HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.

Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.

Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital. Later Thursday, two sheriff's deputies carried out at least eight brown paper bags sealed with red evidence tape from Smith's hotel room.

Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief Broward County medical examiner who will perform the autopsy, said if her death was from natural causes, the findings would likely be announced quickly. He cautioned, however, that definitive results could take weeks.

"I am not a prophet, and I cannot tell you before the autopsy what I am going to find," he said.

Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.

Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.

"Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said a former attorney for Smith in the Bahamas, Michael Scott.

Another former Smith attorney, Lenard Leeds, told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret that "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems."

Smith attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to her on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son. He dismissed claims her death was related to drugs as "a bunch of nonsense."

"Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged … and she's been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she's endured."

The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at a strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.

In a 2005 interview with ABC, Smith recalled meeting Marshall at what she called a "gentleman's club" in Houston. "He had no will to live and I went over to see him," she said. "He got a little twinkle in his eyes, and he asked me to dance for him. And I did."

Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.

The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.

After news came of Smith's death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who represented Marshall, said in a statement: "We're very shocked by the news and extend the deepest condolences to her family."

Smith starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.

In a statement, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."

Smith's son died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.

An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.

Meanwhile, the paternity of Smith's now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father. An emergency hearing in the paternity case was scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles.

Debra Opri, the attorney who filed Birkhead's paternity suit, said Birkhead "is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority."

The legal complications of Smith's estate could take years to unravel, an expert said. Christopher Cline of the law firm Holland and Knight, who is an estate planning specialist, said he has never seen a case "with more moving parts."

Outstanding questions include not only the paternity of her daughter, but if she died with a will and how her death will affect the lawsuit pending against the Marshall estate. It also wasn't clear where she legally lived when she died.

"It's a really large legal quagmire," Cline said.

Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children. Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.

She dropped out after 11th grade after she was expelled for fighting, and worked as a waitress and then a cook at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant in Mexia.

She married 16-year-old fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles and Associated Press Writers Sarah Larimer in Hollywood, Fla., and Ana Cholo in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

States: Drop the cigarette, comb, flute and drive

BARRE, Vt. (AP) - Put down the flute and keep your eyes on the road. And forget about sipping that cup of coffee on the way to work, or smoking a cigarette on the way home. In some states, it could soon be illegal - if it isn't already.

Emboldened by the passage of cell phone bans for drivers in some communities, states are turning their attention to other things that drive motorists to distraction.

Vermont lawmakers are considering a measure that would ban eating, drinking, smoking, reading, writing, personal grooming, playing an instrument, "interacting with pets or cargo," talking on a cell phone or using any other personal communication device while driving. The punishment: a fine of up to $600.

Similar bills are under consideration in Maryland and Texas, and Connecticut has passed one that generically bans any activity that could interfere with the safe operation of a motor vehicle.

"Cell phones attracted people to this issue," said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Now that people are more focused on distracted driving issues, they're beginning to talk about the broader range of distractions."

For the sponsor of the Vermont bill, the motivation came from his own observations.

"What finally pushed me over the edge was when I was at a stop sign and somebody opposite me was trying to navigate around the corner with a cell phone to the ear in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and she wasn't doing very well," said Republican state Rep. Thomas F. Koch.

He said his wife recently saw a driver playing the flute, which led him to include the instrument ban in his bill.

"There are a lot of bad habits out on the road. This isn't just for drivers' own good. This is to protect the other people on the road," he said.

Often, they need protection:

-In Illinois, a bicyclist was killed by a driver who had been downloading cell phone ring tones while behind the wheel last September.

-In Westminster, Calif., a 7-year-old boy was struck and killed by an SUV whose driver lost control as he was trying to reach a cell phone and plowed into a family at a bus stop Nov. 29, authorities said.

-In Spokane, Wash., a trucker who was allegedly using a cell phone crossed a highway median and struck another truck head-on, killing five children, in 2005.

-In Athens, Ala., a woman lost control of her car while reaching for a ringing cell phone and crashed into a church last month.

Distracted drivers were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes in a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that was released last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Young drivers are some of the worst offenders. A study of more than 5,600 students released last month by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Co. reported that nearly 90 percent had seen friends drive while talking on cell phones and that half saw drivers playing hand-held games, using listening devices or sending text messages.

Jeff Rogers, 44, of Barre, filling up his pickup at a gas station Thursday, said the Vermont bill is "going a little too far."

"I can understand the cell phone thing," he said. "But the rest of it, how are they going to enforce that?"

Bears fan signs pledge to change name to Peyton Manning

DECATUR, Ill. (AP) - Scott Wiese is a man of his word. But soon his friends will be saying that about Peyton Manning.

Wiese, a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, will legally change his name to that of the Indiana Colts quarterback after signing a pledge in front of a crowd at a Decatur bar last Friday night. He vowed to adopt Manning's name if the Bears lost Sunday's Super Bowl.

The final score was Colts 29, Bears 17.

So on Tuesday, Wiese went to the Macon County Courts Facility and started the process of changing his name.

"I made the bet, and now I've got to keep it," said the 26-year-old, who lives in Forsyth, just north of Decatur.

Wiese will now have to advertise his intention in the local newspaper - the Herald & Review - for several weeks and then have a judge give him the OK to become, legally anyway, Peyton Manning.

The men have little in common, Wiese acknowledges.

Manning the quarterback is 30 years old, stands 6-foot-5 and has a contract with the Colts worth more than $100 million.

Wiese is 5-foot-11 and works at a Staples office-supply store for somewhat less.

"I think I kind of represent all Bears fans," he said. "Not that I'm saying they're all idiots like me, but I represent their passion because I really care about my team, you know?"

While he pledged to take on the new identity, Wiese didn't make any promises about how long he would keep it.

Cops to replace man's walking stick used to strike alleged assialant

SEATTLE (AP) - An 82-year-old Seattle man whose walking stick was damaged when he struck a younger man who witnesses say had doused him with lighter fluid is getting a replacement cane from the Seattle Police Officers' Guild.

Gus Jones responded to the Jan. 31 downtown Seattle attack by smacking his assailant with his cane. Police say the attacker then ran over to two women, doused them with lighter fluid and lit a match, singeing their coats and one woman's hair. The women were not seriously injured.

Paul Pearson, 50, arrested shortly after the attacks, has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault.

The older man survived the ordeal with just a cut to his ring finger. His cane, however, was bent in the attack and rendered unusable.

When the Police Guild heard about the case, its board decided to buy Jones a replacement aluminum cane, inscribed with his name, said Sgt. Richard O'Neill, guild president.

"Hopefully he won't have to whack someone with it," O'Neill said.

