KIEV, Ukraine – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden rejected the Russian push for a sphere of influence over former Soviet nations, saying as he headed to Georgia on Wednesday that no nation could veto another country's choices.
It has been almost a year since Georgia's war with Russia turned the small nation on the far frontier of Europe into the epicenter of the simmering conflict between Moscow and the West. President Barack Obama's attempt to rebuild relations with Russia has raised concerns among some of Russia's East European neighbors that the U.S. might abandon their interests.
Biden has been attempting to assuage those concerns on a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia.
As Biden headed to Georgia on Wednesday, its government was taking steps to prevent more mass demonstrations by the opposition, generated in part by Georgia's defeat in the war.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's government was shaken this spring by mass street protests demanding his resignation. Ahead of Biden's arrival in the Georgian capital, police were removing dozens of metal cages the opposition had erected in front of the country's parliament to block traffic along Tbilisi's central street.
No arrests were reported, and no resistance from opposition activists was visible along leafy Rustaveli Avenue, which remained closed to vehicles after police set up portable metal fencing. The cages were meant to represent jails — a sign, opponents say, of Saakashvili's increasing authoritarianism.
The vice president also will meet with leading members of the opposition who had taken part in the monthslong demonstrations. Political foes blame Saakashvili for the August war's disastrous results and accuse him of riding roughshod over democratic rights.
Saakashvili has said he tried to defend Georgia from Russian aggression, and he announced a series of political reforms Monday meant to address his critics' complaints that his administration was restricting rights.
After Georgia used military force to try to seize a breakaway region from Moscow-backed separatists in August, Russia sent tanks and warplanes deep into Georgian territory, crushing the country's army. The conflict ended hopes in the West that Russia, after recovering from the economic and social turmoil of the post-Soviet era, would become a docile, democratic member of the club of European nations.
Instead, Russia has tried to reclaim its historic role as an assertive regional power with global ambitions.
In a speech in Kiev, Ukraine, on Wednesday, Biden said: "As we reset the relationship with Russia, we reaffirm our commitment to an independent Ukraine, and we recognize no sphere of influence or no ability of any other nation to veto the choices an independent nation makes." He reiterated Washington's support for Ukraine's NATO membership, if Ukrainians decide to pursue that goal. Currently, more than half of the country is against it.
Biden also urged the feuding Ukrainian leaders to seek a compromise and concentrate on reforming a devastated economy. Biden met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday and Wednesday.
During his two days of talks with Saakashvili and opposition leaders in Georgia, the vice president plans to demonstrate support for the loyal U.S. ally. The Russia-Georgia war capped years of increasing tensions between the West and Russia, a country key to U.S. and European efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, battle terrorism and secure Europe's energy supplies.
Shortly after the Georgian war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that Moscow has a "zone of privileged interests" among former Soviet and Eastern European satellites. The U.S. and Europe have rejected sphere-of-influence geopolitics, which give great powers sway over their smaller neighbors. And they show no signs of backing down.
Neither do they seem willing to risk a confrontation with Russia on the issue.
The U.S. has pledged to support NATO membership for Georgia as well as Ukraine. But Germany and other European member states are skeptical.
Domestic support for NATO membership is significantly greater in Georgia than in Ukraine. Georgian Defense Minister David Sikharulidze told The Associated Press on Wednesday that entry into the alliance would be beneficial for NATO in peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and operations in Afghanistan. He said Russia "should not be allowed to kill these hopes."
_____

Associated Press Writer Douglas Birch contributed to this report from Tbilisi, Georgia.

(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with police clearing opposition cages in Tbilisi; Georgian defense minister's comments; ADDS photos. corrects contributor's line. Biden scheduled to arrive in Georgia at 1415 GMT.)

NEW YORK – Court records show actor Stephen Baldwin is millions of dollars in debt and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
A filing Tuesday in federal court in New York shows that Baldwin owes $1.2 million in two mortgages on a property about 30 miles north of New York City valued at $1.1 million. The document shows he also owes more than $1 million in taxes and has about $70,000 in credit card debt.
His wife, Kennya Baldwin, is also named in the filing.
Baldwin's lawyer, Bruce Weiner, did not immediately return a message left for him late Tuesday.
Baldwin has appeared in several films including "The Usual Suspects." Last month, he left the Costa Rican set of the NBC show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" after he said he got more than 125 insect bites in eight days.

