Rare annular eclipse to cross Europe, Africa

By: Associated Press Wire Reports | Sunday, October 2, 2005 8:53 PM PDT ∞

LISBON, Portugal ---- A rare and spectacular eclipse will dim the morning sky today across a strip of southwestern Europe and eight African countries.

During the event, called an annular eclipse, the moon will mask the sun like a black plate, leaving a bright, fiery rim.

The moon will be too small to blot out the sun completely, as in a total eclipse, because its elliptical orbit has taken it too far from the earth.

However, scientists say the daylight will fade and temperatures will drop slightly as the eclipse travels along a narrow band girdling almost half the planet.

The rim of fire that appears around the moon glows brighter than the corona seen during a total eclipse.

"It's quite spectacular," said Dr. Stephen Maran, an astronomer with the American Astrological Society in Washington.

"I wouldn't miss it if I was over there, because it's rare," Maran said by telephone.

The phenomenon does not include North America and will not be visible from the United States.

The eclipse's 3.5 hour path first traverses Portugal and Spain, including the capital, Madrid, and the Balearic Islands.

It then moves on to Africa toward Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, southeast Ethiopia, Kenya and the southern tip of Somalia. It ends with the sunset in the Indian Ocean.

The Iberian peninsula has not witnessed an annular eclipse since 1912 and will not see another one until 2028.

Outside that band, a partial eclipse will be visible through protective eyewear over most of Europe, the Middle East, India and a large chunk of Africa.

Authorities are reminding the public to avoid looking at the sun without eye protection.

In Spain, where the event has stirred keen anticipation, opticians selling 1 million special protective glasses at $3.70 each said Friday they had virtually sold out.

In Portugal, the General Directorate for Health was distributing free glasses with daily newspapers.

20,000 runners diverted when police spot suspicious package under bridge

WASHINGTON (AP) ---- A 10-mile race that had attracted about 20,000 runners grew by a mile Sunday when a suspicious package under a bridge prompted organizers to change their route.

The Army's annual "Ten-Miler" road race from Arlington, Va., to Washington and back became an unofficial "fun run" when a Washington police harbor unit found the package under the 14th Street Bridge, a part of the route.

Before runners reached the bridge, race organizers decided to turn them back, said Tara McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Military District of Washington.

Police examining the package later said it was harmless, police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said.

Despite liberal reputation, Seattle considers lap dance ban to discourage strip clubs

SEATTLE (AP) ---- Strippers who venture too near the laps of their dollar-bill-waving patrons have exposed an unexpected prudish streak in this West Coast bastion of tolerance and liberalism.

Fearing a spate of new cabarets after a federal judge struck down the city's 17-year moratorium on new strip clubs, the City Council is planning to vote Monday on some of the strictest adult-entertainment regulations of any big city in the country.

No lap dances. No placing dollar bills in a dancer's G-string. And the clubs must have what one council member likens to "Fred Meyer" lighting, a reference to the department store chain.

"It's wiping out an entire industry in Seattle," said Gilbert Levy, a lawyer for Rick's gentleman's club.

Seattle's queasiness over naked dancing contradicts its usual freewill attitude, dating back to the city's thriving business separating prospectors from their gold at brothels and saloons. Anti-war demonstrations are routine here, a gay population has thrived for nearly a century, and residents voted two years ago to make enforcing marijuana laws the police department's lowest priority.

"Seattle had always had that reputation for being a wide-open town, so it's an almost-normal kind of Seattle controversy -- what is sin?" said local historian David Wilma.

After the number of strip clubs jumped from two to seven between 1986 and 1988, the city imposed a 180-day moratorium on new cabarets while it studied the issue. Over the next two decades, the City Council repeatedly extended the moratorium, in part to avoid the politically sensitive issue of where the new strip clubs would be allowed.

The number of strip clubs in the city fell to four. By contrast, Atlanta has roughly three dozen.

But last month, U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled the moratorium was an unconstitutional restraint on free speech. The city could wind up paying the plaintiff, a man who wants to open a club downtown, millions of dollars in damages.

In anticipation of the ruling, Democratic Mayor Greg Nickels came up with rules to discourage new strip clubs and make it easier to police existing ones.

Under these rules, dancers would have to stay 4 feet away from customers, private rooms would be barred, customers couldn't give money directly to entertainers, and the minimum lighting would be increased -- think parking-garage brightness.

Technically, the city already bans "touching" between a dancer and customer, but officials dispute whether that means sexual touching or all touching. At any rate, they say it's impossible to enforce and completely ignored.

