Today Is November 10th 2007

Today is Saturday, Nov. 10, the 314th day of 2007. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

On this date:

In 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who had not been heard from for years, near Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.

In 1917, 41 suffragists were arrested for picketing in front of the White House.

In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention, in Minneapolis.

In 1928, Japanese Emperor Hirohito was formally enthroned, almost two years after his ascension.

In 1938, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on her CBS radio program, which aired Thursdays.

In 1954, the Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Arlington, Va.

In 1969, the children's educational program "Sesame Street" made its debut on National Educational Television (later PBS).

In 1975, the ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior.

In 1982, Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died at age 75.

In 1982, the newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C.

Ten years ago: A judge in Cambridge, Mass., reduced Louise Woodward's murder conviction to manslaughter and sentenced the English au pair to the 279 days she had already served in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. A jury in Fairfax, Va., convicted Mir Aimal Kasi of one count of capital murder, one count of first-degree murder and eight additional charges stemming from a shooting attack outside CIA headquarters in January 1993. WorldCom Inc. and MCI Communications Corp. agreed to a $37 billion merger.

Five years ago: Bush administration officials promised "zero tolerance" if Saddam Hussein refused to comply with international calls to disarm. About a dozen tornadoes killed 36 people in Tennessee, Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.

One year ago: A new recording attributed to the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir) mocked President Bush as a coward whose conduct of the war had been rejected at the polls, and challenged him to keep U.S. troops in Iraq to face more bloodshed. Actor Jack Palance died in Montecito, Calif., at age 87.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Russell Johnson is 83. Film composer Ennio Morricone is 79. Actor Roy Scheider is 75. Blues singer Bobby Rush is 73. Actor Albert Hall is 70. Lyricist Tim Rice is 63. Actress Alaina Reed Hall is 61. Rock singer-musician Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 60. Actress-dancer Ann Reinking is 58. Actor Jack Scalia is 56. Movie director Roland Emmerich is 52. Actor Matt Craven is 51. Actor-comedian Sinbad is 51. Actress Mackenzie Phillips is 48. Author Neil Gaiman is 47. Actor-comedian Tommy Davidson is 44. Actor Michael Jai White is 43. Country singer Chris Cagle is 39. Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan is 39. Actress Ellen Pompeo ("Grey's Anatomy") is 38. Rapper-producer Warren G is 37. Rock singer-musician Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) is 32. Actress Brittany Murphy is 30. Rapper Eve is 29. Rock musician Chris Jannou (Silverchair) is 28. Actor Bryan Neal is 27. Actress Heather Matarazzo is 25. Country singer Miranda Lambert is 24. Actor Josh Peck is 21.

Thought for Today: "A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man." — William Hazlitt, British essayist (1778-1830).

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Jens Lekman's Night Falls over Kortedala

Bernard Zuel

Three years ago Jens Lekman was voted the 15th sexiest man in Sweden by Elle magazine. OK, that's not exactly bachelor of the year status, but it's not bad. Not bad at all for a droll pop singer with what was, at the time, a small but devoted following for his achingly lovely songs that wore their wit and heart openly. Songs about philosophy and Rocky Dennis (the seriously disfigured teenage boy in the film Mask); about using your one phone call after being arrested to request a song on the radio; about pretending to be your lesbian friend's boyfriend to keep her father happy.

Three years on, Lekman's new album Night Falls over Kortedala - more classic pop in the mould of Burt Bacharach and Jonathan Richman with dance rhythms - made it to No.1 in his homeland. Has that seen his sexiest man ranking change?

"It should have, yeah," Lekman says, sounding a little hurt at Elle's evident failure. "I look better now than I did back then."

Where would he rate himself, then, on the sexiest man in Sweden table?

"I'm not the sexiest man but somewhere in the top 10," is his considered opinion. "The problem last time was the whole [Swedish] football team was in there. But most of those players now are quite old and are dropping out."

If you've not seen him perform or heard his songs you may be wondering what is it about Lekman that would make him one of the sexiest men in Sweden. He has the answer.

"I have a very nice voice," he says. "It's pretty sexy, I think. It's not always a sexy voice but it can be sexy. That's my opinion anyway. There are times when older people hear me sing [and] they say that I sing a little bit like Elvis. That may be their only reference point, of course, but still it's a pretty good and sexy reference."

Lekman is an amusing man, made more so by a deadpan face and a dry delivery. It can make it hard to know when to take him seriously (though he insists the much circulated story, started by him, that he is moving to Melbourne from Stockholm is true). It seems that uncertainty about what was serious and what wasn't, evident in his audience, had some effect on him, too, until "Hawkeye" Pierce and friends made it all clear to him. Seriously.

"When I started writing songs and performing them I had this feeling that maybe I was comically retarded," Lekman says. "Each time I sang a song that was very serious to me, people would laugh and when I tried to make people laugh with a funny song, people started to cry. At some point last year I stopped listening to music for a long time and I listened to a lot of comedy. I loved all the comedy records I got and I watched every single episode of M*A*S*H and that last episode - you remember, it's very serious and not a single joke, quite a dignified look at life - when I came to that episode I realised what I had been trying to do with my songs.

"I think a lot of my songs are very silly and very stupid, written to entertain people, but in the end I always come to that last line and I feel that I have to wrap this up with a bit of dignity and a little tear in the eye otherwise the joke would be on the characters in the song."

With Lekman songs, it is possible to laugh and cry a number of times across the album and sometimes within the one song. The thing is, he's not afraid to go there because as an undoubted fan of the pop song and its conventions, he understands that being passionate about something doesn't mean you can't see the silliness. After all, there is nothing sillier than being in love.

"Some very silly songs can have an almost melancholy feeling when you put it in a different perspective," he says. "Like [his new song about a job he had during his year off from playing music] Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo for example. That was definitely just a silly song I wrote so that people could dance to it and sing along but in the end when I heard it, it was a very pretty song and almost made me cry."

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Jerry Seinfeld's Most Demanding Movie, 'Bee Movie'

Dave Itzkoff

In the dressing room of an Atlantic City nightclub, Jerry Seinfeld is explaining the stand-up comedy ritual of "getting in the bubble": a state of mind that a performer seeks before show time, a few final moments of calm before the tumult of an unpredictable live audience.

And make no mistake. When Seinfeld faces his crowd, he is usually thinking of the exchange in raw, physical terms: a competition to be won or lost. "I want to get 'em bad," he says.

Minutes later he emerges from the bubble and onto a stage to riff about the banalities of bachelorhood and marriage, burials and cremations, and to relentlessly mock an indiscreet heckler who has made the mistake of announcing that his nickname is Potato Head.

The hour-long routine is a crucial opportunity for Seinfeld to practice his act at a time when he feels, as he often does, that he's not performing enough. "No matter how many times you've done it in the past, it's got to be polished or it goes away," he says backstage. "The act just packs up and starts walking."

More important, the show is a warm-up for Seinfeld's biggest leap yet out of his bubble, onto an international platform he has not occupied in nearly a decade, and into a medium he has never attempted before.

It is Bee Movie, a DreamWorks Animation comedy that is by far the most substantial project the 53-year-old comedian has taken on since pulling the plug on his Seinfeld television sitcom in 1998.

