Weekend News From All Over

Lego-Style Islamic Terrorist Figurine Sparks Outrage

A Lego-style Islamic terrorist figurine has sparked outrage among Muslims and others.

The controversial toy mini-figure, made by American Will Chapman as part of his BrickArms line, is a masked militant with an assault rifle, grenade launcher and belt of explosives. The character is called "Bandit - Mr. White" and sells for $14.

Shocked by the plaything, British Muslim organization the Ramadhan Foundation has branded the figurine "absolutely disgusting." Chief executive Mohammed Shafiq said the toy is "glorifying terrorism."

"I don't think there's any difference between someone that shouts hatred through a megaphone and someone that creates a doll that glorifies terrorists," he said. "As a parent myself, I'm going to teach my children respect for the law and respect for each and every community.

"These are the lessons parents should be giving to their children -- not lessons about weapons and violence."

Father-of-three Chapman, whose company is based outside of Seattle, boasts on his Web site that his 9-year-old son gave him the idea for the toy line, which includes 31 different Lego-style weapons and 10 miniature militant figurines. Other fighters in the line include World War II troops, U.S. marines and a Nazi SS officer.

Man Fights Knife-Wielding Neighbor With Candy Cane

A man using a candy cane lawn ornament fended off a knife-wielding neighbor who had been attacking holiday guests at a Sacramento home. Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said the man used the 2-foot-tall plastic ornament to subdue the attacker until officers arrived.

He said the 49-year-old suspect became intoxicated, went over to a neighbor's home on Thanksgiving and began waving a kitchen knife at people gathered on the lawn. He cut several peoples' clothing before one of them decided to fight back.

Police said the man with the knife was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The guest who took up the candy cane was not arrested because police determined he acted in self-defense.

Cops: Man Assaulted Girlfriend With Cheeseburger

A Florida man is facing a domestic violence charge after authorities say he assaulted his girlfriend with a cheeseburger. An Indian River County Sheriff's Office arrest report says 22-year-old Vincent Gonzalez of Vero Beach and his girlfriend got into an argument as they sat in a car in front of their home.

Gonzalez wouldn't let her get out of the vehicle, so the woman threw his drink out of the car, according to the report. In response, Gonzalez allegedly grabbed her arm and smashed the cheeseburger into her face.

The pair emerged from the car, and authorities say Gonzalez again took the McDonald's sandwich and pushed it against his girlfriend's face. Gonzalez was released on $1,000 bond Wednesday.

Salvation Army Leader to Lose Job Over Marriage

The leader of a Wisconsin Salvation Army will lose his job if he goes ahead with plans to marry outside the organization. Capt. Johnny Harsh of Oshkosh is engaged to a woman who's not affiliated with the Salvation Army. They're planning to marry in June.

Harsh says he's well aware of the agency's rule that says an officer may only marry another officer of the organization. But he doesn't think it's fair. Salvation Army Advisory Board member Helen Lord Burr says the agency's rules are the same all over the world. Harsh became engaged after losing his wife, Capt. Yalanda Harsh, to complications of a heart attack last June.

Husband and Wife Stole Guns, Jewelry From 60 Homes

A husband-and-wife team of burglars broke into about 60 homes around rural eastern Missouri, stealing guns, jewelry and other valuables and selling them to a jewelry store owner who then sold the stolen goods over the Internet, authorities said Thursday.

All three - Kibb Patrick Howard, 27, Carla Kay Howard, 26, and Michael Carl Sifrit, 42, face multiple state charges, and authorities are seeking federal indictments, Lincoln County Lt. Andy Binder said at a news conference. All three are jailed in Warren County, where the first set of charges were filed.

Police said they found about 100 stolen weapons and other stolen property at Sifrit's home in Fenton. Three guns and stolen jewelry allegedly were found at his S&S Jewelers in Warrenton, which police described as a front for the illegal sale of stolen guns and other stolen property.

Lincoln County detective Shannon Bowen said investigators were looking into reports that Sifrit sold some of the items on eBay. At the news conference, about four dozen confiscated rifles and shotguns were laid out on tables, along with bows and arrows, power tools, big-screen TVs, knives, VCRs, even an electric guitar.

"It was through good old-fashioned police work that we were able to locate these suspects," Binder said.

The Howards broke into homes in five counties -- Lincoln, Warren, Audrain, Montgomery and Pike, authorities said. All of the burglaries happened in the daylight over the past 45 days. The investigation began when witnesses started reporting seeing a man and a woman in a maroon Jeep Cherokee in the areas of the burglaries. Witnesses also reported seeing a tattoo on the woman's neck.

Binder said Carla Howard would knock on the front door. If someone was home, she'd make up a reason for being there, sometimes saying she was there to "pick up the puppies." If the home was unoccupied, Binder said, Kibb Howard would break in and take items like guns, jewelry and televisions.

Binder said the Howards have a residence in Laddonia but were found at a friend's home in Truesdale, where they were arrested on Tuesday. He said both confessed to the crimes to get money to feed their addiction to heroin. They allegedly told police they stole about 150 weapons.

Binder said Sifrit bought the goods knowing they were stolen. His home and jewelry store were raided on Wednesday. Authorities believe Sifrit has received and sold as many as 500 firearms and tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen jewelry. Other suspects also may have sold stolen property to Sifrit, authorities said. The investigation continues.

Proposed Fee on Smelly Cows, Hogs Angers Farmers

For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.

Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.

"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."

Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.

"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said.

EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions. Butterfield said the EPA has not taken a position on any of the proposals. But farmers from across the country have expressed outrage over the idea, both on Internet sites and in opinions sent to EPA during a public comment period that ended last week.

"It's something that really has a very big potential adverse impact for the livestock industry," said Rick Krause, the senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.

