Jinjiang Textile

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) –
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid has signed a contract extension through the 2013 season, the team said Wednesday.

During Reid's 10 years in charge, the Eagles have captured five division titles, played in five NFC championship games and made the playoffs seven times.

"I'm a piece of the puzzle here," a reserved Reid told a news conference. "By my waist size, I'm a big piece. But in reality I'm just a piece of the puzzle."

The 51-year-old Reid has a 115-73-1 record with the Eagles, who are 8-4 this season and tied for the lead in the NFC East with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Eagles, however, have never won the Super Bowl. They reached the title game following the 2004 season but lost to the New England Patriots 24-21.

"Our number one priority by far is to win a Super Bowl," said Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. "That really goes without saying. One of the reasons for this contract extension is the obsession and the prioritization of that.

"There's been so much accomplished over the last decade with multiple division titles and an incredibly unusually successful decade in every measure. The one remaining priority is to win a Super Bowl championship and go from there.

"That's what this organization is obsessed with."

Despite following that Super Bowl season with a 6-10 record, Lurie said there was never "one seed of doubt" that Reid was the right person for the job.

"When you find the right people, you want to achieve great stability," he said. "The players seek stability when they have the right coach.

"And this is a great message to Andy Reid, everyone in the organization and particularly the players."

(Writing by Steve Ginsburg in Washington; editing by Justin Palmer)

Wireless Outdoor Speakers

The terms for different speaker drivers differ depending on the application. In 2-way loudspeakers, there is usually no driver called "mid-range". Home stereos use the designation "tweeter" for high frequencies whereas professional audio systems for concerts typically designate all types of high frequency drivers as "HF" or "highs" or "horns".

Designers can use an anechoic chamber to ensure the speaker can be measured independently of room effects, or any of several electronic techniques which can, to some extent, replace such chambers. Some developers eschew anechoic chambers in favor of specific standardized room setups intended to simulate real-life listening conditions. A few of the issues speaker and driver designers must confront are distortion, lobing, phase effects, off axis response and crossover complications.

BAGHDAD (AFP) –
Five massive vehicle-borne bombs rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 127 people, including women and students, and wounding hundreds in the third co-ordinated massacre to devastate the city since August.

The attacks undermined the government's claims of improved security and came hours before the war-torn country said its general election, the second since the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein, would be held in early March.

A senior security spokesman said the attacks -- four by suicide attackers in cars or minibuses targeting key government buildings -- bore "the touch of Al-Qaeda."

The United States, United Nations, Arab League and Britain led international condemnation, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling the bombings "horrendous" and "unacceptable."

Related article: Emergency workers soldier on.

One suicide bomber detonated his payload at a finance ministry office, another struck at a tunnel leading to the labour ministry and a third drove a four-wheel-drive car into a courthouse.

"The suicide bomber drove up to the court and the security forces tried to stop him by firing their Kalashnikovs, but they did not kill him before he exploded," police sergeant Emad Fadhil told AFP.

A fourth suicide bomber in a car struck a police patrol in Dora in southern Baghdad, causing 15 deaths, 12 of them students at a nearby technical college, an interior ministry official said.

Another car bomb hit interior ministry offices in central Baghdad.

The first explosion in the city centre was heard at 10:25 am (0725 GMT), another followed within seconds and a third came one minute later.

The courthouse bombing destroyed a large part of the building, with falling concrete killing several people, emergency workers said.

Mangled wrecks of cars, some flipped on their roofs, lined the street opposite the courthouse, and several parked vehicles were crushed by collapsed blast walls.

Near the finance ministry, several houses were completely destroyed and a two-metre (6.5-foot) deep crater marked the site of the explosion.

Tuesday's bombing was the third against the finance ministry since 2007.

Although no group has yet claimed responsibility, the timing of the blasts and the fact that three targeted government buildings suggested an Al-Qaeda operation.

Related article: Recent bloodshed in Iraq.

The interior ministry official said 127 people had been killed and 448 wounded in the bombings.

"This has the touch of Al-Qaeda and the Baathists," Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for security operations in Baghdad, told AFP, referring to the outlawed Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam.

Both groups were blamed for bloody attacks -- including truck bombings of the finance, foreign and justice ministries -- in Baghdad in August and October that killed more than 250 and punctured confidence in Iraq's security forces.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called Tuesday's attacks a "cowardly" attempt "to cause chaos... and hinder the election," and said they were deliberately timed to come after MPs on Sunday agreed on a new electoral law.

He blamed "foreign elements" who backed Al-Qaeda.

"Such attacks are war crimes," London-based rights group Amnesty International said in a statement.

In response to the blasts, parliament called for Maliki and Iraq's security ministers to answer MPs' questions in the Council of Representatives on Thursday.

Those caught up in the devastation described scenes of horror.

"I heard the sound of the explosion, I fainted, then I found myself on this bed covered with blood," Um Saeed, who was wounded in the face and arms by the courthouse blast, told AFP at a local hospital.

Jamal Amin, who works at a restaurant near the finance ministry, said: "I was standing in front of the restaurant. People started to shout, 'suicide bomber, suicide bomber!'

"I saw a mini-bus, and then the explosion happened and I lost consciousness. I woke up in the hospital."

An official at Medical City hospital said many of the 39 bodies they had received "had been blown apart."

Violence across Iraq dropped dramatically last month, with the fewest number of deaths in attacks recorded since the invasion in 2003. Official figures showed a total of 122 people were killed in November.

Both the Baghdad government and the US military have warned of a rise in attacks in the run-up to the election.

Presidential chief-of-staff Nasser al-Ani told Iraqi state television on Tuesday the election will be on March 7, after the presidency council said earlier that March 6 had been chosen as the date for the vote.