In the ensuing years Seinfeld has starred in an HBO comedy special, I'm Telling You for the Last Time, and a low-budget documentary, Comedian, and written a children's book, Halloween. He got married and fathered three children. In whatever spare time remains, he continues to perform his stand-up act with a triathlete's zeal.

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Yet none of these endeavours - the professional ones at least - has demanded as much of Seinfeld as Bee Movie, a studio feature with a budget of about $US150 million ($162 million) for which he not only supplied the voice of the lead character, a wisecracking honeybee named Barry B. Benson, but also helped write the script and spent nearly four years overseeing every element of the production.

He is also a central component of the film's marketing campaign, showing up in television commercials and at live appearances (occasionally dressed in an oversized bee costume), suggesting that this cartoon movie about talking insects is just another part of his indomitable comedic continuum.

But to many fans, and to many people who worked on Bee Movie, the film represents the first real return of Seinfeld since the end of his television show, a welcoming back after what appeared to be a self-imposed absence. "When you watch this movie, it feels like you've found your best friend who you haven't seen in ages," says Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation. "It's like, where have you been the last 10 years?"

Just don't mention this to the man whose name appears atop the movie poster.

Two days after his Atlantic City appearance, Seinfeld is walking through New York's Central Park, on his way to lunch at the Central Park Boathouse. He is dressed in blue jeans and a pair of John Lennonesque spectacles, offering pointed analysis about anyone who enters his field of vision, whether it is a pedestrian wearing too much makeup ("I think that was a mime"), or Dean Poll, the well-tanned owner of the restaurant, who pays a visit to Seinfeld's table. ("I think he just wants to show people his nice skin," Seinfeld says.)

Much of Seinfeld's success is predicated on the nonchalant persona he cultivated in his comedy act and on his television show, and the apparent accessibility that comes from his insightful observations of the quotidian and the ordinary.

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The rewards that he has reaped have been substantial: Forbes recently estimated that he makes US$60 million a year, primarily from his share of the syndication revenue Seinfeld still generates. (A representative for Seinfeld declined to confirm this figure.) His live touring and royalties from Seinfeld DVD sales also contribute to this sum.

Though Seinfeld may wear Nikes, he also lives in an exclusive residence on Central Park West, maintains a fabled collection of Porsches and travels to and from his stand-up dates by helicopter. In person he can be affable, but he doesn't hide a certain earned arrogance. When one stunned onlooker at the Boathouse asks for his autograph, Seinfeld says, "Sure," then keeps walking straight to his table.

On this afternoon Seinfeld is playful but also perturbed about a short article he had read over the weekend in The New York Times, 69 words about Bee Movie that described the film as his effort at "gingerly" re-entering mainstream entertainment. "Gingerly," he says with emphasis. "If they only knew. There was nothing 'gingerly' about this."

Seinfeld likes to tell a story of the film's spontaneous origins, about four years ago, at a dinner on Long Island with Steven Spielberg, at which Seinfeld joked that Bee Movie would be a fitting title for a movie about bees, and Spielberg concluded this would actually be a good idea for a film. "I wasn't pitching him," Seinfeld recalls, "but then he started pitching me: 'You gotta make this.' "

Bee Movie represents the culmination of a campaign more than 13 years long, waged by Katzenberg to recruit Seinfeld into animated movies. Going back to his time at the Walt Disney Co, Katzenberg had frequently tried to persuade Seinfeld to lend his voice to a cartoon project to no avail. "He was always amazingly open and accessible," Katzenberg says, "and incredibly polite and definitely not interested."

What persuaded Seinfeld to take on Bee Movie were the assurances by Spielberg and his DreamWorks partner Katzenberg that he would have free rein to make the film his way (as well as access to a video-conferencing system so he could work from New York when necessary), and his naive assumption that it would take three to four months to write a script, record his tracks and finish the job. "I could not have been more wrong," he says.

Seinfeld estimates that it took him and three hand-picked writers nearly 21/2 years just to complete the script for Bee Movie, the story of a talking bee who falls in love with a human florist and discovers, to his horror, that mankind has been stealing his community's honey.

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As Seinfeld became further entrenched in the film's pre-production process, he was in for a rude awakening about how he was really perceived in the entertainment industry.

Working with a casting director to recruit voice talent for the film, Seinfeld was given two lists that supposedly represented all the A-list male and female stars in Hollywood. When he looked at the lineup of male performers, he was surprised to find his own name missing from the roster.

"I said, 'How come?' " Seinfeld recalls. "She said, 'Because everybody knows you only do your own thing.' "

To the extent that Seinfeld engages with Hollywood any more, these interactions are often fraught with ambivalence. "I never get offered things that I think I could really bring something special to," he says, though it is hard to imagine what kind of project he would deem a good fit. Over the years he has turned down his share of offers - most recently a comedic caper written by David Mamet - often because he cannot find the time, and sometimes because he doesn't have an interest. "I could just take parts to act in movies," he says, "but they don't need me."

Nor can Seinfeld understand why the industry seems to believe he has spent his post-sitcom career in a cushy exile of his own design, when he continues to appear at clubs and theatres. "That's what I do," he says. "That's all I can do. That's what a comedian is. Our thing is not disappearing into other characters. It's being this character that you are."

Friends who have known Seinfeld for years say that he has always been sharply attuned to the fitness of his stand-up act, and eager to perform it no matter what else was occupying him in his personal or professional life.

"When he wasn't out there for a period of time, he would start to get antsy and feel like he was losing his edge," says Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm. "The phrase he would use was 'out of shape.' I never looked at it like that."

That Seinfeld has, since 1999, been married to the former Jessica Sklar, the founder of the charitable organisation Baby Buggy, and has a six-year-old daughter, Sascha, and two sons, Julian, 4, and Shepherd, 2, does not seem to have diminished his fervour for hitting the road.

Still, the rarity with which Seinfeld applies his full creative energies to a project like Bee Movie would seem to add pressure on the film's critical and box-office results, if only to prove that its star remains a powerful draw.

But fellow comedian Chris Rock, who plays a mosquito named Mooseblood in Bee Movie, argues that the film should not be judged against Seinfeld's larger body of work. "If he was doing a movie that wasn't animated, where he was dating Scarlett Johansson, his version of Manhattan, then maybe yes," Rock says. "But this is a movie about cartoon bees."

Seinfeld's colleagues agree with his assessment that it was unfair to categorise Bee Movie as a comeback project. "It's not like he's been hurt or injured or anything," David says. "It's not like he tried something and failed, and now has to come back from it. He's just been doing what he wants to do."

When his promotional duties for Bee Movie, which include attending the film's November 19 Sydney premiere, are over, Seinfeld says, he has no concrete plans, except perhaps allowing his daughter to see his stand-up act for the first time and proving to his two sons that their father is more than just a guy who makes films about bees for a living.

He says he takes a certain pride in measuring his life against those of other stars - but declines to name names - who have achieved comparable success, but who haven't found the time or the will to settle down and raise a family. "There's certain celebrities," he says, "where I see where they're at, and I know how old they are, and I know what they're doing, and I'm like, 'Yeah, what are you going to do now, Potato Head?"'

