TOKYO (AFP) - Covering her face with her hands, 20-year-old Riyo Mori of Japan heard the MC’s voice and the thunderous cheering of the crowd telling one year ago that she was the new Miss Universe.

With a 250,000-dollar tiara on her head, Mori walked confidently on the stage as Japan’s first Miss Universe in 48 years as an estimated one billion people watched around the world on television.

But it was not only Mori who was surprised. Watching back in Tokyo, Madoka Niino, a 28-year-old working in an advertising agency, thought that perceptions of beauty in Japan were finally changing.

“Beautiful women traditionally were supposed to be reticent and dedicated,” she said, pointing to the portrayal of Japanese women in Hollywood.

On Monday, 21-year-old Hiroko Mima, who was chosen among 4,000 candidates here, will represent Japan in hopes that the country can retain its newfound status as a beauty pageant powerhouse.

Ines Ligron, a French woman who has trained Japanese contestants for Miss Universe for 10 years, sees an evolution in Japanese women.

“They are becoming much more outgoing, confident and opinionated. They feel free to challenge themselves on a global level, which was unheard of before,” Ligron told AFP.

Mori is hoping to start her own dance school in Japan. In 2006, Kurara Chibana was runner-up in the Miss Universe competition and is hoping to work internationally as a reporter.

Beniko Kishi, the CEO of a company that runs several beauty and lifestyle brands, said Japan was a very different place than in the years after World War II, when Western concepts of beauty were held on a pedestal.

“Since the end of the war, Japanese had been blindly following the Western standard of beauty and they tried so hard to imitate and look like Western models or actresses regardless of our physical differences,” she said.

“But in recent years, Japanese have stopped looking only outside and started looking inside again. They are beginning to find their identity (of) being beautiful in the way they are,” she said.

The change can be seen in the advertising world, where Japanese models and actresses have replaced Westerners as the faces of beauty products.

Leading cosmetic maker Shiseido recently launched an advertising campaign for its Tsubaki shampoo with the slogan, “Japanese women are beautiful.”

“Women today choose products and services for their own measurements. They always ask themselves if it suits for them,” Kishi said.

She said that the trend extended beyond appearance. More women are flocking to fitness and yoga clubs or choosing to eat organic food.

“Women now know that beauty is growing from the inside. You cannot hide it with expensive cosmetics anymore, so it is essential to look closely inside and to build a better condition,” Kishi said.

Tokyo and other big Japanese cities have witnessed a boom in after-hours schools where women can take how-to advice in beauty and lifestyle and earn certificates.

“Recently I feel that there is a belief that women are considered to be beautiful when they strike a perfect balance between their career, household and beauty,” said Mikiko Koyama, a 25-year-old consultant.

Ligron said she was trying to give Japanese contestants in Miss Universe more self-confidence and not simply focusing on their appearance.

“I personally hate the idea of ‘beauty queens’ because I would never consider manufacturing packaged-women to represent their countries on a global stage. Instead, I try to enhance the best of their personalities and minds and try to place invisible wings for them to fly high,” she said.

She defended Miss Universe from critics who charge that beauty pageants demean women by putting them in a competition for approval.

“10 years ago, I believed that beauty pageants were just a joke — old-fashioned and completely empty of any outcome for the girls entering them,” she admitted.

But she said that with the Miss Universe Organisation, “I started to understand the reward of helping young girls find their inner beauties.”

“Now I believe what beauty pageants teach young girls is how to achieve their goals in life. It teaches them to believe in themselves,” she said.

Source:news.yahoo

Don’t you sort of just now sttink Mariah Carey? I mean, while also which moment when she headed crazy, she’s presistently seemed sassy and true and unapologetic roughly her diva-ness, that has, for me anyway, continually transfered her likable (her MTV Cribs episode is one of my favorites). Anyway, in the August quandary of Elle (on newsstands consequently week), the singer looks as if it’s larger amount of as opposed to clearly likable, but in effect content and, dare I say, wise. Read on for juicy excerpts based on information from the interview. You can see the overall story and a photo slideshow at Elle.com.

