LOS ANGELES- Marie Osmond and husband Brian Blosil are divorcing after 20 years of marriage, the pair announced Friday.

Osmond, 47, and Blosil, a record producer, have eight children, some of whom are adopted. The two married in a Mormon ceremony in October 1986, and briefly separated in 2000.

"Though our marriage is ending, we continue to have a very amicable relationship. Our marriage has always been a faithful one and neither of us is assigning fault for the divorce," they said in a statement released by Osmond's publicist.

"Our children, as always, are our top priority and in our deep love for them we will continue to jointly fulfill our roles as active parents in their daily lives," they said.

Osmond earned fame at age 13 with the hit song "Paper Roses," and starred with her brother, Donny Osmond, on television's "Donny and Marie Show" during the 1970s.

She and her first husband Stephen Craig divorced in 1985.

Osmond also owns a successful collectibles doll company.

Empty passenger bridge collapses at Denver airport; no injuries

DENVER (AP) - An empty passenger bridge collapsed Friday over the wing of a United Airlines plane at Denver International Airport, damaging the aircraft but causing no injuries, the airline said.

The cause of the collapse and the extent of the damage were not immediately known.

The Boeing 757 had just arrived from Boston and the 184 passengers and crew were still on board, United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said.

The bridge extends from the concourse to the plane. The one that collapsed is a new type that extends over the wing so passengers can use both the front and rear exits of the plane.

The collapse occurred in the rear portion of the bridge, McCarthy said. The aircraft will be moved and repaired after the bridge is raised, she said.

The plane had been scheduled to fly to New York's LaGuardia Airport, but that flight was canceled and the passengers were being booked on other flights.

Denver is one of the first airports to use the over-the-wing bridge, manufactured by Dewbridge Airport Systems based in Ottawa.

Dewbridge Vice President Neil Hutton said the company is investigating, and had no idea what caused the collapse.

On the Net: http://www.dewbridge.com/

Kevin Federline reportedly will walk away with about $1 million in divorce settlement with Britney Spears

LOS ANGELES - Kevin Federline reportedly will walk away with about $1 million after reaching a divorce settlement with Britney Spears.

The agreement was reached yesterday by attorneys Mark Vincent Kaplan representing Federline and Laura Wasser for Spears.

Sources told the celebrity news Web site TMZ.com that the terms provide for Federline to receive around $1 million. He and Spears reportedly will have joint legal and physical custody of their little boys, 6-month-old Jayden James and 18-month-old Sean Preston.

Spears filed for divorce on Nov. 7, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for ending the two-year marriage. Yesterday's settlement conference, which both Spears and Federline reportedly attended, was reached more than a week after she checked out of Promises, an alcohol and drug rehab facility in Malibu.

-- North County Times wire services

Illinois student killed by lightning at high school track meet

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) - A lightning strike killed a high school runner as he left a pole vault pit shortly before a track meet, the county coroner said.

"It came out of nowhere," said Scott Hankey, Carbondale Community High School's baseball coach, whose team was preparing for a game nearby. "There was a very, very light rain. There wasn't anything in the way of dark clouds. It didn't look anything like a thunderstorm."

Corey Williams, 18, was returning to the main track area from the pole vault pit about 4 p.m. when the lightning bolt hit him. Coaches and others tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead by the time he reached a hospital.

Thomas Kupferer, Jackson County's coroner, confirmed that lightning killed the teenager.

When Williams was struck, National Weather Service radar showed some lightning in the area, but it was not considered significant enough to issue an advisory or warning, meteorologist Mike Nadolksi said Friday.

More than 200 people attended a candlelight vigil for Williams on Thursday night, and classes at the school were canceled Friday to give the students time to grieve. Williams' mother, Vanessa Webb, shared hugs with dozens of the students.

"This was my son. Why did this happen?" she said.

Classmate Robert Krajewski described Williams as laid back and "just a really nice guy."

Crowded boat capsizes off Guinea coast, killing at least 46 and possibly more, authorities say

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) - A motorized wooden boat crowded with passengers and merchandise capsized offshore from this West African nation's capital, drowning at least 46 people and possibly dozens more, Guinean officials and survivors said Friday.

The boat captain said the vessel was carrying 80 people when it sank heading to a dock in Conakry and only 34 survived. But local marine officials said as many as 100 people may have been aboard.

Ten bodies had been recovered by late Friday, said Ibrahima Sangare, police commissioner at the Conakry port.