Seinfeld understands that these same people might derive a similar schadenfreude from seeing him - formerly the quintessential single guy - made over as a happily married man, or in secretly wishing that his streak of good fortune comes to an end. "I can't imagine that they wouldn't," he says. "I sure would. 'Enough of this guy, it's about time he fell on his face.' "


Bee Movie opens December 6.
Masters of their domain

The post-Seinfeld careers of Jerry's collaborators

Michael Richards (Kramer)

A year after Seinfeld shut up shop, Richards created the short-lived sitcom The Michael Richards Show (2000), on which he was also a co-writer. He returned to stand-up comedy, keeping out of the spotlight until late 2006 when he made headlines for racially abusing hecklers at a comedy club. Voices Bud Ditchwater in Bee Movie.

Jason Alexander (George)

When Alexander's first post-Seinfeld sitcom, Bob Patterson (2001), failed to fire, he settled for guest appearances in a string of shows including Friends, Monk and Malcolm in the Middle, voice parts in cartoons such as Dilbert and a run in the LA stage production of The Producers. Another sitcom, Listen Up, made in 2004, lasted one season. He recently signed as a regular for Everybody Hates Chris and will appear in an episode of Julia Louis-Dreyfus's The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine)

Louis-Dreyfus's first attempt at a sitcom was a failure: Watching Ellie, made during 2002-03, lasted only 12 episodes. After a star turn the next year in four episodes of Arrested Development as the blind lawyer Maggie, Louis-Dreyfus found more lasting success with The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Larry David (co-creator, writer, cameo role as George Steinbrenner)

Despite his constant complaints about Seinfeld's success (he lamented the thought of having to write further episodes when Seinfeld got the green light), David was the first to jump into another project after the series ended. His improvisation comedy show Curb Your Enthusiasm is now in its sixth season.


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Dame Anne Salmond's "Trial of the Cannibal Dog"

Kristine Walsh

In Dame Anne Salmond's book Trial of the Cannibal Dog - about the voyages of Captain James Cook - a central narrative device is the event of the book's title, whereby members of Cook's crew stage a mock trial and execution of a native dog.

It was, according to scholar Dame Anne, an illustration of how the 18th-century collision between Polynesians and Europeans changed their world views.

Now imagine that all of the players in that particular drama were themselves dogs. They snap. They bark. They raise their faces to the sky and howl great tracts of opera.

That is how it will happen when the musical adaptation of Cannibal Dogs debuts in Wellington at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.

And the idea of converting all the singers into canines is not really that fanciful, says director Christian Penny.

"What we are trying to capture is some of the strangeness they must have felt during those meetings of Europeans, Maori and Polynesians," Penny says from his Wellington base.

"Plus it is a good metaphor for the hierarchy of the day. Whether we are humans or whether we are dogs, some of us are always going to be lower down in the pack."

As in the times of Cook, the audience could get a sense of "strangeness" from the canine cast, of meeting a completely different species, he added.

"In a piece of theatre like this the audience has to be slightly destabilised or they will look at it simply as an historic curiosity. That is key in theatre ... always looking for a way to make things real through the unreal."

Published in 2003, the award-winning Cannibal Dog was an enormous work that, through the sheer amount of research and information, gave an indication of the colossus of the sea, and the task before Cook and his crew as they tackled three voyages around the Pacific, Penny said.

"We were never going to be able to portray that on stage so, for us, the question was 'how do we make this story personal? ... how do we bring these people together?' What we decided we could do was to deal with the microdrama of Cook and the crises that were his downfall."

Harking back to that idea of of meeting peoples you never knew existed would also be central, Penny said.

"In this day and age we forget how difficult it is to meet someone who is very, very different from you. The real challenge was to capture the incomprehensibility of what happened for Maori and those in the Pacific."

Commissioned especially for the 2008 festival, it was the brainchild of US-based New Zealand composer Matthew Suttor, a lecturer at Yale University.

"We went through university together and are long-time collaborators," says Penny, who leads the directing degree at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. "But we haven't worked together for 15 years so it will be exciting to work on his first full opera."

Like Suttor, Penny (Tainui) was undaunted by the scholarly nature of the book that inspired the piece.

"Matthew thought it was wonderful material and I, certainly, have a genuine curiosity about how that early meeting of peoples was a defining moment for us all. We live every day trying to work out the consequences of that time."

Penny says he and Suttor met Dame Anne "very early in the piece" to ask permission to use her work, "which she gave openly and generously".

Though it is described as a chamber opera with four principals and a chorus of six, Penny says the stage version of Cannibal Dog is more like a musical with John Downie's libretto being sung in Maori, English, Tahitian and Hawaiian.

The music, he says, resembles a cross between that of contemporary composer Philip Glass and quirky jazz ensemble Six Volts - which is useful given Volts frontwoman Janet Roddick has been confirmed in the cast.

"It will be visually rich and quite magic in its staging," he says. "And we have taken a few liberties with the story. For example, in examining how Cook lost his European heart, we look back to the story of his wife, the psychodrama that stems from his loss of heart being the loss of his relationship with her."

Despite the subject matter, however, he says the overall feel will be more wild and shocking than maudlin.

"We think it is important to get access to these stories in a new way so with this work we can explore the imaginative side - how these people felt, the hopes and fears they may have harboured."

The Trial of The Cannibal Dog will be staged at Wellington's Opera House on March 2, 4 & 5. Bookings open on November 16.

The book

Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas, by Dame Anne Salmond, won the History Category and the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. It is described as "a fresh and startling account of Cook's three voyages around the Pacific, in which Dame Anne explores the impact of contact on both Polynesian and European cultures"

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Today Is November 9th 2007

Today is Friday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2007. There are 52 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 9, 1965, the great Northeast blackout happened as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

On this date:

In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston.

In 1918, it was announced that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.

In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later Congress of Industrial Organizations).

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."

In 1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.

In 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash.

In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."

In 1986, Israel revealed it was holding Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who had vanished after providing information to a British newspaper about Israel's nuclear weapons program. (Vanunu was convicted of treason and served 18 years in prison.)

In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Ten years ago: A Boeing 707 jetliner carrying first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced to return to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington after a sensor indicated an engine fire, which turned out to be a false alarm. (Clinton left the following day for a tour of Central Asia.)

Five years ago: President Bush said in his Saturday radio address that Saddam Hussein faced a final test to surrender weapons of mass destruction.

One year ago: Republican Sen. George Allen conceded defeat in the Virginia Senate race to Democrat Jim Webb, sealing the Democrats' control of Congress. Champion figure skater Michelle Kwan was appointed America's first public diplomacy envoy by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. CBS newsman Ed Bradley died in New York at age 65.

Today's Birthdays: Sportscaster Charlie Jones is 77. Baseball executive Whitey Herzog is 76. Former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is 71. Singer Mary Travers is 71. Actor Charlie Robinson ("Night Court") is 62. Movie director Bille August is 59. Actor Robert David Hall ("CSI") is 59. Actor Lou Ferrigno is 55. Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 48. Rock musician Dee Plakas (L7) is 47. Rapper Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa) is 38. Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 38. Blues singer Susan Tedeschi is 37. Actor Eric Dane is 35. Singer Nick Lachey (98 Degrees) is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 29. Actress Nikki Blonsky (Film: "Hairspray") is 19.

