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Errani avoids seeds sweep at Barcelona Open

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Fifth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy beat Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-1, 6-0 at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday as the four other seeded players in action all made their exits.

Fellow Italian Alberta Brianti dispatched third-seeded Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1, 6-2, while Mirjana Lucic of Croatia's first win of the season was a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over No. 4 Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.

Czech …

Stocks gain at open ahead of manufacturing data

Stocks are rising in early trading as investors await key reports on manufacturing and housing.

A surprise profit from Ford Motor Co. is helping to support the early gains. Ford says deep cost cuts and the government's Cash for Clunkers rebates helped it earn nearly $1 billion in the third quarter.

Investors are hoping a report on manufacturing activity shows …

Carmakers hit with 4Runner, Explorer // Not your average ute

With auto giants behind them, it's not surprising that the FordExplorer and Toyota 4Runner are among the most accomplishedsport/utility vehicles.

These two sport/utes look and feel significantly different.Here is what I found while recently testing them:

Explorer: The Ford Explorer has been the top-sellingsport/utility since its debut in early 1990, but Ford knows it mustkeep improving its champ to keep it ahead of the game.For 1997, the $20,085-$35,005 Explorer is offered with apowerful new single-overhead-camshaft V-6 and innovative five-speedautomatic transmission to help it stay on top.The new Explorer, which comes with two or four doors and withrear- …

Wednesday's Major League Linescores

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Oakland	000	010	003—4	7	1
Seattle	000	220	21x—7	14	0

G.Gonzalez, Magnuson (7), Norberto (8) and Powell; Furbush, Lueke (6), J.Wright (7), Gray (9), Cortes (9), League (9) and J.Bard. W_Furbush 2-3. L_G.Gonzalez 9-9. Sv_League (26). HRs_Oakland, Willingham (16).

___

…

Texas	000	210	001—4	10	1

Kozlov scores twice in Capitals' 4-2 win

Viktor Kozlov doesn't possess Alexander Semin's flash or Alex Ovechkin's sizzle. Yet when the Washington Capitals' heralded Russian shooters were struggling against the downtrodden St. Louis Blues, Kozlov picked up the slack.

Kozlov had two goals and an assist, and Washington extended its winning streak to five games with a 4-2 victory over struggling St. Louis in the NHL late Thursday.

"He's the unsung Russian," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said of Kozlov. "He just goes out and does his business."

Tomas Fleischmann and Ovechkin also scored for the Capitals, who have won seven of eight and improved to 13-1-1 at home. Another …

Community briefs

Toys for Tots being

collected in Belle

Donations for the Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots campaignare being accepted at several places in Belle.

Unwrapped toys for infant children to teenagers can be droppedoff at the Belle Community Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondaythrough Friday until Dec. 12 and Dec. 13 during the town's SantaParty.

Toys also are being accepted at the Belle Fire Department from 9a.m. to 5 p.m. each day through Dec. 13.

Santa, 'Nutcracker'

coming to library

The Kanawha County Public Library will feature Amber O'Kelly fromBorders Express who will discuss the hottest titles for the holidayseason. She will …

Possible Troop Drawdown in Iraq

Gen. George W. Casey, head of Multi-National Force Iraq, said there could be a "fairly substantial" reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq next spring or summer if the insurgency does not grow and the political process continues as scheduled.

Speaking in Baghdad on July 27 during a visit by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Casey said the insurgency has not substantially increased within the past year. "The insurgents need to progress to survive, and this insurgency is not progressing."

Casey added that the insurgents have changed tactics, employing "more violent, more visible" attacks on softer civilian targets, which is "a no-win strategy for the insurgents."

One such …

World Cup Biathlon Results

Results Sunday from a World Cup biathlon meet on the Pillerseetal course (penalty laps and shooting misses in parentheses):

Men

7.5-kilometer Relay

1. Russia (Ivan Tcherezov, Maxim Tchoudov, Maxim Maksimov, Nikolay Kruglov), 1 hour, 24 minutes, 22.9 seconds (1 penaly lap, 9 misses).

2. Austria (Daniel Mesotitsch, Friedrich Pinter, Dominik Landertinger, Christoph Sumann), 1 minute, 48.1 seconds behind (2 and 9).

3. Ukraine (Vyacheslav Derkach, Andriy Deryzemlya, Oleg Berezhnoy, Serguei Sednev), 2:38.6 (3 and 12).

4. Norway, 3:20.4 (2 and 18).

5. Slovenia, 3:24.2 (2 and 11).

6. Sweden, 3:29.6 …

Madison's Montpelier now open to the public

MONTPELIER, Va. For the first time in its 2 1/2-century history,James Madison's Montpelier estate is open to the public.

The 2,700-acre grounds of Montpelier have been open to thepublic on several special occasions in the past, but this is thefirst time Madison's home has been opened for public tours on aregular basis.

In addition to the 55-room, 12-bath house, the estate - ownedand maintained by the National Trust for Historic Preservation -includes 35 tenant dwellings, 30 barns with stalls for 175 horses, …

Bursting Cans Heighten Botulism Warnings

WASHINGTON - Cans of recalled food are bursting, swollen with the bacteria that causes botulism.

The bursting cans were among those being held by Castleberry's Food Co., which announced last week a massive recall that now includes more than 90 potentially contaminated products, including chili sauces and dog foods.

News about the bursting cans gives new urgency to warnings from federal health officials to get rid of the recalled cans from pantries and store shelves.

Four people have been sickened and hospitalized by the contaminated food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The recall covers potentially tens of millions of cans of food; …

13-year-old girl wins US National Spelling Bee

Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. The 13-year-old Kansas girl saved the biggest smile for last, when she rattled off the letters to "Laodicean" to become the nation's spelling champion.

The budding neurosurgeon from Kansas outlasted 11 finalists Thursday night to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.

After spelling the winning word, which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, Kavya got huge hugs from her father, mother and little sister.