"Maybe if he didn't take the action he did, more people could've been hurt," O'Neill said. "He was going to fight back - he wasn't going to be a passive victim."

Arrested astronaut under stress at work, home before arrest linked to love triangle

HOUSTON (AP) - Anyone who's read Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" or seen the movie based on it knows about the mental and emotional stresses astronauts face as they train for space travel.

But those trying to explain the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak say the pressure can be even higher for female astronauts, who not only face the same work stresses as their male counterparts but often face high expectations at home.

"They made more sacrifices than the 'Right Stuff' guys," said Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster. "They have to balance two careers - to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. … You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you."

Clark said Nowak, charged with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depict as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut, provided invaluable support to his family after his wife's death, even when it cost her time with her own husband and three children.

Nowak's background - high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot - seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense.

On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment.

She was met on the tarmac by police and escorted into a waiting squad car after her release on bail. Her head was covered by a jacket. She faced a medical exam at Johnson Space Center.

NASA said it would revamp its psychological screening process in light of Nowak's arrest. The review will look at how astronauts are screened for psychological problems and whether Nowak's dealings with co-workers signaled complications.

Nowak has a teenage son and 5-year-old twin girls with her husband, Richard, who works for a NASA contractor. The couple separated a few weeks ago after 19 years of marriage.

"She was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family," Clark said in a telephone interview. "All those stresses can conspire to be overwhelming. … Clearly she suffered a lot of mental anguish.

"There is a lot of marital stress in the astronaut corps in general - a huge amount," Clark said. "It's not unheard of for things to change into relationships that are beyond professional."

Clark expressed empathy with Richard Nowak.

"He was a real low-key, go-with-the-flow, unobtrusive person," Clark said. "You almost have to be to survive in the realm. … It was hard on our marriage to have my wife gone all the time, and eventually have her career surpass mine."

Lisa Nowak grew up in Rockville, Md., where she was co-valedictorian and a member of the track team in high school. She graduated from the Naval Academy in 1985. The class officers of her year said Wednesday in a statement released by Bryan Caisse, the class secretary, that Nowak was "a great classmate and friend."

"She never hesitated to lend a hand or assist someone in need. She has been an incredible role model as a Naval Officer, astronaut and mother, and has shared her success with many others," the statement said.

Nowak received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, flew as a test pilot in the mid-1990s while caring for an infant son, and became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998.

"It's definitely a challenge to do the flying and take care of even one child and do all the other things you have to do. But I learned that you can do it," she said in a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal.

Last July, in the climax of her career, she flew on the space shuttle Discovery, helping operate its robotic arm and winning praise for her performance.

However, there were signs of turmoil in her life.

In November, a neighbor reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston home. And she had begun to form a relationship with William Oefelein, a fellow astronaut and father of two whose own marriage ended in divorce in 2005.

Police said Nowak told them the relationship was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship."

Charlene Davis, the mother of Oefelein's ex-wife, Michaella, said Wednesday that Nowak - although friends with Oefelein for years - had nothing to do with his marriage breakup.

"I think there were a lot of bad choices being made, and Lisa just made a horrible one," Davis said in a telephone interview. "And I just feel sorry for her. What the hell was she thinking?"

The final unraveling came this week when police arrested Nowak for allegedly trying to kidnap Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain from Florida. Police said Nowak believed Shipman was her rival for Oefelein's affections.

Police charged Nowak with attempting to murder Shipman based on weapons and other items found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing. Nowak's lawyer, Donald Lykkebak, has said she only wanted to talk to Shipman.

Those who know Nowak away from the high-pressure atmosphere of NASA were stunned.

"I was very surprised… She always seemed very normal to me," said Candis Silva, who lives three houses down from the Nowaks. "She was a good role model for our daughters."

Thomas Nagy, a Palo Alto, Calif., psychologist who has studied the stresses facing dual-career couples, hesitated to offer any specific diagnosis of Nowak, but said such seemingly desperate acts could result from a chronic personality disorder or from a period of high stress that clouds one's judgment.

"When people are in that role of trying to do everything to the Nth degree, they don't get enough sleep, they don't do enough activities that are fun, they don't get enough exercise," he said.

"If we ignore those because we're trying to do it all, we pay a price - more anxiety, more depression."

Killer of North Dakota college student Dru Sjodin formally sentenced to death

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A rapist who killed college student Dru Sjodin six months after being released from prison was formally sentenced to death Thursday in a case that led to tougher sex-offender laws. - U.S District Judge Ralph Erickson also rejected a motion for a new trial for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, who was convicted last fall of kidnapping resulting in death.

Sjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot in 2003. Her body was found nearly five months later in a Minnesota ravine. Authorities said she had been beaten, raped and stabbed.

Before Sjodin's slaying, Rodriguez had served more than 20 years for offenses that included rape and attempted kidnapping. He got out of prison about six months before the killing.

North Dakota and Minnesota have since toughened their laws against sex offenders, including life without parole for the most serious offenses and stricter supervision of offenders after they leave prison.

The case also revived debate about whether North Dakota should restore the death penalty. North Dakota's last execution was in 1905. The last person sentenced to death was spared in 1915.

Rodriguez was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.

Rodriguez showed no emotion during the sentencing hearing. He had been offered a chance to speak but declined. His attorney, Richard Ney, gave notice that he plans to appeal.

"The sentence does not reflect the heart of the community," Ney said. "It reflects the fear of the community."

Before the sentencing, about 15 of Sjodin's relatives and friends spoke about her life and the impact of her death. Her mother, Linda Walker, was the last of the group to speak.

"I have been told to talk from my heart," Walker said. "My heart has been torn into a million little pieces."

Upstate New York towns buried under 6 feet of snow; 20 deaths now blamed on slick roads, cold

OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) - While the northern Plains and Northeast shiver in dangerously cold temperatures, the folks in upstate New York are keeping warm shoveling snow - lots of snow. - Since Sunday, the small towns of Parish and Mexico have recorded more than 6 feet of snow, and forecasters with the National Weather Service say it isn't over yet.

Another 2 feet or more of heavy lake effect snow was expected Thursday for the communities along eastern Lake Ontario, and more squalls are likely through the weekend.

"We're just trying to keep up. It's almost an unreal amount," said Mayor Randy Bateman of Oswego, where 70 inches of snow had fallen by Thursday morning. "We catch up when it stops, but then it just comes again, even heavier."

Whiteout conditions - the snow has been falling at a rate of 5 inches an hour at times - forced state police to temporarily close Interstate 81 between Central Square and Pulaski, a stretch of about 15 miles. Travel advisories against unnecessary travel were posted for Oswego and its neighboring counties. Mexico officials renewed a snow emergency declaration, and many government offices were closed.

