ORLANDO, Fla. - A NASA astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections will remain in jail because authorities planned to charge her with attempted first-degree murder, an official said Tuesday.

Orange County jail spokesman Allen Moore said Orlando police were in the process of adding the more serious charge that Lisa Marie Nowak, 43, tried to kill the woman.

"Even though she satisfied the bail for the other charges, she won't be released from jail," Moore said.

Orange County Judge Mike Murphy had earlier said Nowak could be released on $15,500 bond provided she stay away from the other woman and wear a monitoring device.

Nowak, a Navy captain and married mother of three, stood in a jail uniform during the hearing, looking down. The 43-year-old robotics specialist already faced charges including attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey testified that Nowak would go back to Houston. Lindsey flew with Nowak to the international space station last July aboard space shuttle Discovery.

"Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this," Lindsey said after the hearing. "Her status (with the astronaut corps) has not changed."

Lindsey was accompanied by another astronaut Chris Ferguson, who said he was "perplexed" by Nowak's actions.

Police said Nowak drove 900 miles, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted a woman she believed was a competitor for the affections of Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an unmarried fellow astronaut.

Oefelein, 41, piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December. He and Nowak trained together but never flew a mission together.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police found a love letter to Oefelein in her car.

According to authorities, Nowak believed another woman, Colleen Shipman, was romantically involved with Oefelein. When Nowak found out Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her early Monday, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, she waited for Shipman's plane to land and then boarded the same airport shuttle bus Shipman took to get to her car, police said. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying, the statement said. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said. Shipman drove to the parking lot booth and police were called.

An officer reported following Nowak and watching her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. Police also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Oefelein and Shipman, who the Houston Chronicle said worked at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged. "What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.

Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among astronauts.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to harm her physically.

"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," said Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones. "It's just really a very sad case."

According to NASA's official biography, Nowak is a Naval Academy graduate who has a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. She has a teenage son and younger twin girls.

Oefelein has two children and began his aviation career as a teenager flying floatplanes in Alaska, according to a NASA biography. He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University and later earned a master's degree in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He has been an astronaut since 1998.

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy and Jessica Gresko in Miami contributed to this report.

Despite new entrants, marketing experts say Super Bowl ads disappointed

NEW YORK (AP) - Budweiser and Bud Light once again dominated the Super Bowl ads, but it was the entry of amateurs that caught the eye of several marketing experts asked about the annual advertising showdown, which some said didn't pack the punch of previous years.

A group of advertising faculty at Michigan State University voted as their favorite a spot featuring the comic Carlos Mencia teaching a class of immigrants how to ask for Anheuser-Busch Cos.'s Bud Light, saying it cleverly mixed humor with repetitions of the brand name.

Overall, however, Michigan State advertising instructor Dave Regan said he was "truly not that impressed" with this year's crop.

"There was nothing that gave me the big 'wow' factor," said Regan, who worked in TV advertising for 20 years before taking up teaching.

Of particular interest, he said, was a pair of amateur-produced ads for Doritos, one of which aired early in the game showing a chip-munching driver distracted by a passing woman.

"Giving amateurs a shot at producing this stuff is great," Regan said, adding that it was healthy to open up the playing field to "unjaded minds."

Other experts also welcomed the YouTube-inspired infusion of new ideas into Super Bowl advertising, but some were skeptical about whether this was the beginning of a new wave of ads generated by users or more of a one-time event.

"As a marketing professor it was interesting, but as a consumer - I'm not so sure," said Ambar Rao, head of the marketing faculty at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Other amateurs also found their way into the Super Bowl, but with help. College student Katie Crabb of Wisconsin won a contest held by General Motor Corp.'s Chevrolet division, and then a team of professionals made her idea for an ad into reality. The NFL also did a professionally made ad based on an idea from a fan.

With the top price for the ads edging as high as $2.6 million for a 30-second spot, once again questions arose over whether advertisers were really getting their money's worth.

Robert Duboff, the head of a marketing consulting firm who also teaches marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management, noted that it was especially hard for vendors of low profit margin products such as candy bars to justify the cost of an ad.

While there is little in the way of hard research to prove or disprove the cost-efficiency of buying a Super Bowl ad, Duboff pointed to one that he found to be particularly ineffective - a spot for Mars Inc.'s Snickers bar that showed two auto mechanics accidentally kissing.

"The relevant measure is the incremental dollars they see, and I would be surprised if they see enough of them," Duboff said. "You have to sell a lot more Snickers bars to make up that $2.6 million."

