LOS ANGELES - Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot.

"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," the former "Seinfeld" co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's "Late Show."

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself. A clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.

Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Richards responded to the black hecklers with repeated use of the "n word" and profanities.

Jerry Seinfeld, who had issued a statement saying he was "sick over this horrible, horrible mistake" and calling it offensive, was scheduled as a Letterman guest Monday. He encouraged Richards to make a satellite appearance to talk about the incident, a CBS publicist said.

Richards, 57, who played Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom and whose major credit since was a failed 2000 comedy, hadn't spoken publicly about his remarks before "Late Show." Calls to his representatives were not returned Monday.

His on-stage remarks were condemned by industry colleagues.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory during Richards' performance, said he was shocked.

"Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," Rodriguez told CNN. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f-- fork up your a-."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother--. Throw his a- out. He's a n--!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.

Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience, "It shocks you, it shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."

While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" and people respond with "ooh" after Richards uses the n-word.

Eventually someone calls out: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. `Seinfeld,' that's it."

On Monday, about a half-dozen community activists gathered at the club to denounce Richards' remarks and demand an apology.

"These kind of comments hurt all of us," said protester Lita Sister Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition. She called Richards' comments hate speech.

The protesters also demanded an apology from the Laugh Factory. At a news conference a short time later, club owner Jamie Masada expressed remorse and said Richards will not be back at the club until he says he's sorry.

"This is one thing we don't tolerate. … I personally apologize. I apologize from my heart," Masada said Monday.

Richards did appear at the club Saturday, without incident, but that was because he had told the club he intended to apologize, according to a Laugh Factory statement Monday.

Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come."

Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards' remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said.

"It's never seen anything like this is my life," Levine said Monday. "I think it's a career ruiner for him. … It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all."

Daryl Pitts, a Laugh Factory audience member interviewed by CNN, compared the incident to another recent celebrity controversy.

"You think about Mel Gibson and what he said, and put that in the context of this, it's very upsetting," Pitts said, referring to Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst during his arrest for drunken driving.

Scrutiny of Richards' remarks likely will continue but won't match the level prompted by Gibson's behavior because Richards is far less famous, Levine said.

Comedian George Lopez told Los Angeles television station KTLA that he thought Richards' lack of stand-up experience may have been a factor.

"The question is you have an actor who is trying to be a comedian who doesn't know what to do when an audience is disruptive," Lopez said. "He's an actor whose show has been off the air, he shouldn't ever be on a stand-up gig."

- Associated Press Writer Jacob Adelman contributed to this report.

News Corp. cancels O.J. Simpson book, TV special

NEW YORK (AP) - O.J. Simpson's book and TV special were canceled Monday, an astonishing end to an imaginary confession that had sickened the public as the very worst kind of tabloid sensation.

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns both Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

"If I Did It," in which Simpson was to have described how he would have killed his ex-wife, had been scheduled to air as a two-part interview Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox. The book was to have followed on Nov. 30

HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said some copies had already been shipped to stores but would be recalled, and all copies would be destroyed.

"I think News Corp. finally stepped up, admitted they made a mistake and did the right thing," said Jonathan Polak, the lawyer for Fred Goldman, Ron's father. "This is everything we have been asking News Corp. to do for the past two weeks. We want to thank the American people for helping make this happen."

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, told The Associated Press: "We had known for three or four days that this was a possibility."

Galanter said he did not know whether the deal between Simpson and News Corp. was contingent on a TV interview being shown or a book arriving in stores.

"There are only three possible reactions: anger, happiness or indifference. He's totally indifferent about the fact that it's been canceled," said Galanter, who added that he didn't know if Simpson was paid upfront.

Any hopes of commercial reward were quickly overwhelmed by near universal revulsion to last week's announcement - from those who knew Goldman and Brown, from booksellers and advertisers, even from Fox News Channel personality Bill O'Reilly.

A dozen Fox network affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, and numerous stores had either declined to sell the book or had promised to donate any profits to charity.

"I really don't think there would have been very many advertisers who would have been willing to participate in this show," said Brad Adgate of the ad buying firm Horizon Media.

With little advertising, Fox would miss the chance to profit from the show. If there were no advertisers, the show wouldn't even be rated by Nielsen Media Research - so the number of people watching would have done nothing to help Fox's season average, he said.

The cancellation was a stunning setback for ReganBooks - an imprint of HarperCollins - and Judith Regan, who had labeled the book and interview Simpson's "confession." She insisted that she had done it not for money, but as a victim of domestic violence anxious to face down a man she believed got away, literally, with murder.

ReganBooks is known for gossipy best-sellers such as Jose Canseco's "Juiced" and Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star."

The Simpson interview also was a low for Fox, which has long tested viewers with risky reality programming dating back to "When Animals Attack."

O'Reilly had urged a boycott of any company that advertised on the special.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder in a case that became its own TV drama. The former football star, announcer and actor was later found liable for the deaths in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.

The TV special was to air on two of the final three nights of the November sweeps, when ratings are watched closely to set local advertising rates. It has been a particularly tough fall for Fox, which has seen none of its new shows catch on and is waiting for the January bows of "American Idol" and "24."

The closest precedent for such an about-face came when CBS yanked a miniseries about Ronald Reagan from its schedule in 2003 when complaints were raised about its accuracy. It was seen on CBS' sister premium-cable channel, Showtime, instead.

One Fox affiliate station manager said he wasn't going to air the special because he was concerned that, whether or not Simpson was guilty, he'd still be profiting from murders.

"I have my own moral compass and this was easy," said Bill Lamb, general manager of WDRB in Louisville.

Numerous books have been withdrawn over the years because of possible plagiarism, most recently Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," but removal simply for objectionable content is exceptionally rare. In the early 1990s, Simon & Schuster canceled Bret Easton Ellis' "American Pyscho," an exceptionally graphic account of a serial killer. The novel was released by Random House Inc., and later made into a feature film.

Sales for "If I Did It," had been strong, but not sensational. It cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend, but by Monday afternoon, at the time its cancellation was announced, the book had fallen to No. 51.

- AP Television Writer David Bauder and AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch also contributed to this report.

CBS defends Jackson's breast-baring at halftime show as unintended, not indecent

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for CBS Corp. argued Monday that singer Janet Jackson's breast-baring at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004 was unintended, took place without the knowledge of the network, and should not be considered indecent.

CBS is suing the Federal Communications Commission in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, challenging a $550,000 fine issued by the agency over the stunt, which created a national furor.

In a court brief, CBS argued that the FCC had "failed to turn up even a shred of evidence suggesting that anyone at CBS participated" in the so-called "wardrobe malfunction," and that the commission had abandoned its long-standing approach that "fleeting, isolated or unintended" images should not automatically be considered indecent.

In response, the FCC released a statement charging that the network "continues to ignore the voices of millions of Americans, Congress and the commission by arguing that Janet Jackson's halftime performance was not indecent … we continue to believe they are wrong."

The show aired on Feb. 1, 2004, to an estimated audience of 90 million. During a musical number, singer Justin Timberlake pulled off part of Jackson's bustier, briefly exposing one of her breasts.

In its filing, CBS described the flashing as an "unscripted, unauthorized and unintended long-distance shot of Ms. Jackson's breast for nine-sixteenths of one second."

The network claims that Jackson and Timberlake "independently and clandestinely devised the finale" without informing anyone at the network.

In the 76-page brief, the network also said the fine should be dismissed because the broadcast itself was "neither explicit nor graphic."

The network stated that the "blink and you miss it" nature of the episode went "largely unrecognized for most of the broadcast audience."

CBS argued that the FCC's "zero tolerance approach to indecency enforcement" eliminated the "breathing space to which CBS and all broadcasters are entitled to exercise their First Amendment rights."

In another high-profile broadcast indecency case, CBS and Fox Television Stations Inc. are expected to file a brief Wednesday in a federal appeals court in New York challenging the FCC's policy on how it fines shows that air foul language.

