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TEHRAN, IranAfter more than two weeks of silence amid Iran’s violent election fallout, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjania key Iranian clericemerged Sunday to call out “suspicious sources” who are creating a rift between the public and the Islamic government.
Ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, shown here voting in Iran on June 12, says trust has been eroded.
He called the aftermath of the June 12 presidential election “a tangled mess, perpetrated by suspicious sources whose objectives are to create differences and separations between the people and the system and eroding the trust of the people in the Islamic system,” the Iranian Labor News Agency reported Sunday. Rafsanjani was speaking to a gathering of family members related to the victims of a June 28, 1981, explosion, in which 70 people were killed at a bombing at the Islamic Republic party headquarters. The explosionknown as “Hafte Tir,” referring to the date on the Iranian calendarkilled several prominent Islamic revolutionaries, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti. Rafsanjani is chairman of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader. But despite the chaos that’s plagued the Islamic republic for the past two weekseven resulting in the brief detention of his daughterhe remained silent and largely unseen until Sunday’s commemoration.
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The last time the world saw Iran’s assembled leadership was June 19, when at Friday prayers Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed the victory of hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the hotly contested June 12 election. But Rafsanjaniwho supported opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, a reformist and Ahmadinejad’s chief rival was missing among the group of Islamic powerbrokers. On Sunday, referring to Khamenei’s backing of an extension granted by Iran’s election authority to address voting complaints, Rafsanjani said the decision is “valuable in order to gain the trust and conviction of the people in the electoral process, effectively, and I hope those involved in this matter can precisely observe fairness and justice and in cooperation with the candidates so that complaints can be addressed completely.” He added, “Wrong actions must not renew hate and differences between the people and all of us must, with cooperation and with one heart, move forward, in order to eliminate obstacles and difficulties.”
Rafsanjani is a very influential figure in Khamenei’s circle, but he’s made “a real break with the supreme leader in this case,” Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American author, told CNN Saturday. “Whether the leadership will come together again and say we have to solve all of these problems internally rather than have them be public for the sake and security of the government and the system is a question that is an open question,” Majd added.
Source:CNN

Teens ‘still fear knife crime’
By Jim Reed
Newsbeat reporter

One in 10 teenagers in knife crime “hotspots” targeted by the government say they still have to carry a weapon to feel safe, a Newsbeat poll shows.More than half of the people questioned said they are worried about other teens carrying a knife when they go out. Fifty three per cent surveyed said the government would not be able to reduce teen violence over the coming months. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: “It is going to take longer to change the culture of carrying knives.” Teen stabbingsThe Home Office launched its 12m Tackling Knives Action Programme in June 2008 to crack down on offending in 10 key areas. Police have been carrying out more stop and searches and extra cash has been used to pay for airport-style security arches and community schemes for young people.
The survey questioned 500 people aged 13 to 19 in five of those hotspots – London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Thames Valley. A quarter of the teenagers surveyed said they knew someone who had been stabbed. The majority said young people carry a knife not to commit a crime but for protection or respect from their friends. Two thirds of all under-18s asked said it was either “very easy” or “fairly easy” to buy a knife. The government has raised the age limit to buy a knife from 16 to 18 and asked the Trading Standards Institute to crack down on underage sales in hotspot areas. When asked to name the “most effective” way of reducing knife crime, 30% of young people in hotspot areas said they wanted to see tougher sentences for carrying a weapon. The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice show 6% of under 18s caught with a knife were sent straight to jail in the first three months of the year, up fractionally on the same period in 2008.
Another 53% were given some form of community sentence like repairing property, clearing waste ground or refurbishing broken buildings. Judges in hotspot areas also send young offenders on a knife crime prevention course to learn about the dangers of carrying weapons. But once young people get to 18 they are much more likely to get an immediate jail sentence. About a quarter of adults caught with a blade in the first three months of the year went to prison for it. Most teenagers polled agreed that stop and search can be effective but two thirds said that police are targeting the “wrong kind” of people. Only 4% said airport-style security gadgets are the best way of cutting knife and gun crime.

The home secretary told Newsbeat there are signs the government crackdown in hotspot areas is starting to have an effect. Official figures show the number of people caught with a knife in those areas fell 8% in the first three months of the year. Hospital data also suggests the number treated for stab wounds is going down. “We’ve decided that we are going to run this programme longer than we planned to ensure we keep the pressure on,” said Alan Johnson. “We weren’t expecting youngsters to start to feel more secure in eight months,” he said. “It’s a difficult message and I think it’s going to take longer to change those cultural aspects.” The Radio 1 Newsbeat / 1Xtra survey was conducted by polling company ComRes between 21 and 25 May.

Source:BBC

JOHANNESBURG – Clint Dempsey sobbed as the Americans walked up to get their second-place medals, unable to hide the pain and the disappointment any longer.
The euphoria of knocking off Spain last week dissolved Sunday in the Confederations Cup final when Brazil unleashed its “Beautiful Game.”
After dominating the five-time World Cup champions in the first half, the Americans were powerless as Brazil scored three goals in the final 45 minutes to rally for a 3-2 win.
“We’re at the point where we don’t want respect, we want to win,” said Landon Donovan, whose goal in the 27th minute gave the United States a 2-0 lead. “There’s no guarantee we ever get back to a final game like this, so it’s disappointing.”
Luis Fabiano scored twice for Brazil, and Lucio added the third in the 84th minute to give Brazil its second straight Confederations Cup title and third overall. The American men fell short in their first final of a FIFA tournament, but the experience was invaluable.
Almost sure to qualify for next year’s World Cup, also in South Africa, the Americans certainly saw the benefits of playing this game. What hurt was the way they lost it.
“We continue to try and move ourselves forward, and playing these kind of games only helps,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “But it still feels pretty lousy to let this one get away.”
In the third-place match, Spain fought back to beat host South Africa 3-2 after extra time in Rustenburg.
The United States has beaten Brazil once in 15 games, and it was just 10 days ago that the Brazilians hung a 3-0 rout on the Americans in group play of the tournament that had the critics piling on and some calling for Bradley’s job.
In the first 45 minutes Sunday, though, it was Brazil that looked like the beaten team. Its usually fluid offense created few opportunities and was constantly stymied by the U.S. defense and goalkeeper Tim Howard. Meanwhile, the Americans were relentless in their attack on a nervous-looking Brazil defense, with Donovan working hard to give his team several scoring chances.
Just 10 minutes into the game, Jonathan Spector sprinted down the right side and sent a low cross into the area. Dempsey, who had plenty of room to maneuver, raised his right leg and put just enough of a touch on the ball to alter the direction and send it past a diving Julio Cesar.
Dempsey, who also scored in the 2-0 shocker over top-ranked Spain in the semifinals, finished the tournament with three goals and was awarded the Bronze Ball.
Donovan then got possession at his own end shortly after Maicon had sent in a corner for Brazil from the right. The United States midfielder ran up the middle, passed to Charlie Davies and then reclaimed the ball from his teammate before beating Julio Cesar.
There is a reason Brazil has won so many titles over the years, though, and it wasn’t about to let another slip away.
Luis Fabiano started the comeback in the 46th minute. The striker collected a pass from Ramires before turning and shooting past defender Jay DeMerit for his fourth goal of the tournament.
“We gave up the first goal so early in second half,” Bradley said. “We really put ourselves in a tough spot.”
Luis Fabiano added a tournament-leading fifth goal to equalize in the 74th, heading in a rebound after Kaka’s cross was kicked against the crossbar by Robinho.
The Americans caught a break in the 60th when Kaka headed a cross from Andre Santos to the near post. Howard stepped back into his goal and knocked the shot off the underside of the crossbar and then grabbed it safely in his arms. Kaka appealed, arguing that the ball crossed the line before Howard was able to get to it, and television replays indicated he was correct.
It wouldn’t matter, with Lucio delivering the decisive goal in the 84th when he headed a corner kick from Elano past Howard. Brazil has now won eight matches in a row, and is unbeaten in 16.
“You look around at their players, and you realize why they’re worth so much and why they play at the teams that they play,” Donovan said. “It’s disappointing when we gave such a good effort today.”
As the Brazilians gathered in a circle and jumped up and down in celebration, the Americans remained on the field, watching in stony silence. Many climbed up to get their medals with their heads bowed, and there were few smiles in sight.
“We were able to make it a real game with a top team,” Bradley said. “Over time, to be able to sustain that longer, not have ups and downs throughout the game, that’s a sign of progress.”
___
Lineups:
United States: Tim Howard, Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector, Ricardo Clark (Conor Casey, 88), Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Charlie Davies, Jozy Altidore (Jonathan Bornstein, 75), Benny Feilhaber (Sacha Klejstan, 75).
Brazil: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Luisao, Lucio, Andre Santos (Daniel Alves, 66), Felipe Melo, Gilberto Silva, Ramires (Elano, 67), Kaka, Robinho, Luis Fabiano.
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AP National Writer Nancy Armour contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES – Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television’s biggest stars on “My Little Margie” and “The Gale Storm Show,” has died at age 87.
Storm, who had been in failing health in recent years, died Saturday at a convalescent hospital, said her son, Peter Bonnell.
Before landing the starring role in “My Little Margie” in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, “The Gale Storm Show,” ended in 1960 she went on to a successful singing career while continuing to make occasional TV appearances.
Storm was a Texas high schooler named Josephine Owaissa Cottle when she entered a talent contest for a radio show called “Gateway to Hollywood” in 1940. She was brought to Los Angeles for the finals, where her wholesome vivacity won over the radio audience and she was awarded a movie contract.
The contest’s male winner was a lanky would-be actor named Lee Bonnell, who would later become her husband.
Given the quirky name Gale Storm, she went from contracts with RKO to Monogram to Universal, appearing in such low-budget films as “Where Are Your Children?” with Cooper and “Tom Brown’s School Days” with Freddie Bartholomew.
She was often cast in westerns as the girl the cowboy left behind, and appeared in such B-movie oaters as “The Dude Goes West” with Albert, “The Kid from Texas” with Audie Murphy and “The Texas Rangers” with George Montgomery.
“I was really scared of horses,” she admitted in 2000. “I only rode them because that’s what you had to do.”
She appeared in three Republic westerns with Rogers and recalled that his horse Trigger did what he could to cause her trouble. As she would smile and ride alongside Rogers while the king of the cowboys crooned a song, Trigger (out of camera range) would lean over and bite her horse’s neck.
With her movie roles diminishing in the early 1950s, Storm followed the path of many fading movie stars of the day and moved on to television.
“My Little Margie” debuted on CBS as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1952. It quickly became an audience favorite and moved to its own slot on NBC that fall.
The premise was standard sitcom fare: Charles Farrell was a business executive and eligible widower, Storm was his busybody daughter who protected him from predatory women.
The year after “My Little Margie” ended its 126-episode run in 1955, she moved on to “The Gale Storm Show,” which lasted until 1960. This time she played Susanna Pomeroy, a trouble-making social director on a luxury liner.
Storm, who had taken vocal lessons, sang on her second series, and three of her records became best sellers: “I Hear You Knocking,” “Teenage Prayer” and “Dark Moon.”
She appeared only sporadically on TV after “The Gale Storm Show,” guest starring on such programs as “Burke’s Law,” “The Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
She appeared in numerous musicals, however, including Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief” at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Other stage credits included “Unsinkable Molly Brown” (as the title character), “South Pacific” and “Finians Rainbow.”
Although Storm had not acted in recent years, Peter Bonnell said his mother enjoyed keeping in touch with fans and had known many of them for years.
Her fans were surprised to read in her 1980 autobiography, “I Ain’t Down Yet,” that she was an alcoholic.
“I had hidden it socially, never drank before a performance,” she said. After being treated in three hospitals, she found one that helped her break the habit.
Born April 5, 1922, in Bloomington, Texas, Storm was only 13 months old when her father died. Her mother supported five children by taking in sewing.
Storm’s first husband died in 1987, and the following year she married former TV executive Paul Masterson. He died in 1996.
Storm and Bonnell had three sons, Philip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
___
Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story.

