MONROE, La. (AP) - A giraffe and an ostrich drowned in a 15-foot sinkhole that developed after a water main burst in their shared zoo exhibit, officials said.

The animals at Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo in northern Louisiana died sometime Friday night or Saturday morning in the zoo's African veldt exhibit, officials said.

Zoo officials buried them there Saturday.

"I just hate it, but it was a freak accident," said zoo veterinarian Tyler Thomas.

The approximately 6-year-old Rothschild giraffe, on loan from Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, N.Y., was one of two male giraffes on exhibit the past 19 months. The ostrich was one of four females at the zoo the past four years.

Thomas said he believed the 17-foot, 3,000-pound giraffe was probably getting a drink, then tumbled headfirst into the sinkhole when it collapsed under his weight.

The ostrich was likely standing beside the giraffe, he said.

"Nothing but the ankles of the giraffe were visible when I went out there," Thomas said. "I'm sure he smelled that fresh, cool water bubbling up and couldn't resist it. We're just fortunate none of the other animals got curious."

Visitors could not see the animals in the sinkhole, which was about 9 feet in diameter, and were blocked from seeing their bodies removed and buried Saturday.

Police: Man crashes SUV into terminal at Fort Lauderdale airport

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A man drove his sport utility vehicle into a crowded airport terminal building on Sunday, slamming into a ticket counter and smashing through a wall before coming to a stop, officials said.

Two sheriff's deputies and a federal air marshal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport tackled the driver as he tried to escape and took him into custody, said Hugh Graf, a spokesman for the Broward County sheriff.

The driver, Alex Vila, 33, of Williamston, Mich., was treated at a hospital for minor scrapes and was being questioned. No one else was hurt, Graf said.

Vila had not been charged as of Sunday afternoon.

Airport officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment. No one was at the Southeast Airlines counter when the vehicle drove into it, and the airline's operations were not affected, said Milton Corchado, director of in-flight operations for Southeast.

Kobayashi whips competition with 53.5, setting record at hot dog contest

NEW YORK (AP) - When it comes to eating hot dogs, "The Tsunami" still blows everybody away.

For the fourth straight year, rail-thin Takeru Kobayashi chewed up the competition at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating competition Sunday, breaking his own previous world record.

Kobayashi, 26, of Nagano, Japan, gulped down 53.5 wieners in 12 minutes and shattered his own world record by three dogs. In 2002, he had wolfed down 50.5.

The closest competitor Sunday was newcomer Nobuyuki Shirota, 25, of Tokyo, who made an impressive showing but couldn't cut the mustard with 38 downed dogs.

Once again, then, the contest's coveted Mustard Yellow Belt returns to Japan. Since 1996, the Japanese have dominated the competition and only one American - New Jersey's Steve Keiner in 1999 - has captured the belt at the signature July 4 extravaganza.

The 5-foot-7, 132-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, employed his trademark method of snapping the dogs in half before swallowing them to destroy the 19 other contestants.

Meanwhile, 105-pound Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, 36, of Alexandria, Va., could relish two new records: She ate more hot dogs - 32 - than any other woman and any other American in the contest's history.

Eric "Badlands" Booker, a 6-foot-4, 400-pound subway conductor from Long Island who came in fifth with 27 dogs, said he and the other competitive eaters were determined to unseat the Japanese.

"We aren't going to stop until we bring the belt back," he told ESPN.

Kobayashi seemed unworried.

"I will come back next year and try and break the record once again," he said.

Reno woman arrested in plot to cut off husband's penis

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A 45-year-old Reno woman was arrested on suspicion of trying to hire an undercover detective to cut off her husband's penis, officers said.

Margaret Lynn Wilson was accused of initially trying to arrange the murder of her husband before changing her mind and asking that his penis be cut off instead.

"We were so taken back by it; she was adamant," said police Sgt. Dave Evans. "She didn't care how we did it."

Wilson was booked Saturday into the Washoe County Jail on suspicion of solicitation for murder. She was held without bail.

After contacting the detective late Friday night, she also is accused of requesting the torture of a female friend of her husband.

Police said she agreed to pay the investigator $1,000 and give him the key to her husband's home in Reno. She was arrested after allegedly paying the officer $200.

Wilson, who said she was a nursing supervisor at a Sparks elder-care facility, also was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment after her two grandchildren were found alone at her Reno home.