NEW YORK (AFP) –
Oil prices bounced higher Monday, buoyed by improved optimism about recovery from global recession that also lifted stock markets.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, added 42 cents to close at 63.98 dollars a barrel, its fourth straight gain.

The New York contract has increased a hefty 4.44 dollars a barrel over the past four sessions.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for September delivery surged 1.06 dollars to settle at 66.44 dollars a barrel.

"Traders seem to be daring to take a risk as economic optimism comes storming back," said Phil Flynn of PFG Best Research.

European stock markets rallied Monday and Wall Street was solidly in the green in late-session trading.

"I still think the stock market is still the biggest driver of the oil market," said Ellis Eckland, an independent trader.

The rallies in the stock markets were accompanied by a decline in the dollar, under pressure from a return of risk appetite that typically leads investors away from the "safe-haven" currency.

A weaker dollar makes oil, which is priced in dollars, less expensive for buyers using stronger currencies.

"It?s been a volatile trade" in New York, where the futures contract briefly trended downward, Eckland said.

Despite the stocks rally and a falling dollar, "oil has been surprisingly weak, based on inventories concerns and demand concerns," he said.

"Unemployment continue to rise, inventories are still very high in North America, and demand is weak this summer," he said.

US stocks climbed Monday as reports of a private-sector rescue for CIT Group, a leading business lender, and an improved outlook for corporate earnings helped Wall Street extend last week's hefty gains.

Analysts said that optimism was spurred by media reports that CIT Group, which last week appeared on the brink of bankruptcy, had struck a deal with its bondholders to receive further credit to help avert its collapse.

Mike Fitzpatrick at MF Global cast doubt on the ability of the oil market to sustain recent gains.

"These assumptions about future demand as a cause for current price moves still makes us skeptical of the durability and sustainability of this particular move," he said.

"This is not to say prices will not be able to make new highs on little more than ephemera; we have all seen that before."

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is considering whether to pay off Afghan farmers to stop them from growing heroin poppies on contract for the Taliban, senior officials said Tuesday.
Paying farmers not to plant poppy would essentially supplant U.S. cash for the fees paid up front by the Taliban to its contract farmers. The idea seems to follow logically from the administration's policy of protecting Afghan civilians and eroding support for the insurgency, but skeptics say it won't work because farmers would take the money and plant poppies anyway.
No decision has been made on whether to offer the payments, and time is short since some planting will be done in the fall.
The U.S. wants to prevent an expansion of poppy cultivation and profit-taking by the Taliban as additional U.S. forces push deep into areas of southern Afghanistan where poppy is the most lucrative crop and where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, a senior defense official said.
The United States and other partners are already encouraging Afghan farmers to grow alternative crops such as wheat, pomegranates or nuts, especially in the volatile southern provinces.
Those efforts aren't prevented widespread poppy cultivation. The Taliban offers a guaranteed market and money up front.
The payouts would be administered by civilians, presumably under State Department purview. Two administration officials said there is some civilian resistance to entwining the United States in the distasteful business of drug production, and a suspicion that farmers would play a double game.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy is under review.
Under the current policy, the United States insists that Afghan authorities crack down on poppy production and the official corruption that often goes with it, but U.S. soldiers and civilians generally adopt a laissez faire approach to individual farmers.
The Obama administration is all but abandoning the Bush administration practice of destroying poppy crops in the field, having concluded that doing so only drove farmers into the arms of the Taliban.
The Taliban has set up a sophisticated business in Helmand province and some other areas, in which farmers are paid ahead of time to be poppy sharecroppers, and the Taliban takes care of getting the crop to market.
Afghanistan is the world's leading source of opium, cultivating 93 percent of the world's heroin-producing poppy crop. While opium cultivation dropped 19 percent last year, it remains concentrated in the south. The United Nations estimates that opium poppies earned insurgents an estimated $50 million to $70 million last year.

BEIJING (AFP) –
Archaeologists in China's northern Xi'an city have excavated another 100 terracotta warriors, including a much-prized army officer, near the tomb of the nation's first emperor, state media said on Friday.

A new excavation at the famed site began over a month ago in a bid to unravel the mysteries surrounding the ancient terracotta army near Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

"Our most exciting discovery so far is the army officer," Xinhua news agency quoted chief archaeologist Xu Weihong as saying.

