BENNINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.Bret Chenkin, a social studies and English teacher at Mount Anthony Union High School, said he gave the quiz to his students several months ago. The quiz asked students to pick the proper words to complete sentences.One example: "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes." "Coherent" is the right answer.Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to whomever complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned. She said she also would talk with Chenkin. School Superintendent Wesley Knapp said he was taking the situation seriously."It's absolutely unacceptable," Knapp said. "They (teachers) don't have a license to hold forth on a particular standpoint."Chenkin, 36, a teacher for seven years, said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students as a way of prompting debate, but said the quizzes are being taken out of context."The kids know it's hyperbolic, so-to-speak," he said. "They know it's tongue in cheek." But he said he would change his teaching methods if some are concerned."I'll put in both sides," he said. "Especially if it's going to cause a lot of grief."The school is in Bennington, a community of about 16,500 in the southwest corner of the state.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- It's the season of giving, but all your kid seems interested in is taking. When they are bombarded with ads about the year's hot toys, it's natural for kids to want to be on the receiving end of gift-giving. But how do you handle the seasonal outbreak of the "gimmes"?Financial, parenting and education experts offer advice for turning the holiday season into a time that helps kids learn financial responsibility and the importance of giving."Fifty-three percent of parents agree that their child thinks money grows on trees," says Rosetta Jones, vice president of Visa USA, which conducted a survey of parents. She encourages parents to use the holiday season to teach their children good personal finance practices.For young children who expect presents from Santa, it's fine to preserve the magic of the season while taking the time to start very general discussions about money, with questions like "Where does money come from?" and "Why do Mommy and Daddy go to work?"Older children can learn about the family's gift-giving budget and, with help, set similar budgets of their own. Jones suggests that older kids earn their gift-giving funds to further help them develop healthy, realistic perceptions about money.Since kids learn by example, Jones says, parents should take advantage of everyday opportunities to engage them. "Managing money is not rocket science," she says. "It's just a matter of taking the time to use everyday experiences, like holiday shopping, to bring that education home and make it real for the child."Dr. Istar Schwager, founder and president of CreativeParents.com, agrees. She urges parents to help kids become savvy about consuming all through the year, by teaching them to look at packages to determine what's included in them, as well as comparison shop.She suggests that parents take their kids to the store to see if the toy they want is truly as appealing in person as it is in the ads. If a friend's child has the toy, ask if your child can try it to see if he or she really likes it. Sometimes boredom sets in faster than you think.Schwager says that although parents are under a lot of pressure from their kids, they have a responsibility to sift through what their kids are asking for and have a "reality list."If parents object to a toy because it's unsafe, is not age-appropriate or doesn't meet their values, they need to say so.Kids learn from the way parents talk to them, Schwager says, and can be surprisingly realistic if they are included in the loop and spoken to honestly and sensitively. "There are nice ways of saying 'no,' and often kids are more understanding than parents may realize."She's also a big believer in toys that have stood the test of time -- board games, riding toys, dolls and stuffed animals, blocks, puppets and other toys that challenge kids to use their imagination and play with others.Schwager reminds parents that not everything of value has to be bought, and asks them to send the message that there's more to the season than buying things. Handmade gifts, time spent together and helping others in need make the season more meaningful for kids and offer rewards of their own.At Lewis Elementary in Kennesaw, Georgia, the emphasis is on helping others before the holidays even start. Guidance counselors are made aware of families in the community who are going through tough times. The Student Council organizes and leads a canned and dry goods drive, followed by a new clothing drive for essentials, like socks and underwear, to help these families.The school adorns a "Giving Tree" with paper ornaments that bear the names of gifts on the wish lists of children from the families. Students' families buy the items and the school's guidance counselors make sure they are delivered. Many other schools have similar initiatives.Mariann Dolnick, a veteran educator at Lewis Elementary, says that this school-wide initiative is one way students learn about the rewards of giving versus receiving."It helps to take the focus off 'what I want,'" says Dolnick.She's aware of the pressures parents face as they work to earn money to provide their children with material possessions, but says she has seen many students who have lots of "things" with little knowledge of the real world.Dolnick urges parents to take time to talk to and interact with their kids."Give your kids real life experiences and fewer material things. There has to be a balance."

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- It's not a record you want to brag about: Los Angeles International Airport and two others nearby have the worst runway safety records recently among the nation's busiest airports, a review of federal aviation data shows.Federal officials are most concerned by the situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come perilously close to crashing at least twice since 1999, the first year of data reviewed by The Associated Press.The problem persists because, despite millions spent to reduce violations known as runway incursions, LAX's airfield has built-in flaws: It's too tightly packed, and arriving aircraft must cross runways used for takeoffs.Runway incursions occur when a plane or vehicle on the ground gets too close to a plane that is landing or taking off.LAX, the nation's fourth-busiest airport in terms of flights, has two sets of parallel runways. Planes land on the outer runways and, while taxiing to their gates, cross the inner runways, which are used for takeoffs.Southern California has long been the nation's runway incursion epicenter. Among the country's 25 busiest commercial airports, John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Long Beach Airport and LAX ranked one, two and three in runway incursion rates -- measured by incidents per 100,000 flights -- since 1999. The three airports also topped the list for the total number of incidents, regardless of size.Nationwide, the number of incursions has dropped about 20 percent from its 2001 peak. Airports in Boston, Philadelphia and Newark had unusually high numbers of incursions in fiscal year 2005; those in Denver, San Francisco and New York's LaGuardia had none, according to federal records.Incursions spiked at 407 in fiscal 2001, FAA reports show, before dropping to 326 in fiscal 2004. Boston's Logan International bucked the trend in spectacular fashion by recording 15 incursions in the 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, after experiencing just four from 2002 through 2004.Still, federal attention has focused on LAX, because the incursion rate has remained consistently high -- even though officials say interim fixes have reduced the severity of the incidents, if not the number."I don't feel there's an enormous safety problem there right now (but) the numbers do concern us," said Dave Kurner, the Federal Aviation Administration's regional runway safety program manager.Spokeswomen at Long Beach and John Wayne airports said most runway incursions at their facilities involved small, private planes. LAX, however, mostly serves commercial aircraft, giving it the greatest potential for a catastrophic accident.Aviation officials call the geographic clustering a coincidence."There's no common theme or thread, nothing unique to Southern California," said FAA spokesman Donn Walker.LAX plans fixThe worst aviation accident in history occurred on a runway in 1977, when two jumbo jets collided at the airport in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 582 people. At LAX, 35 people died in 1991 when an air traffic controller cleared a jet to land on the same runway where she had positioned a commuter plane for takeoff.Now, after years of planning, LAX plans a permanent fix: a $250 million airfield renovation that officials say should eliminate most of the violations.LAX has seen between six and 10 incursions annually since 1999, though FAA officials caution those numbers can be misleading. None of LAX's eight incursions in 2005 posed an imminent collision risk, Walker said.That wasn't always the case, though. In November 1999 the pilot of a departing United Airlines Boeing 757 pulled up early to avoid barreling into an Aeromexico MD80 that had mistakenly taxied into its path.In an August 2004 incident that chillingly echoed the 1991 crash, the pilot of an arriving Asiana Boeing 747 swooped about 200 feet over a Southwest jetliner that an air traffic controller had positioned on the runway where the jumbo jet had been cleared to land.Looking down from the LAX control tower, the potential for problems is obvious as a succession of arriving jets nose up to a stop line before reaching the inner runway as other planes roar down it."I always equate it to the same act of faith as pulling up to a traffic signal and you've got a green light and you see somebody pulling up in the other direction," said Mike Foote, the air traffic controllers union representative at LAX. In other words, you assume -- and hope -- they'll stop.Authorities have tried to address LAX's problem by installing new technology in the control tower and placing "hot spot" warning signs on the LAX charts pilots use. Additionally, LAX has spent $8 million on better airfield signs, lighting and markings, said spokesman Paul Haney. And next year the airport is scheduled to get a new ground radar system that will give air traffic controllers precise information about the locations of planes on the airfield.A major airfield rejiggering should also give air traffic controllers greater control over the planes they guide. The project faces environmental lawsuits, but the airport hopes to settle those and begin construction early next year.