Stories from Sunday, January 6, 2002

ST. LOUIS -- It took half a season for Cory Stillman to score a goal at home. Once he got one, the next two were easy. Stillman scored three goals, and Doug Weight added four assists, leading the St. Louis Blues to a 5-2 victory Saturday over the Dallas Stars...

VIENNA, Ill. -- A Johnson County judge has convicted a Vienna woman who threw four kittens from a moving vehicle. Judge James Williamson convicted Nora J. Knack, 64, Friday on two counts each of aggravated cruelty to animals and cruel treatment to animals...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When Bernhard Works hankers for sausage and eggs, he literally flies over to Arnie's in Bloomington. He'll take a friend or a family member, sit them next to him in the tight quarters of a single-engined Piper Archer kept at Flightstar at Willard Airport, and head to the Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington. That's the location of Arnie's, an institution at the airport and one of the favorite places for pilots looking for a bite to eat...

CHICAGO -- Cook County prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a Chicago man despite his videotaped confession that he killed his mother in July 2000. John Gorman, a spokesman for State's Attorney Richard Devine, said DNA tests on evidence from the crime scene linked another man to the fatal stabbing of Netta Bell...

Associated Press/Post-Dispatch, Teak Phillips Rhea Dickrader checked in books on tape at the Wolfner Library in Jefferson City, Mo. The library, which services the blind and handicapped, has 350,000 taped and Braille copies of 100,000 titles.The Associated Press...

TUSKEGEE, Ala. -- Space -- the final potato patch. The mission of Tuskegee University's space foods research center: to produce sweet potatoes that will boldly grow where no sweet potatoes have grown before. NASA provided a $5 million grant over five years, and the center's scientists went to work, researching how to grow sweet potatoes and peanuts on the moon or Mars...

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- With $200 in the bank and two sons to support, Paula Deen was barely kidding when she went into business as the Bag Lady. Deen spent the next two years packing homemade sandwiches, soups and salads into bag lunches for her sons to sell door-to-door at doctor's offices, beauty parlors and banks...

Wearing a wig doesn't have to be a dirty little secret. Wigs can be stylish, shiny and worn with confidence. If a wig looks right, the wearer won't see it as "a thing on my head," says Joelle, senior stylist at Avon Salon & Spa in New York. It'll just be "the hair on my head."...

From staff and wire reports Everyone seemed to wear them in the 1970s, but the popularity of wigs faded away even if the colors and styles stayed fresh. Today, with more celebrities wearing wigs, extensions and hairpieces, women can transform their coifs and hair colors instantly...

PARIS -- Doctors in France resumed their nationwide strike Saturday to demand higher pay from the government, with some openly defying state-mandated caps on fees they can charge patients. The strike should last until Monday. It is the latest in a swelling series of work stoppages by 55,000 general practitioners that has burdened France's health care system in recent weeks...

JERICHO, West Bank -- A U.S. envoy was hopeful Saturday he could guide Israelis and Palestinians toward a truce, after Israel said it would further ease West Bank blockades and the Palestinians continued to arrest suspected militants. In Washington, meanwhile, a U.S. official raised the possibility that a 50-ton weapons shipment intercepted by Israel was intended for Hezbollah, Hamas or another extremist group, rather than for the Palestinian Authority, as Israel claimed...

CHICAGO -- Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood has spent the vast majority of the money she has raised in her campaign for governor -- but she said she's confident she'll raise more. Wood said the $6,789 that remained in her campaign account at year's end is a minor problem that she expects to correct with a fund-raising campaign. ...

CHICAGO -- They explore the old Boeing 727 plane as any group of students on a museum field trip might. They punch buttons, try out the passenger seats and pretend they're about to take off on a long journey. But when told what the plane weighs -- 165,000 pounds, or about as much as 10 elephants -- several children, even one of the youngest, give knowing nods...

