of the diagnoses seen in the 33 states. "The inclusion of New York data gives us more representative picture what going on," Lee said.California and Illinois are among the states still missing from the database.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The antiflu drug Tamiflu is safe, federal health advisers said Friday, after finding no direct link between the drug and the deaths of 12 Japanese children who had taken it."If we ever have a pandemic of avian flu, which is a debatable point, people want to know that they have a drug that will not cause more (harm) than the flu itself," said Dr. Robert Nelson, chairman of the Food and Drug Administration's Pediatric Advisory Committee. "There is no evidence that this will."The committee reviewed Tamiflu as part of a routine safety check of drugs whose original uses had been extended to cover children.Interest was raised, however, because the drug is key in the arsenal of treatments for pandemics caused by bird flu or another superflu strain.The committee voted unanimously that no change was needed in the label to reflect the deaths of the Japanese children or other adverse affects. But it did say that information should be added to the label about serious skin reactions.The FDA is not bound by its advisory committee recommendations, but usually follows them.Nelson said the FDA should still be vigilant in going forward despite the finding that there was reason for concern about the drug at this point.The committee asked the FDA staff to provide an update in about a year on any adverse reactions associated with Tamiflu. A full-report should be made in two years, the committee said."Influenza is a serious disease. Kids die of influenza, both in Japan and the United States, and if you give a drug to people who are at risk of dying, there will be people who die who got the drug," Nelson said. "There is no signal the drug is doing it as opposed to the disease."There have been no reports of deaths linked to Tamiflu in the United States or Europe.Melissa Truffa, of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, told the panel earlier Friday that they found no direct link between the use of Tamiflu and the deaths in Japan.The FDA staff said Tamiflu is used much more often in Japan than in the United States -- 11.6 million prescriptions for children in Japan between 2001 and 2005, compared to about 872,000 during that same period in the United States.An official with the drug maker Roche Holdings AG told the commission that there are 10 times the number of adverse reactions to the drug in Japan than in the United States and about 10 times the number of prescriptions. He said that studies show no higher mortality rates for users of Tamiflu versus nonusers."The absolute numbers are in the opposite direction," said Joseph Hoffman, a vice president at Roche.In addition to the deaths, briefing material prepared by the FDA staff also includes reports of 32 "neuropsychiatric events" associated with Tamiflu, all but one experienced by Japanese patients. Those cases included delirium, hallucinations, convulsions and encephalitis.Roche said several studies in the United States and Canada had shown that the incidence of death in influenza patients who took Tamiflu was far lower than in those who did not.The company also has supplied the FDA with two additional studies it commissioned that evaluated the safety of Tamiflu in pediatric patients.Complicating the issue is that many of the Japanese death and adverse reaction reports list symptoms commonly associated with the flu, Dr. Murray Lumpkin, deputy commissioner of the FDA, said prior to the meeting."It is very difficult, when the underlying disease causes what it is being reported, to figure out: Is it the underlying disease? Is it the drug?" he said.The popularity of Tamiflu in Japan may explain in part the number of reports from that country: Of 32 million people treated with Tamiflu since its approval in 1999, 24 million were in Japan, according to Roche.Japan's Health Ministry warned last week that Tamiflu may induce "strange behavior" after reporting that two teenage boys died shortly after taking the medicine.The Japanese distributor of the Roche-patented drug told health officials it could not rule out a link between Tamiflu and the deaths.However, Roche said earlier this week that it "carefully reviewed these events and has concluded that a causal link cannot be established."The U.S. labeling for Tamiflu lists nausea and vomiting as its most serious side effects. Its labeling in Japan includes any adverse effects that have been reported -- including impaired consciousness, abnormal behavior and hallucinations -- regardless of whether they can be attributed to the drug, according to Roche.Tamiflu is one of the few drugs believed effective in treating bird flu, which health officials fear could spark a pandemic should it mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BURBANK, California (AP) -- Jurors who found Robert Blake liable in the slaying of his wife said the tough-guy actor was his own "worst enemy" on the witness stand.In a 10-2 decision, the jury ruled Friday that Blake "intentionally caused the death" of Bonny Lee Bakley, who was gunned down May 4, 2001 outside a restaurant where the couple had just dined. Blake was ordered to pay her four children $30 million in damages.Jurors said they were swayed by the former "Baretta" star's combative attitude during his eight days of testimony, when he often railed at plaintiffs' attorney Eric Dubin, calling him "chief," "junior" or "sonny." At one point, Dubin said he felt threatened by Blake's responses.Blake also testified he regarded his slain wife with the same affection he would feel for a pet. He told the jury he urged her, "Wake up, toots," when he found her slumped and dying in the passenger seat of his car."We believe that Mr. Blake was probably his worst enemy on the stand," jury foreman Bob Horn said. (Watch what the jurors said-- 1:37)Jurors didn't indicate what specific evidence caused them to find Blake responsible for the death."In the end, the evidence that was presented really convinced the jury to the standard that we were set to," Horn said.Blake was aquitted in March in his criminal trial, when 12 jurors had to decide guilt unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil wrongful-death case required only that nine of 12 jurors believe by a "preponderance" of the evidence that Blake was responsible for the crime.When asked whether Blake pulled the trigger, juror Tony Aldana said, "To this point, who knows. We're not sure."Blake, 72, dressed in a black suit and tie, looked down as the verdicts were read. He left court immediately.None of Bakley's four children were in the courtroom to hear the verdict. Daughter Holly Gawron said in a phone interview from Memphis, Tennessee, that she was ecstatic."It's been a nightmare, but now it's time to repair our lives and move on," said Gawron, 25, who added that the verdict was more important than the monetary award."I know there isn't any money to recover from him," Gawron said. "I'm not interested in the money."Blake's criminal attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, spoke to Blake after the verdict and called him "a survivor.""He's not a quitter. He's 72 years old and he's been through hell for four years," Schwartzbach said in a phone interview. "I continue to believe in his innocence."The plaintiffs had argued that Blake either killed Bakley himself or hired someone to do so. The jury was not asked to decide which theory it believed. However, the panel decided that Blake's handyman, Earle Caldwell, was not liable in the killing.Attorney Gary Austin, who represented Caldwell, said the justice system "worked for him in the criminal case and it worked here in the civil case."Dubin contended that Blake despised Bakley, believing she trapped him into marriage by getting pregnant, and that he decided to get rid of her so he could raise his adored daughter, Rosie, by himself.Dubin used depositions from Blake, an investigator who worked for the actor and others to claim that Blake had a plan to kidnap Rosie and get Bakley arrested and jailed, and if that failed, to have Bakley killed.Blake said that on the night of the killing, he left the 44-year-old Bakley in the car while he went back inside the restaurant to retrieve a gun he carried for protection but had accidentally left in their booth. Blake said he found Bakley wounded when he went back out to the car.Blake's lawyer, Peter Ezzell, argued there were many people