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| Walden, Vt., firefighter Rodney Hooker is covered in ice after battling a structure fire in Greensboro Bend, Vt., Saturday.
AP Photo |
St. Johnsbury, Vt., led the list of records Saturday with a low of 27 below zero, the National Weather Service said. Unofficially, Saranac Lake, N.Y., reported 34 below.
Boston's Logan International Airport recorded a low of 3 below zero, two degrees chillier than the previous record for Jan. 10, set in 1875. It was the city's coldest day since Jan. 16, 1994, when thermometers registered 4 below.
As he stood on a street corner Saturday, Jim Konda said that since moving from Alabama 20 years ago, he has "learned about layers."
Jeff Davis, 24, hurrying to work Saturday in downtown Boston, longed for San Diego. That city's forecast high Saturday: 69 degrees.
Record numbers of motorists -- about 1,000 an hour in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island-- called the American Automobile Association of Southern New England to jump start their dead car batteries Saturday morning, said spokesman Art Kinsman.
The wind made the cold snap feel even colder -- from minus 15 to minus 25 degrees in parts of Massachusetts.
That didn't stop thousands of football fans from gathering at tailgating parties in a frigid parking lot in Foxboro, Mass., hours before kickoff for the NFL playoff game between the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots. The temperature at kickoff was 4 degrees, 10 below zero with the wind chill.
"What cold?" quipped Dave Tomes of Londonderry, N.H., outfitted for the game with a ski parka, ski pants and thermal underwear.
Gillette Stadium had doctors and nurses on hand to respond to emergencies, and the Patriots alerted fans that they would be allowed to bring in normally banned blankets and sleeping bags. The team also gave out free coffee, and for the first 10,000 arrivals, free handwarmers.
"One fan called me and said he wouldn't be happy if the temperature wasn't below five degrees," Patriots spokesman Stacey James said. "He wanted to be part of the record."
Other record lows included 19 below zero at Montpelier, Vt.; 16 below at Syracuse, N.Y.; 7 below at Scranton, Pa.; and 2 below at Bridgeport, Conn., according to the National Weather Service.
"It's cold -- what people in New Hampshire told me I should call 'crisp,"' Democrat presidential hopeful Wesley Clark joked Saturday morning in Milford, N.H., where the temperature was 6 below zero. "When we had weather that's even somewhat similar to this down in Arkansas, we always took a holiday. We closed things down and went sledding."
Rochester, N.Y., had its coldest morning since Jan. 16, 1994, with a record 12 below zero. New York City's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports also set records for the day, but only at 2 degrees above zero.
Atop New Hampshire's Mount Washington, elevation 6,288 feet, the Web site for the Mount Washington Observatory reported a low of 29 below, an improvement from the reading of 38 below posted late Friday.
By comparison, Chicago was almost mild Saturday morning with a temperature of 19, up from Tuesday's low of 5 below zero.
"For Chicago, it's not too bad," Chicago resident Kevin Hail said as he walked to the train station. "I've been here since 1986, and Lord, I've seen some cold weather."
On the Net:
Weather Service's US Weather: http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/ccus.html
Mount Washington: http://www.mountwashington.org/
Report: British police have doubts about blood sample from Princess Diana chauffeur
Associated Press
LONDON -- British police have doubts about the authenticity of the blood sample that led French investigators to conclude drunk driving caused the car crash that killed Princess Diana, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The Times of London reported that senior officers were concerned that no DNA test was conducted to prove the blood sample belonged to Henri Paul, chauffeur of the car that crashed in a Paris underpass on Aug. 31, 1997.
Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and Paul were all killed in the crash, which a French court ruled in 2002 was an accident caused by Paul's speeding and being under the influence of alcohol.
A police spokesman said Saturday the force had no comment on the Times report.
French police inspector Jean-Claude Mules, who played a central role in the investigation, told The Times there was no mistake about the blood sample. "We are very serious people and no errors are allowed," he was quoted as saying.