IRVING, Texas -- The only thing that motivates Emmitt Smith more than a milestone is people saying he can't reach it. Smith goes into the Dallas Cowboys' season finale today against Detroit needing 56 yards rushing to reach 1,000 for an unprecedented 11th consecutive season...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- No one has had a closer view of Michael Strahan's assault on the NFL single-season sack record than Cornelius Griffin. As Strahan has gotten into his stance at defensive left end for the New York Giants, Griffin has lined up beside him at tackle through hundreds of plays and a near-record 21 1/2 sacks...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Boone County Sheriff's authorities have identified a homicide victim as a teen-ager who faced felony charges related to an earlier robbery and shooting. De'ter O'Brian Bradford, 17, of Columbia, died of multiple stab wounds, sheriffs Maj. O.J. Stone said Friday. Bradford's frozen body was found Thursday afternoon, face up in a patch of woods and brush that borders a mobile home park and a subdivision...

HERMANN, Mo. -- With its high-arching, silver-painted steel, the bridge over the Missouri River provides a quaint entrance to this German tourist town known for its fine wine and bed-and-breakfasts. Quaint to look at, that is. Scary to drive over. The vintage 1930 bridge has lanes so narrow that motorists are warned to slow to 35 mph and heavy trucks to 15 mph. Still, scores of side vehicle mirrors get knocked off as big rigs and school buses meet...

MARSHFIELD, Mo. -- An Illinois couple died Saturday when their car she was driving went off Interstate 44 and overturned in southwest Missouri, authorities said. Angelita A. Rangel, 43, of Cicero, Ill., fell asleep at the wheel and awoke to find the car drifting, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. She overcorrected and the car slid into a ditch, overturning several times...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The last thing Marcus Engel saw was headlights. In 1993, a drunken driver broadsided the Toyota carrying Engel through the intersection of Hampton Avenue and Chippewa Street in St. Louis. Engel, now 26, of Chesterfield, was thrown from the vehicle. He broke every bone in his face and lost his eyesight...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Like millions of Americans, Benny Hoke wanted to demonstrate his patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks. But where he lives he cannot do so, at least not the way he wants to. City officials have given him a deadline to remove from his front yard a lighted plastic signboard that reads "United We Stand" and "Pray for America."...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Don Spurlin was listening to a seminar on computer software designed to protect children from sexual predators. He wondered, why not use it to protect predators from their own impulses? The software could be added to the computers of sex offenders who are on probation, he thought, and used to alert authorities to illicit activities...

ATLANTA -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has agreed to a $250 million settlement in which it must pay as many as 700,000 Georgia motorists for the lost value of cars damaged in collisions. The settlement of a class-action lawsuit announced Friday calls for Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm to pay $100 million in diminished value reimbursements for accident claims filed since Dec. 22, 1993...

PEORIA, Ill. -- Salvation Army officials are accepting bids on four rare South African gold coins found mixed among the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters dropped into collection kettles during the holidays. The 1978 Krugerrand coins -- worth $283 each -- turned up among donations shortly before Christmas. The Salvation Army in Peoria is accepting telephone bids through Jan. 21...

ANKARA, Turkey -- Blizzards closed roads and disrupted air traffic in the southern Balkans for a second day Saturday, prompting Greece and Bulgaria to declare states of emergency in certain areas, Turkey to shelter homeless in jails and Romania to dynamite river ice...

ROME -- Italy's foreign minister resigned Saturday after a spat with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the government's lukewarm reception of the euro. Renato Ruggiero's resignation was likely to spark concerns among other European nations since he was seen as lending credibility to the billionaire media mogul's administration and as balancing some of its right-wing or anti-EU ministers...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. Marines took custody of the chief of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, while the Afghan government said Saturday it appeared former Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had escaped forces penning him in...

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Firing back in an election-year debate over the recession, President Bush on Saturday painted Democratic opponents as tax-raisers and pointedly vowed he won't allow his tax cuts to be rolled back. "Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes," he shouted to California workers...

KENNETT -- This is the season of the year when the political leaders of America and its various states, including our own, announce their plans, hopes and aspirations for governing the rest of us, grandly proclaiming their visions of achievement and unequaled greatness for constituents...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The thick blanket of snow that covers much of the Deep South may soon become just a memory with the arrival of warmer temperatures -- and probably rain -- over the weekend. Frigid overnight temperatures were expected to freeze runoff and roads. ...

