Palestinian militants fire more rockets into Israel

Palestinian militants firemore rockets into Israel
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian militants fired five makeshift rockets into southern Israel as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the area today, a salvo that came despite the launch of an Israeli offensive meant to halt such attacks.
The rockets, which wounded one man, were fired a day after a rocket attack killed two Israelis, including a 3-year-old boy, in the border town of Sderot.
A senior official said Sharon was in the town to visit the boy's family and was not harmed.
"We don't plan to ignore what happened here. The security services have begun taking actions whose aim is to prevent the firing of these missiles," Sharon said.
It was unclear whether militants knew Sharon was in the area.
The pre-dawn Israeli military operation came in response to the Sderot attack, the first time in nearly four years of fighting that the crude homemade Qassam rockets killed Israelis.
Teacher accused of havingsex with 14-year-old
TAMPA, Fla. -- A 23-year-old middle school teacher was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old pupil in a classroom, at her apartment and, once, in a vehicle while the teen's 15-year-old cousin drove.
Detectives said that the cousins provided matching statements incriminating Debra Beasley Lafave and that the 14-year-old described Lafave's apartment and her tattoos and birthmarks.
Lafave, who teaches reading in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, was arrested there last week on lewd and lascivious battery charges, accused of having sex with the teen earlier this month at her apartment and in a portable classroom at Greco Middle School.
She was out on bond on those charges when she turned herself in Monday in Marion County, about 80 miles north of Tampa, where the cousin lives. There, she is charged with lewd and lascivious battery and exhibition. She was released Monday on $25,000 bail.
The boy told detectives that Lafave told him that her months-old marriage was in trouble and that she was attracted to him because having sex with him was not allowed.
Mountain lion attack
LOS ANGELES -- A mountain lion that attacked a hiker on a clifftop trail in central California over the weekend did not have rabies but was well below its average weight, wildlife officials said Monday.
The 2-year-old male lion weighed 58 pounds, while most cougars its age weigh 80 to 100 pounds, said Lorna Bernard, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game. The emaciated lion injured a Santa Monica woman Saturday before it was fought off by her boyfriend and later killed by wildlife officers.
A necropsy Monday determined that the animal didn't have rabies and that its stomach was empty except for the bone of a rodent, Bernard said. Other examinations to determine whether the animal was sick could take another week, but state officials said they may never learn why the lion attacked.
Inca city endangered
LIMA, Peru -- A century after American explorer Hiram Bingham hacked through jungle-shrouded mountains to reach the overgrown ruins of Machu Picchu, heavy tourism and nearby sprawl have endangered the "Lost City of the Incas."
That's the finding of U.N. evaluators, who recommended that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization place Machu Picchu on its endangered list.
The recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, was confirmed Monday by Peru's National Institute of Culture.
During an October visit to Peru, UNESCO's heritage chief Francesco Bandarin warned that with some 1,000 tourists visiting Machu Picchu each day, the heavy traffic could severely damage the magnificent stone structure.
Saturn's days get longer
PASADENA, Calif. -- Scientists who figured they knew how long a day lasted on Saturn are having second thoughts.
The Cassini spacecraft has been listening to natural radio signals from Saturn, the most reliable method of determining a day's length.
Cassini's transmissions show a complete rotation takes 10 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds, plus or minus 36 seconds, NASA said in a statement Monday.
That's about six minutes longer than measurements performed by the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft that flew by Saturn in 1980 and 1981. Observations made in France in 1997 also differed from the Voyager findings.
Associated Press