Mo. golfer survives fall into Ill. course sinkhole

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mark Mihal was having good opening day on the links when he noticed an unusual depression on the fairway of the 14th hole at Annbriar Golf Club in southern Illinois.

Remarking to his friends how awkward it would be to have to hit out of it, he went over for a closer look.

One step onto the pocked section and the 43-year-old mortgage broker was plunging into a sinkhold. He landed 18 feet down with a painful thud, and his friends managed to hoist him to safety with a rope after about 20 minutes. But Friday's experience gave Mihal quite a fright, particularly after the much-publicized recent death of a man in Florida whose body hasn't been found since a sinkhole swallowed him and his bedroom.

"I feel lucky just to come out of it with a shoulder injury, falling that far and not knowing what I was going to hit," Mihal, from the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, told The Associated Press before heading off to learn whether he'll need surgery. "It was absolutely crazy."
Mihal said it was a real downer on what had been a fine outing.
With winter finally nearing an end, "it was the first day to get to play in a long time," he said. "So I wasn't expecting too much."
Golfing with buddies, Mihal was waiting to hit his third shot, some 100 yards from the pin on the par 5, when he noticed a bathtub-looking indentation about knee deep just behind him on the fairway. At just one over par for the round, the golfer with a 6 handicap was on a roll.
Mihal said he was completely surprised when the ground gave way beneath him.
"It didn't look unstable," he said. "And then I was gone. I was just freefalling. It felt like forever, but it was just a second or two, and I didn't know what I was going to hit. And all I saw was darkness."
His golfing buddies didn't see him vanish into the earth but noticed he wasn't visible, figuring he had tripped and fallen out of sight down a hill. But one of them heard Mihal's moans and went to investigate.
"He just thought it was some crazy magic trick or something," Mihal said.
Hardly.
Getting panicky and knowing his shoulder "was busted," Mihal assessed his dilemma in pitch darkness as he rested on a mound of mud, wondering if the ground would give way more and send him deeper into the pit that was 10-feet wide at the opening, then broadened out into the shape of a bell below the surface.
"I was looking around, clinging to the mud pile, trying to see if there was a way out," he said. "At that point, I started yelling, "I need a ladder and a rope, and you guys need to get me out of here.'"
A ladder that was hustled to the scene was too short, and Mihal's damaged shoulder crimped his ability to climb.
"At some point, I said, 'I need to get out of here. Now,'" Mihal recalled.
One of his golf partners, a real-estate agent, made his way into the hole, converted his sweater into a splint for Mihal and tied a rope around his friend, who was pulled to safety.
"I felt fortunate I didn't break both legs, or worse," Mihal said.
While disturbing, such sink-holes aren't uncommon in southwestern Illinois, where old underground mines frequently cause the earth to settle. In Mihal's case, the sinkhole's culprit was subsurface limestone that dissolves from acidic rainwater, snowmelt and carbon dioxide, eventually causing the ground to collapse, said Sam Panno, a senior geochemist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.
That region "is riddled with sinkholes," with as many as 15,000 recorded, Panno said.
The one Mihal survived has him debating whether returning to Annbriar is a long shot.
"It's a great course. I love the course," Mihal said, having played Annbriar a couple dozen times over the past decade. "But I would have a tough time probably walking down that hole again."
The 20-year-old course proclaims on its website that "each year new golfers are tested by our challenging 18 holes of golf."
There's no mention of its newest — and most challenging — hole.

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Older Friends Sharing Time Are Sharing Kisses As Well

DEAR ABBY: I am a semi-retired widow in my 60s. A few months ago I started spending time with a man I work with. We would see each other once or twice a month, strictly as friends. Our "dates" ended with a platonic hug.

About a month ago, a hug turned into an embrace. A week later, the embrace became a passionate kiss. Since then, whenever we get together -- now once or twice a week -- we spend a good portion of our time together "making out." We love the way each other kisses.
The problem is, we're still just friends. There is no desire on the part of either of us to take the relationship up a notch. What do we do? We should not be kissing a friend the way we do, but we can't seem to stop.
We're not hurting anyone. We have tried meeting only in public places, but there is still the goodnight kiss. I never thought I'd need this kind of advice at my age. Must we stop spending time together? -- FLABBERGASTED IN WISCONSIN
DEAR FLABBERGASTED: Not in my opinion. I assume you're both eligible. This is the way relationships develop, and you would be foolish not to see where it leads. As of now, a kiss is still a kiss. Let me hear from you in a month.

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DEAR ABBY: I am writing on behalf of hairstylists. We are busy people. Our time is money. We rarely even stop for lunch. Clients who come in talking on their cellphones are a real problem for us because they slow us down.
I have had clients jump up from my chair to answer their cellphone in the middle of a haircut -- hair flying everywhere. I have had to do a haircut around a cellphone, with the client switching the phone from ear to ear! These are not even important calls -- just casual conversations.
The lack of courtesy is ridiculous, and it seems to be getting worse. I would like people who do this to think twice before subjecting their stylist to it. They should put their phones on silent, get their hair cut or colored, and talk on their own time! -- FED UP IN NEBRASKA
DEAR FED UP: You are not helpless. This is happening because you have allowed it. If you can't find the gumption to tell your customers you don't want them using their cellphones while they're in your chair, then post a sign on your mirror that reads "Cellphones Not Allowed."
DEAR ABBY: I am a new bride. I love my husband very much, but I've encountered a problem I don't know how to handle. My husband and I were together for six years before we got married and were engaged for three. We eloped to Las Vegas (it wasn't planned) and had a "proper" celebration with friends and family later.
My husband makes comments that suggest I dragged him and tricked him into marrying me. I know he's only kidding, but it's very hurtful. I don't know how to let him know his comments really hurt my feelings. It makes me feel like he's ashamed of our marriage. -- NEWLYWED IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR NEWLYWED: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The next time your husband does it, speak up. Explain that his attempts at humor are hurtful, not to mention insulting. Ask him if he regrets marrying you. (If the answer is yes, it's important that you know it now.) Clear communication is the key to a strong marriage, and so is respect for one's partner, which he appears to be lacking.

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Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

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For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order "How to Have a Lovely Wedding." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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"Jersey Boys" production company prevails in Ed Sullivan copyright appeal

By Greg Gilman

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The producers of "Jersey Boys" have prevailed in a lawsuit alleging that the use of a seven-second clip from "The Ed Sullivan Show" was copyright infringement.

