MEXICO CITY - A human head washes up on an Acapulco beach. Protesters hassle visitors at makeshift checkpoints in the colonial city of Oaxaca. And in Mexico City, leftist demonstrators turn the tourist draws of Reforma Avenue and the Zocalo plaza into sprawling, ragtag protest camps.

Growing political unrest and drug violence are making foreigners think twice about visiting Mexico, where the $11.8 billion tourism industry is the country's third-largest legal source of income, after oil and remittances from migrants in the United States.

Mexico has been struggling since last fall, when Hurricane Wilma hit the country's biggest tourism moneymaker, Cancun.

No tourists have been reported hurt in Mexico City, Oaxaca or Acapulco, but hotels are being hit by cancellations of thousands of reservations.

In Mexico City alone, hotels, restaurants and stores are losing $23 million a day, according to the city's Commerce, Services and Tourism Chamber. Some businesses have threatened to stop paying taxes unless the government cracks down on the demonstrations.

Protesters in Oaxaca, claiming fraud in the state gubernatorial race, have taken over the picturesque downtown to pressure Gov. Ulises Ruiz to step down. They forced the cancellation of an ethnic festival, and tourists must pass through checkpoints to reach the arch-ringed main plaza.

Protesters want to use the unrest to "force the population that relies on tourism to pressure the government," said Jose Escobar, head of the Oaxaca employers' federation.

In the Pacific resort of Acapulco, drug gangs are battling for control of lucrative smuggling and sales routes. Human heads have been dumped in front of government offices and in the glittering resort's bay. There have been gun battles on the streets.

In Mexico City, supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have taken over streets to press election officials for a re-count in the disputed July 2 presidential elections.

And tourism officials say things could get worse.

"If this goes on for a week or 10 days more, some hotels are going to be in a desperate situation," said Carlos Mackinlay, director of Mexico City tourism promotion.

Double-decker buses no longer tour the tree-lined Reforma, which connects the city's Chapultepec Park to the historic center but is now closed to traffic. Museums, restaurants and hotels stand largely empty.

Tourists who brave the demonstrations must skirt rickety gas cookers and duck under ropes holding up tarps as they hike back to their hotels. Mayor Alejandro Encinas said Thursday that city officials would guarantee access to hotels.

For now, helmetless motorcycle "taxi" drivers offer white-knuckle, 15-peso ($1.35) rides on the backs of their bikes, navigating past lawn chairs, cots and tents.

Korean businesswoman Sophia Noh, 28, paced outside the blockaded stock exchange building Thursday, wondering how she was going to get in for a meeting.

"This has made things harder," Noh said. "I think both sides should begin to negotiate."

Across the street, 60-year-old tourist Elvira Gotuzzo of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was trying to rent a car to get out of town. She and her family were too scared to sightsee in the city's 7-century-old downtown, which is occupied by demonstrators in ragged tents.

"This is a crime," Gotuzzo said. "It's such a shame!"

Despite growing calls from President Vicente Fox and even Lopez Obrador's own supporters, city officials who are allied with the leftist candidate have refused to take action.

In Mexico City's financial and cultural heart, loudspeakers blare salsa music and harangues about alleged vote fraud.

The protesters claim the presidential election was tainted by fraud, giving conservative Felipe Calderon a narrow lead. The case is before an electoral tribunal, which has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the election.

Things aren't likely to improve soon.

"This is only the first step," said protester Fernando Martinez, helping block a downtown office building. "Next, we're going after the airports."

Eastern U.S. continues to sweat under heat wave; relief in sight

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The searing heat wave that scorched the East and Midwest for nearly a week tormented beachgoers Thursday before finally breaking, leaving behind scattered power outages and at least 14 deaths.

More than a dozen states, from Georgia to Connecticut, were under heat warnings as temperatures rose into the 90s or higher for at least the third consecutive day. The early afternoon temperature in Virginia Beach was 97 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 111.

The mercury climbed to 96 in New York City and Philadelphia, 94 in Boston and 98 in Baltimore. Some relief was expected after nightfall, when temperatures were forecast to fall into the upper 80s, with drier air.

Since Sunday, authorities have confirmed that heat played a role in at least 16 deaths in the Midwest and East, plus one in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas. Heat was suspected in at least eight other deaths.

In Illinois, at least six heat-related deaths were confirmed this week in Cook County, and police believe another six deaths on Wednesday could be heat-related.

But the relatively few deaths in Chicago provided evidence that the city had learned from its experience in 1995, when a similar heat wave killed more than 700 people in four days, said Eric Klinenberg, who wrote "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago," after the 1995 heat wave.

"I would say Chicago has become a national leader for heat emergency planning," said Klinenberg, a New York University sociologist. He said there were electronic billboards on major roads, public service announcements throughout the day on local media and the city checked on thousands of vulnerable residents and provided transportation to cooling centers.

But Klinenberg said the heat wave that earlier left more than 160 people dead in California is evidence that many other communities are not prepared to do what it takes to protect residents.

"Most cities only take heat waves seriously when they are experiencing their own disaster first hand and usually the responsiveness comes too late," he said.

