TOKYO (AFP) –
Hundreds of troops joined the search in western Japan Wednesday for 10 people missing a day after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that killed at least six people, officials said.

Emergency services staff were digging through mud and the debris of broken furniture inside a mud-filled nursing home in Hofu, Yamaguchi prefecture, 750 kilometres (470 miles) west of Tokyo, television images showed.

"We started the search for the people still missing at 7:00 am (2200 GMT) with at least 280 rescue officers," a prefectural police spokesman told AFP.

The Ground Self Defence Force dispatched 220 troops to the rescue effort, which was hampered by muddy water still flowing down a hillside and into the nursing home where three people died and four people were listed as missing.

Two more people were killed elsewhere in Yamaguchi, one in a landslide and another in a swollen river, while six remained missing, police officials said.

In the neighbouring prefecture of Tottori, one person drowned in a flooded river, another police spokesman said.

Some 370 people were evacuated to emergency shelters while the water supply was cut to some 30,000 households in Yamaguchi, public broadcaster NHK said, adding that more than 1,270 houses had been flooded.

Prime Minister Taro Aso had ordered thorough measures to tackle the disaster, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

"First, we have to do our best to rescue people as there are a number of people still missing," the top government spokesman said.

WASHINGTON – Gun control and gun rights advocates are heading for another clash with a Senate vote on a measure that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry those hidden weapons into other states.
Backers, led by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., say truckers and others with concealed weapons permits should be able to protect themselves when they cross into other states. Opponents say the measure would force states with strict procedures for getting permits to accept permits from states with more lax laws.
The Senate has scheduled a vote Wednesday on the measure, which Thune offered as an amendment to a major defense policy bill. Under an agreement reached among Senate leaders, 60 votes will be needed to approve the amendment.
The vote comes a day after the Senate completed what is probably the most controversial issue connected to the defense bill, voting 58-40 to eliminate $1.75 billion in the $680 billion bill that had been set aside for building more F-22 fighters. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates campaigned hard for removing the money, saying the Pentagon had enough F-22s and the money could be spent on more pressing defense needs.
The gun proposal would make concealed weapons permits from one state valid in other states as long as the person obeys the laws of other states, such as weapons bans in certain localities. It does not establish national standards for concealed weapons permits and would not allow those with permits to carry weapons into Wisconsin and Illinois, the two states that do not have concealed weapons laws.
"Law-abiding South Dakotans should be able to exercise the right to bear arms in states with similar regulations on concealed firearms," Thune said. "My legislation enables citizens to protect themselves while respecting individual state firearms laws."
National Rifle Association chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said the last two decades have shown a strong shift toward gun rights laws. "We believe it's time for Congress to acknowledge these changes and respect the right of self-defense, and the right of self-defense does not stop at state lines," he said.
Gun control groups were strongly in opposition.
Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens during a two-year period ending in April, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center. "It is beyond irrational for Congress to vote to expand the reach of these deadly laws," said the center's legislative director, Kristen Rand.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would "incite a dangerous race to the bottom in our nation's gun laws." He said his own state, which has strict gun control laws, would have to accept concealed weapons permits from states such as Arizona, which issues permits to people with drinking problems, or Alaska, where people with violent misdemeanor convictions can get permits.
"Folks in Minot, N.D., and New York are going to have different conceptions about what's right for their locality," said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank that supports gun rights. "In some states you have to show a real need" to get a permit, he said. "In other states you have to show that you can stand on two feet."
So far this year gun rights advocates have had the clear advantage in Congress. They managed to attach a provision to a credit card bill signed into law that restores the right to carry loaded firearms in national parks, and coupled a Senate vote giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House with a provision effectively ending the district's tough gun control laws.
House Democratic leaders, unable to detach the two issues without losing the support of pro-gun Democrats, abandoned attempts to pass the D.C. vote bill.
___
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

TEXARKANA, Ark. – Lawyers for evangelist Tony Alamo on Wednesday will likely wrap up their defense in his federal sex-crimes trial.
Lawyer Phillip Kuhn says Alamo's defense team plans to call only two more witnesses to the stand. That means jurors could receive the case as soon as early Wednesday afternoon.
The only remaining wild card remains Alamo himself. The evangelist told reporters on the way to court Tuesday that he planned to take the stand, despite his lawyers' advice against it. But when leaving Tuesday afternoon, Alamo said his defense team had "won the case already without me having to take the stand."
The 74-year-old evangelist faces a 10-count federal indictment accusing him of taking underage girls across state lines for sex.