Early pregnancy problems warning
Expectant mothers who have complications early on should be supervised more closely in current and future pregnancies, a study suggests.Problems in the first three months increase the risk of premature birth and other difficulties – in that pregnancy and subsequent ones. The data from 75 studies also showed a history of miscarriages was linked to future premature births. Experts said the research would help identify those at high risk. The analysis presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual meeting looked at several common complications of the first three months of pregnancy.
Vaginal bleeding in the early weeks was associated with an increased risk of pre-eclampsia, premature delivery and more than double the risk of having a low birth weight or very low birth weight baby. An accumulation of blood in the womb – intrauterine haematoma – increased these risks further. Extreme early morning sickness was associated with a three times higher risk of premature delivery and a nearly three-fold risk of low birth weight. Women who had been pregnant with twins but miscarried one baby very early in pregnancy also had increased risks of later problems. A history of one or more miscarriages nearly doubled the risk in an ongoing pregnancy of preterm premature rupture of the membrane that surrounds the baby in the womb, and increased the risk of a premature birth. If a previous pregnancy had to be terminated for any reason, premature birth was a risk in subsequent pregnancies. Although the study did not address causes of risks in future pregnancies it could be related to underlying health problems or lifestyle factors, experts said. MonitoringStudy leader Dr Robbert van Oppenraaij, from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, said the extent of future complications was related to the severity or recurrence of the early problems. “Events and complications in early pregnancy are amongst the most common complications in women during their pregnancy and can be extremely distressing for them. “For the clinician it is important to interpret the symptoms and to understand not only the short-term consequences, but also the long-term consequences of these early pregnancy complications.” Tony Rutherford, chair of the British Fertility Society, said the results suggested that some patients would benefit from closer monitoring. “It is a message that these patients need to have supervision. “The main concern is with early birth and if we can try and identify these patients we can improve the outcome.” Patrick O’Brien, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the underlying reasons for some of the associations would include lifestyle factors such as smoking, nutrition and also conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. “It notches up our level of awareness that if someone has problems in early pregnancy, especially repeated problems, maybe we should be watching these women a bit more closely.”

Source:BBC

Doctors condemn ‘commercial’ NHS
By Nick Triggle
Health reporter, BBC News
Doctors are urging the government to row back on its “dogmatic commercialisation” of the NHS to help protect services during the recession.The British Medical Association (BMA) has attacked what it calls a “sledgehammer” approach to reform to the health service in England. The union is calling on ministers to instead work with doctors to cope with the tough times ahead. The stinging criticism comes as the BMA launches its annual conference. Strike threatOne of the major motions on the first day of the Liverpool meeting on Monday is a call for a day of industrial action. But BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum warned his members not to vote for strikes despite anger over the use of the private sector.
He said that with the health service battling against the flu pandemic and jobs being lost across the economy, Dr Meldrum said now was not the time to take such drastic action. He said there was nothing that “warranted even a consideration of industrial action”. However, Dr Meldrum still went on to warn the government its policies were putting the future of the health service at risk. He said moves to create polyclinics and PFI schemes, which use private money to build hospitals, were draining the health service of resources and fragmenting care. He continued: “We have never said the private sector has no place in the NHS, but in an ideal world we think the vast majority of NHS services should be publicly provided.” He spoke out after a BMA poll of 1,000 people showed nine in 10 were worried that services were going to be cut because of the recession. Dr Meldrum added: “Although the private sector has for many years played a role in providing care, a majority of the public believe that the government’s dogmatic and misguided plan to commercialise the NHS has gone too far and is threatening the very future of the health service.” The BMA has already launched a campaign called Look After Our NHS, which is currently gathering details from members about how private sector involvement in the health service is damaging care. But Dr Meldrum denied that doctors were just trying to look after their own interests. He said: “The worries are probably more about protecting health services and patients rather than job security.”