who wanted Bakley dead. He portrayed her as a grifter who preyed on lonely men, selling them nude pictures of herself and extracting money with promises of sex and marriage. She was on probation for fraud when Blake married her.The verdict in the Blake case follows a similar path taken with O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted at a criminal trial in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and a friend of hers, but two years later was found responsible for the slayings in a civil case and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he will have to bring more information before a new grand jury in the CIA leak probe, adding that his work is not complete.In a new court filing, Fitzgerald said sensitive information from his investigation still needs to be protected, especially since proceedings will involve a different jury than the one that indicted former Lewis Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. The panel hearing that part of the inquiry expired that day.Fitzgerald does not say that new charges definitely will be brought. Instead, the filing discusses what rules govern disclosure of information to the media regarding evidence in the case against Libby.Libby faces five charges, including obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements. He resigned his position on Cheney's staff October 28, the same day he was indicted.For the last two years, Fitzgerald has been investigating the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media. On Monday, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward gave a sworn deposition to Fitzgerald about three Bush administration officials he interviewed for his 2004 book on the run-up to the Iraq war, "Plan of Attack." One of those sources identified Plame, the wife of former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, as a weapons of mass destruction analyst for the CIA, Woodward said. (Full story)Wilson wrote an opinion piece in July 2003 in the New York Times that accused the Bush administration of "exaggerating the Iraqi threat" in order to justify war. Shortly after that, his wife's role with the CIA was revealed publicly.Woodward's revelation of his involvement has only deepened the mystery of the person behind the leak.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A lawyer who worked with high-powered Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is expected to testify against him as part of a plea bargain with the Justice Department, two government sources have told CNN.Michael Scanlon will plead guilty Monday after being charged with one count of conspiracy on Friday as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation of the two men's lobbying activities, the sources said.The developments came after the prosecutors filed a "criminal information" in U.S. District Court, alleging that Scanlon conspired to "corruptly offer and provide things of value, including money, meals, trips and entertainment, to federal public officials in return for agreements to perform official acts" benefiting Scanlon and his lobbyist partner.The partner is identified in the court documents only as Lobbyist A and is not facing charges. One government official told CNN that lobbyist is Abramoff.Prosecutors also allege Scanlon was trying to "devise a scheme and artifice to defraud" lobbying clients.Justice Department officials would not comment on any possible plea deal and would say only that a Monday hearing on the case is planned.Prosecutors also detail a "stream of things of value" given to an unnamed congressman, identified in the court documents as Representative No. 1, including a "lavish" trip to Scotland to play golf, tickets to sporting events, and campaign contributions to the representative and his political action committee in exchange for a series of actions by that representative.In the court documents, prosecutors allege Scanlon and Lobbyist A, "together and separately, sought and received Representative No. 1's agreement to perform a series of official acts, including but not limited to agreements to support and pass legislation, ... meetings with Lobbyist A and Scanlon's clients, and advancing the application of a client of Lobbyist A for a license to install wireless telephone infrastructure into the House of Representatives."Officials would not identify Representative 1.Among the high-profile clients of Scanlon and Abramoff were Indian tribes, which hired them to gain political access in Washington."It was a purpose of the conspiracy for Scanlon and Lobbyist A to enrich themselves by obtaining substantial funds from their clients through fraud and concealment and through obtaining benefits for their clients through corrupt means," the complaint states.The government alleges the conspiracy lasted from January 2000 through at least April 2004.A phone call to Scanlon's lawyer seeking comment was not immediately returned.Prosecutors allege Scanlon and the lobbyist "would falsely represent to their clients that certain of the funds were being used for specific purposes, when in fact, Scanlon and Lobbyist A would use those funds for their own personal benefit and not for the benefit of their clients."CNN Correspondent Kelli Arena and Producer Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- Hollywood loves biographical films, and movies about country music stars are almost a genre within that genre, from "Coal Miner's Daughter" (Sissy Spacek gives an Oscar-winning performance as Loretta Lynn) to "Great Balls of Fire" featuring Dennis Quaid's sweat-drenched performance) to "Sweet Dreams" (the fine Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline).It makes a lot of sense: Country music, by its nature, features themes of heartache, survival, and love lost and won, and the musicians -- who usually suffered all the above -- make for great drama.Now, with "Walk the Line," the life of Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash has been put under the microscope. Their story, and the film, does not disappoint.The late June Carter Cash -- she died in May, 2003, and a heartbroken Johnny followed her just five months later -- said her husband had two personalities: Cash the wild, dark man and John the honest and vulnerable man. He was a boy whose father blamed him for his brother's tragic death, and a man who battled fierce demons.Thanks to Joaquin Phoenix's terrific performance, "Walk The Line" captures this dual persona brilliantly. Phoenix -- who had never even played guitar before getting this role -- doesn't imitate Cash. He just gets Cash, in ways great and small. When he steps up to the microphone and says, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," you believe him. This performance will undoubtedly win him an Oscar nomination.The same can be said for Reese Witherspoon, who plays June. Director James Mangold made a bold move in casting the petite blonde actress mainly known for lightweight comedy, and she delivers.June Carter Cash's profile was much lower than her husband's, so Witherspoon had a little more leeway in terms of portraying this strong woman, who in many ways was just as complex as her husband. But what she does with a glance, with a line, with a look at the man who would be her husband -- the little things say so much. June met Johnny when they were both married to other people and stuck with him through his drug addiction and wrenching emotional ups and downs.This role should make Hollywood sit up and notice there is more to Witherspoon than meets the eye.The supporting performances are just as good: Robert Patrick as Cash's bitter, bile-spewing father; Dallas Roberts as Sun Records founder Sam Phillips; Shooter Jennings playing his father, Waylon.Equally astounding is the music -- not just the songs themselves, but the fact that the actors do their own singing and playing. Producer James Keach and Mangold were both adamant that whoever played the Cashes would do their own singing. If you wanted to hear Johnny and June Cash sing, you could buy a CD, they believed. It was a gutsy move, but it's instrumental in making a very good movie into a great one.Phoenix growls and Witherspoon purrs and their duets are absolutely wonderful. T Bone Burnett ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") was the executive music director; he deserves plenty of credit for making the music work.Mangold's direction is excellent, and the script -- by Mangold and Gil Davis -- captures the complex characters without relying on biopic clich�.Bottom line: Get in line to see "Walk the Line."

