DENVER - A huge avalanche knocked two cars off a mountain pass Saturday on the main highway to one of the state's largest ski areas, shortly after crowds headed through on the way to the lifts, authorities said.

Eight people were rescued from the buried vehicles and all were taken to area hospitals, said state Patrolman Eric Wynn. Details of their conditions were not available.

"Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths," Stacey Stegman of the transportation department said of the massive slide on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass, about 50 miles west of Denver on the way to Winter Park Resort.

Crews were probing the area for other vehicles, including any others that may have gone off the road, Stegman said.

The avalanche hit between 10 a.m. and 10:30 and was about 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, Stegman said. The area usually has slides 2 to 3 feet deep because crews trigger them before more snow can accumulate, said Spencer Logan of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Three snow storms in as many weeks have dumped more than 4 feet of snow on parts of Colorado and authorities haven't had time to test all slide areas, Spencer said.

"This is a tremendous amount of snow to come down the mountain for us," Stegman said.

Mile Cikara, who was headed to Winter Park to ski, told KMGH-TV in Denver that he joined others furiously digging out victims. "I along with 30 other people grabbed shovels and started digging to get people out. I had a shovel but people were using their hands, skis, ski poles, whatever, to dig out," until rescue teams arrived, he said.

The timing meant most traffic headed to the ski area had already passed through.

"Good thing it didn't happen a couple of hours earlier," said Darcy Morse, a Winter Park spokeswoman. On an average January weekend day, the resort draws more than 10,000 skiers and snowboarders, with lifts opening at 8:30 or 9 a.m.

Wynn said the pass was closed and would not reopen until Sunday at the earliest.

Colorado has been digging out for the past three weeks after back-to-back blizzards and more snow falling Friday.

The Denver area was blanketed with up to 8 inches of snow Friday, while nearly a foot fell in the foothills west of the city before the storm moved into New Mexico.

Crews in Colorado have worked around the clock to clear roads so residents could get to stores for food and medicine.

Agriculture officials also were trying to determine how to deal with the carcasses of thousands of livestock that were killed in last week's blizzard or starved afterward.

Bus blast kills 15 in Sri Lanka; officials blame Tamil Tigers

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A bomb on a Sri Lankan passenger bus killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more Saturday, officials said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for the country's second bus bombing in as many days.

The blast, which police suspect was triggered by a female suicide bomber, appeared to signal an escalation of the bloody ethnic conflict ravaging the island nation off southern India.

Police blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the bus attack in the coastal town of Meetiyagoda, 60 miles south of the capital, Colombo, and near a number of popular resort towns.

Though violence has risen sharply in Sri Lanka over the past year, most of it has occurred in the ethnic Tamil-dominated north and east, where the rebels run their own de facto state.

Officials said the bus wreckage indicated that a suicide bomber may have been behind the attack, which ripped through the bus on the crowded southern coast road early Saturday afternoon.

"There is a female body inside the bus, and looking at the damage the blast has caused around her, we suspect that she could have been a suicide bomber," said senior police official Upul Ariyaratne.

About 65 passengers had been on bus, Ariyaratne said, and some 40 had been admitted to hospitals.

The Tigers have made suicide bombings a hallmark of their two-decade campaign to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamils, who suffered years of discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated government.

However, the Tigers denied any role in Saturday's bloodshed.

"We totally deny that (the bus bombing). We did not do that," the rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, told The Associated Press by telephone from the group's northern stronghold, Kilinochchi.

Sri Lankan officials said the two bombings - six people were killed in a similar bus attack Friday on a highway northeast of Colombo - indicate that a stepped-up government military campaign has weakened the rebels, officially called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE.

"The LTTE is losing their strength in the east. Because of this, they are targeting innocent civilians," said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.

Both bus explosions came days after the rebels warned the government of "serious repercussions" for government airstrikes they said had killed 16 Tamil civilians, including eight children, in a Tiger-controlled northwestern area. The military said it targeted only rebel positions in the airstrikes Tuesday.

"This looks like a retaliatory attack for the air force raids," said Sunanda Deshapriya, an independent political analyst.

"The LTTE has gone back to its previous tactic of attacking Sinhalese civilians," Deshapriya said. "It wants to send a message through terror again."