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Coastal Living) -- For years, seasoned travelers have touted the 150 miles of verdant Pacific coast from Puerto Vallarta south to Manzanillo as Mexico's undiscovered treasure.Remarkably, Costa Alegre, or Happy Coast, still is, despite a roster of visitors that includes A-list actors and directors, European aristocrats, Sports Illustrated swimsuit models and globe-trotting polo players.The mystique persists because Costa Alegre has preserved its natural beauty, and because its remoteness keeps the paparazzi and other modern irritants at bay. "It's just isolated enough to discourage the package tourists and spring-break hordes," says Giorgio Brignone, a member of the Italian clan that has smartly developed the stretch known as Costa Careyes. "We've always had a lot of European visitors, but now we're getting more Americans who realize it's not difficult to travel here." Frequent flights connect the United States to Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, and on the well-paved highway between them, traffic flows freely. Except, that is, for the occasional cattle drive (imagine the Pacific Coast Highway doubling as the Chisholm Trail) or party of pint-size banditos (kids blocking the road to solicit donations for school).A trio of alluring resorts -- El Careyes, Las Alamandas, and El Tamarindo -- dots a south-central section of Costa Alegre that takes little more than an hour to drive, making it feasible to stay at any or all on one trip. Each follows the example set by Giorgio's father, Gian Franco Brignone, who arrived in Careyes in the late '60s: Start with hundreds of acres of unspoiled coast; insist on careful, low-density development; and build in a style that harmonizes with nature. All three resorts offer ways to explore the lush tropical environment, spa services, varied menus that draw on fresh fish and other local ingredients, and mucho romantic atmosphere.And all draw design inspiration from the cliff-topping Careyes villas, which blend vibrant walls, patterned concrete floors, and open-sided living areas crowned with soaring thatched roofs. The style is at once contemporary, timeless, and comfortable. Visitors can rent these fabulous villas or simply admire them while staying at El Careyes Beach Resort or in the colorful casitas above neighboring Playa Rosa.El Careyes Beach ResortPainted sunset hues, the resort resembles a whimsical Mediterranean village wrapped around a palm-studded piazza. Beyond its sprawling, amoeba-shape pool lies a crescent of sand and offshore islets so picturesque that "guests sometimes compliment us for their placement," notes a waiter in the open-air dining room. The cosmopolitan crowd that comes here in the fall-to-spring high season circulates at multilingual parties in the villas, at resort restaurants, and at simple eateries along the highway.Las AlamandasTo the north, with 1,500 gloriously empty acres and a maximum capacity of 30 guests, Las Alamandas encourages guests to indulge their whims. Care to canter on a deserted beach? Your horse awaits. Fancy a candlelit dinner for two on a seaside promontory? �No problema! Owner Isabel Goldsmith created this hedonistic hacienda to her own exacting standards and welcomes visitors personally. The comfortable, color-splashed rooms feature private patios, Mexican crafts, and ample soaking tubs. The main dining area overlooks the ocean, beach, whiskery palms, and, at dusk, foraging tejones. Mexico's answer to raccoons, these creatures provide a sort of floor show as they roam to and fro, their long, curving tails gliding through the air like question marks. The bar's signature rum punch shares its name with one of the property's beaches: Soledad. The same word -- Spanish for solitude -- sums up much of the appeal of Las Alamandas, a perfect place to be alone together.El TamarindoMarrying palapa roofs, outdoor lounge areas, plunge pools and obscuring foliage, the 29 villas of 2,040-acre El Tamarindo epitomize the discreet retreat. They echo the resort's dining pavilion and adjacent pool on a personal scale. Guests can bike trails that extend across a golf course woven into the jungle, explore the shore in kayaks or have a massage in a breezy beach hut. Then follow spa director Reto Kade into the beachfront temazcal, a sweat lodge heated with rocks pulled from a bonfire.Pheasantlike birds known as chachalacas mark morning and evening with a riotous racket. Big white butterflies float by like flying handkerchiefs. And sea turtles come ashore, as they have for ages, to lay their eggs. As at the two other resorts, El Tamarindo protects the eggs from animal and human predators. Assisting the hatchlings to the water's edge, guests become part of an ancient cycle. Watching the tiny turtles wobble into the surf, knowing that only a few will make it back to reproduce, makes palpable the pulse of nature.And the desire to return. "When you come to this coast, you always come back," Giorgio declares. "Like a turtle -- only the odds are much better!" Fortunately, much of Costa Alegre will remain undisturbed for years to come, allowing repeat and first-time visitors to enjoy its not-so-secret splendors.

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Scientists monitoring earth movements in Antarctica believe they have found a singing iceberg.Sound waves from the iceberg had a frequency of around 0.5 hertz, too low to be heard by humans, but by playing them at higher speed the iceberg sounded like a swarm of bees or an orchestra warming up, the scientists said.The German Alfred Wegener institute for polar and marine research will publish the results of its study, done in 2002, in Science magazine on Friday.Between July and November 2002 researchers picked up acoustic signals of unprecedented clarity when recording seismic signals to measure earthquakes and tectonic movements on the Ekstroem ice shelf on Antarctica's South Atlantic coast.Tracking the signal, the scientists found a 50 by 20 kilometre iceberg that had collided with an underwater peninsula and was slowly scraping around it."Once the iceberg stuck fast on the seabed it was like a rock in a river," said scientist Vera Schlindwein. "The water pushes through its crevasses and tunnels at high pressure and the iceberg starts singing.""The tune even goes up and down, just like a real song." Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- A Japanese space probe on a mission to bring back the first rock samples from an asteroid is preparing to make a fresh attempt to land on its target, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials said on Friday.The officials said they plan to land the unmanned probe on the asteroid, nearly 300 million kilometers (200 million miles) from earth, shortly after 7 a.m. on Saturday (2200 GMT on Friday)."It is moving closer and closer to the asteroid. It is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the target site now," a JAXA official said on Friday morning.He said the probe would begin its final approach around 10 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Friday.After a voyage of 2 1/2 years, the space probe on Sunday touched down on the surface of the 548-meter-long asteroid, called Itokawa, marking the first landing by a Japanese spacecraft on an extraterrestrial body. It remained there for 30 minutes but failed to drop the equipment for collecting surface material.Asteroids, unlike larger objects such as the moon, are believed to contain rocks that have remained largely unchanged since the early days of the solar system and could thus offer valuable information about its origins.Information about their structure could also be vital if an asteroid were found to be on a collision course with the earth.The probe, called Hayabusa (Japanese for "falcon"), has already sent back detailed images of the asteroid, which Japanese media noted looks like a potato.In a photograph published on JAXA Web site, the probe's shadow can be made out on Itokawa's surface.Itokawa is named after pioneering Japanese rocket scientist Hideo Itokawa.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

EAST FISHKILL, New York (AP) -- Gyms are typically places to sweat, shoot hoops, backflip, benchpress or box. Then there's the Little Gym.The balance beam here has training rails, flips are done in slow-motion with Mommy holding tight, and the instructor cheers athletes who walk down the big cushy pads without falling on their diapered bottoms with a hearty, "Ta Da!"This franchise run by sisters Meredith Rockett and Dariane Mirando in the Hudson Valley suburbs caters to babies, toddlers, preschoolers and elementary kids.It's one of many kid-centric operations cropping up around the country with names like My Gym or Gymboree Play & Music. Industry experts say the gym programs catering to kids are being helped by parents spooked by the rising tide of childhood obesity and the lack of unstructured outlets for play.Mirando says that when she and her sister were growing up, "Mom would say, 'Go out and ride your bikes and I don't want to see you until dinner.' Unfortunately, society doesn't allow that anymore."Gym programs for kids are nothing new. The first Little Gym opened in 1976 and health clubs have been offering programs like "Mommy and Me Swimming" for a while. But the idea is picking up steam. Children under age 18 represent the second-fastest growing health club demographic after the over-55 crowd, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. The group reports that health club memberships for kids age 6 to 11 grew by more than a third from 1999 to 1.8 million last year.Adult chains like Town Sports International have responded with programs like Sports Club for Kids, in which participants can take a spinning class while watching a virtual reality DVD. At the same time, gyms for children are more common. The number of Little Gym franchises nationwide is expected to jump from 189 now to 244 by the end of next year, said president and chief executive officer Robert Bingham.These different gyms offer fitness programs for kids in all shapes and sizes, often with names like "Gym Dandy" or "Mighty Mites."The Fishkill Little Gym, a "Type A" clean space with multicolored mats and gymnastic equipment, focuses on programs for kids age 10 months to 12 years. Classes are designed for different age groups.A recent class run by Rockett for parents and kids age 19 months to 21/2 years centered on basic movement. Instead of full-on cartwheels, four toddling girls were encouraged to do feet-barely-leave-the-ground versions called "monkey jumps." They did donkey kicks instead of handstands. Rockett broke out jingle bells and bubbles.Coaxing and cooing her way through the 45-minute session, Rockett knows that none of the toddlers can flip backward over a parallel bar, at least intentionally. Her goal is "progressive skill building" -- breaking down athletic feats into toddler-sized portions. She cradles kids in her arms as they grab the bar, guiding them though a slow-motion pullover.In a matter of weeks, she said, some of the kids will be swinging from bars.This is a clearly noncompetitive atmosphere. Young students are prone to wandering off and teething on bean bags, and parents guiding their children through class said their main goal was to have fun. Maribeth Karas said she signed up her 1 1/2-year-old daughter for the chance to be with other kids."She likes it," Karas said. "She likes the motion and the singing -- and it makes her sleepy too!"Jane Clark, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, said these gym programs can fill a void in developing physical skills in children. Clark helped draw up infant-through-preschooler guidelines released a few years ago by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Those call for regular physical activity from the earliest years."Children don't go out and play like they used to, so unfortunately, we have to create these environments for them," she said.Alarm about children's physical fitness -- about 30 percent of U.S. schoolchildren are estimated to be overweight and about half of those, obese -- probably helps business too. Brooke Correia, a spokeswoman for the health club industry group, said the programs also make more sense in an era when kids' lives are heavily regimented with extracurricular activities like scouts and music. Gym time becomes yet another block on the schedule.Clark warns, though, that parents considering kid gym programs should avoid competitive games. Also, watch out for instructors that tell young kids they're doing things the wrong way."Your child should have fun," Clark said. "They should have a variety of experiences and they should be challenged to do things just a little bit better."