A New York woman ordered to pay $9 million to her lover's wife in North Carolina says she plans to appeal the judgment.
The News & Record of Greensboro reports that 49-year-old Anne Lundquist of Aurora, N.Y., didn't attend the two-day trial in Greensboro earlier this week and wasn't represented by an attorney.
Lundquist says she had planned to represent herself, but the …
Hugh Hefner got his street at Wednesday's City Council meeting_notwith a bang, which would have been appropriate, but with a silentomnibus vote, the legislative equivalent of a whimper.
The omnibus is a typically unanimous roll call vote usedthroughout the meeting for matters no one opposes. No one objected toHugh Hefner Way, so it went into the omnibus along with tag days andgarage sales. It was an odd omnibus vote, because 20 aldermen thenhustled over to City Clerk personnel to have their own votes recorded"no." Had only a few more dissenters joined them_say, the six femalealdermen who voted yes_Hugh Hefner Way would have disappeared.
Soon after, Ald. Carrie Austin …
WASHINGTON (AP) — In December 2003, security forces boarded a bus in Macedonia and snatched a German citizen named Khaled el-Masri. For the next five months, el-Masri was a ghost. Only a select group of CIA officers knew he had been whisked to a secret prison for interrogation in Afghanistan.
But he was the wrong guy.
A hard-charging CIA analyst had pushed the agency into one of the biggest diplomatic embarrassments of the U.S. war on terrorism. Yet despite recommendations by an internal review, the analyst was never punished. In fact, she has risen to one of the premier jobs in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, helping lead President Barack Obama's efforts to disrupt …
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Several levees in northern Missouri were failing Sunday to hold back the surge of water being released from upstream dams, and locals braced themselves for more breaches as the Missouri River dipped but then rose again.
A hole in the side of a Holt County levee continued to grow, deluging the state park and recreational area in Big Lake, a community of less than 200 people located 78 miles north of Kansas City. The water — some from recent rain — started pouring over levees Saturday night and Sunday morning in Holt and Atchison counties, flooding farmland, numerous homes and cabins.
In Nebraska, a flooding alert was issued for a second nuclear power …
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Three militants attacking an Israeliarmored bulldozer inadvertently killed three other Palestinians todayduring an Israeli operation to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels fromEgypt.
The roadside bomb in the Rafah refugee camp went off a few yardsfrom where the bulldozer was piling up dirt in a crowded residentialarea, according to Associated Press Television News. No Israelis wereinjured but three Palestinian men 200 yards away were hit byshrapnel, one so severely it took off half his skull.
Ten people were wounded, including a Reuters TV cameraman,according to witnesses and hospital officials.
The violence came a day after vigilantes …
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A rabbi who has overseen South America's largest Jewish congregation for more than three decades has temporarily resigned after being arrested on shoplifting charges, police and his congregation said Thursday.
Henry I. Sobel, who heads the Sao Paulo Jewish Congregation, was arrested Friday on three counts of theft for allegedly stealing ties valued at $680 from several upscale stores in Palm Beach, Fla., according to a Palm Beach police statement.
Sobel gained a strong reputation as a defender of human rights during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and is also well-known in Brazil for attempting to forge strong relations between Jews, …
The Canadian Auto Workers union says it is close to reaching a deal with Chrysler Canada.
CAW spokeswoman Shannon Devine says she is hopeful a deal will be reached late Friday afternoon.
Chrysler and the CAW have been negotiating since Monday to reach a labor agreement that can be ratified before the April 30 deadline.
Chrysler has until then to …
PHOENIX, Ariz. Jose Canseco, who seems to have a 50-50 chance ofarriving at the park each day, says he'll be baseball's first 50-50man, as in home runs and stolen bases. Not necessarily this year -on that, we stand corrected - but sometime before he's through.
Forgive us for chuckling, Big Guy. Given your track record anddriving record, the chances you'll reach your goal - today, tomorrow,the day after - seem considerably less than 50-50.
If we could put Will Clark inside your body, the odds might bebetter. Then again, maybe not.
"No comment," Clark said when I asked him about your goal."Flat-out no comment."
Clark softened at the suggestion …
MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights (AP) — Mobilized by calls on Facebook, thousands of Arab protesters marched on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday in an unprecedented wave of demonstrations, sparking clashes that left at least 15 people dead in an annual Palestinian mourning ritual marking the anniversary of Israel's birth.
In a surprising turn of events, hundreds of Palestinians and supporters poured across the Syrian frontier and staged riots, drawing Israeli accusations that Damascus, and its ally Iran, orchestrated the unrest to shift attention from an uprising back home. It was a rare incursion from the usually tightly controlled Syrian side and could upset the …
Weekend results in Mexican Apertura first-division football:
Friday
Estudiantes 2, Toluca 1
Saturday
Queretaro 2, Cruz Azul 1
Jaguares 1, Santos …
Some football analysts are touting this year's senior class asthe most talented group produced in the Chicago area in 15 years.Not so, argues Tom Lemming of Prep Football Report, who has beenevaluating classes since 1979.
Lemming ranks only four Chicago-area products among the top 100prospects in the nation - tight end R.J. Luke of Waubonsie Valley,running back Antoineo Harris of Bolingbrook, quarterback Cory Paus ofLincoln-Way and defensive lineman Dan Rumishek of Addison Trail.
"It is a good class but there aren't enough great players torank with 1985 (John Foley, Russell Maryland, Tim Grunhard, Jeff Alm,Nolan Harrison, Jeff Pearson, Paul Glonek), which was the …
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) — Alabama's strict new immigration law may be backfiring. Intended to force illegal workers out of jobs, it is also driving away many legal immigrant workers who work in construction and on farms doing backbreaking jobs that Americans generally won't.
The vacancies have created a void that will surely deal a blow to the state's economy and could slow the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa and other tornado-damaged cities.
Employers believe they can carry on because of the dismal economy, but when things do turn around, they worry there won't be anyone around to hire. Many legal Hispanic workers are fleeing the state because their family and friends don't have …
Beyond 2000" was the theme at the 1998 Bankline Technology Conference last month at the Mariott Hotel in Overland Park, Kan. The convention focused on new technology, products and services looking forward and beyond the year 2000.
The conference, with guest speakers and breakout sessions, included management decisionmakers from banks across 20 states. The purpose of the convention was to help financial institutions gain a competitive edge into the next millennium.
A golf tournament and a Monte Carlo Night, which included an auction, were also highlights of the conference. Attendees could earn extra bucks attending the breakout sessions.
Among the speakers was Jack McDonald, regional sales manager of Q-Up Systems. He addressed the Internet and how interactive Web sites can be a key marketing tool for the future. QUp creates Web sites to promote a bank's services to their customers.
According to McDonald, Web sites provide a doorway for the bank and gives banks the ability to compete and become successful. Bank information on a Web site allows the bank customer to do everything themselves on the Internet, from apply for a loan to balancing their checkbook.
Other speakers were Jim Maag, executive vice president of the Kansas Bankers Association; representatives from Woodforest National, Houston; John Floyd; president of John M. Floyd Associates; and Steve Onufrey, retail banking marketing executive of IBM.