In other violence Saturday, three separate roadside bombings, blamed on the insurgents, killed four soldiers and a civilian in the north.

A 2002 cease-fire between the rebels and the government has come under serious threat as more than 3,600 fighters and civilians were killed in renewed fighting in 2006. The cease-fire still officially holds.

The civil war has claimed about 68,000 lives, and displaced 1.6 million people.

Associated Press writers Dilip Ganguly and Ruwan Weerakoon contributed to this report.

Toys 'R' Us criticized for denying New Year baby prize over NYC mother's residency

NEW YORK (AP) - Toys "R" Us Inc. has come under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 savings bond prize in a contest for the New Year's first baby because the company said the girl's mother is not a legal U.S. resident.

The company's decision - which came less than a month after it opened its first mainland China store, in Shanghai - has infuriated some Chinese-American advocates.

Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials. She won a random drawing held to break a tie with two other babies entered in the contest, Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said.

The Wayne, N.J.-based company had said the prize would go to the first American baby born in 2007.

Although promotional materials called for "all expectant New Year's mothers" to apply for the contest, Waugh said eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal residents. Many sweepstakes have such requirements, Waugh said.

Although Yuki was born an American citizen, Waugh said the contest administrator was told that Yuki's mother "was not a legal resident of the United States."

Attempts to reach Yuki's parents, Yan Zhu Liu and Han Lin, 22, for comment were unsuccessful early Saturday. Their immigration status was not clear.

The prize went instead to runner-up Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga. The third baby in the running was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.

Some Chinese-American advocates say the company's decision smacks of second-class citizenship.

"People are just pretty much outraged," said John Wang, president of the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center.

Albert Wang, an attorney, has launched an e-mail campaign on the issue. "She was deprived of $25,000 intended to be used for her college education because of who her parents are," he said.

Janet Keller, a grandmother of the winning baby, said revisiting the contest would be unfair.

"She was disqualified - that should be it," Keller said. "Don't go changing your mind now."

On the Net:

Toys "R" Us: http://www.toysrus.com/

Teen accused in Wash. school shooting has history of mental illness, health expert says

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A teenager accused of fatally shooting a fellow student in a high school hallway has a history of mental illness and may have schizophrenia, according to a report from a mental health expert.

Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting Wednesday. Police said he admitted to killing Samnang Kok, but refused to say why. Chanthabouly was being held on $1 million bail.

Penny Hobson of Pierce County Jail's mental health staff interviewed Chanthabouly after his arrest and wrote that he was confused at times, somewhat depressed and having hallucinations.

He "appears to have difficulty with concentration" and said he has trouble remembering things since he began suffering psychotic symptoms about two years ago, she wrote. She said he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital two years ago after attempting suicide.

Chanthabouly told her that medication helped but did not eliminate his symptoms, she wrote. "Based on his history, there may (be) competency concerns."

Hobson noted that Chanthabouly's judgment was within normal limits and "currently appears adequate." He also had a good understanding of his current circumstances, she said.

All inmates undergo routine screening when first booked, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. It helps to determine whether a prisoner needs special attention or needs to be segregated from the main jail population.

Chanthabouly was put into a "crisis cell" his first night in jail so he could be closely monitored, Troyer said.

Witnesses told police Chanthabouly pointed a handgun at Kok, 17, and fired a shot into his face at Henry Foss High School. The shooter stood over Kok and fired twice more, the statement said. The gunman then fled the building.

Public defenders representing Chanthabouly have reviewed Hobson's evaluation, and said they were examining options for his defense.

Oprah Winfrey takes AIDS test, encourages pupils at her school to do the same

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Oprah Winfrey took an HIV test Saturday and encouraged students at her new school and their loved ones to follow suit, in a bid to inspire more openness about the disease that is devastating South Africa's youth.

At an open day for families at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, the talk show host promised the 152 pupils free AIDS testing, counseling and - if necessary - treatment.

"To be a great leader you must be of sound mind, body and spirit," Winfrey said. "Part of leadership is having the courage to demonstrate true action. Today I have taken the test to demonstrate why it's so important."

Winfrey's test results be kept confidential, as will those of the girls, according to a statement issued on behalf of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation. Taking an AIDS test was not mandatory for students, and results will not affect their participation at the school.

