Ball Honeys Pic

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the use of wigs fell into abeyance in the West for a thousand years until revived in the 16th century as a means of compensating for hair loss or improving one's personal appearance. They also served a practical purpose: the unhygienic conditions of the time meant that hair attracted head lice, a problem that could be much reduced if natural hair were shaved and replaced with a more easily de-loused artificial hairpiece. Fur hoods were also used in a similar preventative fashion.

In Britain and most Commonwealth nations, special wigs are also worn by barristers, judges, and certain parliamentary and municipal or civic officials as a symbol of the office. The original purpose of the legal wig was said to provide a form of anonymity and safety (i.e. disguise). Today, Hong Kong barristers and judges continue to wear wigs as part of court dress as an influence from their former jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Long Wigs

LAGOS (AFP) –
A truck carrying bags of cement crushed and killed at least 55 people when the driver lost control and ran into a crowd on a road in Dekina, in central Nigeria's Kogi state, police said Sunday.

"I can only confirm that 55 people were killed. The driver of the truck lost control and ran into a group of people moving in a procession along the road," a senior police officer told AFP.

Several people were also injured in the accident, which happened on Saturday, he added.

Kogi state commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission Yomi Asaniyan confirmed the death toll of 55, adding that at least 35 people were also injured in the crash.

He said the accident occurred as a result of a brake failure.

Local media said between 65 and 90 people died in the crash.

State governor Ibrahim Idris had expressed shock and sadness at the accident and declared three days of mourning for the victims of the carnage, they reported.

The governor also offered to pay the medical bills of those injured.

He advised drivers and motorists to always ensure that their vehicles are in good condition before putting them on the road to avoid preventable deaths.

Accidents on Nigeria's poorly maintained inter-city roads are common.

Last week, 23 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral collided with a truck on a road in southwest Nigeria.

Both vehicles burst into flames, burning their occupants.

Folding bicycles typically cost more than non-folding bicycles of comparable quality, because they have more parts to allow folding. This results in a more complicated design, which is more complex to manufacture. There is also a smaller market for this type of bike. As an alternative to folding, some models achieve similar results by separating into two or more parts. These are sometimes grouped in the same category as folding bicycles but are also referred to as break-away, disassemblable, or separable bicycles.

Folding bikes generally come with a wider range of adjustments than conventional bikes for accommodating different riders, because the frames are usually only made in one size. Seatposts and handlebar stems on folders extend as much as four times higher than conventional bikes. For even greater range of adjustment, longer after-market posts and stems are available. While folding bicycles are usually smaller in overall size than conventional bicycles, the distances between center of bottom bracket, the top of the saddle and the handlebars, the primary factors in determining whether a bicycle fits its rider, are usually similar to that of conventional bikes. The wheelbase of many folding designs is also very similar to that of conventional, non-folding, bicycles. Some manufacturers are producing folding bikes designed around folding systems that allow them to utilize 26" wheels, for example the Montague Corporation which bases all its folding bicycles on the 26" wheel.

Folding Tandem Bike

KABUL (AFP) –
NATO commanders on Wednesday warned US Defence Secretary Robert Gates of the challenges involved in recruiting Afghan soldiers and police, which the US military hopes will number 287,000 by July 2011.

Gates had spent two days in Afghanistan discussing the implementation of a sweeping new US war strategy set to deploy an extra 30,000 troops to battle the Taliban, with the goal of starting to withdraw US forces in July 2011.

The number two commander on the ground, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, said the new troops "will increase our capacity" to train Afghan forces -- the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's plans to bring troops home.

"With the additional forces... we can and will be successful," he said.

In this vast, rural country with an estimated population of between 26 and 30 million, a senior NATO commander has put the number of police at 68,000 and said that out of 94,000 soldiers trained so far, 10,000 have defected.

The target now is to recruit 287,000 Afghan police and soldiers by July 2011 and just under 300,000 by the end of fiscal year 2011, Rodriguez said. Related article: US general confident on surge

But Lieutenant General William Caldwell, in charge of NATO training of Afghan forces, emphasised the challenges involved in reaching an initial objective of 134,000 local forces by October 2010.