Kavya was making her …

Carter Hawley revamp gets shareholders' OK

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Shareholders of Carter Hawley Hale StoresInc. Wednesday approved a restructuring plan that will separate itsspecialty stores from department stores, forming two publicly tradedcompanies.

Carter Hawley's board announced plans to restructure last Dec.8, when it rejected a cash tender offer by Retail Partners to buy itscommon stock for $60 per share and to buy its convertible preferredstock.

The company then announced plans to separate its divisions. Thecompany's specialty-store divisions are Neiman-Marcus, BergdorfGoodman and Contempo Casuals. Its department stores are TheBroadway, Emporium Capwell, Thalhimers and Weinstock's.

…

Germany's Deutsche Bahn says train inspections will cause service cutbacks

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn AG said Friday it had cut services to send 61 of its new ICE-3 trains back to the factory for repeat safety checks.

Taking the high-speed trains out of service will oblige the company to cancel 90 train connections and make other service cutbacks, said Karl-Friedrich Rausch, chairman of Deutsche Bahn's board.

The repeat inspections were announced after a defective axle caused one of the new trains to derail on Wednesday at Cologne's main train station. None of the 250 passengers aboard the train were injured. The 61 trains represent almost the entire new fleet _ six more ICE 3 trains were inspected onsite and returned immediately to service.

US, Germany differ on nuclear energy on sidelines of G-8 summit

Differences over nuclear power surfaced on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit Monday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which is phasing out its nuclear plants, arguing that its use is not the only way to combat climate change.

Merkel's comments came after a senior U.S. official argued that nuclear power should be used to stem emissions.

"A country that has the capability to responsibly use nuclear energy in my view has a responsibility to do so, if we want to get serious about not just cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but also improving public health through reduced air pollution," said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Asked if that was a dig at Germany, since Merkel is sticking to her predecessor's plan to phase out Germany's 17 nuclear power plants in the coming years, Connaughton did not respond directly.

Merkel countered: "I don't think that climate protection is decided by the question of nuclear energy alone."

Taking steps to tackle global warming is high on the agenda for the G-8 meeting, which brings together leaders from the U.S., Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Canada, Russia and Britain.

Germany's governing coalition is deeply divided over nuclear energy.

The conservative Merkel's "grand coalition" government has stuck with its center-left predecessor's decision to phase out Germany's nuclear power plants _ but the plan has caused repeated political friction, particularly with an election looming next year.

Merkel made clear that she personally opposes switching off nuclear power plants early. However, she said that "we must above all go down the new paths," such as using more renewable energy and improving energy efficiency, in combating climate change.

"The decision that many countries count on nuclear power is OK," Merkel said. "But to say that the future for climate change and careful use of energy can be solved by that alone _ I don't see it that way."

Merkel's center-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats, have fiercely defended the shutdown plan agreed by the previous government, which they led in a coalition with the Greens.

In Berlin on Monday, Social Democratic general secretary Hubertus Heil said that "there is no such thing as safe nuclear energy."

Lucent Revenue, Income to Miss Reviews

MURRAY HILL, N.J. - Lucent Technologies Inc. said Monday that its income and revenue for the quarter ended in June will be lower than analysts expected as the telecom gear maker was hurt by weak sales in the U.S. and China.

In a statement released after the stock market's close, Lucent said it expects revenues of about $2.04 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, a nearly 13 percent decline from the same period in 2005 and almost 5 percent less than this year's second quarter.

Shares of Lucent fell more than 6 percent at one point in after-hours trading following the announcement.

Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent, which has agreed to be acquired by the giant French equipment maker Alcatel SA in a $13.45 billion stock swap, said in a statement that sales for its fiscal third quarter totaled $2.04 billion.

That's well short of the $2.34 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, and 13 percent lower than its sales in the same period a year ago. The company said that it expects to post earnings of 2 cents a share - half the profit analysts were expecting and down from 7 cents a share a year earlier.

While Lucent had not announced projections for the quarter, in April the company said it expected full-year revenue to decline because licensing problems were causing a slowdown in cellular service construction in China and India.

The companies also said they are on track to complete their deal by year's end, and plan to shed 9,000 of their combined 88,000 employees.

Lucent shares closed at $2.34 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, then dropped another 4 cents in late trading.

Lucent will release its third-quarter results on July 26.

---

On the Net:

Lucent Technologies: http://www.lucent.com

Alcatel SA: http://www.alcatel.com

EU gives Gbagbo until end of week to leave power

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is giving Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo until the end of the week to leave the presidency or face EU sanctions and possibly prosecution by the international court.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday EU nations were unanimous that Gbagbo should leave office in the former French colony. Otherwise he and his wife will face an assets freeze and visa ban.

Sarkozy said Gbagbo was responsible for turning one of Africa's most stable nations into one where innocent people are shot in the streets by the president's supporters. He noted there are international courts to deal with such crimes.

Police were out in force in Abidjan on Friday as supporters of the internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast's presidential election vowed to try once again to seize state institutions.

Arthur Taylor Drums Up Respect of Peers

If a man can be judged by the company he keeps, Arthur Taylor hasto rate pretty close to a perfect 10. Partly because he lived inEurope from 1963-1980, the distinguished drummer isn't as widelyknown as fellow bop bashers Art Blakey and Max Roach. But his resumeis second to no one's.

"All the baddest guys like to play with me," said Taylor, whowill lead his reconstituted band, Taylor's Wailers, at the ChicagoJazz Festival on Sept. 4. When he says "bad," believe him: BudPowell, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltraneand Jackie McLean are but a few of the legends with whom he hasenjoyed meaningful alliances.

Who's that drummer on Coltrane's "Giant Steps," Powell's "GlassEnclosure" and Davis' "Miles Ahead," to name but three timelessclassics? Mr. A.T., whose performance at the fest will be his firstin nearly three decades in the city where he once lived, in the early'50s. A way of life

Hearing the 65-year-old Harlem native discuss his life's work,you understand why so many passionate geniuses were drawn to him.For Taylor, drumming isn't just a craft or occupation, it's a way oflife.

