BOSTON - Ten blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.

"It's a hoax - and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.

Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.

The marketing company responsible for the campaign, Interference Inc., had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm's offices on Wednesday afternoon said the firm's CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.

Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from, but an angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.

"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke praised Boston authorities for sharing their knowledge quickly with Washington officials and the public.

"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Knocke said.

Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.

The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.

Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well. A similar device was found Wednesday evening just north of Fenway Park, police spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.

Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.

"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."

Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.

"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.

The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err - who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.

Astronauts connect fluid lines to permanent cooling system during 1st of 3 spacewalks

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Four or five flakes of toxic ammonia dripped from a cooling line cap Wednesday but apparently didn't touch two U.S. astronauts conducting the first of three spacewalks planned outside the international space station over the next nine days.

The leak occurred late in the almost eight-hour spacewalk, as astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams disconnected and prepared to stow away two fluid lines that had been connected to an ammonia reservoir outside the space station.

Tests in the airlock later showed no contamination, and the spacewalk officially ended at 6:09 p.m. EST, seven hours and 55 minutes after it started.

Ammonia, which can cause contamination upon contact, was a big concern since the toxic substance leaked out of a cooling line onto astronaut Robert Curbeam's spacesuit when he performed a similar task in 2001.

Lopez-Alegria and Williams did not face the same problems as Curbeam did with ammonia. Nevertheless, Mission Control told the spacewalkers to remain in their spacesuits for an extra 25 minutes once they entered the station's airlock to make sure there was no ammonia on their suit that could contaminate the orbiting lab.

"We don't think we have contamination, but that's probably for the lawyers," Lopez-Alegria said.

Replied Mission Control: "We're going to follow the path of safety."

During Wednesday's spacewalk 220 miles above Earth, the astronauts successfully switched coolant lines from a temporary cooling system to a permanent one and secured a thermal cover around an obsolete radiator that Mission Control retracted by remote control. Lopez-Alegria made electrical connections for a new system that will allow power from the station to be shared with a docked shuttle.

The astronauts ran out of time and only got one of two fluid lines stowed, and they didn't get to "get-ahead" such tasks as taking photos of a solar array that will be retracted during the next shuttle mission, in March.

The astronauts will perform identical tasks during their second spacewalk, set for Sunday. The astronauts will take a third U.S. spacewalk together on Thursday to jettison thermal blankets.

U.S. astronauts have never attempted three spacewalks in such a short time without a space shuttle docked at the station. If the spacewalks go as planned, Lopez-Alegria will have two weeks to rest before going on a fourth spacewalk, set for Feb. 22.

On the Net:

International space station: http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/station/main/index.html

Scented oils in shampoos, lotions tied to rare, temporary breast growth in young boys

BOSTON (AP) - Lavender and tea tree oils found in some shampoos, soaps and lotions can temporarily leave boys with enlarged breasts in rare cases, apparently by disrupting their hormonal balance, a preliminary study suggests.

While advising parents to consider the possible risk, several hormone experts emphasized that the problem appears to happen infrequently and clears up when the oils are no longer used. None of those interviewed called for a ban on sales.

The study reported on the condition, gynecomastia, in three boys ages 4, 7 and 10. They all went back to normal when they stopped using skin lotions, hair gel, shampoo or soap with the natural oils.

It's unclear how often this problem might crop up in other young children.

These plant oils, sometimes called "essential oils," are added to many health-care products, usually for their scent. The oils are sometimes found in other household products or sold in purer forms. Tea tree oil is sometimes used in shampoos for head lice.

The suspected effect in this study is blamed on some chemical within the oils that the body processes like estrogen, the female hormone that promotes breast growth.

The findings were being reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The federally funded study came out of the University of Colorado and the environmental health branch of the National Institutes of Health. The findings were first released last year at a science meeting.

The three boys were brought to their doctors with overdeveloped breasts that looked like those of girls in early puberty. They were sore in one case. For each boy, doctors could tie the problem only to their use over several months of the natural-oil products.

The researchers suspected that the oils might be upsetting the boys' hormonal balance. So they did a series of laboratory tests to check how these oils work within human cells. The oils appeared to mimic estrogen and block the male hormone androgen.