Even if your ad isn't well received by critics, Duboff said there was still no substitute for raising awareness for your brand when some 90 million people are watching the broadcast and, hopefully, talking about your brand the next day around the watercooler.

Regan of Michigan State said that several spots for PepsiCo Inc.'s Sierra Mist beverage and for the job search business CareerBuilder did a good job at building brand identity. CareerBuilder is jointly owned by the newspaper publishers Gannett Co., Tribune Co. and McClatchy Co.

A number of experts, including a panel at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, found several of the ads confusing, including a spot for Garmin International Inc.'s electronic navigation device that featured a Godzilla-esque battle between a Garmin-themed superhero and a monster made of maps.

"It's a sad commentary that everybody is spending all this money on a message that I'm sure did not get through," Duboff said.

Early morning house fire kills 10 in central Kentucky, 6 of them children

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) - Fast-moving flames trapped a dozen people inside a burning house early Tuesday, killing 10 - six of them children - and leaving the only survivors hospitalized, authorities said.

Most of the victims were dead by the time firefighters reached them, Nelson County Coroner Field Houghlin said. Neighbors said the two survivors had be held from running back into the flames for the screaming children.

"It may have been an explosion in the center of the house. The fire flashed very quickly," said Bardstown Fire Department spokesman Tom Isaac.

Two of the children were found dead under the bodies of adults inside the charred one-story brick home, said Emergency Medical Services director Joe Prewitt.

The relationships and ages of the 12 people in the house and the conditions of the survivors were not officially released, but neighbors and relatives who gathered at the home described them as an extended family.

Janet Tonge said her 40-year-old sister, Sherry Maddox, died in the fire. Maddox's boyfriend, Johnny Litsey, a 2-year-old boy, girl twins, an 11-year-old child and a 1-year-old child were also in the house, she said.

"How do you prepare for a funeral this large? How do you do it?" Tonge asked. "We're not capable of thinking right now. We're like that house - burned out."

The blaze broke out shortly before 4 a.m. in the home in Bardstown, about 40 miles southeast of Louisville. Fire officials were still trying to pin down the cause.

Fire Chief Anthony Mattingly said the fire spread too rapidly for firefighters to get inside.

"It just didn't make any difference how fast we were here for the victims that were found," he said.

Neighbor Bennie Stone, 61, said he saw someone on the front lawn screaming for help, then went to the rear of the house and saw a woman who had escaped trying to get back inside. Stone said he pulled her back, then broke some windows to try to get to the children inside but was driven back by smoke and flames.

"I heard some of the kids hollering. There was just flames everywhere. There was no way, no way, I just couldn't do it," Stone said.

Stone said he believed all the people in the house were related, but some were staying there temporarily because their furnace went out.

Another neighbor, Dwight Mason, 48, said one of the survivors was Darrell Maddox, who was listed in serious condition at University of Louisville Hospital on Tuesday morning.

Temperatures in Bardstown dropped to 11 degrees Monday night and hovered in the teens early Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The ground around the home was icy Tuesday morning from water used to battle the blaze. A large portion of the roof had collapsed into the center of the building.

Another deadly house fire broke out in rural Maryville, Tenn., early Tuesday, killing four children. The parents escaped from the burning home with a 2-year-old, but the other children, ages 7 to 14, died in the blaze, said Blount County, Tenn., Sheriff James Berrong.

SoCal town collars strange critter - a wallaby

FONTANA, calif. (AP) - A wayward wallaby was captured Tuesday after hopping into a backyard in this San Bernardino County suburb about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, authorities said.

Someone called police at about 8:30 a.m. and said, "Hey, there's a kangaroo jumping down our street," Sgt. Doug Wagner said.

The 3-foot-tall marsupial was captured in a backyard by county animal control officers who grabbed it by the tail. Wagner said it appeared to have been domesticated and didn't put up a fight.

A local resident told KTLA-TV the wayward animal was a neighbor's pet.

Animal control officials said the animal wasn't a kangaroo but a similar, smaller animal called a wallaby. Several species of wallabies are native to Australia and New Guinea.

It was to be taken to a shelter in San Bernardino until it is claimed by the owner, which Wagner said was unlikely because it probably was smuggled into the area.

"Chances are nobody's going to claim it," he said. "I don't know the law, but you can't even have ferrets so I can't imagine you're allowed to have kangaroos."

If it remains unclaimed, the animal probably would be sent to a zoo, he said.