The captain, Mamadouba Camara, said the boat - which ferries people and goods such as sacks of rice and salt - ran into strong winds as it approached a Conakry dock and started to take on water, then overturned.

"The passengers panicked. They were going on all sides of the boat. We threw the cargo into the water, but it did nothing," he said.

A nearby fishing boat initially refused to risk approaching the sinking vessel, but its crew then moved in and pulled struggling people out of the water.

The inspector general of Conakry's Matam dock, Daouda Camara, said the boat was a regular transport vessel, not one of the numerous boats filled with illegal migrants trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands that have been intercepted over the past year.

Greece suspends all team sports after fan killed, 16 fans charged with murder

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's government suspended all team-sport matches Friday and police raided dozens of homes and supporters' clubs after a fan was killed during clashes before a women's volleyball match.

Sixteen were arrested in connection with the riot and charged with murder and six other felonies.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis ordered the two-week suspension, which covers soccer, basketball, volleyball and other sports, and will last until April 13. The clubs involved in the volleyball match have several teams in different sports, but draw the overwhelming amount of support for their soccer teams.

Michalis Filopoulos, 25, died Thursday and seven others were hospitalized - mostly with stab wounds - after fans from rival Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiakos Piraeus clashed near Athens.

Amateur videos of the violence, broadcast on Greek television, showed scores of people arriving at the scene on scooters before clashing with rival supporters, wielding bats and knives, and hurling petrol bombs and rocks. Police arrested 13 at the scene, seizing knives, flare guns, brass knuckles and other weapons, and three more were arrested later.

The 16 all were charged with murder, membership in a criminal gang and other offenses.

"Violence in sport is something that affects our entire society … and cannot be tolerated," government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said Friday after an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by Karamanlis.

Roussopoulos also promised to tighten sentencing laws for violent fans, and introduce mandatory surveillance cameras at all main soccer stadiums by 2008.

"These crimes are not anonymous. Specific people are responsible," Roussopoulos said.

The suspension effectively will delay matches for a week, as it coincides with a planned recess for the April 8 Easter holiday.

The Greece action follows a similar response last month by Italian authorities, who suspended all professional soccer matches following the death of a police officer in rioting at a game between Sicilian rivals Catania and Palermo.

Greek sports have been plagued by fan violence for years.

UEFA is likely to punish the national soccer team following its 4-1 loss at home to Turkey on Saturday in a European Championship qualifier. Greek fans clashed among themselves and pelted Turkish players with sticks, coins and plastic water bottles.

Greek soccer league officials expressed support for the government's ban and promised to help police catch violent fans.

"The events (on Thursday) are a disgrace … We have to isolate these people because sport is supposed to be about people having fun," league head Petros Kokkalis said.

State coroner Christos Lefkidis said Filopoulos was killed by multiple stab wounds and head injuries.

The clashes occurred before a Greek Cup volleyball match between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos.

Both clubs support teams in soccer, basketball and other sports, and rival supporters in the past have clashed at various sporting events.

Police on Friday raided 15 supporters' clubs of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, and homes of prominent club members, seizing dozens of makeshift weapons including pick axes, iron bars and baseball bats.

Greece plays its next Euro 2008 soccer qualifier on June 2 against Hungary.

Associated Press writer John F.L. Ross in Athens contributed to this story.

New Amish schoolhouse to open Monday under new name, 6 months after rampage that killed 5

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - Amish students who survived a shooting that killed five of their classmates plan to attend school in a new building Monday, exactly six months after the massacre, authorities said.

On Friday, boys and girls played in the sun-drenched schoolyard while Amish adults put finishing touches on the new one-room schoolhouse, which comes with a new name - the New Hope Amish School.

The building is more secure than the old one, with more sophisticated locks and a location reachable only by a private drive.

"It's just another part of the closure process, I guess, and a new beginning," said Mike Hart with the Bart Township Fire Department. He learned of the new name at a meeting last week with members of the Amish board that oversees the school.

Community leaders wanted students in the new building before the school year ends in mid-May, Hart said. Students have been attending classes in a garage since the shooting.

The new school is located within eyesight of the site of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, which was torn down Oct. 12. Ten days earlier, milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV shot 10 girls inside the school and then committed suicide as police closed in.

It was not immediately clear whether the new school had a telephone. During the rampage, a teacher ran to a neighboring farm that had a telephone to call 911.

