A Cheddar Valley business is going national in its bid to boostsales.
Thatchers Cider, the Sandford-based company, is investing in amajor media campaign worth Pounds 1.5 million for its flagshipbrand, Thatchers Gold.
The Somerset cider maker is including UK national coveragethrough Sky channels, together with cinema, for the first time. ThePeople Who Care …
BAGHDAD - A mortar shell hit the roof of Iraq's parliament building in the Green Zone compound in Baghdad on Monday, but no injuries were reported, a lawmaker said.
"The shell landed almost above the office of the parliament speaker," said Sabah al-Saadi, a parliamentarian, adding that there was minor damage to the roof.
Al-Saadi was inside attending a committee meeting with other lawmakers when the mortar shell hit.
Also Monday, gunmen in two cars attacked a minibus heading to Baghdad from a Shiite town north of the capital, killing seven passengers, including a child, police said.
Thousands of soldiers, meanwhile, continued combing through fields and …
The National Assembly gave preliminary approval Tuesday to legislation that would let President Hugo Chavez's government seize control of some oil service companies without following usual legal procedures for expropriating private businesses.
State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, has clashed in recent months with domestic and foreign firms over their fees for providing equipment and services to help extract crude. PDVSA wants to slash those costs 40 percent because its revenues have plunged due to the fall in oil prices, and it says some contracts are now overvalued.
Under Chavez, Venezuela has nationalized four major oil projects as well …
Saying no to school consolidations is the easy part of draftingnext year's budget by the Chicago Board of Education. Now comes thehard part - plugging a $300 million flow of red ink.
Consolidations of 26 elementary schools wouldn't have saved anickel in the first year but they would have caused disruptions forstudents, teachers and local school councils, an argument that wasn'tlost on the board's Instruction Committee last week.
So, now what? Other than Supt. Ted Kimbrough's plan to closefive schools, which goes before the board's Audit and FinanceCommittee, the board has no other cards on the table to ease theshortfall in the $2.3 billion budget next …
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian authorities said Monday that they have accused an army major and four other soldiers of killing three civilians and then falsely presenting their bodies as those of guerrillas slain in combat.
Maj. Juan Carlos Del Rio Crespo and four other troops were charged in the 2002 killings of three members of the Agudelo family in Antioquia state, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Bogota, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
Investigators determined the three were defenseless when they were slain, but that the soldiers later said the deaths happened during combat against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of …
The U.S. military said Sunday it does not believe a recent wave of deadly attacks in Baghdad reflects a trend toward an overall increase in violence.
Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the military spokesman, said a wave of horrific violence, including a single attack on Thursday that killed 68 people in Baghdad, must be placed in perspective.
You have to "look historically at what happened in the last year to put in perspective what has happened in one week or two weeks in Baghdad," Smith said.
Violence around Iraq has dropped by about 60 percent in the past nine months, due mostly to an influx of thousands of U.S. troops, a cease-fire …
A North-east show has showcased improvements in school meals.
Aberdeenshire Council's meal service was highlighted at the Turriff Show which continues today.
One particular highlight of the stand was maps illustrating howlocally farmed milk and beef are supplied to the meals service at allAberdeenshire schools.
The "Fae Fairm tae …
Dr. Shari Answers your Questions
Herbs, nutrients & diet can help with endometriosis
Q From R.B., Lexington, N.C.: I suffer from endometriosis. I've tried lots of fertility drugs, but none have worked. I am desperate. Please help.
A I have found that endometriosis (the abnormal growth of the lining of the uterus) responds beautifully to herbal intervention. There are many herbs that will help, and I will highlight a few. Vitex agnus-castus (chasteberry) is excellent for women's health, and particularly for this condition. Black cohosh supplements, although customarily taken for menopause, may also work for premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and endometriosis; fish oil …
The patriarch of an outlawed Vietnamese Buddhist church, who promoted religious freedom and human rights during more than two decades in and out of house arrest, was buried Friday at his monastery.
The burial of dissident monk Thich Huyen Quang has caused tension with the government, which denies the existence of his Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. But members of group were permitted to participate freely in the services.
Several thousand people paid respects to Quang, 87, who headed the church for 16 years, at the Nguyen Thieu Monastery in southern Binh Dinh province where he had been confined for the last years of his life. He died July 5 from …
Scriptwriter Andrew Davies has won an accolade in the first-everawards dedicated to Jane Austen productions.
The Bath-based Jane Austen's Regency World magazine was behindthe awards which were presented at a dinner in the city.
The event was attended by guests and nominees from Australia, theUnited States, Canada, Ireland and Holland after voting online beganin January.
The awards covered the year 2007 only, with Becoming Janescooping the accolades for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actresswhile the …
Thanks to our judges
The selection of a prestigious group of women requires a prestigious panel of judges. We are indebted to our judging panel, which had the difficult task of selecting Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business. The panel was comprised of leaders from the corporate, public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors in Pennsylvania to ensure balance in the selection process. We appreciate their efforts to this recognition effort.
Martha L. Harris
Deputy Secretary for Trade, Technology & Economic Development Pennsylvania Department of Commerce, Harrisburg
Earl Hord
President Minority Enterprise Corp., Pittsburgh
Steve …
Crowded mosques, packed markets and fishermen cautiously sailing out: Gaza edged back to normalcy on Friday, the first Muslim day of prayers since the end of Israel's three-week war on the territory's Hamas rulers.
The United Nations said some 200,000 children who study at U.N. schools were due back in class Saturday for the first time since the Israeli offensive began on Dec. 27. Thirty of the schools were damaged in the fighting, said Christopher Gunness, a U.N. spokesman.
Israel opened its passenger crossing into Gaza, allowing free access for international reporters and humanitarian workers for the first time since before the offensive.
But …
Denmark and Sweden are better than the United States in their ability to exploit information and communications technology, according to a survey published Thursday.
The United States, which topped the World Economic Forum's "networked readiness index" in 2006 before slipping down the rankings, climbed one place to third in the latest edition of the survey.
The study largely blamed poor political and regulatory environments in the United States for offsetting some of the benefits of having the world's most competitive economy.
The index, which measures the range of factors that affect a country's ability to harness information technologies for economic competitiveness and development, also cited America's low rate of mobile phone usage, a lack of government leadership in information technology and the low quality of mathematics and science education.
Still, even in the midst of an economic crisis, the report indicated the United States was well placed for a technology-driven recovery as it has the top scientific research institutions in the world and best collaboration between universities and industries.
Singapore, the top Asian country, and Switzerland rounded out the top 5. Nordic nations Finland, Iceland and Norway followed, with Netherlands and Canada completing the top 10.
China jumped 11 spots to No. 46, leading the group of big emerging economies. India was 54th, five places ahead of Brazil, while Russia was down at No. 74.
The report covered 134 countries, with Chad, East Timor, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Bangladesh at the bottom.
Neither the ruling party nor the opposition secured enough votes to win the presidential election outright, forcing a runoff in one of Africa's few stable democracies, according to results released Wednesday.
The neck-and-neck race has become a referendum on Ghana's stunning economic growth, which saw the country's foreign investment grow 20-fold and exports more than double since the ruling party took office eight years ago.
Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party, or NPP, received 49.1 percent of the vote _ just 1 percentage point shy of what he needed to win the election in the first round.
Opposition candidate John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress, or NDC, campaigned on a platform of change, arguing that the country's growth has not been felt in people's wallets. He received 47.9 percent of the 8.6 million votes cast, according to returns from all but one of the country's 230 precincts.