Source:BBC

Scientists attack energy industry
By Roger Harrabin
BBC Environment Analyst
Britain’s energy systems are no longer fit for purpose, according to leading members of the UK’s best-known scientific academy, the Royal Society.A meeting of experts at the society said the government must invest hugely to create a new low-carbon economy. And it must take on the big generating companies who dominate energy policy, participants said. The government says the key issues on energy will be addressed in its forthcoming energy White Paper. Electricity ‘supergrid’The experts say ministers must make up lost time by investing massively in research and deployment of renewables; creating a more wide-ranging electricity ‘supergrid’; and ensuring that coal-fired power stations capture 90% of their carbon emissions by 2020. One leading member of the society said privately that the government’s performance on carbon capture so far had been pathetic – although would agree that criticism should not be confined to the UK.
The meeting agreed that failure to develop renewables in time meant that the UK must continue to rely on nuclear power – even though questions over waste and security were unresolved. First priority on the society’s action list is a big push on energy efficiency in existing homes, taking advantage of the latest technologies. The call is echoed by the all-party parliamentary climate change group, which is set to insist that landlords should be prevented from letting homes which waste energy. White PaperThe group’s vice-chairman, Lord Redesdale, said the UK would never reach its climate change targets unless it radically improved policies on existing homes. He said: “A billion tonnes will have failed to be saved from domestic carbon emissions and this is equivalent to the CO2 pollution from Britain’s aviation sector over the next 25 years. “We can either heat our homes and have hot baths, or fly but not both. There really does need to be much tougher policies on reducing carbon emissions from the homes.”
The government says many of the issues will be addressed in its energy White Paper – although to the frustration of ministers in the energy and environment departments, the Treasury has blocked whole scale investment in home refurbishment until after 2012. Ministers argue that their policy on carbon capture and storage is ahead of any other major nation – calling for four demonstration projects and insisting that new coal-fired power stations should capture a percentage of their emissions until the technology is fully proven. A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said the UK had made major strides recently on energy and climate change. He listed The Climate Change Act, carbon budgets, and leadership for the Copenhagen climate summit – including the Prime Minister’s suggestion last week that rich nations should transfer 100bn-a-year to poor nations to help with climate change.

Source:BBC

Windies thrash India in Kingston
Second one-day international, Kingston:West Indies 192-2 (34.1 overs) beat India 188 all out (48.2 overs) by eight wickets
West Indies levelled their one-day series with India at 1-1 with a crushing eight-wicket win in Kingston.India won the toss and batted but they were reduced to 7-3 and 82-8 as Jerome Taylor (3-35), Ravi Rampaul (4-37) and Dwayne Bravo (3-26) wreaked havoc. A brilliant stand of 101 between MS Dhoni, who struck 95 from 130 balls, and RP Singh (23) lifted them to 188. But West Indies eased home, Chris Gayle (64) and Renako Morton (85) sharing 101 as they won with 15.5 overs to spare. The third one-day international of the four-match series will be played in St Lucia on Friday. Having sealed a narrow win in the first game on Friday after racking up 339 from their 50 overs, India showed the other side to their batting in Kingston.
They lost three wickets for seven runs in the first two overs, with Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma both falling for a duck to Rampaul. Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni set about fashioning a recovery until the former was bowled by Taylor for 35 and another collapse followed – when Praveen Kumar was out in the 22nd over, India were 82-8. But RP Singh hung around with his captain, scoring 23 from 75 balls, while Dhoni clubbed six fours and two sixes to lift India, who were all out with 10 balls to spare, to a respectable total. It was quickly apparent they did not have nearly enough to make a game of it though, as Gayle and Morton blazed a destructive trail. Gayle, who smashed eight fours and two sixes, reached his half-century in just 37 balls and it was too little, too late when Sharma took his wicket and then had Ramnaresh Sarwan stumped. Morton played beautifully for his 85 from 102 balls and West Indies won with more than 15 overs to spare at at Sabina Park.

Source:BBC

Somalian ‘killer’ stoned to death
Hardline Islamist militiamen in Somalia have stoned to death a man accused of raping and murdering a woman.The execution took place in front of a large crowd in the town of Wanlaweyn, about 90km (55 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu. The man was convicted by an unofficial court set up by the al-Shabab movement. On Thursday in Mogadishu, al-Shabab – which advocates a strict form of Sharia – publicly amputated a hand and a foot from each of four men accused of theft. “This man was accused of raping and killing an 18-year-old girl in May this year. The court found him guilty of the charges brought against him,” Sheikh Mohamed Saleban, a local al-Shabab official, told AFP news agency on Sunday.
“He was a married man, which is why the court sentenced him to be stoned to death,” he added, explaining that a rape conviction only incurs flogging. Local resident Abdullahi Husein said most of the town’s population turned out to watch the lynching, where gunmen banned cameras and mobile phones. “Ten masked men from the al-Shabab forces stoned him to death in front of everyone. They had dug a hole, buried him to his neck before throwing stones at him,” he told AFP. In October last year, al-Shabab ordered a 13-year-old girl to be stoned to death in public in the southern city of Kismayo.
She was accused of adultery after reporting she had been raped by three men. The radical Islamists, who are accused of links to al-Qaeda, already control much of the south of the country. Since last month, al-Shabab’s guerrillas have been locked in ferocious battles with forces loyal to the fragile UN-backed government in Mogadishu. Last week, the administration appealed to neighbouring countries urgently to send troops to help. A moderate Islamist president took office in January but even his introduction of Sharia law to the strongly Muslim country has not appeased the guerrillas. Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991.