The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee has collected more than $4 million, part of which paid for construction of the new, partially brick school, Hart said. Donations also have helped care for the five girls who were wounded by Roberts.

"We bought some physical exercise machines, things like that," Hart said. "And there are some hospital bills."

Four of the five wounded girls have returned to school, but the fifth remains in what Hart called "a comatose-type condition." The 6-year-old girl is fed by a feeding tube and is not able to communicate, he said.

The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee expects to release a statement next week to let donors know they have enough money for expected needs, Hart said.

Roberts' widow, Marie, and their three children have moved from their home in the village of Georgetown, about a mile from the shooting, to another community within Lancaster County, Hart said.

Charles Roberts, apparently tormented by an unconfirmed memory of having molested relatives 20 years earlier, and by the 1997 death of his own infant daughter, shot and killed himself. Amish families attended his burial service.

Homeless man hospitalized in Florida, 10-year-old boys accused of attacking him

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A homeless Army veteran was recovering in a hospital Friday after two 10-year-old boys and a teenager were accused of attacking him on a street and smashing a concrete block into his face.

The three boys were in custody on aggravated battery allegations and face a hearing next week to determine if they should remain in juvenile detention.

At their first court appearance, the two younger boys were escorted from jail in oversized white jumpsuits, their hands chained in front of them and their legs in shackles.

"They are dangerous," the 57-year-old victim, John D'Amico, told The Associated Press from his hospital bed. "The street doesn't need them. They need to be somewhere."

State prosecutors have not decided which formal charges to pursue or whether any of the boys will be charged as adults, said Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for State Attorney John Tanner.

D'Amico, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 220 pounds, said he was walking with a friend through a Daytona Beach neighborhood just before 9 p.m. Tuesday when the trio on bicycles started throwing sand and small rocks at them.

Then they got off their bikes and started throwing larger rocks, he said.

D'Amico said he fell into a wall after the 17-year-old punched him in the face, breaking the brick wall. One of the 10-year-olds then slammed a piece of the broken wall onto his face, he said.

"They were big kids for their age," D'Amico told the AP. "The little kid was taunting me. The big kid came over and just slugged me. If they just would have let me walk on, I would have walked on."

D'Amico, a New York native and day laborer, said he slid into homelessness after injuring his knee two years ago. Having no health insurance, he lost his car and a landscaping business. He could no longer make money as a baseball umpire because he couldn't run. Everything he owns now fits into a backpack, which he was wearing the night of the attack.

"It's been rough. I'm so old. I'm really tired of it," he said.

D'Amico has had reconstructive surgery on his face since the attack. He said he didn't think he was targeted simply for being homeless.

"I don't look that homeless. I'm not really dirty, slobby homeless," he said. "I'm familiar in the neighborhood. I don't know these kids, never seen them before."

Police didn't return a phone message Friday seeking comment.

Attorney Jonathan Glugover, who represents one of the younger boys, declined comment Friday. An assistant for lawyer Tonya Cromartie, who represents the other 10-year-old, said she couldn't comment because she had just been assigned to the case.

Public defender Jim Purdy, who represents the teen, said he won't know until next week if his client will be charged as an adult.

The boys were known in the neighborhood for causing trouble, said Steve Smiley, who has lived there since 1985. "I avoided them. They were terrors," he said.

The case was the latest example of violence involving homeless people in Florida.

Four teenagers got lengthy prison sentences for beating a homeless man to death in 2005 near Daytona Beach. Three other teenagers face possible life sentences if convicted of beating a homeless man to death with a baseball bat in Fort Lauderdale in a 2006 attack caught on surveillance video.

Associated Press reporter Tony Winton in Miami contributed to this report.

Family, friends expected for quiet observance of socialite Brooke Astor's 105th birthday

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. (AP) - After a turbulent 105th year, Brooke Astor marked the start of her 106th Friday with a birthday so quiet that she dozed through a visit from her son.

The philanthropist and socialite, ensconced at her property in a tony area north of New York City, was asleep when her 82-year-old son Anthony Marshall came by with a pink azalea, said his attorney, Kenneth Warner.

"She does spend a lot of time sleeping," Warner said. "It can be difficult to catch the lucid moments. But he did see her."

Banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller and Annette de la Renta, both of whom figured in a nasty family feud over Astor's guardianship, also went to see her Friday, said Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for both.

"They're planning on having a low-key celebration with Mrs. Astor and the staff," Seitel said. "On a warm day like this, she'll be going outside with the dogs. She's frail, she's 105, but she gets outside and walks with assistance. She's comfortable."

