China PR has won the highly coveted title of Miss World 2007 in a glittering, star-studded ceremony at the Beauty Crown Theatre in Sanya, Hainan Province, China.
The 2007 Miss World Festival has seen 106 beautiful and talented contestants spend an unforgettable month in China, but there could only be one winner and the applause rang out in the packed theatre as Julia Morley, Chairman of the Miss World Organisation and of the international panel of judges, announced the winner’s name.

Her smile shone out to a worldwide TV audience of over 2 billion as she was crowned by last year’s Miss World, Tatana Kucharova.

First runner-up was Angola, followed by Mexico as second runner-up. The other two finalists were Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden.
An impressive cast of international stars and music artists ensured that the 57th Miss World Final was a dazzling event.

The TV spectacular was hosted by top Chinese TV presenter Angela Chow, presenting Miss World for the fifth year in succession, alongside co-host Fernando Allende, who is one of Latin America’s biggest stars and was making his Miss World debut.

The show told the story of the contestants’ stay in the tropical paradise of Sanya, with many clips of their activities and sightseeing, as well as their exciting trip to Beijing where they recorded the Olympic Torch Relay Anthem, visited the Great Wall and helped the Red Cross raise over US$5.5m to build new healthcare centres across China.

It also featured a stunning performance by international pop star Duncan James, formerly with the boy band Blue, singing ‘All I care about is love’ from the hit musical Chicago, and spectacular dancing and acrobatics from some of China’s most talented dance troupes.

One of the highlights came when Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, introduced his grandfather’s televised message for World Aids Day. This was followed by a magical moment, when the children from the Mandelas’ home town in South Africa joined with children from a local Hainan school and all 106 contestants to sing the World Aids Day song.

Miss World – The Final is the World’s largest live annual TV event with global viewing figures topping two billion across 174 countries.

The full line-up of official judges at the Miss World 2007 Final was:

Julia Morley Chairman of Miss World Organisation and of the judging panel
Chairman Zhao Chairman of the Huayu Group
Li Xiao Bai Managing Director of New Silk Road
Maki Mandela Eldest daughter of Nelson Mandela
Elena Franchuk Founder of the Anti-Aids Foundation of Ukraine
Krish Naidoo Miss World Organisation International Ambassador
Duncan James International pop star
Annabel Croft Formerly one of the UK’s most successful female tennis stars
Neal Hamil Managing Director of the Elite Model Agency in New York
Ben De Lisi World famous Italian Fashion designer

Mars will be closer to Earth this month than any time until the year 2016.

The red planet is now the brightest "star" in the evening sky and is already above the horizon as evening twilight fades away. But give it at least two more hours – until about 8 p.m. – for it to climb above the poor atmospheric seeing that's near the horizon. By then, this brilliant yellow-orange world will be at an altitude of around 30 degrees as seen from mid-northern latitudes.


Your clenched fist held at arm's length is roughly equal to 10 degrees, so by 8 p.m. Mars will be about "three-fists" up from the east-northeast horizon. Mars appears much sharper and steadier when it crosses the southern meridian, about a half hour after local midnight. Its altitude as seen from most mid-northern latitudes is then about 75-degrees (more than "seven fists" up from the southern horizon).


Mars is retrograding (moving westward) through the stars of Gemini and will cross over into Taurus on Dec. 30. It will come closest to the Earth on the night of Dec. 18 (around 6:46 p.m. EST). The planet is then 54,783,381 miles (88,165,305 kilometers) from Earth. It is at opposition – exactly opposite from the sun, with Earth in the middle – six days later, on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.


It will then gleam at magnitude -1.6, and through Jan. 2, 2008, will outshine Sirius, the brightest star.


Telescope time


Anyone who has a telescope, no matter how modest it may be, will surely be seeing what it can do with Mars right now. No doubt telescopic observers everywhere will be spying out Mars' bright polar areas and dark surface markings. So don't let your scope sit idle, even though the planet will appear small and details might be difficult to discern on nights of less than excellent seeing.


A good 4-inch telescope equipped with an eyepiece magnifying 120-power should show Mars' dwindling north polar cap and at least a few dark features on those nights when the atmosphere is steady.


During January, Mars departs Earth's vicinity as rapidly as it arrived. It will increase its distance from 56.7 to 72.3 million miles (91.2 to 116.3 million kilometers) and in the process will fade almost a full magnitude, from -1.5 to -0.6. But at the same time, Mars will be very well placed for convenient viewing.


Unlike earlier in the fall, you won't have to get up in the early morning hours to see it high in the sky. Mars will be due south just after 11 p.m. on New Year's night, and around 8:45 p.m. at the end of January.


The night that Mars will probably attract the most attention, from even those who don't normally look up at the sky, will be on the night before Christmas Eve: Sunday, Dec. 23. That will be the night of a full moon, and Mars will serve as a companion to it all through that night. In fact, it will result in an exceptionally close approach between the two across much of the United States, while for parts of the Pacific Northwest, southern and western Canada and Europe, the moon will actually occult (hide) Mars.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces made forays into northern and southern Gaza Tuesday morning in operations targeting Palestinian militants, killing up to six, according to Palestinian sources and the Israel Defense Forces.


Israeli tanks maneuver after an operation near the Suffa Crossing between Israel and Gaza Strip.

Israel carried out airstrikes against Qassam rocket launch sites in the north. IDF said the strikes killed two militants, while Palestinian security sources said one member of Islamic Jihad was killed.

In southern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said 30 Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the territory early Tuesday morning and were conducting house-to-house searches after shutting down the main road between Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The IDF acknowledged having just 10 tanks about half a mile (a kilometer) inside the Sufa border crossing, saying its troops were on regular operational duty against the terror infrastructure in Gaza.

Four Islamic Jihad members were killed by Israeli fire, according to Palestinian security and medical sources. IDF said it fired on and hit three Palestinian militants, without elaborating.

In addition, the Palestinian sources said nine Palestinians were injured, including two journalists.

IDF also said that four Israeli soldiers were lightly injured when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their tank, near Khan Yunis

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The man tipped to be Russia's next president said Tuesday he wanted incumbent President Vladimir Putin to become the country's next prime minister.


First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev pictured on the left of President Vladimir Putin.

Dmitry Medvedev said on Russian state television that he has asked Putin to head the government if he wins elections scheduled for March next year.

The announcement comes only a day after Putin's United Russia party formally nominated Medvedev to be the party's candidate for the presidential elections. Russian law bars Putin from seeking a third term as president.

"I call upon him to agree in principle to head the Russian government after the elections of the new president," Medvedev, currently the deputy prime minister, told state television.

Medvedev, who is also chairman of the state energy giant Gazprom, said he wanted Putin to remain at the center of Russian political life because it was important to "continue the 'political' course that has been started in the late 1990s."

A former lawyer who hails from Putin's native St. Petersburg, Medvedev, 42, managed the president's election campaign in 2000 and is considered part of Putin's inner circle of advisers.

Medvedev's comments, coming just 24-hours after the announcement of his candidature, end a long period of speculation over the future political makeup of Russia.

With Putin's backing and no major political figures announcing plans to run against him, Medvedev looks likely to coast to victory in next year's presidential elections.

Victory would pave the way for the incumbent Russian leader to take over the running of the government.

