BC-AP World Features Digest

Below is a list of feature stories that The Associated Press plans to move in the coming week. Questions about the stories may be addressed to the North America Desk supervisor in New York at 212-621-1650 (fax 212-621-5449) or e-mail amidesk(at)ap.org) or to individual bureaus in your country or region.

We will update this digest daily, adding new features as available. Feature stories that moved in the previous three days are included at the bottom for editors who may not have seen them.

Monday, Dec. 20

GLOBAL BUILDING BOOM

HANGZHOU, China — From dams through highways to power stations, half of the 30 costliest building projects today are in China, Brazil and …

A LOGGER'S EVOLUTION INTO ORGANICS, C&D RECYCLING

S&H Landscape & Recycling in Oregon manages a full plate of waste streams, generating products ranging from mulch and compost to boiler fuel and road aggregate.

S&H Landscape & Recycling's route to becoming one of Oregon's leading landscape material providers was, like that of many other similar companies, a roundabout one. In the late 1970s, with more than a decade committed to serving the logging market, the firm saw the writing on the wall in terms of both worsening economic conditions and changing environmental perceptions. Anticipating a downturn in logging activity, company founder Duane Stroupe made a lateral move, first to becoming a large-scale provider of …

China again warns Taiwan's Chen on independence agenda

China warned Tuesday that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian will "pay a dear price" if he continues with current pro-independence plans.

The warning came from National People's Congress spokesman Jiang Enzhou at a news conference to announce the agenda for the NPC, which opens Wednesday.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing considers the self-governing island Chinese territory and has threatened military attack if Taiwan tries to formalize its de facto independence.

Chen, who will step down soon after eight years as president, has been …

Golfer pics on course to net cash for charity

Rare signed pictures of three of the world's most renowned golferswill go under the hammer for charity.

The proceeds from the pictures of Gary Player, Arnold Palmer andJack Nicklaus will go to CLAN (Cancer Link Aberdeen and North).

The sale is part of a prestigious young professional Pro-Am golftournament at Insch Golf Club on September 14.

The collection of signed pictures depicting 'The Big Three', whohave accumulated 34 major championships between them, will …

Rock Island shades Proviso East

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. Proviso East and Rock Island enteredSaturday's nonconference showdown as two of the state's elite.

But if the Pirates are to make it to the Elite Eight, they'llhave to shoot better at the free throw line.

Proviso East connected on 5-of-19 free throws and saw anine-point lead slip away in the fourth quarter of a 65-64 loss tothe unbeaten (8-0) Rocks before a crowd of 5,000.

No. 2-ranked Proviso East misfired on four free throws in thefinal 1:39, including two bonus attempts. That set the stage for TomWise's game-winning layup for Rock Island with 10 seconds remaining.

Sophomore Kenny Davis (12 points) missed a 21-footer for …

Egypt asks Berlin to return Nefertiti bust

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's top archaeologist has formally requested the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti that has been in a Berlin museum for decades, the latest move in his eight-year-old campaign to bring home ancient artifacts spirited out of the country during colonial times.

The bust dates back to the time of the 14th century B.C. queen and tops Egypt's wish list of artifacts that Zahi Hawass wants to see back home. The bust is currently at Berlin's Neues Museum.

"I am doing something that I believe in and that should have been done a 100 years ago," Hawass told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "My campaign has united those who have been …

List of top 15 cable shows in Nielsen ratings

Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Nov. 9-15. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:

1. NFL Football: Pittsburgh vs. Denver (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 11.35 million homes, 16 million viewers.

2. "ICarly" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.44 million homes, 5.03 million viewers.

3. "SpongeBob Truth or Square" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.4 million homes, 4.65 million viewers.

4. "Suite Life on Deck" (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.31 million homes, 4.77 million viewers.

5. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 …

Making Most Of Housing The Torch

George Washington slept here, some hotels boast. Others heraldElvis' stays. But Holiday Inn - well, it got the torch. The Olympicflame.

"The torch stops here. That's our new line," said Holiday Innspokesman Craig Smith.

During its 84-day journey, starting April 27 in Los Angeles andculminating July 19 in Atlanta, the torch and its entourage will bestaying at 75 Holiday Inns nationwide. The attendants, 120 staffersin all, range from public relations specialists to bodyguards.Don't worry about the …

Mourners pay respects to last WWI veteran

WASHINGTON (AP) — Friends, fellow veterans and complete strangers are paying their respects to the last American veteran of World War I.

The body of Frank Buckles is resting in a flag-draped casket at a funeral home in Washington. Buckles will be buried Tuesday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Buckles enlisted in the Army at …

40 years after 1st win, NY Rep. Rangel runs again

It's been 40 years since New York Rep. Charles Rangel first won his congressional seat. And he's not done yet.

Rangel formally announced his re-election campaign Sunday. The Democrat made the announcement surrounded by a host of elected officials, including Gov. David Paterson.

Rangel was first elected to the House in 1970. He defeated Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who had been a …

Silverstein: No more mezuzah bans in Illinois

When Senator Ira Silverstein (D-8th) first read about the Chicago condominium where owners were prohibited from placing mezuzahs on their front doorposts, he was shocked and outraged.

"I was at Bagel Country [restaurant in Skokie], I read the article, and I couldn't believe it," he told the Jewish Star, referring to this newspaper's first article on the issue, "Chicago condo bans mezuzahs" (July 15, 2005).

He added that he was "appalled by the whole series of events" regarding the ban, and wanted to do something about it.

Now he has.

Last week, Sen. Silverstein introduced a bill in the Illinois Senate that would ensure condominium boards in Illinois cannot …

Unlikely champs par for course at British Open

SANDWICH, England (AP) — As workers pieced together plastic tables and hammered the last tents into place Sunday, Aaron Baddeley got an idea of just how punishing a British Open course can be when you don't hit the ball straight.

Coming to the final hole of a friendly practice game with fellow Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, Baddeley sprayed his tee shot far to the right, toward the sponsor suites that were still being spruced up before the crowds descend on Royal St. George's.

Baddeley ignored the vacuum cleaner humming in the background and hopped over two metal barricades, hoping to locate the ball in the tall, thick grass.

No chance.

"This course rewards someone who's …

Homes More Affordable, Group Says

WASHINGTON The ability of the typical American family to buy apreviously owned home grew from April through June to the highestlevel in nearly 20 years, a real estate trade group said Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said its Composite HousingAffordability Index rose to 132.6 during the second quarter for thefourth straight increase.

The index, up from 118.9 at the same time last year, was thehighest since it measured 137.2 during the fourth quarter of 1973.

"The economic conditions for purchasing a home have beenimproving steadily for one year now," said Realtors President WilliamS. Chee. "With the lowest interest rates in two decades, arecovering economy and healthy home sales, this is the time forconsumers to be in the market."

The index measures the ability of a family earning the medianincome to purchase a median-priced, previously owned home. Themedian means that half of the incomes are larger and half aresmaller, or half of the homes cost more and half cost less.

In addition to the composite index, the Realtors said a secondone that measures the purchasing power of first-time buyers also rosefor the fourth straight quarter.

Turkish PM visits quake zone in eastern Turkey

VAN, Turkey (AP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited thousands of quake victims in eastern Turkey on Saturday, where two deadly quakes over the last two weeks have killed at least 640 people and left many homeless.