So far, the majority of discovered figures are archers, infantrymen and charioteers that the Qin Emperor, who had the site built, hoped would follow him into the afterlife.

Less than 10 armoured generals have been unearthed with the army, part of a burial site for Qin Shi Huang, who presided over the unification of China in 221 BC and is seen as the first emperor of the nation.

Xu said the army officer was found lying on its stomach behind four chariots, and was largely intact compared with other newly-discovered warriors, according to Xinhua.

"The original colours have faded after more than 2,000 years of decay, but a corner of the officer's robe suggested it was in colours other than the grey-ish clay," he said.

The latest excavation is the third in the site's largest pit -- one of three open to the public -- since 1974 when the army of terracotta warriors and horses was discovered by a peasant digging a well.

Up to 5,000 more life-size figures are believed to still be buried in the pit and awaiting excavation.

The Terracotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times, and was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Wireless Internet Radio

Internet radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in the world—for example, one could listen to an Australian station from Europe or America. Some major networks like Clear Channel in the US and Chrysalis in the UK restrict listening to in country because of music licensing and advertising concerns.[citation needed] Internet radio remains popular among expatriates and listeners with interests that are often not adequately served by local radio stations (such as progressive rock, ambient music, folk music, classical music, and stand-up comedy). Internet radio services offer news, sports, talk, and various genres of music—everything that is available on traditional radio stations.

On 26 April 2007, the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060) was proposed to reverse the CRB's decision. This bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL). Its Senate counterpart was introduced on 10 May 2007 by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). As of June 25 the legislation has over 100 Congressional co-sponsors.

Racing began soon after the construction of the first successful petrol-fueled autos; before that time people raced in other vehicles such as horse-drawn buggies. The first race ever organized, by the chief editor of Paris publication Le Vélocipède, Messieur Fossier, was on April 28 1887 and ran 2 kilometers from Neuilly Bridge to the Bois de Boulogne.

In December, 2005 the FIA gave approval to Superleague Formula racing, set to debut in 2008. This will be open-wheel, single-seat stock car racing around Grand Prix racetracks. The teams will be owned and run by prominent sports clubs such as AC Milan and FC Porto. The race weekend will follow the GP2 format of Saturday qualifying and two Sunday races, one featuring a reverse grid.

High Performance Driving

WASHINGTON – The two sides of Sonia Sotomayor — a privately warm, smiling everywoman who likes baseball and eating out, and the serious, well-studied and steely jurist — both held up under three days of questions from 19 senators.
President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee displayed both traits in charming some senators, disarming others and, most of all, not committing a single gaffe in a sure-footed performance this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Even critics conceded her confirmation in the next three weeks is assured.
Both faces are the same Sotomayor has worn in the 17 years she's been a fixture at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, the first six as a district judge, the last 11 as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
In the courthouse halls, she is respected for the compassion she shows when a court employee shares word of a close relative's illness and for her inclusive holiday parties. In court, she posed hard questions to attorneys and wouldn't let them off the hook until she got an answer.
This week, Sotomayor beamed warmth as she entered the hearing room each day and was greeted by a kiss from her mother, who raised her children in a South Bronx housing project with such an emphasis on education that one child is on the verge of becoming the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and the other is a doctor.
But as the chairman's gavel each day banged the committee to order and senators began firing questions at her, she transformed into the intensely focused 55-year-old jurist who chose each word as carefully as a diamond cutter works on a stone.
While listening to questions, she scribbled with a pencil or pen on a yellow pad, then spoke with a steady, slow pace, raising and lowering her outstretched hands on the black-clothed table before her for emphasis.
In the courthouse, Sotomayor has a reputation for precision in her questions and in her recollection of facts related to court precedents.
"Judges apply the law. They apply the holdings of precedent. And they look at how that fits into the new facts before them," she told the Senate committee.
Asked if she was a judicial activist, she said, "I don't use that word for judging. I eschew labels of any kind. That's why I don't like analogies. ... It's very dangerous to use analogies because they're always imperfect."
Republicans questioned her so many times about gun control, abortion, the role that judicial opinions in foreign countries should play and U.S. courts that senators started apologizing for raising them again and again.
To many of them, she offered answers that fell into a circular pattern and landed nowhere — a common occurrence in courthouse arguments as well as Senate confirmation hearings for nominees to all levels of the federal judiciary. Reactions included frustration and disappointment.
"What Americans want to see is what inside your gut says," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said at one point in trying to elicit her views on gun restrictions and the Constitution's Second Amendment right to bear arms.
He asked if Americans have a right to defend themselves in their homes if they are attacked. "Just yes or no, do we have that right?" Coburn pressed.
"I know it's difficult to deal with someone like a judge," she replied calmly, explaining that under New York law people have the right to repel a threat if they face imminent death or very serious injury. But she said it might be left for a judge or jury to decide whether the threat was imminent enough.
"Looking at this as a judge, I'm thinking ... how an answer can differ so radically given the facts before you," she mused.
Only once did she indulge her reputation for being brusk, telling Coburn: "Senator, would you want a judge or a nominee who came in here and said, `I agree with you; this is unconstitutional' before I had a case before me, before I had both sides discussing the issues with me? ... I don't know that that's a justice that I can be."
But she also let out a big laugh when Coburn, an obstetrician by profession, talked about the difference between politicians and judges near the end of questioning and offered her some backhanded praise, commenting, "I doubt I could ever get to this stage of a confirmation process."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Larry Neumeister has covered the Manhattan federal courthouse for the 17 years Sonia Sotomayor has been a district and appeals court judge there.