(CNN) -- I have enjoyed the magical charms of the Harry Potter franchise since the highly anticipated (and highly hyped) first film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," cast its spell upon the big screen in November, 2001.My love affair with the residents of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry continued with "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," in 2002, and was sustained with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" in 2004. I not only loved the films; I read the books too.Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did not read "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (life, somehow, just got in the way), the fourth in the series. Perhaps that is one reason that the new film based on the book didn't work its wizardry on this reviewer. Frankly, the entire film felt like the cinematic version of Hamburger Helper -- too little meat trying to do too much.I'm sure that the movie is true to J.K. Rowling's book -- she (or her fans) would allow nothing less. And I am aware that "Goblet of Fire" was darker and more sinister then the previous wildly successful books -- this is the first "Potter" film with a PG-13 rating -- but, still, I was a bit underwhelmed. (Watch a look at Harry's darker side -- 1:58)I'm not saying the magic is gone, but I've lost that loving feeling. Director Mike Newell and screenwriter Steve Kloves have attempted to make a movie that is part thriller, part action flick and part budding love story. None of the themes mesh together very well. The result feels somewhat clunky and disjointed."Goblet's" basic plot involves a competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. The contest, called the Triwizard Tournament, is being hosted at Hogwarts; the prize is the highly coveted Triwizard Cup.The boys from Durmstrang all look like throwbacks from a Hitler youth group and the girls from Beauxbatons, devoid of expression, float around like butterflies trying to escape a net.At the outset, the Goblet of Fire selects one student from each school to compete in three life-threatening tasks; all candidates must be 17 years or older. But after one name from each school is picked, the Goblet spits out one more nomination: that of 14-year-old Harry. Against his will -- and better judgment -- he resigns himself to playing the game, thereby risking his life. Not even Hogwarts' headmaster, the beloved Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) can save him from taking part.Love and Death EatersBut Harry has other problems: working up the nerve to ask his beautiful classmate Cho Chang (Katie Leung) to the annual Yule Ball. Yep, the kids are growing up and the hormones are kicking in. Adolescent romance is in the air -- and so is adolescent clumsiness. Ron Weasley is totally oblivious to the growing feelings of Hermione (Emma Watson) as she tries in vain to get him to ask her to the social event of the year.Even Hagrid is not immune to the love bug as he falls under the spell of the flamboyant Madame Maxime (Frances De La Tour), the Headmistress of Beauxbatons. I don't want to be nasty and say this character is amazingly unattractive; let's just say she's perfect for Hagrid.Hovering over all these events is the return of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who after 13 years is once again appearing in public and has unleashed his followers, the Death Eaters, to do his dirty work.The cast of Hogwarts instructors has mostly stayed the same, but there's one new -- and really interesting character -- in the mix. That would be Mad-Eye Moody, played by the excellent Irish character actor Brendan Gleeson ("Gangs of New York," "Cold Mountain"). He's asked by Dumbledore to keep his bright blue eye on Harry and help in any way he can during the tournament.But Mad-Eye is one of the rare sparks in "Goblet of Fire." Indeed, I guess my biggest beef with the film is that many of the other characters we have grown to love and hate -- Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), his evil father Lucius (Jason Isaacs), Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor Minerva McGonagall (Dame Maggie Smith) and Hogwarts Academy itself (which has become a character just as much as the human cast) -- are all given short shift. Even the interaction between Harry, Ron and Hermione has been trimmed down to almost nothing.Newell, best known for directing "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Pushing Tin," is not necessarily the go-to guy for projects with computer-generated images, but he proves here that he's fast learner and does a commendable job of pulling off all the action needed to make a "Potter" film work. It's just that it would have been nice to give him more to work with.So I'm less than thrilled. No matter. Seeing a "Potter" film is generally worth it. There's much to appreciate here, and there will be many people to appreciate it. And now, there's always that fifth film to look forward to.What does Entertainment Weekly think? Click here to read the magazine's coverage."Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is a Warner Bros. film. The studio, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- In a world where a park bench can function as an office cubicle, iPods play video and cell phones serve as mini-computers, the risk for both the consumer and the corporate world is sometimes overlooked.At a recent summit held by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center, Chris Rouland, the chief technology officer for Internet Security Systems, and Richard A. DeMillo, the dean at Georgia Tech's College of Computing, spoke to CNN's Manav Tanneeru about some of the security issues associated with the emergence of a truly wireless society.CNN: It almost seems like the beginning of a new era with the movement toward a more wireless platform for the Internet versus the traditional, wired version. How have things changed over the last two or three years?DEMILLO: One of the things you have to believe is that the train is clearly leaving the station, you don't know if it's just going to pick up steam or head into a brick wall, and one of the things you have to believe is that whatever we learned about security in the wired world probably has to be rethought for wireless.Take the issue of using Windows updates to patch your operating system. It's a different world when you have a million [cell phones] floating around. Where is the update button on here, and who do I go to if there is an intrusion on the device. I think a lot of the basic business issues are yet to be [solved].ROULAND: In general, as we move to wireless, one of the biggest challenges and one of the things to overcome is ease of use. Today, for instance, to deploy a wireless network in your home, you might skip some things that are hard to do. So, as the vendors are making things easier to use, we also need to encourage them to make security easier to use. Some of the important research that's going on at Georgia Tech is how to make security automatic and easier to understand in wireless and other areas.CNN: How concerned are you about the common consumer who is going from traditional Internet usage to a wireless world where the boundary between the public and private space is shrinking? What concerns you the most about the behaviors about the common consumer?ROULAND: If you look at what we are seeing in the wired world today -- the wild, wired world maybe -- it's becoming very difficult for big businesses to protect themselves -- not because they can't protect their own networks, but because they can't protect what the consumer sees. You can receive an e-mail and it really looks like it's from the Bank of America, or Paypal; however, it's not. It's some guy from Kazakhstan who is waiting for you to click "yes" so that he can drain your bank account. Then, the consumer will go to the financial institution to mediate, and they'll end up taking the loss.So, the extension of the network to the end consumer and the end consumer being hijacked is great concern, it's a very difficult problem.DEMILLO: [Chris], are you worried about people just sort of radiating their identity? For instance, if you walk through this space, [this cell phone] is radiating. It's radiating the number, it's got personal information