"A real drummer is superior to everyone in the human race," saidTaylor, who has one of those deep, weathered voices that can soundthreatening even when that's the last thing he wants to be. "I'mserious. If I'm in trouble, if I'm in need of aid, I call a drummerbefore anyone. Because I know what he's gonna do, that's he gonna besupportive and come through.

"Look, you can't be weak when you gotta carry all that stuffaround, when you support everyone and make them sound good. Somepeople say all drummers are crazy. Well, yeah, I know some who willtake you to task. But that's because we get blamed for everything.When something goes wrong in a band, they always point to thedrummer."

Things were going wrong with more than Taylor's bands when hedecided to accept a three-month job in Paris in 1963. His marriagehad dissolved, he was by himself and unsure of what to do next. Inthe City of Light, where he had played a few times previously, hefound a welcoming group of expatriate jazz stars including JohnnyGriffin, Kenny Drew, Walter Davis Jr. and Donald Byrd.

Three months became 10 years. "I had a ball," he said. "I hungout with Jean-Paul Sartre, who loved the music, and Langston Hughes.I was having such a good time, I said to hell with the U.S. What'sthe sense of returning? Especially since people were going nuts backhome."

But though he had no desire to subject himself to the anger andindignities of the civil rights movement, he didn't just jazz aroundin his home away from home. He also conducted extensive interviewswith his black colleagues about social and political as well asmusical issues.

The edited talks were collected in his deeply revealing bookNotes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews, which he expandedfor its 1993 reissue. His main regret over the tome was that hewasn't aggressive enough to get Duke Ellington to sit for aninterview. But his chats with various great sidemen of the Dukehardly amounted to settling for less. A proud moment

While in Paris, Taylor was thrilled when one of his drummingidols, J.C. Heard, approached him after a set. He told him the bestthing Taylor ever did was leave America because it enabled him todevelop his own sound. "It was one of the proudest moments of mylife," Taylor said.

When Taylor decided to move back to America, after seven yearsin Belgium, he had more than Heard's words to live up to. "I knew Ihad to play better than ever," he said. "The minute you put out abook, people assume you can't play anymore. You have to show themyou can."

Taylor, who hosted a radio interview program in New York afterhis homecoming, is working on a new book about jazz drummers. But heisn't worried about proving himself again.

"I wish I played this way 20 years ago," said the drummer, whorecently stripped down the Wailers - featuring young alto sensationAbraham Burton - from a quintet to a quartet. "People have thisthing about age in America. But I transcend it."

Iran Oil Ministry: Exports cut to Britain, France

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran's crucial fuel exports.

The EU imposed tough sanctions against Iran last month, which included a freeze of the country's central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July. Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports.

However, the Iranian action was not likely to have any significant direct impact on European supplies because both Britain and France had already moved last year to sharply curtail oil purchases from Tehran to less than 3 percent of their daily needs.

The EU sanctions, along with other punitive measures imposed by the U.S., are part of Western efforts to derail Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran denies the charges, and says its program is for peaceful purposes.

The spokesman for Iran's Oil Ministry, Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar, said on the ministry's website Sunday that "crude oil exports to British and French companies have been halted."

"We have our own customers and have no problem to sell and export our crude oil to new customers," he said.

Britain's Foreign Office declined comment, and there was no immediate response from French officials.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said exports were suspended to the two countries Sunday. It also said the National Iranian Oil Company has sent letters to some European refineries with an ultimatum to either sign long-term contracts of two to five years or be cut off.

Mehr did not specify which countries were sent the ultimatum, but Spain, Italy and Greece are among Europe's biggest buyers of Iranian oil.

Iran's targeting of Britain and France appeared to be a political decision to punish the two countries for supporting tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Sunday's announcement follows a flurry of contradictory signals by Iran about backlash against the EU for imposing a boycott on Iranian oil.

Last week, state media said Iran was planning to cut off oil exports to six EU nations, including France, but later reports said the nations were only told that Iran has no problem finding replacement customers for the European shipments.

The EU sanctions, imposed last month, were part of Western efforts to target Iran's critical oil sector in attempts to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

Also on Sunday , the secretary general of Iran's central bank said a decision by SWIFT, an international banking clearinghouse used by nearly every country and major corporation in the world, to shut Iran out from its respected network will not harm the country.

"The country will not face any problems as a result of the SWIFT measures," Mahmoud Ahmadi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. He added that Iran has been "pursuing alternative solutions" since Western nations imposed sanctions on Tehran. He did not elaborate.

SWIFT said in a statement on its web site Friday that it will comply with expected instructions from the EU to cut off Iranian banks. SWIFT has previously brushed off international efforts to use its network to target countries or companies, telling enforcers that it does not judge the merits of the transactions passing through the portal.

The Six-Day War: a Soviet, Arab plot?

The Six-Day War: a Soviet, Arab plot?

AUTHORS CLAIM SOVIETS WERE DETERMINED TO STOP ISRAEL GOING NUCLEAR

One of the great enigmas of the modern Middle East is why, 40 years ago this week, the Six-Day War took place.

Neither Israel nor its Arab neighbors wanted or expected a fight in June 1967; the consensus view among historians holds that the unwanted combat resulted from a sequence of accidents.

Enter Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez, a wife-husband team, to challenge the accident theory and offer a plausible explanation for the causes of the war.

As suggested by the title of their book, Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War (Yale University Press, $26), they argue that it originated in a scheme by the Soviet Politburo to eliminate Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona, and with it the country's aspiration to develop nuclear weapons.

The text reads like the solution to a mystery, amassing information from voluminous sources, guiding 'readers step-by-step through the argument, making an intuitively compelling case that must be taken seriously. In summary, it goes like this:

Moshe Sneh, an Israeli Communist leader (and father of Ephraim Sneh, the country's current deputy minister of defense), told the Soviet ambassador in December 1965 that an advisor to the prime minister had informed him about "Israel's intention to produce its own atomic bomb."

Leonid Brezhnev and his colleagues received this piece of information with dead seriousness and decided - as did the Israelis about Iraq in 1981 and may be doing about Iran in 2007 - to abort this process through air strikes.