On product labels, the oils sometimes are listed by their scientific names: Lavandula angustifolia (lavender oil) and Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil). Such products do not require government approval to be sold unless they make specific health claims.

Marijuana and soy products also have been linked to gynecomastia.

Dr. Clifford Bloch, a hormone specialist in Greenwood Village, Colo., who treated the three boys, recommended that parents "be cautious" with such products, especially for prolonged use. "I would not give these products to my children," he said in an interview.

Bloch said he also suspects the oil played a role in a handful of young girls he saw for a similar condition, including a 17-month-old whose parents were washing her bottles with a lavender-scented soap.

Others sounded less worried. "It takes very little estrogen to cause gynecomastia in a young child," said Dr. Richard Auchus, a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center hormone expert who knew of the study findings. "If they're getting it for a brief period of time, that really shouldn't cause long-term problems."

Also, the research did not pinpoint any specific estrogen-like compounds in the oils or look for them in a range of products. Chemist Steven Dentali, at the industry group American Herbal Products Association, said that warning people to avoid such oils "is premature without the additional basic research needed to bolster the case that the issue here is both real and significant."

Gynecomastia is very common in boys during the hormonal changes of puberty. But it also occurs as a rare condition in younger boys, men, and girls before puberty.

Bloch, the study doctor, said it's unknown if such oils could hurt women with estrogen-fed breast tumors.

On the Net:

The New England Journal of Medicine: http://content.nejm.org/

W.Va. fire marshal retracts fifth death in convenience store blast, says hospital erred

GHENT, W.Va. (AP) - The West Virginia state fire marshal on Wednesday retracted his statement announcing the death of a fifth person injured in a propane blast that destroyed a convenience store.

State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis initially said the manager of the Flat Top Little General Store had died in the explosion Tuesday that reduced the store to a pile of splintered debris and twisted metal.

Lewis later retracted that statement, saying five people remained hospitalized with burns and other injuries.

Lewis attributed the mistake to erroneous information from hospital officials. "I requested that it be confirmed at four different times, and they confirmed it each time," he said.

Tuesday's explosion occurred as emergency workers were investigating a report of a propane tank leak. Authorities believe the gas fumes drifted into the store, where they somehow ignited, Lewis said.

The propane tank was used to heat ovens at a pizzeria inside the store and had undergone maintenance a couple of days before the blast, Lewis said.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.

The blast killed a volunteer firefighter, a building inspector and two other people in this rural community about 70 miles southeast of Charleston.

The victims were identified as Frederick A. Burroughs, 51, of Ghent; Craig Lawrence Dorsey, 24, of MacArthur; and Glen Ray Bennett, 44, and Jeffrey Lee Treadway, 21, both of Beckley.

EU expects tough talks with U.S. on air passenger data agreement

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union said Wednesday it expects tough negotiations with the United States on a new trans-Atlantic security agreement on airline passenger information.

An interim deal allowing the United States to use personal information on air passengers for anti-terror investigations expires in July.

"The negotiations will be extremely tortuous, because the U.S. is not interested in greater data protection," German Deputy Foreign Minister Guenther Gloser told the European Parliament, which has sought guarantees that privacy of passengers is protected. Germany holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc.

EU officials said Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has asked the U.S. for assurances that data on Europeans handled through the U.S. Automated Targeting System, or ATS, conform with the interim agreement.

The system has drawn criticism since it became clear that ATS has been assessing millions of people - Americans and foreigners - since 2002. Some members of the U.S. Congress and privacy advocates have questioned the program's legality.

"The right to privacy for me is nonnegotiable. It has to be respected," Frattini told the parliamentarians.

After months of wrangling over privacy rights, Brussels and Washington struck a temporary deal last October that allows American law enforcement agencies to request access to passenger data on U.S.-bound flights. That deal replaced a 2004 air passenger privacy agreement that the EU's high court later voided for technical reasons.

Data about passengers flying from Europe to the United States - including passengers' names, addresses and credit card details - must be transferred to U.S. authorities within 15 minutes of a flight's departure for the United States.

Washington had warned that airlines failing to share passenger data faced fines of up to $6,000 per passenger and the loss of landing rights.