LOS ANGELES – Bess Lomax Hawes, who sang with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, co-wrote the Kingston Trio hit "M.T.A." and spent a lifetime documenting American folklore in recordings and films, has died at age 88, her family said Monday.
Hawes, who moved to Portland, Ore., from Los Angeles two years ago, died there Friday of natural causes, according to her daughter, Corey Denos of Bellingham, Wash.
Hawes, who was the daughter of legendary folk musicologist John Lomax, grew up helping her father collect and transcribe field recordings of folk musicians for the Library of Congress in the 1920s and '30s.
In the 1940s, she had joined Guthrie, Seeger, her husband, Butch Hawes, and others in a popular, if loose-knit, folk group called the Almanac Singers that Seeger has since joked never bothered to rehearse until it got onstage. Her brother, musicologist Alan Lomax, had made some of Guthrie's earliest recordings.
In a 2002 interview, Hawes recalled bumping into Seeger one day in New York City. She had just graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and was working as a librarian.
"He told me he formed this little music group and would I like to be in it," she said.
In the Almanac Singers, Hawes and the others collaborated on numerous songs, never crediting them to any one writer.
"As a group, they wrote a lot of songs, usually in support of union movements," Denos said.
In the late 1940s, Hawes and Jacqueline Steiner co-wrote "M.T.A.," a whimsical, banjo-driven tale of a harried commuter named Charlie who gets on a Boston subway, learns he doesn't have the proper fare and is never allowed to get off. Often called "Charlie and the M.T.A.," it became a hit for the Kingston Trio a decade later.
Hawes, meanwhile, moved to Los Angeles with her husband in the 1950s, settling into what was then a bohemian community in Topanga Canyon.
She later joined the faculty at California State University, Northridge, which honored her with a Phenomenal Woman Award in 2004. In the 1960s and '70s, as a professor in the anthropology department, she made several documentary films exploring American music and folklore.
She also taught banjo, guitar and mandolin.
She moved to Washington in the mid-1970s, where she was director of the National Endowment of the Arts' folk arts program until retiring in 1992. Then-President Bill Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1993.
Besides her daughter, Hawes is survived by two other children, daughter Naomi Bishop and son Nicholas Hawes, both of Portland, Ore., and six grandchildren.
Denos said a private family service is planned next week, with public services expected later.

BOSTON – President Barack Obama's aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish that she no longer has contact with him and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.
Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH'-nee awn-YAHN'-goh) told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.
Onyango, the half sister of Obama's late father, says she has exiled herself from the family after attending Obama's inauguration because she didn't want to become fodder for his foes. Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.
"Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all," said Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.
The Obamas are her only family in the United States, she said.
"It is very sad when such a thing happens. There are people, outsiders, you know, they come in between, they divide a family," she said last week. "It's not easy."
Onyango, 57, is protective of Obama and said she never asked him to intervene in her case and didn't tell him about her immigration difficulties.
"I carry my own cross," she said. "He has nothing to do with my problem."
The White House said Obama has had no involvement in his aunt's case and believes it should run its ordinary course.
Onyango helped care for the president's half brothers and sister while living with Barack Obama Sr. in Kenya. She moved to the United States in 2000 and applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004.
However, she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston. She had been a health care volunteer, but not since her status became public. She refused to discuss how she affords to live now or who is paying for her attorney.
Onyango said she previously had no trouble visiting Obama when he was state senator in Illinois or after he became U.S. senator, though she declined to discuss details of how often she had contact with Obama and his family. Her tiny apartment in a modest subsidized public housing complex for seniors and the disabled is adorned with photographs of her with Obama at the Illinois Statehouse, the president's official portrait, his family, the inauguration, her children and African wildlife.
She is disabled and learning to walk again after being paralyzed for more than three months due to an autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Her status as an illegal alien was revealed in October 2008, days before Obama was elected. Obama said he did not know his aunt was living in the U.S. illegally and said he believes the law should be followed.
A judge agreed to suspend Onyango's deportation order in December and reopened her asylum case. A hearing will be held in February, when Onyango can present her reasons for seeking asylum. The judge will then decide if she will be deported.
Her attorney, Margaret Wong, said that Onyango first applied for asylum due to violence in Kenya, an East African nation fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years. People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
Immigration experts say Onyango's relationship to the president could strengthen her claim she would be subjected to danger at home.
Onyango declined to discuss the details of her case, citing the pending appeal.

She became angry when discussing Obama's half brother who wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about the abusive Kenyan father he shares with the president. She called Mark Ndesandjo, who lives in China, an opportunist eager to capitalize on his famous brother.

Ndesandjo, who wrote "Nairobi to Shenzhen," did not grow up with Obama. He has said he wrote the book in part to raise awareness of domestic violence. But Onyango said she was Ndesandjo's baby sitter while living with his father and never witnessed any abuse.

"He was only strict and argumentative, motivating one to do the best," she said, acknowledging that in those days in Kenya "it was politically correct to slap children to discipline them just as it was done elsewhere in the world."

She said Ndesandjo's claims against a man who died 27 years ago are unfair. The senior Obama had problems with alcohol and was difficult to live with sometimes because of his frustration over years of political persecution but wasn't a child abuser or wife beater, Onyango said.

She also denounced persistent allegations that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen, saying that she is angered by the "outrageous, absurd, calculated conspiratory claim" that he was born outside the United States and is ineligible to be president. She recalled receiving a letter and photos from Obama's father announcing his son's birth in Hawaii.

Onyango reserved special words of kindness for former President George W. Bush for a directive he put in place days before the election requiring federal agents get high-level approval to arrest fugitive immigrants, which directly affected Onyango. The directive made clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Onyango.

She said she wants to thank Bush in person for the order, which gave her a measure of peace but was lifted weeks later.

"I loved President Bush," Onyango said while moving toward a framed photo of Bush and his wife standing with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House on inauguration day. "He is my No. 1 man in my life because he helped me when I really needed that help."

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi official says the death toll from the unusually heavy rains that hit western Saudi Arabia has reached 106.
The official says rescue teams were looking for possible survivors from the downpours that caused heavy flooding in the coastal city of Jiddah, the main entry point for the millions of Muslims performing the annual hajj pilgrimage. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
The deaths have been blamed on flooding and collapsed homes and bridges.
Sami Badawood, spokesman of health services in Jiddah, says in a statement that area hospitals have been equipped to deal with any possible outbreaks of diseases resulting from the flooding, such as dengue fever.

