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Everyone who died there should reverently be remembered. VOLKSWAGEN SUED FOR 'NAZI NURSERY' Cute Beetle ...NOT so Cute. BACTERIA-CONTROL GENE IDENTIFIED WASHINGTON (AP) - In a discovery that could lead to powerful new vaccines and antibiotics, researchers have isolated a key gene that bacteria use to launch killer infections. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have demonstrated in laboratory studies that removing or inactivating a gene called DAM can disarm a strain of salmonella, bacteria that cause food poisoning in humans. "We've uncovered a genetic master switch that controls bacterial infection," said Dr. Michael J. Mahan, the study's lead author and a UCSB professor. "When we knock out this switch, the bacterium is completely disabled in its ability to cause disease." CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING MARGARINE OUT NEW YORK (AP) - Two margarines that actually cut cholesterol will soon appear on supermarket shelves nationwide at a price tag four times the regular spread. Market analysts suggest many health-conscious Americans will be ready to try them anyway. Take Control, made by Unilever's Lipton unit began hitting the market last week, and Benecol, by the drug maker Johnson & Johnson, is nearing approval by the Food and Drug Administration. They're among the first major foods that are designed to act like drugs. As a result, the companies plan to market them on two levels - the traditional way through advertising and also by convincing doctors to suggest them to patients. KILLER BEES IN JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA Jacksonville, Florida (AP) - State officials say they have destroyed two swarms of "killer Bees" found near the port at Blount Island in Jacksonville. The African bees known for the aggressive defense of their hives were found in bait hives placed by state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services officials. It has been further reported that the bees may have been brought into the country on one or more of the frequent cargo ships from Puerto Rico. SENATE PANEL: ENTERTAINMENT TEACHES VIOLENCE The hysterical accusation begins.... (sigh) CHINA FEARS TIANANMEN COMMEMORATION BEIJING (AP) - Police have detained at least 20 Chinese political activists to stop plans to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations, a rights group said Sunday. Police in Heilongjiang province detained six activists from Heilongjiang and two other northeast provinces who were discussing anniversary plans on Saturday, said the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. Their whereabouts remained unknown Sunday, the Hong-Kong based center said. Police searched the homes of two of the activists, Tang Yuanzhuan and Leng Wanbao, and confiscated computers, address books and books, the center said. AT LEAST 43 DIE IN PLAINS TORNADOES OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Rescue crews looking for signs of life
picked through shattered homes, twisted trees and mangled cars
Tuesday after a swarm of astonishingly powerful tornadoes chewed
up entire neighborhoods in Oklahoma and Kansas and killed at
least 43 people. Even in an area accustomed to twisters and
strong thunderstorms - this is, after all, the region known as
Tornado Alley and spring is an especially dangerous time of year
- the twisters' wrath was extraordinary. One monstrous funnel
cloud skipped across the ground for four hours and was classified
F-5, the most powerful tornado there is, with winds of more than
260 mph. It cut a path one mile wide, and along with the other US SCIENTISTS STUDY MALAYSIA VIRUS ATLANTA (AP) _ In a quarantined laboratory, U.S. scientists outfitted in plastic biohazard spacesuits and breathing through air tubes are probing a killer that has struck on the other side of the world. The mysterious microscopic enemy has killed more than 100 people in Malaysia in seven months, and scientists are baffled about its origin and mode of transmission. "Every couple of years something like this comes along," says Dr. C.J. Peters, head of the special pathogens branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We don't know how this stuff spreads, how far it's going to go. We really don't know what's at the end of the tunnel." The rare form of viral encephalitis, which spread from pigs to humans, first surfaced last year near the northern city of Ipoh. It has since sickened more than 250 Malaysians, mostly pig farmers. Many of their herds also fell ill, and some pigs died. A similar illness afflicted 11 slaughterhouse workers in Singapore, one fatally, who butchered pigs imported from Malaysia. Soldiers have killed almost 1 million pigs and some stray dogs to try to curb the virus. On Monday, pet owners in Malaysia's high-risk areas were told to get their animals checked immediately after new tests confirmed house pets could transmit the disease to humans. Medical authorities named the new virus Nipah, after the village where it was first isolated. As remote as the Nipah virus may seem, controlling and understanding it are a concern of epidemiologists around the globe because of fear it could spread quickly. "In today's world, it's not unrealistic to think of the possibility that someone could get on a