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "Black Hills" by Nora Roberts (Putnum Adult)
2. "Swimsuit" by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown)
3. "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's)
4. "Burn" by Linda Howard (Ballantine Books)
5. "The Devil's Punchbowl" by Greg Iles (Scribner)
6. "The Apostle: A Thriller" by Brad Thor (Atria)
7. "The Doomsday Key: A Novel" by James Rollins (William Morrow)
8. "The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Doubleday)
9. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam/Amy Einhorn)
10. "The Castaways" by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown)
11. "Return to Sullivan's Island: A Novel" by Dorothea Benton Frank (William Morrow)
12. "Shanghai Girls: A Novel" by Lisa See (Random House)
13. "Dead and Gone" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
14. "Knock Out: An FBI Thriller" by Catherine Coulter (Putnam Adult)
15. "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe (Voice)
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)

2. "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" by Mark R. Levin (Threshold Editions)

3. "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment" by Steve Harvey (Amistad)

4. "Catastrophe" by Dick Morris, Eileen McGann (Harper)

5. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)

6. "Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan" by Doug Stanton (Scribner)

7. "Excuses Begone! How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits" by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House)

8. "Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!" by Jillian Michaels and Mariska van Aalst (Crown)

9. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria)

10. "The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship" by Jeffrey Zaslow (Gotham)

11. "End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David Kessler (Rodale Books)

12. "Tears in the Darkness" by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

13. "StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press)

14. "First Things First: The Rules of Being a Warner" by Kurt and Brenda Warner with Jennifer Schuchmann (Tyndale House Publishers)

15. "The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness" by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson)

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

1. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult (Pocket)

2. "Hidden Currents" by Christine Feehan (Jove)

3. "TailSpin" by Catherine Coulter (Jove)

4. "Fearless Fourteen" by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Paperbacks)

5. "What Happens in London" by Julia Quinn (Avon)

6. "The MacKade Brothers: Devin and Shane: The Heart Of Devin MacKadeThe Fall Of Shane MacKade" by Nora Roberts (Silhouette)

7. "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

8. "Moscow Rules" by Daniel Silva (Signet)

9. "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

10. "Tsar" by Ted Bell (Pocket Star)

11. "Club Dead" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

12. "Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

13. "Devil Bones: A Novel" by Kathy Reichs (Pocket Star)

14. "Branded by Fire" by Nalini Singh (Berkley)

15. "Dead to the World" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

TRADE PAPERBACKS

1. "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine" by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions)

2. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media)

3. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)

4. "Michael Jackson: The One and Only" by Triumph Books (Triumph Books)

5. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (Mariner Books)

6. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial)

7. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square Press)

8. "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell (Back Bay Books)

9. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin)

10. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books)

11. "Olive Kitteredge" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

12. "The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel" by Garth Stein (Harper)

13. "A Summer Affair" by Elin Hilderbrand (Back Bay Books)

14. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho (Harper)

15. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris (Back Bay Books)

MUNICH – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday he is confident that the killer of a prominent human rights activist will be found and punished, while Germany's leader voiced dismay at the slaying and prodded Moscow to ensure it is investigated.
Medvedev visited Germany for regular talks between the two governments, a day after the execution-style shooting of Natalya Estemirova, a daring investigator of rights abuses in Russia's troubled North Caucasus.
Medvedev has reacted quickly to the murder, in contrast to other recent killings, promptly offering his condolences and pushing for an investigation.
Speaking at a news conference alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel, Medvedev renewed a pledge that the killing will be investigated thoroughly.
"I am sure the killer will be found," he said. "I am sure the person who committed it will be punished."
Medvedev said it was "completely obvious that the killing is connected to her professional activities."
"Her professional activities are something that is needed for any normal state," he added. "She did very important things. She spoke the truth, she openly, even maybe harshly, assessed processes going on in the country — and this is valuable, even if it is unpleasant to authorities."
The murder of Estemirova, whose body was found late Wednesday with bullet holes in her head on a road in Ingushetia, a region west of Chechnya, appeared to confirm that Russia remains a place where political murders are committed without fear of reprisal.
Merkel said she expressed her "dismay at the killing of this courageous woman."
She said she had taken note of the fact that Medvedev "has made clear everything will be done to clear up this murder, because it is an unacceptable event."
The killing "must not remain unexplained, and I believe the Russian side will do everything to arrest the perpetrators and give them their just punishment," Merkel added.
Otherwise, Thursday's meeting focused in large part on trade ties between Russia and Germany, Europe's biggest economy.
State-controlled Russian lender Sberbank, in a consortium with Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc., is currently in talks to take a majority stake in General Motors Corp.'s German-based Opel unit.
A preliminary agreement was struck in May for the consortium to move ahead with an Opel rescue, but it remains unclear when a deal might be concluded. Magna and Sberbank face competition from investor RHJ International SA of Brussels and China's Beijing Automotive Industry Corp.
Merkel said she hoped to "clear up the open questions in the coming days" and said she expected Magna "to make its contribution to that."
Medvedev said the leaders view the project "with great interest and optimism."
Separately, Germany's state-owned KfW development bank signed loan agreements totaling $73 million with six Russian banks to help finance small and medium-sized Russian companies hit by the credit crunch.
___

Moulson reported from Berlin.

Isadora Duncan made a great impact on dance costume today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries she “throws off the corset, bares her limbs, and dances barefoot” (Penrod 13). Duncan began a new look, inspired by the Greeks, of tunics and scarves. This simple costume inspired a new form of dance costume and new ways of moving (Penrod 13). This imitation of the Greek clothing freed the naturally beautiful lines of the human body and movement. This change in costume extended the dancer’s space, and caused the costume to be made to conform to the curves and shapes of the body as much as possible (Art of Production 57).

Suspenders give a better line and eliminate the bulky belt line. Their tunic, tight-fitting waist- length t-shirt, is either tucked into their tights or worn out. If it is worn out then it should just cover the pelvic area (Penrod 14). This tunic is fitted to allow more freedom for the male dancer’s strong movements. By adding elastics to the side seams, it provides a more fitted look (Harrison 115).

Sexy Halloween Costumes

TEHRAN (Reuters) –
Two badly damaged black box flight recorders have been recovered from an Iranian airliner that crashed and killed all 168 people on board, official media said on Thursday.

The cause of Wednesday's crash, the worst in Iran for six years, was still unknown, state English-language Press TV said.

The Russian-built Tupolev aircraft was en route to neighboring Armenia when it caught fire in mid-air and plowed into farmland 16 minutes after departing Tehran.

The Caspian Airlines plane exploded on impact and scattered incinerated metal and the bodies of 153 passengers and 15 crew across a wide area around a deep smoking crater gouged into the ground.

Press TV's website quoted an official as saying the two boxes, which could contain vital clues to explaining the crash, were heavily damaged but that experts were trying to retrieve data from them.

Authorities were still searching for a third black box, the semi-official Fars News Agency said.

Most of those on board were Iranians, but there were also Armenian and Georgian citizens.

Deputy Transport Minister Ahmad Majidi said DNA testing would be needed to identify the remains. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead.

"All gathered parts of dead bodies scattered in the crash area have been handed over to Qazvin's coroner office and will be transferred to Tehran's coroner office today," he said.

About 40 relatives and friends of the victims plan to fly from Yerevan to Tehran on Thursday, Caspian Airline official Arlen Davudyan told Reuters at Yerevan Airport.