"The biggest challenge is, how do we develop leaders for the Afghan army and the Afghan police. It's a huge challenge," he said.

"Leader development doesn't happen overnight. That takes time."

"How do we recruit more, retain more and reduce the attrition?" he added.

Rodriguez said recruiting and retaining personnel was particularly difficult in the south, the spiritual capital of the Taliban and scene of the heaviest fighting in the eight-year war.

"They are getting in tough fights all the time down there," he said. "Where it's hard we can't recruit and we can't retain" Afghan forces.

To attract more Afghans into the security forces, the government last month increased salaries for police and soldiers by at least 33 percent, although the Taliban can still pay up to 100 US dollars more per head.

"In the first seven days of this month the Afghan ministry of defence has been able to recruit more people in seven days than ever," Caldwell said.

President Hamid Karzai warned Gates on Tuesday that the international community would need to help fund Afghanistan's security forces for the next 15 to 20 years.

There is also a need for a better ethnic balance within the army, where the Tajiks, a minority of the population, are over-represented at 34 percent, and the Pashtun majority under-represented at 42 percent, Caldwell said.

Obama's timeline for a US drawdown has sparked criticism from domestic opponents and within Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, where many fear the Taliban will sit out the surge, regroup and step up attacks in 18 months' time.

Soaring violence has made this year the deadliest since the US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, with record numbers of civilians, Afghan and foreign troops killed.

Rodriguez conceded that civilians may have been killed in a joint military operation with Afghan forces in the east of the country this week.

Civilian deaths are highly sensitive in Afghanistan because of fears they fan animosity against the Western-backed government and foreign forces.

"There could possibly have been some civilians killed," Rodriguez told reporters.

Karzai's office said six civilians, including a woman, died when troops from the NATO-led force conducted a raid in the eastern province of Laghman.

Gates on Wednesday toured the nerve centre of NATO command in Afghanistan, telling officers an imminent troop surge would turn around the war.

"We have all the pieces coming together to be successful here," Gates told staff at the centre, which brings together representatives from 42 nations.

Thousands of extra forces will head to southern Afghanistan. However a plan for Gates to visit US troops in Kandahar, one of the key battlegrounds, was cancelled due to harsh weather.

A third type of repair shop is the service departments of car dealerships. These shops are the only ones authorized to perform warranty and recall repairs by the manufacturers and distributors, except in the European Union.

Automobile repair shops can be specialty shops like muffler shops, transmission specialists, body shop, tire shops and automobile electrification shops. Examples include MAACO and AAMCO. There are also independently-owned specialists who work only on specific makes of cars, such as European car specialists and BMW repair specialists.

Irvine Auto Body

Commercial hard money is similar to traditional hard money, but may sometimes be more expensive as the risk is higher on investment property or non-owner occupied properties. Commercial Hard Money Loans may not be subject to the same consumer loan safeguards as a residential mortgage may be in the state the mortgage is issued. Commercial hard money loans are often short term and therefore interchangeably referred to as bridge loans or bridge financing.

All hard money borrowers are advised to use a professional real estate attorney to assure the property is not given away by way of a late payment or other default without benefit of traditional procedures which would require a court judgement.