Many people continue to believe that Diana was the victim of a conspiracy, however, variously pointing to the royal family and intelligence agencies.
British coroner Michael Burgess, who opened an inquest into the deaths of the princess and Fayed this week, has asked London's Metropolitan Police to investigate whether there is any evidence the deaths were not the result of a "straightforward road traffic accident."
The Times said there were "high-level concerns" that Paul's blood could have been mixed up with another sample in a laboratory or the mortuary where his body was taken.
It said the sample tested contained extremely high levels of carbon monoxide that could have rendered Paul incapable of driving.
Fayed's father, Mohammed Al Fayed, and Paul's parents have repeatedly said they are not convinced the blood sample tested was Paul's and have drawn attention to the high carbon monoxide level.
A French court-designated expert said in 1999 that the carbon monoxide level was due to Paul inhaling gas from the car's air bags.
Boat ferrying illegal Albanian migrants to Italy sinks, killing 21
Associated Press
TIRANA, Albania (AP) -- An inflatable speedboat packed with Albanian migrants trying to sneak into Italy sank in up to 20-foot high waves and strong winds off Albania's coast, killing 21 people, officials said Saturday.
Eleven others survived after the boat sank off the Karaburun peninsula near Vlora, 85 miles southwest of Tirana. Two people were listed in serious condition, police spokesman Floriani Serjani said in a statement. No one was believed to be missing.
Police arrested two of the survivors believed to be migrant smugglers. Two high-ranking Albanian police officers who are related to one of the suspects also were suspended while authorities investigate whether they were involved.
Survivor Gentian Kurtmetaj, in his 20s, said the passengers in the 43-foot-long boat had paid about $2,300 each for the journey across the Adriatic Sea, which normally takes 3 to 3.5 hours. The average monthly salary in Albania is $200.
"We were promised jobs in Brindisi (Italy)," he told reporters. "It was very cold, and the victims froze to death."
Most of the passengers were from the northern districts of Shkodra and Malesi e Madhe, among Albania's poorest areas. Three women and 18 men were among the dead, said Lt. Col. Antonio Passaro, a spokesman for NATO in Albania.
Fran Prenga, who lost his wife and younger brother, said he and his family decided to risk the trip after the Italian government refused to renew their visas so they could return to their agriculture jobs.
"That's why we decided to undertake this crazy trip. Unless we went to Italy, we would lose our jobs," he said, adding that he had planned to make a similar trip later.
Albanian police monitoring the sea with radar Friday evening spotted the boat and called Italian and NATO authorities for help, knowing the inflatable craft could not withstand the rough weather.
In Rome, Ferdinando Lolli of the Italian Coast Guard general command's press office said "the dinghy was full of water, and all these people aboard and the bad weather caused this accident."
Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the tragedy sparks "so much human pity for the victims and as much abhorrence for the organizers of the voyage."
Albanian police arrested Albert Alliu and Artur Rrokaj, both Vlora residents, believed to have organized the illegal odyssey.
Rrokaj's father is the chief of the anti-terror office in the northern town of Shkodra, and a close relative is the Vlora traffic police chief. They were both suspended while the prosecutor's office investigates whether they were involved, Serjani said.
Marko Bello, a government minister, told the private television station Top Channel that suspects would be charged with murder and collaboration in murder, charges that could lead to life sentences.
The government will pay for the bodies to be returned to their families and buried, Bello added.
Prime Minister Fatos Nano, who is vacationing abroad, expressed his condolences to the victims' families and declared Monday a day of mourning.
President Alfred Moisiu, in Vlora to meet the survivors, said the tragedy "shows once again (that) not all the ways are closed to criminal trafficking."
Speedboats are a popular mode of transport for Albanians trying to sneak into Western Europe to escape their country's poverty. The Albanian government claimed in August 2002 that its efforts to stop the illegal speedboat traffic to Italy had been successful after a clampdown on smuggling networks.
