iPhone 5 hits China, as Apple market share slips

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The China release of its iPhone 5 on Friday should win Apple Inc some respite from a recent slide in its share of what is likely already the world's biggest smartphone market, but its longer-term hopes may depend on new technology being tested by China's top telecoms carrier.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has been in talks about a tie-up with China Mobile for four years. A deal with China's biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improve Apple's distribution in a market of 290 million users - which is forecast to double this year.

China is Apple's second-largest and fastest-growing market - it brings in around 15 percent of total revenue - but the company's failure to strike a deal with China Mobile means it is missing out on a large number of phone users. As the China pie grows, Apple's sales increase, but without China Mobile, it's losing ground at a faster rate compared to other brands.

"In absolute terms, this (iPhone 5) launch will certainly result in strong sales for Apple in China. However, in relative terms, I don't believe it will move the needle enough in market share," said Shiv Putcha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Ovum, a global technology consultant.

On Friday, just one person was waiting outside the Apple store in Shanghai's financial district when its doors opened at 9 a.m., a contrast to the launch of the iPhone 4 earlier this year when rowdy crowds pelted a Beijing store with eggs.

China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue - as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G network from most of the world - but that has evolved into a broader and more complex issue of revenue-sharing.

"China Mobile and Apple still have to solve many issues, such as the business model, articles of cooperation and revenue division, but I believe we will reach an agreement eventually," China Mobile CEO Li Yue was reported by Chinese media as saying in Guangzhou last week.

Apple China declined to comment. China Mobile said it had no update to the Apple discussions.

STRONG PRE-ORDERS

Apple's ranking in China's smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September, according to research firm IDC, but investors, primed to look to China product launches for an uptick in Apple's quarterly sales, have good headline numbers to digest - more than 300,000 iPhones pre-ordered on one carrier alone. But it's the lack of a deal with the No.1 carrier that prevents those numbers being stronger.

The iPhone is currently sold through Apple's seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom - which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

"Apple's market share declined because of the transition between the iPhone 4S and 5. Their market share will recover (with the iPhone 5), but if you don't have China Mobile, the significant market share gains will be very difficult," said Huang Leping, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong.

TD-LTE: STILL DISTANT

Cutting a deal with a Chinese state-owned carrier may be less optimal than the deals Apple is used to in other markets, and analysts note that China Mobile wouldn't necessarily open the flood gates for Apple.

Ovum's Putcha believes Apple and China Mobile will eventually strike a deal - though this would be for an iPhone running on China Mobile's next-generation network rather than its current 3G network.

Of China Mobile's 704 million subscribers, only 79 million are on its 3G network, and Apple has been reluctant to sign up to China Mobile's under-utilized, homegrown TD-SCDMA technology. "Apple likely doesn't see the return-on-investment in extending themselves for TD-SCDMA," Putcha said.

China Mobile is currently trialing its next-generation network, TD-LTE, which could be of more interest to Apple, but full-scale commercial use - and an iPhone tie-up - could still be years away.

ANDROID THREAT

Meanwhile, rivals are circling, eating away at Apple's smartphone market share. Samsung Electronics, Lenovo Group and little-known Chinese brand Coolpad held the top three slots in the third quarter, according to IDC.

All three have relationships with China Mobile and offer smartphone models at different price points. Apple competes exclusively at the high-end, and even there, rivals are rolling out models with China Mobile. Last week, Nokia said it planned to release its latest Lumia smartphone with China's top carrier, which is also expected to launch Research in Motion's new Blackberry 10, analysts predict.

"The threat will still come more from the Android camp where they have many vendors already working with China Mobile and offering high-end phones," said TZ Wong, a Singapore-based IDC analyst.

While these smartphones don't generate the buzz of a new iPhone, Chinese buyers are not known for their brand loyalty, and this could siphon away users considering an Apple upgrade.

"I've used a Blackberry, Android and iOS and, personally, I want to try the Windows 8," said Andy Huang, a 37-year-old fund manager, who owns most iPad models, an iPhone 4 and a 4S. "I think the Windows 8 is very innovative."

With a China Mobile deal looking some way off, Apple could always boost market share by offering cheaper models - the basic iPhone 5 will cost 5,288 yuan ($850) without a contract - though this appears an unlikely route for a high-end brand.

"If they want to expand market share, probably the only way to do it here dramatically would be to put out a lower cost phone," said Michael Clendenin, managing director at RedTech Advisors. "It's really uncertain if they'd decide to go that route ... Apple's a mystery in that regard."

($1 = 6.2518 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom, Jane Lee and Anita Li; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Ian Geoghegan)

Selling flak jackets in the cyberwars

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When the Israeli army and Hamas trade virtual blows in cyberspace, or when hacker groups like Anonymous rise from the digital ether, or when WikiLeaks dumps a trove of classified documents, some see a lawless Internet.

But Matthew Prince, chief executive at CloudFlare, a little-known Internet start-up that serves some of the Web's most controversial characters, sees a business opportunity.

Founded in 2010, CloudFlare markets itself as an Internet intermediary that shields websites from distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks, the crude but effective weapon that hackers use to bludgeon websites until they go dark. The 40-person company claims to route up to 5 percent of all Internet traffic through its global network.

Prince calls his company the "Switzerland" of cyberspace - assiduously neutral and open to all comers. But just as companies like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have faced profound questions about the balance between free speech and openness on the Internet and national security and law enforcement concerns, CloudFlare's business has posed another thorny question: what kinds of services, if any, should an American company be allowed to offer designated terrorists and cyber criminals?

CloudFlare's unusual position at the heart of this debate came to the fore last month, when the Israel Defense Forces sought help from CloudFlare after its website was struck by attackers based in Gaza. The IDF was turning to the same company that provides those services to Hamas and the al-Quds Brigades, according to publicly searchable domain information. Both Hamas and al-Quds, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are designated by the United States as terrorist groups.

Under the USA Patriot Act, U.S. firms are forbidden from providing "material support" to groups deemed foreign terrorist organizations. But what constitutes material support - like many other facets of the law itself - has been subject to intense debate.

CloudFlare's dealings have attracted heated criticism in the blogosphere from both Israelis and Palestinians, but Prince defended his company as a champion of free speech.

"Both sides have an absolute right to tell their story," said Prince, a 38-year old former lawyer. "We're not providing material support for anybody. We're not sending money, or helping people arm themselves."

Prince noted that his company only provides defensive capabilities that enable websites to stay online.

"We can't be sitting in a role where we decide what is good or what is bad based on our own personal biases," he said. "That's a huge slippery slope."

