Health insurance bridges gap for poor families
Free medical care can help children get out of poverty, official says

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - For years, Al Rohling watched parents quit their jobs when their kids got sick, deliberately making their incomes drop to a point where they could get U.S. government medical help.

Rohling, who directed Alabama’s housing authority at the time, reached a startling conclusion: If children could drive parents into hardship when they became ill, could medical insurance help parents rediscover financial health?

“Health care for children really is a bridge to get out of poverty,” said Rohling.

Rohling quit his job in 1988 to help set up the Child Caring Foundation, which provides free health insurance for children through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama health care provider.

The foundation is just one example of a charity that bridges the gap between Medicaid — subsidized insurance — for the poorest and private health insurance paid for either privately for those who can afford it, or by an employer.

That gap leaves up to 9 million U.S. children uninsured in the United States, a nation with no universal health care. Many parents are forced to struggle with a patchwork of other provisions in order to get health care for their children.

“The problem of the uninsured is getting worse,” and the number of uninsured children has risen since 2004, said Jennifer Tolbert, principal analyst with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a Washington-based think tank.

Tolbert said it was possible the U.S. Congress could increase the scope of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide greater state coverage for uninsured children when it debates reauthorizing the program next year.

In the lurch
Children with health insurance are usually taken to the doctor at the first sign of illness, while parents of uninsured kids often wait because they are conscious of the cost.

Then the child’s illness can worsen and the parent is forced to miss work to nurse the child back to health.

In Alabama, there were 230,000 uninsured children in 1988, and that has fallen to around 70,000 due to a combination of the Child Caring Foundation and state programs.

Jody Sharp, 60, is an example of the problem the charity aims to address.

She and her husband adopted a foster child, Dana, from a mother who was mentally handicapped. Later, they adopted Dana’s brother Kyle who has epilepsy and asthma.

But Sharp’s husband, the family wage earner, walked out in 1990, leaving Sharp to bring up the two children with no health insurance.

“If you never had a child with epilepsy, you would never know how many bills you can incur. With no insurance, it’s thousands of dollars just like that,” Sharp told Reuters.

During their two years in the Alabama Blue Cross Blue Shield program, Sharp’s children received free medical care and she found a job working with special needs children. The money saved helped her move into private health insurance.

Some 90 percent of the 55,000 children on the program move into private health insurance within about 30 months.

“All of us have times when we lose jobs or lose our homes. You need the support of insurance so you don’t have to worry about squeezing doctor bills out of an already stretched paycheck,” said Sharp.

Bear's eye
To recruit families, Rohling tours the state presenting health screenings at schools with the help of volunteers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing and elsewhere.

At one recent presentation, a student nurse pulled a teddy bear eye out of a child’s ear, ending three years of one-sided deafness. It was an example of how problems can fester for children who don’t have health insurance.

Low cost health insurance for low income American children began in Pittsburgh in 1985 when Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western Pennsylvania insured children of laid-off steel workers. By 2006, 144,000 children were in their program.

“There was a crisis. And the whole thing came about as an answer for how health insurance should work,” said spokesperson Denise Grabner of Highmark.

In 1997, the program expanded to include children of the working poor when Congress enacted the SCHIP providing some matching funding.

Alabama was the first of 20 states to participate, creating the All Kids program, with money from state settlement with tobacco companies. The program provides insurance for children above the level at which they would qualify for Medicaid.

Many states now provide insurance for families who earn up to double the poverty rate, defined as $10,000 a year for a single person and $20,000 for a family of four. But Rohling said an individual needed to earn nearly three times the poverty level to afford private insurance.

“We fill the void between affordability and eligibility.”


Timberlake, Diaz reportedly break up
Former N’ Sync singer seeing former flame, magazine reports

Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz have called it quits, according to a report in Star magazine.

According to Star, Diaz, 34, spent Christmas with her family in Vail, Colo., while Timberlake, 25, was with his family near Memphis. The magazine quotes a source who says the former N' Sync singer told friends that he and the actress had broken up. The couple were last seen together on Dec. 16 when she introduced his musical performance on "Saturday Night Live."

Diaz and Timberlake started dating shortly after they met each other at the 2003 Kids' Choice Awards.

The magazine also reported that Timberlake has started seeing a former flame, Veronica Finn. The pair dated in the late '90s before he began dating Britney Spears. Finn and Spears were briefly in a girl group together called Innosense, according to music impresario Lou Pearlman.


Home Depot CEO Nardelli quits
Home-improvement retailer's chief executive had been criticized over pay

ATLANTA - Bob Nardelli abruptly resigned Wednesday as chairman and chief executive of The Home Depot Inc. after a six-year tenure that saw the world’s largest home improvement store chain post big profits but left investors disheartened by poor stock performance.

Nardelli has also been under fire by investors for his hefty pay and is leaving with a severance package valued at about $210 million. He became CEO in December 2000 after being passed over for the top job at General Electric Co., where Nardelli had been a senior executive.

Home Depot said Nardelli was being replaced by Frank Blake, its vice chairman, effective immediately.

Blake’s appointment is permanent, Home Depot spokesman Jerry Shields said. What he will be paid was not immediately disclosed, Shields said. The company declined to make Blake available for comment, and a message left for Nardelli with his secretary was not immediately returned.

Before Wednesday’s news, Home Depot’s stock had been down more than 3 percent on a split-adjusted basis since Nardelli took over.

Nardelli’s sudden departure was stunning in that he told The Associated Press as recently as Sept. 1 that he had no intention of leaving, and a key director also said that the board was pleased with Nardelli despite the uproar by some investors.

Asked in that interview if he had thought of hanging up his orange apron and leaving Home Depot, Nardelli said unequivocally that he hadn’t. Asked what he thought he would be doing 10 years from now, Nardelli said, “Selling hammers.”

For The Home Depot?

“Absolutely,” he said at the time.

Home Depot said Nardelli’s decision to resign was by mutual agreement with the Atlanta-based company.

“We are very grateful to Bob for his strong leadership of The Home Depot over the past six years. Under Bob’s tenure, the company made significant and necessary investments that greatly improved the company’s infrastructure and operations, expanded our markets to include wholesale distribution and new geographies, and undertook key strategic initiatives to strengthen the company’s foundation for the future,” Home Depot’s board said in a statement.