NATO and the European Union have urged Albania to strengthen its border controls. Albania aspires to join both organizations.
Sen. Baucus recovering normally after surgery to relieve pressure on brain, doctors say
Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. -- Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was recovering normally Saturday, a day after surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, his spokesman reported.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., planned to keep the senator in the hospital Saturday night and perform another CT scan Sunday, Baucus staffer Barrett Kaiser said in Billings. He said doctors hope to release Baucus Sunday afternoon.
Kaiser said Baucus will be able to fly back to Washington with his wife, Wanda, and their son, Zeno, once he is released.
The 62-year-old senator apparently injured his head when he fell in the JFK 50-mile road race Nov. 22 in Maryland. He finished the race, but sported a black eye and had to receive several stitches to close a wound.
Baucus became ill Thursday on a flight to Phoenix, where he was to deliver an energy policy speech at the Edison Electric Institute.
Kaiser said a CT scan showed fluid had built up on the outside of his brain, a condition known as a subdural hematoma. The operation was Friday.
First official photos of British royal baby released
Associated Press
LONDON -- Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, released the first official photos of their baby daughter on Saturday.
The photos show tiny Lady Louise Windsor dressed in white and nestled in the arms of her parents two months after her premature birth. She is Queen Elizabeth II's seventh grandchild and is eighth in line to the throne.
The portrait was taken by her uncle, amateur photographer Prince Andrew, as the royal family gathered at their Sandringham estate for Christmas.
Prince Andrew became interested in photography while in the Royal Navy and published a book of mainly black-and-white pictures two years after buying his first camera in 1983.
He photographed the queen to mark her 60th birthday and her Golden Jubilee celebrating 50 years on the throne.
One picture of Lady Louise was released free of charge, but another three images will be sold, with profits going to charity.
Landmark Vegas casino shuts down after federal agents seize cash
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- A landmark hotel-casino was closed indefinitely Saturday after federal agents shut down the casino floor and seized an estimated $500,000 to pay for unpaid employee benefits.
The front doors were locked and yellow police tape greeted visitors to Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, a downtown Las Vegas fixture for 52 years and home to the wildly popular World Series of Poker.
"It's the end of an era," said Jim DiGiorgio, an adult film director who was among the guests told to find a new hotel Saturday.
Some 900 Binion's employees were left without work after owner Becky Binion Behnen agreed to close the property until she could find enough money to reopen it, said Keith Copher, chief enforcement officer of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Gamblers watched in disbelief Friday night as U.S. marshals shut down the casino floor. The agents were enforcing a court order against the property, which has not paid about $3 million in pension and health insurance benefits since last summer for an estimated 400 union employees, said D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226.
"This was a desperation measure on our part," he said. "It's never good when something like this happens."
Taylor added that the union will help its members find other jobs.
During an emergency meeting Saturday of the Nevada Gaming Commission, Behnen agreed to a suspended gambling license and will have to show she has obtained the property's minimum bankroll requirements before reopening, Copher said. He declined to say what that amount would be, citing confidentiality requirements.
Behnen did not attend the brief meeting in Las Vegas, but her lawyer appeared on her behalf. Copher said she promised the commission that she would honor all bets and jackpots won at the hotel-casino.
Behnen did not return calls seeking comment, and messages left for her lawyer were not immediately returned. Phones rang unanswered at the hotel-casino Saturday afternoon.
Legendary cowboy Benny Binion founded the casino in 1951 in downtown's Glitter Gulch. Binion's became popular as a high-stakes gambling spot where reportedly no bet was turned away.
Binion, who died in 1989, began the World Series of Poker in 1970 and watched the annual tournament grow into poker's premier event.
"Assuming the doors don't reopen, it's a sad, final chapter to what was a great story," said Nolan Dalla, former media director of the tournament.
