School sports living roof

School sports living roof
CHICAGO -- Youngsters at Tarkington elementary started their first day of classes Tuesday at a school where flowering plants grow on the roof. It's one of the nation's small but growing number of environmentally friendly schools, a stand-out because it sits in a major city better known for towers of steel and concrete. Supporters hope Tarkington elementary will bring the idea of environmentally friendly urban buildings into the mainstream. In contrast to other Chicago buildings, Tarkington has a living, green roof planted atop the gymnasium. It's a garden of short, self-sustaining flowering plants that don't need much water and can withstand Chicago's weather, said project manager Julie Chamlin. "It looks extraordinarily better than other schools," said 12-year-old Dulce Vega, a seventh-grader excited at the thought of having science classes on the roof.
Saudi special forcesclash with militants
DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia -- In a barrage of gunfire and explosions, Saudi special forces overran a seaside villa Tuesday where Islamic militants had been holed up, ending three days of heavy fighting that killed at least nine people. Security forces that swept into the building in the eastern city of Dammam found several charred bodies, apparently those of militants killed in explosions -- suggesting the death toll from the fighting would rise. It was the fiercest clash in months in the kingdom's two-year crackdown on Al-Qaida-linked militants. Officials in the conservative, oil-rich nation -- a key U.S. ally -- say they have been winning that fight. In October, Saudi forces claimed to have killed the leader of Al-Qaida in the kingdom in a series of raids in the capital and the holy city of Mecca.
No protests allowed
CAIRO, Egypt -- The government warned Tuesday that it would not tolerate election day protests, and the opposition fretted about possible ruling party dirty tricks in Egypt's first contested presidential vote. President Hosni Mubarak, who has led Egypt for 24 years and is certain to win today's balloting, calls the election a major step toward greater democracy in a country that has seen only authoritarian rule for more than a half century. But many Egyptians are skeptical, and the opposition says the vote will do nothing to diminish Mubarak's power.
Chirac vulnerable
PARIS -- Jacques Chirac's hospitalization for a vascular problem in his eye has been described as minor, but it appears to have galvanized possible successors and caused a media uproar about the naked ambitions of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The 72-year-old president, who has clocked more than four decades in politics, seems less likely than ever to run for re-election in 2007. Chirac, primed on the notions of grandeur dear to his mentor Charles de Gaulle, has always left open the possibility of seeking a third term, a way to gain leverage over rivals. But the president has been weakened in recent years by a series of political setbacks, most recently the "no" victory in France's May 29 referendum on the European constitution.
Watchdog says Yahoohelped convict writer
BEIJING -- A French media watchdog said Tuesday that information provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. helped Chinese authorities convict and jail a writer who had penned an e-mail about press restrictions. The harsh criticism from Reporters Without Borders marks the latest instance in which a prominent high-tech company has faced accusations of cooperating with Chinese authorities to gain favor in a country that's expected to become an Internet gold mine. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo and two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, previously have come under attack for censoring online news sites and Web logs, or blogs, that include content that China's communist government wants to suppress. Reporters Without Borders ridiculed Yahoo for becoming even cozier with the Chinese government by becoming a police informant in a case that led to the recent conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao.
Associated Press