Many U.S. agencies are customers, but so is WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing organization. CloudFlare has consulted for many Wall Street institutions, yet also protects Anonymous, the "hacktivist" group associated with the Occupy movement.

Prince's stance could be tested at a time when some lawmakers in the United States and Europe, armed with evidence that militant groups rely on the Web for critical operations and recruitment purposes, have pressured Internet companies to censor content or cut off customers.

Last month, conservative political lobbies, as well as seven lawmakers led by Ted Poe, a Republican from Texas, urged the FBI to shut down the Hamas Twitter account. The account remains active; Twitter declined to comment.

MATERIAL SUPPORT

Although it has never prosecuted an Internet company under the Patriot Act, the government's use of the material support argument has steadily risen since 2006. Since September 11, 2001, more than 260 cases have been charged under the provision, according to Fordham Law School's Terrorism Trends database.

Catherine Lotrionte, the director of Georgetown University's Institute for Law, Science and Global Security and a former Central Intelligence Agency lawyer, argued that Internet companies should be more closely regulated.

"Material support includes web services," Lotrionte said. "Denying them services makes it more costly for the terrorists. You're cornering them."

But others have warned that an aggressive government approach would have a chilling effect on free speech.

"We're resurrecting the kind of broad-brush approaches we used in the McCarthy era," said David Cole, who represented the Humanitarian Law Project, a non-profit organization that was charged by the Justice Department for teaching law to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist group. The group took its case to the Supreme Court but lost in 2010.

The material support law is vague and ill-crafted, to the point where basic telecom providers, for instance, could be found guilty by association if a terrorist logs onto the Web to plot an attack, Cole said.

In that case, he asked, "Do we really think that AT&T or Google should be held accountable?"

CloudFlare said it has not been contacted about its services by the U.S. government. Spokespeople for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told Reuters they contracted a cyber-security company in Gaza that out-sources work to foreign companies, but declined to comment further. The IDF confirmed it had hired CloudFlare, but declined to discuss "internal security" matters.

CloudFlare offers many of its services for free, but the company says websites seeking advanced protection and features can see their bill rise to more than $3,000 a month. Prince declined to discuss the business arrangements with specific customers.

While not yet profitable, CloudFlare has more than doubled its revenue in the past four months, according to Prince, and is picking up 3,000 new customers a day. The company has raked in more than $22 million from venture capital firms including New Enterprise Associates, Venrock and Pelion Venture Partners.

Prince, a Midwestern native with mussed brown hair who holds a law degree from the University of Chicago, said he has a track record of working on the right side of the law.

A decade ago, Prince provided free legal aid to Spamhaus, an international group that tracked email spammers and identity thieves. He went on to create Project Honey Pot, an open source spam-tracking endeavor that turned over findings to police.

Prince's latest company, CloudFlare, has been hailed by groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists for protecting speech. Another client, the World Economic Forum, named CloudFlareamong its 2012 "technology pioneers" for its work. But it also owes its profile to its most controversial customers.

CloudFlare has served 4Chan, the online messaging community that spawned Anonymous. LulzSec, the hacker group best known for targeting Sony Corp, is another customer. And since last May, the company has propped up WikiLeaks after a vigilante hacker group crashed the document repository.

Last year, members of the hacker collective UgNazi, whose exploits include pilfering user account information from eBay and crashing the CIA.gov website, broke into Prince's cell phone and email accounts.

"It was a personal affront," Prince said. "But we never kicked them off either."

Prince said CloudFlare would comply with a valid court order to remove a customer, but that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has never requested a takedown. The company has agreed to turn over information to authorities on "exceedingly rare" occasions, he acknowledged, declining to elaborate.

"Any company that doesn't do that won't be in business long," Prince said. But in an email, he added: "We have a deep and abiding respect for our users' privacy, disclose to our users whenever possible if we are ordered to turn over information and would fight an order that we believed was not proper."

Juliannne Sohn, an FBI spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department lawyer who prosecuted computer crimes, said U.S. law enforcement agencies may in fact prefer that the Web's most wanted are parked behind CloudFlare rather than a foreign service over which they have no jurisdiction.

Federal investigators "want to gather information from as many sources as they can, and they're happy to get it," Sussmann said.

In an era of rampant cyber warfare, Prince acknowledged he is something of a war profiteer, but with a wrinkle.

"We're not selling bullets," he said. "We're selling flak jackets."

(The story corrects paragraph 23 to read "3,000 new customers a day")

(Reporting By Gerry Shih in San Francisco and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; editing by Jonathan Weber and Claudia Parsons)

Credit Suisse reports $1.41 billion 2ndQ profit

Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group has reported a 29 percent rise in second-quarter net profit to 1.57 billion francs ($1.41 billion).

The bank says the results include one-time charges, legal costs and tax benefits.

It says …

Co-pilot Denies Shuttle Has Spy Radar

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Radar instruments aboard the space shuttleEndeavour are strictly for science even though they reputedly aremore powerful than U.S. spy satellites, the shuttle's co-pilot saidTuesday.

Astronaut Kevin Chilton and five others were in the fourth dayof a research mission 138 miles above Earth.

Chilton fielded questions from 16 viewers of the C-SPAN cabletelevision network briefly Tuesday.

"This is strictly for scientific purposes, this radar - andthis whole laboratory, in fact," he told a caller who asked whetherthe instruments in Endeavour's cargo bay could hunt down hostileencampments around the world.

The National …

Health fund urges donors not to abandon patients

GENEVA (AP) — A financially troubled global health fund says millions of people will suffer if donations continue to dry up, as European and United States budget constraints bite and a backlash continues over losses to corruption and other misspending.

"The poor and the vulnerable must not be made to pay the price for the global financial crisis," Michel Kazatchkine, the fund's executive director, said in a statement Wednesday. "Now is not the time to abandon millions of people who are still in need."

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has disbursed $15 billion since 2002. It provides HIV treatment to patients in poor nations, along with two-thirds of all …

Some oil spill events from Sunday, May 16, 2010

Events May 16, Day 27 of a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with an explosion and fire on April 20 on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well at about 210,000 gallons per day.

CAPPING THE LEAK

Oil company engineers on Sunday finally succeeded in keeping some of the oil gushing from a blown well out of the Gulf of Mexico, hooking up a mile-long tube to funnel the crude into a tanker ship after more than three weeks of failures. Millions of gallons of crude are …

St. John Bosco Church Closes Elementary School

Carmen Rivera found a home at St. John Bosco Parish in the city'sNorthwest Side 15 years ago and now she was praying for its survival.

As she did so, she thought of the celebrations she has sharedwith the 60-year-old Catholic church. And, she thought of death.

"It is sad," Rivera said. "My daughters were married here, mygrandchildren were baptized here. I buried my husband, mother-in-lawand sister-in-law here. It is sad to see so many people move."