Nardelli was a nuts-and-bolts leader, a former college football player and friend of President Bush. He helped increase revenue and profits at Home Depot and increase the number of stores the company operates to more than 2,000. Home Depot’s earnings per share have increased by approximately 150 percent over the last five years. But the public discussion about his pay and the company’s stock price had become a distraction.

Industry experts and analysts said his departure and Blake’s ascent to the top job are a good thing for Home Depot.

“This is not about strategy or vision,” said James Senn, director of Robinson College’s Center for Global Business Leadership at Georgia State University. “This is coming down to two things. Really the foundation of leadership is credibility. Bob has run into some problems there. The second is execution.”

The Home Depot board also announced that Carol Tome, its chief financial officer, and Joe DeAngelo, its executive vice president for Home Depot Supply, will be assuming additional responsibilities.

Tome will be assuming responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, credit services and additional strategic responsibilities. DeAngelo was appointed to the newly created position of chief operating officer.

Nardelli and Home Depot have agreed to terms of a separation agreement that would provide for payment of the amounts he is entitled to receive under his pre-existing employment contract entered into in 2000. Under this agreement, Nardelli will receive consideration currently valued at about $210 million.

The package includes a cash severance payment of $20 million, the acceleration of unvested deferred stock awards currently valued at approximately $77 million and unvested options with an intrinsic value of approximately $7 million. It also includes payments of earned bonuses and long-term incentive awards of approximately $9 million, account balances under the Company’s 401(k) plan and other benefit programs currently valued at approximately $2 million, previously earned and vested deferred shares with an approximate value of $44 million, the present value of retirement benefits currently valued at approximately $32 million and $18 million for other entitlements under his contract. Those entitlements will be paid over a four-year period and will be forfeited if he does not honor his contractual obligations.

Nardelli has also agreed not to compete with the company for one year, and not to solicit employees or customers of the company for four years.

Home Depot did not say what Nardelli would be doing next.

In conjunction with the management changes, the board also announced that it had waived the retirement age of 72 and has asked John L. Clendenin, Claudio X. Gonzales and Milledge A. Hart III to stand for re-election at the 2007 annual shareholders meeting. This action was taken to retain these directors’ experience. Home Depot said the action was temporary.


30 panda cubs born in China in 2006
Current total of giant pandas bred in captivity now 217

BEIJING - A mini-baby boom last year has pushed up the number of pandas bred in captivity in China to 217, state media said Wednesday.

Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived — both record numbers for the endangered species, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency.

The previous record was the 21 baby pandas born in China's zoos and breeding centers in 2005.

China has been raising pandas through artificial insemination for nearly 50 years, mostly at two research facilities in the southwestern province of Sichuan.  In 2006, 17 cubs were born at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center and 12 at the Chengdu Research Base.  The other panda was bred at the zoo in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi.

Giant pandas have a very low fertility rate because they are sexually inactive.  Female pandas become pregnant only once a year and deliver two cubs at most each time.

The fertility of captive giant pandas is even lower because they do not move much, experts said.


Evolving presidential preferences
How will American voters compensate in the next search for a president?

WASHINGTON - Now that the 38th president has been laid to rest, the capital can take up the main business of 2007: trying to figure out who will be the 44th.  What type of leader does the country want? Here is my sense of it, based on talking to politicians, strategists and voters here and around the nation.

No ideologues, please
There was a time when President George W. Bush’s ideological certitude was politically appealing and perhaps functionally necessary. That time has long since passed. The country is tired, even fearful, of leaders with fervent beliefs that seem impervious to new (or even old) facts. Voters see the war in Iraq as an “idea,” not a solution – and Americans do not like ideas that do not work.  Voters likely will view Bush’s “surge” of troops into Iraq as new evidence of failure, and the dangers of a leader who depends on preconceived ideas.

Serious student
Presidential elections are a never-ending series of mid-course corrections. Voters look to compensate for the leadership weaknesses of the incumbent. An example comes from the life and career of Gerald Ford. In 1976, voters wanted a pure antidote to Richard Nixon’s paranoid megalomania. Once Ford pardoned Nixon, he could not be that candidate. Instead, Americans chose Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer who had never worked in Washington, and who promised never to lie to the American people. The counterpoint thinking continues. Voters in 2008 are going to want someone who prides himself (or herself) on spending time in the library – who has a hands-on curiosity about the details.

Washington experience not necessary
Voters these days not only do not value Washington experience – or any office-holding experience – it can make them suspicious. That is what strategists and polltakers for Sen. Evan Bayh found when they studied whether he should run for president. They found that his remarkably deep resume – the son of a senator, he was the “boy governor” of Indiana before going to the Senate – was as handicap. Americans always are dubious about the capital, but that sentiment seems particularly strong. Bayh decided not to run. “`Washington’ doesn’t make the case,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who worked for Bayh.

No more boomer obsessions
Not all elections are about change, but 2008 will be. Americans are moderately upbeat about the country’s prospects, but deeply worried about the world – and they have come to realize that they can’t separate one from the other. One thing for sure, says Pfeiffer, voters are tired of arguing about the culture of the 1960s and other Boomer issues.  “There is a sense that the 2004 election was too much about who did or did not do what in Vietnam,” said Pfeiffer, referring to the Bush campaign against Sen. John Kerry. In 2000, Bush won in part by selling himself as a “grown up” Boomer answer to Bill Clinton. “Voters are tired of that era and its concerns,” said Pfeiffer said. “They want to move on.”

Know the middle class
Bushes have a congenital family problem with this, and it leaves an opening for someone – of either party – who can prove that he or she really understands the strains of middle class life. It’s not just about money, but about cultural assaults and the lack of time for family in an era when both parents or partners need to work. In his forthcoming book, Positively American, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York imagines the hard life of a fictitious middle class family – and offers a series of governmental proposals to address them. A shrewd student of the American mood, Schumer is aiming in the right direction. The next president will need to show that he or she understands that family.


Thousands of holiday travelers without luggage
Fog, technical glitch at London's Heathrow Airport snarls baggage system

LONDON - Thousands of airline passengers still have not received their luggage after fog disrupted flights at London's Heathrow Airport late last year, airline officials said Wednesday.

The chaos was compounded when faults developed with a baggage belt at Heathrow's Terminal 4, said British Airways, the airline that was worst affected.

BA said Wednesday it still had "several thousand" bags that have not been delivered to their owners.

Many are still stacked at Heathrow's Terminal 1 and Terminal 4, and BA is now using freight planes and volunteers to deliver them to their owners.