In New Jersey, authorities in Newark confirmed that two elderly people found dead in their home Thursday had died because of the hot weather. Relatives told New York's WABC-TV that both had mental problems and kept their windows closed out of fear of intruders. The home had a fan, but no air conditioning.

In northern Indiana, heat killed an inmate at the mostly un-air-conditioned Indiana State Prison and contributed to the death of another, officials said Thursday.

Four deaths were reported in Maryland, including three elderly victims who did not have air conditioning, officials said. In Pennsylvania, a 74-year-old custodian was found dead in bed, his heart disease aggravated by the heat. In Oklahoma, a 92-year-old man found near his car Tuesday died of heat-related causes.

Temperatures fell Thursday in Chicago and Detroit, and cooler air should arrive by Friday in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

But along the Virginia Beach oceanfront, the sand was still too hot to trod barefoot. Edward Landry joined hundreds of other vacationers lounging beneath giant umbrellas.

"It's tolerable as long as you're around some water and the breeze is blowing somewhat and you can get wet," said Landry, 39, who drank bottled beer as his wife rubbed sunscreen on his back.

Kristy Landry, 35, was less forgiving of the weather during the couple's trip, which included stops all over the hot East Coast. "The humidity is horrible," she said. "I knew it was going to be humid, but it's sweltering."

Consolidated Edison, the utility that serves much of the New York metropolitan area, said underground electrical problems on Manhattan's East side left 22,400 people without power. On Long Island, 12,000 people were in the dark.

Thousands of customers in downtown Stamford, Conn., lost power after demand caused some underground lines to catch fire and put others at risk of extensive damage. Some businesses were evacuated.

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon S. Corzine waived admission fees at 13 of the state's swimming areas Thursday.

In New York, the heat was not unusual for Iman Arbab, 57, a native of Sudan who sells newspapers from a crate outside Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

"For me, 100 degrees - it's normal," Arbab said Thursday morning.

But even he admitted he was getting a little fed up. "When you're young, you don't feel it," Arbab said. "When you get old, you feel it."

- Associated Press writers Daniela Flores in Trenton, N.J.; Sam Spies in Raleigh, N.C.; Desmond Butler in New York; Don Babwin in Chicago; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Typhoon Prapiroon slams into southern China, bringing heavy rain, winds

BEIJING (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated as Typhoon Prapiroon slammed into southern China Thursday, pounding an already battered area with more heavy rains and winds.

The storm packed 75 mph winds as it made landfall over a stretch of coastal Guangdong province, according to the state meteorological bureau. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Authorities evacuated about 400,000 residents in low-lying areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan island, a popular tourist destination 370 miles southwest of Hong Kong, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Ferry and railway services linking Hainan to the mainland were also suspended.

Some 84,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Guangxi, a poor, mountainous region west of Guangdong, Xinhua said. It didn't break down the evacuations in other areas.

State television showed raincoat-clad reporters braving downpours and wind gusts that bent trees and whipped up huge waves along Guangdong's coast.

Stormy weather was forecast through Saturday for several southern provinces. The storm was moving northwest at 9 mph to 12 mph, the meteorological bureau said.

Prapiroon, named after the Thai rain god, is the region's eighth major storm of the season.

The area has been recovering from Typhoon Kaemi, which killed at least 35 people and left dozens missing last week, and Tropical Storm Bilis, which sparked floods and landslides that killed more than 600 people last month.

Prapiroon, which killed six people in the Philippines, is "as strong, if not stronger" than Bilis, said Gao Shuanzhu, a senior official at the China's national observatory, according to Xinhua.

More than 60,000 fishing boats and other vessels returned to port in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces, official media said. Rescue teams throughout the area were alert for floods and landslides.

In Hong Kong, hundreds of flights were delayed, canceled or redirected, stranding more than 3,000 passengers. At least one person was injured Wednesday when empty shipping containers were toppled by high winds at a container terminal in the city.

A cargo vessel and barge ran aground on islands off the territory's coast, said Jack Chak, a spokesman for the Government Flying Service. Dozens of crew members were rescued, but there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

Philippine authorities said two people were also missing following lightning storms and flooding caused by Prapiroon, which struck the country as a tropical storm. About 15,000 people were evacuated as parts of the northern Philippines remained inundated.

More than 1,460 people have been killed during this year's typhoon season, which started unusually early. Chinese officials estimate more than 1 million houses have been damaged and millions of acres of farmland and forests destroyed.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed Thursday for $4.8 million to provide food, tents and quilts for 240,000 people left homeless by floods caused by typhoons.

Tropical Storm Chris running out of steam in eastern Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Tropical Storm Chris rapidly ran out of steam in the eastern Caribbean, losing so much strength Thursday that forecasters who once thought it could become a hurricane said it likely would weaken to a tropical depression by evening instead.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Chris had top maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, just 1 mph above the minimum to be a named storm and down from 65 mph Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The center of the storm was about 225 miles east-southeast of Grand Turk Island.

The third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was moving west-northwest near 12 mph and was expected to move away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands later Thursday, forecasters said.