On Sept. 23, John French, chief executive officer for Bankline Holding Inc., announced the merger of Bankline Inc., Kansas City, with SLM Software, a Toronto-based company.
"The merger between SLM and Bankline means a larger spectrum of products and services to Bankline customers and results in deeper capital resources and expertise for continued growth. The combination of our two organizations doubles our corporate and financial strength," French said.
Bankline, headquartered in Kansas City, supplies client server banking services and imaging technology, while SLM provides electronic transaction management solutions.
The $20-million merger will allow SLM Software immediate entry into the U.S. market, and Bankline Inc. to grow worldwide. Bankline will maintain its autonomy and continue with its current management team.
Q You were so close to getting that first SPL win until losing twolate goals at Hibs, why did that happen?
JC: We drew the Hibs game because we failed to do the basic taskof any team, which is defend as a unit.
We had two young lads at the heart of the defence and they couldhave done with a bit more help from their team-mates at times.
You need to defend from the front and in midfield as well.
If we had done that we would have taken the points and mostprobably have scored more because we were causing Hibs problems withour counter-attacks.
But we fell too deeply into our own half and invited Hibs to pushtowards our penalty area.
Our passing also started to get sloppy and we stopped gettingclose on opponents, which was what had led to us going 3-1 up in thefirst place.
Hibs are a good passing team so we were inviting trouble by givingthem more time on the ball.
If we had kept snapping at their heels we wouldn't have given awaya game we should have won comfortably.
To be fair on Scott Severin, he was trying to do that but was restricted by the ankle injury he picked up during the warm-up.
Seve needed a painkilling injection to numb the injury but themore it wore off the harder it got for him to get close to opponents.
But we did much the same against Celtic the week before in thelatter stages.
It's frustrating to only get one point from those games because wecould easily have won both. We showed how good as well as how bad wecan be in phases of both games.
Q KARIM Touzani, who would have been the ideal replacement forZander Diamond when he got injured, wasn't even on the bench. Why wasthat?
JC: I would normally have had Touzani there to act as cover forthe central defenders.
But the under-21 rule meant I had to make choices and I decided togo with more attacking options because I believed they were morelikely to be of use.
Derek Young had been brilliant in the previous two reserve gamesand I felt he would have been good to put on if we found ourselves ina position where we had to chase the game.
Richard Foster can play in either of the full-back positions and Ialso wanted to have Miller and Lovell there as back-up to Brewsterand Mackie.
So it was sod's law that we then had to take big Zander off, withSeve following soon afterwards.
It meant two of our best defensive players were gone and thatworked in Hibs' favour.
The loss of Zander was particularly hard because he was having agreat game.
Q CRAIG Brewster at least signed off in style with two goals, Howwill the Dons cope without him?
JC: I'm hoping the fact I was picking a 40-year-old before otherplayers will act as a wake-up call to some of the our strikers. Iwould be a bit embarrassed. I also hope they have learned from theway Craig conducted himself while he was with Aberdeen.
He gave them a masterclass of the right movements to make, how andwhen to play the ball and how to disguise passes.
Craig is also our top scorer, so he was doing everything I wouldexpect from a striker.
The other strikers weren't happy he was the one picked but theycould not argue against the decision.
Every team in Scotland would play Craig from the start when he isin that sort of form. It's now up to one of the others to prove theycan do as well as Craig.
The curse of No. 13 proved to be no problem for the MilwaukeeBrewers Monday night as they rallied to beat the White Sox 5-4 fortheir 13th straight victory this season.
The amazing feat really impressed Harold Scheub, a folkloreexpert at the University of Wisconsin. By going for 13 straightwins "the Brewers went dangerously beyond the borders," he said,explaining the team was in double jeopardy by having to overcome thenumber 13 and the White Sox.
"The Romans believed the number was a harbinger of death andmisfortune," Scheub said. "It's not clear why they thought that, butsome folklorists surmise the number 13 is one more than 12, thenumber of completeness: the year consists of 12 months, day and nightof 12 hours each and so on."
As with so many folk beliefs, 13 was unlucky long before theRoman era, Scheub said. "In Norse mythology, Loki, the divinetrickster, was the 13th guest at an annual feast. At that particulardinner, he caused the death of Baldur the Beautiful, the embodimentof joy and gladness. When that death was announced, it signified thestart of winter."
Scheub also said tarot card readers have a friendlyinterpretation of the number. "The 13 card does represent death, askeleton with a scythe mowing a field of human heads," Scheub said."And that certainly applied to the Brewers."
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Environmentalists and some local government officials are protesting a Canadian power company's proposal to haul 16 scrapped generators with radioactive components across three of the Great Lakes on their way to a recycling plant in Sweden.
Bruce Power Inc., based in Kincardine, Ontario, is seeking a license from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the shipment. It would depart from a port on Lake Huron's Owen Sound and also traverse Lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence River before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
Commission staffers have recommended approval, saying the shipment would pose little if any threat to human health or the environment. But complaints and questions from the public led the panel to schedule a hearing for Sept. 28-29 in Ottawa.
If the Canadian government grants the license, Bruce Power also will need approval of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration because the ship would enter U.S. territory, an agency spokeswoman said Friday.
Bruce Power, whose 4,700-megawatt power plant 155 miles northwest of Toronto is the largest in North America, says the generators have been welded shut to prevent radioactive leaks. Each is the size of a school bus and weighs about 100 tons. They would be ferried aboard a 387-foot ship.
"We have as much of a stake as anybody to make sure this is done safely," spokesman John Peevers said. "It would not be good business for us to do this if we thought it was risky."
Opponents include environmental groups, an organization representing Great Lakes cities, and American Indian tribes. They say even the remote possibility of an accident that would release radiation is too big a gamble for the lakes, which provide drinking water to some 40 million people.
"The bar should be set extraordinarily high when it comes to the largest supply of surface fresh water in the world," said Joel Brammeier, president of the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. "The biggest danger is that we set a precedent for treating the lakes as a highway for extremely hazardous cargo."
Each generator has about 4,200 metal tubes that contained hot water. Steam from the water powered whirring turbines that produced electricity. Thirty-two of the boilers were taken out of service and placed in a storage building during a 1990s retrofitting project, Peevers said.
Bruce Power last year awarded a $37 million contract to Studsvik, a Swedish company, to melt down the generators and sell the metal as scrap. About 90 percent of the material can be recycled. The rest will be too radioactive and will be sent back to Bruce Power for permanent safekeeping.
The company plans two shipments of 16 generators each.
Peevers said the amount of radioactive material in each generator is small — less than an ounce — and the cargo is classified as low-level waste, as opposed to the highly contaminated fuel rods that contain spent uranium in nuclear plants.
The only reason Bruce Power needs a license is because the generators cannot fit inside approved containers for radioactive cargo, he said.
A report by the Canadian commission's staff concluded that "the environmental and human health risk from a release due to a credible accident during loading and transport would be very low."
Yet the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents municipalities in the region, says the amount of nuclear waste in the proposed shipment exceeds by 50 times the International Atomic Energy Agency's radioactivity standard for a single freight vessel on the lakes.
