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Show DAILY A4 HERALD Monday, February It, 2008 FAST FACT M ORNING BRIEFING Heat was identified as a form of energy by Hermann von Helmholtz of Germany and James Prescott Joule of England during the 1840s. Source: Micropedia of World Facts Compiled from Daily Herald wire senices The Nation The WORLD mmm F" No. X. '.A Mi J MATT ROURKE a Associated Press v. Robert Peck, curator of art and artifacts, displays a lock of hair from George Washington at The Academy Of Suturui Sciences in Philadelphia on Jan. 30. U.S. Presidents' hair is on display at museum PHILADELPHIA It might be the strangest way to spend Presidents Day. For the first time. The Academy of Natural Sciences is displaying a scrapbook that has locks of hair from the first 12 U.S. presidents. It will be on view Feb. The presidential "hair album" was assembled by Peter Arvell Browne, a Philadelphia attorney and scholar of the natural sciences who collected thousands of samples of animal fur and human hair in t he 1840s and 1850s and organized them in a dozen leather-bounvolumes. Browne also wrote to presidents still living during his lifetime and to the families of those who had died. His letters and their responses are included in the book along with the strands of hair. His requests for hair weren't considered odd, as saving a loved one's locks in a family "hair album" was popular in the 19th century. Because of the scrap-bookage and delicate contents, it will be displayed under glass and opened only to the page featuring George 16-1- d : 1762-186- 0 , 's Washington's brown-and-gra- y locks. Photographs will be shown of the other presidents' hair, from John Adams to Zachary Taylor. Flapjack feast flips group into Guinness FARGO. N.D. This feast was for the record books, and it only took 34,818 pancakes to get there. Thousands of people, including an official with Guinness World Records, escaped the winter weather on Saturday for the 50th anniversary of The Kiwanis Club's Pancake Karnival fundraiser. Grillers flipped flapjacks and served them with sausages and orange juice for most of the day until they more than surpassed the 30.724 pancakes served in 2002 by the Lubbock, Texas, Lions Club. "We're officially the largest pancake feed in the world." Matt Sullivan, president of The Kiwanis Club, said Sunday. '. The group had brought in Kris Teufel, a records manager from London, to certify, the feed, Sullivan said. The j cost of the feast was being tallied, but organizers felt it was worth it for the event's silver anniversary, he said. bone-chillin- g Study questions benefits of saccharin Casting doubt on the benefit of sweeteners, new research released Sunday reported that rats on diets containing saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food. The study in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience found that the artificial sweetener appeared to break the physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, driving the rats to overeat. Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved in the report, said the study offers a possible explanation for the unexpected association between obesity and diet soda found in recent human studies. Researchers have puzzled over whether diet soda was a marker for poor eating habits, or whether the ingredients in diet soda caused people to put on pounds, she said. "This rat study suggests a component of the artificial sweetener may be respon low-calor- sible for the weight gain," Steffen said. St ef fen's research, published last month in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that people who drank diet soda had a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that includes obesity, than people who drank regular soda. The food and beverage industries rejected the report. Dangerous winter conditions in Midwest It was so cold Sunday the Upper Midwest, and visibility was so poor in blowing snow, that church services were called off in parts of Michigan. At noon, thermometers in one North Dakota town still registered only 20 below zero. The windy, bitterly cold weather blanketed a region from the Dakotas across much of Minnesota into Wisconsin and Michigan. Subzero temperatures at midday extended into northern Iowa, the National Weather Service said. Snow whipped up by the bitingly cold wind created hazardous driving conditions Sunday in Michigan, State Police said the Mackinac Bridge was closed because of whiteout conditions, and the sheriff 's office in southwest Michigan's Cass County said visibility was less than 20 feet. Churches across western Michigan canceled services, The Grand Rapids Press reported. "The road conditions are just terrible. There's been slide-of- f s all over and the roads are very icy," said William Marino, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Rapids. Press LEE Treasure lost in fire South Korea's national treasure Namdaemun collapses as firefighters extinguish a fire in Seoul on Monday. About 80 firefighters were fighting to bring the blaze under control and it was not known whether there were any casualties, they said, adding that the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Namdaemuni literally "the great southern gate," was the southern gate of the original walls surrounding Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. The construction of this gate began in 1395. in Mourners plea for help in solving Lane Bryant shootings CHICAGO A day after three of the five women fatally shot in a Tinley Park; 111., clothing store were laid to rest, friends and community. activists gathered Sunday for a vigil at the scene of last week's slayings to urge anyone with information about the killer to step forward and called it a "moral obligation" to do so. The man who reportedly bound the women with duct tape, covered their heads and opened fire when he heard a manager of the Lane Bryant store make a 911 call remains at large. Law enforcement officials in the Chicago suburb continue to search for an African-America- n man who wears his hair in corn rows with a green-beade- d braid hanging by his right ear, according to a composite sketch based on a description provided by a woman who survived the shooting in the store's back room Feb. 2. Tinley Park police officials said they continue to comb through tips and leads pouring into their office. The plea for public input and a nationwide search came with a call for tighter gun control laws by a Chicago father and city police officer whose son was fatally shot during a bus ride home from school last May. "This offender has friends. This offender has family. ... This person must be brought to justice," said Ronald Holt, whose son, Blair, died when an alleged gang member boarded a city