Huge, shaggy cattle on the loose in Washington state town, butcher on the way

GRANITE FALLS, Wash. (AP) - The police are tired. A cattleman is in trouble. Residents are fed up. Who's the man to fix it?

The butcher, of course.

Police have written more than $2,000 worth of tickets to Hiram Wilburn, 85, about marauding cattle that have escaped his property through a hole in his fence at least 70 times since early December.

The one-ton, shaggy Scottish Highland cattle have been blamed for at least three accidents, although no injuries were reported. Residents say the animals eat gardens and lawns - and are generally creepy and scary to have around.

"It's not like a milking cow. They're huge - those horns - you don't know if they're going to attack or what they're going to do," said Sharri Matronic, adding that the cattle have destroyed a retaining wall in her yard and eaten her azaleas and ivy.

Wilburn is deaf and has no phone, but he realizes things are getting out of control, his son, Hiram Lee Wilburn, said Wednesday. Family and friends are trying to help him, the son said.

One of Wilburn's friends, Robert Echard, said a butcher is scheduled to visit the 25-acre property soon, but he defends the lumbering beasts, saying they're not mean.

"I can walk up and pet them," Echard said.

That doesn't impress police Officer Rich Michelsen, who recently had to use his patrol car, flashing lights turned on, to herd one of the cattle away from the police station in this town of 3,100 about 25 miles northeast of Seattle.

"People think it's funny," Michelsen said. "It's tiring, is what it is."

Italian police break alleged international art trafficking ring

ROME (AP) - Police said Wednesday they had broken up an international art trafficking ring, recovering hundreds of works dug up by tomb raiders in Sicily and sold in Europe and the United States.

Seventy-seven people were targeted in an operation spanning regions up and down Italy, police said. Of those, 27 people were detained and eight were placed under house arrest. They are accused of criminal association aimed at illegal digging, looting, counterfeiting, selling and receiving archaeological objects belonging to the state.

"We retrieved around 1,600 objects," said Capt. Jonathan Pace, a chief officer with the financial police in the Sicilian town of Gela. They include a large vase dating from 450 B.C. worth $129,500 and found in Barcelona, a Roman bathtub worth more than $168,400, also found in Barcelona, and several coins valued at $64,700 each, Pace said.

The organization allegedly included tomb raiders who looted Sicily's archaeological sites in Gela, Agrigento, Vittoria, Morgantina, and Termini Imerese. The artifacts were sold mainly in Germany, Switzerland and Spain, as well as in the United States.

Berlusconi's wife demands - and gets - a public apology

ROME (AP) - It was domestic drama at its best - the kind Italians love - a scorned wife airing her dirty laundry for the world to see.

In this case it was Veronica Lario, the usually private wife of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who chose to make her anger over his flirtations public in an open letter in a daily newspaper.

By day's end, the 70-year-old billionaire - Italy's richest man - was figuratively on his knees.

"Dear Veronica, here's my apology," Berlusconi said in his letter, made public by the conservative leader's Forza Italia party. "Forgive me, I beg you. And take this public show of my private pride giving in to your fury as an act of love. One of many."

Lario, 50, had voiced her complaints Wednesday in La Repubblica, saying her dignity had been offended by her husband's behavior. Adding insult to injury, Lario chose a left-leaning newspaper that is a fierce Berlusconi critic.

She was reacting to comments that Berlusconi reportedly made last week during a VIP party after a TV awards show broadcast by one of the media baron's Mediaset channels.

"If I weren't married, I would marry you immediately," the 70-year-old Berlusconi told one woman, according to reports widely carried in the Italian press. "With you, I'd go anywhere," he reportedly told another.

"I see these statements as damaging my dignity," Lario wrote. "To both my husband and the public man, I therefore demand a public apology since I haven't received any privately."

"I have faced the conflicts and painful moments of a long conjugal relationship with respect and discretion," she said. "Now I write to state my reaction," Lario said, calling her husband's comments "unacceptable" and saying they could not be written off as mere jokes.

Berlusconi is not new to making remarks that some women find inappropriate. In 2005, when he was premier, he joked that he had to use "all my playboy skills" to convince Finnish President Tarja Halonen, a woman, that the European Union food agency should be assigned to Italy, not Finland.