2 teens suspended for bringing homemade bomb `to Georgia prep school; no one hurt

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Two prep school students have been suspended for bringing a homemade bomb made of firecrackers, BBs and metal shavings to school, a school official said Monday. - One of the boys made the small bomb and gave it to the other student at school, said Tom Bonnell, headmaster of The Savannah Country Day School.

Bonnell said he did not think the boys, both 14, meant to harm anyone with the device or to detonate it on school grounds.

"What we know is they never intended to cause harm to anyone on campus and the device was not created to cause harm to anyone," he said.

Administrators learned about the bomb on Friday from another student who had overheard the two boys talking.

According to a police report, the boy told a school official that he had made a "homemade bomb" composed of a "firecracker, some dried vegetation, colored paper, gun powder, little BBs and some metal shavings."

Sgt. Mike Wilson, a spokesman for Savannah-Chatham County police, said the bomb did not appear to be powerful. "But it had the components of materials that could cause harm to other people - and that's enough," Wilson said.

Police and prosecutors had not determined Monday whether they would file charges.

Polygamist leader accused of arranging underage marriage in Nevada motel room

CALIENTE, Nev. (AP) - Room 15 at the Caliente Hot Springs Motel seems like an unlikely place for a wedding. There are no flower-covered arbors, pews or candles. It is an apartment-style room with a kitchenette, a bed, a dresser, a table and a couch.

But it was in Room 15 that dozens of weddings took place between underage girls and men from a polygamist sect, church insiders say.

The sect's charismatic leader, Warren Jeffs, has been charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in arranging one of those marriages - that of a 14-year-old girl who claims she was forced to wed her older first cousin in 2001.

Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will be in a Utah court Tuesday for a hearing on whether prosecutors have enough evidence to try him. If he is tried and convicted, the man some 10,000 followers revere as a prophet could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jeffs was captured in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August after nearly two years on the run. He was one of the nation's 10 most-wanted fugitives.

According to authorities, the bride, identified in court papers as Jane Doe No. 4, stood dressed in white in Room 15 and said, "I do," sealing the marriage with a secret handshake. Prosecutors say the marriage was then consummated back in Hildale, Utah, where members of the sect live.

The girl told Jeffs she didn't want to marry, and later begged to be released from the union, saying she did not like marital relations, authorities said. But Jeffs said the marriage was her religious duty and threatened her with the loss of salvation, according to authorities.

The FLDS claims to be a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church. But the Mormons disavow any connection and renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Jeffs' attorneys have not responded to requests for interviews. But at hearing in September, attorney Walter Bugden said Jeffs believes he is being persecuted for his religious beliefs.

Carolyn Jessop, a former sect member who used to run the motel, said that once or twice a month, beginning in the spring of 1999, she would get a telephone call telling her to plan for a weekend of sect weddings. Some insiders say as many as 10 such weddings were held in a single day.

Wedding parties and church elders would arrive in a caravan of cars about midmorning, not long after checkout time for guests.

"They did not want anybody on the property," said Jessop, whose husband, Merrill Jessop, owned the 18-room motel with her father for seven years until it was sold in 2004.

The drive to Caliente from Hildale is 160 miles, most of it on a two-lane road through the mountains and across the desert. But sect leaders believed Caliente was a safe place - "a way to go under the radar screen" - because Utah and Arizona were passing legislation to address underage marriage and threatening prosecution, Jessop said.

Utah later passed a law making it a felony to arrange a marriage between a minor and an older married person. Arizona has enacted a similar law.

At the motel, the girls usually arrived with their parents, including their fathers' multiple wives. The bridegroom might bring his own wives. In some ceremonies, the first wife might hold the young bride's hand and place it gently in the groom's as a symbolic gesture that she accepted the new wife into the family, sect insiders say.

After the ceremony, sect elders would share a meal cooked by some of the women.

"I can't imagine the trauma that some of these younger girls must have gone through," said Jessop, who left the sect and her husband in 2003.

No charges have been brought against her or her husband. She said she would help set the room up but would not stay around for the ceremonies.

Insiders say the newlyweds would promptly leave and presumably consummate their unions back in Hildale or neighboring Colorado City, Ariz. - dusty twin towns populated by women in long, pioneer dresses and men in long sleeves and buttoned-up collars.

Couple who live on Clintons' cul-de-sac shot; wife dies, police say

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) - A woman who lives on the same cul-de-sac as former President Clinton died Monday after a mysterious shooting on an isolated road that left her lawyer husband wounded, authorities said.

Sgt. Marc Simmons, a detective, said 55-year-old Peggy Perez-Olivo died about 3 p.m. at a hospital. He said there are still no arrests.

She was shot in the head, and her 58-year-old husband was shot in the abdomen late Saturday, police said.

The couple - he a recently disbarred criminal defense lawyer, she a teacher's assistant - were driving to their Chappaqua home from Manhattan when they were shot, New Castle Town Police said. According to police, the couple was on a desolate part of Route 100 when a car cut in front of their sport utility vehicle and forced them off the road around 11 p.m.

A man with a gun got out and entered the SUV through a back door, and Carlos Perez-Olivo fought with him, police said.

The gunman fled, authorities said. Police are looking at video surveillance from a gas station near the site, Simmons said, and they released a sketch of the shooter based on the husband's description.

Police said they had not been able to determine a motive.

Carlos Perez-Olivo had practiced law in New York from 1980 until he was disbarred in August, according to state court records. State Supreme Court appellate judges found he "repeatedly refused to return unearned funds or retainers to clients."

He was previously accused of incompetence for failing to recall portions of his closing argument in defense of a waiter convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting his wife's lover last year in a Manhattan subway station.

There was no home telephone listing for him or his wife in Chappaqua. No one answered the door Monday at the couple's blue and white Colonial home, one of eight houses on the cul-de-sac. It is three doors away from the home of the former president and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, which has a guardhouse at the foot of its driveway.

Acquaintances said they were mystified by the shooting.

"They're a very nice couple, great folks, sweet people," said their landlord, Gerard Gorman.

Spokespeople for the Clintons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

House explodes in northeastern Indiana, leaving 2 missing and 2 injured

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (AP) - An explosion flattened a home Monday, spreading a fire to two others, leaving at least two people missing and injuring at least two others, authorities said.

It too more than an hour to extinguish the flames in a line of homes near downtown Huntington, in northeastern Indiana. The explosion occurred at about 5:30 p.m.

The owner of the home, Jack Wilson, and a Comcast cable employee were taken to a Fort Wayne hospital, Assistant Police Chief Tom Hughes said.

Hughes said he did not immediately know the identities of those believed missing.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. Mike Roeder, a spokesman for natural gas utility Vectren Corp. said that he could not confirm details but that he was flying from headquarters in Evansville to the explosion scene.

Michael Richards, aka Kramer, spews racial slurs during stand-up

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot.

"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," the former "Seinfeld" co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's "Late Show."

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself. A clip from the show played on CBS before "Late Show" aired Monday night.

Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Richards responded to the black hecklers with repeated use of the "n word" and profanities.

Jerry Seinfeld, who had issued a statement saying he was "sick over this horrible, horrible mistake" and calling it offensive, was scheduled as a Letterman guest Monday. He encouraged Richards to make a satellite appearance to talk about the incident, a CBS publicist said.

Richards, 57, who played Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom and whose major credit since was a failed 2000 comedy, hadn't spoken publicly about his remarks before "Late Show." Calls to his representatives were not returned Monday.

His on-stage remarks were condemned by industry colleagues.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory during Richards' performance, said he was shocked.

"Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," Rodriguez told CNN. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f-- fork up your a-."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother--. Throw his a- out. He's a n--!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.

Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience, "It shocks you, it shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."

While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" and people respond with "ooh" after Richards uses the n-word.

Eventually someone calls out: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. `Seinfeld,' that's it."

On Monday, about a half-dozen community activists gathered at the club to denounce Richards' remarks and demand an apology.