Putin, who has consolidated power in the hands of the Kremlin during his eight years in power, had already made it clear he was keen to play a role in Russian politics after he left office.

However, pro-democracy groups accuse him of trampling on democratic freedoms and stifling free speech.

Opposition leaders said the job offer to Putin was "predictable."

Sergei Ivanenko, deputy leader of the liberal opposition, Yabloko, said the purpose of the recent political maneuverings was "to keep the government in the form it currently exists in", according to the Russian news agency, Interfax.


Lilia Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told CNN that Putin's attempts to maintain the status quo would eventually come unstuck, however, once Medvedev was "confronted with the necessity to make changes."

"He has been chosen for one reason, apparently: to preside over Putin's status quo and stability. But this stability is very difficult to sustain," Shevtsova said.

Even so, Medvedev's appeal to his current boss was greeted with enthusiasm by church leaders.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, told Interfax it would help "bring stability and a broad base of trust to the authorities."

Putin and his party enjoy huge popular support in Russia.

United Russia swept parliamentary elections earlier this month, winning nearly two-thirds of the national vote. The party now holds 315 seats in the 450-seat parliament while the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia party has 38 seats.

The Russian leader has not yet responded to Medvedev's offer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A former CIA agent who participated in interrogations of terror suspects said Tuesday that the controversial interrogation technique of "waterboarding" has saved lives, but he considers the method torture and now opposes its use.


Ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou says he underwent waterboarding in training and cracked in a few seconds.

1 of 2 Former CIA operative John Kiriakou also told CNN's "American Morning" that he disagrees with a decision to destroy videotapes of certain interrogations, namely of al Qaeda's Abu Zubayda. Kiriakou made the remarks as two congressional committees prepared to grill CIA Director Michael Hayden on the destruction of the tapes and on "alternative" means of interrogation.

Waterboarding begins by placing a suspect on a table with the suspect's feet slightly elevated, said Kiriakou, who was waterboarded several years ago as part of his CIA training. He said he elected not to learn how to perform the technique, which is designed to emulate the sensation of drowning.

Once a suspect is secured on the table, interrogators wrap his or her face in a cellophane-like material, Kiriakou said.

"There is a bladder, or a water source, above the head with water pouring down on the mouth, so no water is going into your mouth, but it induces a gag reflex and makes you feel like you're choking," Kiriakou said. Watch the ex-agent describe the procedure »


See waterboarding, decide if its torture
Anderson shows man enduring waterboarding
10 pm/ET

see full schedule »
Kiriakou said he lasted only a few seconds during his training because his body felt like it was seizing up almost immediately.

"It's entirely unpleasant," Kiriakou said. "You are so full of tension that you tense up, your muscles tighten up. It's very uncomfortable."

Abu Zubayda lasted a little longer, said Kiriakou, but not much.

Don't Miss
CIA chief to testify in probe
Lawmakers wants answers on destroyed tapes
Terror suspect: CIA tortured me
Bush says he doesn't remember tapes
The former agent, who said he participated in the Abu Zubayda interrogation but not his waterboarding, said the CIA decided to waterboard the al Qaeda operative only after he was "wholly uncooperative" for weeks and refused to answer questions.

All that changed -- and Zubayda reportedly had a divine revelation -- after 30 to 35 seconds of waterboarding, Kiriakou said he learned from the CIA agents who performed the technique.

The terror suspect, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reportedly gave up information that indirectly led to the the 2003 raid in Pakistan yielding the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged planner of the September 11, 2001, attacks, Kiriakou said.

The CIA was unaware of Mohammed's stature before the Abu Zubayda interrogation, the former agent said.

"Abu Zubayda's the one who told us that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was so important in the al Qaeda structure, and we didn't realize at the time how important he was," Kiriakou said.

Abu Zubayda also divulged information on "al Qaeda's leadership structure and mentioned people who we really didn't have any familiarization with [and] told us who we should be thinking about, who we should be looking at, and who was important in the organization so we were able to focus our investigation this way," Kiriakou said.

Abu Zubayda reportedly told the agent who waterboarded him that "Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate because it would make it easier on the other brothers who had been captured," Kiriakou said.

Though the information wrenched from Abu Zubayda "stopped terrorist attacks and saved lives," Kiriakou said he opposes waterboarding.

"Now after all these years, time has passed, and we're more on our feet in this fight against al Qaeda, and I think it's unnecessary," he said.

In a separate CNN interview, Kiriakou said the Justice Department and National Security Council reportedly approved waterboarding and other "alternative" interrogation techniques in June 2002.

"It was a policy decision that came down from the White House," he said.

Despite the executive blessing, Kiriakou and other agents were conflicted over whether to learn the technique, he said.

"One senior officer said to me that this is something you really have to think deeply about," the former agent said, adding he "struggled with it morally."

Kiriakou conceded his position might be hypocritical and said that the technique was useful -- even if he wanted to distance himself from it.

"Waterboarding was an important technique, and some of these other techniques were important in collecting the information," he said. "But I personally didn't want to do it. I didn't think it was right in the long run, and I didn't want to be associated with it."

As for the tapes of the interrogations, Kiriakou -- who claims neither he nor the other CIA agents realized they were being recorded during the Abu Zubayda interrogation -- said he disagrees with the decision to destroy the tapes.

"I don't see the reason to destroy them," Kiriakou said. "There's a possibility that they could be used in a criminal investigation, and frankly, for the historical record, I think it's important to have things like that maintained."

The Justice Department and CIA have announced a preliminary inquiry into the matter. Hayden, the CIA director, is slated to go before congressional committees Tuesday and Wednesday.


Hayden has said the CIA destroyed the tapes "only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries."

Congressional leaders said they were never properly notified about the decision.

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday international pressure on Iran has been effective and may need increasing -- despite a U.S. intelligence report that Tehran stopped work on nuclear weapons fours years ago.


Prime Minister Olmert says Iran remains a threat.

Olmert, speaking at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, said it was down to the United States, Russia, China and key European Union nations to keep the pressure on Iran.

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran released last week said Iran halted work toward a nuclear weapon while under international scrutiny in 2003 and is unlikely to be able to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb until 2010 to 2015.

The assessment reversed a 2005 report that found the Islamic Republic was "determined to develop nuclear weapons despite its international obligations and international pressure."

Olmert said the intelligence report launched "an exaggerated debate" that caused some to believe it signaled a U.S. "retreat from its support of Israel," a belief the prime minister called "groundless."

"The United States led the global campaign against Iran and mobilized its full international strength to set in motion the adoption by the U.N. Security Council of two resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran, since America was convinced that Iran constitutes a real threat to peace in the region and to vital American interests," he said. "This has not changed. Not because I say so -- the Americans say so, the British, the Germans and the French say so as well."

Don't Miss
Iran president calls report a 'positive step'
McLaughlin: NIE not as decisive as it may seem
U.S. wants more pressure on Iran
He went on: "Israel supports the tightening of the economic sanctions on Iran and its continued isolation until it fulfills the recommendations of the Security Council and suspends all activities to enrich uranium."

But he added: "The state of Israel is not the main flag-bearer against the quirks of the regime in Tehran." That task, he said, falls to the international community, "headed by the United States, Russia, France, England, Germany and China, and they declare that they will continue in their efforts ceaselessly."