On Monday, an appellate court in California upheld a lower court's decision to award $155,000 in attorney fees to defendants Dodger Productions and Dodgers Theatricals, Ltd.

In the hit Broadway production that dramatizes the rise and eventual breakup of '60s rock 'n' roll band The Four Seasons, the quick clip of Ed Sullivan introducing the foursome is used as a transition to a live rendition of the song they performed on the late-night show. Afterward, the actor portraying Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio reflects on the band's career in comparison to the Beatles.

SOFA Entertainment, Inc., who filed the appeal in February, claimed the defendant could not justify its unlicensed use of the clip as "fair use," but Judge Stephen S. Trott ruled the company "is mistaken."

"By using the clip for its biographical significance, Dodger has imbued it with new meaning and did so without usurping whatever demand there is for the original clip," Trott wrote. "Dodger is entitled to prevail on its fair use defense as a matter of law."

And since SOFA previously tried and failed to prove copyright infringement of another property, Judge Trott believes the company should be known better.

"In light of the education SOFA received as the plaintiff in Elvis Presley Enterprises, SOFA should have known from the outset that its chances of success in this case were slim to none," Trott concluded. "Therefore, we conclude that the district court's award of attorney fees to Dodger was justified."

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Bolshoi ballet chief: threats preceded acid attack

MOSCOW (AP) — The artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet said the dancer arrested on suspicion of giving the go-ahead to an acid attack that badly burned his eyes and face had long threatened him.

Dressed in black and wearing shades, Sergei Filin told Russian state television in remarks broadcast Tuesday that someone whom he wouldn't name might have pushed leading soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko into staging the attack.

"It appears that someone had worked really well on that and pushed him into doing it, since every time, every moment, my every meeting with Pavel Dmitrichenko meant another threat, another show of dislike," Filin said.

He added that Dmitrichenko, who has recently starred in the title part of "Ivan the Terrible," was part of a "narrow circle of people who openly disliked me and threatened me and many other people."

Filin, 42, spoke energetically and skin on his face no longer looked red and swollen as in early February, when he was last seen in public before flying to Germany for continuing treatment.
Dmitrichenko told a Moscow court last week that he gave his blessing to the Jan. 17 attack, but never expected that the assailant would go as far as to throw acid in Filin's face. He said he was angry at Filin for what he described as corruption and favoritism at the theater.
Dmitrichenko was arrested by police along with the alleged perpetrator of the attack and another man accused of serving as a getaway driver.
On Thursday, 300 Bolshoi employees, including some of the leading dancers, issued an open letter defending 29-year-old Dmitrichenko. They said that police failed to produce any evidence of Dmitrichenko's guilt and argued that Dmitrichenko had been pressured into slandering himself by police.
"We think that the conclusions drawn by investigators look hasty to us, their proof unconvincing and Pavel's confession ... was a result of crude pressure on him," the letter said.
"Regrettably, the history of our country saw many occasions when investigators used unlawful and sometimes illegal means to obtain the results they needed," it added.
Rights groups say Russian police routinely use torture to extract false confessions from those they have arbitrarily rounded up, brutality that long has caused public outrage and drawn calls for an overhaul of the force.
Dmitrichenko's lawyer, Alexander Barkanov, didn't make any allegations of police abuse in the case when he attended a court session last week. Moscow police insisted in Tuesday's statement that they have been honestly doing their job and pledged to conduct a fair probe.
Reacting to the open letter by Bolshoi artists, Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov called a news conference to say that Dmitrichenko won't be fired unless found guilty.
"If the court proves his innocence, then, sure, we will have no legal grounds to fire Dmitrichenko," he said.
Iksanov said he shares the ballet troupe's concern that the "investigation could be biased" and said he believes Dmitrichenko when the dancer says he was plotting the attack, but not the violent form that it took.

The Bolshoi's director pledged to keep Dmitrichenko on payroll for the time being, but added that it is virtually impossible for a dancer to return to work after a year's break. It is unclear when his trial could start and how long it could last.

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Teenaged Olympic athlete Douglas to publish second memoir

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Olympic gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas, not yet 18, will publish her second memoir next month, publisher Zondervan said on Tuesday.

Douglas, 17, a gold medal winner at the 2012 Summer Olympics in both team and individual all-around gymnastics competition, will publish "Raising the Bar", a follow-up to her 2012 best-selling memoir "Grace, Gold & Glory: My Leap of Faith", on April 30, the publishers said in a release.

Zondervan is a division of HarperCollins that specializes in Christian-oriented books.
The book will offer a behind-the-scenes look into Douglas' life, including color photos, personal stories and details on the athlete's present-day life - from walking red carpets and appearing on TV shows such as "The Vampire Diaries" while also making time for friends, family and training.
"'Raising the Bar' explores what it's like to be an everyday teen with a not-so-everyday life," Zondervan said.
Douglas, who began training at age 6 and became the Virginia State Champion just 2 years later, made history last year when she became the first U.S. gymnast to take home a team and an individual gold medal in the same games. She was first African-American to win the individual gold.

Since the 2012 London Olympics thrust the young gymnast into the public eye, Douglas has appeared at the Democratic National Convention, the MTV Video Awards, on the cover of Time magazine and on special edition boxes of corn flake cereal, along with her gold medal.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Richard Chang)

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Preparing for Springtime Backyard Play

Warm weather is around the corner. Swing-N-Slide reminds everyone to prep your outdoor swing set for backyard play.

Chattanooga, TN (PRWEB) March 12, 2013

Warm weather is coming soon and the kids are ready to get outside and play! Swing-N-Slide wants to remind families that compliant backyard recreation is the safest way to play. Outdoor play is important for building a child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Checking your play set for wear and tear will allow for longer and more productive play time.     Swing-N-Slide suggests using the following quick check list to inspect your play set for a spring and summer filled with fun and creative play!
Print & Play Checklist

Before Play Season

• At the start of play season, check all metal parts for rust or other deterioration

-To prevent deterioration of materials, remove plastic swing seats and other plastic accessories and take indoors during off seasons

• Provide your children with a soft landing – proper surfacing is key


• Replace any deteriorated parts with new parts for compliant play


• Lubricate metallic moving parts


• Check all protective coverings on bolts, pipes, edges and corners – replace if loose, cracked or missing


• Keep your play surface compliant by checking its depth and raking it to avoid compaction


• Tighten all hardware


• Sand down any splinters in the wood


• Replace any deteriorating wood parts


• Cut off all protruding threaded ends of bolts and other fasteners and remove any sharp edges


• Ensure equipment is on level ground, no less than six feet from any structure or obstruction such as a fence, garage or tree


• Adjust all swings for a minimum 8'' clearance between the swing and the ground surface


• Use a water seal on your gym set to protect wood and prevent cracking and warping

During Play Season

• Check all nuts and bolts twice monthly for tightness and tighten as required.


• Oil all metallic moving parts monthly during usage period


• Check all hardware and equipment for sharp edges twice monthly


• Check swing seats and chains monthly during the usage season for evidence of deterioration


• Remind your children of safe play rules including appropriate swinging space, sharing with others and being polite to other children

Playsets can last for many years if they are properly cared for and monitored. It’s important to replace deteriorated swings and parts or upgrade for your growing child. Swing-N-Slide offers many alternatives to your basic swing seat including a heavy duty swing seat, the innovative Vortex Ring Swing, the modern Wind Rider Glider or even a multi-child swing like the Mega Rider or the 2 For Fun Glider.

The most important aspect in play is safety. Swing-N-Slide tests and adheres to the ASTM International regulations for residential play. To learn more on playset safety visit http://www.swing-n-slide.com for ASTM compliance information and how Swing-N-Slide meets or exceeds regulations for safe backyard play.
About Swing-N-Slide

Swing-N-Slide, PlayCore’s consumer products division, is a leading U.S. manufacturer of residential backyard playground equipment and related accessories. Swing-N-Slide designs, manufactures and distributes play sets to home centers, hardware stores and play set retailers across the nation. Safety and quality have been the cornerstone of Swing-N-Slide’s vision to provide children and their families with a safer play environment. For more information visit http://www.swing-n-slide.com

About PlayCore

PlayCore helps build stronger communities around the world by advancing play through research, education, and partnerships. The company infuses this learning into its complete family of brands – GameTime, UltraSite, UltraShelter, UltraPlay, GT Grandstands, Snug, Play and Park Structures, TotTurf, Everlast Climbing, and Swing-N-Slide. PlayCore combines best-in-class planning and education programs with the most comprehensive array of recreation products available to create play solutions that match the unique needs of each community served. PlayCore's corporate headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. More information is available about PlayCore, Inc. at http://www.PlayCore.com.
Georgia Tippens
PlayCore
423-648-5570
Email Information

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Wonders in Space: #5 Space Jump

Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner made history with his amazing space jump on Oct. 14. After floating to the edge of Earth's atmosphere in a balloon-lifted capsule, Baumgartner performed a record-breaking free-fall jump, covering 23 miles at 834 mph before opening his parachute and dropping safely to terra firma. Baumgartner, who wanted to set a record and practiced five years for the jump, said he didn't enjoy the experience until his chute opened.

"When my parachute opened, this was the first moment where I enjoyed it a lot because I knew it was over and I'm alive,'' he said after the monumental leap.

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Most Viral Photos: 9 Most retweeted Obama photo

The night of the election, as networks began calling the race for President Obama, his campaign tweeted this photo of the president and first lady Michelle Obama hugging with the caption "four more years." The photo captured the moment and became the most retweeted ever, even surpassing a previous tweet by…wait for it…Justin Bieber. The photo also became the "most liked" on Facebook, receiving over 4.4 million "likes" and counting. The shot, snapped in August by campaign photographer Scout Tufankjian, was taken at a campaign stop in Iowa. The two hadn't seen each other in a couple of days and embraced onstage. The rest is social media history. (Photo courtesy @BarackObama/Twitter)

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Best New Artists Of 2012: Swimming Pools, Cemetaries And Too Much Blood

As the year comes to a close, and the holiday stress puts your therapist on speed dial, why not take a moment from your debilitating rage against the department store cashier to reflect upon the last calendar year of music—we sure have. 2012 has brought us tripped out folk singers, potty-mouthed mermaids, indie super groups and jams hot enough to boil a waterbed, just to name a few.

While some of these artists have been around for longer than a hot second, we're selecting them based on their debut studio or major label albums dropping in 2012. After all, how can you choose a "Best New Artist" without hearing a completed effort? So let’s take a look at the artists we think gave this year a real good shakedown.

Kendrick Lamar: Certainly not a new face to the game, but this year marks the beginning of Kendrick Lamar’s journey into the hip-hop stratos as a full-fledged star. Following in the footsteps of other Dre protégés like Eminem and Snoop Dogg , the LA-based artist’s first major label album good kid m.A.A.d city peaked at #2 in the US after having already worked with the top names in the industry. Lamar doesn’t need million-dollar cars and a mouth full of diamonds to blow you away; just a mic, a stage, and a moment of your time. This one will be around for a long time, trust.

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Olympic moments of 2012

Song: "Champion" by The Chevin

On July 27, 2012, more than 200 nations gathered in Olympic Stadium in London for the start of the 2012 Olympic Games. For 17 days we watched as the world's top athletes competed in more than 30 sports -- running, swimming, rowing, tumbling, and fighting their way to gold. And if this year's Games showed us anything, it's that Yahoo! users couldn't get enough of the incredible stories that came out of the 2012 London Olympics.

Some of the most dramatic Olympic moments came from track & field events. We cheered on Jamaica's Usain Bolt, who proved he is the fastest man in the world, winning back-to-back gold medals in both the 100- and 200-meter dash and setting three world records while in London. We celebrated Allyson Felix's long-coveted win in the 200-meter dash, after two disappointing losses in 2004 and 2008. We were awed by Britain's "Golden Girl" Jessica Ennis, who took home gold in the heptathlon, to the elation of the London crowds. And we were inspired by Oscar Pistorius, aka "Blade Runner," the first double amputee to compete in the Olympic finals.

Women's gymnastics also held some of the most exciting Olympic moments for Yahoo! users this summer. For the first time in 16 years, the U.S. women's team, dubbed the "Fierce Five," took home the gold -- beating Russia decisively 183.596 to 178.530 in the team competition. And in a dramatic win, 16-year-old Gabrielle Douglas of the U.S. edged out Russia's Victoria Komova by only .259 points to win the women's all-around competition.

Besides incredible moments, the 2012 Olympics gave us something else: the most decorated athlete in the history of the Games. We held our breath as swimming great Michael Phelps missed the podium with his first race, the 400 individual medley. But Phelps proved he would live up to the moniker of "Greatest Olympian of All Time," winning four gold medals and two silvers in his subsequent races. His final tally? Twenty-two Olympic medals overall, the most in the history of the Games.

Video produced by Brad Williams and Evan Doherty. Article by Rebecca Resnick Driskill. Postproduction by Brad Williams. Graphics by Todd Tanner.

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Top Searches: #6 Whitney Houston

Like Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse before her, superstar Whitney Houston galvanized an online rush with her unexpected death on Feb. 11. The singer-actress, who had a well-chronicled drug addiction, had been missing in action for some time.

Yet with news of her death came reports that a long-promised comeback had been under way (notably, her first film role in 16 years), making her fatal accident ("drowning and effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use") all the more heartbreaking. Death came 24 hours before her return performance at a pre-Grammy gala. The awards ceremony paid tribute to Houston the next day; at the time, her room at the Beverly Hilton was still considered a crime scene.

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Mysterious bacterium found in Antarctic lak

MOSCOW (AP) — A new form of microbial life has been found in water samples taken from a giant freshwater lake hidden under kilometers of Antarctic ice, Russian scientists said Monday.

Sergei Bulat and Valery Lukin said in a statement that the "unidentified and unclassified" bacterium has no relation to any of the existing bacterial types. They acknowledged, however, that extensive research of the microbe that was sealed under the ice for millions of years will be necessary to prove the find and determine the bacterium's characteristics.

New samples of water retrieved from Lake Vostok earlier this year are expected to be delivered to St. Petersburg in May aboard a Russian ship.

The Russian team reached the surface of the subglacial lake in February 2012 after more than two decades of drilling, a major achievement hailed by scientists around the world.

They touched the lake water Sunday at a depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 meters), about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) east of the South Pole in the central part of the continent.

Scientists hope the lake might allow a glimpse into microbial life forms that existed before the Ice Age and could have survived in the dark depths of the lake, despite its high pressure and constant cold — conditions similar to those which also are believed to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

At 250 kilometers (160 miles) long and 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide, Lake Vostok is similar in size to Lake Ontario. It is kept from freezing into a solid block by the kilometers (miles)-thick crust of ice across it that acts like a blanket, keeping in heat generated by geothermal energy underneath.

Some have voiced concern that the more than 60 tons of lubricants and antifreeze used in the drilling may contaminate the lake, but the Russian researchers have insisted that their technology is environmentally secure. They said water from the lake rushed up the borehole once the drill touched the surface and froze, safely sealing the lubricants from the lake's pristine waters.

Bulat and Lukin said the research team has done a meticulous analysis of the samples to differentiate bacteria contained in lubricants from what they hoped could be a trace of new life forms. Initial studies only spotted bacteria associated with the lubricants, but scientists said they eventually found one bacterium that didn't fall into any of the known categories.

The researchers said that the small size of the initial sample and its heavy contamination made it difficult to conduct more extensive research. They voiced hope that the new samples of clean frozen water that are to arrive in St. Petersburg this spring will make it possible to "confirm the find and, perhaps, discover new previously unknown forms of microbial life."

A U.S. team that recently touched the surface of Lake Whillans, a shallower subglacial body of water west of the South Pole, also found microbes. The scientists are yet to determine what forms of bacteria they found.

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Canada's NW Territories to take control of its land, oil, gas

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Northwest Territories will soon become responsible for managing the land within its boundaries and granting oil and gas rights under the terms of deal with the federal government that was announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper traveled to the territory's capital, Yellowknife, to witness the signing of a joint declaration that lays out the terms for the devolution of land and resource management from federal government to the territory.

The agreement still needs to go through a second round of consultations with aboriginal groups and other stakeholders, but the parties are working toward an effective handover date of April 1, 2014.

"Our government believes that opportunities and challenges here would be better handled by the people who understand them best," Harper said in a speech.

Because of their sparse populations, Canada's three northern territories have had a smaller say in their own affairs than the country's 10 provinces with most government responsibilities being handled by Ottawa.

Monday's agreement goes some way to adding to the responsibilities of the government of the Northwest Territories, which has a slightly bigger population than either of the other two territories: Yukon and Nunavut.

Once the agreement is implemented, the Northwest Territories will be able to collect royalties on resource development as the provinces do, but a portion would still go to Ottawa.

The Northwest Territories' extensive resources include diamonds, metals and oil and natural gas.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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Body of dead Indian rape defendant given to family

NEW DELHI (AP) — The body of a man who died in a New Delhi jail while in the midst of a high-profile rape trial was released to his family Tuesday after a post-mortem exam aimed at determining whether he committed suicide or was killed.

Ram Singh, 33, was found dead at New Delhi's Tihar Jail early Monday, in a small cell he shared with three other prisoners. Authorities said he hanged himself, but his family and lawyer insisted foul play was involved. A magistrate is investigating.

Singh was facing the death penalty in his trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a New Delhi bus, a crime that horrified Indians and galvanized many to protest against the treatment of women here. Four other men and a juvenile remain on trial for the attack.

Journalists outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Tuesday afternoon saw Singh's body loaded onto an ambulance and taken away accompanied by his family.

Vimla Mehra, the director general of the jail, declined to say how Ram Singh could have managed to kill himself without alerting the other inmates in his small cell or the guards. The results of the post-mortem exam were expected later Tuesday.

Whether suicide or homicide, Singh's death was an enormous security failure at one of India's best-known prisons.

"It's a grave incident," said Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, the nation's top law enforcement official. "It's a major lapse."
Kiran Bedi, the former director of the jail and now an activist, said prison officials had a moral and legal obligation to ensure Singh's safety. She expressed surprise that authorities had not been monitoring him with cameras.
"You are duty bound to protect the lives of the prisoners," she said.

Mamta Sharma, chair of India's National Commission for Women, said jail authorities had to explain Singh's death "despite so much protection, so much precaution, so much security."

"This means that even though he was accused of such a heinous crime, the jail administration did not keep a watchful eye on him," she said.

In 2011, 68 inmates in India killed themselves and another eight were killed by fellow inmates, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.

Tihar Jail is badly overcrowded and its 12,000 prisoners are nearly twice as many as it was designed to hold. Bedi said that despite that, the treatment of inmates has improved over the past two decades as the jail's operations became more transparent, with volunteers constantly coming in and prisoners better educated about their rights.
Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.

Ram Singh's father, Mangelal Singh, said his son had been raped in prison by other inmates and had been repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards. He said he feared for the safety of another son who is also on trial in the rape case.