"These kind of comments hurt all of us," said protester Lita Sister Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition. She called Richards' comments hate speech.

The protesters also demanded an apology from the Laugh Factory. At a news conference a short time later, club owner Jamie Masada expressed remorse and said Richards will not be back at the club until he says he's sorry.

"This is one thing we don't tolerate. … I personally apologize. I apologize from my heart," Masada said Monday.

Richards did appear at the club Saturday, without incident, but that was because he had told the club he intended to apologize, according to a Laugh Factory statement Monday.

Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come."

Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards' remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said.

"It's never seen anything like this is my life," Levine said Monday. "I think it's a career ruiner for him. … It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all."

Daryl Pitts, a Laugh Factory audience member interviewed by CNN, compared the incident to another recent celebrity controversy.

"You think about Mel Gibson and what he said, and put that in the context of this, it's very upsetting," Pitts said, referring to Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst during his arrest for drunken driving.

Scrutiny of Richards' remarks likely will continue but won't match the level prompted by Gibson's behavior because Richards is far less famous, Levine said.

Comedian George Lopez told Los Angeles television station KTLA that he thought Richards' lack of stand-up experience may have been a factor.

"The question is you have an actor who is trying to be a comedian who doesn't know what to do when an audience is disruptive," Lopez said. "He's an actor whose show has been off the air, he shouldn't ever be on a stand-up gig."

- Associated Press Writer Jacob Adelman contributed to this report.

Former student storms German school, shooting 5 people

EMSDETTEN, Germany (AP) - A masked, 18-year-old gunman stormed his former high school in northwestern Germany Monday, shooting five people and setting off smoke bombs before he was found dead with pipe bombs strapped to his body, police said. - Witnesses said the gunman - identified by Germany media and witnesses as Sebastian Bosse - parked his car nearby the school in Emsdetten, near the Dutch border, and opened fire as soon as he entered the school yard. He wounded five people and sent students running in all directions.

The first patrol car arrived at the scene six minutes after a distress call from a school secretary, prompting Bosse to withdraw to the second floor, said Hans Volkmann, a senior police officer.

Heavily armed police searched the building room by room, evacuating four more terrified students. They found Bosse lying dead near two of his guns, a knife strapped to his leg.

Volkmann said Bosse's face was "unrecognizable" because of serious injuries and that it wasn't immediately clear if he had shot himself or was killed by one of his bombs. Police fired no shots, he said.

Police recovered his body in the evening after explosives experts defused three homemade pipe bombs on his body and five more in his backpack. Four more bombs were found in his car.

Four students ages 12 to 16 and the head caretaker at the school were wounded with gunshots. Several of the injuries were serious, but none were life-threatening.

Another 22 people, most of them police officers, suffered suffered smoke inhalation from the smoke bombs.

The incident brought back memories of a shooting rampage in the eastern German city of Erfurt in 2002, when an alienated former pupil killed himself and 16 others, most of them teachers.

Investigators and students described Bosse as a misfit obsessed with violence and guns. He was due to go on trial on Tuesday after he was caught with a loaded pistol several months ago. His father collapsed after hearing what his son had done and was being treated in hospital.

"He seems to have been frustrated by a lack of meaning in his life," state prosecutor Wolfgang Schweer said. "It appears that he was a loner who decided on his own to do this."

On his Internet site, Bosse can be seen posing in military-style uniform and brandishing a gun. His site also includes a chilling warning and comments that indicated he was contemplating suicide. The site was inaccessible soon after the attack.

Bosse raged against politicians, the police and above all his teachers and fellow students for treating him as a "loser." He said he had decided to take revenge and "disappear from this life."

"This revenge will be carried out so brutally and without quarter, that the blood will freeze in your veins," he wrote.

Students at the school said Bosse was an aloof individual who played violent computer games and had said he wanted to join the army.

Katja Weber, a 17-year-old student at the school, said he always wore a black hat and coat. "He was an absolute loner," Weber told reporters outside the school. "Guns were his hobby."

European Union proposes to ban sale of cat, dog fur

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union proposed a ban Monday on the sale and import of dog and cat fur in all 25 member nations, saying it has been found in some clothing, toys and other items on sale in Europe.

The European Commission - the bloc's executive body - said the dog and cat fur had either been falsely labeled as coming from another animal or was hidden within the products.

According to animal rights activists, millions of animals are bred for their fur - mostly in China and other Asian nations. A ban on dog and cat fur has been in place in the United States since 2000, but activists complain that labeling is not required on items costing less than $150.

"Unfortunately, in the U.S. there's a loophole in the law. Products sold under a certain price range don't have to be labeled, so consumers can't actually be sure if the fur is from a rabbit or from a cat or a dog," said Zibby Wilder, of the Animal Protection Institute, based in Sacramento, Calif.

Unregulated products include winter accessories such as earmuffs, gloves and hats, as well as key chains and fur trim on clothing, she said.

Markos Kyprianou, the European Commission's consumer protection commissioner, said the fur trade's secretive nature makes it hard to estimate how much dog and cat fur finds its way onto the market, or pinpoint its source.

In the United States, "it comes over as trim … whether its toys or lining of parkas or the lining of gloves or boots. So with the open-ended circumstances with labeling … it could be coming in very widely for all we know," said Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

In the EU, 15 member states already ban dog and cat fur sales. However, a December 2005 investigation by the Australian group Humane Society International showed dog and cat fur being used in products in the Czech Republic - a member of the EU since 2004.

The EU-wide ban proposed Monday will serve to bring clear guidelines for all member nations, Kyprianou said, adding that he expected it to pass quickly.

"Many citizens, members of the European Parliament, ministers and even myself have seen shocking images of cats and dogs being kept in cages and slaughtered in cruel and shocking conditions for their fur," Kyprianou told a news conference.

To back his call, the EU showed gruesome videos of dogs being bludgeoned or cut open to bleed to death, and cats in cages being strangled by wire nooses.

Humane Society International estimates some 2 million cats and dogs are killed for their fur each year, with an estimated 5,400 killed in China each day.

"Countries of origin typically are Asian," said Rick Swain, the group's vice president of investigative services. "Russia remains a large consumer. I have seen more cat and dog fur being used in Russia than in China."

Russian animal rights activists have campaigned against cruel practices in China's fur industry, including the export to Russia and other countries of cat and dog fur passed off as that of other animals. In February, activists of the Alliance for Animal Rights carried out a protest near the Chinese Embassy in Moscow.

Members of the EU parliament have already given wide, cross-party support for a ban.

"It was impossible to understand how anyone could treat these animals in such a barbaric way," said British Conservative legislator Struan Stevenson. "I have seen a great deal of evidence to show that Chinese butchers often skin these animals alive in their hurry to cash in on this lucrative trade."

However, the International Fur Trade Federation said an EU-wide ban was unnecessary because the group's members have had a voluntary ban on dog and cat fur in place since 2002.

"For many years the European fur trade has not traded in cat and dog fur," the group said in a statement. "We do question why it is necessary to spend time and resources drafting legislation to ban a trade that does not exist."

EU spokesman Philip Tod said there was "a wider problem" beyond the mainstream fur trade, adding there was clear evidence and overwhelming public demand for a ban.

- Associated Press Writer Tracee Herbaugh in New York contributed to this report.

Police detain blogger critical of government

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A blogger whose postings have been critical of the government was arrested less than a week after rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Egypt for detaining the writer of another personal Web log.

Rami Siyam was at least the fifth blogger Egypt has detained this year. He has been running his blog since May 2005 and his postings have included criticism of alleged police torture.

A police officer said he was detained for questioning and transferred to the Delta Nile city of Belbeis for further interrogation.

"Police want to know if he is involved in criminal activities," the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He did not say whether Siyam's detention Sunday had any connection to items critical of the government which he posted on his blog.

Blogs are a key outlet for opposition views in Egypt, where the state dominates the media.

Amnesty and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have both criticized Egypt for arresting bloggers, saying it restricts freedom of expression.

Earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders put Egypt in a club of the 13 worst culprits for systematic online censorship along with Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Blogging took off in Egypt in 2004 at a time when domestic political activists and the U.S. stepped up calls for political reform.

Last month, a handful of bloggers reported that a group of young men had sexually harassed women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene. The bloggers, who claimed to have witnessed the attacks or spoken to witnesses, said the assailants were groups of young men and boys. They argued that the police's failure to intervene was a sign of mismanagement and corruption in the force.

The government denied that such assaults took place and accused the bloggers of defaming Egypt.

Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil was detained earlier this month. His friends posted an item on the Internet that said he appeared to have been detained over an article he recently wrote on his blog dealing with Islam.

Giant tree falls on Nicaraguan church, killing 11 including U.S. pastor

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - A giant tree fell on an evangelical church in remote northeastern Nicaragua while an American pastor was delivering his sermon, killing 11 people including the clergyman, authorities said Monday.

Rev. Larry Wayne Poll, a 64-year-old native of Alabama, was killed Sunday while preaching at the church in the Nicaraguan town of Lupuas, near the Honduran border, said Rigoberto Gonzalez, a spokesman for Honduran police.

Two Hondurans and eight Nicaraguans also died, Gonzalez said. More than 100 people were in the church when heavy winds knocked down the tree.

"We all lament the tragedy," Gonzalez said.

Poll's body was taken to a morgue in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, the closest major city to Lupuas, located near the Coco River that forms part of the border between the two Central American countries.

While both Honduras and Nicaragua are predominantly Roman Catholic, evangelical churches have made large inroads in recent years, especially in rural areas.

London hospital moves ex-Russian spy to intensive care as condition worsens

LONDON (AP) - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow.

Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Bureau agent, was under armed guard at a London hospital, as authorities investigated the poisoning that has all the hallmarks of a Cold War thriller.

Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin; Russian authorities denied any link to the attack. Police counterterrorism officials have taken charge of the inquiry.

Doctors said Litvinenko was seriously ill after being given the deadly poison thallium - a toxic metal found in some types of rat poison that can cause damage to the nervous system and organ failure. Such poison has been outlawed in Britain since the 1970s, making it highly unlikely any could have gotten into his food by accident.

Photographs released by the hospital showed a wan Litvinenko in a green hospital gown, his bald head propped up by pillows, his arm hooked to an IV drip. Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs.

Litvinenko's white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him. "It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," Henry said.

Litvinenko, who has been a thorn in the Russian government's side since the late 1990s, fell ill after a meal with a contact who claimed to have details about the slaying of another Kremlin critic - Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist who was gunned down Oct. 7 in her Moscow apartment building.

Litvinenko blamed her killing on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Somebody has asked me directly, who is guilty of Anna's death? And I can directly answer you: it is Mr. Putin, president of the Russian Federation," he said at a meeting at a media club in London in October.

Other Russian dissidents in Britain also blamed the Kremlin for Litvinenko's condition.

"Permission to assassinate abroad can only be given from the top," Oleg Gordievsky, former deputy head of the KGB at the Soviet Embassy in London told The Associated Press. "How can it not be state-sponsored?"

"He was for five years attacking Putin and the head of the (secret services) week in, week out. He was deliberately irritating the whole of the Russian establishment, particularly Putin."

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed suggestions that Russian intelligence services were involved as "nothing but sheer nonsense."

But exiled Russian dissident Boris Berezovsky was adamant that Putin, a former spy himself, was not only aware of the operation, but gave the orders.

"There's no doubt Putin gave the command to kill him," said the multimillionaire, who claimed that Litvinenko had also been targeted a year ago, when a grenade was thrown into his home.

Alexander Goldfarb, who helped Litvinenko seek asylum in Britain in 2000, said the poison might have been sprinkled into Litvinenko's drink during a meeting at a London hotel Nov. 1 before he went to meet the contact at a sushi restaurant.

Litvinenko briefly met two men from Moscow - one a former KGB officer he knew - for tea at the hotel, Goldfarb said.

"I called Alexander in hospital … he told me it is true, on that day, before meeting the Italian, he met with two Russians," Goldfarb said, adding that Litvinenko had not previously met the second man.

Litvinenko told police about the two men, he said.

In Rome, Mario Scaramella, a security expert identified in media reports as the man Litvinenko saw at the restaurant, declined to comment about the meeting. But Paolo Guzzanti, an Italian senator and former head of parliamentary commission that examined cases of past KGB infiltration, said he has been in daily contact with Scaramella and confirmed he had met with the former spy Nov. 1.

After hearing of Litvinenko's poisoning, "Scaramella went to the British Embassy in Rome and made himself available, but nobody questioned him," Guzzanti said. The British Embassy in Rome declined comment.

Litvinenko joined the KGB counterintelligence forces in 1988, and rose to the rank of colonel in the FSB. He began specializing in terrorism and organized crime in 1991, and was transferred to the FSB's most secretive department on criminal organizations in 1997. Litvinenko quit Russia for Britain six years ago and has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin ever since.

In 2003 he wrote a book, "The FSB Blows Up Russia," accusing his country's secret service agency of staging bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people in Russia and sparked the second war in Chechnya.

- AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this story.

On the Net:

http://www.frontlineclub.com/video/anna-politkovskaya.html%und-off (%)

Poison of choice used in attack on ex-Russian spy

LONDON (AP) - Thallium is frequently referred to as the poison of choice: Only a gram of the colorless, odorless, water-soluble heavy metal can kill. It is as toxic as arsenic, and even more so than lead.

Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Service agent, was under armed guard at a hospital Monday, fighting for his life after being given the deadly poison in London.

Litvinenko's white blood cell count - generally used as a gauge of the immune system - is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist involved in his care.

"It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," said Henry. Thallium interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach and intestines.

"One or two grams of thallium would be more than enough to do serious damage," said Dr. Alistair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University, who is not connected to Litvinenko's case. "Thallium doesn't have a striking taste, so it would be relatively easy to mix it into food."

For poisoning purposes, thallium would be in a powdery or crystallized state. Its effects are not immediately noticeable and frequently take weeks to kick in. The poison works by knocking out the body's supply of potassium, essential for healthy cells.

While Litvinenko fell ill on Nov. 1, his hair didn't start to fall out until 10 days later - a sign that led his doctors to suspect poison.

"Hair loss is one of the big giveaways of thallium poisoning," said Henry. Blood tests have since confirmed the diagnosis.

At this late stage, nearly three weeks after the incident, Henry says little can be done to get the thallium out of Litvinenko's system. "It will be naturally excreted. We will give him the potassium antidote, but it won't have a major effect," he said.

Potassium is usually given to thallium-poisoned patients, since it binds to the same sites as thallium in the body, and can help to push it out.

Thallium was used by Saddam Hussein, who poisoned several of his Iraqi opponents. At least two victims survived, after being treated in the United Kingdom.

Henry estimates Litvinenko's recovery could take at least six months. "His main problem in the next two to four weeks, when the acute illness is gone, will be his nervous system," he said. "He will have a lot of muscle weakness and will need major physiotherapy."

In the past, thallium has been used in rat poison. It continues to be used industrially, to manufacture products including glass lenses, semi-conductors, dyes and pigments.

German museums, culture minister want clearer restitution process for looted Nazi art

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's culture minister and top museums called Monday for more transparency in the return of paintings stolen by the Nazis, responding to concerns that the nation's galleries risk losing scores of valuable and popular works.

The government insists it stands by a 1998 agreement signed in Washington to identify and return to the rightful owners of works illegally taken under the Nazis.

However, museum directors have expressed concern over losing paintings acquired in good faith with the intention of showing them in public.

Culture Minister Bernd Neumann and museum directors agreed Monday to form a working group that would consider how to better handle restitution cases.

"The goal is to satisfy everyone involved and to make the currently rather emotional discussion more businesslike," Neumann said in a statement after meeting with museum representatives.