"It's pretty much a skeleton at this point," hurricane specialist Jamie Rhome said. He said the thunderstorms that a tropical system needs to grow have been blown away by other winds in the atmosphere. Forecasters now think it isn't very likely that it will become a hurricane, but intensity predictions are tough to make.

"Some storms do make a comeback and some storms never ever come back," he said.

The hurricane center said the storm would likely bring 1 to 3 inches of rain to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the southeastern Bahamas. Parts of the Dominican Republic could see 5 inches of rain, enough to cause some flooding and mudslides.

The government of the Bahamas downgraded its hurricane watch to a tropical storm watch for the Turks and Caicos Islands and for the southeastern Bahamas, including the Acklins, Crooked Island, The Inaguas, Mayaguana and the Ragged Islands. A tropical storm watch for the north coast of the Dominican Republic was canceled Thursday.

Authorities in the Bahamas, an archipelago of 700 islands accustomed to stormy weather, had earlier urged people to stock up on water and canned food and to board up their windows as the storm approached.

In Staniel Cay, about 75 miles south of Nassau, the Bahamas' capital city, boat owners secured their vessels and tracked the storm's progress through the eastern Caribbean.

"We're just battening down the hatches and tying everything down," said Ernie Sullivan, a boat owner at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. "You just can't say if this thing will pick up steam."

Some 600 tourists evacuated Culebra and Vieques, small islands off Puerto Rico's east coast, as the storm approached, and Royal Caribbean said it was altering the itineraries of three cruise ships to avoid the storm.

People in the islands of Antigua and St. Maarten awoke to a light rain.

In Anguilla, Chris brought heavy rain and strong winds overnight but the storm was much less severe than expected because it shifted to the north at the last minute, said Elizabeth Klute, director of the disaster management agency for the British Caribbean territory.

"It just kind of skirted us," Klute said. "It's moving on."

More than 200 miles overhead, the international space station's astronauts got a different view of the storm during a six-hour spacewalk and came to the same conclusion as meteorologists on the ground.

"Incredible. It's not as bad out there," said the European Space Agency's Thomas Reiter.

Last season was the worst for hurricanes in more than 150 years of records. A record number of tropical storms and hurricanes formed, including the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane expert William Gray's team on Thursday revised its forecast for 2006, saying the season would likely bring seven hurricanes rather than nine, and only three of those would be intense rather than five. Another monster storm like Katrina isn't likely this year, the team said.

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Suspicious package at Capitol determined harmless

WASHINGTON (AP) - An envelope containing talcum powder led to an emergency response Thursday at a Senate office building. - A hazardous materials team and a hazardous device team summoned by Capitol Police found a white powdery substance inside the Russell Senate Office Building. Investigators determined it was talcum powder. The building was not evacuated.

Arizona woman's shooting death linked to serial killer case

PHOENIX (AP) - The death of a woman who was gunned down while walking has been linked to a serial killer believed responsible for dozens of random shootings across metropolitan Phoenix, police said Thursday.

Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani said the weekend death of Robin Blasnek, 22, was linked to earlier cases because of similarities and limited forensic evidence.

Authorities say the so-called "Serial Shooter" is responsible for three dozen shootings of people and animals. The shootings generally happen late at night, with no witnesses. Seventeen people have been wounded since May 2005, in addition to the six deaths.

Blasnek was walking to her boyfriend's home in Mesa, a suburb east of Phoenix, at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday when she was gunned down. Neighbors heard a shot and ran to help the young woman, but she soon lost consciousness and died at a hospital.

Trapani said Mesa police plan to beef up patrols and have assigned a detective to the Phoenix police serial criminal task force.

That unit already has about 200 officers working to try to solve the serial shooter case, plus another case involving a serial criminal dubbed the Baseline Killer.

The Baseline Killer is believed responsible for killing seven women and one man and sexually assaulting 11 women and girls during the past year.

Father, 3 children die in New York house fire

HOOSICK, N.Y. (AP) - Fire tore through a home in this rural town, killing three children and their father, who had rushed back into the flames to try to save the youngsters, authorities said.

The blaze broke out shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday in a two-story home nestled amid tall pines outside the village of Hoosick Falls, near the Vermont line, about 25 miles northeast of Albany.

Brian Decatur, 41, and his wife, Cheryl, 38, apparently escaped, but the husband ran back into the blazing house to try to save the children, said Fire Chief William Rifenburgh Jr.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, state police said. About 20 marijuana plants were recovered from the burned-out home.

Troopers identified the children as Cade May and Haley Decatur, both 8, and 2-year-old Gardin Decatur. Their bodies were found inside the home. The couple each had a child from a previous relationship and had Gardin together.

Cheryl Decatur was hospitalized Thursday for smoke inhalation, state police said.

Neighbors described Brian Decatur as a doting father who loved hunting and motorcycles.

"He was a family man," said Robert Stevens, who lives nearby. "He'd be carrying the kids, taking walks with them sometimes."

Sixteen marijuana plants were found in the basement, but State Trooper Maureen Tuffey said investigators do not believe the fire originated in the growing area and that Cheryl Decatur would not be charged.

"I think, taken into consideration that the woman lost her entire family, it seems like a small bone to pick," she said.