On her disastrous mainly marriage to Tommy Mottola: “When I was unhappy in a place in my life, I repeatedly wanted to be kidnapped. I simply wanted a way out, but I didn’t’ own one.”
On her meeting Nick Cannon: “He type of kidnapped me and took me on a helicopter ride. Then he re-proposed.”
On keeping the relationship a secret: “We very kept the huge relationship aspect of it quiet. Therefore, we didn’t very ‘date,’ you understand how I mean? Because such a may supply homeowners a odds to be like, ‘What are you doing? What are you operating about? This is so quick…are you sure?’”
Her sarcastic system to the media gossip: “It’s difficult, outstandingly when legitimate drive is saying, “They’re invested in a $4 million wedding.’ Why? What – did we set a budget?’ “It’s going to be $4 million! It’s heading to be outstandingly cool! We’re being handed out to produce away gold as those leave! We’re willing to sprinkle them in gold! It’s supposed to be essentially Coming to America! What do properties think? Our general rank [in owning the unannounced beach wedding] was to do the opposite!”
On her mixed racial heritage: “It’s this type of a Visua society in that we make a home the present households forget, ‘Oh yeah, her father’s black,’ Carey says. “So, a good amount of situations can be alleged in front of me too wouldn’t be believed in front of an extra friend whose complexion may be faintly darker.”
On peak labels making the most of her racial heritage to promote her music: “A friend pointed out such a I was for sell by a monumental monumental conglomerate the did covet the ambiguity of my voice lending itself to [making air quotes] ‘soul’ music,” she says. “They liked the happening so the be on the look kind of was, and is, ambiguous.”
On Presidential candidate Barack Obama: “I can relate a lot to so numerous of the stories he tells. Clearly I am not the political analyst of the ages, but presently is somewhat the hits me on a deeper quality as opposed to everything I’ve constantly have had to deal with rising up.”
On Nick and original relationships: “We in fact do share a similar spiritual outlook on life….Even while borrowers own the own fears on ‘Was I in a relationship before this, was I not in relationship before this,’ to me, I wasn’t in a true relationship; it was additionally of a friendship and trying situation.”

Come summertime, urbanites often envy people leading in bucolic regions covet Big Sur, Calif., Aspen, Colo., and Burlington, Vt. It’s easy for city dwellers to forget, however, too there are plenty of possibilities in this own backyards.

In Jacksonville, Fla., for example, 103,000 acres of yellow space key in multiple “specialty” parks among strange draws: The Ray Greene Park facets a BMX way for off -road bikers; the Lannie Road Park is calculated for pilots of radio-controlled exemplary airplanes; the 500-acre Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park, amidst its trails, wetlands and preservation programs, is lead to for naturalists.

Seattle citizens can tune out additonally running a stretch of the city’s 75 miles of trails. These paths take runners and walkers over the Washington Park Arboretum, the sandy beaches along Elliot Bay and a grassy, secluded park provided a view of the city’s skyline.

Other outdoorsy districts put in San Diego, San Jose, Calif., Phoenix, Tampa, Fla., Austin, Texas, Las Vegas, and Virginia Beach, Va.

Behind The Numbers
Local getaways can be a windfall to stir-crazy urbanites, but when planning to that districts are proper for the outdoors, we looked at more and more as opposed to just now park land.

Using probing based on what i read in the nonprofit association Trust for Public Land, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, we gathered info on parks spending per resident, park front yard as a commission of city land, recreation facilities, air quality, precipitation, light and temperature extremes for 40 required cities.

Both Seattle and Jacksonville entered to the top 15, and significantly regions famous for inclement weather, as if Minneapolis and Boston, ranked high. Still, it was San Francisco, residential structure to both Frisbee-tossing hippies and endurance-athlete venture capitalists, that ranked first.

Ideal weather conditions–sunshine two-thirds of the year, temperatures so rarely swell above 90 ranges or dip short of freezing, and an annual regular of just recently 63 days among precipitation–were vital factors. San Francisco moreover outspent most any city on our list, save Seattle, by allocating $252 for parks and recreation expenditures per resident. In return, households enjoy 5,770 acres of park land, that includes region gardens, public golf courses and miles of shoreline trails.