WASHINGTON – Gun control and gun rights advocates are heading for another clash with a Senate vote on a measure that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry those hidden weapons into other states.
Backers, led by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., say truckers and others with concealed weapons permits should be able to protect themselves when they cross into other states. Opponents say the measure would force states with strict procedures for getting permits to accept permits from states with more lax laws.
The Senate has scheduled a vote Wednesday on the measure, which Thune offered as an amendment to a major defense policy bill. Under an agreement reached among Senate leaders, 60 votes will be needed to approve the amendment.
The vote comes a day after the Senate completed what is probably the most controversial issue connected to the defense bill, voting 58-40 to eliminate $1.75 billion in the $680 billion bill that had been set aside for building more F-22 fighters. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates campaigned hard for removing the money, saying the Pentagon had enough F-22s and the money could be spent on more pressing defense needs.
The gun proposal would make concealed weapons permits from one state valid in other states as long as the person obeys the laws of other states, such as weapons bans in certain localities. It does not establish national standards for concealed weapons permits and would not allow those with permits to carry weapons into Wisconsin and Illinois, the two states that do not have concealed weapons laws.
"Law-abiding South Dakotans should be able to exercise the right to bear arms in states with similar regulations on concealed firearms," Thune said. "My legislation enables citizens to protect themselves while respecting individual state firearms laws."
National Rifle Association chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said the last two decades have shown a strong shift toward gun rights laws. "We believe it's time for Congress to acknowledge these changes and respect the right of self-defense, and the right of self-defense does not stop at state lines," he said.
Gun control groups were strongly in opposition.
Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens during a two-year period ending in April, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center. "It is beyond irrational for Congress to vote to expand the reach of these deadly laws," said the center's legislative director, Kristen Rand.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would "incite a dangerous race to the bottom in our nation's gun laws." He said his own state, which has strict gun control laws, would have to accept concealed weapons permits from states such as Arizona, which issues permits to people with drinking problems, or Alaska, where people with violent misdemeanor convictions can get permits.
"Folks in Minot, N.D., and New York are going to have different conceptions about what's right for their locality," said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank that supports gun rights. "In some states you have to show a real need" to get a permit, he said. "In other states you have to show that you can stand on two feet."
So far this year gun rights advocates have had the clear advantage in Congress. They managed to attach a provision to a credit card bill signed into law that restores the right to carry loaded firearms in national parks, and coupled a Senate vote giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House with a provision effectively ending the district's tough gun control laws.
House Democratic leaders, unable to detach the two issues without losing the support of pro-gun Democrats, abandoned attempts to pass the D.C. vote bill.
___
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki meets President Barack Obama on Wednesday in a visit aimed at asserting Iraq's newfound sovereignty and encouraging foreign investors to return to the war-ravaged country.

Three weeks after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi towns and cities, paving the way for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011, both Washington and Baghdad are eager to show their relationship has moved into a new phase, one that will see more emphasis placed on non-military cooperation.

Maliki will also hold talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and attend an investment conference, U.S. officials said.

"The visit will highlight the non-security ties and lay the groundwork for future economic cooperation and trade," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government is aggressively courting foreign investors as it struggles to resurrect an economy calcified by decades of sanctions, neglect and war.

During his trip to the United States this week, Maliki will tout Iraq's improved security after six years of conflict that saw tens of thousands of people killed in insurgent and sectarian violence and millions more forced from their homes.

More than 4,300 American soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. There are still 130,000 U.S. troops in the country.

But investors remain unsure whether Iraq's legal and regulatory framework will offer them sufficient protection, and while violence has dipped sharply, major bomb attacks are not uncommon. Iraq is also riven by deep divisions among majority Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

The Obama administration remains concerned about the pace of political reconciliation in Iraq but, unlike the Bush administration, there are no plans to set political benchmarks for Maliki's government to meet.

"We are not going to be dictating to the Iraqis what they need to do," the U.S. official said. "The main focus will be to stress the importance of a comprehensive long-term partnership that goes beyond security."

