WOMAN FOUND HIDING GRENADE UNDER BABY

Woman found hidinggrenade under baby
NABLUS, West Bank -- A Palestinian woman was found Saturday hiding a hand grenade under her baby during a West Bank arrest raid, an Israeli army officer said. But the woman, Aziza Jawabra, said the grenade was in the pocket of her jacket and she did not know it was there. The grenade discovery was made while soldiers searched a house in the town of Assira a-Shimaliya, north of Nablus. Soldiers arrested five fugitives, including Jawabra's husband, Lt. Col. Arik Chen told The Associated Press. The troops also found 22 pounds of explosives hidden in a suitcase in the house, he added. Israel has often accused Palestinian militants of hiding explosives in residential areas and of firing on troops from homes. Palestinian civilians have been killed when bomb-makers have inadvertently blown up explosives. Most recently, 21 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded when homemade rockets went off accidentally during a Hamas rally in the Gaza Strip.
U.N. helicopter crashesin Azerbaijan, killing four
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- A U.N. helicopter on a mission to help Pakistan earthquake victims crashed Saturday in western Azerbaijan, killing at least four crew members, officials said. The helicopter went down in the Goychay region, about 125 miles west of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, killing all four people on board, said Nazim Ismaylov, the head of the regional administration. Ismaylov, speaking in a telephone interview from the crash site, couldn't immediately comment on the type of the helicopter and its owner but said he saw four charred bodies of the crew. Sabir Ilyasov, a deputy head of the national carrier Azerbaijani Airlines, said the helicopter was a Russian Ka-32 chartered by the United Nations for a relief mission in earthquake-stricken Pakistan. Ilyasov said the helicopter stopped to refuel in Azerbaijan's city of Gyanca on a flight from Turkey to Pakistan, and crashed shortly afterward. He said the helicopter had a crew of five, and all crewmen died in the crash.
Remarks about womencause exec to lose job
LONDON -- One of the world's most flamboyant advertising gurus has left his job after reportedly telling an audience that women made poor executives because motherhood made them "wimp out." Marketing giant WPP Group PLC said Friday it had accepted the resignation of Neil French -- a one-time debt collector, trainee matador and rock-band agent who served as the group's worldwide creative director. The firm, which is based in London and New York, told Britain's Press Association news agency that French had offered his resignation, and it had been accepted. WPP could not immediately be reached to comment by The Associated Press. French made the contentious remarks during an industry discussion in Toronto on Oct. 6. According to a report in the city's Globe and Mail newspaper, French said women did not make it to the top because "they're crap."
Teams fail to recreateArchimedes' death ray
SAN FRANCISCO -- It wasn't exactly the ancient siege of Syracuse, but rather a curious quest for scientific validation. According to sparse historical writings, the Greek mathematician Archimedes torched a fleet of invading Roman ships by reflecting the sun's powerful rays with a mirrored device made of glass or bronze. More than 2,000 years later, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona set out to recreate Archimedes' fabled death ray Saturday in an experiment sponsored by the Discovery Channel program "MythBusters." Their attempts to set fire to an 80-year-old fishing boat using their own versions of the device, however, failed to either prove or dispel the myth of the solar death ray. The MIT team's first attempt with their contraption made of 300 square feet of bronze and glass failed to ignite a fire from 150 feet away. It produced smoldering on the boat's wooden surface but no open flame. A second attempt from about 75 feet away lighted only a small fire that burned itself out.
Authorities cull birds
ZDENCI, Croatia -- Authorities in Croatia began killing thousands of domestic birds Saturday and ordered disinfection for a large area near a national park where six swans were found dead from bird flu. Elsewhere, Russia reported a new outbreak of a lethal strain of bird flu, and Italy and Congo became the latest countries to ban imports of poultry from nations affected by the virus. Croatian experts detected the H5 virus in the swans late Friday after they were found dead at a fish farm near Zdenci national park. Samples were sent to a British lab to test for the H5N1 strain that has devastated poultry stocks and killed 61 people in Asia the past two years. The virus is spread by migrating wild birds and has recently been found in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania, spurring efforts around the globe to contain its spread.
Associated Press