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Show p Thursday, January 24, 2008 HERALD DAILY AS FAST FACT MORNING BRIEFING The abyssal zone in the ocean begins at a depth of 6,600 feet and runs to 19,800 feet It covers 83 percent of the area of oceans and seas. Water temperature in the abyssal zone is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit Source: The took of Answen Compiled from Daily Herald wire services The WO RLD The NATION Police assess Amy Winehouse footage Army proposal would cut tours to 12 months WASHINGTON - Soldiers' battlefield tours would be cut from 15 months to 12 months beginning Aug. 1, under a proposal being considered by the Army as part of an effort to reduce the stress on a force battered by more than six years at war. The proposal, recommended by U.S. Army Forces Command, is being reviewed by senior Army and Pentagon leaders, and would be contingent on the changing needs for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our top priority is going to be meeting the combatant commanders' requirements, so there may be no decision until we get more clarity on that," CHARLES REX ARBOGAST Associated Press Army CoL Edward Gibbons, chief of the command's plans On division, said Wednesday. He said the goal was to meet those Singer Usher Raymond left and actress Kerry Washington, second from left stand with Democratic presidential hopeful demands while still reducing at a rally on the campus of South Sen. Barack Obama, soldiers' deployments and Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., on Tuesday. increasing their time at home iV i f , the campaign trail D-II- L, between tours. Zimbabwe police fire tear gas into crowd LONDON Scotland Yard started an investigation Wednesday into a video that allegedly shows troubled British singer Amy Winehouse smoking crack. The British tabloid, The Sun, released grainy footage showing Grammy-nominate- d Winehouse, 24, inhaling fumes from a pipe. The video . was reportedly shot hours before she attended a court hearing for her jailed hus- ; HARARE, Zimbabwe Police fired tear gas and charged toward several hundred people making their way to a protest Wednesday, challenging hopes for free and fair campaigning ahead of Zimbabwe's national elections scheduled in March. Police also briefly detained the leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, opposition members said. Police Chief Sjoprintendeht band. Wayne Bvudzijena told South Police will look at the video Africa's SABC television before deciding whether any news that police just wanted to talk to Tsvangirai and two charges should be brought other opposition leaders "so against Winehouse, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said we could establish what they while speaking on condition intended to do today." of anonymity in line with Tsvangirai eventually adforce policy. The Sun gave dressed a few hundred people the police the video, he said. who managed to reach the Winehouse spokesman protest site, a vacant lot next to a stadium in the capital. Shane O'Neill said he was unable to comment on the The demonstration was the first test of new security laws investigation. meant to ease restrictions on Retired officers: protests in the run-u- to elecp no answers, Parachini said. In the end, Gordon made no change to the order suspending her visitation rights. The hearing was not scheduled, and Spears was not ordered to be there, Parachini said. Britney Spears comes, leaves LA. courthouse LOS ANGELES Britney Spears bolted from the court- house Wednesday before sety ting foot in her hearing, which went on without her and ended with a court commissioner upholding an order suspending her visitation rights. The pop star came to the courthouse to seek visits with two little boys, entered the building and went through security screening. But she suddenly stated that she wanted to leave and was driven away, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said. Upstairs, Commissioner Scott Gordon went ahead with a closed hearing, and "notice was taken of Miss Spears's absence," Parachini said. child-custod- 'Horse for sale' ad found in food classifieds Kristen AKRON, Mich. DeGroat just wanted to sell her horse to another animal lover, but her ad ended up under "Good Things to Eat" in the classified sections of two newspapers. About a third of the 60 or so calls she received were from people interested in buying horse meat. "It's been enough to turn your stomach," said DeGroat, who eventually sold her mare, Foxy, to a man who wanted a live horse for his grandchildren. DeGroat's ad, offering the registered pinto for $200 or the best offer, was intended to run Sunday and Monday under the classified ad heading for horses and stables in The Saginaw Spears's lawyer argued that she be allowed to have visits, Kevin and Feder-lin- e who showed up for the was asked a few hearing questions that required yes or News .and The Bay City Times. However, human error r! v ? I 1 j land- ed the ad under the food heading in the classified sections of both newspapers. The papers, which have a jointly run classified ad department, corrected the mistake. 