Erdogan's first stop was the town of Ercis, where thousands of survivors of the from the October 7.2-magnitude quake that still live in tents, even as the snow has blanketed much of the region. Some 604 people were killed.

The Oct. 23 temblor killed 604 people destroyed at least 2,000 buildings in Ercis and in the city of Van, which was hit again by a magnitude-5.7 quake on Wednesday. About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the initial quake in October.

At least 36 other people were killed when two hotels tumbled in Van on Wednesday. Among the victims were a Japanese aid worker and two Turkish journalists, who had gone to the area after the initial temblor in October.

Rescue workers discovered the bodies of the reporters, Sebahattin Yilmaz and Cem Emir, from the Dogan news agency early Saturday in the rubble of the Bayram Hotel. The Japanese aid worker Atsushi Miyazaki was rescued alive from the wreckage of that hotel but died in a hospital Thursday.

Turkey's disaster management authority said Saturday that 30 people were pulled out alive from the rubble of the collapsed hotels in Van.

On Friday, Turkey notified countries offering help to deal with the new quake that it would accept tents and prefabricated homes to house survivors through the winter.

With even more people refusing to return to homes after the second quake, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said authorities were setting up thousands of more tents for the homeless. He said some of the quake survivors would be housed at state-run hotels around the country until the spring.

He urged citizens, meanwhile, to send heaters, blankets and food packages for the people of Van.

___

Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

Communion creates debate // Clintons' participation in rite raises eyebrows

President Clinton - a Southern Baptist - received communionSunday from a Roman Catholic priest in Africa who later said he wasfollowing a recent South African bishops' statement on ecumenism.

Both Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Methodist,received consecrated hosts from the Rev. Mohlomi Makobane at ReginaMundi Church in Soweto.

While the church prohibits non-Catholics from taking part in thesacrament of communion, priests and bishops have some discretion indeciding when exceptions to the rules are appropriate. The code ofchurch law permits sharing consecrated bread and wine in times of"grave necessity," such as when non-Catholics cannot find a ministerof their own faith and share Catholics' beliefs about the eucharist,experts said.Catholics and some Protestants believe in the "real presence" ofJesus' blood and flesh in the consecrated wine and bread. MostProtestants believe the presence is symbolic."On face value, there is a possibility that this was a pastoraldecision, something discussed between the (South African) bishop, thepriest and the president," said Brother Jeffery Gros, an ecumenicalexpert for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Only thoseparties will know."A Clinton spokesman said it was their understanding that the"bishops of South Africa made a ruling that communion is open to allbaptized Christians, and all baptized Christians were invited to takepart in communion."The Rev. Dan Whiteside, president of the Chicago Association ofPriests, said it is common not to "publicly embarrass" anyone whocomes forward for communion, although later counseling on churchregulations may be needed.Another expert, who asked to remain unnamed, said that whileClinton - who graduated from Catholic Georgetown University inWashington, D.C. - most likely knew that non-Catholics aren't allowedto take communion, "he probably was caught up in the enthusiasm ofthe moment and thought it was OK."There was no statement Tuesday from the Holy See.Several parishioners outside Holy Name Cathedral thought Clintonhad overstepped ecclesiastical boundaries."I would say he shouldn't have (taken communion), especially ifit's just to show off over there. He isn't Catholic," said LorraineStone of Chicago.A second parishioner, hurrying to 5 p.m. mass, asked to remainnameless before saying, "maybe he thought he was doing somethinggood. . . . but I think he should have found a tactful way of nottaking communion."The Rev. Edward Foley, a liturgical expert at the CatholicTheological Union in Hyde Park, said there is room in the law fornon-Catholics to take communion."There is a place in the law which does address non-Catholicsfor a reason," he said. "That's the decision of the local bishop."Contributing: Bryan Smith

Didn't like assessment? You can file complaint

It's never too late for Cook County homeowners to appeal theirproperty tax assessments.

Experts say property owners who can prove they are over-assessedcan save hundreds of dollars in real estate taxes if they file acomplaint with either the Cook County Assessor's office or the CountyBoard of (Tax) Appeals.

"We do make mistakes," said Cook County Assessor Thomas C.Hynes. "We want property owners to know they can have theirassessment corrected if it is in error."

"Inaccuracies can come from many causes, for example, computererrors or mistakes in the records of the physical characteristics ofthe property," said Dick Vanecko, director of community relations forthe assessor's office.

Although appeal deadlines affecting the current bill havepassed, property owners now can file an assessment complaint for thecoming year with the assessor's office and pre-register a protestwith the appeals board. However, if an assessment reduction isgranted, it won't be reflected on your tax bill until next year.

No figures are available for the number of assessment reductionsgranted through appeal. However, about 24,000 property owners filedcomplaints on their 1986 assessments.

The assessor's Homeowner's Assistance Department is openyear-round to help property owners with assessment problems and givethem advice on how to file complaints.

Homeowners seeking an assessment reduction from the assessorshould go to the third floor of the County Building, 118 N. Clark,and meet with a member of the Homeowner's Assistance staff. Call443-7550 for information, forms and assistance.

Homeowners also can file complaints in the assessor's branchoffices: Room 204 at the Circuit Court Building, 1500 Maybrook Sq.,in Maywood (865-6032); Room 237 of the Circuit Court Building, 16501S. Kedzie, in Markham (210-4100), or in Room 149 at Circuit CourtBuilding, 5600 Old Orchard Rd., in Skokie (470-7237).

Suburban property owners also can receive assistance in filingcomplaints at local township assessor's offices.

Staff members at these offices will explain how the assessorarrived at the market value and assessment level for the property,check records and provide information.

After meeting with a staff member, if a property owner stillbelieves he is over-assessed, the assessor's representative will helphim fill out a complaint.

It is not necessary to hire a lawyer, nor is it always necessaryto produce special documents. However, the following sources ofinformation are helpful to both the assessor's office and the appealsboard in determining the value of the property: Purchase contracts and closing statements that prove the home wasbought recently at a price lower than the market value printed on theassessment notice. Evidence of comparable homes in the neighborhood that have been soldat lower prices. Evidence of comparable homes in the neighborhood with lowerassessments. (Make sure the comparable examples are as similar aspossible to your property in size, type of construction and generalcondition.) If possible, include addresses and permanent index numbers of thecomparable properties.

Index numbers for properties in Chicago can be researched bystreet address in the County Collector's office, Room 112 in the CookCounty Building. Index numbers for suburban properties can beobtained from local township assessors. Photos of your home and others in the neighborhood to show conditionof the properties and special differences that could reduce theassessment.

As another aid to homeowners in reviewing their assessments, acomputer printout listing their home's physical characteristics,including type of residence, square footage of living area andexterior construction materials is available from both the assessor'soffice and the Board of Appeals.

"This information also was provided on all of the quadrennialreassessment notices sent to homeowners," Vanecko of the assessor'soffice said. "Homeowners should carefully examine the printout forfactual errors, which could be grounds for an appeal."

If the homeowner is not satisfied with the result of hiscomplaint, he can meet with the taxpayer's advocate, an ombudsman forproperty owners in the assessor's office, who will double-check theappeal and explain why it was rejected, and have the complaintreviewed again, if called for.

