Rhode Island school bans talking at lunch after choking incidents

By: Associated Press | Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:38 PM PST ∞

WARWICK, R.I. -- Class, from now on there will be no talking at lunch. A Roman Catholic elementary school adopted new lunchroom rules this week requiring students to remain silent while eating. The move comes after three recent choking incidents in the cafeteria.

No one was hurt, but the principal of St. Rose of Lima School explained in a letter to parents that if the lunchroom is loud, staff members cannot hear a child choking.

Christine Lamoureux, whose 12-year-old is a sixth-grader at the school, said she respects the safety issue but thinks the rule is a bad idea.

"They are silent all day," she said. "They have to get some type of release." She suggested quiet conversation be allowed during lunch.

Another mother, Thina Paone, does not mind the silent lunches, noting that the cafeteria "can be very crazy" at the suburban school south of Providence.

Principal Jeannine Fuller did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but a spokesman for the Diocese of Providence described the silence rule as a temporary safety measure.

Spokesman Michael Guilfoyle said the school does not expect complete silence but enough quiet to keep students safe.

Lori Healey, a teacher at the school who also has a son in third grade, said "silent lunch" means students can whisper.

"They know it's not for punishment," she said. "It's for safety, and they'll be the first ones to tell you."

Stacey Wildenhain, a teacher's assistant at St. Rose, said her 7-year-old son does not mind the policy. He told her: "The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get out to play," she said.

Amanda Karhuse, of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said that students should not run wild during lunch, but that they also should not have to remain silent.

"It seems kind of ridiculous in our opinion," she said. "Kids need that social time, and they just need time to be kids at that age."

The principal's letter also spelled out other new lunch rules, including requiring students to stay in their seats and limiting them to one trip to the trash can. Any child who breaks the rules will serve detention the next day.

Paone's 6-year-old son, Joey, said he accepts the changes, but some of his classmates were having trouble obeying the rules.

Kara Casali, who also has a 6-year-old son at the school, said the rules against talking will be tough to enforce.

"I can't imagine having a silent lunch," she said.

On the Net:

St. Rose School: http://www.saintroseschool.com/

With naked jogger on the loose, it's not just a walk in the park

SARATOGA, Calif. (AP) -- Who was that undressed man?

That's the question startled hikers, bikers and horseback riders are asking about a jogger seen streaking through an open space preserve wearing nothing but sneakers, glasses and a black tam hat.

"He passed me and said 'Good evening,"' said equestrian Sue Bowdoin, who spotted the naked man -- middle-aged and sporting a pale paunch -- while riding her horse, Randy, on a trail in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve last summer. "I thought: Ugh!"

Although numerous park users have reported seeing the exhibitionist over the last year-and-a-half, rangers have been unable to identify and arrest him for exposing himself, said Gordon Baillie of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

A woman who saw him said he looked scared and backed away after she cornered him with her horse and told him he was offending people.

People who use the park regularly have not reported recent sightings in the cold weather, but they theorize he may be incognito because he is clothed. With dark hair, sweaty red skin and lack of body hair, he is easily recognizable, Bowdoin said.

"He's frumpy. Plain. Not in good physical shape," Bowdoin said. "It's not a pretty sight.'

Phoenix-area parents question their kids about a sex offender who sat next to them in class

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) -- Experts on child exploitation are all too familiar with sex offenders working as scout leaders, coaches and teachers, but this was a new one -- a boyish-looking man who posed as a 12-year-old and enrolled in school in what may have been a scheme to find kids to molest.

Now parents in this Phoenix suburb where 29-year-old Neil Havens Rodreick II attended a charter school for four months are asking their children if they had any contact with this "classmate."

And police are interviewing parents, students and teachers, and frantically checking at least two other Arizona schools where Rodreick, a convicted sex offender from Oklahoma, also enrolled.

"We told him that it was a scary man who passed himself off as a kid that went to school for a bit," said Erika Ton Loy, whose 7-year-old son attends the charter school, the Imagine School. "When we heard more about it on the news, we got him up out of bed. My husband wanted to make sure he didn't recognize this guy, and he was like, `Have you seen this guy?' and he said, `No, I don't know who the heck he is."'

Rodreick -- who is about 5-foot-6 and 120 pounds, shaved his body hair and used makeup in a not-entirely-convincing attempt to cover his stubble -- has been charged with forgery and fraud in the school-enrollment con, as well as assault against a girl. But investigators have refused to release details of that crime and will not say whether he met the girl through the school scam.