Schools were closed for a fourth day in Oswego and Mexico.

In West Virginia, where as much as 9 inches of snow has fallen, some schools that had been closed were able to reopen on Thursday, but in most of the state, classes were still delayed, and in a few counties, canceled. Officials had to call snowplow drivers out of retirement Wednesday to clear the roads.

The weather also disrupted travelers, leaving some stranded overnight in airports in the Midwest after flights to the Northeast were disrupted.

Temperatures in the Northeast were inching back up to something closer to normal for this time of year, but the upper Midwest and northern Plains still awoke to subzero temperatures Thursday - minus-12 in Minneapolis and 3 below zero in Chicago.

The bitter cold and slippery roads have contributed to at least 19 deaths - five in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, New York and Maryland, authorities said. Three of them died Tuesday when two SUVs crashed on a slick road in northern Indiana. An autopsy Wednesday determined that an elderly woman found in a New York City building had died of hypothermia.

In Oswego, a big concern was keeping the city's 800 fire hydrants clear, said Fire Chief Ed Geers.

"We're just trying to keep on top of digging out the hydrants. When you get 5 feet of snow in 24 hours, it's tough," Geers said.

4 dead, 4 injured after train hits van at rural Alabama crossing; men were headed to work

THORSBY, Ala. (AP) - A freight train struck a van at a rural Alabama crossing early Thursday, killing four men on their way to construction jobs and injuring four others, authorities said.

The collision occurred about 5:40 a.m., when it was still dark, at a crossing near U.S. Highway 31. The crossing was marked only by a faded sign, with one arm of its "X" gone. There were no cross bars or flashing lights.

"Right now we don't know exactly what happened," State Trooper Donald Frazier said.

There were eight people in the van. Four were killed, the other four hospitalized, Frazier said.

The white van rolled several times before landing in a ditch beside the train track, with windows broken and seats and contents from inside strewn on the ground. As distraught family members arrived at the scene, the van lay in the ditch, its right front portion crumpled.

Jesus Clavido said his 19-year-old son, Miguel, was among those killed. He said they were all from Mexico and working construction jobs.

"There's no signs. No nothing. That's a problem," Clavido said, waving his arms at the crossing.

The Rev. Antonio Inestroza comforted relatives of the victims at the scene. Some were in tears. A man sat on the tailgate of a pickup truck, crying.

"They were going to work, that's what they do every morning," Inestroza said. They left in the dark each morning, he said, because they were going to construction job sites in Birmingham, about 50 miles north of Thorsby, and Montgomery, a similar distance south.

Like Clavido, he said all the victims were from Mexico, where many have relatives.

"They had big dreams," he said.

By late morning, the van had been hauled away and the train departed.

CSX Corp. spokesman Gary Sease in Jacksonville, Fla., said the train, with two locomotives and 38 cars, was headed to Louisville, Ky., from Baldwin, Fla. The train cars were loaded with automobiles.

Super Bowl wedding proposal falls through, but local TV ad still gets her to say yes

SEATTLE (AP) - Rand Fishkin wanted to propose to his girlfriend with a Super Bowl ad. That didn't quite work out, but there was still local TV, and he got the answer he wanted.

Fishkin, 27, got into the advertising gambit after a Tennessee man who started a Web site to try to raise $2.6 million to buy a Super Bowl ad learned last fall that his dream girl would turn him down.

Fishkin took over the Web site - mysuperproposal.com - which by then had dropped the fundraising plan in favor of luring a corporate sponsor, and things were looking good. A major company, which Fishkin declined to name, offered to feature the proposal in one of its ads, but then withdrew, he says.

The dream was still alive, though. The site drew 200,000 page views on the day before the game, and according to Fishkin's relatives, CBS called on game day to say the network would air a video he made himself as an in-house spot. But then the network called again by halftime to say the ad wouldn't run after all.

So Fishkin turned to another funding source - his mom - and bought a $3,000 local ad on Tuesday during his girlfriend's favorite show, "Veronica Mars."

In his ad, Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, a Seattle Web search engine optimizing company, held up a picture of himself and Geraldine DeRuiter, 26.

"The whole world?" he says. "This is Geraldine. She is amazing in every way. For the last five years, we've spent the best parts of our lives together and made it through the tough times, too. I couldn't ask for anything more in my life than her love.

"And that's why I'm here today. Geraldine, will you marry me?"

Right after the ad aired, DeRuiter said yes.

Donations of $10,000 raised by the site will go to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.

New explosion hampers efforts to stop blaze at Kansas City chemical plant

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A small explosion slowed firefighters Thursday as they tried to mop up a fire that devastated a chemical distribution plant a day earlier. - The fire was still smoldering, and there was a threat of more small explosions, said Kansas City deputy fire chief Frank Tittone. Evacuation orders remained Thursday for people within a one-mile radius of the site.

On Wednesday, two workers at the Chemcentral Corp. plant were injured when a number of 55-gallon drums ignited, sending fireballs into air.

Firefighters were finally able to approach the site Wednesday night and use flame-suppressing foam, and the last of the hot spots were being doused Thursday morning when another explosion came from inside the plant, Battalion Chief Joe Vitale said.

Some workers at businesses in the evacuation area who had returned Thursday left again after the new explosion.

Fire Chief Richard Dyer said firefighters hope to have the blaze extinguished sometime Thursday.

Dan Brennan, an attorney for Bedford Park, Ill.-based Chemcentral, said it was not immediately clear what caused the explosions. The threat of additional explosions have kept investigators from examining the site and determining the cause of the initial explosions.

Despite the smoke plume's ominous appearance, officials said tests had found no threat to human health. Residents were cautioned against touching any debris or what appeared to be a sticky substance deposited by the cloud as it streamed southwestward, but Dyer said the material was not highly toxic.

New Orleans police say mother told teen to take revenge after fight, gave him handgun

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A woman accused of giving her teenage son a handgun and telling him to take revenge after he lost a fight was arrested Thursday after another boy was killed, police said.

Police were searching for her son, Clarence Johnson, 17, who faces a charge of second-degree murder in the death the other 17-year-old, New Orleans police Sgt. Joe Narcisse said.

He said both teens had walked away after the original fight Wednesday evening.

"Detectives learned Johnson went home and shared the details of the fight with his mother. Johnson's mother, 44-year-old Vanessa Johnson, gave him a handgun and instructed him to exact revenge on the victim because Johnson had apparently lost the fight," Narcisse said.

Clarence Johnson found the other youth shortly afterward and fired several rounds, hitting him once in the abdomen, Narcisse said. The other teen died at the city's trauma center.