Former New Jersey state trooper pleads guilty in gambling case with links to NHL

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) - A former New Jersey state trooper pleaded guilty Thursday to helping run a gambling ring and promised to help authorities with their case against former hockey star Rick Tocchet and others.

In a negotiated deal, James Harney, 40, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, promoting gambling and official misconduct. He faces up to seven years in prison at his sentencing Oct. 27.

He had initially faced more than 25 years in prison.

The plea comes nearly six months after New Jersey authorities charged him, Tocchet and a third man, James Ulmer, with running a ring whose alleged bettors included a handful of current NHL players and actress Janet Jones, the wife of hockey great Wayne Gretzky.

Authorities have said they did not expect to charge any of the bettors with crimes, and NHL officials say there were no bets on hockey games.

Still, the connection to the professional hockey league made the gambling bust a major sports story earlier this year.

Harney and Tocchet became friendly in the 1990s when Tocchet played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Harney tended bar near the arena where the team played.

Harney was suspended from his position with the state police after he was charged in February. In a letter Wednesday, he resigned from his job, apologizing for "the disgrace which I have placed upon the Division, myself and my family."

State police said this week that a grand jury has not yet been convened to consider whether to issue indictments in the case.

After Tocchet was charged, he took an indefinite leave of absence from his job as the top assistant coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, who are led by Gretzky.

Gretzky has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney Ron Fujikawa said after the story came to light that he had received assurances from New Jersey authorities that the hockey great was not in any way a central figure in the criminal investigation.

Woman banned from visiting California serial killer in jail

SAN BERNARDINO (AP) - A former breast-enhancement model who said she is making a documentary about convicted serial killer Wayne Adam Ford has been banned from visiting him in jail, authorities said.

Victoria Redstall has attended the trial of Wayne Adam Ford, who was convicted in June of four counts of first-degree murder. Jurors have been deliberating this week whether Ford, 44, should be put to death.

San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said Redstall is no longer allowed access to the county's jails but would not comment about the decision to do so.

Redstall told the Los Angeles Times earlier this week that she met Ford when a sheriff's deputy showed her around a detention center. The tour included a stop in Ford's maximum-security unit while he was out of his cell.

The British-born actress, who appeared in "The Rock" and "Nothing to Lose," said it was the "dream of a lifetime" to interview Ford. She said she has lost friends because of her relationship with Ford, which she said is emotional and not romantic.

"Everyone tells me, 'Be careful, he's a serial killer' … but they don't know Wayne like I do," she said. "We've all got evil in us - all of us. He took it to the extent of killing humans…. But I'm going on the man he is today and the remorse that he has today."

Redstall could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith last week denied a defense motion to prevent Redstall from taping court proceedings. The judge has allowed Redstall to photograph Ford in court but she took so many pictures that she was reprimanded by court officials.

Ford surrendered in 1998 to Humboldt County sheriff's investigators after he showed them a woman's severed breast and told them it represented the "tip of the iceberg."

Jurors convicted Ford in the slayings of Patricia Tamez, 29, of Hesperia; Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana; Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; and an unidentified woman whose torso was found in a slough.

The bodies of the four women were dumped across California in 1997-98.

Gustine football coach removed from team after hazing allegations

GUSTINE (AP) - A Merced County football coach was put on administrative leave while his players are investigated for alleged hazing and sexual assaults. - Carl Scudder will continue to teach U.S. history at Gustine High School but will not coach during the investigation, the district board of education decided Wednesday.

Three football players were accused of sexually assaulting two fellow teammates during hazing at a three-day sports camp in Madera County last month.

The students' names were not released because they are minors.

"Parents should not have to worry about the safety of their children in the classroom or on a school-sponsored trip," parent Kim Bettencourt said.

Her son, who hoped to play on the team, was at the camp and witnessed what happened, she said.

Sparks man arrested for fork attack against ex-wife

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) - Sparks police have arrested a man accused of attacking his ex-wife with a barbecue fork and trying to strangle her after he was served with a restraining order.

Alberto Zepeda-Munoz, 48, was located Tuesday at a home in Reno and jailed on suspicion of attempted murder, burglary and child abuse, police said.

He had been missing since Saturday, when a neighbor pulled him off his ex-wife and took the barbecue fork away from him, said Cmdr. Steve Asher.

Earlier that day, officers had served Zepeda-Munoz with an extended order for protection that forced him to leave the home and have no contact with his ex-wife and 7-year-old son, Sgt. Pat Dyer said.

He left, but came back less than two hours later, Dyer said. Witnesses said they saw him waiting in some bushes outside the home.

As his son was returning home, he followed the boy inside, Dyer said.

Neighbor testifies about murder, credit card scheme

MARTINEZ (AP) - A neighbor of accused killer Scott Dyleski testified Thursday that she feared for her life after learning her credit card had been stolen in a marijuana-growing scheme allegedly organized by the teenager. - Karen Schneider said her fear increased after Pamela Vitale, who lived up the quiet road, was slain.

Dyleski, 17, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Vitale, the wife of noted defense lawyer and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz, on Oct. 15 at the couple's hilltop Lafayette estate.