The official said he did not know whether Obama planned to raise the issue of political reconciliation at his White House meeting with Maliki.

Both Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, have used trips to Iraq this year to call on Iraq's government to reach a political accommodation with opponents on disputes ranging from sharing oil revenues to resolving internal boundary issues.

LIFTING CHAPTER 7 STATUS

There are also concerns over growing tensions between Iraq's semi-autonomous territory of Kurdistan and Baghdad that analysts fear could trigger renewed conflict just as the country recovers from years of sectarian bloodletting.

Kurds want to fold the disputed city of Kirkuk, which U.S. officials say could hold as much as 4 percent of world oil reserves, into their northern region, but Maliki's government strongly opposes the move.

"Maliki will ask the U.S. to increase pressure on the Kurdish government. Finding a solution for this issue is vital and cannot be postponed any longer," said Saad al-Hadithi, a political analyst at Baghdad University.

Maliki, whose nationalist stance has helped him outmaneuver political rivals, is also determined to change the perception that Iraq is a client state of the United States and not in control of its own affairs.

"This trip is considered very important because it takes place in the search for a framework for a relationship that is not military but civilian, including diplomatic, political and cultural ties," said Maliki's spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh.

Dabbagh said Maliki in meetings with Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would also press for the lifting of Iraq's Chapter 7 status under a 1991 U.N. Security Council resolution that requires it to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations for the 1991 Gulf War.

Dabbagh said the Chapter 7 status had "handcuffed Iraq, restricted its sovereignty and burdened it with the crimes of the former regime," a reference to Saddam and his ill-fated invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Saddam was executed in December 2006.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York, and Waleed Ibrahim, Missy Ryan and Mohammed Abbas in Baghdad; Editing by Peter Cooney)

NEW YORK – New Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross had to be loving the scene: the flashbulbs glittering, the passers-by straining to catch a glimpse, the questions asked and answered in Spanish.
This was the kind of energy Ross sought when he added singer Marc Anthony as a minority owner. The Dolphins held the news conference Tuesday not in Miami but in the media mecca of Manhattan, with the bonus buzz of a cameo by Anthony's wife, Jennifer Lopez.
There was Anthony presenting his wife with a Dolphins jersey as an early 40th birthday gift. There was the celebrity couple kissing before the singer-actress, wearing a short pink dress, slipped back offstage.
Ross wants to reach out to new fans, and in South Florida, that automatically includes the Hispanic community. Singer Gloria Estefan and her husband, producer Emilio Estefan, already bought a small stake in the club last month.
"I'm not doing this as a singer; I'm not doing this as an actor," Anthony said. "(It's) just because I love football. Steve and I, our visions are in sync, and this is a great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of Steve's vision."
Anthony will perform the national anthem when the Dolphins host the New York Jets on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" on Oct. 12 as part of the NFL's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
"There's no other place in America that has such a diverse community as Miami and certainly no place in the United States that has a greater Latin culture than South Florida," Ross said.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and ESPN president George Bodenheimer also attended the news conference in an upscale mall at Columbus Circle. But the spotlight was all on Anthony.
The 40-year-old singer grew up a Giants fan in New York. He said he's had the "itch" to buy into a sports team for about three years.
His only concern about the Dolphins deal: Lopez's father is a rabid Jets fan. Anthony said Lopez herself was supportive — mostly because it's an excuse to spend more time in Miami. He said she was shooting a film in New York until 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning but still found the time to stop by the news conference.
Asked later on a conference call whether this also meant she was a minority owner, Anthony joked: "By default she owns everything I do. I would say of my share, she owns a majority."
The four-time Grammy winner has sold more than 10 million albums and also starred in movies. He suggested this venture was part of the next step in his career.
"I could quite possibly by staring at the first day of the rest of my life," he said. "That's really quite exciting at this stage of the game."
Ross, a New York real estate billionaire, completed his purchase of the Dolphins from Wayne Huizenga in January. He began a partnership in May with Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville enterprise, which includes Land Shark Lager.
Buffett has yet to accept Ross' invitation to become a minority owner, but the Dolphins' stadium has been renamed Land Shark Stadium for this season. Buffett has also written a song for the team.
Ross insisted the economic downturn had nothing to do with his desire to bring in minority owners.
"Knock on wood, I can say while we're going through troubled times, fortunately I don't need to bring in partners. ... I always intended to bring in partners," he said. "I always stated before that I want this team to be representative of the community. That's what I was looking for — who my partners were, as opposed to the money aspect."
___

AP Sports Writer Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report.