Officials also said Thursday that a search of the home where he was staying yielded a video of Rodreick engaging in sex acts with an unidentified child.

Using the name Casey Price, Rodreick attended the Imagine School from August to November before the seventh-grader was thrown out for poor attendance. Investigators said he was caught when he attended school for a day last week in Chino Valley, about 90 miles from Phoenix.

Rodreick also attended a charter school as a seventh-grader for a few weeks in 2005 in the community of Payson, about 65 miles from Phoenix, and had brought classmates home with him, investigators said.

While authorities have not said why Rodreick was posing as a boy at the schools, officials in Chino Valley said it may have been to lure children for sex.

"Usually sex offenders try to develop a relationship with the children who they are going to attempt to exploit," said Robert Geffner, a psychologist in California who is editor of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. "They look for vulnerability, they try to develop a close relationship of trust and dependence with that child. One of best ways to do that is to interact in a safe setting with a child."

Kenneth Lanning, who helped investigate child sex crimes as an agent with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit for 30 years, said he has never heard of an adult successfully pretending to be a child so young and enrolling in school.

But he said investigators should not be too quick to assume Rodreick sexually assaulted anyone. Rodreick could have had other reasons for posing as a boy, such as fulfilling a sexual need just by being near children, Lanning said.

Rodreick, who is in jail, declined a request for an interview.

He was living in Chino Valley with two men he had conned into believing he was a 12-year-old, authorities said. The two men, ages 43 and 61, were charged with attempted child molestation and attempted sexual contact with a minor.

In 1996, he was convicted in Oklahoma of lewdly propositioning a 6-year-old boy. He served about six years in prison.

Rhonda Cagle, a spokeswoman for the Imagine School, said no students have come forward to accuse Rodreick of molesting them. But the school brought in counselors to be available for students and their families.

She said Rodreick was an average student who kept to himself and turned in his homework.

"This individual stood out in our pickup line every day right with all of our other students. Parents walked by, students walk by, staff walked by," she said. "There was no questions or concerns by anybody that were ever raised with our administration team here in regards to this individual, so I would certainly say he blended in quite well."

The school did not realize it had been conned until Rodreick was arrested at the Chino Valley school. School officials there said they called police because his birth certificate and other documents looked forged. But at the time, they thought they might be dealing with a child who had been abducted.

5-year-old boy takes gun to Kan. school after mom says she wants it out of the house

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) -- A 5-year-old boy took an unloaded semiautomatic handgun to school and showed it off to at least one classmate, police said.

School officials in this Kansas City suburb had not decided what disciplinary action would be taken against the kindergartner, but a federal law requires expulsion for students who bring a gun to school, said LeighAnne Neal, a spokeswoman for the Shawnee Mission School District.

Shawnee Police Capt. Ron Copeland said the boy's father had found the .22-caliber handgun while cleaning out a drawer at home. After he showed it to the child and relayed a message about the dangers of guns, the boy's mother said to get rid of it.

The child took the unloaded gun to Rhein Benninghoven Elementary School on Wednesday, where he showed it off to at least one classmate, Copeland said. Police were called after a teacher heard about the weapon.

"When asked why he brought it to school, (the child) told the teacher his mother wanted it out of the house," Copeland said. "But more than likely he was just showing it off to friends."

Neal said parents received phone messages letting them know what happened.

Got a Date? Dairy farmers start labeling their milk with personal ads

LONDON (AP) -- Got milk? Got a date? A group of dairy farmers are putting single's ads on milk cartons in the hopes of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right in the far-flung countryside of Wales.

The novel approach to the singles' scene coincides with Thursday's celebration of St. Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh patron saint of lovers.

"My family thinks I'm nuts," said 30-year-old farmer Iwan Jones, who appears on the cartons and hasn't had a date in a year. "My friends think it's hilarious -- but everyone's taking it with kind of a lighthearted attitude."

Three men and two women appear in the ads, which feature an oval photograph under the heading, "Fancy a farmer?" The address for a dating Web site, www.pishynwales.com, is also written on the stickers for those who want to follow up.

Since the ads appeared Monday, the site has received 2,500 hits, or about 10 times the usual daily traffic, said Aran Jones, who runs the nonprofit operation.

The ads are also a way of highlighting the low points of a dairy farmer's hard-scrabble existence in Welsh communities like Camarthenshire, where the cooperative is based 220 miles from London. Farmers say they often feel isolated among the verdant rolling hills dotted with medieval castles.