The problem began before the Christmas holiday with a fault on a baggage belt at Terminal 4, a BA spokesman said on condition of anonymity. That caused an initial backlog, and about 8,000 bags were not delivered, he said.

The fog at Heathrow caused further problems, and there was another Terminal 4 baggage belt problem on Dec. 29 — leading to about 10,000 bags being undelivered, the spokesman said.

Over the holiday season, the airline dealt with about 75,000 bags a day at Heathrow and handled about 1 million passengers, the spokesman said.

The baggage problem coincided with changes in working practices for BA baggage handlers at Terminals 1 and 4, before the airline's planned move to Terminal 5 in March 2008, he said.


Riley takes indefinite leave of absence
61-year-old coach has been dealing with ongoing knee, hip injuries

MIAMI - Miami Heat coach Pat Riley is taking an indefinite leave of absence because of ongoing hip and knee problems.

The 61-year-old coach disclosed his plans Wednesday and was to announce his decision at a news conference. It was not immediately clear who would be promoted to interim head coach.

The Heat were to play the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

Riley is in his 12th season with the Heat, who won the NBA title last June. They’re off to a 13-17 start and have been without center Shaquille O’Neal most of the season because of a knee injury.

Riley returned to the bench in December 2005, replacing Stan Van Gundy and postponing a scheduled surgery for hip replacement. In September, Riley said he didn’t expect to need the operation this season.

His condition apparently worsened in recent weeks. He often walks with a limp and has been on medication for the hip.

Miami Heat coach Pat Riley will take a leave of absence from the defending champions to have surgeries on his right knee and hip, according to reports Wednesday.

Riley told the team of his decision Wednesday morning, the Chicago Tribune said. No immediate successor has been named.

ESPN said Riley plans on returning to the team.

Just as Riley departs, Heat center Shaquille O'Neal appears ready to return from his injury. He is scheduled to travel with the team on its six-game road trip against Western Conference teams.

The Heat is 13-17.


U.S. mines still not safe enough, experts say
One year after Sago Mine accident, safety laws still need improving

BUCKHANNON, W. Va. - One year ago Tuesday, the nation was holding its breath for 13 miners who were trapped deep inside the Sago Mine near Buckhannon, W. Va.

As it turned out, 12 of the 13 miners never made it out alive.

In West Virginia Tuesday, Randal McCloy, the lone survivor of the disaster, joined the families of the 12 men who died — to remember them and the nightmare that began one year ago.

"I'm just sick when I think — every day when I think how those men had to die and it makes me sick," says Debbie Hamner whose husband died in the mine.

Since Sago, both West Virginia and the federal government have passed new mine safety laws. But in the mines themselves, little has changed.

There's still no better way to communicate with miners below ground;
Wireless communications won't be required until 2009;
Electronic tracking systems for miners are still on the drawing board;
Underground emergency safe rooms are still not required by law; and
Mines have another year to position more rescue teams.
Davitt McAteer is a mine safety expert who once ran the government's Mine Safety and Health Administration and led West Virginia's Sago Mine investigation.

"We need to have a way to communicate with trapped miners," McAteer says. "We need to protect trapped miners until we can get to them, and we need to have a way that we can provide them with the breathing apparatus and the air system so they can stay alive."

What has changed in mine safety since the Sago tragedy:

Improved emergency procedures and training is now required;
There are more federal mine inspectors and tougher fines for safety violations; and
Mines must now notify the federal government within 15 minutes of an accident.
Still not required, though are underground emergency safe rooms.

The union representing many of the nation's 73,000 coal miners says it's a sign of priorities.

"There's still just an attitude out there that production comes first and safety is a convenient thing and it comes second," says Dennis O'Dell of United Mine Workers of America.

These are boom times for the coal industry, producing a record 1.17 billion tons of coal in 2006, but also the highest death toll in 11 years.


Hindus throng to Ganges for bathing festival
Pilgrims believe dip in river during six week celebration will cleanse sin

ALLAHABAD, India - Nearly half a million Hindus braved near-freezing temperatures to wash away their sins in the icy waters of the Ganges river in northern India on Wednesday, the first day of a six-week festival.

As many as 70 million people from India and abroad are expected over the whole “Ardh Kumbh Mela” or Half Pitcher Festival, billed as one of the largest gatherings on earth.

Men, women, children, holy men in saffron and the infirm gathered at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and a mythical third river in Allahabad city well before dawn, waiting for the sun to rise for the auspicious bath on the first day of the 42-day event.

They chanted verses from Hindu scriptures and sang holy songs as they walked towards the bathing areas, some lying prostrate after every few steps to salute the gods.

The festival falls midway between the “Maha Kumbh Mela” or the Great Pitcher Festival, celebrated once every 12 years.

Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges during the festivals cleanses them of sin, speeding the way to the attainment of nirvana or the afterlife.

'Like being with God'

After dipping in the polluted but sacred waters, many filled cans, bottles and steel containers for relatives and friends who could not make it. Others sprinkled it on their dry clothes.

“It was a long-cherished desire to take a dip here during the Kumbh Mela,” said Naba Kumar Ghosh, a young school teacher from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. “The experience has been one of fulfillment, a complete cleansing of the inner self.”

Shakuntala, a 70-year-old woman who gave only one name, said she traveled all night from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to bathe in the Ganges, just as she has done at every Kumbh Mela over the last 25 years.

“It was a divine experience, a dip in the holy waters is like being with God,” she said. “God willing, I will be here for the next 'Kumbh' too”.

Rama Devi, an old woman from Allahabad who could not remember her age, has not missed a single Kumbh and was determined to make it this time despite her inability to walk.

With roads closed to traffic, her 35-year-old son, a soldier in the Indian army, carried her on his back for the 6-mile walk from their house to the waters.

Tight security
Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, is one of four spots where Garuda, the winged steed of Hindu god Vishnu, is said to have rested during a titanic battle with demons over a pitcher of divine nectar of immortality.

Garuda’s flight lasted 12 divine days, or 12 years of mortal time, hence the celebration of “Maha Kumbh Mela” every 12 years.

The midway point between two such celebrations is also considered highly favorable because the position of the sun and the moon are the same as during the “Maha Kumbh”.

The “Maha Kumbh Mela” in 1989 attracted 15 million pilgrims and the Guinness Book of Records dubbed it the largest gathering of human beings for a single purpose. The festival in 2001 drew between 50 and 70 million.

