Opposing view: Don't lock me out

Thu Jul 26, 12:21 AM ET
By Mike Gravel

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Earlier this month, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., made a statement that cleared up the mystery about who has been attempting to limit my participation in Democratic debates and forums. No other Democrat has had his participation limited.
When CNN, along with The (Manchester) Union Leader newspaper and WMUR-TV, did not invite me to their prospective debates scheduled to begin in New Hampshire on June 6, my staff asked why I was being excluded and were told that the senator did not meet some arbitrary "criteria."
The public's overwhelming reaction to CNN's unfairness forced the debate sponsors to reverse their earlier decisions.
An even more surprising mystery occurred next when MoveOn.org, the progressive anti-war organization, excluded me from its online Town Meeting. Its reasoning was that I did not receive any votes from its membership.
The final mystery occurred when the Los Angeles-based Human Rights Campaign chose not to invite me to its August candidate forum. The essence of HRC is justice and civil rights, and my positions on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights are the most progressive of any presidential candidate. When supporters learned of my exclusion, there was such an outcry that the HRC, too, was forced to reverse itself.
The comment by Sen. Clinton, in an exchange with former senator John Edwards at the NAACP forum in Detroit on July 12, explains why these things are happening:
Edwards: "We should try to have a more serious, and a smaller, group."
Clinton: "There was an attempt by our campaigns to do that, it got, somehow, detoured. We've gotta get back to it. Our guys should talk."
When questioned about her comment the next day, Sen. Clinton, in an apparent attempt to shift blame to Sen. Edwards, said:
"I think he (Edwards) has some ideas about what he'd like to do."
By implying that it was Sen. Edwards who was conspiring to limit my participation in public debates, Sen. Clinton was trying to deflect attention from her previous blunder. This reveals an interesting character trait in Sen. Clinton that Americans have come to expect from her.
Former senator Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, is a candidate for president.

Anything but a safe bet

Fri Jul 27, 12:20 AM ET
In an age when billions of dollars are bet on pro and college sports, the obvious question is: Are games fixed?
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Until a couple of weeks ago, it wasn't asked often, much to the relief of those who oversee the various leagues.
But news last week that NBA referee Tim Donaghy is under federal investigation for betting on games and sharing inside information with gamblers changed everything. Fans now have good reason to be suspicious. Perhaps they always should have been.
Much about big-time sports tempts just this sort of criminal behavior — so much opportunity, so little real deterrence, so much money to be made.
In Nevada alone, where betting is legal, more than $2.4 billion was bet in 2006 — $635 million of it on pro and college basketball, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Illegal betting? Experts estimate that hundreds of billions of dollars change hands each year.
What's more, to get very rich, very fast, a gambler doesn't even have to win all the time: 60% will do quite nicely. And there are all sorts of people who might be tempted to aid them — from referees, who in the NBA earn $90,000 to $300,000 a year; to trainers, who know who's playing hurt; to those college players who have little or no money and know they're not destined for the pros.
NBA Commissioner David Stern on Tuesday described his league's elaborate background checks on officials and the auditing of game calls, yet Donaghy may well have slipped through all those filters. Nor is law enforcement that successful in ferreting out such corruption in college sports. Since 1951, there have been five major betting scandals in college basketball involving point-shaving. "We know it's out there," Matt Heron, a top FBI official told USA TODAY in May. "Whether we can prove it is a different matter."
The very fact that there is point-spread betting on games gives gamblers an easier route to fix games. Players don't have to throw games, nor do officials have to assure that a certain side wins. All a player has to do is shave a few points. As for referees in basketball, one could call enough fouls to provide an opportunity for a team to score a few more points to ensure that a bet pays off.
On Tuesday, Stern did his best to paint the Donaghy investigation as a lone incident. "We think we have here a rogue, isolated criminal." The NBA and other major sports — which have a lot of dedicated, honest professionals — will be fortunate if Stern is right.
But don't bet the farm on it just yet.

Our view on the presidential campaign: Every candidate in every debate? Fair but a mistake

Thu Jul 26, 12:22 AM ET
In mid-July, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina came under fire after being caught on videotape expressing a desire to limit the number of candidates in future presidential debates.
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Dennis Kucinich, a long-shot presidential candidate and a congressman from Ohio, expressed outrage at their effort to slim down the Democratic debate field, currently numbering eight. Some bloggers and political critics called their behavior collusive or conspiratorial.
It is certainly self-serving. But as time passes and fringe candidates such as Kucinich fail to attract any significant support, the idea looks more and more like a winner for voters.
There's nothing wrong with the political parties, media groups, or the candidates themselves devising plans for more focused debates. Handled properly, such events would weed out candidates running on vanity or waging single-issue campaigns in favor of those with a reasonable chance of becoming the next president. The survivors would then face more intense and sustained questioning.
Kucinich's support in polls is stuck in the low single digits despite months of campaigning and a 2004 presidential bid. Fellow Democrat Mike Gravel often registers 0% support — and still complains during debates that he is not given enough free air time.
The Republican field of nine candidates includes six who have had about as much impact as the proverbial tree falling in a forest. Their combined support is in the single digits.
Including all of these people means less focus on the candidates who matter. In Monday night's Democratic debate, for example, a question about the No Child Left Behind education law was not addressed by any of the three leading candidates — Clinton, Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
While hearing a large number of voices and perspectives is important, particularly in the early stages of the race, late July marks the midpoint between the time most candidates jumped in and the first primaries in January. It is not too early to start trimming.
In past years, the primaries themselves helped winnow the field and focus attention on the survivors. That's because the race played out gradually through the winter and spring. Those candidates doing well each week got more media attention and more financial support from donors. The converse was true of the underperformers.
But this time, states have moved up their primaries in an effort to have greater influence. Now both parties are likely to have their nominee on Feb. 5, when more than half of the voters go to the polls.
For that reason, the debates will play a greater role in focusing scrutiny on the leaders. All the more reason for these public contests to start slimming down.
Granted, the choice of whom to exclude can be problematic. Nonetheless, these decisions can be made easier by the fact that not every debate need use the same formula. Ideally, the sponsoring groups would make these decisions. But if candidates make them, it would hardly be a conspiracy. Ultimately, channels like CNN and Fox News that carry these contests would have to sign off on their usefulness, fairness and newsworthiness.
It's time to give the idea of focused debates — and the debates themselves — a thorough airing.