Rather than wait for the results of the assessor's verdict on acomplaint, it's also a good idea for a homeowner to pre-register hisprotest with the appeals board. To pre-register, call 443-5542 andgive the board your name and address.

Homeowners who call will receive appeal forms, and two freepamphlets: "Welcome to the Board of Appeals," and "Official Rules ofthe Board of Appeals."

Another flyer, "How to Present a Case Based on Lack ofUniformity," also is available. It is useful if a homeowner feelshis home's assessment is higher than similar properties in hisneighborhood.

Thousands of free pamphlets have been distributed to homeowners,senior citizens groups and community and civic organizations throughthe board's Out Reach programs.

You'll need the assessor's notice of assessment to file anappeal with the board. You'll also need the same informationrequired by the assessor to show why your assessment should belowered. However, documentation will not have to be produced until ahearing with the board.

After Thanksgiving, the Board of Appeals will begin hearings on1987 protests.

The board goes into action after the assessor completes theassessments in each township.

Deputy commissioner Thomas Jaconetty said the appeals board's50-person staff handled 24,236 complaints last year, including 2,948from homeowners.

As a result of the complaints, the board handed out $125.5million in assessment reductions.

Jaconetty said about half of the individual homeowners who filedcomplaints received assessment reductions.

Iceland, Iran up for seats on UN Security Council

Iceland and Iran are among several nations seeking member seats on the U.N. Security Council, the powerful world panel that can impose sanctions and dispatch peacekeepers.

Iceland, grappling with a financial crisis, and Iran, under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear program, will come up for a vote Friday at the 192-member General Assembly. Austria, Turkey, Japan, Uganda and Mexico are also candidates.

In the secret ballot, candidates must get a two-thirds majority of members voting to win one of five soon-to-be-open non-permanent member slots on the 15-seat council.

Iceland will battle Austria and Turkey for one of two European open council seats. Iceland was considered a strong candidate, until a financial crisis hit the Nordic country.

"There's no doubt the financial crisis has had an impact on Iceland's international standing," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity because voting was on a secret ballot.

But the diplomat said all three have to defend themselves: Iceland on its financial crisis; Austria on the nearly 30-percent vote that right-wing parties got in recent elections; and Turkey on the role of military in the government.

Iceland's U.N. Ambassador Hjalmar Hannesson said he did not know whether his country's economic crisis will hurt its chances, but said that the problem was a global one.

Hannesson said he has received much support from colleagues, especially those from nations in the southern hemisphere.

Developing countries make up a majority of the member states, and he said "it is precisely these countries who are sympathetic and understand what a small country can go through because they are going through the same things."

While the U.N. has imposed sanctions on Iran, the Islamic republic can still compete against Japan for the Asian seat. Many expect Japan will be a clear winner, having already served nine terms on the council.

In September, the council unanimously approved a new resolution reaffirming previous sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program and offering Tehran incentives to do so.

Last year, Libya was the dark horse of the council member elections. The former pariah state once condemned by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism won a seat on the council because it ran uncontested.

Uganda is running for an uncontested African seat, and Mexico is doing the same for a Latin American seat.

Ten of the council's 15 seats are filled by the regional groups for two-year stretches. The other five are occupied by its veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

In January, the five countries will replace Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.

Telephone messages left Thursday at the U.N. missions for Iran, Turkey and Austria were not immediately returned.

Post War

MARTIN HERBERT ON STEVE MCQUEEN'S QUEEN AND COUNTRY

FOR THE PAST thirty-five years, the Art Commissions Committee of London's Imperial War Museum has invited artists to make work responding to the activities of British and Commonwealth troops, whether they be engaged in combat or in peacekeeping missions. This privately run successor to the country's official war artists' program (which was created in 1916, partly for propaganda purposes, and dismantled in 1972) has thrown up the occasional attention-grabbing artwork-notably, Langlands & Bell's interactive digital animation. The House of Osama Bin Laden, 2003, a detailed re-creation of the terrorist's last known address. Most of the results, however, have been in the relatively uncontroversial vein of Linda Kitson's pallid cont� sketches, from 1982, of soldiers training for engagement in the Falklands, and Peter Howson's muscular but conventional 1994 paintings of exhausted Muslim refugees and Red Cross convoys in Bosnia. Certainly, none of it has caused anything like the kind of ruckus sparked in recent months by the latest invitee, Steve McQueen, the thirty-seven-year-old Turner Prize-winning artist who was asked to make work connected to the war in Iraq.

When McQueen's invitation was first announced in the summer of 2003, the Art Commissions Committee stated that the artist had "an open brief." Surely, they assumed he would make a film, since, with a few sculptural and photographic exceptions, McQueen has been known for laconic but gut-pummeling shorts since the early 1990s. And indeed, he was planning to make a film, until he went to Basra for six days-and found himself closely shepherded by Ministry of Defence officials. As he later told the Financial Times, "It was like a magical mystery tour. They led me by the hand. I couldn't investigate anything." McQueen returned home with nothing in his camera, having been witness only to a few school-rebuilding projects; his plan to revisit Iraq in 2005 was canceled in light of increased hostage-taking in the country. And so the artist, understandably, was beginning to think that he would never complete his commission, when a solution presented itself-a eureka moment of sorts, occasioned by his licking a stamp tor his tax-return envelope. The idea: a run of Royal Mail stamps featuring photographs of all the British soldiers who hail died in the Iraq war.

Herein lie the beginnings of controversy. When McQueen contacted the Ministry of Defence for the addresses of the families of the 115 soldiers who had died thus far in the conflict, the agency refused to help. "The second-in-command there is also on the board ol the Imperial War Museum," the artist recalls, "and he suggested I do a landscape instead." The museum was similarly disinclined to support his cause, and the Royal Mail rejected his proposal. Stonewalled by the establishment, McQueen went forward without official help, encouraged by Alex Poots, the director of the Manchester International Festival-who said that he would gladly display the project at this cross-media event devoted entirely to newly commissioned work. Poots helped McQueen hire a researcher to assist in locating and contacting the families of fallen soldiers-the vast majority of whom sent photographs (ninety-eight agreed to participate and only tour refused outright; the others did not respond)-and the artist made his own samizdat run of stamps.

Collectively titled Queen and Country, 2007-, these stamps are currently on view in the circular Great Hall of Manchester's Central Library, under the auspices of the Manchester International Festival, displayed in of archival cabinet of English oak. The library seems an appropriate symbol of access to information, of which McQueen provides much: Each of his cabinet's 120 vertical, glassed drawers slides open to reveal a different twelve-by-fourteen grid of stamps bearing a dead soldier's portrait-or a blank, black, waiting space. The whole, from one end of the cabinet to the other, comprises a chronological procession of untimely endings, from Colour Sergeant John Cecil, age thirty-five, on March 21, 2003, to Corporal Matthew Cornish, age twenty-nine, on August 1, 2006. Each stamp, in a move of questionable legality but forceful juxtaposition, bears the familiar silhouette of Elizabeth II in one upper corner, as seen on all Royal Mail stamps. Forwarded by the bereaved, the photographs used are their favorite images of the deceased. The dead smile, rise from swimming pools, appear smeared with camouflage paint, or stand at attention.