Thought for Today: "He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest." — Dylan Thomas, Welsh author-poet (1914-1953).

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Peter Snell: From Olympiad to Scientist.

Michele Hewitson

Peter Snell has a book out, his third, and after he sees me he is going to launch it at a lunch. Will he be giving a reading? I asked. He thought this was very silly and he laughed at me. "It's not poetry."

Still, I suggest page 227 might make for lively reading. This page shows a flowchart describing "the organisation for major clinical trials starting with screening candidates, baseline testing, randomisation and follow up". He looked at this as though he'd never seen it before in his life. He said, "I don't know why I put that in", and he laughed again, at himself.

His book (co-written with Garth Gilmour) is called Peter Snell: From Olympiad to Scientist. He says he wrote it because "it's a big message, I think. That it's not too late to turn your life around and start over, which is essentially what I did." When I ask, "Who's this book for?" he looks a bit startled, then he says, "Umm, well, it's probably for me".

He is really quite funny, although nothing I have read about him, and little in his book, suggests that he will be. I think the difficulty is that he is hard to get down on paper and he obviously found it a bit tricky, too. That's what happens when you write a book where the aim is not to give too much away.

I thought he'd be prickly and asked if he could be. He said, no, he wasn't, which is what anyone would say. But it wasn't an accusation. He makes it quite clear to me (and in the book) that being a legend wasn't all it was cracked up to be, so who wouldn't have got a bit huffy?

Anyway, I wondered what it was like being a legend, whatever that might actually mean. "I'm not sure either. It has a good ring to it. Ha. And if you are, then it's good to be living somewhere else."

He has lived in the States for 35 years now and, whenever he comes back, annoying people like me ask if he's ever going to come home to live.

He once said, in response to this: "Well, no one asked for my resume." He says he meant it flippantly but you can see how it looks on the page. So, he tried being flippant and came across as prickly instead? "No. No, I don't think so. Umm, prickly, as in I deserved more than I got? That sort of idea? Yeah, well I've got to admit, Michele, I did go through a period of feeling a little bit resentful and it bothers me that I felt that, but I did."

I thought being asked over and over whether he's ever coming back might make him resentful. If it did, it doesn't now. "Well, the answer is no. But it's nice that people would want to feel that I might be back. And it's probably a bad idea because I think the expectations of what I could do would be high."

Does he also mean that the weight of expectation would be overwhelming? "Well, I don't know. I mean, I could alter that expectation pretty easily."

He certainly loves coming home and feels a great warmth when he does, which might be a reflection of his state of mind.

He is very happy these days. He loves his job and his second wife, Miki, and their home in Dallas with the diabetic cat, the two chinchillas and the Southern flying squirrel which hides acorns and nuts all over the house. In 2000, he told a journalist that he had no friends in Dallas and no emotional connection to the place.

I read this back to him and it sounded rather bleak. He's too busy to make friends, he says, and he made his friends during his youth in New Zealand when he did have time. "I have lots of acquaintances and there may be a reason for that. It might be that it's because I'm not putting the effort out to make friends. And my wife is my friend and she likes doing things with me. So I don't go out with the boys or anything like that. She wants my time when I'm not at work."

On the cover of his book, he has a nice friendly big smile. He looks like a healthy, happy 68-year-old. It's a picture of Peter Snell, a scientist who lives in Dallas - not a picture of the young man who won three gold medals.

Snell had an idea about a substitute subtitle: After the Cheering Stops. Would he like that as a subtitle to his life? "Well, I could have had it if I'd wanted it. No, this - From Olympian to Scientist - is my suggestion because my first book, No Bugles, No Drums was a bit stupid actually."

I say I'm not sure what that title actually meant and he laughs and says: "Yeah, people have speculated about what it means. They think it's something to do with modesty."

And does it? "No. Hell no. That's my wife's angle. She says, 'You know, you've cultivated this image and I know it's not true.' She claims that people think I'm modest and I don't know that I am. I recognise you don't get anywhere by trumpeting your own stuff. And her view is that the reason I'm so esteemed in this country is that I'm not around to screw it up."

Of course when he's here, we want to talk about those brief, blazing years, from 1960 until his retirement five years later, and he is good about this. He didn't once show any irritation about the focus on this tiny part of his life and he might, given that half of his book is given over to his career as a university professor in the cardiology division at the University of Texas. His wife, he says, is the one who gets miffed. "She said, 'You know, it's about time New Zealanders realised you've been doing something else with your life' for whatever it is, 30 or 40 years."

I wanted to know what he thought his public image was here, and he related a recent description: the relentlessly sane Peter Snell. "I'm trying to figure it out. My original thought was: Am I boring?"

I don't know yet; I've just met him. Perhaps he could tell me? "Hope not."

I think he doesn't really mind being thought boring. God forbid he'd do anything as flamboyant as a book reading. But he won three gold medals; you'd think he might have been tempted to get a bit excited. I asked him whether being a sports star went to his head and he said, very sensibly: "How would you know?"

He had no choice but to go on being sensible. He still went to work at the quantity surveyor's office, on the bus, and paid his two pounds 10 shillings board, which was half his wage packet, and he waited for opportunities that never came, which is what he came to resent. "People said, 'Oh, you know, it'd be nice if you could have a sports shop'. That sort of thing - and it was sort of insulting." He could have opened a nice little sports shop and had a nice little life. "Yeah, that's right, and call it Olympics Sports Shop or something like that. Yeah, right."

You can see why he found this insulting. And you can see why he might have had that reputation for being a bit grumpy.

Now, I just think he was in what he calls "a somewhat crummy situation", wasn't very happy and not very good at hiding it.

I can't quite reconcile the man in the book with the man sitting in this room with me. He is candid and thoughtful and, as I've said, possesses a nice, dry sense of humour. The best thing seems to get him to have a go. How does he think he comes across in the book?

"Well, actually, in the first book when I stood back and looked, I said, 'This is pretty self-centred.' But then I thought, 'Well, that's okay, because this is what it took to achieve'. To get those achievements, you had to be thinking about yourself a lot. So then it became okay. This one? I don't know. I haven't read it yet."

Of course he has; he proofread it. I asked whether he thought it revealed much about him. "No. No, I don't really. Yeah, I'm holding back, quite a lot. Well, it's private, it's personal."

But it is a book about him and I read aloud this: "The fifth decade challenge to translate seven years of formal education into a satisfying career saw the end of my marriage and took me to meet my second wife, Miki."

"Ha, ha, ha. Okay. Well, I don't want to go into it. Don't I say a bit more about it? Well, I don't know how to handle it. I mean, it's apparent that it says very little on the emotional level, if you like."

Which might, actually, inadvertently, reveal quite a bit about him? "Yeah, it probably does." At which point the publicist knocks on the door and he says to her, "Well, this is perfect timing because she's getting me to squirm a little." Then, to me, "Did you have a further question?"