A runoff will be held on Dec. 28, said Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, chairman of the Electoral Commission.
Opposition leaders had told their supporters several times since Sunday's vote that they had won the race outright, holding press conferences in violation of election protocol. Young men tore down the posters of the opposition candidate and carried them triumphantly through the streets.
"We are suffering," screamed 27-year-old Charles Banngrman over the din of his party colleagues after one premature celebration. "We are working in this country and we are paid, but by the time we pay our electricity and our water, there's nothing," he said to explain why he voted for the NDC.
NDC supporters compare the West African country's ruling party to America's Republican Party, saying both favored large corporations at the expense of the common man. Like the GOP, the symbol of Ghana's ruling party is the elephant, giving rise to a running stream of jokes.
"In America, the big elephant was sent to the bush. Now it's time for the junior elephant to also be sent to the bush!" another NDC supporter screamed.
Akufo-Addo concedes that growth has not been felt at the level of ordinary people.
"Our position is no different from that of growing economies around the world. When the growth starts, there is a period of gestation before its impact is felt," he told The Associated Press as he waited for the final results. "There's nothing unique about this. We are seeing the same thing in India, in China."
Despite tensions between supporters of the two main parties and isolated cases of violence at polling stations in the country's interior, observers with the U.S.-based Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said the vote was an example.
Monitors with the European Union and ECOWAS, a regional body representing 15 African states, also called the election fair and transparent.
Ghanaians take seriously their status as a role model for the continent and many voters said that regardless who wins the election, the ultimate winner is Ghana which will have pulled off its fifth consecutive democratic vote.
If the runoff goes smoothly, it also will mark the country's second transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another, considered a litmus test of a mature democracy.
Like its neighbors, Ghana has a history of repression and one-party rule. But in the 1990s, ex-coup leader Jerry Rawlings of the NDC organized elections, winning the 1992 and 1996 votes. When his party lost in 2000, he did what no one expected by stepping down, ushering in two terms of the NPP government.
___
Associated Press Writer Francis Kokutse contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - While many in Congress are pushing President Bush to alter course in Iraq by September if not sooner, his new status report on the war strongly implies that the administration believes its military strategy will take many more months to meet its goals.
The report cited no specific timeframe, but its language suggests what some U.S. commanders have hinted at recently: The troop reinforcements that Bush ordered in January may need to remain until spring 2008.
That's a military calculation at odds with an emerging political consensus in Washington on bringing the troops home soon.
The disconnect between the military and political views on the best way forward is a symptom of four-plus years of setbacks in Iraq - not only missteps by the U.S. government but also by Iraqi political leaders, who have fallen far short of their stated aim of creating a government of national unity.
In the view of some members of Congress - and not just Democrats - the time has long passed for the Iraqis to show that they can parlay U.S.-led military efforts into progress on the political front.
"That government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces, and this has to change immediately," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said after the White House delivered its war report to Congress on Thursday. Warner was the author of legislation requiring the report.
Hours after the report's release, the House, on a 223-201 vote, approved a Democratic measure requiring U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by spring. House Democrats pursued the vote despite a veto threat from Bush.
The president apparently has made the calculation that he can ward off political pressure to change course before the next required progress report, set for mid-September. That's when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, plans to lay out his assessment of whether the counterinsurgency strategy he launched in February is working and recommends to Bush whether to stick with it into the coming year.
By extending troop deployments in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months, the Army has made it possible for Bush to maintain the troop buildup until about April 2008. But if he wanted to go beyond that it would require some even more painful moves by the Army, at the risk of reaching a breaking point.
Although the war is increasingly unpopular, Bush does have support in some prominent quarters for continuing his current military strategy, not only for the remainder of this year but into 2008. John Keane, a retired four-star Army general, said this week that security progress, though slow, is gaining momentum.
"The thought of pulling out now or in a couple of months makes no sense militarily," Keane said.
Between now and September the battle for Baghdad will intensify, likely costing hundreds of American troops' lives, and the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be pressured to do more to weed out sectarian influences in the Iraqi security forces and to pass legislation designed to promote reconciliation.
The U.S. casualty rate has increased in recent months, and total U.S. deaths in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 now exceed 3,600.
Petraeus hopes that by September the U.S.-led counteroffensive will have reduced the level of violence enough to create an atmosphere in which political progress can be made, while Iraqi security forces move measurably closer to the point where they can sustain the security gains made by U.S. forces.
"We should expect, however, that AQI will attempt to increase its tempo of attacks as September approaches in an effort to influence U.S domestic opinion about sustained U.S. engagement in Iraq," Bush's report said. AQI is an acronym for the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq that U.S. officials say has a small number of fighters but an outsized ability to accelerate sectarian violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.
At a White House news conference, Bush pleaded for patience, saying that as difficult and painful as the war has become, the consequences of giving up and withdrawing the troops now would be even worse.
His report to Congress acknowledged shortcomings while asserting that the "overall trajectory" of the military and political effort in Iraq "has begun to stabilize, compared to the deteriorating trajectory" in 2006.
Sprinkled through the report are phrases that make clear the administration believes its military strategy is the right one, that it should be given more time and that positive results are at least months away.
Some examples:
- There are encouraging signs that should, "over time," point the way to lower U.S. troop levels in Iraq.
- Meaningful and lasting progress on national reconciliation may require a "sustained period" of reduced violence.
- Pushing "too fast" for reforms to allow former Sunni Baathists to participate more fully in the government could make it harder to achieve reconciliation. Likewise, it said the time is not right to establish amnesty for those insurgents who fought against the government since 2003, although amnesty is a key goal. At the moment, the report said, "a general amnesty program would be counterproductive" because no major armed group has said it is willing to renounce violence and join the government.
- The report listed eight "core objectives" that will be the main focus "over 2007 and into 2008." These included defeating al-Qaida and its supporters and helping Iraqis regain control of Baghdad.
---
On the Net:
Iraq report: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070712.html
Just about a month away from the school's first football practicein over 45 years, University of Charleston coaches are involved in awhirlwind of activity as they prepare for the school's leap of faithback onto the gridiron.
"One thing I learned," head Coach Mike Springston said, "is howmuch you take for granted when you walk into an existing program."
At UC, Springston and his staff are building from the ground up.It's one thing to not have any weight equipment, pads or uniforms.Springston didn't have any players when he arrived on the SouthRuffner campus to resurrect a program that had been dormant since1956.
By Aug. 8 he expects to have close to 100 players, including about50 junior college transfers and 35 California transplants, on board.Practice starts Aug. 9.
"I don't know how many will show up," said Springston, the formerWest Virginia University Tech head coach. "I'd like to have all 100.We'll just have to wait until Aug. 8 and see who shows up."
Until then, Springston will be busy contacting his players,arranging travel plans for the incoming athletes, meeting with hiscoaches to discuss X's and O's, finishing a move into his new office,lobbying for new weight equipment and a new weight room and securinguniforms.
And that, of course, just skims the surface of what's left to do.
Once practice starts, Springston will be working on a tightschedule. New NCAA rules prohibit two-a-day workouts until a schoolhas practiced for five days. After that, two-a-days are allowed, butnot on consecutive days.
"It's a weird way they're doing it this year," Springston said."It wouldn't be such as issue if we had had spring practice.