that's stored on it, and you don't know who's picking up on it. I think that's something really different in the mobile world.ROULAND: A metaphor...is that you are not really aware of it, but if you have a wireless network on your laptop at home, when you turn that on, it beacons out a broadcast saying, "Where are you, where are you?" Even if that SSID, or the identification of that network, is hidden, it actually beacons that out. It's analogous to standing out [on a street corner] and shouting out your Social Security number.CNN: Could you speak a bit about how iPods, portable hard drives, and other USB devices -- which now have the capability of storing large amounts of information -- are creating new security concerns?ROULAND: That's a big a concern for us and our customers as well. We're one of the market leaders in protecting corporate desktops and one of the concerns our customers have is someone plugging in their iPod and copying all their corporate secrets onto the iPod because an iPod not only stores music, but large amounts of data. So, just as we saw 10 years ago when companies started taking out floppy drives because there was no real use for them, they're taking out USB drives as well.CNN: Many media outlets speak of the convergence of online media going to wireless devices. For example, video being broadcast on cell phones or iPods, or Web sites being available on the same devices. What kind of security issues might such a convergence raise?DEMILLO: I'm not sure convergence by itself buys you that much more in terms of risk. It really has to do with the number of devices, the sheer scale, and what you're going to do on those devices. If all you're doing is streaming video, there's one set of applications, but if it's interactive video -- for example, are you pushing games out to a CNN portal -- then there's financial transactions taking place, and I think that's where the risk, at least the initial risk.CNN: What is approaching on the horizon that is worrisome in regards to security?ROULAND: The windows for attacks have become so compressed now. From the time a vulnerability is found to the time it is actually exploited, it is very a short period now. One of the key reasons for that is the profitability for this type of fraud. Whereas 10 years ago when a lot of computer viruses were written to send out greetings and for bragging rights, today it's all about the money.So, as we enable these devices with more and more capability, and the capability of a mobile device becomes as rich as a personal computer, it will become a richer target to attack. There is a linear relationship between the amount of bandwidth and the amount of devices an attacker can take over. So, the faster the bandwidth, the richer the resources available, and the more attractive the target becomes, then they will be taken over.CNN: What are you general impressions on the current state of wireless security?DEMILLO: I think it's too hard for the average consumer. For someone who knows how to use a personal computer, it's different. There is the educational issue and the vendors have to be more engaged in security. The infrastructure will continue to build up and we'll make progress there.ROULAND: I think we're very much at a stage of immaturity in wireless security. We're just graduating past the "OK, make it work stage." While we are rapidly trying to add features, we're also trying to add security, and as we overcome some of these stumbling blocks of making security easy to use, I think we'll see security catch up with features and functions.

LONDON, England (AP) -- "Romeo, Romeo -- wher4 Rt thou Romeo?"It could be the future of Shakespeare.Dot mobile, a British mobile phone service aimed at students, says it plans to condense classic works of literature into SMS text messages. The company claims the service will be a valuable resource for studying for exams.Academic purists will be horrified. Hamlet's famous query, "To be or not to be, that is the question," becomes "2b? Nt2b? ???"John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" begins "devl kikd outa hevn coz jelus of jesus&strts war." ("The devil is kicked out of heaven because he is jealous of Jesus and starts a war.")Some may dismiss the summaries as cheat notes for the attention-deficit generation, but John Sutherland, a University College London English professor who consulted on the project, said they could act as a useful memory aid."The educational opportunities it offers are immense," said Sutherland, who chaired the judging panel for this year's Booker Prize for fiction.Sutherland said the compressed nature of text messages allowed them to "fillet out the important elements in a plot.""Take for example the ending to Jane Eyre -- 'MadwyfSetsFyr2Haus.' (Mad wife sets fire to house.) Was ever a climax better compressed?"But political commentator and author Oliver Kamm said the terse texts were "more than a travesty.""What you lose with text messaging in literature is what makes literature what it is -- the imagery, the irony, the nuance," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio."What I fear will happen with text versions of Shakespeare is that students will be encouraged not to read the books but to settle for something else, and people don't need excuses not to read books. They don't read enough as it is."Books planned for the service include Charles Dickens' "Bleak House," whose tale of the interminable legal suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is reduced to a few snappy lines, and Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," which describes hunky Mr. Darcy as "fit&loadd" (handsome and wealthy).Dot mobile said it planned to launch the service in January, with Shakespeare's complete works available by April. The texts will be free to subscribers to the company's phone service.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran obtained detailed instructions on how to set up the complicated process of enriching uranium, which can used to make nuclear arms, from the black market network run by a Pakistani scientist, the U.N. atomic monitoring agency said Friday.In a confidential report, the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Iran was not giving inspectors access to a sensitive site that could be used to store equipment indicating whether the military is running a secret nuclear program.The five-page report seen by The Associated Press was prepared for Thursday's meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, which could decide to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions for violating an international nuclear arms control treaty.Most board nations are concerned that Iran has resumed uranium conversion -- a precursor to enrichment -- and has refused to meet all IAEA requests about a nuclear program that was clandestine for nearly 20 years until discovered three years ago.The report said Iran had handed over documents revealing detailed instructions on setting up uranium enrichment that it obtained from the black market network of Abdul Qadeer Khan. The scientist, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, has acknowledged selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.The designs obtained from the black market show how to cast enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into a spherical form, the agency said. Diplomats accredited to the agency said that could indicate a design for the core of a nuclear weapon.Agency officials refused to comment on the implications of the finding. The report said Iran insisted it had not asked for the designs but was given them anyway by members of the nuclear network -- something an official close to the agency said the IAEA was still investigating.The diplomats and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.The IAEA report also said more transparency by Tehran was "indispensable and overdue" as agency inspectors try to determine if Iran's military secretly ran its own nuclear program parallel to a civilian one.Inspectors needed access both to more details on Iran's enrichment activities and a site where it is believed to be warehousing equipment that could be used in a weapons program, the document said."There still remain issues to be resolved" in connection with whether the military was supplied with centrifuge