"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville in northwest Alabama, said he has spoken with EPA officials and doesn't believe the cow tax is a serious proposal that will ever be adopted by the agency.

"Who comes up with this kind of stuff?" said Perry Mobley, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation's beef division. "It seems there is an ulterior motive, to destroy livestock farms. This would certainly put them out of business."

Butterfield said the EPA is reviewing the public comments and didn't have a timetable for the next steps. No word yet on if the EPA will take up the matter regarding stinky people.

Red Russian Combat Stars to Go Red, White and Blue

After more than 90 years, the Russian stars will no longer be all red. They'll be red, white and blue. The Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament voted 389-2 Friday to replace Soviet-era red stars on military aircraft with ones bearing the three colors of the Russian national flag. The five-pointed red stars have adorned the planes since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

The State Duma made the move even though the red star was officially restored as a military symbol and brought back to the military's parade banners in 2002. The stars had remained on the planes all along, however.

But not all things Soviet have been abandoned. During Vladimir Putin's presidency, Russia also restored the old Soviet national anthem - albeit with new lyrics.

Woman Sues Sports Bar After Getting Stuck in Toilet

A woman is suing a Pennsylvania sports bar and restaurant, saying she got stuck inside a toilet bowl for 20 minutes after the seat broke. Kathleen Hewko of Delran Township, N.J., says she was in the bathroom at Starters Pub near Allentown when the handicapped toilet seat she was sitting on cracked and dumped her into the bowl.

Hewko says in her lawsuit filed in federal court in November that she had hip surgery prior to the Nov. 19, 2006, incident and was re-injured when the seat broke. The lawsuit names Starters and Kohler Co., the company that made the toilet seat.

Representatives from both companies were indisposed.

Cops Chase Loose Pigs After Minnesota Highway Crash

Officers are chasing loose pigs that escaped from an overturned semi on an Interstate 94 ramp in Maple Grove. The crash happened after 3 a.m. Thursday. The truck was carrying about 100 hogs, and about 10 were loose. Police and state troopers are trying to corral the pigs and keep them off the freeway.

The right lane of eastbound I-94 is closed in the area and traffic is slow in the left lane. The State Patrol says the semi driver suffered minor injuries.

Mom to Sue High School for Strip Searching Son

The mother of a 15-year-old student at an alternative high school in Connecticut says she's suing because her son was strip searched. Heidi Burwell, the mother of a Pine Academy student, says her son was allegedly forced to remove his clothing after being accused of stealing money from a teacher this week.

The mother's lawyer says the teenager did not steal the money. Attorney Robert Berke says the school's principal ordered a strip search that was conducted in a restroom by two male teachers. The missing money was not found.

Ansonia police are investigating the incident. Superintendent of Schools Carol Merlone said the allegation also is being investigated by district officials. The school principal and the two male teachers did not return messages.

Lisa

WSB, KNBR, WGST, Associated Press, Washington Post

NewsWatch

Alston & Bird Lobbyist Daschle to become Health and Human Services Secretary

Another notable name is joining Barack Obama's Cabinet - former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will be Health and Human Services secretary pending Senate confirmation, FOX News reported today.

Daschle accepted the offer, according to two Democratic sources close to Daschle and with intimate knowledge of the decision. Daschle had been a longtime adviser on Obama's campaign and served as a frequent surrogate on the campaign trail and in media interviews.

The appointment has not been announced, but these officials said the job is Daschle's, barring an unforeseen problem as Obama's team reviews the background of the South Dakota Democrat.

As Health and Human Services chief, Daschle will be responsible for helping set health care policy. He supports a government-funded insurance program for the nation's uninsured.

Daschle has also been the head of the health care working group in the Obama transition team. Democratic officials shied away from a term some are throwing around - "health care czar" - but say Daschle "is likely to play a leading role in the passage of health care reform and the strategy to implement it."

The former South Dakota senator led the Senate Democrats from 1994 until he lost his re-election bid in 2004. He was minority leader for most of that time, serving as majority leader from May 2001 until January 2003, when Democrats returned to the minority after losing seats in the November 2002 midterm elections.

Organizations seeking to expand socialized health coverage were quick to praise the selection.

After losing re-election to the Senate in 2004, Daschle became a public policy adviser and member of the legislative and public policy group at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird. Daschle advises clients on issues including health care, financial services and taxes and trade, according to the firm's Web site.

Indian Navy Destroys Pirate 'Mother Ship' in Battle, While Bureaucratic U.S. Decides What To Do

An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.

Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

"It's getting out of control," Choong said.

A multicoalition naval force has increased patrols in the region, and scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel mentioned in numerous piracy bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked it to stop to be searched.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers," said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts -- possibly due to exploding ammunition -- and destroying the ship.

They chased one of two speedboats that had been shadowing the larger ship, and which fled when it sank. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement. Larger "mother ships" are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels.

Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding and hijacking the Indian merchant vessel. Tuesday incidents raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."

The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships further at sea, according to Choong. He said 17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

Despite the stepped-up patrols, the attacks have continued unabated off Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991. Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.

NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region. But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.

"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets -- either ships or airplanes - to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.

The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa. The Thai boat, which was flying a flag from the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati but operated out of Thailand, made a distress call as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats but the phone connection was cut off midway.

Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co., Ltd. told The Associated Press that the ship, the "Ekawat Nava 5," was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.

Of the 16 crew members, Wicharn said 15 are Thai and one is Cambodian. The Iranian carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday.

Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, has condemned the hijacking and said it will join the international fight against piracy. Despite the fact that its government barely works, Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary. The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members.