She and hundreds of other parishioners had come together thisPalm Sunday in the midst of a financial crisis that has forced thechurch to close its elementary school.

Once, its student body numbered 850 …

Marhenke named new CEO and president at Grabill Bank

Michael C. Marhenke was named the new chief executive officer and president at Grabill Bank effective June 1.

Marhenke joined Grabill Bank in 1998 as vice president of business development, and had been its vice president and chief operating officer since 2000. He replaces the outgoing Brent L. Clifton, who had been Grabill Bank's president since 1986. Clifton now serves as vice chairman on the financial institution's board of directors.

Marhenke earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Indiana …

Militants kill 2 alleged spies in NW Pakistan

Militants killed two Afghan men accused of spying for the United States and dumped their bodies in a Pakistani border region at the center of an intense campaign of American missile strikes, an official said Saturday.

Fighting reported elsewhere in Pakistan's volatile northwest left 29 militants and three Pakistani soldiers dead.

Police found the bullet-ridden bodies of the alleged spies on Saturday morning in the North Waziristan tribal region after a tip from residents, police official Gul Marjan said.

Each of the bodies found in the village of Ghulam Khan had a note pinned to it reading: "See the fate of this man. He was an American …

Bt Cotton all fluffed up ; A surge in prices has transformed cotton farmers' lives, helped by Bt Cotton in no small measure.

On a hot afternoon late in April, about a dozen of farmers atHalvad tehsil in Gujarat's Surendra nagar district, 160 km southwestof Ahmedabad, are busy cleaning their fields and tilling the soil.The sowing season will begin from the middle of May and most farmersare anticipating the hybrid Bt (Bacillus Thuringiensis) cotton seedswill, like last year, yield a bountiful harvest again.

Ashwin Babulal, a 27-year-old in the group, has been farming Btcotton since 2003. His cotton cultivation on six acres has given himmuch higher yields - around Rs 40,000 each acre - apart fromreducing his expenses on pesticide by Rs 4,000 per acre. Theincreased income over the past …

Rove Saw Coaching of Prosecutor Witness

WASHINGTON - A senior Justice Department official who testified about performance shortcomings of several fired U.S. attorneys has told congressional investigators he was coached the day before at a White House meeting attended by political adviser Karl Rove.

The witness, Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella, said he was urged during the dinner hour meeting on March 5 to publicly specify reasons for the dismissals, according to a transcript of the investigators' April 24 interview with him.

Until the March 6 hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee, Justice Department officials had said publicly only that some of the firings were based on performance, …

US man's knife attack on sisters rattles suburb

With her long hair and model's poise, 17-year-old Samantha Revelus exuded confidence when she recited an original poem Saturday afternoon about a strong woman who stood up to "ignorant souls."

An hour after she finished rehearsal for an upcoming poetry reading, Samantha was dead on the floor of her family's home. She had been stabbed, police say, by her 23-year-old brother. Kerby Revelus then decapitated his 5-year-old sister as her birthday cake from the day before sat on the kitchen table, before turning on his 9-year-old sister, who called police.

Responding officers broke down the door and saw the man decapitate 5-year-old Bianca, Milton …

For emigres, gloom turns into elation

Delight tinged with a bit of skepticism was the reaction heretoday among Lithuanian, Latvian and Russian emigres hearing reportsof the crumbling coup in the Soviet Union.

"It's for real," said Al Domanskis, president of the LithuanianWorld Center in Lemont. "These were the most important crucial days,and the choice was freedom or totalitarianism.

"If you have democracy, freedom and independence in that part ofthe world, it's incredible," he said.

Democracy seemed doomed Monday when coup leaders announced theouster of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, tanks and troopsstreamed into Soviet cities and media outlets were seized.

It got gloomier for …

Garbajosa retires from Spanish national team

MADRID (AP) — Former NBA player Jorge Garbajosa says he is retiring from Spain's national basketball team, which is set to defend its European championship title later this summer.

The 33-year-old power forward was a key part of the Spain teams that won the 2006 world championship and 2009 European title. He also won a silver medal at …

Give Citicorp credit for optimism

Despite the hand-wringing over bad commercial real estate loansand higher interest rates, prominent money people see good timesahead.

John Reed, chairman of Citicorp, the largest U.S. bank companyat $231 billion in assets, told financial analysts recently thatCiti's profits would grow to $5 billion in this decade, three timesthe $1.6 billion operating profit the company earned in 1989.

Reed was looking beyond 1990 to the rest of the decade whenmillions of consumers in Europe and Japan, and perhaps Latin America,too, will get the American credit card habit. That's when Citicorp'sprofits will treble.

That means the standard of living is rising worldwide, whichshould give Americans a star to steer by when contemplating your owninvestments - whether interest on savings deposits or mortgages orthe outlook for stocks.

And Reed is not alone in being optimistic. John Paulus, chiefeconomist of the investment firm of Morgan Stanley, predicted thatinterest rates in the 1990s would remain at the relatively highlevels of the last decade - that is, about 4 percent over inflation,or 8.5 percent to 10 percent. But they would remain high for a verygood reason: worldwide consumer demand has seldom been as strong asit's likely to be this decade.

So the bad news in Paulus' forecast, high interest rates, ismore than offset by the good: rapid economic growth in Europe andAsia - plus a continuation of the U.S. economic expansion rightthrough 1991.

Peter Lynch agrees. The renowned investment manager of FidelityMagellan Fund, who last week announced his retirement, says the onlything investors should fear is double-digit inflation - which coulddevelop if, say, the Soviet Union disintegrated and oil becamescarce.

But short of catastrophe, Lynch says the economies of Europe andquite possibly Mexico and Brazil, too, will be growth markets forconsumer goods and services.

Citicorp is ready, having invested $1 billion a year in buildingup consumer banking operations.

The effort has paid off. Citicorp's consumer business has grownfrom a money loser in 1980 to the bank's largest profit maker - $842million of operating income last year. And before the new decade isover, according to Reed, Citi's consumer earnings will have grown toroughly $3.25 billion. That's a fourfold increase, thanks in largepart to growing business in Europe, where the 12 Common Marketnations will unite their economies in 1992. A new report fromSalomon Brothers investment firm calls Citi "The Only Clear-CutAmerican Bank Winner" in Europe.

Why? A big reason is credit cards. Citi has become a leadingissuer of Visa and MasterCards in the United States, where 23 percentof all retail sales - excluding automobiles - are done on plastic.

And now it sees opportunity in Europe where fewer people havecredit cards and almost no one uses the card as a revolving creditline - incurring interest charges but also increasing theirpurchasing power.