"It's a beautiful environment, but in terms of actually trying to meet somebody it's not particularly easy -- especially when you have to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning to milk cows," said the cooperative's director Richard Kerr, who is happily married and not pictured in the ads.

It's not just the hours, either. The farmers say many young people have left the farm to seek education and opportunity in the cities. So for Aran Jones, the ads are a way to try to "keep people in the Welsh countryside by helping them meet each other."

Iwan Jones, who owns a 250-acre farm and 100 cows in Denbighshire, 225 miles west of London, said he had received several messages through the Web site so far.

Though he doesn't expect to take anyone out just yet, he's open-minded about the kind of woman he'd like to meet, as long as she has a "good attitude about life."

Aran Jones said most of the Web site's new visitors are probably just starting to get a feel for it and deciding what to include in their online profiles. And no matter what, all the attention has been good for the dating site.

"It's like the first dance of the evening," Jones said.

Reputed Klansman pleads not guilty in 1964 killings of 2 black men in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- A reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused in the 1964 slayings of two black men pleaded not guilty Thursday, and in a measure of how things have changed across the South, the judge he stood before was a black woman.

With his wrists and ankles shackled, 71-year-old James Ford Seale repeatedly addressed the judge as "ma'am," a social courtesy whites typically denied to blacks in Mississippi 43 years ago.

Seale was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy. Prosecutors said Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, were seized and beaten by Klansmen, then thrown into the Mississippi River to drown.

A second white man long suspected in the attack, reputed KKK member Charles Marcus Edwards, 72, has not been charged. People close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity said Edwards was cooperating with authorities.

Seale and Edwards were arrested in the case in 1964. But the FBI -- consumed by the search for three civil rights workers who had disappeared that same summer -- turned the case over to local authorities, who promptly threw out all charges.

The U.S. Justice Department reopened the case in 2000. But it was not until a few years ago that authorities even realized Seale was still alive.

"Forty years ago, the system failed," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in Washington. "We in the FBI have a responsibility to investigate these cold-case, civil rights-era murders where evidence still exists to bring both closure and justice to these cases that for many, remain unhealed wounds to this day."

On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Linda R. Anderson asked Seale whether he understood the charges, which carry up to life in prison.

"Yes, ma'am, I think so," Seale said in a calm voice.

Seale was jailed for a bail hearing on Monday. His court-appointed attorneys said he is suffering from cancer. His trial is scheduled for April 2.

Lara Jakes Jordan reported from Washington. AP National Writer Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., also contributed to this report.

1 of 2 Okla. inmates recaptured after escape kills self in apparent jail suicide pact

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- One of two men who escaped from a prison and was suspected of going on a crime spree before being recaptured hanged himself in jail Thursday and apparently had a suicide pact with the other escaped inmate, sheriff's officials said.

Tony Ellison, 23, was found hanging from a bed sheet tied to a light fixture at 8:35 a.m., 20 minutes after a routine check of his cell, the Tulsa County sheriff's office said.

Ellison and the other escaped inmate, Charles McDaniels, discussed their plans to kill themselves in letters found in their cells, Undersheriff Brian Edwards said. McDaniels, 35, was immediately placed on a suicide watch.

"We were very surprised when we uncovered this plot between the two of them," Edwards said, adding that Ellison had not seemed despondent and had not been on a suicide watch.

"If a person is very determined, it is very difficult to keep them from hurting themselves," Edwards said.

Sheriff's Capt. John Bowman said Ellison managed to put a thin section of sheet behind a light fixture that had appeared to be flush to the wall.

Authorities said Ellison and McDaniels cut through a fence Monday to escape from Great Plains Correctional Center, a medium-security private prison in Hinton.

Authorities said the pair broke into a Hinton home, abducted a woman and drove her in her vehicle into Oklahoma City, about 50 miles east. There, police say, the men broke into a home, beat the woman who lived there and stole her car, leaving both women tied up.

McDaniels, a murderer, and Ellison, convicted of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and escape, were captured Wednesday in a central Tulsa neighborhood.

Three Tulsa County inmates have committed suicide, all by hanging, in the 18 months since the county took over operations of the jail from a private company.

Guard shot, finishes shift but later dies

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- A private security guard was shot in the head but finished his shift and went home before being hospitalized and later dying, police said Thursday.

Demetrio "Jim" Baltazar, 59, of Oakland was shot Sunday afternoon as he sat in a security vehicle at an East Bay Municipal Utility District maintenance facility where he worked.

Investigators believe Baltazar was hit by a stray bullet from a shooting that took place nearby.

