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EU slams Libyan regime's 'human rights violations'

BRUSSELS (AP) — EU foreign ministers are condemning what they call the "grave violations of human rights" perpetrated by the regime of Moammar Gadhafi and saying the Libyan leader must relinquish power immediately.

In a statement, foreign ministers from the 27 EU countries are calling on the Gadhafi regime's followers to defect and …

Egyptian church worker shares skills in Canada

Kitchener, Ont.

Arsanuos Faltas meets people from many different countries and churches in his role as a church worker at a Coptic Orthodox retreat centre in Egypt.

This past year he has been using skills honed at the retreat centre to support programs at First Mennonite Church and House of Friendship in Kitchener, Ont., as a participant in MCC's International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP).

Highlights of his year in Canada, he says, are the opportunities to use his Arabic language skills, and his understanding of other cultures and religions to break down barriers among people and faith groups in Canada.

A memorable event took place at First Mennonite …

Pitt Drops Louisville 76-69 to Advance

Sam Young had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and hit a pair of free throws with less than a minute left in overtime to help Pittsburgh beat No. 13 Louisville 76-69 Thursday night and advance to the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

The seventh-seeded Panthers (24-9) outscored Louisville 12-2 to start the overtime, and their 74-64 lead with 30.9 seconds left was their biggest of the game.

Pittsburgh, which has knocked Louisville out of three straight conference tournaments, advanced to play either third-seeded Notre Dame or No. 6 seed Marquette on Friday night.

DeJuan Blair added 16 points and eight rebounds for Pittsburgh, which has been to the last …

Shed loads of fun

If you're planning to go to Keynsham Music Festival on Sunday,then look out for a …

Addressing the Debt Crisis in the European Union: The Validity of Mandatory Collective Action Clauses and Extended Maturities

Abstract

The sovereign debt crisis in the European Union has put significant pressure on the fundamental divisions of power between the Union government and member states. One part of the recommended solution for the crisis calls for the imposition of mandatory collective action clauses and extended maturities for all sovereign bonds issued by member states, the first instances of Union-wide fiscal policy choices being forced upon member states. After an explanation of the relevant bond terms, this Comment evaluates the validity of the proposed mandates based on the current state of the framework of power in the EU and concludes that the mandates are valid under the EU implied …

Ford to pay workers $6,000 bonus in new contract

FORD/UAW CONTRACT: Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a new four-year contract agreement Tuesday. It covers Ford's 41,000 U.S. factory workers.

THE DETAILS: Most workers won't get annual raises, but will get at least $16,700 over the life of the contract, including a $6,000 signing bonus …

AP ENTERPRISE: 2009 _ year of terror charges in US

U.S. prosecutors charged more suspects with terrorism in 2009 than in any year since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, providing evidence of what experts call a rise in plots spurred by Internet recruitment, the spread of al-Qaida overseas and ever-shifting tactics of terror chiefs.

A review of major national security cases by The Associated Press found 54 defendants had federal terrorism-related charges filed or unsealed against them in the past 12 months.

The Justice Department would not confirm the figure or provide its own. But an agency spokesman said 2009 had more defendants charged with terrorism than any year since the 2001 attacks. The year that came …

Whealan Pool reopens as an aquatic center

Before home air conditioners were commonplace, there was WhealanPool, a mammoth Far Northwest Side facility where thousands of cityand suburban residents would retreat on a summer's day.

This afternoon, after a two-year hiatus, the Cook County ForestPreserve District's sprawling concrete-paved lake at 6200 W. Devonwill be reborn as the Whealan Pool Aquatic Center, a smaller, moremodern swimming hole with water slides and an interactive playstructure for kids.

The debut will come a day after the city got its own interactivespray pool. City officials dedicated the spray pool Tuesday atPiotrowski Park, 4247 W. 31st St..

At Whealan Pool, the reopening is …

Romanian ex-PM gets prison time in corruption case

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's highest court on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to two years in prison after convicting him of illegally raising funds for a failed presidential campaign.