Rather than do so directly, however, Moscow devised a complex scheme to lure the Israelis into starting a war which would end with a Soviet attack on Dimona.

Militarily, the Kremlin prepared by surrounding Israel with an armada of nuclear-armed forces in both the Mediterranean and Red seas, pre-positioning mat�riel on land, and training troops nearby with the expectation of using them.

Perhaps the most startling information in Foxbats over Dimona concerns the detailed plans for Soviet troops to attack Israeli territory, and specifically to bombard oil refineries and reservoirs, and reach out to Israeli Arabs.

No less eye-opening is to learn that Soviet photoreconnaissance MiG-25s (the "Foxbats" of the title) directly overflew the Dimona reactor in May 1967.

Politically, the scheme consisted of fabricating intelligence reports about Israeli threats to Syria, thereby goading the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces to go on warfooting.

As his Soviet masters then instructed, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser moved his troops toward Israel, removed a United Nations buffer force, and blockaded a key naval route to Israel - three steps that together compelled the Israelis to move to a full-alert defense. Unable to sustain this posture for long, they struck first, thereby, it appeared, falling into the Soviet trap.

But then the Israel Defense Forces did somethingastonishi ? g . Rather than fight to a draw, as the Sovietsexpected, they quickly won what I have called "the most overwhelming victory in the annals of warfare."

Using purely conventional means, they defeated three enemy Arab states in six days, thereby preempting the planned Soviet invasion, which had to be scuttled.

This fiasco made the elaborate Soviet scheme look inept, and Moscow understandably decided to obscure its own role in engineering the war (its second major strategic debacle of the decade - .the attempt to place missiles in Cuba having been the first).

The cover-up succeeded so well that Moscow's responsibility for the Six-Day War has disappeared from histories of the conflict.

Thus, a specialist on the war like Michael Oren, has coolly received the Ginor-Remez thesis, saying he has not found "any documentary evidence to support" it.

If Foxbats over Dimona is not the definitive word, it offers a viable, excitinginterpretation for others to chew on, with many implications.

Today's Arab-Israeli conflict, with its focus on the terriwon in 1967, accompanied by virulent anti-Semitism, results in large part from Kremlin decisions made four decades ago.

The whole exercise was for naught, as Israeli possession of nuclear weapons had limited impact on the Soviet Union before it expired in 1991.

And, as the authors note , "21st century nostalgia for the supposed stability of the Cold War is largely illusory."

Finally, 40 years later, where might things be had the Soviets' Six-Day War not occurred?

However bad circumstances are at present, they would presumably be yet worse without 'that stunning Israeli victory.

[Author Affiliation]

By DANIEL PIPES

MIDDLE EAST FORUM

Amkor Technology announces succession plan

The president and chief operations officer of microchip assembly and test company Amkor Technology Inc. will become CEO later this year, as part of a succession plan the company announced Monday.

The Chandler, Ariz.-based company said Ken Joyce will become CEO and president effective Oct. 1. He will also join the company's board of directors.

The company's current founder, chairman and CEO, James Kim, will become executive chairman of the board of directors.

Joyce joined Amkor in 1997 and worked as executive vice president and chief financial officer for eight years until becoming chief administrative officer in 2007. He became chief operating officer in February 2008, and president in May 2008.

Company officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Shares rose 19 cents, or 4.21 percent, to close at $4.70 for the day.

Senate to Take Another Stab at Iraq War

WASHINGTON - After weeks of watching their counterparts in the House make headway on anti-war legislation, Senate Democrats say it is their turn to put their members on record on whether President Bush should pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled a test vote Wednesday on the war, one that may succeed in allowing debate to begin. Debate has been stalled since January because of a disagreement between the two parties on how many and what types of amendments should be allowed.

The vote would be the third time this year that Democrats have tried to start the Senate's first formal debate on the war since the party took control of the chamber in January.

"Agreeing to a debate is not enough," said Reid, D-Nev. "Republicans must heed the voices of their constituents and the overwhelming majority of Americans and vote to change the president's flawed Iraq policy."

Reid is pushing a resolution that would set a target date of March 31, 2008, for the withdrawal of combat troops. The measure says U.S. forces could stay beyond that date only to protect U.S. personnel, train and equip Iraqi forces and carry out counterterrorism operations.

The Senate measure is weaker than legislation being considered by House Democrats that would demand troops leave before September 2008. However, several Senate Democrats have been reluctant to impose a strict deadline on the president.

Several Republican senators said Tuesday they were inclined to vote in favor of moving toward debate on Iraq, even if they disagree with Reid's resolution. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he anticipates nearly all Republicans oppose the suggestion of a timetable and moving toward a vote would give members a chance to prove it.

Even if Wednesday's vote is successful, Republicans and Democrats will still need to agree on the limits of the debate. Also, GOP leaders are expected to insist that Reid's resolution need 60 votes to pass - a requirement that will likely doom the resolution.

"That's the way we do business in the Senate," Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of the 60-vote threshold.

In the House, Democratic leaders continued to try to rally members behind spending legislation aimed at ending the war. The House passed a nonbinding resolution in February stating opposition to Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.

The $124 billion measure would includes $95.5 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The money for the Defense Department is $4 billion more than the president requested - extra money intended to enhance operations in Afghanistan and pay for added training and equipment and improved medical care for U.S. troops.

The bill also would demand that the president bring troops home by fall 2008.

Democratic leaders on Tuesday said they were still counting votes to ensure the measure would pass.

"We think we have brought together a large consensus within our caucus," said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "Probably every member of the caucus could say I wish that was in there or I wish that wasn't in there."

House Republicans said they wouldn't support it and the White House threatened a veto.

Rob Portman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Tuesday issued a statement attacking the bill. Portman did not reiterate the veto threat or say how the bill might affect the war, focusing instead what he called unnecessary domestic spending added to the bill.

Romanian detained over eBay cyber fraud

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian authorities have detained a man suspected of committing cyber fraud worth $3 million against the company eBay Inc.

