VARANASI, India/WUHAN, China (Reuters) –
A total solar eclipse on Wednesday swept across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken, though in some places thick summer clouds blocked the sun.

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century cut through the world's most populous nations, India and China, as it travelled half the globe. It was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, U.S. space agency NASA said.

In India, where eclipse superstitions are rife, people snaked through the narrow lanes of the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act believed to bring release from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns, thousands of men, women and children waded into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast sky.

"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our afterlife," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India traveling in a group of about 100.

But for one 80-year-old woman the trip was fatal. Police said she died from suffocation in the crowd of hundreds of thousands that had gathered to bathe in the Ganges.

The eclipse next swept through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River, before heading to the Pacific.

In Hindu-majority Nepal, the government declared Wednesday a public holiday and thousands headed for water.

"Taking a dip in holy rivers before and after the eclipse salvages and protects us from disasters and calamities," said 86-year-old Sundar Shrestha, who had come to the holy Bagmati river with six children and grand children.

In central China crowds gathered along the high dykes of the industrial city of Wuhan, roaring and waving goodbye as the last sliver of sun disappeared, plunging the city into darkness, although clouds cheated them of part of the spectacle.

"As soon as the totality happened, the clouds closed in so we couldn't see the corona. That's a pity," said Zhen Jun, a man whose work unit had given him the day off to enjoy the spectacle.

But eclipse viewers in central China were luckier than those in the coastal cities near Shanghai, where overcast skies and rain in some places blocked the view of the sun entirely.

STUDYING SUNS'S CORONA

Eclipses allow earth-bound scientists a rare glimpse of the sun's corona, the gases surrounding the sun, and this year there will be extra time for study.

"This is indeed quite an important event for scientific experiments. Its long duration provides you an opportunity to make very complicated, complex experiments," said Harish Bhatt, dean at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Scientists in China planned to snap two-dimensional images of the sun's corona -- up to 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million F) hot -- at roughly one image per second, Bhatt said.

The eclipse lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

It will be the longest eclipse of this century and will not be surpassed until June 13, 2132, according to NASA (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpubs/5MCSE.html).

The eclipse is seen as a mixed blessing for millions of Indians. Those who considered it auspicious bathed in holy rivers and ponds for good fortune during the solar blackout.

But astrologers predicted the eclipse spelled bad luck for others. Expectant mothers asked doctors to advance or postpone births to avoid complications or a miserable future for children.

Parents in several schools in India's capital, New Delhi, kept their children home from classes since the eclipse coincided with breakfast. According to Hindu custom, it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse.

In ancient Chinese culture, an eclipse was an omen linked to natural disasters or deaths in the imperial family. Chinese officials and state media were at pains to reassure the public that city services would run normally.

In modern China, people who wished to see the astronomical rarity clearly tried to escape pollution, avoiding industrial cities where smog smudges the horizon, even on clear days.

"The majority of people decided to go to Tongning, in Anhui, because they're worried about the serious air pollution from industrial areas in Shanghai," said Bill Yeung, the president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society.

Those who chose Shanghai ended up fleeing to inland cities to escape the clouds, he added.

(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma, Matthias Williams, Bappa Majumdar and James Pomfret; Writing by Matthias Williams and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Alex Richardson)

A bench is a piece of furniture, which mostly offers several persons seating. As a rule, benches are made of wood, but one can also find stone benches and benches made of synthetic materials. Many benches have arm rests. In public areas, benches are often donated by persons or associations, which may then be indicated on it, e.g. by a small copper plaque.

Various types of benches are specifically designed for and/or named after specific uses, such as a Bench (weight training) is used for fitness exercises, such as the bench press which is named after its use of a bench a Communion bench is not used as a seat Piano benches offer usually one person seating and are height adjustable. a spanking bench, such as a caning bench, is specifically designed for a spankee to lie upon, possibly strapped down, while submitting to paining of the posterior Swing seats are independently movable, suspended benches, used for play or as a relaxing porch swing. a courting bench (or kissing bench, or tête-à-tête): a two-seater with the seats pointing in opposite directions, thus almost facing each other. A friendship bench in a school playground is where a child can go when they want someone to talk to. The bench in a courtroom, behind which the judge is seated.