technology in the mid-1990s and then conducted secret enrichment activities between 1995 and 2002, it said.The report said the key outstanding issues concerning Iran's nuclear program include whether the military was involved in enrichment, access to the military site where the "dual use" equipment was believed held and greater access to individuals involved in the enrichment program."Transparency measures should include the provision of information and documentation related to the procurement of dual-use equipment and permitting visits to relevant military-owned workshops and R&D locations thought run by the military," the report said.The agency is "still awaiting additional visits," both to the military site at Lavisan-Shian, just outside Tehran, and to Parchin, which IAEA inspectors visited for the second time a few weeks ago."These should include interviews on the acquisition of certain dual-use materials and equipment, and the taking of environmental samples from the above locations," the IAEA said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- A man believed to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, said the terror group did not target Jordanian civilians in the November 9 hotel bombings that killed 59 people.The statement, delivered on an audio tape, contradicts a televised confession by a woman in custody thought to be a fourth bomber that she and her husband intended to detonate their explosive belts at a Jordanian wedding party. At least 10 friends and relatives of the bride and groom were killed."There were women, men and children," Saijida al-Rishawi said. "My husband took a corner and I took another one. My husband detonated his bomb, and I tried to detonate mine but failed." (Watch the confession)But in the audiotape, the speaker refers to only "three lions (who) left their dens in Iraq and headed to the heart of Amman to carry out the blessed attacks against three targets known to be headquarters of Jews, Crusaders and other enemies of God." (Watch experts analyze the tape)He also dismisses evidence that one of the bombers purposely blew himself up amid the crowded wedding party as "baseless lies fabricated by the evil Jordanian intelligence services."The bomber could have detonated his bomb above the wedding party, "unintentionally" causing the ceiling to collapse, the speaker said."Oh, our people in Jordan, what do we have to do with explosions amidst wedding celebrations? If we wanted to blow up our bombs in such places, be mindful that wedding halls are all over the country, open to everyone with no guards or security risk."Tape still in questionThe audio statement, which cannot be independently verified by CNN, was posted on a Web site frequently used by al Qaeda in Iraq. The speaker's voice has a strong resemblance to that of al-Zarqawi.U.S. officials said the CIA is conducting a technical analysis of the audiotape, comparing it with known recordings of al-Zarqawi.The speaker says the terror group targeted the Radisson, the Days Inn and the Grand Hyatt hotels in Amman after two months of intelligence gathering. The hotels were targeted because they housed U.S. Embassy officials as well as Israeli tourists and U.S., Iraqi and Israeli intelligence agents, he said. Four Americans were among those killed in the blasts.Most of the victims were attending the wedding party at the Radisson Hotel.Ties to U.S. blamedThe person on the tape said Amman was a target because the Jordanian government has served as "the protectors of the sons of Zion." He also said the Jordanians were culpable "for shooting the mujahedeen in the back as they go to perform Jihad."However, in condemning the country's ties to the West, the speaker also said "no one cares for you and your blood more than us" and that "you are more beloved to us than our children and ourselves.""We know that you are the victims of this criminal regime who murdered your children just like they did to the Muslims in the (Jordanian) city of Maan, violating the honor of your women and forcing you to taste humiliation and defeat," he said.After the attacks, Jordan's King Abdullah II vowed to strike back against the terror network, saying, "We Jordanians, we get mad and we get even, and these people will be brought to justice." (Full story)Jordanians backed their king's words with action, marching through the streets of Amman and chanting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" Conversely, many Jordanians said privately they wouldn't believe al-Zarqawi was behind the attacks until they heard him claim responsibility.The speaker called King Abdullah an infidel and a traitor and accused him of providing a "backyard base for logistical support for the American army" operating in Iraq.Wednesday's bombings were the worst terror attack in Jordan's history. They were not the first time al Qaeda has targeted Jordan, but most of the attempted attacks in the past have been thwarted.$25 million bountyThe al Qaeda in Iraq leader has had a price on his head since last year. The $25 million bounty is the same amount the Pentagon is offering for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. (Full story)In April 2004, a person claiming to be al-Zarqawi claimed credit for the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on August 19, 2003. The attack killed 22 civilians, including the U.N.'s chief envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.He also is a suspect in the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad two weeks earlier that killed at least 16 people. Jordan and the United States suspect al-Zarqawi of planning the death of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley, who was killed in October 2002 in Amman.A Jordanian court convicted him in absentia of planning to bomb tourist hotels during millennium celebrations.CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr, Senior Producer Henry Schuster and National Security Correspondent David Ensor contributed to this report

(CNN) -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 in magnitude struck Saturday off the coast of western Indonesia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center. The USGS told CNN there are no plans to issue any tsunami warnings. There are no reports of injuries or damage. The quake struck around 9 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) off the coast of Simeulue which is part of Aceh province. According to Indonesia's geological center, the temblor was felt only in the areas close to the epicenter, including the cities of Medan, Sibolga, and the island of Nias. Aceh was devastated after a 9.0 magnitude quake struck off its coast on December 26, 2004, triggering a massive tsunami that spread across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 170,000 people in a dozen countries-- CNN's Taffy H. Santiago contributed to this report

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- An 18-year-old man who was honored in August by People magazine as an outstanding father was gunned down on his way home from work Thursday.Terrell Pough, a single parent who worked to support his 2-year-old daughter while finishing school, was shot in the head in front of his home, police said. He later died at a hospital.Pough, the night manager at a fast-food restaurant, was not robbed and has no record of violence, police said.However, his family said his new car and its key were missing. The Honda Civic was given to him by someone who had read the People article.The magazine, which like CNN.com is owned by Time Warner, called Pough "a rare breed of teenaged dads who are trying to raise children."Pough attended the YouthBuild Charter School in North Philadelphia, where he was learning construction skills by rebuilding abandoned houses. He was set to graduate in June.Pough stood out in his neighborhood as a single father with custody of his daughter, Diamond. He was quoted in People as saying: "If something ever happens to me, no one can ever tell her that her dad didn't take care of her."