LAS VEGAS – Former Buffalo Bills quarterback J.P. Losman signed Tuesday with the Las Vegas franchise in the United Football League, which kicks off its first season in October.
Losman, a first-round draft pick in 2004 out of Tulane, is the most notable player to sign with the fledgling UFL so far.
"The United Football League is providing me with the opportunity to play the sport I love at a high level and for that, I am extremely grateful," said Losman. "I am excited to get back out onto the field and represent Las Vegas during the league's first season."
Losman spent five seasons with the Bills after being selected 22nd overall in the draft. He played 42 games and passed for 6,211 yards with 33 touchdown passes and 34 interceptions.
In 2007, his 63.43 completion percentage was the fourth-single best in team history.
"I have followed J.P.'s career since his early days with Buffalo where he impressed me with his raw talent, passing accuracy and on-field competitiveness," said Las Vegas coach Jim Fassel, who took the New York Giants to the Super Bowl after the 2000 season. "J.P. has all the attributes of a great professional quarterback and I am truly looking forward to working with him."

LOS ANGELES – Investigators looking into the chain of events that led City Hall to spend an estimated $1.4 million for police protection and other services at Michael Jackson's memorial have turned up possible criminal wrongdoing, the city attorney said Tuesday.
The disclosure two weeks after Jackson's lavish farewell came amid a public backlash over the taxpayer bill, which included more than $48,000 for sandwiches brought in for police from 70 miles away.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has been reviewing the procedures that led the city to deploy thousands of police and other city workers for the star-studded tribute at the downtown Staples Center, hoping to identify a way for taxpayers to recoup at least some of the money.
"Our investigation has taken an unanticipated turn that raises both civil and criminal aspects," Trutanich told the City Council. The investigation is continuing, but he said he could not reveal any further details about possible criminal activity.
Trutanich later told the Council his office had exchanged correspondence with AEG, the company that owns the Staples Center. Subsidiary AEG Live was the promoter behind Jackson's planned comeback concerts in London.
"That letter is an investigative-type letter," said Trutanich spokesman John Franklin. "He's asking questions and wanting them to produce certain things.
"His main goal here is to recoup the taxpayers' money. When you are dealing with the civil aspect, that's basically it," Franklin added.
Staples did not reply to an e-mail sent to its media office. AEG Live spokesman Michael Roth did not return a phone call.
The city attorney's office prosecutes misdemeanors, but the office could also pass on any evidence it uncovers of more serious violations to the county district attorney.
The city's involvement in the Jackson event, which was broadcast worldwide, has been marked by confusion. An attempt to collect donations from Jackson fans to help cover the costs was later abandoned by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who at first supported the idea.
The Police Department deployed 3,200 officers after projecting that as many as 250,000 people would converge on downtown streets for the service. Beyond ticket holders, only about 1,000 fans showed up.
The City Council is seeking a full accounting of the taxpayer dollars committed to Jackson's tribute. Councilman Dennis Zine has said the cost of the event could far surpass the estimate.

The English word dog, in common usage, refers to the domestic pet dog, Canis lupus familiaris. The species was originally classified as Canis familiaris and "Canis familiarus domesticus" by Linnaeus in 1758. In 1993, dogs were reclassified as a subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus, by the Smithsonian Institution and the American Society of Mammalogists.

Different breeds of dogs have different eye shapes and dimensions, and they also have different retina configurations. Dogs with long noses have a "visual streak" which runs across the width of the retina and gives them a very wide field of excellent vision, while those with short noses have an "area centralis" — a central patch with up to three times the density of nerve endings as the visual streak — giving them detailed sight much more like a human's.