Garden Tables

SANTIAGO, Chile – In one of the driest regions on earth, even a drizzle can cause an emergency.
Less than 100th of an inch (about 0.2 millimeters) of rain fell on the Chilean port city of Iquique Monday afternoon, accompanied by moderate winds of about 10 mph (17 kph), according to the country's weather service. That was enough to knock out power to several neighborhoods and to damage the roofs of 4,000 precarious dwellings, Gov. Miguel Silva said Tuesday.
Schools were closed Tuesday so that officials can repair the damage. There were no reports anyone was injured.
The city of 170,000 people in northern Chile is in the heart of the barren Atacama Desert, squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It averages about 0.02 inch (0.6 millimeter) of rain a year, according to University of Chile meteorologists.
"Roofs in this region are to protect people from the sun, not from rain," Silva said.
With little water to worry about, many of Iquique's poor live in homes covered with a bits of wood, plaster or even cardboard that are easily damaged by a little rain and wind. Many have no slope to let water run off.

BERLIN (Reuters) –
Next year's World Cup promises to be a loud affair after FIFA rejected calls to ban the noisy vuvuzela, a plastic trumpet, from the event in South Africa.

The instrument's incessant drone drew protests at last month's Confederations Cup in South Africa, with broadcasters complaining it was drowning out their commentary and some players saying they could not communicate over it.

"That would mean one would have to take away the cow bells from Swiss fans and ban English fans from singing," Hans Klaus, director of communications at world football's governing body, told reporters on Friday.

"We approach this in a relaxed manner. I am convinced the vuvuzelas will be a hit at the World Cup. It will be a World Cup with African sound."

After a barrage of complaints about the instrument, a regular fixture at domestic matches in South Africa, FIFA pledged to discuss whether the vuvuzela had a place at the World Cup.

Vuvuzelas, given away free to fans at the Confederations Cup, were a constant background sound in all matches.

Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso was one of the critics at the time.

"I think they should be banned. They make it very difficult for the players to communicate with each other and to concentrate," he said.

(Writing by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Sonia Oxley)

TEHRAN (AFP) –
Powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday called for the release of hundreds of people rounded up during a crackdown on opposition protests and said last month's disputed presidential vote had broken the trust of Iranians.

Addressing thousands of people, mainly supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, during Friday prayers at Tehran university, Rafsanjani said events since the election had thrown the Islamic republic into crisis.

Iranian authorities have jailed hundreds of people amid a crackdown to stifle protests which erupted following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 re-election.

"What should we do?" Rafsanjani asked, in his first public comments on the divisive election. "Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken.

"It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other," said Rafsanjani, a backer of the defiant opposition, especially Mousavi.

He said he had formulated a possible solution to the situation which he had discussed with members of two key institutions which he heads, the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts.

"A large group of ... people of the country say they have doubt" about the result of the election, the cleric said. "We should work to address these doubts.

"These are bitter times. I don't think anybody from any faction wanted it to end like this. We have all lost. We need unity more than ever," he added.

"If we can provide a consensus, then this sermon will be the beginning of a change in the future. We will leave behind this problem which we can say is a crisis."

Soon after he finished speaking, several thousand supporters of Mousavi held a demonstration near the university, witnesses said.

The demonstrators shouted "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!" and "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as riot police attempted to disperse them, a witness told AFP, adding that several demonstrators were quickly arrested by riot police.

Mousavi had been expected to attend the prayers which would have marked his first public appearance since his supporters last month staged the anti-Ahmadinejad protests in Tehran.

However, witnesses said they could not confirm Mousavi's attendance. Mousavi has charged that the June vote was rigged and has dismissed the next government as "illegitimate."

The foreign media was banned from covering the prayers.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had earlier expressed concern over the prayers.

