fnday, August IS, 2006 HERALD DAILY A4 FAST FACT Morning briefing Compiled from Daily Herald u ire sen-ice- Snow and hail fall when the air temperature between the cloud and the ground is too low to melt the ice crystals. Snow usually falls from layer douds. hail from convectional clouds. Soie MicropeAa o( rtiorio 1 in ! fi killed, 60 missing volcano eruption 50 countries A volQUITO, Ecuador canic eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains destroyed three villages, killed at least one man and left more than 60 others missing, the mayor of a village on the volcano's slope said Thursday. One body was recovered after the overnight eruption of lava from Tungurahua, in the country's high Andes, and four others were believed to be under the rubble, Penipe Mayor Juan Salazar said. Salazar told Channel 4 television that the villages of Chil-ibChoglontuz and Palitagua "no longer exist. Everything is wiped out." i : - Car bombs kill 10 in Baghdad ' BAGHDAD, Iraq Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad Thursday, killing 10 people and injuring 16, officials said. Iraq's prime minister insisted the country's forces were ready to take over security duties in most provinces despite rising violence. U.S. officials confirmed that the number of roadsidebombs directed against U.S. and Iraqi forces had increased sharply, dramatizing the threat posed by the Sunni-leinsurgency despite attention directed to sectarian violence in the ' REBECCA BFtEYER The Honolulu Advertiser Celebrating Lord Krishna e contest for children at the International Society for Krishna Jahanavi Priya, 6, participates in the Lord Krishna Consciousness Temple in Nuiianu, Hawaii. The festivities were held in celebration for Sri Krishna Janmastami, the commemoration of the birth of Lord Krishna. look-a-lik- pledge troops to U.N. force in Lebanon UNITED NATIONS Nearly 50 countries that could contribute the 13,000 new troops needed to expand the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon met Thursday amid cc'-erover the ground rules "and firepower the soldiers could use. Bangladesh pledged up to 2,000 troops and France offered 200 new troops in addition to 200 already in the force, a disappointment to some who expected more from the country likely to lead the force. In an opening speech, Deputy Secretary-- . General Mark Malloch Brown said at least 3,500 troops are needed to deploy within 10 days to expand the U.N. force g trying to help maintain an uneasy truce be- tween Israel and Hez2,000-stron- d Princeton tops . U.S. News rankings Attorney: Woman Princeton takes.the top spot in the latest U.S. News & World Report college ranktie ings, breaking a three-yea- r for No. with Ivy League rival dismissed, and Gibson volune anteered to do nouncements on the hazards of drinking and driving, and to immediately enter rehabilitation, Satriano said. Drive-b- y c A woman on a BOSTON flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday. Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree. Vt.. appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight cre'w on United 923 as it flew from London to trans-Atlanti- Harvard, rank- - The formula for the ings includes variables such as ' graduation and retention rates, faculty and financial resources, and the percentage of alumni donating money to their alma mater. The biggest single vari- able is a reputation assessment by peer institutions. Police: Women drugged. homeless men before running them down LOS ANGELES Two elderly women accused of killing t w6 homeless men in hit and-run crashes to collect their life insurance drugged the victims before slowly running them down, authorities said Thurs- day. "If they were awnke, it would be a slow, painful death," Deputy District At- torney Shellie Samuels said outside the courtroom after a judge postponed the arraign ment of Olga Rutterschmidt, 73. and Helen Golay, 75. "We think they drugged them with pills or alcohol first, then ran over them," police . Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said earlier in a statement. Son sues over Katrina survivor who died The son of an woman who died slumped in her wheelchair after Hurricane Katrina an image that came to symbolize the government's slow response to the catastrophic storm sued the city and state Thursday. Herbert Freeman Jr. accuses numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of gross negligence and willful misconduct in the death of his NEW ORLEANS mother, Ethel Freeman. He claims he was ordered by New Orleans police to seek shelter Man found guilty of murders of family - A man RICHMOND, Va was convicted Thursday of the random mutilation killings of a musician and his family, a verdict that took just 30 minutes to reach and could bring the death penalty. Lawyers for Ricky Jovan Gray, 29, presented no witnesses and acknowledged he confessed to the New Year's Day slayings of musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife, Kathryn, 19, and daughters Stella, 9, and A ple, police said. Several of the wounded were believed to be members of the Gangster Disciples street gang, said police Superinten dent Philip Chne. The shots were fired before dawn, and the street' was de - g sentenced to three years' probation, the district attorney's office said. Gibson did not appear but entered the plea through his attorney before Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira. Deputy District Attorney Gina Satria-nsaid in a statement. Two counts in the original three-coucomplaint were o A . - 4 .V FORT WORTH, Texas A truck driver was arrested at a drug house Thursday after police found his three children abandoned inside a parked police said. r, neighbor told police that the rig had been there for a couple of days. "The truck was running so they had air conditioning and there was consumable food item's inside of the truck," said Lt. Dean Sullivan, a Fort Worth police spokesman. "They all ap peared to be in good condition, good spirits." Sullivan said investigators are trying to determine just how long the children had been left alone. The children are ages 8, Hand 12. A terminal evacuated after W.Va. suspicious liquid found CEREDO, W.Va. A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday after two bottles of liquid found in a woman's carry on luggage twice tested positive for explosives, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said. "The bomb squad is on site and the woman is being interviewed by the FBI," Amy von Walter said. A machine security checkpoint screeners use to test for explosives registered positive, and a canine team also got a positive hit, von Walter said. Airport manager Larry Saly-er- s said the bottles would be ' moved by robot to a remote area of the airport where officials would attempt to detonate them. National Guard and State Police explosive experts will conduct chemical field tests to determine what's inside them, risk that the fighting he said. could Malloch Brown told diplomats from the 49 . injured. Korea agrees to S. Korean flood aid Father held after 3 kids found alone in truck tractor-traile- 15 N. serted when officers arrived, said Officer Marcel Bright, a police spokesman. Most of 10 men and one the victims woman managed to drive to a hospital about four blocks away, he said. Mel MALIBU. Calif. Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor'drunken-driv-incharge Thursday and was -- arid - Mel Gibson gets probation in DUI case - in CHICAGO Shots were . fired from a van and a sedan Thursday as they sped down a residential street on the city's South Side, wounding 11 peo- Ruby, 4. Seeing photographs and hearing details of how they died bound, beaten and stabbed, with their throats cut, in basement of their burning home left one juror.in tears and others looking shaken. ;S.' sualties and damaging many shops, said police Lt. Adil Salih. the Iraqi army general command said in a statement that seven people were killed Chicago wounds 11 Washington, D.C., Wednesday. black She was dressed in a Rolling Stones pants and socks without shoes for the hearing and was ordered held pending a detention and probable cause hearing next Thursday. Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely" lucid when they spoke. "She's got some very serious mental health problems." .U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said he hoped to learn more about Mayo's mental state before the next court appearance. "We believe it's important during that time period to have a doctor examine her," he said. Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had.been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added. "I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid." the son said. at the city's convention center, even though no aid was available and there was no way out. "Let's not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn't get her. She didn't survive the rescue," said John Paul Massicot, an attorney representing the family. shooting bollah militants. "Every moment we delay is a moment of capital. A parked car exploded a little after noon near a market in Sadr City, inflicting the ca- public-servic- arrested for flight disturbance 'barely lucid' 1 ads The WORLD The Nation ) F s SEOUL, South KoreaNorth Korea has accepted aid from South Korea to help recover from floods that an aid group claims left tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million homeless, a South Korean official said "' Thursday. . Officials with the North's Red Cross sent a message to their South Korean counter- parts accepting an assistance offer, Unification Ministry spokesman Yang Chang seok said. The two sides plan to discuss the aid Saturday. -- Japan negotiates Russian release of fishermen ' countries invited to the meeting that details on how the expanded force will operate and the rules of engage- ment will make clear that "this will be a strong, robust force, equipped and autho rized to take all necessary action in its key tasks." The U.N. resolution that led to Monday's cease-fir- e between Israel and Hezbollah after a brutal war authorized up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to y help 15,000 Lebanese troops extend their authority throughout south Lebanon, which Hezbollah controls, as Israeli troops withdraw. Afghan officials: U.S. airstrike kills 10 police TOKYO Japan disKABUL, Afghanistan patched diplomats Thursday President Hamid Karzai to negotiate the release of condemned a U.S. airstrike three fishermen detained by Russia after a high-sea- s Thursday that Afghan offikilled cials said killed 10 border pofellow a that shooting crew member. Tokyo said the licemen. Sixteen other people incident couki affect ties with died in violence around the Moscow. country, including an American soldier slain by a Soviet-er- a A Russian patrol boat land mine. opened fire on the fishing The U.S. military said it was vessel, killing one Japanese man in the latest flare up of a investigating the airstrike in territorial dispute southeastern Afghanistan, but believed it had struck inover a series of islands off island. northernmost surgents fleeing the scene of Japan's Russia seized the boat after an attack on U.S. and Afghan the incidentraccusing the troops. crew of illegal fishing and taking the three survivors to Rus- Fighting escalates sia for further questioning. in Sri Lanka official gets for murders years os 24 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger rebels launched fresh attacks on key targets in northern Sri Lanka, where The former MOSCOW security chief of Yukos Oil Co. a week of fierce fighting has killed more than 800 rebels was convicted Thursday of two murders and attempted and security forces, the milmurder, including the death itary said Thursday. of the mayor of the Siberian The clashes in northern town where the now bankrupt Jaffna Peninsula came as Sri Lanka!s president vowed the company's main production unit had its headquarters. government would not bow to Although Alexei Pichugin insurgent demands and withwas already serving time draw from the north, which for other killings, the latis claimed by the rebels as est conviction could add to the heartland of ethnic Tamil the pressure on imprisoned : culture. former Yukos chief Mikhail The United States and the Khodorkovsky, who once was European Union separately Russia's wealthiest man. called for an end to hostilities. he said. , j tv.:""p,...,7, Wis;- PiivKAREN t. DUCEY 'T - rv Sr.iltm P"M intelligencer Testing for bird flu Mike Davison, District U'ilclift' biologist ,witi the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, is shown in Fir Island, Wash., as he releases a mallard bach into the wild from where it was cuplured after he put a sen ic e band on its leg and had taken samples to test for avian influenza. ' Salyers said he was told the native woman was of Pakistan who had moved to Huntington from Jackson, Mich. He did not know how long she had lived in Huntington. The woman was still at the airport late Thursday afternoon, but was not under arrest, said.FBI spokesman Jeff KiUeen. . Associated boy deans the roof of his house that is full of ashes from Tungurahua Volcano. The Tungurahua volcano erupted ' Wednesday night. A Press