"How do you know there's no touching unless you're one of the participants?" said Mel McDonald, the city official charged with strip club regulation. "It's dark in there. You don't know whether they're half-an-inch away or not. With the 4-foot rule, it's a lot less subjective. Our vice people can enforce it without buying a dance."

City Council meetings on the rules have drawn protests from more than 100 of the city's 554 licensed dancers, many toting young children.

But the general public doesn't seem terribly interested, said Paul Elliott, aide to council member Richard McIver.

"We get more e-mails about putting synthetic turf on the Lowell Heights playfield," Elliot said.

Councilwoman's aide surrenders in briefcase incident

SAN JOSE (AP) ---- A city councilwoman's chief of staff has surrendered to authorities after police issued a warrant for her arrest for the disappearance of a briefcase at City Hall.

Christine Silva Burnett, 54, turned herself in to San Jose police on Friday. Prosecutors charged her with a misdemeanor, misappropriation of found property.

The case stems from an incident Sept. 19 when a community activist visited a floor in the City Hall where council members and staffers have offices. The activist said his black briefcase containing a wallet and personal digital assistant was stolen.

Burnett worked for Councilwoman Nora Campos, who said she was surprised with the arrest.

"She has done great work for San Jose and has been an outstanding staff person for my office," Campos said.

San Jose police recovered the briefcase from Burnett on Sept. 22.

Authorities link earlier robbery to immigrant slayings

ELLENTON, Ga. (AP) ---- Authorities have linked a string of home invasions that left five Mexican immigrants dead with an armed robbery that occurred last month after reviewing descriptions of weapons used in both crimes.

Javier Guzman and Juventino Leon were assaulted in their trailer on Sept. 13 by three men wielding chrome pistols and baseball bats, similar to the weapons used in the south Georgia slayings on Friday.

"The chrome pistols' descriptions match," said Colquitt County Sheriff's investigator David Corona. "We do believe there is a connection."

At least two of the men killed early Friday in the attacks were shot. Others were beaten with aluminum baseball bats, a weapon used in all of the attacks, said Vernon Keenan, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

On Sunday, police were working with the Mexican consulate in Atlanta to notify victims' families in Mexico. Investigators were following several leads after police released sketches of two attackers based on descriptions from surviving victims.

Authorities suspect at least two men committed the attacks at four mobile home parks and targeted Hispanics. The killings have terrified Hispanics who come to the region to work in cotton fields and peanut farms.

Police search for body of woman whose 4-year-old daughter found on street

NEW YORK (AP) ---- Police searched Sunday for the body of a woman whose 4-year-old daughter was found abandoned on a city street, and said they were considering how to tell the girl that her mother is dead.

Authorities have been unable to find 26-year-old Monica Lozada-Rivaineira since her daughter was discovered crying and shivering on a street in Queens. The girl told neighbors her father left her there and drove away.

Cesar Ascarrunz, 32, was charged Saturday with murdering his live-in girlfriend. Police say Ascarrunz killed Lozada-Rivaineira and dumped her corpse in a pile of trash on a Queens street corner.

Police were led to Ascarrunz by tips from the public after 4-year-old Valery Lozada appeared on TV on Thursday. The child, her hair in pigtails, described her mother as looking "like a princess." Police ultimately used records from Valery's day care center to identify her mother.

"This child has captured the hearts of all New Yorkers," said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. "I hope she can grow up to lead a normal life."

Child welfare officials took the unusual step of putting her on television hoping that would produce more information about her identity.

Kevin Flood, a firefighter who gave the girl a drink and a fruit snack that night, said her hair was tousled as if she had just been awakened. But she showed no signs of abuse and neglect, authorities said.

"She was scared. She was crying," said Flood, 34. "She said her daddy had left her on the corner."

Valery was asking to see her mother, but authorities were waiting to break the news of her mother's death, said John Mattingly, commissioner of the city Administration for Children's Services. Dozens of people have volunteered to adopt her, he said.

"This little girl is as strong and capable and bright as she can be because of her mother," Mattingly said. "It makes us hopeful for the future ... that she will in the long run do well."

City officials were trying to contact family members and have already reached a female cousin of her mother's in New York, Mattingly said.

Ascarrunz also was charged with reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child, child abandonment and evidence tampering, Brown said. If convicted on the murder charge, he faces 25 years to life in prison.

Lozada-Rivaineira was last seen at the apartment she shared with Ascarrunz late on Sept. 24, authorities said. According to a criminal complaint, Ascarrunz choked Lozada-Rivaineira to death in the apartment, put her body in a plastic bag and left it in the living room for two days.

On Sept. 26, he took her body from the apartment and dumped it in a pile of trash on a Queens street corner, the complaint said.