"Iranian people must be careful that the Friday prayers are not turned into a venue for unpleasant scenes," he said on Thursday.

The post-election anti-Ahmadinejad protests saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran and other cities, triggering the worst crisis in the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

The ensuing violence left at least 20 people dead, many scores wounded and hundreds arrested, according to official figures.

The protests shook the pillars of the Islamic republic and split the nation's clerical groups, while the crackdown by the authorities on demonstrators provoked worldwide outrage.

Iranian security forces backed by members of the volunteer Islamic Basij militia managed to stifle the protests, with all public gatherings banned, but demonstrators have defiantly taken to streets on several occasions.

During his sermon, Rafsanjani, a key Mousavi supporter who himself lost out to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential race, did not comment on the hardliner directly.

Rafsanjani had come under attack from Ahmadinejad during a prime-time television debate in the run-up to the vote, with the hardline incumbent accusing Rafsanjani's family of corruption.

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Aviation companies may not interview six current and former Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who worked on government probes into the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks, a judge ruled on Thursday.

The ruling in extensive litigation following the attacks addressed three wrongful death cases and 19 property damage cases, leaves several issues remaining and set July 28 for the next pretrial conference.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York wrote that the aviation defendants, "wish to argue at trial that the terrorists would have succeeded in their plans and caused the damage of which plaintiffs complain regardless of the Aviation Defendants negligence."

They include UAL Corp, US Airways Group Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Continental Airlines Inc, AirTran Holdings Inc and Boeing Co.

A lawyer for the aviation companies could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling.

Another defendant in the overall litigation is The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the lower Manhattan site where the famed World Trade Center twin towers stood and were destroyed in the attacks.

Members of al Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger airliners, crashed two into the twin towers, a third into the Pentagon in Washington and the fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people, including all 19 hijackers, were killed.

"Permitting an inquiry into what fragments of information various government agents knew, or should have known, and at what time, but did not tell the defendants, threatens thoroughly to confuse and prejudice the jury, distract from the major issues of the case, and add to the trial substantial expense and delay," the judge wrote.

He allowed some testimony of two FBI agents from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life sentence for conspiring with the hijackers.

A motion to admit the 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004 and ordered by Congress, was denied except for a chronology of the report.

The case is In Re September 11 Litigation 21-MC-101, 07-7051 and 08-10646 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)

(Reporting by Grant McCool; editing by Andre Grenon)

In the past, a woman's corset was usually worn over a garment called a chemise or shift, a sleeveless low-necked gown made of washable material (usually cotton or linen). It absorbed perspiration and kept the corset and the gown clean. In modern times, an undershirt or corset liner may be worn.

Originally, they were marketed under the name camiknickers; the name was coined in the 1920s when they were introduced as a one piece garment and it was derived from camisole and knickers. It was an appropriate garment to wear under the shorter dresses of the time and also gained popularity during the World War II when women who served in military related duties wore trousers instead of skirts. By the late 1940s the garment became less popular. The garment re-appeared in the lingerie market in the 1990s under the name teddy or body.

BBW Lingerie

Quotes from some of the Emmy Award nominees:
___
"My first reaction, because I couldn't find the list online, I was like, `No, no, send me the list. I do not believe this is real. You have to prove it to me by seeing it in writing.'" — Jane Krakowski on her first-ever Emmy nomination, for supporting actress in NBC's "30 Rock."
___
"I was awake already and I had forgotten that this was the morning. I'm way up north at my cabin in the woods in northern Minnesota. And I thought it was somebody calling to talk to me about my bat problem here in the cabin. So I was very relieved and it was an unanticipated bit of joyful information." — Jessica Lange on her nomination for best actress in a miniseries or movie for HBO's "Grey Gardens."
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"It's very bittersweet. Farrah passed away three weeks ago today. It's quite a coincidence that three weeks later we find out about the Emmy nomination. I know that she would be so, so happy. This was so important to her, this project. She's been nominated before, and I just know that this would be the most important one of all. It's a wonderful way to honor her legacy... I'm thrilled about it and I want to cry at the same time." — Fawcett's friend Alana Stewart, a producer of NBC's "Farrah's Story."
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"I was honestly — I give you a caveat because it sounds like a cliche — but I was honestly overwhelmed. I thought we were eligible for nine nominations and when I found out that we had 17, I clearly hadn't done my math right, I started crying. I was extremely proud." — Michael Sucsy, director of HBO's "Grey Gardens."
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"I'm in such a dream state right now. I really hope I'm not dreaming this." — Aaron Paul on his nomination for supporting actor in AMC's "Breaking Bad."
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"It means we all get to get dressed up and go to a big party. And that's good enough for me." — Carter Bays, co-executive producer of CBS' "How I Met Your Mother," a nominee for best comedy.
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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen and Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this story.