He likes to recall his success with women as a young man, and to show off what he says is his gallantry.

Citing the demands of his busy life combined with his "playful, self-ironic and sometimes irreverent personality," Berlusconi admitted in his letter that he had been "a bit irresponsible."

"My days are incredible, you know: work, politics, troubles, moving around, public exams that never end, a life under constant pressure," he wrote.

"But your dignity has nothing to do with it, I treasure it as a precious good in my heart, even when I make carefree jokes, a gallant remark," he wrote. "Believe me, I've never made marriage proposals to anybody."

Berlusconi and Lario, a former actress, were married in 1990, but already had been together for a decade. She is Berlusconi's second wife, and the couple have three children.

Berlusconi often has said it was love at first sight when he saw Lario, then a 24-year-old actress, performing at a Milan theater in 1980.

"When we met, she made me lose my mind," he told the women's magazine A, which released excerpts Wednesday. "She's a special woman," said Berlusconi. "She has been and is a wonderful mother. She has never embarrassed me, never."

When her husband was premier from 2001-2006, Lario largely shied away from her role as first lady, but occasionally broke her public silence with stances that suggested an independent-minded personality. In one case, she defended pacifists protesting the war in Iraq, which Berlusconi supported.

But even if the couple is rarely seen together, their marriage has come into the spotlight before.

In 2003, the flamboyant billionaire acknowledged rumors linking his wife to a left-leaning philosophy professor, Massimo Cacciari, during a news conference with the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"Rasmussen is the most handsome prime minister in Europe," Berlusconi said to the surprise of his Danish counterpart. "I'm thinking of introducing him to my wife because he's much more handsome than Cacciari."

The comments were said to have angered Lario.

Okla. woman gets 15 years after admitting she injected fecal matter into infant daughter

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A woman who experts said has a rare mental disorder has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison after admitting she injected fecal matter into her infant daughter.

Sarena Sherrard, 31, pleaded guilty Tuesday to child abuse charges.

Two mental health care providers, who have cared for Sherrard since her arrest, testified she could not resist the urge to harm her daughter. They blamed a disorder known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which parents create or exaggerate injury to a child to bring attention to themselves. The cause is unknown.

Sherrard was arrested in August 2005 after surveillance video showed her injecting a foreign substance into her daughter's catheter at Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City. Police had put the girl's room under surveillance because doctors suspected someone was harming her, according to court papers.

"I cannot in any way wrap my mind around this," Oklahoma County District Judge Jerry Bass said Tuesday. "It is beyond my comprehension."

Bass said he sentenced Sherrard to one year in prison for each of the 13 times the girl was hospitalized, plus 2.5 years because the abuse lasted that long.

"Even though (the judge) agreed with our psychiatrist and psychologist that she had several mental disorders … he just thought it was such a severe case that he elected for punishment as opposed to treatment," defense attorney Irven Box said Wednesday.

The girl, now 4, has some hearing loss but has otherwise recovered.

"She's doing wonderfully," said Kevin Sherrard, the child's father. "There's nothing wrong with her. There probably never was."

He said he didn't realize his daughter was being harmed until after his then-wife was arrested.

The judge also imposed a 14.5-year probation sentence and barred Sarena Sherrard from having unsupervised contact with children or the elderly.

Defense attorney Irven Box had asked the judge to allow Sherrard to live with her parents while undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Box expressed concern Sherrard wouldn't receive adequate medication or mental health treatment in prison.

Chinese man seeking rental girlfriend

BEIJING (AP) - A desperate Chinese university student wants to "rent" a girlfriend for 10 days so he can show her off to his parents over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported Wednesday.

The physics student, who gave his name as Zhu Lijie, posted a notice on a bulletin board at Peking University offering $130 to a woman who would pose as his girlfriend for the trip home for the holiday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The advertisement said the woman should be "an honest, kind and similar-aged girl with a diploma."

The Lunar New Year holiday, which starts Feb. 18 this year, is the most important family holiday in China.

Xinhua said Zhu had told his parents, who were pressuring him to get a girlfriend, that he had been studying too hard and had no time to meet a potential partner.