Thousands of tents and camps have been built to house pilgrims across the 4,000 acre  festival area and more than 10,000 policemen, including specially-trained “terrorist spotters”, have been deployed, authorities said.


Upgrade makes aging Mars rovers smarter
Engineers transmitted new software to the rovers' onboard computers

LOS ANGELES - The twin Mars rovers are getting wiser with age.

Engineers have transmitted new flight software to the rovers' onboard computers — just in time for the third anniversary of their landing. The software is aimed at boosting their intelligence and independence so that they can roll around the Red Planet with less help from humans.

"We're teaching an old dog new tricks," said John Callas, the mission project manager with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA agency in charge of the rovers.

Among the rovers' new skills is the ability to automatically recognize and transmit to Earth photographs that they take of swirling dust devils or floating clouds. They can also independently decide whether it is safe to extend its robotic arm to sample a piece of rock.

Before, scientists had to painstakingly dissect thousands of images just to find the frames they need and decide for the rovers whether to use their arms. The high-tech upgrades should help save time — as much as a day because scientists on Earth don't have to study a rock before sending commands to the robot to pick it up.

If successful, the changes could get incorporated into future Mars missions.

Spirit and Opportunity were also fitted with a new navigation system that allows them to think several steps ahead when faced with an obstacle, allowing them to back out of a dead end or even navigate a maze on their own, Callas said. The geologic robots have previously tackled one problem at a time.

Spirit landed three years ago Wednesday and Opportunity on Jan. 24, 2004. Entering their fourth year of exploration, both golf cart-sized vehicles have long outlasted their missions, originally planned for about three months. While scientists are impressed by the rovers' longevity, they admit the robots could die at any time.

The rovers' biggest accomplishment is uncovering geologic evidence that water once flowed on Mars. Spirit is currently studying rocks and soil samples near a Martian ridge while Opportunity is circling the rim of a massive crater for possible ways in.


Five healthy resolutions for 2007
Follow nutritionist Joy Bauer's recommendations for a better year

Have you made a New Year's resolution yet? Have you broken it already? Don't despair. Nutritionist Joy Bauer has created 5 healthy, and simple, resolutions we all should have on our “to do” list for the new year:

Joy's Healthy Resolutions for 2007:

1. Make YOURSELF a priority
*Shop for healthy foods your body needs
*Get enough sleep
*Exercise regularly

2. Know your numbers
Ring in the New Year with a pledge to visit your doctor and learn your blood pressure reading and fasting cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels.  The sooner you know where you stand, the sooner you can take action to make corrections.

*  Optimal blood pressure equal to or   120 / 80 mmHg
*  Total cholesterol    200 mg/dL
*  LDL-Cholesterol    100 mg/dL
*  HDL-Cholesterol  40 mg/dL or higher
*  Cholesterol ratio  below 5
*  Triglycerides    150 mg/dL
*  Blood Sugars    100 mg/dL

3. Up your ante!
Antioxidants are naturally occurring compounds found in plant based foods. Antioxidants help the body fight many serious conditions, including cancer and heart disease, by thwarting the action of harmful free radicals. According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2006, the following foods are among the richest in antioxidants. Go out of your way to incorporate them into your daily diet.

1. Blackberries
2. Walnuts
3. Strawberries
4. Artichokes
5. Cranberries
6. Raspberries
7. Blueberries
8. Cloves, ground

4. Incorporate whole grains
2007 is the year to stop buying refined, white starch. Instead, embrace brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread and other healthy grain varieties like millet, faro, and amaranth.

Learn how to buy the right bread! Many consumers believe they're buying the right type of bread but are often confused. According to a Sara Lee Food & Beverage survey, 73% of consumers who were asked what type of bread they had in the house said "whole wheat bread," but after checking the label realized that they mistakenly thought "enriched wheat" meant whole grain.

Look a "whole" lot closer at labels in the bread aisle - it must say 100% Whole Wheat or 100% Whole Grain, or list the word WHOLE as one of the first ingredients on the label.

5.   Slow the pace - lose fat on your waist
In an interesting experiment that was presented at the 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting a NAASO, women were invited to eat a pasta lunch on two different days. On one day, the women were given a small spoon and asked to take small bites, put the spoon down between bites, and chew each bite at least 15 times. On the second day, the women were given a large spoon and asked to eat as quickly as possible without stopping between bites. On both occasions, the women ate until they felt comfortably full. When researchers measured how many calories the women ate, they found that women ate 67 more calories when they ate quickly than when they ate slowly. Although this may not sound like much, calories add up.

An additional 134 calories per day, means 48,910 calories per year…. that's potentially 14 pounds (lost or gained!).

For more information on healthy eating, visit nutrition expert, Joy Bauer’s website at www.joybauernutrition.com


5 charged in Texas airport luggage thefts
Workers at baggage-handling firm accused after bags found in pet store bin

HOUSTON - Five employees of a baggage-handling contractor have been charged in the thefts of 158 pieces of luggage from George Bush Intercontinental Airport, police said Tuesday.

Sixty-eight pieces of luggage were discovered in a Houston pet store's trash bin on Dec. 26. Police said the luggage appeared to have been picked over, with any valuables stolen.

Ninety more pieces of stolen luggage were found at two undisclosed locations over the weekend, Houston Police Capt. Rick Bownds said.

Charged with engaging in organized criminal activity were twin brothers Manuel and Ricardo Aguilar, 23; Carlos Osorio, 24; Erick Perez, 29; and Daniel Venegas, who turns 26 this week. The Aguilar brothers, Osorio and Perez were being held at the Harris County Jail on $20,000 bond. Information was not available for Venegas.

It was not clear Tuesday whether the five men had hired attorneys.

Bownds said the men worked for Menzies Aviation Group, a company that handles baggage for connecting flights across the United States. The company was cooperating with the investigation, police said.

A telephone message left with the company's London office was not immediately returned Tuesday night.

Investigators and the airlines were trying to determine the owners of the bags and figure out what might have been stolen, Bownds said.


Saban leaves Dolphins for Alabama job
Coach ends speculation, takes offer of 8 years, $32 million — all guaranteed

DAVIE, Fla. - Nick Saban is ’Bama bound.

Ending five weeks of denials and two days of deliberation, Saban accepted the Alabama coaching job and abandoned his bid to rebuild the Miami Dolphins after only two seasons.

ESPN said the deal is for eight years and $32 million, all of it guaranteed.