Opposing view: Katrina was no excuse

Fri Jul 27, 12:21 AM ET
By Charles Foti
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The American justice system should work on the simple premise of "equal justice for all." The charges brought against Dr. Anna Pou were based on fact, not standing or contacts. The evidence was collected by numerous investigators over thousands of hours.
Before an arrest, this evidence was brought to a criminal judge and tested for sufficient probable cause that homicides had been committed. The judge found the evidence sufficient.
On Sept. 1, 2005, all nine patients on one floor in a LifeCare facility housed at Memorial Medical Center died within a 3 hour period. According to Dr. James Young, chief coroner of Ontario, Canada, and president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, that is "beyond coincidence."
All nine patients had survived for over three days following Hurricane Katrina. All nine of those patients were found by multiple physicians to have significant drug toxicity from morphine or a combination of morphine and Versed.
Medical doctors — including two pathologists, a coroner, an oncologist who specializes in palliative care and a bioethicist — were consulted. These respected professionals have given opinions that the manner of death was homicide.
My office became involved after eyewitnesses self-reported the facts to my office. My office has a unit that is obligated by federal law to investigate claims of abuse of elderly people upon receipt of reports such as the ones we received from the eyewitnesses.
Moreover, it's my job as attorney general to make sure the elderly are not abused, and to ensure the law was followed. Homicide is illegal in this state, and euthanasia is illegal in this state. Eyewitness accounts are part of evidence that is now being requested through public records requests by media.
Would that and other evidence from the experts have made a difference if presented to the grand jury? No one knows, but a matter of justice for the victims who died requires that the evidence be presented.
While you may argue that Dr. Pou was under immense pressure, is this an excuse for her alleged actions? I cannot accept this argument. What is the value of human life? What circumstances justify taking human lives? These are the questions this case raises.
For my part, I will stand for human life and the victims of crime.

Our view on medical ethics: Katrina survivors say doctor wasn't a killer. Enough said.

Fri Jul 27, 12:22 AM ET
In Louisiana this week, Dr. Anna Pou received news that ended two years of anxiety. A grand jury refused to indict her on charges that she murdered nine terminally ill patients with a lethal cocktail of painkillers in a dark, fetid New Orleans hospital three days after Hurricane Katrina struck.
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By all accounts, Pou is a dedicated professional with an excess of compassion. She was working in nightmare conditions on Sept. 1, 2005. The electricity was cut off at the Memorial Medical Center, and temperatures had soared to well over 100 degrees. Hundreds of patients were suffering from dehydration, several had died while others were screaming in pain. The staff believed, erroneously but perhaps justifiably, that no help was on the way.
Outsiders might never know the full story. Pou herself says she did not intend to kill any patients but was merely trying to relieve suffering. Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti, who sought to indict her for murder, says she's a mercy killer. Nine people who were alive the morning of the day help arrived were dead by evening — too many, he says, to be explained by any other cause.
The deliberations of the grand jury are secret, so the reasons for its decision are unclear, but controversy is nevertheless rising. Foti is under fire for bringing the case, and he's scrambling to push out evidence that justifies his actions, not least because he's facing a re-election.
The argument will linger because Pou still faces civil suits from patients' families. But for now, at least, it seems justice has been done — both by the attorney general and by the grand jury that rejected prosecution.
Pou lived an extreme version of a dilemma faced by millions of others: When is it appropriate to give a terminal patient pain medication at levels that can hasten death?
These painful choices are best made individually by the patients, or their surrogates, and their doctors. But occasionally, cases have cropped up in which medical professionals usurped that choice. Just think of trusted British doctor Harold Shipman, who was found guilty seven years ago of murdering 15 elderly women patients and was suspected of killing many more. Or the cases that have burst into the headlines of nurses in this country found to have murdered patients. If the attorney general had proof Pou acted in that manner, he was right to pursue the case.
That said, the circumstances in the post-Katrina hellhole of the Memorial Medical Center did not allow for the ideal process with its emotional and procedural checks and balances. Even with the most vivid imagination, it is impossible to comprehend what these people faced. Perhaps the best analogy is a war zone, where medical decisions must be made quickly under impossible conditions. In those cases, medics are shielded from prosecution under a broad provision known as the Feres Doctrine. Even its many critics don't challenge the battlefield exception.
Without question, the people best equipped to understand these events are those who lived through Katrina and its aftermath. So who better to judge Pou's case than members of a Louisiana grand jury? That jury heard the evidence — including accounts of two nurses originally indicted with Pou, then given immunity for their testimony. Its judgment deserves respect.
Foti should move on, and so should everyone else. The jury has spoken.

Rio police arrested for mugging U.S. cops

Fri Jul 27, 2:13 PM ET
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro police arrested two fellow officers on Thursday accused of extorting money from two American tourists who happened to be San Francisco cops on vacation.
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"One of the victims identified the officers and they are under administrative arrest for now," a police spokeswoman in Rio said. The crime-ridden city is swarming with tourists during the Pan American Games, which end on Sunday.
The U.S. tourists were leaving a night club in Rio's Copacabana beach neighborhood before dawn on Wednesday, when two uniformed police officers approached them and searched them for drugs. At night, the neighborhood is a red-light district with several brothels and strip joints.
Although no drugs were found, the officers told the tourists they would have to pay a bribe or be arrested. One of the Americans went back to their hotel to fetch the equivalent of some $2,200 in local and foreign currency. The Brazilian policemen then took off with the money and an MP3 player.
Corruption is rife in Rio's police force despite the authorities' efforts to root out bad cops. Officers, who often have to confront well-armed drug gangs, complain they are underpaid and many have to moonlight as private security guards to make ends meet.
Policing in Rio has been heavily reinforced in the last three weeks during the Pan American Games. No major incidents have been reported after months of daily gun battles in the city's sprawling hillside slums.

Study finds drunk astronauts allowed to fly?

Fri Jul 27, 2:13 PM ET
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A panel has found that astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk, Aviation Week reported on Thursday on its Web site.
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The publication said the panel set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues reported "heavy use of alcohol" within 12 hours of launch.
It said flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that the drunken astronauts posed a flight risk when they flew on the two known occasions.
The panel, established after the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak in February on assault charges, also apparently does not deal directly with Nowak or mention any other astronaut by name, Aviation Week said.
A spokeswoman at Houston's Johnson Space Center, where the astronaut corps is based, would not comment but the U.S. space agency said it would release the findings of "two reviews regarding astronaut medical and behavioral health assessments" at a press conference on Friday in Washington.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin ordered the reviews after Nowak, who flew on a shuttle mission last year, was arrested on February 5 in Orlando, Florida on charges she assaulted a woman she viewed as a romantic rival for another astronaut.
Nowak, supposedly wearing diapers so she would not have to stop, drove all night from Houston to Orlando to confront the woman, Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, as she arrived at the Orlando airport.

Hotels told to provide condoms

Fri Jul 27, 2:15 PM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has ordered all hotels, holiday resorts and public showers to provide condoms, part of nationwide efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday.
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The regulation, issued by the commerce and health ministries, also required pamphlets about AIDS prevention to be displayed, the Beijing News said.
The move follows an unusual step by the booming eastern province of Zhejiang in March to fine hotels and bars if they did not provide condoms.
China originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capital West -- a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.
It has belatedly woken up to the problem and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.
But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.