Peking University officials and the police have warned women to be wary of such advertisements.

Wang Jisheng, a professor with the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy Sciences, was quoted as saying Zhu was trying to show filial piety to his parents but was only cheating them.

City puts end to 'tree of life'

MONROE, Mich. (AP) - It was a symbol of philanthropy to some, used to hang donations of clothing and toys for the needy, but the city has put an end to the "tree of life."

Residents Anthony and Connie Johnson started displaying items on the tree near their home last summer, often purchasing the items themselves. Passers-by were invited to stop and choose the items they needed.

But inspectors said the tree violates city blight laws, and shut the operation down. They said residents can only hang clothes on backyard clothes lines, and can't drop off items in a "home occupation zone."

The Johnsons also violated the blight ordinance by using a city tree in a city right of way, officials said.

Blight inspector Toby Worrell said several neighbors complained about the increase in vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the residential area.

The Johnsons, who would reload the tree with items left on their front porch sometimes twice a day, said they were shocked when they received the blight notice.

"I see it as an act of the devil trying to block God's work," Anthony Johnson told The Monroe Evening News for a Tuesday story. "We will not be hindered by it."

The couple continues to collect donations and is passing them on to a local churches.

Owl moves in to home addition

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Saws buzz and carpenters hammer nails, set up ladders and run an air generator.

Al doesn't give a hoot.

The brownish Western screech-owl showed up at Laura Fenimore's house as she began adding what will be her new great room.

"I thought the construction noise, the dog or the power tools would scare him off, but the next day he comes right back," said Fenimore, 50, a lawyer who works from home.

But it seems Al is handy to have around. He doesn't make a mess, he isn't noisy and he helps with rodent control.

When she moved into her house in 2000, Fenimore spent a couple of years battling mice, and hired exterminators who shooed them into burrows in her backyard.

But now the yard has been completely uprooted for the remodel.

"This is like feast time for Mr. Owl," Fenimore said. "I sure hope he stays."

The bird, which is full-grown and about eight inches high, seems well-fed as he rests with his feathers puffed among the plywood beams.

A volunteer from a Cascade Raptor Center dropped by and tried to nab Al with a net but gave up when the bird retreated into an attic.

"The owl is under the impression that he is camouflaged," said education coordinator Kit Lacy, adding that the center gets several such calls a year.

Man breaks ice doing doughnuts on Mississippi River

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A Clinton man was charged with drunken driving after officials say he drove his vehicle onto the ice-covered Mississippi River near Sabula.

Steven A. Parker, 51, is accused of driving his sports utility vehicle off a boat ramp to do "doughnuts" on Sunday when the ice broke and his vehicle sank in 4 feet of water, about 30 feet from shore, said officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Parker and his son, Steven A. Parker, Jr., 28, of Waynesville, N.C., made it safely back to land.

Parker is charged with third-offense drunken driving and driving with a revoked license.

Sheriff's wife, deputy among 4 dead in shooting outside sheriff's house in Florida Panhandle

MARIANNA, Fla. (AP) - Investigators were trying to determine Wednesday why two people shot and killed a sheriff's wife and a deputy before officers killed the suspects at the sheriff's home.

The Tuesday evening attack apparently targeted the home of Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel and his wife, Mellie McDaniel.

"The community should not be concerned. We believe this was not a random case," State Attorney Steve Meadows said at a news conference late Tuesday.

Meadows declined to discuss a motive. Officials set an evening news conference Wednesday.

More than 100 officers searched the area surrounding the McDaniels' home into early Wednesday, although most had left by late morning. Meadows said authorities did not believe there were other attackers, but the search was conducted as a precaution.

The shootings began around 5 p.m. when Mellie McDaniel arrived home. She managed to call her husband's office and report intruders in the area, but she and one of the deputies sent to the house were killed, said Joe Grammer, a spokesman for Meadows.

Other officers arrived and killed the two suspects in an exchange of gunfire, Meadows said. The sheriff was there but Meadows said he could not say whether he fired his weapon. The sheriff was not injured.

Mellie McDaniel worked as a victim's advocate for the sheriff's office.