Dog ID

Cap Cana

Cap Cana is located in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic known as Juanillo. The site was founded as a new and more ambitious touristic site with contributions from international investors and strategic partners such as Ritz-Carlton, Sotogrande, Donald Trump and many others. The site has a Marina, Large resorts, beaches, and many others. Primarily founded as a site to attract international visitors. The Cap Cana Championship, a Champions Tour golf tournament, is held at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

BETHEL, N.Y. – Welcome to middle age, Woodstock Baby — if you're really out there.
The babies reportedly born at the Woodstock festival 40 years ago remain the most enduring mystery from that chaotic weekend that defined a generation. Depending on the source, there was one birth on that patch of upstate New York farmland between Aug. 15-17, 1969. Or two. Or three. Or none.
There is some tantalizing evidence. Singer John Sebastian is captured on film announcing that some cat's old lady just had a baby, a kid destined to be far out. A couple of surviving eyewitnesses say there were births. The concert's medical director told reporters at the scene there were two births: one at a local hospital after the mother was flown out by helicopter; the other in a car caught in the epic traffic jam outside the site crowded with more than 400,000 people.
But no one has come forward with a credible public claim of giving birth to a Woodstock baby or being born there. No one has produced proof that it happened. If babies were born at Woodstock, they have lived their lives ignoring — or unaware of — the fact that reporters and researchers have been on their trail for decades.
"I've searched, I've spoken to the doctors and nurses from the main hospitals that were there," said Myron Gittell, who wrote the new medical history, "Woodstock '69: Three Days of Peace, Music, and Medical Care."
Like many before him, he found nothing.
"Almost statistically, you'd think if there are a half-million people, and half of them were women, and 95 percent of them were of childbearing age, and fertile, and active. Just statistically, someone would have had to pop a baby."
Problem is: No one has been able to dig up a birth record.
Rita Sheehan, town clerk for Bethel, which hosted the concert, said there is no local birth certificate on record. Still, it's possible the birth was recorded in one of the surrounding towns. Gittell says there were births recorded in neighboring towns in that period, but the records are sealed under state privacy laws. There's no way to check whether the birth mothers were locals or out-of-towners (the likely pool of Woodstock Moms).
That leaves a few eyewitness accounts, like that of Gladys Devaney, who was a member of the volunteer ambulance corps in nearby Liberty. She answered an ambulance call to a tent at the festival and saw a young woman in labor. Her overriding concern then was that other medical workers took her stretcher as they rushed the woman away. But Devaney knew labor when she saw it.
"I heard her screaming," Devaney said. "I didn't get a good look at her, she was thrashing."
Devaney never found out whether they took the young woman to a waiting helicopter or somewhere else.
Elliot Tiber, the subject of Ang Lee's new movie, "Taking Woodstock," tops Devaney. He says he helped deliver a baby that weekend.
Tiber, who has a reputation for being a raconteur, said the woman gave birth at his parent's hotel near the site, which — like the entire area that weekend — was mobbed. The woman wore a leather jacket, came in on a motorcycle and just flopped down.
"I see she's starting to give birth," Tiber recalled. "It was like the quote from `Gone With the Wind': `I don't know nothing about birthing no babies, Miss Scarlet' ... I was screaming, just screaming. Everybody was standing around stoned saying, `Yeah, groovy!' They thought it was cool."
Tiber said the baby was taken away, though the mother came by in a cab a few weeks later with her baby in a blanket. He didn't get any names. He never heard from them again.
After four decades, the Woodstock baby trail has gotten colder. The young people who packed into Woodstock are retirement age now. A number of the emergency and medical workers involved, including the concert's medical director, Dr. William Abruzzi, are dead. And if a baby was born onsite, there are curious gaps in the record.
Press accounts at the time mentioning the births did not provide names. Abruzzi wrote an exhaustive account of the event in which he tallied six pages of medical incidents over the three days (11 rat bites, 16 peptic ulcers, 707 drug overdoses, among them). The paper, now in the collection of the Museum at Bethel Woods, the onsite museum, does not mention a single childbirth.

"It could be one of those myths that grow out of major events," said Bethel museum Director Wade Lawrence. "It could be like the story of the New York State Thruway being closed. It wasn't."

Maybe the best argument against a Woodstock baby is that no one in the past four decades has stepped forward to publicly and credibly claim they were born or gave birth at Woodstock. There is a theory that neither mother nor child particularly want Woodstock to define their lives, and have chosen to keep their distinction a private matter.