The ruling is the first time a former Romanian premier has been sentenced to prison since communism ended in the country in 1989.

Four others in the case received six-year prison sentences. The sentences can be appealed.

Nastase, who was prime minister from 2000 to 2004, insists he is innocent and that the case is politically motivated. He said he would appeal.

Prosecutors alleged that companies and state agencies were forced to pay fees to attend a …

Allen: Reliable spill numbers hard to nail down

The Obama administration's point man for the government's response to the Gulf Coast oil spill is acknowledging that reliable numbers on the severity of the crisis are hard to get.

Speaking at a Washington briefing Friday, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen conceded: "I think we're still dealing with the flow estimate. We're still trying to refine those …

Be a survivor

frontiers of science

If you were on a desert isle, what herb would you take along?

When I called Dr. James Duke the other day to ask him a question about a journal article on garlic and cancer, he asked me to hold on, since he had a pot of garlic soup on the oven and didn't want it to burn!

"If I were stranded on a desert isle, I'd rather have garlic than almost any other herb," Duke said. "It'll boost your immune system and fight the nasties better than anything I can think of."

And there are plenty of bugs and diseases around, some of them deadly serious. In fact, since 1990, 15 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed. According to the National Cancer …

Chilean judge sentences Catholic priest to recite psalms for traffic violation

A judge in southern Chile has sentenced a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily during three months as punishment for illegal parking.

Judge Manuel Perez said he issued the unusual sentence after Father Jose Cornejo claimed he could not afford the 50,000 peso (US$100,euro68) fine that would have been the regular sanction for illegal parking in the city of Puerto Montt.

"He will have to recite seven psalms," Judge Perez told the Santiago daily La Tercera.

"This is not a …

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: Road to NBA title goes through San Antonio

Spurs that jingle

The San Antonio Spurs have won at least 50 games since 1999 andhave won at least 50 games in a season 15 times since 1976:

Year W L Pct.