Two days earlier, Schneider had learned that someone had used her credit card to try buying $2,000 worth of indoor plant lights, which were charged to her credit card, but billed to Vitale and Horowitz's address.

The equipment was supposed to be shipped to the house where Dyleski lived with his mother, Esther Fielding.

Schneider initially thought Dyleski's mother was the culprit because she had accidentally run over Fielding's dog.

"I was very freaked out," she said. "I was very afraid."

A few days after Vitale's death, Schneider said Fielding confronted her about failing to take responsibility for hurting her dog and she got angry.

"I said, 'It looks like you've already paid yourselves and besides that you're trying to kill me,"' Schneider recounted.

Fielding was expected to testify later Thursday.

Prosecutors claim that Vitale was killed as part of Dyleski's scheme to use stolen credit cards to finance his pot growing venture. Dyleski's lawyer said he was at home at the time of the killing and DNA evidence linked to the case will help clear him.

Conjoined twins prepare for separation surgery in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - They were born in a perpetual hug, their little bodies fused at the midsection so that they are practically face-to-face, and have grown into outgoing 4-year-olds who chatter away and finish each other's sentences.

Kendra and Maliyah Herrin say they like being together all the time, but they are also full of plans for separate lives. They want to walk without using their wheeled walker, sleep in bunk beds and ride bikes.

"I want to have a princess bike," Kendra said. "I can go fast."

On Monday, surgeons at Primary Children's Medical Center will try to separate the twins in an operation that could take 14 to 30 hours.

The sandy-haired, blue-eyed girls share one pair of legs, a liver, one functioning kidney, and part of the large intestine. If all goes according to plan, each girl will get one leg and Kendra the kidney. Maliyah will be put on dialysis until she is strong enough for a kidney transplant from her mother, Erin Herrin, ideally within three to six months.

Dr. Rebecka Meyers, the hospital's chief of pediatric surgery, said she believes this will be the first time separation surgery has been attempted on twins with a shared kidney.

Conjoined twins occur about once in every 50,000 to 100,000 births. Only about 20 percent survive to become viable candidates for separation, and most separation surgeries occur when the twins are 6 to 12 months old.

"The reason for that is partly psychological, partly mechanical," Meyers said. "If Maliyah had had a kidney, these girls would have been separated a long time ago."

A kidney transplant would have been harder before age 4, and doctors advised waiting.

Before deciding to go ahead, doctors and the girls' parents - who also have 6-year-old daughter and 14-month-old twin boys - talked with ethicists, because the surgery could make things worse for Maliyah, who faces the risky prospect of an organ transplant.

"We have more than one ethicist who thinks these girls don't need to be separated," Meyers said. "Mom and Dad have had a chance to hear all of that and talk to people on both sides."

Before making their decision earlier this year, the Herrins had Kendra and Maliyah talk with a psychologist. The couple concluded that while the girls expressed some fear about the surgery, separate "was how they saw themselves when they were older," Jake Herrin said.

The twins are outgoing and greet a visitor with a cascade of curious questions - "What's your name?" "Do you like Barbie?" "Do you like my hair?"

To prepare them for surgery, doctors inserted 17 expanding balloons into the twins' torsos in June. Filled with saline solution, the balloons stretch the skin and muscles, giving doctors more tissue to work with during plastic surgery after the separation. Each week more saline has been added to the balloons.

The process has been more painful than expected and the skin over a least one expander has been slow to heal, delaying surgery by a week. To reduce the pressure on their tender skin, the girls sleep on a 3,000-pound oval hospital bed that is filled with sand.

To help them understand what is about to happen to them, Kendra and Maliyah have been given a set of conjoined stuffed dolls to play with. Like the girls, the dolls get Band-Aids and shots. On July 20, Kendra performed separation surgery on the dolls, as Maliyah looked on.

"They gave the babies medicine and said that they were so brave," Erin Herrin wrote in a posting on the North Salt Lake family's Web site. "It is incredible to us how much they really do understand."

On the Net:

www.Herrintwins.com

Bond denied for wife charged in doctor's death

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - A judge denied bond for a Pennsylvania woman charged in the shooting death of her millionaire husband along the Ohio Turnpike.

U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. ruled that Donna Moonda is a flight risk, a threat to the public and has not offered anything to rebut the strong evidence against her.

"The detailed planning of the homicide strongly suggests that she remains capable of being a danger to any person or the community if released," Dowd wrote Wednesday.

Her husband, urologist Gulam Moonda, was shot last year when she pulled off the Turnpike south of Cleveland to allow him to drive. She has said a gunman from another vehicle shot and robbed her husband and fled.

Moonda, 47, of Hermitage, Pa., was charged July 24 with interstate stalking that resulted in death. Her former lover, Damian Bradford, 25, of Monaca, Pa., admitted he was the triggerman and agreed to testify against her.

St. Petersburg mother, roommate accused of starving, abusing 9-year-old girl

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A woman and her roommate were charged with starving the woman's 9-year-old daughter, who weighed just 42 pounds when she was found, was locked up all day and was forced to wear a filthy diaper, authorities said.

Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse. The girl was so emaciated that her spine and ribcage were showing when state child welfare officials took her June 30, police said.