Oakland police Sgt. Jim Rullamas said it's not clear why Baltazar didn't seek treatment.

"He knew that he was hurt," Rullamas said. "We have him on a surveillance video holding a towel to his head and cleaning up. I can't answer why he didn't call 911 or go to the doctor. I just don't know."

Friends and family didn't describe Baltazar as being "macho," or likely to shrug off a serious injury, Rullamas said. "Everybody said he's just a real friendly, dedicated kind of worker."

Baltazar, who worked for Guardsmark Security which contracts with EBMUD, finished his shift and drove himself home. There, Baltazar's 11-year-old son tried to help him with his injury, Rullamas said.

Baltazar's condition worsened and he was taken to the hospital but did not recover, dying on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, another guard called police after finding blood inside the security vehicle.

Police were investigating the shooting that was believed to have resulted in Baltazar's death, Rullamas said.

"This is just a man who is a completely innocent victim," he said.

13-year-olds accused of taping their own sex assault on young girl in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Two 13-year-old boys videotaped themselves sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl and recorded sexual contact between her and two other young children, police said.

Police said the mother of one of the victims found the videotape Jan. 18. The assault was believed to have occurred within the past year at one of the boys' homes, about a block away from an elementary school.

Police believe all the children are related.

The tape shows the boys assaulting the girl with an object, and she is also seen having sexual contact with another 5-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, police said.

"What they were trying to do is basically simulate sex acts," said officer Katherine Finnell.

Finnell said police did not know where the parents of any of the children were during the assault and taping.

The 13-year-olds were taken to Lancaster County Juvenile Detention Center, Finnell said.

Both boys were on juvenile probation when the tape was found. One was sentenced in December for burglary and criminal mischief. The other boy had been on probation for burglary and assault since August.

Electric wheelchair erupts in flames, man critically burned

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) -- A retiree was engulfed in flames and critically burned when his electric wheelchair caught fire and he couldn't get out.

The 63-year-old man, whose name wasn't released, was hospitalized with burns over about 90 percent of his body. The name of the hospital was also unavailable, authorities said Thursday.

The wheelchair motor apparently touched off the blaze.

"His wheelchair started to catch on fire, and he just couldn't get out of his wheelchair," said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Bennett of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

A neighbor heard the man's screams and a 911 call brought firefighters to the man's home at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bennett said.

"When we responded, he was fully engulfed in flames," Bennett said. "It's horrible."

Even school children getting into Elko poetry gathering

ELKO, Nev. (AP) -- Schoolchildren moseyed up for a sarsaparilla, donned bandanas and pounded leather tools at the Western Folklife Center this week in anticipation of the 23rd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

The Gathering starts Saturday and continues through Feb. 3.

On Tuesday, the center hosted home-schooled children, as well as youngsters from Southside Elementary, Mound Valley Rural School and Battle Mountain Elementary. Other schools joined the fun on Wednesday and Thursday.

Workshops included leather key chain making, cowboy history lessons and handkerchief tying.

Volunteer staff member Pami Briggs told a group of students about the origins of cattle herding in Mongolia and the development of cowboy traditions as they spread westward across Asia to northern Africa and Spain, finally crossing the ocean to Mexico and the United States.

She also informed the students of the history of the Stetson hat and why cowboys slickers have such a tall slit up the back.

Five-year-old Brock Smith of Jiggs said his visit to the center on Tuesday was the first time he'd done any hand-tooled leather work. He agreed the process was "pretty neat."

JoAnn Coil returned for the fourth year to instruct children on handkerchief-tying techniques, and said she keeps coming back because she enjoys working with the children. Even though she has moved to Utah since last years Gathering, Coil readily accepted the request from the center for her return.

Student interests also are being represented through the large number of displays of artwork, ranging from paintings to 3-D masks and photography.

"It's just a wonderful representation of Elko County kids at work," said volunteer staff member Jan Petersen, who is in charge of the children's art displays.

Hundreds duped out of nearly $200 in essay contest to win a free beach house try to get their money back

MANHATTAN BEACH - Hundreds of people duped out of nearly $200 in an essay contest to win a free beach house look set to get their money back this week -- more than six years after paying for a chance to win the home.

Checks for $195 were mailed to 1,716 contestants yesterday, the Daily Breeze reported Thursday, citing an attorney for the contestants.

The bogus contest was announced in 2000 with much fanfare when Ben Waldrep promised to give his Alma Avenue home to the person who paid the fee and wrote the best essay on why he or she wanted to live in Manhattan Beach, the newspaper reported.