He said Rockefeller was bringing sweet pea flowers, "Mrs. Astor's favorite."

Marshall's son, Phillip Marshall, accused him last year of allowing Astor to live in squalor while he looted her estate. Rockefeller supported the grandson's case. The settlement removed Anthony Marshall as Astor's guardian, replacing him with JPMorgan Chase bank and de la Renta, the wife of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.

Astor is the widow of Vincent Astor, a great-great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, who made a fortune in fur trading and New York real estate.

In the decades after her husband's death in 1959, Astor gave away nearly $200 million to New York's great cultural institutions and a host of humbler projects, winning a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1998.

Dad sent to Nevada prison for not paying child support

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A deadbeat dad who authorities say was tens of thousands dollars behind in child support has been sentenced to one to two years in the Nevada State Prison.

James Moffitt was ordered in 1991 to pay $690 a month in support for his two children, the Washoe County district attorney's office said.

Authorities said he has made only sporadic payments over the years, despite testifying in hearings that he was a welder and able to earn $50 an hour.

Moffitt hasn't paid any child support at all since May of last year, investigators said.

Under Nevada law, past-due child support payments of more than $10,000 is a felony.

Moffitt was arrested in September and pleaded guilty in February.

Besides prison time, a judge on Wednesday ordered him to pay more than $168,000 in back support payments, authorities said.

Hog dog trials: 'This isn't a sport, it's our heritage'

WINNFIELD, La. (AP) - Nine-year-old Trey Skains sat in the dirt with Steele, scratching the dog's belly and bragging about the spotted pooch with bright blue eyes.

"He's a pretty dang good dog," Trey said. "He's won me a lot of trophies."

Trey and Steele are players in hog baying, in which dogs go into a ring to round up a wild hog. At Uncle Earl's 13th Annual Hog Dog Trials last week, they got the chance to show their stuff in a competition billed as both a Southern and a family tradition.

"This isn't a sport, it's our heritage" said Clem O'Bryan, 70, a founder of the event. "This is families together sharing something we've been doing for generations."

In an era of animal rights activism, O'Bryan is quick to point out that hog-baying differs from hog-catching.

In hog-catching, dogs, usually pit bulls, are sent into a pen and timed for how quickly they can pin a hog. Once they bite, the dogs usually must be pried from the hogs with a specially designed bar. The practice - sometimes called hog baiting - outraged animal lovers and sparked prohibitions across the South.

In hog-baying, the goal is for a dog to corner a boar in two to four minutes. The dogs sometimes bite, but it counts against them in scoring.

Louisiana bans hog-catching, but permits the Uncle Earl's event.

The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals worked on the law that exempted Uncle Earl's, said spokeswoman Gloria Dauphin. The society has never received a complaint about the event, Dauphin said.

And all usually ends well for the hogs, which are released after the event.

Trey Skains and Steele did well at Uncle Earl's this year, winning second place in two events. Twin sister Rebecca and her dog, Pongo, took fourth place in an event.

The siblings and their father, Reg Skains, were among the thousands of people who jammed Winnfield, population about 5,400, for five days of watching everything from puppies to old dogs chase wild hogs.

"It's the biggest event in Winn Parish," said Lawrence White, president of the Winnfield Chamber of Commerce. "I would guess five to six thousand people come to the event over the course of the week. And we probably have upward of a thousand who actually spend two or three nights here."

The event was named for Earl K. Long - "Uncle Earl" - who was born in Winnfield in 1895. Long, brother of Gov. Huey P. Long, was one of Louisiana's most colorful politicians. He was governor three times between 1939 and 1960 and was an avid hog hunter. He also was known for his relationship with New Orleans stripper Blaze Star. Paul Newman portrayed Long in the 1989 film "Blaze."

O'Bryan, clad in overalls and a white cowboy hat, a half-chewed cigar stuck in the side of his mouth, said he hunted with Earl Long as a boy, and for a time cured the boars Long shot.

Reg Skains said he began taking his children to hog-dog bayings when they were in strollers. They grew up appreciating the skills of the Louisiana Catahoula leopard dog, and the black-mouth cur - considered the top dogs for rounding up wild hogs.

Around the Winn Parish Fair Grounds, youngsters fed and watered hundreds of dogs tied up outside recreational vehicles, listened to men discussing the merits of the dogs and sought advice on training puppies.