SAN FRANCISCO – A bill to tax and regulate marijuana in California like alcohol would generate nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to an official analysis released Wednesday by tax officials.
The State Board of Equalization report estimates marijuana retail sales would bring $990 million from a $50-per-ounce fee and $392 million in sales taxes.
The bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano in February would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess, grow and sell marijuana.
Ammiano has promoted the bill as a way to help bridge the state's $26.3 billion budget shortfall.
"It defies reason to propose closing parks and eliminating vital services for the poor while this potential revenue is available," Ammiano said in a statement.
The way the bill is written, the state could not begin collecting taxes until the federal government legalizes marijuana. A spokesman says Ammiano plans to amend the bill to remove that provision.
The legislation requires all revenue generated by the $50-per-ounce fee to be used for drug education and rehabilitation programs. The state's 9 percent sales tax would be applied to retail sales, while the fee would likely be charged at the wholesale level and built into the retail price.
The Equalization Board used law enforcement and academic studies to calculate that about 16 million ounces — or 500 tons — of marijuana are consumed in California each year.
Marijuana use would likely increase by about 30 percent once the law took effect because legalization would lead to falling prices, the board said.
Estimates of marijuana use, cultivation and sales are notoriously difficult to come by because of the drug's status as a black-market substance. Calculations by marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials often differ widely.
"That's one reason why we look at multiple reports from multiple sources — so that no one agenda is considered to be the deciding or determining data," said board spokeswoman Anita Gore.
Advocates and opponents do agree that California is by far the country's top pot-producing state. Last year law enforcement agencies in California seized nearly 5.3 million plants.
If passed, Ammiano's bill could increase the tension between the state and the U.S. government over marijuana, which is banned outright under federal law. The two sides have clashed often since state voters passed a ballot measure in 1996 legalizing marijuana for medical use.
At the same time, some medical marijuana dispensary operators in the state have said they are less fearful of federal raids since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would defer to state marijuana regulations.
Advocates pounced on the analysis as ammunition for their claim that the ban on marijuana is obsolete.
"We can't borrow or slash our way out of this deficit," said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "The legislature must consider innovative sources of new revenue, and marijuana should be at the top of that list."
Ammiano's bill is still in committee. Hearings on the legislation are expected this fall.
Also Wednesday, three Los Angeles City Council members proposed taxing medical marijuana to help close the city's budget gap.

Council members Janice Hahn, Dennis Zine and Bill Rosendahl backed a motion asking city finance officials to explore taxing the drug.

Hahn said that with more than 400 dispensaries operating in the city, the tax could generate significant revenue. The motion pointed out that a proposed tax increase on medical marijuana in Oakland, which has only four dispensaries, was projected to bring in more than $300,000 in 2010.

Meanwhile, marijuana supporters have taken the first official step toward putting the legalization question directly to California voters.

A trio of Northern California criminal defense attorneys on Wednesday submitted a pot legalization measure to the state attorney general's office, which must provide an official summary before supporters can begin gathering signatures.