plane and land in San Francisco with it," says Dr. Duane Gubler, director of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases at Fort Collins, Colo. For months, Malaysian health officials were certain the killer was Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus common to the area. The two pathogens cause similar symptoms _ high fever, aches, eventual coma and, often, death. But most people in the region had been vaccinated for JE as children. Additionally, it doesn't usually kill adult pigs. The government declared a state of emergency in three Malaysian states and launched fogging and vaccination campaigns, to no avail. The Nipah virus raged on. And despite no proof that Nipah can infect people who eat or handle pork, the epidemic has wreaked havoc on Malaysia's nearly $400 million pork industry. On March 7, baffled Malaysian researchers sought help from their counterparts at Gubler's CDC office in Fort Collins. "It was quite fortuitous that when I sent him an offer to help, he was in the process of sending a note to the CDC asking for help," Gubler says. The following Saturday morning, a Malaysian researcher arrived in Fort Collins with slides of cells infected with the mysterious virus. The researchers worked through the weekend, screening the sample against dozens of known viruses. All were negative. When they tried to isolate Nipah, it formed giant cells with multiple nuclei _ epidemiological patterns not at all like JE. By Sunday, a red flag had gone up: The Nipah virus fit in none of the three virus families studied at Fort Collins and was actually a previously unknown paramyxovirus. This family includes measles and mumps, but one of the last new paramyxoviruses discovered was the especially virulent Hendra virus. "That was when we packed it up and sent it to Atlanta," Gubler says. The samples were taken to the CDC's Level 4 biocontainment lab, which houses deadly microbes that have no vaccine or cure, such as the Ebola virus that killed 245 Zaireans in 1995. The CDC's medical detectives quickly identified the culprit as related to but far deadlier than the very rare Hendra virus. Hendra was first detected in 1994 in Australia, where it killed 15 racehorses and two trainers. But they know little else. "That indicated right away that this was something big. We knew it was a new virus and we knew it was related to a virus that kills people," Peters says. "We're not talking about an outbreak of colds that's going to run through and everybody's going to get over it." In late March, a team of eight CDC epidemiologists and two Australian researchers packed questionnaires, protective gear, needles and vials and headed for Malaysia. Wearing gloves, rubber coveralls, boots and battery-operated respirators, the disease detectives began combing through animal feed and trapping rodents. They have spent weeks tramping through pig pens and farming villages in the worst-hit areas. They are interviewing victims and their families and friends: What did they eat? What did they drink? Where did they go? What did they do? It's all to form a hypothesis about how the virus is transmitted. Blood samples have been taken from birds, turkeys, goats, horses, cattle and wild animals. With the Hendra virus, the culprits were fruit bats. "We have no idea what the natural reservoir of this virus is," Gubler says. The CDC's next step is to try to develop a genetically engineered vaccine using mice, rats and guinea pigs. But Peters hopes the vaccine isn't needed. Killing hundreds of thousands of pigs seems to have helped _ as of last week, the number of new cases appeared to be declining, and the disease may ease naturally. "If we're lucky," Peters says, "in two or three months the outbreak will come under control and we'll never have to make a vaccine." KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - About 500 angry Malaysian pig farmers protested Tuesday over what they called the government's inadequate response to a killer virus that has destroyed their animals. Wearing black armbands of mourning, the farmers demanded greater compensation for their pigs. At least 100 people have died since October of a mystery virus transmitted by pigs. Authorities have shut down pig farms and slaughtered nearly 1 million hogs suspected of carrying the virus. NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR EXITS PC CHIP MARKET NEW YORK (Reuters) - National Semiconductor Corp. Wednesday said it will exit the PC processor business and, as a consequence, cut 550 jobs and take up to $300 million in charges as it focuses on chips for new smart devices. "We will immediately cease slugging it out in the PC processor market, which has been dragging down our financial performance for several quarters," Brian Halla, chairman, president and CEO of National said in a statement. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm, which has previously streamlined its business to move into higher-margin chip markets, said it intends to sell a majority interest in its South Portland, Maine, wafer fabrication plant. The company plans to cut 550 positions through early retirement, attrition and layoffs, including 165 job cuts in Singapore announced in April. AOL WARNED DOJ OF NETSCAPE DEAL WASHINGTON (AP) - America Online revealed Wednesday a senior executive met privately with a top government lawyer weeks before the start of the Microsoft trial to warn him that AOL was actively involved in sensitive negotiations with Netscape. Those talks culminated months later in AOL's nearly $10 billion purchase of Netscape Communications Corp., the Internet pioneer whose Web browsing software is a focal point of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft. Microsoft has maintained that it didn't know about the plans by two of its chief software rivals until news reports of the deal surfaced late in November, and that it wasn't able to explore the implications of the new alliance on its antitrust trial. HATCH, HYDE & CO. AT IT AGAIN! True Political Opportunists. Hatch late today said he is preparing several amendments to add to his bill S. 254, the "Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Accountability and Rehabilitation Act," co-sponsored with Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. Most of the proposed amendments, which could be added to the bill when it is up for Senate floor discussion next week, include language aimed directly at the Internet. The bill will encourage large Internet service providers (ISPs) to make available to their customers screening, filtering and blocking software that would allow parents and guardians to keep children shielded from material they consider objectionable. The proposal echoes one that was proposed by Vice President Al Gore earlier today in a White House ceremony (see related Newsbytes article). Gore said he and 15 companies that touch on approximately 95 percent of the Internet user community in the US have pledged to participate in a program that will let parents and guardians link to a site that will offer plain-English instructions, tools, and tips on children's safety on the Internet. That program is expected to launch this July. Hatch said that large ISPs should offer the filtering software at little to no charge, "or at a fee not exceeding the cost to the ISP within 12 months of enactment." A study conducted by the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention would go hand-in-hand with the filter availability. Hatch also proposes that the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) examine marketing practices in the video game, music and motion picture industries "to determine the extent to which violent material is being marketed to children." Another amendment would allow state law enforcement agencies to seek federal court injunctions against merchants or individuals who sell alcohol across state lines to minors via online transactions. Finally, another amendment would ban bomb-making sites from the Internet if it can be determined that "they will be drawn upon to use a bomb in violation of federal law." Hatch's amendment proposals follow on his Senate Commerce Committee testimony and Gore's speech from earlier today, as well as a recent call from Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., to President Clinton to hold an "emergency summit" on the effects of media violence on children. Clinton since has announced the upcoming summit. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., also said he would introduce similar proposals to Hatch's amendments in a juvenile justice bill of his own. UPDATE: MICROSOFT, AT&T FORM ALLIANCE NEW YORK (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is investing $5 billion in AT&T Corp. in a deal that will ensure that the dominant player in computer software won't be left out in AT&T's plan to use cable TV wires for Internet access, telephone calls and entertainment. The companies said Thursday they will pick three cities to test a new, pay-one-bill service featuring interactive TV with phone service, e-mail and other Internet features - all through one, super-fast cable. The announcement came a day after AT&T reached an agreement to acquire MediaOne Group Inc., the nation's fourth-largest cable provider, a deal expected to get a fine-tooth combing by regulators. NEW GUIDELINES FOR DISABLED ON WEB CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - The Internet would be more user-friendly for the blind and deaf under new guidelines that Web site designers are being encouraged to use. The World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees the programming language used in Web page publishing, Wednesday released the new guidelines. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines establish principles for design, such as the need to provide text alternatives for audio and video information. Common accessibility problems include images without alternative text, uncaptioned audio or undescribed video, tables that are difficult to decipher when linearized and sites with poor color contrast, the W3C said. COURT STRIKES U.S. ENCRYPTION RULES SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Government limits on the export of computer encryption codes, which scramble data to prevent eavesdropping, are a violation of freedom of expression, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The ruling is a blow to the Clinton administration, which limits exports of the most powerful encryption technology because it fears law enforcement agencies won't be able to read the messages of criminals or terrorists. But the high-tech industry wants relaxed restrictions so it can take full advantage of the booming market for encryption programs as Internet commerce increases. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding a lower-court ruling, said encryption codes contain expressions of ideas and cannot be suppressed indefinitely by government officials. NEW YORK (AP) - Barnesandnoble.com is going ahead with plans for an initial public offering of stock despite signs that Wall Street's frenzy for Internet-related businesses may be waning. The online retailer, jointly owned by bookseller Barnes & Noble and German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, said Thursday it hopes to raise about $300 million in the IPO, selling 25 million shares or about 18% of the company, for about $12 each. A date for the offering hasn't been set. The money will help the New York-based company in the fierce battle for market share against Amazon.com and the swarms of smaller outfits vying for a piece of the burgeoning online retailing business. FIRM SETTLES WEB CHILD-PRIVACY CASE WASHINGTON (AP) - The operator of a "Young Investor" Web site has settled government charges that it collected personal information from children without parental consent. The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday Liberty Financial Companies Inc. deceived visitors to its site by saying personal information from an Internet survey, including details of the child's and family's finances, would be kept anonymous. But according to the commission, the company, which runs the Young Investor site, also asked children for personal information such as name, address, age and e-mail address in order to send them newsletters and make them eligible for prizes. LUCENT DEVELOPING INTERNET PORTAL MURRAY HILL, N.J. (AP) - Lucent Technologies said Wednesday it will create a Web site that will provide information to wireless devices including cellular phones and hand-held personal digital assistants. Lucent said that it licensed Custom Netcenter from Netscape Communications Corp. to develop the Web site called Zingo. Custom Netcenter helps businesses create customized Web sites that combine Internet content with business applications. The site targets professionals on the move, allowing Web page content to be translated into voice applications, according to a statement released by Lucent. FCC CHIEF WANTS WEB-HOOKUP FUNDING Ultimately, YOU and I PAY for this! - Shut the FCC DOWN! BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) - The hottest toy from last Christmas is Exhibit A at a high-tech robot conference this week. The Furby - a fuzzy robot that talks, learns, and interacts with people and other Furbies that was the rage this past holiday season - is just the beginning of "autonomous agent" technology. At the third annual Conference on Autonomous Agents, researchers presented dozens of computer programs and systems that can think, learn, and act independently of their human creators. The Furby is a simple toy, but researchers say the eventual applications of the technology will be far-reaching. AT&T TO ACQUIRE MEDIAONE FOR $54 BLN Where is RENO & HER Crusading DOJ now??? This makes
Microsoft look like a beginner! MICROSOFT MAY HAVE MISSED CHANCE WASHINGTON (AP) It was a simple question almost casually put to a software executive during his testimony in the Microsoft trial, but the answer he gave and what he didn't say may play a central role in the next phase of the case. Unaware of secret negotiations between America Online and Netscape to forge a new $9.9 billion alliance, a Microsoft lawyer asked the AOL executive under oath whether the companies were planning to team up against Microsoft. In that instant, in a courtroom packed with journalists, months of sensitive talks between AOL and Netscape were suddenly at risk of a very public disclosure that could scuttle the deal still weeks away from being announced. David Colburn, AOL's senior vice president and a lawyer himself, cautiously answered that AOL, the world's largest Internet provider, was just trying to compete with Microsoft. And in what now appears to be an important lost opportunity, Microsoft's lawyer, John Warden, let the issue drop without pressing Colburn further. "That answer should have cued the Microsoft lawyer to a natural follow-up question; How?" said Stephen Gillers, a law school professor at New York University. "If that question had been asked, the witness would have had to reveal the plans. This is not a situation where I blame the witness. I blame the lawyer." Microsoft contends that the new AOL alliance has important implications for its industry and its trial because it shows that competition is thriving and that government intervention is unnecessary in such an important sector of the booming economy. Microsoft said Monday it plans to question Colburn again, as one of the six final witnesses selected for the next phase of its antitrust trial. In court papers, lawyers indicated they will ask Colburn about the "completeness and candor" of his previous testimony. But legal experts say that Colburn's answer, while clearly constructed to be intentionally vague, was also carefully enough worded not to expose the software executive to allegations of perjury. "The basic rule is that you get to play the role of the piano ..unless your opponent strikes the right key, you don't have to play that note," said William Kovacic, an antitrust expert at George Washington University. Kovacic said he doesn't believe Colburn can be accused of lying under oath, but added that "the manner in which he answered, the cleverness of the effort to sidestep; that raises questions about truthfulness." Netscape's former chief financial officer, Peter Currie, acknowledged last week in a deposition that talks with AOL began in late August, even though the sale wasn't publicly disclosed until late in November. Colburn dropped few hints about the pending purchase even as he was cross examined over two days late in October, close to the peak of the sensitive negotiations. Warden, who has questioned some of the government's most important witnesses during the trial, quizzed Colburn on the stand about AOL's previous attempts in late 1995 to combine forces against Microsoft. Warden read e-mail sent to AOL from Netscape's co-founder, Marc Andreessen, proposing to "use our unique respective strengths to go kick the (expletive) out of the beast from Redmond that wants to see us both dead." "Is AOL still trying to do what Mr. Andreessen suggested be done to the beast from Redmond?" Warden asked, almost prophetically. Colburn demurred: "What do you mean specifically?" Then, he added, "I think what AOL is trying to do, from my perspective, is to compete." Gillers, the law school professor who specializes in evidence and ethics, blames Warden for posing "really a very vague question," saying that Colburn couldn't be sure precisely what he was being asked. Kovacic was more generous toward Microsoft... "It's awfully tough, in retrospect," he said. "If you don't know what's on the other side of the curtain, it's a bit hard to do." The Justice Department and 19 states suing Microsoft say the deal is irrelevant to charges that the software giant illegally maintains a monopoly over the market for computer operating systems. NORTEL HAS NEW FIBER OPTICS PRODUCT NEW YORK (AP) - Nortel Networks Corp. has developed a new product that would advance the capacity of fiber optics communications networks. The company planned to announce the new product Tuesday, according to The New York Times. The Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel, like its rivals - including Lucent Technologies Inc. - is racing to develop advanced communications technologies needed to meet rapidly increasing global demand for Internet data. But Nortel's product still must make successful transitions from the laboratory to field trials to the marketplace, which could take a year. Nortel hopes to announce a communications carrier to try the new system within a few weeks and to begin trials in the fourth quarter, the Times reported. SEC TO PROPOSE WARNINGS ON E-TRADES WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's top securities regulator, concerned about the booming electronic trading business, is proposing requiring online brokerage firms to warn their clients of trading risks. Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, planned to unveil the plan in a speech Tuesday, said a regulatory source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Levitt warned investors early this year to use caution in electronic trading. His new proposal was first reported in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. The move comes as securities regulators investigate online brokerage firms and day-trading companies nationwide. GORE ANNOUNCES INTERNET SAFETY PLAN DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The nation's major Internet companies have agreed to offer parents faster access to technology allowing them to control and monitor children's on-line habits, Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday. Gore called the agreement a positive step forward that could keep youngsters away from inappropriate content like violent game sites or hate group sites. The accord comes in the wake of the deadly school shooting spree in Colorado, which has raised questions about youngsters being exposed to violent and hate-filled sites on the Internet. "Giving parents and teachers this ability will help ensure that our children can get the most from the vast educational potential of the Internet while keeping them safe," Gore said. The Russians are scrambling to get their missile systems ready for Y2K. The war in Yugoslavia isn't helping In Russia, the Y2K problem isn't about embedded chips in microwaves, it's about nuclear bombs. The specter of a Y2K-induced nuclear apocalypse is so terrifying, and real, that earlier this year Russia came to the U.S. and the IMF for help in controlling its arsenal through the turn of the millennium. The U.S. formed a delegation of technicians to send to Russia, but before work could begin the war in the Balkans heated up, and diplomatic relations cooled down to Cold War temperatures. Now all bets are off, and the clock is ticking... The Russian missiles have safeguards preventing self-launch, regardless of how badly their computers crash, but the Russian military early warning system, which provides command and control information to the people with their fingers on the button, is extremely vulnerable to Y2K-related malfunction. In January, the Russians raised Western