Sheikh delays plane over seating

Fri Jul 27, 2:15 PM ET
MILAN (Reuters) - A Qatar sheikh held up a British Airways flight at Milan's Linate airport for nearly three hours after discovering three of his female relatives had been seated next to men they did not know.
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When none of the other business class passengers agreed to swap seats, the sheikh, a member of Qatar's ruling family, went to the pilot, who had already started the engine, to complain, an airport official said.
But the pilot ordered him and his traveling companions, the three women, two men, a cook and a servant, off the plane.
The London-bound flight took off nearly three hours behind schedule Thursday evening and around 50 of the 115 passengers missed connecting flights.
Traditions in the conservative Gulf Arab region bar women from mixing with unrelated men.

Thief battered in fish shop

Fri Jul 27, 2:14 PM ET
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A man who attempted to rob an Australian fish and chip shop found himself on the losing side when the angry shop owner threw fish batter and hot oil at him.
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"The hot oil missed but the batter hit the offender and he fled empty handed," South Australian police said in a statement.
Police said the attempted armed robbery happened on Thursday evening at the quiet seaside retirement town of Victor Harbor, near the South Australian state capital of Adelaide.
Police were checking local hospitals in case the man was injured.

Randy Johnson to undergo surgery again

49 minutes ago
PHOENIX - Randy Johnson will have season-ending back surgery and intends to be back for the Arizona Diamondbacks at spring training next year.
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"I have no intention at this time of retiring," he said at a news conference Friday. "I'll cross the bridge of surgery and be willing to go through the process of rehabilitation again because I know I can still pitch. And I love pitching. It's what I've been doing since I was 7 years old."
It marks the second year in a row that the Big Unit will have an operation on his troublesome back. It will be the third back operation of his career.
"He tried to work his way through it," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said, "but it just didn't get any better."
The 43-year-old left-hander was traded to the Diamondbacks from the New York Yankees in the offseason, signing a $26 million, two-year contract with Arizona, the franchise where he experienced his greatest success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The five-time Cy Young Award winner made his way back to the rotation after extensive rehabilitation. He had several strong starts but struggled in his later outings, then he was diagnosed with a herniated disk.
Johnson went on the disabled list, worked his way through a pair of bullpen sessions, then threw 42 pitches in a simulated game on Tuesday. Afterward, he felt the effects of the injured disk, pain that he feels all the way down his right, or landing, leg.
"I can deal with the pain," he said, "but the symptoms aren't allowing me to pitch. When I bend over, my hamstring with the nerve in there just feels like it's on fire. To do that repeated times makes my leg week ... Everything just starts kind of shutting down."
One of the best left-hander in baseball history, Johnson is determined not to go out this way.
"I surely don't want to end my career because I had surgery," he said. "I would much rather call it a career being healthy and being ineffective and say `You know what? I can't do it anymore. But that hasn't been the case."
The operation will take place next Friday in Los Angeles.
"I think this one is a little more serious than the one he had last year," Melvin said.
The five-time Cy Young award winner had surgery last October and had to start this season on the disabled list. Having an operation now, he said, will give him three more months to heal for next season.
"Hopefully we'll see the effects of that," Johnson said, "and hopefully this doesn't occur again."
Johnson has 288 wins and wants to reach 300 before he calls it quits. During a brief stretch this season, he was easily Arizona's best pitcher. That stint bolstered his confidence.
"For the short period of time that it was," Johnson said, "I was pitching as good as anybody, so I guess I still love being competitive, and I know that I can still pitch."
Johnson ranks third in all-time career strikeouts with 4,661, behind Roger Clemens (4,641) and Nolan Ryan (5,714).

Robert Yates Racing joins merger fever

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing Writer Fri Jul 27, 7:47 PM ET
INDIANAPOLIS - Another day, another revamped NASCAR team. Just two days after Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing joined forces, Robert Yates Racing and open-wheel powerhouse Newman/Haas/Lanigan announced they intend to form a partnership.
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Yates, whose team has struggled for several years after being one of NASCAR's winningest teams, has actively sought a partner or buyer for more than a year.
"This is a wonderful partnership," said Yates, who fields Fords for second-year driver David Gilliland and longtime NASCAR star Ricky Rudd. "This gives us a clear vision how to get to the top. It is our goal to continue to build so this team will be better positioned to contend for the championship."
The deal, which would rename the team Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, is expected to give the Yates team a big boost, particularly in engineering and marketing.
Since Robert Yates Racing was formed in 1988, the team has 57 victories, 48 poles and won the 1999 Cup championship with Dale Jarrett. Its drivers also have included Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan and Kenny Irwin.
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, co-owned by Paul Newman, racing entrepreneur Carl Haas and businessman Michael Lanigan, is the most successful team competing in the Champ Car World Series.
The team, based in Lincolnshire, Ill., is in its 25th season of competition and has earned seven championships, 101 wins and 103 pole positions. Its current drivers are Sebastien Bourdais, the three-time defending series champion, and rookie Graham Rahal.
Yates previously merged his team's engine program with that of Roush Racing and put his son, Doug, in charge. The younger Yates said the new agreement will complement both teams.
Haas, who has been a team owner in NASCAR's Cup series twice before, agreed.
"We have been looking to add other forms of racing to our Champ Car program," he said. "I think that the NASCAR and Champ Car programs can learn something from each other."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said he believes the mergers and partnerships — and the bigger teams that come with them — are good for the sport.
"Everybody likes being independent," Hunter said. "Certainly a guy like Robert Yates. But, by the same token, but when it comes down to the money, the resources, and the people, engine programs, engineers and everything else, you have to step back and look at the big picture, and I think it's a great way for the sport to go to the next level.
"Instead of having one or two four-car teams who are dominant, you could have six or eight or 10 four-car teams and spread the balance across the board. It's just a fact of life that the economics, the sheer financial aspects of the sport, change from year to year, from decade to decade."
The DEI-Ginn merger instantly turned DEI from a two-car team into a four-car team. Although this latest partnership won't add Nextel Cup cars right away, it does conform with the idea of NASCAR teams seeking more resources — financial and technical — in this time of rapidly rising costs and escalating competition.
Jack Roush took on Boston Red Sox owner John Henry as a partner earlier this year; and Ray Evernham is expected to partner with Montreal Canadiens owners George Gillette. It's nothing new. In 2003, team owner Richard Childress sold part of his team to private-equity firm Chartwell Investments of New York.
Roush currently fields five cars, while Evernham and Childress both have three Cup cars.
DEI has been the most active team, also forging an engine partnership with RCR.
"I think (the merger) was a smart business decision on their part, just to solidify the future of that company," Earnhardt said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he and the rest of the Nextel Cup drivers will race in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
But Junior isn't sold on the idea that the sport's future is in adding cars.
"I don't feel that you need four teams," he said. "If you've got two or three teams that's good, you can do well with that. But four teams is really, really tough. I think that's very hard to do, and I think it's only for a select few owners in the sport."