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- After spending scorching August days with hundreds of war protesters at her makeshift camp near President Bush's Crawford ranch, Cindy Sheehan slipped away each night to her tent or RV for a few quiet moments on her laptop.The words came easily as she opined about the war, U.S. leaders, her critics, her supporters. And the tears started to flow no matter how many times she wrote about her 24-year-old soldier son Casey, who died in Iraq last year."I miss him more every day. It seems the void in my life grows as time goes on, and I realize I am never going to see him again or hear his voice," Sheehan wrote. "I knew he was going to be a great man. I just had no idea how great he was going to be or how much it was going to hurt me."Now those journal entries are in her book, "Not One More Mother's Child," to be released Wednesday. The paperback also contains some of her speeches to peace groups earlier this year, letters to politicians and writings since leaving Crawford."I never wrote anything more than a note to excuse my kids from school before Casey was killed, so to see something I wrote in print with my name on it is amazing," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone from her home in Berkeley, Calif.Sheehan gained national attention during her 26-day vigil on a Texas roadside near President Bush's ranch in August. She refused to move until the president met with her or ended his vacation. That moved Arnie Kotler, the founder of a Hawaii publishing company who saw news coverage and read Sheehan's Internet blog entries from the protest."I thought, 'This is already a book. This is incredible,"' said Kotler of Koa Books, which printed about 20,000 copies. "We got it done as quickly as we could, and the deepest reason is to stop the war."The White House did not return calls seeking comment on the book.Sheehan shares details about Casey, her oldest child grew up to be an Eagle scout who considered becoming a priest. He enlisted, Sheehan said, to give something back to the country."He didn't enlist to be used and misused by a reckless commander in chief who sent his troops to preemptively attack and occupy a country that was no imminent threat or any threat to our country," she writes.In a chapter called "The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford, Texas," Sheehan chronicles the daily events of the protest, such as being bombarded with media interviews, the campsite wedding of two peace activists and visits from celebrities Martin Sheen, Joan Baez and the Rev. Al Sharpton. She also writes about her critics."The right-wingers are really having a field day with me," she wrote. "... What really hurts me the most is when people say that I am dishonoring Casey by my protest in Crawford. By wanting our troops to come home alive and well, that I am somehow not supporting them."Sheehan plans to go on a book tour, but first she wants to resume her protest in Crawford this week as Bush spends Thanksgiving at his ranch."The Camp Casey movement will not die until we have a genuine accounting of the truth and until our troops are brought home," she wrote. "Get used to it, George. We are not going away."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LITITZ, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The images are disturbing: A 14-year-old girl in various stages of undress; two gun-toting young men making plans to break into a house and kill everyone inside.According to a court affidavit, police found the images on computers belonging to David Ludwig, the 18-year-old Pennsylvania man charged with shooting his girlfriend's parents and fleeing the state with her.The affidavit was filed Friday in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In the document, Lt. Edward Tobin of the Warwick Township Police Department said two of Ludwig's laptops were being examined by a computer forensics expert.The office of Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro said he wasn't commenting on whether more charges might be filed against Ludwig in light of the computer discoveries.Police searched the 18-year-old's home Sunday, a day before before Ludwig was captured in Indiana with his girlfriend, Kara Borden, nearly 600 miles from their homes.Kara is the young woman shown on the computer in various stages of undress, the affidavit said. Police have been treating her as a kidnapping victim. On Thursday, police said they had found ammunition and 54 firearms during their search of Ludwig's home.Ludwig is being held in the Lancaster County jail awaiting a preliminary hearing, scheduled for Wednesday. He is charged with two counts of homicide, one count of kidnapping and one count of reckless endangerment. If convicted he could face life in prison.Samuel Lohr, a close friend of Ludwig, told police he was aware that Ludwig and Borden were having a sexual relationship and that they frequently communicated using cell phones and computer messages. (Watch the teens' secret life -- 2:34)Detective Christopher Erb, a computer expert, has found nearly 400 pieces of possible evidence, Tobin wrote in the affidavit. Other images, besides the ones of Borden, included pictures of Ludwig with family and friends "possessing firearms and swords," the affidavit said.One video shows the two friends, dressed in dark clothing, entering a room where they handled firearms and ammunition, Tobin said. The video shows the young men leaving the house with weapons and driving to a house where they are heard planning "an armed forcible entry ... by climbing onto a roof and entering through a dormer window," Tobin says in the document.The alleged plot was never carried out."Ludwig and Lohr talked about using their weapons to shoot and kill family members inside of the residence," the affidavit says.While the two men walked back to the car, they can be heard discussing having sex with Kara and her 13-year-old sister, Katelyn, and that "the sex would constitute statutory rape and the potential to have to shoot a guy named 'Jonathan' if he found out about it," the affidavit says.Katelyn Borden has told police she witnessed the slaying of her father and then hid in a bathroom, from where she heard the shot that killed her mother. Her 9-year-old brother, David, also was in the home and ran to a neighbor's house to summon help, police said.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- A teen accused of killing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and implicated in 16 other slayings has escaped from a youth correction facility -- just as he promised he would -- officials said Saturday.Herlan Colindres, a 16-year-old street gang member, slipped out of a rehabilitation center housing 156 youths outside the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on Friday night, authorities said.Colindres and his 13-year-old bodyguard Manuel Romero were arrested in July in connection with the murder of DEA agent Michael Timothy Markey outside Tegucigalpa at a temple dedicated to Honduras' patron saint.He had previously been identified as 13-year-old Erlan Colindres, but authorities said Saturday he was three years older than believed and had modified the spelling of his first name.Authorities said Markey, 44, who was based in El Paso, Texas, came to Honduras to train local drug police.Friday was the fifth time in three years that Colindres has escaped from the crumbling facility, where bricks can easily be chipped from the walls.In August, after threatening to escape and kill journalists, he weakened the metal bars of his cell with a nail file and fled. Colindres was quickly captured, however, while hitchhiking along a nearby highway.Following that incident, the government built him a special brick-walled cell with a private bathroom. It was unclear how he got out of the new cell, which was watched by six guards."We think other imprisoned youths helped him get out," Napoleon Nazar, director of criminal investigation, said in an interview. Further details of the escape were not released.The government has estimated that 40,000 youths in Honduras belong to the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 gangs, which have terrorized much of the country since 1996.In an attempt to curb the violence, the Honduran government instituted a zero-tolerance law that makes gang membership illegal, and has jailed thousands of youngsters for little more than having tattoos.Police said Colindres was the leader of a Mara 18 affiliate known as Los Puchos. He is suspected of involvement in 16 killings, most of them gang-related.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

