Search for adventurer Steve Fossett resumes

Search for adventurer Steve Fossett resumes

BRIDGEPORT, Calif. — The search for multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch, was set to resume today in rugged mountains on the California-Nevada line where he may have crashed.

The 10-member team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers is headed by Simon Donato, a Canadian geologist whose avocation is adventure racing through wilderness areas around the world. He’s focusing on remote, wooded areas near where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen — areas that could have concealed wreckage from the crews of the many private and military planes that searched last year.

Battle for Yahoo heats up

SAN FRANCISCO — After more than five months of sparring, the battle for control of Yahoo Inc. has turned into a bare-knuckles brawl with a whiff of desperation hanging over all the key combatants.

The showdown intensified late Saturday after Yahoo revealed that it had spurned Microsoft’s latest attempt to buy its online search engine in a joint proposal made with activist investor Carl Icahn, who is leading a shareholder rebellion aimed at removing Yahoo’s current board.

Icahn, who has no experience running an Internet company, would have been left in charge of Yahoo’s remaining pieces had an agreement to sell the search engine to Microsoft been reached.

Neither Microsoft nor Icahn responded to requests for comment Sunday.

Volcano erupts; 10 rescued

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A fishing vessel rescued 10 people after a volcano erupted, sending rocks and ash down on a cattle ranch on a remote island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

The Tara Gaila picked up the people Saturday evening after receiving an urgent call from the Coast Guard. The fishing vessel brought them to Dutch Harbor about 65 miles away, where they were staying at a hotel Sunday.

There were no reported injuries, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read.

The 3,500-foot Okmok Caldera, which consists of a 6-mile-wide circular crater about 1,600 feet deep, erupted with little warning Saturday morning, just hours after seismologists at the Alaska Volcano Center began detecting a series of small tremors.

Ban on bishop backfires

LONDON — The first openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop was barred from a once-a-decade Anglican meeting so he wouldn’t become a focus of the global event.

Anglicans on all sides of the issue agree: The strategy has backfired.

New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson has been embraced by sympathetic Anglicans in England and Scotland who view his exclusion as an affront to their Christian beliefs.

Robinson plans several appearances on the outskirts of the Lambeth Conference to be what he called a “constant and friendly” reminder of gays in the church.

The 77 million-member fellowship has been on the brink of schism since Robinson was consecrated in 2003. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the U.S.

Seeks nontraditional spies

LONDON — Bond. Jane Bond.

Britain’s secret spy agency, home to the very white and very male 007, is hunting for women and minorities to tackle global terrorism. More than 20,000 people have applied since MI6 began its open recruiting campaign about a year ago, in a drive that has all but replaced the famous shoulder tap used to recruit author Graham Greene and others in World War II.

MI6’s Web site encourages mothers to apply and assures women they won’t be used as “honey pots,” or seductresses. Disabled applicants are welcome. And a special search is directed at minorities who speak Mandarin, Arabic, Persian and the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto.

Ancient talisman found

JERUSALEM — An Israeli lifeguard taking his regular morning swim off the Mediterranean coast in southern Israel discovered a 2,500-year-old marble talisman to ward off the evil eye, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday.

The lifeguard turned over the ancient disc that once adorned the bow of an ancient warship or cargo ship to keep evil away, the Israeli archaeology body said.

Experts say the relic, discovered off the coast Palmahim beach where the ancient Yavne-Yam port city once stood, dates back to the fifth or fourth century B.C. The white disc, flat on one side and convex on the other, measures 8 inches in diameter. The center of the disc is perforated, and the remains of two circles are painted around the center of it to represent the pupil of an eye.

Associated Press