Hog-dog traditions, O'Bryan said, are rooted in Southern agricultural customs.

Settlers often let their hogs run loose, he said. The animals fattened up on acorns and vegetation in the woods until late fall when they were rounded up and slaughtered.

"Those hogs were good for extra food, maybe extra goods, they could be traded for things people needed," O'Bryan said. "The hogs were a farmer's bank account, but his bay dog was the key he needed to open it."

For the dogs, which weigh 45-75 pounds, dominating a 200-pound hog, many with sharp tusks, requires instinct, athleticism and finesse.

"You got to go through a lot of dogs to get a really champion one," said Levi Jones, 10, who won the Youth Bay with his dog, Blue. Herding is instinctive for the Catahoula - the state dog of Louisiana - and the black-mouth cur, breeders said.

"We breed them to do this kind of work," said Sherry Bondo, 62, of Lumberton Miss., who has been competing with Catahoulas for 20 years and hog hunting with them for much longer. "They love it. You don't see them going into that pen with their tails between their legs."

Barking almost constantly, the dog is judged in the event on how it contains the hog, like a sheep dog handling sheep, O'Bryan said.

But just because no biting is permitted doesn't mean the situation doesn't become tense - especially for the hogs. Confrontations at Uncle's Earl's ranged from stoic hogs that hunkered into a corner in defensive posture to feisty boars that charged the dogs. At least twice on the final day a hog tossed a dog into the air. Both dogs were wearing high-tech protective vests covering their necks and bodies.

The dogs are big investments. Star performers have sold at the Winnfield event for as much as $15,000. This year prices generally ranged from $100 to $450, but one dog sold for $8,500.

The sport can be costly, but also has its rewards.

The Skains family owns about 40 dogs, said Reg Skains. The monthly food bill is about $600. Then there are trailers, cases for transporting the dogs, vet bills and fees for entering events.

"But I won about $29,000 one year when I was real serious with it," Reg Skains said.

Wife indicted after husband shoots and kills her lover in Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Darrell Roberson came home from a card game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway.

Caught in the act with her lover, Tracy Denise Roberson - thinking quickly, if not clearly - cried rape, authorities say. Her husband pulled a gun and killed the other man with a shot to the head.

On Thursday, a grand jury handed up a manslaughter indictment - against the wife, not the husband.

In a case likely to reinforce the state's reputation for don't-mess-with-Texas justice, the grand jury declined to charge the husband with murder, the charge on which he was arrested by police.

"If I found somebody with my wife or with my kids in my house, there's no telling what I might do," said Juan Muniz, 33, who was having lunch Friday with one of his two small children at a restaurant in the middle-class suburban Dallas neighborhood where the Robersons lived. "I probably would have done the same thing."

Tracy Roberson, 35, could get two to 20 years in prison in the slaying of Devin LaSalle, a 32-year-old UPS employee.

Assistant District Attorney Sean Colston declined to comment on specifics of the case or the grand jury proceedings but said Texas law allows a defendant to claim justification if he has "a reasonable belief that his actions are necessary, even though what they believe at the time turns out not to be true."

Mark Osler, a Baylor University law school professor and a former federal prosecutor, said the grand jurors evidently put themselves in the husband's place: "I can see one of them saying, `I would have shot the guy, too. I was just protecting my wife."'

The December night before the shooting, Tracy Roberson sent LaSalle a text message that read in part, "Hi friend, come see me please! I need to feel your warm embrace!" according to court papers. LaSalle apparently agreed.

Darrell Roberson, a 38-year-old employee of a real estate firm, discovered the two, his wife clad in a robe and underwear.

When Tracy Roberson cried that she was being raped, LaSalle tried to drive away and her husband drew the gun he happened to be carrying and fired several shots at the truck, authorities said.

Darrell Roberson's attorney did not immediately return a call for comment.

His wife also was charged with making a false report to a police officer - for allegedly saying she was raped - and could get up to six months behind bars on that offense. It was not immediately clear whether she had a lawyer.

She had not been arrested as of Friday afternoon.

In the frozen north, they put money on when the ice will break

WEST DANVILLE, Vt. (AP) - At Joe's Pond, they put a 65-pound cinder block on the ice and tie it to an old-fashioned alarm clock on the deck of Homer Fitts' cottage, 200 feet away. When the block falls through, the string tugs on the clock and stops it.

A dollar buys you a chance to guess the exact date and time it happens. But you will have plenty of competition: More than 10,000 entries are expected this year, for a potential jackpot of perhaps $5,000.