Vanessa Johnson was booked with being a principal to second-degree murder.

Last month, city officials announced efforts to try to curb the violence in New Orleans after nine killings in the first eight days of the year. They increased patrols, set up early-morning checkpoints and rushed homicide cases through the court system. National Guard troops and State Police also remain in the city after being called in last summer to help local police combat a spike in violence.

N.J. court ends father's parental rights to special needs son because mother poses risk

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The state Supreme Court terminated a father's right to raise his 4-year-old special needs son Thursday because they would have lived with the boy's alcoholic and mentally retarded mother.

The court noted the father did not pose a direct threat to his son, but decided in a 4-2 ruling that the child should remain with foster parents because "the father failed to provide a home in which the son was not in constant danger."

Experts found that the mother had the intellect of a child, ran away from home for "alcoholic binges," and made repeated false charges of domestic abuse.

"Although we are mindful of the mother's limitations, it is the father who established the dangerous situation at home, who maintains those conditions, and who is unable or unwilling to substantially alter those conditions," the justices wrote.

The unmarried couple were identified by their initials, M.M. and C.B. He is 60 and she is 32. They have a daughter at home in her early teens.

Within days of their son's birth, the Division of Youth and Family Services determined the mother was overwhelmed by caring for the newborn. The court said his developmental disorders were probably caused by prenatal overexposure to alcohol.

Both parents had appealed a trial court's decision to terminate their parental rights, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the mother's appeal.

The foster parents now hope to adopt the child, the court said. The foster parents support continued visitation by his father and sister, but not the mother. Her presence upsets the boy, they said.

Lawyers for DYFS, the boy and the father had no immediate comment.

Two dissenting justices contended that authorities lacked clear and convincing evidence to end parental rights.

They also argued, quoting from the court's 1988 ruling in the Baby "M" surrogate mother case, that "the mere fact that a child would be better off with one set of parents than with another is an insufficient basis for terminating the natural parent's rights."

On the Net:

Court decision: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/A-115-05.pdf

Evangelical Lutheran Church removes gay Atlanta pastor from clergy for having partner

ATLANTA (AP) - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said Thursday it is removing from the clergy a gay minister who announced he has a partner.

The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective Aug. 15, according to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee.

Schmeling, who was open about his sexuality when he took the job, announced last year he had found a lifelong companion. Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign, but Schmeling refused.

Warren then began disciplinary proceedings last year against Schmeling for violating church rules barring sex outside of marriage.

Schmeling had told both the bishop and the congregation at St. John's about his sexual orientation before he was chosen as pastor. He didn't have a partner at the time.

Guatemalan workers accuse large Connecticut nursery of human trafficking, forced labor

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A dozen Guatemalans filed a federal human trafficking and racketeering lawsuit against a large nursery Thursday, claiming they were taken from North Carolina to Connecticut against their will, forced to work nearly 80 hours a week and paid less than minimum wage.

The workers sued Imperial Nurseries in Granby and its labor recruiter, saying they were promised jobs planting trees in North Carolina for $7.50 per hour.

Some of the 12 had flown from Guatemala to North Carolina for the job. But instead, they say they were taken in a van to Connecticut without their consent, had their passports confiscated so they would not escape and were threatened with arrest or deportation. They say they were made to sleep on the floors of filthy apartments, paid less than $3.75 per hour and had their mail opened without their permission.

"These workers came here lawfully to earn a living and support their families," said Nicole Hallett, a Yale Law School student helping represent the workers. "Instead they were defrauded and trapped into conditions of forced labor."

One of the workers, 33-year-old Marvin Coto, said through an interpreter that he was forced to work in the rain despite a fever that gave him tremors.

"I started crying and said, 'You should let me go free,"' he said. "Every day they forced us to do more and more work. Our hands began to get swollen and they laughed at us and said, 'You can keep working."'

Imperial spokesman Peter Hamilton noted that the nursery had fired its labor recruiter some time ago. The recruiter, Pro Tree Forestry Services, did not immediately return phone messages left Thursday.

The workers were recruited last spring and early summer, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs seek back pay and unspecified damages.

The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating the allegations, a spokesman said.

Imperial's sales volume places it among the 20 largest landscape nursery growers in the country, according to the lawsuit, which doesn't include a total sales figure.

Father charged in death of 23-month-old girl left outside in freezing temperatures

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The father of a young girl who died of exposure had knocked her unconscious because he was angry she wouldn't go to bed, then took her outside in freezing temperatures and left her there, police said before the man's arraignment Thursday. - Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found dead Sunday on a wooded knoll about a 10 minute walk from the family's home. Tiny footprints in the snow suggested she had gotten up and wandered around before she died, police said.

Her father, William Lorenzo Page, 23, of Braddock, was arrested on charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports and simple assault.

Page told police he woke up early Saturday and found the girl awake and playing near a mirror in the hallway, according to the criminal complaint. He said he got mad when the girl wouldn't go back to bed so he hit her so hard she hit her head and was unconscious, the complaint said.

Page then took her outside wrapped in a blanket and left her, police said.

An autopsy determined Nyia died of hypothermia, but the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide because investigators said it was unreasonable to assume the child got to the wooded location alone.

Her small body was found about a 10-minute walk from her home, a trek that would have included climbing 17 snowy steps up to a wooded knoll.

A witness had seen Page enter his house Saturday morning from the direction where his daughter was found, police said. He was back out on the street about an hour later, saying he was looking for the girl and telling the witness, "Somebody took my daughter," according to a criminal complaint.

Nyia's mother told police she last saw the girl after Nyia tried to crawl into bed with her parents about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The mother told police she put the youngster back into her own bed in an upstairs room.

Police, emergency crews and bloodhounds searched in 20-degree temperatures for most of two days before finding the little girl's body.

Page, who did not have an attorney in court Thursday morning, was jailed without bond.

For the Beijing Olympics: No spitting and get in line

BEIJING (AP) - No spitting and get in line.

That's the message Beijing city officials are trying to get across 18 months before the Olympics open in China's capital.

"Everyone will be fined for spitting," read the headline in Thursday's Beijing Daily Messenger.

In a city of 15 million, jumping ahead in line is common. So is spitting and littering, which officials hope to restrain in an effort to improve the city's image.

Officials have announced a range of measures including "punishment and reward" programs to improve conduct.

One campaign for "civilized behavior" kicks off Sunday in the Wangfujing shopping area, located just east of Tiananmen Square. This will be the first "Queuing Day," which will take place on the 11th of each month.

The 11th was picked because the two numbers - 1-1 - resemble two people lining up.

Spitting could start to become costly.