Southeast Missouri State University will break ground Feb. 16 on a new $1 million alumni center that won't cost taxpayers a dime. The two-level, white stucco and glass building will be financed with private donations and constructed just southeast of Wildwood, once the official residence of school presidents and now a reception hall and guest house...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A medical examiner who performed an autopsy on a man killed in a fight with a fellow hockey dad said it would require "substantial force" to inflict the injuries that caused the victim's death. Dr. Stanton Kessler, the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Michael Costin, testified on Friday as prosecutors began presenting their case in the manslaughter trial of Thomas Junta, 42...

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- He was among the pioneering greats of nuclear science. He was scorned for disavowing former boss Robert Oppenheimer. He didn't get a Nobel but did pick up the unlovely title of "father of the hydrogen bomb." At 93, Edward Teller looks back at a lifetime of science that saw him often controversial but always influential...

On April 15, the man who has been Cape Girardeau's mayor for the past eight years predicts he will likely do what he has done on many a Monday night -- get in his car and drive toward city hall. "I'll probably drive halfway down Broadway before it hits me," he said. "Then I'll think 'Whoops, I don't have a city council meeting. I'm not the mayor anymore.'"...

New fossils of a chipmunk-sized animal that lived about 85 million years ago suggest that placental mammals arose much earlier than is generally believed and thrived for millions of years alongside dinosaurs. Paleontologists who analyzed about 45 jawbone and skull fragments of a long-snouted mammal called Kulbeckia conclude that it was an early relative of rabbits and rodents...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- It prowls the pond, on the hunt for pelicans and cormorants. When it's close enough, SPLAT! It's a solar-powered robot scarecrow that guards catfish and crawfish ponds with a water cannon. The basic model has paddlewheels and pontoons; a student is building one to look like a big alligator...

Charges were filed early Saturday against an Illinois man accused in a purse-snatching and who led police on a high-speed chase through town during rush hour Friday. According to the arrest warrant, Robert W. Wiley, 24, of Liberty, Ill., faces two counts of second-degree robbery, one count of assaulting a police officer and two counts of resisting arrest...

The system to determine a national college football champion is certainly not perfect. Far from it. In fact, it's pretty bad. But I don't think many people can argue that Miami doesn't deserve to end this season as the nation's No. 1 team. Miami wound up as the only undefeated Division I-A squad and the Hurricanes dominated most of their opponents, including Nebraska in Thursday night's Rose Bowl...

SAN DIEGO -- A former coroner's lab toxicologist was released on $1.25 million bail, six months after she was arrested and charged with poisoning her husband with drugs allegedly stolen from her office. Kristin Rossum, 25, smiled and cried Friday as she hugged her parents, who helped secure her bail and win her release from Las Colinas women's jail in Santee...

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- To avoid accidents in Central Asia's seas and skies, U.S. forces share radar and other strategic data with anti-terrorism coalition partners operating in the Arabian Gulf, senior aircraft carrier officers said Saturday...

KATMANDU, Nepal -- India's prime minister grudgingly shook hands with Pakistan's president at a regional summit Saturday, but he rebuffed an offer of talks until Pakistan cracks down on Islamic militants. The two nations' armies exchanged shellfire again Saturday across the line dividing the Himalayan territory of Kashmir. A truckload of explosives being unloaded by Indian soldiers at the border went off accidentally, killing 17 people...

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Kris Kisbulck, a young Belgian photographer, is on the road a lot for his work, so he can appreciate how having one currency for 12 countries will simplify his life. Yet he still has a nagging feeling that the gain in convenience is coming at a price...

NEW YORK -- Bring up the fact that her sister is mayor of Palm Beach, Fla., and Stockard Channing brusquely interjects: "Why are you mentioning my sister?" The mention is meant to serve as a preface to asking whether a real-life political animal would have any advice for a sister playing a political animal on television...

NEW YORK -- Most of all, Tom Cherry just wants it to be done with. But that's a tall order. For one thing, a new film on cable's FX network is inviting fresh attention to his unrelenting nightmare: the struggle since boyhood for approval from his father as he came to grips with his father's possible involvement in a vicious crime four decades ago...