It's not that European consumers are different from Americans,necessarily, but that European banks have been fearful of handing outcredit lines to the masses. But Citi has no such fears, havinglearned from experience that credit card losses are consistently lessthan 5 percent of outstanding loan balances - better than bigcorporations.

What's the upshot? Not only is Citicorp's future bright, butits vision promises a bullish decade in which people around the worldget a little better standard of living.

And make no mistake, for all the jokes about plastic money andlectures about spendthrift shoppers, that's what increased consumercredit means: higher living standards and more individual choice.

Copyright 1990, Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Los AngelesTimes Syndicate.

Bangladesh wins final ODI vs. West Indies

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh won the third and final one-day international against West Indies by eight wickets to conclude the three-match series on Tuesday.

The hosts, who lost the previous two games, reached the winning target of 62 in just 20 overs after West Indies was bundled out for 61 in 22 overs.

Opener Tamim Iqbal was not out on 36 along with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim on 10 at the end of the match at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Kemar Roach (1-16) claimed opener Imrul Kayes for 11, caught by Kieren Pollard, while Marlon Samuels (1-15) dismissed Shahriar Nafees for a duck.

West Indies was dismissed earlier amid tight bowling by Bangladesh led by former skipper Shakib Al Hasan who claimed four wickets, while conceding only 16 runs.

Bangladeshi bowlers Nasir Hossain and Shafiul Islam also took two wickets.

Shakib trapped skipper Darren Sammy lbw for 2 while bowled Danesh Ramdin (4), had Carlos Brathwaite lbw for 11 and dismissed Anthony Martin (1).

Nasir Hossain (2-3) dismissed opener Kieran Powell for 25, the highest score for West Indies, while he caught and bowled Pollard for a duck.

Shafiul Islam had Samuels (5), caught by Sohrawardy Shuvo, and claimed Darren Bravo for a duck, caught behind by Rahim.

Nazmul Hossain claimed other opener Danza Hyatt (3). Shuvo caught and bowled Andre Russel for 2.

Don't hinder haven's efforts to aid people

I write this letter in deep admiration for the excellent effortsthe Rev. Ignatius McDermott has achieved and continues to accomplishat Haymarket House.

I am an associate, servicing various programs in the Near WestSide community focusing on the many unfortunate individuals plaguedwith alcoholism and substance abuse.

Haymarket House provides a haven geared toward the recovery andrehabilitation of people who do not have the ability to helpthemselves and, more importantly, the tools with which to do so.

I can not suggest strongly enough Father McDermott'scomprehension of the circumstances of people in the Near West Sidecommunity. His efforts to improve the quality of all life should notbe obstructed.

I implore city officials to take into consideration the benefitsof this worthwhile organization as opposed to any negativedisadvantages. And I would ask that the city reconsider the zoningissues regarding the division of the Near West Side and the effectsit will have on this community as a whole. Talmadge R. Young, prevention specialist, Near West Side Community Committee Super display

Our city is a gem - and it never glittered and gleamed morebrightly than at Venetian Night's spectacular fireworks display.

From our Near West Side vantage point, Chicago's sparkling Loopskyline "lights up my life" every night. Joan Angelini, University Village True hero

On the early morning of June 30, firefighter Ray Caballero ofthe Chicago Fire Department risked his life to rescue his next-doorneighbor from her burning home. Ray suffered second- andthird-degree burns and was hospitalized at Loyola Medical Center forsome weeks.

Ray's efforts were truly in the highest tradition of the ChicagoFire Department, and we wish him a speedy recovery. We would like tothank Commissioner Raymond Orozco, Chief Stanley Span, 2nd DistrictChief John Nance and chaplain Father Mulcrone for all the support andassistance they gave Ray, his wife Maria and their family during thistraumatic crisis. Their endeavors are also truly commendable. Charles Vazquez Diatribe fallout

The Rev. Ronald P. Stake, chaplain of the Catholic Lawyers Guildof Chicago, and others have taken offense at questions from theChicago Council of Lawyers asking whether anything in the backgroundof some Catholic judicial candidates, including their religiousaffiliation, could prevent them from deciding particular cases fairlyand in compliance with the law. I agree with him that the samequestion should be put to all candidates of every faith.

I submit, however, the Rev. Stake's outrage is misdirected.This problem would never have arisen had it not been for publicpronouncements from certain Catholic bishops threateningexcommunication or diatribes from Catholic spokesmen such as JosephScheidler of the Pro-Life Action League critical of U.S. JudgePatrick Kelley and others for not following the Roman Catholicteachings instead of following the law of the land.

I know of no clergy or lay leaders of other religions who demandthe same servility from their co-religionists. Rev. Stake shouldinstead direct his criticism against those who use religion in anattempt to force judges and legislators to violate their oaths ofoffice.

It is unfortunate that the religious issue we thought JohnKennedy had put to rest years ago had to be resurrected by Catholicsthemselves, but it will not go away again until other John Kennedysand other Patrick Kelleys speak up in force and make it abundantlyclear that the Joseph Scheidlers and those few bishops do not speakfor mainstream Catholics. It ought to be done soon, before thisissue's roots sink any deeper. Bernard M. Peskin, Near North Side Saving plan

While the final figures are far from in, St. Charles TownshipSupervisor Walter Sava expects an approximate $70,000 shortfall inrevenues needed to cover next year's budget.

According to Sava, to cover this shortfall, the board will betaking a hard look at all township programs, especially those notmandated by the state. Of those, the two topping the list, he said,are senior services ($20,000 in this year's budget) and mosquitoabatement ($33,061 this year, $35,045 next year).

Before the board does any serious damage to existing seniorservices, I suggest they take yet another look at both theirabatement budget and recent media reports regarding programeffectiveness and comparative costs in other Fox Valley communities.

On the off chance they missed those reports, I'll summarize thesingle most salient point in question form one more time:

How can the township justify spending $68,106 over the course oftwo years on a spraying program of questionable safety when, sayentomologists with the Illinois Public Health Department, thatprogram is only effective "zero to 10 percent" of the time? Kay Catlin, St. Charles Tiresome gripes

I hope the people of Chicago are getting tired of hearing gripesfrom the owners and tenants of Lake Point Tower. I know it irks me.

Navy Pier has been around a lot longer than Lake Point Towerand, if memory serves me correctly, the pier was built by dimedonations from the people of Chicago, which in a broad sense meantthe people own it and not the City of Chicago.

I don't remember reading that Lake Point Tower was built withany donations. It was built for the purpose of allowing some peopleto make money in their endeavor, and they must have considered thepossibility of some problems along the line. If they didn't, theyshould have erected the building in Lower Slobbovia where there isalways peace and quiet. W. J. Brunhardt, Uptown Mayoral hypocrisy

Mayor Richard Daley deserves a vote of no confidence. A recentproposal of his is another example of political hypocrisy.