eyebrows when they threw up their hands and asked for technical assistance from the United States (and money from the IMF) to fix their Y2K-unready machines. Needless to say, the vision of the Russian military command staring at "cannot find file: strategic missile data" on their frozen computer screens while poised to launch missiles capable of destroying all life on Earth was a big motivator for the U.S. Plans were hatched to send a delegation to Russia to discuss Y2K cooperation. In mid-February a group of U.S. computer specialists and military people, led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Ted Warner, traveled to Russia and reached a cooperative agreement with the Russians to stave off disaster. The plan was to send technical experts to assist the Russians in updating their computer systems and to exchange observers at key military posts over the date change to avoid any misunderstandings. But now, with Russian-U.S. relations at a post-Cold War low because of the Balkan war, the U.S. is struggling to show that this crucial agreement has not suffered. When a Pentagon spokesperson announced on April 19 that Y2K cooperation with Russia was continuing as planned, Andrew Meier, a Time Moscow correspondent, took it with more than a grain of salt. "The April 19 announcement was damage control by the U.S. Any real progress in the Y2K cooperation agreement would have been much more highly publicized, and they would have mentioned something about when the technical teams could begin their work." So where does the agreement stand? "As far as we can tell, the cooperation is on hold." Will the Russians back out for real? It seems unlikely. For the Russians to prevent U.S. experts from upgrading their computers would be like kicking the firefighters out of the house for leaving the toilet seat up. Unfortunately, rationality has been in scarce supply ever since the war in the Balkans began, and nobody knows what might happen, especially if NATO deploys ground troops. The future of the Balkan war is also uncertain, and global nuclear security has been added to the list of issues hinging on its outcome. N.Y. TIMES STEPS UP ONLINE PRESENCE NEW YORK (AP) - As part of an effort to beef up its online operations, The New York Times is planning to offer speedier updates to its own stories on its Web site, the newspaper's publisher said Tuesday. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., in a speech at an online media conference in San Francisco, said the newspaper also plans other steps to make its already successful site more current and useful. Sulzberger also said that since opening its site free of charge to overseas users last July, it has added an average of 4,500 new international users each day, for a total of 1 million foreign users. The Web site now has an overall total of 7 million registered users, he said. GRISSOM'S WIDOW LAMENTS CAPSULE FIND CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) _ The salvagers who found Gus Grissom's 38-year-old Mercury space capsule are eager to go back and raise it from the ocean floor. But the astronaut's widow lamented the discovery and called it "a sad day." "It brings back memories and there's nothing good," Betty Grissom said from her Houston home Monday. Her husband's capsule, the only U.S. manned spacecraft ever lost after a successful mission, was discovered Saturday night 300 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, three miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic. It was remarkably well-preserved. "Look at this," expedition leader Curt Newport gushed as he showed a video of the capsule to reporters. "You can see the lettering, United States, on the side of it. It's clear. Look at the periscope. The periscope is still extended. You can see the periscope flap sticking out. Look at the landing bag straps. They're still shiny. I mean, is that the most amazing thing you've seen or what?" Newport and his team had to leave Liberty Bell 7 where it was. The robotic rover that was used to identify and photograph the spacecraft, and also would have been used to recover it, sank in rough seas just four hours after the discovery. Newport figures it will take at least three to four weeks for his team to obtain another recovery vessel. (The Discovery Channel, which funded the expedition, is picking up the entire tab.) In the meantime, he plans to review his sonar charts to determine whether one of the 87 other targets in the area might be the missing hatch. Liberty Bell 7 sank on July 21, 1961, just after Grissom splashed down. The explosive bolts for blowing open the hatch detonated prematurely, and the spacecraft filled with so much water that helicopter rescuers could not pull it from the ocean. The mishap forever marred Grissom's otherwise successful 15-minute suborbital flight. Some speculated ...and still do, that Grissom may have bumped something or panicked, as was suggested in Tom Wolfe's 1979 book, "The Right Stuff." NASA exonerated Grissom and he went on to fly in the Gemini project, but died in the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire. "Gus is not here anymore and he cannot say anything," Mrs. Grissom said. "But as far as I'm concerned about Liberty Bell at this point, NASA is going to have to take control of it and do a