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Age, military ties mark Kim Jong Un's inner circle

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Wherever North Korea's young new leader goes, they're there: a group of graying military and political officials who shadow Kim Jong Un as he visits army bases, attends concerts and tours schools.

As Kim Jong Un steps into the role of "supreme commander" less than two months after his father's death, these officials can be seen in the background. They listen attentively as their leader speaks during "guidance visits" and stand at his side during group photos, smiling and clapping.

Since Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack in December, Kim Jong Un has assumed the mantle of leadership with apparent confidence. But this aging circle of advisers is …

UN chief wants more police and troops for Haiti

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he wants to beef up the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti with 1,500 additional police and 2,000 troops to better respond to the massive earthquake.

Ban says he asked the U.N. Security Council on Monday to raise the ceiling for the force, which currently has about 7,000 troops and 2,100 police. He says the extra …

State puts off 847 area code overlay

The Illinois Commerce Commission on Wednesday ordered dozens oftelephone companies to return as many as 750,000 unused telephonenumbers in area code 847 in an effort to delay the start of anoverlay area code.

The Citizens Utility Board said the return of the numbers, alongwith other conservation strategies by the commission, mean residentsof the northern suburbs served by area code 847 will avoid thenuisance of 11-digit dialing for the foreseeable future.

"The commission is telling the phone industry . . . they can'thoard numbers," said Martin Cohen, executive director of CUB. Areacode 847 "shouldn't run out of numbers for four years or longer."CUB has been …

Girl, 3, eats leftovers for 2 days after mom dies

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A 3-year-old girl comforted herself with her favorite toy and ate cheese, leftover lasagna and milk for two days after her mother died unexpectedly in their New Zealand home.

The girl's uncle, Pete Silbery, told The Associated Press on Friday that Shylah Silbery managed to open the fridge and comfort herself with a teddy bear named "Possum" after Lauren Silbery, 28, died.

The family last spoke to Lauren Silbery on Oct. 19, he said. Two days later, they were worried enough to call a friend who lived near her Wellington home. The friend could see the girl inside the home, but not the mother, prompting the family to call police, Pete Silbery …

Old WVU chant ready for comeback: ; Morgantown native, broadcaster promote classic version of cheer with younger fans

As a child, Jay Redmond sold programs and soda to fans at oldMountaineer Field in downtown Morgantown.

That is when Redmond, now 53, first fell in love with the "Let'sGo, Mountaineers" chant, which until recently was little more than afading memory.

"It's just one of the great memories I have from old MountaineerField," Redmond said. "I wanted to help bring back a great traditionthat was lost."

Redmond, who hasn't missed a home game since 1966, said the chantstarted sometime in the 1930s and was used until new stadium wasbuilt on the Evansdale campus in 1979.

He said the chant has faded over the years due to the newstadium's size, and is now used only …

Shipp Sails Right for No. 1 UCLA in Win

LOS ANGELES - Josh Shipp scored a career-high 24 points, Arron Afflalo added 20 and UCLA defeated Long Beach State 88-58 Tuesday night in its first game as the nation's No. 1 team since 1995.

Fresh off winning the Maui Invitational last week, the Bruins (5-0) found themselves in a two-point game late in the first half of their first home game in two weeks.

But it wasn't long before they finished off the victory.

Freshman Russell Westbrook added a career-high 11 points and Darren Collison had.

The Bruins hit 13 3-pointers, led by Shipp's career-high six and Westbrook's 3-of-3 from long-range.

Sterling Byrd led Long Beach State (2-3) with career …

Sept. 11 widow killed in US plane crash

One of the victims of Continental Flight 3407, Beverly Eckert, was a Sept. 11 widow who put her never-ending grief to good use to make the country safer.

Just last week, Eckert was at the White House with Barack Obama, part of a meeting the president had with relatives of those killed in the 2001 attacks and the bombing of the USS Cole to discuss how the new administration would handle terror suspects.

"She was such an important part of all of our work," said Mary Fetchet, another 9/11 family activist. She learned Eckert was aboard the plane from another close Eckert family friend now headed to Buffalo. Officials investigating the crash have not …

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL BITS

Illinois coach John Mackovic is aware of the serious problem hefaces in trying to lure blue chip athletes to his campus. Becauseof his late hiring, the lack of quality and quantity in his incomingfreshman class was to be expected. But recruiting likely will onlyget tougher in the next few years.