Time trial may decide Tour de France

By JEROME PUGMIRE, AP Sports Writer Fri Jul 27, 7:14 PM ET
ANGOULEME, France - Battered by scandal and doping embarrassments, the Tour de France might actually have stumbled upon a sliver of good news.
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A competitive finish.
Alberto Contador of Spain and Cadel Evans of Australia could win or lose the race during Saturday's time trial. The race ends Sunday in Paris along the Champs-Elysees.
A slim margin of 1 minute, 50 seconds separates the two riders, each going for a first victory in this event and suddenly thrust into the spotlight after the ouster of former overall leader Michael Rasmussen.
"Tomorrow is the most difficult day of my career as an athlete," Contador said after Friday's 18th stage, which was won by Sandy Casar. The French rider won the 131-mile stage despite crashing after hitting a spectator's dog.
The 24-year-old Contador would be the Tour's youngest winner since Jan Ullrich in 1997. A victory for Evans would be a big lift for sports-mad Australia, where rugby and cricket hold sway.
For the past two days, the Tour has teetered on collapse. Three riders were kicked out in the space of 30 hours — two for doping and one positively lying. No further doping scandals hit the 104-year-old race by Friday night.
That left Contador and Evans to concentrate on Saturday's a 35-mile race against clock from Cognac to Angouleme.
"In this time trial, everything can change — my entire life can change," Contador said.
Added Evans: "We will know all the answers out on the road tomorrow."
Evans' Predictor-Lotto sporting director Hendrik Redant said the 29-year-old rider is "very relaxed".
That can hardly be said of most everybody else in this year's Tour. The race has been reeling from Wednesday's withdrawal of Rasmussen, as well as other drug-related episodes. The Danish rider was kicked out of the race by his Rabobank team.
Denmark's cycling federation said July 19 it ousted Rasmussen for missing doping tests in June. He contended he was in Mexico, where his wife is from, in June. Former rider Davide Cassani said he had seen Rasmussen in Italy.
Reached by telephone Friday evening, Rasmussen's voice sounded strained as his young daughter cried in the background.
"I have no comments at this time," Rasmussen said before hanging up.
The Dane left a pack of dispirited riders heading toward Paris, burdened by the latest jolt to the sport. On Tuesday, Alexandre Vinokourov was ejected for testing positive for a banned blood transfusion after last Saturday's stage. Midway through Wednesday's stage it was announced Cristian Moreni had tested positive for testosterone. The Italian rider didn't deny it, and he was carted off by police.
Contador has a time cushion and in sporting director Johan Bruyneel, a cool head who helped Lance Armstrong to seven straight Tour wins.
The odds are heavily in Contador's favor, and Redant knows it.
"I saw him (Contador) this morning by the bus, and he seemed to be quite nervous," Redant said. "He is not allowed to fail now. He can only win. So for a young guy ... he has to stay calm. He's now the favorite."
Redant stepped up the mind games further.
"It's a big gap (1:50), but if you lose that you have a really big failure," Redant said. "He's a young guy, and it would be fine for cycling if a young guy like that can win the Tour. But it's a lot of stress ... and for him I hope he can cope with it. I know Cadel is very relaxed, he's very confident, and that's a big advantage of course."
Bruyneel turned the tables on Evans.
"Evans has to have a great day, and things would have to go really badly for Contador," Bruyneel said. "The best will win."
On the opening day of this year's Tour, with swarms of jovial fans lining the streets of London for the July 7 prologue, Contador beat Evans by a second. But that was only over 5 miles.
At the weekend's time trial in Albi — won by the now-expelled Vinokourov — Evans finished second and Contador was seventh. The time split was 1:04 in favor of Evans, meaning he has to better that by 47 seconds Saturday.
Saturday's clock race to Angouleme is flat and favors Evans, whereas last week's was hilly and suited to Contador.
Levi Leipheimer, Discovery Channel's leader until Contador reversed the roles in the Pyrenees, sits in third place, 2:49 back.
"Levi is also a good time trialer," said Chris Horner, an American and a teammate of Evans. "In all honesty any of the three could take the win. ... I'm hoping for Cadel of course."
The Tour took another odd twist Friday when Casar hit a dog and fell off his bike. He became the second dog-hitter at this year's Tour, following Marcus Burghardt in the 10th stage.
"I didn't see it coming," said Casar, who won a Tour stage for the first time.
Evans also had an unexpected encounter. He couldn't brake in time after crossing the finish line and smacked into a female spectator.
"I'm all right," Evans said, rubbing his shoulder. "The last two days have been good recovery from the Pyrenees."

Request for Grimsley names rejected

By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer 41 minutes ago
PHOENIX - A federal magistrate judge rejected a request by The Associated Press to reveal the names of players allegedly implicated in drug use by former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley.
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"Disclosure at this time may compromise the ongoing investigation in several ways," U.S. Magistrate Edward C. Voss wrote in a seven-page order Friday.
The AP's application, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, was opposed by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco, which is conducting the investigation, and by the Major League Baseball Players Association.
The AP had asked the court to reveal names blacked out in a sworn statement by Internal Revenue Service special agent Jeff Novitzky. The document was used to support a warrant to search Grimsley's Arizona home last year.
"We're disappointed and not at all persuaded that disclosing the names at this late date could hurt any investigation that might still be under way," Dave Tomlin, AP's associate general counsel said.
Tomlin said the AP has not decided whether to appeal.
The AP contended in court filings and in oral arguments Thursday that the public had a right to access the entire document, but Voss ruled the possible damage to the probe outweighed any First Amendment and common law rights to release the names.
"Cooperation could be affected," the judge wrote, "investigation of named individuals could be compromised, leads developed from undisclosed information could be cut off, and evidence could be destroyed."
Voss based his decision, in part, on a sealed affidavit submitted by Jeff Nedrow, chief prosecutor in the investigation, outlining the current status of the probe. AP lawyers were not allowed access to that document.
The judge indicated his ruling could change once the investigation ends.
"As the government acknowledges in Mr. Nedrow's affidavit, the continuation of the investigation makes the government's interest paramount 'at this point,'" Voss wrote. "When the investigation concludes, the weight of the government's argument against disclosure will change dramatically."
Interim U.S. Attorney Scott Schools declined comment.
David Segui told ESPN in June 2006 that he was one of the blacked-out names. The Los Angeles Times reported last October that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons also were named.
Players in the Times report denied using steroids, and Randy Hendricks, the agent for Clemens and Pettitte, said he was told Grimsley denied making the statements attributed to him by Novitzky. Grimsley has not commented publicly, and Kevin Ryan, then the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco, said the Times report contained "significant inaccuracies."
"Speculation concerning who is or is not named in the Novitzky affidavit is unfair," Voss wrote.
The search of Grimsley's home grew out of the federal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parella said in court on Thursday that the probe had spread far beyond BALCO and includes track and field and pro football athletes, as well as major league baseball players.
"The indictments thus far relate to the `supply' side of the problem," Voss wrote. "What remains for possible prosecution is the alleged illegal possession and use of these substances. In this area, no indictments have been issued and the investigation continues."
Commissioner Bud Selig has appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to head an investigation of the use of steroids and other banned performance enhancers in baseball.
"The court concludes that the redacted material has not been provided to others," Voss wrote in his decision on the AP's application.
A ruling has yet to come in a similar case filed by the Hearst Corp. in New York. Hearst lawyers contended this week that the public is entitled to any names shared by federal investigators with the Mitchell probe.
The Hearst case is based on the investigation of former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski. Names of up to 23 players mentioned in Novitzky's affidavit in that case should be made public if they have been provided to Mitchell, Hearst lawyers argued.