What they do not do, right now, is travel the country in visage. But that, McQueen believes, will change. On March 1, Paul Flynn, a member of Parliament, called for a debate in the House of Commons on whether the Royal Mail should produce the stamps-arguing in favor of it on the basis that the deceased soldiers' families embraced this project and wanted its "reminder to us all of the true cost of war." By late March, twenty-seven MPs had backed his proposal, making it difficult for the government to ignore without appearing pleased to send soldiers to war without honoring their sacrifice. "It's obvious they've been put in a situation," says McQueen. "Because how can you say no? Why would you say no?" British and international newspapers on both the left and the right have since taken up the cause, suggesting that Queen and Country is a genie that cannot easily be pushed back into its bottle.

"I didn't want to create an artwork in a museum, sitting there, catching dust, which some people know about and other people don't," says McQueen now, clearly recognizing the unique urgency of his subject. "If you're going to a local post office, putting the stamps on letters, sending them in the mail or receiving themit's kind of beautiful that you could be involved in the work, part of that circulation. The two things that are very important in this public context are currency and mobility, and you get both on a single stamp." Even in its reduced form, however-as stamps displayed in a wooden cabinet standing silent in a hushed library-Queen and Country is potent. Andy Warhol, a clear influence on McQueen's film work (though not, he says, a conscious one here), is a ghostly presence in the grids of faces, their mute images utterly incommensurate with the lives lost. But in its commanding effect. Queen and Country far outstrips such shopworn references.

And, to a rare degree, it has become that highly contemporary form of art: a social process. First, it engendered an emotional exhibition opening attended by the dead soldiers' families, who were keen to tell McQueen of their losses. Then word of it spread to the press-an upshot that the artist, for all that he would rather the potentially distracting hullabaloo hadn't happened, sees retrospectively as part of the work. The projected next stage, of course, is a Royal Mail print run and the delicate, one-to-one engagement of living individuals with the human price of warfare. "Regarding the parameters of this work, there are none," says McQueen. "It goes as far as a letter will travel. As a work, it goes high, it goes low, it goes Left, it goes Right. Because once you've got a situation where people have actually died for you, even if you don't feel they should have, then you feel you ought to honor them at least."

The artist has pointedly claimed that this is "not an anti-war project," but that might be the voice of McQueen the tactician, the forward thinker and gifted improviser who, brilliantly, has managed to sail a subversive work of art into the mainstream consciousness and put the establishment in check over it. What he has done, to some extent now and hopefully to a greater extent soon, is undercut the self-interested will to invisibility and administration of spectacle that has notoriously characterized this widely resented conflict, most obviously in the United States government's censorship of imagery of the returning dead. (It is perhaps significant as well that McQueen's project, while garnering much attention in Britain, has been largely ignored in America.) McQueen has stated that this project is not only about the ninety-eight dead soldiers interred, in imagistic form, in Queen and Country. Behind them-in the blunt embodied fact that war equals death-are the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children who have died in the violence that has overtaken their country since the war began, and the losses suffered by the international military as well.

Given this social dimension, at first glance the project might not seem to fit with the artist's previous work. But there is a sense in which it does harmonize, at least with certain key McQueen films, particularly those of recent years. If the threat of violence and death flickers in early films-such as Bear, 1993, in which two nude figures seemingly square off for a fight, and Deadpan, 1997, with its Buster Keaton motif of a house's frontage collapsing around the unscathed artist-it later explodes. In 7th November, 2001, McQueen juxtaposes a voice-over recounting a fatal shooting accident with a static image of the head of a black man, apparently dead, with a fine scar running across his skull. Ciirih's Leap, 2002, was filmed in Grenada on the site where seventeenth-century Carihs committed suicide rather than live under French colonial rule; the deaths are evoked in a scene set in a Caribbean funeral parlor, showing the spruced-up dead in glossy coffins. If McQueen has now broached a political prohibition against fixating on the face of death, he has previously circled around comparable taboos widespread in the West, where death does not interpenetrate everyday life as it does in other cultures. And he concurs, in conversation, that part of the resistance to Queen and Country may not be political but cultural.

But right now that resistance is mostly political, and as such it's arguable that McQueen's work might become a test case for the potential of art to insinuate itself into the fabric of reality. If, against the artist's fervid belief, the project is never manifested in the mail, is either shut down or spun out of existence, then that is perhaps a dangerous omen-a bleak measure of art's agency and the actual boundaries of its "open brief." But if it succeeds-or even if it inspires artists to employ some of McQueen's forethought, nerve, and refusal to settle for being sequestered in a gallery-then Queen and Country will be a bright ray of hope.

[Sidebar]

McQueen's project undercuts the self-interested will to invisibility and administration of spectacle that has notoriously characterized the Iraq war.

[Author Affiliation]

MARTIN HERBERT IS A WRITER AND CRITIC BASED IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT.

Man U still sets Premier League standard

LONDON (AP) — No club has more reason to celebrate the Premier League's 20th anniversary season than Manchester United.

Only after England's top clubs broke away to form what is now world football's wealthiest league did United become champions again after a 26-year wait. Winning the Premier League in 1993 ushered in an unprecedented era of domination for the club, with another 11 league titles subsequently masterminded by Alex Ferguson.

"The whole Premier League has been the greatest era for Manchester United," chief executive David Gill said on the eve of the new season, which starts Aug 13-14.

The latest title in May took United to the top of the English champions' leaderboard — surpassing Liverpool's tally of 18.

"Looking back on our big breakthrough in 1993 when we won the inaugural Premier League, I never envisaged that we would then storm away to overhaul Liverpool," Ferguson wrote in a Premier League book looking ahead to the new season.

Liverpool is no longer United's greatest rival: Chelsea has captured the championship crown three times since 2005 and Manchester City has been awoken from a decades-long slumber by Abu Dhabi wealth.

"We will be trying our hardest to make it 20 league titles in the Premier League's 20th season," Ferguson said. "But not in any sense of boastfulness."

The comprehensive loss to Barcelona in May's Champions League final prevents such bragging.

Apart from recovering from that Wembley setback, Ferguson's big offseason challenge was replacing a trio of retiring players: goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, defender Gary Neville and midfielder Paul Scholes.

A goalkeeper was found: 20-year-old Spaniard David De Gea from Atletico Madrid. A defender: Phil Jones from Blackburn. And a winger: Ashley Young from Aston Villa. That leaves a direct replacement for Scholes still required, with a deal yet to be done with Inter Milan for Wesley Sneijder.

But no one is more accomplished at rebuilding squads than Ferguson for whom it will be a season of landmarks: 25 years in charge at Old Trafford and a 70th birthday.

The Scot's ambitions are undiminished ahead of his side's season opener at West Bromwich Albion.

"It is very easy for me to remain motivated," he said. "The players keep me enthusiastic. If you sat back and thought about it all, I suppose you would consider how much of my life it is, but that doesn't bother me too much."

Talk of retirement is off the agenda for the league's oldest manager — especially when he has the challenge of outwitting the newly installed youngest top flight manager.

Chelsea's 33-year-old Andre Villas-Boas was only a scout when he was last in England under Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge from 2004 to 2007.

And he is the same age as his oldest players: Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

Youth should not be a barrier, though, according to captain John Terry, a mere three years the manager's junior.

"Andre is a modern manager," Terry said. "The thing that impresses me, he understands the players. He's not old school."