But it bears saying as the 40th anniversary of Woodstock approaches. If you are a Woodstock baby or a Woodstock mother, please consider contacting The Associated Press at woodstockbaby"at"ap.org.

People have been looking for you.

TURNBERRY, Scotland – Ahhh, this is more like it for a British Open.
After the tournament opened with pristine conditions — and, not surprisingly, an assault on the scoreboard — the weather at Turnberry was more ominous Friday as the second round began with Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain in the lead by one stroke over former champions Tom Watson and Ben Curtis and Japan's Kenichi Kuboya.
The skies were gray, a light drizzle was falling and it was cooler than a day earlier, when Jimenez opened with a 6-under 64 that was just one stroke off the record for a major championship.
There wasn't much of a breeze for the early starters, but forecasters said there could be gusts up to 30 mph by the afternoon.
Tiger Woods failed to take advantage on Thursday, struggling to a 71 that he knew should have been so much better. Heck, the world's No. 1 player had as many thrown clubs as birdies (three each) and headed straight to the practice range to work on his swing.
While Jimenez claimed the lead with a 66-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole, Watson was the star of the opening day. The 59-year-old, five-time Open champion put together a bogey-free round and was at the top of the leaderboard for most of the round until he was passed by Jimenez and equaled by Curtis and Kuboya.
"There's certain shots on the golf course that I remember how to play," Watson said.
Even Jimenez, a ponytailed, cigar-smoking Spaniard known affectionately as "the Mechanic," deferred to the old-timer trailing him by a stroke.
"What a legend," Jimenez said.
Curtis is still remembered as the guy who stunningly won the Open on his first try in 2003 while ranked No. 396 in the world. But, after top-10 finishes the last two years and a strong start at Turnberry, he's shown he's more than just a journeyman who got lucky one weekend.
Curtis kept it going at the first hole Friday, starting with a birdie that pushed him into a tie for the lead with Jimenez. The Spaniard also had a morning tee time.
Watson and Woods will be at the center of attention in the afternoon.
Watson is representin' the geriatric set, perhaps inspired by Greg Norman's performance at Birkdale a year ago. The Shark held the 54-hole lead at age 53, only to fade on the final day. Watson turns 60 in September and would be the oldest major champion in golf history by more than a decade if he could somehow keep it going for another three rounds.
Woods, on the other hand, came into this week as an overwhelming favorite but is facing the largest 18-hole deficit of his Open career. He knew he should have been at least two or three strokes better on Thursday, when a staggering 50 players broke par and another 17 matched it.
While Woods has missed only one major cut as a professional — the U.S. Open following the death of his father — he was closer to those who'll be fretting about making it to the weekend than he was to the lead.
Among those in dire straits: Rising American star Anthony Kim, who took a 9 at one hole, hit in a burn on another and struggled to an opening 73, and Norman, who failed to follow up last year's remarkable showing. The Aussie started with a 77 and needed a remarkable comeback just to hang around.

BAGHDAD — A human tide of Shiite Muslim pilgrims visiting the Kadhimiyah shrine is expected to fill the streets of Baghdad on Saturday in the first major security challenge for Iraqi military forces since U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraq's cities June 30 .

Authorities have imposed a limited curfew in Baghdad , and thousands of additional Iraqi soldiers and police officers are on the streets for the annual commemoration of a revered Shiite holy man who died in the eighth century.

A brigade from the Iraqi Federal Police — previously known as the Iraqi National Police — set up checkpoints at which men, women and children were searched Thursday, and Iraqi army helicopters flew low over the crowds.

Two American helicopters also hovered overhead; in the past, Iraqis had asked that only U.S. helicopters protect their missions.

"We are ready, and we are not afraid. We took all the proper preparations," a high-ranking federal police officer said. "For the first time in this pilgrimage, we can ask for Iraqi air support that can be here in five minutes."

The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to journalists.

The shrine honors Imam Musa Bin Jafaar al Kadhim, the seventh imam in the Shiite version of Islam. During the pilgrimage, the crowds carry a coffin to show their devotion to the imam.

"We are here today because Imam Kadhim said, 'God bless those who resuscitate our cause,' " said Chasib Kadhim , 45, as he was giving water to pilgrims.