Dozens of German museums face restitution claims, and many feel ill-equipped to carry out the necessary and costly research required to trace the ownership of the artworks. Art experts estimate the ownership of as many as 100 paintings by German Expressionists could be in question.

"Restitution must become more transparent, better coordinated and more irreproachable," said Neumann.

Monday's talks come after the disputed return by a Berlin museum of a 1913 painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, "Berliner Strassenszene," that was subsequently auctioned in New York for $38 million.

According to Berlin city officials, the painting's Jewish owners took it to Switzerland in 1933 and sent it three years later to the Art Association of Cologne.

An art collector then bought the paintings, but it is uncertain whether the Jewish owners received any money. Some experts argue that the lack of clarity meant that the claim was not solid enough to justify returning the work.

Martin Roth, director of Dresden's National Art Collection, said 800 objects and works of art have been returned by his museums since 1991, and that in many cases, there was no doubt that they should be given back.

"What belonged or belongs to Jewish owners must be returned," Roth told Deutschlandfunk radio.

However, he stressed the importance of being able to prove the ownership or that a work was wrongfully taken.

Thomas Steg, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said there have been suggestions the government help establish a fund to compensate rightful claimants while allowing the museums to hold onto the artworks and keep them on display in Germany.

"On the one hand, the right of the owners is to be respected," Steg told reporters earlier Monday. "On the other side, it is in the interest of the public to see valuable national treasures remain on public display."

Neumann is to meet with the Jewish Claims Conference later this year to discuss the issue further.

Off Costa Rican coast, authorities capture homemade submarine with 3 tons of cocaine

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just six feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.

The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.

"This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said in a statement.

U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said.

Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.

Officials took the submarine to a Costa Rican Coast Guard station and were trying to determine its origins, the Security Ministry said. It was found with several tanks of gas, but Costa Rican authorities said the vessel, which had a bailer to keep out water, probably did not travel far.

So far this year, Costa Rican authorities have seized 18 tons of cocaine.

In March, the Colombian navy seized a 60-foot fiberglass submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized during the operation, but no drugs were found.

Colombian authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has become the top method of transport in recent years, as radar systems have made it difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes.

Afghan flood death toll reaches 120 as heavy rains continue

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Heavy rain again battered remote villages in western Afghanistan already devastated by flooding, as the death toll rose to 120, officials said Monday.

Aid workers delivered several tons of food and aid to people in Badghis province, said Habibullah Murghabi, the head of a government-appointed disaster committee. The delivery had taken more than two days of travel by donkey and horse to reach flood-affected villages in the mountainous region.

Murghabi said the death toll in Balamurghab and Ghormach districts had risen to 62, while 92 people were reported missing.

"The roads are still bad, and last night there was heavy rain again. It's still raining now," Murghabi said by telephone from Badghis.

Heavy rain Thursday triggered flash floods that inundated several villages in Badghis. Some 50,000 families live in the inundated area.

Other affected areas in the west include Farah province, where at least 18 people have died in recent days, said provincial police chief Gen. Sayed Aga Saqib. One village of eight houses had been washed away, he said.

Floods also hit the southern province of Uruzgan over the weekend, killing 40 people and destroying hundreds of homes in four districts, said Qayum Qayumi, the governor's spokesman.

Rescuers find camp of 4 lost climbers in avalanche-hit area of Nepal

PARIS (AP) - Rescuers searching for four missing French mountain climbers found their camp in an area of the Nepalese Himalayas that was recently hit by an avalanche, the French Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The climbers have been missing since mid-October, when they were trying to scale the 19,340-foot Mount Paldor, located about 50 miles north of the Nepalese capital of Katmandu.

A French-Nepalese rescue team has been searching for the four since friends of the climbers, who were supposed to meet up with them on Nov. 5, reported them missing.

On Monday, the team found a camp that had been used by the lost climbers "at the foot of a zone that was hit by a massive avalanche," the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry is in close contact with the families of the climbers, some of whom were to travel to Nepal to help in the rescue effort, the statement said. Five officers and a doctor from France's High Mountain Military Academy were also to join the rescue team.

The four Frenchmen have been identified as Stefan Cieslar, Jean-Baptiste Moreau, Raphael Perrissin and Vincent Villieu. Experienced mountaineers, the four did not use local guides as most expeditions do.

German nurse convicted of killing 28 patients, sentenced to life

KEMPTEN, Germany (AP) - A nurse was convicted Monday and sentenced to life in prison for killing 28 of his patients in a hospital in southern Germany.

Stephan Letter was found guilty of 12 counts of murder, 15 of manslaughter and one mercy killing in what has been described as Germany's biggest series of killings since World War II.

According to evidence presented at his nine-month trial, Letter, 28, killed his victims by injecting them with a cocktail of drugs.

Letter testified at the start of his trial in February that he had killed patients, but said he could not remember how many.

Letter's attorney, Juergen Fischer, had argued that his client was motivated by compassion for seriously ill patients.

Presiding Judge Harry Rechner said Letter was an active proponent of assisted suicide and appeared to want to put an end to what he deemed to be senseless suffering.

But, Rechner told the state court in Kempten, the evidence showed he "was interested, at best, superficially in the state of health of the patients."

The deaths at the hospital in Sonthofen, southwest of Munich in the Bavarian Alps, began in February 2003, less than a month after the nurse started working there.

The last suspicious death occurred in July 2004, just before his arrest.

The patients were aged between 40 and 94, though most were older than 75. They included two gravely ill women, aged 40 and 47, but not all were seriously sick, authorities have said.

"The defendant … killed patients with whom he was barely familiar, patients who had only been in the clinic for a few hours, or those who were on the road to recovery," the court said in its ruling.

Police tracked down the nurse as they investigated reports that drugs were missing and compared the times when patients died with the hours he worked. Investigators said they found unsealed vials the missing medicines in his apartment.

33 injured as Berlin commuter train rear-ends maintenance train

BERLIN (AP) - A Berlin commuter train rear-ended a stationary maintenance vehicle at a busy station Monday, injuring 33 people, two of them seriously, officials said.

The accident occurred in the morning at the Suedkreuz station, an interchange south of downtown Berlin.

Two people who were seriously hurt were taken to a hospital, the fire department said. The other 31 were treated at the scene before being taken to a hospital for further examination.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, railway spokesman Burkhard Ahlert said.

Although the commuter line was blocked, long-distance train traffic running through the station was unaffected.

28 injured as Berlin commuter train rear-ends maintenance train

BERLIN (AP) - A commuter train rear-ended a stationary maintenance train Monday at a busy station in Berlin, injuring 28 people.

The collision happened at the Suedkreuz station, south of downtown Berlin.

The cause was not immediately clear, railway spokesman Burkhard Ahlert said.

Two people were seriously injured and rushed to the hospital, the fire department said. The other 26 injured were initially treated at the scene.

Pharmacy worker killed at Florida hospital; police say woman taken into custody

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A woman fatally shot a hospital worker in the head Monday at a busy pharmacy and was quickly arrested, authorities said. - Brenda Joyce Coney, 46, acknowledged shooting pharmacist Shannon McCants, 37, several times around 9 a.m. at Shands Jacksonsville hospital, according to a police report. She was charged with murder.

Police had not determined a motive.

Coney was being held without bail in the Duval County jail. It was not known whether she had a lawyer.

About 15 to 20 people were in the pharmacy at the time, said Sgt. Andre Ayoub of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. McCants was shot once in the head and once or twice elsewhere.

After the shooting, Coney gave up a handgun, authorities said.

No argument precipitated the incident, according to Ayoub, though witnesses disagreed.

"They started arguing," John Gassit told WJXT-TV. "She reached back and got her gun and shot her."

Shands closed the pharmacy for the day, but the clinic and hospital remained open. The hospital brought in grief counselors for staff and planned to review its security measures, hospital officials said.