"It's a very, very tight preseason. But it's tight for everybody.We have to hope our kids are smart and as athletic as they seem tobe. Hopefully, they'll make up for some of the short preparation timewe have."
The Golden Eagles will practice on the far west end of BlackwellField, close to the Columbia Gas building. Their practice field willrun perpendicular to MacCorkle Avenue, encompassing part of the UCsoftball field.
Springston said the team will move to Laidley Field if Blackwellis too wet.
The Golden Eagles, who'll compete this season as an NCAA DivisionII independent, open their 11-game season on Aug. 30 against WVU Techat Laidley.
Springston hopes fans will take note.
"Hopefully the people in Charleston will recognize the historyinvolved, come out and give us a chance to show them what we'retrying to do," Springston said.
Sri Lanka celebrated its 60th independence anniversary Monday with parades, speeches and a security clampdown that failed to prevent suspected rebels from bombing a civilian bus, killing 12 people, the military said.
In an attempt to block such attacks in the capital, troops sealed off many roads and a major cell phone operator shut off its text messaging service throughout the morning as officials and residents gathered for the national ceremony.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa railed in a televised speech against the Tamil Tiger rebels and said the current economic and security difficulties would be over soon. He reiterated the government's vow to crush the rebels after decades of warfare, despite an escalation of the civil war in recent months.
"Our defense forces have achieved victories that were never before seen. Terrorism is facing a defeat that it has never before faced," he said. Top government officials have said they hope to rout the rebels by the end of the year.
Thousands of troops, local dancers and religious leaders paraded along Colombo's coastal road in the independence celebration.
Hours later, a roadside bomb blast tore through a civilian bus in the Welioya region, about240 kilometers (150 miles) northeast of Colombo, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The attack killed 12 people and injured 17 others, he said, blaming the rebels.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment. The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union, routinely deny responsibility for such attacks.
Another roadside bombing in the southeastern town of Buttala killed one soldier and injured two others, the military said.
The blasts came amid a wave of bombings targeting civilians across the country. On Sunday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up inside Colombo's main railway station, killing 11 people and wounding 92 others. A day earlier, a bomb on a bus killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the central town of Dambulla.
The independence celebration _ itself a display of military might _ began with a 21-gun salute and a parade by hundreds of army, navy, air force and police officials, along with tanks, artillery guns and multiple rocket launchers.
Twelve naval gunships and fast-attack craft sailed off the coast, while 26 fighter jets and attack helicopters flew overhead.
The U.S. Embassy advised American citizens to avoid unnecessary travel in the capital region during the holiday, warning of possible attacks. The government also closed schools in Colombo for the week because of the security situation, Education Ministry official Nimal Bandara said.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by Sinhalese-dominated governments. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict.
A 2002 cease-fire ushered in several years of calm and fostered hopes that peace would prevail, but the truce broke down as renewed attacks over the past two years killed 5,000 people.
The government ousted the guerrillas from their strongholds in the east last year, and daily fighting rages along the front lines in the jungles of the north, where the rebels still control a de facto state.
A string of battles in the north Sunday killed 36 rebels and one soldier, the military reported Monday. The rebels were not available for comment, but the two sides routinely give widely differing death tolls.
The government blames the rebels for the recent attacks on civilian targets inside government-held territory, which continue despite a maze of checkpoints throughout the country.
The government officially pulled out of the cease-fire last month and forced independent Nordic monitors to leave the country.
Many had high hopes for the nation, formerly known as Ceylon, when it achieved independence from Britain in 1948, months after South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan became independent.
But the civil war undermined the country's potential to become a regional economic power, said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank.
"The development potential was huge, and it has been totally stymied by this war," he said.
Post-independence governments lacked the foresight to develop a national identity that would include all ethnic groups, Saravanamuttu said.
Tensions between the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, who comprise about 74 percent of the nation's 20 million people, and the mainly Hindu Tamil community, who make up about 18 percent, quickly surfaced after independence.
Sinhalese-dominated governments, fearing local Tamils would work with Tamils in neighboring India to take over the nation, tried to marginalize the Tamil language and culture. At least two efforts to broker a compromise were retracted by the government amid protests by Sinhalese nationalists.
The tensions eventually erupted into violence, with Sinhalese mobs targeting Tamils and Tamil guerrilla groups launching attacks on government targets.
___
Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.
NEW YORK - The nation's retailers had a strong start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at mall-based stores. One big exception was Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which said it expects to report same-store sales in November below its already lackluster forecast.
According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 45,000 mall-based retail outlets, total sales rose 6 percent to $8.96 billion on Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season, compared to the same day a year ago.
"Although we anticipated a solid consumer turnout for Black Friday, this data shows an even larger increase than expected as consumers proved they were willing to spend," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, in a statement.
Wal-Mart, however, estimated it will post a 0.1 percent decline in same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, in November. That's slightly below its original projections for flat sales for the month, compared to the year-ago period. The results cover the four-week period that ended through Friday. Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.
J.C. Penney Co. said in a separate statement released Saturday that the holiday shopping season was "off to a good start."
"We have seen brisk traffic in our stores, and our 'redbox gifts' selection is being well-received by customers," Penney said, referring to its holiday must-have items. It said that home entertainment, fashion jewelry, children's apparel, housewares, holiday decorations and women's shoes were among the most popular items Friday.
Wal-Mart and other major retailers are expected to report final same-store results for November on Thursday.
Wal-Mart's disappointing performance in November is the latest in a string of anemic sales gains for the discount store, which is struggling to expand its appeal to higher-income shoppers. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, Wal-Mart has averaged a meager 2.4 percent gain in same-store sales for the February-October period. That compares with a same-store sales 4.8 percent gain for discount rival Target Corp. Penney has averaged a 4.5 percent gain in same-store sales for the February-October period.
Wal-Mart, which had downplayed its emphasis on discounting, or what it calls rollbacks, stepped up its campaign in mid-October, with price reductions on over 100 toys. The move was followed by price cuts on consumer electronics and small appliances earlier this month.
While Black Friday - so named because it was traditionally when the surge of shopping made stores profitable - starts holiday shopping, it is not considered a bellwether for the season. However, merchants see Black Friday as setting an important tone to the overall season: what consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the year.
Police went door-to-door with guns drawn searching a neighborhood northeast of downtown Las Vegas after one or more assailants fired shots that narrowly missed officers making a traffic stop.
Officer Barbara Morgan says no one was wounded, but at least two shots went over the heads of two officers just after 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Aerial views showed officers taking cover behind a marked patrol car near an apartment complex while other uniformed officers sealed off the area east of U.S. 95 and Eastern Avenue.
A police helicopter circled overhead while officers wearing body armor walked through the area carrying assault rifles. Other officers with dogs searched nearby back yards.
Today is Sunday, June 8, the 160th day of 2008. There are 206 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On June 8, A.D. 632, the prophet Muhammad died in Medina.
On this date:
In 1845, Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn.
In 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union.
In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party's convention in Baltimore.
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt offered to act as a mediator in the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1915, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement with President Wilson over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.
In 1948, the "Texaco Star Theater" made its debut on NBC-TV with Milton Berle guest-hosting the first program. (Berle was later named the show's permanent host.)
In 1953, the Supreme Court, in District of Columbia v. Thompson Co., ruled that restaurants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve blacks.
In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and American Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970.
In 1967, 34 U.S. servicemen were killed when Israeli forces raided the Liberty, a Navy ship stationed in the Mediterranean. (Israel called the attack a tragic mistake.)