But the purported winner never surfaced and Waldrep eventually sold the house for $1.2 million and kept the contest money, according to the Breeze.

Two years ago, a jury in a class action lawsuit decided the contest was a fraud, but many contestants had long ago given up hope of getting their money back.

"No way!," Julie Boeger of Torrance told the newspaper. "Wow, this is excellent news. Justice is finally served. I thought it would be like getting blood out of a stone."

Waldrep, 80, donated $36,000 of the contestant proceeds to charity.

---- North County Times wire services

Man with mannequin fetish sentenced to prison after storefront break-ins in Michigan

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- A man who acknowledged a sexual fetish for female-shaped mannequins was sentenced Thursday to more than a year in prison after repeatedly breaking into storefront windows.

Ronald Dotson, 39, of Detroit, was sentenced to 18 months to 30 years on charges of breaking and entering and being a habitual criminal.

He was arrested in October after police in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak spotted him near a smashed storefront window containing a mannequin wearing a French maid outfit.

The arrest came less than a week after he had been paroled for his sixth breaking-and-entering conviction in 13 years.

Some of the previous cases also involved mannequins. Police once found him in an alley behind a women's clothing store with three mannequins dressed in lingerie.

"I've never been able to take care of myself," Dotson told Judge Denise Langford Morris at sentencing.

Morris acknowledged that Dotson had never assaulted a person but said his behavior "strikes fear in the community."

Game wardens shoot 2 mountain lions after hiker attacked in California

ARCATA, Calif. (AP) -- Game wardens shot and killed a pair of mountain lions after a 70-year-old man was mauled while hiking in a state park, authorities said Thursday.

The man was hiking with his wife Wednesday at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when he was attacked by a single lion, ranger Maury Morningstar said.

"The wife said she didn't see the lion until she heard her husband, and when she turned around the lion was attacking," Morningstar said.

The man underwent surgery for lacerations on his head and body. His condition and name were not immediately released.

Officials closed the park and released hounds to track the animal. Game wardens shot one lion late Wednesday and another Thursday.

The carcasses were flown to a state laboratory to determine whether either animal mauled the man.

The park about 320 miles north of San Francisco reopened Thursday.

Dad of abducted Indiana family pleads not guilty to attempted murder, other charges

GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) -- A man accused of abducting his ex-girlfriend and their four children pleaded not guilty on Thursday to felony charges of attempted murder and criminal confinement.

Judge Terry Shewmaker set bond for Jerry White at $500,000.

White, 30, is accused of bursting into Kimberly Walker's Elkhart home on Saturday, shooting one man and kidnapping Walker and their children, ages 16 months to 9 years. On Tuesday, police found the family safe at a motel near Walker's home and arrested White.

Trial was set for Nov. 26.

The attempted murder charge carries a sentence of 20 to 50 years. The confinement charges have sentences ranging from two to 20 years.

During the three-day ordeal, White let Walker call her family to say she was all right. She used a previously planned code to signal that she was in danger, police said.

The man who was shot -- Lathie Turnage, the boyfriend of Walker's sister -- was in critical condition but was expected to survive.

Pet oxygen masks are now standard equipment for many firefighters

CLARENDON, Vt. (AP) -- Fire helmet? Check. Gloves? Check. Axe? Check. Pet oxygen masks? Check.

Increasingly, little oxygen masks for pets are becoming standard equipment for firefighters. Hoping to save cats, dogs and other pets caught in house fires, animal advocacy groups and pet-products suppliers are equipping departments all over the country with them.

The cone-shaped plastic masks, which come in three sizes and fit snugly on snouts, can resuscitate animals suffering from smoke inhalation. They can be used on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, even birds.

"In the past, we used regular air masks like the firefighters use. In a pinch, it works," said Norman Flanders, fire chief in this small Vermont town, which was given a set of pet masks by a local animal welfare group Tuesday. "But these masks are designed specifically to fit over the muzzle of a cat or a dog."

An estimated 60 million U.S. households have pets, but statistics on how many die in house fires are hard to come by. Frequently, house pets hide during a fire, making rescues difficult.

Exactly how many pets have been saved with animal oxygen masks is unclear, too. But the fire department in Prospect, Conn., received two donated sets in 2004, and two days later used one to resuscitate a Yorkshire terrier pulled from a fire.

"He was wobbly and he had very shallow breathing," said Fire Chief Robert Chatfield. "The owner held him and we got the mask on him and in about 2.5 minutes, he was fine."