American military forces, operating in a support role since June 30 , can deploy only at the request of Iraqi forces. Thousands of pilgrims also will come from Iran , and U.S. military officials fear that some of them may turn to violence, espionage or other tactics to destabilize Iraq .

The pilgrimage often has been a focus for insurgents. Four years ago on the same anniversary, about 1,000 pilgrims died in a stampede on a bridge, set off by a rumor that a suicide bomber stalked the pilgrims. The bridge has only just reopened. On April 24 this year, during another pilgrimage to the shrine, two suicide bombers infiltrated despite the checkpoints and killed 60 pilgrims, including 25 Iranians.

"The significance of this pilgrimage is to reject oppression, reject tyranny and to show the oppression that occurred against the family of the Prophet," Sheik Fadhil al Daraji said as he walked among the pilgrims "It also helps the society to unite. As you can see, Sunnis and Shiites alike help the pilgrims."

Despite the possible insurgent threat, the mass pilgrimage represents a commercial boon for merchants.

"Demand doubled three times or more within the last two days" said Mahdi Jabar, a wholesale distributor. "Most of the demand is for cakes, juice and water bottles, the things that are being handed to the pilgrims to help them walk."

A pilgrim can eat and drink for free all the way to the shrine, and some have come hundreds of miles. Residents often pitch tents to provide rest for the pilgrims, and cook for them on the sides of the road. The Ministry of Health has moved ambulances to areas where pilgrims might need them.

The Red Crescent, the Islamic world's equivalent to the Red Cross , has deployed hundreds of volunteers at 18 stations on the road to Kadhimiyah to serve the pilgrims and offer resting places and first aid.

Salam Abed Jassim, his wife and children sat on the median eating rice and beans. "I am not afraid, because if I die I will be dying on the way to the imam," he said about possible violence, "and I brought these two children to teach them as my father taught me."

Added the high-ranking police officer, "This pilgrimage is a challenge between the government and the Iraqi troops from one side and terrorism on the other — and we will win."

Millions of pilgrims and 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq hope that he's right.

(Dulaimy is a McClatchy special correspondent. Mike Tharp of the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star contributed to this article from Baghdad .)

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Read McClatchy's Inside Iraq blog

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman says he'll set a vote in his panel next week on confirming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy says the vote will be Tuesday unless committee Republicans object. Under the panel's rules, the GOP can delay the vote for a week.
Leahy says a number of Republicans have told him they don't want to hold up the vote, but adds that he won't try to prevent them from doing so.
Democrats plan a final Senate vote to confirm Sotomayor in early August, to allow her to be seated on the court before a Sept. 9 hearing in a campaign finance case.

BERLIN (Reuters) –
Secret files of Communist East Germany's Stasi security police were sent to a film set for use as props, triggering an investigation into how such sensitive documents were obtained.

The authenticity of the files were revealed when 15 former political prisoners were being filmed for a docu-play called "Staats-Sicherheit" (State Security) by public broadcaster ZDF.

"It's just unbelievable that something like this could happen," CDU politician and former East German civil rights activist Vera Lengsfeld told Reuters. "This must be cleared up right away."

One of the "prop" files was actually the genuine file of one of the actors.

The German government's agency that looks after the Stasi archives said they had began a probe into how the files were obtained without authorization.

The Birthler agency said it had also immediately ordered the Babelsberg studio to restrict access to safeguard the files.

"We're investigating how these documents got into public hands," said agency spokesman Steffen Mayer. He said a prop firm delivered the documents to the studio and it was assumed the files were fakes to protect the identities of the victims.

Lengsfeld, who spent time in jail in East Germany as a political prisoner, was one of the 15 political prisoners the film centers around.

She said she did not think it was a coincidence real files surfaced on the film set. She believes former Stasi employees now work at the Birthler agency.

"There were even real Stasi files from people who weren't in the production being casually tossed about," said Lengsfeld, who called it "scandalous" the documents were freely available.

After German unification Lengsfeld discovered her husband had been a Stasi informant. She then divorced him.

Among the files that surfaced on the film set were documents about one of the film's actors, Mario Roellig. Roellig was arrested by the Stasi after a failed attempt to flee East Germany in 1987.

"I was just stunned when I saw them," Roellig told the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper.

Also found were genuine Stasi files about a famous East German Rock musician and an artist, Lengsfeld said.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)