Organized crime prosecutors say Liviu Mihail Concioiu is being investigated for "phishing" attacks against 3,000 of eBay Inc. employees.

They said Thursday that Concioiu allegedly stole the employees' IDs and passwords in 2009 and accessed company files, including an application with the data base of eBay clients and their transactions. Concioiu then used "phishing" sites to access the accounts of about 1,200 eBay users.

Prosecutors also say Concioiu and some accomplices withdrew euro300,000 ($400,000) from Italian bank accounts.

Romanian authorities worked with the U.S. Secret Service and Italian authorities in this case.

Twins Top Orioles, Eliminate Red Sox

BALTIMORE - A strikeout led to three runs for the Minnesota Twins, who got a homer from Torii Hunter and four hits from Rondell White in an 8-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.

The outcome eliminated Boston from postseason contention and enabled the Twins to reduce their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to three. Any combination of Minnesota wins and Chicago White Sox losses totaling three will ensure the Twins no worse than a wild-card berth.

Minnesota could also get in as the AL Central winners. The Twins started the day 1 1/2 games behind first-place Detroit, which had a night game in Kansas City.

Justin Morneau got his 126th RBI to tie Harmon Killebrew for the second-highest single-season total in Twins history. Killebrew had 140 in 1961 and 126 in 1962.

Minnesota took a 4-2 lead in the third inning, the key play a strikeout by Michael Cuddyer. With two on and two outs, Cuddyer whiffed on a breaking pitch in the dirt. But the ball got away from catcher Ramon Hernandez, who then threw it over the outstretched glove of first baseman Kevin Millar for an error.

Two runs scored on the play, and Morneau hit Erik Bedard's next pitch up the middle for a single that scored Cuddyer.

Baltimore tied it in the fourth. After Corey Patterson tripled and scored on a groundout by Millar, Brian Roberts chased Twins starter Scott Baker with a two-out double. Chris Gomez followed with an RBI single off Matt Guerrier.

The hit extended Gomez's hitting streak to a career-high 15 games.

Hunter gave the Twins the lead for good in the fifth with his 29th homer after Cuddyer reached on a fielder's choice. Bedard then gave up two straight singles before being lifted.

Bedard (15-10) allowed a career-high 12 hits and three earned runs in 4 2-3 innings.

Baltimore closed to 6-5 with an unearned run in the fifth against Matt Guerrier (1-0), who pitched 1 1-3 innings to earn his first win in 89 career appearances.

Nick Punto hit an RBI single in the eighth and Lew Ford singled in a run in the ninth.

Joe Nathan, the seventh Minnesota pitcher, got three outs for his 34th save.

The Orioles went up 1-0 in the first inning when Roberts hit a leadoff single and scored on a two-out double by Miguel Tejada.

Minnesota tied it in the second. Cuddyer walked and went to third on a single by Hunter, who was called out at second trying for a double - even though replays indicated he beat the tag. White followed with an RBI single.

In the bottom half, Jeff Fiorentino hit a sacrifice fly after a throwing error by shortstop Jason Bartlett and a double by Millar.

Notes:@ Twins 1B Phil Nevin left with a bruised left wrist. X-rays were negative. ... Orioles strength and conditioning coach Tim Bishop announced that he will retire after this season, his 14th with the club. ... It was Bedard's shortest stint since June 1. ... Baltimore turned four double plays. ... Tejada extended his hitting streak to 11 games and moved within five hits of tying Cal Ripken's club record for a season (211).

Moldovans receive permits for travel to Romania

The leaders of Moldova and Romania have begun handing out special permits that will allow about 1 million Moldovans to travel to Romania without a visa.

The permits are prized in Moldova because about 80 percent its 4.1 million citizens are of Romanian descent and Moldova was part of Romania until 1940.

Ordinarily, visas would be required for such travel because neighboring Romania is a member of the European Union and Moldova is not.

The visa agreement, reached last year, also has improved relations between the two countries, allowing them to open two consulates in each other's territory.

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc traveled to Moldova on Wednesday to join Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat in beginning to hand out the travel permits.

Rascalz

Hip-hop is undoubtedly an urban phenomenon, a way of life rising out of the concrete apartment blocks and clamorous streets of the city. So how does it jibe with the vast wilderness that is most of Canada? Rascalz' producer and DJ Kemo doesn't seem to think there will be any problem conquering both untamed territories and urban jungles.

Rascalz' latest album, Global Warning, showcases a band that has learned to appreciate the success they built upon their first effort, Cash Crop, and who can capitalize on their new found influence to create a sound that is both diverse and true to their roots. CM spoke to Kemo over the phone at their studio in Vancouver about piecing together the Rascalz sound and how he copes with presenting it to audiences coast to coast.

"I don't see too many obstacles in our way, other than commercial radio, but we're not necessarily a commercial group," he tells me. "Otherwise, it's been good, but it's a lot of hard work. If you have the know-how and the drive, and you know exactly where you want to hit you can do it." It is this kind of determination that has brought the group to the forefront of the Canadian hip-hop community.

Rascalz come by their hip-hop legacy honestly, proudly embracing what they describe as the four elements of hip-hop culture: Breakdancing, MCing, DJing and graffiti. Meeting in local Vancouver clubs back in 1989, all five members used to compete with each other in breakdancing competitions, eventually falling in together and forming Rascalz. The various roles in the group fell into place naturally. Red 1 and Misfit showed they had the lyrical depth to become rappers, and have handled the task with skill since 1990.

Kemo takes up the story from here. "Both Dedos and I used to write graffiti. He still does with the AA Crew, and they've done all sorts of murals out here. He's done all of our album covers since the start. We all used to dance, so having dancers (Dedos and Zebroc) was something we've had since the beginning. As far as having a DJ," he adds modestly, "that was me being there, providing the sounds."