"The clock is ticking on Illinois, just like it did on SMU," oneconference coach said. "According to the five-year rule establishedby the NCAA, if a school is placed on probation twice within fiveyears, it will get the death penalty - like SMU."

Alumni may not be aware that Illinois came thisclose toreceiving the death penalty. If the new NCAA rule was in effect …

At 94, O'Neil to Play in All-Star Game

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil never got a free pass in life. The grandson of a man brought to this continent a slave, O'Neil moved to Kansas City to avoid racial persecution in the Deep South. He played baseball during an era of segregation, and earlier this year was denied entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special 12-member panel.

It figures that on Tuesday night, when the 94-year-old O'Neil stepped into the batter's box during a minor league All-Star game, nobody could quibble over an intentional walk.

Except maybe O'Neil and a few thousand fans.

"I just might take a swing at one," he said before Tuesday night's Northern League …

Pa. court rules in favor of ex-Drifters manager

A federal court says a former manager of 1950s doo-wop group The Drifters could be entitled to millions of dollars from concert promoters who've infringed on the band's trademark.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled last week in favor of ex-manager Faye Treadwell. The Glendale, Calif., resident has fought a lengthy legal battle over the name of the group, which sang such classics as "Up …

Hospital waste: a toxic peril?

Every day, a hospital produces at least three pounds of usedneedles, bloody bandages, discarded gallbladders and other infectiouswaste for each of its beds.

Most of this waste from 32,000 Chicago area hospital beds isburned in aging hospital incinerators that environmentalists sayendanger public health.

Hospitals, of course, are supposed to make people healthy. Butat least 45 Chicago area hospital incinerators spew toxic compoundsthat have been linked to cancer, learning disorders, breathingdifficulties and other ills.

There's a second irony involving infectious waste fromhospitals, nursing homes, doctors, dentists and veterinarians:

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Bear Stearns CEO Cayne expected to resign, but remain as chairman, Wall Street Journal says

Bear Stearns Chief Executive James Cayne is resigning under pressure from shareholders upset over the firm's losses amid a slew of problems sparked by the collapse of mortgage markets, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Cayne was expected to be replaced by Bear Stearns President Alan Schwartz, a 57-year-old investment banker respected for his dealmaking savvy.

Cayne started notifying Bear Stearns' board on Sunday that he plans to give up his post but remain as chairman, the Journal reported on its Web Site, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Bear Stearns representatives did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment late Monday.

Cayne, 73, had been under scrutiny since the summer, as the liquidity crisis pushed scores of mortgage lenders out of business, bled more than $100 billion (euro67.92 billion) from Wall Street's books, and coaxed the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a full percentage point.

The company, one of the nation's biggest underwriters of mortgage-backed bonds, may be the Wall Street investment bank most directly exposed to this year's credit squeeze.

But until now, Cayne had managed to keep his job even as peers like Citigroup Inc.'s Charles Prince and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Stan O'Neal lost theirs. A nearly 40-year veteran of Bear Stearns, he took the CEO job in 1993 and became chairman in 2001.

Some people point to the collapse last summer of two Bear Stearns hedge funds set up to bet on risky mortgage debt as the trigger for the subprime mortgage crisis, which began as people with tainted or weak credit history started defaulting on their loans.

Cayne later came under fire after the Journal reported that as the two hedge funds were going bankrupt, he was playing golf and bridge without access to e-mail or a telephone.

Bear Stearns Cos.' fiscal fourth-quarter loss, the first in its 84-year history, and the collapse of the hedge funds, prompted Cayne to pass on his 2007 bonus. Members of the company's executive committee also did not receive year-end bonuses.

Bear Stearns' profit plummeted 89 percent in fiscal 2007 as the bank wrote billions of dollars of bad debt off its books. The company's stock had lost almost 47 percent of its value as of late December.

The company and other firms have seen writedowns from investments in subprime mortgages and fixed-income trading come in much steeper than first expected.