2004-05 59 23 .720

2003-04 57 25 .695

2002-03 60 22 .732

2001-02 58 24 .707

2000-01 58 24 .707

1999-00 53 29 .646

1998-99 37 13 .740

1997-98 56 26 .683

1996-97 20 62 .244

1995-96 59 23 .720

1994-95 62 20 .756

1993-94 55 27 .671

1992-93 49 33 .598

1991-92 47 35 .573

1990-91 55 27 .671

1989-90 56 26 .683

1988-89 21 61 .256

1987-88 31 51 .378

1986-87 28 54 .341

1985-86 35 47 .427

1984-85 41 41 .500

1983-84 37 45 .451

1982-83 53 29 .646

1981-82 48 34 .585

1980-81 52 30 .634

1979-80 41 41 .500

1978-79 48 34 .585

1977-78 52 30 .634

1976-77 44 38 .537

Robert Horry knows something about what it takes to win an NBAchampionship. In his 13 years in the league, Horry has been part ofsix teams and three different franchises that have finished theseason popping champagne corks and, a few months later, putting onthe diamond-laden rings that go to the world champions. No currentNBA player has more championship bling than Big Shot Bob. Now in histhird year with the reigning champion San Antonio Spurs, Horry alsoknows whats coming next. The pressure of repeating that will followthe Spurs as it did when Horry played for the Los Angeles Lakers andHouston Rockets. The challenge from the leagues legitimate contendersto combat, and even mimic, the Spurs. You cant copy a style, Horrysaid before an exhibition game in Indianapolis last month. When Ifirst got traded to Phoenix (fom Houston before the 1996-97 season),we tried to copy the Bulls style. Every system is not good for everyteam. You have certain matchups that work with certain peoplesabilities. The style that worked for the Spurs last season might notbe as successful this season, which begins Tuesday night with a ringceremony and a game against the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs areconsidered nearly as big a favorite to repeat as the Lakers or Bullswere during their years of dominance. Like other recent championshipteams, including the 2002-03 Spurs, San Antonio didnt stand still,adding veteran free agents Michael Finley and Nick Van Exel to a teamthat revolves around the inside presence of All-NBA forward TimDuncan and the perimeter game of All-Star guard Manu Ginobili andpoint guard Tony Parker. Though the playing style of the Spursdiffers from that of the Lakers or Bulls, the blueprint is prettymuch the same. I think the model has been there for years. You haveyour main players, you have role players, you have role playersaccept their roles and your star players play the right way and yougo from there, said Duncan. I think you can find that in every teamthats won it, from the Lakers when they were winning it, to the oldLakers when they were winning it, to the Celtics when they werewinning. Its all the same. What has changed the landscape is the NBAsalary cap, trying to figure out a way to compensate a teams starswithout compromising its chances to win. That doesnt differ whetheryoure being chased or doing the chasing. I think whatever positionyoure in, the goal is the same for everybody; everybody wants to winan NBA championship, said Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, who has wonthree. The most important thing is that whatever a team does thesedays has to be done in relation to the cap and to the salaryrestrictions, because if a mistake is made in that area, it can bethree to six years before a team recovers from it. Whatever getsdone, if a mistake is made, like overpaying someone whos not really afranchise player and youre stuck with that guy for X number of years,then youre not going anywhere, because you dont have the money to addthe pieces. Having said that, one can only fit the pieces togetheraround who the stars are as wisely as possible, knowing full wellthat good fortune has something to do with it. Sometimes, bad luckcan turn into dumb luck, as happened when David Robinson was injuredback during the 1996-97 season and the Spurs fell into the lottery,then won the lottery and drafted Duncan with the top pick. But afterwinning titles in 1998-99 and 2002-03, the Spurs were forced to redomuch of their roster when veteran reserves Steve Kerr and Danny Ferryretired and Stephen Jackson signed with the Atlantia Hawks. The nextseason, the Spurs started giving a more prominent role to a second-year player named Ginobili. With us, when we drafted Manu (in thesecond round in 1999), we didnt know he was going to be the Manu thatyou see today, said Popovich. The pieces have to fit around thestars. Thats what other teams are trying to do this year in order tosupplant the Spurs: The Miami Heat, which came within a game ofreaching the NBA Finals last season, overhauled its roster moreradically than any other team in the league. Miami brought inveterans Antoine Walker, Gary Payton, James Posey and Jason Williamsthrough trades and free agency with hopes that they will play as wellas the supporting cast did with Shaquille ONeal and Dwyane Wade lastseason. The Phoenix Suns, who lost to the Spurs in the WesternConference finals after having the best regular-season record in theleague, traded Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson, deepened its frontcourt with Kurt Thomas, Brian Grant and James Jones and will now playwithout All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire for the first four monthsafter knee surgery. The Indiana Pacers, who made the playoffs despitea tumultuous season that included Ron Artests suspension for 73 gamesafter the infamous brawl in Detroit and injuries to other keyplayers, including Jermaine ONeal, added European star SarunasJasikevicius in hopes of the former Maryland guard becoming theirGinobili. The Detroit Pistons, who lost to the Spurs in the NBAFinals, saw their top eight players return, but watched as Hall ofFame coach Larry Brown left for the New York Knicks over the summer.His successor, Flip Saunders, will have a much more balanced te

Magnificent mess // Zen and the art of Michigan Avenue repair

It's a very Zen experience, walking down the middle of NorthMichigan Avenue without being arrested.

But it's perfectly legal to stroll there, meditating deeply,while parts of of the west sidewalk are closed.

See, bustling North Michigan hasn't been well lately, thanks tothe $25 million reconstruction of the Chicago River bridge and bothlevels of the avenue from the Wrigley Building to Grand Avenue andbeyond.