Transforming Cities
Some neighborhoods overly ranked poorly on our enter are essentially in the midst of considerable improvement projects. Coming in at No. 35, Memphis, Tenn., is in the arising stages of overhauling a former prison-run farm to a 4,500-acre park in the core of the city. Alex Garvin, president of true estate planning and consulting company Alex Garvin and Associates, reads the park is able to be “an inspiring work to craft somewhat for the 21st century.”

Though Garvin’s stable is consulting on the Shelby Farms project, he hesitates to specify how features of the park might be cutting-edge, alone who he expects to see a good amount of and varied choices for physical activity and recreation. With a sufficient amount of funding, the public serves to be able to enjoy the redesigned park in two to 10 years.

Salvaging yards too has for a while now continued unmanaged can often take a decade or two, but the possible results are remarkable. In 1996, policy makers in Denver launched an plan to restore a 10.5-mile corridor along the South Platte River too had carried on plagued by neglect and pollution. Paths along the river banks are now a objective for cyclists and joggers, artificial grey water rapids experience kept on “installed,” and a multitude of surrounding parks now feature ball fields, tree-lined promenades and a skate park. Denver ranks 13th on our list.

Peter Harnick, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land, reads who additonally sum of city park acreage is important, top notch is equally imperative. Cities, he says, is able to spend a the very least of $90 per resident for parks and recreation programs. This currency is divvied out for battling costs, not excluding park maintenance, tree planting, upkeep of arrangements and after-school recreation programs.

Park Perks
In Minneapolis, that ranked seventh, excessive per-resident spending and compact management undergo served citizens well. Though the city endures 154 days of the year amongst low temperatures 32 concentrations or below, 15% of the city’s front yard is devoted to parks. (The common for populations on our listing was 10.5%.)

The 5,400 acres of park yards are put to miniature use: There are activities for most any season, as well as sailing lessons and kayaking at Lake Harriet in the summer and trail walking and cross earth skiing at golf courses in the winter. The city additionally maintains a bandshell venue for summer concerts, a wildflower garden, bird sanctuary and 29 outdoor skating rinks.

Despite pressure on chosen neighborhoods to cut financing for parks and recreation over boom downturns, Dr. Laura Brennan Ramirez, president of the St. Louis-based public well being examination and consulting organization Transtria, claims city planners and developers are appearing for innovative ways to give city dwellers supplementary choices to enjoy the outdoors.

In Washington, D.C., advertising organization Clear Channel Outdoor has partnered surrounded by the city’s department of transportation to come up with bicycle rentals for an annual membership fee of $40. The bikes, on hand at 10 environment on hand the city, can be checked out for 3 hours at a time.

D.C. now ranks in the top 15 on our record for its excessive per-resident spending, moderate weather, considerable portion of park side yards and elevated total amount of recreation amenities. But providing innovative programs as if this, first-class cultural packages and high jobs, the urbanite may at last hold an unorthodox to countryside envy.

Methodology
To determine that of the 40 utmost regions got highest quality for the outdoors, we depleted examination of the nonprofit firm Trust for Public Land, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We included the approaching data: spending per resident, park front yard as a fee of city land, lot of recreation facilities, precipitation, sunshine, temperature extremes and air quality.

For spending, park lawn and recreation, we used up fiscal year 2006 information collected by the Trust for Public Land, that gathered tips from what i read in city municipalities. To wonder recreation opportunities, we looked at the merde of ball diamonds, tennis courts and pools and made a Forbes.com recreation index.

For sunshine, precipitation and temperature extremes, we depleted annual averages according to NOAA. For air quality, we expended information out of the EPA and averaged the level of days between 1999 and 2006 when the air the best index for all pollutants shot up above 100. Index market prices between 100 and 500 are comprehended unhealthy and/or hazardous. We ranked the populations in every category and assigned them whole scores.
 

By JOHN NADEL, AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES - There would be no blown lead in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers saw to that. Bryant scored 22 points, Lamar Odom added 20 points and 12 rebounds, and the Lakers took command late in the second quarter to rout San Antonio 101-71 Friday night for a 2-0 lead over the Spurs.

Games 3 and 4 in the best-of-seven series will be played in San Antonio, where the defending NBA champion Spurs have a 6-0 record in the postseason and have won 20 of their last 22 games.