The cities group says the commission hasn't released enough information about how it assessed potential ecological damage. The analysis "appears to be based on a best-case scenario instead of a worst-case scenario," said David Ullrich, director of the cities group.
For example, he said the study considered only the possibility of accidents on the open lakes instead of connecting channels such as the Detroit River, which runs between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Their combined population is 1.1 million.
Nearly 40 people have signed up to speak at the public hearing and nearly as many have submitted written statements, said Aurele Gervais, spokesman for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. He said the panel would be objective, despite its staff's support of the shipment.
Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, fears a decision has been made and the hearing will be a formality. The shipment would pass close to his city, which is on the St. Clair River across from Port Huron, Mich.
"It's like one of those old Wild West things — 'we're going to give you a trial and then hang you,'" he said. "But they need to get the message that we want this thing stopped. We were told the Titanic wouldn't sink. We were told the BP drill rigs were safe."
Syracuse 95
Texas 84
NEW ORLEANS--Kansas, the first half of the Big 12's tag-team entryin this Final Four, was in the zone Saturday as it raced pastMarquette in the first national semifinal.
But in the late game, Texas, the Big 12's other Final Four member,simply was up against the zone--the vaunted 2-3 zone of Syracuse,that is.
The underdog Orangemen parlayed their underappreciated zone into a95-84 victory. Orangemen coach Jim Boeheim, now a perfect 3-0 innational semifinals, once again stands one victory away from thenational championship that eluded him in 1987 and 1996.
National freshman of the year Carmelo Anthony, a likely first-team All-American if a vote was taken today, again showed why he isone of the nation's top players, scoring 33 points, pulling down 14rebounds and making sure Syracuse wouldn't lose.
"It doesn't get better than this, playing in the championshipgame," Anthony said. "Hopefully, we can get a championship out of it.I'm not satisfied with my game. I played pretty well, I made someshots. But the most important thing tonight was getting my teammatesinvolved."
Syracuse (29-5), which shot an impressive 57.1 percent (32-for-56) against one of the toughest defenses in the country, also gotdouble-figure scoring from freshman guard Gerry McNamara (19 points),sophomore forward Hakim Warrick (18) and sophomore guard Josh Pace(12).
"This was our best offensive game," Boeheim said. "We haven'treally been sharp in the tournament, but [Anthony] was tremendoustonight, and our other guys really picked it up. You're not going tostop a Texas or a Marquette or a Kansas. You're going to have toscore."
Texas (26-7), the only No. 1 seed to reach this Final Four, isgone because it shot 35.5 percent in the second half while theOrangemen were shooting 60 percent. Texas was led by Brandon Mouton,who scored only five of his 25 points after the break, courtesy of astepped-up defensive effort from Syracuse.
In sharp contrast to the Jayhawks' rout of Marquette, this was anail-biter most of the way. It also was closely officiated. Betweenthe whistles and the strategy, it rarely had the racehorse feel soprevalent in college basketball and rarely settled into any rhythm,which only added to the suspense.
But it set up a championship game Monday night in which Boeheimwill square off against Kansas' Roy Williams, who has come up shortin three previous Final Fours. It's a matchup of coaches who rankhigh on the list of best coaches who never have won a championship.
"We were talking the other day," Boeheim said, "and we said, If weboth get there Monday night, one of us will not have to listen to you[media] guys anymore."'
After being down the whole game, Texas took its first lead at 53-52 early in the second half. But the Orangemen, after falling behind61-59, seized the upper hand with a 13-2 run that put them on top 72-63 with 81/2 minutes left.
Texas tried to come back from there, but Anthony, who is projectedto be the third player taken in the NBA draft this spring, led adetermined Syracuse effort.
"Probably the hardest job I've had since I've been in college,"Royal Ivey, Texas' ace defender, said after trying to deal withAnthony. "He's 6-8, explosive, strong. He'll shoot over you, drivethrough you, spin move, everything. He's a great player."
Both the Orangemen and Longhorns were taking their acts on theroad after riding major home-crowd advantages to New Orleans.Syracuse knocked off Auburn and Oklahoma in Albany, N.Y., and Texastook out Connecticut and Michigan State in San Antonio.
Syracuse now has a chance to erase Boeheim's memories of 1987,when Keith Smart's dramatic basket won the national championship forIndiana 74-73--also at the Superdome.
Syracuse led Texas 48-45 after a first half that often felt morelike a chess match than the physical contest that it was.
Texas, which had trouble with a zone in its 57-54 victory Dec. 22over Princeton, also was bothered by Temple's zone in the 2001tournament. That year, as a sixth seed, it was upset by the 11th-seeded Owls 79-65 in the first round.
Texas is a much better team now. This was its first Final Fourappearance since 1947, but don't expect it to keep spreading outvisits like that. The Longhorns have no seniors in their rotation,and even their key player, sophomore T.J. Ford (12 points), isn'tnecessarily planning to punch an early ticket to the NBA.
The number of banks nationwide reporting tightened commercial loan standards more than doubled from 25 percent in 2000 to 55 percent during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2001.
That trend, as reported in the seventh annual survey of Credit Underwriting Practices conducted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), no doubt continued as the nation slipped into the recession that began the month that the 2001 survey was conducted.
"Underwriting standards are based on prudence. Different economies have different risk profiles and banks are responding to that reality," explains Michael Whitney, president of Fleet Bank. "In a downward cycle there is less predictability, so it is appropriate that lenders are more cautious."
In NH, however, the banking community says it is not the underwriting standards that have tightened. "It does not appear that standards are increasing, but there are increasing numbers of businesses that do not rise to that standard," says Gerald Little, executive director of the NH Banker's Association.
However, lenders acknowledge that they are looking at loans much more closely to make sure they meet lending criteria. "We certainly look harder, but that doesn't mean we stop lending," says Scott Bacon, president of Bank of New Hampshire.
COMPETITION FOR NEW LOANS
While bankers are keeping an eye on their existing portfolios, they are still competing aggressively for commercial loans. As institutions and individuals fled the turbulent stock market, money poured into banks. At the same time, businesses leery of the slowing economy tabled expansion plans, reduced inventory and began tightening their belts. The combination of plentiful cash and slower loan demand has led to what Little terms a "hyper-competitive" commercial lending market.
Since underwriting criteria and terms vary from bank to bank, businesses may find it worthwhile to shop around. According to Thomas Garfield, senior vice president and senior loan officer for Laconia Savings Bank, there is no one-sizefits-all approach to commercial credit. "Every request is a little bit different," he says.
Like most commercial loan officers, Garfield looks at a business's cash flow and ability to service the debt as key factors in a loan decision. Net worth statements, credit histories, financial statements, and business plans have always been necessary reading for bank loan officers. but now many are combing through the information to evaluate the company's prospects in a down market. "We're looking for trends, whether the company is keeping costs in line, how quickly they are adapting to changing markets, and whether growth projections are reasonable considering the industry," says Garfield.
Existing companies with an established banking relationship and a strong balance sheet may still find that a single meeting and a summary letter are sufficient to secure financing. New companies will probably have a tougher time obtaining credit. In today's cautious lending environment, banks will take a very close took at loan requests for start-up businesses.