Downtown was once the center of the Vegas gambling scene, but the area has languished in recent years under the blinding lights of the Las Vegas Strip, a few miles south in unincorporated Clark County.
City efforts to revitalize the area would take a hit if Binion's closed for good; the casino sits along the Fremont Street Experience, a casino-lined pedestrian mall that is downtown's main attraction.
The hotel-casino has been mired in financial troubles. The Internal Revenue Service filed a lien against the property in November, claiming $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes dating to 2002. The IRS filed a second lien last month, claiming $2.5 million in back taxes.
Frances and Scott McKissick, of Irving, Texas, stopped by the hotel-casino early Saturday to see whether it had reopened. Although they wanted to cash in two winning bets placed the night before, the couple said they were more concerned about a favorite hotel closing.
"It's got a lot of history," said Frances McKissick, 41. "It's going to take away from the tradition of Fremont."
On the Net:
http://www.binions.com/
Intruders kill U.S. citizen living in Guatemala
Associated Press
GUATEMALA CITY -- A U.S. citizen living in southern Guatemala died Saturday morning after being shot by intruders who appeared to be stealing coconuts from the victim's property, police said.
The 62-year-old man was shot Friday night at his property in the rural town of Chicacao, 100 miles southeast of Guatemala City. He was taken to a hospital where he died on Saturday, national police reported.
A written police report and personal documents identified the victim as David Lebold of Ohio, but authorities at the U.S. Embassy could not immediately confirm the man's identity.
The assailants appeared to be stealing coconuts from palm trees on Lebold's property when the shooting occurred.
Lebold was married to a Guatemalan woman and became a permanent resident of Guatemala in 2000, according to government documents. He and his wife had lived in Chicacao since 2001.
People in the news
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- "The Wayne Brady Show" won't be back for a third season because of low ratings, Buena Vista Television has announced.
The syndicated show remains in production and will air through May.
The comedian won best talk show host and "The Wayne Brady Show" tied for best talk show with "The View" at last May's Daytime Emmy Awards.
Brady also received a Primetime Emmy last September for his work in ABC's improv show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
Buena Vista will try its luck with another performer. Actor Tony Danza ("Taxi," "Who's the Boss?") will host a talk show beginning this fall, a Buena Vista spokesman said Friday. The series was planned before the decision to cancel Brady's series was made.
WATERVILLE, Maine -- Actor Paul Newman donated $10,000 to help build an 18-mile trail system for runners, bicyclists, walkers and skiers in central Maine.
Peter Garrett, president of Kennebec Messalonskee Trails Inc., said he wrote a letter to Newman in November explaining that the trail system would open up land along the Kennebec River and Messalonskee Stream for people to exercise and see wildlife.
Newman spent much of last summer and fall in central Maine filming "Empire Falls," an HBO movie based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Maine author Richard Russo.
Garrett said he recently received a check and a letter from Newman expressing support for the project.
"He's a very community-minded person -- that's what it says about him," Garrett said.
Newman has donated to other local causes, including $10,000 to United Way of Mid-Maine Inc. and $15,000 to the South End Learning Center.
LAS VEGAS -- French figure skating champion Surya Bonaly became a U.S. citizen Friday in Las Vegas.
"Everyone is a citizen of the world," said Bonaly, 30, who moved to Boston in 1997 and Las Vegas in 1999. "But living in America for me has been my life, and I'm very thankful for living here. To be able to now say I'm an American is nice."
She was sworn in during an afternoon ceremony at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas.
A native of Nice, Bonaly won nine French national championships, competed in three Olympics and won silver medals at world figure skating championships from 1993-95.
She turned professional in 1998 and now tours with "Champions on Ice."
NEW YORK -- Sharon Osbourne returns on the air Monday as host of her syndicated talk show.
It will be her first appearance on "The Sharon Osbourne Show" since her husband, rocker Ozzy Osbourne, was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident last month.