The masks were originally developed for use by veterinarians but have evolved into rescue tools over the past several years, according to Brandi Marks of Smiths Veterinary Medical PM Inc., of Waukesha, Wis., which distributes them.

More than 2,500 sets have been distributed by Best Friends Pet Care, a kennel company that set up a matching-donation campaign to buy the masks, which cost about $60 per three-mask set.

The campaign began after a firefighter told Best Friends employees of his frustration watching pets die, according to Debra Bennetts, a Best Friends spokeswoman.

H.E.L.P. Animals, an Orange City, Fla., nonprofit group, has also distributed the masks.

'God' mistakenly bleeped out of in-flight showings of 'The Queen'

ATLANTA (AP) -- So much for God and country, at least during some in-flight showings of the Oscar-nominated movie "The Queen." All mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of the film distributed to Delta and some other airlines.

Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the Studio City, Calif., company that supplied the movie to the airlines earlier this month, said it was a mistake, committed by an overzealous and inexperienced employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies.

"A reference to God is not taboo in any culture that I know of," Klein said. "We excise foul language, excessive violence and nudity."

Airline passengers watching the movie hear "(Bleep) bless you, ma'am," as one character speaks to the queen. In all, the word "God" is bleeped seven times. (At no time in the original movie is "God save the queen" uttered.)

Klein said he discovered the mistake after a London-bound Air New Zealand passenger complained. Jaguar has been sending out new, unedited copies to the airlines.

Airlines routinely show movies from which graphic scenes and strong profanities are edited out.

"The Queen" is about Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair in the week following Princess Diana's death in 1997.

A spokesman for Miramax, which produced the movie, had no comment on the episode.

The editor responsible for the mistake is still working in the Jaguar editing lab, Klein said.

The only winning $254 million Powerball ticket was bought in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The only winning Powerball ticket for a $254 million jackpot was purchased at a suburban grocery store, state lottery officials said Thursday.

The ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday -- 9, 19, 29, 42, 53 and the Powerball number 17.

The winner, who has yet to claim the prize, has the option of receiving the money over 29 years, or accepting a lump-sum payment worth $120 million before taxes.

Dierbergs will get $50,000 for selling the ticket for the seventh-largest jackpot ever in Powerball, which sells tickets in 30 states and the Virgin Islands, said Susan Goedde, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Lottery. She said the prize was the 14th largest ever sold in the world.

"We're very excited," assistant store director Patricia Cook said. "Our associates are hoping it's one of our regulars. We have some people who come in every day."

On the Net:

Powerball: http://www.powerball.com

Dierbergs: http://www.dierbergs.com

N.Y. institute plans to release newly disclosed letters written by Anne Frank's father

NEW YORK (AP) -- Newly disclosed letters written by the father of Anne Frank illuminate his desperate attempts to get the family out of Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, a New York-based institution that focuses on the history and culture of Eastern European Jews, said Thursday it had discovered the file among 100,000 other Holocaust-related documents about a year and a half ago. The institute did not immediately disclose the find because it had to explore copyright and other legal issues, she said.

"We have come across the file which belonged to Otto Frank, documenting his efforts to immigrate his family and get them out of Holland," said Cathy Callegari, a spokeswoman for YIVO.

On Feb. 14, she said, the institute will release Frank's letters and documents and records from various agencies that helped people immigrate from Europe.

The disclosure came as a surprise to Bernd "Buddy" Elias, Anne Frank's cousin and the president of the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. The organization, established by Otto Frank, holds the rights to Anne Frank's writings, according to its Web site.

"We would love to have them in our archive. I mean, we are the heirs of Otto Frank," Elias told The Associated Press.

Callegari said the documents include letters that Otto Frank wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the United States.

The Frank family's hiding place in a secret annex in an Amsterdam canal-side warehouse has been turned into a museum.

Patricia Bosboom, of the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, said officials there had heard about the discovery of the letters but had not seen them. But she said they would fit with the general picture that's known about Otto Frank's many efforts to get the family out of Europe.

Written when the U.S. consulate in the Netherlands had closed, the letters show how Otto Frank investigated potential escape routes through Spain to Portugal, attempted to secure visas to Paris and tried to arrange for his family to go to the United States or Cuba.

His attempts to arrange a route out of the Netherlands were unsuccessful. The family took refuge in July 1942, hiding for more than two years before being arrested. Anne Frank described the family's life in hiding in a diary that has sold an estimated 25 million copies.