Miami owner Wayne Huizenga said he was informed of the decision in a meeting Wednesday at Saban’s house. Huizenga announced the departure at a news conference that Saban didn’t attend.

“It is what it is,” Huizenga said, borrowing Saban’s pet phrase. “I’m not upset because it’s more involved than what you think.”

Since late November, Saban had issued frequent, angry public denials of interest in moving to Tuscaloosa. Huizenga said the change of heart wasn’t driven by money, and Saban never sought a raise or contract extension.

Instead, Huizenga hinted that family issues for Saban and his wife, Terry, were a factor.

“I’ve been through this with Nick for quite some time now, and I feel the pain and so forth and so on of Nick and Terry, and it’s not a very simple thing,” Huizenga said. “I think Nick’s great. I’ll be Nick’s biggest fan. I’ll be cheering for him to win that bowl game.”

A preference for the college game and the campus lifestyle may have swayed Saban. He won a national championship at LSU and is 15-17 with the Dolphins. This was his first losing season in 13 years as a head coach.

The Crimson Tide first approached Saban shortly after firing Mike Shula. Huizenga has said he received repeated assurances from Saban that he would return in 2007, and two weeks ago Saban said: “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

But when the Dolphins’ 6-10 season ended Sunday, Alabama sweetened an offer that reportedly would make him the highest-paid coach in college football. He had three years remaining on his Miami contract at $4.5 million a year.

In the past, Huizenga has been persuasive when dealing with coaches. He talked Don Shula into retirement in 1996, talked Jimmy Johnson out of retiring three years later — Johnson lasted one more season — and was able to lure Saban to the pros in 2004 after other NFL teams had failed.

But this time, Huizenga failed to change Saban’s mind.

After Saban turned down the Tide in early December, Alabama offered the job to Rich Rodriguez, but he decided to stay at West Virginia. Alabama lost last week to Oklahoma State in the Independence Bowl to finish 6-7.

Possible candidates to replace Saban include Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, former Green Bay head coach Mike Sherman, San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, Indianapolis assistant Jim Caldwell, Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow and Pittsburgh Steelers assistants Russ Grimm and Ken Whisenhut.

Huizenga didn’t rule out hiring a college coach, as he did when Saban came to the Dolphins from LSU two years ago.

“There’s only one thing I want to do, and it’s win,” Huizenga said. “I don’t care what it takes, what it costs, what’s involved, we’re going to make this a winning franchise. It’s no fun owning a team if you’re not winning, I can tell you that. And we are absolutely, positively going to get back to being a winning team. And sooner rather than later.”

Leading the search for a coach will be Joe Bailey, chief executive officer of Dolphins Enterprises, and Brian Wiedmeier, the Dolphins’ president and chief operating officer. The Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons are also seeking a new coach.

The Dolphins’ next coach will be their fourth in nine seasons.

“I wish you hadn’t brought that up,” Huizenga said with a wry smile.

It has been a frustrating a stretch of instability for a franchise that had the same coach — Shula — for 26 years. Miami has failed to make the playoffs the past five years, a team record.

The Dolphins are coming off their third losing season since 1969 and likely face a roster overhaul. With Daunte Culpepper struggling to recover from reconstructive knee surgery in 2005, Miami remains unsettled at quarterback, a troublesome position since Dan Marino retired seven years ago. The team needs upgrades in almost every other area for a feeble offense and aging defense.

Saban leaves behind the NFL’s largest staff of assistants and general manager Randy Mueller, who might be given more responsibility under a new coaching regime.

The Dolphins haven’t reached the AFC championship game since Huizenga became majority owner in 1994.

“All I want to figure out is how the heck we’re going to win,” he said. “And that’s what everyone with the Dolphins wants, to win. So win, win, win. That’s all I can say. We’re going to go out there and kick some butt and make something happen, I guarantee you.”
NCAA


Barbara Walters stands by Rosie O’Donnell
‘View’ host denies Trump's claim she wanted comedian off morning show

NEW YORK - Barbara Walters is back from vacation — and she’s standing by Rosie O’Donnell in her bitter battle of words with Donald Trump.

Walters, creator of ABC’s “The View,” said Wednesday on the daytime chat show that she never told Trump she didn’t want O’Donnell on the show, as he has claimed. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.

“She has brought a new vitality to this show and the ratings prove it,” Walters said of O’Donnell, who is on vacation this week. When she returns, Walters said, “We will all welcome her back with open arms.”

Walters also took a moment to smooth things over with The Donald, who got all riled up when O’Donnell said on “The View” that he had been “bankrupt so many times.”

“ABC has asked me to say this just to clarify things, and I will quote: ‘Donald Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy. Several of his casino companies have filed for business bankruptcies. They are out of bankruptcy now,”’ Walters said.

O’Donnell and Trump have been feuding since he announced last month that Miss USA Tara Conner, whose title had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking, would keep her crown. Trump is the owner of the Miss Universe Organization, which includes Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.

The 44-year-old outspoken moderator of “The View,” who joined the show in September, said Trump’s news conference with Conner had annoyed her “on a multitude of levels” and that the twice-divorced real estate mogul had no right to be “the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America.”

Trump fired back, calling O’Donnell a “loser” and a “bully,” among other insults, in various media interviews.

He is the host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” which begins its new season Sunday.


Stocks start new trading year with rally
Market indexes surge after Home Depot chief executive quits

NEW YORK - Stocks moved soundly higher in the first session of 2007 as investors cheered mostly solid readings on the economy and found reason for increased prospects for big-name retailers Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

A decline in oil prices added to the strong sentiment that at times drove the Dow Jones industrials to a new trading high.

Stocks, which had surged from the start on word that Home Depot’s chairman and chief executive had resigned after years of lackluster performance in the company’s stock, added to their gains after Wall Street received a stronger-than-expected report on December manufacturing from the Institute for Supply Management and saw a softer-than-expected decline in construction spending.

“The ISM number was better than expected and construction fell less than expected,” said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards. “I think those of us looking for a soft landing had more support on that stance today.”

In early afternoon trading, the Dow surged 96.53, or 0.77 percent, to 12,559.68 after jumping earlier to a new trading high of 12,580.35.

Broader stock indicators also rose, with the Nasdaq composite index especially showing sharp gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 7.94, or 0.56 percent, at 1,426.24, and the tech-laden Nasdaq rose 32.92, or 1.36 percent, to 2,448.21.