The McDaniels married more than five years ago and enjoyed spending time with Mellie McDaniel's two young grandchildren, neighbor Gloria Peacock said.

"They would bring the children over to see the cows we have out here," Peacock said.

The names of the slain deputy and the suspects were not released.

Edwin Douglas said he was taking a nap at his brother's house, across the street from the McDaniels', when gunfire woke him.

"I heard 15 to 20 gunshots," Douglas told The News Herald of Panama City. "It was quite a bit of excitement. About 20 police cars showed up."

McDaniel's father was gunned down while working at a Jackson County gas station in 1980. McDaniel, then a sheriff's deputy, responded to a robbery call to find his father, former Malonen Mayor John P. McDaniel Jr., shot to death. Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed.

"We never quit working a murder case," McDaniel said at a news conference in 1990 when Lucas was extradited from Texas to Florida. "We will always continue to work any and every murder case until we come to a happy conclusion - that conclusion being the person who committed the heinous crime will go to justice."

Swedish court rules tooth-cracking cookie a work-related injury

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A salesman who chipped a tooth on a cookie while visiting a customer is entitled to compensation for his dental work after a court ruled it a work-related injury.

The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favor of a claim by Calle Montell for state compensation, saying the injury was work-related because it occurred while he was on the job.

"I'm very happy," Montell, 50, said Wednesday. "Everyone who is out on a job can have a snack knowing that they are covered by occupational safety laws."

The Jan. 18 ruling ended a legal battle that began on Oct. 31, 2002, when Montell bit into a cookie offered by a customer and cracked his tooth on a cherry pit.

The local social insurance office denied him state compensation for the $570 it cost to repair the damage, rejecting his claim that the injury was work-related. Two courts dealt with the case before the Supreme Administrative Court issued its ruling, which cannot be appealed.

Montell, who sells ceramic stoves, said he contacted the social insurance office Wednesday but had not yet received the money.

Norwegian cruise ship runs aground in Antarctic

OSLO, Norway (AP) - A Norwegian cruise ship carrying nearly 300 passengers, including 119 Americans, ran aground on a remote Antarctic island and damaged its hull before getting free of rocks, officials said Wednesday. No one was injured.

The M/S Nordkapp got off the rocks under its own steam and sought shelter in a nearby harbor, where the 294 passengers were being transferred to a sister ship as a precaution, said Hanne K. Kristiansen, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Coastal Voyage.

She said there was no danger to those aboard or to the Nordkapp after the incident in the Southern Ocean.

Another Norwegian Coastal Vessel, the M/S Nordnorge, sailed into Walker Bay and the passengers were being transferred onto it in small boats usually used for sightseeing. The Nordnorge will then take them to Ushuaia, Argentina, a roughtly 40-hour trip.

"We are having a fine time. In fact, it is very nice," Norwegian passenger Terje Johansen told The Associated Press from the Nordkapp earlier in the day.

He said passengers initially were nervous when the ship ran aground, but quickly understood that there was no danger.

"There is a little bit of waves, so they are waiting with the transfer. Right now, I'm in my cabin trying to get a little sleep," he said by ship's telephone.

The 404-foot Nordkapp, built in 1996, and the virtually identical Nordnorge cruise the Antarctic during the southern hemisphere summer. They sail off the coast of Norway during the European summer.

The company said the ship was on its way back to Argentina when it ran aground near Deception Island, which is part of the South Shetland archipelago.

It said a British warship was also meeting the Nordkapp, and would send down divers to inspect the damage to its hull and then escort the ship to port in Argentina.

On the Net:

www.hurtigruten.com

Mortar attack in tense Pakistani town kills 2, police say

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A mortar round struck a home in a northwestern Pakistani town under curfew Wednesday, killing two men and wounding another amid sectarian tensions, police said.

The shell slammed into a Shiite Muslim home in Hangu, which has been under a round-the-clock curfew since two men were killed there during a religious festival Tuesday, local police officer Waqar Khan said.

It was not known who targeted the Shiite's home in Hangu's Ganjan neighborhood or whether it was linked to the sectarian tension, but police are investigating, Khan said.

Police said a rocket or a grenade exploded at a Shiite procession, sparking violence Tuesday in Hangu in which two Sunni Muslims were fatally shot and 13 other people were wounded, many of them policemen.