thorough investigation because of all the rumors and lay some of those rumors to rest." "I want the experts at the cape" when the capsule is brought back, she added. "I want every little scratch on there and I want it reported." Mrs. Grissom opposes having the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center restore Liberty Bell 7, as is the plan. "Clean it up and that's it," she said. Newport said the hatch may hold the answer to the mystery. But he stressed: "It makes no difference to me why it sank. It's not my intention to drag up that controversy." VATICAN CITY (AP) - In a ceremony that drew one of the Vatican's biggest-ever crowds, Pope John Paul II moved Padre Pio one step closer to sainthood Sunday, beatifying the mystic Italian monk whom even the pontiff has turned to for miracles. The faithful started arriving in St. Peter's Square at dawn for the late-morning ceremony, and pilgrims elbowed each other for viewing spaces. After the 150,000 seats filled up, as many as 100,000 people stood shoulder-to-shoulder down the boulevard leading from the Vatican to the Tiber River. Twenty pilgrims were reported hospitalized and more than 200 were treated for dehydration, panic attacks or faintness. IBM TO TESTIFY FOR GOVERNMENT ON MICROSOFT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - IBM Corp. will become the first computer maker to testify for the government in the antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., a source close to the case said Monday. The source confirmed reports that IBM will give details on how Microsoft allegedly used its power as the supplier of the Windows operating system to push computer makers around. IBM will testify when the trial, currently in recess, enters its rebuttal stage. A formal list of rebuttal witnesses was to be released later Monday by both sides. SEATTLE (CBS.MW) - RealNetworks unveiled a new product Monday that will allow computer users to pull music off the Internet, tapping into an industry that analysts say is on the verge of exploiting the Web economy. Using the company's new RealJukebox product, users can download music CDs onto a computer hard drive in MP3 and other formats now available over the Internet. The MP3 format allows recordings to be transmitted over the Internet, but also has given rise to widespread piracy as people trade unauthorized copies of tunes for free. With 60 million registered users of its RealPlayer Internet-multimedia software, the company's application could serve as a powerful launching pad into music distribution. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 5/3 (STR Newswire) -- The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced today that Internet advertising revenues hit $1.92 billion in 1998, 112 percent over the $906.5 million generated in 1997 and setting the twelfth straight quarterly record. Internet ad revenues in 1998 passed the estimated $1.58 billion garnered by outdoor advertising last year, IAB said. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 1998 increased $165 million to $655.6 million, or 34 percent over the same quarter in 1997. However, the increase was not quite enough to bring the 1998 total to $2 billion, as IAB projected in its third-quarter report, released in February. The quarterly reports are based on research conducted independently by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Because the figures are based on data reported directly by ad publishers, the survey is considered an accurate gauge of online advertising revenue. Remarked Rich LeFurgy, chairman of IAB, "It is easy for us to forget that the Internet, as a viable advertising medium, is barely four years old, and it is astounding, that in such a relatively short period of time, its growth is now measured in billions of dollars." LeFurgy predicted that Internet advertising has not yet hit a plateau since current advertisers report they are increasing their budgets and new advertisers come online daily. "We look forward to a sustained period of growth in the years ahead," he added. According to the report, leading ad revenue categories during the fourth quarter were consumer-related (29 percent), computing (20 percent), financial services (19 percent), telecom (8 percent) and new media (7 percent). Of reported revenue transactions, the report says, 93 percent were cash-based with barter or trade (6 percent) and packaged deals (1 percent) following in the distance. Banner advertisements continue as the main type of advertising, accounting for 56 percent. Sponsorships account for another 30 percent, interstitials 5 percent, email 1 percent and all other types, 8 percent. As e-commerce continued to grow, hybrid deals accounted for 54 percent of revenue followed by "CPMs" or impression-based deals at 40 percent and performance-based deals following at 6 percent of revenues. Tom Hyland, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and chair of the New Media Group, said the strong growth in consumer advertising "coupled with seasonality similar to traditional advertising" seem to point to an increasing share of the total advertising budget. The "Advertising Revenue Report" survey of ad publishers was started by the IAB in 1996 and now includes data from more than 200 companies representing over 1200 World Wide Web sites. It