CHICAGO – Deal-craving shoppers helped a trio of prominent U.S. retailers report Tuesday that their third quarter managed to improve this year.
From Target Corp.'s cheap chic shoppers to Saks Inc.'s luxury loving customers, there were signs consumers were willing to splurge on a few extras. Just barely.
At Target, in-store revenue rose along with foot traffic during the three-month period, but shoppers were still buying fewer items during each trip. But shoppers at both stores and discount retailer TJX Cos. surprised analysts in seeming more willing to indulge.
"We're continuing to see improving sales trends across the board," said Morningstar analyst Kim Picciola. "All three of them benefit from improving demand for discretionary goods."
Of the retailers that reported Tuesday, TJMaxx's parent company, TJX, fared best, with quarterly profit up 32 percent. It also said early holiday sales are strong.
"This presents a huge opportunity for us to capture a piece of the increased consumer spending when the economy improves," TJX Cos. President and CEO Carol Meyrowitz told investors.
TJX's profit was $347.8 million, or 81 cents per share. Revenue rose 10 percent to $5.24 billion
At Target, profit climbed 18 percent, helped by ongoing cost-cutting efforts along with better sales in its stores — which climbed 1.4 percent — and improvement in its credit card business.
The company earned $436 million, or 58 cents per share, during the three months that ended in late October. It earned $369 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. Its revenue rose 1.1 percent to $15.28 billion
And Saks managed to post a surprise profit for the first time in 18 months as the company began selling more luxury brands starting at lower prices to capture consumers' dollars. The company has been working with suppliers to lower prices on designer goods.
Saks earned $1.9 million, or 1 cent per share, for the period — sharply better than last year's $43.7 million loss.
Revenue slid 8.5 percent to $631.4 million.
"I think there have been some changes in the luxury consumer," Chief Executive Steve Sadove said on a call with analysts. "People are very much focused on value."
That same appetite for discounts has retailers tempering their holiday forecasts as they expect promotions to get even more competitive.
Target, which has engaged in a discounting fight with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said it expected markdowns and sales to drive business this season. While those tactics can draw big crowds, they also cut into profits.
Target executives said they planned to kick off their holiday shopping season before most American carve their turkeys, launching a one-day sale Thanksgiving Day on Target.com before the traditional Black Friday shopping sprees begin the next day. The company's also heavily promoting its low prices.
Wal-Mart batted back Tuesday afternoon, saying it would temporarily cut prices up to 60 percent on popular toys and video games beginning Saturday and lasting through Black Friday, when a surge of shoppers usually help stores break into profitability for the full year.
The day marks the kickoff of holiday shopping for many shoppers, but its importance has faded in recent years as merchants started hawking the deep sales and expanded hours usually reserved for then well in advance.

The holiday forecast from TJX, which also owns Marshalls and HomeGoods, was conservative.

"It's going to be fiercely competitive this holiday season," Picciola said.

Target shares fell $1.50, or 3 percent, to $48.79 in late-afternoon trading Tuesday while TJX shares slid 76 cents, 1.9 percent, to $38.76. Saks stock climbed 28 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $6.69.

Cowboy Boots

There are two basic styles of cowboy boots, western (or classic), and roper. The western style is distinguished by a tall boot shaft, going to at least mid-calf, with an angled "cowboy" heel, usually over one inch high. A slightly lower, still angled, "walking" heel is also common. Although western boots can be customized with a wide variety of toe shapes, the classic design is a narrowed, usually pointed, toe.

* 1 History
* 2 Design
* 3 Fitting
* 4 See also
* 5 References

On the streets of Guangzhou and nearby Shenzhen, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo is turning heads. Since holding a press conference for his semiautobiographical novel Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Novel of Love in the East on Nov. 4, Ndesandjo, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has appeared on television in Hong Kong, and his picture has been splashed on the front pages of the China Daily, the South China Morning Post and other regional newspapers.
Ndesandjo had shunned the limelight until now. He is one of two children born to Barack Obama Sr. and his third wife, an American teacher named Ruth Nidesand, whom Obama Sr. met while the two were students at Harvard. Tall and slim like the President, Ndesandjo had avoided any association with the Obama name. For most of his life, he used only his stepfather's Tanzanian surname Ndesandjo, but he's now added Okoth, a word from the language of his father's Kenyan tribe, the Luo, as well as his original surname, Obama. (See Barack Obama's family tree.)
His novel, written in diary form, is based on his own experiences growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father and moving to China where he fell in love with a Chinese woman and began working with orphans. President Obama's name is mentioned just once, when Ndesandjo thanks several people, including "Barack," in the foreword. With this book, Ndesandjo says he's stepping into the public eye in order to raise awareness of domestic violence, promote volunteerism and share his tale of starting a new life in a new land. "I am an Obama, and a large part of my life was a repudiation of that," Ndesandjo tells TIME. "To a certain extent, my brother ... opened my eyes to things that I had left behind for a long time." (Ndesandjo is still reticent about detailing his personal life beyond the fictionalized account, saying he may save that for a second book, a true autobiography.)
Ndesandjo's life was hardly ordinary even before the world discovered his connection to the President of the United States. Educated in international schools in Nairobi, Ndesandjo, an American citizen, moved to the U.S. after high school, where he earned physics degrees from Stanford and Brown as well as an executive M.B.A. from Emory University. Soon after 9/11, he was laid off from his marketing job at telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks in Atlanta. He decided to reinvent himself by moving to China, a country he had visited with classmates while at Emory. Since 2002, he has taught English and worked as a business consultant in Shenzhen, a 14 million–strong metropolis in southern China, just across the border from Hong Kong. (See the story of Barack Obama's mother.)
His self-published book was released just days before his brother's visit to China. Ndesandjo says he plans to introduce his wife, a native of Henan province whom he married last year, to his brother before he leaves China on Wednesday. During the course of TIME's interview in Guangzhou, Ndesandjo, who speaks fluent Mandarin and practices Chinese calligraphy, was overwhelmingly positive about his life in China, the Chinese people and culture. "I'm so happy my brother is coming to China because I've experienced the warmth and the graciousness of the Chinese people," he says. "If we can continue seeing the mutual positive points in these two great cultures, I think it'll be good for the world in general."
The two brothers have met a handful of times in their lives, the last of which was during Obama's inauguration in Washington. In his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his first encounter with his brother, an ambitious student who had severed ties with his father's side of the family as well as his African roots. "I don't feel much of an attachment [to Kenya]. Just another poor African country," Ndesandjo says in Dreams. He goes on to say, "You think that somehow I'm cut off from my roots ... Well, you're right."
One of Obama Sr.'s eight children with four women, Ndesandjo was raised by both birth parents until their divorce in the early 1970s. He has refused to tell reporters his age, but he is likely to be in his early 40s. Ndesandjo says his father was brilliant, but that alcoholism drove him to beat his wife and children. "The relationship I had with my father was a difficult one," he says, fighting back tears. "I didn't have positive memories of my dad because of domestic violence."
Ndesandjo says his mother, who runs a kindergarten in Nairobi, inspired him to work with children. A trained pianist, he has given piano lessons to Chinese orphans and performed at an event in January that raised $37,000 to alleviate poverty in China. Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, the organization that sponsored the charity event, has been a close friend of Ndesandjo's for the past six years, but only learned of his friend's relationship with the President last year when reading news reports. "He's a very private person and he wanted to continue to live his modest lifestyle," says Seyedin. "But his primary message is raising awareness of domestic violence and to get the message out, you have to go public." To underline this message, Ndesandjo has arranged for 15% of the proceeds from book sales to be used to help orphans in China.
As a Kenyan-American in China, Ndesandjo is part of a growing community of Africans migrating to cities like Guangzhou to do business. Ethnic strife in China has made headlines in recent months after 200 Han and Uighur Chinese were killed in July, in the worst ethnic violence in decades. That same month, a Nigerian man was critically injured trying to escape one of many visa checks in Guangzhou's sizeable African neighborhood. Also this year, a half–African American, half-Chinese contestant on a Chinese reality-TV show and a half–South African, half-Chinese athlete on China's national volleyball team became the subject of a flurry of racist comments in China's blogosphere. But Ndesandjo is optimistic about ethnic-minority life in China, saying, "If you make an attempt to understand where these attitudes come from, it can really help."
Read "The Five Faces of Barack Obama."
See behind-the-scenes pictures of Obama in Iraq.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:Obama in Asia: Five Things the U.S. and China Differ On Can Obama Get Around China's 'Great Firewall'? Hong Kong Dissidents Get Organized As 20th Tiananmen Anniversary Draws Near A New Book Reveals Why China Is Unhappy Five Things the U.S. Can Learn from China