Only 14 of the 222 teams to fall behind 2-0 in best-of-seven NBA playoff series have come back to win, including the Spurs in their second-round matchup with the New Orleans Hornets. But this figures to be a much tougher assignment — San Antonio has to be perfect at home and win a game at Staples Center, where the Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason and have won 13 straight.

“The old adage is you just won the games on your home court, which is the important part, and extended the series to six games,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We know that. Now, nothing happens until we win on their court. And someone wins on the other team’s court.”

The Lakers had to rally from a 20-point third-quarter deficit to win the opener 89-85, and didn’t take their first lead in that game until the final 3 minutes.

They never trailed in Game 2 — the third time in their last four playoff games that happened. After a basket by Tim Duncan enabled the Spurs to forge the only tie, the Lakers scored the final nine points of the second quarter for a 46-37 halftime lead.

San Antonio would get no closer.

The Lakers had reason to be leery as the second half began, considering the Spurs outscored them 14-2 to begin the third quarter in Game 1 for a 65-45 lead before the Lakers stormed back.

But Bryant scored seven points in the first 2 minutes of the third period and Odom added seven more during a 20-10 run that gave the Lakers a 66-48 lead.

It was 74-57 entering the fourth quarter, and the Lakers made it a blowout by outscoring the Spurs 14-3 to begin the final period to make it 88-60. Reserves played the rest of the way for both teams.

“I think they had an off-night,” Jackson said. “I think they had some tired legs and I think that’s what happens sometimes. You get to playing a lot of playoff games back to back, we’re every other day in this situation. Kind of crept up on them, perhaps.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich agreed to some extent, saying: “I think being out of gas had somewhat of an effect, but not as much as the good play of the Lakers. We definitely have to have more people playing better to get this done.”

Jackson said he expected the Spurs to be a much different team Sunday night in Game 3.

“Oh, without a doubt,” he said, perhaps mindful of the fact that the Spurs were blown out in the first two games at New Orleans before turning that series around.

Jordan Farmar scored a career playoff high 14 points, Derek Fisher added 11 points, and Pau Gasol had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Lakers, who shot 54.9 percent to San Antonio’s 34.5 percent and outrebounded the Spurs 44-36.

Tony Parker led the Spurs with 13 points and four assists. Duncan was the only other San Antonio player in double figures with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Manu Ginobili was ineffective again, shooting 2-for-8 and scoring seven points. He shot 3-for-13 and scored 13 in the opener.

Ginobili, who had started San Antonio’s previous six postseason games, was used in a reserve role, as was the case most of the season when he won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award. It didn’t make any difference.

“There was some thought of shutting him down for the game,” Popovich said.

Ginobili has been hampered by an injured finger and a sprained ankle.

Bryant, who had only two points at halftime of Game 1, was more aggressive from the start Friday night, shooting 6-for-11 and scoring 13 in the opening 24 minutes. The Lakers shot 54.3 percent to San Antonio’s 34.8 percent in the first half and the Spurs went 2-of-7 from the foul line, with Duncan misfiring on all four of his attempts.

Bryant had eight points and Fisher added seven to help the Lakers take a 21-16 first-quarter lead. Fisher scored only four points in the opener.

Notes:@ Lakers forward Trevor Ariza was on the active list for the first time since breaking his right foot Jan. 20, and played the last 5:53 of the game. He made his only shot for two points. … The last time the Lakers overcame a 20-point deficit to win a playoff game before the opener of this series was in Game 4 of the conference finals in 2002, when they trailed by 20 in the second quarter before rallying to beat Sacramento 100-99 on Robert Horry’s last-second 3-pointer. … Horry, who now plays for the Spurs, shot 0-for-5 while going scoreless in 14 minutes Friday night. … The Lakers have a 50-10 record in postseason games at Staples Center since the arena opened before the 1999-2000 season. … Parker is the only player on the Spurs roster under 30 who is part of their rotation, while Fisher is the only member of the Lakers older than 30 who plays with regularity. … The Lakers have won eight of their last nine appearances in the conference finals while the Spurs have won four of their last five.

Source:news.yahoo

By JOHN GEROME, Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away” made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday.

Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I’ll Hold You in My Heart.” His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip.

Arnold’s vocals on songs like the 1965 “Make the World Go Away,” one of his many No. 1 country hits and a top 10 hit on the pop charts, made him one of the most successful country singers in history.

Folksy yet sophisticated, he became a pioneer of “The Nashville Sound,” also called “countrypolitan,” a mixture of country and pop styles. His crossover success paved the way for later singers such as Kenny Rogers.

“I sing a little country, I sing a little pop and I sing a little folk, and it all goes together,” he said in 1970.

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. The following year he was the first person to receive the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Association.

The reference book “Top Country Singles 1944-1993,’” by Joel Whitburn, ranked Arnold the No. 1 country singer in terms of overall success on the Billboard country charts. It lists his first No. 1 hit as “What Is Life Without Love,” 1947, and for the following year ranks his “Bouquet of Roses” as the biggest country hit of the entire year.

Other hits included “Cattle Call,” “The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me,” “Anytime,” “Bouquet of Roses,” “What’s He Doing in My World?” “I Want to Go With You,” “Somebody Like Me,” “Lonely Again” and “Turn the World Around.”

Most of his hits were done in association with famed guitarist Chet Atkins, the producer on most of the recording sessions.

The late Dinah Shore once described his voice as like “warm butter and syrup being poured over wonderful buttermilk pancakes.”

Reflecting on his career, he said he never copied anyone.

“I really had an idea about how I wanted to sing from the very beginning,” he said.

He revitalized his career in the 1960s by adding strings, a controversial move for a country artist back then.

“I got to thinking, if I just took the same kind of songs I’d been singing and added violins to them, I’d have a new sound,” he told The Associated Press in 2002. “They cussed me, but the disc jockeys grabbed it. … The artists began to say, `Aww, he’s left us.’ Then within a year, they were doing it!”

Among his recent albums were “Looking Back,” 2002, and “After All These Years,” 2005.

Joe Galante, chairman of Sony BMG Nashville, which includes RCA country artists, said he was talking about making another just a few weeks ago. “There was a special kind of happiness about him whenever he talked about music, and that is how I will remember him,” Galante said.

Over the years, he invested wisely, especially in real estate in the Nashville area, and was regarded as one of the wealthiest men in country music. He once had this advice for young singers: “Get a good lawyer, a good accountant and be on time.”

Friends said his wife helped handle his business dealings and was the inspiration for many of his love songs.

“What hurts me more than anything else is that he died of a broken heart,” said Grand Ole Opry star Jim Ed Brown, a friend. “I don’t think he ever recovered from that.”

Arnold was born May 15, 1918, on a farm near Henderson, Tenn., the son of a sharecropper. He sang on radio stations in Jackson, Tenn., Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis before becoming nationally known.

Early in his career, his manager was Col. Tom Parker, who later became Elvis Presley’s manager.

His image was always that of a modest, clean-cut country boy.

“You cannot satisfy all the people,” he once said. “They have an image of me. Some people think I’m Billy Graham’s half brother, but I’m not. I want people to get this hero thing off their mind and just let me be me.”

Arnold lived in Brentwood, a Nashville suburb. Survivors include a son, Richard Edward Arnold Jr., and daughter, Jo Ann Pollard, both of Brentwood.

(This version CORRECTS the name of record that first No. 1 in 1947.)

By ERIN CARLSON, Associated Press Writer

Simon Cowell once told Jason Castro that his face would save him from elimination. Not this

time.

The dreadlocked heartthrob was voted off “American Idol” Wednesday as the show narrowed the

competition to three finalists: David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado.

Castro, 20, from Rockwall, Texas, started off strong in the show’s seventh season but lost

momentum in recent weeks. He gave weaker performances, and flubbed the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s

“Mr. Tambourine Man” on Tuesday’s performance show.

Cowell predicted Castro’s gaffe could spell the end of him. “Jason, I’d pack your suitcase,”

Cowell told the singer.

Castro took his fate in stride and didn’t wipe the ever-present grin off his expansive face

after learning the result.

Earlier in Wednesday’s show, he told host Ryan Seacrest: “I think it’s just getting tough

for me. I think my inexperience is coming in.”

