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Show NATION & WORLD A4 MONDAY. At (it ST llll 1.1. 20(11 Cease-fir- e l)wu K ILiikllvUcuMonr lira bagSots for leader m escapees GLOBAL BRIEFING I III declared By SI SAN PARROI Associated Press SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) Macedonia's government agreed Sunday to reinstate a cease-firand pave the way for a peace accord after troops backed by tanks and warplanes fought ethnic Albanian rebels on the outskirts of the capital and several Other fronts. President Boris Trajkovski ordered government forces to stop shooting at 7:30 p.m. "to show good will and to give a chance" to the tentative peace deal scheduled to be signed Monday, state television reported. County Assistant District Attorney Alan Levy, who is not involved in the case. "That leads I nici to wide-ope- n DALLAS They became' We can spend a long time talking known as the Texas Seven, a about his criminal history." band of men w ho broke out of a Defense attorney Wayne Huff maximum-securitprison with has asked the judge to let Rivas the warning "You haven't heard testify without facing prosecuthe last of us," and were accused tors' questions about his criminal of killing a police officer during a record. Rivas was serving 99 Christmas Eve robbery. years for aggravated kidnapping They vanished for nearly a and burglary in El Paso.. month, until a tip led a task force Huff also wants the judge to of officers to a Colorado HV park, throw out his client's 21 page where the fugitives reportedly police statement confessing to had told neighbors they were the murder. Huff says the statemissionaries. ment was obtained illegally On Monday, opening statebecause jailers had turned away ments were set to begin in the a public defender who asked to alleged ringleader's capital mur-- . see Rivas. Prosecutors and invesder trial, and the star witness tigators deny the allegation. could be the defendant himself. District Judge Molly Francis George Rivas was considering has not ruled on the motions. She testifying in his own defense .ordered trial participants not to even though legal experts say speak with reporters about trial that is a risky move. proceedings. Rivas and six others broke out "It's very, very rare for a defenCon- dant to testify," said Tarrant of the maximum-securit- e , y r Shark victim released An PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) boy who survived a shark attack was released Sunday from a hospital where he'd been recovering from a light coma and surgery to reattach his arm. Jessie Arbogast was put in an ; ambulance at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital bound for his hometown of Ocean Springs, Miss., 96 miles from Pensacola. It wasn't immediately clear if Jessie was being taken home or to another hospital. Sacred Heart spokesman Michael Burke declined to comment. An update on the hospital Web site Saturday said Jessie was still in serious condition and in a light coma. Burke said Sunday that Jessie remained "pretty much the same." y n sm McALLEN, Texas (AP) Would be the first tire-defeto go to trial, against allegedly., in Kenedy on Dec. 13. 11 overpowering employee and three inmates anil making "IT with a prison pickup truck and 14 pistols, an automat iv rifle.- a shotgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. On Christmas Eve in Irving, near Dallas. they were blamed in the robbery of $70,000 and more weapons from a sporting goods store and for the killing of local police officer Aubrey Hawkins, who was shot 11 times and run over with a car. Alter that, the trail went 'cold until one among hundreds of tips led authorities to a recreational vehicle park at Woodland Park, Colo., on Ian. 22. Neighbors, said the men claimed to be missionaries, They remembered occasionally hearing Christian music from the motor home the men occupied, and said one joined in Thursday night Bible study. Police surrounded and cap 7J' nm tured Rivas and three others. One committed suicide and the remaining two surrendered a couple of days later at a motel in nearby Colorado Springs. The five others will be tried individually for the slaying and also could face the death penalty Dallas defense attorney Barry Sorrells, who is not involved in the case, said he would advise Rivas against testifying. "That would be a prosecutor's dream come true," Sorrells said. "They'll be after him like a pack of hungry dogs and there will be nothing left but a pile of bones." If it's obvious the jury is going to impose the death penalty, the defense may take that chance in hopes of getting a life sentence, he said. But don't expect jurors to be swayed by excuses or admissions of remorse, Levy said. "He looks and talks like a criminal," he said. "I don't think he's going to be pulling on any