Arraignment Set for Cheney, Gonzales in Prisoner Abuse Case

A Texas judge has set an arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials accused of involvement in prisoner abuse. Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said Wednesday he will allow them to waive arraignment or have attorneys present rather than appear in person Friday.

Banales also said he would issue summonses, not warrants. That allows them to avoid arrest and the need to post bond. Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra accuses Cheney, Gonzales, a state senator and others of involvement in prisoner abuse at a federal detention center in south Texas. Defense attorney Tony Canales accuses Guerra of "prosecutorial vindictiveness" and not following procedure.

Al Qaeda No. 2 Insults Obama With Racial Epithet

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites.

The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

In Al Qaeda's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahiri also called the president-elect - along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice- "house Negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahiri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But Al Qaeda supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house Negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the latest message was just "more despicable comments from a terrorist."

The 11-minute 23-second video features the audio message by al-Zawahiri, who appears only in a still image, along with other images, including one of Obama wearing a Jewish skullcap as he meets with Jewish leaders. In his speech, al-Zawahiri refers to a Nov. 5 U.S. airstrike attack in Afghanistan, meaning the video was made after that date.

Al-Zawahiri did not threaten specific attacks, but warned Obama that he was "facing a Jihadi (holy war) awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see." He said Obama's victory showed Americans acknowledged that President George W. Bush's policies were a failure and that the result was an "admission of defeat in Iraq."

But Obama's professions of support for Israel during the election campaign "confirmed to the Ummah (Islamic world) that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims," al-Zawahiri said.

War Song Was Right: Hitler Had Only One Testicle

An extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one testicle. War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down. The priest's document has now come to light - 23 years after Jambor's death. The war tyrant's medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.

The lyrics are:

"Hitler has only got one ball, Göring has two but very small, Himmler is somewhat sim'lar, But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.

Hitler has only got one ball, The other is on the kitchen wall, His mother, the dirty b----r, Chopped it off when he was small."

Until now there has never been complete proof Hitler was monorchic -- the medical term for having one testicle. But the document tells how Jambor saw the proof with his own eyes. In the account, he relives the horror of serving as an army medic in World War I.

He died aged 94 in 1985, but had told his secret to priest Franciszek Pawlar, who kept a note of their conversation. Johan's friend Blassius Hanczuch confirmed the priest's account of how the medic saved Hitler's life. He said: In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme. For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler. They called him the 'Screamer.' He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming 'help, help.'

His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Will I be able to have children?'"

Hitler's genitals have long caused controversy. Some historians dismissed the one ball song as propaganda. But an alleged Soviet autopsy on Hitler backed it up. Records show Hitler did suffer a groin injury in the Somme.

Undercover Cops Taser Pallbearer at Funeral

A North Carolina sheriff's official is apologizing for disturbing a funeral where undercover agents tried to serve an arrest warrant on the dead man's son -- and used a Taser to do so.

The Star-News of Wilmington reports that the incident happened Saturday afternoon as the coffin was being loaded into a hearse. The officers planned to quietly arrest Gladwyn Taft Russ III, but it turned into a scuffle.

The 42-year-old Russ was charged with communicating threats against his ex-wife who lives in another state. Officials said he failed to turn himself in as promised.

New Hanover County sheriff's chief deputy Ed McMahon said the officers' move backfired in the emotional environment. McMahon said the officers should have waited until after the cemetery service.

Cat Owner Threatens Animal Shelter Workers With Bat

Police are looking for an irate pet lover so intent on liberating his lost cat that he wielded a bat to fend off animal shelter employees.

Dallas Animal Shelter manager Kent Robertson says the man found his missing gray and blue short-haired cat at the shelter, where it had been brought by someone who thought it was a stray. He blew his stack when told he had to pay a $132 fee to take his cat.

Police say the man returned Monday, loaded his cat into a carrier without paying the fee, and threatened the staff with the baseball bat. No one was injured.

Most people thank shelter workers. Says Robertson: "This was pretty extreme."

The man could be charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated assault. Police Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse says police have a clue - the man signed the shelter guest book before fleeing.

Texas Teacher Arrested for Giving Topless Photo to Boy, 14

A 27-year-old woman has been arrested on charges of distributing harmful material to a minor after a 14-year-old's parents found a topless photo of her on his cell phone.

Victoria Ann Chacon, a former middle school teacher, allegedly met the boy at their church, where she was a Sunday school teacher. Authorities at Somerset Independent School District said they found no evidence of any inappropriate relationships with students; the 14-year-old attended school elsewhere.

The boy's parents called police in March after finding racy letters in which Chacon professed her love. The boy initially refused to give a statement about the relationship, the arrest warrant says. Several months later, the parents found a cell phone with a topless photo of Chacon. The phone was owned by Chacon and the two had been calling on another, according to court documents.

The woman was arrested Tuesday. Jail records had no attorney listed for her.

Lisa

NATO, FOX News, Associated Press, Alston & Bird, Reuter's

NewsWatch

Somali Official Vows to Rescue Supertanker 'By Force'

The pirates who seized a Saudi oil supertanker in a brazen hijacking dropped anchor near a Somalia fishing village as a Somali official vowed to rescue the vessel and "use force if necessary."

The ship anchored near the impoverished village of Harardhere, a pirate stronghold some 265 miles by land from Eyl, where the U.S. Navy believes the ship is heading.

Abdullkadir Musa, the deputy sea port minister in northern Somalia's Puntland region, said that his forces would rescue the ship if it anchored anywhere near Eyl. Musa's comments came as the Somali pirates who hijacked the tanker over the weekend have begun to negotiate with the vessel's owners and have taken the ship toward Eyl, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

The Saudi-owned Sirius Star, which was carrying two million barrels of oil valued at $100 million was captured with its multi-national crew, including two Britons, 450 miles off the coast of Kenya on Sunday. The owners of the ship, which was hijacked over the weekend and is believed to contain about $100 million in oil, grappled with how to respond Tuesday, as naval forces patrolling the region said they would not intervene to stop or free the captured vessel.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called the hijacking "an outrageous act" and said "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together."