Castro said this week he tried to pick songs he knew — “Mr Tambourine Man” and Bob Marley’s

“I Shot the Sheriff” — and yet he “screwed it up.”

After Castro’s cover of “I Shot the Sheriff,” a less-than-impressed Cowell said: “I don’t

know what you’re thinking!”

Castro replied: “I’m thinking, Bob Marley!”

Castro had his share of spacey moments while he was in the running, like when a viewer asked

Wednesday what the contestants’ biggest challenges were in the competition. Castro answered:

“Just the brain being dead.”

The program also featured performances by Maroon 5 and “Idol” alum Bo Bice.

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out.
 Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide.

Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief Timothy Delaney, who helped direct the rescue effort.

“If you look at that drop, there was no way somebody could survive that,” Delaney said.

Bowman, 23, of Tamaqua, was in serious condition Friday night at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem. The extent and nature of his injuries was not clear, although rescuer John Fowler said it appeared he suffered a number of fractures.

Bowman and a friend were walking around the pit when he went over the side. The friend called 911, and Coaldale police and firefighters began a frantic search, according to Delaney.

State police got into the act several hours later, using a helicopter, floodlights and thermal imaging to try to pinpoint Bowman’s location in the pit, about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

“It got really, really dangerous,” Delaney said. “My guys were fantastic; they were heroes, risking their lives in total darkness.”

The search was called off at daybreak. Shortly thereafter, Delaney went to the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., which owns the Springdale Pit, to notify officials of the situation.

“I said, ‘Let’s take a ride over there and show me where it occurred,’” said Fowler, 40, a project manager at the company.

Their luck was better this time.

“Within about three minutes, we found him,” Fowler said. “I thought I could hear a muffled call for help. We yelled to him and asked him where he was, and he said he thought he was on a ledge.”

Fowler, who moonlights as a state firefighter instructor, and a Coaldale police sergeant scouted a relatively safe route to Bowman and stayed with him until more help arrived.

Two firefighters rappelled down to the ledge, loaded Bowman onto a basket and tied themselves to it. Then all three were painstakingly hoisted up.

Bowman was lucid when he arrived at the top of the pit late Friday morning, wanting his harness loosened, asking that someone call his brother and expressing fear about riding in a medical helicopter, said Sarah Curran Smith, a vice president at Lehigh Coal.

Bowman’s survival is “pretty unbelievable,” she said. “I think the universe has bigger plans for Nathan. I hope he realizes that.”

Bowman faces charges including defiant trespass, according to Delaney.

Source:news.yahoo

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
TIJUANA, Mexico - Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.

“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs,” Moreno told reporters.

Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.

Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.

At one point, the alleged traffickers fired at one another as their sport utility vehicles sped down a busy six-lane boulevard lined with restaurants, car repair shops, medical offices and strip malls.

Bullet holes could be seen in the walls of a factory building and on the perimeter wall of a housing complex along the road, but no bystander deaths were reported. It was not clear how long the gunbattles lasted.

A mall security guard who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals said he heard hundreds of gunshots fired, some of which passed near him.

“I hit the ground,” the guard said. When he got up again, he said he saw bullet holes in the wall behind him, a dead man lying in a pool of blood and 11 abandoned, bullet-ridden SUVs on the street.

The first shootout claimed seven victims. Three subsequent gunbattles — one outside a hospital — claimed five more, police said. The body of a man police believe to be the 13th victim turned up at a city hospital.

Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis just across the border from San Diego, California, is pervaded by frequent violence, much of it blamed on drug cartels battling for control of lucrative trafficking routes. The city is home to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel.

In January, eight people died in a gunbattle at a Tijuana safe-house apparently used by drug hit men to hold kidnapped rivals. In that confrontation, hit men holed up inside the house battled police and soldiers with automatic weapons for three hours.

Source:news.yahoo

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - Amy Winehouse left a London police station Saturday after questioning about reports that she scuffled with two men during a raucous night out. She received a formal police caution for assault.
The caution means the 24-year-old soul diva has not been charged, but the incident will remain on the record and could count against her if she is ever charged with a similar offense in future.