The letters were initially held by the New York City-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which gradually transferred its archives to the YIVO institute between 1948 and 1974. Callegari said a volunteer archivist at the YIVO Institute discovered Otto Frank's letters about a year and a half ago.

Anne Frank died of typhus at age 15 in a concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Her father returned to the Netherlands to collect his daughter's notes and published them in the Netherlands in 1947.

Time magazine first reported on the newly discovered documents on its Web site Thursday.

Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Geneva and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this report from Geneva.

On the Net:

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research: http://www.yivo.org

Anne Frank Foundation: http://www.annefrank.ch

University of North Carolina congratulates 2,700 prospective freshmen in e-mail sent in error

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- An admissions department e-mail sent from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill congratulated 2,700 prospective freshmen this week on their acceptance to the school.

The problem is that none of the applicants have been admitted. They won't start finding out until March whether they've made the cut.

"We deeply regret this disappointment, which we know is compounded by the stress and anxiety that students experience as a result of the admissions process," Stephen Farmer, the school's director of undergraduate admissions, said in a news release.

Farmer said two employees accidentally sent the e-mail Tuesday. It began, "Congratulations again on your admission to the University."

The e-mail was intended to request midyear grades from high school students who already have been accepted to the school.

Admissions officials have sent follow-up e-mails apologizing for the error. They have also e-mailed admissions counselors around the nation to explain the mistake.

About 20,000 people apply each year to UNC Chapel Hill, and the school enrolls about 3,800 new freshmen.

Salvage workers pump oil from British shipwreck as wildlife workers race to save birds

LONDON (AP) -- Wildlife workers combed a 100-mile stretch of beach Thursday, trying to rescue birds covered in oil after thousands of gallons leaked from a stricken cargo ship off England's southwest coast.

Half of the more than 1,000 birds that washed ashore in the past few days have been taken to wildlife centers around Lyme Bay, where the British ship, the MSC Napoli, was deliberately run aground last week after being damaged in a storm.

"These are very thin, very hungry birds," said Tim Thomas, a scientist with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "They've been traumatized."

Most were guillemots -- diving birds particularly vulnerable because even a spot of oil can make their plumage lose its waterproofing.

Once at the wildlife centers, the birds are fed water laced with charcoal and clay to flush the oil from their stomachs, and are sheltered for up to a month before being cleaned with detergent, Thomas said. But 90 percent are expected to die within a year, he said.

Contractors removed almost a third of the ship's fuel Thursday, sucking the oil into a nearby tanker. The process was expected to last two weeks. That is longer than originally expected due to difficulties in extracting oil from the Napoli's fuel tanks, two of which remain underwater, said Tony Redding, a spokesman for Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd. which operates the ship.

A new estimate from the International Tanker Owners' Pollution Federation Ltd. put the amount of oil spilled between 17,000 and 30,000 gallons, Redding said.

The coast guard said the cleanup could last up to a year.

On Friday, a crane-equipped barge was expected to begin plucking the remaining 2,291 containers from the deck of the ship to prepare it to be moved to Portland, 31 miles away.

The Napoli lost 103 containers last week and 50 washed ashore to nearby Branscombe beach. Thousands of people looted the wreckage and make off with items ranging from BMW motorcycles to bags of diapers.

Police called the looting despicable, but were powerless to stop it. Under maritime law, the public can take wreckage that washes ashore as long as it is reported to authorities within 28 days.

They can sell the property if they obtain the original owner's permission -- but some items have already begun appearing on the Internet for sale.

On the Net:

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), http://www.rspca.org.uk/

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, http://www.rspb.org.uk/

Saudi princess, at Davos forum, says: 'I'd let women drive'

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- The most prominent princess in Saudi Arabia's royal family said Thursday that if she could change one thing about her country, she would let women drive -- a rare and direct challenge to the driving ban imposed by the kingdom's ruling male elite.

The remarks from Princess Lolwah Al-Faisal, daughter of a former Saudi king and sister of the current foreign minister, came at the World Economic Forum -- a gathering known for getting world leaders to engage in frank, often off-the-record dialogue without fear of criticism.

Al-Faisal, however, spoke at a public session on promoting religious tolerance. Other attendees included former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, the prime minister of Malaysia, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and peace activist from Israel and an American cleric.

The moderator, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, asked panelists at one point to "self-criticize" and say what they would change to promote greater interfaith understanding.

Turning to the princess, he quipped: "What would you do, princess, if you were 'queen' for a day? I won't tell anyone."

"First thing, I'd let women drive," Al-Faisal said dryly, as the audience erupted in applause and laughter. She added as the applause died down, "Or else have a great transportation system, which we don't have."