Nike suspends Vick contract without pay

By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP Sports Writer Fri Jul 27, 7:08 PM ET
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - Nike suspended its lucrative contract with Michael Vick on Friday, while Reebok took the unprecedented step of stopping sales of his No. 7 jersey.
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In another dose of bad news for the indicted quarterback, a top trading card company announced it was pulling Vick's likeness from any new packs.
Facing protests from animal-rights groups, Nike announced it was suspending Vick's endorsement deal without pay, as well as halting sales of Vick-related shoes and other products at its retail stores.
"Nike is concerned by the serious and highly disturbing allegations made against Michael Vick, and we consider any cruelty to animals inhumane and abhorrent," Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer said in a statement.
Reebok, the official uniform supplier of the NFL, said it would stop selling Vick's replica jersey at retail stores and through its Web site.
Donruss, one of four major trading card companies, has decided to pull Vick's card from any future 2007 releases, according to Beckett Media, which covers the collectibles industry.
All three hits came one day after the Atlanta Falcons quarterback pleaded not guilty to federal dogfighting charges in Richmond, Va. In the indictment, he was accused of sponsoring a gruesome operation that often shot, hanged, drowned or electrocuted losing dogs.
Since Vick has not been convicted of any crime, Nike left open the door to resume its business relationship with the star player if he's acquitted. The company already had decided to suspend release of his fifth signature shoe, the Air Zoom Vick V.
"We do believe that Michael Vick should be afforded the same due process as any citizen in the United States," the Nike statement said. "Therefore, we have not terminated our relationship."
Vick signed with Nike in 2001, the same year Atlanta chose him as the NFL's No. 1 overall draft pick. He led the Falcons to the NFC championship game during the 2004 season and last year became the first quarterback in league history to rush for 1,000 yards.
Vick is barred from the Falcons' training camp while the league investigates his actions for possible violations of its new personal conduct policy. He is set for trial Nov. 26 and faces up to five years in prison.
The case began April 25 when investigators conducting a drug search at a massive home Vick built in rural Virginia found 66 dogs, including 55 pit bulls, and equipment typically used in dogfighting. They included a "rape stand" that holds aggressive dogs in place for mating and a "breakstick" used to pry open a dog's mouth.
PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — called off its planned protest at a dozen Niketown stores across the country next week.
"Regardless of Vick's guilt or innocence in a court of law, the facts in this case clearly support this decision," PETA said. "No company wants a spokesperson with a massive illegal dogfighting ring operating on his property, regardless of his level of involvement."
The Humane Society of the United States said the companies couldn't ignore the overwhelming opposition to having any association with Vick. He said some 165,000 e-mails were sent to Nike through the group's Web site.
"I think there's a direct relationship," said Wayne Pacelle, president of the HSUS. "We asked them to do this and the pressure continued to build, especially as the facts of the indictment came out. It simply became an untenable position."
There was no immediate response from the Vick camp. An after-hours phone message was left with his agent, Joel Segal, while unsuccessful attempts were made to reach his new attorney, Billy Martin, by phone and e-mail.
Although Reebok does not have a business relationship with Vick, the Massachusetts-based company serves as the official supplier of apparel and equipment to all 32 NFL teams. Through that deal, it holds the coveted rights to sell jerseys at the retail level.
"We just find the allegations very upsetting and very disturbing," Reebok spokeswoman Denise Kaigler said. "While this is just the beginning of the legal process and we know that it has to have time to run its course, we felt that making this decision now was important and the right things to do."
Reebok said it also was willing to take back any unsold Vick jerseys that are returned by retail outlets.
Kaigler said she already had received numerous e-mails in support of the decision. Even though numerous NFL players have run afoul of the law, this is the first time Reebok has stopped sales of an individual jersey.
"The number of e-mails and statements we're getting from consumers was pretty telling about how disturbing people find these allegations to be," Kaigler said.
Beckett Media reported on its Web site that Donruss dropped Vick's card at the behest of owner Ann Powell, whose five dogs accompany her to work every day and have virtually free reign inside the company's headquarters.
"If anybody who knows about the current Vick situation knows Donruss, they know that this is a decision we had to make because of Ann and her love of dogs," company spokesman Scott Prusha told the Web site. "This decision came straight from Ann."
Donruss had an autograph agreement with Vick, and much of the company's plans for the remainder of the year included the insertion of both autograph and memorabilia cards bearing the quarterback's picture.
Prusha said that "wasn't even a consideration. We met as a company and the idea was brought up to pull him. There was no opposition from anybody in the room."
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Elvis statue at Hawaii concert site

By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 4:14 PM ET
HONOLULU - Elvis lives, and he hasn't aged a bit since his legendary 1973 "Aloha from Hawaii" concert.
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A life-sized statue of Elvis Presley was unveiled Thursday at the site of the concert, looking much as he did 34 years ago. His hair is slicked back, vest plastered on, microphone tilted toward his lips and flared pants draped to the floor.
The bronze statue of the King, commissioned by TV Land, is meant as a tribute to the classic show at the Neal Blaisdell Center. It was the first concert to be broadcast via satellite, reaching more than a billion viewers.
"It's about time. Elvis gave so much to Hawaii," said impersonator Jonathon Vonbrana, who had carefully sculpted black hair and wore dark sunglasses. "It's excellent. A lot of the statues don't even look like him."
The sculpture shows Presley at his prime, slim and big-buckled with his collar turned up. As it was unveiled, "See See Rider" and "American Trilogy" played over the loudspeakers.
"It's how I would like to remember him. It's really nice," said Kathy Antonio, who traveled from the Big Island with eight members of the Rock-A-Hula Fan Club, which holds tributes for Presley.
Presley filmed three movies in Hawaii, "Blue Hawaii," "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." He also visited the islands three times for concerts.
The statue was a gift from TV Land, a division of MTV Networks, as part of a tribute to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Presley's death at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977.
"He was not a native son of our land, but we adopted him as our own," said Mufi Hannemann of Honolulu. "Now we can always say Elvis is part of the building."
TV Land has dedicated five other statues, all of characters from TV shows: Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners" in New York; Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis; Andy Griffith in Raleigh, N.C.; Bob Newhart in Chicago, and Samantha Stevens of "Bewitched" in Salem, Mass.
____
On the Net:
http://www.tvland.com/landmarks/elvismain.jhtml