In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nev., ruled the so-called "Mormon will," purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery.
Ten years ago: The National Rifle Association elected Charlton Heston its president. The shuttle Discovery pulled away from Mir, ending America's three-year space partnership with Russia. Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha died at age 54.
Five years ago: Frustrated and angry over delays, a coalition of the nation's mayors meeting in Denver asked federal officials to bypass state governments and give them the money they needed to beef up homeland security. Poles voted to join the European Union in 2004. Annika Sorenstam won the LPGA Championship for her fifth major title. Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero won the French Open men's final with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Martin Verkerk. George Foreman was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Broadway show "Hairspray" won eight Tony Awards, including best musical; "Take Me Out," Richard Greenberg's play about a gay baseball player, was chosen best play.
One year ago: Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the Bush administration was replacing Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and recommending Adm. Mike Mullen for the job. Mary Winkler, who'd killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay in bed, was sentenced in Selmer, Tenn., to three years in prison. (She ended up serving 67 days in custody, 12 in jail and the rest in a mental health facility.) Paris Hilton was sent screaming and crying back to jail after a judge in Los Angeles ruled she had to serve out her sentence for a probation violation behind bars rather than under house arrest. The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to the international space station.
Today's Birthdays: Former first lady Barbara Bush is 83. Actor-comedian Jerry Stiller is 81. Comedian Joan Rivers is 75. Actress Millicent Martin is 74. Actor James Darren is 72. Actor Bernie Casey is 69. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 68. Singer Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night) is 66. Musician Boz Scaggs is 64. Actor Don Grady is 64. Rock musician Mick Box (Uriah Heep) is 61. Author Sara Paretsky is 61. Actress Sonia Braga is 58. Actress Kathy Baker is 58. Country musician Tony Rice is 57. Singer Bonnie Tyler is 55. Actor Griffin Dunne is 53. "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams is 51. Actor-director Keenen Ivory Wayans is 50. Singer Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) is 48. Musician Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Doris Pearson (Five Star) is 42. Actress Julianna Margulies is 41. Actor Dan Futterman is 41. Actor David Sutcliffe is 39. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nicci Gilbert is 38. Actress Kelli Williams is 38. Actor Mark Feuerstein is 37. Contemporary Christian musician Mike Scheuchzer (MercyMe) is 33. Rapper Kanye West is 31. Folk-bluegrass singer-musician Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 27.
Though for Today: "Love hath no physic for a grief too deep." _ Robert Nathan, American author and composer (1894-1985).
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (AP) — Lineup Thursday after qualifying for NASCAR's Daytona 500 on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway (car number in parentheses):
1. (88) x-Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 186.089 mph (299.47 kph).
2. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 185.966.
3. (22) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 184.896.
4. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 185.071.
5. (78) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 183.681.
6. (33) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 185.223.
7. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 184.74.
8. (15) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 183.966.
9. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 184.102.
10. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 183.595.
11. (4) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 183.602.
12. (92) Brian Keselowski, Dodge, 177.581.
13. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 184.763.
14. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 183.685.
15. (43) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 184.29.
16. (2) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 184.008.
17. (5) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 184.991.
18. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 181.316.
19. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 185.422.
20. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 183.456.
21. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 185.002.
22. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 184.475.
23. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 184.687.
24. (00) David Reutimann, Toyota, 184.019.
25. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 184.911.
26. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 184.911.
27. (83) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 183.557.
28. (37) Robert Richardson Jr., Ford, 181.466.
29. (09) Bill Elliott, Chevrolet, 184.532.
30. (7) Robby Gordon, Dodge, 182.12.
31. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 183.576.
32. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 185.445.
33. (46) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 180.977.
34. (6) David Ragan, Ford, 184.612.
35. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 184.748.
36. (77) Steve Wallace, Toyota, 182.574.
37. (71) Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 180.828.
38. (20) Joey Logano, Toyota, 183.206.
39. (34) David Gilliland, Ford, 182.697.
40. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 184.271.
41. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 184.222.
42. (36) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 183.793.
43. (32) Terry Labonte, Ford, Past Champion.
| Failed to Qualify |
|---|
44. (64) Derrike Cope, Toyota, 177.894.
45. (97) Kevin Conway, Toyota, 182.949.
46. (60) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 183.057.
47. (66) Michael McDowell, Toyota, 182.434.
48. (13) Casey Mears, Toyota, 182.867.
x-Earnhardt will start from position 43, after wrecking his primary race car in practice.
___
| First Qualifier |
|---|
1. (6) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 62 laps
2. (16) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 62
3. (9) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 62
4. (14) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 62
5. (17) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 62
6. (7) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 62
7. (12) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 62
8. (4) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 62
9. (2) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 62
10. (3) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 62
11. (10) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 62
12. (5) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 62
13. (1) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 62
14. (19) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 62
15. (11) Bill Elliott, Chevrolet, 62
16. (18) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 62
17. (23) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 62
18. (20) Kevin Conway, Toyota, 62
19. (13) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 62
20. (15) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 61
21. (8) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 61
22. (24) Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 60
23. (22) Michael McDowell, Toyota, engine, 53
24. (21) David Gilliland, Ford, electrical, 40
| Second Qualifier |
|---|
1. (4) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 60 laps
2. (3) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 60
3. (11) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 60
4. (13) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 60
5. (24) Brian Keselowski, Dodge, 60
6. (12) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 60
7. (10) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 60
8. (22) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 60
9. (14) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 60
10. (7) Carl Edwards, Ford, 60
11. (9) David Reutimann, Toyota, 60
12. (1) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 60
13. (8) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 60
14. (23) Derrike Cope, Toyota, 60
15. (5) Greg Biffle, Ford, 60
16. (21) Robert Richardson Jr., Ford, 60
17. (19) Robby Gordon, Dodge, 60
18. (20) Terry Labonte, Ford, 60
19. (2) Trevor Bayne, Ford, accident
20. (6) David Ragan, Ford, accident, 59
21. (16) Todd Bodine, Toyota, accident, 54
22. (18) Steve Wallace, Toyota, accident, 54
23. (15) Joey Logano, Toyota, accident, 15
24. (17) Casey Mears, Toyota, engine, 2
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (STAR)(STAR)(STAR){
Featuring: Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, Lou Pai, Mike Muckleroy,Sherron Watkins, Red. James Nuter, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkindand others. Narrated by Peter Coyote.
Magnolia Pictures presents a documentary directed and written byAlex Gibney. Based on the book, The Smartest Guys in the Room: TheAmazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, by Bethany McLean andPeter Elkind. Running time: 110 minutes. No MPAA rating. Openingtoday at Landmark Century.
This is not a political documentary. It is a crime story. Nomatter what your politics, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"will make you mad. It tells the story of how Enron rose to become theseventh largest corporation in America with what was essentially aPonzi scheme, and in its last days looted the retirement funds of itsemployees to buy a little more time.
There is a general impression that Enron was a good corporationthat went bad. The movie argues that it was a con game almost fromthe start. It was "the best energy company in the world," accordingto its top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. At the timethey made that claim, they must have known that the company wasbankrupt, had been worthless for years, had inflated its profits andconcealed its losses through bookkeeping practices so corrupt thatthe venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm was destroyed in theaftermath.