Vivek Sharma, a lawyer representing another defendant, said he planned to ask the court to provide greater protection for his client.
"In a high-security jail, an occurrence of this kind is highly condemnable. It raises the serious issue of security of the accused persons in the jail," he said.

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South Africa police denied bail in dragging case

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nine South African police officers charged with murdering a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged from a police vehicle have been denied bail.

South Africa's police watchdog says the police were denied bail at the close of testimony Tuesday in Benoni Magistrate's Court, east of Johannesburg.

Moses Dlamini, spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Directorate, also says the next hearing for the police is April 12.

Taxi driver Mido Macia was dragged from a police vehicle in front of onlookers, some of them filming the incident after he allegedly blocked a road with his vehicle in Daveyton township, east of Johannesburg.

Macia was later found dead in a police cell. An autopsy showed that he suffered head lacerations and other injuries.

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Maduro leans on Chavez's charisma for popularity

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Nicolas Maduro so far has led by imitation, seeking to fill the shoes of a president whose uncanny vigor, mischievous humor and political wiles sowed a revolution and transformed a nation.

As Hugo Chavez did during his 14-year presidency, Maduro has stoked confrontation, and shed tears.

While steering Venezuela through the trauma of Chavez's death, Maduro has pinned his move to the top on his beloved predecessor.
Yet there are doubts, even among die-hard Chavistas, about his ability to lead the nation.
At his swearing-in Friday evening as acting president, Maduro pledged his "most absolute loyalty" to Chavez.
Then he launched into another fiery, lionization-of-the-masses speech punctuated by tears, Chavez-style harangues and attacks on capitalist elites and the international press.
"This sash belongs to Hugo Chavez," he said, choked up, after assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello slid the presidential band over his head. Hours earlier at Chavez's state funeral before more than 30 foreign leaders, Maduro delivered a speech similarly strident in content and tone.
Maduro, 50, hasn't stopped idolizing the outsized leader who made him Venezuela's foreign minister, then vice president and, before going to Cuba for a final cancer surgery in December, publicly selected him presidential successor.

The National Electoral Council was expected on Saturday to set a date for a special presidential election as early as April.

While Maduro has filled the leadership void since Chavez disappeared from public view after his surgery, many Venezuelans find him bland and uninspiring. Some blame his lack of education, noting the former bus driver never went to college.
Others say it goes much further. After all, Brazil's hugely popular former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also started out as a workers and union leader with limited education.
"Nicolas Maduro does not embody Chavismo. He's not in touch with the people," said Carlos Borola, a 57-year-old member of a "colectivo," a radical pro-Chavez citizen's group.

"You can try to imitate the aggressivity of speech. You can try to imitate the conjuring of imaginary enemies. But you can't imitate Chavez's charisma," said Luis Vicente Leon, president of the respected Datanalisis polling firm.

"Chavez was a showman. Maduro is not," he said.
Many worry that Maduro may not be capable of managing the economic challenges of rising public debt, inflation above 20 percent, endemic crime responsible for the world's second-highest murder rate and nagging food shortages.
As Chavez's political heir, he had three months to establish himself as the face of Chavismo. It fell to him to announce Chavez's death, and he sweated through the hours-long walk Wednesday as the funeral cortege crawled through adoring crowds, some shouting "with Chavez and Maduro, the people are secure."
When Maduro was sworn in, boisterous lawmakers shouted "Chavez lives, Maduro carries on." The ceremony was mostly boycotted by the opposition, which called it illegitimate because Venezuela's constitution says the assembly speaker should be interim president.
For the socialist Chavista movement, Maduro's leftist credentials, at least, are unassailable.
He joined the now-defunct Socialist League at a young age, got some revolutionary schooling in Cuba and later, as Chavez's foreign minister, became close to Fidel and Raul Castro.

Chavez named him vice president after defeating opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the Oct. 7 election. Capriles won 45 percent of the vote, however, in Chavez's closest presidential re-election.

Once Chavez fell from sight as his health failed after Dec. 11 surgery, Maduro began wielding the huge state media machine built by his mentor, mindful that Chavez was unlikely to live much longer and that a snap presidential election was likely.
He began to crisscross the nation and show up on state TV presiding over the distribution of apartments and buses for university students.
As Chavez's death drew nearer, Maduro's rhetoric grew more incendiary, while criminal investigations of opposition leaders for alleged financial irregularities were opened. He launched blistering personal attacks against Capriles, accusing him of "conspiring against the homeland" with far-right U.S. putschists and fugitive bankers.
Maduro expelled two U.S. military attaches for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation, just hours before he announced Chavez's death Tuesday, surprising analysts who had thought a rapprochement between the two nations might be possible under the new leader.
"There was a sense that perhaps Maduro was a more pragmatic person, would be amenable to exchange ambassadors," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "The statement he made Tuesday threw a huge bucket of cold water on those hopes."
Maduro had spoken the day before Thanksgiving with Washington's top diplomat for the hemisphere, Roberta Jacobson, about improving ties, especially in fighting drug trafficking. Top diplomats of the two nations met more frequently. But when it came time to honor a newly deceased Chavez, Washington's delegation consisted of two Democratic congressmen and the local embassy charge d'affaires.
Arnson speculated that Maduro might feel he needs to play to the more hard-line wing of his party.
On Friday night, Maduro's voice boomed as he said "the imperialist elites who govern the United States will need to learn to coexist with absolute respect with the insurrectionary peoples" of South America. "Nothing and no one will take away the reconquered independence with our Comandante Hugo Chavez at its front."
He did not mention how he might confront Venezuela's multiple ills, including crumbling infrastructure and diminishing production of oil, which accounts for more than 95 percent of its exports.
Capriles, meanwhile, fired back at Maduro, saying he had withheld criticism since Chavez's death out of respect but could no longer hold his tongue at what he considered a power grab by the new leader.
"I tell you clearly, Nicolas, I am not going to speak of the times you lied to the country, shamelessly," said the man the opposition is expected to choose as its presidential candidate. "The people have not voted for you, boy."
Leon, at Datanalisis, thinks Maduro will win the presidency if the election comes soon, but says his shortcomings will become more evident in a few months of grappling with a possible recession, another expected currency devaluation following a 30 percent cut in February, and public impatience with deteriorating public health care and services and rising crime.
For now, Maduro can benefit from having Chavez's embalmed body on public display and the late president's son-in-law, Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza as his running mate, reminding Venezuelans of who chose him to lead the nation.
But people like Edgar Carvajal, a 50-year-old employee of the Chinese appliance company Haier, said people could lose patience.
"We've got to trust in Maduro, but he had better take care of all these shortages we're having and the high prices," Carvajal said Friday while standing in the long line of people waiting to view Chavez's body lying in state.
"If Maduro can't handle it, the people will show him the door," Carvajal said.
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Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera, Eduardo Castillo and Jorge Rueda in Caracas and Luis Alonso in Washington contributed to this report.