Tour company sued over vacation club

Fri Jul 27, 4:17 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent has been sued for allegedly misleading investors into spending millions of dollars to join high-end vacation clubs that were not run by the tour group as they had believed.
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The plaintiffs claim they lost their investments — $100,000 to $1.3 million each — after the operator of the clubs went bankrupt. They said they would not have invested in the clubs had they known they were not run and operated by Abercrombie & Kent, the lawsuit said.
"The reason most of my clients bought into this club was because A&K has an excellent reputation, they assumed A&K was managing it," said plaintiffs attorney Brian Kabateck. "These people were misled and they've lost their money."
An after-hours call to Oak Brook, Ill-based Abercrombie & Kent was not immediately returned Thursday. The lawsuit said Abercrombie & Kent allowed another travel company, Complete Retreats, to use its brand names in connection with the marketing of Complete Retreats clubs. The use of the Abercrombie & Kent name in promotional materials misled investors, the lawsuit says, into believing the clubs were operated by the luxury travel company.

TB flyer home after hospital release

By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 4:20 PM ET
DENVER - The tuberculosis patient who created an international health scare when he flew to Europe for his wedding was released from a hospital Thursday after successfully completing inpatient treatment, officials said.
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Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta attorney who had a multidrug-resistant strain of TB, underwent surgery July 17 to remove a diseased portion of his right lung.
The doctors who treated him at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver don't consider him to be completely cured, but the lung operation and antibiotic treatments "have eliminated any detectable evidence of infection," the hospital said.
Speaker, who spent eight weeks in the hospital, will still need to continue antibiotic treatment for about two years.
Hospital spokesman William Allstetter said Thursday that Speaker had left Denver in an air ambulance and returned to Georgia to recuperate. He would not specify where except to say that Speaker was not in a hospital. Speaker, reached by telephone Thursday, declined to comment.
"He arrived there safely and he is happy to be home," Allstetter said.
Speaker is not contagious and could have flown by commercial airliner, but "everyone involved in the case" decided the air ambulance was a better choice because of the attention the case has attracted, the hospital said.
Allstetter said Speaker is no longer under an isolation order but was instructed to check in with county health officials in Georgia. As with other TB patients, a health worker must watch Speaker take his drugs to make sure he stays on the five-days-a-week regimen, he said.
Federal health officials worked with the Denver hospital to develop a plan to monitor Speaker's treatment, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Tom Skinner said.
Speaker became the focus of a federal investigation and prompted an international uproar in May when he went ahead with the wedding trip after health officials said they had advised him not to fly. CDC officials notified him while he was there that tests indicated he had extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis; later tests found only the less dangerous multidrug-resistant TB.
Rather than check into a European hospital, Speaker flew to Canada, drove across the border and turned himself in at a U.S. hospital. For a few days, he held the designation as the first American quarantined by the federal government since 1963. He was transferred to National Jewish on May 31.
Almost all the U.S. passengers who were with Speaker on a May 12 flight from Atlanta to Paris have been contacted, and preliminary tests found no sign they were infected. However, not all of those passengers have gone back for the necessary follow-up tests that would provide conclusive results, Skinner said. The Speakers were the only Americans on the May 24 flight.
Speaker was in good health, aside from the TB, so he has had a fairly quick recovery after surgery, hospital officials said.
"His case quite honestly wasn't nearly as complicated as many that we've had," said Dr. Gwen Huitt, director of the hospital's infectious disease unit.
Speaker never developed a cough or a fever and kept in good shape mentally and physically by reading, responding to correspondence and riding an exercise bike in his hospital room, Huitt said.
"Although we believe there are still a few tuberculosis bacteria in his lungs, ongoing antibiotic therapy should kill those," Huitt said. "We expect him to return to a full and active life."
___
Associated Press Writer Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Brazil: Main runway reopens

Fri Jul 27, 4:22 PM ET
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Authorities reopened the main runway at Brazil's busiest airport on Friday for the first time since a TAM jetliner crashed there on July 17, killing 199 people.
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A TAM flight was the first to touch down on the 6,362-foot main runway, but the airline has imposed new restrictions since the crash, saying it will only use Congonhas airport when it is not raining.
The airport had been restricted to a 4,711-foot backup since the crash while investigators tried to determine if the main runway's condition played a role in the accident. Both runways are relatively short by modern standards.
Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, landed in driving rain and seemed to accelerate rather than slowing on the main runway before crashing into buildings at 109 mph and exploding. The accident created more chaos in Brazil's air travel industry, led to the ouster of the defense minister and prompted a safety advisory from Airbus, though authorities have not yet publicized what they learned from the plane's data recorders. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht would not specify the nature of the information from the data recorder and said Thursday that the advisory did not imply any conclusion about the causes of the crash