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(AP) -- Children who are overweight face more than future health problems. They appear to have broken bones and joint problems more often during childhood than kids of normal weight, research suggests."A lot of people think that if you're an overweight kid ... that later on in life you're going to run into having heart disease or Type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Susan Yanovski, director of the obesity and eating disorders program at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases."But kids and adults who are overweight are already having problems with their mobility, fractures, and joint pain."A study led by her husband, obesity researcher Dr. Jack Yanovski, found that children and teens who were overweight were far more likely to have had a fracture than their ideal-weight peers. They also had more bone and hip joint abnormalities, which can lead to permanent deformities.The research involved 227 overweight children and adolescents and 128 who weren't overweight. The children had an average age of 12. All were enrolled in various federal health studies between 1996 and 2004 and were considered overweight if they were in the 95th percentile of weight and height for their age and sex.A review of their medical history revealed that 13 percent of overweight kids had had at least one broken bone at some point in their lives, compared with less than 4 percent of ideal-weight children.Similar results were found for how many had muscle, bone or joint pain, especially knee pain, and restricted movement."The combination of musculoskeletal pain and poor mobility may possibly lead to less physical activity ... and perpetuate the vicious cycle," said Yanovski, head of the growth and obesity program at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He presented results of the study at a recent meeting of the Obesity Society in Vancouver, British Columbia.Caleb Ezzard knows the problem well.With 362 pounds on his 5-foot-4-inch frame, the 14-year-old from Louisville, Ky., developed Blount's disease, a growth disorder of the shin bone that causes the lower legs to bow inward."I used to play football," but the bone problem put an end to that, he said. "When I would run, my weight would put pressure on my leg and my bones would start moving and it would hurt."Even more common than Blount's is SCFE, or slipped capital femoral epiphysis, caused by improper growth in the ball part of the ball-and-socket joint that forms the hip, said Dr. Junichi Tamai, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.Children often say their knees hurt, but the real problem is the malformation that's starting to occur in the joint, he said. Being unable to exercise makes the situation worse.Active kids' bones are strong"If a child is very active, chances are the bones are very strong," because weight-bearing exercise promotes bone density, Tamai said."Also, a very active child may be able to fall better," he said. If kids have too many pounds on their frame, "when they fall, there's just more weight behind it" and bones are more likely to snap.Hormones are believed to play a role, too."What we generally see is that lean, muscular young men have the hardest bone, and that goes along with the testosterone," which can be lower in very overweight boys, Tamai said.In Caleb's case, orthopedic surgeries could only partly resolve the leg issues. In October, he had obesity surgery at the Cincinnati children's hospital, hoping to get at the underlying problem."We've tried Weight Watchers, we've tried Slimfast, we tried the fitness centers with not much success," said Caleb's stepfather, Steven Reed.Caleb said that other family members' experiences convinced him to have the gastric bypass operation."I didn't start wanting it until I saw the success it had with my uncle," he said.His weight is starting to drop, but he won't be able to consider much exercise until it falls some more."It's painful to walk," he said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Wanted posters offering rewards for Jesse James and other outlaws were a common sight in America's Old West. Now a modern twist on that idea is showing up increasingly across the country: wanted billboards.Many of the billboards, which typically include a suspect's photo or a sketch drawn from witness descriptions, have resulted in tips leading to an arrest.Eight of the 10 suspects shown on billboards in the Kansas City, Missouri, area have been arrested, seven of them because of the billboards, authorities say.And police in Passaic, New Jersey, say a billboard was instrumental in catching a man charged in the stabbing death of a police officer's son."This is an idea that is working fabulously," said Lt. James Wood, leader of the Major Crimes Unit of the Passaic County prosecutor's office.A high-profile supporter of the billboards is John Walsh, host of Fox's "America's Most Wanted.""We reach a lot of people through television, but billboards are seen daily and serve as a constant reminder," said Walsh, whose 6-year-old son was kidnapped and murdered in Florida 24 years ago.But the billboards raise concerns for Marc Mezibov, a defense attorney in Cincinnati, where the city's first wanted billboard was went up recently."If a client's face and name were posted on billboards ascribing some horrendous crime to him, I would certainly raise issues with the court about whether he could receive a fair trial," he said, adding that he might request the trial be moved.Tips from one of the billboards in Kansas City led to the arrest of a man in the 2002 slaying of 19-year-old Ali Kemp. Roger Kemp, who found his daughter's body at the swimming pool where she worked, said the idea came to him while driving."I was looking at billboards one day and thought, 'Why not try that since so many people drive by them every day?' " Kemp said.He asked Lamar Advertising Co. about renting a billboard, but the company offered to donate one to post a suspect sketch and hotline number for anonymous tips. Some billboards also include reward information.Police were somewhat hesitant at first."We thought a generic sketch could create false leads," said Sgt. Craig Sarver, coordinator of the Crime Stoppers program of the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission.The billboard was so successful, however, that other area law enforcement agencies have been calling to get photos of their fugitives put on billboards, Sarver said.So far, advertising companies have donated at least 14 billboards, whose values run from about $1,500 to more than $5,000 each.The Cincinnati billboard, donated by Norton Outdoor Advertising, has led to some tips on the whereabouts of Michael Anthony Mitchell, 35, who is charged with shooting a man to death over a parking spot."Even if not every subject is caught, this creates a better awareness of crime and the need to do everything possible to stop it," said Chuck Kreimer, director of Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Crime Stoppers.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Let's do it."With those last words, convicted killer Gary Gilmore ushered in the modern era of capital punishment in the United States, an age of busy death chambers that will likely see its 1,000th execution in the coming days.After a 10-year moratorium, Gilmore in 1977 became the first person executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.Robin Lovitt, 41, will likely be the one to earn that macabre distinction next Wednesday. He was convicted of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a 1998 pool hall robbery in Virginia.Ahead of Lovitt on death row are Eric Nance, scheduled to be executed Monday in Arkansas, and John Hicks, scheduled to be executed Tuesday in Ohio. Both executions appear likely to proceed.Gilmore was executed before a Utah firing squad, after a record of petty crime, killing of a motel manager and suicide attempts in prison. His life was the basis for a TV miniseries and Norman Mailer's book, "The Executioner's Song."While his case was well-known, most people today probably couldn't name even one of the more than 3,400 prisoners -- including 118 foreign nationals -- on death row in the U.S. In the last 28 years, the U.S. has executed on average one person every 10 days.The focus of the debate on capital punishment was once the question of whether it served as a deterrent to crime. Today, the argument is more on whether the government can be trusted not to execute an innocent person.Thomas Hill, an attorney for a death row inmate in Ohio who recently won a second stay of execution, thinks the answer is obvious."We have a criminal system that makes mistakes. If you accept that proposition, that means you have to be prepared for the inevitability that some are sentenced to death for crimes they didn't commit," Hill said.But advocates of the death penalty argue that its opponents are elitist liberals who are ignoring the real victims."Since 1999, we've had 100,000 innocent people murdered in the U.S., but nobody is planning on commemorating all those people killed," said Michael Paranzino, president of Throw Away the Key, a group that supports the death penalty.The race factorRace also is a key question in the debate. Since 1976, 58 percent of those executed in the U.S. were white while 34 percent were black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But non-Latino whites make up 75 percent of the U.S. population, while non-Latino blacks comprise just over 12 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Some supporters say ending the death penalty would be harmful to poor minorities, who are disproportionately murder victims."Increasingly violent crime is primarily for the working class folks, poor people and people of color," Paranzino said.Opponents of capital punishment also point to the unfair role of class and race in death penalty cases. "The race of the victims has a lot to do with who winds up getting executed," said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the New York-based Innocence Project, a legal clinic that seeks to exonerate inmates through DNA testing. "There is tremendous arbitrariness to the death penalty."Death sentences nationwide have dropped by 50 percent since the late 1990s, with actual executions down by 40 percent, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Twelve states do not have the death penalty, and at least two states -- Illinois and New Jersey -- have formal moratoriums on capital punishment, according to the center.An October Gallup poll showed 64 percent of Americans support use of the death penalty. But that is the lowest level in 27 years, down from a high of 80 percent in 1994.Still, some powerful political forces are looking to speed up the trying and executing of prisoners. Both houses of the U.S. Congress are considering bills that would lessen the ability of defendants in capital cases to appeal to federal courts.Proponents of the legislation say such appeals add up to 15 years to the process of executing a prisoner. Detractors say the law will not allow federal courts to review most cases and will result in innocent people being put to death.Executing the innocent?Since 1973, 122 prisoners have been freed from death row. The vast majority of those cases came during the last 15 years, since the use of DNA evidence became widespread. While there is no official proof an innocent person has been executed, opponents of the death penalty say the number of prisoners whose convictions have been reversed should fuel skepticism."I don't think any rational person seriously examining the evidence can have any confidence that an innocent hasn't already been executed," said Scheck.Using post-conviction DNA evidence, the Innocence Project has helped in more than half of the 163 cases vacated -- 14 of which were from death row. "We've demonstrated that there are too many innocent people on death row," Scheck said.But that argument does not impress Charles Rosenthal, district attorney for Harris County, Texas, which has sent more prisoners to the death chamber -- 85 -- than any other U.S. county and all but two states, Texas and Virginia, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice statistics."I don't know about every death penalty case in Texas, but I feel quite sure that no one that this office has had anything to do with was factually innocent," Rosenthal said.Scheck believes Rosenthal's claim is based "more on faith than fact." He noted that the police DNA lab in Houston has been shut down since 2002 because an investigation found problems with poor training and contaminated evidence."What kind of confidence can you have when the jurisdiction that executes more people than any other is fraught with unreliable testing results?" Scheck said.Questions raisedIn at least two cases, questions are being raised about whether an innocent person was put to death. In St. Louis, Missouri, Larry Griffin was convicted for the 1980 fatal shooting of a 19-year-old drug dealer, Quintin Moss. He was executed in 1995. His conviction largely rested on the testimony of a career criminal who was in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Now, a policeman whose testimony backed up the criminal's story says the man was lying, and Moss' own family thinks Griffin was innocent.In Texas, the case of Ruben Cantu, who was executed in 1993, also is receiving attention. Cantu was convicted in 1985 of killing a man and wounding another during a robbery attempt that happened the previous year, when he was 17. A decade after his execution, however, the only witness in the case and Cantu's co-defendant have both come forward to say he was innocent. (Full story)In St. Louis, City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce has led a review of 1,400 cases to see if DNA evidence can prove the guilt or innocence of those convicted. With only 12 cases left to review, evidence led to the exoneration of just three men, none of whom were on death row."Most of the time there is testing, it confirms the guilt of the defendant," Joyce said.Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is examining Lovitt's case, and could decide whether or not to grant clemency over the weekend. It would be the only likely way Lovitt could avoid execution. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reconsider the case.DNA tests on the scissors used in the stabbing were inconclusive, and the scissors were later thrown away because of a lack of storage space. One of his lawyers, former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, said though he supports the death penalty in principle, it should not apply to Lovitt for reasons "including -- above all right now -- the destruction of the DNA evidence."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Got a political perspective? Grab a camera and make a statement. With today's technology, we can all be part of a new cinematic dialogue.When Robert Greenwald made a movie to show how Wal-Mart shortchanges its employees, Ron Galloway whipped together his own response, about how Wal-Mart workers love the mega-chain. Both debuted in mid-November.By the time Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" hit video stores in October, 2004, three rebuttals were competing for shelf space.Through the use of digital technology and Internet distribution it is now easier than ever for filmmakers to push their points of view. Movies can be made quickly and cheaply, then burned onto DVDs and disseminated worldwide on the Web."You couldn't do these films with the old technology," says Greenwald. "It's tremendously exciting for the way it continues to democratize the process, from making the films to distributing them."Greenwald shot "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" with digital video cameras and edited the footage with Final Cut Pro, a Macintosh home editing system. He used the Internet to market the movie and arrange more than 7,000 community screenings.Technology also made it possible to quickly and affordably produce his previous documentaries, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism."Digital video cameras start at less than $1,000. The latest version of Final Cut Pro sells for $999.Without digital technology, Galloway never could have finished his film, "Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy," in time to compete with "The High Cost of Low Price." Galloway was preparing a book on the inner workings of Wal-Mart when he learned in June about Greenwald's project. He decided to turn the book into a film and timed its release to coincide with Greenwald's."We did a trailer in about two hours," Galloway said. "We cut it in the car while driving down the New Jersey Turnpike."Galloway certainly isn't the first filmmaker to use technology to rush production of a cinematic rebuttal.When Jeff Hays saw Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" in July of 2004, he walked out of the theater determined to craft a response."It needed to be done and if I wasn't going to do it, I was afraid of who might," he recalls.He spent 28 days shooting his film, "Fahrenhype 9/11," which was released the same day as the "Fahrenheit" DVD. He calls it "the free-market answer."Hays' latest work, "On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report," made the initial cut for 2005 Oscar consideration.Politics and "righteous indignation" motivated Michael Wilson to make his movie, "Michael Moore Hates America," out of his apartment with borrowed cameras. Technology allowed him to share footage with an editor through a common server, so shooting and editing could happen simultaneously.It was also technology, and the national response to "Fahrenheit 9/11," that inspired David Bossie to try filmmaking as a political tool. A first-time filmmaker, he made his "Fahrenheit" rebuttal, "Celsius 41.11," in just eight weeks."Digital technology made all the difference in being able to produce and distribute this film in an affordable way," Bossie said.Bossie, whose latest work, "Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60," was released November 11, intends to change minds with his movies."Documentaries that make people think and open people's minds to a conservative political standpoint are going to have a great impact on the political process," he says. "I may not agree with some filmmakers, but the more who do it, the more acceptable and popular it becomes as a way to influence public policy."Actually, nonfiction films that espouse a political perspective are nothing new, says Malcolm Spaull, a film professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. "All documentaries reflect a point of view," he says. "What's different now is the availability of technology to everyone."Also, Spaull adds, the genre has been shaped by technology throughout its history. Portable film cameras inspired the "direct cinema" fly-on-the-wall approach to filmmaking that began in the late 1950s, he notes. Video cameras also had an impact on documentaries, but the quality was lacking."Now the technology is so ubiquitous, and it's good enough quality, that anyone who can pick up a camera and hit the trigger can start filming and making so-called documentaries," he says. "Technology is taking documentaries into the next phase."That's good news for Greenwald, who feels "democracy is not a spectator sport.""Film is the language people use today," he says.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job."If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses -- because that goes straight to the bottom line -- then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation. (Watch Brown is chosen as top 'political turkey' of the year -- 2:58)The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit."Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is," he said.Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC. He plans to run it from the Boulder area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001."I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients," Brown said. "My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- R&B singer Usher makes his big-screen debut as a leading man with the romantic comedy "In the Mix."The 27-year-old Usher plays Darrell, a playboy New York City disc jockey who falls in love.Not only is he the star, he's the executive producer. Usher, whose 2004 album "Confessions" was a huge commercial and critical success, talked with The Associated Press about the movie and why he plans on staying single.Q: Why did you choose "In the Mix" for your first leading role?Usher: I took a look at the type of black films and multicultural films that had come out and I wanted to do something that would cater to the demographic of people that I have been introduced to and my fan base. That's basically 5-year-olds all the way up to 67-year-olds. During this season it would be the type of movie that everybody would be a part of.Q: Do you think "In the Mix" is the type of story that hasn't been told before?Usher: To an extent that there have definitely been films heading in this direction for a black character, for the film to be focused on the black character. To make one comparison, "A Bronx Tale." The fact that the story was based on race and this one is based more on the politics and the logistics as to how the mob really works and what goes on as well as the fact that love is colorless. You have a fly guy 26-year-old playboy. He didn't know what he was getting himself into but it had everything to do with family and his family values and what he felt like he owes the Pacelli family. I think this says a lot about us as black Americans and the views of Italian Americans.Q: Your co-star Chazz Palminteri often plays in mob films. What did he teach you about the mob?Usher: We had a conversation about the elbow talk. You know you're in trouble when a mobster or someone in the family gives you the elbow walk. They grab you by the back of the elbow and they guide you. That was one thing that I never knew, but I has seen before in movies. Now I know exactly what it meant.Q: What message do you want people to walk away with after seeing "In the Mix?"Usher: The moral of this story is: life is what happens when you are making other plans. Two, love is colorless.Q: Are you hesitant to have fans see you on the big screen in an interracial relationship?Usher: First of all, more than anything (the film is about) two people from two different worlds. I don't know anything about an interracial relationship because I don't go in it as a person who's interested in her as a relationship. My character and her character fall in love with each other. It turns into, Can we tell anybody? It doesn't start out like that.Q: You also executive produced "In the Mix." How much creative control did you have?Usher: Well, I didn't put money behind it. That title comes from being involved in the creative process from choosing the people to act opposite, script supervision, selecting people who are a part of the production team. It's pretty easy. The character was pretty much at a place where I could put myself in it. A lot of times we would work on a scene and there was basically improvisation and (we would) create the scene. Most of the glue was already there.Q: Your character is a playboy who falls in love. Is art going to imitate life?Usher: No. I like being a playboy. 2004 and 5 have been definitely a very, very hectic time for me. That's probably the reason why it is better for me to stay single because I am never home. Part of being in a relationship, you've got to have time.Q: You've been in the spotlight for more than a decade. Do you feel that you missed out on anything?Usher: It's all been here. I've been working it out in the process at a young age. I pretty much did what I wanted to do and had a supportive team around me to continue to push me in the right direction. At the age of 14 I basically fulfilled my dream and went on a journey. It's been a long and winding road, but hey, look at what happened. ... it turned out to be beneficial.Q: Who do you want to model your career after?Usher: At a young age, 16 or 17 I was introduced to a different style of entertaining outside out what I had seen on television or what I had studied or heard about. I knew about it, but I didn't really study it. Josephine Baker, Lena Horne, all those actresses and entertainers. I was introduced to Gene Kelly. I was introduced to Fred Astaire. I was introduced to Ben Vereen, Sammy Davis Jr. who were in a sense triple threats. They could sing, dance as well as act. Those people were my motivation to become more involved in the business aspect of it. It makes you a quadruple threat. You've got the singing, acting, the dancing, you get a little business in there and you might have it going on.Q: Are you nervous about "In the Mix" doing well?Usher: I would only hope that everybody could be as supportive as they possibly can. As I said I wanted to put together a piece that I felt everybody could enjoy.Q: What is the best thing about being Usher?Usher: That I am the only one of myself.