New Year's resolutions often include dieting to counter the results of exuberant holiday feasting. Take heart: The prospect need not be austere -- just resolve to eat healthy foods that taste great. Combine fresh and low-fat ingredients with extras that are full of flavor. Nowadays such a plan is helped by the availability of naturally leaner meats, a year-round supply of fresh vegetables and fruit, and plenty of varieties of vinegars and mustards -- which have very few calories...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A 15-year-old student pilot took off in a small plane without permission Saturday and crashed into a skyscraper after ignoring a Coast Guard helicopter's signals to land, authorities said. The crash occurred after Charles J. Bishop's grandmother brought him to the National Aviation Academy flight school for a 5 p.m. flying lesson, said Marianne Pasha, a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Gene Hackman of "The Royal Tenenbaums" and Jennifer Connelly of "A Beautiful Mind" won supporting-actor honors Saturday at the first American Film Institute Awards. Hackman won the non-lead actor honor for his role as an outcast patriarch who weasels his way back into the dysfunctional family he abandoned years earlier in "The Royal Tenenbaums."...

GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Sitting beside a framed photo of their son, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, the parents of the first U.S. soldier killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan fought back tears Saturday as they recalled his Army career. Will and Lynn Chapman said the 31-year-old Green Beret communications specialist had served in Panama, Haiti, Operation Desert Storm and then Afghanistan...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Doctors have amputated country singer Waylon Jennings' left foot because of an infection related to diabetes, his spokeswoman said. The surgery was done Dec. 19 in Phoenix, Nikki Mitchell said Friday. She declined to discuss details...

A new study claims that some future malaria vaccines that don't entirely wipe out the disease might unintentionally serve to make it more deadly. The study, published in December in the journal Nature, uses mathematical analysis to examine the effect of partially effective, or "imperfect," malaria vaccines...

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Scott Verplank eagled the final hole to catch Kenny Perry after three rounds of the Mercedes Championships, the season-opening tournament that is looking more like a tuneup for the British Open. In gusts up to 40 mph, so strong that tournament officials moved up four tees once the third round started, Verpank still managed a 3-under-par 70 and was at 206. Perry three-putted the 18th for a 71 and was also at 13 under...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Money is always at the center of the legislative process as lawmakers spend months wrangling to secure funding for needed or wanted programs and projects. Regardless of political affiliation, most lawmakers agree that the free-spending days of the flush 1990s are over, and the state has no choice but to rein in the budget, which currently tops $19 billion...

10 years ago: Jan. 6, 1992 City Council hustles through 10-minute meeting, where it approves study of city's public transportation needs and purchase of property to expand Shawnee Park; council also approves motion to proceed with final engineering plans for extension of Sprigg street north from Bertling to Melody lane...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Eileen M. Roberts, 73, of Marble Hill died Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 6, 1928, at Glenwood, Iowa, daughter of Wayne D. and Marie Bomer. She and Eldon Roberts were married May 22, 1946, in Marysville, Kan. He died Oct. 19, 1992, in Wymore, Neb., where the family had resided from 1975 to 1996...

DEXTER, Mo. -- Eloise Trammell, 75, of Dexter died Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at her son's home in Columbia, Mo. She was born Jan. 25, 1926, in Dexter, daughter of Vick A. and Iona Smith Hill. Trammell, a former science teacher for Dexter Public Schools, attended the First Baptist Church in Dexter...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Susan Diane Sissom Modglin, 51, of Paragould, Ark., formerly of Olive Branch, died Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at the Regional Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark. She was born Dec. 26, 1950, in Cairo, Ill., daughter of James W. and Frances Pettit Sissom...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Laura "Freda" Kirkpatrick, 82, of Columbia, Mo., formerly of Advance, died Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at Columbia Manor Nursing Home. She was born Sept. 30, 1919, in Octa, Mo., daughter of Joseph Bradford and Laura White Kelley. She and Sterling O. Kirkpatrick were married June 24, 1945, in Cape Girardeau. He died Feb. 3, 1997...

Norman H. "Pete" Kinder, 94, died Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Dec. 20, 1907, at Gordonville, Mo., son of Benjamin H. and Effie Eakins Kinder. He and Maple F. Wadley were married July 17, 1937, at Benton, Mo. She died July 12, 2001...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Judy Catherine Myers, 49, of Sikeston died Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Feb. 9, 1952, in Wilson, Ark., daughter of William Howard and Bessie James Gabriel Looney. She was a nurses aide at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston for 10 years...