The procession was being held to mark the Muslim festival of Ashoura.

Following the unrest, authorities imposed a curfew in Hangu, about 60 miles from the regional capital of Peshawar.

Hangu was under curfew for the second straight day Wednesday with armed police, army and paramilitary troops patrolling the streets, Khan said.

Suspects named in shooting outside Florida sheriff's home that killed wife, deputy

MARIANNA, Fla. (AP) - One of the men suspected of killing a sheriff's wife and a deputy also was a suspect in his own wife's death, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Florida State Attorney Steve Meadows on Wednesday named Lionel Sands, 60, and Daniel Brown, 54, as the men who fatally shot Mellie McDaniel and deputy Harold Michael Altman on Tuesday.

Sands and Brown were wearing disguises and carrying ropes, bleach, vinegar and latex gloves in the attack at McDaniel's home in the Florida Panhandle, Meadows said.

McDaniel was the wife of Jackson County Sheriff John McDaniel.

Sands and Brown themselves were shot and killed by police responding to the attack, including the sheriff, Meadows said.

Sands and Brown targeted the McDaniels' home, but officials did not know the motive for the killings, Meadows said.

Sands was considered the primary suspect in the June 2001 death of his wife, Gail Joanne Sands, according to Meadows and a March 2006 lawsuit by her life insurance company, AXA Equitable.

He was never been charged in that case, in which Gail Sands died of a blow to her head and her body was found at the bottom of the couple's swimming pool.

On Tuesday, Mellie McDaniel told her husband over a radio phone that she was being followed home from grocery shopping, and then she screamed at one point, Meadows said

The sheriff called for help, and Altman arrived at McDaniel's home within two minutes, Meadows said.

The sheriff and other officers arrived and got into a gunfight with the suspects, Meadows said. It was unclear whether the sheriff fired any of shots that killed the suspects.

Woman who miscarried sues KC police who ignored pleas for medical help during arrest

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A woman who miscarried her fetus a day after she was thrown in jail is suing the police department and two arresting officers who ignored her pleas for medical help.

A police videotape released Tuesday shows Sofia Salva telling officers numerous times last Feb. 5 that she was three months pregnant, bleeding and needed to go to a hospital.

After the ninth request, the tape shows, a female officer asked: "How is that my problem?"

Salva was held overnight on traffic violations and outstanding city warrants. After being released the next morning, she suffered a miscarriage, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court.

"It's tragic, it's disappointing, it's frustrating, it's sickening at times," said Salva's attorney, Andrew Protzman. "This is a lady who was in severe medical distress and clearly needed emergency medical attention and medical treatment."

Salva sued officers Melody Spencer and Kevin Schnell and the department for wrongful death, personal injuries and failure to provide medical assistance. Salva is seeking actual damages exceeding $25,000 and punitive damages.

The videotape was released to the media after The Kansas City Star requested it under Missouri's open records law.

Police have opened an internal investigation, Capt. Rich Lockhart said.

"It's a matter of trust. … We want to make sure the community trusts us to get to the bottom of this regardless of the way it reflects on the police department," Lockhart said.

No telephone numbers are listed for the two officers, and a representative of their union, the Kansas City Police Officers' Association, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday. Lockhart said both Spencer and Schnell are declining to comment.

The officers stopped Salva after they saw her placing a fake temporary tag on the back window of her car.

The tape shows Salva telling the officers she is having a miscarriage and is bleeding.

On the tape, an officer identified as Schnell, who has worked for the department for less than two years, walks away from the car and tells his partner: "She just gave me a line of excuses. She said she's bleeding. She said you can check her."

Salva said: "I'm three months pregnant and I'm bleeding."

The officer identified as Spencer, a four-year veteran, replied: "OK. Why are you driving to the store and then putting a fake temporary tag in your car?"

"I took it because I want to go to the hospital," Salva said.

The officers made Salva sit on the curb while they searched her car, purse and grocery bags.

Salva again told the officers she was bleeding and needed to go to a hospital.

"Well," Spencer said, "that will be something you can take care of when we get done with you."