Deep freeze blamed for 7 deaths continues with more school closings, heavy snow

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Thousands of youngsters got a second day off from school Tuesday in the midst of a bitter cold snap that combined with heavy snow several feet deep along the Great Lakes.

At least seven deaths were blamed on the weather.

Cold air surging from the Arctic stretched from the northern Plains through New England, and temperatures were below zero as far south as the mountains of West Virginia, but slightly milder weather was on the way.

Dozens of school districts in western and central New York closed for a second day, including Buffalo and the 34,000-student Rochester district, because of the cold and locally heavy snow.

Rochester had a late morning temperature of 13 degrees, but wind whipping through the city at 22 mph made it feel like 5 below zero, the National Weather Service said.

The wind also picked up moisture from the Great Lakes and turned it into 3 to 4 feet of snow on New York state's rural Tug Hill region, downwind from Lake Ontario.

The city of Fulton got 7 inches of snow in a two-hour period during the night, and at one point crews stopped plowing because the snow was falling too fast.

"It's horrible driving," said Chris Sachel, who owns Mimi's Drive-In Restaurant, just north of Fulton. "Pretty much the only people we've seen this morning are the plow drivers. They're about the only ones who can get around."

Snow also made roads slippery across part of the Midwest. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a pileup on Interstate 35 involved four tractor-trailer rigs and several cars, the State Patrol said.

With a Tuesday morning low of 6 degrees below zero, Milwaukee kept its schools closed for a second day, idling some 90,000 children. On Monday, the city fell to 12 below with a wind chill of 31 below.

Hundreds of Michigan schools also remained closed on Tuesday.

Temperatures had started easing Tuesday in places where the cold was the worst. After Monday's low of 38 below zero, the northern Minnesota town of Hallock reported a Tuesday morning reading of just 9 below, the National Weather Service said.

"It's bitterly cold … (but) the coldest of it is over," said Mark Ratzer, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Ill., near Chicago. The Tuesday morning reading at O'Hare International Airport was zero, compared to minus 10 some 24 hours earlier.

Pockets of intense cold lingered, however, including 29 below Tuesday at International Falls, Minn., snug up against the Canadian border, and minus 20 at Ironwood, Mich.

Homeless shelters tried to keep the most vulnerable people safe. Repairers of the Breach, a daytime facility for the homeless in Milwaukee, had expanded to 24-hour operation since Friday as the temperature plunged below zero. The shelter doesn't have beds but provides blankets, pillows and meals for people who had nowhere else to go because other shelters were full, said MacCanon Brown, executive director. Fifty-one people stayed there Sunday night.

"Once this cold spell hit, we were just so aware that there are so many people outside or in unheated places," Brown said. "We know that there would be a lot of deaths and terrible frostbite and hypothermia if we weren't open."

Xcel Energy asked customers in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota and Wisconsin to conserve electricity over the next few days to reduce strain on the power grid. The company said it has enough electricity supplies "but it is possible that electricity reserves could tighten as people begin to use more during evening hours."

The cold was too much for plumbing across Chicago, and crews were sent to more than 1,000 reports of frozen pipes, city officials said.

It also strained vehicle batteries, prompting numerous calls for help from motorists. "The total for yesterday, and this is a record for recent years, is 9,239 calls for assistance," AAA Michigan spokeswoman Nancy Cain said Tuesday.

The cold contributed to two deaths in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Maryland, Ohio and Illinois, authorities reported.

In Maryland, 81-year-old Annie Mae Anderson of Silver Spring, who suffered from dementia and was found Monday in a wooded area. She apparently had wandered away from her house without a coat and appeared to have died from exposure to the cold, said Montgomery County police Lt. Eric Burnett.

Gunman taken into custody after barricading himself in Alabama medical center

OTHAN, Ala. (AP) - A gunman wearing a camouflage helmet was taken into custody Monday after witnesses said he ordered doctors and nurses out of a small medical center, where fleeing patients reported hearing shots.

Police reported that no one was injured in the standoff at the Primecare outpatient clinic, said city spokeswoman Cynthia Greene.

Police Chief John Powell planned a news conference later Monday.

Powell earlier said authorities were negotiating with the man in the Primecare building, which was surrounded by police and sheriff's officers.

Photographs taken during the standoff showed the man with blood on his hands, wearing a camouflage helmet and holding a rifle.

Trish Griggs, who works at a nearby store, said two nurses ran to her building from the clinic.

