Wire
G-8 talking new aid pledges
RUSUTSU, Japan -- An aid group founded by U2 frontman Bono calculates that the Group of Eight top industrialized nations has delivered only $3 billion of the additional $25 billion promised for Africa for everything from AIDS drugs to training peacekeepers. Now the Africans and their allies want a new system to make sure rich nations come through. The G-8 opened their summit in northern Japan on Monday with a discussion with eight African ...
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Artists flock to scenic Flint Hills
BAZAAR -- Dale Hartley bends over her wet oil painting lying in the tall grass at the side of a gravel road southeast of Bazaar. She adds streaks of colors to the canvas to recreate the motion of the grass as it bends in the wind and the sunlight reflecting off the deep-green blades. Hartley, a painter-potter who grew up in Wichita and now lives in Saffordville, has grown to love the rolling Kansas prairie and joins other plein air artists ne...
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Soriablowssave,but Buck powersKC to victory
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A stroke of good luck by Carlos Pena wasn't quite enough for the Tampa Bay Rays. After Pena hit a tying solo homer off All-Star closer Joakim Soria in the ninth Monday, the Royals struck back with 10th-inning home runs by John Buck and Mike Aviles for a 7-4 win. The loss snapped the Rays' seven-game winning streak. Tampa Bay, with the major's best record at 55-33, lost for the second time in the last 13 games. The...
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Mercedes-climbing goat
CAPSHAW, Ala. -- The goat was arrested, the Mercedes-Benz was assaulted and the dog came along for the ride. It happened Sunday when a woman driving the Mercedes saw a goat and dog playing on U.S. 72 in northern Alabama, Sheriff Mike Blakely said. She stopped, afraid they would get hit, Blakely said. But the goat jumped on the car and wouldn't come down. Fearing scratches and dents in her import's paint job, she called the Limestonse Count...
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Chinese tourists fly to Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Hundreds of mainland Chinese tourists -- some in matching white or pink shirts -- arrived in Taiwan on Friday on the first regular commercial flights in nearly six decades between the old foes. A China Southern Airlines flight carrying 230 passengers touched down at Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan, and fire trucks shot water at the first plane in a welcome gesture. "From today onward, regular commercial flig...
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Chestnut wins Coney Island hot dog contest
NEW YORK (AP) -- Joey Chestnut reclaimed the top spot at the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island on Friday after first tying with archrival Takeru Kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down and then beating him in a five-dog eat-off. The men tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes, before being made to gobble another five dogs in a last-minute tiebreaker. They consumed 64 hot dogs total and were looking quite peaked after the competition. Kob...
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It's Federer vs. Nadal -- all over again
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Add up all of Roger Federer's greatness on grass courts, and the numbers are striking: 40 wins in a row at Wimbledon, 65 overall on the surface. Now he seeks an additional victory, a victory that would make him the first man since the 1880s to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles, a victory that would give him a 13th Grand Slam championship, one shy of Pete Sampras' career record. And a victory that would have to...
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PJs for GIs
OWASSO, Okla. -- Julie Dermody doesn't want troops who suffer an injury in combat to have an added insult in the form of a flimsy hospital gown. That's why she started a drive to gather donated pajamas to send to troops who might need them. Dermody got the idea from her brother, Sgt. Richard Hines, who works with the Oklahoma Army National Guard at Camp Gruber near Muskogee. He finished a 12-month stint in Iraq in November and heard from a Na...
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Abdul Qadeer Khan talks nukes
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The disgraced architect of Pakistan's nuclear program said Friday that it provided centrifuges to North Korea in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army under President Pervez Musharraf. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who remains a national hero despite confessing four years ago to heading a clandestine proliferation network, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pak...
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High and low temperatures and precipitation for the 24 hours ending at 7 p
Kansas temperatures High and low temperatures and precipitation for the 24 hours ending at 7 p.m. Friday. Hi Lo Prec. Chanute 84 63 0.00 Coffeyville 86 67 0.00 Concordia 83 55 0.00 Dodge City 92 58 0.00 Elkhart 93 60 0.00 Emporia 81 60 0.01 Garden City 92 59 0.00 Goodland 92 57 0.00 Hays 90 55 0.00 Hill City 92 60 0.00 Hutchinson 87 57 0.00 Lawrence 82 58 0.01 Liberal 91 63 0.00 Manhattan 82 58 0.00 Medicine Lodge 90 59 0.00 Olathe 80 60 ...