The officers handcuffed Salva after learning she had outstanding warrants for mistreatment of children, trespassing and several traffic violations.

She again told Schnell she was bleeding.

"I don't doubt that you're possibly bleeding, but you got a lot more problems with us," Schnell said.

No tapes were available of Salva's time in the jail, but she contends in the lawsuit that her continued pleas for help were ignored. The department said videotapes from that period had been recycled before it became aware of Salva's claims.

Pa. woman accused of trying to steal fetus won't claim insanity after all, lawyer says

KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) - The attorney for a woman accused of trying to cut a fetus from her neighbor's womb reversed course Wednesday and said he will not pursue an insanity defense.

Peggy Jo Conner is accused of hitting neighbor Valerie Oskin with a baseball bat, taking her to a secluded wooded area and slicing open her abdomen in an attempt to remove her child. Conner is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and other crimes in the October 2005 attack.

Oskin and her infant survived. The child was placed with an adoptive family, which Oskin had planned to do even before the attack.

Defense attorney David DeFazio said Wednesday said that after reviewing a court-ordered report by forensic psychiatrist he had decided not to pursue claims that Conner was not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty but mentally ill. He declined to say what the report showed.

Jury selection begins Feb. 12.

Prisoners want higher salary for W.Va. prison guards

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Prison guards in West Virginia have gained some unexpected allies in their push for higher pay: inmates, including a self-proclaimed poet serving a life sentence for murder.

In a handful of letters to several lawmakers, inmates say the state's overcrowded and understaffed prisons are unsafe and the situation will only deteriorate unless the Legislature gives guards a raise.

Gov. Joe Manchin has proposed a $1,000 across-the-board raise plus incentives for new hires that would cost roughly $2.2 million the first year. (The starting salary is $20,124.)

But officers want $5,000 raises, possibly over several years, which would cost the state an estimated $24 million, according to a union that works on behalf of the guards but does not actually represent them.

Roundtree Goodman, an inmate at Mount Olive Correctional Complex, wrote his poetic plea to legislators from a guard's perspective:

"I will now take a mental pause, another day at MOCC without fanfare or audible applause, my nerves now raw and tormented from mental thoughts that will forever haunt, I now languish in a world of need, with less pay, for sorrows that must one day be freed."

At the state's last count, a year ago, there were 947 guards, plus about 150 vacancies, with rapid turnover of nearly one in five officers in 2005. West Virginia's prison population has climbed by about 1,100 inmates over the past five years to more than 5,300.

State Sen. Shirley Love, who received some of the letters, said he believes the sentiments are genuine, rather than an attempt to win favor from the guards.

"They're saying they're concerned for their own safety," he said. "Somebody could slap them around, you know, and nobody could do anything about it if the guards aren't there."

Elaine Harris, a representative of the Communication Workers union, said the union did not put the inmates up to it. "These people want an environment that's safe," she said.

The letters, which Love said came from inmates at several of the state's lockups, are being circulated at legislative hearings.

Philly boy, 7, says he saw father kill mom; police searching for man

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A 7-year-old boy said his father told him, "Go to your grandma's house, I am going to kill your mom," before fatally shooting the woman over the weekend.

Ronald Hives screamed "No!" when his father ordered him to leave the father's apartment, but the boy said he does not remember hearing the shots. He remembers seeing blood on his mother and on the wall, as well as her dying words.

"She said, 'Bye, Ronald. I love you,"' the boy, a second-grader, told The Philadelphia Inquirer in an interview at the home of relatives.

Police issued an all-points bulletin Tuesday for the arrest of Jason Hives, 33, in the killing of Ruth Angel Hayes.

Hayes, 27, who was four months pregnant, was shot multiple times Saturday. Before she died, she told Ronald to run to his grandmother's home a block away and call for help.

The couple had been estranged for about a month, according to relatives. Hayes brought the boy to the apartment Saturday so he could see his father, and the pair had a loud argument, Ronald said. The boy said his mother raised an iron and threatened to burn Hives if he did not leave her alone.

"When my mother went out the door, he followed and started shooting at her," Ronald said.

The victim's mother, Ruth Elizabeth Hayes, said Hayes and the boy had been living with her since the couple started having problems in December.