includes data covering online ad revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers and other companies that sell online ads. The IAB maintains a Web site at http://www.iab.net LAST MICROSOFT WITNESSES IDENTIFIED WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft will use testimony from a rival executive at America Online, and an IBM executive will testify for the government among the six final witnesses in the Microsoft antitrust trial. Microsoft said Monday it will question AOL Senior Vice President David Colburn as a hostile witness when the trial resumes. It will ask him about AOL's recent $9.9 billion purchase of Netscape Communications and the implications of that extraordinary deal on the technology industry and on the trial. Microsoft argues AOL's alliance with Netscape illustrates competition is thriving and government intervention is unnecessary in such an important part of the booming economy. SERVER OUTAGE HALTS EBAY AUCTIONS NEW YORK (AP) - All auctions on eBay were temporarily suspended Monday after the popular Internet site experienced a server outage and wasn't able to process any bids or accept new listings. The auction company said the troubles began around 8:30 a.m. EDT and lasted until just before 2 p.m. EDT, although there were earlier reports of problems from some users. Due to the outage, eBay couldn't host auctions of just-released merchandise tied to "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." By midday Monday, rival Amazon.com had more than 15 auctions of new toys and other products based on the much-awaited movie. EBay said all auctions scheduled to end during the shutdown or for one hour afterwards will be extended by 24 hours. REGULATORS PROBING ONLINE BROKERAGES WASHINGTON (AP) - Securities regulators have been fanning out across the country investigating online brokerage firms and day-trading companies as they consider drafting new rules for the fast-growing electronic trading business. The government's top securities regulator is expected to announce a new initiative Tuesday. The investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers, a self-policing brokers' group, has been conducted over the past two months or so. The auditors are looking for possible violations of securities laws as well as examining how well the firms execute customers' orders and warn them of trading risks. CHECKFREE SAYS PROBLEM NEARLY FIXED ATLANTA (AP) - CheckFree said Friday it was almost glitch-free again after services were disrupted this week for some home-banking consumers. Spokeswoman Stephanie Norton said the system was working at 98% capacity and the company expected to soon be operating without any problems. She said technical staffers had identified a software application problem that caused up to 500,000 people who used Quicken or Microsoft Money software to face sporadic difficulty accessing their bank accounts or completing transactions. Some 20 banks that had been switched to a new processing system over the last six months were affected in a problem that began showing up early Monday. N.Y. TO ALLOW E-MAIL PRESCRIPTIONS ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Xjkdfvdsgasdfadstfhfbdfg. That's what most people and some pharmacists see on their prescription after a doctor scribbles the name of a type of pill on a pad. But starting in June a doctor's bad handwriting won't matter because New York state will allow e-mail and fax communication between a physician and a pharmacist. Now, New York bans doctors from faxing or e-mailing their patients' prescriptions to a pharmacy, although 40 states allow prescriptions to be faxes and 30 allow them to be e-mailed. Under the new regulations, however, controlled substances will not be able to be prescribed electronically. IBM TO UNVEIL POWERFUL MAINFRAME NEW YORK (AP) - Hoping to lead the way to smoother online commerce, IBM is set to debut a new mainframe computer capable of processing 1.6 billion instructions per second, more than 50% more powerful than any machine on the market. The high-capacity business machines were to be introduced Monday, less than nine months after the company released the first mainframe to break the 1 billion mark for instructions per second. The G6 is the first IBM mainframe to use the copper-semiconductor technology the company introduced nearly two years ago. In addition to increasing speed and capacity, copper chips cost less and use less electricity than those made with aluminum. E-COMMERCE ALIVE, WELL AT N.D. RANCH GRANVILLE, N.D. (AP) - At the Big Sky Buffalo Ranch, checking the Internet for meat orders is on the list of daily chores, along with tending the herd of 350 bison that roam vast pastures in north-central North Dakota. Big Sky sells its buffalo meat to customers all over the world via the Internet, providing a financial boost while many farmers and ranchers are struggling to stay on the land. "You have to find other avenues to bring money into North Dakota," Cathy Ulland said as she drove by herds of buffalo on her family's pasture. "We know we don't have much in North Dakota." Ulland said the ranch sells about the same amount of buffalo meat by computer as it does at its small store in downtown Granville, also known as McGillicuddy City.
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