An estimated 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million people are infected with the AIDS virus. In 2006, an estimated 950 people died per day from AIDS-related diseases, while 1,400 were infected each day - a total of 530,000 new infections - according to an authoritative report by the Actuarial Society of South Africa and the Medical Research Council.

The report warned that fewer than half of South Africa's 15-year olds will live to see their 60th birthday because of the pandemic and that the youth faced a "bleak future."

Health authorities and AIDS activist groups say the stigmatization surrounding the virus and resulting reluctance to be tested is especially alarming. Young women are especially at risk, and many of the girls at Winfrey's school come from families affected by AIDS.

Winfrey selected the 11- to 12-year-old girls for the school from 3,500 applications across the country. To qualify, they had to show both academic and leadership potential and have a household income of no more than $787 a month.

Winfrey's luxurious academy opened last Tuesday at a ceremony attended by Spike Lee, Tina Turner and former South African President Nelson Mandela, who inspired Winfrey in 2000 to undertake the project.

Built on 52 acres, the 28-building campus resembles a luxury hotel, with state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science labs and a library, theater and wellness center. Each girl lives in a two-bedroom suite. It will eventually have 450 students.

Winfrey, who herself had an impoverished childhood, plans to build a house on the campus so she can monitor the girls' progress.

Rain-related death toll in Brazil reaches 31

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Firefighters recovered the body of a woman whose home was engulfed in a mudslide, and her husband died from injuries Saturday, as the death toll from days of heavy rains in southeast Brazil reached 31.

Floods and mudslides have driven thousands of people from their homes over the past week, and more rains were forecast for the weekend.

Firefighters retrieved the body of a 62-year-old woman beneath mud that engulfed her hillside home in the city of Novo Friburgo, some 95 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Her husband died of injuries in the hospital, raising the death toll in that city to 12, according to a Civil Defense spokeswoman. Twenty-six people have died in Rio de Janeiro state, about 310 miles northeast of Sao Paulo.

Authorities Saturday reported the deaths of two other people in mudslides in Sao Paulo state. On Friday, three people died when a bus skidded out of control, an accident authorities blamed on the heavy rains.

The mudslides and flash floods have forced more than 12,000 people to abandon their homes for shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings, officials said.

Most of the victims were poor people who live in shantytowns built precariously on hillsides.

Mudslides are a chronic problem in Rio de Janeiro state during the summer rainy season. Clearing grass and shrubs from the hillsides to make way for shantytowns causes erosion, leaving the communities vulnerable to mudslides.

In recent years, the state government has attempted to remove people from the most dangerous hillsides, but people with no access to affordable housing continue to build crude brick houses on the steepest slopes.

Boy, 13, killed by NY train was a budding graffiti artist; struck after finishing painting

NEW YORK (AP) - A 13-year-old boy had just finished painting graffiti near railroad tracks he was struck and killed by a commuter train, authorities and friends said Saturday.

A Long Island Rail Road train hit Ari Kraft between stations in Queens during the evening rush hour Friday, police said. The city's medical examiner said he died of "blunt impact injuries to the head, torso and extremities."

The teen and three pals had been painting on the elevated tracks near a station, his friends said. As he crossed the tracks to head home, the train, carrying about 1,000 people, slammed into him. Train service was suspended for hours.

Friends said he often created large murals with inscriptions like "Remember 9/11" - under the tag name "Corporal."

FBI: Atlanta man tried to blackmail Oprah Winfrey with tapes of employee badmouthing her

CHICAGO (AP) - A man has been charged with trying to extort $1.5 million from Oprah Winfrey by threatening to release recorded telephone conversations he claimed would hurt her reputation, according to the FBI and published reports.

Keifer Bonvillain, 36, targeted a person identified only as "a public figure and the owner of a Chicago-based company," according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Saturday that Bonvillain's target was Winfrey.

Bonvillain, of Atlanta, was arrested Dec. 15 in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel and released on $20,000 bail. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Chicago on Monday.

According to the complaint, Bonvillain met a California-based employee of the Chicago company at a party more than two years ago, then recorded conversations with the employee about the owner and her business.

In mid-October he sent the owner an e-mail, telling her an employee said awful things about her, the complaint states.