bus and opened fire on a rival. Holt has emerged as a vocal proponent against gun violence in the Chicago region. sniper convicted of killing Iraqi civilian Committee already has a rule Army BAGI IDAD Gates Iraqi leaders show signs of progress A military jury on Sunday convicted an Army sniper of murder and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for killing an Iraqi civilian who wandered into the hiding place where six soldiers were sleeping. Sgt. Evan Vela, 24, was found guilty of murder without premeditation, of aiding and abetting in planting an AK47 on the dead man's body and of lying to military investigators about the shooting. He had . faced a possible life sentence. Vela showed no emotion when the verdict was read, but he asked the jury for mercy before it broke to decide his sentence. He apologized to the court, the Army and one of the sons of Genei Nasir the man he shot with a pistol in May. "When I Came to Iraq, I didn't come to do anything wrong," Vela said, reading from a handwritten statement. "I failed my standards, your standards and the standards of the Army. All I can say is I'm sorry and ask for mercy." Vela has been in confinement in Kuwait since July 1. That time will be credited to his sentence, the judge said. He also was sentenced to forfeit all pay and allowances and will receive a dishonorable discharge. The case was automatically referred to a military appeals court. Vela's trial was the last of three snipers in the unit accused in a series of shooting deaths south of Baghdad that defense lawyers said happened under command pressure to increase kill counts and, perhaps, employ questionable tactics in doing so. Criminals take advantage of Kenya's postelection violence KISUMU, Kenya Chil- ; BAGHDAD Hard choices face Iraq's political leaders on how to stabilize the country despite promising new signs of progress toward reconciliation, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday. "They seem to have become energized over the last few weeks," Gates said. The Pentagon chief told reporters who trav- eled with him from a conference in Germany that he wants to "see what the prospects are for further success in the next couple of months." In an interview on the trip to Iraq, Gates cited the recent passage of an amnesty law as an example of political progress. He said he would ask Iraqi leaders to assess the prospects for other important steps such as passing a law that would spell out power-sharin- g between the provinces and the national government. He compared the struggle over that idea to the that states that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." In January, Belgian athletes were told they would be prohibited from raising human rights or other political issues at Olympic venues. Outside the sports venues and Olympic village, however, they will be free to speak their mind. The BOA is making the change because China's government is widely regarded as sensitive to criticism over issues such as its human rights record and Tibet, Mewson Department of Defense Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates discusses Iraqi defense issues during an unannounced visit after he left the 44th Munich Security Conference, Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. founding fathers' quest to find a constitutional compromise on how to share power in Congress between big and small states. said. British athletes have been reBOA quired to sign the contract for 20 years before competing in the Olympics, but this is the first time such a clause is being added. Mewson said the clause will not bar British athletes from "honestly answering" questions they are asked during interviews at the Aug. games about "politically sensitive issues." "An athlete who decides to lift up his team shirt to show a 'Free Tibet' one below it, that's very different," Mewson said. 4 East Timor pres. shot in attack on his home East DILI, East Timor Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Faith has been undermined in British athletes must was shot in the institutions including the poagree to avoid protests stomach during an attack on his home Monday by renegade lice, accused of responding to Beijing Olympics demonstrations with excessive soldiers, an army spokesman LONDON British Olympic said. force, and political parties, acathletes must sign a new clause cused of fomenting violence. East Timor television reAt least 1,000 people have in their contracts prohibiting ported that Prime Minister died and homes have been Xanana Gusmao's home also politically sensitive remarks or gestures during the Beijing torched across the country, came under fire, but that no one was hurt. sending hundreds of thousands Games. Ramos-Hort- a into refugee camps. "The reality is, given the was being level of political scrutiny of on at an Australian Although there are hopes operated ' for a breakthrough agreement the world's media on these army hospital in the capital, in talks between President China will and the way games presidential adviser Agusto handle them, the BOA felt it Mwai Kibaki and opposition Zunior told The Associated leader Raila Odinga, the viowas sensible and proper to flag Press. lence has already devastated that rule to our athletes," BritOne of Ramos-Hortaish Olympic Association comthe economy, scaring off guards was killed in the attack, tourists and forcing hotels munications director Graham army spokesman Maj. Domin-go- s and other businesses to fire Mewson said Sunday. da Camara said. The International Olympic employees. at dren clustered around the charred body, its features melted into an unrecognizable black mask. The man, accused of being a thief, was the fourth person to be burned alive this month in this western Kenyan city. Residents say they are carrying out their own punishments against criminals because police have been too busy coping with Kenya's postelection chaos to prevent theft and looting. "People are taking advantages of the skirmishes and stealing from other people," said Dorothy Atieno, a primary school teacher, as she stared at the corpse in Kisumu. "This is an example to them." The vigilante violence is just part of the breakdown of a country once considered a model for political stability and economic growth in Africa. Clashes sparked by a disputed Dec. 27 election have deteriorated in many ' cases into ethnic violence .r ' . V pitting other groups against BERNAT ARMANGUEAssociated Press the Kikuyu, linked to the embattled president and long Internally displaced children wait for food distributed by an aid organization while one of them resented for their prominence eats after receiving a piece of bread, frontground and left, at the Nairobi show ground, Kenya, in politics and the economy. on Sunday. 's |