Source:BBC

The bottoms of New York City's harbors still house 1,600 bars of silver, if you can find them amid the junk and the 4-foot-long, wood-eating worms
The bottoms of New York City's harbors still house 1,600 bars of silver, if you can find them amid the junk and the 4-foot-long, wood-eating worms
LEAD STORY: The bottoms of New York City's harbors still house 1,600 bars of silver, if you can find them amid the junk and the 4-foot-long, wood-eating worms
Using GPS and state-of-the-art sonar, Columbia University researchers recently made the first comprehensive map of the wonders submerged in New York City's harbors. Supplementing those findings with historical data, New York magazine reported the inventory's highlights in May: a 350-foot steamship (downed in 1920), a freight train (derailed in 1865), 1,600 bars of silver (unrecovered since 1903), a fleet of Good Humor ice cream trucks (which form a reef for aquatic life), and so many junked cars near the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges that divers use them as underwater navigation points. Of most concern lately, though, are the wildlife: 4-foot-long worms that eat wooden docks and tiny “gribbles” that eat concrete pilings. [New York, 5-18-09]
Government in Action
More California Money “Management”: The Los Angeles Unified School District pays almost 10 million a year to about 160 teachers and staff who are forbidden to do any work — those subject to discipline but whose cumbersome “due process” and appeals take years to carry out. One teacher, Matthew Kim, fired by the school board in 2002 for allegedly sexually harassing students and colleagues, still receives his 68,000 a year, including benefits, and (by union contract interpretation) cannot be called on to perform clerical or other non-”professional” duties during the appeals, according to a May Los Angeles Times report. [Los Angeles Times, 5-6-09]
Because of what an April Boston Globe report called “a decades-old interpretation of the state's militia laws,” state government employees who are also members of the Massachusetts National Guard and who go on active duty are paid much more money if deployed at home than in Iraq or Afghanistan. State law requires those Guardsmen on domestic duty to be paid both for their state job and their military duty while Guardsmen in the war zones collect only the higher of the two salaries. [Boston Globe, 4-15-09]
Britain's Local Governments Are Afraid of Everything: The Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service issued rules recently requiring the use of long poles to test high-up fire alarms because letting the firefighters use stepladders might lead to injuries. [Daily Mail, 4-5-09]
The South Kesteven District Council decided in May to no longer hoist the oversized Flag of St. George outside Bourne Town Hall on St. George's Day — because of the “risk” involved in using an 8-foot ladder on a plinth above a spoked gate. [Evening Telegraph (Peterborough), 5-21-09]
Small-Town Government “People Skills”: E-mails from Smithfield (Pa.) Township Supervisor Christine Griffin, published in May in the Pocono Record, confirmed the long-time complaints of critics about her lack of diplomacy. In one official e-mail, Griffin wrote: “Don't you dare waste my time with your (expletive), you lying cheating son of a (expletive), sneaky back door (expletive) nut (expletive) sucker.” In another: “(N)o cement boots for me! Nice try though, a real drama rama! Reminder: I am the quintessential professional! (D)ecorum and common sense are my bylaws!” [Pocono Record, 5-7-09]
The Evolution of Democracy
Kim Schroeder, running for vice president of the Milwaukee (Wis.) Teachers Education Association in May, promised a five-point program, with the first four being vows to make the union more aggressive toward the school board. His fifth point, he said, was “to make sure that there is … beer and wine available for our monthly Leaders' Meetings.” (He lost.) [Journal Sentinel, 5-11-09]
Josko Risa finished second in the election for mayor of Prozolac, Croatia (pop. 4,500), and was in a run-off on May 31 because of (or despite) his campaign pledge of (roughly translated) “All for Me, Nothing for You” (or, “It is definitely going to be better for me, but will be the same for you”). (Run-off results from Croatia were not widely reported.) [Croatian Times, 5-19-09]
The Continuing Crisis
More Post-Traumatic Stress: Peter Singer, the author of a new book on battlefield robotics, told LiveScience.com in May he had seen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan grow so attached to their bomb-disposal robots that, in one case, the soldier risked 160 feet of enemy machine gun fire to retrieve his little buddy, and in another, a soldier brought his robot in for repairs with tears in his eyes over the “injury” to his beloved “Scooby-Doo.” Several units, he said, had given their robots promotions, Purple Hearts and even a military funeral. [LiveScience.com, 5-21-09]
Fine Points of the Law
Richard Balsavage, 28, pleaded guilty in Berks County, Pa., in 2005 to taking pornographic photos of a toddler and was sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail, which he served, but while still on probation, he continued to possess child pornography and was re-sentenced by a different judge, to 3 1/2 to seven years in prison. Balsavage then asked that judge for a re-sentencing, pointing out that he had not been given a fair opportunity to express remorse in court, and the judge relented. Balsavage then made a sorrowful apology, but it went for naught because the judge had subsequently learned that during therapy sessions, Balsavage had confessed to a history of abuse of young children. If Balsavage had not demanded re-sentencing, he might have been out in 3 1/2 years, but his new term was set at 24 1/2 to 49 years. [Reading Eagle, 5-28-09]
People Different From Us
In the Kings Creek area north of Lenoir, N.C., according to sheriff's deputies, two feuding families created a ruckus in May after a dog killed a neighbor's cat. When the cat's owner found out, he shot the dog dead. When the dog's owner found out, he shot the cat's owner and the man's young daughter. Deputies were called, and when they arrived, the dog's owner shot both of them, but one got off a return shot, fatally wounding the dog's owner (and completing the chain!). [Time Warner Newschannel 14, 5-28-09]
Least Competent Criminals
Brandon Hiser, 22, was arrested in Kansas City, Mo., in May for trying to break into a bank using only a screwdriver, which would be a daunting task any time but the bank Hiser was trying to enter was the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Kansas City Star, 5-26-09] [
Ezedrick Jones, 18, was arrested in Memphis, Tenn., for the attempted robbery of the very same KFC from which he had recently been fired. Though masked, Jones was quickly recognized by his former manager via the mask's oversized eye holes, and throughout the robbery the manager kept addressing Ezedrick by name. Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 5-25-09]
Recurring Themes
The most recent man to decide to smash a bullet with a hammer, George Fath, of Pleasant Lake, Ind., said he wanted to destroy it so it wouldn't harm his kids. Fath told WANE-TV in April that he was shot in the stomach “and knocked … on my butt.” [WANE-TV (Fort Wayne), 4-24-09]
Yet another man tried to explain away testing positive for cocaine by swearing he could only have ingested the drug when he performed oral sex on his cocaine-using girlfriend. Ex-NYPD helicopter pilot Jon Goldin had been fired three years ago for failing the drug test and had his challenge of the test rejected in April. [New York Daily News, 4-8-09]
Undignified Deaths
Their Last Words: “A million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a whore” were the last words of multimillionaire French banker Edouard Stern, according to his girlfriend, Cecile Brossard, who took offense (and was convicted of killing him in June in Geneva, Switzerland). [BBC News, 6-10- 09]
“Shoot me, shoot me,” you “ain't got the –” were the last words (according to a police report) of Scott Riley, 25, who was arguing with the gun-wielding Joseph Jimenez, 24, about their game of Beer Pong in Bridgeport, Pa., in May. [WCAU-TV (Philadelphia), 5-4-09]
A News of the Weird Classic (March 1994)
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in February 1994, accused murderer Donald Leroy Evans, 38, filed a pre-trial motion asking permission to wear a Ku Klux Klan robe in the courtroom and to be referred to in legal documents by “the honorable and respected name of Hi Hitler.” According to courthouse employees interviewed by the Associated Press, Evans thought Adolf Hitler's followers were saying “Hi Hitler” rather than “Heil, Hitler.” [Houston Post-AP, 2-13-94]
Thanks This Week to John Holsinger, Brendan O'Naughton, Stephen Taylor, Rick Matz, Tim McCall, Jessica McRorie, and Tom Barker, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
(And for the accomplished and joyous cynic, try News of the Weird Daily/Pro Edition, at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com.)

SAN JOSE (AFP) –
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya insisted from exile in Costa Rica Sunday that he remains the rightful leader of Honduras, hours after being deposed by his country's military.
Zelaya said he would attend a meeting of regional leaders to be held Monday in Nicaragua to assert his right to his country's leadership.
“Tomorrow, I will attend in the Summit of Central American presidents in Managua,” he told reporters at the international airport in Costa Rica.
He was accompanied at the press conference by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who has denounced Zelaya's ouster.