Speaking during a visit to Athens on Tuesday, he said Saudi Arabia would join an international initiative against piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have taken place this year. He did not elaborate on what steps the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers. Saudi Arabia's French-equipped navy has 18,000-20,000 personnel, but has never taken part in any high-seas fighting.

"All 25 crew members are reported to be safe and the vessel is fully laden," said a spokesman, adding that a response team was established to ensure the safe release of the ship and its crew.

It remains under the control of pirates, a spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet said. However crew members are "remaining safe", according to the ship's operating company Vela International.

The 318,000 ton tanker, three times the size of an aircraft carrier, is not only the largest ship yet to be hijacked by increasingly audacious pirates, but the furthest out to sea than any previous attacks.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the U.S.' top military officer in the region said he was "stunned" by the reach of the Somali pirates.

"I'm stunned by the range of it, less so than I am the size," said Mullen. The pirates are "very good at what they do. They're very well armed. Tactically, they are very good," he said.

Its capture raises fears that international patrols nearer the coast and in the Gulf of Aden will not be enough to protect vital trade routes as pirate gangs become ever more audacious. Sirius Star, which is owned by Saudi giant oil company Aramco, carried 25 crew members from Croatia, Britain, Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, according to a U.S. Navy statement.

The South Korea-built ship, launched earlier this year, is registered in Liberia. NATO said Tuesday it had no immediate plans to intercept the hijacked Saudi supertanker.

Two vessels - the Greek frigate HS Themistokles and the Italian destroyer ITS Durand - are escorting cargo ships chartered by the World Food Program to carry food aid from Mombasa to Mogadishu. The British frigate HMS Cumberland is conducting deterrence patrols in the Gulf of Aden, where it was engaged in a firefight last week with pirates attempting to hijack a Danish ship.

The vessels have been dispatched to the region under a U.N. mandate to escort vessels chartered by the World Food Program to Somali ports, and to conduct patrols designed to deter pirates from attacking merchant ships transiting through the Gulf of Aden.

"NATO's mandate is not related to interception of hijacked ships outside the patrol area," Appathurai said. "I'm not aware that there's any intention by NATO to try and intercept this ship."

Aruba Police: New Evidence in Natalee Holloway Case

A new witness in case of the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway has brought a Dutch college student back into the spotlight as a prime suspect, but prosecutors in Aruba say they haven't yet gathered enough evidence to crack the case.

The Prosecutors' Office says the new witness claims the only suspect in the case confessed to her that he was involved in dumping Holloway's body at sea. But prosecutor Hans Mos said Tuesday that more evidence is needed to build a case against Dutch college student Joran van der Sloot.

Mos further said that wire reports about the new evidence were "much ado about nothing," since the new witness couldn't provide definitive evidence. And Mos noted that Van der Sloot already has given many different stories about what happened.

Investigators reopened the case earlier this year based on similar admissions caught in hidden-camera recordings by a Dutch TV crime show. But in February, judges rejected an attempt to arrest Van der Sloot for a third time in Holloway's disappearance. He had been released due to insufficient evidence the first two times he was arrested.

Aruban prosecutors had sought to detain him based on hidden-camera recordings in which Van der Sloot said Holloway collapsed on the beach after they left the bar. He then called a friend to dump her body at sea, according to the video shot by reporter Peter De Vries.

Van der Sloot's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said in February that his client was not responsible for the Holloway's death and that the tapes did not amount to a confession.

"There was no confession, no admission of a crime by Joran on any of these tapes, which is very telling," Tacopina said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was last seen in May 2005 leaving a bar with Van der Sloot on the final night of a high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island. She attended junior high in Clinton, Miss., and her father still lives in Meridian.

Missing Wis. Mom Found Dead, Ex-Husband Arrested

Murder charges are expected this week in the death of a Hatfield woman who had been missing since Nov. 7. Authorities in Jackson County say 27-year-old Alisha Sidie's body was found late Saturday and her former husband has been arrested in her death.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department said Sidie's body was recovered in a wooded area in the town of Komensky. Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera said Sunday that someone stepped forward with information that led investigators to interview Sidie's ex-husband again.

Waldera says Sidie's ex-husband is cooperating with authorities and that he showed investigators the general area where her body would be found. Investigators told station WEAU in Eau Claire that the couple's 2-year-old twin boys were in state custody.

Cops: Girl in 'Cinderella' Situation Raped, Beaten by Aunt

A Worcester, Mass., woman has been charged with raping and beating her teenage niece in a shocking abuse case that police are calling a "Cinderella-type situation."

The victim, who is now 16, was allegedly beaten with thorny rose stems, assaulted with frozen hot dogs, slammed to the floor and kicked and punched in the eye numerous times starting in 2005 while living at her aunt's home, The Boston Herald reported, citing court documents.

The aunt, 35-year-old Mara Escobar was ordered held on $25,000 bail after pleading not guilty at her arraignment Monday to multiple charges, including assault and battery on a child, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and rape of a child with force, The Herald reported.

Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said the 16-year-old girl was forced to do housework and live in a sparsely furnished room while Escobar's two daughters had TVs, DVD players, video games and toys in their rooms.

MICHELLE

FOX News, London Times, AP, WEAU, The Boston Herald.

NewsWatch: Monday AM Briefs

As Californians Cope With Wildfires, One Fire Called 'Human Caused'

Wildfires took a tough toll on Southern California over the weekend: Hundreds of homes destroyed, thousands of people displaced, smoked-filled skies that forced people to wear masks, freeways closed and rotating blackouts. And the fires still burn.