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Anti-Hitler conspirator von Kleist dies at 90

BERLIN (AP) — Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Adolf Hitler and who once volunteered to wear a suicide vest to assassinate the Nazi dictator, has died. He was 90.

Von Kleist's wife, Gundula von Kleist, said her husband died at his home in Munich on Friday.

Von Kleist was born July 10, 1922, on his family estate Schmenzin in Pommerania in an area of northeastern Germany that is today Poland.

The von Kleist family was a long line of Prussian landowners, who had served the state for centuries in high-ranking military and administrative positions.

Von Kleist's father, Ewald von Kleist, was an early opponent of Hitler even before he came to power, and was arrested many times after the Nazi dictator took control in 1933. The elder von Kleist famously traveled to England in 1938, the year before World War II broke out, to try and determine whether other Western nations would support a coup attempt against Hitler, but failed to get the British government to change its policy of appeasement.

Despite his family's opposition to the Nazis, younger von Kleist joined the German army in 1940, and was wounded in 1943 in fighting on the Eastern Front.

During his convalescence, he was approached in January 1944 by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, another officer from an aristocratic family, and presented with a plan to kill Hitler. Von Kleist had been chosen as the officer to model a new uniform for Hitler, and von Stauffenberg proposed that he wear a suicide vest underneath, and detonate it when he stood next to the dictator.

Years later von Kleist remembered explaining the suicide plot to his father, who paused only briefly before telling his 22-year-old son: "Yes, you have to do this."
"Fathers love their sons and mine certainly did, and I had been quite sure he would say no," von Kleist recalled. "But, as always, I had underestimated him."
The suicide attack plan never came to fruition.
Months later, however, von Kleist was approached again by von Stauffenberg to take part in what would become known as the July 20 plot — for the day in 1944 that the assassination was attempted — which was brought to the big screen in 2008 in "Valkyrie," starring Tom Cruise as von Stauffenberg.
Von Kleist was supposed to play a key role as the person who was to carry a briefcase packed with explosives to a meeting with Hitler. In a change of plans, however, von Stauffenberg decided to plant the bomb himself.
Von Stauffenberg placed the bomb in a conference room where Hitler was meeting with his aides and military advisers at his East Prussian headquarters. Hitler escaped the full force of the blast when someone moved the briefcase next to a table leg, deflecting much of the explosive force.
Von Kleist remained in Berlin, charged with overseeing the arrest of officers and officials loyal to Hitler in the city.
But when news spread that Hitler had survived, the plot crumbled and von Stauffenberg, von Kleist's father, and scores of others were arrested and executed in an orgy of revenge killings. Some were hanged by the neck with piano wire. Von Stauffenberg was shot by firing squad.
Von Kleist himself was arrested and questioned at length by the Gestapo, and sent to a concentration camp, but then inexplicably let go and returned to combat duty.

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Troops shell areas on edge of Syrian capital

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops shelled rebel strongholds on the edge of Damascus from multiple rocket launchers based on hilltops Tuesday, while new clashes erupted in an intensifying battle for control over Aleppo's international airport and nearby military bases in Syria's north, activists said.

The thud of artillery and mortars reverberated across the capital from the fighting in the northeastern neighborhoods of Jobar and rebel-held areas south of Damascus. Activists said several people were wounded.

Opposition fighters trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad have stepped up mortar attacks on Damascus in recent weeks, striking deeper than ever into the heart of the city. Rebel fighters tried in the past to establish bridgeheads in Damascus but were pushed back to the suburbs by regime forces.

In northern Syria, rebels renewed a push to capture Aleppo's international airport and nearby air bases as part of their campaign to erode the regime's air supremacy in the 2-year-old conflict.

The United Nations says the civil war has claimed more than 70,000 lives and forced some 4 million Syrians from their homes.
A UNICEF report issued Tuesday warned that a whole generation of Syrian children risks being scarred for life because of the unrelenting violence, mass population displacement and damage to infrastructure and services.

"As millions of children inside Syria and across the region witness their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict, the risk of them becoming a lost generation grows every day," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

The report said that in areas where the fighting is most intense, few people have access to fresh water. Also, one in five schools have been destroyed, damaged, or is being used to shelter displaced families. In Aleppo, the center of months of fighting, only 6 per cent of children are attending school, the report said.

In a sign of worsening economic conditions, the value of the Syrian pound reached 101 pounds to the U.S. dollar Tuesday. Although late last year the pound briefly sank to 105 to the dollar, prompting central bank intervention, it had been holding at about 95 pounds to the dollar.

At the start of the conflict, the dollar stood at 47 Syrian pounds.
The economy has been suffering under the weight of sanctions from the U.S., European Union and the Arab League that include a ban on oil exports.
Besides the economic effects, the civil war has left the nation's industry, infrastructure and many cities, including ancient Aleppo, in ruins.
The rebels control large swathes of territory outside of Aleppo, but the battle for the city itself, Syria's main commercial hub, is locked in a stalemate. Rebels pushed into the city in July and captured several neighborhoods. It has been a major battleground in the civil war ever since.
The army holds large parts of Aleppo and maintains control over the airport, the country's second largest. Crucially, Syria's air space is firmly controlled by the regime in Damascus, which uses its warplanes to bomb rebel strongholds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes erupted on Tuesday around the airport, and rebels also intensified their assault on the Nairab and Mannagh air bases near the strategic facility, which has not been handling fights for weeks because of the fighting.
Fighting also flared up along the road that links the capital, Damascus, to the country's biggest airport and raged for a second day in the central city of Homs as rebels tried to take back the impoverished neighborhood of Baba Amr, which they lost to Assad's troops a year ago.
Last year, government forces besieged Baba Amr for a month before rebel forces withdrew and the government seized control. Hundreds of people were killed in the siege. On Sunday, rebels pushed back into Baba Amr, and Syrian forces responded by firing heavy machine guns into the neighborhood, sending residents fleeing.
In Geneva, the U.N. food agency said the renewed violence in Baba Amr has forced at least 3,000 families to leave their homes.
In Kiev, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry confirmed that a Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped in Syria is free after being held by rebels for more than 150 days.

Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebiynis said the reporter, Ankhar Kochneva, was expected to contact the Ukrainian Embassy in Damascus later in the day.

Kochneva, who has written for Syrian and Russian newspapers, was kidnapped in western Syria on Oct. 9. Russian media reported she was held by members of the Free Syrian Army opposition group. Perebiynis said he had no further information.
The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Kochneva as saying she walked away from the house where she was held, skirted a rebel guard post and then walked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) through fields until she found a villager who helped her.
The kidnappers released a video in which Kochneva said she was working as a Russian agent, but the newspaper quoted her as saying the recording was made under duress.
Russia is a staunch ally of Damascus, supplying the Assad regime with weapons and shielding his government from tougher U.N. sanctions.
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Associated Press writers Anna Melnichuk in Kiev, Jim Heintz in Moscow and John Heilprin in Geneva contributed.

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Kenyatta Elected Kenya's President Amidst Controversy

Uhuru Kenyatta has been named the winner in the Kenyan presidential elections, Reuters reports . But the victory is not without controversy, as according to the Associated Press, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has claimed Kenyatta's win was gained through cheating and a cover-up.

Kenyatta has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity stemming from the 2007 elections and his opponent. Meanwhile, the ICC prosecutor has filed to drop charges against Francis Muthaura, also accused of crimes against humanity, on the basis of a collapsing case as reported by the United Nations News Center .

Here are the details of the events surrounding the latest Kenyan election.

Odinga's campaign team alleges cover-up

Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo and Lands Minister James Orengo have both claimed that cheating has been covered-up in favor of Kenyatta, according to the AP. Both men are supporters of Odinga.

"Now that the electoral commission is refusing to allow us and other Kenyans who want to determine if that election had integrity," Orengo said according to the AP, "it obviously means that there is something wrong with their records."

However, Kenya's Supreme Court will handle the challenge, Reuters reported, as Chief Justice Willy Mutunga assured that all politicians and political parties should expect a swift and transparent resolution to alleged concerns.

Case against government official withdrawn at ICC

Muthaura, Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, has had his case dropped due to the deaths and alleged intimidation of witnesses, said ICC Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda.

"This is an exceptional decision. I did not take it lightly, but I believe it is the right thing to do," she said in a statement according to the United Nations News Center.

The key to the prosecution has recanted their testimony and admitted to accepting bribes, Bensouda said. She also complained that the Kenyan government had failed to provide her office with necessary evidence and with enabling her access to witnesses.

Kenyatta benefited from charges

Another article by the AP indicated that charges against Kenyatta, including orchestrating murder, rape, and deportation during the 2007-08 post-election crisis helped Kenyatta win election.

The United States, Britain, and Europe have said there would be relationship consequences against the country for electing Kenyatta. However, the AP indicated that Kenyans may have in part favored the candidate due to the viewpoint of the rest of the world.

Kenyatta is the deputy Prime Minister.

Shawn Humphrey is a former contributor to The Flint Journal and an amateur Africanist, focusing his personal studies on human rights and political issues on the continent.

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Teen suspect in Colo. girl killing to enter plea

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — The teen accused of kidnapping, killing and dismembering a 10-year-old Colorado girl is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to the horrific crime because he told police he knew what he did was wrong and he wanted to give his victim's family some level of comfort.

Austin Sigg is charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in the Oct. 5 disappearance and slaying of Jessica Ridgeway in the Denver suburb of Westminster. The case led parents and school officials to take extraordinary precautions to keep children safe, and residents were encouraged to report suspicious behavior by neighbors.

Sigg, who turned 18 in January, cannot face the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the slaying. He faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years if convicted.

While investigators testified that Sigg confessed to strangling Jessica and then dismembering her body in a bathtub, he vehemently denied sexually assaulting her. No semen was found on the girl's body, according to previous testimony in the case.

It's unclear whether prosecutors will drop the sexual assault charges in exchange for a guilty plea to murder in order to avoid a prolonged trial. Prosecutors added the sexual assault charges because authorities said they found child pornography during the investigation.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys won't comment on whether Sigg will plead guilty to all or some of the charges because a judge has issued a gag order in the case.
Sigg also is charged with an earlier attack on a runner in Jessica's neighborhood.
Jessica, a fifth-grade student, disappeared after she left her house to meet a friend just two blocks away so they could walk to school together. Her torso was discovered in a field in the nearby suburb of Arvada, while other remains were found at Sigg's mother's house after she called police.
At a Feb. 23 preliminary hearing, investigators presented 911 recordings in which Sigg told police, "I murdered Jessica Ridgeway. I have proof that I did it."
Westminster police officer Albert Stutson testified that Sigg told him during questioning that he planned to plead guilty. He asked officials if it would give Jessica's family comfort if he were held accountable. Stutson said Sigg told him "he knew what he did was wrong and that he would make up for it someday."
Officers testified that Sigg told them that some of Jessica's remains were hidden in a crawl space in the home of his mother, where he lived. They said Sigg also told them how he abducted Jessica as she walked past his car. He bound her arms and legs with zip ties, placed her in the back seat and took her to his house, where he strangled her, police said.
Hundreds of local, state and federal officers canvassed the Westminster area after Jessica's disappearance, investigating leads and even taking residents' DNA samples. Parents waited with their children at school bus stops or drove them to and from school. The FBI took the unusual step of asking residents to keep an eye out on neighbors — and even family members — and report suspicious behavior.
One resident contacted authorities Oct. 19 to alert them about Sigg because he had a fascination with death, Westminster detective Luis Lopez testified. Sigg was interested in a mortuary science program at a local community college, police said. Two FBI agents responded and took a DNA sample from Sigg on Oct. 19.

Mindy Sigg told investigator Michael Lynch that her son appeared sick and confessed four days after the FBI visit. He opened the conversation by saying he was a "monster," she said.

Mindy Sigg then called 911 to say her son wanted to turn himself in and had confessed to killing the girl. When the dispatcher asked what her son had said, Mindy Sigg replied, "That he did it, and he gave me details, and her remains are in my house."
Sigg also faces an attempted kidnapping charge for the attack on a 22-year-old woman who was running at a lake across the street from Jessica's elementary school. An investigator testified that Sigg used homemade chloroform concocted with a recipe found on the Internet to attempt to subdue the woman.
Jessica lived in Westminster with her mother, Sarah Ridgeway. Jessica's father, Jeremiah Bryant, lives in the Kansas City suburb of Independence, Mo.
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Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda contributed to this report.