"This is really horrific," said Kelly Brockmeier, a Shands spokeswoman. "This is very sad for Shands."

Bosnian immigrant gets 5 years for concealing role in massacre

BOSTON (AP) - A Bosnian immigrant was sentenced to more than five years in prison Monday for concealing his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre so that he could get into the United States.

Marko Boskic, 41, who prosecutors believe may have been personally responsible for killing 100 people, was sentenced to five years and three months. He was convicted over the summer of hiding his military service on his immigration applications.

Authorities say he will probably face deportation to Bosnia after he serves his sentence.

Boskic's attorney complained that the government was trying to punish his client for participating in the Srebrenica killings - a crime he is not charged with and one he claims he committed after he was threatened with death himself.

Prosecutors said Boskic acknowledged he was a soldier in a Bosnian Serb military unit and helped execute 1,200 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, where some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed. It was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

Boskic was living in Peabody and working construction jobs when he was arrested in 2004.

Officials at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague have said they do not plan to prosecute him. The tribunal's policy is to try only leading perpetrators of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Armed man attacks school in Germany; 8 injured, assailant dead

BERLIN (AP) - A masked man opened fire with a pistol in a high school in northwestern Germany, wounding eight people Monday in an attack that ended with his death, police said.

It was not immediately clear how the man died. Police spokesman Klaus Laackmann would not say whether the man killed himself or was killed by police.

Explosives were found near the man's body, Laackmann said.

N-tv television reported that the assailant was an 18-year-old former student at the school.

He entered the Geschwister Scholl school in Emsdetten, near the Dutch border, at about 9:30 a.m., and fired several shots, police spokesman Josef Brinker said.

Several students, a female teacher and the head caretaker were among the wounded. Their injuries were not life-threatening, Laachmann said.

"The building is clear, all the children are safe, the perpetrator is dead," Laackmann said.

At least 6 investigated in Germany for alleged plot to blow up plane

BERLIN (AP) - At least six people are under investigation in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a commercial aircraft, German prosecutors said Monday.

The six are believed to have begun preparations for an attack on behalf of "so far unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Several of the accused last summer approached a person with security clearance at an unidentified airport, the statement said. That person said he or she was prepared to load a case or bag containing explosives onto a plane in an exchange for an unspecified payment, it added.

Prosecutors said the accused then contacted the plot's alleged backers but were unable to agree on the value of the promised reward.

The six were detained on Friday, and five were released Saturday after questioning. The remaining suspect was held in an unrelated matter.

Prosecutors said others are suspected of involvement. They gave no information on the six suspects.

Prosecutors said nine apartments in the southwestern states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse were searched.

Former patronage chief for Chicago mayor sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for fraud

CHICAGO (AP) - A former high-ranking aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley was sentenced Monday to nearly four years in prison for covering up illegal patronage hiring at City Hall.

"The offense is corruption - corruption with a capital C," U.S. District Judge David H. Coar told 43-year-old Robert Sorich. "For people to owe their jobs to political advancement rather than performance on the job stinks."

The judge added: "I don't give a hoot whether this has been going on for 200 years - it still stinks."

Sorich and two other men were convicted July 6 in a scheme to make sure political campaign workers got city jobs and other applicants were frozen out. A fourth defendant was convicted of making false statements when asked about the scheme. All are former city officials.

The mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Sorich, the former No. 2 man in the mayor's office of intergovernmental affairs, was also fined $10,000. At least 200 supporters flooded the courtroom, some crying, others hugging Sorich.

"I stand before the court and my friends and family to let them know that I am not a broken man," Sorich said. "As I stand before them I am a lucky man because I have their support. I have tried to do my best and I have tried to be fair."

Timothy McCarthy, 35, a one-time Sorich aide, was sentenced Monday to 18 months. The judge said he gave McCarthy a break because he had provided prosecutors with important information.

Prosecutors said the defendants rigged interviews and falsified documents to hide that city officials were violating a 30-year-old court order that bars the consideration of applicants' political affiliation in doling out all but about 1,300 of the 38,000 jobs on Chicago's city payroll.

Sorich's attorneys said he made recommendations on who should be hired with an eye toward ensuring diversity. They denied he had forced the hiring of any specific applicant.

FBI recovers Goya painting that was stolen en route from Ohio to Guggenheim in NYC

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The FBI said Monday that it has recovered a 1778 painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya that was stolen as it was being taken to an exhibition earlier this month.

"Children with a Cart," which disappeared en route from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and was valued at about $1.1 million, appeared to be unharmed, said Les Wiser, agent in charge of the Newark FBI office.

Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the FBI, said the bureau recovered the painting Saturday in New Jersey, but would not be more specific about where or how it was located. No arrests were made, but the case remains under investigation, he said.

The FBI said extensive news coverage of the theft led to tips that enabled the agency to recover the painting.

The painting was taken from an art transporter's truck that was parked overnight in a hotel parking lot in Stroudsburg, Pa., on Nov. 8, authorities said. It had been scheduled to be displayed in the exhibition "Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History," which opened at the Guggenheim on Nov. 17.

Siegel said the thieves apparently did not know what was inside the truck when they broke into it. "It was a target of opportunity. They probably thought it was a truck full of PlayStations," he said.

The image of four children at play was insured for about $1 million and was to be exhibited with about 135 paintings by Spanish masters.

The insurer had offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of the artwork.

Tightwad bank faces closure

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A small-town bank that drew $2.2 million in deposits from around the country because of its unusual name will close Jan. 31.

The Tightwad Bank opened on a shoestring 22 years ago in the small community along Missouri 7 halfway between Clinton and Warsaw.

Now, UMB Bank Warsaw, which operates the bank, is cutting costs and has urged customers to do their banking at its branches in Clinton and Warsaw.

Officials at UMB, a subsidiary of UMB Financial Corp, would not elaborate on the decision.

"I don't like it at all," said Tightwad resident Linda Houk. "I'm not sure I'll leave my accounts at UMB."

Two months after the Tightwad Bank opened in May 1984, an article on it appeared in The Kansas City Times. Word began to spread.

"We were discovered," said Gene Henry, a Clinton banker who helped open the Tightwad Bank. "People would just mail us a check, Tightwad Bank, Tightwad, Missouri, sometimes with no ZIP code, and the post office, to its credit, found us."

Up to a dozen checks would arrive daily, each with a note asking for an account and a batch of Tightwad Bank checks, Henry said. In two years, customers from near and far gave the bank $2.2 million in deposits.

The bank started as a branch of a Windsor bank whose chairman foresaw growth fueled by development around the then-new Truman Lake. Henry said some even envisioned Tightwad as becoming the next Branson.

But growth never came. Tightwad, population 63, has eight more residents now than when the bank opened.

101-foot cigar set to beat world record

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Cigar makers hope a 101-foot, 53-pound stogie completed over the weekend is headed for the record books.

Wallace and Margarita Reyes, co-owners of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co., put the finishing touches on the $5,100 cigar at the Cigar Heritage Festival on Saturday. Cigar makers worked for about 75 hours over several weeks to build it.

The Reyeses said the giant stogie marks the 85th anniversary of their cigar factory. They also hoped to beat a record 66-foot cigar made in Havana last year.

"I wanted to do something special," Wallace Reyes said. "I wanted to do something big."

Local officials documented the completed cigar so it can be submitted to Guinness World Records. They said it could make the 2008 edition of the book unless someone rolls a bigger cigar before July.

Charmin builds pristine public restrooms in Times Square

NEW YORK (AP) - Clean public restrooms are scarce in New York. Clean public anything is especially scarce in Times Square.

But this holiday season, the makers of Charmin toilet paper have built pristine public restrooms, which are set to open Monday in the middle of one the busiest intersections in the world. And they're free.

Even amid the flashing lights and dizzying colors of Times Square, the bathrooms are hard to miss. There's a huge glowing blue sign with the word "Restrooms" and an arrow. Take the escalators upstairs to the lavish waiting room with flat-screen TVs, a fireplace, a mini-dance floor for children, oversize teddy bears to play with and plush white couches.