The next logical step was to find a label. "A lot of the reason we took this seriously was because we connected with an independent label out of here called Calabash, which funded an album for us and producers to work with," explains Kemo. "We recorded the first album (Really Livin') for them, which I'd call a demo, but it got released on a small scale." This landed them a deal with Sony, who in turn wanted to release it, but the group decided that they weren't happy with what they had, and so they went back into the studio to completely overhaul the album. It was eventually released in 1993.

The band soon fell out with Calabash, which lost them their deal with Sony, but they remained unfazed, adding Saul G and Dugai to the Rascalz collective as co-managers. The team of Saul G and Dugai formed Figure IV records for the purpose of presenting Rascalz' material, and eventually a deal was inked with BMG offshoot, ViK Recordings.

Kemo recognizes the importance of Figure IV to the group, not only in maintaining their artistic independence, but also enabling them to plot their career at a pace they are comfortable with. "Figure IV was founded out of our trials and mishaps with Calabash. We saw that all you really need is a little know how and a will to do it." This kind of determination is essential to the success of the Rascalz. "Saul's gotta be one of the hardest working people I know," he adds.

For their latest effort, Global Warning, the group struck out with an intentionally diverse sound. Eastern-sounding beats collide with classical guitars and steel drums as tracks shift from bombastic to thoughtful. Kemo indicates that lyricists Red 1 and Misfit were looking beyond the boundaries of their own world for inspiration. "I think they tried to keep it on a worldly level, in the sense that it's not a regional album, but that people all over can relate to it," he says. The group considered the feel and sound of each track as carefully as the lyrics. "If we did one track that was the party hype track, then the next one couldn't be like that. We didn't want to repeat vibes on any tracks." The contributions made by other artists lend to the range of sounds offered. "We did use outside producers, so we were just trying to go for a well-rounded sound, trying to cover every angle," says Kemo. "Rascalz music is not really hard, but we do have some tracks that come off that way. The rest of them are more suave and laid back."

Global Warning is the result of a completely democratic group. Every member looks after their duties and puts their own stamp on the Rascalz sound, but the collaborative whole is more than the sum of its parts. According to Kemo, getting the songs together seems to be more trial and error than any kind of direct approach. "Usually we start with the music, and from there the two lyricists discuss which topics they want to hit. They both do their thing, write their own lyrics and verses and come together for the chorus. It's not really that hard of a task for them, because I think they're at a point where they write constantly." The creation of the music is a bit more complicated, says Kemo. The key to the selection of workable music is honesty and attention to the details of the group sound. "To me, not everything I make is good, and sometimes I'll create some not so good stuff, so we'll use whatever sounds best in our heads. When I'm creating a sound, I like a mischievous sound in my head, something like a devilish sound, sinister," he explains. "That's my sound, but I've done tracks that are the opposite, just because they came out that way."

Maturity and experience also lent influence to their approach on this album. With the success of Cash Crop came the ability to fully realize the Rascalz' sound. "I think we are more aware of what makes a good track, and we had a couple of tracks we didn't use. One was a case of not wanting to pay money for the sample, and the others just weren't up to standards," Kemo says. "On this album we made sure we used the best material and finished everything completely."

The collaborative effort extends beyond the immediate group, and the inclusion of outside producers and artists lends itself to the eclectic mix of sounds. Global Warning features artists KRSONE, the Beatnuts, reggae artist Barrington Levy, long time collaborators and friends K-OS, Kardinal Offishal and Choclair, and fellow Canadians Esthero and Muzion. It is this kind of artistic support and extension of family that has lent strength to the hip-hop community from the outset.

"On "Top Of The World", we got the idea for the chorus from Barrington Levy and the song he did with Cutty Ranks a couple of years ago. We actually had K-OS singing on the chorus, but it wasn't quite what we envisioned. So somehow, Saul G hooked up the man himself, and we said, 'You can't get better than that.'" These collaborative efforts became reality a number of ways. About their work with hip-hop legend KRS-ONE, Kemo says, "We opened for KRS-ONE on three dates, in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, and it turned out he was looking for a Canadian artist to collaborate with to expand his Temple of Hip-Hop. He found us, and Saul did some really good politicking, and he said, "Yeah, let's do a track together." The band went to New York to cut the track, and are finally able to release it on the new album. The union with the Beatnuts came about in much the same fashion. Kemo admits that having a label helped them draw in artists that the group admired and wanted to work with, opening up resources such as funds and connections that the group wouldn't otherwise have.

Montreal-based group Muzion also appears in a mutual effort to cross the language borders of our country. "They came to our release shows in Ottawa and Montreal and performed "Temoin", and it was a really good vibe," says Kemo. The song seems to be as much a diplomatic message as a jam. "For the most part, we did the song knowing it was a boost for us in those territories, and vice versa. It's definitely a diplomatic thing," he confirms.

Kemo remains dubious that the Rascalz are being sought out, but he is confident in their skills. "I don't know if they are looking for us, but if they see us they'll recognize the talent, drive and authenticity of a real hip-hop band," he says.

To record Global Warning, the Rascalz stayed close to home. "Most of it was recorded here, where we have our own little studio to track vocals. It's not nice enough to mix out of, so we mix down the hall at Hiposonic," says Kemo. The studio work was not limited to Vancouver, however. "We recorded in Toronto, at Cherry Beach and mixed some stuff at Metalworks. We also mixed out of New York, at Mirror Image. But most of the recording was done here in Vancouver, with only one or two tracks done in Toronto."

The band laid down their vocal tracks on a hard-disk recorder, but when it came time to mix, all the material was transferred to two-inch tape. As for the mics, they used the Neumann U-87 for most of the project, and the music was largely created on the Akai MPC 1000 and tracked on the Fostex D-160. The sounds are mostly samples, chopped up and pieced together by Kemo with help from the other members. The exception is the guitar work of Russell Kline (of Vancouver's Salvador Dream) on a couple of tracks. "He's got some really nice guitar playing," says Kemo of Kline. "He's been working pretty tightly with K-OS, and on that track ("Fallen"), K-OS produced and Russ played live guitar. He played on top of the sample used in "Sharpshooter" to enhance that hard-rock guitar sound, and as far as live is concerned, Russ would be the man for that, so all praises to Russ Kline."