Department of Conservation JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- If you love catching bluegill, you will be glad to know that the Missouri Department of Conservation is launching a plan to improve your favorite kind of fishing. When the project is complete, the Conservation Department and private pond owners will know more about how to produce quality bluegill fishing...

Being too critical ON THE recent comments about local law enforcement and state troopers: I don't believe the callers realize what they're talking about. I have a background in law enforcement. The officers are responding to numerous calls every day on the job. ...

What if you had the chance to keep a plant like kudzu from invading our area? What would you do? Would you take action or simply let it come in? Your answer to that question is important because Cape Girardeau County is being invaded by an aggressive shrub. Bush Honeysuckle is now residing in our backyards. Its presence is not welcome and if we are going to stop its spread, then action needs to be taken now...

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. -- Police, volunteers, friends and family scoured the area of Mississippi County called Thompson Bin Saturday, hoping to find more clues as to the whereabouts of a missing Alto Pass, Ill., man. Friday, police found Walter Gibbs Sr.'s truck, which had been driven into a ditch off a rural road in a northeastern part of the county. Gibbs, 73, was last seen Dec. 11 while driving to Thebes to visit friends...

Loren Rullman, director of student auxiliary services at Southeast Missouri State University, has been promoted to assistant vice president of enrollment management. He also will supervise some building operations, including the University Center and the new residence hall under construction on Henderson Street...

Who's the biggest loser of 2001? Good question, and one can summon plenty of nominees: John Walker, Enron executives or the Chicago Cubs who, surging last June -- this writer saw them finish a sweep of our beloved Redbirds up at Wrigley that month -- later did their usual fading number as the season wore on...

There's nothing like a cell phone to make you a talking fool. Millions of Americans have been doing it for years. But until recently I'd pretty much avoided cellular phones in favor of traditional land lines. We've had a cell phone for several years, but Joni generally kept it with her. Besides, it was a dinosaur when we got it and managed to produce more static than intelligible words...

Huey and Thelma Cook of Cape Girardeau recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a family dinner at Delmonico's in Jackson, Mo. The Cooks were married Dec. 14, 1941, at the home of the Rev. E.D. Owen in Sikeston, Mo. They have three sons and two daughters-in-law, Larry Cook, Gary and Judy Cook, and Ron and Brenda Cook. They have six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Michael and Denise Johnson and Gerald and Nancy Adams, all of Jackson, announce the engagement of their children, Andrea Beth Johnson and Nathan Lynn Adams. Johnson is a 1997 graduate of Jackson High School. She received a bachelor's degree in social work from Southeast Missouri State University in 2001...

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Mitchell of Kansas City, Mo., announce the engagement of their daughter, Anne Elizabeth Mitchell, to Capt. Gabriel Thomas Hinkebein of Ft. Rucker, Ala. He is the son of Thomas and Laura Hinkebein of Cape Girardeau. Mitchell is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. She is an attorney with the law firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens and Smith, P.C., in Dothan, Ala...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Darrell and Julie Tillman of Jackson announce the engagement of their daughter, Cherish Bellemarie Tillman, to Kent David Langston. He is the son of Terry and Betty Langston of Jackson, and the late Toni Kay Langston. Tillman is a 2000 graduate of Jackson High School, and is attending Southeast Missouri State University. She is employed at University Bookstore...

First Church of the Nazarene was the setting Oct. 13, 2001, for the wedding of Christa Marie Jones and William Joseph Miller. The Rev. Bill L. Burke performed the ceremony. Vocalist was Jean Ann Burke. Parents of the bride are John C. and Judith Jones of Cape Girardeau. The groom is the son of Terry Casto of Hanoverton, Ohio, and Jim Miller of Boardman, Ohio...