Olmert noted Iran's continued efforts to enrich uranium and said Tehran is working on "the development of a sophisticated electrical system and ballistic missiles." He stopped short of matching comments by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week, who said on Israeli Army Radio that "Iran is probably continuing its program of making a nuclear bomb."

Bush, citing Iran's continued work to enrich uranium, said last week the new intelligence estimate does not change U.S. policy toward that nation.

"They had the program. They halted the program. It's a warning signal because they could restart it," he said.

Olmert said Tuesday: "I attribute great importance to the declaration by the President of the United States, George Bush, that nothing has changed.

"Iran was and remains dangerous and we must continue the international pressure with full force to dissuade Iran from its nuclear tendencies. I trust and am confident that the United States will continue to lead the international campaign to stop the development of a nuclear Iran."

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 12 prisoners died in separate attacks on detention centers in the Iraqi capital, one involving mortars and the other involving rockets, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Monday.

Firemen scramble to put out a fire at the Dora oil refinery in southern Baghdad on Monday.

Seven prisoners were killed when mortars slammed into a detention center in central Baghdad operated by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, a ministry official said. At least 23 people, including five police officers, were wounded in the attack, the official said.

Five more detainees were killed at a holding cell on a forward operating base in eastern Baghdad's Rusafa district, the U.S. military said. Nine 122 mm rockets were fired at the facility, at least one of which was on target.

Twenty-five people were wounded in the attack, the military said.

In central Baghdad's Karrada district, separate attacks left several people dead or wounded, the Interior Ministry official said. Two civilians were killed when gunmen fired into their car from another vehicle, the official said. In another attack, two mortars landed in Karrada, wounding three civilians.


In eastern Baghdad's Baladiat neighborhood, five people -- four of them police officers -- were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi national police convoy, the official said.

In southern Baghdad, a fire erupted at the Dora oil facility, one of Iraq's main refineries fueling Baghdad's power plants. No injuries were reported.

Conflicting stories emerged about how the fire started, with U.S. and Iraqi officials saying it was sparked by an accidental pipeline explosion. But Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said he was at the refinery hours after the incident and workers there confirmed the facility had been attacked.

The fire was contained, Jihad said, but it continued to burn 4 million liters (more than 1 million gallons) of benzene, a carcinogenic and highly flammable liquid used in oil refineries. He stressed that the fire has not affected the refinery's production

(CNN) -- Political parties in Belgium have been unable to form a ruling coalition since the June 10 general election, leaving the country without a government for half a year.


Outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has remained in charge since June.

Outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who has remained in charge, is making informal attempts to solve the impasse.

The prime minister was expected to raise the issue during his weekly audience with the king on Monday, said Koert Debeuf, a spokesman for Verhofstadt's office.

Belgium's political crisis may be the result of years of problems finally rearing their heads, said Hugo Brady, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London.

"Belgium has always been a country that has worked better in practice than in theory, and I think theory may have intervened finally," Brady said, in a reference to how the nation was constructed.

He said a problematic political setup in Belgium has always made it difficult for the parties to agree on a coalition.

Elections pit Flemish parties in Dutch-speaking Flanders against French-speaking parties in Wallonia. None represents the entire country, and and none holds a majority in parliament.

Brady said Belgium's political parties have always felt they struck an unfair bargain in order to rule the country. That sentiment has now peaked, Brady said, leaving the parties unable to form a coalition.

The public is annoyed at their politicians' behavior, Brady said.

The situation could affect the signing of a major European treaty this week. The Lisbon Treaty will reshape the proposed EU constitution which was scrapped in 2005.

Every EU member nation is sending a representative to attend a formal signing of the treaty in the Portuguese capital. If the Belgians are unable to send one, it may delay the signing of the treaty.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British man who reappeared five years after he was believed to have drowned, appeared in court Monday, and his wife was charged with two counts of deception.


Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson shows a photo of a bearded John Darwin.

1 of 2 John Darwin, 57, appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court in the northeast of England accused of obtaining £25,000 ($50,000) by deception and making an untrue statement to procure a passport, a spokeswoman for the court told CNN.

The court spokeswoman said Darwin was remanded in custody until December 14 when he will reappear at the same court via video link. No application for bail was made and none was granted, she said. He entered no plea, the spokeswoman said.

The first charge dates back to May 2003, when Darwin is accused of obtaining money fraudulently from Unat Direct Insurance Management Ltd. by falsely claiming that he had been killed in an accident the previous year.

Darwin's court appearance came as his wife, Anne, was charged with two offenses of deception, one relating to obtaining the £25,000 by cash transfer and the other relating to obtaining £137,000 by cash transfer. She is expected in court Tuesday, police said.

She was arrested by police Sunday after she flew in to Britain on a flight from via Atlanta, Georgia. She had been living in Panama City, Panama.

Police investigating "Canoe Man" John Darwin's disappearance made a fresh appeal for sightings during the five years he was believed dead, issuing a new image and detailing another name he may have used.

Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson said Darwin may have gone under the name of "John Jones" and grown a long brown beard during his absence.

"We need to know if anyone has seen John Darwin in United Kingdom after his 'death,' " Hutchinson, of northeast England's Cleveland Police force, told a news conference.

Darwin was declared dead by a coroner after the remains of a kayak he paddled into the North Sea washed up on shore in 2002.

The former prison officer and teacher walked into a central London police station last week.


A massive air and sea rescue operation was launched in March 2002, when Darwin went missing.

Within 24 hours, the kayak paddle was recovered by police near the area where he was thought to have disappeared and, two months later, the remains of his kayak washed up on the coast.

DORASAN STATION, South Korea (AP) -- The first cargo train providing regular service across the border between the two Koreas in more than a half century left Tuesday for the North.


Korea Railway President Lee Chul shakes hands with the train's engine driver in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday.

The 12-car train carrying construction materials will cross through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula on its journey to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where the two Koreas operate a joint industrial zone. It was to cross back later Tuesday.

The service is one of the tangible results of an October summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that outlined a series of joint projects. It comes months after the two sides conducted a one-time test run of passenger trains on two reconnected tracks on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula.

The cargo train will make a 10-mile round trip every weekday to North Korea.

It remains unclear whether regular passenger train service will start anytime soon, but one of the train's engineers was hopeful Tuesday.

"I expect a day will come when South Koreans visit North Korean tourist attractions freely by train," Shin Jang-chul, whose parents are from what is now North Korea, told reporters before departing.

South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railway will ultimately be linked through North Korea to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route connecting the peninsula to Europe -- significantly cutting delivery times for freight that now requires sea transport.


The cargo rail service is likely to give a further boost to the sprawling Kaesong complex, which marries South Korean technology and management expertise with North Korea's cheap labor.

Currently, 64 South Korean companies operate factories there, employing about 21,600 North Korean workers and producing a range of goods including watches, clothing and shoes.

South Korea hopes the Kaesong project will encourage isolated North Korea to reform its centrally controlled economy and eventually open up to the outside world.

The rail lines between the Koreas were severed shortly after the outbreak of the 1950 Korean War. The conflict ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty, leaving the sides technically at war.

Already, dozens of cars, trucks and buses regularly cross the border between the two Koreas via reconnected roads both to the Kaesong complex and also to a tourism resort at North Korea's Diamond Mountain.