A month later, Bonvillain sent a letter saying he had tapes of the conversations, an FBI agent alleges in the complaint. In response, another associate of the company called Bonvillain and learned he had taped 12 hours of those discussions.

Over the next few weeks, Bonvillain told the associate he wanted to publish a book based on the tapes and claimed he had received offers of $500,000 to $3 million from tabloids and book publishers, the complaint said.

"There are a lot of people who would want these," Bonvillain said, according to the complaint.

The associate, who was working with the FBI, agreed to a $1.5 million price, wired Bonvillain $3,000 in earnest money and arranged to meet him in the parking lot, the complaint said. Bonvillain was arrested the next day.

Bonvillain told the Sun-Times the charges were a misunderstanding.

"There is nothing to it," he said. "It's nothing. It was a big mix-up."

A call Saturday to a number for a Bonvillain in Atlanta reached a recorded message saying the line had been disconnected.

Bonvillain's attorney, Kent Carlson, told the Tribune and Sun-Times he could neither confirm nor deny details in the complaint. Phone and e-mail messages left by The Associated Press for Carlson were not immediately returned Saturday.

Winfrey was out of the country Saturday. There was no immediate response to phone messages seeking comment from Harpo Productions Inc., Winfrey's company, or the U.S. attorney's office.

Man crashes through ceiling while trying to evade officers

MOULTRIE, Ga. (AP) - A search for an elusive criminal came to an unexpected end when the man crashed through a ceiling from his attic refuge and landed near the officers who had come to arrest him, police said.

"Normally you have to crawl up there and root them out," said Capt. Tommy Rabon, head of the Moultrie Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division. "But he came out on his own - the hard way."

Officers had gone to a home Wednesday with a bail bondsman to apprehend Danny Butts, 21, for a probation violation in adjoining Brooks County. He was also on probation in Colquitt County, which includes Moultrie, for theft.

When police arrived at the home, they became suspicious when the brightly lit interior suddenly went dark, police said.

An occupant said Butts wasn't there, but the officers spotted debris below an attic entrance and while they continued to question the woman, Butts fell through the ceiling onto a bedroom floor, police said.

"He went up into the attic trying to evade them," Rabon said. "He fell through."

Prison riot in El Salvador leaves at least 17 inmates dead

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - A riot that broke out at an overcrowded maximum-security prison in western El Salvador left at least 17 inmates dead, officials said Saturday.

The riot was sparked late Friday at the prison in Apanteos, 40 miles west of San Salvador, when a jailed gang member got into an argument with a guard as inmates were going into their cells to go to sleep.

The prisoner grabbed the guard and other inmates around them began fighting and tearing down the prison's flimsy interior walls.

The guards then fled as hundreds of prisoners battled each other. It was not immediately clear whether the fighting prisoners were armed or how the 17 were killed.

Deputy police director Luis Tobar Prieto said officials had regained control and all those killed were prisoners. Several people were injured in the melee, although none seriously, he said.

The prison, with a listed capacity of 1,800 people, houses more than 2,000 prisoners, many considered to be the most dangerous in the country. Police buses carried dozens of prisoners to the Santa Ana prison on Saturday, an effort to ease overcrowding and separate rowdy prisoners.

Central American jails have long struggled with overcrowding and deadly riots that are often sparked by fights between rival gangs.

Overcrowding is fueled in part by a regional gang crackdown that has filled prisons with rival groups.

In Guatemala, a gang was blamed for initiating riots that left 35 inmates dead in 2005. In El Salvador, 31 inmates were killed in 2004 during a battle between gang and non-gang prisoners. And a rash of violence in Honduran prisons killed more than 180 prisoners in 2004-2005.

Students protest pajama ban at school

WEST FARGO, N.D. (AP) - High school wrestler Dusty Holmes used to wear pajama bottoms to school, saying it helped him stay relaxed on the day of his matches. Not anymore.

Administrators at West Fargo High School decided to ban all PJs after a teacher complained last month.

The students have been circulating a petition to reverse the decision.

"We just wanted to be a little more casual; more down-to-earth," said Holmes, a junior.

Principal Gary Clark said the school is not strict about what its 1,600 students wear, but trying to decide which pajamas are proper would be too difficult.