Navteq charts growth of maps via Web

By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer Fri Jul 27, 4:24 PM ET
CHICAGO - Getting lost is getting rarer nowadays, and any yahoo with a keyboard or a GPS device can find precise directions or pinpoint the location of an out-of-town landmark.
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Now drivers hooked on digital maps are looking for more than just streets and turns. They want ever more accurate and up-to-date points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels and theme parks.
For digital mapmakers like Navteq Corp., it's up to road teams like Ann McNeil and Rich Joyce to deliver.
Like luxury-class explorers, the geographic analysts cruise streets and roads in a tech-laden SUV outfitted with a satellite tracking computer, electronic clipboard and rooftop cameras.
"Our customers are wanting more and more information," said McNeil, who has driven hundreds of thousands of miles in a decade at Navteq. "We're expanding all the time."
It's all part of a race with Dutch rival Tele Atlas NV to not only chart the world more accurately but combine the maps with other relevant data.
A pioneer of the digital map business, Navteq produces the maps and software found in automobile navigation systems, portable navigation devices made by Garmin Ltd. and other companies, and Internet map sites like AOL's Mapquest, Google Inc.'s Google Maps and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news)'s Yahoo Maps.
Navteq is the Rand McNally of the 21st century, according to Colorado-based map industry consultant Henry Poirot. And the rapid growth may be just beginning.
Thanks to global positioning systems and recent technology advancements, Navteq is fine-tuning ways to let consumers use a phone or other handheld device to track their dogs, find where to jog in another city, learn how many calories they will burn doing it, learn where the nearest 24-hour gas stations are and see current traffic and weather conditions. Tele Atlas has its own projects under way.
"There's a lot of competition going on," said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst for Gartner Inc. "Both companies are trying to show that their data is better, by being innovative in gathering more detailed information."
The mapping duel heated up this week with the announcement that Tele Atlas agreed to a $2.6 billion acquisition by TomTom NV, the world's largest maker of personal navigation devices.
While that should make the combined European company a more formidable foe, Navteq's stock also soared. Analysts said TomTom's competitors such as Garmin may now go to the Chicago-based company for their maps rather than buy from a rival.
Navteq would like to improve its current share, which already includes most of the Internet mapping market and a split of the handheld device market with Tele Atlas. Its European rival drives the roads, too — the two companies' teams even sometimes spotting one another covering the same turf.
The biggest threat facing the two competitors in the future may be user-generated map content — a mapping equivalent of YouTube, as it were.
Google also could be a rival. The Internet search leader is deep into research, development and even acquisitions related to its mapping services, which include Google Earth as well as Google Maps.
Navteq has shown a knack for adapting to changing technology.
The company was born in 1985 as Navigation Technologies, focusing on kiosks at car rental agencies and hotels where patrons could print out directions and maps for chosen addresses. Dutch conglomerate Philips Electronics became its primary investor starting in 1989, a role it held until recently.
Navteq finally became profitable in 2002 thanks to global positioning systems, a boom in car-based navigation guides and its increasing grip on the exploding Internet mapping market. An initial public offering in 2004 helped ignite fast growth, and today it has more than 3,000 employees in 30 countries and a new headquarters in Chicago.
The company made $110 million on $582 million in sales last year and posted big gains in both categories in the first quarter. It reports second-quarter results Tuesday.
A heavy reliance on the slowing auto market, which accounted for nearly all its sales in 2000 and still brings in about 60 percent, has sent its stock price on a bumpy ride. Hoping to smooth things out, CEO Judson Green, who headed Disney's theme parks division until coming to Navteq in 2000, has steered the company into more diversification.
A pair of acquisitions for a combined $216 million in the past nine months underscore that effort: Traffic.com, which produces live traffic reports for cities around the country, and Map Network, producer of special maps for travel destinations, major hotels and big events like the Super Bowl.
In a swiftly moving business, it's not clear if that will be enough to stave off Tele Atlas and any nascent competitors.
"They're not moving fast enough," said Koslowski. "It's not just a question of acquiring companies like Traffic.com. ... The company needs to focus more on emerging markets."
To map 12 million miles and 69 countries, Navteq has used an estimated 100,000 different sources, from satellite images and aerial photography to maps issued by local governments and commercial companies.
But to Green, the "secret sauce" keeping the company on top of the mapping world is the 700 employees who spend half their work time behind the wheel or in the passenger seat.
"I would say that 80 to 85 percent of the effort that we put into making a digital map is from that very labor-intensive driving that we do," he said. "We cannot find the quality, accuracy or richness of the information from all these other sources unless we go do it our way."
The road teams capture 225 different attributes for every link or block of road — one-way signs, turn restrictions, lane information, obstacles in the road and points of interest that may include a hardware store, park or hotel. Every year, the list grows based on customer demands.
Teams ride in the specially outfitted SUVs and rely on sophisticated monitors displaying moving maps and icons while live video from the multi-camera system is shown on separate screens. Among the recent additions: six tiny high-resolution cameras concealed under a glass dome on the roof.
On one recent mapping run, Joyce made sketch pen notations on the electronic clipboard while he and McNeil watched both sides of the street for discrepancies or updates from the existing data.
They quickly spotted a cafe in Chicago's West Loop that had changed its name. This is familiar territory; based on customer requests, they may drive the same streets as often as every three months to check for errors or gather new categories of information, such as bookstores and coffee shops.
"The real world is constantly changing and our challenge is to keep up with that change," said Navteq spokeswoman Kelly Smith.
Tele Atlas has fewer drivers and road testers than Navteq but claims a bigger database covering over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Its business is more balanced between devices and maps.
For its part, Navteq has a new product in use in Europe called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems that Green says effectively puts the map in the engine to help drive the car. For example, it turns headlights to match the road's curves, changes the transmission as the car approaches a large hill and warns the driver when a lane line is crossed without a turn signal.
The company also is pushing aggressively into information for pedestrians and is eyeing mobile phones as a huge developing market.
"The next wave of location-enabled devices will be cell phones, and there we're penetrating less than 1 percent," he said. "That opens up all kinds of opportunities if you know where you are."
It's clear, in other words, that the digital map world now is about much more than getting from Point A to Point B.
"The whole array of location-based services — we're just at the beginning of what's going to be possible," said Green. "It'll be pervasive in your life."
___
On the Net:
http://www.navteq.com
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Imus talks with CBS continue

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 7:54 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) — The legal struggle between Don Imus and CBS Radio is nearing a settlement that would pre-empt the dismissed DJ's threatened $120 million breach of contract lawsuit, a person familiar with the case said Friday.
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Neither Imus' attorney nor CBS Radio would comment on any aspect of the case, but the person said the two sides were in the process of reaching an agreement. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, is not authorized to speak publicly about the dispute.
It was unclear whether a deal would return Imus to the airwaves, where he worked for 40 years before his April firing after directing a sexist, racial insult at the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
The possible settlement, first reported Friday in the New York Post, was the latest indication that the Hall of Fame broadcaster's dramatic broadcasting demise could be reversed. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who spearheaded the "Fire Imus" movement, said last week that he would not oppose the 67-year-old DJ's return to radio.
And Imus confidante Bo Dietl, a frequent guest on the radio show, had hinted this month that his friend might be back on the air in the fall. "I really don't know what's going on now," Dietl said Friday.
Just before his dismissal, Imus signed a five-year, $40 million CBS contract. First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus said in May that Imus planned to sue CBS for $120 million in unpaid salary and damages, although the suit was never filed.
CBS said Imus was terminated for cause, while Garbus insisted that the veteran broadcaster's contract included a clause specifying that his "irreverent" and "controversial" program was "consistent with company rules and policy."
One industry analyst said he doubted that CBS would bring Imus back if a settlement were reached.
"It's a little like one of those breakups where a husband and wife say things on the way out the door that can't be taken back," said Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com, a soundboard for news and information about the radio industry. "I think CBS made some of those no-turning-back comments."
WFAN-AM, at one time the flagship station for Imus' nationally syndicated program, has yet to find a permanent replacement for him. A variety of fill-in hosts, including ex-NFL star Boomer Esiason and tennis great John McEnroe, have stepped in.