The transport links between North and South were reconnected after the first-ever summit between leaders of the divided nation in 2000.

DUNCANVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The most popular address on Cedar Ridge Drive is Jim Trulock's split-level home, which has a group sex room and attracts as many as 100 people to swinger parties featuring "Naked Twister" nights.


Duncanville city officials met recently to outlaw sex clubs in residential areas.

But the festivities could soon be over. In response to neighbors' complaints, the city has outlawed sex clubs in residential areas. Citations have been issued, and search warrants may be next.

"It's crazy that they want to force their morality down our throats," said Dawn Burton, 45, a regular guest at the parties. "We're all frustrated."

So are those who complain of the noise, traffic and parking problems that occur in their otherwise quiet, upscale neighborhood every Friday and Saturday, when Trulock's home is transformed into "The Cherry Pit."

Duncanville, which proclaims itself "The Perfect Blend of Family, Community and Business," is an unlikely venue for a neighborhood swinger club. The city of 36,000 just southwest of Dallas has about 50 places of worship and not a single registered sexually oriented business.

Duncanville officials insist they are not just another prudish Texas town giving the boot to spouse-swappers. They say it all boils down to a matter of law: Trulock is operating a business featuring live sex acts.

"It's not trying to judge anyone or pass judgment on someone's lifestyle," city spokeswoman Tonya Lewis said.

Don't Miss
City of Duncanville, Texas
To support its claim, the city notes that the Cherry Pit accepts money from guests and promotes the parties on its Web site.

"We're not about infringing on the rights of the Cherry Pit patrons or owners," Lewis said. "But now your right to have fun has infringed on everyone else's. And now you have to draw the line."

Other cities have wrestled with the same issue.

Phoenix, for example, prohibited live sexual performances in 1998, effectively outlawing swinger parties. An appeals court upheld the law in 2003, and Duncanville used it as a blueprint when passing a ban last month.

Retiree Jack Martin, who lives a block behind Trulock's home, said he's concerned that the parties will reduce the value of his property.

Others are annoyed by the procession of cars that crowd their street on weekend evenings, or the flood of strangers who descend on the neighborhood.

"If you're going to do that, you should open a business," Martin said. "Go somewhere where it's allowed."

Attorneys for Trulock, 59, say the Cherry Pit is nothing more than a private residence where a group of friends get together on weekends to socialize in whatever way they prefer.

While guests are encouraged to make "voluntary donations" to cover the cost of food and refreshments, organizers deny that anyone is being charged admission to his parties.

Ed Klein, an attorney for the Cherry Pit, said many guests give no money, but those who do often chip in $10 or $20. Klein said he plans to file a lawsuit next week that will challenge the constitutionality of the ordinance and seek a temporary restraining order against the city.

"I don't think it's persecution so much as an invasion of their privacy," Klein said.

Arthur Leonard, a New York Law School professor who studies sexuality law, said the size of the parties might be a legal obstacle.

"It seems to me when you have that number of people involved, it becomes more like a public event," Leonard said. "It seems unlikely that a court would find privacy protection for an event this large."

The city has already cited Trulock with three violations, which carry a maximum $2,000 fine. Duncanville City Manager Kent Cagle this week pledged to continue enforcing the new law.

The case against the swinger parties "does appeal to a lot of people's sense of morality," said Lewis, the city spokeswoman. "That's been a lot of complaints we've gotten from residents: 'I came to Duncanville to have a family. I didn't come here to live next to a sex club.' "

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- With extra security on hand and holiday shoppers waiting at the doors, Omaha's Westroads Mall reopened Saturday morning, three days after a gunman killed eight people and himself at the mall's Von Maur store.


Nadine Cooper and her daughter stop to remember the shooting victims outside Von Maur on Saturday.

1 of 3 The store, however, remained closed. Yellow holiday lights brightened Von Maur's exterior, but black tarps draped the inside of the doors. Wreaths sat on tripods just outside, and a note from management said the store will reopen soon. No date was given.

A makeshift memorial of flowers, notes and poems covered about two-thirds of the bottom steps of the entrance gunman Robert Hawkins used to enter the store.

On display were eight foam snowflakes, each with a picture of a victim.

Outside the mall, two Red Cross vans and a Salvation Army unit were set up near the food court entrance.

Early shoppers faced wind chill temperatures of only 2 degrees above zero before trickling into the food court or the mall proper, as retailers started raising their security gates at 8 a.m.

Marge Andrews said there was a very different feeling in the mall Saturday compared to her regular walks there with a friend. She and her husband, John, 51, had come to buy sporting goods for their son and clothes for their daughter.

Don't Miss
KETV: Westroads reopens
KETV: First responder tells of mall carnage
911 tapes reveal horror
Families, friends grieve for victims
"I come out here almost every morning, and (today) it was kind of just an eerie feeling of, I don't know, quiet," said Marge Andrews, 49.

"It doesn't feel like a Christmas feeling," her husband said.

Mall security videotape released Friday shows Hawkins entering the Von Maur department store Wednesday, leaving, then returning about six minutes later, clutching his midsection as if hiding something and stalking toward the elevators.

Police did not release video from the third floor where Hawkins fired the gun. But a still image taken from the videotape shows Hawkins with his sleeves rolled up, aiming his AK-47. Watch friends wonder if Hawkins would have shot them too »

Mayor Mike Fahey greeted shoppers and reassured retailers that the city stood behind them as they struggled to regain momentum during their make-or-break holiday shopping season.

"I came in here and I was wondering how I would feel about it, but I feel fine," Fahey said. "I did not necessarily look at Von Maur ... but I feel fine."

The mall is safe, the mayor said. "We have a lot of officers on duty, and they will be on duty all day long," he said.

Omaha police spokesman Bill Dropinski said he couldn't discuss specifics, but that extra officers were in the area.

The Von Maur company, which operates stores across the Midwest, said it had established a memorial fund with the local United Way for the shooting victims and their families and invited public contributions. It also said it was helping families of the eight victims with funeral arrangements and grief counseling.

Police said Hawkins, 19, of nearby Bellevue, fired more than 30 rounds inside the crowded mall, striking 11 people. Six died where they fell, one died on the way to a hospital and another died despite 45 minutes of emergency treatment at another hospital.

Three other people were wounded, two seriously.

Hawkins was a troubled teenager who spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002. He had recently broken up with a girlfriend and lost his job at a McDonald's.

"I've just snapped. I can't take this meaningless existence anymore I've been a constant disappointment and that trend would have only continued," he wrote in a suicide note left at the suburban house where he lived. Read the suicide note »

Some who knew Hawkins in suburban Bellevue said Friday that they tried to warn police about his recent behavior.

Kevin Harrington, who lived nearby, said he contacted police a month ago to report his and other parents' concerns that Hawkins and his friends had easy access to guns and sold drugs.


Harrington, 45, said he told police in Bellevue about a month ago that one of Hawkins' friends offered to sell Valium to his 13-year-old son. Harrington said he also told police that Hawkins had once shot at a car during a drug deal gone bad.

"We told them about the drugs, we told them about the guns, and nothing was done," he said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A regional leader of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's movement and his family died when an explosion went off as they were sleeping in their home in southern Iraq, police said.


Smoke rises Friday from a bombed pipeline in northern Iraq.