Could America Follow Japan Into Recession?

Japan announced Sunday that its economy contracted in the third quarter, the second consecutive quarter of decline, officially putting the world's No. 2 economy in a recession. Japan's gross domestic product fell at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the July-September period, following a 3.0 percent decline in the April-June period.

Data being released today show Japanese companies sharply cut back on spending amid the global slowdown.The fall of Japan's economy raises some sobering questions about the health of the U.S. and the global economy.

Japan joins Italy, Germany and rest of the 15 countries that use the euro are officially in a recession, the European Union said Friday, as their economies shrank for a second straight quarter because of the world financial crisis and sinking demand. EU statistics published Friday show the euro zone shrank by 0.2 percent in both the third and second quarters compared to the quarter before. Two successive quarters of negative growth is the usual definition of a recession.

Wall Street also ended a turbulent week with another astonishing show of volatility, plunging, recovering and then plunging again as investors absorbed another wave of downbeat economic news.

Hedge fund selling in advance of a Saturday deadline contributed to the market's gyrations, which left the Dow Jones industrials down about 338 points, or 3.82 percent, at the 8,497 level. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell more than 4 percent. In remarks prepared for a central banking conference in Frankfurt, Germany, Bernanke said "continuing volatility of markets and recent indicators of economic performance confirm that challenges remain."

Bernanke on Friday also pledged to work closely with other central banks to fix global financial problems and is leaving open the door to a fresh interest rate cut to help brace the sinking U.S. economy.

Top Economists Think Recession Has Begun

A survey of the nation's top business economists finds a worsening outlook through next year. Downgrading the forecast amid the growing financial crisis, the National Association for Business Economics survey looks for gross domestic product to fall 2.6 percent in the final quarter of this year. The group's panel of 50 economists sees growth of just 0.7 percent in 2009.

Some 96 percent of the panelists believe that a recession has begun. The economists expect the jobless rate to rise to 7.5 percent by the end of next year. They look for home sales and housing starts to hit bottom by the middle part of next year.

Election Spurs 'Hundreds' Of Race Threats, Crimes

Racial incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the post-election glow of racial progress and harmony.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and even second-graders.

There have been cross burnings. Schoolchildren have chanted "Assassinate Obama." Black figures have been hung from nooses. Racial epithets were scrawled on homes and cars.

The Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes, said there have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual.

Layaway Program Returns To Sears Stores

Sears looked to the past Sunday, bringing back its layaway program after it was scrapped nearly two decades ago. The retail store said it decided to bring back its layaway program after noticing a strong response from shoppers to the pay-as-you-go plan at its Kmart stores.

"We saw the very positive response to our sister retailer's Kmart layaway program," Sears said in a statement. "In this difficult economic climate, extending the layaway program at Sears is an easy decision."

Most layaway programs allow shoppers to put some money down for merchandise, and then instead of using a credit card, the store holds the purchase and allows the customer to pay in increments over time. Once the item is paid off, the customer can pick up his or her merchandise at the store.

Kmart continued its layaway program for decades after most retail stores axed similar programs, but Kmart just started promoting the option for the first time in years in late October. Some shoppers said they think bringing back the layaway program is a good idea in the currently tough economic environment.

"I think it's a great idea for people to be able to make small payments to get their Christmas present," said shopper Margaret Hamlin in Atlanta. Other stores have also started to advertise layaway, including Marshalls and the Burlington Coat Factory.

Shuttle Endeavour Crew Welcomed Aboard Space Station

The crew of the international space station has welcomed aboard the crew of the shuttle Endeavour. The shuttle docked Sunday, kicking off what promises to be an "extreme makeover" for the space station to make it more livable, with accommodations for six full-time residents, not just three as now.

Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff was especially excited to see Endeavour arrive. He's been living on the space station for almost six months, and the shuttle is his ride home. He warmly greeted Sandra Magnus, who's taking his place. As the shuttle hooked up Sunday afternoon, engineers on the ground were still looking at images from Friday night's launch. They want to make sure there's no damage to Endeavour from debris at liftoff.

At least two pieces of debris were spotted, but Mission Control said so far, there's no sign of damage. Analysts will keep looking at images from near the tail of the shuttle before reaching any conclusions. It's part of the routine inspection that's been done since the Columbia disaster in 2003. Endeavour is bringing equipment that will expand the outpost into a two-kitchen, two-bath, five-bedroom home.

Catholic Church Cuts Off ACORN Funding

The Roman Catholic Church is cutting off funds to the community organizing group ACORN, citing complaints over its voter registration drives in the November 4 election as part of the reason. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development froze its contributions to the group in June amid allegations that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled nearly $1 million.

This week, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Baltimore, Maryland, the campaign's chairman said it was cutting all ties with the group.

"We simply had too many questions and concerns to permit further CCHD funding of ACORN groups," Roger Morin, the auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, Louisiana, told his colleagues in a letter to the conference.

The CCHD has donated more than $7.3 million to ACORN-related projects over the past decade, including $40,000 to an ACORN chapter in Las Vegas, Nevada, that was raided before the election in an investigation into fraudulent voter registration forms. Among other questionable documents, the ACORN chapter submitted registration forms for members of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

ACORN contends it has tried to help head off election fraud.

"In nearly every case that has been reported, it was ACORN that discovered the bad forms and called them to the attention of election authorities, putting the forms in a package that identified them in writing as suspicious, encouraging election officials to investigate, and offering to help with prosecutions," ACORN said in an October 9 news release.