While the album was recorded largely at home, the scope of the project is international. I asked Kemo where the band finds inspiration. "I think I heard Misfit mention once that it comes from other Canadian MCs, because that's the level he's at, and he's gotta be there or better. Me personally, I get my inspiration from new hip-hop music wherever it is from. If I hear stuff from London, or Switzerland or France that gets me inspired, I'll try to create something that is as good, or better."

The band is planning to focus on Canada and Europe to promote the album, which means Kemo will have to drag himself out of the studio and into another tour. "I'm definitely more comfortable in the studio," he acknowledges. "I've always told them I'm not really a showguy. Live, each person holds down their aspect, and for me, my aspect is the turntables and scratching, and as far as being a turntablist and being on that competitive level, I'm not there. I'm not willing to pretend to do that stuff, so for me the shows are lacking."

The frustration of playing tours that pack the same crowds into the same venues seems to be wearing out Kemo's enthusiasm to travel. "For me, tours are really tiring. We've been across Canada so many times it's become redundant to me. Maybe if we did the US and Europe as much as we did Canada it would be different, but I'm seeing the same things." While he appreciates the support of fans all over Canada, he names Toronto as his favourite town. "To me, the best audience is Toronto, because they're hard to please, and you have to be really good, or else they'll let you know. If we please them, then I'm happy. I catch the most vibes there, just from the crowds and the scene itself. I don't mean to disrespect our fans anywhere else," he adds, "but it's got everything to do with the city."

While the hip-hop scene in Canada is getting bigger every day, there is no denying that the sheer size of the market down in the US is enough to swamp less determined Canadian acts. The band has made a few forays into the States, playing some shows in Seattle and New York to a warm reception, and they are hoping to release the album there in February.

There are plans afoot to travel to Europe, where the band received a warm response to a tour they took opening for Common Sense back in 1997. Manager Saul Guy lives in New York, and has been working on further overseas treks for the band. "One of Saul's main duties in New York was as Arista's Director of International Artists, and he's got a lot of connections in London and eastward. We opened for Common Sense for a month and a half, and that was a really good first time out there. I'm sure we're going to get some material out there soon."

This is where the bureaucracy of a major label hinders the development of the band, and it is a sore point with Kemo. "My thing is, BMG is reluctant to press up vinyl to sell for us, and as far as the US and Europe goes, that's how the stuff gets heard and sold. For them not to take vinyl seriously is a real piss-off for me. I don't understand what their problem is, but whatever," he says heavily, "we'll work it out somehow." For anyone with even a passing familiarity of hip-hop or dance culture, this is a mystifying marketing decision, but one hopes there is a reason beyond the simple parsimony of a major corporation.

When asked what the future holds, Kemo goes straight to the business. "Figure IV is the focus. We're going to try and work with other artists and release more material. Kardinal and K-OS are definitely the next ones to pop up. I'm sure there will be another Rascalz album in a year or two, but we'll see how far we can ride this one."

The success of Global Warning could place the savvy and resourceful Rascalz on the top of the Canadian hip-hop scene, and if they're lucky, maybe they'll pull a few friends up, too.

Rod Christie is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

Cleaning Up; ABM industries gave its window washers, janitors and engineers a single way of doing business with customers. But selling all its services at the same time is still elusive.

In technology for corporations, there is IBM. In window washing, there is ABM.

In an office building, the company established 90 years ago as American Building Maintenance can function almost like an operating system. Need janitors? Got 'em. Engineers? Got 'em. A parking garage operator? Coming up. Someone to manage your heating and air conditioning? On the way. Lighting? Security? Facilities management? Check. Check. Check.

But getting a landlord to buy all those services from a single sales rep remains a tall order for ABM Industries, the San Francisco company that brings in $2.4 billion a year and aspires to be the "blue chip company of a non-blue-chip world," in the words of its Danish-born chief executive, Henrik Slipsager.

But 16 years after creating its Facilities Services division to sell multiple services in single contracts, the company's still trying to figure out how best to support a sales force seeking to sign up one-stop shoppers for everything from trash pickup to mechanical engineering.

"It's easier for an engineer to sell janitorial services than for a janitor to sell engineering services," says Slipsager from his company's offices in midtown Manhattan, near Grand Central Terminal.

Making it easier for anyone in the company to cross-sell ABM's palette of services was supposed to be a benefit of radically simplifying the company's information infrastructure, a task begun six years ago under current chief technology officer Anthony Lackey and project leads Sean Finley and Bill Huff.

In November 1998, the company operated 35 different sets of billing, payroll and general ledger applications, including eight systems in janitorial services, which constituted half its business; 16 in its elevator business, since sold off; five in its parking business; and one each in lighting, mechanical services, security, engineering, facility services and corporate headquarters.

Lackey's goal was obvious: Streamline to one set of applications every ABM business would use. Make it easy to share data. At the least, the company would be able to consolidate financial results easily. At best, it would be able to improve those results with a unified set of reporting systems, making it easier to cross-sell services. Any business would be able to sell any other business' services to its customers.

But the one-system goal presented challenges. ABM used four different systems to keep track of its operations. Its four enterprise resource planning systems included an in-house application developed in the out-of-favor Cobol programming language; a system based on the Santa Cruz Operation version of Unix, employed by its elevator business; a system based on Infinium products from a company once known as Software 2000, used in the lighting business; and the OneWorld software of J.D. Edwards, later absorbed by PeopleSoft.

All this "spaghetti" had reached the end of its useful life, Lackey believed. The master file for the company's payroll, for instance, was stretched to its limit. Each record could store only 512 letters or numbers about an employee. That meant workarounds, if the record involved much beyond the person's name, pay rate, Social Security number, gender and other basic information.

When 'Dumb' Is Smart

Huff led the project that would give ABM a clean start. In mid-1998, ABM engaged Cambridge Technology Partners to analyze its operations and determine if all its disparate businesses could in fact operate off a common software base. The answers from the consultant's three-month study: Yes, the company could operate on a single platform. And, yes, it would have to be a new platform.