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MANHATTAN BEACH, California (AP) -- Peter Gallagher's green eyes sparkle as he leans back in his dressing room and hums a tune. He looks excited, nervous and expectant. And he should. The "O.C." dad is putting out his first record ... at age 50."I knew I was going to have to put together an evening of music before I hang it up, because if I didn't do it, it would be a real terrible thing for me," says the actor on the set of his hit show.Gallagher's album "7 Days in Memphis" was released in early November by Epic Records. Bluesy and heartfelt, the collection of mostly Memphis soul covers is a great opportunity -- albeit a daunting one -- for the longtime actor and Broadway singer to showcase his singing chops."What's scary about doing a solo record like this is admitting your own taste," he says. "I don't have a character to hide behind."Not that fans of "The O.C" haven't already heard Gallagher belt out the blues.Last season, Gallagher's TV alter-ego -- jolly attorney and hip father Sandy Cohen -- jumped up on a stage and brought down the house with Solomon Burke's passionate "Don't Give Up on Me."Fans and critics praised Gallagher for his warm, thunderous voice, and record executives came calling. Epic executives urged Gallagher to record a slew of '60s and '70s songs from Memphis' Stax/Volt label in the vein of "Don't Give Up on Me." They gave him a multi-disc set of Memphis music to study.It was a perfect match."I had no idea I listened to Memphis soul as a kid," says Gallagher, who as a 12-year-old loved Stax/Volt artists such as Otis Redding and Booker T. & the MG's. Redding's 1968 hit "(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay" is still one of his favorite songs."But no one needs to do 'Dock of the Bay' again," he says. "I just don't think you can mess with perfection. Maybe not no one, but not me."Instead, he chose lesser known songs by the likes of Carla and Rufus and Sam and Dave, and tunes such as the horn-infused "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" and the emotive soul ballad "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." He hopes the selection will attract older baby boomers and curious younger fans akin to his 20-something castmates on "The O.C."Guests on the album include guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the MG's and soul singer Betty White.Youthfully handsome, with a thick mane of black hair, Gallagher regularly sings to his wife and two children. He's always been "a bit of a stimulation junkie," he says."The first time I sang in public, it was really a result of my music teacher's attempt to humiliate me in class because I was doing something wrong," Gallagher reminisces, grinning.Sent to the back of the class for imitating a standup bass ("dum, dum, dum," he hums), his teacher demanded he sing. "I remember thinking, 'this is sink or swim.' My ears were burning, and the humiliation was rising. I thought to myself, 'I'll show YOU man."'Apparently he did, because Gallagher went on to star in an array of musicals, including "Hair," "Guys and Dolls" and the lead in Pete Townshend's "Psychoderelict." Over 25 years, he's appeared in more than 50 films. In 2003 Gallagher hit the jackpot with "The O.C." -- one of Fox's most popular shows."He's always singing on set," says Efrain Cortes, an "O.C." assistant director. "He's the epitome of class, and his music reflects that. Everyone on the crew loves him."Gallagher says singing is "like being given an unbelievably great monologue, like acting times 10." But his performance anxiety is equally multiplied."I was staring at the ceiling late at night a few weeks before recording in June, thinking, 'I have the greatest day job in the world.' I was terrified to march into that hallowed musical ground of Memphis and record and sing these songs," he says.As for touring, Gallagher's busy acting schedule just won't allow it, at least not until next June. But that won't keep him from jumping up on a stage, and soon."I'm definitely going to perform live, even if it's at a Ramada Inn near you, and I'll be selling records in the back," he says, laughing.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A video game master from Kansas City, Missouri, won a $150,000 prize on Tuesday by besting a rival in the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour Grand Finals.Johnathan Wendel, 24, who goes by the name "Fatal1ty" in the world of multiplayer games, beat Sander Kaasjager, a player from the Netherlands known as "fnatic.Vo0," for the competition's top prize."It took a lot of practice coming into this tournament, training about eight hours a day for the last two to three weeks," Wendel told AP Television News after the event. "To win $150,000 playing a video game -- that's the best."Wendel has been playing video games since around the age of 5, when his father gave him a Nintendo system and he first played Ikari Warriors. At 15, he started taking home prizes from local competitions. At 18, he entered his first professional tournament in Dallas.Wendel, who is -- for now, at least -- skipping college, has become the leader in titles and prize money in the world of professional gaming.The Cyberathlete Professional League, the first organization of its kind, was founded eight years ago.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) -- Wendy Armstrong won't confess how much money she used to spend on scrapbooking supplies, but she does admit nearly kicking her daughter out of her nursery to make more room for the piles of paper and decorative doodads.The baby kept her room, but "believe me, it was a very hard decision," jokes Armstrong, a stay-at-home mom who lives near Portland, Oregon."This was not so much a scrapbooking hobby as a collecting hobby."Two years later, Armstrong is ready to get rid of her collection altogether.But she hasn't given up on scrapbooking. Rather, she's joining a growing number of scrapbookers who have gone digital.Armstrong, 43, now creates all of her scrapbook pages entirely on her computer. No more physical cutting and pasting, no more agonizing over a layout to the point of paralysis."I had two kids, a backlog of a gazillion photos, and I was just getting to the point where I'd literally have layouts that sat on my desk for months just not quite finished," she said.Switching to digital scrapbooking brought a huge sense of relief."All of a sudden I didn't totally panic about finishing my layouts like I did with paper scrapping because I never really had to finish," said Armstrong, who has completed 240 pages in just more than a year. "It just created so much more freedom than paper scrapping."Digital scrapbooking is a fast-growing offshoot of the $2.5 billion scrapbooking industry.Motivated by the same desire to preserve memories as their traditional peers, digital scrapbookers use photo-editing software and other programs to arrange digital or scanned photographs, text and embellishments on their pages. Finished pages can be printed and inserted in standard scrapbook albums, bound in hardcover coffee table-style books, burned to CDs and DVDs or shared through e-mail.Last winter, Armstrong created a batch of pages covering her family's activities of the previous year and printed two copies, one for herself and one for her parents in Florida."There's no way I would've done a paper scrapbook to send them," she said. "Heck, I couldn't even do it for myself."Some digital scrapbookers strive for realistic pages featuring digitally created ribbons, tags and other embellishments, such as shadows that give an appearance of depth. Others adopt a more artistic style by blending photos together, or they go for the cleaner, graphic style of magazine layouts and advertisements.For many, the main appeal is flexibility: Photos and embellishments can be repositioned, resized or re-colored.And while printing pages can be expensive, digitally created "papers" and decorations can be used over and over, and many coordinated kits can be downloaded for free from dozens of Web sites.One of the most popular sites, Scrapbook Bytes, has grown to nearly 40,000 registered members since it went online in 2003.Its 34-year-old founder, Amy Edwards, said she was looking to create a welcoming place for digital scrappers to find information and inspiration -- after noticing they were getting a cool reception on sites devoted to traditional scrapbooking."I thought it was going to be just a little thing," Edwards said. "It literally flew out from under my feet. The traffic is outrageous."The increase in users has been matched by an explosion in the number of people designing their own papers and elements to share or even sell.Dianne Rigdon of Bakersfield, California, started making her own kits after downloading a few free ones and now spends 20 to 30 hours a week designing."I think scrappers are becoming savvy. They know their programs and they're starting to explore it as an art," she said. "It's not only about preserving memories."Rigdon, 42, estimates only a handful of designers make enough to earn a living."You're just happy getting any money for doing what you love to do," she said. "I enjoy the creative process ... and there's no mess. You can leave it at any moment and come back to it later, and no one's messed with it."Some traditional paper companies now offer digital kits on CD, and computer-generated layouts are making their way into scrapbooking magazines. Simple Scrapbooks magazine just published its fourth edition of Digital Scrapbooking, and about 15 percent of the layouts it publishes in its regular magazine are digital, reflecting the percentage of computer-generated layouts submitted by readers."I think it definitely has broadened the appeal of scrapbooking," said Stacy Julian, the magazine's founding editor. "So many people think scrapbooking is perhaps a kind of kitschy-crafty thing. It's made it much more accessible to people who don't have that inclination for crafts, but maybe they work with a computer all day long and they feel much more comfortable with the technical aspect of it."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- Supporters of jailed Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye plan to question Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Besigye, as well as Museveni's dedication to democracy, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting Museveni is attending in Malta, a spokesman said Friday.Supporters of Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) will ask Museveni about his "commitment to democratic principles and free press," said Sam Akaki, a London-based FDC spokesman.Besigye was arrested in October, and on Thursday was "dragged before a military court and charged with treason," Akaki said.At the time of Besigye's arrest, Maj. Gen. Kale Kaihura, Uganda's police inspector general, told CNN authorities had "collected evidence linking Besigye to the People's Redemption Army, which is being organized to overthrow the government of Uganda."Police have also collected evidence linking Besigye to another group, the Lord's Resistance Army, he said at the time.The arrest reportedly sparked protests in central Kampala, Uganda's capital city.On Thursday, Akaki said Besigye refused to answer the treason charge in the military court, prompting the chair of the tribunal to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. A military court trial is set to begin December 19.Besigye is expected to appear in High Court on Friday for a bail hearing. Although both the High Court and the military court have charged him with treason, it was unclear which would take precedence. Military courts typically handle alleged crimes committed by military members, and Besigye is a former Army colonel.Besigye returned to Uganda from exile in October. A runner-up in Uganda's 2001 presidential election, he maintains popular support in Kampala and Uganda's outlying areas.Besigye is considered to be Museveni's main rival in Uganda's upcoming presidential elections, to be held in March. Museveni has held power for 19 years."We are considering a boycott of the elections," Akaki said.The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, in Valletta, Malta, began Friday and will last through Sunday. Topics are expected to include poverty, international trade and world security.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's largest oil company has apologized for an explosion that led to a toxic slick of benzene entering the Songhua River and the suspension of water services to the northeastern city of Harbin.An official with the China National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday apologized to the residents of northeast Heilongjiang province for the spill after a November 13 blast at a chemical plant owned by CNPC's Jilin Petrochemical company.Benzene, used in gasoline, is a cancer-causing substance. It can cause anemia, other blood disorders and kidney and liver damage.Water service in the city of Harbin had to be shut off after the spill of around 100 tons, which spanned 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide.The plant blast, which authorities blamed on human error at a tower that processed benzene, killed five people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of others.The contaminated water reached Harbin's water supply inlet at about 5 a.m. Thursday local time (2100 Wednesday GMT), and entered river sections across the city's urban areas, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.Zeng Yukang, deputy general manager of the government-owned petrochemical plant CNPC, "expressed his sincere sympathy and deep apologies" to residents for the pollution, Xinhua reported.The vice-governor of neighboring Jilin province, where the plant is located, also offered his apologies, the news agency said.'Waited too long'Critics say the Chinese government waited too long to inform the people of Harbin and officials in Russia, where the pollution is expected to arrive in about two weeks.The government, which blamed CNPC for the disaster, didn't publicly confirm the river was polluted until 10 days after the accident.Besides the potential for an environmental disaster, the incident has turned into a public relations disaster for China, which until the past two days had not given residents timely information about the approaching spill.In an effort to appease the