Villas-Boas is just about the only thing that has changed at Chelsea since Carlo Ancelotti was dismissed after a second season in charge ended trophyless.

Fernando Torres still appears to have stage fright in front of goal and is yet to prove he can play alongside Drogba. And there is the same aging squad that struggled to keep up with United, despite eventually finishing second.

"They have a lot to offer," insists the Portuguese, whose four-trophy haul with Porto last season sealed his return to west London.

Villas-Boas is unlikely to be judged on his Premier League record by owner Roman Abramovich. Champions League glory is the goal for the Russian businessman, who has resisted big offseason spending after his $100 million-plus January outlay on Torres and defender David Luiz.

For Arsenal, any trophy will do — even the League Cup.

For all their widely lauded eye-catching football, a sixth season ended without a trophy after a fourth-place league finish. And in the League Cup final, Birmingham was gifted a first title in 48 years before being relegated.

The fans are yet to see the big-name signing they crave. Instead, it has been another offseason of unsettling speculation about whether captain Cesc Fabregas will return to Barcelona.

Such is the gloom at the Emirates Stadium, the Gunners were even booed off the pitch after drawing with the New York Red Bulls in a home friendly last weekend.

Wenger, whose boss is now billionaire American sports tycoon Stan Kroenke, complains: "We have to compete with people with more resources than us."

None more so than Abu Dhabi's Sheik Mansour, who has pumped more than $1 billion into Manchester City in three years.

At least, there is something to show for such lavish investment.

The pressure that engulfed the club during 35 trophyless years was lifted by May's FA Cup success and qualification for the Champions League for the first time by finishing third in the league.

But like Arsenal, City's preparations for the new season have been disrupted by confusion over the future of an unsettled captain: striker Carlos Tevez.

Even if a club does eventually meet the 50 million-pound asking price — cash that will help City comply with UEFA's new financial controls — a replacement is already in place after Sergio Aguero's capture from Atletico Madrid.

The team City seems to have displaced from the top four is the one that dominated in the decade before the Premier League's inception: Liverpool.

At Anfield, reviving former glories is the eventual aim, just being competitive again is the mission at a club that was battling relegation last season until new American owner John Henry brought back Kenny Dalglish — the manager who produced the 18th and last English title triumph in 1990.

Around $60 million has been spent on midfielders Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam, having already spent close to that amount on striker Andy Carroll in January.

There will be no distraction of European football after finishing sixth, but that won't diminish the fans' domestic hopes.

"We have to manage expectations," Dalglish said. "We don't believe we are rubbish. We think we have the right mindset to push forward without shouting our mouths off. We want to improve on last season."

Like Liverpool, Tottenham sees itself as a top-four club now despite missing out by a place last season.

Manager Harry Redknapp will have to be cautious that missing out on the Champions League after reaching the quarterfinals in style in its debut campaign last season does not lead to a sharp downturn in fortunes.

Just staying in the top flight will be the priority for the three promoted teams.

While south Wales club Swansea returns to the top tier after 30 years, two founding members of the Premier League are back.

Queens Park Rangers, which is part owned by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, ends a 15-year exile after being promoted as champions.

Norwich returns after six years, with the only current topflight manager to have won the Champions League as a player — Paul Lambert with Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

It shows have far football has changed in England that the 1992-3 season ended with Norwich third and QPR fifth.

Some things, though, never change, with Manchester United favorites to top the standings again 20 years on.

"We would remain popular I think if Manchester United won it for the next X numbers of years," league chief executive Richard Scudamore responded to a question about such predictability.

"Because A there is a huge Manchester United following and B everyone we would be out watching to see if someone can beat them next time out. I don't think this idea of somebody having to rotate through the trophy all the time is necessarily the thing that drives or doesn't drive interest."

___

Rob Harris can be reached at www.twitter.com/RobHarrisUK

Obituaries

Frank Tallarico

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - Frank Tallarico, 79, formerly of KanawhaCounty, W.Va., died Sunday, Oct. 29, 2000, at home. He was agraduate of West Virginia Tech, Montgomery, W.Va., was a formerMiami (Fla.) Senior High school teacher and vice principal and was aformer junior high school teacher in Kanawha County.

Surviving: wife, Rose Marie Thomas Tallarico; son, John Tallaricoof Miami; sisters, Rose Weiss of Independence, Va., Toni Scriptunisof Charleston, W.Va.; brothers, Sam Tallarico of South Charleston,W.Va.; three grandchildren.

Service will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Tyler Mountain MemorialGardens Mausoleum Chapel, Cross Lanes, W.Va., with the Rev. LeonAlexander officiating. Burial will be in Tyler Mountain MemoryGardens. The family suggests memorial contributions to Parish HallCapital Campaign of Blessed Sacrament Parish.

Ricky D. Vance

BRANCHLAND - Ricky Dale Vance, 46, of Branchland, Lincoln County,died Monday, Oct. 30, 2000.

He was an employee of Independence Coal Co. and a deacon at FaithBaptist Church, Midkiff.

Surviving: wife, Lauretta Vance; daughter, Kristie Garnett Parkerof Branchland; sons, Ricky Jr., and Michael Paul of West Hamlin;mother, Stella Thompson of Branchland; sisters, Roxie Ramey ofJeffrey, Lena Watts of Little Bart, Tisha Adams and Cynthia Watts ofDry Branch; brothers, Lee Vance Jr. of Dry Branch, Charles Vance ofHarts, Randy Vance of Dry Branch, James Timothy Vance of NorthCarolina; two grandchildren.

Service will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Handley Funeral Home, Hamlin,with Brother Steve Porter and Frankie Fulton officiating. Burialwill be in Franklin Cemetery, Franklin.

Friends may call from 6 to 9 p.m. today at the funeral home.

Ida M. Waldron

OAK HILL - Ida M. Bragg Waldron, 99, of Oak Hill, Fayette County,died Saturday, Oct. 28, 2000 in Plateau Medical Center, Oak Hill,after a short illness.

She was a homemaker.

Surviving: daughters, Betty Clendenin and Shirley Mackey of OakHill, Jean Bowling of Calabash, N.C., Ramona Taylor of Clayton, Ga.;foster sister, Tola Sparks of Bluefield; 12 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren.

Service will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Tyree Funeral Home, Oak Hill,with the Rev. James Shepherd and the Rev. William Slatesofficiating. Burial will be at High Lawn Memorial Park, Oak Hill.

Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home. Thefamily suggests memorial contributions to Fayette MinisterialAssociation Food Pantry, c/o Oak Hill United Methodist Church, 250Main St. E., Oak Hill, WV 25901.

- SERVICE

VICKERS, Shawn Curtis - Service was to be 3 p.m. today at FirstBaptist Church, Auburndale, Fla. Vickers, 20, of Auburndale, Fla.,formerly of Charleston, W.Va., died Oct. 29, 2000, in OrlandoRegional Medical Center, Orlando, Fla. Kersey Funeral Home,Auburndale, is in charge of arrangements. Correction on survivors:sister, Shannon Joel Vickers of Auburndale; paternal grandfather,Curtis Vickers of Clendenin.

Bank stocks fall on fears about industry's health

Bank stocks plunged Tuesday, extending last week's big losses on unrelenting concerns about the stability of the financial system.