heartstrings." High-tec- h companies losing big First Firestone suit 1 What : nally I'nit i Bridge-stoneFiresto- - was set to begin Monday in the case of a Texas family injured when their Ford Explorer rolled over on a Mexican highway. U.S. District Judge Filemon Vela expects the case to last two f s' r t By MICHAEL LIEDTKE iff law-Su- it V Associated . Press Business Writer Hard SAN FRANCISCO are turning Silicon Valley from a financial to a land of lost forShangri-Ltunes. Since the technology-driveNasdaq stock index peaked on March 10, 2000, northern California's 100 largest publicly held technology companies have lost s of their comabout bined market value, wiping out $2 trillion in shareholder wealth, an Associated Press analysis times in high-tec- h a 4 f I A. In March 2000, Dr. Joel Rodriguez, his wife and two family members were traveling in Mexico when a tire blew out on their 1998 Ford Explorer and their vehicle rolled. All four were injured; Rodriguez's wife, Marisa, reportedly needs a wheelchair for the rest of her life. i' 4 n f i T r f ' i ;1 i two-third- - ...... . iwwr .i j. I hi' AMifcmU'd Prt'sn Suicide attack: Police and rescuers work at the scene of a bomb blast near the northern Israeli town of Haifa. A bomber blew himself up on a restaurant patio, killing himself and wounding up to 20 others, authorities said. shows. The region's three largest tech bellwethers San Cisco Systems Inc., Santa Clara-baseIntel Corp. and Redwood Shores-baseOracle Corp. accounted for $686 billion of the staggering paper losses. While virtually all publicly held companies around the country have been stung by the stock market's plunge during the past 17 months, Silicon Valley is ground zero. The Wilshire 5000 index one of the broadest measures of the overall stock market has shed $4.45 trillion in shareholder wealth, a 26 percent decline since it reached its peak on March 24, 2000, according to Wilshire Associates. That means almost half the market's paper losses have been concentrated among tech companies in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco and its neighboring Jose-base- d d Discovery links up Suicide bomber attacks at restaurant i CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) shuttle Discovery Space arrived at the international space station on Sunday, bringing three new residents to the outpost. The linkup occurred above Australia's northwestern corner following a slight mechanical problem. . By GREG MVRE - - Bush standing firm WASHINGTON (AP) Presi- suicide attack Palestinian Thursday at a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 15 and wounded deci- sion to limit federal funding for embryonic stem cell research regardless of what scientific breakthroughs may occur, two administration officials said Sunday. As Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card went on television to discuss Bush's decision, a leading researcher and a Republican senator questioned whether it would slow the race for cures for Alzheimer's and other diseases. ; China rejects U.S. offer BEIJING (AP) Associated Press Wriler A suicide JERUSALEM bomber blew himself up on the patio of a restaurant near the northern Israeli coastal town of Haifa, killing himself and wounding up to 20 people, Israeli authorities said. The bombing resembled a ; dent Bush will stand by his , about 100. However, in that attack the assailant went inside, and his bomb sprayed shrapnel and nails throughout the densely packed restaurant. In Sunday's attack, the bomber set off his explosives on the patio outside the restaurant, shredding an awning, overturning tables and chairs and leaving the patio of the Wall Street Cafe covered with blood. Almost all of the injuries in 'Sunday's blast were light, according to police and rescue workers in Kiryat Motzkin, a suburb north of Haifa, about 50 miles north of Tel Aviv. Cafe owner Aharon Roseman said he saw the bomber approach and light a fuse that was strapped to his body. "I grabbed a chair and threw it at him, and ran behind a wall, and that's what saved me," he told Israel radio. Islamic Jihad, the radical group that has claimed responsibility for many previous bombings, said its activist Muhammad Nasser, 28, carried out Sunday's attack. Nasser had worked for the Palestinian security forces until he left six weeks ago. Since then, "he said often that he wanted to become a martyr," Nasser's father, Mahmoud, said at the family home in CJabatya, in the northern West Bank. "Our fighter was able to penetrate into the heart of Zionism with all the security measures," said Islamic Jihad leader Sheik Abdullah Shami. "We will continue our fight, our struggle, our operations until we reach our goal of complete freedom." with previous bomb As attacks, Israeli officials said leader Palestinian Yasser Arafat bore ultimate