The film shows how it happened. To keep its stock price climbing,Enron created good quarterly returns out of thin air. One accountingtactic was called "mark to market," which meant if Enron began aventure that might make $50 million 10 years from now, it could claimthe $50 million as current income. In an astonishing in-house videomade for employees, Skilling stars in a skit that satirizes "HFV"accounting, which he explains stands for "Hypothetical Future Value."Little did employees suspect that was more or less what the companywas counting on.
Skilling and Lay were less than circumspect at times. When a NewYork market analyst questions Enron's profit and loss statementsduring a conference call, Skilling can't answer and calls him an "a-hole;" that causes bad buzz on the street. During a Q&A session withemployees, Lay actually reads this question from the floor: "Are youon crack? If you are that might explain a lot of things. If youaren't, maybe you should be."
One Enron tactic was to create phony offshore corporate shells andmove their losses to those companies, which were off the books. We'reshown a schematic diagram tracing the movement of debt to such Enronentities. Two of the companies are named "M. Smart" and "M. Yass."These "companies" were named with a reckless hubris: One stood for"Maxwell Smart" and the other one ... well, take out the period andput a space between "y" and "a."
What did Enron buy and sell, actually? Electricity? Natural gas?It was hard to say. The corporation basically created a market inenergy, gambled in it and manipulated it. It moved on into otherfutures markets, even seriously considering "trading weather." At onepoint, we learn, its gambling traders lost the entire company in badtrades, and covered their losses by hiding the news and producingphony profit reports that drove the share price even higher. Inhindsight, Enron was a corporation devoted to maintaining a highshare price at any cost. That was its real product.
The documentary is based on the best-selling book of the sametitle, co-written by Fortune magazine's Bethany McLean and PeterElkind. It is assembled out of a wealth of documentary and videofootage, narrated by Peter Coyote, from testimony at congressionalhearings, and from interviews with such figures as disillusionedEnron exec Mike Muckleroy and whistle-blower Sherron Watkins. It isbest when it sticks to fact, shakier when it goes for visual effectsand heavy irony.
It was McLean who started the house of cards tumbling down with aninnocent question about Enron's quarterly statements, which did notever seem to add up. The movie uses in-house video made by Enronitself to show Lay and Skilling optimistically addressing employeesand shareholders at a time when Skilling in particular was comingapart at the seams. Toward the end, he sells $200 million in his ownEnron stock while encouraging Enron employees to invest their 401Kretirement plans in the company. Then he suddenly resigns, but notquickly enough to escape Enron's collapse not long after. Televisedtaking the perp walk in handcuffs, both he and Lay face criminaltrials in Texas.
The most shocking material in the film involves the fact thatEnron cynically and knowingly created the phony California energycrisis. There was never a shortage of power in California. Using taperecordings of Enron traders on the phone with California powerplants, the film chillingly overhears them asking plant managers to"get a little creative" in shutting down plants for "repairs."Between 30 percent and 50 percent of California's energy industry wasshut down by Enron a great deal of the time, and up to 76 percent atone point, as the company drove the price of electricity higher bynine times.
We hear Enron traders laughing about "Grandma Millie," ahypothetical victim of the rolling blackouts, and boasting about themillions they made for Enron. As the company goes belly up, 20,000employees are fired. Their pensions are gone, their stock worthless.The usual widows and orphans are victimized. A power company linemanin Portland, who worked for the same utility all his life, observesthat his retirement fund was worth $248,000 before Enron bought theutility and looted it, investing its retirement funds in Enron stock.Now, he says, his retirement fund is worth about $1,200.
Strange, that there has not been more anger over the Enronscandals. The cost was incalculable, not only in lives lost duringthe power crisis, but in treasure: The state of California is suingfor $6 billion in refunds for energy overcharges collected during thephony crisis. If the crisis had been created by Al Qaeda, ifterrorists had shut down half of California's power plants, considerhow we would regard these same events. Yet the crisis, made possiblebecause of deregulation engineered by Enron's lobbyists, is stillbeing blamed on "too much regulation." If there was ever acorporation that needed more regulation, that corporation was Enron.
Early in the film, there's a striking image. We see a vast emptyroom, with rows of what look like abandoned lunchroom tables. Then wesee the room when it was Enron's main trading floor, with countlesscomputer monitors on the tables and hundreds of traders on thephones. Two vast staircases sweep up from either side of the tradingfloor to the aeries of Lay and Skilling, whose palatial officesoverlook the traders. They look like the Stairway to Heaven in thatold David Niven movie, but at the end they only led down, down, down.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Buffalo Bills receiver Peerless Price's season is likely over after he was scheduled to have surgery Friday to repair a disc in his neck.
Coach Dick Jauron said the team will place Price on injured reserve, making him the ninth Bills player - and fourth starter - on the season-ending list five weeks into the campaign.
The announcement came as a surprise, because Price had not missed practice until Friday. He was noticeably stiff - unable to turn his neck - when he spoke to reporters at his locker Wednesday.
Jauron said the severity of the injury was revealed after tests Thursday.
He said he believed the neck problem developed over the course of Price's career and was not the result of a particular hit. In four starts this season, the nine-year NFL veteran had seven catches for 68 yards.
The Bills (1-3), preparing to host the Dallas Cowboys (4-0) on Monday night, made two roster moves Friday. They placed reserve linebacker Kevin Harrison on IR and activated Anthony Hargrove after the backup defensive end completed a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
Harrison hurt his knee on the opening kickoff of Buffalo's 17-14 win over the New York Jets last weekend. The Bills had signed Harrison just last week to bolster their banged-up linebacker corps.
Price's injury means the Bills will rely more on slot receivers Roscoe Parrish and Josh Reed to take the focus off starter Lee Evans.
Buffalo's offense has lacked chemistry this season, with rookie Trent Edwards producing the team's first touchdown pass of the season - a 1-yarder to tight end Michael Gaines - in last weekend's 17-14 win over the New York Jets.
Edwards' 234 yards passing against the Jets was a season-high after the Bills combined for 352 yards in their first three games.
The third-round draft pick will make his second straight start Monday, filling in for J.P. Losman, who sprained his left knee.
The Bills did have some good news Friday. Jauron said linebacker Keith Ellison has recovered from a high ankle sprain and is expected to play Monday. Ellison, who won a starting job in training camp, has been out since he was hurt Aug. 30 during Buffalo's preseason finale.
Price is in his second season back with the Bills, who initially selected him in the second round of the 1998 draft out of Tennessee. Price spent his first four years with Buffalo and enjoyed his best career season in 2002, when he had 94 catches for 1,252 yards and nine touchdowns playing alongside Eric Moulds.
Unable to meet his contract demands, the Bills traded Price to Atlanta the following year, but the receiver did not duplicate his production.
The Falcons released him before the 2005 season, and he played seven games with Dallas before re-signing with the Bills last year.
The father of a soldier listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004 said Sunday that the military had informed him that his son's remains had been found.
Keith Maupin said an Army general told him DNA testing had identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, or "Matt" as he was commonly known. He said the Army didn't say how or where in Iraq his son's remains were discovered, only that officials found a shirt similar to the one his son was wearing at the time of his disappearance.
"My heart sinks, but I know they can't hurt him anymore," Maupin said, speaking in the soldier's hometown near suburban Cincinnati.
The Army was continuing its investigation, he said.
Lt. Lee Packnett, an Army public affairs officer in Washington, confirmed that the Maupins were notified Sunday that their son's remains had been identified. Packnett said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday.