First the east side of Michigan was torn up and renovated. Nowit's the west side's turn.

Some skyscrapers and shops on the west side have had onlytenuous links to civilization - temporary walkways that stretch overthe void.

Maybe by Thanksgiving everything will be renewed and reopened,better than ever. Meanwhile, magnificent people are sufferingthrough the magnificent mess at the start of the Magnificent Mile.

Most days, Henry Brown dresses like a gigantic hot dog, completewith bun, and passes out handbills on the torn-up section of MichiganAvenue.

The handbills read something like "Our burgers are fresh grounddaily with no preservatives, additives or fillers. FREE. Smallfries and drink with any burger sandwich. One per customer."

Hungry passersby don't find that hard to digest in one quickread.

Brown works for Barry Potekin of Gold Coast Dogs on StateStreet. "Till they started tearing it up," Brown says, he tarried onthe east side of Michigan, near the plaza north of the WrigleyBuilding.

"I don't pass out leaflets like I used to because it's so messedup," Brown says, and "because my fans are on the other side" of theconstruction.

"It's a different crowd now."

Brown has been working for Potekin six years, and when notpamphleteering does Gold Coast deliveries. He stores his costume inthe restaurant basement.

Hot dogs have always been red-hot sellers. But somerestaurants have been hard hit during construction.

George Kuan says business in his House of Hunan-Michigan Avenuerestaurant was down "50 percent last year" while his side, the eastside of the avenue, was out of action.

This year, with the east side renovated, his dining business is"definitely better." But "taxis and tour buses still cannot stop infront."

A block west of Michigan, at Riccardo's restaurant on Rush,owner Nick Angelos says "business is halfway down." He blames therecession and the Michigan Avenue rip-up.

For one thing, people haven't able to use the stairway fromupper Michigan Avenue. to Riccardo's. The stairway has been closedtemporarily.

And taxes, not taxis, aren't helping either.

"Sixteen years ago I paid $7,000 a year in real estate taxes onthe Riccardo building," says Angelos. "I put my bones and my bloodinto it and fixed it up. Now they're asking me for $150,000" a year.

"It's not democracy. We're in crisis. With the real estatetaxes, I'm going to have to close and get out."

At Billy Goat's on the west side of Michigan's lower level,owner Sam Sianis says "lunch business has been down. People don'tcome down for lunch because it's too far to walk. All stairs havebeen closed" from the upper level at various times.

"When they were fixing the other side, it was easier," Sianissays.

Did President Bush have trouble getting to Billy Goat's forlunch on Dec. 10?

"When Bush was here, it was open. Construction on the westside started the first of the year."

Listen, Sam, tell us again: Did Bush pay for his lunch?

"The President when he got up to leave, he took money out ofhis pocket to pay. I told him, `Mister President, because it's yourfirst time at Billy Goat, Billy Goat is going to buy you lunch. Thesecond time, you pay."

Don't try that yourselves, readers.

James Williams, confined to a wheelchair, is a familiar sighton Michigan's upper level.

Sometimes people stop to chat with him, or offer acontribution. "I've been here three or four years," he says, and hefeels he has made many friends.

What impact has construction had on any donations he mightreceive? "None," Williams says.

Williams used to favor the west side of Michigan Avenue but hecan be found on "both sides" now that the west side is a wasteland.

At the Rand McNally map and travel store on the west side, atorn-up street "definitely has had an impact" on business, saysmanager Rebecca Owen. "Luckily, the product we carry is somethingpeople will go to a little bit of trouble to get," Owen says.

And there's a bright side. "We have had an additional group ofpeople coming to see the construction," she says, "how interesting itis to see the old structure of the road."

This is an especially rugged time for Manouchehr Shabahang, whoowns Shabahang Persian Carpets on the east side of Michigan. "Itdefinitely affects our business," he says of the mess.