Uday Hamid, his wife and two children died in the Numaniya blast, which police told CNN was a bomb.

A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday near an Iraqi police patrol in northern Iraq, killing four police officers and two civilians, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Fourteen people were injured, 12 of them police officers, the official said.

Several houses and cars were damaged by the blast, which happened about 8 a.m. on the northern outskirts of Baiji, a town in Salaheddin province about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the official said.

Reuters.com reported that counterterrorism official Col. Ali Shaker was the target and was among the wounded.

A female suicide bomber killed at least 16 people Friday in Muqdadiya, 60 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province, an official with Iraq's Interior Ministry said.

Don't Miss
Female suicide bomber kills 16
Petraeus notes drop in violence
The bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Gen. Mohammed Al-Tamimi of the local police said.

She blew herself up outside a building that hosts meetings for an "awakening council," whose members are opposed to al Qaeda and have formed an alliance with U.S. and Iraqi forces.

On Friday, a pipeline that carries crude oil from northern Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields to a refinery in Salaheddin province was set on fire by a bomb planted by insurgents, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said.

The damaged section, about 40 miles west of Kirkuk, should be fixed within a few days and has not disrupted Iraqi oil exports, Jihad said.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the ancient Chaldean Church, on Saturday celebrated his first Mass in Baghdad since Pope Benedict XVI elevated him to cardinal in November, The Associated Press reported.

"We pray to our Lord that this occasion will be a beginning for a new era of peace and prosperity for our beloved country," said Bishop Shlemon Wardono, according to AP

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Oil from a damaged supertanker has reached an ecologically sensitive shoreline on South Korea's western coast, a Coast Guard official said Saturday.


Residents walk along the beach covered crude oil at Taean, South Korea, early Saturday

more photos » About four miles (6.5 kilometers) of coastline near Mallipo beach, approximately 95 miles (153 kilometers) southwest of Seoul, has been affected, said Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at the Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon. The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is also the site of fish farms, a national maritime park and an important rest stop for migrating birds.

Some 2.7 million gallons of oil gushed Friday from a 146,000-ton Hong Kong-registered supertanker after a barge carrying a crane slammed into it about seven miles off Mallipo beach. The spill was the country's largest, involving twice as much oil as a spill in 1995.

South Korea's Coast Guard dispatched dozens of ships Friday to try to contain the spill and keep it from reaching the sensitive shoreline. But strong winds and prevailing currents spread the oil slick to an area about 1 mile wide and 10 miles long, Jung said.

The Coast Guard plans to mobilize 103 vessels and six helicopters Saturday in an effort to clean it up, Jung said, adding that the operation was expected to take at least three days.

Chang Geun-ho, an official of the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry, said Friday that the extent of environmental damage would depend on the success of the containment operation, though he added that cold winter temperatures could help slow the spread of the oil slick by freezing it.

The size of the leak reported by the authorities would be about one-fourth of the 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Don't Miss
Tons of oil spill into Yellow Sea
A spill in South Korea in 1995, previously considered the country's largest, leaked about 1.4 million gallons of crude and fuel oil.

The tanker, the Hebei Spirit, and the other vessel, owned by South Korea's Samsung Corp., were in no danger of sinking and there were no casualties, the Coast Guard said.

The tanker was at anchor and carrying about 260,000 tons of crude oil -- about 1.8 million barrels -- to be loaded into boats from a nearby port when it was hit by the South Korean barge which was being towed by a small tug boat, said Kim Tae-ho, another Coast Guard official.


The barge, which was moving from a construction site, lost control after a wire linking it to the tug boat was cut due to high winds, waves and currents, he said.

Kim said the Coast Guard planned to question the barge's captain to find why he was sailing through the area in stormy weather

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Developing countries led by China squabbled with the West over mandatory emission cuts at the Bali climate change conference, as activists accused Canada on Saturday of undermining the negotiations by insisting on targets for poor nations.


An Indonesian activist at a green protest in Jakarta Saturday.

China, which some believe has surpassed the U.S. as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, questioned the fairness of binding cuts when its per capita emissions are about one-sixth of America's.

It said, too, that it has only been pumping pollutants into the atmosphere for a few decades, whereas the West has done so for hundreds of years.

"China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty," said Su Wei, a top climate expert for the government and member of its delegation at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali.

"I just wonder whether it's fair to ask developing countries like China to take on binding targets," Su said Friday. "I think there is much room for the United States to think whether it's possible to change (its) lifestyle and consumption patterns in order to contribute to the protection of the global climate."

Delegates from nearly 190 nations are attending the December 3-14 meeting in Bali and are likely to agree to launch negotiations that will lead to an international accord to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming. They also are expected to set a deadline for completing negotiations and agree on some of the issues to be discussed.

The protocol, which was rejected by the United States, commits three dozen industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gases an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels between next year and 2012, when it expires.

Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, who is president of the conference, said discussions on starting post-Kyoto negotiations were on track and that "God willing" an agreement would be reached by next weekend.

"There is no deadlock," he said. "I would think about 85 percent of those in the room have the same direction."

However, Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of Canadian environmental groups, said Canadian negotiators in Bali have been told to "demand that poorer nations accept the same binding absolute emission reduction targets as developed nations."

Don't Miss
U.S. to be urged over climate pact
U.N.: U.S. climate role 'critical'
New climate protocol may hinge on words
Special report: Eco Solutions
"The Kyoto Protocol is built on the recognition that industrialized countries are largely responsible for the problem of climate change, and must take the lead in tackling it," said Steven Guilbeault of the environmental group Equiterre. "Canada is trying to rewrite history by putting the burden of emissions reductions on poorer countries."

Climate Action Network Canada provided reporters a one-page document that it described as a leaked copy of Canada's negotiating stance. It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the document, and a spokesman for the Canadian delegation did not respond to a request for comment.

The chief U.N. climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, said it was next to impossible to expect the developing world to agree to cuts when their per capita emissions are so much less than the West.

"What is absolutely essential is to see that the developed countries establish a record of action and commitment, which I think will induce and provide a moral basis for developing countries to assume the burden," Pachauri said.

"In the absence of that, I don't think anything is going to happen. With per capita levels being so different, it's not likely that anybody in the developing world would accept commitments."


Angus Friday, chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, many of which are threatened by sea level rises, said developed countries had a "moral responsibility" to show leadership on the issue and act first to tackle global warming since they have contributed far more to the problem than poor countries.

"The danger in the developed world is that the culture of entitlement is not being matched by the culture of responsibility," he said.

Guantanamo detainee claims he was tortured by CIA

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A so-called "high-value" terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claims he was tortured while being held and interrogated at secret CIA prisons, and his attorneys have requested that a judge bar the agency from destroying evidence of that torture.

The motion filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys on behalf of Majid Khan is dated Nov. 29 -- a week before CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged the agency two years ago destroyed videotapes it made in 2002 of interrogations of al Qaeda suspects utilizing newly approved "alternative" interrogation techniques.

Attorney Gitanjali S. Gutierrez claims in the court documents that Khan, a native of Pakistan who attended high school in Baltimore, was held for more than three years at the secret CIA prisons and "subjected to an aggressive CIA detention and interrogation program notable for its elaborate planning and ruthless application of torture."