VENTURA, California (AP) -- Aided by an ocean breeze, firefighters on Saturday began to get the upper hand on a 3,700-acre wildfire burning in the steep hills above Ventura, California.The fire was 60 percent contained at nightfall, and firefighters hoped to have it fully surrounded by Tuesday night.After being fanned by fierce Santa Ana winds a day earlier, the blaze between Ventura and Ojai, about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, calmed as onshore breezes lowered the temperature and the humidity increased.Although the fire began Friday in the foothills above expensive Ventura homes, none was in immediate danger, said Joe Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department."This fire pretty much laid down. We are not seeing any evidence of smoke and open flame," Luna said. "The weather had turned in our favor. It's a lot cooler, the winds have diminished considerably."The fire was burning in rugged wilderness away from homes, but fire officials worried about the forecast return of the Santa Anas, the hot, dry winds that blow from the desert toward the ocean.A red flag warning -- increased fire danger because of warm, dry and windy conditions -- was in effect until Sunday night. The National Weather Service forecast wind gusts up to 55 mph in some areas Sunday morning.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MONACO (Reuters) -- Prince Albert II of Monaco was enthroned Saturday, completing the formal succession in a process that began in July and marks the beginning of the playboy prince's reign of the tiny European principality.Albert, the 47-year-old son of Prince Rainier and Hollywood actress Grace Kelly, was sworn in as head of state in July after a three-month mourning period for his father, who died on April 6 at the age of 81 after having ruled for 55 years."Today is a day of joy in Monaco," Monsignor Bernard Barsi, the archbishop of Monaco, said during the ceremony at the Roman Catholic cathedral. The church was the site of Rainier's marriage to Grace, who was killed in a car crash in 1982.The archbishop said that Albert was a worthy heir to a dynasty that has led the principality for more than seven centuries. (Watch the ceremony -- 2:39)Revelations about the prince's love life, involving an admission that he had an illegitimate son with a French flight attendant of Togolese origin, had threatened to overshadow his investiture in July.About 900 people packed the cathedral, including foreign dignitaries and royalty, although no kings or queens attended.Monsignor Fortunato Baldelli, special envoy of Pope Benoit XVI, blessed a kneeling Albert as he and his sisters, Caroline and Stephanie, shed tears.Albert, who has been called one of Europe's most eligible bachelors, was born on March 4, 1958. Educated in Monaco and the United States, where he studied political science, he then worked in Paris and New York and served in the French Navy.He dreamt of a career in soccer, took part in the Paris-Dakar rally in 1985 and is a judo black belt. He represented Monaco at the Olympic Games in the bobsleigh four times and finished 7th in the world championships. He is a member of the International Olympic Committee.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

TEETHWAL, India (AP) -- For the first time in 58 years, Indians legally walked into Pakistan on Saturday after a landmark decision to open divided Kashmir's heavily militarized border.The temporary measure -- aimed at reuniting families after the earthquake that devastated the region -- may go a long way toward easing tensions between the two nuclear rivals.The 23 Indians who crossed over hoped to visit relatives they have not seen since the frontier was drawn after the 1948 war between the neighboring countries, leaving most of Kashmir with India and a smaller part with Pakistan.The region, claimed by both countries in its entirety, is at the core of the enmity between the two nuclear-armed rivals, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.On Saturday, 62-year-old Khair-ul-Nissa Shah was among those to cross a new footbridge built over the Kishanganga River to Pakistani Kashmir. She said she was traveling there for the first time to see her two sisters, who moved to the village of Parnai after marrying men there 40 years ago."I will see who has survived and who has died. There has been no news from them. It will be good to see my sisters," she said.Ali Zaman, 60, a retired teacher, was also traveling to Pakistani Kashmir for the first time."I am going to see my nieces in Balgran. I have to find out if they have survived," said Zaman. "I am happy that I am able to go today in spite of the fact that I have lost everything."Lingering fear and suspicion repeatedly delayed the opening of the frontier to civilian traffic, although both countries have exchanged relief material during the past month.Pakistan gave India a list of 127 people who wanted to visit families and friends in Indian Kashmir, but New Delhi has yet to give permission, a Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity, according to government policy.Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Saturday the October 8 quake, which killed which killed 86,000 people in Pakistan and another 1,350 in India, could serve as "an opportunity of a lifetime" for both countries to end hostilities.Even before the quake, however, tensions have eased somewhat in recent years.In 2003, the two agreed to talks on resuming air links and restoring the Samjhotha Express train from India to Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. Pakistan accepted resumption of sporting events with India and agreed to re-establish shipping service severed in the 1960s between Bombay and Karachi.This August, the rival nations agreed to set up a hot line to tell each other about upcoming missile tests, a practice that has been going on for some time.Until the quake, however, India and Pakistan had made few moves toward resolving the Kashmir dispute. Afterward, a new thaw began when the Indian prime minister called Musharraf and offered humanitarian help. Musharraf made a similar offer for the victims of the quake in the Indian portion of Kashmir.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Tropical Storm Gamma deluged the coast of Central America on Saturday, killing at least six people -- three in flooding in Honduras and three in the crash of a small plane belonging to a Belize lodge owned by the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.Forecasters said the slow-moving Gamma, the 24th named storm of an already record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, was likely to miss Florida. The storm had top sustained winds near 45 mph and was expected to stay well below hurricane strength of 74 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami, Florida.Gamma was likely to speed up and turn northeast on Sunday, sending it across the northeastern Caribbean and toward western Cuba, forecasters said. On that path, Gamma would cross Cuba but skirt the Florida Keys and the Florida mainland on Monday.Earlier forecasts showed Gamma following a course similar to the one taken by Hurricane Wilma, which barreled across south Florida on October 24, causing 21 deaths, damaging homes and triggering power outages."We're out of the cone of danger," said Jennifer Pralgo, a hurricane center meteorologist.At 7 p.m. EST, the storm was about 245 miles east-southeast of Belize City and about 65 miles northeast of Limon, Honduras. It was moving erratically to the northeast at 6 mph.Gamma brought torrential rains to much of Central America, especially Honduras, where flash floods slowed the flow of emergency aid, said Luis Gomez, the country's emergency coordinator."People who are cut off or affected by the rains should ration water and food on their own because we won't get to them until weather conditions improve," Gomez said.He said at least three Hondurans had died and 13 more were missing, but had no further details.Gomez said five major rivers overflowed their banks, washing out bridges and highways. Officials evacuated more than 5,000 people, some of those from areas in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city.Heavy winds and rains were also pounding the Bay Islands, off the Honduran coast, said Hugo Arevalo, coordinator of a national disaster-response committee."The damage is terrible along all the northern coast of the country," he said. "Many of our countrymen are suffering, but we are doing all we can to bring them food, medicine and clothing."In western Belize, the private plane belonging to Coppola's resort, Blancaneaux Lodge, crashed Saturday morning, killing the Belizean pilot Rene Ram and two guests, said Kathleen Talbert, a spokeswoman for the filmmaker. Talbert, who declined to release the names of the guests, said the wreckage was found on the property of a neighboring resort.When the twin-engine plane took off, there were no tropical storm warnings, Talbert said. "My understanding is that the bad weather cropped up quite suddenly," she added.Coppola, who owns one other resort in Belize and one in Guatemala, did not know the passengers who died, Talbert said.Rescuers were still searching for five Belizean fishermen who disappeared Friday when their vessel capsized.Gamma extended the Atlantic's record-breaking storm season. The previous record of 21 named storms had stood since 1933.