I do, as it happens. He wore a money belt during the interview, which seemed eccentric. Did he think I might rob him mid-interview? "No. It's not a money belt. It's because I leave stuff lying about and this is how I keep track of things. There's no money in here. It's my glasses and my Palm Pilot and some pens. It's keeping track of stuff."

Is this relentlessly sane? I can't make up my mind. But I do know the bloke wearing what is not a money belt is not a bit boring.

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Today Is November 8th 2007

Today is Thursday, Nov. 8, the 312th day of 2007. There are 53 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, that came to be known as the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

On this date:

In 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a college exclusively for women, opened in South Hadley, Mass.

In 1889, Montana became the 41st state.

In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.

In 1942, Operation Torch, resulting in an Allied victory, began during World War II as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.

In 1960, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency.

In 1966, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California, defeating Democratic incumbent Pat Brown.

In 1966, Edward W. Brooke, R-Mass., became the first black candidate to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.

In 1987, 11 people were killed when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded as crowds gathered in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, for a ceremony honoring Britain's war dead.

In 1988, Vice President George Bush won the presidential election, defeating Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

Ten years ago: Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, the most ambitious construction project in modern China's history. Evander Holyfield won the IBF heavyweight title in a fierce fight against Michael Moorer in Las Vegas.

Five years ago: The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1441, which gave weapons inspectors the muscle they needed to hunt for illicit weapons in Iraq. President Bush said the new resolution presented the Iraqi regime "with a final test."

One year ago: After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush announced Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation following the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections; Bush chose former CIA Director Robert Gates to succeed him. Israeli shells killed 18 Palestinian civilians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun during an attack targeting militants.

Today's Birthdays: Actress June Havoc is 95. Actor Norman Lloyd is 93. Jazz singer Chris Connor is 80. Singer Patti Page is 80. CBS newsman Morley Safer is 76. Singer-actress Bonnie Bramlett is 63. Singer Bonnie Raitt is 58. TV personality Mary Hart is 57. Playboy Enterprises chairman and chief executive Christie Hefner is 55. Actress Alfre Woodard is 54. Singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 53. Rock musician Porl Thompson (The Cure) is 50. Singer-actor Leif Garrett is 46. Actress Courtney Thorne-Smith is 40. Actress Parker Posey is 39. Rock musician Jimmy Chaney is 38. Actress Roxana Zal is 38. Singer Diana King is 37. Actress Gretchen Mol is 34. Actress Tara Reid is 32. Country singer/former "American Idol" contestant Bucky Covington is 30. Actress Azura Skye is 26. Actor Chris Rankin is 24. TV personality Jack Osbourne ("The Osbournes") is 22.

Thought for Today: "Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling." — Margaret Lee Runbeck, American author (1905-1956).

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Today Is November 7th 2007

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 7, the 311th day of 2007. There are 54 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.

On this date:

In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

In 1893, the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote.

In 1916, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.

In 1940, in Washington state, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," collapsed during a windstorm.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1962, Richard M. Nixon, having lost California's gubernatorial race, held what he called his "last press conference," telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."

In 1967, Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city — Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In 1972, President Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.

In 1973, Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.

Ten years ago: In a rising war of words, the Clinton administration warned it was considering military options, including a cruise missile strike, if Iraq carried out its threat to shoot down U.N. surveillance planes.

Five years ago: In his first news conference since the midterm elections, President George W. Bush, charting an agenda for the new Republican Congress, said that homeland security came first and that an economic-recovery plan with new tax cuts would wait until the next year. Dick Gephardt stepped down as House Democratic leader in the wake of his party's election losses.

One year ago: Democrats won control of the House and Senate, riding a wave of anger over the Iraq war and congressional scandals. Keith Ellison, a Democratic state lawmaker from Minnesota, became the first Muslim elected to Congress. Panama won a seat on the U.N. Security Council after Guatemala and Venezuela dropped out to end a deadlock. Dhiren Barot, an al-Qaida operative who had planned to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank and landmark London hotels, was sentenced in Britain to life in prison. Pop star Britney Spears filed for divorce from Kevin Federline.

Today's Birthdays: Evangelist Billy Graham is 89. Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland is 81. Actor Barry Newman is 69. Singer Johnny Rivers is 65. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 64. Singer Nick Gilder is 56. Actor Christopher Knight ("The Brady Bunch") is 50. Actress Julie Pinson is 40. Actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is 35. Actors Jason and Jeremy London are 35. Actress Yunjin Kim ("Lost") is 34.

Thought for Today: "All forms of totalitarianism try to avoid the strange, the problematic, the critical, the rational. To do so, they must deny the metropolitan spirit, equalize everything in city and country, and retain a center which is not the center of anything because everything else is swallowed up by it." — Paul Tillich, American theologian (1886-1965).

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Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Faces Morgage Crisis

Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch may be the latest victim of the US mortgage crisis.

The singer's famous theme park was mortaged for $US23 million. But Jackson appears to be in default to the tune of US$212,963, according to celebrity website TMZ.com. And it seems that the pop star's lenders have run out of patience.

Copies of official documents published on the site appear to confirm the rumours that the bank is about to foreclose on the property.

Another website called The Implode-o-meter, which specialises in documenting US mortgage crisis, also carries reports and documents relating to the foreclosure.

Late last month, Rolling Stone's website broke the news that the Sherrif's men may be on the way to Neverland but no evidence had been available until now.

Neither the default service company that issued the report or the singer's rep were available to comment.

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Pete Doherty Caught On Movie Shooting Heroin

Pete Doherty has been caught injecting heroin on film, just hours after claiming he was drugs free.

The Babyshambles rocker is shown in the footage - shot on a mobile phone at his Wiltshire home on Friday - 'cooking up' the class A drug in a spoon before filling up a needle and sticking it into his right arm.

Pete, 28, is seen still wearing the green wristband from the MTV Europe Music Awards in Germany the night before, at which he boasted he was still clean after spending six weeks in rehab and even joked he "missed" hard drugs.

A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "It's not the first time he's injected since he was supposed to have got clean. He may have got clean through rehab, but as soon as the temptation is put in front of him, he cannot help himself. It's so sad to see. He's been given so many chances and so many fresh starts and he just throws them all away."

Just weeks ago, Pete vowed to stay clean after a magistrate decided to release him from the six months left on his two-year drug treatment order after he tested negative for crack cocaine and heroin.

Speaking outside London's Thames Magistrates' Court on October 24, he said: "I have just had enough already. My life has changed. I'm still a bit wobbly but I'm taking one day at a time."

Pete was arrested last December while carrying heroin, crack cocaine, cannabis resin and cannabis. He was arrested again in January while in possession of heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

Less than two weeks ago he was also given a four-month suspended sentence and a 12-month drug rehabilitation order in relation to his May arrest for driving illegally while in possession of drugs in West London.

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Today Is November 6th 2007

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2007. There are 55 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the presidency: John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.

On this date:

In 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term of office.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison won the presidential election, defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland with enough electoral votes, even though Cleveland led in the popular vote.

In 1893, composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age 53.

In 1900, President William McKinley was re-elected, beating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

In 1906, Republican Charles Evans Hughes was elected governor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.

In 1928, in a first, the results of Herbert Hoover's election victory over Democrat Alfred E. Smith were flashed onto an electric wraparound sign on the New York Times building.