Most of them were dressed in black. It was not clear whether they would continue to the crash site north of Tehran.

"I lost by best friend. He was almost a brother ... I'm flying to Tehran to pay my condolences to his wife and kids." said Mehdi Sohrabi, a 27-year-old Iranian who studies in Armenia.

Fina Karapetian, an Armenian in her 30s, said her sister and two nephews, 11 and 6, were on board the Tu-154 plane.

"Her husband cried on telephone, 'How will I live without them.' He has no more family," she said. "My mother and father have almost gone out of their minds."

OLD FOE OFFERS CONDOLENCES

The United States, the Islamic Republic's arch foe, extended condolences on Wednesday to families of the victims.

Washington has no diplomatic ties with Tehran but has been trying to reach out to the country as part of an effort to coax it into negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.

"The United States extends it condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in today's crash of a Caspian Airlines plane carrying passengers from Tehran, Iran to Yerevan, Armenia," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

U.S. sanctions bar the sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran and hinder it buying other aircraft or spares from the West, many of which rely on U.S.-built engines and parts. Instead, Iran has turned to buying and leasing Russian-made craft.

Air safety experts have said Iran has a poor record, with a string of crashes in the past few decades, many involving Russian-made aircraft. It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.

It was the deadliest crash since 2003 when an Ilyushin Il-76, also Russian built, crashed into an Iranian mountain.

Tehran-based Caspian Airlines was set up in 1993 and flies an all-Tupolev fleet linking Iranian cities and also routes to the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Armenia.

(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari in Tehran, Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan and Washington bureau; Editing by Jon Hemming)

WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed on Wednesday retired astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator of NASA, just in time for the space agency's 40th anniversary celebrations of man's first steps on the moon.
His confirmation also came just hours after the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, which began a 16-day mission to the international space station.
The Senate confirmed Bolden to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration without objection. Bolden, who has flown in space four times and was an assistant deputy administrator at one point, will be the agency's first black administrator.
Former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver was also confirmed as the agency's No. 2.
The confirmation allows Bolden to be sworn in by July 20, 2009, 40 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Bolden told senators last week that if the U.S. chooses to lead in technology, it must commit to, among other measures, inspiring the rising generation of children to contribute in the fields of science and engineering as well as enhancing NASA's ability and expertise in understanding Earth's environment.
"Either we can invest in building upon our hard earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to others who are working vigilantly to push the frontiers of space," he said during a confirmation hearing on July 8.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., another ex-astronaut, said Bolden will "bring back the magic from a time when we rode rockets to the moon."
Bolden would inherit a NASA that doesn't look much like the still-somewhat-fresh-from-the-moon agency he joined as an astronaut in 1980. NASA now "is faced with a lot of uncertainty," former Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey has said.
President George W. Bush set in motion a plan to retire the space shuttle fleet at the end of next year and return astronauts to the moon and then head out to Mars in a series of rockets and capsules that borrows heavily from the 1960s Apollo program. The shuttle's replacement won't be ready until at least 2015, so for five years the only way Americans will be able to get in space is by hitching a ride on a Russian space capsule. And some of NASA's biggest science programs are over budget.
Bolden, a native of Columbia, S.C., will be only the second astronaut to run NASA in its 50-year history. Vice Adm. Richard Truly was the first.
In 2002, Bush unsuccessfully tried to appoint Bolden as the space agency's deputy administrator. The Pentagon said it needed to keep Bolden, who was a Marine major general at the time and a pilot who flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam.
Bolden was the pilot of the shuttle flight that launched the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit in 1990.

