Human cloning effort

Human cloning effort
CARACAS, Venezuela -- A nationwide strike aimed at toppling President Hugo Chavez has forced Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, to import gasoline and haggle with other countries for food.
In deals that were once unthinkable here, Brazil announced Thursday it would ship 520,000 barrels of gasoline to Venezuela by the weekend while the Dominican Republic said it would send food as a partial payment for oil it has received in the past.
Venezuela is also negotiating with neighboring Colombia for milk and meat, said Agriculture Minister Efren Andrade.
The nearly month-old strike has paralyzed Venezuela's all-important petroleum industry, which usually supplies the United States with 14 percent of its oil. Exports have declined from 3 million barrels a day to a trickle, depriving Venezuela of $50 million a day in revenue.
Ex-boyfriend chargedin death of woman, child
TAMPA, Fla. -- The ex-boyfriend of a 19-year-old woman was arrested and charged with killing the young woman and her 2-month-old son, police said today.
James Coleman, 24, was arrested Thursday and charged with the murders of Jessica Hine and her son, Devonte Desean Coleman, police said.
Hine's body was found in the woods near Ormond Beach on Monday. Police believe James Coleman strangled her Dec. 8, kept her body in his apartment for five days, then killed her son.
The boy's body was found Thursday in Coleman's apartment, police said.
Hine's mother, Shirley Mason, 39, said James Coleman became angry in October after a DNA test determined he was not Devonte's father.
The mother and baby were last seen at a homeless shelter in Jacksonville on Dec. 4, said Capt. Dave Hudson of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Hine had said she planned to stay with friends in Daytona Beach, he said.
75 sick passengersremoved from ship
KEY WEST, Fla. -- Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines officials removed about 75 passengers from a ship in Key West and sent them to Miami by bus after the guests fell ill during a four-day sail to the Bahamas, a spokeswoman said.
The Majesty of the Seas, an 880-foot vessel that can accommodate 2,744 passengers, was making a scheduled stop in Key West on Thursday when the sick passengers, many of whom had been quarantined in their cabins aboard the ship, were loaded onto two Miami-bound buses.
"This was handled terribly," said Adam Hoffman, a Connecticut man who was among the passengers sent to Miami.
The trip was scheduled to end at the Port of Miami this morning.
Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein said she could not confirm whether the passengers were suffering from a Norwalk-like virus, which has plagued numerous cruise ships in recent weeks.
"It could be anything from guests staying out too late, drinking and eating, to what the stomach-flu people refer to as the Norwalk-type virus," Martenstein said.
Pornographic photofound in Barney book
BERGENFIELD, N.J. -- Two youngsters who wanted to sing along with Barney the Dinosaur opened a music book and discovered a photograph of a man and woman in a naked embrace.
The photo, which ran under the words "Wilder Sex," was in a "Sing-Along Songs Barney" book a couple bought for their 4- and 7-year-old children.
Rosemarie Arnold, an attorney for the unidentified family, said the photo came from a review of pornographic movies published in a German-language magazine.
The children found the photo when a plastic panel fell off the book, Arnold said.
Along with the English-language "Wilder Sex," she said the page included other adult movie reviews, written in German, that were rated with pairs of lips instead of the more common stars.
Publications International Ltd., the book's Illinois-based publisher, has had similar problems in the past and claims the China-based company that produces books is to blame for the errors.
Publications International officials were not immediately available to comment.
They noted in a letter to the family the picture was not especially shocking.
"The material is no more graphic than what's seen on magazines, billboards and TV every day," the letter said.
Associated Press