People spitting could be fined up to 50 yuan, or $6.50. In Beijing, 50 yuan is the daily income of a Chinese college graduate. It can also buy 16 subway tickets on the Beijing system.

"Fifty yuan is a fairly hefty warning for spitters," said Zhang Huiguang, director of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. "The amount of money is not the most important, the most important is to warn people."

Florida police recommend charges in videotaped beating of 12-year-old girl

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) - Police have recommended misdemeanor charges against three girls who allegedly beat up a 12-year-old girl in a videotaped attack that has circulated on the Internet.

The alleged victim, now 13, filed a police report Jan. 27 and named her attackers after she saw the video on a local news channel. The video, shot Dec. 31, shows one teenage girl fighting the alleged victim. Within seconds, two other girls enter the scene and begin beating her.

Melbourne police recommended misdemeanor battery charges be filed against the three, police spokeswoman Jill Frederiksen said.

A decision on whether charges are filed could take two weeks, Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, a spokeswoman for the state attorney's office, said Thursday.

Authorities said the then-12-year-old girl appeared to be dominating the fight until the other girls - ages 13 to 16 -joined the brawl, which lasted about four minutes. She suffered minor injuries, including a few cuts and bruises on her cheek and head, police said.

The Associated Press is not releasing the names of the girls involved in the fight because they are minors.

Kentucky community offers prayers for 10 killed in house fire: 'They're all right now'

BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) - Ten white wooden crosses flanked the pulpit of a church where a rural community gathered to mourn 10 relatives killed in a house fire.

The prayer service began Wednesday night with the Lord's Prayer, and later Chrissie Haynes, a teacher, presented two miniature school buildings and playgrounds that her students made from Popsicle sticks, saying the structures represented the school in heaven for the children who died.

Authorities were still working to identify the victims, but Janet Tonge said her sister, Sherry Maddox, was among the dead, along with Maddox's boyfriend, Johnny Litsey, two of Maddox's daughters and six of her grandchildren.

One survivor, identified by a neighbor as Darrell Maddox, was hospitalized in stable condition, but investigators have not been able to speak to him, Fire Chief Anthony Mattingly said.

Investigators were still trying to determine why the single-story brick house caught fire Tuesday. On Wednesday, the inspectors shoveled pieces of walls, ceiling, furniture and clothing out of the charred structure.

The service at First Baptist Church brought together pastors and at least 300 area residents to pray, sing and hold hands around grieving relatives of the victims.

"It's OK to shed your tears," the Rev. Michael Smith said. "They're all right now because they're in the hands of the Lord. They're better off than we are."

A chorus of "amen" filled the sanctuary.

Paul Litsey, a first cousin to Johnny Litsey, said he appreciated the community turnout.

"This is a close-knit community. There really never was a color barrier. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white. We just all grew up together," he said.

Sherry Maddox's niece, Stephanie Walls, said the family plans to have one funeral for all 10 family members.

"Everybody's going to leave all together," Walls said. "That's the way it should be."

Florida man who fought to get wife's body back charged with killing her and her mother

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - A man who fought to claim the remains of his dead wife has been charged with her death and the death of his mother-in-law, authorities said. - Juan Mendez Jr., 28, was arrested Wednesday for the July stabbing deaths of his estranged wife, Whitney Mendez, 19, and her mother, Lorena Stone, 49. The women were found dead in their Lehigh Acres home.

DNA evidence on knives and under the victim's fingernails led to Juan Mendez's arrest, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said.

"It took some time to build this case up," Sheriff's Sgt. Walter Ryan said. "The evidence just started coming back from the labs."

Mendez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

A judge in September refused to give Mendez his wife's body because she had filed a protective order against him. Instead, the woman's brother got custody of the remains.

David Goldberg, who has represented Mendez in past cases, said he could not comment on if he would represent Mendez on the new charges but said the arrest was surprising.

"This kind of came as a shock," he said. "We still deny any involvement."

Texas police ID suspect in male rape; 'optimistic' charges will be filed in other assaults

BAYTOWN, Texas (AP) - Police identified a 19-year-old man as the suspect in the rape of another man and said they were "optimistic" more charges would be filed involving assaults on four other men.

Keith Chester Hill was being held Wednesday on $60,000 bail on two charges of aggravated robbery and one charge of aggravated sexual assault.

Hill was arrested late Tuesday night at his parents' Baytown home after DNA testing connected him to a May attack, said Capt. Roger Clifford of the Baytown Police Department.

Police for months have been investigating five cases in which young men were surprised at or near their homes by a gunman demanding money. The last reported attack was in November.

One of the victims pointed investigators to the man, Clifford said.

"We're optimistic that additional charges will be filed on our four remaining cases," Clifford said. "We've got lots of evidence that we'll have to sift through - good, solid evidence."

The investigation was complicated, in part because profilers don't have a basic standard for investigating male-on-male rapes, Clifford said.

Hill's parents did not answer the door of their home when approached by a reporter.

The attacks happened in the Baytown area or in Harris County, just southeast of Houston.

The U.S. Justice Department says one in 33 men in the United States has been a victim of a rape or attempted rape, compared with one in six women.

Two police officers charged in 2005 electrocution that sparked riots in France

PARIS (AP) - A judge in the Paris suburb of Bobigny has charged two police officers in connection with the 2005 electrocutions of two teens whose deaths sparked three weeks of rioting in France, officials said Thursday. - The two officers were charged Wednesday for "non-assistance to people in danger," which carries up to five years in prison and a maximum $97,400 fine, judicial officials said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

The decision came more than 15 months after Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, were killed as they hid from police in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

The Oct. 27, 2005, electrocutions triggered riots that raged through housing projects in troubled neighborhoods with large Arab and black populations. France's suburbs remain plagued by poverty, discrimination, tensions between youth and police and a sense of alienation from French society.

An internal police review of the electrocutions, released in December, faulted police officers for their handling of the incident. The report confirmed the officers had been chasing the teens before they were killed, which the Interior Ministry and police had initially denied.

The report said officers should immediately have notified French energy company EDF that the youths were hiding in the power station.

It also said that if officers had notified EDF, technicians could have intervened 15 minutes before the accident. Still, the report said such steps would not necessarily have prevented the electrocutions.

Under French law, everyone - not just police - must make an effort to help a person in danger as long as they or others aren't themselves threatened by bringing such aid. For example, although non-swimmers would not be required to jump into water to save a drowning person, they would be obligated to try to get help.

Judge Olivier Geron, in his decision, considered that the two officers should have tried to warn France's EDF to cut the power at the substation or take other measures to protect the teens.