Matt Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy, part of the Bartonville, Ill.-based 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad. a stunned-looking Maupin wearing camouflage and a floppy desert hat, sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim's head and not the actual shooting.
The Maupins refused to believe it was their son, and the Army had listed him as missing-captured. The Maupins lobbied hard for the Army to continue listing their son as missing-captured, fearing that another designation would undermine efforts to find him.
The Pentagon agreed to give the Maupins regular briefings, and President Bush met with them when he traveled to Cincinnati.
Keith Maupin said the Army told him early on that there was only a 50 percent chance his son would be found alive. He said he doesn't hold the Army responsible for his son's death, but that he did hold the Army responsible for bringing his son home.
"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon, whether he walks off a plane or is carried off, you're not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam," Maupin said.
Keith Maupin and his ex-wife, Carolyn, held a candlelight vigil Sunday night outside the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Batavia, an office they used to package thousands of boxes of donated snacks and toiletries for shipment to soldiers in Iraq.
"It hurts," Carolyn Maupin said of her son's death. "After you go through almost four years of hope, and this is what happens, it's like a let down, so I'm trying to get through that right now."
The Maupins were told by an Army official on Friday to expect an update on their son over the weekend, Keith Maupin said. The Army broke the news about their son's remains at a somber meeting with the family at the Yellow Ribbon Support Center.
"When you look out there in the parking lot and see a three-star general get out of a car, you know it ain't good news," Keith Maupin said.
Two U.S. soldiers remain missing in action in Iraq. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Iraqi-born reserve soldier from Ann Arbor, Mich., was abducted while visiting his Iraqi wife on Oct. 23, 2006, in Baghdad. Capt. Michael Speicher, a Navy pilot, has been missing since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Matt Maupin graduated from Glen Este High School, just east of Cincinnati, in 2001 and attended the University of Cincinnati for a year before joining the Army Reserves.
Dan Simmons, the athletic director at Glen Este, remembered Maupin as a quiet but hardworking backup player on the school's football team.
"Matt was a selfless kid on the football field," Simmons said. "He did whatever the coaches told him. He wasn't a starter, but he made the other kids play harder."
A month after his capture, Maupin was promoted to the rank of specialist. In April 2005, he was promoted to sergeant.
The asking price for a 30-second opportunity to reach viewers on Winfrey's final daytime talk show is currently at $1 million. Depending on placement within the show, some buyers will likely shell out even more.
It's a jaw-dropping sum, particularly for daytime fare, but it's hardly the first time Madison Avenue has been asked to open its wallets for ad time in TV's hotly anticipated finales.
According to a list culled by Horizon Media's Brad Adgate, using Nielsen Co. and Kantar Media data, ad buyers were forced to shell out double that for a spot on the "Friends" farewell, which drew 52.5 million viewers in 2004.
Six years earlier, a spot in "Seinfeld's" final episode set advertisers back $1.42 million. But for that price, they got the opportunity to reach 76.3 million, an unheard of sum outside of events like the Super Bowl in today's fractured landscape.
Hollywood Reporter
Oprah WinfreyFrazer Harrison
Project Leadership:
From Theory to Practice By Jeffrey K. Pinto and others Project Management Institute, 1998
Reviewed by LTC Kenneth H. Rose (USA, Ret.), a Project Manager with the Waste Policy Institute in San Antonio, TX, and a former member of the Army AcQuisition Corps.
In project management literature, a generally accepted axiom suggests that projects usually fail not on technical merit, but on matters related to people. Authors then usually proceed to prescribe technical tools in great detail, giving short shrift to leadership skills that would counter the threat they just defined. Project Leadership: From Theory to Practice by Jeffrey K. Pinto, Peg Thomas, Jeffrey Trailer, Todd Palmer, and Michele Govekar breaks this mold and focuses on leadership in project management environments. The book offers a solid grounding across a broad range of theory, then walks the reader through application of the theory in the practical context of project management. At less than 150 pages, the book appears at first to be one of those easy reads that populate today's bookstores. It is not. It is densely packed with concepts and models for action that should be perused with great care, not for mere awareness, but for understanding, retention, and future application.
The authors discuss principal theories of leadership, bridging contingency and universal perspectives. They favor a transformational approach that enables a leader to link people and tasks to achieve success in dynamic, often chaotic environments. They describe accountability for results as a key to project success, and they provide a model and procedures for establishing and controlling accountability within the project team.
The project vision, which is often little more than motivational mush, receives serious treatment as an essential foundation for project success. The authors describe the role and effects of a project vision and provide a disciplined development approach that goes far beyond the cheerleading approach that often seems to be in vogue.
Team building and ethics both receive candid, direct treatment that addresses promises and pitfalls, and charts a course for negotiating a successful transit through these challenging areas.
The authors present an excellent integration of leading and managing, showing the essential role that each plays in project strategy. And, politics rears its not-so-ugly head as an eternal aspect of any project-one that, if handled well, can be a key to influencing others in achieving project goals.
The last chapter provides a synthesis of the book's important points, restating the basic premise that project management is a i "leader-intensive undertaking" and that leadership is not a onebest-way task, but rather a many-faceted collection of decisions, attitudes, and actions.
Project Leadership: From Theory to Practice is a continuous journey, and the book should be taken as a whole to receive the full benefit. It offers a distinct contribution to project management leadership literature for new or experienced project managers.
LOLODORF, Cameroon - Fog and thick forest reduced visibility to about 200 yards Sunday morning as rescuers prepared to resume the search in southern Cameroon for a Kenya-bound flight that crashed with 114 people on board after sending out a distress signal, officials said.
Rescuers suspended the search because of heavy rains late Saturday. The rains had subsided by daybreak, but fog persisted.
The jet bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, went down early Saturday near Lolodorf, about 90 miles southeast of the coastal city of Douala, where it had taken off after midnight, said Alex Bayeck, a regional communications officer.
There was no word on survivors, Bayeck said by telephone Saturday en route to the crash site.
On Saturday, search planes flew over the forested area where the airliner gave off a distress signal, but no wreckage has been spotted.
The search continued on the ground into the night, but helicopters could not operate effectively in the dark, said Jean Francois Villong, a local official coordinating the rescue effort. The helicopters would start again Sunday morning, he said, and more rescue workers including security forces were expected. Much of Saturday's searching was done by volunteers from local villages, he said.
Relatives and colleagues of those aboard were making their way to the remote area, which has few roads and is dotted by small villages. Some expressed a willingness to search themselves but acknowledged they did not know how to begin in the tough conditions.
"It is very difficult because this area is very mountainous and heavily forested. And we suspect the plane may have fallen into a valley," Villong said.
Infrastructure is poor in Cameroon's interior, with much of the area being searched only accessible by dirt tracks that turn to impassable mud in the rainy season. The country of 17 million on Africa's western coast has oil reserves and lush farmland but many of its citizens remain poor subsistence farmers.
Residents in the area reported hearing a "large boom" during the previous night, Bayeck said, and some people said they saw a flash of fire that looked markedly different from lightning.
Close to a dozen ambulances stood ready in Lolodorf on Saturday, and a handful of family members of passengers gathered in the city center. Some said they had traveled as far as 250 miles in tough conditions that day.
"I don't know what to do. I'm just terribly confused. My younger sister boarded this plane that is supposed to have crashed. I hope we can still find her alive," said Innocent Bonu, a lawyer from the southwestern town of Buea.
In Kenya, Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni held back on confirming the crash "until we see the plane - until then, it's missing," he said.