About 30 workers will take turns cleaning the stalls after each use, officials said.

"It's going to be so clean, as clean as your home," said Adam Lisook, assistant brand manager for Charmin at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. "It's Charmin's holiday gift to families who are visiting, and who are from New York."

The restrooms will be open from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. seven days a week. They will be closed on Christmas Day and must shut, according to city rules, by Dec. 31.

Jesuit priest who founded AIDS orphanage in Kenya dies at 80

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The Rev. Angelo D'Agostino, an American priest who opened one of the first orphanages for HIV-positive children in Kenya and fought to make AIDS drugs affordable to the poor, died Monday of a heart attack. He was 80.

D'Agostino had been hospitalized for a week with abdominal pain and died after surgery, said Sister Mary Owens, who has worked at the Nyumbani Orphanage since it opened in 1992, just outside Kenya's capital of Nairobi.

"He was very inspiring, he always pushed you beyond your comfort zones," Owens told The Associated Press. "He was very much a man of compassion, he was mirroring the compassion of God. He reached out to everybody."

D'Agostino - known at the orphanage as "Father D'Ag" - opened Nyumbani with just three HIV-positive children.

"They were babies, abandoned in hospital," Owens said. "It was a day of tremendous joy when we finally welcomed the first three children."

A native of Providence, R.I., D'Agostino spent two years as a surgeon with the U.S. Air Force before joining the Jesuits in 1955. He traveled to Africa as part of the Jesuit Refugee Service, using Nairobi as a base to travel to Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zaire, now Congo.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki sent a letter of condolences after D'Agostino's death, saying he "distinguished himself as a great Christian who worked diligently in serving vulnerable members of society and propagating the Christian faith."

On the Net:

http://www.nyumbani.org/

Blast from the past - first hurricane hit Pilgrims in 1635

NEW YORK (AP) - The winds whipped up to 130 mph, snapping pine trees like pick-up sticks and blowing houses into oblivion. A surge of water, 21 feet high at its crest, engulfing victims as they desperately scurried for higher ground.

The merciless storm, pounding the coast for hours with torrential sheets of rain, was like nothing ever seen before. One observer predicted the damage would linger for decades.

This wasn't New Orleans in August 2005. This was New England in August 1635, battered by what was later dubbed "The Great Colonial Hurricane" - the first major storm suffered by colonial North American settlers, just 14 years after the initial Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth Colony.

The Puritans, after landing at Plymouth Rock, endured disease, brutal winters and battles with the natives. But their biggest test roared up the coast from the south, an unprecedented and terrifying tempest that convinced rattled residents the apocalypse was imminent.

And why not? The transplanted Europeans knew almost nothing of hurricanes, an entirely foreign phenomenon. Their fears of approaching death were reinforced when a lunar eclipse followed the natural disaster.

Once the weather cleared and the sun rose again, the few thousand residents of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies were left to rebuild and recover from a hurricane as powerful as 1938's killer Long Island Express. The 20th century hurricane killed 700 people, including 600 in New England, and left 63,000 homeless.

"The settlers easily could have packed up and gone home," said Nicholas K. Coch, a professor of geology at Queens College and one of the nation's foremost hurricane experts. "It was an extraordinary event, a major hurricane, and nearly knocked out British culture in America."

Last year, Coch used information that he collected from detailed colonial journals to reconstruct the great hurricane. The 371-year-old data was brought to Brian Jarvinen at the National Hurricane Center, where it was interpreted using the SLOSH (Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) computer model.

The result: The hurricane likely tracked farther west than was thought, passing over uninhabited easternmost Long Island before moving north into New England. Once clear of the colonies, it veered off into the Atlantic.

Previously, researchers had believed the hurricane missed Long Island - which always annoyed Coch.

"We started out doing this as a lark, and it turned out to be a very interesting piece of science," said Coch. "This information can be applied to any hurricane in the north. I think that's neat."

Coch said the pioneers from across the Atlantic likely endured a Category 3 hurricane, moving faster than 30 mph, with maximum winds of 130 mph and a very high storm surge - 21 feet at Buzzards Bay and 14 feet at Providence. Reports at the time said 17 American Indians were drowned, while others scaled trees to find refuge.

The storm was moving about three times as fast as the typical southern hurricane, and arrived in full bluster. Although it struck nearly four centuries ago, very specific details about the first recorded hurricane in North America were provided by the local leaders' writings.

"The documentation was better than any hurricane until the mid-1800s," said Coch. "That's a story in itself."

John Winthrop, head of the Massachusetts Bay group, recalled in his Aug. 16, 1635, entry that the winds were kicking up a full week before the hurricane.

Once it did arrive, the hurricane "blew with such violence, with abundance of rain, that it blew down many hundreds of trees, overthrew some houses, and drove the ships from their anchors," Winthrop wrote. He detailed the deaths of eight American Indians sucked under the rising water while "flying from their wigwams."

William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth group, offered a similarly florid recounting.

"Such a mighty storm of wind and rain as none living in these parts, either English or Indian, ever saw," he wrote. "It blew down sundry houses and uncovered others … It blew down many hundred thousands of trees, turning up the stronger by the roots and breaking the higher pine trees off in the middle."

The local crops, along with the forests and many local structures like the Aptucxet trading house on the southwest side of Cape Cod, suffered major damage. Bradford, in his account, predicted signs of the damage would endure into the next century.

So brutal was the storm that 50 years later, Increase Mather wrote simply, "I have not heard of any storm more dismal than the great hurricane which was in August 1635." His father, the Rev. Richard Mather, was aboard one of the ships nearly sunk at sea by the ferocious weather - but he survived, along with about 100 other passengers.

Others were less fortunate.

The Rev. Anthony Thacher, his cousin and their two families were headed by boat on a short swing from Ipswich to Marblehead. The fast-moving storm smashed their craft on the rocks, dooming all aboard except for the preacher and his wife, who somehow survived the storm as 21 others perished.

"Before daylight, it pleased God to send so mighty a storm as the like was never felt in New England since the English came there nor in the memories of any of the Indians," Thacher wrote in a letter home to his brother.

Thacher's Island and Avery's Rock - named for his late cousin Joseph Avery - remain as geographic reminders of the storm and its toll.

Coch said the most interesting news about the hurricane, more than 350 years later, is that storms can often follow the same track. And just a minuscule shift of the storm's movement in the area of North Carolina - "a fraction of a degree" - could send a hurricane up through Providence and right into Boston, the professor said.

"We could have a catastrophic situation with national repercussions," said Coch. "If the track of a future moves 25 miles to the west of the `Colonial Hurricane,' the dangerous right side could pass right over Boston and Providence. That's why we study old hurricanes in the Northeast."

Mayor moves into rough area of Newark and neighbors hope he'll make a difference

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Some residents of a drug- and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots are hoping their new neighbor will bring improvements.

Mayor Cory Booker left his apartment of eight years in a dilapidated public housing high-rise last week for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue on the south side of New Jersey's largest city.

"I think he'll clean up the neighborhood," said Cynthia Flowers, 38, as she shopped at a store two doors away. "There won't be as many people hanging out on the corners. It's a great thing."

Flowers, who lived on Hawthorne for 14 years and still lives nearby, said she has noticed a heavier police presence in the last week: "It's not as scary as it used to be."

Others were skeptical of Booker's motives and questioned whether his presence would do any good in the area, which has a few newly built homes.

"He thinks that his presence is going to change it, but he can't be on every block," said Samere Ore, 23, who lives about three blocks from the mayor's new abode. Ore said children as young as 9 join gangs in the district.

The 37-year-old mayor is paying $1,200 a month plus utilities for the apartment, which he moved into on Thursday. His former home at Brick Towers, which had sporadic elevator service and often no heat or hot water, is being torn down.

"I wanted to live in a place where I could make a difference," Booker said of his new home, adding that he liked the idea of living across the street from an elementary school.