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
No need to curse that bad driver weaving in and out of the lane in front of you -- he cannot help it, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

They found that people with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people with a different DNA sequence.

The study may explain why there are so many bad drivers out there -- about 30 percent of Americans have the variant, the team at the University of California Irvine found.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," Dr. Steven Cramer, who led the study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, said in a statement.

Cramer and his team tested 29 people -- 22 without the gene variant and seven who had it -- asking them to drive 15 laps on a simulator and then repeat the task a week later.

To their surprise, they found that those with the mutant gene did worse, consistently.

The gene controls a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which affects memory.

The team was not really looking for insights into driving but chose the driving test because it uses common skills.

"I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes," Cramer said. "I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant."

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. – A soured love affair may have led an ex-convict to gun down four men in the town that inspired the idyllic community of Mayberry on the 1960s TV series "The Andy Griffith Show," police said Monday.
Marcos Chavez Gonzalez, 29, was charged with four counts of murder in the slayings late Sunday outside a television store in Mount Airy, about 100 miles north of Charlotte.
The four were shot with a high-powered assault rifle outside Wood's TV, in the shadow of a water tower that says "Welcome to Mount Airy" and has a picture of Griffith and Opie, his son on the show.
Police do not believe the shootings were random. Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson said officers are investigating several leads, including whether it was a contract killing or repercussions from a love affair gone bad.
"This is Mayberry ... Andy Griffith's house is in spitting distance here," said Michael Wood, one of the owners of Wood's TV.
The town, population 8,700, has built a tourist trade on nostalgia for the show that continues to thrive in syndication.
Watson identified the victims — all residents of the town — as Victor Alfonso Martinez-Jimenez, 22; Javier Manuel Martinez, 21; Juan Manuel Martinez, 26; and Marcos Oviedo Aguliar, 21.
Michelle Oviedo, 21, said her boyfriend and brother were among the dead and the alleged shooter is her mother's boyfriend. She said she was sitting on her porch not far from Wood's TV when she heard the gunshots.
"When I got there, Javier and my brother were already gone," she said. "They were on top of each other."
Jose Armando Hernandez, 46, said through a translator that three of the victims were his nephews. He said his family is "destroyed" over the deaths, which he said stemmed from a problem with a woman.
Gonzalez was arrested without incident at a motel about 50 miles northeast of the town, Henry County, Va., Sheriff Lane Perry said. He was unarmed when he surrendered just before 4 a.m. to officers who had surrounded the motel.
He was extradited from Virginia and was being held in the Surry County jail. Jail workers said it was not clear whether he had an attorney.
Watson said 16 shots were fired but the assault rifle had not been found.
"It was quite a crime scene," he said.
State prison records show Gonzalez was released more than two years ago after serving more than two years on a 2002 conviction for kidnapping a minor and a probation violation.
State records show the felony kidnapping charge required Gonzalez to register as a sex offender. North Carolina's post-release supervision of Gonzalez ended in June 2006 when he returned to prison after failing to stay in contact with a probation officer, Correction Department spokesman Keith Acree said.
Nursing supervisor Sue Coe at Northern Hospital of Surry County confirmed that two people died at the store around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. She said two who were wounded died at the hospital, just across the street from the store.
By Monday, someone had set up a makeshift memorial with flowers. Mourners gathered there and some women lay on the ground crying. Someone christened the memorial with a bottle of Corona beer, which sat half empty next to brightly colored candles with photos of saints on them.

Gary Chilton, an owner of Chilton Insurance Group, which shares the building with Wood's TV, said the crime is an anomaly. Andy Griffith doesn't live there any more, but the town is still quiet.

"I'm not sure it's totally sunk in because it's so unusual. On any given Sunday there is nothing here in this parking lot. There's nothing here at all," he said. "My biggest question is why in this parking lot at all. Why Wood's TV parking lot?"

___

Associated Press writers Emery Dalesio in Raleigh and Mitch Weiss in Charlotte contributed to this report.

ALBANY, N.Y. – With the Republican out of the race and unions lining up behind their candidate, national Democrats on Monday used a high-profile campaigner and ramped up get-out-the-vote efforts to try to grab a congressional seat in a district held for decades by the GOP.
On the other side, a splintered Republican Party brought in its own big names to try to salve over wounds opened by a bruising special election campaign that has seen a maverick third-party conservative candidate outgun the hand-picked Republican.
Away from the rallies, organized labor claiming membership of 110,000 people in the sprawling 23rd Congressional District knocked on doors, staffed phone banks and flooded the radio waves to give Democrat Bill Owens its united, last-minute clout in the last 72 hours of his unpredictable campaign against Doug Hoffman, a member of the state's Conservative Party.
Hoffman and Owens scrambled in the final hours to win the district, which stretches from eastern Lake Ontario up and over to the Canadian and Vermont borders and has suddenly become a national battleground for the identity of the Republican Party.
What started as a three-way race with Hoffman initially playing the role of spoiler turned into a frantic duel when Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly dropped out over the weekend and backed Owens. She was sharply criticized in the strongly Republican district for some views, including her support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, that some conservatives balked at.
The schism has pushed high-profile support Hoffman's way, including from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others. Scozzafava was initially backed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said he was disappointed by her support of Owens following her withdrawal.
Polls have shown the two candidates nearly even in the district, which has about 45,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, had a one-word answer Monday when asked if he regrets the money and support he and fellow party officials had given Scozzafava. "Yes," he said.
He later added: "This lady clearly has an agenda that's different from most Republicans. She was out there for herself."
Speaking in Watertown on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden said the Conservatives' view is narrow and a reflection of failed Bush-Cheney policies, espousing a philosophy that "you are either absolutely right or morally wrong.'"
"We need to bring people together, not divide them," Biden said. "This is a place ... where people have strong views but not closed minds."
Meanwhile, automated calls by Rudy Giuliani, the former presidential candidate and New York City mayor who helped comfort the nation after 9/11, flooded telephone lines.
"Voting for Doug Hoffman is the only way to stop (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi from gaining one more liberal vote for higher taxes, higher federal deficits and government-run health care," Giuliani stated in his automated phone calls.
John Rich of the country music duo Big & Rich was performing Monday evening at a rally for Hoffman, where Fred Thompson, a former GOP presidential candidate and star of TV's "Law & Order," was speaking.
But the tumultuous weekend could help the Democrat out, too.
The AFL-CIO and the New York State United Teachers union united over the weekend for Owens.
"That's key for Owens," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll. "There are not many unions who have the get-out-vote potential" of the teachers union.
____