Morin said a church review completed in November found ACORN no longer met standards of further funding. The reported embezzlement dates back several years, but was only recently disclosed to ACORN board members and donors. Morin said the registration fraud complaints "raise additional serious concerns."

Lisa

KLAX, KBNR, FOX News, Associated Press, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, WSB Radio

News In Brief

University of Illinois' Chief Illiniwek to Dance Again

Students at the University of Illinois plan to revive controversial retired mascot Chief Illiniwek Saturday after the school's football team plays Ohio State.

A group called Students for Chief Illiniwek has rented an on-campus hall for a performance for students and the public in an event not sponsored by the university, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Last year, the university retired performances of the chief, leading the NCAA to lift sanctions that had barred Illinois from hosting postseason sports since 2005.

The NCAA had deemed Illiniwek - portrayed since 1926 by buckskin-clad students who danced at home football and basketball games and other athletic events - an offensive use of American Indian imagery.

The student group had to create a replica of Illiniwek's costume because the university locked up the original, the Tribune said. Last year, a group of former chiefs held tryouts for a new Illiniwek, choosing then-junior Logan Ponce.

"Chief Illiniwek is a big priority," Roberto Martell, a 20-year-old junior and president of Students for Chief Illiniwek, told the Tribune. "It inspired me to be a complete man."

Victims of Post-Sept. 11 Plane Crash Remembered

Victims of the deadly Flight 587 crash about two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are being remembered at a New York City ceremony on the seventh anniversary of the tragedy.

The American Airlines flight crashed in a quiet Queens neighborhood on Nov. 12, 2001, after taking off from Kennedy International Airport bound for the Dominican Republic. The crash killed all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the tail of the Airbus A300 had fallen off, and blamed pilot error, inadequate pilot training and overly sensitive rudder controls. The disaster jarred a city still fearful after the terrorist attacks two months earlier. The loss was also felt heavily in the Dominican Republic.

Report: Federal Credit Crisis at $5 Trillion and Climbing

The latest proposal by Democratic lawmakers to aid ailing automakers includes $25 billion in emergency loans, but that practically amounts to spare change compared to the federal government's total tab for the continuing credit crisis, Forbes reports. The magazine, citing the research firm CreditSights, said the federal liability so far is at $5 trillion - and it's still rising.

The total is the cumulative price tag of the various government bailouts, loans and assistance packages intended to shore up the financial industry and revive the flagging economy. It includes efforts spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair.

The report lays most of the cost at the feet of the Federal Reserve for lending $1 trillion in short-term loans to primary lenders since March and issuing an additional $1.8 trillion in short-term loans since January through another initiative. Some of the money already has been paid back, Forbes reports.

The emerging crisis prompted the federal government this fall to secure bailout packages for several major financial companies - including Bear Stearns and AIG - to prevent them from failing.

Congress, meanwhile, approved a $700 billion bailout package aimed at providing relief to financial institutions, though Paulson said Wednesday that the administration had decided against using the money to purchase distressed mortgage assess from Wall Street firms. Instead, the government intends to provide money directly to struggling financial firms.

Click here for more on the story from Forbes.

Elderly Woman Attacked by Gay Marriage Protesters

An elderly woman bearing a cross who attended a gay marriage protest to voice her support of the California ban was attacked by demonstrators and may now press charges.

Carrying a large, Styrofoam cross, 69-year-old Phyllis Burgess showed up at a rally last Friday against Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage that was passed on Election Day in California. She was there to show her belief in traditional marriage, she said.

Within minutes, however, angry protesters swarmed around the Palm Springs resident, yanked the cross from her hands and trampled on it. The incident was videotaped and posted on YouTube.

Now, Burgess says she might press assault charges, according to The Desert Sun.

"I guess I didn't see the gravity of the whole thing and how it was being portrayed to the public," Burgess told the paper. "People are incensed. They seem to want some kind of justice."

Palm Springs police have made no arrests yet, but said they spent time Sunday trying to convince Burgess to file charges against some of the demonstrators.

Walter

Chicago Tribune, FOX News New York, Forbes, CreditSights, Desert Sun

NewsWatch

Bus Driver Fired After Kicking Girl, 9, Off Bus

A school bus driver has been fired and may face charges after a 9-year-old girl was dropped off on a busy highway after switching seats without permission. Cyrena Medbury was ordered off the bus on Route 9 more than a mile from her home in Shrewsbury, Mass.

"I switched seats," Cyrena Medbury said this week.

Donald Davison Jr. of Grafton was fired by the school bus company AA Transportation Inc. after the incident came to light.

"I would like to see child endangerment charges on him," Melissa Doyle, Cyrena's mother told reporters.

Another parent from the school picked the girl up and drove her home after being phoned by his daughter from the bus.

"She actually didn't walk all of the way home," Doyle told FOX News. "She started to walk and was picked up by a little girl that was on the bus and saw the incident, and she told her dad and she convinced her dad to go and get [Cyrena] and bring her home. So thank goodness there was a nice person out there that got her home safely."

Sgt. Alfred Pratt of the Shrewsbury Police Department told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that he couldn't say anything more than it was "an active investigation." Davison was replaced by a temporary driver the final two days of the week and the bus company provided a monitor.

Holocaust Survivors to Mormons: Stop Baptisms of Dead Jews

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database to make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.

But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must "implement a mechanism to undo what you have done."

"Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable," said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

"We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion," Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. "We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough."

Michel said talks with Mormon leaders, held as recently as last week, are over. He said his group will not sue, and that "the only thing left, therefore, is to turn to the court of public opinion." In 1995, the church agreed not to perform baptisms or other rites for Holocaust victims, except in the very rare instances when they have living descendants who are Mormon. Church spokesman Mike Otterson said Michel's decision to publicly denounce the church seems like a unilateral termination of the discussion.