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The choreographed election of a pope in a nutshell

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The election of a pope follows a series of choreographed rules and rituals that have been tweaked over the centuries ever since the term "conclave" or "with a key" was used in the 13th century to describe the process of locking up the cardinals until they have chosen a new pope.

Here are the rules in use to elect the 266th pope:
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WHO VOTES?

Only cardinals under age 80 are eligible; in this case 115 men fit the bill and will vote. Two cardinals who were eligible stayed home: The emeritus archbishop of Jakarta, Cardinal Julius Darmaatjadja, who is ill, and Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who recused himself after admitting to inappropriate sexual behavior.

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WHAT IS THE RITUAL?

The conclave's first day begins with the "Pro eligendo Romano Pontificie" Mass for the election of a pope. In the afternoon, cardinals gather in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace and file into the Sistine Chapel chanting the Litany of Saints and the Latin hymn "Veni Creator," imploring saints and the Holy Spirit to help them pick a pope.

Standing under Michelangelo's "Creation" and before his "Last Judgment," each cardinal places his hand on a book of the Gospels and pledges "with the greatest fidelity" never to reveal the details of the conclave. A meditation on the qualities needed for the next pope and the challenges ahead for the church is delivered by Maltese Cardinal Prosper Grech.
The master of liturgical celebrations then cries "Extra omnes," Latin for "all out." Everyone except the cardinals leaves and the voting can begin.
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HOW DO THEY VOTE?

Each cardinal writes his choice on a paper inscribed with the words "Eligo in summen pontificem," or "I elect as Supreme Pontiff." They approach the altar one by one and say: "I call as my witness, Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected."

The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and slid into an oval silver and gold urn. In the past, a single chalice was used to hold the ballots. But conclave changes made by Pope John Paul II in 1996 required three vessels: one for chapel ballots, another for ailing cardinals at the Vatican who can vote from their beds and the third to hold the ballots after counting. No cardinals are expected to require the bedside voting, but all three flying saucer-shaped urns were in the Sistine Chapel regardless.
Once cast, the ballots are opened one by one by three different "scrutineers," who note the names down and read them aloud. Cardinals can keep their own tally on a sheet of paper provided but must turn their notes in to be burned at the end of voting.
The scrutineers then add up the results of each round of balloting and write the results down on a separate sheet of paper which is preserved in the papal archives.
As the scrutineer reads out each name, he pierces each ballot with a needle through the word "Eligo" and binds the ballots with thread and ties a knot. The ballots are then put aside and burned in the chapel stove along with a chemical to produce either black or white smoke.
Up to four rounds of voting are allowed each day after the first day, and a two-thirds majority — 77 votes — is needed.
If no one is elected after three days — by Friday afternoon — voting pauses for up to one day. Voting resumes and if no pope is elected after another seven ballots, there is another pause, and so on until about 12 days of balloting have passed.
Under norms introduced by Benedict XVI just before he resigned, the cardinals then go to a runoff of the top two vote-getters. A two-thirds majority is required; neither of the two top candidates casts a ballot in the runoff.
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WHAT HAPPENS ONCE THE POPE IS ELECTED?
Once a cardinal has been elected pope, the master of liturgical ceremonies enters the Sistine Chapel and the senior cardinal asks "Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?" Assuming the cardinal says "I accept," the senior cardinal then asks: "By what name do you wish to be called?" The master of liturgical ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, then enters the information on a formal document.
At this point, white smoke pours out of the Sistine Chapel chimney and bells of St. Peters toll.
The new pope then changes into his papal white cassock, and one-by-one the cardinals approach him to swear their obedience.
In a change for this conclave, the new pope will stop and pray in the Pauline Chapel for a few minutes before emerging on the loggia of the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square. Preceding him to the balcony is French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the protodeacon, who announces "Habemus Papam!" Latin for "We have a pope" and then introduces him to the world in Latin.
The new pope then emerges and delivers his first public words as pope.
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FAMOUS FIRST WORDS?
Pope John Paul II charmed the crowd of thousands on Oct. 16, 1978 when he first emerged on the loggia, no easy task given his predecessor had only lived as pope for 33 days and Karol Wojtyla was the first non-Italian elected in 455 years.
Noting that he came from a far-away land — Poland — he told the crowd that he would speak in their ("our") language.
"If I make a mistake, you will correct me," he said to cheers.
Retired Pope Benedict XVI offered a similarly modest gesture on April 19, 2005, telling the crowd he was but a simple "humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord."
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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Teachers, staff rally, lobby at Texas Capitol

Teachers, education staffers rally at Texas Capitol, then fan out to lobby for public schools

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- About 1,000 teachers and education staffers from across Texas rallied at the state Capitol on Monday, urging the Legislature to reverse $5.4 billion in cuts to public schools approved two years ago.

As part of Texas American Federation of Teachers lobby day, union leaders encouraged educators to use their spring break to gather in Austin for the demonstration — which saw many participants in blue-and-white ATF T-shirts wave signs reading "Our Kids, Our Future."

Members of some high school percussion sections also turned out and the banging of their drums reverberated off the Capitol's pink facade as the House and Senate opened their sessions in the afternoon. Later, the crowd fanned out for meetings in the offices of individual lawmakers.

Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said leading Democrats in the Texas Senate have called for spending $4 billion from the state's cash reserves, or Rainy Day Fund, to roll back the 2011 public education cuts. The fund is expected to grow to $11.8 billion by the end of 2015.

Referencing separate proposals to spend $2 billion from the fund to improve state water infrastructure and another $1 billion from it for highways and other roads, Davis urged demonstrators to remind lawmakers "that our school children are more important than any road, any water resource."

State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff said he opposes high-profile proposals by Sen. Dan Patrick, the head of the Senate Education Committee who wants to expand "school choice."

Patrick and some other key conservatives support offering public money to low-income parents around the state so they can remove their kids from low-performing, traditional schools in favor of private and religious classrooms.
Ratliff, a Mt. Pleasant Republican, scoffed Monday at the notion that Texas youngsters are trapped in struggling schools simply because of where they live.
"They say they want to give them choices, they even called them trapped," Ratliff said of Patrick and others' assessments of students across Texas.
"I have news for you, they're not trapped," Ratliff continued. "They do have choices and they choose to stay in their local public schools."

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