Associated Press writers Michael Gormley in Albany and William Kates in Watertown contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS 10th graf to correct time element)

CQ Politics 2010 Senatse Map

Democrats Tout Top Senate Picks But Cede Some 'Challenging' States

Chairmanship Could Help Lincoln in 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates with automatic weapons seized a cargo ship off Africa's east coast and are holding its 26 crew members hostage, anti-piracy officials said Thursday.
The pirates captured the Panamanian-flagged MV Al Khaliq some 200 miles (320 kilometers) west of the Seychelles islands early Thursday, a statement from the European Union's anti-piracy task force said.
Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said the pirates attacked the Indian-managed ship with automatic weapons.
Choong said the hijacking demonstrated a new trend for Somali pirates: actively targeting vessels very far off the coast during clear weather. He said it was the third such hijacking in a week. Pirates hijacked a Singapore-flagged bulk container last Thursday and a Chinese cargo ship on Monday.
Choong said the latest attacks brought the number of attacks off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to 178 this year, with 36 ships hijacked. He said pirates are holding seven ships and 165 crew members.
The EU task force, Operation Atalanta, said pirates also unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the Italian-flagged MV Jolly Rosso off the Kenyan coast on Thursday.
The Gulf of Aden is one of the busiest and most dangerous waterways in the world. Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since 1991 and piracy has flourished off its coast.
Somali pirates seized more than 40 vessels in 2008, pocketing an estimated $30 million in ransom.

PHILADELPHIA – Eagles coach Andy Reid says linebacker Omar Gaither will have surgery on left foot and will miss the rest of the season.
Gaither suffered the injury during Sunday's loss to the Oakland Raiders.
He is the second Eagles middle linebacker to be lost for the season — Stewart Bradley was placed on injured reserve after tearing an ACL in a preseason scrimmage.
On Tuesday, the Eagles acquired linebacker Will Witherspoon from the St. Louis Rams. Witherspoon will start for the Eagles against Washington on Monday night.

THURSDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- New research provides
further insight into how a health-boosting compound found in red grapes
may help the body fend off type 2 diabetes.

But scientists have only seen the effect in mice who received
injections in the brain, and no evidence has emerged that consuming red
wine or other products made with grapes will alleviate the blood sugar
disease.

The findings do tell scientists about how the compound known as
resveratrol works on the brain, said senior study author Roberto
Coppari.

If scientists know that the brain is a "major player," then drug
companies working on related research "will focus on a drug that will
penetrate the brain," said Coppari, an assistant professor of internal
medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Scientists have been excited about resveratrol, which is found in red
grapes, red wine, pomegranates and some other foods, appears to extend the
life spans of mice, even those fed a high-fat diet. Resveratrol appears to
mimic the effects of severely restricting food intake, which helps a wide
variety of animals live longer, Coppari said.

"You can take the spider, fish, and almost every animal in the planet,
and give 70 percent of what the animal would normally eat, and you'll see
beneficial effects," he said. "Of course, calorie restriction is very
difficult to impose on people. You will feel hungry all the time."

In the new study, Coppari and colleagues looked at the effects of
resveratrol on diabetes, not life span. Previous research has suggested
that the compound helps the body fight off diabetes.

The researchers injected either resveratrol or a placebo into the
brains of diet-induced and diabetic mice and watched to see what
happened.

Over five weeks, insulin levels returned to half of normal levels in
the mice that got the resveratrol injections, even though they were on
high-fat diets. Researchers suspect resveratrol activated proteins in the
brain called sirtuins.

The insulin levels in the other mice went up, apparently because of
their diets.

So why not drink red wine to get the same effects? It won't work,
Coppari said, since the amount of resveratrol in red wine is too low. Then
there's the matter of the barrier between the bloodstream and the brain,
which keeps things out of the brain.

"Clearly, administration of drugs to patients directly into the brain
for chronic diseases is not feasible or realistic," said Lindsay Brown, of
the University of Queensland's department of physiology and pharmacology
in Australia.

"But this study may lead to the development of compounds that are more
effective in crossing from the blood to the brain than is resveratrol,"
said Brown.

The study, which was supported by the American Heart Association,
National Institutes of Health and American Diabetes Association, was
published online in advance of its print publication in the December issue
of the journal Endocrinology.