Joe Reilly, president of Centrix Bank in Bedford, says that most institutions will want to see a business plan and projected financial statements, experienced management, credit records of the principals, and 30 percent of the principals' own money invested in the project. "Depending upon the bank's appetite and approach to risk, the customers may or may not need credit enhancements," he says.
HEDGING RISKS
Current statistics show that banks' appetites for risk are on the wane. Increasingly, commercial banks are seeking the added security of credit enhancements provided by the Small Business Administration (SBA), Business Finance Authority (BEA or local economic development organizations. The SBA reports that it guaranteeg 951 loans worth $96 million in NH in fiscal year 2001 (which ended in September), an increase of 293 loans and $17 million over the previous year. SBA guarantees are on their way to setting a record for fiscal year 2002 if October numbers held true for the remainder of the year (final numbers were not available at press time.) The BEA has also seen a sharp increase in inquiries but. according to Jack Donovan, executive director of NH's Business Finance Authority. "we're not at the level of eight years ago."
While banks are clearly taking a more cautious approach to risk, credit remains plentiful for qualified borrowers. "It's a great time to be moving forward to take advantage of low interest rates," Little says. The more desperately financing is needed, however, the less likely it is that credit will be available. "A company doesn't have a lot of options if it is having financial problems," Donovan says. "They fall in a gray area in which nobody is willing to take on the risk."
LESSONS FROM THE PAST
New Hampshire bankers say they haven't tightened underwriting standards because they never loosened them in the first place. While bankers can cite examples of some institutions foregoing personal guarantees and cash flow projections in boom times, according to NH Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth, there was no widespread relaxation of underwriting standards. "Both regulators and banks have been more aware of potential problems having gone through the crisis a decade ago," he says.
The last major economic downturn forced 12 NH banks, holding more than a quarter of the state's total assets, out of business in a single year. Those memories are still quite fresh to NH's banking community and tend to creep into a conversation about underwriting standards. Fleet's Michael Whitney speaks for a broad cross section of bank presidents when he says that "even through the most robust part of the business cycle, banks have remained pretty disciplined" because of still-vivid memories of the banking disaster in 1991.
Bank self-discipline is reinforced by legislation passed to avoid a repeat performance of the banking crisis. The Financial Institutions Reform and Recovery Act (FIRREA) of 1989 and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) in 1991 set forth sweeping regulations to improve the safety and soundness of America's banking industry.
The federal regulations were created to ensure that history did not repeat itself, but, in fact, there are few parallels that can be drawn between the banking debacle of a decade ago and today's banking environment. Fundamental structural problems within the banking industry itself - including excessive concentration in the real estate industry and escalating loan-to-assets ratios - combined with a prolonged recession that affected multiple sectors of the economy to create the environment in the early 1990s.
By contrast, Commissioner Hildreth reports that today NH banks are "quite healthy." Capital levels are at historic highs, asset quality is better than it was a decade ago, banks are diversifying risks, and risk management practices are greatly improved.
"The recession itself is also fundamentally different," says Little of the Bankers Association. "Before it was actually confirmed that we were in a recession, people were already saying that we were coming out of it."
This time around, the slowdown has been confined to certain segments of the economy. Timber, technology and telecommunications have been hard hit, but NH bankers are finding that businesses in most other sectors are holding their own. "New Hampshire doesn't have a lot of financial involvement in the hurting industries," says Scott Bacon of Bank of New Hampshire.
Jim Tibbetts, president of First Colebrook Bank, has a different perspective. A slowdown in the timber industry has been devastating in the North Country. He says that loggers are delaying upgrading equipment and that demand for start-up and expansion capital is practically non-existent. But, Tibbetts adds, "there's plenty of money to lend. We're actively looking for opportunities."
CAUTION WITH EXISTING LOANS
In comments made last June, Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. voiced concern about a rising number of problem loans in the nation. In NH, concern is muted. "Whenever there is a downturn in the economy, you'll see an increase in problem loans, but we are not greatly concerned," says Bob Fleury, chief bank examiner at the NH Banking Commission.
Jack Donovan of NH's Business Finance Authority sees both banks and businesses moving quickly to deal with problems if they arise.
"Banks are cautious with current loans in their portfolios and they are addressing problems quickly," he says. "If they see a problem, they'll go to the client and ask them what they are doing about it and force them to get into compliance by laying off people, cutting costs or whatever."
But Donovan says that businesses are also keeping a close eye on the bottom line and are much better off if they take the first step in dealing with loan problems.
"If a business knows that they have a problem, they should call the bank and let them know about it. Nobody likes surprises," he says.
Iranian state TV aired video Thursday purporting to show a weekend standoff between small Iranian boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf.
The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video _ without sound or narration _ showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 meters (yards) from the American vessels.
The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. ships, nor any provocation. But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials have said lasted about 20 minutes.
It aired on Iran's state-run English-language channel Press TV, whose signal is often blocked inside the Islamic state.
The Pentagon has released its own video of Sunday's incident, showing small Iranian boats swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the recording, a man speaking in heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."
The incident, which ended without any shots fired, has heightened U.S.-Iranian tension as U.S. President George W. Bush visits the region. Bush was in the West Bank on Thursday, and heads next to Arab Gulf nations where he is expected to discuss strategy for confronting Iran.
Iran has denied its boats threatened the U.S. vessels, and accused Washington of fabricating its video. The Pentagon dismissed that claim and warned its ships would respond with force if threatened.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Stewart Fulbright, a trailblazing black educator who piloted a bomber during World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen and later served as the first dean of the North Carolina Central University School of Business, has died, He was 92.
His son, Edward, says Fulbright died in Durham, N.C., on New Year's Day after a short illness. A funeral is planned for Saturday at Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Born in Springfield, Mo., in 1919, Fulbright enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was one of about 1,000 men trained in Tuskegee, Ala., as the first black pilots, navigators and bombardiers in the U.S. military.
Fulbright worked at NCCU from 1947 until his retirement in 1982, becoming the first dean of the business school in 1972.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Continuing his GOP campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry tweets: 'Here we come South Carolina'
For a guy admittedly "in shock" after being robbed at gunpoint byfive teenagers in broad daylight, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) pulledhimself together in a hurry.
The alderman had the guts and presence of mind to call 911 andkeep a dispatcher on the line for five to seven minutes while hefollowed the thieves and reported on their whereabouts.
Tunney's cool head helped Chicago Police nab two teens and chargethem with attempted robbery with a gun. Three alleged accompliceswere questioned and released.
"I was in shock. But I was thankful there was nothing moreviolent. They didn't harm me in any way -- other than put the fearof God in me," Tunney said Monday in his first public comment aboutthe Saturday afternoon incident in the 3300 block of North Seminary.
"To be honest, I was not feeling in harm's way. . . . I thoughtthe kids were pretty naive, but I wasn't taking anything forgranted. . . . I wanted to keep track of them while I had 911 on theline. I thought I was at a safe distance where they may or may nothave seen me following."
Tunney said the robbery occurred about 1:30 p.m.
"I wasn't looking at oncoming pedestrians -- until they showed methe gun and said, 'Give me your wallet. Give me your money.' I wasin shock. I just cooperated with these people and hoped they wouldtake my wallet and that's it. When they decided to give me my walletback because it didn't have any money, I was relieved."