"It was appalling to me that that school, like a number of others frankly, is still dealing with drug dealing so close to the school and a lot of violence," he said.

Newark, 10 miles west of Manhattan, has long struggled with crime and poverty. Among large cities nationally, only six have lower incomes than Newark, where the median was $30,665, according to recent data from the Census Bureau.

Police: Fight that led to gunfire in mall stemmed from earlier dispute between youths

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A fight between youths that led an off-duty Secret Service agent to open fire in a crowded shopping mall stemmed from an earlier confrontation involving the same high school students, officials said Monday.

The agent, who was at the mall Saturday with his family, tried to stop the brawl and shot one of the youths after the teen allegedly shot the agent in the leg.

There was no indication that gang activity was involved, said Annapolis High School Principal Don Lilley. "It's more neighborhood disputes," he said.

The Secret Service agent, whose name was not released, and 18-year-old Javaughn Norman Adams were in stable condition Monday at a Baltimore hospital.

Adams, 18, faces multiple felony charges when he is released, police said.

Detectives determined that the fight broke out after Adams and another person were confronted at the Westfield Annapolis mall by 16-year-old Tahzay Brown and several of his associates, police said.

Brown, who suffered only minor injuries, told authorities that he and his friends had been assaulted by Adams and his associate at the high school in September, police said.

When the agent tried to stop the brawl, Adams allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot the agent in the leg as shoppers ran for cover. The agent then shouted that he was a police officer and fired back, police said. Adams was shot twice in the upper body.

Agent Kim Bruce, a Secret Service spokeswoman in Washington, said the agent appeared to have acted properly.

Children of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. dedicate new crypt for parents

ATLANTA (AP) - In a poetic tribute to their parents, the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King dedicated a new crypt for both husband and wife Monday and declared "the peacemaker and the peacekeeper are together again."

All four of the Kings' children were on hand for the dedication ceremony, along with former Mayor Andrew Young, Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, all veterans of the civil rights movement.

Coretta Scott King died in January at 78. Her husband was assassinated in 1968. She was laid to rest in a temporary grave until her husband's crypt at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change was replaced with a larger one for both of them.

"It is altogether fitting that Martin and Coretta are here in this place … just as their spirits are together for all of eternity," said Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister, Christine King Farris.

She said Coretta Scott King was not only a loving wife and mother, but also her brother's tireless and devoted partner who continued his work after his assassination.

Investigators: Fire that killed 4 relatives may have been set intentionally

NORTH VERNON, Ind. (AP) - A fire that killed four relatives in a home during the weekend may have been set intentionally, investigators said Monday.

Three adults and a toddler were found in a front room of the one-story ranch-style home, which was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived Sunday morning.

Investigators thought the fire might have started because of the home's recently serviced furnace. But state Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said the furnace and other accidental causes had been eliminated.

"I can't rule this as an arson fire, but I also can't rule this as an accidental fire. There are too many unknowns," Johnson said.

Fire investigators brought in a police dog Monday to help search for the cause of the fire in the town about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.

"Obviously, if we're looking at something that possibly could be intentional - well, now we've got a criminal matter on our hands," Police Chief James Webster said.

North Vernon Fire Chief Rick McGill also would not confirm the case was arson.

The victims were identified as Helen Dean, 72, of North Vernon; Elena Hardwick, 42, of Scipio; Erika Hardwick, 23, of Scipio; and 18-month-old Hunter Hardwick, authorities said.

Ohio hardware store owner demands artist remove gingerbread Nazis from window

OBERLIN, Ohio (AP) - An artist's creation of gingerbread Nazis drew complaints after it was displayed in a hardware store window, prompting the store owner to demand the artwork be removed.

Charlie Palmer covered the gingerbread men during the weekend and said he wanted them out by of his business by Tuesday.

"He's gone way overboard this time," Palmer said of artist Keith McGuckin. "A few of his other displays were on the edge, but never that crazy."

McGuckin said he chose the subject to provoke thought, not to offend.

"I can differentiate between real Nazis and that the atrocities they performed compared to these little gingerbread men, but I guess some people can't," said McGuckin, 50.

Palmer left one of McGuckin's displays uncovered: a depiction of a suicidal snowman sitting under a hairdryer.

"I want people to say 'Oh, my gosh,"' McGuckin said. "And once they look at it, say: 'It is kind of pretty."'

Last winter, McGuckin used Palmer's window to display a "caroler-bashing" snowman and a little boy excited about using his chemistry set to create the illegal drug crystal meth.

McGuckin is searching for new display space in the town, home of Oberlin College and known for its left-leaning, beads-and-incense image.

"Maybe I just find beauty in bizarre places," he said.

Donations for survivors of Amish school shooting top $3 million; 3 girls are back in school

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - Three of the five girls wounded during a massacre in an Amish schoolhouse last month are back in school at least part time, and more than $3.2 million has been donated to help the survivors, a community group said Monday.

Two of the girls still need extensive reconstructive surgery and are attending classes part time, the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee said. Some of the donated money will pay to make their homes and a new school that will be built handicapped-accessible, the group said.

One of the two girls who suffered severe head wounds remains in the hospital, but shows "remarkable improvement" and should be released by Christmas, the committee said. The other girl is home but semicomatose and likely will have lifelong disabilities.

The fifth girl is attending classes full time and is expected to fully recover from injuries to her shoulder, hand and leg, the committee said.

Five other girls were killed in the Oct. 2 attack at West Nickel Mines Amish School. The 32-year-old gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, committed suicide as police surrounded the one-room school. The schoolhouse was later razed.

The donations will also be used for medical expenses, long-term care, counseling and transportation, the committee said. The group added it has been in contact with Roberts' widow, Marie, "to make sure adequate support is available" for her and their three children.

Marcos launches jewelry collection that includes images of her trademark butterflies & shoes

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Imelda Marcos has launched a jewelry line that she describes as both worthless and priceless.

The Imelda Collection includes earrings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, pins, combs and cuff links made from a combination of glass beads, gemstones and gold-plated chains.

Many of the items feature images of butterflies and shoes, trademarks of the 77-year-old widow of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

During her heyday, Marcos was called the "iron butterfly" for her ability to get her own way. Following her husband's ouster in a popular revolution in 1986, she was found to have collected 1,220 pairs of size 8 shoes.

Speaking to a crowd of mostly women at the seaside Philippine Plaza Hotel on Saturday, Marcos described the collection as "worthless because it comes from worthless materials, but it is priceless because it is the creativity that's coming from the soul of human beings to bring out what is beautiful and what is God in them."

Marcos said the one-of-a-kind pieces came from her old accessories and clothes, mixed with newly bought stones and other materials.

Each piece carries a message from Marcos saying the item is "guaranteed to tarnish, fall apart, maybe even disintegrate. When this happens, just be Imeldific! Be ingenious and find ways to put it together."

Many of the items were recycled from things she picked up on her travels, while others were fashioned from items the government failed to seize after the family's fall from power.

However, prices for items in the collection aren't for ordinary Filipinos. A hairpin made of olive jade, freshwater pearls, antique French glass, Austrian crystals and woven glass beads with a white gold-plated chain was priced at $116, about half a month's salary for an office employee.

A necklace made from a vintage brooch, glass beads, cat's eye gemstone, freshwater pearls, orange calcite and ribbons costs $312.

Liza Ilarde, editor of JetSet, a travel and lifestyle magazine, said the collection was in tune with the trend in accessory design of mixing semiprecious stones with found objects.

"Personally, some of the pieces are not to my taste although, I'm sure if I look hard enough, I can find something that I'll like," she said.

Astrud Crisologo picked up a $140 gemstone-ringed brooch with a picture of a young Imelda "to wear and to keep." She said she would have paid more for it.

"She's an icon and I love her. I have to own a piece of her. This is a piece of history. It's pop culture," she said.

On the Net:

The Imelda Collection: http://www.imeldacollection.com