More information

Learn more about resveratrol from Oregon State University.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – CC Sabathia taps his beefy right hand on the wooden door of his clubhouse locker and grins. Not that the power pitcher who's on a playoff roll for the New York Yankees needs a lot of luck. Still, he's not taking any chances.
"I don't want to jinx anything or say anything I shouldn't, but I've been feeling pretty good," he said. "Hopefully, I'll just keep it going, keep it rolling, and we win the whole thing."
Sabathia's dominance in these playoffs has helped put the Yankees on the brink of reaching their first World Series since 2003. They took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven American League championship series into Thursday's night game against the Los Angeles Angels.
"That's why we got CC," Johnny Damon said. "To be a workhorse during the season, of course, but to shut down teams in the postseason."
Sabathia, who defeated the Angels in Games 1 and 4, would be in position to pitch Game 7 on four days' rest if necessary. But unless the Angels regain their offensive punch, it's more likely he'll be well-rested for the World Series opener next Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
That's when Sabathia could go against former Cleveland teammate Cliff Lee, who is slated to pitch Game 1 for his new team, the Philadelphia Phillies. They defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 to clinch the NLCS on Wednesday night.
Sabathia was 2-3 with a 7.92 ERA in five playoff starts with Cleveland and Milwaukee before this season, but he's been superb this October, going 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 22.2 innings.
The Yankees' left-hander yielded five hits and one run in eight innings while striking out five and walking two in Game 4 against the Angels, throwing 101 pitches on three days' rest. He retired the last eight batters he faced.
"I never had any doubt about me being able to perform on this stage and to pitch well late in October, but it seems like people did," Sabathia said. "But I feel great."
Sabathia's go-to pitch is his changeup, something the 6-foot-7, 290-pounder added to his repertoire when he reached the majors in 2001 with Cleveland and has perfected ever since.
"That was probably the biggest thing we had trouble adjusting to," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He threw it on off-counts and had great command of it."
Sabathia cost the Yankees $161 million to acquire, but he's been economical on the mound.
In Game 1 of the ALCS, he allowed four hits in eight innings, struck out seven and walked one, going to three-ball counts just twice.
Sabathia's four shutout innings to open Game 4 marked the first time in eight career postseason starts that he hasn't been scored upon in the first four innings.
"I don't think you can say enough what he's done so far in this series," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "One of the reasons he's able to amass so many innings is he doesn't throw a lot of pitches in seven or eight innings. He can give you that almost every time he goes out. Very seldom do you see him with 100 pitches in five innings."
Sabathia said joining the Yankees this season was made easier by the addition A.J. Burnett, who came from Toronto. They've combined with veteran Andy Pettitte to form a lethal three-man rotation.
"I came here and from day one, Andy has been a big help," Sabathia said. "I talk with A.J. about emotions, when you're feeling strong how to keep that and how to keep your delivery tight."
Burnett's on-field pie-throwing after games has loosened up his teammates. When he's not cutting up, he finds inspiration from following Sabathia in the rotation.

"It seems like every night he throws I give him a hug and say, `Man, you just inspired me to go tomorrow,'" Burnett said. "That's who he is. He's a horse. He throws eight innings every time out, and he sets the tone. We talked about it when we signed him, about being able to throw back-to-back, and it's been an honor. It makes you go harder."

Girardi presides over a clubhouse full of future Hall of Famers in his own low-key manner while marveling at Sabathia's ability to keep his composure no matter how high the stakes get in the postseason.

"Sometimes people get a little overanxious or hyped up," Girardi said. "I've not ever seen that during the season with CC. He's the same guy every day. That's one of the big pluses about him because it allows him to do his job every time."

Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide.

Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

LED Light Bulbs

NEW YORK – Stung by a rash of blown calls in the playoffs, Major League Baseball is breaking tradition and sticking with only experienced umpires for the World Series.
Longtime crew chiefs Joe West, Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt will handle the games, three people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press this week.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.
In 24 of the last 25 World Series, the six-man crew has included at least one umpire working the event for the first time — baseball likes to reward newer umpires, plus replenish the supply of umps with Series experience.
In each of the last two years, there were three new umps working the World Series.
CB Bucknor was in line to work the World Series for the first time this year. But he missed two calls in Game 1 of the division series between the Red Sox and Angels, damaging his chance to get picked, one of the three people said.
Umpiring mistakes caused anxious moments for MLB in the first two rounds: Phil Cuzzi's foul call on a drive by Joe Mauer that was fair by a foot, Jerry Meals' error on a ball that bounced off Chase Utley's leg, Dale Scott's miss on a pickoff and Tim McClelland's call on a tag play, among others.
These problems ramped up calls by fans for expanded use of instant replay. Loading up with veteran umpires, however, is no guarantee of getting it right. McClelland missed an obvious double play Tuesday night in the AL championship series between the Yankees and Angels.
West, DeMuth and Davis each have worked three World Series and have been major league umpires for more than 25 years. Gorman, Nelson and Everitt all have called one World Series, and have been on the big league staff for at least 11 years.
At least a pair of first-time World Series umpires have been on each of the last five crews. Starting in 1983, the only crew that did not include a World Series rookie was 1997.
World Series umpires are chosen from the pool of 24 umpires who work in the first round, with those two dozen picked on merit. ALCS and NLCS umpires aren't in play, because umps don't work in consecutive rounds of the postseason.

DENVER (Reuters) –
A Colorado father rejected suggestions on Friday that a search-and-rescue operation triggered by fears his son had floated away in a home-made balloon was an attention-seeking hoax.

"To have people say that, I think, is extremely pathetic," Richard Heene told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Local authorities said that while they did not believe the incident was a hoax they would seek to interview the family again.

Falcon Heene, 6, was found alive in the attic of his home on Thursday -- a happy ending after several hours during which he was thought to be in the silver flying saucer-shaped balloon watched live on television as it drifted over Colorado. When the craft landed, the boy was not inside, prompting fears he had fallen out.

Falcon -- whose brother had said that he had climbed inside the balloon before it became untethered -- said he had hidden in the attic over the garage because he was scared after his father scolded him earlier for having climbed into the ballon's utility compartment.

But later on Thursday, Falcon himself aroused suspicions when asked on CNN's "Larry King Live" why he stayed in hiding so long when people were calling his name. "You guys (his parents) said that we did this for the show," he said.

Richard Heene and his wife, Mayumi, and three sons have appeared on ABC television reality show "Wife Swap" in which families swap mothers to deal with family problems. Richard Heene said the balloon was part of an experiment by the family, who are keen on scientific experiments and storm-chasing.

The family, who live in Fort Collins, Colorado, has also posted videos on You Tube.

DOUBTS

"Absolutely not," Richard Keene told CNN, asked if it was all a publicity stunt. "I'm kind of appalled that after all the feelings that I went through, up and down, that you guys are trying to suggest something else, OK? I'm really appalled."

His wife added: "What we went through the whole day is real... I really thought we might have lost him."

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told "Good Morning America" that investigators initially believed that the family was telling the truth, based on their interviews and body language.

"They were completely convinced this was the real deal and not a hoax," he said. But Alderden said Falcon's comment on CNN had prompted questions.

"Certainly, that statement that was made last night on the interview raises the questions again," Alderden said. "We do intend to go back and try and re-interview the family."

The sheriff told Denver television station KUSA that "if this turns out to be a hoax ... certainly we would seek compensation" for the cost of yesterday's search and rescue efforts.

Heene was irritated at the suggestion he had been seeking publicity.

"I'm not selling anything. This is what we do all the time," he told "Good Morning America." "I don't have a can of beans I'm trying to promote. This is just another day in the life of what we do," he said of his science experiments.

(Writing by Frances Kerry, Editing by Sandra Maler)

Animals that are commonly fed live food include bearded dragons and other lizards, various types of snake, turtles, and carnivorous fish, though other animals, such as skunks (which are sometimes kept as pets), being omnivorous, can also eat some live food, though it is unknown how common this is in practice.