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No time to lounge: Lizard's lifespan is short
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Confused and frustrated that the lizards he was trying to study all suddenly died, Oklahoma State University researcher Kris Karsten came to a conclusion that's earned him national acclaim. As it turns out, the chameleon he had been researching lives a brisk life and might just be better off in its egg than after it has hatched. Karsten published his doctorate research on the tiny chameleon species Furcifer labordi this ...
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Offutt gets new Air Force unit
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Nebraska officials hope to convince the Air Force that the best location for its new Cyber Command headquarters is Offutt Air Force Base on the south edge of Omaha. Nebraska, along with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, responded to the Air Force's request for information ahead of this week's July 1 deadline. To bolster the case for Offutt, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman solicited letters of support from th...
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Man wrongly jailed can't sue
WICHITA -- A man mistakenly jailed in Colorado and Kansas for a month can't sue Sedgwick County or its sheriff, a federal judge has ruled. Francisco J. Reyes, of Kansas City, Kan., was held for a month in 2005 after authorities mistakenly matched him to a man wanted in a baby's rape. In dismissing Reyes' lawsuit on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil of Kansas City, Kan., said Reyes can't sue Sedgwick County commissioners or Sheriff...
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Sentencing delayed for Braden
KINGMAN -- The former police chief of Kingman will have to wait two more weeks before hearing his sentence for domestic violence. A sentencing hearing for John Braden was scheduled for Thursday in Kingman County District Court, but had to be postponed until July 18 because of a scheduling conflict. Braden pleaded guilty May 30 to felony criminal threat and misdemeanor battery following a fight with his girlfriend in April. He resigned as poli...
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Beasley cracked sternum
MIAMI (AP) -- Michael Beasley slightly cracked his sternum in a collision with a teammate earlier this week, yet still could be with the Miami Heat when the team opens summer league play Monday. Daequan Cook won't be so lucky. The Heat announced Friday that Cook has separated his left, non-shooting, shoulder, meaning he won't be available for the five-games-in-five-days summer league schedule starting Monday in Orlando. Cook -- who suffered t...
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Betancourt cries with joy upon arriving in France after 6 years as hostage in Colombia
PARIS (AP) -- "I cry with joy," Ingrid Betancourt said. And she did. After six years as a hostage in the Colombian jungle, the former Colombian presidential candidate and French citizen flew back to her beloved France to be embraced Friday as an icon by the country that raised her. A hero's welcome -- led by President Nicolas Sarkozy -- greeted Betancourt from the moment she descended from the plane at the Villacoublay air base southwest of P...
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KU student dies in shooting
LAWRENCE -- Lawrence police are searching for a 46-year-old man charged with second-degree murder in the off-campus death of a University of Kansas student. Twenty-five-year-year-old Jana Lynne Mackey was found dead Thursday in a home near Lawrence Memorial Hospital. According to police, Mackey was reported missing around 4:30 p.m. Her car was subsequently found in the hospital parking lot, and her body was found later. Police have issued an ...
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Big Sur, Los Padres National Forest fires raging along California coast
By The Associated Press BIG SUR, Calif. -- A pair of out-of-control wildfires roared along California's central coast Friday, chewing through opposite ends of a parched forest and threatening a total of more than 4,500 homes. While flames from the stubborn fire in the northern flank of the Los Padres National Forest inched closer to Big Sur's historic vacation retreats, state emergency officials said hot winds had caused a newer blaze 200 ...
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Vacation Bible school gets a pricey facelift
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- It's a wonder vacation Bible school made it out of the 1960s. Back in the days of black-and-white TV, churches offered kids lemonade, cookies and flannel-board stories about Jesus, all set to a clanging piano. Children sat in short wooden chairs and listened to the tales for what seemed like an eternity. Things are different in 2008. DVDs and video screens are everywhere, along with professionally recorded music, d...
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Jesse Helms dies at 86
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86. "It's just incredible that he would die on July 4, the same day of the Declaration of Independence and the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, and he certainly is a patriot in t...
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