Le Figaro daily on Thursday, citing judicial sources, identified the two officers as Sebastien G., 32, and Stephanie K., 29. Both had testified about the case before Geron in November, along with three other officers.

Tensions in France's suburbs are a particularly sore subject for Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who is running for president.

The Interior Ministry declined immediate comment on the decision.

Sonia Imloul, head of an association called Respect 93 that works to prevent youth crime in Paris' rough suburbs, said the police committed "homicide" and urged Sarkozy to apologize to the families.

"The youths died for nothing, and this death must not remain unpunished," she said. "If two youths had killed two police officers, by today they would already be imprisoned."

Local authorities hailed the charges.

"We have always said that it is important that light be shed on what happened that day and what to understand how two young people could die because they were afraid of being stopped by police," said Olivier Klein, assistant to the mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois.

Heavy snow causes airport closures in Britain, trains canceled

LONDON (AP) - Heavy snowfall shut five British airports Thursday and forced the cancellation of some train service in England and Wales. - Officials said that Luton and Stansted airports remained closed and advised travelers to contact their airlines before leaving home. Three other airports - Bristol, Birmingham, and Cardiff - reopened after workers cleared snow from their runways.

Heathrow airport, Europe's largest, remained open but reported 26 cancellations.

The Meteorological Office issued a severe weather warning for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and an industry group warned the transport failures could cost the economy hundreds of millions of pounds.

Forecasters predicted up to 6 inches of snow could fall over parts of the Midlands, Wales and Northern Ireland. London and southern England were expected to see up to 2 inches by midmorning.

Hundreds of people were left waiting at Stansted airport after the runway was closed. A Stansted spokesman said workers there had cleared the runway, but that continuing snowfall meant the airport might not reopen until later in the day.

The Midland Mainline train service said it was canceling some evening trains running north from London due to the weather.

Hundreds of endangered turtles die along Bangladesh coast

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) - Hundreds of endangered sea turtles have been found dead along Bangladesh's coast in the past two weeks, triggering concerns about pollution and local fishing practices, an official said Thursday. - A team of four scientists has launched an investigation into the deaths of the olive ridley turtles, said Jafar Ahmed, a top official in the government's marine fisheries department.

At least 65 of the sea turtles - ranging from 88 to 132 pounds - have been found dead along a three-mile stretch of beach near Cox's Bazar, one of the main cities on Bangladesh's coast. Hundreds more dead turtles have been found elsewhere in the area, and on a pair of islands. There is no clear total of exactly how many turtles have died.

Olive ridleys, the smallest of all sea turtles, are endangered. They often come ashore at this time of year to lay eggs, Ahmed said.

There have been reports of turtle deaths before, but not as many as this year, he said.

Ahmed would not give any specific reason for the spike in deaths, but said the use of illegal fishing nets near the shoreline has apparently increased recently. The fishermen do not properly release the turtles and often kill them, leaving them to wash ashore, he said.

Other turtles that come to lay eggs on the beaches may be killed by pollution, stray dogs or foxes, or captured by tourists, he said.

Mohammad Aminul Islam, the top administrator for the area, ordered local officials to teach people, from fishermen to tourists, to change their behavior.

"It's really sad that we couldn't protect the turtles," he said. "We are trying to mobilize resources to make a bigger plan to save the sea turtles in the future."

16 people from Chinese wedding party killed in road accident

Eds: UPDATES with state media now reporting that groom survived but was in critical condition.

BEIJING (AP) - An overcrowded passenger vehicle returning from a wedding party plunged off a cliff in central China, killing 16 members of an extended family, state media reported Thursday.

Another 16 people were injured - six of them seriously - when the small truck packed with 32 wedding guests "veered off the road and over a cliff" in central China's Hubei province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua had earlier reported that the groom, Li Zhimin, who was driving the truck, had died at the scene of the accident but later said he had survived but was in critical condition.

Liu Xiangdong, deputy head of the provincial safety office, blamed bad weather and overloading of the truck for Wednesday's accident.

"The truck was only allowed to carry four people, but the actual passenger number was eight times more," Liu was quoted as saying.

Mother Nature turns up the heat on Sapporo's acclaimed Snow Festival

SAPPORO, Japan (AP) - It was almost the Snow Festival that wasn't when an unexpected thaw struck opening day of the internationally renowned Sapporo ice sculpture fair.

Blame it on climate change or just bad luck, but temperatures well above freezing and a steady drizzle reduced thousands of visitors to slushing through coffee-colored mud. They watched helplessly as the lovingly hand-crafted crystalline artworks shrank before their eyes.

"I was really worried. Parts of the sculptures were falling off," said Masaya Ishikawa, chief of promotion at the Sapporo Tourist Association, which administers the event.

February temperatures normally average 26 degrees Fahrenheit in the city, but climbed to a balmy 41 degrees on Tuesday as the 58th annual Snow Festival got under way.

Yet even the warmest of heat waves would take weeks to melt the mammoth winter wonderland on display: sparkling three-story Japanese castles, stately Chinese palaces and elephant-sized Disney characters. It takes weeks, thousands of tons of snow and thousands more workers to make the biggest pieces.

And after the final details are chiseled into the frigid facades, the job's still not done.

The warm temperatures kept ice sculptors busy slapping on new snow and re-carving the melting images. Then, on Wednesday, the notorious snow squalls of Japan's northernmost island struck, pushing the mercury below freezing but burying everything in pillows of powder.

"We're busy around the clock," said Noriyuki Hiyoshi, 32, brushing off snow that obscured the ice relief spelling "Nissin," the name of an instant noodle maker that sponsored a towering sculpture called "Freedom."

In his hand was a bucket of wet snow the consistency of concrete, known in the trade as "sherbet," that he meticulously smoothed over the letters to rejuvenate the surface.

Every year, 2 million people, including thousands of foreigners, visit Sapporo for the open air festival that stretches several blocks through a downtown city park. This year, 17 international teams, including groups from the United States, Malaysia, Finland and China, vied for best sculpture.

The honor went to Hong Kong Thursday for its rendition of a coiled dragon.

The Sapporo Snow Festival dates to 1950, when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. Five years later, Japanese soldiers joined in, trucking in snow and helping in the packing and carving. Wooden frames, metal scaffolding and even power shovels are often involved.

Aside from the big sculptures, the park is dotted with dozens of smaller works, often made by citizen groups. To entertain the kids, there is a giant snow mountain for climbing and an ice slide to whiz down.

No matter what the weather, it all ends Monday. After that, the thousands of dump trucks that brought the snow in from the mountains start their return trip to cart the white stuff back.