The distress call, he said was issued automatically - "from a machine, not a pilot" - but he noted a crash is not the only reason a plane issues an automatic distress signal.
Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the plane that crashed was equipped with an emergency transmitter that sends out an automatic locator signal "in the event of a rapid change in velocity."
Proulx told The Associated Press by telephone from Seattle, Wash., that the transmitter would have been activated upon impact, and can also be turned on by the plane's flight crew.
Naikuni said the plane, which was almost new, took off an hour late because of rain. Douala airport officials confirmed thunderstorms at the time of takeoff, but said that was unlikely to have been the sole cause of the accident.
"There was a thunderstorm, but there were other planes that left after (the Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi) that had no problems," said Thomas Sobatam, head of weather observation at the airport.
The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 114 people, including 105 passengers from at least 23 countries, Kenyan airline officials said. A Nairobi-based Associated Press correspondent, Anthony Mitchell, was believed to be among them. Mitchell had been on assignment in the region for the past week.
"Anthony ... had contacted his family before boarding the flight to let them know he was headed home," AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said. "We hope for the best."
The flight departed Douala at 12:05 a.m. and was to have arrived in Nairobi at 6:15 a.m. The flight originated in Ivory Coast and stopped in Cameroon to pick up more passengers, the airline said.
The Douala-Nairobi flight runs several times a week and commonly is used as an intermediary flight to Europe and the Middle East. Kenya Airways - considered one of the safest airlines in Africa - said most passengers were planning to transfer to ongoing flights in Nairobi.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to assist Cameroon in its investigation of the crash.
Boeing's Proulx said there have not been any safety concerns with Chicago-based Boeing's fleet of 737-800s. About 2,000 737-800s are in use around the world.
The last crash of an international Kenya Airways flight was on Jan. 30, 2000, when Flight 431 was taking off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on its way to Nairobi. Investigators blamed a faulty alarm and pilot error for that crash, which killed 169 people.
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Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya, and Heidi Vogt in Dakar, Senegal, and Ashley Heher in Chicago contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Style helps readers to understand, and calculations to succeed.
The elements of style in calculations are the choices in composition that strengthen collaboration between writers and readers by helping them meet one another's needs. The overriding need of both writers and readers is to not have to keep track of too much new, unfamiliar material at one time (1).
Elements of style include separate sections for assumptions, data, calculations and summaries. Each section can be prepared and read with a minimum of in-depth thought, yet each section moves the solution forward and serves as a resource for use with the later sections.
Elements of style at the formula level, which are even more helpful, include conventional symbols, reminders of variable definitions, reference names and pages, reminders of values of dependent variables, and equations that are visible, as shown in Figure 1. These elements let writers and readers understand and check formulas with a minimum of cognitive strain.
Elements of style in calculations are elaborated below and illustrated with a simple calculations on pages 52-53.
1. Use calculation software
Use software that dusplays the working formul las. The equations are the working parts of the calculation. A calculation is easier to use if its functions can be readily inferred by looking at the features visible to the user. Calculation software packages, such as Mathcad and Calculation-- Center, display a calculation's working formulas and results together. and print them for convenient writing and reading (3, 4). Spreadsheets typically don't display formulas, so only simple operations like totaling the numbers in a column can be readily inferred by looking at a spreadstreet. (Spreadsheets can be made to display formulas and results together through the use of named ranges (5) and user-defined functions, as shown in Figure 2). Programming langua&Es, such as Visual Basic and FORTRAN, display Ind print the working formulas and results separate from each other, and often use coded syntax (when referencing data objects, for example), making calcul ions in these languages diffi.ylt to read and document.
Use software that calculates units as well as numbers. Calculation software like Mathcad and CalculationCenter makes it possible to inside dimensional units in values and formulas, have the software perform unit conversions automatically, bypassing an otherwise major source of errors.
2. Set up for easy viewing
make calculations read from top to bottom. Use the approach that experts use when solving easy peoblems-work forward from the known data to determine the unknown values that are needed (6). Enter data before calcutation, and summarize inputs before summarizing results. In the same manner, provide reference materials before referring to them. Place the table of contents before the actual contents, list references before they are used, and list variable names before they are mentioned.
Use font, font size, and font style changes to help readers. Font changes can help readers distinguish equations from text. Font size changes can improve readability of equations. Both changes are performed automatically by the calculation software used to prepare Figure 1 and the sample calculation. A font style change to bold face for the headings can help readers rapidly scan through a calculation, as shown in the sample calculation.
Use graphic lines mostly to convey information. When graphic lines are used sparingly, the lines that are used stand out better (7). Horizontal lines can be used as blanks for user-supplied data. Vertical lines can be used as revision bars. Blank space can serve the same function that graphics lines are often used for in forms, providing separation between unrelated items of information and helping readers read horizontally across rows of information in tables.
Include equipment number and page number at the right on each page. Sets of calculations arranged by major equipment number including letter prefix can be leafed through easily to locate calculations that are of interest to the reader.
Make formulas readable without comments. Help readers be able to review formulas independent of the explanatory comments. Place formulas on separate lines from comments. Center formulas on the page, or indent them. Provide punctuation and text to allow the resulting material to be read straight through more easily than the formulas alone could be read.
3. Provide supporting information
Write clear sentences. Start by writing what you would say aloud. Then remove excessive words. Rearrange phrases to improve clarity or eliminate ambiguity. Add words wherever this will help readers understand without having to concentrate as hard and without having to reread (8). Reread the work yourself later and edit it again, repeating these steps.
List the contents. Simple, descriptive headings provide enough useful help to readers to avoid the need for paragraphs of explanatory text.
State the objective. Readers expect to find the most important information at the start, and if not there, then at the end. They spend more time reading the information at the start. When the key theme is identified up front, readers understand the subsequent material better as they proceed through it, and they proceed through it more quickly.
Sketch the system. Sketches with text help people understand problems more thoroughly and help people move further toward solutions (9). The more useful diagrams show spatial relationships, show key data at a glance, and place information near the associated objects so that symbolic labels are not needed (10). When solving a problem that requires the use of formulas to interpret physical information, experts tend to insert an intermediate step redescribing the problem qualitatively (11). Sketches can capture some of an expert's understanding of the problem by emphasizing key considerations while leaving out secondary details. Unfortunately, people who have less trouble proceeding with a problem tend to draw fewer sketches. As a result, they miss out on opportunities to help novices develop the skill of going beyond the literal features clearly evident in problem statements to infer additional relationships that are important for constructing effective solutions, which is the skill that novices are usually most lacking (6).
State the approach, noting the key methods used. Name the key method or methods used, and describe how they were located and chosen. Avoid describing the details of the calculation in text form, since the actual formulas will be displayed later when they are used and will be nearly self-explanatory, while text descriptions of the formulas would take extra effort and extra skill to write and would be less clear and less helpful.
Name, list and enclose references. Identify convenient, clear references for each formula used and data value entered. Name each reference using a short descriptive name such as the lead author's name. Give titles and page ranges. Provide readers copies of references, so that they can find out things for themselves right away, while they are most interested.
Use conventional symbols. Match the conventional notation in the area of interest for ready recognition. Use the same main symbol for all variables of a given type, and use subscripts to differentiate the family members from one another. Greek letters and subscripts can be typed directly into a calculation when calculation software like Mathcad or CalculationCenter is used.