They can be purchased at most pet stores and bait shops. They are also available via mail order and via internet suppliers (by the thousand). Mealworms are typically sold in a container with bran or oatmeal for food. When rearing mealworms, commercial growers incorporate a juvenile hormone into the feeding process to keep the mealworm in the larval stage and achieve an abnormal length of 2 cm or greater.

Bluebirds

The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a masquerade, a fancy dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Another very popular situation where costumes are employed are for sporting events, where people dressed as their team's representative mascot help the club or team rally round their team's cause. Animal costumes which are visually very similar to mascot costumes are also popular among the members of the furry fandom where they are referred to as fursuits.

Adult Costumes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –
The studio behind the Michael Jackson film "This Is It" on Thursday advanced its release by two days to October 28, anticipating huge demand for the movie of his final performance rehearsals just days before his death.

Sony Pictures Entertainment said choreographer Kenny Ortega, who worked with the pop star throughout his career, will direct the movie, which will combine footage of the singer's rehearsals for the "This Is It" concerts that were to have begun in London last month.

"Fans will see Michael as they have never seen him before -- this great artist at work," Ortega said in a statement, calling the footage "raw, emotional, moving and powerful."

Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25 at age 50 only weeks before he was to have started the concerts. He was rehearsing almost daily and the show's promoters, AEG Live, were shooting digital video of the practice sessions.

Following his death, AEG Live and co-executors of Jackson's estate reached a deal with Sony to make and release the movie.

The studio said Ortega has more than 100 hours of footage and that the movie will offer Jackson fans "a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer."

A planned 3-D sequence for "This Is It" will not make it into the final reel, said a source familiar with the studio's efforts.

Sony Pictures had previously set a release date of October 30, but based on expected demand, Sony advanced the film's debut.

Tickets go on sale September 27 for what will be a limited, two-week release of "This Is It" around the globe.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

WASHINGTON – Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to raise the nation's terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.
Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a publicity release from Ridge's publisher. He said the episode convinced him to follow through with his plans to leave the administration; he resigned on Nov. 30, 2004.
Bush's former homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, said Thursday that politics never played a role in determining alert levels.
Two tapes were released by al-Qaida in the weeks leading up to the election — one by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the other by a man calling himself "Azzam the American." Terrorism experts suspected that "Azzam the American" was Adam Gadahn, a 26-year-old Californian whom the FBI had been urgently seeking.
Townsend said the videotapes contained "very graphic" and "threatening" messages.
Townsend said that anytime there was a discussion of changing the alert level, she first spoke with Ridge and then, if necessary, called a meeting of the homeland security council comprising the secretaries of defense and homeland security, the attorney general and CIA and FBI directors. The group then made a recommendation to the president about whether the color-coded threat level should be raised.
"Never were politics ever discussed in this context in my presence," she said.
Asked if there was any reason for Ridge to have felt pressured, Townsend said: "He was certainly not pressured. And, by the way, he didn't object when it was raised and he certainly didn't object when it wasn't raised."
Ridge's publicist, Joe Rinaldi, said Ridge was out of town and was not doing interviews until his book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... and How We Can Be Safe Again," is released on Sept. 1.
In 2004, Ridge explained why he didn't feel the alert should be raised. "We don't have to go to (code level) orange to take action in response either to these tapes or just general action to improve security around the country," he said then.
In 2005, months after he resigned, Ridge said his agency has been the most reluctant to raise the alert level. "There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" he said during a panel discussion in May 2005. But his book appears to be the first time he publicly attributes some of the pressure to politics.
The Homeland Security Department, which Ridge was the first person to lead, faced criticism in 2004 from Democrats who alleged that raising the alert level was designed to boost support for the Bush administration during an election year.
Ridge, a former Republican congressman and governor of Pennsylvania, was widely named as a potential running mate to John McCain in 2008 before the GOP candidate choice Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany by Hans Greiner who according to legend, began hand blowing glass into Christmas decorations because he was unable to afford usual ornaments such as nuts, apples and candy.

The Christmas pickle is a pickle-shaped ornament hidden in the tree. The child who finds it first on Christmas morning receives an extra present. While the Christmas pickle is believed to be a German custom, it is fairly unknown in Germany but widely spread across the USA. In fact it is completely of American origin.

Photo Ornament

Monterey, Calif.; and Washington –
As the world watches today's presidential election in Afghanistan, Americans would do well to ponder the lessons of Vietnam.
The similarities are striking. The Republic of South Vietnam also held elections during the US intervention there, despite an ongoing counterinsurgency. Before American troops got involved, both countries had won upset victories over European powers after a decade of fighting, only to slide into another decade of largely north-south civil war.
As historian Eric Bergerud has noted, the United States lost in Vietnam ultimately not because of its deeply flawed approach to counterinsurgency, as damaging as that was, but because South Vietnam never established a government seen as legitimate by a majority of its people. Experts agree that a government that 85 to 90 percent of the population perceives as legitimate is the sine qua non of counterinsurgency success. South Vietnam never came close to achieving such legitimacy, and neither, unfortunately, has post-2001 Afghanistan. In terms of incompetence and endemic corruption, Kabul is Saigon déjà vu.
That's why we shouldn't read too much into today's election. Even if it were to yield a high voter turnout, have relatively few irregularities, and produce a strong majority for the winner, it won't give the new government legitimacy.
The father of modern sociology, Max Weber, pointed out that governments draw their legitimacy from three basic sources: traditional, religious, and legal. The first two are self-explanatory; by "legal," Weber meant Western-style democracies based on popular representation and the rule of law. And in this sense, political failure in Afghanistan was baked into the cake in the 2001 Bonn Process.
In its rush to stand up an overnight democratic success story, the Bush administration overlooked Afghan history. Indeed, it was willfully ahistorical. That's tragic, because Afghan history demonstrates conclusively and beyond dispute that legitimacy of governance there is derived exclusively from Weber's first two sources: traditional (in the form of the monarchy and tribal patriarchies) and religious. Either there has been a king, or religious leadership, or a leader validated by the caliphate (or afterwards by indigenous religious polities).
Often in Afghan history, legitimacy thus derived has been reinforced by other means, usually coercive and often brutal. For example, the rule of Amir Abdur Rahman, "The Iron Amir," (1880-1901) and that of the Taliban (1996-2001) were predicated on accepted sources of legitimacy of governance (dynastic and religious, respectively), but reinforced by totalitarian methods. These two examples make the point that legitimacy should not be conflated with popularity: having the authority to rule is quite distinct from being a popular ruler. American presidents, for example, are always legitimate leaders but not always popular ones.
This historical reality poses a major problem for the US. Democracy is not a coat of paint. A feudal society in which women are still largely treated as property and literacy hovers below 10 percent in rural areas does not magically shortcut 400 years of political development and morph into a democracy in a decade. The current government of Afghanistan's claim to legitimacy is based entirely on a legal source – winning an election. Yet this has no historical basis for legitimizing Afghan rule. The winner of today's election will largely be seen as illegitimate because he is elected.
The tragic mistake, which we warned against, was in eliminating the Afghan monarchy from a ceremonial role in the new Afghan Constitution. Nearly two thirds of the delegates to the loya jirga in 2002 signed a petition to make the aging King Zaher Shah the interim head of state, and only massive US interference behind the scenes in the form of bribes, secret deals, and arm twisting got the US-backed candidate for the job, Hamid Karzai, installed instead.
The same US and UN policymakers then rode shotgun over a constitutional process that eliminated the monarchy entirely. This was the Afghan equivalent of the 1964 Diem Coup in Vietnam: afterward, there was no possibility of creating a stable secular government. While an Afghan king could have conferred legitimacy on an elected leader in Afghanistan, without one, an elected president is on a one-legged stool.
An American cannot declare himself king and be seen as legitimate: monarchy is not a source of legitimacy of governance in America. Similarly, a man cannot be voted president in Afghanistan and be perceived as legitimate. Systems of government normally grow from existing traditions, as they did in the US after the Revolutionary War, for example. In Afghanistan, they were imposed externally. Representative democracy is simply not a source of legitimacy in Afghanistan at this point in its development. This explains in no small measure why a religious source of legitimacy in the form of the hated Taliban is making such a powerful comeback.
As was the case in Vietnam after the Diem Coup, there is little likelihood today of establishing a strong central government in Kabul which is genuinely seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people and which has significant public support across the country's ethno-sectarian divides. As a revision of the Afghan Constitution to restore a ceremonial monarchy is now highly unlikely, the only remaining option is to move away from counterproductive efforts to "extend the reach of the central government," which further undermine traditional sources of local legitimacy and resistance to the Taliban, and work instead to re-empower legitimate local authorities in a more decentralized state.
Thomas H. Johnson is a research professor at the Department of National Security Affairs and director of the Program for Culture and Conflict Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. M. Chris Mason is a retired foreign service officer who served in 2005 as a political officer on the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan's Paktika Province. He's currently a senior fellow at the Program for Culture and Conflict Studies and at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington.