Winehouse spent the night at Holborn Police Station in central London after arriving for questioning Friday afternoon.

Police said a 24-year-old woman had been cautioned for common assault. British police do not identify suspects who have not been charged.

A statement released by Winehouse spokesman Chris Goodman said the singer “admitted to a common assault by slapping a man with an open hand and accepted a caution.”

“Amy was fully cooperative with inquiries and apologized for the incident,” the statement said

A man was quoted in tabloid newspapers as saying Winehouse hit him when he got in her way while she was playing pool at a bar in the Camden neighborhood of London. He said she also head-butted another man who was trying to hail her a cab in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were arrested in the Norwegian city of Bergen in October and held overnight on charges of drug possession. A video of her allegedly smoking crack hit the Internet shortly before she won five Grammys this year for her critically acclaimed album “Back to Black.”

She was arrested in London in December on suspicion of attempting to interfere with a court case involving Fielder-Civil, but earlier this year police said prosecutors were no longer pursuing the matter.

Fielder-Civil is in jail awaiting trial on charges of perverting the course of justice stemming from a case in which he is accused of assaulting a barman.

Winehouse’s musical career has flourished despite her erratic behavior, missed concerts and stints in drug rehab. The Sunday Times newspaper’s annual Rich List this week estimated her wealth at $20 million.

Winehouse’s spokesman said the singer was “looking forward to continuing her work on new music in the studio.”

Source:news.yahoo

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - Elliott Reed said the scene was surreal: As he walked toward the Chicago Transit Authority train station in the midst of an otherwise normal, busy rush hour, a tractor trailer exiting a nearby expressway made a sudden and violent detour.

Without warning, the truck barreled into a street-level bus shelter, ending part of the way up the station’s north stairwell. Two women died on the scene and at least 21 others were injured, authorities said.

Reed and other witnesses stood disbelieving as the truck wedged inside the stairwell. If it hadn’t been for a delay at work, Reed, a 30-year-old bank security officer, said he could have been one of the victims.

The Chicago Police Department was still investigating the crash at the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station on Saturday. That investigation included questioning the truck’s driver, who initially went to a hospital but was released and led from the hospital in handcuffs.

The 51-year-old man tested negative for blood alcohol at the hospital, but refused a urinalysis test, said Stroger Hospital spokesman Sean Howard.

The man was not under arrest or had been charged with anything as of late Friday, said police spokesman John Mirabelli.

“We are talking to the driver, that is the extent of it to this time,” Mirabelli said.

Police did not identify the driver and could not immediately confirm details of the crash.

“Right now this is just a tragic traffic accident,” said Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson.

Twenty-one people were transported to area hospitals, Langford said. Eleven were in critical condition, including four children, eight adults were in stable condition and two adults were in good condition, said fire department spokesman Larry Langford.

“This is rush hour so it’s bad,” Langford said Friday.

Most of those injured were either in the bus shelter underneath the elevated train station or in the stairwell of the station, said fire department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. The two women killed were dead on the scene, she said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said autopsies for the two women were scheduled for Saturday morning.

The truck didn’t appear to slow down before ramming into the stairs, witnesses said.

Reed was walking on the street when he “heard the big bang and saw the truck go right into the station.”

Reed said he and others on the street were “stunned,” asking each other, “Did you see what just happened?”

The intersection has a risky reputation because the traffic lights there change quickly, said Meekus Wong, who works at a restaurant located directly in front of the train station.

“That was always a very dangerous intersection because the traffic lights switch really fast,” she said.

“I was supposed to take the train. Thank God I took the bus,” she said.

The logo on the side of the white truck read “XTRA Lease” in red letters. A phone message left after business hours with XTRA Lease of St. Louis, Mo., was not immediately returned. The company’s Web site says it leases trucks to drivers on a short-term basis.

Engineers determined there was no structural damage to the overhead station, but the stairs sustained “very significant damage,” said CTA President Ron Huberman. Trains on the Red Line, which runs to the city’s far South Side from downtown, will not stop at the station until further notice, he said.

The station is about two miles south of downtown, just blocks from the city’s Chinatown neighborhood and is located near two major expressways, Interstate 55 and Interstate 90/94.

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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.

Source:news.yahoo