Bank of America Corp. was among the biggest decliners, falling 51 cents, or 9.2 percent, to $5.06 in early afternoon trading. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped $2.09, or 8.5 percent, to $22.60, while Citigroup Inc. tumbled 31 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $3.18.

Investors fear the financial sector may not be able to withstand further losses tied to bad mortgage-related assets, despite unprecedented government intervention to prop up the troubled industry. The government's overhaul of the $700 billion financial bailout package has done little to pacify the market's concerns. Last week, bank stocks sank sharply as investors criticized U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for failing to provide enough details on how the administration will beef up efforts to spur lending and remove toxic assets from banks' books.

Investors still don't know how the government plans to price the bad assets or how it will conduct its "stress test" to determine whether a financial institution is worth saving.

The declines among bank stocks mirrored huge losses in the broader market Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 250 points in afternoon trading, while the broader stock indexes fell more than 3.5 percent. The drop comes as President Barack Obama prepares to sign a $787 billion stimulus package into law on Tuesday. He will also outline a plan to help stem mortgage foreclosures on Wednesday. Investors have eagerly awaited assistance from the government to help the economy, but now that the programs are becoming a reality, many question whether the efforts will be enough to lift the country out of recession.

Morgan Stanley shares declined $2.31, or 10.1 percent, to $20.62. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shed $8.15, or 8.5 percent, to $88.30.

Wells Fargo & Co. dropped $1.17, or 7.4 percent, to $14.59. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lost $2.30, or 8.2 percent, to $25.90 and U.S. Bancorp fell $1.30, or 10.5 percent, to $11.10.

Among regional bank stocks that suffered Tuesday, Huntington Bancshares Inc. dove 35 cents, or 20.7 percent, to $1.34. SunTrust Banks Inc. tumbled $1.58, or 18.1 percent, to $7.14, while Fifth Third Bancorp lost 27 cents, or 13.5 percent, to $1.73.

Weather Almanac

Yesterday's high 79

Record high 91, 1919

Normal high 72

Yesterday's low 48

Record low 28, 1974

Normal low 48

Precipitation 0.00"

Total for month 0.00"

Total for year 34.97"

Sunrise 7:24 a.m.

Sunset 7:06 p.m.

Suu Kyi's party marks anniversary in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The disbanded party of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi vowed Monday to continue fighting for democracy, marking what would be its 22nd anniversary under tight police surveillance.

The National League for Democracy was dissolved by the military government earlier this year after deciding to boycott Nov. 7 elections, saying the rules governing the balloting were unfair and undemocratic.

The elections will be Myanmar's first in two decades. Critics say the polls are designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule.

"The government has disbanded the party, but the National League for Democracy will undauntedly continue its struggle for democracy despite all the hardships," senior party member Win Tin told a cheering crowd. A former political prisoner, Win Tin was released in September 2008 after serving almost 19 years behind bars.

Suu Kyi co-founded the party amid massive pro-democracy protests in August 1988 and officially registered it on Sept. 27, 1988, after the demonstrations were violently suppressed by the junta. The party won 1990 elections by a landslide, but the results were not recognized by the military government. Suu Kyi has been jailed or under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.

On Monday, about 300 party members gathered at the home of Tin Oo, the party's other co-founder. The NLD cannot officially hold party gatherings at its Yangon headquarters after it was officially disbanded.

"We hold this ceremony to show that the National League for Democracy still exists, and we will continue to exist despite all kinds of repression," said party spokesman Nyan Win.

More than three dozen plainclothes police officers monitored the ceremony from a distance.

Party loyalists said they supported Suu Kyi's call to boycott the elections.

"I am here to show solidarity with the party," said party member Daw Nay, 88, whose granddaughter was killed during the 1988 pro-democracy protests. "I totally support the NLD's election boycott, and it is time all the people stand united with the NLD."

A group of renegade NLD members have formed a new party, the National Democratic Force, which held its own gathering Monday to announce it will field 163 candidates in the elections.

Candidates are vying for 1,157 seats, including 494 seats in Myanmar's two-chamber Union Parliament and 663 spread among 14 regional parliaments. The only party fielding candidates in almost all constituencies is the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

City seek boost after heavy [...]

City seek boost after heavy defeat Boss Britton calls for instantresponse to midweek Rushden thrashing - pages 102&103

Alcoa 3Q Profit Jumps 86 Pct. on Demand

PITTSBURGH - Alcoa Inc.'s earnings soared 86 percent as demand from makers of aircraft, trucks and trains outweighed lower metal prices and a seasonal lull, the aluminum maker said Tuesday. But the results fell far short of Wall Street expectations.

The New York-based company reported third-quarter earnings of $537 million, or 61 cents per share, up from $289 million, or 33 cents per share, during the same period a year ago. Revenue jumped 19 percent to $7.63 billion from $6.40 billion.

But sales slipped 2 percent compared with the second quarter, mostly due to weaker metal prices and an expected slump during the quarter, when many European markets are closed and the automotive industry slows down.

"We had a very solid quarter - not to the level of the last quarter as I predicted three months ago, given metal price reduction and seasonality," Alain Belda, Alcoa's chairman and chief executive, told analysts and reporters during a conference call.

The lower quarter-to-quarter results were caused mostly by the lower metal prices and to a lesser extent variable prices for materials and seasonal changes, he said. Alcoa also suffered from mill outages in its flat-rolled product segment, Belda said.

"We experienced a couple of unplanned mill outages and some planned outages that extended longer than planned," he said. "We currently have all affected equipment operating."

With the exception of the U.S. automotive industry, he said, revenue in all of the company's markets was up compared with the third quarter of 2005, and that the company would continued to be managed for long-term growth.

The aerospace and commercial transportation markets continued to be particularly strong in the third quarter, despite the softening of the North American automotive and housing construction markets, Belda said earlier in a statement.

The quarterly results are the third-best in the company's history, even though metal prices on the London Metal Exchange dipped six percent during the quarter, according to Belda.

But analysts were disappointed with the results.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast third-quarter profit of 79 cents per share, on average, and sales of $7.68 billion. A year ago, the company earned 33 cents per share.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Victor Lazarovici, who covers base metals and mining for the brokerage, described the results as "pretty awful" because they missed analyst figures by such a wide margin.

"Either they're not doing well operationally or they're not doing well communicating to the Street," he said, referring to Wall Street. "Or the Street is totally incompetent."

"You can cobble together the explanation, 'a penny here, a penny there,' but the big number is the revenue is much weaker than one would have expected for the price decline we actually saw," Lazarovici said.

He said it was almost impossible to determine metal prices used by the company during the quarter because of a time lag pricing system it uses for products and prices that were spiking and collapsing during the quarter.

Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Liinamaa said "we missed by enough that we're still working our way through the mechanisms of what the differences really were."

Alcoa shares, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed Tuesday at $28.29 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 30 cents, or 1.1 percent. In extended trading, after the release of the results, the shares were down $1.69, or 6 percent, from the close.

Alcoa has more than 123,000 employees in 43 countries.

---

On the Net:

Alcoa: http://www.alcoa.com

Cab firms' anger over committee decision

NEARLY a dozen rival taxi drivers have complained Chris Carsreceived lenient treatment from the council.