In 1944, British official Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo, Egypt, by members of the Zionist Stern gang.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower won re-election, defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.

In 1976, Benjamin L. Hooks was chosen to be the new executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, succeeding Roy Wilkins.

In 1977, 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College in Georgia.

Ten years ago: The Clinton administration warned Iraq it could face military action or economic sanctions if it continued to bar U.N. weapons inspections. Former President George H.W. Bush opened his presidential library at Texas A&M University; among the guests of honor was President Clinton, the man who had sent him into retirement.

Five years ago: A jury in Beverly Hills, Calif., convicted Winona Ryder of stealing $5,500 worth of high-fashion merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue, but a prosecutor said she would not seek to put the actress behind bars.

One year ago: On the eve of midterm elections, Democrats criticized Republicans as stewards of a stale status quo while President Bush campaigned from Florida to Arkansas to Texas in a drive to preserve GOP control of Congress. Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year and Brooks & Dunn's inspirational song "Believe" won three trophies, including single and song of the year, at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

Today's Birthdays: Director Mike Nichols is 76. Country singer Stonewall Jackson is 75. Singer Eugene Pitt (The Jive Five) is 70. Singer P.J. Proby is 69. Country singer Guy Clark is 66. Actress Sally Field is 61. Pop singer-musician Glenn Frey (The Eagles) is 59. Singer Rory Block is 58. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 58. TV host Catherine Crier is 53. California's first lady, broadcast journalist Maria Shriver, is 52. Actress Lori Singer is 50. Actor Lance Kerwin is 47. Rock musician Paul Brindley (The Sundays) is 44. Rock singer Corey Glover is 43. Actor Peter DeLuise is 41. Actress Kelly Rutherford is 39. Actor Ethan Hawke is 37. Actress Thandie Newton is 35. Model-actress Rebecca Romijn is 35. Actress Zoe McLellan is 33. Actress Nicole Dubuc is 29. Actress Mercedes Kastner is 18.

Thought for Today: "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age." — Lucille Ball, American actress-comedian (1911-1989).

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Today Is November 5th 2007

Today is Monday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2007. There are 56 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 5, 1605, the "Gunpowder Plot" failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.

On this date:

In 1857, muckraking journalist Ida M. Tarbell was born in Erie County, Pa.

In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to vote for President Ulysses S. Grant. (She was convicted by a judge and fined $100 but never paid the fine.)

In 1895, George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road Engine."

In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William Howard Taft.

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.

In 1946, Republicans captured control of both the Senate and the House in midterm elections.

In 1968, Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.

In 1985, Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died at age 90; he was succeeded by Ezra Taft Benson.

In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg admitted using marijuana several times in the 1960s and 70s, calling it a mistake. (Ginsburg ended up withdrawing his nomination.)

In 1990, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born Israeli extremist, was shot to death at a New York hotel. (Egyptian native El Sayyed Nosair was convicted of the slaying in federal court.)

Ten years ago: The House overwhelmingly approved a bill calling for the most far-reaching changes at the Internal Revenue Service in 45 years.

Five years ago: In midterm elections, Republicans won control of both houses of Congress and claimed a majority of the governors' races. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt resigned under pressure after a series of political missteps that had embarrassed the White House. Randy Johnson won his record-tying fourth straight National League Cy Young Award.

One year ago: Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity. Saying that he was a "deceiver and liar" who had given in to his dark side, the Rev. Ted Haggard confessed to sexual immorality in a letter read from the pulpit of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. Rockwall County, Texas, prosecutor Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. killed himself as police tried to serve him with an arrest warrant alleging he had solicited sex with a minor online. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil became the first South American to win the New York City Marathon, finishing in 2:09.59; defending champion Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia won the women's race in 2:25:05. Former Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit died in Ankara at age 81.

Today's Birthdays: Singer-songwriter Ike Turner is 76. Actor Chris Robinson is 69. Actress Elke Sommer is 67. Singer Art Garfunkel is 66. Actor-playwright Sam Shepard is 64. Singer Peter Noone is 60. Actor Nestor Serrano ("24") is 52. Actor Robert Patrick is 49. Singer Bryan Adams is 48. Actress Tilda Swinton is 47. Actress Tatum O'Neal is 44. Actress Andrea McArdle is 44. Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 42. Actress Judy Reyes is 40. Rock musician Mark Hunter (James) is 39. Actor Sam Rockwell is 39. Country singers Jennifer and Heather Kinley (The Kinleys) are 37. Actor Corin Nemec is 36. Rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) is 36. Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 33. Actor Sam Page is 31. Actor Jeremy Lelliott is 25.

Thought for Today: "Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists — with it all things are possible." — Ida M. Tarbell, American journalist (1857-1944).

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Singapore Airlines Says NO SEX on Its Airborne Double Bed

Steve Bleach

Singapore Airlines' puts out 'no sex' rules for the double bed suites. The A380 may have the world's first airborne double bed, but it won't be put to the obvious use if Singapore Airlines has its way: "If couples used our double beds to engage in inappropriate activity, we would politely ask them to desist," said the company's Stephen Forshaw.

"There are things that are acceptable on an aircraft and things that aren't, and the rules for behaviour in our double beds are the same ones that apply throughout the aircraft."

In any case, the plane is as yet unchristened: Tony and Julie Elwood from Perth, Australia had booked the first A380 double suite, but hardly had a moment of privacy for a romantic kiss, let alone anything raunchier, as a parade of journalists came knocking on their door.

Even so, they weren't too impressed with Singapore's strait-laced attitude. "So they'll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne - and then say you can't do what comes naturally?" asked Tony, a vigorous 76. "Seems a bit strange."

"They seem to have done everything they can to make it romantic, short of bringing round oysters," said Julie, 51. "I'd say they shouldn't really complain, should they?

"Though I don't think they'll have anything to worry about from us - the flight is so busy with people coming to see the suites, we wouldn't have the opportunity."

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Foreign Teachers Now On Child Pornography Watch In Thailand

Thai police may begin making background checks on foreign teachers after arresting two on pornography- related charges in less than two weeks, authorities said this week.

"It shouldn't be enough to wear white shirts and have a university degree. We need to know their background," said police Col. Apichart Suribunya, head of Thailand's liaison office for Interpol, the international police agency.

Paul Cornelius Jones, 39, who has lived in Thailand for seven years, was arrested Tuesday after police raided his Bangkok apartment and found a computer containing hundreds of photos of naked boys and girls, Apichart said.

His arrest came after Thai police arrested Christopher Paul Neil of Canada on Oct. 19 on charges of having sex with several young Asian boys.

Jones was arrested after a tip-off from British counterparts, who told police Jones had been sending photos of naked children to Britain over the Internet, Apichart said.

Jones had been working as a teacher at a Bangkok private school, police said.

"It's easy for teachers to gain trust and respect from people, especially in Asian cultures which hold teachers in high regard," Apichart said.

He said police would seek records of any convictions in home countries and from Thai immigration police before teachers are hired. Police also are considering background checks of foreign teachers already in Thailand, he said.

"Academic background is one thing, but we need to also check for other information," Apichart said.