The O'Hare military has contributed considerably to the Chicagoarea. With its nearly 1,000 full-time employees, those contributionsare both monetary and community-related.

Mayor Daley was quick to jump on the bandwagon when the Chicagoarea troops returned from the Persian Gulf war. He gladlyparticipated in the welcome home parade because it was politicallyfavorable.

He has now shown his true colors with the proposal to close anddisband the military unit at O'Hare. Had we known his intentions,perhaps some of us in the military stationed at O'Hare would havechosen not to participate in the parade. The people in Chicagoshowed genuine pride in their armed forces, but the mayor obviouslyshowed up for political gain.

Since his election I have been a Daley backer. I actuallythought he was a man who had great character and concern for the cityand its people. He now shows no consideration for the trust many ofus bestowed on him. In a 1989 agreement with the Air Force, heinitiated a land swap and vowed a friendly relationship with themilitary at O'Hare. Now just two years later that agreement meansnothing to him. Steve Buske, O'Hare military True solution

I empathize with Mayor Daley's frustration with theintractability of the drug problem. The police raids have only atemporary effect. The courts are too lenient. And perhaps thefederal government could do more to interdict drugs at the border.

However, the core of the problem, the breakdown of the familyand the mores and responsibility it teaches and fosters, is beyondgovernment's reach. In fact, government programs designed to fightpoverty have indeed exacerbated the problems of drugs, illegitimacyand even the very poverty such programs were designed to eradicate.

The solution to most of our urban social problems lies in theaffected individuals' taking responsibility for their own lives.This is not good news. The politicians and the social theorists likesolutions that involve social engineering and lots of federal money.Both have contributed to the problem at hand.

Furthermore, the social theorists and politicians have madecareers telling the victims of poverty, drug abuse, crime, etc. thatthey have no responsibility for these problems, that these problemsare caused by discrimination, a lack of compassion and, especially, adearth of federal money.

Can the victims of our urban plagues find a solution to theirproblems when they have been conditioned to abrogate responsibilityfor their own lives, to blame an indifferent and callous federalgovernment? Mark M. Quinn, Near North Side Job losses

Today, I represented a former steelworker who lost his job to aKorean steel mill. In the past year, I represented a former AmericanMotors worker who lost his job to Canada, a former tool and die makerwho lost his job to Japan and a former assembler who lost his job toMexico.

Kodak laid off 7,500 workers in 1989 and 6,500 more last weekand transferred all 14,000 jobs to Mexico. Thirty-five percent ofthe average American-made car has parts from foreign countries.

The Democrats cannot find a candidate for president. I suggestthey look among the millions of Americans who lost their jobs in thepast 10 years. Tom Flynn, Morton Grove Protect our ears

The current practice at the World Music Theatre of havingearplugs for concert goers available only at the first aid stationfor $1 each is appalling. Those patrons who have reserved seats nearthe stage must walk a considerable distance to purchase earprotection that everyone sitting in the pavilion should have.

The markup is obscene as well. It is shameful that the theaterinstalls a profit margin on a device that protects patrons from theattack on their hearing they endure at popular music concerts.

The earplugs should be readily available at all the concessionstands at the World Theatre for a reasonable price, thus encouraginguse.

Protecting one's hearing should not be a time-consuming quest;it should be as convenient as purchasing a beer in the concessionsplaza. Ken Salkover, Evanston

Giving blood important during holidays

When making the gift list, don't forget blood.

Holidays always are a slow time at the nation's blood banks, butthis year the shortage might be even more than usual.

With Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Wednesday, choppingup the work week, blood banks are asking that people make a specialeffort to donate.America's Blood Centers has a toll-free number for executiveswho want to know how to set up blood drives: (888) 872-5663.

European stocks rise

European stocks moved higher Friday, with the insurance sector leading from the front amid speculation that Axa SA is exploring a takeover of its domestic peer CNP Assurances.

Mining shares rose alongside the price of copper and zinc, while HSBC raised its recommendation on Anglo American.

The Dow Jones stoxx 600 Index rose 1.7 percent to 357.74. In terms of national markets, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index added 1.7 percent to 6262.10, while France's CAC-40 Index jumped 1.9 percent to 5521.17. Germany's DAX Index advanced 0.6 percent to 7608.96.

Stocks closed out the week on a positive note, but analysts and strategists were quick to point out that worries remain about whether slowing growth will erode corporate earnings.

"We think the world can muddle through, although the chances of a U.S. recession are clearly rising as the credit crunch widens and deepens," said Neil Dwane, who helps manage US$157.3 billion (euro105.9 million) as chief investment officer for Europe at RCM Ltd. in Frankfurt.

Merger and acquisition fever gripped the insurance sector after French newspaper Les Echos said insurance giant Axa is looking at a takeover of CNP Assurances.

The main shareholders of CNP Assurances however jointly said they aren't interested in selling their stakes in the company.

The news nonetheless sent CNP 11 percent higher , while Axa advanced 4.3 percent. In terms of the broader sector, ING Groep rose 3.4 percent and Munich Reinsurance jumped 0.9 percent.

Mining stocks racked up gains as the price of copper and zinc pressed higher.

Three-month copper last traded at US$6,655 a metric ton, up US$90 a ton from the London Thursday afternoon kerb, while zinc was US$24 a ton higher at US$2,319.

An HSBC upgrade of Anglo American, to overweight from neutral rating, also helped shore up sentiment.

Anglo American raced up 6.1 percent, while Antofagasta climbed 7.1 percent. Vedanta Resources added 7.2 percent.

HSBC shares rose 1.2 percent. Chairman Stephen Green said that markets remain difficult in the U.S. but that his bank isn't looking to pull out of the country. He said, though, that HSBC isn't planning any major banking acquisitions in that country.

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Tim Falconer is a correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires

UAL's Tilton will trade cash severance for shares

United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton has agreed to give up cash severance of $4.6 million in exchange for restricted shares worth the same amount if his airline combines with Continental, United said in a filing Tuesday.

The agreement between Continental and United calls for Tilton to be chairman of the combined company for two years. Continental Chairman and CEO Jeffery Smisek will be CEO.

Tilton's employment agreement includes compensation if he loses his CEO job in a merger.

He will fully own the restricted shares as long as he stays chairman for two years, or if he retires with the consent of the board.

Tilton would have also been entitled to immediate vesting of his stock options and restricted shares, instead of having to wait a fixed number of years to get them. He waived the right to the immediate vesting of the shares and options, which the company valued at a total of $14.4 million. The shares and options will now vest by the time he finishes as chairman.