Griggs told the Dothan Eagle that the nurses described the gunman's garb and that shots were heard.

"He said he didn't want to hurt the patients," Griggs said the nurses told her. "He asked them all to leave."

Griggs said she could see doctors and other medical staff gathered behind the center.

Man sentenced to 8.5 years after trying to obtain $100,000 in post-hurricane funds

WASHINGTON (AP) - A 59-year-old man was sentenced Monday to 8.5 years in prison on charges stemming from his use of stolen identities in an attempt to acquire more than $100,000 in payments intended for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Jeffrey Alan Rothschild, who's also known as Jeffrey Zahler, pleaded guilty in August to bank fraud, mail fraud and money laundering in late 2005. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor said Rothschild abused a system set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to allow hurricane victims to receive $2,000 in emergency funds after providing their names, Social Security numbers and other information.

Between about Sept. 13, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2005, Rothschild used personal information and addresses that he found on the Internet or material he made up to get money from FEMA, Taylor said.

As a result, FEMA issued 38 checks to people whose names Rothschild had provided. He then forged the checks and deposited them in accounts he controlled. He submitted 14 applications for which he did not receive checks, Taylor said.

Rothschild has no fixed address.

U.S. Embassy warns of heightened security threat against Westerners in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - The U.S. Embassy warned Americans on Monday of a heightened terrorist threat against Westerners in Sudan.

"The U.S. Embassy advises all U.S. citizens in Sudan that the United Nations mission in Sudan has received new information that an extremist group based in the country is likely to target Western interests," it said.

The U.S. message followed a similar warning that the United Nations sent its staff in Sudan last week, said a U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with journalists.

The U.S. message warned of the danger of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. It said the primary target of the threat might be the United Nations, but added that "terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets."

U.S. Embassy spokesman Joel Maybury said the warning was standard procedure when a threat was perceived. "In places like Sudan, where you have instability and conflict, we may have half a dozen such messages a year," he said.

Maybury noted there is anger among some Sudanese against the U.N. mission in Sudan, which is promoting the peace process in the south of the country as well as running humanitarian operations in the conflict-ridden region of Darfur in western Sudan.

The United Nations says it has 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Sudan and about 2,500 civilian staff in the whole country. About 1,000 civilian personnel are based in Khartoum.

A U.N. official, who also insisted on not being quoted by name, said the warning stemmed from the tense situation in Darfur, where ethnic fighting has escalated in recent months and U.N. leaders have pressured Sudan's government to allow in a big U.N. peacekeeping force.

The government rejected that demand, but appears to be edging toward permitting small numbers of U.N. forces to deploy in Darfur as part of an 8,000-man African Union peacekeeping mission in the region.

Chinese president takes his African tour to Namibia

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao announced new development aid for Namibia on Monday, promising an interest-free loan and money for schools in the sparsely populated, mineral-rich desert country.

Hu, on an eight-nation tour of Africa, announced a package of measures as he paid tribute to the "brotherly friendship" shown by a "young country full of vitality and talent."

The Namibia-China Mineral Resources Investment and Development Corp. took out a full-page advertisement in the local newspaper welcoming Hu to the country, where many hope to benefit from an influx of Chinese investment and tourists. But the mood of celebration was not universal.

Namibia's National Society for Human Rights issued a statement condemning "gross and systematic human rights violations" in China. It voiced alarm at criticism from Namibians working for Chinese enterprises.

"Workers bitterly complain about slave-like and exploitative labor practices, while Namibian consumers have expressed deep concern about the import and dumping of cheap and unreliable Chinese products in the country," it said.

Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who took office in March 2005, has actively promoted cooperation with China. Trade between the two nations in the first 11 months of 2006 amounted to $240 million, an increase of 103 percent from the previous year.

Namibia, which has a population of 2 million people, is rich in diamonds and minerals such as uranium, zinc and cobalt.

It has a long-standing friendship with China, since the Asian country backed its struggle for independence from South Africa, which it achieved in March 1990.

Former President Sam Nujoma visited China 13 times, and Pohamba has already been twice, further cementing ties.

Hu arrived from Zambia, where he inaugurated an economic cooperation zone designed to draw $800 million in mining investment and create 60,000 jobs in the Copperbelt province.

6 people found shot dead, 1 wounded at Chinese restaurant in northern Germany

SITTENSEN, Germany (AP) - Six people were found shot dead early Monday at a Chinese restaurant in northern Germany, police said.