The girl also had her hands bound behind her, was locked in a bedroom all day and wore a diaper that went unchanged for hours, officials said. She told police it was punishment for bad behavior.

"It's a very disturbing case," police Detective Joe DeLuca said. "You see very few like this."

The girl now lives with her grandparents and has gained about 25 pounds in a month.

"She's doing well now," DeLuca said.

LaFountain's mother reported the girl's appearance after visiting the home, DeLuca said. It's not clear how long the alleged abuse had been going on, police said.

Samoraj and LaFountain were in a Pinellas County jail Thursday, each held on a $50,000 bond. DeLuca said they did not address the allegations when they were arrested Wednesday, and jail records did not indicate if they had lawyers.

LaFountain was originally described by police as Samoraj's live-in boyfriend, but the gender classification at the jail was changed from male to female following a routine strip search, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said.

One dead, one injured in stabbing outside Sunset Strip nightclub

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) - A stabbing outside a popular nightclub on the Sunset Strip left one man dead and another wounded, authorities said.

The victims were attending a concert Wednesday night at the House of Blues, where a fight broke out and bouncers ejected several people, said Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. Joe Hartschorne.

When the concertgoers were on a street near the club, "more fights broke out, during the fights … unfortunately two individuals were stabbed," Hartschorne said.

The victims were taken to a hospital, where a man was pronounced dead and the other was in stable condition.

No arrests had been made by Thursday morning.

Jockey gets one-day ban for head-butting horse

LONDON (AP) - Jockey Paul O'Neill was given a one-day ban Thursday by the sport's governing body for head-butting his horse before a race.

The Horseracing Regulatory Authority reviewed TV footage of the incident at the Stratford races on July 23 before reaching its verdict.

City Affair was being unruly in the parade ring, ultimately throwing O'Neill. The jockey got to his feet and grabbed the reins, pulling the horse to him, before lowering the butt of his helmet into it.

"I am pleased the hearing is now over," O'Neill said. "I accept the judgment of the panel and I want to take this final opportunity to say how sorry I am. I now want to put this incident behind me and get on with my career."

O'Neill, who could have been banned for up to 21 days, will serve his suspension Aug. 11.

British newspapers likened the incident to French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's infamous head-butt in the World Cup final, with many headlines reading, "Jockey does a 'Zidane' to his horse."

City Affair went on to finish fourth in the two-mile event. O'Neill was given a caution by stewards for his use of the whip in the race.

The 26-year-old O'Neill, who has ridden 51 winners, was questioned by the HRA over his ride of a novice hurdler in March.

Philippines president pitches idea of 'supermaid' boot camp

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Looking for a maid who can not only cook and clean but save your kid from a fire? Try a supermaid.

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wants to create the "supermaid" using a new training program for Filipino domestic helpers.

"We will be sending 'supermaids,"' Arroyo said during a round-table discussion on efforts to evacuate 30,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, most of them maids, and help them find new jobs.

Augusto Syjuco, head of the government's Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, said the "supermaids" program includes training in first aid, evacuations from high-rises in case of a fire and other skills to help maids get higher pay.

"They are not just maids. They are really very well-trained now," he said. "If there is someone injured among the family they work for … how to get out of a fire in a high-rise building, all these are part of our upgrading program."

About 10 percent of 86 million Filipinos work abroad, sending home at least $10 billion each year.

Cockatoo owners' feathers ruffled, fly the coop

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (AP) - It may not go down as one of the world's more notable confrontations, but after months of fighting, the cockatoo conflict is over.

A couple who kept seven of the noisy birds in their backyard have left town after months of fighting with neighbors.

Patrick and Dana Smith moved last weekend after squaring off in court with a neighbor, receiving a letter from the local neighborhood association and having animal-control officers respond to their home after complaints.

The Smiths got tired of the fight and Patrick Smith asked the Coast Guard to transfer him to Miami, Dana Smith said Tuesday.

"We're disappointed how it turned out," she said.

Neighbor Jesse Gibbs took the Smiths to court on a noise complaint in February. At the time, a judge found them guilty of violating the county noise ordinance but just gave a warning.

The Smiths then took Gibbs to court in May for videotaping their home.

Gibbs said he was documenting the noise but the Smiths said they didn't want their children taped. A judge said Gibbs wasn't doing anything wrong.

In June, the attorney for the neighborhood association sent a letter saying the Smiths were violating rules by running a home business and having an unreasonable number of pets.

"I'm just glad it's over," Gibbs said. "Oh, goodness, it's peace. There's no noise."

Armed security guarde leaves gun in john

BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) - Lots of things have been left in public restrooms: wallets, cosmetics, even a jacket. But a loaded handgun?

A Guaranty Bank employee discovered a gun Tuesday in the bathroom and called police, said Brookfield police Capt. Phil Horter.

A short time later, an employee of the Dunbar Armored security firm called the bank, realizing he had left the weapon when he made a stop at the bank. The gun was later returned.

Horter said certain security personnel can be licensed to carry a handgun in Wisconsin.

Police say they don't expect to cite the Dunbar employee for his forgetfulness.