There are more than 1,000 foreign teachers legally working in Thailand, he said.

Jones, of Cardiff, Wales, has been charged with distributing pornographic photographs of children under age 15, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, Apichart said.

Another officer in the Thai Interpol office, Maj. Phongphon Iamwicharn, said Jones did not appear in the photos, and that there was evidence he had sold the pictures.

Thailand became a focus of cases of sexual abuse of children after Interpol began a manhunt for an alleged child abuser, Christopher Paul Neil, earlier this month. It issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal to identify and apprehend him.

Interpol found about 200 pictures on the Internet of Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese boys being sexually abused by a man whose face was digitally obscured. German police computer experts unscrambled the photos so the man's face was recognizable and tip-offs led Interpol to identify Neil as a suspect.

He was arrested by Thai police and charged with child sexual abuse, but police are still investigating the case.

Neil has also worked as a teacher at schools in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam.

Several Southeast Asian countries are popular among pedophiles and sex abusers because of poverty that drives children and their parents to accept money for sexual favors, and sometimes because of lax law enforcement.

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Sketches Of Baby Grace Released For Recognition

In a bid to identify the child whose body was found stuffed into a storage bin found floating in Galveston Bay, Investigators on Friday released a sketch of a smiling blond-haired girl with gaps between her teeth.

Investigators also said Friday that a forensic dentist has determined the child was younger than first predicted and is between 2 and 3 years old, said Major Ray Tuttoilmondo with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.

Houston Police Department artist Lois Gibson drew two sketches. One is a close-up of the child and the other is of a young girl sitting and wearing a white T-shirt and a pink bolero-type jacket tied in the front with three-quarter-length sleeves. The girl, whose wavy hair went to the middle of her back, wore a layered broom skirt that matched her top.

The girl's tennis shoes were white and purple with pink flowers.

The shoes have Velcro straps and light up.

Since being discovered by a fisherman late Monday, investigators have called her Baby Grace.

The child is white, weighed between 25 and 30 pounds and stood about 32 to 35 inches tall.

Authorities have been inundated with calls since asking for the public's help on Thursday, Tuttoilmondo said.

"We are getting tips literally from all over the country," he said. "We're going through every single one. This tells me that people are concerned."

The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the child had been dead for at least two weeks and suffered from a skull fracture.

The cause of death has not been determined but authorities are treating the case as a homicide.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Texas EquuSearch will host a prayer vigil for Baby Grace at the Fat Boy's Bait & Tackle, 601 Jones Lake Road, in Galveston.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Galveston County Sheriff's Office at 409-766-2222 or 866-248-8477 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

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Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station Under Pipe Bomb Threat

Security officials at the nation's largest nuclear power plant detained a contract worker with a small pipe bomb in the back of his pickup yesterday, and investigators were searching his apartment, authorities said.

Guards stopped Roger William Hurd, 61, at the entrance to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station when they spotted the bomb. He was detained about a half mile from the containment domes where the nuclear material is stored. Officials pulled his security clearances and placed the facility on lockdown.

"The guards were attentive and alert and took the appropriate action when they identified something suspicious," said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will review the incident.

Doug Walters, senior director of security for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, said Palo Verde's response was exactly as it should have been.

"We have a checkpoint for this reason," Walters said. "They were able to identify a suspicious item in the truck. I don't know what they could have done differently."

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident at Palo Verde. Hurd, of Goodyear, Ariz., told investigators he did not know how the bomb got in his truck and was released Friday afternoon.

Authorities described the device as a six-inch capped explosive made of galvanized pipe that contained suspicious residue. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was likely homemade.

"If this thing went off in the bed of the truck, it certainly would put a hole in it," Mangan said. "It was rather crude in construction, but it could certainly injure somebody."

Capt. Paul Chagolla with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said the pipe was not hidden. He said Hurd normally drove a motorcycle to work but was in a truck Friday because of the cool weather.

Sheriff's officials rendered the device safe.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said investigators searched Hurd's home but found nothing helpful. Hurd was not arrested, and Arpaio said he expects Hurd to help with the investigation.

Nobody answered the door at Hurd's apartment in Goodyear. Messages left by The Associated Press at numbers listed for Hurd in Arizona and Hartsville, S.C., were not returned as of late Friday night.

Hurd worked as a procurement engineer, responsible for evaluating equipment purchases for the plant, Palo Verde officials said.

He had access to protected areas but had not been in any such area since Aug. 21, said Randy Edington, the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co.

Edington said Hurd would have had access to the reactors but officials did not know the last time he would have been near the reactors.

The incident was considered an "unusual event" — the lowest of four emergencies the plant can declare, said Jim Melfi, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

There was no threat to the public and the station operated normally Friday, McDonald said.

McDonald wouldn't say which company employed Hurd. Like everyone who has access to the plant, Hurd submitted to a background check.

Workers also must pass through two security checkpoints to get inside one of the plant's three containment domes, which house the radioactive nuclear material. One of the checkpoints includes an automated system that sniffs workers for the presence of bomb-making materials, McDonald said.

Palo Verde, operated by Arizona Public Service Co., is the nation's largest nuclear power plant both in size and capacity. Located in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, the plant supplies electricity to about 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.

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Michael McClinton Accepts Plea Deal To Testify Against O.J. Simpson

The third man accused of taking part with OJ Simpson in a hotel armed hold-up has struck a deal and agreed to give evidence against the former sports star.

Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas, became the third man to agree to plead guilty to reduced charges in the case.

He told Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure he will plead guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. He could receive probation or up to 11 years in prison.

According to police reports, McClinton brought two guns -- at Simpson's request -- to a September 13 confrontation with collectibles dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. McClinton wielded one gun and acted like a police officer, according to others in the hotel room.

McClinton's testimony would provide prosecutors with another account contradicting Simpson's claim that no guns were involved when he went to retrieve items he said belonged to him. In brief comments outside the courtroom, his lawyer, William Terry, wouldn't say what testimony McClinton would provide.

Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has criticized Clark County District Attorney David Roger for "giving away the courthouse" while cutting deals with co-defendants.

Simpson and co-defendants Clarence Stewart and Charles Ehrlich face 12 criminal charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion, and one gross misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime. A kidnapping conviction alone could result in a sentence of life in prison with parole.

Charles Cashmore and Walter Alexander have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against the three men.

Alexander, a Simpson golfing buddy from Mesa, Arizona, told police that Simpson said to bring guns, and told him later to deny that guns were used. Alexander pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit robbery, and could face probation or up to six years in prison.

Cashmore, a union laborer from Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to felony accessory to robbery. He could receive probation or up to five years in prison.

Authorities say memorabilia taken from the hotel room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider, photos of Simpson with the Heisman Trophy, and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100,000, according to police reports.

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Nigerian Oilfield Commandos Kidnapped Six Workers From Oil Vessel

Gunmen in speedboats kidnapped six workers from an oil vessel, off Nigeria's coast at dawn on Sunday, the second attack on an oilfield in a week, officials said.

The Polish, Filipino and Nigerian workers were seized from the Mystras, some 85 kilometers (50 miles) offshore, Italian energy giant Eni SpA said on its Web site. Another Nigerian worker was reported to have been wounded in the leg, the statement said.