"I lost money last year," Shabahang says. "This is a touristarea and a lot of tourists didn't bother to come to this side becauseit was uncomfortable. Now this side is clear and we get some of thetraffic from the other side. It's better for us."

Policeman Dominic LaCalamita helps keep traffic running throughMichigan Avenue's war zone.

One problem: "Cab drivers stop in the middle of the street topick people up, or let them out right in the middle of the block."

LaCalamita finds that people confronted with constructionconfusion on the west side generally are "accepting it more than theydid on the other side, because they tore it up much faster on thewest side. They started Jan. 6. They're really working."

Barbers on both sides of Michigan are holding their own,trimwise. Roberto Cordova co-owns the barbershop in the east side'sEquitable Building with Vito Citrano.

"It was a little harder for our friends to come see us" when theeast side was torn up, says Cordova. "But they struggled through it.We're all happy because it's so nice now. We had a whole year ofthat.

"You kind of don't get new customers" during reconstruction, headmits. But now his rebuilt east side "looks nicer. There's a bigdifference."

Joe Gambino says haircut numbers in his west side WrigleyBuilding Barber Shop haven't been affected by the mess. But "peoplecomplain they have to go a little further, go down the street moreand come up."

Sue McKenna also works in the Wrigley Building, with theIllinois Insurance Information Service. She says when workmen weretearing up the avenue's east side, "for two whole days they had thelarge ball that breaks up the concrete, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. By the endof the day my head was rocking with the ball.

"I didn't remember how annoying and distracting it was till theydid it on the west side."

Sy Handwerker feels kind of shellshocked in the east side'sEquitable Building. "We have survived about two years ofconstruction," says Handwerker, president of the Hanlen Organizationpublic relations firm.

"Before they tore up the street, they tore up the plaza, andbefore that they tore up the entire lobby," Handwerker says. "It'sbeen like a war zone here for a long, long time.

"People were always getting lost. We told them they had to walkover to the other side of the street to get across the bridge." Nowthey must use Handwerker's side of the street to cross the river.

Kroch's and Brentano's bookstore on the west side keeps itsrevolving front door securely locked because there's now a dropoffbeyond it. But customers can use a side lobby door.

"Yes, business has gone down some," says Kroch's assistantmanager Bette Popik. "But not as bad as we thought it would. Ithink probably because we have so many restaurants on this side.People still come to pick up their McDonald's.

Kroch's is where many Boul Mich denizens pick up the ChicagoReader on Thursday. But now the huge newspaper stack vanishes earlybecause the weekly can't be delivered easily.

"The Reader guy only delivers one load versus two. He has tocome up through the dock area."

Still, nobody can stop a reader, lower case. "We've had threeor four autograph parties" at Kroch's since the avenue became rubbleand thin air on the west side. At one party, Popik says, poet G.E.Murray autographed and sold more than 125 copies of his book Walkingthe Blind Dog.

Homemade signs abound on Michigan Avenue. Many of the largeplywood boards that separate people and gaping holes have cryptic,interconnected messages written on them. One reads, "Nobody hasRECORDS!!!

Another reads, "Shutup. . . ! I think I hear the secretary."

Still further on: "Screenwriters. Have parts of your scriptsshown up in commercials."

And then, "Who are YOU to script people off? (ugly worms)."

And so it goes, sometimes alternating with signs that read,"Bridge CLOSED. Use east side."

Somewhere out there is an unhappy writer. But aren't allwriters unhappy?

Though the scheduled date for completion of Michigan Avenuereconstruction is Thanksgiving week, things may be wrapped up sooner.

"We anticipate that the bridge and roadway on the west side willbe completed sometime in September," says Russell Salzman, executivedirector of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association.

"And then they will finish the southeast leaf of the bridge.There's an early finish clause, substantial enough that I'm toldcontractors are duly motivated.

"Our association is planning a rather significant event thatwill be a major kickoff to the Christmas season, opening the gatewayto the Mile."

And that's the situation on Michigan Avenue, Zen and now.