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Spice Girls add 3 shows to reunion tour

Fri Jul 27, 1:41 PM ET
LONDON - The Spice Girls have added three dates to their reunion tour, bringing the total number of concerts to 14 in December and January.
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A show in Vancouver, Canada, on Dec. 2 is the first date on the revised tour, followed by a concert in San Jose, Calif., on Dec. 4, promoters said Friday.
They are also adding a show in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 10, said the announcement from the Outside Organization, a London-based public relations firm.
The original Girl Power group of the 1990s announced the tour at a press conference in London in late June. Other stops include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, London and Hong Kong.
Their first single, "Wannabe," was released in 1996 and topped the charts in 31 countries. They went on to sell more than 55 million records.
The shows will be their first concerts since they broke up in 2001, and the first with all five of the original group since Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell quit to pursue a solo career in 1998.
Their last album, "Forever," released in 2000 and without Halliwell, fared poorly.
Other members of the Spice Girls are Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton and Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown.
EMI has said it plans to release the first Spice Girls greatest-hits album in November.
___
On the Net:
Spice Girls:
http://www.thespicegirls.com

No glamour for Nicole Richie in jail

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent Fri Jul 27, 5:41 PM ET
GLENDALE, Calif. - For Nicole Richie, four days in jail will be an intermission in her glamorous lifestyle: No miniskirts, no stiletto heels and no time off for good behavior. House arrest is not an option.
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For her wrong-way freeway trek in a Mercedes-Benz, Richie was slapped Friday with a sentence of nearly four days in jail, a fine of $2,048 and orders to attend drug and alcohol rehab.
"She's not gonna be coming in here wearing a miniskirt and pumps," Burbank police Sgt. Thor Merich said, describing a spartan lifestyle that would await her if she goes to that city's jail.
"We pretty much go the bare minimum," he said.
Prosecutors said Richie will serve the time in a city jail rather than a county lockup. She has the choice of any local jail in Los Angeles County that will accept her.
On Friday, a somber and subdued Richie softly pleaded guilty in Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of drugs in a deal with prosecutors that helped her avoid a potential year in jail on her second DUI conviction.
But Richie, who's rumored to be pregnant, couldn't avoid a lecture from Superior Court Commissioner Steven K. Lubell as he gave her 96 hours in jail, then took off six hours for time already served following her December arrest.
He said she will have to follow the law now or wind up in jail for a year.
For now, she will serve less than four days. In jail, Richie will be able to wear most of her own clothing but anything that might be used as a weapon will be taken away, including shoelaces, belts, high heels and underwire bras.
The waiflike reality show star was conservatively dressed Friday in a loose black trapeze style dress which skimmed her body and kept observers guessing about whether she's pregnant. Her blond hair was pulled back in a knot at her neck just above a scroll tattoo with the name "Richie" and a small red bow.
She arrived and left court with her boyfriend, Joel Madden, surrounded by a cordon of burly private bodyguards.
The co-star of TV's "The Simple Life" and daughter of pop singer Lionel Richie listened attentively as Lubell told her she was lucky that her wrong-way escapade had not killed or maimed someone.
With the tone of a stern father, he said what she did was "pretty scary," and could have resulted in the death of her or others.
"The court does not want anything to happen to you," he said.
Richie could face a murder charge if she continues to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol and someone dies, he said.
"I hope that never, ever happens," the commissioner added.
Richie did not respond to his remarks. It was her second DUI conviction. The first, in June 2003, involved alcohol.
She must complete her jail time by Sept. 28 and return to court on Feb. 20, 2008 to show she has complied with the rest of the sentence.
"You are not to drive with any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs in your system," Lubell told her. "You are not to drive without a driver's license."
He said the state Department of Motor Vehicles would decide whether to suspend her license.
Richie was arrested on Dec. 11 after witnesses reported seeing her black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank. The California Highway Patrol said they found her parked in the car pool lane.
Richie told authorities she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription painkiller Vicodin, a CHP officer said at the time. No drugs were found on her or in the car.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said house arrest was not an option. She will have to stay for the full sentence, pay for her incarceration and abide by rules that limit visitors and perks.
While each city may have slightly different rules on handling its inmates, "a jail is a jail," Robison said.
That means it's unlikely that Richie will be allowed to chat on a cell phone, order in gourmet food or schedule behind-bars manicures.
Just like in the movies, Richie could only see people during visiting hours and would talk to them through a thick sheet of glass, at least at the Burbank jail.
If Richie does her time in Burbank, she would probably be alone in a 4-by-10-foot cell because of safety concerns over her notoriety and because the jail has only limited facilities for women.
If it turns out Richie is pregnant, however, the jail would be unable to accommodate her medical needs and she would have to go to county jail — probably the same Lynwood lockup where party-girl pal Paris Hilton did part of her time.
At a city jail, for about $75 a day, Richie would have access to a collect-call phone, sleep on a metal bunk with a 2- or 3-inch-thick mattress and eat three prison meals a day (lunch fare often is a ham-and-cheese sandwich and an apple).
But if Richie thinks about turning her stay into another episode of "The Simple Life," she can forget it.
"There'd be no camera crew allowed," Merich said.
___
AP Writer Robert Jablon contributed to this report.

Britney aide ticketed in Vegas scuffle

By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 3:35 PM ET
LAS VEGAS - A bodyguard for Britney Spears must face a battery charge after he scuffled with two men trying to photograph the singer and her young sons at a Las Vegas Strip resort, police said Friday.
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The bodyguard, Cesar Julio Camera, 37, was accused of grabbing and punching one photographer and pushing another into a wall about 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the spa at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino.
Camera was issued a misdemeanor battery summons after the scuffle.
No serious injuries resulted, police said. Neither Spears, 25, nor the children — 22-month-old Sean Preston Federline and 10-month-old Jayden James Federline — were reported to have been hurt.
"There were no signs of injuries to her or the children, nor is she listed as a victim," Las Vegas police Sgt. John Loretto said of the singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. She is listed in police reports as a witness, along with one man and five other women.
"The only person issued a citation was Ms. Spears' private security guard, Mr. Camera," Loretto said.
A representative at Jive Records, Spears' record label, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, and a Wynn resort spokeswoman declined comment.
A lawyer for Spears' estranged husband, Kevin Federline, also did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment on reports that Spears should not have had the children in Las Vegas. The couple are involved in divorce proceedings in California that according to several reports include restrictions on traveling out-of-state with the boys.
Police said the scuffle, which was captured on security videotape, occurred after Andrew Deetz, 24, and Kyle Henderson, 23, approached Spears and her entourage in a hallway and a hotel security guard told them to put their photo equipment away.
Henderson allegedly bumped Camera, who was holding Spears' son, Sean.
Spears screamed, Camera "shouldered" Henderson against a wall, gave the child to Spears, and ran after Henderson and Deetz, according to police reports.
Police said Camera punched Deetz, who showed officers a lump and abrasion on his forehead. Henderson was not reported to have been hurt.
Loretto said he did not know when Camera was scheduled to respond to the summons. He could face up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
Spears has been involved in several recent confrontations with paparazzi. She apologized earlier this month for attacking a photographer's car with an umbrella in February, saying she had been preparing to try out for a movie part and got carried away. The umbrella incident took place during a period in which she also shaved her head, got new tattoos and was seen partying hard in Los Angeles clubs.
___
On the Net:
Britney Spears:
http://www.britneyspears.com/