The teens, charged as adults with robbing Tunney, appeared inbond court on Monday. Judge Raymond Myles set bond for $250,000apiece for Pierre Jolly and Brandon Harbin, both 16.
According to Assistant State's Attorney Jose Villarreal, Jollyshowed the alderman a .22-caliber handgun and Harbin demanded money.
When Tunney handed over his wallet, Harbin took out a dollar billand a piece of paper and handed the wallet back to Tunney, thestate's attorney said.
Ten minutes later, the two men tried to rob a pizza delivery man,but fled the scene empty-handed and ditched the gun nearby,officials said.
North Carolina's overtime win at Clemson kept the Tar Heels unbeaten and the top of The Associated Press' college basketball poll unchanged Monday.
For the sixth straight week, North Carolina, Memphis and Kansas were 1-2-3 in the Top 25, and the first nine teams held their places from last week.
Xavier and Miami both returned to the rankings, replacing Pac-10 teams Arizona and Southern California.
North Carolina (15-0) needed Wayne Ellington's 3-pointer with less than a second to play in overtime for a 90-88 victory over Clemson and the No. 1 ranking it has held since the preseason poll.
The Tar Heels received 46 first-place votes and 1,768 points from the 72-member national media panel.
Memphis (13-0), which had blowout home wins over Siena and Pepperdine last week, was No. 1 on 25 ballots and had 1,742 points.
Kansas (14-0) and Washington State (13-0) both won on the road last week. The Jayhawks, who received the only other first-place vote, beat Boston College 85-60, while the Cougars beat Washington 56-52.
The two other remaining undefeated teams in Division I _ Vanderbilt (15-0) and Mississippi (13-0) _ were ranked 13th and 16th.
UCLA was fifth, followed by Michigan State, Georgetown, Tennessee and Duke.
Indiana moved up one place to round out the top 10.
Texas A&M was 11th followed by Texas, Vanderbilt, Butler, Marquette, Mississippi, Dayton, Clemson, Villanova and Pittsburgh.
The last five ranked teams were Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Stanford, Xavier and Miami.
Marquette dropped from No. 10 to No. 15 after its 79-64 loss at West Virginia.
Xavier (12-3) moved back into the rankings at No. 24 after being out for three weeks. The Musketeers were ranked for three weeks earlier this season, reaching as high as No. 17. Consecutive losses to Arizona State and Tennessee knocked them out, but they have won four straight since, the last three over Kansas State, Virginia and Auburn by an average of 29 points.
Miami (13-1) returned to the poll after being out for one week. The Hurricanes started the season with 12 straight wins and were ranked for two weeks, reaching No. 19. A 76-70 home loss to Winthrop knocked them out, and they won their only game since, 88-62 over Pennsylvania.
Arizona (10-4) fell out from 21st having lost two of three games, but the Wildcats played that whole stretch without freshman point guard Jerryd Bayless, who is recovering from a sprained right knee. The Wildcats, who lost at Memphis and at home to Oregon, had been ranked the last five weeks and for all but two weeks this season.
Southern California (9-5) lost both games last week in its first conference trip of the season, falling to California and Stanford. The Trojans had been ranked for the last three weeks.
Verbs are the tendons, ligaments and muscles of Englishcomposition. They keep our sentences going, but it's possible tohave too much of a good thing. Consider:
"An 18-month-old girl was drowned Saturday morning, apparentlyafter falling into a shallow pool. . . ."
The passive construction messes up the sentence. We ask, wasdrowned by whom? It's much better to write simply that "an18-month-old girl drowned Saturday morning." As a general rule, theactive voice is usually better. It gets rid of flab.The passive ailment could be seen in a headline last year in theStatesville (N.C.) Record & Landmark: "Air Force pilots told to tonedown wild parties by general." You kind of wonder what the generalwas up to. Use of the active voice makes things clear: "Generaltells Air Force pilots to tone down wild parties."Writers should be wary of what doubtfully might be termed thepast-perfect tense in the passive voice: "Only 12 days earlier,Gonzales had his license revoked due to a drunken driving charge."We may be reasonably certain that Gonzales did not walk into theDivision of Motor Vehicles and say, "Here's my license. Pleaserevoke it."Some sentences wind up in spasms: "If the Buckeyes would havelost, radio counselor Dr. Laura Schlessinger might have had to set upemergency lines to Columbus." I'm not sure what grammarians callthese tenses, but I advise writers to avoid them. Much better towrite: "If the Buckeyes had lost," and go on from there.Here's another tangle, from the Associated Press in Miami lastJanuary: "Detectives also learned Friday that rush-hour commuters mayhave loaded bags of money into their cars and drove off as the Brinkstruck driver and his assistant lay bleeding on the ground." A decentrespect for parallelism demands that "loaded" be paired with"driven." The opportunistic commuters "may have loaded . . . anddriven."The employment of some verbs depends mostly upon a writer'staste for novelty. Last year, Newsweek identified Dan Thomason as "asongwriter who authors Christian music." The bastardized verb turnedup in the New York Times last month in an item about a lawsuitinvolving the musical "Rent." A judge ruled that the work "was thesole creation of Jonathan Larson and had not been authored with acollaborator.""To author" strikes me as an abomination. A panel in the HarperDictionary of Contemporary Usage felt the same way. Members objectedthat we wouldn't say, "She poeted three poems" and, "Her motherreadered all three." The same objection applies to "gift," as in,"They gifted the couple with china and silver."I can't give you much for "to obsess," either. During theRepublican National Convention of '96, Time magazine reported that"network anchors obsessed constantly about the tightly scriptedevent." I concede that dictionaries sanction "to obsess," but Istumble over it.Questions regularly arise about "to garnish," as in an accountof a Florida man who owed $96,000 in back child support: "Koontz'swages now are being garnished to the tune of $140 per week." Mostpeople think of "garnishing" in terms of decorating a platter ofcatfish with a few sprigs of parsley. I would limit the verb to thisusage and revert to the 17th century "garnishee" for courtproceedings against a debtor.The use of "snuck" as the past tense of "sneak" appears to begaining ground, but the issue isn't settled. You will recall thatsome months ago, Peruvian rebels held 74 hostages in the house of theJapanese ambassador. The AP writer in Tokyo reported that a TVjournalist "sneaked" into the house. The AP writer in Lima said thejournalist "snuck" in.As I have remarked before in this space, "sneaked" strikes me asmuch sneakier than snuck, but all my dictionaries sanction "snuck,"and only the editors of the American Heritage College Dictionaryvoice reservations about its use. Both forms have spunk and vigor.Either one suffices for healthy, well-muscled prose.
Variety was definitely on the menu at an evening dedicated to thetastes of different cultures.
The 17th Bath International Evening could also have been the lastafter an appeal for volunteers fell on deaf ears.
The event saw representatives of different communities, includingpeople from the Caribbean, Greece and India, showing off theirculinary and cultural roots.
The event is held at the end of October to mark One World Week,which raises awareness of poverty and global justice.
Organisers are hoping that other people will be interested intaking the event forward to its 18th year - but so far no one hasoffered to help.