Report: Chinese province to shame celebrities who skirt one-child policy

BEIJING (AP) - Officials in eastern China plan to name and shame rich families who ignore the country's strict one-child policy and simply pay the fine for having a second or third baby, state media said. - Zhang Wenbiao, head of the family planning commission in Zhejiang province, announced Wednesday that his agency plans to expose a few such cases in the near future, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"The public is very much aware that some celebrities simply pay money to have two or more children," Zhang was quoted as saying, without mentioning any names. "This kind of behavior must be stopped."

Xinhua said the province also has raised the amount of the fines for violators. In some cases, families will have to pay more than $130,000 for violating the policy, it said without giving details.

Different Chinese provinces and cities have their own methods of punishing family planning violators, including fines and work demotions. Fines are sometimes calculated based on a family's income.

China's family planning policy - implemented in the late 1970's - limits urban couples to one child and rural families to two to control the population and conserve natural resources.

The government said last month that although a recent survey showed that about 60 percent of Chinese people would prefer to have two children, there were no plans to relax the policy.

China has about 1.3 billion people - 20 percent of the global total. The government has pledged to keep the population under 1.36 billion by 2010 and under 1.45 billion by 2020.

Robbery suspect bites New Zealand police dog

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Man bites dog; dog bites back.

An Alsatian police dog named Edge cornered two suspects on a cliff side after a grocery store robbery in Napier, police said Thursday.

One of the suspects leapt down the slope and landed almost directly into the hands of police officers waiting at the bottom. The other suspect, who was armed with a knife, took on Edge and bit the dog in the struggle.

"He bit the dog first," Detective Sergeant John McGregor told The Associated Press.

Edge was unfazed, sinking his teeth into his attacker.

"The dog did win the fight, the offender ended up with one or two lacerations," McGregor said. "I think he knew he was going to get bitten - so he bit the dog first."

Two men were arrested and appeared in Napier District Court Wednesday, charged with aggravated robbery for the attack on the grocery store on Tuesday, during which the owner was stabbed. They were ordered to remain in police custody until Feb. 21.

Edge underwent emergency surgery last June after an offender stabbed him in the chest with a hunting knife. After surgery and a blood transfusion, the dog made a complete recovery.

16 people from Chinese wedding party killed in road accident

BEIJING (AP) - Sixteen people returning from a wedding party were killed when a vehicle driven by the groom plunged off a cliff in central China, state media reported Thursday.

The accident in Hubei province happened when 32 people from an extended family were returning from the wedding party when the small truck they were riding in "veered off the road and over a cliff," Xinhua News Agency reported.

Liu Xiangdong, deputy head of the provincial safety office, was quoted as saying six of the other 16 people were seriously injured.

He said bad weather and overloading of the truck were the cause of the accident.

"The truck was only allowed to carry four people, but the actual passenger number was eight times more," Liu was quoted as saying.

The groom, Li Zhimin, died at the scene of the accident, Xinhua said.

Near-miss at Israel's international airport

JERUSALEM (AP) - A collision between Israeli and Spanish airliners was averted Thursday, an official said. - An El Al plane was on final approach when an Iberian Airlines plane suddenly turned into its path, said Arieh Gilad, an official with the Israel Airports Authority, in an interview with Channel 2 TV.

The Israeli airliner managed to avoid the other plane, he said, when they were about 1.5 miles apart, about 20 seconds from a collision, he said.

Taiwan president wants island's name to replace 'China' on stamps

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday the name 'Taiwan' would soon replace 'China' on the island's stamps, a move likely to anger Beijing.

Labels and titles are sensitive issues in both Taiwan and China, which split amid civil war in 1949.

Beijing still claims sovereignty over the democratic, self-governing island, threatening war if Taiwan takes steps toward formalizing its de facto independence.

At present, Taiwanese stamps bear the island's official name, Republic of China, in English and Chinese.

"I believe we will soon see a satisfactory outcome, including the long-awaited terms 'Taiwan Post' and 'Taiwan stamp,"' Chen said in a response to a reader posted on the Presidential Office Web site.

Chen suggested state-owned "Chunghwa Post" - "Chunghwa" means "Chinese" - would change its name to "Taiwan Post."

Beijing is often enraged when Taiwan uses names that play down the island's cultural and historical ties with China.

Chen's comments on the stamps comes amid a campaign by his ruling Democratic Progressive Party to remove references to China and to late President Chiang Kai-shek.

Last week, the government said it was planning to change the names of two other state-run companies, Chinese Petroleum Corp. and China Shipbuilding Corp., to avoid confusion with their counterparts in communist China.

The new names will be Taiwan Chinese Petroleum Corp. and Taiwan International Shipbuilding Corp., a government official said.

In September, the government cut Chiang's name from the island's main international airport. The DPP, which sees Chiang as a ruthless dictator, is also lobbying to drop his name from a Taipei park commemorating him.

On Wednesday, the party approved a motion demanding to withdraw a military police honor guard from his grave. Chiang led his administration from China to Taiwan after his defeat by the communists on the mainland and was the island's president until his death in 1975.

The military recently also removed dozens of Chiang statues from its bases. Critics claim government pressure was behind the change, but the military says the statues were moved inside to protect them from erosion.

Officials say only 6 stadiums meet security requirements

ROME (AP) - Only six soccer stadiums in Italy meet security requirements, meaning that league games in other arenas will be played without fans following last week's death of a police officer during riots at a game in Sicily.

The Olympic Stadium in Rome made the list drawn up during a meeting of security and sports officials Thursday, while the San Siro stadium in Milan did not, the Interior Ministry said.

The other stadiums that were deemed safe were in Genoa, Siena, Cagliari, Turin and Palermo. Arenas in Florence, Naples and Bologna were among the 25 considered unsafe.

According to the findings of security standards at the stadiums, five of Sunday's Serie A games will be played behind closed doors, while five will be open to the public.

Officials said, however, that further checks on the stadiums would be carried out in the coming days. The officials also banned all night matches in the Serie A and in the lower divisions.

Banning fans from arenas that are not considered safe and other security measures were prompted by the killing of a policeman in rioting during and after a Serie A match in Sicily on Friday. Italian agency and television reports said police were holding a 17-year-old person who was being investigated for the murder of 38-year-old policeman Filippo Raciti.

Sports officials halted all games immediately after Raciti's death, and the Italian soccer federation said late Wednesday that league matches would resume this weekend.

The safety requirements at stadiums include having closed circuit surveillance cameras and turnstiles at the entrances.

AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani said officials have been restructuring the stadium to conform security measures for some time.

"We think it's deeply unfair to close a stadium like San Siro, for which we have already spent $26 million on works that are major," Galliani said on the club's Web site. "We have nothing to reproach ourselves."

Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, who plays with AC Milan, said empty stadiums are a disappointment.

"We can't talk about soccer and playing it without the fans," Gattuso said. "How enthusiastic can you get?"

A decree approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday also bans clubs from selling blocks of tickets to visiting fans and allows authorities to bar suspected hooligans from entering stadiums, even if they have not been convicted of crimes.

Other measures ban clubs from having economic ties with fan groups and stiffen prison terms for committing violence against police from five to 15 years.

The measures must be approved by parliament within 60 days to remain in effect. The Cabinet also approved a proposal for more long-term changes, putting club stewards in charge of guaranteeing security inside stadiums and involving the clubs in the ownership of the sports arenas, now owned by local authorities.

At least 38 people have been arrested, including 15 minors, following Friday's violence at Catania's stadium, where the local team was playing cross-island rival Palermo.

Florida man with no Austrian ties becomes country's honorary consul, largely by asking nicely

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Toby Unwin was an unlikely choice as Austria's newest honorary consul.

He has never been to Austria, has no Austrian heritage, and doesn't speak German, the country's official language. But he is a successful businessman with a clean background, and he did ask nicely.

The 33-year-old, originally from England, once read that people could become amateur diplomats by writing foreign officials and inquiring. After he made several attempts, Austria took him up on his offer.

The job doesn't pay, but Unwin does get the authority to issue emergency visas, the title of honorary consul, Republic of Austria, and a license plate that can get him out of tickets.

Unwin's role hasn't hurt his career, either: He's rubbed elbows with city and county mayors, and met others interested in doing business with him.

"I've gotten to meet all kinds of people, and doors have opened for me that otherwise were shut or I didn't know were there," Unwin said. "A lot of times you don't get to meet people with access to government. That's something I've really never had before."

An Austrian flag and a plaque on the door of Unwin's home, which includes an infinity pool and full bar, mark it as the official honorary consulate. Visiting Austrians with legal problems or entrepreneurs interested in doing business in Austria may meet Unwin's wife, child, or yellow Labrador.

Countries keep paid consulates and staff in Washington and other big cities, but use people like Unwin to inexpensively expand their reach. Like other consuls, Unwin is to be an ambassador to Americans and an ally for Austrians traveling or living here.

The U.S. Department of State says foreign governments have 1,038 honorary consuls in America, and Austria has just over two dozen of them.

To start the office in late October, Unwin received a map of Austria, stamps for official documents, a CD and sheet music of the national and European anthems, and three flags. He has been studying German and plans to visit Austria this summer.

"I actually find (German) quite difficult to learn, because I don't speak it every day," Unwin said. "I've never met an Austrian that doesn't speak flawless English, so they're all talking English to you anyway."

An interpreter is available for him to call if necessary.

Wolfgang Renezeder, spokesman for the Austrian Embassy in Washington, said the country wanted an Orlando consul because the area draws so many tourists and retirees.

Renezeder said about half of Austria's honorary consuls in the United States were from Austria, while the others typically have some other connection. The fact that Unwin does not wasn't as important as his meeting other requirements, such as passing a background check.

Honorary and regular consuls perform many of the same functions, but general consuls are paid and are much more likely to be citizens of the country they represent.

Most honorary consuls have another career. Unwin is in real estate and finance, and has written three books about asset protection and time management. Many, like Unwin, are wealthy.

Edward Lee Paul, Jr., honorary consul of Belize in North Carolina, spends between $25,000 and $30,000 of his own money a year on a small staff and consulate office in Wilmington. The 45-year-old optometrist isn't from Belize, but taught at a medical school there and has been involved in mission work for the country.

He was appointed in 2005, and had to cut back clinical hours because he spends so much time as consul.

"To be candid, it has been much more involved than I anticipated, but I've enjoyed it tremendously," Paul said. "I'm passionate about the country of Belize."

Unwin has already helped one Austrian arrested for allegedly keeping a rental car too long. The man thought he rented it for 12 weeks, but the car company thought it was one.

Unwin arranged for someone to bail the man out and helped negotiate an agreement with the car company so the charges would be dropped.

"I want to be seen by the guys in Washington to be a good representative of them," Unwin said.

MOSCOW (AP) - Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich is being treated at a Moscow clinic specializing in cancer treatment, two Russian newspapers reported Thursday.

The Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing unidentified hospital officials, reported that his condition "is very worrying for doctors. Only the closest people are now being allowed to the great musician."

Rostropovich, 79, was hospitalized for unspecified reasons last week in Paris, where he maintains a residence, and later returned to Moscow, according to his managers in New York.

Komsomolskaya Pravda and another daily, the Gazeta, reported that Rostropovich was being treated at the Blokhin Institute in Moscow, Russia's leading cancer clinic.

Natalia Dollezhal, a spokeswoman for Rostropovich, declined to comment on the reports. On Tuesday, Dollezhal said he was in satisfactory condition and was getting ready to celebrate his 80th birthday on March 27. Rostropovich's manager in New York, Ronald Wilford, told The Associated Press on Tuesday: "It does not look good."

Rostropovich's hospitalization was revealed when the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had visited him in a Moscow hospital on Tuesday, but the Kremlin did not identify the hospital or disclose his condition.

Rostropovich went into exile from the Soviet Union with his family in 1974 after housing dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn for four years, which cost him his Soviet citizenship.

When hardline communists tried to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, Rostropovich rushed to the Russian parliament building to oppose the coup.

Three years after his exile, he became music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. He held that the position until 1994 and retains the title conductor laureate.

Rostropovich had an operation in the fall, but weeks later conducted two concerts in Japan celebrating the centenary of his late former teacher, Dmitri Shostakovich, Wilford said.

Toilet training 101

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - It's never too late for toilet training.

Some Malaysian colleges may soon offer courses on how to keep public restrooms clean, the national news agency reported Thursday.

The effort is meant to help Malaysia's public lavatories become as hygienic as those in countries such as Britain and Singapore, Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Robert Lau was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

"Clean toilets cannot merely be judged by the eyes," Lau was quoted as saying. "This matter also involves the use of cleaning equipment, soap, fragrances and proper tissues."

Courses would involve managing washrooms by the highest standards in design and sanitation technology, said Lau.

Malaysia's government recently said it wanted to start a "toilet revolution" in a country where public restrooms have long nauseated citizens and tourists with their lack of basic items such as toilet paper, soap and sometimes even toilet seats.

Lau said his ministry plans to soon introduce a system for the public to lodge complaints about filthy toilets via cell phone text messages.

Other recent measures have included setting up modern self-cleaning toilets in popular shopping districts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, and scrapping the business licenses of restaurants found to have foul lavatories.