NEW YORK – Twenty years later, the trash can is still crashing through America’s window. At the climax of Spike Lee’s 1989 drama “Do The Right Thing,” the eternal battle between love and hate teeters on a razor’s edge.
The young black man Radio Raheem has been choked to death by white police after a fight with a Brooklyn pizzeria owner. A seething crowd gathers in front of the shop.
Lee’s character, Mookie, a black pizza deliveryman, stands between the crowd and the shop. He’s shoulder-to-shoulder with Sal, the shop’s Italian owner. They exchange looks of confusion, betrayal and regret.
The crowd stares at Mookie. He’s on the wrong side. Mookie moves over to his brothers, rubs his face, wrestling with the weight of the moment. Then he decides.
“Hate!” screams Mookie as he hurls the metal can through the pizzeria’s plate glass window. The dam bursts. The mob destroys the shop in a frenzy that was both inevitable and completely avoidable.
Much has changed since “Do The Right Thing” announced Lee’s special gifts to the world. The police choke hold that killed Radio Raheem — a fictionalization of the real death of Michael Stewart in New York City — has long been outlawed. Life on the ravaged Brooklyn block where Lee filmed the movie has improved. Ronald Reagan has given way to Barack Obama.
But for every measure of undeniable progress, “Do The Right Thing” also points to the divides that remain.
In May, a black New York City undercover cop who was running after a suspect with his gun drawn was shot to death by a white officer. Boarded-up buildings, broken windows and jobless young men still populate that Brooklyn block. And Lee, who wrote, produced and directed the film, insists the racial disconnect at its heart still exists.
“White people still ask me why Mookie threw the can through the window,” Lee said in an interview. “Twenty years later, they’re still asking me that.”
“No black person ever, in 20 years, no person of color has ever asked me why.”
That question is what made “Do The Right Thing” so explosive. Some writers speculated, erroneously, that it would incite riots.
“People were fearful of the backlash,” said Rosie Perez, who played Mookie’s Puerto Rican girlfriend, Tina. “A lot of things happening in the movie were happening in real life. People were afraid when the truth, although a little exaggerated, was put up on the screen for everyone to see.”
Meanwhile, Lee got rave reviews from many influential critics. Roger Ebert cried after watching it at the Cannes Film Festival, where it lost to “sex, lies and videotape.”
Audiences definitely were not prepared.
Most serious films about race, like “In the Heat of the Night,” “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “The Defiant Ones,” ended with understanding or even brotherhood. And for every ambitious movie like “Watermelon Man” or “Black Like Me,” there were a half-dozen violent, sexy ghetto shoot-em-ups — “blaxploitation” flicks.
Lee had something new to say. “In just three feature films,” critic Gene Siskel wrote then, “Spike Lee has given us more genuine and varied images of black people than in the last 20 years of American movies put together.”
Today, Ebert says “Do The Right Thing” should have won the Oscar for best picture. “It was so honest about the way people really feel,” he said via e-mail. “No hypocrisy. It generated grief and left us with a central question of American society.”
The best picture of 1989, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: “Driving Miss Daisy,” about the friendship between a white Atlanta woman and her black chauffeur.
It ends on a Thanksgiving in the 1960s, with the chauffeur feeding Miss Daisy a piece of pie.
___
The trash can almost stayed on the curb. Paramount offered Lee the biggest budget for his film, but executives there wanted to change the ending.
“They just couldn’t understand why Mookie throws the trash can through Sal’s window,” said Hollywood veteran Tom Pollock, who gave the film the green light when he was chairman of Universal Pictures. “Quite honestly, I didn’t understand either, until it was explained to me by Spike.”
Pollock agreed to give Lee creative control. After the film was done, Pollock only had one problem. At the time, the movie ended the morning after the riot, when Mookie visits Sal at his burned-out shop and demands his 250 salary for the week.
“The movie offered no hope whatsoever at that time,” Pollock said. “All I said at the time was, ‘This is a really powerful film, but we can’t go out of here being totally depressed that there is no future for this country in terms of race.’”
Lee responded by adding two quotes at the end. The first, from Martin Luther King Jr., preached nonviolence: “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.” The second, from Malcolm X, advocated self-defense against “bad people” who block racial progress: “I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”
“It got misconstrued that it had to be either Dr. King or Malcolm,” Lee said. “It was never meant to be that you had to pick one or the other. These are the two most prominent African-American leaders of the 20th century, and they both wanted the same thing.”
The quotes, the trash can, the title of the film — like a painting or a piece of music, they all meant different things to different people. And they still do.
The riot is sparked by the militant Buggin’ Out, who demands that Sal add some black people to his all-Italian Wall of Fame. Buggin’ notes that Sal’s all-black and Puerto Rican clientele provides his livelihood. Sal responds that if Buggin’ wants to make decorating decisions, he should start his own business.
“They both had good points,” said Lee, with a challenging smile.
Buggin’ tries to organize a boycott, but his black friends have no problem with Sal or his wall. He finally enlists Radio Raheem, whose enormous boom box blasting Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” has offended both Sal and various black residents.
“It’s absolutely one of Spike’s most interesting and profound films because of that ambiguity,” said Giancarlo Esposito, who played Buggin’ Out. “In our lives, nothing is absolutely black and white, because none of us are the same. So we’re not going to all act the same.”
As night falls on a long, broiling day, Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem invade Sal’s Famous to press their case, with “Fight The Power” playing at full blast.
Throughout the film, Sal has expressed his love for the neighborhood and its residents, over the racist objections of his son Pino. Sal has been lenient with Mookie’s meandering deliveries, even saying he’s “like a son to me.” Sal’s shop would have been closed when Buggin’ and Raheem arrived if he hadn’t unlocked it to feed a few neighborhood kids.
But after Raheem doesn’t turn down his radio, and Buggin’ calls Sal a guinea, Sal drops the bomb — “Nigger!” — and destroys the radio with a bat.
Raheem attacks Sal, the police arrive, and Raheem ends up dead.
As his body is carried away in the back of a police car, a black cop runs alongside.
___
Twenty years ago, amid racial battles stoked by everyone from Lee Atwater to Tawana Brawley, Lee’s film seemed like another salvo. Today, the smoke has cleared, revealing a less contentious world, but one where many of the issues raised by “Do the Right Thing” still resonate.
Take the Bedford-Stuyvesant block where the movie was filmed. In 1989 there was a crack house and abandoned buildings there; Sal’s pizzeria and the Korean grocery were built on empty lots.
Today, the block is clean, the brownstones well-tended and the residents working class. Yet those lots are still empty, home to cars in various stages of repair. A boarded-up storefront church sits on one corner.
Four young black men stand on the opposite corner at midday, in front of an apartment building with a broken window in the front vestibule. Another man emerges from the building and asks if this reporter’s employer is hiring.
People on the block talk about the white people who are moving in, although almost none are evident at this time of day.
“This is the suburban part of the ghetto,” said Rachel Ward, who has lived there for all of her 52 years.
“It’s come a long way,” she said, “but it still has a long way to go.”
That’s exactly how Lee feels about race in the age of the first black president.
“I’ll tell you one statement I don’t agree with: Post-racial society. What does that mean? That we’re past it?” He snorts derisively. “We’re not there, we’re definitely not there. Those are people wishing upon a star. It’s not like it’s gonna be presto change-o, abracadabra, Obama Obama — it doesn’t work like that.
“One of the biggest criticisms about ‘Do The Right Thing’ is, ‘Spike Lee didn’t provide the answer to end racism and prejudice.’ That’s not my job, I don’t have the answer for that. The film was to show what I felt at the time were issues that needed to be dealt with.”
But still no answers, 20 years later?
“It doesn’t matter,” Lee said. “I’m not gonna sit here and lie and say I have the answer to end racism and prejudice in America.”

PETALUMA, Calif. – A prominent under-bite, scrunched face and floppy ears are the hallmarks of a winner.
The winner of the World’s Ugliest Dog contest, that is.
Pabst, a boxer-mix rescued from a shelter by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, Calif., won the annual contest on Friday at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California.
It was an upset victory for Pabst, who beat former champion Rascal, a pedigree Chinese Crested.
Pabst’s owner took home 1,600 in prize money, pet supplies and a modeling contract with House of Dog.
Miss Ellie, a blind 15-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless, won the pedigree category.
___
On the Net:

http://www.sonoma-marinfair.org/uglydogcontest.shtml

Lebanese factions clash in Beirut
Supporters of Western-backed Sunni prime minister-designate Saad Hariri have clashed with followers of the Shia Amal group in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.A woman was killed and two other people were injured during the clashes, with gunfire reported in several districts. Troops were deployed and the army reportedly warned it would fire on any armed person on the streets. It came a day after Mr Hariri was named PM with the backing of politicians from Amal and his own parliamentary bloc. It was not clear what sparked Sunday’s clashes, which lasted a couple of hours, and reportedly involved automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. Fatal stray bulletBut tension is said to have mounted on Saturday when Mr Hariri’s supporters set off fireworks to celebrate him being named as prime minister. A 30-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet during the fighting in the Aisha Bakkar area of west Beirut, security officials said. “Orders have been given to [the army] to open fire on any armed person appearing on the streets and it will not tolerate any breach of security,” said a statement from the army leadership, reported Reuters news agency.
In a parliamentary election earlier this month, Mr Hariri’s pro-Western alliance won 71 out of 128 seats, with the Hezbollah-led bloc taking the rest. The rival Amal movement – which is aligned with the Hezbollah-led opposition – supported Mr Hariri’s nomination as premier after his followers helped re-elect the Amal leader, Nabih Berri, as speaker of parliament. Mr Hariri, the 39-year-old billionaire son of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, must now stitch together a cabinet from the country’s polarised political factions. Analysts have said any unity government will almost certainly include members of the militant movement Hezbollah or its supporters. The BBC’s Natalia Antelava in Beirut says one particular stumbling block for the new prime minister could be the issue of Hezbollah’s arms. The group wants to protect its militia, which is more powerful than Lebanon’s army, and it is demanding veto power over major government decisions. This has been resisted by Mr Hariri, who met the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah before his nomination by parliament. Once he has formed a cabinet, Mr Hariri will take over from his ally Fuad Siniora, who has held the post since 2005. After years of Lebanon’s domination by Syria, the pro-Western bloc swept to power in 2005 following the assassination of Rafik Hariri in a car bombing in Beirut. Popular discontent after the bomb attack forced Syria to withdraw its troops amid accusations of its involvement in the killing. The government in Damascus has strongly denied the claims.