The bodies of three men and three women, some of them tied up, were found in Sittensen, a town of some 10,000 people south of Hamburg, police said in a statement. A seventh person was seriously wounded.

Police said a man found the bodies when he went to pick up his wife from the 100-seat Lin Yue restaurant at about half past midnight. The woman was among the victims.

"We are assuming that they are employees of the restaurant and that the crime happened after closing time," police spokesman Detlev Kaldinski said.

The bodies were spread across several rooms in the restaurant, police said. In addition, a restaurant employee suffered a life-threatening gunshot wound and was taken to a hospital.

By Monday afternoon, they said they had no witnesses other than the man who found the bodies and no tips as to who might have been responsible.

Mayor Stefan Tiemann declined to identify the family that owned the restaurant, but said they were well integrated in the local community. He said they lived above the restaurant, which had been open since December 1997.

"They're really nice people - I've never seen an angry face there," said a tearful Hilly Behrens, a local resident.

In Sweden, world's oldest newspaper goes digital

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - For centuries, readers thumbed through the crackling pages of Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. No longer. The world's oldest paper still in circulation has dropped its paper edition and now exists only in cyberspace.

The newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden's Queen Kristina, became a Web-only publication on Jan. 1. It's a fate, many ink-stained writers and readers fear, that may await many of the world's most venerable journals.

"We think it's a cultural disaster," said Hans Holm, who served as the chief editor of Post-och Inrikes Tidningar for 20 years. "It is sad when you have worked with it for so long and it has been around for so long."

Queen Kristina used the publication to keep her subjects informed of the affairs of state, Holm said, and the first editions, which were more like pamphlets, were carried by courier and posted on note boards in cities and towns throughout the kingdom.

Today, Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, which means mail and domestic tidings, runs legal announcements by corporations, courts and certain government agencies - about 1,500 a day according to Olov Vikstrom, the current editor.

The paper edition was certainly not some mass-market tabloid. It had a meager circulation of only 1,000 or so, although the Web site is expected to attract more readers, Vikstrom said.

The newspaper is owned by the Swedish Academy, known for awarding the annual Nobel Prize in Literature. But it recently sold the publishing rights to the Swedish Companies Registration Office, a government agency.

Despite its online transformation, Post-och Inrikes Tidningar remains No. 1 on a ranking of the oldest newspapers still in circulation compiled by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers.

"An online newspaper is still a newspaper, so we'll leave it on the list," WAN spokesman Larry Kilman said.

On the Net:

World Association of Newspapers: http://www.wan-press.org/

Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, in Swedish: https://poit.bolagsverket.se/

Letter bomb explodes at London office, injuring female worker

LONDON (AP) - A letter bomb exploded Monday at a London company that controls the city's traffic congestion fee, fire officials said. One worker suffered minor injuries to her hand.

The padded envelope exploded in the mailroom of Capita Commercial Services, which on behalf of the government controls the $16 daily fee for central London drivers meant to cut down on traffic in central London.

"We can confirm that there has been a small explosion at our Victoria Street office this morning," said a Capita spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. Scotland Yard said the injured woman was a Capita employee.

Capita also collects television licensing fees, handles mediation and insurance for the Criminal Records Bureau, and does work for the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Work and Pensions.

The company, with headquarters near Scotland Yard, was formed in 1984 and has more than 26,000 staff in the U.K., the Channel Islands, Ireland and India.

The Irish Republican Army pioneered the use of letter bombs in the early 1970s as part of its campaign to oust Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The tactic maimed dozens of people in the 1970s - most commonly secretaries or security guards who opened the packages - but killed nobody.

In response, the Royal Mail built barriers on letter boxes, which reduced the size of the slits so that only thin envelopes could be inserted. For larger packages, the Royal Mail has X-ray scanners to detect suspicious battery-powered objects.

On the Net:

Capita Group, http://www.capita.co.uk

Students return to Lebanese university where riot began that killed four

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Classes resumed Monday at a university in the heart of Beirut where a cafeteria political spat mushroomed into street riots that killed four people in the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon's civil war.

Hundreds of soldiers and police watched the students arrive at Beirut Arab University in a show of force meant to deter troublemakers. Campus security guards searched all students at the entrance and denied access to those without student IDs.

The clashes of Jan. 25, which quickly spread from the campus to the streets of Tarik el-Jadideh district and beyond, was the worst case of sectarian violence since the 1975-90 civil war. Muslim Sunnis fought Muslim Shiites with rocks, sticks and even guns, leaving four people dead and dozens injured. Scores of cars were trashed and some were set ablaze.

In the evening, the army imposed a rare nighttime curfew and leaders of both communities appealed to their supporters to withdraw from the streets.

Fearing more violence, the authorities took advantage of a Shiite religious holiday to close all schools and universities through Jan. 31. Only the Beirut Arab University and the state-run Lebanese University were ordered closed until Monday.

The head of student affairs at Beirut Arab University, Hassan Dalati, said that attendance on Monday was "almost normal and hopefully it will be a day just like any other." The university issued a statement warning students that it "will not allow its campus to be used in any internal Lebanese struggles."

Qassem Dirani, 22, an architecture student, said the atmosphere was "still charged" and that lecturers were repeatedly asking students not to discuss politics.

"I am trying to pretend that nothing happened, but it's hard. A lot of my colleagues are thinking of leaving the university and finishing their studies somewhere else," Dirani said.

At the Lebanese University, which was also closed following the unrest, attendance was "more than normal" Monday when it reopened, said the university's president, Zuheir Shukur.

There were no riots on the campus on Jan. 25, but the university was closed for 10 days because its students have a reputation for being highly involved in politics.

"We stressed the importance of saving the academic year," Shukur told The Associated Press, adding that he had urged students to leave their political feelings outside the university.

The universities reopened despite the stalemate between the government and the opposition, with mediation efforts failing to bridge the divide.

The Hezbollah-led opposition wants the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to resign to make way for a Cabinet in which Hezbollah and its allies would have a veto power.

Saniora, who is backed by a slim parliamentary majority and many foreign states such as France and the United States, has refused to step down.

The tension pits Sunnis, who largely back the government, against Shiites, who are led by Hezbollah and its allies. Christians are divided between the two groups

Jury sworn in for Norfolk Island's first murder trial in 150 years

NORFOLK ISLAND, Australia (AP) - A jury of 12 Norfolk Islanders was sworn in Monday for the tiny South Pacific island's first murder trial since it was settled 151 years ago by descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers.

New Zealander Glenn McNeill, a 29-year-old former cook on the island, pleaded not guilty in the Norfolk Island Supreme Court last week to killing Janelle Patton, a 28-year-old hotel dining room manager, in 2002.

Selecting the jury took more than five hours, as scores of potential jurors asked to be excused. More than a dozen told Chief Justice Mark Weinberg they knew either the defendant or the victim, or both. Others were connected, or even related, to possible witnesses in the trial.

The jury list was drawn from only 1,200 adults on the electoral roll of the 13-square-mile island, a territory of Australia about 1,180 miles northwest of Sydney.

"You would have had to be living on another planet not to have heard anything at all about this case before," Weinberg told the potential jurors.

Patton was the first person to be murdered on the island since 194 descendants of the Bounty mutineers arrived here in 1856. Queen Victoria granted them Norfolk Island after Pitcairn Island, their first sanctuary, grew overcrowded.

The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered Norfolk Island in 1774. The British established a penal colony here in 1788, but authorities eventually abandoned the use of the island as a prison.

Many of the island's 1,600 residents, the Web site norfolkisland.com.au notes, bear the surnames of mutineers - including Christian, for Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny. At least some descendants of the original colonists, the Web site says, can still speak a language that mixes 18th century English and Polynesian.

McNeill was arrested in February 2006 after he returned to New Zealand, following an unprecedented police investigation that included taking fingerprints from three quarters of Norfolk Island's population.

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Patton's stabbed and battered body was found partly wrapped in plastic in the bushes near a waterfall on March 31, 2002.

The court was set to be closed for legal argument Tuesday, with the jury scheduled to hear the prosecutor's opening statement on Wednesday.

Michigan woman charged with fatally stabbing daughters, ages 8 and 5</>B

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A woman who police say was hearing voices was charged Monday with stabbing to death her two young daughters, whose bodies were found side by side in their home.

Jennifer Kukla, 30, was arraigned on first-degree murder charges in the slayings of Alexandria, 8, and Ashley, 5. She was ordered held without bail, and she could get life in prison without parole if convicted.

Police said that Kukla acknowledged killing her daughters and that alcohol and drugs may have been factors.

Officers called to the home by one of Kukla's sisters on Sunday evening also found three dead Pomeranian dogs stacked atop one another inside a cage, as well as a dead pet mouse.

Investigators said they had not determined the motive for the slayings, which they said were committed Sunday morning.

"I don't think evil has an explanation, and it certainly doesn't explain itself," said William Cataldo, chief of homicide for the Macomb County prosecutor's office.

Police said Kukla had been hearing voices.

Kukla told the magistrate she had never been treated for mental illness.

Sheriff Mark Hackel said police found four large, bloodstained kitchen knives in the mobile home 30 miles northeast of Detroit.

The scene was "very difficult," Hackel said. "Even the officers were having a hard time with that one. That was one that left you with not much sleep last night, that's for sure."

An autopsy found that both girls died of stab wounds to the throat area, Hackel said.

The sister who called police said she found the door open and called Kukla's name. Kukla then "came out to the door area and she explained that she had harmed the kids," the sheriff said.

Hackel said the sister told police she had visited Kukla on Saturday night to help clean the house out of concern for the children. The sister told police she was concerned about some of her sister's comments, "although nothing to indicate that she would do something to this extent," the sheriff said.

Preservationists find documents of slain civil rights leader in Florida barn

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A briefcase stuffed with letters, notes and newspaper clippings belonging to slain civil rights leader Harry T. Moore was found in an old vacant barn not far from where he was killed in a house bombing, officials said.

Workers for the Brevard County Historical Commission stumbled across the briefcase as they prepared to move the barn to make way for a planned subdivision.

The documents discovered in November were turned over to the state attorney general's office to determine their significance. None was found, so they were given to Moore's 76-year-old daughter, Evangeline Moore.

Moore and his wife, Harriette Moore, died in 1951 in a bombing at their home in Mims on Christmas Day. Harry Moore was the first NAACP official killed during the modern civil rights struggle, but it took years for investigators to determine that four now-dead Ku Klux Klan members were responsible.

Evangeline Moore was 21 when her parents were killed. She said she suffered memory loss due to the trauma of the bombing and has been unable to remember her childhood and parts of her early adulthood.

"I have looked through some of the copies of this material and in fact it has given me my life story," said Moore, who said she found several newspaper photos and articles about her own involvement in the civil rights movement.

Other documents include letters written to political candidates seeking their positions on voting rights and other racial issues at the time, as well as affidavits and research about lynchings in the area.

No investigation is planned to determine who may have hidden the documents in the barn, located about 900 yards from the Moores' house, said Allison Bethel, head of the state attorney general's civil rights division.

Tenn. man pleads guilty to possessing deadly poison ricin; wife told police to search his home

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Nashville man pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of possessing the deadly poison ricin along with firearms silencers and explosives under a plea deal with prosecutors to spare himself from life in prison.

Neither William Matthews nor the authorities explained why the 56-year-old had the poison.

Matthews was charged after a tip from his estranged wife led police and federal agents to search his property May 31. They found the ricin in a sealed baby jar, two functional pipe bombs, five gun silencers, three blasting caps and bomb-making materials.

Matthews was already in a Davidson County jail serving a nine-month sentence for violating orders of protection taken out by his wife when he was charged with ricin possession. He has remained in custody since then.

His guilty plea Monday calls for a prison term of 7 years and 3 months when he is sentenced April 27. The ricin charge alone could have been punished by up to life in prison.

"Mr. Matthews, I think, chose this (deal) as the best of the available options," his lawyer, public defender Sumter Camp, said after court.

Matthews, who worked at the city's drug court before he left amid a sexual harassment investigation, testified that in the 1960s he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and received treatment then.

Woman gives birth at casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A woman playing the penny slots Saturday morning left the Resorts Atlantic City casino with her own little jackpot - a new baby boy.

Eight-months pregnant Nyree Thompson, 32, went into labor on the casino floor about 9:30 a.m.

Thompson said she mistook labor pains for gas at first, but after going to the restroom told a security guard that she might be giving birth.

Thompson said the guard thought she was joking. Then her water broke.

"A guard came over and said, 'Don't push,"' Thompson said. "I said, 'Forget you, this baby is coming right now!"'

Minutes later, a boy weighing less than 5 pounds was born. Thompson named him Qualeem.

Four security guards helped Thompson deliver the baby, wrapping the child in a jacket until paramedics arrived at about 9:40 a.m., said Steve Callender, vice president of operations at Resorts.

Despite being premature, Qualeem was doing fine.

Callender, who has worked at Resorts since it opened in 1978, said the birth was a first for the casino as far as he knew. "We've had people die here," he said, "but we've never had people born here."