About 443,000 signatures are necessary to place The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act on the November 2010 ballot. The measure would repeal all state and local laws that criminalize marijuana.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) –
CIT Group Inc, a lender to hundreds of thousands of small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, said bailout talks with the government had ended, a development that could ultimately drive the company into bankruptcy.

Wednesday's announcement followed last-ditch talks in which Treasury officials had expressed concern about a worsening liquidity crunch at the 101-year old lender and indications that government aid would not put it on a path to recovery.

It also showed the possible limits of Washington's ability and willingness to rescue companies, after multiple bailouts engineered by Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp for larger companies such as American International Group Inc and Citigroup Inc.

"At least in the eyes of the Fed and the eyes of the Treasury, we've turned the corner, such that the systemic kinds of risks facing the economy may be well past," said Mike Knebel, a portfolio manager at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management in Portland, Oregon, which recently sold CIT bonds.

In a brief statement, New York-based CIT said "discussions with government agencies had ceased" and that "there is no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term," CIT said its management, directors and advisers were evaluating alternatives.

CNBC, citing a source close to the company, said CIT is now pursuing a plan that is likely to include a Chapter 11 filing on Friday.

On Wednesday night, CIT's representatives were trying to line up at least $2 billion in rescue financing from existing debtholders, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

CIT could not be immediately reached for comment on the reports.

A Treasury official said the talks ended after it became clear that CIT's liquidity had deteriorated too much, and the company had failed to show that it could raise private capital to stay solvent. A CIT bankruptcy, nonetheless, is not a foregone conclusion, the official told Reuters.

The Treasury Department also said there were limits to its ability to help troubled companies.

"Even during periods of financial stress, we believe that there is a very high threshold for exceptional government assistance to individual companies," it said in a statement.

CIT's travails were also a vexing problem for the Obama administration, which had to assess the risk of failing to bail out a large company whose collapse would, by itself, likely not pose a "systemic" risk to the financial system.

TARP MONEY NOT ENOUGH

If CIT were to go bankrupt, it would join Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Washington Mutual Inc among large financial companies to collapse since the credit crisis accelerated last September.

Standard & Poor's said on Monday that a CIT bankruptcy was possible if no federal aid emerged.

CIT ended March with $75.7 billion of assets, making it roughly one-ninth as large as Lehman and one-fourth as large as Washington Mutual, whose banking units were bought by JPMorgan Chase & Co..

Prior to a trading halt on Wednesday afternoon, CIT shares last traded at $1.65, up 4 cents. CIT's 5 percent notes maturing in 2015 traded around 60 cents on the dollar, yielding 16 percent, before the company's announcement, according to MarketAxess. The bonds could be worth less in bankruptcy.

Standard & Poor's 500 stock futures were down 0.3 percent after-hours.

Founded in St. Louis in 1908, CIT boasts on its website that 1 million business customers depend on it for financing.

Many may now have to depend on someone else, at a time credit markets remain tight, reducing business activity as the government tries to lift the economy out of recession.

Failure to meet its obligations "would be a disaster" for small and mid-market borrowers that depend on CIT, said Eric Goodison, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York.

Published reports said many customers drew down credit lines in recent days as CIT's problems became widely known.

Steve Bartlett, chief executive of the Financial Services Roundtable, said in an interview that 10,000 small businesses could be choked off from needed funds if CIT failed.

FDIC OBJECTS

CIT's problems mushroomed two years ago in the wake of Chief Executive Jeffrey Peek's decision earlier this decade to expand into subprime mortgages and student loans, both potentially highly profitable but fraught with added risk.

Peek's status at CIT remains uncertain. The company was not available for further immediate comment.

CIT sought new help even after winning bank holding company status in December so it could draw $2.33 billion of taxpayer money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Treasury had been considering an aid package that could have included a temporary loan, access to the Fed's discount window, or asset transfers to CIT's banking unit, a person familiar with the matter said. The person requested anonymity because the talks were private.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, whose office is already under strain as banks fail by the dozens, had been reluctant to let CIT issue government-guaranteed debt, believing that a program allowing such issuance was designed for healthy institutions.