The company also said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it signed retention agreements United's top five executives, which will pay out if they lose their jobs after the merger.

The agreements include cash severance worth their salary and target bonus times 2.75. The agreements cover Graham Atkinson, who runs the airline's frequent flier program; Peter McDonald, its chief administrative officer; Kathryn Mikells, its chief financial officer; Thomas Sabatino, its general counsel; and John Tague, president.

United and Continental announced their plan to combine on Monday. If antitrust regulators and shareholders approve, the combined airline would be the largest in the world. The companies have said they are aiming to close the deal by the end of 2010.

Shares of United parent UAL Corp. fell $2.34, or 10.6 percent, to close at $19.77 on Tuesday. Continental Airlines Inc. shares fell $2.33, or 10.2 percent, to $20.53. The shares have been trading in tandem because the deal is structured as a stock swap.

PBS presents Prince Among Slaves, story of African prince Abdul Rahman

Today at 9 p.m., the National Black Programming Consortium will present on PBS, Prince Among Slaves, a one-hour documentary film on the inspiring story of an African prince who survived 40 years of enslavement in America before finally regaining his freedom and becoming one of the most famous men of his day.

Winner of the Best Documentary at the 2007 American Black Film Festival, this true story is told through feature-film styled reenactments directed by Andrea Kahn and Emmy Award-winner, Bill Duke, through contemporary artworks, archival letters and diaries, as well as through on-camera interviews with distinguished scholars and experts. Artfully narrated by actor and hip hop artist Mos Def, Prince Among Slaves is based on Dr. Terry Alford's biography of the same name.

Prince Among Slaves tells the compelling true story of Abdul-Rahman, an African Muslim Prince who was captured in 1788 and sold into slavery in the American South.

He endured the horrific Middle Passage, and ended up the "property" of a poor and nearly illiterate planter named Thomas Foster from Natchez, Miss.

He remained enslaved for 40 years before finally regaining his freedom under dramatic circumstances, becoming one of the most famous men of his day, and returning back to Africa with his royal status acknowledged. The film ends with a family reunion between Abdul-Rahman's African and American descendents in Natchez, Mississippi.

"Abdul-Rahman survived the harsh ordeals of slavery through his love of family and his deep abiding faith," says Co-Executive Producer Michael Wolfe. "The film depicts a universal story of perseverance and hope. Abdul endured unimaginable indignities and faced immeasurable odds, yet managed to survive his long fall from royalty with character and integrity intact."

"I was immediately attracted to this story because of its powerful message," re-enactment director and supervisory producer Bill Duke says.

"Too many people continue to be enslaved by poverty, drugs, and bad decisions. But like Abdul-Rahman, they can come out of it, and regain their dignity and respect."

The film contains insight from a distinguished and diverse group of experts such as Terry Alford, whose historical biography inspired the film; best selling journalist and popular historian, Adam Hochschild; K. Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy at Princeton University.

Also contributing to the film, the late novelist, Bebe Moore Campbell; Sylviane A. Diouf, renowned scholar and author; Michael Gomez, Professor of History at NYU; historian, David S. Dreyer; Artemus Gaye, living descendant of Abdul-Rahman; and Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Zaid Shakir, Mamie scholars at the Zaytuna Institute. Blacknews.com

Pegasus Players hit home with `For Colored Girls'

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow IsEnuf Lady in Blue Audrey Morgan Lady in Green Cherise Thurman Lady in Orange Glenda Starr Kelley Lady in Purple Lisa M. Duncan Lady in Red Janis Henri A play by Ntozake Shange, directed by Charles Finister. Live musicby Tomas de Utrera. Presented by the Pegasus Players atCrossCurrents, 3206 N. Wilton, 472-7884. Performances through Sept.7. "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow IsEnuf" is a beautiful and touching experience. It's a play aboutbeing a black woman in today's society, and it is done well by thePegasus Players.

The play, which opened to good reviews last April at theEdgewater Presbyterian Church, is currently running at CrossCurrents. The intimate atmosphere of the club suits the production. When theactresses speak, they are not reciting words to an estrangedaudience. They're so close, and they look and talk directly at you. You feel as if you're sitting in on an open confession. Somemembers of the audience even venture to talk back to the actresses.This doesn't faze them one bit.

The women are splendid in their roles. They cover subjectssuch as rape, virginity, murder and prejudice without being preachyor having chips on their shoulders. Each one sings, dances and actsher heart out. Each is differentiated from the others by the colorof the scarf she wears. Everything else, including their dresses,is black and gray.

The wardrobe reflects the mood of the play, which is somberdespite occasional bursts of laughter and song.

With little else than the accompaniment of a guitarist, thePegasus Players bring to life their tales of black women who havebeen mistreated by their men and society. Glenda Starr Kelley sumsit up when she says, "I couldn't stand being sorry and colored at thesame time. It's so redundant in the modern world."

Though the play gets off to a slow start, the momentum changesonce the poetic flow of the women's tales takes effect. Theaudience becomes mesmerized by the candor, wit and despair.

A showstopper occurs when all five women gather on stage to havea good time at the expense of their past and present lovers. Theimitations of their boyfriends range from cocky to abusive, but neverloving.

In a production such as this, where words convey more meaningthan action, the proper accompaniment is crucial. The producersmade a wise choice in Tomas de Utrera, a guitarist and flutist whoplays with subtlety.

Throughout "For Colored Girls . . ." the actresses shed realtears and laughter. Because they are so convincing, and because wecare about them so much, we find ourselves doing the same.

Workshop needs 60 participants to create a new piece of music

ICIA (Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts) at theUniversity of Bath extends its programme with a new strand of musicworkshops bringing some of the most inspiring performers andteachers to Bath.

The first in the series brings music workshop specialistsCreative Sound Factory to the University to run a weekend musicworkshop.

Led by seven professional musicians, the weekend brings a rangeof up to 60 participants together to improvise and create anoriginal piece of music, leading up to a final rousing publicperformance in ICIA's Arts Theatre.

The weekend is open to all levels and types of players, frombeginners to trained musicians - music reading is not a requirement.

Creative Sound Factory calls for anyone from beat boxers toviolinists, electric guitarists to oboe players, keyboardists todrummers to sign up to work together to create something totallynew.

Michael Bassett, ICIA music co-ordinator said: "If you want toperform live, create music in an exciting new way, and wish to learnfrom outstanding professional musicians - this is the workshop foryou.

"This really is the best music workshop around and is tons offun."

Suitable for those aged 16 and over, the workshop takes placebetween Friday, February 19 and Sunday, February 21 and costs Pounds20. The deadline for applications is tomorrow and participants cansign up at: www.creativesoundfactory.org. uk/otherprojects.