Hard Money

PRETORIA, South Africa – South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing, the president announced Tuesday, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any other.
President Jacob Zuma's speech on World AIDS Day was viewed as a definitive turning point for a nation where the previous administration distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic treatments. One Harvard study said that resulted in more than 300,000 premature deaths.
Zuma compared the fight against AIDS to the decades-long struggle against the apartheid government, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela in the country's first multiracial elections.
"At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight," Zuma said. "That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit."
Zuma was greeted with a standing ovation when he entered a Pretoria exhibition hall filled with several thousand people.
In some ways, Zuma is an unlikely AIDS hero. In 2006, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, he was ridiculed for testifying that he took a shower after sex to lower the risk of AIDS. He was acquitted of rape.
Zuma, a one-time chairman of the country's national AIDS council, may never live down the shower comment. But he has won praise for appointing Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi as his health minister. AIDS activists say Motsoaledi trusts science and is willing to learn from past mistakes.
UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe, who took the podium shortly before Zuma, told the president: "What you do from this day forward will write, or rewrite, the story of AIDS across Africa."
On Tuesday, in response to a plea from Zuma, the United States announced it was giving South Africa $120 million over the next two years for AIDS treatment drugs.
Zuma said in a speech broadcast across South Africa on state radio and television that the new policy changes would take effect in April.
"It means that people will live longer and more fulfilling lives," he said.
South Africa, a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV.
The new steps include treatment for all HIV-positive children under 1 year old, and earlier treatment for patients infected with both the virus that causes AIDS and tuberculosis, and for women who are pregnant and HIV-positive.
Zuma said all health institutions, not just specialist centers, would provide counseling, testing and treatment.
He also called on South Africans to get tested for HIV. But, contrary to speculation in recent days, he did not take an HIV test Tuesday.
"I have taken HIV tests before and I know my status," he said. "I will do another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for your own tests."
The health minister under Zuma's predecessor distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive, instead promoting garlic treatments. Zuma's government has set a target of getting 80 percent of those who need AIDS drugs on them by 2011.
A Harvard study of the years under President Thabo Mbeki, who questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, concluded that more than 300,000 premature deaths in South Africa could have been prevented had officials here acted sooner to provide drug treatments to AIDS patients and to prevent pregnant women with HIV from passing the virus to their children.

After Zuma won a power struggle within the governing African National Congress, the party forced Mbeki to step down late last year after almost a decade as president. Zuma took over after elections in April.

Setjhaba Ranthako brought his 4-year-old daughter Tshegofatso to hear Zuma's speech, saying education should start early.

"I've see in President Zuma a person who's willing to listen, and say, `Here I am, come with your views, and let's turn your views into an effective campaign to combat the spread" of AIDS, said Ranthako, who works with a group that raises awareness about AIDS among men.

After listening to his president, advertising consultant Tedson Tibani said the steps Zuma outlined could significantly reduce infections within a few years. Tibani said putting more people on drugs would cost money, but said he was hopeful others would follow the U.S. in donating money.

"There's a kind of hope the president has instilled," Tibani said. "I'm very happy with that. We've never had that before."

The crowd that had greeted Zuma like a rock star before his speech rose to their feet when Zuma finished Tuesday. Then he danced along with a choir that sang: "Zuma, you are blessed."

WASHINGTON – The couple that got into the White House state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister without showing invitations denied Tuesday that they were gatecrashers.
Appearing on a nationally broadcast morning news show with his wife, Tareq Salahi said the furor surrounding his and his wife Michaele's attendance at the dinner a week ago has been a "most devastating" experience.
Salahi told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday there's more to their side of the story — an explanation that would exonerate them from allegations of misconduct in the breach of White House security. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, appearing on the same program, stood by the administration's position that the Salahis had not been invited.
"This wasn't a misunderstanding," Gibbs said. "You don't show up at the White House as a misunderstanding."
For his part, Salahi said he and his wife were cooperating with the Secret Service in its investigation of the incident a week ago. And he said they both have "great respect" for President Barack Obama.
"We're greatly saddened by all the circumstances ... portraying my wife and I as party crashers. I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House," Salahi said.
The White House gate caper captivated a capital frequently as well known for its high-end social life and celebrity eruptions as the occasionally mundane day-to-day business of governance.
Earlier Tuesday, Gibbs said that Obama and his wife, Michelle, were both upset by the incursion.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Gibbs said "it's safe to say he was angry. Michelle was angry."
Gibbs noted that the Secret Service is investigating what went wrong and said the White House was also re-examining its procedures. He told the network, "I think the president really had the same reaction the Secret Service had, and that was great concern for how something like this happened."
Michaele Salahi described the couple as "shocked and devastated" when they saw accounts of the incident the following morning.
Asked if they had been mischaracterized through the media and other paparazzi forums," Tareq Salahi said, "No question ... It's been devastating what's happened to Michaele and I ... Our lives have really been destroyed."
"Everything we've worked for," Michaele Talahi told interviewer Matt Lauer.
"We were invited, not crashers, and there isn't anyone who would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that," she said. "No one would do that, and certainly not us."
Tareq Salahi said that the couple has been "very candid" with the Secret Service and said "we have turned over documentation to them."
"We're going to definitely work with the Secret Service between Micahele and I to really shed light on this," Tareq Salahi said. He indicated the couple had e-mails that would reinforce their position that they did not go uninvited to the dinner.
The couple also said they had not discussed accepting money from any party or organization, including NBC, for telling their story.
NBC's parent company, NBC Universal, also owns the cable network Bravo. Michaele Salahi had hoped to land a part on an upcoming Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C."