The Mystras, used for production, storage and offloading crude oil, is capable of producing 80,000 barrels of oil per day. An Eni spokeswoman refused further comment.

Militants have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners this year to press their demands for local control of oil revenues. The attacks since late 2005 have cut Nigeria's regular output by about 20 percent, helping send crude prices toward all-time highs.

Locals have for years demanded a greater share of the wealth in Africa's largest crude producer, and the region remains desperately poor despite its great natural bounty.

The government of President Umaru Yar'Adua has stepped up efforts to maintain calm in the Niger Delta, and violence has waned since he took power on May 29. But the latest attacks could set back plans for formal talks between the government and the main armed groups.

A militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Are Looking For A House In Europe

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are looking for a house in Europe so that their four children and future offspring can have a "broad vision of the world," the actor said in a interview.

"While we are very nomadic, we would like to have a base in Europe. More attention is paid here to what is going on in the world and it is easier to get to Africa and Asia from here," he told XL Semanal, the weekly magazine supplement of the ABC newspaper.

"We want our children to have a broad vision of the world. Spain, Italy and France have lots of quality of life and that is healthy," he added.

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www.sandiego.gov Gives Details Of Affected Homes In California Wildfires

San Diego City Councilman Brian Maienschein is walking neighborhoods and helping compile a list of homes that have been destroyed or badly damaged. He said officials will post the list on the city's Web site soon, www.sandiego.gov.

It is estimated that more than a half million people had been ordered from San Diego County homes Tuesday as wildfires rage from the Mexican border to north of Los Angeles.

Across Southern California, more than 1,300 homes had been reduced to ashes, officials said Tuesday.

About 1,000 homes have been destroyed in San Diego County alone.

A second civilian has died in the wildfires, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday afternoon. It provided no details.

Fears grew north of Los Angeles that the winds may fan three wildfires into one monster blaze, with too little resources available to fight it.

Those fires threaten more than 56,000 homes.

In San Diego County, at least 513,000 residents had been ordered to find refuge in shelters, schools and stadiums as fires pushed into new areas Tuesday.

A spokesman for the county's emergency effort told Sacramento TV station KCRA that the evacuations amount to "a mass migration."

New evacuation orders are being added frequently to the San Diego Office of Emergency Services Web site.

"People are worried," he said. "They just want to know, even if their homes are destroyed."

And officials said the crisis is far from over.

"It will not end ... until it reaches the ocean or the winds turn around," San Diego Fire Battalion Chief Bruce Cartelli said Tuesday.

Firefighters expected no break from the winds fueling the fires until midday Thursday, said Harvey Johnson, deputy administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At least 17 wildfires have scorched about 425 square miles from north of Los Angeles to southeast of San Diego since the weekend. Three of those fires were added to the list Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy ordered sailors out of barracks and onto ships to make room for evacuees.

In an e-mail to CNN, Jonathan Gallen, a doctor in Poway, described how the fires quickly closed in on his neighborhood Monday.

"My pool was completely black with soot. Like the 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' was about to walk out of there," Gallen wrote. "The soot was falling so heavily that it blocked out the sun. There was a smoke cloud above our home that seemed to stretch for miles. This was bad."

National Guard troops were posted at Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL's San Diego Chargers, as it became a temporary home to 10,000 fire evacuees, many whose eyes were red -- a combination of fatigue and irritation from smoke. Volunteers tried to keep spirits up by handing out chairs, cots, food and water.

Among the volunteers was Tony Bradley, a restaurant worker by night and a magician by day. He strode through the crowd captivating youngsters by twisting balloons into the shapes of animals. "That's what I'm here for, just to make them happy, make them forget about what's going on," he said.

Five of San Diego's 23 emergency shelters reached capacity Monday evening.

Sean McGough and his family fled their home in El Cajon for Qualcomm early Tuesday as the flames arrived.

"I looked out and saw the mountain engulfed in flames with a trail at least three miles long coming down," McGough said.

"When I went to bed at midnight, nothing in the East County was any immediate threat. ... Two hours later is when we got the news we needed to get out of our homes."

Anticipating more arrivals at the stadium, the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered 25,000 cots early Tuesday afternoon.

President Bush issued an emergency declaration Tuesday for seven California counties, clearing the way for federal disaster relief. The president will visit the area Thursday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Emergency officials asked for food and water for evacuees and told those still in their homes to cut electrical use so the power grid is not strained.

The Witch Fire consumed 164,000 acres, 500 homes and 100 commercial buildings between Sunday afternoon and early Tuesday, moving on a fast 20-mile westward path from its origins near Ramona into the more populated San Diego city limits and across Interstate 15. The Pacific coast was barely five miles west of the fire line early Tuesday.

"It's probably the worst this county has ever had, well in excess of the Cedar Fire. ... It looks like it's going to get worse, and we want everybody to be prepared and understand," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender said.

Bush's declaration covers the same seven counties that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited Monday: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

The U.S. Marines' Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, told only "key and essential personnel" to report to duty Tuesday. The Rice Fire is burning east of the base. At about 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET), there were two fires burning on the property of Camp Pendleton.

Residents of Fallbrook, adjacent to Camp Pendleton, evacuated as the Rice Fire burned 1,500 acres and destroyed 50 homes and damaged 30 more in nearby Rice Canyon.

A "major natural gas line leading into" Fallbrook was ruptured Tuesday afternoon and is on fire, according to the California Highway Patrol Web site.

Southeast of San Diego, the Harris Fire burned 25,000 acres. The blaze claimed the only life lost so far on Sunday and injured 17 civilians and five firefighters.

Officials said they're concerned about the fire spreading to San Miguel Mountain, the site of important communications towers.

Early Tuesday, a new fire was reported on the La Jolla Indian Reservation, northeast of Escondido, according to a state fire report monitored by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The fire has destroyed 40 houses, and people were being evacuated to the nearby Palomar Observatory, the report said.

In northern Los Angeles County, three fires have charred nearly 93,000 acres, and fire officials said they fear the Ranch, Buckweed and Magic fires could merge.

"We want to keep these fires as small as we can," said Capt. Barry Parker of the Ventura County Fire Department. If they come together, he said, "the only good thing is we would be able to share more resources."

He added, "But we would rather keep the fires individually fought."

The 54,000-acre Ranch Fire grew by nearly 20,000 acres overnight and is two miles away from the 1,200-acre Magic Fire. The blazes are straddling the line between Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Parker said he wasn't sure if they had enough resources.

"We're using a limited amount of resources to go in and fight these fires," he said. "We've got about 600 people on the Ranch Fire; we normally would have about 1,500.

"So we have to be absolutely surgical in how we plan and how we tactically use our fire equipment because we just simply don't have enough fire engines in the state of California to battle these blazes."

Two fires that erupted Monday in San Bernardino County near Lake Arrowhead have destroyed at least 123 structures and charred 1,800 acres, said Loretta Benavidez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest. Several communities in the area, including Green Valley Lake, Arrowbear and Running Springs, were evacuated.

Aerial views of the Lake Arrowhead fires showed more homes burning there Tuesday.

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