Asked about Khan's claims, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told CNN, "CIA's terrorist interrogation effort has always been small, carefully run, lawful and highly productive. Fewer than 100 hardened terrorists have gone through the program since it began in 2002, and of those, less than a third required any special methods of questioning. The United States does not conduct or condone torture." (Posted 7:40 p.m.)

Two small aircraft collide over Florida Everglades

(CNN) -- Two small aircraft collided Saturday over the Florida Everglades, just outside of Pompano Beach, authorities said. There was no immediate indication of survivors.

Video footage showed the wreckage scene, with authorities using airboats to navigate the swampy area. No bodies had been recovered as of about 7 p.m. Saturday, said Palm Beach County sheriff's Sgt. Pete Palenzuela.

An infrared, heat-sensing helicopter was to fly over the area Saturday night as part of the rescue effort, he said, but because of darkness and the presence of "dangerous wildlife" such as alligators in the area, divers would not be utilized until Sunday.

The collision was thought to have occurred about 3:20 p.m. Saturday, Palenzuela said. A Piper aircraft flying into Pompano Beach from central Florida was on approach into Pompano Beach Regional Airport when it collided with the second aircraft, thought to be a Cessna 152, he said. (Posted 7:21 p.m.)

Two small aircraft collide over Florida Everglades

(CNN) -- Two small aircraft collided Saturday over the Florida Everglades, just outside of Pompano Beach, authorities said.

Video footage showed the wreckage scene, with authorities using airboats to navigate the swampy area. There was no immediate information on occupants of the aircraft.

The Piper PA 30 and a second unknown aircraft collided about six miles northwest of Pompano Beach about 3 p.m. ET, Federal Aviation Administration Kathleen Bergen told CNN. The Piper was headed from Ocala, Fla., to Pompano Beach, she said. Authorities believe only one person was on board.

A search of registration numbers showed the Piper aircraft is registered to an individual in Waverly, Pa. (Posted 5:59 p.m.)

Shuttle launch to take place Sunday

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (CNN) -- NASA managers have confirmed they will launch space shuttle Atlantis Sunday at 3:21 p.m., Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said.

The launch had been originally scheduled for Thursday but was postponed until Saturday after two of the four engine cut-off sensors for the spacecraft's external fuel tank failed during pre-flight testing. On Friday, Beutel said the Saturday launch would be pushed to Sunday.

Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said the attempt will be made under very strict flight rules. All the cut-off sensors will have to perform flawlessly during the run-up to launch and pass all preflight checks. The shuttle's launch window will be shortened from 10 minutes to only one in order to put the shuttle on the optimal trajectory to rendezvous with the International Space Station using the least amount of fuel.

The malfunctioning sensors act like a "low fuel" sensor in a car. As the shuttle rockets toward space, the sensors monitor the amount of fuel in the tank and can automatically shut off the main engines if they determine the tank is empty. (Posted 5:24 p.m.)

Two small aircraft collide over Florida Everglades

(CNN) -- Two small aircraft collided Saturday over the Florida Everglades, just outside of Pompano Beach, authorities said.

Video footage showed the wreckage scene, with authorities using airboats to navigate the swampy area. There was no immediate information on occupants of the aircraft.

The Piper PA 30 and a second unknown aircraft collided about six miles northwest of Pompano Beach about 2:40 p.m. ET, Federal Aviation Administration Kathleen Bergen told CNN.

A search of registration numbers showed the Piper aircraft is registered to an individual in Waverly, Pa. (Posted 5:10 p.m.)

Iran's foreign minister says 30 percent of NIE report 'wrong'

(CNN) -- Iran's foreign minister said Saturday a U.S. intelligence report on the country's nuclear program is 70 percent true, but denied the report's assertion that that Iran had a nuclear program before 2003.

"Seventy percent of U.S. intelligence report is true and positive and the remaining 30 percent, in which they claim that Iran had a nuclear weapon program before 2003 is wrong," Manouchehr Mottaki said, according to a translation of remarks he made at Amir Kabir university in Tehran. "They refused to confess about this 30 percent because they did not want to lose all their reputation or for similar reasons."

Mottaki was referring to the National Intelligence Estimate's report on Iran, released earlier this month. Among other findings, the report stated that Iran halted work toward a nuclear weapon while under international scrutiny in 2003 and is unlikely to be able to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb until 2010 to 2015.

Earlier this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed the report as "a declaration of victory" for Iran in the face of international pressure to suspend his country's production of nuclear fuel. (Posted 5:10 p.m.)

Shuttle launch to take place Sunday

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (CNN) -- NASA managers have confirmed they will launch space shuttle Atlantis Sunday at 3:21 p.m., Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said.

The launch had been originally scheduled for Thursday but was postponed until Saturday after two of the four engine cut-off sensors for the spacecraft's external fuel tank failed during pre-flight testing. On Friday, Beutel said the Saturday launch would be pushed to Sunday.

The focus of the shuttle's upcoming 11-day mission is delivering the long-awaited European addition to the International Space Station -- a 23-foot-long laboratory module named "Columbus," after the 15th century explorer.

The high-tech lab has been in the works for 25 years and is considered a huge milestone toward the completion of the space station. (Posted 4:39 p.m.)

CIA, Justice officials to probe destruction of tapes

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department and CIA will do a preliminary inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotapes taken during interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects, a DOJ official said Saturday.

The announcement was made in a letter from Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein to the CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo. Wainstein said the purpose of the probe will be to determine "whether further investigation is warranted."

On Friday, a former intelligence official told CNN that Rizzo opposed the destruction of the tapes. The ex-official, who did not want to be identified, told CNN that Rizzo didn't know they had been destroyed until after it was already done.

"I welcome this inquiry, and the CIA will cooperate fully," said CIA Director Mike Hayden in a written statement from the agency.

Osama bin Laden lieutenant Abu Zubayda was one of two al Qaeda suspects whose interrogations were videotaped, according to a government official with knowledge of the tapes. (Posted 3:57 p.m.)

Darwin faces two charges, to appear in court Monday

(CNN) -- John Darwin, the British man who reappeared five years after he was believed to have drowned, has been charged with obtaining a money transfer by deception and making an untrue statement to procure a passport, police Detective Sgt. Iain Henderson said Saturday in Cleveland, a town in northern England.

Darwin will appear in Magistrates Court on Monday, and he will remain in police custody at least until then, Henderson said.

The 57-year-old former prison officer and teacher was presumed to have died in 2002 after the remains of a kayak he paddled into the North Sea washed up on shore.

He walked into a central London police station last week, and told police officers he was suffering from amnesia, and that he had no memory of the last five years.

Police arrested Darwin Tuesday on suspicion of fraud, and he was taken from London to northeast Britain for questioning. (Posted 1:48 p.m.)

Shoppers return to Omaha mall with sad memories

(CNN) -- Christmas shoppers streamed into Omaha's Westroads Mall Saturday, just days after a troubled teen went on a shooting spree, killing eight people before turning the gun on himself.

The Von Maur store where the shootings occurred remained closed, and spokeswoman Megan Hakes said no reopening date had been set. There was work going on inside this weekend, she said. She did not specify what type of work.

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, who was greeting shoppers, said he passed along this message: "Welcome back. Thank you for coming here, for your support."

Robert Hawkins, 19, entered the Von Maur store about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, left and returned about six minutes later, police said. He took an elevator to the third floor and began firing an AK-47 as employees and holiday shoppers scrambled for cover. (Posted 1:25 p.m.)