Police said they found a bathtub full of water, trash and beer bottles, and litter on the floor. The children - a 5-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy - were unharmed and placed into child protective custody.

Police said they had been unable to reach the husband to inform him about the alleged plot.

Forgery suspect killed after police chase in Bell

BELL, Calif. (AP) - A forgery suspect shot at by police may have killed himself with a gun dropped by an officer during a foot chase, authorities said Sunday.

The man, who was not identified, fled police across a bank parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

As he jumped over a small wall, he inadvertently kicked an officer's hand, knocking the officer's gun to the ground, according to sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson.

The suspect pointed the gun at the officer, who pulled his backup gun and fired at the suspect numerous times, Patterson said. Officials did not know if the officer's shots hit the man, the sheriff's department said.

The officer, who was not identified, turned to find cover and heard a single gunshot from where he last saw the suspect, authorities said.

The officer was not injured and the suspect died at the scene.

The Bell Police Department and the sheriff's department are investigating the shooting.

Bell is located about 15 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

People

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - The Cuban flag was hung from a balcony of the Dominican National Palace for the benefit of actor Andy Garcia.

The building was being used Saturday in the filming of "The Lost City," which the Cuban-born Garcia is both acting in and directing.

Explosions were detonated inside the palace to recreate a failed assault on Cuba's presidential palace during the revolution that eventually led to Fidel Castro's triumph in 1959.

The 48-year-old Garcia, whose family left the island nation when he was 5, has been a staunch critic of Castro.

The Dominican government has allowed the filmmakers to use its facilities in an effort to boost the country's film industry. Filmmakers were paying about $2,300 in fees for the use of streets and monuments, officials said.

Garcia said the film focuses on the transition in Cuba from President Fulgencio Batista's rule to Castro's takeover. Garcia's character, a cabaret owner, eventually leaves the country to go into exile in New York.

Garcia's other acting credits include "Ocean's Eleven," "The Untouchables" and "The Godfather: Part III."

SALISBURY, Conn. (AP) - Paul Newman was knocked out of the American GT Challenge sports car race Saturday by a faulty gearbox.

Newman, driving a Chevrolet Corvette, was running in the top three for about two-thirds of the race before mechanical troubles forced him out with approximately 15 minutes remaining.

The 79-year-old Oscar winner wound up finishing 15th in the 19-car field. The winner was Eric Curran of South Deerfield, Mass.

"We lost the gearbox and I started sliding around out there," Newman said. "I was having a good time up until that point."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Bob Dole, who lost his bid for the presidency to Bill Clinton in 1996, could become the first lecturer at the new Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

The Republican former senator is in talks with the school to give a speech Sept. 18.

"He's got great credentials to do this, to help us let the world know this is a nonpartisan school," said the school's dean, David Pryor, himself a former senator.

Dole would be returning a favor to Clinton, who opened a lecture series at the University of Kansas' Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics earlier this year.

"If it goes according to plan, we'll open (the school) with the biggest Republican we know," Pryor said.

Clinton and Dole also faced off on "60 Minutes" last year, giving political commentaries.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Gov. Mike Huckabee sprinted across a finish line that a year earlier, he probably would have waddled over.

Huckabee completed the Firecracker 5K on Saturday, just over a year after starting a diet that has pared 105 pounds from his frame.

"I still had some juice left," Huckabee, 48, said at the finish line, wiping sweat from his head. "The first quarter-mile is really hard, but I hit the halfway point and I knew then it was OK."

When he was asked his time, he joked, "Forty-eight years, 10 months and nine days. I really was running from 48 years of bad habits."

In reality, he finished the race in 28 minutes and 39 seconds, and he said he hoped he was sending a message "to all the middle-aged fat guys out there who don't think they can change."

"Because I didn't think I could change either. I was about as bad an example as a person could be."

Huckabee started a medically supervised diet and regular exercise routine on June 10 of last year.

Florida State professor hoping to find Roman-era pirate ships

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - When the Roman Empire got tired of pirates terrorizing shipping lanes and nearly bringing the known world's trade to a halt, it went after them hard.

Roman general Pompey reportedly took just 40 days to locate and wipe out the ships and crews that were preying on shipping. It has taken much, much longer for modern scientists to again find the pirates of the eastern Mediterranean.