public, government officials, in a rare turnaround, began offering hourly updates.The polluted water from likely will reach the Heilongjiang River, called the Amur River in Russia, on the Sino-Russian border in around 14 days judging from the current flow speed, Xinhua reported."China is very concerned about the possible hazards to Russia and has informed its neighbor several times of the pollution," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a news conference."Both have pledged to cooperate closely to handle the pollution."Earlier Moscow issued a statement to its neighbors asking them to communicate about matters potentially affecting Russia in a "timely manner."Jarred nervesChina defended its handling of the spill even as reports emerged of another explosion at a plant in southwestern region of Chongqing.More than 6,000 residents were evacuated after the blast, which killed one person and injured three, raising fears of benzene contamination, Reuters quoted the Southern Metropolis Daily as reporting.And in a sign of how the first accident has jarred national nerves about widespread pollution, Premier Wen Jiabao issued instructions demanding safe drinking water be ensured.Some of the 100 tons of pollutants from the first incident has already been absorbed because the density of the pollutants had dropped markedly, according to Zhang Lijun, deputy director China's State Environmental Protection Administration.The possibility of criminal charges in connection with the incident remained Thursday.Chinese environmentalists have said the country keeps experiencing such incidents because of poor risk management and poor corporate responsibility.Stronger legislation and more forceful implementation is needed to enforce safety standards, they say, amid the country's sizzling economic growthHarbin has cut off its water supply for at least four days, and has trucked in 700 tons of bottled water. New wells are being drilled to make up for the shortage.Schools in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, have closed and hospitals were put on standby to deal with any medical emergencies, although none were immediately reported.Officials have estimated the toxins may pass Harbin in about 40 hours, but residents -- who scrambled to save water in pails and bathtubs as well as cramming grocery stores to stock up on bottled water -- remained worried about long-term health effects, and many were taking no chances.Others worried about how the threat could affect Harbin's tourism industry. People flock each year to the city's Ice Festival to see sculptures carved out of ice.CNN's Jaime FlorCruz contributed to this report.

(CNN) -- Syria has agreed to permit U.N. investigators probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to question five of its intelligence officers in Vienna.The development -- disclosed Friday at a news conference in Damascus, where Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem spoke to reporters -- broke a deadlock with the United Nations that had brought increasing pressure on Syria.German prosecutor Detev Mehlis is heading the U.N. investigation into the February 14 assassination of Hariri, who was killed with 20 others in a Beirut truck bombing.Mehlis' commission issued an interim report last month that implicated Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in the assassination.Moallem told reporters that the breakthrough came after Syria received "guarantees concerning the rights of the individuals" and assurances that Syrian sovereignty would be respected, The Associated Press reported."The (Syrian) leadership has decided to inform Mehlis that it accepts his suggestion, as a compromise, that the venue to listen to the five Syrian officials be the U.N. headquarters in Vienna," AP quoted Moallem as saying.The question of the venue had led to a delay in the probe.Investigators wanted to question the intelligence officers outside Syria, but Syria had not permitted officials wanted for questioning to leave home soil.It is thought Syria was concerned that if they were questioned in Lebanon, Mehlis could have recommended the arrest of the officials there. Lebanon has detained other suspects at Mehlis' request.It is not yet clear when the questioning will take place. "We will contact the (U.N.) commission very soon to specify dates and agree on the procedures and all that is necessary," AP quoted Moallem as saying.Moallem did not identify the five people to be questioned, saying it was a matter of the "secrecy of the investigation." He said only their lawyers would accompany them to Vienna, AP reported.Mehlis' spokeswoman in New York, Nasra Hassan, said the prosecutor welcomed the Syrian announcement, and U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was pleased with the agreement."(Annan) expects their cooperation to continue throughout Mr. Mehlis' investigation," AP quoted Okabe as saying.The U.N. Security Council has warned Syria of "further action" -- diplomatic language for sanctions -- if it fails to cooperate fully with Mehlis.Hariri's assassination provoked mass demonstrations in Lebanon calling for Syria to pull its troops from the country, where they had been stationed since the 1975-90 civil war.As international pressure mounted, Syria withdrew its troops in April. In subsequent months, Lebanese voters elected their first parliament in years that did not have a pro-Syrian majority.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- Anti-war demonstrators, back in Crawford to protest during President Bush's holiday vacation, unveiled a stone monument Friday with the words "Sheehan's Stand" in honor of the woman who inspired their efforts.Cindy Sheehan, who staged a 26-day protest outside Bush's ranch in August, cried when she saw the 2-foot-high sandstone marker.On the other side of the rectangular slab is the word "Why!" and names of more than two dozen soldiers whose families were part of the vigil. The name of Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, is among them."Nobody knew what was going to happen, and we made up Camp Casey as we went along, and it grew and grew and grew," said Sheehan, of Berkeley, California. "We're here to say that the killing has to stop."The artist who carved the 1,200-pound monument, Ron Teska of Wind Ridge, Pennsylvania, drove to Crawford on the last week of the protest with the stone slab in the back of his pickup. He spent about 45 hours carving it.The marker was placed at the Crawford Peace House, which opened downtown a month after the war began in March 2003. An anti-war rally was planned for Saturday and an interfaith service Sunday.Several Bush supporters also gathered in Crawford on Friday with a sign reading: "The price of freedom is not free." Hundreds were expected to attend a pro-Bush rally Saturday."I disagree with her claims that the president is a murderer and a liar," said James Vergauwen of Windthorst, Texas. "When you're at war, you need to be at war as a whole country and not as a divided country."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader Friday as they began the process of deporting him for his ties to terrorist groups.Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.Damra, 44, was arrested early Friday without incident, the immigration office said."It is clear that this person, Mr. Damra, believed in terrorism, supported terrorism," said Brian Moskowitz, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office in Detroit. "This is not a man of peace or a man of God."Damra's conviction for naturalization fraud wasn't enough to warrant deportation because he has legally lived in the United States for five years. Immigration officials are seeking to remove him because he raised funds for terrorist organizations, Moskowitz said.A message seeking comment from Damra's attorney, Mark Flessner, was not immediately returned.Damra is being held in Detroit by federal authorities. A bond hearing was expected to take place next week before an immigration judge in Detroit.The Palestinian-born Damra, who is the imam, or spiritual leader, at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s.In Damra's trial last year, prosecutors showed video footage of Damra and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.Jurors also were shown footage in which Damra called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs" during a 1991 speech and said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation" in a 1989 speech.U.S. District Judge James Gwin sentenced the Palestinian-born cleric to two months in prison and four months in home detention. Damra served the prison time from November 2004 to January of this year.Gwin also stripped Damra's citizenship but informed prosecutors they could not begin deportation proceedings until after the appellate ruling.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The following is the fifth in a series of journal entries from a member of the CareerBuilder.com community about losing his job and searching for a new one. At his request, his name has been withheld so he can relay experiences with his former company and potential employers with impunity."Joe" (his nom de blog) is 45 years old and was let go from a management position at a major consumer products company. He relocated with his family to take the job a little more than a year ago. He has agreed to write an online diary about his experience.Not bad if I do say so myself. Just two weeks into my search, and I've already lined up my first interview. Not only that, they're flying me into Omaha, Nebraska, so that I can meet with the entire team.I've scoured the company's Web site and annual report and done further research. Next, I sit down and prepare responses to the old standards: Why do you want to work here? What do you bring to the table? What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?As I do this, my wife is looking for houses on Realtor.com. "Wow!" she enthuses. "If you get this job, we could live like kings."It's true. While in our Westchester County, New York, neighborhood, $1 million buys you little more than a starter home, in the greater Omaha area, you could buy a palatial estate for considerably less.My wife wants to role-play with me. (I decline.) Then she decides I need a makeover. "It's been 16 years since you've been on the market, Joe. You need to update your packaging.""I'm fine," I mutter."But, you're over 40, and it's a competitive market. Polishing your image could give you that edge you need," she says as she enters with an armload of skin- and hair-care products."Oh, no," I say. "I'm a man. You're not puttin' that stuff in my hair.""OK," she sighs, as she goes back to surfing the listings on Realtor.com. "But at least go out and get yourself a pair of pleatless pants."I roll my eyes and say, "It's Omaha, for chrissakes -- land of parkas and beef."She sticks out her tongue and prints out pages of her Nebraskan dream home.Fast-forward to interview day. I arrive in Omaha, where it's 30 degrees colder than when I left New York. I enter the corporate lobby, shivering in my parka, as smooth-skinned men in complicated hairstyles and leather jackets walk by.In fact, I see so much black leather, it's almost more New York than New York. Has the whole world gone metrosexual?The interviews go reasonably well, but I have to admit, I do feel a bit out of date and under-moisturized. Maybe I should have exfoliated after all.I call my wife on the way to the airport. She already has checked out neighborhood schools and downloaded information about the area's cultural institutions."I think it went well," I tell her, "but don't get too excited."Then I settle in with a magazine and come across an article called "The Feminization of Men." It's about how the definition of what it means to be a man is changing and why image and "soft skills" such as emotional intelligence, listening and consensus-building are now essential for a man to get ahead in the workplace.A few days later, I get the call: "They really liked you, but they decided to go with another candidate.""Any other feedback?" I ask."Well, they didn't think the job required someone with your extensive level of experience," the recruiter tells me.I'm deflated. Then I start to stew. Was that the real reason? Or do they just want some young narcissist who's all style and no substance?Hell, I've got a soft side: I cook, I've been to the Guggenheim, my wife and I even rented "Something's Gotta Give" and watched "Desperate Housewives" together last weekend.I grab a beer from the fridge, catch my reflection in the sliding glass doors and call out: "Honey, do these pleated pants make me look fat?"