Bonds rose but retreated from an earlier big advance; the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.68 percent from 4.71 percent late Friday. Bond investors were trying to balance the ISM news with a weak employment report from a division of payroll company Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP said private sector employment fell by 40,000 in December following three months of gains that averaged 121,000 per month; investors theorized that the report might improve the chances for an interest rate cut in the early part of the year.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude fell $2.44 to $58.61 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as mild weather continued its hold over much of the United States, cutting demand for heating oil and natural gas.

With markets closed Tuesday to mark the funeral of President Gerald R. Ford, Wall Street returned from its longest hiatus — four days — since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Shortly after they returned to work, investors received word that the ISM index came in at 51.4, stronger than the reading of 50 that had been expected. A reading above 50 signals expansion in the manufacturing sector; November’s figure of 49.5 marked the first time the report showed contraction in nearly four years.

Also giving a boost to stocks, construction spending dropped by a less-than-expected 0.2 percent in November as housing activity fell for a record eighth straight month. The Commerce Department reported that building activity edged down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.18 trillion.

“Basically, we’re still in an up market even though it’s 51 months old,” Goldman said. “This is still a market that has good upside momentum.”

News that Bob Nardelli resigned from the world’s largest home improvement chain added to positive investor sentiment from a weekend report that Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s December same-store sales rose 1.6 percent, topping the company’s forecast that growth would be flat or up as much as 1 percent. Home Depot rose $1.35, or 3.4 to $41.51, while Wal-Mart advanced $1.53, or 3.3 percent, to $47.71.

In corporate news, Cytokinetics Inc. surged $1.05, or 14 percent, to $8.53 on news it would work with Amgen Inc. to develop drugs to combat heart failure. Amgen rose 72 cents to $69.03.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. rose 27 cents, or 7.6 percent, to $3.81 after the radio service said its subscriber base jumped 82 percent to more than 6 million last year.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. advanced $1.79, or 8.5 percent, to $22.78 and moved as high as $22.77 to surpass a 52-week high of $21.35 after a three-month strike that had hurt production ended.

Home builders were weaker after Lennar Corp., the biggest U.S. builder, warned that it expects to post a loss in the fourth quarter and its chief executive said he see no signs of a recovery in the housing market. Lennar fell $1.40, or 2.7 percent, to $51.06.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.13 billion shares, compared with 430.7 million traded at the same point Friday, a day of anemic volume ahead of the New Year’s holiday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 5.96, or 0.76 percent, at 793.62.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.01 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed up 0.13 percent, Germany’s DAX index was up 0.15 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was down 0.12 percent.


Resolution to imbibe less goes awry — already
Myriad of conflicting medical studies are enough to drive this writer to drink

The fruitcake’s been digested, the gift cards are empty, and now it’s time to face the most grueling holiday task of all: the annual reassessment. Do I need to exercise more? Spend less? Set aside more quality time for friends and family? The resolution list goes on and on — much like that interminable karaoke version of “Santa Baby” at this year’s holiday party.

Unfortunately, since I was the one holding the microphone, this year’s resolution seems painfully clear: Cut back on the alcohol intake.

Not that I drink a lot — usually just a glass of wine with dinner, if that — but I’ve read that even one drink a day can adversely affect my health.

Also, a recent study by the Mayo Clinic found that women’s bodies are less adept at breaking down alcohol than men’s. As a result, the more we drink, the more we risk heart disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, and, perhaps the most chilling side effect of all — kissing our skinny jeans goodbye forever.

But how much alcohol is too much? There’s the rub. The answer seems to depend on which study you read. The Mayo Clinic study says one drink a day is OK for “younger women who aren’t planning a pregnancy” and that “postmenopausal women should limit themselves to less.” But what about those of us who don’t fit in either category?

Looking for a definitive answer, I turned to another study, this one conducted by a group of doctors at Stony Brook University in New York. But their finding that drinking three glasses of red wine a week reduces the risk of colorectal cancer only confused matters further.

Who to believe?
Should I cut back on alcohol entirely in order to fend off heart disease, liver problems and dreaded weight gain (not to mention potential blackmail opportunities by family, friends and co-workers) or suck down three or more glasses a week to keep the colorectal cancer at bay?

Or should I listen to the doctors the Goteborg University in Sweden, who found that mice that had ingested low levels of alcohol on a daily basis showed a significantly lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than mice that just drank water. Obsessed, I started digging through medical journals and online health stories until the studies began to stack up like swizzle sticks at a company-hosted bar.

In London, researchers found that people who drank alcohol have a lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but the risk of cancer of the mouth, esophagus and liver actually increases.

At Ohio State University, a study showed that drinking moderately (such as a couple of drinks a day) improved the memories of laboratory rats, although a study at the University of Missouri declared that alcohol hindered academic success.

Live longer so you can die young
Adding it all up, it seems that by drinking alcohol I can both reduce my chances of heart disease and increase my risk for high blood pressure, fend off dementia while upping my chances for brain damage, boost my memory at the same time that I become more stupid, avoid lymphoma while veering towards breast and liver cancer, and in general, both live longer and die younger.

In other words, alcohol is every bit the hazy hypocritical demon it’s always been (especially when there’s a microphone involved). So this year, I’m taking another resolution route altogether. Instead of squelching my alcohol intake, I’m going to cut out karaoke — and perhaps limit my medical studies to just one per day with dinner, if that.


Few areas in U.S. get high public safety ratings
Only 6 of 75 communities win highest scores for emergency communications

WASHINGTON - Only six of 75 U.S. metropolitan areas won the highest grades for their emergency agencies' ability to communicate during a disaster, five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a federal report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

A draft portion of the report, to be released Wednesday, gives the best ratings to Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo.

The lowest scores went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge, La.; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa. The report included large and small cities and their suburbs, along with U.S. territories.

In an overview, the report said all 75 areas surveyed have policies in place for helping their emergency workers communicate. But it cautioned that regular testing and exercises are needed "to effectively link disparate systems."

It also said while cooperation among emergency workers is strong, "formalized governance (leadership and planning) across regions has lagged."

The study, conducted by the Homeland Security Department, was likely to add fuel to what looms as a battle in Congress this year. Democrats, who take over the majority this week, have promised to try fixing the problem emergency agencies have communicating with each other but have not said specifically what they will do, how much it will cost or how they will pay for it.

"Five years after 9/11, we continue to turn a deaf ear to gaps in interoperable communications," the term used for emergency agencies' abilities to talk to each other, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "If it didn't have such potentially devastating consequences, it would be laughable."