Osbourne, 55, fractured his collarbone, eight ribs and a neck vertebra when the 600-pound vehicle he was riding flipped and landed on top of him at his estate in Buckinghamshire, southern England, on Dec. 8. He spent a week on a ventilator.
"We heard from Prince Charles and -- never let anyone say he's a bad guy 'cause he's all right by the Osbournes -- he sent my husband a bottle of scotch, which of course he's not going to drink!" Osbourne tells the audience. Excerpts from the show were released Friday.
Monday's show will feature a tribute to Ozzy that chronicles the rocker's life before and after the accident.
Meanwhile, MTV said "The Osbournes" reality series would return with five new episodes starting Tuesday, Jan. 27 (10:30 p.m. EST).
"Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly are back on MTV with all new adventures including Jack's 18th birthday, a trip to the tattoo parlor for some family members, a whole slew of new dogs and cats, massive new construction on the Beverly Hills house, and much, much more," the cable channel said Friday.
Osbourne has canceled his upcoming 20-date tour of Britain to give him time to recover fully from his accident.
PARIS -- French actress Brigitte Bardot has sent a letter to China's president criticizing the killing of civet cats in its fight against the SARS virus.
Bardot's letter to President Hu Jintao claims there's no scientific proof about which animal species first caught the severe acute respiratory syndrome and lashes out against China's "cruel and barbarous slaughtering methods."
"The eradication methods these animals are put through are unacceptable," Bardot wrote in her letter, which was made available to reporters Thursday.
The southern Chinese province of Guangdong has targeted 10,000 civets for slaughter -- by drowning, electrocution or incineration -- by Saturday as part of its battle against the spread of the virus.
The mass slaughter stems from the suspected link between wild animals and the virus, which killed 774 people worldwide last year.
Bardot, 69, is no stranger to using her celebrity for feisty campaigns to defend animals. In 1997 and 2000, she was convicted in France of inciting racial violence after she criticized in print the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep.
HOUSTON -- Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu and Lil' Romeo are expected to attend a Jan. 31 event at Texas Southern University sponsored by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.
The artists will lead discussions about the hip-hop industry, the importance of voting and other issues such as the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Admission is free, but attendees must register to vote to get a ticket. Organizers hope the event will draw 10,000 people, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.
The Houston summit will be followed by similar voter registration and community awareness drives in cities nationwide.
"Houston is emerging as a major international hub for hip-hop music and culture," said Benjamin Chavis, executive director of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. "We know what we do on that Saturday before the Super Bowl is going to have a long-term impact."
Houston hosts the Super Bowl on Feb. 1.
A hip-hop summit in Philadelphia registered 11,000 new voters last summer and an April event in Detroit drew 17,000 participants.
WASHINGTON -- Mandy Moore posed for the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine -- but don't look for anything racier.
"No. No men's magazines. ... No thank you," the 19-year-old star of "Chasing Liberty" told AP Radio in an interview. Moore plays a U.S. president's daughter who runs away during a diplomatic trip to Europe to escape the public eye.
"I was asked when I was 15 to start kind of doing those things. I think at this point now those sort of magazines know that it's not my cup of tea and I won't be doing them. But I was a little surprised at 15," Moore said.
There's also something else Moore won't do -- tattoo her boyfriend's name on her body. "No. No names. I think that's the worst decision ever when getting a tattoo."
NEW YORK -- Cheryl Hines says her real-life marriage is far less taxing than her fictional one to Larry David on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Hines, who is married to talent manager Paul Young, tells W magazine in its January issue: "Paul doesn't annoy me. Talk to me in 15 years. But for the most part, he's really easygoing -- the opposite of Larry."
The 38-year-old actress -- who is pregnant with the couple's first child -- was nominated for an Emmy last year for her role as Cheryl David.
"The fact that you believe she genuinely likes me is quite an achievement," David tells the magazine. "And what amazes me is that Cheryl always knows how to make the scene funny, without really caring how she comes off."