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- The sweltering heat inside the Capital Female Penitentiary got hotter, as contestants in the Miss Penitentiary pageant were working overtime using hair dryers.Angelica Mazua, a statuesque Angolan facing international drug smuggling charges, was voted Miss Penitentiary 2005 on Thursday after a six-hour contest pitting 40 female inmates from 10 prisons against each other in Brazil's largest city."People told me, 'You're tall. You should enter the contest,' so that's why I entered," said Mazua, who has been jailed for four months and could be sentenced to about five years behind bars if she's convicted. "I've always been interested in fashion."Other women imprisoned on charges ranging from armed robbery to drug trafficking also took part in the contest that officials began last year as a way of boosting inmates' self esteem.Last year's winner, Fernanda Maria de Jesus, gained early release months after her victory, but prison officials insist the shortened sentence had nothing to do with her winning the title.Judges include celebrities, soccer players and journalists, and there are prizes in three other categories, including writing, public speaking and congeniality.Peru and Colombia also hold beauty contests in prisons. Sao Paulo's contest, which also offered a $160 prize to the winner, is one of the largest, drawing from its female population of almost 4,000 inmates.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ROME, Italy (AP) -- A Brazilian singer who promoted the use of condoms in an anti-AIDS campaign has been dropped from the lineup of next month's Christmas concert at the Vatican, organizers said Friday.Daniela Mercury was dropped after Vatican authorities read statements by her in the Brazilian press that went "against the moral doctrine of the church," said Eligio Ermeti, a spokesman for the agency organizing the event."Everything was settled, even the songs she was to sing," said Ermeti of the Prime Time Promotions agency. "Then we received a letter from the Jesuits asking us to remove her from the cast."This year's concert will raise money for the foreign missions of the Jesuit order.The Jesuit priest who was working with the agency, the Rev. Giuseppe Bellucci, confirmed that Mercury's participation had been canceled.The popular singer participated in a government campaign to fight AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases during this year's Carnival celebrations in Brazil. Mercury appeared in TV ads promoting the distribution of millions of free condoms and encouraging people to use them.Officials in Brazil rose to the singer's defense."The Vatican may not want Daniela Mercury in one of its shows, but we want her to continue her effort and her campaign to fight HIV transmission in our country," said Nilcea Freire, Brazil's minister of state for women's affairs."We lament that the Vatican and the pope will not have an opportunity to listen to her," said Pedro Chequer, who heads Brazil's anti-AIDS program. "It's the pope's loss."Bellucci said the appearance was canceled for fear that Mercury would publicly promote condom use while at the Vatican.Critics of the Vatican's stance against condoms have long claimed that the policy contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS.In 2003, U.S. singer Lauryn Hill used her performance at the annual concert to attack priests who abuse children, criticizing the church and its leaders in an unscheduled tirade read before top clergymen attending the event.This year's concert in a Vatican auditorium will take place December 3, taped for broadcast on Christmas Eve in Italy. It will include appearances by South African singer and human rights activist Miriam Makeba, Irish rock singer Dolores O'Riordan and Canada's Paul Anka.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A black bear bit and clawed a hunter who had just shot it four times in what game authorities said appeared to be a first for the state.Samuel H. Beauchamp, 47, said he was approaching the downed 320-pound bear in Rothrock State Forest in central Pennsylvania on Monday, the first day of bear-hunting season, when it came after him.Beauchamp, of nearby Newville, had just shot the bear with a .444-caliber rifle and was within 15 feet of it. He turned to run, but the bear put a claw around his hip and bit him twice, once in each thigh, before dying."The bear wasn't attacking 100 percent. I mean really, it was dead on its feet when it came up. If it would have been 100 percent I wouldn't have been standing there," Beauchamp said Friday.Other hunters heard a growl and came to Beauchamp's aid."It was shock at first. It's like he came alive, like 'boom.' I guess he growled, like the other people heard. That motivated me to turn around and start running away," he said.Game commission bear biologist Mark Ternent said the attack was the first case known to state officials in which a bear had attacked a hunter who had just shot it and was attempting to recover it.Beauchamp was released from the hospital after about two hours of treatment. One bite went down to the bone."I didn't feel any pain after it happened," he said Friday. "I'm a little sore now."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" earned him an Oscar nomination, has died. He was 73.Morita died Thursday at his home in Las Vegas of natural causes, said his wife of 12 years, Evelyn. She said in a statement that her husband, who first rose to fame with a role on "Happy Days," had "dedicated his entire life to acting and comedy."In 1984, he appeared in the role that would define his career and spawn countless affectionate imitations. As Kesuke Miyagi, the mentor to Ralph Macchio's "Daniel-san," he taught karate while trying to catch flies with chopsticks and offering such advice as "wax on, wax off" to guide Daniel through chores to improve his skills.Morita said in a 1986 interview with The Associated Press he was billed as Noriyuki "Pat" Morita in the film because producer Jerry Weintraub wanted him to sound more ethnic. He said he used the billing because it was "the only name my parents gave me."He lost the 1984 best supporting actor award to Haing S. Ngor, who appeared in "The Killing Fields." (Watch a profile of Morita -- 2:10)For years, Morita played small and sometimes demeaning roles in such films as "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and TV series such as "The Odd Couple" and "Green Acres." His first breakthrough came with "Happy Days," and he followed with his own brief series, "Mr. T and Tina.""The Karate Kid," led to three sequels, the last of which, 1994's "The Next Karate Kid," paired him with a young Hilary Swank.Morita was prolific outside of the "Karate Kid" series as well, appearing in "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Spy Hard," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "The Center of the World." He also provided the voice for a character in the Disney movie "Mulan" in 1998.Born in northern California on June 28, 1932, the son of migrant fruit pickers, Morita spent most of his early years in the hospital with spinal tuberculosis. He later recovered only to be sent to a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona during World War II."One day I was an invalid," he recalled in a 1989 AP interview. "The next day I was public enemy No. 1 being escorted to an internment camp by an FBI agent wearing a piece."After the war, Morita's family tried to repair their finances by operating a Sacramento restaurant. It was there that Morita first tried his comedy on patrons.Because prospects for a Japanese-American standup comic seemed poor, Morita found steady work in computers at Aerojet General. But at age 30 he entered show business full time."Only in America could you get away with the kind of comedy I did," he commented. "If I tried it in Japan before the war, it would have been considered blasphemy, and I would have ended in leg irons. "Morita was to be buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery.He is survived by his wife and three daughters from a previous marriage.