"It's just what's appropriate for in schools," Clark said. "It just makes more sense to us for pajamas to be worn at home."

Sharon Holmes said her son's pajamas were anything but offensive.

"I've seen the way some of those kids come in and out of that school, and believe me, (pajama pants are) the least offensive thing," she said.

Mother, son arrested after stealing snake, returning to pet store for care instructions

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) - A mother and son accused of stealing a snake from a pet store were arrested when they returned to the store and asked for books on how to care for the animal, police said.

Store clerks recognized the suspects from surveillance video taken during the theft and stalled them until police arrived.

The video showed the 15-year-old taking the 30-inch baby boa from its cage, wrapping it around his neck and hiding it with his jacket, while his mother acted as a lookout, police said.

The video appeared to show the head of the red-tail boa sticking out of the boy's jacket collar, police said.

Mother and son were arrested Dec. 22. The snake, worth $300, was recovered from their home and returned to the Petland in this Cleveland suburb, police said.

Sebrina Hill, 35, faces theft charges and is scheduled to appear in court next month. Her son was booked and placed in the custody of relatives, police said.

2-story snowman causes traffic jam in neighborhood

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Snowzilla may be a smash hit with shutterbugs, but the towering snowman has detractors closer to home.

Some neighbors of the two-story high snowman say they're fed up with the hordes of gawkers clogging their street.

"When you get 20 people out there in their cars, now the whole street comes to a stop and nobody can get through," said Anthony Bahler, who can see Snowzilla from his front window. "They just stand out there, in the middle of road, talking about a snowman."

Bahler's neighbor, Billy Powers, supervised construction of the original Snowzilla last year. Through the Internet, it became a media sensation, drawing crowds of visitors and TV crews from Japan and Russia before it melted in the spring.

This year, Powers resurrected the snowman and its giant hat made from tomato cages, corncob pipe and beer-bottle eyes. At 22 feet, the new Snowzilla is six feet taller than its predecessor.

Once again, traffic is streaming through the neighborhood.

"Everybody likes it," Powers said. "That's the reason I do it, really, I like the smiling faces."

Mike Schmitz, whose family lives next door to Bahler, would prefer if Snowzilla were somewhere else.

"If it's such a public thing, you'd think the community could get together and find a place to do it," he said.

Three firefighters injured in crash, fire at Philly firehouse

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A fire truck apparently slipped out of gear, crashed into the back of a firehouse and caught fire Saturday, injuring three firefighters, officials said.

Firefighters were moving the truck at the station in the city's West Oak Lane section when it lurched forward, said Daniel Williams, executive fire chief.

Investigators believe the truck's transmission had jumped out of gear, but the exact cause remained under investigation, Williams said.

A second company was brought in to help fight the blaze.

The firehouse, used to house reserve fire trucks, was seriously damaged. Two vehicles also were damaged.

One firefighter was hit by the truck but was listed in good condition, and two other firefighters were released after treatment for smoke inhalation, Williams said.

Autistic teen restrained by Miami police dies at hospital after monthlong coma

MIAMI (AP) - An autistic teenager who had been in a coma since a confrontation with police officers last month has died.

Kevin Colindres, 18, died Friday. He had been hospitalized since officers were called to his home after he had an outburst.

Stuart Grossman, who represents the parents in a lawsuit against the city, said Friday the officers pinned Colindres to the ground and held his ankles in the air, cutting off his breathing. The lawsuit claims the officers' actions caused the teen to stop breathing and left him comatose.

"It's obvious from the extent of his brain damage that he had been asphyxiated by the police for quite some time," Grossman said.

An autopsy was pending.

As the family had done three times before, Colindres' sister called police Dec. 12, after the teenager became combative with family members. When an officer arrived minutes later, she found Colindres calm and sitting on a couch, according to police.

Police have said Colindres tried to run away after a sister insisted he be taken to a crisis treatment center. The lawsuit claims police threw the teen down when he started to stand.

"It looks like he got his foot caught in the base of the couch, goes flat down and smacks his head on the ground," Chief John Timoney said Friday.

Timoney said the officers restrained Colindres appropriately. They never put their weight on him, and were calming him as he lay on the ground, Timoney said.