"It would be a shame if there were political decisions being made that stem from turf warfare," said Marshall Front, chairman of Front Barnett Associates LLC in Chicago.

The FDIC declined to comment.

CIT faces some $10 billion of debt coming due in the year ending March 31, 2010.

"The government has to draw the line at some point," said James Barth, an economist at the Milken Institute.

"I don't think it's going to be a catastrophe or become another Lehman Brothers, given the FDIC's apparent concern about the quality of the assets."

Earlier on Wednesday, Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he hoped the government would find aid for CIT. "If CIT doesn't get structured help, then it will have a very negative effect, I'm told, on small businesses around the country," he said in an interview.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan, Paritosh Bansal, Tom Hals, Peter Henderson, David Lawder, Patrick Rucker, Walden Siew, Jonathan Spicer, Rachelle Younglai and Ajay Kamalakaran; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Ted Kerr and Anshuman Daga)

LOS ANGELES – Harry Potter has conjured up a record-breaking witching hour.
The latest adventure of the teen wizard, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," took in $22.2 million domestically from midnight screenings, distributor Warner Bros. said Thursday. That breaks the record set by another Warner blockbuster, "The Dark Knight," which grossed $18.5 million from midnight shows last summer.
The sixth installment in the "Harry Potter" franchise also topped this year's biggest hit, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which pulled in $16 million from midnight screenings on its first day in June.
"Half-Blood Prince" raked in $10 million more from midnight screenings than part five, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," in summer 2007.
There was pent-up demand for "Harry Potter" after that last movie. The two-year lag since "Order of the Phoenix" was the longest fans have had to wait for a new "Harry Potter" flick since the first movie arrived in 2001.
Warner originally planned to release "Half-Blood Prince" last November but bumped it to 2009 to take advantage of an open weekend in Hollywood's busy summer schedule.
"We're sorry that it caused some angst with our fans, but they're troopers, and they came out and supported the movie," said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner.
The new movie has Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) trying to pry loose a hidden memory from one of his teachers, who holds key information about the wizard world's darkest enemy, Lord Voldemort.
Earning some of the best reviews in the franchise's history, the new "Harry Potter" tale played to packed crowds in 3,003 theaters for its midnight debut. Domestically, that theater count climbed to 4,275 later Wednesday, and 50 more cinemas will be added Friday.
With that kind of market saturation, "Half-Blood Prince" could set other new box-office highs — both for the "Harry Potter" franchise and Hollywood in general.
"It's definitely within reach of some of the biggest records in box-office history," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com
"Order of the Phoenix" also opened on a Wednesday and had the franchise's best five-day debut at $139.7 million. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" had the top three-day weekend opening of $102.7 million.
"The Dark Knight" is the record-holder for best opening day ($67.2 million), best weekend ($158.4 million) and best five-day debut ($203.8 million).
The seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is being split into two parts for the big screen, with the first movie due out in November 2010 and the second in July 2011.
David Yates, who directed both "Half-Blood Prince" and "Order of the Phoenix," also is making the final two films.
"We just wish there were another four books," Fellman said.

Racing Schools

A race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats or stages (stages are also known as legs). A heat is usually run over the same course at different times. A stage is a shorter section of a much longer course or a time trial.

It was won by Georges Bouton, in a car he had constructed with Albert, the Comte de Dion, but as he was the only competitor to show up it is rather pointless to call it a race. On July 22 1894, the first real contest was organized by Paris magazine Le Perit Journal, as a reliability test. The Comte de Dion was first to arrive in Rouen on his steam car, but a Panhard et Levassor was judged to be the winner.

According to a report by Club Net Radio released in March 2007[dead link], under the new rates, annual fees for all station owners are projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2008. This figure is more than four times that for traditional radio broadcasters who, due to terms set forth in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, are exempt from the additional royalties imposed on digital broadcasting outlets, which compensate the performers and copyright owners of recorded works. Both traditional radio and Internet/digital radio broadcasters are responsible for royalties collected by performance rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) on behalf of the composers of recorded works.