responsibility for his refusal to arrest Palestinian such as militant groups Jihad and Islamic llamas. "Arafat believes he can con- tinue to support this wave of terrorism against Israeli civilians without any international pressure or condemnation," said Dure Cold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israel cannot tolerate this trail of terror." In the West Bank city of Hebron, Sapareen Abu Sneineh died of a gunshot wound to the head, hospital staff said. Palestinian security sources said she was hit by gunfire from Israeli troops. d counties. Because the stocks of Silicon Valley tech companies are widely held around the world, their; market losses aren't concentrated locally. But all the companies have large shareholder bases in northern California because virfirms distribtually all high-tec- h uted stock options to their employees. Expressing "strong dissatisfaction," China rejected a U.S. offer of $34,000 to cover costs incurred after a U.S. Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet and the American crew was detained, official media reported Sunday. "No matter its content or form, decision by the U.S. the side cannot be accepted by the Chinese side," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue was quoted as saying by Xinhua, China's official news agency. Iranian floods kill 114 : Rescue KALALEH, Iran (AP) workers pulled bodies from the mud and army helicopters evacuated residents to hilltop shelters Sunday in northeastern Iran, where flash floods and mudslides haVe killed at least 114 people. . Heavy rain since Friday has left thousands of people homeless, dozens missing, travelers stranded, afld crops and bridges destroyed. Sunday was sunny with clear skies, but the forecast called for mortmain Sunday night. Study: Exercise may help fight mental decline in aging women By IRA DREV FUSS Associated Press Wriler The WASHINGTON more older women walk, the less .they lose in ability to think, a study finds. Women who walked the most had about a third less risk of suffering cognitive decline compared with women who walked the least, researchers said. "We found this dose effect a little exercise is good and more is better and that speaks to the possibility this is causally associated," said Dr. Christine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco. The report by Yaffe, the study's 'lead author, was published in July in an American Medical Association journal, Archives of Internal Medicine. However, while Yaffe believes the results support the idea that exercise lights mental decline, neither she nor experts not associated with the study think the case is yet proved. looked at 5,025 women whose average age was 70. The women, living in Baltimore, Minneapolis, the The study Pittsburgh area and Portland, Ore., had initial interviews and examinations, including a test of mental function. During the study, they completed annual questionnaires, which included reports on their physical activity, ad they visited clinics every two years. After 6 to H years of ow-up, foll- the researchers found that the women who were walking the most at the start were less likely to suffer cognitive decline by the end. Of the toj 25 percent of walkers, who covered an average of about 2.5 miles a day, cognitive decline was found in 17 percent. In the 25 percent of women who walked the least, an average of about s of a mile a decline week, cognitive was found in 24 percent. Similarly, women in the two-third- most active quartile .on average lost less in cognitive function than did women in the least active quartile, Yaffe said. In the highest quartile, scores on the psychological test fell around 3.3 percent, while scores of women in the lowest quartile fell 4.6 percent, she said. Some loss was to be expected because of the women's advancing age, Yaffe said. Although the study wasn't able to parts of mental function lost least, she said she suspected most of the exam-ine'whi- benefit was in memory. Exercise may well affect mental function, Yaffe said. For instance, it is known that exercise reduces the risk of clogged arteries, . which could include brain arteries, so exercisers may benefit better blood flow through the brain, she from said . And animal studies indicate exercise also may directly improve function of nerve cells in the brain, she said. However, the study can't rule out the possibility that the exercising women were simply healthier in general, including their brains. If so, the research showed only that women who can exercise more also can think better than women who can't do as much exercise, Yaffe said. The idea that exercise helps the mental function of older women is reasonable, said James Blumen-tha- l of Duke University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. But this study is not proof, he said. |