Violence across Iraq kills at least nine

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A leader in the political movement of radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was killed Saturday, along with three members of his family, when a bomb exploded in their house, an official with the An Numaniyah police told CNN.

Uday Hamid Ali -- a leader in al-Sadr's office in An Numaniyah -- and his wife and two children died, the official said. Police are investigating attack, he said.

In northern Iraq, a suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol, killing six people, including four police officers, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Fourteen people were wounded, including 12 police, the official said.

Several houses and cars were damaged by the blast, which happened on the northern outskirts of Baiji in Salaheddin province. (Posted 11:34 a.m.)

ISAF soldier killed, another wounded in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A soldier with the International Security Assistance Force was killed Saturday and another was wounded in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, ISAF reported.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who have died or been injured today while working to ensure a more stable future for the people of Afghanistan," said Wing Cmdr. Antony McCord, Regional Command South spokesperson.

ISAF said it wouldn't release the casualty's nationality until authorized to do so. (Posted 9:38 a.m.)

Obama hopes 'Oprah-bama' attracts pro-Clinton women

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- Political endorsements rarely translate into votes, but sometimes the timing of one can carry great significance.

That's what Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is hoping for as they pick up the backing of Oprah Winfrey less than one month from the Iowa caucuses.

The three-state "Oprah-bama" tour starts at a Des Moines, Iowa, rally Saturday in a space that can accommodate thousands, and then moves east to Cedar Rapids for an event expected to bring in close to 8,500 people.

The two will travel to South Carolina and New Hampshire on Sunday. (Posted 9:37 a.m.)

Former official: CIA lawyer unaware videotapes destroyed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former intelligence official said Saturday that the CIA's top lawyer, John Rizzo, opposed the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogations of some al Qaeda suspects.

The ex-official told CNN that Rizzo didn't know they had been destroyed until after it was already done.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney learned about the videotaped interrogations Thursday, when CIA Director Michael Hayden briefed them about the existence of the tapes and their subsequent destruction, administration officials said Friday.

The interrogations -- using newly approved "alternative" interrogation techniques -- of two al Qaeda suspects were recorded in 2002, Hayden said Thursday in a letter to CIA employees. They were destroyed three years later when the agency determined they had no intelligence value and could pose a security risk, he said. (Posted 9:03 a.m.)

Afghans used as human shields killed in Taliban attack

(CNN) -- Two Afghan children died and four civilians were wounded in a battle between an Afghan military patrol and Taliban fighters who were using them as human shields, an NATO spokesman said.

A soldier assigned to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in the same area -- the Musa Qaleh district of Helmand province -- by a land mine, according to Maj. Charles Anthony.

The Afghan National Army, with support from ISAF, launched a major operation Friday to retake the Musa Qaleh district from Taliban forces who have controlled the area for "quite some time," Anthony said. (Posted 7:54 a.m.)

Suicide bomb kills 6, hurts 14, mostly police

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in northern Iraq, killing six people, including four police officers and wounding 14 others Saturday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Twelve of the wounded were police officials, the official said.

Several houses and cars were damaged by the blast, which happened at about 8 a.m. on the northern outskirts of Baiji, a town in the Salaheddin province about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the official said. (Posted 6:15 a.m.)

FAA: Continental jets come close to collision on Newark runway

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two Continental Airlines jets came close to colliding on a runway at Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday night, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration said.

A source close to the investigation said a passenger jet that was landing came within 300 feet of another plane taxiing across the runway.

Continental Express Flight 2558, an Embraer 145, was crossing the end of runway 22 just as Continental Flight 573, a Boeing 737, flew over it on an instrument approach about 9 p.m. Thursday, according to FAA spokesman Jim Peters. The flight crew of the taxiing plane had acknowledged an air traffic controller's instruction to hold short at the end of the runway but the plane continued anyway, Peters said.

Peters said investigators were examining radar, radio transmissions and other information to determine what happened. (Posted 6: 14 a.m.)

Gates: NIE findings support more international pressure on Iran

MANAMA, Bahrain (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on the international community to step up pressure on Iran to vow not to develop nuclear weapons, suspend uranium enrichment and to open up its nuclear facilities for inspection.

Gates, addressing a Gulf states' security conference Saturday, sarcastically noted that Iran celebrated the U.S. intelligence community's recent report that said Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

He said it marks a "watershed" that "Iran has, for the first time, embraced as valid an assessment of the United States intelligence community - on Iran's nuclear weapons program."

He said "since that government now acknowledges the quality of American intelligence assessments, I assume that it also will embrace as valid American intelligence assessments" that Iran is funding militia groups in Iraq; deploying lethal weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan; supporting terrorist organizations; and continued development of missiles to carry nuclear warheads. (Posted 4:33 a.m.)

Suicide bomb kills 4 police, hurts 12 in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in northern Iraq, killing four police officers and wounding 12 others Saturday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

The blast happened at about 8 a.m. on the northern outskirts of Baiji, a town in the Salaheddin province about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the official said. (Posted 3:31 a.m.)

Talks to end Hollywood writers' strike collapse

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Talks to end Hollywood's writers' strike abruptly ended Friday evening as studio negotiators walked out, accusing Writers Guild of America (WGA) leadership of putting their personal political agendas above the interest of their membership.

The writer's negotiators said they remain ready to continue talks "no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are."

Statements from each side suggested they were far from a settlement to the five-week-long walkout, as they became more entrenched in their differences over what share of residuals writers would get for Internet and DVD distribution of shows and as new demands emerged.

Production on dozens of television series and movies halted last month and more are expected to shut down in December unless a new three-year contract between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is reached

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Germany's top security officials said Friday they consider the goals of the Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution and will seek to ban the organization.


The German government considers Scientology a commercial enterprise.

The interior ministers of the nation's 16 states plan to give the nation's domestic intelligence agency the task of preparing the necessary information to ban the organization, which has been under observation for a decade on allegations that it "threatens the peaceful democratic order" of the country.

The Church of Scientology, in a response sent to CNN, denounced the German proposal, calling it out of step with various international court rulings. Read the Church of Scientology response

The ministers, as well as federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, "consider Scientology to be an organization that is not compatible with the constitution," said Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting, who presided over the officials' two-day conference.

Sabine Weber, president of the Church of Scientology in Berlin, said she views the renewed attempt to ban the organization as a reaction to increasing acceptance of Scientologists in several European countries.

"It is very, very clear that the true picture of what Scientology is about is pushing its way through," Weber said. "The interior ministers are clearly reacting to that."

The Scientologists have long battled to end the surveillance, saying it is an abuse of their right to freedom of religion. They point to several lower court rulings in favor of their right to practice in Germany as a religious organization.

The U.S. State Department regularly criticizes Germany in its annual Human Rights Report for the monitoring practice.

The interior ministers gave no specific examples for their decision, but the most recent annual report on extremism compiled by their agencies criticized the organization for disregarding human rights.

Don't Miss
Church of Scientology response
Web site: Church of Scientology
Web site: German Ministry of Interior
"From a number of sources, some of them not available to the public, it has been determined that (the organization) seeks to limit or rescind basic and human rights, such as the right to develop one's personality and the right to be treated equally," the report said.