1 J f .j mtti were in area where residents reported seeing UFO Military: 6s FORT WORTH, Texas Fighter jets were training nearby the night dozens of residents reported seeing a UFO this month, Air Force Reserve officials said Wednesday, backtracking ! on earlier statements. The announcement did little to satisfy residents of Texas dairy country who swear that what they saw in the sky Jan. 8 was no airplane. Some said it even bolstered their claims, because several people reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object. "This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity." Officials at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth init ially said none of their planes had been in the area, but on Wednesday they said 10 were there that day. The off icials said they were mistaken and wanted to set the record straight "in the interest of public awareness." Big Dig firms to shell out more than $450M BOSTON Contractors will pay more than $450 million to settle the state's lawsuit over a fatal tunnel collapse and to cover the costs of leaks and design flaws in the Big Dig, officials said Wednesday. Bechtel Parsons Brincker-hof- f , the consortium that oversaw design and construction of the nation's costliest and most complex highway project, has agreed to pay $407 million, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said in announcing the deaL Several smaller companies will pay about $51 million collectively. "The citizens of Massachusetts entrusted Bechtel Parsons Brinckerhoff to act as their eyes and ears on the Central Artery Project," Sullivan said. "They grossly failed to meet their obligations and responsibilities to the citizens of Massachusetts and the United States." Under the settlement, tions. Musharraf step down KARACHI, Pakistan -President Pervez Musharraf should step down immediately as a way to promote democracy, combat religious militancy and restore the reputation of Pakistan's military, according to an influential group of retired officers. The Pakistan Society made its demands late Tuesday, two days after Musharraf left on an eight-da- y European swing to assure world leaders that Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal were in safe hands. "This is in the supreme national interest, and it makes it incumbent on him to step down," said a statement released after a meeting in Rawalpindi attended by dozens of former army generals, three air force air marshals and eight naval admirals. '. Journalist sentenced to death because of brother's writings was sentenced to death for distributing an article about Islam and women's rights is actually being punished for his brother's reporting on abuses by warlords, a media group said Wednesday. Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death Tuesday by a three-judg- e panel in the northern for discity of Mazar-i-Shartributing a report he printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University. The article asks why men can have four wives but women can't have multiple husbands. It was written in the Iranian language of Farsi, if ' : i Ibrahimi. Man shoots while rescuing him from a crocodile er CANBERRA, Australia A man rescued his colleague from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia but accidentally shot the unlucky in the process, police said Wednesday. The two farmhands were collecting wild crocodile eggs on a riverbank Tuesday in Northern Territory when a crocodile snatched one of them, Jason Green, by the arm, the Northern Territory Police said in a statement. V "The male colleague shot KABUL, Afghanistan An Afghan journalist who i which is similar to the Afghan language of Dari. The judges said the article humiliated Islam, and members of a clerics council had pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished. The case now goes to the first of two appeals courts. Jean MacKenzie, country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which helps train Afghan journalists, said Kaambakhsh was being punished for stories written for IWPR by his brother, Sayed Yaqub at the crocodile, causing it to let go of the victim's arm, but a further shot hit the victim in the upper right arm," the statement said. The two men had been collecting eggs to boost the crocodile population at their farm in the northern city of Darwin. Their employer sent a helicopter that flew Green to a Darwin hospital for surgery. Police Commander Bob Harrison said Green's injuries were not "He's going to be very sick and sorry and have a very good story to tell," Harrison told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Police could provide no information about the crocodile's condition. U m t- BechtelParsons Brinckerhoff will not face criminal charges in the deadly Interstate 90 tunnel ceiling collapse in July 2006. 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