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- City streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles, authorities said.About 130 aluminum light poles have vanished this fall from locations across the city, despite the difficulty of carting off the 250-pound objects.The culprits have even dressed up as utility crews, city officials say, and placed orange traffic cones around the poles they are about to take down to avoid making motorists suspicious. Police have no suspects in the thefts, first reported in the Baltimore Sun.Police say the thieves could be stealing the poles, which cost the city $750 each, to sell as scrap metal. For at least a decade, authorities suspect drug addicts have ripped metal pipes, radiators and wires out of vacant houses to pay for their next fix.Scrap aluminum brings 30 to 35 cents a pound, according to local metal dealers.Local salvage yards haven't reported seeing any of the stolen poles, perhaps because of a city ordinance requiring scrap-metal dealers to record personal information of people bringing in metal goods.Some who work there, however, say they wouldn't be surprised if the poles were being sold somehow."They steal everything here in Baltimore," said Lynn Smith, manager at Modern Junk & Salvage Co. "Nothing's too kooky to me anymore."The problem is not new. In 1988, authorities in New York accused two men of prying off pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge and selling them to a scrap-metal dealer. Damage to the historic span was estimated at $37,000.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The pre-dawn sales frenzy is over -- and now the tally begins. Steep discounts and expanded hours drew hordes to the nation's malls in what merchants hope are signs consumer spending will be lively for the holidays. More people jammed the stores early, according to initial reports, and more than a few testy shoppers scuffled in a rush to grab bargains, from notebook computers to cashmere sweaters.Several major retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Macy's, as well as mall operator Taubman Centers Inc., estimated they drew bigger crowds on the official start of the holiday season than a year ago. Lena Michaud, spokeswoman at Target Corp., which had a strong holiday season a year ago, said traffic was at least as heavy. (Watch what's really the busiest shopping day of the year -- 1:38)Consumer electronics, including MP3 players, laptop computers, and even pricey flat-screen TVs, were the main attraction, but apparel also fared well, helped by the arrival of frigid weather in many parts of the country, according to Marshal Cohen, senior industry analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research firm. (Watch what will be the year's hot holiday gifts -- 1:31)No single standout was reported among toys, and popular items included Hasbro Inc.'s Idog, Fisher-Price's Dora the Explorer's Talking Kitchen, and Zizzle Inc.'s iZ, according to John Barbour, president of Toys "R" Us' U.S. division, who reported "brisk" business. (Watch the season's hot toys -- 3:38)Bargains and brawls"This is the most promotional Black Friday we have seen," said Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Retail Federation.The bargains were so good at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which offered better deals than last year, that things got out of hand. In Cascade Township, east of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a woman fell as dozens of people rushed into a store for the 5 a.m. opening. Several stepped on her, and a few became entangled as a man pushed them to the ground to keep them away.When the rush ended, the woman and a 13-year-old girl suffered minor injuries.In nearby Grandville, Michigan, two shoppers were hurt when they slipped on a wet floor as they entered a Wal-Mart, fire Lt. Lynnae White said. One of the injured was after a bargain notebook computer, he said. Neither was hurt seriously.The same computer discount was the catalyst for trouble at a Wal-Mart in Orlando, Florida, where a man allegedly cut in line to buy one. He was wrestled to the ground, according to a video shown by an ABC affiliate, WFTV-TV. (Watch shoppers scuffle in Florida -- :41)Discounted notebooks, particularly the $378 HP Pavilion notebooks, were not the only attractions at Wal-Mart, which also sold out of its $997 52-inch plasma TV sets and 15-inch LCD TVs, priced at $178, in many stores, according to Gail Lavielle, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. But apparel and toys also did well, she said."We were pleased. We thought people did come to us first," said Lavielle.Buying and Black FridayTerry Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive of Federated Department Stores Inc., which operates Macy's, estimated the Herald Square store attracted about 1,000 people for the 6 a.m. opening. "I have also seen a lot of bags," he said. Hot items included cashmere sweaters, down comforters and scarves, he said."Today, things look really good. But these next five weeks are really critical," Lundgren added. "You have to wait and see how it unfolds."At a Best Buy Co. store at CambridgeSide Galleria, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the line of about 400 shoppers snaked through the indoor mall for the 5 a.m. store opening."The prices are much better than last year," said Shirley Xie, 30, who was with Jen Lin, 35, both from Medford, Massachusetts. The married couple said they were enticed by deals such as a Toshiba Corp. laptop computer with 15-inch screen that was $379.99 after a $370 instant rebate. Xie said a comparable laptop she bought last year as a gift cost about $600.The couple also bought a SanDisk Corp. MP3 player for $39.99 after a $60 instant rebate available until noon.At a Wal-Mart store in Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland, the biggest crowds for the 5 a.m. opening were for portable DVD players, priced at $79.86; 20-inch TVs, priced at $89; and the Garth Brooks limited-edition, six-disc box set, priced at $25."It's a little rough but heh," said Lorenzo DeMassino, 31, who bought Game Boy items at the store.Meanwhile, about 100 people lined up for the 6. a.m. opening in freezing weather outside the Super Target in Apex, North Carolina, about 10 miles south of Raleigh.Meredith Carter, 29, from Apex, took the first spot in line when she arrived around 4:50 a.m., about 10 minutes after the veteran Black Friday shopper woke up.By 6:05 a.m., she was buying one of two items on her list: a Kodak Easy Share digital camera for $89.99, saving about 50 percent. She was then off to find a George Foreman grill, also at half-price."I plan to get what I want and go home," she said.Retailers' spirits have improved in recent weeks as gasoline prices have fallen. In fact, on Tuesday National Retail Federation upgraded its holiday growth forecast to 6 percent from the 5 percent it announced in September.Many shoppers are cautious, though. While gasoline prices have fallen, they are still high, and this winter shoppers will face higher heating bills.While the day after Thanksgiving officially starts the holiday shopping season, it is no longer the busiest shopping day. Last year, it was Saturday, December 18, a week before Christmas, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.Still, Black Friday sets an important tone for the rest of the season. What shoppers find in terms of deals and service "influences where they will shop for the rest of the season," said Federated's Lundgren.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(CNN) -- The bodies of a father and his 9-year-old daughter were pulled from an ice-covered pond in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, on Friday, hours after they fell through, authorities said.Authorities suspect the girl fell through to the icy water while skating and her 44-year-old father fell through the ice while trying to pull her out, Sheboygan County Sheriff Michael Helmke said. The girl's sister, 6, witnessed the incident and ran to a nearby house to get help."We were unable to make a rescue," Helmke said.Rescuers, dressed in red and yellow protective suits and tethered together, converged on the scene about 11 a.m. local and recovered the father's body from the pond about three hours later. It took another 45 minutes to find the girl. From two inflatable rafts, the rescue workers used poles in an attempt to detect anything below the water's surface.Video from the scene showed at least three fire trucks on the pond's edge with two ladders extended into the water. Ambulances waited nearby. The ice was about 3 inches thick -- thinner in some areas -- and the pond was between 8- and 10-feet deep, authorities said. Solid ice 2-inches thick can support one person on foot or skates, according to data available on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Web site.The accident was the second of the day in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Earlier Friday police rescued an 11-year-old boy from a pond in Waldo after he went through the ice on his all-terrain vehicle, according to the sheriff's office.Cedar Grove is a Lake Michigan town of approximately 2,000 people about 30 miles north of Milwaukee. The temperature in the region early Friday afternoon was about 22 degrees.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed Tuesday on a detailed arrangement for opening the borders of Gaza and to allow freer movement for Palestinians elsewhere.It took all-night negotiations and a strong diplomatic shove from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to get a deal whose basic elements had been in the works for weeks."I have to say as a football fan, sometimes the last yard is the hardest, and I think we experienced that today," Rice told a news conference where she announced the agreement. (Watch Rice discuss important deal in Israeli-Palestinian relations -- 2:20)She praised the deal at a news conference as a "big step forward" in Israeli-Palestinian relations, bruised by nearly five years of bloody fighting."This agreement is intended to give Palestinian people the freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives," Rice said.While important in and of itself, the broader significance of the deal to free up Palestinian movement while satisfying Israeli concerns about terrorism is that it makes a statement of progress that goes beyond the technical details.Rice oversaw the marathon negotiations in a Jerusalem hotel, huddling alternately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in her suite. She had postponed a planned departure for Asia by a day to shepherd the deal to a conclusion.On Tuesday morning, she met with Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to finalize the details.The agreement gives the Palestinians control over a border for the first time and provides a much-needed boost to the shattered Gaza economy. The deal also strengthens Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas ahead of January 25 parliament elections and could help him fend off a strong challenge by the Islamic militant group Hamas.Rice and international Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn badly wanted Israel and the Palestinian leadership to use Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza last summer as traction for tougher peace negotiations down the road.Cooperation flagged in recent weeks, and Rice's two days of meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank were meant to push the two sides to settle nitty-gritty disputes over Palestinian movement in and out of the territory they now control. "Underneath what may seem like very small details there are hard issues," Rice told reporter.She said she had about two hours of sleep.Wolfensohn said the deal cleared the way for the international community to assist the Palestinians and help revive Gaza's economy. Donor countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, but they money was held up by the lack of a border deal.Under the agreement, the Gaza-Egypt border would tentatively open November 25, under the supervision of European monitors. Israel had demanded veto powers, but in the ended conceded on the issue, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. Israel will receive live transmissions via closed circuit TV from the crossing there, and can raise objections concerning travelers, but the Palestinians have the final say.The European group will be headed by an Italian general, said Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shaath.Construction of a Gaza seaport is to begin soon, and Palestinians will be able to travel between the West Bank and Gaza in bus convoys, starting December 15.The deal came amid political upheaval in Israel that could topple Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's shaky coalition government. Sharon's junior partner, the Labor Party, chose a new leader last week who said he would pull the party out of the coalition.Sharon's Likud party is still deeply divided following the Gaza pullout. Several lawmakers in the traditionally hard-line party are still furious over what they regard as a tactical mistake and an emotional blow. Without Labor's support, it will be difficult for Sharon to maintain a parliamentary majority.The Knesset, Israel's parliament, is scheduled on Wednesday to vote on a bill to dissolve parliament and force new elections. That could force elections within three months. The scheduled vote is November 2006.The Palestinians have elections scheduled for January that the United States views as a test of the new leadership's democratic resolve.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.