Chaya Bamber, secretary of the Bath International Eveningcommittee, said: "The events are always so popular and we havewatched them grow from starting with 70 to 80 people visiting to 250.
"It is just such a shame that this has to be the last evening, butI have been volunteering for five or six years now and the othershave been here since the beginning.
"We would love for the event to carry on growing but have had novolunteers offer to take over yet.
"The evening that we have just had was really fantastic and we hadlots of people turn up."
She added: "The tasting evenings are so popular, especially withfamilies and students from the university, they are great fun. It hasbeen brilliant to be a part of this."
Organisers teamed up with Bath's twinning associations for theevening and four representatives cooked dishes from Hungary, France,Germany and Holland.
Rosco Jones, director of the Bath and North East Somerset RacialEquality Council, said the demise of the event would be a shame.
"It is very sad but the problem we have got locally is that thereseems to be not enough people interested in running these events.
"People don't mind going to the activities and events once theyhave been organised, but they don't want to do the hard work."
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact organisers via www.bathinternationalevening.org or call Chaya Bamber on 01225482216.
Designer Colin Lovekin, 46, of Budlake, Devon, in southern Englandon Monday sits in a chair he made from disused supermarket trolleys.Lovekin, a designer, has begun reducing Britain's mountain of disusedshopping trolleys by making furniture out of them. Lovekin said about100,000 trolleys are destroyed every year -- many going into landfillsites.
The number of global metals industry deals remained steady in the first half of 2008, but their overall value declined as attractive takeover targets became scarcer following consolidation, according to a study released Tuesday.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said 68 deals with values of at least $50 million had been announced in the first half of the year, compared with 70 in the first half of 2007.
But the total value of those deals dropped to $42.9 billion in the first six months of 2008, from $73.5 billion a year earlier.
The downward value trend can be attributed to the greater number of large deals _ more than $1 billion in value _ announced in the first half of 2007 and the absence of significantly larger deals, with values of more than $10 billion, unveiled between January and June this year.
The decline could be attributed to metals industry consolidation in recent years that has left fewer attractively priced takeover candidates, as metals companies combine and acquire suppliers of key raw materials, such as iron ore.
It may also be a result of a greater industry emphasis on integrating those acquisitions, according to the report.
At the current rate, the 2008 total would fall short of the $298.4 billion recorded in 2007 and the $186.7 billion recorded in 2006.
After a prior two-year period that contained several announced deals exceeding $10 billion in valuation, no such agreements were unveiled during the first half of 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.
Acquirers were mostly strategic players rather than financial investors, who all but abandoned the metals industry during the period. Interest from financial investors has slowly waned in recent years, the report said.
"While financial investors have diminished their role in this sector, strategic investors are taking full advantage of strong balance sheets and ample liquidity to vertically integrate or expand their geographic reach," Douglas Dean, U.S. metals leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a statement.
Steel companies accounted for 23 percent of the total deal value and half of the large deals in the first half of 2008. In 2007, iron ore led in total deal value.
Robust global demand and prices have lifted the profits of steelmakers in recent months despite higher raw materials costs and economic troubles in the United States and western Europe.
The results for the first half of 2007 include 48 completed deals, 16 pending deals and six withdrawn deals. For the first half of 2008, the results include 27 completed deals, 38 pending deals and three withdrawn deals.
Among the large deals included for the first half of 2007 was a withdrawn bid by aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. to buy Canadian rival Alcan Inc. Large deals for the first half of 2008 are completed or pending.
The firm included six large deals that were withdrawn in its evaluation of transactions announced in 2006.
WARSAW
Krzysztof Wodiczko
ZACHETA NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
As Krzysztof Wodiczko well knows, Poland's history abounds in traumatic events. One such occurred on December 16,1911, when Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a conservative artist and critic, assassinated Gabriel Narutowicz, the first democratically elected president of Poland, in the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. Wodiczko considers this event a significant moment not only for the history of the gallery-a national monument and the host to this exhibition-but also for that of the nation. "The history of memorials," Wodiczko argues, "is the history of the machines that only help bad things happen again," and he uses such monuments against themselves as screens on to which he can project his warning images.
This exhibition, "Pomntkoterapia" (Monument Therapy), had two parts: a site-specific projection on the main facade of the Zacheta and selected documentation of other projects from around the world, along with a presentation of this most important Polish artist's well-known "instruments"-for example, The Mouthpiece, 1994, or Dis-armor, zooo, high-tech contraptions equipped with sensitive cameras and monitors, which enable those carrying them to observe while being observed, and thus reverse the dynamics of the Panopticon.
Warsaw Projection, 2005, addressed the abuse of women in Poland, which is usually kept hidden as a "private matter" rather than dealt with as a serious problem. Thus, what normally remains in darkness was brought into the light; the secret was made public. Yet the message was delivered with a certain ambiguity (including humor)-a mode of presentation that could be seen as a form of Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt, or an effect of deliberate estrangement. Revealing his sensitivity in dealing with the pain of others by giving compelling visual form to their deep emotions, Wodiczko nevertheless avoided providing a consistent and continuous account of human suffering, leaving room for individual stories to be told in all their complexity by the Polish women themselves. The women appeared on the building like contemporary Caryatids, one projected on each side of the main facade, as they recalled their suffering at the hands of men, as well as their own sense of guilt at being unable to live in harmony with others. While addressing personal traumas with a gender qualifier, the artist touched on the particularly sensitive issue of silence, which-considered historically-might reveal a painful aspect of Polish (in fact, any national) identity: the ability of the oppressed to turn into the oppressor, as Poland witnessed, for example, in the early '20s, following Narutowicz's death, when, after a century of foreign occupation, it engaged in military conflicts with its less powerful neighbors and persecuted its ethnic minorities.
Bringing Wodiczko's public art inside a museum poses a challenge: How to prevent a site-specific, dynamic "event" from becoming a static wall display. Wodiczko's solution has been to endow his show with a dynamic inner rhythm, taking his audience on an imaginary journey along a path corresponding to the artist's peregrinations through the world, from Krakow to Boston, from Hiroshima to Tijuana. After its one-time presentation in November, Warsaw Projection was shown as a video document in a gallery on the ground floor, as if it had simply passed through the walls and arrived indoors. As the exhibition enfolded, moving from its vertical display suggestive of monuments to a position of horizontality, Wodiczko's critical stance was, in effect, internalized by the building-turning the museum into a site of public awareness rather than aesthetic contemplation.
-Marek Bartelik
[Sidebar]
Krzysztof Wodiczko, Warsaw Protection, 2005, video projection, 19 minutes 15 seconds.
The serenity of a Bush Cabinet meeting was disturbed Tuesdaywhen Secretary Jack Kemp of House and Urban Development intervenedwith an impassioned call for more militant efforts to cut the capitalgains tax. Significantly, Budget Director Richard Darman did notdisagree.
The Wall Street Journal's lead editorial that morning, "Capitalgains sellout," reported that Darman and Treasury Secretary NicholasBrady "seem to have agreed on a package throwing in the towel on acapital gains cut" in negotiations with Congress. That followedrising paranoia on the Right that Darman was agreeing totax-increasing measures.