List complete symbols, including subscripts, and provide complete descriptions and standard units. Descriptions that include subscripts can eliminate guesswork. Standard units provide added descriptions of the symbols.
Promote alternative methods. Describe alternative approaches and possible outcomes. Present the alternatives as positive possibilities, so they will be considered more likely and will therefore more effectively counterbalance the base case that is being presented positively. Considering alternatives reduces overconfidence. This promotes progress on problems (12), improves decision-making, and may improve self-checking by writers and error-- checking by readers.
4. Include text comments and equation-style comments with the workin; formulas
Provide comments that supplement formulas but do not describe them. The working formulas do the actual calculation. Writers and readers need to be helped to review the formulas carefully, and need to not be lulled into a false sense of security by comments that seem to tell a complete story, and as a result, encourage them to skip over the equations (13).
Repeat the description of each symbol each time it is used in a formula. Provide the description and repeat the symbol, including any subscript.
List a source for each formula. Identify a convenient source that states the formula clearly. List the source's short, descriptive name from the reference list, and identify the page or pages where the formula is defined. Include the formula number from the source, where helpful.
Repeat the value of each symbol used in standard units each time it is used. Help people learn the relative magnitudes of terms and check the values of input data and intermediate results at every opportunity they have to do so.
Provide conversion factors each time they are used. Conversion factors often help reassure readers of the reasonableness of calculations and occasionally help writers find mistakes. When calculation software is used, it takes little effort to call up predefined conversion factors.
Check function definitions by calculating known values. Check function definitions for temperature-dependent properties, for instance, by evaluating the equations at temperatures where the property values are known.
Show a formula's comments together with the formula on the same page. Add a page break before an assembled formula block if needed to keep the block together on a single page. Self-contained formula definitions and evaluations that can be seen together at a glance are easier to review.
5. Provide assumptions, inputs and calculations
Note assumptions. Assumptions can include notes on how the mathematical models that are used oversimplify the behavior that they describe. They can also include notes on how the experimental approach underlying a method differs from the particulars of the process that is being analyzed. The assumptions that can be the most difficult to recognize are the underlying beliefs shared by previous workers, the writer, and the readers when they all are from the same era and have similar backgrounds. Explaining assumptions early, especially assumptions about factors that cannot be changed by the writer or the readers, produces more realistic assessments about the reliability of results. Reducing overconfidence improves checking, which improves accuracy.
Enter any assumed data values. Assumptions can also include reasonable guesses of data values that are not known for certain. Provide an equation block for each assumed data value, as shown in the sample calculation. Repeat the description and the symbol, including any subscripts. Display the value in standard units for reasonability checking.
Enter the hardware data. Provide an equation block for each hardware data value. Repeat the description and the symbol, including any subscripts. Repeat the source's name from the references and note the applicable page or pages. Enter the data in the dimensional units that were used in the source. Provide any conversion factors used, in units that are as familiar as possible. Display the data in standard units for reasonability checking.
Enter the property data. Provide an equation block for each property data value. Repeat the description and the symbol including any subscripts, the source of the data, the data in the units used in the source, any conversion factors, and the data in standard units. If a property is a function of variables such as temperature, pressure or composition, enter the property as a function that can be evaluated later based on the values of the variables at that point in the calculation.
Enter the operating data. Provide an equation block for each operating data value. Provide the description and the symbol including any subscripts, the source of the data, the data in the units used in the source, any conversion factors, and the data in standard units.
Enter the calculation formulas. Provide a formula block, like that in Figure 1, for each calculation formula. Provide text descriptions of the dependent variables and the independent variables, and provide a reference source for the formula. Then provide the values of the independent variables in standard units, any conversion factors, the formula, and the results.
6. Provide summary information
Repeat key assumptions. An assumption may be crucial, and well worth highlighting again by including it in the summary information at the end of a calculation.
Summarize the key input parameter values. Summarizing key input parameters near the end of calculations highlights them for the writer as well as for the reader. Also, sometimes it is convenient to set up a file containing a single case and then change input parameters and save separate files for new cases. In such situations, it is critical to point out the values of the changed parameters to distinguish the cases from one another.
Summarize the results. Conclude by returning to the big picture and recalling key intermediate results and final results for the benefit of casual readers and careful readers alike.
7. Get calculations checked
Seek checking, whether by experts or by interested colleagues. Unless people get very detailed feedback on their performance, they tend to be overconfident in their own abilities. They do not perform nearly enough selfchecks on material they believe is correct (14). As a result, errors of omission are almost never identified and corrected by the person who made them. With checking, a fresh viewpoint enters the situation, and errors of omission can be corrected.
Calculations will get easier
The calculation approach shown here easily scales up to handle tougher problems. An example of a more difficult calculation is available at www.cepmagazine.org (2).
This approach produces accurate results, is easy to read, and is easy to reuse. It is particularly helpful when experimental data on a process are unavailable, data cannot be obtained cheaply and quickly, and readily available calculation methods do not cover the process in question.
This list of uses barely hints at the broader roles that could quickly develop for approaches like this. Affordable calculation software already provides the capability to embed subprograms and the capability to define graphical symbols that have smart interconnections. Soon, such software could provide the capability to embed subprograms in smart symbols. Libraries of thermodynamic property calculation routines and unit operations could emerge easily from environments of friendly competition and sharing, in academic settings and in industry. It could ultimately be possible to simply connect components from reliable sources and produce accurate and reliable process simulations and other calculations.
Even wider impacts are imaginable. Calculation approaches developed for process applications could easily be adapted to other uses in science and in education.
Much can get easier when collaboration is improved by style in calculations.
[Reference]
Literature Cited
[Reference]
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2. Anthony, J., "Chloroform Plan." available via http://www.cepmagazine.org (2001).
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8. Cook, C. K., "Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing," Houghton Mifflin. Boston (1985).
9. Mayer, R. E., "Models for Understanding," Review of Educational Research, 59 (1), pp. 43-64 (1989).
10. Larkin, J. It, and H. A. Simon, "Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words," Cognitive Science, 11 (1), pp. 65-99 (1987).
11. Larkin, J. H., "Processing Information for Effective Problem Solving," Engineering Education, 70 (3), pp. 285-288 (December 1979). 12. Platt, J. R., "Strong Inference," Science, 146 (3642), pp. 347-353 (1964).
13. Kernighan, D. W., and P. J. Plauger, "The Elements of Programming Style," 2nd ed.. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 141-152 (1978). 14. Allwood, C. M., "Error Detection Processes in Statistical Problem Solv
ing," Cognitive Science, 8 (4), pp. 413-437; see pp. 419 and 431 (1984).
[Author Affiliation]
JAMES ANTHONY, LOCKWOOD GREENE
[Author Affiliation]
JAMES ANTHONY is a process engineer with Lockwood Greene, St. Louis, MO (Phone: (314) 919-3208; Fax: (314) 919-3208; Fax: (314) 919-3201; E-mail: janthony@lg.com). He has process design experience with chemical, pharmaceutical, and beverage applications, which have included the manufacture of iodine products, abrasives, inorganic salts, alkyds, polyesters, polyurethanes, synthetic pharmaceuticals, soy sauce, and tea. He also has aerospace design experience developing jet engine air inlets, piston-propeller systems, sensors, adhesive-bonded structures and molded plastic parts. He has a BS in chemical engineering from the Univ. of Missouri - Rolla and an MS in mechanical engineering from Washington Univ. He is a registered professional engineer.