On Monday there were more twists in the unfolding mystery of how the Virginia couple managed to get into the highly secured White House dinner Nov. 24 and shake hands with Obama. It was revealed that they communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denied that she helped the couple get in.

Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a written statement issued through the White House that she never said or implied she would get the Salahis into the event.

"I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities," Jones said. "Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."

Asked about this Tuesday, Gibbs declined to comment directly, except to note that the matter remains under investigation.

WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.

"I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out," a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.

The Salahis insisted that they had, indeed, been invited to the Black Caucus dinner, saying they'd gotten the invitation from a law firm.

Also on Monday, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing Thursday on the incident.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he wants answers about the Secret Service's security deficiencies that allowed the Salahis to attend the White House dinner. A White House photo showed the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held.

"This is a time for answers," Thompson said in a statement Monday. "This is not the time for political games or scapegoating to distract our attention from the careful oversight we must apply to the Secret Service and its mission."

Some lawmakers have called for criminal charges to be brought against the couple, but the Secret Service has not yet decided whether to refer the case for criminal prosecution.

The Secret Service declined to comment on whether Sullivan would testify Thursday.

The couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether the Salahis would testify Thursday. But earlier Monday, she said allegations that the Salahis were shopping interviews and demanding money from television networks to tell their story are false.

A TV executive who spoke on condition of anonymity to publicly discuss bookings told The Associated Press that the couple's representatives had urged networks to "get their bids in" for an interview.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

GSTAAD, Switzerland – Roman Polanski remained in jail Monday, despite visits from his lawyer and a French diplomat, and it was unclear if the director had met Switzerland's demand of a full bail payment of $4.5 million to be released.
The Swiss Justice Ministry declined to say what guarantees Polanski needed to give to be transferred from the jail near Zurich to house arrest at his chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad.
In addition to bail, the 76-year-old filmmaker must surrender his identity papers and be fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet. He would not be allowed to leave his property as he awaits a decision on whether he will be extradited to the U.S. for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
"The bail must be wired to a bank account, and the bank must then notify us that it has received the bail," ministry spokesman Folco Galli said. "Nothing happens before that."
The full bail payment is standard practice in Switzerland, Galli said.
That is different from other countries such as the United States, where bail bondsmen often post a percentage of the total payment required by a court.
Polanski has been in Swiss custody since being arrested Sept. 26 on a U.S. warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles want him returned to be sentenced after 31 years as a fugitive.
The director of such film classics as "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was being held at a jail in Winterthur, near Zurich, where he was visited Monday by his lawyer Lorenz Erni and French diplomat Jean-Luc Faure-Tournaire.
"He is in good spirits. He is very happy about how he has been treated here," Faure-Tournaire said. He expected Polanski to leave jail soon, but he could not say how quickly.
Erni stayed for several hours in the jail, and refused to answer questions when he left. Contacted by telephone, Polanski's Paris lawyer Herve Temime also declined to comment.
In the central resort town of Gstaad, however, workers were seen clearing heavy snow from the road leading up to Polanski's property, a three-story stucco and wood home with its own garden. The chalet is where he would be confined until extradition is decided and any appeals are complete.
An alarm will ring if Polanski leaves the property, but no special police protection will be provided. The director will be able to go outside to check the mail or entertain guests in the garden. He also will be able to make calls, send e-mails and work on his films. Phone conversations will not be monitored.
It was unclear when Polanski's wife and two children would join him in Gstaad. His sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told the Le Parisien newspaper that his family usually goes to the chalet around Christmas and plans to meet there again this year.
Polanski was initially accused of raping the girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977. He was indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sent him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. The evaluator released Polanski after 42 days, but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the 90 days.
Polanski fled the U.S. on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be formally sentenced. He has lived since then in France, which does not extradite its citizens.
Polanski claims that the U.S. judge and prosecutors acted improperly in his case. His attorneys will argue before a California appeals court in December that the charges should be dismissed.
___