Source:BBC

LOS ANGELES – Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television’s biggest stars on “My Little Margie” and “The Gale Storm Show,” has died at age 87.
Storm, who had been in failing health in recent years, died Saturday at a convalescent hospital in Danville, said her son, Peter Bonnell.
Before landing the starring role in “My Little Margie” in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, “The Gale Storm Show,” ended in 1960 she went on to a successful singing career while continuing to make occasional TV appearances.
Storm was a Texas high schooler named Josephine Owaissa Cottle when she entered a talent contest for a radio show called “Gateway to Hollywood” in 1940. She was brought to Los Angeles for the finals, where her wholesome vivacity won over the radio audience and she was awarded a movie contract.
The contest’s male winner was a lanky would-be actor named Lee Bonnell, who would later become her husband.
Given the quirky name Gale Storm, she went from contracts with RKO to Monogram to Universal, appearing in such low-budget films as “Where Are Your Children?” with Cooper and “Tom Brown’s School Days” with Freddie Bartholomew.
She was often cast in westerns as the girl the cowboy left behind, and appeared in such B-movie oaters as “The Dude Goes West” with Albert, “The Kid from Texas” with Audie Murphy and “The Texas Rangers” with George Montgomery.
“I was really scared of horses,” she admitted in 2000. “I only rode them because that’s what you had to do.”
She appeared in three Republic westerns with Rogers and recalled that his horse Trigger did what he could to cause her trouble. As she would smile and ride alongside Rogers while the king of the cowboys crooned a song, Trigger (out of camera range) would lean over and bite her horse’s neck.
With her movie roles diminishing in the early 1950s, Storm followed the path of many fading movie stars of the day and moved on to television.
“My Little Margie” debuted on CBS as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1952. It quickly became an audience favorite and moved to its own slot on NBC that fall.
The premise was standard sitcom fare: Charles Farrell was a business executive and eligible widower, Storm was his busybody daughter who protected him from predatory women.
The year after “My Little Margie” ended its 126-episode run in 1955, she moved on to “The Gale Storm Show,” which lasted until 1960. This time she played Susanna Pomeroy, a trouble-making social director on a luxury liner.
Storm, who had taken vocal lessons, sang on her second series, and three of her records became best sellers: “I Hear You Knocking,” “Teenage Prayer” and “Dark Moon.”
She appeared only sporadically on TV after “The Gale Storm Show,” guest starring on such programs as “Burke’s Law,” “The Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
She appeared in numerous musicals, however, including Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief” at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Other stage credits included “Unsinkable Molly Brown” (as the title character), “South Pacific” and “Finnegan’s Rainbow.”
Although Storm had not acted in recent years, Peter Bonnell said his mother enjoyed keeping in touch with fans and had known many of them for years.
Her fans were surprised to read in her 1980 autobiography, “I Ain’t Down Yet,” that she was an alcoholic.
“I had hidden it socially, never drank before a performance,” she said. After being treated in three hospitals, she found one that helped her break the habit.
Born April 5, 1922, in Bloomington, Texas, Storm was only 13 months old when her father died. Her mother supported five children by taking in sewing.
Storm’s first husband died in 1987, and the following year she married former TV executive Paul Masterson. He died in 1996.
Storm and Bonnell had three sons, Phillip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
___
Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story.

LOS ANGELES – Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television’s biggest stars on “My Little Margie” and “The Gale Storm Show,” has died at age 87.
Storm, who had been in failing health in recent years, died Saturday at a convalescent hospital, said her son, Peter Bonnell.
Before landing the starring role in “My Little Margie” in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, “The Gale Storm Show,” ended in 1960 she went on to a successful singing career while continuing to make occasional TV appearances.
Storm was a Texas high schooler named Josephine Owaissa Cottle when she entered a talent contest for a radio show called “Gateway to Hollywood” in 1940. She was brought to Los Angeles for the finals, where her wholesome vivacity won over the radio audience and she was awarded a movie contract.
The contest’s male winner was a lanky would-be actor named Lee Bonnell, who would later become her husband.
Given the quirky name Gale Storm, she went from contracts with RKO to Monogram to Universal, appearing in such low-budget films as “Where Are Your Children?” with Cooper and “Tom Brown’s School Days” with Freddie Bartholomew.
She was often cast in westerns as the girl the cowboy left behind, and appeared in such B-movie oaters as “The Dude Goes West” with Albert, “The Kid from Texas” with Audie Murphy and “The Texas Rangers” with George Montgomery.
“I was really scared of horses,” she admitted in 2000. “I only rode them because that’s what you had to do.”
She appeared in three Republic westerns with Rogers and recalled that his horse Trigger did what he could to cause her trouble. As she would smile and ride alongside Rogers while the king of the cowboys crooned a song, Trigger (out of camera range) would lean over and bite her horse’s neck.
With her movie roles diminishing in the early 1950s, Storm followed the path of many fading movie stars of the day and moved on to television.
“My Little Margie” debuted on CBS as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1952. It quickly became an audience favorite and moved to its own slot on NBC that fall.
The premise was standard sitcom fare: Charles Farrell was a business executive and eligible widower, Storm was his busybody daughter who protected him from predatory women.
The year after “My Little Margie” ended its 126-episode run in 1955, she moved on to “The Gale Storm Show,” which lasted until 1960. This time she played Susanna Pomeroy, a trouble-making social director on a luxury liner.
Storm, who had taken vocal lessons, sang on her second series, and three of her records became best sellers: “I Hear You Knocking,” “Teenage Prayer” and “Dark Moon.”
She appeared only sporadically on TV after “The Gale Storm Show,” guest starring on such programs as “Burke’s Law,” “The Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
She appeared in numerous musicals, however, including Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief” at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Other stage credits included “Unsinkable Molly Brown” (as the title character), “South Pacific” and “Finnegan’s Rainbow.”
Although Storm had not acted in recent years, Peter Bonnell said his mother enjoyed keeping in touch with fans and had known many of them for years.
Her fans were surprised to read in her 1980 autobiography, “I Ain’t Down Yet,” that she was an alcoholic.
“I had hidden it socially, never drank before a performance,” she said. After being treated in three hospitals, she found one that helped her break the habit.
Born April 5, 1922, in Bloomington, Texas, Storm was only 13 months old when her father died. Her mother supported five children by taking in sewing.
Storm’s first husband died in 1987, and the following year she married former TV executive Paul Masterson. He died in 1996.
Storm and Bonnell had three sons, Philip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
___
Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story.

MONDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) — If you want your mind to stay
sharp when you're 90, here's what you'll need to do.
Exercise moderately or vigorously at least once a week, live with
someone, avoid smoking and continue to volunteer or work into your 70s or
80s.
A new study shows that seniors with at least a high school education
and a ninth-grade literacy level who followed such a lifestyle were more
likely to stay mentally fit than those who didn't.
“The take-home message from the study is, you can maintain your
cognitive function in late life,” said study author Alexandra Fiocco, a
postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.
“People are afraid they will experience cognitive decline as they age. But
not everyone declines.”
The study appears in the June 9 issue of Neurology.
Researchers examined about 2,500 men and women aged 70 to 79 living in
Memphis, Tenn. or Pittsburgh, Pa. All were taking part in the Health,
Aging and Body Composition study.
Cognitive skills were tested four times over the eight-year study: at
the outset and at years 3, 5 and 8.
As time passed, many of the participants showed decline in cognitive
function — about 53 percent experienced minor cognitive decline and 16
percent showed major cognitive decline.
But about 30 percent of the participants showed no cognitive decline —
and a few even improved their scores on cognitive tests.
So, what separated those who experienced mental decline from those who
stayed sharp?
Seniors who exercised moderately to vigorously at least once a week
were 30 percent more likely to maintain their cognitive function than
those who didn't exercise that often, according to the study.
Those who had at least a high school education were nearly three times
as likely to stay sharp as those who had less education, while older
adults with a ninth-grade literacy level or higher were nearly five times
as likely to avoid mental decline as those with lower literacy levels.
Nonsmokers were nearly twice as likely to stay sharp as those who
smoke.
And seniors still working or volunteering were 24 percent more likely
to maintain cognitive function, as were people who didn't live alone.
“To this day, the majority of past research has focused on factors that
put people at greater risk to lose their cognitive skills over time, but
much less is known about what factors help people maintain their skills,”
Fiocco said.
Hypertension and diabetes showed little impact on cognitive skills.
Dr. John Hart Jr., a professor of behavioral and brain sciences and
neurology at the University of Texas at Dallas, said patients often come
in wanting to know exactly what they need to do to avoid the problems
associated with aging.
No one really knows precisely what that prescription is, Hart said. But
studies such as this shed light on some of the lifestyle factors that
separate those who are experiencing healthy aging and those who
aren't.
“These are exciting studies that are getting us closer and closer to
finding out what you need to do for a healthy old age,” he said.
For people looking to improve their cognitive condition, Hart said
there is no one product on the market or type of mental exercise that has
been shown to be beneficial above the others.
Instead, take up a different activity, volunteer, try new things to
challenge your brain, he suggested.
“It always comes back to eat healthy, exercise, take care of yourself,”
Hart said. “Stay physically and mentally active, and you will increase
your chances of successful aging.”
More information
For more on healthy aging, visit the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite some high-profile bombings in recent days, Iraq’s security forces are ready to take over for U.S. forces this week to stabilize the nation’s major cities, the U.S. commander in Iraq told CNN on Sunday.
Except for soldiers in advisory roles, all U.S. combat troops will leave Iraqi cities and towns by June 30.
Army Gen. Ray Odierno said he’s seen a “constant improvement” in both the security situation and governance in Iraq to prepare for the June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from major cities. “They’ve been working for this for a long time,” Odierno said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” In a separate interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Odierno said all U.S. troops already were out of Iraq’s major cities before Tuesday’s deadline. “We have already moved out of the cities,” Odierno said. “We’ve been slowly doing it over the last eight months. And the final units have moved out of the cities over the last several weeks.” The shift is part of the security agreement that former President George W. Bush’s administration signed with Iraq.
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In the CNN interview, Odierno blamed the recent violence in Iraq on “extremist elements using the timeframe and date to gain attention to themselves and divert attention from the success of Iraqi security forces.” The 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still will “maintain full coordination with Iraqi forces inside the cities” and continue to have intelligence capacity, Odierno said. With approval from the Iraqis, they also will carry out operations in major cities as necessary, he said. Odierno said his goal is to help provide security that allows Iraq to hold planned national elections leading to the eventual removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011. He said his biggest worry is a breakdown in stability such as a “consistent increase in violence” or a situation that Iraqi forces can’t handle. “I don’t see that” happening, Odierno said. “I think we’re on the right path.” Odierno also said Iran continues to “interfere” in Iraq, including training insurgents and paying surrogates. But he said his mission is limited to providing security within Iraq, no matter the provocation from Iran or elsewhere. “I’m not authorized to do anything outside the borders of Iraq,” he said. Iran’s government has repeatedly denied fomenting violence inside Iraq.
Source:CNN