Anti-Musharraf Cases at Pakistani Court

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Legal wrangling over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid intensified Monday after exiled former leader Benazir Bhutto accused the general's allies of pushing Pakistan toward a dangerous crisis by refusing to restore democracy and share power.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard a slew of petitions that seek to disqualify Musharraf as a presidential candidate. Meanwhile, Bhutto's party protested a reported change in election rules that could make it easier for the military leader to stand for a new five-year term.

Pakistan's political turmoil is deepening as Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, maneuvers to extend his rule. He wants lawmakers to vote him back in by mid-October but faces legal obstacles because he still holds the office of army chief as well.

Musharraf's popularity has plummeted since he tried to remove the country's top judge in March, sparking a pro-democracy protest movement. The Supreme Court later reinstated the judge. Musharraf is also struggling to contain an upsurge in pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border.

Last week, Musharraf sidelined his chief political rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, sending him back into exile. But in doing that, he set up another showdown with the Supreme Court that had earlier ruled that Sharif could return to Pakistan.

In an interview with The Associated Press Sunday, Bhutto said her party may join other opposition groups, including Sharif's, in resigning from Parliament and taking to the streets to try to force the U.S.-allied president from office.

Bhutto said that a group of Musharraf's allies was advising him to contest the presidential election without stepping down as army chief.

"We all know that any election in uniform would be illegal. But they prefer to play with the Constitution and create a crisis rather than have a smooth transition to democracy," Bhutto said. "Pakistan can ill afford confrontation and anarchy."

Bhutto has been in talks with Musharraf for months on a pact that would include constitutional amendments to defuse the legal challenges to his re-election bid and let her return to Pakistan and compete in parliamentary elections due by January.

But negotiations have snagged over the reluctance of Musharraf to give up his sweeping powers, and dismay among his die-hard supporters that they could by eclipsed by Bhutto.

Bhutto declined to forecast whether the talks could still succeed, but said her party was girding for a failure that could deepen the political confrontation. She plans to return from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18, regardless of the outcome of the talks.

On Monday, a nine-member panel of Supreme Court judges resumed hearing six petitions, including one by Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic group, on Musharraf's eligibility to stand again as president.

Attorney-general Malik Mohammed Qayyum said that, with the cases pending in court, the Election Commission was "reluctant" to announce the schedule for the presidential vote.

It was unclear when the court would reach a verdict. Ruling party lawmakers have said the vote will be held in early October.

The state Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported Sunday that the Election Commission had announced that an article of the Constitution that could bar Musharraf from standing again as president - because he also holds the army chief's post - would not apply in the vote.

Bhutto's party said that was illegal.

"As Gen. Musharraf is disqualified from contesting for President, he has prevailed upon the Election Commission to arbitrarily and illegally tamper with the Constitution of Pakistan," party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Election Commission officials were not immediately available for comment Monday.

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Associated Press Writer Stephen Graham contributed to this report.

Fox opens up about old flame: 'Nikita'

Megan Fox has nothing to hide.

The candid 22-year-old "Transformers" star, who's currently engaged to actor Brian Austin Green, opened up to GQ about her love life, telling the magazine she was once in love with a female stripper. Fox, who appears on the October cover in a black bikini, said she was in the relationship when she was 18 and first living in Los Angeles alone.

"Well, that year my boyfriend broke up with me, and I decided _ oh man, sorry, mommy! _ that I was in love with this girl that worked at the Body Shop," said Fox. "I decided that I was going to get her to love me back, and I went out of my way to create a relationship with this girl, a stripper named Nikita."

Fox said Nikita would do "these beautiful slow dances to Aerosmith ballads." The actress also said she would bring the Russian stripper gifts and try to inspire her to quit her line of work.

Fox's publicist, Dominique Appel, confirmed the contents of the GQ report Monday.

Despite the brief relationship with a woman, Fox said she does not identify herself as gay.

"Look, I'm not a lesbian," said Fox. "I just think that all humans are born with the ability to be attracted to both sexes. I mean, I could see myself in a relationship with a girl _ Olivia Wilde is so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands. She's mesmerizing. And lately I've been obsessed with Jenna Jameson, but ... oh boy."

Fox also defended Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens regarding their racy photo scandals and said that she doesn't like Disney because they take "these little girls, and they put them through entertainment school and teach them to sing and dance, and make them wear belly shirts, but they won't allow them to be their own people. It makes me sick."

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On the Net:

http://www.gq.com