Earlier this year, the German government initially refused to allow the producers of a movie starring Scientology member Tom Cruise as the most famous anti-Hitler plotter to film at the site where the hero was executed, although it did not expressly state Scientology as its reason. It later allowed the production to go ahead.

The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. It first set up in Germany in 1970 and officials estimate it counts some 6,000 members in the country

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and holding talks to convince Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran.


U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Brussels Friday

Despite strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, the top U.S. diplomat was unable to persuade Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions.

Rice said her talks with Lavrov were "an extension of other conversations we have had," suggesting the two didn't see eye to eye.

"We are going to continue along the two-track process," Rice said at a news conference, referring to sanctions and diplomacy.

After seeing Rice on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial meeting, Lavrov told reporters: "It fully confirms the information that we have: that there is no military element in their nuclear program. We hope very much that these negotiations with Iran will continue."

Lavrov, who has become the public face of opposition to the U.S. and European strategy on Iran, has maintained Russia has no evidence that Tehran had ever had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international treaty obligations.

He did not discuss what Rice had told him.

Don't Miss
Iranian officers' info led to new U.S. assessment
Democrats slam Bush account on Iran
His comments were not unexpected given past Russian statements on the issue, but nevertheless dealt a setback to efforts to boost pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities with a new U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution.

China, another key participant in the so-called "P5+1" group of world powers now trying to craft such a resolution, is also resisting. The P5+1 includes the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.

Apart from China and Russia, the others have endorsed upping pressure on Iran since the release on Monday of the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which represented a surprising turnaround in Washington's assessment of Iranian intentions. See what U.S. intelligence experts now say about Iran's nuclear program »

President Bush and Rice have argued that the report actually shows that Iran is susceptible to outside influence on its nuclear program because it finds that Tehran stopped its weaponization attempts four years ago in response to diplomatic pressure.

"It was international pressure that got the Iranians to halt their program," Rice said ahead of her talks with Lavrov. "This suggests that you ought to keep up that international pressure."

Her meetings in Belgium were her first face-to-face exchanges on the matter since the intelligence report became public.

Rice saw Lavrov after having won NATO backing to stay the course on a two-pronged approach to Iran that offers the Islamic regime civilian nuclear cooperation in return for a shutdown of uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

"There was unanimity around the table that there is a clear choice for Iran," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters, noting offers of nuclear cooperation with Iran if it stops enriching and reprocessing uranium.

"Iran can see the outstretched hand from the international community if they are willing to join the drive against proliferation," he said. "But if Iran persists on defying the will of the United Nations Security Council, then there must be further sanctions."

But Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow had never seen evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, not even one that it had given up on four years ago.

Rice had hoped to convince Lavrov that the new intelligence proved the value of tough diplomacy rather than undermining the drive to press for more sanctions.

"In fact, I would think given the assessment that Iran is indeed susceptible to coordinated international pressure that (this) is the right approach," she said.

The U.S. has been successful in leading two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran and is pushing for a third set of economic sanctions if the country refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.

Waterway concern

Amid the growing pressure on Tehran, Iranian threats to close the vital commercial waterway of the Strait of Hormuz are the greatest concern for naval security in the region, a senior U.S. naval commander said Friday.

Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said that while the likelihood of that happening is low, concerns about Iran consume the region -- and his day.

"I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran," Cosgriff told reporters on the eve of a regional conference here where Iran will be a key focus.

He added, "I know of no threat that would cause them to want to close ... the Strait of Hormuz. To me it's coercive, it's intended to intimidate not only the regional nations -- 'look at us we can damage your prosperity'-- but it's intended to intimidate the global market. I just don't think that's responsible behavior."


His comments came a day before a regional security conference that Iranian officials decided at the last minute not to attend. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to make the keynote speech Saturday morning to foreign delegates and other national security officials from Persian Gulf nations and other major powers.

Gates has been meeting with his military commanders in Bahrain, and will participate in the conference, sponsored by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The meeting will focus on security issue in the region, but Iran is likely to dominate much of the discussions

The way forward: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee welcomes his Pakistan counterpart Inam-ul-Haq and Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik at the 29th SAARC Ministers meeting in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: As the first step towards setting up a SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) security network, legal experts from the eight member-countries will meet in Colombo to finalise the text of a mutual legal assistance agreement, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Friday.

Talking to journalists after a meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers, Mr. Mukherjee discounted suggestions of discord over the agreement that was aimed at “tackling criminals and checking undesirable activity.” He felt the text would be finalised in Colombo by April next year.

“No disparate views”


“In our deliberations, there were no disparate views even when it was specifically mentioned that the agreement should be expedited in order to operationalise it quickly. I do hope when we have discussions [on the finalised text] we will arrive at a conclusion and go by it,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee, however, felt that for a viable security network, first there should be an exchange of information as many SAARC countries were victims of terror. “Therefore, hard, real-time exchange of information is an important aspect that we will have to take into account.”

Social projects


The meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers resolved to operationalise the SAARC Development Fund, initially on the basis of India’s unilateral commitment of $ 100 millions. The fund was envisaged to have a corpus of $ 300 millions and India hade made the offer even before the fund was conceptualised. The amount would be earmarked for social projects and work would begin soon, said Mr. Mukherjee.

The meeting also saw a SAARC Declaration on Climate Change, in which the Foreign Ministers called upon the international community to honour its commitments with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The Declaration said the way forward must include provision of adequate resources to tackle climate change without detracting from the funds for development, effective access and funding assistance for transfer of environment-friendly technologies, and adoption of binding GHG (greenhouse gas emission) reduction commitments by developed countries with effective timeframes. The Ministers emphasised the need for equitable burden sharing.

The Ministers also stressed that contributions to the global effort to tackle climate change should be in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. “We also believe that developed countries must assume greater commitments in line with their responsibility.”

When science seems to take a stand on our romantic decision-making, people tend to get excited. So it's no surprise that Google News turned up more than 400 articles about new research suggesting that divorce is harmful to the environment. The gist of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that the average divorcée uses more resources—specifically electricity, water, and residential space—than does the typical person in a couple or a family.

But the study tells only half a story. By focusing on people's decisions to stay married or get divorced, it comes to an incomplete conclusion. The real issue is whether we live alone or live with others. Marital status is immaterial.

Living alone requires greater use of resources. Each home or apartment needs to be built from raw materials, for one thing, and each household in the developed world tends to be furnished with its own energy-guzzling collection of lights, appliances, and consumer electronics. Adding a person to an existing household, or combining two households into one, creates efficiencies that can't be matched when people live by themselves. The new study, to its authors' credit, mentions that "declines in multigenerational households, delays in first marriages, increases in empty nesters, and increases in separated couples" can also increase resource use. (It covers that aspect of the subject in three sentences, however, and some news reports on the study overlooked it entirely.)

It follows that for singles, moving in with someone—anyone—is a green thing to do. Getting married? Great. Cohabiting? That's great, too, from an environmental standpoint. Shacking up with a roommate or two? Nature thanks you.

Marriages may in fact be bad for Mother Earth for a reason that the new study didn't consider. First comes love, as the nursery rhyme goes, and later comes a baby carriage. Each additional member of the species adds to the human race's demand for resources. No wonder Slate calls babies "the new SUVs."