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke would not comment on the report, saying only that in releasing it on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will "talk about nationwide assessments for interoperable communications."

Still room for improvement in New York
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, revealed major problems in how well emergency agencies were able to talk to each other during a catastrophe. Many firefighters climbing the World Trade Center towers died when they were unable to hear police radio warnings to leave the crumbling buildings.

In New York now, the report said, first responders were found to have well-established systems to communicate among each other — but not the best possible. Thirteen U.S. cities scored better than New York.

Just over a year ago, Hurricane Katrina underscored communication problems when radio transmissions were hindered because the storm's winds toppled towers.

In the study, communities were judged in three categories: operating procedures in place, use of communications systems and how effectively local governments have coordinated in preparation for a disaster.

Overall, 16 percent of the communities were given the highest score for the communications procedures they have in place and 1 percent got the lowest rating.

Nineteen percent got the top grade for their plans for coordinating during a disaster and 8 percent received the worst; and 21 percent got the best mark for how well they use their communications equipment while 4 percent got the bottom rating.

Most of the areas surveyed included cities and their surrounding communities, based on the assumption that in a major crisis emergency personnel from all local jurisdictions would respond.

Los Angeles got advanced grades in procedures and use of emergency communications systems and a well-developed grade in coordination of governance.

San Francisco, by comparison, received intermediate grades in governance and procedures, and a well-developed grade in use of systems.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, $2.9 billion in federal grant money has been distributed to state and local first responders for the improvement of their emergency communications systems.

TV industry must make changes
Congress has also ordered that the television broadcast industry vacate a portion of the radio spectrum to make it available for public safety communications. Lawmakers have also created a new office at the Homeland Security Department to oversee the issue, though they have yet to provide money for it.

The areas with the six best scores were judged advanced in all three categories. The cities with the lowest grades had reached the early implementation stage for only one category, and intermediate levels for the other two categories.

Chicago, Cleveland and Baton Rouge, for example, were judged to have accomplished the early stage of government coordination. Mandan, N.D., and the territory of American Samoa were both found to have gotten to the early stage of their actual usage of interoperable emergency communications and rated intermediate in governance and procedures.

Tammy Lapp, the emergency coordinator for Mandan and Morton County, N.D., said she was not surprised by the low ranking.

"We knew with our limited funds, we were going to fall short," she said.


Mourners in Michigan welcome body of Ford
Ex-president 'who meant so much' scheduled to be buried Wednesday

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Moving quietly and solemnly through the moonlight, mourners waited for a chance to file past the casket of Gerald R. Ford, welcoming home the 38th president for a final time and celebrating a man they said embodied Midwest values.

“This is a once-in-lifetime opportunity to pay tribute,” said Karin Lewis, 44, who brought her five boys, ages 6 to 15, to Ford’s presidential museum to pay respects Tuesday night. “He meant so much to this community.”

Ford’s state funeral was to end Wednesday afternoon after a service at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids. His body was to be interred during a private burial overlooking the Grand River north of the museum on the museum grounds.

Donald Rumsfeld, who served in Ford’s cabinet as his chief of staff and as his defense secretary, was to deliver a eulogy. Former President Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976 but later became a close friend of his former opponent, and Richard Norton Smith, who used to be the director of the Ford museum and presidential library, also were scheduled to speak.

Final salute
On Tuesday, members of the public jammed streets and waved as Ford’s casket was carried from the Grand Rapids airport, where it arrived following services at Washington National Cathedral.

“You were a paradoxical gift of remarkable intellect and achievement wrapped in a plain brown wrapper,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said of Ford. “Welcome home to the people that you reflected so well when you were in Washington.”

Later, members of the public walked from the DeVos Place convention center across a bridge over the Grand River to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum for a final salute.

Some wore formal suits and dresses. Others wore sweat shirts from University of Michigan, where Ford played center on the Wolverines’ undefeated national championship football teams of 1932 and 1933.

“I grew up in Grand Rapids, and President Ford was our legacy,” said Bobbe Taber, 43, who now lives in the Kalamazoo area but came to Grand Rapids to see Ford’s casket.

Michigan National Guard spokeswoman Lynn Chapp said 60,000 people were expected to walk by the casket from the time repose began around 6 p.m. Tuesday until it was scheduled to end at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Lines snaked along several blocks in the city’s downtown as people waited their turn Tuesday night.

'The best of America'
The service Wednesday at his hometown church, which seats about 350, was to be much smaller than Tuesday’s elaborate national funeral service in Washington, which drew 3,000 people. President Bush and his father spoke Tuesday, as did NBC newsman Tom Brokaw and Ford’s secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, among others.

“In President Ford, the world saw the best of America, and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation’s history,” President Bush said in his eulogy.

Bush’s father, the first President Bush, called Ford a “Norman Rockwell painting come to life” and pierced the solemnity of the occasion by cracking gentle jokes about Ford’s reputation as an errant golfer. He said Ford knew his golf game was getting better when he began hitting fewer spectators.

Under towering arches of the cathedral, Kissinger paid tribute to Ford’s leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets, pushing for the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt and helping to bring majority rule to southern Africa.

“In his understated way he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery,” Kissinger said. “Gerald Ford had the virtues of small town America.”

Brokaw said in his eulogy that Ford brought to office “no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance,” an oblique reference to the air of subterfuge that surrounded Nixon in his final days.

Ford’s athletic interest was honored, too, in the capital and in Michigan. At the Grand Rapids airport that bears Ford’s name, the University of Michigan band played the school’s famous fight song, “The Victors,” as Ford’s flag-draped casket was transferred to a hearse.

Ford died at 93 on Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.


Al-Maliki adviser says official who supervised execution is target of probe

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s national security adviser told NBC News on Wednesday that three individuals have been arrested in connection with a video of Saddam Hussein’s execution that was leaked.

“I can officially now confirm the arrest of three individuals in the case of the execution of Saddam Hussein,” said Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie.

The arrests came after the announcement that officials were interrogating the person suspected of recording Saddam’s hanging via a mobile phone.

“The person who filmed the execution process has been arrested. ... Now he is under interrogation about the goals of his filming,” said an adviser to the prime minister, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “He was arrested by Iraqi forces.”

