h Bride collapses, dies during reception dance

h Bride collapses, dies
during reception dance

DAVIE, Fla. — Kim Sjostrom wanted a real-life version of the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which played in the background as friends fixed her hair and makeup before her own marriage ceremony. But less than an hour after she and Teddy Efkarpides were wed last month, Sjostrom crumpled in her husband’s arms during a Greek song that means “Love Me.” At 36, Sjostrom was dead from heart disease. The wedding had became a project at Davie Elementary School, where Sjostrom taught first grade. Sjostrom carried blue and white flowers during the ceremony — the colors of the Greek flag — as she exchanged vows with Efkarpides, a 43-year-old carpenter and Navy veteran. During the couple’s first dance, Sjostrom complained of being lightheaded. Efkarpides thought his wife, a diabetic, needed sugar, but she collapsed. Wedding guests, paramedics and doctors at a nearby hospital were unable to revive her.

GM chief to dealers: Fight
state efforts on emissions

SAN FRANCISCO — General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner urged a group of auto dealers Saturday to lobby against individual states trying to set their own limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Wagoner, speaking to the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, said several states want to go beyond requirements passed by Congress. If that happens and automakers must focus on state regulations, they won’t be able to focus as much on alternative fuel vehicles to reduce oil consumption and pollution, he said.

Yahoo board to reject
Microsoft takeover bid

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc.’s board will reject Microsoft Corp.’s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday. The decision could provoke a showdown between two of the world’s most prominent technology companies with Internet search leader Google Inc. looming in the background. Leery of Microsoft expanding its turf on the Internet, Google already has offered to help Yahoo avert a takeover and urged antitrust regulators to take a hard look at the proposed deal. If the world’s largest software maker wants Yahoo badly enough, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo’s board by taking its offer — originally valued at $31 per share — directly to the shareholders.

Quake rocks Baja

MEXICO CITY — A moderate earthquake rocked Baja California, shutting down factories near the U.S. border and leaving 400,000 people without power into early Saturday, authorities said. However, no major damage or injuries were reported. The quake was centered 20 miles southeast of the border city of Mexicali and about 100 miles east of Tijuana.

Major fire hits London

LONDON — A major fire broke out late Saturday at London’s famous Camden market, ripping through one of the city’s top tourist draws and a nearby celebrity hangout, fire officials and witnesses said. Flames from the blaze sent bright red cinders and huge plumes of smoke into the night sky. Fire officials said the blaze was being brought under control more than three hours after it was reported. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

27 dead in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 27 people and wounded 40 at an opposition rally Saturday in insurgency-wracked northwest Pakistan as police in Islamabad clashed with hundreds of lawyers and other protesters demanding the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf. The husband of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, kicked off the opposition Pakistan People’s Party campaign for Feb. 18 national elections with a speech to some 100,000 jubilant supporters.

Combined dispatches