Women in Saudi Arabia now can work at many jobs that once were off-limits -- a point the princess made. But critics say their inability to drive holds them back from many jobs by forcing them to rely on hired drivers, or on male relatives, to get to work or to school.

Some critics say the driving ban particularly impacts poorer Saudi families who cannot afford to hire drivers. Because of that, some consider the driving ban not just as a women's rights issue, but also as a factor holding back the country's economic development.

Al-Faisal's comments are particularly interesting because they show that while Saudi Arabia often presents a united front to the outside world, different opinions and even vigorous debate exist in private.

The 59-year-old princess is the most publicly visible female member of the royal family and one of the highest-profile Saudi women. She led a delegation of Saudi women business leaders to Hong Kong last year, has appeared at U.S. forums on interfaith dialogue and heads a prominent Saudi women's college.

But it is rare for her to speak in public or in front of the media. And she has never before publicly pushed for an end to the driving ban.

Her comments also are intriguing because her father, King Faisal, who ruled from 1964-1975, had a reputation as more progressive on social issues than his successors.

King Faisal first instituted education for Saudi girls, for example, in the 1960s, and some have wondered if he might have pushed for more reform in the conservative, religious kingdom had he lived longer. He was assassinated in 1975 by a disgruntled royal family member.

When the current monarch, King Abdullah, assumed the throne in 2005, expectations were high that he would decisively and quickly lead the country toward more openness. Indeed, for a while, Saudi Arabia made small but striking steps toward reform, such as instances where Saudi female journalists were allowed to interview men.

But the reform pace has slowed, partly because of reported differences within the royal family over the pace and direction of change and partly because of resistance by religious conservatives who fear reform will dilute their strong influence.

The issue of women drivers has been mostly dormant from Saudi public debate in recent years. It flared after the Gulf War in 1991, when a group of prominent Saudi women staged a protest by driving through the capital of Riyadh. But the government cracked down hard, confiscating many of the women's passports and thus preventing them from leaving the country for months afterward.

The debate has occasionally flared in newspapers since but never to such an extent as in 1991. Yet many Saudi women privately view the ban as a main barrier to progress.

Conservatives, however, are vocal in pushing to retain the ban -- saying that allowing women to drive would inevitably lead to their moral corruption, by forcing them to interact with men who are not relatives in places such as gas stations.

Other Gulf countries, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, and other Arab countries allow women to drive.

Al-Faisal is a sister of two prominent members of the current government, Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal and Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the outgoing Saudi ambassador to the United States.

London Fashion Week says it will not ban ultra-thin models

LONDON (AP) -- Organizers of London Fashion Week said Thursday they would not ban ultra-thin models from the catwalk, but stressed they had asked designers to use only "healthy" people in their shows.

The British Fashion Council said barring stick-thin models -- as fashion weeks in Madrid and Milan have done -- "is neither desirable nor enforceable."

The council, a consortium of major fashion retailers and publishers that oversees London's twice-yearly fashion weeks, said it recognized its responsibility to help promote a healthy body image.

"We have asked designers, model agencies and image makers to respect this responsibility and to use only healthy models for their collections. Additionally, we recommend that only models aged 16 or over are used," the council said in a statement.

"We believe that regulation is neither desirable nor enforceable. What will make a difference is the commitment of the fashion industry to change attitudes through behavior and education."

The council said it was setting up a task force to create new guidelines for the fashion industry.

The debate over waif-like models has intensified in the past year as many models and celebrities appear increasingly thin.

In September, Madrid's Fashion Week, the Pasarela Cibeles, announced it was banning models with a Body Mass Index, or height-to-weight ratio, below 18. A 5-foot-9 model weighing 125 pounds would have a BMI of 18. Milan's fashion week also tightened its restrictions on underweight models.

The issue was back in the headlines in November, when 21-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died of causes linked to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.

A British Cabinet minister who previously called for ultra-thin models to be banned backed the fashion council's call for self-regulation.

"I urge strongly the designers taking part to support this," said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.

"Too many teenage girls try to starve themselves into unhealthy thinness, at great risk to their health," she said. "The fashion industry is hugely powerful in shaping the attitudes of young women and their feelings about themselves. Teenage girls aspire to look like their role models. If their role models are healthy, it will help inspire girls to be the same."

Designers including Betty Jackson, Nicole Farhi and Julien Macdonald are due to showcase their autumn/winter collections at London Fashion Week beginning Feb. 12.

On the Net: http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk

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