ROME (Reuters) –
Vatican archaeologists using laser technology have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome.
Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, revealing the find on Sunday, published a picture of a frescoed image of the face of a man with a pointed black beard on a red background, inside a bright yellow halo. The high forehead is furrowed.
Experts of the Ponitifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology made the discovery on June 19 in the Catacomb of Santa Tecla in Rome and describe it as the “oldest icon in history dedicated to the cult of the Apostle,” according to the Vatican newspaper.
The discovery, which involved removing layers of clay and limestone using lasers, was announced a day before Rome observes a religious holiday for the Feasts of St Peter and St Paul.
Peter and Paul are revered by Christians as the greatest early missionaries. Converting on the road to Damascus following a blinding vision of Jesus, Paul took the Gospel to pagan Greeks and Romans and met his martyrdom in Rome in about 65 AD.
Early Christians in Rome buried their dead in catacombs dug into the soft rock under the city and decorated the underground walls with devotional images, often in the Pompeian style.
(Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Sophie Hares)

WASHINGTON – Facing a rare defeat, President Barack Obama put a big dose of political capital on the line and scored a major victory just when he needed one.
In private telephone conversations and last-minute public appeals, Obama leaned heavily on House Democratic holdouts to support the first energy legislation ever designed to curb global warming. The measure ended up passing in dramatic fashion.
In the end, the president’s furious lobbying — coupled with a final push by allies including former Vice President Al Gore — carried much weight. To a certain extent, the victory validated Obama’s governing style — and that could bode well for his other top domestic priority, health care. He faces an even more difficult test in shepherding the energy and climate legislation through the Senate.
Obama recognizes as much.
“Now my call to every senator, as well as to every American, is this: We cannot be afraid of the future. And we must not be prisoners of the past,” Obama said in his weekend Internet and radio address. He scrapped his talk on his original topic, health care, and recorded the climate bill speech shortly after the Democratic-controlled House backed the measure on a 219-212 vote late Friday.
It was a win Obama certainly needed. Congress was getting ready for a weeklong holiday break and already health care was hanging in the balance. While his popularity remains strong, Obama’s overall ratings have slipped a bit. This restive nation also is wary of some of his proposals, including deficit spending as Obama pumps an enormous amount of money into the economy and elsewhere.
The narrow House suggests potential trouble ahead with the Democratic rank-and-file as the White House seeks to tackle more big-ticket issues in Obama’s first year in office; health care tops the list.
As Congress tackles that contentious issue, Obama’s left flank is beating up him and his allies over the effort to overhaul the costly and complex U.S. medical system. Moderate Democrats are looking to forge compromises to pass a measure; liberal critics are dug in over elements they want to see in any legislation. Liberal groups are running ads against senators who won’t publicly support a government program to compete against private insurers.
Democrats have a comfortable House majority. But the climate legislation pitted Democrats who represent East Coast states that have been cleaning up their act against Democrats in the Mideast and other places that rely heavily on coal and industry. They have a longer, more expensive path to meet requirements in the measure.
Senate passage is far from certain, given that Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to cut off a likely filibuster.
Obama’s personal touch — and another dose of his political capital — will be required again.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he didn’t expect Senate action until the fall. “We’re trying to solve a problem that has languished for a decade,” he said.
“I hope it won’t pass the Senate,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on “Fox News Sunday,” claiming the measure would lead to “significant increases in electricity across America.”
In the House, Obama was vindicated — at least for now — with his hands-off approach to accomplishing his legislative goals. He prefers to provide broad policy principles on his priorities, leaving the details to Congress.
He temporarily may have put to rest concerns — expressed publicly by Republicans and privately by Democrats — that he’s trying to do too much: so many policy changes in the midst of a recession and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama has had a string of early successes, the 787 billion economic stimulus among them.
The climate bill victory was different. It was grander. It had international consequences. It perhaps meant more to Obama than the others.
After ignoring global warming for decades, most leading nations now agree it’s an urgent danger. The U.S. public, too, has come to same conclusion in recent years.
The House measure would, for the first time, limit the pollution blamed for global warming while signaling a new commitment to combating global warming. President George W. Bush gave the matter the short shrift.
Remaking the energy industry and curbing global warming have been hallmarks of Obama’s platform since he began his presidential campaign in 2007, if not before that.
Sensing the legislation was in trouble early last week, the White House stepped up its involvement.
First, Obama pressed the House to act during a news conference.
Then, the White House held a hastily arranged Rose Garden event Thursday that raised the stakes. Obama pleaded for votes, acknowledged the changed world view on the subject and stressed the opportunity at hand for the United States.
“The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. Now is the time for the United States of America to realize this as well. And now is the time for us to lead,” he said.
A day later, after a flurry of phone calls from Obama to recalcitrant Democrats, the House spoke — and said it agreed.
Will the Senate?
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Liz Sidoti has covered national politics for The Associated Press since 2003.

USA 2-3 Brazil
By Phil Dawkes
Brazil denied the USA another shock victory by coming back from two goals down to win the Confederations Cup.A Clint Dempsey flick and a Landon Donovan strike on the counter put the USA into a surprise 2-0 half-time lead. Luis Fabiano pulled one back for Brazil before Kaka was denied an equaliser when his header was wrongly judged not to have crossed the line. Luis Fabiano’s headed second levelled matters before, five minutes from time, Lucio nodded in a corner to win it. After upsetting the odds so spectacularly with their 2-0 semi-final victory over Spain, the USA almost tore up the script again, against opponents who had beaten them 3-0 in the group stage of the competition. Predictably, favourites Brazil had the lion’s share of possession, but the incisive football was played by the American underdogs throughout the first half. Indeed, with their first attack the USA scored. Jonathan Spector launched a cross from deep at Dempsey, whose swinging volley made the faintest of touches to direct the ball past Julio Cesar. Even at such an early stage, it was clear that Brazil were waiting for one of their leading lights to create something from nothing as opposed to taking collective responsibility.
Three times their star-turn Kaka created chances for others, firstly Robinho, then Felipe Melo and finally Maicon, but each time American goalkeeper Tim Howard was equal to the final shot. After 25 minutes, Brazil were made to pay for their profligacy as the USA launched a superb counter-attack which resulted in a superb second goal. Donovan found Charlie Davies on the left wing, whose incisive return pass found Donovan in space and bearing down on goal but still with plenty to do. The striker’s touch took him away from the covering Ramires and his next touch was a perfectly placed side-foot shot past Cesar. With seconds remaining in the half Brazil almost clawed back what would have been a barely merited goal when Maicon got round the back of the American defence, but his cross was deflected away from the lurking Fabiano by Carlos Bocanegra. Barely a minute into the second half, the dynamic of the game changed as Felipe Melo fed Luis Fabiano, who swivelled sharply and shot past Howard. With the momentum now in their favour, Brazil attacked with regularity and were mistakenly denied parity on the hour as Kaka’s far post header from an Andre Santos cross was pushed clear by Howard, but replays showed that the ball had crossed the line. Luis Fabiano had a chance to equalise when he was played in on goal by substitute Elano – and played onside by Oguchi Onyewu – but Howard was quick off his line to smother the ball before the striker could shoot. With 15 minutes to go Luis Fabiano did pull his side level. Kaka drove in from the left and crossed for Robinho whose shot hit the underside of the bar but bounced nicely for Luis Fabiano who made no mistake in nodding the ball past the diving Howard. With Brazil now in the ascendancy, the USA were unable to hold out, and five minutes from time the turnaround was complete. Elano’s outswinging corner was met by the unmarked Lucio and his powerful header struck the inside of Howard’s right-hand post on its way in to break American hearts. USA coach Bob Bradley:”That defeat really hurt. “I’m extremely proud of my players, but it still feels pretty lousy to let this one get away. “I hope though that people around the world see we have good team and great players and it is a big step forward.” USA: Howard, Spector, DeMerit, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Dempsey, Clark (Casey 88), Feilhaber (Bornstein 75), Donovan, Davies, Altidore (Kljestan 75). Subs Not Used: Guzan, Califf, Wynne, Pearce, Beasley, Adu, Torres, Bradley, Robles. Booked: Bocanegra. Goals: Dempsey 10, Donovan 27. Brazil: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Luisao, Andre Santos (Dani Alves 66), Ramires (Elano 67), Felipe Melo, Silva, Kaka, Luis Fabiano, Robinho. Subs Not Used: Victor, Juan, Kleber, Miranda, Josue, Julio Baptista, Kleberson, Alexandre Pato, Nilmar, Gomes. Booked: Felipe Melo, Andre Santos, Lucio. Goals: Luis Fabiano 46, 74, Lucio 84. Att: 62,000 Ref: Martin Hansson (Sweden).