Sean Gibbons, director of communications at Hunt Valley, Md.-based Dunbar International Inc., said the company was aware of the matter and that it had been appropriately addressed, but he declined to be more specific.

Kansas man saddles up to portest high gas prices

BUFFALO, Kan. (AP) - Hank Payne has a way to protest rising gas prices: saddle up.

In 2004, when gas reached $2 per gallon, Payne decided to ride a horse to the post office instead of driving from his ranch two miles outside Buffalo, a town of about 280 in southeast Kansas.

Back then, Payne said if gas ever reached $3 a gallon, he would do it again.

So on Monday, with gas at $3 a gallon and more, Payne, 64, saddled up horses Rusty and Ace, and made his second symbolic horse ride to pick up his mail in Buffalo. This time he brought along 6-year-old grandson, Joel Kimbell.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it," he said. "But I had to because I said I would."

Payne said he hoped people would realize rising gas prices affect everything - not just what people pay at the pumps, but what they pay for all goods.

"I can't think of a single kind of person who is not affected," he said.

Payne then hitched the horses to a rail outside the post office while he went in to pick up his mail.

"If it wasn't so hot, it would be a whole lot more enjoyable," Payne said.

One man killed, 16 hurt in partial collapse of hotel under construction in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Firefighters searched for bodies or survivors Thursday after a part of a huge resort under construction in northern Jamaica collapsed, killing one worker and injuring 16, police said. - The collapse Wednesday evening was the latest misfortune to hit the Bahia Principe, a 1,918-room hotel in Runaway Bay planned to be Jamaica's largest resort.

Despite the search, it wasn't clear whether any workers were missing. Police said eight of the injured have been released from the hospital.

Engineers will inspect the damage to determine when work on the $200 million project can resume, said George Ho Sang, head of public works in St. Ann Parish.

The St. Ann Parish council has ordered work to cease at the site about 90 miles north of Kingston.

Grupo Pinero, the Spanish firm developing the resort, won't comment until the investigation was complete, said Richard Ardito, a company spokesman. Information Minister Colin Campbell has asked the group for an explanation.

A May 3 floor collapse at the site injured three workers.

Several days later, construction was stalled for nearly a month after a judge quashed a government permit that granted the developers permission to build without consulting residents. That ruling was later reversed.

Last month, more than 600 workers stormed the developer's local offices after they were told that payment of their salaries had been delayed. A construction worker shot and wounded a security guard and two workers during the melee.

Canadian pedophile charged with sexually assaulting two boys

REGINA, Saskatchewan (AP) - A convicted pedophile arrested after a two-day manhunt in rural western Canada was charged Thursday with abducting two boys and sexually assaulting them at his farm hideout.

Peter Whitmore, 35, dressed in a gray sweat shirt with "Canada" printed on it, scowled and stared straight ahead during a brief appearance in provincial court.

He was arrested Wednesday following a 10-hour standoff with police at an abandoned farmhouse in the western province of Saskatchewan. The two boys, 10 and 14, were returned safely to their parents.

The Ontario man, who has a history of sex attacks on children dating back more than a decade, faces charges including abduction, sexual assault causing bodily harm and forcible confinement. It was unclear how long a sentence Whitmore faces if convicted.

Police say he picked up the 14-year-old several weeks ago in Manitoba province and took him on a road trip west into Saskatchewan, where he allegedly kidnapped the 10-year-old. Police got a tip Tuesday from someone who reported seeing a van matching the description of Whitmore's Dodge Caravan.

The case ignited outrage about the Canadian justice system's handling of known pedophiles.

Rosalind Prober, president of Beyond Borders, an advocacy group fighting child exploitation, said Whitmore should have been declared a dangerous offender long ago, which could have kept him jailed indefinitely.

Whitmore's criminal record began with a 1993 conviction for abduction and sexual offenses involving four young boys in Toronto. In 1995, after posing as a professional baby sitter, he was sentenced to five years in jail for multiple sexual offenses.

He fled to Mexico and cultivated relationships with children before he was extradited back to Canada, jailed and released again in July 2005.

World renowned soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dead at 90

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Famed soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, a 20th century legend who won global acclaim for her renditions of Mozart and Strauss, died Thursday at her home in western Austria, state television reported. She was 90.

Schwarzkopf, ranked alongside Maria Callas as a giant of the opera and concert stage, died about 1:15 a.m. in the town of Schruns in Austria's westernmost province of Vorarlberg, where she most recently lived, state broadcaster ORF said, citing a local funeral home director. No cause of death was given.

Schwarzkopf, who retired in 1975 after many years living outside Zurich, Switzerland, captivated audiences and critics alike during a career that spanned four decades.

Her leading roles, ranging from Elvira in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" to the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier," were immortalized on records and CDs. So were her recitals of lieder - German songs of a lyrical, often popular character.

After her retirement she admitted having applied to join the Nazi Party in 1939, but she said it was "akin to joining a union" so that she could further her singing career.

She was an aunt of U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led American forces in the first Gulf War against Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait in 1991.

Performing with an array of famous conductors, including Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Otto Klemperer, Vittorio de Sabata and Herbert von Karajan, she was what Italian opera aficionados would call a "diva assoluta" - an absolute star.