Tickets for the performance, which takes place on Sunday,February 21, cost Pounds 5 with concessions available. Call 01225386777.

The playing is the thing // World's largest game fair creates fantasy land for devoted gamers

MILWAUKEE Although Alan Christesen has played Dungeons & Dragons fora decade, he attended the 24th Gen Con Game Fair at the MECCA herelast weekend just as a spectator. He passed up the chance for somechallenging play so he could protect the 21 D & D characters he hascreated and nurtured for as long as three years.

"The dungeon masters here are professionals," said Christesen,18, a student at Purdue University, who came to the convention fromwest suburban La Grange Highlands with his brother and mother. "Theyhave the ability to think of traps the characters may not be able toget out of. I have two really evil characters I especially like.They could die off. So I don't play here."

This was the big-time for players of fantasy games, all right -the world's largest convention for role-playing, military andminiatures gamers. At the four-day Gen Con (short for GenevaConvention, named for Lake Geneva, Wis., where the convention washeld the first several years), characters and adventures that liveonly in the minds of conventioners came vividly to life, as avidplayers from all over the nation - and even a few from foreigncountries - sat down for one long game after another.

While most role-playing aficionados didn't seem to give it muchthought, a favorite character developed playing with friends backhome could have met his match in an adventure set forth by anexperienced dungeon master, a sort of storyteller/rulekeeper whoguides the players through the scenarios. For a player likeChristesen, who takes his role-playing seriously, that would havemeant he could never use that character again.

Still, this was Christesen's second Gen Con. He attended lastyear, too, with his brother, who has been coming even longer. Thisyear, Christesen decided to check out war games, which may be basedon real or fantastic past battles, or on futuristic ones. War gamesusually have gameboards, more structured rules than role-playing, andclearcut winners and losers.

More than 13,000 people attended Gen Con, many of them from theChicago area; heaven only knows how many imaginary cyborgs andstarship commanders and wizards and Napoleonic infantrymen taggedalong.

While most conventioners just came to play, some of the moreavid gamers brought their own games. One was Neil Northway of west suburban Villa Park, whorecreated the Civil War battle of Shiloh. Tiny lead soldiers inblue and gray went at one another on a historically accurate terrainthat covered a couple of lunchroom tables and presented thepossibility that the North could emerge victorious this time.

Northway, who clerks in a Mobil service station in west subur ban Lombard, read several books about Shiloh before transferring ascale map of the battlefield on to his 16-by-4-foot gameboard.

Northway is active in the Chicago chapter of the HistoricMiniatures Gaming Society, and he ran his game for interested playersthroughout much of the convention. Northway, like many Gen Conattendees, is a zealous games fan. When he finished up each night at11:30 p.m., he joined friends for a couple of drinks and then wentoff to "play more games" - the World War I air battle game Blue Maxis a favorite - till 3 or 4 a.m. Then he caught a couple of hours'sleep and came back at 8 a.m. to run his game again.

Some of the wars fought here were strictly science fiction, suchas the 31st-century struggle in the FASA Battletech series.

Other games were based in the mythical, often Arthurian past.One such role-playing scenario used Advanced D & D rules to pit eightwizards against one another in an internecine contest for leadership.

Most fantasy games simulate war in one way or another. Most ofthe games are really stories, and the plots advance as players rolldice or use powers their characters are assigned, or have accumulatedin past games, to overcome perils and, hopefully, achieve variousgoals.

D & D is a major influence in fantasy games; many gamers beginplaying D & D as teenagers and move on, in many directions, fromthere.

In role-playing, each game has a dungeon master, or referee, butthe group - the players as a whole - decide how the adventure isplayed out; there is no right or wrong way to proceed.

Players at Gen Con were teenagers or young adults, and themale-to-female ratio looked to be about 100 to one (althoughconvention organizers insist 15 percent of attendees were women).

Sean McLane, 21, of Lafayette, Ind., was wearing a pair of hornswhile he perused the manufacturers' displays at the convention. Hegot started with D & D and still likes role-playing games. McLanewants to be a game designer and is striving toward that goal whilealso working at a Lafayette Wal-Mart.

Peter Hildreth, 40, a traffic court hearing officer in Concord,N.H., comes out to Gen Con every year; this year he drove out as partof a group with his 24-year-old sister, also a gamer.

Hildreth got involved in D & D in the late '70s, working his waythrough law school as a counselor in a Boy Scout summer camp. NowHildreth plays Advanced D & D and other role-playing games with a group of five other people about once a week. Hildreth usuallyserves as dungeon master back home. "Here, I get to play," he says.

Alan Christesen's mother, Barbara, who teaches kindergarten inwest suburban Berwyn, said she doesn't agree with the criticism thatfantasy games estrange young people from reality.

"(Fantasy gaming) is an excellent way to develop thinkingskills," she said. "It teaches kids to use their minds."

"Before 12, kids don't need rules to role-play," said DarwinBromley, president of Mayfair Games of northwest suburban Niles,which produces railroad-oriented board games, DC Heroes and Chill, ahorror role-playing game, among others. On the other end of thespectrum, when men leave college, they may find they don't have thefree time for gaming. "Role-playing chews time," Bromley said.

"Gaming is a way to play army, or cowboys and Indians, forsomebody older than 10," said Ross Babcock, executive vice presidentof FASA, a Chicago manufacturer of a line that includes two hotfuturistic games, Battletech and Shadowrun.

While some players were dressed as Vikings or medieval monks ormonsters or Desert Storm troopers (a costume contest on Saturday drew75 participants), the standard uniform was T-shirts and comfortablepants - from jeans to combat fatigues. And the T-shirts said it all:

"So many monsters, so little time"

"The only good troll is a fireballed troll"

"Peace through superior firepower"

"Conan the Librarian"

"Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle playing games"

Gaming presupposes a certain interest in bookish things; gamersare by definition readers.

"Ten years ago, everybody at Gen Con looked alike," said the33-year-old Babcock, who as a teenager was himself an avid gamer."They were the stereotypical gamer, the classic nerd-type - glasses,overweight, smarter than average, lacking the social skills of theaverage teenager.

"But since then, games have become more than just variations on(Lord of the Rings, a series of fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien).They're a lot more tongue-in-cheek now. Every game company wants tolower the entry point for new players, and you're seeing the basebeginning to broaden. The new kids are more mainstream, but they'rejust as hooked."