Amy Rochelle Chambers and Christopher Michael Patterson were married May 19, 2001, at North Oxford Baptist Church in Oxford, Miss. Gary Richardson performed the double ring ceremony. Joe and Judy Chambers of Oxford are parents of the bride. The groom is the son of David and Marcia Walton of Cape Girardeau...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Millie Jean Wolfenkoehler and James Dennis Aufdenberg exchanged vows Oct. 27, 2001, at Emanuel United Church of Christ. The Rev. Sam Roethemeyer performed the double ring ceremony. Scriptures were read by Dennis James of Leopold, Mo., uncle and godfather of the groom...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri spends 39 percent more for individualized care for the mentally and developmentally disabled than for group homes, according to a new study. The study, ordered by state Auditor Claire McCaskill, is the first effort to evaluate expenditures on the disabled and to determine if they are getting the care they should by law...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Kareem Rush isn't playing like a preseason All-American these days. On Saturday, his coach said Rush isn't getting the officiating calls he should. Rush was 3-for-13 after hitting his first two shots and scored eight points in the latest of a string of rough outings as No. 17 Missouri edged Nebraska 60-53 in its Big 12 opener...

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- For 30 minutes here Saturday, Southeast Missouri State University's Indians were having fun again as they appeared ready to, for one night at least, wipe away all the bad memories from a dismal non-league performance. But the nightmares will continue for the Indians, thanks to a furious Eastern Illinois rally that saw the Panthers wipe out an 18-point deficit with under 10 minutes to play as they stunned Southeast 84-74...

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Despite Eastern Illinois' lowly record, Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen fully expected a major battle during the Otahkians' Ohio Valley Conference opener here Saturday night. And that's exactly what the Otahkians got as they needed a late surge to avoid an upset and post a 77-68 victory...

A promising innovation in the judiciary under way in St. Louis is known as the mental health court. Since the mental health court opened a year ago, about 100 people have been referred to Judge James Sullivan. The court seeks treatment that will help prevent future arrests...

You might think that during wartime certain politicians would put aside petty agendas that center on blocking presidential appointees from taking office. You would be wrong. This is exactly what Senate Democratic leaders are doing to President George W. Bush's nominees. It is a disgraceful performance...

Cape Girardeau Sunday, Jan. 6 Property DamageA mailbox was reported damaged Friday at 3801 Carolwood. Assault Domestic assault was reported Friday in Cape Girardeau. ArrestsJoseph Frey, 46, of Memphis, Tenn., was arrested Friday for failure to appear...

Cape Girardeau Sunday, Jan. 6 Firefighters responded to the following calls Friday:At 9:16 p.m., an emergency medical service at 205 S. Middle. At 9:51 p.m., an alarm sounding at 325 N. Sprigg. Firefighters responded to the following calls Saturday:At 5 a.m., a box alarm at 515 Themis...

SINGAPORE -- Authorities have arrested 15 suspected militants, some of them trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, for allegedly plotting bombings in this city-state, the government said Saturday. The suspects were arrested last month, and detailed information on bomb construction and photographs and video footage of targeted buildings in Singapore were found in their homes and offices, the Ministry of Home Affairs said. ...

SYDNEY, Australia -- A smoky haze choked the summer sky above Sydney and white ash rained down Saturday as massive wildfires swept bushland to the north and edged closer to a beach village to the south. Firefighters battling dozens of blazes around Australia's biggest city for 13 days took advantage of a break from the bone-dry summer heat to prepare for an onslaught they fear will come next week...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. funding for the leading Iraqi opposition group has been suspended because the organization failed to properly account for the money, a State Department official said Saturday. Despite the suspension of Iraqi National Congress funds, the department still considers the group an important player in the opposition to Saddam Hussein, said Gregg Sullivan, spokesman for the Near Eastern Affairs bureau...

WASHINGTON -- A 100-year-old architect advises this for those who want to work into old age: find a job you enjoy. "When you have something you love to do, it keeps you alive," Harold Fisher said Dec. 10 after receiving Green Thumb Inc.'s annual "America's Oldest Worker" award. "I never had dying in my mind at all because I love my work and spent so much time at the office."...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- When somebody rings the bell at Como en Casa, a small bed-and-breakfast inn in Buenos Aires' bohemian quarter of Palermo Viejo, Mariana Alfaro never really knows what to expect. "Some people ask me do I sell beds, others want to eat a meal," she says...