"Perhaps never again will there be a recitalist like her," wrote Andre Tubeuf, one of Europe's most influential music critics and one of her many enthusiastic admirers.

Schwarzkopf was born Dec. 9, 1915, in Jarotschin in what was then eastern Germany, but which became the Polish town of Jarocin in the redrawing of national boundaries after World War I ended three years later.

Her family moved to Berlin, where she became a prize-winning student at the Berlin Hochschule fuer Musik, now part of the Berlin University of the Arts.

A wrong analysis by her first voice teacher, who thought she was a contralto, almost thwarted her ambitions, she recalled later. Her mother recognized the danger and made her change teachers.

Schwarzkopf first was paid to sing as a member of the chorus in a 1937 recording of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham.

One year later, she made her operatic debut at the Berlin Municipal Opera as one of the flower maidens in Richard Wagner's "Parsifal." Given short notice, she learned the part overnight. Two years later she already was singing prominent parts, including as Zerbinetta in Strauss' "Ariadne on Naxos."

Tuberculosis forced her to rest for a year, just after she was signed by the Vienna State Opera. Following recovery in 1944, she could sing only a few weeks in Vienna before Allied air raids sent the curtains falling on all stages.

American CARE parcels were her pay for entertaining U.S. soldiers in the early postwar days. But when European opera houses reopened, her reputation grew rapidly with Vienna, Salzburg, Bayreuth and Milan's La Scala among early milestones.

At Igor Stravinsky's request, she took a leading role in the 1951 world premiere of his "The Rake's Progress" in Venice. The aging Arturo Toscanini, who heard her singing the Missa Solemnis at La Scala, greeted her with: "I never had the soprano so good." It was through her that the late renowned pianist Artur Rubinstein learned to love lieder, as he wrote in his memoirs.

"She showed that the human voice can be as much an instrument of phrasing as the violin," one enthralled critic gushed after her first appearance in London's Covent Garden in 1947 with the Vienna State Opera Company.

Her U.S. debut came in 1953, after her marriage to Walter Legge, an English recording company executive and founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

It was a new resounding success. The New York Times celebrated her as a "beautiful woman with a superb stage presence" who gave a "stunning example of vocal artistry."

A year later, a U.S. tour again won general acclaim with "Musical America" referring to her "exquisite finish, technical mastery and interpretative felicity." In 1955, she made her first appearance on a U.S. stage, starring in Der Rosenkavalier with the San Francisco Opera Company.

A golden "Orfeo," which she accepted from Toscanini at a ceremony the same year, was among many awards won by Schwarzkopf. She eventually took British, and later, Austrian citizenship.

Her farewell to the stage came in 1971 at the Brussels Opera in "Der Rosenkavalier." Her recitals continued to draw capacity audiences until her last appearance in Zurich, three days before her husband died in 1979.

Schwarzkopf, who had teamed with her husband in conducting a series of master classes at the Julliard School in New York City in 1976, remained much in demand as a teacher. Legge died in 1979.

Annoyed by avant-garde interpretations of the classics, she famously quipped in 1990: "So far no one has dared go into the Louvre Museum to spray graffiti on the Mona Lisa, but some opera directors are spraying graffiti over masterpieces."

Invasion of eight-leggers has Austrians' spider sense tingling

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - An eight-legged invasion is giving some Austrians the creeps.

The venomous yellow sack spider, whose painful bite can cause headache and nausea, has become the talk of the country since several people were bitten earlier this summer.

Reports of spider sightings have dominated the local news, triggering hundreds of calls to a Vienna poison hotline and prompting the government to plead for calm.

"The bites of a yellow sack spider are indeed painful but not deadly," Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said in a statement. "If you are bitten, please don't panic and in case of discomfort immediately contact a doctor."

In a sign of the hysteria, 190 people went to a hospital Wednesday in the northwestern city of Linz fearing they had been bitten. Only eight of them had the right symptoms, doctors told Austrian state broadcaster ORF.

Eva Reiner, a Vienna business consultant, fished a dead yellow sack spider out of her pool this week - and hasn't gone swimming since.

"It wasn't even alive, and it still looked evil to me," she said.

Experts are urging people to keep their perspective.

The yellow and brown striped critter - Cheiracanthium punctorium in Latin - is one of 1,000 similar species found in Austria and neighboring countries, said Christian Komposch of an animal ecology institute in the southern city of Graz.

There are sightings every year, said Komposch, who accused the news media of spreading misleading information and fanning the frenzy.

Dr. Christian Baldinger, a physician in Upper Austria province, said he was bitten last week while working in his garden.

"It was like a stinging nettle, but not really painful," Baldinger said. Within two days, the wound was red and infected, and a specialist told him the symptoms could take eight to 10 weeks to subside.

Some people, such as bank employee Robert Schneider, don't see a reason for the fuss.

"I think everyone is exaggerating," he said. "I'm not sure I would recognize a yellow sack spider if I saw one."

But for the not-so-faint at heart, the spider could bring some cash. Collectors are willing to spend more than $250 for a single specimen, the newspaper Kurier said.