BERLIN – Usain Bolt has set a world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200 meters at the world championships, adding to the gold he won in the 100.
Exactly one year after taking gold at the Beijing Games with a record of 19.30, Bolt had an even greater run Thursday. He shaved 0.11 seconds off his previous mark, as he did in setting the record in the 100 on Sunday.
Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a distant 0.62 seconds behind. Wallace Spearmon of the United States took the bronze.
Defending champion Tyson Gay was out with an injury.

GLENDORA, Calif. – California authorities say a man caused a traffic jam when he threw money onto a Los Angeles-area freeway and people dashed into the lanes to grab the cash.
California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kurt Stormes says the man tossed money from his car on Interstate 210 in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora shortly before noon Sunday.
Stormes says about 10 people ran into traffic lanes to get it.
CHP officers recovered about $1,000.
The 56-year-old man then went to the Police Department in nearby Azusa. Police Lt. Steve Hunt says the man told officers he wanted to kill himself and was hospitalized for mental evaluation. His name wasn't released.
Authorities asked anyone who picked up the man's money to turn it in so it can be returned.
___
Information from: San Gabriel Valley Tribune

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Unspeakable acts happened to a woman and her young son one balmy June night in the projects. On that, everyone can agree.
As many as 10 masked teenagers terrorized the then 35-year-old Haitian immigrant and her 12-year-old son in their home. It will be up to a jury being selected this week to determine whether the assailants included two suspects whose trial begins Tuesday.
Police say Nathan Walker, now 18, and Tommy Lee Poindexter, now 20, were among the group that sexually assaulted and beat the woman and her son after barging into their apartment in a public housing complex minutes from downtown West Palm Beach.
Even defense attorneys agree this will be a tough case to win — solid evidence, DNA, fingerprints and a co-defendant set to testify against the others.
Walker and Poindexter have pleaded not guilty to all charges, including sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary. Others are still being sought, and the investigation remains open.
Details of the crime itself are enough to make a jury emotional.
It was June 18, 2007, when police say the teens burst into the woman's apartment. Nothing but sheer terror can describe what happened next.
For three hours, the victims say, they endured horror as the mother was gang-raped and sodomized and her son beaten in another room.
Then, the mother was forced to perform oral sex on her son at gunpoint.
Afterward, they were doused with household cleansers, perhaps in a haphazard attempt to scrub the crime scene. The solutions burned the boy's eyes.
The woman would later describe how she and her son sobbed in the bathroom, too shocked to move. Then, in the dark of night, they walked a mile to the hospital because the attackers stole their phones.
Authorities say DNA evidence found on condoms inside the apartment and fingerprints identified the defendants as the culprits.
Walker and Poindexter will stand trial together, though each will have separate juries.
Two others — now 16-year-old Avion Lawson and now 17-year-old Jakaris Taylor — were set to stand trial in September.
However, Lawson pleaded guilty last week to all 14 charges, including sexual battery, burglary, kidnapping, grand theft and promoting sexual performance of a child.
"He's very sorry for what he did," Lawson's attorney, Bert Winkler, told a judge last week as the guilty plea was entered. "He's taking responsibility for everything he did and is going to cooperate fully with the state and testify if called."
Lawson, like the others, faces a maximum 11 life sentences plus 50 years, according to sentencing guidelines. While the judge has broad discretion, he still faces up to 50 years in prison at the least.
Winkler did not return telephone messages or e-mails from The Associated Press. Taylor's attorney also did not return messages seeking comment. Poindexter's lawyer and prosecutors declined to talk about the case.

Walker's attorney, Robert Gershman, acknowledged all the evidence makes the trial tough to win.

"And it will be difficult to seat a jury of fair people in this case because the allegations are such that they'll hear them, and there is automatically going to be a presumption against my client, no question," Gershman said.

CORTLAND, N.Y. – New York Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis has been suspended without pay for the team's regular-season opener and fined $100,000 by the NFL for violating the league's substance abuse policy.
The 31-year-old Ellis was arrested in November and charged with possession of marijuana, speeding and driving without insurance after being pulled over by police in Hanover, N.J., a few miles from the team's training facility in Florham Park.
Ellis' suspension means the Jets will be without two defensive starters for their season opener at Houston on Sept. 13. Linebacker Calvin Pace was suspended in July for four games without pay for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances.