LEWISTON, Maine — Get your sweaters, mittens and hats ready.

The Farmers' Almanac warns that the coming winter will bring unusually sharp fluctuations in temperature, and says readers "may be reminded of riding a roller, or in this case, 'polar' coaster."

"Mother Nature seems to be in the mood for some amusement this winter season," the almanac said in its 2006 edition, just off the presses.

The coldest weather will be in the Northeast, which also will get plenty of snow, the almanac said. It predicts cold weather for the South and Mid-Atlantic regions and snowy but mild weather in the Great Lakes and Midwest.

Parts of the Rockies and the Great Plains may have drier-than-normal weather, adding to the area's continuing drought, but wetter-than-normal weather is predicted for the Pacific Northwest and lower Texas.

The 189-year-old almanac claims 80 percent to 85 percent accuracy for the forecasts written under the name Caleb Weatherbee.

The forecasts are prepared two years in advance using a secret formula based on sunspots, the position of the planets and the tidal action of the moon, said editor Peter Geiger.

The National Weather Service questions the accuracy of such long-range forecasts, but almanac officials say its predictions stack up well against those of traditional meteorologists.

Chris Vaccaro, a weather service spokesman in Silver Spring, Md., wouldn't comment on the almanac's predictions without knowing "the methodology or algorithms" used to produce them, but said any forecast more than a week in advance is subject to change.

The almanac, not to be confused with the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer's Almanac 24 years its senior, claims a circulation of nearly 5 million. Most are sold to businesses that give them away as a goodwill promotion. Other versions are sold by retailers in the United States and Canada.

This year's almanac contains the usual mix of recipes, anecdotes, corny jokes, quizzes and helpful hints.

"In today's busy world, people want an escape," said managing editor Sondra Duncan. "They look to the almanac to connect to the simple pleasures."

Pumpkins get plenty of ink this year, first in recipes that include pumpkin pie, pumpkin gratin, pumpkin dip and pumpkin pancakes.

But an article also describes how a hollowed-out pumpkin can be used as a boat, as is done each year at the Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Festival and Regatta in Nova Scotia.

Potential participants beware: "Your pumpkin, or personal vegetable craft (PVC) as they are known, can rarely be used twice due to structural ravages," the almanac says.

Baby born to girl, 14, whose husband is accused of sexually assaulting minor

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 14-year-old girl whose 22-year-old husband is charged with sexually assaulting a minor has given birth to their daughter, and the man said he plans to plead not guilty in the case.

The girl became pregnant when she was 13, and her mother gave permission in May for Matthew Koso to take her daughter to Kansas to marry.

Nebraska requires people to be at least 17 before they can marry. But Kansas does not have a minimum age as long as both parents or guardians approve or the marriage is approved by a judge, said a spokesman for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has charged Koso with first-degree sexual assault, punishable by up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

"Of course the marriage is valid … but it doesn't matter," he said. "I'm not going to stand by while a grown man … has a relationship with a 13-year-old — now 14-year old — girl."

Koso told the Lincoln Journal Star he expected to plead not guilty at his arraignment on Tuesday.

"I feel like I'm sitting on top of the world right now," he said Friday, speaking about the baby's birth. "But I do get worried that this is going to turn out in a bad way and I'm going to lose everything I've got."

Bruning has said Koso is a friend of the girl's half brother and began a relationship with her when she was 12.

Tormented mob turncoat takes stand against 'Junior' Gotti

NEW YORK (AP) — The seeds for betrayal were sown in a secret induction ceremony on Christmas Eve 1988, when close friends John A. "Junior" Gotti and Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo swore to uphold the mob's code of silence.

Gotti's infamous father, the Dapper Don, wasn't there because he "did not want to show he's forcing his family into the life," recalled DiLeonardo. "It was a class act."

He offered that description and others about the inner workings of the Gambino crime family last week in federal court amid the Mafia equivalent of a messy divorce.

DiLeonardo, 50, broke his vow to the Gambinos by pleading guilty in 2003 and agreeing to testify against the younger Gotti at a racketeering trial. During four days on the witness stand, the admitted killer and government's star witness told jurors about Gotti's alleged crimes — including a botched kidnapping of radio show host Curtis Sliwa — and about his torment over becoming a turncoat.

"John was very, very good to me," DiLeonardo said in one of several odes to the family scion. "I love John."

By his own account, DiLeonardo was to the 41-year-old Gotti what the most notorious Gambino cooperator, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, had been to Gotti's father: his confidant, his enforcer and, possibly, his undoing. The elder Gotti died in prison in 2002 after Gravano's testimony helped put him away a decade earlier.

The grandson of a gangster, DiLeonardo testified that he committed three murders and "extorted everybody I could" while rising through the Gambino ranks. Not all his lessons were learned on the street: He said he twice read "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli.

DiLeonardo said he eventually became a captain charged with collecting kickbacks from the construction industry, with millions of dollars going to Gotti. As a member of a council that assumed control of the family after his father was jailed in 1992, Gotti "had it coming," but was quick to share the wealth, DiLeonardo said.

"His gifts were greater than my gifts," he said. "I couldn't keep up with him."

DiLeonardo made enough money himself to build a multimillion-dollar home that featured a fence crowned with gargoyles "to keep away evil," he said. The income also helped support children he had both with his wife and girlfriend — not an unusual burden, he said, given the "social structure" of the mob.

"We don't really socialize with our wives," he explained. "When we go out and commiserate, we don't take our wives to mix among gangsters and killers — we take our girls. … You're an oddball if you didn't do it."

DiLeonardo testified that Sliwa was targeted in June 1992 after Gotti grew tired of hearing the rant radio personality and founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group bash his father on the air.

"You guys are going to have to do a piece of work for the family," DiLeonardo quoted Gotti as saying at a meeting with his crew.

The witness said Gotti ordered a "severe hospital beating." Instead Sliwa was shot during a struggle in a stolen cab; he survived, and testified last week against Gotti.

With Gotti in prison on a 1999 racketeering conviction, DiLeonardo was arrested and jailed in 2002. He was soon shocked to learn the Gambinos cut off his income and stripped him of his rank as captain.

"They made me a nonentity … and, above all, broke my heart," he said.

He eventually agreed to cooperate. But he testified that once he pleaded guilty and was released into the witness protection program, he became so distraught by the thought of betraying his "brother John" that he tried to kill himself by overdosing on sleeping pills.

"John and I had a special bond in this life, and I always said I'd have undying loyalty to that man," he said. "I love that guy."

DiLeonardo emerged as a key witness last year in a case charging Gotti's uncle with being the acting boss of the Gambinos and with ordering a failed hit on Gravano; the uncle was convicted in 2004 and sentenced last month to 25 years in prison.

While awaiting Gotti's trial, DiLeonardo said, he anxiously scanned newspaper and Web sites for news about his old friend and partner in organized crime.

"I has hoping John Jr. may have flipped and I wouldn't have to take the stand," he said. "I was rooting for him to flip."

Nevada prison employee accused of helping inmate to escape

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Northern Nevada Correctional Center employee was arrested on suspicion of helping an inmate to escape the facility in a truck, authorities said.

Ana Kastner, a dental assistant at the medium-security prison, was booked over the weekend into the Washoe County Jail on a charge of aiding and abetting an escape.

She provided a cell phone to inmate Jody Thompson, who used it to coordinate his escape Thursday by hiding in a prison industries delivery truck that left the prison, investigators said.

Kastner, whose age and hometown were not immediately released, is accused of being in contact with the prisoner before, during and after the escape.

The truck was headed to Fallon, 60 miles east of Carson City, when Thompson pried open the doors and jumped out. He remained at large Sunday and was believed to be in the Las Vegas area.

Thompson, 24, was serving 10 to 50 years for robbery, use of a deadly weapon and grand larceny in Clark and Nye counties. He's considered armed and dangerous by authorities.

Prison spokesman Fritz Schlottman said Kastner has confessed to her role in the escape but the motive was unclear. She and Thompson worked together in the prison medical area.

"Obviously, she took an interest in this guy and it's unfortunate," Schlottman said. "The nature of the relationship we won't know until the investigation is completed."

A recent parolee, Tanner Kendrick, allegedly was in contact with both the inmate and Kastner and was taken into custody on suspicion of a parole violation.

Prison officials were expected to release further details at a Monday morning news conference, Schlottman said.

Since the escape, Thompson has been in contact with his mother in Pahrump near Las Vegas. He was last seen wearing prison blue jeans and a blue denim shirt.

As a teenager, Thompson also escaped from a juvenile facility where he had been sent following a crime spree in Nye County. He was captured and spent more than five years in prison.

Nation of Islam minister argued with LA officers, tape shows

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Nation of Islam's western regional director suspected of assaulting a police officer disobeyed the officer's orders during a vigil for a shooting victim, according to a taped recording and a transcript of it.

Minister Tony Muhammad said "make me" twice when officers asked National of Islam members to move two sport utility vehicles that were apparently blocking traffic during a vigil Thursday for shooting death victim 21-year-old Nahun Beaird, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD released the recording and transcript Saturday amid accusations that police beat up Muhammad, who appeared at a news conference a day after the vigil with the left side of his face badly swollen.

Police officials said it was Muhammad who was "very belligerent and uncooperative." He was arrested on suspicion of committing battery against a police officer and later released on $20,000 bail.

A transcript of the dispatch call begins when the officer said, "Don't walk behind me, don't walk behind me."

Muhammad responded, "I'm not doing nothing, I'm not going nowhere."

The officer, who was not identified, later said "back up." To that Muhammad replied, "make me."

The confrontation ended with the officer requesting backup.

It was not known whether police released the entire transcript and taped recording. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam had no comment.

Los Angeles Sentinel publisher Danny Bakewell said he witnessed officers attack Muhammad.

"He was wrestled to the ground, pepper-sprayed in his face, and once he was on the ground he was kicked brutally and punched in the mouth," said Bakewell, also head of the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade.

Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger disputed that claim.

"In the minds of some, they would have you believe that the Police Department attacked members of the Nation of Islam. I'm not so sure that occurred," Paysinger said.

On Saturday, police also showed the shirt of the officer that had been allegedly ripped during the confrontation.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police officials promised an investigation.

Pamplona-style bull run in Spanish town leaves 63 people injured, two seriously

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A Pamplona-style running of the bulls in a Spanish town outside the capital Sunday left 63 people injured, two of them seriously, officials said.

The pair were taken from the town of San Sebastian de los Reyes to hospitals in Madrid to undergo urgent surgery, said Angel Pesquera, spokesman for the town's emergency unit. The others were treated for cuts and bruises, he said.

During the crowded run, people were momentarily trapped in a pileup at the bullring's entrance where the run ends. Some of the bulls then trampled over the mound of people to get into the ring, causing the large number of injuries.

The town holds a weeklong festival each summer in which daredevils run through the streets with bulls weighing as much as 1,300 pounds, much like the famed San Fermin festival in the northern city of Pamplona in July.

The earliest records of bull runs in San Sebastian de los Reyes go back to 1523 making them roughly as old as Pamplona's version, which gained worldwide fame from Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."

San Sebastian de los Reyes is about 10 miles north of the capital, Madrid.

Police search for gunman who wounded rap mogul Suge Knight

MIAMI (AP) — A gunman remained at large Sunday after wounding rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight at a party coinciding with the MTV Video Music Awards, police said.

Knight, 40, was shot once in the upper right leg early Sunday at a star-studded party in Miami Beach that was hosted by Grammy-wining hip hop artist Kanye West.

A police report described the shooter only as a black male wearing a pink shirt.

"We are interviewing all the witnesses we can to hopefully develop a composite," Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said.

It was the latest in a string of violent incidents that have shadowed the rap world, including the killings of stars Tupac Shakur in 1996, Notorious B.I.G. in 1997 and Jam Master Jay of Run DMC in 2002.

Knight was admitted to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach in good condition. Hospital officials said he was scheduled for surgery to remove a bullet from his leg and repair a broken bone.

A group of friends waiting at the hospital said Knight was alert and talkative after the shooting. Knight's attorney in Los Angeles, Dermot Givens, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Several witnesses said Knight was sitting at a table in the VIP Red Room section of the Shore Club when a man walked up and opened fire shortly after midnight. No one else was injured.

"I was dancing beside him, then I heard a pop that sounded like a champagne bottle had been opened, then I saw his bodyguards throw themselves on him," New York-based artist Lilo Kinne told The Miami Herald. "It happened so fast, people were in a panic, trying to get out of there."

Celebrities who attended the party included Jessica Alba, Eddie Murphy, Paris Hilton, the Game and The Black Eyed Peas, but it was not clear if they were still there when the shooting happened.

The first police officer to respond to the shooting was an off-duty Florida Highway Patrol officer who was working security at the nightclub, Hernandez said.

Knight co-founded the pioneering rap label Death Row Records and hit the charts in the 1990s with West Coast stars including Snoop Dogg and Shakur.

He was convicted in 1992 of assault and weapons violations and was placed on probation. In 1996, he was jailed for five years for violating probation after he and several associates, including Shakur, were recorded on videotape beating a gang rival at a Las Vegas hotel. Hours after that fight, Shakur was fatally wounded as he was riding in a car with Knight.

Relatives of Notorious B.I.G. have accused Knight of involvement in B.I.G.'s death, though police have never named Knight as a suspect.

Odds and Ends

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Peter Symons noticed something odd about a postcard he received in the mail from Florida.

"When I looked at it, I saw it had 4 cents in stamps and I said, `Well, that's sort of strange,"' he said.

Then he noticed the postmark: Nov. 7, 1955.

The card, which he received Thursday, showed an aerial view of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. It bore a pair of 2-cent stamps with the image of Thomas Jefferson and was addressed to "Mrs. Harry McGee, 1-1135 Davie St., Vancouver 5, B.C., Canada."

The message, written in blue ink, read: "Darling & kids: Arrived here 6:15 this morning. It's nice and cool now but promises to be a stinker later on. Am going to have a wash and shoeshine, etc., and go into town."

It was signed "Love & kisses, Har."

Symons said the card is in good shape with just a couple of bends on one end.

Bob Taylor, a spokesman for Canada Post, said the delivery truly was a fluke. Because of insufficient postage, he said, the postcard should have been returned to sender.

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Beer drinkers in this college town will have to settle for bottles or cans — more than a dozen liquor stores have quit selling kegs.

The stores are hoping to ditch low profits from kegs, compared with beer sold by the case. Some say they also hope the move will help cut down on alcohol-related violence and accidents.

"The majority of students are very angry because they don't get why we're doing this," said Chris Johnson, manager of Muncie Liquor.

All six of the chain's stores have been no-keg zones since Saturday. At one store, a popular mural featuring a Ball State University Cardinal with a keg and the logo "Keg Headquarters" has been painted over.

"A keg weighs 165 pounds. That's a lot of weight for my people to handle," said Johnson. "It's tough on our equipment, it's tearing up our coolers, and I no longer see the profitability of it."

Save-On Liquor also has quit selling kegs at its six stores in Muncie, and Friendly Package has joined in as well.

But some beer drinkers — particularly those of college age — don't understand why the stores would quit selling a product that is sought-after, profitable or not.

"You tell kids at other schools that you go to Ball State, and now you're going to hear, 'You mean that school where you can't buy a keg?"' said senior Aaron Shepard.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Postal workers who thought their coffee tasted funny had their suspicions confirmed after they set up a video camera in their break room.

Now, a colleague has been charged with putting urine in their coffee after he was caught in the act on tape, officials said.

Thomas Shaheen, 49, a vehicle mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service, was charged Aug. 5 with two misdemeanor counts of adulteration of food or placing harmful objects in food. He has been ordered to appear in Municipal Court on Monday.

"Employees did put a video camera in, and that's how they were able to put a stop to what he was doing," said prosecutor Douglas Powley.

The workers believe Shaheen poured urine into a coffee pot in a break room on July 5 and 6.

None of Shaheen's co-workers was physically harmed.

Shaheen's attorney did not return a call for comment.

EASTMAN, Ga. (AP) — An intern flight instructor and his teacher got an unpleasant surprise when they touched down for a landing.

The twin-engine plane scraped to a halt on its belly Wednesday after the two forgot to put down the aircraft's landing gear, said Fire Chief Carl Johnson.

Nobody was hurt, Johnson said. "They didn't know they had a problem until they touched down," he said.

The Georgia Aviation Technical College plane had only minor damage.

Johnny Payne, public affairs director with the college, credited the intern's quick thinking when he noticed the landing gear was still up, saying the pilot kept the plane level and did not panic.