In fact, the Darman-negotiated budget agreement about to emergedoes not violate George Bush's read-my-lips campaign pledge againstnew taxes. Although it will call for $5.3 billion in unspecified"tax measures" to be determined later, that represents no change fromthe president's Feb. 9 budget proposal. Nor has there been anyretreat in Darman-Brady estimates that lowered capital gains rateswould bring in, coincidentally, just about the necessary $5 billion -a revenue-boosting "tax measure."
Thus, reports of a sellout are greatly exaggerated. ButDarman's deal is only the end of the beginning of the long faceoffbetween the administration and Congress on the budget.
The question ahead is less whether Bush fudges on an economicallyirrelevant tax package than how he passes this test: Can a Republicanpresident endure demagogic abuse for vetoing a minimum wage increaseand at the same time pressing for a capital gains cut?
The paranoia is well-founded. Time and again during the Reaganadministration, Republican congressmen found the end product of thebudget process was unwanted tax increases. Suspicion of Darman isintense.
It hardened even more when Darman talked House Republicans out ofa resolution by Rep. Dick Armey of Texas to put the party on recordagainst any budget deal calling for higher taxes. Darman told themsuch action by the House GOP Conference would be "insulting" to Waysand Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski just as negotiations with himreached a crucial phase. GOP leaders agreed, but Armey's subsequentwarning to the conference encouraged unease.
Shortly thereafter, word seeped out of the negotiations thatDarman had accepted House Budget Chairman's Leon Panetta's $14billion in new revenues, around $5 billion of which would be in newtaxes. Was Darman flinching?
The truth is that the $14 billion and $5 billion are straightfrom Bush's February budget proposals. How the $5 billion will beraised will not be clear for months. The pertinent question, then,is how steadfast the president will be in asserting, against outragedDemocratic protests, that it could be raised by additional revenuegenerated from lower capital gains rates. A reduced rate wouldstimulate extra revenue by increasing capital gains transactions.
This was the point Kemp made at the when he interrupted Tuesday'ssoporific Cabinet session. But Kemp was in no way implying a Darmansellout or worrying about that mysterious $5 billion new revenueplug. He wanted more effort in selling a reduced capital gains tax,not to sate the idle rich but to help the working poor. Darman'sresponse signaled that the proposal was alive and well.
Darman has had access to a monograph by supply-side economistAlan Reynolds asserting that the 1986 increase in capital gains rateshas had unexpectedly severe effects in shrinking state and federaltax revenues and creating competitive disadvantages for the UnitedStates internationally. While arguing long-term revenue gains,Reynolds declares: "A high capital gains tax is a mechanism forkeeping the little guy down." Darman's dealing permits the way forthe president to intensify that argument.
Evans & Novak are nationally syndicated columnists of theChicago Sun-Times.
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HEADERS WON: …
British officials headed to the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday to visit a hunger-striking detainee at the center of overseas torture claims and prepare him for his possible release.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the team, which included a doctor, will check on the health of Binyam Mohamed, a former British resident who has been on hunger strike for more than a month to protest his detention.
Mohamed, 30, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held in Guantanamo since 2004. Terrorism charges against him were dropped last year. Mohamed says he was beaten in Pakistan and tortured in Morocco before being sent to Guantanamo.
Mohamed's lawyers and the British government say they expect U.S. President Barack Obama to approve Mohamed's release within days.
The Obama administration is moving to close the prison camp in eastern Cuba and undertaking a review to make sure the 245 suspects remaining there are given international and U.S. legal rights. That review will determine whether the terror suspects should be tried in U.S. courts or released to other countries.
"A team of British officials have left Miami airport today to visit Mr. Binyam Mohamed in Guantanamo Bay," said a Foreign Office spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
"The visit will make preparations for his return, should the ongoing U.S. review into Guantanamo Bay detainees confirm a decision a decision to release him."
British officials have been granted access to Mohamed in Guantanamo on only one other occasion, in July.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has lobbied the U.S. government to release Mohamed and let him return to Britain, met Wednesday with Mohamed's lawyer, Air Force Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley.
Mohamed was born in Ethiopia and moved to Britain as a young man.
Mohamed claims that before he was sent to Guantanamo in 2004, he was held in Pakistan, where he was beaten by Pakistani authorities and interviewed by an officer from Britain's domestic spy agency MI5.
After three months in Pakistan, he says the United States sent him to Morocco where he alleges he was interrogated and tortured.
In a court hearing this month, two British judges said U.S. intelligence documents detailing Mohamed's alleged mistreatment could not be disclosed because of Miliband's concern that publication of the material might damage the intelligence-sharing relationship between London and Washington.
Maxi Rodriguez gave Diego Maradona a winning start as Argentina coach in a 1-0 victory over Scotland on Wednesday, and John Terry atoned for a blunder to head England to a 2-1 victory over Germany.
Maxi finished off a slick move in the eighth minute after a run and cross by Carlos Tevez and flick-on by Jonas Gutierrez at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Maradona, who has been hired to turn Argentina's talented players into a team capable of winning the World Cup, spun around and punched the air to celebrate the victory, which was achieved despite the absence of rested stars Lionel Messi and Juan Roman Riquelme.
"We think it is a new era and it was very important to win," said midfielder Javier Mascherano, who was named captain by Maradona. "When you start to play with a new manager the motivation is so different maybe it's a little bit extra when you see Maradona on the bench."
Both of England's goals in Berlin were scored by central defenders in another impressive performance by Fabio Capello's team, which has also won all four of its World Cup qualifying matches.
Matthew Upson prodded home in the 24th minute after Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler missed Stewart Downing's corner. Germany punished a mixup between Terry and goalkeeper Scott Carson and Patrick Helmes equalized in the 64th minute, but the England captain made up by heading home a free kick in the 84th.
"The result is important. The performance was very good because we played in Berlin against a good team. We had a lot of chances to score goals," Capello said. "I liked the attitude of the team. We played with confidence and personality which is important."
In the only World Cup qualifying game to be played in Europe, the Czech Republic beat San Marino 3-0 to revive its chances of reaching the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
After San Marino kept the Czechs out during the first half, goals by Radoslav Kovac (47th), Zdenek Pospech (53rd) and Tomas Necid (83rd) made it an easy victory and moved the team up three places to second in Group 3, two points behind leader Slovakia.
In another of the 23 friendlies spread across Europe, European champion Spain cruised to a 3-0 victory over Chile to improve its unbeaten streak to 28 matches, World Cup holder Italy hit back to draw 1-1 at Greece, and France was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Uruguay with French fans calling for coach Raymond Domenech to quit.
Spain striker David Villa scored a 38th-minute penalty to take his tally to 24 in 41 matches, Fernando Torres added a second in the 67th and Santi Cazorla collected the third with four minutes to go.
Four minutes after Fanis Gekas had given the Greeks a 50th-minute lead, Italy striker Luca Toni leveled to maintain Marcello Lippi's record of 31 games without a defeat. Lippi guided Italy to the 2006 World Cup title and then replaced Roberto Donadoni and shares the unbeaten record with Javier Clemente of Spain and Alfio Basile of Argentina.