Klapper reported from Geneva.

LONDON (Reuters) –
A decline in smoking in Europe and better screening mean fewer people are dying of cancer, but lung cancer deaths in women are rising in places like Scotland and Hungary where more women smoke, doctors said on Monday.

Early diagnosis and better treatments have pushed down deaths from cervical cancer and breast cancer, and declining smoking levels contributed to large falls in deaths from lung and other tobacco-related cancers in men, according to a study in the Annals of Oncology cancer journal.

The study of data from 1990-1994 and 2000-2004 showed overall European cancer death rates fell by nine percent in men and eight percent in women in the second period from the first.

But researchers said there were wide disparities in cancer death rates between different EU countries, and said some countries where alcohol and tobacco consumption has increased had seen a rise in deaths from lung, mouth, pharynx and oesophagus cancers.

"Further reduction of tobacco smoking remains the key priority for cancer control in Europe," Cristina Bosetti, head of the cancer unit at Italy's Mario Negri department of epidemiology, wrote in the study.

She said steps to cut alcohol consumption, improve nutrition, tackle obesity and increase screening, plus early diagnosis and medical advances for treatable cancers would also help reduce the European Union cancer burden.

The researchers found there was an average of 168 deaths per 100,000 of the population per year in men between 2000 and 2004, down from 185.2 deaths per 100,000 between 1990 and 1994.

For women the average number of deaths fell from 104.8 to 96.9 per 100,000 per year over the same period.

Bosetti said the downward trends had "continued over the most recent years" mainly because of falls in lung and other tobacco-related cancer deaths in men, a persistent decline in gastric cancer deaths and falls in those from colorectal cancer.

The researchers said cancer mortality rates in the worst performing European countries were almost twice those in the best performers.

For men, the death rates in 2000-2004 were highest in Hungary (255.2 deaths per 100,000 of the population per year), the Czech Republic and Poland and lowest in Sweden (125.8 deaths per 100,000 people), followed by Finland and Switzerland.

The highest death rates for women were in Denmark (141 per 100,000 people), Hungary and Scotland, and the lowest in Spain 78.9 per 100,000), Greece and Portugal - figures the scientists said reflected the different spread of cigarette smoking in men and women across Europe.

SOURCE: Annals of Oncology, advance online publication, November 30, 2009.