Source:BBC

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) –
Honduran troops arrested President Manuel Zelaya in a dawn raid on his home Sunday and flew him out of the country in an apparent military coup just hours before a controversial referendum.
“Troops have taken the president from his home to the air force,” the president's personal secretary, Enrique Reina, told reporters, just hours before Zelaya had sought to hold a referendum on extending his four-term term.
The first such major political unrest in several decades in the impoverished Central American nation came amid a bitter power struggle between Zelaya, elected to a non-renewal term in 2005, and the country's military and legal institutions.
Zelaya was swiftly flown to neighboring Costa Rica as the Honduran Supreme Court said it had in fact ordered his ouster to preserve law and order.
“I am the victim of a kidnapping by Honduran soldiers… I was deceived by the military elite,” Zelaya told Venezuelan-based Telesur television.
A neighbor told Radiocadena Voces television about 200 troops swooped on Zelaya's home just as dawn was breaking around 6:00 am and his house remained surrounded by heavily armed troops, an AFP photographer saw.
A leading government official, Armando Sarmiento, told AFP that at least eight cabinet members were also detained including Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas who had urged Zelaya's supporters to protest his ouster.
“Our president has been kidnapped. It is by taking to the streets that we can succeed in obtaining his release,” she told Telesur earlier.
As planes and helicopters overflew the capital, several hundred Zelaya supporters ignored warnings to stay home and flooded onto the streets of Tegucigalpa shouting out, “We want Mel,” the president's nickname.
The protestors were members of groups which had backed Zelaya's moves to revise the constitution to allow him to stand for a second term.
But the demonstration was halted in front of the presidential palace when the way was barred by a cordon of troops and armored vehicles.
“One officer threatened to throw grenades,” said protestor Isidro Portillo.”
Other protesters, some with their faces covered, lay down in the streets to prevent the passage of military vehicles.
Zelaya, who took up office in 2006, had planned a vote Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a future referendum to allow him to run for reelection after his term ends in January.
The planned referendum had been ruled illegal by the country's top court and was opposed by the military, but the president said he planned to press ahead with it anyway and ballot boxes had already been distributed.
US President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned about the unfolding events in Honduras, as the European Union also called for Zelaya's release.
“I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” Obama said in a statement.
“Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference.”
The apparent coup is the latest dramatic event in a tense political standoff over the past several days.
Last week Zelaya sacked the country's top military chief, General Romeo Vasquez and also accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Edmundo Orellana, after military commanders refused to distribute ballot boxes for Sunday's vote.
The heads of the army, marines and air force also resigned.
The Honduran Supreme Court then unanimously voted Thursday to reinstate Vasquez and hundreds of troops massed late last week in the capital Tegucigalpa.
Zelaya, who was elected as a conservative, has shifted dramatically to the left during his presidency.
He is the latest in a long list of Latin American leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to seek constitutional changes to expand presidential powers and also ease term limits.
Chavez also denounced Sunday's arrest as a “coup d'etat” and alleged that the United States had a hand in Zelaya's overthrow.
And he warned that if Venezuela's envoys to Honduras were harmed he would be prepared to intervene militarily.

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson called his trial on child molestation claims, “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” Acquitted of all charges by a jury but convicted by public opinion, he spent the rest of his life trying to recover from the ordeal.
On many fronts, it was a losing battle. Late night comedians derided him as a pedophile. Prosecutors who lost the case against him never accepted the jury verdict and Jackson felt driven to give up his beloved Neverland Ranch and leave the country.
This month, exactly four years after the verdict, the nation’s greatest pop star was on the verge of a dazzling comeback. His “This Is It” concert tour was to be his artistic rebirth, a vivid signal that he had at last recovered from the trial.
But Thomas Mesereau Jr., the lawyer who defended Jackson, said the star never fully recovered from the trial.
“The jury said, ‘not guilty,’ 14 times,” Mesereau recalls. “You couldn’t have a verdict that got any closer to full vindication.”
On the acquittal day, Mesereau issued a statement: “Justice is done. The man’s innocent. He always was.”
Mesereau said in an interview Saturday that the effort by prosecutors and many media outlets to demonize Jackson during the 2005 trial took a physical and emotional toll on the already fragile defendant that was difficult to erase.
“These were horrible charges to accuse any one of and they were completely bogus,” he said.
Jackson could have gotten nearly 20 years behind bars if convicted of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. Jurors also acquitted Jackson of getting the boy drunk and of conspiring to imprison the accuser and his family at the ranch.
Jackson’s defense team prevailed with evidence that he was the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta.
Mesereau recalled Jackson visibly withering as the trial progressed, losing weight, his cheeks sunken, his skin pale. Twice he was taken to a hospital emergency room for treatment.
“The poor fellow couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. He was very worried about what would happen to his children if he was sent away. It took a horrible toll on him,” said Mesereau.
The attorney said Jackson suffered at the hands of a media contingent that wished him to be convicted.
“Much of the media was having a field day trying to make him out as a monster,” he said. “People were trying to build careers off a conviction.”
At first, though, the hysteria that would surround the trial was fed by Jackson the showman. On the day he pleaded not guilty, he responded to the cheers of fans by jumping atop an SUV and doing some dance steps.
About 1,500 people, including fans and media from around the world, swarmed outside the courthouse in a scene reminiscent of a concert, with vendors selling T-shirts, steaks and hot dogs to the many fans who had come in chartered buses and cars.
By the time the trial began, over a year later, a media tent city of 2,200 reporters and camera crews sprang up outside the courthouse. There were no more antics by Jackson, although he commissioned a costume designer to create his outfits for court, favoring military style jackets with a rainbow of different colored vests and armbands.
Mesereau said Jackson deteriorated rapidly. The artist known for his electric, moonwalking performances was rendered motionless, seemingly frozen in his courtroom chair as his private world became utterly public.
The hardest part, the attorney said, was for Jackson to be accused by a child. It had happened once before in 1993 but that case was settled without a trial. “He didn’t really trust adults,” Mesereau said. “He looked to children as the people who wouldn’t hurt him.”
When the trial was over, Jackson left the courthouse, waving weakly to the crowds of fans who never left him. And then he disappeared.
“He loved Neverland and Santa Barbara County but he fled to the Middle East and then he lived like a rolling stone in England, Ireland, Las Vegas,” Mesereau said. “He never found an anchor.”
In his only post-trial interview , Jackson called an Associated Press reporter from Bahrain three months after the verdict to express his thanks for fair coverage. He said then that the trial was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life” and that he and his children were still “resting and recovering.”
Jackson said he was at work on a charity song for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“I’m constantly working on it,” he said.
But like many projects he began, it was never completed.

SAN JOSE (AFP) –
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya insisted from exile in Costa Rica Sunday that he remains the rightful leader of Honduras, hours after being deposed by his country's military.
Zelaya said he would attend a meeting of regional leaders to be held Monday in Nicaragua to assert his right to his country's leadership.
“Tomorrow, I will attend in the Summit of Central American presidents in Managua,” he told reporters at the international airport in Costa Rica.
He was accompanied at the press conference by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who has denounced Zelaya's ouster.