"This is an issue that's been chasing me for some time and of course I'm pleased ... but the big achievement was winning the World Cup," Lippi said. "I'm not sure we'll have to lose to stop worrying about the record. Anyway, I see all games positively. I hope we continue to win or do well in all our games."
Norway's John Arne Riise was sent off in his team's 1-0 loss to Ukraine for kicking the ball into the referee's back after disputing a decision.
Giovanni Trapattoni had his first loss as Ireland coach in a 3-2 defeat at home to Poland, and Robin van Persie scored twice in the Netherlands' 3-1 victory over Sweden.
Tuncay Sanli scored a hat trick in Turkey's 4-2 victory over Austria in Vienna where Andreas Hoelzl netted twice for the home side.
In Asian World Cup qualifying, Mark Bresciano's goal in the fourth minute of injury-time kept Australia on course for the 2010 championship with a 1-0 victory over Bahrain.
The result maintained Australia's perfect record from three games and the team, which switched from Oceania to the Asia Confederation to achieve a more direct qualification route, looks set to be one of the four qualifiers.
Japan's 3-0 victory over Qatar in Doha came with goals from Tatsuya Tanaka, Keiji Tamada and Marcus Tanaka as the team stayed two points behind the Socceroos with seven points. Qatar is third with four points.
South Korea moved to the top of the other group with a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia with goals by Lee Kuen-ho and Lee Young-pyo. The Koreans took over from Iran, which drew 1-1 with United Arab Emirates.
In Oceania qualifying, New Zealand moved to the next phase despite losing to Fiji 2-0. The overall winner faces a playoff with the fifth-place Asian team.
World Cup host South Africa beat Cameroon 3-2 in a friendly on home turf in Rustenberg for its third win in four matches over the continent's top-ranked side.
A former Hoffman Estates police officer told a federal juryWednesday she fatally shot a man two years ago because he "was aboutto kill" another man.
MaryLu Redmond said Ricky Allen refused her command to drop abutcher knife. Instead he "made a downward motion" with the knifetoward a man he was chasing. "And I shot him," she said. Thebullet pierced Allen's neck.
Redmond's testimony came during the wrongful-death suit filed byAllen's mother on behalf of his estate. The suit, seekingunspecified damages, is against Redmond and the Hoffman EstatesPolice Department.
Redmond, 32, who left the force last summer, was exonerated bythe Cook County state's …
For fans of ripe political irony, there's nothing quite like Friday's press release from Republican congressional candidate Chris Cox calling on Gov. David Paterson to resign altogether. Cox is the son of state GOP chair Ed Cox and the grandson of President Richard Nixon, who in 1974 faced variations on many of the barbs young Cox fired at Paterson -- noting that he "has once again put himself first and the people ... second" and "Paterson should resign immediately so that New Yorkers can have someone with integrity in the highest office in our state."
Will Paterson be forced to withdraw from office?
To be sure, it's a question that involves speculation -- …
Byline: Associated Press
SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, Ariz. -- Allen Doyle, who turned pro at age 47 and has become one of the top players on the Senior PGA Tour, shot a 6-under-par 66 Thursday to take the first-round lead in the Countrywide Tradition.
Five players, including Tom Kite, were one stroke back in the first major championship of the senior season. Four others were two shots off the lead as the seniors tore apart the 3-year-old Prospector Course designed by Jack Nicklaus and son Gary.
Nicklaus, returning to play after withdrawing from the Legends of Golf and the Masters because of a back injury, shot a 1-over 73 on the 7,228-yard course. …
Byline: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for a launch on Dec. 30, 2004. The spacecraft was shipped from Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, Colo., to the Astrotech Space Operations facility located near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"Deep Impact has begun its journey to comet Tempel 1," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "First to Florida, then to space, and then to the comet itself. It will be quite a journey and one which we can all witness together." …
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah and Israel traded fierce barrages for a sixth day Monday, as the latest eruption of warfare in the Middle East showed no sign of easing. Rockets struck deep inside Israel, killing eight people in Haifa and bringing waves of retaliatory airstrikes from Lebanon's north to south and in the eastern Bekaa Valley near Syria.
The toll on both sides rose to above 200. In addition to the Israeli victims at a rail repair facility in Haifa, an Israeli rocket blew up a Lebanese army position, killing eight soldiers, and a sea-launched missile killed at least nine people in the southern Lebanese port of Tyre.
Israel warned of massive retaliation after the …
Former child star Gary Coleman and porn star Mary Carey attend aFriday news conference in Los Angeles announcing the Game ShowNetwork's new show titled "Who Wants to Be Governor of California?The Debating Game." Coleman and Carey, both candidates for governorin California's recall election, will be among a panel of five whowill debate on …
(ADPnews) - Apr 23, 2010 - German medical and safety technology firm Draegerwerk (ETR:DRW3) has slightly increased its guidance for 2010 due to the good start to the year, the company said on Friday.
The firm expects the margin on earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to stand in the upper end of already projected 5% to 6% before effects from a deal with Siemens (ETR:SIE).
Revenue should grow at a rate in the lower single-digit percentage …
ST. CLARE'S HOSPITAL
LINDSTEAD, Silas Austin, son of Kristina and James Lindstead, Cobleskill, 7 lbs. 8 oz., June 1.
KOENIGER, Ella Maria, daughter of Katherine and Rainer Koeniger, Clifton Park, 6 lbs. 1 oz., June 1.
VINCENT, Sonny Francis, son of Karen and Cory Vincent, Amsterdam, 6 lbs. 1 oz., June 1.
KOSLIK, Taamir Edward, son of Nafeesa and Tod Koslik, Niskayuna, 11 lbs. 3 oz., June 1.
SHEPHERD, Thomas James, son of Cerise and Justin Shepherd, Schenectady, 4 lbs. 4 oz., June 3.
HENRY, Madison Kelly, daughter of Meghan Dougherty and Brent Henry, Colonie, 8 lbs. 3 oz., June 4.
PHILAJA-ZUBAL, Henry Elliot, son of Lauren Philaja and Jamie Zubal, Schenectady, 10 lbs. 2 oz., June 5.
KIRK, Keira Irene, daughter of Jessica and Jonathan Kirk, Greenwich, 7 lbs. 7 oz., …
Byline: LARA JAKES Staff writer
Albany A jealous punch over a girlfriend escalated into gunfire at a Washington Avenue nightclub early Friday, sending one man to the hospital in what Albany police described as an apparent gang attack.
Angry that his girlfriend was talking to another man at Clayton's Lounge, 19-year-old Tiheen Wilmer lashed out at the other man Thursday night, detectives said. On Friday, the unidentified man and two of his friends ran into Wilmer at the same club at 244 Washington Ave. and exacted revenge, said Albany Detective Ken Wilcox, who investigated the case with Detective Sean Keane.
The three men confronted Wilmer on the …
The California Report for the 2004 MAP Survey is available to CalCPA members free of charge thanks to CalCPA and the California CPA Education Foundation's partnership and sponsorship of the survey.
Download the 2004 MAP Survey Report at www.calcpa.org/MAP/2004surveyreport.htm.
Download a guide to the …