University auctioning tuition, room and board on eBay

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) - One student next term at Oklahoma Wesleyan University may have paid a lot less for tuition than his or her classmates.

The university on Saturday kicked off an eBay auction of a year of tuition, room and board at the private college. The bidding had reached $4,425 by 11 p.m.

Bidders can buy the tuition for themselves or someone else. Among the bidders will be current students at the school, which has an enrollment of about 1,030 students.

A year of tuition, room and board at Oklahoma Wesleyan costs about $23,000. The bidding will be open through Saturday.

"I think it's a really neat idea," junior Emily Wright said. "I don't know why anybody wouldn't bid."

Mike Colaw, the university's special assistant to the vice president, said the school is looking to "create a buzz" surrounding the auction.

The tuition recipient must meet the university's admission requirements.

Veggies take snow sculpting competition

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (AP) - When people look at a mound of snow, they don't often think of vegetables. Then again, they're not brothers David and Chris Andrews, or Scott Pauli, their cousin.

The three men took the gold medal over the weekend at the United States National Snow Sculpting Championships and the People's Choice Award, besting 14 other sculptures.

Their 10-foot sculpture, called "Veg-Head," had cherry tomato eyes, a peapod grin, bell pepper ears, a jalapeno nose, and a pumpkin-like top.

"Veg-head" took 30 hours to carve, Chris Andrews said.

David came up with idea, Pauli said.

As the team tried to decide what to carve, Pauli said David wondered aloud that, "If you looked at it for a while, you might see a face in the vegetables."

"That's basically how we came up with it," he said.

Despite the subzero temperatures Saturday, the sculptors said they enjoyed the camaraderie and enthusiasm of the crowd.

"I heard about last year," Chris Andrews said, referring to unseasonably warm temperatures in 2006 that caused some sculptures to disintegrate before the judging took place. "The freezing weather, this was perfect."

Newspaper receives mail 8 years late

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - The Great Falls Tribune has some old mail to get through.

More than 400 pieces of mail addressed to the newspaper have been delivered eight years late. The 435 pieces that were to have been delivered on Jan. 16, 1999, reached the newspaper Thursday. Included were checks for Tribune subscriptions.

"This was truly a case of the check was in the mail," said Tribune Publisher Jim Strauss, who accepted the mail delivered by Postmaster Jeanne Downey and Jacque Stingley, a customer service representative for the U.S. Postal Service.

"We are truly sorry," Stingley said. "I'm sure people have been wondering where their mail went."

When a postal clerk was distributing mail on Jan. 16, 1999, the Tribune's was placed in the wrong locker, one that is used rarely, Stingley said. On Thursday a customer who was assigned the locker opened it, and saw the mail.

Strauss said the delay may have caused frustration for Tribune customers who were called about payment of bills. Now the checks will be returned to customers, he said.

"I credit Jacque and Jeanne for being very up front about this and personally delivering the mail to us and offering their assistance," Strauss said.

Appeals court proposes higher penalty for German who killed eagle that attacked his dog

BERLIN (AP) - A German appellate court in Stuttgart proposed $19,500 fine Tuesday against a 70-year-old man who fatally beat an escaped golden eagle with his walking stick after it attacked his dachshund.

The court agreed with a lower court's decision that a wildlife center that let the eagle escape was partly responsible, but it attributed even more blame to the pensioner, more than doubling his penalty.

According to the court's proposed settlement, the wildlife center would pay only $662 for the dog's veterinary expenses.

The court will hand down a decision on Feb. 23, should the parties not agree to the proposed settlement.

The man was walking with his wife and leashed dog in the town of Siegelsbach in southeast Germany in October 2005 when a passer-by told him the eagle - recently escaped from the center - was nearby. The man then approached the eagle.

When the eagle attacked the dachshund, the man hit it with his walking stick two to three times, he told the appellate court. The blows broke a wing and several bones of the bird, which died a few days later.

"The eagle pounced on my dog," he told the court. "I had to rescue it."

The 19-year-old male bird was to play a prominent role in the wildlife center's proposed breeding program for the endangered species and was therefore "priceless," according to its founder, Claus Fentzloff. The court estimated the bird's value at $30,000.

The lower court had reasoned that the wildlife center bore partial responsibility for the incident, as the eagle was not wearing a tracking device. The organization claimed that the eagle had ripped the device out of its feathers.

The lower court had found the dog owner bore the bulk of the responsibility because he had been warned not to approach the bird and should have known that an eagle might regard a small dog as prey.