Cheryl Ward, an anthropology professor at Florida State University, hopes she's on the verge of locating some of the pirate ships that were a thorn in the side of the Romans 2,100 years ago.

Finding one or more them may help provide a unique window into what the larger world looked like at the time.

Ward is the main investigator in a major archaeological mission that will be trying this month to find evidence of the ships in the shallow water off the southern coast of Turkey.

The dream would be to actually locate one of their vessels, known as hemioliae - rowed ships that were the terror of the 1st century. Researchers know what they look like from Roman descriptions, but none has ever been discovered.

Ward and her colleagues hope to paint a picture of a different class of people than that of the Roman Empire, about which much is already known. That knowledge comes from what the educated, wealthy Romans left in written records and artifacts.

The pirates were the underclass.

"These were a bunch of unemployed guys," Ward said Friday, preparing to leave for Turkey. "They turned to piracy. It was easy money.

"What's the story of these people from what they left behind?"

First, her team has to find some remnants of their lives. "We would love to find a shipyard," she said.

Ward will be exploring nearshore areas along the Turkish coast that used to be dry before erosion pushed back the shore. But she said she'd settle for parts of just one ship.

Pompey had 120,000 men and 270 ships looking for pirates. Ward has a few graduate students and some fellow researchers from a Turkish university.

But the pirate project has become a big topic in the archaeological world and her work is part of a larger project. Researchers working on land also are studying the area of Turkey known as Cilicia - where many pirates were based.

Aside from the prospect of finding museum artifacts from the Roman era, Ward said contemporary man can learn a lot by studying societies of the past.

"Archaeology is telling the story of environmental degradation, of the collapse of civilizations, of the rise of … new practices," Ward said.

And there may be parallels to today's global relations, said Meredith Marten, a graduate student working with Ward.

"If you can see how these people were subordinated or just kind of kept on the periphery, you can understand why these people would take such drastic measures," Marten said.

LAPD chief apologizes for comments made after police beating; called activist 'nitwit'

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police Chief William Bratton apologized for calling a local black activist a "nitwit" and other comments he made following last month's beating of a suspected car thief.

"I'd like to extend an apology, a sincere apology, if there is anybody in the community - or any other community for that matter - that have been offended by any of the comments and remarks I've made in the course of this investigation," Bratton told radio station KJLH-FM on Saturday.

TV news helicopters videotaped an LAPD officer striking 36-year-old Stanley Miller with a flashlight 11 times after Miller appeared to surrender.

Since the June 23 incident, Bratton has called a local black activist a "nitwit" and had a testy exchange with his predecessor, City Councilman Bernard Parks, who questioned his sensitivity to minorities. Parks noted Bratton's past references to gang members as "thugs" and "terrorists."

Bratton, who has apologized before, said his comments were not meant to offend.

"I'll try to learn from this and find ways that people of this city, of all the races of the city, understand what's in my heart," he said.

Bratton has called Miller's arrest "a mess" and said it conflicted with how officers were trained to detain suspects.

Miller's beating has drawn comparisons to the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King, prompting state and federal investigations.

A number of community activists also expressed outrage and demanded justice.

Bratton, former police chief in New York City, took over the LAPD in October 2002.

Reagan funeral memorabilia a hot item on eBay

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A month after Ronald Reagan's death, items from the 40th president's funeral, burial and weeklong public viewing are selling fast on the online auction site eBay.

The company, based in San Jose, has sold 780 pieces of Reagan funeral memorabilia since June 11 for a total of $66,000. The items range from programs from Reagan's interment at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley to gratitude cards given to mourners who visited his casket.

The best selling items have been those from the star-studded National Cathedral service in Washington, D.C., which was attended by President Bush, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

One funeral program that went online just hours after the service sold for $1,525. Another sold for $1,075 the next morning.

"Personally, I find it very sad. If you were fortunate enough to be able to receive one of the items, I would think you'd want to keep them," said Melissa Giller, chief of staff at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in Simi Valley.

Katie Gray, 18, of Oak Park said she hopes to get up to $500 for a program from Reagan's interment that she received from a reporter friend who covered the event.

"I'd really love to keep it, but I'm putting the money toward my education," said Gray, who will be attending Harvard University in the fall. Gray said her brother received $500 for his program.

Reagan died June 5 after battling Alzheimer's disease for a decade.