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bomber struck a funeral ceremony Saturday evening north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 30 others, Iraqi police in Abu Sayda said. The funeral was for the uncle of the sheikh who leads the city council in the town of Abu Sayda, near Baquba, 30 miles north of Baghdad. The sheikh was among the wounded. The family is Shia.The attacker drove the car, packed with explosives, into the mourning tent in front of a house and detonated it as mourners were reading verses from the Quran, police said. (Watch a report on the suicide bombings -- 1:33) The attack occurred just hours after two separate car bombings in Baghdad killed 12 people and left 30 wounded Saturday, police said. The first bomb detonated about 10:30 a.m. at a market in the Diyala Bridge area of southeast Baghdad, killing 11 civilians and wounding 20, according to Iraqi emergency police.The predominantly poor Shiite area is near a bridge over the Diyala River that connects Baghdad with Diyala province. It was unclear whether the bombing was a suicide attack.A second bomb detonated about noon Saturday in the Sadoun neighborhood of central Baghdad, targeting a police patrol, Baghdad emergency police said. One civilian was killed and 10 people, including four Iraqi police officers, were wounded.Suicide bombings killed nearly 100 people Friday in Baghdad and in the eastern town of Khanaqin near the Iranian border, hospital officials said. (Full story)Five U.S. troops killedAbout 125 miles north of the capital, five U.S. soldiers were killed and five were wounded in two separate homemade bomb attacks Saturday in the vicinity of Bayji, the U.S. military said.The soldiers were with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The deaths bring to 2,088 the number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war, according to U.S. military reports.Recent polls have shown weakening support for the U.S.-led war among Americans, while Congress has been debating continued military deployment in Iraq. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, has submitted a plan to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, recommending that a pullout begin early next year. (Full story)The proposal comes amid the defeat late Friday night of a House vote engineered by Republicans -- and intended to fail -- calling for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. (Full story)The vote on the nonbinding resolution came one day after a senior Democrat and decorated Vietnam War veteran, Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, called on the Bush administration to bring U.S. troops home. On Saturday, President Bush, during a visit with U.S. troops at Osan Air Base in South Korea, insisted on staying the course until victory is achieved. (Full story) The White House has equated Murtha's call for withdrawal to "surrender" and Murtha, a Democratic hawk, to anti-war filmmaker Michael Moore. (Full story)Other developmentsTwo U.S. soldiers died as a result of an attack Thursday near Bayji, about 125 miles (201 km) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military announced Saturday. Originally classified as an accident, the incident involved a "deliberate attack" in which a civilian vehicle rammed the soldiers' vehicle, causing it to roll over. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called Saturday for an international investigation into detention conditions in Iraq. The discovery of more than 160 prisoners at an Iraq ministry compound revealed signs of torture.Iraqi leaders gathered Saturday in Cairo to seek a national reconciliation over ethnic and religious differences. The conference is being sponsored by the Arab League, and envoys from the United States, Europe, Iran and the United Nations are attending.CNN's Dana Bash, Arwa Damon, Enes Dulami and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- President Bush attended a legally sanctioned church Sunday in Beijing before scheduled talks on religious freedom with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.Bush also planned to discuss trade, intellectual property rights and support for the U.S. push to spread democracy in nations such as Iraq.During his visit to the Gangwashi Church -- one of five Protestant churches sanctioned by the government -- Bush signed a guest book with the words: "May God bless the Christians of China." With her signature Laura Bush, who's accompanying her husband, added, "with love and respect." (Watch Bush after attending officially recognized church in Beijing -- 1:36)After services, the U.S. president thanked the church pastor."It wasn't all that long ago that people were not allowed to worship openly in this society," Bush said. "My hope is that the government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths." In its 2005 report on religious freedom, the U.S. State Department said China's "respect for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience remained poor, especially for many unregistered religious groups and spiritual movements," which "continued to experience varying degrees of official interference and harassment."The U.S. president arrived in the capital Saturday night on the latest leg of his tour of Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia.Bush is to travel from China to Mongolia on Sunday night.Bush offered a glimpse of his trade concerns in his weekly radio address Saturday."Access to American markets has played an important role in China's economic development," Bush said in the recorded message. "And China needs to provide a level playing field for American farmers and businesses seeking access to China's market.""The United States supported China's membership in the World Trade Organization because we believe that the cause of free and fair trade is advanced, if China plays by the same global rules as everyone else."Bush said Hu agreed earlier this year to bring more balance to U.S.-China trade, protect intellectual property rights and implement a flexible market-based exchange system for its currency. China has a large trade surplus with the United States."China needs to take action to ensure these goals are fully implemented," Bush said.There was good news for the president when he landed in Beijing. He was told that China had agreed to buy 70 of Boeing Co.'s 737 planes.Throughout his trip, Bush has been dogged by congressional debate over the U.S. military deployment in Iraq.House GOP leaders Friday tried to force Democrats to take a stand on a quick exit from Iraq by bringing up a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. The resolution failed. (Full story)"So long as I'm the commander-in-chief, our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders on the ground," Bush told U.S. troops at Osan Air Base in South Korea on Saturday. (Full story)Next, the president will travel to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, to meet with President Nambaryn Enkhbayar.Bush's visit there will be the first trip of a sitting U.S. president to Mongolia. Mongolia has deployed troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush is expected to thank Mongolian leaders for their contribution to the war on terror.