Due to these rate increases, it has been suggested that some U.S.-based Internet broadcasts should be moved to foreign jurisdictions where US royalties do not apply. "For example, Mercora, a service that allows individuals to launch their own webcasts, has established a Canadian site that they believe falls outside U.S. regulatory and royalty rules."

Click Here

CHICAGO – Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a rising star in the Democratic Party, resisted interest reaching all the way to the White House for her to run for higher office next year. One of the reasons: A campaign for U.S. Senate or governor would have been a burden on her young family.
"We have two wonderful little daughters, and I want to be around to see them," the 42-year-old Madigan said last week during her surprise announcement that she would instead run again for her state job.
Maintaining the delicate balance between work and family is a struggle for all working moms, but for women politicians, private decisions about climbing the career ladder end up dissected on the evening news. Like Madigan, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and former acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift all have seen their choices open to public scrutiny.
"I think we pay too much attention to women's decisions because there are so many of us who are still conflicted about our roles as mothers and in the work force," Swift said after Madigan announced her decision.
Swift garnered national attention when she stayed in office in 2001 after giving birth to twins — the nation's first governor to give birth while in office — only to bow out of the governor's race the next year.
While some of the attention was on the role her family played in that decision, Swift said she dropped out because she couldn't win re-election; she'd been lieutenant governor and was promoted after the sitting governor left to take an ambassadorship. The married mother of three girls currently works as an education consultant. Her twins are now 8, and another daughter is almost 11.
"I still work too much, but the entire Commonwealth (of Massachusetts) doesn't know and make me feel guilty," she said.
There's a double standard for moms and dads in politics, said Karen O'Connor, the founder and director of American University's Women & Politics Institute.
"From the minute Sarah Palin was named to be on the McCain ticket, the question was, 'Oh my God, she has five children, how is she going to combine running a campaign and having five kids?'" O'Connor said.
Palin was tapped as the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate just months after giving birth to a son with Down syndrome. She recently announced her resignation as governor, suggesting it was unfair to citizens for her to stick around as a lame duck and noting the cost to taxpayers of ethics investigations against her.
But she said she had other reasons for stepping down, including that she was tired of her family being the butt of jokes. She announced that her unwed teen daughter, Bristol, was pregnant shortly after Sen. John McCain named her as his running mate. The campaign propelled Palin and her family into the limelight and since then they've been tabloid fodder and the butt of jokes for late-night comedians, sparking one high-profile feud with CBS' David Letterman.
Given how grueling politics has become — from personal attacks against the candidates themselves to putting even young children under the media microscope — it's not surprising that some mothers may opt out, O'Connor said.
"Many women — and maybe more than men — they sit there and say, 'Is this worth it?'" she said.
Madigan, whose daughters are 4 and 1, would have been a formidable candidate if she had run either for governor or for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama. She met with Obama and senior White House officials last month to discuss a possible Senate bid. They did not agree to clear the field for her, but did play up her attributes as a candidate.
Madigan has a solid reputation, loads of campaign cash and name recognition.
Besides family considerations, she said she wants a third term as state attorney general because she's still passionate about her job. Political observers note that her father, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, would have been an issue for opponents particularly if she ran for governor because of the tight hold he has on what goes on at the Capitol.
Other women politicians have put their careers on hold because of family considerations.
Arkansas' Lincoln did it when she had twins in 1996 and didn't run for re-election to a third term in the U.S. House. She was elected to the Senate two years later.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waited until the youngest of her five children was in high school to run for Congress in 1987.

Chicagoan Michelle Papa knows the tug of war that politicians like Madigan and the others have gone through. The attorney navigates a full-time job along with being a wife and the mother of an 18-month-old son.

"As a working mom myself, I often struggle between the time commitment that work requires and balancing that with the commitment to be a parent, and a good parent," Papa said.

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Associated Press Writer Karen Hawkins contributed to this report.