GOLDEN, Colo. – Homes and office buildings consume three-quarters of U.S. electricity, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory wants to lower that figure by erecting what it believes will be the largest "net-zero" energy building in the world — one that produces as much power onsite as it uses.
The Department of Energy, which runs the Golden-based lab nestled in the foothills west of Denver, and its contractors hope the $64 million structure will provide a national blueprint for making buildings greener and cutting energy use.
"Our hope is that it really starts to change the direction of society and the way we think of buildings," said Byron Haselden, president of Haselden Construction, the general contractor.
Achieving a zero-energy, "green" building is driving the 220,000-square-foot complex's design and construction.
"What typically happens is when a building gets designed, the architects design something and the engineers figure out how to build it, how to heat it and how to cool it," said Eric Telesmanich, project manager of NREL's infrastructure and development office.
In this case, engineers steered the design. Stantec Consulting started by studying what materials to use and how to orient the building. What emerged is a big "H" shaped structure with the two prongs on the west end closer to each other than on the east end. That configuration provides the best daylight and cuts the amount of electricity needed for lighting.
The connecting structure is the lobby, which will feature paneling made from pine trees killed by the bark beetle infestation in Colorado's central mountains. The wood also is used to fuel a heating plant on the campus.
Other features include natural ventilation, large windows to let in light and evaporative cooling. For comfort, no employee will be farther than 30 feet from windows, which are 6 feet wide and 7 to 9 feet long. The windows have a combination of glass and coatings to let in light while keeping unwanted heat out.
Transpired solar collectors — metal sheets with strategically cut holes designed by NREL — will pull air heated by the sun into the building on cold days.
In the basement, a labyrinth of concrete walls will capture the day's heat or the night's cool air to be slowly released upstairs. Engineers wrote a computer program to determine the labyrinth's size and shape and calculate air flow.
Exterior walls feature an insulated precast concrete panel system. Water will flow through piping in the floors to warm or cool the air. Recycled materials include reclaimed natural gas pipes as the columns to support the floors and walls.
And the building will let people know when it's a good day to open the windows or leave them closed, based on temperatures and historical climate information.
"There will be a little icon on your computer," Macey said. "It will tell occupants how the building is doing over the course of the year."
Once completed in June, the building will provide offices for 740 NREL employees. It's expected to use one-half to one-third the power of a similar-sized office structure.
The project's architects, engineers and contractors have an exacting client. NREL evaluates private-sector buildings for energy efficiency and is starting to track zero-energy buildings.
"It allows us to demonstrate what we can do with our technologies," said Jeffrey Baker, director of the office of laboratory operations at the DOE field office in Golden. "That's what this project is all about. This is walking the walk and shouting the talk."
NREL is documenting all work and will make that information public. Contractors working on the project insist that following NREL's example won't be too costly or cumbersome for the private sector, considering savings in energy costs over the life of the structure.
The roughly $280 per square foot construction cost is in line with comparable office buildings, said Philip Macey of RNL Design Inc., the project's designers.

"NREL and the design team should be commended for the vision and effort to go far beyond the minimum standards that many buildings are built to," said Gordon Holness, president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Holness' group sets many of the U.S. standards and guidelines to make construction more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

The Department of Energy wants the complex to exceed by 50 percent the standard for energy efficiency used as a basis for building codes nationwide. Another goal is to earn the top rating — platinum — by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

___

On the Net:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: http://www.nrel.gov/

PHILADELPHIA – It was all starting to slip away from the Yankees.
CC Sabathia and Joba Chamberlain let the Phillies tie the game and Brad Lidge was on the mound in the top of the ninth, looking like the closer who brought his team a World Series title a year ago.
He dominated pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui and struck out Derek Jeter.
Then up walked Johnny Damon. Ball one, three fouls, two more balls and a full count. Another foul, then another. Lidge was consistently clocked in the low 90s on the radar gun and Damon was struggling to keep up.
"I kept sitting slider, and he kept throwing the fastball. They really don't teach you to do it that way," Damon said after the Yankees' 7-4 victory over the Phillies put them within a game of title No. 27. "But I felt like his slider made me look silly on a couple pitches, so I kept sitting slider and just reacted to the fastball."
Some reaction.
Damon sliced the ninth pitch of the sequence into left field but the really hard work was just beginning.
On the first pitch to the next hitter, Mark Teixeira, Damon took off for second. On the throw down, Phillies third baseman Pedro Feliz made a nice stop on a low throw from the catcher. Damon popped up, realized that the Phillies infield had shifted to cover the left side against Teixeira and saw third base uncovered. He took off.
"I kind of had to see all that stuff develop," Damon said. "I'm just glad that when I started running, I still had some of my young legs behind me."
He could have walked home after Alex Rodriguez delivered the biggest hit of his life, a hard-hit double into the left-field corner. Teixeira's at-bat was cut short when he was hit with a pitch by Lidge. The next batter, Jorge Posada, followed with a two-run single to put the game out of reach.
Mariano Rivera closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth.
"Somebody has got to be covering third base," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said afterward. "Usually it's the catcher tries to get down there."
But it's clear the Phillies weren't prepared. They never talked about how they would deal with Damon.
"We never got anybody to say, `OK, you've got to go in there; you've got to go here,'" Feliz said.
But once Damon realized the Phillies weren't where they were supposed to be, he displayed the guile gained during 15 major league seasons.
He ran faster than his 35-year-old legs seemed capable of.
"That's instinct. You better be sure because you've got Tex and A-Rod up behind, and you'd better be sure," Yankee manager Joe Girardi said. "It was a great instinctual play by Johnny."
The Yankees had been trying to get back to this point ever since a broken bat single by Arizona's Luis Gonzalez ended their run of three straight World Series titles in 2001.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The attorney for a woman charged with kidnapping a Tennessee newborn says his client has tried to kill herself while in jail.
Attorney Isaiah Gant asked a federal judge Monday to investigate Tammy Renee Silas' claims that medication is being witheld from her at the Robertson County Jail and to consider moving her to another facility.
A prosecutor told the judge during the hearing that he would confer with the U.S. Marshal's Office.
The 39-year-old Silas was charged with kidnapping Yahir Anthony Carrillo on Sept. 29 in Nashville. Police traced the infant to Silas' home in Ardmore, Ala., about 80 miles south of Nashville, three days later.
Authorities haven't yet charged anyone in the knife attack on the baby's mother, and have said the investigation continues.

DETROIT – A judge on Friday refused to throw out a confession by a self-described hit man who is charged with killing the wife of a Detroit police officer, a crucial ruling that clears the way for his first trial in eight fatal shootings.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Craig Strong said nothing was illegal about the tactics used to get a detailed statement from Vincent Smothers. Since summer, Strong watched portions of the videotaped interview and heard testimony from the defendant and police.
"The officer certainly was encouraging him. He gained his confidence. But there's nothing wrong with that," the judge said.
Smothers, 28, is charged with shooting Rose Cobb on Dec. 26, 2007. He told police that she was sitting in her van when he broke a window with a tire iron and shot her in the head.
Smothers told police that Cobb's husband, David Cobb, arranged the killing. The sergeant, who was never charged, hanged himself in September 2008.
Defense lawyer Gabi Silver was not attacking the substance of Smothers' confession but the process that led to it after his arrest in April 2008. She said it was the result of police promising that his wife would not be charged as an accessory.
"'You help me out, I'll help you out,'" Silver quoted investigator Ira Todd as telling Smothers.
"He doesn't say 'promise' but it's clearly a promise. ... Police officers can lie. Police officers can trick defendants. But they cannot make promises to induce a statement," Silver told the judge. "You can't cross that line."
Strong, however, said Smothers "is an intelligent man" who understood his right against self-incrimination and freely waived it.
Silver and Assistant Prosecutor Robert Stevens declined to comment outside court. Trial is set for Nov. 2 but it could be delayed because of legal issues involving a co-defendant.
Smothers was arrested 18 months ago outside his home in Shelby Township, a Detroit suburb. While in custody for hours, he gave an extraordinary series of confessions in eight fatal shootings. All victims except Cobb were involved in drugs.
"I don't have a profession," he told police. "I kill people for money."
Smothers told police he was paid $60,000 over two years. He said he stopped being a hit man after Cobb's killing.
"My stomach was in knots," he told police. "I felt like she was innocent. ... All the rest were dope dealers."

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Robusta coffee also contains about 40–50 percent more caffeine than arabica. For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robustas are used in some espresso blends to provide a better foam head and to lower the ingredient cost. Other cultivated species include Coffea liberica and Coffea esliaca, believed to be indigenous to Liberia and southern Sudan, respectively.

Machines such as percolators or automatic coffeemakers brew coffee by gravity. In an automatic coffeemaker, hot water drips onto coffee grounds held in a coffee filter made of paper or perforated metal, allowing the water to seep through the ground coffee while absorbing its oils and essences. Gravity causes the liquid to pass into a carafe or pot while the used coffee grounds are retained in the filter.[56] In a percolator, boiling water is forced into a chamber above a filter by pressure created by boiling.