Celebrando el Cinco de Mayo

El pasado viernes 3 de mayo el Instituto Mexicano de Cultura en asociacion con la Camara de Comercio Hispana de San Francisco y Alameda celebro en el Ayuntamiento de San Francisco su "VIII Annual Cinco de Mayo Gala Dinner", ofreciendo "The Best of Oaxaca", con especialidades de aquella region como "Quesadillas de Huitlacoche, Hongos con Epazote y Tinga", "Tostadas de Chapulines", Ensalada Tlahuica", "Gallina en Mole Oaxaqueno", "Amarillo de Pollo", "Tamales de Chipil" y bebidas como Tepache, Agua de Tuna con Horchata y Tamarindo, Nicuatole y Camote en Piloncillo con Chile.

A dicha fiesta asistieron todo el cuerpo diplomatico hispano de la ciudad de San Francisco sobresaliendo el Honorable Consul de Espana, Don Lorenzo Gonzalez Alonso, asi como los Consules de Nicaragua, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela y Ecuador.

Tambien pudimos ver a varios supervisores como Gerardo Sandoval, la Tesorera del Ayuntamiento Susan Leal, el Doctor Jorge Partida, celebre por sus inteligentes conversaciones en Television y todos los Consules que forman la directiva del Consulado de Mexico.

Lilia Aguilera, Directora Ejecutiva del Consulado de Mexico, en todo momento, atendio a los invitados con su proverbial simpatia y amabilidad.

La cena fue amenizada por la orquesta de Los Cumbacheros y en el fin de fiesta hubo un magnifico espectaculo por el Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno, que ejecuto bellos bailes de Oaxaca, como la "Danza de la Pluma", "Sones del Valle Flor de Pina", "Jarabe Mixteco, La Llorona y Sandunga". El Mariachi Jaliscience nos deleito con su extraordinaria musica y sorpresivamente el consul de Mexico Don Ricardo Hernandez-Locanda canto, con una potente y melodiosa voz, unas bellas canciones tipicas regionales, que el publico vitoreo con entusiasmo.

La Consul General de Mexico, Honorable Georgina Lagos Donde, no pudo asistir a la fiesta debido al alumbramiento de su nuevo hijo que tuvo lugar el dia 1 de mayo.

Desde estas paginas de El Bohemio News damos la enhorabuena a la Honorable Georgina Lagos por el feliz acontecimiento del nacimiento de su segundo hijo Andres.

Sri Lankan military: Clashes leave 28 rebels dead

Heavy fighting in Sri Lanka's north has left at least 28 separatist Tamil Tigers dead close to the last rebel-held town, the military said Saturday.

They were killed near Puthkkudiyirippu, where fierce battles between government troops and the rebels have been raging for several weeks, said military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara.

"There were a total of 28 LTTE fighters killed, and there are confrontations still taking place," he said, referring to the rebels' formal name, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The military does not give casualty figures for its troops. Independent accounts of the fighting are not possible because access to the war zone is restricted.

The army has ousted the Tamil rebels from all but one of their strongholds in an all-out offensive the government hopes will soon end the island's 25-year-old civil war.

The rebel holdouts _ along with tens of thousands of terrified civilians _ are confined to about 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) of jungle and beach on the northeastern coast.

The safety of the civilians trapped in the war zone has attracted significant international attention, with the United Nations, European Union and numerous countries voicing concern.

Nanayakkara denied a report posted on the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site that said Sri Lanka army artillery shelling had killed 46 civilians over the last three days. He called the reports "exaggerated" and said they don't "engage the no-fire zones."

The U.N. has said 2,800 civilians caught in the fighting have been killed since late January, though the government disputes that figure.

The U.N. estimates at least 150,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone. The government says the figure is closer to 50,000 to 60,000, and accuses the rebels of using them as human shields in a bid to avoid defeat. Nanayakkara said nearly 1,200 civilians crossed safely into government-controlled areas on Friday.

In the latest sign of rising international concern over the fate of the civilians, the European Commission and Australia urged the government and rebels to prevent further bloodshed and ensure civilian safety.

The LTTE has fought since 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority, which suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

Ellison Leads Reds to Win Over Giants

SAN FRANCISCO - Pinch-hitter Jason Ellison hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot against his former team, and Homer Bailey shut down the San Francisco Giants in the Cincinnati Reds' 4-2 victory Thursday night.

Ellison hit the first pitch he saw from Dan Giese into the left-field seats for his second career pinch-hit homer and his first home run since June 18, 2006, against Seattle while with the Giants.

The game was noticeably minus the power of two of the game's greatest sluggers - home run king Barry Bonds and his Reds pal, Ken Griffey Jr. Both are injured and Griffey won't play again this season.

Jorge Cantu added a pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth and Norris Hopper singled in his first three at-bats in the leadoff hole for Cincinnati, which scored two runs on Jeff Keppinger's fifth-inning single that followed a wild pitch by San Francisco starter Matt Cain.

Nate Schierholtz's RBI single in the first put the Giants ahead, but they couldn't manage much offense against Bailey (3-2).

Cincinnati recalled the rookie right-hander from Class-A Sarasota to make his seventh major league start and first since a no-decision July 7 against Arizona. He was sent down following that outing.

After allowing the hit to Schierholtz, Bailey retired the next 15 batters in order before Randy Winn's two-out double in the sixth. The 21-year-old Bailey singled to start the second.

He allowed one run and three hits, struck out three and walked one in 5 2-3 innings. Marcus McBeth gave up Kevin Frandsen's RBI double in the seventh. David Weathers worked a perfect ninth for his 32nd save in 38 chances.

Cain (7-16) lost his third straight decision and saw his winless stretch reach four starts with his first career defeat to Cincinnati. The right-hander had won his previous two starts against the Reds, including on July 4 this year.

Bonds, nursing a sprained big toe on his right foot, could play two of the next three games against the Reds if the injury improves and also against the San Diego Padres next week in the team's final home series.

"I feel good," the 43-year-old Bonds said after working out Thursday.

Griffey will miss the rest of the season after straining his groin Wednesday at Chicago.

Griffey left the game against the Cubs in the eighth inning after injuring himself while fielding a ball in right field. As he started to make a throw, Griffey stopped in pain and had to underhand the ball back to the infield before falling to the ground.

The Reds originally announced the injury as a strained lower abdomen, and Griffey returned to Cincinnati to be examined. On Thursday, the team said he was diagnosed with a high groin strain and will be examined again in four weeks.

Notes:@ Ellison was batting .050 and his last 13 appearances have been as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement. ... San Francisco is shutting down hard-throwing rookie RHP Tim Lincecum as a precaution. The team's top draft pick in 2006 was scheduled to start Friday but will be replaced by LHP Pat Misch. ... The Giants will reach the 3 million mark for the eighth straight year of their waterfront ballpark's existence Friday night, needing 791 fans to do so.