SYDNEY – The first battered bodies were found on a small Australian beach, the white sand around them stained crimson with their blood. A few days later, the killer struck again — this time on the nearby cliffs overlooking Sydney Harbor. The cluster of victims were covered in bite marks, their tiny tummies slashed open.
Through blood-spatter evidence and DNA testing, a profile of the killer began to emerge: Stealthy. Fast. Furry.
What is killing the little penguins in Sydney's beachside suburb of Manly? A fox? A dog? Both?
The investigation so far has yielded some clues. Officials can almost certainly rule out humans; the bite marks and blood patterns point to foxes, which often hold prey in their mouths and prance around shaking it, said Sally Barnes, head of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.
To Manly's "Penguin Wardens," a 30-member group of volunteer penguin protectors who spend hours each night guarding the birds, the culprit behind what they've dubbed the "Massacre at Manly Point" is less important than making sure it doesn't happen again.
"It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from," said grief-stricken chief penguin warden Angelika Treichler, a 67-year-old retired teacher who has been watching over the fluffy blue-and-white waddlers nearly every night for the past five years.
The investigation into the nine penguin deaths to date — and efforts to protect those still alive — has spread beyond the wardens to the New South Wales government. The parks service has sent DNA samples to a lab, but won't have results for at least a week.
As they hunt for the killer, parks service officials have set fox bait and traps, and warned residents to keep dogs locked up or on a leash.
"Really, it doesn't matter whether it's a fox or dog — we're not going to wait for the results," Barnes said. "We're just throwing everything we can at keeping the penguins safe."
This week, the parks service sent two "snipers" — trained sharpshooters from the state pest authority, armed with night vision goggles and .22-caliber rifles — to the cliffs to kill any foxes caught in their crosshairs.
Extreme? Not so much. This is, after all, a country that's considering building fences across chunks of Tasmania to help prevent endangered Tasmanian Devils with a contagious cancer from infecting the healthy population.
"Australians are generally animal lovers, and I think they're also very connected to native animals," Barnes said. "So they will do whatever's reasonable to protect particularly endangered ones."
And, as Manly Mayor Jean Hay noted: "Everybody's saying, 'Do whatever it takes to protect them.'"
To an outsider, however ...
"Snipers?" U.S. tourist Christy McLeod asked from her seat on Manly wharf, eyes darting to the sand where her son was playing. "Really?"
Not anywhere nearby, she was assured. And their targets are foxes, not people.
"That's creepy," she muttered. "They're PENGUINS."
Little penguins, actually. Also known as fairy penguins, they are the world's smallest penguin species, standing around a foot tall.

They are often seen in southern Australia and New Zealand, but are rare in New South Wales; the 120 that live in Manly are the only breeding colony left on the state's mainland, and they are considered endangered by the state government.

Five years ago, Treichler noticed a small group of penguins shuffling each night from the ocean to their nests under the wooden ramp leading to the adjacent beach. She was smitten — and petrified. Who would ensure their safety?

Thus began her nightly vigils next to the birds' nests. She puts off what most would consider important tasks — such as hip replacement surgery — until the three months of the year that the penguins head out to sea.

Others soon joined her, and today, 30 volunteer Penguin Wardens rotate night shifts. Aside from dogs and foxes, 22-year-old warden Elissa Barr cited other dangers: Flash photography disorients the birds. Trash can get stuck around their necks. And drunks sometimes step — and, Barr noted dryly — urinate on them.

But the volunteers can't be everywhere, as evidenced by the recent killings.

Treichler believes the birds were taken during their nightly march home. "In autopsies that were done, they had fresh fish in their tummies," she said from her perch on the Manly pier, the chilly nighttime breeze ruffling her white hair.

So the wardens stepped up their watches. On this night, seven stand guard over a nest of four. The birds are laying low, including the normally flamboyant Mr. Stickybeak. Treichler believes the silence from the private beach where the latest slaughter happened has alerted the Stickybeaks and their neighbors — Mr. and Mrs. Silverwing — to the danger.

"They are usually singing their love songs," she said. "But it's eerily quiet at the moment."

Suddenly, a man and his 6-year-old son approached with unsettling news: Just yesterday, they saw a dead penguin at a beach south of Sydney.

"Did he have his tummy opened?" Treichler asked.

"Yeah," the man replied. "And he was missing his head."

Treichler's face fell. A pained murmur rustled through the group.

"That's a fox," Treichler said.

She and another volunteer scurried off to check on the nests at the private beach. As she slipped away into the night, she conceded with a smile: "It's a bit illegal."

But the chief penguin warden had a job to do. Somewhere in the darkness, the killer still lurked.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars.
Josh Muszynski (Moo-SIN'-ski) checked his account online a few hours later and saw the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500 (twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars).
Muszynski says he spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the string of numbers and the $15 overdraft fee.
The bank corrected the error the next day.
Bank of America tells WMUR-TV only the card issuer, Visa, could answer questions. Visa, in turn, referred questions to the bank.
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Information from: WMUR-TV, http://wmur.com