From Schoodic Lake, Maine, to Nenana, Alaska, and some chilly points in between, it is "ice out" season, with folks wagering on when frozen ponds, lakes and rivers will melt.

Born of cabin fever, the guessing games are cherished rites of spring that attract contestants far from the frozen shores, in part because of the advent of the Web.

"After a long cold winter, where you've had quite a few feet of snow on the ground, you get to the point where it's enough, you want to look forward to spring," said Anne Swenson, publisher of the Ely (Minn.) Echo newspaper, which runs a free contest on Shagawa Lake. "It's silly. You need some silliness at this time of year."

Some places track ice-out dates as a matter of local interest, with no contest or guessing involved. Others hold betting pools in which official observers determine when the water is officially ice-free. The contests that end with snowmobiles or other objects taking a plunge generate the most interest.

Black's Cliff Resort in Hazelhurst, Wis., puts a stuffed dummy named Cliff in a beach chair on Lower Kaubashine Lake and charges $5 to guess the day he gets dunked.

Resort manager Jenny Gibson said the contest is a source of entertainment for her summer guests, "who are sitting behind their desks anywhere from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., wondering what's going on in the woods."

The granddaddy of them all is the Nenana Ice Classic, held in Alaska. People pay $2.50 to guess when a wooden tripod on the ice-covered Tanana River will take the plunge. Last year, the $270,500 jackpot was split by eight people who correctly predicted May 2 at 5:29 p.m.

Money isn't always the lure. In the Ely, Minn., ice out, early winners got a package of Polish sausage; now, they compete for a $100 gift certificate to a resort hotel.

At Joe's Pond in northern Vermont, the cinder block is put on the ice in late March or early April, with a red flag sticking up so snowmobilers don't crash into it.

As spectator sports go, it's not exactly riveting. But in 1988, the first year the contest was held, 421 tickets were sold. Last year, 8,386 tickets were sold to people in 41 states and two foreign countries. The ice went out April 16 at 3:20 p.m., the earliest ever. The deadline for entering the 20th annual contest is Sunday.

The contest does not violate Vermont laws against gambling because it is run by a nonprofit community organization. Half the proceeds go to the winner; the other half go toward the local Fourth of July fireworks show.

Many contestants will be following the action on the Web only.

Bruce Molinaroli, an investment manager in New York who vacations at Joe's Pond, buys 200 tickets every year and gives them away to family, friends and co-workers.

"People at the office start asking me in January or February, `When do we get our tickets?"' he said.

One year, a baby who was yet to be born won. His parents entered the contest on his behalf and correctly picked the date and time of the ice out.

"The odd things you come up with in the northwoods," said Gibson, who runs the Wisconsin contest.

Ireland, cracking down on drunk driving, arrests senior traffic safety police officer

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - A senior police officer tasked with promoting road safety has been arrested on suspicion of driving drunk - the most high-profile arrest in a nationwide crackdown on the once-widespread practice in Ireland.

Police Superintendent Jim Fitzgerald, who oversees road safety in part of western Ireland, was arrested Thursday night after a member of the public reported him driving erratically in Loughrea, County Galway.

The Garda Siochana, Ireland's national police force, confirmed Friday that detectives were sending a file on the case to state prosecutors in Dublin. An internal discipline file was also sent to the Garda commander.

In recent months Ireland has launched a crackdown on drunken driving, deploying new resources and legal powers, particularly the ability to set up road checkpoints and give drivers random breath tests.

Fitzgerald was one of five police superintendents appointed this month to enforce road safety, including anti-drunk driving measures, in western Ireland.

Police said that after receiving a telephoned tip, a patrol car followed Fitzgerald's unmarked police vehicle before pulling him over.

According to Ireland's national broadcaster RTE, Fitzgerald offered an initial breath sample but refused to provide a second as required. Under Ireland's recently toughened drunk-driving laws, such a refusal risks a maximum punishment of losing a driving license for three years.

A decade ago, drunk driving was a common practice in rural parts of Ireland, where scattered pubs remain the hub for social activities. But the government and police have gradually toughened laws and enforcement - including a penalty-points system that can be used to strip people of their licenses - and fighting protracted legal battles for the right to use drunk-driving detection systems.

The Garda Siochana said it arrested 444 people for suspected drunk driving from March 19 to Sunday, and 487 the previous week, which included St. Patrick's Day, an official holiday.