Next came a bake-off between three contenders to supply that platform: J.D. Edwards; PeopleSoft, which had a competing product at the time; and Lawson Software.

J.D. Edwards won, Lackey says, because it had superior functions for measuring the costs of the jobs the company would perform for its customers, and for billing. And even though ABM had many different businesses, adopting J.D. Edwards companywide would force the least amount of change. "It all boiled down to how close a fit the vanilla product was," Lackey says.

Meanwhile, in preparation for Year 2000, ABM took stock of the equipment it put on managers' and workers' desks. Scores of servers as well as 1,850 personal computers were spread across its operations all over the country. Nine out of 10 systems needed an upgrade of the operating system, or a processor upgrade, or other improvement.

The cost to upgrade would work out to between $200 and $400 per machine, Lackey's technology staff figured. But the real cost would be in communications. Keeping personal computers at each office building where ABM had operations would mean deploying a $5,000 server, and spending $1,800 a month on a connection that would send and receive 512,000 characters of information each second.

A less-expensive alternative? What sometimes are called "dumb" terminals: Desktop screens with just enough smarts to receive information from central servers and display information on screen. All number and word crunching would take place at a company data center.

The approach fit the company's low-tech workforce well. Janitors and lighting repair people don't really need a lot of computing power at their fingertips. Or if they do, they don't care whether the processing power is actually on site or remote, as long as they can see results on the screen in front of them.

So Finley would lead the effort to replace the great majority of ABM's personal computers with Citrix terminals. The displays would cost just $450 each. Right away, communications costs could drop to $900 a month per office. In a year or two, as digital phone lines proliferated, Lackey expected the cost could drop to $400 a month.

Those were pretty compelling direct savings. But even more important, the change in infrastructure meant that only one set of software - at the company's data center in the San Francisco Bay area - would have to be updated as time went by. Neither managers of local offices nor employees would have to worry about installing any applications on servers or desktops, because there wouldn't be any hard drives to store or run applications. Only a few exceptions, like salesmen who needed to use laptop computers on the move, would be able to store any information or software on their personal machines.

This was a momentous choice. "If we had gone to the traditional deployment process," where every machine in every office had to be individually loaded with software and synched up, "we would have been out of business," Lackey says.

Now, the company can update its J.D. Edwards platform three times a week, add patches and other enhancements, and maintain one fundamental copy of its software in-house. With personal computers instead of these terminals, the company would be pushing out billions of characters of data every night and the PC network "would have collapsed upon itself," Lackey says.

The $12 million changeover has resulted in at least $19 million of savings, Lackey figures, with fewer devices and fewer servers to support, and fewer people on payroll needed to support them. Instead of updating 1,850 desktop machines and servers in 220 local offices and 20 data centers, ABM now has only 220 devices in its single data center to worry about. "When Bill Gates issues another security alert, ABM is totally protected" by this central control, Lackey says.

The applications live in a software and hardware facility run by a local San Francisco co-location service. In effect, ABM is an application service provider to its janitorial, heating, parking and other businesses that operate in cities across the country.

Each office pays only for the use of those portions of ABM's standard software set that each terminal can access, plus Internet access and storage. The cost per terminal comes out to around $85 a month.

Spotting Problems

Now there is a companywide credit collection process where the company had none, so unpaid bills can be pursued in a uniform fashion, and there's an automated means of processing cash receipts, so amounts can be applied quickly against unpaid bills.

Plus, there are productivity gains in the executive and managerial ranks. The approach "provides great means to provide access from home or any location," says chief financial officer George Sundby. "You get your desktop ... from anywhere."

In addition, compliance with the strictures of Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting legislation has not been a backbreaker. All changes to systems are made in one place, saving time and making it easier to certify that the proper processes are in effect. Audit trails are easy to pursue.

But the biggest benefit comes in daily operation of its "non-blue-chip" business. "The key thing in the service business is speed and accuracy of information at the point of decision making," says Slipsager. "You don't want a flood in the basement and four-and-a-half hours later, a reaction."

A standard system of communicating makes such service more rigorous and routine, he says. Each night, an inspector in a given office building that ABM serves can collate issues that need to be corrected and provide a clear set of instructions for a cleaning crew. "The key thing when people come in the next morning," he says, "is to know whether you forgot [to clean] a floor or a carpet or what have you."

Managing that "list of deficiencies" is key to keeping customers satisfied - particularly in unusual circumstances, when reputations are made or broken.

"You can't go out, see there's a flood and say, 'We'll be back Monday,'" he says.

But there are limits.

"I don't think you can see a spot of coffee on the carpet and say it's because the information system didn't work," Slipsager points out.

The changeover has not, by itself, turned around ABM's bottom line. The company's income from continuing operations peaked at $46.7 million in the year ended Oct. 31, 2002, according to an ABM financial filing. In the year that ended Oct. 31, 2004, income from continuing operations is expected to come in at $41.9 million, the company said on Dec. 14.

Nor has there been a discernible impact on the top line: sales. Neither Slipsager nor Sundby has seen signs that ABM's different businesses have used the new system in any concerted fashion to sell services from other business units.

As Sundby says: "I don't think we've gotten the benefit of cross-selling just yet."

ABM Industries Base Case

Headquarters:

160 Pacific Ave.,

Suite 222,

San Francisco, CA 94111

Phone: (415) 733-4000

Business: Janitorial, lighting, engineering, parking, security and window washing services for office buildings and other facilities.

Chief Technology Officer: Anthony Lackey

Financials in 2004: $41.9 million in income from continuing operations, pending changes in accounting for workers' compensation insurance. Revenue of $2.4 billion.

Challenge: Provide a single, easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain network to serve a variety of largely independent business units and non-technical employees.

Baseline Goals:

Reduce technology costs by $3 million to $4 million a year.

Serve 3,600 users in 2005, up from 2,100 in 1999.

Keep network running 99.98% of time, while cutting support personnel to 16 from 23.