"Those steps by Mr. Michel on behalf of the American Gathering were both unnecessary and unfortunate and belie the long and valued mutual respect that we have had in past years," Otterson said in an e-mail.

Posthumous baptism by proxy allows faithful Mormons to have their ancestors baptized into the 178-year-old church, which they believe reunites families in the afterlife. Using genealogy records, the church also baptizes people who have died from all over the world and from different religions. Mormons stand in as proxies for the person being baptized and immerse themselves in a baptismal pool.

Only the Jews have an agreement with the church limiting who can be baptized, though the agreement covers only Holocaust victims, not all Jewish people. Jews are particularly offended by baptisms of Holocaust victims because they were murdered specifically because of their religion.

Michel suggested that posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims play into the hands of Holocaust deniers.

"They tell me, that my parents' Jewishness has not been altered but ... 100 years from now, how will they be able to guarantee that my mother and father of blessed memory who lived as Jews and were slaughtered by Hitler for no other reason than they were Jews, will someday not be identified as Mormon victims of the Holocaust?" Michel said Monday.

Under the agreement with the Holocaust group, Mormons could enter the names of only those Holocaust victims to whom they were directly related. The church also agreed to remove the names of Holocaust victims already entered into its massive genealogical database.

Otterson said the church has kept its part of the agreement by removing more than 200,000 names from the genealogical index. But since 2005, ongoing monitoring of the database by an independent Salt Lake City-based researcher shows both resubmissions and new entries of names of Dutch, Greek, Polish and Italian Jews.

The researcher Helen Radkey, who has done contract work for the Holocaust group, said her research suggests that lists of Holocaust victims obtained from camp and government records are being dumped into the database. She said she has seen and recorded a sampling of several thousand entries that indicate Mormon religious rites, including baptisms, had been conducted for these Holocaust victims, some as recently as July.

"I've seen a steady procession of Jewish Holocaust names, especially names with camps linked to them, going to the International Genealogical Index," said Radkey, who acknowledges that she has limited access to the records. "There's no possible way of knowing exactly how many names, but it's substantial."

Church officials say a new version of the database -- called New Family Search -- will fix the problems. In the works for six years, the new database will discourage the submission of large lists of unrelated individuals. It will also separate names intended for temple rites from those submitted purely for genealogical purposes, the church states in a letter sent to Michel on Nov. 6.

"The names of any Holocaust victims we can identify in the database are to be flagged with a special designation -- not available for temple ordinances," the letter states.

The church also proposes jump-starting a monitoring committee formed in 2005 to review database entries. The committee has met just once since 2005.

In May, the Vatican ordered Catholic dioceses worldwide to withhold member registries from Mormons so that Catholics could not be baptized.

'Super Citrus' May Ease Allergies, Colds

A powerful fruit from Placer County can pack a powerful punch in fighting allergies and cold symptoms, according to a study done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA tested mandarins from 10 different micro climates in Placer County and found that they contain six to seven times the amount of synephrine, a naturally occurring decongestant, than other citrus fruits.

"If you stick your nose in them and smell them ... I mean, they are amazing," said agriculture advocate Joanne Neft, who has a self-described love affair with the small orange fruit.

Neft loves Placer County mandarins so much that she raised $16,000 for the USDA to study the fruit.

"I always believed mandarins were pretty special, because every time mandarin season came around I felt a lot better," Neft said.

The Placer County mandarins are sold nationally, and are currently selling so fast that some growers can't harvest them fast enough.

"We ship these (mandarins) all over the nation," said mandarin grower Tony Aguilar. "We have people all over the county - Minnesota, New York - that want them shipped to them."

A person can buy Placer County mandarins straight from the grower, online or from some stores.

MICHELLE

FOX News, Shrewsbury Police Department, Telegram & Gazette, American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, USDA.

NewsWatch

Fed Cuts Key Rate by a Half-Point

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point today, tapping its most visible policy tool to free up more money for banks and businesses. The move brings the Federal funds rate to 1 percent. While Fed policy makers now have less room to maneuver on interest rates if the economy deteriorates further, investors had been hoping for the relatively aggressive cut as a sign of vigilance among American central bankers seeking to restore the free flow of credit. The move brought the rate down to near the lows reached in 2003 and 2004.

But the economic outlook is much grimmer than it was in 2003. Back then, policy makers were trying to vanquish the last remnants of a downturn. This time, policy makers face an economy that is sputtering on all fronts — consumer spending, job creation, business investment, housing and possibly even exports — and the downturn has only begun.

The Federal Reserve is within striking range of reducing the overnight lending rate to zero, a point that Japan reached in the 1990s and remained at for years while it struggled to revive its economy.

Palin Says Washington Has Failed on Energy

Sarah Palin, delivering her second policy speech as the vice-presidential nominee, blamed decades of presidents and legislators for failing to achieve energy independence.

Bio Lab in Galveston Raises Concerns

Much of the University of Texas medical school suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ike , except for one gleaming new building, a national biological defense laboratory that will soon house some of the most deadly diseases in the world. How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders.

Officials at the laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health, which along with the university is helping to pay for the $174 million building, say it can withstand any storm the Atlantic hurls at it. Built atop concrete pylons driven 120 feet into the ground, the seven-floor laboratory was designed to stand up to 140-mile-an-hour winds. Its backup generators and high-security laboratories are 30 feet above sea level.

A Rise in Kidney Stones Is Seen in U.S. Children

To the great surprise of parents, kidney stones, once considered a disorder of middle age, are now showing up in children as young as 5 or 6. While there are no reliable data on the number of cases, pediatric urologists and nephrologists across the country say they are seeing a steep rise in young patients. Some hospitals have opened pediatric kidney stone clinics.