The video contained audio of witnesses telling Saddam to “Go to hell” and of the former leader responding to taunts that his tormentors were being unmanly. It surfaced on Al-Jazeera television and the Internet late Saturday, the day Saddam was hanged.

The Associated Press quoted an unidentified adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as saying the man arrested was “an official who supervised the execution.”

Al-Maliki announced Tuesday that he had ordered an investigation into the conduct of the execution team, who could be heard taunting Saddam in the moments before his hanging.

A U.S. military spokesman, meanwhile, said the United States would have handled the execution differently had it been in charge.

‘I did not see him taking pictures’
On Wednesday, an Iraqi prosecutor who was also present at the execution denied a report that he had accused national security adviser al-Rubaie of possible responsibility for the leaked video.

“I am not accusing Mowaffak al-Rubaie, and I did not see him taking pictures,” Munqith al-Faroon, a prosecutor in the case that sent Saddam to the gallows, told The Associated Press.

“But I saw two of the government officials who were ... present during the execution taking all the video of the execution, using the lights that were there for the official taping of the execution. They used mobile phone cameras. I do not know their names, but I would remember their faces,” al-Faroon said in a telephone interview.

The prosecutor said the two officials were openly taking video pictures, which are believed to be those which appeared on Al-Jazeera satellite and a Web site within hours of Saddam’s execution.

The New York Times on Wednesday reported that al-Faroon told the newspaper “one of two men he had seen holding a cell phone camera aloft to make a video of Mr. Hussein’s last moments up to and past the point where he fell through the trapdoor was Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Mr. Maliki’s national security adviser.”

The Times said it had been unable to reach al-Rubaie for comment. AP also could not reach him Wednesday. His secretary said the security adviser, a close aide to al-Maliki, was in Najaf and would not return until later.

Chants of ‘Muqtada’
Al-Faroon said there were 14 Iraqi officials, including himself and another prosecutor, as well as three hangmen present for the execution. All the officials, he said, were flown by U.S. helicopter to the former military intelligence facility where Saddam was put to death in an execution chamber used by his own security men for years.

The prosecutor said he believed all mobile phones had been confiscated before the flight and that some of the officials’ bodyguards, who arrived by car, had smuggled the camera phones to the two officials he had seen taking the video pictures.

Al-Arabiya television reported that the person under arrest is one of the guards who was a member of the execution team, according to an MSNBC translator. There was no further information about whether the person under arrest was a guard or other official.

Some of the last words Saddam heard, according to the leaked cell phone video, were a chant of “Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada,” a reference to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical anti-American Shiite cleric, whose Mahdi Army militia is believed responsible for many killings that have targeted Sunnis and driven many from their homes.

Al-Sadr’s father was killed by Saddam. The militant cleric is a key al-Maliki backer.

U.S. response
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters Wednesday that the execution would have been handled differently had U.S. forces been in charge.

“If you are asking me: ‘Would we have done things differently?’ Yes, we would have. But that’s not our decision. That’s the government of Iraq’s decision,” he .

He added that Saddam was “dignified” and “courteous” as he was transferred from US military control to Iraqi custody before he was executed.

“He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had, and when getting off at the prison site he said farewell to his interpreter; he thanked the military police squad,” Caldwell said.


Muslim with U.S. family is held, turned away
Authorities detain businessman of Syrian descent for four days in Las Vegas

FRESNO, Calif. - A German businessman of Syrian descent who wanted to surprise his daughter with a holiday visit was detained for four days in a Las Vegas holding cell before being sent back home without explanation.

A civil rights group called the U.S. authorities’ treatment of Majed Shehadeh a case of anti-Muslim discrimination.

Shehadeh, 62, flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas last Thursday, hoping to meet with his wife and drive to Bakersfield, California, where his American-born daughter had just gotten news she had passed the California bar exam. Instead, he wound up shivering in a holding cell without ever being told why he couldn’t enter the country, he said.

Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Tuesday that Shehadeh was denied entry, but would not discuss specifics of his case. She said Shehadeh’s visa waiver could have been denied because “he could have a criminal record, or it could be a terrorism issue.”

The detention follows a series of similar incidents involving Muslim passengers, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In October, an Islamic scholar from South Africa was denied entry at San Francisco International Airport. A month later, six imams were taken off a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix after a passenger reported overhearing them criticize the U.S. war in Iraq.

“Overall these cases send a message that Muslims are second-class citizens who can be detained and kept from their families,” said Affad Shaikh, a civil rights coordinator for CAIR.

‘Nobody ever informed me why’
Shehadeh touched down Thursday afternoon on a direct Condor Airlines flight to McCarran International Airport, where his American wife was waiting to pick him up. The couple had planned to visit family in the Las Vegas area, before surprising their daughter for the New Year and celebrating her wedding anniversary in Central California.

“I gave them my German passport, and he looked to see which countries I visited. He found I had stamps that looked like Arabic and asked if they were fake,” Shehadeh said Tuesday in a phone interview from his home in Alzenau, a small Bavarian village.

“Nobody ever informed me why I was being questioned,” he said. “All that was ever told to me was this had to do with Washington.”

After being interrogated by Border Protection and FBI agents for more than 12 hours at the airport, Shehadeh said he was handcuffed and transported in the back of police car to a North Las Vegas jail. Officials told family members they had denied Shehadeh’s visa waiver, which grants German citizens the right to enter the U.S. with no additional paperwork, said his wife Joanne Mulligan.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they could not comment on why he was denied entry. FBI and airport officials in Las Vegas also declined comment.

‘Never even had a speeding ticket’
An aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein later told the family that Shehadeh was on a “look-out list,” Mulligan said. Feinstein’s office confirmed Tuesday that the family contacted her, but wouldn’t comment further.

“I said you’ve got to be joking me, he’s never even had a speeding ticket,” said Mulligan, a retired math teacher for the U.S. military. “I mean, we’re Muslims, and we travel a lot. Maybe the countries we travel to are not the countries they want you to visit.”

Once in the holding facility, Shehadeh said he was stripped of his shoes, jacket and prescribed heart medicine and locked in a cell with about 25 other detainees. There was one toilet in the middle of the room, and access to a telephone was extremely limited, he said.

On Sunday, he was released and sent back to Frankfurt on the same charter airline.

Shehadeh’s daughter Majida Shehadeh said she was glad her father made it home, but feared he wouldn’t be able to return to visit.

“I used to be happy I moved here,” she said. “But now I can’t wait for when I leave here. The mentality is not what it was like beforehand.”