Investigators found traces of blood in the apartment. Ascarrunz told police he had cut Lozada-Rivaineira's throat to revive her after choking her, according to the complaint.

Ascarrunz had not been arraigned by late Saturday. A spokesman for the district attorney said he believed Ascarrunz did not have an attorney.

Mexican companies try to brew U.S. market for spicy beer mixer

MEXICO CITY (AP) ---- Now that Americans have become accustomed to sticking lime wedges in their beers, Mexican companies are hoping they will start reaching for cold ones with a spicy kick.

Brewers, distributors and a company peddling a pre-made mix are trying to cash in on the michelada -- beer served with lime juice, assorted sweet-and-sour spices, chile pepper, ice and a salted rim -- which has been a best seller south of the border for decades.

"The michelada isn't new for Mexico, but in the United States it's something special, something they only began to try recently and they like," said Santiago Clariond, owner of Compania Alimenticia del Norte SA, which makes MicheMix.

"More people are getting to know the michelada every day," he said.

The trend has gained steam as American tourists tasted the drink on trips to Mexico, then looked for something similar back home. Visitors to Mexican travel Internet bulletin boards have referred to micheladas as "beer lemonade."

Clariond's company began selling the mix in Mexico in 1999 and now exports it to the United States, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Tufic Salem, an analyst who tracks the beverage market for Credit Suisse First Boston in Mexico City, said micheladas have yet to catch on throughout the United States.

Still, some companies are hoping they can help it become more popular.

Chicago-based Barton Beers Ltd. ---- which imports Mexican-made Grupo Modelo brands including Corona, Negra Modelo and Pacifico in 25 U.S. states -- has launched michelada promotions with U.S. chains, including Marriott International Inc. hotels and El Torito Mexican restaurant chain.

"Like enjoying a lime with a Corona, we let the consumer determine what they prefer," said Bill Ligas, a Barton spokesman. "However, we do see this as a unique opportunity to expand the use of beer as an alternative beverage to a wider audience."

Salem agreed, saying: "This will certainly help Mexican beer companies. If you are going to make micheladas, you are going to use Mexican brands and that's good for their sales."

Restaurants and beer distributors stand to profit, too, said Tad Wilkes, who wrote an article about micheladas for Salud Y Buen Provecho, a supplement of Nightclub & Bar Magazine.

"More than ever, you're seeing chain restaurants and others that provide beverage menus full of signature drinks," said Wilkes, associate editor of Oxford Publishing, in Oxford, Miss. "It could be an opportunity for beers to tap into that, putting a michelada next to an apple martini."

Many in Mexico say they won't drink beer any other way.

"It gives it more flavor," said Jose Alvear, a 33-year-old doctor who was sipping a michelada over lunch at a seafood restaurant in a fashionable corner of Mexico City's Roma neighborhood. "It's regular beer, but with more personality."

No one knows for sure where the michelada (mee-cha-LAH-dah) was invented, though bar owners all over Mexico claim they devised the recipe.

What goes in a michelada also depends on who you talk to. All include lime juice and salt, but recipes may call for adding Worcestershire sauce, liquid seasoning and soy sauce. Others include black pepper.

Using bottled hot sauce instead of chile pepper is becoming more common, though some prefer to leave out the spicy stuff altogether.

Even the meaning of its name is subject to debate. But most agree it comes from "mi chela helada," Mexican slang for "My Cold Beer."

A legend circulating the Internet and picked up by some Mexican newspapers traces the michelada's roots to a general named Augusto Michel, who hailed from San Luis Potosi state. But that was concocted by Clariond.

"I thought a story would add mystique to our product," he said by telephone from company headquarters in the northern city of Monterrey.

Sold in 8.38-ounce plastic bottles, usually in the grocery store's beer aisle, "MicheMix" features salt, lime juice and spices. The "picante" variety is spicy, while a basic mixture offers simply salt and lime.

Clariond acknowledged he is selling a mix made from items readily available in any home or restaurant, but said his product spares beer drinkers and bartenders the mess-making headaches of slicing limes and rummaging through the spice rack.

He refused to discuss sales figures for strategic reasons, but said U.S. customers buy only about 4 percent of the mix his company sells annually. Sales in Central America are about half that much.

However, the American market should account for at least 25 percent of sales by 2007, he said.

Mexican brands have conquered the U.S. beer market before: Corona overtook Heineken and has been the United States' top-selling import since 1997.

"If it's a Mexican tradition, the consumer is going to demand it be made in Mexico," Clariond said. "Customers have to see it as a plus that the product is produced here."