Dr. John C. Pope IV, an associate professor of urologic surgery and pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, said, “When we tell parents, most say they’ve never heard of a kid with a kidney stone and think something is terribly wrong with their child.”

In China recently, many children who drank milk tainted with melamine — a toxic chemical illegally added to watered-down milk to inflate the protein count — developed kidney stones. The increase in the United States is attributed to a host of factors, including a food additive that is both legal and ubiquitous: salt.

Though most of the research on kidney stones comes from adult studies, experts believe it can be applied to children. Those studies have found that dietary factors are the leading cause of kidney stones, which are crystallizations of several substances in the urine. Stones form when these substances become too concentrated.

Drinking Lots of Water Is Good for Your Skin

By now, the old saw about drinking eight glasses of water a day has been thoroughly debunked. But a similar adage about excess water and healthy skin persists. Where or how the claim originated is not well known, but there is no evidence that drinking anything more than recommended amounts of water is particularly beneficial to skin.

A 2007 study on the effects of water consumption did show that drinking 500 milliliters of water, about two cups, increased blood flow to the skin. A good sign, but there was no evidence that that reduced wrinkles or improved complexion. Other studies have hinted that vitamin C might prevent wrinkles, or that estrogen use in postmenopausal women might reduce dry skin and slow skin aging. But the evidence for each is limited, and estrogen therapy can have bad side effects.

Dr. Margaret E. Parsons, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Dermatology, said excess water did not help the skin but “if dehydrated, fine wrinkles certainly seem to show up a bit more.”

“Staying appropriately hydrated is good for our general health,” she said, “and if we are eating and drinking what we should, our bodies are healthier and therefore our skin as well.”

Her advice? Always wear sunscreen, avoid cigarettes and eat well.

Will

Vanderbilt University, American Academy of Dermatology, University of Texas, AP, Wall Street Journal

Breaking News Summaries

Lehman to File for Record Bankruptcy

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, succumbed to the subprime mortgage crisis it helped create in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history.

The 158-year-old firm, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. The collapse of Lehman lists more than $613 billion of debt.

Lehman was forced into bankruptcy after Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. abandoned takeover talks yesterday and the company lost 94 percent of its market value this year. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, who turned the New York-based firm into the biggest underwriter of mortgage-backed securities at the top of the U.S. real estate market, joins his counterparts at Bear Stearns Cos., Merrill Lynch & Co. and more than 10 banks that couldn't survive this year's credit crunch.

AIG Scrambles to Raise Cash, Talks to Fed

AIG executives are worried that such an action would set off a chain reaction that could be fatal to the firm..... The company has already received permission from New York Gov. David Paterson to access as much as $20 billion in capital from its subsidiary companies to cover its day-to-day operating needs. The problems come from mostly from the company's credit derivatives portfolio of subprime-backed securities. Those losses have risen steadily as the subprime mortgage crisis worsens. The company has also reported losses in its own investment portfolio and losses in its mortgage-insurance unit.

AIG has been pulling together a survival plan that includes selling off some of its most valuable assets, raising more capital and going to the Federal Reserve for help, people familiar with the situation said.

The measures are aimed at staving off a downgrade by major credit-rating firms. AIG executives worried that such an action would set off a chain reaction that could be fatal to the firm. The insurer, which has already raised $20 billion in fresh capital so far this year, was seeking to raise an additional $40 billion to avoid a downgrade.

During a weekend scramble to shore up its finances, AIG turned down a capital infusion from a group of private-equity firms led by J.C. Flowers & Co. because an option tied to the offer would have effectively given them control of the company, an 89-year-old giant that does business in nearly every corner of the world.

Bank of America to Acquire Merrill Lynch

Bank of America Corporation, the biggest U.S. consumer bank, agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. for about $50 billion as the credit crisis claimed another of America's oldest financial companies.

Bank of America will pay $29 a share for New York-based Merrill in stock, 70 percent more than the Sept. 12 closing price, the company said in a statement today. Merrill, battered by $52.2 billion in losses and writedowns from subprime-mortgage- contaminated securities, has plunged more than 80 percent from its peak of $97.53 at the start of last year.

The takeover ends 94 years of independence for Merrill and gives Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America a sales force with 16,690 brokers who manage $1.6 trillion for customers. Merrill, led by Chief Executive Officer John Thain, was in danger of becoming the next subprime casualty after Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. filed for bankruptcy court protection earlier.

Blu-ray will be dead by 2012, TechRadar reports

Planning to buy a Blu-Ray player? Hold on. It's already battling public indifference, technical problems, laughable features and downloadable movies. Is it any wonder Blu-Ray is doomed to fail? Here are five reasons why it's heading for the grave...

http://www.techradar.com/news/video/hd-dvd/5-reasons-why-blu-ray-could-be-dead-by-2012-464705

Women experience significantly more nightmares than men and have more emotional dreams, research suggests

In a study of 170 volunteers asked to record their most recent dream, 19% of men reported a nightmare compared with 30% of women. Researcher Dr Jennifer Parker of the University of the West of England said there was no difference in the overall number of dreams reported. Other research has shown women tend to have more disturbed sleep than men.

Hackers claim they have broken into the computer system of the Large Hadron Collider, the mega-machine designed to expose secrets of the cosmos, British newspapers reported on Saturday.

A group calling itself the Greek Security Team left a rogue webpage mocking the technicians responsible for computer security at the giant atom smasher as "schoolkids", the Times and Daily Telegraph reported. The hackers vowed they had no intention of disrupting the experiment at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) on the Swiss-French border, they just wanted to highlight the flaws in the computer system's security.

"We're pulling your pants down because we don't want to see you running around naked looking to hide yourselves when the panic comes," they wrote, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Walter