First flight's anniversary closes with re-enactment

First flight's anniversarycloses with re-enactment
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. -- A century ago, two brothers with little more than a rudimentary understanding of aerodynamics and a delicate contraption fashioned in their bicycle shop made the first powered, heavier-than-air flight.
The 100th anniversary of that event today is the climax of a six-day festival at Wright Brothers National Memorial, where a team of mechanics, pilots and engineers hoped to re-enact Wilbur and Orville Wright's seminal accomplishment.
President Bush was to be on hand for the attempt, timed to come 100 years to the minute after the brothers from Dayton made their first 120-foot, 12-second flight.
Weather permitting, Kevin Kochersberger, an engineering professor from Rochester, N.Y., was to fly a meticulous reproduction of the 1903 Wright flyer that was built by The Wright Experience of Warrenton, Va.
On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville was at the controls for that first hop that lasted all of 12 seconds. He and Wilbur alternated for four flights that day; the last, by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds and ran for 852 feet.
WHO: Researcher gotSARS after ignoring rules
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan reported its first SARS case in five months today -- a scientist who reportedly ignored World Health Organization safety rules and worked with spilled virus samples without wearing a protective gown and gloves, officials said.
The news caused Taiwan's jittery stock market to tumble, and the island's top health officials scrambled to ease fears that the highly contagious virus would spread.
"It looks very much like an isolated event," World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng said. "He was traveling to Singapore but he was asymptomatic while there and, according to data we have, patients are not contagious while asymptomatic."
The 44-year-old man, who wasn't identified, was a senior scientist studying SARS in Taipei at the state-sponsored Institute of Preventive Medicine, officials said. He tested positive for SARS today after undergoing WHO-approved tests.
Plan to close churches
BOSTON -- The leader of Boston's Roman Catholic archdiocese met with 600 priests Tuesday and outlined plans to close parishes -- a move he acknowledged was accelerated by an $85 million sex abuse settlement that has left the church in rough financial shape.
"I want the Catholics to realize we are family and we must see ourselves as something bigger than our own parishes," Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said.
O'Malley met with the priests to discuss the parish closings, gay marriage and the church's settlements with hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims. It was the first time in at least a quarter of a century that a Boston archbishop has met with all the priests in the diocese.
O'Malley told the priests to urge their parishioners to contact lawmakers and fight efforts to legalize same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. The state's highest court last month ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage and gave the Legislature 180 days to rewrite the state's marriage laws to provide benefits for gay couples.
Charity scammer jailed
NEW YORK -- The head of a bogus charity who urged people to donate $911 to help families of police officers killed in the Sept. 11 attack was sentenced Tuesday to more than eight years in prison.
Justin P. White, 59, was also ordered to pay more than $504,000 in restitution. He pleaded guilty earlier to fraud charges.
The Police Survivors Fund raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars by promising the cash would go to families of slain officers. But White later admitted less than 5 percent actually went to the families.
14 sentenced for sex party
BEIJING -- A Chinese court today sentenced two people to life in prison, while 12 others got up to 15 years for organizing a three-day sex party for hundreds of Japanese tourists that caused an uproar in China.
The encounter in September at a hotel in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai fell on a sensitive wartime anniversary and caused outrage in China. The Chinese government complained officially to Tokyo.
Chinese authorities also have issued arrest warrants for three Japanese accused of organizing the sex party and asked Japan to help in detaining them, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
It said China also asked the international police agency Interpol to circulate the warrants, suggesting that Chinese authorities didn't know where the three were.
Xinhua identified the three Japanese as Isao Hirobe, Shunji Takahashi and Koji Fukunaga. It didn't give any other details about them or how they were involved in the incident.
Associated Press