Following the licensing committee's decision (see below), 11drivers from four firms wrote to the Journal stating: "We, theCarmarthen taxi drivers, are concerned about the way some of us aretreated by the county council and the apparent leeway other seem tohave working for the organisation."

They claim they have lost contracts "for being five minutes lateor other small issues" but say Chris Cars continues to benefit fromCarmarthenshire Council school and social service contracts despitethe court and committee decisions.

Philip Davies, the council's head of public protection, saidtransport contracts were not a matter for the licensing committee.He added: "The council is satisfied with the services supplied bythe taxi trade to residents and visitors to Carmarthenshire."

Kenneth Duxbury, of Chris Cars, said: "We tender for thecontracts like everyone else.

"This is the first offence in 28 years and we have left it to thecouncil to judge it how they see fit."

Thailand to deport crew of NKorean weapons plane

Thai authorities dropped charges Thursday against a foreign plane crew accused of smuggling arms from North Korea, easing a diplomatic jam but leaving open the vexing question of where the multimillion dollar illicit arms shipment was headed.

The five-member crew from Kazakhstan and Belarus was arrested Dec. 12 when the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane they were flying from the North Korean capital Pyongyang landed in Bangkok. Thai authorities, acting on a tip from the United States, found 35 tons of weapons on board _ a violation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

The U.N. Security Council discussed the incident Thursday, and Japan's U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu said afterwards that the committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea was working on a letter than will remind Pyongyang of its obligation to comply with the ban on exporting or importing weapons.

At the meeting, Takasu said, council members discussed whether a reminder letter was enough and whether the sanctions committee could "do something more" if there is no response to the letter or the government in question doesn't "do anything concrete." He said no decisions were made, calling it an "issue we really have to think about (for) the future."

The crew were released from prison and handed over to immigration police Thursday evening for deportation.

Thailand and some independent arms trafficking experts say flight documents indicated the plane's cargo _ listed as oil drilling equipment _ was headed for the Iranian capital Tehran. The crew claimed they were ignorant of what they were really carrying.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has denied the weapons were destined for its shores.

Much is still unknown, and with the plane's crew released, the answers are unlikely to be found. "Most likely the investigation will dwindle into obscurity," said Peter Danssaert, a researcher for the Belgium-based International Peace Information Service, which has published a report on the affair.

Some have speculated the weapons _ which reportedly included explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles _ were meant to continue on to radical Middle Eastern groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which Iran has bankrolled and supplied with weapons in the past.

A major puzzle that lingers is why the plane landed in Bangkok for refueling.

"Why fly through Thailand?" asked Brian Johnson-Thomas, a co-author of the International Peace Information Service's report.

He pointed out in a telephone interview that the plane's circuitous flight plan _ through Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Ukraine _ substantially increased its risk of interception. In addition, Thailand's close ties with the U.S. made it likely to follow Washington's lead in cracking down on such shipments.

The U.N. imposed sanctions in June banning North Korea from exporting any arms after it conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.

In the absence of an alternative explanation, Johnson-Thomas, who has also done research for the United Nations and the EU, said the affair may have been a setup: a way for Washington to pressure Thailand to extradite alleged arms trafficking kingpin, Russian Viktor Bout, who has been in Thai custody for almost two years.

The plane was once linked to a company controlled by Bout, and its high-profile seizure put the spotlight on the problem of illicit arms trafficking.

Thai media have cited other analysts and diplomats making similar speculations.

Bout was arrested in March 2008 in Bangkok in a U.S. sting operation, and Washington is seeking his extradition on terrorism charges. Thailand rejected the request in August, but an appeal is pending.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley denied that the case had any link to Bout's. He said that the U.S. was grateful to Thailand for its investigation of the plane and its crew. He added: "I wouldn't suggest that this is necessarily the end of the legal road here."

Thailand's Attorney General's Office said the decision to drop charges against the Il-76 crew was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.

"To charge them in Thailand could affect the good relationship between the countries," said Thanaphit Mollaphruek, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. "They were only here for refueling."

In a one-sentence statement, Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said it would cooperate in ensuring the repatriation of the crew. The Interfax news agency cited a spokesman for Kazakhstan's General Prosecutor saying that a decision would be made on whether to prosecute the men upon their return.

Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said it is unlikely the men will be prosecuted by Kazakhstan.

"It looks it has all paid off, all of our letters and efforts, the efforts of our government. I'm amazed," said Yanna Abdullayeva, daughter of flight navigator Viktor Abdullayev, speaking by telephone from Shymkent, Kazakhstan, the hometown of four of the crew. "We can't wait to set the table for our boys as soon as they're home."

___

Associated Press writers Jane Fugal and Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok, Malin Rising in Stockholm, Simon Shuster and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev, Ukraine, and Matt Lee and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.

Engineering Optimization, Second Edition

Engineering Optimization, Second Edition A. Ravindran, K. M. Ragsdell and G. V. Reklaitis, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hobokon, NJ, 688 pp., $140.00, May 2006, ISBN: 0-471-55814-1

This hands-on reference provides a practical, real-world understanding of engineering optimization. Rather than dwelling on underlying proofs and mathematical derivations, it emphasizes optimization methodology, focusing on techniques and strategies relevant to design, operations and analysis. It surveys diverse optimization methods, ranging from those applicable to the minimization of a single-variable function to those suitable for large-scale, nonlinear constrained problems. Included are discussions …

Roche to take over Genentech in $47BN deal

Roche says it has agreed with Genentech to buy remaining shares of the U.S.-based company for $46.8 billion, in a takeover described as the largest in Swiss corporate history.

The deal announced Thursday for $95 a share of outstanding Genentech stock ends a long struggle between the Basel-based pharmaceutical giant and the board of its …

GOP Hopefuls Discuss Abortion, Tax Cuts

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The leading Republican presidential defended their conservative credentials Tuesday night on abortion, gun control and tax cuts.

"I ultimately do believe in a woman's right of choice but I think there are ways we can look for ways to reduce abortions," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in the Republicans' second campaign debate.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he had signed legislation into law banning assault weapons but added that he is a supporter of the rights of gun owners under the Constitution's Second Amendment.

Arizona Sen. John McCain of Arizona said he would make sure that President Bush's tax cuts were made …

Commerce One forms VC arm ; exchange builder will use venture fund to put its money where its expertise is.(partners with Canaan Partners to form venture capital company)(Brief Article)

The leading e-commerce exchange builder is looking to parlay its success and connections into another equally hot b-to-b sector, venture capital.

Commerce One Inc. has teamed with an elite group of traditional venture capital firms, including Canaan Partners, to launch its first financing arm, Commerce One Ventures. The unit will invest some $100 million in start-ups that use Commerce One platforms, and help them incubate and work with other companies within the company's Global Trading Web b-to-b network.

The move highlights the growing interdependence between b-to-b companies and venture capitalists. And it underscores a yen among exchange execs to take …

Bridges, tourism, economy among Catoosa 5-year plan.

Byline: Ronnie Moore

Aug. 15--RINGGOLD, Ga. -- Numerous bridges need repair work in Catoosa County and are on the county's five-year work program priority list, along with an estimated $4.5 million for an industrial park and speculative building.

"We have 13 bridges in desperate need of repair during those years, with funding from the state Department of Transportation and special purpose local option sales tax," County Manager Ron Brown said.