TIAHURA, Moorea -- Everyone in our group had finally arrived dockside and so had the chum. It was time to head out into the lagoon to swim with the stingrays and feed the sharks. The skipper of our thatch-covered outrigger canoe, a young Polynesian named Tommy, tried to put us at ease. Speaking in halting English for the benefit of the four of us who didn't speak French, he reassures us: "We don't eat people here anymore. But be careful with the sharks; they like white meat."...

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Until recently a small farm town, Milford Township has grown so quickly that some municipal duties have fallen by the wayside -- such as naming roads. The township of 15,000 has at least 50 unnamed roads that officials say they hope to have named, numbered and listed on maps soon for the convenience of everyone from fire crews to postal workers...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When the National Catholic Reporter ran a story about priests in Africa molesting nuns, editor Tom Roberts wondered how the Vatican would react. He didn't care too much. But he wondered. "I can't think about what Rome is going to say," Roberts said. "The surprise this time was that the Vatican even confirmed that there was a problem."...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Just three years after arriving as Oklahoma's football coach, could Bob Stoops be moving on? Stoops is the top candidate to replace Steve Spurrier at Florida, a source familiar with the search told The Associated Press on Friday, hours after Spurrier resigned unexpectedly...

It's a half-full, half-empty kind of thing. Sure, Notre Dame coach Darrin Scott was proud of his guys for digging their way out of a 9-2 hole. But why were the Bulldogs in a 9-2 hole in the first place? Notre Dame (9-4) got off to a terrible start, but came back to capture a 50-46 victory over Class 4A Vianney in the Tiger Shootout at the Tiger Fieldhouse Saturday...

Every time Cape Central High got close, Parkway South had an answer. Every time the Tigers needed a basket, they came up empty. It's enough to drive a coach crazy. Central coach Derek McCord was left scratching his head after his inexperienced Tigers suffered a 67-59 loss to Parkway South (8-7)in the final game of the Tiger Shootout Saturday...

DELTA, Mo. -- Top-seeded Twin Rivers captured the Delta Tournament Saturday night, defeating the host Lady Bobcats 49-45 in the championship game. Delta, the third seed, carried a 35-34 lead into the fourth quarter but saw Twin Rivers move ahead on the free-throw shooting of guard Amanda Lance, who finished with 22 points. Lance sank 9 of 11 free throws in the final period, including a pair of free throws with about two minutes left that put the Lady Royals ahead for good...

The consensus opinion of most players and coaches at the Tiger Shootout is that they all relish the opportunity to play different competition. Jackson (7-6) led off the seventh-annual Tiger Shootout against a young Jennings team out of St. Louis with a 69-51 victory...

Associated Press/Claudio Cruz A man baked tortillas in Mexico City in this Dec. 4 file photo. Mexico has a genetic warehouse of over 60 corn varieties, a wealth that enriches staple crops across the world, and includes wild varieties that have yet to even be catalogued.By Philip Brasher ~ The Associated Press...

MEXICO CITY -- In a cautionary tale about the difficulty of controlling genetically modified plants, corn researchers in Mexico went ever higher into remote mountain villages looking for natural varieties of the 4,000-year-old crop. Time after time, they couldn't find them...

WASHINGTON -- The sluggish world economy and the strong U.S. dollar offer little hope to American farmers for a turnaround in crop prices this year. That means Congress will be under pressure either to pass a new farm program quickly or provide growers a fifth bailout in as many years...

CHICAGO -- The Bush administration is blocking an Illinois farm group's planned delegation of 98 Americans from traveling to Cuba this week. The Farm Foundation in Oak Brook had planned to bring a group of agribusiness representatives, including former U.S. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Throughout the season, Mike Martz's mantra has been that no matter who's next on the schedule, it's what the St. Louis Rams do that matters. "It is always about our performance," Martz said. That'll come in handy in today's season finale, considering the Atlanta Falcons haven't posed much of a challenge lately. Not only do the Rams (13-2) enter with the NFL's best record, they've dominated the Falcons the last five times by an average of 39-15...

When Christmas and New Year's Day were over, the trimmings all down and we were back to our usual routine, our early household, represented by three generations, still looked forward to another excitement. On the morning of Jan. 6, Mama, calling from the foot of the stairs, would say, "Get up, kids. It's Epiphany." It always sounded like "Efifany" to me and that's what I called it for many years...