He made his remarks during a Catoosa 2020 Vision Committee meeting aimed toward finalizing a five-year work program for submission to the Catoosa Commission.

Mr. Brown said the plan has 25 locations …

ENDANGERED NO LONGER SPORTSMEN MAKING SURE WILDLIFE HERE TO STAY.(Travel)

Byline: Dick Nelson Outdoors correspondent

Recent news accounts involving the spotted owl and other endangered species have people beginning to believe all wildlife is nearly extinct. Not so. Today there are many species of American wildlife whose populations have been restored to healthy and abundant numbers.

The healthy and abundant populations of white-tailed deer, wood duck, elk and many other species we have today didn't just happen. They are the result of sound wildlife management, habitat improvement and acquisition paid for primarily by America's sportsmen.

The future of wildlife is a lot brighter today than it was at the turn of the century. But the early 1900s, expanding civilization and commercial exploitation had resulted in a drastic decline of many species.

…

Sri Lanka military says northern fighting kills 15

Sri Lankan air force jets attacked a group of rebel troops Thursday as ground troops overran a series of rebel bunkers. Some 13 Tamil Tigers and two soldiers were killed, the military said.

The new fighting was part of a resurgent government offensive that has captured large swaths of territory from the rebels in recent weeks amid a government pledge to crush the Tamil Tigers and end the 25-year-old civil war this year.

Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa ruled out talks with the Tamil Tigers unless the rebel group commits to disarm, a demand the group has repeatedly rejected.

He also accused the rebels …

Posh Spice is pregnant: paper

LONDON A baby reportedly will spice up Victoria Adams' world nextyear.

The Sun tabloid reported Friday that Adams - better known asPosh Spice of the Spice Girls - is three months pregnant.

Adams, 24, and …

DIGEST

Creditors sweeten Kia terms

SEOUL - Creditors of Kia Motors Corp. offered last week to sell the bankrupt automaker to the highest bidder by dropping a condition that acquirers pick up a fixed slice of the company's more than $8 billion debt.

In two failed auction attempts, Kia's lenders had insisted bidders be willing to accept all but $2.1 billion in debt. All bidders refused.

Last week, creditors agreed to let bidders specify the amount of the debt write-off they would accept. The size of the write-off request likely will decide the winning bid.

New bids are due Oct. 12, and a winner is to be announced Oct. 19.

HONDA NEARS DEAL …

College pays $3M for lab site.(Capital Region)

ALBANY - Albany College of Pharmacy, which has been leasing the former Bender Laboratory building from Renaissance Corp. for the past five years, has purchased it for $3 million, officials at Renaissance and the college said Friday.

The three-story, 10,000-square-foot structure at 9 Samaritan Drive now holds laboratories, classrooms and faculty offices, said college spokesman Gil Chorbajian. The purchase was completed in June, he said.

The college moved its Pharmaceutical Research Institute into the building after it was acquired from Albany County by the nonprofit Renaissance Corp. in February 2002. The building was renovated, and the institute occupied it …

BACK-TRACKING.(Sports)

Another handicapping nightmare as favorites were nowhere to be found all day and form continued to make no sense.

Thursday's Saratoga card

First - How bad was it? Oscar Barrera had sent out 88 straight losers before Final Road scored here under Angel Santiago in three- horse photo. Angela Serenity right there with Rabbit Hollow between them after Campaign and I'm No Bimbo got into silly speed duel. Holly's Pet took plenty of money, showed little late. Proud Flirt, Oscar's other half, never in it.

Second - Grand I Appeal got early lead, took it all the way under Rich Migliore despite late charge from Joviality and Victorious Edge. Latter had terrible …

Women's World Cup Slalom Results

Results on Tuesday from a women's World Cup slalom on the Schlossberg course (run times in parentheses):

1. Marlies Schild, Austria, 1 minute, 57.65 seconds (59.00-58.65).

2. Sandrine Aubert, France, 1:59.48 (1:00.29-59.19).

3. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 1:59.84 (1:00.02-59.82).

4. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 1:59.99 (1:00.54-59.45).

5. …

2 Dozen Traffic Signs Stolen in Pa.

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. - Police in western Pennsylvania say the signs of theft were obvious - there were no signs.

Someone stole 22 stop signs and two road directional signs from Independence Township, about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Also missing were nine residential mailboxes.

Someone rocked the aluminum signs back and forth and pulled them out sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday, Police Chief Robert Baron said.

"I …

St. Louis Community College.(Dr. Patricia N. Nichols - named president of Forest Campus)(Brief Article)

Dr. Patricia N. Nichols has been named president of the Forest Park campus of St. Louis Community College. Nichols was vice president for academic and student affairs at Harris-Stowe State College. Nichols …

ALBANY COUNTY EDITION.(Capital Region)

Create a bookmark

Create a bookmark based on objects, artifacts and animals found in the State Museum at the Artifacts of the Museum Bookmarks workshop from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Thursday at Bird Hall, State Museum, Madison Avenue, Albany. Free. 474-5877.

Take Back the Night

Take Back the Night, the annual march in commemoration of National Crime Victims …

`STAR WARS' BUFFS LINE UP FOR DARTH VS. LUKE II.(MAIN)

Many of the same ``Star Wars'' fans who lined up three weeks ago to see the space adventure re-released lined up again Friday for the saga's second phase: ``The Empire Strikes Back Special Edition.''

Dozens of gotta-be-first ``Empire'' enthusiasts lined up for the morning show in Los Angeles at Mann's Chinese Theatre, where the forecourt's famous footprints include an impression from the robot R2D2.

The revamped ``Empire'' includes a new scene showing the Wampa Ice Creature gnawing on a freshly killed snack, more screen time for Darth Vader and computer-enhanced graphics. …

Report: US finds mineral riches in Afghanistan

The New York Times reports that a team of U.S. geologists and Pentagon officials has discovered vast mineral wealth in Afghanistan.

Officials say it could be enough to turn the scarred and impoverished country into one of the world's most lucrative mining centers.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, …

Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors

Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJL (Eds.). New York, NY: The World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2006; 475 pp, CAD$68.95

This book presents a comprehensive global health examination of the leading causes of disease burden at the turn of the 21st century. It is a culmination of the results of the 2001 Global burden of Disease (GbD) study. The content of this book has been conveniently divided into two overarching sections: global burden of disease and risk factors, and sensitivity analyses.

The first section begins with a skillfully written synopsis of the history of disease burden research, highlighting the …

YOUTH SPORTS CALENDAR.(Capital Region)(Calendar)

ALL-SPORTS

Fielding and Base Running Camp. Saturday. One-day fielding and base running camp for players in grades 1-12. Mohonasen High School head coach Jim Huggins directs the program in conjunction with U.S. Baseball Academy. The session will last for three hours. Huggins, (866) 622-4487; e-mail: Office@usbaseballacademy.com. Cost: $50.

BASEBALL

Baseball Hot Stove Banquet, 5 p.m. Sunday. Speaker: Turk Wendell. Tickets must be purchased in advance. All proceeds benefit the Gloversville Little League and its capital improvement efforts. http://www.gloversvillelittleleague.com Johnston Moose Club, 109 S. Comrie Ave./Route 30A North, Johnstown Mike …